Back at the apartment, no one spoke, no one even dared to whisper. It’s as though a thick air of ice is slowly solidifying between them.
Lloyd is sitting on his desk, browsing blindly at pictures and results of Dario. He had been doing that ever since they returned. On auto pilot, he had reached over for the old desktop, turned on the modem and had ever since blindly opened every page of web searches engines, each search box typed with exactly the same words.
Google search : Dario Darkmatter
Yahoo! search : Dario Darkmatter
Ask.com : Dario Darkmatter
Baidu search : Dario Darkmatter
Info.com : Dario Darkmatter
Answer.com : Dario Darkmatter
Search.com : Dario Darkmatter
“Enough already!” Glenn finally snapped, looking anxious. “You’re creeping me out. I mean, you had been sitting there for four whole hours!”
Lloyd just stared numbly at the screen. Beside him lay a marinated ham, and some yummy deluxe fries with a small tray of tartar sauce. Originally, it was sizzling hot, but now, it is stone cold. Glenn had took the effort to actually run all the way to the Steak House, got him a nice decent meal by using his own American Express card despite the fact that it is for “emergency use only”, and ran all the way back here, expecting him to devour in one go since they rarely have any high luxuries except for the time when they were paid in full by the president for stopping the jesters trio, but then the sixty percent went to the bills and facilities, which kind of stinks.
But no. Instead, he has the same look as V.V. who is now brainwashed by Guy. He just glanced at the ham, then turned back to the screen and started tapping and clicking away at the keyboard and mouse.
“God, I can’t take it anymore!” Glenn yelled, reaching over and jabbing at the power button. The screen then went dead.
“Hey, what gives?” Lloyd exclaimed. “I was using it.”
“You’ve been using it for the past four hours which is creeping me out!” He yelled. “So what if Darkmatter is your brother? So what? I’m related to that vampire Revarie which is a thousand times worse than yours!!!”
Lloyd looked silence for a moment. “I forgot.”
“Well,” Glenn shrugged. “I don’t tend to bring up the subject a lot.”
Lloyd sighed and speared a bit of ham and made a face. “it’s cold.”
“Well, yeah. Since you were busy being a zombie.”
After a few mouthfuls, Lloyd then said, “We’re going.”
“I know.” Glenn nodded, sitting opposite of him. “But…what about V.V.?”
“What do you think?”
He thought hard for a moment. “If it were me, I go back to where the source is.” He then waited for him to get the hint. When he did, he then look puzzled. “How do you plan to go back to where the source is?”
“Fortunately for you, I did my own findings while you were in Zombieland.” Glenn held out a small paper scribbled with his handwriting.
“You constantly amaze me each day.” Lloyd said, reading the paper.
“I don’t slack off all the time. So, when do we leave, boss?”
********************
The St Elmer’s Institute for Juvenile Women is such a pretty looking place for a juvenile institute. Everywhere is serene and tranquil, with big leafy plants everywhere. The floor is made out of white marbles, polished thoroughly. The only thing that is out of place is the metal bars that makes up each cells, which comes in equipped with a nice comfy bed and a small toilet, because they are worried that the women might hurt themselves if they give them chairs and tables.
In one particular cell, a woman with cropped short dark hair looked displeased, wearing the standard grey cell uniform. She was originally the boss of the leading Stellar Inc. but now she’s a low-ranking juvie. Even her long standing partner, Dario Darkmatter, tossed her aside, refusing to even bail her out of here.
“Just you wait, Darkmatter.” She muttered. “I’ll get even with you, just you wait…”
“Ms Giovanni?”
The woman looked up. “What do you want?”
“You have a visitor. A Mr Lloyd Anderson?”
The woman grinned. It looks as though things are looking up.
Lloyd sat quietly in the visitor room, a huge room with a screen that separates the visitors with the prisoners, frowning. Glenn had decided to wait outside, since only one visitor at a time. The door at the far end finally opened and Erica Giovanni, as high as mighty as ever, taking her place opposite of him. She had certainly looked thinner, her hair still cropped short, but still the same as ever.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Lloyd Anderson, Supernatural Demon Slayer.” She sneered. She then looked around. “What brings you here?”
“It’s about Darkmatter.” He said quietly, watching her reaction.
Erica’s eyes narrowed. “What about him?”
“Guy Moon, his ally.”
Erica’s eyes flickered. “Oh, what about Moon? I am surprised you even know that name.”
“Just cut to the chase, Giovanni.”
Erica tapped her banana yellow lacquered nails thoughtfully on the table. “Why should I help you?”
“Because Darkmatter ditched you to the cops.”
That sparked her nerve.
“How dare you bring that up!”
“Hey you, calm down!” A rowdy guard snapped at her.
Fuming, she steadied herself, but she’s still pissed off. “So, what about him?”
“What is Guy Moon’s relationship to V.V.?” Lloyd said, getting straight to the point. “Don’t try fooling me because that little brat often calls her his old friend. And V.V. often gets this strange look in her face whenever he calls her that.”
“He could never help himself whenever he’s around with V.V.” Erica shrugged. “Believe me, I’ve never met anyone’s who obsessed about her.”
Lloyd felt a tiny pang of jealousy, but he managed to force himself to say it, “Are they both…lovers?”
“Lovers?” Erica looked startled. “No, they’re just friends.”
“The details of V.V. in your desktop back at Stellar, I want it.” He said.
Erica gave a light laugh, covering her hands with the banana yellow lacquered nails. “Oho, so that’s your main objective, isn’t it? V.V. was taken by Moon who is with Dario...”
“You caught on fast.”
All this time, Erica had been treating the whole conversation like a card game. Now that Lloyd had opened up all of his cards, revealing his spades and diamonds, she had decided to open hers too. “I do have a file of it in my flash drive. But…” She held up a finger. “There is always a condition.”
Lloyd didn’t even flicker. “Name it.”
“Well now, my dear Lloyd, as you know right from the start, I am a successful business woman, so my condition is this. You get me a lawyer to bail me out of here and I’ll give the flash drive to you. I’m not asking for a clear record or anything, I just want out.”
Lloyd nodded. “Thanks.”
“Where are you going?” She demanded from behind the screen.
“Heading to your old office.” He called over his shoulder.
“What about me?!”
“I’ll come back for you.”
“You-You- Come back HERE!!!” She roared.
“Giovanni, quiet!” The guard shouted, trying to restrain her.
“Let go of me, you fool! I want to settle things with those two brothers!!!” She shrieked, fighting tooth and nail against the guard, who tried to call reinforcements but Erica surprisingly grabbed a chair and hit the guard with it, hearing the satisfying crack of the skull and the guard fainted.
Panting wildly like a wild dog, she turned and ran.
*******************
“Remind me, why are we here again?” Glenn asked.
They are standing in front of the old building of Stellar Inc. Its glossy glass surface shone brightly in the light, still the same as ever. The only difference is there’s a yellow tape that reads NYPD DO NOT ENTER AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY TREPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED
“Charming.” Glenn rolled his eyes.
“Let’s go.” Lloyd nodded.
Ignoring the yellow tape, they made their way to the glass entrance, careful not to trip or rip the tapes. The interior looks so empty, with piles of sealed boxes and plastic bags all over the place. The floor is also covered with dust, so thick til you couldn’t even see the surface of the floor.
“Do you still remember her office floor?”
“Sure do, the 7th floor.”
Since the power supply is cut down, they made their way up using the stairs. In daylight, the place looks less creepy. Instead, now it looks dull like a bare box whose contents is emptied.
Neither of them said much as they reached her office. The room is covered with sealed boxes and it’s bare, just like the entire place. Although the desktop is still there, covered in white drapes and protected in plastic.
“No power supply remember?” Glenn said as Lloyd went over to turn it on.
“No, but we just need the flash drive, don’t we?” Lloyd gently peeled part of the plastic off and tried to turn it on, but no such luck. It’s still dead. Then something caught his eye. The cabinet beneath the desktop. They looked untouched. Curiosity prickling him, he knelt down and gave it a tug.
“Locked.” Lloyd muttered.
Glenn went over to the cabinet and gave it a ferocious kick. Bits of wood splintered and the metal keyhole came flying off.
“Sometimes, vampire strength does come in handy.” He commented and opened the top drawer, which is filled with dusty documents regarding about buisness.
“How come the cops didn’t confiscate these?”
“She must’ve locked and hidden the keys away. This is her office after all.” Lloyd had an urge to steal the desktop and bring it back to the office to hack into it, but how could he lug the whole thing to out without people gawping and staring?
Glenn had opened the second drawer. Pens and A4 papers, useless. The third drawer contains something a little more interesting. Photos of demons and the supernaturals attached to individual files.
PERMERFROST, FAIRY OF THE NORTH
This shows a photo of a pale blue-skinned girl with long straggly frost white hair hung around her face, with equally pale bloodless lips and large round jewel blue eyes. She look as beautiful as an ice sculpture, pale and glowing. The document attached to the document doesn’t say much about her, except she creates powerful hail and blizzards and lives in a world of Ice, with blizzards for eternity.
The next document contained a photo of a creature what seems to be like liquid. It looks like a blob of pink slime goo with hands and legs but no face.
MORPHIX, BEING OF MORPHER………ABLE TO CHANGE ITSELF INTO ANY SHAPE OF WEAPON…
Lloyd flipped through each and every file, every demons, every supernaturals that Stellar Inc. had found and researched on. There’s even a couple of demon that caught his eye. Lobo, the silver black werewolf and Nightwing, the bat-demon, had been used on the bodyguard Joe, to create him into becoming a Lycanthrope with medium-sized wings for flights.
“Gosh…” Glenn looked awed, looking at the documents. There’s not only their description, but there’s also their ranking. C,B, A, S.
“I would advise you both to stop wasting your time…”
They both looked up to see a woman, wearing a beret that is pushed low, aiming a revolver at them.
“Erica?”
“Step away from the desk or I’ll shoot.” She said, clicking the safety off the gun.
Glenn rushed behind her in a blur and snatched the revolver out of her hand, throwing it aside.
“You were saying?”
Erica suddenly lashed out at him with dual daggers. Silver and wickedly sharp. One pierced him in the arm and another narrowly missed his neck.
“Yikes…” He gasped.
“I was trained to kill before I went to do business in Stellar Inc.” Erica lashed out again, only this time Lloyd grabbed her and threw her over his back, knocking her out. Hurriedly, Glenn managed to locate a length of rope in one of the boxes and knotted her up on the leather chair.
“My God, that was creepy.” Glenn stared at the blood that is seeping into his sleeve.
“You go and rest, I’ll deal with her.” Lloyd said.
Glenn caught his eye and nodded.
Moments later, Erica’s vision blurred and she steadied herself to find Lloyd sitting directly opposite of her, leaning against the desk. Furious, she tried to get up but found her hands bound tightly. That-That jerk, she thought furiously.
“Sorry we have to bind you up.” He said coolly, unfazed by her expression.
“You’re just like your brother, you wait. Once I’m free, I’ll get him for throwing me into prison.”
“How did you know about us being related?”
“He told me himself before I went to juvie.” Erica’s lips twitched into a smile of irony. “To think I trusted him whole-heartedly.’
“How do we stop V.V.?”
“I told you before, either you clear me of all charges, then I’ll let you know. Otherwise, I won’t tell.”
Lloyd grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and said, “Fine, since you won’t tell, then I’ll just bring you over to his manor. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.”
Erica’s face twisted into a look of pure hatred. “You dare-”
“I’m planning to go there, got to rescue V.V. anyway.”
Erica growled. “You’re as sly as him.”
“Gosh, I’m so flattered.” His voice dripped in sarcastism. “So what’s it going to be? I’ll let you walk out quietly if you hand over the flash drive or I’ll bring you to his manor.”
Erica shrugged, she knew she had already lost this one, which means there’s no point in fighting. But maybe she can twist him into her tune.
“It’s my pendant.” She muttered.
Without hesitating, he pulled the necklace around her neck. Yup, there’s the flash drive, hanging on a fine silver chain. It is cleverly disguised to look like a jewel, which means you are easily fooled if you don’t look closely.
“Well then, you’ll be taking a one way trip to wherever you are, whereas I got a cab to catch.”
****************
“V.V. I brought you more bodies to chop…” Guy sang, dancing into view.
V.V. was sitting in the corner, looking berserk as always. The others are keeping far, far away from her. Because she’s dangerous, anything that comes close is diced into bits by her hair.
“Here you are.” Guy dumped two bloodied looking bodies. Both demons, not human, thankfully. It had caused Allen to feel nausea and fell sick for a week.
V.V‘s hair braided and next thing they all knew, nothing was left except blood splattered everywhere and bits of body parts.
“Enough already!” Allen gasped, feeling nauseous again. He fumbled in his pocket for his recently bought supplements and popped one of the pills out, swallowing it.
“Looks like we’re going to have to clean this all up again.” Mind’s Shadow looked disgusted.
“Don’t ruin our fun.” Guy said, taking out a small silk handkerchief and wiping V.V.’s face. “It has been years since we had any fun.”
“We? You meant yourself.” Reo said, staring at V.V.’s blank face.
“But of course.” Guy said, spreading his arms wide. “But it’s much more fun with V.V. with me.”
Allen suddenly sank onto on fours, clutching his head.
“What is it?” Revarie asked.
“That woman broke free.” He gasped, clutching his temple.
Dario, who had said nothing throughout the entire time, now went, “What woman?”
“Erica Giovanni…”
Dario’s eyes flashed. “How did she break out?”
“She’s at the old company with the other two.”
Dario turned, looking twisted. “She did, did she? Well then, time to pay her a visit.”
“There’s no need to.” Allen sighed, closing his eyes. “The other two… had arrived.”
