All eyes on you

   The battle with the Guardian Groudon was harsh - and without a victory. Cynic had scattered near instantly in fear of immediate capture - and some were. Mostly grunts trying to make their mark and rise through the ranks by giving it their all but with little experience when it came to working out of the authorities’ eyes.
Ethermoor hadn’t long been open thanks to being shut off from the fog, but it was attracting people for various reasons. It wasn’t Viggo’s first trip to Ethermoor, and in all honesty he had a lot of fear and anxiety just being in the city. He had plenty of reasons.
   Family members were making the trip up to reunite, friends, lovers - all of the people shut off from the rest of the world were now free to reconnect to the greater world of Reignsrest. At least the people who survived the unending blight of problems the region was facing.

   Viggo had been a part of the initial effort to reconnect the city to the region so he was a, somewhat, familiar face for an outsider. Ethermoor had a sense of community that had only become as strong as steel over the years beyond the foggy veil. It made it easy for them to pick out strangers, threats, and anything else they’d consider undesirable. Some people might have considered their behavior petty suspicious if you didn’t know them.

   Groudon had not long been “saved”, and Viggo, much like other Cynic members, was fleeing with his tail between his legs. He wasn’t even unscathed - battling the giant was taxing. His Pokemon were exhausted just as much as he was, if not more. Remaining inconspicuous whilst trying to make his way through the city to a safehouse was a task all its own, but at least he wasn’t bleeding out in any way. Bruised and a bit banged up from scuffles and caught in Pokemon crossfire - but nothing dire.
   Viggo followed the directions his TD provided - connected to the Cynic network as a client he could locate the safehouses and places of protection. It wasn’t disclosed who would be covering him or where it was exactly as there was always the risk that Ethos or the Police force would raid it. The streets seemed familiar though - deep in the inner city of Ethermoor. It was busy, but the bustle felt off. He melded in with the crowds well enough in the vague panic Groudon had caused, and the tremors and aftershocks that followed. Watt was silent. The Rotom wasn’t a battling Pokemon and had instead remained inside of the external phone Viggo kept in his pocket. He’d had to swap suppressor after suppressor, shorting each out in turn. It felt awful - like his skin was crawling. The uncomfortableness of the suppressor, the damage to his body… He looked like he was about ready to fall over.

   Viggo stopped as his TD flickered, telling him he’d arrived at his destination. He froze in his step, having to step back as he held his collar up. He knew this place better than others, and his eyes finally wandered up to the building. On the outside it almost resembled a casino, a hotel and theater all at once. It was what he knew as “Tarot Tower” for short - a building owned by a man who would have once called a close friend. Now, it just doubled - no, tripled - that fear resounding in his chest. A tight spot to be in.
   There was little choice though, and Viggo made his way over to the doors. The doormen looked at one another, pressing open the doors before Viggo had even reached them. Inside was dark - a long, beautifully dressed hall with a red runner from the entrance to the elevator. Hanging chandeliers created spotlights along the trail, and doors along the edges of the hall were marked with holographic texts. Viggo walked straight for the elevator, stepping inside. A woman waited inside by the buttons, mask covering up to just beneath her eyes. She was bald, and a large tattoo of an open eye spanned the back of her head, visible in the large mirror running along the back wall.
   “Where to, Mr de Jager?” She spoke after the doors closed, though her bright pink eyes clearly assessed the state he was in without a word of judgment. Viggo made sure to comb his hair back with his hands whilst he was in some kind of privacy. He swallowed down, hands in his pockets.
   “The Elysium of the Unseen.” He almost muttered. The woman noted his response, pressing some of the floors in sequence silently before the elevator began to rise. No turning back now.

   When the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened, Viggo stepped out into another dark hall. Banners lined the walls with a great eye pasted on them. It was quiet save the humming of the lights and the general white noise of the building. He stopped as he came to what felt like an empty, open room. The lights remained dim for a few minutes in the quiet before they flicked into a much brighter red. People began to file into the room on either side, standing vigil before a rather young little man stood before Viggo. He reached up and sat his palm under his chin so that he could grab the man by the cheeks and look the state of him over. More judgemental looks and some whispering around the room followed.
   “Not the most presentable state, brother. You mock us.” The little man sneered, and Viggo slapped his prying hand away with a scowl.
   “I’d like to see you crawl through hell too.” Viggo snerked back with a raised lip, and the little man backed off. By now, everyone knew that Viggo was only here under the circumstances - and because of Cynic. He doubted every other Cynic lackey who wandered in would be allowed straight into the Elysium. Still, the lack of respect was new, but Viggo was well aware of the rules of the tower - and how he disrespected them so blatantly this time.

   “No need to antagonise him for me.” A voice called out from the back, and in walked the man that fulfilled all of Viggo’s fears. Obadiah Ransom. His eyes, once a rather dull red, now a piercing yellow thanks to his fusion. The blades that protruded his face and head reflected the red light of the room and his footsteps were heavy. The devotees around the room seemed to kneel down onto one knee, and as Obadiah walked to the centre before Viggo, even he knelt before the Ever-Eye.
   It was silent as Obadiah looked Viggo over from where he was knelt on the floor. Soon enough the Kingambit-fused man slapped his hand hard across Viggos’ face, causing him to fall across the floor in a crumpled mess. The sound resounded through the room like broken glass, and Viggo’s TD flickered orange on and off.
   “How dare you step foot on these grounds. Disrespect me once? I can forgive that, with all of the sweet words and the right amount of groveling. But here you are, back on my doorstep, begging for my help?” Obadiah spoke firmly, as if he was scolding a child and nothing more in the meantime. Viggo had felt like the slap had broken half of his face considering Obadiah’s hands were coated in golden-plated metal.
   “Obadiah–” He spoke as he moved to sit back up on his knees, though Viggo’s talking only seemed to enrage the man. He gripped Viggo by the collar, tugging him up just a little. Not only that, but Obadiah made sure to rip the short-circuiting suppressor straight from Viggo. The latter took in a deep breath, like he’d not had a breath of fresh air in so long, only for Obadiah to toss him back to the ground. The flame that now perched on Viggo’s head was small, like it was in danger of being snuffed, and the light under his skin was dampened.
   “What makes you think I’ll help you out? Did you think I would welcome you back with loving arms?”
   “Never.”
   “Liar!” Obadiah retorted with a firm shout, making sure to swing his metal foot right into the other man enough to wind him. Viggo wasn’t sure he’d felt this helpless since he’d lost Elijah.
   “I’ll be gone before you know it– I just need the resources to get out of here in one piece.”
   “Then you’ll have to earn them.”

[Word Count: 1441]