[HIATUS] The Tide Rises

Chapter 4

The conditions of this expedition were already souring her mood, and she had only been out for ten or so minutes.

It was relieving to finally get a breath of fresh air outside of The Authority's suffocating walls, but even if doing Chaos Agent's dirty work meant escaping for some time, she found the situation less than ideal when she was knee deep in water and mud half the time. Not to mention, but the circumstances regarding this mysterious person she had been sent to bring back... it was dangerous to even think about capturing them.

Why me? Jules asked herself as she walked through Pleasant Park, trying not to bring any unwanted attention to herself despite the squeaking of her soaked boots. This entire mission was really just Chaos Agent signing her death sentence. Purple figure with a mask, power anomaly, powers that interest... She had been given no explicit description of this entity's powers, and for them to interest SHADOW, they were no doubt dangerous.

Jules adjusted the drum gun in her holster, making sure one quick tug would allow her to be battle ready, should the entity attack her. The farther she trekked away from Pleasant's surprisingly peaceful neighborhood (as that place was practically never like its name), unease grew in her stomach. She couldn't figure out what put her so on edge, but she didn't like it at all.

Being sneaky, aside from when items clattered about her workshop, happened to be one of her specialties. However, at the rate she was going, grumbling to herself and almost slipping as she climbed a wet, grassy hill, she was going to scare away the person she was supposed to track down. Or, worst case scenario, she was indeed going to end up fighting them. Every voice in her head was telling her that whoever they were had malicious intent and wouldn't hesitate to turn her into scrap metal.

Curse this flood. Screw that stupid storm device.

She looked behind herself, first to The Authority, and then to The Fortilla, even farther into the distance. She had to do this. She couldn't let SHADOW go after them. But was she brave for risking her life, working for SHADOW to keep GHOST from being brutally dismantled? Or, was she selfish for keeping her own life off the line by not helping them? She knew Chaos Agent's words from weeks ago were right: she was a coward. She was hiding from her problems behind the black brick walls of destruction.

She was stuck. She had no one to fall back on, nobody to confide in... she was all alone.

Shining a short ways away, a purple glow caught her eye, distracting her from her thoughts. Just a few feet in front of her, she found a figure draped in a long, black cloak. Their hood was covering their head and their back was turned, so she couldn't see their face. The only thing more unsettling than their awkward stance was the way a strange purple energy sifted between the threads of their cloak; every bit of their attire screamed "dark magic" to her. She hated it.

With her hand hovering over the handle of the drum gun, she inched closer. The figure turned around abruptly, and Jules stumbled back with a gaspcas she finally came face to face with a mask. Typical. It was designed to look like some kind of demon, and it alone scared her more than the rest of the outfit combined. Actually, the mask and the cloak were the only things scary about. The rest of their clothing was seemingly normal: sweatpants and a jacket, accompanied by a pair of high-top sneakers. It was similar to Drift, whom Chaos Agent had compared them to.

They were just as startled by Jules's presence as Jules was to them; she could feel their wary gaze eyeing the drum gun at her side. "Who are you?" They spoke in a deep voice, to which Jules responded with the same question: