Arcane Sequal, The Underworld

Prologue

A metallic ringing, akin to a sword pulled from its scabbard was the only warning Mel Medarda was given before the world exploded.

In the council chambers Jayce Talis, feeling the hero once again, had only managed to turn slightly to look at his partner Viktor before Mel had knocked her chair out from under her in a rush to rise from her seat at the Council Table. Suddenly broken glass littered his back and flew across the room, slicing through the skin on his arms and any soft material within its reach. Barely registering the initial shock, he threw himself towards Mel, knocking her to the ground, their limbs crashing painfully into the table's underside.

A blinding blue light erupted within the already chaotic chamber. Crashing, screaming and a high-pitched ringing all muddled together in the chaos. It was hard to differentiate where each sound was coming from, where one terror ended and the next began. Jayce felt a pulling on his skin, something he'd recalled vividly while he worked to create the first generation of HexTech, what had first saved his and his mother's lives as a boy. But this time it was rougher and more demanding, dragging him forcefully as he clutched Mel backwards towards the broken window.

For Viktor, there were no such heroics. A scream tore from his throat, the electricity, ash, and low buzz that surrounded him reminded him of the last time he had experimented with a HexCrystal, the day Sky had died. The pull of the explosion had thrown his frail form across the room from his stool, and he now sat slumped, cradling his flesh arm behind his purple hand.

"Jayce, what's going on?" He coughed out, surveying the damage to his left arm. Bones and muscles bunched at odd angles and bruised the visible skin around the lumps. His cries were lost in the general calamity that surrounded him. The circular tables were thrown backward, sending Salo, Hoskel, and Bolbok flying with them. Landing with a sickening crack, the elderly Hoskel ended up on his already arthritic back, his head connecting with the hard assembly-space floor, his puzzle toy rolling from his now limp hand.

While they would be sturdier than their elderly co-councilor, Bolbok and Salo were also tossed backwards in the blast. Salo flailing like a ragdoll as he too hit the ground returning to Hoskel's side once more before the table landed on both bodies – one already dead, the other quickly crushed under the weight. Bolbok's metal body clanged on the floor, pieces of him splintering off towards Viktor. Nuts and paneling grazed and sparked across the floor, sharp edges leaving scars in the marble after them.

Plaster and gilding fell from the ceiling around the glass council dome, cracks dancing across the room's walls. The room shook as statues fell from their podiums, and tiles fell from the lower parts of the ceiling. It was pure devastation. A great piece of the window frame fell towards Mel, but Jayce pushed her aside. Even though he had attempted to push them both out of harm's way, the falling metal crashed into him, trapping his own right shoulder underneath it. Mel had attempted to move some of the debris but anything she did was only rewarded with further splintering of the plaster and metal and several cuts on her already bleeding hands.

Mrs. Kiramman, bleeding from many cuts scattered across her body lay slumped near the opposite wall to Viktor, breathing shallowly. A small amount of rubble had started to accumulate over her legs as she lay. Coughing, she sat up shakily, wiping the blood from her eyes.

"What..." her words cut off by another deep cough. "What happened?" Her voice was hoarse and crackled in the back of her throat.

"I don't know." Mel replied. Her hair was dusty, and she kept trying to force the windowpane from on top of Jayce. "Wait, I think there's something over there." She looked down at Jayce, his eyes scrunched against the pain in his shoulder, the tips of his fingers starting to darken.

"Go, we need to know who did this, it might be a clue." Jayce coughed and then winced at the sharp jolt of pain it brought him. Trying his best to keep the rest of his body still, he looked up at Mel gently, urging her to go towards whatever it was she had found.

Trying to disturb as little as possible, Mel walked across the room, training small drops of blood across the cracked floor. The room was destroyed. But there was one large addition to the rubble. In the center of the blast was a large circle burnt into the floor, free from any debris that once was part of the grand Council Chamber...

A cartoon smiley face was stamped in the dust left by the blast. Metal parts of the missile had embedded themselves in the walls and floor surrounding the drawing... and some of them seemed to be covered in the same paint as was on the rudimentary bomb sitting in Jayce's laboratory.

At least now they had their culprit.