The Mélusine's Filtered Cage

Gossiping With the Soldier That Wants Us Dead

"Taken from you?" Chris repeated. "Are you sure she just didn't want anything to do with either of you? Or that she went and told Miranda?" Heisenberg growled and went to respond but Salvatore beat him to it.

"My niece," Lord Moreau snarled as he stepped off of Irini, "would never. We informed her of this deal months ago. She had ample time between then and now to inform Miranda. But she didn't." Salvatore stayed tall as he approached Chris. Their heights were the same but the air around Moreau gave him an aura of authority and superiority over Chris. "Don't you dare speak any ill about my niece again or so help me, I will take you to Mother Miranda and have your whole operation shut down before you can say Bioweapon."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Chris asked, raising a brow. He pulled his open jacket back a bit to reveal the pistol strapped to his belt. "I'm armed and my team has the two of you surrounded."

Lords Karl Heisenberg and Salvatore Moreau chuckled darkly at Chris' attempt to intimidate them. Because of Heisenberg's refined Electro-Magnetism, he could identify any type of metal within a twenty-kilometre radius of the village. He already knew about the team and was hacked into their coms without detection. Heisenberg also happened to have told Salvatore of the team on their way up the mountain. The Vârcolaci were prowling around the team members as they spoke, ready to pounce if the Hound Wolf Squad decided to open fire. 

"And how does your team plan on taking us down with only a few bullets?" Heisenberg taunted him, mimicking Chris as he opened his jacket. Magazines of ammo fell from his jacket pockets, demonstrating that the Hound Wolf Squad only had what was left in their guns for ammo. "We've known about your team since you first stepped foot into the village."

"And how, do you suppose that your team will hit us?" Salvatore asked, smirking. Masses materialized from the ground, forming a shield around the three men and blocking the Hound Wolf Squad from seeing Salvatore and Heisenberg. The masses from the ground were strong, colourful reefs of coral, impenetrable by anything short of a nuclear bomb. "Now, I'll reiterate. Speak illy about my niece again, and I will ensure that you never see the world outside of this village again."

"...Understood," Chris said, releasing his jacket. He flicked his eyes around the scene and tried to make sense of it. He knew that what Miranda created was powerful. Hell, Chris saw the damage Eveline did to the Baker's house and to the Winters. But to think that all her creations were like that with their own sets of skills? It was almost too much to process. To top it all off, she had enough power to create them. One could only imagine the true power Mother Miranda held thanks to her insanity and the Megamycete. "How do you know she was taken from you? What if she found an opportunity to escape and took it?"

"It's a lot harder to get out of this village than you'd think," Heisenberg growled. "Everyone is so obsessed with her and snitches if they see something remotely off."

"While we can't exactly blame them for the brainwashing subjected to them, it's annoying to no end," Salvatore commented. "We can barely lift a finger in the villager without Miranda knowing about it. Let alone, my niece after a fire that rendered her disabled. She couldn't have made it three steps through or around the village without people swarming her."

"Alright," Chris said, sighing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. Chris needed to get on their good sides. Clearly, you were the ticket to that, so it only made sense to act as if he was trying to learn about you so he could find you. "I get it. Do you know how the fire started? Are there any suspects?"

"Miranda, for starters," Heisenberg scoffed. "The only thing that didn't burn down was her portrait."

"Though, she would never bother with the time commitment to got down to the village and set fire to the tavern," Salvatore added. "We believe Miranda enlisted the help of Anton with an offering he couldn't refuse."