Cyberspace; The Ultimus Collection

Chapter 23, Search Party

It was the dawn of a new day. The sun shined bright. The birds chirped and sang. The wind blew gently, shaking the leaves ever so slightly. Fresh dew formed on the delicate grass below. A whole day had passed ever since the last altercation with Vincent. The gang took that in between as a period of rest. They relaxed, ate, shopped, and most importantly slept. But now it was time to get back to work. Returning to the scene, the last place they fought together, their plan was to gather clues and information on Vincent's whereabouts. Where he might've fled to, what might he plan to do next. The normal guardian squad was present, Alyson, Jax, G-1, Derick, Daniel, and Catelin. But there were some volunteers who had graciously joined them. Of the most obvious of the bunch was Ashley, the closest to Vincent at the time. However, there were some more odd balls in the mix. The girls from the high school, Sayori, Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika, also offered their assistance as a form of repayment to Derick. There was also a new, small group of wannabe heroes. Students from class 1-A of UA High School, characters from the popular Shonen anime My Hero Academia. Their teacher, Shota Aizawa, approached Derick. 

"Thank you again for letting us join you on this mission. I believe it would make a great training exercise for my students."

"No problem. I'm glad we can help. Is there anything I should know about them before we get started?"

"If you have any concerns, I can assure you can put them to rest. Each of my students have their own set of skills and abilities, and they've all made it through some pretty disastrous situations. I'm sure they'll be plenty prepared if anything were to happen."

"Well alright then. I see no reason to keep delaying." Derick walked to the front of the group and turned to face everyone. "Alight everybody, it's about time we started. Now I want to remind you all that we're not necessarily looking for Vincent, just for clues on his whereabouts. If you find anything that could possibly be worth looking into, don't be afraid to snag it. An overabundance of evidence is better than none." Derick then pulled out his phone. "And I trust that everyone has each other's contacts, correct?" The group nodded. "Good. If you were to find yourself in a pinch, don't hesitate to call somebody. We're all here for each other, and I'll be damned if I leave here with someone injured, or heaven forbid worse. So, let's get going." The group quickly broke up and searched the clearing and the surrounding forest. Some went alone, some went with friends, but they all went out with the intent on finding something worthwhile. Unfortunately, they'll all find something more than they bargained for. 

Sayori wondered the forest behind the caste alone. She was more isolated than the rest, but that was fine with her. She wanted to admire nature's beauty in peace and quiet. It's not every day that she has the strength, nor capabilities, to get outside and relax. And who knows, maybe she'll stumble across something out here. And sure enough, stumble she did, as in her admirations Sayori came across an old, rusted grate in the ground. Clearly untouched and unopened for years, it was quite a ways away from the castle and the clearing. Curious, Sayori opened the grate. It creaked and screeched a metallic cry. Rust and metal filings flaked off and fell down into the depths below. Sayori peered over the now open hole. It was blacker than the blackest night. Darker than the darkest depths. It was as if no light would dare penetrate into its cavern. A rusted ladder stretched downwards, engulfed by the darkness, implying that at least for a time it was meant to be explorable. Clearly, not anymore. Without warning the ground began to crack underneath Sayori's feet, unable to support the weight of a human, possibly not without the old grate keeping it together. Sayori lost her balance and tripped into the devil's rabbit hole. In a moment of panic and desperation, she tried to grab hold of the ladder in front of her. But as she placed her hand on one of the bars, the old, crusted ladder crumbled within her fingertips. She fell for what seemed to her like an eternity, until she crashed into the cold hard stone ground beneath her. 

"Ow!" Sayori grunted, on the verge of tears. Shockingly, her body only fractured slightly, with most of her injuries coming from the scrapes and cuts across her arm, legs, and back. Sayori struggled to move her arm to try and grab her phone. She pulled it out of her pocket and proceeded to panic at the sight of its decimated electronics. Her hand quivered and she dropped its mangled remains. A shuffling could be heard from the opposite end of the abyssal cave. Sayori's eyes welled up. "No, no, no, no, no..."  She looked to the empty sky. "Help! Can anybody hear me! Help! I'm stuck!" She shouted.

"Well, that's a fine way to wake up from a nap." A raspy voice echoed throughout the hole. Sayori looked in the voice's general direction, hoping that her eyes could adjust to the dark and allow her to see. She saw nothing. 

"W-who's there?" She called out, frightened. 

"I don't think telling you would do either of us much good. I could tell you anything but I'm pretty sure in this darkness you wouldn't believe me." The hoarse voice responded. 

"I... guess not." 

"But I can tell you're in a bit of a pickle. So why don't you slide me that phone of yours and I can help you out." 

"Slide? Slide it where?" 

"Through the bars of course." Sayori squinted, and sure enough she could just barely see the feintest outline of some iron bars, along with some sort of humanoid silhouette. Still wary and frightened, she didn't want to give in to the voice's commands, but she knew she was out of options. Sayori kicked her phone scraps over to the other side of the dungeon. "Alright, let's see here..." For a moment Sayori got her hopes up, but they were soon to be dashed away once more. A loud crunch echoed off the walls of the chamber. Tiny metallic and plastic bits could be heard hitting the ground. Sayori's small glimmer of hope quickly turned into exponential fear. "Oh, that hit the spot! You would not believe how long I've gone without a meal." The voice was now smooth, strong, boisterous, captivating, and witty. It was almost perfect, and polar opposite to whatever terror laid beyond those bars. "Now then, where did I leave... AHA! Found it!" Some more rustling and rummaging could be heard beyond the bars. Something scraped against the stone, creating sparks. And in a flash, a small makeshift torch was lit, illuminating the abys ever so slightly.

"What the hell?!" Sayori screamed. Staring back at her was the host of the voice. It was a tall and lanky creature. Humanoid and reptilian in form, but almost viral in nature. Adorned in crimson red scales, large slashing claws, razor sharp teeth and fangs, and glowing sunken eyes. It grinned at Sayori, showing off its rows of teeth, before licking its lips with a long, slender, snake like tongue.