Consoulia Chronicles: Booting Up [~ read description]

Chapter 9: Underground

"This is all moving too fast." Clover sat down, frustrated. "So let me get this straight for the millionth time," Clover caught her breath. "Iris escaped from her captors, which have her grandmother. Others escaped, including you, Zerrin, and Mia, and you're all Consouloids. Are your mission is to save Consoulia from this Corporate Greed guy who did what again?" 

Spire looked out of the window, recounting his time on his planet. "I wasn't always a catfish. I was a Consouloid that looked human like the others, too." 

On Consoulia, it was a most beautiful planet. We lived to entertain each other and our abilities, be it electrical or water, were put to use for the good of society. Community's our biggest value, until one day, we heard the news that a nearby planet in the planetary system had been destroyed by a man. Everyone dubs him Corporate Greed for his history of taking over peaceful technological worlds and using the resources for profit. 

Many of us tried to fight, but the overall world was untrained for combat, and thus was enslaved. Me, Zerrin, Mia, Iris, Lady Ari, and another named Larkspur decided to lead the fight. But we were outnumbered and captured. We were kept in a space station just outside of our world. 

"Don't let her get away!" Spire remembered hearing the gunmen shouting on the space station. Iris's escape was a distraction for our own. The original plan was to meetup on one side of the facility, but I guess you and Lady Ari got lost. What all happened?"

"We met up in the escape pod room and the wall got blown up. I was ejected into space and Grandma Riri was left behind. But another was pulled out with me." Iris confessed. "It was a gunman I heard was called Agent Dolphin." 

"So that's one more enemy to worry about if they made it here, too." Spire pondered. "No matter, we have to find the others before doing anything else." 

"Let's say we can't save Consoulia for some reason? What happens to us?" Zander wondered aloud, getting elbowed by Clover. "What? I'm just curious." 

Spire looked at him, square in the eyes. "Corporate Greed has Earth in compliance with his reign of terror. If he can find profit in living consoles, you know he'll make something out of humans." 

"Now we're just guessing." 
"I'd rather guess and be wrong, than to sit back and be right. You don't want him draining Earth of its resources when he feels like it, do you?" 

Clover looked back at Iris. Synthetic or human, she was just a child. Of course she had a sword, but she had never seen her use it before in combat. She wasn't counting her battle with a spider as combat, assuming what happened was actually real after all. "It's sounds crazy, but if there's really a world that needs to be saved, she can go only if me and Zander can help. She's not going anywhere without us." 

Zander, as much as he hated it, had to admit that it was an odd idea to be told, by a fish of all things, that there was a world to be saved. "I'm with her. No way she's facing anything scary on her own. So, how do we get to this Zerrin anyway?" 

"You've got to be kidding me." Clover and Zander spoke, exasperated in unison. 

Clover took the lid off of the manhole  with Spire's help to reveal a dark hole that they all looked into. Iris was perched on Zander's back, with the idea that she'd be slower if she had to use crutches. "Why is she in the sewers?" Clover asked. 

"The first thing Zerrin and I did when we landed here was establish a hidden base. It's pretty nifty in there once you see it." 

From the inside of a bush, four figures watched the small crowd. "The sewers?" Ken and Stephanie spoke to each other in unison. 

"Yep, and we're going down there after 'em," Desiri confirmed

"Not so fast, you're staying up here," Satara instructed. "If you think I'm gonna haul a liability like the goof troop, then you're sorely mistaken. We'll communicate through whatever these are. Why would humans call them walkie-talkies?" Satara gave a radio to Ken. "They don't walk or talk. I'm going in." 

Over in another shrub, the lady with black-purple hair watched the scientists and gang of Consouloids. She hadn't made or received a transmission since her time at the cafe, but Agent Dolphin was watching both groups with a close eye.