Lyra wore a foreman’s uniform and a bright yellow construction hat today. Her room was renovated into a construction office, wood chips and dirt streaks on the floor. Building schematics and other diagrams were pinned to bulletin boards. In the back, several hard hats and bulky work uniforms hung on wall hooks. There were six desks in total with pencils, measuring tools, and papers. I sat down in one of the chairs, hearing a loud squeak. The prophet really was into building immersion for her guests. A little bit too dedicated in my opinion.
“Are we heading to a construction zone?” Ksi glanced around the room.
“Nah, I have an idea of what Lyra is planning,” Shan said.
Lyra unrolled a piece of paper and revealed a building blueprint. She grabbed a red pen and circled five spots. The prophet headed into the back and wheeled out a clothes rack full of orange vests, marked with a bold-font “T” on the stripes.
“You’ll be visiting the Chronos Factory today. Well, more like an undercover infiltration of the premises,” Lyra announced with a mischievous smile.
“A watch factory?” I guessed based on the name.
“Ding, ding, ding! Chronos Factory was the premier producer of the watches you all have on. They had a monopoly over the business with only two third-party companies competing with them,” Lyra confirmed.
“You said ‘was’. Is it defunct now?” Ksi asked.
“After the destruction of the main grid, no one cared about watches anymore. The factory shut down and now serves as a shelter for people who lost their homes,” Lyra replied.
“Why do we have to pretend to be workers then?” I inquired.
“The first three floors are residences, but the rest of the facilities are under renovation. That’s where you’ll be investigating,” Lyra answered.
We all put on orange vests, hard hats, and ID badges. The prophet provided us with a letter of introduction and a large van. Ksi grabbed the key before anyone could volunteer. I opened the back door and saw five tool boxes and additional uniforms. Shan sat next to Ksi in the front while the rest of us sat in the back. Jacque went through the tools inside, checking them one-by-one.
“You know how to use any of it?” I asked.
“Most of them. My dad’s a car mechanic so I’ve picked up a few things from him. I’m actually not a noob,” the artist answered.
“Pretty cool, Jacque. I know a few things too,” Ichaival revealed.
“Great, we won’t look like complete idiots,” I said.
Chronos Factory- Loading Dock
Shan exited the van and spoke with a guard. Jacque, Ichaival, and I hopped out. We pulled out the toolboxes and additional equipment from the van. Ksi locked our vehicle and helped us transport everything inside.
“You can take the elevator up to the third floor,” the guard informed us.
It took three trips to move all our equipment. Ksi checked Lyra’s blueprint and led us to a breaker box. I saw three surveillance cameras swiveling above us.
“Let’s turn off the power on this floor. There’s two spots Lyra marked here,” Ksi directed.
“I’ll do it,” Jacque said, opening the breaker box door.
The cameras stopped moving for ten seconds before turning on again. A backup generator? Ksi set up a ladder, striking the wall with her knuckles, and stabbed a stake into the wall. There was a quiet beep and the cameras turned off permanently this time.
“Let’s proceed,” she ordered, climbing down.
Ichaival and Jacque remained near the elevator, pretending to work on something. They would warn us if anyone came up. The rest of us would investigate the third floor. Our first destination was a supply closet. Ksi shone her flashlight inside, finding nothing of note. We moved onto the supervisor’s office. Shan tried the doorknob but it was locked. The blood user pulled out a ring of keys.
“When did you get that?” I questioned.
“I stole it from one of the guards,” Ksi revealed.
“Hold on, you did? That’s quite a transgression, Ksi. I didn’t think you were capable of something like that,” I teased her. “Shan is rubbing off on you.”
“Not at all. My sleight of hand is nothing compared to the reprehensible actions your allies committed in the past,” Ksi denied, shaking her head.
We entered an empty room. A thick layer of dust coated the hardwood floor. I peered out the window. A group of people carried buckets of water down the stairs. Shan tapped the wall, searching for anything hidden. He shook his head at me. Ksi stared at the ceiling and then the window.
“Notice that glint?” Ksi asked.
“Oh yeah, I see it. Huh, so that’s it,” Shan replied, arriving at the same conclusion as her.
“I’ll go check,” I offered.
“Tomo, I’ll go with you,” Ksi decided.
We informed the false archer and artist about our plans before riding the elevator down. We headed toward the target. As we approached it, my necklace shook, indicating a sudden surge in magic. After confirming no one was around us, Ksi sliced through the barrier with Muramasa to reveal a small jewel mounted on a swivel.
“Shan, notice anything?” Ksi questioned, moving the swivel.
“Some sort of diagram is projected on the ceiling. Hold on, looks like some sort of plane,” he answered.
“Why a plane? I don’t get it,” I remarked, confused about the discovery.
“The parts for it are here in the factory. Let me grab Jacque to draw all of this,” Shan said.
We returned to the third floor after Jacque finished his picture. I also installed a new barrier, just in case someone snooped around.
“Here it is,” Jacque said.
An aircraft was impractical especially with the conditions here. No, it was connected to the magical cannons. The diagram contained several mounts for them.
“How did Lyra know about all this?” I pondered.
“She is the prophet,” Shan reminded me.
“We better find this plane fast,” I said.
“A weaponized aircraft,” Ksi realized.
“S***, that’s not good. I’ll contact Lyra and tell her about what we found,” Shan said.
Ichaival and Jacque returned to the elevator. Shan, Ksi, and I traveled to the fourth floor, checking the remaining three spots of interest. I split off from Ksi and Shan and discovered a manufacturing room. Plastics bins were stacked in the corner. There was a dusty conveyor belt and limp mechanical arms located in the middle. I noticed a torn manual on a tiny desk. They produced electronic chips and miniature boards here. I noticed a rip in one of the arms and extracted a rusted piston. Was this the final watch part? I slipped it into my pocket and found nothing else in the room.
“Find anything good?” Shan called out to me from the entrance.
“Yeah, is this useful?” I tossed over the piston.
“Might need to clean it up but let’s see if it fits,” Shan responded.
He confirmed it was successful. No way, an actual easy job for once? All the watch parts were accounted for. The only task remaining was to locate the airplane parts. We returned to the third floor, informing the two men about our discovery.
“Where are these though?” Jacque stared at his sketch.
“I asked Lyra and she doesn’t know,” Shan replied.
“There must be a way of eliminating which rooms aren’t potential hiding places. Jacque, let me look over your sketch,” I reasoned, staring at the paper.
“Tomo’s correct. We can assume these rooms aren’t suitable because they’re too small. Check these ones,” Ksi agreed.
“Let’s split up. Yuki, you want to go alone or take someone with you?” Shan suggested.
“I’ll take Jacque. Better for Ichaival in case anything happens. He won’t have to worry about protecting him,” I answered.
“You sure? I’m a burden,” the artist asked.
“I’m used to it. Especially when Ichizen was still around,” I dismissed.
“Damn, kinda harsh. I swear I’ll be somewhat useful,” Jacque swore.
“Let’s get going. We’ll check the fifth floor,” I said.
When we arrived, the artist and I stared at a metal security gate. There was no keyhole anywhere in sight. No panel either to slide a card. I stared upward and found a dome security camera with a convex mirror. I noticed a beam of light near our feet too.
“Jacque, think you can forge documents?” I inquired.
“I’ll give it a try,” the artist replied.
I pulled out a template Lyra provided earlier, showing it to the man. Three minutes later, Jacque showed me his handiwork. I moved the forgery towards the beam of light, aiming it so that it struck the mirror. There was a beep as the gate opened.
“Perfect. Bringing you was the right choice,” I complimented him.
“Didn’t even know it worked like that,” Jacque admitted. “Just glad that I’m actually of use.”
The area was full of mannequins. All of them wore the same clothes as the residents on the first three floors. Each carried a flare gun and an analog watch.
“Fuckin’ creepy as hell,” Jacque remarked, staring at one of the mannequins.
“Yeah. I really hope we don’t have to fight anything here,” I agreed.
I checked for security cameras but found none. Inspecting the watches and clothing, I felt a faint magical energy. Tracking magic. Someone was keeping tabs on the residents. If any residents departed the factory for an extended period of time, the magic woven into their clothes would paralyze them and knock them out. If the person strayed too far from the factory, it would also activate too. Once paralyzed, the location of the resident would be sent to whoever set this up.
“Anything in the back?” I questioned the artist.
“Bunch of boxes with more watches and computer chips,” Jacque replied.
“Mass production of these, huh?” I removed one of the watches as evidence.
“Tomo, something’s behind these boxes,” Jacque informed me.
After moving the boxes, we discovered a hidden safe door with backlit keypad numbers. I bypassed the code with my grimoire. The safe door swung open to reveal a large engine inside.
“There’s another security mechanism here,” I remarked, noticing four layers of magical trip wires installed.
“How do we get past it?” Jacque asked.
“You will,” I replied, staring at him.
“Huh?” Jacque responded, confused by my words.
“There’s a switch back there. Really heard to reach unless we have something that’s pretty much two dimensional,” I explained.
“I still don’t really get it,” he said, a perplexed expression on his face.
“Basically, you’ll draw something super thin and navigate it through the trip wires. Once you reach the back, add a little more depth to your creation and hit the switch,” I directed.
“Oh, I get it. I’ll try my best,” Jacque replied.
The artist scribbled a stick figure, holding his sketchbook parallel to the safe. The stick figure floated out and bypassed all the trip wires. Once it reached the back, Jacque modified its depth so it could hit the switch. With the traps disabled, I reached in and retrieved the engine. As a precautionary measure, Jacque drew a counterfeit to replace the real one.
“That thing’s pretty big. How are we going to get it out of here?” Jacque mentioned.
“We’ll say its part of the stuff we brought in,” I answered.
“Oh, good thinking,” Jacque said.
We headed back to the third floor. Ichaival showed us the turbine he found. I set the engine down and thought about how to arrange the plane parts.
“We sneaking it out?” Ichaival saw me staring at our equipment.
“Yeah. We should turn the power back on after we’re done too,” I suggested.
“Good catch. Jacque and I already performed the maintenance. Lyra wrote down the steps and we were familiar with the tools,” Ichaival revealed.
“That’s great. Might be better to transport these with a portal,” I realized.
“Could be risky. Someone might notice magic’s being used,” Ichaival reminded me.
“I could try masking my magic but I’m not as good as Kyoi,” I pondered.
Shan and Ksi, carrying a propeller, arrived five minutes later. Hold on, only three parts?
“Shan and I can confirm there is one part missing,” Ksi said.
“Someone got to it before us. That doesn’t make sense though. Why leave the ones we found here? Unless these are just dummy parts,” I said, staring at the plane parts.
“There’s another possibility. Can you guess what it is?” Ksi agreed with my deduction.
“I’m freakin’ terrible at s*** like that. Yuki, you know what it is?” Jacque shook his head.
“They took the part but had to leave for some reason? It had to be small enough to carry and so the guards wouldn’t notice,” I replied.
“Why didn’t they come back and get the other ones once it was safe? They knew the hiding places already. There must be something else going on,” Shan countered.
“Let’s verify these first,” I said, opening my grimoire. “These are all real so I can only think of one thing. They must be waiting for us.”
“Making us do all the hard work, huh? Let’s get ready for a fight,” Shan advised.
“Of course it turns out like this!” I lamented.
“You’ve been with us long enough to be used to this,” Shan responded with a grin.
We stowed away the plane parts into our supplies and rode the elevator down to the loading dock. Once the doors opened, five security officers pointed their guns at us.
