Cold, Hard Truth

The Valparaiso Denizen leading Koudo through the back alleys of the City of Ruin would poke his head out of the end of the alleyway that was right before the high metal gates of what looked like a factory. The walls were reinforced several times and too high for any normal or weak person to jump or fly to. It looked like a metallic fortress, much different from the rest of the city, though the buildings of Valhalla did match its semblance in a lesser form.

(Think 'Iron Town' from 'Princess Mononoke.')

The mysterious Valparaiso Denizen, of haggard appearance and tattered breath, but of keen perception and memory of longevity would lift his hand up out of the shadows of the back alley and out into the light of the streets, pointing directly at the metal fortress. "There," he said, not diverting attention from the gate, "... That's the place what changed this land. Where them robots are coming from." It almost sounded painful for him to even speak of it, or perhaps to look upon it, with all the memories that flooded before it was erected and all the changes that were forced after it was established. It was a lot to have on the pallet for one as old as this one. He couldn't help but feel like the life was being sucked out of him just by being near the place. "... I can't help ya get in, though," he warned, raising his hands up. "... That place ain't nothin I'm trying to get mixed up with after all I done seen." Clearly, he knew much more than perhaps many of the Valparaiso Denizens, especially the ones that remained or stuck around. More than any common thug or heathen running around.

Koudo followed the Valparaiso denizen through the back streets and alleyways of slum closely. Not because he was afraid of getting lost, or that he didn't trust that this man would keep his word, but because he felt like he was in a rush. He felt a pounded palpitation in his chest, one Odea warned him about as they traveled, which signified 'The Pull.' It was a tether of chakra that was automatically left on Vescrutia, whenever Koudo was unsure about where his portal would lead, which ripped Koudo from where ever he ended up and back to where he belonged. Once it was created, it acted on its purpose independent of how the user felt and it couldn't be dispelled unless the user was in close enough proximity to it. The Veritas wasn't in that acceptable range.

He traveled silently, with his eyes closed, listening closely to the movements of the old man in order to follow him more accurately. Koudo needed to center himself again. The instability of emotion wasn't anything that he willingly indulged. With the lack of natural energy in Valparaiso, it took Odea being nearby to really prove the boosting effect that he needed in order to achieve his usual serenity, which allowed him to laugh in the face of adversity and sexual harass goddesses of a universe (i.e. Priere and her many forms).

Koudo came to a halt and opened his eyes, once he was made aware that they had arrived at their location. The high metal fences did nothing to endear him to the place. It was perhaps the most secretive looking place, and most fortified fortress, in all of Valparaiso. He could understand why the people of Valparaiso, even this one that had willingly led him to the place, had felt uneasy about it. The robots were just another negative against this stronghold.

Koudo turned to look at the man with a nod of his head, placing a, hopefully, reassuring hand on his shoulder, "You can get out of here then. I wouldn't ask you for anymore than I have, especially without pay." Odea rose interesting points in that even if Koudo could manage to ink out some kind of return to the status quo that he, and this old man, remembered, there was no one for Koudo to be assured that it would stay that way in his absence. However, he still challenged Odea on the idea because it was seldom that Koudo acted without a plan. He definitely had one.

A lone and lost child would be seen wandering the streets of Valparaiso just outside the perimeter of the reinforced metal gate and wall, too high to climb and too thick to penetrate. The child wore haggard and tattered clothing, similarly to the man that was in the shadows of an alley nearby, and seemed to be one of the orphaned children of the Valparaiso Denizens that had been left behind during their migration. The child, with a blank expression on the face, would be walking slowly, with seemingly no purpose or direction, but just so happened to have stumbled upon the area.

The old man chuckled, lowering himself to the ground, daring not to step out of the shadows. He sighed heavily, dropping his leg to the ground as he sat, with his other bent at the knee for resting his arm. "... You ain't gotta ask when there ain't nothing to pay with." A simple fact of the matter, which it seemed like the dark man had already figured out a long time ago. He hadn't changed his clothes since, and had washed them into rags.

Lowering his head to rest on his already rested arm, the man would look out of the corner of his eye when he saw some movement outside of the alley and notice that there was a stray kid walking around. "What...?" he mumbled lowly, almost like he were surprised, "What's a kid doing there?" He looked up at the person following him and thought very long and hard. He did not say anything else, but seemed to be lost in thought about what to do. "... I'd be careful if I were you." That was all he managed to say, looking quite tired, and like he would fall asleep any second. He diverted his gaze.

Koudo removed his hand from the shoulder of the old timer that had helped him out, hoping the tired old man could get some sleep in this alleyway while Koudo went ahead to do what he needed to do. He was on a time limit, for sure, but he didn't suspect that it would take long. If he could just get inside the wall of the fortress then finding the person that ran the place was easy.

Koudo knelt, pressing one knee to the ground, while reaching in his belt to grab the sheet of paper that had been given to him by Mei and touching his other hand to Odea, positioned comfortably on his hip. You don't have to tell me. I will avoid conflict. He assured her, removing his presence by suppressing his chakra signature till it was near undetectable and actually cloaking himself with a form of invisibility.

Odea sparred him the lecture then. She wouldn't waste her breath on how likely it would be that the tether would activate prematurely if Koudo expended chakra to the point of exhaustion. It worked independently of it's user, but had a nasty habit of retracting them early when their chakra levels dropped. It was an ability meant for the safety of it's user after all, and plummeting chakra levels meant immediate danger. Despite the way she acted, she did trust Koudo, and would continue to led him her power as long as he continued to assure her that he wouldn't endanger himself over this lost and dead land.

He took one last glance at the paper in his hand before folding it into the smallest, most insignificant, speck of nothingness that he could before he tossed it in the air to be snatched away by another invisible force. The Crows were everywhere and nowhere at all times. It was the most effective way to gather and distribute information and it, unlike Valparaiso, would never change.

Koudo noticed the "child", but registered it as completely negligible. At practically the base of the fortress and being told that most of the citizens of Valparaiso had been run out by robots from this stronghold, it stood to reason that whatever that was in the light of Valparaiso's streets was, in fact, not a child. Taking it out wasn't a smart idea, but leaving it to its own devices was. Koudo tried his damnedest to be benevolent, but he had never been stupid.

The lone child that noticed the two people that were whispering near the gate to Mechanica's Factorial Village would scream in terror and also laugh as if playing, but then resume screaming and run off, laughing.

The gate to the city opened, but was only as a small flap, the exact size of the child and completely as its own independent compartment door. The large door did not move, and the child disappeared.

'The Siren' blared immediately. The Village Hidden in the Machines would suddenly rear up, as if from slumber, instantaneously, like a button had been pushed or a switch had been flipped. The City of Ruin was drenched in blood red immediately as far as the light of the tower of the City would allow.

Suddenly, everything went silent, as it had been just before, and would remain after. No noise was made, and the City of Ruin returned to being a ghost town.

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The sound of the Siren would bring alert to the Yellow Pawn, and there would be a sense of 'Urgency' that would attract him toward the Factorial Village that was set up nearby in the City of Ruin.

The noise that suddenly reared up in Valparaiso looked like a bright flash in the distance and then the sound of music being carried through the air. It sounded like 'Classical Dirty House Trap Rave-Step Music' and many soothing glows of different lights at different vibrations lightly emanated through the air, changing colors as the music shifted, completely in synchronicity, like the beating of a heart.

Another person followed behind the others that had entered the area, tailing behind the sound of music and the woman that was flying on what looked like a witch broom. He instinctively thought to follow the person that knew where they were going, but remained wary of surroundings. He was garb in all yellow, and was making his way toward the gate of the Factorial Village that was along the way. He was feeling less terrified now that he had some direction, but was still relatively spooked because of what happened and being left alone after all of it.

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The Mechanica returned to the Village Hidden in the Machines after it had completed its designated task.

The Mechanica that was returning to the Factorial Village was one of the Basic 'Collectors' that hovered along the streets of the city, casually picking up very particular pieces of waste and disposing of them internally and grinding up all of the waste into dust. The dust particles that were collected would be sorted through and separated then repurposed later on during the latter stages when the Basic Mechanica had done their job and the greater work was passed onto a higher 'Intermediate' Mechanica. All the while, the Collector whipped and lashed its tendril-like cords around toward where any waste was and picked it up and disposed of it.

Koudo didn't even have a chance to move from his location, not that he had been really planning to at the time, before shit hit the fan. Geez, it's like stealth is a lost art of is own now. He cursed inwardly. Honestly, he wasn't sure what was going on, assuming the the alert that went off was an isolated incident since he, and his guide, had been deep in the shadows of the alleyways of Valparaiso. Certainly it seemed like it really didn't matter.

From his vantage point, which he changed by leaping to the top of the tallest building, outside of the walls of the fortress, Koudo spied all the new parties that came to, basically, rain on his parade. He couldn't identify most of them. Some were too far away, others were just machines that had no designations of their own that he could recognize, but there was one that he could recognize.

That yellow suit... The Deacons? Koudo could recognize that gaudy yellow colored clothing anywhere. He didn't suspect to see that any of them had stayed around, but, "I suppose if anyone would have rolled over for a new establishment, it'd of been them." He whispered calmly to himself, Odea not offering a response at all. She didn't know anything about Valparaiso because Koudo's time here was before her reforging. While she was an amalgamation of the Twins, she decided only to tap into the memories she found necessary for her to function. Valparaiso memories weren't of the kind.

It looked like the lone figure on the street was following something in the sky. When Koudo looked up to see what the Deacon foot soldier was following, he couldn't make out what it was and decided not to try. From his new vantage point, he could barely see over the walls of the Fortress and what he saw took him by a small amount of surprise. "Oh god. Not this fucking place." Surely his eyes were not deceiving him. The dimensions of it may have changed slightly, but the engineering was identical to the mechanical city that he had been interested in years ago, but was turned off too by a chance encounter with a sour droid. He smacked his lips dismissively, never wanting to have to deal with this fucking place again.

The Collector that heard 'The Siren' go off reached the gate of Mechanica's Factorial Village and would hover toward one of the compartmentalized mobile pathways embedded in variable formats throughout the enormity of the 'Mechanica Wall'. This one looked like an elevator, though the doorway could barely be seen until it was opened, and could not be seen when it closed. It only stayed open for a brief moment for the Collector to be collected back into the 'Mechanica Wall' and transported back to its place inside of the Factorial City in order to deposit the residue to the next layer.

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The Yellow Knight that had been cast out from the Yellow Deacons would slip out of one of the compartmentalized doorways made for the Mechanica and call out to the Yellow Pawn that was near the entrance. "Hey! Yellow Pawn! Come this way!" He flashed the secret code of the Yellow Deacons to let him know that he was a 'Yellow Knight' and would beckon the Yellow Pawn his direction.

The Yellow Pawn that heard a cry, saw a signal and also saw both yellow and a symbol of higher authority, the Yellow Pawn would walk away from the front of the wall and trace it toward where another Yellow unit was holding one of the doors on the giant door open. He immediately departed and left the area silently.

Koudo, fully stealthed in terms of his chakra signature and actual applied invisibility, wasn't shocked that Chita was able to sense him on the rooftop of a building. Above the alleyway that she, absentmindedly, walked into from the street.

Actually, he was very shocked, but decided not to pay it any mind at all. Stealth really was a lost art form when most, if not all, beings had some form of amplified perception or alternate sight. He just chose to chalk Chita's sensing abilities, though she had never really displayed such things before hand, up to the added benefits of getting more of the Crysal Heart whatever power, and the fact that they shared a similar, but drastically different, resonance between meister and witch as a meister and weapon. It really the only way that he could rationalize it without losing his mind.

He heaved, possibly, the heaviest sigh in his career and just uncloaked, figuring there really was no point. If there were sensors, Chita would have tripped them and helped to show the enemy where it could identify him. "Uh.. sensors that could trip alarms, not that it matters now." He answered with a roll of his eyes, standing up fully from his crouched position and adjusting the ornate katana on his hip, who shared his sentiments exactly even if she, herself, never bothered with stealth anyway. Honestly, Chita's ability to walk the street casual just showed him that not only was security super fucking lax on the outside of this fortress, it non-fucking-existent.

If that weren't the case, an alarm had already gone off anyway, before Chita absentmindedly stroll up from where ever she spirited herself away from, so they were probably already on death squad hit lists. Honestly, he figured that she had just gone back to the Delta, and he wouldn't have faulted her for it either. It definitely would have been better than whatever... this was. He wasn't even sure what it was. It certainly wasn't an infiltration operation.

The Mechanica had fallen silent, but the sound of the Factorial Village's mechanisms in motion whirred loudly, wherein once before, the entire place seemed completely silent and nearly dead. Mechanica stirred as they may within the confines of the walls to the fortress of machines, but there was literally nothing going on beyond the giant mechanical wall.

Even so, tracing along the edges of the wall, there was another person coming along the same way as the small child had been once before. This person was wearing rags and tattered clothing just the same as the child that had long departed, but was clearly an older man; young, but flaunting a very distinct sort of make up and colorful attire that differentiated him from the child that wore bland, plain, basic clothing. It looked like the clothes on the approaching man were once for a sort of formal wear, long since outdated and seemingly recycled to fit his appearance. What could have been long sleeves were too worn and tattered to be anything but a t-shirt, and what might have been slacks were naught but shorts. There was a look on his face that was indistinct, but he was approaching the area where all the activity was going on.

The haggard older man that was still resting in the shadows of the alleyway, watching as the guy he helped and the girl that had suddenly disappeared at the time were basically blowing the whole cover they had. Not that there was much of that, anyway, with the machines around. It was more like they were allowing people to hide in the shadows and knew they were there, but just ignored all the people that were in the cover of the shadows and not on the streets, out in the light... No different from a common cockroach or street rat. As long as no one was out in the open and in the light, and a robot wasn't sent into the shadows, they didn't ever divert from their assignments and left anything and anyone that should so be slinking or skulking about to do so. Clearly, though, these two who were green behind the ears about the changes of Valparaiso and the Denizens' conflict with the machines wouldn't understand their place nor the actual setup.

"Pst!!" he called out to the two of them, beckoning them with a hand profusely. "What are you two doing? Get over here before you blow your cover!" Even if they'd been seen and detected by the machines, what they didn't know was that they wouldn't actually involve themselves with anything that didn't get involved with them or move into their direct line of interaction, hence why sticking to the shadows was the best option and never walking into the streets was better. This was how all the Valparaiso Denizens kept from the eyes of the machines, even if they would do business or congregate elsewhere between the alleys or in the more slummy areas that hadn't been touched by the hands of the robots. Not that they had much time before that happened, too. "Come on! Hurry it up!" For whatever reason, the guy seemed to be concerned about the two of them in their dealings beyond what involvement he should have had. Then again, they were going to engage the factory directly, he had presumed, and since he wasn't going to be the one getting in and out, but would be directly effected by their actions, for his own benefit, he knew it was best to at LEAST get them inside and see how they fared.

"Honestly, I don't know what the fuck is going on."

Koudo responded with a shrug of his shoulders, because he really didn't. All he knew was that now the guy that led him here were calling both him and Chita back into the shadows of the alleyway. He sighed again, deciding not to grab Chita and risk her disappearing again, and jumped from the top of the building and back into the darkness of the alleyway.

The sudden disappearance of the woman in the distance was negligible to the approaching man. There were several other people that were tailing along behind him, walking down the street. The streets were clear and there was no one on them, and the man and his group trailing behind him would be able to walk clearly and freely with nothing getting in the way. There was murmuring and muttering among them, as well as the sound of laughter, as if they were joking. It was a gang of seemingly normal Valparaiso Denizens with a predetermined destination already, apparently in progress. They walked toward the main street in front of the giant door to the mechanical fortress and proceeded to pass by uninterrupted.

When the man that was looking to get inside of the Factorial Village appeared again beside the haggard man, the Valparaiso Denizen would sigh heavily, looking rather tired. "... Ya won't get in if you get noticed. They'll probably think you're one of us Valparaiso Denizens." Now, this man had some run ins with this place before over the course of the time it had been there, which wasn't too long, but it was certainly long enough. "It's more a hassle than you mighta thought, but the trick to the doors is that the big door is fake, it looks like." Hell, that one might not be fake, but from the looks of it, it was only a display and hadn't ever actually opened to release the robots that were coming in and out of the city. "There's all sorts of smaller doors all along the wall for the robots to enter and exit out of. Real technical. If you get close without being seen, you might be able to find out." That was from humble observation and previous experience.

"... Now, I'd go on ahead and check that out for ya..." Suddenly, the man started coughing; wheezing, even, and looking up with a pitiful expression on his face, "... But you see, I have this cough, and my trick knee is acting up..." he poked out his lip dismissively and shook his head. "Bad times. Bad times." Already, he was digging in his shirt pocket for whatever was left of his smokes. With a cigarette hanging off his lip, he would spark it up and indulge in his vices, closing his eyes like he were about to go to sleep.

Koudo had already gleaned the information that the man was spitting to them his wisdom. He wouldn't have explained it so many words, and then weaseled his way out of going in, but Koudo understood that the guy didn't really want any part of getting inside in the first place. He had only come to show Koudo the way. Honestly, he had been the largest help in synthesizing all this information, and Koudo owed him much more than a simple 'thank you.'

Not that it mattered, cuz the old guy looked tuckered out, meaning Koudo and the, silent again, Chita were left to figure this out of there own. Meaning, Koudo was probably left to figure it out on his own. If the old dude was right then, all they really needed was a robot big enough to create a doorway they could pass through to come out and handle a situation. Simple.

"Destroy that building across the street, Chita." He finally said, pointing his finger towards a pretty rundown, uninhabited (as he could see with his energy perception) building across the main street. It was practically right next to the main street and ripe for exploitation. If his hunch was correct then those robots were sure to come out to either clean up the mess and/or rebuild on the spot. Of that happened, then they could just slip into the entrance those bots would create.

If it failed, they'd just go over the wall and trip every alarm on their way to the center. Koudo was really tired of waiting around.

The sound of 'The Siren' blared again, and there was a flash of red that poured over all of the Central City of Valparaiso. Down every line of every building that was red, everything was scanned, and the Target was identified.


The collapsed building that was only debris all off in the distance was pinpointed as the main 'Object' and had priority over anything that was going on in the streets or in the alleys, which were also completely scanned when the red light flashed and a new blueprint was captures of the entire layout of the city. The Mechanica were bid accordingly.

The first wave of 'Collectors' hovered from out of the 'Mechanica Wall' and would all, in single file, turn and hover toward where the debris was located. Some would not hover toward the debris. Each of the doors that opened up all along the fullness of the surface of the wall would all close simultaneously, in and on time, because of how they were all timed the exact same 'Period.'

The man and his gang that were walking minded their own business and left the area whilst the Mechanica went to collect the debris in order for it to be repurposed and fashioned into something else, as it seemed the Mechanica were merely awaiting the remnants of the old city to do.