THE GREATEST FIGHT: BOOK 2

X2.1 – GRAND MARKET

X2.1.1 – Fall Back

"I got a bad feeling about this," said one of Nirvana's girls as she looked around the freed Throat of the Palace; people gathered, curious to see what all the commotion from a few days prior was about.

Nirvana's eyes narrowed. "The Lord Patriarch won't take this lightly—at all. You proved that his invincible Gates can fall, and that the Heavenly Ones aren't untouchable. Most of all, you did the one thing he hates most--messed with is ego. He's going to want to prove to everyone that such actions do not go unnoticed--or unpunished."

"The whole of Default World is probably on alert as we speak. If you ask me, we need to do one thing, and we need to do it fast--get the hell out of here," explained the tall white, humanoid rabbit.

"You're probably right, Shiro," she responded.

Nirvana looked around. "Where the hell did the Sunflower go?"

Someone tugged on her pants.

"Down here," Roa said, looking up.

"Oh--that's right. You turned yourself into a child. As if our situation wasn't complicated enough already."

"If we leave now, the chokepoint will fall," he said, crossing his little arms. "What was the point of defeating Lord Smog if we just hand back Ardor's Forge to the Shadows? They'll lock the Basements again, drowning everyone down there. People died to defeat him. You can't just--"

The conversation was interrupted when a group of six women with colorful hair and futuristic armor appeared out of nowhere, panting, attempting to catch their breaths.

"Miss Nobody," said one of them, staring at Nirvana. "The Shadows--they're coming."

"An army of around five thousand of them is on the way. They are exiting from both sides of the chokepoint," added another with a hint of panic in her voice.

"Told you…" said Shiro, the rabbit.

"Good job, ladies. What's the best way out of here?" Nirvana asked.

"The scouts are reporting clusters of enemies coming out of at least seventeen Exits in the nearest floors of the--" continued the young woman.

"Quiet--" said Nirvana, her eyes darting around as she halted the conversation. "We are being watched. Do you feel that?"

The Jumpers looked around, searching for any sign of the enemy when the pink-haired girl pointed straight down to the floor. Roa's eyes narrowed. He squatted and noticed a tiny eye on one of the marble slabs.

"What the--" the boy said, hesitating at first, then poking the eye with his finger. It closed shut, disappearing with a hiss.

"The Shadows of the Lord are coming, but his eyes tend to precede them." Nirvana turned to the others, raising her voice. "Everyone, we got an army heading our way. It's best if you skedaddle. The ones with me--we are heading home. Prepare for some--smoke."

"Smoke?" asked Roa.

Eralay's words then popped into the boy's head, causing his mind to wander away from the situation at hand. "Next to the mirror, to the right of the throat."

"The chokepoints…" he said out loud.

"What about them?" asked Rosso, now a goofy-looking child, slightly shorter than Roa.

"The chokepoints! Someone once referred to them as the Throats of the Palace. 'To the right of the throat.' My girl must have meant the chokepoint!" The little boy ran towards the giant doors leading to Lord Smog's old lair.

"We need to get the hell out of here, flower boy!" screamed Nirvana.

"Not until I figure out what my girl meant," he answered.

He glanced at the massive doors that once separated the Flooded Basements to the rest of the Palace, his eyes darting around looking for anything that stuck out.

"To the right—from which side?" he murmured to himself, as he ran to the other end.

"We have five minutes before the Shadows reach us!" screamed one of the scouts.

"Let's go!" screamed Nirvana from across the giant hall of the Palace.

The boy pushed his way through the crowd who was now growing more fearful of what was to come. Most of the locals stood confused, not understanding the severity of the situation.

"Damn it. Where the hell is the mirror?" Roa said in exasperation. "Next to the mirror, to the right of the throat. Where, Eralay?"

"We have to go, man," Rosso pulled on his shirt.

"I'm not leaving until I find my girl," he yanked his friend's hand away from him.

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"She's not here. You get caught now, and you'll really never see her again. Let's go, now!" Rosso pulled him away but was unable to convince him.

The boy ran once again to the other side, through the people, shoving his way between their legs, running his hands on the marble walls of the Palace, looking for anything at all. Nothing. There was no mirror in sight. No clue. No trap door. Nothing at all. The Sunflower suddenly felt himself lifted off of the ground, turned around, and face to face with the rabbit-man's big, blinking blue eyes.

"Time's up, little boy," he said as his nose twitched, as if sniffing him.

A huge ball of smoke rose from the crowd, engulfing everyone. People began to scream and run in all direction and the mood quickly turned to panic. Shiro held the boy under his arm like a sack of potatoes and leapt above the crowd with great agility. They reached a tight, dark hallway where the Jumpers had gathered, coughing as they attempted to find their friends through the smoke. One of them pulled on a chandelier which caused a trap door to reveal itself a few meters down, allowing them to escape unnoticed.

The dark, underground tunnel they squeezed through for several hours eventually brought them to another trap door, this one taking on the appearance of a brick wall, which was easily slid open after the mechanism was unlocked.

Roa's eyes were blinded by the light coming from the other side, and his ears were filled with the sound of hundreds of people chatting and eating in a fancy room filled with tables. The place looked like some kind of dining hall, where ornate vases filled the space and colorful flowers and plants sprang out of them. The sounds of plates and glasses clanking mixed with the sizzling coming from the open kitchen, as chefs screamed orders at hurried waiters running by.

"Everyone, in my office, now," said Nirvana, making her way through the chaos.

The Jumpers followed the young woman up ten flights of stairs covered in a pink carpet.

"I'm hungry," said C-Saw with a squeaky voice, causing Rosso to laugh.

"Why do you look so pudgy as a child?" he asked her as he pinched her jelly rolls, causing her to frown and look away.

The hall ended, leading to very tall, pink doors with the design of a white lotus, which Nirvana pulled open with superhuman ease, using her aura.

They found themselves inside a beautiful room that reeked of wealth. Golden vases, expensive tapestry, and large paintings adorned every corner of the space. It looked more like a museum than an office. Nirvana walked behind a preposterously wide desk with lion feet for legs, and plopped herself onto a fancy office chair made of bright pink leather, and covered in precious stones. She let out a long sigh as she put her feet up on the desk and began massaging her face. The others sort of sat down where they could, on various kinds of expensive furniture, glancing around in awe at the number of fancy things surrounding them. No one said anything for some time.

"So—you live in a hotel?" Rosso broke the silence.

Nirvana stopped massaging her face all of the sudden, took her feet off and leaned forward onto the table.

"Yes, this is a hotel—the White Lotus Hotel, which I own. More importantly, my hospitality business acts as a nice façade for my actual business," said Nirvana in an annoyed tone.

"Cool, what kind? Like a restaurant chain or something?" asked Rosso with a smile.

"No—crime," explained Nirvana, looking up. "Organized crime. Large scale stuff mostly."

"Oh…"

"You're in the headquarters of the largest criminal organization in Free Society—the Calyxx Syndicate. Miss Nobody is its head. I'm her right-hand man—hare, I mean," explained Shiro, towering behind her with his furry arms crossed.

"Lady Nirvana is also the fastest Gunhand-slinger in the Innerverse. She can hit a target the size of a coin from a kilometer away. She pretty much mastered the Gift," pointed out one of her girls smoking a cigar on the other side of the large room.

The pink-haired crime boss then raised an eyebrow and asked, "who the hell are you again, kid?"

"I'm his friend," Rosso said, pointing at Roa.

"Great," Nirvana rolled her eyes. "I see you're all as smart as he is and managed to also turn yourselves into children. Is this the epic group of fighters who defeated the First Gate?" she asked, staring at the Sunflower.

"Yeah," he answered with a frown, annoyed by her tone.

"Awesome. The revolution has finally reached its final form, and turned into what it was meant to be all along," she said, scoffing. "A daycare."

A baby began to cry, causing Nirvana to place her hands on her head.

"Can we please—just, shut the kid up?" she said in a tone of annoyance.

A young man with short, black hair walked up, standing in front of the large desk as he held the weeping baby.

"What?" Nirvana said, looking up at him.

"Do you have some milk, or something?" he asked, causing her to groan and wave her hand to an attendant who ran out of a small door.

"And who might you be?" she asked.

"My name is Vesper."

"Teacher?" said Roa and Rosso in unison. "Holy mother of all truths, you look like you're—in your twenties," continued Rosso, looking up at him. "And you have hair."

"And you're like what—eight?" the master said, letting out a laugh. "Hey, at least my back isn't hurting anymore, which is fantastic news."

"Wait—who's the baby then?" asked the Sunflower.

Vesper kneeled down and smiled at him. A look of concern appeared in his eyes.

"It's Mattina. My granddaughter," he said.

"What!?" his students blurted out. "Damn—that was close."

Nirvana slammed her hands on the desk and said, "listen, you guys need to be a bit more serious about—everything. You can't make foolish mistakes like this. The odds are already heavily stacked against us enough as it is."

Roa slammed his hand on the table, barely reaching it as he stood on his tippytoes. "No, you listen. We did the best we could. We lost friends against the Gate and his monster. We may have turned into children, but we still did more than anyone has in the last three centuries. We're exhausted. So how about some support, instead of all this damn attitude?"

Nirvana lifted her hands up and said, "alright—alright. Relax, little boy. Go take a nap or something if you feel tired."

Roa slammed his hand on the desk again, harder this time. "I may look like a child now, but I'm probably older than you, anyway," he paused, then mumbled, "I think."

She leaned in again, placing her elbows on the table. "You don't even remember how old you really are, do you?"

The boy thought about it for a moment and explained that he was twenty-five prior to drinking the Waters of Ambrosia.

"Twenty-five, huh? And now you are what—ten? Eleven?" she said. "What I am asking is if you remember your true age, regardless of your current biological one."

The little kid's shoulders slumped and he stood silent for a moment. "You're right. I don't remember." He sighed. "Since you know me so well, how about you tell me?"

"Well," Nirvana looked up, lost in her calculations, "I haven't known you from the beginning of your life, so I am not completely sure—but since we met the first time, and based on what you told me in the past, you're probably at the very least, somewhere around—"

The room went quiet.

"Three-hundred-something?" said Roa. "Given that the revolution at Black Fortia was three centuries ago."

"Three-hundred?!" shouted Rosso, quickly turning toward him with a surprised look on his face.

Nirvana laughed. "More."

"Four hundred?" said the boy from Earth, raising an eyebrow in the process.

She shook her head. "More."

"I'm five-hundred years old?!" Roa's eyes shot open.

The Jumper shook her head again and smiled. She plopped her feet up on the table again and said, "five-thousand years old. At the very least."

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