abcnovels
Chapter 136 Escalation!
Chapter 136 Escalation!
Chapter 136 Escalation!
The following day.
"Sis, where are you going?" The little Lara asked as she saw her big sister Lauren wearing her Signum costume. "Are you going to be a Hero today?"
"Yeah, it’s something like that..." Lauren replied with an evasive tone as she scratched her chin. "Your Big Sis and her teammates will be off to do hero stuff today! So, please just stay here and be a good girl ok?"
"Un!" Lara replied as she raised the action figures of Myth and Plague in her hands. Both of these action figures were in high quality, and even Lauren can see how exquisitely they were made. "I will just play with my action figures today!"
"Did you say thank you to Alina?" Lauren sternly said as she saw the action figures held by Lara. "She bought that for you after all."
"I did!! Lara replied as she let out a pout. "Sis Alina even said that I should take care of them!"
"Yes, you really should." Lauren said as she ruffled Lara’s hair. "Have some fun, ok?"
"Teehee!" The little girl let out a giggle as she rushed to the living room, probably to start playing with her new toys.
After letting out a satisfied smile on her face, Lauren looked at her aunt, who was busy cleaning the dishes. "Auntie, we’re going now."
"Take care." Her auntie said without looking at Lauren. "Make sure that you come back here alive. I can’t take care of that runt by myself."
"...Ok." Lauren said as she opened the door, joining Alex’s team towards their target location.
**********
When Alina and Alex arrived last night, Lauren found out the news that the enemy Villain Team actually offered them an alliance offer!
Of course Lauren raised an objection against this, but to her surprise, Alex actually was willing to ally with them!
Alex did not explain the reason why, but he told Lauren that this is the best thing that they can do to keep everything stable.
This left Lauren with no choice but to just go with the flow, since even Queen Mother was willing to ally with them.
If Alex, Alina, and Queen Mother were all fine allying with them, then Lauren had no probable reason that she can use to just object to this.
This decision was the one that brought Lauren to their present situation.
Right now, Lauren and Alex’s team were about to go to The Hut, which was considered to be a neutral meeting location between Heroes and Villains.
The Hut, which was a large straw hut located at the southern end of the Grand Point City, was where meetings between Heroes and Villains were allowed.
No fighting is allowed inside The Hut, and anyone who violates this rule will be killed by the guardian of The Hut.
This makes The Hut the best location for meeting between Heroes and Villains.
After making the decision to ally with The Alchemists, Alex decided to meet up with them inside The Hut, which explains their journey towards it.
"Are you sure that they will not attack us once we made this alliance? And what are you allying against, anyway?" Lauren asked Alex as she felt somewhat intrigued by Alex’s change of heart.
"Don’t worry Lauren. We have our ways to prevent backstabbing from happening." Alex replied quickly. "As for what we are allying against, it’s better for that to stay secret for now. No offense, but the fewer the people that know about it, the better it will be for all of us."
"...Ok." Even if Lauren somewhat felt hurt by Alex’s rejection to tell the truth, Lauren can understand why she was being excluded like this.
After all, she was not truly a part of Alex’s team.
She was just someone who joined along with them, and she will never be truly be ’with them’.
But even if she understood it, she still could not help but feel sad by this.
"..." While Lauren was wallowing quietly, she suddenly felt someone touching her shoulders.
Lauren looked up, just in time to see Queen Mother touching her shoulders and giving her a soothing smile.
"Don’t feel down, Lauren" Queen Mother said as her hands rubbed Lauren’s upper arm. Lauren felt some pleasant tingles in her body, as if Queen Mother’s touch triggered something pleasurable inside her. "Alex will also tell you the truth, but it cannot be right now."
"Yeah, I um, understand." Lauren replied with a stutter as Queen Mother continued rubbing her arms.
Lauren badly wanted to scold Queen Mother for what she was doing, but she was unable to say anything as she quite enjoyed what she was feeling right now.
"Eep!"
Lauren then let out a yelp as she felt Queen Mother’s hand on her waist.
"What’s wrong Lauren? Didn’t you like me doing this yesterday?" Queen Mother said as she started squeezing with her hands, prompting Lauren to tremble in her place. "You even told me to not stop doing this..."
"Yesterday is different." Lauren hissed as Queen Mother continued her squeeze fest. "We are in a private place yesterday. Right now, we are in public! We cannot just do anything indecent!"
"What’s indecent with what I am doing?" Queen Mother innocently asked as she tilted her head.
"Squeeze, squeeze."
"If you don’t stop now, I will not talk to you for today." Lauren said as she gritted her teeth.
"...Fine then." Queen Mother replied as she raised her arms in surrender. "I will behave... for now."
"Sigh." That promise of Queen Mother was already enough for Lauren.
"Hey, is this the place that you were talking about?" Lauren heard Alex saying, as he pointed to a structure that appeared right in front of them.
Lauren looked to where Alex was pointing, and what she saw was a straw hut, which just looked like a normal hut.
What made this hut look different was the stone statue placed beside it. The stone statue was of a Knight, holding an extremely large broadsword.
Lauren gulped, as she remembered all the villains and heroes killed by this stone statue.
"Yes, this is The Hut." Lauren replied. She then pointed to the stone statue as she said,
"That stone statue over there is the guardian of The Hut. If you violate its rules, the guardian will kill the violator. No loopholes can get over that."
"Damn, this statue looks cool." Lauren could hear Alex saying as he observed the statue. "Whoever made his statue is a pro!"
Lauren shared the same thoughts as Alex regarding the statue. Even if it was just an artwork, the statue looked extremely lifelike, indicating that the one who created it was a maestro.
"It really is a masterpie-" But before Lauren could say something more about the stone statue, the sudden sound of approaching footsteps broke her talk.
She looked at the source of the sound, and there she saw The Alchemists, wearing their respective costumes.
"Heya, I see that you arrived here in full force." The mad scientist said in a voice which just sounded wrong to Lauren. "Let’s get this over with, so that we can get back to our ’mundane lives’!"
"Sigh." Lauren heard Alex saying as he opened the door of The Hut. "Ladies first."
The mad scientist only gave Alex a nod as she entered The Hut, with Alex following her.
The door then closed, leaving Lauren, Alina, Queen Mother, and the rest of the Travelers outside The Hut.
"We will wait here until they were done making the truce." Alina said she and Queen Mother just stood there, staring the rest of the Alchemists. "We will leave once they were done."
"Ok." Lauren replied, with her left hand holding Queen Mother’s right hand. "Let’s just hope that nothing will go wrong today."
"Murhpy’s Law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." Alina muttered as she shook her head. "Even if today seems to look good, you should always expect for the worst. You never know what might happen after all."
"...’ Lauren was not sure on her reply to that, as she found that statement so out of the field.
So instead of continuing to talk, Lauren spent the rest of the time staring at the rest of The Alchemists.
She looked at the whip-holding woman, who was radiating boredom from her posture.
Even if the whip woman was wearing a mask, Lauren could feel that she was extremely bored, as if she was not interested on this meeting at all.
As for the guy with the metal ball, he seemed to be in his own world, as he was busy doing something inside his metal ball.
Squeaks and creaks could be heard coming from the metal ball, and there seems to be nothing that can distract the guy from what he was doing.
Lauren then looked at the last member of the Alchemists, but she was forced to avert her gaze because of the intensity that she saw.
The last member of the Alchemists, the katana-wielding woman, seems to be glaring at Alina intently. She was even holding her katana with her left hand, as if she was challenging Alina to make her move.
As for Alina herself, she was glaring back at the katana woman, with her arms crossed in front of her.
Sparks could be seen in the air as Alina and the katana woman continued their glare fest.
"..." Lauren felt like shrinking as she saw the face-off between Alina and the katana woman.
"Should we break this up?" Lauren asked Queen Mother as the glaring contest continued. "A fight could break out here!"
"Don’t worry. Alina is just in a bad mood because of what happened last night." Queen Mother replied as she ruffled Lara’s head. "Let Alina vent her irritations here. After all, it’s better for her rage to be used here rather than on us, right?"
"Yeah, you are right." Lauren replied as she decided to just stay quiet and hope that nothing will go wrong.
But as it turns out, something wrong did actually happen.
After 30 minutes of waiting outside The Hut, Lauren suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of warning sirens echoing all around her.
"Woo, woo, woo!"
"No!" Lauren shouted as she recognized what the warning sirens meant. "Why today and why here?"
"Woo, woo, woo!"
"Lauren, what the hell is that warning siren for?" Queen Mother asked Lauren as the warning sirens continued on wailing.
"Woo, woo, woo!"
"Wait, you don’t know?" Lauren asked Queen Mother as she saw the confusion on her face.
"Woo, woo, woo!"
Lauren then looked at Alina and the rest of The Achemists, and Lauren saw that they were just as confused as Queen Mother, as if they do not know what the warning sirens are for.
"All of you... do not know what the warning sirens are for." Lauren slowly said as she stared at the confused people in front of her. "How could you all not know?"
"Woo, woo, woo!"
"We will explain that to you later. But for now, please tell us what the warning sirens are for." Alina said as she finally broke off her glare contest. "Is something dangerous coming here?"
"Woo, woo, woo!"
"Yes, something dangerous is coming here." Lauren replied as she let out a sigh.
"Woo, woo, woo!"
As she ignored the sirens, which was starting to grate on her ears, Lauren let out a deep breath as she pointed her fingers at the sky.
Her voice sounded broken and timid as she said,
"When a Class S, Class SS, Class SSS, or Class Z threat suddenly appear, warning sirens will indicate their arrival. The level of threat will be indicated in the pattern of the warning sirens. 1 siren will mean a Class S Threat, 2 consecutive sirens will mean a Class SS Threat, 3 consecutive sirens are for a Class SSS Threat, and 4 consecutive sirens are for a Class Z Threat."
"Woo, woo, woo!"
"We are hearing 3 consecutive sirens here, which means that a Class SSS Threat is coming here at Grand Point City!" Lauren said as she began to tremble in fear. "We, we have no choice but to face that Class SSS Threat here! If not, many innocents will die!"