JUST So We're Clear On This

[doctorzero]

"Okay, so let me get this straight," said Jaron, rubbing his temples in frustration. "According to Kavma, who is someone more than half the people in this room can't stand, told you that Zero has this bracelet thing that can turn people into horrific monsters, and if enough people are turned into monsters, an even BIGGER abomination will break thought the protection on the island and assimilate all universes into itself using the dimension we're in as a conduit, and because of the incredible danger of said bracelet, Kavma insisted that he and his company deal with Zero themselves to the extent of locking you all in Gantz's house. THEN, a bunch of portals showed up the HECK out of nowhere and brought you all to a creepy void with deranged carnival music, where you saw this person in a blue hood, who only told you that someone needed your help, all the while I was in the underground system of said island slowly getting my memory back while I met Alex, Zero, and Professor Shantotto here. And that's not covering the horrible goings on at Mount Bonsai." He took a deep breath. "Did I leave anything else out?"

After the group managed to trek to the Igloo village, they promptly rented a room and grabbed some mugs for hot cocoa while some members of the group went to recuperate in the hot spring. In the meantime the others swapped stories of what had occurred to them since they last saw each other.

"That's it in a nutshell," said A.J.

Jaron took a sip. It was a lot to take in. "It's a bit much, honestly. And you're positive you don't know where Max and Kaitlin are?"

They all shook their heads. Jaron's face fell. "Darn it..."

[gantzgun74]

"It's not just Max and Kaitlin either..." Misty grumbled under her breath. "Red's gone too... But just where I don't know." She groaned, crossing her arms.

Gene and Lilia appeared to be stoking a fire in order to keep the inside of the group's new shelter nice and warm, Lilia using her firepowers to help out with the process. Gantz had his head lowered, while Rosaline embraced him. Metal let out a mechanical groan, as the Climber laid down on the ground, looking up at the cieling. "So... The guy that transported us here, might not have been working for Kavma."

"Maybe... Maybe not." Gantz appeared to snap out of his funk as he looked among his party members. "All I know is Kavma has a lot to answer for. He's the only... THING I know that could interfere with a teleportation like that and could seperate us from Max, Kait and Red."

There was a nod as Otto spoke. "And let's not forget... Tarosuke's out there too. God only knows where he is now."

"Yes..." There was a tone of worry in Rose's voice. "I hope he's okay..."

[doctorzero]

Jaron sighed. "Well, even if they are okay, Zero's still on the loose, and if he really is as dangerous as Kavma says, then..."

He didn't finish the sentence. Inwardly, he was struggling with how he felt about the situation. He wanted to make sure that they were safe, but he also wanted to find Zero and stop him from causing any damage--what they had told him about what happened to Wally was probably the sickest thing he had ever heard. And then there was Kavma...

He buried his head into his hands. "Ugh..."

A hand on his shoulder caused him to turn and see A.J., who looked at him with a concerned look.

"Bro..." he started.

He was immediately interrupted when Lucas stood up, grabbing everyone's attention.

"I think we should call Kavma."

Cue the mass "Huh?!"

[gantzgun74]

.......................

"Lucas..." Misty said after a moment. "I've heard all kinds of ideas in my time, and I like to think I'm very understanding..." She looked at the young man crossly. "But that is THE worst idea I've ever heard."

Metal nodded. "Yes, Kavma was the one that locked us up to begin with. How do we know he won't do it again?"

"Does it matter?"

Everyone looked to see Gantz already having his cell-phone out. "The idiot tried to lock us up, may or may not have something to do with us getting out, might be responsible for Red, Max and Kaitlin's disappearance... Combine that with he just IRKS ME SOMETHING FIERCE, and I'm afraid that's enough for me." He pushed the call button, bringing up caller ID. After scrolling through the seven times he tried calling Tarosuke, Gantz pulled up the very number belonging to Kavma himself... Or at least, this was the number Kavma used to get a hold of him.

"Are you sure that is altogether wise, Gantz?" Soul Calibur monotoned from her sheathe. "Kavma is a ticking time bomb, we have no idea of knowing how he will react to this."

Gantz only looked to Soul with a cross expression. "I like to think that, considering the circumstances, I've seen just about everything I need to see about Kavma to understand how that douchebag works." He pushes the call button. "I'm not scared of him."

[doctorzero]

They all waited with bated breath as the phone rang.

Once. Twice. Three times.

"Maybe he's busy?" Jaron suggested.

"It's Gantz. Knowing Kavma he'll drop everything he's doing at the moment to answer him," A.J. pointed out.

They waited another minute.

"I don't think he's going to pick up," said Jaron.

"Give it a minute," Jaron insisted.

It continued to ring.

Gantz was nearly about to hang up in frustration when Lucas spoke up. "I want to talk to him."

They all stared at him.

"Uh...Lucas..." A.J. was staring at him as if he had grown five extra heads. "This is the guy who kidnapped you, remember?"

"He also didn't want to, and besides, if it's Gantz who's talking to him he'll freak out that he escaped. You know how he was like around me, he'll react better if it's me talking. Please, Gantz."

[gantzgun74]

............. Gantz let out a groan as he handed Lucas the phone. "I sure hope you know what you're doing kid..." With that said, he stood back and let Lucas have his space. He was pretty sure the first thing they might hear was some random something or other from Kavma.

All went quiet as the phone rang, Climber, who had his repairs by Metal Sonic finished up the repairs to his cloth body. Looking a little off edge a moment, Climber took a second to tap his chest to make sure the Chaos Emerald that was used to power him was still safe and sound. He smiled a bit when he found that it was.

When Gene noticed this however, his mind traveled back to everything he knew about Crystal Room...

"Uh Gantz?" He looked to his brother figure with a raised eyebrow. "Climber is powered by a Chaos Emerald right?"

His brother took a moment to consider this, thinking back to the day when he stuck the white Chaos Emerald into Climber to keep the mannequin going. "Yeah, he is... Why?"

Gene's next words were a tad terrifying really.

"Isn't Chaos Emerald energy easy to track?"

[doctorzero]

A.J. froze upon hearing that. "It...it is, yeah," he stammered.

Before anyone could say anything else, however, Lucas held up a hand. "Sh."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"This is Kavma Raleigh speaking. I'm surprised you were willing to call me after you managed to break out of the mansion, Alex. Very impressive, by the way, but I am now very upset with you."

Lucas was shaking a little, but he forced himself to stay calm. "Hello, Kavma," he said.

There was a rather long pause.

"...Lucas, my boy, it's been so long."

Kavma sounded surprised, if not a little nervous. I know how he feels, Lucas thought.

"Yeah. I needed to talk to you."

"What are you doing here on the island? No, don't answer that. I know why you're here. Is Jaron with you?"

He looked at Jaron, who shrugged. "Yeah, he's with me."

"Along with Alex and his friends, I presume."

"Not all of them. Max, his Pokemon, Kaitlin, and Red are missing."

"They are? That's...troublesome. And I know that's an understatement."

Lucas's eyes harden. "We thought you would know where they are."

"I don't even know how Alex and his friends escaped my watch, Lucas. But--"

"Can I talk to you in person?" Lucas asked.

Everyone else was rather taken aback. "Lucas, I don't think--" A.J. started.

"I say let him come."

A.J. turned to Jaron in shock, who looked determined. "I want to talk to him face to face too. You guys aren't the only ones who are unhappy with him."

[gantzgun74]

Gantz let out a long sigh and nodded, "AJ has a point." He growled a bit. "Red is missing, and so is Kait and Max. I'm pretty ticked about all of this..."

"And let's not forget," chimed in Rosaline as the thought crossed her. "That we still don't know what happened to Tarosuke either. We're only hoping he's still alright by now."

[doctorzero]

Lucas waited patiently for Kavma's answer.

"Yes."

Lucas felt a little apprehensive. "How fast can you get here?"

"Is this fast enough?"

To this day, not a single one of them figured out how Kavma had appeared in front of Lucas so fast. seriously, none of them had even blinked and he was just THERE.

Lucas jumped in shock at the sight of Kavma and almost immediately started shaking in fright. Kavma, however, averted his gaze, instead looking at Gantz. He looked even more uncomfortable than when he had met them at the restaurant.

"I--" he started, but he didn't get to finish.

Before anyone could stop him, Jaron had ran forward and punched Kavma in the face, knocking him backward.

"Jaron?!"

Jaron stepped forward and grabbed Kavma by the collar as the man tried to recover. "THAT was for putting me through all that heck today," he said, barely concealed anger in his voice.

Both A.J. and Lucas were taken aback. Jaron had NEVER struck anyone before unprovoked.

[gantzgun74]

Gantz looked to Jaron, momentarily surprised before he looked to Kavma his eyes narrowed and dangerous. "Well can't say you didn't deserve it in any cases." He got up from his seat, and looked to the downed man. "Where is Red, Kate, and Max, you sorry bastard?"

Misty looked to be in equally displeased straights. "Yeah the second we landed in this frozen wasteland, their the first people we noticed missing." She growled at him. "Now WHERE ARE THEY?"

The next people to sit up was Metal and Climber, Climber looked especially worried. "Please tell us where Red is, Mr. Kavma." The Cloth mannequin said. "I'm getting really worried about her. We don't know where she went."

[doctorzero]

Kavma seemed to take the punch well, all things considered. He simply stared at Jaron as the others interrogated him.

A.J. noticed that Kavma seemed to make an effort not to look at Lucas.

"I don't know."

No one said anything for a minute.

"I think you're lying," said Jaron, narrowing his eyes.

"Surprising, coming from you," Kavma replied. "But I don't know where they are. I was not responsible for your...escape from the mansion. Wilhelm Strahl and an unknown associate did that."

Jaron nearly dropped him in surprise. "Strahl? And..."

Almost instantly he knew who had broken them out. "Alex."

Kavma raised an eyebrow. "A different Alex is on the island?"

[gantzgun74]

"Another Alex? What the heck are you-"

Suddenly his memories traveled back to the being he saw in the void... The being with the blue hoodie...

Everyone noticed Gantz suddenly stopping and looked to him questionably. "Alex?" Rosaline looked curious at this. "What's wrong?"

"Yeah, kid. Something the matter?" Metal had an emoticon in his visor that shared in the other's confusion.

..................... After a long hard moment, Gantz looked to Kavma sternly. "You said you know a lot about me... Now I know that you know about multiple versions of me on the island... Well... Maybe you'll know what's going on..." He took a breath. "While I was in the void, I saw someone. He looked a few years younger then me, but... He was wearing a blue hoodie. It had this black design on the chest that sorta looked like a circling fan... Sound familiar to you?"

[doctorzero]

Kavma became deathly quiet, contemplating the question.

Something seemed to click in his head.

"Jaron," he said calmly, "Please release me."

Jaron blinked. "...why?"

"Because if you don't, in a few seconds I will have a rather unpleasant nervous breakdown," said Kavma in a matter of fact voice.

Jaron released him immediately. Kavma was now breathing rather heavily, probably doing his best not to freak out. "You said that Red was missing along with Max and Kaitlin?" he asked quickly.

Jaron nodded, unnerved. Kavma placed a hand on his forehead, steadying himself. "Why is it, Jaron, that whenever you're involved things start going horribly wrong?"

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?!" Jaron demanded.

Kavma shook his head. "Forget it. We need to find them now, before Zero gets to them, I'll have Jihl--"

He stopped.

"What?" A.J. asked.

Without acting as if he had said anything, Kavma immediately flipped out a phone (not a cell phone, I mean a dial phone out of nowhere) and held it up to his ear without dialing.

"Captain Wrights," he said, "I need to talk to Superior Nabaat. Now."

Moment of silence.

"...I...see."

He dispelled the phone without another word and just stood there, motionless.

"...Kavma?" Lucas asked hesitantly.

Kavma turned to him so quickly he jumped in fright. "We'll talk on the way. I think I know where Red is."

[gantzgun74]

All of this seemed to happen all at once for Gantz. He watched with wide-eyes as Kavma tried his goddamn best not to FREAK OUT where he stood; a notion that completely and utterly horrified him.

It was when he brought up Jihl, and the mention that Kavma knew where Red was that he finally responded. "What!? Where?!"

Metal seemed to be the one that took all of this in and started to make sense of all of it. He didn't have any exact ideas, but a theory was starting to come to mind. ".... Show the way then Kavma. But let us hurry."

"But where is Red?" Climber looked panicked. "And how are we going to get there in time?!"

Misty looked to Gantz with a sigh. "Get a teleport spell ready Gantzy boy. It looks like we're gonna need to go on a rescue mission."

[doctorzero]

"No need for the teleport," said Kavma.

"What?"

---

Outside...

The entire building suddenly exploded, sending bits and pieces flying everywhere, as what appeared to be a comet erupted where it used to stand and flew into the sky.

The only response any of the bystanders had to say to this was to go about their business, one old woman washing her laundry grumbling "Bloody tourists..."

---

Jaron got to his feet, completely taken aback by what had just happened.

They were now in what appeared to be the comet, though they all seemed to be on solid ground inside it. Kavma was standing at the front, hands clenching and unclenching.

"Okay, as much of a jerk as you are at times, you know how to travel in style," A.J. admitted.

"Complement me later," Kavma snapped, "I'm not in the mood."

"Kavma, what's going on?" Lucas asked. "Where are we going?"

Kavma didn't look at him. "While my men stationed themselves around the island, I went by myself for reasons I will not be explaining to you. Not every place on this island is monitored, and I have a feeling I know where Jihl and Red are."

Cue the confusion. "Why would Red be with Jihl?"

Kavma closed his eyes. "...I thought Jihl had changed. She is no stranger to methods I do not approve of. You know what threat Zero is. Red is a special case--if she was infected..." He didn't finish.