Chapter 3: The Adventures in Prague
"Seekers, we have a mission." Dante announced as he put a holotome on the wooden table that was standing in the middle of the room. They were currently in a Foundation safehouse. "Show me the Prague central cemetery."
A turning hologram appeared, showing levels and layout of the cemetery.
"Cool!" Lok commented. "Is that… a hologram?"
"Something like that, but not quite. It does more than just being a hologram." Alyna touched the moving hologram and a card appeared. "It's also a mission planner, and we can analyze Titans with it to find out more about them."
Then the brunet continued. "Based on the gathered information by Sophie and Alyna, our goal is the tomb of the Wise Man of Prague, Jodis Lore. Mission: Golem of Prague, find the entrance to the tomb of Jodis Lore and find clues about the Golem." And he took the card from the holotome, putting it in his inside breast pocket. "After dark, we'll enter though here." pointing at the gate.
Lok smiled. "Now that's what I call interactive."
"The tomb won't be very large, so we'll have to rely on small and medium sized Titans like Solwing, Sabriel and Iron Monkey."
Then, the holotome started to say Solwing's statistics. "Solwing, attack: 1, defense: 1, type: Krono-Titan Scout, size: Small, special ability: flight."
"Sabriel, attack: 3, defense: 2, type: Draco-Titan warrior, size: average, special ability: unaffected by injury."
"Iron Monkey, attack: 6, defense: 6, type: Yama-Titan warrior, size: medium, special ability: goes into a frenzy at seeing the enemy."
Through the open window, Solwing entered to land upon Dante's left shoulder as Cherit spoke: "What if the Organization gets wind of our plans?"
The brunet looked at his long-time friend. "They already have."
"You're kidding, right?" asked Lok.
"Don't worry. This hotel belongs to the Huntik Foundation, we'll be safe for a while."
Still, the blonde had an unsettling feeling in his stomach, but he blamed the hunger. "Well, I'm gonna take a break and get something to eat."
"Don't overindulge. You can't fight on an over full stomach." the auburn-haired woman warned.
"I won't." Lok shouted back.
Alyna laid her right hand on Dante's right shoulder, which he took with his left hand. "I have that feeling that something's gonna happen soon. I think Lok's got it too."
"If the kid's got it, make sure he'll use it well."
"As if I'd do anything less!"
Sophie took a moment and sat back, just looking at the couple in front of her. Yeah, it fit: a book smart yet powerful person with a powerful person who knew to apply his powers. It was also their instincts that fit together well.
Then, Lok came running back from wherever he was, a Redcap right behind him. They heard the scream of the Redcap and wood broke as it came through the door.
Two more Redcaps appeared, one from under the bed and one from within the closet.
"Seriously, we get this again." the incident clearly didn't humor Alyna, who turned sour within seconds. "Take care of this, Iron Monkey!"
The fierce looking Yama-Titan with brown fur and red samurai armor, including the weird helmet with horns, appeared. The beast took no second to pounce and rip apart the Redcap chasing Lok.
Dante, on the other hand, jumped up and stuck the closet door in the Redcap's face and send a raypulse to the Redcap whose claws were clawing at Sophie's feet.
Two Suits entered the room, a blue ball in their hands.
"Touchram!" Alyna said, sending a broad green line at the Suits. They flew back into the corridor, and a couple of doors were destroyed in the process, but at least those two were knocked out.
It was chaos, but that was usual in a Seeker fight.
Alyna's green eyes shone with fury. "You should pick a different target. Iron Monkey, get them!"
The Titan roared as it was given the order. It threw the bed away, ripped the 2nd Redcap in half, and then went over to the closet to throw that one out of the window.
"It seems I'm late to the party." a voice spoke up.
Their heads turned, finding a woman with black hair in green clothing.
"Time was on the invite." the older Casterwill spoke, walking up to the unknown woman who'd entered their hotel. "I don't think we know each other."
"We don't. I'm Zhalia Moon."
"Alyna Casterwill, nice to meet you."
The two shook hands once their names were spoken, very civil.
"Thanks for stopping by though, if we hadn't been able to do this ourselves, we would've needed your help." the green-eyed woman said. "If the question doesn't bother you: are you very busy with your own mission?"
"Not particularly." Zhalia replied. "What are you offering?"
"I just have the feeling we could use some extra help on the mission we're on."
"If it doesn't interfere with my current mission, I'll see what I can do."
Alyna smiled. "Good, we'll brief you about our goals and all." then she turned to the rest of the team and saw Dante's worried face. "Is there something that bothers you Dante?"
"The fact that the Organization was able to breach our hotel. Could there be spies within the Foundation?"
"Probably just as much as Foundation spies within the Organization." his wife replied.
Lok raised an eyebrow. "Does that even work?"
"There aren't many Foundation spies who get out of the Organization alive and sane. The Professor, who's their leader, uses a power of mind control on heads of state as well as his own people." the reddish haired woman told. "Spies are often discovered and either killed, or if they're useful in any way, turned on the Foundation with the mind control."
"Is it a power of some sort, that mind control?" the blonde teen asked.
Alyna shook her head. "There's no power in the book that can control minds, but there's a Titan that can."
Zhalia looked interested. "Then it seems you've cracked the code the Foundation needs."
"I'm a Casterwill, I'm supposed to know all about powers and Titans that affect Seekers and normal humans. The only thing that comes to my mind that could possibly do something like that, is Araknos, Legendary Titan of the Mind."
"Sounds spooky." said Lok.
The older Casterwill woman continued. "It's a Swara-Titan, most likely insect like in shape, and it's amulet is a ring like almost all Legendary Titans. Araknos, together with Bohemoth and Tao, you can call Overlos from the Amulet of Will, which is probably the Professor's goal."
"You seem very well versed in knowing your stuff." Zhalia commented.
"It's more or less simple logic, something it seems not all Seekers are capable off."
That one comment struck Zhalia pretty hard.
The Organization was all about world domination and doing everything to secure that happening. It was simple power hunger, there was no logic in that.
Alyna seemed to value logic and her gut feelings above anything personal. She was a different type of Seeker than all those she'd encountered before within the Foundation and Organization. Most Seekers let their personal opinion of things get in the way of a goal, relied too much upon others to make sense of things or were downright stupid.
This could become pretty interesting.
It wasn't until nightfall, and the team went down to the cemetery to search for Jodis Lore's tomb, that Zhalia spoke with Alyna again.
"I read the file the Foundation has on you." the black-haired female said.
"Did you?" she mused. "I don't suppose there's much of interesting things in there."
"I couldn't find much on the term 'partnered Seeker', I was wondering if you could explain that to me."
Green eyes looked at her. "I suppose I could. It's actually rather simple, married Seekers are not always compatible to do missions, neither are they of a similar power level. It's rare if such a match occurs, almost unique. With partnered Seekers, one or both of them are married but are not compatible with their spouse in power level or mission abilities"
"Sounds simple indeed. So, who of the two of you is married?"
"Me." Alyna simply replied, showing Zhalia her golden wedding ring, and they walked on.
The black-haired woman raised an eyebrow. She hadn't read anything about a spouse in the file. Maybe the guy wasn't even a Seeker, that could explain a non-mention, as well as the guy being way to important within the Foundation to be mentioned in the file of a field Seeker, no matter how powerful.
Lok and Sophie were sitting near the tombstone, flashlights on the inscription.
"It's just a normal inscription." the strawberry blonde commented.
"Lok, wasn't there something in the journal about the Golem?" Cherit asked, looking on from the head of the tombstone.
The blonde took the book out of bag. "I can't read much of it anymore, the page's ruined. But I think it says: 'blood of the Golem'?"
"But the Golem isn't of flesh and blood, it's made of clay." Sophie said, then grabbing a handful of clay lying next to the tomb and smearing it above the inscription of the headstone.
"Sophie, that's enough. That's not going to do anything." Zhalia commented.
Alyna laid a hand on her shoulder. "Just wait before you judge."
"The clay didn't bring the Golem to life, a word did!"
The small white Titan on the headstone nodded. "Aye, the word 'truth'."
"Sophie, do you know the symbol for truth?"
The other teen looked thoughtful. "It's a pretty difficult symbol, but I think it went something like this…" and she started writing with her right index finger.
As soon as the last dot was placed, the ground started shaking, and the stone on the ground lifted to reveal stairs.
They went down, Dante first, Alyna last.
The auburn-haired woman looked back, as if to see anyone was following them. She had this feeling that the Organization was right on their heels, and she didn't like to be right about this right now. Thus, on her way down, she dropped a couple of little balls, little sensors, connected to her holotome watch.
"I smell a trap." Zhalia said as they came into the next room.
"These bricks are made of two different types of clay!" Sophie called out.
"There must be some reason…" Lok started before Alyna passed them.
As she walked forward, she spoke: "We're running out of time, so let me explain. The golem was made of volcanic river clay, dries up light, thus only step on the light bricks if you don't want to be trapped."
Zhalia followed suit. "I take that was another take on logic?"
Dante was smiling from ear to ear, not caring if either Lok or Zhalia would see. He was a proud husband, even though he'd always known Alyna's potential.
There was a door on the other side, locked.
Alyna held her hand over the doorknob, her palm glowing blue. "Guess we'll need either strong venom or a good way to pick a lock."
As Zhalia was knelt down to inspect the lock, Alyna's watch started glowing blue.
Dante saw it too. "Did you use those sensors?" he asked.
The auburn-haired woman nodded.
"I'll take care of them." he said. "Stay here."
Lok looked at Alyna, seeing the worried look on her face. "Why do you look so worried?"
"It's something I can't help." the older woman replied. "It's just that bad luck always seems to follow Dante around."
"For how long have you two known each other actually?"
"Ever since we were kids." the older Casterwill replied, as she took an amulet from the pocket on her belt.
Lok thought it looked very much like the amulet on Dante's neck, though it had a more silver like glow.
Alyna looked back, to find Dante in Grier's headlock grip. "Damnit."
Sophie and Zhalia did think of sending raypulses at Defoe, but it hit the back of his Titan Kreutalk.
"Peque, be quick!"
A red skinned woman with a silver mask, black hair and green Aztec warrior clothing appeared. In her hand, she held a sliver dagger.
"Peque, open the door." the reddish haired woman commanded before turning to the others. "Just make sure I have enough time do make a copy of that key, no matter how." she didn't look back at them afterwards, she had her own goal to finish.
The study room behind the door was dusty and full of books, but a metal key was laying in the desk.
Alyna quickly made a copy of it with a copy spell, the copy being close to the real one but real and copy were distinguishable from each other. Then, she hid herself in the shadows, waiting for the inevitable.
It was only after Defoe and Grier left, that she left those shadows.
In the room, she found Dante lying on the ground and the three others stuck in some sort of mud.
Dante was only just opening his eyes, moaning from the pain.
Slowly, Alyna moved towards her husband to check up on him.
He was fine, just in pain due to an acid attack. His right hand was lying on the part of his chest where he got hit. "Everfight." and his strength returned.
The auburn-haired woman gave him a stern look, warning him he shouldn't do stupid things like that.
The brunet's facial expression seemed to be an apologetic one, before moving on to the Suits that were standing there.
Neither of the three had heard or seen Dante get up or Alyna moving out of the shadows.
Dante grabbed two of them from behind, throwing them to a different corner each, while Alyna shot a raypulse at the last one, knocking him against a wall before one of the other two landed on him.
"That looked painful." Lok commented as Zhalia said: "Impressive."
"Never, ever, pull such a stunt again." Alyna said with a stern tone.
Dante just held up his hands in surrender.
"Uhm... we could use some help here!" Sophie called out as she was trying to stop a clay arm from choking her.
The study of Jodis Lore was filled with ancient books, notes from the Wise Man himself as well as some ancient artifacts.
"There's nothing here we can use, searching in here is useless." Zhalia commented.
Alyna gave her a look. "There's more to these notes than you think there are. Lore studied the Amulet of Will his entire life, devoted himself to it, it's possible that the locations of the Legendary Titans are somewhere in these as well as the true location of the Amulet of Will."
The 20-year old looked doubtful, but she didn't argue with the woman who was her senior in age and wisdom.
The oldest of the group looked into one of the books, humming as she read the pages.
"Anything useful?" her husband asked.
"There's something in here that can possibly be useful in the future." and Alyna closed it up. "I'll take this book with me and gather the notes. We have to get to the Golem before the Organization does. Dante, you'll call the shots this time, there's something else I have to do before joining a possible fight."
The brunet just nodded. "Seekers, let's go."
Zhalia found it weird that Alyna gave the orders between the two of them, as Dante seemed to be very much capable of leadership. It could just be their dynamic as a pair, Alyna was somewhat more dominant and more often had the last word, and Dante seemed to be okay with her taking the lead.
That was a point she had to further investigate.
"Do you two have any idea on what Alyna had to do before joining us?" Lok asked as he and Sophie were waiting on the roof with Cherit.
"Not a clue." Sophie replied. "Though I heard Dante saying she does this pretty often."
"It's just that it's all so mysterious, so secretive, and I don't understand why."
"As long as I have known her, she has been someone who follows her underbelly feeling." Cherit then started telling. "It is probably one of those days she has a feeling."
Some seconds later, Alyna landed right before them. "So, what's Dante come up with for a plan?"
"A Troyan horse Golem, he and Zhalia are inside." the strawberry blonde replied.
The green-eyed woman smiled. "Devious, don't think I'd have come up with it, but it's brilliant."
"Are you gonna tell us what you've been doing in the meantime?"
"When this is over, and the Golem is not in the hands of the Organization."
"Good enough for me." and the trio of humans and the small Titan went inside.
There, at the door to the attic of the building, they found a pair of Suits with a Redcap and a Mindrone.
Both teens invoked their fighter Titans, Sabriel for Sophie and Freelancer for Lok.
Sabriel took on the Redcap, Freelancer the Mindrone.
But since Lok was pretty much defenseless, two Augerfrosts were sent at him.
"Watch it!" Alyna yelled, pushing Lok out of the way, but got hit in the side by one in the process. The other spell hit the white stairs behind them.
There wasn't much of a wound, just a little bruise.
"I've got enough of this bullshit." and a reddish amulet with a blood red stone came from her pocket. "Get it over with, Venomaster!"
The Titan in question was reptilian, with the upper body of a snake, with long fangs and a whip made of bone.
The two Suits went pale and started shaking.
"Venomaster, go help Dante." and the Titan went through the doors as soon as Alyna said so. "I'll take care of these two. Touchram!"
Dante watched as the snake like Titan struck both Organization Titans with its bone whip.
It caught the two of guard and it gave him the chance to sneak over to the pile of books and an ancient brown painted vase.
"I know you're in here somewhere…" the brunet whispered, reaching out with his hand.
Soon enough, the vase lit up purple and reached for his hand. Then, the amulet of Metagolem started appearing in his hand. "Gotcha."
Also, as a cherry on top, Lok came flying in with the Gaia-Titan that once belonged to his father, kicking Defoe on the right side of his face.
At the door, Alyna and Sophie stood with Venomaster and Sabriel.
"If you know what's wise, you get away from us as soon as possible." the auburn-haired Casterwill said, arms crossed. She made it clear that angering her was a worse option then facing failure before the Professor.
"Sir, what are your orders?" Grier asked, his voice as monotone as it had been before and his face not betraying what emotion he felt at the moment.
"Retreat." Defoe said as he got up from the floor. "We're outnumbered."
"Sensible." and the two of them left, passing Alyna and Sophie on their way out.
Alyna's right hand glowed blue, just like the analyzing spell she'd used on the doorknob of Lore's study. But her hand was aimed at Defoe.
Sophie raised an eyebrow.
"I'll tell you guys once we're back home. Dante, you've got the Golem?"
The brunet held up the amulet, and his wife put two thumbs up.
The strawberry blonde had to laugh at that.
Back in Venice, the team got well deserved rest from their mission in Prague.
Dante was sleeping on the couch, Sophie was resting on her bed with some of the books Alyna had given her on the Casterwill family, and Zhalia was putting her stuff away in her new room.
Lok found Alyna on the 3rd floor balcony, just looking out over Venice.
"So, what was it all about the secrecy back in Prague?"
The Casterwill woman looked back at him. "There's just something about Defoe that just seems familiar, too familiar. I had to make sure some information I had corresponded with Defoe's appearance in the Seeker world."
The blonde too leaned on the wooden railing. "And? Does it?"
"Perfectly, too perfect to be a mere coincidence." green eyes locked with blue. "Do you want to hear my entire story? Even if it seems a bit too crazy?"
The teen nodded. "I really want to know."
"I'll suppose I should start at the beginning." Alyna stated. "About five years ago, Dante's brother Damiano went undercover in the Organization as a simple Suit. But I guess that the superiors saw Damiano had more power than a normal Suit, so they urged him to go see the Professor. Damiano refused for over half a year, but they forced him. His last message said that he had to see the Professor."
Lok's eyes went wide.
"Damiano was presumed dead after we didn't hear from him six months later, almost no one survives an encounter with the Professor and if they live their minds are more often controlled through that Titan I told you guys about." the reddish haired woman continued. "Defoe appeared three years ago, months after Damiano was declared dead. I already thought back then there was something up, since Defoe was so bitter about us though he never met us. Do you understand where I'm going with this?"
"Uh… the Professor turned him against you? But Defoe doesn't look like Dante at all!"
The older Casterwill smiled. "That threw me off too, but then I remembered that there's black market plastic surgery, as well as glamour spells." and she showed him two photos. one was of Defoe right now, the other was of Damiano made before his undercover operation.
Lok too saw the similarities. "Does Dante already know?"
"Well, I've hinted at it, but he's dismissed it every time he got the hint."
The blonde sighed at that. "Any idea yet how to get the guy out of the mind control?"
"There's one Titan that can break a mind spell, which too is a Legendary Titan." Alyna told. "I don't know whether we'll be able to find it, but if we do, I'll know exactly what to do."
"I hope you can do it. Knowing a friend is alive but doesn't remember you, I imagine, is pretty tough."
"It is. Grief about a dead person is easier to deal with."