Sinners and Hollows

After capturing both Che and K.K it made our work much easier when we made our way into the hollows.

But with more sinners onboard, comes new problems. Che himself would often be lazing around the base, sleeping through an entire day.

Only getting up when it either came to work, food, and using the bathroom.

K.K on the other hand would often ask Hella or me for a spar, and it would be my loss most of the time.

Other times, K.K would wander into the hollows intentionally to fight ethereal's or gang members that caught her attention.

This often lead to multiple rescue attempts, and would cause damage to our budget, since we would ask either Wise or Belle to lead us inside, and guide us out.

However, today was a calm day, Che was sleeping on the couch with neither of his weapons in hand.

And K.K was helping me organize the papers I was filling out, and sending it back to our world.

Hella and Hecate were sitting in front of couch, scrolling through the interknot, looking for anything interesting.

I sighed in relief, everything was peaceful, everything was quiet, there was no alerts, no alarms, just peace, and quiet.

"Chief, we got a problem." Me and my damn mouth.

"What seems to be the…" Craceh soon cut me off and pointed at the front doors.

"We got PubSec outside, and they're coming this way." Everyone, been Che who now woke up, stared at Crache.

"Are you sure?" I asked with all seriousness, she only nodded her head to confirm her words, and I stood up instantly and stared at the sinners.

"Shut down everything, move all the furniture to the back, and turn off the lights." Those were the only words I said while grabbing most of the papers in front of me.

K.K had grabbed the rest of the papers in one hand, while grabbing the laptop in the other.

Che himself only yawned but grabbed the couch and lifted it over his shoulder with ease, following K.K and I.

The last two to follow us were Hella and Hecate, Hella made sure to drag the other two chairs, while Hecate had nightmare carry the last couch, but before following us, she made sure to turn off the lights in the lobby.

Plunging the entire room in darkness and silence, leaving the six of us to hide in the back.

It didn't take long for the doors to open, and we could hear multiple footsteps walking into the lobby.

"Everyone spread out, we don't know where the victims are located, so make sure to check every room throughly." Hearing the voice, it sounded familiar, but I couldn't remember why.

"Crache, scout how many guards are inside." I whispered to her, Crache didn't reply, but she soon left, leaving the five of us in the back.

"Chief, you sure that's a good idea? We're trying to hide from the police, not fight them." Hella hissed, but I ignored her and stayed silent.

After waiting for a few minuted, Crache soon returned and began to explain on who she saw.

There were only twenty officers roaming the buildings and two of them were lieutenants, a woman with a mix of orange and black hair, and a woman with jade hair.

I remembered the officer with the orange and black hair, when Nicole got pulled over when she tried to run a red light.

"We do nothing, let them search what they are looking for." The sinners only looks at one another, but said nothing.

"Lieutenant Zhu Yuan, we found nothing." Said an officer.

"Same here, no dolls were found." A few more officers soon said the same thing, a doll that looked like a missing person.

"Alright, let's go, we found nothing here." Said Zhu, the sounds of multiple footsteps began to sound further and further.

The five of us were about to leave the room, but Crache held her hand in front of me, I turned to look at her in confusion on why she did this.

But she mouthed that there was one officer just outside the room we were in, and it was a trap.

All of the officers were hiding around the corners all of their weapons drawn and aimed at the door.

"What do we do, there's no way we can fight them off." Che said and was about to sleep, K.K on the other hand was tense.

Both of her hands were gripping her batons, and she had both of her arms raised, waiting or my order to charge and fight them all.

However, I placed my hand on her shoulder, having her stand down. There was one thing we could do, and we have the advantage.

I began to look inside the room for anything loose, like a cloth, a towel, or even a piece of bandage.

I motioned to Hecate closer to me, and soon whispered her my idea. I then had the six of us move back behind the furnitures, while leaving anything loose on top of nightmare.

Once we were set, Hecate had sent nightmare forward. Slamming the doors open and flying away from us.

As soon as the door was open, the sound of gunshots were heard, followed by the sound of shouting.

"Follow them, don't let them get away!" Shouted Zhu, multiple footsteps soon became quieter, following nightmare.

After waiting for a few more minutes, we soon made our way out. Sighing in relief they followed the fake suspect.

"Alright, Crache, follow them and try to find out why they came here, and try to figure out why they mentioned dolls." I already had an assumption on what was causing this, but I needed to confirm it.

Besides the information, I needed to know where the location of the victims were disappearing to.

Once Crache had left, the five of us began to place all the furniture back to where it was, including the piles of paper I was working on.

"Chief, you think they're talking about Eve?" Hella asked me with concern in her voice.

"Most likely, there is no other sinner who can cause this, but if her m-value is high, then she must be under the influence." I could only wait for Crache to return with the information.

Once Crache had returned, she told me everything. People have been going missing when they approached what looked like an abandoned building.

What's ironic though, the building was an abandoned toy factory. he building itself had the lights on, and the sound of machinery could be heard running.

Most of the people who entered the building were electricians, PubSec officers, and even some employees of Whitestone, yet none of them came out.

This all started because some people noticed the factory's lights were on, they became curious to see why, but when they entered, they never left.

Thus rumors began to form, saying that the factory was haunted, that there was a psycho kidnapping people, and using their corpses to make toys.

While others who decided to not go, swore they saw what looked like a giant bear, staring at them from within the factory.

"We need to go to that factory." I said causing everyone to freeze at my words.

"Are you nuts!? We can't just go inside without a plan, and let me remind you, we have no hyper cubes to container the mania, no resources, and no way to hide our identities, and this is coming from me of all people!" Hecate shouted, waving her arms to emphasize her point.

"We don't have a choice, as for hiding our identities, couldn't we just use masks and code names?" Hella wanted to refute my idea, but couldn't come up with anything.

"It's possible, but we would have to be named something other than the Minos Bureau of Crisis Control, we do not have jurisdiction in this world." Hecate pointed out, everyone could agree.

Besides the jurisdiction, we couldn't be known as the MBCC, we needed a new name.

"Chief, why not…" Hearing Crache's idea, I liked it, it represented hope and peace, something the MBCC strive to do.

"I'll consider it, for now, who wants to volunteer to join the operation?" I asked, instantly Hecate stood by my side.

"Where you go, I will follow." She held my sleeve, as if I would disappear right I front of her.

"Damnit, fine, since Hecate is going, I'm going as well." Hella then stood on my other side.

The only ones that remained were, K.K, Che, and Crache. The three of us stared at them, waiting for their answer.

"Well, I was getting bored organizing the papers." K.K made her way to our side, only leaving Che, and Crache.

"Eve is a good kid, I won't abandon her." All that remained was Che, who looked like he was about to have a headache.

"Fine, but I want the next two days off." The six of us then made our way to the entrance of the base and began to make our way to the location.

...…..

We had soon arrived at the location that the officers mentioned, and we soon saw it, multiple fences around the abandoned factory.

Officers, scientist and even a few families were close to the building, but the families were held back, and could only see the building at a distance.

"Well chief, what's the plan?" Hella asked while biting into a burger.

"First off, we need to find a blind spot, only then we can get close enough to face the monster that is holding Eve." I began to search for an opening, anything we can use to pass the fence.

"Seems we need to make an entrance ourselves, this place is locked down tight." Crache walked out from the shadows.

"How many guards?" I asked, staring at the families who were placing picture frames of the missing victims.

"Thirty, fifteen are walking around the fences to stop anyone that got too close, while the other half are here blocking the entrance." She said while chewing on gum.

"What about the scientist?" Crache then looked at the families as well.

"Ten, they're scanning the mania, but I couldn't get close enough to hear what they're saying." She explained.

"How long do we wait? I want to head back already." Che whined, he was siting on a chair with his cap lowered, blocking the sunlight.

"As long as we need to, if this keeps going, most of the citizens will no longer be human." K.K then huffed and smacked Che on the back of his head.

"You really need to be more active." Che only rolled his eyes and leaned his head back.

"Sorry mom, I didn't know I was supposed to be nice." He sarcastically said and closed his eyes.

"It doesn't matter, we wait until it goes dark, then we can make our move." I said and continued to focus on the officers that blocked the entrance.

As we stared at the abandoned factory, I soon saw a familiar face, once that I hadn't expected to see.

"Things just became difficult." I muttered while staring at Zhu Yuan, she made her way to the families that were held back and began to talk to them.

She tried to reassure them that they are doing everything they can to locate the missing victims, however, they didn't like that answer.

Some were outraged, even blaming her for the lack of results while others could only cry.

It was starting to become a problem, that most of the guards were starting to support Zhu, trying to calm the people down.

Yet, we all saw what was happening, mania was slowly coiling around their bodies, enhancing their emotions, causing them to be more violent.

"Chief, we need to step in, the mania is starting to affect them." She didn't need to tell me twice, I stood up and made my way to the crowd and tried to blend in.

Luckily, I had the W-engine in hand to help me deal with the mania. I only need to stay in the far back and opened it.

Watching as the mania crystal absorb all of the mania that surrounded them, even though there wasn't much change, the risk of them now mutating was now zero.

However, I didn't leave, in fact, I stayed where I was, staring at the abandon factory with worry.

"Sir, oh, it's you. Are you here to report someone that you know that is missing?" Zhu asked me, I only gave her a sad smile.

"Yes, Eve Buonanotte, she is someone very dear to me." Zhu could only give me a sympathetic smile, and pulled out a notepad.

"Can you describe her appearance? It will make it easier for us to find her." I appreciated her help on wanting to look for Eve, but I lied about Eve's appearance, she doesn't need to burden herself with what I'm about to do.

"Thank you for your description, we'll make sure to find her as soon as we can." She smiled and left.

She was about to make her way to one of the officers to tell them about the missing person, but the ground began to shake.

People screamed at the sudden rumbling, while others pointed at the abandoned building.

Dust and rubble began to fall from the building, while bits of the wall fell, revealing the inside of the factory.

However, instead of machines, there was only piles of toys, all moving and squirming.

Everyone in the crowd, including the scientist, began to run away. While the officers guided the people to safety, while others began to call for back up.

I on the other hand didn't move, I only turned my body around to look back at my friends and raised my hand, only lifting two fingers up and signaled them forward.

Seeing this, they all began to walk past the people that ran away. Some bumped into them, but they didn't stop, they kept walking forward to where I am.

As they walked, Che grabbed both his a tomahawk, and kopis from their sheaths, spining both weapons in his hands.

K.K herself gripped her tonfa's and spun them as well, preparing herself for the fight ahead.

Hella only skipped across the road, dragging her pipe while humming a tune, while a sadistic grin formed on her face.

Hecate and Craceh had the same face, neutral, indifferent, however both had different goals.

One was to protect me, while the other was to rescue a friend from her monsters, yet both were ready to do what needs to be done.

As soon as they arrived by my side, I began to walk with them, leading them to the fight we would be facing.

But before we would be stopped by the officer, we all pulled out a mask, placing it on our face.

"Sir, I'm sorry but you need to leave, it's not safe here." One of the officers tried to stop us, however, Che only threw his tomahawk towards the officer.

The officer raised their arms to block the tomahawk with their eyes closed, but instead of feeling pain, there was a sickening crunch.

It was the sound of bones breaking, soon a high pitch cream was heard, followed by the sound of more breaking bones.

When the officer opened his eyes, they looked behind them and saw one of the toys with a large wound on its face.

Looking back to us, the officer saw Che's weapon, it was dripping with black blood.

"Get the officers and scientists away, you can't face them all." I said, with my voice sounding different.

Thanks to Belle and Wise for showing us on where we could buy the voice modules, even if they were expensive.

"R-right." The officer soon left, trying to gather the rest of the officers and scientists, leading the six of us alone.

"Chief, are you sure it's best if we let them see us?" Crache stared at the officer leaving us.

"We don't have a choice, mania itself can't be contained, and they don't have the equipment to deal with it." I replied and continued to look a the toys running at us.

"So, what's the plan?" K.K ask, I only turned to look behind us, and saw no one was in harms way.

"Kill them all, leave none of them alive." The four of them, minus Hecate, began to walk forward.

All of them began to brandish their weapons, and ran forward, Che threw both his tomahawk and kopis, cutting a few of them down with ease.

K.K herself threw a punch, sending one of the dolls flying back and knocking down a few more, while Crache herself commanded the shadow to cut them down.

Hella on the other hand was laughing with glee, slamming her water pipe at anything that stood in her way.

"Four!" She shouted and struck one of the dolls as if they were a golf ball, sending it through the crowd with immense strength.

It was even destroying any toy that stood in front of it, however, there was no stuffing when the dolls break.

Only the sound of bones and glass were heard.

While the battle was going on in the front, I was in the back, both of my arms raised as if I was announcing my presence to the monster that was hiding within the factory.

"Come out, and be punished by the sinners." Within the factory, two red eyes were glowing, and the sound of an animalistic growl could be heard.

[Nice, nice, nice, fight fight fight, go on chief and show your might, beat the monster and gain the praise, then run away to fight another day! Haaaa, I missed this, watching him conduct the operation like a conductor, it was getting boring to watch him facing those ethereal's]

[Anyways, what do you guys think so far, do we need to erase the timeline a bit, is it good as it is, c'mon say something, it's already boring just to watch you guys read, no reactions, no nothing]

[Besides that, send some power stones to show how greatful the author is writing this down, an extra chapter in one week, how nice, Bye Bye!]