Investigating The King(12/3/23)

 The air shimmers as if the air temperature changed to a warmer temperature. A young blonde child appears, then is quickly replaced with an elderly woman, then settles down to a woman in her 20s with blonde hair, brown classy clothes, a single feather earring, wings, and a flower crown adorning her head. She wears a cloak covering her features and clothing as if to hide herself from any suspecting eyes. She looks around, observing the area before heading inside 

Violet appears outside a brick building with CGI lettering on top of the building, in front of her is a revolving door that leads to a very plush-looking lobby with a receptionist idly doing some paperwork

Violet walks inside with her cloak up, looking for a chair to sit on while she waits for Lucio

The receptionist pays Violet no mind as he continues filling paperwork

Soon after sitting down a 5'8" mexican-black man strolls into the lobby wearing a black dress shirt with a golden nameplate that reads "Lucio" to match the dress shirt he's wearing grey dress pants and white sneakers, he looks around the room curiously

Violet waves him down as she stands up from her seat, eyeing around to make sure no one is snooping as well

No one else is in the room except for Lucio and the receptionist, he smiles and quickly walks over

"I'm assuming you're the person on Instagram"

He has a kinda announcer voice but it's sort of quiet

“Indeed I am. Would you like to discuss it here or elsewhere?”

He shrugs 

"Depends on what you have in mind, I could take you back to my office?"

“That would be preferable. If you do not mind.”

He nods and motions for Violet to follow as he starts walking

Violet follows, looking around the halls as they make their way to the office

Violet notices that there are a couple staff only elevators that they pass, Lucio heads through a staff-only door and holds it open for Violet

Violet walks inside, making sure to get a good glance around

It just seems to be a stairwell that Luico starts walking up

"My office is on the third floor"

Violet nods and she starts making the trek up the stairs

They make it to the 3rd floor as he walks through a hallway to his office

Violet follows him to his office, looking around as she enters

One nameplate for the offices sticks out "Mark Garcia" The office door has a sign posted on it that says "Do not enter"

Violet looks curious to it before continuing to follow Lucio

Lucio makes it to his office and opens the door for Violet

"We'll be able to discuss what you want in here"

Violet walks inside and looks around, taking note of his office

Violet takes out her laptop and sets it down on the desk, pulling up the “Ghost in the Machine” log on jovian-cove website, scrolling down to find what she is looking for

The office looks pretty standard with a boring oak desk with a computer monitor sitting on top of the desk and a couple inspirational posters around the room, Lucio looks curious as she pulls out her laptop and shuts the door

Violet scrolls down and finds what she is looking for, pointing towards it to Lucio and reading it out to him

“-fades into view a few inches over Cole's head, much like a halo. It's green decorated crown with depictions of skulls. Black, red, blue, and green crystals are embedded into the faces of Cole's crown.… I have no idea what this is but it can mean no good I assume.”

Lucio stares at Violet

"Are you-"

He pauses and folds his arms as he thinks

"Are you saying he's some kinda fuckin...god...king thing?!"

“I’m unsure. It has something to do with those crystals that I DM’ed you about. Unsure why he has a crown to adorn all of them.”

Violet crosses her arms and thinks

“He might have some rule over something, that would explain the crown, but I’m unsure what.”

Lucio shrugs

"I'm not sure, I mean a crown has to indicate a king of something"

Lucio sighs

"Though the red crystal sounds familiar since that's the one we use in the laser rifles"

Violet looks to her notes and reads off the red crystal notes

"Its most common trait is magnifying the power of certain light spectrums to the point where if hit by said magnified light it could weld metal together-it transmit knowledge of where an object is to a secondary crystal, if a person is actively touching the secondary crystal they get the knowledge of where the other crystal is plus any object it is touching- This crystal is very rare, showing up randomly across the Death Realm and Earth. Only 4 are currently known about."

"Hmmm... I mean unless something happened to his father..."

Lucio looks confused

"I'm sorry, death realm?!?! Who is his father?!"

"Oh... sooo his father might be... Death."

Lucio looks at Violet like she just said the most insane bullshit

"I know it sounds weird. I don't even know how it works myself. But that's what I know."

Lucio sighs

"Right so...what does the crown have to do with his father?"

"Well maybe... if something happened to his father... he might be the king of the Death Realm? It's just a guess thou."

Lucio shrugs

"I can't really confirm anything, I'm not Cole"

Lucio thinks for a moment then speaks again

"Though I did see him wandering the halls a little earlier so maybe you could ask him?""

"I... I don't know if he would appreciate me being here. That's why I have to cloak... just in case. And I did not want to freak out the receptionist."

Lucio stares at her

"Why wouldn't he?"

"Cole and I have some... history, to say the least. I have done some terrible things in the past that I regret and I wish to make amends. Cole is willing to see if we can have a friendship again but I think me being here of all places would get him questioning and skeptical."

Lucio continues staring

"History?"

Lucio then stops staring with a heavy sigh

"Whatever, I mean I heard before that he had a halo? What happened to that?"

"I don't know much about the halo I'll be honest. I think it was green? But I might be wrong. I'll have to look into the halo a bit more."

Violet looks to the door leading out into the hallway

"I also saw that Mark Garcia's office was off-limits. What's up with that?"

Lucio sighs

"He was head factory manager until he got turned into a fucking horrifying flesh mech thing that then got torched by a destroyer squad"

Violet looks to Lucio

“Do you think it was an accident?”

Lucio shrugs with another heavy sigh

"Yeah, it's not like he got shoved into there by some kinda invisible force"

“Knowing what’s out in the world and what Cole could maybe do. Who knows.”

Violet looks back to the door

“What I’m curious… in this hypothetical situation if he did get pushed in… did he know something to get him in that position.”

"Uhhhh I don't think so?"

Lucio thinks about it for a moment

"I mean I know he got caught saying some stuff about Cole but...Cole isn't that unstable right?"

“Well… knowing that if you get on his bad side he can send a nuke to your place. I would not doubt it.”

"I'm sorry?!"

Lucio looks extremely shocked

"He runs a weapons company. What do you expect?"

Lucio sighs 

"Yeah....but a nuke?!"

“He’s a bit… extreme… with his methods.”

Lucio shakes his head

"I doubt he would go as far as to nuke someone, I mean what really warrants a nuke?"

“If you say so… but I want to check out Mark’s office just in case. If you would like to join?”

Lucio shakes his head

"I couldn't, if security found out they'd tear us apart"

“Alright. Well, I’m heading in alone I guess. I’ll let you know what I find.”

Violet gets up and heads to leave outside the room, looking around before exiting into the hallway

Lucio waves goodbye to Violet as he quietly mutters

"Good luck with that..."

Violet enters the mostly quiet hallway, the only noise she can hear is the clicking of keyboards

Violet waves back as she heads over to Mark’s room, making sure no one is around as she tries to turn the doorknob

The door is unlocked, no one else is in the hallway

Violet quietly makes her way inside, shutting the door behind her

The lights are off in the room and it's dead quiet now, seems like the room is sound-padded

Violet looks for a light switch, feeling at the walls, as she says quiet

There's a thunk as the light switch is turned on, the lights turn on and reveal the same boring office that Lucio has

Violet looks around, looking for any files and looking at the computer

The computer is off and there are various manilla folders scattered across the desk

Violet picks up a random manilla folder as she tries to turn on the computer

The power button clicks as the computer starts turning on, the manilla folder is labeled "More mech weapons" and there's a red "CLASSIFIED" stamp on the folder

Violet opens the folder and starts to read

The first paper's title is "MMTAR" and it talks about a bigger version of the MTAR that could be used to disable aircraft or larger vehicles with the added ability to lock onto the infantry, there's a sticky note on this paper that reads "This is highly unethical, this rocket is meant for aircraft or tanks and it should not be able to lock onto infantry"

Violet moves on to the next papers, looking as well to see if anything is on the computer

The computer boots to a login screen, asking for a username and password. The next few papers are just back and forth about the ethical reasoning behind the MMTAR, the last page seems unfinished and seems to be a written draft that reads "Cole I cannot and I will not manufacture this rocket for you, this rockets manufacturing stops with-"

Violet pockets the papers as she looks for anything that might indicate as a password or username

There's a sticky note on the monitor that has "Username: MarkGarcia Password:FoxtrotUniformCharlieOscarLimaEcho" written on it

Violet inputs the username and the password, as just the capital letters, hoping for it to work

It accepts the username and password as it shows the desktop, it has a couple text files on it and they read "Don't forget to send the design for The Flying Dutchman", "MMTAR unethical documentation", "2 weeks notice"

Violet opens the 2 weeks notice

The file reads "Working with this company has been great but having to fight tooth and nail to prevent unethical weapons from being produced is very tiring, I fear that Cole will kill me because I know so much if I leave but I simply can't afford to stay here"

Violet opens The Flying Dutchman text file

It's empty, just seems like it was just a note

Violet moves on to the last file, the MMTAR

The file reads "It targets infantry, even if they are parachuting which is a war crime. It can and will automatically lock onto infantry if they are holding any type of rocket launcher however this is known to fail and target medics holding stretchers. It is also known to randomly detonate mid-air possibly damaging friendly aircraft and or hitting unintended targets."

Violet closes the text files as she shuts off the computer, noting everything down as she returns all the folders back to where they came from

She looks around one last time before making her way outside the door carefully

There's a manila folder labeled "The Flying Dutchman" that's on the very edge of the desk 

Violet eyes the folder, quickly grabbing it and reading it

There's one paper in it

Violet takes a picture of the paper and takes the paper and pockets it, walking out the door carefully

There's still no one in the hallway, hopefully, it stays that way

Violet speeds walk down the hall towards the front entrance exit

A couple people that Violet passes seem to look a little confused, someone bumps into her and groans it sounds like a man

Violet looks up just a bit, as she continues to speed-walk

Violet looks up to see Cole dusting off his black and white suit with a golden pickaxe pin, he's wearing a black glove on his right hand and a white glove on his left and he doesn't seem to notice that it's Violet

Violet stares at him for a moment before putting her head back down and making her way to the exit

Violet makes it out the exit with no other interruption

Violet looks back towards the building as the air moves around her before in a second, she’s gone