’I guess trying to lure them to a blind zone was too obvious.’ Dante thought aloud. ’Maybe they just ran away after all.’
[That might be the case. Though the question remains, what is their objective?]
Worst case scenario is that the stalker worked for Eidolon, but Dante scratched the idea right away for the simple reason that they wouldn’t have needed to track the bikes to find him with one of the biggest corpos in the world backing them.
’Wouldn’t it have been easier to wait for me outside the police station then track me from there?’
Victor had dropped him off at a train station, where he took a ride home. If the stalker had followed him since then, they would’ve figured out where he lived, making everything else easier.
Dante reached the alley’s exit then chose a random direction to take, summoning back the screens with the security feed, which he had put aside so he could focus on the fight. As he skimmed through them one by one, a thought occurred to him.
’Maybe if I got a bunch of drones, I can use them like-’
He had a feeling that it was a brilliant idea, but unfortunately, he didn’t get to finish the thought as something slammed into him out of nowhere, almost causing him to lose balance.
Clearing the screens blocking his sight with a thought, Dante saw that it was just a kid. A young boy, from the looks of it, and one who didn’t win the gene lottery, seeing how he was barely four feet tall.
The kid was wearing an oversized puffer jacket and had the hood covering his head. The yellow gym bag he carried on his back was almost as large as him, making for quite the bizarre look.
Staggering back, he threw that one-word apology and was about to continue running, but Dante didn’t let that happen.
"Huh? H-hey! What are you doing!? let me go!
Grabbing him by the bag, Dante forced him to a halt then effortlessly dragged him to the nearest alleyway, tossing him behind a dumpster. Luckily, there were no hobos or street rats lurking around.
"Hey! I said sorry!" The kid cried out. "I didn’t mean to bump into you!"
Dante fixed him with a glare, forcing his mouth shut. A few seconds later, he turned to himself and started checking his jacket. The search didn’t take much time. Reaching behind him, he grabbed something that was stuck to its hem and gave it a look.
"I take it back." He said, holding the object up for the kid to see. "You aren’t very smart, are you?"
Held between his index and thumb was a small, coin-sized white disk, almost identical to the one Megan found.
Being tossed caused the boy’s hood to fall, revealing his pale face, lustrous black hair, and dark eyes. He wore some rather oversized headphones, the kind that had gone out of style decades ago. Fear quickly took over as the realization hit him, but instead of remaining static, he began looking around for a way out almost immediately.
Dante reached inside his jacket and equipped his gun, aiming it at the boy to erase any idea of running away. Frozen once more, the boy could only stare at the darkness filling the barrel staring back at him, his breathing growing erratic by the second.
"Talk," Dante said, his voice chilling the surroundings. "Who sent you?"
"Choose your words carefully. This thing can blow half your head off with a single shot."
The boy’s mouth hung open, but then his expression shifted, determination finding its way to his ghastly pale face as his eyes moved from the weapon to Dante.
"I know." Despite everything, his voice still trembled. "Blue Night belongs to my father, after all."
"Blue Night!" The kid shouted. "The fifth generation Juggernaut you’re holding!"
It took Dante a few seconds to understand, after which he retracted the gun and held it up.
"Yes! That!" The boy barked. "It’s my father’s!"
"Oh yeah?" Dante raised an eyebrow and took aim once more. "So?"
"So... so give it back!"
"Yeah! Give it back!"
Closing his eyes, Dante lowered the weapon and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Don’t tell me this is why you-"
[Dante, he is trying to infiltrate your NIM.]
A pang of anger rose from the depths of Dante’s mind and his foot moved before he knew, kicking the boy’s head and causing it to bounce off of the dumpster to his right with a loud clang. His headphones fell off, but surprisingly, they remained intact.
’Volcan, teach him how it’s done.’ He thought aloud, ’Cut off all his access.’
Somehow, the kid didn’t pass out. He held his head and curled, writhing in pain for a while before emerging with a hate-filled glare from his tearful eyes.
"So the little shit is a Diver." A mocking grin spread on Dante’s face. "You thought you-"
A white dot flashed at the center of his OAM, and the next instant, everything was swallowed by blinding light. Dante staggered as an unbearable pain assaulted his eyes. His hands shot up to cover them, but it was of no use. The light remained even with his eyelids closed and no amount of rubbing helped.
[Dante! Your OAM has been hijacked!] Volcan sounded far more alarmed than before. [Starting reboot sequence!]
’W-what in the world-’
Dante lost his cohesion momentarily, only realizing that he was wide open when something slammed into him. He could tell it was the kid even when blinded, but unlike the first time they ran into each other, he was unable to keep his balance and fell.
Swinging his gun, he managed to land a hit with the handle. The light filling his sight vanished and left a dark world in its wake, as if he had stared directly at the sun. With anger still boiling in his veins, Dante held onto the boy to ensure it he wouldn’t run away, but then he felt something pierce his skin, and the next second his sight was once again filled with light.