The Tales of the Legendary Mimic : Momo

Heist

An orb glowed on a ring-shaped plate. A scientist wearing a face shield was reassembling the orb with a picker and spatula for what felt like the ten-thousandth time. He had tried multiple patterns already. Hopefully, this time would be a success.

"Hey, Lorne, would you hand me the chip of the core? That should be the final piece to this puzzle. Let's pray it doesn't explode." The scientist grimaced, extending a hand toward Lorne, his new assistant, who was holding a chunk of Nest Core worth dozens of lives.

"Here, Professor," Lorne answered.

It had been three days, yet they still hadn’t succeeded in creating what they were after. There wasn’t much time. According to the military, the system might crash the moment the Merc Association obtained a C rank or a New Path.

The professor attached the chip of Nest Core to the open part of the core. Immediately, a rainbow wave of energy spread to all corners of the lab and beyond.

The scientist, Garfield, flinched as sweat dripped down his forehead, his hand quivering from the shockwave, but a smile was vivid on his face. At last, he had achieved it: a new path that could be monopolized by civilians and the military.

Cough.

"Professor, are you okay?" Lorne asked with obvious worry, guiding him to sit on a nearby lab stool. Sooner or later, this old man really would die from being so careless.

"Cough. I am fine," he stubbornly refuted, swapping his face shield lens for inventor’s goggles. The fumes had gotten into his lungs, causing him to cough. Good thing Lorne was there to pat his back and help steady his breathing.

"Ah... I see that with enough rise in the pulse and the right timing to fix a sync, the equilibrium achieved makes for an easy fix. Incredible. Heheheh, I finally did it!" The scientist couldn’t help but burst into maniacal laughter, his gray hair bouncing back and forth as he swung with excitement, one hand squeezing his belly.

It looked odd, watching a refined scientis—on second thought, let’s just say a scientist. This old Garfield wasn’t really refined at all. Still, that terrifying laugh could put a baby in sorrow ninety-nine times out of a hundred.

"Good, so how does it work then?" Lorne asked excitedly. He was eager to see the new path this old fool had made. It would be a legend for future revelations to come. Garfield would probably go down in the history books.

The great scientist only chuckled at the enthusiasm of his student. He placed the ware he created into a cube-shaped box to keep it contained and uncontaminated. All that was left now was to store it in his lab vault until the military came for pickup and investment.

Placing the cube on a crate, which was easy due to its light weight, Garfield began pushing the tray toward the vault.

Bang.

A smoking hole appeared just a few inches from the tray and barely an inch from Garfield, landing between the two. Lorne dropped into a battle pose immediately. Two prongs of a metal bat sprang up behind him, electric-blue crackles dancing along its body. One touch from that could burn and ash its victim.

"Heh-heh. Professor Garfield, leaving so soon?" The sniper stepped out of the shadows with a baseball bat and coconuts in hand.

It was a famous assassin from the Dark Board: No. 23, Nuts Bat.

Garfield had once read the forums about assassins and, to an extent, knew how they worked. Nuts Bat was the type of fighter who could easily switch between melee and ranged depending on the situation. But Lorne was new here and would probably lose due to lack of information. When Garfield saw him charge straight ahead into a direct clash, he knew it was not going to end well.

Nuts wasn’t merciful by any chance. His level of craziness was what had earned him the title Nuts.

He had been a great baseball player before the apocalypse but was soon drowned out by newer stars of the generation like Ken and Itaho. That must have twisted his mind, but there was nothing he could do in the modern world. Now it was the apocalypse; anything was possible.

Lorne parried a shot of coconuts heading his way, but one slid through and went behind him, slamming into Garfield, who had tried to pull a fast one by rushing the ware into the vault.

"Eh? What do you take me for... a joke? Hahaha." Pushing his bangs backward with a dark smirk and closed eyes that snapped open the next second, Nuts flipped into the air, both arms arched as he brought the bat down toward Lorne, whose attention had shifted to Garfield.

"It’s fine. Just save the item. We can’t afford to... cough... lose it," Garfield said to Lorne’s frowning face.

Lorne was trying to help the old man when Nuts Bat hit him square on the back, flinging him away.

"Eh, eh? A member of the survivors from the Special Exhibition is only so-so." The crazy baseball expert assassin wore an evil smile and sneer at once.

Lorne struggled to his feet, still shaken from the blow. He hadn’t seen that coming. Drawing on his breathing technique, he steadied himself. After years of serving as Magnus’s bodyguard and butler, he refused to lose to some baseball player.

"Bring it on, egg face," Lorne taunted, raising his head with a crazy yet calm expression that was unnerving to behold.

Stamping his feet, he launched forward. His acrobatics pulled him into a swirling motion around the assassin as he began his pincer attack. Nuts was soon pushed back as sweat dripped from his forehead.

This guy... how did he spot the weakness in my style? Or was it just me?

Thinking it was sheer luck, Nuts sped ahead with renewed fervor as he drew his bat back and flung himself at Lorne.

Unfortunately for him, Lorne saw through it and folded his body at the last second, letting the bat miss by a few inches. His arm twisted the metal bat aside before he jabbed hard into Nuts’s stomach. The electric effect worsened the normal pain, causing a numbing shock that left Nuts Bat in a troublesome state.

I can’t even move... the pain...

Dropping to his knees, he passed out.

Lorne was pleased with his new weapon. He nodded in satisfaction, then went ahead to help Garfield to his feet.

"You did well, Lorne. I don’t regret giving you that weapon. Now I wonder who would want me dead so badly, and why the military couldn’t safeguard this area. Wasn’t this supposed to be a safe zone? Isn’t there a base nearby above us, and yet... kekeke..." Garfield cackled, madness flickering in his eyes.

"Hey, Professor, you should see this," Lorne called, pushing the tray backward so that it rolled toward Garfield, making it easy to see.

"It can’t be... Where is it?" Garfield panted as he fell to his knees.

Checking the spot where Nuts had been earlier but was no longer, Lorne’s expression darkened.

"There was definitely more than just Nuts that infiltrated our space. This was never an assassination. It was..."

"Robbery."

Back at One-Eye’s manor, whose real name turned out to be Reiner, Max and the landlord sat having tea in the living room. The room had all the necessities of a modern home, looking nothing like it belonged in an apocalyptic era.

Soon enough, a breaking news alert flashed on the TV.

"Breaking news. Two scientists who worked for humanity were confirmed dead in their home this morning. All evidence points to natural causes, but the government has ordered an autopsy... ehh, okay—" The journalist paused, pressing an index finger to his ear as new information seemed to come in. "Just now, reports of Professor Garfield being targeted in an assassination attempt. Though there were no casualties, sources say a scientific advancement item was stolen. This prompted the professor to lash out at the military’s incompetence. The assassins involved in this spree were Nuts Bat, No. 23 on the Dark Board, and another unknown assassin who, from the report, is probably higher ranked than Nuts Bat. The most likely suspect is Serpent Claw."

Max was just beginning to enjoy his tea while Reiner nearly dropped his cup. Max’s hand tightened inside his jeans pocket as he felt a thick object. He pulled it out and rubbed it thoroughly.

The letter felt warm, a perfect match for the warm welcome to a new era.

It was time to make a choice.

"Hmmmm..."