Zein slept for 12 hours once he logged out, his body unable to fully move in the afternoon. He began his recovery by trying to move his fingers. Then his toes, flexing them. Then his wrist, swivelling them. Then his ankles, wiggling them. Then his elbows and neck, side to side, lifting and dropping. Then his waist, rolling himself onto his stomach. His strength had returned. Zein attempted to push himself, grunting. He lifted himself a couple of inches off the bed before collapsing back into it. A second attempt failed and so did the third.
"One more hour." Zein succumbed to his warm, feathered pillows and heavy wool blanket.
3 hours later, Zein's phone rang, forcing the man awake. He scrambled out of his sheets and took a peek outside his window. Evening had come. Zein rushed to get dressed, undressing while placing a slice of white bread in his toaster. Searching for his apron, Zein grabbed his phone, checking the time and cutting Clark's call. He had 30 minutes till work started. His phone rang, over and over, and Zein kept ending then. Over and over.
Upon finding his apron, hidden amongst a pile of dirty clothes, he rushed out the door.
Ding. The toaster popped a freshly browned slice of bread. No one was there to hear or see it.
***
The 11 guild leaders, a frozen Torell, and Reol, observing a pad by a control panel with buttons numbered 1 to 50, rode the elevator up. Tension hung in the air. Everyone knew, deep down, what they were meeting about. A past many want forgotten. A past one will make sure they'd never forget.
The doors to the elevator open, revealing a long, bevelled table with five leather chairs on either side and a chair at the front. A cushioned bench with no backrest sat behind the chairs closest to the wall. Behind the chair was a projector screen and a podium by its side. The floor-to-ceiling windows, curtains raised, allowed the sun's natural light to flood in.
The leaders made their way to their seats. There was no set assignment, but there was an order. An order decided upon when they first held their meeting 1 year ago. An order no one strayed from. To the right, Lucero took the first seat, Yulius took the second, Red Void took the third, Quinn took the fourth, and KD-Rock took the fifth. To the left, Karter took the sixth, Kaiser took the seventh, Fortuna took the eighth, Dubbo took the ninth, and-
"Sit with me, Kal-el." Dubbo swirled the seat towards him.
"I appreciate ya, Dubbo." Clark thanked, taking the tenth seat.
At the front of the table, Himmel took his seat. Reol walked to the windows and drew the curtains, plunging the room into darkness. Lucero flinched at the sudden change in brightness. Luckily, it didn't go noticed. They aimed their pad at the projector, which floated above, and light emanated from it. The screen showed an overview of a red and orange planet with the familiar sploches of blues showed surrounded by stars. Text above it read: Babel.
"The topic for today is Babel as outlined by last month's meeting. We shall be discussing everything related to the planet." Reol started. Karter rolled his eyes. Clark, on the other hand, didn't mind the direction the meeting was taking. Reol switched slides to a towering glass building with exposed columns. Its insides were barren, awaiting life to fill its grid structure.
"The Torrens Building." The elf said. "I will now let our leader, Himmel, take charge."
"Thank you, Reol." Himmel adjusted himself in his seat. "To begin with, thank you all for being here. Taking the time out of your precious day to attend a meeting such as this is always appreciated."
"Love you, homie!" KD shouted, throwing a finger-heart sign after. Himmel acknowledged him with a nod.
"The Torrens Building has been discussed quite a bit amongst our people, but this is the first time we, as leaders, are speaking on it. We at Guild Chivalry are happy with a couple of floors since we've spread out our means of revenue across the planet." Himmel intertwined his fingers.
"Red Void doesn't care for uh re-ve-nue." Red turned to Quinn for assurance, which she gave. "But Ganon said at least one floor, so we want one floor!" he ended his statement.
"5 floors. Specialise in weapons to sell." Quinn followed. Her black, Felisia fur blended into the darkness. Everyone stared at a pair of piercing yellow-green eyes.
"We at Hayawan would like at least 5 floors as well. The higher floors will do since we do not plan on selling any products; however, we have not found a place to settle down." Dubbo said, raising her hand. The gold of her glasses reflected the screen's light.
"I am taking half the building." Karter said, pointing at the first floor of the building and raising it until about the midway point.
"Naw that's crazy, K! You know that's some bullshit! Half the building is way too much!" KD pushed back.
"I can buy the whole goddamn building if I want, KD. Don't push it." Karter warned.
An audible click of his tongue, KD slunk into his seat, muttering to himself. "Sg-Lang want 3 floors. 21 for keeping our goods safe. 1 for restin'. And 1 for sellin' whatever we got." he said, annoyed.
Reol, in a corner, took notes, marking areas in the respective guilds' colours to find the best way to accommodate everyone so far.
"Kaiser and I made a…err… agreement. 7 floors. We share 1 of the floors." Fortuna said. Kaiser sat by, idle, body unmoving.
Silence followed. The stillness in the air woke Clark up. His anxiety, the little he harboured, began to flare.
"Yulius, Lucero, we have 10 floors left. How would you like to divide it?" Himmel asked.
Yulius remained silent. Lucero sighed.
"I think we need to drop this little act and talk about why the leader of a lesser guild is here." Lucero glanced at Clark.
Clark looked around to stares. He pointed at himself and slapped his cheeks, exaggerating shock. "Me! That can't be right, that can't be right. After all, your guild is here?" he spat.
"All I hear is the barking of a dog too scared to take a fight." Lucero scoffed. "Turning back to someone who is an equal, Himmel, care to explain why he's here?"
"Really, Himmel? You're gonna let him call you your equal? Really? Wow. Can we be your equal too? We may be 15th, but we are catching up, and, well, 15 is basically 1, right?" Clark asked.
"Enough, Kal-El." Himmel pinched his eyebrows. After a long pause and a deep breath. "Alright, let's talk about why the leader of the Blue Lightning Guild is here"
On queue, Reol switched to the slide with the video of the Skull Kidds fighting with Zein, Clark, Jejj, Skada, Torell, and Wu.
"This is a video from a player named Anodos who took on the Skull Kidds in Aria with Clark and a couple of his party members."
"Damn, he's got a summon already? That's kinda fire, respect!" KD noticed.
"Why should we care about a fight between Orpheus' minions and them? I heard they wiped them out, but isn't that 'cause of him?" Karter pointed at Clark with his thumb.
Himmel hit play. The 11 leaders watched as a cat ran amok with his spear, juggling his ability cooldowns while commanding his summon and dodging attacks. His movements faltered at times, but he seemed to improve as the battle went on. A man who fought on par with one of the strongest players in the game.
"Red Void…recognises that play style."
"Him."
"El Diablo…" Fortuna rose from her seat. She headed for the door "We will not take part in this anymore. We don't want to deal with him. We know nothing."
"Please sit down, Fortuna. I'm sure there's an explanation for this. Take a seat." Dubbo smiled.
"What is that loser doing back on the game? Has he not endured enough embarrassment the last time?" Yulius said.
"Watch your mouth, Yulius, before I melt the gold off your helmet and glue it shut." Clark warned.
"And what are you going to do about it? Help him? You're just going to run like the little dog you are." Yulius mocked. Lucero couldn't help but laugh at his jab."
Clark switched his armour to his blue set, cleaning himself up in the process. "Let's take this outside. Let's see who the dog really is."
"Both of you, shut it." Karted demanded. "Is it really him, Kal-El?"
"And why does that matter? Anodos is just another player in this game." Clark retorted.
"Answer the question, or I swear to god I will bring the full force of my guild to bring you down." Karter's temper rose.
"We," Himmel interjected. "Have reason to believe it is. Kal-El is well within his rights to say whether player Anodos is him or not, but we have reason to believe it is."
"This is wack as hell." KD played with his liberty spikes, pulling and twirling with anxiety.
"Otto. Need to tell Otto." Quinn started to message.
"Why isn't Otto here? He suffered the most from his antics." Kaiser asked.
"I did invite Otto, however, he has been unresponsive. The last time I saw him online was 1 week ago." Himmel replied.
"Then call Foxx!? What is wrong with you?? Foxx would never decline a meeting like this."
"He did. Foxx said his hands were too full from Otto's absence."
"Oh my god, those idiots." Kaiser dragged his words. Lucero was barely holding his smile anymore.
"We take him out. Again. We take him out for good." Fortuna demanded. Kaiser, a recent addition to their meetings, was left confused. He turned to Fortuna, tugging on her sleeve.
"Don't worry, mijo. This was before your time." Fortuna comforted. "Caain would know if you find him."
Kaiser nodded and returned to a state of neutralness.
"I… think we should leave him alone." Himmel proposed.
"Absolutely not!? Are you out of your mind?" Kaiser roared.
"Now now, Kaiser. Let's hear him out. Himmel may have a good reason." Dubbo said.
"Aren't you mad too!? I know how much you despised him. Before this whole peace and love shit you've been pulling, you were a sadistic, vengeance-seeking asshole!"
"I was. I no longer am. I have moved on and become a better man. Something we all could learn to do, right?"
"Everybody wants to get on my nerves today, it seems like."
"Anodos, since we think he is him, was only known to us rankers or higher-levelled players since we either died to him or he raided our dungeons. The video feature came out a couple of months before we confronted him. It was then that his popularity began to rise, not from his own doing, but because people did not stop recording him. His exe-, well, our confrontation with him is still one of the most-watched videos related to Age on You'be. This time it is different, however. He has been uploading his own videos as of late with the help of an editor. His popularity is beginning to skyrocket. If we start targeting him now, it will just be a bad look on our part. The Age devs barely let us get away with what we did to him last year. We cannot, in good conscience, do this to him." Himmel ended his speech.
"The Age devs can suck my fat-"
"His location right now? He online?" Quinn interrupted Karted, turning to Clark.
"You know what? I forgot to friend him! Silly me." Clark smiled.
"Lies."
"Red Void wants to avoid him. Red Void doesn't like him." Red Void shrank into his seat.
"I agree with my boy here. He bad news forreal." KD said, getting back up.
"We don't even know if it is him!? Right, Dubbo? Kaiser?" Clark rested his chin on his palm, leaning on the table.
"Don't bring him into this!" Fortuna lunged at Clark, forcing Dubbo to block the guild leader from her attempt at murder. Clark simply raised his hands in the air.
"Kal-El is right. We need to first prove beyond a shadow of doubt that he is who we think he is. We need concrete evidence." Dubbo said, holding back Fortuna.
"I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing that Anodos is him, however," Himmel nodded to Reol. Understanding, Reol rewinded the video, returning everyone to the midst of the battle.
"Oooh, not bad, Zeizei."
Everyone turned to Clark, eyes widened and with fear.
"Oh come on! He's my buddy in real life! I was never-" Clark bit his lip. "that close to him. Never warranted a nickname!" he explained. "It's a coincidence, trust me, if you can." A halo seemed to form above Clark's head.
"That is the most bullshit reason I have ever heard! You can't possibly expect us to believe that!" Karter said- his ever-increasing madness led him to laugh.
"But we can't prove it." Dubbo concluded. "We could have him handled by tomorrow, but what if it isn't who we think it is? What if, even if it does sound unbelievable, Clark is speaking the truth? Would you feel good about bullying an innocent adventurer who did do us a favour by taking out the Kidds. I know I wouldn't. Not anymore, at least."
Fortuna went limp in Dubbo's arms, giving up her assault. She stared at Clark, studying the pixels he was composed of. She sighed. "I trust you, Dubbo. But if it's that demon, reconsider."
"I promise I will." Dubbo patted her back before returning the elf to her seat. Kaiser grabbed Fortuna's sleeve. Fortuna placed her hand ontop of his, nodding.
"With…Dubbo."
"That now brings us to 4. What about the rest of you?"
"Me! Me! Me too! I don't wanna attack him either!" Clark waved his hand in the air. Kaiser looked at the ceiling, fingers curled and tight, his breath heavy. The Gold King muttered curses to himself, throwing in Clark's name every so often.
"I want nun' to do with him. I ain't touchin' that man with a 10-foot pole. We is good." KD declared.
"Red Void is scared of what he will do later. Red Void needs to speak with Ganon." Red Void said meekly. His previous confidence was unseen as he slouched in his chair.
"Follow the rest. Whatever everyone decides, we do." Quin said while messaging her high-ranking officers.
"The majority of us want to leave him alone." Himmel said. "What about the three of you?"
Yulius looked to Lucero. Lucero stared at Karter. Karter closed his eyes, head still facing the ceiling.