“What’s going on?” Arkay asked as he peered round the door to his living space. “What’s with all the… commotion?”
“Stay in your room please, Arkadin…” Vikalos grunted as he checked the doors to the other nearby living spaces. “For your own safety.”
“But what’s going on?” Arkay wanted more information. “Is something happening?”
“You could say that, yes. Please, head back inside.”
With a sigh, Arkay did as he was told. He closed his door then locked it, just in case. But rather than going to his bedroom, which he normally worked from, Arkay made his way over to the television screen and, for the first time in ages, turned it on.
The first few channels were somewhat normal shows, mostly trying to sell things. Arkay rolled his eyes, then kept on flicking through, looking for a news station of some sort. Much to his annoyance though, the news shows were quite a few clicks away. And when Arkay finally landed on a news channel he didn’t hate, there didn’t seem to be much happening. The presenters looked confused, and one of them was holding an earpiece to what Arkay assumed was the being’s head.
“Not sure what is going on here… We are getting a lot of… a huge number of reports that something is…”
The two news presenters glanced at each other. They seemed just as confused and concerned as Arkay was. Unsatisfied with this one channel, Arkay flicked through several more, before reaching a new news channel. This one only had one presenter, which was a small, grey cat-like being. Actually, looking at it some more, Arkay decided it was literally just a talking cat, standing in front of a screen that screamed “BREAKING NEWS!” But they were at least talking.
“It appears as something has attacked both Deathven One and Lifean One. Details are still iffy, but both master vessels were anchored for their annual Death-Life get-together event, when something passed through the helms of both master vessels, causing power outages and several explosions…”
Arkay flicked through to some of the channels he had originally skipped. It seemed like literally everyone was now talking about this terrorist attack. Especially as multiple sources mentioned the destruction of a Voidborn reclamation facility, and an attack on a Time Drake outpost, which occurred mere minutes before the attacks on the two main Decay Lord bases. All of a sudden though, confirmations were appearing about whatever was behind this massive emergency.
A knock on the door disrupted Arkay, almost catching him off guard. Immediately, Arkay turned around and unlocked the door.
“You were quick.”
Vikalos grunted, letting himself in and closing the door behind him.
“Arkadin, we have a small problem.”
Arkay glanced behind him, where the television was, before looking back to Vikalos. “Yeah, those attacks on the-”
“The vessels will get repaired. They always do. The problem we have though is who did it.”
“Who did do it?” Arkay interrupted. “And what has that got to do with me?”
Vikalos took a long, deep breath. “The rumour is that a hybrid did it. The early reports are calling this being “Vryda”, and, well, she is a mimic hybrid just like you.”
“Are you saying that I might… do the same thing?”
The elder Decay Lord shook his head. “Beings are going to want revenge. Even if this Vryda is captured and killed, she has left a massive stigma on all hybrids. I can already tell that things may get topsy turvy for a while.”
“You really think…”
“I do. Most of us are smart. But the vocal minority will demand answers. As long as we keep our heads down, we should not have a problem. But it is better to be safe and informed, than to do anything else.”
Arkay sighed, clearly rather annoyed. “I hate all of this.”
“I know, it is pathetic. But it will pass. Until then, I would recommend staying here in your room for a bit.”
“Yeah, yeah I can do that.”
“Good kid,” Vikalos said as he got up and headed to the door. “I will let you know further information soon. When we have anything in concrete or on paper.”
Arkay sighed some more as Vikalos let himself out.
“Fuck, why does this always happen to me?” Arkay muttered to himself, turning his attention to the news. “I wish I could have break…”