The two travelers continue at a brisk pace to Gazekeeper's office. D-ray questioning about the effectiveness of Vagapod’s combat skills as he analyzes his staff for durability  

D-ray: So you seriously don’t have any gun on you? Out of everything you were able to pull out of your black hole of a jacket and you don’t even have one firearm?

Vagapod: Well… yeah.

D-ray: You always travel around, probably alone, and never bring a firearm… you are ASKING people to rob you Vaga.

Vagapod: I’m more of a trapper than a gunsmith wielder like the mercenaries in the realm walker faction. I was able to get what I wanted from my time at the coliseums.

Vagapod starts setting up traps around the main plaza

D-ray: You are trying to convince me that you fought and won with only traps back then?

Vagapod: Well sometimes, but winning wasn’t what I wanted.

D-ray: Then what the hell you were doing in a coliseum? Were you like a one-eyed Spartacus or something?

Vagapod: No, there’s shops in the coliseums. I wanted their stash.

D-ray: Good thinking: why buy it with money when you can trade it with your own life...

Just for sure, remember to not trade me for some “stash” eh.

Vagapod: Oh come on, D-ray. What I love more than stash is the purpose of travel, and I am escorting you back home.

The sounds of war surround the air

D-ray: Ehm… then let’s do it… ? Things are getting rough around here, and the library is still far away.

The main plaza’s massive LED screen attached to the tiles of the building begin to glitch out of the void of black and red of blood. The skies begin to bleed of warmer colors as a masked entity appears on screen

???: My Fellow Creations! Rise And Plague This Damn Place With Your Powers Of Rewriting The Very Fabrics Of Reality!

D-ray: Who the hell is that vomit on the jumbo screen?

Vagapod: Leader of the censor agents: CrossEye.

Blue pixely particles began to appear and traverse from the skies to the ground. 

D-ray: Oh no... Vaga please let's get the hell out of here before we get shot!

Vagapod: Hold on buddy, I need to set up the collapser in this dark alleyway.

D-ray: Screw that Vaga, we can just run to the library! Why staying here?!

Vagapod: Wait! You need some camouflage first to go out there!

A blue pixelated particle, the size of a basketball, floats in front of D-ray as he tries to run to the library

D-ray: Eh?! Piss off!

D-ray swung the blue menace out of the way with his cane. The blue particle took that personally and flew a long way to the LED screen

D-ray: Egoex rules you coward… wait… what?

D-ray handles his cane with caution as it appears to be glowing a blue aura

D-ray: Egoex? What is going on?

Vagapod: D-ray! Your cane! It changed after you hit that censor agent!

D-ray: That blue fart was a censor agent? I thought it was a spirit or something…

Never mind, what is going on with Egoex?

Vagapod: I think the censor agent might have adjusted your cane’s glow from nothing into something. That way, people may think your cane is more of a staff. It was censored!

D-ray: Well it didn’t break it, so I don’t care what is up with it now.

Vagapod: It could even be some kind of magic… we’ll have to see later... good thing it wasn’t anything too far off its actual functionality. It could’ve gained sentience or become poisonous… 

Vagapod grabs parts of a bush from his jacket

Vagapod: Here, put all of this on you. They can’t question you about your knowledge if you’re a bush.

D-ray: A bush disguise? That brings back so many good memories…

D-ray “disguises himself” and flees, breathing heavily. Vagapod takes off his fedora, and frisbees it in the direction of where D-ray is running, faster than one might expect for a fedora to go

Vagapod: Just gonna do a final check here… Bear trap 1, spikeballs, that decoy bush, Bear trap 2, collapser inside that dark alleyway… yep, we are good.

A greater sized blue particle emerges in front of D-ray

D-ray: Again?! Wait, Vaga said that it “can’t see me” if I pretend to be a bush…

D-ray drops into a sitting position, and as a result, the particle remains idle. The fedora appears alongside the bush that clearly isn’t D-ray

D-ray: (Vaga’s hat? From where does it come from?)

From beneath the fedora came a large shadow where Vagapod back into position to his hat, fixing his fedora back on his head

D-ray: (Woah... that hat is a miniature Transmat)

Vagapod: Oh, bad spot!

D-ray:  What do I do now? Do I have to wait until you tell me?

Vagapod: Yep.

The blue pixelated particle manifests into a glitchy monster with a bartender’s attire and a wicked smile. Vagapod takes off his hat to mask his iconic appearance while D-ray slightly shifts to the left, still pretending to be a bush

???: Hello, Hello. User #1! Hey! First scan of the day! 

Vagapod: …

D-ray remains silent as well, still pretending to be a bush

Charles: Hello! My Name is Charles! I am honored to see if you are in dire need of the re-re-rewritten procedure. Now What’s your name?

Vagapod: D-ray.

D-ray: (What?)

Charles: D-ray! Allow me to scan you if you are on my list of forbidden knowledge from my most lovely boss.

...

Ah Ha! You! You have been lying to me! Vagapod! One of the contenders from the coliseums!

Vagapod: (So he added recognition software to Charles now… even without the hat)

Vagapod painfully drops his hat onto D-ray who is still pretending to be a bush   

Charles: You sir are under the code to forget! Just stay where you’re at and allow me to complete the proceed-

Vagapod: Start running.

Vagapod sprints back to the main plaza while the pixelated menace still comprehending what just happened

D-ray: (What the hell is Vaga doing?! That’s the wrong direction!)

Charles: … Recalculating… User escaped during the procedure. TIME FOR ASSERTIVE MODE!!! …Very weird that he brought that bush though. Record in database. He likes bushes.

Charles goes back into his blue particle self and begins to follow where Vagapod was heading

D-ray: (Is that thing gone?) Yes, it is! But wait, how can Vaga catch up on me if he…

D-ray stalls for a second noticing Vagapod’s hat which fell from the top of his head

D-ray: …Ok, you’re coming with me then…

Vagapod continues to flee from Charles, pacing himself to the first bear trap as he pulls an inflatable decoy version of himself and an empty trash bin from his pants pocket. The blue blob flies in high frequent zigzag movements as he begins to strike down towards the hatless traveler. The inflatable decoy stands where the blue blob was targeting. Still targeting, the blue blob deflates the decoy as it plunges into the cunningly-placed bear trap. Charles returns to his original form as the bear trap was glitched right into his face. Vagapod disguises with the trash can

Charles: Lost Location Of Target! Stand while I, Charles, is able to recollect his sensors for proper scanning functionality. Thank you for your patience. 

Vagapod: Unfortunately for you, I need to get something real quick in that alleyway that your boss wants his hands on, and I cannot let him encode its contents.

Charles: Requesting backup for another Charles…

Another blob from the attack darts to the alleyway. It gets absolutely destroyed. Another one tries to position outside the alleyway by a tall thread of grass. Another trap ensues and neutralizes that pixelated goon. Another and another blob attempts to surface only to be trapped

Charles: Error. Requesting air combatants to come to the main plaza. There is crucial information that must be rewritten.

Vagapod uncloaks himself from the trash can as a defeated Charles still spazzes trying to make sense of what to do, mostly focusing on the bear trap

Vagapod: It appears your boss still uses the same algorithm for repositioning though. He used this during his invasions during the coliseums. Never tries anything too new in his methods. Just like his tic-tac-toe skills, sadly. Maybe have this conservation sent to any evaluation form that your system has?  

Charles: I will send this support to IT services. Thank you for your criticism.

Vagapod: Also while you’re at it, the “IT services” should add a growing AI for troops. Maybe then, Charles, talking to you can sound less repetitive.

Charles: Yes!

Vagapod makes a blackhole on the ground to teleport into as air units trying to inch close to the main plaza are halted by locals of the Illuminating Towers, using their powerful magic to combat with their dangerous manifestations

Vagapod: Sigh… if only he even reads the evaluations…

Vagapod jumps into the blackhole, he appears on top of a disguised D-ray spiriting straight to the library

D-ray: Ooof!!! Can’t say I didn’t expect that! Argh… !

Vagapod drops off of D-ray

Vagapod: Pardon me, D-ray. 

Anyways, have you figured out what your cane is or what it does now?

D-ray: That was the last one of my concerns! I was busy running for my damn life!

Coff… but hey, if you can teleport with that hat, couldn’t we just use it to get us both to the library?

Vagapod: My hat is not as simple as that.

D-ray: Yeah of course...

Well, I would have complained if we COULD have done that before…

Vagapod: Don’t worry though. Right now, we could be close enough to be pulled from the floating library’s artificial gravity. We just need to run on those walls over there.

D-ray: Glad to hear that, but can I get rid of this bush now? I felt something crawling on my back earlier, and I don’t think it was a leaf.

The two travelers find themselves running across the chaos of an invasion that is slowly fading as more residents are successfully able to traverse the turn of the battle, especially from any forms of Charles that were around the main plaza trying to recoup after they found out there was nothing in the dark alley. Vagapod and D-ray inevitably jumped in proximity to the library, and were able to be carried from its gravity. Finally, a safe place to regain their senses

Next chapter | Previous chapter

________________________________________________________________________________

Additional dialogue and overall design in collaboration with @EyepodNation.