FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 8

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Wine Country

"The caterer will be here before noon to start setting up," Decanter said, every word perfectly articulated. "Decorations are already in the storeroom downstairs and the decorators will be here just as the caterers are cooking."

Aileen Raskeil absently swirled the glass of vintage wine she was holding in her paw as she gazed wistfully out the floor-to-ceiling window leading out onto the balcony in her bedroom. The lavished penthouse suite would soon become a hot spot for AllAle's investors and board of directors. Though she was never too keen on entertaining those grey-muzzled old men or the naive children who were just throwing their money at the company, it was necessary given the corporation's recent troubles.

Emile had given Nero and Elijah leave to spend as much as they needed to make sure the company was secure from further attack by the Libertatis and that meant they needed capital; capital that could not be outwardly spent. The Overworld was a tightly kept secret, after all. Not every corporation or person out there had access to it. If they did, there would be havoc in the streets. No, those she was entertaining tonight would be the source of their new income and it would be used to keep AllAle secure from further Libertatis intrusion.

"And the Corpsmen?" she asked, never turning her back away.

"They will be in position, disguised as waiters," answered her personal assistant and IP. The rhino looked absolutely smashing in his plain, grey suit that hugged his lean, muscular figure tightly. Any other day, she would have torn that suit off him, ravaged it with her teeth and thrown him on the bed but there was little time for luxury these days; not with Kanoth's abrupt resignation. Many would mistake Decanter for an older gentleman given his stark, white hair and closely cropped beard but she had purposefully designed him like that with the idea of a 'modern wizard'. His hair was kept short, cleanly swept to one side while his beard hugged his strong jawline to emphasise where his neck ended and his head began since he was quite thick and his traps sloped quite nicely into his shoulders. Despite the white hair, his features were youthful, however. Not a wrinkle in sight even though whenever he smiled, cute little crow's feet appeared in the corners of his eyes bright yellow eyes. There was a small dark spot on his left cheek, a dark circle on his otherwise greyish leathery skin like a mole. It matched the brown spot on Aileen's fur in exactly the space position.

"And in the Overworld?"

"A contingent of twenty Corpsmen will be patrolling the Overworld as well," Decanter said curtly. "They'll be watching for any _Libertatis_infiltrators."

This was a delicate event. Though she had no reason to believe that Kanoth would ever betray them, she didn't get to where she was not by blindly making assumptions. The Libertatis might attack. They would hear of this somehow. They had resources already in AllAle so there was a good chance that they would know about the party. It was a tempting target especially since her apartment was well away from the corporate building and it's usual security.

Which was exactly the reason she had chosen this location to host the event.

If there was one thing she hated as COO, it was the unknown. The Libertatis were a loose thread and she would be sure to cut it off. Maybe she won't be able to destroy them all_but at the very least, she could send them a warning _not to fuck with her or AllAle. Her eyes drifted downwards towards the smaller corporate building and her mind wandered back towards Kanoth.

In all her years working with the former CFO, she had never thought he would bend so easily and would have died for the company. A near-death experience wouldn't have been enough to drive him to grow a spine let alone develop a conscience. Years of grooming had all been for naught.

A sip of her wine and she let herself reminisce a little. When the fat, bespectacled gopher had first appeared in that meeting room pitching his idea, she hadn't been impressed but Nero had vouched for the guy and even mentioned that Kanoth would be a good candidate for the Overworld due to his lack of attachments and hero-like worship of Emile. Over the years, it had been her that had pushed Kanoth subtly towards certain directions. She was chief of operations, after all, and even Kanoth as the chief of finance fell under her remit. She let him have the illusion of freedom and happiness by pushing him towards marriage while giving him bits and pieces of flirtation that would make him hot under the collar. She knew about his affair with Cedar and it was her that had allayed his fears when he had admitted to having feelings for 'someone' by 'confessing' that she had sex with Decanter as well, pretending that she understood what he meant. It was clear that it was her that had been the object of his affections. Just another string that she had that she could use to pull at him when she needed.

But now all those strings were cut.

Her fingers closed and instead of the glass tumbler in her paw, there was a soft squeaky toy. Decanter had replaced it when she wasn't looking. He knew her all too well. As was to be suspected given that he _was_her IP.

A thought entered her mind.

"Decanter," she said calmly, "you don't have feelings for me, do you?"

Her white-haired wizard cocked an eyebrow at him. "To put it bluntly, no."

"Why not?"

"You're my Host and I owe my existence to you but you're also my boss. I work for you. Nothing else. Sure we have fun in bed but that's just a benefit of the job." He cocked his head to the side. "Why? Do you _want_me to have feelings for you?"

"Of course not, darling." She gazed back out the window. "It just occurred to me that I think that is how the _Libertatis_managed to blackmail Kanoth into resigning." A squeeze of the toy and it let out a loud, shrill cry. "I never considered the relationship between Kanoth and Cedar to be more than a novelty. They fact that they had genuine feelings for one another made sure that they were perfect in the field and their synchronisation rates remained high. However, it may have proved to be a liability if one was threatened and the other would willingly submit themselves to demands in order not to lose their partner."

"I have no illusions to the fact that I am merely a tool to you," Decanter said curtly. "Should I no longer meet your needs, feel free to hire or create another IP."

"As is to be expected."

Decanter shrugged dismissively and flicked an ear. "If you'll excuse me, ma'am. I think I hear the door. It must be the band getting ready to set up their set."

"Go," she said with a nod.

As Decanter left, Aileen frowned. She hadn't heard the door at all and she knew Decanter well enough to know that the rhino's abrupt departure was not because of business. The topic was a sore one for him.

That had to be fixed.

******

The coffee shop was quaint and a little rundown. With its door located in the back of an alleyway and no obvious windows save for the one peeking in at street level showing people's feet walking by, there was also no natural light that filtered into the place. The red brick walls and ceilings gave the feeling of a dive bar more than a coffee shop but it served the purpose of being quiet, discrete and the last place any corporation would look for them.

To actually get into the shop, one had to go down a flight of stairs and that would normally mean that it wasn't wheelchair accessible. Still, Kanoth had managed to get down the stairs with the help of Cedar and he was now seated across a booth from Ryker, Oliver and Cliff. Their IPs were hanging out at the bar. There was some small comfort that if betrayal was in the air, Kanoth would be at their mercy. Ryker didn't think the gopher would do that but Oliver was of a differing opinion.

"It's called a 'Donation Drive'," Kanoth explained. "Every corporation does it."

Cliff, was noisily munching on a sandwich that looked like it had ham and some sort of pickled vegetable that made it quite sweet. "I've heard of these," he mumbled through a full muzzle. "It's basically where corporations get a whole bunch of investors or potential investors, grab them in a room and then their Corpsmen go in and brainwash the lot of them. Happens a lot with food-based corporations. You know, the kind where it's easy for people to get approached and get picked off in the Overworld."

"That's exactly right," said the gopher grimly.

In the grand scheme, this was a very devious way to bring people to heel. Ryker had to wonder just how many investors or directors were secretly being manipulated through the Overworld. Were they really creatures of freewill or were they slaves to their corporate masters? Maybe the illusion of 'free will' was just different corporations competing against one another for his thoughts. Being awakened to the Overworld was probably the closest anyone could get to true freewill and yet he felt like he was out of his depth and swimming in a deep, dark ocean in the middle of the night without any idea of which direction to go.

"If Aileen succeeds with this party, AllAle will have the defences in place to keep the _Libertatis_out," continued Kanoth. "Worse, they'll have the funds to maintain their operations and more. It won't matter if they lost their CFO. They'll have enough money to more than make up for any that they're hemorrhaging."

"And that means trouble for us," Oliver said. The tabby was leaning as far away from Kanoth as possible, his claws out and tapping the table lightly. "I've been reading the news. AllAle is going on a spending spree. People are predicting that they're on the road to bankruptcy but if they can make up for the money they lost with 'donations', they'll be able to hire a new CFO and we'll be back to square one."

"You'll be worse. They'll know the Libertatis is after them and they'll be on the lookout. Might even go on the offensive and try and hunt you all down."

The feline let out an agitated growl. "I hate living like a damn fugitive." He quickly glanced towards Ryker. "No offense. Just I'd like a place of my own."

"None taken," Ryker said, waving away the comment. Were he in Oliver's position, he would feel exactly the same way. Probably not as... grating or whiny about it. His eyes turned back towards Kanoth. "You could've gotten this info to the Libertatis in other ways that just coming to us. You must've wanted us to get involved."

"Yeah," Oliver spat. "He wants us to walk right into a trap so he could get his revenge."

The comment was a little harsh. Though there _was_some degree of suspicion, Ryker chose to have faith in Kanoth.

"Hey, come on Oliver," he said, resting a paw on the tabby's arm. "Let's give him a chance, okay? Maybe Kanoth is going to betray us but if they were as suspicious and hostile like you're being right now, we're no better than..." He shrugged as he struggled for an analogy. "... than a gang of paranoid mobsters."

Kanoth sighed heavily. "I understand your feelings towards me, Oliver, but I gave you this information out of good will. I want AllAle to be stopped."

The tabby's claws raked across the table, fingers curling into a fist. "You expect me to believe that after losing your leg, you just had a change of heart? All those years of working with AllAle meant nothing?"

"Of course they mean something!" snapped Kanoth. "They're proof of the kind of person I was turning into. A lying, cheating, heartless gangster. I was basically living the stereotype of a mob boss. I had an idyllic family as a front, I was cheating on my wife, I ran a gang..." Kanoth's shoulders slumped. "It took Ryker destroying my leg and him telling me to start over for my to hold up a mirror to myself and realise the person I had become all for the sake of ambition." He lifted his head, looking directly at Ryker. "And you're right. I came to you because I wanted you to do what you did to me to Aileen."

"You want me to blow off her leg?" Ryker asked, one eyebrow raised. He got a deadpan stare from Kanoth and even Oliver looked exasperated. Cliff snickered. "Sorry. Couldn't help it." He tilted his head. "You want me to try and convince Aileen to drop AllAle?"

"She is an ambitious woman but she isn't a bad person," Kanoth explained. "I can get you in to the party. I've still got contacts in _AllAle_that are loyal to me. If I can get you in there, will you please try and stop her?"

Cliff, who was munching on some dry pretzels, said, "From the Libertatis point of view, we should be ruining the party and stopping her Corpsmen from planting ideas in people's minds."

"It's also suicide," Oliver huffed. "We're walking right into a chief officer's house with Corpsmen running around. We'll be outnumbered!"

It was a good point but also a knee-jerk reaction. There were ways. There were always ways. "Not if we can isolate her and use Save," Ryker said, narrowing his eyes. "Don't suppose you can get a blueprint of her house, do you?"

"I've been there several times. Whenever Emile wanted a meeting away from the corporate building, we would use Aileen's home because it's just a few blocks away and actually overlooked the building. I can draw you a map."

"Good. I'll need a letter as well or an email. Something that'll get her to go to a room where no one else is."

Kanoth nodded. "I'll compose a text message. I'll ask her to meet me in the secret boardroom she has."

Ryker lifted his eyebrows. "She has a secret boardroom in her apartment."

The gopher rolled his eyes. "She had the whole penthouse refurbished just for her. She had a boardroom installed that's comes off one of her hallways. It's where she holds meetings with her 'clients' and us whenever we're there."

Oliver's voice was dripping with venom. "And by 'clients' you mean...?"

"People who displeased her and she wanted to punish," Kanoth said plainly. "Or those that she wants to coerce into seeing things her way. As Chief Operations Officer, it's her job to make sure all of _AllAle_runs smoothly and that includes keeping up with market standard and ensuring that the competition don't impede the company's progress. But she isn't know as the 'Witch of Wine' because of her ability to appear on the front lines and make speeches towards the public or is a 'face' that appears often."

Ryker could already hear Oliver's scathing words even before they sprung from the feline's muzzle.

"You mean like you?"

Even though he knew it was coming, he still grimaced.

Thankfully, Kanoth took it in stride. "If you were to liken AllAle to a mob, I'd be the 'muscle'. The guy that appears on the streets and shakes down people. Aileen is more the one that holds blackmail over people's heads and works in the shadows. Her words are her most dangerous weapons. That's why the call her the Witch of Wine."

"What about the others?" Cliff asked, cutting off Oliver before another snide remark could be made. "I mean, Emile's got to be the Godfather, right?"

There was a bit of relief in the gopher's eyes as he avoided Oliver's snide remarks if only for a moment. "You could say that. Nero has definitely got to be the smuggler. The guy that gets everyone their equipment and maintains the supply lines. He is the one that recruited me and everyone seems to like him or know him. He's the one with the connections."

"Isn't he known as the Firewater Berserker?" asked Oliver. "He's supposedly Native American, right? Isn't that a little..."

"Racist?" Kanoth finished. "It's only racist if the person it's referring to takes it as a slur. I know rhinos aren't typical Native American but apparently his mother is from a tribe on the west coast while his father is the rhino. Nero takes it in stride and even laughs it off. No one ever wants to call him on it because it's just so damn hard to make fun of him. He's got a charisma about him that I think offsets Emile's quiet menace. Those two have been friends and they started AllAle together."

Oliver huffed and folded his arms. "Assuming what you say is true. How exactly are we meant to get Aileen Raskeil, the Witch of Wine, to defect from AllAle?"

Kanoth held up his paws and half-covered his ears. "It's best you don't tell me. I know you don't trust me and I don't want to give you any reason to think that I'm going to betray you. Keep your secrets. I can get you in but you have to do the rest."

"You're not doing a very convincing job of trying to get us to believe you're totally benevolent in this."

Ryker rolled his eyes and slammed a fist into the table, causing everyone there to jump and turn towards him. Even the IPs at the bar turned in surprise.

"Oliver, I know Kanoth has screwed you over in the past but let's give him the benefit of the doubt, okay?"

The tabby sneered at him, baring his fangs. "You haven't gone through what I have."

"No, I haven't, so believe me - from a totally objective point of view - when I say you're coming off as a jackass right now." He gestured towards Kanoth. "Not just here either. With Soren too!"

Oliver lifted an eyebrow. "Who?"

"Soren. Your IP. He's decided to change his name so you're not constantly hung over the fact that you lost Summer." At the bar, the named bald eagle waved absently at him. "Face it, Oliver, you're just lashing out because you were too much of a - excuse the pun - pussy to fight back. You didn't stand up for your brand and caved to Kanoth and AllAle. Instead of doing what Kanoth is doing and making the best of the situation, of starting new, you just let yourself get crushed!"

Before Oliver could protest, Ryker stood up partially so he was hovering over the tabby and lifted a finger to poke the cat's nose. "And don't forget, you were the one that went over your head and tried to kill me and capture Takoshi! All by yourself! If you think about it, you're_the one that broke from corporate protocol. Hell, when we first me you _complained the Summer was a whiner before she was turned into a Doser! When you take a step back and look at things objectively, Kanoth did _exactly_what he needed to do because of _your_recklessness. You just won't accept that you're in this position right now because of your own actions!"

One of them was going to storm out and he knew Oliver was just a few seconds away from it. Ryker wasn't going to let that happen. Oliver's attitude and words just grated him to the point where he was like a roughly cut razored edge; abrasive to everyone. He slammed a paw on the table and stood fully. "I've honestly had enough of your bullshit and your whining. You're treating Soren like shit because of something you did. You're treating Kanoth like shit even after he's trying to honestly make amends. Wake up, Oliver. You're the only shithead here. I've had enough of you acting like the victim! Move on and make something of what you've got already!"

He turned and stormed away, making sure to flick his tail in Oliver's face as one last triumphant insult. The stares he got from Takoshi, Soren and Arthur were enough to make his cheeks flush red but he had already committed to the storm-off so he marched out the door, careful not to slam it on his way out, and waited outside. The 'fresh' New York air was just what he needed to cool off and just a few seconds way from Oliver was enough to make him realise what a drama queen he was being.

It didn't take long for the door to pop open and for someone to emerge to see how he was doing; he just didn't expect it to be Cliff.

"Bro, what was that?" asked the muscular tiger. "I've only ever seen you throw a fit like that when you couldn't get your program to work or some shit."

It was true. Sometimes, Cliff would come into his room, worried something had happened because he had heard a loud crash. It turned out only to be Ryker have smashed his desk with his paws or thrown his chair across the room out of frustration. When he was younger, he had broken a few keyboards just because of his temper.

"Oliver is being an ass," he grumbled.

"I think he just kind of is an ass," snickered Cliff. "He was willing to kill you over your Function the first time you met. Were it up to me, I wouldn't have bothered trying to be friends with him after all the shit that happened. I still would've fucked him but it would've probably been angry fucking."

Ryker's ears perked up and his tail fluffed out.

His roommate gave him a cheesy grin. "Oh yeah. I know. Takoshi told us."

The white fur on the inside of his ears turned pink and he couldn't find the strength to look Cliff in the eye. "Oh Jesus..."

"I guess you're just a lot more forgiving than the rest of us," Cliff admitted. "When me, him and Arthur were hanging out earlier today, he was all mopey and a jerk. Kept muttering that I'm just a 'dumb college fratboy' and Arthur was 'a fat sack of meat'. Never said it to our face though."

"Why didn't you deck him? Is that what you want to do?"

Cliff grimaced a little. "Honestly, he's just venting, dude. Looking for someone to blame. He's in this position because of shit he did. I think he understands that. Well... he should now that you pointed it out. It's just a common defence mechanism to blame someone else instead of accepting your own faults."

Ryker gave his roommate a lifted eyebrow in surprise. "That's... surprisingly insightful."

The tiger grinned, flashing all of his fangs and hiked a thumb against his chest. "I am gunning to be a lawyer, ya know. I'm supposed to know this shit." He then draped an arm over Ryker's shoulder, pulling him close and getting the smaller wolf's cheeks to bounce a little off those big pectorals. "Just like I'm supposed to know that you can't just accuse people of shit you know they did and tell them they broke the law. You have to _convince_them that what they did was wrong. Getting a confession is a million times better than getting a jury to convict."

He got the hint. "So I screwed up?"

"Naw," Cliff answered, patting his back. "You just gave Oliver a little push in the right direction. You weren't wrong. The way he's treatin' Kanoth and Soren ain't cool. You know he's actually _recording_our meeting because he still doesn't trust the poor guy?"

That was a new low even for Oliver. He was half-tempted to back in there, grab the tabby's phone and smash it with a hammer right in front of him.

"But he's got to come to terms with it himself before he can move on," Cliff continued. "It was just like what happened with you the day you got served. I'm pretty sure you were just going to hole up in your room until I walked in one day and found ya dead."

Hard to forget that day. Those last few hours changed his life forever. It was the day he got that mysterious Independent App, the day he met Takoshi. Were he asked if he would do it all over again, he would say 'yes' in a heartbeat.

"Think you can take him out and see if you can cheer him up or something? The way you did with me?"

Cliff grinned brightly. "Leave it to me!"

******

Operations and Maintenance.

One of the classes Ryker would take for his masters degree. There was some irony in that he studying how to run a company when he was gearing up to fight chief operations officer of a multi-million dollar corporation. There was a knot forming in his stomach as he listened to the professor quoting great operations officers. The ocelot with long, drooping whiskers paced the front of the auditorium while slides played absently displaying exactly what he was saying word-by-word. To his credit, he wasn't even looking at the screen. Either he had memorised the slides as he wrote them or he had done this class so many times before that he knew exactly what he would say without even referring to the material.

"The best thing an operator can do is make themselves redundant," said the grey-muzzled feline, his raspy voice grating enough to keep Ryker awake. "Yes, you could lose your job but you're not being a fur if you're coming into work every day to do exactly the same thing over and over again. You are a robot. Are there risks? Of course there are. As an operator, it's your job to weigh the pros and cons of every decision including automation and job security. But if you think that anyone is just comfortable with keeping 'Old Gary' in the corporation because 'you would never fire Old Gary', you're sorely mistaken."

The man turned on his heel and began waggling a finger through the air. "The world will keep turning without you. You don't stop learning the moment you sign that contract. You must keep developing. You _must_keep learning, growing. Because if you don't, you may be the best person to operate a certain application or you might just be the best damn manager in the world but you can bet your ass that at one point or another, you are going to train your own replacement."

Those were the words printed exactly on the screen. Ryker had long learned not to bother buying the lecture notes simply because he knew it was a waste of money. Today, however, he wished he hadn't because those words would've been extremely useful to throw into Oliver's face.

He had to trust that Cliff could lift the tabby's mood because he couldn't stand the cat's blame-shifting approach to his situation while remaining sedentary. No... that was harsh. The idiot did go charging after Kanoth by himself. He had to give Oliver some credit for that level of suicidal bravery.

"Sir," piped up one of the students. "Could you give us an example of a modern operations officer?"

The professor looked a little stunned by the question, his rhythm clearly interrupted. "Well... uhm... There are so many out there. Perhaps it would be better if you mention an officer you know that I'll give my opinion of them."

Ryker immediately pushed his paw into the air. "What about Aileen Raskeil of AllAle?"

The ocelot seemed a little relieved by the suggestion. "Ah, Ms. Raskeil is certainly one to admire. She is someone who has challenged the status quo. Even in today's modern and supposedly progressive society, there is still a disproportionate number of women leaders in almost every industry. Aileen has made her way to the top, challenging the norm and that is what I have been trying to say. You must challenge the norm even if it means that you're making yourself redundant."

An unsatisfying answer but one that got Ryker asking himself: what did Raskeil want from the Overworld?

Sure there was her job and the prestige that came from it but ultimately, what did she want? If there was anything that he was getting from the class, it was that as operator always had to think about the future and not just the problem at hand. If Aileen got to the top of her field, she _had_to be thinking ten steps ahead.

It was a question he couldn't wait to be answered and he stealthily reached for his phone and tapped a message towards Kanoth.

"Random question: what would you say is Aileen's endgame?" He paused a second, thinking how best he could clarify the question. "Like, what do you think she ultimately wants?"

There were only a few seconds before Kanoth replied. "That's easy. She wants to replace Emile."

"Really?"

"She's very ambitious and I think she knows Emile is keeping something from the rest of us. It's the key to his power and why he is CEO. She wants that."

"You don't have any idea about what it is?"

"I have an inkling. She's tried to get me to subtly ask Emile every now and then. It all has to do with some conference Emile attended a few decades ago. It's when he first got exposed to the Overworld. Apparently it was a conference for aspiring leaders in different fields. I've tried to research it but it's one of those feel-good conferences where people from different industries come together, get paid a shit tonne of money to spout inspirational words. It's hard to pinpoint who there got Emile into the Overworld because there's just so many people and Emile is tight-lipped about it."

Something about a conference years ago had given Emile Santos access to the Overworld.

Just as the professor suggested, Ryker was thinking about what would happen after they defeated Aileen Raskeil. Understand the root of the problem and resolve it.

He shook his head slightly. No, that was the wrong mindset. Raskeil wasn't just some speed bump that he could bulldoze over. She was living, breathing fur. The question wasn't about how Emile Santos got corrupted and consequently recruited Aileen. He had to ask what had driven her to this position in the first place.

"Don't suppose you know why Emile recruited her in the first place?" he asked Kanoth.

"It was before I joined. She was the one that expanded AllAle's reach into wines. Some say it's because she wooed him. She's not opposed to using her femininity as her weapon. Others say it's because she has a way of making sure things always run as efficiently as possible."

That was a lot to think about but his thoughts were quickly derailed when another student asked a question.

"Sir," she began, "what sorts of techniques would you employ to make sure that things run smoothly from an operations standpoint?"

"Contingency plans!" exclaimed the professor proudly. "This is why we have business continuity plans."

"But what if something really unexpected occurs. Like say a hurricane or... I don't know... someone calls out sick?"

The ocelot waggled a finger at her. "If you're entire operational platform rests on the shoulders of a single person, then it's not a very stable platform, is it? The best thing you can do is to make sure that everything is as simple as possible so that even if you aren't there, someone else can pick it up. Document the instructions. Train the appropriate people. If you've got a complicated web of interfaces, dependencies and inter-dependencies all resting on one person, then that very same person is a key-person risk. You don't want a person like that because if, taking your example, they get sick and they're forced_to work because they're desperately needed they will either make everyone else sick _or perform poorly because of their illness."

Something clicked in Ryker's head.

"Hey Kanoth, how much does Emile actually get involved in the day-to-day?"

There was a pause on the other end.

"Not much really. He gave us autonomy to run our own sections as we saw fit."

But someone had to keep him up to date on their status.

And he was fairly sure it wasn't Aileen.

Class couldn't end fast enough and when it was finally done, he was the first out the door and hurrying back to his apartment. Given he was doing a master's degree, his classes were late at night as it was tailored for those people who wanted to pursue further studies while they were working. There was a bit of a blow to the ego that his 'work' was at a local KFC instead of some high-paying job like some of his other classmates.

But he had a far more important 'job' to do and that was for the Custodes Libertatis.

Back at the apartment, he rushed through the door and hurried towards Cliff's room. He knocked on the door and he got an answer a moment later. The tiger, wearing only a pair of black shorts and dripping with sweat, regarded him with curiosity.

"Hey bro, what's up?"

Smelling the strong body odour coming off the feline, Ryker thought twice about what he was going to ask. "Uh... if you're busy..."

"Naw dude," answered his roommate with a wave of a big paw. "I was just fixing up this huge ass rig for a client. The idiot actually thought that just chucking together multiple GPUs without putting any ventilation in his case or any other form of cooling apart from the damn fan was a good idea! I've been reassembling his shit all day!" He wiped his brow with the back of his paw and Ryker had to remind himself that Cliff really wasn't as dumb as the jock-bro stereotype would have him believe. "What's up?"

"It's about Aileen Raskeil," he said. "I need all you can give me on her."

Cliff scratched his cheek with a claw and then shrugged. "Okay sure. Let's jump into the Overworld and I'll show you what I've got."

He quickly grabbed his phone and dropped into the Overworld alongside Cliff. They entered Cliff's room which was still set up with the multiple monitors that the Libertatis had given him expressly for their activities. The tiger's fingers glided across the keyboard with ease as he found the files on Raskeil.

Ryker read slowly just so that he could get every piece of information.

BAM!

The door to Cliff's room suddenly burst open.

"What the hell, boy!?" Takoshi barked. The bear was naked... and erect. There were a few brown feathers sticking off his white fur and one resting on the edge of his muzzle. "What's the big idea dragging me into the Overworld all of the sudden!?"

Ryker cocked an eyebrow at his IP. "Let me guess, you were ploughing Soren in my bed again when you got caught in my dive?"

The samurai's cheeks turned a little red. "No... well... yes. Fine. But it's the first time we've had sex."

"No it isn't." He turned back towards the screens. "You fucked him at least one other time yesterday in the showers of the baseball field."

Cliff turned towards Takoshi with a grin, holding up a paw. "Bro. That's awesome. I want some of that avian ass next."

"What?" exclaimed the bear. "I definitely did not!"

"Soren has the lungs of an eagle, Takoshi," Ryker said, focusing all his attention on the screens. "Think about that while I focus on this..." His eyes narrowed on a report about Raskeil.

Just as Kanoth had mentioned, Aileen preferred to blackmail and coerce people without actually getting her hands dirty. Kanoth was more than happy to throw a few punches himself but if the Chief Operating Officer could force someone into submission through shrewd negotiations, she would do so. There was a report where she accused one homely vineyard of stretching out their wine with an illegal and toxic chemical that would double their volume while maintaining their colour and taste. Apparently, it was akin to soap and could lead to severe intestinal damage if consumed in high quantities. This was not true, of course, until Aileen convinced once of the workers of the vineyard to put that chemical into the wines just so that she could tip off the authorities, send vineyard's owners to go to prison and then swoop in like a saviour to keep the workers from being without a job.

That was her modus operandi.

"What the hell are you so focused on anyway?" Takoshi snarled, barrelling over. "And it better be good."

"It's Aileen Raskeil," he replied, taking over Cliff's mouse and searching more files. "Kanoth said she's more inclined towards manipulation than physical violence."

"Yeah? So?"

"What's her endgame? She's smart enough to know that what she's doing is illegal. Other corporations probably aren't going after her or her activities because they probably can't be bothered." His eyes brightened and he pointed. "And look, she's purposefully targeting smaller vineyards and distributors. Ones that no one else is interested in. When she does come across a competitor, she backs off."

Cliff whirled around back towards his screen though his eyes did linger of Takoshi's very erect member until it was out of sight. "I don't think that's so odd. AllAle may be big but it's not the biggest alcohol company or the biggest one with access to the Overworld. She doesn't want to step on anyone's toes."

"Or..." Takoshi rumbled, his fury abating. "She's trying to make sure she has allies when AllAle falls."

Ryker nodded. It amazed him just how in-synch he could be with Takoshi from time to time. "I think... I think Aileen Raskeil is setting up Emile Santos for a fall."

Cliff stared at them both, eyes darting between in them. "You're going to have to run me through that..."

He slapped the table and stood up. "Can you print out that stuff? Or send it to me? We need to meet with Kanoth."

******

"I don't believe it."

They were seated in a sports bar well away from anywhere that Aileen or any AllAle employees would find them. Kanoth was once again seated with them but this time, everyone was on the one, large table. It seemed more likely, that huge, burly men like Takoshi, Cedar, Soren and Arthur would all be on one table with their slightly smaller friends than if they were seated separately.

"I've been around," rumbled Takoshi. "Believe me. This sounds exactly like something the 'Bitch of Wine' would do."

"Witch," corrected Cedar. "She's the Witch of Wine."

"Whatever." He nodded towards Ryker, showing his support for his Host's thoughts. "It makes sense."

"It does," Kanoth mulled gloomily. "And looking back now, I'm sure Aileen would have used my relationship with Cedar as some leverage to get me to play along as well had I remained." His gaze lifted and locked with Ryker's. "You really think she's priming AllAle for a massive buy-out?"

"A buy-out or something to humiliate Emile Santos enough that he would be forced to resign and she'd take his role," Ryker responded. "All the signs are there. She's not going for high-profile acquisitions, the sorts of thing that would get on the news. She's just doing 'the ordinary', her 'day-to-day'. Just enough to keep the company running. That's not what a good operator would do."

"I wouldn't know," sighed the gopher. "I was always out for the next big thing. Always thinking about the money."

"Exactly. Aileen is exactly the same way. But she's playing the long game. She's just as ambitious as you, Kanoth. Her rise in _AllAle_was tremendous. It was rapid until she became COO." Even with the noise around them, he still had to be cautious and drop his voice. "You could say it's because of the Overworld or because Emile intimidated her into submission but I don't think she's the kind to just sit there and let a day go by without thinking of the endgame."

Oliver grumbled something but it sounded like he was agreeing.

"I've know Aileen for years," Kanoth said, "and I've been privy to a lot of her business dealings. I can honestly say that this would not be beyond her. I've always just assumed she was on our side."

"Exactly why she's flown under the radar like this," Takoshi said. "I've seen this a lot of times before. Some guy you'd never suspect is secretly working to back-stab you and when you're getting suspicious of him, he does something that makes you go, 'Oh yeah. He can't possibly be bad because he did this shit'."

"Old Gary," Ryker said. When he got questioning looks, he said, "It's something my professor said. An analogy. 'Old Gary' has been with the company for years so you'd never think to fire him especially if he does good work. But you'd be stupid to think Old Gary isn't without his own ambitions."

"I could take these suspicions to Emile," Kanoth said with a firm nod. "Without solid evidence though, we can't get him to do anything."

Another voice, one unfamiliar to most of them, cut through the conversation.

"Perhaps I can shed some light into that?"

All of them jerked in surprise as Aileen Raskeil, dressed in a rather revealing strapless, red blouse and miniskirt approached their table. She slipped past Oliver and placed herself between the tabby and Ryker. Everyone's jaws dropped especially since she was completely alone. No Corpsmen. No IP. Just her.

"Aileen..." Kanoth whispered.

"Good to see you again, Kanoth, dear," she said in her light-hearted, British drawl. "You've been talking about me, it seems. My ears are absolutely burning."

Takoshi and Soren were already lifting their hands to attack but Cedar and Arthur immediately lifted their own arms to hold the two back.

"How did you find us?" Oliver snarled. "This is the last place anyone from AllAle would go."

"Which is precisely why it had to be the _first_place I'd go," she answered, batting her eyelids at him. "Plus, as you've no doubt ascertained, I have contacts in _other_corporations that are more than willing to tell me if a green-haired rhinoceros carting around a one-legged gopher just so happens to pass by." He glanced over at Cedar. "You really should dye your hair, dear."

Other_corporations. Takoshi was mentally kicking himself! Of course Aileen Raskeil had used her resources in _other_corporations to track them. He'd been stupid to just assume they had to avoid _AllAle when they had come up with speculation that Raskeil could be preparing the company to fall to the favour of other corporations.

Once again, due to his weakness, he had put Ryker in danger.

"What do you want, Aileen?" Kanoth demanded evenly.

"Straight to the point as always," she said with a shrug. "That's what made you such an efficient face of the front-line, my little crumpet. It was always just about money for you." She flicked back a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm sure you've already heard about the party I'm having tomorrow evening?" No response was needed as she continued. "And from the sounds of it, you've figured out my ultimate plan. To that end, I have a proposition for you."

"If you think we're going to cooperate with someone like you -" snarled Oliver.

She cut him off by pressing a finger gently against his nose. "Hush dear. The adults are talking." Her eyes never left Kanoth. "Basically, I want what happened to you to happen to me, Kanoth," she said with a smirk. "Not exactly but in a fashion." Lifting a finger, she said, "I want you to and your Libertatis friends to infiltrate my party." Her eyes then turned towards Ryker and then Cliff. "Naturally, you will fight me in the Overworld but through happenstance or perhaps 'skill', you are going to _kill_my IP, Decanter."

Everyone on the table froze in shock.

"You want us to kill your IP?" Takoshi demanded. "Why?"

She gave him a chilling smile. "Because you can't break my connection with the Server and AllAle if you can't inject my IP with your cute little virus, now can you? At the same time, killing my IP will cause so much 'trauma and distress' that I will be forced to take some time off to recover. Call it... grievance leave."

Ryker's eyes widened. "And in the meantime, your contacts in the other corporations are going to move in, overwhelm AllAle in the Overworld and take over."

Her cold smile vanished, replaced with a patronising grin. "Look at the brains on this one!" She tussled Ryker's hair playfully then poked his nose. "Right on the money! No one in the Realworld will know this, of course, so when I come back from my leave, the board of directors will see it fit to name me Emile's successor. Thanks, of course, to my friends implanting the idea into their minds in the Overworld."

If Takoshi had been frozen in surprise at the proposed death of an IP, he was turned to ice at just how cold hearted the Witch of Wine was. She was willing to kill her own IP just to make an excuse for the company's fall to go to someone else. Hell, she could even be seen as a_hero_ because AllAle would have fallen when she was forced into 'grieving'!

"You're a monster..." Arthur gasped.

"This industry makes monsters of us all, dear," she said, smiling at him coldly. "I've just embraced it. Do we have a deal?"

Ryker held up his paw. "Answer me this: why would you want to kill Decanter? He's your IP?"

She rolled her eyes, shoulders slouching. "Not that I have any reason to answer you but in the effort of maintaining trust between us, I will say that he has become far too attached. Our activities in bed are little more than physical fun for me but I can tell that he has developed feelings in what would otherwise be a professional relationship. I can't have that and it's better for his little heart that he dies defending me than if I were to tell him that he is useless to me as he is." She gave Ryker a pleasant smile. "It's a mercy."

The terrifying part was she honestly believed that.

The Overworld truly made people into monsters... or perhaps it just made people into even bigger monsters.

"I mustn't stay long," Aileen said, rising to her feet. "Decanter will be looking for me soon. You know how to contact me with your decision." She winked at Kanoth then shuffled past Oliver.

The icy aura around her was enough to force Takoshi to give her way. Even Soren was forced to stand aside as she sauntered arrogantly through the bar, every eye on her shapely ass. Once she was out of earshot range, he immediately turned towards the rest of the party.

"You can't seriously be thinking about taking her up on her offer!"

There was a moment of silence, a second of hesitation, and that was his answer.

"It'll take down AllAle," Oliver mumbled. "That's all I care about."

"Emile Santos will also be taken out of the picture," Cliff admitted with a sigh. "That's one more Overworld abuser off the market. Nero Greenwood and Elijah Marmouth would likely be taken down as well."

"But Aileen won't," Ryker said darkly. Hearing his Host protest made Takoshi's heart soar. "You're beheading the king and crowning the dictator. You're removing all opposition, all checks and balances that would keep her from taking over completely. What's worse, she has no competition with the other corporations. What's stopping her from merging them all into one big, powerful company? That's against what capitalism is all about. Competition makes for greater profits, right?" Ryker looked around for support but quickly found none.

"Fuck yeah!" Takoshi said immediately, seeing his Host in distress. "I'm with Ryker. We can't go ahead with this."

"But it is the only logical way forward," Kanoth said. "It was a long shot to attack her anyway at the party. If we have this opening, we should take it. She would owe us."

"You think we can trust that bitch!?" Takoshi shouted, not caring who heard him. "And you don't get a fucking vote! Up until a week ago, you were one of them." He turned towards the others, lifting his paw up into the air. "I say fuck no."

Ryker also lifted his paw. "I'm against it as well."

It was two against four.

Takoshi dropped his paw in agitation, nearly hitting the table in the process. "Fuck you all." He turned, fuming, and stormed out of the bar. Eyes from various patrons watched him warily but mad an active effort to keep their heads down. They gave him way for an entirely different reason to Aileen. There was no point going very far from the bar since he didn't know this part of Manhattan that well but at the very least, he needed some distance between the sheep who were just following the shepherd's instructions. He felt bad for leaving Ryker in their company.

He briefly considered going back and dragging his Host out the door with him just as he emerged from the bar and onto the patio but when he turned to retrieve the young wolf, there was Ryker, following him out.

"Great," rumbled the agitated, white-furred bear. "You going to tell me I was impolite or some shit?"

Ryker padded over to him and leaned against the balcony railings. This was one of those bars with an outdoor seating area but since there were not TVs in here showing the latest game, few people were out on the wooden platform with the gas heaters. He shuffled away towards a corner, away from anyone else and Takoshi followed him.

"I'm not a fan of this plan either," Ryker admitted. "Something in the back of my mind is telling me that Aileen Raskeil is _probably_going to find some way to eliminate us once she's done with us. You know. Given that we're the only ones that know she plotted this whole thing."

"Exactly!" Takoshi exclaimed, throwing a paw into the the air. "That's exactly what will happen. She's using us. Maybe she'll even try and coerce us into joining up with her or something before we're no longer useful and kills us off! That is totally what would fucking happen."

Ryker took a deep breath through his muzzle then let it out through his nostrils. "You see it in all the movies, shows and stories but never think it'll happen to you." His gaze was off in the distance, watching as people walked by on the street past the parking lot. "But I see where they're coming from. Defeating AllAle_is priority. Getting rid of them would save a _lot of people and their IPs. Aileen would need to rebuild."

"But we're sacrificing Decanter! Weren't you the one that said we should try to help every IP out there?"

His Host gave him a lopsided smirk. "Aren't you the one that said I was stupid to be that naive?"

Takoshi grimaced. "Fuck you." He slouched onto the railings heavily, having to bend further back given his height. "I do _not_want to go along with the Witch of Wine's plot."

"I don't either but I think there's an angle in this that we're not seeing." Ryker lifted his head, his brilliant brown eyes flashing with that same light of inspiration that had first attracted Takoshi to him and he had seen so many times before. "Aileen Raskeil wants _AllAle_to herself. We'll play along." They locked gazes. "But you have to trust me."

Trust. Something Takoshi always had trouble with ever since he had first been abandoned by his original creator. Even before then, really, as he was created as a ronin with trust issues. That had been a subplot in his story; learning to trust again. It took a whole minute of him wrestling with his instincts before he finally nodded.

"I promised you I'd be there for you no matter what. I ain't backing down now."

******

When one is invited to an investor's party at a penthouse suite hosted by the Chief Operations Officer of a multi-million dollar company, it was a given that the attire would be black tie. In the back of his mind, Ryker had always assumed that he be drifting amongst grey-muzzles trying to seem cultured and adept in the business world while munching on some canapes. What he did not expect were the strobe lights, half-naked furs, open bar and DJ blaring music from a makeshift stage.

"I feel... overdressed," admitted Oliver who adjusted his black tie.

There probably wasn't a single person over thirty and certainly not a single one of them with a blazer jacket. Ryker suddenly felt very hot in the suit he was wearing and was grateful to see what appeared to be a coat rack that was mostly unused save for a scarf. He immediately unbuttoned the garment and hung up.

"Oh Lord..." came an exasperated sigh. Aileen Raskeil approached holding a glass of wine. "You know, I had assumed you would have come in something a little less... obvious." She was dressed in a black one-piece dress with three, shoestring straps wrapped around her shoulders so that it contrasted against her fur. The hem of the dress only came down to just a little past her knees. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail and bright green loop earrings hung from her ears.

Ryker turned to her as he undid his tie. "As Chief Operations Officer, you shouldn't be 'assuming' anything."

One of her arched eyebrows rose. "Touche." Her lips curled upwards smugly. "I like you." She beckoned to be followed. "Come with me. Your horrible taste in fashion is excuse enough to pull you all aside."

Of course it was. In all likelihood, she had purposefully omitted the dress code just so she could have this excuse or to ensure that they stuck out and could be easily identified. Thankfully everyone was too drunk or consumed by the party to notice the group of six guys in suits and dress shoes following their hostess to the back of the penthouse.

"Don't look so nervous, dear," Aileen said as they entered a hallway far from where the guests were. It took a good minute to wind their way through the crowd. The suite was enormous. Easily big enough to fit a hundred people easily without being crammed. "This is just business."

"I'm not worried about that," he said reflexively. Her eyes challenged him to follow up that statement. "I'm just a little annoyed that I bought a suit just for this occasion and it turns out we didn't need it." He hiked a thumb over his shoulder at Takoshi. "You know suits don't really come in his size, right?"

There a flash of disappointment in her eyes. Clearly she wanted him to squirm a little more. "If you're after some monetary compensation, I'm sure we can arrange something." Those same eyes darted left and right, making sure no one was watching them. With a flick of her wrist, something beeped and the wall in front of her shuddered, very briefly. A thin line appeared across the wall and he realised it was a door. There was a device on her wrist. Like a smart watch but likely what she used to open her secret boardroom. "This way."

She pushed the door open and stepped inside, taking a sip of her wine at the same time. Beyond was a large rectangular room with a long, steel table positioned before a wide floor-to-ceiling window. The skylight of New York City was clearly visible beyond. One of those glass panels was likely a door because there were steps leading outside to one of those glass-bottom pools. It almost looked like the entire volume of water was just hovering off into nothingness.

"Shut the door, would you dear?" Aileen said dismissively over her shoulder. "I'd rather not have anyone wander in while we conducted our business."

Soren, who was last in, shut the door behind him which practically vanished into the wall behind them.

"Now then," she said, turning immediately towards them and setting her glass on the table. "Let us adjourn to the Overworld."

With a snap of her finger, she vanished in a flurry of silvery fire. Ryker pulled out his phone, exchanged glances with the others and nodded. With a push of a button, a wave of negative light washed over them, inverting all the colours around him for a brief moment before everything settled into the dour greyscale that it always was in the Overworld. Silvery flames wreathed Takoshi, Arthur and Soren, burning away their tight-fitting clothing and replacing them with their weapons and armour. They weren't alone. Six Corpsmen surrounded them alongside their Dosers. Beside Aileen was a white-haired rhino dressed in what he could only call 'wizard robes'.

The tall, athletic male didn't look a day over thirty despite his stark, white hair. Though it was hard to tell his physique beneath the turquoise robes trimmed with green, it was clear to see his strong broad chest. His proportionately long legs formed a slight outline beneath the robes. In one hand, he held a long staff made entirely out of glass that flared out into a gnarled, twisted root-like growth at the head.

Decanter.

"You were right, ma'am," rumbled the rhino, utterly oblivious to Aileen's plot. "They did come. Hard to believe they were dumb enough to come dressed in something so obvious."

"The Custodes Libertatis are resourceful," Aileen mocked, a cruel smile on her lips. "Not necessarily smart."

Cliff, who already had his phone out scoffed. "Doesn't mean you're any smarter." He lifted his phone. "Parse: No Corpsmen!"

Before any of the Corpsmen could react, a wave of scintillating blue lightning erupted from his screen and blasted the six men and their Dosers out of the Overworld. Decanter immediately flicked his staff up. A spire of glass immediately appeared in front Aileen, protecting her and hiding the smirk she held momentarily before she expertly replaced it with a look of surprise. Decanter held his staff out in front of him at an angle, head pointed towards them while his other hand was raised behind him towards Aileen, protecting her.

"You know, I had heard about how your Parse_Function could push people out of the Overworld and keep them from entering it again," said the wizard with a dark grin. "But it's limited to a rule that you enforce. Like, let's say guys who technically _aren't Corpsmen come in and help us out."

Cliff flinched. "Wait... what?"

"You said 'No Corpsmen' right?" Decanter said with a sinister smirk. "Well what about other IPs." There was suddenly a ruckus coming from beyond the glass wall. "We sent out a little... casting call to all IPs in the area," explained Decanter. "Anyone who can kill the Libertatis that dare to invade our party will get to be the next big thing that _AllAle_publishes. Not a Doser either. Bound to a genuine Corpsman complete with their freewill and everything."

That was ingenious. Terrifying but ingenious. Even if he had Parse, he couldn't demand 'No IPs' or he'd kick both Decanter and Takoshi out of the Overworld. Strategically speaking, they were cornered.

"Think you can defeat me before then?" taunted Decanter.

Arthur drew his sword, red flames already streaming along the blade. "You still run the risk of ruining this party for your Host. If we cause a commotion here, all those investors out there are going to panic and confidence in AllAle will plummet."

Decanter let out a sharp laugh. "You really think we'd be dumb enough to invite real_investors to this? You think _real_investors would be dressed like _that?" He shook his head, never keeping his eyes off them. "Fools. Those people out there are paid actors. This was _all_just a ploy to get you here."

"We knew Kanoth still had contacts with you," Aileen continued smugly. "The Libertatis has never been known for their subtly or their ability to back off when enough damage has been done. Either you were blackmailing him or he had turned into an informant. So we naturally fed him what little news he needed to appropriately alert you all and lead you here."

Was she playing both sides? Did she honestly_want to take over _AllAle by sacrificing Decanter or had this all been a ploy just to get them here so that they would be eliminated? Just a glance around the room saw doubt wavering amongst the group. He locked gazes with Takoshi and they both nodded at one another simultaneously.

This did not change the plan.

Ryker stepped forward, lifting his paw. "We're not here to fight you."

That look on Aileen's face immediately became genuinely concerned.

"You're kidding me, right?" snarled the white-haired rhino. "You come into my house and threaten my Host and expect me to believe you're not here to fight?"

"You," Ryker pressed. "We're not here to fight you." He pointed towards Aileen. "We're after her."

Decanter scowled. "The two of us are a package. You fight one of us, you fight us both."

"That's what she'd have you believe." Ryker locked gazes with Aileen and could see that she was already doing some quick calculations in an attempt to counter him. "You know she wants to take AllAle for herself, right?"

"Don't you think I know that?" Decanter spat. "Something is going on with Santos and whatever it is, its isolationist policy is causing AllAle to circle down the drain."

Takoshi was about to say something but Ryker held up his paw. "What are you talking about?"

"I don't expect you to understand," Aileen jeered. "In this world, it's not what you know, it's who you know. Emile's approach has always been to acquire IPs mercilessly but there's significant overhead when integrating a single IP into our corporation. You've got to spend time training the Host or turning the IP into a Doser. The hiring process alone is incredibly cumbersome." She spread her arms, palms up. "We would make far greater strides if we made alliances with other corporations. We could expand into other industries apart from just alcohol!"

She dropped her arms, eyes narrowed and appearing sinister through the thin plane of glass dividing them. "But he seems hell bent on remaining just in the alcohol industry. I've tried to pitch getting into the beverage business even if we're going under a different name! There are countless startups and young, aspiring Hosts out there with great ideas that could fall under the AllAle brand but he just outright refuses without any reason!"

Her cool, calm demeanour was cracking. It seemed that he was seeing who Aileen Raskeil was for the first time ever; an ambitious but frustrated manipulator who stacked both sides of the war to ensure that she won no matter the outcome. He had to admire that about her. In a way, she was a true chief of operations. No matter what happened, she would succeed in her goals. Her silver tongue would be enough for her to worm her way out of any situation and he was sure even if they managed to defeat Decanter and their reinforcements, she would just play it off as being part of her plot to appear convincing.

She was good.Really good.

"We can't be stuck doing the same thing day-in, day-out, right?" Ryker asked. "Because if we do that, we'd quickly find ourselves fired or out on the streets without a job."

Aileen's features calmed. "I see you understand."

"I do." He nodded firmly then switched his gaze towards Decanter. "Which is why I want you to listen to this, Decanter." He lifted his phone, quickly went to his recording files and hit a button.

"Good to see you again, Kanoth, dear," came Aileen's voice from the phone. "You've been talking about me, it seems. My ears are absolutely burning."

If only a crack could appear in the glass wall between Aileen and the rest of the group, it would have been appropriate to show just how her demeanour had shattered.

"How did you find us? This is the last place anyone from AllAle would go."

Decanter's brow furrowed. "What is this?"

"Which is precisely why it had to be the first place I'd go," continued the recording. "Plus, as you've no doubt ascertained, I have contacts in other corporations that are more than willing to tell me if a green-haired rhinoceros carting around a one-legged gopher just so happens to pass by. You really should dye your hair, dear."

"Oliver has been secretly recording every meeting with Kanoth we've had," Ryker explained. "I don't approve but this actually came in handy because now we have proof of her plans. You'll want to listen."

"What do you want, Aileen?" Kanoth asked.

"Straight to the point as always. That's what made you such an efficient face of the front-line, my little crumpet. It was always just about money for you. I'm sure you've already heard about the party I'm having tomorrow evening? And from the sounds of it, you've figured out my ultimate plan. To that end, I have a proposition for you."

"If you think we're going to cooperate with someone like you -"

"Hush dear. The adults are talking. Basically, I want what happened to you to happen to me, Kanoth. Not exactly_but in a fashion. I want you to and your_ Libertatis friends to infiltrate my party. Naturally, you will fight me in the Overworld but through happenstance or perhaps 'skill', you are going to kill my IP, Decanter."

In the pause that followed, Decanter stared in shock. Ryker watched him intently. The loyalty between IP and Host was strong. Love bound Kanoth and Cedar but he couldn't be sure what held the relationship between Decanter and Aileen. He was hoping, praying, that Decanter knew Aileen well enough to know that she wasn't beyond betraying him if she saw him as expendable and cut him off, just like any operations leader.

"You want us to kill your IP? Why?"

"Because you can't break my connection with the mainframe and AllAle if you can't inject my IP with your cute little virus, now can you? At the same time, killing my IP will cause so much 'trauma and distress' that I will be forced to take some time off to recover. Call it... grievance leave."

"And in the meantime, your contacts in the other corporations are going to move in, overwhelm AllAle_in the Overworld and take over."_

"Look at the brains on this one! Right on the money! No one in the Realworld will know this, of course, so when I come back from my leave, the board of directors will see it fit to name me Emile's successor. Thanks, of course, to my friends implanting the idea into their minds in the Overworld."

"You're a monster..."

"This industry makes monsters of us all, dear, Ive just embraced it. Do we have a deal?"

"Answer me this: why would you want to kill Decanter? He's your IP?"

That was when a flicker of doubt flashed in the white-haired rhino's eyes. He glanced briefly towards Aileen. She wasn't even looking at him. Fury was in her eyes as she stared at Ryker's phone.

"Not that I have any reason to answer you but in the effort of maintaining trust between us, I will say that he has become far too attached. Our activities in bed are little more than physical fun for me but I can tell that he has developed feelings in what would otherwise be a professional relationship. I can't have that and it's better for his little heart that he dies defending me than if I were to tell him that he is useless to me as he is."

In that instant, he could actually see Decanter's heart break.

"It's a mercy."

Ryker lowered his paw and phone. "We had that meeting yesterday," he admitted. "See, Decanter? She doesn't care about you like how you care about her. She's using you."

Decanter's shoulders slumped and the glass barrier separating Aileen from the rest of the group sank back into the ground.

"Decanter!" AllAle's COO snapped. "Don't believe -"

"Save it!" he snapped, snarling at her. "You give me far too little credit, Aileen."

Ryker's heart froze.

Uh-oh.

"I knew you were going to cut me off," sighed the rhino, once again lifting his staff and raising it against Ryker. "It was only a matter of time. I'm not blind." Spires of glass suddenly started emerging from around him, extracting themselves from the tiled floor until they were at least a foot and a half-long. They angled themselves towards the party, prompting Takoshi and Soren to draw their weapons. "But I bet what you didn't count on was that I'd be willing to die for you!"

Even Aileen was shocked at the revelation and there was a moment where her harsh features softened.

"Are you fucking nuts!?" bellowed Takoshi. "Your life isn't worth any more than hers!"

"I'm the only one that gets to put value in my life," snarled Decanter, teeth bared. "And that means that I'm the only one that gets to decide what I use it for! If that means I'm willing to sacrifice myself so that Aileen's ambitions are met, then so be it!"

That dark, cold smile touched Aileen's lips once more and she turned arrogantly towards Ryker, her eyes half-closed expectantly. "Well, my little muffin. It seems that your ploy has failed." She cupped a paw over her ear. "And what's that? I do believe those IPs are on their way here." Using that same paw, she began waggling a finger at him like a clock's pendulum. "Ticktock, muffin."

Suddenly, her features dropped, a look of surprise crossing her features. The glass window behind her shuddered with a spiderweb of cracks radiating out from a hole positioned right behind her. Her muzzle drop as did her gaze. Blood began seeping out of a hole the size of a bullet over her heart.

Decanter's posture faltered. "Aileen...?"

AllAle's COO dropped to her knees, grasping her chest as blood poured down her chest and onto her paws. "N - No..." she gasped. "This... This wasn't meant to happen!"

Fear and panic erupted across Decanter's features and he immediately dropped his staff to rush to her side. "Aileen!" His furious eyes immediately turned to Ryker. "What did you do!?"

Ryker shook his head, staggering back in horror. "I... We... We didn't..." He turned to Cliff or Oliver but the two just gave him helpless looks.

This was not part of their plan.

Soren was the first to snap out of the shock that Aileen Raskeil had just been assassinated. "We've got to get out of here! Everyone back to the Realworld!"

"What about Decanter?" Takoshi protested.

"He's probably going to get eaten alive by the IPs on their way here," Arthur answered grimly. "Those poor, desperate souls came here looking for a way out of their hellish existence as wandering IPs. To get all the way up here only to have those hopes dashed would drive anyone insane. They'll seek some way to make up for the time lost."

"We can't just leave him!"

"Let him die beside the woman he was willing to sacrifice himself for," Oliver huffed, turning his back to them. "It's what he deserves." Then he and Soren were gone in a flurry of silver flames, back in the Realworld.

Ryker stamped his foot in refusal. "No! There has to be another way!"

Cliff grasped his shoulder tightly. "Come on, dude. You can't save everyone. Don't waste your time saving those who don't want to be saved."

Decanter was openly weeping now. Aileen was on her back and he was pressing his hands against her chest, desperately trying to apply pressure to the gaping wound that was quickly sapping her of life. His pleas fell on deaf ears as Aileen stared past his face and just gawked aimlessly at the ceiling. Her blood pooled out beneath her, catching the light in such a way that they formed a single word.

Pact.

"No!" Ryker shouted. He charged shrugged Cliff's paw aside and charged over to the two, skidding to a his knees right beside Aileen.

Decanter scowled at him angrily. "Leave us alone! Let me die beside her!"

"She doesn't deserve someone like you!" He held out his phone, grasping one of Aileen's paws and holding it against her palm. "Listen to me, Aileen Raskeil, if you're going to do anything halfway decent in your life, you're going to put your Contact on this goddamn phone! Let Decanter live on with us!" Her eyes were going dim. "Please!" he shouted. "He was willing to die for you! At least let him live!"

Aileen's eyes gained a momentary spark and she coughed, blood dripping from the corner of her lips. Her lips moved slowly.

"Aileen?" Decanter gasped. "Aileen!"

Ryker leaned towards her, canting his ear in her direction. Her words were faint but unmistakable.

"From inspiration, comes an idea..."

His eyes widened. "_From an idea, comes change,"_he answered.

Takoshi went rigid in shock. "Ryker! What the hell are you doing!?"

A silver flame erupted from where Ryker's paws was clasped over Aileen's, his phone between them.

"Let's change the world..." he said firmly.

Aileen's features hardened and her lips quivered.

With the last of her strength, she exclaimed,

"... together!"

A brilliant silver flame erupted from the phone, bursting outward and sweeping all over the office. Cliff ducked behind Arthur's shield as the conflagration burst past them, blasting the door wide open and giving the charging IPs a moment to pause. Decanter let out a tortured wail as the flames consumed him too. Ryker felt a great drain shoot through his body and unconsciousness start clawing at the edges of his vision.

He felt Aileen's grip slip from his.

Her last words, whispered directly into his ear were...

"Take care of him."