Chapter 15 – Yacapo’s Elixer

            The loading platform of the ship lowered to the ground and Alos, Xri, and Levitas stepped off. Around them was a massive shipyard that was about a square mile in size. Ships of every shape, size, class, and build were scattered throughout the paved lot. The perimeter of the lot was walled off and at the very end of one side was a broad building with two stories. At the top of the building was the same logo as the last, the giant bold word “Elixer” with the logo of a half filled bottle below it. Eyeing the building up and down, Alos couldn’t help but feel like something wasn’t right. The building looked much too small to accommodate all the people that must have come out of these ships. He squinted his eyes. He had the feeling that there were many underground levels.

            When they entered inside they were greeted by blasts of frigid air being shot down from the ceiling vents. Bright images fluttered about the room as people used the holographic displays of the Elixer. At the center of the room, like the last Elixer, was a dome protruding from the ceiling. Inside was a single Lycanian dressed up in a ridiculously flashy outfit, surrounded by several computers, an Orb, and the musical cube that Alos had seen in the last Elixer. The bright red, shiny, synthetic jumpsuit that the Lycanian was wearing pulsed with sonic vibration of the low frequency bass. His hair buzzed, and his head bounced around like a ball on a court.

            From every corner of the room Alos could feel the music pounding, vibrating anything loose. Sounds like thick viscous liquid sliding with a slow diligence down a wall emitted from the speakers and sloshed over the bystanders. Behind each flux in the sound was a punching drum with bright womping noises. A mob of noticeably intoxicated people gathered below the dome, all holding the same stupid expression; their lips curled up like a duck, and their heads wobbling around unhinged.

            Above the midst of the group were several people who were somehow managing to float in the air. They twisted their bodies snaking along through the air, contorting their limbs in and out as if they were flowing with the slimy sound of the music. Members of the mob would reach out and touch the floaters as they passed overhead, touching with clear sexual intent, their heads still bobbing around without purpose. Alos grimaced with disdain.

            “I have no idea what’s going on.” Alos said, holding his horrified expression.

            “Slimepunks, you get used to them after awhile.” Levitas replied, trying not to laugh at Alos’ reaction. Levitas was holding his hand over his headset, massaging his temples.

            “…What the f-…” Alos started, before being nudged aside by one of the members of the mob. Alos compulsively shoved the guy off, snapping his attention over to him.

            “Uhhhhhhh mah bad little dude bruh. I’m jus slimin here’ ya know?” The guy’s eyes were rolled up and back into his head as he said this, his relaxed jaw drooping, and his stance swaying back and forth.

            “Slish sloshin wit da wish washin man, yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaah.”

            Alos’ widened squinting eyes stared at the guy, frozen.

            “Ignore him, just stay behind me.” Levitas said, grabbing Alos’ collar and pulling him forward and behind him.

            Xri pushed through the crowd, leading them over to the back of the room where the bar top was. It followed the back wall, and then curved out and then back in, creating a half circle extension of the bar. Behind this was the bartender, shaking up a drink in a mixer, while he eyed the display beside him. Pulling out a plastic bottle, he poured the mixed beverage into the bottle, sealed it, and then handed it to the patron sitting directly to his left. The patron removed an Orb from his coat, and scanned it, paying the bartender for his service. He must have tipped well because the bartender bowed his head to him, grinning with gratitude.

            Xri approached the counter, gracefully placing his hand down on top of it and then shifting his weight to his hand.

            “Sir you are going to have to take a seat before I can serve you.” The bartender told Xri, his hands fiddling along the countertop nervously. “The computer needs to check you in before I can allow you to make a purchase.”

            Alos noticed the display beside the bartender was the same as the last Elixer's, showing a graphic of the arrangement of seats, with the occupied seats displaying red and the unoccupied green.

            “We’re here to see Yacapo.”

            The bartender’s expression instantly changed as his eyes darted around the room with suspicion, surveying his surroundings.

            “Well then, right this way gentlemen.”

            The emergent section of the bar top opened up, and the bartender stepped out, the counter closing behind him. He led the three over to a darkened side of the room, void of any people, and then over to a wall. Standing beside the wall, he placed his hands beside him gesturing towards the wall.

            Levitas stepped through the wall somehow phasing right through. Then Xri stepped through passing through the wall and disappearing from sight. Alos stood watching, staring in disbelief.

            “Go on.” The bartender said pleasantly.

            With everything Alos had recently seen, an artificial wall would be far from the weirdest. Alos shrugged his shoulders, letting out an amused chuckle, and then walked through the wall. Just as he thought, it was a hologram, and he passed right through.

            From the other side, Alos could see that it was indeed just a hologram appearing a bright vibrating blue from where he now stood. As the bartender stepped through in suit, his body seemed to manifest from the nothingness of the graphic, until he was fully on the other side. The bartender, reaching up, adjusted the coat over his suit, and pulled it into place.

            “Let us proceed then.”

            On the opposite wall to the fake wall there was an elevator, which the bartender approached and then with a scan of his thumb print, opened. The doors opened, and with Xri leading, they all stepped inside.

            “Would you gentlemen like to stop at any of our lovely other floors today?” The bartender asked, his hand hovering beside the floor selection buttons.

            “We don’t have time for that.” Xri insisted, clutching the frontal tip of his hat, pulling it down in acknowledgement. “We’re here solely to see Yacapo.”

            “My apologies good sirs,” the bartender’s hand drifted downwards to the very bottom button, BG4, and then pushed it in. As his hand lifted from the button, a digitally synthetic voice came from the ceiling.

            “PASSWORD-”

            “Ahek shi ajeha” The bartender responded, with a calm confidence.

            “RECOGNITION SUCCESSFUL – WELCOME ROGER”. As the voice finished, the elevator shook, and then started to slowly move down.

            “Not very many people know Magnamitry,” Xri’s face was shrouded by the poor lighting, but from the tone of his voice Alos knew he had that sharp smile stretched out. “One might even say that; ooh taks ven sin Zaujin.”

            The bartender smiled. “Yes, indeed I am. I am but a mere graduate though, nothing compared to your rank of Councilor. Honestly, I felt my sphincter clench in anxiety when I realized it was you Xri.” Placing his arm across his stomach, the bartender took a step forward, bowing to Xri.

            “Wow Xri really is famous.” Alos remarked with surprise. “He recognized you even with your big hat, and draping coat.”

            “This getup only throws off the people that don’t know me,” Xri snickered, “like bounty hunters.” Shifting his weight, Xri threw his foot behind him against the wall, resting on it. “And even then, it doesn’t always work.”

            The elevator had finally reached the BG1 level, which if Alos had to guess stood for “Below Ground 1”. With a loud ding, the voice announced that they reached BG1, and that the elevator would resume momentarily.

            Through the glass double doors opposing the doors they entered the elevator through, Alos could see a massive room filled with people. At first glance it looked almost exactly the same as the original room they were in. It had the same bizarre subculture, the same over bearing music, the same presence of highly intoxicated people, and most importantly, it had the same bar at the back. At second glance though, there were clearly some distinct differences. Instead of one, there were multiple domes protruding from the ceiling, each with their own musician; if one could even call them that. From the bottom of each dome, Alos could see a section filled with a green liquid, which was being misted out from the bottom all over the partygoers. As the mist came out of the dome, it would become suspended in the air, becoming subjected to the powerful sonic resonance that filled the room. The green specks flowed up and down, back and forth, left and right, every movement being dictated by the pulsing force of the music. Like the last room though there were people floating through the air, and in fact, in here there were at least twenty people doing so, each swimming through the air over the crowds with their exaggerated movements. Just watching the chaos made Alos feel confused.

            The elevator resumed, descending down to the next floor.

            “Hey Levitas, what’s the deal with those people back there?” Alos asked, throwing his thumb back and up over his shoulder.

            Levitas’ lips tightened. “I have a headache, alright? Ask Xri.” Levitas’ hand was palming the front of his headset, pushing it down into his head.

            “They are Slimepunks, that is what they do. If you really wanted to know, you should have asked your little friend from earlier.” Xri reclined his head back, displaying his cheeky pressed lips. Most people wouldn’t call that a smile, but Alos knew better at this point.

            The elevator then loudly announced its arrival at BG2. Alos had been on slow elevators before, but this was ridiculous. Even the slowest elevators in Optimaris would leave this elevator in the dust. It wasn’t all bad though, this place was weird and Alos was growing more and more to like that sense of adventure the strangeness granted.

            Through the glass double doors were two burly Simanian guards blocking off a roped off entryway, each Simanian having brown protruding brows that hunkered over their eyes like caterpillars. The entry way actually looked to be some kind of scanner which led back to a back room that Alos couldn’t see. In front of the two Simanian guards was a sign that read “Bordellotel”.

            “Okay so I’m pretty sure the “otel” is just a play on words for hotel, I get that, but what’s a Bordell?” Alos asked pointing out at the sign.

            “Do you know what a brothel is, lad?” Levitas asked still cupping his head.

            “Yeah of course I know what a brothel is-,” Alos paused, “wait, you mean that is a room for se-”.

            “Yes”, the three simultaneously responded, cutting Alos off.

            The elevator started moving again.

            “Look, I grew up never leaving Optimaris, not even once. Cut me some slack will you?” Alos asked, his voice drudging out from his mouth.

            “Don’t worry kid, for someone as inexperienced as you, you catch on quick.” Levitas said this, removing his cupped hand from his head, and patting Alos on the back.

            “Your skills as a user are unprecedented,” Xri laughed, “so regardless of how ignorant you are, that alone will suffice for us keeping you onboard.”

            Alos’ expression flattened along with his voice, “Gee thanks boss, I love you too.”

            “He’s a snappy one, ain’t he?” Levitas said, turning to Xri and smiling.

            “Aye, he will make a fine Apprentice when the time comes.” Xri said nodding back to Levitas, smirking.

            “Not like you.” Xri let out an amused sigh.

            “Ey, this ain’t the time nor place to be chatting ‘bout that. And besides we both know Damian was half my age, it’s hard to take orders from a kid.” Levitas replied.

            The bartender interjected into the conversation surprised, “As a fellow Wizard, I hope you don’t mind me asking but… Damian was your Master?”

            Levitas’ jaw jutted from side to side, “Aye, and he was only twenty one at the time.”

            “Wow that was relatively recently.” The bartender bantered. “Why were you initiated so late in life?”

            Just then the elevator halted.

            “NOW EXITING FOR – BG3.” The loud synthetic voice announced.

            Through the glass doors on the elevator, was an auditorium littered with a jungle of different plants. Large multi faceted hydroponics bins hung around the room containing rows upon rows of vegetation. Along the ground, at the center of the room, was a thick barked tree growing up and out through the room, which held small hydroponic containers hanging from its thick branches. Ventilation systems were rigged every few feet along the walls, staggered high and low, for optimal coverage, each with a matching humidifier. The ceiling however, was composed entirely of panels of extremely high powered artificial lights, each beaming down rays onto the vegetation below. The light was so powerful the paint and glass in the room appeared to glow.

            “Forgive my intrusions, it is not my place,” the bartender said to Levitas, nodding his head towards him in apology. “Let us continue then. Here we have our farming floor, every ingredient that is sold here at the Elixer, is grown fresh on this floor. We process it, we prepare it, we even synthesize it if necessary and it’s all done right here.”

            The elevator began to move again.

            “Yacapo always was a bit obsessive.” Xri said turning over to Levitas. “Do you think he will give us a discount on some Hooja?”

            “I hope so, we could use some restocking.” Levitas replied.

            “Why don’t you ask him yourself, gentlemen? We are about to arrive.” As the bartender finished his sentence, the loud voice came over the elevator speakers, announcing that they were now at BG4.

            As the elevator’s glass doors opened up, the three stepped out into the room, with the bartender hanging back inside the elevator. Inside the room, cabinets lined the left wall with a countertop extending over all of them. From one end to the other, every piece of chemistry equipment imaginable covered the counter.

            The right side of the room held a similar story as it had cabinets lining the wall, creating a long countertop above them. On top of these cabinets however were scattered electronics. Wires, semi-conductors, pins, random cut up circuit boards , all laid out across the countertop with several laser induced plasma soldering torches amidst them.

            At the end of the room was a small workbench with several bulky CPUs piled up, all running and connected to a display monitor mounted on the wall just above the workbench. While Alos couldn’t make out what was on the display, he could see that there was a man sitting in a chair at the desk, hunched over something, with small flashes of light emitting from in front of him.

            “Yacapoooo!” Xri exclaimed, stretching his arms out towards the hunched over man. The man’s arms shuffled around a bit before he spun around, standing, and facing them.

            The man was short, standing only at about 5’4, with a thick stocky build. He was wearing blue rubber pants, which were baggy and loose and came up into suspenders. Under his suspenders was a white tucked in lab vest, covered with grease and green stains. Over all this he was wearing an off white lab coat, also covered with an assortment of differently colored and textured stains. His head was bald, polished to the point of reflection and was matched with a long thin strip of hair hanging from his chin. Elbow long black rubber gloves were pulled tight around his hands, and thick goggles pulled over his eyes, a hinged multi-focus magnifying eyepiece folded down over his right lens. Yacapo folded up his eyepiece as he stood up.

            “Xri, my brother, it is good to see you!” Yacapo said with a deep drawl, walking over to Xri with his arms extended out, until they finally embraced. “It has been so long since you were last here!”

            “It has indeed been too long. I was hoping we would see you in Circin when we had our meeting.” Xri said, placing his hand at Yacapo’s shoulder while pushing his hat back around his neck with his other hand.

            “My time is always occupied by this place. Hell, I can rarely find time for myself!” Yacapo said, laughing as he walked over to Levitas.

            “Levitas, my brother, it is good to see you too!” Yacapo’s accent exaggerated his vowels, unintentionally drawing out the words. Alos was unfamiliar with the accent, but had heard similarities between it and Levitas’. He figured it must have been from somewhere in the Divimatian area.

            “Yacapo, we missed you in Circin.” Levitas said, smiling as they hugged. “Your presence in those meetings settles a lot of nerves, even John missed you there.”

            “So much business has been coming through here recently, that it has been almost impossible to find free time. I am not one to complain though. Busy work is good work.” Yacapo smiled looking at Levitas’ headset. “All is well with your visor, yes?”

            “As good as it has ever been.” Levitas grinned.

            “Good, good, the hardware should be solid for at least another year.” Yacapo said as he patted Levitas headset on the side. Shifting his focus to Alos, Yacapo turned sticking his hands out in front of him, “And who is this one?”

            “He’s our newest addition,” Xri started, and then paused. “Frank says he is the best user on the Net.” Xri walked over behind Alos, and gave him a slight shove in the back.

            “Introduce yourself lad.”

            “I’m Alos,” he said sticking out his left hand to shake.

            “Welcome to the Resistance, my newly found brother.” Yacapo stuck out his left hand shaking Alos’ good hand with a big smile. “It is always nice to see passionate youth.”

            Turning as if expectant to see another person, Yacapo stopped and looked around.

            “Where is Zeith?”               

            “That is why we’re here.” Xri let out a deep breath and then continued.

            “We were over at Jmechk’s, staying overnight for the auction, doing business as usual. We sold our haul for nearly double what we normally pull, and in the morning we were waiting around for the transaction to complete. Zeith and a few others went out into the yard to browse around and kill time, when fucking Van of all people, came down and snatched him.”

            “They were able to subdue him!?” Yacapo asked, almost shouting with the amazement of his question.

            “Are we talking about the same person here!? Zeith, Counselor in the Guild, the man known amongst his peers to be the world’s most powerful telekinetic? The Wizard known for the legendary feat of taking on an entire party of Magnams, all at once!? Your master, Zeith, Supremus, The Ascended!? How did they even know he was there?”

            Levitas added, “Look, they came out of nowhere, gassed him and carried off his unconscious body. It was done and they left before we even had a chance to react.”

            “This is not good, not good at all…” Yacapo said, his voice stern and uneasy. In an attempt to think, Yacapo raised his hand up to his face and began stroking his chin down to his goatee.

            “It has been a few days now too, so at this point he could be anywhere.” Xri said, throwing his hands up.

            “Are there any leads?” Yacapo asked, continuing to stroke his chin.

            “None whatsoever,” Xri replied flatly. “We were hoping you could help.”

            “Well, normally any captures by the Crusaders or, more specifically the Rashakaan, are given over to the Hawk’s at some point to be taken to a processing plant. Van is captain of the Crusaders by extension of being the captain of the Rashakaan, so I would bank that Zeith is most likely onboard the Hawk’s ship.”

            “Seems logical and straight forward,” Xri said in response, “Levitas told me the same, but it did not occur to me before that even if he is not there they should have the data showing where his whereabouts would be.”

             Xri looked over at Alos. “Which is where you would come in. The only problem now is locating the Hawk’s ship.”

            Yacapo smirked at them before turning around and walking back towards his workbench. “Lucky for y'all, my little shindig here just happens to be one of the favorite spots for the Hawk’s crew to come and relax. Well look at that, it would seem one just made a purchase a few minutes ago.”

            “Do you have the name?” Xri asked, furrowing his brow subconscious anger.

            “And a picture.” Yacapo pulled up both onto the display monitor on the wall. “Jomin Welk; looks like he just made a purchase three minutes ago on the ground floor.”

            Yacapo smiled and shook his head, “Not the prettiest fella is he?”

            Xri walked up to the monitor followed by Levitas and Alos. The image of the man was a headshot of his chubby mug. Pimples surrounded by sparse patchy red facial hair rode his neck rolls all the way down the collar of his shirt. He had long curly black hair and a jaw with a severe under bite.

            “Alos, grab this data and find a 3D image off the Net that you can send to Levitas.”

            “Sure thing.” Alos said pulling out his Orb and dropping it into the cradle on Yacapo’s desk. After a quick scan, Yacapo selected the Orb and then transferred the data.

            “I almost forgot,” Xri said, turning towards Alos, “show him your wrist.”

            Still deadened from whatever Bert had used on his wrist, Alos easily pulled out his deformed arm from his sweatshirt.

            “Ah, so that’s what Bert was messaging me about.” Yacapo rolled over to Alos in his chair, using his hands to roughly measure the dimensions of Alos missing hand. After he was satisfied, Yacapo rolled over to the cabinets on the right side of the room, opened one in particular and began rummaging through it. A brief moment passed, coupled with a lot of clanging noise and Yacapo emerged holding a robotic hand. The hand was so proportionally perfect, that merely from Yacapo holding it; it was hard to tell it apart from a normal hand.

            “I was saving this as a backup for myself, but I have faith you will put it to good use.” Yacapo said as he rolled back over to them with the robotic hand in one hand, and a device that looked like a paint sprayer in the other.

            “Let me just get some of your skin,” Yacapo pressed the back end of the sprayer to Alos arm, scratching it back and forth several times before pulling it away. He then took the sprayer, shook it, and sprayed the robotic hand.

            “Have Bert attach it and it will be ready for use.” Yacapo said as he threw the hand into a small lunch pail type of box, then handed it to Alos.

            “Thanks Yacapo, I don’t really know you, but so far, I think I like you.” Alos said gratefully.

            “Yeah, thanks again Yacapo, we really appreciate all the help.” Levitas said with his charcoal crackling voice.

            “Next time we stop by it will be for pleasure, not business.” Xri said smiling, as reached out and hugged Yacapo again.

            “It is always a pleasure, my brothers.” Yacapo smiled, releasing from Xri and sitting back in his chair.

            “Until next time then Yacapo,” said Xri.

            They all waved goodbye to each other, and then without any more delay, starting walking back to the elevator.