Elements: The Ancient Tomb

Chapter 7: "The Intruder"

On the second day since Victor was transferred to the headquarters, in the early morning, when the office had just opened, while yawning, the security guard saw Michael come. Michael greeted him politely. The security guard saw that he was familiar and asked:

"Oh, you... I think I've seen you somewhere before."

"You're wrong. We have never met each other before. I'm just an ordinary citizen. I am visiting a friend who is an inmate here."- Michael said while handing over a pack of dry wages and stepping inside- "Hurry up, take it and then let me go inside."

"Oh, sorry, sir. I don't take things from a stranger."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. You had been standing here all night, probably not eating or drinking anything. Don't let your stomach go empty when you work." - Victor turned his head to say and continued.

"Ah, thanks. It's kind of you..." - muttered the guard, devouring- "Such a good guy. I was on duty last night, so I didn't have anything to put in my stomach."

As soon as Michael stepped inside, he looked around and said:

"It's nostalgic. It's been a while since I visited this place. I would have been promoted by now if I was still here. I wonder how everyone is..."

After writing an application to visit, Victor quickly sat and waited in the visiting room, thinking:

"I don't know if Victor has gotten used to the new place yet. I'm just afraid that Adam is still angry with me, as a result, he let Victor stay in a dirty room with no blankets and no bed. But probably he wouldn't do that, he's the guy that makes the distinction between public and private…"

Just mentioning Victor, from the door on the other side of the separating glass, he saw a man that was coming through the door. That's Victor. Victor slowly walked in with a thin, emaciated look, appearing with a pair of dark eyes. Michael was quite surprised by the appearance of Victor, asking:

"Why do you look like this? It's only been two days, but you look miserable. Did you skip meals? Or they did not feed you properly here?"

Victor sat down and sighed.

"The first reason. Because the food here is not to my taste, I always finish my meal, but your friend Adam always brings me food and forces me to eat it all."

"Sound like stomach torture, doesn't it?"- Michael said.

"Adam, after a day of doing all kinds of tricks to get me to confess, when he brought a tray of rice, he told me this: 'I can't let the suspect go hungry. You are human after all, you must eat to live."

"So touching."

"Even though he's eccentric and likes to make things difficult for others, there's no way I can hate him."

"When he was a trainee, he was a friendly, gentle person. The complicated police environment made him change a lot. But if you interact with him for a while, you'll see that he still has some good points."

Seeing that Victor was listening while scratching his hands and neck, Michael immediately took out a bag containing a few clothes and placed it on the table, saying:

"If you haven't changed your laundry these past few days, you must be very itchy. I heard the news, so I brought you some clothes."

"Thanks. I hope to get out of this place as quickly as possible."

Michael suddenly noticed that Victor's face had a few bruises and asked:

"God, why is your face so bruised? Who hit you?"

"Just had a little scuffle with my roommate. Just a little scratch."

"Little scratch? Tell me what happened."

Victor thought for a moment, then confided:

"I am living with a death row inmate. He used to have a lot of criminal records, and the news about him was widely spread virally by the media before. As soon as I met him, I immediately recognized him and asked to be friends with him, but he responded by hitting me. I didn't fight back, because I wanted to tame him."

"Are you hot head?"- Michael scolded- "How can you tame a death row inmate like him? Don't play with him anymore."

"He's my new inmate, beside, he was paranoid, I felt sorry for him, so I tried to do it."

"What do you mean when saying 'paranoid'?"

"He kept saying he was about to be rescued from this place by a guardian deity, saying he was here then, and claiming himself to be his chosen one, praising the fictional god."

"Really? Poor him. He seems to be heavily delusional. Well, what about the Scanner? What does Adam say about it?"

Victor sighed again, with a sullen face, leaning back the chair, replied:

"He said the police would keep it indefinitely until the mystery was solved."

"Damn, I've never thought the police would be so interested in it before. If we wait too long, our secrets will be exposed, moreover, it will put the people in danger from the dangers of the Handaz and Iron Head cliques. Right now I can't deal with them alone."

"The transformation device is lost, and I stay here to bear the guilt that I did not do. It's all because of the Ironhead bastard, he killed my sister, and now he made me a miserable guy..."

Suddenly, Michael's eyes lit up as if he had thought of something, he sat down and stroked his chin thoughtfully. Seeing that Michael kept silent and said nothing, Victor asked:

"Hey, Michael, what are you thinking so wistfully?"

Two minutes later, Michael was sober and told:

"Well, leave it to me to clear you up and get the Elemental Scanner back. Please endure a few more days here, getting along with the other guy until you're released."

"What are you planning to do?"

"You will know later. Please be patient, wait for news from me. Well, let me give you a hint: 'Poison against poison'."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"I need to go now, remember to eat well, I don't want to see your skinny, smelly body like a dried corpse when we meet outside again." - After saying that, Michael left.

"How dare you call my body a dried corpse? Fuck you."- Victor said and smelled his body- "Shit, he's right. I have to admit my body stinks. Gotta take a shower now."

When Michael walked to the door of the building, he heard the sound of fast footsteps echoing around here.

An invisible creature took advantage of the noise of crowded places to go inside, looking quite hasty. Suddenly in a moment of carelessness, he stepped on a half-drink can on the floor, causing the water inside to overflow and the can to flatten. He jerked his feet away, and a few seconds later he saw Michael walking toward him. The monster, realizing it was the guy that his master- Handaz- had warned him to be careful, so he stepped back quickly. But Michael approached him very quickly. When Michael stopped, the monster stopped, his heart pounding. Michael bent down to pick up a can of water on the ground, looked at it for a while, then threw it into the garbage basket near the door and left. The monster was deadly scared, muttering:

"Fortunately that guy hasn't found out, otherwise it would have been an awkward situation because I can't hit him in the crowd. I can't be negligent anymore, if the mission fails, it will make the master angry, he even will take my life to decrease his fury. Yeah, with bad visions like those, I don't have a nose to meet him again. Don't be hasty, Meleon, you have to be calm."

After reminding himself, Meleon continued to step inside. After passing the staff on duty at the entrance, he approached the area for special duty personnel, he searched every room in that area... With his ability to change colors in his body to suit the environment - a characteristic of geckos, he easily blends into the crowd and then finds the room he wants to find - the room to study and analyze the evidence...

He broke inside easily, then used his hands and feet to stick to the wall, and then slowly climbed up to the ceiling to avoid encountering the team of researchers below and easily observe the situation from down. Looking around for a while, he noticed the staff carrying something in a glass case. With his see-through ability, he realized it was what he was looking for, thinking:

"Bingo, I've found you, 'baby'. It's time for me to thank my master. I can't fail tomorrow."

And Michael, the moment he saw a can of the soft drink got squashed on the floor right in front of his eyes, made him rub his eyes with his hand and think:

"Oh my god, am I dizzy? The water can... just got squashed? Could it be… suppressed by gravity?"

Suddenly he saw the drops of water from the can on the floor begin to move across the floor in a long, interrupted trail. I think:

"The drops were as if dragged into a long, interrupted trail. I see, there's no doubt that Handaz's monster has infiltrated here for something, and he showed a frightened expression when I saw the water can get squashed. Then..."

He tried to appear calm, went to pick up a can of water in front of the monster as if he had no doubts, and looked at it for a few seconds, thinking:

"Of course it is. I'll pretend not to notice you, then secretly watch you from behind, and from there, I'll know what you're here for."

After making Meleon unsuspecting and walking away, he followed his footsteps through the water trails in his every move. Unexpectedly, they led him to the headquarters research room. I think:

"Oh. He seems to be looking for something in here. So what is he looking for? Wait, could it be… that thing?"

After lurking at the outer wall for a while and waiting, he saw the door of the study room open gently as if someone had pushed it open. This time he realized that the surface of the floor from the door had no more water stains, thinking:

"Dammit, I lost track of him. What should I do now?"

Suddenly from behind him, someone tapped him on the shoulder, which made him startled. That's Adam. With curiosity and a little discomfort when he saw Michael sneaking a glance towards the research room, he asked:

"Mr. Dragven, you have no business here. His behavior is quite suspicious. What are you doing here?"

Michael saw that he was being pressured, and immediately evaded:

"Oh, Adam... Long time no see. I just went to visit Victor, passing by here."

"Don't trick me. I saw you standing there for a long time with a sneaky as if you were watching someone."

"I am not following anyone. You misunderstood."

"Don't fool me. Are you planning to steal the device I confiscated from that cafe? I didn't expect you to be so brazen and thick-skinned, Michael?"

"I'm not that kind of person. Calm down."

"Since you left, I still have some respect for you because you are such a talented person, I didn't know how stupid I am when expected you to change yourself one day, but now I know. I will give you the final warning, if you intend to disrupt my investigation, I will not let it go, even if I have to put you in jail. Remember, I'm always watching you as a police officer."

"Now, even though I am no longer your senior, I am older than you, moreover, I stand here as a citizen, at least you should be soft-spoken and polite. I don't have to do the dirty work, I want you to hand it over to me yourself."

"First, I don't need someone like you to teach me, second, I won't give that thing to you. Does that mean you claim to be the one who turned into 'that weird thing' fighting monsters?"

"You will realize your mistake another day, Adam."

Then he left while thinking in his mind:

"So the death row inmate is not paranoid. He and that monster are preparing a prison break for some kind of conspiracy…"

Meanwhile, in the bathroom next to the cell, Victor had washed and was wiping himself with a towel. Suddenly the death row inmate came in from outside. Victor wrapped a towel around his body, he intended to ignore Jimmy and then walked out. Suddenly Victor watched his bar of soap fall to his place.

Although Victor didn't like him, he knew Jimmy intentionally dropped it, but he still lowered his ego and bent down to pick it up. Victor did not expect Jimmy to do it on purpose, Jimmy aimed to take it as an opportunity to kick Victor in the stomach to humiliate him. As a result, his kick made Victor roll over and hug his stomach in pain.

When he was laughing, Victor suppressed the pain, stood up and pushed him against the wall, raised his fist, and said:

"I've had enough of you. I can't stand your bad attitude anymore, you asshole. Take it."

But in the end, he just brought his fist close to Jimmy's face. Jimmy smiled and said:

"Why stop? What makes you hesitate?"

Victor put his hand down, thinking:

"This fist should only be used to defeat some monsters that attack people. If I did that to Jimmy, would I make myself like him?"

Suddenly Meleon came up behind him and sneaked a hit causing him to faint. Before fainting, Victor dimly saw the monster appear in front of Jimmy, telling him:

"Don't let this little guy humiliate you like that, Jimmy?"