https://youtu.be/bukQCWazDec

Inigo knew good and well what he was going to do today. Curious as he always was, he had a little investigation to do. He hoped Libera wouldn't attack him, but given her luck, he really wasn't betting on that. For now, this frail hope was all he had.

Two days had passed since he met Iago, and having him around was certainly a different experience. With his constant talking, Inigo could barely focus on his thoughts regarding his memories, but at least fighting Libera the other day was easier with him around - even if he kept trying to kill them, leaving it on Inigo's head to stop him. It was annoying, and to say nothing of how shady the guy was.

Today, he dressed in a long, lavender jacket, which was closed with claw buttons, and topped off with his signature scarf. His lower half was covered entirely in light grey. As he made his way to the Java Hole this morning, he held a small piece of paper, frowning slightly and squinting at the handwriting on it that was in such fancy cursive that it actually made it harder to read. But he just about managed, and it read something most infuriating.

"Good morrow, my dear Joker!

I do hope you had a restful night! I certainly did - enough so that I have awakened early! And before you, in like manner!

I don't suppose you know what this means, so let me break it down for you - I, Iago, have outsmarted you and taken a head-start!

You wished to investigate Ruben, correct? Then I shall be there! And should any members of Libera catch my eye, then they WON'T be there...for long.

Catch me if you can, my dear Lenahan!

Yours sincerely,

Iago."

"...that reckless idiot." Inigo growled, tightening his grip on the paper before he calmed down, taking a deep breath as he put the note away. At least Iago wasn't leading him away from Ruben. But what was he thinking? "...guess I'm bailing him out from the authorities."

Alternatively, Iago might prompt some covert action from Libera, that the two of them might just be able to spot. Either way, it necessitated that he get there, ASAP. So, he pulled out his phone and entered the group chat that Azurine had invited him to the other day, entering the following message;

"Hey, I'm going to Ruben today. Iago's being stupid and I've gotta save him."

While he did that, he walked around, keeping his eyes on his phone as he awaited a response. One came in due time, from none other than Azurine herself:

"but you went there yesterday!"

"why would he go there of all places?"

"it just doesn't compute"

"Because he's an idiot, obviously."

"Why don't you guys just turn him in to the authorities? Wouldn't that be so much less trouble?"

"Well, I actually asked Azurine about that a few weeks ago."

"Iago's definitely troublesome, but he's also one of the few factors keeping Libera in check, you know?"

"Who knows how dangerous they could get if he wasn't around to make them scared of him?"

"better the devil you know!"

"Why do I feel like this is going to backfire on us spectacularly?"

"because you wouldn't know optimism if it shot you in the side and asked you to join its vigilante group!"

"Clever."

"Didn't you shoot me in the head?"

"oh, semantics!"

Inigo narrowed his eyes, staring at the screen as he wondered if she was allergic to capital letters. Shaking his head, he frowned slightly before watching Silas typing. Hopefully, he could bring a little more sanity to this discussion.

"So, you're going to Ruben? Sure you don't need a watchful guardian to look over you?"

"You don't need to come, and it's best to cover more ground."

"Hah, good point."

"Alright, then, I guess I'll be in Aurum."

"I've got a sneaking suspicion that Libera will be there."

"alright, then it's all set!"

"be back at eight, guys!"

"spectrums, move out!"

Inigo closed the group chat, only to open Azurine's contact and begin typing. He was already destined for Ruben, so he might as well...

"Hey, you mentioned having a friend in Ruben the other day, right?"

"Who is he?"

"oh, his name's Jude."

Ah, so she could at least capitalise names. Good to know.

"why do you ask?"

"I want to probe the town a little while I'm there, and get a good picture of what's going on."

"An insider perspective would be good for that, and I feel like I can trust your buddy Jude."

"right. he's fully freesian, so he's got dark skin"

"he's got blond hair, but he's no idiot"

"his eyes are purple"

"you'll probably find him at the church"

"Thanks."

Before Azurine could respond to this, Inigo put his phone in his pocket, humming to himself as he began speed-walking in the direction of Ruben. He was a man on a mission, after all, and he wasn't exactly ready to leave it unfinished. He hadn't gleaned much useful information in his walk there yesterday, after all. So he strolled over to the exit by the town marketplace and took the long road ahead, recognising the alleyway where he'd fought the Caricatures recently, and looked ahead.

.........

https://youtu.be/kvhEYbzToK4

"Welcome to Ruben Town." read the sign by the entrance. After a few dozen minutes worth of walking, Inigo had finally arrived at the red-bricked settlement of Ruben. Seeing all the beautiful houses and the warm red hues gave him a slight sense of comfort - but that went away once he saw the people living among them.

Despite their fire-red surroundings, seeing the paranoid looks on their faces filled him with a deep chill. Some of them were piercing straight through his soul, and he figured this was for a good reason. Some stranger shows up to your crime-ruled town one day, starts silently poking around without any indication as to what he's looking for, and the next day he just up and does it again. He was acutely aware how suspicious he looked right now, but that wasn't the point.

There were two things he needed to find right now - Iago and a church. Iago's appearance and general personality told Inigo that being in a church would turn him to ash, so he figured he'd have to prioritise one over the other. Iago was the one in possible danger, so he was the more urgent of the two. And he was fairly striking, so he didn't really think it would take much to spot him.

As he looked around, finding the constantly prying eyes on him to be somewhat irritating, he couldn't help detecting a certain presence nearby - a familiar one. He narrowed his eyes, walking through the streets while eyeing everyone around him, well aware that the distrustful abyss that he gazed into only gazed back. But that didn't stop him from making out that someone was following him.

As he went deeper into the town, he found a most curious string of events happening around him. While he was walking around, he was met with a strange-looking man who insisted on holding him up and talking to him. Having used a con like this the other day, he couldn't help but remain on-guard - which was good, otherwise he wasn't sure if he would have dodged the exploding television that fell from directly above him. From then on, he was met with all sorts of peril that he was sure hadn't been there yesterday. A chainsaw murderer who came charging at him out of nowhere, a conspicuous puddle of gasoline right round a corner, a bomb hidden inside a florist's that still had people inside it - note to self; shrapnel was painful - and a restaurant suddenly setting ablaze while he was walking past it. This caused many of the surrounding buildings to spontaneously catch fire, and much to his consternation, he felt responsible for putting them out with his water magic. And still no sign of Iago.

He continued to look around, finding a somewhat more secluded part of town - one of the exits was visible at the other end and led to a multicoloured field - to search in. There were people, yes, but they were mostly content to ignore their surroundings and go about their lives, entering buildings and going on their own walks. He figured if Iago was going to murder someone, he would do it here. And he figured if he was going to expose his follower without making a scene of it, why not here?

Quickly, he vanished into a nearby alleyway, spotting a few men giggling among themselves with strange-looking cigarettes in hand up ahead, not having noticed him. Deciding this was not his circus and not his monkeys to wrangle, he climbed up the side of one building, crawling onto the maroon-coloured rooftop and dusting off his trousers before he darted off, engaging in his usual parkour in order to do some recon.

His follower had been behind him - that much he could tell. Where, though, he couldn't say he was sure. They must've been good at hiding. But whether their stealth skills could surpass his acuity was yet to be seen. So he moved quietly from rooftop to rooftop, silently wishing he owned any red clothes so he could feel like he was blending in. But that wasn't important.

He continued to move as quickly as he could, and eventually spotted a suspect, whose red garbs made her seem at home here, but who he'd recognise all the same - female, with long blonde hair and pink eyes, svelte and fair, and dressed in clothes that were very light for this time of year. Indeed, her cropped shirt and matching shorts exposed her midriff and legs. If nothing else, she was a good guess - especially since, given her confused expression and the way she eyed her surroundings, she seemed to be looking for something. Or someone. Time to find out.

He quietly crept along the rooftops, keeping Scarlett in his crosshairs until he reached the building nearest to her. She still seemed to be looking for him, so he jumped down, landing in front of her and causing her to recoil in shock. He stood up straight, giving her a casual little wave while she regained her bearings. "Hey, stalker."

"O-Oh, uh, hey..." Scarlett stammered slightly, giving him a smile and exuding a positive, lighthearted front. "...stalkee."

Inigo raised an eyebrow, seeing right through her veneer of confidence, and shook his head, placing a hand on his hip. "Gathering intel for Libera, are you?"

"Hey, keep it down!" Scarlett held a finger to her lips, causing his eyebrow to raise further. He sighed, deciding to let her have this.

"...sure."

At that, the blonde sighed in relief, smiling as she stepped closer to him. "Now, uh, this wasn't for...y'know, them..." she said, shaking her head. "I just saw you poking around, and I wanted to talk! But maybe I could give you a little scare first."

"Talk about what?" Inigo questioned, watching her begin to walk and beckoning him to follow, which he did.

"Well, firstly, I wanted to warn you." she said, seriousness in her voice. "You're in Ruben, after all. I'm sure you've heard the rumours?"

"That you guys have taken over?"

"That Libera's taken over, yes." Scarlett confirmed, looking back at him with a nod. "I wanted to warn you because...well, the guy in charge of that is Galileo."

"Ah, yes, you told me about him." Inigo said. "Said he'd make a barbecue out of me, if I recall."

"...yeah. He's pretty merciless." Scarlett admitted, letting out a small, plastic laugh as she slowed down to allow Inigo to catch up to her while they walked up towards a gas station, with a half-dozen cars lined up within it. "And, well, you're in his town...and Libera's looking for you...and he knows what you look like..."

"Thanks to you?"

"Thanks to me, yes." Scarlett sighed, a frown on her face that Inigo found seemed more genuine than her usual smile. "Point is, you're in danger. And I wasn't sure how aware you were of that. There's no telling what lengths Galileo will stoop to in order to win."

"Sounds like an asshole." Inigo noted. "I've been a touch unluckier than usual since I entered this town. Wonder if he had anything to do with that..."

https://youtu.be/it-aPlgTbfI

Scarlett hummed, musing on this as she wondered exactly how many of her father's traps Inigo had been inconvenienced by today. She'd heard the explosion, at least, so she knew he'd managed to make it out of the florist alive. As she remained deep in thought, they made it in front of the gas station, and her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the discordant blaring of multiple car horns, in a tune vaguely similar to the opening notes of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. And as all the car engines began to start up, Scarlett's eyes widened as she remembered Galileo's most dangerous trap.

"Inigo, we've gotta get out of here!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!"

Inigo, after a moment's confusion, was already ready to go, but Scarlett was quicker to respond, grabbing onto his hand and beginning to make a break for it. Meanwhile, the cars in the station quickly lit themselves ablaze, while a stray car nearby did the same, recklessly turning around before it drove straight into the station. Both Inigo and Scarlett were light on their feet, and managed to hastily escape just in time for the sound of a collision.

In the few seconds that remained, Inigo, while running, had managed to look back to see that the stray car had driven straight into the station, uncaring for its surroundings. That was all he could tell before the whole station went up in a mighty eruption of white flames - an explosion that consumed the entire station and all the cars in it in an instant. The heat could be felt by both of them, who were nearly blown away by the force even with the distance between them and what was once the gas station.

And now, only ashes remained, along with the barely-conscious, shield-shattered drivers trying to crawl away - though a couple of them seemingly hadn't made it. Inigo and Scarlett stared wide-eyed at the scene, startled at what they'd seen - and evidently, they weren't the only ones in shock. Surprisingly, Inigo was the first to react after about ten seconds of stunned silence.

"...what the FUCK?"

Scarlett, taking a deep breath, stepped forth and placed a hand on Inigo's shoulder, looking at him with a shaky little smile. "...I did say he'd do anything..."

"No fucking shit." Inigo growled, shaking his head and slowly calming down. "What the hell is wrong with him?"

Scarlett shrugged, frowning slightly before moving her hand away from him, and he looked at her with a sigh. "...in any case, thanks for warning me." he murmured. "You could've just abandoned me, right?"

Scarlett simply nodded at that, deciding not to verbally respond to that, and stepped away from him. "I...guess this is probably my cue to leave." she said. "Good luck, Inigo. I think you'll need it."

"Where are you going?"

"Away. Probably back into the town." she said, looking around the area to see that people had already began evacuating. "If Galileo sees me with you...there's a good chance we'll both be in danger for it. This is for the best."

"Makes sense..." Inigo murmured, looking at the field by the exit, still feeling a little shaken but managing to keep it together. As he looked back at Scarlett, watching her leave, he then called out to her, having suddenly remembered his objective. "Hey, hold on!"

"Hmm?"

"Are you familiar with a man named Iago?"

He was sure she was. She was a ranking member of Libera, so surely she would know of the guy who killed off legions of her men. And sure enough, she nodded at him in response. "Yeah...he's kind of Libera's enemy."

"I'm looking for him. You seen him?"

"Not today..." Scarlett murmured, shaking her head. "Knowing him, though, maybe you should check Luster Street? It has a lot of alleys..."

"For an enemy, you're pretty helpful." Inigo noted, wondering if it would be at all customary to repay her for her aid. "Thanks, Scarlett."

"If you're really grateful, you should take me out to dinner." she teased in return, waving at him before walking away for real. "Later, Inigo!"

"I'll consider it if I find you again." Inigo replied, watching her take her leave while returning her wave with his own small, half-assed one. Unbeknownst to him, as she heard his words, a phantom of a smile crept onto her face.

Now, he was alone once again, and all he could think of was his list of objectives for today. First, find Iago before Libera could seriously harm him, or vice versa. He wasn't sure if they could, but regardless, it was better safe than sorry. Next, find Jude. He was probably in the church. Inigo had never been overly religious - in fact, he was sure the gods hated him, and the feeling was mutual.

"People like us...we make a lot of enemies, don't we?" the scientist's voice resounded in his head. "But adversity is no excuse to back down."

Hearing the scientist's words of encouragement reminded him of his last objective - survive. That was all. If today's events had taught him anything, it was that Libera was not fucking around. It was a manhunt, but he wasn't going to back away. So he walked away, moving in the direction of Luster Street, a serious look on his face.

"Game on, Galileo."