Style, sitting on the cold chair, still crying; she had become overwhelmed by crying. Of course, how'd you be calm in the situation of death and life, wouldn't you, the same case is with Style, she had no answers, It was obvious that those who are marked to death will die and this had happened to many people several times in the past, especially those who messed up with the priests. The Oracle priests.
Yeah heard the right, the Oracle priests—Everyone says the priests believe Oracle clockwork is a divine resource, owned by the Eternal Gear and managed by them. Their HUD masks with "minute hand and hour hand" are symbols of this power, and the ticking tattoos are their tool to enforce it, as seen with Style's punishment.
The Oracle Clockwork is located in the heart of the F1, surrounded by large buildings adorned with neon lights and big Cartridge CCTV surveillance to ensure that there are no intruders. These buildings are just for the priests—the stro, longer ones and cartridges who protect the Clockwork from outside; they have better control over the powers of Cartridges.
Style, frustrated from crying over and over again, wiped the tears from his face with a towel. She was now alone in the basement, and Kassay had gone for Topin, another member of the CHG group.
She stood from the chair after calming herself for a moment and the suit looked like a complex bracer/glove unit and backpack piece. She went closer to it and took out the Golden Cartridge with a glowing cog inside shimmering in her hands, its touch warm, pulsing with electric grit.
She didn't show Kassay the Golden cartridge; instead, she just told him about it. Her condition was so overwhelming that she even forgot about everything else for a moment.
Frustrated, she grappled with the cartridge, trying to open it, but the mechanism wouldn't budge. "Damn, why is it not opening… wait, I remember the red priest calling it a holy… what does that even mean?" she muttered, confusion clouding her thoughts.
Before she could delve deeper into her worries, a loud thud echoed from the entrance of the basement.
To her surprise, it was Kassay making an emergency entrance and sliding into the basement. His spectacles tumbled to the floor, but he quickly retrieved them, adjusting them back on his nose.
"Dag, Style, you're famous all over the city! We're exposed to the Priests here. We need to hurry and get out! Activate your suit and stash all the important stuff in your inventory!" he urged, urgency compelling his words.
In the next moment, he was in his Cartridge power suit, putting his hands in the gauntlet of two cartridges
Kassay's gauntlets hissed, cartridges snapping into slots with a metallic clank. Steam roared, and deep-blue armour surged over him like a tide—Aeris Fang, silent and deadly. Obsidian claws slid from his forearms, talons gleaming for blood. Across his back, crystalline daggers pulsed, ready to freeze flesh or erupt in fire. His chest's hexagonal core thrummed, blue mist curling like a storm's breath, raw mana fueling his moves.
Style's heart pounded, and the tattoos ticked a relentless drum. She deactivated the suits into cartridges, slammed her cartridges into her gauntlets, and Spider-Wrath ignited—black plates snapping tight, cables coiling like vipers. Steam burned her nose, sharp and alive. Her suit hummed for chaos, built for mid-air strikes and explosive rage.
They put the important materials—the empty cartridges, wires…— in their inventory, though Kassay had a broader inventory. And they gradually flew from the basement.
The cartridge's powers were really useful, though they had middle-tier cartridges.
Actually, the powers in the City-F1 were solely dependent on the Cartridges. The cartridges were divided into three tiers: Lower tier(artefact-powers infused with plasma energy), Middle tier(elemental suit powers with some additional benefits including artefact-powers), and Upper tier(the most powerful having an elite control over each elemental power including lower tier powers there are further ranks in Upper tier).
Kassay's suit—known as Aeris Fang— generally focuses on precision, versatility, and stealth tech; meanwhile, Style's suit—also as Spider-Wrath—focuses on agility, explosive offence, and mid-air dominance.
With a hiss, their suits flared, cables and mist lifting them through the basement's hatch. City-F1's neon blazed outside, LED screens flashing Style's suit with a 1-billion-dollar bounty. The Oracle priests' ticks echoed in her mind—time was their god, and she was their prey. They soared to the water port, landing hard in a rusted container's shadow. Silence fell, heavy as steam.
"Did they see your face?" Kassay asked.
"Nah, they did not see me, I was in the suit,"
Kassay sighed.
All of a sudden.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK