The Hallow Harvest Festival - Stage 1

“... what the hell?”

Daizuki glanced down at the tablet in his hand, the holographic screen displaying an urgent mission message. The red figure beside him turned around, interest piqued by the sudden cursing.

“Hmm? Somethin’ up, Dai?” Strawberry asked curiously.

“Yeah. Solaris has come out with a new mission. Urgent, says the post.”

“What? Really? Here, lemme see that.”

And with that, the tablet was snatched from Daizuki’s hands, and found its way in Strawberry’s. He scanned the message briefly while the older male scoffed, crossing his arms.

“A colony which was originally known to us as… Hollowveil?” Strawberry paused, looking over at his best friend, as if asking what Hollowveil was. However, he didn’t know, either. “... has been picked up by our feedback signals.”

The pink male pointed out a footnote towards the end of the summary. “Right. Ryo also added a note at the bottom. You should read that, too.”

“Right, right.” Strawberry swiped the screen up, pulling the footnote up. “Ryo here, if you're looking to take on this large-scale mission. Send a results-report to ⁠the mission-results tab with details on who you are, why you're going, what assets you can bring to this journey and if you're bringing anyone else with you.”

Silence filled the nearly empty forest that the duo was camping in. The two men stared at each other, one with shock, while the other had a deadpan expression.

“You know what this means, right?”

Strawberry was the first one to break the silence.

“Naturally. As heroics, it’s our responsibility to tend to urgent missions. We shouldn’t put off going to Hollowveil, no matter if we don’t know what it is. Ryo also mentioned that it’s a ‘large-scale mission’, so who knows if there’ll be enough people.”

For a moment, Strawberry thought to himself. ‘If it’s a mission this large, then… surely, we can bring others, right?’

“Hey, what if we bring together the others?”

“Others?”

Daizuki raised an eyebrow, confused. ‘What does he mean by the others?’

And then it hit him. The others. Members of the former syndicate that he was a part of years ago.

“You mean.. Aquila? But it’s been years. Majority of us are either traveling in pairs or soloists. Hell, Peep’s running her own syndicate. I don’t think she’ll come with us.”

“And? It’s not like it’s a bad thing. You said so yourself, who knows if there’ll be enough people.”

The pink figure sighed, knowing that he couldn’t change his best friend’s mind. Once Strawberry made up his mind, nothing could change it.

“... fine.”

Strawberry smiled widely, his sharp teeth revealing themselves as he started typing away at Daizuki’s tablet.

“If you’re going to contact everyone else, use your own tablet. I don’t want them to think I missed them,” Daizuki grumbled, snatching his phone back. However, Strawberry laughed.

“Bah! They’ll know. You’re just a softie at heart~!” He teased. Daizuki, however, was not impressed, and only sent the other male a death glare.

“Okay okay, fine! I’ll use my own.”

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“It hasn’t been easy with the syndicate, y’know? I just…”

Peep sighed as she leaned her head against the bed’s headboard, staring up at the ceiling. Cherry, meanwhile, was sitting at the edge of the bed, unnaturally worried over the zephyr.

“If Startrix is really taking a toll on you, you know my offer still stands. I can fill in for you while you take a break.”

“It’s not that, Cherry. Just… I don’t know. It doesn’t feel like Aquila. I know, I shouldn’t be reminiscing about those days, but still.”

An uncomfortable silence settled between the two best friends, before Peep broke it.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have started a syndicate.”

“What? But-”

“Look, don’t get me wrong. I love my members, and I value each of them for their personalities and what they bring to the team. But it’s not like Aquila. I miss you guys. I really do.”

The Sorian inhaled deeply. She wasn’t used to having to take a serious role, especially with Peep. However, she knew she had to say something, otherwise the zephyr would have thought about making an irreversible decision.

“Just because Startrix isn’t Aquila doesn’t mean you should give up on them. Sure, they’re different people, but everyone is. You can’t expect to always stay close with people from years ago. The members of Startrix are different people, as are we. You can’t treat them like you treated us back those years ago. This is your chance to make some new friends. If you open up to them about how you feel, I’m sure they’ll understand. You just have to be honest with them, and make an attempt to get to know them better.”

Peep let out another deep sigh. She didn’t say another word.

“On the other hand, just because we’ve split up as a syndicate doesn’t mean we can’t meet up. We can always plan to get togeth-”

Bzzzzzzzt!

The sound of Cherry’s tablet ringing disturbed her from her speech, causing her to huff and roll her eyes, but she checked it regardless.

“... Strawberry???”

Peep sat up from her hotel bed, eyes wide open.

“Why’s he calling?”

“I dunno, lemme answer.”

Once she accepted the call, all that was visible was Strawberry’s face being close to his tablet’s camera.

“Cherry! Finally, you picked up. I’ve called you, like, four times now!”

“Sorry! I was talking to Peep. What’s up?”

“Check your messages on the mission board’s app. I sent you a mission I think you’ll like.”

Cherry did as she was told, opening the app and checking her messages. There, she saw the title of the mission she would ‘like’: The Hallow Harvest Festival- Stage 1: First Contact.

“What’s this?”

“Just read it! And hurry!”

Peep crawled towards Cherry, peering over the taller woman’s shoulder to read alongside her. The two read silently, with Peep finally having a small smile on her face.

“We’ll join, Jerry!”

“Wh-huh-? But Peep-?!”

“Whoa? Did you two swap personalities or something?” Strawberry questioned, noticing that Peep was smiling, while Cherry was hesitating.

“No! It’s more like… we had a serious talk when you called. But.. yeah, we’ll take it. Yeah… yeah, we’ll do it!” Cherry looked over at Peep, who tackled her into a hug.

“Great! Daizuki and I’ll meet you up in Solaria. We just need to contact Mango, and see if she’ll come with us.”

As Strawberry ended the video call, Cherry glanced up at her best friend.

“Peep, you’re so lucky this mission came up.”

𓈒    ﹒   ☆        𓂂  ˚    ☆       ꙳    *     ࣭      ࣭

“Almost- there!” Mango groaned, squeamish that her dress was squeezing her form.

“You know, you don’t have to do this. You don’t need to dress so formally. We’re just signing off the legal papers with your mom for adoption,” Rip-Off pointed out as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.

“But Mom’s finally adopting you! I’ve been begging for years, but you’re finally old enough that we can adopt you. I should at least look nice when we go!” Mango whined as she finally zipped up the tight dress. It was a beautiful burgundy red mermaid dress, but a size too small.

“Remind me why you had to get a smaller size?”

“That stupid dress store didn’t have any in my size, so I had to size down.”

Rip-Off only shrugged before noticing that Mango’s tablet was vibrating. He picked it up and noticed it was a call from Daizuki.

“Hey, Mango? Daizuki’s calling.”

“Hmm? Why?”

“I dunno. Did you want me to pick up?”

“Yeah, answer him.”

Swiping to the left, Rip-Off accepted the call. Daizuki appeared rather impatient, an annoyed expression evident on his face. “Rip-Off, is Mango with you?” He asked, noticing that she wasn’t in-frame.

“Yeah, she’s here listening. Do you need her for something?”

“Listen. I’ve sent a message to her inbox on the mission board’s app. It’s an urgent mission released by the Solaris organization themselves. Some place called Hollowveil was recently picked up by feedback signals. Solaris wants us to go investigate and see what’s the matter. Strawberry already talked to Peep and Cherry, and they’re coming. You two are in. We’ll see you in Solaria when we get there.”

Then, the Osaveilian ended the call without another word.

‘Yeesh. Didn’t even give us an option,’ Rip-Off thought as he put the tablet down, looking over at Mango. Strangely enough, she didn’t seem to perk up at the mission. Rather, she was lost in thought.

“Mango? You okay?” The Illuminate asked, poking at her shoulder.

“Huh? OH- yeah, I’m fine!” Mango smiled as she lost her train of thought. She peered at her dress, and then Daizuki and Strawberry’s location: Mystus.

“Well, looks like we need to hold off on those adoption papers, Rip-Off. They’re not that far behind. We need to get ready.”

“Right.”

Rip-Off nodded, eye closing as he sighed. He felt a hand on his shoulder, but he brushed it off. Instead, he hugged Mango.

“Do you think we’ll be fine, Mango?”

“Well, duh! Over half of us are gladiators. We can kick ass! We’ll be safe, Rip-Off. I promise.”

Mango smiled softly as she enveloped Rip-Off in a hug, gently patting his back.

“Okay, can you help me take this stupid dress off? I literally can’t breathe.”