The Innkeeper

Somewhere deep in the Sahara desert, a lone stranger was walking in the shade of a dune, following the directions of a strange compass. The compass did not point North, but was instead guiding the man towards something specific. Eventually the man reached a point where the compass pointed directly dowards. Not wasting any time, the man set up a tent at that exact location before entering. Once inside and out of view, he removed the needle of the compass and let it fall into the sand. The needle, as if sentient, began moving downward and the man followed using a spirit technique that let him traverse through the ground.

After a few minutes of going down he encountered a strange shield made of energy - formally known as a Formation - but the needle made a hole in the shield just large enough for the man to pass through.

Once inside the formation the man increased his descent speed until he reached an underground bunker. Once inside he removed the white cloth he had wrapped around his face, along with the other gear he was wearing and changed into some comfortable robes that he had brought with himself. Not wasting any time he moved deeper into the bunker to what looked like a conference room. All the seats in the conference room were already filled, mostly with holograms but a few with people actually present.

"Do you have the news?" one of the projected men asked.

"Yes yes," the robed man answered. "Plan A and B failed, however according to what I heard Plan C seems to have successfully passed the initial stage. Alexander has been poisoned and is retreating to Mars in an emergency vessel, probably to treat the poison. The Helen girl is dead, so for now they will turn their attention towards the Sigmund family. The infiltration was done cleanly, so there is no evidence that anyone outside of the Sigmund family contacted her. They will be the prime suspects, which should occupy all of the Morrison families attention. Greg Benice was also killed and even though the Benice family has no idea how he got involved in this, I'm sure they won't hesitate in handing over all of Greg's immediate family to the Morrisons and cooperating with their investigation completely. All-in-all, it should serve to waste more time. The Zeus Leventis kid however…he has disappeared for now. No one knows where he is, and the Leventis family has reacted unexpectedly. The current Leventis family head has left directly for Mars, his intentions are yet unknown but considering Zeus' role in the assassination, going directly to Mars is a bold play."

"If the Morrisons take their anger out on them it'll be great, but if they don't it still doesn't matter," said one of the holograms. "They're not connected to us in any way. What I'm curious about is how the A.D.F. matter will be handled? No one expected the kid to directly deploy troops on Earth, I can't even begin to imagine what he would have done had he not been poisoned. The reaction was too swift. We will need to be even more careful proceeding forward."

"I've already handled the matter. Some key personnel have been killed and it's been made to look like suicide. Upon investigation it'll look like they panicked when their plan failed and so took their own lives to hide their trail. No matter how it's investigated, it'll be a deadend. You do not need to waste your time fretting over these details. What matters now is that everyone begins their part in the plan. The top powers on Earth are too secretive, we still cannot figure out how or why, but in the last 200 years anyone who caused too much trouble on Earth has mysteriously vanished. Taking over Mars is our only chance for freedom…and our only chance to break through! There can't be any mistakes!"

"You don't need to tell me," said a lazy voice from a different hologram. "You've only been working here for a few years. We've been preparing for this from the day the Morrison family landed on Mars. As for the rest of you, we need to step up on recruitment…" the meeting continued as everyone in the room began coordinating on the different steps required for their plan. Unknown to everyone, the fate of billions was being decided casually in this bunker under the desert.

*****

Lex and Larry had gotten to know each other quite well in the few hours that they were together in the apartment. From him Lex had also learned a lot about the different organizations in the spirit world, along with correcting some misconceptions he had. For some reason, he always thought that joining an organization was like getting a job at a company. They would give him benefits but make him work in exchange. This was true for a lot of them, but not all. One in particular that aroused Lex's interest was called Ballor's Castle. This was an organization made by, and solely for rogue or lone cultivators. Their main purpose, first and foremost, was to provide protection to its members and then secondly it had a lot of miscellaneous services. Joining also had different levels. If you joined as a basic member, then as long as you were in the territory owned by Ballor's Castle, they would protect you regardless of who was your enemy, even ICPA. For this level of membership you weren't expected to do anything else, but they heavily promoted helping other members if you ever met them. For higher level members there were obviously more perks, but then of course you had to make a relevant level of contribution. This is what Lex found most interesting. The contribution could be in many forms, and thus it was very flexible. This organization was Internationally founded and had almost a dozen Golden Core leaders across the globe. It was something that could be very helpful to Lex, and he jotted down its name in case he ever wanted to join.

Larry had also learned a lot from Lex, though Lex sort of regretted sharing. At some point during Larry's incessant prodding Lex had let slip that he had only ever had one girlfriend, during his first year at college. The fact that Lex hadn't dated after that led Larry to weave a tale of a heartbroken Lex, forever pining after his one true love, lost to the materialist allure of modern society. Lex balked, but who had told him to share?

Eventually the conversation changed towards their self defense class, and then Marlo. This was when, for the first time in his life, Lex participated in gossip excitedly. The owner of Ultimate Fighting Fortress was Marlo's wife! It was apparently something that was commonly known but Lex had only found out through Tempest. Nobody knew why there was apparently such enmity between husband and wife, and Larry shared a few outlandish stories he had heard online. The hours went by quickly and the two did not even notice their growing friendship, until late at night when Blue Bird released another broadcast ending the house arrest and returning things to normal. Reluctantly Larry left, for he had much work he needed to do. Oddly enough, Lex found that he had enjoyed the company of the over enthusiastic fellow. But there was no reluctance on his part, he couldn't wait for Larry to leave. He did not miss the new addition to his MP, and he was practically dying to upgrade his Inn!