-ARC 2-

  -THE ROUND TABLE-

  -START-

  When Arthur stepped out of the other side of the portal, it took him a second to keep up with the environment. First of all, it wasn’t some dingy basement that he had expected. Neither was it some massive headquarters building with a hundred different Arthurs roaming around every corridor. No. It was just the Moon.

  On the Moon, covered by a massive glass dome that spanned an area almost half the size of the city he lived in, was a community with small buildings everywhere. He could breathe like normal, walk like normal, and perform every single human function that he was required to do. The moment it all set in, he even tried jumping once to see if he wouldn’t fly up a bit higher. And while that did happen, which meant the gravity wasn’t one-to-one with Earth, it was still massively reduced.

  “You controlled gravity.” He whispered.

  “Love, my friend, love.” Vil nodded and kept walking.

  “We…didn’t do this.” Elle noted, taking off his sunglasses and putting them back in his pockets as he took a deep breath and spread his arms, “But, ah, to be back home once more. I love this place!”

  Arthur noticed a few people roaming around the buildings. Whether they were just standing there and talking to each other, or walking from one place to another, it was as if this were just another small city. He couldn’t see what the buildings even were, which meant he still didn’t know if this was a proper city or just a scientific effort. Regardless, it was way too cool.

  “That’s Earth.” Dee whispered as they started walking.

  Arthur took a look at what he meant and noticed a small chunk of rock flying in space outside the dome. He thought it was small, but it was probably large enough to crush this entire settlement and leave it as a speck on the massive crater it would create. Space was weird. But either way, he wasn’t that surprised. Humans would never immediately migrate to the moon without the Earth being in dire condition. Otherwise, the species as a whole would never have enough motivation to even try.

  “I’m guessing this is not a scientific endeavor, then. Just the survivors?”

  “Correct. Just the survivors. The place has a population of about two thousand. There is a strict policy for population control because of the limited resources.” Dee explained as they reached the main street of the town.

  A few people waved at the dragon while two kids ran over and immediately hopped on his back. With a gentle laugh, Dee kept walking and explaining things about the place.

  “The farmers prepare food two years in advance because it takes a while for it to grow under special conditions. And then there is a very long processing procedure all of it needs to go through to become edible. Either way, it is turning out well for them. And, obviously, there is no Arthur Cross in this universe. He died when Earth exploded.”

  “The Earth…exploded?” Arthur looked back at the chunk of it floating around, “I guess that’s true. But how did that even happen?”

  “We don’t know.” Elle joined the conversation, “Something about the core being messed with and all that. It grew very hot and just expanded or something. Don’t ask us. We’re not smart enough to know.”

  “But how do you like Maria so far?” Vil asked, “Isn’t it a beautiful, most glorious little kingdom?”

  “Maria, huh?”

  He looked at the rock under his feet. It was indeed quite dark. The original name of this place was probably something longer and more complex, but the regular folk living here had eventually brought it down to Maria. Scientists weren’t exactly known for giving things very accessible and normal names, so it was always left to the citizens to do that. Arthur preferred it like this anyway. Gave it much more personality.

  And now that he truly paid attention by being closer, all of the buildings, their looks, and their names were clearly inspired by old western frontier towns. There was a doctor’s clinic, a saloon, and a lot of other wooden buildings, including a sheriff’s office. There were probably one or two people in there. And with a population of two thousand, that was almost all they needed.

  Maria, the Western Frontier Town on the Moon.

  Somehow, it made sense. Maybe it would not have made sense 48 hours ago, but the logic certainly had no issues or lapses right now. There was a dragon on the moon, so why not a Western setting to live in. The only thing he didn’t see were any rabbits, but maybe they were hiding somewhere deep underground.

  “So, where are we going?” He asked.

  “Right there.”

  Elle pointed to a building at the corner of the settlement. It was sleek, modern, and rounded – the exact opposite of everything else. He didn’t know why they had to go with something that stuck out, but it did look good. And it fit the vibe of the moon much better, if he was being honest. The first thoughts in his mind when he saw it, though, were none of those. It was the feeling that he had seen this place somewhere before.

  As they got closer and the shape of the building became more concrete in his mind, dots started to connect. Dee yawned and walked over to the side of the building, where a massive garage door opened for him to walk in. The children hopped off, waved him goodbye, and walked away. At the same time, the other three went to the large double doors leading inside and pushed them open.

  “Holy shit.”

  The interiors were terrible. But that was not what made him say that. It was an honest reaction because he finally understood just why this place had felt so familiar. There was a warm, yellow-tinted light everywhere instead of white, and the place was littered with random furniture like sofas, tables, chairs, a television, and even a projector instead of well-arranged equipment. But the base layout was the same.

  This was the same building as the research laboratory, which he was taken to after levelling up. Of course, that was in a completely different universe and a completely different planet, but still. It creeped him out.

  “What? Yeah, I know, it’s kind of ugly, but that’s alright! I mean, home is where the heart is, right? And the heart is right there on that couch when I put on masterpiece after masterpiece films and watch them three at a time, yeah?”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Pray, let us watch the one with the ring once more. I quite like the old, bearded man in that one. What was it called, again?”

  “Finally, a good idea, Vil. Finally, something right came out of that mouth. Yes, we totally should watch The Lord of the Rings for the tenth time. It is always worth it.”

  “Elle…” Dee popped into the house from the side and stayed in a small cut-off section, which was large enough for him. As he plopped down and looked at the three of them through the opening between their sides, he said a single word, “Arcadia.”

  The suited man groaned and spun around before crashing down on one of the couches, “Yes, I know. I know, just shut up. Let me think things through before she gets here, alright?”

  “No, I meant she is already here.”

  Arthur looked up as soon as the dragon said that and noticed someone walking toward them. Through wide corridors very similar to the ones he had been running through just a few hours ago, appeared a woman. She had her long, black hair loose, and it ran all the way to her stomach. Otherwise, her face and left hand had multiple scars all over them. Her right hand, meanwhile, was a robotic prosthetic.

  She was wearing a gray tank top and white jeans, carrying a carton of milk in one hand and a bowl presumably containing cereal in the other. As soon as she sat them, she stopped and yawned for a second, and then continued walking. The moment she reached the room, she turned her eyes towards Elle and spoke up,

  “You’re back, you dumbfuck? Why didn’t you take another day or so? Go on, hop around in some fields and jump around with Celia a bit more.”

  Then, as if it were a completely normal thing to do, she lifted the hand with the carton of milk and threw it at the man. Elle did not even try to dodge it. As the carton hit him and spilled the milk all over his body, he sighed, took out his sunglasses, and put them on with a smile on his face.

  “Arthur, meet the boss. This is Arcadia, and she’s also Arthur Cross.”

  Arcadia groaned and looked at him. As their eyes met, she grinned and put her prosthetic hand up, “What’s up? What’s your name?”

  “Uh…Arhtur Cross…”

  “Of course it fucking is. Why did you reply?”

  She sighed and walked back the way she had come, taking a turn and disappearing deeper into the base once more.

  “What do you think?” Elle picked up the half-empty carton from the sofa and walked all the way to a trash can lying in the corner of the room.

  Throwing it inside, he wiped the milk from his hair and then his face. Once that was relatively clean, he adjusted his sunglasses once more. Vil, meanwhile, had completely ignored the entire exchange and was now sitting right in front of the massive screen for the projector. He was trying his best to press buttons on a remote and turn it on, but seemed a little confused about how it all worked.

  The dragon looked at Arthur and shook his head, “Ignore it, Arthur. She’s just in a bad mood because we came in late.”

  “Isn’t food…scarce over here?”

  “Oh no, we don’t buy any food from here.” Elle explained as he sat back down in his milk-soaked suit, “We aren’t allowed to do anything like that. It was, like, one of the clauses for allowing us to make this base over here. So, we just go and grab some stuff from other universes whenever we need to. Quite stocked for now.”

  “And the milk does not go bad?”

  “Nah, it doesn’t. We got a whole cow in the back for that. And also, these cartons are, like, some weird version with preservatives of a space station. It does not go bad for months on end. Technology is the shit, huh?”

  Arcadia appeared in the corridor once more with another carton of milk in her hands. Along with that, she was also carrying a towel and a plastic bag. Once she reached the room, she threw the towel and the bag towards Elle, and he happily grabbed them. The boss, on the other hand, walked to the table and sat down with her breakfast.

  “Vil, don’t you dare put on Lord of the Rings. I will murder you.”

  She hissed at the knight. In return, he just laughed it off and kept playing with the remote anyway. Looking at him struggling, she just poured some milk into her cereal and declared,

  “On second thought, if you manage to turn it on, then I don’t mind The Two Towers.”

  “Precisely! I shall get done with this battle soon, and we shall all enjoy the antics of the large, walking tree people.”

  Elle took the towel and wiped his hair, face, and suit with it. Then, he took out a small plastic packet of small brown-coloured balls and took four of them out. He put one of them in the pocket of his pants, one in his shirt, and one in his blazer. The last one, he put through his shirt directly on his skin.

  “They basically make things pristine again.” Arcadia looked at the confused Arthur and explained, “Concentrated, nanobot-based cleaning agents from another universe. Take a seat, come on. I’ll explain some things to you.”

  Arthur quietly walked over to the chair she had kicked away from him. As he did, Elle’s hair stood up all by itself and fell again. When it did, it looked a million times better than it had over the last day. With clean clothes, he stood up and walked over to the television table. Bending down, he took out a notebook from the drawers and then headed over to the table.

  Once both of them sat down, he took out a pen attached to the notebook and started scribbling as he explained.

  “We got both Johnny and Lana. He’s dead, and she’s…in Dee’s pen over there. Managed to capture her.”

  Arcadia coughed, and some of the milk spilled over as her spoon hit the bowl. Then, she looked at Elle, “You captured one of them?”

  “Yeah, the universe is kind. God is good. Heaven is in reach. What can I say?”

  “How many of them have you killed?” Arthur asked.

  Arcadia laughed, “Oh, none. We haven’t killed any. Until now, I guess. Johnny’s dead, so that sucks. But otherwise, they just keep cycling. There are thirteen assassins we know of, and they appear here and there. Or I guess it’s eleven now.”

  “Twelve.” Dee added, “We did not get a look at this new one, but it was someone using a Pure Tech model with an electricity blast skill.”

  “Ooh. That’s new. Add that too, dimwit.” Arcadia tapped on the table, and Elle begrudgingly agreed. As soon as Arcadia looked down to take another bite of her cereal, he made a face and mocked her before continuing to write in the notebook.

  “So…go on.”

  “What?”

  Arthur noticed that Arcadia was talking to him, but wasn’t quite sure what she wanted.

  “Go on, give it all to me, line by line. What happened during the entire mission?”

  “Right, well, I’ll begin.” Elle closed the notebook, “So, I went the-”

  “Shut up. I didn’t ask you, did I? I asked him. He will tell us what happened.”

  “Right. Sorry, whatever. I’ll…go watch The Two Towers.”

  “Don’t you fucking dare. If Vil does not turn the projector on, there will be no Lord of the Rings, alright?”

  Elle waved her off, stood up, and walked to the couch to sit beside the knight.

  “Alright, new blood. Or well, new but similar, same old blood.” Arcadia laughed and took another spoonful of cereal, “Go on. The more you tell me from your perspective, the better I’ll understand you. The better I understand you…the easier it is to give you a name.”

  “A name?”

  “Yeah. We’re all Arthur here. Except me, that is. I am Arcadia. But otherwise, because there are so many Arthurs here, it is easier to give everyone second code names. So, based on your personality, we will give you one too, alright? So, go on and start narrating.”

  “Al…right.”