After just being told that you and your party are the ones *solely* responsible for bringing peace back to the lands, well, you'd be a little worse for wear yourself. After having discussed everything with the strange council of mages, you all were offered a chance to rest, before being shunted headfirst into The Neon Desert. Through a portal. There's sand in your mouth, to be clear. You spit it up and scrub your tongue the best you can. It'll probably stay in there for a bit, you reckon, but now's not the time for reckoning. You sit up in the sand, and turn to your team - as prescribed by the council, your girlfriend, Mako, the one who is currently combing her own red hair, avoiding her antenna, is here, as well as a mage, Edgie, and a cyborg, Toby, with purple and blue hair respectfully. "Is everyone alright?", you call out. "I'm alright, sweetie." Mako's voice is always a pleasant one. "The balances are disrupted, but I am of good health, Ika." That was the mage. The Cyborg makes a sound, something that's a cross between the activation of a drill and a cough. "Yup, yup- I'm good, thanks for asking." ``` JE: who are these guys again? YOU: They're Ika's friends? It's a found family kind of situation. JE: i mean who's ika YOU: Protagonist of the story, as told by the ACT. She's what the papers have been revolving around. Do you know Era? This is Era, after the incident, I think. JE: oh damn. this is big then ``` You stand up, shaking off any more purple dust that got in your clothes. Synth City is well within your vision - the lights are always blaring, but you see the occasional red flare come from its image. You guide your gaze elsewhere - the "Sun" is always in the sky, despite it always being night time, but here, it seems like someone shot it with some kind of cannon, it being fragmented and glitchy. It hurts your eyes, so you avert your gaze. "Yeah, things are bad." Mako chimes in. "What's the plan, then? We just go in there, weapons in hand, joining the chaos?" You turn to the mage. "That would be ill advised, Mako. We should be sneaky." Toby shakes his head. "Sneaky? In *there?*" He points towards the city. "Not happening, Edgie." You think to yourself a moment. "There are tunnels down there. I used to move through them before..." You wave in the air, as if to cast a spell. "All this happened. We could use those." Mako raises a finger. "There might be lots of security in there, though. There's no way they would let us through." You again think. You're the decision maker - the council labelled you as "The Amnesiac Strategist", in fact. So, whatever you decide, they all will trust in your judgement. You could lead them to victory, or very well let them fail. ``` JE: pretentious... YOU: Look, just help me out here. Which one should I pick? ``` You weigh your options. ### -> Take the [[Streets]] ### -> Take the [[Tunnels]] ### -> [[Call]] Velvet