Nameless City

At night time on the top of the Statue of Liberty, Edison looked towards New York, accompanied by a red hoodie man on his side.

"What do you think about this city, kid?"

"It's huge and beautiful."

"Indeed. And soon, this city will be under my control. And when that happens, I'll be the King of Inventors. For sure, this time."

"That would be good, sir Edison."

"How about you, kid? What is your target?"

"I… don't know… All I know is that I must have my revenge at Tesla. And I already did it, so there won't be any use of me here."

"No, don't be like that. Every human has its purpose in this world. You're here to achieve your target and to help me achieve my target, and vice versa."

"I guess you're right. I'm gonna check Tesla at his placement."

"Alright, then. Go ahead, kid."

The red hoodie man left Edison's side and went downstairs. In the power room, Tesla's been restrained in a tube. Darwin's there to monitor the condition and to maintain Tesla's electricity in his body.

"How's Tesla?" The red hoodie man said as he enters the room.

"He's good. He has enough electricity to power the entire statue," Darwin said as he looked at Tesla.

"That's good to hear." The red hoodie man walks towards the tube and knocks on the tube, waking Tesla up. "Wakey, wakey, Inventor."

Tesla slowly wakes up after hearing the knocking sound. "G-god… Why are you doing this…."

"The reason? Well, to have my revenge on you, of course."

"I-I'm sorry about that…"

"No. That would not solve everything. You abandoned me in time and space! And you think the word "sorry" will take care of them?!"

"I-I know… I'll take responsibility for that…"

"Good, then be a good boy here and let us use your power. In that way, I'll accept every apology."

Tesla didn't say anything after that. The red hoodie man went back to Darwin. "Keep an eye on him, if he tries to escape, don't hesitate to use your power to stop him."

"I will, sir Kamoto," Darwin said as he bows down at him.

"Just Kamoto is ok." He then left the room and went to his room.

The next morning Ryouma wakes up and sits on his bed. He still wonders whenever Tesla will be ok or not. With a bit of hesitation, he went downstairs and met Mark in the dining room.

"Good morning, Ryouma." Mark greeted him while sipping his coffee.

"Good morning, sir Mark. Where are the others?"

"Tom and Huck accompanied Newton to the public library. And Pierre and Marie are still in their room."

"Maybe I'll visit their room, see if they're okay…"

"Sure, go ahead, kid."

Ryouma then left the dining room and went to Pierre and Marie's room. He slowly opens the door and found them both sleeping on the bed, covered by a blanket. He takes a peek for a while, before closing the door and went back to the kitchen and make tea. He then brings his tea to the dining room and sits on the opposite side of Mark. He sips his tea while looking at the newspaper.

The front-page shows "10 PEOPLES MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED LAST NIGHT. WITNESSES CLAIMED TO SAW TENTACLES ABDUCTING THEM FROM THE DARKNESS"

"People began to disappear? And tentacles? What does all this mean?"

"Missing people being abducted by tentacle-like monsters. What do you think, Ryouma?" Mark asks the question, which the answer is very obvious.

"Tentacles.... Owhhhh, don't tell me he's back…"

"I'm afraid to ruin your hypothesis, but yes. He's back."

"But we already fight him once. We should be able to handle that, right??"

"I'm afraid not, kid…"

"W-what do you mean…?"

Mark then stands up and looks outside the window.

"Lovecraft in his life creates so many creatures, mainly Cthulhu, the one we fought before. You know what I mean, right?"

"So… you mean there's a possibility that he's gonna create anything other than Cthulhu?"

"Yes, more like my Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. They're both my creation. And that law applies to all authors that may be summoned to this era."

"So, we are not dealing with just one creature huh…." Ryouma then thinks about it.

As they both talking, Pierre walks to the kitchen and greets them.

"Morning, everyone…" Pierre said as he yawns.

"Well, more like afternoon, sir Pierre," Mark said as he laughs a bit

"Yeah, I know. Marie's condition is not well last night, so I stayed up late to maintain her condition."

"Good. Can I see her?" Ryouma asked.

"Sure, she's in our room," Pierre said as he went to the kitchen to make coffee.

As Ryouma about to make his way there, his device rungs. He turned on the device. "Sakata! Hello there!"

"Ryouma! There's no time! Is there anyone alone nearby?!" Sakata said as he panicked.

"Y-yeah…Why?"

"GET THEM! THE THING IS ABOUT TO ABDUCT THEM!!"

"Wh-What?! What thing?!" Ryouma began to get confused.

Accidentally hear Sakata's voice, Pierre immediately ran to their room, where Marie is the only one there. Mark Twain then follows him.

As Pierre opens the door, the room was in mess. The blankets are on the floor, and Marie is no longer there. Mark who arrived second, knew what happened.

"M-Marie! Where are you?!" Pierre panicked as he looks around the bedroom.

"We are too late…. She's gone…" Mark said.

"W-What do you mean she's gone?!"

Mark sighed. He tells everything when he and Ryouma talked about the disappearance of some people. Pierre then understands the situation.

"So, you're telling me that unless we find Lovecraft, we won't get Marie back?"

"Unfortunately, yes. And we don't know where he is, and what is he doing right now…"

At the same time, Ryouma arrived in the room and shocked. "Oh no…"

"Owh…This is a problem…" Sakata said.

"I'm gonna call Tom and Huck to escort Newton back. It's getting dangerous out there…" Mark said as he closes his eyes and contacting them.

"How could this happen to my beloved Marie….." Pierre said with a sad tone as he sits on the bed.

"Don't worry, we will find her together. I promise you…" Ryouma tried to calm him down.

"T-thank you…"

A few minutes later, Tom and Huck went back to the house with Newton, who is very confused about what's going on. They all gathered in the dining room to talk about the problem.

"May I ask about what happened here?" Newton asked them.

"Sir Newton, I'm glad you're asking. Ryouma reads the newspaper this morning and found out that last night, 10 peoples disappeared without a trace. Some witnesses said that they saw a dark tentacle clinging on the victims before they're gone missing." Mark explains the situation to Newton.

"I see…That's why…"

"And now that they got Marie, we can't let this happen any further!" Pierre said as he slams the table.

"Woah, Woah. Calm down, Pierre. We will surely gonna find her, and the rest of the missing people." Ryouma said as he calms Pierre down, who sits beside him.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry…" Pierre then sits back on his chair.

Sakata, who's in the hologram in the middle of the table, began to speak.

"So, now we know the situation here, I'll tell you about two things that I found. The first one is about how did you manage to get from under the Statue of Liberty to here, Woolsthorpe."

"You knew?" Ryouma asked.

"Yeah. As you can see, our enemy is Edison and Darwin. And each of them has great achievements. I'm specifically talking about Darwin. Charles Darwin in his life wrote a book titled "The Voyage of the Beagle". It contains all of his expedition. And since we know that their achievements are manifested as their power here, I can assume that Darwin uses that as his skill, and able to transport you all from one place to another."

"I see…So, If Darwin's skill is combined with Edison's creation, which is the moving Statue of Liberty, they can go anywhere in the world and destroy them." Said Ryouma.

"Bingo! But the problem is, Edison will not only need an electric source to move the Statue, but he will also need souls, human souls. And this leads to the second thing I found."

"Hmmm, seems interesting…" Tom said.

"So, the second thing is, there's a huge concentration of souls, somewhere in this village. And to collect enough souls to move the statue, it'll take forever."

"We think we know who's responsible for this, right Ryouma?" Mark said as he looked at Ryouma.

"Yeah, It's Lovecraft. He's back." Said Ryouma.

"Wait, Lovecraft?" Huck said.

"Yeah, we fought his Cthulhu back when we're about to escape the room. You both are still handling the guards wayyyy back there." Ryouma said.

"Yeah, without Marie, we may be already dead when you both arrived," Mark said.

"So, back to business," Sakata said as he draws everyone's attention. "Now we know Lovecraft is behind all of this, we need to defeat him, and releases all the souls he captured."

"But how are we managed to find the source?" Pierre asked.

"Just bring me along, I'll tell you when it's nearby."

"Alright, so you'll be our indicator. Nice." Ryouma said.

While everyone is talking, Newton only watched as he gets confused about what's truly going on there. He tried to make sense of all of that, but it seems that he can't.

After the meeting, Newton prepares himself to go out to the library. When he saw Ryouma, he called him.

"Hey, kid! Wanna accompany me to the library?"

"Oh, sure." Ryouma gladly accept the offer.

As they walked to the library. Newton asks him some questions.

"Hey, kid. I don't know what are you and the others talking about, but it seems that my village is in danger, correct?"

"That's right. I'm sorry to drag you to this chaos."

"Nah, it's alright. And by the way, they mention that you're all being transported here. What's going on?"

"This may be hard to believe, but I'll try my best to make it sense to you."

"Go ahead, kid."

Along the pathway, Ryouma explains about everything, from his meeting with Tesla until now. Newton seems to understand the situation he's in.

"So, Edison wants to kill all inventors in this world and take over the patents, and declared himself as the King of Inventors?"

"That's right, and that'll include you too, sir."

"Me? I'm just an ordinary man here. Why did he want to kill me?"

"That…. Forget about it…."

"Alright, I'm not forcing you to tell me. But, if it's involving my homeland, I'll do everything to protect it, even if that'll cost my life."

"Y-you don't need to, sir Newton…"

As they talked, they arrived at the library. There, Ryouma accompanied Newton in his study. As Ryouma waits, his device rings.

"Sakata, what happened?"

"Are you with sir Newton?"

"Yeah."

"Take him out from there, Now!"

"Wh-what's happening??"

"There's no time to explain! Hurry!!"

Without further question, Ryouma taps Newton's shoulder. "Sir, we need to go now."

"W-why? I haven't finished my study yet."

"I'll explain why. For now, let's go!"

Ryouma grabbed Newton's arm and ran to the exit. They ran far enough from the library and stayed under the tree. After confirming the safety, Ryouma called Sakata from the device.

"What is happening?!"

"Ryouma, calm down. You just walk into the enemy's territory."

"W-what?!"

"There is a huge concentration of souls there like we talk about earlier!"

"D-does that means…"

"We found Lovecraft's hidden lair. And we need to tell the others."

As they talked, an apple dropped on Ryouma's head. Newton, who witness that, took the apple and began to think.

"Ow! Where did that apple come from?"

"Uhhh, maybe you want to look up?"

Ryouma looked up and he found out that they were under an apple tree.

"Wait, apple tree? That means…." Ryouma then looked at Newton, who is thinking.

"Does that mean, Newton finally gain his power?"

"I'm not sure…" Ryouma then approach Newton. "Is everything alright?"

"I'm just wondering why this apple dropped from the tree, and why the moon isn't?" Newton said as he thinks hard.

"Well, shall we go home, sir?" Ryouma asked.

"Sure, and make sure you watch my steps, as I can focus on the path when I'm thinking."

"Alright!"

Ryouma and Newton then went home, while of course, protecting Newton who can't focus on the road while he's thinking.

As they arrived, Newton immediately went to his room, and Ryouma ran to the living room, where everyone is gathered to plan the attack. "Hey! I found two good news!"

"Ah, Ryouma. Where were you been? We were worried about you." Mark said as he smokes his pipe.

"Oh, sorry about that. Sir Newton wants me to accompany him to the library. And that leads to the first good news!"

"Which is?" Tom wonders.

"We found Lovecraft's lair. It turns out under the library. Sakata analyzes the place and found a huge concentration of souls there."

"That's nice to hear! All we need now is a plan to attack the lair." Huck said.

"And to save the villagers and Marie!" Pierre added.

"And…what's the second good news?" Tom asked.

"Ah yes. The second one is, I think Newton has found gravitation law, which is his power." Ryouma said as he gets excited.

"Wow, that's great! And where is he now?" Tom asked again.

"He's upstairs, probably working about the law."

"Wait, is he alone?" Mark asked.

Suddenly, the atmosphere turns gloomy, as Ryouma just remembered about the abduction. "Oh god no…" He then ran upstairs to Newton's room, and found out Newton is not there, with an open window. The others follow him as well.

"Oh no…." Ryouma walked to Newton's work desk.

"I should've known when you arrived here…" Mark said as he looks at the open window.

"Looks like Lovecraft managed to abduct Newton…" Huck said as he looks at the open window as well.

"First, Marie, and now Newton? What are we gonna do?" Pierre said as he gets concerned.

Ryouma, who feels guilty for Newton's disappearance, approach them back. "We're gonna save them now."

"Like, right now?" Huck asked.

"Yes, we already got the location. And also, I'm the one who responsible for Newton's abduction. Let's go." Ryouma said as he gets serious.

"Ryouma, wait! We can't get into the lair without preparation. We should know at least what are we gonna face against." Mark said as he grabbed Ryouma's arm.

"Yeah, Mark's right. Even with me and Huck, we still need a plan to infiltrate that place without wasting so much energy." Said Tom.

Ryouma then sighed. "I guess you're right…."

"This is not your fault, Ryouma," Pierre said as he taps his shoulder. "We will do this together…"

Ryouma just stood there silently, as Mark release his hand. "Yeah…You're right. I'm sorry for my cockiness."

"That's fine. People make mistakes in their life." Mark said as he looked at Tom and Huck. "Tom, Huck, can you search what's beneath the library tonight?"

"Of course! This will be another adventure, right Tom?" Huck said as he bumps Tom's shoulder.

"Maybe, but I kinda agree with that," Tom replied.

"Alright, but stay alert. We don't know what kind of creature you might encounter while scouting the area." Mark warns them.

At night, as planned, Tom and Huck went to the library to investigate, while the rest stays in the house. One thing that they know is they can't be alone, otherwise the tentacles are gonna abduct them. As they waited, Ryouma turns on the device and contact Sakata, and tells everything that happened.

"So… Newton got abducted as well… This is getting worse…" Sakata said as he gets concerned.

"I know. If you want to blame someone, blame me…"

"Blaming you? No, there's no one to blame here. We're in the same situation. We can't blame someone just because of a silly mistake."

"But…"

"No but. We are in this together. We find a problem, we solved it together."

Ryouma sighed. "Mark also said the same thing…"

"See? No one is blaming you for that. Like I said earlier, we are in this together. And we will solve this problem together. So, cheer up!"

"Heh, thanks for the cheering." Ryouma feels better after Sakata cheered him up.

As they speak, Mark receives a telepathy message from Tom.

"Alright, come back here. We'll devise a plan." Mark said as he telepaths with Tom.

"What is it, Sir Mark?" Pierre asks Mark.

"They found the entrance to the lair. And it looks like one of the manifestations of Lovecraft's work, The Nameless City." Mark explains

"Nameless city? Is it about a giant temple filled with bizarre reptiles?" Sakata asked from the hologram.

"Yeah, it is. The only difference here is there are no bizarre reptiles like in the book."

"No reptiles inside it? That's strange…" Ryouma thinks

At the same time, Tom and Huck enter the house and they all gathered in the living room. Mark starts the briefing, and Sakata creates a map based on Tom and Huck's description.

"So, Nameless city, one of Lovecraft's work that manifested as his lair under the library. From Tom and Huck's description, there are a lot of temples beneath the ground, and they contain the missing people, including Marie and Newton."

"But, if there are no reptiles that guarding the place, then can we just go straight into the temple and find them?" Ryouma asked.

"No, you can't," Tom said. "The temples are the core of his power, so his tentacles are everywhere."

"Yeah, what a pain in the ass. I almost got caught by one. At least they can be destroyed." Huck added.

"That's true, but soon they'll regrow in like a matter of second, so we need to act fast after that," Tom said.

"Maybe I can handle that," Pierre said. "My radioactive power can inhibit the growth of it."

"Nice. We're counting on you!" Ryouma said as he gives Pierre a thumbs up.

"Also, the giant temple in the middle, it looks like that it provides Lovecraft an infinite amount of magical source. That's why he can abduct people from anywhere. And it's getting stronger when they're alone." Sakata said as he enlarged the giant temple in the middle.

"So, we're gonna escort the people to safety first, then destroy the giant temple. But how are we gonna do that?" Ryouma asked.

"For that, leave it to us!" Huck said as he put his hand on Tom's back.

"Wait, me too?!"

"Yeah! Putting explosives there wouldn't be a problem, right???"

"I guess you're right." Tom sighed.

"But, when we're out to put the explosives, you guys will be vulnerable to attacks. Is that ok?" Huck asked.

"Don't worry about us. Pierre and I will protect Ryouma." Mark said.

"Alright, sounds good to me." Huck then smokes his cigarette.

"But, remember. Of all things, don't get caught by the tentacles." Tom warns them.

"We'll remember it," Mark said.

"Alright, Tom and I will search for the material first. You guys can rest up first." Huck said as he throws away his cigarette.

"Well, then. Our objectives are to rescue all people and destroy the giant temple. We'll move by midnight." Mark said as he commands everyone.

After everyone agrees on the plan, Tom and Huck went outside to make the explosives, while the others are resting up for the operation.

And in another place, under the library, a hundred meters underground, a giant temple rises among other small temples around it. There, Marie and Newton were kept by Lovecraft. They are both unconscious until they were woken up by someone, who is the mastermind behind this.

"Hey, wake up…"

"W-where am I?" Marie asked as she slowly regains her consciousness.

"H-huh?" Newton also slowly regains his consciousness.

"To answer that, you're in my place. Welcome!" the man in a black coat happily greeted them as they got tied on a pillar in the middle of the temple.

"Who are you? And…why are we tied here?!" Newton asked the man as he realizes he and Marie were tied up.

"Well, you're gonna be the sacrifice for the great old one! So, enjoy your time!" the man said as he walked away with tentacles spawning from beneath his coat.

"Just…who is he…" Newton asks himself. "Wait, you're also here?" he surprised after slightly turns back and saw her.

"Mr. Newton? You too?" Marie is surprised as well.

"Are you getting abducted by his tentacles as well?"

"I think so. When I woke up, I'm already here."

"That is very unfortunate…" he said as he sighed.

"So, how did you get here, Sir Newton?"

"Well, I'm thinking about something and immediately rushed to my room, forgetting about the warning of being alone. The tentacles are knocking me off. And when I woke up, I'm already here, tied up."

"I see. I hope they rescue us."

"They will. They already planned about the rescue. So, don't worry."

"I see…."

They both can only hope for them to come and rescue them. And in the other place, the black coat man went to one of the temples and contact someone with a holographic device. It shows a familiar face on it.

"The summoning ritual is almost ready, sir Edison." The black coat man said.

"Well done, Lovecraft. It will be a matter of time until the time hits midnight." Edison said from the hologram. "Make sure to use it well, I don't want to see them again."

"Absolutely, sir." He then turns off the device and walks away into the darkness, as the tentacles slither around his coat.