Arriving at their destination, Rio and Vector ditch their car and begin walking into Mount Konte.
The Facility that they were looking for was stationed at the base of the largest of the mountains, with the only entrance being located at the mountain's peak.
Rio and Vector take a moment to catch their breath and survey the area before moving forward.
Looking around at his surroundings Rio notices that Mount Konte seemed to be devoid of all plant life.
As he continues to walk he is surprised by how different the land was compared to his memory. He remembers seeing green trees and plants everywhere he looked and now he was surrounded by nothing but bare rock.
He stops and looks at the ground and is shocked to see a trail leading further into the mountain range.
"That's odd, Why would there be a trail all the way out here?" Rio ponders why that would be but decides to ignore it for now. There seemed to have been quite a time gap between now and when he was last here. He figured he might as well follow the path since he was headed in that direction anyways.
The path leads him deeper and deeper into the mountains.
There, He comes across several buildings that seemed to have been abandoned for quite some time.
The buildings were completely blackened and burnt from the inside. They seemed to have been used as security posts a long time ago.
"What happened here? Was there some kind of accident," Rio wonders aloud as he keeps moving.
Rio decides he should probably investigate the buildings but there are too many to check so he settles with just checking the closest one before he moves on.
Rio walks up to the busted door and slips inside.
the inside of the building was just as rundown as the exterior. There were rusted chairs scattered around the room with collections of faded papers and documents strewn about thee floor.
"These must have been here for at least a few years," Rio comments as he takes a look at the illegible papers scattered about. "It would seem that someone had been collecting data here for a while."
The room had a strange feeling to it. Something felt off about this place. He wasn't sure what was causing this feeling but he could tell that something wasn't right. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it felt like this place was tainted somehow.
He takes his time trying to read through some of the documents scattered about the floor.
Although most of the words are illegible, he is still able to make out a few sections.
Some of the documents had one thing in common. They were all referring to some sort of group. A group strong enough to wipe the Order off of the map.
Rio begins to wonder if maybe the Order had been tracking down a group similar to themselves.
Rio continued trying to piece together what he could and noticed that this unknown group was also mentioned in one of the documents as a possible suspect for the disappearance of multiple Control bases.
"Now that's odd?" Is this group not working alongside Control?
This new information was important but it seemed that he would have to continue his research later.
The rest of the documents were useless. Rio committed the small portion of documents he could read to memory and left the building.
Him and Vector continued down the road but Rio became more and more uneasy as time passed.
Accompanying this feeling was a familiar voice from inside his head.
"Well look who decided to come back, Are you done pouting?" Rio taunts as he begins to feel Alberoths presence.
Alberoth chuckles, "I wasn't pouting. I just thought that I'd let you grow a bit before addressing you. especially since I have gone through what you would call, a bit of an upgrade. but if you don't want my valuable information, I'll gladly leave you be."
"Yeah yeah, so what was so urgent about this upgrade that your majesty had to come to me personally."
Alberoth scoffs, "I just figured that I should let you in on a new feature of mine now that you have a perfect chance to test it out. It's a power that was granted to us after your little buffet in the city. It will allow you to borrow a bit of power from any organism that you devour.
"Only Borrow?" Rio questions, "I mean this isn't bad or anything, But I'd much prefer a permanent upgrade.
Alberoth smirks, "Of course you would, greedy human. I say borrow but that is only in the general sense. In actuality the power you take will remain by your side until it is replaced by a new one. And as a bonus, I'll even let you name the power. Go ahead, give it your best shot. What do you think you should name this power?"
Rio ponders for a moment. Passing around a few names in his mind, he lands on one and begins to name the new ability.
Or not.
Before he can tell Alberoth the name, a notification flashes in his mind.
"ungrateful beggar has been acquired.
"....."
Rio is speechless as he contemplates how to murder this spiteful book.
"I'm sure you like the name. Now how about you test it out on the woman that has been following you around since you entered that building." Alberoth laughs as he fades back into Rio's mind.
"You're so petty!" Rio snaps at Alberoth as his presence fades.
Rio was so flustered that he almost forgot what Alberoth told him before leaving.
He looked all around him but couldn't see anyone. Although he couldn't see anyone watching him, He still felt uneasy as he continued down the trail.
Rio had Vector draw his gun just in case. If he was truly being watched, he needed to be ready to fight.
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