Political Puppets - Archive

> Template:USE Volume
> *“I had the strings, but now I’m free. There are no strings on me.” -Baja M.*
>
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**Political Puppets**, is the Third Chapter of Voyage 2, and the Third of The Decayer Arc.

After the Valentine's Day Event, and the downfall of Elementum, a year passes, with a missing Raf, a stressed Monique, a Hidden Orphne, and a destroyed Sleepy Hollow. Raf seeks shelter at The Grove and Train under Daniel to improve himself, while Monique deals with the weight of a Nation in a Guerrilla War with The Outcasts, the newest threat to the continent. With the Spring Festival nearing, will Monique be able to take down The Outcasts before then? Will Raf have the guts to come back to Athena? How will each character deal with 4 vengeful heads, on a goal to attempt to free the continent through violence and destruction, under imaginary strings Baja believes he has everyone under?

This chapter focuses on the character Baja

## Plot

### Outcast Radio

With the recent establishment of Outcast Radio, there has been efforts to find out the actual location of this radio broadcast to find Baja, only to stumble upon an interesting block on the road, as it has been heavily encrypted, suspicion begins to arouse that a tech guy is working with them. The recent announcement also revealed that a Levi Citizen named Scorp has been in contact and conspiring against Raf, which has perpetrated a Search warrant, to which they stumbled upon an empty house, Scorp is nowhere to be seen, as secretly she had left without a trace. As the broadcasts and claims to discredit the Athenian Republic failed each time, it becomes more of an annoyance to the people rather than actually doing anything.

### City Tour!

Raf Offers Rey a plot in Athena to build a new cafe, to which Rey Accepts. Rey and Raf arrive at Athena on the train, giving her a tour of the city and what she should expect from such an active and bustling center. Rey picks a spot and begins work on the new location. Raf makes conversation with Rey, mentioning how much he likes her coffee, and predicts the people here would like it as well. On opening day, Rey is surprised to see so many people coming to the opening event, and liking her coffee. She made a lot of money that day. To Baja's point of view. It is seen that Baja has secured an abandoned mansion as the headquarters for The Outcasts, the name of the anarchist group he is leading, with main conspirators being Feath, Scorp, and to much to their surprise, Dj, as he has a vendetta against Raf over a miscommunication and mix up that involved Overwatch being handed to the now Reestablished Kingdom of Dabi, after the Levi Union collapsed due to certain city states leaving, in exchanged for New Box City, which rendered him displaced. Baja sees this as an advantage to have him help him with tech and orchestrate plans to topple the Athenian Republic and other governments much more effectively. Scorp begins to see things meanwhile.

### The Divide

in reaction to the Valentine's Day Party, Jupiter announces the closing of the nations borders. Due to its self sustainability, the nation remains hardly untouched, however, this brings an aftershock to the nearby city-states/settlements that relied on the Aethereal kingdom to keep themselves afloat. This Angers Cerise, finding it unfair to leave the towns that depended on them behind. This sparks an argument within the royal family which results in Cerise threatening to leave the royal family. News Sources Reporting massive disarray and panic as Citizens of the Kingdom hear that Cerise has yet again disappeared, but this time with all the regents, leading The Royal Family to believe her threats of leaving the royal family to be real, this time taking her siblings with her. This causes economic and political uncertainty, with the value of the Aethereal Peso losing its value, prices begin to rise as people flood stores, The Kingdom becomes politically divided on Jupiter's decision to close the nation, which also meant no movement outside the nation. Raf sneaks drones into the nation to monitor the situation, where he soon discovers the disappearance of the Thalassa residents, with the entrance into the underground ravine being caved in, leaving an empty city.

### The Island War

The Kingdom of Dabi and Oboer Rocks Erupt into a territorial war, which results in the assassination of their leader, Grey, and complete destruction of the island, with many nations watching in horror as the tensions peaked in the Gulf. Baja uses this opportunity to show how "tyrannical" the government can get, causing more protests to erupt in the Kinoko River basin. The Athenian Republic remains neutral as they deal with Small Outcast skirmishes attacking major trading routes along the western border. Raf calls for ease of tensions, with Raf beginning to question his own mental health. At the end of his speech, he announces Monique as his Vice President. A Funeral is conducted for the Oboer Rocks leader by its surviving people.

### A Year later

A year has passed since the Valentine's Day Party, and the Political and Economic Collapse of The Aethereal Kingdom. Efforts are being made to hunt down Baja and his Outcast group, and taking down Outcast Cells in the surrounding regions. The Athenian Republic has become a superpower, with now every settlement and city state in the continent relying on the Athenian Republic for resources. Raf has been missing for 2 months, without anyone knowing where he is, Meanwhile, We are met with Raf, who has been traveling with ALICE on his side, taking down Meiji Corp Camps set up across the continent, and trying to find Cerise and Remedi, wherever they went.

### 30 Minutes

Baja makes a radio transmission, calling for 30 minutes for Sleepy Hollow to evacuate. Baja has called for the destruction of Sleepy hollow, to prove a point about how they can easily take care of any problems governments can make. Explosions rock the once vibrant city. With not enough people barely escaping, Baja, who was there in person confronting Golden and Doryu, manages to escape. Sleepy Hollow remains a crater, slowly filled up with water as days went by. Monique, at this time, now president, has announce that she will make it her mission to take down the outcasts and Baja once and for all, warning that they are messing with a nation they shouldn't be messing with, taking out their ally and all. Most Kingdom of Dabi Residents fled to the Athenian Republic or ran into the wilderness, with the nation collapsing in the process. Scorp then later publicly admits their involvement and membership in the outcasts, declaring the world corrupted and needing to be cleansed.

### The Hidden Village

While all the events back in the Kinoko Valley Basin were unfolding, the point of view switches to Raf, who stumbles upon a huge lake northeast of entropy. There, ALICE begins to detect magical frequencies and radio broadcast. As they get nearer, they see a ship to which they realize is Daniel's ship, and on top of it is none other but Cerise herself. After almost killing Raf, she recognizes him, and is confused as to why he has been searching for her. He is then given a tour of the Hideout, where some Aethereal Citizens went into hiding, and built a small village, where all who disagreed with Jupiter's recent policy changes made a home for themselves. Raf, after explaining to Cerise and an Sawyer (who disappeared with Cerise) his situation (escaping the "shitshow" in the main continent and trying to cool his anxiety), and they offer him a room to stay, but has to swear to never tell a soul about the Hidden village, or where he is, to which he completely complies.

### The Magika Sword

After Daniel discovers Raf is now in the hideout, he takes him to his ship, to where he gives him a Magika Sword handle, He tells him to connect it to his sword, to which his family diamond sword Morphs into a Diamond Forged Handle. He asks what the handle has done to his sword, to which Daniel answers that it has turned it into a Magika Sword, where the blade is generated through a user's magic. He then tells Raf during his stay in The Village, he will be training Cerise and Him the ways of the Light Warrior, To which Daniel reveals is part of a Multiversal Religious Organization that Worships and trains in the arts of Light magic. Raf accepts Daniel as his mentor and promises to give his all.

### The training Arc

Throughout his time at The Village, Raf partook in the culture, trained with Daniel and Orphne, and tuned into radio signals from Audrey's News Segment when he could, overhearing the chaos that was the destruction of sleepy hollow, much to his anger. Mafu Accompanies Raf the entire time, Raf catching up on writing in his book, bathing, getting new clothes, and improving his mental health. Raf learns more about This small seperation from the kingdom, in which they plan to reveal themselves in the future and put pressure on Jupiter to reverse his unfair policies and bring things back to the way it was. Raf attends a masquerade at The Well, where it turns out, the Well is a decoy and right under it, the citizens of Thalassa were able to hide themselves by caving in the Ravine entrance. An incident occurs, which causes Monique to discover he has been hanging around with Cerise and the gang this entire time, much to her anger, and her drone almost killing Rey after it mistakes her for harming Raf, after a meeting with Nimbus and Rey, Distrust forms between them. At some point, Raf begins to feel he has abandoned his Vice President duties at the Athenian Republic. Cerise then begins to tell Raf that he needs to come back and help those in need. Raf then says he will return during the Spring Festival.

### The Cabin In the Valley

After Daniel finds a suspicious house on the other side of the island, he sends Raf on his first Light Warrior mission to investigate it. He stumbles upon a cabin house with a small farm next to it. He then sees that it is Remedi. He is then caught, and is surprise to the hostility Remedi is showing, but after calming her down, he is able to talk to her about everything that has been going on. She was heartbroken and tensed up to hear what Baja has been doing. He then tried to convince Remedi to come back, much to her discontent. After a little more talking, Raf decides to leave, but tells Remedi she is always welcome back to Athena, to which Remedi is left pondering on what she will do.

### The Spring Festival

The Spring Festival kicks off with much excitement and anticipation with bars and cafes (including The Misty Café) Filled to the brim, Streets decorated with green and pink to commemorate the coming spring, and Lake side activities on the Athenian River. Monique looks on, happy that the festival was able to start smoothly, but is still saddened by the fact Raf was still away. Darrell reassures to her he will come up. The Spring PVP Contest is away. With many new contesters entering the stage, Feath, now disguised due to his wanted status, tries to compete to keep his title under the new Alias.. Golden vows to become the champion this time. After a fierce last round battle between Golden and Feath, Golden emerges victorious as the Champion for the Spring PVP Contest.

### Fireworks

The Outcast plan their attack at the festival, managing to get Outcasts as construction men during the construction of Athena Metropolitan Park. They placed TNT under it for the Fireworks Finale that will end the Spring Festival. There they plan to make their attack, and statement towards Monique to not mess with them. They carefully plan, and as the day arrives, they strike. The Fireworks event kicks off with a speech made by Monique, stating how everything in the festival has been growing great and couldn't have done it without Daniel and other sponsors, as the fireworks go off, Baja makes his way in, announcing himself to everyone. The crowd begins to panic and run away. Baja telling Monique how big she thinks she views herself and the nation to take him on, and that tonight will prove all her big talk wrong. She commands one of the hidden snipers to take a shot, only barely missing as Baja unknowingly moves to the right, He then sets off the explosions, blowing up parts of the park, Athenian Soldiers pour in, securing the position, Raf makes himself known to the public, much to everyone's surprise, Daniel gets ATLAS, to secretly follow them.

### The Mansion Raid

Daniel tracks the drone to a mansion a few miles Northeast of LilCove, Daniel, Golden, Raf, Doryu, Kynigos and a soldier are teleported to the approximate location of the Mansion. Raf later calls in for backup to make sure they aren't ambushed. All meanwhile Rey, Monique, and others watch the operation through drone footage. They search through the mansion, finding experiments and botonny projects in rooms. They find the Outcast Radio room, where they begin destroying it. They stumble upon a room full of target of interests, they also find a room dedicated to Remedi, and find a book made by Baja, repeating that he is sorry, showing Regret. Throughout the search, Baja teases them in the intercom, to find levers to get to the top floor where he is located. They find Scorp's room and within a bed, a shelf, a carpet, a potted flower, a Raf head with a sword in it, and a journal, describing schizophrenic episodes. They Solve the puzzle and flip the lever to get to the top floor.

### The Lava Curtain

After flipping all the levers, they make it to the top floor, where Doryu and Raf are separated from the rest of the group through a lava curtain. The others Fight Outcast Soldiers and Feath in an ambush while Baja talks to Doryu and Raf. After a bit of back and forth between Baja making false observations and statements towards Raf and Doryu, he begins to leave the stage, not before Raf has had enough and tackles him, he throws an invisible potion, Raf confused who is who as both Baja and Doryu were hit. Raf is badly injured, with Doryu able to make the final blow at Baja. Raf, recovering from his wounds through his regeneration magic, announces to Baja that he is under arrest. Daniel and the rest are able to fend off the attackers, with Feath and Scorp escaping the now burning down mansion. Daniel calls his ship, and everyone makes it in as Athenian Republic Helicopters begin to arrive to secure the area.

### Mansion Raid Aftermath

Daniel meets Raf on top of the Lab roof, over viewing the city that has grown in size and buildings. He tells Daniel how he is back in Athena, but is reluctant that he is back to playing Vice President again. Daniel then tells him he just has to deal with the responsibilities, to which Raf chuckles and agrees. They both ponder what was next for everyone, now that Baja was in prison, and awaiting trial. Raf makes it his goal to find Scorp, who is now leading the Outcasts, and end the threat once and for all. Scorp makes a Radio broadcast, berating Raf that he has failed to take down the Outcasts. Threating Raf that she was coming for him. He knows his city in and out, where he lives, where everyone is at, and that she will stop at nothing to take down him, and the Athenian Republic. She threatens him to run, to which Raf responds to "try him" to which Daniel cringes to his response, before they're both distracted by a strong tremor, both realizing where its coming from.

## Trivia

* This Volume is one of the few volumes not named after a song,
* Remedi and Baja found out later that “Political Puppets” was an actual song, but the song was never really recognized by Raf or Mafu, who are in charge of volume names, as the song doesn't hold any other meaning in relation to the volume.
* Surprisingly, to Raf, everything went according to plan in this volume without any errors on the Server.
* Originally, the Mansion scene was gonna have an Air Force Bombing Run scene who which cause of the mansion burning down, but due to negative criticism of the addition, it was cut out.
* This is the first Volume that received a dedicated image poster, made by Remedi.
* Originally, the chapter was gonna be named Politik, after the song Politik by Coldplay, but was met by huge criticism by Baja and Rem, so it never came to be. Raf says the song is a perfect way to describe the chapter, as the song was written after the 9/11 Terrorists attacks, capturing the bands feeling of anxiety, anger, uneasiness in a chaotic world, similar to the characters in Volume 3.
* Despite not being named after the song, Raf heavily associates the song Politik by Coldplay to this volume.