Dannica sighed heavily, staring at her food - at that point cooled just past the perfect middle ground of ideal edibility. Still, she ate it, slowly... pondering.

"So, there's darkness afoot?" she asked, when her plate was clear. "Darkness aside Drake?"

"Drake first," Ona said, slipping her hand into her coat. She drew from an inner pocket a somewhat small white folder, emblazoned in pink with...

Dannica set her drink down.

"The Seal of the Secret Investigators," Dannica said, softly. "How did you acquire this? Vode is not known for leaks."

"Vode doesn't know I have this information. It pertains to Drake, yes, but is also an assessment of the Kingdom's criminal underworld and preparations for a forward movement plan regarding terrorist activities of religious groups," Ona replied, quietly. "We have someone with close access to her. Naturally, the cost was... excessive."

"You will be reimbursed, of course," Dannica said, opening the file. She settled back in her chair, staring at the screen within. The folder contained a micro-text rendering unit connected to an ultra thin screen, with a single micro-storage data card slipped into the slim black plastic of the render unit.

The document was of... particular interest. Cheo tapped her arm - and Dannica moved it, allowing the lapine to climb into her lap, sitting there to read alongside her superior.

The information on Drake primarily pertained to some of his dangerous actions - including the direct attack on the Queen and her people in the courtyard outside of the palace. They apparently had little information specifically on the person himself, except that he appeared to be a small, feminine male with mistfiend abilities - a rare smokefiend variant where a being could be completely dissolved into mist and still maintain control of all of their particles, making them borderline impossible to properly injure.

Dannica glared.

There were three 'uniques' on the board immediately, in her mind. She was building the game in her head.

A super powered smokefiend (Cum Mopper), a super powered and highly driven mistfiend (Drake), and a deity-class slimefiend (Dannica herself).

Further, it appeared that Drake had a following, as even for a super powered being... the actions attributed to him simply could not be done by a single person. Worse yet, it seemed as if he was in some way connected to the Antigani zealots - anti-transformative and anti-cybernetics religious extremists who preached genetic authenticity over all else.

In fact, as far as the Secret Investigators seemed able to tell... he was also connected to Endless Oaks, another religious organization with similar beliefs, that went a step further and preached euthanasia of any people outside of original terran species and the destruction of the Grand Portal Nexus.

A slew of other religious organizations were somehow potentially connected.

The board grew larger. The Smokefiend, the Mistfiend, the Slimefiend, the Zealot hordes...

Dannica scrolled.

Drake was targeting the queen, specifically.

A cold, deep dread settled in Dannica's gut.

That could mean terrible, terrible things for the Red Room.

Beyond Drake, there was information on Madame Kelsai, one of Dannica's major competitors and an unscrupulous and dangerous woman - a Stained, and a problem Dannica herself had created. The biggest issue with Kelsai is she appealed to the ugly side of people's ugly sides, selling slaves to the rich and trafficking children.

She was also arguably the most singularly intelligent strategist Dannica had ever met, taken in, and subsequently tried to kill for a variety of reasons. Catching her was next to impossible, dismantling her organization was a monumental task, and her reach extended far beyond Earth Sol.

Apparently, she was having issues with Antigani, and competition of her own - competition that Dannica knew nothing about.

And then there was Anigan, the Third Layer boys... the various drug trade groups, illegal transformative sellers... The expected things. From there, there were the illegal weapon vendors Amilax and Venti, the organ thieves...

"What a fucking mess," Dannica muttered. "Also, Lajo is back? Didn't I literally punch his heart out? Like, actually out...? He's the kind of drug dealer I sure don't like."

"He got a new heart, and its made of metal - and he's got people with him. Somehow, he raised a small army," Ona muttered.