And I am done with finals! Summer here I come! And I was SHOCKED to see how many replies I got for one chapter and over such a long time! I guess everything was a little slow before because of school and exams and crap like that. Whatever! On with the next chapter!

genesis

A group, all clad in dark cloaks, gathered around one-by-one to commence their weekly meeting. A metal silver plaque hung under a brightly lit, tall ceiling. This symbol bore a single bell with gloved hands grabbing onto it, thus the symbol that represented this group. The ten members gathered around with veils of black cloth covering half of their faces. Their heights differed, some were tall and others were medium height. There was only one true short person in this entourage. Soon, one of the ten stood up and occupied the highest seat.

"Alright everyone, you can take off your masks. No one is going to see you."

Each and every one of them removed their masks, revealing pale skin and jarring tan lines. A majority of this group were males with only two females. Each held a different possession that defined them whether it be a rifle or a handgun or a knife. The leader, when unclothed, had a narrow jawline, so sharp that it could possible puncture something. His hair was short and messy as it comfortable laid matted on top of his scalp. One uncovered, each member was different. Some had short hair and others had long hair. The smallest of them all, Comrade Ryo, had dark brown hair and similar colored eyes and, most predominantly, a scowl that was permanently set in his face. He held a single machine gun and was polishing it during this meeting. He finally took a break when the leader stood and diverted his attention to him.

"I'm glad everyone could make it today. A couple weeks ago, we, as the Pallbearers, launched our first attack against GHQ. We cannot call this battle a victory, but GHQ has acknowledged us as a threat to them. Our resistance against this oppressive government shall be known to the whole world!" An eruption of claps and cheers sounded, prompting the leader to hush them up. "I thank you all for your contributions and your hard work. And I wish for you all to continue working in this organization as we announce our next plan of attack. Not long before our initial attack, a mysterious meteorite landed in the western coast of USA. Our Intel operatives and provider have given me coordinates of where this stone is located and we plan to take possession of this stone. If this radioactive rock is in any way related to the Apocalypse era many years ago, then we have found our ultimate power source!"

Many people cheered. Some even hopped out of their seats and gave a standing ovation. Others sat back and smiled about this new discovery. And others kept a straight face throughout. Comrade Ryo was one of these people. He showed absolutely no reaction and merely continued his own business of polishing his guns.

The person sitting next to him noticed his lack of enthusiasm. "Hey Comrade Ryo. Aren't you excited? We're gonna get our hands on that stone and finally bring GHQ to justice!"

"That's good for us." He curtly replied.

His Pallbearer comrade sighed, "Hey. Liven up a bit! We only got one chance, kid, and we need everyone behind this cause and that includes you. You're one of our best Endlave pilots. You almost beat the Major General for crying out loud!"

"No I didn't!" Ryo bitterly replied and narrowed his glare at whatever was in his line of sight. "That punk has Void technology! Even with my jets, I can't measure up to that!"

"Well, once we have that meteorite, we can derive Void technology from it! That's how the people did it ten years ago!" His comrade patted the thirteen year old boy. "Now cheer up! This is your big moment! Once we get this and get rid of GHQ, we can finally live in peace and start on a fresh slate rather than trying to fix GHQ as it is."

"You can do that", scoffed Ryo, "I'm only interested in one thing and that's getting rid of the Major General. Nothing else matters to me."

"So if you're so intent on getting rid of Yan, why attack his little coffee shop coworker?" His comrade smirked. "Oh yeah, I saw you!"

Ryo smirked instead, "I figured I'd knock him down a few pegs. If you want to get rid of an enemy, the best strategy is to weaken them little by little before finishing them off with the final blow."

"Oh I hope that girl made out of it alive. Those were some serious chemicals!" But the guy wagged his finger as if scolding Ryo. "But no more funny business like that! You have to strictly follow orders from now on."

"Yeah. Yeah. Is this meeting over yet? I need to go train."

"Soon, I think."

Both comrades of battle returned their attention back to the meeting. Their leader continued speaking. He seemed to be lecturing about the Apocalypse incident from eight years ago. Ryo remembered that well, very well. How could he ever forget that day where his father was executed and his mother was beaten and shot right in front of him! And Daryl Yan was to blame for all of this! He knew! He saw everything with his own eyes! He knew perfectly well who to target his rage and grudge. That cruel man deserved to die.

"In two weeks' time, we shall go to America and begin our assault. Our target is that meteorite! It is said that whoever gets their hands on that rock shall have the ability to rule all. And we, the Pallbearers, shall get it! Everyone, prepare for the attack!"

"Sir! Yes sir!"

-GC-

Jessica frowned as she stared into a hand mirror. Due to her deteriorated eyesight, she was reduced to wearing black, thick-framed rectangular glasses. They looked…weird, like something that just didn't belong. She wanted contacts, but the doctors didn't want to take the chance of her touching her own infected eyes even if it was for a second. Thus, she had to wear these and look like a nerd till a cure could be found. And if one wasn't found, she permanently had to wear this... Fun... The glasses kept sliding down and the girl fumbled to readjust them. For now, she should get used to wearing glasses. She swiveled around in her seat of the meeting table and addressed her boss.

"Major General! When are people coming?"

"Soon… It's only been a couple of minutes." Daryl took notice of her new spectacles. "Nice glasses. Now you look just like your dad."

"Daddy?" Jessica peered back into the mirror once again. Now that he mentioned it, her current appearance was remarkably similar to her father's from eight years prior. She had the same pale skin with a slight tan and unruly sweeping brown hair. Her jawline sloped downwards so steeply, elongating her face in the process. If Jessica had searched around her former apartment, she could have found a green hat to complete the look.

Daryl suddenly noticed her longing gaze at her reflection, finding something amiss about her, and he sat down across from the young girl. "Okay, what's wrong now Jessica?"

"Hm?" Jessica placed down her mirror. "Hey Daryl, what was my father like when you were working with him?"

"Rowan? Well…he was a pretty nice guy. He was committed to his job; I'd give him that, even if it was not the best job for him."

"You seem to admire my father."

"Nope!" That elicited a warning glare from Jessica, which noted Daryl that he crossed that dangerous line. "Well, I was kind of an arrogant bastard back then!"

"You still are now…"

"That's beside the point!" He growled back at her. "Anyways, I worked with him and this other guy named Makoto Waltz Segai. I don't know how your father ever got along with that guy! He was nothing, but crazy, in my opinion. I tried not to get close with a guy like him. He had this incredibly weird fetish for Void Genomes. He'd do anything to get close to one, even to the point of disobeying GHQ orders."

Jessica remarked, "I feel like this is a story you would tell during bedtime."

"Do you not want to hear it?"

"No! I do!" Jessica frantically replied. "So how did my father get along with this nutjob?"

"Your father was someone who always looked for any good in a person. I guess he stuck by because he saw a little good in Segai, even though it was really, really small. I mean, he saved my life and I was a complete ass back then." Daryl scoffed. "He honestly thought I was a good person after I tried slaughtering Funeral Parlor."

"But you are a nice person!" Jessica insisted.

"Well…at least I know you're definitely his daughter. Only someone like him would think that." Daryl opened up the table interface and started using the map. "Anyways, enough talk. Let's get back to the meeting we're supposed to have."

"Ugh!" Jessica moaned while face-planting herself into the table.

"Jessica, I know your teenage mind is telling you that this meeting will be boring, but you're on the job right now. Act more professional!"

She scoffed, "I'll act professional when people are actually here."

"Which should be now!" Jessica whirled around when a cheerful voice greeted her. Tsugumi cheekily smiled over her in response. "Hi Jessica! I love your new glasses!"

"They suit you well." Ayase also commented while she wheeled herself into the conference room. "Hello Daryl", she politely greeted him.

It immediately caused chills down his back. This was…weird. She was actually nice to him? Now that was a first!

Tsugumi finally occupied a chair and spin around to face everyone gathered. "Is this everybody?"

"No, we're missing two." Daryl replied and flipped through a bunch of profiles on his tablet. Those two people he requested should be here now! Shu was always with Ayase and along with Shu tagged…

"Yahiro?" Surprised, Ayase hurriedly wheeled over to her former acquaintance. "What are you doing here, old friend?"

"Shu told me to come along. I don't know why though…"

Tsugumi also followed suit and ran up to her friend, enveloping him in a big hug. "It's been so long since I last seen you! How are you? And how is Kanon doing?" She smirked while playfully nudging his side.

"She's fine…" He sheepishly laughed and nervously rubbed the back of his head. It was not a mystery that he was now going out with the actress. "She's filming right now with Souta. He's improving as a director nowadays!"

"And Arisa Kuhouin?" Ayase looked up at him with so much hope.

But he sighed, "Still no contact. I think when Arisa said she was leaving, it was permanent."

"But we all forgave her! Even Shu forgave her!"

"Well, it seems she still can't forgive herself." Yahiro sighed once again. "Hey! So what's with the meeting today? And who are your other friends?"

"Major General Yan of Provisional GHQ", Daryl curtly replied. This man was a suspicious man. He looked so kindhearted on the outside, but he looked worn down somehow…something that was the opposite of this appearance. That and he specifically asked Shu to bring the mastermind behind the Void ranking organization which had led the confined students in commencing a near successful attack on GHQ. He couldn't believe it was this guy!

Jessica adjusted her glasses at this man. He seemed nice, albeit, a taller and more lanky version of Shu. "My name is Jessica. I'm a Junior Intel Officer of Provisional GHQ. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Yahiro Samukawa. It's nice to meet you and the Major General too." Yahiro respectfully responded. He thought Jessica was a pleasant girl and her boss…a little bit cold on the personality. But that was only a first impression. He wondered what they were like as individual people.

Daryl glanced at Shu. "Is he the guy?" He got a nod. "Alright, I believe you. Everybody gather around. This is a new assignment. For all of us."

Yahiro suddenly frowned. "A new assignment? I don't think I agreed to do GHQ's dirty work." He was only told that the government wanted to see him about his company and what not. He was the company representative anyways. He truly didn't think anything special was going to happen…but to be involved with Japanese issues once again?

"I asked Shu about his miniature government back when the seal-off of Loop 7 happened and he told me you came up with this Void ranking system. With what we're going to deal with, I need somebody with experience in organizing Void users." Daryl bluntly explained.

A large projection of the United States suddenly zapped onto the screen from Funell.

"This is California. It is a state located on the Pacific coast. It's the most populous state in the entire country and the third largest state. The capital is Sacramento. But that city is not our focus. We want to focus on this city: San Francisco. Recently, a mysterious meteorite landed on the lower part of California, so the US moved the rock to a secret facility in San Francisco. After some initial testing, they requested for Japanese assistance. When our scientists were there, they found out that this meteorite is emitting the same radioactive frequencies as Voids and the Apocalypse Virus. Thus, both the US and GHQ agreed to send a specialized team that was well-adept with this virus eight years ago. That would be us, or specifically, Shu and his friend."

"Us?" Both men exclaimed.

Even Ayase and Tsugumi found this new assignment to be strange. What can Shu do and help in a situation like this? He was blind! He no longer possessed the Void Genome. What was he to do for them all?

Shu finally spoke up after his initial shock. "Why me? Do I even qualify to handle a responsibility like that?"

"You're the only person that has ever held the Void Genome and lived. Right now, you are the most qualified person for this job. And your friend was basically your second-in-command back in Loop 7. You two know more about Voids than all of us combined and that's why this team needs you." Daryl explained.

He flipped the slides, showing a map of a building. The meteorite must be inside somewhere in there. Daryl took out a laser pointer and let the red dot land in the dead center. "This is where the meteorite is being held. It is heavily guarded with officers switching at every two hour intervals and the switch occurs over a period of five minutes. Only our scientists are allowed inside with special personnel, but now, Shu, Yahiro, and Ayase are allowed inside."

"How am I allowed inside with them?" Ayase suspiciously raised her eyebrow.

"Your job is to bodyguard both Shu and Yahiro when I'm not present. I'll be making adjustments to your wheelchair to prepare you for your assignment." Daryl glanced at Tsugumi. "And you, stay logged in to their main database. Access any secret records you find. I don't want the US planning something sneaky behind our backs. This rock is essentially power stuffed into a container. Everybody wants their hands on it."

"Question", Yahiro suddenly interrupted, "We all have our jobs. What's with the kid?"

"I'm only eight years younger than you…" Jessica pouted.

Daryl sighed at her childish response and he said, "Jessica is my personal officer. Where I go, she goes."

Yahiro frowned instead. "I hope she is up for the job. As you can see, all of us are connected to that damned Apocalypse pebble in some way. Shu held two Void Genomes, I had my Void drawn out many times, Ayase and Tsugumi fought alongside us, and I assume you were fighting in GHQ. She doesn't know the amount of sacrifices we had to make to fight this epidemic. Can she handle it?"

"I'm only an Intel Officer, which means I relay information to people and therefore, I'm this team's main line of communication. I don't expect myself to do any field work any time soon." Jessica explained. But, nonetheless, Yahiro's statement was true. Out of everyone in this meeting, she never even encountered the virus. It never hit her side of Japan, thus saving her life. She was in the countryside being a little ten year old while everyone else in this room fought to live till now. In a way, she held a sort of respect for every single person here…even Daryl.

Daryl loudly coughed all of a sudden, suddenly drawing everyone's attention back to him. "In any case, let's go over the objective. What we want is to see this rock destroyed completely. However, it holds an enormous amount of power and energy, therefore, no country would even think about getting rid of it. They probably want to just use it for their own gain and derive technology from it like our Void technology. Another Apocalypse incident may potentially break out again if this continues. That's why it's our job to prevent that from happening. So Shu will be our main advocator with Yahiro backing him up. We will bring samples of our old Void technology so they don't rely fully on the meteorite or try to mess with it. If we're lucky, they might not ever discover the Void Genome."

"And what if another Apocalypse breaks out?" Yahiro said with a frown.

"Then…we're screwed…"

There was silence in the room. Nobody wanted to speak a word. Every one of them, save for Jessica, was trapped in their own memories of eight years prior; those memories of fighting to get the only vaccine, fighting to escape oppression, and fighting to survive. Did they want to relive those days once again? Even after acquiring peace? It was too much to bear in the time frame they had. But they all had to agree to this plan. Shibungi sent them a mission to complete.

Finally, Daryl spoke up, "If everyone understands the mission, we start tomorrow. The plane due to America leaves at eight in the morning."

"You're sending us there so soon!" Ayase gasped with her usual accompanying glare. "Don't we have a say in this?"

But the general merely shrugged, "The sooner the better."

-GC-

Jessica drove her red car towards Daryl's house and prepared to enter his ridiculously huge garage. In her car sat both Tsugumi and Ayase. She offered to give them a ride and they accepted, although they were slightly confused why going to Daryl's first would translate into plane ride. Jessica opted to dress comfortably on this plane trip. It was a ten hour ride! She wanted to sleep the whole way through so she wore slacks and sweatshirts. Both Tsugumi and Ayase wore dresses, something that Jessica wished she worn, because now she and every girl knew why reporting to Daryl's place first was important.

Ayase dumbfoundedly stared, "He has…his own…jet…"

Jessica nervously cracked a smile. Her forehead was sweating now. She should have known Daryl was going to travel in style! God! Now he's going to rip her apart for not dressing appropriately! Good thing Tsugumi and Ayase knew how to dress well.

"Jessica, you've known him the longest, is this his?" Tsugumi asked, tugging onto her junior's hand.

"More or less, yeah." Jessica replied. "He's always liked cars and planes and so on. You see my car was actually part of his collection. One day, he brought me into a garage with nothing but cars and made me pick one for myself."

Ayase scoffed, "Rich bastard! With a hobby like that, I'm not surprised if he has a second jet."

"Three actually." A voice behind her suddenly said, startling poor Ayase. Daryl was right behind them the whole time, sneaking up and listening in! He took a mere glance at Jessica and gave her his trademark disgusted look. "Thanks for preparing. But you know this is a very high class jet and there are going to be reporters once we land. Can't you make me look good for once? Wear something different!"

"Hey stupid," Jessica menacingly jabbed her finger into his sensitive chest. "You never told me anything about leaving on this thing."

Daryl shrugged, "I thought you already knew. Obviously Ayase and Tsugumi knew. Brat!"

Jessica angrily clenched her bags and gritted her teeth.

Daryl began to head into his jet. "Shu and Yahiro are already inside. Get in or else, we're going to be behind schedule." He yelled back in his most commanding voice. He was the leader of this group so he had to make sure everything went smoothly!

Tsugumi smiled and she led little Jessica up the steps. "You know what's funny?"

"What?" Jessica curiously gazed up while fixing her glasses.

"You and Daryl bicker so much; you guys are almost like siblings!"

Jessica gaped in utter shock and terror. What the hell was that woman thinking? "No! Absolutely not! Never! What in the world would make you think that?"

"Daryl told me a story." Tsugumi winked back. When she looked up, she gave a small giggle to Daryl who was looking at her weirdly.

Jessica tried to say something back, but nothing came out of her mouth. She merely opened her jaws and let her mouth hang open there. "That… That was so long ago! Even I don't remember what happened!"

"But Daryl sure did. He's kept it at heart ever since. So…you know, just keep doing what you do. It keeps his spirits high!" Tsugumi patted the young student on the shoulder and walked over to her seat beside Ayase.

Jessica only stared on, a little rustled and confused on the events that just happened. But, in the end, she smiled as well. That woman was such a cheerful person; even she got Jessica to crack a smile! And she was glad, as she thought, 'That woman is something…I sort of get it now, Daryl, why you fell in love with her eight years ago. She was always so cheerful, bringing a smile to your face, and she wanted to keep you happy. She brought out that good person in you that you thought you never had. And now, I get why you'd risk everything for her…even if you don't realize it now…but I'm sure you will get soon. And…I think it's time to pass my responsibilities of that man to you, Tsugumi. Turn him into something memorable…for me…and for Daddy. That's all he ever wanted. I wish you both a happy life from here on out.'

"Brat! How long are you going to stand out there like an idiot?" Daryl's annoyed voice immediately pounded her out of her dazed state.

"I'm coming!" Jessica sprinted in and quickly plopped into her seat. She cheerfully glanced at the team who was giving her weird stares. "You know, I have a great idea! Since we're a team now, let's have a team name! How about the 'Apocalypse Team'?"

"That sounds ridiculous! No way in hell!" Daryl rolled his eyes and shoved Jessica back. "Just go to sleep! Brat!"

"Apocalypse Prevention Team?"

"No!"

Thus ends another chapter! Now the GC gang is heading over to the great United States of America, where I might potentially turn our country into the bad guys...or not! Who knows? Review and find out!