Chapter 25 - The War Council.

I woke up the following morning in a cold sweat, as Kara, once again, persuaded me to sleep before this meeting. I glanced at the clock, and noted the time. 8:40 AM. I rolled out of bed, equipped my armor, and went to the kitchen, grabbing a granola bar to munch on.

"Good morning." I heard Hazel say, as we turned to face each other. She frowned. "Nightmares again?" She asked. I nodded. "Look, about yesterday..." I started. "Don't. I know you're sorry about what you said, and I was wrong to be that reckless yesterday morning. We were both wrong. Let's just be adults about this and move on." She said firmly.

"Alright. Thank you, Hazel." I told her, quickly finishing my granola bar. "I'd been thinking... Maybe it'd be better if Kara and myself didn't go to this meeting today. We won't be able to contribute anything." Hazel told me hesitantly. "Contrary to that, I think it's better we continue to present ourselves as a group. Splitting up never goes well, and it earns all of you the same respect as me, in theory, which might come in handy." I countered.

"I'll let you in on a little secret. I've never gone to war before, nor have I strategized for such a thing before, if that wasn't clear, since we're both still minors. Even if you don't think you can contribute anything, I think there's a possibility you both might contribute greatly. You come from the family of an agent, and Kara gives a civilian perspective to these people. So we act together, or not at all." I advised her.

She sighs. "I get your point. Part of me just doesn't want to bring Kara to this, because I'm scared she'll get overwhelmed by it." She tries. "When was the last time she got overwhelmed in a group meeting with us?" Hazel was silent after that. "Fine. We'll go." She relented.

I smile at her. "Thank you." I hug her, and she freezes up for a second before hugging me back. "Can I be completely honest with you?" She asked me. "You can tell me anything. Don't worry." I assured her. "You're... terrifying when you're mad. Your pupils turn a sickly yellow, the air around me grows cold, and through the Force... I feel death's grip on me." She shudders.

I falter at that. My best guess? The Bloodlust ability was to blame for that. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that happened when I was angry." I apologized. "It's fine. Just... beware of the effects your powers have on you, especially when fueled by emotions." She says shakily. I peek into her thoughts, and pale at what I see. Even I terrified myself.

I hear two sets of feet walking into the kitchen, so I break myself from examining the image of my anger, and refocus on the two girls who just walked in, wearing their full gear. "Are we ready to go?" Mana asked. Kara glanced at the two of us, and Hazel seemed to have a short exchange with her mentally.

"I think so. Hazel, are you ready?" I ask gently. She nods, seemingly having shaken off the fear of me again. I felt terrible. She was scared of me. As we all walked out the door, I locked eyes with Hazel, lowering my mental guards. "I'm never going to hurt any of you, okay? I know it might not be reassuring coming from me, but my anger was just that. Anger. No matter how furious I may be, I would never harm a friend." I tried to assure her.

::I wish I could believe that so easily. It'll take time before I'm going to be completely over that.:: She responded. I nod, and throw up my mental guards again. We all sit on the front porch, awaiting our transportation.

It was half an hour before we arrived in the bunker. We took the elevator, same as before, into the meeting room for the war council. There was a large, round table, with an assortment of papers and maps piled around. Hell, there was even a projector and SmartBoard in here, along with other white boards, like the ones you'd see hanging on walls in a classroom, and they all had hastily written words or maps drawn on them.

"I believe we're the first ones here." Phoebus said, taking a seat with his name next to it, near the back of the table, directly next to the seat labeled for Alec. "All of you can take the unlabeled seats, closest to the elevator." He said, pointing at the seats. I took the one opposite Alec's, Kara taking my right hand side, Mana taking my left, as Hazel sat to Kara's other side.

There were only a few labeled seats. There was one for Phoebus, one for Alec, and three others, labeled with the names of Phoebe, Azalea, and lastly, a familiar name, being Revan. I knew it wouldn't actually be Revan, clearly, but at least someone had appreciation for the games, if not the lore behind it, too.

Phoebe's seat was on Alec's other side, Azalea's seat by Phoebe's, and Revan's next to Phoebus'. Minutes of silence later, the attendees flooded in, sitting in their respective seats. Phoebe looked strikingly similar to Phoebus, and I could only assume they were related. The only difference? Similar to the depictions of Apollo and Artemis in Greek myths, Phoebe had reddish-brown hair, and silver eyes, though I heavily suspected she used hair dye and colored contacts.

Azalea looked younger than I expected. She looked like she was maybe fourteen or fifteen. She had brown hair, and hazel eyes, though she was taller than Alec, at a surprising five foot nine, if I had to guess, based on my own height of six foot one.

Then I focused on the most interesting of the group. He seemed like a pretty normal guy. His hair was brown, it was well-kept, tied back in a bun. His eyes were a deeper brown, with a strange gleam in them. Not just a gleam of intelligence, but perhaps a little madness as well, and his figure was lean, with its fair share of muscle.

I seem to have stared for a second too long, as he started looking back intently. I felt my face flush, and I tear my eyes away from him. "Revan, Azalea, Phoebe, you may notice we have some new faces joining us for the council meeting today." Alec began, gesturing to us. "So he's the real deal, then? Powers and all?" Azalea asked, sizing us up.

I nod, and Revan seems to resist a smile. I silently reach out to probe his mind, out of curiosity, internally frowning when I meet nothing. Just a blank wall. I tried Observing him. Nothing again. No interface popping up, showing question marks or anything. Something bothered me about him, and it wasn't just that.

"Well, he hasn't demonstrated much past a little lightshow, but it did seem he was holding back a little." Phoebus added. "Maybe this gambit will be worth it, after all." Phoebe said, examining each of the people in my party. "I'll show off some of my tricks later. Now's not the time. We need to start planning this war." I said stiffly. Maybe I was a little miffed that the System wasn't acknowledging Revan at all with my powers. So what?

Revan laughed. "Kid, if you think this little skirmish is going to be a war, you'll be sorely mistaken. You might just see it soon enough, though, if other countries take action as well." He smiled coldly at me. I met his smile with a tilt of my head, Bloodlust slowly creeping out. He seemed unfazed, but backed down anyway.

"Maybe we should begin planning, rather than having a dick measuring contest between the two boys here." Phoebe suggested, gesturing at myself and Revan. "Right. Well, I studied the addresses on Google Earth last night. Do we know how heavily guarded these buildings are?" Mana asked. "They're not heavily guarded at all. We just need codes to get in, or a keycard to use the elevators to get in. The problem is, they probably have security tight enough to where they'll probably have facial recognition for anyone who's wanted in the bunker itself." Azalea responded.

"The main building, though, has armed security that patrols a perimeter around it, to where their alternate entrances are in sight often." Phoebus added. I nodded. "I can potentially bypass the need for a keycard, or hack their entrances. My powers give me an interface showing me different skill levels, which I can increase per level up, and they get boosts based on my attributes." I explained.

"I could also get a device that allows me to go invisible, so it'll be lots easier for me to sneak in with someone else who doesn't have a bounty on their head." I continued. "But as it stands, that's only their lab, right? I want to go further. We need to plan on taking out the President, too. We need to systematically terminate figures that are important to this government's structure, and do it quickly enough that there's no time to replace them. I want to destroy this government, and build it from the ground up, better for everyone." I demand.

"I agree with him. It would be best to eradicate the support beams, so it would all collapse on itself." Revan spoke up. Alec nodded, and opened his mouth before I interrupted him. "Apologies for interrupting, Alec, but I have reason to believe I should take on the eradication of the head honcho on my own." I told him. I then launched into why.

I figured his guards, Secret Service, whatever, would be Empowered, or secretly have some Empowered backup. As I'm immune to their powers, and can terminate normal people with ease, not to mention my insane healing, (which I unfortunately had to chop off an arm to prove, to their disgust, and my chagrin,) I thought I would be best suited to face such a thing on my own.

They all seemed to agree, except for Revan, who refused to provide his opinion on it, that I should be provided that job, when the time comes. I had reason to believe he thought he could do it better. Arrogant schmuck.

"You had mentioned in our first meeting yesterday that you were provided less than a month of time before you had to defeat them, correct, Cyrus?" Alec asked. "Yeah. This all has to end within the next twenty-seven days, roughly." I answered.

"So if we destroy the labs sooner, as opposed to later, we'll have more time to weaken the system, and they'll be spread thin, between rebuilding the lab, so they can stand a chance, and fighting what's essentially going to be a small-scale civil war." Phoebe proposed. Revan nodded. "That makes sense, but my concern would be on any secondary labs." He pointed out.

"I can fix that concern. Mana, roughly when did you get your powers?" I asked her. She frowned, thinking. "Maybe half a month ago. My family paid a large sum to give me powers, so I'd assume this was shortly after they finished any experiments, and started producing consistent results." She replied.

"So, by that logic, I'd say it took maybe half of a month for them to construct that in a preexisting bunker. They wouldn't have had much time to consider the construction of a second one, which they would presumably need extra room for. It would be finished maybe three weeks from now, is my guess, if they started construction immediately after the first one finished." I estimated.

"Well, we already have a pretty obvious plan, right? Send Cyrus in with a stealth unit, the device he mentioned, that would let him go in invisibly. He could use his abilities to convince someone to let him in with them, too, while remaining invisible. He can run around and destroy as many machines as he can, or even send him in with explosives, and get the place to cave in." Kara proposes.

Revan smiles at that. "I, for one, am all for that idea." He said. "Well, we should send someone else with him, shouldn't we? I had seen Mana using such a stealth device as well. It would make the job much quicker, in my opinion." Phoebus added. Mana smiled a little at that.

"No more than a duo, though. Any more than that would make it easier to detect them, and thus the mission becomes difficult, if not outright impossible. It's best not to risk anyone else aside from the two of them going." Phoebe added. "All in favor of Mana and Cyrus taking on the mission of destroying the lab?" All hands, aside from those of Kara and Hazel, went up, presumably out of concern for the two of us. "Ding!" I knew that this was a Journal Entry, giving a quest to complete this mission. I resolved to look at it once I finished it.

"Well, I'd like to think this is a good note to end this on. Cyrus, Mana, we will provide you transportation to one of the three alternative entrances in a week's time. With that being said, this meeting is adjourned." Alec declared, standing up. I stood, and waved my friends off. "Meet me at the car with Phoebus. I need to speak to someone." I told them.

Everyone filed out of the room aside from myself and Revan. "I knew you'd want to talk with me. What is it?" He asked me. "My powers usually let me see at least question marks when I can't read someone's profile. My powers ignore you entirely. Are you even here? Maybe just a hologram?" I said, grabbing his hand. It was solid, disproving my theory.

"What are you?" I asked in curiosity and awe. "I'm not sure. I'll let you know when you find the answer." He shrugged. After that, he vanished, leaving me gaping. "I didn't imagine him. I know that. What the fuck?" I thought. I backed up, and entered the elevator.

I found my friends chatting with Phoebus, and they all turned to me. "Did Revan give you a rough time?" Phoebus asked. "You look like you saw a ghost, Cy. What happened?" Kara asked. "I'll answer your question later, K. First, Phoebus," I said, turning to him, "Who the hell is Revan? My powers don't work on him at all. It's like he doesn't exist." I asked, an almost hungry tone in my voice. I wanted to know. No. Needed to know.

He shook his head. "I don't know who he is. He appeared maybe a month ago. No records, no anything on him. It's like he just came to exist a month ago. How your powers don't work on him is a mystery to me." He answered. I silently fumed at his answer as we got in the car, starting the drive back.

Revan, I am going to figure out who you are.