Disclaimer: I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any of its related properties. Capcom does. All other characters are the amazing property of the Chaos Coalition.
Author's Note: I'm terribly sorry to make you all wait so long for this chapter, but school started this week, and I haven't had much time to write. I can't promise you a strict schedule from now on, but I will say that I will do my best to write this story, no matter how long it takes. Also, I have made some changes that may surprise some of you in this chapter, and the most prominent is the renaming of the New Chaos Union. After some deliberation, I decided that was too long of a name, and I hope that the new one is satisfactory to you. Also, I've decided to give up on the flashbacks because they're a pain to write, and I don't think that a lot of them are useful. Perhaps I'll edit flashbacks in after I finish the story, but I just don't have enough time anymore to waste time writing them. If you want them back, review, if not, enjoy!
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Chaotic We Stand
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Chapter 14: Dies Medeor Res Cunctae
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Exactly one month, four days, sixteen hours, twenty-three minutes, and forty-seven seconds have passed since the murder of Shroud Taruka. By the end of the world, historians will be able to pinpoint this one instant as one of the few defining moments of history, the moments where only the simplest variation would have changed the very course of history. Examples of these defining moments are as seemingly monumental as the bombing of Opal Harbor in Kawai'i by the nation of Kingland, or as seemingly insignificant as the neglect of an ancient Electopian Senator of Roam to ask a very important woman to marry him, which later became the reason for the fall of the Roaman Empire. Regardless of how it had been seen in its own era, by the end of the world, all but one of history's most crucial moments will have been charted out, and proudly displayed in every major city all across the world. The one they would miss was when a college student would decide to give up astronomy and become a dentist, so the asteroid that would obliterate the Earth would never be found until it was too late.
However, in the here and now, Shroud's death was merely a footnote in the developments that were occurring. Neo Arcadia soon appointed four new members to its Elite Eight, members that X felt would follow his orders without question. He proved to be wrong on that count, but they were loyal in their own way. The nation did manage to have a day of mourning for the fallen Chaos Union leader, but no one who truly cared for Shroud bothered to acknowledge it. They would mourn him in their own fashion; after all, X had gotten his martyr. The Vile 5 were blamed for the death almost instantly, especially since they were known to have access to a dimensional chip. Shroud's family didn't care about blame. On one hand, Irine knew that it didn't matter who killed her husband; he was dead, and lost to her. On the other, it only made Seija want to destroy the Vile 5 more.
Ironically, with Shroud dead, his family was now free to emigrate back to Electopia. However, without a home of their own, they decided to move in with the Terres, which created some awkward tension between both Matthias and Irine and Luke and Seija. However, the fresh grief over Shroud's murder has managed to keep their relationships undiscussed, and the eight of them have managed to cohabitate so far.
As for the remainder of the Chaos Union, the release of their names to the general public has caused many of them trouble. While several members, such as Golex or Chris, can simply fade out of the public eye, more prominent members of society have been struggling to avoid persecution for their former status. Raymond only escaped being fired from his job as a netbattle instructor because of legislation that Kotobuki had passed decades ago for a completely different reason, and Jules and Mikoto were forced to move away from their homes in Swampopolis, migrating north to Netopia. However, as a whole, the Chaos Union has managed to keep their families safe, and as a result, the new Chaos Union has begun to flourish.
To keep their parents from uncovering anything, Luke and the others have taken the name Eclipse for their organization, after Luke said during their last face-to-face meeting, "I have every intention of eclipsing what our parents have done before us." The name stuck. The only person to have noticed that their child was hiding something was Pavo, but Pedro simply told him that it was a multinational program for teenagers to help them learn about other cultures. Pavo had accepted the explanation without question, and it had been adopted by the others as a logical excuse for their actions.
The remainder of the world remained fairly silent, biding their time. It seemed that no nation wanted to strike before another, and so the conflict had been drawn into a stalemate. Through the ONB status of half their members (namely, Luke, John, Dakota, and Alistor), Eclipse was able to learn that Electopia was planning on conferring with at least one or two other nations sometime soon, but their low clearance was preventing them from learning more. Perhaps after they finished with their initial training, they would learn more. Fate would strike before they could learn enough to prevent it.
And so, one month, four days, sixteen hours, twenty-three minutes, and forty-seven seconds after the death of Shroud Taruka, very few things have changed.
Unfortunately for the new Chaos Union, one of those things is the entire world.
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-- Tuesday, May 28, 7: 26 AM, St. Francis Cemetery, Electown, Electopia --
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Irine Taruka knelt before the grave of her husband and laid one single red rose upon the grassy knoll that held his body beneath its crushing depths. She knew that her husband would not be needing this rose, nor any of the other roses that she had set upon this earthen mound. But she knew that somewhere up there, he was appreciating the sentiment.
Still on her knees, she traced the lettering across the stone in front of her. "Shin Taruka," she read softly to herself, a name he had never borne, yet the one that he had asked be put on his tomb. Decades from now, perhaps, his stone would be saved from rebellious teenagers, defacing the graves of those who were famous or well known; few knew Shin Taruka. Her fingers brushed across his date of death, and she bit her lips to hold back tears. She had practice with the technique by now. "Husband to passion," she continued, reading the epithet that he had crafted himself, a double entendre. "Father to chaos. Brother to shadows. Friend to the earth."
She could still hear him explaining the few words to her that solemn night, a few months after they had been married. Shroud had been returning to active duty, and his father had suggested that he write an epithet, 'just in case'. Luckily for them, he had lasted two decades without having to use it. But Irine had known that the day when she would be reading this upon her knees would someday come, and she was somehow glad that it had been so far off, if gladness was an emotion that she still believed that she possessed. "It has multiple meanings, Irine," he had said to her, holding her in his arms on their sofa, both of them with slight tears in their eyes. "A friend to the entire world, if they'll have me, but firstly and more importantly, to Matthias. My brother's name is Shade, but I have ties to what lies in darkness as well. And I am the metaphorical father of the Chaos Union…but hopefully a father to a chaotic brood of children as well."
They had not followed through on that promise that evening, but they had soon after, and their children had certainly be chaotic. But Irine had seen what Shroud had not told her: that he was husband to more than one passion. He loved her, truly and completely, but he loved what he did just as much, if not more. He had even attempted to play Robin Hood for a time after he had been accused of Dr. Hikari's murder, until his heroism attracted the wrong kind of attention. Then it had been all about stealing enough for them to eat and keeping one step ahead of the law and the bounty hunters who'd took it upon themselves to hunt him down. That was why he was dead; because he'd never been able to give up the fight. Not even for the friend of earth, the brother of shadow, the children of chaos, or a wife of passion.
She stood slowly and looked at the grave once more, and then turned away to look at Matthias behind her. She and her children were staying with him for the time being, if only because the four of them had no source of income other than the pension that X was apparently sending them. She would need to find a job of her own, eventually, but for now, it was simpler to stay with Matthias, for all of them. Their children were now close friends, and Seija had begun to attend school with Luke and Marie, while Saishi and Sam were attending the same kindergarten. The five of them had grown extremely close over the last month, perhaps because Seija needed friends to cope with the grief of losing her father and because of the similarities in age between the two younger boys.
Matthias was standing, a miracle in itself, although a cane was in his left hand, pointed into the ground. The cane was more a safety measure than anything else; Matthias could walk almost as well now as he had been able to before his paralysis. However, his 'curing' was not complete. He hadn't regained complete feeling in his legs, and it didn't appear he was going to, after having shown no real change in status in the past week. At breakfast that morning, he had asked her how much of a chance he had of recovering further, and she had been forced to tell him that after a week of no progress, no patient of hers had substantially progressed. He had taken it rather well, but she supposed that for him, simply walking was considered success, and the lack of feeling was livable with. After all, it wasn't a complete deadening, just a partial one. He could still feel things touching his legs, albeit faintly, and the area around the injury was much better than the legs proper, having almost complete feeling. All in all, not a complete success, but a success nonetheless.
"Still hard to believe he's gone," he said as she approached him.
"I've known this day would come for twenty years," she said soberly to him. "There have been some times when Shroud was thought dead, but somehow I knew that he was alive, and that he would return to me. But now…" she pressed her hand to her heart as she looked up at him. "Now he is gone. I've known that he was dead since the minute he was shot, but I wouldn't believe myself until I heard the news with my own ears. And now I am here, and he isn't, and I am no longer the same person without him."
She walked past Matthias towards the car, but he spoke a word from where he stood, and the word startled her. "Soulmates."
She turned slowly to look at him, and saw that he was looking back. His eyes were hiding tears, and somehow she knew that these tears were not for Shroud. She had never really noticed the way that other men felt about her before she had married Shroud; no one else mattered. But once they had married, Irine had been able to stop chasing him blindly, and had seen what she believed few had noticed: that Matthias loved her, even though she was not his to love. That was why she had pushed Alysse into that relationship with him; after her father's kidnapping, she had befriended Matthias, and it had only taken a slight push to turn her friendship into love. But Irine had always known that Alysse's love had never been enough for Matthias.
"You were soulmates," he said, the bitterness of his words only visible from the angle Irine had learned to see them. "Born to love each other, perfect matches. You were the perfect person for Shroud, and he for you. That is why you knew when he died, why you feel a new person without him. Now you are a new person, and the part of you that was tied to Shroud has left with him. You are a lucky woman, Irine, to have found the person you were meant to share your life with."
"Everyone has a soulmate, Matthias," she said, deeply saddened that she had opened an old wound of his.
"You're right," he replied, turning away from her. "But sometimes, your soulmate isn't the person you love."
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-- 12: 31 PM, Electown High, Electown, Electopia --
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Luke pushed the door open one-handed and sat beside Seija at their lunch table. Their school had open campus, and had recently put tables outside so that students could enjoy the early summer's fresh air. Luke and his friends had made sure to claim one for their own; not only because there were only a dozen of them, but because it meant that they could discuss Eclipse business without anyone overhearing. Granted, there was the small matter of Luke's other friends to deal with, but luckily, most of them didn't really desire to sit outside anyways, and that took care of that.
The only remaining friends that weren't Eclipse members were Alan, Allie, and John's younger brother Tim, a freshman. Therefore, the group had decided to let them in on part of the secret, and keep them from learning anything else. They told them that Eclipse was a group within the ONB that specifically recruited kids to do missions adults couldn't. The missions were completely classified, but if they were allowed to, they'd let them know. Surprisingly, the bluff worked. Whenever they needed to discuss anything of real importance, they could just let their companions know prior to lunch, and they'd eat at another table, glad to have helped the cause.
Today was one of those days, which meant their table was much less crowded than usual. Luke and John were there, of course, and Seija as well, but the fourth member of the table had come as a bit of a surprise to Luke when he'd literally bumped into him in the hallway. It was Pedro Ferreira!
The young prodigy and his father had apparently decided not to return to Mexico, and so had taken advantage of their pseudo-citizenship in Electopia to enroll Pedro in school. In Mexico, the boy was a senior, almost ready to graduate at the age of 14. However, given the differing standards of education, the school board had decided, after an evaluation, that he would benefit more from two full years, and so he had been registered as a sophomore so that next year, he would be on par with his education level. While it made him among the smallest kids in school, he was easily one of the brightest, having stunned their entire algebra class by acing the test that was taken on his first day, without having studied or learned the material.
So the four of them were the core group, the Electown chapter of Eclipse, so to speak. Electown was the only city to have more than one member of Eclipse living there, with Dakota staying in the ONB dorms in Dentown, Alistor at his home in Kotobuki, and Kitsune all the way across the ocean, on the southeastern coast of Netopia. The time zone difference made it difficult to contact Kitsune, but having their meetings during their lunch meant that he could usually listen in for a while before going to school. Luke checked his watch, and then passed everyone a set of Virtual Visors, or VVs for short. They were the consumer versions of his father's Data Visors, which he sold to the military, and were supposed to be used for VR-gaming. Luke had made some minor adjustments to these, however, and they could now be used to make calls internationally without having to rack up long distance charges. He figured he could probably make tons off of them, but they were probably illegal too, so he kept their existence under wraps as best as possible.
The others slipped the visors on, and soon, digital images of Dakota and Alistor appeared at the table with them, seating themselves in open spaces for convenience. "Hello, everyone," Alistor said, sitting in a chair that didn't match the others'. Luke adjusted the device's perceptions slightly to see the area around him; finding it to be a library, which clashed oddly with the outdoors. Looking at Dakota, Luke saw that he was in his dorm room, sitting on his bed. He must have decided to skip sixth period again. "What's the latest news in your part of the country? And where's Kitsune?"
"He needed to go in to school early today for some reason," Luke replied. "He sent me an email overnight."
"At any rate," Pedro said, getting to the point, "we're recently learned that Neo Arcadia is looking for volunteers to join their version of the ONB, the Digital Guard. They're taking kids as young as we are, and even pardoning criminals and Undernavis. Apparently, the idea is the brainchild of Leviathan, and she's been appointed their leader."
"Odd," Dakota said, typing something into the table; Luke realized that he must have been working at his laptop. "Leviathan seemed the least likely to lead a team like this. After all, she's legally in charge of the navy, but she leaves the running of it to her subordinates. I can't see any reason why she'd form it."
"Well, whatever the reason, we need to keep an eye on it," John said. "Perhaps it would be possible for someone to go to Neo Arcadia over the summer break, and attempt to find out any information. None of us in the ONB can, because we have our training sessions, but the rest of you are free to go if you wish."
"I'll talk it over with my dad," Pedro said. "He should let me go." Luke suddenly noticed an odd look in Pedro's eyes, and it resembled the look of Marie right before she would lie about where she was headed. But there really wasn't any reason for Pedro to lie…was there?
Oddly enough, Seija was silent. While Luke knew that her father's funeral had been exactly one month ago, she had never remained so quiet during one of these meetings, even immediately after his death. The only other time that he had seen her this quiet was when she had been thinking over whether or not to stay in Neo Arcadia after her father had been killed. There was nothing nearly as serious being discussed, unless Seija knew something that they did not about Leviathan. It was possible, but unlikely. Seija generally didn't withhold information of such a magnitude. In fact, she generally told them the instant she gained any new knowledge of Neo Arcadia or the Vile 5, regardless of its importance.
"Well, whoever goes should attempt to speak with Fefnir," Alistor suggested. "He's publicly stated that he wishes he could have done more to prevent Shroud's death, and he's made sure that the Pantheon is looking into the case with their best men. In addition, he was with us for part of our mission in the Twilight Desert, and he knows how dangerous the Vile 5 are, more than any of the other Guardians. Just don't let him realize that we don't have any sort of government sanction. Keep it quiet."
Pedro nodded, and Seija did as well, although without speaking. Luke found that odd, but his thoughts were cut off when he faintly heard a bell, and looked around the campus before realizing that it was coming from the vicinity of Alistor, and it must be his school's bell. "You need to go, Alistor?" he asked, double-checking before they cut off their transmission.
"Yeah," he replied, looking around at something that the others couldn't see. "I'd normally stay, but I have a test in a few minutes, so I can't be late. Pedro, if you decide to go to Neo Arcadia, call me and I'll get you Fefnir's PC code, all right?"
"Got it," the young prodigy replied, and Alistor's image faded away, leaving only five.
"I'd better go too," Dakota said. "I still need to erase my tardy from the database here before I go to lunch. Luke, John, you're still coming here when school's done, right?"
"Yep," the two of them replied, pulling out their new pre-paid Metropass.
"Excellent. Don't be late, or Ishida will kill you. Seriously. Talk to you later, everybody." After receiving his obligatory 'good-bye' from everyone, Dakota faded out as well, and the four remaining removed their visors.
"What do you all think of this Digital Guard thing?" John asked.
"Sounds fishy," Luke said. "I don't know much about Leviathan, but what I do know is that if anyone was to lead the Guard, it would be Harpuia or Fefnir, not Leviathan. I could even see Phantom leading it, but it would probably make him too high-profile for his tastes. But Leviathan doesn't lead anything in Neo Arcadia, not even the navy, which is what she's supposed to be in charge of."
"Could it be a punishment of some sort?" Pedro suggested. "It couldn't be the navy thing, because if so, then X would have formed the Guard years ago. But there's been no significant action taken by any of the Guardians since Fefnir came with our parents on their mission and got his copyroid fried by Omega."
"Then it's a reward."
Luke and the others turned to look at Seija as she spoke the first words she had in the entire conversation. "A reward for what?" Luke asked.
"I don't know," she replied. "But whatever it was, it was good enough that Leviathan could get put in charge of an organization that will eventually rival the ONB, and could potentially save the entire nation."
"What?" John asked, thoroughly confused. "How?"
Seija glared at him and stood suddenly, causing the table bounce and Pedro's drink to spill onto the table. No one moved to clean it up. "Are you three honestly stupid enough not to understand what's going on! Neo Arcadia is going to war!" As Luke, John, and Pedro stared at her, she turned and walked off fuming, muttering about the idiocies of men, and other things that didn't really seem to pertain to the conversation.
"Don't look at me," Luke muttered as the other two looked at him quizzically. "I just live with her."
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-- 8: 46 PM, Elite Chambers, Core Building, Neo Arcadia --
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Harpuia sat in his assigned position, directly to his father's right. Beside him sat Fefnir, and then Leviathan, and then Phantom, who appeared to be online at the moment, looking vacantly at the humans across from them. They were all people that Harpuia knew, but he didn't know them well, they only having been appointed to this highest of councils a few weeks past. With the revelation that the Vile 5 had managed to completely infiltrate the Elite Eight, X had needed to fill the vacancies, and the four people sitting across from him were the results of those appointments.
Directly across from him, and next to X, was Roger Signas, a shady private investigator who was apparently very high within Phantom's espionage agency. Harpuia had been wondering why Signas would be put into such a high-profile position if he was supposed to be a spy, but when he had asked him about it, the spy had simply replied that he only worked through a spy network, in which other spies reported to him. Joining the Elite Eight was one of the best moves he could make.
The next of the new appointments was Dr. Meredith Berkana, a doctor of some sort who specialized in gene splicing. The doctor was a hefty woman who was never seen out of a dress, and didn't seem an obvious choice for the Elite Eight. However, according to Fefnir, who had sponsored her appointment, she worked in the Pantheon Labs a majority of the time, splicing the robotic parts in with the humanoid ones. Besides, it was always nice to have a doctor or two on the council, even if she was only a doctor of medicine.
Iris Redips was the next on the panel, and this was the one that Harpuia knew the least about. Her appointment was Leviathan's doing, and she was apparently a lawyer who specialized in cases that involved anything of a digital nature, but usually not netcrime. That was generally an open-and-shut case. She was quite young, only 23 or 24, but very intelligent. Unfortunately, her intelligence seemed to be the only qualification that she held, but X had allowed her on the council regardless, perhaps as a good PR move or something. Whatever the case, Harpuia didn't trust her any farther than she could throw him, and unless she was superhuman, that wouldn't be too far.
The last member was Elpizo Tikay, a skilled tactician who had helped advise him and his Sky Army on covert operations. He had expressed a desire for political advancement to Harpuia briefly before he had learned of the Vile 5's treachery, and when the call for human members of the Elite Eight came, Harpuia had quickly suggested him as a member. Elpizo was also a gifted fencer, and had managed to hold his own against Harpuia for quite some time, an admirable feat for a human. Harpuia smiled at him when his eyes reached him, and Elpizo did the same, delivering a slight nod in greeting.
"Now that everyone is here," X said, "we can begin our meeting. Now, we'll start with reports from Elpizo, and work our way up. Elpizo?"
The tactician cleared his throat and pulled some papers out of a folder. "If you will all look at Pages Two through Four of your agendas," he paused while the others shuffled through their copies, "you will find my suggested plan for the upcoming months. We need to remain constantly aware of any changes in foreign affairs, but I feel that the plan I have laid out is broad enough that only a monumental change would cause a complete discarding of it. Feel free to read over that a moment."
Harpuia took his advice and skimmed the document. He wasn't sure he approved. It seemed that one of Elpizo's 'monumental changes' was all out war, because the general idea of the plan was that Neo Arcadia would just continue to go about life in the same manner that they had before, except with an increased funding of money they might not have into the military, and some new foreign policy. He didn't really want to shoot down one of his subordinates, (although Elpizo was only technically a subordinate, now that he had his new position) and he didn't need to. Fefnir did that for him.
"Where's the war in this proposal?" he cried, throwing the papers to the table with enough force to cause it to twitch; barely perceptible to the netnavis, which meant that the humans hadn't even felt it. "We're obviously going to fight someone in the future, considering that every nation on the planet hates us! And yes," he obliged, before Elpizo could get any words out, "I see that you have allocated funds for the Pantheon and the Divine Armies. But you have neglected the Digital Guard, and you have also neglected to notice that we do not have the funds for such an allocation."
"Well, if you will note Page Three, on the leftmost column, you will see that I've applied a tax on copyroid purchases and rentals--"
"No, Elpizo," X replied. "Half the population of this city resides in those copyroids, and I have made promises to my people that we will not tax on anything necessary for life, and to a netnavi, a copyroid is necessary for life. You will need to find your funds elsewhere. However, I do see the merits of this proposal, and so I'd like you to arrange a meeting sometime this week when I can discuss it more thoroughly with you."
Elpizo decided to take that as a decent compromise, and then passed the baton to Iris, who had a rather long-looking proposal in front of her that Harpuia didn't see in his agenda. She soon informed them of what it was, however, and he wished that she hadn't told them. "I'm quite sorry to inform you all that what I have been privately fearing for has come to pass. SAXA, Sharo's space program, is suing Neo Arcadia for the destruction of Space Station Algebar. In addition, they are suing X personally, although this is overridden because of his position as head of state, the Chaos Union, which is no longer an organization of ours and is presumably soon to be thrown out, and against SANA, which I am afraid we will have to contest as well."
Fefnir immediately began to curse when she finished, which surprised Harpuia. Not with the cursing itself, but that he knew what a lawsuit was. A majority of the other men at the table followed his lead, albeit for a much shorter period of time, but Leviathan both sat stoically, revealing nothing. And in so doing, revealing everything. "You two already knew about this, didn't you? That's why Iris is on this council! Because you screwed up, and now you need an Attorney General to fix it!" The table drew silent; the blatantly loud kind of silence where the shuffling of papers, hands, and chairs nearly manages to drown out the roaring in their ears. Harpuia had been vehemently against the reformation of the Chaos Union, and Phantom and his network of spies had agreed with him, saying that the Chaos Union was not a stable enough organization for their purposes. However, Leviathan and Fefnir had been all for it, and X cast the deciding vote that had gotten them all into this mess.
"What I don't understand," said Phantom, his voice nearly quieter than the silence, "is why we can't just ignore the lawsuit. It's not like there's a global court or anything. If we choose not to recognize the suit, they can't do anything about it."
"Except go to war," Iris replied. "Wars have been fought over less, and in truth, we are liable for the destruction of that satellite. In fact, if X hadn't banished the Vile 5 and removed them from his council before sending up the Chaos Union, they'd have an airtight case. The only option I can see is to throw the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Chaos Union, and more importantly, Shroud Taruka."
"In case you haven't noticed, Shroud is dead," Harpuia said.
"Exactly." Leviathan now, speaking for the first time. "It's hard to sue a dead man. With his family out of the country, they're safe from our jurisdiction, and so they'll have to posthumously convict him, and that means that they won't bother."
A horrible thought began to occur to Harpuia. What if…no, she couldn't have. Not even Leviathan was calculatingly cold-hearted enough to do that. But still…X interrupted his train of thought. "That is enough for now. Our legal matters can be discussed later, amongst the parties that are actually going to be involved." In other words, shut up, Harpuia, I'll tell you about it later. Harpuia shut up.
"I guess I'll go next then," Dr. Berkana said, speaking in her soprano tones that sounded unrealistic when you looked at her. Before meeting her, Harpuia had never realized that someone her size could have such a high-pitched, girly voice, especially not at the age of 49. "Pantheon production is going well of late, and we're managed to increase our monthly production of officers to ten, a rise of two from last month. In addition, all Pantheon members who come into the facility for diagnostics or repairs are in complete working order upon their leaving. So, all in all, it's been a good month. I believe you're next, Roger."
Harpuia saw the slight wince in Signas' face, he seemed to dislike being called by his first name. "Well, Lord X, Phantom and I have decided to present together, since our independent networks have managed to discover some of the same things. To begin with, we have managed to discover that nearly all of the world's nations are being invited to a conference in an un-disclosed location. This is where our sources differ. Mine believe that the meeting is to be held in a neutral location, such as Mount Belenus, or perhaps Kawai'i. Phantom's believe that Creamland will be hosting the conference."
"That's preposterous," Iris said, rolling her eyes. "Doesn't anyone here pay attention to the rest of the world? Creamland has closed its borders, and none of their own people come in or goes out, much less the diplomats of foreign nations."
"All the more reason for my source to be correct," Phantom said. "No one would create so foolish a lie unless there was some truth to it. At any rate, it doesn't matter, because wherever it is, we're not invited, and so we know the subject matter. Us." A silence enveloped the room for a moment before he spoke again. "At any rate, we have two other pieces of information to share with you. One is that leaders in Choina have been spotted conversing with Sharoan officials, which leads us to believe that they are planning a bloodless coup. The other is that we have narrowed Shroud's murderer down to someone on staff, rather than an assassin robot masquerading as a staff worker. There are no clues that suggest outside involvement, and so Signas and I are of one opinion in that you need to question your workers soon, especially any who appear to show some signs of leaving or quitting."
"Thank you, Phantom, Signas. I will keep your words in mind." Phantom simply nodded, and Signas did nothing. Harpuia suspected that Signas reported only to Phantom, and just because X was at the head of the table didn't change that. Leviathan's report was next, and Harpuia readied himself for whatever she had to say. Ever since the Digital Guard had been announced, she'd been more arrogant than ever, and Harpuia hoped that this meeting wouldn't develop into a shouting match.
"The Digital Guard is progressing nicely. Several members of the Divine Armies have already transferred in, and I plan on giving one or two of them high-ranking positions. I have already appointed Siro Eterna to lead the Guard, and appointed Max Caplin to train our recruits."
"In case you didn't notice, sister," Harpuia said, a bit irked to have lost Caplin in the first place. "Siro Eterna is a convicted murderer in most countries. And don't lecture me about amnesty and how Shroud was considered a murderer as well. He was convicted, marked for death, and managed to escape. You can't honestly be considering having him lead our version of the ONB."
"I already have. I've scheduled a press conference for later this week to announce his appointment to the media. Mr. Eterna's murders were executions, and they were only outside the law because the law could do nothing about it. His 'victims' killed his entire family. Now, as I was saying, we have several recruits already lined up, but there are some teenagers who have privately messaged me with an interest in joining."
"No children, Leviathan," X said, his voice firm. "We already agreed upon this. Only legal adults may enlist. We are not the ONB, so eager for fresh talent that we shall pull them from their homes before they can drive a car."
"I think that you shall change your mind when you see the names of the people who messaged me. They are listed with the remainder of my presentation on Page Seven of your agendas."
Harpuia opened his folder just like everyone else, and his eyes widened as he read the names. "Leviathan, you can't be serious. These three have asked to join?"
"Yes," she said, a smirk evident on her face. She had won, and they all knew it. "Shall we put the matter to a vote?"