Disclaimer: You already know!
-----------------------------------------------------
BEYOND HEROISM OF MEN
Chapter 3
Dealings
------------------------------------------------------
"Mr. Meijer, your 11:00 is here."
"Splendid! Send her in!"
Jade entered an impossibly large and fancy office, complete with paintings from an era long forgotten, fine silk covering the walls and chairs, and what seemed like the world's best camouflaged filing cabinets. And the very end of the office stood a desk hand-carved from mahogany, stretching for nearly 3 meters, and hosting all sorts of knickknacks, from vacation photos, to crystal figurines, to infantile drawings. Behind the desk was a large window facing the bulk of the city, making for one breathtaking view. Adoring this view was a tall man, clad in a fine tuxedo, and one of the worst comb-overs this side of Donald Trump. (That last one was for us 21st century folk.)
"I just never get tired of this view." The man said. "It's why I chose this office over any other." The man turned around to face a semi-confused Jade, and with only a smile and a business card, he greeted her. "Hello, Miss Jade. I am Representative Meijer."
--------------------------------
Medusa Galaxy.
Double H had landed close to his destination on the dreaded Crochax cluster. He double checked his armor in case he ran into any hardships before reaching the rendezvous point.
"Armor? Check. Helmet? Check. Hammer? Check. Oxygen? Check. Shield systems? Check."
Before he opened the hatch, though, he took one other thing ant stuffed it in his armor, as a protective measure.
"Wouldn't want this to become damaged, now would we."
He opened the hatch, and in one jump he got out of his craft. Immediately, his ears became bombarded by all sorts of eerie sounds. It almost felt as if he were being watched. He turned on a flashlight to see in the murky fog of the cluster, with the other hand ready to take out the hammer at any point. The eerie sounds were becoming more and more frequent, but determined, Double H walked to the rendezvous point very carefully. Then, Double H stopped. Something was wrong. He looked around, and, surely enough, there were pillars filled with crochax. These crochax were not just there, they were looking straight at Double H, almost as if he was the next banquet that night. Double H pulled out his hammer. 'Better safe and sorry' he thought. He started to move very slowly, to see if the crochax lost interest in him. But suddenly, a flock of crockax came flying straight to his face, and...
-----------------------------------
"What happens next?" Zaza complained.
"Well, that's it. When it says 'Happily Ever After', that's usually when the story ends." Babukar tried to explain. to the usually shy girl
"Ok, uncle Babukar." Zaza said. "Can you read us another story?"
"But this is the third one tonight!" Babukar protested. "You should be asleep by now."
"Pleeeeeeeeeease?" Zaza whined in ways Babukar never thought possible.
"Well... okay." Babukar yielded, defeated. He then pulled a book from the stack and began.
"Are you ready? This story is called..."
-------------------------------------------
"The Evil Power Among Us" Hillys' Mayor read the pamphlet in front of her.
"You may not know it, but there could be one among you that could be housing a potentially dangerous power inside his or her body. This power, if unleashed unto the universe, could cause a massive genocide in ways not seen ever before in history. You can help stop this! But how, you ask. Simple: the person in question could potentially have silver hair, or strange marks down his/her back, or could have a green glow, as these are the most frequent manifestations of this dangerous, evil power."
The Mayor skips forward a few paragraphs, and finds something useful in the end.
"If you think you've seen someone with the previously explained traits, contact us at out e-mail: finalomegayahoohillys.uni. We will work under complete secrecy and confidentiality, so don't worry about a thing."
"Final... Omega?" The Mayor read again, completely dumbstruck at the knowledge of this group. "This is bad. Really bad. If anybody tracks this down to the source, Hillys could be in potential danger again." She fidgeted with the pamphlet for a few minutes until she thought of a course of action. "No! I won't let it happen."
--------------------------------
[TWACK!
[SPLAT!
[POUND!
The Crochax might've had the element of surprise, and they might've had the number advantage, but Double H proved to be more than a formidable opponent. Many of the crochax never even got close to him, and those who did got the worst of his ire. Already, one could fill an entire graveyard with the amount of crochax Double H had killed at the time. However, there seemed to be no end to the swarm. Unfortunately for Double H, his strength could only take him so far, and he was weakening. Not only that, but his oxygen levels were getting dangerously low. He couldn't keep this fight for much longer.
Then, a flash of inspiration.
Or rather... just a flash.
Double H took out his flare gun and aimed it at a crochax nest. Firing the gun, he saw how the nest lit up the area and blew up, taking many more nearby nests with it. Soon, a fire broke out, making the crochax flee the scene, and leave Double H alone. He quickly left the area, and rushed to the rendezvous point, not wanting anything to do with crochax for the rest of the day.
Scratch that... for the rest of the year!
-------------------------------------
"I don't believe you." Jade's simple, yet definite reply came as a shock for Representative Meijer. "I will not believe that everybody I know from IRIS, all my friends, are liars."
"I am merely presenting you the truth." Representative Meijer said as calmly as he begun. "I know what happened on your planet a year ago. It's my business to know. And I have done my own personal research, and there are some things -some key things, may I emphasize- that just don't make sense."
"Well, I still refuse to believe." Jade held on to her decision. "Whatever you say, I will just not listen."
"All right, then. then why don't you ask your uncle?" The representative said, tauntively. "I am sure he knows a whole lot of this, seeing as he has protected you for so long. He could be hiding something from you."
Suddenly, a flashback rushed through Jade's mind:
"The pig has hidden your origins from you!"
"Jade! Don't listen to him!"
So much as she wanted to take those awful memories from her mind, they were already in a dreadful loop, tormenting with the increasing inquisitive the representative has planted on her mind. She wanted so much to know what she was, why she had those powers, why did Pey'j elude the question before. She quietly rose from her seat and made her way to the door.
"Before you go," the representative ran to her side and pulled out his card. "Think about it. If I'm proven wrong, call me to let me know. If I'm proven right, I would want to talk about this further, with some friends of mine. I want to search for the truth. Do you?"
Jade absentmindedly took the card and opened the door. Before closing it, though, she directed herself to the representative one last time. "You know, I didn't vote for you."
"That's unimportant now." Representative Meijer said.
---------------------------------------
"Hello, Agent Double H, and congratulations on surviving the test." A cloaked man greeted Double H at the rendezvous point.
"Test? TEST?!" Double H was visibly angry at the revelation. "That was a test? Almost getting killed by a nearly infinite swarm of crochax was a test to you? What kind of sickos devised this deathtrap?"
"This was a controlled environment. We could've called off the attack if you seemed to be in any kind of real danger. However, you've proved to have the strength, courage and smarts to be part of the elite team inside IRIS. Welcome to the big leagues, Elite Agent Double H."
Double H was astonished now. He had just risen on the ranks without even knowing. He was still trying to assimilate this when...
"And the package?" The cloaked man asked.
"Huh? OH! Right here!" Double H explained, while taking off a piece of armor and pulling out a suitcase.
"Very well." The cloaked man said, pleased. As he was retiring to his own ship, he turned to Double H. "Oh, and while you may continue your normal duties inside IRIS, you may not speak of your new Elite status to anyone. Is that understood?"
"All right, sir." Double H replied.
Having finished his "mission", Double H set himself to return to Hillys. After all that happened, he just wanted to go to his loft, sink in his bed, and wake up one week later.