A man stands up, a smile on his face. "I'm sorry for calling you all here on such short notice. Thank you all for coming."

A woman's voice is heard across the room. "Cut the formalities, won't you? We all know the kind of person you are, Cyclone."

Late to the meeting, a figure charred black by flame creaks the grand doors open.. "What is it that you want? You know that I've been on leave."

"You've been on leave for the past 3,000 years!" Remarks another more brash voice. "I'm surprised you didn't sleep through the meeting call."

"For the last time, Riptide, I don't sleep. I meditate deeply, and contemplate the mysteries of the world around us," The fiery being scoffs, "Your one-track mind could never understand the meaning in what I do."

The brash old man retorts with a laugh. "I'm not sure I want to! You waste your time on such meaningless things, Wildfire!"

"You will understand only when it is too late for you…" Wildfire sighs. "It may already be, after all."

The woman speaks up again. "Wildfire, no speaking in riddles. Cyclone, can you please just tell us why we were called here?"

"Yes, Blizzard, let's." Cyclone sighs. "As you all may have noticed, Tsunami is not present today."

"Honestly, I didn't. I was too focused on a certain jerk at this table who's up their own ass about their little spa retreat!"

"Can we just focus on the meeting now, Riptide…?" Blizzard rolls her mint-blue eyes.

Ignoring the riffraff, Cyclone continues. "As some of you may know, Tsunami picked up the Earth Reconstruction Project after Earthquake failed to maintain funding from world organizations. Using a more sophisticated simulation, she has made good progress."

"You can stop doting on her, now…" Wildfire sighs. "I know that you give her space with her still being relatively new, but it is not a secret where her motivations lie."

"Yes, I'm getting to that. Progress has been steady, but she indeed does have her own… Use for her sim."

Blizzard cuts in. "She's trying to gather multiple fartimes up into that sim, no?"

Riptide shrugs. "The rebirthing ritual, yes… We already suspected this. Let her do what she wants as long as she follows through with the primary stages of our plan."

"That's not all," Cyclone states with a plain smile as he regains control of the conversation, "There was another aspect of her plans that we did not predict. That we did not expect would happen."

Wildfire speaks. "Interloper."

All eyes shift to the great ember, who speaks again. "Now you know what I supposedly waste my time on, Riptide. I have already taken measures."

"Why are you only telling us this now? What did you do…?" Blizzard flashes an accusatory squint at Wildfire.

"You lot would only have gotten in the way. After all, Interloper is a boon to us. Her success will bring us prosperity."

"This meditation of yours may be misguided," Cyclone suggests. "Earthquake did not die just for her apprentice to fail as well."

"Don't play these games, Cyclone! You know just as well as I do that Earthquake lives. That trickster would never just lay down and give up like that, and you know it well."

Cyclone cranes his head inquisitively. "I am skeptical myself, but if there is anyone who could know for sure it would undoubtedly be Tsunami. In addition, who else would she rebirth but them?"

"Many people. You must open your eyes to possibility."

"Face it, Wildfire, Cyclone is right. Tsunami has shown nothing but coldness towards her past life. There is no reason to think that there is anyone but her master to whom she is attached enough to revive." Blizzard turns away from Wildfire while speaking.

Riptide chuckles. "If you're right, I wouldn't mind it if that snake stayed dead…"

"Regardless." Cyclone sighs. "If Interloper does get her victory, I wonder if the Earth Reconstruction Project is even worth continuing,"

Blizzard interjects. "If Interloper gets her victory, Tsunami is likely dead. The person next in the line of succession will also likely have died, so that leaves us with an empty seat."

"If Interloper wins, a certain someone certainly stays alive. We can work with that outcome."

"You play a dangerous game, Cyclone…" Wildfire shudders.

"We are quite done with your murmurings. Are we finished here?"

"You tell me, you brought us here!" Riptide cackles at his own comment.

"I'm out of here." Blizzard begins to gather her things. "And just so the rest of you know, I'm going to Tsunami."

Wildfire squints. "Don't test fate, fifth seat."

"And how exactly do you plan on stopping me? Don't expect to run the show after being gone for so long."

Wildfire stands and strolls in the direction of Blizzard. "Three-thousand years will be but a blink to you soon. You must let go of that fragile humanity that you cling to so tightly."

"You think I'd ever let the fate of reality itself be put solely into the hands of a monster like you? I will win, and then you'll wish you had just one more of those on-so-pointless blinks."

"I'll invite you to take that statement back, Blizzard," Cyclone intervenes, "You know the rules. No commenting on your plans to kill us all and become sole ruler of the multiverse."

"Yes, yes, right. As the dodgiest one in the room said, I rescind my statement."

"You're all good, Blizzard! Happens to the best of us."

"Thanks, Riptide." Blizzard smirks. "So, ashtray, like I was saying…"

"Speak no more. If you choose to go against fate, I will be forced to become its very hand once more."

"Are you really so unconfident in the very thing you worship that you feel like you need to protect it?" Blizzard rolls up the sleeves of her thick fur coat. "So be it, then. Hit me with your best shot, knave."

Wordlessly, Wildfire jumps into action with a fiery jump-kick. Blizzard is able to bob out of the way of the initial strike, and plunges her hand into the trail of flames. She is able to graze her opponent's fiery ankle before it rechambers back into position, but a split-second of contact still leaves behind the sting of frost-burn.

"You feel rusty." Blizzard pivot-steps towards Wildfire, now using her other hand in an attempt to strike her mouth. Wildfire uses both of their hands to hold her back just in time, but loses position in the process with a few steps back being required to ground themself. Blizzard tries to fire off more cold into Wildfire's mouth, but a charged-up breath of fire is enough to neutralize the attack. Forced to jump back, Blizzard brushes at the searing feeling on her cheek.

Plunging right back into the fray, Blizzard slides and dances across the council floor by freezing the ground below her. Wildfire's attempts to keep track of her movement are in vain as they are barely able to parry and dodge her occasional attacks. A punch here, a freezing knee-kick there; any time Wildfire got an edge on her, Blizzard would switch up her technique to keep them on their toes. Slowly but surely, their fires began to fizzle.

"Why do you hold back, Wildfire?" Blizzard smirks. "Scared to hurt the newbie…?"

"It is not my fate to win this fight. Even with my full strength, you will prevail."

Blizzard tugs at their jacket strings. "Why fight in the first place, then?"

"Simple." The being of ash chuckles, before all of a sudden a light projects from the front wall of the room.

Security footage begins to play, from what looks like the outside of the simulation facility. It's not long that a figure walks into frame. Her long walnut hair flaps in the wind, obscuring her face. Even still, the few frames where she is not obscured reveal a sly grin.

"You are a very talented Consul, Blizzard, and you were not going all-out either. I could never have beaten you," Wildfire speaks condescendingly, "I think we can both agree, though, that Interloper is another story."

"So it's safe to say that even if I left for the facility now, the damage would already be done?" Blizzard asks the question tonelessly, as if in a trance.

"Correct… And we still do not know the full scope of her abilities. If you enter an encounter with her unprepared, you may very well die."

Cyclone sighs. "I have to agree with Wildfire here. We need to wait for the perfect opportunity to deal with Interloper, We'll just waste resources if we come in proactively."

"Have it your way, but we can only stand by for so long. She has no reason not to just keep playing this game."

"That's what you still don't understand, Blizzard!" Riptide laughs to himself once again. "We have all the time in the world! We can play this game as long as she wants to."

Blizzard scoffs. "I'm not sure I'll ever understand how you lot can all just sit here and stroke your egos day in and day out… To think that such petty, self-centered beings stand at the center of reality itself."

"Enough out of you. I think this session is quite over." Cyclone stands from his desk and begins to gather his things.

Without another word exchanged, the Consulate adjourns.