(General P.O.V)
"Hey Flag, check what I can do with this spirit weapon thingy."
Harley Quinn spoke up, twirling the handle of a blazing white knife on her fingers with crazy dexterity.
"Careful don't..."
Flag was saying when the blade sliced up 2 of Harley's fingers from her hand.
There was silence in the cabin of the hover ship, as the spirit weapon clattered onto the ground. Harley blinked at her missing digits lying on the floor.
"Oh that can't be good."
She muttered with a pale face.
"Ya think?"
Flag questioned running a palm down his face.
Captain Boomerang burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha."
Darken slammed a fist on top of his head.
"Shut the fuck up Boomer."
A medical drone floated towards Harley and scanned her.
"Hold out your hand Quinn."
Killer Frost told her.
Harley did as asked, blinking at the spurting blood. The light died out as her fingers grew back. The process used was something that even premier scientists were yet to understand.
"Oh thank God, I was worried I wouldn't get to pay attention to a certain someone."
She tapped a crotch.
"I think she's talking about her vagina."
Polka dot man whispered to Deadshot.
The master Marksman turned to him slowly, putting down the gun he was cleaning on his lap.
"No shit." He shook his head. This time the team gathered was crazy. He only hoped that they would finish this mission fast and go back home.
They were flying towards the outskirts of District 6, a sector that stood out from the rest. Gaea had allowed a certain aesthetic choice in constructing the buildings and other public amenities to qualifed individuals. Architects and engineer had had a field day just experimenting. Most of district 6 was styled after London in the victorian era. The good parts at least. And it wasn't the only one.
At the center of all the sectors was Adania, the capital city of the whole continent. It housed the EUC headquarters, the church of Aden, Institute of The Spiritual Arts, Enforcer Headquarters and the biggest all in one Library. They all surrounded Aden's Statue. Smaller governing offices that managed construction and the day to day lives of everyone present were also part of the budding organizations, as Gaea let go of more and more responsibilities onto the EUC.
The adjustment period was coming to an end and a real civilization was taking it's place. Especially with the new office responsible for dealing with the increasing number of Spirits around the realm. The office was headed by none other than Amanda Waller with oversight from Zhue Li.
All across the realm, spirits were sprouting up like reeds. The release of the massive amounts of spirit energy stored inside the water realm, bombarded the newly recovered realm with even more mysteries.
It had reached a point where action needed to be taken after some of the spirits came out...a little too influenced by the presence of human emotion.
"Ok, now that everyone is present, let us begin the debrief. Waller?"
Zhue Li addressed the room filled with high ranking officials from all the 12 major sectors.
The Realm had been divided into 12 major parts. There wasn't a distinction of race or tribe any more. Neither did nations exist in a true sense. Asians, Africans, Caucasians none of that mattered anymore. Not when humanity was up against such something above the natural.
Waller stood up from her seat. She pointed to the middle of the table with her pen. A projected layout of the entire newly named, Terran Continent appeared above it.
"12 sectors, each measuring about 10 million km. Each, the size of the previous nation known as the USA."
One of the officials snorted. A Latino man with tattoos running up his neck.
"Bloody Americans, never pass a chance to reference the old world."
"Mind your mouth, Governor Santos."
Zhue Li spoke up, adjusting the frame of her specs.
"Speak out of turn again and I will have you thrown out and someone else seated on your chair in seconds."
The room chilled for a second as Santos tried to hold eye contact before he ultimately looked away.
"Apologies madam. It wont happen again."
He had ties with the Cartel before the destruction of the Earth. However, that sort of connection was less than useless here.
"As I was saying," Amanda continued in a professional tone.
"10 million kilometers each, makes it 120 million kilometers and remember that there are parts of this entire continent that remain unoccupied and unexplored."
She nodded towards her assistant, a heavily built man with glasses.
"Right." Clark said while getting to his feet.
"After a recent incident that saw the amount of the spiritual energy in the atmosphere double, we are faced with new...life. Creatures and entities that derive their existence from emotions and thought. Its a new addition to the ecosystem."
Clark tapped the table and the holo display changed to show a set of different images all moving in order from the left to the right.
"Santa Claus."
The first image showed a man dressed in white and red with a massive beard happily hugging kids, then another image showed him holding 2 huge burlap sacks that glittered with silver energy. A short video played where the same man was riding on a sleigh being pulled through the sky by giant reindeers. An echoey laugh of 'Ho ho ho' was left behind.
"You can't be serious."
The district 3 Governor muttered from her seat. she wasn't the only one either. Murmurs sprang up amongst the gathered officials.
"Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, it's true. That is the real Santa Claus. With some assistance from Lady Gaea herself, we have pinpointed his exact location to the north of the Terran Continent. The designation of his base is the North Pole."
A few smattering laughs sounded.
"And what exactly does that mean, Waller?"
A thin willy man with an Aquiline nose and gray eyes asked.
"Planning a raid on dear old Saint Nick's stash of Christmas presents?"
"Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Joe Chill. He is a representative from the Enforcer's office. We are coordinating with them on this joint mission."
The Governors turned to look at him. He was seated at the end of the table, hands clasped on the table while an immaculate suit garbed his body.
"And to answer your question, Mr Chill. This committee only seeks the peaceful monitoring and good relations with our new friends. If you can't beat them, join them."
"Not a sentiment I thought you understood Waller. I'll be honest, I do see the need to monitor them but I still feel like more action is needed."
Chill addressed the room. Uncomfortable murmurs begun to sound out.
"What kind of action?" Clark from next to Waller enquired.
"Extreme measures? In someone's home? Remember, like it or not, we are guests here. It is not our job to disturb the other guests."
"Even when it's to defend ourselves or the innocent? Who knows when the hospitality will end. We need more preparations. Better to have and not need than need and not have. Not extreme measures, just more observation and analysis, experiments and extensive resources to fight back if the need arises."
Both of them held eye contact as the tension in the room grew.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"That is not the purpose of this meeting. We are here to discuss the locations of these new Type B spirits, how to avoid them and if we can't, how to live with them while ensuring no harm comes to those under us. All our missions are strictly 'fight only if necessary'" Zhue Li turned to Clark.
"Continue."
Clark withdrew the complicated look aimed at Chill and cleared his throat.
"Moving on, we have the Kitsune."
A picture showing a larger than life fox with nine incredibly huge tails flapping in the air appeared next to a black haired young girl.
"I'll first play you a video recording. This incident took place in the training grounds of the Spiritual arts Academy."
A video begun to play.
In the Video, Holly was standing in line with other first year students, the very first class of the entire Spiritual arts academy. A huge figure with a panther head was pacing to their front twirling his mace.
"Spiritual energy is something that defies logic as you know it. It's fueled by emotions." Yaotl stopped infront of a boy with red hair. He grabbed the Snickers bar the boy was hiding behind him. Wally wanted to say something but the sight of those large teeth made him go mum. Yaotl tore off the last of the wrapper and threw the bar in his mouth.
"Tempered emotions."
He emphasized.
"It can manifest in different ways and systems. Before Master Aden came into the picture, you could only use it in four main ways, barring a few exceptions like the subskills." Yaotl shrugged.
"But even with them, those are still 4 elements."
He walked to the end of the line before moving to their front.
"Can someone tell me what those four elements are?"
"Easy." Dick snorted.
"We have Fire, Air, Water and Earth."
"Show off."
Artemis nudged him with her foot.
"Both of you, drop down and give me 20."
Yaotl ordered.
"20? I feel insulted."
Dick whispered to Artemis while both got on a press up position.
"Shut up, you're going to get us in even more tr..."
"With one hand. Oh and on your pinky finger."
Yaotl added just as the group of 30 students laughed at the pair.
"This is sooo not aster."
Dick complained as they got in position and begun to do the press ups based on the instructions given.
"And this perfectly demonstrates a passive effect of Spiritual energy on the body."
Yaotl taught them.
"Grayson and Artemis along with a few others here, have had the lucky chance to be trained in martial arts by Dragon. He's coincidentally going to be one of the instructors at the school, but that's besides the point. Basically, Spiritual energy enhances the body to some extent. A stronger body equals more reserves of pure spirit energy. Quality equals quantity and more quality."
The god of war looked down at the both of them.
"Get up."
The two of them jumped to their feet amidst laughter.
"Look on closely as I demonstrate the four elements."
All their eyes were glued to his body.
Yaotl took a deep breath before performing the first set of basic moves in firebending, a single punch. A ball of yellow flames different from his signature torquise flames, launched off the fist, increasing the temperature in the training grounds. Then he crouched low and swept out his leg, a scythe of air slashed out, cutting down a dummy placed on the side. The dummy fell into two parts.
Yaotl jumped up by pushing off his hands and landed with a tremor. The ground cratered under his powerful legs, a crack running out that swallowed half of the sliced apart dummy. The other half was falling to the ground after the air slash but it never made it. Yaotl transitioned his landing into a seamless spin that ended with his hands pointed at the descending dummy.
Water molecules seemingly materialized along the path his hand was taking, before slamming onto the torso piece of the dummy and drowning it under.
"Wow."
Cassie Sandsmark, a 9 year old demigod of Zeus and a human whispered in awe.
Next to her, was another young kid, he was a little taller with green skin with the chosen moniker of Beast Boy due to his shape shifting abilities.
"I know right!?"
He added with awe coloring his voice. Almost everyone was impressed. At the end of the line, Holly watched the demonstration and a look of determination crossed her face. She could remember the words, her sister had said to her.
"You wanna be special, prove to me that you have the potential."
Those words...they were the last thing that Dove...no, she supposed it was Raava now, wasn't it? Those were the last words she had left behind. Holly tightened her fingers.
"I'll prove to you big sis, you're not leaving me behind."
"Silence." Yaotl ordered. The murmurs that had sprang up after his display immediately died out. He ran his gaze up and down the line.
"Jason...Hakeem to the front."
He called out two of the students. Jason, a 16 year old boy that also happened to be Wonder Woman's long lost brother looked around nervously before walking forward.
He was so far away from the sea...he missed his father, Glaucus. He had also lost much of his life, having been stuck in a time loop to prevent him from growing into his power by a vengeful Hera. When the loop finally broke after the world had ended, Glaucus' soul was finally released and Jason found out that the outside world had moved on without him. It was a feat to try and understand this new world and as the demigod of Zeus, Jason was blessed with abilities that spiritual energy added to and enhanced. This ensured an even more interesting life for him.
Hakeem was an United Arab Emirates orphan, who made his living from stealing and conning visitors going to Dubai all to take care of his sister. After the recent doubling of the Spiritual energy in the air, be found himself in possession of the power of the desert, he could manipulate sand and had minor control over earth.
Both boys, one built like a budding body builder, the other, thin and waif looking stopped infront of Yaotl. The girls were openly eyeing Jason and were liking what they could see. Hakeem looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but there.
"Attack me."
Yaotl spread out his hands and ordered. Both teens blinked their eyes in surprise.
"What? Are you scared?"
Yaotl then transformed into his human form, an handsome albeit unassuming brown skinned man. He looked harmless.
"There? Is that okay now?"
Hakeem narrowed his eyes.
"You asked for it."
"Wait!"
Jason held out his hands to stop him but the other teen was already running forward. Hakeem grunted and launched his palms outwards towards Yaotl. The sand particles on the ground formed into a massive wave that poured down onto Yaotl.
"Too telegraphed."
The War God's voice could be heard over the howling sand. He waved a hand and caused a pressure blast strong enough to push away the sand and Hakeem as well. The rest of the students closed their eyes and covered their faces with their hands. Hakeem yelled out in panic as he fell to the ground.
"Got you."
Jason managed to grab and save him from a terrible fall.
"Thanks man."
"Well, after that showing, I'm tempted to fall asleep right here."
Yaotl ridiculed.
Jason stepped away from Hakeem with his eyes blazing white. Sparks of energy danced in them.
"Take this!"
He raised his hands to the sky, causing a wide streak of purple lightning to fall on them before he directed the attack towards Yaotl.
The rest could barely react at the incredulity of it all. Yaotl smiled and allowed the attack to land. The electric energy flowed up his arms before he cycled it through his body and sent it back towards the attacker, faster and more powerful than the initial move. It landed and Jason Was thrown across the training grounds, carving a path through the Sandy ground.
He got up unsteadily, spitting out sand grains and wincing as he felt the lightning course through him. His face was set in an expression of disbelief that changed to grudging respect. Yaotl clapped his hands together.
"Well done, give it up for the both of them." He instructed as the awed students clapped in appreciation at the show they had just received.
"Join the others."
Yaotl motioned with his head.
"That was so incredibly fantastically cool dude. Wonder Woman's little bro rocks."
Wally commented to Zatanna.
"Yeah, if I tried to make such a huge lightning bolt, I would probably be too exhausted to do anything else."
She sounded impressed while staring at Jason.
"Can anyone tell me what the purpose of that little show was?"
"To tell us not to mess with you?"
One of the students, an Amazonian joked, causing laughter among them.
"While it might be the most important lesson for today,"
Yaotl added to the joke making the laughter more prominent,
"It's not quite what I was looking for."
"It was to demonstrate the sub skills right?"
Holly spoke up with seriousness coloring her tone. All eyes turned to her. Yaotl nodded with a strange look on his face.
"Precisely."
"Sand boy can control sand and blue eyes can produce lightning. At their core they're just expressions of the traditional elements, correct?"
Holly questioned.
By now the rest were quiet. Yaotl nodded.
"Well put."
Holly stepped forward as a shroud of gray darkness unlike Darken's which was blacker than anything, fell down her form.
"What about subskills that are not expressions of the four main elements?"
The other students stepped away from her. Aqualad and the rest of the Young Justice stepped forward to stand in front of them as protection.
"What about my darkness?"
Holly wondered, blinking with glazed eyes as the darkness surrounding her formed up into a fantastic and strange creature. Yaotl looked up and raised his eyebrows. 'Interesting', he thought. The creature was still nothing but gray darkness up until the tails started forming.
A swirl of elemental energy covered each of the tails. Fire, wind, lightning, earth, water, Ice, crystal, wood and metal. All these elemental energies were tainted by darkness. They weren't the elements as they were known to exist, merely an expression of the part of the darkness in each of them.
The Kitsune opened it's brilliant blue eyes and made contact with Yaotl.
The god of war smiled gently.
"Hello, young one."
"Whoa, can...can you guys do that?"
Rocket, the superhero partner and protege of Icon asked the Young Justice.
"Not that I know of, we still have no familiarity with Spirit energy."
Aqualad answered, looking towards M'gann.
"Can you telepathically calm her down if she loses control?"
The Martian nodded.
"Although my abilities have increased therefore making delicate work like that harder, I can still manage that much."
The Kitsune turned it's gaze towards them, making Robin raise his hands to the sky.
"I think he can hear us, guys."
"Of course she can hear you, she's not dumb."
Yaotl admonished.
"She's a Kitsune. A spirit of Chaos and Darkness."
Holly begun swaying on her feet, only for the Kitsune to enclose her tails around her form.
Aqualad ran over to her side, stopping mere inches away.m when she begun to sway.
"I won't hurt her. You can trust me."
He said softly as Yaotl looked on with a small smile on his face. The Kitsune looked over at him and he nodded. Only then did she dissolve back into darkness. Aqualad managed to hold onto her just as the video froze.
"That happened only a few days ago. The girl in the picture is a student at the Academy and she, along with her other 31 classmates are the first to attend the school. We believe that apart from the birth of new spirits, this marks as the start of a wave of Spirit Users, especially when the energy itself seems to be present in almost everyone."
"Our top scientists have identified that exceptional individuals like talented athletes or ones with master skills in different activities have a very high chance of becoming Spirit energy practitioners. Fortunately, this is mostly seen in the age bracket of 10 to 21 years, the development years. That minimizes the chances of most spirit users turning into hardened criminals if proper guidance is provided."
"If it's proper guidance we're looking for, you can't get better than the literal God of War."
A Governor from district 8 stated. There was a chorus of nods as the others agreed.
"No one doubts it and if you want to learn more about the Academy then our very own chair has an information packet available for your perusal." Clark pointed to Zhue Li.
"So let's move on."
He pressed another button and a few more panels showing different spirits passed.
"We also have the Easter Bunny."
He went quiet to let that sink in.
"Christ."
One of the officials muttered as a video of a real life Easter bunny popped on screen with colored eggs.
"A creature that resembles an animated character..."
He said as the video landed on a yellow furred animal with streaks of blue lightning running down its body.
"Is that Pikachu?"
On of the Governors asked in disbelief.
"That's not even what takes the cake." Waller cut in, nodding to Clark.
"Now the cases we've received are not all...good. We have a team that has been deployed to district 6, to follow up on a certain disturbing incident."
The display changed to show a hooded figure retreating towards the dark shadows of an alleyway between 2 stone houses.
"5 people have been attacked by whatever this spirit is. The most alarming part is the fatal wounds inflicted match the style of a certain serial killer, Jack the Ripper."
"Medical drones were able to arrive on the scene fast enough to heal the 3 women attacked." He straightened up.
"But there's a high chance he will strike again, we have a serial killer Spirit on the loose."