Yeah, alright, maybe we should have rethought this part of the plan. Now that I’m here standing before him, it really doesn’t look plausible to last for long.
The Radiant Guild Leader was not someone Team 0 could hope to take on. Already, they had been quite lucky in their fight with Callum, who was at least a whole rank below the man glaring at them.
“This is not the kind of thing you can just sweep under the rug by killing us, you realize?” Daniel finally spoke up, breaking the tense silence that had fallen.
The man grunted, expression twisting in distaste. “Do not misunderstand me. I do not enjoy killing kids, nor would I be doing this were the situation stable, but you are damaging us in a perilous moment, and if it gets out, we’ll be under even more pressure.” As he spoke, he took off his gloves, throwing them over his shoulder into the crowd of his men, who scrambled to catch them before they could fall on the ground.
Loosening his tie, he sighed “My name is Francis Mettermeier. You should at least know the name of the man who kills you. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry it had to come to this.”
Despite the genuine sorrow in his tone, he showed absolutely no hesitation in his motions. This was a man who had killed many, many times and who wouldn’t flinch at doing so again.
“You know we are with the AA, right?” Lauren asked, trying to buy some more time and maybe even making him reveal something that could be used in the trial. They all knew Miss Walker would interfere when things started to become actually dangerous, but the possibility of someone getting seriously hurt before she got there was genuine.
A low chuckle rumbled through the parking lot. “The Awakener Association has their hands full with things far more important than this. I do not doubt that there will be investigations into your disappearance, but you’ll be forgotten before long. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.”
“Are you saying you have killed AA Agents before?!” James asked in a strangled tone. Their goal had been to make the man admit to crimes, but he hadn’t expected him to be so upfront with it.
Mettermeier shrugged uncaringly. “A few people went missing; who can say what really happened to them. Monsters are everywhere, especially since the one agency tasked with controlling their spread is not particularly good at its job.”
Lauren scoffed in disbelief “You have a lot of courage to say that, considering how much more difficult you make our jobs! Just the sheer amount of fake readings you give us almost doubles the response time!”
The man chuckled, apparently amused that she had the balls to confront him so directly. “You kids are funny. It’s too bad that you won’t leave here alive. As for the false alarms, unfortunately, it’s just the cost of doing business. Every guild plays this game, little power moves to gain the upper hand. Yes, we might have given false alarms a time or two to get more time to consolidate our grip on the territory, but who hasn’t?”
James saw this as an opening. “So you admit to manipulating dungeon information? That's a violation of the contract you have with the AA. You've not only endangered civilians but also other Awakeners who rely on accurate dungeon information for their livelihoods.”
Of course, he was talking about himself and his teammates. Their forays in the rat and crocodile dungeon had been tainted by false information, making them much more dangerous than they should have been.
Mettermeier’s eyes narrowed, a hint of irritation flashing across them. “You think you can pin me down with such trivialities? It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. Only the strong survive. If we hadn’t done so, others would have swooped in. And I can promise you something: I’m not about to let all the hard work I put into raising the Radiant Guild into what it is now go to waste.”
The crowd around them shifted approvingly, though James could spy a few uneasy faces. Not all of them were as convinced there was a need to kill them, but none dared gainsay their leader, making them all equally guilty in his eyes.
And the eyes of the law. He has explicitly admitted he wants to kill us and to have falsified dungeon information. I think this might be enough to get him a long sentence… Please hurry up, Miss Walker.
“You won’t be able to get away with it any longer.” Ezekiel interrupted, trying to push for more. “Now that the Golden Sun has been disbanded, you don’t have a patron anymore. It’s just a matter of time before you are brought down.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Mettermeier, surprisingly, smirked. “Ah, the Golden Sun Guild. They were a tool, a stepping stone. Useful while they lasted, but hardly essential to our long-term vision. They were laid low as much as they flew high. The legend of Icarus should have taught them something. And as for our patrons…” He waved his hand dismissively. “Power attracts power. There are always those willing to invest in the future. Once we have passed this rough patch, our control over Brooklyn will give us a much better leveraging position.”
“Ah!” The sound left James’ mouth without him realizing it, as he finally understood the apparently incomprehensible position the man had maneuvered his organization in. “You are actually looking forward to getting bought off by another, larger Guild so that the authorities’ eyes become focused on them, leaving you free to slowly increase your empire.”
The man hummed in acknowledgment “Almost. Well, you still are closer than anyone else, to be fair. Even some of my own lieutenants haven’t gotten that far.” Despite his appearance as a straight talker, it seemed that he still enjoyed hearing himself speak. “You see, the secret of this business is not becoming all-powerful - without the right Talents, that’s impossible anyway. No, true victory comes from the slow creep of influence. Covering more and more territory, absorbing more fresh Awakeners so that they can bolster our ranks and keep our growth going. That can only happen if everyone’s eyes are elsewhere.”
Mettermeier, it seemed, was highly ambitious. He just knew not to push too hard, which made him very dangerous. More so than most high rankers who flew too close to the sun and whose fall came quickly and brutally.
James felt extremely gratified that he had pushed for this operation so much. If the man had been allowed to operate for long unchecked, he had no doubt he would have become a real thorn in the side.
Instead, now they had the opportunity to clean the board entirely. They’d take down a mid-sized guild with ambitions to become a significant player and provide a vital PR victory to the AA.
That was if Miss Walker would hurry up and save the day. Because her continued absence was starting to make James wonder if things had gone sideways on her side. She should have more than enough to take Mettermeier in, after all.
Worry was becoming more evident in Team 0’s members, as nobody swooped in to protect them, and that didn’t go unremarked. The Radiant Leader chuckled, eyes glinting with malevolence “I see you are starting to realize.”
A sinking feeling appeared in James’ gut, and he frantically reviewed all he knew of the operation, trying to find where things might have gone wrong.
There was nothing that came to mind, as they had managed to achieve all their goals smoothly… too smoothly, in fact.
“You let us get here.” He said out loud, in a tone of profound realization.
The chuckle from before transformed into full-blown laughter. “Yes, I knew from the beginning, when I first heard that an AA team was talking shit about us in Brooklyn, that something was going on. It didn’t take long to confirm that your teacher had also taken her leave from the Headquarters this evening, so I put two and two together.”
All members of Team 0 exchanged worried glances. The weight of the situation pressed down on them, made even more heavy by the smug satisfaction evident on Mettermeier's face. If he had known about Miss Walker from the beginning, it meant that they had walked into a trap, thinking they were the ones tending the trap.
James swallowed, the dryness in his throat becoming more pronounced. “Where’s Miss Walker?” Maria demanded, her voice quivering but defiant.
Mettermeier gave her a chilling smile. “Your precious teacher is likely already dealt with. I called in a favor, you see. There’s a particularly powerful Awakener I know who owed me one. I thought, why not now? He has her handled. And as for the rest of you…” He waved a hand dismissively. “I had hoped Callum would be enough to deal with you without having to step in personally, but things have gone a bit too far. I guess the old adage is correct: if you want things done right, you have to do them yourself.”
James felt his heart plummet. This was bad. This was really bad. Miss Walker was their trump card. She was their failsafe. Without her, they were sitting ducks.
“We won’t go out without a fight.” Ezekiel growled. He had an almost wild look as his worst fears were realized, but he also seemed determined to make the Radiant Guild pay for every pound of flesh they took. “We’ll make too much of a mess for you to cover up.”
“You kids are just an afterthought.” Mettermeier said chillingly “The real problem will be covering up your teacher’s disappearance, but it wouldn’t be the first time a high ranker tried to take on a new dungeon by themselves and disappeared in its depths. I know of several that were never declared dead for this exact reason, after all.”
As Mettermeier continued to gloat, James tried to think of a way out. They couldn't just stand there and wait for the inevitable. The man had never mentioned the teams that were supposed to come in after the initial operation to take control of Brooklyn and clean up any pocket of resistance. Still, James was not sure they could afford to wait for them to notice that something was going on.
He had full trust in Miss Walker's capabilities, and unless a true powerhouse had been sent to face her, he was sure she’d be able to defeat them in time. The problem, once again, was that time was the thing they were short on.
Despite how much Mettermeier seemed to like hearing himself talk, he was no idiot, and sooner or later, he would end his cliché villain monologue and actually deal with them.
That moment, unfortunately, was coming sooner than he would have liked.
“Alright, that’s enough. I allowed you to stall for a while, but I do have things I need to get to. You created a lot of work for me.” The man’s tone was much harder now.
A slight wind started picking up as the crowd of Radiant members widened the circle once again, wary of being caught up in anything their leader might do.
“Albert! Barrier!” Mettermeier called, which made the E-ranker that had served as referee during the fight with Callum step up and lift his hands.
James momentarily considered trying to break the encirclement, but he knew that anything he tried to do would easily get countered by the Radiant Leader. He could have easily dealt with Team 0 in but a moment, but it looked like he wanted to make a show of it, probably to reaffirm his position to his men.
As the glowing purple barrier settled around them, James shared a look with his friends, knowing that this would be the hardest battle of their lives.
We can only hope she comes for us quickly.