Meeting Room 0 was a medium-sized, simply furnished room. There was a projector attached to the ceiling pointing to the wall and a long desk with cushioned chairs facing that wall.

A suited man stood at the projector side of the wall nodding to Hoarfrost and One as they entered. He was clean-shaven, dark-haired, and had sharp eyes.

“Hoarfrost, this is Otto, one of the Sector Heads of World Information as well as a key member of the Security and Strategic Sectors. He’s appearing before us as a hologram,” One said.

Hoarfrost blinked. He looked quite realistic.

Otto spoke. “My origins are complicated, but it is easiest to think of me as a half-AI super whose main existence is digital.”

“I’m sorry but… half-AI?” Hoarfrost asked.

“Many of my thought processes are aided by a sophisticated AI, allowing me to store and compute far more information than normally possible, allowing me to do things such as split myself into seven simultaneous holographic projections all capable of interacting with people and interacting with the electronics in the facility,” Otto said, “Is that satisfactory?”

Hoarfrost wondered what his power was that made him suited to become half-AI but stopped himself from asking, remembering that anything he didn’t strictly need to know about the League’s operations was probably off-limits.

“Yes, it is,” Hoarfrost said, “Uh… nice to meet you, Otto.”

“Likewise,” Otto said. Then he turned to One, “Now, shall we move ahead with the briefing?”

“Yes,” One said, sitting in one of the chairs and gesturing for Hoarfrost to do the same. “Before we get to the mission details, we need to get something out of the way. Hoarfrost, how much do you know about the Freedom Federation?”

Hoarfrost furrowed his brow at the seemingly random question and paused for a second to think. “I’m not really sure what they do exactly, but I know that a lot of supers speak positively about them since they stand up for super rights. Freedom Federation… I believe that name means freedom for supers since they often face regulation governments and fear from the people. Are they somehow related to the mission?”

“They have everything to do with the mission,” One said, “The end goal of the Federation is not such a tame thing as comfortable super coexistence in a society of regular people. Their end goal boils down to supers ruling over regular humans, claiming that since supers are smarter, stronger, longer living, and have powers they deserve to rule based on merit alone.”

Hoarfrost nodded slowly.

One continued, “Their goal for a total super rule, essentially a slow coup of all current governmental structures, puts them in direct opposition with the League, as we believe in maintaining order and protecting the voices of the regulars in the face of possible oppression. Though they may seem harmless on the surface since they lack obvious military bases or soldiers, we know that their organization is extremely powerful under the surface due to the support of many supers around the world, and only increases in power as more supers secretly join their cause. This makes them a top-class threat to world order.”

Then Otto spoke, “Though we can glean a large amount of information about the Federation due to their size, almost all of it is useless, as all of the critically important information only circulates between what seems to be a small, elite command structure that is shrouded in secrecy.”

“However, we've received new information that all but confirms a major hypothesis we've formulated about the Federation concerning the fall of the original League,” One said. One nodded at Otto.

Otto snapped and the lights dimmed. “This video was sent to us earlier this week by the Federation and is the reason for your mission,” he said.

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The video played on the wall. It showed a young woman sitting at a desk with what Hoarfrost recognized as the Federation flag covering the wall behind her. The flag showed the Earth on a white background, with a crimson serpent encircling it. The color of the snake represented the color of animus, the energy that ran in the blood of supers that gave them superhuman qualities as well as their powers. Hoarfrost had thought the flag meant unity and freedom across the world for supers, but when he looked at it now it seemed to have a more sinister meaning.

The woman smiled and said, “Hello there, Ultimate League. I’m sure you’re very aware of our organization as one of the groups that cause ‘chaos’ in the world that you would love to see wiped off of the face of the Earth.” She raised up her hands to make air quotes for the word “chaos” and rolled her eyes. “So it’s pretty obvious that if we both keep going as we are, we are bound to collide in full force. So before that happens, we would like to talk about how we should move forward in a way that satisfies both of us.”

The video paused. “Do you know who this is, Hoarfrost?” Otto asked.

“I think I’ve seen her somewhere…” Hoarfrost said.

“Her name is Sarah Muse. She’s one of the only higher echelon Federation members known to the public. She is famous for completely controlling Detroit, most likely through underground methods because regulars would not support her, and slowly transforming it into a haven for supers.”

Hoarfrost nodded and the video played once more. Sarah continued her speech.

“However, we understand that it may seem unfair that we ask you to bring your top heroes into our territory, so in exchange, we will provide the top-secret information about what happened to the original League as a token of goodwill in our future cooperation. Attached to this video is their bio-identification data extracted while they were alive as proof that we at the very least have found a major lead on the incident leading to their deaths. I trust you'll make the correct choice, heroes.”

Sarah smiled and waved goodbye and the video cut off.

“What did you think about the video, Hoarfrost, given what you know about the Federation?” One asked.

Hoarfrost furrowed his brow and thought for a moment. “I think… It's a trap. They don’t want to cooperate at all. I don’t know why but that’s what my gut says.”

Otto nodded, “This video is clearly a threat covered in a veil because they can’t show open aggression towards us. They are telling us to bring our top heroes to their base to discuss our surrender or they will destroy us just as they did the original League, pointing out that we still don’t have a single clue of how they accomplished that.”

“That’s why this mission is so dangerous,” One said, “If we’re sending heroes over there without any intention of surrendering, who knows what trap they have prepared?”

“Why don’t we ignore it then?” Hoarfrost said, “We don’t have to fight on their terms.”

“We can’t afford to do that. Inaction was the mistake of the original League,” One said, “The Federation is very slippery, so it is normally very difficult to act against them in any way. However, now they’re giving us an opportunity to set foot into one of their strongholds. Even if there are hidden forces at work and things are most likely going to end in destruction, as per the Oracle's recent prophecy, we have to take the chance and hope to turn the tables on their plan.”

Hoarfrost remembered the prophecy. Old heroes stir in shadow, justice and death entangled... and the Psycho...

It seemed that the Federation had a lot planned for them.

Hoarfrost sighed, “And of course, we can't just up and kill them all without proof or without first being attacked. We'd have to essentially sit back and let them enact their plan on us.”

"If their plan is like an unstoppable force," One said, "What happens when it collides with an immovable object?" He pointed behind him.

Hoarfrost turned his head to follow where One was pointing and saw Thirteen standing behind them, looking at the projector, looking lost in thought.

When did he get there? Hoarfrost thought.

"Don't spoil him, One. He's not just going to watch," Thirteen said. Then he looked at Hoarfrost, "Remember that this is a trial. I'm going to leave the main decisions in the mission to you."

Hoarfrost's eyes widened, "But... this mission is serious! It could mean war between the League and the Federation, no, it almost certainly will! How can I be in charge of that? I can barely understand the situation, let alone how to unwind such a complicated enemy plan..."

"I see something in you," Thirteen said, "I want you to show me what you can do."

Hoarfrost opened his mouth to protest, but he quieted when he looked into Thirteen's eyes. They were nothing like One’s intense ones.

They were dark eyes, devoid of any emotion, filled with terrifying certainty.

"The only way you can fail is to fall short of my expectations," Thirteen said, "If you succeed, the enemies of the League will freeze by your hands. If you fail, they'll simply burn instead." He let a red fire dance across his fingers. "So don't worry about organizations and wars and consequences; I'll take care of what's beyond your grasp. Just show me what you would do as a hero, Hoarfrost, no matter what situation you find yourself in. It's that simple."

Hoarfrost shivered. As he looked into Thirteen's eyes, he didn't care how devious the Federation's plans were. He only felt sorry for them.