I don’t even remember a time before the Rogues. I simply remember my voice, crying out in the darkness before Kyasho Mirakama plucked me from the nightmare and called me his son. It wouldn’t be absurd to say that I owe everything that I am to that man. They say that blood is thicker than water, but I simply can not picture a bond stronger than the one that we shared in my youth… before the distraction. Before he began jetsetting off to tend to pet projects that I suddenly didn’t have the ‘security clearance’ to be made aware of.

Harry wonders why I acted out. But what is a boy to do when he’s losing his father and there’s nothing he can do?

“Well that was fast…” Roun’s voice drew Hyaku’s mind away from his thoughts and back towards the security procedures that he’d need to initiate as he was encroaching on The Garrison’s air space.

“Yeah, this thing’s amazing.” Tyler responded from atop Roun’s lap, gazing out onto the massive military fortress as they approached at high speed.

Unlike her best friend, for Tyler this would be her first time to the facility, having never received Zed’s mandatory invitation some three months prior. As such, she took a much less dim view of her military faction of choice, virtually bouncing with excitement as they approached The Garrison.

Roun was slightly less enthused, his attention instead turning to his best friend as a low hum escaped her lips, piquing the youngster’s curiousity.

“What’s going on?” He pondered, unable to detect anything out of the ordinary.

“I think we’re being scanned.” She responded curiously, her eyes darting around the inside of the cockpit as she did her best to follow the subtle energetic procedure.

“Good catch – they’re basic security protocols for entering The Garrison.” Hyaku sounded from the front seat of the small jet. “It’s nothing to worry about; they’re just confirming personnel and making sure that we’re not bringing anything onto the base that could be a threat.”

“Makes sense, I guess.” Tyler shrugged slightly, much to Roun’s amusement. “But, being able to run such an intensive scan from that distance while we’re moving at this speed is pretty impressive.”

Roun nodded in affirmation.

“Yeah, we’ve gotta be doing what—twelve hundred kilometres per hour?” He proposed. “Even basic scans should be difficult at this speed.”

Hyaku shook his head at the suggestion.

“Craft like this can get up three times that speed.” Hyaku waved his hands dismissively. “Not only can our systems track them at that speed, but they could probably tell you what colour underwear the pilot is wearing. The tech’s existed most of my life, so it’s really just par for the course at this point.”

Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards at the assertion. Impressiveness of the technology notwithstanding, he quickly zoned in on another oddity within Hyaku’s statement.

“What do you mean ‘all your life’?” He questioned.

Tyler just chuckled at the question.

“Sounds like we’ve got ourselves another army brat.” She smirked. “You used to visit the Garrison as a kid?”

But Hyaku shook his head at the question.

“I didn’t visit it—the Garrison was… and is… my home.” He replied.

Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards characteristically, while Tyler’s gaze narrowed at the statement. At this point, they were both intimately familiar with the Rogue Special Forces, its roster and the myriad of rumours that surrounded it. However, neither of them had even heard of a child living at the RSF’s headquarters, nor the fact that this child had grown up to be an RSF operative.

“Wait a minute.” Tyler pondered. “Now that you mention it, I do remember that lady from the alley—”

“Zed.” Roun interjected.

“Right, Zed, I do remember her mentioning a Hyaku that night that we caught her with the creature.” Tyler stated, causing Roun’s brow to tip upwards again.

“Did she?” He questioned, drawing a confident nod from the young woman on his lap.

“What were the two of you doing at an incursion point, and why can you even remember the incident?” Hyaku inquired with visible exasperation.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

His question just confused Tyler, but caused Roun’s eyes to narrow slightly.

“Let’s just say that your boss had bigger fish to fry than covering her tracks in the months following the incident.” Roun retorted, only further confusing Tyler.

“Wait a minute… do you guys just go around zapping people’s memories when they run into you at these ‘incursion points’—whatever they are?” Tyler inquired with venom.

“It’s been known to happen.” Hyaku answered dismissively. “The process is completely safe though—at least as far as I’ve been told.” He added with the wave of a hand.

Roun could see the light in Tyler’s eyes die a little, a feeling that he’d experienced some months ago and one that prompted his desire to meet with Harry on this day.

“You knew about this Roun?” Tyler inquired.

Roun just nodded.

“It’s one of the things I wanted to talk to Harry about before I decided whether or not we should join up.” He sighed. “These Rogues are… sketchier than I thought.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Tyler pressed, but Roun just shrugged.

“I wanted to get all the details before I seriously considered crushing our dreams.” He explained, drawing a light sigh from Tyler.

Hyaku just chuckled lightly at the exchange as a voice came over the Zeta Wing’s internal comms system, drawing his attention away from the now quiet Titan Academy students and towards their destination.

“Prepare for landing Lieutenant.” The voice sounded through the ship’s PA system as Hyaku began to slow the vehicle’s approach in preparation for The Garrison’s scripted security dialogue.

“Preparations complete.” Hyaku recited the next line the formal security procedure. “Prepare for handshake.” Came the next line in the exchange as he activated the Zeta Wing’s autopilot and handed over control of the jet to The Garrison’s automated security systems.

“Handshake complete.” Came the voice over his comms on last time.

Tyler’s excitement had drained away as she and Roun now watched Hyaku sit back and allow the autopilot to manoeuvre the Zeta Wing through a narrow opening in the massive military fortress’ energy shields. Soon the small fighter jet was retracting its wings and setting it down on a small runway just outside of the hangar from which Hyaku had taken it less than half-an-hour ago.

The two young TA students sat impatiently, whispering to each other about this latest development as the jet’s engines powered down, but it would still be a few seconds before its cockpit actually opened. Roun tapped his feet restlessly as they waited, much to the discomfort of the young woman sitting on his lap.

“Relax speedy.” She admonished him, as she was jolted uncomfortably from his bad habit. “They’re running another battery of scans.”

“Sorry.” Roun sighed as he consciously stopped the tapping, doing his best to redirect his nervous energy elsewhere. “Can you tell what they’re even scanning for?”

Roun’s query drew a curious look from Tyler as she began to analyse the subtle energies with which they were all being bombarded, much to Roun’s complete obliviousness.

“I’m gonna guess everything.” Her eyes narrowed. “The scanning frequencies are broad and the method is pretty intrusive.” She added with disdain as her distrust of the organisation quickly mounted.

“Standard operating procedure.” Hyaku interjected once more as the scans came to an end and the cockpit of the Zeta Wing finally popped open. “You two may be relatively innocuous, but our mandate is to track down and apprehend criminal channellers—you can never be too careful with the anomalies that you bring onto this base.”

Roun and Tyler both narrowed their gazes sharply, watching as the young man stood up in his seat and hopped out of the small fighter-jet, before they in turn followed. Tyler hit the ground with a less than graceful thud, before Roun touched down somewhat more quietly behind her just a moment later. Soon they were each breaking into a slow jog to catch up with Hyaku, who had already started moving towards the staff entrance of the fortress.

As they approached this entrance, Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards. Instead of the spacious lobby and pleasant receptionist that had welcomed him during his last visit, this particularly entry point much more closely resembled the rooftop entrance of Masamune. Tyler watched as Hyaku passed through the narrow doorway and in doing so activated yet another cadre of built-in scanning systems.

Just like the ones at Masamune, these scanners quickly analysed the young man’s biometrics and zeta signature before logging his arrival into the security system.

“Hyaku Mirakama, Lieutenant 1st Class, Scion, Level twenty-three”

Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards at the odd classification of ‘Scion’ before turning his attention to Tyler, but the young woman simply shrugged—equally oblivious of that particular classification of channellers. Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards as he went next.

“Roun Itami, civilian, Psycher, Level eighteen”

Roun smirked slightly. He’d come a long way from the level thirteen braver that had showed up in Genaisa just a few months ago.

Next, it was Tyler’s turn.

“Tyler Cage, civilian, Summoner, Level fifteen.”

“This thing is obviously broken.” She immediately protested.

Her statement caused Roun to burst out laughing, shattering the tension that had been building since their trip. Tyler giggled lightly in return but Hyaku just scoffed.

“And here I was getting accustomed to the silence.” He growled lightly drawing snickers from the two youngsters as he led them towards Harry’s office.

As they snaked through a number of hallways that were unfamiliar even to Roun, Tyler took note of the extraordinarily complex subsystems that ran through the massive military complex. While standard zeta reinforcement was commonplace, she could sense a lot more at play. Everything from systems to monitor channelling right down hashes coded to intercept and decode encrypted transmissions were implemented at the structural level.

“Talk about ‘Big Brother’ she shook her head.” Drawing Roun’s attention towards her once more.

Unfortunately, before she could explain her statement, the trio eventually found themselves in an area that was more familiar to Roun. As they rounded one particular corner, the group walked straight into the all too familiar DMZ that was enforced in the public facing areas of the facility. It was at that point that Roun realised that they were in the hallway just outside of Harry’s office.