“Vice Admiral.” Hyaku announced as he approached the massive office and stood in the doorway, waiting patiently as was the protocol before Harry waved him in.

“Come Lieutenant Mirakama.” Harry responded formally, causing both Roun and Tyler to exchange quick glances at the young man’s last name.

Once again however, before they could address it, Hyaku turned to Roun and Tyler and motioned for them to enter the office. As they entered the room, Harry’s eyebrows in turn to tipped upwards.

“You didn’t mention that you were bringing a friend, Mr. Itami.” He started as he fixed his gaze onto Roun.

“Well, to be fair, you did end our call pretty abruptly.” Roun replied, shifting the blame somewhat.

“That I did.” Harry simply chuckled. “Well, nevertheless, it’s a pleasure to meet you in-person Ms. Cage.”

Tyler’s eyes widened at the fact that this man actually knew her name. But she would be even more shocked as he continued.

“Your father speaks very highly of you.” Harry added.

Tyler’s cheeks reddened at the compliment.

“Thank you Vice Admiral…” She paused.

“Oh right.” Roun chimed in. “Tyler, this is Harry Benet.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Vice Admiral Benet.” She replied formally.

“I can see that military upbringing in you Ms. Cage, but we’re a lot less formal around here.” Harry smirked. “You can all just call me Harry.”

The duo just nodded at the response.

“I know you said you had something you wanted to discuss with me Roun, but I’m afraid my issue is a lot more pressing.” Harry explained. “So I hope you don’t mind if I start.”

Roun just shook his head and motioned for Harry to go on.

“How much do you know about Oya?” He pressed.

“These days?” He pondered. “That depends on how crazy I wanna sound.” Roun added with a shrug. “Perhaps you should be more specific.”

Tyler just listened, her curiosity piquing at the odd exchange. Harry however just chuckled lightly at the cryptic response.

“Fine then, tell me how much you know about Oya in relation to magic.” Harry pressed on.

“Okay, so it’s crazy time.” Roun sighed. “We can start with the fact that magic is apparently real and Oyan in origin – but I’ll throw in a freebie and tell you that the haima’sa feed on it.” Roun replied, causing Tyler’s eyes to widen at the statement.

“The haima-what-now?” She pressed, much to Harry’s amusement. But he wouldn’t explain any further just yet.

“Wait, are they why you’ve got Neo Brighton all cordoned off?” Roun pressed, drawing a nod from Harry.

“Anyone care to explain what these haima-whatsits are?” Tyler pressed harder, turning her attention towards her best friend.

Roun sighed lightly as he tried his best to figure out how to explain them.

“They’re monsters… from an alternate reality?” He stated, noting just how crazy he sounded as the words came out of his mouth.

All Harry could do was laugh at the exchange.

“Like the one that you eavesdropped on Zed dispatching.” He explained, but Roun just shook his head.

“Nah, not that one.” He countered. “Haima’sa run on magic… that thing was clearly zeta-based.”

Harry shook his head in disagreement however.

“The Rogue Special Forces – in one form or another – has been dealing with these things quietly for the better part of a century now.” Harry explained. “While they are predominantly magical in nature, in the last thirty or so years, we’ve been noticing the occasional spawning of zeta based units.”

Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards at the statement.

“So they’re… evolving?” Roun questioned, but Harry just shrugged.

“Our resident haima’sa specialist, Daniel Thorsson, is out on an assignment and I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to what these things are really doing.” Harry threw his hands up as he replied. “Thankfully, we’ve had an associate of yours helping us with our haima’sa problem, and he put us onto much of the same information that you just shared with me.” Harry explained, causing Roun’s eyebrow to tip upwards slightly.

“Rueben, I assume?” He inquired.

“Wait your cousin?” Tyler chimed in, much to Roun’s confusion.

“My what?” Roun just looked absolutely puzzled, but all Harry could do was chuckle and interrupt yet another tangent caused by Tyler.

“Yes, Rueben.” He did his best to guide the conversation back towards relevant matters. “He volunteered to help us with our pest problem after an incident in the capital, so we brought him in to consult on another issue as well.” Harry explained. “What do you know about the incident at Titan Academy last month?”

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“I’m gonna guess that I probably know a bit more than you do.” Roun proposed, drawing puzzled looks from both Tyler and Hyaku, while Harry just chuckled and nodded knowingly.

“Yes, I do suspect that you do.” He affirmed. “How much can you share?”

“All of it I’d assume.” Roun shrugged. “I’m really not very good at all this clandestine stuff honestly. It’s really more a matter of how much of what I tell you, you’re willing to believe.”

“Well kid, at this point I’ve been around long enough that I’ll believe almost anything.” Harry rocked back in his chair with a shrug of his own.

“Grumpy-pants might want to take a seat for this one.” Roun conceded, motioning towards Hyaku.

Harry just smirked and motioned for Hyaku to take a seat.

“Now full disclosure, I can’t prove anything that I’m telling you so you’ll have to take me at my word.” Roun started, but Harry quickly interjected.

“If that wasn’t good enough for me, we wouldn’t be having this conversation Roun.” He nodded, before motioning for him to continue.

“Man… where do I start?” He sighed. “Okay, well for starters, I’m pretty sure Nikolai and I set off the cataclysm at TA earlier this year. I’m gonna guess that’s why the disaster response team thought it’d be a great idea to blast us to bits to stop the event.” He explained. “Apparently though, they either took too long or hit us to hard ‘cause by the time they’d manage to stop everything, me and Nik had already succeeded in tearing a hole in whatever separates Terra and this ‘Oya’ everyone is so fixated on.”

Harry nodded, having so far been brief on as much.

“Two dumbasses, who will remain nameless—”

“Jayce and Stryke.” Harry waved off Roun’s attempts to not incriminate his fellow guardians. “We’re aware and not taking action… yet—keep going.”

Roun’s eyes widened with shock.

“Okay, well Jayce and X accidentally widened that hole to create a pocket of Terra and Oya fused that’s about the size of TA itself.” He added. “But the Order of Planet Harmonics has investigated it and they say it’s safe.”

At this point Tyler had all but given up on having any idea of what these two were talking about, and from the looks of it, it seemed like Hyaku was in a very similar boat.

“Alright good.” Harry nodded. “So you know about as much as I know. Let me tell you something that you don’t know.”

Roun’s eyebrow tipped upwards with curiosity.

“We’ve been doing some studies in the Gaea pocket, trying to use it to test some theories that we’d had on magic. We had unimpeded access to the area for about a week immediately following the incident, but since then we’ve been barred off by what Rueben claims is a magical barrier.” Harry explained.

“Say what now?” Roun retorted.

“That was my initial reaction.” Harry chuckled. “But it gets even more interesting. Not only can we not figure out how to get around it, not even our MTs can blast their way through it.”

“Is it some kind of haima’sa construct?” Hyaku inquired, learning about all of this for the first time.

“That was our initial assumption.” Harry shook his head. “But our suspiciously well-informed consultant suggests that it’s man-made.”

“What?” Roun and Tyler’s shock was expressed in unison.

“Rueben thinks that there are humans living in Oya?” Roun voiced the seemingly ridiculous assertion, before he considered what he currently knew about the haima’sa. “Then again… that might not be a completely ridiculous theory.”

“Well, I’m glad you have some confidence in it – because our other Mr. Itami suggests that you can get through the barrier.”

“What the—” Roun’s exasperation was plastered all over his face. “Why would he assume that?”

“Damned if I know.” Harry shrugged. “Seems like we all have our secrets.”

His gaze narrowed at Roun.

“So, I assume you want me to try to pierce this barrier of yours?” Roun sighed lightly.

Harry just nodded.

“We’re willing to offer compensation.” He commiserated. “I imagine you’ll have demands.”

“Are we that transparent?” Roun chuckled.

“Bringing Ms. Cage was a bit of a give-away, to be fair.” Harry laughed in return.

“Touché.” Roun conceded.

“Though, I’ll be honest, we’ve had our eyes on you two since you made it past the first year of placements—you’d honestly be wasting your bargaining chip on what is essentially already a done deal.” Harry laughed.

“Actually, me and Tyler have ques—”

“Okay, that’s enough. Hold on just one damned minute.” Tyler cut Roun off, breaking up the cryptic back and forth between the two. “Are you two really sitting here negotiating the terms of us joining the Rogue Special Forces, after glossing over the fact that there’s possibly humans in an alternate dimension which is now connected to ours… and magic?” She pressed at how ridiculous the scenario had gotten.

Harry just paused briefly before turning his attention towards the young woman.

“Well, yes, that sounds about right Ms. Cage.” He confirmed, while Roun just shrugged sheepishly. “Glad you’ve managed to follow all of that.” He added with a smirk.

The young woman’s incredulity wasn’t just audible, but visible. All she could do was turn to her best friend with a fierce glare that could poke holes in the young Synchros host.

“You owe me an explanation.” She stated as she punched him in the shoulder, feelings of betrayal, anger, excitement and confusion all swirling about her.

But all the young man could do was sigh.

“Honestly, I probably owe you about five explanations.” He sighed. “But none of this starts making sense until you see it with your own eyes.” Roun tried to explain.

“Well then, perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone.” Harry interjected once more. “Because I’d really like for you to have a go at piercing this barrier—” He added. “—and time is of the essence.”

“Why the sudden hurry?” Roun pressed.

“Well, if we are sharing space with some magically inclined race of humans, then they pose the highest possible threat to national security.” Hyaku chimed in.

“And if they’re in any way responsible for this recent siege of the haima’sa on Neo Brighton, we could do with some answers.” Harry added.

A light sigh escaped Roun’s lips.

“Fine.” He conceded. “But I’d like to talk to Rueben first about why he even assumes that I’ll be able to breach this magical barrier.”

“Unfortunately, Rueben might be a bit preoccupied at the moment.” Harry retorted, drawing surprised looks from all present, including Hyaku.

“Doing what?” Hyaku’s gaze narrowed, but Harry just smirked.

“While you were out, Daniel located the staging point for the haima’sa siege on Neo Brighton.” He explained. “Zed took her team, and Rueben’s, to see if they could finish off the weakened siege-beast before it could recharge and mount another offensive.”

Roun’s eyes darted around the room as he did his best to process all of the new information that he’d been given.

“And Rueben agreed to this?” He finally pondered out loud. “He knows better than anyone that you can’t just attack these things and expect them to die.”

“Yes, we’ve been looking for a more permanent solution.” Harry nodded. “But destroying these things does give us some lead time before they can reconstitute and mount another assault.” He explained. “We’ve been facing almost constant attacks for months and the costs have been too high. Any time we can buy ourselves is better than nothing.”

“I don’t suppose you actually have a better idea?” Hyaku retorted with slight annoyance.

Roun paused slightly.

“Actually, I do.” He replied. “I’ve killed one of these things before… permanently I think.”

Harry’s eyes widened with shock.

“I mean—I could walk you through the process, but even then I’m not sure if anyone on your team would even be capable of pulling it off.”

“I’ll take those chances, Roun.” Harry grinned widely. “What do we need to do?”