“Perhaps as penance or more likely as tests for her fledgling races, some believe that these Archetypes of man were granted limited reign on our savage earth. History is littered with myths and legends of gods and monsters enslaving and tormenting man in their less enlightened ages, before eventually falling from grace and towards obscurity. Whether these theories hold any truth or exist merely as means to justify the fabrications of our wilder imaginations is left to be seen – but it is certain that our world holds truths that man is far from being able to explain.”

“What the hell did you do?” These words and an angry voice ripped Roun from turbulent dreams, rousing the young channeler from his sleep as his body was physically removed from bed.

His eyes shot open to an unfamiliar look on an all too familiar face. The person that stood before him was a man and a hulking one at that. This man stood comfortably at a head taller than Roun, and while the two shared very similar facial features his assailant was visibly older.

“Kairi? What the hell man?” Roun exclaimed as he began to struggle, trying to free himself of his older brother’s grip.

Unfortunately, this was much easier said than done. Much like Roun, Kairi was a psycher-class channeler, with most of his abilities enhancing his already impressive physical attributes. So while his strength was awe-inspiring while powered down, it was downright prodigious while he was powered up. It quickly became clear as a result, that Roun was going nowhere.

“You used it!” Kairi yelled once more, throwing Roun on the ground in his rage and running his hands through his own two-toned hair, as he tried to calm himself.

Roun watched as his fingers ran through his somewhat curlier lilac Mohawk, and over the shaved black hair that surrounded it on either side.

“What the hell are you talking about man?” Roun now inquired, acknowledging Kairi’s rather visible anger.

“Veranos.” Kairi retorted. “I can practically smell it on you.”

“OK, I can see why you’re mad but I didn’t have a choice.” Roun replied quickly, half-terrified of his brother – who he’d never seen in such a state – and half ashamed to have resorted to the ability in the first place.

“Who saw you do it?” Kairi questioned sternly, his gaze narrowing as he did.

“Just the person that I thought was trying to kill me!” Roun yelled back in his own defence. “She was heroic-tier and she had a sword – I honestly thought she was going to murder me, man.”

“Jesus Roun.” Kairi sighed, now pacing up and down within his room. “Why didn’t you just run?”

“I couldn’t – she was faster than me.” He replied from the floor. “I thought I had to fight her – I should have fought harder…”

“Yeah, maybe you should have – cuz if this gets out you’re going to get both of us killed… not just yourself.” Kairi replied with exasperation. “Where is she now – we’re going to have to clean this up.”

“The Garrison most likely.” Roun replied with some reluctance. “She’s Field Commander of the Rogues.”

“God damn it!” Kairi exclaimed. “Roun! Could you have fucked this up any worse?”

“I didn’t have a choice Kai.” Roun pleaded.

“Yes you did, you always do.” Kairi scolded him. “This was our one rule – and you picked one hell of a time to break it!”

“I was protecting my friends, you would have done the same!” Roun did his best to defend himself. “You did the same thing to protect me!”

“Yeah, and that worked out just perfectly didn’t it?” Kairi cursed lightly under his breath. “Get your shit, we’re going to fix this.”

“What do you mean – where are we going?” Roun inquired with the most mortified of tones.

“We’re going to the Garrison to find this chick and fix this!” Kairi retorted as she stormed out of the room. “Now get your stuff and wait by the car.”

Considering the amount of trouble that he was in, Roun didn’t bother to argue. All he could do was attempt to freshen up in the short amount of time that he had and make sure that he made it to the car before Kairi did. Luckily, being a speedster, this wasn’t too difficult a task; leaving him there for just a short while before Kairi emerged from the exit of their apartment building and began to make his way toward their vehicle.

“Get in the car!” Kairi commanded, pointing his finger towards their Archel MX as he circled around to the driver side.

Once again Roun just complied, sitting in the front passenger seat and buckling himself in while Kairi entered through the driver-side door and did the same. As expected, the car wobbled significantly as the heavy-set prizefighter dropped his weight into the driver-seat and slammed his door shut, not even waiting for the vehicle to stabilise itself before firing up the engines and taking off.

“What are you planning to do, Kairi?” Roun questioned. “Don’t go and do anything stupid now.”

“Right now you’ve got the monopoly on stupid, so why don’t you just shut your mouth and let me figure out how I’m going to deal with this.” Kairi replied, seeming no less angry than he did when he pulled Roun out of his bed just moments prior.

“Are you calling dad?” Roun inquired. “I think he knows that guy that runs the Rogues.”

“No. I’m not calling Shin, half of the reason we moved this far from Genaisa was so that he wouldn’t be controlling our lives.” Kairi replied, drawing a slight sigh of relief from Roun.

“Then what’s the plan man?” Roun pressed. “It’s not like you can just bust in there and start cracking skulls until you get to this woman.”

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“Thanks for that, captain-obvious.” Kairi scoffed. “Anything else I should know? The colour of the sky, the temperature of the sun maybe?” He continued, but Roun just rolled his eyes in reply. “Good, now how about you give me some useful information like the name of this woman.”

“Zed.” Roun replied with audible annoyance. “Zed Cross.”

“Good, now just sit down and shut up.” Kairi replied once more, before connecting his phone to his Archel’s dashboard dock and placing a call.

Roun waited patiently as the call attempted to connect, ringing quietly a number of times before the head of a strange man was projected into the small vehicle.

“Benet.” Kairi opened, much to the man’s amusement. “I’m on my way to the Garrison, you wouldn’t happen to know why, would you?”

“I could hazard a guess.” He chuckled in reply. “I don’t suppose it’s to take up my offer of a spot on the team?”

“Obviously not.” Kairi scoffed. “I’ve got no intention of becoming Kyasho’s lapdog.”

“That’s a shame. Then I’m guessing it has something to do with that blonde-haired kid in the passenger seat?” He inquired further.

“Just tell the guys at the gate to let me through.” Kairi dismissed the line of questioning. “I’ll see you in half-an-hour.”

“Quick question Kai – before you run off – are the others with him?” The man asked.

“Others? What others?” His gaze narrowed and turned to Roun before he cut the call short. “Roun, tell me everything that happened. Right now!”

By the time Roun finished explaining the events of the past night to his brother, the two had arrived at their destination: the massive military fortressed known as The Garrison. The towering complex dwarfed any other in the small archipelago, making even the campus of Titan Academy look diminutive in comparison. Its primary drive-way alone was longer than the block on which Roun and Kairi currently lived, with a security checkpoint that was larger than their apartment.

As they pulled up to this checkpoint, they could feel the influx of zeta into the defensive systems, fortifying the gate in case they attempted to break through while a separate stream filtered into the weapons systems to prime them in case the two proved to be a more credible threat.

“State your business.” One of the soldiers posted at this security check-point announced as he approached the small vehicle.

“Kairi and Roun Itami, here to see Harry Benet.” Kairi stated, causing the man to nod.

“Just wait here while the scan of your vehicle is completed.” He explained. “When the barricade falls, you can proceed through to the central reception area.”

Kairi nodded in reply, allowing the armed guard to return to the checkpoint and await the completion of the automated scans.

“Harry Benet?” Roun questioned as the man left earshot. “That means that the dude you were talking to is the same one that Zed was reporting to?”

“So it seems from your little story.” Kairi nodded.

“How the hell do you know that guy anyway?” Roun queried, his gaze narrowing as he did.

“That’s a long story.” Kairi dismissed, passing a side glance towards Roun to catch the youngster glaring at him. All he could do was chuckle. “One that I might tell you in the future, when you’re less of a screw up.”

“Tsch, whatever man.” Roun just scoffed as the automated scan of their vehicle was completed, allowing the two channelers to approach the central building of the massive facility in silence.

In just a short moment Kairi was parking the vehicle before the two exited their MX and made their way into the building. Another few scans delayed the entry process to ensure that the two young men were not carrying any concealed weapons or anything else that would allow them to pose serious danger to the occupants of the facility. But finally they were allowed to cross the threshold into the central building. As they did so, they stepped into a DMZ, forcefully powering both of these men down before they were allowed to approach the receptionist.

“Good morning sirs, welcome to The Garrison. My name is Wendy, how may I be of service?” The chipper young woman inquired to the two young men, causing Kairi to raise an eyebrow.

“We have an appointment with Mr. Harry Benet.” Roun replied, opting not to rely on his brother’s obviously stellar social skills.

“What are the names?” Wendy inquired, pulling up Harry’s schedule so that she could confirm the appointment on her end.

“Itami is the name.” A familiar voice sounded, drawing the attentions of the two brothers to a wide-set man at the end of a hallway to their right. “You won’t find them in my diary either Wendy. This in an impromptu meeting.” Harry explained. “You two can follow me.”

Roun turned his attention back to Wendy, who just smiled and motioned for him to proceed. When he did so, he found himself following his older brother, who had already started making his way down the hallway and towards Harry.

“This way.” Harry gestured to the two as he entered an office near the end of the hallway and held the door open so that the two could follow him.

Roun and Kairi followed with little fuss, making their way into the spacious office to find a woman standing by the far wall and waiting for them to make themselves comfortable. As Roun took a seat, Kairi chose to stand and wait for Harry to close the door behind them and take a seat himself.

“I see you failed to bring the others… Roun, is it?” Harry inquired, turning his attention to the youngest person present.

“I spoke to them last night, but I didn’t have much time to talk to them this morning after being yanked out of bed at five a.m.” He replied with a side-glance to Kairi.

“Alright, cut the crap.” Kairi asserted. “I don’t really care about the others or containing this little incident but you know full well that I can’t allow your psychic to go poking around in my brother’s head.”

“And you are…?” Zed spoke up from the far wall.

“Ah right, you haven’t been updated.” Harry chimed in. “This is Kairi Itami – an old friend – and Roun’s older brother. He’s recently taken… issue with our suggested method of containing this haima’sa breach.”

“And his opinion matters why?” Zed questioned, already confused as to the point of this meeting.

“Mr. Itami has a certain level of clout when it comes to specific operational matters.” Harry replied vaguely, something that Roun noticed seemed to be a habit.

“What the hell does that even mean?” He questioned, expressing a sentiment that Zed seemed to share.

“That’s classified.” Harry replied. “Above your pay-grade Zed, hell technically even above mine – but I’ve been brought into the loop so I handle situations like this.”

“Kairi, what the hell is going on here?” Roun inquired, drawing an annoyed side-glance from his brother.

“You’ll be brought into the loop when you’re ready to handle the responsibility.” Kairi dismissed. “Until then, shut up and stop asking questions.”

“So he doesn’t actually know what’s going on?” Harry inquired towards Kairi, who just shook his head.

“Even less than you and I do.” Kairi replied. “But just like me, his mind holds secrets that not just any and every one can be privy to. You can check with your boss, I’m sure the old man will back me up on this.”

Harry just sighed. “Or I could just clear it with your father, since I’m sure he’s the one pulling the strings to make sure whatever it is that you’re hiding stays under wraps.” Harry replied with a devious smirk, drawing a nasty glare from Kairi. Once again the Rogue soldier just smirked. “Fine, fine. I’ll clear your request with Commandant Mirakama. You two wait here until I get back.”

“Not like we have much of a choice.” Roun replied while shaking his head.

The youngster just slouched backward in his seat and watched as Harry left the room, leaving Zed to watch over the two less than amicable brothers. As she did, she sized up the two, taking a particular interest in the larger and older Itami. Unfortunately, before anything could happen the three channelers felt a flickering in the facility’s power supply. The energetic suppression field that was nullifying their channeling shut off very briefly before resuming its normal operation. But even with this vital systems coming back online, Roun in particular could feel how laboured it was, almost as if the power generator was struggling to keep up the outputs required to maintain the demilitarised zone.

For this reason, it came as no surprise when the DMZ went down once again, but this time it stayed off. Even the lights in Harry’s office went off along with a number of other low-power devices, signalling that every last bit of energy was being rerouted to something more vital.