Point-of-View: X
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"Hm? What do you want?" I inquired with an exasperated sigh.
"Show so respect, X. Or have you forgotten that we literally hold your life in our hands?" Ca the cold reply.
Trevor Compton...he’s sort of like a prison warden, just for . Whenever Eden has a task for , he’s the one who relays it to and gives the details of what I have to do. I used to be paired up with others on these assignnts, but lately, they’ve been giving a lot of solo missions. It’s not that they trust though, it’s more that they know that I can’t betray them, even if I wanted to.
"Oh, please, like you’d actually do it...I’m way too valuable of a tool to you guys, after all," I replied dryly.
He’s a Category 0 ta-Human with the Dark Skill, though I don’t know the specifics of what he’s capable of, nor what other Skills he possesses, though considering that he’s a Category 0, I imagine that he must be pretty damn powerful.
"Don’t overestimate your value. Especially after your miserable failure in your last assignnt," He retorted with a frown.
He had curly, dium-length ginger hair, light brown eyes, a bit of stubble and was about average height and build. He had pale skin, was sowhere in his late-twenties, I think, and he’s kind of a dick. Though, admittedly, he was a lot better than most of the other jerkwads in Eden. Well, not that that’s saying much.
"You read my report, there was nothing I could have done with that guy there," I grumbled irritably, before asking curiously, "Also, how did you find out the location of one of their hidden bases anyway? Got a spy in Harmony?"
"That’s not for you to know, so shut up. And regarding your last assignnt, as it turns out, your efforts weren’t a complete waste...there were two seperate incidents reported in North Arica, the first, a young man with superhuman speed, and then shortly after that, on the sa day, reports of a house being destroyed by what looks like a massive lightning strike...despite it having been a clear day in that area," He remarked with narrowed eyes.
Huh? Those are probably just fake stories going viral, either that, or-...
"Oh, I get it, I must have gotten Neo within my range just before he could secure the ta-Orbs in Harmony hideouts, which...ended up scattering the orbs in random places," I blurted out, sitting up with a start as the realization hit .
Co to think of it, his expression was pretty strained when I encountered him...I didn’t think much of it at the ti, I simply assud that he was just pissed off at one of their secret hideouts being found out, but looks like it was more than that...
"Correct. We have to assu that Harmony has already taken the two that were reported in Arica into their custody...but we’ve found three more such incidents reported elsewhere in the world. And we’d like you to go and capture one of them," He inford .
"Hah, so Eden’s going to take in artificially created ta-Humans besides , huh?" I responded with an amused smirk.
Gotta say, it’s nice to know that I’m no longer the only unnatural ta-Human in existence...
"Don’t misunderstand the situation, X, you’re simply a tool, nothing more. But yes, while many of the higher ups are reluctant to recruit ta-Humans outside of the affiliated clans, we don’t have much of a choice...if Harmony regains all nine ta-Orbs, it won’t be long before they crush us," He stated grimly.
"Doesn’t sound so bad to , I an, it’s not like I’m on Eden’s side by choice," I pointed out.
"Watch it, X. Anyway, I proposed that we find and then PRETEND to take in as many of the artificially created ta-Humans as we can find, and then manipulate them into doing our bidding without making them feel like they’re being oppressed or taken advantage of, since having them work for us of their own free will would be far more effective than brainwashing or forcing them. It’s crucial that we acquire at least four, ideally five, of them, in order to combat the ones that Harmony takes into custody. In the end, I had to say that we can do whatever we want with them after Harmony is taken care of, only then were the higher ups convinced," He sighed irritably.
He does this a lot...whenever he’s stressed out or annoyed by his workload, he ends up venting and complaining to . It can be annoying at tis, but he often gives interesting information, and I’m usually bored to death in here, so literally anything is interesting to sotis.
"Of course, that was just a way to convince them to agree to this, without compromising their pride and egos, the fact is that if we fail to retrieve these ta-Humans, the balance between Eden and Harmony will be irreparably shifted in their favor-...I’ve said too much, why am I telling you all this?" He sighed, with a shake of his head.
"Because you’re clearly proud of yourself for manipulating the higher ups, you dork," I replied with a laugh, "Wow, now that’s just adorable."
"I-I didn’t ask you, so keep your thoughts to yourself!" He snapped with a huff, before clearing his throat and adding, "Anyway, get yourself ready, you’ll be leaving in half an hour."
"Oh, yeah, where to?" I asked curiously.
"Sri Lanka."
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Point-of-View: Neo Cronje
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Well, here I am...in Sri Lanka. Barely a day had passed since I took Zoraiz and Alexis into Harmony’s custody, I’m so tired, both ntally and physically. And the fact that this place looks like a typical vacation destination isn’t helping.
I was currently near the beach, and there were people playing about in the sand, food carts with various tantalizing scents wafting out, and it was a nice, warm temperature out...okay, a little humid, but other than that, it was like my surroundings were trying to coax into abandoning my duties and just chilling out. But I’m not here to have fun, I’ve got a job to do.
Now, then, uh...where do I start? Damn it, why do I have to be in charge of this crap? Sure, it was my Space Skill that ssed up and ended up scattering the ta-Orbs all over the planet, but that wasn’t my fault! I an, if it wasn’t for , Eden probably would already have obtained all nine ta-Orbs back then.
And seriously, I’m very much the wrong man for the job here...as I’ve ntioned before, I lack a certain skill that’s common amongst most ta-Humans...specifically, the ability to sense the Auras of other ta-Humans nearby, it’s a very basic technique that even the weakest of ta-Humans can master with a bit of effort, and it can help gauge the strength of another ta-Human or even track one down.
Of course, pretty much all ta-Humans suppress their Aura most of the ti, but the regular people who co across ta-Orbs wouldn’t know the first thing about controlling their Auras, so once you know where to look for them, all you need to do is sense out their Auras and pinpoint their location.
Unfortunately...those who possess the Space Skill, like , tend to find it extrely difficult to sense Auras over long ranges. I’m not just saying that to cover for myself, no, there’s pretty much no Space Skill user out there who can sense Auras from long distances away.
Even as a Category 0 ta-Human, that particular ability is beyond . At best, I can only sense Auras that are within a maximum of a sixty ter radius of myself, depending on the Aura capacity of whoever I’m sensing...naturally, those with a weaker Aura capacity can only be sensed within an even shorter range.
If not for that limitation, I’d have been able to find Zoraiz and Alexis a lot sooner than I actually did. On the other hand, most other ta-Humans can sense Auras from all the way upto six kiloters away, though again, the exact range depends on the Aura capacity of whoever they’re sensing.
Oh, and the ranges I’ve ntioned are only in reference to natural ta-Humans...those that ca into contact with the ta-Orbs possess Auras with such imnse capacity that they can be sensed from much further away.
I could sense Zoraiz and Alexis from about a hundred ters away, which ans that a ta-Human that doesn’t have the Space Skill would probably have been able to sense them from sowhere around ten kiloters away.
And all that begs the question; why wasn’t soone more suited to tracking down a target assigned to this task? Simple, because the vast majority of ta-Humans in Harmony are totally against the idea of bringing in unnatural ta-Humans, who didn’t naturally develop their powers like the rest of us.
On top of that, the ta-Orb project had been top secret and highly confidential, and even now, only a minimal amount of information regarding the project had been made available to the other Category 0s, as well as a few of the top Category 1s. Before the incident on the island facility, Mike and I had been the only ones who knew about the project, excluding the higher ups and researchers.
That’s why I was able to get Mike on board with training these new ta-Humans so quickly and easily, because he already knew about it and understood how serious the implications of the current situation were. And that aside, he’s more open-minded than most other ta-Humans.
So to put it simply, very few of the mbers of Harmony actually understand the extent of the ramifications of this incident and how incredibly powerful the ta-Orbs are, that’s a big part of why, overall, the vast majority of ta-Humans in Harmony don’t really get the gravity of the situation and don’t feel any real sense of urgency about it.
And since the higher ups decided against revealing all the confidential details regarding the ta-Orb project, since a leak could result in Eden figuring out how to create their own ta-Orbs or sothing, they weren’t doing a very good job of convincing others to get on board with this.
No, instead, the higher ups decided to go the easy route and mainly step on my toes instead of stepping on the toes of the majority...that’s a lot of toes. Okay, I’m getting distracted, gotta focus here.
Actually, no, you know what, I’m gonna keep complaining...of the three leads that the intel division had found after I took Alexis Tucker into custody, I was sent to investigate the least solid lead. The artificial ta-Human that was found in Wales was going absolutely berserk and on a killing spree, in fact, it was trending on social dia, that one would have been really easy to find.
And as for the other one, in New Zealand, it had happened in a public place, with plenty of people around to record it, so there were so decently solid leads with that one too. So, what about the lead I was investigating?
Yeah, about that...all I had to go on was a local news report about a mysterious hole that had appeared in the roof of an apartnt building, and had gone on to damage the ceiling and floor of the room below.
Oh, and the report ca from a tabloid organization, one that primarily reported on pointless local celebrity scandals and tall tales, with a history of often getting details wrong, so it wasn’t the most reliable source to begin with.
And unfortunately, they hadn’t ntioned the address in the news report, beyond that fact that it had happened in the city of Galle. Sri Lanka is a relatively small country, but still, searching for soone with barely any leads is practically impossible, I’d rather literally look for a needle in a haystack.
The news report had also included pictures of the damaged roof and floor, and from that, it was apparent that it was a building in a lower-class area, the roof was made of those cheap tal sheets and the floor looked all chipped and worn down.
If there’s one silver lining, it’s the fact that others were assigned to go capture the ta-Humans that appeared in Wales and New Zealand, so at least I’m not being made to track down all three...because I highly doubt that I could pull that off. Okay, I think that’s enough complaining, gotta figure out a way to approach this instead of just searching blindly.
Well, for starters, I guess my only real option is to search every lower-class neighborhood in Galle until I find a lead...I’m dreading this already, I can only imagine how tired I’m going to be at the end of this. And there’s no point standing around here and complaining to myself anymore, I suppose...might as well get to searching already...
...
...
I’m exhausted. I’m tired, sweaty, sleepy, worn out and whatever other words are synonymous with the words I just ntioned. I’ve practically combed the entire city, I’m not even sure how long it’s been since I got here...it’s pretty dark out though, and most of the shops and stores are starting to close for the day.
Damn it, where else can I search!? I let out a weary sigh and opened a portal-...huh? What’s going on? Oh, it’s not working. Wait, that can’t be right. Why is it not working!? My Aura is barely diminished at all, so this shouldn’t be happening-...unless...no way...could it be her...?
Shit, this is bad, if I’m right, and I have a really bad feeling that I am, then that ans Eden is on the move again, they’ve realized what has happened with the ta-Orbs. Not good.
I better hide, the last thing I need is to run into that crazy bitch here of all places...there, an alley! I’ll hide out in there till I can use my powers again, I could use a short while to rest anyway. As I closed in on the opening leading into the alleyway and turned the corner...I bumped into soone, knocking them down.
I nearly fell down too, but just about managed to keep my balance...that was close. What the heck...where did they even co from? I didn’t hear their footsteps or anything.
"Sorry about that, are you ok-...," I began, offering my hand to the person I just knocked down, before trailing off as I got a look at her face...a very familiar face...
"Watch where you’re going, you-...," She started to snap back, before stopping as she looked up and saw my face, "Wha-...tch, you again, what are you doing here!?"
Great, just great...it’s X.
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