Allies and Enemies

The World Governing Powers gathered and the world representatives demanded Australia to be punished for its crimes. Australian representatives could only appear through a video live feed as their nation was blocked on all fronts. The Australian Minister of Foreign affairs, Leslie Corinth demanded all nations to cease its attacks.

The world leaders except One China claimed that they had no control over their General's actions. The argument was so intense that threats were being issued over the use of weapons of mass destruction. With the fall of the Light Breaker, Australia had little defense over long-ranged attacks or satellite attacks.

At this point, almost all satellites that had the capabilities to launch attacks were aiming at Australia.

Australia finally accused Pangea of presenting false evidence and threatened to level the entire archipelagos of the three nations and condemned the New Great Britain for attacking Australian grounds even before the World Governing Powers had met. This was a breach to the very etiquettes of war decided after the third World War. It was New Great Britain's actions which encouraged the other nations to join, hence Australia was extremely angry at Pangea and New Great Britain.

At this point, President Albert Hoross surfaced and shocked the world. President Albert Hoross then attacked Australia and demanded that the President himself, would join the meeting.

Australia refused as revealing any video feeds coming from the President might allow the other nations to trace it to its source and kill the President.

The World Governing Powers gave the stage to President Hoross to detail what happened after his escape plane was allegedly shot down. Apparently, Hoross and a few of the pilots managed to escape on the last second and used an escape pod to survive the air strike. They fell in the ocean and the nearest fleet led by General Audenvise rushed to check for survivors. President Hoross pleaded with General Audenvise to save his son, General Audenvise refused to help Pangea as it was a breach of the rules enacted by the World Governing Powers.

"But when Harker revealed those video files… Those video files that came at the cost of my son and his daughter, I finally managed to convince General Audenvise to take action. So what if there were rules that the World Governing Powers have made? These rules were set to protect humanity! What use will obeying these rules bring when the devil himself has revealed itself on the world!?" Hoross shouted angrily and gazed at the live feed from Australia.

"You tried to capture me. No doubt you were planning to utilize me as a means to penetrate our country to kidnap my people for your experiments right? You were behind the experiments behind the Malay-Pangean incident, weren't you?" Hoross recklessly accused and kept on shouting as the Australian Minister fought back. But her resistance was futile.

While the world watched the drama of the emergency summit held by the World Governing Powers, Harker's transport finally landed on the F.F Churchill.

Harker was then led towards the large room where all of the major players of the New Birth Battle was gathered.

Joining Arthur's team were the three Australian doctors, Kristine from the Covenant, the thought to be deceased Sebastian Horros or Lowengren and finally strapped to a seat with a mouth gag, the wary hero of Helion's Tragedy, Lander.

Harker glared angrily at Lander as he entered the room. Then his attention fell on Kristine and Lowengren, who looked extremely faint and beaten. They struggled to keep conscious while leaning on the large table at the center of the hall.

"Please take your seats. I guess it's time to keep everyone in the loop." Arthur began.

"What about Meng?" Harker immediately asked the important question.

"Meng? What about him?" Arthur asked.

"Right! There was that!" Alean recalled.

"Seeker fought one of Meng's subordinates. We believe Meng, the Dragon, is after our technology."

"What?" Arthur gave a confused look. After a bit of pondering, Arthur finally gave his conclusion.

"Seeker lied to you. Meng's not after your tech. Meng probably doesn't know about Programmed Slaves."

"What?" Harker and Alean exclaimed.

"Impossible! We found Meng's subordinate in our base! Sting, the blind assassin fought Seeker and even managed to scratch him!" Harker argued.

"Right! I remembered that night. I didn't think much of it, but who could manage to wound Seeker?" Meryl wondered.

"Did you previously own a red gemstone that went missing or that Seeker took?"

"Yes! It was one of the three gemstones we recently purchased. Seeker took it as payment." Alean nodded.

"That explains it. Seeker told my dad to play along if someone were to contact him sprouting either thanks or threats involving a red gemstone. Based on what you told me, I think Sting was after that red stone. Seeker gave that gemstone to Sting. Sting took it thinking that Seeker is one of my father's subordinates. If Sting thought that Seeker was working for Lennox, he would recommend that Meng use the red gemstone. In short, Seeker deceived you." Arthur gave a summary.

"What?!" Harker was now confused.

"Why did he need that gemstone?" Alean ignored Harker's confusion.

"I don't know. It wasn't important at that time. Seeker was pressing my dad to deduce where Feltrick's bases were, remember?"

Alean recalled listening to the conversation between Seeker and Lennox the night they destroyed Feltrick's organization.

"So Meng's not after my dad?" Alean confirmed.

"Yes. Sting was after the gem, Seeker wanted your army. Seeker fought Sting in your base and he found a chance, so he deceived you and got his Army. You thought the Dragon was after you, but it's all a misunderstanding. It's kind of funny if you think of it that way." Arthur shrugged.

Meryl and Lynd laughed.

Harker froze at Arthur's words. His remaining eye started to tremble intensely.

Alean soon laughed as well as she recalled the events.

"You mean to say, that Meng is not after my head. And I just wasted billions for a pointless war?!" Harker erupted.

"It wasn't pointless. We needed the blood to save Lynd's life." Meryl replied.

"Blood?" Harker gripped his heart.

"Yes. Lynd needed blood." Meryl casually replied.

"Good thing the whole blood thing worked out!" Lynd gave a relieved sigh.

Harker looked around in agitated frustrations at what the other party members had to say.

Arthur simply nodded.

"Simply put, that's the gist of the war." Charles shook his head. He just realized that the thought of waging war for the sake of blood seemed ludicrous.

Lowengren and Kristine were in no condition to care for Harker's angry stares and just gave a blank look.

"BLOOD?!" Harker was enraged.

The logic of the war was to get blood? Why didn't they send an application to the Red Cross or to the hospital? Wasn't Charles a respected doctor?

"You went to war with Australia at the cost of my army just to get some blood and save your stupid life?" Harker immediately ran and reached out towards Lynd and was about to choke him when a familiar heart-gripping sensation slammed down on him.

Arthur, Meryl and Lynd's pressure filled the room. Alean remained standing but gave an impressed nod. Charles gave an enthusiastic whistle at the combined pressure. Even his hands started shaking.

"Hey! Careful!" Charles complained as the sudden pressure almost made him drop his coffee.

"Again?!" Lowengren cursed angrily and gritted his teeth.

Kristine started whimpering as she held on to the table. The others were immediately paralyzed and wanted to scream but couldn't. The choking, heart clenching sensation made everyone else convulse.

"Hey Guys! I got the pizza- Hey…what's going on?" Cliff suddenly barged in and wondered why there was such intense pressure.

"Let me join!" Cliff said enthusiastically and released his own pressure.

"Wait!" Charles tried to stop Cliff.

The Alakaster sisters and Eric was knocked out at the addition of Cliff's pressure. Thankfully they were already seated and didn't fall down. The gagged Lander was squirming on his seat and soon passed out.

"Cliff! Stop it!" Alean glared.

"What? I thought we were having a contest!" Cliff laughed.

"Great. You knocked all of them out."

Meryl gave a light kick and woke Harker up.

Harker started gasping for breath at his awakening.

He looked at Lynd with fear in his eyes.

"We've grown quite a bit since the last time we met, General." Lynd helped Harker up. He politely pointed towards a seat. Harker shakenly followed and sat down.

"Consider us similar to the Seeker you met a while back." Arthur summarized.

"Impressive. Look's like your potential's not average. Seeker sure has an eye out for talent." Arthur commended.

Soon, everyone who fainted managed to wake up and they were carefully seated on their corresponding seats.

"Alright. Let's get right to it."

Arthur then began to tell them the tale of Seeker Carlean's death and rebirth. The story of the alien race and of the Unlocking. Arthur gave a detailed explanation of what the Unlocking can do and even talked about Skills and Paths.

Harker and Lander maintained a confused expression as Arthur continued with his tale.

Time-travel? Aliens? The story that Arthur gave was extremely unbelievable.

"Luckily, in order to make you believe, we have the proof right here." Arthur then turned to Meryl.

"Meryl. Show it to them."

Meryl immediately started glowing. Her skin turning whiter and whiter. The fair skin tone glowed and captivated everyone.

"Beautiful…." Cliff watched with his mouth agape.

"You should keep that form, Meryl! You're extremely beautiful!" Lynd commended.

Arthur kept silent but gazed at the glowing beauty of Meryl.

"I can do more than just this." Meryl cheered and then the bright light enveloped the room. It was so sudden that Harker screamed in panic. Lander thought that it was a bomb and flinched.

The light slowly disappeared and everyone looked with terror towards Meryl.

"Lynd! You cheat!" Meryl frowned.

"What?" Lynd inquired.

"Don't what me! You didn't even blink!"

"Oh!" Lynd realized it.

"Interesting. At your level, you can already copy Meryl's eyes…" Arthur pondered.

"That's dangerous Lynd! No wonder why you've been eating like a pig! You've been subconsciously copying Meryl! You need to control that power! You might overstress your brain again!" Charles warned.

Lynd was shocked at Charles diagnosis.

"But- but! I don't know how to turn it off!"

"Don't panic. The blood you have in you should keep you safe even if you activate it 24/7. Let's deal with that later." Arthur then stood up to address the whole group.

"That is the power of an Unlocking that has developed her skill. In fact, I think Meryl now has what Seeker would call a Path. The Unlocking of the brain creates wondrous changes that could affect the entire body. This is what gives us these superhuman powers. I'm sure Lieutenant Lander over there is well aware of what we can do."

Lander just gave a wary glare at the group and focused his eyes on Lynd. He knew that that monster was the most dangerous of them all.

"So we've been going at it in the wrong direction." Sonia finally spoke.

"We focused on carbon alteration and enhancing to make a perfect soldier, but what we really should have done was focus on the mind? So those New Age fanatics were actually correct? How ironic!' Sonia laughed.

"Your study is also crucial. Seeker had long known that unless we are to genetically alter our physical states, then the Unlocking cannot go beyond Inhuman. Seeker's proof of that. The fact that he is changing his body is a sign that our bodies need to change as well. For now, just be careful not to overexert your brain, Lynd. there's no saving you from that again."

"Sorry for the trouble guys!' Lynd apologized laughingly.

"Don't worry. We did gain a lot in this war." Charles smiled. The new technologies he gained would allow him to further his research.

"True. New allies." Arthur gave a quick glance at a glaring Lander.

"But of course, new enemies. The world will soon knock at our doorsteps for the havoc we wreaked."

"Why are you telling all this?" Harker broke his silence.

"If Seeker's memories are true, then I should be your enemy. You could have continued to deceive me, but why are you confiding this to me?"

Everyone's eyes went to Arthurs.

Why did Arthur tell Harker this?

"Because of your Path."