P.O.V: Donny Keeney.
The first thing that anyone, especially mutants, would feel when walking into the Commander's Building is an almost overwhelming weight on their body- like someone had pushed a giant weight onto their chest. That's what Black Metal does to a person. To a human, they would feel only a small amount of pressure, and it would do nothing to them. But to a mutant they would not be able to use their powers at all, and if you touch the Black Metal for too long, it could actually make a mutant sick. Kaylee was already there, waiting on us.
"What's going on?" Jacob asks, stepping through the door.
"That base in Washington that blew up? It wasn't theirs, it was one of ours." she muttered and clicked a button on the moniter that sat in the front of the room. A live video of every base popped up, of each of the three Commanders from every Gate Keeper base.
"Everybody here?" the First in Command from the 'Council base' as a lot of us call it because- even though every commander from each base makes up the council, if there isn't enough time to call a meeting, or just if they don't think it necessary, they'll make the decision theselves. They're also the base that designes the missions. Each base decides their own missions that they do, unless they're given by the Council base, then someone has to do it. The Council base was the first building that was ever made specifically to be a Keeper base. Many people believe that the base was made by Hamado himself, but I wasn't sure if I believed it or not.
"Good. We have a problem," the Commander started in a low voice- Commander Vemos- and I rolled my eyes and fought the urge to say 'really? Is that why we're having a meeting right now? I thought we were going to start a book club! But I wasn't dumb enough to speak like that to another Commander. Kaylee would chew my ass out!
"Multiple bases have been bombed in the last few months, seven, to be exact." the commander on the right of Vemos said- Commander Milla. "Nobody from any base had been found alive and- and we're missing many of the bodies." she stuttered slightly.
"So, what you're saying is, some could still be alive?" the First in command from our base in Mexico asked- Commander Faith Jones, one of our newer Commanders.
"We don't believe that's the case, Jones." Commander Vemos sighed and some his head like he was already tired of the conversation. "The Order has done this kind of thing before, stealing bodies, it's cruel and ruthless. And they've done it many times before." but Vemos seemed to be diverting Jones's question.
He wasn't lying, they have stolen bodies of the people they've killed. Some do it if a Keeper is on the radar, and they take the bodies as proof that they're dead. But mostly, they do it purely to be cruel, to be cruel to the family, and not allow them to bury their loved one. It's one of the worst things that the Order had been known to do.
"Well, how many bodies are missing, exactly?" Kaylee asked, sensing that something was off too.
"One hundred." Commander Milla murmered.
That started the arguing. Almost all of the Commanders started to argue and debate on wether or not it should even be looked into.
"Wait, hold on." Kaylee had raised her voice to be heard over the other Commanders and was now glaring at Commander Vemos.
"The other bases that were overtaken, the other six, were there any bodies missing from those bases too?"
The other Commanders stopped talking to hear the answer, all looking at Vemos. Vemos said nothing, almost refusing to answer.
"Yes." it was the Commander on Vemos's left, Commander Mongo. The other two Commanders glared at him. "Around one hundred every time, the rest of the bodies were found. All with no survivors."
It was like a bomb went off on the computer screen. Now everybody was asking why they hadn't been told about the missing bodies and why we were being told now, if they say that there's no chance of them being found alive. It felt like a life time before anyone said something that I could make outm
"This needs to be looked into!" Jacob finnaly burst out in anger. "If there's any hope that they're alive, then for the families sake, we need to find out why they've taken so many bodies, and see if they can be found alive! They have never gone to this length just to say that they can, there is something going on!" Jacob crossed his arms and glared at Vemos. Neither Jacob, Kaylee, or myself liked Vemos very much. He kept a lot of things to himself, a lot of things that could've made a difference on many missions.
"Listen!" Vemos yelled, his face turning red in anger as he glared at Jacob. Then again, Commander Vemos doesn't like us too much either. "We called this meeting so that we could for warn the Commanders about protecting their bases, not so that you could question our decisions!"
"Don't you think you should've done that when the first base got attacked, when the first hundred bodies went missing?" I finally butt my head in, getting thoroughly annoyed. "Don't you think you should've told us this, if you were just concerned about us protecting our bases? I call bullshit!" they were covering their own butt, and everyone knew it. They just didn't want to investigate what's actually going on.
Vemos glared at me like he wanted to strangle me, and he wasn't the first. Just as the other Commanders started debating, there was a loud sound coming from one of the bases on the screen like, literally, a bomb had been dropped. The one in Mexico. "What was that, Commander?" Vemos asked cautiously, not having to raise his voice since everyone had quieted.
"I, um, I don't know." she murmered and quietly told her apprentice to go check it out. He didn't even get to the door before we all heard screaming.
"Order!" we heard someone outside of sight scream.
They were being attacked.
"Commander Jones?" Vemos raised his voice, trying to get her attention. She looked back at the comouter screen and opened her mouth to say something, but we heard more yelling and after a minute her screen fuzzed out and shut off.
"We will send our people over there to help them," Vemos told the rest of us. "You all need to secure your bases, the Order is getting more bold in their attacks. Go back to your bases." and just like that, Commander Vemos's screen went blank, and immediately everyone else's did too.
None of us said anything for a few minutes. "I have to get a hold of a few people, why dont you all get outta here." it wasn't a request, it was an order. So Jacob and I hurriedly got out of the building, not wanting to mess with Kaylee right now.
Neither Jacob nor I said anything about the meeting until we got to our room. Unlike the other bedrooms in the base, there was only two beds. Jacob and I shared the room since our powers can react badly if we had nightmares and we didn't want anyone hurt. The room was half the size of a regular room in the base, and only had two beds and two dressers.
"There's something going on, they don't just take bodies like that, not that many!" Jacob mutters, throwing himself onto his bed.
I nodded, it was weird, that was true. Jacob didn't have the same past as everyone else, his family was all Blood Order. He was a teenager when he ran away and found the Gate Keepers. They had wanted to use Jacob as a weapon when they find out that he was a Bender, so he ran away. Jacob had told me everything about his past, his family, who his brother and father was, everything. When he first told me, I was cautious, but I knew that Jacob wasn't like them.
"I know, but why would they take a hundred bodies, from seven bases? There's no point! Even if they are alive, well, why would they keep them alive? Leverage?" I was grasping at loose straws, but I was also hoping.
"I really don't know Don, I really don't." Jacob sighed.
I looked at the digital clock on Jacob's dresser and was surprised to see that it was nearly midnight. Apparently arguing with an idiot takes hours. What a surprise. I threw off my shirt and fell into my bed and I could hear Jacob snoring before I closed my eyes.