Point-of-View: X
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"Hm? What do you want?" I inquired with an exasperated sigh.
"Show some respect, X. Or have you forgotten that we literally hold your life in our hands?" Came the cold reply.
Trevor Compton...he's sort of like a prison warden, just for me. Whenever Eden has a task for me, he's the one who relays it to me and gives me the details of what I have to do. I used to be paired up with others on these assignments, but lately, they've been giving me a lot of solo missions. It's not that they trust me 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 Meta-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 assignment," He retorted with a frown.
He had curly, medium-length ginger hair, light brown eyes, a bit of stubble and was about average height and build. He had pale skin, was somewhere 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 assignment, as it turns out, your efforts weren't a complete waste...there were two seperate incidents reported in North America, the first, a young man with superhuman speed, and then shortly after that, on the same 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 Meta-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 me.
Come to think of it, his expression was pretty strained when I encountered him...I didn't think much of it at the time, I simply assumed 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 assume that Harmony has already taken the two that were reported in America 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 informed me.
"Hah, so Eden's going to take in artificially created Meta-Humans besides me, huh?" I responded with an amused smirk.
Gotta say, it's nice to know that I'm no longer the only unnatural Meta-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 Meta-Humans outside of the affiliated clans, we don't have much of a choice...if Harmony regains all nine Meta-Orbs, it won't be long before they crush us," He stated grimly.
"Doesn't sound so bad to me, I mean, 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 Meta-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 me. It can be annoying at times, but he often gives me interesting information, and I'm usually bored to death in here, so literally anything is interesting to me sometimes.
"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 Meta-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 mentally 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 me 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 messed up and ended up scattering the Meta-Orbs all over the planet, but that wasn't my fault! I mean, if it wasn't for me, Eden probably would already have obtained all nine Meta-Orbs back then.
And seriously, I'm very much the wrong man for the job here...as I've mentioned before, I lack a certain skill that's common amongst most Meta-Humans...specifically, the ability to sense the Auras of other Meta-Humans nearby, it's a very basic technique that even the weakest of Meta-Humans can master with a bit of effort, and it can help gauge the strength of another Meta-Human or even track one down.
Of course, pretty much all Meta-Humans suppress their Aura most of the time, but the regular people who come across Meta-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 me, tend to find it extremely 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 Meta-Human, that particular ability is beyond me. At best, I can only sense Auras that are within a maximum of a sixty meter 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 Meta-Humans can sense Auras from all the way upto six kilometers away, though again, the exact range depends on the Aura capacity of whoever they're sensing.
Oh, and the ranges I've mentioned are only in reference to natural Meta-Humans...those that came into contact with the Meta-Orbs possess Auras with such immense capacity that they can be sensed from much further away.
I could sense Zoraiz and Alexis from about a hundred meters away, which means that a Meta-Human that doesn't have the Space Skill would probably have been able to sense them from somewhere around ten kilometers away.
And all that begs the question; why wasn't someone more suited to tracking down a target assigned to this task? Simple, because the vast majority of Meta-Humans in Harmony are totally against the idea of bringing in unnatural Meta-Humans, who didn't naturally develop their powers like the rest of us.
On top of that, the Meta-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 Meta-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 Meta-Humans.
So to put it simply, very few of the members of Harmony actually understand the extent of the ramifications of this incident and how incredibly powerful the Meta-Orbs are, that's a big part of why, overall, the vast majority of Meta-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 Meta-Orb project, since a leak could result in Eden figuring out how to create their own Meta-Orbs or something, 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 Meta-Human that was found in Wales was going absolutely berserk and on a killing spree, in fact, it was trending on social media, 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 some 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 apartment building, and had gone on to damage the ceiling and floor of the room below.
Oh, and the report came 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 mentioned 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 someone 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 metal 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 Meta-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 mentioned. 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 means Eden is on the move again, they've realized what has happened with the Meta-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 someone, 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 come 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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