Location: [ Storm Sea, Yeager Corps Main base]
Time: [ 06:15 AM]
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Zyran, who was still looking around the white square shaped room, that only had a bigger platform than the one in the safehouse, was wondering about the other purpose of this room, before he was suddenly taken aback by a presence that suddenly appeared in the room.
"Welcome back, Squad Three". A voice echoed, and without turning around, Zyran was able to tell that it was a female. The reason he wasn't too quick to check who the new arrival was, was because when he entered the room through the [Bridge], he was a hundred percent certain that there were only three people within the room, him excluded. This person, no, this woman, she popped out of nowhere. One moment she's not here and then in the next instan, she's already behind you.
'Is this possibly her ability?'. Zyran asked himself. He still had his back on the trio. 'If it is her ability, then her enemies are screwed'. That is something Zyran was sure about. With the ability to pop Infront of your enemy out of nowhere, battles would end before they even started.
It was at that moment that Zyran decided to turn around once he noticed the silence in the room. To his surprise, everyone has their gazes fixed on him. Sofia, Thea, Alora and... 'Who is that?' he asked himself after seeing the new arrival. It was a woman who wore a suit that consisted of a neatly ironed shirt, a long black skirt that hugged her body and black stockings that hugged her thighs. She had long flowing black hair and obsidian eyes that were hidden behind a pair of glasses, she also held a black tablet in her hands. With this type of clothing, Zyran was tempted to believe that she is someone's secretary but her stern expression and the way she stood straight, made him think otherwise since she also resembles a military general.
"Is this him?". The woman asked, it seems it isn't just her expression that is stern, even her tone sounded both cold and commanding. Her question was directed to Thea but her gaze never left Zyran, it's hard to tell what's going through her mind as her expression and tone do not give anything away.
Thea turned away from Zyran and looked at her commanding officer with an expression Zyran had not seen before. "Yes, this is squad three's new member".
Immediately after Thea finished, the suit wearing woman turned to her with a small scowl on her face. "New member?" She asked but Thea did not seem to be willing to add more, this created tension in the room.
"Yes". Was all Thea said.
There was a short moment of silence as Thea and the woman locked gazes, exchanging messages through their eyes. After about 15 seconds, the suit wearing woman sighed. "I see, it seems you decided to do things your own way, again".
Thea remained silent, her expression indifferent.
Rika, who is the suit wearing woman, spotted another person within the group. "And her?", the 'her' she is refering to is Sofia.
"She's... a special case". Thea smiled mysteriously after Sofia was brought up. This had Rika raising her eyebrow, since she could tell that Sofia was a civilian, so what could be so interesting about her to the point that a squad captain would risk bringing her to the most important place in the whole world.
"I'll introduce you to them", 'even though you already know everything about them'. Thea finished the rest inside. "Zyran Gravel" she pointed at Zyran in the back.
"Sup", Zyran's lack of respect almost made Thea burst into laughter but she held it in, since one of her superiors was Infront of her.
"And lovely Sofia".
"Uhm... Hi". Sofia whispered and nodded with her head down, something Rika didn't find that interesting at all, what did surprise her though, was how Thea referred to her. No one knows Thea better than she does, in fact no one knows all the Squad captains better than she does, not even the head captain. And because of that, she knows that Thea is not one for flowery words. Rika's sharp gaze moved to the shy Sofia, ' I'll have to learn everything about her. I can't have an unknown in my territory'. Rika now had a new task added to her many other duties.
"This is above me Thea, your going to have to take these two to the head captain". Spoke Rika after evaluating the situation. "Your clear to proceed". With that said, Rika turned around and approached the wall which slid open to reveal a small square shaped room, which Zyran assumed to be an elevator. After she entered, the doors began to close but before they shut close, Rika left a final message. "Bring them to me when your finished". The wall slid closed and disappeared, no one would guess there is an elevator there until they actually see it.
After Rika left, the tension in the room decreased. Though the only one who even felt the tension was Sofia, who became sensitive to the moods in a room, after working in a restaurant for a year as a waitress.
Ailani still looked drowsy, as if she could pass out at any moment. while Thea, who did all the talking, had a contemplative expression on her face, it seems she has to rethink some of her plans. She didn't think she would meet Rika the moment she arrived here, the plan was to go to the head captain first before having a talk with Rika. 'No matter, things don't seem to have gone as badly as I thought they would'.
"Who was that?", asked Zyran, the vibe that woman gave of was the same one you would get from an ocean. She appeared calm, but at any moment she could become a tide that will sink and consume anything in it's reach. Zyran's new heightened senses wouldn't stop alerting him of danger the whole time Rika was in the room, the feeling was even harder to ignore when she had her gaze on him as he felt that any wrong move would result in his life subscription getting cancelled. However, Zyran still ignored his instincts and remained careless, thus his earlier tone.
"That was Rika, the Yeager Corps's second in command", Thea was the one to reply, she turned to Zyran with a grave expression while her tone was ominous. "If you value your life, you will watch your tone around that woman. She will not hesitate to harshly punish you just to prove a point. My advice, be a good boy and just follow her orders. Maybe she'll eventually take a liking to you... Maybe". Thea seemed to have become a different person as Zyran has not seen her speak this way before.
"Noted", was all Zyran said but his thoughts said otherwise. 'As if, I didn't join this organisation to be someone's dog, I joined because we share a common goal. If push comes to shove, I won't hesitate to go AWOL .
[What is this AWOL you speak of?]
' Something I hopefully won't have to resort to'. Zyran refuses to allow himself to be put on a leash.
"It's good that you understand, now that we have that cleared out, it's time to go see the man who started all of this". Thea stepped down from the platform and walked towards the wall, which slid open to reveal the elevator. Ailani was quick to follow along with Sofia slowly walking behind her.
Zyran was last in the elevator as he took one last look of the room before stepping in the elevator, the doors then slid closed behind him. The inside of the elevator was small but spacious enough for the four of them, it also had a colour that seemed to be well liked around here, white. It seems other than black, the Yeager Corps also prefers the colour white. There weren't any buttons for floors in the elevator, instead, there was a small blue screen that resembled the one Zyran saw on the metal door at the safehouse.
And just like before, Thea placed her palm on the blue screen, which was later scanned by a green line before the screen turned green. The screen then turned blue again before displaying seven numbers that were lined down with an 'L' next to each number.
Thea then pressed 'L1' on the screen, followed by the elevator beginning to move.
Zyran, who is leaning at the back with his arms folded watched Thea's actions quietly, he was surprised when the elevator began to move because instead of the elevator going up, it felt like it was moving straight. Which confused him, as he is certain that he heard Thea and Ailani mention that the main base is a Tower.
"You want to know why it's moving straight, instead of up, right?", Thea side eyed Zyran, it was as if she could read his mind.
Zyran remained silent, as he waited for Thea to continue.
Thea looked forward again, "Its because the the room that contains the [Bridge] is separated from the Tower, Why?, because we don't want our enemies to easily access the Tower after theoretically gaining control of our [Bridge]. Oh, there's something else I forgot to mention...".
"And what's that?", Zyran had an intrigued expression.
"The Yeager Tower, it's beneath the storm sea".