Chase sat with Arx in a small conference room while they watched various clips from his movies. The whole time, Arx had a stunned smile on his face.
“It’s all true. That’s me.” He whispered.
Chase nodded. “Yes. You were the most sought after Hollywood action star for the better part of the past decade.”
“It’s like watching my life through a dream. I’m seeing what I’ve always wanted, but I cannot remember any of it. Do I have an agent? I bet I have movie deals waiting for me.”
Chase said, “your career ended when you did something bad.”
“Bad? Like what?”
“I...uh...don’t think it’s time for that yet. It could be an awful blow to your mind right now. It would be best if you stayed up here with us. The world isn’t ready for you to show up again.”
Nova’s voice came through the comm system. “Chase, report to Operations.”
“On my way.” She clicked her comm off. “Arx...”
“Call me Craig. I don’t know the name Arx.”
“Right, you took that screen name after you were enhanced. Craig, you don’t have quarters assigned yet, since we are way over capacity for this place. If you want to go get something to eat, I’ll find you a place to rest later.”
“Can I stay and watch one of these movies? They’re great.”
“Sure. Here, this is my favorite.” She called up his biggest seller, Alien Dominion part 1. “Sit back and relax. I have to go to work.”
She left him to his movie and walked out of the conference room and down a short hall into the Operations center. Director Nova, Gar, and EB were watching the main screens with the various news casts going live.
Nova saw her approach and asked, “how’s Arx doing?”
“Fine. It’s like we re-set him. He knows nothing of what happened since he first came onto the scene in Hollywood.”
Gar hesitantly asked, “are you attracted to him still?”
“Still?”
“You said you liked looking at his body when we watched that movie with him in it.”
EB said, “of course not!”
Chase laughed at the irate bunny. “I’m not attracted to him, not romantically. He has a nice looking body, but I need more than that to be truly attracted to a man.”
Nova said, “on to matters at hand. Our scientist had had a breakthrough. All tests with the AMA weapon’s energy are good. We are moving ahead with the next phase.”
Chase asked, “what’s the next phase?”
Nova gestured at a robot and the screen changed to the interior of the League Wars arena. Heroes moving at near-light speed worked on constructing what appeared to be tanning beds. “We have enlisted the speedster heroes to work with our robots and tech experts on constructing the Introduction System Beds. Once they are online, a hero will be placed in the ISB and be subjected to a mild irradiation that will allow them to survive any blast from the AMA’s.”
“This is amazing.” Chase watched the quickly constructing beds. “How soon will we begin?”
“They should be online within the hour. This is going to be fast and precise. Once we have all the heroes ready to go, they will return to the planet and begin confiscating those weapons.”
Gar asked, “wouldn’t that be like attacking this World Corps? Didn’t you want to avoid conflict with them?”
Nova nodded. “yes, I wanted to avoid direct conflict. But, the situation is growing critical. The people of the nations are getting polarized. Half the planet is scared that their neighbor might use morphonic powers and want the World Corps to abduct them. The other half wants to defend the rights and freedoms of people against being taken without reason.”
EB said, “listen to me, I have watched humans operate for centuries. Bad tyrants always set neighbor against neighbor so that the civilians are fighting while the tyrants quietly take control of them. It’s ugly and efficient. These stupid World Corps people are doing just this. Scaring humans into hating each other. Makes me want to shove an egg up...”
“EB is correct,” Nova interrupted, “the World Corps is only causing further discord. If we can disarm them, then they will have a much harder time enforcing their plans on the people. This will calm the population. At the same time, we have Ambassador Talos at the U.N. presenting our evidence against the World Corps. It will be a flanking attack that should finally put us back in charge of this situation.”
“Then what are our orders?” Chase asked.
“Gather heroes, get them ready for the infusion, and then inform them of their objective. I want our people getting those AMAs away from the World Corps mercs. Tell our heroes to do their best to have as little conflict in the disarming process. We aren’t taking captives, just their weapons. Once they are disarmed, they won’t pose much of a threat. I still want to avoid as much open conflict as possible.”
“Understood.”
The screen changed behind him, and Dr. Henderson stood there with a big smile on her face. “Director, we have twenty-five units ready for infusion. Send me some heroes.”
“At once.” He turned to the others. “Get out there and get the heroes moving.”
“Director Nova: Incoming transmission from Prime Minister Shizue.” A robot announced.
“Shizue?” Nova looked at the screen again. “Put her through.”
Shizue came on the screen with a gentle smile on her worried face. “Director.”
“What is the problem, Minister?”
“I don’t know. I just got a frantic call from Ambassador Talos. His communicator you gave him has been stolen, and he needs to speak with you right now. So, he called me, hoping I could make the connection.”
“I see. Put him through.”
She nodded to a person off to her right and the image changed to the inside of a poorly lit bunker. Ambassador Talos was disheveled and dirty. “Oh, thank goodness.”
“Ambassador, what’s going on?”
“They came. Those mercs from the World Corps showed up and attacked my office. They got my BADGE comm unit and were destroying the place, looking for something. I got into my security bunker under the building, but I don’t know if they are still there.”
Nova said, “they must know we have evidence against them. They want to keep you from telling the U.N.”
“I saved the evidence file. It’s in my pocket. I never took it out. I’m too scared to get out of here. I don’t have a security detail. I’m not that important. Can you help?”
Nova nodded. “I’ll send you a BADGE security to stick with you until this is all over.”
Talos asked, “can you send that agent that observed me? He and I work well together.”
Nova grabbed a tablet and smiled. “Agent Torrin Wolf. Sure thing. He’s a low-grade morphonic hero, which is why he works as an agent. He’ll be put through the ISB process right away and sent to help.”
“Thank you so much.”
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