Location - Unknown
"Dame has asked for a meeting regarding the target we asked him to keep an eye on," a commander commented as he sat on his seat, legs crossed with grace. "Oh, any new development?" another commander in the room asked without looking up
"I'm not sure but it wouldn't hurt to hear him out, especially if it concerns that subject," another commander standing in the far side of the room, hands crossed as he slanted on the wall stated. "True. Call him in." the Commander of Intelligence stated as a guard swung open the door and ushered Dame Illral in.
"I have some updates for you, Lord Commanders," Dame said, as he bent to his knees, his head hung low. "This had better be worth it, Dame," a gruff voice sounded from the room as an old man, with long almost white beards, holding a walking cane on him, his dark suit tightly hitting his toned body and his coat flowing freely behind him. He walked to the centre of the room as he took his position in one of the seats for the Commanders.
"Yes, Lord Commander of Attack and Defense. "The recruit Kael Levane's final Detel infusion registered 99.98%," Dame said. "It confirms Dr. James and Dr. Jena's claim that infusion probabilities can be pushed into the high 90s without catastrophic side effects." Dame commented
"I see. Anything else?" the Commander of Intelligence questioned as he took his seat next to the chair taken by the Commander of Attack. "Yes sir. We have been able to discover the spies from Resistance who were moving during the Detel Infusion exams and have captured them but they were more than their cronies because they delivered the information to someone else but we haven't been able to identify such individual and when we ask the captured spies, they all gave different names, different descriptions of what the middle man looked like, as sometimes it was a male, sometimes a female and other varying identities, so our investigation has come to a halt," Dame delivered his message, his nerves tense as he relayed each word to the top leaders of Sanctuary from its founding till now.
"That's such a trifling performance and was very below what was expected from you, Dame. This is why mortals like you become disposable. Well, at least there was some progress either way. What have they been able to obtain and would it affect any of our operations? How much has been breached?" the commander who was standing slant to the wall walked out to the centre of the room, his eyes fixed on the kneeling Dame.
"Only this batch of Detel Infusion rates and their exams and at most their personal information has been breached. The more critical information has not been touched, well….it seems like they were never the subject they focused on," Dame reported his findings to the Commanders in the room.
"That is strange. For the Resistance to infiltrate spies into Sanctuary with effort but instead of coming for vital information like Detel serum and other things of such nature, they instead focused on the recruits of Pioneer? Hmm…" The commander of Attack and Defense said, his hands in his chin as he was lost in thought.
"What if they wished to better identify and know about this year's recruits so they could take them on? My force has updated me on the mysterious movements of Resistance and some of their captains. It could be related to that. They could have planned to ambush the recruits during their raid?" The Commander of Intelligence gave his opinion to the rest of the Commanders who were present in the room.
"That is indeed a possibility but what could they gain from such an operation?" a commander still hidden in the shadow in the deeper part of the room questioned. "To cripple our talents and reduce our fighting forces would be the most reasonable answer I can come up." the commander tapped his feet on the ground with a pause and then continues
"But it isn't something that the Resistance does, and they also know that they still need our help as the vanguard against the Detel attacks, if they wish to keep themselves and those they have safe If they do this, it seems contradictory," the Commander of Intelligence said after some time pondering.
"Do we know which of the Captains have been deployed?" the Commander of Attack and Defense questioned as he starred at the Commanders in charge of the Sanctuary networks and information processing. "Lune. My spies have identified her as one of the Captains that have been deployed before they went silent," he spoke, with no empathy for the possible loss of his subordinates.
"Oh, it's her. That would begin to explain some things. Your spies have probably been found by her when you lost contact with them. She's an unpredictable one and with her own share of dangers," the commander who took the third seat in the centre of the room responded after the information his fellow Commander shared with them.
"What would you like me to do, Commanders?" Dame asked, his tone subservient and respectful. "I don't think we should do anything. Since the Resistance is interested in the Pioneer recruits, I'll give them the stage to play to their content," the commander gave his opinion, his gaze hardened and focused.
"And there's nothing better than using someone else's tools to complete your goals. They can help to polish or possibly awaken the boy, and when this happens, we'll be able to truly start our experiments," the Commander of Attack and Defense spoke, to which the rest of the Commanders accepted.
"You'll do nothing, Dame. The Pioneer schedule will continue as stated. This is the chance to start his awakening early." The Commander of Intelligence commented to Dame who responded positively to the given mission.
Location - Arena in Pioneer
"Student Monnae Silver, please come up to the podium and present your justification," Rend Calmlet ordered to which Monnae just nodded and after getting support from Kael and Lark, she stepped on the podium and began her presentation.
"Hello. You already know me so I don't think I need to introduce myself. If everyone's okay with that, I'll start then. I have picked the bow and sword as my preferred weapon choices. To explain my choice of weapons, I'll have to bring in an example, teacher, can I?" Monnae questioned the teacher, her face serious as she stared at him and after what seemed to be a minute, the instructor finally budged and allowed her to. Walking to her bag, she bought a box that seemed technological in nature.
He retook her stance back on the stage as she set the metallic box on the ground. As the student's eyes fell on it, murmurs began to arise between them. Statements like "As expected from the heir of Silver family" to "showoff" and some curiosity mixed in between the audience.
"Thanks for the leniency teacher. Now to explain clearly why I choose these choice of weaponry, i'll show my personal weapon," Monnae said and as she placed her hand on the box, blue LED's lit up the box as it unfurled and then in it, was a bow, well if one could call it so.
Resting in the box were two halves of what made up a bow frame and with no string to place the arrow which was to be fired. "This is my personal weapon, "Rigerour". Reaching into the box, she bought out the two parts of the "bow" and set it on top of each other and with a click, the originally two halves of the bow joined back to one.
Gasps and shock at the weapon filled the watching students which didn't distract the silly genius. With rapt attention, he began to explain her weapon clearly. My weapon has two modes. The first, bow," he said as she corrected her posture into one for shooting an arrow, the bow began to light up with a blue light and some seconds after, a light blue string for the bow formed on the arrow.
"That's so cool…" Kael and Lark both exclaimed as they saw the process of how the Monnae weapon was formed. It was cool and very interesting and there's no denying that something like this would attract the admiration of boys, especially teenage boys. Monnae who was on the podium being admired by her classmates glanced in the direction of Kael and when he saw the interest and admiration in his eye, a victorious yet mischievous smile crept on her face. 'Mission complete. As Dad said, no boy wouldn't be enthralled by my weapon. Thank you Dad!' she said, praying in her mind to her saviour, while she still maintained her serious expression she was projecting outward.
"It's strong and durable and the string would hardly ever break. And for the second mode,..." Monnae spoke and with the same blue lighting running through the body of the bow, it seemed to reassemble itself. The blue light that formed the string faded away with the string and from where the two parts of the bow formed together, a handle extended between it s the bow shortened itself and the two points where the string were projected from moved forward and then formed into the blades of the sword, with the string becoming the blade of the strange sword now.
"Woow," those were the words that could be said from most of the students, not excluding the top 5. After all, no matter your goal nor where you stand, no one could deny the charm the weapon had and how cool it looks. "The second mode, the sword," Monnae commented with a smug smile and after which, she made a broad swing with the weapon, as it cut through the air leaving behind sound of its trails. Turning to face the prepared dummies by the instructor, Monnae made a swing for it and the blade, which seemed to be neither sturdy nor sharp, easily cut through the dummy, leaving behind parts which seemed to have been burned off by intense heat from the blade.
"Well, what do you think, teacher?" Monnae questioned as she powered down the blade and it turned back into its two half forms and rested in her hands. "It's a very unique and interesting weapon. It is practical and effective and can be used as a surprise weapon too. Congratulations on getting your personal weapon, student Monnae Silver. I'll be looking forward to how well you can train and master it," Mr Rend commented after Monnae was finished with her presentation and with a bow from Monnae to show her respect, she stepped from the stage and took her place in pride with Kael and Lark.
"What do you think, guys?" Monnae questioned confidently, as her lips raised in her sure victory. "It's so cool!" Both Lark and Kael responded with genuine enthusiasm and curiosity bleeding through their eyes.
"Haha. This is of course a fact. You have been granted the grace to witness my majesty today! Hahaha!" Monnae laughed out loud , basking in her victory and the admiration she received from Kael and Lark.
"Umm…Mon," Lark said, his tone slow and low as he wished to state his wish. "Yes, my fellow friends. State your thoughts to the magnanimous friend of yours! Haha!" Monnae responded as she stared at her two friends. "Okay, if you say so, Mon. As you said, since we're friends and we know your generous nature…" Lark paused and with a signal to Kael, he continued. "We were wondering if we could get to investigate and understand your cool and beautiful weapon," Kael ended to which he got a nod from Lark.
"You know I adore you both but requests like this, it'll be hard to do, especially this would mean breaking the pact I made with my Dad," Monnae said, her face forming a frown and her eyes showing her helplessness.
SOMETIME AGO
"Mon, if you have something you want, you have to be able to use the resources you have to your advantage!" Monnae's dad, the current head of House Silver, Luke Silver, advised his daughter as they sat in the garden of their home.
"What do you mean Dad? Also I told you I don't want to be some rich spoiled noble who can just do all they want and get what they can because of their status," Monnae argued back after hearing her father's proposal.
"What are you talking about, Mon? We've already told you that you should live the way you want to as we'll always support you. Anyway, going back to the matter, I heard you have a crush on your fellow recruit, the boy named Kael…" Luke said, as he drew close to Monnae, a mischievous mile forming on his aged face.
His speech was cut short by Monnae who quickly stood up, her hands covering her face as she stammered while speaking, "W..who..told you I like that idiot?" she relayed after stammering and forming her sentence.
"Haha. I never expected you had this side of you, Mon. Anyway, back in my day, I was once the celebrity who had many who fell for my charms. Would you like me to teach you these skills? I'm sure you'll have him charmed quite easily. After all, a person from House Silver shouldn't have trouble in their love life," Luke commented
"No! I can do it myself…No wait! I never said I liked Kael!" Monnae quickly changed her statement. "Haha, I never said you liked Kael" Luke mentioned her blunder which made her scream "DaD! That's unfair! I'll tell Mum you're bullying me again!"
Luke laughed as he gazed at this bashful side of his daughter he had never seen before as he thought 'Kael. Kael Levane. What type of person are you? A recruit with information locked as Class 0 confidential information. I hope you don't cause difficulties for my sweet Mon. Will you be a life to her light or a harbinger of sorrow? We can only wait to see but I hope you won't force this old man to make a move,' Luke mused within his head, his face becoming dark and his eyes carrying a dangerous glint in them.
"Mum, Dad is bullying me and doing that thing with his eyes again! He also said he was a charmer!" Monnae reported everything to her mother, making some twists of her own. "Oh, honey. Would you like to interest me in these endeavours you had in the past?" a cold voice sounded from within the house as Luke quickly stood up and walked in while saying he could explain
On this day, Kael felt a strange cold all through that day and directed malice to him, which made him request a training pass that extended for that full day.