Chaos ensued within the upper staff of Military Base 2.
A teacher, Faye, used her speed ability to walk over to Nathan. Walking through the hallways with a furious expression. When she popped open the door to his office, papers flew about the room. Nathan complained about the mess she caused when she brought him bad news.
Apparently, they just registered that two students have gone through one of their portals.
When Nathan brought up why they hadn't been brought back yet, it was because they had gone through the portal to Pioletic, a red portal planet.
Nathan was in the middle of picking up his papers when he heard Faye mention such a place.
"What—!? How did this happen? Weren't there meant to be guards stationed at the portal?" Nathan said as he dropped everything.
Faye crossed her arms, "Apparently, there was a scheduling conflict. When the guards changed shift, their replacements never arrived."
Nathan leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, "Stupid parents… This is why I said we should have cameras installed in the school. It was hard enough to allow them to get those trackers put on them…"
Unfortunately, with how much of an influence the original families had, it was difficult to get them to be okay with their students being monitored. There was always the fear that the military would learn their family's secrets. It was a necessary evil though, especially with how students could easily get beaten up and left to fend for themselves on campus.
Nathan picked up his coffee and sipped it, "Do we know which students have gone through the portal?"
"The first one is the student by the name of Erin Heley."
After the incident with the second years, Nathan had searched into Erin Heley's family background. At first he was worried that if she came from a prestigious family, they might've retaliated. The last name of Heley felt familiar, but not a lot came up. If it had happened several years ago, then he might've had reason for concern.
She used to belong to a family company that worked on an orange portal planet, and was paid a lot of money for it. The people funding them were one of the big four members. but the company was then later attacked by the dalki, and ceased to exist afterwards. There was no more information he could find after that.
The only other reason he could've guessed why Heley sounded so familiar was likely because of his coworker's name, Hayley.
"And the second one is Fex Sanguinis."
"Hmm."
Faye gave him a dirty look.
Nathan sighed, and pinched the space between his eyebrows, "Look, it's going to be hard to convince the staff to do a rescue mission into a red portal planet. I can try, but you know that unless there was a big reason to, a lot of them would rather not risk it."
—
Quinn managed to get some sleep that night. When he woke up, he turned to Fex's empty bed. It began to really sunk in what happened last night. Peter had yet to wake up, so he made sure to stay silent.
"He hasn't come back yet…" He whispered to himself.
It was strange, despite him and Fex not being officially friends, the dorm was just too quiet without his presence. The two hung around each other enough for him to feel that way. Unlike Erin, there was no sign that Fex was still alive.
When looking at his system, he could see that Erin was still living. She had managed to make it to level 8, and he noticed something too. When looking at the inventory tab, he could access it. He selected the rattaclaw beast crystal, and suddenly, he had a small crystal appear in his hand.
'Are these the same beasts that Erin killed yesterday?' Quinn thought. He remembered seeing a few notifications about this.
Looking at the inventory, there was also a book and an intermediate tier crystal inside. Quinn considered taking them out and selling them, but it didn't feel right to steal something that Erin earned.
Putting them back in the storage, Peter started to wake up. He didn't look as bad as yesterday right after the red portal was activated, but was still antsy. Remembering that there was apparently someone who forced Peter into doing all of this, and there was a name he mentioned, he couldn't help but wonder who they were.
Peter kept taking glances at him while they both got ready for the day, looking sorry for what he had done. He couldn't help but think about everything that could go wrong. Throughout the morning, there was that air of something missing, a constant reminder of who wasn't there. Right as they were about to leave, Quinn decided to ask his question that had been lingering on his mind.
"Peter, can you tell me the one who did that to you?"
Peter stopped right in the middle of cleaning his glasses.
"What are you talking about?" Peter mumbled with a forced smile.
"Peter, don't play dumb. I'm talking about the people who hurt you," Quinn replied as non-threateningly as possible.
Peter paused, and looked at Quinn. He wasn't quite sure how to respond. If he told Quinn, he would be involved in all of this, and his roommate was only a single level above him. If Erin, a level 5 student, wasn't safe from the second years, then who knows what they would do to him.
"Quinn… I know you, I saw how you were at the assembly hall. If I tell you, then you're going to do something reckless."
Quinn didn't want to force the information out of him, but if he didn't do something, then Peter was just going to get tortured again.
"You're right," Quinn put on a forced smile as he headed out, "I would do something reckless."
—
Layla entered the class a little later than the others, and noticed that two of her teammates weren't there. Today was meant to be the day of the first portal outing, so she thought it was strange.
What she did see was that Peter was very anxious, looking constantly at the empty seats and over his shoulders. Not only that, but Quinn sat in the spot next to her, when he would usually sit with Peter in the back of the class. Things like this wouldn't happen without a reason.
'Where are Erin and Fex? And what's up with those two?' She thought.
Layla didn't see her roommate at all last night. At first she thought that she just missed her since Layla went to sleep early, but given that Erin wasn't there in her dorm, nor in class, there was definitely something going on. Since Quinn was sitting next to her, she decided to ask him.
Layla leaned over, "Hey, do you know where Erin and Fex are at?"
Quinn didn't immediately respond, and glanced behind him, right where his roommate was at. He knew the answer, but it would take some explaining to do, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to involve Layla into it.
"I'm just asking since the portal outing is supposed to be today," Layla said with concern, "And I haven't seen Erin all morning."
When she brought that up, Quinn realized that she was part of their team too. He knew what happened, and keeping her in the dark wasn't fair.
"It has something to do with Peter. I'll tell you more after class."
'Peter?' Layla thought, before turning to look at the teen boy in question, which made him shrivel up in his chair. He looked incredibly guilty of something.
Del then entered the room. His cheery face was gone and replaced by a serious look.
"I'm afraid that I have to inform you all that today's portal outing has been cancelled for now."
Several students groaned and complained.
"What?! But I wanted to test out my new beast weapon!"
"Yeah, I was hoping to maybe kill a beast as well."
"First Power Fighters bans cosmetics, now this? I hate it here."
"Quiet down!" Del yelled, "This isn't permanent, but at the moment the school staff are busy with another matter, and until they are free, we will be unable to go on the outing."
A student in the middle of the class raised his hand. Del looked at the student and sighed.
"Yes."
"What matter are they dealing with?"
"Now if I could tell you, I would have, wouldn't I?"
Class continued as normal, but that wouldn't stop the whispering between the students. Rumors were already starting to spread about what happened. Layla was trying to piece together everything she could from their murmuring.
They mentioned that the missing students apparently went to a red portal planet, and she could feel her blood pressure rising. To go to a red portal planet meant death. With how no one in their right mind would willingly go to such a place, and Peter shriveling up when she looked at him, Layla theorized that Peter was guilty of doing something to get them in there.
A bit of anger was forming in her, and she hadn't realized why until she nearly snapped her pencil. Layla was getting mad at Peter without knowing all the information. She was told that a level 5 ability user would've been impossible to overpower if you only had a level 1 ability, and that was why there was so much conflict in the world. However, Erin wasn't a level 5 anymore, and she could tell that Erin was changing in her beliefs. Did she really deserve death?
'But Erin was a level 5, and she could just be changing because she lost her ability…' Layla thought, 'If she hadn't lost it, then she would've been like all the other mid levels, selfish and abusing their power.'
She was concerned about where Erin and Fex went. Quinn knew something about it, Peter was involved, and yet, the teacher didn't mention them at all. It was especially strange since if they got injured enough to be taken to the nurse's office, they still had to go to class. There were strict rules in place for all of this, especially since there was almost no excuse for being absent with how everyone lived all in the same place. Everything about this was strange.
Class ended early that day, and the rumors continued to spread. They left the classroom together, both Quinn and Layla. He was about to explain what happened, when Peter walked by, glancing at his roommate. He looked just as nervous as that morning, and Layla's nasty look towards him didn't help.
Peter hoped that Quinn wouldn't ask where it was he was going. He didn't want to be late, and feared he would get tortured again.
'Quinn will understand,' Peter thought to himself.
Peter left their view, leaving Quinn and Layla there. He wondered where his roommate was going. Either way, Quinn explained what he knew to Layla. He went into detail about the portal room being empty when they first arrived, and how Peter was told to push Erin into the red portal planet.
As he explained it, they were walking through the halls and headed outside. They were still on the school campus where a few benches and trees resided. A couple of students walked around in the distance, but they minded their business.
"Peter isn't telling me who it was that did all of that to him, and I'm worried that it'll happen again," Quinn spoke with concern, "You're the last person I know who I can trust to help me."
Layla sat there thinking about it. She had been so caught up in her dream fantasies with Erin that she almost forgot her goal, and this incident nearly perfectly matched why she was here. She was here was to figure out why the students were disappearing so much.
This had made her remember the crushing reality of her life. It meant she had a job to do. The only detail she couldn't figure out was that the disappearances happened whenever a certain world leader visited, but this was still her strongest lead.
Layla nodded, "What do you need help with?"
"I have a feeling that the people who've been bothering Peter are the high levels I keep seeing him hang out with," Quinn replied, "I just want some backup in case something goes wrong."
She had something to gain by working with Quinn, and there was an opportunity to find out more, she just needed to word things right, "Do you think that it wasn't just the high tiers, but someone even higher? Think about it, You said that there wasn't anyone at the portal room when you arrived, right? Who would have the authority to make that happen?"
Quinn's eyes widened, and he looked around to make sure there wasn't anyone around to hear.
Layla then leaned in close to him, a serious look to her eyes, "It's just a hunch, but by working together, we can figure out who's really behind all of this."
Quinn paused, then nodded his head, "Let's do it."