142: Family Negotiations

As the hidden interrogations continued, the internet buzz died down. Soon enough, everyone’s attention had been redirected to a viral news story of a famous endurance streamer actually being a pair of identical twins. Everyone, preoccupied tearing this person—well, two—apart, had seemingly forgotten about the potential existential threat looming over society.

While Nyssa and the others settled back into their school routine, the guilds began negotiating with Kaiser. With even their substitute teacher gone, Angelica returned to teaching to fill in the gaps—albeit with frequent breaks. Both the Hunter’s and Hero’s Association, though, had sent representatives from their executive teams. Slade and Roxanne, as stars of their new generations, sat in on the meeting.

Slade and Roxanne, though not clear on the details of the meeting, had been urged to come by both sides, and, thus, had come along. After arriving late, they pushed open the door with a creak. Neither, however, wanted to enter first.

“You first, you’re older,” Slade crossed his arms, looking at Roxanne.

“No, you first, since you’re younger,” Roxanne retorted with a whisper, motioning with her head. “Get in there.”

“You’re the reason why we’re late,” Slade raised an eyebrow. “So, you should go in.”

“I just had to drop off my injured wife, Slade. The one who should still be at home resting, but is instead teaching,” Roxanne huffed, reaching out to grab Slade. “Get in there, do your older sister a favor, will you?”

“No? Why should I,” Slade sneered, getting ready to grab Roxanne.

The moment they began grappling though, a hand appeared between their faces. Kaiser, having heard a muffled scuffle after his door had ‘mysteriously’ opened, had walked out. His gaze shifted from Slade, to Roxanne, then back to Slade, then back to Roxanne.

Silence.

Under their father’s gaze, both Slade and Roxanne let go of each other. Clearing their throats, they exchanged a handshake and a nod. They walked into the room side by side. Their footsteps, in sync, caused a creak to fill the room as they both stepped on the creaky floorboard.

“Anyway, apologies for having to step away,” Kaiser closed the door behind Slade and Roxanne. He walked back over to the desk, holding the proposal in his hand. After scanning the proposal for what felt like the tenth time, he looked back towards the two association executives. “What you’re proposing is that you want me to pull Nyssa out of school for another couple weeks so she can participate in a frontal assault against potentially the most dangerous organization in the world? Nyssa? My daughter who has just started her journey here at the institute, the one who’s still in her first year?”

Slade and Roxanne, both being aware of the assault plans, still felt their jaws fall to the floor. Their gazes bolted onto each other. Seeing the other with just as much confusion, they both bolted to their feet. Decorum fell away as they both cried out “Wait WHAT?”

“Sit down, you two,” Kaiser sighed. Turning back to the executives, he waved the proposal in the air. “As much as I’d like to protest though, it isn’t out of the picture though, if what you say is true.”

“From what we can tell, it is the complete truth,” the executive from the Hero’s Association sighed. “So, we know this organization is a remnant... perhaps offshoot would be a better word. Anyway, they’re an offshoot of the now-defunct Tomorrow Lab. Their research is split into two halves one was how to utilize the energy people had naturally within their bodies that gets converted into the powers we see. Then, on the other side, was how to harvest this energy.”

“Yes, I’m quite clear on this stuff... sadly, some of the higher-ups from that lab were students of mine,” Kaiser listened in, raising a finger to shush Slade and Roxanne. “Where does Nyssa come into this then?”

“As you know, there was quite the successful operation recently, carried out by the Wildheart Sentinels that used her as bait,” The Hunter’s Association executive took over. Pausing for a second as Slade shot Roxanne a look dirty enough to rival a disappointed mother’s, the executive continued. “We know some of their final results. It was discovered that people with transformation abilities have the most malleable energy. Energy harvested from an ice user, for example, has an inherent inability to be converted for use in a heating lamp. Transformation users still have some limitations though usually, but Nyssa is the perfect specimen.”

“A little too perfect...” The Hero’s Association executive murmured as he went over Nyssa’s file. “Regardless, we want to draw them out again with Nyssa. Would that be possible?”

“We can’t just let Nyssa go alone though. She’s not even a legal adult yet!” Roxanne jumped in. “How can we let this happen?”

“But society’s also just... on the line,” Kaiser sighed. He raised one of his hands, a flicker of sadness flashed behind his eyes. With his other hand, he massaged the bridge of his nose. “If only I was younger... and could still fight...”

“I mean, we should definitely ask Nyssa,” Slade placated the room, trying to ease the tension with a smile. “It’s not good for us to make these types of decisions without the person in question.”

“I’ll talk to her later,” Kaiser nodded, turning in his chair to look out the window. Trees swayed in the distance, their green-yellow leaves dancing in the wind. “She’s coming home with me tonight, anyway.”

“Is there no other way?” Roxanne asked, her hands gripping her knees.

“... I mean we do want to maximize the chance of the operation going well, don’t we?” Slade sighed, leaning back in his own chair.

“True...” Roxanne groaned, relenting as she grit her teeth.

Silence filled the room.

The association executives, after trading a glance, filled through their folders. “To soften things, and to aid our case, we do have some other potential plans. We were thinking that how about we send her with people she knows? There will be an emergency call to most, if not all active groups, but her strike force can be filled with people she’s already familiar with. Not only to bring her ease of comfort, but also minimize the risk of traitors.”

“For sure, I think that’d be a big help. Regardless, this much shouldn’t be hard for you all, so let’s do that,” Kaiser knocked one of his knuckles on the table.

The associations’ executives' eyes lit up. Both of them jotted down the importance of the detail. One, even, underlined it twice before circling and starring it. The other looked around the room. “Who should be brought then?”

“The rest of Class Zero, definitely. Slade and Roxanne’s guilds...” Kaiser counted out on his fingers. “Who else? Do you two know? I haven’t gotten the chance to talk to Nyssa a lot recently...”

“There’s the hunting party, from when they went on their expedition mission. Also, the Class Zero graduate students?” Roxanne crossed her arms. “They’re all a bit far though.”

“Nearby, a neighboring group then. I assume they’re also getting summoned since these are both A-Rank parties with S-Rank potential,” Kaiser looked towards the Hunter Association’s executive. “Am I right about that?”

“Yep! Yep!” the man bobbed his head. “I’ll write that down. We can also ask Nyssa too! We’re happy to cater to her as long as she agrees. Do you mind setting up a meeting with her then?”

“I’ll just call her over right now,” Kaiser picked up his phone. “One second.”