Long Live the King || unOrdinary

Monsters

Orrin was furious. He was good at hiding it, but he was burning with anger that couldn't be quelled. With the back-to-back failures from both Agent Wellston and Asset 23, he was beginning to wonder if Spectre would ever achieve their goals. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. The one person he still trusted to get the job done, even though he'd only just completed his first mission walked in. John. Asset 47.

"John," Orrin said with a friendly tone that contrasted the thoughts still running through his head. "Welcome back. I'm still extremely impressed with the progress you've made. Keep up the pace and you'll be a high ranking member in no time."

"I appreciate that, Orrin," John said respectfully. "But, I came here just to talk, sir. I wanted to talk about Spectre's goal a little more. I initially joined Spectre just to protect my friends, but after completing my first mission, I'm intrigued by our goal." It wasn't entirely false. Despite his resentment toward her, finding out about his mother invigorated him. If there was a chance he could get her out of the hands of the authorities, he'd do it. Not for her or for himself.

For his father.

"I'm glad to hear that, John! Well, to discuss our goal, I suppose I should start from the beginning. Spectre was founded about ten years ago. It started because one man had a vision of a society in which no one had to suffer. Where everyone was equal regardless of power and level. It was inspired in part by myself and the other executives."

"In what way?"

"Well, the three of us were both raised as cripples. We gained our abilities much later than everyone else, and due to our massive potentials, we trained hard and shot up straight to high-tiers."

"Interesting. Because I've had the exact same experience. I was born without an ability and I discovered it later than most."

"That's good," Orrin said. "It means you can understand our goal better than anyone. The founder himself was not a late-bloomer, but he was our teacher back in high school. He saw our experiences and how corrupt we'd become with our newfound power and he wanted to build a society where that didn't have to happen anymore."

"That's a very inspiring story."

"Unfortunately, the founder passed away about three years ago. Since then, Miranda, Neil and I developed a three-fold leadership. We disagreed at first who should become the leader, so we left it up to a vote. We all managed to tie the vote, so all three of us took charge as a council."

"Thank you for telling me all this," John said. "I have a newfound understanding of Spectre and its goals, and I'm determined to prove myself to you and live by that goal. I'm eagerly awaiting my next assignment."

"You'll have it by tomorrow," Orrin said. "I'll brief you now though. Now that we've started development on conversion tech, we need people to test it on. I'd like you to find three high-tiers with useful abilities. You won't have to use the disablers yourself, but your team will."

"That's fine, as long as I'm not the one doing it."

"You won't have any reason to use conversion tech, since you're basically a walking ability converter, but your skills will still be useful in testing it out, especially because we can use your ability for research."

"I'll help out in any way I can, sir," John said. "Thank you for your time."

After that, John left, thinking about everything Orrin had told him. He still hated the man's guts, but it was comforting to know he'd gone through the same experience as him.

- - -

Kuyo, Remi, and Blyke gathered around on a rooftop in the low-tier district of Havenville. The same district where Kuyo had first met the Weeper. They weren't there for him this time, though. They were here to follow a lead on EMBER.