The three players all logged in, and after a few minutes each of them stood up and navigated to the meeting room. The meeting room was a simple one, it had a long table in it and a flat screen at one end. Ultima sat there already with Gareth, Death Seeker sat next to them both, but after a moment Amber sat across rather than close to Ultima, Lapis did the same, taking a seat next to Amber.

Ultima looked to Amber, who he realized was trying to avoid making eye contact with him "Amber, how are you?" he asked, his tone neutral as always, but it broke the silence of the room. 

"Me, I'm, I'm fine, just didn't sleep well" she said quickly, looking down. Ultima turned his eyes to Lapis, who avoided his gaze as well, watching chat talk about what was going on. Death Seeker was the only one who returned his look, smiling at him as well.

Ultima took a deep breath "Officer Gareth, may I inquire as to what this meeting will be about?" He asked flatly, turning to the taller main character.

"Well Ultima, all of you will be meeting the higher ups today, the leaders of The Ark Organization. I only know that they have a field assignment for all of us" he said, responding to the soldier "I think it's their hope you all can move past, um, the incident, and hopefully doing a field assignment will be perfect for that" he nodded. 

Ultima thought for a moment, so it was now being called THE incident, was that bad or worse? He sort of hoped it would have a codename or something by now. 

Lapis kept getting egged on by chat to try out the new ability, the one that would let him feel Ultima's emotions if he used it. He looked at the soldier, who seemed to just be lost in thought, it couldn't be that bad right? He opened up his status and selected the ability named 'Ultima Emotion Link'

Lapis hesitated a moment, but nodded anyway once chat just kept saying to, maybe it was just a warning he would always get when he used this ability, Ultima was, kind of weird.

Ultima was stewing in his own emotions and thinking when he received a notification that Lapis had just used an ability to feel his emotions. He looked at the masked player who was staring blankly ahead for a moment, before he stood up and ripped down his mask, dry heaving. Gareth saw this and quickly stood up "Lapis! What is it? Something happen with your ability?" he asked quickly.

Lapis didn't hear him, falling down and quickly deactivating the ability. His chat was asking what just happened, because it was such a strong reaction, it must be faked right? Lapis couldn't fake what he felt though, and he eventually noticed that someone's hand was on his shoulder. 

Gareth watched as Ultima quietly and unprompted walked up to Lapis, pulling him up and patting his shoulder "You tried something didn't you?" Ultima asked neutrally. Lapis only shuddered and nodded. "Well, whatever you did, seems you shouldn't try it again" Ultima said without a single drop of emotion on his face, sitting Lapis back down. Lapis nodded, looking at Gareth "I, um, tried to see if I could feel the emotions of other Lightforms, it was, too much. It was just something I thought of trying" he explained.

The officer sighed, seeming placated by that response. "Well, don't do it again" Gareth ordered, sitting back down once he got his answer, Lapis just nodded. Amber and Death Seeker both stared at him for a while.

Amber eventually couldn't help it "What did you feel?" she asked, and his chat wanted to know the same thing, so he took a second to answer. Ultima, Gareth, and Death Seeker were all also watching him as the question was prompted. He opened his mouth to speak when the door opened up, interrupting him. 

The leaders of The Ark Organization sat down at the table, chat went crazy, since many Players had yet to actually see them. One was a woman, who was dressed in a very fine looking suit, busy on the phone and talking in a hushed tone. She looked to be older, with wrinkles and short black hair. Along with her was another girl who sat beside her, looking a lot younger, but still having a hard look to her eyes. The other three were all men, they varied in sizes, with the shortest being the blonde haired and blue eyed man from before, who gave the order to first go contact the Lightforms. He cleared his throat and began to speak "Welcome, members of The Amissa Lumina. My name is James, and I'll be the one giving you your assignment today. Let's get this over with" he said. 

One of the other men stood up and turned on the TV screen in the room, showing six faces on the screen. "These six Lightforms have managed to escape the kill zone we had prepared around HQ. They worked together, and they only rebelled recently. When they revived they fought through the circle, injuring one soldier and using his firearm to kill anyone they came across. If we group their crimes collectively, they are responsible for the death of at least ten soldiers, and the possibly fatal injuries' of three. Not to mention rebellion and fleeing the nation illegally. We only know they were spotted paying for a boat and being taken on it before we were able to make contact. Spies are searching for them all over, but with how many nations and such there are, it is like searching for a needle in a haystack." James explained the situation before clicking a button, changing the screen.

It showed the six Lightforms hiding their faces while they moved through a dark street. "This was only recently reported, and the lead may be covered by now, but this was found by one of our spies in Saris, due to his cover though he wasn't able to follow them" James continued talking, they were all in black clothes and covered their faces, looking highly suspicious. "Despite their attempts at disguise, we know it's them. Your assignment is to get behind the line and find them. This picture was taken in the main capital. We are unsure how they've moving so quickly, but we think other Lightforms may be helping them. Does anyone have any questions?" The blonde man finished talking and turned to look at everyone.

"Could you, go back to the image with their pictures on it?" Lapis asked, and James complied. Lapis bit his lip "Those six, are, um, like me. They can talk to the other Lightforms and share information" he clarified. James sighed "I see, well, it doesn't matter. I want them captured somehow and brought back here, understood?" the man said. 

Lapis nodded, Amber and Death seeker did the same while Gareth saluted "Your orders are understood sir, are there any specific orders however for Ultima?" he asked, looking to the neutral soldier. 

"Ultima, I've been told you can, release your power without going overboard now, and that you can also release it in a massive burst. Is this true?" James asked. Ultima responded with an affirmative nod "This is true, yes" he said, not making any movements with his face.

"I want you to, not ever use the massive burst, even in an emergency situation. I'm not sure what it was, but it's terrifying, and if civilians start asking questions, that would be a problem. Understood?" James said.

Ultima nodded "Understood sir, I will not use Limit Break" he said, saying the name passively so they would know what to call it, and not call it 'the massive burst' which sounded dumb to him.

James stood up "That's all then, you will all leave in the morning. Get some rest" He said, leaving with the other higher ups as they filed out to go back to work. Gareth said "I don't like interacting with them. I know what he said, but I want all of you to do some practice, alone, before you rest tonight. Ultima, you're plenty strong, so there's no need for you to practice, alright?" he said. The neutral soldier responded quickly, turning as he stood up "I will head to bed then" he announced, and no one stopped him as he walked out.

The players all got up and headed to the training area, they had all received a mission from Gareth's orders to train that they wouldn't pass up.

There was already plenty of information about the statuses that the mission mentioned, so they knew how far they could go. For everyone of them this could be at most 50 EXP, which was a full sixth of what they needed for level two, it was a lot for a random mission. That may be the appeal of main character missions though.

Ultima walked alone down the halls, watching as some Lightforms looked at him in curiosity now or avoided his gaze when he looked at them. There was no end to the endless amount of guilt he felt, even apologizing didn't help. Lapis seemed alright, and so did Death Seeker, but Amber? Amber seemed downright terrified of him, and it concerned him. 

If people who didn't actually see him first hand in that state tended to react with fear. How was she? He vaguely recalled that he killed her, but it seems it wasn't just that.

He finally arrived back at his room and sat down on the bed, staring at the wall while deep in thought. Like he's done many times before, he paced the room ten times before sitting at his desk. Thinking, and processing things. He took a deep breath and tried to relax himself, he got up and began to box in his room like he usually did. It just, didn't help though. If anything it made him more restless, because he wasn't fighting against an actual person. There was no challenge, and it wasn't releasing tension. His eyes began to change color and he slammed his fist into the desk. He pulled his hand up and untensed it, breathing deeply. He moved over to his bed and sat down, before getting up and pacing the room again, he continued to pace all night, not knowing when he fell asleep.