The sound of a traditional Japanese flute, the Shakuhachi, filtered through the air. Its almost ethereal melodies did well to create a calming and focused atmosphere. Khethiwe sighed to herself as the music brought her back to the World she was first summoned to.

  She could’ve sat in her plush chair for hours listening to it, which is what she did back then as part of her training, but rather on a cold, hard floor instead. Still, there was much work for her to do; paperwork to fill out, orders to give, and hard calls to make. At least the sound made it all the more bearable, and the woman was beginning to enter a zen-like state. If things kept up, she’d be able to finish everything in no time-

  “Booty booty booty booty rockin’ ro-” a new sound blared from one of the desk’s drawers.

  Khethiwe sighed while fishing for its source. “I let that idiot look at my phone for one minute and this is what they changed my ringtone to.” It didn’t take long for the woman to find her cell phone and accept the call. “What is it now, Ash?”

  “Khethiwe, hey!” sheepishly answered back a young man. “Good news!”

  “You don’t sound like you’re about to deliver good news.”

  “Well, it is,” huffed Asher. “We’ve found the kids!”

  “Well that certainly is good news. So what’s the catch?”

  “Why do you always have to go around assuming the worst like that? Have you considered that things can really be that good without any strings attached?”

  “Yes I have, but I always end up disappointed. So what’s the catch?”

  “Well, there should be someone coming to your office right now with the full report. You can read everything there. And I’ve already told Abhi, so he and Captain Michaels can coordinate the rescue.”

  “Wait, Captain Michaels? They’re being held behind enemy lines and need an armed extraction, then.”

  “Well, you can get the rest of the details from the report,” sputtered Asher. “And I’ve gotta go now, sorry about that! Hope this news brightens your day!”

  “You telling me the catch will do more to brighten it up. So just say what-”

  Click. He’d hung up.

  Khethiwe let out another sigh as someone rapped on the hardwood double doors to her office.

  “Come in.”

  The mahogany doors swung open and in walked a man clad in black robes, sporting even blacker eyeliner. He silently approached the neatly organized desk and threw an envelope on top of a stack of papers.

  “Latest report from Gi-385,” whispered Lionel. “News bodes well and poor. We’re subjected to twilight. Strike well, and we win.”

  “Not a bad haiku. But let’s see what’s in here that classifies as ‘bad news’… dammit, Ash!”

  “I take it he just called? I suppose he wished to relieve the worst of this revelation’s burden upon you by informing you of the good news first.”

  “Huh, that’s a surprisingly optimistic take for someone who gets regularly victimized by him.”

  “I take it as gentle teasing. Perhaps out of a sense of camaraderie they’re simply too embarrassed to admit to out loud. I can’t imagine why.”

  “That’s probably the deepest thing I’ve heard you say. Try and use that for your haikus next time.”

  “…I’ll consider it,” said Lionel with a leer.

  “Right, so Ash was telling the truth about finding the kids, sort of. Only according to this report, we weren’t the first.”

  “A pair of priests, one from each opposing kingdom, came forth with a message from their goddess. She declared that both sides must work together against the new threat, and her first act to cement such a friendship was to reveal the location of the children.”

  “Just like that?” asked Khethiwe in disbelief.

  The black-clad spy simply nodded. “And the enemy troops were closer than we were when the announcement came, thus they were able to get to the kids before us.”

  “Of course,” the woman said with an eye roll. “But seeing as how you and Ash didn’t open up by telling me they were dead, I’m assuming there’s some better news buried in there?”

  “Yes. The children are simply being held captive in an abandoned fort, only until they agree to start fighting against the kingdoms’ new common enemy.”

  “And that would be us?”

  Another nod.

  “So those idiots are still trying to get themselves super soldiers. At least that means they’re not going to kill them,” said Khethiwe with a sigh.

  “I wouldn’t discount the possibility that they’re being tortured into compliance.”

  “Like that’ll do them any fucking good!” barked the woman with a laugh. “They’re alive, and that’s good enough for me. Let our therapists worry about the aftermath.”

  “Very well,” nodded Lionel with some unease. “What are your orders for me?”

  “Well, I’ll need to figure out what Captain Michaels is going to do, and plan around that. He’s going to be going for a quick and forceful extraction with the way things are, but we could speed things up and get them out before anyone else.”

  “Both sides have their armies guarding the fortress. They’ll have to be dealt with first.”

  “Shit, of course they do. Michaels could go with those prototype drop pods to speed things up, but only Squad Romeo is suicidal enough to use them. And if there are innocents inside, there’s no use sending them in.”

  “The bringers of death. For only the most heinous. Vengeance be their will.”

  “Ok, that was really good. You should probably share it with them, they might even replace their motto with it!”

  “Thank you, but I believe they have too much of an attachment to it to simply let it go.”

  “Right. So if drop pods aren’t a go, then the alternative is to blow a hole through the army and send in a less trigger happy squad to clear out the fortress.”

  “Will I be assisting them?”

  “No, they can take care of it themselves. Your job is to head to Valenloft and keep them from sending any reinforcements. Don’t want a ‘heroic rescue’ to screw us all over. I’ll send Ash to do the same to the other kingdom.”

  “Understood, I’ll head out now,” said Lionel with a final nod, before taking his leave.

  As the spy closed the doors behind him, Khethiwe let out another sigh. “I swear, if we weren’t going to ditch this World right after the rescue, I’d kill that bitch of a goddess myself.”

 

---

 

  On the other side of TOAL headquarters, a young man sat stock still, his mind a haze of disappointment and uncertainty. It was 5 pm according to the clock he was provided with, and free time according to his schedule. Yet Kai Freeman chose to spend it in bed.

  “What the fuck, Artyom,” he whispered to himself. The teen was very much used to disappointment at this point in his life. He learned at an early age not to trust empty promises made by people who didn’t have anything to back their words up with, and for the most part this lesson followed him across the multiverse. But the people he’d met here, the people he admired, more than proved they could be believed.

  Which was why learning that the man who had saved his life was allowing innocent victims of heinous crimes to suffer under his watch was such a gut punch to Kai. If his idol had such a dark side to him, who else here did too?

  Closing his eyes, the teen recalled what the therapist warned him of earlier, not to set his expectations of anyone here too high. That was probably why. But she also told him to judge people based on his own values. Sure, she might’ve been hiding something too, but the advice was still sound.

  Before Kai could come up with anything, a light knocking echoed from his door. “Hello, it’s Gus.”

  “Come in!” the teen shouted, taken out of his thoughts. At least with this higher up, Kai already knew what lurked in his mind.

  The door opened up and in walked a short, ginger man who hosted a neutral look. “Hello Kai, I have good news. The kids lost in the World you were summoned to have been found, and we’re currently in the process of carrying out a rescue mission.”

  “Yeah, that is good news.”

  “We’re hosting a viewing party in one of the common rooms, where we’ll be broadcasting an overview of the operation to raise morale. Would you like to join?”

  Kai looked around the room, and to his fidgeting hands, before turning back to face Gus. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do. And he could’ve used the distraction. “Yeah, sure. Let’s go.”

  The two made their way through the winding hallways towards their destination. The common room they found themselves in was as large as the cafeteria, and surprisingly even more packed than the latter during the lunch rush.

  “Are these rescue missions really that popular?” asked Kai.

  “Yes they are,” deadpanned Gus. “Yours was as well, though it didn’t have this much of a turnout. Everyone’s probably here because it’s the long-awaited conclusion to something that has gone on for much too long. Well anyway, enjoy.”

  “Thanks,” replied the teen, making his way into the room.

  Grabbing himself a paper plate and filling it with various snacks and finger foods, he quickly located Kazuma and took a seat next to him.

  “Hey Kai! Excited to see how this goes?”

  “Eh, kind of. Honestly, this feels like it’s just propaganda to get us to become soldiers.”

  “That just means it’s going to be even more fun to watch!”

  The teen’s mind went back to an old conversation between the two, during lunch on the day they first met. “Oh yeah, it totally will then.”