In the meeting hall of the UGP HQ, a large Holo-Screen rose out of the floor. Representatives direct their attention toward the visuals of heavily edited footage taken from dozens of angles from a bird's eye view. Admiral Radford stood by the right side of the screen and used a laser pointer while describing the discoveries. 

Admiral Radford. "Last night, the Recon team rode on the back of Major General Travis Fjord's Monster Clones towards Toronto, but they came across large towns that were flying the new flag of the extremist. Upon closer investigation, they learned that the town had been taken over by Convicts who belong to the army of Extremist Tamers in Toronto."

Indian Representative. "How did your Recon team confirm they are convicts?"

Admiral Radford. "Chairman Zao's Representative Lang Chi used his Ghost form, and a tamer who can merge with shadows infiltrated the town. I ordered Benjamin, who retrieved the Icebug Queens egg in Texas, to go there via his water gates and read the residents' minds with his telepathic ability. It took them a few hours to piece together what had happened by overhearing conversations in Pubs and interrogating drunks who could not remember who they were talking to. Apparently, once the Canadian government saw the video of the Battle of Rockville, they ordered their army to adopt the Monster App and use it to fight back against the monster invasion. This order was met with great approval by their military as it helped them overcome the severe lack of funding over the last three decades that reduced their troop numbers from 70,000 to 7000. But these numbers weren't sufficient for their Generals. So they ordered the prison wardens across Canada to release the inmates who agreed to help the army fight monsters in exchange for pardons. A quarter of that number took up the offer to become Tamers and fight for Canada."

Russian Representative. "How did none of us learn of a 32000 strong Tamer army?"

Admiral Radford. "According to the people who survived the bombing of the Canadian government, they had banned the usage of the Monster app for Communications because they didn't want the rest of the world to know about their new abusive policies against convicts. So instead, they communicated in a closed network with the help of a Tamer who possessed long-distance communication abilities."

Chinese Representative. "It sounds quite useful. Do we have those kinds of Tamers in Seward?"

Admiral Radford. "There are a few, but none with that range to connect with many people over long distances. But in this case, the Recon team noticed that the Tamers in Toronto have been victims of mind control."

Indian Representative. "Mind control?"

Admiral Radford. "Have a look at the screen more closely."

After deactivating his camouflage skill, a man comes into existence in front of the Holo-Screen. Soon a Dumbo Octopus appears over his bald head and wraps around his face. 

Admiral Radford. "I had Benjamin return here through a water gate so that he can share his observations directly with you all."

Benjamin then used his telepathic ability to speak to everyone in the room.

Benjamin. "All Non-Tamers retained their free will. The Tamers who are directly connected to the Communications Tamer are affected by mental afflictions."

EUF Representative. "How can you tell? Do they behave differently?"

Benjamin. "Their minds are disturbed by an external force that seems to overwhelm them with rage from time to time. So whoever this Tamer is, he has a similar mind affliction abilities like mine that injects irrational fear, but his skills inject irrational anger towards specific things or people."

Chinese Representative. "Can you also influence the minds of thousands?"

Benjamin. "No, I can only influence 8 at a time, and even that needs to be a line of sight for my Mana tendrils to latch on to."

EUF Representative. "If that is the case, how could this Professor X Tamer manage to affect this ridiculous number of people?"

Benjamin. "From what I learned about what happened, this Tamer has implanted something inside the heads of most of the convicts with the blessing of the Canadian government, who thought it was similar to the Nation of Disney's Suicide Squad movie, where they have explosive implants in all the Convict skulls. In this case, he used the implants as a tool to communicate with them and inject irrational hatred towards the Icebugs to have them fight like Berserkers."

Russian Representative. "You learned all of this from reading their minds?"

Benjamin. "You would be surprised how much people spend time reliving past events, especially traumatic ones. I think this Communication Tamer's irrational anger might have been responsible for the rise of the extremists. The Canadian government used the Convict Tamers as cannon fodder against the Icebugs. They then ordered the army to receive the same implants for better communication and coordination on the battlefield. As a result, they treated tamers as expendable tools of war regardless of their status. There was a major battle to stop the Icebugs of New York from expanding into the North East of Canada, the new Tamers were overwhelmed, but they managed to force the bugs back. Within a week, the 25000 convict tamers were reduced to three thousand, and the professional soldiers were diminished to two thousand. The Canadian government planned to forcibly conscript the remaining prisoners to increase the army's combat strength. My best guess is that the Communications Tamer must have felt the government was crossing the line and were abusing their power over Tamers. This might have caused all those linked to experience the same rage and frustration that normalized extremist views."

Indian Representative. "If that is what truly happened, then most of these people have the right to be angry at their government... Are you planning to free them of those implants and see if they can become normal again?"

Admiral Radford. "That approach might take too long to find out if it works. I propose we have the Recon Team extract the source of the problem, the Tamer linked to those five thousand Tamers, and find a way to reverse or neutralize it. Maybe upon death, the mind affliction will disappear."

Chinese Representative. "Have you identified the Tamer yet?"

Benjamin. "I don't think that Tamer is in Toronto at the moment. The official soldiers among the extremist forces had left the city before we got there. Only the convicts were left behind to run the cities, and I am sure our target isn't among them from the Intel I collected so far."

Admiral Radford. "The soldiers must be on their way here to launch the surprise attack that Admiral Selvaria informed us about from the spy she killed."

Indian Representative. "Did she really have to blow the spy up with a rocket launcher and break his neck?"

Admiral Radford. "I did tell Admiral Selvaria that it was a waste, but she feels the intercepted message she obtained from the spy's phone was enough. She is already busy with a new project to surprise the extremists when they get here."

Indian Representative. "What kind of project?"

Admiral Radford. "Last night, she requested me to hand over my scrapped aircraft carrier and the damaged fighter jets. She plans to make a Vector Grade warship out of it."

Suddenly the hall became very silent. The representative mouths were salivating.

Chinese Representative. "Is there anything we can do to help her?"

Admiral Radford. "She would welcome it if you could spare some people with construction or engineering skills to speed up the work."

EUF Representative. "My people are eager to see Vector Tech, so they will help."

In a few minutes, the rest of the representatives agreed to the request. They called out a few of their aides to head out of the building to find Selvaria. When the room was quiet again, the representatives regained their dignified composure.

Russian Representative. "Once we deal with the extremists who come at us in Seward, what will we do about those that remain in Canada."

Chinese Representative. "It is none of our business as long as the Convicts stay where they are. We can't send our Tamers to liberate Canadian civilians when our own needs to be saved from the monsters."

Admiral Radford. "You don't have to worry about that issue. The Tamers serving the Church of Asher has established a Divine Tamer Order Army. They accepted the task of liberating the cities."

Russian representative. "Is their army that capable?"

Admiral Radford. "Sergei Krasnatov is personally training their hundred-man Tamer army by having them fight each other. Our Knight cores, that number several thousand so far will be assisting the crusader army in their training and liberating cities since they need to get used to their new equipment. It would be a great morale boost for the Non-Tamers since we have denied them the chance to become Tamers and be at the forefront of the war against the monsters."

Russian Representative. "Is Sergei not supposed to be in the Tamer Battalion? Why is he involved with Asher's Church?"

Admiral Radford. "Asher does not have the required experience to train and lead a large army. Therefore, I recommended Sergei to lead his brother's army since he had been trained by the best military tacticians in Russia when his father was alive."

Russian Representative. "I see, our General will understand this cooperation, but I would prefer that Asher be credited for any victory this army achieves since he is their spiritual leader."

Admiral Radford. "Noted, but that is up to Asher and Sergei to decide."

The Russian Representative did not look happy with that answer, but he didn't try to argue.