Situation Update

“Yes sir…” Ended the communications link between Harry Benet, the Commandant of the Rogue Fortress, Desert Storm.

The Boss level channeler had already contacted his superiors regarding the situation, and oddly enough Kyasho had actually ordered him to do nothing, assuring the Admiral that he would be by to handle the matter personally as soon as he could get Loki to take over command of the operations at The Garrison.  Harry had laughed at the predicament, jokingly suggesting that he leave Zed in charge, a suggestion that Kyasho was more than simply openly amused by.

It wouldn’t be long before his Commandant’s access code lowered the shields, allowing Kyasho, Maika Smerkyov, Lord Marshack Almed, Shin Itami and Cornus Malaikin to teleport into his Command Centre.  This was quite a shock for Harry Benet, who was quite unnerved by the presence of all of the Perfect level channelers moving to his locations, but much like the incident involving the two Itamis at The Garrison, he simply assumed that it had something to do with the Guardian legends and the strange occurrences that seemed to befall anyone who was at all involved in these strange prophecies.  Unfotunately, it also seemed that Harry was only now privy to half of a conversation which must have started at the Garrison prior to their Perfects’ arrivals.

“So Shin, you were explaining before the transport procedures?”  Marshack prompted Shin to continue, after having just briefed him on the specifics of the Guardian legends.

“Yes, I have already explained the Legends of the Four Guardians of Gaia, and Kyasho has told you of his vision of the epic battle between Synchros and Khaaos, the futuristic destroyers of this world.”  Shin continued now, causing the others to nod, indicating that they were up to speed.  “Based on my observations from the battle, it would seem that this future actually took place… meaning that my young apprentices previous goals to stop this future were very much in vein.”  Shin paused as he tried to sort through the temporal mess.  “To understand the events, we would need to assume that the events of this alternate future took place prior to the existence of our timeline, as such our current timeline would actually be a result of this alternate future, rather than the events that actually lead to it.  This would explain the emergence of these two, weaker guardians…”  Shin paused.  “The phenomenal abilities exihibited by the guardians that we currently know, would have to be explained by the fact that they have aged past the level of power which they should possess in our time, the reason why these energy seem to be so much more powerful than anything which channelers in our times can devise.”  Shin explained.

“This means that these younger guardians…”  Maika started.

“Juniors in a sense.”  Cornus corrected him.

“Yes, these Junior Guardians would not be as strong as their senior counterparts?”  Maika inquired.

“In theory, these abilities, though unique, should not be much stronger than any technique that exists within our time.”  Shin explained.

“But if that is the case, what makes them so special?”  Marshack inquired now.

“Well, it has never been the power of the Guardian’s energy that has been the determining factor in battle, but always the utilisation of the unique functions of their energy.  Though their strength may not be very much greater than that of the Itamis’ Veranos or the Malaikin’s Xenom, but the fact still remains that these energy can effect changes within out world that would be otherwise impossible.  The Guardians are the only four absolutes which exist.”  Cornus explained now.

“That is correct, Synchros is absolute binding, independent of method.  Khaaos is independent destabilisation, independent of the mechanism.  Dias is absolute separation, independent of the path and Geon is absolute stabilisation independent of bonding energy.  They are an end without a necessity for means… Absolute in every sense.”  Shin affirmed.

“That would make sense, the only way to combat these fabled Destroyers, masters of absolute creature and absolute destruction.”  Kyasho reasoned now.

“Indeed.”  Shin affirmed.

“I don’t want to interrupt…”  Harry started now, trying to piece all of the information together.  “I missed the beginning for the conversation, but if I’m following your reasoning correctly, shouldn’t there be four Destroyers in this equation as well?”  He now inquired.

“Intuitive.”  Cornus smiled.  “Yes, are our theories correct the energy which was expelled from Nikolai was that of the Senior Destroyer Teros, the destroyer of energy.”  He explained.

“Yes, in our error of assuming that we were on the path to that alternate future, we believed that the Destroyers had not yet bonded to their Guardian hosts, however in light of this new knowledge, we can see just how wrong this assumption was.”  The others nodded now.  “With both Synchros and Teros lying dormant within young Nikolai, this would have shielded the Destroyer from our detection… the only thing that we do not understand is how it was possible for the Destroyer to awaken without the assistance of its herald.”  Shin now pondered.

“You mean the criminal Shade?” Marshack now wondered.

“Yes, that is correct.”  Shin affirmed, causing everyone to pause for a while, combining their technical knowledge as they attempted to figure this entire thing out.

“…” Silence crept over the room, causing Harry to raise an eyebrow.

“…I believe I have information that may be useful.”  Harry now sounded.  “When enroute, I managed to pick up some moderately anomalous readings… nothing too far outside of the norm, but my awareness did bring the fluctuations to my attention.” Harry explained, moving over to an access terminal and connecting his Data Pad.  “I had originally informed your charge that I was detaining him because of his association with Mr. Talon.”  Harry explained, addressing Lord Almed now.  “But the truth was that I simply wasn’t sure what to do with him.”

“What do you mean?”  Marshack inquired.

“Well…”  Harry started, bringing the battle information from the Tanami battle to their attention.  “If you check the energy readouts coming from Bobby Stryder, you will notice something very… interesting about them.”  Harry continued filtering out the other readings now.  “Now at first, I thought it was because of his odd dissipation technique, since it seemed to be somehow feigning reversion… but when I checked more closely, it seemed to be something even more fundamental.”

“Oh?” Marshack now replied, seeming very intrigue.

“At first glance, I would naturally say that what this youngster has accomplished is in a word: Impossible.  However, I now realise that it is actually only possible; because of the unique construction of his form… this would suggestion a unique Astral composition as well.”  Harry continued.  “I am no Astral Savant, but I would imagine that his presence could well have been the catalyst of this strange event.”  Harry finished.

“And you saw fit to detain the boy?” Cornus inquired.

“Yeah, he’s being held currently in our prison cells… purely for lack of a better means of their safe confinement I assure you.”  Harry affirmed with an all too devious smirk.

“Excellent, we will examine the boy at once.”  Cornus replied, now simply waiting to be escorted to the holding cells.

Harry didn’t bother to comment on his anxiousness, as he could sense that the situation commanded the level of urgency with which it was treated, even if Cornus’ reasons didn’t seem to coincide with those of the other Perfects there.  The trip would be a short one, and within just a few minutes they group of Perfects, led by Harry would find themselves standing outside of the containment fields used to maintain the Rogue prisons.

“Lower the shield Admiral.”  Kyasho requested of Harry, being near instantaneously indulged.

As the shields powered down, the Perfects could use their various senses and scanning techniques to assess the situation, allowing them to come fully to grips with just what was going on.  The situation with Cloud and Leonardo was easily assessed, mirroring the struggle observed in young Xavier Stryke when he first accessed the power of his Guardian energy.  As for Ryuu, he seemed fine, and more annoyed by his capture than anything else.  Nikolai, though fine as well seemed quite bewildered by the entire thing, no doubt due to his limited knowledge of the guardians, destroyers and the legends surrounding the entire thing.  Bobby was somewhere between just fine and overly anxious, eagerly awaiting his release, oblivious as to his part in everything while Roun was the only one of them who seemed to be in a state of absolute incapacitation.

“His ethereal energy has been considerably exhausted… no doubt due to his battle with Teros…”  Maika noted.

“Yes, but that is the least of his problems… his Astral energy is also considerably depleted… and…”  Shin now started, only to be cut off by Cornus.

“This is all wrong…”  Cornus paused.  As a Malaikin, Cornus was very intuned with the natural flow of Itami energies, this made it very easy to distinguish between the Ethereal, Astral and interestingly enough Psychein presence of Itami channelers.  “This is not all of your son… a considerable amount of him was quite… lost…”  Cornus explained, causing Shin to raise an eyebrow.  “What we have here is a very jumbled combination of young son Roun, and the entity known as Archetype.”

“Very interesting…”  Shin said now with a look on intrigue, before Cornus retorted.

“I’m afraid not, this is not good at all.”  Cornus replied, causing Shin to look rather puzzled.  “In this state, he is not only of little use to the world, but he is barely of any use to himself.  His own channelling abilities would have been corrupted by those of Archetype, making it near impossible for him to effect any changes to the ethereal realm around him… and with his Psychic presence fused with that of the Archetype, I’m afraid he would be very confused as to who he even is.”  Cornus explained, causing the others to look around amongst themselves.

“You mean the young Lieutenant Commander will have delusions of being this Archetype character?” Harry now inquired, as he imagined just how difficult it would be to command such a character.

“Not delusions… at this point he is this Archetype character.”  Cornus explained, causing Harry to be inwardly amused as he pondered just how the issue of gender would factor into a channeler with both male and female psychic energies.

“It seems that no one is willing to address the most important question…”  Kyasho now sounded from amidst the perfects.  “We have all acknowledged how important Roun is to this cause, especially since we would need him to awaken the two remaining Junior Guardians…”  Kyasho explained.

“…and to combat the evil that lies sleeping within young Xavier…” Maika added, drawing the group to the almost certainty that the other Senior Destroyer was nestled snugly within Stryke.

“This is very true…” Marshack now added as the reality dawned on him. 

“This brings us back to my original question, how do we fix this?” Kyasho inquired, looking towards Cornus and Shin, the only two among them that openly dabbled in this type of thing.

“Distinguishing the boy from the entity is a relatively simple task for me…”  Cornus started.  “But their separation would be a very technical endeavour.”  He continued.

“And with so much of him destroyed, his existence may be rather… disjointed after the initial separation.”  Shin added.  “Without an entity to supplement him ethereally, astrally and psychically… I don’t think he would be much use to anyone.”  Shin added, drawing a look of amusement to Cornus.

“The boy needs a Malaikin, that’s what he needs.”  He laughed lightly at the entire predicament.

“I’m glad that this amuses you Cornus…”  Kyasho now retorted.  “But the fact remains that we have a problem.”  Kyasho tried to refocus them.

“One of my charges is particularly adept at problem solving, perhaps I should put this to him.”  Marshack suggested, referring to Crydus.

“That may not be entirely necessary.”  Cornus replied.  “A Malaikin would easily solve this problem.”

“As we don’t have access to a Malaikin… I don’t see the usefulness of this suggestion.”  Maika replied now.

Cornus just sighed.  “Someone of my clan would not be necessary for this process, simply a volunteer who would be willing to take on the task of acting as Roun’s guide.”

“Why not just use Ryuu?”  Shin inquired, causing his son to raise an eyebrow from the inside of the holding cell.

“Whoa, hold up!  I don’t remember volunteering for anything here.”  Ryuu now retorted.

“Ryuu would not be suitable, his function is too important to have him handicapped by supporting Roun’s energy.”  Cornus replied, we would need an independent volunteer.

“Hm…”  Kyasho now sounded.  “Marshack, put our predicament to your charge, see what he can come up with.”  He paused allowing Marshack to nod.  “Maximillian, Cornus, I will spread the word and see if we can’t come up with a less pivotal volunteer to return Roun to his previous self.”  He continued.  “We will utilise the fastest method…”

“Until then, I shall keep an eye on Stryke… once that beast within him does not awaken, Roun’s incapacitation should not factor.”  Maika added.

“Very well, then, I will continue to monitor the situation here… once things have stabilised, you have my word that I will release your charges.”  Kyasho finished now, drawing hesitant nods from the others.

Harry would lower the shields, allowing them all to return to their respective bases of operations while Kyasho watched over the situation.