Flashback :: High Priority Target

[Michio Tribe]

The Great Destroyer sat in the Command Chair at the end of the board room table of COER (name subject to change), an all white room with segmented panels outlining the walls, floor and ceiling. He was topless as normal, scars covering his flesh of different depths, consistencies, trails and colors, with an ornamental kilt covering his waist. Despite the glossy look to the surrounding wall panels, ceiling and floor, Kham couldn't help but feel this place looked too much like an asylum. And the more he looked at the patterns, the hexagonal shape of the wall tiles, the more they began to shift like those spyglass toys the children of Neovia play with. He was leering intently at nothing at all while his mind repeated the events of Neovia's youth in his brain. COER's job was to secure a place for all of them to settle, and The Destroyer's long life yielded him a very faulty memory. Who would have thought the perfect place for a band of refugees, homeless due to the Heralds arrogant wrath would be in the belly of some his greatest enemies? The Spider Queendom, The Dragon Clan, and all sorts of rogues and vagabonds of whom he crossed paths with during his mercenary days. Regardless this land was relinquished to them by the Acolytes, already paid for by the blood of the Atlanteans, they would defend it. Even if he had to give his own life. He let out a heavy sigh and placed his hand on the transparent board room table, the room around him illuminated with a soft pulse of blue and the panels grew transparent, one by one they revealed where COERS command center was, and Kham was a sucker for a good view. It was buried in the Quarter for Technological Advancement, near the Frozen Wastes in the mountains that align with the Alps of Chaos, near the peaks. And in Vescrutia's evening hours, you could see the twin suns set on the horizon accented by the mysterious sphere Lumin drowning the command center in a color palate of unprecedented light. Kham loved it, the collection of photos cloaked all else in shadow as he rotated his chair toward the total now completely transparent chamber, the Board room looked like it was suspended in air. He always had to thank Cross for her taste in Aesthetic. just think this but all white floor, and the vescrutia background described above where the Illusive Man is seated.

With a deep breath Kham settled into his high backed Command Chair, there was no relaxing in this thing. All designed to make him seem that much more imposing, so he let his head relax on his left hands knuckles and took in the view while he awaited the arrival of his most trusted friends, recruits, and some of the most powerful warriors on the planet. It was time to begin a network of assassinations that would render Neovia uncontested in the near future. The team he was building was perfect for the job. Atra, descendant of the Shadow Boxer, Cross who's skills and talents continued to surprise him, and a young girl who washed up in Vescrutias hospital bearing a Michio Naten imprint. Instantly Kham sought council with those who's knowledge superseded his own. The Dhvani, the ancient beast of Vescrutia and the Child of Genesis, Gaia. They revealed to him the nature of the Icarus pact. The binding of immortal dragons to human form, and purported that Savaj was the last of their divine kind. It was only right that Savaj knew her place in this world, lest she be dragged along for years like Gaia did to him. But there was a darkness in her... he had encountered it during their many training sessions. Like all of Kham's proteges he had put Savaj through the a crucible of painstaking tasks of mind body and spirit. Savaj had frightening potential sure, but the trauma he experienced in her life appeared to take root deep within her spirit. Kham didn't have all the answers on how to quell this darkness, sate this inner draconic fury and was, for the first time in his life, afraid on how she would react to being told that His people, assassinated hers, and bound them to this frail state. And considering her admittedly frightening potential it was best to keep her an ally than a foe.

He huffed a sigh... and let the light wash over his face. He would tell her anyway. It was the right thing to do. As he told Atra from whence he came, as Gaia told him his purpose. He would tell her.

[Savaj Vanguard]

-Savvy arrived in a blister of colorless energy with her tired eyes hidden behind black, tinted shades. Her hands were tucked in her Neovian jacket pockets as she wearily swayed passed Kham and over to the chair opposing Lumin’s celestial blaze.

“Can we please.. do without the sun today?”

-She groaned, folding her arms on the table into a nest for her aching headschd. The odor of hops on her breath and smoke in her locs suggested she was getting over a bender.. the vomit stain on her tactical pants suggested she failing.-

[Atra Luminoso]

"I see you're adjusting to Neovia nicely Savaj."

Came a voice from nowhere, in tandem with a pat on Savaj's shoulder. Atra melded into the space from the ground up and strode past Savaj in a seat a few chairs down from her. He wore no shoes, his off bronze skin had jagged toe nails connected to calloused feet which were attached to terribly toned legs that lie hidden under black flowing pants. Atra enjoyed the finer things in life, and despite Cross' badgering that he try some of her armor suits, Atra just wore silk pants and a silk white shirt. His braid fell down the back of his head and rested slightly above his lower back with his horns thrust aggressively upward toward the transparent ceiling which showed nothing but the dueling moons of Vescrutia emerging, to begin their evening shift.

"And you even made it on time before any of us. Highly functional."

He said as he took his head. While Drink and the carnal pleasures of man were not Atra's chosen vice, he could only imagine, considering what she'd been through, the need to keep her racing thoughts sedated and silent as possible. The obvious sarcasm bled through Atra's words like a hemorrhaging wound. He didn't care to judge Savaj's past times. But he was hoping Kham would get a rise out of her slight lack of professionalism.

[Michio Tribe]

Kham snorted, his modes of sensory perception were so finely tuned during his time as a starving wild youth that he couldn't help be overcome by Atra's floral scents, and Savaj's chosen fragrances. Atra was covered in lilacs, lavenders, and the slight dust of aged tomes and scrolls. Savaj on the other hand had toked on something even the likes of his cousin, Kendyl would be jealous of, and he never partook in street smoke. It was just a passive analysis of the room. The blessings of the Dhvani were equally curses. Nonetheless Kham could care less what his soldiers did on their off time, so long as they were focused when they arrived. And that they arrived on time. These two were always here. Their punctuality spoke volumes for their priorities. But of course, they were minus one.

"We wait on Cross."

He spoke with his back turned to the group. Like always. Cross was always late, or just never showed up in person to these things. Kham couldn't tell if it was just out of complete disrespect or if she just didn't care. Like Savaj, Cross insisted on her own space to operate on her own terms which he begrudgingly granted despite the number of times Kham saved the latter's life. He never counted favors. Just wanted respect in return, and Cross' math never added up in that area. Kham sat for a moment later. Letting the light of Lumin flood the room, but he couldn't even enjoy it while he waited. And he hated waiting. He stood up from his chair and strode over to the table, not eve regarding Atra or Savaj's presence. He pressed his hand on the translucent table and summoned Cross' AI- Pandora.

"Where's the fuck is she."

He mumbled under his breath.

[Savaj Vanguard]

“..yep..”

-She said rubbing the crust from her eyes as Kham aggressively paced across the room. She sank her back into her chair after Atra melded his soft hands unto her shoulder. His gnarly appearance was majestic as hell, but his horns and bizarre features didn’t surprise her as much his Eden like aroma.-

“.. y’all be up mah ass everytime I’m late tah’ anything, so here I am. Brigh’ and early..”

-She said sarcastically as she took her locs down to scratch them freely and massage her head. Cross was among a few people Savaj considered to be a friend but this headache was ripping her scalp down the middle and making anybody around her a target in the process.-

“How can she be late all tha’ time? Don’t she live hea’?”

[Cross]

Kham's touch elicited a breath from the room, the hexagonal panels on the wall expanded and contracted, drawing lines across the beautiful scenery whilst changing the view from Lumin on the horizon to a deep, dark, and empty space- a view inside Cross' lab. Which was as it appeared, sections of the lab appeared and disappeared at Cross' own will, just to eliminate the clutter. But for some reason she just liked the silent emptiness of a totally malleable room, and the aesthetic of a big black empty space. Her voice rang out from the void, sounding like radio play in the office of COER, Neovia's elites. But in the midst of her office she was screaming over the sounds of her latest machinations.

"I'm not a roadie, I don't go out in the field. I'm busy."

Cross' own words were intermixed with the sound of crash's and booms in the dark, as Kham's viewfinder found her, Cross was undoubtedly working on something. Her back was to the viewfinder, the visuals broadcast across the walls of the board room. Cross was in a red jacket with blue pulses of naten glistening through. Her long wiery blue hair draped down her back to her waist, everything beneath wasn't clothed in the least bit. She was in her house after all.

"Pan the camera up Pandora! This is my fucking house!"

It was more of an order to the AI, than to Kham's wandering eyes. She didn't think he wouldn't care, he'd probably seen more T&A that a planet of whores, doesn't mean she didn't want her privacy. And did Atra even have sex? So the camera cut off at her waist. It was impossible to see what she was working on, but by the cadences of explosions of exhaust coming form it. It wasn't going well.

"I really hope this couldn't have been a mental message, or an email."

[Atra Luminoso]

"Do you want some water? Some Coffee perhaps?"

Atra whispered to Savaj among Cross' rantings and ravings. He was highly sensitive to emotions, though he rarely displayed them on his own, he could sense Kham was fuming like a smoldering volcano. The situation in the field was very dire, for people of our power. And this was the wrong time for Cross to lack sympathy.

[Savaj Vanguard]

-Just the mention of any type of ingestible substance made Savvy gag in disgust. Right now her belly was a toxic cocktail of flammable compounds ready to assault her insides from every angle and opening she had.. She was just barely fending them off, water would break the dam.

Her breathing was steady but Atra probably felt the lather of sweat drenching through her thin parka.-

“..Nah’, I’m straight on all liquids for tha’ day.”

-Yet she chattered on through Cross’ cadence of obnoxiously loud churning gears and teeth numbing explosions that should have sent Savvy over the edge and into a melodramatic fit. But thanks to her covert ear pieces, a steady stream rhythmic melodies was defeaning her ringing hangover along with the warzone like frequencies booming from the speakers.

“..sides’, I dance betta’ when I’m fucked up..”

-She kindled her soft words with a charming smirk after adjusting her shades and tucking her hands into her jacket. When she was sure Kham or Cross weren’t looking, she turned to Atra and playfully flashed him the star shaped tab of hallucinogenics already melting into her tongue. She liked to cut loose whenever she was assigned to a mission mid hangover and opioids helped drown everything else out. Pain, exhaustion, depress— blah blah all of it was suppressed beneath this cloud like trance. It helped her think, it helped her work.. it helped.-

[Michio Tribe]

Kham took a very deep breath, and let out an even longer exhale that manifested as more of as silent roar and a low grumble, the quaking of tectonic plates, the growl of a standoffish beast insulted. He attempted to center himself, and lower his temper. Practice the breathing exercises entrusted to him long ago by the Dhvani. He wasn't likely to get upset. Irritated? Sure. His long life rewarded him that luxury, as mankind annoyed the shit out of him. But anger was a rare emotion that he considered irrational, and was only advantageous to your enemy. Except for a few rare cases in combat. Kham burrowed his palms in his eyes and let his hands droop down his face. It was hard being a commander to this lot, they each had such strong personalities and bucked in the presence of authority. So tenderly did The Destroyer tread the line, let them have their own space, trusting that their belief in Neovias cause would eventually rally them here when needed. But there were times like these. Times when Kham just couldn't take it anymore. He had it with this. The index finger on his right hand sharpened into a white crystalline consistency, he wrote a series of glyphs upon the table and mumbled something under his breath.

"Sight."

Is all he said, and the board room merged with his Cosmic Awareness. The view Cross' office shrunk to the size of a home television while the rest of the panels along the wall changed shape to show a variety of different scenes.

"I would not call upon any of you if I did not need your assistance. Kayla Niyotomi, the only one who the Amazons, the Lila Maya have accepted is helping them fight a war against the Spider Queendom. A war I will reinforce personally.”

And the screens showed the scene well. The Destroyer's daughter, one of them anyway. With jet black hair, fair skin and a beautifully athletic figure, hand sculpted by Kham was fending off giant insects along side a band of Neovia's peculiar warrior women of the forest. Naturally she could sense she was being observed, she looked back over her shoulder and smiled to the source of 'omniscient energy' that had to be her father. She even gave Kham a nod. The sentiment made Kham smile a bit almost choke upon a tear. It was her first time in the field solo, and she was creating great works of artistic destruction that warmed his heart. It even relaxed him as Kayla drove her knife hand through the face of some terrifying insectoid.

"T'ajsa, is reversing unnatural disasters in the desert with my cousins, the Centaurs."

And the scene was shown. Of a girl of smaller stature, with a hair of fiery red using her mastery of earth to stop sinkholes that swallowed horse-human hybrids in the Crimson Southwest. T'ajsa always insisted on going with her sister Kayla, or with her uncle Kenny and it pained Kham greatly to separate the two of them.

"Kendyl is currently trying to convince the oldest tree on the planet to reveal to us the location of the other 139 Obelisks so we can stop the dragon clan, and their supporters from destroying them and hastening the arrival of the horseman, and Atra is high counselor. To send him in the field, on a mission from COER would elicit panic from the masses. Which only leaves you and Savaj.”

With another breath, he chose his next few words carefully.

“You three are the biggest batch of divas I’ve ever met. And this is my fault, I instilled this hubris in you. This unmitigated arrogance. But your brothers and sisters are out there risking their lives, and you, Cross, hesitate? Why do you all insist on acting like CHILDREN!?“

He hoped this would be enough of a 'please' than actually saying the words. If Cross required more convincing, Kham would just adjourn the meeting and handle all of this himself. He could clone himself sure, but he hated doing it. It split his mind and his power among them, and required Gaia to micromanage too many superpowers entities. It was a trump card he kept very close to the chest.

[Atra Luminoso]

Atra returned the smirk, and turned toward the visual display Kham was showing of the front line. Honestly it put him at ease knowing that there was at least one of them that didn't prefer social isolation and could meld in with the masses. Despite what Savaj was capable of, she could be really friendly. But his sense of admiration for Savaj's socialite behavior was quickly dismissed by the sight of Kayla fighting white knuckled against an army of insectoids, and TJ... poor TJ, forced to be separate from her siblings in blood and arms. Atra felt guilty being high counselor, he preferred to be in the field laying waste to masses, bathing in blood, with his mind operating at top speed. But this, this is where he felt he should be. This was his battle. He thought Cross knew this too, why was she acting like a jackass? Every moment they stalled, could mean death for their brothers and sisters in arms. Then again, it was just years ago when Atra was in this place. Hubris described it lightly, everyone in here, had a chip on their shoulder the size of mountains. Their origins was the foundation, and surviving Kham's rigorous training was training was zenith. They were legends. But hearing that Kham planned to go in the field piqued his interest. It felt like forever since he had seen him fight. It was a shame he didn't get to witness it personally.