Ability Wielders 66 Annual Gathering

Walking up to Evershifter, he forced his hand on her forehead. Evershifter howled in anger, "You'll never get away from this!"

"Oh, such a whiny b.i.t.c.h!" Juan Tamad rolled his eyes. None of them reacted as they were all used with Juan's antics and personality.

"Sleep." At that moment, the man spoke, not letting Evershifter continue her words. Without a word, the man carried her on his shoulder and got out of the room.

"Okay, let's begin." Rose stomped her foot, the entire room shifted into that of a conference room with two sides, each having eight seats and arranged in a parentheses-like manner. "Let's commence the Annual Gathering, shall we?"

"Ooh, ooh, wait," Juan Tamad rose his hand without a care in the world. "Rose, Rose, can I get something first?"

"What is it?" Rose sighed. She could never intimidate Juan and was the sole person not scared of her.

"My care to this meeting!" Juan Tamad rolled his eyes back to his head to act dead, controlling his body to limp a bit. "These annual gatherings are sooo boring. Why does it always have to be on the 1st Sat.u.r.day of the year? It's a freaking Sat.u.r.day!"

"You know we have to do this, Juan." Rose threw her hands in the air, annoyed of Juan's antics. "You can literally just sit there and shut up."

"Fine, fine!" Juan walked lazily to his table, sitting on the seat he had upside down. Every year, this scene plays out, with Rose too tired to deal or scold Juan.

"First and extreme urgent topic at hand," Rose spoke after letting the other people in the room sit. "The possibility of a mole in our prized Ghost Unit division. Apolaki?"

Coughing, Apolaki stood up. Contrary to his usually fierce and wild personality, he was quite docile today, speaking calmly. "For two days, my Main Branch Division head and I, along with a team of skilled Blue Agents, were searching for probable breaches in our system, and we even checked on the Phantom Watch and other departments… To no avail. We haven't found a single shred of evidence."

"Director Head?" Rose looked at Anthony.

"I have also checked up on the matter." Anthony stood up with a solemn countenance. "As Apolaki said, there is nothing in there. Everything is clean."

"If I may interject?" A blue-haired alluring woman that was part of the Board of Directors spoke, staring at Anthony. Anthony then looked at Rose, who gave the signal for the woman to speak. "If everything is clean, may I propose that we are… Being tricked?"

"Go on." Rose sat on her seat on the side of the Walong Sinag ng Araw. "Continue your theory."

"I mean, look at it," the woman argued. "Daniel was the sole person in the room during the time that he informed Zeke, right? What if our defense system wasn't attacked at all, what if the picture was correct but Daniel was either tricked or was already in control of someone prior to informing his partner? What if this was more of a sabotage than an actual informational attack?"

By the end of her words, she looked at Apolaki straight in the eye with a sly smile. It seemingly contained a hint of mockery and schadenfreude that Apolaki was not at all fond of.

"This is the most feasible answer," Rose nodded. "However, as we don't have anything to use as proof for this, nor do we have any leads, let's move on, shall we?"

"Wait!" Apolaki shouted, his face swelling in anger. "Branch Director Ramirez, are you perhaps questioning the integrity of my agents and my own competence?"

One must know that the Phantom Watch wasn't exclusively managed by any of the upper echelon. It was controlled by the entire upper echelon, with it having subdivisions. A perfect example would be Zeke, a member of the Phantom Watch's Ghost Unit subdivision.

Although there are indeed unaffiliated Phantom Watch members, such as people who 'hunt' information for money, most of the Phantom Watch Blue Agents are under the supervision of a division. Meaning to say, to question a division outside of Phantom Watch was to question said division's Phantom Watch members and Blue Agent team.

"Ooh, good show!" Juan fumbled, causing a scene as he sat, resting his arms on the table with a smile. Noticing that the entirety of the room's spotlight was in him, Juan shrugged, motioning for them to go on. "Go on! What are you waiting for?"

"Oh, what made you think that, Sir Apolaki?" Branch Director Ramirez acted as if she was being maligned, disregarding Juan.

"The two of you…" Rose's gaze turned sharp, her pupils darting back and forth from Apolaki to Ramirez. Abruptly, Rose stood up and extended her right hand as a majestic and wide greatsword materialized in her hand, her eyes becoming that of a lizard's.

The cross-guard was red in color, its grip black, while its hilt was a dragon's head. The blade's edges were golden, appearing to be extremely hot, and from merely looking at it, one would feel the sharpness its edge has.

The aura the greatsword was emitting was enough for both Apolaki and Ramirez to shut up the two people immediately. Their eyes as they looked at the greatsword contained a hint of fear, knowing exactly what this greatsword was capable of.

"Okay, good," Rose smiled, the sword in her hand disappearing. "First, let's see the reports on our divisions."

The first one to stand up was Anthony. After all, all of them were not only leaders, they were also members of Puting Araw, and some of them even being heads of some division or their own organizations, such as Anthony's Grand Hotelier Conglomerate, which was actually expanding internationally.

With that, a few minutes pa.s.sed, the reports of all the people in the room was finished. All this time, Juan was muttering "Boring, boring, boring… Why are these meetings always so boring...?"

"Okay, with that out in the way," Rose's face suddenly contorted in rage. "Daniel Luntiang-Dahon, one of the most talented wielders Puting Araw has seen, has been abducted. Does anybody have any suggestion to pinpoint his location?"

…..

4:00 PM, behind the stage, Hayden just returned from thanking the production staff. Gray greeted him when he entered.

"You did great." Gray shook hands with Hayden again. "Oh, yeah, you should… Probably stay for a few minutes lest you want to encounter the exiting audience. I must inform you that the ticket for your taping sold out within half a minute."

"Thanks for the advice." Hayden chuckled, surprised of the time his ticket sold for. He did not doubt Gray's words as he calculated that 50% of the audience members were… Young ladies, mostly as young as him… It was a strange sight as most women still did not care all that much for games, though it was much better than back in the old days when most women, although not hated, wasn't fond of video games altogether.

Making another round of small talk, Gray finally let Hayden go for the price of a communication link. Sighing, Hayden was exhausted from all the talking and attempting to answer the questions with the right amount of seriousness and entertainment. 'Boy, that is more exhausting than fighting that Haetae and Christopher back in South Korea."

That was when he encountered Richard, who he was held-up by again due to small talks. 'I'm starting to remember one of the reasons I became an introvert…'

Smiling politely and bidding goodbyes, Hayden went along his way, returning to the waiting room to get his backpack. Inside was Maria in her red dress, a coffee in her hand. As Hayden was too exhausted to deal with her, and as he didn't know her one bit, Hayden completely overlooked her. He took his backpack to the men's changing room and changed back to his motorcycle attire.

"You're really going to ignore me and leave just like that?" Maria put down her coffee cup in annoyance as she witnessed Hayden on the verge of exiting. "I stayed here for you and you don't strike up a conversation with me?"

"Excuse me?" Hayden shook his head, turning back to face Maria. He wore a confused expression that contained a hint of exasperation. He was literally too tired to act kind anymore, hence, he became his usual unsociable persona. Calmly, Hayden narrated, his eyes radiating coldness. "First, I don't know you. Second, a man the one to initiate a conversation is commonplace, but doesn't mean that it's supposed to always be the case. Third, I'm here for the taping of the show, and not to pick up women. Lastly, and I cannot emphasize this enough, I don't know you."

On that note, Hayden took a deep breath and faintly smiled, "Now, excuse me, goodbye to you, Ms. Maria. I hope the next time I run into you, you're in a better mood."

Without giving Maria a chance to retort, Hayden exited the room with a nonchalant face. He darted straight for the elevator.

Inside the waiting room, Maria gulped, her face scarlet in color. "…Did I… Just get rejected…? Him? Reject… Me!?"

…..

The second Hayden exited the elevator, he saw streams of people exiting that were the audience of his taping. One fan noticed Hayden and started screaming, provoking the others to look at the fan then towards the direction she was eyeing.

One after another, the audience members of his taping began to notice him, with some taking pictures with their phones. Hayden smiled plainly to the fans, nodding respectfully.

A few seconds pa.s.sed, the people rushed towards him. Out of nowhere, guards seemingly appeared out of nowhere, ten of them, dumbfounding Hayden a little.

Leisurely and hurriedly at the same time, Hayden walked to the direction of the bas.e.m.e.nt parking lot, smiling for pictures on the way. "Thank you for attending, thank you for the support, thank you."

Saying those final words, Hayden went to his motorcycle and rode out of the Global Gaming Channel Hub and returned to his house. On the way, Eun-ha called him from Maharlika Hall as they were checking things for the fansign next Sat.u.r.day. Connecting the helmet's sound system to the bike's phone connection, Hayden answered the call.

Yes, concurrent bike helmets have HUDs, sound system within, a mic, and even holds connection to the internet. This connection to the internet also applied for the motorcycle and is connected to the biker's phone when it is unlocked using phones as all locks on any vehicle had Ident.i.ty Numbers for a key.

"h.e.l.lo Gonjunim." Hayden greeted enthusiastically as he activated Divine Perception as he didn't want to be involved in a road accident. It's better safe than sorry. "You guys on a break?"

"Yeah," Eun-ha's voice rang out within the helmet. "How did the interview go, honey?"

"It was good." Hayden answered, breathing out heavily. "Kind of exhausting to be honest. If I have a choice, I won't do that again…"

"Well, you can always turn it down," Eun-ha said with a matter-of-factly voice. "You won't get the benefits, but at least you won't get exhausted."

"No, it's okay," Hayden sighed, stopping at a red light. "I mean… I won't get to face challenges in combat anytime soon that actually wouldn't get me killed… I guess honing my social skills isn't that bad…"

Eun-ha chuckled, oddly finding Hayden's words adorable. Hayden continued, "Anyhow, I can't possibly stop even if I wanted to anyways. It helps my career to appear in public, plus, I have many plans for the future that is necessary for me to constantly appear in public."

"Out of curiosity," Eun-ha spoke. "Am I part of that future?"

"Certainly," Hayden spoke calmly. "Is that a necessary question? You're part of everything I planned… To tell you the truth, I've been planning our big reveal as well..."

"You're planning that far ahead?" Eun-ha felt a peculiar warm feeling rising up within her heart. It was strange how she had these sort of feelings when this wasn't particularly something to feel those kind of emotions. "How do you plan it?"

"Well, it's gradual," Hayden talked, starting back the bike and drove as the light turned green. "You know, I will appear at the fansign, people will naturally notice me in there, we take pictures, perhaps the fans will tease us, that's something we can't control, I get personal pictures with you all, I post a selfie of you and me, then, that's where our, quote unquote, friendship starts."

"Natural," Eun-ha laughed. "I like that plan."

Without a warning, Sayuri snuck up on her, s.n.a.t.c.hing the phone from her hands. "Hayden-ah? Can you hear me?"

"Sayuri-noona?" Hayden was speechless. "What's happening, what happened with Eun-hnoona?"

"Don't worry about her!" In that instance, shrill laughter and scream sounded out. "Hayden-ah, how are you doing?"

"I-I'm good…" Hayden chuckled at the antics of these two best friends. "What is happening there?"

"Oh, not like you don't know what's happening," Sayuri t.i.ttered, teasing Hayden. On the other side, Sayuri was running, with Eun-ha chasing her.

"Give me my phone back!" Eun-ha had an enraged expression. "Sayuri- noona, this is the last time…"

"Ahh, scary!" Rotating her head, Sayuri shrieked. On the other side, Hayden was chortling as he drove. "Hayden-ah, your girlfriend is so scary!"

At the edge of her temper, Eun-ha surveyed her surroundings and knowing that there were solely CHORUS members within the room, she disappeared, acquiring the phone from Sayuri's hands. Her phone on her right hand, she raised her left hand and pointed at Sayuri, her face black with rage.

"I'm sorry about that," Eun-ha sighed as she put her phone back up against her ear whilst staring sharply towards Sayuri, who was pretending to be terrified by placing her hands to block Eun-ha's stare and cowering.

Precipitously, their manager came in and said that they'll be leaving to go back to the hotel in 10 minutes. "I guess I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, sure," Hayden responded. "Can't wait to spend more time with you."

"Me too. Bye, honey." Bidding their goodbyes and whispering sweet nothings to each other, Eun-ha hung up. "You…"

Sayuri shrieked, playfully dashing away as Eun-ha chased her. The other members merely watched, amus.e.m.e.nt evident on their face. A few seconds later, Eun-ha caught up with Sayuri, tackling her and tickling her on the stomach.

"Okay, okay, that's enough." Unable to watch any longer, Jin-ae broke the two's energetic scuffling. "We're going to leave soon. You guys go prepare."

…..

5:30 PM, Zamboanga City, Calarian, Camp General Basilio Navarro. Due to the dispersion of all the military forces in the world, as well as the peace agreements, the camp was regarded as generally useless. It remained standing as it was one of the stockpiles of military weapons that cannot be used and served as one of the bases protected by the Defense Force as well as one of the training camps for upcoming Filipino Defense Force members.

Howbeit, secretly, Camp General Basilio Navarro is, in point of fact, used as one of the operating intelligence bases of the Triple A and with that, holds a permit from the World Government to use military-grade weapons and military vehicles, including tanks, to respond during attacks.

Needless to say, all military camps that are not used, were all demolished, with all countries possessing, at most, five military camps, disregarding the size. If a country is found out by the World Government to have some sort of secret laboratory or military camp, they will be kicked out from the World Government no matter their position and would be simultaneously attacked by all the countries, seized by the World Government to become a neutral area.

Other than being a military camp, as one of the bases of the Triple A and being part of the Philippines' national security, the camp cannot be touched by the World Government. Plus, no matter what, a country as small, vulnerable, yet powerful country such as the Philippines would need such a tight national defense.

Meanwhile, the military camp, alike all military camps in the country, is coordinated with the police and would respond in situations that require higher-skilled people with superior equipment, such as a terrorist attack, or raiding a terrorist camp. The same applied to all military camps in the world.

The day in the military camp was akin to any other day, silent and firmly defended. Seven troops of vehicles consisting of a single reconnaissance vehicle, three light military utility vehicles, and ten ATVs were roaming all around the base.

One might say that this was overkill, however, as one of the top-secret bases in the world, it wasn't at all. In fact, there were Defense Force soldiers stationed at the tank storage units as well as hangars 24/7 to be prepared for any situation that may occur.

Take note that all Defense Force soldiers are elite in that they can drive anything, with the sole exclusion being the fighter-jets as not all people have the apt.i.tude to drive such a high-speed aerial vehicle, especially the modern ones, which has top speeds of Mach 6, with the most specialized one topping at Mach 8.

On that time of the day, a black hole appeared in the middle of the concrete road, intercepting one of the troops.

"Reporting to base," the entire troop stopped, with the man at the pa.s.senger seat of the reconnaissance vehicle talking to the communicator he had at hand. "A black anomalous hole has appeared in our path."

"Copy that." A man's voice rang out from the communicator. "Roaming Troop Charlie, please repeat what you have said."

"A black anomalous hole has appeared in our path." The man repeated.

"Please take a picture."

"Taking a picture…" With that, the man pressed a b.u.t.ton on the interface of the vehicle, which sent in a picture to the base.

A few seconds pa.s.sed prior to the man replying with, "Surround the black hole and deploy origami shields. Standby and carefully monitor the situation. Proceed with caution."

"Copy that." With that, the man sent out the message 'Surround, Deploy, and Caution' to all of the troop members of Roaming Troop Charlie's Communicators.

Alighting all of their respective vehicles, the Roaming Troop Charlie's members efficiently surrounded the black hole and put a black sheet on the ground. Subsequently, pressing a b.u.t.ton, the black sheet bubbled up, creating a black bullet cover made of military-grade Shojin Steel that possessed molecules that were arranged in a hexagon pattern, further enhancing its strength but isn't as strong as graphene due to its lacking covalent bonds that graphene has.

The formation of the covers was such that it covered all directions, 10 meters from the black hole, and with most of the open side being on the part where the reconnaissance vehicle was obstructed. All in all, there were 14 covers, two people on each barrier, and two operating the reconnaissance vehicle, one for the communicator and weapons, and one for driving, adding to 30 people.

Few minutes pa.s.sed, nothing happened. As the man inside the reconnaissance vehicle was about to report of the situation to the base, two people emerged from the hole. These two people were Crimson Enchantress and Daniel, who was out of his Puting Araw uniform.

…..

RWL, Category – Agriculture: With the technological evolution of DNA modification, most crops of today were modified to possess three common qualities, faster growth, better nutrients, and produce larger yields. Meanwhile, some of the crops were also modified in taste and shape, all belonging from the greatest minds of the Philippines' Department of Agriculture during Ethan Puting-Ilaw's presidency terms. Contemporaneously, fruits and vegetables has a wider spectrum of taste, with some possessing savory flavors yet still being fruity, with some possessing a sweet taste while being bitter at the same time, kind of like dark chocolate, with some tasting like milk and actually possess the nutrients that milk contain, and some has largely different tastes all together despite their shapes. One of the most popular fruit in the world is the Chocolate Banana, which is literally a regular banana that possess hints of chocolate-flavor, popular not only for its taste, but also for its compatibility with ice cream. Another of such example is the Meat-Plant modified from the Broccoli species of plants, and as its name suggests, it possesses the nutrients that Broccoli would have, yet tastes like fried pork chops when sautéed, and, oddly enough, roasted beef when stewed. Concurrently, there are tens of thousands of agricultural GMOs in the world, with most of them grown in the Philippines' multi-layered underground agricultural facilities.

Additional Lore: Rice from the Banaue Rice Terraces has all been removed back in 2028 and remained untouched for two years. By 2030, it was all replanted with the all-new Crimson-Grained Rice that is incredibly healthy and nutrient-rich, with it being equally packed with protein and carbohydrates, also being packed with some amount of iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and pota.s.sium. Regardless of all of these, Crimson-Grained Rice still had the taste of rice, becoming popular to health-addicts. Monopoly of the Crimson-Grained Rice and its many varieties is one of the main causes of how the Philippines became incredibly rich and attained its status in the World Government. This is also how the Philippines solved part of the world hunger as the Crimson-Grained Rice plant grew fast, yielding crops at a mere three months but still yielding 50% more than the amount than a regular rice plant will yield. In 2040, the Philippines became even richer due to its famed Crimson-Grained Rice being returned to regular-colored rice yet its attractive qualities remaining, solving the 'unattractiveness' to its buyers. Of course, Crimson-Grained Rice is still widely sold, albeit, at a lower volume as regular-colored rice are more commercially attractive to people. As a result, the Crimson-Grained Rice was purged, and as a memento, the Philippine Department of Agriculture and the Philippine Government declared the Banaue Rice Terraces' Crimson-Grained Rice's plants as a national treasure, disallowing people from planting other stuff than Crimson-Grained Rice plants on it. In 2058, the Crimson-Grained Rice is now only a sole product of the Banaue Rice Terraces, with most people buying it just for the sake of nostalgia and because they were used to its color, saying that the taste of Crimson-Grained Rice is better than the regular-colored ones.

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