Halfway across the world however, a storm was brewing. While Shin and Naomi researched Terra’s many ancient phenomena, two of the Lehomik Millitary Alliance’s youngest mercenaries were investigating its newest. While Jayce distracted the rest of the campus with his raucous exhibition of strength, these two quietly infiltrated one of the most secure areas of the illustrious campus.

“So Kiara, what can you tell me about this place that I don’t already know?” Xavier inquired as the two made their way towards the campus’ Historical Sector.

“For starters, despite the lacklustre appearance, this place is fortified to the teeth.” She replied. “I’d say it’s on par with military outposts in terms of structural reinforcements and security is almost as tight.”

“Great.” Xavier scoffed. “Do you think that infiltrating it will be dangerous?” He inquired, but Kiara just shook her head.

“I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but I didn’t see any signs of weaponised defense systems.” She explained. “Just a ton of trip-wires and alarm systems.”

“That’s not too bad then.” Xavier replied with a smug smirk, turning his attention now towards the blackening sky. “Still, we should hurry.”

“Yeah, whatever your friend is up to it seems to be triggering the early stages of a cataclysm.” Kiara replied, worry slowly creeping into her voice.

“Yeah, I noticed.” Xavier nodded. “I guess we should get rid of these traps then.”

With this, he motioned for Kiara to stay back while he powered up his form to full. His subordinate watched now as Xavier’s energy began to leak from his body. Unlike Roun, whose energy tended to manifest as a flame, Xavier’s energy exhibited a strong electrical affinity. This caused it to cling to his body, rather than bleed off, arcing from point to point as it danced frantically along his skin. With a light smirk, he channeled this energy towards his fingertips, statically charging them before using it to pull his wild, spiky mullet into a slicker, straight style.

“Alright.” He muttered to himself before exhaling deeply and getting down on a single knee.

Next, Xavier rested his palms on the ground and allowed his energy to bleed into the earth below. Despite its electrical appearance, Xavier’s levin was not truly electrical. Evidence of this fact came from its ability to be channeled through the earth with such ease. As he did this, his ability provided him with feedback, granting him a vague idea of the various systems hidden underground, within the walls and inside the floors of the Historic Section’s recently rebuilt buildings.

“I’m sensing over twenty separate biometric sensors scattered through the area and an array of DMZs on the inside.” Xavier explained to Kiara.

“Can you disable the trip-wires?” She inquired, causing him to nod.

“That’s the easy part, but the DMZs are dissipating my levin before it gets close enough to shut them down.” He continued.

Kiara just laughed lightly.

“That’s expected I suppose. You’ll just have to shut them down the hard way I guess.” She replied with a smile, but Xavier just scoffed.

“Yeah.” This reply was accompanied by a light growl. “You stay here and keep watch here while I do that.”

With this, a more powerful surge of levin escaped Xavier’s palms, coursing through the earth and detonating around the various early detection systems that had been designed to warn Xess of incoming intruders.

Less than a kilometre away, Xess McLeod’s data comm began beeping frantically in an attempt to alert him to the fact that his alarm systems had been disabled. Unfortunately, thanks to Jayce’s efforts, he was otherwise engaged. Knowing this, Xavier smirked as he entered the previously guarded facility, closing in on his coveted prize.

“How are things looking in there Xavier?” Kiara inquired over the secure communication link between the two Lehomik mercenaries.

“On the outside it’s pretty unassuming, but you can feel the difference once you get close…” He started, continuing deeper into the building that had once housed lecture theatres and old libraries.

Despite their historic architecture, these new structures had been fashioned into a state of the art research facility under the auspices of the Merricent Academy of Science and overseen by Professor Xess McLeod. Where chairs and desks once sat, powerful sensor arrays now stood, tapping into a secure stream of demilitarized zeta to power their extremely intensive scans. These massive systems, which stood almost ten metres tall and lined the walls of the rather large building, focused their efforts on a single shimmering point in the middle of the large, open-plan room.

“And what do we have here…” Xavier’s lips parted, revealing an uncharacteristic smile as he closed in on the odd phenomenon at the centre of all the equipment.

As he moved closer, an all too familiar sensation washed over his body. As expected, he soon found himself forcefully reverted to an unpowered-up state, under the influence of the complex array of DMZ generators that he had sensed earlier. His narrow smile grew into a broad grin.

“No wonder I couldn’t get any conclusive readings on this place with my earlier scans.” He stated with amusement as he closed in on the so-called ‘gaea pocket’ that he’d been investigating for so long. “I’m guessing McLeod must’ve been using these to suppress the energy leaking from this thing.” He smirked. “Pretty smart, I’ll admit.”

“—but not smart enough to keep the anomaly from your keen senses, right Xavier?” A strange voice drew the youngster’s attention away from the odd spatial distortion at the centre of the room and towards the other side where an equally anomalous sight now greeted him.

Xavier’s puzzled gaze was met by a light chuckle as he fixed his vision on a humanoid figure, which bathed that side of the room in green light.

“Today’s shaping up to be a very interesting day.” Xavier’s grin narrowed slightly as he scanned the odd figure up and down.

“What’s going on X?” Kiara inquired, but her superior officer quickly dismissed her.

“I’m just getting some… interesting data.” He replied with feigned nonchalance. “Just keep an eye on my six and make sure no one sneaks up on me.”

“Will do, X.” Kiara affirmed. “I’ve got you covered.”

With this, Xavier muted the microphone on his end of the communication link and turned his attention back to the odd, luminous figure. Unfortunately, his feigned nonchalance failed to mask his mounting intrigue, drawing a slightly louder chuckle from the glowing figure.

“I don’t know what you are, but I assume your presence here has something to do with the ‘gaea pocket’, am I right?” He inquired, fixing his gaze on the strange entity as he tried to decipher the nature of his energy signature.

“You trying to figure me out, X?” The entity, which seemed decided male, inquired.

“I thought that’d go without saying.” Xavier replied, his amusement slowly fading as his intrigue built. “You’re clearly a channeler—I can tell that just by looking at you—but your energy signature’s unlike anything I’ve felt before. And the fact that you can remain powered up in a room like this one speaks to the fact that there’s something not quite right with you.”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d say ‘not quite right’ but I’m certainly not your run-of-the-mill channeler.” The man replied, his obscured face contorting into what Xavier could only assume to be a smile. “But then again, neither are you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about punk.” Xavier dismissed the statement, as his intrigue shifted slowly into apprehension.

Unfortunately, the strange entity just seemed to ignore his coy statement.

“I’ve gotta admit though, I’m a bit disappointed in you and Jayce for going this far just to access the pocket.” The strange man spoke once more. “With you Lehomik mercenaries being so well known for discretion and Jayce’s penchance for stealth, I’d at least hoped that you two would be able to reach this point without alerting half of the school.”

“Disappointed?” Xavier chuckled lightly. “I wasn’t aware that either me or Falco had a secret admirer.”

“Cut the tough guy act, X.” The man roared. “What are you two really thinking, pulling a stunt like this?”

“You’re the one who should cut the act.” Xavier retorted sharply now. “It took me a while to figure it out, but based on the way you’re talking it’s clear that way know each other. So why don’t you drop the disguise and show me who you really are.”

“I don’t think so. That’s a privilege that you haven’t yet earned.” He replied with light amusement. “I’m not just disappointed, but the fact that accessing this place was such a difficult task for both the Khaaos and Dias hosts is honestly pretty disconcerting.” The luminous figure just shook his head. “I told Geon that you three simply weren’t ready yet… and this latest stunt only proves my point.”

Xavier just looked on with puzzlement at the odd figure for a brief moment before he began putting all of the pieces of their conversation together. Despite the strange entity’s abilities, the way he spoke had already given away a few facts about his identity. His speech patterns and choice of vocabulary suggested that he was a young man; likely very close in age to both Xavier and Jayce – who he seemed familiar with. Given that these two young men were widely recognised as the most powerful channelers in their age group suggested that this young man’s chanelling prowess did not match theirs. Yet, he seemed to possess the ability to completely negate the effects of multiple devices specifically designed to suppress the abilities of channelers. When coupled with the fact that he knew of Xavier’s and Jayce’s roles as guardian hosts, there could only be one explanation.

“So, you’re the Geon host then?” Xavier’s eyebrow shot upwards. “It’s about time you showed up.”

“There’s that genius intellect of yours.” The young man’s distorted features seemed to shift into a smug smile once more.

“When did your guardian awaken boy?” Xavier questioned further, but the young man just smirked once more.

“Long before yours did, for sure.” He replied. “I was the first; lying in wait for the rest of you to catch up to me – and honestly, I’m still waiting…”

Xavier growled at the Geon host’s arrogance.

“—but Teros has shown his hand, so I can’t afford to wait much longer.” He sighed. “It’s time that we get to work.”

“I don’t know where you’ve been punk, but Jayce and I have been at work… while you hid in the shadows and observed, we’ve been monitoring the haima’sa and working to access the pocket.” Xavier scoffed.

“Yeah yeah, I’ve followed your work; stalking kids and threatening others who’d do the same.” The Geon host replied with mild amusement. “But while you two were fixating on transient threats like the haima’sa, I’ve been keeping track of the real enemy.”

“Teros?” Xavier scoffed loudly at the assertion. “He’s barely a threat at this point. Last I heard, the Itami dispatched him on his own, without even accessing Synchros’ full power. The so-called ‘beast’ hasn’t been seen since.”

“He hadn’t been seen… until recently.” The Geon host countered. “I sensed him when he rematerialize a few days ago.”

“Where?” Xavier inquired with mounting scepticism.

“Usiles’ drowned province if Geon’s senses are to be trusted.” He replied. “And he was accompanied by some strange distortions that I couldn’t make out.”

His reply caused Xavier’s eyebrow to tip upwards slowly.

“I know these guardians have impressive powers—” Xavier started as he scanned the Geon host up and down. “But do you really expect me to believe that as a braver, it allows you to sense energy from so far away?”

The Geon host just scoffed at Xavier disbelief.

“Khaaos really hasn’t told you anything, has she?” The young man shook his head. “These guardian spirits are atuned to Teros’ corruption, if you were more intuned with Khaaos you’d also be able to sense Teros’ movements.” He sighed heavily, while Xavier’s eyebrow tipped back upwards. “You two are certainly strong, but you’re even less prepared for this battle than I thought. Contacting you this early was clearly a mistake and the ability to make mistakes is a luxury I don’t have.”

With this, the youngster vanished in a flash of light, leaving Xavier equally puzzled and annoyed by their encounter. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t have much time to dwell on the situation as the sound of a familiar voice drew his attention towards his data comm.

“Xavier, whatever you’re doing in there you better finish it up quickly.” Kiara announced. “I’m not sure what your nutty friend out here is up to, but whatever it is seems to be bringing on another cataclysm.”

“Damn it, Falco…” Xavier scoffed. “You’re sometimes more trouble than you’re worth.”

With a light sigh, he reactivated the microphone on his end of the communication link.

“Alright. Roger that, Kiara.” Xavier confirmed. “I’ll finish up in here and catch up, but for right now you clear the area. We’ll meet up later at the safehouse.”

“Copy that, X.” Kiara affirmed. “Be careful; and I’ll see you later.”

Xavier sighed lightly at the mounting developments, before looking around the room and noting the position of the numerous DMZ generators. By this point, he acknowledged that he wouldn’t have a chance to do any in-depth analysis of the strange phenomenon, a fact that left him visibly disappointed.

“Well, I suppose it’s all or nothing now.” Xavier muttered with a light sigh.

With these words he made his way out of Xess’ lab and cleared the range of the DMZs. As he made his way out of their area of effect, Xavier’s abilities came back to him – and as they did, so did the functions of his expansion suit. Slowly he could feel zeta coursing through his body once again and with minimal effort he redirected some of this energy into his expansion suit. Placing his hand next to his waist, he activated his suit’s energetic storage system, manifesting two spherical devices in each of his hands.

“These should be enough.” He smirked to himself, before tossing these odd spherical devices back into the room and taking off in the opposite direction at full speed.

As he did this, the chemical cocktails contained within each of the small orbs began to mix, creating a highly volatile and dangerously explosive concoction. Seconds later Xavier’s sprint was assisted by the force of a powerful shockwave pushing against him, as earth-shaking explosions wracked the grounds of Titan Academy. As Xavier had predicted, the now heavily reinforced walls of the new research facility barely managed to survive the potent blasts, but the same could not be said for any of Xess’ scanning equipment or the DMZs that were being used to suppress the effects of the small spatial anomaly. The strange shimmering miasma that the entire lab had been built around was now unleashed, unmonitored and more importantly unsuppressed.

As Xavier cleared the area on foot, he could feel the strange energies surging within the gaea-pocket; those seeking to escape their confines and break into his world. The sensation was unlike anything he’d felt before. These foreign energies were highly chaotic and far more primordial than the artificially produced and highly structured zeta energy that permeated almost all of Terra.

“If only I’d had more time with you—” he muttered to himself as the gaea pocket faded even from his energetic senses. “—but don’t you worry, I’ll be back to check you out as soon as the dust settles.”

While Xavier cleared the area, the situation surrounding his partner in crime, the prodigious Jayce Falco only intensified. What started out as a forced duel between the Demai poster boy and his Xelot counterpart had escalated into a four-on-one showdown between the young Dias host and some of the most powerful channelers at Titan Academy.

The last thing the Lehomik mercenary could sense at the edge of his sensory range was the young Demai operative’s all too familiar energy signature surrounded by those struggling to take him down.