Bob stepped out into the room, face hanging low. Chris, George, Minh, Tina, Cikizwa, and Sergei were waiting for him, sitting around a table. Bob took a seat. He took a deep breath before he spoke.

“...Linda’s been compromised. The Director has her in custody.”

There gasps around the table. Minh’s eyes opened wide.

“Bob…what’s going to happen to her?”

Bob remained still, elbows resting on the table and hands crossed in front of his face.

“I don’t know. I want to believe Director Green wouldn’t hurt her…but I underestimated how far she’s been pushed. I can’t say for sure how far she’ll go right now.”

Minh gulped and looked down. Cikizwa crossed her arms, frowning.

“How did this even happen, Bob?”

Bob tossed some copies of a report out to the group. On it was the dossier of the newly registered hero group: Nova Guardians.

“That was my mistake. With everything going on, we didn’t track up and coming Academy students. I believed we would automatically catch them if they joined the ILS later. So I didn’t realize they had a mind-reader and Linda was caught unprepared.”

Silence hung in the room for a while. Finally, Chris spoke in a soft voice.

“What are we going to do?”

Bob heaved another sigh.

“...I’m going to turn myself in. Come clean to the Director.”

The whole room erupted into shouting. Many of the team stood out of their seats. Cikizwa simply remained seated, waiting for the shouting to die down before speaking.

“What’s the point of that, Bob? You know we have contingencies for these kinds of scenarios.”

Bob nodded.

“We do. But the situation is different than assumed. Mostly, the Director is my friend too, and she is deeply hurt by this revelation. But I know Londyn, I think there’s a chance if I explain everything to her, she might understand. And if there’s a chance I can make things right, I need to take it.”

The group went silent for a while more. Cikizwa heaved a sigh.

“Well, if you want to end up in jail, that’s your choice. But there’s another problem Bob. If you’re coming clean on everything and they have a mind-reader, we’re all going to be compromised too. And that’s not part of the deal.”

Bob nodded.

“Right. And with Linda compromised, there’s a chance they’re already searching for us. You’ll all need to move the base, one way or another. I’ll wait a bit, give you some time.”

Bob took a deep breath.

“And if you want out…now’s as good a time as ever.”

No one replied to that. Bob couldn’t help but smile slightly.

“Bob…what about Nemesis?”

Bob heaved a sigh.

“I’ll talk with them.”

Londyn walked into the room, staring at the large metallic sphere in the center. Dr. Fraser was looking over a tablet.

“Are we ready?”

Dr. Fraser tapped a few times on the screen before he sighed.

“…system is operational, as far as we can tell. We won’t know for sure until we turn it on.”

Londyn nodded.

“Good work. Let’s load up the list of targets and step into the bunker.”

With that, she turned around and walked away. Dr. Fraser heaved a final sigh.

“…right.”

Bob stepped into the Nemesis break room, glancing around. Arvid was relaxing on a couch. Seems the rest were out, probably off training.

“Greetings, ‘boss-man’. Have you come to check on our merry band?”

“Something like that. The rest training?”

Arvid nodded.

“Well, friend Elise and Nana for sure. Friend Kiyosuke and Saydaa have been most…lively of late.”

Bob chuckled at that. They were still cleaning the paint being lobbed around everywhere.

He heaved a sigh. Well, here goes. At least he gets to ease into it with the easy one first.

There were two…he was not looking forward to convincing.

Londyn stood in a bunker, looking at the feed of the device. She then glanced over to the targeting room. Roxanne sat in a chair, a device hooked up to a helmet covering the top half of her head. The girl held a thumbs up.

“All systems green.”

Londyn narrowed her eyes.

Whatever it takes.

“Activate it.”

The technicians glanced at each other before turning back to their monitors. They entered the command…

The metallic sphere hummed to life, yellow lightning arcing on its sides.

“Power levels rising!”

“All systems activating!”

“Power fluctuations…within acceptable range.”

"Checking PSI Omega vital signs...all signs normal! PSI Omega has confirmed she's ready to proceed!"

The room with the device was dyed yellow as lightning filled it. The metallic sphere rose into the air.

“Fully charged!”

“Targets locked, ready and waiting!”

Londyn’s gaze didn’t waver from the device.

“Fire.”

The sphere began to rotate midair. It spun, faster and faster until all they say was a metallic blur, yellow lights where lightning flashed. The room was filled with a high-pitched whine and strobing yellow lights.

A surge of yellow light, tinged with small arcs of lighting surged out from the spinning device. It passed straight through the walls of the room.

And continued on.

And on.

And on.

Until it engulfed the entire world.

“Arvid, I’m going to…”

Just then a surge of yellow light passed through the facility. Arvid groaned and fell from his seat, clutching his head.

“Arvid, what happened?!”

“Get…away…from…him…”

Bob froze.

That was not Arvid’s voice.

Arvid’s eyes flashed yellow…then returned to normal.

“Our successor’s mind…is under assault…”

His eyes flashed yellow again…then returned to normal. This time a woman’s voice came from his mouth.

“We hast resisted by weight of our memories. I fear though that our saga is not endless. You must flee, ere our last memory falls!“

Bob nodded and ran from the room. He quickly called Cikizwa.

“Bob! What was that?!”

“Mind control device.”

“WHAT?!”

“Arvid’s been compromised. Assume the rest of Nemesis was affected as well. Get everyone out of here, we’ll talk later.”

“...got it.”

Bob put away his phone and sprinted down the hall.

Suddenly a red cyclone blocked his path.

“Heeeeyyyyy boss-man! Ready for our trip?”

Bob heaved a sigh. He had hoped Saydaa’s mystical nature and magical training would have enabled her to resist. Apparently not.

Saydaa entered the hallway behind him, yellow lights flickering around her eyes. Bob turned to face her, crossing his arms.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking but our contract is still in force, Saydaa. Don’t you remember?”

“I ran off though!”

“I planned for you to run off, which is why the contract didn’t break.”

“Well that’s fine! See, you need to go to the Director, right? And you’ll need an escort! So I’ll work as your escort and it’s all good!”

Bob heaved a sigh. Saydaa grinned and lifted her hand, red light appearing around Bob and lifting him into the air.

Bob managed to press a button on his gauntlet.

A spider drone hidden on Saydaa’s person activated its taser.

Saydaa cried out, dropping Bob to the ground. As he ran down the hall he slammed a button on the wall, activating an emergency barrier behind him.

Bob heaved another sigh as he turned the corner.

“B-Bob…sama…”

Nana was hunched over, her whole body trembling. Yellow light flickered around her eyes. She clutched her head with one hand, her other hand trembling and slowly lifting her chakra blaster.

Tears filled her eyes.

“I…can’t….stop….”

Bob looked into her eyes.

“It’s ok Nana. It’s not your fault. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this.”

Bob grunted as a stun baton struck his back, sending him to the ground. Kiyosuke immediately leapt back as Bob’s gas emitter activated.

“Sorry, but that won’t work on me again.”

And then a purple barrier surrounded Bob, trapping him completely.

Elise stepped into the hallway, head fully encased in her combat-mode helmet.

“Statement: Target located and in custody. Proceeding to extraction and transport.”

Bob mumbled a curse under his breath. Elise’s voice always had a mechanical undertone to it. But it was, ultimately, a human voice.

Right now it was purely a mechanical voice.

Ok, this might be a bit annoying…

He could, of course, activate taser drones on Kiyosuke and Nana. But it would only stop them for a moment, and those two happened to run very fast.

Much faster than he could.

And then there was Elise, who would not be disabled by a simple taser.

He, of course, explored different contingencies for her. But there was a problem. To deactivate her hardwaren was risky as her implants were entwined with her body. No matter how precisely he tailored the disable, he couldn't completely eliminate the chance that she would be hurt in the process.

Software-wise…would require reactivating the Intelligence-Leashing. Even if he was willing to do so…he could not do it while she was active. At least, not if she were determined to resist. And that too, was risky. The leashing was never perfected to begin with, after all.

In other words…he had no good way to safely disable Elise. Previously, he may have been able to have someone contain her with magic…but with her new upgrades even that wasn’t reliable anymore. And his go-to magician was also compromised.

But…perhaps it was fine. Bob noticed a light flash briefly on his gauntlet. He decided to hold off for the time being.

Elise lifted the gravity barrier into the air and proceeded down the hall towards the hanger. Kiyosuke and Nana fell in behind her. Bob heaved a sigh and rubbed his back where Kiyosuke had struck him.

Eventually, the three reached the hanger. Some of Bob’s team were there, preparing to evacuate. They glanced over, reaching for weapons but Bob waved them off. And so the group made their way towards the back of a grav-jet.

"Profile Loaded: Tesla Titan."

Just then, Elise's core and arms lit up with blue light and electricity shot into Kiyosuke and Nana. The two shinobi cried out and dropped to the ground. Elise released the gravity barrier and pulled Bob onto the grav-jet, closing the door as she remotely booted up the jet.

“Apology: This unit calculated a last-minute engagement had the highest probability of successful extraction, and required additional time to load profile due to current processing limitations.”

Bob exhaled a relieved breath as he stood to his feet and walked towards the cockpit.

“No, you did well, Elise. How are you holding up?”

“Status Report: When this unit detected intrusion, organic components reactivated Intelligence Leashing protocol and went into standby. Intrusion has proved unable to interface with cybernetic components. Warning: This unit’s capabilities will be reduced until organic components are restored to full functionality, as this unit must devote processing power to resisting intrusion.”

Bob heaved a sigh as he climbed into the pilot’s chair, the grav-jet already taking off on Elise’s command.

It seems he deeply underestimated how far Londyn was willing to go.

As well as how deeply he could wound her.

And now he had to fix it.

He could only hope…the world wouldn’t pay the price.