297 284: A Plague of Phantoms: Day One Conclusion

Chase

"I want those little bastards disqualified for cheating!" Beaufort snapped and pointed a finger at me. "They ambushed my proxy's evos and killed them all! They still had time before the other evos could be released!"

"Yeah! And after they almost killed us with that explosion too!" A man dressed in a expensive suit beside Beaufort yelled.

I was in that Tech-9 committee meeting room with the Tech-9 committee members and most of the CEO's of the techno-splicing companies that came to Evo-cution. Beaufort was standing in front of Hideyoshi huffing and hawing, demanding that my company be disqualified. If it wasn't for the fact that Bo and Indy's evos were ambushed before the end of their preparation time I wouldn't have disagreed. Though it was obvious to any splicer that was watching that they were ambushed, the ancient liger shark isn't small or stealthy.

"Then there's the matter of those evos those kids used! What was up with that Liger Shark and that mermaid looking evo?" Thomas exclaimed and turned for the other CEO's for support.

"Yeah! What the hell!" A man a few feet away exclaimed. The room erupted in jeers and protests from the other CEO's and honestly I was finding it annoying. As were Hideyoshi and the Tech-9 committee.

"Fine, we're disqualified. Sho'lajah Artifact Company officially accepts and agrees with disqualification!" I exclaimed with roll of my eyes. Beaufort's face flushed a bright red and he turned to Hideyoshi fumming.

"See I knew the little…! " Beaufort started to snap only to pause mid-rant then turned to look back at me, his face fallen. "…wait…you what?"

"We're disqualified. Whether we're declared the winner doesn't matter, to me at least. The entire purpose of these combat demonstrations is to show off a evo's effectiveness in combat. I think that's been achieved." I replied with a shrug.

"You think you can escape culpability by just accepting disqualification? Do you?!" Thomas snapped and pointed a finger at me. I sighed and nonchalantly scratched my cheek.

"No, you taught me better than that, father." I replied, letting a bit of my malice seep into my voice. "I'll pay reparations to each company for the loss of evos. That enough culpability for you?"

"You think paying for our losses will be cheap! That ancient liger shark was worth fifty million! If we're to make up for the losses incurred by your people then a hundred million is the least owe us!" Thomas snapped.

"In fact if you claim to accept disqualification and pay reparations then you owe all the companies the same amount!" Beaufort added then smirked. "With all the companies present at Evo-cution that amount would be billions!"

"Eleven billion to be exact." I said casually then turned and started towards the door. "Be right back."

"Where are you going?!" Beaufort demanded. I ignored him and made my way over to the doorway to the meeting room and stepped outside and out of view of the Americans in the room. They knew about magic and spells but I didn't want them to know about my void pocket just yet.

Once I was out of view I channeled mana into my void pocket and reached inside, pulling out two briefcases that I had prepared beforehand. They were filled with money, a little under six billion apiece. The amount was more than what Beaufort and the other CEO's were demanding but it'd not like I'd miss eleven or even twelve billion. I walked back into the meeting room and slid the briefcases across the floor. Thomas stopped one of the briefcases with his foot then frowned at me.

"What's this?" Thomas asked incredulously.

"A little over eleven billion…well closer to twelve." I replied then scratched my head innocently. Thomas gasped and looked down at the briefcase at his feet.

"Wait…what?!" Thomas exclaimed. He knelt down and turned the briefcases to face him. "Impossible! There is no way that you can have that much money casually waiting for you outside!"

Thomas opened the briefcase and froze when he saw the money in the briefcase. He blinked several times then pulled a stack of bills and thumbed through it and his eyes widened a moment later. He started frantically grabbing stacks of bills and thumbing through them.

"Impossible! Impossible! Is…is all this real?!" Thomas exclaimed. One of the other CEO's that was near the other briefcase looked down at it then knelt down and opened it. He exclaimed loudly when he saw all the money too.

"Go ahead and take the hundred thousand I owe, I don't care what you do with the extra. I'll leave that up to the president over there." I said making a subtle shooing motion with my hand. Beaufort looked at the two suitcases then laughed.

"Well, well, well, look who's showing their true colors. You're willing to bankrupt your company just to show us up? Young ones now a days are so short sighted." Beaufort cackled. I blinked a few times then looked at Beaufort with a confused looked.

"What do you mean bankrupt my company?" I asked. Thomas stood up and shared a look with Beaufort then laughed.

"You know very well Chase that even the most successful of techno-splicing companies have a yearly budget of nine billion dollars. You're a new company that started up with hardly any existing capital, which leads me to believe that everything you are worth is in these briefcases." Thomas said. I stood in silence for several seconds, which must have confirmed Thomas, Beaufort, and all the CEO's in the room.

Hideyoshi broke the silence with a slow building laugh that grew in a booming guffaw. The other splicers on the Tech-9 committee joined in on the laugh which pissed off Beaufort and the other American's in the room.

"Something funny?!" Beaufort snapped. Hideyoshi stopped laughing then frowned in confusion at Beaufort.

"Apologies Mr. President. I thought Dr. Kingston was joking about the budget for companies in The ZSA. Since nine billion isn't that much money." Hideyoshi explained. Beaufort's eyes widened incredulously.

"Not much money! Nine billion is one sixteenth of the entire American budget!" Beaufort snapped.

"Wait your country's budget is under two trillion dollars? My estate's yearly food budget is nearly twice that!" A English nobleman on the Tech-9 committee chuckled. Beaufort and several Americans turned towards the nobleman and shot him disbelieving looks.

"I heard America was a poor country but I didn't realize it was that poor…" A Egyptian noblewoman said with a soft chuckle.

"POOR! MY COUNTRY IS NOT POOR!" Beaufort barked at the woman. Several CEO's from America spoke up their agreement with the statement.

"Maybe not by peasant standards, but a budget of only two trillion a year…it certainly isn't anything to be excited about." The Egyptian noblewoman replied.

[Boss! I found something!] Bone-lasher exclaimed suddenly through our mental connection.

[What?] I asked.

Bone-lasher suddenly shared his vision with me and I found myself underwater several miles off shore of Tsushima Island and near the ocean floor. Bone-lasher was floating near a odd looking hole in the ocean floor. It looked hazy through Bone-lasher's vision and seemed to be constantly changing shape, which suggested a very powerful spell cloaking the hole. The fact that despite his close proximity to the hole he still couldn't see inside it also suggested special shielding that should prevent detection.

[Looks like what I'm looking for. Stay there, I'll be heading your way in a little bit.] I replied.

[Want me to look inside Boss?] Bone-lasher asked. The hole in the ocean floor was big enough that I was sure that the King's glaive could drive through it however I remembered what the stone tablet said about security and didn't want to think about how advanced or potent security spells would be in an ancient splicer laboratory.

[No, just stand watch. Let me know if anything happens.] I ordered then turned my attention to Empress who was flying over Tsushima Island searching as well.

[Empress head back to the King's glaive. Bone-lasher found something and I want all my evos with me when I go to check it out.]

[At once my lord!] Empress exclaimed.

"…Master Kingston…?" Hideyoshi's voice snapped me out of my conversation and back to reality. I quickly realized that the eyes of everyone in the room on me.

"Sorry Hideyoshi, didn't catch that last bit. Got a report from a couple of my evos." I replied honestly. Hideyoshi nodded slightly, the look in his eyes told me he wanted to know more though.

"I figured, that tends to happen a lot." Hideyoshi said. Had anyone else said that I would have thought they were being sarcastic but that isn't like Hideyoshi, he was merely making an observation. "The committee is satisfied with this conclusion as are the companies present."

"Good! Are we done? Can I go now?" I asked while motioning to the door.

"Yes. Though are you sure about your decision with the excess money?" Hideyoshi replied.

"Yeah. It's only like seven hundred thousand, not going to break the bank. Plus I made like seven times the entire penalty today." I said casually then turned and headed towards the door. I was out the door and heading down the hallway when I heard multiple people yell.

"SEVEN TIMES!"

***

I groaned loud and to myself as I walked into the engine car of King's glaive. I was surprised to see that there was nobody waiting for me. Either to yell at me for how ridiculous and complicated my plans today were or to yell at me for not keeping better track of my shit.

"King's glaive where is everybody?" I asked.

"There is a large convergence of people inside the storage car. One person is asleep inside the Gents quarters car." King's glaive replied.

'KC must be asleep. It has been a busy day…' I thought then started towards the door to the next car.

"Thanks King's glaive. Warm up the engines, we'll be heading out in a little bit." I said.

"Understood Sho'lajah." King's glaive replied.

I headed back towards the storage car, mentally checking on the status of all my evos. Bone-lasher was still stationed at the sea cave entrance. Empress was perched on top of King's glaive's first engine car. Jiggles, Fours, and Grimm-Guard were inside my farm crystal. Alpa'nagia and Bellial seemed to be alright back in Andromeda, though they were obviously missing me. The only problem was Subject XX01, it hadn't stopped screaming 'slaughter' since I captured it. If it wasn't for my ability to tune out the voices of my self hatred and self doubt it honestly would have started to get on my nerves.

As I made my way through the mana train I thought about the events of the day. In Beaufort's and every American on the island's mind I was a monster and a murderer who killed two great soldiers. Beaufort and all of his cronies knows I'm gunning for them now but they also know how powerful my people and I are so it will temper their actions and hopefully keep them from making any rash or stupid decisions. However I didn't expect them to just sit back and wait for oblivion. They were going to fight back, in fact I dared them to, so I needed to be ready.

When I reached the door to the storage car I opened it I saw everyone inside, save KC. Even Turak'Kahn and Viola were there, without any guards too. They were seated on various crates, chairs, and boxes around the storage car. I frowned and looked around the car then crossed my arms.

"Why does this feel like an intervention?" I asked. That earned a laugh from Grandpa Seamus, who was sitting on a chair in front of a stack of crates.

"Not an intervention Starlight. More like a strategy meeting." Grandpa said. I looked to Jane and Iris instinctively. They both had their serious faces on, I looked back to dad and nodded. Madilyn stood up from her seat on a crate near the back of the car and walked towards me. She had a folder tucked under her arm.

"And I have some thoughts on that." Madilyn said then handed me the folder she was carrying. I took the folder and flipped it open. My eyebrow shot up when I saw what the folder was.

"These are those plans that Iris stole from the American's?" I asked. Madilyn nodded then turned and looked back to our new hires Reagan and Anders.

"Reagan was so kind to inform us about several other operations that my grandfather was running on the island." Madilyn said. I closed the file and handed it back to Madilyn.

"Sorry to burst your bubble Maddy but I kind of already insinuated that we knew about this plan to Logan and I'm certain he told Beaufort and my dad." I said.

"But there are several contingencies for that plan in particular." Reagan spoke up. I looked at Reagan and arched a brow.

"Contingencies?" I asked. Reagan nodded then pointed at the file.

"That plan in the file is the modified version of the one that your…spy…took." Reagan said, glancing over at Iris.

"I go by Iris normally." Iris said casually. Anders chuckled and crossed his arms.

"Got tired of using my name?" Anders asked, somewhat snidely. Iris looked over at Anders and shook her head.

"Anders is not a good name. Kind of bland." She said with a smirk.

"Bland!" Anders exclaimed, sounding completely insulted.

"Anyway! The plan in that file is the one that they will most likely use in place of the original." Reagan continued, cutting off Anders and shooting him a glare. "Beaufort will want to keep surveillance on all the dignitaries and military officials. Especially after your fight with the queen."

"I would highly recommend they not do that." Turak'Kahn spoke up. "All dignitaries know that the Americans are spying on them. Either because they kept tripping their own security spells or because their own security were following them while invisible."

"Wait…what?" Reagan and Anders said in unison. Viola and Turak'Kahn both nodded in confirmation.

"My dad had a lot of fun following around a hotshot that thought he had the run of the hotel last year." Iris stated with a chuckle. Turak'Kahn laughed and shook his head.

"That's right! He went on for hours about how he messed with the poor soldier, making him think he was being haunted for the remainder of the convention!" Turak'Kahn said with a hearty chuckle.

"Let me see that folder again Madilyn." I said. Madilyn handed it back to me and I quickly flipped through folder open to look it over again.

The plan was simple, force all dignitaries to have to forego their personal security and rely on American security. They achieve this by staging an assault on one of the dignitaries and framing the security of another dignitary's security team. If I didn't know that Beaufort had the backing of Simon Caldifax I would have thought this was impossible but a English noble with plenty of money and influence could probably have a way to pull some strings to make all this work.

"What do you want to do to counter this?" I asked Madilyn. She crossed her arms and looked at me with a serious look.

"Depends on you. In all honesty right now in the minds of any American on the island you and your evos are nothing less than a Colossus. Warning and threats you make can be a very good deterrent or agitator. It'll all depend on how you approach this." Madilyn said. I folded my arms and scratched my chin. As I thought I about Madilyn's words a cruel thought appeared.

"Let's give the American hotel a visit." I said with a devilish smirk. Everyone gasped and gave me a incredulous look.

"ARE YOU INSANE!" Everyone bellowed. Their screaming was so loud I had to cover my ears. Jane and Iris rushed over and grabbed me by my shirt and started shaking me.

"No!" I replied. Jane slapped the back of my head and shook me some more.

"You murdered two American heroes, embarrassed the entire government, and openly declared you planned to destroy Beaufort and everything he cares about and now you want to walk up to their base of operations and what? Just walk in?" Jane yelled.

"Yes…?" I replied half-heartedly. Feeling dizzy and less confident about my idea. Iris slapped me again and shook me harder.

"NOOO! YOU FREAKING IDIOT!" Iris bellowed. "In what world would that be a good idea? Mr. MacClery did Chase get dropped on the head as a baby?!"

"A couple times…though I doubt it was an accident." Seamus said solemnly. Iris and Jane froze and looked back at Grandpa Seamus then back at me with calmer expressions.

"Why do you want to confront Beaufort like that. You've already declared your intentions?" Iris asked softly. I stayed silent for several moments as I thought about how to phrase my answer then sighed.

"I'm not here to play nice…Beaufort, Thomas, Logan, everyone in that hotel is a threat and a danger to all of you. I'm not going to let anyone hurt any of you and I'll do anything to protect you. I want to make that message clear." I said confidently. Iris and Jane shared a uneasy look then sighed.

"Fine…but of we're doing this, then we're doing this right…" Jane said.