Huh...? What time is it...? I got up with a groan and picked up my I-Watch, which was getting a call...it's 3 AM in the fucking morning, what the fuck, who's calling me!? I tapped on the screen to bring up the caller ID...Director Silva. Grr...

"Yeah, what'd'you want!?" I grumbled, as I answered it.

​​

"Sorry, I normally wouldn't call you like this, but...this is an emergency. We were just attacked by the Wights."

Huh?

"Wait, what? Attacked where?" I inquired groggily.

"Right here, inside the Sanctuary!" She exclaimed in reply.

Okay, I'm awake now. She quickly explained what had happened...so, apparently, the Wights had used an X-Warrior that they'd captured to teleport themselves into the X-Warrior Zone from one of the underground bunkers outside the Sanctuary.

They'd attacked the headquarters, killing a handful of lower-ranked X-Warriors along with some officials, and they'd taken some of them hostage as they retreated before reinforcements could arrive. All told, twenty-six people had been killed and seven had been taken hostage, but none of the Wights were captured or killed in the attack.

Right now, HQ was scrambling to ensure that none of the other bunkers could be used to infiltrate the Sanctuary again, as well as searching to make sure that none had stayed behind without retreating. The X-Warrior they used to teleport in here was also used to teleport them out...and as for the new batch of hostages they took with them as they left, one of the captives was...Kilrafhe Floence.

"Oh, I see...," I replied after she informed me of that, "Well, I guess there's a silver lining in every dark cloud, huh?"

"Right, I should have figured that's how you would react. Your sister wasn't exactly torn up either, when she found out that he'd been taken. Anyway, this changes nothing...the attack on their campsite will be carried out as planned."

"Still, how did this even happen?" I inquired curiously, "Didn't you say that you sent a bunch of tiny drones to spy on them?"

"Yes, but we don't have as many of those active as we'd like. Right now, there's only about ten of those drones spying on the campsite. It's a pretty big place, and with only that many drones, there's plenty of blind spots. We're now ramping up production of the drones, not just to spy on their camp but also to surveil the outside of the Sanctuary to prevent this from happening again...if we see an attack coming before it does, it'll make a huge difference in preventing something like this from happening again."

You might recall that researchers were able to link up with abandoned sattelites a few decades ago, which was how Mutants were first discovered...the reason why we weren't using those sattelites to track was because the areas to the east and southeast of the Sanctuary weren't within range of them, the areas they could watch using the sattelites were the east of Russia, most of Europe and some of Africa.

"Alright, now that I've been updated on the situation, uh...why exactly couldn't this wait till I woke up?" I inquired sleepily.

"Oh...now that you mention it, I probably could've waited to inform you. To be fair, I was somewhat caught off-guard by-."

"Goodnight," I interrupted, before hanging up with a sigh.

Is it really that hard to not interrupt my sleep if you don't have to!? Goddammit!

...

...

Over the next few days, the Sanctuary was in an uproar...since so many people had been killed with plenty of witnesses present, it was impossible to cover up and keep what had happened from the public, and once the news started to spread, it spread like wildfire, and in less than twelve hours after the attack ended, pretty much every single person in the Sanctuary had heard about it.

As a result of the public backlash, Academy classes were canceled for the week, as X-Warrior HQ ran around putting out the public conspiracy wildfires, eventually revealing most of the truth to keep the dangerous conspiracy theories from gaining too much traction. While they dealt with the PR nightmare, I decided to spend my extra time training.

I had Director Silva pull some strings to let me use the training facilities in the X-Warrior Zone, because hey, if I have the connections, I might as well use 'em, right? I was kinda gaining a bad rap with some of the X-Warriors, but I really couldn't care less about that. Though it can get kinda annoying, especially at times like this...

"You must think you're hot stuff, kid, but you better not get too ahead of yourself!"

So, let me back up a few minutes...I'd booked a time slot for a training room today, and I'd just arrived at the room, a couple of minutes earlier than the scheduled time. There were a couple of X-Warriors in the room, who had booked the time slot before the one I'd booked, and when I walked in, they both gave me dirty looks and walked over. And then they started 'intimidating' me. My first reaction was to try and ignore them...but that was easier said than done...

"Hey, you look at me when I talk to you, you little-!" Began one of them with a glare, reaching for my shoulder.

"I'll warn you once...don't touch me," I remarked coldly, smacking his hand away, "Now, then, the time slot you booked is up, so why don't you leave?"

"Cocky little prick, how about we teach you a lesson!?" He snapped, swinging his fist at me.

Wow...what a lousy punch. I ducked under it and slammed a twisting palm strike straight up at the middle of his forearm. He let out a shriek of pain as I fractured the bone severely, stumbling back while clutching his arm with a pained expression.

"Why, you-...you'll pay for that!" Yelled the other one, driving his foot up towards my head.

I evaded his kick, grabbed his ankle and swung him over my shoulder with all my strength. He let out a cry of pain as I slammed him down onto his shoulder, dislocating it, before stomping down on his knee and breaking it, eliciting an excruciating scream of agony from him.

"Leave now, and I'll ignore the fact that you've made me waste a minute of my training time, assholes," I warned them threateningly.

They didn't move, glaring up at me spitefully.

"Fuck you, you little shit!"

"We're not gonna listen to y-!"

"Fine, then I'll kick you out," I interrupted, slamming my foot onto the bottom his jaw and sending him painfully skidding out the open doorway.

The other one, whose forearm I fractured, began to stand up with a snarl, I swiftly unleashed a low sweepkick to knock him off his feet again, and then slammed my foot onto his torso before he hit the ground, sending him flying out the doorway.

I then shut the door with a sigh of relief...well, that was a collosal waste of my time. Well, glad it's over, now I can finally get to training. Unfortunately, little did I know, it wasn't over, and later in the day, I was gonna have to go through a really annoying process as a result of this altercation...but for now, I train...

...

...

The following evening, around 6 PM, I got a call from Director Silva. Huh, wonder what she wants...maybe something about the upcoming attack? I answered the call and spoke...

"Hey, what's up-," I began to greet her.

"Don't 'what's up' me, right now...what were you thinking!?"

Hm...I can't be certain, but from her tone, I'm guessing she's mad about something.

"Er...what was I thinking when?" I inquired curiously.

"Don't play dumb, you know what this is about, Kilzachs!" She snapped, definitely sounding pissed.

But...I really don't, though.

"Uh, right, sure I do...but just to make sure we're on the same page here...what exactly are we talking about here?" I asked, starting to get confused.

"Wha-...you really don't know? Hm...come to HQ in half an hour, I think it'd be best to discuss this matter in person. I'll see you then."

"Wait, I-...aaand she hung up. What the heck was that about?" I muttered in bemusement.

"Ooh, you in trouble, Kil?" Inquired Hebi inquisitively.

He's got good hearing, and I'd answered that call in the living room...tch, I should have gone to room before answering it.

"None of your business."

"Man, why you gotta be so mean all the time? Oh, I know, it's cuz of how I look, isn't it?" He remarked, dramatically pretending to be offended.

"No, not really...I don't like most people, and that just happens to include you, I don't care that you're a person from outside the Sanctuary, all that concerns me is that you're annoying," I replied bluntly, "Well, whatever, I'm heading out."

"Huh, wow...that's kinda unexpected. You're super insulting and stuff, but you're pretty open-minded...you really don't think the Wights are any different to the humans in this place, do you?" He inquired with a look of surprise.

"Hm? Dunno, haven't really thought about it....no, it'd be dumb to say that you aren't any different. I mean, you've got wings, for crying out loud. But then, everyone's different in some way...before WWIII, people would say stuff like 'women and men are the same' and 'I don't see race'...but that's bullshit."

"Uh...what do you mean?"

"Well...sure, men and women should have equal rights, which is the case here in the Sanctuary, but that doesn't mean they should be treated as the same...for instance, women have maternity leaves, which is obviously something necessary...but if men and women are equal, shouldn't men also have some kind of similar break? No, that's dumb, because men don't get pregnant...and that's why I say it's bullshit. Treat all genders equally in terms of rights, but acknowledge their differences too."

"Ohh, I see what you're getting at..."

"As for race, it's the same thing...I haven't experienced it myself, but I have read reports on minor cases of racism in some of the other Quadrants. Everyone in the Sanctuary is of mixed race by now, but in different proportions obviously, which means that there's still plenty of physical differences like skin tone and eye color. The phrase 'I don't see race' is actually kinda racist...all people should be treated equally, yes, but doing so by ignoring their cultural and ethnicity isn't the way to do it. Well, I suppose it doesn't really apply anymore, there isn't a variety of cultures and ethnicities anymore. And over the next few decades, that'll only be all the more true, the world will probably never go back to the way it used to be."

Huh...I kinda went off on a tangent there. I'd been pretty interested in the historical racial issues the world had gone through, I found it fascinating and thought-provoking...like I said, racial issues were pretty rare in the Sanctuary, the rare instances that there were such incidents were absolute outliers.

But still, the irrationality of the past intrigued me...and the more I found out, the more I realized, that human history is a truly ugly place. And yet, that ugliness was perfectly commonplace in those times. What was most intriguing to me was how much it just didn't make sense...why would a person be so infuriated by the existence of people different to themselves?

Anyway, all that said, that's just my perspective on the matter, I don't actually care what the reality is, I'd likely feel equally indifferent about either the death of a human from the Sanctuary or a Wight. I have no problem admitting that I'm selfish and primarily care about myself, and will always prioritize myself over anyone else.

"Damn, that's all pretty deep...but also kinda confusing, do you think everyone should be treated equally or not?" He asked, looking fascinated.

"Hm...I think the term 'equal' is easily misunderstood. I think 'fair' is a more accurate term to be used...I mean, would you treat a regular citizen the same as a criminal? Would you treat a rude adult the same as a polite and respectful one?"

"Huh, that's not a bad way of looking at things, man..."

Wait, how did this conversation even happen? Wasn't I supposed to do something right now?

"Oh, crap, I don't have time to be getting all philosophical here, I gotta get to HQ!" I suddenly realized, as I caught a glimpse of the time...I'm definitely gonna be late.

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