Arc 9 Twilight

Chapter 15

Interlude: Omega

Light gleamed in through the large bay windows of the oval office. A man sat at the desk looking over the varied documents piled up. It was clear just by the sheer size of the stacks that this person was very busy. He was immaculate in appearance, not a wrinkle to be seen on his jet black suit. A red, white, and blue tie diligently nestled over his white button-up shirt. He stretched for a moment, leaning heavily in the chair. His blond hair was short on the sides long on the top, done up in a pompadour style.

There was a hurried knock at the door and a trim cut man pushed it open without waiting for a reply, “Mr. President! Installation three has been destroyed!”

His dull green eyes snapped open and he stood, “WHAT?! Who would, no, how would that even happen? The damned thing is in space!”

“We don’t know yet reports are sporadic and there had been a firing order just before it was destroyed.” Replied the well-kept secretary pushing his glasses up.

“Who the fuck ordered a Hammer Strike and why didn’t I hear about it!?” he yelled at the man, throwing a book against the wall.

“We, we don’t know, communication was cut off and the logs weren’t transmitted because it was destroyed.”

“Somebody’s head is going to roll for this. Find out who-”

The phone rang interrupting him.

His fiery green eyes darted down when the ringing sound rose from the desk. There were three phones sitting side by side. A black one, a red one, and finally a white one. Each was for a very different thing. The black phone was for normal government business. The red was for emergencies that concerned national security. The last phone technically didn’t exist, or rather people didn’t talk about it. The white phone was Super related, Chimera business.

Without a word the secretary nodded, understanding and left the room, closing the door quickly. This was above his pay grade.

He reached down, lifting up the ringing white phone, “This is President McKinley.”

“I know damn well who it is that is why I called you, Omega!” shouted over the line.

A hologram appeared in the middle of the room depicting Nightmare huddled in a fetal position. Her mask broken so that it only covered half of her face. Her blue cape ripped and torn. Bruises and bleeding scrapes dotted her white skin and the dirty costume that had holes in it.

He winced holding it a little away, “Ah, Nightmare, how goes the monitoring, recruiting and shipping off of the Subhumans for testing?”

“I need a strike team in Bronson City to get me out.”

Omega sighed, “What did you do? What have you fucked up this time?”

“The Hero League turned against me and my test subject went wild, so I called down a Hammer Stri-”

“You did what?!” He yelled into the phone, slamming his free hand on the desk, the wood shattered around his fist, snapping the whole desk in half. It tilted, collapsing in and threw everything on the floor.

Nightmare stammered back, “I didn’t have a choice they are trying to kill me!”

“Do you have any idea how expensive those things are!? We could have fed Africa for ten years with one of those things! Which one did you use?” he fumed nearly, crushing the phone.

“I, I don’t know maybe it was three?”

“You little bitch! Thanks to you Installation three was destroyed!”

“Who cares? We own all the world’s governments and the banks so just print more money. Make a new one. Look, we need an extraction otherwise we are going to die.”

“I should leave you to die! How did you even get authorization for a Hammer Strike?”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does! Arachnaon is going to be pissed when she hears of this! So help you, you better pray she is in a good mood.”

Nightmare paused for a moment, “It was warranted my pet projector was absorbing the city.”

“I don’t care, you don’t get to make those calls. Eve was setting that place aside due to how it was a natural spawning pit of Supers. Why do you think we sabotaged that nuclear power plant, to begin with? You had best hope that the Subhumans survived and I know Dr. Arbor was in that city too, studying them. So help me if you killed a Spore Spawn! I will kill you myself!”

Nightmare yelled back, “I don’t care what that stupid space fungus has planned! Get me out of here!”

Omega’s face shifted, turning translucent for a moment, “That stupid space fungus is our salvation.”

“Just because Arachnaon worships it like a god doesn’t mean it is helping us. I know that fucking thing is killing the planet, that is why it is locked up!”

“You had best not say that in front of her. She will rip your head off for that.”

“Just get me out of here. Please… I don’t wanna be here anymore,” she started sobbing.

“Fine, I will send some help,” he said, hanging up the phone. “Pathetic creature…”

“Damn it,” he muttered. “I forgot to ask if she knew what blew up the Installation.”

He took a moment before pressing a speed dial it rang for a couple of moments before disconnecting. He stood there for a moment, mouth twitching. Arachnaon had not picked up. He pressed another after a few moments a figure materialized in the room. It was a crouched woman or rather female as it was clearly merely humanoid. She was covered in angled hardened bone like carapace and had a triangular face with a set of mandibles clicking together. At the crests of the head were two huge black eyes that could see all around her and from the forehead a pair of antenna twitched. She had a face that looked human enough, though it was fake a mere illusion to lull her prey into a false sense of security.

“Mantia, what is Arachnaon doing?” Omega asked.

“Feeding, why? Has the Sanguine Puppeteer been discovered?” her mandibles clicked back.

“No, just Nightmare getting into trouble again.”

Mantia visibly spit, “Ugh, again? For someone who can’t do a damned thing by themselves, how is it that she can get into so much trouble? Let me guess, you want me to clean up her mess again?”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“Why do we even bother with these lesser creatures? Can’t I just eat her and get it over with?”

“If only, we still need her.”

Mantia angrily chirped, “Why, why do we need that disgusting hooman? Why do we keep this guise of trying to save the hoomans from the Supers? I am sick and tired of hoomans always telling me what to do. I just want to eat them, rip them limb from limb and feast on them. I love hearing their squeals.”

“Like it or not she is one of the strongest Mind Divers and if we are going to have a chance against the Sanguine Puppeteer, then we will need her.”

“Can’t you just eat her and take her power?”

“It doesn’t work like that and you know it.”

Mantia pawed at her face with her elongated, serrated scythe-like claws, “Shame. So be it where must I go to babysit?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. She can wait. I am very displeased with her right now.”

Mantia tilted her triangular head, “Won’t she die?”

Omega smirked, “I doubt it. Kraken will interrogate her rather than kill her, assuming that she is captured. Let her suffer for a bit, she deserves it for what she did. I will send the Hero League to help her later, just to rub some salt in her wounds.”

“Then what should I do?”

“Continue with… what were you doing by the way?”

“Hunting.”

“Where at?”

“Brazil.”

“After Demon Rider?”

“I tried, but he just portals away and I dare not chase him. Last time, there was a dragon. That fucking bastard was literally riding a dragon and not the puff the magic variety.”

“Yeah, it is best not to chase him. No telling what is on the other side of the portal. So what are you hunting then?”

“His succubus, already ate one of them. Stupid thing tried to fuck me… Though I don’t think I will eat any more of them. I think I will go off a dictator or something and watch the place descend into anarchy as the stupid hoomans eat each other alive. Like we did in Venezuela, they ate the animals in the zoo remember?”

“Why?”

“They were starving? Cause it would be fun?”

“No the demons. Why are you not eating the demons?”

“Oh, the demons? They have too many drugs in their system. Those demons might as well have liquid cocaine for blood. I got sick for a bit and started talking to fucking frogs.”

“Well, you know Demon Rider. Is Centi with you?”

“No, Centi is taking a break. I believe she is in China visiting her family.”

“Ok, I will send a retrieval team to get you in a while.”

“As you wish, Omega.”

Omega sighed, standing in front of the window with his hands behind his back. His form wavered for a moment clear and blue like some sort of gel, “Useless humans, ah… I can’t wait until they are all dead. They can’t do anything right. Even after Eve has already given them powers beyond their imagining? It makes me wonder how they managed to become the dominant species on this planet. Oh well, soon we will be able to leave this disgusting planet and return to our sacred mission.”

Omega sighed as his form melted for a moment, reshaping into an older man who looked to be about in his late sixties. He had grayed short hair combed over. His chin grizzled with stubble and pitted in a few spots with scars. His left eye was covered in an eye patch and a vicious scar went up to his hairline. He wore a white exosuit that from appearances allowed him to move about unimpeded by his age.

Omega called a different number, “This is Captain Liberty.”

“Sir, what can I do for you, sir?” asked a woman over the line.

“Light Fly, I have orders from the president to mobilize on Bronson city, California. Gather your strike team and we will deploy in a week’s time.”

“Sir, a week? Isn’t the city getting overrun by villains and other scum? We already lost LA.”

“We will take our time and gather more intelligence rather than blindly throwing Heroes to their deaths. It is confirmed that Molotov and Boris are in the city, so we will be needing the heavy guns. Mantia and Centi will be mobilized as well though they will only be there as insurance if things do not work.”

She seemed to pause for a long moment, “That is a little reassuring. Finally, Chimera is doing something about Kraken. Nitro was in LA until recently too… what a pain in the ass. Alright, I will get everybody up to speed. Is there anything else we need to know about?”

Captain Liberty scratched his chin, “Hmm… there are Subhumans, most are small fries none above rank 7. Ah, I believe there was a report of a Spore Spawn, it is to be captured alive other than that feel, free to kill the villains… the city is a free fire zone.”

There was an audible gulp, “How strong is the Spore Spawn?”

“From the reports, it is still developing so only rank 5 regeneration and some lower rank speed and the like.”

“That weak? That is pretty weird, I thought all Spore Spawn were rank 7 plus?”

“She is young, only a couple months old.”

Light Fly asked, “Do we know what she looks like?”

“I believe she is a wasp. Blue and black carapace.”

“Alright, I will get everything together, Sir.”

“Good, I will keep you updated.”

With his business concluded he hung up the phone and returned to his previous shape. He walked to the door and looked out at the man standing across from it, waiting.

“Charles, get me a new desk.”

“… This is the third one this month.”

“If I didn’t have to deal with eccentrics and incompetents, then it wouldn’t be a problem. And get me the damned records on Installation 3. I wanna know what the hell happened to it.”

His secretary nodded and left. Omega closed the door to his study once more sitting back down at his ruined workstation. Thinking nothing more of it Omega began filing through the paperwork once more. Humans he thought, so stressful.