Futuropolis

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Ann shook her head in disappointment at Minute-Man's statements, holding back the normally nightmarish teeth of hers.

"Cooperation is how we'll kill the Solarian Minute-Man, and from where I sit, at the foot of this table, the Meeting is confident in its ability to kill the Solarian, and we are more than certain that the majority of the members of the Heroes Organization would rush headlong into battle against the alien without a second thought. This accord wasn't called to ensure the death of the Solarian, but instead to protect our people from his wrath as effectively as possible. This is not just a truce to kill an threat to our planet, it is so much more. Now if your help in the Desolate Lands is an issue, the Meeting is perfectly willing to simply buy technology from Empire State to keep the Desolate Lands guilds in our cooperation." She said looking to Silence and Valerie. "If your buy in, Minute, is killing the Solarian, their buy in is compensation. And they are perfectly willing to walk away from the table if their needs aren't met. That's why I'm here, brokering this." She said. She then focused in on Silence in particular.

"The Meeting has turned up no results between the Solarian and any other mages, our own investigation states that the Solarian comes to Booga for the sake of avenging his master, who was murdered here back when the Desolate Lands was still Rupee. Even if the leader of the Brotherhood was behind these events in some form, I doubt he has telepathic powers allowing him to converse across to another galaxy. Though the fact that I have no idea who this Negative is, troubles me greatly. My bosses must be even more blinded in their zeal than I thought."
 
Minuteman’s conduct remained stern, unwilling to back down from his position on supplying other countries with resources. His eyebrows twitches when Valerie brought up points that Empire State was attack multiple times under his watch. Before he has a chance to make a comment, his phone blasted loudly as multiple text messages arrived on his cellular phone. He took a quick glance; his expression went from shock before frowning in an instant before putting his cell away.

“Don’t bother, Ann. I have no interest of buying any form of technology from Desolate Lands. My Guild just wants to be paid sufficiently and that’s it.” Silence smirked after Valerie called Minute Man out, giving the woman thumbs up before continuing. “Compensations mean very little if the Solarian destroys the planet, so our cooperation is going too happened regardless of our interests.” Silence listened in to Ann’s explanation regarding Negative. “Then I have no comment; if Negative and this Solarian have no connection, there’s nothing to discuss at lengths.” 

Ballows clears her throat. “Well, Negative can be dealt with at another time until we have more information about him anyways…..” Ballows turns to Ann. “Your group came to our offices a while back that you needed two of our mages. How is that going? I would very much like to know how our mages are doing.” 

Jayden chose to remained silence since he has no idea and not interested in squabbles about who gets what for their contributions.
 
"We're more accustomed to being 'old school' with our lifestyles at any rate. The most we would need in terms of technology is the kind that is simple enough for our commonfolk to maintain and repair themselves. We've little use for expensive technology that costs more to pay an outsider to fix, but we can discuss that at a later time," Valerie explained to Ann. The Dalv Tribe will find a way to hoard the high-tech things for themselves, at any rate. she thought to herself before crossing her arms and keeping her composure. 

"So what's the first plan of action? If he has held a grudge for thousands of years, I can't imagine we can do much to reason with him. I hardly even remember the history of Rupoee, and my elders could barely hold onto the war stories themselves. We could have our guild members team up and track down the lost history, but..." she trailed off.
 
Ann turned to Ballows, the misplaced anger at Minute Man subsiding. With a strange smile, she spoke.

"The mages working in the Opera House have been a great asset in handling some magical artifacts we came across that our uh... Less than scientific method of examination didn't work out well. We've been paying their salaries, but the best thing they've done is assist in a little project that Vincent was working on. A way to try and remove the lingering radiation from Paris. A small step, but a big one for the Meeting's members." She said, expressing some genuine happiness, before cynicism rapidly returned. "And a massive PR boost for the Gunner's little 'save the Desolate Land' from itself bull. 'How to cure the Desolate Lands' is probably what he'll title the speech. Oh well. If people stop getting sick in the city, and my boss gets to stroke his ego, so be it." She then looked over to Valerie. Instead of explaining herself, she just tried to answer the question.

"We could work together to locate some lost history. I know the Dark Gunner would jump on that personally, if he could dump everything else onto anyone else. Long story short, what we found through two sides of the same story involving some aliens, is that the Solarian's master was pretending to be a ghost in Paris, and secretly operating a sort of, proto-Heroes Organization, after the Desolate Lands became livable again. Problem is the people in that time thought he was an actual ghost, and well, he overestimated his ability to survive a shotgun. So, no, I don't believe we can reason with him. As for the first step of action, I need a drink first." She said, grabbing the red liquid and taking another drink.
 
Ballows smiled. “I’m glad the mages are giving out their best to assist the Opera House, but…” She turns to Valerie, concerned about the lack of an actual plan. “I was brief about the alien mage coming here to destroy everything… and…”

“And words would mean squat at this point. The mage already made up its mind to flat out sent this world to outright oblivion over something trivial.” Silence chimed in midway through Ballows talking.

“Yes…” Ballows agreed, although she was slightly annoyed. “So, what is the first course of action? Should we gather our strongest warriors and wait for it to appear somewhere?”

“I thought the Meeting of the Dark is developing a super-weapon against the mage.” Silence said. “That’s the gist of what I heard, anyways.”

“Yeah, I remember something like that as well.” 

Minute-Man, breaking out of his silence, closes his phone. “The Heroes Organization had data on the alien mage and currently attempting to develop a prototype weapon against it. However, we were promised we would get information on their side in terms of weaponry against the Solarian.” He turns to Ann, his eyes narrowed. “So, what’s the hold up?”

Jason remained quiet, wanting to hear more about the "first course of action."
 
Ann focused on Minute-Man, unnatural eyes focusing in on him, producing a phone of her own.

"While we've been chit-chatting I had a personal assistant of mine go through some of the Dark Gunner's things so I can have a better idea of what's been happening. Few things that haven't gotten properly communicated from the higher ups to people like me, the third ring on the ladder." She stated, looking down. "Things like the Dark Gunner's design for a super-weapon. That I'll get to in a moment." She looked back up to Minute-Man.

"That's strange, I was the one who was supposed to deliver the information on Solarians to the Meeting. Typical Gunner couldn't even get those orders sent out right. Anyways." She stood up and walked away from the table, reaching into a bag that was sitting nearby, sorting through bottle waters and snacks, she pulled out a book and tossed it backwards, landing right infront of Minute-Man. On the front was written A Report on Solarian Biology and Magic, and How to Kill One. She went back to the table and sat down.

"In short, Solarians store magic inside their bodies in special organelles. The easiest way to kill a Solarian is to use a special material that causes said magic to explode when exposed to Solarian flesh. A bit ironically, they developed it themselves." She said. "But that's a full report on their biology that we managed to get from what library archives the Withereds had on the Solarians, along with detailed analysis of how their magic works and how to counter it. I'm certain it'll be useful for training whoever wants to try and save the planet." She stated before looking at her phone again.

"Now, the information that I have on the Dark Gunner's ideas for a super-weapon built entirely for killing the Solarian... This is just a materials list." She said in confusion. "Mana-Burn bullets, sourced from the Withereds of Destiny's Fall... Able to explode magic on contact with Solarian flesh, effectiveness is similar to internal combustion in humans, but more violent. Void Energy Orbs located in Shia Ana by Meeting Operative... Tests from samples purchase indicate ability to rapidly dispel the energy of photons and freeze rooms, effective against the Solarian's innate preference for heat magic, track down seller's supply source. No weapon design, but that stuff... Sounds like it could kill a god level threat." She remarked looking up to the group. "In addition there is instructions for the day the Solarian arrives. Strongest warriors converge on weapon emplacement as decided by the Beyonder's, engage the Solarian to keep him distracted until the weapon can successfully hit him for a kill shot. All guilds enact their citizen protection plans as outlined by the end result of the Accord. Even a god level threat can fall to the might of heroes defending their home."
 
"So, while someone works on the design, we help harvest the materials for your superweapons?" Valerie asked with a slow intonation of the syllables as she was trying to digest all of the information presented to her. "And then work on coordinating everything for when he shows back up?" She crossed her arms pensively. "I do have one mage as a recent recruit..." 

But I'm not sure about the extent of her experience with magic being a non-Paradican... Valerie finished the sentence in her thoughts.
 
"Sounds simple enough." Jason downplay the issue, but in reality, it does seems to have a lot of work to be done here. "Get the materials, you guys build this super weapon and bam, everyone is done and over with?"

"I can probably sent out a few more mages than needed that wish to seek out this journey of finding those materials." Ballows said. 

"If my team isn't busy with their quest, I supposed I can send them on a quest to find those materials. They need the exercise anyways." Silence said.

"And in the meantime, what happens if this thing decides to attack a place? Just hold it off until it gets bored?" Minute-Man said. "It seems counter-productive that this alien thing would either not doing anything until it wants to cause a ruckus or wait for us to build this weapon." He closes his eyes for a second. "I wouldn't be surprise if he's already aware of what we're doing."
 
Ann focused on Minute-Man, the red eyes of the vampiric person trained on him as she took her seat.

"You make a solid point. The Solarian very well could appear in this room and blow us all up with one well placed fire ball. That'd be the end of organized resistance against him. Yet." She looked upwards, and then towards a wall, before then addressing the group.

"He hasn't. I can't say for certain that he's not aware of us, nor that he is. But thinking about where he appeared, the Paris Opera House, then Magician's Square, followed by Hos Complex... None of them had any linking traits. No ties to his dead master, no individuals tied to two attacks, no sort of proclamation or manifesto. It's almost like they were truly random attacks, that coincidentally involved the guilds. Paris is one of the largest population centers in the Desolate Lands, Magician's Square and Hos Complex both were major urban areas. Why would he attack any particular place, if he's just intending to burn the planet down to ashes and wipe off all life from the surface? Perhaps, he just doesn't care who he kills, as long as it satisfies an insatiable need for revenge."
 
"Let's hope he doesn't decide to pick Shina Ania as his new proving grounds," Valerie said. "That's a continent chock-ful of cultists, from what I hear. If anyone's looney enough to ally themselves with him, it might be them. But if he insists on operating alone, that might not be a problem other than indirectly giving them more motivation to cause more trouble around these parts."
 
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