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Chapter 75: Diverging Paths

  Chapter 75: Diverging Paths

  “...The story is still very much ongoing and every hour new details concerning the gruesome finds are coming from Germany. According to the latest news, an elite team of the LCPS had assaulted the base of a criminal conspiracy inside the LCPS. Evidence of large scale corruption, murder, illegal trade with alien bio-forms and much more was found. We will now speak to our correspondent Dan Fowler who is live in Hamburg. Dan, what developments…” The women sighed and silenced the video feed. This was regrettable. Losing the LCPS business in Europe was a setback but it also validated her safety measures. They would not find any links to the organization. The damage was not insignificant but as long as Asia and Africa were untouched by the investigations, and she would make sure this was the case, it was not the end of the world.

  She stood up from her fancy office chair and walked to the window overlooking large parts of London. Telling the man on the other side of the alien machine was a different matter. He was dangerous and did not shy away from killing “useless” members of the organization, that is how she had gotten her current job in the first place. But the man was also a megalomaniac and delusional. She had no doubt that he and his organization would eventually fall apart but she intended to be far away when this day would come. Until then, she would play her role and divert just enough money to her own accounts that nobody would ask questions.

  A week after the Hamburg raid everybody was back in the HQ including the Cullen team. It had been a difficult time between answering police questions, cooperating with the LCPS and trying to avoid a media spectacle, they had very little time to reflect on the events themselves. Back in the villa in Italy the place felt like a funeral. People were walking around, gathering in small groups and talked with muted voices. Marcus himself was more shocked than he dared to admit. Not only the betrayal from Ronald Brahms but the things they had found in that facility made him question many things. Besides the murdered office workers they found another mass grave in the cellar with many workers. Illegals as the police later determined. Marcus could not fathom that people from the LCPS had done such a horrific things.

  “How are you doing?” Marcus asked Cullen who made himself a coffee. “Badly. As you would expect.” He said with a sad smile. “I’m sorry that I did not tell you about Ron. I was worried about your life.” Cullen said and Marcus knew that this was the truth. There was no other reason behind Cullen’s actions, just concern for his life. Rian Cullen was odd in many ways, Marcus found and he wondered if he would not fit to their weird little clan. But at this moment Cullen was in need of time to reflect and to heal, Marcus understood that. The rest of his team was very much the same. Non of them had any interest in going back to the LCPS, promotions or not. Marcus and the clan talked with all of them and said goodbye to one after the other, as they left.

  Pierre and Elise left first, joining a cooperation in France thanks to a contact from Pierre’s family. They would be close to home and if Marcus understood some hints correctly they would work on becoming a family too. Ben went back to Germany and to his family for now. He said something about joining the German military, not what Marcus had expected but to be honest Marcus did not know Ben well at all. Rian Cullen, or Rian how he wanted to be called by Marcus now, decided to lay down arms all together, at least for now. He said that he wanted to concentrate on creating things, helping to heal and sooth the soul. Marcus felt a deep respect for the man and hoped they would cross paths in the future again.

  Lastly Elena would be joining Cerberus. That was something Janette had cooked up and it was a giant chance for Elena. Normally Cerberus did not take members under level 50, they are a real elite clan after all. But being married to one of the clan leaders can come in handy and Cherry was always looking for talent. When Marcus asked Janette why she did it she said “Because Elena is the right kind of person for Cerberus. She would not fit us and under the guidance of my Cherry, she will grow strong. Having powerful allies is important too.”. Every time Marcus thinks Janette is only goofing around she pulls one of those far thinking moves and surprises him.

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  The news about the LCPS corruption scandal vanished a few days later from the news cycle as rumors of a big announcement world wide hit the public. Marcus and the clan already had a good idea what was coming and two days later dozens of nation leaders stepped in front of cameras and declared a marked change in the use of monoliths and portals. The existence of the ginghi was revealed together with the many ruins on hundreds of worlds.

  Marcus was actually surprised that such a united front had emerged and he wondered how hard his father and other scientists must have worked in the background to make it happen. The one outlier of course was the USA, they declared they would not diminish the freedom of their population, what a blatant lie. The USA had already extremely strict rules for the monoliths and the average American had no chance to ever get chosen, besides PR heavy lottery events. What followed was the expected social riots, anger, talks about conspiracies and a wave of lawsuits. This would have consequences for the clan, too. New rules, new restrictions meant stronger competition for jobs and work for class holders.

  After several days things had finally cooled down a bit and Janette called Marcus and the rest to a meeting. “Until now I have not yet spent my last two crests.” She announced and Marcus realized this was true and wanted to know why. “Because I have learned from your mistakes. If I’m right I should pass the threshold for my third ability once I spent them and in case it is a Game Changer I don’t want to end up lying on the cold floor until somebody eventually finds me.” That was smart and somehow it upset Marcus. Janette spent her two crests into willpower and then they waited.

  “Looks like nothing is happening.” Janette looked a bit disappointed “That means I will have to figure out a new ability.” She sighed and everybody was about to leave when Janette suddenly said “I take it back. I’m loosing my vision! I’m blind! I’m blind!” In seconds Janette turned blind and Marcus helped her sit down on a nearby chair. “If this all that is happening then it will be a breeze compared to mine.” he joked but Janette’s expression changed. “Guys, have you stopped talking?” She was going deaf too.

  While the clan tended to Janette, Marcus called Cherry explaining what was going on. He could hear her shout Rin’s name through the phone and thirty seconds later Cherry rushed through the door embracing her wife. At that point Janette had already lost the ability to speak and soon after she lost the sense of touch and muscle control.

  Two days Cherry stayed next to her, cradling Janette in her arms, and waiting for the change to pass. Eventually Janette opened her eyes again and the first thing she saw was Cherry. “You are an angel.” Janette said and got a lot of kisses as reward. She was very happy about that but also said “No, I mean it, you...actually all of you have an aura around you.” She explained looking around the gathered class holders. Her new passive ability was extremely obvious and beyond broken. “I can see something like a glow covering your bodies, it is different for each of you in color, size and form.” The broken part was for one that she could see this through objects, like walls and at distances over one hundred meter. But that was not yet enough.

  After getting feed by her wife, and enjoyed being taken care off by everybody, Janette observed something else. “When you move around the aura moves a split second before your body actually moves.” Janette explained and when Grace made some high speed arm movements, Janette was able to predict them a fraction of a second in advance. “How is that possible? How can the aura move before you do?” Achara asked and Marcus wondered about that too. “It might be the difference between deciding to move and your nerves sending the message to cause the movement. There is a physical delay.” Kou said and for now that seemed to be the best explanation.

  “But in all honesty, this Game Changer is completely broken. You were already able to wall hack but now you can see every class holder that comes too close and can lock on to them. Not to talk about an undeniable reaction bonus. Even if somebody wants to dodge your attacks you can see where they are dodging to and can compensate.” Grace said and everybody agreed Janette had now the most broken class in the clan.

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