Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

The Hidden Ruler—Benjamin Daublin-Lawson—scowled as he heard the news.

Camp Hampstead, Astorian Army base. Camp Ackermont, Astorian Airforce. Worse, the latter had silos of cross-continent ballistic missiles, and by taking it over, whoever it was now threatened most of eastern Astoria.

He glared at the remnants of the rifts and at the thick daemonic dust that clung to the ground. A distraction.

His mind raced as he considered all the possibilities and angles of the current circumstances. Neo Prism City, as with most cities that had more than a million in population, were a hotbed of Altered Human activity. The recent efforts by the government to harness this potential saw an overturning of decades-old biases and prejudices. It was slow going, but the heavy machinery of mass communication and public relations had already shown change. Altered humans were now heroes and villains akin to children’s shows and comic books, as opposed to dangerous terrorists or armed individuals at best.

He listened to the winds. It brought all the conversation, whispered, shouted, calmed, and panicked, all at once. He was long used to parsing out the dross, so he focused on only the ones that caught his attention.

“...stead fell an hour ago, Ackermont just half an hour. There’s no intelligence on the state of the ballistic missiles, survivors, or any word from the aggressors. Any assets in the perimeter are captured or killed while civilians are driven away…” That came from a boosted radio transceiver. He wasn’t sure who the voice belonged to, but it was familiar.

“That’s unfortunate,” Arcmind, Alexis Dunn, said in a flat voice, not a hint of fear from his tone.

“It’s worse than that,” The Hidden Ruler said, “It’s a sword hanging point down at our collective heads, and it stays by a thread.”

“What do you want to do about it then?”

The Hidden Ruler shook his head ruefully, “I don’t know what those fools are planning to do, but there’s no room for hesitation. Gather our forces, we’re going to make a play for it.”

“That’s more than a hundred longstrides away,” Arcmind said slowly.

Benjamin looked pointedly at Steel Hive, who was flying idly above the crowd. Arcmind followed his gaze and then nodded.

“Ah, yes, the Swift.”

A humbly named aerial vehicle that could cross that distance within twenty minutes or less was capable of carrying a few people. The number actually depended on what the robot bee-obsessed mechanically-gifted Altered Human’s moods. The man tinkered with the conveyance as part of his destressing activities every evening.

The Hidden Ruler sent his voice to Steel Hive. “Ready the Swift. We’re striking Camp Ackermont as soon as we can.”

The metal-clad Altered nodded and flew off. His passage wasn’t noticed by anyone save for Benjamin's granddaughter, who was either completely uncaring of how thin her disguise was, or perhaps she was naive enough to think a mask that didn’t even cover her whole face could hide her identity forever.

After a moment, he squinted at Lilibeth. No. She used to be naive and foolhardy. She chased after that disgrace of a boy for so long…

Thankfully, she had awoken from that delusion, though it did bring about numerous changes. He sighed. His son was a fool to abandon Lilibeth, but then again, her condition back then wasn’t all that good either. Taken objectively, cutting her loose had been a viable move. Though it backfired once she got her act together. Now, they could only move in the shadows to ease tensions and to help.

That agent of hers in that studio kept him updated anyway, though the man’s obsession with Lilibeth was…well, stranger than normal. At the very least, he didn’t make any underhanded moves and was quite obedient to his granddaughter’s whims.

Or, far more likely, Lilibeth’s vanity power was strong enough to almost look like mind control. It wasn’t, of course. He glanced at Arcmind and snorted. Influence was the more apt description, and unlike control, it was harder to notice and much harder to counter. Even he was affected by Lilibeth’s odd influence, especially when he chanced upon her television commercials or fashion magazine pictures.

He half complained about how exposed she looked in those things, but her expression and countenance betrayed no discomfort at all. He also got the raw files and was more than surprised to find that almost nothing had been modified from it. Lighting, background adjustment, and other odd things, but nothing on his granddaughter had been changed. It was all natural.

And proved how insidious a properly used vanity Alteration was.

But it was only now that he truly saw how powerful her other Alterations were. Flight, telekinesis—though it had an odd disadvantage of being too visible—and… sword? He didn’t know she practised fencing. No, it wasn’t that. The way Lilibeth handled her conjured sabre spoke of years of use, not just the couple of cycles that joining the fencing club would give her. Another part of her Alteration? Skills and knowledge were sometimes part of an Alteration, but it was just as likely that she received a power that enhanced the speed at which she learned things. Yes, that was more likely.

His smartphone received a call. Unlike regular phones, his was linked up to a more secure communications hub, though at his current circumstances, he could only contact those outside the state or anyone else connected to the same hub. The screen read, General Wright.

He created a thin, sound-negating barrier and answered the phone.

“I’m calling in a favour,” the General said.

“What is it?”

“Extraction. Ackermont’s essential staff, those who survived.”

“We’re headed there anyway.”

“I see. Prioritise that. Missiles were remotely neutralised so they can’t fire in the short term. Either extract the key officers or eliminate them before they give out the bypass codes.”

“Timeline?”

“As soon as you can. Another black team will arrive within three hours.”

Benjamin snorted. A black team? That meant even he and his team would be attacked if they crossed paths. And that was without the added complication of the invaders and whatever force they used to invade and capture the camp. Or camps, rather. That was two that he knew of… and perhaps more would fall in the interim. There was a naval base up the coastline, and border defences up north. They weren’t full military bases, just outposts, but they secured Astoria from the northern territories.

The shifting quilt of city-states, nomads, and tribes in the vaster north had always been the ideal location for exiles, criminals, and frontiersmen, and most were an unholy mix of it all. The place was about three times larger than republic land, but most of it was inhospitable. Freezing cold, or sweltering heat that depended on the Season, plus rugged terrain and unpredictable weather. However, the north was rich in mineral resources and about half of Astoria’s industry was reliant on imports from former colonies. In modern times, the northern border was meant more to keep Astorian citizens from venturing into the frontier without a license, in search of wealth, but the unprepared were often turned to cold corpses should they venture into the wrong place.

Camp Ackermont was an air base, and its ballistic missiles could reach across most of the vast expanse. A deterrent for any burgeoning nation of marauders so that they’d stay there instead of coming down south. And now, the base’s missiles threaten Neo Prism City as well as the nation’s capital, Astoria City, which was a few hundred longstrides further south.

A call connected from Steel Hive. “The Swift can hold four people at the moment. Rally at the station?”

Benjamin grunted. He had three ‘Capes’ available at the moment, and he was strong enough to hold down conventional forces by himself. He called his Alteration Pressure, though it didn’t start that way. Back when he first had it, he could move the wind as if he were an electric fan. Useful on a hot day but not much else. It took a decade of dedication, grit, and the will to push things until he evolved his Alteration to something akin to telekinesis, except he only moved air in vast quantities. He refined that ability until he could press down on selected points with the weight of several hundred atmospheres. He did have enough control not to crush anyone into a pulp, though. In fact, crossing that line was actually a deliberate act rather than an incidental one. A relief, otherwise he would have been a murderer by accident rather than by choice.

He could handle the invaders by himself if they were just normal humans and not Altered. But considering that he’d just fought daemonic apes off, he doubted that the enemy forces would be just that. And considering that even with focused attention, it took too much focus to crush a daemonic ape to a pulp, it would be unwise to be overconfident. That meant he needed to add another to his team, and there was one readily available.

His granddaughter, Lilibeth. Or Regalia, as her Cape name. He thought to approach her in this identity now, but hesitated. Only his inner circle amongst the family and the conglomerate, knew of his Altered Human nature, and the girl certainly didn’t know of it. But if he hoped to bring her back to the fold, a measure of trust must be extended. But it shouldn’t occur here, in public.

“Arcmind, ask Regalia to join us for the rescue operation.”

The younger man glanced at him in surprise, then nodded. Benjamin scanned for the young woman with his power and easily found her near the makeshift infirmary, talking to an independent heroine. He directed Arcmind there with a whispered word, then continued to observe. He called on his power to transmit their voices to him, but despite the fact that he’d practised that particular trick extensively, the audio was rather intermittent.

“You know…am?”

“It’s kinda…vious.”

“Ah, was it…ning?”

“Not…figure…shape…”

“Incredible.”

“Voice.”

“Ahaha.”

“What…want?”

The sound abruptly cut off, and Benjamin blinked in surprise. He wasn’t within line of sight, so it shouldn’t be obvious he was paying attention to the conversation and… Huh. His wind sensing abruptly encountered a wall. So her telekinesis had broader applications than he expected.

He felt a flare of envy that he quickly squashed. How long had she been Altered? It couldn’t be longer than half a year. She learned and expanded her skill set so quickly it beggared belief and only confirmed that she had a learning ability as well. He could have used that in his youth, couldn’t he? Ah, a pity.

He noticed the Swift approach, and he moved out of the sublevel where the station was mostly located. The aerial vehicle looked more like a flying box than a plane or a helicopter, and it generated lift through a set of four thrusters located at each corner. Those thrusters could swivel nearly a hundred and eighty degrees on the y-axis and about a hundred and twenty on the x. This allowed it the ability to take off and hover like a copter, but could achieve higher speeds. Steel Hive lowered the vehicle to a landing spot and opened the side hatch.

It still looked like a flying van.

He sighed at the inelegance, but it was still the fastest personal conveyance he had access to, and time was short. The audio wall around Lilibeth and Alexis disappeared, and he noted the pair were headed here. He entered the Swift, though he didn’t take a seat just yet.

Less than a minute later, both of the youngsters boarded the Swift. Lilibeth stared at him for a long moment, then snorted, “I didn’t expect you.”

The Hidden Ruler raised an eyebrow, the gesture discernible through his morph mask, “Didn’t expect me?”

“No, gramps. Not really.” Lilibeth sighed, and her mask vanished, “But that’s not really the point now.” Her following grin was rather feral, “I hear you’re going to cause trouble for the invaders, huh? That’s nice.”

Alright. Maybe she changed more than he could really expect. But he liked it.