Athanasia: My Hacker System

"Mark will attack our academy in any minute now, but his real target isn't to destroy it, but also to show the world what we have here, show them our advanced tech and weapons that never existed in Athanasia before."

John led his friends to the RBM Club base. Once they crossed the gate, he started explaining the situation.

The three of them exchanged worried gazes that were filled with an unanswered question. But this time, Cissel decided to throw it at John's face.

"How did you know all that?"

Asking what everyone had agreed before to never do it raised the tension in the air. Cissel didn't bother by any of that and kept pressing on.

"All of us shared our deepest secrets with you, yet you didn't. Isn't it time for you to explain yourself?"

John raised one eyebrow before calmly smiling.

"If anyone isn't pleased by how I do things, then he or she is free to leave." John crossed his arms, meeting the defiant look on Cissel's face with a confident smile.

"Hey, things didn't reach that extent." Ricky instantly jumped in, moving his eyes between the two ex-lovers who were on the course of being enemies if this continued. "Right now it's time to discuss our strategy, how to handle this situation. Not to fight among ourselves. Not to act selfishly and speak about things we agreed not to ask about."

'Is it my fault now?" Cissel met Ricky's intervention with the coldest attitude she ever showed: "Fine! I'll stick to my doubts and won't share them. Just keep playing nice with him till one day he will backstab you."

Seeing how Ricky responded with silence and a blaming gaze on her question, Cissel lost control over herself and spoke out her mind. Yet when she said these words, even herself realized she said something quite terrible and unfitting to the current situation.

So without waiting for anyone to say anything, she took a stroll around, trying to let things cool down on their own.

"Don't mind her," Luke sighed, "she isn't in her right mind since that incident."

"It's ok," John kept his smile, but neither of the two friends in front of him knew what he was exactly thinking of, "right now we need to do as Ricky said; put down a strategy. We can't openly use our weapons. not freely as we used to. We need to innovate and come up with new ways to crush these enemies."

Ricky felt bad after what Cissel said and did. But hearing what John said changed his mind for the better.

"Is that why you asked for Natalie?" Ricky asked, referring to the weird request he had asked Elena before coming here.

"If Mark plans on exposing us to the world, it means we need to fight a different battle than usual; a Media battle. Natalie will play that role for us."

"Does that mean she will join our gang?" Luke instantly asked, in a tone that held weird excitement behind his words.

"If I were you, pal, I'd exert more self-control over myself." Mond and Ben suddenly appeared from the gate, with Mond shaking off his head. "If Elena heard you right now, you'd be a dead man. Dead man, you hear me?"

"I… I didn't mean anything…"

Hearing Mond's words and recalling how fierce Elena was, Luke felt a cold shiver down his spine. Seeing him like this made everyone chuckle, even Ricky laughed.

John explained the situation to the newcomers, and then everyone started brainstorming about what to do.

The first suggestion was to simply rely upon their individual strengths, a suggestion from the simple-minded Luke that was instantly rejected by everyone.

"Didn't you hear what John said? It's not just fighting against other students, but teachers will also attack us. Are you sure you can hold your own against Nikolas? Against the Headmaster?"

Ben's words silenced Luke, making the latter realise how naïve he was to think this way.

"I say we use the traps, cannons, and other weapons we have that originated Athanasia and machines on Earth," Ricky said, "like this, even if we use things that aren't known yet to others, they will still relate it to advanced technology or some secret projects of some Paragons."

He moved his eyes among everyone, especially John. And the latter slowly nodded.

"To do it perfectly right, we'll limit ourselves to the most primitive versions of the cannons we have," John paused, thinking about the variety of weapons he had in his inventory, "on top of that, the aerial cannons, the traps and sensory networks can all work fine."

"I suggest using the grenades as well." Cissel suddenly approached from a distance, looking like she had moved away and still kept track of everything they were speaking about.

She didn't care about the weird gazes from Luke and Ricky, nor the hesitant looks at Ben and Mond. Her eyes were fixated upon John.

She knew he called for Natalie to serve a purpose in his plan, not just to tease her. And realising this point helped in cooling off her inward anger a little bit.

"But these grenades aren't known here," Luke said in confusion, "using them will bring more doubts to us…"

"No, not to this extent," Cissel calmly said, "you didn't see what I saw in my life. And believe me, such grenades have equal stuff existing in the deep vaults of many Paragons. So it's safe to use them. Actually, it's better to use them as we'll shift the blame over these Paragons."

Luke, Ricky, and John knew what she was referring to. The five of them agreed beforehand not to share the deepest secrets regarding Ricky and Cissel's true identities to anyone. Not even the newest members of their gang knew about this.

What Cissel wanted to say was that in the future, back in many of her regressions, lots of Paragons used grenades similar to what they had. That meant not only that using these grenades wouldn't arouse suspicions, but also that they could frame other Paragons in the meantime.

And that made the other three nod in agreement.

"That's a good weapon to use," Elena's voice boomed from behind, with Natalie walking by her side.

Natalie wore a short dress that stopped a few millimetres below her hips. Luke and Ricky gulped, realising that if Natalie turned around or tried to pick something from the ground, much good stuff would be revealed.

Imagining this changed the look on the two's faces, attracting weird looks from Cissel and Elena. As for the girl herself, Natalie didn't bother by any of that.

She walked like a real princess, as if there was nothing in the world that bothered her. Except for one, John.

"Is this the inside of the famous RBM Club? WOW!"

The first thing Natalie said was to turn around and express her shock. Yet she did it on purpose. She made sure that John to see a glimpse of what great things he would get later if he accepted her on his side.

But the latter didn't flinch. To John, he had one thing in mind right now and didn't see her attempts and temptations at all.

Yet other males around felt more uncomfortable. Even Luke glared for far longer than needed, making Elena poke him using more strength than needed to jolt him awake.

"You said once before you wanted to join our club," John calmly said, meeting her wide and mesmerising eyes with a steady look, "so this is your chance. If you performed well in what's coming, you'll be an official member of our team."

"Team? Not club?" Natalie might look like a real chick, but she wasn't stupid. In fact, she was one of the smartest in her department. And she didn't miss the words John selected.

"If you are destined to join us," John didn't spoil any beans to her, "then you'll get to know lots of things, including that point."

"I'm pumped up." Natalie jumped a couple of times in the air, in a theatrical way, in a showy way. Yet John simply ignored her attempts again.

"What do you want me to do?"

Natalie noticed how unaffected John was, and yet she didn't lose hope. She knew the type of man he was, and she knew how powerful she was as a lady.

To her, John was like a towering mountain stopping a giant river. At some point, the river would break through the sturdy rocks and would pave a path directly towards the heart of the mountain.

It'd take time, indeed. But she knew it was worth everything, for sure.

"I know what I'm going to say now may sound crazy, but it's the truth, and I need you to accept it fully… Our academy is going to be attacked soon enough, not just by one enemy, but by a coalition of many academies.

On top of that, the mastermind behind this attack is someone who holds deep grudges against me, against my friends, against my team. And he wants to expose everything we do to the world, for reasons I can't share with you right now. I want you to help us cover up whatever we do, and make sure if any negative stuff or rumours are spread about it, you instantly counter it."

"…"