Chapter 70: Phase Two

The Praetor Academy & Institution incident became the top news featured across all channels, local and international. The news also became viral across the internet.

            The Anti-Esper faction are huge, one with many subgroups all carrying different names for themselves. Not all of them are terrorist, only the extremist would go as far as to wield weapons against innocent people.

            Parson was quietly sitting at the top of the stairway in the gym, the building was filled with kids of all ages and he chuckled at how well organized they are. The thing about kids is that you can never get them to listen and barely could bear profit other than being hostage. Which is why, witnessing kids lined up perfectly without a single cry or whine made him so amused.

            "Hey you!" Parson called out to one of his men, who was currently standing to keep an eye on the kids. He pointed his hand at himself and Parson nodded.

            "Do you know what Praetor means?" It was quite sudden that the man blinked a few times, he was expecting an order but instead he got a question.

            "No, I don't Sir, what does it mean?"

            "Praetor is the title given to the Roman General, giving the rights to enforced law and to lead soldier to their victory and to their success. I think the Chairman had hope the children here would be someone who leads people to a brighter future." as Parson talked, the man could only listen without knowing what he meant by telling him this. He wasn't so brave so he couldn’t interrupt, so he kept quiet nervously.

            "Now look at them!" he said, gesturing his hand to the children, "Don't they look like a soldier instead of a general? Disposable and easy to manipulate?"

            Parson glanced down at the ring, amazed at the resources and intelligence to build this technology. Controlling one’s mind is one of the worst scenario that might happened to an esper, a prototype of such technology is still being research, but governments and many affiliations decided to counter the inevitable future at hand with a shackle on their brain, thus the Bracelet. Though turning the shock mode of the bracelet was an option, he knew that it won't happen for these kids but he also knew the people outside would have wished they made that choice.

            He closed his eyes and began imagine the current situation. The Normal are all in the academy which is on lock down, trapping them inside. All the espers present are under their control presumably. The employees are held captive and being watched at the dome. It was almost time for Phase 2 of the plan. He put away his transceiver and switched his attention to his ear buds, "Team Beta, get to your position and Team Charlie, stand by for now, protect the Caterpillars, remember using them isn't your priority!"

"Copy that."

             Once it was silent, he thought about the possible outcomes from this. He racked his brain, considering all possibility, making sure that there was no hole in his plan. There was static coming out of his receiver, "What is it?" he asked to the other line.

            "Sir, we spotted two kids on the loose, we tried to catch them but we lost them."

            "How could you lost two kids?! Didn't you use the ring?"

            "Well...you see...it didn't affect them...we weren't sure why but it didn't"

            "Then FIND THEM! they're espers, who knows what kind of ability they have so don't underestimate them. I don't want anything to affect our plan, we're already walking a dangerous line here you imbecile!"

            "Yes Sir!"

               It wasn't long then that he heard screams coming front the back gate that didn’t faze him.

               Phase 2 has begun.

#

Few minutes when the terrorist's plan is still lurking, the bustling at the front school's gate that gain more spectators by the minute. Agent Hawk was reviewing his plan with his team at that time. There were few revelations since he came and many unknown factors.

            "We came here assuming that we're up against another terrorist group from the Anti-Esper Faction, but after several considerations it is highly unlikely that's who we're up against. First thing I like to point out is why they're not—in technical terms-terrorists, and I suggest we put that set of mind away if we’re going to counter them” a woman raised her hand to interrupt, Captain Ford had a displeased look, but she looked that way most of the time.

            "Your assumption is nothing but baseless conjecture, if having children as hostages, killing innocents with military grade weapons, and terrorizing innocent people are not terrorism, then what are you saying this case is?"

            "Unfortunately even I'm not sure of that, but I have my basis. Two of them is the number of terrorists and their strategic movement."

           Captain Ford raised an eyebrow, "What about it?"

            "That's the problem. In my experience in handling terrorism, most terrorist would just use bombs. The reason why because it's much safer and simpler is because the culprits are far away from the incident and thus will not lose manpower nor the costs. Just by infiltrating and putting the bomb discreetly would cause a lot of damage and you don't have to be at the scene of the crime and get involved as well.  There are those who would go out attacking in the open, but there are two main problems in this approach.

             One, most terrorist attacks openly are just civilians with a gun. They don't have training to handle weapons and make good strategies, resulting to just be satisfied after creating chaos even if they died in the process. Two, terrorism are usually done in few amount of number because terrorism itself is like a suicide mission, not many has the will to actually volunteer in such a mission and unwise for one to do so.”

            "True, according to the witness, there were several vans that could have carried maybe 50 of them, too many for a simple terrorist attack. Since the gate closes immediately afterwards, we could assume they had infiltrated the school. We lost any means of contacting anyone inside the building and it was done swiftly and precisely. Though they are children, there are still over a hundred espers in there to retaliate and yet there's no sign of struggle ever since the break in. It's possible they're using an ESP nullifying tool against them and I hardly doubt a simple civilian could have such tool, but that still doesn't tell us why they aren't terrorist or why they're not from the Faction"

            "I thought so too, but then I ask myself why do they need a large amount of people, why after infiltrating the school they didn't use a bomb and be done with it, why do they shut themselves inside where there's nowhere to run? It's still conjecture but don't you think using that much people would mean that they are trying to detain the espers instead of killing them? Maybe even searching for a particular esper wouldn't be farfetched. If that's true then the thought they are from the Faction would be preposterous."

            "If it’s true then why make a scene? If they are aiming for the children why the risk of exposing themselves in danger when they could steal the data from the school and kidnapped the espers they wanted just like the Killer Mole Case?"

            "Yes, I'm quite stuck at that thought as well. It would be great if I knew more what's going on. Hey! Can someone with Clairvoyance or some other espers could tell me what's going on?! Time is in essence here people!"

             A man then came at his call, he is part of the Counter-terrorism Unit but Agent Hawk remembered him as his green horn comrade though he had been working for one and half years now. To his eyes he was still a green horn, that---and he loves teasing him whenever he see his baby face of a 28 year old man. "Oy Greeny what do you have?"

            He turned to face Agent Hawk, still wearing his stern face. As annoyed as he was, he had long been used to it. "For the last time can you stop calling me that! Anyway, I've been staying connected with my telepathy with one of our agent in that school. Right now the employees, the normal and esper kids are all separated in different buildings. The most shocking part was the terrorist had strange rings that could control their body."

            "WHAT!” choked out Agent Hawk, “A mind control device, are you serious?! Isn't that kind of thing needs another 10 years of research before being realized?"

            "However, the fact is it's being use right now."

            Agent Hawk began to rub his forehead, "What about the men we sent inside, any word from them yet?"

             "Four teams were dispatched and successfully infiltrated inside Sir. All of them were heading towards where the hostages are kept, hopefully we could get them out."

             "Hope isn't enough, the lives of children are on the line here, Dammit! What exactly are they planning?" As he thought hard, cracking his brain, his partner received new info telepathically and cracked a smile. "Good news! The South Team that went inside from the back gate found kids running toward them. It seemed they have out maneuvered them and is now being escort outside."

            When he heard that, a horrible scenario struck him. He was begging God he'd be wrong. He grabbed his partner shoulder with his rough hand and looked with intense eyes, eyes that make you weak and stun. "Arthur do NOT let them outside, tell them that's an order until I go there!"

         

          His partner was about to do just that before he got another message from the other side, he couldn't make up most of what he says other than 'Help', 'kids', 'attack'. The expression he had tells him his gut was right. "Agent Hawk what's the meaning of this!" he looked back at Captain Ford, showing him her smartphone that was reporting live the events happened at the Back Gate. Agent Hawk had seen and experienced many things, but he could say right now that nothing was more chilling and terrible then a group of kids killing a team of grown adults. Three agents were already down, the rest was struggling with the group of kids.

            Agent Hawk felt deep chill and boiling anger when he saw expression of the girl they recognized in the video.  She looked at the camera with dead plain expression as if the body beneath her and the blood sprayed on her face meant nothing. However, even he could see the despair in her eyes and deep down he was afraid of one thing.

            She was aware, she had murder a person.

Sorry for the delay, busy with assignments and getting my drenched phone fix, I hope you enjoy today's double chapter :)