"Why, what's your reason?" Yelena asked, her head tilting slightly.

"If I'm correct, it seems the Commander is well aware of it herself, but she's trying to box it in, the news of the breach," Harley replied, moving backward, standing at ease as she folded her arms in front of her, lifting her head to the hologram.

"According to Ross, which by the way I think might be the case, she's trying not to cause any unwanted attention."

"Right now, our order is to retrieve the Nebulux Core. any other actions will be classified as unauthorized engagement," she added, locking her gaze with the huge holographic rendering of Yelena in the room.

For a moment, there was no sound in the room but the buzzing and beeping of devices all around. They were all in deep thought, thinking about the next action to take as the weight of the situation began to push in. They had to act as fast as they could before it was too late.

"Yelena, your coordinates?" Harley broke the silence, her voice echoing through the room as she stood with her arms folded.

"Solaris City, Planet Solaris, Galvanor Constellation 495," Yelena replied almost immediately, wasting no time between her response and Harley's.

Her response seemed to have given Harley a little shock as she widened her eyes a little.

"G495, how the hell did you get there?!" Harley said loudly, a little stunned by the location mentioned.

"That's irrelevant. Where I am is an operation base for the Monarch, we could pick out further information from here while we wait for rescue," Yelena replied, her verbal flow unshaken and straightforward.

"We?!" Harley asked, stunned once again by another confusing response.

"Yes," Yelena replied.

Giving her reply, she turned ahead to set her sight on Eric and Jimmy at a distance, who were having a small moment of fun as they chased after one another like children in a playing ground. Although in this case, Jimmy was the one doing the chasing, angry as he ran after Eric, swinging his katana, trying to cut him one way or the other.

For a moment, she stared silently at them, her face without expression, watching and slowly forgetting she was on a call.

From the other side, Harley and Ross saw her holographic image, looking away from them. They were a little stunned and confused by what could be grabbing her attention so tightly. Her long silent stare during an ongoing conversation was something so rare.

"Yelena??" Harley called out loudly with the aim of drawing back Yelena's attention.

"I have Eric Blackmoor, including his accomplice," Yelena replied, turning her head back to face Harley as she spoke.

"At last. Do you have them sealed?" Harley said loudly.

Once again, Yelena seemed to fall into silence as Harley strangely watched her, confused and disturbed by her inappropriate actions.

"Yelena, do you have them sealed?!" Harley spoke loudly, breaking the silence and calling on Yelena's attention.

"That won't be necessary," Yelena replied, lifting her head to correct her gaze on Harley.

"I'd like to know why, including the reason you've been acting really strange. it's undeniably visible," Harley responded, squinting her eyes, staring at the hologram as she kept her arms folded in akimbo, her subtle muscular upper body build taking shape on her tight uniform.

"There's something else you need to know," Yelena replied calmly. In that moment, she fell into silence once again as she gazed at Harley, but this time, she didn't take long before speaking.

"The Monarch, he's making some kind of bioweapon as an alternative plan just in case he fails with the Nebulux," Yelena spoke up calmly, her character her usual self as her hologram looked down at them.

"Whatever it is, NEXUS will handle it. There's no need to..." Harley replied, her words coming out confident and sharp.

But just as she spoke, Yelena interrupted her, cutting her words short.

"It's Engineered primarily for NEXUS," Yelena chimed in immediately.

Her reply immediately stunned both Harley and Ross.

"What do you mean 'Engineered primarily for NEXUS'?" Ross finally spoke, unable to hold himself after what he just heard, a possible attack on NEXUS.

"It's called NX-7. A non-polar gas, lethal to less super abled, attacks the entire internal body system, with the nervous system being the main target," Yelena replied.

"It's still in a prototype state, but even at that, I've seen and experienced what it does first hand," she added.

Harley slowly stepped forward, thinking hard about what Yelena had just told them. To her, it was something that sounded so disturbing but didn't feel serious enough initially.

"We're soldiers, I'm sure we can handle it, but I'd like to know more about this NX-7," Harley said, drawing closer to the railing.

"Data is being transferred to the report archive, five seconds to completion," Yelena replied.

Soon, a huge separate holographic image of a screen display appeared beside Yelena's holographic projection.

From it, all that Yelena had seen happen to the soldiers affected by the gas outside the operation room, through the monitor she viewed with Eric, was displayed.

The gruesome and disturbing sequence began to play again, as Harley and Ross slowly walked forward in shock, unable to believe their eyes. Harley finally brought her arms down from folding akimbo.

"What you're seeing is a confirmed recording of those affected by the gas," Yelena explained as the videos played on the huge holographic screen.

"From my calculations, it takes approximately ten seconds for the gas to completely take out its victim."

"Two seconds, the gas circulates through the body. Six seconds, the duration of the side effects. Lastly, two seconds, the time between the end of side effects and death."

"Ten seconds in total," Yelena added.

Harley and Ross watched in silent shock, their eyes and mouths wide open, unable to believe what they were seeing.

"My God!" Ross whispered softly, shocked and surprised to the extreme as he watched the huge holographic screen.

For a moment, the whole room was silent, Yelena allowing the weight of the recorded event to sink in properly as they watched in shock, silently and heavily disturbed.

"You... you said you experienced this, too," Harley stammered a bit, tilting her head to face Yelena, but her eyes were extremely locked on the holographic screen.

"In a different way, yes," Yelena replied, her voice calm and bold.

"How?" Harley responded, her tone quite shaking and a little horrified.

"As we speak, the symptoms are still very active in my body. I can still fight, but my abilities are gone, temporarily," Yelena replied, now folding her arms akimbo.

"It begins with a state of weakness, unable to control your body or even lift a finger. You slowly feel your core malfunctioning within, and then you fall unconscious for two hours."

"You wake up weak and with a bleeding nose, your ability disabled," Yelena finally added.

As they spoke, the recording playing on the holographic screen suddenly ended, but the holographic screen itself stayed active.

Harley and Ross were too shocked to mentally weigh between what they saw and the disturbing information given by Yelena.

"So you're telling me this... this gas, right now, we're only able to withstand what we just saw all because we're what?, supersoldiers?!" Ross asked in shock, still staring at the last image on the screen with his eyes widened.

In that moment, Yelena felt like ignoring Ross completely, but given the situation, it would be unprofessional and inappropriate to do so.

"Yes," she replied, confirming his words.

"How long has it been since you came in contact with the gas?" Harley, finally bringing herself together, spoke as she faced Yelena's holographic projection.

"Approximately six hours and counting," Yelena replied.

"Based on collected Intel, the total lifetime of the gas is seven hours. I have one hour left to confirm that theory," she added.

Hearing her, Ross drew closer to Yelena's holographic projection, still shocked but now calmer. His expression clearly conveyed terror.

"From the looks of it, thankfully it seems the gas isn't contagious since you've been around Blackmoor and his accomplice for such a long time," Ross spoke up, raising his head up high to the hologram.

"No side effects or symptoms have been noticed so far. For now, I'll say yes," Yelena replied.

The room was filled with a tense atmosphere that almost felt suffocating as the weight of the situation finally sank in to the extreme.

"This is truly something we have to tell the Commander," Harley spoke clearly, a serious, frowned look on her face as she folded her arms. To her, this was something not to be overlooked, it was something that threatened the very core of NEXUS.

"That bastard!!" Ross yelled loudly, slamming his fists on the railings of the upper deck upon which they stood.

"Yelena. The worker at the base you found, is the individual still with you?" Harley asked, a serious look maintained on her face.

"Yes," Yelena replied boldly.

"Good. NEXUS will retrieve her to ATLAS for more in-depth information, along with Eric Blackmoor," Harley responded.

"As if using the Nebulux for his wrongdoings wasn't enough, the coward's developing something else to take out millions," she added, walking up to a console and clicking and making hand gestures to operate it.

"This isn't something to be overlooked. Even if it's not life-threatening to us supersoldiers now, it'll be in the future."

"For hundreds of years, NEXUS has continued to enhance its soldiers to what they are today, strong, fast, agile, immune to all sickness and diseases."

"But for the first time in centuries, something challenges our very existence," Harley added.

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