But he finally opened his mouth, "Okay." Alex shrugged. "This year's trial was particularly strange, so maybe that could've happened."

And relief immediately washed Aegon. He stretched out his hands, gesturing at his chains. "Can I go now?"

"HAA!" Alex's laugh echoed throughout the tiny room. "Go now? You broke into the school and honestly? You now know more than some agents here."

"Are you talking about Extraordinary and the witch?"

"Yes, that." He concurred. "And I checked the system so I know you know what happened to his team too."

"How Nightwalker massacred them." Aegon said flatly. "And how instead of arresting the man, you people chose to experiment on a dead man."

Alex raised a hand to stop him. "You saw what he did. You watched one video, when there are more than hundreds—"

"Then why haven't you stopped him yet." Aegon cut him off. "You're the government, you're supposed to keep people safe."

Alex drew a long breath. He ran a hand across his face in exhaustion. "He is a Paragon."

"That doesn't—"

Aegon tried to argue but he wouldn't let him.

"It's not just a title. A Paragon is supposed to hope to the people, joy to the kids that there's an unstoppable force protecting them, and finally it's fear to criminals."

He paused to let his words sink in.

"And if the world finds out that pillar of society is gone... or worse, if they find out who he truly is, then safety and security is down the fucking toilet."

Alex said this with distress riddling his face, however, Aegon wasn't buying it. "Then what's the underground base?"

He shot up from his seat defensively. "It was supposed to be the answer to our prayers.

We make a threat or a hero who can rival Nightwalker, we stop him and then make that hero—the Paragon of Veltharion.

Extraordinary and the witch are just unstable subjects."

"Are there any stable subjects?"

"No." He shrugged. Sitting back down. "I feel like I've answered enough of your questions. Time for mine. Where's the witch?"

Aegon's mind blinked. "What?"

"You heard me." Alex placed his arms on his knees. "You and your friends fought two people last night. Extraordinary and the witch.

We found Extraordinary's carcass but there's no witch. I know she's in your domain which raises another question. How?"

"How what?"

"How is she in your domain? How can an Adept's mind be stable enough to contain a Melas ranked anomaly. How can..."

Alex left it open ended, now just staring at him.

"I don't know man." He answered honestly.

"Either way, thank you for that. And for everything else."

Aegon arched his damp brows "What are you talking about?"

"You and your ragtag group of friends actually found a way to contain an anomaly... You know how many awakened heroes that can't say that.

This just proves my point. True awakened are stronger than we give them credit for, which is why my first project as acting principal—"

"You're the new principal?"

Aegon blurted out.

"Acting principal." He corrected. "And I realized that maybe we need to give more awakened a chance in the limelight.

Not just you even, awakened in the juvenile facilities, mental facilities. Everyone gets a chance to be a hero."

"Even the criminals and the crazy people?"

"Yes." He crossed one leg over the other. "And it's all thanks to you and your friends.

Every Adept will be put in the next gen project, you'll go on small simple missions, under the watch of a proper awakened hero that is."

"So you'd be saving millions of Royals in paying heroes by slave labour." Aegon didn't hold back. "Great fuckin' principal. Can I leave now?"

"No." Alex said, reaching to get his tablet again. "You know about the mercenary we caught during your school attack."

He nodded. "Did he say anything yet?"

"I'm getting to that." He continued to flick across the screen of the tablet, seemingly searching for something. "Do you know about Whisper?"

"No. Who's that?"

"She's the Paragon of Solmyria with the affinity of compulsion. She's said to have the strongest compulsion ability in the continent."

He finally turned the tablet to him.

It displayed a video in an interrogation room not much different from the one he found himself in.

---

Alone in the room sat a single person. A man, shirtless, feet bare, body skinny and face swollen.

His face was downcasted as beads of sweat dropped down his forehead onto the floor. His hands and legs bound to chains in the floor.

The door eased open as Alex walked in along with an unfamiliar figure. Amber eyes, burnt orange hair tied into a single braid that stopped at her waist and a flaying trenchcoat.

Alex moved to sit in front of the prisoner in the chair. "Owen?" He called for the beaten man who raised up his face.

"Jesus!" The woman exclaimed but showed little to no expression on her face. "You have to beat him that bad."

"I didn't do this." Alex turned to her. "Lyra, this is Owen Harper, our special friend." He then gestured to Lyra. "This is Lyra Irvine, the Paragon of Solmyria and she's here to talk to you."

Owen didn't talk. His bloodshot eyes were barely visible from his swollen face.

Lyra slapped Alex on his shoulders. "I think you broke him."

"I didn't." Alex leaned closer to him. Examining his face. "Are you still able to talk?"

Owen finally opened his mouth. "I- I... won't... tell.. you... shit." That sentence alone took about a minute.

Alex faced Lyra. "He's still good."

Lyra sighed. Her heels echoing as she walked to Owen. "I'm here to relax you Owen. It seems you've been through a lot and now all you have to do is just tell me the truth."

"I'm... not telling you shit, bitch." Owen cured.

"Oh shit." Alex hissed. He reached into his pockets and retrieved earplugs. "You're gonna regret that." He chuckled slightly as he fit them in.

Lyra smiled. She bent down over him, hovering beside his ear. "I'm gonna explain this process to the best of my ability."

She whispered now. "I'm gonna ask you a few questions and then your brain is gonna give you two options.

Either you tell me what I want to know and it'll feel like you had an orgasm. Or two, you hold out and the longer you do the more the pain in your skull intensifies."

Owen froze as he heeded her warning. He turned to Alex but he just smiled.

Lyra continued, her voice even lower. "So... one last chance to do this the easy way. Tell me what you know about the mercenary group."

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