The Butterfly Dragon: The Two Butterflies - Episode 12 (Work in Progress updated September 26, 2024 - New Artwork Up - Even More To Come)

Chapters

The Adventure Playground Bridge (Finished on August 7, 2024)
Collective Tech (Finished on August 7, 2024)
Cover Girl (Finished August 8, 2024)
Family Photo (Finished August 8, 2024)
Playing Gregory (Finished August 9, 2024)
Cities Never Sleep (Finished August 13, 2024)
Barnacles Beneath The Waterline (Finished August 15, 2024)
Grey Matter (Finished August 16, 2024)
Night Club (Finished August 17, 2024)
The Pursuer And The Pursued (Finished August 22, 2024)
Ghosts Of The Past (Finished August 26, 2024)
The Jaded Table (Finished August 31, 2024)
All Lied Or Allied? (Finished September 06, 2024)
The Little Girl, The Butterfly And The Macro Organism (Finished September 14, 2024)
BIOTERM (Finished September 16, 2024)
West Meeting East: Mentis Unveiled (Finished September 24, 2024)
Sifu, Kyoshi, Sebomnim And The Butterfly Dragon (Finished September 26, 2024)
The Balance In Change And The Change In Balance... (Started October 4, 2024)

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Brian Joseph Johns

The Butterfly Dragon: The Two Butterflies - Episode 12

The Adventure Playground Bridge

Warai sat on a bench near the school's adventure playground, the remainder of a red bean cake in her hand as she chewed the delectable morsel. She watched the other children playing, more interested in seeing how the people she knew fit in with those she didn't.

At the ripe age of six, and a few days away from her seventh birthday, she was already reflecting upon her life's experience thus far.

...

She'd (mostly) healed from her time under the tutelage of Habus Macill and his secret school in the no-man's land between North and South Korea. A place where she'd been neither of the North or of the South. As Habus had put it, he'd done away with both notions that divided the minds of like people, in favour of nurturing a unified mind.

Habus himself was not Korean, nor even a child of the region, but the no-man's land since fleeing his failed temple, had become a beacon that some places in the world were ready for his teachings. Ready for what the unified mind had to offer a separated people.

She'd arrived there with her biological mother, who herself had fled similarly to Habus. Both in search of a (no-man's) land that would accept them and their wayward philosophy, though in the case of Warai's mother, a woman whose name she could not recall, her flight was in pursuit of safety for her daughter, rather than for her own peace of mind. She knew that what pursued her would eventually catch up and one day, Mentis did catch up with her.

Deep in the forestation of the Korean No-Man's land, she traveled to a GPS point to meet with what she was told were a forward observation team sent by the CIA. Her safety had been assured in exchange for her cooperation in gathering valuable intelligence pertaining to North Korea's Bunker Project, a facility where their ballistic missile program was being developed.

Her only concern being her daughter, she arrived at the meeting point, and awaited the arrival of whom she assumed would be her handlers. She would negotiate with them in the hopes of procuring her daughter a future, even if that same future did not include her. However, those who'd arrived to the rendezvous point, were not those whom she was expecting.

They were ill equipped, with many ad-hoc tools, with the exception of their weaponry. For a team that represented one of the most advanced nations of the world, they were ill equipped for the regimens of the region, and she called them on this: their obvious bluff.

Before the gunfire had erupted, she'd already planned an escape route. She fled in the direction of an opening in the forest canopy, in the direction of the setting sun. She descended a hill, where the forest opened up, revealing a piercingly bright star, whose measure was amplified by the curvature of the horizon. She ran across the flat ground of the opening as her pursuers arrived.

They leveled their pistols at her as she fled, though they were blinded by the setting sun in whose direction she'd fled.

"Foxtrot! She's running due west of our arrival point. She's got to be half a click south of you and about halfway through an opening in the canopy. Can you take her from there?" asked one of the men into his handheld radio.

"Are you kidding? That's why I'm here and why Mentis signs my cheques directly. Have Bravo team force her to this side of the ridge, and I'll clip her," he said, peering down his scope.

"You get that Bravo?" asked the man with the radio.

"I do now," a man wearing a balmora suddenly ran up from the south and to within earshot, arriving at their point, as inadequately equipped as were they.

"You were supposed to be at the second waypoint west of here! We need you to flush her north, just over the ridge there!" the man with the radio turned to face their only member of Bravo team.

"For what?" he asked Alpha team.

"You're to flush her out north for a sniper. A specialist operating directly under the orders of Oscar Mike! Get to it!" the Alpha team leader yelled.

"Take it easy. I'm on it," the man turned and ran westward, keeping himself on the southern flank of the ridge as the Alpha team continued their pursuit behind him.

Bravo ran as fast as he could, sprinting with all of his endurance in pursuit of their tango, when out of the corner of his eye, he sighted her, much further north than he'd expected her.

His eyes met hers, and he realized he'd been made.

"No! Wait! Don't run!" he yelled at her as she ran further north to escape him.

She was no fool, and would never fall for such a ploy as a pursuer asking her to wait or stop.

These were matters of life and death. Not a mere inconvenience of schedule. The only schedule there was in their encounter, was life expectancy. However, she wasn't doing this for herself. She was doing this for her daughter.

Bravo suddenly realized that he only had one chance. He pulled his 9mm stamped metal handgun from his webbing, and grabbed one of the auxilliary magazines that had been provided to him to by his real support team.

He removed the hollow point clip from his gun, and replaced it with the specialized clip of ammo. He then fired the first chambered round, one of the original ammunition into the air and continued in pursuit of his tango.

"Dammit!" he cursed under his breath out of frustration.

Alpha team by this point had moved close enough to apply constant pressure on her. The three man team fired a volley of shots in her direction, coaxing her ever northward along her westerly path, over the ridge.

Bravo sprinted until he was at the limits of his breath, diving to the ridge floor when he spotted her.

His heart pounded furiously as he leveled the gun and fired at her several times, missing her.

Alpha team by that point had closed their distance to the tango substantially. One of the men fired upon her, narrowly missing her head by a margin.

Bravo saw this and was spurred to action.

He turned and fired upon the member of the Alpha team who'd lined her up, letting three shots off at his head. One of them clipped the side of his head, and he fell immediately to the ground unmoving.

"What the f***! Is he dead?!!!" asked the Alpha team leader.

"Negative! Rubber rounds... He'll be out for a while but he's not dead," their team medic replied.

"Foxtrot, Bravo has gone rogue!" Alpha team reported to their sniper support.

"I didn't copy that Alpha. Say again?" Foxtrot responded to their radio intelligence.

"Bravo has gone rogue! Take him down upon sight! We're in pursuit of the tango! We'll flush them northward," Alpha team reported.

She checked behind herself for any signs of her pursuers, and when she was confident she'd lost them, she continued her path west by north west.

Bravo caught sight of her once again, and sprinted up the ridge directly at her, looking for a point of cover from which to fire upon her.

"Dammit! Stop! You're running directly at the reaper!" Bravo screamed at her as he pursued her towards the top of the ridge.

[Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper]

She heard a determined voice from behind her. A voice that sounded sincere. Passionate. Almost like the voice of her daughter, though obviously spoken by a man.

At the top of the ridge, she peeked over the top, suddenly realizing that to her left, a group of two men were in pursuit of her. Just east of her position, the top of a stump exploded as the 7.62x45mm sniper round impacted.

Bravo arrived to a point just behind, standing and leveling his gun at her.

She spun to face him and he saw the eyes of Warai's mother for the first and only time.

He ripped his Balmora off of his face, revealing the face of a much younger Braden.

"Look, I know about you and your daughter, but these people aren't who you think they are. They're with Mentis, one of Habus' former allies, but in all honesty, treachery seems to be common between them. However, I can help you, but you're in a very dangerous place. A place few assets would opt for, except for me. You see, I want you and your daughter to make it out of here alive, to North Korea, South Korea, or whatever works for you, as long as you both make it there. Together. If it doesn't work out from there, then we'll see what we can do to get you where you want to be, but you have to trust someone first, and all I'm asking you is to consider that person might be me. Long enough for me to deal with these people who are being paid to see you dead," Braden pleaded with Warai's mother.

The mother of Warai Jeong-Min Tokama.

A shot rang out from the east, and from one of the hand guns of team Alpha, just barely missing her. She screamed, looking first to Braden, and then to the North.

"No!" Braden screamed, turning to return fire upon the members of Alpha team who were pushing her into the reaper's line of sight.

Braden emptied his magazine of rubber rounds, first firing at Alpha team to keep them pinned, and then at her in an attempt to injure her leg so as to save her life.

Alpha team suddenly ducked for cover, despite their knowing his rounds were rubber. They fell to the dirt of the ridge as they watched their tango flee directly in the direction of the reaper.

Braden by that point had spun, and was firing at her calfs, trying with futility to cease her advance towards the top of the ridge.

The last pull of his trigger lacked any report, for it was as powderless and empty as his chances to save her.

When he heard the report of the rifle echoing through the valley and over the ridge, he knew that she was gone.

That Mentis, even on the other side of the world from where he'd risen, had won.

...

Braden, a week later had arrived in Seoul. Broken and lost, despite the backing he'd received for the covert mission to which he'd agreed. His luggage still packed in the closet of the hotel room where he'd stowed it, he surmised correctly that the entirety of his life was now in his baggage.

All the memories he'd had of his family and their lives, contained in photo albums and newspaper printouts, from across the Southeast Asian region.

He checked his messages, finding two from local consolates, one of which was advertising for a Success Roast And Banquet, celebrating the future of United Nations backed tourism and industry. The second however, was a lead from a small INTERPOL office in Naples, Italy.

He checked his phone, and the text message he'd received which indicated a code, six digits in length, which was identical with the asset number he'd been given for his failed mission: to interdict and interpose unknown forces seeking to assassinate a woman who'd fled from Tsushima with her daughter, to the No-Man's land between North and South Korea. The woman herself would need to have been safely extracted.

...

Two days later, Braden was seated in the waiting room of an office just off of Via Firenze in Naples, a cheap blazer and sunglasses adorning his presence.

[You know? If you can't believe in what you do, how can you do that which is necessary?]

"Lo sai? Se non puoi credere in quello che fai, come puoi fare ciò che è necessario?" the man asked Braden.

Braden looked to the man, understanding some of what he'd stated, but not nearly enough to take him seriously.

[Ho appena visto morire la madre di una bambina. Proprio davanti ai miei occhi. Stai dicendo che se non ci credo, quella bambina riavrà indietro sua madre?"]

"I just saw a little girl's mother die. Right before my eyes. Are you saying that if I don't believe it, that little girl will have her mother back?" Brandon spoke, hoping the man whose speech he'd understood partially would add to the wisdom he'd implied.

[No. I'm saying that you're not finished. Perhaps it is you that will do what that little girl's mother tried to do.]

"No. Sto dicendo che non hai finito. Forse sarai tu a fare ciò che la madre di quella bambina ha cercato di fare." the man replied to Braden.

The Commissioner's door opened, and a tall fearless man with a bushy unibrow and a cheap suit greeted them.

Braden noticed that there was a moment of intensity between the Commisioner and the man with whom he'd been speaking.

The Commissioner invited Braden and the man with whom he'd been speaking earlier into his office, closing the door behind them as they found seating and began their debriefing.

A week later and Braden had received a reply to his request for tasking. and the operation details had been approved for funding. His final meeting would be with Ms. Huệ Vân whom he'd never met. He traveled to her estate an hour by DCar just outside of Ho Chi Minh City and after their meeting, he left for South Korea once again.

It was within that same week that Braden set foot in Habus' camp in the no-man's land between North and South Korea after several day's hike through the wilderness.

From the point he'd made contact with Warai, he'd become her greatest protector, before their meeting the Butterfly.

One day, between his duties at Habus Macill's clandestine Center For Re-Education, he'd sat with Warai as they ate their lunch together.

"What was my mom like?" asked Warai.

"She was... determined... to protect her little girl," Braden explained to Warai.

"What does that mean? Determined?" she asked him, still struggling to transfer her knowledge of Korean to learn English.

"It means, to always do the thing you need to do, without stopping until its done or until you can't do it anymore," Braden said thoughtfully.

"Then why did she stop?" asked Warai of Braden.

"She didn't. And she won't. Ever. Why do you think I'm here?" Braden said to her.

Warai remained quiet, for she didn't truly know or understand.

"If I need to stay safe, how do I trust other people?" asked Warai.

"There's as many answers to that question as there are people in the world, and there's a lot of people," Braden answered her.

"Then how?" Warai pressed him further.

"Protect your boundaries and what's right for you, and for other people," Braden smiled.

"How do I know who to trust?" she continued.

"Well, sometimes you have to give them a little chance. An opportunity to prove that they're not going to hurt you when you open the door to let them into your life, but for us and our situation, we always have to err on the side of caution. That means we have to be careful of everyone, because the people who want to take you or hurt you aren't going to announce their intentions. They'll do it as soon as they're close enough," Braden told her, a look of sympathetic concern on his face.

"But that means that I can't have any friends!" Warai seemed perplexed by the thought of not being able to trust other people and to be trusted herself.

"You have me? That's where we're starting from, and there's still a very long way to go. You'll meet many people over your life, and you'll have many friends too, but between here and there, you're going to have to be careful," Braden winked at her.

"Alright. Its a deal," Warai responded with a smile, holding out her hand inviting Braden to shake.

...

A young blonde haired boy perched himself beside Warai.

"Is that yours?" asked the boy, indicating her red bean cake with his index finger.

With crumbs tumbling down from the sides of her mouth, she nodded affirmatively as he sat patiently beside her.

She thought about it for a second, and then realized that this was a situation where she could make another friend, without necessarily putting herself at risk.

She then took the elongated red bean cake and broke it in two, handing half to the blonde-haired boy, while retaining the other half for herself.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"Sweet cake," she replied blandly.

"Where did you get it?" he asked her.

"I don't know. It was in my lunch bag," she replied, improvising.

The little boy took a bite of the cake, his face contorting for a moment with the initial flavour, and then quickly changing to a look of delight.

"Mmmm. I wish my mom would make these," the little boy responded.

"My mom didn't make them!" Warai suddenly became defensive.

"Really? My mom too. She's always very busy with my dad. They work together, so they're always too busy to cook," the little boy explained.

"Then who cooks your lunch?" asked Warai.

"Its delivered every week, premade. When I get up for school, its already on the table, with my tablet computer," the little boy replied.

From the top of the adventure playground, two of the kids began pushing each other.

"Move!" one of them said to the other.

"You move!" the taller one of the two replied.

"Make me!" the shorter child responded, pushing the taller one.

The taller child grabbed hold of the shorter one, and soon a tug of war ensued along the galvanized 4x4 joists that bridged two different sections of the adventure playground at a height of twelve feet. When the taller boy pulled, the shorter one let go, leaving the taller child subject to his own momentum. He stumbled backwards as Warai and the blonde haired boy watched him tumble over the edge.

He fell the full distance, landing on his right shoulder with a thud, a few of the children laughing at the spectacle. However, when the boy who'd fallen failed to move, everyone stopped and just watched in disbelief.

"Aaaaahhhhhh! He's broken!!!" a little girl screamed upon getting sight of his arm, which was twisted around the back of his shoulder in a way that should not have been possible.

Warai by that time had arrived by the boy's side. She checked him for any signs of breathing. When she found no signs of his breath, she attempted to adjust his position, untwisting his arm in an attempt to put it right.

"Don't move him!" the blonde haired boy screamed.

"Its true, my dad said that if you see someone hurt, don't move them! You might hurt them some more!" another child exclaimed.

"He isn't breathing!" Warai yelled back, maintaining her effort to correct his disjointed body.

By that time, several of the children had run screaming to one of the recess monitors, who quickly came running in their direction.

Warai looked around herself, trying to see how many children could see her.

Warai! You can't reveal yourself! They'll take you away from us!

You'll be isolated from everyone and become a circus freak to them!

She heard the voices of the Butterfly, and her friend Kori Jonglyu in her head, and then saw the recess monitor, Mr. Belmont running in their direction.

"Go get Mr. Belmont!" she yelled, pointing in the direction where he'd been.

Her ploy worked, because several of the children looked away from the accident, giving her enough time to do what she'd intended.

It was at that moment that she suddenly understood what Braden had meant when he'd tried to explain to her the meaning of the word determined a year and a half earlier in the midst of no-man's land, now many thousands of kilometers away from where she was in Canada.

She placed one of her hands upon the boy's chest, and the other on his shoulder. Her hands suddenly began to glow with an eerie green light, as the little blonde haired boy and three other children watched the spectacle.

The darkened bruise that had pervaded his shoulder and most of his neck quickly faded, his shoulder suddenly snapping back into place. The children witnessing this jumped back, startled when they heard the noise, one of them even beginning to cry.

The victim of the accident suddenly gurgled, a sound that quickly changed to a dry heave, and then extreme inhalation as the boy sat up and struggled to breath, throwing Warai backwards and onto the gravel around them.

For a moment, there was nothing but the laboured sounds of the victim's intense breathing as he leaned forward.

"Perry? Are you alright?" Mr. Belmont arrived by the victim's side, his breathing having returned to normal.

"...I'm dizzy..." Perry, the victim responded, his skin becoming very pale as his body went into shock.

"There's an ambulance on its way. Just sit here. Don't lie down. Don't let yourself fall asleep, even if it feels like you need to. Does it hurt anywhere?" asked Mr. Belmont.

"My shoulder's a little sore. My neck too, but its alright..." Perry responded.

The little blonde haired boy looked to Warai in disbelief, and then to the remainder of the red bean cake he still held in his hand. He quickly threw it away and ran crying back to the school, clearly traumatized.

The other two children who'd witnessed Warai's unique ability looked to each other, and then to Warai, backing away from her.

They'll take you away from us!

She heard the Butterfly's voice again, and as the two children backed away from her in fright, it was Warai who began to cry.

Collective Tech

Katya and Victor got out of the taxi, paying the driver and giving him a reasonable gratuity before they made their way indoors to the front desk of the dealership mechanic's department.

Inside, they looked around at the walls, which was adorned with photographs of their mechanics with celebrities, many of whom were notable race car drivers and championship winners. At the front desk, a male client signed paperwork and finalized his invoice to pick-up his recently repaired automobile.

From an LED screen television hanging from the wall, the morning edition of the news played:

<And today it looks like its going to be a doozie. Temperatures with the humidex reaching as high as thirty-five degrees Celsius in the Greater Toronto Area, but at least traffic's looking pretty clear for the start of the day? Isn't that right Jill?> James, the morning desk host on CityTV headed up the morning edition.

Katya pointed to a photo of Bryce Maxwell from a decade earlier, standing next to his car and waving as he left.

"I didn't notice last time," Victor smiled at her.

"That man gets around," Katya joked.

"Thank you for the great service," the client at the front desk shook hands with the desk clerk.

"I'd suggest you bring it in for another checkup after a thousand kilometers. We suggest the same thing for all clients who've had similar service, Mr. Davies," the clerk suggested.

"Will do. Have a great day," Mr. Davies grabbed his keys from the counter and exited the reception to pick-up his car.

"May I help you?" asked the clerk despite knowing and remembering these particular clients.

"Yes. We're here to pick-up car? Here's work order," Victor slid his copy of the work order across the counter to the clerk.

"Mr. and Mrs. Piotr? Let me check out your status in the system..." the clerk walked over to his LED terminal and searched Victor's work order number in their system.

On the LED screen behind them, news blared:

<On the war front, Ukraine has upped the ante in its retaliatory force, who hammered Russian artillery emplacements with contributing members of their air force, and mechanized infantry. Casualties are low in the new round of fighting, but our NATO correspondent warns that this could signal a new phase of expansion in the war, as neighbouring Belarus eyes the situation cautiously,> the correspondent reported.

A barely noticable cruel smile found its way onto the face of the clerk.

"Is there problem?" Victor asked the clerk.

"Hmmm. That's odd. Our system is showing that your car isn't ready yet. Just let me verify that..." the clerk took his time, examining the digital version of their workorder on his screen.

Victor grimaced ever so slightly, and Katya's hand caressed his reassuringly.

"Well that's too bad. It looks like the mechanics found another problem, so its back in the service bay for at least another week," the clerk told Victor, sliding the paper copy of the work order back to him.

"It was supposed to be ready today! We need car for our work!" Victor explained to the clerk, doing his best not to lose his temper.

"It says here there was a problem with the exhaust system, that it failed an emissions test, and that the mechanic was obligated by Government policy to replace several parts to bring the car back into compliance. Those parts should be installed by next week, at which point you'll then have your car," the clerk smiled perkily at them.

"How much extra will cost?' asked Victor.

"Parts come to seven hundred and twenty six dollars..." the clerk started.

"New or aftermarket?" confirmed Victor.

"Aftermarket. You already explained that you wanted this to be a budget friendly repair..." the clerk replied.

"And how much labour?" asked Victor, pursing his lips.

"The mechanic said he'd do it for four hundred flat fee. That's cutting his rate by a hundred," the clerk responded.

"So eleventy-twenty-six hundred?" Victor confirmed with the clerk.

"Plus the parts handling fee and taxes, yes. In addition to the work you've already had done. Let me print you a new work order," the clerk responded with a smile on his face.

"Print an invoice for the previous work. I'll pay it right now!" Victor pulled out his credit card.

"I'm so sorry but our credit card processing is on the fritz, however, there is a bank atm around the corner if you'd like to pay in cash?" the clerk replied, apparently still gleeful.

Victor looked to Katya, whose eyes echoed sympathy as she tightened her grip on his hand.

"We'll pay for whole thing when we pick-up next week. Have credit card machine fixed by then!" Victor turned with Katya and they left together, Katya wishing the man a good day as they did.

Another man entered the reception area as they left and approached the clerk's desk.

"Hi, I'd like to settle up this invoice?" the man passed the clerk his invoice.

"Sure, how will you be paying?" asked the clerk.

"With my credit card," the man responded.

"Alright. That'll be fine. Here's the machine..." the clerk slid the card reader across the counter to the man.

...

"Another cab? Or we take bus?" asked Katya.

"They can't get away with," Victor said to Katya.

"They just did. Look, it does no help for us to stress. If we do, we let nasties win," Katya assured her husband of years.

"I hate to break this to you my dear, but they already have. We're near the limit of finances," Victor explained to her.

"I say we will be out of money if we miss this meeting," Katya agreed with him, trying to coax him back on course.

"Katya, I appreciate that you're trying to get sense to me, but its the wrong kind of sense, understand? We need money cents, not just good sense," Victor said to her.

"We still have innocence..." Katya added.

"And sense of humour too..." Victor kissed his wife briefly on the lips.

"So we take bus," Katya pulled him over to the nearby northbound bus stop.

"Its only one bus, and we only have to make way up at Esna Park Road. We save forty bucks," Katya said to him.

"My wife, the fastest learner..." Victor smiled at Katya.

"And best earner..." Katya leaned in and on her toes to kiss the tip of his nose.

...

At York Mills Road, the bus came to a stop and let a few passengers out, amongst them being Katya and Victor.

"How was I supposed to know there no way for us to pay?" Katya pleaded with Victor.

"I haven't been on bus since twenty years, and back then you could pay. Instead now they force us off and we are made to feel like criminal," Victor said, now very frustrated.

"At least they let us stay on until York Mills, instead of dumping us back at St. Clair. That saved us at least twenty dollars cab price. Not only that, but we know where to get bus fare now," Katya responded to Victor.

"I want my wife to have one step to front door. Not a thousand," Victor spoke, erring on the side of humility where it opposed finance, flagging down a taxi as he spoke.

Despite the fact they couldn't remain on the bus, Katya still had the heart to wave to the driver in gratitude for taking them that far as the bus drove off before she got in the cab.

...

Katya set foot out of the cab, taking exactly one step before she was at the front door of Collective Tech Enterprises as Victor paid the second taxi driver on their day's itinerary. They then entered the building, making their way to the reception area.

"A lot smaller office than I was expecting," Victor leaned in, speaking into the ear of his wife.

"What did you expect? They're in the nanotechnology business. I was just going to remark how big the office. Too big for nanotech," Katya reminded him.

"Har har har. Next you be expecting me to grow nice long hair?" Victor joked with her.

"I think it would look quite good on you, but we need to work on those abs first. Hourglass figure," she joked with him.

After walking through a foyer showcase with many artistically colourized photos taken via a tunneling electron microscope, each depicting the functional parts required for elements of nanotechnology, they arrived at the reception desk.

"Doctors Katya and Victor Piotr?" a dapperly dressed male receptionist addressed them.

"Good morning to you. Thank you for recognizing us so readily," Katya greeted the receptionist.

"And good morning to you! They're in the boardroom, though I'm told they're waiting for your arrival before they start. Now honestly, Mr. Deeters is very patient, but I wouldn't take my time getting there if I were you. Its the last door at the end of this hall," the receptionist pointed the way for them.

"Thank you again," Katya said as Victor literally pulled her as he walked quickly down the hall towards the boardroom the receptionist had indicated.

...

Katya stepped into the boardroom first, and was greeted by a full round of eyes admiring her attractive appearance, Victor following behind her. Ironically, they were all smiles in the boardroom and no mention was made of their tardiness.

"Doctors Katya and Victor Piotr, we're so glad you could make it for the delivery of our funding pitch for this project. We're more than honoured to have you here," Mr. Deeters greeted them both, more relieved than anything that they'd ultimately arrived.

"This is Mr. Fenster, who will be delivering the proposal pertaining to the competing technology, based upon micro revolute joints powered by electron displacement," Mr. Deeters directed their attention to Mr. Fenster, a tall lanky gentleman in his late forties, the bags under his eyes and his thinning hair indicated a man pursuant of his dream.

"Pleased to finally meet you Katya, Victor. I've heard a lot about your previous work and read many of your research papers too. Hopefully you'll have done the same with mine?" asked Mr. Fenster, smiling professionally for them as he stood to greet them.

"Your work on translating the engineering principles of robotic joints to the scale of nanotech is legendary," Katya shook his hand, followed by Victor.

"I'm still curious as to how you plan to extrapolate enough energy to power a reasonable work load for these nano joints of yours using electron displacement?" Victor asked Mr. Fenster.

"We're still ironing out the wrinkles, but according to our calculations, the second law at the scales we're working in allows for a much lower dissipation of energy throughput to entropy, and shoring up that difference will give us enough to power these nanojoints to reach a highly sizeable torque force," Mr. Fenster explained to them.

"You already know Bryce Maxwell," Mr. Deeters directed them over to Bryce, who sat across from Mr. Fenster.

"How are you Katya? Victor? So good to see you two!" Bryce stood up to greet his scientific peers.

"Glad to see you healthy, Bryce. We brought extra materials for your presentation, and we only changed a minor part of it. Here's the powerpoint for you," Katya handed Bryce a flash drive, which he accepted gracefully, shaking hers and Victor's hands before returning to his seat and his laptop.

"This is Mrs. Elman, who will be presenting the financials for the project and the projected return on investment, given case studies her firm developed based upon our projections of using Mr. Fenster's process, versus Doctors Katya, Piotr and Maxwell's process," Mr. Deeters introduced their financial analyst.

"Nice to finally meet you two in person. I hope that you brought your energy and focus with you today, because we're really going to need it if we're going to land the funding for this project," Mrs. Elman stood to greet Katya and Victor.

"We're both going to rare...!" Victor replied to Mrs. Elman.

"Raring to go he means..." Katya followed up, a bit of laughter erupting from the room.

"We knew what you meant, Victor," Mrs. Elman smiled at the couple.

"Oh, and one more person of note, and perhaps one of the most important, and that's the tech that's going to make sure we have a solid connection between us and the investor groups at Ottawa in Canada, Geneva in Switzerland and Łódź in Poland. She's also going to make sure that our cameras, microphones and powerpoint presentations are functioning correctly. Our tech, Ms. Hiruko Kirari," Mr. Deeters introduced their computer and network specialist.

A woman in her mid-thirties in professional attire stood and bowed quickly a few times, before addressing the room in a confident and assertive voice.

"I am glad to meet you all today. I just wanted to let you know before we get started, that if you have any questions or any special considerations, that you can talk to me before your moment of need and I'll do whatever I can to accommodate you. If in the middle of your presentations, we should happen to lose the internet connection, or there are failures of technology, please do not panic. Just address me, as I'll be here in the boardroom with you, and I'll immediately take care of the problem. Every moment of this meeting will be recorded and made available to our investors for their review, so be on your best behaviour, and thank you very much for the opportunity to work with you," Ms. Kirari smiled as she spoke, then returning to her seat when she'd finished.

"Thank you Ms. Kirari. We're ten minutes away from the scheduled first presentation, so if you need to take a bathroom break or get yourself a beverage or snack, I'd suggest you do it now. As you can see, we've provided a sizeable catering buffet in case any of you get hungry or thirsty along the way. Help yourself, but keep interruptions during the presentations to a minimum. Our first presenter will be Mr. Fenster, who will be delivering a talk on the future of nanotechnology, as an introductory session to the theme of today's proposal. Thank you and enjoy yourselves, keeping in mind that together, we can land this opportunity for business, science and progress," Mr. Deeters summarized his introduction and they began preparing for the first session of their presentation.

Cover Girl

The crowd gathered outside of the front doors of the offices of West Meet East International was immense for any time of year, let alone the occasion that had spurred it in the first place.

Fortunately, they were of a friendly demeanor, more obsessed fans than anything, for to have access to an international superstar in their own community for the first time was a big draw.

Only a week earlier, the lady in question had been able to live in relative obscurity despite her occasional presence in the limelight. After all, she was a fashion model and a considerably successful one at that. Regardless, she had like most other professional models, been able to live a life steeped in obscurity, and given her part-time efforts as a vigilante, obscurity was what she had needed. Obscurity however, was now what she most lacked.

Kori sat in the underground parking of the condominium complex listening to music as she waited just outside of the elevator lobby in her car.

She used the rearview mirror to check her morning makeup, dabbing a bit more foundation on the left side of her chin to balance everything out, then returning her makeup to her purse just as Monique stepped out of the elevator, wearing a COVID-19 mask and a stylish hat as part of her disguise. Behind her, Aikiko too wore a mask, the two of them wearing relatively casual clothing. They made their way out of the lobby and into the underground garage where they got into Kori's car. Monique taking the front passenger seat while Aikiko took the back.

"Good morning! I got you each a coffee by the way? In the cup holders if you want them?" Kori addressed her friends as they made themselves comfortable.

"Thanks for picking us up. They practically swarmed Heylyn yesterday looking for me, so she decided to start work two hours early every day this week..." Monique explained to Kori.

"And knowing the two of you, that's two hours far too early for either of you to be waking up?" Kori responded, waiting for the gate to open and let them out onto the street.

"You got it girl! There's no way I'm waking up before six," Monique responded to Kori, lifting her mask enough to have a sip of the coffee her friend had gifted her.

"Careful..." Aikiko said from the back seat, spying a large group who'd gathered out front of the condo foyer and lobby.

"Just lifting my mask for a sip, nothing more," Monique responded, looking in the direction of the crowd.

"Don't worry, I barely recognized you and I knew you'd be wearing a disguise," Kori assured them.

"We made it past the first checkpoint, lets hope we can sneak past the last one," Aikiko offered.

...

The trip to West Meet East was a short one considering the morning traffic. They'd opted to skip their usual morning trip to the café in order to avoid the crowd that would likely be there waiting for them. So instead, Kori took a different route, only finding that she'd been followed by two cars, which she quickly managed to lose in the maze of one-way streets lining Queen Street West.

When by the time they'd arrived at the back parking lot, there were no pursuers via car, and there were only six people in the back parking lot.

Monique got out of Kori's car, Aikiko just behind her as they made their way to the shipping door.

The six people who'd been waiting out back immediately recognized Monique.

"Can we have your autograph?" asked one of them, for the six.

Monique stopped, and glanced over to the small harmless group.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt. Its kind of bizarre going all these years and being ignored, and then one magazine cover and I can't go anywhere without being followed by a crowd," she smiled as she took off her mask, her face with barely any makeup.

"Monique, I don't know if this is such a good idea," Aikiko removed her mask, revealing a shapely curved pale face with accents of red and dark touches of eye liner.

"Just six autographs... And a couple of selfies, alright?" Monique said to her admiring fans, not seeing that one of the six had run around to the front of West Meet East.

"Alright. Me first," a young woman held out a copy of the latest issue of Vogue magazine for Monique to sign.

By the time she'd signed five autographs and posed for two selfies, Aikiko spotted the crowd advancing from around the front of the building.

"Run for it Monique!" Aikiko pulled her friend away from the five who'd stuck around to get her autograph, while the sixth returned with the entire crowd from the front of the building.

It was simple economics. Why keep a secret for one woman, Monique, when it would be more beneficial to share that secret with hundreds? Those hundreds would remember that gesture, and it would pay in droves much more than anything that same person would likely receive from Monique alone, despite the kindness of Monique's gesture to that small group of her fans.

Also, the Millions Of Minds of Mentis (now billions) happened to be connected to those six, and hence could see and hear everything they did. Monique's kind gesture to her fans had just exposed her to their deadliest enemy.

Anywhere that any willing or unwilling member of the Millions of Minds of Mentis went, they were essentially camera and microphone drones. Any of the members of Mentis' cult that had cultivated their abilities of clairvoyence and clairaudience could essentially see and hear everything these people could. People who were essentially walking and talking cameras and microphones for Mentis and their billions of members. Many of them didn't even know, and those who did and were willing members, took advantage of their situation in ways most we be incapable of comprehending. The unwilling members spent most of their life struggling to link up with those opposed to Mentis, their effort often futile though, for most such people were essentially unwilling moles, leading Mentis to the front doors of any resistance against them.

Monique, in a moment of compassion for her fans, had betrayed herself and everyone that worked in the building with her.

The screaming crowd had reached them while they still had twenty feet left to reach the shipping door.

Monique struggled to push her way through the crowd, one of the larger men reaching out for her hair, grasping a clump of it as tight as he could. At least if he didn't get her autograph that day, he'd have a large clump of her hair to show for his effort and patience. Upon seeing this clean cut, athletic man hanging onto a clump of her hair, several other fans followed suit, each grabbing a some of her hair, or her clothing and hanging on for dear life.

Aikiko, who was dwarfed by sixty percent of the crowd, saw that several people had a hold of Monique's hair. Aikiko had reached her limit and she suddenly sprang to life. Her arms and feet became a blur of motion as she forced the crowd back without inflicting serious injury to any of them, while keeping her alter ego, Dragon Butterfly at bay.

When they saw what was happening, many had withdrawn willingly, as if they'd suddenly snapped out of their prior frenzy. The psychosis of crowd psychology.

The few that had decided to forgo morality had no idea that they flirted with disaster and by the time Aikiko reached the man and several others who each had a clump of Monique's hair in their grip, unwilling to release her, Aikiko struck the man's muscle with such an intense force that his nerve instantly lost command of his arm. His arm dangled, numb and tingling, unable to move even if he'd wanted.

"You put your hands on my family, so I will put my foot on yours!" Aikiko exclaimed, delivering a swift but restrained kick to his groin.

The large man fell to his knees immediately and though he did not suffer any damage he struggled through the pain. The crowd in the meantime had backed away from Aikiko and Monique.

Kori by that time was standing with the shipping door open, gesturing to Aikiko and Monique to make a run for it.

Several of the fans had their phone cameras out and were recording video of the man who'd been assaulted by Aikiko.

She in the meantime had grabbed Monique and pulled her in through the shipping door, closing and locking it behind them.

...

Heylyn sat in the meeting room, Valerie on one side of her, and Fiona on the other.

Before them, Aikiko, Kori and Monique sat in chairs as all six of the women watched the news.

<...shocking news as viral recordings have flooded streamer and online video accounts, depicting this assault of a college freshman by what can only be assumed to be a member of the security detail of supermodel Monique Defleur. In an unprovoked attack outside of the offices of West Meet East International, the security team member in question is seen here kicking the man in the groin area, causing him to collapse from the injury while the crowd flees from this horrific act of violence...> the announcer reported on the news.

"...I'm a bit shocked to say the least. Obviously the three of you have some details to add, something that will fill in the blanks?" asked Heylyn, who muted the LED television as they began their unscheduled impromptu meeting.

"I was signing autographs in the back..." Monique began.

"I thought we discussed this last month when you agreed to do that shoot for the Vogue cover?" Valerie brought up.

"You agreed to avoid crowds or interacting with them without proper security, and only to deal with fans in small groups. Especially when giving autographs or posing for selfies with them," Heylyn reminded her.

"I didn't approach the crowd! We tried to sneak in through the back! I was even wearing a disguise!" Monique pleaded with Heylyn.

"Its true. There were like six people out back, camped out waiting for Monique. She took off her mask for them, and gave them each autographs, even posing for a few selfies with them, when all of the sudden the entire crowd from the front charges to the back, and that's when all heck broke loose..." Kori defended Monique.

"Aikiko, what prompted you to assault that man? There's no indication of his violence at all. You just kicked him without provocation, and I find that very difficult to accept. His lawyer called, shortly after the incident and they're threatening legal action that could cost millions," Heylyn told Aikiko, looking to each of the women in turn as she spoke.

"Where were their cameras while they were holding onto Monique?" Aikiko responded defensively.

"Did someone have a hold of Monique?" asked Fiona.

"It felt like the whole crowd had a hold of me. There were at least four hanging onto my hair, all of them trying to pull me in a different direction!" Monique got to the part that began to unravel the viral videos they'd seen on television.

"So nobody recorded anything when you were being held against your will? That figures!" asked Valerie, clearly upset.

"Holding me? I think they wanted a chunk of my hair for their bedroom!" Monique told them, her scalp still in pain from their violation of her person.

"Alright, this is starting to make sense now and to tell you the truth, I'm a bit relieved, because I didn't think that my friends would outright assault someone. One of their own fans for that matter," Heylyn nodded as she played the situation back in her head based upon their account thus far.

"Thank you! Where were you an hour ago when I needed you?!" asked Monique.

"I got a call from a legal representative of the school last night. Apparently, someone was seriously injured on school property yesterday, and Warai being the little person she is, used her ability to mend the poor soul. She told me she tried to distract everyone while she healed him, but that a few of them saw her doing it..." Heylyn explained to her friends in the room.

"And why was it a legal representative? Why not the Principal or a Teacher?" asked Kori.

"Because, they wanted to inform me that they're challenging my claim of Warai's parenthood and adoption. They want to take her from us," Heylyn explained to them, the tiny bead of a tear in Heylyn's eye for the first time they'd seen.

"On what grounds?" asked Kori, clearly upset by the matter in question.

"The justification won't matter, because they'll create one regardless. As part of the process, they requested an immediate health assessment by a Doctor of their choosing. If I don't accommodate them, they'll use that fact as grounds to support their case," Heylyn informed them.

"You know, in working for a large investment firm for a decade of my life, I learned that the best way to handle things when you have challenges coming at you from multiple angles, is to get organized. To keep the issues separate. Get the facts and all the requirements needed in order to deal with them. Then assess your options and develop one or more plans for each scenario to overcome them. Since I've been here, I've seen Heylyn handle every challenge using those means to break down big challenges into smaller pieces. I think that with there being a sizeable emotional investment in these matters, that we could be losing our objectivity, in a time where it is something we need more than ever," Fiona offered a bit of her wisdom and life experience.

"Its been a long night for me, and I didn't get much sleep, but Fiona is right. We... I have to pull myself together. I'm so used to being impenitrable when it comes to matters of the heart, that the first time I've been made to feel vulnerable through Warai, I have to wonder if I'm not at risk... of falling apart," Heylyn said to her friends and peers.

"We knew that Mentis and his millions of minds would eventually come looking for us. We knew that day would come! Now here it is, and we're ready to fall apart?" Kori stood firm, unwilling to be bowled over by these circumstances.

"Not at all, but we do need to do some damage control in this situation with Monique, because if these two issues together find their way to the press, its going to be hardest on Warai, and at a time when she needs to be her strongest. We need to appeal to the public for any camera footage taken this morning before the assault on the man who grabbed Monique's hair. Offer a rewards for the best footage. A Visa gift card and maybe an item of clothing from one of our fashion lines," Heylyn suggested.

"That's something I can get to work on with Lisa," Fiona agreed.

"Then get it going immediately. I'd like you to operate as our Public Relations for these matters. I'll call Holbrooke Mitchell immediately, and have him work with you on matters pertaining to collecting video evidence. He'll liaison with the local Police to see if charges apply once we have the evidence," Heylyn told Fiona, who got up from her chair and headed out of the meeting room door and into the office area to meet with Lisa.

"Kori, I'd like you to find a life saver's course, specifically geared to instructing children in the treatment of injuries and cardio-pulminary rescucitation and what not. If we can show that Warai has an interest in these kinds of subjects, we might be able to distract them from finding out about her abilities, because we all know that if they do, she'll become nothing more than a lab rat," Heylyn ordered Kori.

"I'm on it. I had a backlog of human resources related filing of employment insurance and pension plan payments, but that can wait," Kori got up and made her way to her office to begin her search for an appropriate program.

"Monique? We need to get you to a Doctor and have you examined for any signs of injuries to your scalp or head," Heylyn told Monique, who leaned forward in her chair in disbelief.

"Wouldn't any signs of injury have healed by now because of our accelerated healing?" asked Monique.

"Yes, but Doctors can tell if there was any local trauma long after an injury was sustained. I don't know the science of it, but I know that it can be done. So why don't you pack up your things, have Fay put together another disguise for you and I'll have a car pick you up and drop you off at a clinic. No crowds, and stay incognito!" Heylyn told her friend and coworker.

"Alright. Heylyn, I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry about this..." Monique confided in her friend, a woman who'd truly changed her life for the better.

"Sorry? Don't you dare say that about this situation. You don't have to be sorry! You didn't do anything wrong! Besides, this is part of what we all signed up for. Let's get this done right," Heylyn said to Monique assertively, despite her fear for Warai's situation.

"I'm on it, boss," Monique responded, getting herself out the door to get ready for her trip to the Doctor.

"That leaves you Aikiko. I just wanted you to know that what you did wasn't part of your job at all and as a matter of fact, it was wrong. On my part. I don't think that any of us could have hoped for a better friend than you, but you certainly became that and more. From now on, leave the work of security to the High Profile Security Specialists that I'm going to hire to help us secure this place, because my models shouldn't have to operate both as security and superheroes," Heylyn comforted Aikiko with her words.

"Just models and superheroes I assume?" Aikiko responded.

"Exactly. Now stay away from crowds. Get to studio B, as I understand that Trey has you scheduled for an early afternoon photoshoot for Kawaī kao Cosmetics?" Heylyn winked at her first, and then kept her on course.

"I'm looking forward to it. Something to smile about again," Aikiko's smile returned to her face, and she left the meeting room.

"What are you going to do?" asked Valerie of Heylyn.

"I'm going to make a list of all the reasons why they shouldn't take Warai from me, and all the reasons that they could. Then I'm going to figure out how to reconcile them all so that there are only reasons why she should stay," Heylyn stood from her chair.

"You've still got a company to run, but I could run it for you for a few days?" Valerie offered, hedging her immense experience with her offer to help her friend.

"Thanks. Any big decisions, run them by me first, but by all means, go to town with it," Heylyn told Valerie as she left the meeting room, closing the door quietly behind her.

Family Photo

Norler left the elevator, pulling his wheeled luggage behind him, his blazer slung over his shoulder as he approached the front door to their condo. He pressed a fingerprint reader on his keycard and the magnetic lock automatically disengaged, the condo door even opening for him.

"Honey, I'm home..." Norler announced as he guided his luggage into the foyer.

There was no answer.

"Honey?" he stepped forward through the foyer, approaching the kitchen island counter.

"I'm in here..." Alicia's voice echoed off the polished granite floor.

Norler reached into his baggage and pulled forth a shipping box, which he opened on the island counter. Inside of the shipping container were six units of the initial production version of Medi-Friend: the culmination of Gregory Epsen's designs and Norler's business administration (with a lot of help from Helmet Werner too). He pulled one of the six, examining the packaging for any errors or omissions. When he saw that all of the standards certifications were present on the packaging, he took it and wandered in the direction he'd heard Alicia's voice.

He wandered into their master bedroom, from where he saw the bathing room door open. He stepped through the door to find Alicia naked in the combination bath/whirlpool, covered in bubbles up to her neck. Her belly protruded ever so slightly as the life growing inside of her reached the end of the second trimester.

"How are my wondeful family doing?" asked Norler, putting his hand just above her belly button.

Alicia grabbed his hand and held it under the warm water for a moment, before returning it to where it had been on her belly.

"It was too cold, but its better now," Alicia smiled at him.

"Has our child been active?" asked Norler.

"They're sleeping right now. But earlier I could have sworn they were having a party in there," Alicia joked.

"Must have tired themself out," Norler said to, rubbing her tummy gently.

"Sooo what, do tell, is it that you have in your hand?" Alicia changed the topic to that of what Norler had brought with him to show off to her.

"Funny you should ask. Let me introduce to you the first production run of Medi-Friend!" Norler held the tablet sized box up beside his face, matching it with a geeky smile.

"Ohhhh, its so you. Let's see it," Alicia replied, wanting to see the finished product.

"Let me just get it out of this highly advanced packaging... uuurrrrgh!" Norler struggled to get the device out of its packaging, giving Alicia a hold of the box while he held onto the biodegradable organically-based polystyrene covering the device within the box.

Alicia pulled the box as Norler hung on, though Alicia misjudged her strength, and pulled Norler into the tub with her, more than enough room for the two of them.

She began laughing in hysterics at him as he recovered and took up a seat beside her, fully clothed, his hair still dripping wet.

"Don't worry, its water-friendly," Norler smiled, the device now out of the box and floating in the whirlpool.

He quickly unwrapped it, discarding the polystyrene on the floor beside the tub, and then removed the protective plastic cover to reveal a shiny new Medi-Friend.

"Sooo... give me a quick demo," Alicia requested of him, gently wiping some bubbles from his eyebrows.

"Alright. Let's get a family photo," Norler suggested as he pressed and held the power button on the device.

"I take it that this isn't the target market for the device. A family camera..." Alicia replied, alreadying knowing that its intended market was targeting medical and clinical diagnostics all over the world.

"Not quite, but I'm betting that you can figure out how to use it quite well for this purpose, Doctor Westin," Norler responded.

The screen came to life with a logo that a design company they'd commissioned had come up with for their branding.

"Nice logo and icon! Kind of like a mix between Ben Wicks and Gary Larson..." Alicia noted, commenting on the artistic style.

"That's sooo funny honey. I said the exact same thing when we were approving it...!" Norler smiled.

Ten seconds later and the device was booted and ready for operation.

"Alright. So, first we press this button, which puts the device in sensor mode. We then put a check mark beside all sensors in the list that we'd like active during our photo session, and just to let you know, I haven't got a clue what any of these sensors are or do," Norler pointed out, only passingly familiar with many of the different sensor modes the device offered.

Alicia looked at the screen and with her being a Doctor of Quantum Biology, she readily recognized all the sensors in the list.

"Alright. A family photo? Lets try... the EMF Fourier shaded Spectrum. The AI PHONG SHADING MODEL... and the Medical Ultrasound sensor..." Alicia clicked three from the list of twenty-one, as Norler held it steady for her.

"Good choice... if I knew what they did. Then we press the NEXT button on the interface, and select STILL PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE mode, putting a checkbox next to AUTOMATIC LENS, EXPOSURE AND APERATURE settings. Then press NEXT..." Norler guided her through the process.

"Select TIMER, and move the slider to FIVE POINT ZERO, where it says TAKE PHOTOGRAPH EVERY X SECONDS, and then click NEXT," Norler said as Alicia did so.

"Get the other side and we'll hold it out in front of us, but make sure you get your belly in there," Norler held the device out and away from them, Alicia grabbing the other side to steady it.

They saw the preview image of the lens, so they knew how they had to hold it to get the best picture. The countdown timer descended and eventually reached ZERO, at which point the device made the sound of a shutter opening and closing. The timer then became FIVE again and descended for a second photograph.

They waited until the device had taken the third, and then together they checked the results of their photography.

The image was crystal clear, even without requiring upscaling, for it was taken at a resolution of twenty megapixels, the sensor's medium resolution setting.

The two of them were smiling at the camera while beneath their faces, an AI shaded ultrasound image of their unborn child sat between them.

"Our first family photo," Norler smiled.

"Don't look!" Alicia suddenly said to him.

"Why? What's wrong?" asked Norler.

"We agreed that we were going to do this together..." Alicia reminded him.

"You mean the photo is that good?" confirmed Norler.

"Yes. This is an advanced version of the technology they use in an Ultrasound clinic, but its so portable," Alicia said to him.

"Alright. Lets do this. We'll both look at the same time, so we'll both know at the same time..." Norler said to her.

"Alright. Ready? On three... One... two... THREE!" Alicia uncovered the Medi-Friend's display and they both examined the baby's picture.

"You mean we're going to have a..." Norler began, stopping short of announcing the gender of their child.

...

Norler sat on the sofa beside Alicia, who was nuzzled up to his chest as they watched reruns of The Office and Ally McBeal together.

"Where's Gregory tonight?" asked Alicia when the commercial break had arrived.

"He's had a few days off, seeing as he nearly exhausted himself during the last push to get the production version of Medi-Friend going. He's got a few bucks in his pocket now. Probably the first time in his life he's had that kind of money," Norler told Alicia.

"So what's he doing with it?" asked Alicia out of concern.

"He made some new friends, and I guess he's living the social life that he never got a chance to experience, with him being a mad scientist and all," Norler explained to Alicia.

"Aren't you concerned, especially with all the money he has access to?" asked Alicia out of her own concern for the young man.

"When I was his age, I was out enjoying life constantly. I had a few drinks and knew a few women, and eventually I just lost interest in the party, and focused on my business acumen, and its been a rewarding experience ever since," Norler explained to Alicia, taking a sip of wine.

"Aren't you worried that he might like partying too much, especially with all that money?" Alicia asked him.

"That's not our business. That's his life. He has to learn the ropes himself, Alicia. We can't live it for him," Norler said to her as she took a sip of her own de-alcoholized wine, seeing as she was eating and drinking for two.

"And what happens when and if your child comes home on their nineteenth birthday, after a night of partying with their friends, having spent a sizeable chunk of change from your fortune on their fun? What are you going to say to your child?" asked Alicia.

"I'm going to say why didn't you invite your mother and I?" Norler turned to tickle her, and she struggled to get away, almost dropping her de-alcoholized wine.

Eventually their play died down and they settled back into their discussion.

"He should learn how to manage money before he's given access to that much of it," Alicia suggested to Norler.

"Its his money, Alicia. Nobody can decide what's right for him to spend his money on," Norler responded.

"But what if he was spending it on something that was hurting him?" asked Alicia, hypothetically.

"Like?" Norler asked her.

"Like alcohol, or narcotics?" Alicia pressed the issue, for she saw it as being very relevant, especially as they were about to bring a child into their lives.

"Alicia, it isn't right for anyone to obtain control of another person's finances, I'd imagine barring certain situations involving criminal activity subject to investigation. We're not Gregory's parents, and even if we were, he's an adult. Nobody should have say over his money and finances except for him. If he has difficulties with that kind of responsibility, he'll learn from it, and probably be a better person for it," Norler stood his ground with regard to matters involving his business partner.

"So you have two different sets of standards. One for your friends, and one for your family?" this was becoming a very serious matter to Alicia.

"No. I have the same standards, but when it comes to my family, I have a right and a responsibility to say. When our child is of age where they obtain their own power of attorney, both of us will have no say about how they spend their money or their life. Before they get to that point, we have to do our best to ensure that they're able to stand on their own two feet, and to take responsibility for their own finances. Gregory is there now, but he's experiencing something for the first time in his life. Something that he was frightened away from by mean people. People who were probably scared of him, and his intelligence. Something you should remember well!" Norler reminded her.

Alicia thought about what Norler said, and it did make sense. She realized that since she'd discovered him in the basement, designing a medical diagnostics system as a hobby, that she'd become like a surrogate mother for him. She also realized that with that investment in him, that she'd become concerned for his well being, and moreso, his future.

But where would that sort of chaperoning of his adult person lead? First, it might start with attempts to control and limit his access to his own finances. Then, it would lead to inquiry into his private time and moments, possibly evaluating if his activities or behaviour were suitable, perhaps putting contraints upon them. From there, it would become more and more criminal and a gross violation of a person's rights, and to what end?

She rationalized that what Norler was saying was just, but it still bothered her that she might be seeing the beginning of what amounted to his downfall, especially if he didn't have the self discipline to manage his own money and instead spent it on things that would lead to his own destruction.

She decided that she'd accept what Norler had to say on the matter, but that she'd retain her own opinion as well. If need be, she'd find a way to intervene if Gregory was stumbling or heading for a fall.

What they didn't know, was that their entire conversation was caught on a wireless microphone. When Norler had picked up the first run of production units for the Medi-Friend, the factory worker that had loaded the units into his baggage, had also placed a wireless microphone in his luggage. One so tiny that it would be nearly impossible to find without the aid of specialized detection equipment.

At the behest of Jason Michael Santers and Mentis, this man had been bribed to put a bug in Norler's luggage, and one of their higher ranking members, one who'd lived in a condo three floors beneath theirs was intercepting and recording all the audio of their conversation, from the moment Norler had stepped in the front door.

They now had all the information they'd needed to devise a plan to divide and conquer them.

Playing Gregory

On Monday, Gregory had turned over the final design schematics and prototype to the service bureau now responsible for the production run of the version 1.0 pcb (printed circuit board), ux assembly and bezel for the Medi-Friend. The device of his and Norler's design was now in full manufacturing production.

Gregory had been recovering in bed for nearly two days, utterly exhausted as a decade of his life's work suddenly reached its apex, and he now found himself without a waking purpose in his day to day life.

He had more money than he'd ever dreamt he'd have in his life, but since having reached the last milestone in his journey to developing the Medi-Friend, he had no reason to get out of bed, for he'd never developed any other part of his life except for the device whose production was no longer in his hands.

He stayed in bed for two days, sleeping for most of it, only waking up to read a few chapters of a book he'd started a decade ago before he'd started his journey.

At three o'clock on Thursday afternoon, six hours before Norler would come walking in the door and surprise Alicia in the whirlpool, Gregory had awakened to find himself voraciously hungry and with so little in the fridge. Most of his food had rotted or gone bad, with his neglect of his groceries and himself, and so when he got up, he decided to order takeout.

His meal arrived forty minutes later, the driver leaving it outside of his condo, then knocking on the door before he left.

Gregory obtained the feast, the smell causing his mouth to water. He sat himself in front of the television and ate two platefuls of his food, before stowing the remainder in his fridge.

Now fully awake, he headed for the bathroom and shaved, taking a long look at his face, the bags and dark lines beneath his eyes told a story of the obsession he'd had in creating the Medi-Friend.

He recalled himself from a decade earlier, at the ripe age of twenty two. That much younger version of himself looked back at him, nearly no signs of age, and very much appearing the young adult he'd been, with his whole life ahead of him. He shook his head, and once again he was faced with his more recent self. The one who'd paid the price for his years of obsession, at the cost of his social life, his health and now even possibly, his sanity.

He looked at the short mop of messy hair on his head, and wondered what he would do with himself from that moment on. Then it occurred to him that he could do whatever he wanted. That he was no longer limited by his finances. If he wanted to go out and to buy a car, he could. If he wanted to take a flight to the west coast and spend a night in Vancouver, he could. If he wanted to go to his favourite restaurant, the one his parents used to take him when he was a kid, and spend the night trying every desert they had to offer, he could do that too.

However, the one thing that would be the same in all of those cases was that he'd have to do it alone.

During his years of obsession, he'd failed to build a social circle for himself. A group of friends and people that he could trust. What he hadn't known at that time was that a malicious group under the guidance of a solitary figure who referred to himself as Oculo Mentis, was gathering followers for a collective ideology that shared in the unique knowledge of this Mentis himself, for Mentis was as much a Mentor as he was Mind.

Mentis' collective had grown from the scattered groups he'd organized decades earlier, to become millions at the time when Gregory was actively developing his projet d'obsession. Mentis' people had slowly infiltrated the population, the lowest of income, to the middle class, they had mostly spread throughout communities undetected, while they'd gathered intel on everyone else not a part of their ideology. They then used this intel to secretly force such people into their circle, and once in, the contents of their life and mind would become privvy to Mentis and all of his followers. What was known to one, would quickly propagate and cascade through the biomagnetic WIFI of the body, to every other member of his collective.

What one knew, all would quickly learn.

What one saw, all would quickly see.

What one heard, all would quickly hear.

What one thought, all would quickly know.

Mentis' collective was essentially its own world. A world entirely composed of mind. There was the real world, and then there was the mind world. The world where everyone pulled into Mentis mind world, had a sense of being. It was a part of their dreams when they slept. It was a part of their being while wakefully thinking.

What a person knew was privvy to everyone.

What a person saw was privvy to everyone.

What a person heard was privvy to everyone.

What a person thought was privvy to everyone.

However, who they were in the real world, nobody had known up until that point, and that was when Mentis had figured out how to find people in the mind world, and know who they were in the real world. When that occurred, it meant that Mentis could harvest anything he wanted from the world of the mind, and take it from the people in the real world.

Whatever was known in the world of the mind, had always been hidden in the world of the real, for in the midst of a crowd where everyone knows each other's thoughts, how is there to know who thought what? When Mentis had figured out how to find that from the world of the mind, in the real world, he'd unlocked the means to have power over everyone and everything.

In the world of the mind, if one person whose mental essence was strong enough, was doing something of note or wonder, it quickly pervaded the world of the mind, without anyone truly knowing from who or where it originated, and so Mentis and his collective had figured out that if the membership in his collective were simply more consistent with these wonders of the mind than everyone else in the real world, that Mentis and his collective would be regarded as the source in both worlds.

What anyone knew was privvy to Mentis' collective.

What anyone saw was privvy to Mentis' collective.

What anyone heard was privvy to Mentis' collective.

What anyone thought was privvy to Mentis' collective.

That of which they became aware in the world of mind, they could take from anyone and own in the real world. Accululating all the efforts of other people and keeping it for themselves.

If they knew that someone was developing a cure for cancer, they could find out who, and take it from them, and when that person tried to protect themselves from such a travesty, they would be quickly socially buried and erased. Perhaps inheriting the dirt of someone else's history and identity in order to cover it all up.

This soon became the case for anything created. Anything that began as a thought in someone's head. An idea. An imperative towards effort. An inspiration. Anything that could be thought by one person, could be taken by Mentis and his collective. In both the world of the mind, and the real world.

And so it was that Mentis' collective became organized enough to operate between the world of the mind, and the real world, able to take anything from anyone in one world, and own it in the other.

Most up until that point, had been completely unaware that this hidden world had existed at all, and that what could be thought, could also be taken, and that whosoever possessed enough power to take it, would be the one who would own it. Any who truly had put forth effort towards the ends of realizing their claim, would eventually disappear. Silenced in the midst of society, no matter their screams or their pleas against such malice.

Those who heard their cries for help, would simply ignore them, and the calls for help became like the spread of ripples through a frozen lake. Ceased where they were born, and never to spread further than a hair's breadth.

And so, one by one, the dreamers and imagineers who lacked ample circle or resources were surrrounded and silenced, with everything taken from them while everyone a party to Mentis' plans kept it silent and hidden.

When they discovered Gregory, they too knew that he was just another meal to feed the masses. That Mentis much the same would devour him, and that his efforts, despite the fact that nobody would ever know of him, would become the source of economy for the millions of minds of Mentis, as had many others with whom they'd already done the same. If you weren't a part of Mentis' growing collective, you'd simply be excluded from the bounty.

However, Gregory was more astute and aware than that for which they'd evaluated him, and so it was that he developed the means intuitively to protect himself, even in the midst of their worst onslaughts and their most grievous efforts to take his life's work from him.

As it would so happen, that was when Alicia found him, and through her trust of the man, and that of her fiancé, they were able to rescue him from something they'd barely understood themselves.

For every seventeen such people that Mentis had devoured, there was one who'd gotten away, and every one of them were humanity's last hope, though few if any realized it.

Heylyn hadn't realized it when she'd narrowly averted their attempts to devour her, but with the help of her best friend Alicia, and the Temple of the Butterfly Dragon, Heylyn Yates had gone on to become one of the most successful fashion designers of her time.

Alicia hadn't realized it when she'd narrowly managed to finish her development of the SY-349 formula, which had eventually become one of the most potent treatments for Cancer and degenerative diseases the world over. They'd tried to take it from her, and to devour her, but through the passage of fate, and the dance of the two dragons, she'd somehow managed to slip by and the SY-349 become part of international medicine's arsenal against disease.

Walton Norler had managed to escape them as well, while in his mid-thirties he'd developed his edict of responsible business, rescuing the corporate west from demise as he proved that business and a responsibility to the people could co-exist happily, and even be (responsibly) profitable. With his responsible business edict, we went on to fund the development of the SY-349, and throughout their golden age, was even CEO of Tynan And Associates.

Aikiko too, had survived being disowned by her own father, to pay a gambling debt to a dangerous gangster. She carried the family tradition of her grandfather's Dojo, being the last of her line to have mastered their legacy of Japanese traditional martial arts. She escaped from the lowest possible caste, and became a determined and poignant woman, despite the fact that secretly, Mentis had made efforts to devour her and her history along her difficult path.

Monique, who'd almost given up when Mentis, acting through her ex-boyfriend had tried to resign her to a life of human trafficking, somehow found the strength in herself to do what she had to in order to escape the man, and when all hope had been lost, she'd been discovered by Heylyn Yates, who gave her an opportunity to rebuild her life with an honest and exciting career, narrowly averting the fate that awaited her within the ranks of Mentis' collective.

The truth was, that Gregory was fortunate to have escaped that fate that Mentis had brought with him everywhere, despite the fact that Mentis no longer existed as an individual, but as mass of minds.

Each one of those who'd averted disaster at the hands of Mentis', including Gregory, had something to share with the world that might one day liberate those trapped on social islands that had successfully barricaded themselves against the onslaught of Mentis' Millions Of Minds.

The fact that Gregory had few, if any friends nor a social circle his age was not his fault. He'd been purposely isolated by Mentis and his collective, to escape collateral damage, for Mentis knew that the more enemies they made, the less secured their future would be. Hence, Gregory had been isolated as the forces of Mentis surrounded him in his community, one by one moving into neighbouring units around him, until eventually, there was nobody around Gregory that wasn't privvy to everything in the world of mind and the real world that coincided with Gregory's efforts.

When Alicia had rescued Gregory from the only fate Mentis made possible, many doors had opened for him. There were few in the condominium tower where Alicia and Norler lived that were part of Mentis' collective, but that number had been growing significantly over the decade, and though Alicia and Norler were mostly safe, the arm's length of safety afforded them was rapidly closing in.

Mentis knew that Alicia and Norler would be difficult, but he also knew that Gregory would be easy to foil, because he knew that when Gregory was finished his life's pursuit, that he would seek meaning in other ways. Ways he'd not experienced thus far, and so it was that Mentis efforts to consume Gregory continued.

Gregory opened the medicine cabinet and pulled forth a can of hair styling mousse, something he hadn't worn since his late teens. He fluffed his short mop of hair up with it, and looked at himself again.

"Maybe I do have a chance," Gregory said to himself, leaving the bathroom and returning to his bedroom once again. He went through his drawers and then his closet, and when he'd found enough clothing to put together something he'd found stylish, he returned to the bathroom and doused himself in cologne he'd bought but had never worn.

He then grabbed his phone from the coffee table, made sure he had his wallet and credit card and left for the night.

Cities Never Sleep

[Eurythmics - This City Never Sleeps]

Monique stepped out of the elevator and into the ground floor foyer of her Queen's Quay and York Street based condo. Her silk skirt clung to her body, while her blouse gave her room to breath as she walked the stretch of marble floor to the front door where their taxi awaited.

Aikiko's outfit left a little more to the imagination, but mostly due to the difference in their height, for Monique was five foot ten, while Aikiko was five foot eight. What she lacked in Monique's height, her body had made up for in shapely sculpted form. Her muscles rippled like permanent waves throughout her body, and yet her form could be soft and supple enough that none were intimdated by her presence.

Monique had always been inherently thin, the roundness of her figure a splinear function of her vertical breadth. More pronounced vertically than along the her horizontal dimensions.

Her long blonde wig this night had been convincing enough that none of the obsessed fans that still inhabited the exterior of her building in wait of the opportunity for an autograph, or a piece of her clothing, or perhaps of her flesh, had recognized her.

Aikiko too had turned the tables on them, instead wearing a bright red wig, her hair style long in front (hiding her shapely face) and short in back (revealing parts of her never seen by the obsessed). They'd both even drawn upon their experience as models to alter the rhythm and curvature of their walk, as Doctor Briggs had explained to the models of West Meet East, that cognitive recognition in the brain was initially derived from the splinear shapes of a person's motion.

If a person didn't match their previous recognized motion on the part of someone observing them, the brain would reject it in the process of cognitive recognition. It didn't matter how much you resembled the person being recognized. If you didn't move like them, then as far as the brain was concerned, you weren't them. And so, drawing from the knowledge and expertise of their friends, they evaded the recognition of their (obsessed) fans. The best part was that their fans didn't even know or suspect that they'd been fooled.

Monique got into the back of the cab with Aikiko, the driver being a familiar friend of theirs who'd for his loyalty to these particular clients, had been favoured by the dispatch anytime a call came in for them.

"How are you tonight Dopinder?" asked Monique flirtatiously.

"It has been a prosperous night so far. I've already taken one high profile client with a particularly foul spoken, yet liberating mouth to his renderezvous point at a bar to meet a rather rude, gruff and hairy man, with rather long sideburns," Dopinder explained to Monique, whose red lips he could see clearly through the rearview mirror.

"They do seem to be in abundance these days," Aikiko responded, immediately thinking of the men who'd latched onto Monique's hair earlier in the week outside of West Meet East during that fiasco.

"Actually, he wasn't that hairy come to think of it," Dopinder replied, interpreting Aikiko's response by placing significance on the unintended adjective.

"I meant rude," Aikiko replied.

"He wasn't rude either, but these people waiting on your presence... I see exactly what you mean... Being in the public eye nowadays can be ever so detrimental to one's inner peace," Dopinder quickly caught on to her context.

"Neither of us hold any ill towards our fans. We're where we are because of them and if anything, we're truly grateful on that account," Aikiko replied.

"Totally! I couldn't have said it better! However, I do think that etiquette and demeanor has sharply declined in many ways," Monique added to Aikiko's response.

"I see. So you don't mean that you're looking for the people to kiss your petute..." Dopinder nodded as he drove.

"You lost me at petute..." Monique looked to Dopinder and then back to the road.

"Petute? It is the cleft between the buttocks of a village goat. A goat usually nursed for milk, cheese and yoghurt," Dopinder responded, stepping carefully with his words.

"Alright. Despite the fact that I find it a little disturbing that someone came up with a word for that, I totally agree with what you're saying. We're not looking for people to kiss our petutes and we certainly appreciate our fans, but extend the same common decency to us that you'd extend others whose space you respect. Especially when our focus is on other aspects of our career and life other than public appearances. I mean, it would be nice to walk to the café near West Meet East International casually to pick up a caramel espresso without needing an armoured car," Monique explained to Dopinder.

"It is true! But how many could understand what you're saying until they experience it for themselves?" Dopinder reasoned.

"And that is the key aspect to our misunderstanding. The vast majority of fans respect that boundary, but there are some who osbessively go to lengths that aren't particularly healthy. For us and for them," Monique appreciated having an insightful and endearing person with whom to speak candidly.

One who used their ears in the correct ratio relative to their mouth.

"That is so true, but perhaps that is as Sting says: A Ghost In The Machine," Dopinder responded thoughtfully.

"He was quoting a philosophical book by Arthur Koestler about the nature of the mind. One of the books recommended me by Tanaka-Sama of our family Dojo when I was but thirteen years old back in the outskirts of Osaka prefecture," Aikiko interjected.

"So where can I take you two ladies tonight to escape to a world of your choosing?" Dopinder asked them tactfully.

"Dopinder, could you please take us to the Fifth Social Club, on Richmond Street please?" asked Monique of their driver.

"It will be my utmost duty and pleasure to get you there safely," Dopinder replied politely.

...

[Earlier that same evening]

Heylyn picked up her phone from her coffee table and hit the speed dial for Kori's number.

"Look, I'm already on my way. I'm about ten minutes from you, at St. Clair and Pharmacy," Kori explained to Heylyn without even greeting her.

"Thanks Kori. Glad to hear it. Braden's got her until you arrive, so when you get here, go to his condo instead of mine," Heylyn urged Kori.

"Ohhh? Really? Well maybe I can just look after Warai there?" Kori responded as Heylyn had anticipated, retrieving her makeup bag while at a traffic light.

"If you'd prefer. He said he's in for the night. They're going to be watching a movie together," Heylyn informed Kori.

"And Monique and Aikiko?" Kori asked Heylyn.

"I'm going to be catching up with them later..." Heylyn told Kori.

"...Is this Habus fellow going to be with them?" asked Kori.

"I hope so. I really do hope so..." Heylyn responded with a slightly menacing tone.

...

Dopinder got the doors for both Aikiko and Monique, who stepped out of the cab and quickly made their way into the lively bar after thanking Dopinder.

"Reminds me of the Emporium a little bit," Monqiue remarked to Aikiko.

"The Emperor?" confirmed Aikiko.

"The Emporium silly. It was a club that Heylyn and Alicia used to go to when they were younger," Monique explained to Aikiko.

"Somehow, I can't imagine seeing Heylyn in a place like this," Aikiko replied with unintended irony.

"My dear friend, there are just as many thirty something women in here hanging desperately onto their youth as long as they can. I say let them enjoy it. I mean, you've got to be comfortable with yourself before you can really share yourself with someone else," Monique saw Habus and Sterling seated at a table just off of the dance floor.

"Why not be comfortable in solitude, while enjoying those moments when accompanied? There are other happy and productive mediums other than girl meets boy, girl gets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy again and lives happily ever after. Why do we even feel the need to justify the terms of our happiness to others?" Aikiko responded insightfully as they walked around the dance floor towards their table.

"Wow. That's something. You mean that you don't feel committed to Sterling?" asked Monique.

"Not particularly, though I'd never seek other relationships outside of ours while we're still traveling the same road. We're both heading in roughly the same directly. Why not enjoy each other while on those terms? Why does everyone feel the need to be like Alicia and Norler? Like Valerie and Trey? Can't some of us just enjoy the journey itself, finding company when and where two paths meet without feeling guilty for being independent?" asked Aikiko somewhat rhetorically.

"You mean alone!" Monique responded defensively.

"No Monique. I meant independent," Aikiko replied confidently.

"If a bond between two people is so strong that it remains in the midst of my ways, then perhaps it will remain without the need for having planned it years earlier, setting yourself up for guilt when you fail to achieve it," Aikiko managed to fit a smile in as they arrived at the table.

Monique suddenly wondered if she wasn't forcefully aiming for Habus out of fear of being a spinster as she crested into her thirty-somethings. Then another thought occurred to her, and one she hadn't previously considered, Aikiko's observations likely having stirred her thoughts in that regard, though Monique knew it not to be an issue of blame, but rather one of personal awareness.

Habus and Sterling both stood, each leaning across the table to kiss Monique and Aikiko gently and quickly on the lips. Monique sat across from Habus, feeling slightly uneasy from the train of thought Aikiko had awakened.

She considered that Heylyn had become somewhat like a mother to her, and that in her defiance of her being with Habus, Monique was actually rebelling to secure her own independence against the woman who'd lifted her from her first real fall in life, while Aikiko knew exactly where she stood in the scheme of things in her relationship with Sterling. To Aikiko, it was fun and he could be good company at times, but she'd also taken it upon herself to rescue a man from his own misimpressions of what he thought was luring to women about assertiveness. As long as their paths ran parallel, and he'd proven to be more enjoyable than a liability, she'd maintain their relationship.

Monique on the other hand at this point didn't know whether she was truly attracted to Habus, or if it was just her declaration of independence to Heylyn.

"Is something the matter?" Habus spoke up, detecting something interpersonal between them, Monique sliding her chair around the table closer to his.

"Its been a stressful week, and I've got a lot on my mind," Monique responded as Aikiko and Sterling stood up and gestured towards the bar to Monique and Habus.

"I'll have my usual... thanks sweetie," Monique said to Aikiko, the pair then heading to the bar to pick-up their round.

"What about you? How are things on your end of the scales?" asked Monique.

"A bit stressful, but we're here to enjoy ourselves. We can talk shop later," Habus suggested to her politely.

"Why don't you ever discuss your past with me?" asked Monique, wanting to engage him a bit more closely.

"I thought we agreed that we'd keep things forward looking between us?" Habus reminded Monique.

"If you want to build a solid foundation, you have to know what lays beneath," Monique responded.

"You don't like about me what you know so far or you don't trust?" Habus asked her.

"Foundation isn't just about one person. I mean, don't you think about these things? Aren't you even in the slightest curious about me, and my past?" asked Monique, parlaying from her perspective while trying to understand his.

"Isn't it enough that you know the me of now, and that I know the same of you?" asked Habus somewhat rhetorically.

"You mean the two are different?" confirmed Monique.

"Are you the same person you were?" asked Habus, continuing with his rhetoric.

"Same person, two very different situations. The only thing that either had in common was that they both had a foundation," Monique explained to Habus her perspective.

"A foundation that you built with someone else. How does that apply to our lives here and now when we're building a new start?" asked Habus.

"I... know things about you. Things that are making it difficult for me to trust you..." Monique admitted to the man behind the ideology that had obsconded with Warai, essentially having kept her hostage in the wild.

"As do I know things about you. Such as Samias, and his connection to a deceased crime lord named Torman... So do you want me to base my trust of you on that knowledge, or would you prefer me to draw my own conclusions about the you that I know, here and now?" asked Habus as Aikiko and Sterling returned with their drinks.

"Here is your drink. Just the way you like it!" Aikiko placed Monique's drink in front of her as Sterling sat down with his and Habus'.

"To a new beginning of the week. We'll make our own beginning, even if it is Friday!" Habus held up his glass to those seated at the table.

"I'll drink to that, but remember that we also have to learn from the week from which we came..." Monique added to Habus' secret metaphor.

Barnacles Beneath The Waterline

Gregory's run-ins with Mentis had begun early in his life, though at that time few if any knew they existed at all, for the social symptoms of their existence were cleverly masked as a variety of psycho-social ailments to be found in psychology and sociology texts of universities around the world.

That isn't to say that such ailments didn't exist, because they truly did, and there were many who honestly struggled in society against such hurdles, however the biggest hurdle often being the stigma arising from the association of such ailments to one's own life. It was this stigmatic aspect that created the most effective form of stealth for Mentis and his growing collective ideology of the mind.

Anyone who happened to speak of Mentis, or the symptoms arising from his groups incursion into their lives, and they'd be labeled as being mentally ill, the stigma already providing the stealth needed to keep Mentis' ideology from being revealed prematurely. If sailors couldn't swim, and never ventured below the waterline of their vessel, they'd only have symptoms with which to contend when their vessel had become covered in barnacles. A malady of sea-going vessels that occurred entirely beneath the waterline. Hence the symptoms would be the only indication of the ship having accrued a parasitic colony that had fastened themselves to the ship's hull and below the waterline.

The ship would become less buoyant, have a reduced maximum speed, have lesser cargo capacity, reduced manoeuverability in addition to the risk of hull penetrations as the parasite persisted. The sailors, unwilling to venture beneath the waterline would eventually be forced to abandon their vessel, the barnacles eventually incapacitating it entirely.

And so it was that the stigma of reported symptoms of the social phenomenology associated with the spread of Mentis' ideology became the metaphorical waterline that protected its spread, much the same as the waterline protected barnacles infesting a boat, nobody willing to venture beneath the waterline to investigate the true nature of the parasite of the mind that was infesting society and its inhabitants one by one.

It devoured them each in turn and leaving no signs of its presence in its wake except its own growing collective ego.

Those who resisted it were often in for the fight of their life, if not absolutely for it, for even in the midst of a bustling city of four million, it was possible for people to simply disappear.

There was a time that when a person was threatened with such a fate, that a person would become filled with terror by vastness of the possibilities implied by the term disappear.

There had been a great deal of many people who had simply disappeared. Some of them as a result of their own endeavors, while others more certainly as a result of foul play. Such disappearances had become the fuel of imagination where ever a threat of disappearance may have reared its ugly head.

One might end up sleeping with the fishes, or get fitted for a pair of cement shoes, as many stereotypes in popular culture often portrayed some cultures of the Meditterranian.

To disappear as it was meant in the eidos of Mentis, was to simply have one's own record of existence, both documented and social, erased. All footprints leading to and from their life's history, and the path pursued were eradicated. Their name. Their association with family and friends. Where they lived. Where they worked. All of it was devoured by Mentis and his collective of the mind, until there was no evidence to support that the disappeared had indeed existed at all.

Even if the victim of such a fate was standing in front you at this very moment. All others would deny them of their identity, instead having fabricated or traded the history of someone else of such difficult burden and unimaginable weight to replace that of the disappeared, so much so that the ramblings of the disappeared to the contrary and towards the ends of truth would sound like the rants of a lunatic.

The only thing about them truly disappeared was the true record of their former existence. They were still physically alive, but had inherited a life history not their own, and most often in order to maintain this alteration reality, they were dissocciated from the people they'd formerly known, and often isolated and driven mad. These were capabilities well within the methods of Mentis and his millions of minds, and along the path their collective had carved throughout the global society, they had visited this fate upon millions thus far.

The valuable aspects of the life history of the disappeared were often taken over by others. So if the disappeared had skills and notable talents, or achievements of some good fortune and standing in society, those aspects of their being would become the property of Mentis' collective, specific members wearing them as if bling.

Many of those targeted for disappearance often clung to their skills and talents, maintaining them as identifying aspects of their being, for who else could be them except those who were capable of all of their abilities and talents? If they'd been a skilled carpenter, with a particular style to their work, it became as good as a signature and fingerprint, though Mentis' solution to overcome this was simply by having his members use substitutes and stand-ins. People who had the skill or talent in question, who would any time the target of disappearance had used their talent in public, the substitute would take the credit for, and the community would only remember the substitute, and not the disappeared.

Many of the targets of disappearance had multiple talents and skills, and so Mentis used as many people as it took to hide them, while replacing aspects of their history and reputation with the worst possible imaginable burdens. Things that nobody would delve into or risk ending up burdened with upon digging into the true history of the disappeared. This kept other people from helping the target of disappearance, for anyone who did would end up with the social weight of their burden. Almost like a curse, preventing any from getting closer to the disappeared than arm's length or risking delving into their mysteries.

And so it was the disappeared were often referred to as ghosts. People who physically existed, but every record of their existence had been eradicated by Mentis, and from that point onward, they'd never be referred to by their own original identity. That person, whomever they were, was quite simply gone. Everything enticing and redeeming about them worn as bling by members of Mentis' collective, who up until very recently, were not believed to exist anyway themselves.

Mentis and his millions (if not billions) of minds were the barnacles infesting a boat beneath the waterline. Only those who were unafraid to swim in the deepest and darkest of waters, knew of Mentis' existence at all. Mentis remained hidden until the hour of their eventual tyranny over humanity, for who would believe a sailor who'd swam into the depths beneath the waterline and saw for themselves the nature of the beast? To most, anyone who spoke of Mentis was likened to the disincredulousness of drunken sailors speaking of the sea monsters beneath the waterline.

There was much more to the waterline analogy than just being the murkiness that hid the barnacles. The waterline was akin to barrier between the real world, the world of our senses and physical experience, and the world of the mind. All that we think, dream, imagine and recall. The place of our utmost peace and privacy or so most of us would hope. It was the place where we were free to consider everything and anything we could imagine.

That is, it was that place, until Mentis, for Mentis had breached that barrier, and had become one of the few organized groups that could link the real world with the world of the mind.

When Gregory had envisioned that he could, using off the shelf parts, build a mobile computing device of such power, that it could utilize AI to simulate SUPERCONDUCTING QUANTUM INTERFERENCE DEVICES for medical diagnosis, using much lower resolution MAGNOMETERS, his idea began as a spark in his mind. A thought. An idea.

Given the fact that up until that point, Gregory had assumed that his mind, as was anyone else's, was an impenitrable barrier into which nobody could scry or peer, he thusly assumed that his idea was his own and safe.

It required uniquely specialized knowledge in order to understand the connection between MAGNOMETERS, and SUPERCONDUCTING QUANTUM INTERFERENCE DEVICES (SQUIDS its acronym). SQUIDS were essentially MAGNOMETERS, albeit of a much, much higher resolution and hencely were much, much more expensive. MAGNOMETERS on the other hand were the most common type of sensor inside of modern cellular phones, and hence, cheap and easy to mass produce.

SQUIDs measured the qualities of miniscule magnetic fields. So miniscule in fact, that SQUIDS could be used to detect the magnetic fields produced by single neurons themselves. The predominant cells of the nervous system, the communications network and infrastructure of the brain itself. The ability to decode electromagnism at that scale would lead to advances in studies pertaining to the brain, as it would to treatments for countless diseases that affected the nervous system. It would lead to the means to repair the spinal cord in cases where it was severed, or to technologies allowing medicine to bridge breaks in the spine, allowing information to freely traverse the break.

The concept was one that had been relevant to medicine for a very long time. Since modern theories of telecommunication had become intertwined with medicine itself, such as Gregor Cantor's contribution to set theory, and Bell's Theorem were used to facilitate noise mitigation in channels used for the transmission of information. Understanding of the nature of information itself in turn had found its way into the field of medicine, particularly useful in studying genetics, and the nervous system itself.

These ideas were something that most medical technologists had been thinking about for a long time. However, there had been up until recently, very few who'd bridged the gap between generative AI and high resolution sensor technology. The fact was that one who was aware of these technologies and how to employ them towards such ends, could use AI to build a network that analyzed the input from SQUIDs, and then created algorithms that could be used with the input from much weaker sensors to build highly accurate readings, and all in real-time.

Gregory, being more of an isolated hobbyist and one who'd been chased from academia early in life by schoolyard bullies, had gone his own path, without the accreditations one would need to take part in modern academia. However, that didn't stop him from learning, for he'd spent most of his young life beyond his leaving school, learning on his own. He essentially designed his own curriculum, taking the courses for he which qualified despite his lack of a diploma. Those for which he didn't qualify, he would apply for an entrance examination, which in every case, he'd pass with flying colours.

As a result of the path he'd taken, he didn't interact with or befriend people from the academic institutions he so admired, for he'd essentially been prevented from doing so by his schoolyard bullies from way back when. A conflict that had grown into an enigma of monstrous social proportions between the two sides, though this had gone on for most of Gregory's life without his knowing. The side of his former bullies constantly trying to force him into hateful reaction against them, while casting themselves as the good side over the course of their hidden conflict. Their efforts against Gregory were amongst their best kept secrets. In all honesty, Gregory had for most of his life since leaving school never suspected that his bullies would conspire to such ends. He had for the most part forogotten them and simply moved on, surviving by using his own self crafted educational curriculum to work in everything from the computer industry to hard labour, keeping sharp both his body and more modestly so, his mind.

By the time Gregory had come up with his initial ideas about building what would eventually become the Medi-Friend, Mentis had already accumulated a large membership, and their collective expanded in search of bright minds whose efforts they could devour, and so it happened that through one of Gregory's former childhood bullies, one who'd become a member of Mentis' millions of minds, they found out about him. Soon after, in his family home, he had become targeted and their efforts focused on dissolving the barrier between what he was thinking in the world of mind, and what he was doing in the real world. An effort that would involve their attempting to connect to him via their malicious and invasive methods. They themselves never understanding the science of what was behind their methods, for they were closer to ideas founded on ritual and superstition, than they were to the pursuit of encompassing knowledge and understanding.

Nothing in Gregory's life seemed much different, except that he did notice that certain people would start treating him rudely more and more often, and that people he didn't know or recognize would often instigate conflict with him, some of them even following him and harassing him verbally any time that he was out and about taking care of his responsibilities.

Eventually, this activity grew to such extremity, that even his neighbours in the houses beside his, began doing the same thing, and those that didn't, quickly moved out and were replaced by those who did. As this activity became more and more intense, Gregory found himself in situations where he'd have difficulty with anxiety, the feeling of drastic alterations to his hormones would trigger outbreaks of nervous ranting on his part. If his neighbours had been harassing him, he'd often respond verbally, sometimes becoming angry with them. What he didn't know was that the more that this occurred, the more they were strengthening their connection to him. They were creating the biomagnetic and quantum tendrils through which they would peer into his world of mind, and learn his deepest and darkest secrets, not to mention taking for themselves his greatest ideas.

And so it was on the night of the worst of his experiences of harassment from neighbours, that he made a concerted effort to destress himself. He consciously made efforts to recall some of his more creative times, and that's when he remembered his idea about using MAGNOMETERS as SQUIDs in a tablet-like hand held device. It was at that moment that Mentis' representatives, who now neighboured his residence, also became aware of the device and his ideas, for they could from that point forward, peer reasonably accurately into his mind and know just about every one of his thoughts.

Initially, they kept this hidden from him, especially as their collective decided what to do about what they'd learned about his idea. It took them a month to eventually track down a member in their ranks who understood what Gregory had visualized, though he couldn't explain it to other members in any meaningful way at their level of understanding. Most were drawn to Mentis over the idea of the instant power it would afford them over others. The protection of a secretive collective, whose power was growing by the day. A group who could peer into the secrets contained in the human mind, as much so as it could have its own members misuse the resources of their companies of employ towards the ends of their whole.

For instance, one of their first goals was to gain access to Gregory's cellular phone. Not just for his phone calls and phone records, but his contact list and all the other activities for which he used his cellular phone. To achieve this, they enlisted the assistance of members of Mentis who were employed not directly by Gregory's own cellular service provider, but by the much larger company that leased Gregory's cellular provider their cellular and satellite network. That member of Mentis who was employed at that company simply used their technical skill and administrative access to gain access to the client network, even gaining direct access to Gregory's own account, and eventually the ability to monitor Gregory's phone in realtime without his knowing.

At some point, Gregory's own service provider became suspicious of the monitoring activities enacted by the member of Mentis who worked for the line leasing company, and reported it to the authorities. Mentis' and his millions of minds quickly deduced what had happened, losing their monitoring connection to Gregory's phone for a day, for that's how long it took them to work around the employee's intererence and her loyalty to her customers.

To get around her protection of Gregory, they enlisted another member of Mentis, who assisted them in switching investigative evidence from activities looking into internet crime in Gregory's area, and ammending those activities to Gregory's previously clean record. A subpoena was put forth, and Gregory's own cellular company was forced to comply. A complaint was also issued by those that had filed the subpoena against the employee who'd protected Gregory, claiming that she'd obstructed justice, and she ended up being fired from her job as a result. This had helped Mentis to reinforce against those who stood against their efforts, for fear of losing their job, or worse.

When Gregory's internet activity had turned up little if anything to indicate that he was engaged in criminal activity online, the members of Mentis who'd assisted in amending Gregory's otherwise clean record with implications of online crime, then searched their records for any activities near his residence. When they found that one of Gregory's neighbours had been engaged in criminal activity online, they once again switched records, so that the address associated with the activity being monitored coincided with Gregory's address, rather than that of the neighbour actually responsible.

In the process, Gregory had inadvertently inherited all of the reputation of that neighbour's criminal activity, and from that moment on, he would be treated by people in the same community as if he was responsible for that person's activities, despite the fact that he didn't even know that he was being monitored for, let alone being monitored for the crimes committed by other people. This is the extent to which Mentis had taken their war against Gregory, and this had gone on for a few years before Gregory even became suspicious that something foul was afoot.

When it came to Gregory's love life, he'd been a timid and shy person for most of his life, and though he enjoyed the company of members of the opposite sex, his interest in esoteric ideas often got him labeled in ways that kept him isolated. When he did finally start meeting and engaging in a social life with women, they often found that together, either of them had been for much of their early life, pariahs of a sort. And so, his relationships or at least those which weren't pre-arranged in some capacity for him by others, tended to be very deep and meaningful. Serendipity of sorts. Nerds of one manner or another who'd found each other. An intensity though that was often frought with the curtails of a decided lack of experience, in a time of life when people were learning as much about themselves as they were their partner.

Into his early twenties, and he'd been romantically involved a few times already, his relationships mutually intense, though almost always very discrete but as Mentis' interest in his life and secrets peaked, Mentis sought ways to undermine discretion, and by the time they'd connected to Gregory, they had acquired a considerable knowledge of some of his former partners. They would use this knowledge to pit them against each other.

Mentis' and his millions of minds had access to the contents and memories of their victim's lives, but only when the victim themselves was thinking consciously or remembering those aspects of their life. In order for Mentis to become aware of any of their victim's memories, they had to trick their victim into consciously thinking about them. Remembering them.

It was as if Mentis and his followers could only peer into the mind through the victim's own mind's eye. The seat of their conscious mind from where they experienced the world through their senses, and remembered everything stored in their memory. It was akin to being the one in the driver's seat. Memories were like the rearview mirrors. In order to rememember something, the driver had to look in the rearview mirror, and it was through the driver's awareness that Mentis scried their victim's memories.

Most people spent their time focused in existential awareness, dealing with life as it came to them in the form of cognition, which was built upon by heuristic analysis of perception, which was the combined input of a person's sensory organs. Their mind's eye the driver's seat from which they'd access all of these faculties of their being, most often without the need to think about them consciously. They would just will it to occur and it would.

It was through the mind's eye that Mentis observed every facet of their members', and their victims' experience of reality. They could, through their biogmagnetic connection to their victim's nervous system, experience everything their victim was, as if it were happening to them, or moreso, as if they had hacked security cameras and were scrying through them to obtain first person details of their victims' lives. They could in essence spy on their victims in realtime as long as the biomagnetic connection was strong and maintained. Maintenance of that connection involved the same methods that had been employed to create the connection in the first place.

The members would instigate conflict with their victim, extreme emotions seeming to reinforce the connection in a similar way that extreme emotions would also connect two lovers. In fact, Mentis and his millions of minds were exploiting this aspect of human emotion unwillingly against their victims, almost as if a form of emotional rape. The connection between them and their victims was an unwilling one, and hence rape was the most applicable verb to Mentis' activity in that regard.

When the connection was strong enough, the followers of Mentis would then speak to their victim, using specific statements that would trigger the memories they were trying to access. Like tricking the driver of the car into checking the rearview mirror, so that Mentis followers could peer into it, although in the case of their victims, they were accessing their victim's memories by tricking the victim into recalling them. Almost using them like an input device of a computer.

When the victim thought about or recalled the memories they'd been tricked into as much, those of Mentis' followers who were connected to the victim would gain the information and experience associated with those memories as if they'd experienced it themselves. This meant that every moment in a victim's memory, including the most intimate, was available to Mentis if the victim was unaware of the means being employed against them, and few if any did.

And so it was that many of Gregory's secrets between himself and his former lovers became compromised in this way, long before Gregory had began to suspect anything. Meanwhile, Mentis would gather information in a holistic sense, by using other people who knew the ones with which Gregory had been intimately involved. Combining all of this knowledge about those people, they could effectively play them against each other, and destroy allegiances that had been built on the greatest power of all: love.

Mentis was at war with any form of bias that was of a person's own choosing, and love was the greatest symbol of the freedom to do so.

As Mentis had already done with countless others throughout North American society, and into the rest of the world as his collective ideology spread, they broke the fabric of society, sewing distrust and conflict between everyone, everywhere in ways that few if any, would ever be able to understand. Further, if someone by some fluke of understanding was able to explain it all, nobody, not a single person would likely believe them.

And yet, so many like Heylyn, Alicia, Monique, Valerie, Norler and Gregory had made it through, while so many others had fallen to Mentis, becoming aborbed into the collective, their former life and behaviour conforming more and more to the collective ego of Mentis millions of minds. Their collective had transcended individuality, to become a superorganism, albeit, one of immense narcissism and ego.

By the time Gregory had started to become suspicious about what was going on, Mentis had already taken most of North America, and where Mentis hadn't yet procured it, the front lines of his war was being fought.

Ironically, by the time the first people who'd figured it out enough to describe it accurately and sound the alarm had come forward, Mentis simply protected themselves by branding the whistleblowers as speaking about communism and socialism. As public paranoia grew with regard to the alarmist rhetoric, the public's attention was diverted against countries with a high degree of social infrastructure, most brutally against communist countries, many of whom had the best defenses, albeit somewhat draconian, against Mentis' spread.

Every time the alarm was raised using a different metaphor to reveal the nature of the threat, Mentis would simply rebrand the alarmists as referring to Mentis' own enemies. To regions who'd built up the best defense against the spread of Mentis' ideology, and soon the rest of humanity, including those not yet consumed by Mentis, were fighting Mentis' war for them and most people were caught in the confusion of those fighting over capitalism versus communism, when Mentis' millions of minds was neither.

By the time that Zheng Ni Wong, Doctor Briggs, Bryce Maxwell and Doctor Hidbickle had uncovered the true nature of Mentis' methods via the rigours of the scientific method, the world was on the brink of no return, though there were few if any who were aware of this fact more so than Mentis, and their effort focused on turning the world of the sciences against itself.

Gregory had in all irony, chosen the moment that his life's pursuits had culminated in a device whose power Mentis had truly underestimated, for it could reveal the mysteries behind which Mentis was hidden and spreading, to dilute the world of mind and reality, exploiting it all for the superorganism that Mentis had become.

The night he'd chosen to reclaim his social life and his future, was the very same night he'd chosen to find his future at the Fifth Social Club bar. The very same place that Monique and Aikiko had chosen to meet with Sterling, and Mentis' own former prodigy: Habus Macill.

Grey Matter

Victor sat on the sofa, his feet propped up on the coffee table comfortably. Katya lay tucked into the left side of his chest, just barely awake as they watched the last of the evening news. Victor's head drifted as he struggled to remain awake during a news clip speaking about Ukrainian forces having advanced into the Kursk region, having firm control of the surrounding front, and protected supply routes back to Ukraine.

Victor's head finally gave in, falling forward, his chin hitting his chest and startling him awake again as the phone began ringing.

Katya sat up, rubbing her eyes as Victor leaned forward and picked up his cellular phone from the table.

"Hello?" he answered without having a chance to check who was calling him at ten thirty on Friday evening.

"Doctor Piotr?" asked Mr. Deeters.

"Speaking..." Victor looked over to his wife, who's brows raised in curiosity.

"Its Mr. Deeters speaking, how are you? I hope I'm not catching you at a bad time?" asked Mr. Deeters.

"Not at all Mr. Deeters. How are you?" Victor looked to Katya, who nodded upon hearing Deeters' name.

"Very good thanks. I just wanted to let you know that I just got off the phone with the investors and they'd like to go ahead with your plan for the solution, but they're keeping Mr. Fenster on as a consultant, which will definitely prove beneficial to what we're trying to achieve," Mr. Deeters explained to Victor.

"How soon are we going to be starting on this?" asked Victor.

"We'll be meeting on Monday morning to go over the contract and the NDA agreement, although I'd remind you that we'd prefer it if you didn't speak of this to anyone. The press doesn't know yet, so that shouldn't be an issue, however we are dealing with cutting edge technology and peering into a field of study whose precedence has yet to be set. One of the exact reasons we've brought you two on board," Mr. Deeters explained to Victor.

"Are the facilities going to be built, or are we using a ready made infrastructure?" asked Victor.

"We'll know for sure on Monday, but we're aiming for one of the University Of Toronto's labs, part of their MARS facility, but we'll need to equip it with some of the more specialized gear, pending your approval in relation to what we'll need to setup a Phage supporting biosphere," Mr. Deeters explained.

"Forgive my confusion, but I thought we would going to be using CRISPR technology?" confirmed Victor, grabbing hold of his wife's hand excitedly.

"The investors seemed to be very interested in your third proposal. The one regarding doing all of the genetic coding via Phages," Mr. Deeters explained to Victor.

"The reason it was a third option and not first, is because it is relatively young field. The principles are sound, but there is very little in the way of practice doing so. CRISPR, despite the relatively slow progress in terms of turnaround times evaluating genetic generations, would still have an out of the gate advantage against using Phages as part of the resequencing strategy to deliver RNA payload directly into cells. Phages would initially be very slow turnaround, albeit theoretically, the generational turnaround in later generations would be faster on a logarithmic and then exponential scale, hence the Grey Goo risk I cited," Victor explained to Mr. Deeters, and Katya knew immediately that they were discussing Phages.

She smiled, clapping her hands together happily.

"Lets talk about this more at Monday's meeting. We'll spend about three hours discussing these matters and by the end of the day, I hope to have an equipment list for our purchaser. With that being the case, we could be up and running by this coming Thursday. Would Ten O'clock on Monday be alright?" asked Mr. Deeters.

"Ten AM Monday? That sounds fine," Victor looked to his wife quizzically, who nodded affirmatively to the suggested start time.

"Alright Doctor Piotr, give my best to your wife, and we'll see the two of you on Monday morning. Have a good night and a good weekend," Mr Deeters said his goodbyes and hung up.

"So... how'd it go?" Katya sat up on the sofa, a look of joyous anticipation on her face.

"We got the project. They want us to use Phages as RNA package delivery into target cells. This could be the big one! The one we've been working for our whole lives!" Victor said to her excitedly.

She practically jumped into his arms and they remained wrapped around each other for a few minutes, before walking hand in hand to the bedroom.

...

Victor lay on his back, looking up towards the ceiling unable to sleep, his mind already working on aspects of the project to which they'd recently been enlisted.

Katya, who'd had her back to him as she slept, turned over and found Victor awake.

"What's the matter?" asked Katya groggily.

"Its been while since we're contracted. Working with Alicia on her project was nice, but that was almost half a year ago. This being funded on again - off again is very difficult..." Victor responded to his wife.

Katya moved closer to him, taking a third of his pillow as she kissed his ear.

"You slept fine when we were hired by Alicia. Why not now?" asked Katya.

"I think because we weren't working with Phages. Cellular genetics is much different animal than Phage. We worked our entire life on this, and now we're going even deeper and into something that has me curious," Victor said to her, his eyes fixated on the ceiling.

"Curious about?" asked Katya, sliding her hand across his chest.

"Curious about... the focus on refining and measuring generational turnaround times. Seeking efficiency in this without the propery safety measures and analysis is one of the warning implied by John Von Neumann..." Victor remarked.

"We're working on low capacity - low population. The modified Phage strains is the safety measure," Katya cited their own previous work on the issues over which Victor was ruminating.

"But what is the safety measure against Phage?" Victor asked her.

"Their food. When they run out of bacteria to eat, they die off..." Katya reminded him of something he already knew very well.

"If we're modifying Phages to deliver RNA payload into cells, then modified Phages might adapt to expand diet to other cellular life forms..." Victor asserted.

"Not within the confines of the hundreds of generations we're testing within framework," Katya reasoned with her husband.

"But if we're optimizing generational turnaround times, we could be looking at thousands or even millions of generations as we approach the goal milestone of project, and that's what concerns me," Victor turned to face Katya.

"This is something we faced years ago, and we did very well for our safety measures. We even set the standards by which such safety is achieved for the EU Cellular Biology Research Standards Committee. I don't see your worrying as a liability, Victor, though it is distressing to me. I see it as a sign of our worth to this project. As a Doctor, I'd work with my cautious and guarded husband any day over wreckless fool of an obsessive genius, absent of any concern for their fellow humankind and only in pursuit of the gratification of their ego. Remember Victor, a thousand fools of like mind and the inability to stand in support of what's right against their own peers, are no different than one fool of the same ilk, except that a thousand fools of like mind are far more dangerous to humanity than one," Katya said proudly.

Victor turned and kissed Katya's nose, an amused smile on his face.

"I couldn't agree more. Its irony how hiding amongst the protection of a crowd quickly turns into the surrendering of one's own courage to maintain their own individual compass," Victor replied, the wisdom in her words very clear to him.

"So long as its not simply for the bling of having an individual compass, rather than having a real decided purpose. Direction means nothing without it, as much so as trying to understand a science without a good night's sleep, ahem?" Katya urged Victor, whose face had found a calm relief in her words.

"I think we have a deal, but first thing and over breakfast...?" Victor closed his eyes.

"We talk about solving this issue together. Goodnight," Katya kissed him on the cheek again and they fell asleep together.

Night Club

Monique and Habus had spent the better part of an hour on the dance floor, stopping occasionally for a glass of water between rounds as the night progressed.

Monique had always loved dancing and it had over her time of her leading a dual life as a Supermodel and as masked vigilante Eclipse, been her favourite way of throwing off the stress that accompanied most weeks of her life. It was in fact the joy of moving her body and feeling alive, in a way that everything weighing upon her seemed to melt to nothing. It was at those times that she truly found herself in the moment.

Habus didn't enjoy it the same way that she did, but he enjoyed being with her and danced nonetheless. In this sense it had become a means of bonding without the need to talk, and in this way it often was lacking in the cerebral banter that Monique was missing so much.

It wasn't that Habus lacked in that area, because he was one of the most thoughtful and philosophical men she'd ever dated. His conversations often weighed in on the side of philosophy, however clearly biased in the direction of his (former) activities and allegiances. Though Monique found some of what he had to say interesting, she simply could not see eye to eye with him in such matters, and her interest in him remained purely platonic.

Since her discussion with Aikiko earlier, she'd felt a sudden sense of relief. As if a great weight had been lifted from her conscience, and definitely one that had been self imposed and based upon ideas to demean her own perspective and its importance in her life. Ideas she'd lived with for her entire life without ever realizing the ways in which they were restricting her from enjoying her own being. In this senses, she didn't feel a tinge of guilt over the fact that she didn't know for certain where her relationship with Habus was going. She was just enjoying the present of it, without concerning herself over matters of the future.

Sterling, who had been with Aikiko for most of the night up until Monique and Habus had left for the dance floor, had left to get another round for Aikiko and himself when he ran into a woman he'd flirted with on the very day that him and Habus had met Monique and Aikiko at the café. Sterling had at that time, hedged his bets between two different women. Lana, a lovely and energetic red haired woman he'd met at the café and with whom he'd exchanged numbers, and finally Aikiko, who was the friend of Habus' intended pickup attempt: Monique.

During the time of what had evolved into a relationship with Aikiko, Sterling had secretly maintained contact with Lana, even meeting her occasionally for coffee, flirting with her many times in the hopes that he could escape Aikiko in pursuit of someone whose self esteem he'd deemed not to be an obstacle.

And so it was on that night, he'd arranged for Lana to be at the Fifth Social Club, where he'd look for an ample opportunity to jump ship in his relationship with Aikiko, and sail onward to a better horizon with Lana.

Aikiko after having become fed-up waiting for Sterling to return with her drink, got up and headed to the bar to tend to matters for herself when she spotted Sterling seated at another table, getting quite cosy with another woman.

There was a moment where she fought with her inner darkness, in the form of Dragon Butterfly, who fought desperately to take the stage, but Aikiko ultimately maintained her emotional mood with some struggle, and when she'd come to terms with what she saw, she was surprised to find that she felt a sense of relief. As if she'd been playing a cherade with Sterling simply to appease his interests. His like and dislikes. It had from the beginning all been about him and his lack of respect for a girl's boundaries. It was what had lured Dragon Butterfly out on the very night they'd brought Habus and Sterling back to their condo for the night.

Now, here he was three months later and he didn't even have the common decency to let her know that he'd arranged for another date. After her internal struggle, she felt relieved, for she realized that the problem wasn't hers at all. She secretly hoped that the woman with whom he'd planned his cowardly escape, had a sense of self respect enough not to let him get away with anything that undermined her values or self esteem. And with those last thoughts, she was done with the lack lustre behaviour of Sterling.

She continued to the bar, finding an empty seat there aside of the growing line of people migrating from the dance floor.

"Is this seat taken?" Aikiko asked the man seated next to her.

"No. Not at all. Please do," Gregory responded to her politely, suddenly recognizing her.

"...Aikiko?" Gregory smiled, suddenly remembering her from a meeting at West Meet East a few months previous.

"Gregory?" Aikiko smiled at him.

"Its good to see you. Good to see a familiar face, especially yours," Gregory stumbled over his words.

"As it is to see yours. Are you still working with Alicia and Norler?" asked Aikiko of him politely.

"Yes! We have been working together. Productively. You're still working with West Meet East?" Gregory smiled and nodded.

"Yes. Very well. I enjoy," Aikiko responded, she herself a bit nervous speaking to him.

"I know this sounds a bit cliché, but do you come here often?" asked Gregory of her.

"No. This is my second time? Its a good place. Fun," she smiled nervously again.

"I've never been here before. As a matter of fact, I don't think I've been anywhere before," Gregory smiled, somewhat embarrassed.

Aikiko began to laugh, covering her mouth with her hand.

"You don't get out much?" she asked him.

"Sorry, let me rephrase that: I don't get out at all. This is like my first time. Ever. When it comes to going out, I'm a virgin," Gregory replied, causing her to break out into laughter again, despite the fact that he wasn't particularly funny.

Aikiko was more laughing because it was something she'd not been able to do with Sterling, who actually got out all the time and was by many considered to be a hunk of a man.

She was laughing at the irony of the fact that the first man she'd met after Sterling having fled from her life, was a man that didn't get out at all. Here she was, on the verge of her climb to success as a fashion model, with a Supermodel as her mentor, and she'd been fled from by a hunk of a man who only wanted to go out all the time. To be seen. It obviously didn't matter that much to him who it was that he was seen with, as long as he was seen. She had just been a prop in his public life and was someone who knew the rules of social acumen enough so to be in it for himself and his public image.

Aikiko suddenly found herself wondering if this man who didn't get out at all might be the one who was really playing for the heart?

She initially had trouble adjusting to life in North America, because the social values and traditions were so different than those of her homeland Japan. It was like learning the ropes of life all over again, and here she was meeting a man who simply did not get out at all. Was he too as lost as was she when it came to the complex and bizarre customs of social acumen? Were the symbols and meanings valued by westerners in their social game hidden to him as much so as they were hidden to her?

"Can I get you a drink?" Gregory suddenly asked her.

She looked at him after finally having ceased laughing and smiled.

"Thank you," she smiled at him.

"What are you drinking?" he asked her, ready to order for them both when she suddenly burst out laughing again.

He watched her, and a smile grew into laughter on him as well.

"What's so funny?" Gregory smiled.

"I can't say it. My drink..." Aikiko laughed again.

"Its alright. I won't laugh," Gregory agreed.

"...do you promise?" Aikiko's eyes and smile magnetic to him.

"I promise," Gregory agreed, entirely charmed by her.

"...Pink Undies," she told him.

He looked at her as she did him, both of them blushing profusely before he spoke again.

"...uhhhh, I... I meant your drink. What are you drinking?" Gregory responded, now entirely lost and in unfamiliar territory.

"I told you. Pink Undies," Aikiko replied, once again laughing upon seeing him blush when she told him.

"You really don't get out at all," Aikiko added, Gregory bursting out laughing at the irony of the situation.

"Why don't we find a table so we can talk?" Aikiko asked him.

"That is the best suggestion I've ever heard while being out," Gregory agreed with her, grabbing their drinks as she led them to a table for two.

...

Monique had in the meantime grabbed Habus hand and was pulling him back to their table.

"That was the longest set of dancing I've ever done... We need a talk break..." Monique said to Habus as they navigated the bar back to their table.

"I couldn't agree more..." Habus responded as they rounded a pillar and arrived to find a woman seated there already.

"I'm sorry Miss, but this seat is..." Monique began, suddenly stopping when she recognized the woman.

"There's enough room for the three of here, Monique," Heylyn said to her employee, neighbour and friend, Heylyn's hair done up in a bun to hide her appearance.

"Uhhhh... Habus? This is a good friend of mine, Heylyn Yates..." Monique introduced Habus Macill to Heylyn.

"Pleased to finally meet you..." Habus said to her, shaking her hand.

"I was going to say the same thing. I guess that you already know that we have a lot to talk about, especially with you dating my star employee and my best friend," Heylyn responded.

"Are you sure you're not her mother?" asked Habus sarcastically.

"Are you sure that you have my friend's best interests in mind?" Heylyn responded.

"You're speaking for a woman entering into her thirties?" Habus replied, defending Monique's independence.

When Heylyn realized how her confrontation of him could backfire, she quickly withdrew.

"I apologize. As a good friend who cares about her alot, I sometimes overstep my boundaries. I'm just here to find out a bit more about the man who is taking up a valuable part of my friend's life. Her parents aren't here to do it, so I'm acting as her surrogate," Heylyn explained to Habus.

Monique smirked at Heylyn for embarrassing her, then looking around to see if she could find Aikiko anywhere.

When she failed to find her friend, she simply sat down across from Heylyn, and the three of them began their difficult conversation.

The Pursuer And The Pursued

[One Year Earlier]

Habus sat in the back of a car that sped along Queen Street, weaving in an out of traffic in pursuit of its quarry.

The man to his left, a larger more muscular man pulled a handgun from inside of his jacket and then, with the rear window of the car rolled down, leaned out and began firing.

On a streetcar ahead of them, Braden intuitively ducked as he saw the muzzle flashes from the pursuing car. He lay flat on the streetcar, leaving them nothing to shoot at. When he realized that the patrons on the streetcar were in danger, he stood upon reaching a sizable four story streetside building, and then leapt from the streetcar catching hold of an old fire escape, which he quickly scaled to the top of the building.

"Get around the damned streetcar! Make a right at Simcoe!" Habus yelled to the driver as he kept his eyes focused on Braden, who by that point had disappeared onto the roof of the building.

The car skidded around the corner just ahead of the streetcar as it passed through the intersection, the streetcar clipping the back end of the sedan. The car careened slightly as the driver attempted to maintain pursuit of his quarry, Habus screaming orders from the back.

As they maintained their momentum along Simcoe Street, Braden arrived at the neighbouring building to the south, which was a much taller fourteen story building. He leapt across, catching hold of a balcony on the sixth floor, and scaled the building parkour style, using balconies to ascend to the roof without being seen by Habus.

"Make another right onto Nelson Street! Do it!" Habus yelled at the driver, who immediately swung the car hard to the right.

It skidded around the corner and came to a stop as Braden made the jump from the fourteen story building to a ten story building, leaping directly overhead of their car without being seen. He rolled as he landed, redirecting his downward momentum laterally to break his fall. Using that extra momentum, he was on his feet again.

He ran for the south edge of that building and spotted an oddly shaped building several stories below. It was artistically designed, half of the building being of its original 1960s architecture while the front half was all brand new, shaped with a curved design and adorned with red-favouring magenta highlights. At its peak in the center, a geodesic skylight.

The building in question was a distant drop from his current height, but if he didn't make the jump, they'd eventually catch on to where he was and have him surrounded. Braden turned back about ten meters and began a sprint towards the edge of the building. Just south of Habus Macill, Braden leapt out into space, falling six stories before he impacted the roof of West Meet East International. He rolled across the roof, bruised but not broken, his fall having winded him unconscious beside the skylight.

"Have you got him team two?!!!" Habus screamed into a handheld two-way radio.

"Negative," the response came back through the radio.

"Team three?!!!" Habus continued as he got out of the car, looking skyward for any signs of Braden.

"That's a big negative boss," team three responded.

Habus fought the urge the throw the radio down onto the asphalt, instead biting his tongue.

"Boss, we've got to get out of here. He definitely knows we're in Toronto..." the driver got out and pleaded with Habus.

Habus clenched his fists, and ran his hand across the top of his nearly bald, thinned hair head.

"Team two, team three? Return to base. We'll link up later. Get there discretely. Understand?" Habus ordered them.

"Ten four, over and out," the response came over the radio.

"Get me back to the hotel. We need to regroup and come up with a plan to lure him out again," Habus ordered his men back into the car.

"Why don't we just go directly for the little girl?" asked the driver as they got in.

"Because one: we don't know where she is, and two: if we did, we'd only be leading him there. Remember, we're on his turf now," Habus reminded them.

"Habus, its all his turf now. Don't you see? He's got all of North America, and most of South America. If we don't make our move soon, he'll have it all..." the driver accelerated the car after addressing Habus.

"Not if we get the little girl first. That's why we have to proceed carefully when it comes to her. She's everything, and if he gets her first, all is lost," Habus told the driver.

"How do you two even know each other? You and Oculo Mentis?" asked the driver as they continued along Nelson Street.

"He Mentored me more than a decade ago. He taught me everything. I was going to be his esteemed prodigy, but we had a difference of opinion on some key issues..." Habus told the driver.

"Like?" asked the driver as they turned left onto Duncan Street.

"Like how he sees all of this ending..." Habus told the driver.

"And how is that?" asked the driver.

"The same way he's beginning it..." Habus responded.

"And you?" asked the man seated in the backseat next to Habus.

"Me? I just want to rule the world..." Habus smiled deviously, causing the driver and the man who'd asked him to laugh at his sarcasm.

There was only one problem.

Habus wasn't joking.

...

Outside of the hotel on a Friday night and the city had come to life, while Habus' room was dark and quiet.

He lay asleep in the hotel room bed, the air conditioning quietly breathing calmingly into the room and lulling him deeper into his night's sleep and that's when his dreams began.

They began as they usually did. He was walking alone on the streets at night, the voices present as they were most of the time. Something he'd gotten used to years earlier, though he knew that keeping his distance and being discrete were his best means of avoiding detection.

He passed someone in a trench coat, who whispered something at him as they passed.

"He sees you..." Habus heard the voice.

Habus didn't respond despite the fact that his heart picked up pace slightly.

"He's behind you..." another voice added to the slowly growing mania.

Habus kept himself in check and continued walking, when he heard footsteps behind him.

Habus immediately stopped, and the footsteps also stopped.

He smiled at the ruse, and then continued.

The footsteps behind him also continued, and he made a decided effort to maintain his calm.

Another passerby spoke, followed by a second and a third.

"He knows where you are..." the first one said.

"He's closing in on you..." the second elicited.

"He's right behind you..." the third voice came.

Habus' heart skipped a few beats, and then began to beat ever more aggressively.

He knew that when they used the word he, that they were using it in the same sense as it being a symbol. Mentis wasn't a solitary man, any more than a single cell in the human body was a person. Mentis had transcended that idea entirely, and in the process, given up his individuality. He was no longer himself, but more so they.

Their using his name was all part of the strategy of a collective, which in essence the individuals of the group were no longer individuals as the group had become the individual. The collective organism, and this organism made up of former individuals, wanted nothing more than to selfishly protect itself, the most basic of instincts of any life form: the instinct of self preservation.

When the organism was a group, the self was the group. And so, self preservation was the group as an organism looking first after the group, at the price of the individual.

Using pronouns like him or he was a way of protecting the group at the price of the individual, for Mentis had simply become a symbol as being the figurehead of a group, and was still being sold as its mind and brain.

If at any point, the group had come under existential threat, it would be the former individual Mentis who would pay the price. He would be tossed out from the group and offered up as a sacrifice, which in essence would preserve the group organism and its danger to society, while appeasing whatever forces sought to eradicate it.

Hence, Mentis, despite the fact that name represented an individual person to Habus, it had also become a symbol to the group, and a man that would be offered up in sacrifice should the group organism ever come under threat.

In all irony, this was something that Habus had learned while studying the Sociology program in the very same class as Doctor Stephen Briggs nearly two decades earlier.

Mentis however, to Habus, represented a distinct man who'd ventured into the abyss, and their rivalry still existed, known to both of them. Mentis himself hid in the protection of the group, having given up his individuality, while he also benefited from its power, because he still maintained the drive of his original conflict with Habus, since their parting ways.

Habus knew that to take out the man Mentis, would mean nothing in the effort to stop Mentis, for Mentis was no longer the man, and much more so the group.

Like any group that had transcended to become an organism unto its own, when it came to self preservation, it would sacrifice its membership from within.

It was this knowledge that most often kept Habus on his toes, for he knew that the monster pursuing him was in fact both the man Mentis, and the group as in organism.

Though Habus, despite his former cultic pursuits through the various schools he'd opened (all of which were promptly shut down by authorities after being discovered), he still had his issues and was far from being the cliché messiah that many of his followers had assumed of him, if in fact he could be assumed a messiah at all. As he'd admitted to his own men that day, he simply wanted to, with the knowledge he'd acquired from Mentis, rule the world.

There was only one problem. Mentis was already one third of the way to achieving that goal as it consumed the global population. And so Habus had his moments of rage and ire as his goals became ever fleeting.

On this night though, he'd decided that he'd not let his dreams become nightmares, and so he remained calm and collect.

Until he heard the voice that followed.

"Habus... Habus... Its time to weep. I've come to put you to your sleep. Habus... Habus... Its time to cry. And that's because you're going to..." Habus heard the voice from within the hotel room itself.

He awoke and was up and on his feet, in nothing more than his boxer shorts, throwing the comforters and sheets at the man who now stood before him.

The man swung a large knife blindly as Habus stepped back, just barely dodging the blade. His attacker grabbed at the comforters covering him, throwing them to the hotel room floor as Habus quickly ran for the balcony door, fumbling with the lock and sliding it open. He then ran to the door of the neighbouring hotel room (which was the room that housed his men).

He banged on the sliding door, the motion sensing light switch coming on, revealing the gruesome scene inside of the second room. Habus' men had all been eviscerated in a scene of violent struggle. The first two had gone silently, the third startled awake and entering into a life or death struggle against the assailant, whose blade eventually found his throat.

As the assailant stepped out onto the balcony from Habus' original room, Habus stepped back and charged at the sliding glass door of the balcony, slamming into it and shattering it as he crashed through, falling onto the floor.

Habus got to his feet, his body now adorned in cuts from the broken glass as he leapt for the bed to avoid the shard covered floor.

As he landed on the bed, there came a tremendous pounding upon the hotel room door.

The door swung open, and Habus put his hands in the air as the hotel security guards entered the horrific scene.

"...he's trying to kill..." Habus exclaimed, out of breath, his hands still raised.

"Who? Is the assailant still in here?" asked the security guard, his taser leveled before him.

Habus turned around to see that his pursuer was gone.

"The emergency crews are on their way sir!" the security guard assured Habus, who collapsed to the floor from the bed.

The other security guard returned after checking the balcony.

"Its clear. I think we've got us here a second survivor of the Chameleon Killer," the security guard said, referring to Habus, the other three men clearly deceased.

...

Habus awoke in a hospital bed, an intravenous line fastened to the inside of his wrist.

He examined the length of his left arm, finding a long patch of medical staples holding a flap of healed skin into place. His other arm appeared much the same, though the staples held fast a series of smaller wounds he'd sustained from the broken glass.

When he shifted his torso, he winced at the odd feeling of pressure arising from the staples affixed to his abdomen and posterior, where he'd suffered considerable wounds, broken sliding door glass not being particularly forgiving.

His throat and mouth were dry, while his stomach was screaming for sustenance, causing him to wonder for how long he'd been out.

Beside him on the adjacent table was a remote with a button on it. He reached over with his left arm and carefully retrieved the device, pressing the button. An LED flashed on the device for a few moments as feedback to let him know that the device was working, and then it ceased, a solid LED lit beside a text label that read: ASSISTANCE IS ON THE WAY.

At that moment, Habus panicked, realizing that he was in an institutional medical facility in a country where he was most certainly a wanted man. When he'd left Canada, fleeing first to Central America, he was on the most wanted list after authorities had closed his first 'school'. From Central America, he fled to North Africa, and then to Turkey, where he remained for half a year, until he'd managed to procure arrangements to lead an expedition of his followers into the no-man's land between North and South Korea, where he'd eventually build another 'school', carrying on his modified version of the teachings he'd learnt from Oculo Mentis himself.

By the time of the aerial bombing and commando the raid upon that school had occurred, Habus was amongst one of the most wanted men on the globe, only recently surpassed by the notorious industrialist and criminal mastermind Alomera Constanza Zekestes, who had by that point escaped from La Modelo, the highest security prison in Columbia, South America.

Habus since his return to Canada in pursuit of the little girl Warai Jeong-Min Tokama had taken considerable precautions to conceal his identity, but the even looming fear that he would eventually be found weighed heavy on his mind. Especially given the fact that he'd just used the device that would bring them right to his doorstep.

The hospital room door opened, and a tall man with a full head of greying hair and a long trench coat entered the room.

"Mr. Holloway? You called for assistance?" asked the man in the trench coat.

"Yes. I just woke up. Where am I and how did I get here?" Habus asked the man.

"Mr. Holloway, I'm Detective Edward Farnham of the Toronto Police Service. Would you mind if I ask you a few questions?" Detective Farnham asked Habus, who simply stared at the man in shock and disbelief that he was staring fate in the eyes.

He suddenly had a flashback to when he'd awakened from his nightmare the evening before to find a large man wielding a knife by the side of his bed.

For a man in his position, Habus' fate could be delivered by the men on either side of the line of justice.

"I'm a little bit parched and hungry, but sure. I'm good for a few a questions," Habus responded, continuing with his emotionless glare as it suited his purposes for maintaining the ruse of his identity.

Detective Farnham stepped into the room, holding the door for a pretty Filipina Nurse who brought with her bottled water and an energy bar for Habus, whom she too knew as Mr Holloway.

"Here you go. I suggest drinking the water in small sips first. If you feel dizzy or light headed at all, then call us again using the buzzer and we'll examine you further. If you feel alright, then eat the energy bar, chewing it thoroughly and washing it down with the water. Alright Mr. Holloway?" the Nurse confirmed with Habus.

"Alright. Thank you," he said listlessly.

"Thank you Nurse," Detective Farnham thanked the Nurse and she left them alone in the room.

"What is your full name?" asked Detective Farnham, pulling a notebook from his pocket as he prepared himself.

"Randall Avery Holloway," Habus responded, having committed to memory details of the alias they'd created to get him back into Canada.

"You've lived in Toronto for how long Mr. Holloway?" asked Detective Farnham.

"For my entire life, though I recently returned from a three year sales contract in Hong Kong, where I sold educational software to schools," he replied.

Detective Farnham nodded affirmatively.

"Do you recall any details about your evening last night?" asked Farnham.

"Me and three of our sales associates had returned to our hotel rooms after a meeting. We got to the hotel rooms at around four thirty in the afternoon. We had an early dinner, after which I settled in to my room. I watched television until nine thirty, at which point I went to sleep," Habus explained the approximate truth to Detective Farnham.

"Do you get along with your associates?" asked Detective Farnham, watching Habus very closely.

"Yes... We do. Quite well," Habus replied, still not knowing of their status.

"When you fell asleep, do you remember whether you fell asleep with the television on, or if you turned it off," asked Detective Farnham.

"I specifically remember seeing the time, and then using the remote to turn it off," Habus answered.

"Was there any noise in your room, or anything that would prevent you from hearing what was going on in your surroundings?" asked Farnham.

"The air conditioning was on. It was a fairly steady hum, but not distracting enough to keep me from sleeping. If anything, it was kind of relaxing," Habus explained to him.

Habus had another flashback, a man standing next to his bed raised a knife, ready to plunge it into his face.

"Did you have anything to drink? Any medications?" asked Detective Farnham.

"No. Just straight to sleep," Habus replied, shocked by what he'd just seen, but so much so that he became inanimate.

"Are you alright Mr. Holloway?" confirmed the Detective.

"There was a man there last night... a horrible man...!" Habus realized as his memories returned from the depths into which his psyche had buried them.

"In your room?" asked Farnham.

"Yes! He was holding a knife! Like a weapon... like he..." Habus realized in horror what had happened.

"What did he look like? Was he tall? Hefty or thin? Could you make out details about him? Can you remember?" asked Detective Farnham, still taking notes.

"He was tall. Taller than me. Taller than you," Habus replied, becoming more anxious as he spoke.

"What, about six foot two? six foot three?" confirmed Farnham.

"No... he was shorter. I was in bed. Trying to sink away from him... then I stood and threw the blankets at him and jumped out of bed!" Habus remembered his assailant.

"He was short! Five foot eight maybe. Slightly stocky, with a BIG friggin knife! I've never seen a knife like that!" Habus recalled, feeling more like he'd been trapped in some horrific ritual, than random attack.

"Did he have any facial hair? Light or dark complexion? Do you recall?" asked Farnham.

"I couldn't really tell. It was dark in there, but his eyes stood out the moment I first saw him. They were wide and wild...!" Habus recalled, still trying to retreat into his mattress to escape the memory.

"What happened then?" continued Farnham.

"I fled. I... ran for the balcony door. It was one of those sliding doors that led out onto a shared balcony between our two rooms... Mine and the room of my... oh no... I'm running on the concrete floor and... and... its dark in their room... and then the... light came on... and oh my frig...! They're dead! All of them...!" Habus recalled seeing his associates, their lifeless corpses lay where they'd turned in for the night, never to awaken.

"He's... he's... I've got to... I jumped through the balcony door... there's glass flying and I fall... I feel wet and slippery as I get up... sooo much pain...! and the door... security... a taser... and then... Here I am... I woke up here..." Habus sat in horror of the full recall he'd just experienced.

There was a tap at the door and the Nurse opened the door, peering in from behind it.

"Mr. Holloway needs rest. Perhaps you could come back for further questioning?" asked the Nurse protectively of the patient in her care.

Detective Farnham looked to her, defensively for only a moment, and then nodded.

"Alright. That's fair. Thank you for your time Mr. Holloway. I understand what a traumatic experience this must have been for you. If you remember anything more or feel better and would like to talk more about this, here's my card," Farnham reached into his jacket and pulled forth a huge knife, raising it high and bringing it down upon Habus' head.

"Arrrrrrrgh!" Habus screamed as Farnham handed him his business card.

Detective Farnham placed the card delicated down on the night table and left as the Nurse tried to calm Habus.

He then quietly slipped out of the door, leaving Habus alone with his conscience and his memories.

...

A couple of months onward, Habus stepped out of another clinic with a much different face and a full head of hair thanks to the wonders of modern cosmetic surgery. It was essentially as if he'd been born a new man. A fresh start on life, with a new face and a new identity and all of it had been paid for the Victims Of Violent Crime Compensation Fund.

In the months since he'd answered Farnham's questions, Habus had experienced a traumatic awakening to the realization of the horrors he'd made possible through his time with Oculo Mentis.

Since he'd departed his mentor's presence, despite the fact that Mentis had pursued him, they remained both distant friends and close enemies. Habus only motivation being that he wanted that for which Mentis was aiming, but without the collectivization of the entirety of human consciousness. He didn't want humanity to become a single giant organism, like an ant colony. He wan't it to retain its independent and autonomous roots, while being absolutely and unquestionably bound to him as their leader.

At first, he'd seen his ways as being the more moral of the two, for he promised autonomy in all matters concerning one's own affairs where they did not intervene with matters of Habus. All would be subject to the will of Habus, albeit the choice as to how this was to be carried out remained in their autonomous power.

Where Mentis promised that every single person would eventually be the same person, there being no distinction in consciousness and persona between any two people, for this was a natural side effect of the collectivization of consciousness. All would be as everyone, and one would be as another. Like the diluting of a solution into a vessel, the consciousness of all would eventually mix and distinction of mind would eventually be gone. The concept of I would be owned by the entirety of society, not the individual. Mentis' teachings however, failed to inform those who joined of this fact, and hence when they spread by forcing others into their midst, there were no initial issues of conscience as the collectivization of human consciousness began. By the time these side effects started to become apparent, it was already too late.

Since Habus' encounter with the Chameleon Killer, he'd had a moment of awakening. A very difficult one.

During that time, he'd chosen to discard all that he'd admired about Mentis, while re-evaluating his own ideas about global consciousness, hierarchy and the future of humankind.

He'd seen death up close in the form of the Chameleon Killer, and in the form of Detective Farnham, each of whom represented the two extremes of his life. The two sides in pursuit of his soul and out to extinguish his immortal nature as he saw it.

He knew the secret of the Chameleon Killer, as much as he'd known the secret of the Police, the keepers of the societal machine as he saw it. Both were constructs of the universe out to get him and people like him.

However, the Chameleon Killer he knew was the construct of Mentis and that they'd never catch the Chameleon. Ever. For the Chameleon was not one person. The Chameleon was whomever they needed it to be at the moment they needed it.

Another side effect of the collectivization of human consciousness. One body, many trades. In fact, whatever was needed, whereever it was needed, for all of humanity by the time of their consciousness having been fully collectivized, would become nothing more than parts of the organism, doing whatever - whereever it was required.

The Chameleon was their first, and those who'd found themselves suddenly in that role, had been the most diluted of minds to be found near to where the Chameleon was required, when it was required.

The reason that the Police had been having so much trouble putting together a cohesive case, is because in every case, the actually killer was a different person. A different height. A different handedness. A different description. Their physical differences however, were the only things different about them, for their minds had become like the mixture of mush. It didn't matter what mush it was, it was all the exact same.

Habus had considered taking what he knew to the Police, but decided against it when his fears got the worst of him, for Habus regarded them with the same fear. Instead, Habus decided that he would live to the fullest in pursuit of the things he'd never known, giving it all up for the sake of his own enjoyment.

Why spend a life chasing something so fleeting and difficult, that it may never be realized over pursuing experiences he could enjoy in abundance every day.

He knew that humanity was nearing its end. That with the arrival of Mentis, that all things would come to cease. It was inevitable and as Mentis devoured more people and other populations globally, the world of people would move ever closer to its final demise. Stagnation of consciousness, the gift of that spark, forever gone.

He could have taken what he knew and helped those trying to stop it, but he felt that too was a worthless pursuit. A waste of one's fleeting precious time, and so it was that he took what money he'd had remaining and used it to enjoy life for what was left of it and humanity.

A few months in, and he'd met his wing man at a night club, he too on a similar mission, though that man's patience for partners tended to be extreme and short. Sterling having met and bedded many women in the time he'd known Habus, tended to get bored with them quickly, fleeing at the first signs of clinginess and commitment.

Habus had for the most part, enjoyed his relationships, though maintained the careful balance between his loyalty to his partner, never pursuing another relationship while he was engaged in one with a woman, while never fully committing to future plans, instead often saying: let's just see where this goes. In the end, both he and Sterling got the gratification they were seeking, albeit the trails they each left in their wakes were much different.

When Habus had first laid eyes upon Monique, he knew there was something very different about her. She was both a woman of grand extroversion and yet such deeply hidden mysteries that he immediately found himself drawn to her.

Sterling with his head of silvery blonde hair on the other hand, wasn't keen about dating a Japanese woman, for they were not traditionally in his tastes for women, but he agreed nonetheless, laying the charm on for Aikiko, who being a somewhat naive person compared to her alter-ego, bought it all readily.

It was only when Sterling showed his more aggressive side that she quickly caught on to him, Dragon Butterfly helping her to turn the tables on his no means yes attitude.

By that point in time, Sterling had already had his eyes on other women, and without Aikiko suspecting a thing.

Meanwhile, Habus had focused on Monique, and the two of them found a very meaningful relationship, each of them coming from the same angle. Loyalty, while keeping plans for the future at a healthy distance. The relationship grew stronger with time as they each maintained their personal stance.

Why Habus had felt compelled to share with her his real name was beyond his understanding. It had been intuition to do so when he'd introduced himself, and Sterling had later asked Habus why he'd lied about his name, for Sterling still believed Habus to be Randall Holloway.

Habus responded that he'd did it because he'd felt like it, without ever revealing to Sterling that it was his real name.

And so, when Monique and Aikiko had first met them, Monique learned that the man with whom she'd hooked up had at one time been one of the most wanted men in the country. He had also been the man who'd absconded with Warai Jeong-Min Tokama on the other side of the world and for reasons unknown.

Unknown by everyone except Braden and Heylyn Yates.

Ghosts Of The Past

Heylyn sat across from Habus, Monique sitting close to him, her chair tucked against his. The club music pounded in the background but from where they were seated, conversation was very much possible.

"What do you do for a living?" asked Heylyn of Habus.

"I have some money put away, from a different lifetime. I'm living off that and enjoying my time," Habus responded, Monique leaning in to kiss his cheek.

"...and my friend here too I'd imagine," Heylyn asked him, speaking more like it was an interrogation.

"Very much so," Habus responded, unfazed by Heylyn's command of the situation.

There was a moment where only the music had something to say, and it did so without lyrics, only increasing the tension between Heylyn and Habus.

"So, can we do away with the cherade?" asked Habus.

"I beg your pardon?" Heylyn challenged him.

"You obviously know who I am... who I was... and I know who you are. Exactly who you are," Habus leaned forward, both his elbows on the table.

"No. I know exactly who you are, and you know absolutely nothing about me," Heylyn did as much the same.

"Then I can assume that the reason for there being so many eclipses and butterflies in the sky of late, has nothing to do with you?" asked Habus, laying his hand on the table.

"Nothing more than it has anything to do with the international taskforce hunting you," Heylyn responded, remaining calm about the situation.

"They're hunting a very different person than the person I am now," Habus assured Heylyn.

"And what brought about the change of heart? Your dream of opening schools and re-educating the world to the ways of Mentis? I suppose that he had you lined up as a second in command did he?" asked Heylyn, not willing to withdraw.

Monique had ever so slightly withdrawn from Habus, biding her loyalties very carefully. As carefully as she was listening.

"Mentis and I are no longer in league, as much so as Mentis is no longer Oculo Mentis. He's a mish mash of the minds he's accumulated into his growing collective. As much so as are they all. They're converging in likeness in terms of their persona. Becoming more like each other, their differences ever disappearing as they grow. Haven't you noticed anything when you encounter them? How one addressing you is exactly the same as any of them addressing you. They're no longer a group of individuals. They're a congealed mess of mind," Habus tried to reason with Heylyn, his despair over that situation apparent in his voice.

"What happened to remove you from all of that power? I mean, wasn't it the power of your knowledge held over others, dangled before them like a carrot, wasn't that what you were seeking?" asked Heylyn of Habus, still not buying his change.

Habus looked down for a moment and then over to Monique, unable to look her in the eyes. He returned his glance to Heylyn.

"The Chameleon Killer. He... it came for me. Took the lives of three of my students. Left me in a hospital bed for two weeks. I had a bit of time to think about things and realized that I'd come very close to a determinate end. When you're as fierce as I was, and you suddenly face your own mortality, that really opens your eyes," Habus confessed to Heylyn and Monique.

"Did you help the authorities at least?" asked Heylyn.

"I did, but I didn't. Its impossible with an assassin like the Chameleon Killer. I told them what he looked like and that was about that. They'll never catch the Chameleon Killer," Habus explained to Heylyn.

"And why is that?" Heylyn pressed him further.

"Because he's not one person. He is Mentis, all of them. When that killer takes the life of its prey, its not just one man's eyes looking, its all of them, all of Mentis. Don't you see, the killer is a different person every time! Whosever body they hijack, but its always a member of Mentis' collective. His millions now billions of minds," Habus spoke, taking a health swig of his drink afterwards.

"What do you mean, hijack?" asked Heylyn, immediately recalling the name of one of their first arch enemies.

"Living as a part of Mentis is like living in a perpetual haze. It starts with constant verbal vitriol directed at you from all sides. It comes from all the members of Mentis with whom you've had contact over the course of a day whether you know it or not, or their membership living closest to your bed. Its their way of connecting to you. Your psyche. Your consciousness. Like plugging invisible wires into your mind," Habus described.

"Like Torman!" Monique exclaimed, suddenly recalling her encounter with the man on Treadwater Island.

"Who?" asked Habus, looking to Monique and then Heylyn.

"Grier Torman. The notorious crime lord of the late nineteen nineties and into the first decade of the millennium?" Heylyn explained to Habus.

"You mean...? That Torman?" Habus confirmed with Heylyn.

"That Torman. Did you know him or know of him?" asked Heylyn.

"I didn't. Not personally at least, but Mentis did. Mentis knew of him. He was actually part of our initial plan..." Habus began.

"What plan?!!!" Heylyn and Monique both asked him firmly at the same time.

"Mentis was aware that there was a large blackmarket presence in society, and he knew that society essentially had these two power structures, one obvious and one hidden. He knew that the secret to taking over was to take them both, but in order to do so, he had to gain ground with the most difficult one to infiltrate first. So he started having his first students infiltrate the blackmarket, and after forcing many members of that market unknowingly into Mentis group, they found out that Torman was running everything in the city, but that he reported to a guy that lived in the South Pacific. On the opposite side of the Panama Canal from the Caribbean. Someone we only knew as Constanza," Habus explained.

"Alomera Constanza Zekestes," Heylyn told him.

"Also known as Mr. Zek," Monique added.

"You know him?" asked Habus in disbelief.

"We knew him. In a kind of up close and personal costumed way?" Monique replied to him.

"Well that Torman guy used to report to him. The Constanza fellow. Apparently he became the number one target of Mentis at that time, and that's around the same time I left to open my own school," Habus told them.

"You mean the school that got shut down several years later, right?" confirmed Heylyn.

"Correct. At that time, Mentis figured that the only way to get close to Constanza or Mr. Zek, was to get someone close to him, so they targeted Torman," Habus paused.

"Did Mentis get to him?" asked Monique urgently.

"Absolutely, but the arrogant fool never knew," Habus answered Monique.

"Did he ever find out about the formula?" asked Heylyn.

"By the time that Torman was on the run from the authorities, fleeing to Treadwater Island, I wasn't in contact with Mentis anymore. From what I understood, anything that Torman saw or heard or thought, Mentis knew, and later when I was putting together my own similar group as Mentis' at my school, we found out that Torman had acquired the ability to hijack others' bodies, but he went quiet before we could find out how he did it. Mentis on the other hand might know much, much more. It would be something over which Mentis would be quite obsessed, for it would be the quickest way for their collective to spread without resistance..." Habus told them.

"What does going quiet mean?" asked Heylyn.

"When you're part of a collective of the mind, if you become unconscious, your mind connection to the collective goes blank. Its kind of like when you're in a room full of people in conversation at a party, and one of those people suddenly stops talking. If they were typically quiet in nature, you probably don't notice, but if they were outspoken, then you notice right away. Its the same thing with a collective of the mind. Physically they might not be in the same room with you, they could be on the other side of the city. The other side of the world. But when they go unconscious, its like their presence just disappears, so it could mean that he literally was knocked out, or it could mean..." Habus paused again.

"...that he died," Heylyn started to grasp the true nature of their nemesis, remembering their last physical battle with Torman in the lobby of a hotel on Treadwater Island.

...

Aikiko suddenly stood from the table.

"Where are you going?" asked Gregory of her.

"I'm going to get the next round," Aikiko told him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't notice that your drink was empty. Sit down please, I'll get it," Gregory said happily.

"No. You got the last two rounds. Allow a woman her dignity?" Aikiko smiled at him.

"If you put it that way," Gregory returned her smile.

Aikiko made her way over to the bar and got into line. As she stood waiting patiently, she couldn't help but notice another man sitting at the bar, eyeing her in a very encompassing way. He got up from his barstool and headed over to her, even as she watched him.

"You know that guy you're seated with?" asked the man.

"You mean my date? Certainly," Aikiko smiled.

"He's obviously not a very good one if he made you buy the drinks," the man responded.

"Not considering he's been buying my drinks for the night already. Why, what is it to you?" Aikiko asked him directly.

"Well, he's a bit of a swindler that one," the man stated.

"How so?" Aikiko asked him, her patience wearing thin.

"Did he tell you that he's an inventor?" asked the man.

"No. I know that he's an inventor," Aikiko replied.

"Well, not really. You see, he stole the designs for his invention, the only one he's ever made, from his former neighbours, and those neighbours just happened to be employed by Tynan And Associates. He's the kind of guy who sees someone doing something admirable, and then fancies himself to be that person, without ever actually being able to do whatever it was that he fancied. So, he's not really an inventor. I'm just trying to let you know. The real inventor whose identity that man is wearing, works for Tynan And Associates. So, I'm just giving you a heads up. Trying to save you some heartbreak," the man explained to Aikiko as the line moved forward.

"You know what I think?" Aikiko asked him, now looking very impatient.

"No. What do you think?" he responded.

"I think that you're telling me the exact opposite of the truth, however I am telling you the truth when I say to leave him alone!" Aikiko's eyes flared as she spoke, and for a moment, the man swore he saw a dragon looking at him from the other side.

"Alright! I'm not messing with that...!" the man said, slightly intimidated as he backed off, returning to the table where Sterling had settled in with his new date.

...

Gregory stood when Aikiko returned, accepting their drinks and placing them on the table for her.

"Thanks. Everything alright?" he asked her.

"Yes. And no. There was a man who claimed that you are a... how to say? ...phony?" Aikiko told him.

"Obviously a biased fellow of some form," Gregory responded politely, making Aikiko laugh.

"When you are noticed a lot, you will be approached by as many gentiles as you are jerks. That is how it is with many women, and it seems that is how it is with matters involving your life," Aikiko and Gregory sat down together.

"The story of my life. But at least its about half and half so far. It could also work out to be a compliment you know? I mean why would so many people be paying attention otherwise?" suggested Gregory.

"True. The fact that anyone pays you attention at all says much," Aikiko agreed.

"The question is though is it really you they're giving the attention, or is it someone else, and you're just a proxy for that other person?" asked Gregory.

"What do you mean?" asked Aikiko, taking a sip from her glass of Pink Panties.

"Well, the jerks that bother me quite often don't even regard me as being me. I'm always someone else to them. A proxy for someone they love or someone they hate. Regardless, if the attention is for me, its not even mine, but its being directed at me as if it were? So someone else somewhere else is raking in all of it, but the fact remains that these people make it my weight," Gregory tried to explain to her.

"Maybe its not so different than what I experience too. If a man sees my photo in a fashion magazine and approaches me, is he really approaching me, or the woman he thinks that I am given the photo?" asked Aikiko of him, looking into his eyes for his introspection.

Gregory pondered what she said, suddenly gaining a deep admiration for her perspective and more importantly, for her.

"Well, I for one don't like being denied of my own being and identity, or my output. Especially when people are using that to take what (little) I've accomplished," Gregory explained to her.

"You seem to be finally succeeding for your efforts. Isn't that enough?" asked Aikiko.

"Tell me this, would you want your name removed from everything you do?" asked Gregory.

"My name is rarely associated with anything I do. Have you ever seen an ad or photograph in a fashion magazine that includes the model's name prominently?" Aikiko countered.

"...good point, but how often does someone else try to take your paycheque? How often does someone else try to lay claim to your identity as the model in those photos? Its a lot different when you don't have an infrastructure around you to protect those aspects of your life and work. A circle of people around you who know who you are and what you do, rather than try to take it all from you. West Meet East certainly would protect you in that aspect if you ever came under attack. Even Norler as an independent is experiencing the same thing, as are many others. Norler's even being erased from the record as having been a CEO of Tynan And Associates, not to mention one of their most important and prolific CEOs. I'm hard pressed to explain what that's like to someone who's never experienced it. Norler from the top, and me from the bottom, but I'm sure it's happening to people everywhere. Very likely connected with this whole Mentis thing I've overheard at Heylyn's meetings," Gregory tried to elaborate on his experiences.

"Well at least you're upwardly mobile in terms of your success and achievement. Maybe what you designed might help in the fight to expose Mentis and the fact that something of that nature exists? If you focus on the things bringing you down, then maybe they will," Aikiko asserted to Gregory.

"If I ignore them, they definitely will," Gregory responded.

"Then strike a healthy balance, and enjoy your drink. We're here to have fun, so let's dance?" Aikiko stood and held out her hand to Gregory, who smiled, cautiously at first and then full on.

Aikiko led him to the dance floor.

...

There was a long and quiet moment where only the music painted a background to their previous conversation.

Heylyn thought hard on what she'd heard from Habus, while Monique clung to him, perhaps his revelations having eased her tension over their situation.

"So what are we dealing with then? When it comes to Mentis? What are they? What are they about?" asked Heylyn, suddenly breaking the relative silence.

"They're a collective of the mind. As I explained before, if consciousness was a liquid, its like everyone taking their minds and pouring it all into one big bowl, individuality lost in the process as it mixes. The bowl becomes the mind, meaning the people whose minds make up that whole, are just its parts. Like society, but withtout individuality or independent thought. At all. Everything you think and do, your neighbours immediately know. Everything they think and do, becomes your social weight. Other members of Mentis will secretly torment about that weight at every waking moment, because that's how they strengthen the connections that create this binding of mind between people," Habus explained to her.

"How did they keep it secret this long?" Heylyn asked him.

"I'm not sure. I don't know much about that aspect, but I do know that people who

exposed them were often discredited, and given the nature of how Mentis operates, that wouldn't be difficult. Imagine trying to explain to the authorities any of this? Those who did probably ended up in treatment. Those who published information about it were quickly misled and then discredited, using mostly the power of suggestion and hiding them in the thick. Disposing of their claims amongst other crazy and bizarre news. Truth hidden in a sea of subjective experience and confabulation, looks like all the other confabulation. The only people who read it are those who've had experiences with it. The rest of the population doesn't know or care, and when it starts happening to them, the exact same thing applies," Habus elicited.

"How would they mislead people?" asked Monique.

"You know them as Mentis, but not everyone has a name for them yet. So Mentis hides behind every other group, and they use that to pit the victims who expose them against other groups..." Habus began.

"Very Machiavellian," Heylyn noted.

"Precisely. They worked long and hard to make sure they didn't have a name or anything by which others could identify them and share information about them specifically..." Habus remarked, Heylyn interjecting.

"...if you know yourself, but don't know your enemy, victory will not be possible but defeat may be inevitable..." Heylyn quoted Sun Tzu.

"So whoever labeled them as Mentis did the world a great favour?" Monique asked.

"But they probably paid the price for it, and Mentis did everything they could to eradicate that label and recede back into obscurity, but obviously that failed. Then every time Mentis was again exposed, they threw the name of another group out there to protect themselves. They'd claim themselves as being communists, and their opposers would find themselves pit against many countries and people whose political sphere was communism. They'd claim themselves as being secret societies, and then people would be pit against secret societies. They'd claim themselves as being hackers, and then people would be pit against hackers. All the time this went on, and Mentis was stirring war between its victims and other groups who were essentially bystanders who know nothing about them or their existence. Every time Mentis is under threat, they simply throw another decoy out there, often using an existing group that people know of or are aware of to throw those who would be their enemies off of their trail. If you're going after them, I'd say be careful, because they might paint you as being them, and themselves as being the saviours. Anyone else who bought into their ploy would become your enemies," Habus knew enough to enlighten Heylyn and Monique as to the extent of their enemy's activities.

"They even use finances from their more wealthy members to pay for bounties exposing any dirt on their enemies that they can use to discredit their victims. I've even heard tell of people setting up situations on video that they could later use to sell for such bounties against their victims. There's a lot of forethought that goes into this, and there's an entire market paid for people who setup situations to discredit their enemies. As I stated, this occurs years ahead of when it will be used against their victims, and often most of it is situations that never happened, or are presented out of context," Habus told them.

Heylyn recalled about Zek's blackmail empire and realized that it might go alot further.

"Does that mean that Mr. Zek was in on this with Mentis?" confirmed Heylyn.

"Not formally. As I stated, Mentis was trying to take over his empire through Torman. However, I understand that through third parties, they did a lot of business in that arena, the blackmail evidence market, most of it being composed of video involving a person's secrets or these situations that were created specifically to destroy a person's life and career when the time came. There's a lot of corruption involved in that aspect from all sides," Habus explained.

Heylyn recalled what happened to Valerie and Trey, with someone having secretly recorded video of them during their intimate moments and then having released that video to a variety of people who were threatened not to expose that it existed. Those same people then tormented Valerie and Trey with details of their private moment. Heylyn wondered how many other similar victims there were.

As time went on, their situation got worse as more and more people harassed them, insinuating many things and in many ways. For instance, some of the sites Valerie used for her research, Such as MindSpice Video would display videos whose titles could be contextually twisted to aspects of Valerie's and Trey's private moments. The same thing occurred with several sites she used for reference, and in advertising emails she received. When Heylyn had heard about this from Valerie, she rationalized that it was likely members of Mentis who were doing this from their employ at those companies.

"As Mentis becomes more known, their public presence will likely become more and more active. They'll start fighting this war on three fronts. Their war of conversion against those who aren't yet members, their war of attrition against those who escaped conversion, and their war in front of the public, using public relations campaigns and publicity to lure followers, and to harm their enemies," Heylyn observed quite accurately.

"Quite possibly, but I'm not concerned with that anymore," Habus admitted.

"Finally we come to the matters pertaining to you. So what are you going to do?" asked Heylyn of a wanted man.

"I'm going to enjoy what time is left before this all comes to pass, and nothing more. That's what I was doing before you arrived, that's what I'm doing right now, and that's what I'll be doing after you leave," Habus spoke directly to Heylyn.

"Then I bid you farewell, because I don't think that I could stand the presence of someone who could give up so easily, especially having so many of the answers that could possibly turn the tides..." Heylyn responded, readily discarding the winning card in her recently acquired hand, though Heylyn was nye shallow to regard these stakes as part of any game.

There was far more at stake and despite the fact that the night had ended, it was actually about to get started.

The Jaded Table

Gregory, a man who'd danced little in his life's experience suddenly found himself caught in a moment. Aikiko, a fearless adventurer of life's pursuits with a tragic beginning had spiraled across the dance floor amidst the mystic guitar of a retro set.

Gregory, immediately enticed by her sense of adventure, found his way to over to her.

"Somewhere there is someone... that one million eyes can see..." the lyrics blared from the speaker system.

From that point, the song's hook-line kicked in.

"Someone! Somewhere! In Summertime!" Jimm Kerr's voice echoed through the club from across time.

By the time he'd reached her, in her immense capacity for motion and dance, she'd moved to... somewhere else, and Gregory once again found himself looking for her on the dance floor.

"...Once more see city lights, holding candles to the flame..." the words to a distant song echoed.

Aikiko, her light skin glowing amidst the ambiance of the club lighting spun, pirhouetting several times as she followed it into Gregory's arms.

He held her fast, she lay back in his arms, his lips advancing to meet hers and then suddenly stopping, as he looked into her eyes, perhaps awaiting permission.

They peered for a moment into each other, his form advancing to follow as she fled, slowing only to make sure that he remained in pursuit of her.

Their eyes met momentarily, and together they laughed, tipsy with lust as much so alcohol.

The DJ then bridged the gap in time with a song from the same era in a mix with one of a more modern and energetic repose.

[Sisters Of Mercy (featuring Ofra Haza) - Temple Of Love]

[Grimes - 4ÆM]

Aikiko backed away as Gregory advanced upon her, a deviously seductive smile on his face and something he found quite naturally fun, considering that it was a kind of play he'd never engaged in before.

Aikiko for the first time in her life had met someone to whom the spark of lust was something entirely new. An unexplored aspect of life and experience and one that had rekindled her previously lost innocence.

Her back suddenly hit the wall and she found herself cornered as Gregory got closer to her. She tried to step sideways, Gregory quickly placing his left arm obstructively to block her path of retreat. Still smiling, the attempted to slide Gregory's right, and once again he blocked her only remaining path of retreat with his other arm.

Aikiko looked up at him, batting her eyelashes innocently at him as he got closer.

His face inched closer to her's, his lips leading the approach, but then he stopped, opening his eyes to look into her's. She looked back at him, neither pushing him away nor drawing him in, and he realized at that moment that he was overstepping her boundaries, for she'd not invited him to be this close.

When he attempted to withdraw from her, she threw her arms up and around his neck, pulling him in until their lips met.

From there, they did what felt natural and what they'd both wanted to do to each other from the moment they'd first seen each other.

...

Some distance across the interior of the Fifth Social Club, Sterling watched as from the table he sat as Aikiko and Gregory found each other. Sterling's date was in the middle telling Sterling about how she felt that they were soulmates, having met in an earlier life, though he barely heard her, his attention focused now on how quickly Aikiko was recovering from his absense.

"...are you even listening to me? I mean here I am pouring my heart out to you. Doesn't that mean anything?" Melissa asked him.

"Of course it does. It means you really care, and I just love that about you," Sterling responded, trying to cover for his split attention of her.

"So that's the dude that Mentis was targeting for his medical device," Jeff the fellow who'd confronted Aikiko at the bar, now sat beside Melissa as he spoke to Sterling.

"Really? He doesn't look like much," Sterling responded, clearly intimidated.

"What's Mentis? Like oh my gosh, I've heard that word so many times in the last month its just unbelievable. Like from crazy people I walk by on my way to work in the mornings..." Melissa asked Sterling and Jeff.

"Mentis is just like slang for friend," Jeff quickly lied, covering up not only for Mentis' protection but for Melissa's.

"So why I don't go over there and put him down? I mean technically he's moving in on my girl..." Sterling said, clearly becoming agitated by the situation.

"I though I was your girl?" asked Melissa, now looking over her left shoulder, trying to see who Sterling was eyeing.

"You are my girl... but I'm still kinda hung up on my ex. She like dumped me just earlier..." Sterling too lied, though more so to keep Melissa on the hook and maintain her pity for him.

"You could help Mentis to deal with him?" Jeff suggested, taking advantage of the situation.

"Would it get me any favour?" asked Sterling.

"Most certainly..." Jeff responded, he too now lying.

All Lied Or Allied?

The limousine pulled up in front of Fifth Social Club, the night just having passed twelve AM. Koro got out of the driver's seat, grabbing his Saya from the passenger seat before he did. Within the Saya was contained the ancestral Katana of his Yōkai heritage. He carefully slung it in a specially designed belt loop, all of which went nicely with his West Meet East designer suit.

He then proceeded around the limousine as those patrons waiting in the quick moving line watched him. When he got to the back passenger door, he opened it, cordially standing aside to make room for Tanto as he got out, he too stepping aside in wait for the final passenger.

Her shapely leg appeared first, and then the rest of her shape fitting dress as she stood, her petit frame concealing her otherworldly form perfectly. Katsu stepped out onto the curb and proceeded towards the entrance to the club, completelt ignoring the line as Tanto and then Koro followed, leaving the limousine right where it was.

"I'm sorry lady but you're going to have to..." the large doorman approached Katsu, Koro immediately moving to intercept him though Katsu held out her arm, keeping Koro behind her.

She then turned and whispered in Koro's ear. He listened carefully and and then addressed the doorman.

"The car will stay where it is, and we're on the VIP list with instructions to give us whatever she desires..." Koro told the doorman.

The doorman's eyes glazed over as he examined the guest list.

"Go ahead. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask me or any one of the staff..." he responded, clearing people around the area surrounding the door to make room for Koro, Tanto and Katsu.

Tanto went first, clearing the way for Katsu as Koro kept watch from behind her. The three of them proceeded into the bar unobstructed.

...

Aikiko remained pinned against the wall as Gregory kissed her gently, her arms looped around his neck, her nails drawing tingly circles on his exposed lateral muscles.

They were both lost in the moment, for they'd never felt this way for anyone else in their lives. It was as if their lives had led up to the very moment that their lips first met.

Since that moment, they hadn't moved from that place against the wall, obscured behind a crowd on the dance floor behind Gregory.

As their passion grew, Gregory began to have visions. Short glimpses of something that lay hidden. Something that fought him tooth and nail. Gregory suddenly withdrew from Aikiko when she bit his tongue. She then withdrew from him, catching her breath as she gently pushed him backwards.

"What's wrong? Did I do anything wrong?" he asked, suddenly startled and afraid that he'd somehow violated her during a moment of vulnerability.

"No! Its not you. There's someone here. Someone very ancient. Someone very dangerous. Its awakened my other half, Gregory..." she kept him at a safe distance from her lips as she fought with the Dragon within.

"What can I do? How can help?!!!" he insisted, trying to move his lips closer to her's.

"You can keep your distance... please... for your sake," Aikiko begged him.

...

Monique slid her chair closer to that of Habus, while Heylyn sat across from them, her attention in another direction as she considered carefully their previous conversation.

"You know, I don't think I've felt this relieved in a long time... if ever," Monique said to Habus, leaning in to speak directly into his ears.

"I'm sorry that you've been carrying that weight of uncertainty with me, Monique. I didn't mean to make it your burden," Habus spoke honestly, though as a human being he'd not fully progressed enough to understand how his previous life weighed upon others for whom he was presumed to care.

Most of his life as a young adult was centered around him and his feelings alone, with very little consideration for or awareness of those of others. Being Oculo Mentis' only protegé, he was sheltered by the collective and never made aware of the social mechanisms upon which the scaffolding of society was precariously and artifically hinged. While Mentis' collective utilized this unique flaw of society to slowly take over, they'd shielded Habus from any and all awareness thereof. He only knew that it existed because when he'd broken away from Mentis, his own followers dwindled lest he keep relocating to ever more and more isolated surroundings where the social weight could not be rended upon them.

His only awareness was that of a direct measure of how long his followers would remain before abandoning him entirely as a result of that weight. Therefore, he learned quickly just as had many other cults that the more remote he was from the dense populace of cities and towns, the longer his followers stuck with him, ensuring him a continued medium through which he could spread his message of nothing in particular. Like the Emporer's new clothes, what he thought he had to share was all just an elaborate illusion into which he'd fooled himself. His followers just the means by which he kept social mechanics at a distance.

Hence his eventual arrival in the no-man's land between North and South Korea. A place that few if any would dare risk their life to build anew, and therefore it was the best place for Habus to build his school. There was was nobody to make weight upon his followers, and so they clung to Habus in much the same fashion that insects clung to the porch light, though Habus' was far from being illuminated. Had they not been forced away from him by means of the combined militaries in the region, they'd have eventually found out by way of their acquired empathy that there was nothing to Habus at all. That they had ascended simply by the fact they'd put someone else's well being ahead of their own, and in the process had learned much about empathy. Much more than Habus had up until that point.

It wasn't until he saw the dead bodies of his own men in the hotel room where the Chameleon Killer had tried to take his life, that he understood what the people around him had sacrificed for him. He knew little if anything about them, by any means - least of all by empathy. It was at that moment that he understood how alone he truly was, for he could never understand anyone except for himself.

After his close call with his own murder by the methods of a dangerous slasher, his values quickly changed, and he all at once understood that he wanted to experience life, full well knowing that his arch enemy had mustered a force composed of nearly the entire populace of the world. Mentis had gathered unto himself to the point that he no longer existed, except in a form that was ultimately diluted amongst billions, the ultimate extension of empathy. So much so, that nobody who'd not been able to escape Mentis' collective was no longer themselves. They were simply a mish mash of everyone else nearly equally, to the point that no conscious mind in Mentis was unique. They were essentially all the same people, interconnected via the WIFI of their nervous systems with absolutely no distinguishing qualities of personality or character anymore. If you spoke with one of their members candidly, you'd spoken with them all. They were as stagnant as the heat death of the universe itself. Entropy beyond the threshold of no return.

To Habus, who'd come to understand and ultimately treasure his individual nature, it was the worst horror imaginable and one that he feared was coming to get him. In fact, coming to get anyone who'd managed to keep their uniqueness protected enough to remain individuals rather than diluted copies of everyone else.

Mentis' collective had grown simply out of the addiction of consuming individuals. Those of the strongest thumos, and most fiercely spirited nature. Those few horses that could never be tamed were Mentis' favourite dish of consciousness.

Habus knew that this is exactly what was coming to devour everyone remaining, and those that did still remain were undoubtedly the most fiercely individual there were, but in their overprotective stance they were quickly losing the edge they'd need to stand against Mentis: the ability to trust, and the propensity for cooperation.

As Mentis grew to consume society approaching the turn of the millennium, a movement was formed that actually accelerated Mentis' spread, for a group of individuals who'd banded together, aware that something was devouring society, had decided that it was the fault of people they'd labeled as self serving types: SSTs as they referred to them.

Their categorization of their imagined threat to society resulted in the spawning of several secretive groups, who took the notion and ran with it, bringing superstition into it until their ideology that hunted selfishness became indistinguishable from selfishness and narcissism itself in the form of Mentis, a mass selfishness. A group that could be diagnosed psychologically as one big narcissist. These groups were for a time even worse, because they ended up becoming decoys, distracting investigative authorities from discovering Mentis until it was far too late.

Mentis learned much from them, even inventing new tactics to deal with these groups as it devoured them, and within the first several years into the new millennium, these groups who had openly organized themselves on usenet newsgroups, throwing their terminology around to terrorize those they were hunting had inadvertently exposed themselves. Mentis who at that time were almost invisible, began hunting them one group at a time, until before the end of the first decade, none of those groups existed anymore. They'd been digested into the morass of Mentis' stagnant, even impotent, collective consciousness.

Mentis had even fancied itself of the idea that they had become the only source of consciousness the world over, and that every individual who'd managed to stave off or maintain disparity from Mentis' collective were in fact inhabited remotely by Mentis. Their minds were simply an extension of Mentis, as far as the whole of Mentis was concerned, but the fact remained that this was not the case at all. It was something that Mentis manufactured out of its own fear of what was really happening. That in digesting society, that their consciousness was becoming stagnant, as every single member of Mentis eventually became the exact same as any other member in terms of their mind. Like mixing bottles of different juice into one container. Eventually when you ran out of the original juices use to make the mixture, there would be no juice left that was distinct or unique. All of it would be the same. This was the fate of every member of Mentis.

As this realization spread, fewer people were drawn in willingly, thinking that to be part of Mentis was to be on the winning side of some invisible power in society. A power even more so than due process and elected officials. More powerful than law and order or even the military, for Mentis was people, albeit diluted copies of everyone of its members and diluted forms of those they'd digested. Therefore, in order to Mentis to avoid stagnation, they had to consume more and more people. When they stopped, that would be the end, because their stagnation would have by that time annihilated ingenuity.

The first side effect of this stagnation was the spread of a mass ego. The propensity of Mentis to reassure itself of its own potency by elevating its own ego, despite its growing lack of uniqueness and creativity. To shore up this lack in its membership, it began taking over the identities of those it hadn't yet consumed. Those who were the actively creative and motivated towards ingenuity, the membership of Mentis would not devour them, for fear of diluting them and losing what they had to offer, but instead began taking over their identities and hence the impression of being the source of their output.

Mentis would surround and isolate these people, beginning to black them out to the rest of society. Hiding and eradicating any clues of their existence, while maintaining the channel of their creative endeavors and output, preventing the people they'd victimized in this way from ever leaving their residence, or at the very least, ensuring that they didn't leave often. Whenever they did, a group of members of Mentis would be close at hand to take their identity from them, and pass it around to other members of Mentis, who would wear it for an hour, a day, a week, a month in such a way that society would be fooled into believing that everything that came from the person whose identity they'd stolen, was actually coming from someone else. That substitute would be treated as if they were the source, while the person whose identity it was originally would often be given a horrible social weight of some form, about which they were tormented by the local members of Mentis.

Hence, by doing this, and not digesting the people whose identities they'd stolen, Mentis began once again gaining momentum, because people who'd become aware of them began to fall for the illusion that Mentis was the source of other people's creativity and ingenuity, when in fact it was all a scam designed to prevent them from having to face the reality that their ideology and methodology was stagnating humankind. And so, those who at one point began to avoid Mentis, once again began flocking to it, again thinking that they were becoming part of a growing power, when in fact they were throwing their individuality and consciousness away.

As the people Mentis were preying upon by consuming their identities and output without digesting them and their consciousness became aware of what was going on, they began to come up with ways to break Mentis stranglehold over their identity.

At first, it began with the fact that most of the people Mentis was siphoning from by these means, had multiple talents and abilities, as they were often people who had wasted little time in their lives, some of them intensely obsessed with the pursuit of skills or knowledge, and being productive there with, regardless of whether it promised riches or not. These were people almost always motivated by something beyond. Not drugs. Not always money (but certainly enough so to survive). They were motivated by the journey, not the destination as the meme went, striving for their purpose, many of them eventually finding success in one form or another.

When Mentis had stolen their identities, they'd often assigned their identity to one member in their collective who had that same skill, more or less. If they were skilled in a trade, say a carpenter or cabinet maker, Mentis would find a similarly skilled member of their collective who would receive all the credit for whatever their identity theft victim achieved that was related to carpentry or cabinet making, while the identity theft victim was often abused by members of Mentis for their misgivings. A substitute for their crimes and midemeanors while the members of Mentis would benefit from their efforts.

If they were a driver, perhaps of a truck, taxi or bus, Mentis would find another similarly skilled member amongst its collective and that person would take all the credit for the driver's work. Everything they did, especially if it was exceptionally so, would be given to the credit of that member of Mentis, while the driver from whom it was taken would be tormented for the worst of Mentis' member activities.

If they were skilled with computers, programmers, artists, writers, streamers, then Mentis would similarly find members in their collective with the same skills, and they would take the credit for everything those people did, especially targeting those who lived and or worked alone, for there were never any witnesses to the fact of their efforts, and few if any would ever speak up for them. The membership of Mentis prospered entirely from the work and effort of others, their reputations gaining strides as they stole that effort from others to fuel their own life, at the very same time that they were unknowingly diluting and eventually eliminating the uniqueness of their own consciousness.

What started happening was the the identity theft victims started exhibiting more than one skill or talent, hence Mentis soon had to find people with all of those skills in order to be consistent with being that person in order to take their identity from them. Soon, it became impossible to find other people with the same variety of skills, and so Mentis began using multiple people per one person's identity who had multiple skills and talents.

One observant fellow who'd known quite a bit about Egyptian mythology had noted that Mentis had become like a metaphor for the Egyptian gods Set (brother of Osiris) and Ammit (goddess of the underworld in the afterlife). Set had murdered his brother Osiris and in order to keep the murder secret, he gifted the other Egyptian gods each with a piece of Oriris' dismembered body, those gods who got a piece of Osiris would get one of his powers for each body part they had.

Set had given the goddess Isis Osiris' phallus, and hence she'd gained Osiris ability to procreate (with her own to produce ovum and an egg), and with that power she had a son whom she named Horus Re. Horus Re then murdered Set in revenge for Set killing his father.

Essentially, what Mentis was doing with those whose identity it was stealing was the same or similar as to what Set had done to Osiris. Gaining the notoriety and credit for each of Osiris' abilities by each of the gods keeping a piece of Osiris for Set, to keep his murder hidden. Meanwhile, the legend in some versions was that Osiris' soul had been sent to the underworld, where upon meeting Ammit, it was found that his heart was out of balance, and as a punishment, he was erased from time and existence (very similar to what some people might refer to as being cancelled).

There were no, if any official members of any ideology associated with Egyptian mythology that were in any way part of Mentis, but regardless, the similarity of the metaphor was astonishing. Mentis took advantage of that observation, using it to attract members to its own group biased culturally in that direction, while others that had been victimized avoided it for the same and other growing reasons that were becoming apparent as their trail of despair further spread.

Regardless, those whose identities were being consumed in this manner struggled against the efforts of Mentis to take their life's work and effort from them, while erasing the fact that they'd even existed at all. Everything they produced going to the credit of the members of Mentis, while those whose identities had been stolen slowly disappeared in their communities and eventually from their online efforts as well. Some of them just giving up after years of struggle against such a fate, others getting old and succumbing to death and all the natural causes surrounding it, nature conspiring in one sense to help Mentis erase these people.

In some cities where Mentis had become very embedded into the innerworkings of the city, these victims were often entirely cannabilized by the homeless population, and in some cases, by the infrastructure that supported them, both client and worker becoming actively involved in erasing certain people from society and existence, while consuming their life history and handing it out to other members of Mentis.

Of course, when the victims of that fate spoke out against this directly, they risked vilifying themselves by way of hate speech, by citing homeless who'd already been through so much themselves that the public pity often fell in their favour and against the victims of Mentis. In some cases, the people having their identities devoured had become homeless themselves, living in the midst of those who were devouring them and erasing them from society, while the rest of Mentis' infrastructure kept this fact secret. It didn't take long before the confusion of who was coming or going made it impossible to sort out who was a victim of Mentis, and who was a perpetrator of identity theft.

In some cases, those whose identity Mentis' members had cannabalized, had gone to great lengths to protect others from the same, especially with regard to social secrets that Mentis could use against others as a form of blackmail and extortion. Some of those they protected were famous and had lots of money, but the identity theft victims who protected them (some of whom had even worked in the same industry before falling to poverty by Mentis' efforts against them) never asked for anything in return, nor expected it but when Mentis' members found out about this, it further served to create motive for stealing the identities of these people, for if Mentis protected the wealthy they reasoned, they'd be rewarded with money, whether it came directly to them seemingly by pre-arranged fate, or the organizations they conducted their activities from would receive donations, further solidifying Mentis' membership into these inner workings of society, amongst honest workers whose motives were truly sincere, endangering them too against Mentis.

Hence the value in taking the identities of the people who'd gone to these lengths became of absolute financial value in addition to the value of Mentis' members stealing bits and pieces of someone else's past to wear as their own. Any time the victims exposed them for this, Mentis would turn the accusation around against the accuser, doing the same thing to them and once again, confusion about who was who would ensue. Sometimes Mentis would confuse the polarity of expression entirely, so that someone speaking out to expose the activity would be interpreted as supporting it, their words interpreted as their diametrical opposite rather than with sincerity, and this too further served the ends of confusion and keeping Mentis well hidden and protected until it was too late.

Entire careers had been destroyed by these means, as had the lives of those who they'd belonged to. Having started out with an aspiring career early on and coming out the other end with their identity and even existence having been completely erased, while those they'd secretly protected from the same thing were told that it was someone else who did so for them, and often those taking such credit would solely be motivated over the jangle of the potential coinpurse in wealth someone could earn as a reward for doing so. The whole scheme was so convoluted that it was nearly impossible to expose it. Nearly.

As time went on, those who knew the truth died one at a time, leaving only a trail of lies, which eventually replaced the truth for which those lies had been told and all in order to cover it up.

Those who'd managed to eventually escape from that pit, would often spend years of their lives having the same people who'd tried to devour them hanging onto them for decades thereafter, while the victim struggled to get their life back on track. Again, reacting to this in a harsh manner might make the victim appear the monster, adding further to the confusion. Many were left to struggle by themselves and break themselves free, despite the near impossibility of eventually becoming self sufficient and self supporting.

These same methods were used at the lowest levels of society as much so at the highest, and humanity more and more became divided against Mentis, but more so against each other, for the very fabric of trust had been destroyed in the most Machiavellian of ways.

Habus had watched all of this unfold, knowing that humanity was doomed, but being entirely without the experience of empathy, he could not fathom how hopeless it was to even feel that way. His decision was based entirely upon the fact that he knew what it was to feel good, more so than he knew what it was to feel bad.

The only burdensome emotion close to empathy he'd ever experienced thus far was fear.

In knowing all of this about Mentis, and in considering what Monique had just said to him, his greatest fear was that if he did care at all, he might fully empathize with what she meant. And so he instead decided to avoid understanding her, and focused upon having a good time with her. She of course mistook it for his attempt at understanding her, and fooled herself into believing that he wasn't purely with her for the platonic aspects of their romance.

Heylyn, who'd understood him quite well by that point, became infuriated with the thought that he who could have done something about the entire situation, had instead chosen to give up and just have a good time with one of her best friends.

Heylyn however was also wise enough to know that if she expressed this sentiment, that she'd risk losing Monique to a man only out for a good time with her, in much the same way that he was with the rest of humanity, before its final hour of need.

When Heylyn had come to this realization, that was when two employees of the bar arrived, each with a square table which they slid into place beside the table at which Monique, Heylyn and Habus had been seated. When the tables were in place, the employees grabbed several more chairs and positioned them accordingly as Katsu arrived, Tanto and Koro bracketing her on either side.

Katsu whispered into Koro's ear and Koro immediately leaned over and spoke one word into Habus' left ear.

"Sleep!" Koro said firmly.

Habus immediately slumped forward onto the table, fast asleep as Monique stood to face Koro.

"What do you think you're doing?!!! We didn't invite you!" Monique challenged them.

"Monique! Sit down! Please!" Heylyn stood and addressed Monique, keeping her eye cautiously on Katsu, whose expression was one of calm.

"Not before they tell me what they did to him?!!!" Monique demanded.

When Katsu's lips moved, both Heylyn and Monique heard a haunting and horrifying sound leaving her lips, as if millions of people were both screaming and whispering. Amidst that ambiance, a soft and determined female voice emerged.

"He is a mortal man, and not meant to hear these words. If he did, he would be quickly driven insane," they heard Katsu's words without the need for similar protection.

"We're mortal!" Monique responded.

"Perhaps not as much so as you appear. But you aren't men. Of that I'm sure," Katsu replied to them.

They stood looking at each other intensely until Katsu once again broke their silence.

"I would like to be seated to continue this discussion," Katsu demanded of them.

"Please join us then, assuming you have something to contribute?" Heylyn insisted, not willing to be bowled over so easily by a woman she knew to be otherworldly.

Koro pulled out the seat for Katsu, who accepted it without gratitude, sitting on the end of the table, Heylyn to her left while Monique was to her right. Habus was face down on the table, snoring.

Tanto took the seat immediately to Katsu's left, on the same side as Heylyn two seats over, while Koro took her right, one seat over from Monique.

"I don't believe that we've formally met..." Tanto turned to face Heylyn, who then responded rather quickly and sharply.

"On the contrary, I believe we've met each other in other ways..." Heylyn replied.

"I wouldn't know unless we fought, and I certainly would prefer if you'd hear the offer being presented to you first before we come to such repose," Tanto smiled, he too somehow having found an inner calm despite his former murderous nature.

"You've come to offer us something when you've already given us so much... like giving my friend here a table nap!" Monique responded harshly.

"Better that than a nap in the soil..." Koro replied.

"I would prefer if we kept this conversation in the direction of a constructive peace," Katsu spoke again, interrupting Monqiue and Koro.

"I agree. Monique, give them a chance to speak despite the fact that they silenced your love on the table beside you to save him, and despite the fact that I don't truly know if he deserves it," Heylyn came to Monique's defense, opting for a compromise, she instead taking the burden upon herself.

"We have come to you with a proposal," Katsu began.

"What kind of proposal?" Heylyn asked Katsu, staring directly into her eyes fearlessly.

"It has recently come to our awareness that it would be of a strategic advantage to us both, you as the Butterfly..." Katsu paused.

"So you knew?" Heylyn knew her charade was up.

"...and you as the Eclipse..." Katsu turned to address Monique.

"One and the same, but don't you go gossiping!" Monique responded.

"...that would benefit our mutual situations given recent events," Katsu indicated the first of her proposals.

"And what do you bring to the table besides our sleeping friend that would help us strategically?" asked Heylyn.

"A very intricate insight into the nature of our mutual enemy. One that guarantees you'll understand at the deepest of levels what exactly is going on that is unraveling society around us," Katsu explained to Heylyn, the eerie sound of a million screaming voices in chorus fading in the background.

"We've already heard explanations from some of the smartest scientists on the planet. What makes you think that you can explain it to us better than they have?" asked Heylyn, now intrigued by what Katsu was offering.

"You do not know this, but you are special, Butterfly," Katsu began.

"So my mentors have told me when explaining that we're all that to a variety of unique degrees," Heylyn deflected Katsu's lure of vanity modestly.

"It goes a bit further with you. You see, you are naturally attuned to an energy you call Chi, and that attunement protects you from a lot more than you know. Some of your kind, in order to achieve your level of immunity have spent their entire lifetimes meditating and focusing - channeling their will to allow this energy to flow freely and protectively. Like the waters of a mountain spring, their very flow bringing clarity with every drop," Katsu explained in terms she knew that Heylyn could relate to.

"You as a result of your innate ability are immune to anything Mentis could do to convert you to their membership, even unwillingly. You will for your entire life remain entirely immune, and it is for this reason that you will never truly understand what you are up against. Wouldn't it be the greatest crime that the only person who is able to fight such a threat to humanity is forever doomed to never be able to understand it?" Katsu continued, finishing her statement with a rhetorical question.

Heylyn thought carefully about Katsu's words, realizing that there was wisdom within. Katsu, who'd lived as long as the two dragons themselves was alluding to Sun Tzu: It is only when you know your enemy and you know yourself, that you can conquer both.

"This field of energy that protects you extends from you, and protects those around you as well. That is why your workplace is entirely unaffected when you are in your office, and why some of them have been experiencing symptoms when they leave for their own homes, a distance away from yours. Even as we speak, I can see your aura as clear as day. You are a source of light for many of those around you," Katsu seemed both unimpressed and without admiration for Heylyn, and yet Katsu's words were somehow gratifying.

Heylyn dispensed with her own sense of vanity once again before proceeding.

"If we are protected, then how is it that you can help me to understand my enemy, and what would you ask for in return for doing so?" asked Heylyn, finding herself somewhat at ease despite the true nature of the being with whom she was speaking.

"Your daughter. Her energy field - her Chi is the antithesis of yours. Where you are immune to Mentis and their collective consciousness, she is vulnerable, for her unique ability, you know the one about which I am referring, is based upon her ability to know the pain of others, for if they are feeling it, she is certainly feeling it... and then some..." Katsu continued giving Heylyn the lesson she could never receive from Jinn Hua or Weltherwithsp, for it was of the utmost of sensitive matters.

It gave Heylyn insight into the immense weight that such an ability bore upon Warai, and why the little girl couldn't bring herself to ignore the pain of others.

"You are going to show me my enemy by exposing my daughter to them!" Heylyn stood, clearly not intimidated by the ancient being seated before her.

Katsu remained calm, no more concerned than if a real butterfly had suddenly confronted her.

"She feels it because she chooses to, and that is why she is what she is. I would no more expose your daughter to Mentis than I would share the true names of my own ancestors with Mentis. Your daughter will allow you to see the true nature of your enemy, but not without risk. There is no reward without it, and the lesser it is the lesser the reward," Katsu explained to Heylyn with an unnervingly detached calm.

"Where?" asked Heylyn.

"Right here, where we are now..." Katsu replied.

"How?" Heylyn kept fishing more information from Katsu, though Katsu knew what she was up to.

"You must agree before you know, and when you do agree, you must also know that I want something from your daughter. I need her to help someone... rather, something... dear to me," Katsu presented her request for the deal.

There was another moment of silence between them as Heylyn considered her words. Katsu again broke the silence.

"If you do this for me, we will be allies against Mentis, and I will deliver the means of their power to you now in the form of understanding that you will never receive without this deal. Are we in agreement?" asked Katsu, an ever so slight and devious smile graced her lips.

Heylyn considered the deal carefully but her mind and concern was centered around Warai's well being. If Warai was ever going to lead a normal life, especially so in a world on the brink of the precipice, she needed to understand what they faced together as a family.

Her first concern was that the enormous weight placed upon her little girl's shoulders should never have been, and that she would do everything in her power to alleviate Warai of that burden and responsibility so that she could lead a happy and productive life of her own choosing.

In order to meet these challenges, Heylyn needed to know what it was they faced.

"Alright. I agree..." Heylyn accepted the ancient being's deal.

"Don't I get any say in this?!!! I mean, this involves me too! Is she going to be the only one who receives this, or am I included in your deal?!!! That's my boyfriend you bowled over into the land of nod you know!" Monique responded, now upset that the negotiations had proceeded thus far without her input, getting to her feet and leaning with her arms poised on the edge of the table, towards Heylyn.

"This is only something that can be faced by the butterfly," Katsu turned to face Monique, nearly expressionless despite Monique's emotional outburst.

"Monique. This is awareness that I must receive if I'm ever going to be effective in stopping Mentis. If as a result of my being unaware you lose me, all of you will find out what it is to be forced into their collective and against your wishes. From that experience you'll have to make your last stand together. If however I am able to learn of what it is that led to their rapid consumption of the human mind, cooperation and individuality, we - you, Alicia, Valerie, Aikiko and Braden might be able learn of it through me, and together we take this immense responsibility and turn the tide of a fate to which Habus, your boyfriend and a man who allegedly cares for you has already resigned himself. Don't do any of this for him, Monique. Do it for us, we who started this journey out together," Heylyn assured one of her best friends that even though she would not be directly involved in Katsu's deal, she was a party to the knowledge that it might impart upon her.

Monique looked at Heylyn pleadingly, and then to the man asleep on the table, suddenly realizing that there was an irony involved. Perhaps one that Katsu had meant purposefully, though Monique neither understood that the visage of an attractive Japanese woman before them was as ancient as the stars themselves and one whose motives for anything would be well beyond human comprehension. She instead accepted that fate had exposed the man with whom she'd thought that she was falling in love.

He wasn't passionate at all about anything except for his pursuit of as many selfish experiences as he could before Mentis inevitably devoured the rest of the world. He'd given up and had simply been using Monique to quicken what he felt would be his last years as an individual mind. One of the few that had for some unknown reason been spared until this point.

He was somehow young enough to have years and years ahead of him, certainly not having tired against the relentless push of something he couldn't stop, despite never having tried. He'd just received the most harsh taste of life in the form of a close call with death at the hands of a slasher, and as a result, had entirely given up, turning his back on those who were left, instead, in favour of only the pursuit of pleasure, without the struggle of purpose and meaning.

Monique realized what Heylyn had been keeping silent about. That Habus was the means to an end on the other extreme of what Mentis was wreaking upon humanity. He was the extreme of those who simply didn't care, and instead chose to spend the rest of their life doing nothing about it in favour of entirely satiating his own feelings and pleasure. If he'd had a unique consciousness - a soul unlike any other in all of existence as was the very nature of every soul, it had certainly abandoned him long ago. At the very moment he'd turned his back on an ailing humanity. The moment that he chose pleasure without purpose. Mirth without meaning.

"Don't worry Monique. Your Norler... your Doctor Briggs... your Bryce Maxwell... someone driven by their purpose... they're still out there somewhere, trying to find their way to you. Just don't give up on purpose... on meaning, and most certainly... don't give up," Heylyn said to her.

A tear perched in the very same place on Monique's eye lashes that a similar one had done so many years ago, when her very same friend had given her the opportunity to do a photoshoot as a fashion model for an upcoming ad campaign launched by West Meet East International. That tear began one of Monique's greatest friendships, as much as her most recent tear confirmed it.

"Alright. You go find out what it is that makes Mentis tick, and I'll be here waiting for you... and making sure that this bum doesn't choke on his own self-interest," Monique's resolve was apparent, no longer torn between the two worlds of Heylyn and Habus.

Heylyn smiled at Monique, sincerely relieved for her friend's epiphany, and then turned to face Katsu.

"Alright. Let's do this," Heylyn said confidently as she looked into the abyss of Katsu's eyes.

The Little Girl, The Butterfly And The Macro Organism

Kori sat with Warai to her right, Warai to Braden's left as the three of them sat on the sofa together watching a movie. A large bowl of popcorn sat on Warai's lap, almost large enough that she couldn't see over its edge. Previously, when it had been freshly filled, it had a formed peak that Braden had jokingly referred to as the Matterhorn, sending both Kori and Warai into a fit of laughter, Warai having had at that point to peer around the enormous popcorn peak to see the beginning of the movie.

Now that both the movie was halfway through, as was the bowl of popcorn, Warai chose that moment to speak.

"Kori?" Warai asked her best friend.

"Yesss Warai?" Kori responded playfully, tossing another kernel of popcorn into her mouth.

"Because we ate all the popcorn, and Braden called it a Matterhorn, does that mean that we move mountains?" Warai asked with a seeming awareness well beyond her years.

Kori looked to Warai, quite impressed by her statement, then looking to Braden whose brows had elevated in surprise.

"I guess it does..." Kori nodded, tossing another kernel into the air and catching it in her open mouth.

Warai began giggling profusely, taking up her own kernel in attempt to do the same thing.

The tossed it upwards excitedly, opening her mouth and closing her eyes as soon as it arced and began to fall. The kernel hit her square on the tip of her nose, bouncing once before landing back in the bowl of popcorn.

"Did I catch it?" Warai opened her eyes, trying to find the lost kernel.

"Almost. You rebounded it right into the bowl! That's a point if you ask me!" Kori joked.

"Try it again honey," Braden encouraged her, grabbing up another kernel from the bowl, coincidentally the very same kernel she'd tried to catch previously.

Once again, she wound up carefully and then tossed the kernel into the air, once again closing her eyes as soon as gravity had hold of it. After she'd closed her eyes, waiting there with her mouth open, Braden moved with lightning speed, catching the kernel before it had a change to land on her forehead.

She remained there with her eyes closed and her mouth open for a good two of three seconds before she became impatient, opening her eyes and looking around puzzled.

"It didn't fall!" she looked around, wondereing what had happened that suddenly had defied her understanding of the way of things.

Braden then held out both of his closed fists, palms upward, his fingers covering the contents of either hand.

"Pick one..." Braden insisted to Warai.

She smiled immediately at his impromptu game:

"That one!" she said, tapping his right hand.

He opened his other hand, revealing that there was no kernel to be seen within.

She smiled at him, folding her arms impatiently.

He opened his hand, revealing the kernel that he'd caught and she clapped as if it were magic.

"Alright. Lets try again, but this time, I'll throw it," Braden offered.

"Ok!" she replied excitedly, leaning back against Kori, opening her mouth and closing her eyes.

"One... two... three!" Braden said as he tossed the kernel.

Warai suddenly felt tingles throughout her body. Not good tingles, like the kind she sometimes experienced when Butterfly or Kori let her watch children's ASMR.

These tingles were unlike anything good and made her feel very uncomfortable. Cold. Suddenly anxious and tense. Like she wanted to scream and cry.

As those feelings invaded her body, her nervous system suddenly coming to life as millions of minds reached out for her, like the feelers on masses of insects looking for prey. The tingles could no longer be called as such, and had become disgusting to her as she suddenly heard the growing sound of many voices in her ears.

"Kori! Braden!" she suddenly screamed but when she opened her eyes, she found that she was no longer on the sofa with them.

In fact, she didn't know where she was at all, because to her it felt like she was slowly being spread everywhere.

The voices continued to get louder and louder, until she could hear them individually. They sounded the same way it did when she lay in bed, speaking or singing quietly to herself. The only difference was that it wasn't her voice, and given that fact it felt like she was hearing through somebody else's ears, or for that matter, the ears of many other people at once.

Who and where they were she did not know, she only knew that most of them were somewhere in bed, by themselves. Laying on their backs, perhaps in a dream-like state and all of them were speaking aloud to themselves. Almost like a ritualistic chant, and one that frightened Warai to the point of tears.

They were looking for her, though not specifically her. They were in fact just looking for more people, their world being the world of the mind and bodily senses, and the place where the two met. The world of the mind, and the awareness of the senses in the real world.

These people weren't calming. They weren't of any enlightened intent. They tasted of pure malice. Like hatred if it had a voice of its combined potential. It was simply a mass of people, all of the same mind and ilk, like a hive or swarm of incects hunting in the world of the mind for others to consume and initiate unwillingly into their circle.

Warai was bombarded with the sum sensory input of billions of people all involved the same activity. They were connecting to each other and reinforcing their connections with others, all against the will and without consent of anyone. They were forcing everyone into their circle, and reaching into everyone's mind to get at their secrets.

The voices continued, sounding like an immense angry crowd as one voice grew louder and louder and yet more and more calming as it became easier for her to hear.

"Warai?!" the Butterfly called for her.

"Butterfly! I'm here!" Warai responded, crying as she spoke.

"Don't worry honey. They can't hurt you. They can't hear you. Not while I'm with you here," Heylyn assured Warai, sounding to the little girl as if Heylyn was right beside her.

It was as if Warai was hearing the Butterfly through the Butterfly's own ears.

"Who are they?" asked Warai, still sniffling as she calmed.

"They're Mentis," Heylyn explained to Warai.

"Why are they so angry? I'm afraid!!!" Warai started to cry again.

"They're... hunting. Its like they are all the same, and because of that, theyre not a bunch of different people. They're like one big person. A person with a billion pairs of eyes and ears. And minds..." Heylyn explained it as she grew to understand what she was experiencing first hand for the first time.

"Why did they go into my ears?" Warai asked, still crying as she tried to silence the invasive voices and expel their disgusting and uninvited essence from her being.

"They all lost something by becoming part of what it is that they became a part of, and so they're convinced that they'll find it by kidnapping other people and forcing them into their group... but it never fills that void... they want our secrets... if they can find the people who own those secrets in the real world, they can use them to have power over them..." Heylyn spoke aloud as she discovered Mentis' means of invasion and secretive source of power.

"This world that we're in... its the world of all their minds combined... Everyone that they connect to using those disgusting sensations..." Heylyn continued to grow in understanding, explaining it all to Warai as she comprehended it all, never realizing that she was experiencing it all through Warai.

"The people that aren't connected to them are like distant islands... Mentis knows that those islands exist, but they need to find them and connect to them... They're like atolls in the South Pacific... The connectrions that they build are like the sand between islands... if they can't get to an island, they try to build a bridge with sand to get there and to that person... who probably doesn't want them there but can't do anything to stop them... when they get there, Mentis pillages that island... that person of all their secrets and then Mentis tries to find them in the real world before the ocean washes away the sand bridge to that island... that person... this is what they're doing to everyone..." Heylyn suddenly realized that Mentis had more in common with Alomera Zek than just about anything or anyone else.

"Honey, you're going to have to stick with me, no matter how scary it feels, remember that I'm right here with you and I won't let anyone hurt you. Do you understand?" asked Heylyn of Warai.

"Don't let them get me...!" Warai cried, their voices still echoing in her ears invasively as Warai imagined it exactly the way Heylyn had explained it.

Warai had been in her own mind. Her own little island, safe and sound from everyone else, where she could think and imagine freely, however she wished.

When she'd closed her eyes to play the popcorn game with Kori and Braden, Mentis had suddenly found her, and they built a sand bridge to her island - to her mind - rushing across the bridge as a group to invade her paradise of a child's creativity, individuality and most of all: her innocence.

But Butterfly had arrived first, before they invaded her island. The world of her mind. She could still hear them on the other side of the bridge, as if they were right beside her trying to break into her, but somehow, the Butterfly prevented them from ever being able to break into her island. Her mind was as an impenitrable fortress, her island safe with the protection of the Butterfly.

The Butterfly however, could fly freely between Warai's island and Mentis, as long as Warai and the Butterfly stuck together.

Warai knew that they weren't really on an island. It was just the way that Heylyn had tried to explain it to her so she could use the power of her imagination to fill in the blanks and from that moment it became something with which she could deal. Something from which she could protect herself and the way Heylyn had explained it had worked. In those few words, Warai easily understood what they were. Who she was. Where she was and what was at stake.

In our minds, individual and apart, we were all like islands in an ocean, separate and free. In the real world, the world of our body and our senses, it was a completely different place from the world of our mind.

Mentis was trying to find everyone in the world of our minds, and take all of our secrets, and then find who we are in the real world and use what they'd learned from the world of mind to take over the real world, by devouring us and our minds one at a time. Those who Mentis couldn't devour, Mentis would blackmail using theirs secrets from the world of mind, until Mentis was the only power the world over. Every country, every state, every city, despite the borders and boundaries, would be part of Mentis and all would be one diluted consciousness without uniqueness or individuality. The signs of this were already apparent to Heylyn, as Mentis search seemed more a longing hunger for something it could not find nor an appetite that it could never satiate, for in its very essence was the core of the problem. Everyone digested by Mentis became exactly like everyone else in Mentis. Their spark was gone, and they'd been looking for it ever since it had abandoned them.

However, that did not change the fact that they were still very dangerous and a threat to all of humanity, not to mention every living creature on the planet, if not the universe. This was the dead-end of all dead-ends and the very opposite of information and energy.

It was the end of the road for everything.

Heylyn realized that in order to defeat Mentis, she needed to know how it hunted us. Thanks to Warai, she'd learned how Mentis hunted us in the world of mind. How it isolated us and kept us as much, until it had taken everything in the world of mind.

Heylyn did not know how it found us in the real world, and in order for her to piece that together, she needed to use her knowledge of Mentis to hunt others.

She knew that Mentis could not know of her, even in the state that Katsu had initiated between herself and Warai. They were hidden and free to move through Mentis and investigate. To understand the enemy, and so she set about doing just that, now grateful for everything that her mentors had given her over the course of her life, for none of it would have been possible without them. They had given her the experiences and guidance that she'd needed most for this moment.

She could hear millions upon millions of voices, and yet she could single out any one of them. She listened carefully, trying to find any that she recognized until finally she heard one.

It was the sound of Sienna's voice, cordial and friendly, as if she was speaking to someone with whom she was familiar.

"...I'm so glad to hear that you passed your exam, but I think that you can do a bit better, so why don't you put a bit more of that ingenuity into your studying and try for a B+, or even an A?" Heylyn suddenly found herself looking through someone else's eyes and hearing through someone else's ears.

She was no longer in the Fifth Social Club, seated across from Monique and the ever-snoring Habus. She was seated on a love seat in a modest two bedroom apartment in front of a large screen television upon which a rerun of Big Bang Theory was playing.

She had a phone to her ear and could hear the sound of an adolescent man's voice responding to what Sienna had just said moments earlier.

"Alright mom. I'll try harder next semester, but you've got to promise me that you give dad a call. If you do that, I'll go for A+ all the way..." a man Heylyn presumed was Sienna's son responded through the earpiece of Sienna's phone, Heylyn hearing perfectly his response through Sienna's own ears.

"Where are we?" asked Warai, who was presumably experiencing the exact same thing as was Heylyn.

"You mean who are we? I think we're with Sienna," Heylyn explained to Warai.

"You mean for your office? Can we say hi!" Warai asked excitedly.

"Warai, we can't stay here. This is wrong. Nobody should be allowed to do this..." Heylyn explained to Warai.

"Then why are they doing it?" asked Warai, pointing in an impossible direction to describe, but when Heylyn looked where Warai was pointing, she saw that hundreds of other people were inhabiting Sienna, each of them looking out through her eye and hearing through her ears much the same as both Warai and herself had been doing.

"They're Mentis, and this is how Mentis knows and sees us all. Some of them are like walking drones for Mentis, and they can see and hear everything another person sees and hears," Heylyn explained to Warai.

"But if you said that its wrong, then why are they doing it?" asked Warai, now very confused.

"Because... they don't believe in our rules. They believe that if we can't prove it, or they can't get caught, that it isn't wrong..." Heylyn told Warai, who struggled to wrap her head around the concept.

"You mean like when I took all the last cookies without asking?" asked Warai, trying to understand it by comparing it to a situation she remembered well.

"A little bit. You knew that you weren't supposed to eat cookies before bed, and after you'd brushed your teeth, but you did anyway because you told me that it wasn't wrong if I didn't find out," Heylyn thought about Warai's comparison.

"But it was still wrong, because you told me not to, and because it was bad for my teeth to have sugary foods before I go to bed and after I brushed my teeth, not because its not wrong if you can't prove it or you don't caught, right?" asked Warai.

"Right. I wanted to put those cookies in your lunch bag for school the next day, so I found out right away the next morning, but it wasn't a big thing like this, but it was wrong. This is really, really bad. Like having all those people trying to get into you... onto your island. If we stay here and spy on everything in Sienna's life like these members of Mentis are, we're doing something very, very wrong, whether it can be proven or not," Heylyn reasoned with Warai, who agreed given her experience of Mentis trying to get to her island as Heylyn had explained before.

"So why did you do it?" asked Warai.

"I didn't know what I was doing at first, and I needed to know how Mentis is doing what it does. What its like. I have one more thing to try, but we'll do it somewhere else and with someone that we don't know. Someone that is part of Mentis and once we do this, we'll never do it again, alright?" Heylyn confirmed with Warai.

"Ok. I agree," Warai nodded in the world of mind, and with that they both evacuated the mind space of Sienna and left in search of a random mind where Heylyn could put to the test one of Bryce Maxwell's and Doctor Briggs' theories.

It was at that moment that Heylyn heard another familiar voice, this time there was music behind near it and a large sound system with a thumping electronic dance beat.

Heylyn concentrated and at once she and Warai were whisked to another body. This time, their eyes were fixated on a couple a short distance away. They were speaking together, gently so, but the girl seemed to be withdrawing. Heylyn could barely hear her voice over the music, but she did regardless and immediately recognized it before she saw the face of the woman in question.

"Look Gregory, I really like you... a lot. But you've got to keep your distance... there's something dangerous in here with us..." Aikiko warned Gregory, who unfortunately had taken it personally.

"Aikiko... I think we have something... something very real..." Gregory responded to her before she interrupted.

"There's things about me you don't understand... I'm just asking for a little space. For a little time to think, alright?" Aikiko replied, still very much feeling the Dragon inside of her trying to break free.

"Who am I?" Heylyn asked herself aloud.

"You're butterfly!" Warai responded, finally having become comfortable with the situation.

"No. That's not what I meant. Who are we in?" Heylyn asked again, this time trying to figure out a way to find out who.

There were no means for her to see who it was, and the person in question definitely wasn't going to help if Heylyn or Warai had indicated that they were in that person's body looking out through their eyes and hearing through their ears.

All of the sudden, Heylyn felt a strange sensation in one of her pockets. It was a phone vibrating to let its owner know that someone had just messaged.

The phone owner fished the phone out of the pocket and examined the phone, to see the text message.

LipSmilez027: Looking to hook-up tonight? I found your singles profile on Instagram. Send me a selfie and we'll talk...

"Perfect!" Heylyn responded as Warai struggled to read the text message, not really understanding what it said or what was implied thankfully.

The person held up their phone, angling it correctly as they opened the selfie app. The camera suddenly came to life and Heylyn saw the camera image of a man that she recalled seeing in the bar earlier.

"This is the same bar where I am right now!" Heylyn said aloud as the man took several selfies.

He then opened the phone's gallery app and looked through them for the best one, selecting it and sharing it in a reply to LipSmilez027's message.

"Now we know what he looks like, so this person can't be just anyone. They have to look like that selfie," Heylyn once again reasoned out loud.

"What if he looked in a mirror. Wouldn't that work too?" asked Warai, the logic being the exact same.

"I suppose it would. I never thought about that..." Heylyn realized something else that had dawned upon her.

If all of these people were here, looking out through the eyes and hearing through the ears of these other people, any one of those people could claim to be that person unless that person either took a selfie (and saw the realtime preview image), or if they looked in a mirror.

If a hundred people had been looking through Heylyn's eyes while she worked at her company West Meet East International, any one of those people could claim to be her, or at the very least, a fashion designer responsible for what she produces over the course of a day. As long as she didn't speak (to reveal that she was a woman) or look in a mirror, anyone could claim to be responsible for her output over the course of any working day, if she wasn't immune to that activity as Katsu had explained.

Essentially, these people could take anyone's identity using these methods, because as long as you hadn't done anything to narrow down your real identity, those people could collectively wear your identity and effort as their own, and they all being part of the same ideology (of Mentis) could protect each other, even if the person whose identity it really was revealed their deceit and their scam.

This was another aspect of Mentis she nor anyone else had considered and she wondered if she'd found the methods by which Mentis members now working for Tynan And Associates had stolen the designs of Gregory's Medi-Friend?

These same methods could be used for a variety of means of creative and intellectual property theft, and all of them would be nearly impossible to prove in a court of law.

If Alicia and Norler hadn't stepped in to rescue Gregory, he was essentially poor and unable to afford legal reprentation of protection. Mentis could have entirely lifted Medi-Friend from him, stealing it entirely and because he was essentially impoverish, he wouldn't have been able to do a thing to stop them. He would have watched as a group of people very clearly stole his designs and his ideas for implementation of a device inspired by his enjoyment of the original series Star Trek by way of the Medical Tricorder, which Alicia, Gregory and Norler all agreed to be credited as an inspiration in the instruction manual and in the device's operating system about box.

Heylyn realized that Mentis might be running a tremendously huge scam operation based upon the theft of creative and intellectual property utilizing these means and their collective to protect the activity. It would affect everyone and anyone in a number of different fields, including art, science and literature. Any line of work that involved intellectual and creative property, where a solitary or small team worked together to produce something that eavesdroppers along the lines of what Heylyn was not doing could easily on a day to day basis steal every bit of hard work from a person working in such means. Almost like shoulder surfing (the act of spying on a person's web activity by looking over their shoulder as they surfed the internet).

The possibilities and potential for crime now seemed limitless, and Heylyn now realized just how deadly this collective could be towards isolated innovators who'd been victimized by Mentis. She wondered if and how many might have already been snuffed out, after having their life's works stolen from them and credited to other people. Heylyn reasoned that likely and given the propensity for criminal means by which Mentis had acted to cover up other loose ends (such as creating the Chameleon Killer to silence their enemies by murdering them), that there was high degree of likelihood that Mentis had already erased many people to get away with crimes of the nature she was just discovering. She decided that upon her return to the real world, that she'd call an emergency meeting on Monday between they who had been investigating Mentis up until this point, giving the pressing nature of what might actually be going on.

She only had one thing left to check and that was based upon Bryce's and Doctor Briggs' theory that the mind's eye was the window into memory, and that it was filtered through cognition and could be artifically access from the outside by way of suggestion. Although Heylyn understood the concepts involved, she didn't understand their terminology. So she came up with her own experiment to test their theory.

She spoke aloud, intentially directing her speech at the face she remembered from the selfie preview on the phone.

"LipSmilez027" she said aloud, and was immediately bombarded by a series of thoughts she assumed originated from her own mind.

However, given the fact that she recognized the context when compared to the text message she'd read earlier on that person's phone, these thoughts now had a specific context related to what she'd just said.

She clearly thought about the profile photo next to LipSmilez027's message. It was something she didn't look at initially so she couldn't remember it. When she said that person's alias, she experienced a thought that she assumed came from her, but likely came from the person whose island they were now inhabiting. The profile picture she thought of appeared like a pin-up girl with long blonde hair, though once again, she'd not looked at the profile photo at all when reading the message. She was certain of it.

The man's phone vibrated once again, indicating that another message had just arrived, and he pulled out the phone and checked his messages again as he had before. Heylyn immediately saw the profile image and it was exactly as envisioned in the thought that had arrived to her mind upon speaking to what she assumed to be the man's subconscience. She had inadvertently triggered his mind's eye to recall a memory associated with the woman's Instagram alias and it was her profile photo, which Heylyn received as if she'd remembered it herself.

In this situation, she'd proven in a questionable manner that not only was she connected to the man's eyes and ears, but to what Bryce and Doctor Briggs had referred to as his mind's eye. The librarian of the mind through which all memories were retrieved and and recalled, and it was apparently easily triggered via the subconscious mind, as both Bryce and Doctor Briggs had asserted.

"Now we know that Mentis can see through their victim's eyes. Hear through their victim's ears, and finally they can trigger the recall of memories through their victim's subsconscious without them even realizing, and this is something I was able to test directly on one of Mentis' own members," Heylyn reasoned aloud, careful not to direct her thinking out loud to the man's subconscious.

The man's phone once again rang, its silent alarm going off again as it had before. He retrieved the phone from his pocket and a new sender was in the list. One that Heylyn hadn't seen.

SterlingSilver20489: That's him and he's moving in on her. We just like broke up an hour ago and this guy's moving in on my ex-girl? You're the boxer. Do something about it!

He pocketed his phone after reading the message and looked directly at Gregory, who had stepped bask from Aikiko as she struggled to contain a growing problem.

"What a sl#t! And this guy's totally buying into it. I'm going to put him down to save face for my friend..." he said to himself aloud as he began walking over to Gregory.

Warai felt as if she'd been ripped out of the fabric of reality, and the world of mind suddenly disappeared and she was once again on the sofa leaned up against Kori, her eyes closed and her mouth open.

"One... two... three...!" Braden threw the kernel and Warai caught it directly in her mouth, quickly eating after which she burst out laughing, completely having forgotten what had just happened.

...

A few kilometers away in Fifth Social Club, Heylyn suddenly awoke, and was on her feet, moving quickly for the back of the dance floor to where she'd seen Aikiko and Gregory.

Monique quickly turned around to see where Heylyn was headed so quickly without saying a thing, when she saw Aikiko and Gregory. A large muscular man was winding up to hit Gregory from behind.

Monique then realized what Heylyn was trying to do. In the time that it took her to think about it, she disappeared and reappeared just catching the man's punch and redirecting it a few inches to the left, where it missed Gregory and impacted one of the pillars. He grabbed hold of his fist, his knuckles already starting to swell where they'd been fractured.

"Awww... pour guy must have tripped..." Monique consoled the man whose intensions were much worse than Monique had presented.

As Heylyn arrived, Monique intercepted here.

"I saw what was going on and I moved. Too fast to be seen, not to mention I stopped it all without the need for violence," Monique explained to Heylyn as got there.

"He was going to punch him, and then try to slap her. He fully had that intention! I..." Heylyn stopped herself, realizing that she was ready to act upon knowledge she'd gained in questionable manner.

If she'd have delivered justice her way, based upon the knowledge she'd gained, she realized that she'd have been as bad as Mentis. Mentis' advantage was so powerful and so tempting that it was a wonder that they hadn't already taken the world.

"Don't worry. He got his just desert. Instant justice I say," Monique winked at Heylyn.

"...I almost made the biggest mistake of my life. We have our work cut out for us..." Heylyn said to Monique as Aikiko suddenly caught sight of them.

Gregory too turned to see Heylyn and Monique.

The distraction proved to be exactly what Aikiko need to deal with Dragon Butterfly, and she happily approached Heylyn, Gregory taking up her side. She looked up to Gregory on her right and grabbed his hand, holding it tightly.

"I'm sorry, but someone else wanted to make things difficult for us..." Aikiko told Gregory.

"There's nothing to be sorry for. Maybe its a good thing. Maybe if we take this carefully, slowly enough to enjoy every single moment of it, I think we'd both be able to look back on this day..." Gregory tightened his hand around hers.

"You didn't make that mistake. Maybe it was meant to happen that way so that we'd both learn from it. I take it you learned something from Katsu's deal?" asked Monique.

"I did. We'll talk about it on Monday. So how are Aikiko and... Gregory?" Heylyn replied to Monique first, and then addressed her other friends.

Aikiko and Gregory looked at each other first, and then back to Heylyn.

"We're friends..." Aikiko said, blushing slightly.

"I can see that," Heylyn nodded in the direction of their interlocked hands.

"By the way, who's Katsu?" asked Aikiko of Monique and Heylyn.

"We'll give you the short version..." Monique began.

"She's... Katsu," Heylyn finished.

BIOTERM

Monday morning

Katya sat behind a computer screen, a keyboard and mouse in front of her on the desk where she worked as Victor, in a room connected by a glass wall, organized and inventoried the equipment that had arrived over the weekend at their new office location.

"Do you think they ordered enough saline solution?" asked Victor aloud, somewhat sarcastically.

"Probably not. You can never have too much saline when working in the field of biochemistry," Katya responded, more so on autopilot than anything as she became deeply involved in the software application she was using.

"True. What time are the first biological samples coming in?" Victor responded to his wife, then adding another question.

Katya turned her attention away from the computer screen to a table computer on the desk beside her.

"Which samples specifically?" she responded with a question of her own.

"Strain B1347 Phages and the Stem Cell package?" replied Victor.

Katya typed a search term into a filter box, and the list of receivables was reduced to a few items.

"The Phages are coming before two this afternoon, and the stem cells, any time now this morning. They are supposed to be here at ten," Katya responded to Victor.

"Let me check the fridge and make sure its the correct temperature..." Victor put down the box of saline solution on the counter and went over to the medical fridge and checked the thermometer on the LED screen on it's front door.

"Perfect. This is much better with new equipment than the lab from the old days," Victor smiled.

"Yes, having real funding is always improvement," Katya returned her attention to the screen and began typing coding entries for proteins.

"Speaking of, how's that BIOTERM application working?" asked Victor as he returned to unloading a palette of saline solution into a storage area.

"Good so far. A lot like the kind of development environments that Zheng Ni Wong uses, but keywords and code expressions are all related to biology," Katya explained to Victor as she continued organizing her list of protein constants.

"She helped develop first version of BIOTERM years ago. That's her thesis work you're using there," Victor winced as he lifted a box of saline, putting it on top of a stack.

"Its future of biology research for certain. At least once you get your initial library of target proteins and energy terms into it," Katya responded.

"There's a built-in library. The SBL. Standard Biochemistry Library. Can't you just use that?" asked Victor as he stopped to catch his breath.

"There's no support for common Phages in the SBL. If Mr. Deeters approves, I'm going to upload this list of protein definitions to the SBL Git Repo so there's an included standard for Phages as part of the templates," Katya coninued typing, the application underlining with squiggly lines any chemical formula she entered that contained syntax errors.

"Don't forget to put your name and contact info. Might mean future project when this one is over," Victor reminded her.

"Your name too. Standard procedure," Katya responded as they continued setting up their lab for the work that was to come.

...

Later that same afternoon, after Victor had finished organizing the lab, he joined Katya, taking his seat in the desk beside hers. After he'd logged in to his workstation, he pushed his chair backwards and leaned over to take a look at his wife's screens.

"What's that?" Victor asked about the curved-space line graph she was examining.

"The first simulation, with the Phages I just spent the last five hours entering into the Standard Biochemical Library..." Katya turned to Victor and smiled at him, his expression indicating that he was very impressed.

"The Y axis is population or ratio versus host population?" confirmed Victor.

"X axis is time. Y axis is Phage population. The grayscale fill colour is splinear representation of host population..." Katya explained to her husband.

"Simulation is very accurate. Exact same as real-life... Remarkable work," Victor nodded.

"Who's? Zheng's or mine?" she confirmed with him.

"Both, but we wouldn't be using this to model Phage lifecycle or engineering Phages as delivery package for specialized RNA if it wasn't for you," Victor smiled, kissing the tip of his finger and then touching it gently to her cheek.

"To keep you until we finish work..." Victor smiled.

"It feels good to be back working in our field, and away from the social attrition of political situation," Katya smiled.

"That it does. Why don't we spend our last hour working together on getting the first generation of engineered Phages ready for the simulation. We can run it over night and monitor it from home to check our progress," Victor suggested.

"You really can't wait to see if this works?" Katya was enthused by Victor's initiative.

"A lifetime of our work finally coming to fruition. I can wait another night, but only barely," Victor admitted.

"Well then. Me too," Katya smiled and they both began working on entering the protein designs for the initial generation of engineered Phages that they would be using for the simulation as a proof that the project would work as they'd theorized.

...

Victor finally awoke, struggling to pry himself from his dream of suffocating, only to find himself with his head under both his pillow and comforter, perhaps an attempt to keep himself warm against as the cold air blew from the vents in their climate controlled condo unit.

He pulled the pillow and comforters from his head, taking a deep breath of cool air. He then found himself blinded as the sunlight burst through the verticals lining the large bedroom window. From the brightness and height of the sun, he surmised that it must be going on towards 7:30 AM. He quickly checked the clock on the night table and found that his suspicions were confirmed. It was 7:22 AM.

Next, the smell of breakfast sausage caught his nose and he found himself yearning for his morning cup of coffee.

A few minutes after tending to his first morning routine in the bathroom, he made his way down the hall and into the kitchen/living room area.

"Sleepy head finally decided to wake up, did he?" Katya remarked with a smile as she finished both of their breakfast plates, then bringing them to the kitchen table.

"No, he's still in bedroom, snoring like hibernating bear. I didn't want to wake him, so I'll have his breakfast," Victor replied, Katya laughing as he came up behind her and kissed the back of her neck.

"I was just coming to get you. Coffee is fresh and hot, if you could get us cups and I'll get the orange juice," Katya requested of him.

"I'm already on it like dirty vest..." Victor responded, making his way to the cupboard to get their favourite cups.

"...its dirty shirt..." Katya responded.

"I know... I was just putting my own spin on it," Victor joked as he poured and prepared their coffee.

"There's some messages on the email that you might like to read..." Katya said as she took their two cups of orange juice to the table and sat down before her setting.

"Alright. Another surprise maybe? The lottery numbers in?" Victor arrived with their coffees and sat down across from Katya.

"I wish. Nice home with biochemistry lab above two door garage," Katya replied, sliding her tablet across the table towards him.

"Mmmm. Good coffee... Alright, let's see here..." Victor took a sip of his coffee and then picked up the tablet and began scrolling through their morning mail.

"What's this? An emergency meeting at West Meet East today?" Victor said, reading through the message Heylyn had sent them.

"So it says. Not enough people could make it yesterday, so she'd doing it today. Very important apparently," Katya began eating her breakfast.

"2 PM? I think we can do that? Can't we?" confirmed Victor with his wife.

"We'll have to leave at 1 PM that means," Katya explained to Victor.

"We make up for it tomorrow. Oh... speaking of. There's a message from BIOTERM... At 4:37 AM this morning..." Victor quickly opened the message:

THIS IS THE BIOTERM EMAIL NOTIFICATION SYSTEM LETTING YOU KNOW THAT YOUR SIMULATION LAMDA T4 BACTERIOPHAGE NEOGENESIS V FF01.0001 ACHIEVED GOAL MILESTONE DURING EXECUTION:

GENERATIONS 50,000,000

ERROR TERM 0.000000024

1.2 PHAGES DID NOT ACHIEVE MITOSIS

PLASMID COUNT 50,000,000

LYSOGENY COUNT 50,000,000

SIMULATION WILL TERMINATE AT 8:30 AM

SEE LOG FILE LAMDA_T4_BACTERIOPHAGE_NEOGENESIS_FF01.0001.LOG FOR MORE DETAILS.

THANK YOU FOR USING BIOTERM

"It worked? Our first attempt?!!!" Victor seemed skeptical.

"We've been working on this idea for a decade and a half. Definitely not first try...!" Katya reminded him.

"I meant with simulation. I find it remarkable that computer can simulate faster than realtime, given the exponential growth of big O. The realtime execution of our experiment in nature would take at least a few days. Maybe more," Victor still seemed skeptical of the results.

"The lab is connected to the MindSpice Quantum Computing Cloud, where actual software runs. Its big enough computing infrastructure to run billions of processes simulaneously, not to mention in phase space-time. I think we did well," Katya told Victor calmly.

"We need to double and triple check results when we get to office. Not to mention, were variations we discussed using dormant plasmids even run in the simulation?" Victor asked Katya.

"We included what we planned and discussed for the first experiment. Its the first step, then we introduce dormant plasmids as error checking feature or as fail safes in event of faulty cell," Katya reminded Victor.

"I just want to be sure. I wasn't ready to wake up to find out this morning that our work might be valid. Its like big build up before big fall down. Where are the bumps and hiccups we're supposed to be seeing?" it was as Victor had said.

They were seeing the better part of their life's work arrive at its peak and Victor was struggling with the idea that after all they'd invested into it, that it might be downhill from there. He'd awoken that day unprepared to face the fact that everything they'd based their education, work and lives together was suddenly arriving at the finish line.

"This might not be the top of hill, Victor, and probably isn't. It might be middle of even bigger hill, and the next step in seeing phages used on a much wider scale and for a growing variety of purposes genetically speaking. This isn't necessarily the end," Katya realized what had shocked her husband about the notification.

"I don't know what is frightening more. To see computer simulate our lab in less time than we can and with better results, or our have been running up hill for so long, that finish line is there too quick. We didn't see first from far, and have no time to prepare for. It just suddenly appeared on top of hill," Victor started to consume his breakfast.

"You'll finish breakfast in a few minutes, but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy food again in future. No matter results of experiment, success or failure, we will be doing more in future on the same road. Just different scenery," Katya reminded him.

"Why? Are you leaving me?" Victor's grimace slowly transformed into a devious smile.

"I wasn't going to tell you. If you're not happy with experiment, I'm leaving to find same man that I married. The one sixteen years ago that would have been too happy to know that he made it to this day," Katya's own smile grew to match his.

"If you put it that way... I'm ecstatic about results, but we'd better check first. What about the lottery numbers?" asked Victor.

"I checked. We won another ticket..." Katya winked at him, causing him to laugh when he caught on to her metaphor.

West Meeting East: Mentis Unveiled

Monique got out of the cab, Aikiko following her as they checked the street for any signs of the crowd that had confronted them the day before.

"Looks like we're safe," Monique declared, turning to pay the driver.

"Just one more block unseen and we're there..." Aikiko agreed, making sure her disguise was in place.

Monique closed up her purse after placing her phone within and they began walking together down from the far end of the street towards West Meet East's receiving door.

As they passed a nearby coffee shop, Monique spotted someone seated within, who took notice of them.

"Grrr! I think we've just been made!" Monique exclaimed, keeping her attention away from the man.

"What does that mean? An expression?" Aikiko asked Monique.

"When you're trying to be discrete and someone recognizes you," Monique replied, picking up her pace.

"Ohhhh... I understand that," Aikiko responded, moving a little faster to keep up with Monique, who was taller by four inches.

Towards the end of the street they saw that the crowd had suddenly spilled over around the corner and were moving towards the receiving doors.

"He messaged them! They're onto us! We can make it if we run, or better yet..." Monique began to jog, and then suddenly turned left into an alley between two of the downtown buildings.

As soon as Aikiko rounded the corner, Monique grabbed hold of her and tranformed into light, Aikiko too sharing in the transformation. Within a billionth of a second, Monique had flown them both in through the skylight directly into Heylyn's design office.

When they were firmly on the ground, Monique changed them both back to their natural forms.

"Whew! Heylyn's not here yet," Monique looked around for her employer.

"She has an appointment this morning, remember?" Aikiko reminded her.

"I forgot about that! Look, whatever you do, don't tell her that we did this. I promised her a long time ago that I wouldn't use my abilities irresponsibly, and this might qualify..." Monique explained to Aikiko.

"Well, it was irresponsible, but given the risks and the possibility of contending with that crowd again, it was the lesser of the two," Aikiko reasoned.

"Does that mean you'll keep it between us?" asked Monique.

"Unless Heylyn asks me directly, I won't mention it," Aikiko agreed.

"Good, lets get settled in and grab ourselves a morning coffee. You know, the one thing I miss the most about losing my discretion to publicity, is being able to walk into our favourite café in the morning and pickup our morning coffees," Monique admitted as she walked for the door out of the design room.

"I have to say that I totally agree," Aikiko nodded, following Monique as they exited the design room.

As Aikiko turned to close the door behind them, Fiona walked by on her way from the front reception.

"Good morning. I didn't see you two come in?" Fiona remarked as she approached them.

"We snuck in again," Aikiko responded quickly and without lying.

"Oh good, and without an incident I see. You haven't been to your workspaces yet I take it, so I'll tell you in person. I need you two to go see Kori sometime this morning to sign some papers, as they're required by the new security firm Heylyn hired," Fiona explained to them.

"Oh really? Who?" asked Monique.

"DSCT. They're specialists in high profile security, but they've offered to handle our internal security needs as well. Apparently Heylyn met with them yesterday morning and they came here and setup at four in the morning today just to make sure everyone could get in the building safely this morning and leave safely in the evening. Now seeing as Kori is running the human resources department, all employee legal documentation and signing is in her hands. Given the attention these issues are receiving, I think we can say you should make it a priority to see her before noon today, and certainly before you plan to step out for anything," Fiona advised them, as all three of them looked down the hall into the front foyer and the doors beyond, where the crowd were pressed up against a security barrier between the building and the halfway point on the sidewalk.

"Thanks Fiona. See you at the meeting today," Monique waved as Fiona left them to continue following up on everyone who still needed to sign their forms.

"Monique? Was it always like this? I mean with your fans. You've been a famous model for a few years now. Was it always this hectic?" asked Aikiko as they continued in the opposite direction from Fiona towards the cafeteria.

"There was never this much focus and attention before, and something's changed about the kind of people that I'm running into. They used to be very friendly and ecstatic, always polite when asking for an autograph, but recently, its like their so different and so many of them..." Monique replied thoughtfully, considering what she'd experienced the previous week.

"They definitely were never aggressive or violent before. That guy that grabbed my hair last week was really the first," Monique continued, suddenly realizing thanks to Aikiko's question, that something significant had changed.

As they walked to the cafeteria, Monique's phone began ringing from within her purse. She fetched it and checked the number.

"I don't recognize that number. Better let that go to the messaging service," Monique said aloud.

"The walls that we erect to build our own cage..." Aikiko responded with poetic irony and rhetoric.

"Ha! What cage?" asked Monique, inside though she was beginning to question many ideas to which she'd held fast.

"When Heylyn hired me, during our meeting and after I'd agreed to what she was offering, do you know what the last thing she said to me was?" asked Aikiko of Monique.

"No. What did she say?" asked Monique as they arrived at the door to the cafeteria.

"She was seated behind her desk and I was seated across from her, in the guest chair in her office. I'd just agreed to the responsibilities and accepted the salary, and was very happy that I had a new start. And then she looked up from her desk and looked me in the eyes and said: Just remember Aikiko, the pretty bird gets the cage, but only if they can trick the bird into building it themselves. From that moment I regarded Heylyn much differently than I had previously. And now, with the crowds outside and us having to avoid certain places, dodge phone numbers and emails that we don't know, I have to wonder if they're tricking us into building our own cages?" Aikiko reasoned with Monique in all seriousness.

"I never thought of it that way..." Monique pondered the evidence carefully, each situation as they were recalled from her memories, one by one.

Given the context of their conversation over the weekend with Katsu and Habus, Monique considered that it would be very important for them to bring it up in their upcoming meeting, for it introduced another possible aspect to what they now faced.

Aikiko's point was really driven home when Monique accidentally went to the counter of their in-house caterer to order the same kind of coffee she'd used to order from their favourite café on their way to work. The same café they could no longer go to simply because if they did, there would likely be a crowd or another concocted situation or setup waiting for them to encounter there too. Monique tried describing the recipte for the coffee, not entirely sure if she was getting it right, but regardless the caterer still tried to make it for her. Aikiko did the same, and the two of them took their coffees and had a seat together.

They both took a sip at the same time, each of them shaking their head negatively in agreement that the coffee was nowhere near the same as what they could no longer enjoy from the café down the street.

One by one, the things they'd used to enjoy most about their livelihoods were disappearing, each of them replaced by a another bar in a cage they themselves were being tricked into building.

...

Heylyn sat in the guest chair and before the desk of a man with whom she'd not yet met, but had spoken to over the phone on a few occasions aiming to arrange this very day. Now here it was and it was clear that the man very busy with many cases, worrying Heylyn that she might have to find an alternative. Just as she had that thought, the door to the man's office opened and the closed as he himself set foot into it and proceeded to his chair where he made himself comfortable across from Heylyn.

He smiled at her once, braced his hands together and then began speak.

"Heylyn Yates. Its a great pleasure to finally meet you in person. So how is it that my firm can help you?" asked Holbrook Mitchell of Heylyn Yates, the CEO of West Meet East International.

"Its nice to finally meet you as well, Mr. Mitchell. I have a little girl, adopted, in South Korean territory and jurisdiction, but made official and legal here in the courts recently thanks to a friend of mine [Writer's Note: Myung Chung-Ae]. Recently, it seems some representatives of the school which my little girl is attending are intent on taking her from me and invalidating my legal right to her adoption," Heylyn explained to Holbrook who listened carefully.

"Ok. Did they give any reasons as to why they're attempting such a gross violation of yours' and your daugter's rights?" asked Holbrook.

"No, but its been implied on a number of fronts that I might be under attack, being a person in the public eye, and for whatever reason or another, it seems that this campaign against my person is taking on in a number of different ways. The attempt to take my daughter from me is one of them. There's another issue that occurred almost at the exact same time involving an assault against one of my employees, who has recently rocketed to fame. One of her friends retaliated against this assault, attacking the attacker who assaulted my employee, incurring a lawsuit against them and my company. To make matters worse, several of the crowd present during that attack got video of my employee's protector in action, which went viral further incurring more damages against my employee. This situation has compounded the motivations of those trying to take my daughter from me," Heylyn explained to Holbrook, trying to remain calm and organized as she did.

"Alright. Lets deal with each issue separately first, in order to understand what is involved and how each issue can be dealt with on its own, and then we'll link the cases together and see if there has been a violation against your person, your employees and/or your company of a more organized and targeted form," Holbrook suggested to Heylyn.

"That's what I certainly would like to do. My company are in a way like family. Many of my employees are close friends, having become so after my having hired them, and so some of them are friends with my daughter as well, but I don't think that the situation targeting my daughter is directly linked to the people involved in the attack against my employee(s). I think that there's something like a secretive collective weaving both attacks together, using them both to leverage their success against me and my company," Heylyn continued.

"Alright. First, lets lay down a boundary. A zone to protect you and your employees, seeing as from the sounds of things, you feel threatened and I'm certain that these feelings must also extend to your employees as well. From the sounds of your second case, the one where your employee was assaulted, with another employee acting in the interest of defense of that employee, that we need a line that they can't cross. So we'll leverage a restraining order against all named in the charges, which are to come, involving only those who violated the person of your employees. We don't want to criminalize your fans. Just the people who stepped over the boundaries and violated your employees' safety and rights," Holbrooke explained to Heylyn the first steps to dealing with that particular situation.

"Agreed. So what about my daughter?" asked Heylyn, remaining assertive.

"The reason that I dealt with your employee assault first, isn't because your daughter is less important or less at risk. Its because your daughter's situation involves a different threat than that of a violent nature. There are people whose goal for whatever motivation is to deny you and your daughter the right to be considered a family, assuming that you are a good mother, and that your daughter is cared for in a fair and just manner," Holbrook asked her more so than told her, knowing that there could be some repercussions from his words.

"And with love and her best interests in heart and mind," Heylyn responded quickly, without taking time to filter her words.

"There's no other issues, even some that you don't know about that might be affecting this that you're witholding?" Holbrooke pressed her a little harder.

"Nothing but her propensity for caring for the people around her. No," Heylyn responded truthfully.

"So she's really a people person, is she?" asked Holbrooke.

"That she is," Heylyn replied without revealing more.

"You should know, that if they do go ahead with this and this ends up in court, that they could really dig into the backgrounds of you and anyone who you've had care for or babysit your daughter. If as you say this is a targeted attack against your person and family, they might hire private investigators or even pay bounties for dirt about you. I'm not saying that there is dirt about you. I am saying that cases that involve the targeting of my clients, that there's always something of that nature. If they can't buy it, they'll make it themselves. If you have anything to hide, or know anything of that nature about those who've cared for your daughter, I'd suggest that you tell me now, before we're surprised with it in court," Holbrooke urged her to speak in the event that she knew of any such thing.

"If there were any such issues, I'd know, and I'm telling you that there are none," Heylyn responded truthfully.

"Alright. Then as I understand, they've requested that your daughter is examined by a physician of their choosing. We'll block that and insist that any future such attempt requiring approval of an examining physician include us as well. She wasn't injured recently, was she?" asked Holbrooke.

"No, but apparently she was instrumental in rescucitating a student who'd had a severe accident last week, just before I received notice from them on their challenge of my parenthood," Heylyn responded.

"So this challenge came after your daughter rescucitated someone from injury?" Holbrooke confirmed.

"Correct," Heylyn responded.

"Another student?" confirmed Holbrooke.

"Yes. A student who'd fallen from the playground equipment and was not responding. So my daughter rescucitated him and shortly thereafter, I received the challenge of parenthood," Heylyn suddenly felt more confident in hearing the situation in its most simple chain of events.

"Do you suspect that the case of this student being revived is connected to their challenge?" asked Holbrooke.

"Its very much possible, though I don't understand why," Heylyn admitted.

"Ms. Yates, I'm very interested in taking on both your cases and representing you in a court of law should the need arise, but we'll do our best to ensure that it doesn't get that far and that you, your daughter and your employees can resume your normal lives, before being met with these challenges to your life and peace," Holbrooke offered his services.

"Then let me sign on the dotted line so you can get to work on my cases, assuming you have enough time for them, and so I can get back to running my company," Heylyn agreed with Holbrooke's offer.

"Despite my office here appearing to be small, I actually have several other lawyers under my employ, so don't get the impression that I'm running a hundred cases all by myself and throwing the heavy carrying at my receptionist and my legal assistant. Your two cases will be my top priority, given the fact that Mila Ren Dubel recommended my services to you," Holbrooke explained that there was more to his office than met her eyes.

Heylyn signed on the dotted line three minutes later, and Holbrooke had his assistant start putting together the contract while he began making calls to the institutions involved in putting together a list of names that would be involved in the case.

With that done, Heylyn was in her car and on her way to West Meet East with two hours to go before their first meeting in some time.

On her way to her company, she eyed Warai's family digital photo frame, which she'd fastened to the dash.

"Don't you worry my little butterfly. We're going to remain a family," Heylyn said to her daughter.

...

By two o'clock that same day, the meeting room at West Meet East International was already a hive of activity by the time that Heylyn had walked in through the door.

"I hope I didn't keep you all waiting. I got here as fast as I could," Heylyn said as she walked across the meeting room to her seat at the head of the table.

"According to my watch, you still have a few minutes before you'd qualify as having made us wait," Zheng Ni Wong responded.

"I'll second that," Walton Norler spoke up, Alicia seated beside him.

"Ahhhh... I see that the dream team finally decided to show..." Heylyn said as she prepared her Chai Latte at the buffet.

"Now who could you mean by that, as I see a few possibilities there?" Monique turned in her chair to face Heylyn.

"I meant Zheng, Doctor Briggs and Bryce, but I could have just as easily meant Sifu Jinn Hua, Ms. Huệ Vân, Kyoshi Hind and "Tiger" Hoon Kwang..." Heylyn responded.

"Well that certainly makes the rest of feel left out... certainly my team of three," Alicia spoke up, those in the room having a short laugh at Heylyn's expense.

"What about Aikiko, Gregory and I?" Myung asked Heylyn, who turned with her Chai Latte in hand and frowned at them.

"All right. I meant all of you, and you should know that I'm very grateful that you could make it on such short notice," Heylyn took her Chai Latte and sat herself at the head of the table, between Valerie and Monique.

She then stood again to address those in the room.

"I called this meeting given the fact that a lot of time has passed since our last meeting..." Heylyn stopped as there was a knock at the door.

The door opened a bit and Katya peered in, her husband behind her as they stepped into the room.

"We're here... with less than a minute to go," Katya greeted them.

"Sorry. Hope we didn't interrupt?" Victor followed behind her as they sought their favourite seating.

"Glad you could make it. We were just getting started when you walked in, so we'll take it from there," Heylyn greeted Katya and Victor before continuing her address to those present at the meeting.

"...a lot of time has passed since our last meeting, and many of us have learned much about what we're facing. I myself had an experience involving a situatuion that is far too complex to get into, but I can tell you about what I learned, and I will once we've all had a chance to speak about the same. First off I'd like each of us to recap what we've learned so far and then what have each of you learned since that might help us in better understanding our hidden nemesis? Which we've come to know as Oculo Mentis. Why don't we start with Zheng, Doctor Briggs and Bryce?" Heylyn started the meeting, giving them an impromptu direction of proceedings.

Upon Heylyn's mention of the name, there was a sudden hush amongst them. Some of the group already having had experiences related to the word Mentis.

Zheng Ni Wong, Steven Briggs and Bryce Maxwell all stood up from their chairs, with Zheng beginning to recount what she'd brought to the group's efforts to investigate Oculo Mentis.

"I hope you all are doing well, given the surrounding circumstances. I think that it would be best if we started out speaking a little bit about what Mentis is. We'll have an easier time looking into this if we know what we're looking at. Oculo Mentis is both a person and an ideology. The person in question, whose exact identity we have not been ascertain, obviously took their name from the latin terms, which is inherently an ambiguous language whose context is very mouldable. However, in this situation Oculo Mentis means the lurker as the mind's eye. The Mentis' ideology is an ideology of collective. That is, it operates best as a group, luring new members and eventually cannibalizing the individuality of its members to become part of the whole of Mentis insofar as we understand currently. Now given the fact that it is the right of any individual to join or practice any belief system, so long as that belief system doesn't violate the rights of others... their rights of mind or body and of individuality and identity, what makes Mentis a menace more so than just a belief system with believers? The fact that its membership from our findings, is mostly non-consensual. That is, a large percentage of the people who make up the collective of Mentis were forced into it, in plain sight and by very unnerving means. Zheng, why don't you take it from here?" Doctor Briggs reacquainted them with the definition of what Mentis actually was.

"Its nice to see you all again, and we're here with a purpose so I'll get right to the point. As Steven was speaking about, Mentis' methods for the induction of at least some members is quite unnerving. It seems to involve a process whereby a potential candidate is verbally tormented and stalked, often by a rotating group of people in an organized and certainly coordinated fashion. This torment can occur in broad daylight, but especially occurs when the potential candidate has gone to bed for the night. Its symptoms include uncomfortable sensations from various parts of the body, which coincide with the verbal torment. Also, victims have reported hearing voices, almost as if hearing a crowd of people speaking to them, with most hearing such auditory hallucinations assuming that such voices are directed at them. Steven remarked that the logic of our auditory hearing is that when we are alone, and we hear voices, that the base assumption is that such voices are addressing the person hearing them. They're unsolicited and manage to make their way into our privacy, therefore they must be directed at us. That is the base logic. Now most people who would then go to their Doctors and describe such symptoms might be misdiagnosed with diseases that affect the ear, such as tinnitus, or possibly even as being mentally ill, most people commonly associating such symptoms with Schizophrenia. However, thanks to Steven's work in the field of Sociology and Psychology, he was able to find out that in many cases we suspect to be those involving the Mentis ideology, that such diagnoses were in fact misdiagnoses. That is, the person in question was perfectly healthy respective to their symptoms, which therefore leaves only one alternative and that is that they were actually hearing voices. I'll let Bryce explain how that phenomenon works," Zheng sat down beside Doctor Briggs as Bryce began speaking.

"How are you all? Its been a while and I can't tell you how good it is to see you all. I've been very busy as of late, doing a lot of research work and even a stint for a Fusion Reactor Plant, as a company hired me to act as a digital tour guide, introducing attendees to how fusion works. It was really fun recording that and I learned a lot about the process of production work. Anyhow, getting to our topic at hand, as Zheng and Doctor Briggs explained, Mentis is a collective of the mind, whose ideology spurs its candidates and members to hear auditory hallucinations, amongst some of the other symptoms. Now you might ask yourself, if there are no other health issues involved, how could people start hearing hallucinations, including voices in their otherwise healthy body?" Bryce began addressing the room.

"Well, did you know, and you probably do because I explained this here already, that our nervous system is essentially an electro-chemical communications network right inside of our body. Like wires that span every part of our body. These wires are the medium through which signals in our body are propagated to and from our brain, our senses, our muscles, our glandular or endocrine system, and allow those signals to trigger other parts of our body into action. These signals are electrical, thanks to the chemistry involved in our neurons, the special cells that make up our brain and nervous system. Each of these cells are connected in a network, receiving the propagated voltage emitted by the one behind it, and conditionally forwarding it to the one ahead. This electricity actually creates an active magnetic field, albeit a very weak field, that can be measured with detection equipment outside of the body because this magnetic field spreads out from the body for a distance," Bryce paced as he spoke.

"Now if you know anything about wires, you then know that wires can also act as antennas, receiving electromagnetic signals, which upon passing over the wires create a current that contains all of the information encoded in the magnetic field that created it. That's how radios work, and that's how the human body works. When we speak to someone else, or ourselves, our ears create a signal in our nervous system with everything we hear encoded into it. That signal too becomes part of our electromagnetic field and when it crosses a compatible antenna, like another human body's nervous system, it creates an electrical current that contains the same information from our ears. That other person's body in some rare cases, when and if its had enough time and a strong enough signal to interpet, might actually interpet it as if it was coming from the ears of that second body. So essentially, they'd hear that first person speaking, as if it was them speaking but with the first person's voice, and this was the theory that we're going on and subsequently proved in a laboratory with the help of Doctor Sheldon Hidbickle," Bryce paused again.

"Based upon this discovery, we're of the conclusion that this is exactly how Mentis' victims are, as part of the symptoms of their experience of being unwillingly indoctrinated into the ideology, hearing voices. They actually are hearing voices. The voices of Mentis collective, during their hate fuelled chants which we ascertain are the methods by which Mentis connects to its victims. Almost collectively amplifying the extent of their biological magnetic field, to create a non-consensual WIFI of the body. The invasive nature of their actions doesn't stop there as there are other affects that they're able to have upon the bodies and the minds of their victims. Seeing as biology isn't one of my stronger points, I'll let Doctor Alicia Westin explain this to you," Bryce smiled and with that he sat down.

Alicia stood up, revealing the curvature of her belly and her child growing within. There were a few surprised sighs in the room as she stood.

"Hello everyone. Its been a while. As you can see, my wonderful passenger had progressed quite a bit since the last time we saw each other. We're approaching the last trimester and soon we expect to have a little Norler or Alicia or preferably, a combination of both running around," Alicia stood somewhat awkwardly as she showed them her curvature.

"This is why these meetings are so important. Important to me. Important to all of us. Important for the generations to come. Let's talk about Mentis, continuing from where Bryce left off. With out nervous systems being like antenna, literally making it possible for us to be connected to each other, there are obviously many good reasons for this, like a familial connection during youth, that naturally occurs through affinity for and proximity to one another. Later in life, with our romantic partner, the connection naturally occurring through intimacy and even sex. All of these natural connections are consenual. That is, most of them involve the people we want to be connected to in some way, most of us without even being aware of the fact, and over life and time and quite often with distance, we become less and less connected as we start a new circle elsewhere," Alicia explained to her friends and peers in the room.

"What makes Mentis' version so different, is that it is a violation of our person to the very core of our being. Non-consensual. So if as Bryce stated, our bodies are capable of these connected nervous systems, as Bryce stated, like a WIFI of the body, and we can experience the sensory perception of another person, even at a distance, then wouldn't it stand to reason that the rest of our bodily functions too could be affected by such a connection, especially when tens or even hundreds at a time are playing with a person's nervous system, without knowing the science of what they're doing?" Alicia asked her rhetorical question, pausing for effect.

"The resounding answer to that question is yes. And they do, as I as has Doctor Briggs, read for myself many Doctor's accounts involving diagnoses of such symptoms, and the symptom list itself is staggering. Our nervous systems are connected to and moderate our production of hormones via our endocrime system. Making changes to our hormone production can have many repercussions for the body, such as triggering severe pains and headaches, anxiety or potential therefor, psychosis, even the symptoms of many illnesses, which could be misdiagnosed by a Doctor given a patient's tendency to report health issues based upon symptoms. Based upon how they feel," Alicia paused once again.

"A perfectly healthy person affected by a non-consensual connection to Mentis' collective who experiences symptoms, might go to the Doctor and get diagnosed as having contracted something they don't actually have. Most diagnoses are cross referenced against many criteria, and Doctors are very careful of this, but occasionally, common illnesses can get through these safeguards to a Physician's diagnostic methodology. What about the symptoms themselves and how they disrupt victims' lives? Meaning Mentis could implement a system of operant conditioning against its victims. Reward the victim everytime they act in the interest of Mentis with good feelings and punish the victim with bad feelings everytime the victim acts out of Mentis' interests. Doctor Briggs and I had a conversation on the phone a few weeks ago, and this was what we surmised was actually occurring. Indoctrination involves a process of operant conditioning, where Mentis trains their victims to become members over a course of time, regularly punishing and rewarding them until they fall in line. As time goes on, operant conditioning no longer becomes necessary as the victims' behaviour is by that point, automatic. That is, mostly absent of consciousness, having progressed towards non-consensual non-cooperative collective consciousness," Alicia stopped to take a sip from her water bottle.

One last thing I'd like to point out is that in the case of pregnancies, the mother's and the child's nervous systems are one. They are physically connected to the same nervous system, that is doing all of the heavy lifting for both of them. When Mentis affects a pregnant woman, they're affecting both her and her child. Now if you consider the fact that this is the time when a child is developing most rapidly, then you'd be aware that such tampering could have a serious impact upon the child's development. Neuroplasticity is a term defining the ability of a neurological system to reconfigure itself, and this is a quality of our brains that dimishes slightly as we age, but in very young children, this is part of the developmental process of a child's brain, nervous system and ability to rapidly learn, especially while in the womb. Tampering with a woman's hormones during pregnancy by Mentis could have catastrophic effects upon the child, or even both. As a reminder to you all, this is what keeps me awake at night," Alicia put her hands on her belly, embracingly and protectively as she sat down.

There was a silence in the room before Heylyn stood up to address everyone.

"Thank you for bringing us all up to measure with what we had thus far as of our last meeting, a month and a half ago. That certainly lets us know what we're up against, but as time as passed since that last meeting, we've managed to learn much. Apparently Myung Chung-Ae has something to add to our knowledge, based upon her recent experiences directly involving Mentis. After which Aikiko, Monique and I will speak about what we were able to uncover over the past weekend thanks to our chance meeting with someone who might become a new ally of our circle. Myung, if you would?" Heylyn introduced her former Tae Kwon Do study partner.

Myung stood and looked around to ensure she had everyone's attention.

"These experiences are not my own experience, but I can and will share information regarding recent court proceedings involving a rather complicated case. I will use only aliases and I must remind you that I am responsible for this information. That is, if it is misused in any way by one of you, it will return to have dire consequences for my career and future, however given the investigative nature of what we're doing, I'm agreeing to share only the information necessary to our investigation and within the confines of the law," Myung explained to her friends and peers.

"The case involves one Milly Fontain, a former legal assistant at a law firm who experienced symptoms and pathology very much in line with what we've uncovered so far regarding the Mentis' collective modus operandi. Her symptomology included everything we've talked about thus far, including the misdiagnosis of her condition, which has been attributed to schizo-affective disorder and psychosis. Her symptoms included hearing voices at night, often imploring her to do things that went against her grain, until eventually she started experiencing nausea and headaches every time she defied the voices. After experiencing this for long enough, she eventually broke down and tampered with the firm's own legal files, which eventually led to a criminal investigation and her apprehension. She ended up in the Leed's Care Facility* and had been in there until recently. She appeared in court two weeks ago over the issue of relocation to a halfway house, under strict supervision. After the court proceedings, I used my access to get a look at her file and history and found her situation to describe heartwrenchingly so, an innocent woman who seems to have been targeted by Mentis, likely to employ her to sabotage legal files that might have affected the membership of Mentis negatively," Myung explained as they listened.

"My reason for bringing this up is that she is a prime example of the case pathology involving what we would deem to be victims of Mentis' collective. She was conditioned for the purposes of sabotaging the legal records, using all the methods we just spoke about. The process took between six months to a year to achieve. I hope that information can take us forward enough so that we can start actively protecting those not yet indoctrinated," Myung smiled, presenting her sense of hope despite a desperate situation.

"Certainly not a task beneath the Butterfly Dragons present here," Jinn Hua looked to Heylyn, then to Aikiko and then to Myung.

"Or just the dragons and tigers..." Braden spoke up, getting an approving nod from Kyoshi Hind and "Tiger" Hoon Kwang.

"Better to use first our mind and mouth to deal with matters, keeping our bodies and physical nature as a last resort," Ms. Huệ Vân added.

"And that's what these meetings are for. To build up our awareness, and whether with word, fist or foot, awareness is one of our most important assets," Kyoshi Hind agreed with Ms. Huệ Vân's observations.

"If we're finished here, I'd like for Monique to share what she has to say about this, and then I'll finish up," Heylyn urged them forward in their meeting.

Monique stood up from her place beside Heylyn and addressed the room.

"Hi everyone. I hope you're all swell since the last time we saw each other. Its been a real exciting couple of months let me tell you. Some of the things I have to discuss with you are kind of personal, so I'd ask that you keep this to yourselves, especially given recent events that have transpired since the magazine cover. Uhhhh... I've been seeing someone. Someone whose affections, especially since this weekend, I am beginning to question. Sorry, its been a difficult weekend and I found out alot about my secret partner and his connection to Mentis. You see, my partner is the former protegé of the man Oculo Mentis. The individual, not the group. The man who allegedly started all of this. Habus... that's his name by the way... was to become his heir. Through a series of events from as far back as the 1990s until now, he eventually broke away from Mentis, starting his own movement derived from the teachings of Mentis, eventually having those destroyed as well, much like the fate of any cult leader, after which he fled and tried to make his way back here, to find Mentis, with the intent to take over from Mentis. However, Mentis as we all know had become all too powerful for such an effort, even by a man who knows them that well, and they attempted to assassinate him. From that moment, he had a change of values and life path, and took on a new life and identity, thanks to his status as a victim. However, it seems that he's just given up. He knows so much about Mentis and how insurpassable their collective is as a force, that he's decided that he'd prefer to live life for the candy alone, rather than fighting the struggle against Mentis, like we've chosen to do. And... I guess I was at least part of the candy he was looking for... and I fell for him..." Monique spoke in broken thoughts and phrases, trying very nervously and awkwardly to express herself.

"Don't blame yourself Monique, but learn from what we've been through. This is your life. You're the one that has to live it," Aikiko encouraged her friend.

"I know what Aikiko is trying to say. She's saying that you have a say, in fact the most say over what path you take. Who you choose to be with and who you don't," Norler spoke up for the first time.

"That is true. However, where responsibility and duty isn't a party to your decision. Make your choices while remembering your obligations," Aikiko expanded upon her remark.

Monique paused as she thought about it, and then continued.

"Thanks. I think I was trying to say is that Habus Macill, my ex-boyfriend was to be the next Mentis. He escaped, and then gave up on the world and humanity. He knows a lot about Mentis, perhaps more so than anyone else alive. Enough to, with the help of the right minds..." Monique looked to Zheng, Bryce, Doctor Briggs, Alicia, Jinn Hua and Ms. Huệ Vân each in turn.

"...dismantle their collective and its propensity to alleviate people of their ability to cooperate and their individuality... to become part of something that has no potential but to devour each of us more and more... Anyway, that's all I have to say," Monique sat down again, feeling a sense of relief similar to what she had after her conversation with Heylyn at the Fifth Social Club.

Heylyn once again stood and began addressing the room.

"Finally, here's what I've learned from over the same weekend, thanks to a new ally who I'd rather keep discrete for now. I was given the chance to experience how and what members of Mentis are capable, when connecting to a person in the means discussed by Doctor Briggs and Bryce. As they stated, with enough time, members of Mentis become acclimatized to connecting to their victim's nervous systems, and this becomes easier and easier for them every time they do it," Heylyn explained.

"And just as Alicia stated, when your nervous system is connected to another person's, it gives the ability to access their sensory organs as if they were your own. You can, and I experienced, seeing out of another person's eyes and hearing through another person's ears. Essentially, Mentis can use each of its victims as walking camera drones, with audio thanks to our ears. They don't know whose eyes they're seeing through, as there's no indication of identity unless the person themselves looks in a mirror, or does something, like taking a selfie with their phone, which gives them a realtime preview image of themselves like a mirror. Essentially, from what I understand, that people affected can have many people at one time all looking out through one person's eyes and hearing through one person's ears remotely. This is what gives Mentis their power. They literally have an army of camera drones at their disposal and are willing and ready to use those people that way at their whim, which they can use to collect or create dirt on their enemies, and also use as a means of creative and intellectual property theft..." Heylyn looked to Gregory, who sat beside, but not too close to Aikiko.

Gregory smiled at Heylyn gratefully, finally to have had someone who understood exactly the kinds of struggles he'd undergone over the years while developing his MediFriend medical device.

"Not only that, but Mentis can in the minds of the untrained, access our own memories. Mentis somehow has the ability to look through the mind's eye. When we remember something, we're doing it through an imaginary instrument in our mind referred to as the mind's eye. Like our eyes, the mind's eye has access to our visual memories, and if we're tricked into thinking about something, something specific for instance, as soon as we start thinking about that thing, that makes it accessible to Mentis through our mind's eye, which allows Mentis essentially access to our mind and memories. So most of their verbal torment is geared towards triggering specific memories, if they're collecting information from their victims. Being mindful is more important than ever," Heylyn explained to her audience.

"So that's how they've been able to wear other people's lives?" Gregory asked aloud.

"What do you mean, Gregory?" asked Heylyn.

"You said that hundreds of people at a time could be looking out through one person's eyes, right?" asked Gregory.

"Yes. I did say that and that is certainly the case," Heylyn agreed.

"What if its thousands? Millions?" Gregory asked them rhetorically.

"Go on..." Norler encouraged his business partner.

"Well, if it is thousands or millions, then what makes you uniquely you, when everyone else knows you so intimately? Any one of them could be you. Take over being you. They could all be part of some giant game of musical chairs of identity. If they have access like this and are connected to their own collective, then identity and individuality become their toys..." Gregory became excited by this discovery.

"He's onto something..." Bryce leaned forward.

"When so many people have details about you, and are seeing through your eyes, any one of them could simply take your identity, if the group goes with it," Gregory paused, unsure of how to explain what he was trying to say.

"I think I'm onto what he's discovered. Gregory is saying that if a large group of people have access to everything there is about you. Your daily life, what you see and hear, are they not you as well in terms of your sensory experience? Identity belongs to the individual, but in society, it is essentially a social agreement between you and everyone else, and that's exactly why there's laws that protect identity and why its one of the cornerstones of human rights. If others choose not to accept your identity or even your existence, they might define rules under which they decide that you're someone else and then socially enforce those rules upon you, treating you like that other person, maybe while someone else is wearing your identity. With Mentis being able to gain total information over people's lives through their senses and mind, they could literally within their group, destroy the concept of individuality and identity altogether. If you do something notable and valuable, what's to stop Mentis from taking your entire identity from you and use it to elevate one of their icons? They're a group, you're an individual. What hope do you have against a unified group who deny you of your identity or existence?" Doctor Briggs explained from his sociological perspective as a Sociologist.

"It is the nature of social organism to organize, collectivize. Its trait from smallest RNA/DNA originating life," Katya explained.

"Its true! Our organs, bodies and all the cells work together to become us. Perhaps it is once we reach certain level, to strive to become part of even bigger organism?" Victor posited.

"But the cells from our muscles don't gang up on our neurons and then try to pass themselves off as neurons," Alicia was quick to point out.

"I'm not saying they do. I'm saying there is tendency to organize towards such ends," Victor defended his perspective.

"Like the opposite of entropy," Katya backed her husband.

"That's not all. The minds of members of Mentis are diluting. They're all slowly becoming similar or even identitical insofar as their mind and persona is concerned. Like mixing fluids until the mixture is even. Over time, they've lost that edge of their uniqueness, their individuality and that's what motivates them to continue to consume more and more people. They're looking for that edge, individuality, that spark..." Heylyn finished sharing what she'd found out.

"Thumos," Hoon Kwang finished her sentence.

"Precisely," Heylyn agreed.

"So you mean that we're all literally going to become carbon copies of each other? Like throw our minds in a blender, mix on high for ten minutes, then pour and serve?" Kori asked, grasping at the concept they were discussing.

"Basically, that's what's happening and what we're facing if we allow this to happen," Bryce agreed.

"Does that mean that we're done?" asked Kori, now very concerned that the end might be at hand.

"We need to start focusing on a solution, not the problem. For her sake, and for her child's sake," Aikiko spoke confidently, directing her eyes towards Alicia, but looking at Gregory who was in the same direction.

Gregory eyed her from his seat, letting her know he received her secretive affection.

"We're not out to kill cooperation, are we? I mean, most people regard individuality with some form of contempt, as a form of egotism or selfishness, though I'm not saying that protecting individuality is wrong," Valerie spoke up, very curious as to where all of this might be going.

"I think what we're discussing here is the difference between having a choice as to how and when we work with others, or having it denied us and our own identity altogether to become part of a social macro-organism. If what Heylyn is saying is correct, the members of Mentis' collective are paying that price with the cost of their uniqueness. Their own unique personalities. Would you prefer to be sucked into this ideology with no choice or to let it run rampant?" Doctor Briggs asked Valerie and his audience rhetorically.

"But how can we possibly hope to liberate everyone who's been unwillingly sucked into Mentis' collective?" Monique asked them.

"By preventing them from conducting their connection and bonding rites altogether, for lack of a better term. If we can find a way to prevent that, that will likely lead to them recovering over a lengthy process. Maybe half a year before they start to reconnect to their former, rather than collective self," Doctor Briggs explained to them.

"And what makes you think that we can convince close to a billion people to go along with this? I mean, according to your own estimates, most of North and South America have been affected by Mentis' collective," Valerie asked, very curious as to how they could achieve such an enormous task.

"There's another question as well. What is our moral stance on making close to a billion people follow the rules of our whim?" Doctor Briggs pointed out.

"Liberating people who were consciously abducted by this collective unwillingly isn't a whim. If you were one of the victims, wouldn't you want to be liberated? To have your own independent consciousness back and free to live your life as you choose?" challenged Valerie, all too familiar from her experiences with Torman.

"That brings up another point I've neglected to mention. I found out on good authority that Torman wasn't acting according to his own consciousness. His consciousness was somehow hijacked by Mentis, and they acted through him in an attempt to subvert Alomera Zekestes, aka Mr. Zek," Heylyn explained, carefully keeping an eye on Valerie for her reaction.

"On the contrary, having worked with Torman on the board of directors of Tynan And Associates a decade ago, I can honestly say that everything Torman did was very much was like him. He was simply a thug in a suit, though he kept it all very well hidden from Valerie," Norler conjected.

Valerie and the rest of the room listened to what Norler had to say, though she said nothing in response. Instead she turned again to Heylyn.

"Does that mean that everything that happened with Torman from the point he had become one of the key investors and directors at Tynan, just before he fled to Treadwater Island was as a result of Mentis' collective?" Valerie grilled Heylyn, not mad at her but just mad.

"Yes, I would say. Its looking more like that every day," Heylyn spoke firmly but with less projection.

"So who was it that got inside my head? Him or them?" Valerie asked Heylyn, everyone else in the room a little unsettled.

Monique too, given her similar experiences was interested in Heylyn's answer.

"Oculo Mentis' collective is responsible. They used what they'd learned about Torman, directly from his memories to play upon you. Both of you," Heylyn revealed what she'd ascertained after her conversation with Katsura over the past weekend.

"You mean Torman was innocent?" Monique exclaimed in shock.

"He was a victim of Mentis' collective?" Valerie added.

"Torman wasn't innocent. The case against Alomera Zekestes delved into Torman's past and linked him to a number a disappearances while he was a thug, helping secure Zek's hold over the local blackmarket and connect it to a world he already ran. It may not have been Torman who made the decision to flee to Treadwater Island, but Torman had his hands in other dirt, including murder. There's no sense in revisiting that part of the past Monique. Valerie, what's done is done," Heylyn pleaded with them not to take that weight upon themselves.

"But we..." Monique's eyes began to tear as she fought with the idea that she'd played a part in someone else's demise.

"No you didn't. Neither of you did. Imagine what would have happened if Mentis' collective had succeeded in inducting Mr. Zek into their ideology? This world would be a very different place right now considering Zek's blackmail database and the extent of his reach. Who knows what would have become of it, but I can assure you one thing: it would not be good. It would not be prosperous. It would not be in the spirit of what it is to be alive," Heylyn assured them that they were free of conscience in the matter.

There were a few moments of silence in the room before someone finally spoke.

"Why have Jinn Hua, Kyoshi Hind, and Hoon Kwang been so quiet on this issue?" asked Norler.

Jinn Hua looked first to Kyoshi, then to Tiger, and finally to Ms. Huệ Vân before speaking.

"We have issues to discuss with the butterflies. After this meeting. We'd prefer to keep those matters discrete," Jinn Hua responded.

"I'd say that's a good note for us to finalize this meeting. We all have a lot of homework, now in figuring out ways we can disrupt their binding rites..." Bryce started.

"Which according to the case files of Milly Fontain, mostly occur regionally at night and while in the comfort of the victims' own home," Myung interjected, ensuring they had all the pertinent facts.

"There you go. Why don't we all put our heads to figuring this out, or an alternative possibility and we'll get together in a week's time?" Bryce suggested to the group, most of whom seemed deep in thought over what had recently been brought to light.

Norler looked to Alicia, who smiled back at him, clasping his hand.

"Alright," Norler responded.

"I'm good with that," Alicia added.

"That sounds like a plan, in the midst of a very difficult situation. As Bryce said, let's all take that to bed with us and have ideas for a solution by next week. Agreed?" Heylyn asked, looking to every one of the faces in the room.

"Thanks for the hospitality, Heylyn," Doctor Briggs stood up with Zheng, Bryce already standing.

"Thanks Heylyn. It feels good to have made so much progress. You really came through for us," Zheng thanked her too.

"We all did. Thank you all for that fact, and for making time for this meeting. I'll see you next week," Heylyn responded.

"Bye Heylyn. We'll be in touch," Katya stood and followed her husband out of the meeting room.

"Can I stay?" asked Monique.

"No," Heylyn responded.

"What about me?" Kori followed suit, though not truly following per se, but acting out of her own motivations.

"No," Heylyn smiled at them both.

"Thanks Heylyn," Valerie said after she'd gathered her tablet and coffee cup.

"For what?" Heylyn replied.

"For... clearing up that difficult matter. Its been a thorn in my side for a very long time. You know, for at least a year after Treadwater, I had that man's voice in my head, like a demon sitting on my shoulder, convincing me what a phony I was. How I'd never amount to anything. It took a long time and a lot of therapy to get him out, and to find out that it wasn't him, just makes it a lot more clear... Like it was something I suspected all along," Valerie spoke candidly as the room cleared.

"You have nobody to thank but yourself. You're courageous beyond all measure of the word, and that concept is way beyond Mentis' collective, and that's precisely what will save us all in the end. Having and sticking to those qualities of who we are and believing in ourselves. If we who have retained our individuality can do that, we can beat this thing. For everyone else who didn't," Heylyn assured her friend.

"Thanks again. See you after your meeting," Valerie left her to her meeting of the butterflies.

"Heylyn, I'm having a baby shower soon, and I'd like you to attend as my guest of honour," Alicia turned to address Heylyn before she left with Norler.

"I'd be honoured, Alicia. Just send me the details, time and place and I'll be there. I'll shift my schedule around your shower," Heylyn smiled to her best friend.

"I'll be sending out invites by the end of the this week, and I'll send you a list of what I need you to do as a key part of the shower. See you soon," Alicia returned Heylyn's smile and waved to her as she left through the meeting room door, Norler meeting her on the other side.

As Gregory walked by Aikiko, he bent down and feigned picking something up from the floor.

"Hi Aikiko. Looks like you dropped something," he said to her, handing her a folded up piece of paper.

She looked to him, somewhat startled and then to the piece of paper in her hand.

"...Oh. Yes. That's my notes. ...thank you...?" she looked to him, smiling as Heylyn looked on, she too a part of their secret.

"It was nice to see you again. Bye," Gregory nodded to her, almost as if bowing.

"Bye bye," Aikiko waved to him as he left.

She unfolded the note and read it:

Dinner tonight. My place. I'm buying.

Sifu, Kyoshi, Sebomnim And The Butterfly Dragon

"Ai Yuanlin Ying. It seems that you've been delving into matters very deeply, and consorting with a being we'd have preferred that you consulted with us before having done so," Jinn Hua addressed Heylyn authoritatively.

"Its true. You are playing with forces that you fail to understand. She's danced circles around some of the most brilliant adversaries the world had to offer over the course of history, and now you're consorting with her," Ms. Huệ Vân added to Jinn Hua's inquisition.

"I don't suppose that you two have anything to add to that?" asked Heylyn of Kyoshi Hind and Hoon Kwang.

"This is way out of our league, but I can tell you that I back what Sifu Hua and Ms. Huệ Vân are saying. You're playing with something as old as the universe," Kyoshi Hind responded firmly.

"Every culture has a different name for beasts of their kind, and many have succumbed to their guiles. You'd do well to listen to Jinn's and Ms. Huệ Vân's advice, butterfly," Hoon Kwang added, folding his arms.

"This is what you have to say, when we regularly tangle with the two dragons to whom the foils of humankind are mere child's play? This is the battle we're in the midst of fighting, and we need all the help we can get!" Heylyn responded, clearly unsettled that they'd broached her on the subject.

"Ai Yuanlin Ying, you need to know that Katsura is a very unique example of her kind. She comes from a line of Yōkai that are exceptionally intelligent, wise and powerful..." Ms. Huệ Vân explained to Heylyn.

"You mean the Shinigami?" Heylyn interjected with her question.

"No. The Shinigami are derived from the mingling of Japanese culture with the arrival of the first Europeans. Europeans brought their stories, and many of their myths found their way into Japanese culture and even its folklore. Possibly, in relation to real entities not yet catalogued by Japanese Monks and Scholars. The Yōkai and the Kami are another thing altogether. Some are very young, while others are as ancient as the universe itself," Jinn Hua explained to Heylyn.

"Weltherwithsp is as old, if not older than the universe and we..." Heylyn returned before Jinn Hua interrupted her.

"One that predates time cannot be older than time itself. Infinite is a far more valid description," Jinn Hua responded.

"We deal with Weltherwithsp all the time and ...it... is infinite, as you say. With that being the case, is there not danger in dealing with Weltherwithsp too?" Heylyn responded.

"May I speak on this?" asked Aikiko of her mentors.

"Let one of the other butterflies speak on these matters," Ms. Huệ Vân agreed, Jinn Hua nodding in accordance.

"Heylyn, in my culture the Yōkai and Kami are considered very powerful beings, but even they cannot overstep the boundaries of a Shinto Temple or sacred places where Japanese Monks have purified the essence of the surroundings. But the kind of Yōkai that Ms. Huệ Vân and Sifu Hua speak of, can move freely through any purified space. There is little that can stop them," Aikiko explained to Heylyn.

"...Except the collapse of the universe and time itself. There are only ever two that surpass that point beyond the end and the beginning, and they are the two dragons," Jinn Hua told Heylyn.

"Then that's why she's seeking our allegiance. She has as much to lose as all of us. Especially if humankind doesn't make it beyond the challenge of which Weltherwithsp has spoken. She could help us stop Mentis," Heylyn negotiated her perspective very well.

"But at what price?" Jinn Hua posed.

"That remains a deal between myself and your butterfly here," Katsura's voice pierced the air in the meeting room, putting everyone present on alert.

Everyone stood and turned towards the door, and there just inside of the meeting room stood Katsura. Heylyn immediately recognized her, but her hair was much lighter than it had been at the Fifth Social Club. Heylyn shook her head, because as she had that thought, Katsura's hair began to slowly transition between light and dark, oscillating ever so slowly that it might not be noticed by those with but the keenest sense of observation.

Kyoshi and Tiger immediately took the defensive, standing protectively in front of Ms. Huệ Vân and Jinn Hua, while Braden brashly confronted their new arrival.

"Pardon me lady, but I don't think you're on the guest list for this meeting," Braden said to her, standing at the ready.

"You would affront a solitary woman who has come with a message of peace? Peace between her clan and her new allies?" Katsura remained calm and rational.

"You didn't bring your sidekicks this time," Heylyn addressed her.

"To the contrary, they're not sidekicks, but members of my family and they're just outside of the door, ensuring that nobody makes the mistake of trying to come in," Katsura replied, stepping forward into the room.

"A beast of your nature has no place amongst us," Jinn Hua spoke up.

"A beast? Is that what you see before you?" Katsura once again played naive.

"Is she the Yōkai...?" asked Braden, suddenly feeling he'd overstepped his level of understanding.

"Yōkai? Perhaps. But also Kami. You see, my family were amongst the first in this universe. And I was begat by the communion between two clans. The Yōkai and the Kami. I have qualities of both. My own clan was outcast from both the traditional Yōkai and the Kami, who saw me as a stain. A heretic. And yet, I am the antecendent of death itself, and I am benevolent and even munificent. Some people of your world have feared me as a demon, while others have worshipped me as a goddess. It is up to you to decide with which you're dealing, but a fatal error to be so gravenly mistaken as to assume you know," Katsura introduced herself formally.

"What would such a powerful being want of mere mortals like us?" asked Jinn Hua.

"Not all of you are mortal. Some of you are far better at keeping secrets than even I. But, for those of you who are, I feel for you. As the dragons have told you, the world is on course for immense disaster. The failure to overcome a hurdle that a near infinity of other universes in which human beings came to evolve also failed, dooming the entire universe, for humanity, though infinitely minute in the cosmos, is an early influence on the outcome of all things. Not an Earth centered universe, but influent on its future. I find that funny however, as you've always failed when it came to this challenge upon whose doorstep you've arrived in this iteration of infinity. I, being bound to this universe and only given one existence in this form, have a vested interest to see you overcome this obstacle, for if you don't, it is the life of my clan that is also on the line. Having already come nearly fourteen billion years thus far, I've a lot invested in this universe that I would like to see preserved," Katsura explained to them eloquently, leaving none of them out.

"What is there to guarantee your end of the bargain, which I assume is to assist us in taking on Mentis?" asked Jinn Hua.

"I could ask you the same of your end of the deal," Katsura responded.

"Our word. Our honour," Aikiko spoke up, fighting a fear she'd known since she was a young child.

"Words can be broken, even when you had every intent to keep them. Maybe others don't like your deal and do everything they can to attempt to trick you into breaking your word. Honour however, is something of high worth. I can see that amongst you, most of you are abundant in this. That is why I approached your trusted butterfly, Ai Yuanlin Ying. She's still alive, and I gave her knowledge with which you can contend with this Mentis' collective. Is that not proof enough of my honour?" Katsura reasoned with them.

"Prove it with your benevolence," Myung suggested.

"I could do that, but everything in this universe has a price. I could reward you and honour my Kami ancestors, but my Yōkai ancestry would become jealous, restless and eventually that cost would need payment. Doing a good turn by me and my clan on the other hand, could earn such benevolence without drawing the ire of my Yōkai heritage, for what you do to me, you do to both. Remember, each require satiation," Katsura looked to Myung encouragingly.

"I've been here nearly six minutes, and none of you has offered me a seat," Katsura continued.

"Forgive my rudeness. Please take a seat and join us," Heylyn stepped forward to handle her request.

"I think I should like to sit between Aikiko and Braden," Katsura picked her chair and sat comfortably upon it, fully knowing how uncomfortable it made the two of them.

"I didn't think that it was actually you, your form here with us in this place. I mean, aren't you contained in another dimension and acting through an avatar or projection of some form?" Jinn Hua asked her as she too sat down.

"Some matters are better dealt with in person," Katsura responded, waiting for the meeting to resume.

"My employees aren't in danger with the presence of your clan members guarding the door, are they?" asked Heylyn of Katsura.

"No. Anyone trying to get in will be prevented from doing so. They've been instructed to tell any employees trying to gain entry to instead phone you on your mobile phone until our meeting is over," Katsura informed Heylyn.

"Fair enough. Next time, I urge you not to make such assumptions about my security needs or to create a division between myself and my employees," Heylyn asserted her authority, even to a fourteen billion year old Yōkai Kami.

"Why would I. Your security seems quite fit for the task, though remember that they did let me in without previous acknowledgement on your part, and were quite willing to help me in any way," Katsura smiled at Heylyn, letting her know that they weren't playing by her rules.

Heylyn's face momentarily broke grace, a smirk almost finding its way there, but with intense discipline and a quick reevaluation of her thought processes, she instead decided not to let Katsura affect or intimidate her.

"Now that we've absolved Katsura of suspicion, not excluding healthy caution, what stand are we as the surviving members of the Temple Of The Butterfly Dragon going to undertake in the monumental task of taking on Mentis, while liberating those unwillingly inducted into their fold?" asked Heylyn of her peers and mentors.

"Have any of you who've attended our training, considered that when on a battlefield, the greatest tragedy is being unfit to determine friend from foe?" asked Kyoshi Hind.

Hoon Kwang looked to Kyoshi and nodded in agreement.

"We're fighting on the same battlefield as Mentis' collective, and some of you still very much need guidance from those who taught you. Consider it another perspective to help you overcome what's on the path ahead. Be careful that you're not striking out at that which might prove to be your greatest asset," Hoon Kwang elaborated on Kyoshi's guidance.

"We're with all of you, in more ways than you know, but Mentis' collective is advancing and soon the entire populace, withholding a few sturdy and stout souls like ours will spread throughout North and South America, will be consumed. Your cure of this ill should not also affect your allies on the same battlefield," Jinn Hua also remarked on the observations of her peers as mentors of the Butterfly Dragons amongst them.

"Doctor Briggs' solution sounded very promising to me. Prevent them from their induction and bonding rites and they'll eventually collapse. In court cases I've acted as stenographer, there have been times when cutting off the communications of groups of offenders has been extremely effective in ceasing their coordination," Myung reiterated Doctor Briggs' solution from her own perspective.

"Its true. In my experiences, that has often been the role of support. Not guns... albeit there was an airstrike or two involved in one such operation I took part in, but the most effective operations almost always included absense of violence or enemy engagement, and instead focused on targeting their supply and communications," Braden explained to them, backing up Myung.

"It is good that you bring that up, but remember that logistically implementing such a tactic against a some of the population of North and South America, is fraught with peril, not to mention the possibility of harming innocent people," Ms. Huệ Vân said, drawing upon her life experiences.

"Do not underestimate the fact that you may have allies of a like perspective on the unsavoury side of life. I have my two sides, both in opposition and yet I benefit from each. Those who you've pit yourselves against might prove useful to your cause at some point, and when you least expect it," Katsura reminded them from her own experience of roughly fourteen billion years.

Heylyn struggled with Katsura's suggestion as did Jinn Hua. Once again, Heylyn found herself in a situation where she was beginning to question the wisdom in such an alliance and beginning to understand what Jinn Hua had implied when she asked what the price of such an alliance might be. She wondered if she might also be required to sacrifice her own integrity as the CEO of West Meet East International and as The Butterfly Dragon.

"To ally ourselves with those who oppose our sense of integrity and commitment to it, without denying our own humanity of course, would be to invite and approve what we've spent so much time and effort fighting to stay," Heylyn reminded them, for to take a step in the direction of what Katsura was suggesting was to turn her back on everything they'd accomplished thus far.

"Society is an immensely delicate balance, despite what your Sociologist friend might have to say on the matter. Ask Jinn Hua. A crook is a Policeman's job. A Doctor gets rewarded by exploiting the sick. There is no light without dark. Without criminals and sickness, your infrastructure would fall and society would collapse..." Katsura pointed out to them.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean that we have to cater to both sides...!" Myung found Katsura's words very difficult and unsettling considering that she'd spent the last twelve years of her life working on the side of the law.

"I'm almost certain that's what the other side would say. Perhaps you are more alike than you think?" Katsura smiled at Myung, who suddenly felt nauseated by the woman.

Heylyn remembered Jinn Hua's lesson of balance once again. At a time when Ai Yuanlin Ying (Heylyn) herself found herself prizing eloquence and artistic expression, which she'd always assumed at that time was a quality of the extreme. Her propensity for studying the forms of Wing Chun and Gong Fu under Jinn Hua, Heylyn often focused on her own forms whose visible expression was art to behold, and yet so fragile when countered by Jinn Hua's own concepts of balance. Of the flow. Concepts also taught to her by Kyoshi Hind and Hoon Kwang. Kyoshi had even drawn upon the notion of circularity, as taught to him by a practitioner of Aikijutsu and its descendent, Aikido.

It was only when Heylyn embraced that she could integrate her own sense of expression in martial arts into Jinn Hua's regimen of balance that she reconciled the two. There were always risks in embracing extremity, as much so as there were risks in embracing balance. But neither was honourable or with compass without a sense of integrity as to why. One could merely choose balance to protect themselves alone, without committing to a sense of values on either side, which would likely draw ire from both. One could choose extremity, for the protection of those of like value, once again, their interest solely to protect themself alone.

Heylyn considered that there were a great many revolutions throughout history which were initiated by the people on the unsavoury side, though that idea was a entirely a matter subjective perspective. Perhaps what Katsura was referring to was this. That those who stuggle from an opposing paradigm aren't always lacking integrity themselves. Honour did not pick sides, for it was a property of people on both sides, though in society, it was often a misused word and concept. Lost to many, but truly known by few.

Finally, Heylyn considered the fact that her reaction to Katsura's initial suggestions on the matter were actually a sign that she reacted without considering the facts and possibilities. Some people (and Yōkai Kami) were very effective at swaying people between two opposing paradigms, and had even perfected means by which to keep some trapped on a perpetual see-saw. A lesson that Heylyn once delivered to Monique over a game of tennis. Had Heylyn forgotten these concepts herself or was she standing in the midst of a much better player than herself.

"No matter how knowledgable or wise you believe yourself to be, never underestimate the ability of others to teach you something you thought you knew well," Katsura knew that Heylyn had overcome some kind of inner hurdle.

"Insofar as what you've suggested, we will cross that bridge when the time comes and where we're faced with that decision," Heylyn replied, retaining the confidence of the other two prospective butterflies, Myung and Aikiko.

"Is there something else troubling you butterfly?" asked Jinn Hua.

"Yes. A few things, but the only one that isn't personal is something I learned on the past weekend about the nature of the Chameleon Killer..." Heylyn recalled when Habus Macill had opened up to her and Monique at the Fifth Social Club on the Friday night recently past.

"That's is the biggest case on file you know. Is it information you can forward to the authorities?" asked Myung encouragingly.

"No. If it was, I would have and if I did, they'd likely put me away in a mental health care facility. You see, the Chameleon Killer isn't one person. They're actually not anyone particular at all. They're whoever is closest to one of Mentis' high priority targets at the time the killer is needed," Heylyn explained to them.

"Are you saying that Mentis is behind the Chameleon Killer?" Myung asked in disbelief.

"So Mentis' collective has already acquired an immune system, has it?" asked Katsura, using an anecdote that fit surprisingly well.

"I don't think its an immune system, but more like involuntary coercion. Radicalization even. I think that Mentis' collective have people selected from their membership who have been destabilized to the point that they'd commit murder to protect Mentis' ideology and its collective. Given the nature of Mentis' collective, I'm not sure if that means they insert a persona into someone else that is capable of such horror, or if the people themselves have just been traumatized to the point where they'll act upon violent suggestions. The Chameleon Killer is literally a random person every time. Different each time they commit murder," Heylyn told them as she struggled with the idea.

"That explains a lot. I've heard from veterans on the Police force that their case data is a mess. The perpetrator always uses the same modus operandi, but has different heights. Different weights. Different handedness. Even the behavioural sciences experts are stumped because the perpetrator seems to have a different psychology in every crime scene given the material evidence," Myung told them.

"We have to stop that, but if we attack the killer, we're injuring and possibly maiming an innocent person who doesn't know what they're doing," Heylyn reminded them.

"But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't," Braden defended his having fought the Chameleon Killer directly.

"No. It means that we need to somehow stop them from using these unskilled members of their ideology and force them to utilize solitary, skilled assassins, which we can take out and leave in the custody of investigators. No more innocent victims or assassins," Myung suggested.

"We have detailed knowledge of their inner cloister that would certainly help... but there are complications involved..." Katsura spoke up once again.

"What kind of complications...?" Ms. Huệ Vân asked.

"Oculo Mentis, the man himself recently made a deal, though I shouldn't be the one to tell you that. I'll leave it in the hands of someone who was there when this deal happened," Katsura responded, gesturing to the door of the meeting room, which was suddenly opened by her guards to let another person into their meeting.

Aikiko stood up, her skin suddenly covered in tattoos while her hair had instantly changed shades to black and white.

"How dare you let this man into our meeting!" Aikiko, now Dragon Butterfly, spoke fearlessly to Katsura as Braden got to his feet.

"That's the man who... cut me!" Braden stood ready to fight.

"Hold on there. You've got friends with you this time," Kyoshi stood, taking up Braden's side.

"I'll second that sentiment," Tiger stood, taking his other side.

"What is this? Have you not yet taught your lackeys a sense of discpline?" Tanto said as he stepped fearlessly into the room.

"Not one more step!" Braden exclaimed, the scars on his abdomen still present.

"He's mine!" Dragon Butterfly said fiercely.

"You would attack an unarmed man?" asked Tanto, a smile still on his face given the recent turn of events.

"Man? He's no man. He's a dragon of peril," Braden stated.

"And yet, I am your new ally. A messenger as Katsura, my own Yōkai-Kami-Sama, has already told you. Would you slay a messenger?" asked Tanto, a large grin crossing his face as he held his empty hands before them.

"What message do you bring? Speak it and then leave," Jinn Hua ordered Tanto.

He heard her, but he was in service to a much higher calling than hers alone.

"Do as she asked," Katsura backed up Jinn Hua's request.

"The man known as Oculo Mentis, in a diplay of desperation and even awe, made a deal with another of whom you should be aware," Tanto told them, pausing purposely to savour the moment.

"Go on," Jinn Hua insisted.

"The man Oculo Mentis is in an alliance with the Primordial Dragon Witherwyrm..." Tanto's smile only grew as he saw their faces.

The Balance In Change And The Change In Balance...

Jinn Hua's former broaching aggression seemed tamed by Tanto's revelation. Even Ms. Huệ Vân had been taken aback by his words. His smile. As if cruelty tamed in the tongue and teeth of a man who's visemes expressed his nature in its purest form. A man who had at one time, south to rule his surroundings by his appetite for young and innocent women. A true dragon in one of its many forms.

Dragon Butterfly felt once again the blade Tanto had thrust into her heart, before she'd been revived with the soul of the true dragon in the form of the man who'd etched every tattoo onto her scaled body in ink of his own blood. Forever bound to dragon-kind in both her spirit and passion for life. For her, it was a betrayal that Tanto had etched upon all dragon-kind, for he'd colluded with the one of darkness rather than maintaining the universal balance.

It was upon this realization that something significant happened. Something sudden and quite unexpected by Dragon Butterfly upon the revelation of Mentis allegiance.

The need for her own balance was suddenly no long justified. Dragon Butterfly seemed enraged at first, and then upon her realization of the matter, a sense of fear crossed her face and as she realized that she was no longer relevant. The balance had been thrown inexplorably to Witherwyrm, and there could be no dragons other than those reminiscent of Weltherwithsp to counter this.

All at once, Dragon Butterfly disappeared, and a very timid and helpless Aikiko appeared in her place. The source of her true dragon now, in the form of a sigil tattoo artist the most present dragon in her form.

The universe was readjusting balance given the recent changes to alliegiance. Dragon Butterfly now a casualty of this sudden change.

Jinn Hua looked on in shock as she recognized that Aikiko was now at risk, as the changes to reality set about permeating themselves into the very essence of being.

"As if one had found the lost pages of the I-Ching, opening them and reading them one by one, unleashing their essence of balance upon a compromised world..." Jinn Hua exclaimed, as she found herself struggling against the very essence of this imbalance.

"Get back! Go! I command you!" Ms. Huệ Vân exclaimed as she dealt with some hidden element of her own past, the balance being shifted given the change of allegiances.

Heylyn looked on as she realized that the very nature of her allies was crumbling before her eyes.

"What is this?" she exclaimed aloud, suddenly realizing as the words left her lips.

"A tremendous game of chess, I'd say!" Kyoshi Hind exclaimed as he looked to Hoon Kwang.

"The power has shifted so far over to Witherwyrm's side that we've all been forced to... extremity," Hoon Kwang exclaimed.

That was when Heylyn suddenly remembered a lesson taught to her by Hoon Kwang. The lesson of threes.

She looked to Myung, who suddenly remembered the same thing, and at that moment, they both understood the utility of three versus two.

To be continued...

FYI: Mentis isn't in any way a reference to the character Mantis in the Marvel Universe, nor are Mantis' abilities in any way close to those utilized by the ideology of Oculo Mentis in this story. The actress who played Mantis did a wonderful job as the character, and certainly, Oculo Mentis would be the nemesis of everything they and I stand for.

* Milly Fontain aka Allison Trendel is discussed in The Butterfly Dragon: We Who Stand On Guard - Episode 02

Shhhh! Digital Media remains secular in nature and I am still very much on the red black, red white and red yellow team, just like my Shhhh! Digital Media colours. Its not so much what you hide as much so as it is what you reveal, though a good balance of each is best. Knowing what to reveal and what not to is the key, especially when and if you're liberating others.

I am Brian Joseph Johns and this is Shhhh! Digital Media at https://www.shhhhdigital.com or https://www.shhhhdigital.ca in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701. I'm an Atheist that leans toward Buddhism and Taoism.

Credits and attribution:

Artwork: Amy Wong, Wendy Pusey, Ghastly, Birdman, Brian Joseph Johns, Daz3D, Unreal Engine...
Tools: Daz3D, Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, Blender, Stable Diffusion (Easy Diffusion distribution), InstantID, Sadtalker, Google Colaboratory, Microsoft Copilot (Windows 11), Hitfilm, Borderline Obsession...
Extra Special thank you to InstantID by: Wang, Qixun and Bai, Xu and Wang, Haofan and Qin, Zekui and Chen, Anthony. Research Paper Title: InstantID - Zero-shot Identity-Preserving Generation in Seconds.
Extra Special thank you to Adobe, especially their award legendary image editing and compositing application Photoshop, who make much of the artwork on Shhhh! Digital Media possible.
Extra Special thank you to Corel for their Painter application, which is a great companion tool when combined with the power of Adobe Photoshop.
Sadtalker by: Zhang, Wenxuan and Cun, Xiaodong and Wang, Xuan and Zhang, Yong and Shen, Xi and Guo, Yu and Shan, Ying and Wang, Fei.
Research Paper Title: SadTalker: Learning Realistic 3D Motion Coefficients for Stylized Audio-Driven Single Image Talking Face Animation.
Gratitude: Our Mentors, Senseis, Sifus, Sebomnims, lifetime inspirations, family, friends, the Nomads (ask Stanton about that one), the Music, the Movies, the Theatre, the Arts, ASMR, (both YouTube and Bilibili and the many other creators on those platforms), the Gaming and Developer communities and of course, the audience.
Ask Seki Sensei | Online Katana Lessons! - Study Iaido And Kobudo Online
Martial Arts (in the words of real experts and at least one comedian): https://brucelee.com (home of the real Dragon and an entire family of inspirations), http://iwco.online International Wing Chun Organization (International presence of a very scalable intensity martial art, protected and developed by Shaolin Nun Ng Mui) and the alma mater of Jinn Hua's own specialized variation thereof, https://iogkf.com International Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karatedo Federation (even Hanshi had his teachers), https://itftkd.sport International Taekwondo Federation (Here there be Taegers), https://tangsoodoworld.com Tang Soo Do World (the path of Grandmaster Chuck Norris), https://www.aikido-international.org International Aikido Federation (how else would Navy Chef Steven Seagal liberate a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier from a team of hijackers?), https://www.stqitoronto.com Shaolin Temple Quanfa Institute (The City Of Toronto's own Shaolin Temple), https://www.enterthedojoshow.com Master Ken's Ameri-Te-Do presence (If we can't laugh at ourselves, then we can at least laugh the loudest at others, and other Zen)
Jesse Enkamp: Karate Nerd
Special thanks to Aitrepreneur, Hugging Face and the YouTube educational content producers, including those catering to the AI content production pipeline and of course AlphaSignal.
Thank you to Captain Crunch from 89 Steps.
Special thanks to John Paul Young and the Cardboard Brains, whom you can now visit at https://www.ermiescub.com

Special thanks to Fifth Social Club Toronto.

Special thanks to Dopinder, a guy in a red black suit, and a rude hairy guy with steel claws for their mention and appearance in this episode of The Two Butterflies.

I'm working on getting Gambit for the next episode involving a plot that takes place inside of a Casino. Its a good idea but I'm just kidding. Great to finally see Gambit's return though. I really hope we get more...

Special thanks to the Summer Olympics, and the athletes that inspire us towards superhuman endeavors.
Something to give you perspective: The very first teacher had no formal education, didn't graduate and was self taught, but only because they had no other choice. We do.

This content is entirely produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 under the Shhhh! Digital Media banner.

Brian Joseph Johns

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