***
Mu Continent
A blue-haired woman sat on the edge of her desk, arms crossed, eyes shut.
A proposition from the 4th Director had been sitting with her for days — ever since the 4th Herrscher was dealt with.
"I'll do it." She mumbled
"Director?" Su's voice came through the intercom.
"I accept." She said louder.
All who heard her were ecstatic for her answer. Rumours have been circulating since the 4th's death that the 3rd institute will side with the new Moths effectively shattering the prior fragile balance between the two sides.
The 2nd institute… We don't talk about them. Honestly, does anyone even know what they do?
So once their director accepted the offer, cheers erupted among the crowd.
Su on the other end smiled softly, glad she chose the easy way. If she didn't then Mei would take action, and that… Lets just say there might only be 4 institutes left, maybe even 3 depending on how she felt.
Sigh 'I like having walls, if I didn't take the offer…' She would've accepted either way, it just felt weird to her. 'Thorald Arwansson is the threat, yet Mei is who I fear most.'
"This is going to cause a shit show with those up top"
"That? Non-issue. Thor's visiting them soon" Su's almost smug voice came through.
She snorted, 'Translation: Bye bye council.'
"I'll fly into Shenzhou when I clean up whatever mess this makes."
"It's been a pleasure Director Einstein." With that Su's hologram shuts off.
Sigh "How did we get here?" Slipping off her desk she wandered through the crowd and towards her personal lab.
–Squeak–
Sitting down on the chair she stares up at the small human-like object. It looked almost like a doll. If you ignore the opening in their chest that is.
"How do I get you working?" She sounded exhausted.
Thinking back, for 4 years now she had been stuck on how to power this thing. As someone who survived the 2nd eruption, yet witnessed the horrors that occurred. 'If only we didn't go on that trip.'
She knew how valuable life was, and seeing how easily soldiers lost their lives running to their deaths, she thought of building something to solve that issue. This was her solution.
'The E.L.F Project.'
***
FireMoth Council Room - NATO
"This is bad…" One member muttered, squinting at the datapad like it might bite.
"Yes/Indeed."
The two next to him parroted, nodding like bobbleheads.
Silence fell across the chamber. Every councilman had their eyes on the report.
Finally, someone spoke.
"…How do we deal with this?" The way he sat — elbows on the table, fingers steepled, glasses flashing — gave more than one councilman pause.
"…Gendo?" someone whispered.
"Why the hell is Gendo here?" another muttered.
"Pfft–"
Some councilmen tried to hold back their laugh.
The man sighed like someone who's been surrounded by idiots for far too long. "I'll say it again. How do we deal with… Thorald Arwansson?"
He chose to ignore the children pretending they were still in charge.
"Another question. Who called us here? None of us even knew of this issue. All of us were focused on the report. So who called this emergency meeting?"
Then the ceiling gave way — a clean, cinematic collapse — and a figure dropped from above.
"Superhero landing, nice." He muttered, then waited until the smoke cleared – Obviously. What's the point otherwise?
The councilman had already jumped back from their seats, some falling back with them.
"Who!?"
A smirk appeared on Thor's face.
"Well I'm glad you asked." He slowly and deliberately straightened up.
He spread his arms wide, swept one leg behind the other — and the court bowed to them
"Thorald Arwansson."
He tilts his chin up, smile dangerous.
"I heard you've been talking about me."
Immediately once he finished they scrambled, many racing towards the exits only for doors to turn into walls. A simple illusion on Thor's part.
"Now, now gentlemen, the show has only just begun." In a dramatic gesture he raised his arms up as if goding an audience.
No-one said anything after that. A tumbleweed somehow appeared in the room, distracting Thor and the councilmen for a second.
'Right, cartoon physics.' Moving on from that he snaps his fingers and the room shifts.
The council table dismantled itself and flew through the air reassembling itself along the wall. A line of wooden chairs. Most of the councilmen started to float up. They tried to protest and struggle free of the invisible hold.
They were then placed in the chairs with planks of wood wrapping around the arms and legs.
Thor turned to the still remaining councilmen and he removed the illusion as the door reappeared. They glanced between him and the door.
He gestured to them to go. "You're the innocent ones."
They scrambled and ran to the door, opening it and running off.
With them gone Thor spoke "Now, what do I do with you lot?"
He pivoted and started walking, slow light steps (Heavy to them).
They started to sweat profusely, they struggled harder, stupidly they forgot what they were bound with.
Some got splinters that would've accidentally killed themselves if it wasn't for Thor.
"Are you not entertained?!" He shouted.
They all froze mid-struggle.
"Thank you." He let out a breath.
"Now, let's get down to why I've come here and done this. I'm sure you all want to know, no?" They nodded like chickens.
"Haha, Gooood. Now I have gathered you all here for one simple reason…" He paused for what felt like an eternity.
"The council will no longer govern Moth." And immediately like the idiots they are, many started to protest.
"You dare…"
"A brat like you…"
"You can't do that…"
"You're courting death…" A shock went through Thor's body. He snapped to the origin.
"Found the Chinese guy, haha.
Let's be honest, I'd definitely court death, do you even know them?"
–Silence–
Thor's smile vanished, replaced with annoyance. "Tsk, you're no fun."
"Well I might as well begin, way to kill the vibe." The previously silent tried to voice back on his previous statement, only for Thor to hold up his hand and they couldn't speak.
"First on the docket, Councilmen A, no I don't know your name nor do I care all I know is your face and the crime.
Rape, murder, blackmail, assasination, embezzlment, etc, etc. You get the point. Simply, I'll just kill the lot of you, but I'm going to make sure to enjoy myself doing it." He pulled out Aurora's sword and switched it through the different forms.
"Let me show you what my master taught me, hahaha."
Screams echoed for hours until Thor rose through the prior hole he made.
"Haaaah… Well that got boring quick. I can see why she said to make sure to enjoy torturing or it gets boring real quick."
–Crack–
With a trail of lightning he went to sort out some of the remaining councilors' operations. While Moth along with Elysia, Eden, Aurora and Kevin had been dealing with some of them, Thor finished early so rather than go back and wait he'd help finish it.
***
"What do you even do here??"
"Uhhh… Ummm… We urgh–"
"You don't even know, do you?"
He remained silent.
Sigh, Both Eden and Elysia were tasked with dealing with the second institution.
What they didn't expect is not only was nothing happening, the people working here didn't even know what they were here to do.
"You're the Director of this institute. How the hell do you not know what your job is??" Elysia cracked the tablet in her hand, gripping it just a bit too hard.
Eden let out a small giggle, before going back to her wine.
Elysia glared at Eden, smile twitching and a bulging vein on her head. "Eden deary~"
Eden almost spat out her wine, but shivered from the tone.
"Y-yes."
"Why don't you make yourself useful and find out what they do here, rather than drink wine in front of me. Okay~"
–WHOOSH–
Eden was gone, out of the room on her way to do something. Her wine cup is spinning on the desk.
With Eden gone Elysia's normal look returns to normal.
"Sigh, Where were we? Ah, Why are you here?" She sat back down on the table pulling out another tablet and continued pointlessly questioning and scaring the poor man.
***
Later on, Eden walks back through the door, carrying a stack of documents and 2 tablets in hand.
She sets them down on the closet desk. Afterwards she moved to the chair she sat at previously, ignoring the still kneeling director.
"Ellie." She took a sip of her wine, swirling it a little. "Turns out, they are responsible for PR."
"Really?" Elysia's mouth hung open, gawking at Eden, she stared at the director who immediately started to shiver at her gaze.
"So you guys, who are supposed to handle PR, have done none of that?"
He tried to retort but Elysia raised her hand shutting him up.
"No wonder the public don't like Moth. When was the last time you even did PR… Wait, better question, How long have you been here?" Obviously he wouldn't have done PR if they didn't even know they were meant to do that.
"13 Years…" He whispered.
–Crack–
The poor desk Elysia was leaning on cracked.
"...You know what. I'm done with this shit. Eden.
Tell Mei the second institute no longer exists. Also tell Thor he can go wild on the facilities, if he wants." With that Elysia vanished from the room leaving Eden to do whatever.
"Umm… Can I stand now? My legs are really hurting." Eden waved him off and he got up almost falling over before leaving.
***
A/N:
Deleted the Author notes on this chapter as the idea I might have to write that kind of scene is a no from me. It's made writing another chapter difficult as hell, so yeah off the table now. Ain't doing it.