Chapter 20: The Eyes of God

[darian]

"What in the name of Father Manala?" Darian thought, pausing as the ground trembled under the weight of some kind of giant... beast. Darian had never seen such a creature. It was both magnificent and terrible all at once and was probably the only thing that made Darian stop for even a moment before he fixed his aim and took down a seventh mecha.

Fortunately, the giant beast was helping them all out and that allowed Darian a sigh of relief. Trying not to get flattend or vaporized by giant mechas was bad enough without having to worry about getting eatan by a giant monster! Surprisingly though, once most of the mechas had been destroyed, the creature shrunk and reverted into the form of... Keitoleinen. Darian shivered slightly again at this display of power and resumed his work of finishing off the remaining mechas; another one going down with another deafening bang from his Exitus rifle.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Ceph had taken a seat, several blocks away from the chaos. He was ontop of a roof, scrap of metallic limbs scattered around him. He was sitting ontop of the severed thorax of one of the metallic spiders that had decided to skitter his way. He didn't get himself involved with the whole ordeal. It wasn't his place unless he was told too.

He didn't question where the mechas were coming from or for what reason they were attacking SOTA.. it was probably just some dispute between companies.. though it was an unusual way to express resentment. Not to mention obnoxious. At that moment.. something huge appeared.. a god-like beast. He widened his eyes, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the tremendous creature.

"Is that.. Jumala Keitoleinen?" Ceph muttered to himself, a great wind shot past him as the god of destruction made short-work of the mechas and then disappeared, probably reverting to his normal form.. He stood up off of the severed mecha thorax as he pulled out his cellphone and decided to text Kith.

'Did you see that? Where are you'

[Ariel Tal Shachar]

As soon as a good portion of the membership to the Economic Council has appeared for the meeting and taken their seats, Ariel begins the meeting. He is upset over the recent events, but does his best not to show it. He prefers to remain cool and calm in even the worst situations.

"I understand that although members of this council share many of the same interests, you are at the same time, at odds with one another. Many of you have your own niche in the economy and for the most part, coexist peacefully. From time to time though, there are great disputes between you. Sometimes individual companies feel that the price of another good, such as Manala crystals, are too high, or sometimes, a company wants to takeover another. There is nothing wrong with dispute and competition. I support competition and when there is a weak company, sometimes it can do better when taken over or assimilated by another. However, some competition can sometimes be ..destructive and damaging to society. Sometimes the dispute between companies becomes so fierce that it leads to a war like situation. I think that it is that sort of situation that should be avoided since it is damaging to everyone involved, and even those who are not. That is why this council was formed.....to moderate the conflicting interests of companies." The Moderator explains. That is where he gets his title. He moderates the conflicting interests of companies.

"With that said, Momo, will you please share with the council why you decided to attack Sota and Helsinki."

[Calithin Crest]

"Geeeeeez."

I put my phone away and quickly get ready to go to the emergency meeting. I call my office and have my secretary cancel all my meetings for today before heading out the door and using a nearby teleportation booth to transport myself to Switzerland.

Upon my arrival I quickly head to the HQ and take my seat in the meeting room. I get there just in time to catch the end of the Moderator's speech and decide to sit beside Keitoleinen. It terms of the attack I do feel an amount of solidarity with him, as he is the nonagressor in this situation. Though, really, I'd most prefer for peace to be called and this whole ordeal to end as soon as possible.

"What a mess..."

[Archer Aylmer]

"We'll combine the plans... We can attack the blimp factories now, and then once the surveillance system gets up and running we can focus on developing a scrambler so that it won't be able to track or monitor our activities."

I yawn and really don't feel like being in a park right now.

"I don't want to be outside anymore, everyone. I hate outside. I think we should get going to... Wherever it is... We need to be..."

[Kith Keitoleinen]

"W/ Linnea and Ophelia by SOTA's prison. Yes, saw it." Kith texts back. He is surprised to see Horacio show up. At least that will make things easier. He looks ahead and indeed, part of the prison has been destroyed. Other prisoners are fleeing as well. At least, Keitoleinen took care of most of the mechas and the area seems a little safer. However, there is still a great deal of fighting around them.
"I think we should get out of here." Kith suggests to Linnea and Ophelia.

[Momo Kurokawa]

Momo watches the footage on the video screen and sees some large creature destroy her mechas. She watches carefully, not sure what the creature is...until it turns back into Keitoleinen. She vaguely understands, though she doesn't connect the creature to the tsunami or the volcano. She still believes that it is an incident on its own.

"I attacked Sota because ...I had overheard Calithin talking to an elf looking man that Keitoleinen should be killed. It got me to thinking that perhaps they were right. I know he doesn't work as hard as I do. He is not as involved with the designs of the machines or new weapons that his company creates. He doesn't even go to work regularly. I, on the other hand, design many of my machines...myself...and work, sometimes 18 hour days. I do not simply let others run the company for me. Because of this, I thought that Sota was a weaker company." Momo explains to the council.

"Sota creates some good weapons, and I will admit, I am envious that they create the Creditors, something my company could easily do, and perhaps even do better. I wanted to take over their offices, factories, and labs and kill Keitoleinen. I wanted Sota for myself because I thought I could do better."

Momo takes a moment to look at the reaction of the audience.

"I was not aware ..that Keitoleinen was not human. I would like someone to tell me who he is. I will call off what remains of my forces there if someone can at least give me an honest answer of who I was up against...and why I lost."

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

"Fine, that's probably the best idea." Bonifaz replies to Archer. "We'll go back to Germany to plan things...rather than out in the open..in London here." Bonifaz decided. He punches in the teleportation code for the booth near his home outside of Munich. He enters the teleportation booth and soon, he is back home.

He walks the short distance to his house and turns on the TV. There is a big story about the attack on Helsinki and the meeting of the Economic Council. It shows the fight in Helsinki, but only the same footage over and over again.

"Check it out. Hmmm...." Bonifaz says of the news.

[Charon Dejardins/Asphodel]

Charon watches out of the window of his library as the mechas are destroyed by a large, white, horned beast. This causes the socialists a great deal of fear, but makes him curious. He grabs a book off of his shelf and begins looking up information on that beast. The book is a book on Finnish mythology. He opens it to a page that features such beasts...

It shows a picture of Surma, god of death, as the example, but mentions that other similar gods have such transformations. He reads the passage aloud to the socialists.

"Hmm...well, isn't that interesting?" He asks them. "Anyway, things look safer now. You may as well resume your meeting."

[Calithin Crest]

I stare at Momo wide-eyed and aghast as she basically just calls me out to everyone.

"How you gunna just put my business out there like that!? Come on Momo! I wasn't talking about killing anyone. That is a misunderstanding. You heard wrong. You have no idea what that conversation was actually about. You made a big mistake. A big big big mistake."

I clear my throat nervously and look around the room. You cannot just be talking about killing people at parties. That's not okay. I can't even believe my conversation with Kith was overheard. It's just like Kith to drag me down into his trouble and then leave me with all the blame. I really don't want to deal with the repercussions of his little plot right now and will gladly lie and try to divert attention from myself in order to remain blameless.

"I think... Momo should be made to pay for all of the property damage caused to SOTA. Her actions were uncalled for and it's only fair that she accept responsibility for them."

[Archer Aylmer]

I follow Bonifaz back to his house in Munich. I enjoy being in Germany again and it's good to have a relatively safe place to plan. Hopefully we won't be attacked here. It certainly seems that Germany is a better place to be today than Helsinki, anyway.

"Look at that. I'm not really surprised. Actually, what's more surprising is that the corporations don't have more conflict amongst themselves."

I stare intently at the images on the television screen and take a seat on Bonifaz's couch. I'm absolutely exhausted and in general my body feels weak.

[gunther]

"If that is your wish." Gunther replied to Archer's suggestion that they combine the ideas. It was a waste of time, but Gunther wasn't going to let a chance to destroy private property go to waste. "Indeed. Who knows who may be listening in..." Gunther added as he followed Bonifaz's lead. Gunther simply follows the codes left behind in the machine and continues following Bonifaz. When the news come up, Gunther's face brightens with a not to pleasant grin; in spite of the footage simply looping, the message was clear. Momo had declared war on SOTA and he hadn't been there to see the first shots fired.

"This is unnusually good fortune for us ja? We could definately use this to our advantage." Gunther said chuckleling. How freakishly good luck! After this, SOTA would probably have no problem designing suricide drones for them now; especially if they were to be used against a project Intelligent Design was backing. "That would definately explain this text message I got not that long ago." Gunther commented, looking at the text message about the economic council.

[darian]

After the last Mecha fell, Darian slung his Exitus rifle over one shoulder and headed toward the nearest teleportation booth and punches in a code to a telephone booth in Switzerland outside of the headquarters for the economic council. Why was he here? No particular reason other then keeping tabs on what was going on; aside from the aura of unease and discomfort he exuded, he could always just slip right in.

Slipping in, Darian managed to arrive just as Momo explained her reason for attacking SOTA. Seeing some of the Manalist representatives there, Darian took his place behind them as a silent observer; his pressence clearly did not go unnoticed as they looked around suspiciously as he came close to them.

"Soulless?" one of the manalists whispered, not looking away from the goings on.

"Yes. It is done." Darian replied, his glacier voice masked from the voice masking software making his voice nothing more then a cold whisper in the air. That was all he needed to say as the Manalists relaxed alittle; not much due to his pressence, but enough knowing that it was just him.

[Master Scrag]

The Master, who has been at the meeting the whole time, notices when Darian appears. He is pleased that the Manalists have some of their own representatives and supporters at the meeting. He listens to Momo and the others talk and decides to stand up and give his own opinion.
"I agree with Calithin. I have heard that some Manalist property was damaged in Helsinki. The main temple is fine, but some of our own sustained injuries in the fight. The attack impacted more than Sota." The Master states.

"There may be some here that were involved with the fight in Helsinki. They would know first hand the damage this has caused. The book of Manala teaches that it is the right of the strong to punish and control the weak. I am not convinced that Sota was a weak company."

[Frieda Artz Lehrer]

Frieda was on her way downstairs when she heard voices in the living room, she stopped halfway on the stairs and contemplated going back to her room. Instead she confidently walked down the rest of the staircase where she lost the confidence she had just gained. Walking briskly past the living room she glanced in, Bonifaz was there with one of his null friends. At the risk of having to talk to them and embarrassing herself she rushed to the kitchen where she could hide momentarily before she running back upstairs, hopefully with a glass of water.