NOVEL NEXT President and Vigilante.
Night Slash and the teammates saw how the Phantom 5 disappeared in front of them.
Night Slash then turned to Knuckleduster,
"Bring me to the Director of AVL. I want to meet him," Night Slash said, but there was no hint of seriousness in his voice even after he was now a part of something very big that none of them predicted.
Knuckleduster nodded and took out his phone to call Ramsbottom, but a feminine voice replied to the call.
"Hello, I am Director Ramsbottom's Assistant. I am sorry, Mr. Oguro. Director is very busy and won't be able to receive any calls today. If there is something important that you want to convey to him, You can tell me. I will pass the message." The Secretary apologetically told Knuckleduster.
Night Slash took the phone from Knuckleduster's hands, "Tell him that El Macho is real and now he has escaped with a group. The bunch is called Phantom 5 that wants to destroy the entire US. If he wants more details, he can invite us to his place." He casually said.
"I- I will inform the Director immediately!" The Assistant said and hung up the call.
Night Slash gave Knuckleduster's phone back.
"So, what will be your answer?" Kaina asked. This made all of them look at Night Slash attentively.
"You will know..."
________________________
[Location - AVL Headquarters || Time - 1400 Hours]
The agents were standing steadily in an orderly manner across the hallway while some were moving around here and there, always listening to their earpieces, checking if there is a problem or not.
Ramsbottom was walking down the hallway with two men in suits following him. From the subdued expressions on the faces of agents and the flattery one on Ramsbottom's face, It could be concluded that the two guys following Ramsbottom were important people. Very Important.
Ramsbottom and the guests entered the conference hall, where several attendants were standing to welcome them. Ramsbottom and the guests took their respective seats then Ramsbottom raised his wine glass.
"Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, The AVL welcomes you. The United States has always been a beacon of hope and justice for the world. All the preceding Presidents - no matter what ideology they belonged to - had the same commitment of curbing injustice and evil around the world.
And we, the AVL, hope that under your presidency, The US will continue our cooperation to reduce the villains possessing great threat to the world," Ramsbottom said as he welcomed the esteemed guests. He told some pleasantries as it was a part of the formality.
It turned out that the President and Vice President of the US showed up for a visit to the Headquarters of AVL.
"Thank you, Mr. Ramsbottom. This may be my first time as a President to visit here but I hope we can reach some consensus after today's discussion." The President replied to Ramsbottom's pleasantries elegantly.
"Likewise," Said the Vice President.
"Please enjoy the meal,"
With that, the meal started. Attendants were constantly running in and out of the room to bring various dishes and wine. The meal went on with casual talking and some exchange on the events happening around the country.
After the meal, Ramsbottom and the Guests were sitting in the conference hall.
"Mr. Ramsbottom, I think it is time to talk about the main reason we came here for," The President said to Ramsbottom.
"Wasn't it a visit to see the functioning of AVL as this is your first time being the President?" Ramsbottom's flattery smile cramped up.
"The functioning of AVL is not that complicated and not so different from the CIA or the FBI which would make me give an entire day of my schedule and bring my Vice President here to understand. Your structure is just like them with the only difference being that AVL works on an international level and holds a series of powers under very specific situations. Nothing more, Nothing less. I just had to read the records and it was done.
The reason we are here is the PX-41 serum. What is going on with that? Tell me all the details" All the humbleness that the president showed earlier faded as a domineering and commanding tone took over.
"PX-41 Serum... *Sigh*" Ramsbottom sighed and started giving in all the details as to what happened from the events of Theft of an entire lab from the Arctic to the arrest of Floyd Eaglesan.
"We are currently interrogating Floyd Eaglesan. He is currently resisting but he will open his mouth eventually," Ramsbottom said.
The President sighed when he heard all the details. He massaged his temples, "It was my fault to not stop the funding on the research of PX-41 when I took the office. I should have stopped this non-sensical spending started by my predecessor Douglas Paul, on this serum which had no purpose other than destruction. But I thought now that we have already spent so many dollars into it and it is near its final phase, so let's wait and see the result.
But on the day it was completed, It got stolen with the entire research facility..." The President talked to himself. He was thinking that it was his fault PX-41 serum was even continued.
The Vice President who was watching all of this stood up from his seat, "Mr. Ramsbottom, there was a reason the US funded this project through AVL and didn't directly fund it as a national defense project. This was a joint-country project with some big players involved such as Russia and China. Your AVL was an international organization, thus we chose you as the moderator and gave you the fundings along with the annual funding that you receive from other countries.
The functioning and the security of the entire project were on your shoulders and now the entire facility is stolen along with the serum.
And now you are telling that a single man did that! I read his file yesterday and he is a wig-seller for almost half his life. We may be first-timers in this game but that doesn't mean we have the intelligence of a retard. Even a kid can tell you have picked the wrong guy!
So now the question is on you. What happened to the serum and who is the perpetrator behind all this?" The Vice President had this stern look on his face and he folded his hands showing that he had enough of Ramsbottom's misleading ramblings.
"Perpetrator... That..." Ramsbottom was now in a deadlock as he didn't have an answer to that. He firm-heartedly believed that Floyd was the main perpetrator but the President and Vice President don't believe that.
"I will tell you what happened to the serum," A voice came from one of the empty seats in the conference hall. There was no one in the conference hall other than Ramsbottom, President, and Vice President, Not even their Secret Service Agents were inside the conference hall.
The Vice President quickly took out his gun from his back and aimed at one of the empty seats. Ramsbottom pressed on his watch, and heavily armed men and Secret Service agents started entering the room.
"Take the President and the Vice President out safely!" Ramsbottom gave orders to the agents.
"He needs to listen to this. You want to know what happened to the serum and who the perpetrator is, right?"
"Show yourself first!!!" The Vice President shouted.
A man in a black suit, wearing a black helmet, with katanas strapped on his back was then visible to all of the people present in the room. The Armed men and the agents aimed at the newcomer.
"Night Slash..." Ramsbottom said the name slowly but had some disdain in his tone.
"Yes, the same Night Slash that you wanted to take action against," Night Slash said and leaned more on the chair.
"Now why don't you take the 'action' you threatened my teammate about. I am right here inside your home ground. You have the advantage. Go forth. Do it." He sat on the chair but not a single bullet went toward him. Ramsbottom just stood at his place with his eyes narrowed.
"What happened? Getting cold feet now when I am in front of you? Okay, we will continue this later. First I want to talk to the President." Night Slash then turned his attention to the president who was surrounded by the secret service agents.
"So Mr. President, what do you want to know about first? The perpetrator or what happened to PX-41?"
"I want to know when did you enter the facility?" The President asked.
"Oh, that? I was here from the start... I ate with you guys. Didn't you notice me?"
"...Fascinating..." The President murmured but nobody heard it.
"Now can you tell me the details... Mr. Night Slash"
"Sure, But first let me bring my friends inside..." Night Slash then pointed to the entrance of the hall. With the cue, Knuckleduster, Gru, Kaina, Mr. Fantastic, and La Brava entered the hall, following Ramsbottom's Secretary.
After that, Night Slash started explaining the events from Knuckleduster's and Gru's perspectives after introducing both to the President. He told things like El Macho being real, He being the real perpetrator of the theft of the serum and the facility. And after all this,
"Then there is this nutjob named Genesis with his group, Phantom 5 which has El Macho as its member. Genesis wants to use Trigger and PX-41 serum to destroy the entire United States of America off the map and now he is in search to find an ideal hero to fight against." Night Slash ended the explanation.
President listened to the whole explanation Night Slash gave very attentively. After taking some time to process the information. He then asked,
"I have several questions for your Mr. Night Slash but I need to ask some questions from you, Mr. Ramsbottom," President turned to Ramsbottom, "Why are you threatening Vigilantes to do your work for you? If you needed assistance that bad, you could've asked for the pro-heroes from our country to help."
"That's the problem, Mr. President. I cannot. If I had asked for Heroes' assistance, the news would've leaked to the United Hero Association (Hero Association of US), and from there it could've leaked to the masses. Thus I threatened the Vigilante and the Ex-Villain to do things for us. This was done for the good"
"*Sigh* I thought I only had to take care of people and some global issues when I will become the president but now I have to deal with these international organizations and national organizations who are playing their own games." The President sighed and sat on a chair. He had his head looking down at the table when he asked,
"Mr. Night Slash, What's his next move? Do you know something?"
"He wants to play a game with us acting as heroes while he acts the villain."
"So...? Are you going to play the game?" The President asked.
This question attracted the attention of the members of the Night Raid.
"No. We are going back home. We were here to kill an organization who smuggles a whole lot of Trigger from Japan, not to play some games with a nutjob who plans to destroy a country."
The President who was looking down raised his head and looked at Night Slash with a smile,
"A good answer indeed. It is best that you've chosen not to play the game. If you did, I would've to deal with two unlawful elements fighting each other. With you guys out of the equation, we can focus on this menace named Genesis." The President stood up from his seat and walked towards Night Slash.
The Secret Service Agents tried to stop him but he simply ordered them not to stop him.
He then stopped in front of Night Slash and stretched his hand for a handshake.
"Well I haven't introduced myself, did I? I am Jakob Valdis, President of the United States and the Director of Quirkless Welfare Society. It's an organization that I created back in the day to help quirkless people but it also helps Mutants, to uplift their social status in the society."
Night Slash grasped the stretched hand, returning the respect the president gave him.
"Night Slash, Demon-level threat, on the way to Dragon-level threat. A Vigilante from Japan and the leader of Team Night Raid."
"HAHAHAHA!!!" President started laughing loudly when he heard Night Slash introducing himself with his threat level.
"Mr. Night Slash, It is great to know such a person like you even if you are a Vigilante," President Valdis had a smile on his face and he shook Night Slash's hands.
For others, it was a normal act of introducing each other but nobody noticed that a small dim black light was passing through President Valdis' hands to Night Slash's while they were shaking hands.
The smile on President Valdis' face grew bigger and a black spark flashed in his eyes.