Chapter 1894: Fort 8 |
"Are you guys just gonna stand around or leave?" Frostveil asked as she walked past the two.
Ning turned to see Lightspeed frozen in place with a stunned look on his face as well.
"Don’t you just get motivated after hearing him speak?" he asked. "I want to go out and help everyone."
"Sure," Ning said. "First, let’s head over to where the president is. Unless you want to keep her waiting."
Heroes from each city were assigned to one vehicle. Ning and the three heroes from his city were placed in a large van that left the hotel.
"Oh, is Vanisher not here?" Ning asked with a surprised look. "I thought he would’ve been invited too."
"Probably was, but refused. He’s met the president before," Frostveil said.
"What about you guys?" Ning asked, looking at the three.
"This would be my fourth time," Frostveil said.
"I’ve met her once before as well," Bloodborn said.
Ning narrowed his eyes in thought. "Ever had to sign an NDA when you met her?"
The group shook their heads. That made Ning more interested in learning what was so different about their visit this time that they had to sign a contract saying they would never talk about this with anyone else.
Ning stared out of the window in anticipation, waiting to reach the president’s mansion.
"That’s not the way to the presidential mansion," Frostveil said curiously. "It seems we’re to meet her somewhere else."
The buildings grew sparser and sparser until they drove past vast expanses of paddy fields. That continued for half an hour before the land turned barren, letting them out of Gargan City.
They took a turn at a military checkpoint, going off-road. After ten more minutes, they finally arrived at their destination.
The van drove past a massive gateway that was surrounded by high fences and guard towers. Anti-climb spikes jutted out from every surface of every wall Ning and the rest could see.
Military-uniformed soldiers greeted them at the gate, checking on them before they were allowed inside.
It didn’t take more than that for everyone there to realize that they had arrived at a military camp.
The cars stopped in front of a massive building, and everyone got off one after another. Each of the heroes that stood there could only look around with confused stares, as no one truly understood why they were there.
A woman walked out from the main door to the building, followed by several high-ranking military officials.
She was a dwarf of barely three feet tall, with bushy hair, lacking any semblance of the beards that female dwarves were known to have. Despite her height, she carried herself in a way that made everyone else look smaller just from her presence.
"Welcome to Fort 8, a military camp," she said. "As you may be familiar with me, I am Helen Morstell. Thank you all for coming."
The heroes nodded respectfully.
President Morstell gestured toward the building. "If you wouldn’t mind following me. We have much to do and little time to do it. I would like to be done with this by dinnertime."
Everyone was confused by what she meant. What did they have little time for?
They followed the president and were taken to a large conference room, where they all found a place to sit. The president sat around with her subordinates, a file being placed before them all.
She flipped through the documents and nodded throughout. "All 25 NDAs have been signed. Just in case anyone is unaware, if you are to break this NDA, you will be sued into oblivion. I suggest you do not have such a thought," she said.
"What exactly is going on, Madam President?" one of the heroes asked. "Why are we in a military camp? Why the need for such secrecy?"
"Everything I’m about to tell you now falls under the NDA. So listen up," she said. "This is not just any military camp. Fort 8 is a ruse. What it is instead is a secret research facility where we develop new weapons and tools for national defense."
She looked at them all. "You were all invited here for one reason and one reason only. To help us understand how good the weapons are."
Everyone looked surprised by the revelation. Ning was surprised as well. Never in a decade could he have thought that his very first meeting with the president of the country would be to have her test new weapons on him.
"Let us go see the first weapon."
They left the conference hall and passed through several checkpoints before reaching a central laboratory. In the middle of the room sat a glass box, and inside the box was a small crystal.
The president walked over toward the box, taking the cover off and picking up the crystal.
"Does anyone know what this is?"
The heroes were left confused. They had never seen a crystal like that before.
Ning hadn’t either, but he could hazard a guess.
"Aulluzire," he said.
The president raised an eyebrow. "Correct."
The heroes turned back toward Ning, strange looks on their faces.
The president gazed at Ning. "You’re Blackfang, correct?" she asked.
"Yes, Madam President."
"How did you know what this was?" she asked.
Ning shrugged. "I took a guess." .
The president blinked. "You guessed? How?"
Ning nodded. "You brought us here to test weapons against us. Considering you gathered heroes specifically, I imagined it was something akin to the suppression fields, which I know for a fact uses Aulluzire. While I have never seen it before, I knew it was a crystal, so I took a guess."
The president was impressed. "Nice guess." She turned to the rest. "This is Aulluzire. You’re all aware of what that is, I’m sure. Over the past year, our scientists have made significant advancements in how we use it."
She gestured toward a door on the left. "Follow me."