Institute of CelluloseBoard

Shaun had been in hiding like this for a while. Luckily, he had managed to gather a few people together to assist him. He had set up this group of people specifically to stop all of the "antics" that had plagued Columbia and to prevent whoever this "figure" was from ruining his life, as well as to prevent the older technologies lost by the Wooloosians from falling into the wrong hands. He would look at the earth for a bit through his monitor until he noticed something. There were almost 20 vessels of not Columbian, Cosmocratic, or any other origin at the wreck of the WRN "Victory." He remembered the "Victory," where he had used the mind control machine for all of that, but he stopped thinking about it. He noticed, though. They didn't have Colombian tags, but from satellite footage he gained by breaching NASA's civilian monitoring network, they were Columbian in nature. That meant one thing: The Imperium. Somehow, they had managed to infiltrate the earth. He immediately noted its location. For him, the fact that the imperium is trying to obtain that device could likely mean no good. Informing Columbia or the IA would likely start a war. And besides, he was technically a criminal, and turning himself in for the "greater good" didn't seem like the most appealing option. Therefore, he decided to...

Walswell, Greenland (Columbia)

Charlotte is sitting at her desk using her new computer to play "Pokemon Heart and Soul," one of the older games based in Ebott and one of the few games not based on the part of Columbia. Her phone starts ringing on her desk, so she grabs it rather quickly. She takes a drink of soda before answering.

Charlotte: "Yolo!"

Shaun: "Charlotte. I need you to go do something for me. Imperium is trying to retrieve a mind-control device."

Charlotte, who was in the middle of drinking soda, immediately spit it out.

Charlotte: "Hold on, look, I get your whole deal, Shaun, is secrecy. But this really, really seems like something you should just inform the FIB of. I'm just sayin'"

Shaun: "I don't exactly trust them at the moment. Besides, I don't need Wooloosia knowing this thing is still around."

Charlotte scoffs, confused as to why she even called Columbia "Wooloosia" still, but having corrected him on this tons of times already, she decides to just roll with it.

Charlotte: "Okay, fine, Shaun, I gotchu. Don't worry about it. I'll go take the device and hide it for safekeeping. Not that hard."

Shaun: "Actually, destroying it would be preferable. Also, for the love of Arceus, do this quietly. You do not want those maniacs on you after this. sending you the location... Now"

He hangs up, and Charlotte spins around in her chair a bit before looking at her computer and opening the attachment. It seems it's just off the coast of Alaska. That actually isn't that far by train, but teleporting would probably be better. After all, her parents would be back in a few hours, so she just had to go in, blow up whatever this thing even was, and then get out; that was the easy part. The hard part would be disguising themselves, but the Imperium was weak. At least that's what the TV, the news, and the teachers said. And, it's not like they could just sneak some large force off the coast of Alaska, right? She'd turn around and stand up.

Charlotte: "Hey. You!"

She says, shaking her "pet," Slvye, that it's around 10:00 AM in Greenland.

"Wake your sleepy head up. I've got to go somewhere, and I'm not leaving without you, you know."

The slyveon begrudgingly wakes up, annoyed that its sleep was interrupted over whatever this is supposed to be.

"We have to stop the Imperium or something today. Slvyee, something about a mind-control device or something like that. It should be easy. In the immortal words of that one Polish guy I learned about in history but forgot about, 'Apollonians are a rotten and decaying structure; all we have to do is go in and kick in the door, and the whole thing will come crumbling down.' Wait. They lost, didn't they? Ehhh, who am I kidding? You wouldn't know that!"

Charlotte runs off with Slyve and looks in their parents' room, then the living room and kitchen. Nobody. There again.

"Already gone? and no school today. perfect. I can get this over within an hour and come back in time for lunch! I mean. Like, let's be real. Those Cosmocracy Larpers can't stop me. Right, Slyve? Actually... Maybe I should get some help. Were though... I can't ask Margret. It's supposed to be secret. I can't ask Conner either. Hm... I can't tell my friends. Ugh. I'm sure I'll get back up. Let's go, Slyve."

She snaps her fingers, and just like that, over the almost frozen Bering Strait, floating just above the water, she'll look around. But it was a heavy blizzard; she was right above the location, though. Suddenly, a bright light would shine on her, so she would quickly teleport again underwater. She'd look down, confused. This thing was facing upside down. It seems they already had submarines and soldiers in scuba masks down here as well. How'd they even get all of this here? Columbia was a superpower after all. This isn't normal. not at all. Deciding that swimming would get her caught, she decides to teleport into the hall of the ship. Swimming through, they'd reach the lobby. She'd find it funny that this ship had once been hosting some important cruise or something. World leaders and everything, telling by the Old Goldminer, Zarbikan, Apollonian, English, Borsian, flags, and even tracks made by some sort of robot, like the legendary "Gonk" that she heard so much about. She noticed, though, that all the tables in here had been knocked over and the intact windows somehow had bullet holes riddled through every single one. There were bullet holes in the wall and spent cases of ammunition used back in the 2100s all around, even an R91. She wanted to take it. After all, she was a gun nut like her father, but it was too rusted to even be worth it. Besides, she had a mission. and staring at rusted guns, wasn't it?

She continued to swim through the halls, going through every room. For some strange reason, there were more flags, each indicating a different room for different leaders, although,...although "Prince Jake," "Prince Shaun," and "Princess Emily," whoever those people were, she guessed older royals. Besides Shaun, they had their own rooms that were labeled as such. Some Imperium Scuba troopers would come rushing down the hallways; they had seen her. She quickly forced the door open for "Shaun's" room and entered; everything in there had basically dissolved. There was a rusted-out metal bat, though. Picking up the bat and bolting out of the room, she would quickly use her "telekinesis" to confuse them by making them hear things in their heads that weren't even there, before beating them repeatedly with the bat until they were dealt with. She then searched all of the other rooms before going deeper. If she remembered right, the information Shaun sent her said it should be in the ship's reactor room.

Going in there, she would find it swarming with Imperium soldiers. She simply decides to cause the reactor to turn back on with her mind, which immediately fries all of them as the sudden activation of a nuclear reactor causes it to begin emitting extremely powerful beams of electrons, except one, who flees with something. Charlotte would then rush into the room, but it was too late. The mind-control device was gone. She thought that maybe the reactor had destroyed it and decided to just go back and report that it was destroyed.

_{New Northbridge (Ottawa), Kanadia Province, (Canada)}

The familiar sound of a virtbird's landing phase, a loud boom followed by the sound of smoke smacking the ground, would envelop the professor, rather secretly. The capital of the Imperium Forces on Ryuten had been moved from City 25, what would be known as "Hyperbad," to New Northbridge. The boys of the construction team had gotten to work. A massive towering complex shaped like a pyramid would have replaced much of the city center and the location of government offices. Monuments to the Greatness of Humanity replaced practically every statue in the city, the familiar sights of vans with red crosses driving around the city and executing those not deemed "pure enough" to live within the Imperium's latest conquest. The professor was impressed; the efficiency of the cleanup here was going fine. He had hoped soon that Kanadia would become a bastion of humanity, just like India had been made into. He would salute the men, who would quickly drive off again. The situation would be obvious and made clear, with cameras on every inch of walkway and even people walking around with tracking devices that could be clearly seen. There was not a second gone by when you weren't being watched here. The smell of the city was a familiar and calming one, suit and ash mixed with the thick air, perfect, just like home, the professor thought, and very shortly, the Americans would be joining them as well.

He walked towards the giant pyramid and walked inside, greeted the office workers before taking it all the way to the 1,000th floor. Typically, the Imperium built at least 1,000 floors for each of its major complexes, mostly for urban warfare reasons. The elevator would rather slowly whisk him away, arriving at the top of this structure. He would walk into the bright meeting room from here everywhere, and he knew everywhere could be seen and monitored from above. The Kanadian Overseer would greet them.

Overseer: "You had a message that needed to be relayed to the council, Professor Mike? I assume it's about Project 'Strait.' No?"

Professor Mike: "Why yes, of course. Of course, I have come to talk about the project. What else would I have come for? Mr. Overseer."

The Overseer nods. He knew the professor was a bit full of himself, but he was the favored one by the council and the one who did most of the dirty work on the experimentation with the xenos, so it came with the job. He assumed that the Overseer was also under no illusion that if he didn't listen to his ravings, he wouldn't be shot, or worse, sent to be tested by this creature.

Professor Mike: "The project is complete. We have obtained it, the Neural Control and Conformity Device, although we had some issues. We lost 20 soldiers, 18 to a reactor incident, and 2 to an unknown intruder that had entered. We doubt, however, that it was either the Alaskan military or Columbians. They are too busy celebrating their victory over the Untecans to care about our infiltration, it seems. Pathetic. Victory has made Columbia complacent, it seems. But anyway, with the NCCD, we can now expand our operations to Columbia. It's actually pretty simple. I'm surprised the Columbians even had this back in the day. It works through a system of biocompatible nanoparticles that can infiltrate and hijack the brain. We have already tested the device on some American P.O.Ws. It works as expected and as planned. We can begin deploying these to Columbia within the next month or so. In fact, we already have a test target. Prince Connor. The Youngest Son of the Current Regent of that degenerate hell hole. It will be a good way to listen in. And besides, we can make them dormant until we actually need them as well, and they won't even know the wiser."

Overseer: "Very good! The council will love this news, and I assure you they will. Truly brilliant. Another victory for our great state over the inferiors. Professor Mike, by the way. A room has been prepared for you in the complex; it acts as a laboratory and a bedroom. You will be put in charge of administering America very shortly, assuming our victory comes soon. You will-"

Professor Mike: "Give the council my thanks. I assume I will be based in Washington, D.C., or whatever those 'people' call their little Nova Wooloo Rip Off. Yes? once the time comes."

Overseer: "No. Denver actually. Anyway, you can be on your way now. I assume you have preparations to make."

The Professor would walk out of the room and towards his place of residence. he knew one thing. there was indeed something to prepare for. The IA's Demise grew ever closer, after all. The Imperium is a force that cannot be stopped...

_{Columbian Royal Palace, Misssouri}

Prince Connor would be watching TV with his older brother, Prince Juno and cousin, Princess Margret

"The first "Venture" ship will be launched to the NGC-300 Galaxy, also known as the Athena Galaxy within the coming months. This comes after almost 3 years of scouting by both the Dylan and Lucia Administrations of the Galaxy. the 50 trillion dollar program has been one of the primary focuses of the Lucia Administration. In other news, Neomia has announced her intent to run for Governor for the California Commonwealth-"

Prince Juno: "Huh? I guess that's going to be during the legislative elections. I don't know how she won a seat in the Imperial Senate, to be honest. never struck me as the most politically minded person. Eh. anyway."

Princess Margret: "I think she did fine as a senator. Shame though. that means poor Lucia is going to loose one of there most avid supporters in Congress."

Prince Juno: "Eh. not a big loss. Neomia was an interventionist anyway. when we clearly need to actually just focus on our own issues at home. Dylan was right to be honest. America isn't our problem. no matter how anyone tries to put it. our biggest issue is the Cosmocracy."

Connor sneaks off as Margret and Juno continue their little debate. annoyed with their politics. eventually, Margret and Juno would leave too. Juno would go to take a smoke outside as was becoming common in Columbia with Cyberlife's newest "safe" cigarettes, meanwhile connor heads to bed. meanwhile the palace security system for some reason in the middle of the night just shuts off. Princess Marcia walks into connor's room, throws a can in and then shuts the door, the palace security system turns back on after she enters her room.