The people in the vehicle were suddenly woke up by the bouncing of the car rolling over speed bumps and the warm sun shining onto their uniforms.
Outside the window they could see large gates with a massive array of cameras detailing every angle of the property.
Ahead were more speed bumps and a check stations where there were also multiple armed guards along side a reflective building checking the inhabitants of every vehicle entering the property.
“Are we here already?” Jack said groggily rubbing his eyes as he inspected the property in full detail.
“Yup we are here we still have about fifteen minutes before we get to the check in station where your wife is waiting along side Captain Aria.” The driver replied.
So she is with the captain eh?
What ever happened to Knight…
uhh what’s his name?” Jack asked as he noticed the pawns that were stationed on their route had moved to the third row of the number while a couple had taken refuge in the trunk area and the girls were in the front where knight Prio had originally been sitting.
“Knight Prio, he’s fine apparently he ran into a couple of hiccups but he should have been treated by arguable one of our top healers so after some rest he should be back up and running.” The driver replied.
“What!?
He had to see a healer, he must have been in a tough situation!
Wait how come the other two that stayed with us don’t have any titles like knight, rook or bishop, are they pawns?
And you…
I don’t think we’ve heard your name yet?” Jack began as his mind was fresh and all his curiosity was always insatiable when it came to the world around him.
At this same time it was their turn to pull through the gate to be checked, but to jacks surprise and everyone in the car aside from the pawns they were directly waved through the gate before the guards began to form what looked like a line preventing anyone else from entering the base for the time being.
“Why’d they do that?” Jack asked as he watched the scene he couldn’t help but to feel like a very important figure seeing so much ceremony as they entered a military base.
“Yes they’re pawns they haven’t received their king’s plan yet, so it’s basically still a a part of their training.
As for me, I just make sure our teams get from point a, and b.
As for my rank within the FBSA it’s a little complicated but everyone just calls me Ace, just a heads up for those in the queen position if their a guy they usually prefer to be called Ace before their code name instead of queen.
But I’m kind of in the middle of arguing my case to the kings as to why I should become a bishop.” Ace said as he navigated the military base streets going deep into the back of the base.
“Woah..
so you’re really good in combat to be an Ace right?
Doesn’t that mean you could have fought those things way better than the pawns that are with us?” Jack said imagining the driver fighting far more effortlessly against the spirits they had faces.
“I’m good in combat in the sense of if my enemy doesn’t finish me off fast enough most of the time I’m guaranteed to win.” Ace said as he smugly smiled to himself as previous memories of his past bouts wins and losses began to replay in his mind.
Hearing this Jack was speechless, right he could only thing his ultimate dream as a child was coming true right before his eyes, it felt far more dangerous than he had imagined but he could practically feel his blood boiling.
Unconsciously he had began to move his internal energy far more vigorously than ever, as his body began to vibrate with untold excitement.
Sending ever so slight vibrations into the truck around him also causing the other people in the vehicles internal energy to become amplified and more excited.
‘That’s a unique ability, I don’t think there are many other people in the FBSA with the ability to use their energy to amplify the energy of others in their surroundings.’ Ace thought to himself as he noticed the change in jacks internal rhythm before feeling invigorated.
After driving through the base past the living areas, and beyond the small shopping strip after a while they came to a dirt road in a densely wooded area.
They traveled down the dirt road for a couple of minutes before turning off into the woods near a dead tree stump.
Ace pulled the humvee up until the front bumper was directly over the tree stump before pressing a button hidden under the dashboard.
When he pressed the button the car began to be lowered down underground as if it were on an elevator.
They continued downward slowly for a few seconds until they could see what looked like a smaller base underground.
There were entire buildings, and people walking from place to place, this underground base looked even more lively than the one above ground.
They could also see that they were being lowered into what looked like a massive parking lot where military grade vehicles were lined up in what looked like hundreds.
“Welcome to the FBSA base of operations.
Most fresh pawns aren’t brought to this base, there are facilities above ground that we use to intake our new members, but our special case recruit pawns are usually brought through here first depending on why they were recruited.
According to the information I recieved, you 3 alongside your wife have been requested to meet with the King’s Counsel, that’s about as far as they would tell me so I’m going to guide you guys to the reception area from here and the Captain will take you to the council.” Ace said as the humvee came into contact with the dirt parking lot below.
Once the humvee touched the ground the pawns in the humvee came alive from their aimless looks out of the window.
“Finally, I can go get in bed!” Fog said with a large sigh as he dissipated himself seeping out of the cracks in the car before reforming outside of the vehicle and beginning to walk towards one of the buildings.
At the same time Las and the other girl hopped out of the vehicle as well before stretching and limbering up and walking together in the opposite direction of Fog.
Seeing this, Jason, Ethan and Jack opened the doors also climbing out alongside Ace, and the other pawns also got out of the humvee stretching and getting their blood pumping.
After gathering their belongings they began to follow closely behind Ace.
Now that they were on the ground looking at the underground base closer and in person it looked even bigger than they had initially thoughts some buildings were up to 4 stories high while their length and width was also noting to scoff at.
It was a true underground city in their eyes.
The building resembled short high rises with large glass windows, and surprisingly the lighting in this underground city felt even more natural in person despite there not being a single light pole in sight.
Looking up they could see the entire ceiling of the underground city was composed of a reflective material that reflected a single soft blue light across the entire underground expanse.
Trees and grass had even been planted alongside the pavement roads leading from building to building giving the underground base an extremely natural and peaceful ambiance.
The roads were wide but there were no vehicles being used by anyone, most people walked some could be seen jogging in exorcise gear while others could be seen lounging in cafe areas or sitting areas.
Ace led them through the cityscape bending corners passing building after building until they arrived at one that was built through the ground above with a dome like structure placed around where it met the ceiling of the underground city making the building look like it was encapsulated within another cave.
“This is what we like to call the reception area, also known as the Admin building where we handle our most official matters.” Ace said as they walked up to the building.
Once they entered they could tell the technology they were using here was much more advanced than the technology they knew of publicly as they could see screens of light rejected as holograms with information posted, and many automated food stations.
There wasn’t much foot traffic in here aside from the two people they could see sitting in a waiting area near on of the food stations and the few people they could see walking around.
After the got a bit closer to the two seated people they could clearly recognize them.
“Anna!
I’m so glad you’re okay, did you have to face any of those spirit things?
Are you okay?” Jack said as he rushed over to his wife making sure she hadn’t been hurt by anyone or anything.
“I’m fine honey, I heard you and the boys had a pretty rough journey, are you okay?” Anna said as she embraced her husband and began to look for Ethan and Jason.
“We are fine mom no need to worry, but I’m still tired honestly when do we get to sit still and take a break again?” Ethan said as he let out a yawn and began stretching.
“I’m glad you all could make it, thank you Ace for bringing them in.
I’ll take it from here.” Captain Aria said as she smiled and exchanged waves with Ace who nodded and waved before turning to leave himself.
“I know you guys have just went through a lot, but we just want to meet with you all so we can try to create some mutually agreeable plan before we send you into any form of formal training within our organization.” Captain Aria said directing her attention to the 4 people still with her.
“Sounds good to me, you guys won’t be expecting some sort of immediate response will you?” Anna said, seeing how sluggish the two boys were, and not trusting Jack to stay on topic talking about anything if his curiosity was piqued.
“No we just want to give you all information and create some agreeable terms for us to further our relationship in the future.
I also think it would be wise if you update these gentlemen about the current world situation, you can let me know when you all are ready to go to the kings council if needed we can postpone it to tomorrow morning and I will show you where our underground dormitories are set up.” Captain Aria said before returning to her seat and pulling out her phone allowing the family to get caught up.