The Almighty Ring

“Fei, thank you very much, for what you have done today. As you can see, things had been hectic. I am sorry for not being able to tend to you. May I suggest that you stay here for a few days. Please allow us to repay your kindness. I do wish to extend my apologies to the Martial Artists Alliance for our wrongdoing,” said Yang Xiao. Their intent, although was not obvious, was to have Jiang Fei be in close proximity for a few days. The entire base was severely lacking in manpower. They were afraid that if the Androids returned, Jiang Fei would not be there to deal with them.

“Hmm. Might as well,” said Jiang Fei, agreeing nonchalantly. 0542 was offline for the time being and without its guidance, Jiang Fei would not be able to move forward. Isabella was not feeling at her best. Her weakened state was not suitable for any means of travel.

“Get Jiang Fei a room, please,” Yang Xiao ordered the service personnel.

All Level 5 and Level 4 Androids in the base were already taken care of. Those that remained were Androids with only core programming. When the rebellion was closed, they were still able to control them. Now, these Androids were just empty shells, slaves to their original programming.

At the current point, there were more humans than Androids in the base. A good number of them were completely oblivious to the Android rebellion since only the top brass were the ones being held against their will. These men were startled by the self-destruct sequence but once the danger was averted, they returned to their posts like all military men.

The base was not operating at an optimal level since the main generator was rendered inoperative. It took several hours before the engineers managed to get everything back to work.

Yang Xiao and the other top brass had learned their lesson. They had enough of playing with fire and issued a decree to stop all research and developments regarding the Supreme Android Project. All the remaining Androids in the base were decommissioned and were hastily replaced with humans. There was a plan. After everything was fixed, all Androids, even not operating ones would be destroyed. They, much like the Namekians, had learned their lesson. Once they had a taste of how the Androids rebelled, they would always be on the alert, never to repeat the same mistake again.

“Fei, I have something that I need to ask of you,” said Yang Xiao, when Jiang Fei, Ariel, and Isabella were resting in their room.

“What’s the matter?”

“We had a discussion and we had concluded that the threat of the Androids was still imminent. Even though their new leader was not interested in humans, as leaders of China, we cannot hope to live on the mercy of those machines and if we believe there’s a one percent chance that they pose a threat, we have to take it as an absolute certainty.”

“I’m not hearing a question,” said Jiang Fei with a straight face. Jiang Fei had never liked to deal with politicians. General Yang might not be one but his demeanor reeks of their kind—the kind which would twist and turn their words, beating around the bush.

“Alright. I’ll be frank-”

“You should have,” Jiang Fei interrupted.

“Fine. We would like you to contact the martial artists. We want to come clean and apologize for our past mistakes. Secondly, we would like to work together with them.”

Whether was it Yang Xiao or the other important high brass, they knew that Jiang Fei alone would not serve as a deterrent to Androids threats. They needed someone else to chip in as well. Jiang Fei might be playing along for now but what’s to say he would be there when the Androids return?

As Yang Xiao mentioned, they, the military, could not live off the mercy of the Android. They must have some form of counterattack to fight back! At least, for the moment, until they managed to rise back into power. Them asking for help right after they were rescued was the best move they could do.

“Fine. But I am only the middleman. How do you want to please the martial artist are your responsibility,” said Jiang Fei.

“That’s all I ask! Thank you!” cried Yang Xiao as he shook Jiang Fei’s hands. Jiang Fei willing to become the middleman between the military and the martial artists was a great help. The martial artists were renowned as a bunch of arrogant pricks. They might be strong but they were strong headed when it comes to their custom. Under no circumstances that they would be willing to even talk to someone outside of their circle, much less the military. Even if that someone was the president of China.

The arrogance of the alliance extended even further. For example, in a special circumstance where smaller sects had decided to serve the government in return for some benefits, the entire sect would be branded as martyrs. Their names will forever be remembered as betrayers of the art of Chinese martial arts. Such believes was rooted deep into the hearts of martial artists for thousands of generations.

That aside, Chinese martial artists were territorial. Their influence had forced out any other Metahumans in China. It all started since ancient times. As a result, there were no publicly known Metahumans besides martial artists in China that the government could seek help from. One could expect criminals to use their powers for evil but even if there were evil Metahumans in China, they would not surface to the public because of the martial artists.

To be fair, the damage inflicted on both the military and the martial artist alliance was severe. But out of the ashes, new things could be built. Thousands of years of tradition was finally broken down to make way for a new beginning. They did not consider working with the government as selling themselves out but only as a means to cooperate to survive.

The government wanted to take this chance to form a lasting cooperation, like how the Mutants were able to work together with their own government. Even if they wish to remain as a separate organization, both the government and the alliance would treat each other as neighbours and not as strangers sharing the same land.

When Yang Xiao had received Jiang Fei’s confirmation about delivering the message, he left, satisfied. Ariel and Isabella had their own room while Jiang Fei was living alone. With Ariel taking intensive care of Isabella, Jiang Fei was left alone to himself.

Thanks to the latest piece of the puzzle, Jiang Fei had managed to connect so many dots. He came close to understand what was happening to the world but there was still something, somewhere, missing.

“I should pay a visit to my old friend after Isabella had recovered,” said Jiang Fei to himself.

To work together with the Unknowns is unequivocally, trying to share a meal with a hungry tiger. Jiang Fei did not like the idea but Isabella might not last long. Not since Jiang Fei knew what would happen to her if the Core of Will was removed while not having enough Valium. Jiang Fei believed that the amount of Valium left in the bracelet would not last. Everytime she taps into the power of Berserk, the more she could consume Valium. It’s an exponential increase. 0542’s calculation was not accurate anymore. By Jiang Fei’s own rough estimation, he figured that Isabella would not last for more than a month with the current Valium left.

Jiang Fei was left with no choice in hand. He must work with the Unknowns. Healing Isabella was more important to him at the moment.

“Where’s 0541 when you really needed him!” Jiang Fei sighed. Back then, when 0541 was still around, Jiang Fei literally felt like he could do anything. 0541 had almost, always answer Jiang Fei’s demands, be it in a different way.

Ever since 0541 was sealed away and 0542 replaced it, everything it did felt as if no effort was put in. Jiang Fei had been hearing the phrase “Sorry, Captain. I am unable to do this… I am unable to do that…”. Jiang Fei was so sick of it that if 0542 was not the successor of 0541, he might have thought that 0542 was genuinely trying to sabotage him!