"Thank you for taking care of it all quickly, Sir."
Harrison massaged his temples as he thanked the sudden intruder, Arken. Arken, infuriated with the security of the city, had barged in here unannounced.
He quite literally snuck into the man's private office without alerting any security systems, just to nag at a man who was enjoying some coffee. Harrison, understandably, had gotten alarmed and was about to blow his entire office up had he not realized who it was.
It happened all so quick, yet Harrison couldn't say he was innocent. Not only could he not rebuke a hero of humanity, an elderly person, for barging into his office , but he had to admit he was right.
He should have been more strict with security, especially during these times.
"What would you like to drink? Any beverage you fancy?"
"Forget that, Why don't you have a single couch here? Does no one come here to sit?"
"It's a private office, the only things that come here are my passion projects."
'What the fuck does he mean by passion projects?'
Arken couldn't get his head around it. What the hell could the man mean by passion projects, and how they were the only ones that came here? What in the world could he mean by that?
Were they his children? They were a project of passion, but it was strange for one to call them that. Arken had forgotten about how Harrison only had a single child, one he loved dearly.
Despite not having much time to tend to her these days.
A second later, his doubts were removed as one of the 'passion projects' entered the office, a humanoid robot frantically rushing over to him with a red light shining from its body.
"Emergency! Emergency! Sectors 1, 3, 8, and 7 received unk-"
"It's been taken care of, bring us some wine, would you?"
To Arken's bewilderment, the light emitted from the robot turned green, then blue as it silently went outside and reappeared a couple seconds later holding a tray filled with wine bottles and drinking glasses.
Harrison raised his finger, and the section of the floor beneath Arken opened up, and a couch propped up, just for him.
"Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused, and am thankful for your service."
His desk, filled with mountains of paperwork, disappeared into the ground. Arken... was amazed. Why didn't Oliver think of such an impressive setup? He had to make sure it was in Oliver's office as well.
Harrison poured him a glass of wine, and sat down opposite to him, placing the tray on a table that appeared out of the ground as well.
"You really need to upgrade your security."
Arken warned, as he enjoyed his cup of wine. If he had his way, he would have drunk straight from the bottle, but a man had to keep his dignity in some places.
It had some worth, even to a man like him.
Harrison poured himself a glass as well, before answering.
"Yes, I'll get to it, I was expecting this, but it was too soon."
"Yes, standard tactics to make the people afraid and lose morale. It would have an even greater effect if it happened in the city directly under the association. It would have resulted in more humans being tempted into becoming demonic humans, and public order would be a mess. Thankfully, you prevented that."
Arken remained silent, enjoying his beverage before asking.
"Are things that bad?"
Harrison was quick with the response.
"Not necessarily that bad, we have... time. If my predictions are correct. Though the demons
are mobilizing their armies, it would take them at least a year and some more to begin."
"What of our response? Please tell me we aren't just waiting for it to happen?"
Harrison chuckled, taking a rather large sip.
"You can rest assured. We are also doing our own preparations. We are also ready for attack, And for defense as well. We don't want another Japan incident."
Arken affirmed, a big mistake humanity had made last time was that they were lax with their overall defense. It was how Japan was destroyed. Suitable measures were being taken in order to prevent that, now.
"What exactly are these measures, though?"
Still, Arken wasn't satisfied with just knowing they were being prepared, he wanted to know what exactly Harrison had in store to combat any surprise attacks.
"Mostly, it's upgrades for the previous defense systems already in place, fairly large upgrades..."
"That can't possibly be eno-"
"... We are also going to installing portals in every capital city in the world. For a quick response, expensive, but effective."
'Portals? Alan is away right now, though. Ah...'
Suddenly, Arken remembered the existence of another youth who had also awakened the element of space. He had heard about the youth from Oliver.
'Now... what was his name? Barry? Larry?'
"Gary is on a mission in Gigantia right now, to establish a branch of the association there. That particular project should be finished in a week. We can move on to the project I just discussed after."
That was the brat's name! Arken really was terrible with names... then again, wasn't he forgetting something else too? He had a feeling he was.
'Argh, probably nothing important...'
He argued in his mind, and continued enjoying the wine. While he had a lot more questions, he judged it would be best to leave quickly. Harrison already looked exhausted, and Arken knew that every second he was here, more work was piling up for the man to do.
Therefore, he was about to leave as soon as he finished. But it seemed that Harrison had other plans. He patiently waited for Arken to finish and made a request.
"While it may be sudden, May I please see the monsters you dispatched? Your student had done quite a number on the one's he encountered... I'm sure you weren't the same."
Arken nodded, and looked around the room, trying to find a suitable place to take the
monster's out of his storage. He didn't want to ruin the carpet, after all.
"You can just drop them on the floor."