While the instruments recorded activity, all of them were now quiet... eerily quiet. Almost as though nothing had happened. Jun, Shelly and the captain were looking all over the instruments and yet nothing else was happening.

"Could it have just been an isolated incident?" The captain asked Shelly.

"A rocking that hard doesn’t just happen and then stop. Either it goes on for a while and then you get aftershocks, or it doesn’t go on for a while and you still get aftershocks. And even if you can’t be feeling them, the monitors should be showing some low rumbling but right now... nothing. If this was any other time, I would say we should be expecting a bit more rumbling. But based on the data... it doesn’t look like it will happen," Shelly replied, watching monitors while typing on the computer in front of her.

The captain then turned to Jun.

"Everything is working alright?"

"Of course. There isn’t a single issue with any of the equipment. Not a sign, signal or blip that would tell me otherwise. Besides, we felt it. All of us. So unless we imagined it, it happened," Jun said, sitting at her own desk and reading over the gathered reports of all of the equipment.

Even when Saanvi got to her station and checked out the weather, there was nothing that could have possible have happened to have caused that kind of reaction, at least not weatherwise.

Considering their jobs was to track stuff like this, they all did what they had to do, made what notes they had to make and recorded the data for that moment. And then after that, nothing. Everything was back to normal specs so although it was strange, it was a passing moment and they all went back to doing their normal jobs after words.

A couple days passed with nothing of note happening. Saanvi avoided Laz and he didn’t try to get closer to her either. He spent his days reading and meditating. After everything that had happened in the gate, he hadn’t had much peaceful time to himself, so this time, now that he had it, he used to digest the information and memories he had gained about his people’s history. On that desert plant, for example, many Asura had used lots of different abilities that he used his memory to study. As he was now a late stage god, his mind was enough to play the battles back, frame by frame in his mind without missing a single detail. There was also time he spent studying the weapons that shifted energy into elemental powers. It was an amazing invention that Laz had no idea how it was made.

While Laz was basking in his free time to expand his mind, the others were more in the moment and seemed to be souring on the captain somewhat as Laz, keeping to his room, hardly visited the others or even joined them for meals. Considering they all saw the captain’s attitude towards Laz, they would all silently or within whispers to one another, blame the captain for Laz shutting himself in his room.

Jun and Shelly were talking about it one day while they worked out in the gym with Saanvi who had started spending more time shadow boxing and less time on weights which was because only with the bars fully loaded did it give her any challenge. And she couldn’t exactly do that with a crowd watching her. So instead, she would replay the fight with Laz in her mind and react as though she was again fighting him.

"I mean, I know that the boy is a new and unexpected element, but I don’t think that the captain should have just went right after him just cause Saanvi wasn’t in bed one night," Shelly said while stretching.

"I agree," Jun said as she was running.

"And now the boy seems insistent on staying out of the way but it’s... I don’t know. It’s to a not normal state, ye get me?"

"Yes."

"And it’s not like the captain is an idiot. He must see what he did..."

"Probably."

"But that was probably what he wanted anyway. Told the boy he can’t be wandering around none, not like there is much to do around here anyway, but he can’t be just sitting alone all day in the dark. It ain’t healthy for him."

"I agree."

"What do you think Saanvi?" Shelly said, turning to the sweating woman who was now standing still.

Saanvi didn’t hear her at first as she was still absorbed in a replay.

"SAANVI!" Shelly yelled, getting her attention. Saanvi opened her eyes and smiled at Shelly to show she was listening.

"Aye ye girl. Enough with that smile... you’re making me all hot and bothered. I have no idea what happened to you when you got sick, but there is something there that wasn’t there before..."

"I have no idea what you’re talking about Shell. Now what did you need?"

"What do you think about that boy staying locked up in his room all day after that incident with the captain?" Shelly asked.

"Mmm... It’s probably for the best, isn’t it? He’s a dangerous man and can’t be allowed among us mortals. Who knows what might happen?" Saanvi said with a smile that showed she was obviously thinking something else. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Girl... If you keep giving me that smile, I’ll be following you into that shower..."

"I’ve never once said you’re not invited..." Saanvi shot back before returning to her shadow boxing, leaving a bewitched Shelly and Jun staring after her.

"I need a cold shower..." Shelly said after a moment of watching Saanvi’s sweaty body moving as she returned to the fight only she could see.

"Same..." Jun agreed as they both left.

"Let’s say we shower then go knock on that boys door. Maybe we can talk to him about getting out of there for a bit?" Shelly said to Jun.

"Why?" Jun questioned.

"I guess I’m just feeling bad for him. Least we can do is try to smooth things over. Don’t need nothing getting more stirred over the next few months, do we? Don’t need no weird feelings making everyone awkward."

"Alright," Jun eventually agreed.

...

"I’ve got a signal... Holy... Ok. Let’s see what I can do," the captain said, talking to himself. Considering the weather outside, the chances of getting a signal out were less than none and yet somehow, the captain had gotten reception. It wasn’t a lot, just a signal strong enough to send out an email, but it was something.

His primary contact was with a rather popular commander at the U.N. one that seemed to have control over many things, all over the world, even when it wasn’t something in his jurisdiction.

Commander-

I don’t have time to explain. The shorter the message, the more likely it is to go out with this storm interference. I need all the information you can provide for me on one Lazarus Crowe, should be a US citizen born somewhere in New York.

Captain James Blunt

And that was it, that was all he sent. He knew from many previous attempts that the smaller the message, easier it was to send. While he didn’t want to waste words explaining that to the commander, he knew that the commander would think he was being rude or not remembering his place if he didn’t at least explain a little bit.

The commander, for his part, received the message a day later when his secretary brought it to him.

"What is that idiot doing worrying about some random person? He was suppose to be using his time to scout that dense and forbidden desert to look for new and hidden gates and instead he’s asking about some random person? Almost makes me regret putting my stamp of approval on his request form for this assignment. Well, doesn’t matter now since he’s stuck with it for the next several months anyway. Did you try to find this person he was asking about?" The commander asked his shapely secretary.

"Of course sir. Here is the report," she said with wink and handed it to him. The commander shook his head, knowing she was trying to seduce him but also knowing that something like that in international relations would screw over his political career. So while he was tempted, she was a look but don’t touch type of woman.

"Thank you. Let’s see....Holy fuck.... Is this... accurate?" The man said after scanning the page and turning back to the woman.

"It is. I had it double checked and although there are a few persons matching the name, the only one to have been born in or found in new york is the one right here sir," the beauty said, her accent making everything she spoke contain a hidden charm.

The commander looked back on the file and read it, closely and slowly.

"How... how did someone like this end up in at a research base in Antarctica? We need to send a suppression and security team down there, asap. If we can capture this bastard, not only will it humiliate the American forces that failed to take him down, but they will then owe us as well."

"Of course sir. But there is a problem. I guessed that you would want to take action so before coming in here, I contacted joint command. There are several problems with sending a team however. The first problem is there here is no way to even get anyone there in the winter months as the snowfall and storms make any sort of travel impossible."

"How convenient. And what are the other problems?"

"Well, the other biggest problem is despite your lack of... love, towards the Americans, they do currently have the only usable teams with the training and firepower to handle such a target. Any other team that might be sent, even from our other allies... would most likely fail to contain the threat," the woman said, handing the commander another document which he read before crumpling it up and throw it across the room.

"So in the end, those yanks have to take care of their own problem," the man said with a scowl.

"Look at it this way sir. You are providing the information to help them clean up their own mess. While it fails to show our superiority, it does highlight the failings of the Americans in the first place, does it not?" The woman said with a sly smile.

"You do have a point there. Alright, email him back and let him know of the danger, but make sure that bastard knows to sit tight. I don’t know how that kid got there, but he’d better still be there when the team comes to capture him. If that captain somehow tips the boy off and he escapes, I’ll have his head myself. Since the kid has shown no danger to normal folks, they should be at little risk. In the meantime, remind our dear captain that he had better get a move on the job we put his ass there for otherwise next time he’ll be assigned a cold hell scape where the only company he’ll have is a mirror and his own hands." While the location wasn’t a destination people enjoyed, the promise of promotion after the job was a guarantee. If the captain didn’t want to lose that chance, he would do as ordered.

When captain Blunt received the return message several days later, he could feel the cold sweat on his back.

"This boy they picked up was a killer wanted by the US government," he thought to himself.

"I need to tell the others..." he said, hiding the printout before deleting the conversation, just as he had been asked to do.