Chapter 45 – Masterclass

Quest didn’t waste any time as Harlan stepped off the elevator.

“Excellent, we’re all here. I’d like to thank you all for convening on such short notice. This wasn’t one that could wait.” He looked around at the small group of Doom Society members with a forced smile. “We’ve had some troubling developments at the academy, and I wanted to brief all of you before we decide on next steps.”

Harlan had barely taken two steps into the Sky Lounge before Quest gestured for people to take their seats. He looked around in confusion, seeing a handful of the regular members. When his eyes landed on Sal and Divinity, they brightened considerably. Neuro sat in one of the high-backed armchairs and waved for Harlan to sit on the couch opposite him.

“We’ve taken precautions and invited a select group this time. I hope you’ll understand,” Neuro said as Harlan took his seat.

Alastair sat on one end of the couch, with his right arm propped on its rest, holding a glass of whiskey. “Okay, Harlan’s here. Can you tell us what all of this is about?” From his gruff tone, he wasn’t too pleased at the emergency summoning, but based on his expression, there was a hint of anxiety there too.

Sal looked around and saw confusion and apprehension. Maybe they were just feeding off Quest’s nervous vibes. Scry sat in one corner with Liam and Dawn, while Harlan, Alastair, and Neuro took over the plush seats. From the student body, Sakura was present from the third-years, while Sal, Barry, and Divinity stood off to the side with her. Erika stood by herself along one of the walls, watching everyone carefully.

Quest sighed as he gestured toward Neuro, but the telepath shook his head and gave the headmaster a pointed look. Quest grimaced and clapped to get everyone’s attention.

“The Bastion have infiltrated the academy.”

With just six words, the entire room fell into chaos. Alastair choked on his whiskey and sat up abruptly with a cough. Harlan had just started to sit on the couch when he bolted back up to his feet. Liam and Dawn gaped at Quest, while Scry looked over at Divinity for context. Neuro, on the other hand, remained in his seat and swirled the whiskey in his glass, as though lost in thought.

“And worst of all, I was compromised,” Quest added as he paced toward the bar area. He didn’t even need to look as he reached over the counter to pick up a glass tumbler.

Sal wondered how often he did that to have it as a reflex.

“Neuro and Erika have interviewed one of their spies, and we’ve learned that the Bastion has been staging a smear campaign against us. They’ve been indoctrinating our Controller and Healer classes, with potentially up to a hundred students being swayed by the end of next year.”

Alastair stormed to his feet, his face red with anger. “Those are my students you’re talking about, Quest. I won’t stand here and have them accused so blatantly of espionage!”

Before Quest could say a word in response, Neuro clicked his fingers. “Erika, show him.”

Sal couldn’t tell what was happening, but Alastair was rooted on the spot as the glass fell from his hand. It thudded onto the floor and rolled aside, staining the detailed rug with whiskey. Alastair groaned as he reached for his eyes, but it seemed like he was clawing at the space in front of them. Sal switched his attention to Erika and saw that she was using her power.

Out of curiosity, Sal inspected her weave and was surprised to see how complex it was. It was an entire labyrinth of weaving circuitry with beads of light coursing through them. Sal was about to deactivate his ability when he noticed that her weaves were separate. There were two separate weaves operating at the same time. Did Erika have two abilities? He hadn’t seen anything like it before, and wanted to investigate further when Alastair’s growl brought him back to reality.

“Don’t fucking put shit in my head without asking.”

Alastair’s fists were clenched, and Sal felt incredibly uncomfortable in his presence. He had laughed and joked with this man in the past, and now he was seeing a completely different side to him. Alastair blinked a few times before letting out a deep breath. He stood there for a moment before bending down to pick up the glass.

“Wester Templeton,” he muttered almost to himself as he sat down on the edge of the couch. His hands rotated the empty glass before he looked up at Neuro.

“I was here when Barry Francis put illusions in visions, so I know the mind can be tricked. The question is why would you go to such lengths to convince me that the Controllers are corrupt, and why would you bring everyone here if this was just an intervention for me?” Alastair placed the glass down on the table. “Which leads me to believe that you’re not here to sway me, but to find out more about the Controllers in my class? How am I to know if I’m digging their graves by speaking to you?”

Alastair continued to sit in silence after that statement. Harlan was about to speak when Neuro raised a hand to quiet him. Alastair shook his head as he looked at the glass, muttering under his breath.

“The real question is why I’m defending him despite the evidence of his testimony. Which makes me believe that he’s already swayed me. But what lie is the foundation?”

Sal blinked in surprise. Alastair, without any sort of prompting or guidance, had figured out what was happening. Sal turned to Divinity, who smiled in Alastair’s direction.

The Tactics lecturer muttered for a few more moments before he laughed to himself. With a wry smile, he reclined back into his seat.

“I’ve had to question a dozen layers of lies. That little bastard really went all out.” With a glance at Neuro, Alastair tapped the side of his head. “Can you dig into any repressed memories I have of conversations with him? You can use the reference point of my office and I’ll guide you.”

Quest stepped forward with a filled glass and placed it in front of Alastair.

“While they’re going through that, I’ll speak candidly with the rest of you.” Quest gripped the back of Neuro’s chair and grimaced.

“Miss Khan and Mr. Argento here were the ones who apprehended Mr. Templeton. Without them, we would be none the wiser to what has been going on under our noses. Wester Templeton is from a Bastion sympathizer family and was indoctrinated before he arrived at the academy. He’s been feeding his family information on students, including Mr. Argento’s abilities as Skill Master and Mythcrafter. They’ve approached Mr. Francis as a recruitment target and listed him as a high-priority candidate. We know they have already managed to sway dozens of students in the Controller and Healer classes, by using misinformation about our practices. Some of the lies are about us suppressing skill development and locking students out of their full potential when we register them.”

Harlan whistled as he looked at Quest. “Smart move. Every student needs to be registered, so it’s a shared experience. Seeing the development of others with higher potential will ultimately result in an inferiority complex. If someone were to tell you that it was rigged from the start, then it’s suddenly a compelling reason to rebel. I’m going to guess the Bastion have told students they have a way to amplify their abilities?”

Sal looked over at Harlan in surprise. It was exactly what Divinity had predicted in her visions. Barry and Divinity had run a series of simulations of him getting recruited by the Bastion Controllers, and although the information was limited, they were able to determine the selling points the Controllers used for joining the Bastion.

Unfortunately, in nearly all those simulations, Barry was eventually found out to be a double agent, but there was no way to find out how they knew. Each scenario ended with Barry’s death, framed as an accident. Sal wondered whether Divinity’s first visions of Barry, where he never revealed his powers, kept him off the Bastion’s radar.

Now that they knew he could control illusions, most of Divinity’s visions had resulted in Barry dying to a demon during a dungeon raid or on the floor of a tower. Most troubling of all was how nonchalant Barry had been with those outcomes. He simply told them that dungeons and towers were far into the future, so there was plenty of time to alter the course of fate.

Quest cleared his throat and looked in Harlan’s direction. “Correct. Their misinformation is designed to infuriate the disenfranchised and to make their recruitment that much easier. When I was compromised, they siphoned off Q-Cred that they’ve been using to purchase loyalty in those who don’t care about ability-related power. Many of the students we know to be in the Bastion’s sway are living it up in luxury dorms and spreading their influence and wealth to others. It would be easy for a student to look at that luxury lifestyle and assume the second-year Controllers are competent and worthy of following. We’ve determined that we cannot alert them to our knowledge of their plans, and will instead monitor and keep an eye on them.

“Miss Khan has been kind enough to lend her ability, allowing us to see multiple outcomes into the future. The worst-case scenario ends in fatalities of students who were not fully indoctrinated. From what the visions have shown us, the Controllers will dispose of anyone they suspect as the leak. Each death is ruled to be a victim of circumstance rather than murder, with students being lured into dungeons and not returning.”

With a sympathetic look in Barry’s direction, Quest continued. “Mr. Francis has offered to be a spy in their group to find out more about them and their operations. He’s run through a series of simulations with Divinity, and the results have not been good. I am against this proposal and would like to extend the issue to the rest of you. Do you have any suggestions on how we can best tackle this infestation of Bastion scum?”

Barry stepped forward with a smile. “You’re not really selling my proposal. I was suggesting that I get some training in Espionage and Subterfuge. Maybe a free Masterclass crash course that will equip me to take on the Controllers? I’m happy to throw myself into their midst if it helps us avoid catastrophe and gets me access to specialist training. Divinity’s visions of me dying are hard to contextualize, because there’s a high chance that she’s seeing an illusion I’ve created to fool them. I believe in my abilities, but I’m not egotistical enough to think I’m the best. That’s why I’m asking for additional training before going through with it.”

Sal couldn’t help but laugh at Barry’s reasoning, and he wasn’t alone.

Harlan clapped his hand on his knee with a chuckle. “An opportunist! I love it, but it doesn’t sit well with me that we’d have a student solving our problems. With all respect to Mr. Francis here, I’d elect that we find another solution to this problem that doesn’t endanger anyone and maximizes our ability to gain information. We could place Neuro in the back of the classroom, maybe with some cloaking equipment? He’d be able to discern who our problematic Controllers are with ease.”

Neuro blinked and turned to Harlan with a bemused expression. “You’d have me sit in on their classes and read their minds? I know we’re talking about fatalities and the potential destruction of Quest Academy, but if I’m honest, I’d prefer not to roam around in the minds of teenagers. It’s just fighting, sex, and demons. Nonstop.”

Erika shot her father a withering look from her place at the wall, but he didn’t notice as he shook his head at Harlan’s suggestion.

Neuro pointed at Alastair with a smile. “We likely don’t need to resort to such measures, as I think our Tactics lecturer has found a much easier way to get us some intel.”

As if roused by those words, Alastair clapped his face with both hands, creating a sound that made everyone flinch. The Tactics lecturer shook his head before picking up the glass of whiskey and downing it in one go. He got to his feet and tugged at the bottom of his vest before turning to Quest.

“I know where they convene for all their meetings, and listening in will be no issue.”

Everyone in the room gaped at Alastair, with the exception of Neuro and Erika, who smiled.

Alastair chuckled darkly. “The audacity of those little shits! What I thought was my tight-knit group of carefully selected kids with talent turned out to be a ruse. They’re all in my Masterclass. Discussing their plans right in front of me.”

Barry cleared his throat and drew the gaze of everyone in the room. He grinned as he pointed at himself. “So why don’t you invite me into your Masterclass?”