I really hated meetings like this. It had been four hours of catching up everyone who had been in the medical ward and I felt we hadn't gotten anywhere in terms of action. The "War Room", as we called it, was a dark concrete room about a quarter mile under our development with monitors and screens covering most of the walls. It really was your standard looking military-grade room that everyone saw in the movies, including the expensive holographic equipment that gets used in those sci-fi flicks. I might hate the meetings but it was a cool room.

There was about sixty lower ranking officers wrapped around the room. Our head boss, Commander General James Parcen, was seated at the table with ten upper-class officers including Ten, Johnny, and myself. In our division, there was an upper commander in charge of six lower commanders. This was how the chain of command worked and did not include the Privates that ranked as E-1 to E-3 that expanded out from us. Only way to move forward with a promotion is if an officer retired or died so, while it was rare, it was possible to be considered but many spent their career only reaching an E-3 ranking.

"We are still investigating the cause the explosion", the Commander General announced. "The issue we are having is that Head Investigators are looking the matter with Head of Development and are still unable to figure out a starting point. It seems like it was an inside job but did the person parish in the fire or is still at large? This is a huge dilemma as we aren't able to move forward if we do not have all the information. For now, we are on a strict military patrol. Each officer will take their unit and for shifts."

Brigadier General Bradley Ray Moore spoke up first, cutting the Commander General off. "How do we know it was a possible inside job?"

"The most information that was given to me from the investigation points to the possibility of it being an inside job because traces of chemicals were left behind at the starting point. After some review and analysis, Doctor Park Jinyoung confirmed that it was one of his concoctions that was in an experimental stage. The reason he isn't targeted as the culprit is because whoever used the mixture had no time to escape the flames so they would have perished within moments."

The Commander General shifted in his seat after his explanation. I had been in this division since I was sixteen years old, the Commander General had been best friends with my father who was the Commander General before him, so I was pretty familiar with his body language and something seemed really off with how moved.

My eyes became slits as I squinted at the man I grew up calling Jim. He was the kind of man who always played by the book but also stood behind what was right. I was always proud to call him my Uncle and he never gave anyone special treatment including me; a mannerism that earned him a lot of respect from his fellow officers.

But what was he hiding. He wasn't someone who acted without thought, and here he was shifting weirdly in his seat over information he was concealing. Before I could ponder this new development any longer, the meeting was adjourned and everyone was leaving to go on their assignments. Since I was still recovering, my job was to get a treatment and work on getting my ability back up to par. Doctor Park and I were also working on a way to expand my ability so I could possibly use it to heal others on the battlefield too. It was a slow process and one that brought us back to the beginning after the explosion.

Ten came up next to me and held my hand as we walked down the corridor towards the Department of Healing and Science.

"Jae-baeeeeee... whatcha doing?" I slowly looked over to the smaller framed man with half-cocked eyes as he was smiling at me and swinging our arms back and forth.

"Going to see Junior and them. Why? What do you want?" I was suspicious about his behaviour since he only called me "Jae-bae" when he required something from me.

"Johnny won't train with me and I want to try a new series of moves. Will you help me?" The look he gave me was pitiful. Like a puppy with big bright eyes, he was staring up at my face with our hands locked together and nestled under his chin.

I sighed. "Yes. I am feeling much better but it has to be this evening after my own training." He was a hard friend to say no to.

His smile broadened as he was excited by my answer. "Yes! It's a date!" With that he kissed my hand and darted off to his assignment. Before he got too far, he turned around and yelled back, "you are the best and don't let Johnny tell you otherwise." I laughed as he turned back around and disappeared down the corridor.

"Don't let Johnny tell you what?" He came up behind me in such a stealthy way, I jumped.

"I hate you. Seriously." I turned to him and punched him on the arm. "Why must you be so quiet when you walk."

"That's why I am a Major General and you are only a Colonel." He smirked as he took his stride next to me.

"Dude, seriously? Low blow." He always liked to pull rank because he could. He is lucky I didn't deck him for his snarky remarks.

"I mean... I could think of a low blow..."

"Major General Seo. Colonel Aldez." General Nichkhun Buck Horvejkul called out our names from behind. We quickly turned around and saluted.

"General Horvehkul!" We said in unison.

Khunnie looked like he would be a man of a hard caliber but he actually was quite soft. I thought his ability was the coolest one out of us all because he could actually blend into his surroundings. He was the only chameleon ALT I had come across in all my years. A lot of us had similar abilities but no one came close to what he had. He was transferred into our division about a decade back and had proven his ability to quickly assess a situation. No one questioned when he was given the General position without moving up slowly in ranks. He was beloved among everyone in the Sector.

"Do you think that kind of talk is appropriate in a work environment, Major General Seo?" He face was stern and we didn't drop our posture.

"Sir! No, Sir!"

"Good! No one wants to know what you both do in your spare time together. Get a room!" Khunnie laughed so hard as he watched the look of panic turn to realisation that he had totally fooled us into thinking we were in trouble.

Johnny was practically sweating. When it dawned on him that Khunnie was just messing with us, he dropped his salute and threatened to beat him. I couldn't help but laugh as well.

Johnny was always on edge when it came to his personal life. He had been shipped off to the Mongolian Ward when he was still a child to live with his grandparents and trained in the Seoul Sector. We pretty much grew up with one another as I was also training because of my militia background. It wasn't until he was a teenager that he was able to reach back out to family in North America and re-connect with Emma, his cousin through his mother's side. After they had come back together, they were inseparable, especially after his parents had passed away.

She had visited us a few times and I had taught her some healing methods I had learned from my mother. After our accident, things got pretty weird as we all now had that bond. Emma had an extra perk to hers. Because she can sense others emotions, if she harnessed her feelings, she could beacon out an almost distressed-like signal for Johnny and I. Thankfully, she has only had to do that once before.

I looked at my watch after everything calmed down and I know knew I wasn't in trouble. ". I am so late and I have such a tight schedule today. Johnny. Khun. I hate to leave you but I gotta bounce." I gestured down the hallway.

"Yeah. I got it. I need to go trainee the new round of rookies." Johnny reached out his hand to me. I grabbed it and rubbed my thumb across his skin three times as a signal to him. He returned the action with four across my skin and then released my hand. I turned to salute Khun, "Sir!"

"At ease. Have a good day, Jae."

"Thank you, Sir!" I relaxed my position and took off down the corridor to meet up with Junior for another healing session to get me back on track.