INTERLUDE

Elsewhere...

"These 'people' are madmen!" a man at the head of the table said, his fingers steepled and held before his face. "A menace to all we stand for!"

"They are surely not 'people,' you forget," a woman sitting to the man's immediate right said soothingly.

"Yes," said the man to the first man's left spoke up. "They are monsters."

"Good point," the man at the head of the table said again. "After the damage we've sustained at both Tri-Vex, the MCCA Headquarters, and the Zoo... no other word quite works like 'monsters'..."

"The metahuman community is a menace to society at large!" the fourth man at the table said, slamming his fist on the tabletop.

"You will find no dissenting opinions here," the first man said, pulling a file folder from his coat. "We are currently using a certain branch of the metahuman research field to our advantage. The name of the organization is the EPS... they are, to be sure, quite powerful - whether or not they know it yet.

"All information they get is ours and every discovery made is one that we will exploit. Now... about these Revolutionaries...?"

"Sir, through the organization you mentioned, we have obtaned a plethora of information. We also have new incomings from Malvan-X from one of their members... the bio-adapt," the female said, handing a printout to the first man.

"Very good," he said, reading the page. "Begin Phase Epsilon..."