RISING PHOENIX ACT SELECT

CHAPTER 16: MUTUALISTIC SYMBIOSIS

Ring, ring!
Ring, ring!
Ring -

Marco quickly turned off his alarm and sat upright. Today was the day - the day of the meeting. It was 10:30AM, and his mom had just gone to a conference a few hours before. He slowly got up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower. After he finished cleaning himself, he stepped out of the shower and dried himself off. He looked at the mirror and only then realized how different he looked. His eyebags had grown larger and his face wore an expression of exhaustion, despite him getting a full 10 hours of sleep. He brushed it off and quickly put on his uniform, remembering to bring the recording device Brianna gave him in his pocket before heading out the door.

He walked for a few minutes over to the nearest busy road to his house to wait for a jeepney. After waiting for some time, a jeepney headed to where he wanted to go finally approached him, and he got on as fast as he could. He squeezed into the available space, and the jeepney took off. He took his exact payment from his other pocket and paid in the middle of the trip. Soon, he was near Pisay.
“Para po!” he called out as the jeepney approached PCMC. He got off the jeep, walking the rest of the way to Pisay.

After getting past the guard, he went around the Admin Building and made his way to the 4F Audi. As he got closer and closer to the top, his heart started to beat faster. If Ramone was already there, it could mean disaster. As he finished climbing up the final flight of stairs, he stopped for a moment and took a breather. There’s nothing to worry about, he assured himself. He took a right, opting to take the front entrance to the 4F Audi in case the back entrance was locked. As he approached the door, he took out his recording device and turned it on. This was the point of no return. Slowly, he twisted the knob and opened the door.

Upon entering, he noticed how dark the room was, save for some light peeking out from the gaps in the blinds. The place was a mess, still uncleaned from a previous event, with a few tables and chairs strewn about. Every step he made echoed throughout the hauntingly empty space. He looked around and found nothing - but the big divider in the middle of the 4F Audi was still closed, which he knew he had to look behind. He stepped towards it and slowly pried it open. On the other side, he saw an unexpected sight. There were two chairs with desks beside them, each having a plastic cup of water on top. The furthest chair was that red, dusty office chair he’d seen a few times before, which was turned the opposite direction. A set of exposed windows shone the sky’s melancholic white light into the room.

“Hello…?” he called out, walking closer to it.
“Is someone there?” he asked, stepping even closer.
The chair slowly turned around, revealing who was sitting on it - it was Obsidian, carrying a long, wooden cane with a black rubber handle and metal tip. Before Marco could turn around and run, the divider behind him quickly slammed shut. He frantically turned around and saw two students wearing red bird masks holding the handle of one side of the divider each. They were wearing metal plates on them - one on his forearms, and one on his shins. He was trapped.
“It’s nice to see you again, Marco,” Obsidian told him.
“Have a seat,” he said as he pointed at the chair opposite him with his cane.

“You’ve got some nerve showing your face to me again…!” Marco said aggressively as he ran up to Obsidian, ready to deck him in the face. Before his fist made contact however, Obsidian swiftly blocked it with his palm. He then started crushing Marco’s hand with his own, piling on as much pressure as he could.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow…!” Marco yelled out as he started to feel the pain.
“Stop, please…let go, I’m sorry!” he begged Obsidian.
Finally, Obsidian let go of his fist. Marco collapsed to the floor and panted heavily.
“...now can we talk…?” Obsidian asked.
“Never,” Marco replied angrily.

“I see how it is. Come over,” Obsidian said as he motioned towards the two Rising Phoenix members at the back of the room, in addition to another in the corner that Marco failed to spot before. It was a girl holding a long taser with two metal prongs and held together with duct tape. While they all walked towards Marco, she turned it on, releasing a spark of electricity. As they got closer, Marco realized his error.
“Alright, stop! Let’s talk!” he told Obsidian, which prompted him to make the others stand down.
Marco reluctantly sat down in the chair opposite to Obsidian while he sat in his.
“Care for a drink?” Obsidian asked as he went for his cup of water. Marco remained motionless, declining the offer.
“What, you think we’re going to poison you? We’re not monsters, you know,” Obsidian remarked as he took a sip from his cup. After a few seconds, he put it down and looked back at Marco.

“Why are you being so nice to me…?” Marco asked in a confused tone.
“I realized that the last two times we met, I tried to use fear to earn your respect. But now I realize that…that may not be the right way,” Obsidian explained.
“I want you to see us for who we truly are, Marco - good people who’ve been wronged by the system…and because of that, sometimes we have to do the wrong things for the right reasons.”
“So that’s how you justify assault, theft, fraud, destruction of property…all because you want petty revenge?” Marco asked angrily.
“Honestly, what you guys have done is really impressive. I mean, you’ve hacked systems effortlessly, created those smoke grenade things…but instead of doing something good with it, you waste it on this. Why…?!”
“You call it petty revenge or a waste, but you don’t know what we’ve been through…what I’ve been through,” Obsidian replied.

Obsidian slowly got off his chair and walked to the window with his cane in hand. The metallic tip of the cane produced a loud clacking sound as it hit the tiles of the floor. He stopped in front of it and gazed at the landscape before him, showering him with white light.
“I wasn’t born into an easy life, Marco,” he began.
“I have 5 siblings…and sometimes, we struggled to make ends meet. Still, we all managed to perform well academically and get into good schools. And when I took the NCE, no one expected me to pass,” Obsidian explained.
“But one day, I learned that I got in. We were all so happy…and for the first time, I was celebrated…I was important. I signed the contract and off I went to Pisay. But as time went on, I quickly realized my success was a fluke. I was doing abysmally both academically and socially. The only friend I managed to make was this one girl…her name was Carmen. She was the best.”

“We would do everything together…we connected over our growing hatred of Pisay. We were misfits, out of place - outsiders. Not smart enough to get good grades…not affable enough to be popular. She was deteriorating as much as I was…and I found a quantum of solace in that - and by extension, her. That was until at the end of Grade 8. Her grades had dropped too low, and her parents had enough. They withdrew her from Pisay. I was supposed to tell her my true feelings the day she left. After that, she cut me off out of pure shame…and I never saw or talked to her again. I was in pieces. Every night, I would clutch my pillow tight, begging for her to come back. She was all I had…” Obsidian recounted somberly.

“I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Sir Ernest was my adviser back then, so I told him about it. And when I did…he just told me to get over it. And when I told my family, they said the same thing. They dismissed it as just puppy love…something a scholar like me had no business wasting time on. But when my grades continued to fall, that’s when they paid attention. Just like that, I was a shame to my family - and a headache to Sir Ernest. That’s when I realized that…no one cared about me. I was nothing more than a cog in the machine…a pawn in someone else’s game. I’ve tried filling the gap she left behind, but it’s not the same. It never will be. Something snapped in me since then…and now, here I am,” Obsidian concluded.

Marco looked at Obsidian with shock and sadness. He had no idea that’s what he went through.
“I’m…sorry that happened to you,” Marco told him.
“...but for other people, Pisay is where their dreams came true. Where they…learned the skills they needed to benefit the world. And if you bring it down, not only are you cheating hundreds out of a job…but thousands out of a future,” Marco explained sorrowfully.

“It doesn’t matter,” Obsidian rebutted.
“There are too many broken people just like me…and there will be more if Pisay continues to exist. I don’t like what I have to do, Marco. But I do it anyway.”
“But you don’t have to…! Can’t you see?” Marco asked him.
“Pisay is broken, Marco. You’re the one who can’t see what’s right in front of you!” Obsidian argued as he stepped away from the window to look at him.
“I know you know I’m right,” Obsidian continued.
“How’s your research project going, Marco?”
“Why do you ask…?”
“Just…tell me.”
“Fine. It’s an utter disaster. Nothing’s going well…”
“...and there’s my point.”

“What exactly are you trying to prove here?” Marco asked angrily.
“Let me recall…issues procuring electromagnetic coils…your research adviser going out of the country…snooze-inducing lectures…mountains of tedious paperwork. Doesn’t it all seem so…pointless? Doing all of that just to be a drop in the ocean that is science today?” Obsidian asked, to which Marco remained speechless.
“Everyone in this school agrees that Research is a thorn in their side, everyone. For a place designed to create the next generation of Filipino scientists, we should be mortified that this is happening…! But nothing has changed. It’s been this way for years. If they cared, they would’ve listened. But they don’t. Because they don’t care about us. Now do you see my point?” Obsidian explained passionately.

“Look, I agree, Research could use some improvement…” Marco told him.
“...but you can’t judge the entirety of Pisay from just that! They do care! What about all the other subjects? And you’re not even correct, they are taking steps to change it!” Marco retorted.
“...not fast enough,” Obsidian replied.
“What do you expect?! You want to dive headfirst into changes you don’t know will work or not, you are just as bad as them!”
“I’m fighting for us. That includes you! So don’t you dare say that!”
“You want us to go to the other end of the spectrum…complete recklessness. Look past your anger and think for a second…!” Marco pleaded.
“Amazing…you’re still on their side when all they’ve done is hurt you.”

“This is how it must be, Marco,” Obsidian continued.
“This is too important…and I’m too far in to stop.”
Marco sighed deeply. Obsidian was too entrenched in his ways, he thought. A moment of silence permeated the air as the two dwelled on what they said.
“What are you planning, anyway? Your guy mentioned a program,” he asked him.
“S.P.E.C.T.R.E.,” Obsidian replied.
“Its name is S.P.E.C.T.R.E. And it will free us all.”
“And the drive…?” Marco asked further.
“That drive is the only way to stop S.P.E.C.T.R.E. from executing. We want it in the right hands…ours.”

“Isn’t it against your best interest to tell me this…?”
“No…no it isn’t. While I’ve enjoyed our little back-and-forth, that’s not what I came here for,” Obsidian said as he sat back down in his chair.
“I came here to make another deal with you. And this is my last,” he explained.
“Nope, nope. Last time we talked about a deal, I ended up in the hospital,” Marco told him.
“If you don’t run this time, you won’t,” Obsidian replied. Marco looked back and saw the three Rising Phoenix members standing there menacingly. He quickly realized it was best to listen to what he had to say.
“If you accept this deal, I can get you your old life back,” Obsidian explained.
“You can say yes, you can say no. No one will know,” he said as he glanced at Marco’s pocket and back at him. Noticing this, Marco frantically reached into his pocket and pulled out the recording device, only to find it playing garbled noise back at him. Slowly, a distorted voice emerged from the noise and whispered the chilling words to Marco:
“We’re everywhere.”

Terrified, Marco slowly put the device back in his pocket and paid full attention to whatever Obsidian had to say.
“I know you’ve heard of Ramone already. They were a brilliant member. One of our best at hacking, second only to Overclock. When it was just the four of us, we used to play Blackjack together, and they’d always jump on the opportunity to show off their card-throwing skills. But those days are…long gone.”
“Ever since Ramone went off the grid, we’ve combed through every clue we could find…but we got nothing. Every single digital record has been altered with false information, and we haven’t been able to get our hands on anything physical…” he explained further.
“...and that’s where you come in.”
“For months, we’ve known about the existence of a secret room in Pisay. Under the Admin Building is the Records Room - a place where they’ve dumped every physical record from students as far back as Batch 1973,” he explained.
“We’ve never been able to find a way in…we believe that somewhere there, their current address is noted down. If you find them, get that drive, and give it back to us - we can give you your old life back.”

“I thought Ramone was coming here later,” Marco asked.
“They heard about what happened last Wednesday. Probably got spooked. Flaked at the last second,” Obsidian told him.
“And how will I get my old life back, exactly…?”
“We’ll frame one of our own. Say they blackmailed you into doing these things. We have plenty of people with nothing to lose here…it won’t be difficult at all. And if you don’t believe me…we’ve had this key we don’t know the lock to. It might be useful to you,” he told Marco as he tossed him a rusty key that looked older than the both of them. Marco then stuffed it deep in the pocket opposite his recording device.
“So…what’s it going to be, Marco?”

Entering a staredown with Obsidian, Marco thought carefully about what he would say next, considering there were three people behind him that were ready to pounce. As he continued to think, he felt time almost slow down as Obsidian leaned forward, making his growing impatience apparent. He sighed deeply and decided to say something he never would’ve a month ago:

“I’ll do it.”

Marco was still against the Rising Phoenix, but he felt like saying this would spare him another beating. Obsidian laid back on the chair and took a deep breath.
“Thank you for cooperating, Marco…” Obsidian told him, seemingly surprised by his decision.
“Voltage, Celsius, Fahrenheit…” he said as he motioned to the three Rising Phoenix members behind Marco,
“Get him.”
Voltage quickly turned on her taser, and all three of them dashed towards Marco.