Free Strike 3: The Returning Sunrise by Charlie Wood

and tiny glasses resting on his nose—nodded towards Nova, with his hands and their long fingernails folded on the table in front of him.
    Nova moved on to the next section of the map. “Ember and his team will be in charge of this area in the central section, while the south, from Oklahoma and Tennessee down to Texas , will be the land of Songbird and her children.”
    The villains turned to the only female member of the group: a hypnotizingly beautiful, white-haired woman with cream-colored skin. She was twenty-eight years old and wearing a flowing, floor-length dress made out of glittering scales that reflected the light in all shades of the rainbow, like a prism. Surrounding her, floating around her neck and shoulders like wisps of fog, were several ghostly creatures with black eyes, crow-like beaks, and bodies that faded away like spirits as they glided through the air. The three-foot-long demons never left Songbird’s side (except when they needed to attack her enemies) and they were nearly always speaking to her in a hushed, bizarre language, as they circled her white hair and drifted in and out of her body.
    “In the west, there will be two sections,” Nova said. “The first will be governed by Greylock and will be—”
    At the end of the table, Greylock—a forty-ish man with a brown goatee and a glowing red eye—laughed and shook his head. The upper left of his face was completely made out of shining metal, as was his left hand, though it showed much more wear-and-tear and battle scars than his face.
    “This is all well and good,” Greylock said, stubbing out a cigar in an ash tray in front of him, “and I’m sure next you’re gonna tell us who is gonna be ruling over the west coast and then from there the rest of the world, but...where is he?”
    “Who?” Rigel asked.
    “The Daybreaker,” Greylock replied. “The one we’ve all come here to see.”
    “Yes,” Songbird said, in her wistful, melodic voice. “We’ve all been promised, since the days of Vincent, that we would one day meet the one who is going to lead us. But, unless I’m incorrect, I don’t think anyone here has even laid eyes on him.”
    “I haven’t,” Zaius Moldron said.
    “And I know I haven’t,” Ember agreed, with his fiery skin glowing like his namesake.
    “You will all meet him very soon,” Rigel said. “You must understand that he is very busy. He has a lot of planning and rules to delegate to Nova and I, and we are always listening to him—”
    “He’s very busy doing what?” Greylock asked. “You barely even mentioned him during your little presentation here. You said his headquarters will be here in this building, and then you went on to say that Rigel’s ruling the northeast, and Nova’s ruling the southeast. What is the Daybreaker ruling over?”
    “He is ruling over everything,” Rigel said, growing angry. “All of it. That is how it was always meant to be. While I may have my section of the new world, and you may have yours, it is all ruled over by him. We are all ruled over by him. I did not think I needed to mention that.”
    Zaius Moldron spoke carefully. “We all understand that, Rigel, we do. And we are all very excited—excited isn’t even the word—to see what is coming next. I know I speak for everyone when I say we are all honored to have been chosen by him to be one of the leaders of the new world. But...we would like to see him.”
    “We should see the one who is leading us,” Songbird agreed. “The one who is saving the universe. We would be grateful to hear his plan in his own words.”
    “You will, very soon,” Nova said, stepping to the center of the table. “It is just going to take a little more time before he is ready to see you. He has told us he will address you all when he is ready, and when the next phases of our plan are ready to be put into motion.”
    “Is he here?” Greylock asked. “Is he here in this building now?”
    “Yes,” Rigel said. “He is always