Duke's eyes narrowed as he saw the strange pattern on the TV screen in the security feed.
"The hell is that?" he muttered.
"Just watch," Paul replied with a serious expression.
Moments later, the fingers of one of Starrk's white gloves began to emerge from the screen around Tsukuru's hand.
The TV screen glitched at the point where the fingers were emerging, forming three rows of glitching colors. Going in order, the colors were light-blue, purple, and yellow.
As the fingers emerged, they wrapped around Tsukuru's hand.
Slowly, Tsukuru began to step back. As he did, the fingers came with him. The fingers became a gloved hand, then a white sleeve with a black trim, then a torso began to emerge.
Everyone, with the exceptions of Paul, Shizuka, and Leo, watched in shock as Tsukuru slowly guided Starrk out of the screen.
Once Starrk had fully emerged, the screen faded to black.
The recording came to a stop, with the image of Tsukuru still holding Starrk's hand frozen on the screen.
Faye walked back over and turned off the projector.
Paul glanced around the room, seeing that everyone was in a stunned silence.
"So…any questions?" he asked.
***
Back in the enormous castle, Stark pulled the large doors open.
Inside, he saw a massive room the size of a castle ballroom.
In the front of the room, there was a couch made out of luxurious material facing a large, 80-inch flatscreen TV that was bolted to the wall. On the left side of the couch, there was a two-person sofa. And on the right of the couch, there was a recliner.
Further back in the room, there was a long, rectangular table with chairs lining it.
Over on the right side of the room, there was an anatomically correct humanoid dummy made of black metal.
A few feet away, towards the right of it, was another humanoid dummy. However, this one was wearing armor and holding a sword.
And even further to the right of that dummy, pressed far against the wall, there was what looked like an archery target.
The lower-right corner of the room had a small, single-person couch with the tall lamp placed next to it. Lining the wall near the small couch, there were several large bookcases.
Lining the far back of the upper-left part of the room were various appliances, including a fridge, a box freezer, and various kinds of vending machines. The vending machines included the kinds that contained drinks, candy, and fried food.
Additionally, Starrk was not alone in this strange room. All of the other "Summons" he had seen Tsukuru summon in the conference room were in here, as well.
Kujaku and Gobkiko were both sitting on the coach, watching some movie on the large screen bolted to the wall.
Artoria was sparring against the dummy with the sword. Amazingly, the dummy appeared to be almost alive to Starrk. As it was actively parrying and dodging her attacks, before starting back.
Sylvia was sitting back on the single-person couch in the lower-right corner, a book in her hands.
Finally, Rakshara was sitting at the long table. In front of her, she had a plate covered in various kinds of meat. She was currently holding a large drumstick, which she was in the process of taking a huge bite out of.
'What is this place?' Starrk thought, his face slightly scrunched up in confusion. 'Some sort of common room?'
***
Back in the meeting room on Military Base 2, the room was still quiet. Everyone seemed to be trying to process what they had just seen.
Eventually, Faye broke the silence.
"Who…Who was that?" she asked.
Paul let out a sigh.
He waved his hand across the table in front of him.
Soon, a translucent, light-blue keyboard appeared in front of him, looking as though to be a hologram.
Paul began pressing keys. As he did, each key lit up brightly, and an electronic beep was heard.
When he was done, Paul pressed the "enter" key. A moment later, the keyboard disappeared.
Soon, a mass of hard-light, translucent light-blue pixels began to form in front of each of the other people at the table. The pixels clustered together until a translucent, light-blue rectangle was formed.
The screen showed an image of Starrk in the upper-right corner, with the rest of the screen being covered in text.
It was something he had found in the Green Family's "Black Box" archive. Starrk's profile entry from something called a "Wiki Page" from the old world.
It contained an in-depth entry of Starrk, containing his powers, personality, and history.
"Apparently, his name is 'Coyote Starrk'," Paul replied. "He's a character from a fictional TV show from the late 2000's."
***
Back in the large room inside the castle, Starrk was finallynoticed in the doorway.
Kujaku saw him out of the corner of her eye on the couch and turned to him.
Her eyes widened as she saw the state Starrk was in. His whole body was soaked in sweat, making him look as though he had just come out of a pool. Additionally, there were wet splotches all over his clothes, and his hair was clinging to his head in certain places.
"Commander Starrk," she replied, catching the attention of the others.
Artoria halted her sparring practice, and Sylvia looked up from her book.
"What happened to you?" Kujaku asked.
Starrk took in a few labored breaths in the doorway, his eyes narrowed.
"Traveling that infernal chain, that's what!" he retorted.
He had felt as if traveling across that thing had shaved years of his life. And he was technically dead!
On the couch, Kujaku and Gobkiko exchanged looks. They remained silent for a moment.
"Commander Starrk," Gobkiko started. "You…you didn't get here by traversing one of the mooring chains, did you?" she asked, an almost incredulous tone in her voice. "Why…Why didn't you just use the teleporter?"
Starrk just stood there for a moment. Hearing the Hobgoblin's words made him feel as if a small part of him had just died inside.
"...Excuse me?" he asked.
***
Back in the meeting room, the four higher-ups who could actually read were now scouring Starrk's "wiki article" like it was a personnel profile.
Sergeant Faye, who was next to Leo, had taken the initiative to read hers out loud so that the blind man could hear it.
Most of them looked more confused as they read the entry.
"There's a bunch of words in here that are completely foreign to me," Nathan muttered as he read.
Shizuka glanced over at him.
"Yeah, I felt the same way when I was listening to Tsukuru talk to him," she replied. "It was like trying to have someone explain quantum physics to me."
Dillon's eyes narrowed as he got to the section of Starrk's "Powers and Abilities" that went over his Resurrección.
"Wait, it says here that he uses guns," he replied. "And the way they are described makes them sound like Beast Energy Weapons."
Shizuka's eyes then drifted to the Second-Year Sergeant.
"Likely, he doesn't have access to those right now," she replied. "Tsu-Tsu mentioned that his power and abilities were significantly diminished during the summoning process."
Sergeant Faye's eyes narrowed.
"At least he seems to have some experience being a soldier," she replied, as she momentarily paused her reading. "He'll fit right in around here."
General Duke let out a scoff.
"I think you're forgetting that he's not one of our soldiers," he replied in an irritated voice. "He's one of that brat's."
Shizuka's hands clenched into fists.
'Watch it, Duke,' she thought angrily.
Nathan's face bore a look of concern as he read.
"So, am I the only one who sees that fact that this kid can just pluck people out of pure fiction, and summon them to the real world as a problem?" he asked, looking up at everyone. "I mean, what's stopping him from summoning somebody like Jack the Ripper and having him go on a killing spree on anyone that he doesn't like?"
Paul glanced over to him.
"I think we all saw from when he convinced Sergeant Shizuka to spare General Duke that he's not an idiot," he replied.
Shizuka then looked up and glared at Duke.
"Besides, the only people who have caused trouble with him have been the Second-Years," she replied.
Duke gritted his teeth.
"Don't rope me into this!" he snarled. "I told all my students at the start of the school year not tofuck with him! It's not my fault they decided not to listen!"
Duke then gnashed his teeth.
He had no idea when Truedream would be making his "visit" to the Base. And as a result, he had no idea how much longer he would have his Ability.
For Duke, it was like constantly having a bomb strapped to his chest that he had no idea when it would go off.
'That being said, I would love nothing more than to make him 'disappear' if I thought I could get away with it!' he thought.