A lot of you like Juliana, and I agree, haha! Roy is a very necessary character to balance out Juliana's idealism, but he can be a little too much of a realist sometimes. And he underestimates the Heirs! I think they can totally handle being superheroes- what about you? 

Chapter poll:

The Heirs should step into the roles of Project PROB and defend their country from the Eagle! They're all smart and talented enough, and if they work hard, they can manage it. 

or

Roy is right... they're too young and inexperienced, and their lives are too precious. They're better off fighting as they're used to. 

....................

Scarcely had the meeting ended, and Juliana was already briskly leading the other Heirs back down the hallway as she spoke to Hayley in excited whispers. 

"...it's my senior project. I was doing it for fun. I simply cannot believe the King is open to implementing it! It's so exciting, but I'm terribly nervous... what if I made a technical error? What if the suits aren't ready in time and I am to blame?" 

Hayley nodded sympathetically as they made their way back through the lobby and onto the glass elevator. Chase, who'd been struggling to keep up with the other Heirs who obviously knew their way around a lot better than he did, stumbled into the pod just as the doors closed behind him. It was only when Juliana pressed the button for floor -45 that he realized just how deep into the ground Order headquarters went. His eyes followed the two rows of rectangular, playing card-shaped buttons all the way down to the -100th floor. 

Chase was decidedly terrible at cheering people up and usually made the situation worse whenever he tried to step in, but even he noticed that Juliana was on edge. She tugged on the elbows of her peacoat as she pursed her full lips, looking down at her expensive leather boots. 

"Hey..." Chase knew he was about to make a fool of himself, but he decided to give it a try. "I don't know much about your research or Project PROB, but whatever you can do to help find my parents, I know it'd be a lot more than any traditional government agency could offer." 

Juliana looked up at him, her brilliant green eyes sparkling with surprise. After all, this was the first time he had directly initiated a conversation with her. Her lips curled into a small smile. "Thank you, Chase. I really do hope so. Lord and Lady Hewkin are like parents to me, too."

"No need to get sentimental," Roy said gruffly. "If PROB doesn't work- which it won't- we can just solve this like the Order solves every other problem: with a team of agents and a mission."

"This isn't like every other problem," Juliana sighed. "The Eagle has the Power, and now he's got the Hewkins. He's planning something big, and we have to stop him before he succeeds." 

"She's right," Hayley crossed her arms seriously. "Nebulik just wanted to live forever. The Eagle wants to rule the world, and he knows as well as we do that the Alpha Box is the only way to do it. If we want to rescue the Hewkins and protect the Box, we need a new strategy." 

Roy, outnumbered, sighed in discontent as the elevator doors opened in the middle of a huge, circular chamber. Order members in lab coats huddled over glass screens and manipulated the holograms projected above them as announcements blared through distant speakers. How Chase would've loved to learn all about the futuristic technology that surrounded him. As he surveyed it carefully, trying to take it all in, his eyes fell upon something that was markedly out of place. Set in a glass frame on the ceiling was a single piece of white paper, covered in the crayon drawing of a small child. Chase could barely make out eyes, a mouth, and messily colored black hair. The girl in the drawing wore what looked like a red jumpsuit with lightning bolts emanating from her oversized hands. Below the drawing was a short note written in impeccable print. 

A piece of 'artwork' gifted to me by my beautiful daughter Juliana on January 10 2005. She calls it "The Crimson Angel". She will undoubtedly forget this drawing as the years go by, but it is my hope that the strong creative spirit behind it will stay with her forever. Signed- Princess Melodie Hotten-VanderSchee of Arcana. 

"The Crimson Angel, huh..." 

"You noticed it." Chase turned around to see Juliana smiling at him. He hadn't realized he'd been thinking aloud. 

"It's a page from my mother's diary. I found it several years after she died," Juliana explained. "When I was very young, I thought the Order was the most incredible thing in the world. I used to draw pictures of myself, Hayley, and Roy as 'Order agents'. I was obsessed with superhero movies, so the drawings were mostly inspired by those. I even gave myself a superhero name- The Crimson Angel. I'm not sure I even knew what 'crimson' was- I suppose it just sounded nice," she laughed before a wistful look came over her face. "It wasn't long after that I found out the Order is a lot more mundane than I thought. We're not heroes. We're just people with a job." 

"You're kidding," Roy frowned up at the drawing. "I've always wondered what that thing was doing up there. Your celebrated senior project is based on a drawing you made when you were five?" 

"Before I knew what the Order was, I could imagine it as whatever I wanted it to be," Juliana asserted. "That drawing is the purest representation of my vision for the Order- it's entirely uncorrupted by reality. But of course, it's only my inspiration. What I actually did with it is beyond that wall, and I'm proud to finally have permission to show it to you." 

Chase noticed that the circular room's walls were divided into equally sized, arced panels of translucent glass. Juliana pointed at one of them and pulled on one of the pearls on her bracelet. The pearl probably functioned as some kind of remote, as the panel immediately slid forward and over the panel to its right, revealing a narrow passageway behind it.

"Shall we proceed?" Juliana smiled mysteriously. The other Heirs didn't reply, but their curiosity tangibly hung in the air. They filed through the doorway slowly, proceeding through into a much larger chamber. This one, unlike the busy, noisy lab was deathly silent. Its walls were lined with glass cases, each containing a contraption more curious than the last. Some of them Chase could identify as advanced armor or weapons, but others were so different from anything he'd ever seen before that he couldn't possibly describe them. 

"You are standing in the midst of the world's most advanced collection of strength-compatible enhancement technology," Juliana explained proudly, making her way to the center of the room as she gestured with both arms to the glass cases surrounding her. "Currently, though they have different levels of efficacy and protection, all Order suits serve essentially the same function. I aim to change that by developing a system to profile every fighter's unique strengths and weaknesses and custom-design them a suit that complements them perfectly. Our agents are already some of the best in the world, and this would only make them even more effective." 

"That sounds like a huge investment, in terms of time and money," Hayley observed, not looking completely convinced. "Even though it sounds really cool!" she quickly added. 

"It would be, which is why I think my grandfather wants us to start out with ourselves," Juliana explained. "The idea behind it is very similar to Project PROB, though obviously a lot more technologically advanced. Since I'm very familiar with our fighting styles, I already designed prototypes for the three of us," she said, looking at Roy and Hayley. "If we work extensively with refining and testing, we could be looking at three field-ready PROB suits in two weeks." 

"Two weeks? Will my parents be safe until then?" Chase wondered aloud. He knew Juliana was likely wondering the same thing, but he was too anxious to wait for answers. 

"We can only hope they will," Juliana sighed softly, looking down at the ground. Chase could tell she was just as worried as he was. "We have the best minds in our tech department trying to reactivate their LocChips right now, but we can't do anything until we have at least a rough location to go off of. In the meantime, it would be wise to carry out the King's orders and start preparing for Project PROB. This will likely be a very challenging rescue mission, even for us." 

"You said you made prototypes for the three of us," Hayley said optimistically. "Are you allowed to show us now?" 

"As a matter of fact, I am," Juliana smiled. "Oh, it feels so good not to have to keep this a secret anymore. I've been thinking about how you two would react to seeing your suits ever since I got started! That being said, I think there's someone better qualified than me to introduce our designs. Everyone, my project mentor, Commander Dev." 

All heads turned as the panel in the wall slid open a second time, revealing a young-ish woman in a thin black jacket and loose joggers. Her thick, dark hair was pulled into a severe bun on top of her hair but the expression in her eyes was kind. "Welcome to our lab, Lord Evarbor, Lady Serpentine," she pronounced her words deliberately, her head bowed in respect. "It is an honor to have led the Princess on this amazing research journey, although considering her Aptitude and general intellect, it often felt as if she were leading me," Anusha laughed. "I'm just as excited to share what we have come up with as Juliana herself." 

As her eyes fell on Chase, she cocked her head to the side. "And who might this young man be?" 

"I'm Chase," he replied casually. "Oh, um, Chase Hewkin. The Heir. The Hewkin heir," he awkwardly added at the sight of her confused expression. 

"Ah! You are Lord and Lady Hewkin's son! I hope you've had a relatively pleasant stay in Arcana so far. The Order can be quite taxing, especially for new members. I still remember being a freshly minted agent, feeling like even the Order children knew more about probabilities than I did, but I can assure you that with your Aptitude, you'll learn very quickly." 

"Wait... freshly minted agent? You weren't born into the Order?" For all Chase knew, all Order of Chance positions were hereditary and agents were practically trained from birth. Somehow, it hadn't occurred to him that some people entered the Order at a later age. 

"Oh, goodness, no, I was born in India!" she laughed in disbelief. "A nobleman thought I was Arcanese... is my English really that good?" she mused jokingly to herself. 

"Even though I came from a humble family, I was always encouraged to dream big," Anusha explained. "I became a materials scientist with dreams of someday working for NASA to design the next generation of spacesuits, and even though that didn't work out for me, I was requested by the Arcanese government to mentor the Princess herself on a research project. That obviously wasn't an offer I could refuse. When I finally got here, I realized that I'd stepped into a lot more than just a new lab- I fell in love with the Order, their purpose, their technology, and the way they operate, and thanks to my work here and a lot of political support from my brilliant mentee, the King finally inducted me into the Order as an official agent about a year ago." 

"Commander Dev is a rarity, however," Juliana clarified. "Because of the security that our purpose necessitates, the Order doesn't recruit from outside Arcana unless it sees loyalty and talent that are truly exceptional." 

"Oh, that's enough about me," Anusha smiled at the ground, looking a little embarrassed by the compliment. "I've had the chance to help Princess Juliana design suits more advanced and personalized than what any astronaut would wear, and if you'll step right behind this nifty panel I'm about to remove, you'll get to see them."