As the sun rose that next day, Nova found himself on the bus with Tommy as they made their way to the forest. Nova saw that Azumi was there but she really wasn't paying any attention to him or trying to prod about what happened the day before, which was a relief for him. He also noticed that Seth wasn't on the bus, which was really no surprise to Nova.
When watching the after report of the dome incident after dropping Azumi off, Nova learned that authorities had no idea where the dome came from and what could have caused it. It assured Nova that they didn't catch Seth and that he was probably hiding out to nurse his wounds. Nova also told Tommy that same night that he ran off to check out the dome and simply got injured along with Azumi from its collapse as an excuse to calm his nerves and suspicions.
Back at the bus, Nova was sitting with Tommy and he suddenly asked him a question that had been on his mind for a while.
"Hey Tommy, I've been meaning to ask this for a while, but how exactly are you able to afford living on your own at your age?"
Tommy looked at Nova as his mind wandered for an excuse.
"We-Well, I could probably ask you the same thing you know." Tommy mumbled quietly.
"Oh, yeah I guess you've got a good point there huh." Nova replied before nervously laughing.
"The man that raised me back in the Vashlands is actually the one paying my half of the rent. He wanted me to be able to live a normal life so he set everything up so that I could live around other people and go to school like a normal kid. I guess he had been saving up money just for that, he really wanted this life for me I suppose and I couldn't be more thankful. So yeah, I'm basically living off of charity at the moment."
"Oh wow, he must really care about you. It must be nice to have someone so supportive in your life." Tommy said solemnly.
Nova quickly picked up on this.
"Well I gave you my explanation, only fair if you coughed up yours."
Tommy hesitated.
"You see, back home in Paradise, my parents own one of the largest banking firms on the continent and they became very wealthy because of it. They were never very supportive of my passion for robotics, they always told me that I needed to use my intellect to learn their trade instead of what I wanted. They desperately wanted me to follow in their footsteps with the company, whether I wanted to or not."
Tommy hesitated for a moment as he turned his head to the bus window.
"After a while, it didn't even feel like I had parents anymore, just greedy businessmen who wanted to use me for their own benefit. I knew I couldn't live that life anymore, so I left."
Nova couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Wait a second! You mean your telling me you just up and ran away, how'd you even pull something like that off?"
"It certainly wasn't easy, but I was able to hack one of their accounts and used it to pay my way here and to pay for the house, although I didn't know at the time I'd have a roommate."
"Won't they be able to track those purchases or something? And why move all the way out here?"
"With how much money they have, they'll never notice the difference, and as for the purchases, I simply transferred the money to my own private account so the payments are on my name."
"Jeez kid, you're almost terrifyingly smart, most adults couldn't pull off a scheme like that."
"As far as your other question goes, I moved to a different continent because I want as much space between us as possible, plus the view of this place always amazed me."
"Why would you go through all that to get away from your own family? Don't you understand how precious a family is?" Nova asked in frustration.
"You don't know what I've been through, you have no idea!" Tommy retaliated.
"That doesn't matter, they're still your family and they must be worried sick about y-"
"Those people aren't my family anymore!�� Tommy interrupted with a shout.
It was at this point that the two realized the show they were putting on for the rest of the bus, as all eyes were on them. They simply backed down from their argument and sat in tense silence for the rest of the ride.
Once at the green section of large pine trees, the students were put into pairs and sent on a scavenger hunt to learn more about the forest and its history. As fate would have it, Nova was matched up with Azumi. The two were sent to find a document hidden in the woods that detailed the island's discovery.
They started down a trail and Nova could already feel the tension building.
"Hey, is everything alright with you and your roommate?" Azumi asked concerned, finally breaking the odd silence.
"Oh yeah, sorry you had to hear all that, it got a little out of hand. I'm sure we'll be alright though." Nova said very unsurely.
"I see." Azumi said plainly.
Nova tried to find some way of conversing with Azumi but simply couldn't find the words. He eventually mustered the strength to try and say something to her, but the two's treasure hunt into the woods quickly turned dangerous
Before words could leave his mouth, Nova saw out of the corner of his eye, a barrage of metal looking spears careening right towards Azumi from the woods beside her. Nova quickly tackled her down to the ground, narrowly avoiding the sharp metal objects. The two watched as the metal spears flew back into the woods, only for something even more ominous to step out from the thicket. A large figure stepped out, but it was no human, it was a conglomeration of old and sharp metal scrap held together as if it were a rickety puppet. It was surely not human, it simply shambled like one, it had no face, only sharp and rusty claws. Nova looked in horror of the monstrosity and his fear only grew deeper when more shambled to face them, six in total.
"Wh-What are those things?" Azumi asked.
Nova had a sneaking suspicion that this was related to to white dragon's host and his continued effort to kill him.
"Listen, I'm really sorry about always seeming to get you into trouble, I have a knack for attracting that kind of attention…"
Nova paused briefly as he faced the lifeless puppets, putting himself in front of Azumi. He turned his head slightly to acknowledge her.
"You were right to be suspicious." Nova admitted with a small smirk.
Immediately after, Nova's fiery aura began to encompass his body once again. Azumi could do nothing but stare in awe at the rising flames, she never expected to see such power emanate from such a gentle soul.
Nova started to culminate those flames into his hand to create a fireball. One of the puppets noticed this and rushed at Nova far quicker than it's appearance would give it credit for. Nova was caught off guard by this and was given no other option than to react quickly by shoving the fireball directly into the puppet's chest as he reached Nova's distance. The puppet��s body weight along with the force from its rush was almost enough to knock Nova over, but with a shout, Nova was able to drive the fireball straight through the puppet's chest. The fireball continued through the sky in an out-of-control manner before hitting a few trees, eventually creating a small forest fire. The impact of the blast was enough to cave in the chest of the puppet so much that pointy shrapnel stuck out of its back, it was long enough to even hold the puppet up as it collapsed backwards. Nova dropped his guard for a moment after noticing the fire he started, just long enough for the puppet to spring back up and grab Nova up by his throat.
"Azumi! Run away, now!" Nova pleaded while gasping for air.
Instead of listening to Nova, Azumi ran to intervene, but she was quickly surrounded by the five other puppets and couldn't get to Nova. They slowly started to move toward her, shambling ever closer, until finally one of the puppets made its move and tried to grab at Azumi. She darted backward with a well-timed back dash, seamlessly avoiding the puppet's attack. All of the puppets surrounding her quickly tried to close the gap, one trying to attack after the other, but Azumi was simply too fast for them to catch; although now she was now being pushed even further away from Nova. In the midst of losing consciousness, Nova was too focused on saving Azumi to give in just yet and used what strength he had to place his hands on the puppet's choking arm. His hands quickly rose to high temperatures and the puppets metal arm soon turned to a bright orange. With the arm being hot enough to change shape easily, Nova took his right hand and punched straight through the arm with a hooked strike. After releasing himself from the iron clutches of the puppet, Nova dropped to the ground and led up with a hard uppercut to put down the metal monstrosity. Nova quickly regretted this decision however as he looked at his knuckles in pain.
It was around this time that the rest of the school noticed the quickly growing forest fire by Nova and Azumi, but the flames were too intense for anybody to get through until the fire department could arrive.
Azumi was eventually backed into a corner as she found herself between the puppets and a rock wall that connected to a cliff above. As she readied herself for combat, Nova leaped over the barricade of puppets in order to put himself between Azumi and the danger.
"I'll handle this!" Nova stated while taking a battle-ready stance.
"You know, it's a little difficult to save the day when you put yourself into the corner where the ambush is." Azumi blatantly pointed out.
All went quiet as Nova looked around at his current situation in embarrassment.
Immediately after, a blade flew past Nova's face, sticking right into the rock wall behind them. A small trickle of blood flowed down Azumi's face, the bladed finger grazing right past her cheek, nicking her in the process. Nova looked at her then shot his attention back at the puppets in anger.
"Not to worry, I'll put some distance between us, so as to not be surrounded." Azumi casually said before wiping the blood from her cheek.
Nova looked back at her and started to blush beat red.
She started to take off her tank top, exposing her black sports bra. Nova quickly looked away in embarrassment.
"Umm, what exactly are you doing over there?" Nova asked nervously.
Azumi wrapped her tank top around the large finger blade and gripped the wrapping around it tightly. With one quick pull, she removed the blade from the rock wall and held it as if it were a sword. Her eyes closed as a bright green outline slowly enveloped her body.
Azumi suddenly vanished, leaving Nova stunned, but he quickly found her all the way over by one of the puppets, slashing it repeatedly. Her movements were hardly readable due to how fast she was striking the puppet. The only thing that was clear were the sparks flying off from the intense metal-on-metal clashing and the noticeable distance Azumi had pushed the puppet back during her onslaught of blows.
Just as quickly as she was there, she zipped away again, but this time in front of a different puppet and started her assault over again, pushing that one away as well. She continued to dash to one after the other, slowly picking up speed as she went until she was practically attacking all five at once with rapid attacks. Her speed was unreal to the point where all Nova could even see was a green blur fly from one puppet to the next as they were driven back by sparking blade slashes.
Azumi quickly noticed that the puppet in the middle had taken the most damage to the abdomen so far with deep gashes in the metal. With a swift motion, she lept backwards, forcing Nova to duck in panic as she flew over him. She landed against the rock wall before using it to launch herself back toward the middle puppet with so much force that it left a crack where she pushed off from.
With one precise move, Azumi slashed right past the middle puppet and landed clear on the other side in the blink of an eye, and did so with grace as she waited on the other side in an elegant pose with one knee down.
All grew quiet as both Azumi and the puppet she attacked stood in complete silence, both as still as could be. She glanced at her makeshift blade and without warning it completely broke in two after all the stress she put it under. A moment passed as Nova worried her attack may not have been enough, but suddenly, the large metal contraption's upper half began to slide off from its lower half.
Nova was astonished by what he had just witnessed, he knew something was definitely strange with this girl, but never would have thought it would go this far.
Azumi was now seen as a true threat and was quickly surrounded by the four remaining puppets. Nova got back to his senses and rushed to her aide. His efforts would be cut short however when two of the puppets instead turned to face him.
The two with Azumi wasted no time and both tried slashing at her with their long, rusty finger blades. She was able to dodge most of the attacks but it was clear that she was being overwhelmed by fighting these two at once.
"If only I had my equipment, then I wouldn't be in this situation!" Azumi thought in frustration.
Nova could tell that Azumi was beginning to lose ground in her fight and that he needed to act fast. He wasn't getting anywhere however as he was continually pushed back by the two puppets facing him. In frustration, Nova made one last attempt to try and get past the puppets, but was instead met with a large, disfigured metal foot to the chest. Nova flew back several feet before falling to one knee, clearly having the wind knocked out of him. As he tried to stand up, the two puppets facing him pointed their hands at him, launching all of their sharp-bladed fingers. They all flew around Nova's body as if they were being controlled, each cutting him deeply as it went by.
Nova's body felt as if it were in a blender, he couldn't defend against the cyclone of blades he was trapped inside of.
"NOVAAA!!!" Azumi screamed out to him in a panic after seeing his bloodied body.
The blades finally returned to the puppets as fingers and Nova was left with blood and cuts all over his body, his arms still up as if he were anticipating even more punishment. His guard soon fell however as his vision began to fade, he had lost too much blood. He fell to his knees and collapsed completely right after, his eyes glossing over as slowly fell into unconsciousness.
"Nova! Get up! Please get up!!!" Azumi pleaded as the words echoed in Nova's fading mind.
It was then that Nova noticed yet another presence, one inside his own mind…
"Well that was a pathetic display, you know if you really intend to save that woman you should just accept a small dose of my strength."
"Get out of my head."
"Don't be foolish! Just admit you need my powers and I might feel obligated to help you."
"No… All that would do is make me more of a monster like you. I can save her on my own…"
Nova's hand slowly started to clench at the dirt with the drive to stay alive.
Azumi couldn't contain her anger over thinking that Nova was seriously hurt if not worse. She turned to one of the puppets in anger as her body was covered once more in a green outlined arua. She delivered a barrage of lightning fast strikes, strikes so hard that the puppet began to dent just from the impact. She hit it with one last open-palmed strike that completely caved in the puppet's chest before sending it flying away. She was so caught up in the moment that she was immediately picked up by her own ponytail. She let out a shriek of pain as she tried to break free but was secured when the puppet used its other hand to grab at her arm. One of the two remaining other puppets approached her and slowly started to inch one of it's bladed fingers ever closer to one of her shaky eyes.
"I���ll save her, but I'm doing it with my own strength…" Nova muttered quietly.
All attention shifted to Nova's limp body as he slowly rose back to his feet.
With the puppets distracted, Azumi was able to deliver a quick elbow strike to free herself. She made a dash for the barely standing Nova.
"Are you ok? You've lost so much blood." Azumi said in a concerned tone.
"Don't worry I'll be alright, I'm actually thankful for the pain, it's what's keeping me conscious. I've got a plan but you're gonna need to get behind me, ok?" Nova replied faintly.
Azumi looked in confusion, but with a heavy sigh, she made her way behind Nova's bloodied body.
Nova looked on at the raging fire that was consuming the trees around them, sparks floating above.
With a deep breath, Nova slowly closed his eyes and extended his arms out with open palms. The flames consuming the forest slowly started to stir, as if they were being spun right out of the now charred trees. Soon enough, all of the trees were stripped of fire, the flames spinning around the area like a tornado. All of the flames slowly began to flow inward, straight into Nova's palms; so much so that his body began to give off a slight glow. His deep wounds were each filled with a burst of flames and as they disappeared, so too did the wounds themselves.
Within only a few moments, all of the fire was safely contained in Nova's body, acting as his last reserve of power. His body glowed with radiance, Azumi herself could even feel the heat emanating from his body. Nova stood strong as he stared down his remaining enemies.
Fireballs formed in each of his hands as Nova took his grounded stance. All three remaining puppets began to rigidly march forward, but they wouldn't get too far. Nova released a blazing barrage of fireballs, His arms continuing to thrust forward quicker and quicker, each time launching a fireball as big as the last. Nova had never created so many fireballs so quickly in succession before and was just as blown away by it as Azumi was. The barrage was so powerful that the impact caused a giant plume of dust and smoke to loom over where the puppets were. With one last throw, Nova was completely spent, using everything he had gathered in his last attack. Both Nova and Azumi waited with baited breath as the dust slowly settled, only to reveal one of the puppets was still standing. The two took whatever battle stance they could manage as they expected the worst; that was until the puppet took only one step before collapsing into a pile of scrap metal like all the rest.
Azumi let out a heavy sigh of relief as she looked to Nova, only to find his arms swaying limply at his sides. He turned his head and simply gave a carefree smile and a pained chuckle.
"What on Earth are you?" Azumi asked, completely perplexed by what she just witnessed.
"Haha, I kinda figured you'd ask something like that…" Nova muttered as he collapsed to the ground, completely unconscious.
Meanwhile, a man with grey hair watched on from a nearby ridge as Azumi rushed to Nova's side. He dropped to one knee and began to breathe heavily, sweat dripping from his face.
"Damn! I can only control that much metal for so long, not to mention how much of it those kids destroyed in the process. Ugh, and I was so close to killing him too!"