Flashback- After the Skydancer Exams
Alpha2 stared at his dark TV screen and the VR helmet in his hands. He at first thought of playing games, but out of nowhere he would all of a sudden remember the events that transpired during the Skydancer Exams.
'That guy... he could stand toe-to-toe with a High ranked Skydancer like Two Face. The battle was so fierce, and no matter how I look at it from, they weren't using their full powers!'
His inability to fight frustrated even himself. Saying he could not fight was just cutting himself short, but in truth, his raw strength might have even been on par with some professional bodybuilders with strength-based awakenings.
But that wasn't enough! What if a situation where physical power is useless arises? What would he do then? Escape without his comrades and referred to as a traitor? Escape with his comrades and then he would be shunned as a coward? Or die trying and they called him a hero?!
He wanted no part in that! Alpha2 wanted to fight, and fight using his useless ability, and stay alive and then when everything had finished he wanted to be called a hero! Not a traitor, coward or anything else!
'Goddamnit all, sitting here and thinking to myself will not amount to anything. I need to take action!
He stood up, thinking in a new light and flung the VR helmet out of his hands and onto the couch.
And from then on he would experiment, and experiment until he got sick of it. Until he felt like killing someone, and until he got results...
One faithful day, he relaxed his experimentation and browsed the net for a while.
"Scientist discovers a way to teleport matter from long distances."
The news was quite underwhelming to look at, in his opinion.
'I do that every single day, no need to get so worked up about it.' And though Alpha2 thought that, he knew this was a huge discovery, short distance matter teleportation had existed a long time now.
And as for long-distance, they only speculated this. And when a non-Awakened actualized this speculation then it was bound to cause a ruckus.
And that was when everything came into place, the development of his ultimate skill; Matter Blink!
. . .
Return to Present
"Matter Blink!"
The six Plague monsters gripped their abdomens and started screeching out loud. Vector couldn't feel it, but the monsters knew that this was the end for them.
A small heat crept up from the bottom of their insides. A still liquid followed the heat, and as soon as the last catalyst appeared, six huge bonfires appeared right before them.
As the fire spread to every inch of their bodies, the smile on Alpha2's face crept in a similar fashion as well.
"So I guess it really did work. But this doesn't seem enough to kill them..."
Alpha2's smile widened and took on a devilish look. He waved his hands slightly, doing God knew what, and then a few seconds passed and the six monsters became closer and closer to becoming smaller versions.
Evidently, the orange fire couldn't do enough harm to their structure so as to kill them. That was to change soon, though.
The bottom line was that he added more heat, making the flames take on a more blue hue to it. And unlike their previously cough-like vocals, the monsters shrieked in pain, now sounding like more realistic monsters.
'Holy shit? He could have done that from the start too?!'
Hyena gradually stepped away from the burning monsters and closer to Alpha2, so just in case Alpha2 went for revenge, he would burn him together with himself.
Hugo, not forgetting that there was an open prison still there, went over to inspect the inside of the prison.
"Jet Black Wings- deactivate!"
His command dissipated the wings into nothingness as he stepped into the unfortunately empty prison.
The reason it was empty was that... everyone within it was dead; the prisoners, wardens, senior officers, cooks. Everyone was dead!
Differing in body stature and physical appearance, all the dead people had one thing in common, and that was the long gash that ran along their hearts down to their torsos.
"This..."
Hugo sighed to himself and walked out of the prison with a dismayed look on his face.
'Whoever this vector is, he's a serious threat. I need to call a meeting immediately.'
And just like that, Hugo sent a message to the message site on the Skynet exclusive for Skydancers. He typed:
[Requesting a meeting for all available Skydancers A-rank and above. Urgent, come as fast as you can!]
The message was simply that—no other additions to it and as for the location; he typed that down after a brief moment of thought: [Meeting place at the Old Smithson Manor.]
This was going to be the first time he would invite someone apart from close friends into his house. Luckily, the place was always tidy and speck-free clean; calling it an old manor was just talk. The house was as new as current-gen buildings.
"Hey, the both of you, we need to get to my house asap. The lower-ranked Dancers can handle this situation!"
He conjured his jet black wings and sped off before Hyena or Alpha2 could reply.
'Dammit, I didn't think Iron Alchemist's weird cannon could injure me so much. I only survived that battle by sheer luck. If anything, I should have fainted as soon as I deactivated the jet black wings.'
He clutched his side and flew home in a not-so-steady way, his body bobbed from time to time, falling then tumbling to the side. He rushed home as fast as he could, hoping to tend to his injuries before anyone got there.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't be happening. As soon as he entered his house, he was greeted by two familiar people.
"Oh, IA V-1, Ruki. What are you doing here?"
They looked at him with weird looks in their eyes and soon enough, fell on the part his hand was clutching.
"We received your meeting request. Duh." Ruki walked over to him, her hands still tucked in the black hoodie that almost never left her body.
"We'll be the ones asking the questions, hear me?" Iron Alchemist also took charge, though tiny wounds covered his body and bandages wrapped around his arms, not unlike a mummy from ancient Egypt.
"What is this call for meeting about?"
Ruki's question and IA V-1's body reminded him why he rushed to get home in the first place.
"If you answer my question, I can heal you." The girl walked over to a couch and removed her finger from the dark hoodie, wagging it.
Hugo paused a little at the sight of the offer, but resumed what he was doing after.
Hugo rushed his way up the stairs in search of something, in particular, completely ignoring Ruki, who had pretty much expected his answer.
"I wonder what it is."
The two stared at the stairs for a long time before coming to their senses. Ruki was more familiar with Hugo than IA V-1 so she guessed what he needed after putting two and two together.
'He still uses that ointment my mom gave him?'
She speculated to herself a little and smiled at Hugo's action for a while. And her actions also caused IA V-1 to feel concerned.
'She's been smiling for two minutes now. Is she okay?'
He resisted the urge to put his hand over her forehead and instead turned on the TV as a means of distracting himself. It was on a news channel.
"Prison break leaves over 200 criminals, 130 staff dead. Report by eyewitnesses and Skydancers has stated that some monsters which were dealt with by Black Knight, Hermes and Hyena caused the deaths."
The news anchor explained with a wary face—one just as wary as Ruki's.
"So that's why he seems so tired, and there'd be no monster to hurt Hugo like that. It must be something peculiar. It seems we might have a situation on our hands." Ruki's voice reverberated in IA V-1's ears for a while, and it seemed like he'd grasped the situation enough.
Confirming her speculation, Hugo's voice approached from up the stairs.
"Yeah. A man called Vector directed their actions. I've already recorded all the information I gathered into my database. I'll share it once all the Skydancers gather."
He stared at Ruki for a long time once he finished saying it. Ruki stared back at him and when they were finished, she sighed and looked towards the door.
"This... is a major state of emergency we have on our hands here. It seems like the world will be enveloped in chaos very soon. If what you're thinking is true."
IA V-1 was out of the loop. Could the monsters Hugo and the others encountered be so dangerous enough that they could cause an SS-ranked Skydancer to panic?
"Coming in!"
A small voice spoke from the opposite side of the door, and several figures poured into the living room, among which included a lot of A-rankers and a few S-ranked.
And seeing the S-ranks, IA V-1 gulped down some accumulated spit, apparently so.