***
Rena was looking at the multiple monitors in the room she worked from. She was not alone as she analysed the data received from the satellite, along with that from other channels.
A few other individuals who looked the part, were typing codes on their computers as they looked at their screens.
At this particular moment in time, Rena was scrolling through the list of newly recruited innate abilities and reading their descriptions.
She had been told by the Panel to analyse those that had the generic support abilities or basic enhancement type abilities and compile them for selection.
She understood the Panel's intention as she was usually kept in the loop. She did not truly support the act of sacrificing weaker Invigorated. In her mind it was a dumb idea as the Elite Invigorated were already few to begin with. She would rather stake the most powerful ones to have them solve the situation even if a considerable amount of risk was involved.
However, she understood that her thought process as an Elite Invigorated and that of the Panel members as standard Invigorated was completely different.
They probably wanted to keep an insurance that would protect their own skins first, which was understandable considering that they couldn't defend themselves against even the harsh environment outside the Safe Zones, not to mention the stragglers.
As she scrolled through the data, she reached the entries for Safe Zone 3. She ignored some of the names which made her giggle and read through the descriptions.
Two abilities caught her interest.
Innate ability, Daddy.
Innate ability, Gamble.
Their descriptions were still quite shallow and the results showed that the respective owners were still in the process of discovering them. The information would be updated later on after the innate ability training, but what she saw of them now, though being a mere skeleton, was pretty frustrating.
Gamble was more fascinating to her but after reading through the restriction, she sighed.
'Is this an ability designed to make someone survive this shitty world or for them to screw themselves? I don't think such an ability could be really useful especially in combat while backed by comrades,' she thought.
She could not disobey an order from the top brass and she certainly did not wish for anyone to die on the expedition, but sparing others with better support abilities was far better.
As she reviewed the abilities, her monitor suddenly flashed with a warning red notice that notified her with the words 'Abnormal movement detected.'
Rena hurriedly turned to the monitor and typed frantically until an image was displayed to her. Thousands of signatures were rapidly approaching from the island where the expedition was supposed to be centred around at an unbelievable speed!
"What the hell?!" she exclaimed.
Her mates turned to her and saw the activity on the monitor. One by one their faces looked perturbed by the occurrence.
The program that was constantly running, ran an analysis automatically and produced an estimated figure for the number of these approaching creatures.
98,894!
Nearly a hundred thousand!
"We have to warn the Safe Zones! This could be a disaster!" Rena stood up and prepared messages for the fast action drones to deliver but she was far from hopeful to be able to make it in time.
"Hey! Look the stragglers! They're vanishing!" said a lady from the team while pointing at the monitor.
Rena looked and saw the ever present lights over the outline of the projected state of the remaining land masses of the world vanishing one by one!
What was happening?!
***
Bernard stood, gazing at Emma who had her eyes flashing with a green light.
She had said something that tugged at his mental strings.
"I don't say this to blame you. But my child, you limit yourself to an astounding degree. You can do more for the world than with just your innate ability. You lack a clear goal because you haven't started being creative with your own life. You know how to make the lives of your written characters more exciting and lively but not your own. I believe my suggestion will help you," said Emma as she patted Bernard on the shoulder.
Bernard was still in a daze.
Was he still really limiting himself? He thought he had taken a giant leap in the past few days but it seemed he was wrong. Other than what Dexter said, he was more inclined to believe what Mother Earth said, though.
How exactly was he limiting himself? Scanning through his actions didn't produce a result and he was still left wondering.
"How did you know? Ahem..about the hiding thing?" he asked to combat the awkwardness he felt inside. He really did not winder such an obvious thing.
"The piece of myself within you tells me everything about you when you're near me. I could do that when my lands were not drained of life, but now I can only resort to this. Its like being paralysed and only being able to move your eyes. My lands and seas are my body after all," she said with a forlorn look appearing on her face but only for a split second.
"Right," I said.
Emma held Bernard's hands and looked into his eyes deeply.
"Reforming takes time. You'll figure it out. But build on what I've told you. Fighting with purpose is better than fighting without," she said.
"ARRRRGHHHHH Help! Somebody help!!! He's dying!" a screaming voice emanated from several blocks away, making everyone jolt.
Bernard was drawn by the voice and he rushed to towards where the voice was coming from.
However, along the way, as he stretched his vision beyond, he saw a frightening sight!
People everywhere ahead of him were suddenly losing the colour in their skin to a lifeless grey, their vitality vanishing only be replaced by a shrivelled husk that fell powerlessly to the ground!
What was even more unnerving was their screams that started off high pitched and turned low into raspy grunts as they lost their lives in seconds.
Bernard's eyes opened wide and he stopped.
He couldn't see what was attacking these people, but he began to sense it after a while. It was like a vast sea of greedy little organisms that swarmed the Safe Zone from the east!
Bernard immediately materialized his dice and threw them to the ground. He only realised a moment later that his impulse could deliver him into death's hands after the dice landed. However, there was no longer any time to worry about.
Dice A: 1
Dice O: 2
Bernard cursed but was grateful that it wasn't a penalty.
He had gotten the ability, Analysis.
With a chilling energy running down his entire body, Bernard felt the jolt of energy ring in his mind and amplify his senses tremendously. His mind mind body felt extremely sensitive to detail.
During Free Roll, Bernard would get Commando as it was considered the lowest capacity of the Character category. He never disputed this fact because he was the one who knew these abilities best.
Analysis was leagues above Commando.
This was because its function was not simply analysing. Bernard had designed Allen Woods to be a meticulous individual who was all for investigating any phenomenon regardless of the required needs. It did not matter how unorthodox the process was to him as long as there was a result.
Analysis, the man's power, was an ability that could unlock information about an item or phenomenon FULLY, as long as the user could use ALL their senses on it. Sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.
With each sense used, the more information was divulged from the target. When all the information about the target was discovered, the user would gain a grand boost when attacking them in any way. Where a flick of the finger would be akin to a hit from a sledge hammer to the target.
It was a handy ability that suited well for a regular human like Allen Woods whose sole advantage was mental prowess. However, using some of those senses would be a bloody pain in the ass, especially on a fight.
Bernard looked ahead, accepting the choice he got from the roll and using it.
Sight.
What was revealed to him was the tiny organisms that attacked the restless people who had been outside the buildings!
He saw them clearly! They looked like purplish hazy mosquitoes with a long stinger on their heads. Their bodies were complicated, with sections that he couldn't wrap his mind around. They had compound eyes that freaked the hell out Bernard as his eyes gave him a close up view.
When he looked to see one of these creatures moving at lightning speed towards one of the fleeing human beings, he saw it pierce their neck and then an unnerving thing happened!
A dark energy invaded the body of the victim and pushed up the light and glowing green energy within, which Bernard could clearly see as the life energy that was sustaining the victims Invigoration, in a fraction of a second!
The energy was sapped extremely quickly into the stinger and the little creature inflated from drawing in the energy which was stored in a complex looking organ within its body that looked like a revolving circular mass.
In the next microsecond, the life energy release a bright light that caused Bernard's sensitive eyes while under Analysis, to squint.
When the flash died down, the little creature was gone and cycle was happening everywhere!
"WHAT THE HECK?!!" he exclaimed!