Point-of-View: Adelmira Hartley
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"Uh, hello...nice to meet you," I greeted awkwardly.
"Huh? Who are you, kid?" Came the disinterested response.
It was the 19th of May, about four days after I'd learnt more about Meta-Human history from X. Yesterday, the third Outlier captured by Eden, pop star Astra aka Luna Castillo, had a Condition placed on her, so she was joining in on the training starting today. Apparently, that Ash guy had been busy with something else, so it took a while for him to get here.
"Oh, my name is Adelmira, and I'm a big fan of yours...though I suppose this isn't exactly the right circumstance for a meet and greet, huh?" I replied jokingly...X said she's crazy, but maybe a friendly approach would-...
"Yeah, whatever. Aren't you people supposed to discriminate against me for being an 'Outlier' or whatever? What, are you just making an exception because you like my songs?" She scoffed in response.
"Uh...I think you're misunderstanding something. I'm an Outlier too," I clarified, right as Osian walked in, his expression as sour as even.
We were in a training room, waiting for Trevor. With the Conditions placed on us, it was too dangerous to try and escape or whatever, so he simply told X to inform us to come here and wait for him...and if even someone like Mr Osian showed up obediently, it just emphasizes how much these Conditions restrain us.
"Oh...well, either way, I'm not interested in you. This stupid Condition thing won't let me kill you, but keep bugging me and I just might test the limits of how far I'm allowed to go," She stated bluntly, before glancing at Osian, "Is that guy an Outlier too?"
Wait, so should I leave her alone or answer her question? I'll go with the latter, probably shouldn't ignore her. I'm starting to see why X was warning me to be careful around her...
"Yeah, he was brought here before me."
He then noticed her, and his eyes lit up, before walking towards her. After we saw the viral clips of Astra, X and I dug deeper into the recent trending topics, and we found footage of Mr Osian too.
It was pretty vile, he was gleefully killing people, and apparently kidnapped, raped and then killed some women in between his rampages too. He's seriously repulsive.
"Well, hello...haven't seen a body like this in a while, wanna have some fun, sexy?" He inquired, practically drooling as he shamelessly checked out her body.
Astra looked immensely repulsed and disgusted at first, before a dark gleam appeared in her eyes, a faint, terrifying smile appearing on her face for a brief moment. I slowly backed away from the two of them, sensing that a storm was brewing...
"Sure, why not? Why don't you whip that dick out...," Began Astra in a seductive tone, before suddenly remarking in a bone-chillingly cold, terrifying voice as he eagerly began to unbuckle his belt, "...so that I can burn it off."
Flames then sprouted around her, causing him to stumble back with a yelp of alarm.
"Wh-wha...what d-do you think you're doing, y-you crazy bitch!?" He sputtered in terror.
"Hm? What's wrong? Isn't this what you wanted?" She inquired in an innocent, yet bloodthirsty, tone, a murderous smirk on her face as streaks of flames blazed out of her mouth, "Tell you what, I'll even use my mouth! Wow, aren't you one lucky bastard?"
Yikes...
"S-stay back, I'm warning you...!" He cried in fear, as he formed a sharp, rocky projectile.
The door then opened and Trevor walked in, an irritated frown appearing on his face as he saw what was happening.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing? You, put out your flames. Fatso, why is your belt unbuckled, you incompetent slug? And you, why are you here? Go to one of the other empty training rooms and work on output control!" He snapped, before letting out an annoyed sigh.
Why am I getting yelled at the loudest? I wasn't even doing anything! But on the bright side, at least I get to train alone instead of having to be in the same room as these two freaks.
I quickly and silently left the room, before heading into one of the other training rooms and shutting the door once I was inside with a quiet sigh of relief.
Alright, let's get to training! I'm sure that, eventually, Eden and Harmony will end up having each of their Outliers fight each other, that'll be my opportunity to make contact with a Light Skill user and try to negotiate, without triggering the Condition.
But that's a long way away, I can't afford to get too far ahead of myself, I need to focus on taking one step at a time. For now, I'll remain docile and obedient so that Eden won't keep too close an eye on me...that shouldn't be all that difficult though, those two maniacs will definitely attract a lot of attention, given their personalities, and I'll use that to fly under the radar.
Strategically speaking, asking for the opportunity to kill the guy who killed my mother might mess up that strategy, but I don't care...I'm not gonna budge on that, my main goal may be to regain my freedom, but my most immediate goal is to kill that bastard.
I've fully mastered Aura Control, and after two days of output control training, I'm able to stably maintain an output of 45 Aura. Trevor gave me a pretty brief explanation of how this training works, so for the most part, I had to figure it out for myself, though X gave me a lot of useful advice too.
And once I got the hang of it, I think I made some pretty decent progress. Trevor's reaction seemed to indicate as much, he seemed surprised when I showed him my progress. X seemed surprised too, and even said that it was pretty fast.
Mr Osian will probably complete his Aura control training sometime today, I wonder how well Astra will progress. Now, then...let's see how far I can get within the next five hours...
...
...
Okay...I think that's enough for today, I'm feeling kinda worn out. I made some great progress, I can maintain an output of 95 Aura now, an increase of 50 from yesterday. And I don't think I'm anywhere near my max output just yet. Now, then, I've decided...I won't reveal the exact extent of my progress.
I'll tell Trevor that I got to an output of 80 Aura. What's more, once I reach my maximum output, I'll keep it to myself and downplay it. It may very well end up being a pointless move, but on the other hand, it could give me an advantage further down the line.
It probably shouldn't take me more than two more days to master output control, and once that's done, I'll be able to learn some Aqua Skill techniques. And then, I'll kill the bastard that murdered my mother...
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Point-of-View: Arisu Kimura
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"Tch, what a nuisance," I muttered irritably, as I stared out the window of the plane I was on.
It was the 20th of May, and I was currently on my way to Namibia, where it's believed that another Outlier has been found. One of the lackeys had been on vacation there a couple of days ago, and while taking a tour of a nature reserve, sensed a massive, incredibly powerful Aura.
The previous reports indicated that the Auras of the Outliers were uncontrolled and lacking in intensity and pressure. But this one stated that the sensed Aura was very much under control, and unbelievably powerful at that.
And therefore, the higher ups decided to assign a Category 0 to investigate this, and they picked me...and I'm not happy about it, to put it lightly. I requested a small team of Category 1s to assemble there ahead of me, just in case. Once I arrive in Namibia, I'll send them to check it out. Hopefully, they'll be able to handle it.
Because if they fail, I'll have to get involved, which sounds like a huge pain. I have no interest in this whole Outlier business, I just want to rise up in the ranks so that I'll be assigned less field missions. I much prefer to be the one giving orders than being given orders.
Bottom line, I hate being told what to do. Whatever, I'll get this assignment over with as soon as possible and then head back to the base in Greenland. Ugh, still two hours before I get to the airport, I think I'll take a nap...
...
Jetlag is the worst...I feel all groggy. Damn it, why can't any of our Space Skill users use the Portal technique, like that bastard from Harmony. Sure, that's a technique that only two others have ever mastered throughout history, but still.
Well, whatever, at least I'm finally here. It's 8 PM right now, I'm so freaking tired. We don't have a hidden base in Namibia, so I'll be staying in a hotel. The team I requested should have booked a suite in a hotel near the nature reserve where the Aura was sensed from.
Okay, yeah, they've sent the location to my phone. I should get over there quickly so that I can brainwash the staff into letting us stay for free.
I'll make my way over there right away, and once I get there, I'll take a long nap before dealing with the assignment. I need to shake off this damned jetlag, plus it's too dark out anyway. I headed for the exit and flagged down a taxi, before giving the driver the location and sitting in the back seat, leaning my head against the window with a tired sigh, my breath fogging up the glass slightly.
I'll use my Dark Skill to brainwash this guy into giving me a free ride, I'm not wasting my money on this, it's not like Eden gave me an allowance or anything...sure, I'm loaded and all, but that doesn't mean I have to spend my money if I don't want to.
I let out a stifled yawn and rubbed the corner of my right eye as we came to a stop at a traffic light, a bunch of people crossing the street as the light turned red...ugh, I'm so tired.
The hotel is just a couple of kilometers from the airport, so I should get there in no ti-...hm? I glanced out with a frown, looking around while channeling Aura around my eyes.
It felt like someone was staring at me...could it have been a Meta-Human? Or was it just my imagination, or maybe just a random guy checking me out or something?
Hm...I must be overthinking things, I don't see any Auras anywhere in sight. Oh, we're moving again...great, should be at the hotel soon...
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