Point-of-View: Zoraiz Rafayet
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"You're still too slow...you've made pretty much no progress in controlling your Aura at all, you know," Sighed Mike, as he knocked me down for the...I don't know, I lost count of how many times he's knocked me down at this point.
"Yeah, well, I don't know what you want from me, I mean...it's not like I've only had this Aura for two days, you know," I replied dryly, as I stood up with a sigh.
"You don't want to fall into sarcasm...it's the worst kind of chasm," Responded Mike, as he gestured to me to get back on my feet.
"Oh, wow, that pun made me cringe so hard that I think my balls got swallowed up into my body," I groaned in exasperation.
"Ignoring the last three words you said, my response is...that's what she said. Also, you seem kinda socially awkward most of the time, but you talk just fine when you're being argumentative, don't you?" He remarked with a look of intrigue.
"Uh...I do?" I responded, feeling kinda self-conscious...hey, it's not my fault that I haven't had many normal human interactions, leave me alone...
"Yup, you sure do. Anyways, getting back to the matter at hand...while you aren't making much progress with your Aura, but to be fair, this particular method that I'm having you train under isn't the most effective. Unfortunately, I can't help you with the more effective method by myself, since it requires the trainer to have a large Aura capacity too, and mine's about average. The higher ups will eventually rope in someone more suited to take over...Aura control should be easier to get the hang of once you start training under that method, but until then, keep working on it with this one. Now, come on, again...focus your Aura and come at me," He instructed, folding his arms.
"Okay, I'll try," I remarked with a sigh, as I stood up and-...suddenly, I was startled by an alarmed yell from behind me, followed by a thud, as if someone had fallen down.
I turned around, just in time to see a portal closing, and a guy on the floor, sweating profusely.
"Huh, where'd you come from?" I inquired in bemusement, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Looks like Neo found another one like you," Said Mike, as he walked over.
"Uh, what do you mean, 'like me'? That's racist," I replied in a dry tone.
"N-no, that's not what I meant! I meant 'like you', as in an artificially awakened Meta-Human, not as in you both look like you originate from the Indian subcontinent! I'm not racist, I have, like, a lot of black friends and-!" Mike began to defend himself.
"Oh my God, shut up, I was just fucking with you. No need to get so defensive," I sighed, rolling my eyes, before turning to the new guy, "Hey, uh, were you, like randomly kidnapped by, uh, a pretty-boy-type blonde guy, uh, probably mid-twenties?"
Ughh, Mike was right, I suck at speaking in a normal, noncombative tone...I felt myself cringing at the amount of times I said 'uh', kill me now...
"Well, I-...yeah, something like that," He replied warily, looking around uncertainly.
Another portal then opened up, and Neo dropped down through it.
"Hey, where is this!?" Snapped the new guy, storming over to Neo as he landed.
"Well, uh...where do I start?" Responded Neo sheepishly, before explaining, "This is a secret Harmony base, and Harmony is..."
He then went on the explain everything about Meta-Humans, the centuries-old conflict between Eden and Harmony, and then got into the more recent events that resulted in this whole mess.
"Okay, so, let me get this straight...you kidnapped me because of a mistake that YOU were responsible for, and now I have to work for you guys through no fault of my own!? You're kidding, right?" Frowned the new guy, before adding, "Look, I don't care how righteous your cause is or whatever, I just wanna go back home!"
His reaction is warranted, I suppose...the only reason why I'm not complaining anymore is because this place is a lot nicer than where I used to live. Which, you know, isn't exactly saying much...
"If I do that, Eden will come after you instead. That twintailed nuisance you encountered earlier is actually one of the more pleasant members of Eden," Remarked Neo wryly.
"Yeah, well, that's-...tch, whatever. So, how many of us have you kidnapped now, anyway?" He inquired dryly in response.
"You make number three...well, at least number three that I've kidn-...taken into custody," Replied Neo, correcting himself.
Hm? Wait a sec...
"Hold on, uh, who was the second? I was the first, and, uh, since he's the third...," I prompted him curiously.
He was silent for a moment, before his eyes widened in alarm...
"Oh, crap, I totally forgot! I left her in the doorless room, it's been over a day since then!" He exclaimed, before disappearing through a portal.
Huh...guess I'm about to meet the second kidnappee...
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Point-of-View: X
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I'll kill him...I swear, I'll fucking kill him! The hell am I supposed to do to get out of this situation, huh!? I'm in the middle of the goddamn ocean, I'm freezing cold and my mouth is disgustingly salty. Oh, and on a more concerning note...I was surrounded by sharks.
Yup, three of those ominous-looking fins were circling me, and the water was clear enough that I could see their bodies too. These things are seriously intimidating up close, I could see glimpses of their razor-sharp teeth, as they continued to circle me hungrily. This is too much, like, this is some straight-up horror movie shit, not something that happens in real life!
One of the sharks then moved in, opening its jaws and giving me a clear view of its wide rows of sharp teeth...again, this is some horror movie shit, why do I have deal with this crap!? I swiftly drew out two of my hidden daggers, quickly jamming one of them into the bottom of the shark's lower jaw while twisting my body out of the way before it could close its jaws, dragging the dagger across and killing it as I sliced open its gut.
Oh, it's floating, its insides are all falling out since I cut its gut open, making it lighter...guess I can use it to drift on. Whatever the case, I refuse to die here, I am not going to get killed by a bunch of stupid fish!
Also, the water here is absolutely freezing, so if I even so much as lose consciousness, my heart rate will drop all the way down and I'll probably die before long, assuming that I'm not eaten first. I quickly climbed atop the dead shark's corpse and flung a couple more daggers at the other two sharks as they began to enter a frenzy upon picking up the scent of blood.
My daggers struck them square in the middle of their heads, killing them both. Tch, but these are probably heavily shark-infested waters, so the blood from the ones I just killed might attract more-...never mind, here they are.
A lot of big-ass, carnivorous fish swimming towards this spot. Grr, fine, you wanna fight? Bring it the fuck on, I'm in an absolutely furious temper as it is, I'll just take it all out on these things! Most of them were distracted by the corpses of the ones I killed, which was good...I don't think I'd be able to fend them off if they all charged at me at the same time.
I quickly undid my belt buckle and pulled it out, before fastening it onto the handle of one of my remaining daggers, forming a makeshift bladed whip...with this many creatures closing in on me, I can't afford to waste my weapons, I've only got four daggers left on me, I'll be completely unarmed once those are gone.
As another shark swam at me, I swung my belt across towards it, the blade whipping through the air and slicing across its head, killing it instantly...nice, that worked better than I expected, I can do this! Alright, you stupid fucking fish, bring it the fuck on...!
...
Am I...still...alive? My arms are aching like crazy, and the water all around me was a deep red. As it turned out, fighting them off wasn't that hard, since most of the predatory seafood ended up getting distracted by the bleeding corpses of their fellow seafood and ignored me, giving me openings to strike.
On the bright side, I don't think there's any more fish with too many teeth coming after me, and also, I feel a bit less cold after moving around so much. On the not so bright side...I'm still in the middle of the goddamn ocean, I'm still soaked in ice cold salt water, and now, I'm also starting to feel quite hungry.
I didn't want to acknowledge it, but I've got a whole disgusting buffet right beneath me. I hate fish, both the texture and taste suck. Wait, is it even safe to eat raw fish? Oh, wait, that's literally what sushi is. Ugh...whatever, I'm so hungry right now that I couldn't care less.
I took out one of my daggers and cut out a piece of meat from one of the dead sharks, before reluctantly putting it in my mouth. Oh, God...th-this is fucking disgusting, it's so cold and slimy and bloody and fishy...I gagged as I took a bite, but forced myself to swallow it. And now for the bigger concern...water. Salt water will only dehydrate me and make me even more thirsty than I already am.
Th-then is my only option to...to drink the blood of these stupid fish!? I...I don't wanna!
O-okay, stay calm, I'll save that as a last resort. The water's so cold that they probably won't rot for a while. At first, the one I was on was the only one floating, since I'd sliced out its innards...most of the other corpses had sunk after I killed them, but some had floated back up after a while.
I feel a little bit better after taking that bite, but I'm still pretty hungry...I need to force myself to gulp down a few more chunks of shark. It's so cold that it'll be difficult to tell if and when I start getting weaker, so I need to keep my strength up...that said, I...I just don't see how I'm going to get out of this situation...
...
How long...have I been out here? I...I can't stop shivering, and my skin's all shriveled up and freezing. At least a day had passed, I know it...the sky got super dark not long after I ate as much shark meat as I could possibly keep down without puking my guts out, and I seriously thought that I was going to freeze to death several times. If I wasn't a Meta-Human, I probably would be dead by now.
Oh, and I'd switched from floating on a shark corpse to floating on a big plastic bottle, the kind used in water coolers. When I came across it, it was amongst a small patch of other floating garbage, and when I saw that...I'd never been more grateful to polluters.
Pollution, banzai! Heh...I think I'm starting to lose my fucking mind.
And I'd also hoped that it means that land was nearby...but there was nothing in sight but more ocean...for all I know, that patch of garbage could have floated here from hundreds of kilometers away. But I still couldn't help but hope that land was somewhere nearby...
Tch, who am I kidding...that bastard Neo must have dropped me off in seldom-patrolled waters, I bet he researches shit like that so that he can fuck his enemies over like this.
Damn it...so then, this is it, huh? I'm...I'm gonna die out here, in the middle of fucking nowhere, probably freeze to death or some sh-...hm? What's that? Something big is coming this way...is it a whale or something?
Crap, or maybe it's a Monster? I've been suppressing my Aura this whole time, just out of habit, so I normally wouldn't attract Monsters, but...if there's no one else around, then even the tiniest hint of Aura might be enough to attract them...I think. I don't know, I really don't have all that much experience fighting Monsters.
Wait, hold on a sec...that's not a Monster, I don't think. Maybe I'm just hallucinating out of desperation, but I...I think that's a ship!
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