"What a pity." Richard calmly spoke, dropping her lifeless body to the floor as he then looked over to Atlanta, who had a shocked expression on her face.
"Am sorry you have to witness that, but the hunters deserve much worse after what they've done." Richard said in a systematic male robotic voice, sending chills down Atlanta's spine.
"Woah!" Everyone back at the resistance was shocked, seeing the sudden appearance of Richard gene in his otherworldly nanites suit.
The big 5 were also left expressionless, as they were witnessing the revered idol that saved humanity, in action against a lv4 hunter.
"H-he killed her just like that." Kira muttered.
"Yeah.. he didn't even break a sweat." Gin also said shocked and left speechless.
Zero just stared with a smile on his face not having any comments at all, seemingly watching the scene play out.
....
"H-how?" Atlanta asked, causing Richard to raise a brow under his nanites suit.
"What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. You created the nanites to end the war, so that must mean-" she paused in her words as she gulped a huge amount of saliva down her throat, realizing what she was about saying.
"Of course, this is what you may call the big finale." The nanites covering his face dissolved into his suit, as he smiled softly at Atlanta.
'Boom!' A huge explosion occured as an unidentified object crashed into the ground, creating a deep crater going down to six feets. Waves of strong air surged from the crash along with smoke and multiple derbies, flying everywhere shooting fast like bullets. Richard shielded Atlanta from the derbies and dust, as he wasn't affected in the slightest standing string.
A few moments the dust settled, and they could now clearly see the figure of what looked like a humanoid android, just like that of the one Richard wore. The android suit was coloured a deep black and red, giving it an obscene presence filled with insidious and alarming aura.
The android then raised his head standing up, as it stared at Richard and Atlanta with it's red glowing eyes. It then stopped at Atlanta, looking at her with a complicated expression as if contemplating on something, before finally averting it's gaze now staring at Richard.
"I see you've gotten an upgrade." Richard jokingly spoke, but it only made the other opponent pissed as it shot out a red beam hitting Richard, sending him skidding back a bit.
"Ouch! That hurt a bit." Richard uttered but he wasn't truly hurt by the attack, as his nanites suit did well in defending him.
...
'What..' the holographic screen displaying Atlanta's progress at the resistance then suddenly malfunctioned, showing blank across all screens.
"What's wrong?" Lira muttered heading over to the control panel, to try and figure out the cause of the sudden black out. She could see everything running well as the indicator light showed green, meaning the scene was still playing out only it wasn't visible to them.
"No no!" Zero angrily spoke slamming his fist to the table, breaking off a part of it seemingly annoyed by this.
'What's his deal.' kira like everyone else was upset, but looking at zero she could see he was acting more strangely than ever right now.
'After all this years, you still found a way to delay the inevitable. You fool.' Zero silently thought to himself, staring out the window with a frown on his face.
.....
"Am afraid this is where you'll have to leave now kid." Richard softly said, making Atlanta raised a brow as she was confused by what he meant.
"I know this is just a stimulation kid, you're in the fortifier back in reality at the resistance HQ." Atlanta's jaw dropped as he revealed that.
"H-how did you-"
"I was the one that brought you here in the first place." He smiled, only making Atlanta more confused as many thoughts crossed her mind.
"B-but you're dead, how can you possibly bring me here?"
"Haha!" Richard chuckled gently, shaking his head a bit. "So that's what they termed me. Hell! I suppose am some sort of legend now." He smiled, a bitter smile forming on his face.
"Am afraid am still very much alive child." Richard smirked, making Atlanta's heart skip a beat as her expression went blank.
"But-"
"I don't have time to answer your questions kid. but I promise you, the more you regain your memories the more you'll understand." He spoke crouching down a bit, the nanites around his arm left there going back to his suit. He then softly brushed his hand against her cheeks, as he smiled bitterly.
"Just know you're not alone. I'll always be watching you guiding you and of course, helping you evolve into your former self." He said getting up, the nanites covering every part of his body as his eyes glowed a dark black.
"With every memory you unlock you'll get a special reward from the system. I wish we could have more time but alas, destiny has it's way." Atlanta wanted to speak but the words couldn't come out from her throat, as she stared in disbelief. Then suddenly a bright white light enveloped the whole area, as everything became blurry. The only thing she remembered last was seeing Richard gene, shoot out to face the ominous hunter in front.
...
"Quick! get her out of there." Lira ordered, pulling Atlanta out from the damaged fortifier along with the help of Rhoin and some other students.
"S-she's not breathing." Rhoin panickly spoke as he placed his ear down to her heart, not hearing any signs of a pulse or heartbeat.
"Fuck! Quick, get the AED.!" Lira shouted, as they placed the small metal box to the floor. Rubbing the two metal irons together she charged it up, placing it on Atlanta's chest sending waves of electric current through her system.
'Fuck! it didn't work..'
"Increase the voltage!" She declared to which they did. Trying again it was still the same outcome as it didn't work, Atlanta giving up by the second.
"We're losing her!" Rhoin screamed, feeling Atlanta's pulse fading away her body becoming cold, as she was slowly giving in to the sneers of death.
"No. No one's dying on my watch." Lira screamed maxing out the voltage rating, clanging the two iron together she placed them to Atlanta's chest. Pressing the button, huge amounts of currents were transferred through Atlanta's system as her body jerked up a bit.
"A-am sensing movements. Again!" Nodding, lira charged up the AED machine again. placing it to Atlanta's chest, huge waves of electric current were transported to her system.
"Ahh!" Atlanta's eye fluttered open, as she panted in huge amounts of air.
"Wh-where am I? Mom dad no!" Atlanta screamed, struggling to breathe as her breathing had become very fast.
"Easy Atlanta~ you're safe now. You're back in reality, at the resistance HQ. It's me Rhoin." He softly said, and she seemed to have calmed down a bit hearing that name.
"Rhoin.." she softly said under his embrace staring at him a bit, before her eyes slowly fluttered shut from mental exhaustion.
"Rhoin take her to the health department, she needs to recover for now." Lira ordered to which Rhoin nodded, picking Atlanta up she was a bit heavy for him until he got an assist.
"Don't think we're friends, I just hate seeing someone interesting die so uselessly." Zain softly said with his usual dull expressionless face. Nodding Rhoin couldn't argue as Atlanta's life was on the line, and besides he didn't have anything against Zain as Jack was the one that had attacked him.
"Alright everyone listen up! due to some unexpected occurrence we just witnessed today, training has been cancelled for the period until tomorrow." Lira declared. looking at the students, she could see many of them had looks of concern shock fear and much more on their faces, hearing those words.
'What happened in there?' just few moments ago everything was fine, as Atlanta progressed far beyond her expectations despite the challenges. But when everything got interesting, as they saw Richard gene in this unique battle suit their interest piqued, excitement tingling all over their bodies then the unexplainable happened.
The screen suddenly went blank, cutting their view from the holographic screen displaying nothing. She'd thought it was a system error, but alas it wasn't. it was something far more than she could comprehend.
'Am surprised she's still alive after ten hours in the fortifier.' Normally the highest one lasted there was 5 hours, but Atlanta had completely shattered the record with a mind blowing 10 hours. 1 hour was good 2 impressive then 3 to 5 was just awesome, going from 5 upwards was just hard to believe as it had never been done until now.
...
"Please be ok.." Rhoin softly whispered, holding her hand as she laid on top of the metal bed with white sheets. Several monitors displaying her health feed, were strapped to her arms and neck as she slowly recovered.
Zain was surprisingly still in the room with Rhoin and Atlanta, as he stared at her with complicated eyes seemingly contemplating on something.
"Your friend, something's off about her." Zain abruptly spoke, causing Rhoin to stare at him weirdly.
"What do you mean idiot. you're just too dumb enough to understand how hard she tries." Rhoin frowned, ignoring Zain as he checked on his friend.
"Am just saying.. I know you feel something's off about her, but you're just too naive to admit it." Rhoin's eye widened a bit hearing Zain say those words. Even though he didn't want to believe something was off about Atlanta he just couldn't, as it was too hard to comprehend.
"Am not saying it's a bad thing or good, but at least you should ask her. That is.. if you two are really close." Zain softly said standing up, looking at Atlanta for the last time before he turned leaving the room.
'I don't care what anyone thinks, you'll still be my friend Atlanta.' Rhoin inwardly thought glancing at Atlanta. Even if all Zain said was true he didn't care, as he cared more about his friend than anyone here.
'Maybe I'll ask her.' He thought. He wouldn't say they were too close, but he felt they were building a strong relationship soon. As everyone else, he had a strong urge to ask her some questions but restrained himself, intending not to spoil their relationship. But now, he would summon up the courage to finally ask her what truly happened.