2 years before the events of chapter - 1…
There was a huge gathering at the Royal Capital Hall. The crowd was cheering loudly to celebrate the appearance of a very famous singer across the Galaxy, May Alastair. With her rather devilish aesthetic of makeup with black lipstick, dark eyeshadow and everything and a gothic choice of clothes, she certainly stood out from the majority crowd.
Above the massive crowd stood Tommy on the fly tower of the theater with binoculars in his hands and a bag of potato chips in his other hand.
As he takes a potato chip out to eat it, he also activates his ear piece to say "Nothing yet." to Björn who was sitting among the audience with binoculars of his own and replies, "I don't see anything suspicious either."
Just then, a device in Tommy's pocket started to beep. The device had a little camera in front and a screen showing some numbers alongside the live footage it was recording of the view below. Upon taking the device out of his pocket, Tommy begins to scan the area by walking over the fly tower until the beep is louder.
At some point, the device was at its loudest and the screen had marked a certain individual with a red dot above his face. The numbers around this person were also off the charts. Taking note of this person's seat number among the audience, Tommy reactivates his ear piece to convey Björn a message saying, "I think our suspect is at Seat 74-B".
"You sure?" Björn asks for confirmation, to which Tommy replies by saying, "I'm absolutely sure. This rating of radiation is similar to the last attack we were unable to stop."
With his eyes widened upon hearing the information, Björn responds saying, "Hang on… I'll go check up on him. Don't jump on him just yet…", to which Tommy again reacts saying, "Make it quick. We don't have much time. The radiation rating is increasing by the second from this guy…"
Björn slowly starts making his way to around seat 74-B and taps his communicator, however, this time, suspiciously enough, it was the man at seat 74-B picking up HIS ear piece and saying, "As you wish my lord…"
With the radiation rating rapidly on the rise, Tommy repeatedly taps his communicator and yells, "BJÖRN!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING DOWN THERE!! THAT GUY IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE!!"
With no response from Björn, Tommy impulsively takes a leap from the fly tower and onto the suspicious man at seat 74-B as he stands and spreads his arm into the air and starts to show electric sparks around his body.
Just before the suspicious man could explode, Tommy had taken him down to the ground and had the man's arms against his own back as he yelled, "You're under arrest for being in suspicion of the recent terrorist attacks across the capital. You not only have the right to remain silent but I'd prefer if your ass kept your mouth shut-", but soon, he was interrupted as the man freed himself from Tommy's grip with extraordinary strength and flung him halfway through the city hall causing a panic among all the visitors there.
All the visitors began evacuating the hall and the singer May Alastair was being taken away by the security to a more secure place. Seeing the commotion, the suspicious man looked furiously at Tommy and screamed, "YOU MEDDLING CHILD! HAVE YOU NO IDEA HOW BLASPHEMOUS THE MERE NOTION OF SUCH A LARGE CROWD PRESENT TO MAKE A MOCKERY OUT OF THE LORD HERE IS?! IT IS MY DUTY AS AN ANGEL OF THE LORD TO PURGE SUCH TREACHEROUS BEINGS WHO CLAIM TO BE VOCALLY SOUND YET USE THEIR GOD GIVEN TALENTS IN SUCH DISSERVICE!!"
"Angel huh? To me, you just seem like another super powered loser. Come on buddy, I'm prepared for any of your attacks. Especially now that I know you've got a little more strength than an average citizen!" says Tommy with a smug tone of voice.
"YOU DARE MOCK AN ANGEL!? I'LL PURGE YOU TOO!!" screamed the so-called angel as he lept towards Tommy at an astounding speed, however, this time, Tommy really was prepared for a hit and blocked it with ease. Without a second to waste, Tommy punched the angel in the face and sent him flying across half the hall this time.
"Is that all you've got?" says Tommy with a smirk as he starts dashing into the angel's direction. Meanwhile, Björn looked at the walls behind the angel as his eyes glowed with blue light and the wall behind the angel had exploded. This gave the angel an opening to escape from the hall while Tommy who had just reached him was lost as to how the wall burst open by itself.
Not giving much time to think as to what had happened to the wall, Tommy chases the angel halfway through the city and much to his and every citizen's surprise, this really was some sort of deity. It was inexplicable as to how else this seemingly human-like person could fly. Although, from the classic depiction of angels everyone knew of, this was quite different in the regard that the angel's wings could not be seen.
Having closed in on the angel finally, Tommy lunges into the air by exerting tremendous force on the ground using his binding energy, rolls in the air until he reaches a point above the angel and dashes down with a mega-powerful kick to the angel's face which sends the angel rolling onto the ground and crashing into a wall.
Upon landing onto the ground, Tommy walks towards the angel and notices that he has spread his arms in the air once again and is radiating white light so bright that it could be called blinding at that particular moment. However, taking no risks, Tommy grabbed the angel by the arm and flung him as high as he could across the air.
Soon afterwards, the angel exploded and released a huge shockwave that caused nearby electric poles to fall, wires to shatter, windows of nearby skyscrapers to break and many people to fall down from the impact. Despite the amount of people saved that day, the danger was only on the rise with these recent instances of 'Angelic Terrorism'.
A few moments later, Björn had finally arrived at the scene to ask if Tommy was okay to which he replied saying, "I'm fine. You're not hurt though are you?"
"Not a bit. Sorry I was so slow at the hall before. I got scared…" responded Björn to Tommy's concern, to which Tommy reacted saying, "Eh, don't worry about that. Seeing how big the damn explosion these so-called 'angels' leave behind, I see no reason not to be scared. Although yeah, you might wanna get over it if you wanna be promoted to anything beyond a cadet."
Hearing Tommy's reaction, Björn simply chuckled which caused Tommy to laugh a little as well before he spoke up saying, "Anyways. I'll go report this to the military. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!"
After Tommy had left, Björn made his way to what seemed like an abandoned military facility in the outskirts of the city. There, he laid his back against the wall and his eyes turned completely blue in an instant. Soon afterwards, a black cloaked figure arrived.
"Took you long enough. You should be glad I'm this patient… Sina…" spoke Michael in his actual voice and not Björn's.
"Apologies my lord. Finding the military base is tougher than I had imagined. It seems you haven't been so lucky either. Perhaps pretending to be that child's best friend isn't as fast as you'd have thought huh my lord?" said Sina with an unusual hint of sarcasm in his voice and a silly expression with his tongue out of his mouth a little.
"Silence mortal! You're overstepping your bounds of speech. Have you got no idea who you're talking so disrespectfully to you insolent rat? And what's with you suddenly having a tinge of personality? You're usually so… BLAND. It's creepy to see you have anything quirky about yourself." Michael expresses his disgust having been cooperating with Sina for quite some time.
With his expression back to being emotionless, Sina shrugs nonchalantly as he replied, "Just thought one of my performances might make you feel more normal talking to me my lord. But I guess it backfired."
With a tinge of disgust still on his face, Michael replies, "Just stick to your emotionless self. Something about your disguises ticks me off although they do seem to be very compelling even to a divine being such as myself. They're quite perfect. Maybe your emotionless existence is a boon in that regard. You can adapt to any new personality or emotion and become a completely new person.
Despite that, you are quite a scumbag. You disguise yourself solely to meet your own ends. But I admire the fact that you have your mind set on what you want. Such ambition is… Pure. If only other mortals had such pure ambition. Their prayers make my head hurl. Always unable to decide what they truly want."
"Interesting perspective… Perhaps I can use this as a reference for my future disguises." Said Sina while taking notes.
With an awkward droplet of sweat at the back of his head, Michael scoffs as he continues to antagonize Sina by saying, "Forget what I said. You're not just creepy when you're disguised., you're really fucking creepy all the damn time. Anyways, what do you suggest would speed up the process of extracting the location of the military base huh? You boasted quite some confidence about your approach being better than mine. Go on! Don't stay silent! Testing my patience wouldn't be the right idea!"
After speaking whatever he had to, Michael just bursts into laughter while Sina responds saying, "I do have an idea and it might just help us finally succeed if you get involved as well…", which catches Michael's attention immediately as he stops laughing, smirks deviously and replies, "I'm listening."
Meanwhile, back at the military base…
"Good job Tommy. You managed to save a lot of lives today. So I was thinking of a little surprise for you." Says M1ke with a smirk while lodging his elbow on his desk and having his hand right under his chin.
Intrigued by his words, Tommy responds, "Surprise…?"
Getting up from his chair with his hands at the back, walking his way towards Tommy and putting his hand on his shoulder, M1ke replies, "Yes, a surprise. I've been thinking of recommending you for the position of Captain. It's quite a big feat to even be a first lieutenant at your age let alone even be a part of the military."
With his eyes shining brightly, excitedly Tommy yells, "Hell yeah!"
"That's the spirit I like to see. But the work of a captain is much harder. You'll have subordinates, a lot of documentation after each mission and your trials would only get tougher now that a general or captain class soldier wouldn't be leading you on many of your upcoming commissions. Are you sure you're prepared?" Says M1ke with a chuckle.
"You don't have to ask. Your orders are kinda annoying on missions anyways. Not like I haven't been doing work by myself lately." replied Tommy in a rather nonchalant and smug way that ticks M1ke off a little.
"No need to get so cocky you little runt-!" exclaimed M1ke before getting interrupted by Mari who barges into the room saying, "Alright, before you guys have your minds set on that promotion to captain already, I'd like to conduct a necessary physical examination on Tommy for his recommendation form."
"Boring!" responded the two boys with beady eyes.
"UGH! HOW ARE YOU GUYS EVEN IN THE MILITARY WITHOUT A SINGLE CARE FOR STANDARD PROCEDURE! YOU ESPECIALLY M1KE! YOU WERE ABOUT TO LECTURE TOMMY ON MORE DOCUMENTATION AS A CAPTAIN BUT HERE YOU ARE!" screamed Mari, annoyed by their attitudes.
"I think she's on her period." said M1ke while Tommy just nods while the two of them are just ducking in the corner.
"IT IS", "IMPOLITE", "TO TALK", "ABOUT WOMEN", "THAT WAY", "BEHIND", "THEIR" and "BACK!!" screamed Mari with each stop being a punch to both their faces.
With the two left comically heavily injured, they shake the injuries off in no time, look normal again and apologize saying, "Sorry…" while following Mari to the physical examination room.
In the Physical Examination Room…
"W-Woah… You're already 171 cm tall… That's taller than me and I never even noticed…" Says a rather startled Mari with her eyes wide open upon measuring Tommy's height.
"171 cm!? The kid's gonna be my height after the next 10 cm!?" M1ke replies upon hearing the unusually grown height Tommy has at age 13.
Getting off the height scale, Tommy wonders with his hand right under his chin, "Huh? Is it really that tall for my age?"
"Uh… Yeah… Your dad was only 175 cm and your mom was only 155 cm tall… Even genetics wise you're a bit unusually taller for going through about the same amount of training as your dad…" responded Mari with a gulp.
Walking around, M1ke stops right next to a desk while resting his hand on it to also add, "Not to mention you're quite muscular for a child too. Me and Isaac were scrawny compared to you even though we had a slight muscle growth ourselves."
"Strange…" Mumbled Tommy.
Shrugging it off with a smug sigh, M1ke just asserts, "Eh, that's a good thing. That just means you'd be a more resilient adult when you grow up. That's helpful when you're a soldier in such a harsh battlefield. So how about we put your physical prowess to a test huh?"
Blinking twice, Tommy asked, "A test?", to which M1ke nodded and continued, "Yeah, a test. Just to see how you fare. If you do well, I'll give more dangerous missions since you enjoy them so much. After all, it's only fair to make use of your gifted talents at a younger age so you're a more 'experienced' adult and require less time to adjust than if I gave you said missions much later."
Taking a few moments to stretch, an enthusiastic and smug Tommy smirks and exclaims, "Sounds like a plan to me!"
Seeing Tommy's compliance, M1ke smirks back and takes him to the training room where Mari provides them with strap-like gadget that they both tie around their feet.
Walking towards a 2.5 mile race track, M1ke stops at the starting line and takes a deep breath before speaking, "Alright. For the first test, we'll be running 10 laps here and compare our speeds. Understood?", to which Tommy nods and prepares himself to run by stretching a little and getting into his ready position on the starting line alongside M1ke.
Holding a stopwatch and a whistle, Mari yelled, "Ready? Three… Two… One… Go!", and whistled loudly while simultaneously turning the timer on.
The start is quite evenly matched. Surprisingly, compared to the so-called fastest of the royal military, M1ke, Tommy had a higher starting speed of 120 Kilometers per hour within the first 3 seconds while M1ke sported a roughly 100 Kilometers per hour pace. Upon completion of the first lap itself, Tommy had accelerated to 222 Kilometers per hour while M1ke was at only 160 Kilometers per hour.
Noticing Tommy outpace him in raw speed, M1ke began to slowly integrate binding energy into his feet which accelerated him to 193 Kilometers per hour by the third lap while Tommy had began to stagnate to 198 Kilometers per hour due to not conserving too much raw physical energy right when he started.
Seeing Tommy slow down, M1ke decides to take a breather by the start of the halfway to the fourth lap, leveraging his speed to around Tommy's level before accelerating higher on a later lap.
By the fifth lap, M1ke had a slight edge in distance covered compared to Tommy. Taking note of that, Tommy begins to fuel binding energy into his own legs as well, quickly accelerating him to 318 Kilometers per hour and getting a surprise edge on M1ke who took quite a snore-y breather which allowed Tommy to go a whole 1.3 laps ahead of M1ke. Tommy was now at lap 6.5.
While M1ke tried to catch up, he was still on lap 6.1 while Tommy was already at lap 7.2. Losing his cool, M1ke decides to stop holding back and tries to accelerate even higher. The race was getting more and more intense as each millisecond passed. Tommy had made it to Lap 7.8 while M1ke gradually ended up slowing down unintentionally and was still at lap 6.8.
With his veins popping right on his forehead and his eyes about to bulge out of his damn skull, M1ke began to wave his arms faster than ever while running and his back bent to extreme levels. His back was now streamlined down to the point his face could touch his knees. As Tommy reached lap 8.1, M1ke had closed the distance to lap 7.4. By the time Tommy reached lap 8.2, M1ke closed it further down to lap 7.6.
As Tommy approached lap 8.3, M1ke who had just made it to lap 7.9 had his pupils nearly disappear and the corners of his eyes were nearly red from all the optical veins popping onto the surface due to such immense acceleration in such a short time.
M1ke's teeth were gritting in desperation of his oversight and underestimation of Tommy's performance when he closed in to reaching lap 8.3, only 0.1 laps behind Tommy. The both ran consistently at the same top speed of 333 Kilometers per hour until they were on an equal footing between laps 8.7 and 9. Between laps 9.1 and 9.4, M1ke's feet could barely be stable on the ground as he made it 0.05 laps ahead of Tommy.
Tommy, who was now equally desperate, clenched his fists tightly, pressured his feet, gritted his teeth down to a level that'd even turn metal into dust and stopped waving his hands to streamline his body like a plane, causing him to slow down back to 318 Kilometers per hour. This let M1ke get ahead by a whole 0.1 lap and Tommy was now at lap 9.6 while M1ke was at lap 9.7.
Soon however, Tommy was now floating and got flung by the torque to a whopping 370 Kilometers per hour in mere nano seconds, allowing Tommy to gain the edge by 0.105 laps and getting to lap 9.905 while M1ke was still at lap 9.8. Screwing his sanity, M1ke used a huge burst of binding energy to gain his iconic military acceleration on a practice drill against his own student just so he could taste victory because of his own oversight and foolishness to underestimate Tommy's resolve in this whole matter.
At lap 9.95, Tommy had reached a top speed of 390 Kilometers per hour. At this point, M1ke had already slipped down to the 220 Kilometers per hour mark a few times between laps 9.87 and 9.89 but managed to use a pure leap of excess binding energy instead of using his torque which put an enormous amount of pressure on his ankle, enough to break it and drop him down to 160 Kilometers per hour again by lap 9.91 but taking a huge risk, he spun over his head and mixed a very small amount of torque with his binding energy and managed to leap to above 531 Kilometers per hour and catch up with Tommy at lap 9.999 but won by 0.001 laps, leaving Tommy, still at a top speed of 390 Kilometers per hour while he himself broke the sound barrier by lap 9.999 and got a very small distance coverage at that specific 0.001st part of the final lap which allowed him to make it to lap 10 faster than Tommy.
As the race ended, M1ke had been flung past the wall, breaking it, while Tommy had been flung onto the wall and falling back down onto the ground without breaking it.
Mari was severely disappointed in how M1ke chose to win yet still declared him the winner reluctantly while both M1ke and Tommy had their heads spinning so much they couldn't give a damn about who won just now.
Shaking her head after a deep sigh, Mari easily lifted the two of them onto her shoulders and got them to the safety of a bed to rest. After about an hour, the two were relatively better.
"So, who won?" The two asked immediately as the first thing upon their heads feeling a little less spinny. Upon hearing what the two had to say, Mari furiously slammed their heads with their medical reports, causing the two to grab their heads in pain and yell, "OUCH!! WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?"
With her eyebrow now twitching aggressively and veins popping on her forehead, she yelled, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!? THE G-FORCES OF YOUR LITTLE 'PRACTICE RUN' HAD NEARLY GIVEN YOU BOTH BRAIN DAMAGE!"
Taking a few deep breaths to calm down, Mari walked through the room with a deep sigh. Each step she took had both M1ke and Tommy remain utterly silent and anxious. She finally decided to speak up with one final sigh, "As soldiers, you both should be more careful as to where you expend your energy, so as to plan ahead to where you want to make the most of it. Nearly taking severe brain damage over a mundane sparring session instead of a deathmatch on a battlefield is only going to put you at a severe disadvantage during an actually desperate time. So please be more mature and cautious about it!"
Her expression had softened as she spoke the last of what she had to, Tommy's expression of comical fear had turned into a frown upon the realization of the risks a soldier can unpredictably run into. Meanwhile, M1ke simply sighed while his expression stayed more neutral than anything before he finally decided to speak up as well.
"You're right. We took this little sparring session a notch too far. Especially with these angel terror attacks going on, this broken ankle of mine is only going to set me back. I really ain't doing a great job being a role model huh?" He finished with a light chuckle. Despite trying to seem lighthearted, his eyes made his disappointment in his actions clear.
"T-that's not it-" Mari tried to intervene but fell short of words to say and so did Tommy try to intervene but with a more composed stature by responding, "N-no way. I owe a lot to you. I wouldn't have come this far had it not been for your training. Even if you're a dumb old man or not!"
Taking a second to genuinely chuckle this time, M1ke replied, "You really don't cut me the slack even when you try to make me feel better eh kid? Y'know what, I appreciate that. You too Mari. I'd be dead ten times over if it weren't for you scolding me. After all, I got way too serious beefing with a kid over a mere test of speed that didn't require me to use so much energy.
But to tell you the truth… This whole ordeal was quite nostalgic to me. I've not felt this happy in quite a bit now. Especially ever since Isaac disappeared… We'd always be doing silly stuff like this, trying to see who's better at what. Having a little race with his own son kind of reminded me of those times and I simply couldn't hold back…"
As M1ke finished with his response to the two, Tommy audibly gasped to get to know how close his father Isaac and his mentor M1ke were. Like brothers really. Meanwhile, Mari's face had softened with a little tear in her left eye.
"Honestly… For the past few years, you had really convinced me that you had changed into quite a serious man judging by how seriously you've been searching for the culprit behind the castle disaster. But I wasn't ever glad to see you change that way. It was like you weren't happy.
But to see you're still the same child at heart I've known for years after this silly little race, I think I do have it in me to forgive you just this once as long as you're careful about your condition now and what you do going forward…" Spoke up Mari having been moved to see M1ke be his usual self again at such an unusual time.
She then walked over to Tommy to pat him before speaking up, "Thank you too Tommy. I thought I'd never see that side of him again these past few years but you brought it back out. I think not only this physical examination but what you do to some people, even going as far as to change the usually depressed Takeda back to making goofy poses like he used to, makes you quite special actually, not an anomaly.
Don't lose that about yourself. I think that's the best quality someone can have in general. You too seem anxious lately but it's great to see you always bounce back to how you always are by your own volition."
Taking a second to read the room, with a smile, Tommy nodded, "I'll make sure to!", as Mari finished patting him gently.
Now, scratching his head, rather nonchalantly while shamelessly picking his nose, M1ke interrupts the moment saying, "So anyways, what were our top speeds?"
With their eyes narrowed down in immediate disappointment, Tommy and Mari with rather irritated mouth shapes both punched M1ke in the head with the response, "DID YOU NOT LEARN ANYTHING SERIOUSLY!?!"
After grabbing his head in pain with a comical tear in his left eye, M1ke seemed comically furious as he replied, "WHAT OF IT!? I THOUGHT IT WAS GETTING TOO MELODRAMATIC Y'KNOW!?!"
Hearing what he had to say, the two sighed and Mari finally picked up her tablet to see the stats before sighing deeply and replying, "Alright…. Tommy had quite an edge at the start with a 0 to 120 Kilometers per hour acceleration achieved under 2 seconds while yours was 100 Kilometers per hour. By the second lap, Tommy was averaging 222 Kilometers per hour while you were at 160 Kilometers per hour.
By lap 3, you both were 5 Kilometers per hour apart with Tommy at 198 Kilometers per hour and you at 193. By lap 6, Tommy accelerated to 318 Kilometers per hour and got a 1.3 lap edge. You struggled here with your gradual slowdowns because of your higher weight, height and bodily density. Struggling with your momentum, you streamlined yourself and pumped extra binding energy here…
You gradually caught up to Tommy at lap 8's completion. By middle of lap 9, Tommy's acceleration was down from 333 Kilometers per hour to 318 Kilometers per hour where you got a 0.05 lap edge but Tommy streamlined his body and let his torque fling him to a top speed of 390 Kilometers per hour where he got a good edge on you, forcing you to go nearly full power and accelerating high amounts in infinitesimal laps where you got to a speed of 521 Kilometers per hour and won."
Upon hearing the report, M1ke started off with a grin, turned into an audible smirk which then turned into a laugh as he spoke, "HAHAHA! I WON! I WON! AND BY A BIG SHOT! AND THAT AIN'T EVEN MY RECORD TOP SPEED!"
Seeing him so happy after giving it all in a silly practice race had Tommy and Mari stare blankly at his immaturity as they mumbled, "How petty…"
Waving them off in a comical and overly smug manner, M1ke blatantly responded to their criticism saying, "That's what all losers say!", and chuckled. Having had enough fun though, he walked over to Tommy to pat him on the shoulder and said, "But seriously, I mean it when I said I had fun. You did great. I had a run for my money. You can do great against most of the military as is so don't be disappointed you lost to a seasoned veteran."
Tommy just awkwardly narrowed his eyes again in this rather boast-y compliment from M1ke while M1ke walked over to the nearby desk with a rather limping stature because of his ankle having been broken during the race. Taking a second to write something down, he came back with a slip, a smirk still lingering on his face as he spoke up, "I think you're ready to be promoted to captain, so here's my slip of request that I'll submit later alongside your physical report. Good luck and work hard."
For once after this whole ordeal of witnessing M1ke's ego, Tommy's eyes lit up as he yelled, "THANKS!!", while M1ke, with a now softened expression on his face replied, "You're welcome, of course!"
As the three in the room were about to go their separate ways for the day, Tommy immediately called out for M1ke which caught his attention as he turned around and asked, "What's up? Got something else to say?"
With a nod, Tommy replied, "Yeah… How's the search for mom and dad's murderer going?", his eyes sharp as he asked that question.
"I've indefinitely stopped searching for him. 2 years ago, we had gotten a lot of leads on him but with 2 years of searching until now, they led us nowhere. I had to cease the operation considering we're under a bigger threat. Today was the tenth instance of angelic terrorism." Responded M1ke with a sigh.
"Then let me continue it! I'll do it from the sidelines alone while also doing other stuff you ask me-" responded Tommy before getting interrupted by M1ke who continued, "No. You'll not do any of that. The culprit is of a high threat level you're currently not on par with. Even me and your father had a lot of trouble taking him down the first time and we were still quite a bit older than you are right now."
"BUT-" yelled Tommy before getting interrupted furiously by M1ke this time, "I SAID NO! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING! FORGET ABOUT IT", before he walked away.
"Don't you think that was a little… harsh? He's still a kid… And he does have a right to know…" Said Mari sorrowfully as she followed M1ke along who took a deep sigh feeling regretful before replying, "I know… And I promise I will let him know when the time comes… Hopefully he doesn't have to face him and I obliterate Sina myself before they ever get to meet… But I'm not so sure right now…
But as it stands… It's too dangerous for him to be anywhere around Sina… I already lost my big bro to him… To lose Tommy as well… I don't think I could ever face myself after that. I got him into the same old business as me and Isaac after all… I've got that responsibility on me too…"
Taking a deep sigh as well, Mari gently patted M1ke on the back as she said, "It's okay… I understand. I want him to be safe too. Let's forget this conversation ever happened…", to which M1ke nodded.
As they continued walking on, M1ke smirked as he said, "Y'know… You've not changed much at all either. Since the days of the war, you've been studying a lot for me, Erina and Isaac's sake… Always mustering up more knowledge on medicine to not have to see anyone die again… Always warning us about conserving our energy for the battlefield like you did today.
You might feel it's your childhood trauma making you seem 'annoying' but trust me when I say, it doesn't… I'm the childish one really. Hellbent on one thing without a care in the world for my own safety. So it's great to always have you looking out for me… You might be the most mature one out of us. You learned from your bad memories... While I can't put them aside.
You've been working hard… You've been courageous… Always entering the toughest of battlefields to check up on us without a care to what happens to you. So that's why I always try to come back safely. So that you don't have to see more of what you did. I just wanna say the same thing you said to Tommy… Never change Mari."
Having been flustered beyond belief, Mari turned her face away mumbling, "So much for not being a fan of 'melodrama' as you call it…"
"It's just cute to see you flustered!" chuckled M1ke while with a red face, Mari yelled, "OH PLEASE SHUT UP WILL YA!!", but M1ke continued to laugh.
Tommy in the other room was beyond wrathful meanwhile. His fists clenched furiously and his teeth were gritting audibly while he stood at the same place he had been for quite a while alone.
In the military base at night…
Having waited all day, Tommy finally snuck into the military archives room with M1ke's security drive which he doesn't even bother hiding and keeps on his office's front desk. However, much to his dismay, when trying to open mission and operation reports relating to Sina, there were far too many safeguards installed in place with even a high ranking officer's security drive requiring various amounts of passwords.
Frustrated, Tommy shut the system down and put the key back in place. Having sneakily left for home, he could barely sleep. All he could do was look at the dark ceiling of his room. He was once again set back from the goal of taking revenge.
The next day, he started scouring through the extranet as well as various libraries to obtain resources on hacking. Having reached no breakthrough, he finally took a long sigh and decided to sit down in the middle of the school playground, looking at the sky while the other kids were playing out there.
Seeing Tommy in such a distressed state, Stefanie showed up behind him to pat him on the shoulder and ask, "Yo, you look down today Tommy, did something happen?"
"It's nothing… I'll figure it out myself…" responded Tommy, rather nonchalantly because of his disappointment at the time.
Narrowing her eyes down and looking rather unamused, Stefanie decided to sit down next to Tommy and punted his head to get a reaction out of him and a reaction she got with Tommy furiously responding with, "WHAT WAS THAT FOR SIS!?"
Taking a second to clear her throat, she replied, "Well, we're best friends and I feel irritated seeing you not be yourself lately. So I thought I might as well help you out if I can. It isn't that difficult to understand now is it?"
Tommy just closed his eyes, sighed pensively and completely lied down on the grass with his arms stretched out for a few moments as he gave it some thought.
"I dunno if you can help… It's not a good idea y'know… We could both get in trouble if someone finds out… Let's just say what I want is kind of disingenuous to the people I care about…" He replied after a few moments of silence.
Rolling her eyes and taking a few moments to giggle, Stefanie responded saying, "Well… You seem like such a… Boring uncle these days… So why not? I don't like seeing you in such a grumpy state. It isn't like you honestly. It's like did my best friend just disappear despite being her? So yeah, it seems serious enough to warrant my help now doesn't it?"
With his eyes widened in surprise, in a mumbly voice now, with his eyes also lowered down and only slightly glancing at her, in a rather stressed tone, Tommy asked, "Are you really sure about this…?"
Punting his head, she replied, "Of course you dumbass. We've always been known as troublemakers since childhood. I can't back out if it'll make you seem like your normal self again and play trading card games or video games with me again too. And besides, I can take at least ONE big fat lecture as long as it is the last time I do. Next time you need my assistance on such a level, I am taking money from you, got it?"
"You sure are a yapper, but alright, you've convinced me, I'll take your help then." replied Tommy with a genuine chuckle.
"HEY WHAT WAS THAT FOR!? IS THAT WHAT YOU SAY TO SOMEONE READY TO HELP YOU!?" replied a rather irritated Stefanie.
Rolling his eyes, Tommy just gestured her to follow him, not before saying, "Oh whatever just follow me", which she does hear with a sigh and prepares to follow along.
At Tommy's and Oli's house…
"Ya know, you're kinda stupid to think you'd be able to understand hacking without knowing even a single programming language, let alone knowledge of databases. And to think you tried to learn hacking through basic 'hacking' books for kids that mention outdated methods to hack garage doors to get through a military grade system… Ugh…" said Stefanie with disgust on her face because of Tommy's obliviousness.
With a rather offended and embarrassed expression, Tommy replied, "H-hey, how is it my fault I'm not great with tech stuff like you and Oli. Either way! I only called you here because you offered help! Not insults! So how can you help!?"
"This would take a lot of effort even for me… I need some equipment which… Let's just say it isn't sold legally in some systems including the royal capital which we're in right now… And some keys only available in key cards of military executives like ahem… Your supervisor, Mr. M1ke." responded Stefanie with a sigh and a frustrated expression on her face.
Outside the window was a shadowy figure, Sina, hearing everything with not a single strand of emotion on his face.
"That sounds tough…" replied Tommy with a confused expression while Stefanie just gave him the side eye while replying, "Of course it is… To get this equipment, we need more data from the military base's records itself… Records of specifically, potential dealers that may be under watch for selling equipment that may not be legal here… And they charge a lot of money. About 50,000 royal credits at least…"
Resting his hand on his chin to think for a second, Tommy finally replied, "50,000 royal credits isn't an issue. I just have to fetch off potential sellers right? Well, I recently got promoted to captain. I think I've got the right to get that much information from the database. I can't get an executive key that easily though…"
"W-wait, 50,000 credits is no problem!? Oh wait… You're from the military too. Alright. As long as you can fetch data on sellers, the key card stuff won't be that difficult. I'll just need your help in sneaking into the military base though and of course, you stealing an executive key. From there, it should be a five minute game to get through the executive operations and get data on this 'Sina' guy you're after. And then you can put the key back… No one gets harmed… Hopefully…" replied Stefanie with her hand also resting on her chin but a slightly concerned expression as she reached the last of what she had to say.
Slamming his fist on its side onto his palm, Tommy responded, "Then it's settled. I'll bring you data on guys selling the equipment you need and as for sneaking you in… What if I told your dad you wanna see how the base operations work? Would you be able to convince your parents you really want to?"
Taking a few moments to think, Stefanie nodded and the plan was in action.
The next day at the military base…
Tommy, without anyone's notice, cleverly talked his way into receiving data on potentially illegal dealers in the capital who sold stuff Stefanie gave him a list of, in the guise he's interested as a captain to track such sort of theft, winning the trust of the data holding and gathering staff, as well as the well wishes of those looking forward to potentially working with him.
Back at Tommy's and Oli's place…
"Is this data enough? I couldn't get information on each and every part unfortunately." said Tommy as he handed a data drive over to Stefanie who was immediately looking into it using her laptop.
With a giggle and a smirk, she fixed her glasses before replying, "There's nothing to worry for. These blanks you see are the unconfirmed materials the military seems to be unsure about. After all, these sellers try not to let out information of every good they sell in order to avoid losing monopoly on certain goods."
"Mhm…" nodded Tommy despite understanding nothing of it which Stefanie immediately caught wind of and replied, "And you understood nothing… But You don't have to worry, this should be enough!"
Meanwhile… Again… The shadowy and sinister Sina got wind of all of this as well.
"I too have data on these 'sellers'. I gotta hand it to these kids for figuring this much out though… Now all I have to do is…" thoughts went through the head of an emotionless Sina as he planned his next move.
At the place where the goods were at…
"Thank you for this!" said Stefanie as she waved to the salesman who had just sold her equipment with questionable legality.
Upon her departure, the salesman immediately walked through his backdoor and put a device into his ear. Upon the tap of a single button, he spoke up, "It is done Lord Michael. Soon, we will know where the military base is. By tomorrow give or take."
It was Sina who had given her the equipment and on the side was the corpse of the original salesman.
"You do nothing but make me doubt your capabilities because of how vile and emotionless you are… But you sure do deliver… Good work. With this… The universe is a step closer to being… purified!" said Michael from a faraway place with a rather evil smirk.
Another day later at the school…
"And that's how you solve this…" said Yoko while showing Tommy the method to solve the math problem he couldn't solve. In response, Tommy just casually chuckled much like M1ke would for Mari and replied, "What would I ever do without you…"
In response to Tommy this time, she hit his head gently with the notebook and with a gentle smile, replied, "Fail your math exam obviously", and chuckled, only to follow it up by opening the notebook up and covering hers and Tommy's faces while preparing to kiss him. Tommy was just as immobilized. Meanwhile, Oli, a few meters away on the sidelines, still in his childish "romance bad" phase could do nothing but have a disgusted look on his face.
"If this is what I'd become, I think I'll pass on growing up… Dating sounds like a chore…" He said to himself.
The moment of Tommy and Yoko's kiss was however interrupted by Stefanie running into Tommy's direction, yelling, "I'VE DONE IT!"
This distraction obviously catches the two lovebirds off guard. Yoko had already put her notebook down and both her and Tommy had a visible blush on their face. Taking a second to read the room, Stefanie was beyond embarrassed and exclaimed, "SORRY!", and hid right behind a bush in comical disappointment.
Taking a second to maintain their composure, the two lovebirds went towards the bush to poke her with a broken tree branch and assure her it's all good.
Once this awkward moment was over, Stefanie and Tommy, in a rather comical manner, striking strangely comical poses that could only be seen in manga, asked to be "left in private" over some "dangerous mission" that only Stefanie's "technological expertise" and Tommy's "strength" could resolve and indulged in quite a serious conversation from the point of view of a very curious Yoko and Oli.
Having gotten curious about what this "dangerous matter" is about since the vibe is different from their usual videogame spree's, they decided to hear it from a distance. While they were busy sneaking into the conversation, Lisa, who had also enrolled into the same school for quite some time decided to wave at them, not before getting held muted by Yoko's palms and grip so that Tommy and Stefanie couldn't hear them.
"Shh… It seems they're discussing something serious without telling us what it might be… They asked us to not get into it too… Apparently it's something dangerous…" said Yoko with a lowered tone of voice.
Unfortunately, by then, they managed to hear absolutely nothing and the two troublemakers nodded and began to run off somewhere.
"H-hey they're getting away! Follow them!" said Yoko, grabbing Oli's and Lisa's hand as she began to trace their steps.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this…?" reacted Oli while Lisa responded saying, "I don't even know HOW I got into all this…", to which, Oli sighed as he said, "We're in the same boat then…"
Having followed them for quite a distance, approximately 150 Kilometers nowhere into a dense forest, Yoko sighed and finally stopped.
"What are they up to…? Where could they be going that we cannot go…?" mumbled Yoko to herself.
"Y'know, maybe it actually is too dangerous for us, why can't we just go back…?" Oli and Lisa spoke up to the ever-so-curious and aggressive Yoko.
With an angry sigh, she replied, "Why shouldn't I follow them? I know what Tommy is like… Jumping into danger without thinking… Besides, he has saved me, I mean us, a few times, we should save him a little too ya know… Besides, if it's that dangerous, I doubt he'd exclude us from the party… He never does something like this… It's fishy…"
With that last part of whatever she had to say, she looked a bit shy which definitely softened Oli and Lisa's expressions down to complying and nodding to each other.
Tommy and Stefanie could then be seen going through a now "less-invisible" forcefield as soon as Tommy tapped his key card onto it.
"We have to hurry!" exclaimed Yoko as she tried to seize the opportunity to enter alongside Tommy and Stefanie within the short window they had left.
Out of nowhere, Yoko brought an empty trash can and comically fit Oli and Lisa into it, alongside herself. Then, wrapping an ultra thin rope around any items Tommy and Stefanie were carrying on them, she yelled as she activated her technique, "ENTANGLEMENT!"
Upon the chant being clear, she single handedly forced the trash can they were in down and immediately rolled it through the closing forcefield. By the time they had made it, the trashcan was cut in half but they had made it in alive, albeit not without making a loud noise which made Tommy, Stefanie and quite a few members of the military facility there, aware of their trespassing.
After the chaos had settled, Stefanie's dad, seeing the "curiosity" among his daughter's friends, he chuckled and took "full responsibility" of them to his superiors such as M1ke and finally got them a permission to explore the place despite M1ke's distaste of "not wanting more children infest the place", while Mari tried to calm him down saying "They would sooner or later."
Much to even M1ke's surprise, the staff found the kids endearing and so did he, so they just let them wander around, "just this once", because apparently, "cuteness and curiosity" of kids can make them tolerate even one day's dose of annoyance. For adults, they might've just made a record in a new foundation of trust in youth. Congratulations! Now let's return to the story instead of having me break the fourth wall as the narrator too weirdly! Who is the narrator? It isn't the author, that's the thing! It's a spoiler!
In Tommy's quarters…
Punching Tommy in the head, Yoko yelled, "So that's why you didn't tell us? Ya know, as cute as you are, you can be a moron. Why'd you think I wouldn't try to help you!? Ugh, you're such a dummy…", upon hearing Tommy's goals with this "dangerous mission".
"I dunno still… Considering this Sina guy could infiltrate the royal capital a few times over, he might really be past our level y'know big bro…" asserted Oli but Yoko quickly responded to him saying, "We've taken down plenty of strong opponents though. I think it's just a matter of them trusting us less."
In support of Oli however, Lisa barged in saying, "But these are professionals who are much stronger and more experienced than us that are telling us it is too dangerous… Surely they've assessed us well… If even they have struggled… I don't know if we can fight back."
With her eyes now widened, Stefanie also began to take Oli's and Lisa's side by adding, "I think they might be right… Plus they trusted us all here… Now I kind of feel bad breaching their trust like this… But I did promise Tommy this… And he has already got us this far… So I can't back off unless he changes his mind."
"Plus I kind of wanted to hang out with dad more… He even let us in… Ugh…" said Stefanie to herself in her mind.
"Oh c'mon, they struggled because they couldn't join forces with people like us! Surely we'd all win together!" said Yoko again with her seemingly blind faith in how she perceives Tommy's abilities.
"For someone skeptical of Tommy earlier… You sure changed your mind fast…" mumbled Oli and Lisa in the corner and immediately responded by saying, "Nothing…", when Yoko furiously prompted, "What did you just say!?"
Tommy's mind however was set on this one thing. His eyes had darkened again but in anger. His smirk was devious enough to even put Yoko off. He had no thoughts about whether or not he is faithful in his own power to take Sina down. He just wanted to see Sina now whether he knew he could kill him or not.
"What's up? Let's proceed with the plan already!" said Tommy in an unusually commanding tone. The aura radiating from him was already suffocating even if invisible. It was quite dark poetically.
Having snuck into a sleepy M1ke's office and taking his card key yet again, the group of troublemakers headed into the executive data room. Entering M1ke's card key, Stefanie also inserted her newly created 'Hacking drive' to finally get Tommy the information he wanted.
In no time, the tool began cracking military grade passwords and the title bar stating 'Database: Locked' now stated 'Database: Open'. The kids rejoiced with a sigh of relief while Tommy was still hyper focused on his goal and asserted, "Go on… Sina… NOW!"
Gulping in fear of Tommy's changed and unusual tone, with sweat all over her forehead, she began to slowly type… 'S… I… N… A…'
Immediately, tons of databases on him were open. All reports of his sightings. All the incidents he had caused. All theories where he had potentially incited something wrong or had been confirmed to have incited something wrong was out. The data was unbelievable. It dated back to the days when Tommy's parents were young.
From various murders, assassinations of important political figures, literal takedowns of the resources of entire planets by manipulation of their higher ups and single handed seizure of their economies, instances of terrorism, instances of causing major events if not the whole war during the last great war and so on and so forth. The list went on and on. Not even children were safe.
The details were majorly grotesque and gory with various pictures of severed heads, amputated limbs, children dying or crying holding their dead siblings in explosions, broken homes, hellscapes of various genocides and instances of ethnic cleansing over the years throughout the universe, all for no religiously motivated reason. It was as if he enjoyed watching the world burn.
He was truly the first being these children could call "beyond" inhuman. This wasn't just any "big" threat a news outlet would usually describe. Not even had escaped the crimes linked to him. Even if he hadn't participated in them directly, he has been found out to be using disguises and manipulation as his key murder weapon.
Manipulating people by fake personalities, IDs, etc. of entirely non existent people, it was like he was a doll, a super-weapon that could affix any human trait into himself and destroy an entire nation himself. What was he trying? Most predictions were mere paranoia of him trying to take down the royal capital yet many suspect he could've done that long ago and it's something we don't know of.
Tons of debate between conservative and progressive military where the conservative military wants to focus on the side claiming he wants to destroy the capital while the progressive military is concerned with his links to the royal family and Tommy's father Isaac, as well as his interest in uncovering the occult from the 'Golden Age of Gods'.
His far more sinister goals unfortunately become unstoppable because of these arguments and various progressive military generals believe he might be controlling the conservative side into his own favor and intentionally getting the military to slow itself down on this matter and let his rampant terrorism continue. Much to his advantage however, there's too much risk to overthrow the current royal military lineup of these absolute fools.
Reading further, they saw a plethora of investigated evidences against Sina's involvement in cases as recent as the Castle Fire three years ago as they had already known but also the murder of Petra and the uncovering of his leftover files in the abandoned military base that he and his accomplice, Petra's murderer, had used. Some of the files also dated to link his last whereabouts to Planet Shobunak where Tommy and Oli had just stopped the evil Pryer God Akselfer.
"For someone not directly involved in these crimes… It's so horrible that he wouldn't even let children free…" said Yoko in disgust as she grabbed her mouth. Lisa nodded and looked just as terrified while grabbing her own head upon seeing so many details.
While Stefanie meanwhile felt pain in her chest reading these exploits of Sina, Tommy and Oli were the only ones with seriously infuriated expressions.
Banging the table, Tommy's wrath had peaked. Red veins visible onto the sclera of his eyes. His pupil shortened.
"How could I have let him get away so many times when he was so close…? How could I not connect the dots…? Literal planets… Even c-children… receiving such a gross fate… And how dare he be allowed to get away killing so many innocent people… Does he think just because he didn't have to get his own hands dirty means he can get away with anything!? Mom died because of this loser! It's all the more reason I want to kill him!" exclaimed a furious Tommy with the marks of skin twisting around his eyes, nose and mouth in pure aggression, giving away his anger.
Walking around shaking his head in anger and then finally putting his arm against the wall while banging his head on it, he ragefully continued, "To think there's infighting in this military over what of him they should investigate… While he gets away with his spree of crimes… I can't believe I never thought much of this bad feeling I always had… So much of this horrid military is mixed up with this piece of shit… T-There's no way…
I fought for T-THEM!? No… No… NOO!! Ugh… How'd I ever face Max… Even Simon… Those Pryers who were hunted down by the very same dang criminals… They're all criminals here… And so many of them too… I was going to fix this!?! I c-cannot possibly do that, can I…!?! CAN I…!?! WHY DID I JOIN THEM!?! WHAT HAD GOTTEN INTO ME!?! WHY!!? WHY?!! WHY!?!
Oh it's over… It's OVER… IT'S OVER!! SO MUCH TIME THROWN WORKING WITH THESE LOSERS. WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT MY LOYALTY TO THEM!?? IF I KILL HIM TODAY, I KILL HIM SOLO!! I'LL BRING THE JUSTICE THIS MILITARY CAN'T ALONE!! DAMN THEM ALL! DAMN THEM ALL!!"
Seeing Tommy break down had completely set the other kids' mood down. They were terrified. As Tommy got to his knees grabbing his head in pain, yelling as if he's arduously conflicted as binding energy and veins sparked across his forehead, he continued, "I gotta take both Sina and most of this military down separately as myself… Not as THEM!!! NOT AS THEM!!! And for that… I need more information to have more reason to KILL him than to NOT! HURRY UP! SCROLL DOWN! SCROLL THE DAMN THING DOWN NOW!"
Not able to take the hint in fear, Stefanie was paralyzed and was crying at the sight of how Tommy appeared now. One of his eyes looked shorter than the other. His sclera had gone completely black while his pupils were all white. He was emitting a visibly black aura from his body while grabbing his chest in what seemed like pain. He was even yelling in pain as if he weren't himself. As if he were possessed… This was not like him at all.
It was quite a depressing site to see such a tragic and sudden shift in Tommy's rather outgoing and usual nature from earlier that day. His body was vibrating and appeared as if it were glitching to stay together even. Various afterimages of himself forming at minute distances from his body. The image of his body was constantly flickering. He seemed like a shadowy figure.
His teeth suddenly looked sharper. His skin looks paler than usual. It was as if you could see a whole other entity overlap Tommy every few milliseconds having their hands set onto Tommy. Whatever it was, to his friends, it was clear this was work of some external influence. This was NOT Tommy. Even Yoko's head started to hurt as she began tearing up. Memories of the day Tommy killed Petra's murderer had resurfaced in her head.
He really wasn't himself that day. It was as if she had seen a demon… Or perhaps… A God. An evil God. The horrific way he'd move, snapping his neck and floating from point A to B immediately like some sort of ghoul or ghost… The way he'd use telekinesis to slam him onto the wall and refer to Yoko in such a derogatory way… It was happening all over again and Yoko's confidence before in Tommy turned into worry that she might not lose him.
As winds started to blow in such a guarded military base, several meters underground, and even the door began to snap, the children couldn't bear the sight anymore and took a step away from Tommy. Memories started to resurface to Lisa and Oli as well of such interference taking place on Planet Shobunak.
The planet's suddenly more accelerated and eccentric spin. Forceful occurrence of certain natural phenomena. Tommy's feral nature during his conversation with the villagers there as well as his initial fight against Akselfer. It was all coming together.
As a sudden tornado-like surge of dark binding energy surrounded Tommy, a ghostly figure formed from it screamed in a devilish voice, "NOT YET!!", and this surge began to subside and Tommy was looking normal again as he fell down to his knees and palms once more. While his eyes and teeth looked normal, his expression was still frightening.
"I TOLD YOU A MINUTE AGO! SCROLL DOWN NOW Stefanie!!" Yelled Tommy as his hand reached out to Stefanie's shoulder and surged her with dark binding energy as well which began to hurt her and even broke the lower parts of her chair down, causing her to fall to the ground.
Upon failing, she was taking quite some time to recover. Impatient about the situation, Tommy yelled again, "DO IT ALREADY!", as his hand was about to reach out a fallen Stefanie again but Lisa tried to stop it, only to get pushed back.
"Ugh, Tommy, please don't do this! Ugh… Please… It hurts… I'll stop… Ugh…" yelled Lisa in pain as she got slammed by an immense force onto the wall behind her, without Tommy even using his arm that she was about to grab to push her back.
"Out of my way! I went through a lot to save you from your own delusions and you think you know what's best now? You think you can order me around after your stupid and blind faith in the 'God' that almost got you killed? Don't make me laugh you idiot. You're still too naive.
You're gonna be just as obnoxious as you were again when some looney gives you a falsified 'divine' hope to live and turn against me like a damn Lizard because that's what you probably are since you assimilated to a culture of racist people who killed Lizard-men to gatekeep their positions as metaphorical Lizards and you're just like them!
You would've never stood on your own feet had I not helped you and nor would you ever if I don't stay to help you. You'd just regress AHAHAHA!" announced Tommy with a devilish voice surrounding his own as he let go of Lisa and let her fall to the ground crying.
Having seen Lisa heartbroken by the awful things Tommy said to her, no matter what his state is currently, she walked through the immense pressure surrounding him to deliver a slap his face so hard that it left a mark and made him fall to the ground. Upon being hit, a lot of the pressure had subsided. Tommy's heartbeat was faster. He was on the ground grabbing his own neck.
He was rolling around in distress as if something was stuck in his neck. His fists couldn't even clench. His legs were shivering. He had now grabbed his face. His pupils were going back and forth between shortening and whitening and resurging to their normal size and returning to their normal blue color as well. Meanwhile his sclera fluctuated black and white as well.
Aura began to emit from his body again as his hair rose and winds blew again. A worried Yoko and Oli yelled, "FIGHT IT! FIGHT IT!! YOU CAN'T LET IT WIN!!! PLEASE! BE THE HERO YOU WANT TO BE!!!! NOT THE BAD GUYS YOU HATE! PLEASE!!!!! WE TRUST YOU!!!!!!! FIGHT!!!!!!!"
Unable to take it, Tommy yelled, "I CAN'T! IT HURTS!! IT WANTS ME!! I JUST SO I CAN KILL SINA!! PLEASE!! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS TO ME!! LET ME GO!!"
Unable to do anything but give Tommy words of encouragement, Yoko and Oli stood paralyzed at a distance from Tommy again. Tommy was completely overcome by the dark aura. His sclera were all black again and his pupils were white and short as well. His dark binding energy had stabilized and he had got up through a backflip in no time. He had given up. This strange external source of darkness inside of him had engulfed and suppressed his usual goofy and outgoing side. Tommy might've been lost forever.
"Scroll it…" continued this devilish Tommy with a lowered tone of voice, still sounding monstrous and especially in control in fact, rather than in conflict.
Worried for the sake of her friends, all Stefanie could do was wheeze constantly as she got to the file showing Sina's connection to Tommy's father Isaac and his mentor M1ke since their childhood. Before they could read up anything, the computer started malfunctioning and deleting all their databases while also transferring them to an 'Unknown Source'.
Stefanie tried her best by hitting all the keys she could to prevent it but to no avail. The entire military base was under alarm. Lights were flickering on and off. The base began to shake. There were warnings about the doors being unsealed and the forcefield being shut down. The power supply to all of the military base was being overloaded. Chaos didn't take long to ensue.
Soldiers were running around everywhere in panic. The superiors were already beginning to prepare drills and calm the worsening situation down. M1ke had just woken up, startled by what was going on and taken away by Mari as she gave him the details of this sudden breach of security of what was the most secure military base in the entire universe.
Outside the base, atop a nearby tree, stood Sina in his black cloak, communicating with Michael who was far away from the chaos, as he spoke up, "The job is done Lord Michael. The military base is exposed."
In response, laughing deviously, Michael said, "Oh how I wish I was there but I cannot risk this vessel being exposed. This is just a starting 'message' after all… The grand plan is nearer than ever however… Great work. You can order around the batch of angels I'll be sending there however you want, you vile genius!"
To be continued in Chapter - 22…