Chereads / That Time I Met A Cowboy In Outer Space / Chapter 22 - A Dilemma With No End : Part - 2

Chapter 22 - A Dilemma With No End : Part - 2

Soon after the breach, it didn't take long for the first angel to enter. Floating and covering large distances in mere seconds, barely moving her body parts, the first candidate angel entered. The soldiers surrounding her paralyzed in fear of what was about to happen. Stefanie was nearby as well. Seeing her just standing there, her father immediately ran to her aid, lifted her, but it was too late.

The angel merely smirked as her eyes glowed blue and exploded nearly everything in sight. A quarter of the military base was exposed. Around 16% of the capital's military was annihilated in one go, literally vaporized. 8% reported to be injured, the firepower was already low. Stefanie, while saved with mere bruises screamed as she saw her father Joseph in a half dead state next to her. His body had severe burns, half his clothes were torn and his legs were completely disintegrated.

This was just the start of a 'starting message'. Tens of angels could be seen flying above the now exposed military base. The look on the faces of the soldiers there was obvious. Pure terror. But they still bravely put a front. Despite their efforts, another 4% of the soldiers were killed off by the mere tens of angels, which was significantly lower than the amount of soldiers lost. Another 20% were reported injured.

The turnout of injured and dead soldiers had risen within the first half an hour itself. 20% dead and 28% injured. With only 10% of the injured soldiers still having some capability to fight, the royal capital's strength was essentially down to 62%.

Having cornered an angel, unfortunately, it chose to explode, taking out an entire squad and getting another 4% of the soldiers critically injured. The strength was already down to 57.5% from an initial count of 45000 soldiers, with the remaining count able to fight being 25875 within the first 45 minutes.

Before another nuke could've been set off by the angels, out of the 21 angels left under Sina, 2 more got killed by Deputy General Toru and General Roderick suppressing it's nuke in a remote site while another angel's nuke was nullified by General M1ke who sent it flying to the sky. Sina was down to 18 angels from the starting count of 23.

Running over to the only two generals available, M1ke crossed his arms and yelled, "Initiate strategy X", to which, the two generals immediately complied and started forming drills of soldiers.

One drill was busy accessing the workstations, one drill was protecting them and M1ke's drill was waiting at certain access points throughout the base for some reason.

Looking up at the sky in disgust, M1ke exclaimed, "We've not got much time! Make it fast! Their numbers are few. We might just be able to get them!", to which the soldiers nodded and began working faster.

Finally, Mari had brought Yoko, Oli, Lisa and a very traumatized Stefanie alongside her gravely injured father to safety. Seeing his subordinate Joseph's condition and the terror on the faces of the children, while he maintained a serious expression on his face, he tried to comfort the children by saying, "Don't get too stressed. I'll try my best to protect you from them. But this is an unexpected time of crisis. I might not be able to check up on each and every one of you while I fight those fiends calling themselves 'angels'. Be prepared for your own survival. You have to regain your composure and act like you're a soldier whose life depends on whether you get out of this ordeal or not. Enhance your common sense and run away from anything you can deem dangerous. Alright?"

Surprisingly mature, Lisa, Oli and Yoko nodded to M1ke's command. Seeing the state Stefanie was in however, Yoko and Lisa decided to lift her through their shoulders. Impressed by their cooperation, M1ke commended them saying, "You've all got the spirit of a soldier y'know that. Great work."

Despite commending them, he couldn't help but notice Tommy not being among them and his eyes were in a shocked state as he asked, "Where's Tommy? Wasn't he with you guys? Is he safe?"

Hearing his name, the three could only frown but Oli stepped forward to reply anyway saying, "He got away… It was like he wasn't himself… It was like he was someone else… His voice was different… His teeth were sharper… His eyes were pitch black… He was taken over by anger… His usual personality was as if it were lost… And he ran off to 'Hunt' this 'Sina' guy down himself, predicting he might be behind this attack…"

"W-What!? Sina!? How do you guys know all this?!" asked a very concerned and genuinely terrified M1ke. They had never seen someone as confident as him so gloomy in their entire lives.

Seeing how even M1ke's expression went down, Yoko cried as she exclaimed, "It's like that time he killed Petra's murderer…", while Oli added, "or that time he got feral against Akselfer…", and then Yoko continued, "H-He… He and Stefanie looked up some illegal hacking tools suppliers throughout the capital from the military's files, got said tools and then your key card to get into the database and fetch information on Sina… But suddenly… His anger spiked like those times…"

Yoko couldn't continue as she burst into tears after finishing what she had to say. Oli, still in control of his tears, continued, "It was worse than those times… It was like he was genuinely struggling to resurface himself against something else… He was choking on the ground… Hitting his head in pain… Crying… Until some black energy engulfed him… And then the military base started ripping apart from that explosion that occurred a bit over half an hour ago…"

Now it was Oli's resolve that couldn't stand the stress he had and finally, Lisa continued onwards saying, "He said things he'd usually never say to any of us… Awful things… He was frustrated when he found out the military has secretly been doing the bare minimum to stop Sina and how it has affected people he has seen, people he has been both close to and enemies with… It was hard for him to get in terms with the fact he served… such people… He wanted to bring justice 'himself'..."

All three tried their best to regain their composure this time and yelled, "AND SO HE DIDN'T LISTEN TO ANY OF US AND QUIETLY RAN AWAY TO CHASE AFTER SINA HIMSELF!"

The three had begun to cry lightly this time, trying their best to hold their tears back. M1ke also tried to regain his composure as he responded to their confession by saying, "It's okay… It's okay, don't cry. Focus on surviving for now. If you keep beating yourself up over this, you won't make it alive and no matter what happens here, I want you all to live. You did a great job being honest about it to me. Now run, I'll do my best to save Tommy. But you guys… RUN!! RUN NOW!!!"

Hearing the scream M1ke had at the end, the three nodded and ran as fast as they could while carrying Stefanie. M1ke meanwhile grabbed his head, thinking to himself about how Mari was right about him not communicating all this too well to Tommy and that it might've just been him that had doomed them all.

Unfortunately, M1ke had no time for regrets or grief now. Strategy X was now in full force. What strategy X was, was basically a huge amount of EMF poles with sound emitting spheres on top of them, coming out of the ground at the scale of the entire base's length in case of emergencies. Why? Because M1ke's harmonics work way better with EMF wave poles, allowing stronger navigation while he swings through them, quicker recharge of his equipment as well as an easy access to refreshing his stock of weapons, not to mention the enhancement his wave-natured abilities receive from them.

Wasting no time, M1ke immediately began swinging through them to gain huge amounts of momentum, only to suddenly notice an earthquake which caused all of these poles to collapse. This was shocking to everyone.

"An earthquake!? In a non-seismic zone!?" yelled M1ke as he was falling because of the poles losing their EMF waves, ruining M1ke's balance and confusing his technique due to the constantly changing polarity in the area.

The shake was bad but not bad enough for M1ke to have made a recovery through standard jumping, however, due to his excessive use of strength in a silly race against Tommy, his broken ankle got the best of him and he got crushed under various poles and presumed dead.

Within no time, the soldiers took notice of a giant robot next to the base. It has various tanks that contain blue light similar to when the angels exploded, hinting at angels being the source of its power which explained the heavy magnitude earthquake they had just faced. Not taking a second to think, about 3.5% of the soldiers acted irrationally and charged right at it and got shot by a giant blitzing laser that destroyed all of them. Not even an atom in sight. The military's strength was down to 54% now.

Seeing how irrational the act was, Toru and Roderick ordered the soldiers to retreat. Suddenly however, tons of broken EMF poles were flung into the sky towards this giant robot out of nowhere, only to be destroyed by the same laser, now observed to be noticeably angular. From the rubble rose a heavily injured M1ke.

Toru and Roderick immediately went to aid him but M1ke furiously declined saying, "Stop this! I can still fight!", while the two disagreed saying, "It'll all be in vain you dumbass! We cannot afford losing a strong general like you today!"

"AND WHAT ABOUT THE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF SOLDIERS WHO DIED HUH? ARE YOU SAYING WE THREE VALUE MORE THAN THOUSANDS OF THEM? WHO ARE YOU KIDDING? I HAVE TO FIGHT… Ugh…" yelled M1ke until he weakened even more.

With a sigh, Mari arrived at the scene and exclaimed, "I get your point and I WILL let you fight as long as you just let me treat you…", to which M1ke obviously protested but even at such a desperate time, he gave up to her glare.

"Can you ask all soldiers to make a temporary retreat so we can plan ahead and… Fight that thing…?" said Mari to Toru and Roderick who were sane enough unlike M1ke to agree to that and had retreated about 40% of the forces, leaving 14% to stand guard outside in areas where they aren't at risk of a huge loss and can fend the few angels off that didn't go inside that terrifying robotic nightmare.

Meanwhile, deep into the forest…

Sina who was watching over the operation and the robot from far behind immediately jumped from the branch he was standing at and landed at the ground, only to do a backflip to avoid two very high speed sneak attacks from an extremely feral Tommy.

"I don't know whether to be impressed by your bravery or to be disappointed by this stunt you could've prevented, even though it's tactically in my favor… Tommy." said Sina, now revealing his uncloaked face. It had two bulging stitches. One going through the horizontal half of his face, even through his nose and one going diagonally though his face. His hair and beard were white, signaling his age, however, he did not look a day older than 30 at all.

His face was emotionless. His pupils and irises were dead black. There were no wrinkles to be seen. Even the shape of his eyes, it was eerily symmetrical.

"It's time you pay for your crimes Sina… Especially for killing my mother!" yelled a feral and beastly Tommy as he charged right at Sina with a punch and a kick which Sina easily dodged by hopping back left and right twice and countering Tommy by grabbing his third incoming kick and throwing him onto a tree.

Taking no time to make a recovery mid air, Tommy's foot landed on the tree's trunk and accelerated him back towards Sina as he yelled, "DOUBLE IMPACT" but Sina had just bent down and performed an uppercut on Tommy's stomach which sent him flying, only to elbow his back down by jumping to an altitude above him.

Before Tommy could even land, he dashed back down to have Tommy's chest hit his knee while he sledgehammered his upper spine in as well with his arms to keep him down on the ground.

With so many blows, Tommy fell to the side. Still feral but damaged, his stance got similar to a beast on four legs as he tried to wastefully scratch Sina but all Sina did was jump over his claw moves.

With an emotionless sigh, Sina expressed his disappointment saying, "You're still too immature Tommy. I expected more from you. I thought Seth had taken over you 2 years ago but it seems he has receded for some reason… He would've been a more interesting subject to fight… And here I was celebrating."

He might've said celebrating but he looked emotionless as ever…

Tommy's eyes momentarily regained a slight bit of sanity. One of his eyes now looked normal as he wondered what Sina was talking about. Unfortunately, this gave Seth a window to dash towards his face, elbow his nose, land an uppercut on his face and perform a suplex on him, after which he slammed him down and placed his leg on Tommy's head.

"Until you can cast this need for humanity and emotion aside… You'll never be on my level Tommy… In this world, to survive, you can only fight for yourself. Wasting your life for others is a grave miscalculation. I think I need to give you a lesson in humility, practicality and common sense now don't I?" said Sina as he ushered his foot down further into Tommy's head to humiliate him.

"I will crush your spirit. Break your personality apart bit by bit. Take apart your bones. Get rid of those who you care for so you have nothing to lose and free you from this shell you call a 'meaningful' existence, for your existence is too mere like an indecisive human. Once that happens, there wouldn't be a difference between you and Seth and I either wouldn't need him… Or you wouldn't have trouble assimilating into him…" continued the emotionless and heartless Sina with his charade of terms that made absolutely no sense to Tommy.

Despite his words not getting through to Tommy entirely, when he heard Sina would rid him of those he cares for, a fire lit in Tommy's eyes and he was surrounded by a surge of binding energy, even if it was still the dark variant. His punches actually got faster.

As Sina began to struggle, he mumbled with a sweat, even if emotionlessly, "I wasn't expecting this…"

Finally, one of Tommy's punches landed on Sina's face. Much to his dismay however, Sina was unaffected. His eyes widened despite how emotionless he looked as he said, "I was going to say I'm impressed… But you do not have what it takes to kill…"

Upon saying what he had to say, he grabbed the arm Tommy punched him with and slammed him down on the ground through it. He then put his foot onto it while pulling the arm up with his hands to break it. This caused Tommy to release a feral scream of agony. Despite all the beatdown, Sina merely said, "I'm just getting started…"

Right as he said that, he grabbed Tommy by the face and started dragging him through his head and pummeling it into the tree trunks nearby until he broke tens of them before deciding to throw Tommy by his head into the air onto more trees, jumping into the air himself and pummel into another few tree trunks as he dashed down instead.

He again didn't let go of Tommy and threw him by his face onto the ground. Tommy did not even have the strength to yell. All he could do was screech and breathe heavily because of the pain he felt. Taking a moment to wait for Tommy to recover even the slightest bit of composure, he finally took his chance to let out a very nonchalant, "Boo!", which scared Tommy into running like a scared cat or a dog into a corner to hide.

"How filthy, pathetic and disgusting you are… You cowardly brat… To think you chased me down at your premature level to 'kill' me of all things. Laughable if I were blessed with the tendency for genuine laughter. You're weak. You're indecisive.

You cannot choose between your friends and a path to something bigger than what you are currently. You're too naive and ignorant to realize The blessings you have been gifted with." said Sina as he chased Tommy down in his state of being similar to a scared animal, only to step his foot on Tommy's leg, drag him through his own foot and constantly slamming the same foot down on Tommy's back once he was close enough.

After giving Tommy half an hour of agonizing pain by stomping his back, Sina kicked him in the face and sent him rolling onto another tree before continuing, "In this universe, only the strong can be allowed to thrive. I've blessed you with the privilege to be among the mightiest of us. You might've taken the right steps by leaving your friends behind and coming to me alone, drenched in your bloodlust…

The more you detach from them, the easier you'd find it in you to have the power to kill... And be more like me… But in your case, you made a foolish oversight and made it easier for me to annihilate all of those people you care about while following my plan all along like a good boy and coming to me safely… You didn't even stand there to think the angels there might've killed your friends off while I started turning you into a killing machine."

Upon hearing that, the barely sane Tommy just grabbed his head with a painful growl, still in fear of the man that had massively outclassed him in a fight.

"Trust me, I may seem brutal to you but I am the only one who cares about you in this universe. All of those people you consider to be your friends and family? They let you out on the battlefield so many times, let you get close to the verge of death so many times, yet they don't have it in them to prevent you from doing so again. Do they really care for your life then? Or are you being used as a weapon for your God-given gifts?

If it were someone else, they would've killed you in ways worse than I just beat you down. All I did was give you a lesson as someone who cares to see you thrive in the future. So now that I've beat you instead, you will follow what I SAY going forward." said Sina walking in circles near Tommy with his hands tied around his back and his face as emotionless as ever, just like his nonchalant and creepy voice. Especially in the dark of the night it was currently with only a sliver of blue light illuminating the sides of his face.

Walking towards Tommy with a finger, he began rotating it right in front of his eyes as he said, "Until you have it in you to give into the urge of killing everything that stands against you, you'll stay away from ANYTHING that threatens your life… It is either kill or be killed and you will be the ruthless killer you have to be or you will RUN… RUN AWAY!!

Run until you assimilate with Seth… Or become something much stronger… much more sinister… much more divine and aggressive… much more like me… Free from the shackles of emotion and the sickness I call humanity."

As he finished what he had to, Tommy had gone unconscious. Taking a sigh of relief, he took out a syringe out of his pocket. Bending down a little, he pulled Tommy's shirt up slightly and slammed the syringe onto his stomach and injected whatever was inside. In a matter of seconds, Tommy had begun healing faster than ever.

"What a drag… This should heal you. You better deliver on the promise I see in you Tommy. It was far too early for our fight to begin. In a few years, you'll finally be ready for the grand plan. Stay put until then and don't you dare think I did nothing for you." said Sina as he started to walk away from the unconscious Tommy.

Meanwhile, against the giant robot near the military base…

Squads of a few soldiers began attacking one at a time towards the giant robot but to no avail. All they could do is die yet still fly in fewer numbers to conserve their strength for a seemingly failing cause.

Seeing their futile efforts, even the unknown controller of the robot spoke through its speakers, "Why do you people insist on throwing your lives away for NOTHING!? Do you not know I can play this game all day! I will annihilate all of you until nothing is left!"

In saying this out loud, the controller was right. They were all getting disintegrated yet they kept attacking anyways. The fear on their faces was clear too. It was like they had no plan and were suspiciously only going towards the robot to die. It was impossible for all of them to have gone insane and attack the robot in vain.

Soon afterwards, the controller inside the robot, a man with brown hair and slight beard on his face with a cybernetic eye, a mechanical arm, skin similar to what you real worlders would call a native American, a white sleeveless vest and a seemingly tribal headband, had his eyes widened in shock when he realized this was all a facade when he looked at the screen inside and saw the message, 'Foreign matter attaching itself to the mech's legs detected', repeatedly.

Before he could do anything, the robot's legs were tied up by what seemed like M1ke's strings as it fell down and up in the air, fading into visibility, M1ke was piggy backing on Roderick who was dashing towards the robot, armed with a rocket launcher.

"Caught you by surprise didn't we? You hunk of metal!" yelled Roderick as he launched the rocket downwards at the robot.

"I hid the two of us due to our close proximity by creating a barrier around us that stops the light reflected by our bodies from reaching anyone else but us while reflecting the light of the surroundings. Had you paid better attention to us, which you couldn't because of the constant influx of soldiers attacking you, you could've seen the rippling air around yourself and caught us. But it is too late for that huh!?" yelled M1ke explaining the strategy they had just used.

The rocket had significantly damaged the exterior of the robot, exposing some of its crucial insides. Throwing M1ke into the air as he prepared to use his imaginary power, Roderick prepared another rocket but noticed that it was so late that the robot had already begun charging another laser. In an attempt to save M1ke, Roderick took a long leap and kicked him the other way and threw a flash grenade into the sky as he got hit by the laser.

"RODERICK NOOOO!!!" screamed M1ke as he got flung into the forest and was unable to see the demise of the now vaporized Roderick.

Irritated by the flash grenade, the controller was still able to figure out that M1ke was flung into the forest and got up in just a matter of seconds. He then ran the robot through the forest at a speed unprecedented for such a heavy robot, slamming many trees in his way until his foot got caught into another one of M1ke's strings but taking note of that, the controller screamed, "Not this again!", and took a surprisingly large leap, only to realize this was a different trap and had caught the robot's foot.

Having been damaged from the rocket's massive explosion radius earlier, the leg got ripped out by M1ke's array of strings which caused the robot to begin falling towards the ground. As it fell, another string grabbed the robot by its head from below, tied it around itself, pulled it over in a front flip and knocked the head off of it.

Following that, a fast swinging and furious M1ke kicked the back of the robot from behind and sent it flying ahead. M1ke began to swing at unforeseen speeds as even the controller of the robot noticed on his screen that something was flinging around at the speed of light.

Swinging from various directions towards the robot and traditionally hitting it while screaming, "DYNAMIC IMPACT!", M1ke single-handedly managed to do substantial damage to this weapon capable of genocide of a planet alone even.

Dynamic Impact is M1ke's counterpart of the Double Impact technique. Dynamic Impact focuses all vibrations of a physical attack and the surrounding wind resistance on one point of maximized pressure, capable of piercing through metals more precisely than the destructive and break-y nature of the Double Impact.

To finish the robot off. M1ke swung down in a very precise manner and flung himself up without hitting his broken ankle down. The chance of this swing was very low but M1ke managed to do it and saved himself from the off chance of getting crushed under the robot's weight. Having gained the momentum, M1ke unleashed a barrage of strengthening and accelerating Dynamic Impacts that broke through the robot's front plate and performed a triangular swing around three nearby trees to fling himself above the robot and finish its back off screaming, "STELLAR FLASH!!!"

A huge mass of destructive blue light surrounded a large radius of the forest. When the light and smoke subsided, only the inner chamber of the robot was left while the exterior was destroyed. M1ke weakly walked towards it despite his sprained ankle and used whatever strength he had left to force its door open through the sheer strength of his muscles.

"J-Jimmy… I thought you were-" said M1ke in horror as if he had seen a ghost while this new character, Jimmy, just smirked while responding to M1ke, "Long time no see huh bestie…?", while coughing blood because of the G-Forces and traumatic damage he took when M1ke was taking the robot apart while he was inside of it.

Before M1ke could say anything, a flash grenade was thrown into their direction. M1ke was only caught off guard for a few seconds but due to his blindness, this maneuver was useless on him. Once his composure was retained in less than a second, surprisingly enough, M1ke was filled with bloodlust and anger. The very enemy he had been seeking for the past few years was right in front of him. Running while holding a severely damaged Jimmy on his shoulders.

"SINA!!!" screamed M1ke while swinging from only two trees into Sina's direction without a second thought. This speed had truly caught Sina off guard. Despite how damaged M1ke was, he had not expected this level of strength and agility. The mere vibration of rage despite the dodge Sina managed to make on M1ke's hit, tore through his shirt and made a huge cut on his shoulder.

"Ah… It's you… The brat that was always hanging around Isaac. M1ke wasn't it? You really have grown to be quite a dangerous person. I didn't think I'd fail to calculate the amount of damage you'd take from my plan… I guess they don't call you one of the best for nothing." conversed Sina, emotionless as ever, as if M1ke heard any of it at all.

"SHUT UP! YOU THINK I'LL LISTEN TO SOMEONE LIKE YOU!? IN YOUR DREAMS!!" yelled M1ke who was only hopping on his mechanical leg now. Despite his disadvantage, M1ke was still fast enough to deliver hits so strong that a third of his hits managed to connect while Sina was actually dragged to a corner. Sina couldn't even hop backwards because he could see the shine of the strings M1ke had set up around the surrounding trees to cut him up.

"You adapt better than I thought. I'd have not made it with your level of damage. If there were an opponent I could truly call formidable out there, it's either you or Isaac. You've caught me well… No wonder even I was reluctant to take you on. These punches actually make me feel hurt." continued the emotionlessly nonchalant Sina, even as he took damage while also gradually weakening and being unable to launch even a single counter attack on M1ke.

As Sina finally managed to connect a counter, it barely hurt M1ke at all and considering what he had been through today, this wasn't surprising, his durability was unmatched that day. Having Sina's fist locked up in his arm, M1ke yelled, "THIS IS THE END!", and hit Sina's face with the sheer force of his knee and flung him upwards.

M1ke then stretched his arms out one final time to string the flung up Sina into the air and perform such complex hand motions that began cutting Sina up to the point he began to screech deviously. Even the moans of his pain were creepy. They weren't like he was in pain, it was as if he was a malfunctioning machine of a human being. Having bleed Sina out to the point he had paralyzed, M1ke used the last of his strength to jump a very high altitude and dash down onto Sina with a kick that'd kill.

A second before the kick could connect, Sina screamed, "ANY MOMENT NOW LORD MICHAEL!"

As M1ke's kick connected on a subatomic level, Sina screamed, "CONCEPT CANCELLATION: YOU SHALL NOT STOP!", and disappeared from the path of M1ke's kick. M1ke's kick then slammed onto the ground and kept digging through until he was several feet under and his mechanical leg exploded from the pressure. Soon afterwards, all movement stopped and M1ke went unconscious.

Meanwhile, on top of a tree, Michael held Sina and Jimmy by their collars and finally decided to speak up saying, "I didn't anticipate someone of his caliber to be part of the military… He seems… Familiar… But that's none of my concern now that he has lost. I'll be flying you two back to the base. Our goals have been achieved. The terror has just begun and they wouldn't even know it'd start from them AHAHAHA!!!"

After that, the three disappeared immediately. Meanwhile, the numbers of the military at the royal capital had dropped significantly. They were now only 42% of what they had before. 18% of them were severely injured. 58% of them had died that not even their bodies could be found while 25% had died in such a way that they weren't even seen by anyone that was alive dying. It was like they stopped existing out of nowhere.

This event had deeply shook the military. A few hours after everything had settled down, M1ke and Tommy were retrieved and brought back to safety. Many soldiers were still crying, many families had lost someone dear to them. The total death count was 26100 from an attack of just a few angels and one machine of mass destruction that even the military wasn't advanced enough to create.

There was a public outcry after the safety breach. The so-called safety of the base was questioned by the masses. They couldn't bear such a loss. So many lives were lost to a threat they barely know of. The capital began to divide even more. Some sections of the capital openly burnt portraits of the King while the King, with a very saddened expression after what had transpired, still urged the military to not go on a witch-hunt for people who are reasonably agitated about their safety.

Unfortunately, both the military and the major populace were oblivious to the potential this new threat had. Everyone wanted answers. Even the soldiers began infighting and questioning the influence of the King. Many resigned fearing for their life. The military's strength had dropped to 88%. Even if still the greatest in the universe, the downfall had inevitably only just begun.

With no telling of what is next, whatever the soldiers were left, brave or those who had no choice, continued marching forward. This caused major rifts in trust and various other systems began discussing whether the royal alliance is close to falling apart or not. A lot of the military's resources were also lost as well.

The following day…

"Do you have any idea what your actions cost us, Captain Oldton?" said M1ke in a strict and professional tone.

Gulping, unable to look at M1ke, Tommy still replied, "I… I cannot begin to comprehend… old man…"

"CALL ME BOSS YOU BRAT! And why did you let this happen? Was your insatiable desire to hunt down a criminal even a General ranking officer couldn't hunt down, enough to warrant it, Captain Oldton?" continued M1ke in a tone dismissive of all emotions he could feel for Tommy right now.

"N-No old- I MEAN NO B-BOSS! B-but… You never t-told me… I-I…" mumbled Tommy, unable to hold his emotions in. Irritated, M1ke screamed, "BUT WHAT? THERE IS NO BUTS! BECAUSE OF OUR RESPONSIBILITY, THE CAPITAL IS ESTIMATED TO BE AT A 43% HIGHER RISK OF CRIME. IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL PROTECTION? IS THIS WHY YOU JOINED THE MILITARY? IS YOUR AMBITION WORTH MORE THAN 26100 LIVES? BECAUSE OF YOU, FAMILIES LOST EITHER A MOTHER, A FATHER, A GRANDPARENT, A SON, A DAUGHTER AND MORE PRECIOUS MEMBERS YOU CANNOT BEGIN TO COMPREHEND. NONE OF US CAN!"

At this point, all Tommy could do was look down quietly in emotional distress. He had never felt this scale of regret. If he wasn't broken before, he was definitely more than broken now. Beyond empty. Beyond afraid. It was the first time that he could actually do nothing against a strong opponent despite having the 'strength' he thought he had.

"I blindly went after him… And it caused us so much trouble… So many people died because of me… So many… So many… Ugh… I feel like vomiting… But I have no right… I… I feel scared… Why did I go after him…? WHY!? I don't want to die… I don't want to die… But after being responsible for so many people dying… Do I deserve to live at all…?" Tommy thought to himself in intense internal agony.

Tommy had been instilled with a lesson. He was now instilled with the fear of God because of what he had just faced yesterday. He couldn't stand the fact he came out alive while so many others died protecting what they found precious while he accomplished nothing but naught.

"I doubt you can even answer the many people agitated by the losses yesterday, let alone yourself. You think you can even look at yourself after that? After vowing to not let anyone die!? After vowing to the late people you cared for, you let this happen? Is this how you show your respect to them? YOU STAINED THEIR NAME!!

You're nothing but a distracted child. I made the mistake of hiring. Your childish bloodlust cost us trillions. I tried for years to fix this army from the inside but there's infighting again. People refuse to trust us. I thought we could be seen as a beacon of hope for fighting for them for so long but now we're no different to them from a deceptive snake! Ugh… It's time I fix my mistake… I gave you my trust and this is how you paid me back… So I will do something not as bad as what you did, but enough to break your rebellious streak once and for all..." yelled M1ke as he walked over towards Tommy and delivered him a slap on his face so hard that it made him fall backwards.

M1ke then snatched the badge on Tommy's chest and returned to his strict, emotionless and professional tone as he continued, "As of now, Captain Thomas Isaac Oldton, you're indefinitely suspended unless spoken otherwise to or until the investigation of yesterday's conspiracy is completed. Leave. And never show your face to me ever again…"

Tommy's eyes had widened in shock. He knew he went too far, breaking the usually humble M1ke's trust even. He quietly walked out. Even Mari didn't have it in herself to speak up this time. Tommy's pupils were blackened from just sorrow and disappointment of his actions. He had lost himself entirely. He had become truly empty. He lost the light and all his wrath with it. For now until who knows when, he was only a shell of what he usually is.

"Isn't the punishment for such an act… the same as treason…?" questioned Mari in distress and with tears in her eyes.

With a sigh, disappointment still lingering in his voice, he replied, "Yes… But I guess I am still soft at heart eh? I can't let him face such a horrific punishment because of my poor communication on the matter. I couldn't even watch over my own keycard… It is my responsibility too…

I got him into this business and his mess is my mess too… As a leader that is. I can't put all the blame on him when I was just as furious as Sina when I saw him. I let them go at it face to face. I'm one of the only people who can imagine his terror right now…

And these angels… To think they might be working together with Sina… And Jimmy somehow coming back to life despite me burying him all those years ago… It might've connected our occult lead to somewhere… Had I listened, I could've merged the Sina and Angel operation teams together…"

Walking over to the other side, he put his hands on the wall and looked down. After a few moments of silence, he finally continued speaking, "This event was as you say, the unpredictable and unfortunate circumstances we soldiers go through daily. We've seen millions of us die in wars. That's not to understate what happened yesterday, especially in a time of peace…

Our base was designed to not be able to be hacked by such 'duds'. It's clear it was Sina's expertise on those devices that made them potent enough to breach a base as secure as ours. Now's not the time to play games of blaming when Sina is the enemy. All we can do right now is to not hold back and counter attack with all our ferocity next time…

Until the moment of truth strikes and this ever-so-bizarre conspiracy unfolds, we must stay more composed than ever. But for now, will you help me set the scene up in a way nothing happens to Tommy? As I said, he's my responsibility because he is my student. If anything, we cannot hold him back any longer.

The next time we see Sina, Tommy will be a far more composed and a far stronger warrior. And right now, I have to stop him from getting a punishment he doesn't deserve, just a punishment enough to get him back on the right track. Against Sina, any help is the best help we can get."

Seeing how M1ke's expression had softened up into crying, Mari wiped her tears and replied with a gentle smile, "Of course. I care about him just as much. Let's go save him…"

Hours later, at the scene of the crime, fetching data of all those who lost their lives, Mari picked out the database safety engineer Daniel and said, "Since a lot of casualties were disintegrated, we have a lot of room to frame some of them… But let's try not to make it seem he was entirely at fault…"

With a frustrated sigh, M1ke responded saying, "I hate lying about lost comrades… Why does necessary evil have to be a thing…", upon hearing which even Mari had to sigh and facepalm.

With no choice, M1ke signed the set up testimonies and evidence records to make the origin of the case rather 'sugarcoated'.

Still with an uncomfortable expression on his face, M1ke turned to his fellow generals and subordinates and asked, "You're all actually okay with this?", to which, much to his surprise, they nodded.

Neil: The kid's done a lot for the people here. Plus I don't have it in me to see a kid get executed. Especially after the war and seeing all the children there, for his age, I can't blame him.

Hans: I ain't got it in me either. And we're not the conservative section of the military anyways. Fuck em! Besides, at the pace his strength grows… It might just be a year or two away until he's on your level if not higher.

M1ke: Oi Oi Oi, relax!

Neil: He is true, boss! Besides, this has got us closer to Sina's schemes!

Toru: The kid is interesting to me. I'd rather kill you than kill him, irresponsible prick.

M1ke: HEY!

Joseph: He's my daughter's best friend, if you don't save him, I'd kill you too.

M1ke: Dude, I told you I WILL!

Katherine: You were so rude to him, I could hear it all over!

M1ke: HE NEEDED TO HEAR THAT!

And just like that, the day still ended with a lighthearted conversation.

On the day of the trial…

"It has been found out that due to the lack of supervision during security tests performed by database safety engineers Daniel Flint and Laura Jinx, a hacking tool with Sina's level of coding expertise made it to the premise. Because of that, all of the military base was breached.

It has been concluded that Sina and the angels that were responsible for the terrorist attacks have been working together. A stronger order will now take place where all soldiers are allowed to use lethal force on any angel subject or Sina. This is now a battle for survival.

On top of that, due to the progressive section of the military's suspicions having come true, they'll be given more power and authority regarding the Sina x Angels operation. Whatever they may conspire is now declared to be far worse than what they'll be doing. While teams will prevent such attacks, they'll not just sit back. Investigation must go on consistently as per instructions of the progressive higher ups. Some names shall be promoted later on.

As for the responsibility of the tragedy that took place the day before yesterday, due to the lack of watchful eye having resulted from M1chael's sector, he'll be demoted to Deputy Colonel. As per instructions from M1ke, for reckless insubordination and running away to fight a threat way above even a General class soldier's level, especially without supervision, Captain Thomas Isaac Oldton shall be suspended for 3 months. That's it for today's hearing"

The court had finally declared its verdict. Everyone took a long sigh of relief. Tommy was shocked because he received such a low sentence.

Running towards M1ke with a concerned and tearful expression, he grabbed his collar and yelled, "Why'd you let me get off the hook so easily? Why'd you get demoted for what I caused? Why? It's because of me that so many people died… Why?? Tell me!!"

Pushing Tommy aside, with an irritated expression, M1ke replied, "Isn't it obvious? It was my oversight as much as it was yours. I was careless. I forgot you were a child. I failed to communicate to you both as a leader and as a teacher. We both have no right to our own lives now.

We owe it to those who died that day to live and carry on until we meet our fate inevitably. We must fight to protect what they wished to protect themselves and that is the people that live in this universe. That's our duty as soldiers.

Until the day we die, we cannot let these tragedies hold us back or more of them will happen, even if they're common during times of war. Understood? The next time, there won't be any do-overs. The battlefield like I said is unpredictable. I might not be there on time to help you. There's times you'll have to survive on your own. Be careful and… STOP CRYING SOLDIER! MOVE FORWARD! THERE'S NO TIME TO FOOL AROUND!"

Despite how strict he sounded, even if he left abruptly, he had managed to strike a chord inside Tommy for gradual change as the blue gleam in them returned once again. He stood there silently for a few moments with a neutral expression as he mumbled to himself, "Move forward… There's no time… To fool around…"

Walking over to his subordinates this time, M1ke stood there for a few seconds before smirking and speaking up saying, "Now that the tragedy has happened, we cannot look back. Sina had to make a hasty retreat and now we have more material than ever to investigate him. We're going to prevent a big tragedy so let's focus on the positives it has got us. OUR NEXT ATTACK WILL BE?"

"Stronger!!" said his subordinates immediately after M1ke ambiguously left his speech open.

"I can't hear you!" responded M1ke once again.

"STRONGER!!" all soldiers shouted together, at which M1ke smirked as Operation Sina began once again, immediately, and with a more positive undertone and outlook than the previous time.

Finally, in the present time, two years later…

After the fall of the 'most secure' military base, the military decided to take a more decentralized approach and equipped all precincts with connected pathways to each other for faster communication and more real time crime prevention.

The military's approval ratings had gone up quite a bit again. People began to trust them thanks to the efforts of M1ke, Tommy and so many other heroes.

And here we go again… A wall of a building explodes as a crook jumps onto electrical wires and Tommy, Yoko and Oli chase him down.

As the crook swung down, the trio took an alternative route. Securing all three sides the crook could go, he circumvents their expectations and goes through a fourth route, but a surprisingly prepared Tommy shot water from a pipe onto his suit and threw a plasma blade on one of the electrical cords of the fourth route the crook took, causing him to get fall off onto the ground while the water made his suit malfunction.

Before the crook could be electrocuted however, Oli had already reached the scene and discharged his suit. Tommy, who had just shown up to the fourth route himself, then unmasked the crook.

"Mr. Pines…?" said Tommy in surprise.

"Ugh, I could've gotten away with the money had you not stopped me!" yelled Pines.

"Big bro, we're getting late for school." said Oli but Tommy just sighed before replying, "I'll be on time. I always sneak in anyways. I gotta sign the docs for his arrest."

"You sure? I'm sure the cops wouldn't mind if you left right now." replied Oli with a hesitant expression on the idea of leaving Tommy behind.

"Yeah, yeah, now go!" said Tommy, upon hearing which, Oli left, albeit still hesitantly.

Turning towards Pines, Tommy continued, "Why'd you steal from Mr. Parker though?", to which, Pines replied, "My daughter is still in school, kid… She wants to be a doctor when she grows up but I can't even pay for her school let alone her doctor's education when she grows up…"

"Still, Mr. Parker isn't any better off than you y'know…" replied Tommy, to which in response, Pines enthusiastically replied, "You're right! I should steal from the rich!"

Hearing Pines miss his entire point, Tommy furiously punched him on the head as he spoke up, "No you dumb old man! Even if she becomes a doctor that way, she'd be a daughter of a convict. Do you think she'd be happy knowing you're in prison because of her dreams? Think again!"

Hearing what he had to say, Pines' frowned before replying, "You're right… But aren't I already ruined?"

Just then, the cops had arrived just to fuel the fire, but before they could arrest him, Tommy said he'd handle it, to which, the cops could hesitantly say nothing besides, "As you wish Captain…"

After writing a note down, the cops had left. Turning to Pines, Tommy finally spoke up saying, "I'll let you off this time. Just live honestly though. You wouldn't want your daughter to be sad right?"

Despite Tommy's empathy, Pines was still frowning as he replied, "But how… I barely make enough…", to which, Tommy replied back saying, "I'll pay for her sake. Just work enough to run your house, old man."

"Are you s-sure? You can't be letting everyone off the hook for something like this right…?" wondered Pines.

"Nah, most people I capture get the sentence they deserve. It's just sometimes, conventional law doesn't cut it. And as a hero, I can't let people get the same sentence as someone who did worse just because the 'law' sucks at classifying it can I? So anyone I can see with such a case at least, I'll help I've got the influence to, after all! Why not use it for something good? ! I'm no cop. I want to be a hero. And this is what heroes do!" replied Tommy with a gentle smile.

Shaking his hand with tears in his eyes, Pines responded to Tommy's generosity saying, "I don't know I can ever repay you… Thank you…", to which, Tommy replied, "Just apologize to your daughter and Mr. Parker and promise them you wouldn't do something like that again."

Nodding, Pines left with his heart warmed. Meanwhile, Yoko who looked at it all said, "You're too kind for your own good ya know…", which caught Tommy off guard.

"Oh so you didn't leave for school? Guess we're both gonna get scolded for being late huh?" replied Tommy, smiling as usual like he does with Yoko around.

"You sure you can keep paying for all these people? This is like the 11th person this month." questioned Yoko with concern on her face, to which Tommy again, with a chuckle, replied, "Eh? I get a lot of money. Besides, it's from the government's cuts. A little tax returns won't hurt huh? And besides, I've got a roof to be under, all the food I could ever want and enough money for video games and manga! What else would I need!"

With a smirk yet a depressing and teared up look, Yoko responds, "I wish everyone was like you…"

Concerned about what's going on, as well as confused, Tommy's expression changed to that of worry as he asked, "What's up Yoko?! Are you okay??"

"I'm okay… I just won't be coming to school from now on…" said Yoko as her crying got more and more audible and unable to bear her sad expression, Tommy urged her to tell him what's going on by adding, "Why?? What happened!? If you tell me, I could… I could help!"

"THIS IS SOMETHING YOU CANNOT HELP ME WITH TOMMY! I WANT TO BREAK UP WITH YOU! THIS THING BETWEEN US! IT CAN'T GO ON!" Yoko uttered her last words before running away.

As she left, Tommy was on his knees. His eyes widened in shock and disbelief. "What's going on…? Why… Am I that… Terrible…?" was all that he could think.

Meanwhile, Yoko had run into a corner, still crying with no signs to stop crying, only to be greeted by a woman who could now be seen more clearly from the shadows. She looked similar to Yoko and her attire was of a military Major.

"You did well little sister." said the woman Yoko had run off to, who is now revealed to be her older sister, Hitagi.

"Just please… Please don't hurt Tommy… I promise he'll not interfere in my marriage to whoever you want me to marry big sister…" replied Yoko, unable to hold herself together from an arrangement she couldn't overturn. Forced to abandon Tommy, it was clear her happiness might be doomed forever, just like Tommy, who still stood right where Yoko suddenly announced their break up, still unable to process the details and standing on his knees with his eyes widened in shock and tears finally showing up in his eyes.

The life of heroes are always bound to be full of suffering. They can never catch a break. What makes them stand out is their ability to always get back up from any given tragedy. Now that the story is back to the present, not everything is flowers and the beauty of nature. The pace has already picked up faster than ever. Will our heroes, Tommy and Yoko, be able to restore their future together? Or is this the end?

To be continued in Chapter - 23…