As the countdown reached five seconds, Riddick couldn't help but look toward the rear-view mirror, in anticipation of what was to come. As he did this, the Morgan’s virtual assistant warned, "I detect that you have diverted your gaze from the front, auto-assist engaged.”
Riddick ignored the voice and instead kept looking at the rearview mirror. As he counted down in his mind: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The moment the counter reached zero, a loud boom echoed from the distant rear. Through the rear-view mirror, he could immediately see a large explosion emerging, forming a mushroom dome several feet high.
Riddick didn't let upon the accelerator and continued to speed forward at the car’s stop speed. But at this time, an assortment of red lights began to flash within the car as the V.I (virtual assistant) warned, "warning, battery low. Warning, battery low. Please recharge soon or reduce your speed to conserve power."
Before Riddick could even react to this message, he felt a sudden force hit his car, causing it to shake dangerously while still at a high speed. If not for the incredible auto-assist that aided him as he drove, along with his greater-than-normal reflexes, he would've most definitely swerved off the road.
Along with this force that came from the shock-wave, large amounts of dust were blown around in all areas as the mushroom dome caused by the explosion rose higher and higher.
Seeing that it was only a shock-wave that had hit, Riddick turned his gaze to the projected screen on the passenger side and let out a sigh of relief. As he saw that just below where the countdown reached zero, it stated that he had traveled 9.38 km, passing the needed 8.98 km by just a few hundred meters. Riddick finally relaxed the pressure he was putting on the acceleration, and his breathing now began to ease up.
He was, however, still very cautious as he asked, "Zoe, can you detect any radiation outside the area of the car?"
In response to this, Zoe replied, "No, I am unable to detect the radiation outside this vehicle, as it lacks the proper equipment."
Riddick could only let out a disappointed sigh as he heard this, but there was nothing he could do. So, he simply answered, "All right, turn on any news alerts you hear about the incident. Even if it happened in the middle of nowhere, this is going to stir a bit of trouble, and I would like to be kept up-to-date."
"Alright, now monitoring all national and local news outlets with the appropriate filters for your request." answered Zoe.
Just as Zoe said this, the screen on the passenger side of the car shifted to a page showcasing various news tabs. Riddick mused, "I guess I'll just have to drive until the battery runs out."
As Riddick continued to drive away from the area of effect, a state of panic erupted in Lowtown, as it was closest to the site of the explosion. News outlets were incredibly quick to jump on the story, with some beginning to deliver news on the matter in less than five minutes.
At the same time, emergency services reacted equally as fast.
Ever since the emergence of superhumans, emergency services' responses to disasters had come a long way. Even accidental disasters related to nuclear activity had appropriate measures that could be taken. In this case, numerous vehicles, choppers, and drones could be seen slowly making their way toward the site of the explosion. All the were vehicles protected against radiation, and in one such vehicle—an armored van that led one of the many convoys adding to the site—a man was seated in the back, along with several other figures clad in uniform with the initials "M.E.D.D" marked behind, which stood for Meta-Enforcement and Defense Division.
The man looked to be in his 50s with short brown hair, a stubbly white beard, and shallow blue eyes. He also had a very muscular build and stood at a height of roughly 192 cm. The rest of the people present in the car were of varying appearances and statures but all wore serious looks as the man spoke,
"Alright, team. Right now, we have no idea what we're dealing with. Intelligence suggests it could just be a mere meltdown. However, Marriott Energies claims that they received external interference as they tried to remotely stabilize the meltdown."
As the man said this, one of the several figures gathered there, much younger and having a buzz cut, clean-shaved and equally muscular build, couldn't help but raise his hand to ask, "Sir, isn't that just some corporate bluff for them to deny responsibility?"
The older man turned his attention to the young man and gave a slight nod. "It could very well be. But until we get the facts straight, we are to assume that it is entirely possible that the cause of this incident is a superhuman. It is our duty to investigate that find the person responsible if it is as such."
As the older man finished saying this, another person raised their hand, this time a woman. She bore perhaps one of the most serious expressions within the back of the van, giving her a look that was more intimidating than beautiful. This was despite her lovely features composed of short blonde hair, bright green eyes, and a fairly tall physique for a woman standing at 191 cm.
She raised her hand and spoke more formally than the young man who spoke before her, "If it really is a superhuman and we are to assume that his or her powers has to do with creating nuclear disasters, how do we approach this?"
The man looked at the woman and clapped his hands together. "Our unit only deals with class D threats. If the investigation leads us to grade the perpetrator as someone higher than this, then the case will fall to another unit or even division all together."
After the man said this, the girl then asked, "And if it's not?"
The man narrowed his eyes and said firmly, "Then, we'll track the fucker responsible down to the ends of the earth. Am I clear?"
As the man in charge asked this, every person raised their hand in agreement and yelled, "HOO-RAHH!"
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Thirty minutes had passed since the explosion occurred and in that time Riddick had passed by another charging station, but he hadn't stopped despite his car being low.
This was because the charging station he passed by happened to belong to Marriott Energies as well. Following the nuclear fallout of the other station in the same area, they had no choice but to shut down all their stations as an investigation was launched into them.
Even without this, Riddick felt that stopping at a charging station was not a good idea.
Although he was sure that the original owner of the Morgan was most likely dead, it didn't change the fact that the car didn't belong to him.
Considering its value, he knew for a fact that if it were seen, it was possible he would be questioned on the matter. Especially coming into areas like Midtown or Hightown, where security was a much better than Lowtown.
Right now his best-case scenario was, for the police to assume the car and the owner were both vaporized. For this to happen, he needed to stash it somewhere.
But unlike his friend Nikolai, Riddick was still very much inexperienced as a contract killer, to the point that, aside from Nikolai and Specs, he had no other contacts himself.
Drop point handlers never really counted, as they often worked with more than one contract killer at a time. So, with little to no other options, Riddick felt he needed to request the help of his friend.
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As his car would soon run out of charge and he'd be stranded. If even Nikolai couldn't help him, then he'd have no choice but to dump the car and progress forward on foot, which he would’ve had already done if the car didn't possess an astronomical value.
So before resorting to dumping it, he had to at least try to see if he could make it out with it.
“Zoe, contact Nikolai,” a silent beeping began to ring as the screen on the passenger side of the car showed the status calling and an image of Nikolai.
A few seconds later, the prompts changed to connected as Nikolai's voice resonated from the car’s speakers. "Riddick, I was just about to call you. I was worried you might have been in the area of this explosion that just happened at one of the Marriott energy stations. Are you all right? Where are you?"
Riddick brought Nikolai's worries to a pause as he explained, "Yes, I'm alright. However, I've run into a problem that I need your help with. Do you know any car fixers in the area? The charging stations are down, and the car I have is nearly out of charge. I'll explain what happened later."
Riddick didn't want to go into many details on the call because he knew that in such a situation, it was very likely that numerous calls were being listened to, even if only briefly.
Although he knew Nikolai wasn't so sloppy as a contract killer, it was a rule for one never to grow too complacent or have too much faith in their own abilities. It was entirely possible for someone better than them to exist. So Riddick would always try to be as careful as he could whenever he could.
A short pause followed as Nikolai thought in silence. Then, just a few seconds later, he replied, "It's been a while since I've been to Redemption City, and I've mostly lost contact with most of my personal connections. But I do have friends who might be able to help or refer you to someone. Let me make a few calls and send the details to you via Zoe. Just be careful; there are currently a lot of eyes and ears in the area. Whenever a disaster like this strikes, there's always someone looking to make a benefit. Watch your back out there, little comrade."
"Alright, Nikolai. Will do, and thanks," Riddick replied.
As he accepted this, Nikolai added, "Consider us even for paying for my funeral. Ha-ha." Without letting Riddick reply, Nikolai cut the call, leaving Riddick to just sigh and shake his head.
With the matter now out of his hands, he could only continue driving at a steady pace and wait for Nikolai to do his part.
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At around the same time, the M.E.D.D had arrived at the site of the explosion. The unit, adorned in uniforms protected against radiation, exited the armored truck. They looked over the site and at the point of the explosion. Much of what was there though had been vaporized due to the proximity to the center of the explosion. As their gazes went over the now desolate area, they could see numerous other divisions, mostly in the investigation department, scouring the area for any evidence that could tell them what exactly happened.
The older man who led the unit was soon approached by an equally older woman with brown eyes and neat black hair, adorned in a large mechanical suit, clearly for protection against radiation. She slowly walked over with a mechanical hum coming from the joints of the frame she wore. "Nice of you to finally arrive, Captain McKinney."
The captain saluted at this greeting while giving a nod. "Always a pleasure to be of service, Dr. Monroe. Can you tell us what happened? Are you able to determine whether this was caused by accident or if it was intentional?"
As the captain asked this, the doctor turned to look at the site where her colleagues were still scouring for evidence in the distance, she couldn't help but sigh, "If I'm being quite honest with you, Captain, it's going to be very hard to determine the actual cause in this case. If it really was intentional, then whoever did this went to great lengths to hide whatever it was they were doing. That, or it was a direct attack to defame Marriott Energies. Such cutthroat tactics are sadly not uncommon among corporate organizations nowadays. I'm eager to learn more, but from what I hear, the higher-ups aren't going to pull too many resources into this."
Hearing the doctor say this, one of the other members of the captain's unit couldn't help but let out a scoff, "Right, no surprise there. After all, most of the victims are just Lowtown bookies."
As the young man said this, the captain angrily turned around and yelled, "Ramirez!"
The young man named Ramirez snapped to attention and raised his head, "Sorry, Captain. I'll keep my opinions to myself next time."
The doctor turned and looked ready to leave, "I need to get back to my colleagues. You're free to wait or investigate yourselves, but I doubt you will find much-."
Before she could finish her words, though, someone yelled out in the distance, "Hey, over here! There’s survivors!"
The sudden discovery of people alive prompted everyone to look in the direction of the person who yelled out the piece of news. Many bore looks of surprise and eagerness, after all, what better way was there to learn what happened than to ask the witnesses?
Both Dr. Monroe and Capt. McKinney immediately began to walk over to where the person was calling for medics, along with their assistant droids who were also quick to react in case said survivors were in need of immediate medical help.
The captain and the doctor soon made their way toward a huge pile of rock rubble just across the road from the charging station. At first glance, one would just assume it was a simple pile of rock debris that had dropped down after the explosion and avoided getting incinerated.
But considering the close proximity to the site of the explosion, it didn't really make much sense. Hence, why someone had gone to investigate, and upon doing so, detected life within said debris.
As everyone gathered around, a person piloting a construction frame approached the debris and began to lift out the rocks carefully. This was a fairly delicate operation. At the same time, they tried calling out to the people they felt were inside, but they could get no answers.
Less than two minutes later, the man piloting the construction frame had managed to remove enough rocks out of the way to let a small enough droid pass through and inspect the inside.
Once inside, the droid delivered.
It did, in fact, find people alive at the center, huddled together around one person who had their hands stretched in the air. They projected a sizable biotic shield that saved them not only from getting incinerated and crushed but also from the after-effects like radiation, dust, and so on.
The moment the droid caught sight of this, medical personnel immediately became active. It wasn't strange in cases of disasters for people to survive and, in some cases, even help others thanks to their superhuman abilities. So, now that they confirmed they were survivors, the urgent matter was getting them out of there safely.
Dr. Monroe immediately ordered, "Quickly set up a sanitized zone around here and get these people into safety gear."
Capt. McKinney, who stood near the good Doctor, also wasn't surprised at the sight and felt some relief inwardly. Now they had some people they could question over exactly happened.
“They have no idea just how lucky they are,” as the captain said this, Dr. Monroe shook her head to disagree.
“Physically? Perhaps, but there is no telling just how traumatic their experience was, especially if this was, in fact, not an accident. More than that, from what I can see, what's protecting them is a biotic shield. Very good against physical attacks but, unfortunately, still allows sound to pass through. So, I'm sure everyone present within that shield had their eardrums damaged, to a very bad degree at that, considering their proximity to the explosion. And if any of them had their eyes open, they too may have lost their sight.”
Capt. McKinney also didn't agree with Dr. Monroe's words, stating, "Compared to losing your life, those are small problems. You can just go to any old cybernetic implant lab to get those things fixed. I've done it enough times, and I turned out just fine."
Dr. Monroe didn't bother arguing any further. "Believe me, you'll understand why I say this in due time when you're able to speak to these people yourself. For now, let us allow the medical team to care for them. I shall continue to coordinate my team and search for any evidence, perhaps more survivors before luck runs out."
Capt. McKinney crossed his arms, "That’s fine, my unit will just scout the area for any potential threats, though I personally feel we're only going to get our answers when survivors talk."
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Meanwhile, the perpetrator behind the entire incident was now parked beside the road near one of the many rocky dunes that covered the area going towards Midtown.
Riddick sat on the hood of his car while keeping an eye on his smart-watch.
"Zoe, how long until Nikolai's man gets here?" Riddick asked impatiently, not really enjoying the feeling of basking under the very hot sun.
To this, Zoe replied in her usual emotionless tone, "I did not receive an arrival date included in the message Nikolai had sent. Only a location. Would you like me to send them back a message requesting a time?"
Riddick shook his head at this. "Never-mind, I'm just a little on edge."
"What kind of edge are you feeling, Riddick? If it is the emotional kind, I may install a few known therapist modules to assist you. I can also play a selection of soothing music or background noise to soothe the mind."
"That's alright, it’s nothing a good night’s rest won’t fix after-."
*Vroom!*
As Riddick was about to reply, he heard the loud purring of what was unmistakably a combustion engine. He stopped speaking to Zora and immediately turned his attention away from his watch, taking on a casual pose as he waited.
Cautiously, a car pulled in. When it did so, what Riddick saw was a crimson red old-school combustion engine-powered muscle car. Extremely rare and very much illegal in the current times. But what really caught his eye was the vehicle’s plate, which read,
“MILFMAN”