Well, I managed to free up some time to write something again ^^

Enjoy the chapter

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I quickly reached the road he had been talking about. Since he had also shown me the direction I had to go in I just sped along the street in a distance. It wasn't too hard to reach top speed and I don't think anyone would notice anytime soon that there was a policewoman running alongside cars.

Luckily I had parked my car a bit away from the school otherwise it really could've gotten dicey as Reinar had said.

On my way away from school I noticed multiple military vehicles driving into the direction of school. Well, Reinar wouldn't have a good time there. I hope he knew how to hide.

From there on out I tried to drive as fast as possible while still maintaining an acceptable pace. I didn't want to get stopped looking the way I did.

I got out of the area before they started putting checkpoints up.

After driving for a short amount of time I arrive at New York City. It was annoying to drive slowly but that's what I had to do to not arouse suspicion.

Finally I pull into the lower parking decks of the skyscraper we lived in. I pull out a jersey out of the trunk and put it over my ravaged police uniform. Then I throw all my equipment into the car and rush towards the elevator.

I still looked awkward with partly ripped blue uniform trousers but that could be some kind of new trend. Luckily my preparation was in vain though. I met nobody during the brief ride upwards.

Taking out the keys to our main door it suddenly opens in front of me and a furious Viktor stands in my face.

"ALEX, where were you? I called you over 45 minutes ago. The HQ got attacked while Lane was away. All four areas have been completely annihilated.

GET INSIDE NOW!"

He seemed really pissed off and scared. Love it.

Faking concern I get inside and face him.

"What exactly happened? Tell me everything."

He turns towards me.

"Alex, many things went wrong the past week. I couldn't tell you about it because you where not supposed to know any of it.

My uncle, Lane's father was arrested. Somehow they found out that he had to do something with the Raiders. They took him away four days ago. Naturally they're eyes fell on me and Lane too. What I've constantly been doing was to assure them that I am loyal and had nothing to do with my father's doings.

It was hard work. I send you on that mission because I saw that you where bored beyond death. Anyways that's what happened to your headmaster. They had installed someone else just after that.

That guy looked through everything while my uncle was being taken away by the new anti-esper squadron. They were afraid that we would strike back at them.

It was a ton of work to convince them that you too were actually just someone I picked up because of work and not because you had something to do with the headmaster."

I interrupt him.

"Shit happens and we need to move on, but what happened to the area?"

"Yeah, sorry. Yesterday Karif and Lane went to another city to investigate an illegal organization breaking into houses with what we suspect powers. Around ten hours after they had left the area the attack happened.

The scouts assume it is some kind of insanely strong esper, at least in the uppers of lv 4.

Nobody I know of inside of the area survived. But we have witnesses outside of the camp telling us that a green-yellowish mist had surrounded every single area. Afterwards it begun.

Everyone is telling the same, screams of people dying. One hour later it was over. The whole camp is destroyed. I was send a picture of what's left."

With that he hands me a tablet. On it a picture shows me a huge area where only a few rusty red metal parts and a lot of green mush was left.

"That's the whole area? What happened there?"

"We have multiple theories. We all agree that it was some kind of strong esper.

First we thought of from the Fallen. He's a middle tier lv 4 that used his control over water to kill people. Mostly because of the rusted military equipment and because of his strength.

Second was someone from Arthus Welten. They're a German organization. We still don't know their exact goal but they have someone named . As far as we know he is some kind of bacteria type, though we still could never determine his true level we assume him to be around higher tier lv 3."

.... Zerfall?

"Third and most plausible was HALO's she's someone that hates the military beyond anything since they accidentally killed her parents during a fight with another suspect. She's able to send out shockwaves to make matter unstable. This makes things around her collapse on a cellular basis. She might even be backed by HALO's who has similar power as ."

I interrupt him again.

"Wait did anyone of the students and staff survive?"

"No, only the strongest military espers and some of the anti-esper squadron survived. The headmaster had already been at another location where they're probably asking him questions."

...again hundreds of people had died.

"What are we going to do?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"For now? Since I'm still a strong espers in the military we'll be going back to New Hampshire for a bit. Everyone is already looking for anyone that might match the description of the three different suspects. If we're lucky we can find out why they did it."

I think they misinterpreted the whole thing. I don't think they did it to go against the military.

"When are we going then?"

"Car's ready when we are. I suggest you take what you need and we drive off then. But you need to change into military clothing. You're supposed to be my adjutant so it would be weird if you were not wearing anything resembling that."

After quickly changing into a normal military uniform both of us drive towards the airport to fly back to our destroyed base.

During the flight I still remembered some small things to ask Viktor.

"What about Lane and the others? Will they come too?"

"Of course. If it really is anyone of the three we suspect then we're in huge trouble. is able to change his body into a fluid mush making him unkillable through conventional means. The Germans is even harder. He seems to use his power to create a field around him. In this field he harnesses a large amount of different bacteria. It is immensely poisonous and as such we cannot even get close to him easily. And HALO's ... If it's her we might even have to work together with the military.

We just need everyone there."

"How are we going to find them though?"

"Not we. The military will find them. They've got everything under lockdown by their own people and the sky is off limits for everyone but military personnel. They'll catch them, no doubt. But they'll need any help from then on out. The anti-esper squadron underwent new changes lately so they are not the best fighting force they have right now. And the normal espers all got wiped out except the really strong ones that were specialized in defense.

Some strong espers with detection abilities got transferred over too. It'll be dangerous for any of the new team to get close to them but I'm sure we can avoid detection. One thing is set though, we need to find this person first.

Lane told me she'd talk with the team leader of the first team to send over a portion since we're in real trouble right now."

"I see, so where will we stay in New Hampshire? I mean, the base is destroyed right?"

"You forgot one thing, officially we're military personnel. We will be getting there as investigators. You haven't been told until now but I'm not the combat oriented type. I'm like my uncle, I gather information for the Raiders. My power isn't any good for attacking people anyways."

Good to know.

"We'll be staying in the temporary base they've set up. Together with everyone that survived and that can help us in some way. But remember one thing, we still have superiors there. You need to behave yourself or we'll get thrown out immediately."

"Very well. Do we have any safe way of beating any of the three suspects?" I ask him.

"Theoretical yes. We probably can defeat by letting Lane take care of him. She's able to generate huge points of energy that can probably evaporate him even if he cools himself down. too should not be too complicated. Since his power needs to connect to you directly Karif, Rachel and Mikael should simply be able to walk through anything. We should be able to work from that. It's not a lot but we simply do not know a lot about anyways.

Lastly . If it's her we can only bet on Mikael in that moment. Even Lane cannot face her in direct combat. Even one hit from her any it's over for any of except Mikael."

I understood it. To put it simply. Karif could change into shadows to avoid the bacteria. Rachel could "crush" them charging through without letting them inside of her body. And Mikael? Well, nothing can kill him under the right circumstances.

He doesn't think that I would be able to do anything against them. I have ways to defend myself against that though. I hope that I won't have to use them.

"Ok... What do you need me and Velvet for then?"

"Honestly? You guys are still strong espers. The probability is too high that other espers where part of the whole attack. While the others take care of the main target you'll be tasked to keep the rest busy. That is if there are others."

Che. So we're simply bodyguards. Well he is too. Not much to work from.

"Ok, I need to look through some stuff. If you have anything left to ask do it now."

"I don't really need to know more right now."

"Good."

With that he becomes silent and concentrates on some papers.

The rest of the flight went by quickly. I didn't know that Viktor was such a high official of the military. Well, I didn't care much anyways.

I close my eyes and try to rest for a bit.

"Alex, wake up, we're here."

Something touches my arm.

"DON'T TOUCH ME YOU BASTARD!!!"

I wake up instantly and push whoever off me.

Opening my eyes I can see Viktor with a quite funny facial expression.

"Calm down. We're here and we need to be fast. It seems as if some of our scouts found three strong espers in the north. They got quite far but it was simply too suspicious that three high level espers where walking around there. I saw the data. The higher ups of the military haven't seen it yet, but that's only a question of when, not if.

The others are driving there as we speak, so get up NOW!"

I quickly stand up and we get out of the plane. Outside I can see the whole airport we had left from 8 days ago. Things were different now though. Many barriers had been set up and it seemed like a lot of people did not get to leave via plane.

The sky was cloudy, it would probably rain at some point today. This would get really lousy.

A military jeep stops in front of the jet. After throwing our meager current belongings into the trunk Viktor orders the driver to get out and motions me to take the wheel.

"We don't need somebody uninvited."

With that we drive away from the airport and towards our new Destination.