Erika Velle
In a hospital room, Erika sits next to Anna's bedside, holding her little sisters hand tightly. It's been less than two days since Anna first received the cure, but her health has improved greatly.
Although she still sleeps a lot, it's as if she was never even sick. After Erika's last meeting with her new ally, she returned to her sister's side, and hasn't left the hospital since. Most of her time has been spent watching her sister sleep, and slowly recover. She's been able to spend time relaxing, and simply talking to her sister without having to worry about her dying for the first time in years.
Ever since Anna was first diagnosed, the thought that she could possibly die has never left Erika's mind. Now that she's recovering, and sleeping normally, she feels like she can finally breathe easily. For years, Erika's had to desperately struggle just to ensure her little sister receives the medication she needs to survive—now that she's cured, Erika finds herself feeling a sense of relief unlike any other.
However, such a massive change has left her feeling almost disconnected from the world around her. Despite being surrounded by friends, family members, nurses, doctors, and so on—she barely notices them. All she can focus on is looking at her sister lying peacefully on her bed, and the masked person that saved her.
At times, she wishes she knew their name, and how they managed to find the cure. However, knowing nothing about them leaves her curious instead. They seem confident in their ability to save the world, which makes her wonder what they might be planning. There must be a good reason for them wanting to help her, right? Perhaps they aren't just trying to manipulate her.
Still, she wonders what they want from her in return. Is there something they require? Will they demand more from her?
When she met them last night, they spoke of freeing her. Hearing that, she believed such a thing would be impossible for her to obtain. Even with her sister cured, she wouldn't be allowed to simply walk away. The reason for that is simple—a man named Dr. Mathers. He's the one who's held Anna captive, and he's the one that prevents her from ever leaving.
Anytime she'd voice her complaints, or attempt to escape, he threatened to hurt her little sister, her family, or her. That's why she couldn't leave. Regardless of the fact that her sister was now cured, she wasn't free to do whatever she pleased.
Because of Dr. Mathers' existence, and the power he possesses within New Eden—she brushed off the words of her sister's savior. After all, how could one person go against a man that controls such a powerful institution?
But last night, just a few short hours after her meeting with that masked figure—her perspective began to shift.
The primary reason for Mathers' possessing so much power within New Eden is due to his revolutionary invention, a next generation satellite named 'Zephyr'.
To Erika, the man is nothing more than an irredeemable monster. But unfortunately for her, he's a monster with genuine ability. Zephyr is far more advanced than its predecessors, and its competition. It possesses the ability to spy on people all around the globe—such an ability is of course highly sought after by those in power, and as Zephy's sole creator—Mathers is granted tremendous influence.
Ever since its conception, Zephyr has been seen as a symbol of New Eden's technological superiority. As such, it has become an indispensable tool in maintaining the current order. It provides surveillance on the citizens of New Eden, allowing the government to track down any opposition.
Due to this, it's been seen as an immovable, unbreakable pillar of New Eden's presence in space.
That all changed last night.
Erika still can't forget the feeling of disbelief she felt when the news first reported two Zephyr satellites plummeting to Earth. Although it seemed impossible, it became clear soon enough that it was indeed real.
News outlets quickly spread reports of the incident, citing that the satellites were destroyed during a test gone wrong. When asked about the matter, Mathers refused to comment, and Anithrel merely claimed the incident to be caused by a hardware failure.
But then, just a few hours later, the satellites continued to fall. What started off as nothing more than an isolated incident, slowly turned into thousands of satellites raining down onto Earth.
Erika felt completely numb watching the news continually report on more and more satellites being destroyed.
It was too surreal for her to process. Not long ago, these satellites served as symbols of New Eden's technological superiority—now they represented nothing but a threat to humanity itself.
When the first two satellites fell, she believed it to be nothing more than a coincidence.
She couldn't accept the idea that the masked figure she met was somehow responsible for such an act. But then, when the rest of the satellites began falling—all doubts vanished from her mind.
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No matter what happened, it was clear that something major was occurring. At this point, she couldn't afford to doubt what she saw.
It's been just over fourteen hours since the first satellite fell, and she still can't comprehend everything that's happened. As the satellites rained down upon Earth, they created a chain reaction that caused the world's population to panic. Although the satellites caused endless amounts of damage, miraculously, no lives were lost.
Because of that simple fact—the whole incident was still seen as an accident, or some sort of accidental malfunction. That thought quickly changed when one of the satellites directly targeted, and destroyed one of the USNA's most advanced space research labs.
Upon witnessing the laboratory's destruction, their president declared the incident to be a terrorist attack and ordered a full response. Their investigation didn't take long. To Erika's joy, the powers of the world quickly found someone to blame. Mathers is considered to be Zephyr's sole designer—that includes Zephy's operating, and navigation systems.
When it became clear the satellites weren't hacked, or physically tampered with—the world had a single suspect.
Dr. Mathers' was arrested by interpol one hour ago, and he's been fully removed from Anithrel Institute. The crimes he's accused of are many—from causing endless amounts of property damage, to destroying the USNA's lab, to causing chaos throughout the entire world, and of course, terrorism—for launching thousands of satellites towards independent countries.
At this point, Mathers is under arrest, and will face trial for his supposed actions, but Erika already knows where the blame lies. It isn't Dr. Mathers who caused this, it was the masked figure that saved her sister—they're the one who destroyed Zephyr.
Her eyes turn towards her sister's bed, and she smiles softly. She begins thinking back on everything that happened over the last few days. Once again, she can't help but feel amazed by the way the world works. The moment she began to lose hope, someone came along who gave her confidence once more. She thought she'd never get the chance to be free to do as she wished, but within the span of days—her sister's cured, and the man that had been holding her family hostage is arrested, and is headed towards imprisonment in a foreign country. Everything just happened so fast, and she's still struggling to understand it all.
For a brief moment, she looks up and stares at the ceiling. She closes her eyes and takes in a deep breath.
Before she realizes it, her mind wanders to a certain question. Why? Who is this person, and why did they help her? Or most importantly—how did they help her?
She opens her eyes, and glances down at her sister. She still doesn't know the answer to that question.
But she does know one thing:
They're the only reason Anna is alive.
After confirming Anna's still asleep, she decides to try meeting them again. She steps outside her room, and begins the journey to her lab.
***
Fate Reylin
Today has certainly been... interesting.
Other than my fight with the corruption, and the ordeal with painter, I've never had an opportunity to really stretch my psychic muscle, and just let loose some of my power.
I mean, sure, I manipulate hundreds of tons daily, but I've mostly just been lifting, and moving around water.
Today, however, I got to use my powers in a more direct manner. When I learned that the man responsible for threatening Erika was not only a scientist, but he also happened to be the sole designer of one of the most popular satellites in the world—it was an opportunity I couldn't let pass.
I think this is the first time I've really seen first hand how much destruction my power can cause with just a little bit of effort. My sixth sense can effectively cover about a quarter of the Earth's surface area, so reaching satellites in space is a simple matter.
I was surprised by just how easy it was to send a satellites plummeting towards the ground. I guess I should have known better considering how much force my power can exert.
The only moderately difficult part was ensuring that no one was killed from either falling debris, or the direct impact. Keeping track of so many pieces of falling debris was difficult—but I suppose my training has payed off.
It's a strange feeling—having so much control over so many things at once. To be honest, it's overwhelming to see the sheer amount of power I hold within me.
My mind feels like it's spinning, and I can't stop thinking about the fact that I'm actually doing something on such a vast scale. Feeling massive satellites being torn into thousands of pieces, and being burned away by the atmosphere was an exhilarating experience.
I didn't cause all of this destruction for no reason. The main point of this destruction was to ensure Erika was freed from that doctor's influence—however, there's another reason I chose such a destructive route.
Those satellites are a pain to deal with.
Whenever I fly around, or travel long distances using my power—I have to always be conscious of those satellites. The chance of them actually seeing, or detecting me is small—but the possibility isn't zero. With those satellites destroyed—Erika gained her freedom, but I also gained my freedom.
I no longer need to constantly hide from them—I now have much more freedom to travel using my power.
Based on my power's current stamina level, I can travel at a consistent speed of around mach eight while keeping my barrier active, and using my sixth sense. So long as I don't go beyond that, I can fly almost indefinitely—my stamina regenerates at a rate comparable to its recovery.
With the satellites gone, I have much more freedom to physically travel to other continents—I'm no longer confined to only observing with my sixth sense.
Everything is going perfectly. However, I wanted to return home, and rest my psychic muscle—but it appears that Erika wants to speak with me.
Well, I can't say I'm surprised.
She wants to know how all of this happened.
New Eden's investigation has already confirmed the satellite incident wasn't caused via hacking, or mechanical accidents—so my options are extremely limited. To be entirely honest, I have no logical way of convincing her how I achieved this without either acknowledging my power, or lying to her about possessing some sort of new technology.
Truthfully, I'm more inclined towards telling her about my power.
I'm quite curious of how she'd react to the existence of something as absurd as psychokinesis. She's a genius scientist, and a once in a generation talent, so I wouldn't be surprised if she took great interest in learning about it.
Either way, I need to learn more about my power, and her intellect would be very useful.