Reappearing through the portal, Robert glanced around at the laboratory, which long ago became an annoying part of his miserable life. The familiar faces of the scientists caused another wave of irritation. Trying to calm down and ignore the same phrases, he closed his eyes. Making a few deep breaths, Rob simply lay down right on the floor, keeping the bothersome surroundings hidden from his sight. Focusing on his breathing, Robert attempted to relax. Even the following trembles with worried screams couldn’t break his desire for rest.
Soon, the ceiling collapsed, burying him under the debris together with the whole laboratory. Any damage from the falling concrete rubbles, Robert healed at once, while maintaining his improvised meditation. He needed it dearly, mentally too exhausted after his multiple attempts to break free from the time loop. At this point, Rob lost count of how many tries he did, but each had the same ending – the restart, putting him back at this point in time. Therefore, he decided to spend some time thinking about his options, simultaneously loosening the stress of his mind. No matter how infinite his endurance was, the mental toll was there, slowly accumulating over period of time without the ability to take a break.
There were too many fights, and each could lead to his death. Quite a few times he was reversed back to the state of just a reactor core. The plasma warhead appeared to be too dangerous to face directly, burning his body with ease. Moreover, the force shield around his entity’s container couldn’t protect itself fully, once again causing a spontaneous stream of energy after failing to contain the energy inside and resulting in evaporating everything above his chest. So, Robert searched for different approaches to find a solution to this messed-up situation.
It's so stupid… I am powerful enough to face one of the strongest supers in a frontal fight, but the realm decided to throw literally everything at me while tying my restart not to me, but to the fucking machine!
At this point, Robert managed to create a whole picture of what was happening. It wasn’t hard to do it, just took a lot of repeats. Having only somewhere from five to ten minutes for interrogation before everything would escalate into violence, Rob managed to get the needed information, while getting the simplistic understanding of this world. At first, he even tried to be gentle and kind, convincing the caught scientists to share the information with only a hint of threat. However, after several accidents, like with Dr. Green and his colleagues, and growing irritation from the need to do everything again and again Robert started to skip any formalities, resorting to torture after even a tiny sign of hesitation or reluctance to answer, trying to save the time in exchange for the need to listen terrified screams, when he was beating the information from the scientists.
Therefore, it was no wonder why Rob wished for the rest after hundreds, if not more, cycles of violence. It felt like the blood, deaths, and filth were following him, despite any attempt to escape. All desire to take revenge on the humans that had put him in the cage and placed him in the museum as an exhibit simply burned out. No matter how intensive the flame was, it needed the source to keep itself from dying down. Robert’s fuel tanks were emptied, leaving no anger, no thirst for blood, and no desire to release the steam. It was all gone, scratching the bottom of his emotional barrel. He was simply too exhausted to for any strong feelings.
Even the challenge of fighting against the supers lost its attractiveness after so many battles. Not only did Robert know his enemies and their skills, but he also got well acquainted with his new metallic body, raising his combat prowess. It wasn’t anything dramatically different from the moment of his appearance in this realm, but now he knew the limits of his strength and toughness, could predict the speed of reforming the obsidian steel into a new construct, and had more control over everything. The changes were tiny, but overall they had a multiplicative effect, increasing his might by a noticeable margin. And that was needed, as the superheroes were still formidable foes, even after so many repeats.
However, this fact only made their circumstances in the realm a complete joke. Somehow, those superpowered humans lost the fight for the spot of being on top of a food chain many years ago. And, considering that there was no second attempt, Robert could see how effective the legal procedures to keep in check all ability wielders were. The supers obediently wore dog’s collars, not even trying to get away from such treatment. On the contrary, they were taught that it was a norm from childhood. Taking into account that abilities were a result of interaction with omicron particles, nobody was born as a super. So, it wasn’t hard to set the propaganda about the need for control over the powers.
In the end, supers were treated like criminals on a probation period. Constant check-ups, psychology screening, limitations on jobs, bans on political career, and many other unpleasant things, which supers were obeying willingly just not to be put in prison. And that related to each of them, even kids who got in the wrong place at some point in their short life, while getting the ability to change the color of any object, or to reproduce any musical instrument with their voice. There was no differentiation in abilities to set the real danger level. No, all were treated equally with absolute caution.
On the other hand, the supers got their own benefits, despite the harsh attitude from the government. Depending on their abilities, they could be turned into money-making machines. Some were hired into big corporations for the specific jobs only they could do. Others became movie stars, participating in TV shows and building their own brand. Quite a few started their business, which relied on their powers. However, most just lived an ordinary life, trying to avoid any additional attention not to be judged by their neighbors. The smallest part with a proper set of abilities and character joined CSA. The latter was the biggest obstacle for Robert on the way out of this mess, while simultaneously being the solo umbrella for the supers from the downpour of violence that could be unleashed by the military at any moment.
Center of Superhuman’s Abilities, or CSA, was the government-sponsored agency, whose whole task was to keep in check the supers. Responsible for stopping any law-breaking act from the ability wielders, it recruited the “superheroes” as one of their weapons, desperately trying to change the image of supers across society. However, considering that most of the wildest and deadliest cases were the result of other super’s doings, it was a hard task. Branding criminals with powers as “villains”, CSA tried to control the damage to their damage, while minimizing any casualties of civilians. However, any mishap, any failure to stop another self-proclaimed bringer of apocalypse would lead to a reaction from the military, which always had aircraft with tactical nukes on standby.
Stolen story; please report.
It led to Robert’s particular situation, where CSA was trying its best to stop an unregistered super, who had already broken into the laboratory, resorting to any means to achieve the goal just for the sake of not taking the blame, which in its turn would make the life of supers worse. And if Rob managed to get through their barricades, the military birds were already ready to flatten several blocks just to stop a villain with the powers, rivaling Demonologist. Or the latter himself would lose control, causing the very same treatment with missiles. In the end, Robert wasn’t strong enough to live through the nuclear strike, albeit a small one, while the military was too afraid to create any precedent of not dealing with a threat. Thus, their over-scaled response. Moreover, the destruction of the facility always led to the restart.
Precisely speaking, it wasn’t the whole group of the underground laboratories, but a specific machine that was currently running a test. The Clock – the device that pierced the time and connected with itself in the future. It took a lot of time and effort for Robert to get the whole picture. And maybe blood, as the scientists just refused to speak about their projects, despite the demonstrative willingness to share their secrets. Dragging the time, and avoiding any direct answers, they tried to hide the information, leading to the need to beat everything out of them. Several times Rob’s inexperience led to the early death of the hostage, wasting the cycle. But his persistence and readiness to dirty his hands got him what he needed. The answer.
The problem was that it didn’t provide an easy solution to it, just explained what was happening to him. As it was with the System, Robert’s Transcendent state seemed to be the cause of everything. Not fully abiding by the rules of the realm, he got stuck in the paradox that was created by the destruction of the time machine. At the very same moment when the overly aggressive teenager blew up both him and Demonologist, making Robert crash into the Clock, the device was exchanging with its own copy from the future information. And this fact broke the time, leading to the well-known paradox of the dead grandfather.
The time machine couldn’t be connected with itself from the future if it was destroyed before that. And exactly he was the uncontrollable and unpredictable reason for this event, appearing in that portal through his connection with Aether, but not because of a successful work of the test equipment. That led to the attempt of the realm itself to fix everything, but the variation that caused the whole mess was still there, as Robert couldn’t leave the world until the situation was resolved according to all-mighty AI. Maybe it was the reason why Rob’s state wasn’t reversed as the realm wanted to kill him before resetting once again, decisively wiping any foreign influence. At least it was how Robert understood his situation. Therefore, he tried to get out, while avoiding the destruction of the device.
Unfortunately, no matter what he did, how effectively he fought, or what things he told, it had the same outcome. Another obstacle to his attempts was the point in time, at which the Clock had established the connection. It was weeks, if not months, away from. Moreover, the scientists didn’t really know the exact time, assuming it was somewhere between two weeks and three months. It only added more headaches to Robert, who couldn’t even make it through one hour. Even this rest under the rubble was another attempt to just wait for the needed time, without making any impact on the events. His endeavor to erase his presence in this ordeal.
Rob needed no food, no oxygen, no water, nothing. And boring time-spending wasn’t the worst thing that happened to him. Considering his lack of any rest during the unknown time, the ability to just lay motionless was a pleasant experience. Moreover, after a few hours, there were no signs of reset, causing an appearance of hope deep inside his mind. The hope that was shattered a dozen minutes later when he felt the familiar trembling that went through the rubbles like a wave. Soon, another one followed, this time bringing a barely audible sound of explosion, which sneaked through the holes in debris.
Damn it! I thought they had only seismic sensors, but they would not scan the whole thing for any hidden super, who decided to wait it out... Or they could simply search for survivors under the rubble of collapsed levels, scanning everything. Damn, never thought that rescue mission will fuck me over… So, can’t wait, can’t fight, can’t hide, can’t dig out… Crap! It leaves me with a single option that I want to avoid at all costs.
Another powerful blast finally reached the machine, sending him back to the starting point. The only benefit of these resets was that even the dust disappeared, leaving him clean and tidy. It was even more important in previous cycles, where he was covered with blood and filth most of the time. Not that it could impact his scary appearance of two with a half meter (8’2’’) bald brute with a glint of madness in the eyes. However, this time, he made a huge effort to appear as harmless as possible. The following disappearance of the force shield and collapse of the ceiling went exactly the same as before. Making his way out of the facility, Robert tried not to wound anyone, ignoring the fearful shouts and even gunfire of the guards. Avoiding the meeting with the group of agents with the crazy woman in charge, he quickly found the stairs before proceeding further.
The scared guard that emptied his magazine was gently shoved to the side, even without dying in the process - so careful Rob was. Hastily moving upward and pausing before the armored door, Robert sighed, while mentally preparing for what was coming. Clenching his fists and enveloping the created brass knuckles with devastating energy, he made a first hit. After ten more the obstacle had fallen, opening the sight of the agents, ready to shoot. Pulling the obsidian steel inside his body to keep it hidden, he made a long step outside, simultaneously showing his empty hands.
The blonde bitch was already there, scanning Rob with an unknown device just to say that he wasn’t registered a few seconds later. However, this time Robert was faster, not anticipating but knowing the exact reaction to his appearance. He wanted to avoid it, not giving any information about the extent of his capabilities. Therefore, gathering all his courage and overcoming the inner barrier with sheer willpower that tried to stop him from speaking, Rob shouted loudly:
“Don’t shoot! I surrender… I will go to prison.”