Author's note: Like the title said, we have something completely new here. I am still wondering whether I should make a short arc or a longer one with this idea so tell me what you guys think about this :)
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Location: ??? Time: ???
Inside an underground facility, a person was sitting in front of a series of flashing glass screens. Even though nothing was behind this wall nor it was magic, the screens showed many different things. Some were sceneries of what seemed to be a futuristic city with people in strange clothing, metallic machines that could move by themselves without any horse and there were people inside them. Other screens showed undulating graphs which went up and down without really knowing what it was. Even the room itself contained bizarre items. On the table was a small rectangular object which somehow was able to produce a song. The image of an apple being half bitten was on the back of this object. Furthermore, in front of these glass screens was a black gadget adorned with many small buttons, each either had a letter or some kind of symbol. There was even a very long button with nothing imprinted on it in the bottom of this gadget. What could this long space button do?
The only door of this room opened and a person, holding two transparent elastic cups containing a brownish liquid, entered.
“Apologies for making you waiting, sir! I didn’t expect the queue to be that long.” The woman who just entered handed over one of the cups to the man sitting on the chair.
“It’s alright. At this time of the day, everyone just rushes into Starbucks like bees…..wait a minute….this is a frappuccino caramel coffee! I thought I asked you for an iced latte?” the man said angrily. Having short white hair, the hair on the sides and back was tapered down to the hairline. The hair on top was clipped from the vertex toward the front. A large scar trailed down from his forehead across his left eye down to his chin. This injury seemed to have left the man blind on one side with his pupil fully discolored. Wearing a grey uniform, the man gave off the air of a military veteran who has seen more deaths than he could count. And indeed, he did.
“But it’s practically the same thing. It’s cold coffee.” The woman said.
“IT’S NOT THE SAME!!!”
“Hiiiiii, do you want me to go buy another one?” the woman shrieked.
“…No need! It’s already time for your shift!” he grunted.
“But it has been calm for weeks now. Nothing will happen just because I am not here for fifteen minutes.” She persisted.
“You idiot! The security of our city, even the world, relies on our hands. Just because you are a rookie doesn’t mean that you are allowed to make such a basic mistake. We never know what will happen….”
“WARNING WARNING! Anomaly detected in district E! Target’s power: 5000 units! Danger Level: S! Requesting intervention immediately! WARNING WARNING!” a mechanical voice spoke with the sound of siren perpetuating in the background, accompanied with a red beacon rotating on the wall.
Immediately, the man pressed on a red button on the desk and spoke to a black object.
“This is admiral Kennedy from sector 2. We have detected an anomaly in district E. Requesting sentries and special agents to go on site! The threat level is S. Please advise caution! I repeat: the threat level is S. Emergency evacuation of the population in the affected area is to be done as soon as possible!”
“An S level danger? How? We haven’t got one at that kind of level for years!” the woman uttered in disbelief.
After giving the announcement to the machine, the man turned to the dismayed woman. “Agent Fiora, you stay here! In case of any further anomalies or change, report back to me!” he took his long coat and headed to the door.
“Where are you going sir?”
“To protect my city!”
* * *
Meanwhile on the ground, just a few moments ago
Two men, one black skin and the other white, wearing a blue uniform and a hat with star adorner to it, were patrolling in the peaceful streets of district E inside a metal machine colored in blue and white with a red and blue lamps on top of the vehicle.
“Things are so boring these days! Where have all the criminals gone?” the black man said as he chocked down a donut with one hand while the other held onto some kind of wheel. This wheel seemed to be controlling the direction of this metal machine they were in as each time he turned it, the thing changed its direction.
“Don’t say it like that! It’s good that we are out of job! I mean if we police are busy, then that means the city is turning to shit, which is definitely not the case here and not something I would want! And we still have our salary, by doing absolutely nothing. Seems good to me.” The white man said.
“But I joined the force to catch the bad guys, man. Like really bad guys, not some small fries drug dealers and burglars.”
“Hahaha! Then you came to the wrong place, man. Our city has been peaceful for years. Nothing is going to happen….”
All of the sudden, a loud siren echoed throughout the entire district E with an alarming message, one that hasn’t been heard for long.
“Attention, please! Attention, please! There has been an emergency reported in the area. Please proceed to the closest exit of the district and follow the instructions of the law reinforcements unit! This is not a drill! I repeat…..” an automatic voice came from a metal horn attached to a pole spoke loudly.
“What the hell…..?” the white man uttered.
“Did you hear that? Finally, some action! Let’s go!” the machine accelerated as he drove through the confused populace.
“Wait a minute, we don’t know what is happening. Shouldn’t it be more advisable to contact HQ first?”
“Screw the HQ! I Ain’t nobody has time for that shit.”
…..
Arriving at the scene, the two police officers walked out of their moving machine and started to look around for clues. The streets were decorated with stone tiles, two lightly elevated parts on both side of the streets while what seemed to be the road in between was very smooth and of a dark color. The once lively streets of the district E were now void of people. They must have evacuated the moment the emergency message was broadcasted. Yet, how could they do so quickly? These must have been done by the authority responsible of the city but their reaction to the crisis appeared to be so swift, to the borderlines of being suspicious. Even the message was very general without précising what kind of threat they were facing. Was it intentional? So that they could avoid a panic among the populace? Could it be that they were acclimated with this kind of situation? Either way, our two police officers didn’t heed to the warning even though they have been warned by a private broadcast directly to their vehicle to avoid coming inside the quarantine zone. Just what was happening?
“So…where is it? Or rather, what are we looking for here?” asked the black man.
“Now you ask me? You drove us all the way here without even know what we are looking for…” grunted the white man.
“I am telling you: something big is going on here. Ever since I have taken this job, there are a few times I heard that kind of message being broadcasted but each time the chief forbad me to go investigate. Something is definitely suspicious, probably some kind of cover up. But what exactly? Hum hum…my investigator’s antenna is tinkling.”
“Investigation’s antenna? What the hell is that?”
“It’s like my sixth sense. Hum hum….yeah definitely something is fishy here. I could smell it from here…..the smell of criminal, something evil is lurking around.” The black guy began to sniff everywhere.
“For Christ’ sake, now it’s not the time for joke…” suddenly the white man spotted something floating in the middle of the street. It looked like some kind of hole in the middle of nowhere. “Hey what is that?”
And then it appeared. A giant humanoid creature with a monochromatic skin moving like a wave torn the hole apart and walked out of it. With its entire body free, it gave out a thundering roar that broke all the glasses around instantly.
“MONSTER!!!!” the white man shot.
“SHOOT IT!” the black man took out a strange weapon from his belt and pointed it at the beast. By pressing on the weapon with his index finger, several small bullets shot out of the weapon but it didn’t do anything to the monster, aside from being absorbed into its melting flesh. “My gun didn’t do anything to it.”
The white man quickly ran back to his vehicle and took out this time a much larger weapon sharing a similar contraption with the small one. “Say hello to my little friend, Mr.Shotgunny!”
BAM BAM BAM
Compared to the ‘gun’ the black man was holding, this weapon ‘Shotgunny’ was much more powerful as each shot fired a stream of small bullets that would shred everything. Certainly against anyone, it would be fatal to receive such a shot. However just like the other one, it was completely useless.
“Our guns don’t work against it at all….” The white man uttered.
“Should we run?”
“I don’t think we can outrun him…..”
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“Mark, I will distract it so run when I give the signal.” Said the black man.
“What? Are you crazy, Scott? You will get yourself killed.”
“We have been friends for a long time. All those years you helped me, I will repay it with my life” Scott spoke majestically like a hero.
“But we only met a couple of months ago….” But Mark’s remark was ignored.
“Tell my family that I love them!”
“You are not even married!!!”
“Oh come on, Mark! Just let me say these cool lines before I die!”
This almost seemingly ‘heartwarming’ scene was disrupted as a ball of flame was fired at the monster, making it shrieking in anger. That didn’t do much damage to it but it surely as hell pissed him of.
The two police officers didn’t even understand where the fireball came from. That was before three persons wearing grey long coat jumped down and landed before them. It appeared that they jumped from a building a hundred foot high. Yet their landing was as smooth as a feather as moment before they reached the ground, their speed slowed down and let them jumped off easily without any harm.
“This is agent Jora calling HQ. We have located the anomaly in district E. However, there are two noncombatant police officers also present at the scene. Please advise course of action!.......Yes I understand! My apologies but you will have to sleep now!”
Without warning, the small woman Jora snapped her fingers and the two cops fell to the ground instantly, as if they have fallen unconscious. She then raised her hands and an invisible force lifted the two and transported them to outside of the district. Whatever she did, it wasn’t magic as there was no mana involving here. So what kind of power was that?
“You are getting soft, Jora! Should have left them to die there.” The tall man in grey cloak, wearing dark sunglasses, spoke.
“…..” but the woman didn’t answer.
“Let’s not forget the guy right in front of us!” said the big muscular man, also wearing a grey cloak that seemed too tight for him.
“Be careful! S-rank Monochromes are the strongest rank ever recorded. Last time one appeared, it has ravaged an entire city together with one of our main HQs. It must be stopped!” Jora, having long white hair that reached past her shoulder, said in a vengeful tone.
“No worry! That’s what we Greymen are here for! Isn’t that right, Edmur?” the large man said to the tall one.
“Very well then! Jora, Pat, let’s get this party started”
* * *
Back to the underground room filled the glass screens, Fiora was nervous and dissatisfied with herself. This would be her first time to ever participate in a mission involving an anomaly, yet what was she doing? Cramping herself inside this forsaken dark room. She wanted to go out there and fought those creatures. Else how could she ever hope to leave behind her rookie status? But going out there would mean defying Kennedy’s orders and that could mean losing her job.
As the girl wondered about whether she should go out there or not, a second series of alarm appeared on the screen.
“WARNING WARNING! A new anomaly has been detected in district C. Target’s power…..measuring…..measuring…..Threat Level: …….unknown. CRITICAL ERROR. The system cannot measure the target’s power!”
“What? What do you mean you can’t?” shouted Fiora at the screen.
“The measuring system was based on doctor Vincent’ empiric scale, proposed in 2043 and has been used in all our current database since then without ever encountering an error. However, the target’s power this time has exceeded the unthinkable level that we thought unreachable. Therefore, the system cannot give an exact answer.” The mechanical voice responded in a monotonous tone.
“Then give me an estimate!”
“It’s over nine thousand.”
“What? How could this be possible? We have never recorded anything beyond the limit of nine thousand. I must inform Kennedy.” Fiora spoke to herself.
“…..Why doesn’t the phone work? Now out of all time!!!” The girl shouted, throwing the gadget to the wall and broke it for good.
The only available agents were already sent to deal with the creature at district E and Kennedy was also on his way there. She could try to call the HQ for reinforcement but that machine didn’t work apparently so she was by herself. She must go to district C.
Running out of the room, Fiora walked into a small containment that transported her directly to the overground. Storming out of the building, she entered a metal vehicle like the one the two officers were driving but hers was a pure black one and the interior seemed much fancier. Taking her hands on the wheel, her vehicle retracted its outside four wheels and floated above the ground before taking flight toward district C.
* * *
Beyond the rift, a moment ago
“Let me go, you piece of shit!”
Alastor was currently inside an unknown space. He appeared to be in some kind of tunnel, moving at incredible speed together with the beast and the two Goddesses. The tunnel was of a monochrome color just like the beast and at the end of it, there was a bright light. The boy decided to transform into beast mode and used his sharp claws to cut off the tentacles binding him. At the same time, Luna has also used her blades to free herself. However, she was in an unstable state. Her sister, Solana, has just been devoured by the beast and was now incorporated into its body.
Right now, the two, despite being freed from its tentacles, were still hanging onto the beast’s body as they knew nothing what could happen if they fell out. Especially now that they were in an unknown location and this beast could be their only ticket to get out of here.
Because the creature was still in the phase of incorporating Solana into its body, it had very few ways to defend itself against these two intruders. Once they got out of this tunnel into another space with it, it knew that they would not let it go that easily. And so there was only one option left for it to survive.
As if realizing their intention, the creature began to rotate and shook its body violently. The outer shell transformed into a slippery liquid that made both Alastor and Luna unable to hold onto it any longer. And off they went outside the tunnel.
* * *
Blinded earlier by the light of the tunnel, Alastor finally was able to open his eyes. He was lying down a solid surface, some kind of rock but the surface was much smoother for a rock. And there were screams around him. As he tried to stand up by pushing his hand on something metal beside him, there was a siren sound going off from it. He has activated some kind of alarm system from the vehicle simply by putting too much force into it. That was because he was still in beast mode.
But alas, that alarm was the least of his problems.
Alastor stood in dismay, unable to grasp his surroundings. The landscape around him looked like some kind of city and he was in the middle of a street but they looked so outlandish. There were buildings with only glass wall as tall as the sky. Metallic things that ran around and emitted a beep sound just before they entered contact with each other. There were even people inside who appeared to be controlling these metallic vehicles. The people, all shocked as they looked at him for some reasons, were wearing strange clothes that Alastor has never seen before.
“Where the hell am I?”
Suddenly a voice from behind shouted at him.
“FREEZE! Put your hands on the back of your head or I will shoot!” a man that wore a uniform like Mark and Scott was holding the weapon called ‘gun’ and pointing it at Alastor.
“Hum……” But before Alastor could say a word, the police officer has pulled his trigger.
“Ouch…..the hell is this shit? Kind of hurt but not that big of a deal…..” the bullet has entered Alastor’ dark beastly skin but cannot went any further. This flesh wound was already healing and pushed the bullet out of his body. Alastor crouched down and picked the tiny bullet up and analyzed it. “What an interesting weapon! If I was a normal person, I would have probably died.”
“Mon…Monster!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAA” the police officer, too scared by what he has seen, threw away his weapon and ran as fast as he could. And with him, everyone around began to panic and started running away too.
“Is this how people greets each other at this place? Shooting them with this weird weapon and running around, screaming like an idiot? What an interesting culture!” Alastor muttered in an inhuman voice as he observed the gun left by the police officer.
“Drop your weapon, monster!”
This time, it was a woman’s voice. But unlike the cop, she was wearing a long grey coat that covered all her body. With long brown hair trailing on one side, the girl wasn’t holding anything in her hand and yet she still seemed to be confident facing a monster holding a gun.