“Did you miss me?”
The sudden question derailed Annabelle’s train of thought, causing her to suddenly swerve to the right mid-walk, bumping up against the stone wall.
Unable to help himself, Zeo giggled at the sight. He had always been a bit of a sucker for clumsy girls, provided they hadn’t caused themselves any serious injury. “You okay?”
The elven girl hurriedly dusted off her clothes and returned to the proper path. “Y-yes! Of course! I’m fine! Totally fine!” Were there a doctor performing readings on her, they would have disagreed with that claim.
“You haven’t changed much, huh?”
Annabelle flashed an exaggerated pout. “I have too! I am a mature, refined noblewoman now, I’ll have you know! And a very accomplished horse rider!”
An impressed whistle shot out from between his lips.
“If anything, you’re the one who hasn’t changed,” she followed up. And then, under her breath, she added a “Thankfully….”
Zeo sighed, albeit with a smile. “Can’t even argue with ya there, really. I’m the same old me; just got a little taller and picked up these lovely ladies.” He tapped his hands against the scabbards at his waist. “But what’s wrong with that? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?”
Annabelle’s eyes found themselves transfixed on the weapons that had been pointed out to her. “You’re a swordsman now, Zeo?”
“Yup. Started training not too long after we graduated from Kahe Ana, actually. You remember my big brother, Garo?”
The elven girl nodded. Garo was quite a bit older than Zeo, and had served as his guardian when the kids were living on the island. Their parents had unfortunately passed, which left Zeo under his brother’s care.
“He started training me with his old sword from back when he was an adventurer. Then when we moved to Frieden, I was able to start training at the local sword school, and that’s where I picked up dual-wielding.”
“Wow! That’s so cool, Zeo!”
Upon noticing the look of awe carved onto Annabelle’s face, Zeo’s cheeks reddened just a teeny tiny bit. “Thanks!” Truth be told, he was quite enjoying the attention and appreciation being paid to his story. It wasn’t something he was accustomed to.
“So, uh, how’s your family doing?”
“Oh, yes! My father became the baron a few years ago!”
Another whistle. “Baron? Wow, so you’re, like, proper nobility now, huh?”
Annabelle’s head bobbed up and down like a jackhammer, relishing the opportunity to potentially impress Zeo. “Ooh! Also! Guess what?!”
“Hit me.”
“I have a baby brother now!”
He smiled. “No kidding? Congrats! How old is he?”
“He’ll be turning nine pretty soon. Oh, but he was soooo cute when he was little! I didn’t know ultranian babies were so chubby and adorable!”
Every once in a while, Annabelle would drop a comment that would remind him of her elven heritage (I don’t know how he forgets, considering her ears), which would always pique his curiosity. She was the only elf he had ever met in his life, even after all these years, so his knowledge of them came exclusively from her back during their elementary school years.
“What are elf babies like? What’s different between them and ultranian ones?”
“You don’t know?” When he shook his head, she answered: “Well, um….” A sudden rush of embarrassment kicked in. “Elves, um….we hatch….from seeds….of the Lera Tree….”
“….”
“….”
Like a spear through flesh and absolutely not a more lewd simile, Cain’s voice thrust into the silence and exploded around the cave from several feet ahead. Not looking forward to being the third wheel, he had elected to take the point and walk very, very far ahead of Zeo and Annabelle. “How did you not know that?”
Zeo, feeling as though he had just been yanked out from his and Annabelle’s own little world, replied with, “Am I expected to? I haven’t met any other elves.”
“Always know your enemy,” Cain said in a tone of voice that signalled to his companions that he was no doubt mentally envisioning himself as some sort of elite tactician as he spoke those words. “You, your enemy, the battle itself — the mind controls all.”
As Cain began to flow into one of his long, dramatic ramblings of his battle philosophy, Zeo briefly considered stopping in place so that the gap between the two would increase. When he glanced over at Annabelle with an anguished expression, the elven girl burst into a fit of laughter.
Zeo then called out to Cain. “You consider elves ‘the enemy?’”
The speech came to a halt. “Of course. Everyone is the enemy.”
“Everyone….And you ‘know your enemy’, right?”
“Absolutely.”
“So do you know us? Me and Annabelle?”
Cain let out a self-satisfied snicker. “But of course. Analyzing Plus-level foes is child’s play.”
Zeo and Annabelle’s confused expressions mirrored one another. “‘Plus-level’?”
Brow furrowed, Cain replied, “Yes. From the ULTRA Power Level Manual.”
“….”
“….”
Cain turned away and began to storm off, seemingly insulted by the blank expressions on their faces. “Absolute fools!” he muttered in a way that seemed like it was just for himself but was actually intended to be heard. “Making a mockery of the art of combat!”
Once the stone finished redistributing Cain’s voice around the corridor, Zeo flashed Annabelle a smile. “That’s our Cain, eh?”
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
The other tunnel was….not much of a different story, in all honesty, although the actors were different and put their own spin on their characters. Kiria played the lead role of the central leader figure, Reina portrayed the giddy shortstack by her side, and the lone wolf was instead a lone Tyger.
This tunnel was much louder. While Kiria was quieter compared to her counterpart Zeo, Reina was anything but. The little chameleon girl spent the entire walk bouncing around the tunnel, chatting up a storm, jumping from topic to topic. Somehow, in the span of a mere minute or two, Reina had managed to mold the conversational clay into enough shapes to elicit discussion about school, work, friends, family, shopping, opinions on recent popular television shows, romantic histories, favorite home recipes, and the philosophical debate of whether or not Beasterizers (ultranians with varying degrees of animal-like biology) having pets was weird.
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Ordinarily, Kiria dreaded long-winded conversations like these, but for some reason, she actually found it quite enjoyable. She didn’t even mind when the conversation shifted from one topic to the next and the next without even resolving the previous ones.
But Reina had always been something of an anomaly to Kiria, and it was why the two girls had been such close friends back in their elementary school days, and why they still kept in touch all these years later through letters. Reina had always had a magnetic personality, and her genuine and boundless pep and enthusiasm always endeared her to the people she spoke to, even if they began their relationship annoyed at her antics.
“You really wear suits at work?!”
Kiria nodded. “Yeah, it’s the Royal Guard uniform.”
“Why didn’t you send me any pictures?! I wanna see you in a suit! I bet you look really cool in it! Do you wear a tie, too?”
“Yup.”
“Wow! I’ve always wanted to try wearing a suit and tie! Ooh! We should go shopping for some when we get to Radecross!”
Yet another smile appeared on Kiria’s face. The frequency of them in the past hour were actually beginning to wear on her facial muscles, and there were still plenty of hours left in the day to go.
As the group continued to make their way through the tunnel, Reina stole another glance over at Tyger before tapping her elbow against Kiria’s arm. “Tyger looks so different now, huh?”
“Yeah, he does.”
The chameleon girl smiled, pointing specifically at his hair. It had always naturally been black, but the tips were now whitish-gray. “Do you think he dyes it, or is he just an old man now?”
“Why not ask him?”
“He looks mad.”
Kiria couldn’t help but agree. He’d had a permanent scowl on his face since they’d met outside, and it hadn’t gone away. It was like the center of his browline had caved in and no one had bothered to call for it to be repaired. Maybe the budget just wasn’t there.
And then, Reina cupped her hands around her mouth and bellowed, “Hey, Tyger! Are you mad at us?”
Tyger stopped in place to look back over his shoulder at the girls with his eyebrow raised. “What? No. The hell would I be mad for?”
“Could’ve fooled us,” Kiria said dryly.
Reina skipped over to his side. “Are you happy to see us? Huh? Huh? Did you miss us?”
“Tch. Course I did. That’s a dumb question.”
Once again, it was a bit of a confusing response considering the attitude peppered into it, but it was enough for the girls, especially Reina. She buried her face into his chest and wrapped her arms around him. “Awwww, I missed you too, Tyger!”
“Ah, hell….” Tyger then….returned the hug. While he certainly looked like he was very grumpy about the whole thing, Reina could feel the sincerity in it.
“You’re so muscley!”
“Shuddup….”
Kiria felt another tinge of nostalgia hit her from the sight. Tyger and Reina, both being Beasterizers, had been quite close with one another back at Kahe Ana, and watching them hug was a little blast from the past, even if Tyger seemed to be a very different person now.
But the wholesome moment didn’t get to last very long, as all three pairs of ears suddenly picked up a rush of sound from the adjacent, non-yellow-painted tunnel, and it didn’t feel like the innocuous kind.
Without even having to say a word, all three sprinted down the tunnel to investigate.
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
“Whoa….check all this out, Annabelle.”
Zeo and Annabelle stepped up beside Cain to examine the wall he had been looking over. Glowing orange crystals were growing from the walls as though they were a layer of scales. Their illumination was even stronger than the torches, despite how small each individual crystal seemed to be.
Annabelle traced her fingers along them. They were warm to the touch, and making contact with them caused the orange light within them to blink softly. “They’re beautiful….”
“Forcestones,” Cain suddenly said, never passing up the opportunity to educate someone on literally anything. “A mixture of fire and air ones, to be more precise.”
“Forcestones?” Zeo asked. He didn’t even have to look over at Cain to know the latter was giving him a look of pure disgust.
“What kind of backwoods, fraudulent schools have you been attending?”
Zeo felt a surge of smugness wash over him, knowing that his answer to that question was just about the perfect response. “The Frieden Battle Academy.”
Victory embraced him as Cain immediately fell into silence.
“What are forcestones?” Annabelle then asked, which allowed Cain a chance to recover and slip back into lecture mode, to Zeo’s playful dismay.
“They’re aggregations of ULTRA Force particles. You can use them in a number of different ways, depending on the type of particle inside. They’re common in ultrapulses.”
“Oh, I see,” Annabelle said, her ears drooping low. “I guess I can’t-
“You don’t need to be an ultranian to use forcestones,” Cain cut in. “The particles are already inside the stones; you don’t have to use a Force Slot to charge them.”
“Really?!”
Unfortunately for Annabelle, her excitement would soon be snuffed out as Cain elaborated. “But these stones are too small to do anything with.” He nodded his head down the direction of an adjacent tunnel.
There were large gaps in the walls, like something had been ripped from them. Further inward, there appeared to be a mining cart parked against the wall as well.
“The actual useful ones have already been mined,” Cain continued. “They have fire and air particles inside, so they’re no doubt explosive in nature. Since these tunnels are being used for civilians, the city likely extracted them to prevent explosions.”
“Makes sense,” said Zeo.
With a mighty frown and a pitiful moan, Annabelle said, “Awwww….I wanted to use ULTRA Force….”
* * * *
ULTRA PULSE
* * * *
Kiria, Reina, and Tyger soon found themselves on the exterior of the mountains of the pulse. It wasn’t one of the exits that led to Radecross, but rather, an outside open space, along with a few more trails along the mountain.
As the trio stepped into the sunlight, Kiria motioned for them to follow her to a row of mining carts, which they all ducked behind for cover.
On the other side of the carts were a collection of men moving around the area. They all seemed to have some kind of matching uniform — dark brown coats with some kind of green logos stitched onto the back.
At first glance, they didn’t appear to be doing anything strange, but….
“They’re just miners, right?” Tyger asked in a hushed tone. “From Radecross.”
“Maybe….” said Kiria, eyes darting from one man to the next. “But….something’s off….”
The three fell into silence in order to listen in on whatever conversation they could. There were several different groups scattered around talking amongst themselves, which made deciphering difficult, but their ears soon opened wide for the juiciest discussion:
“….Aurum? That’s the site, yeah?”
“Yeah. Just waiting for the call. Until then, load up as much as we can get.”
“Hey, have you guys tried out the new weapons yet, or what?”
“Nah, I haven’t been assigned mine.”
“Me neither.”
“I got to try ‘em out a few hours ago. They’re wicked! You could blow a hole through someone with ‘em!
“No shit?!”
“Yeah, and that was just the tonfa. Think of how strong the guns or bombs are gonna be!”
“Damn….I bet you could wipe out a town with enough of those!”
“Why don’t we try that out after the mission?”
Tyger’s eyes popped open wide, and he momentarily forgot to whisper his words. “Wh-?! The hell’re these fuckin’ dirtbags talkin’ about?!”
“Sh! Keep your voice down!” Kiria warned. She took another scan of the area, thankful that no one seemed to have overheard Tyger’s little outburst.
“They don’t sound like they’re with the city,” said Reina. “What should we do, Kiria?”
Kiria pondered their options for a moment. “We should contact the police and let them handle it. We shouldn’t be too far from the city, so it shouldn’t take them long to investigate this area.”
“Awwww….I kinda wanted to fight them!” The chameleon girl held up her right arm, rolling up the sleeve of her sweater, revealing some kind of metal glove. “Look! I even brought my bow-bracer!”
Having never heard of the thing, Kiria prepared to ask for an explanation, but was cut off as Tyger suddenly stood up and kicked the mine cart in front of him, causing the echoing impact to alert the attention of all the coated men. “Hey, scumbags! You better not be plannin’ any villain shit or I’ll throw all yer asses into outer space! Ya got that?!”
“Tyger! What are you-?!”
It was, of course, too late. The men, though thrown off their game momentarily, immediately mobilized, scattering left and right, racing down the various mountain trails. Some of them chose to stick around and fight off the intruders, but they were the stupidest of all, as Tyger made good on his promise by yanking the first incoming attacker by the shirt collar, spinning around, and flinging him skyward until he was nothing more than a twinkle of starlight.
As Tyger continued his assault, blasting his knuckles into faces and guts, throwing in suplexes and powerbombs in between each one, Reina’s face lit up in giddy excitement at the display. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Look at him go, Kiria!”
All Kiria could do was sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose. “Oh, boy….”
“Go, go, go, Tyger! Get ‘em!”
Tyger complied, whether intentionally or not. He leaped forward like a wild animal, roaring out, “C’mere!” He clawed at his next prey, tucking the man’s head underneath his armpit before quickly falling backward, spiking the man’s skull into the rocky ground below.
But eventually the coated men learned that their initial plan wasn’t going to work, which called for Plan B. Just before making his own escape, one of them retrieved some sort of remote from inside his coat, tapping his thumb across a few of the buttons. He then took off, throwing a salute in the Class G trio’s direction. “See you brats in hell!”
The ground began to rock and shake, throwing off everyone in the area’s balance. Reina was the first to sense the source of the shakes, whipping around towards one of the nearby mountain tunnels. Kiria followed her gaze, just as a flash of red light emerged from the darkness of the tunnel.
Next came a mighty metal leg whose foot was heavy enough to open cracks in the rock as it stepped out into the sunlight. The rest of the robot’s body soon followed, until all ten feet of solid steel had made its entrance into the arena.
Tyger threw his forehead into the skull of the last of the (conscious) coated men before turning to face the mecha, spitting onto the ground. “You want some too?!”