CHAPTER 39: UNSEEN, UNSTOPPABLE

The ringing in his ears didn’t fade as he scoped the area, finding nothing through the dark-gray haze. A glance found no sight of the two he found, giving him a fleeting sense of relief. It was the worst case scenario for the start of the mission; he had to accept that.

’There’s two of us out of the picture–that’s four left. No, that’s not accounting for if anybody else was hurt in that attack. The only thing I can hope is that nobody is dead–not yet. I need to intercept it before it can get to them,’ he planned.

"Izo, locate the enemy!" Seven ordered.

The little robot perked up, flying ahead of him as it emitted a ray of light from its front panel, beaming through the clouds of dust. Just as the glow parted the haze ahead, a figure emerged–quickly, rapidly, and without control.

"Waaaoooo–!"

"Alex?!" Seven managed to gasp out, stepping to the side.

The large body clad in the cerulean steel of the power suit landed on the asphalt with a nasty impact, bouncing right off.

"Ufff..." Alexander huffed before picking himself up, rolling his shoulders while the suit emitted a charged hum. "Y’know, you’re not supposed to move out of the way. You gotta catch your friends!"

"Not when they’re five hundred pounds," Seven dismissed.

The air around him vibrated, feeling it against his skin as the hairs on his body stood. All at once, the dust was cast away, unveiling the threaded colossus as a swirl of debris gathered around its position.

"Shit...This thing is just going to wreck havoc," Seven admitted.

It was behind the yarn-like alien that he caught a glimpse; the brown-haired girl held her bleeding shoulder. In front of her, the shredded remnants of Haoyu’s proxy was left nothing more than buzzing metal.

"May," he muttered quietly.

"Coming in hot!" Alexander warned.

Like a conductor born from the stars, the faceless being waved its arm, commanding a rainfall of debris to come their way. It wasn’t just that the heavy chunks plummeted, but instead were brought down at a velocity like meteors breaking through the stratosphere.

[Prioritizing speed | Adapting muscular properties to be lighter, allowing more air between each fiber.]

He moved his body, using quick steps to dash several meters without any need for pause, though sought to move towards the creature instead of away.

As he evaded, he yelled out to his comrade, who was in much the same situation, "Alex! Get May! She’s hurt!"

While the chunks of asphalt and rusted steel came down, the blonde-haired man flipped back despite his overwhelming stature, yelling back as his hair swayed, "--Alright, but what about you?!"

"I’m going to handle this–! Just get her out safely!" Seven claimed, moving across the torn-up street, ducking his head as a rock passed like a bullet.

In the center of the manipulated rubble, the telekinetic alien remained stationary–a perfect opening for himself. He kicked off the street, shattering the road beneath his boot as he propelled himself fist forward, seeking to punch right through the torso of black threads.

As the entity’s body engulfed his view, throwing his knuckled forth–

He didn’t reach.

"Ah–?"

With his feet off the ground and his fist just mere inches from making contact, he was frozen in that position. It felt like the air itself had solidified around him, encapsulating him as if taking a freeze frame of the moment.

’I can’t move–not even a finger,’ he thought.

The only part of himself that could move were his eyeballs, leaving him looking up, finding the ergo staring back down at him with its void of a face. Being brought so close, the more he stared, the more he couldn’t look away from the abyssal pit.

Sound transmitted itself not to his ears, but directly to his brain as he was frozen there.

"-----...------..--..----"

It wasn’t like human speech, but nor was it alien; distorted and warped, perhaps, but he felt like there was meaning to be understood.

’This thing...Just what the hell is it...?’ He questioned.

As he felt a chill run over his skin while ensnared within its hold, it was as though it was manipulating his very will to fight–

"Let him goooooo–!"

–The boisterous yell, infused with sheer recklessness, echoed through the shattered streets of the City of Second Chances. From his frozen view, he witnessed a concrete block come in, stopping just inches short of the alien’s head.

At the same moment the projectile was halted, the binding phenomena released his body. It felt as though his lungs finally woke up, allowing him to draw a breath as he immediately slid back out of its reach.

He found Alexander by a toppled van, having to relay his gratitude, "Thanks for that."

"’Course. That thing is really not letting us even get a touch on it, eh?"

"Yeah...I don’t know if it’s even possible," Seven said, watching the faceless being still standing in the center of the intersection. "I couldn’t move at all–it wasn’t about strength, I think. There was no fight left in my brain once it got a hold of me."

"I’m gonna grab May and get her to safety, but I’m coming right back to help you–got that?" Alexander adamantly claimed.

"Yeah," Seven nodded, keeping his sights locked.

Outright defeating the otherworldly entity wasn’t his sole objective. At least, for the moment, he needed to draw its attention to himself, and nothing else. He moved, sprinting to the other side of the street, curving around the left of the intersection as he hopped right onto the top of a scarlet car.

Across the street, he could see Alexander carrying the wounded woman over his shoulder, making his way around the entity. A sense of relief washed over Seven as he breathed out.

He made sure its faceless head pointed towards him, drawing its ire his way as he stood atop the fragile roof, "It’s clearly some kind of psychic. Izo, analyze the enemy and give me something to work with here."

"On it," the small robot on his shoulder answered.

In his hand, he clutched the cold, steel handle of the sword he wielded, watching the rope-like humanoid before it waved its arm. The vibrations that shook the air prompted him to kick off the car, looking under him to see it crumbled up into a steel ball.

It was turned into a projectile, levitated by the alien’s will before shooting right for him with brutal speed. His feet only just met the asphalt, forcing him to swing the blade in his hand to save himself from a head-on collision with the car-turned-cannonball.

The eviscerating edge cleanly bisected the steel, though he witnessed the two halves immediately be spread and sharpened into spears. One was aimed for his head, forcing his knees to bend as he ducked right beneath the potential impalement.

Not even a moment was afforded for him to breathe as he immediately sprung up, jumping over the second javelin. Just as his feet touched the asphalt, he felt a shiver run up his spine, bringing him spinning around to find one spear already trying to run itself through his chest.

He used the blade in his hands to intercept it, batting it away as though his sword were a baseball bat.

"I’ve completed one analysis so far. Would you like to hear it?" Izo said.

"Lay it on me," Seven hurriedly responded, sprinting onto the sidewalk as one spear chased behind him.

Up the side of the building, he planted his shoes, defying gravity in his rapid sprint. As the metal projectile plunged right through the concrete, he turned his momentum, flipping himself off the side and back onto the street.

The small robot on his shoulder stayed clung to him, "I’ve determined that you’re wasting energy evading the debris. The enemy will simply continue attacking. The best course would be to actually engage the enemy."

"Thanks, didn’t think of that one," he sarcastically exhaled.

Enough running led to the escape of his comrades; a situation that finally let him turn his focus on directly combating the threat. He found the ergo standing stationary in the intersection’s core all the same, like a plant rooted into the asphalt, surrounded by a perpetual spiral of debris and twisted vehicles.

Droplets arrived from above, gentle pitter-pattering onto the road before the rainfall made itself loud and clear, soon wetting his hair.

’It’s not attacking yet–is it waiting for me to make the first move now? This thing...It’s different from engaging with a Fulminare. They’re almost human, in some ways, but this–it’s completely alien. I can’t apply any sort of logic to its actions,’ he thought.

With nothing weighing down his body, he sprinted right for the entity, closing the distance within a single moment. He kept the electronic blade ready, arriving within just a few meters of the stationary being before–

A quick pivot allowed him to pull back, baiting out the ergo’s counter. Right then, an overwhelming force crashed down on the spot he would’ve been standing. It rained down like a murderous gravity, reducing the asphalt to nothing more than powder in the radius around the entity.

"Analysis complete," Izo suddenly said from his shoulder. "I’ve detected fluctuations in the air, imprinted in space with a heat signature identical to the ergo’s own. It’s a hyper presence, an extended awareness–it’s able to manipulate the flow of energy throughout all objects around itself. The reach of this power seems to roughly be ten meters."

"I see. That’s helpful," Seven said, staying active on his feet as he found multiple cars being lifted off the street by the alien’s will. "--Any way around it?!"

He asked the question to his little assistant while flipping back just as a van crashed into the spot ahead of him, being driven into the road with such force it was crushed into a block of metal.

"It’s only a theory; a functional guess, at that..." Izo responded.

"Yeah, well, I don’t have anything else to work with–!" Seven strained, catching himself on his feet as he found a semi-truck flying right towards him like a crashing plane.

He leapt up with the enhanced strength infused into his legs, letting his feet land on the trailer of the truck, running across it as it slammed into the street. Intercepting any path he had towards the psychic were poles, uprooted from the street and sent flying his way.

"It seems to have gone completely immobile to focus on using its telekinetic abilities. By my own guess, it is unable to process anything else while tapping into the full degree of its power," the robot relayed. "--That means, perhaps, by flooding its senses, it will lose control."

He kept his eyes forward, leaping from the end of the crashing truck, waving the blade in his hands to cut through the steel that came his way. There wasn’t a moment to catch his breath until his feet landed on the street, finding himself no closer to the stationary invader.

"Alright, we’ll test that theory then," Seven exhaled. "Can you start lighting the place up? I’m talking full disco here, and add some music in–as blaring and chaotic as possible."

"I can do that," Izo confirmed.