Chapter 179: A Warm Earth Welcome.
"What's going on here?" Dina looked around floating a little ways from the group while Sol rested his hand on Sara's shoulder to keep her afloat like the rest. "How much time has passed?" She stared across the horizon at the mech dragon again. "Master... Is this actually earth?" She asked and Sol closed his eyes for a few seconds.
"It is." He nodded and turned to Ikaris when the jet that was being chased around earlier was shot down above them and crashed across the sky, adding to the chaos as it collided into a building full of people and exploded, causing that building to collapse onto another one.
"What do we do here?" Arla asked, she had expected to see a bustling world full of people too busy to enjoy their lives like Sol and the others had described so many times before, but instead she found people dying at every turn and soulless machines fighting as far as her senses could reach.
"Should we leave?" She asked, knowing that Sol viewed conflicts that did not align with his interests as a waste of time.
"Hm ..." Sol sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Let's at least find out what's going on, and how much time has passed."
"Do you sense Usami?" Dina asked, looking at her crest slightly resonating with Ikaris's.
"She is alive somewhere I feel her mana, faintly." Ikaris answered, reaching out to Sara when Sol handed her off and slowly began ascending. "Where are you going?"
"Hold on a sec." Sol continued ascending and then vanished, the world seemed to start moving slower, the missiles and fires slowed down to a creep, and Dina who was extra perceptive to it looked from one side to the other and then gasped when Sol appeared next to Ikaris and cast a pixelated dome over the building beneath them and landed.
"Did you find anything?"
"Yeah, it's just this city at the moment." He summoned a seat and made himself comfortable, making more for everyone else as they all joined him around a small table where desserts appeared.
"There are two factions going at it, one side is called Atlas, and the other is called Order, at least from their tags and how conveniently they've branded their weapons and vehicles." He picked up a small cupcake and bit into it.
"What is happening then?" Ikaris asked, mimicking his actions and eating a cupcake as well.
"The details I'm not so sure about, I just did a quick scan, but that big ol' pile of metal over there is an atlas project that's gone rogue from a system malfunction, they're trying to get it back under control, but Order is using the chaos to attack Atlas, it's kind of fascinating, I'm not sure I want to do anything about it."
"What about everywhere else?" Sara went around and began pouring the provided beverages for them.
"There are sites of other disasters like this in the south and western countries, but it seems less chaotic and the fighting has been in a rather secluded area each time, the rest of the world as a whole is fine, it's just these two organisations going at it." He smiled and raised hand toward Ikaris and she reached out to him and clasped her hands over his palm and beneath it. "How is it?"
"I have full access to Atla once more." She smiled. "All that I once possessed is once again yours, Love."
"Are we going to leave it rampaging like that?" Dina asked, looking over her shoulder at the mech again.
"If it's bothering you, then you can take care of it." Sol looked away from Ikaris at her, and without another spoken word Dina arose and flew through the barrier he had created.
"Careful Dina, earth is much smaller and far more easy to break than Arkadia."
"Understood." She went a little higher and pointed her finger towards the mech.
"I'll just use something small then." Storm clouds suddenly formed over the head of the rampaging bot, with a small gesture of her index finger Dina cast [judgement] and a massive bolt of lightning charged and struck it tearing the arms and head off and then exploding into smaller shards of lightning caused it to melt as they struck it hundreds oer second, reducing it into a pool of magma over the course of a few minutes.
No more lives lost, and no robot to salvage.
"How was that?" Dina came back through and took her seat again, looking at her hero sigil resonating and then at Ikaris who was also observing her own. "Should we go find her?"
"It is quite odd, usually the sigils only react like this when we are in danger, does that mean Usami is in danger?"
"Unlikely." Sara answered Ikaris. "Although she is nowhere comparable to your strength when you disappeared, Usami did keep training day and night, she would not be overpowered by conventional weapons."
"This is clearly a call for help though."
"Let's go find her then." Sol stood and dropped the barrier causing the noise from outside to crash into them again.
"Hold on, we can't go around looking like this." Dina gestured to the fact that they were all dressed weirdly, and then waved her hands over herself turning her attire into a blouse and shorts combo, with thigh-high socks and sneakers.
"Right, earth." Sol stepped off and morphed his attire into a simple shirt and pants combo while Ikaris turned hers into the same attire he had fitted her with the last time they had been on earth.
"I do not know what to wear." Arla seemed out of place as she thought about it, and Sol snapped his fingers casting golden light around her as her dress turned into a more modern sundress and a hat appeared on her head.
"How's that?" He asked, and she spun once in each direction and then smiled excitedly and looked up at him.
"If I may, I would prefer to keep my uniform." Sara held her hands towards him in pardon when he turned to her. "It suits me, since I plan to serve sir as I always have."
"Whatever you're comfortable in I suppose." Sol smiled and ascended using his mana to carry her again.
Locking onto the signal she sensed of her friend's mana, Dina took off ahead of them followed urgently by Arla while Sol and Ikaris leisurely flew as he masked all their presences from the surface and above. "We're coming, Usami." Dina smiled excitedly spinning and swerving through buildings, passing the large molten pit she had created and soaring upward until she could see the shoreline.
"She's overseas!"
***Seven years ago***
"She's waking up..."
"Put her back under, administer the gases."
"It isn't working her vitals are regulating."
"Are you kidding me that's enough to knock out an elephant already, double the dosage!"
The sounds and voices around her told her that she was inside of some kind of hospital, but as her eyes opened what Usami found was a massive lab space with several people wearing suits and aiming guns at her head.
"Patient is awake, I repeat the patient is awake."
"What the hell is this?" Usami asked, the last thing she remembered was Queen Vermon smiling at her while she turned to stone and then a flash of light. "Where am I?" She asked, looking down at her bound hands. And dropping her head again. "Ugh, where am I?" She asked.
"Before that, your name is Usami Takae, correct?" Someone asked from a speaker on the far side of the room.
"Why am I restrained with iron bars?" She asked, looking down at her arms, her torso and her legs again, did I end up somewhere else, this is earth right?" She asked, slowly regaining her awareness as her head spun from the residual inertia. "How long have I been asleep, where is my brother?" She questioned the closest gun aimed at her.
"Answer the question, girl, what is your name?" The man asked again.
"Fuck you." She dropped her head once more and then raised her hands tearing the iron bars straight out of the bed they had held her down on and sitting up with a groan. "Answer me first, where's Uriyu?"
"...Are you hostile or friendly?" The man asked again, and after he did she grabbed the bars and tore them off her legs, standing on the bed and looking at her forearm as she hunched. "If you do not answer we will open fire and kill you."
"Anyone who dares to shoot at me dies." Usami ground her teeth and extended her hand and the scientists and security in the facility gasped in horror when a spear appeared in her grasp out of thin air.
"What happened to my clothes, how long have I been unconscious, someone better start talking!!" She flashed her spear, and just the force of her swing sent several of the guards flying I to the walls. "Where am I, where is my baby brother!?"
"She is incredible, what caused her to become like this?" A female scientist asked. "Skin so hard needles bend and break against it, fire does nothing to her skin, gasses and pollutants dont harm her in any way, and she is still human!"
"This not incredible you moron, this woman is wild and dangerous, this is a failure, she doesn't seem the type that will respond to normal threats, switch to plan B before she begins to rampage through our facilities and kill our staff." He ordered, and the other man who had been speaking nodded and raised his walkie that had been strapped to his leg.
"Bring in our bargaining chip."