Chapter 181: Chapter 46: Into The Fire

Over the past few days, the owner of Wave Striker and Temperature have gotten to know each other quite well, and Caliditas appeared to be a Rocky that's hopelessly in love with Brakagi, though she does occasionally complain about how busy he is and cold he seems at times.

'It's like he is existing in a different mind space to you.....he is there physically, but he isn't really there...' Vindy asked, as she tapped her finger against soft ball made up of a smart regenerative material that is designed to take any amount of beating from even artifact users, though each big chunk only has a certain number o fuses.

'Yes! How do you know?!' Caliditas shouted with a surprised look on her face.

'Is that the deal with all man?' Vindy posed the question half-jokingly.

'Well, Jozzor shows everything on his face.' Caliditas chuckled, 'that adorable little boy.....'

'True...'

After warming up with the what is referred to as the regen-ball, both users have probed out the amount of effort they will exert into the sparring session that won't cause serious damage from one another. They then put on a pair of heavy protective battle suits, as their artifacts are more powerful compared to either Jozzor or Hong Fu's artifacts, they also possess higher risk in battles.

'Ready?' Caliditas asked, 'I am going to knock you down today!'

'Don't you already do that everyday...?'

'...I will do it extra quick today!!'

Then, as Vindy prepared herself, Caliditas took a deep breath in and breathes out a big breath as her lips and cheeks glowed bright orange, signalling it's rapidly heating. The air within her lungs are rapidly heated up before they flew out in rapidly in a column and expanding outwards like a mid-summer heatwave.. This isn't much of an attack, but rather a sign of what she can do. Vindy grunted as she endured the uncomfortable heat, then she dropped onto the ground and sends out a pulse of shock wave towards Caliditas' direction.

'Aww....' She seemed a little upset at how anti-climatic her opening attack was, then, as the lumps of building materials from the ground crawled towards her creepily thanks to the wave generated by Vindy, she stepped her foot down and unleashes an outburst of heat which melted and softened the area around her which completely dissipates Vindy's attacks as they went from bulging rocks and cracking floors to nothing more than a bubble in a simmer of hot lava.

Then, Caliditas took away all of that heat and solidifies everything. This is expert and effortless control of her artifacts, and Vindy had to admire that control and shear elegance in her usage, despite all of the developments that she has had so far.

Vindy stayed low, and sends out a few more bursts of attack from her finger tips as the ground shook in response to her commands, but Caliditas negated all of them effortlessly. And if Vindy tried to get close by creating a rapid bulge underneath her feet, Caliditas can simply let out an outburst of heat and blow her body away before she can even get to touch her body.

Of course, she hasn't revealed much about her ability to sense the natural frequency of things she touch to Jozzor, Brakagi or Caliditas, per Hong Fu's request. That is her trump card, the one thing that will enable a straight forward and direct take down, and it is one that needs to be kept unused until it is absolutely necessary.

This sparring match ended once again as expected with Vindy unable to close in the gap between the two of them, and her distance attacks being ineffective. There are three distinct ways for heat to travel, being conduction, convection, radiation. This gives Caliditas many options to utilize her power in her immediate surroundings. For Vindy, however, mechanical waves needed mediums to go through, though her advantage is that she will be able to instantly break down any system if she is able to find the natural frequency and offer a large enough input wave.

The size of the take down that Vindy will be able to perform is much greater, though at smaller scales, Caliditas' artifact is simply too much to handle.

As Caliditas tore away the protective suits that was burnt to a crisp and pulled Vindy out, she gave her a hug before apologizing for going too overboard with the heat this time. Vindy just can't hate the adorable Rocky girl here, and she returned the gesture.

Then, the two put on the gloves and beat each other to a pulp in the boxing ring.

Over the many weeks staying her on Geb 4 and being with Jozzor and Caliditas, Vindy found herself slowly changing and adjusting to the way of life here. When viewing from the Hong Fu's perspectives and basing off what he knew, Vindy has prepared herself a certain way, but when she got here, she realized that those people are no less a Rocky than she is. They have their goals, they have their believes, and they have their friends and family...they are still living beings just like the rest of them.

Vindy feared for the day where her two worlds would come colliding against each other, but so far, it looked like Hong Fu is just going on about his business, and he doesn't seem to making any moves against either Jozzor, Caliditas or Brakagi for that matter so far. Or he is hiding the truth away from her, but that's a prospect that Vindy simply does not want to think about.

In the meanwhile on the other side of the compound, Jozzor and Hong Fu are also having a spar of their own.

Jozzor warped right behind Hong Fu, and yet his every action was predicted as lights glowed in flashes from Probable's skin contacts with Hong Fu. He pivoted to the side, avoiding the flying tackle before tilting his body to the sides to avoid the arrays of punches thrown from Jozzor.

Then, he tried to go for Probable itself, but Hong Fu was also able to move out of the way preemptively as he chopped down on Jozzor's back, throwing him onto the ground. However, before Hong Fu can carry out further follow up attacks, Jozzor rolled away and hopped back onto his feet.

'You are one tricky opponent to land a hit on.' Jozzor said, shaking his head annoyingly, 'it is impossible when you can quite literally see the future.'

'Not quite.' Hong Fu shook his head, 'I see possibilities, and I act on it.'

'Huh?' Jozzor tilted his head to the side and said, 'yet you move with such certainty and convictions.'

'Well, that part comes with practice.' Hong Fu said, waving his end towards Jozzor and signifying the end of the sparring session. Sure, the paths of possibilities offers Hong Fu insights into the various immediate and short terms futures of himself or his subject of interest, but that will only become a useful tool when there is a clear and dominant possibility occurring then and there. This is not always the case, and Hong Fu is personally comfortable with anything greater than 60% possibility.

However, the advantages given by his knowledge of the future is often mitigated or even offset by his physical combat prowess, as there is little use in being able to predict where the attack is going to be without him being able to react and move accordingly. This is why he wanted to talk to Jozzor about his own physical enhancement procedures.

There is no doubt that both Jozzor and Brakagi are enhanced, but it isn't clear whether Caliditas was enhanced from the few times meeting her. However, Vindy should have a much better idea after the sparring sessions today.

He just hoped to keep Jozzor occupied for as long as he can in the meanwhile as Miss D sneaks into the meeting with Brakagi. The entire plan started when Hong Fu was able to access the schedules and files of the representatives of the Big Ten, and as the real representative from All Intelligence arrives at Geb 4 days prior, Hong Fu and Miss D tracked her down before taking over her identity and doing a few hacking and manipulations of the files to swap Miss D in as the negotiator.

The mission for Miss D was simple. In exchange for giving her a chance to face Brakagi one on one, Hong Fu asked for audio and visual proofs of him admitting to lead to the decaying orbit of Olympus B in the best case scenario, and proof of him using an artifact in the worst case scenario. However, part of Hong Fu thought that maybe Miss D is there to cause a fight, which isn't exactly the worst idea for that exact purpose.

He promised to keep Jozzor occupied during the time, and at the same time also warned her to provide herself with her own interference technology which can drawn out all of the signals going in and out of the room. That means the audio and visual files from her would be delayed in its delivery, but Hong Fu isn't exactly on a timeline.

None of this is ideal, and none of this directly matches up with his initial mission of monitoring Brakagi's actions and limiting his power, but life is often messy, unpredictable and imperfect, even with the help of Probable. All he can ever hope for is to take the deck of cards that he is dealt and play along with it.

Then, acting as an anomalous source, he tipped off one of the more skeptical and cynical media outlets in Geb 4 for something that might be happening near the main governing tower in early afternoon, hoping that they will capture the moments when Brakagi's true powers are unleashed against Miss D.

That's the extent of Hong Fu's use for her, and after that...he will just have to see what happens.

'Want another round?' Jozzor asked, and Hong Fu nodded his head. If for some reason Miss D failed to contain her actions within the main building bubble, Hong Fu has also installed a certain machine within the training compound that will short out all electronic devices, and he can easily fake that out to come as a result of an outburst of Vindy's artifact.

Everything is working out exactly according to his plan. Hong Fu checked the timing of everything, as the meeting between Miss D and Brakagi should be well underway now. The signal that Miss D has finished would be when the top level of the tower is destroyed, and it is up to her to escape from the area by herself, as Hong Fu's role is simply to ensure Jozzor doesn't interfere with her plan.

The thing with Hong Fu's artifact is that it doesn't really make for very exciting storytelling materials if he is using it properly. What Probable enables him to do is to bring his plans of action to as close to 100% as possible, with him verifying every single choice, preparation and action as he goes. As the accumulation of consequences from his previous actions directly lead to the desired outcome, all that Hong Fu has to do is to keep the plan rolling.

Then, as the second rounds of sparring finishes, Jozzor throw a bottle of water towards Hong Fu before doing the usual questions.

'No potential attacks today?' Jozzor asked.

'I don't see any attacks in the cities this morning.' Hong Fu said, shaking his head, 'so should be fine.'

Then and there, Jozzor's personal interface beeped loudly, as the police chief's image and voice came through, 'Emergency at the tower! Assassin!'

'What?!' Both Hong Fu and Jozzor shouted out surprised, 'how?!'

'No clue! She seemed to have slipped into the main office somehow!' The chief said, 'come as soon as you can!'

Jozzor glared over suspiciously at Hong Fu before activating Sling Shot and disappearing from the room. Obviously, he is suspicious of Hong Fu's words now, but that's to be expected. Hong Fu went over towards the other area, as Caliditas is picked up by Jozzor too before the two of them headed over towards the main tower.

Hong Fu gestured towards Vindy, and asked her to come with him.

'What's going on?' Vindy asked.

'There was an attack.' Hong Fu said, 'and we are going to be on clean up duty.'

It is just as Hong Fu said, Brakagi is too strong, and his artifact just seemed to completely counter against whatever she can create with amplifier, especially with the ability to instantly activate upon physical contacts. These are the thoughts that were racing through Miss D's head as she dived through the air. The rescue drones beeped loudly behind her as they created a formation around before spreading out a net to catch her. Then, the small engines of them roared as they worked overtime to slow down the downward momentum of her heavy body.

The rough nets scraped against her breasts, but Miss D's pain sensors have already been desensitized at this point in the fight.

Then, the droids hovered over the drones before taking Miss D into the shuttle, where few Rocky police officer awaited her. She looked at the muscly Rockies that are fully armed in front, and smiled.

The shuttle rattled, before it started losing control and spinning away, as Miss D easy took down the police forces and hijacked the shuttle. The police chief tried to order for remote control, but she shut off the entire communications module with a swipe of her hand and piloted the ship towards the outskirts of the city.

The fellow shuttles raced after in pursuit, and Brakagi explicitly order for her to be taken in alive. That means they actually can't open fire on it, and simply have to tail it and find ways to get closer, or force it to land. A few of the cables are shot out from the pursuing shuttles before they connected onto the back of Miss D's shuttle, and she realized that this chase isn't exactly going to be the most sustainable thing to do.

Amplifying the engine output of the shuttles, she spun the thing around and head right back towards the main governing area filled with sky scrapers and other sky traffic. The pursuers are thrown into a frenzy by both the sudden outburst of thrust from the shuttle as well as it's direction, but they had no chance but to follow. Then, as Miss D approached one of the buildings, she set the engines on fire before amplifying her movements and leaping through the windows on one of the buildings to the side and letting the shuttles go down in flames.

The cables are released, and the shuttle that she hijacked crashes into the side of a building and exploded. Thankfully, the external structural integrity of the building are strong enough to prevent any substantial damage and loss of life.

Miss D found herself crashed into a toilet, and she forced herself up the ground as her arms are bleeding due to the constant wear and tear of the fight and the sharp edges of the glasses that she just broke through. Not bothering to cover her half naked body, she sprinted towards the first cloak hanger she saw and wrapped herself up before making a run for it.

A few of the shuttles have already landed as the riot droids are deployed throughout the area, but Miss D was savvy enough on the ground to get away quickly. As the hover-train lifted off from the area before the circle of lock down is established, Miss D looked on at the tower in the same way as the first time she laid her eyes on it. Then, she reached out with her dirty finger and pressed it against the glass.

The audio and visual files of the fight should have been sent off the moment the interference generator are broken, so Miss D have completed her end of the bargain, and so have Hong Fu completed his. She didn't manage to take out Brakagi, nor get him to admit to his actions in Olympus Prime, but the reveal that he not only possesses but is adept in using an artifact of destruction should be enough of an evidence to be leveraged against him by both the galactic government and her employers.

Once the hover-train took her towards the outskirts of the city, she sat around in the park bench for a long while before hobbling back towards her second safe house. As she moved away from the main street and headed into the alley way, two Rockies appeared at the end of the it.

One of them is Hong Fu, and the other is a female she didn't recognize.

'Well done.' Hong Fu said, 'the files are perfect.'

'How...how...here?'

'Oh...I can always track you down.' Hong Fu revealed, 'but I wanted to show some respect for our cooperation, which is why I reached out through the normal means.'

'You...bastard...' Miss D cursed, 'I completed my part of the deal!'

'Well, but I haven't completed mine yet.' Hong Fu said, 'Mr President and his lackie is going to be suspicious of me for all that's happened, so I plan to offer him a gift.'

'I will kill you!' Miss D yelled out in anger, summoning the remainder of her strength that she didn't know she still had, as she exploded towards Hong Fu. However, as her outreached hands were just about to crush Hong Fu's head, he spun narrowly out of the way before knocking Miss D off balance and pinning her on the ground. Then, before Miss D can create a counter attack, the female Rocky pressed her hand against her body, and her fingers glowed.

The buzzing sensation traveled throughout Miss D's body before the buzzing increased in intensity and starting ripping her from inside out. She started screaming, but the pain was temporary as she was completely knocked out. And with that. the one woman crusade of Miss D comes to an end.

Tapping his fingers to activate the communications channel between him and Jozzor, Hong Fu stilled himself before finally saying, 'Jozzor, come to my location. I have captured the terrorist.'

'You have some explaining to do.' That was the simply reply from Jozzor, and it is a reaction that is to be expected.

'You have some explaining to do.' Vindy repeated after him as she glared at the man that she came to the planet with.

'Yes, I do...' Hong Fu nodded, looking down at the motionless body next to the two of them. Finally, the user of Amplifier is taken care of, thanks to the huge amount of damage done by Brakagi, but is whatever files they obtained at the end worth breaking the trust that he has earned with both Vindy and Jozzor/Brakagi?

Is this something that can be fixed with words? Or has Hong Fu made a mistake?

Does it even matter in the long run?

Brakagi will be taken down soon, one way or another, and the regime built on lies will exist no longer. But was that really his mission to begin with? When one is trapped in the middle of a journey, it can be quite easy for one to lose its way.