Chapter 63: PENANCE
"TAKE THIS YOU MOTHERF***ER!" yelled Ariel as the 3 started to beat Kronos up, raining punches and kicks.
"MORE, MORE!" yelled Nanami excitedly as she gave Kronos a hard punch to the face, punching his jaws off.
The 3 soon had Kronos lying defenselessly on the floor, too weak to even defend himself, and they still kept raining blows down at his body.
"Nanami!" yelled Aya, rushing over with Atsumi, Albert and Vera.
"Oh hi big sis!" smiled Nanami, wiping away the blood that had splattered onto her face.
Aya stared at the body beaten into a pulp under the 3 of them, speechless.
"Stop wasting your time on a corpse! THIS PLACE IS GONNA BLOW, WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!" she exclaimed.
(Battery room)
Xiao Tian slapped down a button on the control interface which remotely sent a notification to the automated mini emergency power plants around London to come online and get ready to supply power to the cities affected. Nonetheless, these mini power plants can only provide 1 month worth of power, making it a stop gap.
"Are you able to cut the batteries?" asked Xiao Tian.
"It's no use, I can't get the system back online!" yelled Sean.
He and Frederica had managed to recover earlier thanks to their enhanced physique. With Khai taking care of Louis and Shirley who are still paralysed, the 2 are helping Xiao Tian to shut down the batteries.
"Have you tried to switch to manual override?" asked Xiao Tian, working on his monitor.
"Yeah, still doesn't work!" exclaimed Sean.
"It's all useless..." muttered Lena.
Frederica immediately raised both her FN 5-7 and Glock 43 pistols at her, ready to fire more bullets to finish her off.
"For...our...divine...right..." she muttered, saying the oath of the Extremist movement. Her body suddenly turned red hot as Cosmic Energy is rapidly drawn into her body.
"SHE IS GONNA BLOW HERSELF UP!" recognised Sean, horrified.
Frederica immediately fired, but the bullets she shot are simply deflected away by the energy waves.
"AHHH!" she screamed, transforming into her "true form". As they are on land and not in the water, she is essentially a beached whale, unable to move in her sea monster form.
Growling, she unleashed a strong telekinesis burst, locking Lena in place, preventing her from exploding by forcibly pressing her body together.
Lena screamed in pain from the double pressure as her body slowly gave away. Her faceplate fell, and Sean recognised her to be the leader of the biker gang that baited them before.
"MOVE BEHIND US NOW!" yelled Sean as he too transformed into his "true form".
He lunged forward in his dragon form, channeling all of the Cosmic Energy he can to generate an energy shield, while Xiao Tian and Khai immediately pulled Shirley and Louis behind him.
Lena finally exploded, igniting the batteries in the room in a chain reaction. Frederica and Sean screeched as they shielded their comrades from the blast.
In the instant the batteries are destroyed, the fusion reactors stopped working, throwing all of London, Southampton and Birmingham into utter darkness in the blackout that followed. Fortunately, due to Xiao Tian's prior action, the emergency power plants came online, resupplying power albeit half the strength, minimising the damage.
Once the smoke cleared, Frederica and Sean transformed back, worn out and having burns on their bodies. Xiao Tian and Aya who had rushed over immediately covered up their now naked bodies and tended to their burns.
(2 hours later)
Charlotte wrapped her arms around a still unconscious and parlaysed Louis, bandaging his injuries. Her purple eye is now more bluish as her blue blood rushed to her eye from crying. She wiped off the tears streaking down her face as she tended to Louis in a gentle demeanor that does not match her infamous brutality.
Sean, Ariel, Albert, Vera and Khai stared wide-eyed at their interaction, still reeling in disbelief from their discovery. If Shirley was awake and could move, she will be equally surprised as them.
It turns out that the reason why Louis left Spades was not due to stress, but rather because of heartbreak. He and Charlotte had secretly dated after Charlotte decided to get herself a partner and chose him, but their love did not sustain due to the sheer differences between the 2 in terms of personality, social status, species and age.
Being the dominant figure in almost all of their shared fields, Charlotte came off as overbearing and it soon broke Louis, and their relationship ended in a nasty argument and Louis' resignation.
Still loving Louis deeply, Charlotte is trying to win Louis back, but is currently unsuccessful due to resistance from Louis, who has became convinced that the 2 can never make it.
Hearing their story, Ariel made a note to self to always respect Phineas and make sure they are equals in their relationship.
Xiao Tian and Aya meanwhile received a call from a furious Secretary Li.
"Explain yourselves," he said. "The UNSSD Europe office is being bombarded with calls now from the British."
Aya gave a report, only to be interrupted by Secretary Li.
"You say there was a Vanguard attack, as far as I am aware that is a mere possibility from the report made by Lieutenant Colonel Zhou before you all set off, so tell me, Captain, where is your concrete evidence?" asked Secretary Li.
"The entire facility, munitions, bodies and more," replied Aya.
"There's absolutely nothing!" retorted Secretary Li. "The British military conducted a search of the entire area that was broadcasted live to us and no signs of Vanguard are found."
"What we did find, is an important piece of UK infrastructure destroyed by you jokers. This is the most severe public relation and diplomatic crisis ever in UNSSD's history!"
Aya is stunned and at a loss for words. Xiao Tian on the other hand remained calm, asking Secretary Li for his instructions.
"Return to Tokyo at once," said Secretary Li, hanging off.
Xiao Tian hold Aya's hand, smiling.
"Don't worry, everything will be fine," he assured.
(1 week later, Tokyo)
Sean and the rest of Team Zero sat in the military court, witnessing a hearing on their actions in UK.
Aya and Team Phantom, having not been in the reactor base itself, were let off the hook relatively leniently, leaving Team Zero, especially Xiao Tian to take the brunt of the damage.
Xiao Tian reached for his microphone, giving a mission report.
General Ling slammed a file on the table.
"Mr Zhou," he said. "You have selective memory loss? You are saying that you stopped the plot by Vanguard to destroy the reactors? By shutting off the reactor yourselves?"
"And again, where is the evidence?"
Xiao Tian replied calmly. "We prevented the plot to use the reactors to blow off a part of the UK though the reactors are rendered unusable for a year unfortunately."
"It is indeed regretful that Vanguard escaped and somehow managed to destroy all of the evidence. But, this does not mean that they can forever run from the law and justice," said Xiao Tian firmly. "We will get them."
"I will also like to point out that the fact that the evidence have been removed so quickly within hours would suggest that Vanguard likely set this up as a trap to frame UNSSD and spark a diplomatic crisis to cover up their real plot," he added.
This statement dropped like a bomb in the room, sparking murmurs all over.
"Order!" yelled Secretary Li.
He leaned forward at Xiao Tian keenly.
"Now what do you think," he asked. "is the enemy planning?"
"I believe it will be a coordinated global operation," said Xiao Tian. "I will like to use this platform to make something clear."
He leaned forward, speaking with utmost resolve.
"The Earth is not a place where you will have free rein."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
MOSS3000
MOSS3000 Sorry for posting the chapters for Sat and Sun late. Wasn't able to log in to Webnovel.
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