Bab 324: CHAPTER 316(Precious Cargo)
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CHAPTER START---
Sitting in the cargo hangar of a C-500 Stratofortress, a military cargo plane, retired army general Samuel Birch idly does a crossword puzzle in a book he brought along.
On the seat beside him is his suitcase, hastily packed after his family vacation was canceled. The vacation he was still dressed for in cargo shorts and a blue floral shirt.
He was an older caucasian man, almost 70 years old, with a head of white hair and a third eye on his forehead.
Just as he's about to finish the crossword puzzle, his phone rings.
He groans while answering, "Every time, really?" he sets down the puzzle book and pen on the seat beside him.
"This time I think interrupting your puzzle is justified," his daughter says through the phone. "You got taken away by a bunch of soldiers, the kids are scared dad, what's going on?"
"It's nothing for you to worry about my dear, just...tell them grandpa's friends needed help with something, that's all it is."
"Right," she says. "And for the people who are old enough to know what kind of things your old friends do?"
The man sighs, "Look, I can't say anything over the phone. Soldiers are stationed around but we have no reason to believe any of you are in trouble. Just enjoy the extended vacation and let me deal with this, alright?"
The woman takes a deep breath, attempting to appear calm. "Alright, and when should this be over?"
"Don't worry, between Horizon and Star', it'll be done soon."
"Both of them?! I thought you said it was nothing to worry about."
"It is nothing, just, try to relax, let your dad handle things, as I always do."
The woman gives a tired exhale, "Fine, just, don't forget to call so we know you're alright."
"I'll call when I can," he says before hanging up.
His puzzle book is then held in front of him which he casually accepts, "Thank you..."
The man continues to work on the same puzzle for a moment.
"Chance, that's the answer," Horizon's slightly mechanical voice startles the man.
"Oh god," the man drops the book which Horizon catches and clutches his chest. "You could have given me another heart attack with that stunt."
"Then it's a good thing I'm me, so you'd have been fine," Horizon says.
"How did you even get here, don't you have to swap with something?"
"I did, you're over the mainland now, I was waiting en route, and you'd be surprised how many pebbles are in this cargo hold."
"Right, well I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Samuel Birch, former 5-Star General of the United States Army," the man extends his hand.
Horizon shakes his hand, "Horizon, I wish I could say we were meeting under better circumstances, I imagine with your specialty, I would have likely worked for you."
"I'd imagine so," Samuel says. "I helped train one Mystery Class Quirk user, but as powerful as she is, you...you're special."
Horizon sees a glint of genuine curiosity in the man's eyes.
"I wouldn't go as far as saying that," Horizon says. "But we would have done incredible things, after all, your specialty was finding interesting ways to train and apply Quirks for military use."
"But sadly, none of them could ever reach the level of control your Quirk provides, the entire world doing everything you want it to, what's it like?" the man smiles, trying and failing to comprehend the idea of such power.
"If anything, it makes you realize how many people you share the world with," Horizon says. "But at the same time, you also feel completely alone, because only you can understand yourself."
The man smiles, "Yeah, I figured as much, there must be a lot of tears behind that visor."
"Then I guess it's a good thing it's one way," Horizon says jokingly. "Now, can we get to business?"
"Gladly, I've been kept in the dark aside from the fact that Kelvin somehow escaped the containment unit I built for him, how was that possible?"
"It wasn't, he was let out, by a hacker," Horizon says.
"That's impossible, that system was on an isolated server, you'd have to go to the facility physically to even get access to it."
"Well, Tech managed."
"Tech?" the man looks surprised. "They're real? Do we have proof?"
"It's a working theory, some telepaths are ripping data out of a prisoner we got, but from the looks of it Kelvin was released for a reason we don't understand."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, why break out a top-level killer, then just let him be free and not under your control, if anything he's supposed to be a distraction," Horizon explains. "But, this is America, Star' is here, so the moment he meets her, he goes back into a box, which is why it makes no sense."
"If you have something to ask, just ask," Birch says.
"What was he really?" Horizon asks. "He was listed as a wet work agent for the CIA, but even their off-network files don't track any of his missions, all the way to the Oval Office, so what was he, really?"
"That, is still classified, and even if you had the clearance, I'm not telling a foreign combatant this information," the man narrows his eyes at Horizon.
Horizon sighs, "Fine, be that way. I'll just have them turn this plane around so you can rejoin your family."
"What?"
"I don't like working with uncooperative people, good luck with regular soldiers defending you, and your family."
"You wouldn't," the man narrows his eyes at Horizon.
"Oh, but you know I would," Horizon leans forward slightly. "You're still the top army specialist when it comes to taking down people with difficult Quirks, even retired, they must have called you in for some advice about me, given you my physiological profile, well, what do you think I'll do?"
The man stares into Horizon's visor for a moment, then leans back.
"For the record, I advised them to keep you as far away from our borders as possible," Samuel Birch says. "Whatever you are under that visor, it ain't a Hero, certainly not the next All Might, maybe the next All For One...but probably worse, right?"
They share a tense moment, then Horizon laughs and relaxes in his seat, "damn, you really are good at your job."
"Yes, but unlike those people, you can be bought, which is good for us, bad for poorer countries."
"True, you people have the most money, but some things are more valuable than that," Horizon says. "Now, about Kelvin?"
"First, what's your plan?"
"Well this military escort takes you to a base just past Miami, we land there and lay a trap for him, simple and effective," Horizon says.
"I don't doubt either of you could easily crush anyone, aside from each other, but the method of capture isn't the problem," Birch says. "If he knows either of you are there, he won't show up, assuming he'll even hit an army base."
"His Quirk, Thermodynamic's, how strong is it?"
"It was worthless," Birch explains. "His Quirk can't be harnessed without technology, we had a machine built to allow him to release and direct his energy, see, he was never really a hitman."
"Already knew that," Horizon says. "Quirk control devices, for?"
"Energy sector development," Birch says. "The man was capable of absorbing and manipulating Thermodynamic energy at a sub-atomic level, absolute zero and absolute heat at his fingertips...it theory."
"And in practice?"
"He was just a big battery, could take in energy but too slowly for it to matter, and couldn't release it before the device we built for him."
"Then?"
"Then, we figured out a way to make batteries out of other things, they could then act like a perfectly clean nuclear power plant, sound familiar?"
"The new Geokinetics project, that's him?"
"He was the answer, how to use the energy the earth generates from its rotation to power cities, he was the medium we studied, and when we learned he could release that energy into certain specially made alloys to hold the charge for a later use, we put him to work on that as well."
"So he's the reason humanity has enough power to last thousands of years, without a drop of environmental damage."
"And what did he get for it?" Birch asks. "Turned into living energy due to excessive experimentation, shit luck if I've ever seen it."
"You must have figured out how to weaponize his energy, how hard will that be for him, on his own?"
"The most difficult component is his Quirk, it takes so much energy and he can't gain any more in his current form, only use his stockpile until it's done."
"Which will kill him."
"Sadly, but the materials won't be that hard for someone like him to get, what you really need is to track the containment suit," Birch explains. "It's got a special energy signature that should be unique outside of a nuclear fusion reactor."
"Give me the data, I'll send it to the satellites," Horizon says.
After sending the data to the satellites Horizon gets up and starts walking about the hangar, "so, what kind of combat applications does Kelvin's Quirk have?"
"Before his current form, none, but now, he can freely release energy at the cost of his stockpile, which is his lifespan."
"So super strength and energy projection to a high degree," Horizon says. "And if he takes off that suit regular physical attacks won't be able to hit him, such a pain."
"That will also make his stockpile decay," Birch says.
"Star' will be better at handling him, I'll just play babysitter," Horizon draws his blade and aims it at the wall of the plane. "I'll have her meet us somewhere at the airport."
"Airport? I thought we were going to the base."
"Nah, he'd never hit a military base, he's too well trained for that, but you suddenly needed to make an emergency landing at an airport two hours away is good enough bait, he should be in the area checking out the base either way."
"What ar---"
"Takt," suddenly a small draft begins in the sealed hangar as the entire plane trembles.
"What the hell is wrong with you, they could have just faked the landing!" Birch hastily clips his seatbelt back on.
"Modern sensors are too good, and he'll probably hack into them, better to be safe than sorry," Horizon laughs as he puts his blade away.
"You're crazy!"
"That's why this works, don't worry, we don't need all the engines to make it to the airport..."
---Elsewhere...
Sitting in an empty warehouse at a small desk is a man wearing a full-body grey body glove, covering everything from head to toe, even his eyes.
He types away on a computer as the radio beside him begins receiving a transmission.
"This is Bravo Actual with precious cargo, we have a critical engine failure and are requesting a runway for an emergency landing, ETA 43 minutes."
"Bravo Actual this is ATC, runway 12 will be open for you to land, sending navigation data now."
"Copy ATC," the pilot says.
The hum of energy vibrating, shaking the air, flows through the warehouse as the tall, lanky figure raises his head.
"Airport, might not need bomb, less dead innocence, but, in case," he gets up walks over to a truck at the other end of the warehouse, and opens the back.
Inside is a large metal cube with a few devices attached, and the man casually hops into the trailer and puts a hand on the cube.
"Just...in case," he removes the glove part of his containment suit to expose his right hand.
It appeared a translucent glowing purple, instead of a skeleton being visible within, his nervous system itself was outlined, but constantly shifting and flowing in a bright white.
As he touched the cube the device began beeping, warning him, "Stabilization good, set deadman timer to...50 minutes," the man says as the timer begins to countdown.
"I'll GPS lock it when I get into position," he says while pouring more and more energy into the cube, causing it to glow bright purple from the inside out, starting at the core.
END CHAPTER---
Bab 325: CHAPTER 317(High Energy Beings)
Discord: https://discord.gg/t7bHrdRY7Y
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"There it is, shouldn't be long now," Star' says.
Standing atop the air traffic control tower at the airport, she and Horizon watch as the massive military cargo plane lands with most of its engines smoking.
"See, told you it could make it," Horizon says. "Those things can glide for a while with minimum lift."
"Yes, but you could have at least stayed on the plane, you know, in case it starts falling from the sky," Star' says.
"Busy," Horizon taps his visor. "The satellites tracked two things matching the material composition we needed, but...still difficult to pick them out of the crowd."
"How is that possible, I thought you could find anything within like, a thousand miles."
"Not that far, and not that simple," Horizon says. "Detecting energy is hard, light is tougher, and telling them apart is a nightmare, and this guy just blends in with everything."
Horizon taps the side of his visor a few more times, flipping through security cameras in the airport.
"Well, this is his chance, so he'll show himself soon enough," Star' says as Birch and the soldiers escorting him begin moving from the plane to the convoy parked on the runway.
"And I got him, there," Horizon points to the middle of the building, an observation deck overlooking the runway.
"Alright, warp him to a safe place so I can talk to him."
"On it," Horizon says, then goes silent for a few seconds. "Fuck..."
"What do you mean 'fuck'?"
"Can't warp him."
"What do you mean you can't warp him?"
"I mean, I've never had to move anything this complex before," Horizon says. "He and his...containment suit, it's like the energy between the material stretches them into individual particles and the energy holds them together."
"So warping him is like having to move the Sahara grain by grain, at least before it became a forest," Star' grumbles. "You know if your Quirk was actually warping and not transposing we wouldn't be having this problem."
"Mine is better, just, never experienced something like this before," Horizon says. "Oh, but I found something else, there," he points to the other side of the airport.
"Be specific."
"Car park, truck, in the trailer, unstable material like his suit loaded in the back, but a lot more dense than his suit."
"You deal with that and I'll---" Star and Stripe's words stop as Kelvin rockets through the airport window and flies toward the convoy.
Star' immediately jumps off the rooftop.
NEW ORDER: I can freely move through the atmosphere!
She leaves a sonic boom in her wake that causes Horizon to take a few steps back, and by the time he steadies himself, she's already intercepting Kelvin.
"BIRCH!" Kelvin's voice echoes through the area, hitting almost every frequency, disrupting all signals, and breaking every window in the airport.
"He's here!" Birch yells as he covers his ears, seeing Kelvin flying toward him before raising a fist. "Help!"
Kelvin fires a blast of purple energy, and as he does so, his entire containment suit glows for just a moment.
Before the blast could hit its target, Star' intercepts it, grabbing it with her right hand.
NEW ORDER: I can contain any thermodynamic energy I make contact with!
She holds the energy blast in her hand like a glowing baseball, while landing on the runway, since she had to deactivate her flight command.
'I need to be careful with this guy, he can fly which gives him the advantage,' Star' thinks. 'My main command keeps my transformation up, so I'll just alternate between mobility and being able to contain his energy with the other one.'
While in theory, this situation should happen often, considering she's always had the limit of two commands, because of how powerful New Order is, she rarely even needs more than just her transformation command.
"Move!" Kelvin demands as the soldiers rush Birch to the convoy, but Star' stays planted in his path.
"Kelvin, you don't have to do this," Star' says as she throws the captured energy blast into the air.
It easily clears the atmosphere and dissipates harmlessly.
"Are you here to kill me?" Kelvin asks. "They sent you, to hide their mistake!"
"No, I'm not even here to fight you," Star' says, raising her hands in surrender. "I'm here to help you."
"Help...me?" Kelvin relaxes, descending to stand on the runway. "Why?"
"Because that's what heroes do, they help people," Star' says. "Alteast, that's what they should do, especially people like you."
"Like me?"
"You're a good man, do you remember who you are?"
"I...am..." he looks down at his hands and stumbles back, confused. "Kelvin, from, lab #32, energy division."
Star's gaze softens at that, "Well, Kelvin, you helped the entire world, and it's not fair what happened to you, I'm here to help."
"Birch," Kelvin shakes his head. "Birch said, I could help, he, left me, in a box, so dark."
"And now I'm here to help you," Star' says. "And I have a friend who can help you, we can figure out a way to restore your body, but we need time, we need you to let us help you."
"A friend?"
"A miracle," Star' says. "His name is Horizon, you were already locked away before he became public, but he---"
"The doctor, from the news," Kelvin says.
"Yes!" Star' smiles, seeing some progress. "We can help you, if you let us."
Kelvin nods eagerly, "Yes, after I kill Birch," he immediately turns to fly after the convoy, but by the time he turns star is already in his way again.
"Sorry but, I can't let you kill anyone, that's not how we do things."
"Birch, the liar, must die."
Star' sighs, "I know he broke your trust, and you didn't deserve this, but we don't kill in cold blood, revenge isn't justice."
Kelvin stumbles back, as if trying to process this was painful for him, "No, Birch dies, he must, killing Birch, is everything."
Star' frowns and lowers her hands, "I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that."
"Fine," Kelvin seemingly takes one step forward, and as his foot touches the ground, energy surges through his suit once more.
But this time, it spreads through the runway beneath them, a purple ripple effect carrying massive thermodynamic energy, affecting all the matter it touches.
The earth beneath them becomes energy-rich glowing purple lava, bubbling on the surface.
Star' immediately realizes what's going on and rushes forward, grabbing him with blinding speeding and jumping into the air.
She leaves a sonic boom in her wake, and after clearing the lowest cloud level glances back to see the attack only spread for a few dozen meters.
"Horizon?"
"I see it," Horizon says as she sees the chunk of energy-rich earth free itself from the planet and rockets into the sky before exploding. "Everything he touches becomes a bomb, careful."
"Yeah, I noticed," Star' says while turning her focus back to the man in her arms, arms that had rivers of purple energy flowing through them, trying to do the same thing to her.
Fortunately, her transformation is comparable to the physical stats of prime All Might, short of it by just a hair, but capable of surpassing even his power if she doesn't split her focus between two commands.
"I don't want to fight you!" Star' tosses him away as she shrugs off the energy trying to destroy her, then activates her flight command once again.
"Then don't fight me, just move," Kelvin says. "Revenge, is everything."
Star' glares at him, "I really thought you would have listened to reason, I'm sorry it came to this."
Before her words can even register, she's already behind Kelvin with a strong right.
"Don't break his suit!" Horizon yells through her communicator.
Star' pulls her punch and instead palms the back of his head, and shakes him like a rattle while flying higher, into the overcast sky.
"No brain to rattle!" Kelvin inhumanly twists his body and punches her in the face with his entire right arm glowing.
The entire sky, along with the surrounding regions on the ground, shakes, as a blinding purple light outshines the sun sun above.
As the purple light fades, all the clouds are gone, along with Star and Stripe.
Kelvin begins falling for a moment before steadying himself in the air, "too much, power," he says, realizing over half of his remaining lifespan was in that one attack.
"Birch," he turns toward the earth, toward the military base in the distance where his target is going, then flies off.
As he's flying, high above, just outside of Earth's orbit, Star and Stipe floats unconsciously.
A few seconds later she startles awake.
"Guh!" she immediately shuts her mouth, feeling extremely cold as the moisture on her is flash-frozen in space, then looks around.
'Wow, it's beautiful up here,' she thinks while observing the earth, then touches her face, feeling a sore bruise on her cheek. 'That's a first, now to get back in the fight.'
She wills herself to move forward, only to continue drifting in place.
'Oh, right, no atmosphere to move through, so...'
NEW ORDER: I can freely move through three-dimensional space!
She feels her energy taxed slightly more than usual as her body isn't used to this command, this would decrease with familiarity.
But she realizes this commands, as suspected, even after mastery would constantly drain more energy than her previous flight command.
But casting those thoughts aside she races back into the fight, truly flying.
She closes in at 10,000km/h, just slightly over Mach 8, which is her maximum allowed in-atmosphere, legal travel speed.
"Don't kill him," Horizon says through her communicator, "ask him about the bomb."
"What bomb?" she immediately slows down after reaching within a few miles of Kelvin, just outside of the airport.
"The one I'm working on, just be quick, the timer only has a few minutes left."
"Kelvin!" Star' screams as she collides with him, careful not to crack his suit as she spins and throws him back toward the sky. "How do we disable the bomb?!"
"Argh!" Kelvin doesn't even bother to answer, simply turning to the earth below and firing another blast.
Star' looks at where it's going, and sees he's aiming at an empty bridge.
'He wants to destroy the convoy's route, fine, he'll have to get past me anyway and that's not happening,' she rushes toward him and holds his hands together.
"The bomb, how do we disable it?"
"You don't!" Kelvin begins overloading his suit causing cracks to appear in the entire thing.
"No!" Star' rushes toward the edge of space with him as the suit shatters and explodes.
Another purple light outshines everything in the sky, but before the energy can ripple out and disturb the people below, Star' changes her command and captures it.
Trapping it like a sentient baseball in her hands.
"NOOOOOO!" Kelvin screams from his new prison as she raises her hand, holding him close to her face.
'I can still see him in there, maybe we can still save him,' she thinks before flying back to the airport.
---Moments later...
Star' lands in the airport parking area to see a crowd gathered at the gate, but she simply goes to where Horizon is, standing behind a truck.
"Did you disarm it?" Star' asks.
"Nope, take a look," Horizon says as he opens the back, where she sees a 5ft wide glowing purple cube.
"We should have everyone evacuate," Star' says.
"Can't you just disable it with your Quirk?" Horizon asks.
"Not while I'm holding him," she shakes Kelvin for him to see, then looks at him in her grasp. "How do we disable it?"
"..."
"The silent treatment, very helpful," Horizon grumbles. "Just drop your transformation and disable the bomb."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I just can't, alright!"
"Fine fine," Horizon raises his hands in surrender. "Well if we try to move it the GPS lock on it will set it off, but the longer it stays put the stronger the blast."
"Why didn't you warp everyone away?" Star' asks.
"I figured you'd snap your fingers and get rid of it, like you're refusing to do right now, that's why."
"It's complicated, so drop it," she grows out.
"Fine, fine, I'll deal with it, just don't ask any questions," Horizon walks over to the bomb and cups his hands together.
Star' feels his Quirk deactivate, the tingly sensation of Hand Of God no longer moving across her body.
'What the hell is he doing deactivating his Qui---'
Her mind goes black as she instinctively takes a few steps back, almost falling out of the trailer as Horizon gathers energy toward his hands.
Then between his cupped hands, a small translucent blue sphere forms and grows.
He stretches his arms out, over the bomb, and it seamlessly seems to phase through the bomb and continue expanding, and when the entire bomb is in the middle of it.
The sphere becomes a slightly darker blue, glowing bright, and instantly hardens, cutting through the trailer and the ground below to completely seal itself.
"That's new..." Star' mutters as Horizon stumbles back, only for her to steady him.
"Yeah, which is why it's not efficient, and is so damn draining," Horizon struggles to speak, leaning against the wall of the trailer.
As she's about to ask another question, the bomb detonates, with enough power to make a crater the size of Manhattan Island, yet they can't feel it.
They couldn't even hear it, the only way they could tell it went off was the bright purple light shining from within the barrier.
As the light dims and fades away, Star' shakes the surprise away to collect her thoughts.
"And I thought you were scary before," Star' says. "Was that your awakening?"
"Part of it, still needs a lot of work, this barrier won't hold for much longer," Horizon says as they walk to the back of the trailer, to see the oblivious masses taking pictures of them. "What happened to Kelvin?"
Star and Stripe raises her hand to show her prisoner, or what was left of him, "when the bomb failed he stopped holding himself together, seems revenge is all that was fueling him..."
"I can't imagine what a miserable life that was..." Horizon says as he sits in the back of the trailer, trying to catch his breath.
Star' sits beside him, gently waving to the adoring public as she whispers, "Will you be alright?"
"Yeah, I'm just so hungry."
"I know a great seafood place not too far from here, how about it?"
"Yeah, lets go eat..."
END CHAPTER---
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