章 67: Profectus est exaggeratus-LXVII
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DATE:26th of July, the 70th year after the Coronation
LOCATION: Concord Metropolis
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He starts shaking as the nano machines cover his whole body. His whole skin turned black and the clothes were ripped. I could only stare as he picked up the fedora and placed it again on his head.
" I didn't want to use this form..."
It looked like he was in pain
" Those tricks of yours won't work on me" he continues.
"Yeah right." I wanted to infuriate him some more, but what could I even add?
As I was about to move someone keeps me with a rod in the head.
I lose my balance and fall to the floor. Looking up I see the woman with the decolored hair. She had her left eye covered. A reminder of what happened back then.
"End him Minerva." He said, his voice now inhuman. It had become mechanic.
"Emi-" before I can finish she hits me with the road again, almost making me black out. It's not that I felt pain, but you can't really develop a resistance to having your head banged up
"Don't you dare!" I can feel the malice in her voice.
I try to crawl away, but she stands on one of my feet with her own.
I see her looking at the abomination.
" You shouldn't have pushed the nano machines so far Morgan."
" The bastard damaged my internal organs. Kill him already and recover the AI." He wasn't moving from the position where he became like that. Would it be too tiring?
I was wondering why Emily didn't teleport me away. She could hear what was happening. Was there some other device prohibiting her from doing that?
Minerva turned me over with the rod and prepared to strike me one more time. She wanted me to see her while I died.
I stared up at Minerva, her decolored hair falling over her scarred face. Her single eye burned with hatred as she lifted the rod, preparing to strike. The cold mechanical voice of Morgan, now fully consumed by the nano-machines, echoed in the background.
"Do it, Minerva," he commanded, his voice dripping with malice. "End him. Recover the AI."
I gritted my teeth and tried to move, but her foot pressed harder against mine, pinning me in place. Emily's silence was deafening. Why wasn't she teleporting me out? Had they managed to block her somehow?
Minerva crouched slightly, her face inches from mine. "I've waited for this moment," she said, her voice trembling with malice and satisfaction. "You took my eye. Now I'll take your life." Corny.
The rod descended toward my face, a blur of cold steel. I raised my arms instinctively, but it wouldn't have been enough.
Then, a spark of static jolted through the air.
"Not today," Emily's voice suddenly rang out, cold and sharp.
Minerva hesitated, her strike faltering just inches from my face. Her eye darted around in confusion.
"What—" she began, but she didn't get to finish.
The watch on my wrist buzzed violently, and in an instant, I felt the familiar disorienting pull of teleportation. The world warped and twisted around me as Emily's voice whispered again.
"Brace yourself."
I landed hard on the floor of a dimly lit hallway, gasping for breath. My head throbbed from Minerva's earlier blows, and my vision swam.
"Emily," I croaked. "What took you so long?"
"They deployed a jammer," she replied curtly. "It took time to override it. You're lucky I managed before she finished you off."
I dragged myself to a sitting position, trying to make sense of where I was. The corridor was narrow and unfamiliar, with pipes lining the walls and faint fluorescent lights flickering overhead.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"The basement of the mall," Emily replied. "Away from the main confrontation. But they'll find you soon if we don't move."
I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stand. My limbs felt heavy, and my head was spinning, but I couldn't stay here.
"That… thing Morgan turned into," I muttered. "Can I even take him down like this?"
"Not without a plan," Emily admitted. "The nano-machines are consuming his body and enhancing his strength. His pain was genuine—he's overloading his system just to stay functional. But that also means he's unstable. There's a chance to exploit it."
I clenched my fists, the frustration boiling inside me. I couldn't let this end here. Not like this.
"Then let's make a plan," I said, my voice steady despite the chaos.
"We'll need to lure him into overusing the nano-machines," Emily said. "Force them to overheat or malfunction. But first, we need to deal with Minerva. She won't stop hunting you."
"She won't get the chance," I said, tightening my grip on the Beretta still holstered at my side. "Let's finish this."
As I was making my way out of the basement, I remembered something important.
"Emily how come they haven't teleported away already?"
"They still want me. They lost too many agents to return empty handed." Was that really so?
Emily said there was an emergency stairway from my floor to the auditorium.
As I was rushing up the stairs, I start to hear fighting above.
I slam through the door and see Mike battling both agents? He was using the teleporter to change his location in short distances. He had no cool down on it.
I go to help him, putting the armor and exoskeleton on quickly. Afterwords I throw another grenade at Morgan, catching his attention.
The grenade sailed through the air toward Morgan, his hulking, nano-machine-covered form towering over the chaotic scene. He turned to face it, his mechanical body reacting instantly. The machinery surged outward from his arm, enveloping the grenade and muffling the explosion into a metallic thud.
Morgan's glowing blue eyes locked onto me, the fedora casting an ominous shadow over his grotesque face. "Back for more, Zaun?" His voice was deeper now, more mechanical, reverberating like an echo chamber.
I moved quickly, firing several shots to keep him occupied while Mike continued focused on Minerva. He was teleporting in and out of her striking distance, using it to build momentum. He was a natural at it.
Emily's voice cut through the chaos in my ear. "Morgan's system is overstressed. If we push him harder, we might trigger a catastrophic failure in the nano-machines."
"Any suggestions on how to do that?" I asked, dodging a wave of metal spikes Morgan hurled in my direction.
"Keep forcing him to use his abilities. The more he shifts the nano-machines to defend and attack, the faster he'll burn out. Aim for precision strikes to keep him on edge."
I nodded, taking cover behind a pillar and reloading my Beretta. I turned to Mike, who was now dispatch some agents the woman called upon.
"Mike!" I called out. "Focus on Minerva if she shows up. I'll handle Morgan."
He nodded, giving me a thumbs-up before disappearing in a flash to secure the perimeter.
I stepped out from behind the pillar, my exoskeleton enhancing my movements as I rushed toward Morgan. He reacted instantly, his arm transforming into a massive blade, swinging it down with tremendous force.
I sidestepped, activating the time-slowing ability just as I raised my weapon. I was pushing myself past my limits and I felt my heart pounding. In the slowed moment, I fired three rounds at his joints, aiming to destabilize his movements.
As time resumed, the bullets struck, but the nano-machines swarmed to protect him again, absorbing the impact. However, I noticed the strain in his movements—the nano-machines weren't as fluid as before.
Morgan growled, his voice distorted. "You think you can break me? Do you know how much money this technology is worth?!"
I smirked, raising my voice to taunt him. "You're a walking malfunction, Morgan. Let's see how long you last!"
He roared in anger, sending another wave of metal spikes toward me. I dodged again, keeping my distance while forcing him to overexert himself.
"Keep going," Emily urged. "He's close to a critical threshold."
Morgan charged at me, his hulking form surprisingly fast. I waited until the last second before activating the teleporter, blinking to a spot directly behind him. As he stumbled forward, I fired another series of shots into his back, dropping my magazine to reload.
This time, the nano-machines hesitated, struggling to keep up with the damage. Sparks flew from his body, and he let out a mechanical scream, clutching at his chest.
"One more push!" Emily said. "Overload him now!"
I quickly swapped my weapon for a grenade launcher from the bag, aiming it directly at Morgan.
"Hey, Morgan!" I shouted.
He turned, his blue eyes blazing with fury, just as I pulled the trigger. The grenade hit him square in the chest, detonating with a deafening explosion.
The force of the blast sent him flying backward, crashing into the auditorium stage. The nano-machines on his body began to convulse, glitching and sparking uncontrollably.
Morgan let out a guttural roar, his body contorting as the nano-machines started to consume him from within. "You... can't... Help, me!.... Ahg!" he bellowed, his voice distorted and fading.
I watched as the machinery overtook him entirely, his form collapsing into a heap of writhing metal. They extended with unusual geometric tendrils, swallowing the area around him. The light in his eyes dimmed, and the room fell silent except for the faint hum of the dying nano-machines.
Emily's voice broke the silence. "He's done. But we still need to find Minerva and the bomb."
I nodded, breathing heavily as I scanned the room. The battle wasn't over yet.
"wait, you Didn't find the bomb already?" I ask confused. Wasn't the whole point stalling?
She remembers that she does, but she had to get in contact with the detonator to deactivate it.
I ask her to find where Mike was fighting her and after being teleported there, I find them scuttling in an open area probably where Saturnalia would be celebrated.
I jump between them and deliver a punch to her gut, making her fall to the ground, having trouble breathing. I was much stronger in the exoskeleton.
"Where is the detonator?"
She fought for her breath, then looked up at me, smirking.
"You ran away from Morgan?"
"No. Why would I run away from a dead man?"
Her eyes darken and she raises, trying to slug me in the chest as revenge. I slap her arm away, countering with an upwards punch to her stomach. Then I caught her by her head and slammed it into my foot, dropping her to the ground.
She started bleeding internally. I could see her skin turning red from the blood released underneath.
"Where is the detonator?"
She started releasing crocodile tears as she grabbed at my foot. I gave her a kick to the head with the other one.
Mike grabbed my shoulder.
"Leave her to recover her thoughts. She is in no position to answer."
Minerva was really angry.
"How... How could you kill him.
Do you even know what we have been through?!" I wanted to listen to Mike, but I just couldn't. She was so arrogant...
I lowered into a punch directly into her face, breaking her nose this time. It was kept in place unusually by the skin, yet it was clearly not solid anymore. Blood erupted from her nostrils.
I couldn't muster any care.
"I can't seem to harbor pity for you. How many people were going to suffer from your pathetic ambush?"
I grabbed her by her collar and raised her again. She tried to punch me, but I grab her left wrist and snap it out of place.
"Answer me. I'll make you a pile of dust if you don't."
Minerva let out a sharp scream as her wrist snapped, the sound echoing through the open space. Her bloodied face twisted in pain and rage, but her eyes locked onto mine with defiance.
"You think you're a hero?" she spat, coughing as blood trickled from her mouth. "You're no better than us. Morgan might've been a monster, but at least he stood for something."
I tightened my grip on her collar, lifting her off the ground. The exoskeleton made it easy, her struggles insignificant against its strength. "Sorry, I think you lost your mind. Am I not trying to save these people? I could have left if I wanted to. No matter how you put it, that sounds like a hero to me." I growled, my voice low and cold. "Where is the detonator?"
Her lips curled into a bitter smile, despite her obvious agony. "If you kill me, you'll never find it," she sneered, her voice hoarse. "And when it goes off, you'll have the blood of everyone here on your hands."
I paused, scanning her face for any hint of a lie. Emily's voice cut in urgently. "She's stalling. We need to act fast. The bomb's timer might be linked to her vitals or a signal from her body."
I glanced at Mike, who was watching uneasily, his hand still on my shoulder. "She's bluffing," I said, more to myself than to him.
Minerva chuckled weakly. "Am I?"
Without another word, I tossed her to the ground, her body hitting the stone with a heavy thud. She writhed in pain, clutching her broken wrist, her breath shallow.
"Emily," I said sharply, "can you trace any signals coming from her? Anything that might lead us to the detonator?"
"Scanning now," Emily replied. "There's a faint electromagnetic pulse coming from her. It's localized—probably a transmitter implanted in her body. "
"Good," I muttered, stepping closer to Minerva. I crouched down, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look at me. Her one uncovered eye glared back with unrelenting hatred.
"Tell me where it is," I demanded again, my tone leaving no room for negotiation. " I don't think we can disable the bomb through it. From what I saw it was too complex."
Her voice was barely audible. "Go to hell."
I sighed, shaking my head. "Wrong answer."
I activated the exoskeleton's enhanced grip, crushing the transmitter in her wrist. Her scream was ear-piercing, but Emily's voice cut through. "Wait! I've locked onto the signal. It's connected to a location two floors below us—in the central maintenance room."
I dropped Minerva to the ground without another glance. "Mike, keep her contained. If she tries anything, you know what to do."
Mike hesitated, his expression conflicted. "Zaun-Aionis... are we really just going to—"
"We don't have time for this, Mike," I snapped. "The bomb is our priority."
He nodded reluctantly, stepping forward to keep an eye on Minerva, who was too weak to do much more than glare at me.
Mike grabs me, confused.
"Why do you even want to save these people. This isn't like you." I wanted to retort, but... He was right. Why was I trying to help them? Me?
Was it for UltraMan? No. I didn't feel any regret. I didn't need to "make it up to him". Was I doing it for the game? For fame? Me? That couldn't be.
I glanced down at the bleeding woman and felt empty. I wanted to say that I was doing it out of hatred, to see her organisation fail, but it wasn't even that. I couldn't find any reason for my efforts.
"Just that I could?"
"What?" Mike didn't understand me.
"Because I can. I have the ability to save them. So why not?" He look d at me bewildered. He had no answer to what I said.
"Do you want us to go? We can if you want to. I see you are proficient enough with the Teleporter."
"No, that isn't want I meant."
" Then what?" Now I was the confused one.
"Nevermind. It doesn't matter."
"Em-" I stop myself from calling upon her. That woman's glare.... Her threatening me? Why would I spare her?
I jump and crush her head with one foot, making it a semi contained pile of blood. A jet of the red liquid erupted from her eyes like a pressed juicebox with a hole.
An emitter from her body? Such a joke, she wasn't Barryvard.
She had to die. If we let her out of our sight she would just teleport away.
I turn to Mike.
He wasn't particularly surprised, almost like he expected what I did?
" You can leave if you want. I might fail."
That made him chuckle.
" You know, I wasn't able to leave when I went with the civilians."
"Ah? You couldn't?" Now that surprised me.
"There was a field of sorts around the wall. When I exited I would myself where I was 15 seconds earlier."
"A temporal field."
"What is that Emily?" This only got more complicated.
"It was the project of one of my Creator Colleagues. Her name was.... Wait, I can't find any records of her... That is strange..."
"No matter. She isn't the first. What does this field do?"
"Yes, it keeps the target trapped into a temporal loop. It was supposed to be used in prisons, but truly speaking my creator questioned her applications."
" If she was so crazy that even your inventor was turned off then she is bad news. It's good that she dissapeared."
" Yeah..."
Thinking clearly though, it made sense. Why else would he come to fight the agents when he was close to the exit? Mike puts his safety first and foremost.
"Emily, get me to that maintenance room," I said, standing tall.
"Hold on,"she replied, and in an instant, the world around me shifted.
I landed in the dimly lit maintenance room, the air heavy with the smell of oil and metal. In the center of the room sat the bomb—a grotesque amalgamation of wires, steel, and blinking lights, its timer counting down relentlessly.
"Two minutes left,"Emily warned. "I'll guide you through disabling it."
"Make it quick," I muttered, moving toward the device with steady determination.
The bomb sat ominously in the center of the maintenance room, its red LED timer glaring at me: 01:58.
Wires spilled from its metallic casing like entrails, their colors tangled in a deliberate maze meant to confuse. Tubes filled with an unknown, viscous liquid snaked through its structure, pulsing faintly. The device felt alive, almost as if mocking my every breath.
"Is this another invention of your creator?
" No. If it was his, we wouldn't have been able to stop it. It's too rugged."
"Stay calm," Emily urged in my earpiece. "The detonator is connected to several redundant systems. We'll have to disable them in the correct order, or we risk setting it off early."
"Let's get to it," I said, crouching down and examining the bomb. My hands were steady, but my heartbeat hammered like a war drum.
Emily's voice came through with clinical precision. "Start with the green wire. It's connected to the primary power source. But be careful—if it touches the yellow wire, we're done for."
I pulled out a knife from my suit's toolkit and carefully slid it between the green wire and the others. With a precise cut, the green wire snapped. The timer paused for half a second before resuming. 01:42.
"Good. Now the blue wire—it controls the failsafe mechanism. If we don't cut it, the bomb will still detonate even if the main power is down."
The blue wire was buried beneath a bundle of others, its thin coating barely visible. I used the tip of my knife to tease it free, my movements deliberate and slow. Sweat dripped down my forehead as I cut through it.
"Perfect," Emily said. "Next is the cylinder with the glowing liquid. That's a pressure-sensitive chemical trigger. You'll need to unscrew it carefully without shaking it too much."
I grabbed the cylinder and twisted slowly, my fingers tightening around the slick metal. Every turn felt like an eternity. 01:20.
Finally, the cylinder came loose. I held it steady in my hand as Emily directed me. "Place it gently on the ground away from the device. We'll deal with it later."
I set it down carefully, exhaling sharply.
"Now comes the tricky part," Emily continued. "The red wire and the black wire. They're part of the final triggering mechanism. You have to cut them simultaneously, or the bomb will detonate."
"Simultaneously?" I muttered, glancing at the timer: 00:58.
"You can do it," Emily assured me. "I'll guide you through the timing. On my mark, cut them both."
I positioned my knife over the red wire and reached for the black wire with a pair of pliers from the exoskeleton's toolkit. My hands hovered, ready.
"Three... two... one... cut!"
I sliced the red wire and clamped the black wire in one fluid motion.
The timer stopped at 00:42.
I held my breath, waiting for something—anything—to happen.
The bomb remained silent.
"We did it," Emily said, her voice laced with relief. "The device is completely disabled."
I slumped back against the wall, letting out a long, shaky breath.
But then Emily spoke again, her tone sharp. "Wait—there's another signal. A secondary trigger. It's in the cylinder you just removed."
Of course. I grabbed the cylinder and examined it more closely. Inside, the glowing liquid swirled angrily, its pressure gauge ticking upward.
"You need to release the pressure without breaking the seal," Emily said. "There's a valve at the top. Turn it counterclockwise, just enough to stabilize it."
My fingers gripped the valve, and I twisted slowly. The gauge began to dip, the liquid calming into a steady flow.
Finally, the pressure equalized, and the cylinder stopped glowing.
"It's done," I said, standing and wiping the sweat from my face.
"You're clear," Emily confirmed. "No more signals."
I took one last look at the bomb, now nothing more than a lifeless heap of wires and steel. Victory felt heavy but satisfying.
"Time to find Mike," I muttered, heading back toward the fight.
The main entrance was flooded with worried civilians, their voices rising and falling like waves. Mike stood in the center of the group, his face calm but clearly trying to maintain some semblance of order as they barraged him with questions: Who are you? Where did you come from? How did you fight them?
As I approached, someone noticed me, and the murmurs of confusion and worry turned into something I didn't expect.
"Aionis!"
The chant started faintly, then spread like wildfire.
"Aionis! Aionis!"
My name echoed through the mall, reverberating against the damaged walls. The crowd surged toward me, their expressions a strange mixture of awe and gratitude. They reached out, as though I was some savior stepping out of myth.
I stood still, unsure of how to react.
Did they even understand what just happened? Did they know that their lives hung by a thread, saved by a mix of luck, desperation, and technology I barely understood myself?
"Aionis!"
The cheers grew louder. For a moment, my eyes flicked to Mike, who gave me a faint, almost sheepish shrug as if to say, I didn't start this.
I raised a hand, not as a wave or acknowledgment, but as an instinctive motion to quiet them. The noise dimmed slightly, though the murmurs of admiration persisted.
"Let's go," I said to Mike under my breath, my voice sharp and low.
We made our way through the crowd, brushing off questions and deflecting their gratitude. Each "thank you" felt like a stone in my stomach. I wasn't doing this for them, not really. I wasn't here to be a hero.
When we finally reached the exterior of the mall, I tried to teleport outside, expecting the familiar distortion of the temporal field to stop me. Instead, the shift was seamless, depositing me just outside the ruined structure.
Mike followed a moment later, looking around as if he expected someone to ambush us.
Emily's voice crackled in my ear, interrupting my thoughts. "The temporal field must have been disabled by the surviving agents. They must have needed it gone to make their escape."
"Convenient," I muttered, glancing back toward the crowd still chanting inside the mall.
Mike joined me a moment later. His shirt was torn, and he looked every bit as exhausted as I felt, but there was an air of satisfaction in his stance.
"They love you," he said, a faint smirk playing on his lips.
"I don't need their love," I replied curtly. "I need them to forget my name."
Still, the cheers echoed in my mind as we left. Aionis, Aionis.
---
By the time we reached the truck, it was clear we couldn't risk using it.
"That thing is probably booby-trapped," I said, glancing at the battered vehicle.
Mike sighed. "Wouldn't surprise me."
"We'll teleport into an empty store and figure things out from there," I suggested. "I'm not sticking around for the police to start asking questions."
He nodded, and with Emily's guidance, we teleported into a dimly lit storefront several blocks away. Dust clung to the air, and the faint hum of fluorescent lights buzzed above.
After making sure no one had followed us, we slipped out the back and flagged down a taxi. Neither of us spoke much during the ride. The weight of the night's events pressed heavily on both of us.
When we finally reached a nondescript hotel, I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes for a moment.
Aionis.
The name wasn't mine—not really. It was a mask, a title, something the world could chant. Something they could worship, and then tear apart when it disappointed them.
But for tonight, it was enough to get us out alive.-*-*-*-*-*
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