Chương 177: Chapter 42: A Second Attack
Looking at the fates of the three artifact users in the Brakagi's private compound at once, what Hong Fu sees are three interconnecting branches of possibilities, with each individual branch ranked from the thickest being the most probable to the thinnest being the least probable. And there is a point in which the three converges. It's hard not to focus on that very point in time, and Hong Fu drew his attention towards it.
The timescale of everything is often hard to judge from his artifact usage, as the flow of time isn't remotely linear when viewing into Probable. Instead, the timelines are decorated with various events of significance which are defined subjectively through his subconscious. So instead of one moving forward on the wheel of time, it's rather him and the people around him going towards certain events in space and time.
This very event that connected the futures of the three of them are...set in the ruins of a city. The architectural style of the building is slightly different from what he is used to seeing around the main city, and as the various emergency aid droids and personel rushed to put off the fire in the smoking city, as shuttles filled the airfields carrying in and out the injured...there stood the three of them. Or rather, there are two of them standing next to each other, and one's lying on the ground.
Hong Fu drew himself ever closer to the center of the scene and looked on, as the images of the Rockies flickers in and out of focus, but there is one thing he can identify. The one lying on the ground is the female. It's Vindy.
Beyond that very event, Hong Fu couldn't see her future any further, as if the paths where the three converges are snuffed out from beyond this point. Holding onto his breath, Hong Fu desperately drew his attention away and peered into even further into the future down the major chains, and what he saw was the entire planet in flames.
Drawing his mind even further into the future, and the possibilities based off the visible events branched out into the hundreds of thousands, as he popped in and out of each of the scenarios and let it all play out in front of him like a rapid slide show. The lights flashes, and the sights and sounds come in and out of his focus as his mind is slowly being torn apart from within.
A shot of headache pulled him out of the artifact usage, and he dropped Probable to the side.
All of the images stopped, and all that remained is the sound of Probable rolling and bouncing along the hard surface that Hong Fu is sitting on.
'Hong Fu?' Vindy asked, kicking Probable gently back to him, and he pocketed it right after, 'are you okay?'
Hong Fu turned, his mortified face looked as if he just saw a ghost.
Using Probable like that...must have been a dangerous endeavor. This is the exact mistake made by Zero, and Hong Fu is not about to repeat that very action. Zero, Elmyra and Hong Fu's artifacts each allow them to look into the future in various ways along the spectrum of determinism vs free will, and ironically, those very perspectives also shape the behaviours of those users.
Gripping onto his arms, Hong Fu repeated again and again in his mind that he should not let what he saw in the artifact change who he is, and what he is going to do. Use it as a tool, and not be dominated by it.
However, how can he ignore all those branches of future that started with Vindy's death? How can he lie to her face when she is worried about him?
'I am...fine.' Hong Fu said, scratching his head roughly and trying to distract his mind with physical pain, reminding himself to return to the present. Regardless of what's happening in the far future, he know that whatever happens in the near future is completely within his control. And that's what he is going to do.
Hong Fu is almost certain that the main event that will lead to the three of them in one place would have something to do with Miss D's second attack, and it is highly likely that the he won't be able to get her into the main area before the attack happens. If Miss D's demands aren't fulfilled, then she is likely to create a scene that distracts the majority of the city's forces away somewhere else with a devastating attack and use that opening to head for Brakagi.
Now he is interpreting the future with the flashes of images and the various events that he saw, but this is also a dangerous path to take. He has no precedent in this matter, so right now all he can do is being extra careful and critical with his deductions.
In order to create a new and far more desirable and unlikely future, he will need to stop the attack at all costs. Of course, Miss D have zero reason to listen to his plea, so he will simply have to prove it with his actions.
'Jozzor, can we have a minute?' Hong Fu pondered his choices before calling Jozzor over, 'let's talk business.'
'Another attack will come, regardless of what you saw.' Jozzor shook his head and said, 'but your artifact can give us precious time. We can then prepare accordingly.'
'That's about right.' Hong Fu admitted, 'I will compile a list of items that may be able to be turned into weapons by the terrorist, but the scope of the artifact remained unknown so I am not sure how tightly we need to track down everything.'
'The tight time frame will not be a problem.' Jozzor repeated.
'So basically, you will have to defeat the terrorist alone at short moment's notice.' Hong Fu rounded the plan out, 'that's all the help that I can offer. Can you do it?'
'Of course.' Jozzor answered immediately, 'Not an inch will be given.. In this stage, any advantage we can get over the terrorist would be valuable.'
'Vindy, I want you to be alert as well.' Hong Fu said, looking at the one that symbolizes the start of all of those branches of horrendous futures. Trying to bury those visions away, he forced the right words out at the same time, 'I want you to be safe.'
Vindy simply nodded to that, and Hong Fu sat back down to think through what other things he need to be doing.
Today's training session finished shortly after Jozzor prescribed some physical training tools to the two of them. Brakagi has summoned him for another matter, so he left the compound in the pair's hand just this once and slung shot away.
'Are you okay?' Vindy asked once again, as Hong Fu seemed to have been physically lost in the midst of the training routine, yet his mind isn't there at all, 'What did you see with Probable?'
'Many things.' Hong Fu answered before looking up at Vindy, 'But I will not make the same mistakes. This power gives us the chance to choose a future of our liking, and that's what I am going to do.'
'...I trust you.' Vindy gave him a smile before tossing over a bottle of water, 'now, help me finish the last set.'
Miss D went out of contact for the next few days, and Hong Fu tried to track her down quite a few times, but she seemed to have changed the location of her safe house in the city and moved away. She is preparing the second attack somewhere else, but if that's the case, why would Vindy be involved in it?
ACADEMY CITY!
The city reserved strictly for displaced researchers and academics! That's a relatively newly built area with a different building crew to those that built the main city, and it is the closest city to the main city that the governing area is located in. This is also the place where Vindy goes to work half days for.
Everything made so much sense now, and Hong Fu is shocked how long it took him to realize this. Now the location is known, all that remained is the matter of time. He sends a message off to Jozzor immediately, as he asked for specific preparations to be put in place, but not to alert Miss D when she came to set everything up. With Jozzor on this matter, Hong Fu then checks on Probable every six hours monitoring the distance of the particular event, and reframing his thought process to include smaller events from Probable.
It's not only about the one key event (the attack), but also all of the preparatory events that came before. The closer towards the present those futures are, the clearer and more details can Hong Fu access through Probable, and as he sieves through hundreds of tiny branching timelines presented inside his mind, he finally found the one.
'Jozzor, the terrorist is setting things up at the Academy city train station right now...' Getting onto the balcony and leaving Vindy back in the bedroom, Hong Fu called up Jozzor who immediately picked up.
'Right...' Jozzor sounded a little sleepy and sluggish right away, but the news immediately woke him up, 'now?!'
'Yes. The station has just finished the last run, and she is going to...uh rig some of the cleaning droids.' Hong Fu said.
'On it. Give me all the information.' Jozzor said, activating Slingshot and warping himself directly towards his pre-set mental way point at the train station. Ever since Hong Fu told him to be ready to face off against the terrorist in her preparation process, Jozzor has been walking around down in full combat ready gear, and now is no different.
The station is barren at this hour as the standard day comes to an end at midnight. The station lights are dimly lit, and only shadows remained behind in the entire building.
Cleaning droids...cleaning droids.....Jozzor turned on his access into the building wide scanner and immediately began looking for scans of others. There are a few drunken figures towards the west wing just leaving the station, a handful of workers staying back by the platforms and a slim short figure near some cleaning droids.
The short figure is dressed in a dark cloak, a common outfit for citizens, but not for scholars, and certainly not in Academy city. Noting down the location as shown by the camera view that Jozzor's looking through, he warped himself directly to that location. It is the second level of the station where a variety of shops and food stalls are located, though all that remained are automatic food printers at this time of the day.
Hiding behind cover against a wall, Jozzor looked on at the cloaked figure who baited the cleaning droid over with litter of a bubble gum wrap before placing a hand on it as if petting the cute robotic creature. A small light glowed from her fingers, and then she lets it go as the droid continued on it's merry way.
'Do you see what I see?' Jozzor asked, maintaining his communications with Hong Fu.
'Yes. She is the one.'
'She?' Jozzor said, a little confused, as he warped himself ten meters behind her quietly. She dropped another piece of litter, and another cleaning droid started running towards her.
'Don't litter.'
'Oh?' The figure tilted her head backwards and looked towards Jozzor as the hood of the cloak fell off in the action. Their eyes met, and her malice is matched with Jozzor's calmness. They both felt a sense of danger from one another, one that stemmed from each of their deep rooted connections with the artifacts within their body. It has been shown time and time again that artifact users are destined to be drawn towards one another, and this is another of that scenario.
'Who are you?' Jozzor asked.
'Who are you to ask?' She replied before turning around to face Jozzor fully. She is a slim human with a short frame, and her white hair is tied together in a twin tail with red ribbons. Her dark eyes showed little sign of life, and her skin glows lightly despite the darkened surroundings at this time of the day.
'I am part of the security forces, and I have some questions for you.' Showing the ID through his personal interface, Jozzor approached her slowly, fully expecting a counter attack to arise at any moment. He already has Sling shot pre-activated underneath his jacket, and he is ready to be warped out of harms way at any moment.
'Fine.' She said, tapping a finger towards her own personal interface. Jozzor watched her movements closely, and her fingers lit up with the distinct warm glow of artifact activation for just a split second before the flashlight of the camera on her personal interface was turned on. The light was instantaneous blinding, as if Jozzor is staring into the surface of the sun from mere kilometers away. His eyes were immediately burned as he instinctively turned his head away and blocked out his eyes.
Everything is now white all around, and he seemed to have lost all sense of visual. Before he even had anytime to process what has just happened, Jozzor warped himself away from the second floor and back towards the wall that he was taking cover in as he rubbed his eyes, hopping the enhancements in his body is going to heal his eyes up as quickly as possible.
'Jozzor!' Hong Fu shouted, 'Are you okay?'
'I am blinded.' Jozzor said, blinking constantly and trying his hardest to return his eyes to normal, but all that he could see are rough outlines and shapes of things despite the fact that his nanotechnology implants have already begun the healing process.
'I will be your eyes while you retreat.' Hong Fu suggested.
'No.' Jozzor shook his head, 'I will take her down right here, and right now.'
'But...'
'No if, no but.' Jozzor said adamantly, 'what do you see from her artifact? How does it work?'
'It looked like all she did was touching her personal interface, and yet the light the camera gives out is so much brighter than what it normally is...' Thinking back to what has just happened, Hong Fu continuned to monitor the ever-changing paths of probabilities when he came across the future that Jozzor's was caught in a sort of an explosion. However, he couldn't tell from the image where the source of the explosion was!
'Be careful! There might be explosives near you!' Brakagi said quickly, 'drop down to the ground!'
Jozzor did as instructed without hesitation as his vision has finally returned mostly. He turned his head to look towards his side in the direction of where she's at, and saw a few of the bubbles flying towards him.
Then, those bubbles was brought to the ground by a chilling downward draft as they touched the floor and blew up right in front of Jozzor's face! He immediately warped himself backwards meters away as he shielded his face and torso, but the blast still tore off pieces of his arms cleanly as the sleeves of the jacket are blasted apart and the strands of fabric busted out everywhere. Now, he is the one littering.
He grunted painfully and stood back up, ignoring Hong Fu's worried questions and focused directly on his enemies.
Just what is the power of that artifact? Jozzor wondered as he sets up yet another warp, but this time he intended to return to the fight and take the initiative. Initially he thought that maybe it is something akin to Brakagi's artifact, where anything she touches can be turned into a bomb, but if that's the case, what is going on the 'flash grenade' that she just did to initiate the fight?
And if that's not the case, how the hell did she turn a bubble into a bomb?
Jozzor kept those questions in his mind as he felt for the destination of his warp. When activating Sling shot, he will obtain flashes of vision of wherever his destination is, seeing into it's surroundings briefly before fully teleporting over. Based off that information, he can also adjust the precise location on the fly. Zoning his attention towards the openings of the food course, Jozzor teleported himself right behind the girl who's facing his current location.
As the image of him materializes behind her, he was already in the motion of a kicking motion as the impact sent the girl flying into rows of seats. Jozzor paid little attention to how much force he had in the kick, as all he wanted was to take out the terrorist. Her body slammed into the rows of seats and snapped the first few apart, showing not only the power from Jozzor's attack, but her superhuman physical durability. There is no doubt that she is enhanced now, just like he is.
'So you are also an user.' She said, pushing herself up from the ground, 'or a ninja.'
'I am a user.' Jozzor declared, 'and you should have never come here to fight.'
'Oh?' She raised her eyebrows and pointed a finger at him, 'You think you can beat me?'
'It's not a matter of opinion.' Jozzor responded, as Hong Fu finally cuts in once again into their mutual communications channel.
'I think I have figured it out.' Hong Fu said quickly, 'maybe her artifact has some sort of strengthening based power, where she can emphasis and enhance whatevere effects is going to happen naturally? Like.....like an amplifier!'
'That's going to be troublesome.' Jozzor said underneath his breath, and Hong Fu agreed.
'She is likely to be able to turn everything into a weapon.' Hong Fu admitted, 'however, I am not sure if she can also control when those events will happen. If all she can do is to make whatever happens have a much greater impact, then...'
Then those events will still have to follow their basic rules. Jozzor completed the lines of deduction in his head, and he nodded in agreement. Now that the time for thinking is over, it's time to fight.
He looked at the terrorist in front of him, and she pulled out a pistol and pointed towards Jozzor, then, she pulled the trigger as Jozzor warped himself away.
An explosion went off that rocked the entirety of Academy city as half of the train station was blown away and devastated by a single shot of the energy pistol.
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