Shadow Nova

by Zoram Selrof

Sequel to Jet Black Phoenix. The Akihara City students finally begin a decisive stage of their lives: high school. However, shadowy forces that have been growing behind the scenes during years will make their apparition. These are a new kind of enemy, nothing like before... They are everywhere and you never know when they're going to strike and how... Rated M for lemon.

15. Chapter 15: Unleashed thunderclap

Chapter 15: Unleashed thunderclap

05:58 AM (Bangkok Time), Sunday October the 23rd…

"… This is Central. How's it over there, Hall?"

"This is Hall. The fox ate its tail. Over."

"Acknowledged."

"Shit. This job's so stupid. Who'd try to rob a bank that was designed to be robbery-proof? Not even dynamite could blow up the armored room's door. The employees don't know the codes. Only the General Director who's never in the building."

"Muttering alone again, Hall?"

"That you, Rear? Who wouldn't?"

"At least pay's good. And you only need talk back to the radio."

"I know. I'm glad of it! With the crisis and all…"

"This is Bangkok Radio: 6 AM news."

"6 AM? Good. Another hour and my shift will end. I can't wait to get back to my place and have a proper rest."

"Hmpf! Witness! Today the Unleashed Thunderclap will raze all to the ground."

"Wha?"

KABOOM!

"What the…?"

A security guard stationed in a desk set in a bank's hall was talking with the security central and another colleague elsewhere through the radio.

A voice rang out, followed by a humming sound before a ping rang out followed by an explosion on the front door.

The "Infinitus" robot ran in and it now had a rail-gun built in the face.

The shoulders had a couple of red spheroids built there as well and a reddish transparent bubble surrounded the body.

"Shadow Nova!"

"What!"

"So! Come out! XY! I'm waiting for you! In the meanwhile… I'm going to turn this place into ruin!"

"Someone ring up the Army!" The guard ran off.

"That for real? Holy shit!" The other guard gasped over the radio.

"Run, run! Destroy! Missiles!"

"Infinitus" shot missiles, which landed on random spots around the area, causing damage and destruction.

It dashed and jumped over the reception desk to then open a hatch on the rear and shoot some grenades into the air, which landed in front of it and destroyed the glass wall dividing the area.

The robot ran into the office room and began to shoot and destroy at wild before it tore apart a door that was the entrance to the basement.

"Halt."

"So! You came! XY! To be CRUSHED!"

"Depends."

"What was that?"

XY appeared behind "Infinitus" while crossing his arms, unimpressed, as the robot jumped and turned around while Spiral chuckled aloud.

"All weapons: lock on! DIE~!"

"I would rather… object."

He used an Area Steal and appeared behind it as all of the weapons hit the spot he'd been at a moment ago before he calmly examined the shields and extended his hands forward.

His hands emitted some golden energy pulsations and they began to show up on different spots of the shields' surface.

The whole of it began to frizzle and turn unstable as the robot whipped around again.

"Impossible! This shield is EM proof! I tested it myself!" Spiral grumbled.

"This is not an EM pulsation. It is something far more… subtle."

"What the fuck?"

"A savage like you who only thinks of stealing lives would never understand what it is." He dully taunted.

"SAVAGE? ME? I'm a RUSSIAN!"

"And what if? A savage is a savage."

"Damn you~! This time Area Steal won't save you! Tracker missiles! Fire at will!"

"Mere childish toys."

"What!"

"Your shield maybe immune to EM but these toys are not!"

"Shit!"

XY emitted M pulses that overloaded the missiles and made them detonate.

Spiral grumbled and loaded up the rail gun, but XY merely looked on, uninterested, as the blast of electricity jumped at him.

He emitted the golden pulsations and the streaks became thinner as they spread all over the place, with some hitting him, but he was unfazed.

"Fuck and fuck!"

"If you thought I was easy prey then you made a great mistake. Besides… Slur would have ended this fight quite a while ago. I am merely observing what you can actually do."

"You mean that that woman's stronger than you?"

"Very strong. I am not a natural fighter. What I did is but use the head and apply some science. If that is all you can do… Would you do us a favor and leave? I have far more productive matters to take care of and I do not have time to waste on a savage." He dully replied.

"D-devil! Lord Void! This is BAD!" He grumbled aloud.

"Maybe that man will soon realize he choose the worst possible opponents ever and he should have remained quiet and not trying to disrupt our everyday routines."

"I'm not done yet! I can still tear you apart!"

Spiral turned on the chainsaw and dashed for XY but he hovered upwards and let the robot fall down the stairs into the basement while he looked down from atop the flight of stairs.

The robot had ended up with the legs on the air and was struggling to try to get back to a working position, so Spiral shot the boosters and, using the little instant in which it was airborne, he managed to spin it and make it land normally.

He howled and shot the spinning saws but XY merely made electricity from the walls' lights jump at the saws to intercept them and have them fall into the ground.

More electricity began to jump off and hit the robot's weapons thus overloading them and destroying them one by one until none remained operational.

"So?"

"Not yet! I can still use its mass to turn you into LIQUID!" Spiral tried to sound confident.

"Savages will be savages indeed."

"I AIN'T A SAVAGE, BY THE MOTHERLAND!"

"You are. You will always be. History will judge. Not some fools."

"Shut that damned trap!"

"And what if I do not? You deluded savage."

"Deluded? I knew from the start I was to be a distraction and means to stalling! That's not being deluded! Take that!"

"I did not mean that. I meant that you obsess yourself over your petty machine and did not try to think what possible weaknesses it could have in the first place. You surely were thinking it was invincible. It is not and will never be. Because you are not perfect. Nothing is perfect. All is bound to mistake. Especially when arrogance is in play." XY calmly countered.

"I didn't come here to be LECTURED!"

"I did not come here to waste my precious time, either. I did warn you to leave, but you did not pay heed." XY replied.

"SHUT UP! DIE!"

"Fool."

XY stepped to the left as the robot ran up the stairs and rushed past the offices, broke the counter and exited into the street.

The hit with the counter made it lose footing and it fell head-firsts down the small flight of stairs of the entrance-

It managed to get back to its feet and looked around as XY landed atop its head and touched the armor with the hands, causing the robot to frizzle and work erratically before it totally stopped.

"Impossible! The whole inner circuits are fried!"

"I merely increased the output of the core." XY dully announced.

"Fuck! Oh shit!"

There were some flashes as Spiral realized that a cordon had formed and a crowd had gathered behind it.

Several of them began to take photos with the phones and some reporters did with their cameras as TV cameras were filming the scene as well.

"Fucking shit! Last thing I needed!"

"Hmpf." XY was unimpressed.

He merely dropped to the ground behind the robot and became invisible.

"SEED!" He roared.

"I heard you. I'm getting you out of there."

Seed replied through the radio, heard from the outside because the voice echoed.

There was a blinding flash and the next second the robot was gone.

XY (still invisible) glanced there from a nearby alley.

"I hope that humiliation is enough to keep you grounded." He muttered.

Good job, XY. Helios told him.

Yes, My Master. I am retreating.

Good. You might rest.

As you wish.

XY walked away yet the mysterious white figure had seen it all from a building's rooftop.

"… sure wasn't a film!"

"It was! My film soul tells me so!"

"Where's the staff, the cameras…?"

"They use hidden cameras!"

A reporter began to broadcast from the scene while conversations began to form within the crowd.

"The Army's newest super-weapon!"

"My nation for that robot!"

"You've drunk too much beer, man! Go wash your face! Sheesh!"

09: 18 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Good morning, dad."

"Good morning, Raito. Did you sleep well?"

"I did. What happened?"

"That? Apparently some crazy guy with some robot went wild in Bangkok a while ago."

"The world's turning odd."

"You needn't tell me. Anyway. Going to have breakfast?"

"There is the bread. Thank you very much."

"You needn't. I just went for my usual jogging."

Raito came down from his room at his house into the living room where he found his father drinking a cup of coffee and distractedly watching at the TV, so Raito headed for the kitchen and prepared a sandwich as breakfast while humming a tune.

"How was it like? Yesterday."

"I had fun. Leon – senpai chose an interesting movie." He explained.

"That's nice to hear."

"Dad?"

"What?"

"… I'm sorry." He suddenly sighed.

"Raito. You needn't apologize. The past is the past. Focus on the present. Didn't they teach you that?"

"I know they did but… It's still too recent…"

"Nobody said you could forget in just one month. It'll take time. But I'm sure you'll be capable of overcoming that."

"… Thank you."

"It's nothing. Just have the breakfast: you must be hungry, that's it."

"I think so…"

Raito brought the sandwich to the table while his father switched channels to watch a tennis match.

"Let's see! Making progress, but any mistake can cost him the tournament at this stage." He muttered.

"Quarter – finals, is it?"

"It is. And the opponent won't make it easy either."

"Obviously… By the way, dad… Is work… fine?"

"Work? My job, you mean. They already saw that I've got experience and the colleagues are friendly."

"I'm sorry."

"Not again… You're not to blame, Raito. Stop thinking like that. You're the victim: the victim is the victim."

"Victim? I thought I was the culprit." He muttered with some guilt on his voice.

"Culprit? You? Of what? Of being unable to tell me? Who could, in those circumstances? Raito. Regretting the past doesn't get you anywhere! It's not like you can go and change it, right?" His father tried to calm him down.

"… I know, but…!"

"Raito. You're an honest child, which I appreciate, but you needn't be so hard on yourself. Ease it up." His father insisted.

"I'm sorry…"

"Raito… Do you want to disappoint your senpai?"

"No, of course not."

"Then look up and cast away that mood." His father told him.

"How stupid of me! I was about to disappoint Leon – senpai and those gentlemen…"

"You needn't call them "gentlemen", they're your cousins."

"B-but… They are older than me and so…"

"I won't force you on that aspect."

"Thank you…"

"Finish up the breakfast and have a shower! It'll do you good. And then we'll go visit them."

Raito silently finished his breakfast and placed the used dish and cup in the washing machine-

He headed back upstairs into his room and stored the futon on the storage space.

He opened his clothes' cupboard and picked the day's clothes as he looked out from the balcony at the sunny day.

It's still pretty sunny! November will soon come! I don't want to catch a cold so I better pull a wool sweater on! What's that?

He ran towards the balcony and looked out at the nearby area but saw nothing.

How odd. I thought I saw something atop a roof! My imagination! There's no way there'd be someone standing atop a roof in the first place… Get a hold of yourself, Raito…

He entered the bathroom, showered andthen combed his hair, followed by washing his teeth before dressing up and coming downstairs, where his father was now going over the newspapers.

"Done with the shower? Good. Let's go."

"OK."

His father folded the newspapers and left them atop the table as he switched the TV to radio mode.

They headed into the entrance and put on the shoes before locking the house and walking down the street towards the Hikari house.

"Good day. It's getting a bit colder, though. No wonder."

"Autumn is upon us."

"Raito! Uncle! Morning!"

"Good morning!"

"Good morning!"

"Hello."

Netto and Saito greeted them from the balcony and they replied.

"Good morning." Yuuichirou walked up to the greet them.

"You needn't bother, Yuuichirou – san." Raito's father thanked as he shook hands.

"Come in."

"Thank you."

They came in and took off the shoes to put on slippers.

Raito headed for the first floor while Yuuichirou and his dad sat down on the sofa and began to chat.

"Where is Haruka – san?" Raito asked.

"Went to buy some groceries."

Raito headed up and knocked into the door, so Saito opened.

"We were going to have a Great Melee Smash Brothers X game: how about you join us?"

"D-delighted. I tried it at a friend's some time ago… Please be easy on me, gentlemen…" He timidly requested.

"Don't worry! You're gonna team up with either me or Saito – niisan against the other and the computer."

"Exactly! We're going to do very basic stuff and we'll then move onto the real deal!"

"T-thank you very much."

"Here's your cushion."

"T-thank you."

"So! Choose your character."

"L-let's see… Someone easy… Luigi. I will use Luigi."

"Good. Then… I'll go for Mario!"

"And I'll use Link. Let's tell the computer to choose! It choose Wario. Stage! The basic stadium stage… Let's rock!" Saito decided with a grin.

"Ready? Go!" The game encouraged.

"Alright, Raito. We gave you a GC controller because I thought it would be easier for a first time. Move with the joystick, basic attack is the "A" button and special is "B"… Just try out the "A" button for now." Netto explained.

"Understood… Attack… Left… Right… Up… Down… I can jump with X and use the shield with L or R… The special attacks are different depending on the direction that I move the joystick… The yellow C stick also can be used as well…" Raito began to test out the game.

"Take your time. I'm grinding with the computer in the meanwhile to freshen up my level. Go ride up the hills." Saito joked.

"A-alright. I think I can go for it."

"Then face this guy."

"A-alright. H-here! Jump punch! I-it worked!" He gasped.

"Careful! The guy's going to attack!"

"S-shield!"

"Good reflexes!" Netto praised.

"B right! Cape!"

"Good! Rush in and hit the "A" button!" Saito instructed.

"H-he got kicked out the stage! I did it!"

"Good! Keep on trying a bit more." Netto encouraged.

"I'll do my best! What nerves! It's… fun! It's been some time since I had fun with a game… Let's go for more…!"

"Let's go for ROME!" Netto laughed at his joke.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh come on. Netto – kun. You've never been to Rome, anyway. So stop saying weird stuff. Will you?"

"Don't worry, Saito – niisan. If Rome won't go to Tokyo then Tokyo will go Rome."

"It's a parody of "if Ishikawa won't go to the mountain then the mountain will go to Ishikawa."…" Saito sighed.

"Did ya say somethin'? My ears are burnin'!"

"Sure, sure. You're going to lose."

"Ah no! Here I go! Full Smash 'Em All Mode!"

"Too long."

They have an odd… relationship… from time to time. Raito thought.

"A-alright. I will do my best too… But please don't be too hard on me!"

"Of course! We'll go easy, Raito!"

"EASY! Extremely Aerial Shopping Year!"

"I fail to see the point. If there's any!" Saito rolled his eyes.

"There's one sure thing! I'm gonna win all the rounds!"

"That's yet to be seen!"

11:35 AM (Japan Time)…

"… So… That staircase guy was the culprit? Wan-derful – chan."

"T-that joke's lame, Ikada – san!"

"Who knows?"

"Y-you do!"

"My, my. You're blushing."

"That's… Spiral was the culpit, yes!"

"Of course. So? What's the latest trend?"

"Trend?"

"Between the VP and blonde – sama~…"

"Like I'd know!"

"Teasing ya."

"Great."

Zarashe was talking with Ikada as he was sitting on a chair inside of her room.

He only had his black boxers and socks on and his hands were cuffed behind the chair, and he also had a black wool blindfold on.

Ikada wore her usual clothes, and stood a couple meters in front of Zarashe.

"By the way… I suspect there's something."

"What?"

"There's a something that's something but I haven't decided what that's about yet." She seemed to be quoting someone with obvious amusement.

"Not Alfred again…" He groaned.

"Yes, my cutie."

"What next?" He sighed.

"The Rock Building flips around."

"Rock Building…? That dungeon in Mujura's Mask that's sparked so many debates in fan-forums…" He recalled.

"Saria – chan dances flamenco."

"Oh come on."

"And Darunia – oniisama makes the ground rumble!"

"Don't all Gorons do that, anyway?"

"Guess that, Wan-der."

"Oh please." He blushed.

"Maybe you need a teaser?"

"More of them?"

"Yessir. For example… This."

She walked up to him and pressed her right hand's index finger on the origin of his nose to slide it down the nose.

"How was it like?"

"Very subtle." He ironically replied.

"My, my."

"Is that all?"

"Of course not. I'm just heating the mood up. Before the autumn freezes it over." She giggled.

"Lovely."

"Ain't it, Number One?"

"Sheesh. That joke's old and overused." He complained.

"Maybe you need something else… like this." She giggled again.

She pinched his right nipple with the thumb and index fingers, so Zarashe let out a small groan.

She pinched his left nipple next as she gripped his jaw with the left hand.

"Oh boy." Zarashe sighed.

"Bad boys will be bad boys. Don't you think so?"

"You've said it how many times already?"

"Dunno. Maybe 66.6 times."

"Not Alfred again… The guy's obsession is like an illness…"

"We should send that Spiral guy to climb a 666 steps spiral staircase and see how macho he really is." She laughed.

"Sure, sure."

"Hop!"

"Wha!"

She slid her right hand inside of his boxers and gripped his cock, which she rubbed.

She let go of it and took off her right shoe to land her foot atop it.

Zarashe blushed a lot and she began to rub it along the length of his cock.

Zarashe groaned and Ikada merely crossed her arms while smirking and simply doing that.

She stopped and Zarashe let out a groan of disappointment, so Ikada gripped his balls with the foot next.

Zarashe groaned again and she hummed a tune.

"Witness my magical foot, Wan-derland – chan." She made up a lame title for that.

"P-please…! It's s-shameful…! Oh…! Too good…! Too good…!" He tried to protest but his groans of pleasure interrupted him.

"You sure are some masochist, Wan-dering."

"W-wan… dering…? Oh…! So good…!"

"Fine. Let's try something new."

She stopped that as well and walked to behind Zarashe.

Zarashe tried to look over his right shoulder as if trying to figure out what she wanted to do but she merely folded her arms and remained a meter away.

"Denial play!" She announced.

"Oh please! You can't be serious! Pretty please!" He begged.

"The cool B-rank hunter is begging! Interesting."

"B-rank hunter? There aren't ranks! And we're not hunters!"

"It's a saying, Wa-ni."

"I'm not a crocodile." He sighed.

"Don't worry. I've got something as a consolation gift: maybe it'll make you see the stars?"

"What?"

She pulled down his boxers and stuffed a black silicon vibrator inside at max speed.

Zarashe moaned and began to agitate as she pulled up the boxers again and returned to the front to rub his cock with the foot.

"N-no more… Can't hold it back…!"

"Then… Serve yourself!"

She pulled down his boxers' front just as he went off and he stained his body.

He moaned out of pleasure and hung his head down while Ikada retrieved the vibrator.

"Be glad I was in the mood, cutie. Else I could've been teasing you for hours on end." She told him.

"Hey, Bertha – chan… Cha done?" Sandra asked over the PET.

"Almost. Another 5 minutes."

"I hope you didn't overdo it."

"Of course not! He just missed the thrill. And the hill."

"How original. Coming from cha." Sandra drily replied, unimpressed.

"Someone's going to live under the hill?"

"Wha? Dunno what cha mean. If it's another joke then I'm not in the mood for them. At all."

"My, my. Beta was too Gray – style?"

"Not funny. Beta and I don't do stuff. We're mature enough to behave. You sound like you make fun of that novel's gal and I don't like that."

"When you put it like that…"

"See? So will cha quit those jokes?"

"I don't want an association of women to come complain at me for making fun of them so I'll keep it there."

"Fine. Call me when cha done."

"Sure. Beware of the Goth."

"I'm not that stupid to start a brawl and get scolded by Slur – sama! Quit it with the pointless jokes. See ya later. And ya better behave for once!"

Ikada walked over to Zarashe, who was starting to recover and unlocked the handcuffs while taking out the blindfold.

Zarashe stretched and Ikada handed him a handkerchief, so he cleansed the stains and then noticed the vibrator.

"What. Do you want it for the shower?"

"No, I thought it was bigger than the usual one and…"

"Just keep it. I don't mind. I bought it for you, anyway."

"T-thank you." He blushed.

"Get dressed and you can leave."

"A-alright."

He grabbed his clothes and headed into the bathroom.

He locked the door from the inside and Ikada hummed a tune as she distractedly glanced at her nails.

"They're better without nail polish, anyway. I'm not a show-off to begin with." She muttered.

"L-later."

Zarashe came out and headed for the room door.

"See ya… Wan-de-ri-ng." She slowly spelled it out in purpose.

"Oh boy…" Zarashe seemed to roll his eyes under the sunglasses.

"Next time I'll bring something far sneakier."

"What mess have I gotten myself into…?"

"My, my. You started it time go, didn't you? One evening you looked bored and all and I invited you over to my room! You suddenly said "tie me and tease me"… And I did so!" She reminded him.

"I do remember."

"I've always wondered what gave you the idea, though."

"Not sure. Maybe I felt like I lacked something. I thought that usual sex wouldn't do it. Maybe someone who could teach me how to hold my urges back." He muttered as he seemingly recalled.

"Oho. I see. How interesting, Wan-de-ri-ng." She spelled it like that again.

"Please…! Spare me…!" He groaned.

13:24 PM (Bangkok Time)…

"… Sorry for dropping by again but I felt curious."

"I mind not. It is good to have someone to talk to apart from Master Helios! Today I have been authorized to "take a break" so…"

"OK. So… About your trips around the world… You said that you always avoided battles and watched conflicts from the side-lines. Did you ever get to intervene in politics or so?"

"We always avoided them and any rulers. We just wanted to interact with the people. To witness their evolution over time. To see what they thought."

Burai had come to chat with XY again and they were sitting in the same places as the previous day.

"By the way… Why did you choose Earth? You surely found countless other planets before that, no?"

"Of course we did. However, Earth was the only that had developed an intelligent species. And by some curious coincidence, some genes are very similar to my Masters' ones."

"How odd."

"I know. We have been unable to find the reason, though. We have studied countless samples of genomes and compared them to samples in the databases but we did not get anywhere." XY admitted.

"You're not going to tell me there was some alien civilization that found it clever to seed two planets over different spans of time… Or that they seeded your planet first and then they recycled their genetic material to use here…" Burai muttered as he realized what that could mean.

"Who knows? Not even we know the answer." XY sighed.

"Maybe they're like the "Firstborn" in Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey novels… A species that sought to seed the galaxy with intelligent species and which created those "Monoliths"…"

"I read them some time ago. I found the idea to be interesting."

"Really?"

"Because someone else shared the same conclusions Master Helios and I had come to…" He explained.

"I see. By the way! What's your conclusion on that piece of junk? Worthless, I take it?"

"Totally."

"Thought as much… You might polish it up but junk is junk in the end and has no worth." Burai wasn't too surprised.

"I am sure that you would have found a way around that childish shield as well."

"Of course. With my "Burai Knuckles", which can warp! By warping them inside of the shield, I could hit the generators. Piece of a cake! Then I could use this hand's solidity shifting property to grip the circuitry inside the armor and destroy it." He looked at his ghostly hand and snickered.

"That is an interesting use of particle science! Generate vibrations that keep the particles away from each other and when needed join them again to regain solidity." XY observed.

"Guess the notes and materiel your fellows handed to my ancestors came in handy. Did you invent stuff like this?"

"I am not sure. I would have to look at the archives. Maybe some department or some researcher did so. There were so many types of researches going on so…" XY admitted with a shrug.

"Speaking of archives… I guess Helios' one is bigger, right?" Burai guessed.

"Even if he became a Net Navi, his brain would not be able to store information past a hundred years! You will argue that there humans who have more than 100 years, but most of them have decadent brains and lack memories! He has to download almost everything on his brain every century approximately."

"Nevertheless, it's pretty amazing!"

"He has about 50 folders of memories on the databanks while I have about 19 of them. No wonder since Master Helios is about 5,100 years old. Despite my appearance, I am about 100 years older than he is. I served his father and then him on one of our 3 colonies."

"Did you have "hyper-space"?"

"For small to medium ships, we did. For heavy ships we were having trouble and research was ongoing but it all came to halt when the Duo Incident. I think our successors will still take some time to achieve that again."

"Successors? So your species weren't wiped out?"

"Slur did not tell you?"

"What, Slur knew and she didn't tell me? Sheesh."

"I thought that, since Kuroban knew…"

"So Kuroban knows and I don't. Not fair, Slur." He grumbled.

"Not too long ago, we detected some odd transmissions beamed at our server from the Kyutora space-city! They seemed to be a modern version of the common idiom used in our times. We found an exploration party of an elder and two youths. The elder had studied our language and thus he could speak directly to us. He told us what happened after our exile."

"What happened?"

"Turns out that in the rush to launch Duo and repress the colonies, the home-world fools forgot to input the colonies' location coordinates and so Duo did not know in which direction to go. Chose one at random."

"At random!"

"And fortune had it that it was the very opposite direction of the colonies so Duo never reached them. A massive use of "vacuum energy" and time-space physics… Allowed them to restore the home-world to the state it was on that instant Duo shot its weapon at it."

"Impressive!" Burai was awed.

"Yet…"

"… The fools didn't get the lesson?" Burai growled.

"Indeed."

"Oh by all the…"

"They were outcast from power and sentenced to exile in a barren planet! Their Navis were de-allocated and reallocated."

"But that didn't end the trouble."

"No. You may take down an evil but, with time, a new one will arise. Like how it is happening now."

"So you mean a new band of fools rose to power."

"Exactly. They wanted to expand that destructive power with new, more lethal weapons. To subjugate other planets and extract their resources. And if there was a civilization to impose ridiculously high taxes to benefit the Commerce Guild."

"That sounds like the Trade Federation from Star Wars in some aspects."

"The citizens began to realize that their level of civilization, their power, was too high. All of the efforts to build a society free of emotion, of sin and temptation were crumbling apart barely 3 centuries after it began. So they decided that it hand to end. They rose across the home-world against the despots in charge! They destroyed the research labs and the weapons! They decided to abandon that civilization because it was already gone, because it had already died along with the planet…"

"And then?"

"They left messages, materiel and relics. Things needed to one day rebuild the level of technology. The cities were abandoned, the genetic control ended and a "primal reversion" began… Culture and science were steadily forgotten or, in some cases, massive brainwashing to erase that began: and so the reversion progressed…"

"What resolution!"

"Once they became "primal" then the progress began from zero… Slowly… Over all these millennia… Recently, some of the "time capsules" and "time vaults" began to unlock, given how these successors began to re-achieve science and such. Space-travel has become capable again but with a lot of limitations yet it is better than what Earth has now."

"I see. That exploration party found the Kyutora space-city and attempted to find out what had become of you, the exiles."

"They went back after our conversation. I suppose the news will bring sadness but they will overcome it. We did warn NOT to come to Earth yet because there could be a civilization clash."

"Let's hope the new leaders are wiser than the old ones."

"So it would seem. Now it is scientists who lead the home-world and not ambitious fools. They only desire to know. That is all. To know the answers to all around them. Like any scientist."

"That sounds like a promising start."

"It is. As long as it holds up…"

"Do they retain emotions?"

"Of course. They realized that trying to erase them is what later led to those fools turning so greedy, arrogant and lazy. So what they do is always bear in mind what those emotions led to and vow to not to commit the same mistakes that were committed in the past."

"Hum. Good thinking."

"Indeed."

"Master?"

"Calm down, XY. It is just that I felt like having some air. The simulation is almost complete so it matters not."

"I see."

"However… I am still convinced that they have something far better than that machine." Helios muttered.

"Sure thing. It was obvious from the start. They're doing a damned good job of hiding the what. Guess only that rascal knows it to begin with and doesn't tell anyone else." Burai grumbled.

"I do not think that controlling electrical forces is it either. I thought that the words "unleashed thunderclap" were a hint of something but maybe it is just a vain name for that vain rail gun. It did produce a thunderclap of some sort, after all. Yet it was childish. Like all of it. I am sure that even our successors could easily deal with something so childish."

"I'd stake anything on it. The guy must've felt inspired. He's been copying Gundam, Metal Gear and maybe a PC game named Battle Mech. Or Terminator, even. Talk about a lame copycat. Can't come up with anything original."

"Focusing too much on those two fools could lead to disaster if there are other forces hidden and waiting for the time to start moving. Do not forget that, child." Helios warned.

"Good point, Helios. Guess Golden Star will have to dig deeper and wider to try to figure out if there are sleepers stationed somewhere. There gotta be, anyway."

"Indeed…"

"Guess I'll go bust some proxies to send them a message."

"But of course. They may gather data, but they cannot recreate it."

"Obviously. Because you can't copy the experience or the heart."

"Truly. That will be their downfall, indeed!"

"Well said, Burai. Go for it."

They make my warrior blood boil… I can't stand cowards who won't face me on person and hide behind walls and proxies. You're just weaklings who would better off working at some office… Rot away into nothingness!