[CENSUS B]
A bird perches outside her window. Its wings flapped in a blur of movement as it picked and prodded the trinket it had on its legs. Its head continued to look around as it kept glancing back and forth at the outside world and periodically, the inside of her room.
Her blank, emotionless eyes continued to stare at it from where she was.
Their gaze unwavering. The intent, lost completely as the dullness was slightly alleviated by the bird's presence. Its freedom in the world outside was quite apparent to her as she stared at it through the bars that her window possessed. Like a canary inside a gilded cage, the light and peacefully warm, vibrantly blue sky seemed to tease her for her current predicament.
Not that she had anything to do with her predicament.
Still, even through the blank stare courtesy of her eyes, if it wasn't the bird, she was transfixed by the tranquil sky enough that her wayward mindscape had focused on it somewhat.
Eventually, that bird would leave, leaving her alone again, figuratively in her prison. Almost like every person in her life that she vaguely remembered visiting. Their smiles, their care, their worry, their fear, and their overall kindness towards her barely registered within her mind as they were all the same, in a sense. They came and went…
Just like most of her memories… they came and went like ships at sea. Some of them were bright enough that she could remember their smiles, some of them being worried enough in their tears and sadness that she could feel their love, and some of them, just being there with an equal blank stare as she had most at the time.
The dullness of it all was just, perpetual. Whether it was because of the drugs in her food, the ones in her water, or even the ones they openly made her take, nobody was sure.
For like a broken down TV that had little to no connection, her mind was similar to static.
Constantly empty, constantly filled by noise just to fill the void, and constantly plagued by random bouts of memories that similarly come and go like the people that knew her best. Swathes of their hair color, their voices, and the semblances of their faces vanished and appeared before her memories. Sometimes she saw her face in them, sometimes…
"…mom?" a young voice of a little boy said.
"He's a failure damn it!" an angry, furious, and loud voice shouted.
"I keep talking about you to the kids yesterday? They get to bring their parents along in a presentation and I couldn't help but… well, I couldn't help but remember when you were there, mom." A young woman's voice said softly as she felt them hold her hand.
"I'll get you out here someday… even if it's the last thing I do." A young man's voice said as tears trickled down his face.
"I made… friends mothe-mom. You'd love to see them, no… I want you to see them. They'd like you, I think. At least they'd like you better than me, if that makes sense? Heh. I owe a lot to them for making me see my way." The youngest voice as she remembers smiling, flowers, and a proud boy despite not having won a competition.
Then it became nightmares again.
Screaming.
Blue fire.
A crying little boy with a burn on their face.
The furious, stoic disappointment in the eyes of another…
It all blended together in flames. It burned altogether in flames.
For it was like a pendulum. The sways of the pendant were random each day, and while there were signs of improvement, of a cognizant, healthy mind out of the burning pit, there were also days where cognizance was absent. Days where screaming was abundant. Days where the only thing she saw was an empty space in a room that beguiled even her visitors.
Such was her daily routine. A never-ending haze of good days and bad days, all looped together by the vague hope of getting better. Of being released from the confines of her own mental space. Of being released from the gilded cage that she was placed in.
Yet, part of her dull, almost blank mindscape was the acceptance that the possibility of that happening was, dim, at the moment. Bordering on near impossible. Even with the renewed hope given the more time the familiar faces started visiting her, there was still lingering fear of her having a bad day. There was still the concern of her seeing red.
Turning her head slightly to the table next to her bed, she sees another flower vase.
The flower and the blue color of its petals swayed slightly to the breeze of her air conditioning. Part of her mind remembers its name, or at least its moniker. Its blue color symbolizing love, hope, and enduring bonds that most families would have, making it unforgettable.
Yet at the same time, that was her only anchor at the moment. For how much those familiar faces visited her, they rarely if ever, stayed for long. Not that she blamed them. Not that she could feel angry or spiteful about the fact that she was placed here because she didn't deserve it.
Because she did.
And those flowers and the name people knew them by, Forget-me-Not, also reminded her of it. It reminded her of everything, both the good… and the bad. For as much as a symbol and reminder of hope it was, it was also a mortally sobering reflection as to why she was here in the first place.
Ironic that the most persistent one who did send these flowers, was the same familiar face that got her here in this cage.
A heavy sigh overtook her, just as her silence was broken by the sound of her room's door opening with some degree of haste. Instantly, the sounds of busied nurses, patients, and doctors came flooding into her room. From the sounds of the noisy squeaks of Gurneys containing patients moving by to the shouts of higher-ranked Nurses and Doctors barking orders left and right amidst the commotion, she started wondering if she was filtering those sounds out and if they had existed just like before, but she ignored them all in favor of trying to distill 'silence' in her own room. Just like how she tried to ignore the memories that solidified from time to time in her mind.
Perhaps that's what it was, given that even the busied mental institution she was in was periodically noisy from time to time. Just… not this noisy at the current moment.
It turned into a cacophony of sounds that had her current dull-looking emotional state, produce a frown of annoyance, albeit slightly. The door was left ajar as the two nurses or orderlies, some of the younger ones that routinely visited her were left arguing at her door about something…
"I've never seen the place this full, Seiko-san. It's like we're in General." The younger male orderly said to his nurse co-worker. His insectoid antennae curved backward atop his head like hair.
"Yeah, believe me… I've interned in this place two years ago and even in the worst of circumstances it's never this busy." The older more experienced female nurse said as they briefly watched the chaos that was happening outside.
"D'you think it's really true?" the male orderly said as they closed the door, merely muffling the commotion outside, even as the occasional scream went through as hurried crews breezed past her room. "T-That something bad's happened?"
"I'm sure the heroes can fix it, Asahi-kun. All Might's still out there after all." His co-worker said as she took her clipboard and they readied for their patient's checkup and daily routine.
"Yeah, but… nobody's got any signal still. From what Hiro-san said, hospitals across the country are now full, the heroes that we see arriving here are exhausted, and… there's rumors that this is possibly a terrorist attack or something. Maybe a strong villain that's hoping to break Japan and All Might." The male orderly said with concern and fear in his voice.
There was an ominous change of tone in the air as the co-workers looked at each other.
The occupant in the room, similarly stole a glance at them, some curiosity on her dull face blossomed. Some concern also showed but it evaporated as quickly as her mood did.
Why would it matter if something bad happened? She was sure a certain loud voice, the most boisterous, demanding, and stoic one could protect the country with his comrades.
Even the youngest familiar voice was ripe with potential just like he had.
"Where the hell did you hear all of that?" the woman asked as they tried to hush their voices. Hoping to minimize some of the anxiety and worry in the patients. Not that it worked, for the occupant of the room they entered, in a dull trance no less, had heard everything that they said.
"Jerry-san, you know… the gaijin down on the front desk told me." the man ashamedly said.
"Asahi-san… Jerry-kun is as stressed and exhausted just like the rest of us, and as much as this is unideal with our line of work, we're all here to help. And we can't help if we go around spreading rumors that's going to make everyone in this place panic, alright? To make sure that things turn out okay, we have to do our jobs so that the heroes and everyone else can do theirs…" the female nurse said as she placed a supportive hand on her colleague who nodded back with affirmation.
"R-Right… I'm sorry, Seiko-san."
"Now… come on, it's a bit awkward leaving Todoroki-san out like this and the others on this floor. We still gotta get back to assisting the others downstairs. I heard there's a bus accident group coming in later." The woman said much to the man's flinch.
"I don't think this was part of the curriculum I graduated on…"
"Somei Academy did teach you basic biology and medical practice, yes?"
"Yeah."
"Then suck it up, Asahi-san. You wanted to help people, right? Then it's time to prove it." those words shut him up as they greeted Rei Todoroki, the current occupant of this room with the same kind of routine that they did every single day. Despite the two having visible onsets of exhaustion and stress, Rei Todoroki continued to answer them respectfully, at least as much as she could emotionally.
But the dullness was still there as she tried her best to ignore most of the world around her despite the apparent chaos outside of her room that was brewing.
The two eventually left her room, the muffled noises of the bustling world outside trailing behind them. She was alone again, the sterile silence of her room pressing down on her. The only sounds were faint… conversations drifting like ghosts through the walls, the rhythmic hum of some distant machinery.
They had left her with vague instructions about a few pills, their purpose still unclear to her. But their words had stuck in her mind—purpose. It had been the thread weaving their conversation together, their resolve to help others filling the air like an oppressive fog.
Purpose.
It lingered like an ache, pulling her thoughts to her youngest. His voice bubbled up in her memory, animated and full of life as he spoke about his new friends, his real friends.
She stilled, her mind turning inward, sifting through fragments of herself. What had she been beyond Rei Todoroki? Beyond the shadow cast by a single family? What was left of her once the edges of that role crumbled away?
Her spiraling thoughts were interrupted by the soft creak of the door. The quiet sound cut through the silence, followed by a light, cheerful voice.
"Hi there!"
Rei turned her head, startled. A stranger stood in the doorway, their presence almost… radiant. They were smiling, their expression bright and open in a way that felt strangely out of place.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you! You just seemed kinda lonely, and I thought I'd come say hi. How are you feeling today?"
Rei blinked, her mind sluggish. "I… I'm fine."
"That's good! I mean, well, I guess you could be better, right? Being cooped up in a place like this has got to be suuuper boring." They took a few steps into the room, their tone lilting with an innocent curiosity. "Oh! Your room is so cute! Especially the flowers… they're so pretty! They kind of remind me of you, you know? Like, delicate and beautiful, but maybe a little sad too?"
Rei stared at them, unsure how to respond. The stranger tilted their head, their bright eyes scanning her face with a disarming sense of wonder.
"Do you like flowers? I bet you do! I mean, who doesn't, right? But, oh, don't you ever wish you could go outside and see real ones? Like, imagine being in a huge field of them—blue ones, pink ones, even the tiny little wildflowers that hide in the grass. Wouldn't that be nice?"
The words painted a vivid picture in Rei's mind, but the stranger's tone was almost too enthusiastic, too bright. It made her uneasy.
"You must miss it," they continued, their voice softening just a touch. "The outside, I mean. The sun, the sky… your family."
That hit harder than Rei expected. She stiffened, her fingers curling slightly into the sheets.
The stranger moved closer, their steps light and unassuming, until they took the chair beside her bed. "Do you miss them? Your family, I mean. They must miss you too, right? I bet they'd love to see you again. Wouldn't it be nice to be with them? To feel like everything's normal again?"
Rei's throat tightened. "I… I don't know."
"Hmm," the stranger mused, tapping their chin with a single finger. Their eyes sparkled, but there was something about their expression that made Rei feel like they were looking through her rather than at her. "I guess it's kinda tricky, huh? But, like, I think you'd feel so much better if you could just… do something, you know? Sitting here all day must feel soooo empty. Like you're stuck in a loop, right?"
Rei felt the weight of their words pressing down on her, her mind sharpening with an unnatural clarity. It was as though the fog she had lived in for so long was burning away under their gaze.
"Don't you think," they said, their voice lilting with innocent curiosity, "that you could be doing something really important? Like, something that makes everything make sense again?"
"I…" Rei hesitated, her voice barely a whisper.
The stranger leaned forward, resting their chin in their hand, their smile soft and encouraging. "You know, I think you're stronger than you think. Your son—he's sooo cool! I saw him once, and wow, he's like a real hero! So kind, so strong. I bet he gets that from you. Moms are, like, super special, you know?"
"Me? Strong?" Rei murmured, her voice cracking.
"Of course! I mean, where else would he get it? Definitely not Endeavor—he's kind of a grump, right? But you? I think you've got something special. You've been through so much, but you're still here. That's amazing!"
Rei felt the stranger's hand on hers, their palm warm and steady. The touch was comforting, yet it sent a shiver through her.
"And you know what?" they continued, their tone light and dreamy. "I think everyone has a chance to be something more. Even when things feel super hard, there's always a way to find your purpose again. You just have to take a little leap of faith! Doesn't that sound exciting?"
"Purpose…" Rei echoed, her gaze drifting to the blue flowers by her bed. Her voice trembled, but the clarity in her mind grew sharper, cutting through her hesitations.
"Yup! Purpose! Something that makes you feel whole again. Something that makes you, you."
Rei's lips curled into a faint smile, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Something beyond being a wilting flower in this… cage."
The stranger's smile widened, their excitement palpable. "Exactly! You're like a butterfly, just waiting to spread your wings. You just need to decide what you want to do. What's your next step, Todoroki-san?"
Rei turned to look at them, her expression serene yet eerily distant. "I know what to do now."
The stranger beamed, their enthusiasm practically radiating. "That's the spirit! Together, we can make everything better."
"Yes," Rei whispered, her voice soft but resolute.
It all clicked. This little puzzle. This… struggle within her head.
It all finally clicked. The haze and fear were gone, and what was left was determination.
But… determination of what kind?
"Yes… Enji, my dear Enji, was right."
The stranger's brow furrowed slightly. "Right about what?"
"All Might was too soft."
The temperature in the room dipped, the once bright air growing heavy and cold. The stranger's smile faltered, just for a moment, as shadows deepened around them.
Rei's smile lingered; her visage matched the stranger's as her words echoed while they both thought of the people who were currently in this facility.
The flowers in the corner drooped ever so slightly, their vibrant petals tinged with an unnatural stillness. The room felt suffocating, as though the walls themselves were holding their breath.
And just outside, a hundred, maybe a thousand people were seeking medical attention and help. Outside, nobody was aware of the conversation and consequence of what would take place in the next few days, both to the facility and to the rest of the country.
I-ISLAND
"So, ice cream can be mixed with more than just flavors?! Like this… chocolate? Like the fruity strawberries from the pink flavor?" the mysterious blonde angel asked in amazement. She was just as tall as Melissa was and, based on her mannerisms and such, probably close in terms of age. While most of I-Islands residents that went to its local school tend to be children of the people who work and maintain this behemoth of science, they were still for the most part normal kids.
Just like the rest of the world was.
Only smarter than the average school kid tended to be.
And as much as the girl was strange with all her questions, she was still very much in line with how people her age thought and acted. It reminded her a lot actually of herself when she obsessed over tech and the quirks of some people whom she met for the first time who came to visit the island. From the girl's perspective, it may very well be her first time here…
Though she wondered why she was seemingly amazed at almost everything that she saw and experienced ever since they first interacted with each other. She looked smart enough to talk in English and had some understanding of math and science given the many books that were strewn on the floor from her mess of a security breach and her harmless, almost innocent fascination with some of the data and equations her dad had in his lab.
Not to mention, seemingly the girl, who called herself V (which was the only name Melissa chose out of the ridiculously long one that she used in her introduction), was someone that her dad left here, based on the virtual message left in her console and from V's own words. Apparently, he was dealing with something urgent that was going on outside of the island and was of great concern that he had to quickly leave after dropping her here a few hours ago.
Much as she understood her dad for doing that, it was… quite surprising that he didn't bother to wake her up as she slept in her room and let the girl frolic carelessly in his lab. Not that there wasn't a situation from the island that didn't have his full attention before, but it nagged at her a bit that this was the very first occurrence where his dad was in such a state of hurry that he didn't take time to say anything to her before he left.
It may sound a bit petty coming from her, but her dad was exceptionally caring and affectionate towards her. She was his only family and almost everything he did, if not for humanity or her uncle All Might, was for her.
V (or The Blooming Calamity of Solar Eden, She Who Devours Heaven's Light, the Photosynthetic Tyrant of Venus' Crimson Dusk, Arbiter of Chlorophyll Dominion, and many more names as she exclaimed dramatically) was harmless and Melissa could not see anything wrong nor suspicious with her demeanor, but it didn't help to be sure. The network was still down, but the local systems of the island, ones that she had access to both legally and illegally (heh) did tell her that her dad was with the others in the island's largest tech laboratory. Based on the readings that she did see there, something big was in fact in play, and her dad wasn't kidding around.
It made her frown, especially with the lack of the greater network still being disabled. Or the fact that I-island's premiere satellites out in space could have taken the baggage of allowing access to the internet should commercial and government satellites be taken offline. Her dad told her that after the great wars that took place when Quirks first manifested basically took out nearly all the official and commercial satellites in orbit. That's why when I-island was first conceived they wished to remedy this issue by producing high-grade units up in orbit to compensate for future generations never having that broader issue again.
Those units, sanctioned by the existing United Nations should have taken the slack at this very moment, yet… they were absent. Melissa couldn't even hack the main towers that controlled said units on the island directly because there was nothing to control.
The node that connected those satellites back down on Earth was absent, which was very concerning and possibly one amongst many reasons why her dad and anyone important and knowledgeable on the island was now neck-deep in a very serious meeting.
She hoped it wasn't something terribly disastrous. She hoped that with the resources and connections that her dad, her uncle, and the rest of the heroes in the world had, it wouldn't be something that would spell doom to a lot of innocent people.
She considered herself a very hopeful, determined optimist, but she was smart enough to know the context clues and implications of things just from a few, existing crucial details.
"Cookies and Ice Cream tastes so GOOD!" V cheerfully said, taking Melissa out of her more serious line of thought. Her voice and affectionate tone alone made her smile as she was reminded that she had a rather enthusiastic and curious guest.
The same guest who had Melissa currently cleaning up their mess now, after their metaphorical trail of destruction that had left the entire property looking like a stereotypical inventor's unclean basement. Well… it wasn't that bad.
But the clutter still had Melissa go on chore duty given that between them two inside her home, she was obviously the more responsible one. In addition, V didn't look like the kind of person who necessarily liked cleaning up their own mess.
"C-Can I mix more of these? Make it taste even better?" V asked from the dining room.
"You can always mix them in your bowl… you know, like a banana split?" Melissa suggested.
"Banana split? What's that? Seems even more delicious!"
Melissa smiled as she mentally noted on trying to make one later, given she recalled that they still had bananas in the fridge. Some sprinkles in the cupboards and other smaller ingredients were available in the house. Mostly because she and her dad on vacation days always tended to try and make their own desserts to pass the time. A facet in their lives that they both cherished deeply but was seldom done nowadays due to his work and her time in academics.
Picking up the last of the toys littered on the ground in the hallways, Melissa took a deep breath, wiping her brow slightly since only the living room and the hallway outside her dad's lab were left cleaning up. Her dad's lab took most of her time given the amount of things V had haphazardly strewn across the room, but she didn't mind.
Her dad's lab, even before V's innocent ransack of it, was messy enough that a little clean-up was needed. It was inevitable in a sense.
Carrying containers that housed her toys that once littered the halls, Melissa returned them to the room they belonged to and went back to the dining room where V was. The girl unsurprisingly was mixing various flavors into her bowl as the mess of the cream was spread not just on the table, but also on her face, her white, simple dress, and parts of her wings.
The girl had a mutation, possibly from her quirk that allowed her to look like a literal angel.
Almost like her entire being, was artificially created to look like an angel in some sense. She not only had wings, and a beautiful, innocent face, but also a halo that floated atop her head. It was one aspect that Melissa was very curious about, given it looked like an energy projection in some sense, but it also looked solid enough to the touch for her to inspect it.
Melissa kept speculating what quirk the girl had, given that it was well-known that mutations, especially at a glance don't particularly make up the entire picture of someone's quirk. One specific recollection was with a Cyclops hero from Romania, the hero despite his obvious mutation, had a wide area-of-effect mental quirk that could disable groups of people at will. His one eye was mostly there due to being a combination of both his parent's quirks.
Even Melissa's dad, which was a simple quirk that allowed him to prolong his digits, was according to him, a sweet little amalgamation of her grandparent's quirks. Had Melissa not been quirkless, her dad told her that with her mother's quirk, hers would be special and unique too.
"Hm? Are you okay?" V suddenly said, noticing Melissa pausing as they both sat on the dining table in relative silence.
Mom… Melissa thought. It was a sore yet sweet little memory between her and her dad. It was a topic that both relatively avoided but did not hold in any sort of disdain. Mostly because, as much as her dad loved her mom, the mere mention of her brought him to a somber silence. One that told her a lot about their relationship, and how loving, caring, and affectionate her mom was.
Melissa was never able to meet her mother, she only knew her with what little precious objects and memories her dad shared with her. Sadly, there was not much else. Because after they moved to I-island from their prior home in the States when she was but a baby, her dad had chosen to leave that part of him behind, hoping to find a second, more hopeful chance in I-island.
Their prior home, according to him, brought too many painful memories.
"I'm fine…" Melissa lightly lied, but the smile on V's face at least brought her back to a more cheerful mood. "Are you enjoying everything so far though?"
"Yup! I didn't realize this treat to be as delicious as it could be. You guys are pretty creative at this, at least with the sustenance and nourishment that you provide in spades."
"Yeah… but you do realize ice cream is junk food, right?" Melissa teased.
The girl merely tilted her head, confusion and curiosity present on her face. "It's still sustenance. Even with the level of fructose it contains, I'm sure it'll produce enough energy for me to go on without fail for a few, solid hours."
"It'll also make you fat." Melissa continued to tease as V pouted.
"I assure you… my metabolism is fast. My body is made for full efficiency, so… no unnecessary fat…" V sneakily looks at Melissa's developed form and frowns. "…gets to hinder my current form."
"Narcissist much?" Melissa grinned as V chuckled. "Oh, you mentioned metabolism... is that related to your quirk?"
"My quirk? Do you mean my abilities? My powers?" V asked as she stuffed another scoop of ice cream into her mouth in a cartoonish and silly way. "It's part of it I think… but I wouldn't call it the main thing that drives everything I do."
Melissa's curiosity now peaked. "So, do your wings work?" she excitedly asked.
"These little things?" V said as she tried to look behind her, the wings flapping cutely for a few strokes that made Melissa a lot more enthusiastic as her smile brightened. "If you mean if I can levitate in the air with them, functionally… they're more vestigial than functional."
"Vestigial?"
V raised her spoon, some of the ice cream dripping on her hands as well as the table.
"Yes! Mostly because levitation in some form is one of the functional abilities that I possess, and due to both factors that pertain to the length, width, and digits in my wings, they are in essence, vestigial. Part of it being because it's physically impossible for appendages this short to allow even a semblance of flight, the physics just doesn't support it." V supplied and much to Melissa's surprise again, she felt as if she was looking in a mirror.
Some people, especially those who visited the island, were often overwhelmed when she began unconsciously rambling about simple semantics and facts to them. However, it only pertained to times when she was truly excited and enthusiastic about talking with new people. V, on the other hand, looked like she was the type of person that was not really very experienced with social cues, which only increased the mystery behind her.
Either that or she was possibly very sheltered to the point that it was only now that she had any sort of healthy, interpersonal communication with another live, actual person.
Both possibilities made Melissa feel bad for V.
"You're right. Even with your small frame, those don't look enough to lift you off the ground." Melissa said as V nodded. "What about the halo? Is it a projection or is it something physical?"
"This?" V said as she turned her eyes to the object/projection above her head. "Oh they're-
V and Melissa' conversation was cut short when the sound of Melissa's home and its main entrance being opened was heard. With the added notification on her tablet that it was her dad, Melissa felt elated as she excused herself to V to run to her dad.
"Good evening, Mr. Shield!" V shouted from the kitchen as Melissa tried to tackle her father in an embrace. Only for him to put up his hand to stop her short.
"Easy there, sweetie, I might be contaminated." David Shield said, as Melissa quickly composed herself after that warning. It was only there that she noticed her dad's entire get-up, his suit, was ruffled beyond repair and his hair, even with its unique and noticeable scuffled look was a lot more messy than usual. His eyes were heavy with bags and his gait implied a lot as to what he was currently feeling.
"Oh…" Melissa consciously said, both to her dad's words and how she felt about his current state.
"I'm sorry… I would have loved to hug you right now, but my hands are tied."
"What's going on, Dad?"
Melissa saw her dad's expression darken.
"Follow me," he said as he placed his bag near their home's front door as Melissa followed along with her father. They passed by the dining room where V was, her father waved at her as V innocently waved back. That was another sign that had Melissa realizing how grave the situation was that her father was dealing with as he barely even acknowledged their guest.
With a quick shunt open by the automatic doors of his lab, Melissa watched her father sigh heavily as the hurriedness he had before came to a halt, and he slowly sat on his revolving chair with an audible thud. His breaths were heavy, and his entire form melted into the seat as she looked at him in worry.
"D-Dad?"
"Melissa honey…" her father started as he took off his glasses. He then wiped off the sweat on his brow as he looked at her. He looked vulnerable and weak much like the times when she was sick due to his worry, and days on her mom's death anniversary. She couldn't help but feel fear and concern for her father at this moment as she tried to step closer, only to be met with a hand, stopping her from coming any nearer. "…d-don't come any nearer. I beg you. I'm still not sure… or hell, the entire scientific community that we still have in contact with isn't sure of what's happening."
"What… what can you tell me, dad?"
David Shield's gaze once again darkened.
"We're under attack. The entire world is… under attack." He said that with fear laced in his voice as he looked at his hands. "This isn't just a villain or a terrorist organization that's run by fools from some group of countries, it's…. its something more terrifying than that."
Normally, being that Melissa had a more positive outlook in life and towards the world, she would try to argue with her dad about this, but given the gravity of his nearly defeated look, stress, and exhaustion, she only managed to gulp as she took a step forward, just enough that he wouldn't make her stop. "Is it really that bad, Dad?" she fearfully asked.
David looked at her with such intensity unlike anything before in her life. "Sweetie… I didn't want to scare you, but things are dire enough that lying is not in anyone's interest right now."
Melissa consciously felt herself gulp again as her father continued…
"Do you remember Dr. Abate, the chief geneticist from Italy? The one who was eager to join I-Island after his tour last year?" David asked.
"Y-yeah… the one with his family, right? His son, Emilio was a good kid, he had his dad's potential and everything, I wanted to partner with him on a support product in the future once he got on the island..." Melissa recalled before stopping her train of thought. Flashes of a red-haired young boy and their semi-serious talk about an adaptive product that helped more mutated quirk users with some of their issues in the day-to-day manifested, and Melissa looked at her father as the darker implications grew.
"He died a few hours ago, sweetie. We don't know yet as to why, but his body's in the labs near facility E, and the doctors are scrambling on trying to find out why."
"What about… his family?" she asked, scared of the answer.
"Out of the ten refugees that came on that plane from Sicily, only our current guest survived. And she isn't even related to Dr. Abate, just the daughter of his associate, that we're now presuming to be dead." David explained as the soft humming down in the hallway of their home was heard and Melissa felt a new level of unease and sadness over the girl that was in their home.
"But isn't… she grounds for being contaminated too?" Melissa suddenly asked in realization.
"As far as our current tools are concerned, no. Whatever killed Dr. Abate and the rest of the passengers that put the airport on lockdown wasn't a virus… nor an infection in the common sense that we know of. We can only detect a certain signature from the bodies that we have in custody now, signatures that we aren't sure are dead in a biological sense, and that girl a few rooms from us right now is cleared from all of it. Like… like she's immune."
"Dad… I don't like what you're implying." Melissa said as she looked at her father, her face becoming resolute in protest at the mere implication of the idea her dad was possibly leading into.
"Why do you think I put her here, sweetie? The division's already stressed enough as it is, but… I don't want our guest to be forced into anything that she doesn't consent to. Least of all after everything's that happened that Abate's told us before he died."
Feeling relieved with that affirmation, Melissa looked at her father and asked,
"Dad… how big is this? What are we dealing with that's got everyone on full alert?"
"We don't know. We have theories, but we can't rely on anything substantial with the networks down, communication being as absent as it is, and the only thing we got going is a bunch of traumatized refugees from the Mediterranean…"
Her dad stood up in frustration as his voice slowly elevated in volume with each word.
"… barely understandable and desperate refugees from China and Russia, and what communication we do have from Uncle Sam and some of the facilities we used to have contact with are all telling us different things that we have no ability to verify the claims of!"
It was the first time Melissa had seen her father this stressed to the point that he was indirectly shouting at her, but she couldn't blame him for it. She couldn't blame anyone for that matter with what was happening outside.
Earlier, as she was cleaning through the hallways, what glances she had through their windows overlooking the island were relatively peaceful, even late enough as it was currently in their position. She didn't realize how dire everything was from the eerie silence and how quickly things were becoming disastrous just because communications and networks were down.
And the fact that their backups that were supposed to complement the loss of said networks were also absent guaranteed a nightmare that Melissa was now starting to grasp in terror.
"Melissa…"
She blinked, realizing that she was lost in a building panic attack that was surging in her chest. The innocent humming of V from across the hall, memories of her classmates in school, and the many, many good people that she had met from across many countries were now possibly in danger from something that they didn't understand.
"Melissa…" her dad said again, stepping just close enough for her to focus on him.
"D-Dad?" she said, reminding David of those days when she still cried herself to sleep after having a nightmare when she was four. They both wanted to exchange an embrace, a heartfelt kiss on the top of her head, or at least something that would alleviate the worry and terror in their hearts by giving them an ounce of comfort.
Alas, both their hands were tied, and David could only manage a heartfelt memory that beckoned in his soul and mind. "I need you to be strong, honey. I need you to be the Melissa that makes me proud every single day of my life ever since you were born."
"Dad…" Melissa said as a smile slowly appeared on her face, her eyes becoming wet after the heartfelt words from her father's lips. Her father similarly looked at her with all the love he could muster just from a gaze.
"You were always the best to me… you were always that gift of love that your mother and I cherished with every fiber of our being. Our little sunshine."
Melissa couldn't help but sniff as she tried to wipe her left eye of tears. His dad similarly looked at her in subtle acceptance as he raised his glasses and wiped his own tears.
It had a double, deeply subtle meaning that Melissa did not understand at the time…
"Your mother would have been proud of you… I-I know it. I love you, sweetheart."
"Dad… I… I love you too." Melissa reciprocated.
"Whatever's happening, I know we can get through it, together. I just need you to stay in the house for now. Protect our guest. Protect our home while I do my best to help. C-Can you promise me that, honey?"
"But I c-can help Dad." Melissa lightly protested.
"And I would love for you to help sweetie… but I need you right now to stay here. If not for me, do it for the girl. She needs us both. She might either be the key to all of this, or just a civilian, we don't know… but I need you to keep her safe, and I need to make sure you are safe. Do you understand?"
"I'll do my best Dad," Melissa promised as she looked at her father.
"Thank you, honey." David Shield said as he stood up and readied his things.
All the while, Melissa Shield could not help but look at her father. He had been very honest so far, but he was still hiding a few more things that deep down, Melissa was very much concerned about. She just hoped that whatever it was, didn't put her father's life in danger.
Nor hers and V…
Or anyone on the island for that matter.
…
"What's this about?" V asked as they sat together in the living room where Melissa continued to clean up some of the stuff that their guest had left strewn about on the floor. Melissa carried a storage bin on her left as she placed it down when she went to V's side.
The girl was holding one of her notebooks that she left on the coffee table close to the couch where V was happily wiggling her legs on like an energetic child. Specifically, it was the notebook where Melissa drew some of her sketches for realized and unrealized projects that she did for her current curriculum.
"It's my sketchbook of sorts. Where I draw concepts for some of the things I plan to make." Melissa said as she looked at V who was cycling through the pages quicker than she expected. Her eyes filled with wonder and curiosity, almost like how Melissa was when faced with tech both from her father's line of work and her very own colleagues who were similar in age to her.
"They're very interesting… in theory and possibly in execution if you can fully realize them." V replied with some focus in her tone as she 'scanned' and looked at Melissa's works through the page in detail that even Melissa herself could not parse. "Some are very experimental, at least to the technological level that Earth has currently…"
Melissa caught onto that statement quickly as she began asking V about it.
"Technological level? What does that mean?"
"Cold-fusion reactors for instance, from my understanding Earth's current knowledge on physics still align with the Coulomb Barrier principle. Which states that fusion, as understood right now is reliant on the same temperatures and levels of energy that are produced the same way a star, such as the Sun does regularly on a daily basis."
"Yeah… that's the gist of it… but not that I'm arguing against you on that, but Dr. Helga Animusphere back home was able to make a breakthrough on that issue by using a controlled and refined means of Quantum Tunneling, which uses a method that I'm still trying to understand to bypass the Coulomb Barrier by allowing nuclei to get closer potentially without the need for temperatures to be extreme."
"Quantum Tunneling is a method yes… but you'd have to be extremely precise and must use principles and math that have yet to constitute making it practical and reproducible. That is if you want it to be a viable power source as you've written on this notebook." V unintentionally challenged Melissa with a smug face as the glasses-wearing girl widened her eyes in surprise.
"And you have answers to that question, in theory at least? More than the current experts that we have today?" Melissa teased.
"I do… uh, I can show it to you if you want? I would just need something to write on and I can prove it to you with confidence." V replied as she smiled with excitement and enthusiasm at Melissa's challenge that her energy was also transferred to her new friend who handed her a pen and a pad of paper. "Okay… first you have to-
And then the inevitable sharing of ideas and exciting discussion between the two girls started. Almost organically and definitively they just let their shared experiences and burgeoning expertise flow through words and fits of laughter and teasing as a connection was forged in a manner that would grow more than just a metaphorical sense.
A natural, almost fate-laden connection between them began to glow into appreciation, kindness, and friendship that Melissa and V didn't expect to be strengthened in that span of time. They continued for close to an hour sharing banter and progress in physics and mathematics that their trade of knowledge was what became the root of their blooming relationship, and it made Melissa forget much of the worry and concerns she had earlier when her father left nearly an hour ago. They were so deep in conversation and banter that Melissa felt free and happy to just be herself with a peer who understood, kept up, and in V's case, even expanded Melissa's own base of knowledge. It almost felt magical.
Like she was talking to her dad when they were in the same boat both intellectually and spiritually. Especially when it was just the two of them. Her conversation with V had this same, rare energy that both girls couldn't help but smile at.
To normal people, they would be hilariously overwhelmed with the concepts, ideas, and facts that they constantly threw and traded with each other without pause, but in reality, their lovely little bonding moment was as comparable and simple as two boys talking enthusiastically of their favorite heroes in their childhood.
"…and that's why you can still make matter continue to exist without needing to convert it to energy in order to reach such velocities in the first place." V finished explaining as ironically even with Melissa's cleaning of her home, the fact that both girls were fine doodling equations and concepts on the floor, the coffee table, and even portions of the wall in Melissa's living room space told you enough the degree of both the seriousness and innocence of their beautiful chat.
Little quirks exchanged, like V when she was excited at explaining a theorem, Melissa could see her little wings behind her back twitch slightly, and her halo glowing brighter, as if unconscious biological hints of her emotions were being displayed subtly.
And Melissa was expressively talkative and endlessly rambling with a glint of excitement and passion in her eyes each time as she developed her own case in either a rebuttal or agreement with V.
"That's amazing…" Melissa couldn't help but say because, at the end of V's writing of a possible method of light-speed travel, there were simply no other words to describe her newly established friend.
"I guess it is? I don't think it's really a big deal when you think about it, but it is fascinating in a technical sense, and it is what constitutes a gateway for more effective space travel."
Melissa smiled as she leaned her head onto her arm as they sat close to each other.
"No dummy… I meant that you're amazing! Is this your quirk? A variation of super-intelligence? I know it's not as common as one would think, but if you're able to prove even a single one of the concepts you told me today, you'd do a lot of good for the world."
V's head tilted slightly in response to the compliment. It's almost like she didn't expect to be praised like that with genuine, real emotion behind it. "T-Thank you… friend. But really, much as I appreciate your praise, I feel like you're undermining yourself a bit. You have potential much as anybody does, and I believe it's you who can help the world better than me."
Melissa felt herself smiling again at V's own humility and appreciative praise for her, but something bothered her a bit as their enthusiasm for their favorite concepts and subjects started to die down. A small frown of worry appeared on Melissa's face before she spoke.
"V?"
"Hm? What is it, friend?"
Melissa smiles at her still, very formal way of addressing her. "I told you to call me Melissa."
"Very well, what do you want to ask me about, Melissa?" V innocently replied back as the usage of her name brought a cute little unconscious wiggle of her wings and the brightening of her halo.
"Is it okay for me to ask, who and what you were… before Mr. Abate saved you?" Melissa asked, hoping that it wouldn't break the relative calm and joy that V was currently at. She didn't want to particularly bring the mood down, per se, but at the same time, she wanted to ask V about the small quirks and noticeable specific details in her personality that made Melissa a bit bothered.
"Is there something wrong?" V asked, a slight frown on her face manifesting which made Melissa feel a bit guilty.
"No… I just… I just wanted to know a bit more about you, if it isn't too intrusive, of course." Melissa said her words were not really forming appropriately to try and best articulate what she was trying to ask, but those were the words that came out instead. Sometimes she acknowledged at least in part, that when she got close enough to a person to talk about things that they both liked, she could oftentimes unconsciously come off as intrusive with some of the questions she asked when they were more personal in nature.
She was a very respectable, kind-hearted person but sometimes the inventor's muse that was a trait of her father that she inherited can encroach on the comfort zone of others by a bit when they talked about things more than just the topics or subjects that they liked.
"Oh… when I think about it, you and Mr. Shield have been very accommodating and helpful with me thus far ever since my stay here. I suppose, as a fair trade, I don't think I've shared much to begin with… huh?" V said, returning her lovely mirth, but Melissa felt a tad bit guilty about putting her in this position in the first place, least of all since she was a very nice guest in her home since her rather messy, albeit understandable arrival.
"Also… I'm very much still a stranger to your home so I think it's a fair trade-off, yes?"
"Y-Yeah… thank you for understanding." Melissa thankfully said.
"Alright then, I suppose you can call me a special case. One that's hewn and chosen from birth as the forefront of something greater. Something beyond that eclipses the potential of many others from where I originated from. An ultimate lifeform in every sense of the word." V explained as she dramatically stood up much to Melissa's surprise. V's smile deepened as her wings wiggled again in a cute motion as her halo brightened more than its current output.
"Built to perfection, for grace, for efficiency! And to be the representation of my home with every quarter and atom of my being. My brethren that I represent… trained, praised, and oversaw my ascension to the top, even at the cost of their own lives just so I can achieve an ideal that went beyond their comprehension. Beyond the weaknesses that my people possessed!" V passionately remarked, emphasizing each word much to Melissa's growing surprise.
"W-What?"
V continued with fervor as she recalled the grandeur of her position in a literal, (but to Melissa) horrifying light. Her smile faded as V continued on.
"I'm the Ultimate One of Venus! Pinnacle of Intelligence. Pinnacle of strength, and pinnacle of all lifeforms that exist today in this very world." V said with a proud smile as she placed both her hands on her waist in a proud gesture as her wings fluttered with every word that came out of her lips.
"Before Mr. Abate assisted me in leaving my home, for which I am most thankful, I was destined for greatness! One that would define the honor that was pressed into my lap as I was whisked away into safety within your marvel of science that constitutes a home."
Melissa's mind had connected the dots in the very grim picture that was forming through V's own words. With the already terrible glimpses and mentions from her father of what was happening in the world outside of the Island and specifically the devastation of the Mediterranean where Mr. Abate originated from, Melissa couldn't help but feel terrible for even asking the question in the first place. Especially, when V, up to this moment, continued to be as innocent and unbothered by any of the horrible things that she said in her tirade.
"You ask me who I am, friend Melissa? I'm very much the byproduct of millennia of evolution, honed to absolute biological and spiritual perfection that now arrives at your doorstep to experience the world and assist it… as well as getting the lovely opportunity to make friends. True friends."
"V…" Melissa said as she looked at her.
"Cool, right?" V suddenly said as she giggled, finishing her little speech that she looked very proud of. Only to be met with silence at a horrified and shocked Melissa Shield that only brought confusion to the winged girl, thinking what could possibly make her react like this.
The silence stretched into a few more seconds until V tried to break the tension-filled ice.
"That was… the expression, right? I mean, I hope you think it's a cool backstory, and I've been very honest so far, as a trade of friendship from me and to you, of course." V said with a light tone in her words as it slowly dwindled to awkwardness as she twiddled with both her index fingers together.
When Melissa continued to stare at her with her expression turning into sadness, V couldn't help but look worried as well. "Um… Melissa?"
What greeted her with a tight, comforting, and understanding embrace as a tear trickled down Melissa's cheek.
"Melissa?"
"I'm sorry… I'm very sorry… t-that you went through all of that." Melissa whispered to V as she tightened her embrace and more tears flowed. The girl, in Melissa's opinion, based on all her quirks, all her noticeable lapses in normal, humane interpersonal and social communication, was a result of a horrible, disgusting, and abhorrent process of brainwashed mindsets and experiments under the pretense of… perfection.
And whatever was happening in the Mediterranean…
One that killed Mr. Abate's family and himself…
One that had ended the lives of innocent men, women, and children, probably even the heroes that fought back against this scourge of whatever horrible people started this whole mess. It's no wonder that her father denied the girl to be experimented on by the people on I-island. Regardless of her presence of being 'immune' to the mysterious disease that killed the refugees and Mr. Abate.
The same mysterious disease and danger that was ravaging Europe alongside simultaneous, different, and still unknown attacks in Asia, North America, and the rest of the world.
How the ugliness of it all didn't taint V's innocence and kindness was a miracle.
A miracle that Melissa was now adamant about protecting.
"Melissa… did I do something wrong?" V asked worriedly as she reciprocated the embrace in guilt and shame.
"N-No… you didn't do anything wrong. You're safe…" Melissa says softly as her tears still continue to trickle down her cheeks.
V feels relieved from that.
"Alright… thank you then, Melissa," V said as she melted into the girl's embrace. Surprise doting her expression as the sensation and genuine empathy that came from Melissa made her heartbeat slightly faster in glee. It was a beautiful sensation. One that procured a feeling of comfort unlike anything before, unlike anything she had ever experienced.
"You're welcome…" Melissa replied softly before they both chuckled lightly at their current state. The mood went back to being more comfortable as they exchanged smiles.
"V?" Melissa said as an idea bloomed in her head.
"Yes, Melissa?"
"How about I teach you how to play a guitar?"
"You mean that string instrument?" V excitedly said as her eyes lit up with unabashed joy.
"Yeah. Why not?"
V's response was a very giddy squeal that animatedly got her cheering in place while her cute little wings and halo seemingly danced in tandem with her joy. It was infectious and wonderful to see, in the best sense. Melissa couldn't help but feel happy at that moment.
…
Melissa couldn't help herself stop laughing as this was the sixth try for V at playing the guitar. It was also the twentieth song she had randomly chosen across from a number of genres that she wished to emulate to the best of her ability, only to falter quite humiliatingly at each attempt.
The experience thus far for them, even as the sunrise rolled in, was a blast as Melissa carefully and happily tried to tutor her on things that she at least knew of the instrument given how secretly good her father was at it (maybe because of his quirk it helped a bit more). Yet try as she did, V couldn't grasp any of the concepts of things that she was teaching as the hours passed.
And now, uncaring of the mess they had made in her living room (which was now packed with data sticks, old CDs, DVDs, and other media that her dad collected through the years), Melissa was laughing on the ground hysterically as V's pout worsened while her robotic like handling of the instrument produced sounds that were not even close to what Melissa was teaching.
"It's not funny!" V shouted as her frown deepened.
"I'm s-sorry… I'm really sorry…" Melissa said as she tried to stifle her laugh, though some still leaked through. "But you have to admit, it is very funny."
"No, it isn't! I… I just don't understand this thing. How do those artists make those kinds of sounds? How do they organize it to make it beautiful? How do you make the notes make sense when the intervals and such are so random that-
V was stopped in her tracks when Melissa accidentally let out another giggle.
"I-It's not funny! Why are you even laughing so much in the first place?" V said with a pout as she crossed her arms on her chest, the guitar that Melissa let her work on sliding to the floor.
"Well… it is funny when you consider that you're basically a prodigy in advanced sciences like physics, cosmology, biology, even chemistry… and yet you're struggling with a musical instrument."
"H-how is that funny? I demand to know." V cutely said she wasn't truly angry or frustrated, but she was stressed out. Even more so when her singing voice was equally as terrible (but Melissa didn't want to point that out, out of respect, at least for now…).
"V… you've arrayed and explained to me the principles of Lightspeed travel and various other useful theoretical and practical concepts that would push humanity on a scale of advancement and power decades, even centuries into the future… but you're struggling even getting a few consistent notes out on a guitar."
There was a palpable silence that followed after, a proverbial pin drop that was only broken by the smooth change of the music on the rather large screen of Melissa's living room.
"F-Fine… I get it okay… I… I just don't understand it? Even when you walk me through it, it's… confusing!" V complained as Melissa smiled.
"I'm suuureee it is…" Melissa teased as the new track played, a more upbeat song this time around, but before V could innocently complain further about how hard a guitar was in terms of playing it, a notification beamed into her tablet, one that came from her father.
"Excuse me a bit." Melissa hurriedly said as all her focus shifted on her gadget while standing up, before pausing and looking at V who was wondering what was going on.
"Everything alright, Melissa?"
"Yeah… things are fine, I just need to deal with this in a sec, okay? I won't take long."
"Okay! B-but you need to teach me more of this… instrument. I really, really want to learn it." V lightly begged with that cute face of hers, one that made Melissa grin with a nod of affirmation as the winged girl beamed in joy again.
"Of course… just wait for me!" Melissa promised as she left the room in a semi-hurry.
Leaving V/V to herself as she looked at the instrument in her lap and the currently playing music on the screen brought her to a relative calm as she gingerly tried to remember the things Melissa had taught her. The strings, still alien and amazing to her were once again in her grasp, but before she could even tug one string to make a tune, she quickly noticed that peculiar storage bin that Melissa had been carrying around when she started cleaning the place and was always by her side as her priorities shifted to making V/V comfortable.
Curiosity filled her head as she placed the instrument by her side on the couch and she began crawling like a child towards the storage bin in a careful fashion. The music in the background, was melodic, almost filled with child-like wonder, akin to the feelings that she was experiencing now and almost fatefully placed given the nature of what she was doing.
The moment she looked into the bin, her curiosity only grew further as she saw relics of very crude and primitive pieces of technology that from a glance resembled containers for data. Really old and primitive data.
From a scan through her eyes, she perceived them to be what the world calls 'tapes'. Ones that carried music like the ones that were being played in the background around her at that moment. Ones that looked very old to the point that pieces of them were cut or lost.
Or that wear and tear were distinctive details that coated them even though they were preserved to the best of the current world's ability.
Most peculiar of all was a small picture album, one that V slowly took and opened as small bits of dust coated her fingers. She remembers this storage bin, where at the start of her arrival to Melissa's home when she began fiddling with their stuff, she didn't mind this storage bin due to it not taking her interest. But since Melissa was a very interesting person, this interest shifted to something more that drew her to the content of this bin, more so when she began looking through the picture album that was in her hands.
It was of a woman and Mr. Shield.
A woman that looked very close to Melissa's features as multiple of them, were shared photographs of her and Mr. Shield in various places, various locations, and various curious little poses and the like that filled the rather dusty relic a sense of life that V/V didn't expect.
There was no doubt that this woman was Melissa's progenitor.
The female who gave birth to her.
But ever since her arrival in her home, she didn't see this woman. In fact, it's only Mr. Shield that Melissa confided to and nobody else. Why was she absent?
Was it possible that this woman, Melissa's progenitor, was… deceased?
V/V continued to flip through the pages of the album. Her natural photographic memory remembers each detail, even down to the smallest ones as she disseminated its contents entirely.
It was only then when she heard Melissa's footsteps returning to her that she stopped what she was currently doing as the preoccupied girl suddenly noticed that she was snooping through that particular storage bin and was now holding an album that was dear to Melissa's heart.
"Is this woman your mother, Melissa?" V/V cutely asked as she pointed at one of the pictures in the album. Melissa, who had been very accommodating and kind to V/V so far was torn into a well of emotions. Mostly because of her negligence in forgetting about returning that particular bin back into the storage room during her time cleaning everything up…
"She's beautiful. I can see why you came out the same, friend. Is she similarly as kind as you?" V/V asked as Melissa looked at her.
…and the fact that the same bin contained one of the last few memories of her mother. A spark of overprotectiveness washed over her, wishing her to quickly nab the bin out of V/V's arms and excused herself to keep it all away safely but then V/V said something that she didn't expect.
Something that would only deepen her thoughts more over the girl that she had just met in just a short, few hours…
"The tapes… they are data storages, right? They appear to be damaged. Do you want me to restore them?" V/V offered as she carefully pulled one of the old tapes out from the bin and looked at Melissa with a face full of assuredness and gratefulness.
"W-What? D-Did you say… y-you can restore them?"
"I can. There are bits of data that are lost for sure, given the primitive nature of these storage units, but with my power, I can restore parts of it. Like rewinding time back on this particular object to return it to a state that once contained the data within them back when they were first recorded."
V/V watched as Melissa looked stunned at her words. The girl walked to her, stopping right in front of V/V before slowly sitting across from her. Her emotions were filled with so much roaring joy, doubt, confusion, and fear that even through the micro-expressions on her face and the slight unconscious shake in her hands, V/V realized how deeply Melissa cared for a deceased individual that based on context clues she had seen thus far, she had not met in at all in life.
It puzzled her, but at the same time, what humans called 'emotions' was something that V/V was very pleased by. For in her time in this current host, shaped by the idea of what humans thought of Venus, and away from her main body, she found that 'emotions' and everything surrounding it were a pleasing discovery that she wished to delve further into.
Joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, and… love most of all and many other complex emotions that existed in the human psyche were things that she desired to experience. Things that she wanted to partake in at full capacity in her time in this current form.
And much of it, based on her experience thus far, was the result of rewards exchanged kindly between individuals.
"Y-You can really do this?" Melissa asked again, disbelief and hope in her words.
"If you wish it so… I can?"
"W-Why?" Melissa asked.
"Is it not how friends should be? You welcomed me into your home… you wish to teach me how to play this infernal instrument… if anything, it's a fair, logical trade. One that I hope you would appreciate." V/V happily said as Melissa looked at her.
It was a few seconds first before Melissa's mind focused more on the hope that V/V could do it and the trust that was building between them. With a small leap of faith, given how kind V had been to her so far, Melissa faintly nodded at the winged girl, conveying enough emotion that V smiled back at her confirmation.
Melissa then watched in awe as for the first time since meeting V, who she speculated deeply on what her quirk was, finally saw an application of her abilities.
Her halo glowed brighter as mesmerizing, ethereal, and glowing blue 'vines' or more accurately ghostly 'nerves' manifested from V/V's arms. The laws of physics were seemingly gone on the tapes in the storage bin as they floated into the air like they were elevated by V's 'nerves.
Then, as they floated in front of the winged girl, her halo glowed a level brighter as a glowing sphere manifested into reality, holding the tapes within like the world paved the way for reality to be reformatted at this specific space and moment. Where something like an 'authority' had manifested, which was something beyond the people of Earth ever since the last of the Divine and those of Elements had left for greener pastures.
Within a few seconds more, the blue sphere had vanished, and the tapes floated back to the bin, with one of them being caught by V/V in her hands. The tape looking as pristine as it would be on the day of the content within it was recorded as the eloquent handwritten tag that was warped due to time was now clear as day.
V/V looked at it and smiled before placing the tape into Melissa's hands as disbelief and surprise colored her features. Her lips quivered slightly as she carefully looked at the tape in her hands, eyes widened as a bunch of emotions, many of them joy and disbelief, as she looked and traced her fingers at the handwritten tag.
For Melissa
Love, Mom…
Melissa didn't know what to say, that was clear to V/V's eyes.
"Can we listen to it?" V/V asked as Melissa returned her focus back to reality. It was then that the daughter of David Shield, who was now holding the restored tape in her hands, nodded at her new friend and walked to one of the media players that could accept the tape near the TV and inserted it. She then sat in place as V/V joined her by sitting next to her side as the sounds of a tape recorder being turned on entered the speakers…
And the voice of a loving woman was heard.
Melissa was completely enraptured as V/V smiled, leaning her head against Melissa's shoulder. While Melissa, who was silently absorbing the contents of the tape, could only subtly grasp V/V's hand and squeeze it in thanks.
She didn't know how best to thank her at this very moment, but Melissa was sure…
That she had made a new, cherished friend.
SNOWFIELD, USA
Helga Animusphere watched as her colleague, and currently (as well as ironically) the highest ranked US official left to be eligible for Commander and Chief was raked in a myriad of full stress and frustration as they were forced to use primitive devices and whatever hardware there was from old Magus families to set up communications that they can practically use.
Normally, she was the appointed science advisor of the now deceased administration that died alongside nearly half of the continental USA back in Washington DC. Though given how lucky she was that she had familial business with connections that the Animusphere family still had overseas, she had been spared from the horrifying fate that her country (the country that accepted her family many decades ago) was currently facing.
She found herself sighing not just in thanks to that fact but also the simple reality that the warning and readings of the still-existing Edefelt and Phamrsolone branches were authentic, to begin with. Now, with Atlas reaching out to them with extreme alarm hours later from those meetings, it was then that Helga started to understand what they were dealing with…
And quite frankly, as much as she was a proud, confident, and powerful figurehead in current-day America, the world, and what embers of Magi there were left in it, she was now also nervous beyond the extreme. So much so that based on what reports they had over the crater that was once the majority of the East Coast, the greater picture of what was going on had her nearly trying to pull her hair out in madness. It was only her commitment and patriotism to the country that had sheltered her family in the dark times of the emergence of Quirks that she still had her wits on her.
And that she genuinely cared for the people that she had dedicated her entire life to in her time as a politician and CEO of her company. Especially when her family was a vital part in the reformation of the country itself during the dark age of Quirks.
Helga, a middle-aged woman who, while relatively attractive in appearance was currently in a similar position of stress with their current Commander and Chief had foregone all traces of keeping herself neatly dressed. Instead, she just wore a simple red blouse and black skirt that didn't compliment her noticeably white hair that she inherited from her great, great grandma, Olga Animusphere.
"With satellites down, we really need to amp the construction of the communication devices that my company secretly innovated based on magecraft principles. Otherwise, we're running blind with most of the military and our Pro Heroes scattered in the wind, and various civilians and refugees in a chaotic pilgrimage on where to go."
"Right…" Richard Dioland said with an intense grunt as he continued looking at the reports, stacked high on his desk as Helga looked at him. He was exhausted and visibly angry as people rushed in inside the quarters they were placed in. Officials, politicians, first responders, chiefs of staff (those still alive), and what was left of America's top heroes in each state wished to speak to him all at once.
It was only through Helga's heated advisement of all existing parties to wait in the next room where a more functional meeting was being prepared that they left, leaving the two of them in relative, tense silence within the room.
"Rick… for God's sake I need you to focus," Helga said with frustration at him.
"And I am… Helga…"
"Then what the hell is that report that you're reading right now that's got you stuck like that? We have nearly fifty people or more in the next room waiting for you and we're here-
THUD!
The rather substantial binder of reports was slammed into the table next to where Helga was as Richard Dioland stood up in frustration and started pacing in the room in both panic and stress.
Helga blinked, wishing to ask what this binder's contents were until she started reading it. Her words were lost completely as her eyes widened in horror.
"Oh God… w-when… when did this arrive?" Helga asked, a tremor of fear in her voice.
"8 AM today. Almost four hours before DC was wiped off the map. Twelve hours and more before communications were down that the report was created before it was buried under paperwork because of an incident in Athens between the Church and rogue magi." Richard said with a darkened expression as he crossed his arms and looked at Helga with a deep frown.
"Why… why didn't we get an earlier notice?" Helga asked him, trying to make sense of it all.
"Because the only people that care about the dwindling paranormal and supernatural community in our government are down to just the two of us, and if this shitshow didn't happen in the first place, our little department would have been shut down due to it being unnecessary."
"And now… we're here. I thought… I thought the UN was more focused and vigilant on keeping its containment?"
"They are... but with current affairs being more focused on the cold war in the north Pacific with the Federation and China, and tensions in Afrida due to existing warlord factions… the priority for its containment had diminished over the years."
"Still… we could have been given a warning hours before-
"Helga… you already know this. Congress is more focused on their state-issued capes than the current, more important political situations in the country and the armed forces branch, our military is still being funded to the best of our ability because of Stars and Stripes leading the forefront as its poster girl. Even if we were warned about this earlier… what the hell do you expect us to do?"
Helga looked at her close friend with intense eyes of her own as she stood up in defiance and anger at his words. "To fight damn it! To do something! Anything! I'm just as scared as you are right now but that doesn't give me the right to be afraid when we can do something to unfuck the situation that we're already in!"
"If the report in that is true then we can expect containment to be breached within days, maybe even hours… and with that thing in DC, I'm not sure we can mount a defense at all much less evacuate our people… and where would they go?"
Helga suddenly stomped straight into Richard's face as she pointed a finger at him.
"Listen to me, you son of a bitch… I don't care if it's goddamn TYPE or alien that's on our doorstep, we must do something! If not to fight back, but to make sure that we can provide a chance for every innocent soul out there who's begging to be saved! I'm not leaving them to die in vain, or for them to die knowing that we gave up just because we were afraid…" she passionately said as Richard looked at her intensely.
"…and I'm not abandoning them without making sure that I did everything in my power to help or give them a chance to live. Even if it means I have to waste what's left of my soul and body just to make it happen." Helga finished as she was determined to use all remaining traces of Astromancy mastery that her family had left to accomplish such a thing if needed.
Richard Dioland on the other hand was left in silence as he looked at Helga.
He then looked in the direction where the binder was as thoughts of it leaving its containment in South America left him in worry. His own imagination horrified him with visions of a crystal valley encroaching on US soil before he snuffed it out, thinking over Helga's words.
He looked at her and managed a slow nod as he tried to calm himself down…
But before he could say anything else, someone barged into the room in an audible, loud crash as both doors opened, revealing an angry Cathleen Bates who had just now arrived from her rescue operations and refugee crisis down in Houston as she looked at the two of them with an intensive stare.
As this happened, a faint breeze from the overtaxed air conditioning units in the bunker flipped over the opened report binder and revealed one of its contents which had warnings and labels of failure stamped all around it. It read,
O.R.T. Containment Report #1168
"Shiki-san…" Kouta said as they sat together on the balcony of his home on the second floor. The two of them stared into the stars and the moon in relative peace while overlooking the vast forests of the Pussycats Rescue Center property with content.
However, Kouta noticed that Shiki was looking quite intensely at the moon in a wistful manner as if she was being bothered by something.
"Shiki-san?"
"Hm? What is it Kouta-kun?" Shiki instantly replied as she recovered her smile.
"Is there something wrong?" he worriedly said.
"No… nothing's wrong Kouta-kun. Your… onee-san is just feeling a bit under the weather that's all." Shiki lied as Kouta only felt his worry increase.
"A-are you cold? W-We can go inside and rest now if you want?" Kouta suggested as Shiki chuckled, patting his head before smiling at him.
"I should be fine, Kouta-kun. But I'm glad."
"Why?" Kouta asked.
"I'm glad that you worry so much about our onee-san. Just know that I feel the same. No matter what happens… know that I feel the same." Shiki said, as Kouta only frowned further. To remedy his worry, he embraced her as tight as he could, which Shiki reciprocated with a giggle.
"I told you not to worry me, Shiki-san." Kota said with a muffled voice in her embrace.
"I'm not Kouta-kun. I promised remember? I'm your magical onee-san after all. Your guardian angel." She said with love in her voice as she then carried the boy in her arms much to his giggle. "Come on… I'm a bit sleepy myself heh."
They peacefully walked inside as Arcueid Brunestud carried the human she cared about most of all and wished to experience as much as she could with him through his lifespan. Only then would her worries be abated. Only then would the feeling in her heart and soul be relieved.
Outside of Kouta's home, however, eyes were looking at them from a vantage point.
With the plan already solidified, a very intense and depraved expression from one Himiko Toga appeared. Ever since the chaos of the major networks being culled started, her new group was ready to make their strike. With the heroes scattered and busy with a lot of things that were easily sabotaged along the way, they now had a wonderful, almost fate-laden opportunity to start making their stamp on society.
However, Himiko Toga cared none of that, for she had a new, interesting target in the visage of one Arcueid Brunestud that she wanted to taste with excitement.
In a few days, she would get that wish.
In a few days, she hoped to make this girl her new 'friend'.
AN: Mostly a character-building chapter to make the subsequent chapters (which are gonna be chaotic and emotional) to hit HARD. Prepare thyself dear readers. Everything is going downhill. Especially with the start of things stirring in Japan, the appearance of TYPE SATURN (that was cut from this chapter, but I'm very much excited for it hehehehe in the next) and various chaos to happen from this point on.
Oh, and Merry Advanced Christmas bois and gals! This will be the last chapter of any story I make for this year and will continue writing by late January or February. Need me some rest lol. But rest assured, with how much there is on the plans and twists for this story in the future, I'm very excited to show it to you all…
In all its emotionally charged glory.
Lastly… Dioland's pre-Quirk Emergence Era ancestor is Fadeus Dioland, a character in FSF.