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DATE:2nd of September, the 70th year after the Coronation
LOCATION: Concord Metropolis
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I took the bus back like a reasonable person. These days I take too many taxis. I'm tired of them.
Still, perhaps it was the wrong choice. I had been stuck in traffic for 30 minutes and it didn't seem like anything was changing. I usually don't eavesdrop on random people because they aren't speaking anything interesting, but I was already starting to get annoyed.
The other passengers were talking about there being some disturbance 100 m in front of us. Or better said obstacle. Some kind of hostage situation. A hero has been dispatched, but the situation was a stalemate.
No point waiting then. I went to the driver's window, knocked on it and gestured for the door to open then walked towards the incident.
And seeing it I can understand how it was a difficult situation. For some reason the moronic councilmen allowed for a gas station to be built right near a major junction. And what do you know, someone took hostage said gas station and there is a threat of him setting it all ablaze. I guess the villain is able to control fire. So there aren't actually people inside, but the threat is the explosion.
It didn't help that the "hero" was very young. A girl in a silky, broided dress, around 15. It seemed like she had been called off duty because of proximity. But wasn't she at the age to still be bound to the Academy? So this must be some kind of prodigy.
She was surrounded by civil militia officers, all thrice her age, all shouting different things about the situation. Their contractors must be angry. I would be too. I wasted half an hour!
I got close and announced my title so as to not be shoved away by the grunts.
This got their attention and the hero, looking for an excuse to create some distance, pushed past the officers to meet me.
"Aionis is here?" The girl approached me, but got confused as she arrived in my face. "I'm Aira. Pleased to meet you! But, I heard you were gravely injured. You look… surprisingly fine? And young at that. " That's fancy coming from her.
"I'm starting to recover, anyway, what's the situation here?" Well, I think I know everything already, but it never hurts to ask.
She frowned."You weren't sent by HQ?"
Now this was my turn to be perplexed. I raised both my hands and smiled gently.
"The legion? Aren't you reinforcements? I remember you could teleport…" As if I needed to be micromanaged up until now… wait!
"No, I was passing by. Didn't know you were in my agency."
"Ah…"
"Hmm…" Judging by how disappointed she looked she must have been a big shot. Seriously, who is this girl?
Seeing me disinterested in continuing that page, she started answering my earlier question.
"It… it is the immolator. Or at least his side-kick." Wasn't that one of Ultraman's great foes? I can't really face him like this.
"He has something like that?" I'm not really up with the stories about this one.
"From what I see he imparted part of his power into another man. I, uhh, don't know what else to call it." I remember that the Immolator can set an 8 lane street on fire with a single attack. If this new guy is anything similar… yeah, I can see why she is anxious.
"Alright so let's get to it. I'm tired of waiting already."
"Wait, have you already decided on what to do?"
"I guess, first of all what's your power?"
"I can bring the monsters from my nightmares into reality." And someone like her was allowed to graduate early? Fuck. But it's the Legion, why am I even surprised?
"So you'll distract him and I'll take the shot. Simple as that."
"Simple… as that?"
I didn't bother responding, instead I grabbed her elbow and started moving closer to the gas station.
I would have gladly used my ability to end it sooner, but it has run out of my system by this point. And an aspirin overload was risky in this place.
"Conjure anything. It doesn't really matter. Just attract his attention."
"That simple?" I wasn't sure if she was trying to joke with me or not, but I gently pushed her forward and made my way to the left of the building while she was on the right. Technically this mid-molator guy could see me on cameras, but if he was smart enough to do that, then he wouldn't have chosen a mere gas station for his hostage operation.
The girl raised her hand and black air started focusing in a spot in front of her. Then the creature took shape, a bear to be exact. Afterwards the black smoke turned into its skin. Patchy, jarred, bloody. It was actually a monster between a teddy-bear and a living animal.
"I said to stay away!" Mid-molator was talking over the intercom. Do gas stations even have this? Such an antique.
She angled her hand to move it, like it was a puppet suspended on a stage.
I saw fire catch inside the gas station and a figure blew through the window. 2nd-molator couldn't fly, but that didn't make the image of a burning man any less impressive. He couldn't feel pain?
He shot a wave of flames at the monster which lunged towards him. The fire met patchy fur and bloody hide, and the bear's roar turned into a wet, tearing shriek. Steam hissed where the flames ate into the conjured flesh, peeling it away in blackened strips.
In the meantime she was conjuring another creature.
The flaming man focused his energy and blasted into the monster, burning part of his body so much it turned to ash, then ran towards the girl who finished summoning a large… thing with four arms and a crow head.
Still, this idiot was entirely ignoring me. Was it because I was clothed in a business suit?
I took the gun out from my back, aimed it at the back of his head and shot when he came in contact with the second entity. The thing with fire abilities like his is that burning a bullet only reduces it to molten metal if you are strong enough. And he wasn't.
It pierced his head cleanly and the body went limp into the monster, still burning. It burned itself to ash. The monsters then turned back into smoke, slowly dissipating. I only smelled it in passing, but it was clearly putrefaction. Talking about 'energies' when I am myself is laughable, but this ability didn't make me think of a hero. Could she be in contract with some entity? Certainly not the necromancer, otherwise she wouldn't have been taken by the legion. But then what else?
Ehh, can't be bothered. This day was long already.
I saw her get out of the black smoke. Her neck was red. That's the first thing I noticed. She scratched herself, and quite intensely at that. Then, closer, I saw that she even drew blood. Her neck was full of small scars. Dubious.
"It really… was that easy?" Now this wasn't a good look. She wasn't happy. She was distraught. I saw great darkness in her eyes. In the sense of depression. She reminded me of Alice.
"That's the least a hero can do."
"That's the least?" She felt frightened for some reason. Did she find this impressive? I guess we did minimize the destruction. It seemed bothersome so I ignored her reaction.
I patted her shoulder lightly as I kept going towards the next bus stop. Not my problem to deal with.
I didn't talk much with Pamela that night. She tried and failed to get in contact with Mike. What a loser. I spent the rest of the night glancing out of the window at the patrols.
"-William! William!" A slug to the side of the head took me out of my trance. Fuck. What a woman. "I said what are we going to do next. Can we trust Dr.Meyer?"
"Yeah, whatever."
"What do you mean? Go in detail? And why didn't you respond to your phone?"
"Because I don't care, fuck off Pamela. You're turning into a nagging bitch like Alice." That seemed to send her back. She tilted her head as if to swallow her own eyes. Hit personal huh...
"Look, I'm just worried here. Like this is THE big thing."
"Haah... So Meyer really is working on a way to kill Ultraman. He isn't a traitor. Matthew too seems to genuinely abhor the idea of 'the' man coming back so you don't need to worry about it. Now go away already. I'm tired."
"I'll try to arrange a meeting for the agency leaders tomorrow so you get that task off your back." Wow, way to go Pamela.
She went away for a few seconds, but returned and shoved her face before me to get my attention.
"Is it true you were involved in that gas station thing earlier?"
"What of it" I felt like I was getting older with every second. Perhaps Pamela will manage to break my curse.
"Nothing." Then she started grinning. "I didn't think you had it in you anymore". She left me alone afterwards, but I felt like I was the one who lost the conversation.
I stayed like that a few more minutes before getting changed.
Sleeping in the same bed still feels bizarre. Not that she gives me too much attention, Pamela developed an addiction to scrolling, but it is the fact she does it so casually. We sit side by side as if it was the most normal thing in the world. The only woman I remember doing that with was Alice, but she took it much more seriously. She constantly fretted about how I felt and all that nonsense. When I can barely even feel.
I think she actually envisioned a future with me. Sad. For me or for her? These days I don't know. It's clear I don't need Alice for any absolute reason, but is this really how to see it? What did she give me exactly? Help m in some fights, but also dragging me in others? Haah.
Pamela's next words startled my thoughts.
"A hero ehh?" She said giggling. It may have been something on her phone, but I knew exactly what she intended with that remark.
"Shut up." This earned a small laugh.
What could I even rebuke with?
Now that I think about it, couldn't Pamela use her spirit powers to calm my mind from those nightmares? Ehh, they would probably be too much. If Sasha was skinned alive, then I don't have many expectations from Pamela who holds even less control.