Union of the Sun
First Dawn City
Sunrise Court
The Chairman’s eyes narrowed. “Are you certain he is going to save them?”
“Yes, Chairman. He seems to have accepted the pleas of the people,” the Chairman of Insight said, averting his eyes.
The Chairman of Military slowly turned the tablet in his hand towards the desk. “Chairman, he is starting another livestream."
He stroked his long beard, leaning forward. “Let me see.” His cerulean blue eyes locked on the screen. The Adventurer, having changed his green sweatshirt for a cream-colored one, was moving through a prison.
“Psst, hey,” he called out to one of the humans behind metal bars.
“That is Lieutenant Silene, Lieutenant Tomoe’s second in command,” Zarol supplied. Oda nodded, continuing to watch.
“You?!” she hissed, looking around wildly. “What are you doing here?”
“Rescuing you guys, duh,” he said.
“Listen, they took our commander for questioning. Knowing these bastards, they won’t be just asking questions nicely,” she said, gesturing to the left side of the prison block, towards the door.
Oda’s eyes widened slightly before narrowing. He eventually settled into a frosty look, watching the livestream.
“Alright, I’ll get you all out first and go find her.”
“She has really vibrant orange hair; you can’t miss her.”
“Got it,” he said, opening a portal behind her. She went through after a moment, and it quickly closed behind her. One by one, he rescued the soldiers in each cell before leaving to seek the missing commander.
—
Unknown Planet
He slid on the floor towards two soldiers, ignoring the shots going through him. He flipped forward at the last second, landing on his hands, spinning with his legs spread. His breakdance broke their helmets. Both aliens hit the metal wall with enough strength to pass out. He bent his arms, launching himself up, phasing through the door.
He slid on his knees this time, almost stopping in front of another alien. He used his left hand to spin at the last second, breaking the alien’s knee with his kick. He pushed himself to his feet without losing a beat, a spinning kick to the head sending the alien away before he could fall.
He saw two aliens on the edge of his vision, switching places with one, letting him take the shot. He bent his head to the left and then to the right, dodging the stock of the alien’s gun. He sidestepped the lunge, catching the snow-white-skinned alien by the arms, spinning him like a ballet dancer. He guided the disoriented alien towards the last soldier.
The alien hesitated, unable to get a clear shot.
Kael struck just as the dancer fell to the ground, ripping the weapon out of his hands. The alien didn’t let it stop him, whirling for a punch, his whole body twisting for maximum force. He raised his arm, hand spread, forearm catching the alien’s arm. He twisted his arm, pressing the alien’s elbow forward, and slammed his palm on his throat.
He watched the snow-white gag.
Kael let the arm go and followed with three quick punches. They were humanoid in shape, so he went for where the weak points on a human body would be. One to the liver had the alien almost pass out. Another on the diaphragm and the last one to the heart had the alien fall to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
He dusted his hands, about to phase through the next door when it opened with more soldiers coming through. He didn’t stop, launching himself towards them. He was a blur, appearing right above their heads. He wrapped his legs around the head of one, hands planted on the ground, launching him to the wall. The sound of cracking bone was accompanied by a thud as the alien fell.
He was quick to turn around, pushing two weapons away from himself while planting a kick on the chest of the third alien. He felt something give as the alien flew back. The remaining two aliens stumbled, still holding onto their weapons. He let the weapons go, pivoting on the spot. His right foot struck the alien’s head, causing him to hit his head first against the wall. He continued spinning, the same foot nailing the other alien right beneath the jaw with even more force, snapping the head back.
He spun three more times, each time hitting the same places. The last strike launched one of the aliens up to the ceiling while smashing the front half of the other’s helmet along with his face.
His scanners found the sole human lifeform at the end of the corridor. The sound of footsteps at his back showed more aliens rushing inside. He jerked his head to the side, ordering the camera to not stream this angle. He thrust his hand forward, breaking the fabric of space at several points. The wave hit the aliens, breaking each body to dozens of pieces. The viscera and the red blood churned his stomach for a moment before he turned away.
He sprinted to the door, seeing three more aliens inside. He leaped forward once more, catching two of the aliens by the arm, pulling them with him. They all phased through the wall on the opposite side, but only he came back out.
Right under the last alien.
He climbed up the sinking body like an undead springing from the ground, flipping one more time and using the alien’s head as a springboard. The indecipherable screams of the snow white disappeared as he bent forward, one leg behind the other. His right arm was laid across his chest, and his left one was stretched to the side.
—
Across Haven, hundreds of millions of citizens watching the livestream, whether it was the dead of the night or the work hours, screamed out in cheer.
—
Kael stopped his theatrics, seeing the labored breathing of the soldier. He phased the cuffs out of her arms, gathering her up in his arms. A portal later, he was back on Taglion, right where the soldiers were lost.
—
Taglion
Outskirts of the Dwarftree Forest
The RIC members waited on sight for the last missing soldier. Minutes ago, twenty-two members of the twenty-three lost souls had arrived. Only the field commander was nowhere to be seen.
“Medic, wounded soldier here,” a voice they all knew came from another portal. Weapons were snapped up and safeties were turned off in an instant. The familiar motions, engraved on their minds thousands of times, were hard to ignore. Fortunately, no one fired without an order.
“Lower your weapons,” Silene ordered, pushing the medic tending to her aside.
The Adventurer came out of the portal, Tomoe in his arms. Her heart dropped, seeing her black-and-blue face. Medics acted faster than her, rolling a stretcher forward. They secured her immediately, checking her condition.
“No concussion,” one reported, shining light into her blood-red eyes. Breathing labored, possible broken ribs, no obstruction in the airways. Call the helicopter down; she needs immediate med-evac.”
The radio operator did as ordered, but he stopped her.
“Where exactly do you guys want to take her? Let me help; it’ll be faster.”
“RIC Central. Can you get us right outside the base?” he asked. They had the best facilities to treat her. As the technically highest-ranking soldier on the premises, he had the right to make the decision.
Saving a life mattered more than whatever grumblings his superiors may have.
Kael nodded as a portal opened right near the stretcher. The soldiers didn’t hesitate, wheeling her forward.
—
RIC Central Base
As the medics wheeled the injured soldier forward, he disappeared out of sight. He had done all he could. There was no need to linger around anymore. Not unless he wanted to give anyone some funny ideas.
—
First Dawn City
Sunrise Court
“Chairman, Lieutenant Nishimura will live, but she will need time to recover," Takashi said, pulling on the neck of his robe. He could finally breathe with ease now that the lieutenant herself was safe.
“Good,” Oda replied, leaning back on his chair. His form slacked, which gave the Chairman of Insight and Chairman of Military the sign to relax as well.
Both were surprised when they were called to the Court. Over the issue of a lieutenant swallowed by an anomalous rupture, no less. The Chairman’s reaction was too much, too personal.
Both chalked it up to his past friendship with the High Priestess.
“I want reports on her health whenever something important comes up,” he ordered, dismissing both with a wave of his hand. They bowed and left the chamber. Oda waited for the door to close before letting himself sink into his chair. He reached for the top drawer, pulling out two photos. His fingers caressed each one. The ghost of a smile on his face turned into a frown as he put them back.
He looked down, seeing his beard and mustache reach his navel, past the preferred length. He hung his head, calling his barber while his mind was still stuck on the event.
—
Glassport
Thairon worked, but every few seconds, he stopped. Logically, he knew she would be alright. What he didn’t and couldn’t do was to let his worry go. Whenever he was worried, he made the cause of it disappear one way or another.
Mostly through violence.
Kael had already killed the aliens responsible for Tomoe’s state. He couldn’t simply return and butcher them all in revenge. Beyond trying to put a lid on his fury, he didn’t know where he would stop. The singularity generator had proven itself already. A moment of lapse in his judgment could see him do something even he might regret.
He couldn’t heal her because it would bring undue attention to both of them. The three stooges had already scrambled all their available resources to find the creator of the Early Rupture Warning System. It had also extended into Kael, though discretely. They weren’t stupid enough to think they could contain him.
Medical nanobots that could heal a person in Tomoe’s condition to perfect health in hours would make her a target too.
So here he was, working to occupy his mind. His inability to do more than send rescue three hours after the event was irritating him. The rupture had spread to hundreds of universes in minutes. Detecting which universe the missing soldiers had disappeared to took most of that three hours.
It was akin to searching for the correct needle among a box of them, all without knowing which one to look for.
Nax popped next to him. “Boss, why don’t you take the day off? You are in no state to work.”
“And do what?” he asked, putting the molecular welder aside.
“Get ice cream? Take a walk? It will be a while before she is allowed to receive visitors,” he said, pulling the initial report on Tomoe’s state. Three broken ribs, face swollen, fractures in her cheekbones, and she has a host of bruises.
“Wait, you are receiving a call. It's the High Priestess. Audio only,” Nax said, bringing a secondary smaller screen with her name on it.
“Answer it,” he said.
“Good morning. It is morning there, right?” she asked after a moment of hesitation.
“It is. Good morning to you too.”
“This Adventurer,” she tested the word on her tongue, “he is your family, right?”
“Yes, my youngest brother.”
There was a sigh, slow but light. “Then I owe you a debt I can never repay. I am about to take a plane to Meltral. They will let me see her tomorrow as soon as she is awake. I will register you as a family friend if you wish so you can visit too,” she said. He could hear the relief in her every word, as well as the gratitude.
He smiled. “That would be great. I’ll see you there.” He ended the call, dismissing the screens with a thought.
“Pull up the data on the rupture. I want to see what made it go haywire.” It was the first ever recorded instance of a rupture opening into different dimensions in quick succession like this. There had to be a reason for it.
“No vacation then?” Nax asked, creating a holoscreen. “Too much stress on the transdimensional barriers. I detected this pulse of energy spreading from the initial rupture.”
To represent the different universes, Nax assigned each one a color. A log on a smaller screen showed the moment the pulse changed its frequency. The white pulse changed as it came into contact with the micro-ruptures, taking the same color.
“Adaptive harmonics? No wonder it broke the barrier into several different universes. If the energy hadn’t run out, this could have been a lot worse,” he said. It had seeped into different micro-ruptures, moving at the same frequency, causing them to energize and erupt.
“True,” Nax said. As long as the energy stream continued, so would the ruptures open one after the other.
“Should we investigate?” Nax asked. The aliens, ones Kael had named "snow-white," were the ones responsible. Their aggressive nature could mean another event like this. Especially if they realize what they did in the first place.
“Maybe. What did the soldiers who returned report? They must have seen something in that dimension. Anything could help him find the source of this anomaly.
“Nothing has been entered into the systems yet. What I picked up on the comm traffic says the soldiers found themselves outside a complex, one different from the prison. They were all knocked out by the aliens and couldn’t tell the distance.”
“Call Sky and Kael.”
The data screen split in half, the faces of his brothers taking over seconds later. “Hey/Sup,” they greeted in their own way.
He nodded. “Are you two busy? Anything important to do?”
“No,” Sky said while Kael shook his head side to side.
“Great, then I need you two to go where Kael found the missing soldiers and investigate something,” he said. He was already sending what data Nax had gathered to their bracelets. He wanted to go himself, but it would just cause his fury to flare.
Kael scratched his head. “What exactly are we investigating?” The soldiers were all safe; the rupture had closed by itself. What was left back there?
“An energy pulse is what made the rupture behave so violently. I want you to find its source and possibly eliminate it,” he said.
Sky crossed his arms, nodding along. “Cool. How do we find it?” He was getting bored as he had already dealt with all the assassins after Ethan's family.
“I’ll give you a scanner. The energy readings are specific enough. As long as you are within twenty kilometers of the origin, you should be able to find it.”
“Before I forget, no livestreaming this,” he said to Kael, pointing a finger at him.
Kael deflated. “Got it.” He had already had enough fun as it is. He could do without letting any secrets out.
“Then move out. The sooner this is solved the better.”
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