Encounter

Chapter XIII �" Encounter

 

„Offensive maneuvers, go..!“

London said standing in submission while two tigers swiped from both his sides, they started tearing the crooked apart with great swiftness. It was no secret they had experience in combat.

 

„London!! Sir.. What do you need us to do!?“

Utakata said expecting London to send them into the fight.

 

„Go ahead..“

London said to Utakata slightly smirking, and gesturing to him to go into combat.

Utakata started running towards them, halfway through, London punched him in the neck and he fell.

 

*Cough

„What.. What was that for..! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?“

Utakata yelled at him loudly holding his neck tight.

 

„Pfft.. Because I aim to keep you alive..“

London said looking at the gore filled bloody scenes in front of him.

 

„What the hell does that mean!!? I was going to tear them apart!!“

Utakata yelled at him with teared up eyes.

 

„You were going to DIE brat.. What would you do? What.. Hit them.. Slap them..? You're pathetic.. You can't even metamorphose yet.. Reaching balance doesn't mean anything.. Just because you did so doesn't mean you can do anything yet..! You're a f*****g child.. Your body isn't endurant enough to be altered.. If you attempt to alter yourself now.. You might stay like that forever.. Or better yet.. You might metarmorphose into something inhuman.. Like one of those things!!“

London said roughly with Gateau morphing back into human form gesturing him that it's over. Utakata draw back to his friends that were sitting on the grass looking at it all.

 

„That's the third encounter in thirty minutes.. Things are looking bad..“

Gateau said dissapointingly.

 

„Yeah.. At this rate, reaching Aven will take days.. We need to step up our game..“

London said throwing away the cigarette and started walking in front with Gateau at his side, they approached a cliff, uncovering a beautiful sundown sight of the water plain- Uriel.

„Hmm.. I think I have an idea..“

London said smiling.

 

10 Minutes later

 

„What!? This is your idea!!?“

Len shouted at London while he was walking into the water.

 

„What are you suggesting brat number three?“

London said uninterested and annoyed walking deeper into the toxic water.

 

„WELL!! I thought you were going to turn into a giant eagle or dragon or something!! Not swimming across this giant bog of a river!!“

Len said aggresively and angrily put her hands together.

 

„Impossible.. Even if we've actually decided to do that, the Aven defense system is still armed. The cannons would fire at us upon detection, and I can't hold a field while not on the ground..“

London said with the water already at his neck.

 

„So wait! That means you actually can turn into a dragon? If you wanted?“

Sky asked with enthusiasm and his eyes shining.

 

„No.. There is no such thing.. Grendel can only metamorphose into beings whose DNA exists.. Meaning all living creatures on Earth.. Dragons are a part of fairy tales..“

London said while Sky's spark slowly dispersed and dissapointment arose. London spotted the sun going further beneath the mountain.

Seeing this, he submerged under the water and began walking.

 

„Im still not going in that infested swamp!!“

Len said looking the other way.

 

„GET IN THE DAMN RIVER KID!!!“

Nora said and pushed her in, she was the only one who knew how to swim from the group of friends. She looked at the rest aggresively and they all started walking in.

 

„Uta-san! We can't swim.. What do we do..“

Sky asked nervously shivering from the coldness they were entering.

 

„Swim..? Hahahaha.. Oh.. We're not swimming Sky.. We're walking..“

Suzaku spouted laughing loudly and smacking Owen across the back.

 

„Wait what!? You're suggesting we walk down there..!? We'll suffocate!!“

Len said in disbelief.

 

„KID!! Haven't you heard! Your lungs will repair themselves! It's a part of being like this, considering you already have Harmony in your system, your body will act on it's own to heal it's own self. You can't suffocate, it feels uncomfortable at first, but your lungs will repair themselves. And if you're scared of being mutated from this toxic waste, don't! Harmony is a natural predator and it kills every other bacteria or virus known to humankind! Now get inside the WATER!!“

Nora said and pushed them all beneath the surface, with London and everyone else already waiting on the bottom, he created a field of projected force surrounding the whole team, and the kids, who have just reached the bottom.

 

„Let me make something perfectly clear before we proceed.. We are now in Uriel.. A river used for toxic waster disposal of the nation of Aven.. After the war that is.. I have created this field for the sake of conversation.. For you that is.. I will not be able to speak until we surface.. This river leads to the pipeline of Aven.. I am not sure if the city's defenses are still proactive, or if there are any sorts hostilities inside of the walls.. Regardless, we will proceed through the pipeline, and reach the city centre from underground Aven, any stupid questions, ask Gateau or something.. Let's go..“

London said deeply breathing in and exhaling as they went through the river, seeing fish lightly bounce of the field of force, they were unimaginably large and strange looking, due to the toxic waste mutating their bodies.

 

„Mr. Gateau.. Why can't he talk?“

Sky asked innocently pointing at London.

 

„Because, he needs his mouth to breathe.. You see.. The Cosmic energy inside of him, takes almost whole of his body.. And the same energy allows him to sort of.. How should I put this uhh.. Shift the force of his surroundings.. Which means..  Cosmic energy is considered to be the aggresive type of energy, it's nature is destructive.. London uses it for things like this.. He uses it how Natural energy should be used.. His cousin, Tanaka Murakami.. Has the same ability, however.. Tanaka's ability isn't as nearly developed as London's.. So to sum things up, he can change the behaviour of air and space itself.. Amazing really..“

Gateau said looking admirably at London.

 

„Does he use it to fight?“

Utakata asked looking at the passing amphibious creatures.

 

„Im afraid no.. You see.. London doesn't fight.. For reasons I cannot tell you.. But if he actually did use the ability in open combat, it's complicatedness to use it often and his bad smoking habits, would highly damage his body..“

Gateau replied worried, swallowing saliva.

 

„Well.. How is that possible.. Breathing in and out.. How can he use it like that!?“

Len asked bluntly.

 

„To be quite honest.. I do not know how he actually manages to.. However, I do know how Tanaka uses it. He controlls it by body movement.. He thrusts the space projecting force in the direction of choice.. London however.. Has trained himself to being able to it by simply breathing and exhaling..“

Gateau said going through his arctic white hair.

 

„How fast can he utilize this power?“

Owen asked interested.

 

„As fast as I can breathe.“

London said from the point of the walking group, with the water splashing them due to his second of stopping to breathe. Gateau smiled towards Owen and nodded his head.

 

„We made it!“

Suzaku shouted to everyone, he went to climb the inside of a huge steel pipe and helping the others reach it, London climbed up last, as soon as his feet reached the bottom of the pipe, he spoke.

 

„Quiet! It's something! Gateau!“

London swiftly turned to Gateau.

 

„Hehe.. This place smells like your apartment Brooks..“

Winter said under the tight grip of a gasmask system integrated into his Universal gear. They were approached Grendel with showing no apparent interest to them simply standing here.

 

„They can't..“

 

„Shh..“

Ethalya interrupted Sky and put her hand onto his mouth.

 

„Hash.. You sure this was a good idea? Going through this shithole makes me wanna kill Brooks..“

Winter looked towards his teammate scanning the area for threats.

 

„Seemed the best course of action.. If we proceed through here, it's a valuable advantage. Like this, we are able to approach Aven stealthly, with no detection, gives us an edge..“

Kruger replied through the mask quietly listening for water flows, they were searching for a way to reach the exterior.

 

„See this ladies? This is a f*****g strategist.. This is f*****g soldier, with kerosene and lightning flowing through his veins.. And just to keep your sorry asses safe..“

Winter looked back at the team with a smirk.

 

„'Cept he can't tell his kid a normal bed time story.. Hehehe“

Kahn said laughing sarcastically.

 

„Kahn.. Shut up and hold onto yer plastic..“

Winter turned his head quickly back to the demolitions expert.

 

„True.. Every word of it.. Im so f*****g stuck, I can't even tell Gaige a fairy tale or something.. Don't even remember.. All I knew was the f*****g origin of Atlas.. For all I know.. When Im gone.. She'll have nothing left but continue my f*****g line of work.. Hate my guts for that..“

Kruger replied with a sorrowful voice. Winter kicked a pipe and it started emitting flowing noises.

 

„You think that...“

He was interrupted by a sudden water splashed, in the forward largest pipe. They stood into position and pointed their assault rifles towards the source of the sound. Feeling anxious, London grabbed Utakata under his arm and shut his mouth, holding with an inhuman grip.

 

„What the f**k..“

Kahn said looking left and right for the source of the sound. Right after that, a shadow appeared on the wall in the cornering pipe, a human shadow.

 

„Hold it!!“

Kruger said turning his rifle to the right pipe. A minute passed, and through the flow of water, appeared a rat going through the light stream. Passing by them, and going into a rathole.

 

„Ahh.. Guys.. I think we're a bit anxious.. It was a frog.. Could've sworn I saw a bigger shadow though..“

Brooks said being relieved that they were out of potential danger.

 

„What are we even packin' these for.. Shouldn't a f*****g pea shooter do the trick.. I mean.. We're just going along to kill a couple of eavesdroppers.. Not like we're fightin' a war..“

Kahn said while yawning and pointing at his rifle. Kruger knocked at the center pipe going upwards, realized.

 

„Kahn.. Right here..“

Kahn moved to set up plastic explosives onto the pipe, they moved away and blew it with no water bursting out of it, it was dry.

 

„Alright gents.. Let's get some air.. Time to make some use of all this..“

Winter said showing himself strapped in the Universal gear. Their backsides dislodged and wing shaped stabilizers conjoined, with a plasma powered generator connected to them.

 

„When we reach the top.. Blow it shut..“

 

„Got it Frost!!“

Kahn replied back to him, they kneeled down, jumped starting to thrust themselves upwards unti they surface into the center of Aven.

 

„LET'S GO RIGHT NOW!! THE WOMEN, STAY DOWN HERE!! EVERYONE MALE!! RIGHT NOW!!“

London shouted and grabbed Utakata under the waist carrying him, Gateau grabbed Sky, and Suzaku- Owen. They started skipping upwards the pipe, with high frequency explosive armament sounds going off below them, followed by the explosions, the pipe shattered with massive steel breaking sounds, echoing throught the endless labyrinths of the former Aven pipeline system. Leaving the female part of the group, trapped underneath.

 

As soon as they reached the surface, two giant steel clamps imprisoned them in their interior. The giant Harvester, stood up, opening it's mouth, revealing the group trapped inside in fast freezing chrome colored gel.

 

 

„F**k.. We got 'em.. Nice work Hash..“