Chapter 265: Signal

VR 265

"...You were meant to be the best of us."

With those words whispering into Riley"s ears; the only response he gave Empress was a slightly confused tilt of his head. He seemed to be thinking something as he glanced to the side, but after a few more seconds of this somewhat sudden silence, he opened his mouth.

"I am."

Riley muttered without even batting an eye, "I defeated Megawoman, Miss Empress. And Megawoman was the best for a hundred years, but now it is me."

"No…" Empress once again shook her head in frustration,

"...That"s not what I– This isn"t f.u.c.king happening!" Empress shouted before letting out a shrieking roar– causing the sea beneath them to violently ripple out and explode. "There… there were so many things I could have done. Even… even if I wasn"t able to stop Alice, I could have still adopted you instead of leaving you to a broken man. What… what was I even thinking leaving you to someone like Bernard?"

"Are you okay, Miss Empress?" Riley once again tilted his head as his confusion seemed to be reaching its peak, "Why are you worrying about the past?"

"Because the past is everything!" Empress once again let out her frustration with a sorrowful scream. As for Riley, he was just looking at Empress as if she was some sort of…

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"Could it be that you are also on the spectrum, Miss Empress?" Riley muttered as he slightly floated away from Empress, "At first you were wary and a little scared of me, then you were not. And now, you are speaking about the past and how you could have stopped me from becoming Darkday. Do you… perhaps have a personality disorder?"

"You–"

Empress was about to once again voice out her frustrations, but before she could do so, one of the golden bangles attached around her arms started to light up in red. And as soon as it did so, Empress pressed on her ear.

"...What"s the situation?" And although Empress"s tone was still a little distraught, her demeanor almost instantly changed as she seemed to be talking to someone on her radio.

"In Brazil? Yes, we"re near," Empress then said before taking a small glance at Riley, "Riley Ross. What do you mean why am I with him? I"m trying to orient him since he"s the newest member… Alright, send me all the details."

"Was that from the HQ, Miss Empress?" Riley then asked as soon as Empress dropped the call.

"...Yes," Empress was obviously still shaken from the conversation they just had. But still, any signs of her wanting to continue the conversation could no longer be seen as she tapped the blinking bangle on her arm; and as soon as she did so, it quickly released a hologram of a map,

"A villain is wreaking havoc in Brazil," Empress then said as she started flying away; and Riley, almost as if a rope was attached to him, followed Empress without any delay,

"Since you still don"t have any of our tools, just take a look. Let"s… continue our conversation some other time, saving the people takes priority above all else."

Empress then stretched her arm towards Riley as they continued to fly, showing him the hologram that contained the villain"s profile.

"Grade-C Supervillain?" Riley blinked a couple of times as he quickly scanned the data, "I thought Hope Guild only responded to a threat that needs their attention, Miss Empress?"

"...In usual cases, we wouldn"t really respond to this kind of call," Empress muttered, "...But this one seemed to have tamed a homunculus."

"...Homunculus?"

"The monsters– Megawoman"s clones," Empress nodded, "And they vary from Grade-B to Grade-A."

"And that needs your attention?" Riley voiced out his skepticism.

"Yes," Empress nodded, "Because, unlike humans, these homunculi only know how to kill people. Almost as if it"s their mission to just kill anything that even dares to whisper a breath."

"..." Riley no longer said anything as he followed Empress. The homunculi he fought back in Los Angeles, the young clones, and Aerith– it is true that they seemed to be actively killing any sign of movements.

But there was also the fact that most of them seemed to target him. Whatever Alistair Reuben did, these monsters were probably somehow programmed to kill him on sight.

So Grandmother Charlotte was right, Riley thought. If these clones are programmed to attack him, then the world has gotten much more enjoyable.

The two continued to fly through the skies in silence; with the only thing breaking it was the occasional explosions that came from the skirt of wind that bloomed from the two. And finally, after minutes more of their seemingly unending flight, they reached their destination– a country plagued by destruction.

"Your priority is to save people, Riley."

And with those words, Empress propelled and plunged herself down to the ground. And as soon as she did so, the people that were panicking and running momentarily stopped to look at her. They seemed to be wanting to say anything as their trembling and weary eyes stared at her.

And to this, Empress only had a single response,

"Run and get to safety. We"ll take it from here."

And they did, they all run; nodding their heads almost as if to thank Empress. Parts of Brazil… were already broken. As one of the sites in which Darkday and Megawoman fought, a tiny perfect of the country was almost wiped out entirely– similar to Toronto.

But unlike Toronto, however, there were still a lot of buildings intact. These buildings, however, were mostly abandoned and left behind. And because of that, the number of people that needed saving and to be evacuated elsewhere was at its lowest.

Even after more than a year, the city that Darkday decimated still has not recovered… and now, another problem arose for them– another monster, and this time, also aesthetically.

"..." Empress looked at the homunculus in front of her. Two large arms that reached the ground even while standing; a face that seemed to be attached to its chest.

Truly, a monster.

She then turned to look at the Grade-C Supervillain– a man that just… looked like any other man; inconspicuous, and daresay forgettable, Empress thought. The villain has the power to tame any kind of animal, raging from rodents to elephants.

He could probably kill the man with a single pebble, but since he seemed to be the only reason why the homunculus was not making it its life duty to kill the evacuating people.

"Tell the homunculus to stop moving," Empress then started to dialog with the Grade-C Supervillain, "Or I will be the one to force you to stop, Dominique."

"...Empress?" The Grade-C Supervillain could not help but take a step back, causing the homunculus to do the same, "Wait, I–"

"!!!"

And before the Grade-C Supervillain could finish his words, his entire body suddenly and instantly exploded; turning into a mist of blood along with the homunculus that was beside him.

"Threat neutralized, Miss Empress."

A short breath then whispered into Empress"s ears as Riley slowly descended beside her.

"Did… you just kill that man?" Empress almost stuttered as she turned her head towards Riley.

"Yes, Miss Empress," Riley nodded as he softly landed, "Since the fastest way for the civilians to return to safety is to eliminate the threat as soon as it"s given birth…

…but as you can see," Riley then pointed towards the blob of guts on the ground,

"The homunculus is already healing."

***

"...Hm?"

Inside a large hall that seemed to be filled with screens and computers, one of the people that were stationed in front of a computer lightly pushed himself away from the screen; his office chair, almost hitting the desk behind him as he did.

He then turned his head to both the desks beside his, only to see his colleagues not even noticing his sudden retreat.

"Am… I the only one seeing this?" The man then said as his feet crawled back; pushing the office chair back to his desk. He then squinted his eyes towards the screen; after a few more glances back and forth, however, his eyes started to widen.

"Unit 4B, requesting to center my display on the large screen!"

And as soon as he raised his hand; the large screen that was in front of all the desks and people started to display Unit 4B"s screen; garnering the attention of everyone within the large auditorium.

And it didn"t take long, however, before the people"s jaws and their headsets fell to the ground.

"What… is that thing?" A whisper then quietly echoed throughout the entire hall as they stare at the screen. The screen seemed to show a view of the darkness that surrounded the planet, outer s.p.a.ce.

And within that supposed darkness, was a thread of light– a large one.

"Could it be… an extraterrestrial s.p.a.ceship?"

The… large silhouette that was plastered with all sorts of light started to grow closer and closer… and soon, the screen just shut down.

"F… f.u.c.k," one of the workers stood up; almost causing his chair to fall, "Call... call anyone getting paid more than us! Tell... tell them...

"We… are finally getting visited."