Chapter 160 - Attack On Harker
At the main entrance of the school, hundreds of cars were rolling inside the large entrance. Despite the chaotic amount of students and some parents dropping off their kids, the flow was largely smooth and quick.
Cars would come to a halt and students would depart of the car, as the car would circle at the roundabout and exit, while another lane was used for incoming students to park.
The train station on the other side of this building had a continuous flow of people coming in and out. And the rooftop of this building would have several hovercrafts landing. Students and teachers also used these transportations.
It was then that at the main entrance, a car circled and dropped off a student.
A beautiful figure emerged. She wore the school uniform, but it looked like it was meant for her. Her hair was no longer tied up cleanly but beautifully flowed behind her as she walked.
Lara's arrival at school had drawn attention. This was because instead of her usual low-key entrance, Lara was just blooming and could not hide the smile on her face.
"It's her!" A Royal alerted his friends. The world seemed to have stopped to anyone who saw her.
Some held their breath in amazement, some in anger or envy while others observed her because of who she was.
"How is it that no one noticed her these past days?" A student scheduled to serve as one of the Student Soldier Officer Corp on that day mumbled.
There was some mystery circulating with Lara these past few days. Although it was known that a Diamon had enrolled in her school, finding her was extremely difficult. Even after classes, the students who wanted to talk to her would be troubled and would find her simply vanishing.
It was even unnoticed how she would enter the school. For several students had awaited and were trying to contact this student but she would just somehow vanish and appear right in the middle of class and mysteriously vanish once more.
Worst were the rumors of the perceived friendship between a Diamon and Novelty-Blastoise. Even those with a Novelty or a Blastiose family name had strange expressions hearing this.
Several of the Royals were cautiously approaching. Their fellow Royals who were also their enemies politically or in the business world were all watching after all.
"I'm looking for Seeker." Lara suddenly asked a soldier who was stationed near the entrance. Unlike the other student soldiers, this was an actual soldier of rank.
"Pa-Pardon?" The soldier was surprised.
"I have an invite. Ask your superior." Lara maintained a smile.
The people who overheard the conversation was stunned.
"Uh… Give me a moment, Miss Diamon." The soldier excused himself and used her radio transmitter to contact those inside the base.
"What a show-off. It's just been one day and you're already parading the fact that he's your boyfriend." A soft giggle as heard.
Lara turned to happily greet her friend.
"Oh, stop spreading rumors. I am a fan after all. I have to use my connections to meet a superstar like him after all." Lara laughed.
Charm walked close to her with her usual plain and unremarkable look. Though she was beautiful, compared to the basic enhancements that most Royals use, she was a tier lower.
Yet there was something different with Charm. Lara also smiled.
"Oh? Looks like you've had more success than I have. How far were you able to go?"
Charm's expression grew ugly as she gave Lara an angry look.
Lara simply laughed and ignored her words. She knew what that look implied.
"I'll take it from here." A figure emerged out of a high-profile car that had immediately moved along.
It was him.
The majestic, glorious, unparalleled, undisputed, illustrious, eye-popping, eyebrow-raising, breath-taking, heart-stopping, spine-chilling, most amazing General of the Heroes Army, Harker Cipril. The Light of Pangea.
"Ge-General!" The soldier immediately saluted.
"I've heard from Seeker. And you must be Novelty-Blastoise? Come with me as well. I must discuss something with you." Harker turned and glanced at Charm.
Harker spoke coldly as he did not bother to look at the two and moved on.
Lara had a strange glint in her face. As if she was extremely wary of Harker.
It was at that moment that an alarm resounded.
Somewhere near the train station, a human figure had jumped off from the fifth floor and used a compact RPG to launch a rocket towards the main entrance of the building. It was aiming for the vehicle that Harker was riding.
It was all too sudden. The anti-air missiles started using heat lasers to force the rocket to explode in the air, but it was to no avail.
The rocket flew quickly towards the area and suddenly, it changed direction.
"A guided missile!" A soldier had noticed it. It was headed for Harker!
Harker frowned and rushed forward and held the two women near him by the arm near their shoulder and gave each a powerful push.
The force that Harker exhibited was surreal as the two were thrown off in the distance. Harker was now moving further back as the rocket chased.
BOOM!
The missile exploded even before it made impact.
"General!" The soldier nearby cried at the sight of the explosion.
Lara and Charm were sliding a few meters back and started tumbling on the ground when the explosion occurred.
"The General!' Charm cried as well.
The soldier near the entrance was running towards the debris of the explosion.
"Don't! It has Pangean eradication! If you go there, you'll only get burned!" Lara shouted almost reflexively.
The soldier was startled. In that moment of hesitation, he could see a figure standing amid the flames.
"At ease soldier." The voice commanded. Instead of his normal voice, it was clear that his voice was amplified with something.
The stalwart figure of Harker was revealed. But this time, it was no longer human.
"What the…?" Charm was confused.
"Magnetic technology…? Impossible." Lara was confused.
An exoskeleton that was smaller than the usual ones was revealed. The armor was only slightly bigger than the usual suits that the EAA exoskeletons had. It was coated in a pitch-black coating.
The strange thing is, several dark round metals continued to hover right in front of the exoskeleton.
"Find me the bastard who launched that rocket in my school!" Harker's cold and angry voice echoed.
"Soldier, send Miss Diamon and Novelty-Blastoise to my office now." Harker then ordered the soldier nearby.
Reddish light started to burst out at the back of the Exoskeleton. With a loud burst, Harker flew towards the sky.
Lara and Charm remained as confused as ever.
"How? That was Chinese Technology!?" Lara shouted in disbelief.
"Miss Diamon, Miss Novelty-Blastoise. Please come with me." The soldier immediately spoke to the two.
Meanwhile, Harker was currently floating on air.
"Where is the attacker?" Harker gave a soft cry. As if he forgot to turn off the switch, or perhaps it was because of the sudden attack, Harker's words, as well as the incoming transmissions he was receiving, were being broadcasted by his suit.
"General! We found him!"
"Show it to me!"
"I can't, sir! We haven't established the satellite link yet and your suit is still utilizing basic data! It will take minutes for your suit to download the videos!"
"Are you saying that this suit is equipped with poor download speeds?"
"…Yes."
"Broadcast the feed on the school projector," Harker ordered.
Suddenly, the feeds around the school which showed the school announcements, ads and so on started to reveal a feed of the building in front of the train station.
A figure was seen sprinting on the top of the rooftop of the train station. With precise parkour moves, it jumped from the top of the roof and started using the pillars, ledges of the building and even some of the over-ground cables as a foothold.
It had a strange mask that seemed to be made of metal. It was clothed in a greyish colored armor that was cama camouflaged with the building's color scheme. The strange thing was, as it moved, the color of it's were changing as well.
Suddenly, it jumped from the fifth floor and was reaching for the sky as if it was catching something.
A black, metallic, cylindrical object suddenly fell from the skies and then the falling figure caught it.
Even though the figure jumped from the fifth floor, the landing was followed by a graceful roll. The compact object was immediately used to launch the missile that attacked Harker.
"I see. It used some sort of magnetic catapult to throw that small object high up in the air. That's how it bypassed the detection of our security. With such skills, it must be a modified human. Soldiers, capture that assassin. He must be with that organization opposing the World Governing Powers." Harker suddenly flew towards the direction the assassin was seen running to after launching the rocket.
Harker flew high as several alarms were heard throughout the city.
"Alert! Danger level moved to Level 3! All residents must comply!" An announcement was made all throughout the city.
Panic immediately ensued.
Exoskeletons were immediately seen flying.
Harker's suit remained as the center of attention as it stood quite differently from before.
Suddenly, a larger version of Harker's exoskeleton appeared. This was the pseudo-armor that Harker used when he captured Hydron and the other officials.
It flew towards Harker as it started to open up. The two merged together and Harker controlled the mighty Exoskeleton.
People around the city who witnessed that suddenly cheered. It was as if they were excited to see what would happen.
"People of Pangea! An attack has been attempted on my life. A modified human used uncanny methods and launched a guided RPG in school to kill me. Of course, I expected this. Images of the attacker will soon be broadcasted throughout the city. Your comm devices will receive our ping. If you see this person, notify us by selecting the ping you will see broadcasted."
"Incoming attack!" Suddenly, a soldier cried as it detected several heat signatures approaching him.
A single Exoskeleton zoomed in the sky as several beams of bright-green lights were raining down on them.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The attacks rained down but a strange metallic shied flew off to take the incoming attack.
"Those attack patterns… I see. Australia, huh?" Harker suddenly gave a manic laugh. It was full of anger and hatred, but at the same time, those who heard could discern a sense of excitement.
"Come! Hero of Helion's Tragedy! I'll be sure to kill you!" Harker flew off towards the Exoskeleton and a shocking battle occurred overhead.
Meanwhile… At an unremarkable alley, Cliff suddenly appeared. He had used his suit to camouflage once more and waited when everyone's attention was on Lander. After firing the rocket and escaping, Lander immediately drew the attention of the world by appearing and attacking Harker.
"Nice! How casual! Too bad I was around. Otherwise, you would have fooled the world." A narcissistic laugh was heard. A young tanned man who was noticeably shorter than most walked up to greet Cliff.
"Nice suit too! Man! Those look like Australian tech… But those changes. Isn't that SPU technology? Are those two allying to kill Harker?" The young man laughed.
The young man approached the masked Cliff and revealed his gun.
Speaking in a volume and a speed that no human could comprehend, Cliff called out.
"It is as Seeker expected. Someone came. Who is this?"
"What an interesting development. That should be one of the top class families in Pangea. That man before you is an enigma. A mystery even in his family. But he should be the real leader of that family." Halley Vagrant responded in the same volume but she could not quite catch up with Cliff's talking speed.
BANG!
Cliff dodged as the man shot him. Suddenly, the bullet exploded in mid-air and changed direction. The surprised Cliff was too slow and the bullet pierced through his shoulder.
"Oh? No armor? Well… makes sense. If you were wearing any armor, the sensors around that school should have detected it. Impressive. You were doing all of this without any techs?" The young man started looking at his comm device and a replay of Cliff's attacks was revealed.
"Novelty-Blastoise?" Cliff asked Halley secretly.
"Are you alright? No. They are the strongest overall. But if we are to talk about specifics… say in the arts of covert warfare and assassination, that family is at the peak. He must be the heir to that family The Protector of the Provinces."
"Protector of the Provinces?"
"You should really listen to your history teachers. Focus on the battle first. I'll explain later."
The young man lifted up his pistol and started to smile.
"Gardo Dalisay. Protector of the Provinces." The young man smiled.
Cliff dove in and attack.
The young man started to shoot several rounds of bullets.
Using his extreme memories, Cliff had recalled the trajectory of how the bullet attacked him first.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The bullets exploded once more, but the direction of the bullets did not follow the first bullet's trajectories and small shrapnel's erupted everywhere.
Cliff covered his head and ducked and rolled, his speed was fast but he was still caught by the attacks.
"Hold up, gang! You haven't introduced yourself!" Gardo complained.
Cliff paused after recovering.
"If you haven't noticed…" Cliff spoke in a distorted tone as he was taking in a few deep breaths.
The wounds he received were all shallow.
"I'm an agent. Why would I introduce myself to you?"
"Come on! When I kill you, I have to report what title you have. Just make something up!" Gardo waited as he crossed his arms and waited impatiently.
"Halley?" The confused Cliff called to Halley.
"Why are you asking me?! Didn't you have a little gang back them? What did you guys call yourselves? Use that!" Halley cursed.
"Alright." Cliff then turned towards Gardo and readied a battle pose.
"Small Time Drug Dealers." Cliff introduced himself.
SLAP!
Halley's face-palm could be heard by Cliff.
"Small Time Drug Dealers?" Gardo asked in confusion.
"Shall we continue fighting?"
"Whatevs' Small Time D-D. When I kill you, I'll just say that you are the Rocket Assassin. Give me a good fight! You should be the third modified human I faced. The last two were pretty boring…"
"I'm not a modified human." Cliff shook his head.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Several gunshots were made as Gardo once more shot another volley of bullets.
The bullets were all strange. Each had a different shape. Each had a different effect. The randomness and the uniqueness of each bullet had made the Dalisay family capable of standing their ground against SPU technology. Their forces gave Pangea time to unite and launch a counter-attack. Against humans, this weapon was terrifying.
Cliff stood motionlessly and used his unique memory to review things again. Unknowingly, Cliff didn't know the vast importance of what he could now do through his memory. Because if Seeker or Arthur and even Lennox knew of it, they would have made terrible experiments on him.
Cliff had now entered his own world.