Chapter 133: Sage

"Monsters?" Overdrive asked with a frown.

[Yeah,] Cyrus responded, [check it out yourself.]

A moment later, multiple CCTV feeds appeared on Overdrive’s visor, and just as Cyrus said, strange monsters were attacking the city.

"Is this the Ring’s doing?" He asked with a frown still on his face.

[I’m uncertain,] Cyrus responded, [but Rose was saying something about a new member joining the Argent Ring; perhaps this is their Factor?]

As far as he had read, nothing like this had happened in the comics, so what had.....

Ah, that’s right.

Overdrive pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. "This is probably my fault."

As much as he didn’t care about following the Canon of the comics, he had interfered so much that everything was now a mess.

"Did Rose manage to get a name?" If his guess was correct, then...

[Yeah,] Cyrus answered, [they went by Quill....I think.]

"Yeah, I really did mess up the timeline, didn’t I?" Overdrive muttered to himself before letting out an exhausted sigh.

[...]

Cyrus, on the other hand, was quite confused, wondering if Zero was some sort of time traveler... that would make a lot of sense, but he didn’t say it out loud.

Liam, unaware of his agent’s thoughts, was still lost in his own thoughts. Quill was Radiance’s personal villain, one that was definitely not supposed to appear just yet.

Radiance’s showdown with Quill was the last issue of the comic book Zero had read before that night.

Which meant that the hitman had virtually nothing on that Villain- well, only the fact that they seemed female, but that was it.

Her Factor was also something that would be quite difficult to fight against.

"No use thinking about it now," Overdrive said, "we’ll solve that later; for now, let’s focus on the people in danger."

[Right,] Cyrus said again, [I’ll send you their locations.]

***

It didn’t take Overdrive long to encounter the first monster, and he immediately noticed something strange.

The energy he was sensing from them was the same as the one from Victor’s experiments, and from what he could recall, Victor’s lab was long gone.

But given Quill’s involvement with the Argent Ring and her Factor, it was quite possible that she might have been responsible for this.

The monster was an overgrown rabbit...well, that was an understatement, given that it was now standing upright and was over ten meters tall, dwarfing Overdrive.

On its fur were large purple pulsating veins that ran all the way to its eyes that were now just purple glowing orbs.

Its eyes locked on Overdrive, and without warning, it launched itself towards him.

BOOM!

Its massive paw slammed into him, launching him into a building, but before the rabbit could follow up, a voice came from behind it,

"Quite the greeting; guess I should respond in kind."

Before it had the chance to turn around, a fist slammed into its face, launching it into the same building.

Overdrive landed and looked at his arms; they still stung from the rabbit’s attacks, which he had only barely managed to block.

If he had to rank that thing, he’d say it was probably at high Gamma rank, perhaps even beta.

[Heads up,] Cyrus interrupted his thoughts just in time, allowing him to quickly jump back and the next second,

BOOM!

A cloud of dust was kicked up where he previously stood, and from within said dust the rabbit jumped out.

Overdrive quickly lifted his arms, blocking its feet, but the attack launched him into multiple buildings this time.

[You okay?] Cyrus asked as Overdrive lay beneath a pile of rubble, his vision swimming from the attack.

"Of course not," he said, pushing the bricks off him, "where the hell do those things learn to fight? Some kind of animal dojo?"

He stood up and wiped off the blood running down his nose. Overdrive then boosted both his speed and strength as he launched himself out of the building.

The rabbit, walking towards the hole in the wall, was suddenly met with a fist to the face that launched it backwards.

But Overdrive was far from done, as the next second, he was already upon it again, and his fist slammed into its head, sending it towards the opposite direction.

Unfortunately, before he had the chance to attack for the third time, the rabbit suddenly opened its mouth and from within came a blast of purple energy.

Overdrive was forced to retreat, and that allowed the rabbit enough time to recover.

[What the hell was that?] Cyrus asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"I have no idea," he responded with a shrug, "but Victor’s experiments could do the same, so I’m guessing the other monsters can too."

[I’ll warn the heroes around.]

"Hmm," Overdrive nodded and focused back on the rabbit that now had smoke coming from its mouth.

The next second, the monster launched itself forward.

BOOM!

Overdrive disappeared from his position just as the rabbit crashed into the street, creating a massive crater.

He reappeared several meters away and immediately rushed toward it.

The rabbit swung its massive arm toward him but he simply ducked underneath the attack before driving his fist into its side.

BOOM!

The impact sent the rabbit sliding across the street, but it quickly dug its claws into the ground and stopped itself.

"You’re pretty tough," he muttered.

The rabbit suddenly opened its mouth again, immediately causing his guard to go up.

"Not falling for that twice."

Overdrive then started running in a wide circle around the monster, accelerating faster than the monster could follow.

The rabbit turned its head, trying to follow him, but he was already moving too quickly for it to keep up.

The glow within its mouth had reached its peak, but as it readied to release it in every direction at once, a fist suddenly approached its chin and the next second,

BOOM!

The rabbit couldn’t react quickly enough to avoid the fist, so the attack forced its mouth closed just before it could launch the beam, causing the explosion to go off in its mouth, blasting its head off.

"Please don’t be some sort of Zombie too," Overdrive muttered, keeping his fingers crossed as he looked at the headless corpse of the rabbit fall to the ground.

[I think it’s de— Watch out!] Cyrus shouted ad something suddenly appeared behind Overdrive.

Unfortunately, the hero wasn’t given enough time to react and all he could do was watch the massive hand approach.

"I finally found you, Zero," a voice caused him to turn around, and he soon realized that the giant hand had froze in place.

Standing between him and the monster was a bald man with an orange blindfold on. He had a gentle aura to him, but Overdrive felt his entire body freeze at his presence.

ROAR!!!

"Ah," the blindfolded man turned back to the monster, a mutated gorilla, "allow me to handle this one first."

The man then gently pushed the large hand away, causing the monster to stumble before he walked towards it and placed a hand on one of its legs.

The next second,

BOOM!

A golden glow wrapped around the monster before it exploded, a giant palm print appearing on the building behind it.

"I was certain I held back," the bald man said as he ’looked’ at the palm print.

Liam, on the other hand, looked at the man in confusion. It only took him a few seconds to realize who he was.

Well, rather than realizing who the man was, it was more accurate to say that the bald man matched the description of someone.

Someone that Rose said was looking for Zero.

Still, Liam was currently Overdrive, so how the hell did the man recognize him as Zero?

"Now then," the man turned back to him, "shall we have a conversation, Zero..."

He the proceeded to walk close to Overdrive looked closely at him and said, "Not quite."

"Hmm?" Overdrive, regaining control of his body, said.

"Your Pragma is the same as Zero’s," the blindfolded man explained, "but at the same time, you’re not quite him, a clone perhaps?"

"..." Overdrive looked at him with a frown, wondering if his clone was that easy to see through.

"Don’t be alarmed, though," the man said, "I only know this because my eyes are quite special."

To prove his point, the man reached behind his blindfold, loosened it and took it off, revealing a pair of milky white irises and pupils.

With a sigh, Overdrive asked, "Who are you?"

"You may call me Sage."