Ch 02 Click Click Boom

Chapter 2

Click Click BOOM

The wait inside the elevator was not really helping Azuki's nerves.

Fortunately, the League had not installed the typical waiting room music in it, because otherwise she would have blown up Bridge 12 herself.

Her arms were crossed, in what her "Therapist" would have called a "clearly closed-off posture" opening up only when her right hand brought the cigarette to her lips, from which she took increasingly frequent drags.

What a pain in the ass!

She thought, her eyes fixed on the display indicating the floor, while her foot impatiently tapped away the passing time.

She could have reached the entrance to the training room in the blink of an eye, but, with all those damn cameras and surveillance gadgets, she would then have had a lot of explanations to give. And that would have been the fuckin' icing on the fuckin' cake of that fuckin' day.

So, between an irritated sigh and a tense grinding of teeth, the elevator finally reached its destination and the doors opened with what looked to her an excruciatingly slow pace. Her slender legs dashed ahead, while her shoulders turned to allow her to slip into the gap as soon as it was large enough. Darting forward as quickly as she could without arousing suspicion, Azuki traversed the panoramic corridor without paying any attention to the breathtaking view of the planet below her.

What instead stopped her abruptly was what awaited her in front of the armored doors of the training room: a fully equipped security team was in tactical position in front of the entrance, with four members holding riot shields facing it and the others forming a semicircle with their weapons drawn.

"

Ma tua madre quella grandissima puttana rotta in culo!!"

She shouted in Italian, out of her mind with anger, so much so that she ignored the basic safety rule of not yelling insults when sneaking up behind armed men. "What the fuck are you still doing here?!!"

The soldiers reacted with excellent training, as only the rear guard raised their weapons against her, while the others maintained their position, their trust completely placed in the teammates watching their backs.

Once they recognized the new presence as an ally (albeit a rather "agitated" one), they lowered their weapons, allowing their sergeant to interface with her.

"

Miss Kurenai

..." The man began, leaving his position to move towards her with a more relaxed attitude.

"

Miss Kurenai

my ass! I gave clear instructions to that moron at the control center! She was supposed to evacuate the entire level: you're just risking being blasted into space by staying here!"

"No can do, Ma'am" The soldier replied professionally. "The situation has evolved: the recruits ignored the retreat order, and codename FatherBoard sealed the door from the inside. We have been ordered to recover them and bring them back, even forcibly. My hacker is trying to regain electronic control of the door as we speak"

If looks could kill, the human race would have ceased to exist right then and there. Already well beyond her breaking point, Azuki gritted her teeth, exasperated, reminding herself that the soldiers had nothing to do with that story, and venting her frustration on them would only worsen the situation. With a poorly concealed growl, Azuki gathered the last bit of self-control she had left and stared the officer in the eyes to make him understand how imperative it was that he didn't piss her off any more than she already was.

"Sergeant... now listen to me carefully: I'm taking command of this operation. You are relieved of duty and I order your immediate return to the safety zone, which, by the way, is located at least 5 levels from here. I'll take care of the safe return of the metahumans myself"

Yeah, because I haven't got enough shit going on already!

She mentally taunted herself.

There was a moment of silence as the sergeant evaluated whether Azuki's formulation relieved him of that unpleasant task he would be more than happy to quit. Then the soldier decided he would prefer discussing the matter with a senior officer after the incineration of Bridge 12, rather than being awarded a medal of valor for dying while obediently carrying out an order clearly beyond his tactical abilities.

"Understood, Ma'am. May God help you in this task" He simply replied to sum up his thoughts.

"Yes, of course. Because up to now, he has done such a great fucking job" she retorted, with bitter sarcasm.

The soldier must have understood her frustration well because, despite the critical situation, he couldn't resist smirking a little before turning to his men and ordering retreat.

Azuki watched them briskly march down the hallway she had come from and took one last drag from her cigarette (which she still held between her fingers, well aware of how it ruined the martial posture she had to maintain to give her orders).

She then decided it was once again time to cut the crap and get serious.

Putting the vaporizer back into a pocket of her suit, she strode toward the armored partition that provided access to the training room on Bridge 12.

Once in front of the door, she pressed the button to gain access, and of course, it returned a depressed

BEEP

, meaning the command could not be completed

Certain that this umpteenth attempt had attracted the attention of anyone on the other side, she proceeded to pound on the steel with extreme force, hitting it so hard that it reverberated as if a minivan had crashed into it at full speed.

"Open this fucking door!! It's a goddamn order!!" She shouted, rudely.

----------------------------------------------------------

Inside the training room, the situation underwent a sudden change, going from "Critical" to "Extremely Fucked Up" as the female voice, usually seductive and melodious, managed to break through the chaotic roar filling the room.

The guy next to the door control panel, a young Caucasian with brown hair, visibly turned on the verge of panic; that is, even closer to the verge of an even bigger panic than the one he was already facing.

"Fuck! It's

Miss Kurenai

! They sent

Miss Kurenai

!" He blurted out, turning his head toward a girl just a little older than him who seemed to be engaged in a grueling effort as she held her hands raised towards the center of the room. "What do we do?!"

"What the fuck do you think we do?" Replied the other without turning around, her forehead beaded with sweat and her teeth clenched. "Open up, do you really believe she won't get in anyway?"

"What?! No!!" Protested a young black man wearing a yellow and black training suit. "If you let her in before we've solved this, she'll tear us apart!!"

"That's not true!" Another, smaller and younger girl with vaguely Asian features, confronted him. "

Miss Kurenai

would never do that!" She then pointed out, struggling with some mental effort that had no visible effects.

"Are you dumb?! What do you think she'll do when she finds out we're about to blow up an atomic bomb in the middle of the Orbital Station?" Retorted the black guy before turning to the teammate controlling the door. "Don't you dare open it until we've saved

Blast

!"

"That ship has already sailed!" Claimed the girl with the raised hands, the confidence in her voice indicative of her command role. "I can barely contain the flames and the waves are getting stronger: my force fields won't last long! Open that door: we need

Miss Kurenai's

help, otherwise we'll be dead anyway!"

With his jaw clenched, the young man turned back to the door and, hands trembling with fear, used his power to command the partition open.

----------------------------------------------------------

As soon as the passage opened, Azuki was hit by a blast of hot air, as if it were the entrance to a blast furnace, matching the codename of the recruit who was risking detonation.

From inside came a bright light emanating from a sort of fiery ball suspended mid-air in the center of the room. The sphere pulsated rhythmically, or rather: it seemed to slightly diminish its brightness cyclically only to then ignite with even greater force.

In addition to emitting extreme heat and light, the explosions from the red-hot globe displaced massive airwaves, creating a constant hot current that hammered like a boiling hurricane. Without the protection of the psychoreactive substance she had covered herself with, Azuki's skin would have been severely burned after a few seconds of exposure.

When she took her first step into the room, the gaze that immediately greeted her was that of the young man next to the door, code name

FatherBoard

, the team technician who had sealed the door and who was watching her, terrified, trying to understand whether he had done the right thing by opening it. On the other side, similarly worried,

Stinger

, in yellow and black uniform, held his breath, hoping he was wrong about their teacher's murderous intent.

However, what worried her the most were the two girls turning their backs to her.

The younger one was

Pinkie

, the team telepath, probably busy reaching out to their explosive mate; the fact that she was already using her powers boded ill: it must have meant that Blast Furnace was already beyond the chance of being talked to or contacted by mundane means.

Even worse, the one with her hands raised was the "Leader" of the team,

Mind Field

, an ESPer of considerable skill and talent, and it seemed that she was putting all her energy into projecting her powers. In particular, Azuki bet she was generating a force field around their companion in an attempt to contain the immense heat the fireball was emitting.

"...Fuck" Azuki muttered quietly, realizing that if that was the heat emitted after containment, without shielding, the incandescent aura must already be capable of melting metal and, of course, burning people to a cinder. "What the hell are you still doing here? I ordered an evac" She asked, while massaging the bridge of her nose with her fingers, trying to appear calm and totally

not

interested in mass murder.

"We're not leaving without

Blast

!" Burst out the black boy, absolutely shaken, but also trying to disguise his own condition. "Not after what happened this morning: we're not leaving anyone behind"

"What happened this morning..." She replied, frowning and raising a warning finger towards

Stinger

, still trying to maintain a tone suitable for a Training Officer "...was supposed to teach you that this is a shitty job where when you mess up, someone dies, and in the

best-case

scenario, that someone is you!"

An awkward silence fell among them as the trainees weathered the reprimand, aware that they had created an extremely risky situation.

"Anyway, now we don't have time for bullshit.

Mind Field

, report in!" She finally ordered sharply, addressing the young girl.

"I'm trying to contain

Blast Furnace's

surges: I've created two concentric force fields with a vacuum gap in between to stop the heat, but even so, the temperature keeps rising!"

"Fuck my life..." Azuki commented, not knowing whether to feel sad or flattered. The vacuum gap would have been the first order she would have given her student, but she had been so good at training them that the girl had implemented it completely on her own. Too bad this meant they had already used the only good idea she had to save the day without it staving off the situation from the brink of total disaster.

"I also generated the fields to be airtight so that the flames would burn up all the oxygen and make

Blast

pass out, but they won't go out!!" The young girl continued, alarmed.

"This..." Azuki said after letting out yet another flustered sigh "...is because those are a mental projection of yours: you see flames because it's the idea you link with heat and destruction.

Blast's

power is pure psychic energy at such a primal level that it alters people's perception of reality without him even realizing it. Essentially, the heat is real, but there is no ignition. It could even burn water"

The silence lingered, but somehow it was clear that embarrassment was replaced by anxiety sprinkled with panic.

"

Pinkie

?" Azuki asked, looking towards the younger girl. "Have you managed to make contact with

Blast's

mind?"

"Negative,

Miss Kurenai

. It's just as you said: the firestorm seems to carry on in his mind!"

"Then the only thing to do is to get him out of there and try helping him regain control" Azuki spat out, staring focused on the red-hot ball.

"And how?!" The girl squeaked, tense. "It would be like diving into a volcano to rescue a man drowning in it!"

"Yeah. Well, let's see if we can lure him out..." Azuki replied, without explaining any further. "...

MindField

, get ready to open the force fields on the other side of the room." Azuki ordered before taking a couple of steps towards that miniature sun.

The girl's eyes darted nervously towards their instructor, unsure how to speak the next sentence without seeming disrespectful.

"If... Without the containment field, the heat will be devastating" She finally said, simply stating the obvious.

"Yeah, no shit" A dejected Azuki commented as she pretended to epress a hidden button on her uniform. Immediately after, she changed the external form of the psychoreactive substance to make it resemble a highly technological protective suit that covered her from head to toe, making the transformation appear as if it were the result of some Nanomechanical implementation.

The new form wouldn't protect her any better or worse from the intense heat, but perhaps it would help avoid having to explain how she hadn't turned into a crisp as soon as she was exposed to that inferno of psychic flames.

Her students were rather taken aback by the transformation, but, apart from a handful of slack jaws, they realized that it was not the time to investigate the matter.

Taking advantage of that moment of surprise, Azuki quickly moved to the other side of the room, directly behind the incandescent globe, placing

Blast Furnace

between her and the other students.

Decidedly nervous, knowing that facing a psychotic miniature sun wouldn't be a pleasant experience, Azuki flexed her knees, preparing for the impact, and gave her order.

"Open!"

"

Miss Kurenai

..." the girl tried to object, worried, unsure how to tell her teacher that the pressure and heat she felt crashing inside the force field were, in her opinion, well beyond the capabilities of even the most advanced combat suit.

"Open!" She just repeated, shouting in the attempt of making her voice overcome the deafening roar the sphere was emitting.

With her teeth clenched even tighter than she had had them until then, the ESPer reluctantly forced herself to obey, creating a crack in both force fields and slowly widening it until she opened a gap in the containment.

The wave of flames that the globe disgorged seemed just like the breath of an angry dragon that hit Azuki head-on like a hurricane. Worse, the flames seemed to have substance, crashing onto her as if they had weight... and a will.

The students could have sworn that the tongues of fire were entwining around the boundaries of the force field, trying to forcibly breach it.

Azuki instinctively brought her arms up to shield her face and slightly averted her gaze. The surface of the suit immediately began to boil and become incandescent; even under its heavy protection, she could feel the heat becoming unbearably intense very rapidly.

Around her, the special alloy with which the training room had been built fared only a little better: it too instantly heated up, and beneath her feet, it began to seem as if it were losing its solidity, already transitioning to a liquid state.

The force of the fiery wind was such that she had to use all her strength to push forward, painfully stretching her quadriceps to gain only a handful of inches.

"

Miss Kurenai

!!!"

Pinkie

yelled worriedly. Even for them, who were still in the protected part of the room, that small opening had been enough to exponentially increase the heat and shockwaves: she couldn't believe that their training officer could really survive standing in front of that infernal furnace.

One of Azuki's hands, immersed in flames, found the invisible edge of the force field and tried to cling to it to pull herself closer to her student, but when she tried to reach out with the other arm towards him, she realized that the space left by the opening was so thin that she could get inside only up to the shoulder.

"I need to touch him!!!" She screamed with all the breath she had in her body. "Keep up only the half of the field protecting you!!"

"

Miss Kurenai

, if I do..." the girl began, her heart pounding with worry.

But she didn't get to finish the sentence.

At that moment, the sphere lost heat and brightness for a fraction of a second. Everyone's eyes widened in terror, foreboding disaster, then the fire exploded again with a violence that seemed to come only from the depths of Hell.

Azuki only had time to command her suit to produce hooked tentacles with which she anchored herself to the floor, then, with a deafening roar, the flames invaded her entire part of the room, attempting to enlarge the gap in the force field with a will of their own and descending onto her with such force that it threw her at least thirty feet behind despite the fastening cables.

Shit, I felt that

, she admitted as she regained her balance and bent over herself to offer the least aerodynamic resistance possible to the incandescent storm.

On the other side of the room, the students were trying to figure out, terrified, if their teacher had really survived that blast (which would have undoubtedly blown to smithereens each one of them without any chance of survival).

Seeing she was still moving, they begged her in a cacophony of voices to come back to their side, but the roar was now too loud for anyone to hear anything.

MindField

, overcome with worry for her instructor's safety, tried to seal the sphere back in an airtight field, but she discovered in horror that it was now impossible: that

Thing's

fury was running rampant, straining to get free with such strength that she had to concentrate all of her energies just to prevent it from completely tearing down the remaining part of the force field.

With what to all the students seemed like a total disregard for her own safety, Azuki reacted to the new threat simply by redoubling her efforts in her legs and resuming her march to close the distance.

In response to this act of rebellion, the Flame at the center of the room exploded again with a deafening roar and a shockwave that made the entire space station vibrate; among the students, only MindField managed not to end up on the floor from the blow, while Azuki seemed unphased by the menacing roar, although the sheer force of shockwave compelled her to temporarily pause her advance.

Taking that roar as a challenge, she gave a new order to her suit, simulating the opening of some compartments on it and then hurling out, at high speed, a multitude of tentacle-like cables that wrapped around the still intact part of the force field, starting to use them as an anchor to drag herself closer and closer.

Under the protection of the psychoreactive substance, Azuki felt her skin begin to seriously burn. She tried to change her epidermis into a thick armor of scales, but soon even this became insufficient to escape the terrifying pyrokinetic onslaught.