Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Genesis' PoV:

Genesis was stranded from her teammates. She made the decision she'd have to live with the consequences. Her only regret was that she didn't give them precise directions to where they should go. The whole reason that their scouters weren't working as intended was due to some weird wave coming from further in. Person-to-person communication was being jammed the further they went into the base. Plus, her psychic abilities don't have telepathy yet. She's still working on trying to invade people's brains. But that's not for now. For now, she's running down a side hallway.

Her psychic abilities are pinging off every wall and filling out the mental map in her mind. The other two were going...well, Eve was going further out of range, taking a long way around. As for Gree, he got lucky and got the straight route to the hole. All three of them were on a course that was more like a trident. They'd end up at their location, but the side routes would take a bit longer. With the destruction behind her, she can feel a little safer, at the least. At least nothing will be coming for her anymore from behind, or so she thinks. She slowed to a light jog the further she got before she slowed down to walking.

The other two would take some time to get to their location. Genesis needed some time to recover her energy. A brisk pace would be more than enough. Genesis had time to think about her situation and what they were being put through. Everything from the start was weird. The Professor sent only three of them here with what they had? What did he hope to accomplish? Whatever it was, it was not her issue to think about now. She had to reconnect with her team and finish the mission. Otherwise, they'd all probably die a very messy death here at the hands of the Scavengers.

Genesis looked at her route; there was a larger room nearby. The path and rooms around her made her believe she was going into a defunct waste recycling facility built into the station. Right... centuries-old waste. She made a face when the data returned to her, but she didn't stop her travels. Instead, she pulled back on her psychic ping to reserve more energy if she fought any opponent. Her light jog brought her to her location quickly. But her entrance was a side door for the large room. She opened it up by prying it with her bare hands. The material couldn't hold up to her pushing. She slammed it into the side slot, where it would've gone if it were still supplied with electricity.

She took a breath - the room actually didn't reek. Whatever was here did not smell like fecal matter in the slightest. It was just dusty. Dusty, and it was also abnormally cold in this room. Her skin prickled at the cold running across it. Even when she breathed, air could be seen coming from her lips. The room itself was covered in grates over a frozen surface. It looked like grey snow. Well - she knows what happened to the wastewater, at least. Even the machinery meant for filtering and recycling the stuff was frozen with layers of frost. She walked into the middle of the room to get a good look at everything...

That's when her psychic energy pinged off another sentient mind here.

She whirled around to look at who was coming. It was from a door that led into darkness. A slow click-clacking of boots across cold grating filled the room. Out of the darkness came...an utterly obscured person. They looked human, but to her senses, they were anything but. They were about 5'8" tall, but their entire body was covered in a relatively thick black cloak, tattered with holes and burn marks. Through the hood, she could see that their body was completely bandaged. There was no flesh to be seen; even the eyes were covered by something that appeared to be night vision goggles. It was rather dark down here - she just didn't notice due to her dark vision...

No, that's probably why the color of things changed. The dust isn't grey. It's some other color Genesis can't perceive in this darkness. She got more vigilant. They paused, noting Genesis' form. "Ah. One of the intruders." His voice was hoarse and but a whisper like he had some sort of illness ruining his throat. Or at least, it was a 'he.' She couldn't tell with the obscurement. Even glancing between the cloak, they were wrapped up like a mummy. Only baggy clothes were worn underneath the cloak, with the pieces that should have had skin covered with those tattered-looking bandages. She got into a stance and glared.

"Hostile. I am too." He stated as if it was a fact. "I won't bother with names. I'm taking you in." Genesis takes out her mace and lights it up with a burning purple Ki aura. But the man in front of her didn't even bother with that. Instead, he put up both fists in a rather common boxing stance. Genesis was a bit surprised, but she shot herself forwards with her mace in a thrust. The man before her dodged to the side and slammed his elbow down on the mace's shaft.

He deflected the blow and shot both fists forward in a cracking whip-like duo of jabs. They rocked Genesis in the face, sending her backward, stumbling from the light smack to the face. She shook her head, but before she recovered, the man was already on top of her. A swift forward kick slammed straight into her abdomen. She had a minor amount of time to tense up her muscles there; it was a half-block. She prevented worse damage but was still shot backward, skidding across the floor grating. She hissed, "Damn!"

She brought her mace hand up - only to realize her mace was gone. So he had disarmed her in that short timeframe? She looked up and saw the bandaged man with the mace in his hand. He looked at it, then tossed it aside dismissively, "Playing with these toys won't save you here." He got into a low stance, then kicked off the floor. All it took was three steps - he was like lightning. But Genesis slowed down her perception of time with some psychic force to her eyes.

She could see it coming. Her body moved…and just barely did she block. Her arms rattled with the palm strike he aimed into her stomach. She moved back, only to shoot into a roundhouse kick which was blocked and pushed aside. Her tail lashed between her legs and smacked him across the chest, cleanly stopping his counter-attack. She hadn't practiced her tail's muscles…but he was still sent flying. He touched the floor after stabilizing himself in mid-air. He didn't seem that winded from the hit. She couldn't even tell where his eyes were looking with those goggles on them.

Her heart beat heavily as the two started to circle each other in their stances. They were like two wild predators moving around each other. Genesis surged her Ki through her body, bringing a violet hue all over her body. She powered herself up, then shot forward. It was the opponent's turn to be surprised. Genesis shot her fist toward his stomach, which was barely turned away. Still, her body spun slightly into an impromptu short-ranged right hook across his face. He couldn't move in time. His face got impacted by a violet-covered fist.

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There was a -boom- on impact, sending the man shooting across the floor. This time he couldn't right himself. There was even a ripping noise coming from him. When he got up, it was apparent that the bandages around his mouth were ripped off. His mouth…was filled with rows upon rows of sharp teeth. He was like a leech. There was even a spiked tongue in the back there somewhere. Her opponent closed their mouth, scowled, and ran back at Genesis.

The duo clashed. A right fist met with a fist, and a kick met with a kick. The duo's clashes caused miniature BOOMS that rocked the grating underneath them with force behind their strikes. Thanks to her aura, Genesis wasn't being hurt as much as she was before. Conversely, her opponent started to get pummeled in this exchange. Her martial arts were above his - just not her base power. Utilizing this power-up technique, she continues to rain blows on him until he gets backed up against one of the frozen-over water containers.

She intentionally faked him out, another punch aimed towards his face to cause him to block his view with his arms. But pushing her Ki out from her back, she shoots herself forwards with a fierce kick. His entire body buckled over her foot. A deafening sound of metal being ripped into pieces was heard as she lodged the man into the water container at least a good foot or so into it. Ice and metal were seen flying in all directions from the blow. He coughed up blood; whatever color it was, it wasn't visible to her.

She pulled back, bringing up her hands in a combat-ready stance if he moved out of the container…he stumbled for a moment but managed to pull himself out and groan. "I thought I could do it, but it looks like I'll have to swallow my pride." He reached into his cloak and pulled out a pipebomb-like object. It had two spheres above and below a middle grip. He pressed his thumb on the top sphere, which let off a loud humming noise. She suddenly realizes what this was. It was one of the relics that her boss had told her to get! Genesis was on edge and flared up her Ki. She shot herself toward her opponent, intent on not giving him more time to prepare it.

Her opponent wasn't idle. He kicked off to the side and began to run. Genesis ran towards the hooded man, doing her damnedest to get to him. An ominous feeling was in the air. The machine in his hands began to glow a bright blue as she managed to cross the distance between him and her. She held out her hand and gripped his shoulder -hard- enough to crunch the bone underneath slightly. The man yelled - her left fist was aimed to slam into his skull from behind…

But then, a pulse of blue energy vibrated through the air.

I brought with it a feeling of sudden weakness and suppression. Genesis' psychic energy suddenly went dim, as if it were put underneath a boulder that it couldn't move. Even her aura was snuffed out like a large being blew on her like a candle. Her wick of purple Ki was put out. It was a momentary feeling, but it was long enough for the man underneath her hand to wrench himself out and deal a hook straight into her liver. She coughed, and she felt bile rise to her throat. It was like the Ki in her body couldn't appropriately respond to the attack. It was muddled and only came seconds after that hit.

By then, she was already doubling over and gasping for breath. She brought her hands up to weakly protect her head, by her opponent didn't let up. One snapping kick from above brought down her arms and bruised them in the process, only for a second kick to come from below and into her face. Her head whipped back with a CRACK as her nose was broken. Purple blood oozed from her nose as the residual force of the kick forced her to stand straight and give her a few inches in the air. Pain bloomed from her face.

She landed and stepped backward, huffing. The man rushed her down again. This time she focused purely on her material skill, and they started to clash once more. But this time, she was on the receiving end. Her sight was blurry from the kick to her face. It made it much more challenging to parry some of his moves properly. Nevertheless, they managed to slip past her guard in some parts and pop her in the stomach, chest, and shoulders, or he directly struck her lower legs.

She couldn't push her Ki up to break through this muddling. Any time she tried to collect it around her body, it'd be snuffed out in the next second, thanks to this strange aura coming from the object he used on her. Punch and kick after punch after kick, this being showed smug superiority as he bruised her body up. He slammed her down again and again with powerful blows from his fists and legs. Soon enough, the man flipped once in the air into a spiral and dropped an intense kick downwards between Genesis' horns. The violent axe kick shot her through the floor's grating, destroying the metal in the process. Then, she -slammed- into the frozen-over sludge with a groan and a massive crack that spiderwebbed outwards.

Her head hurt, and her vision was swimming. The man kept down the hole and appeared over her, grinning ear-to-ear and shaking the device above her. "Glad I kept this, eh? Cancels out several types of energy, Ki being one of them. Can't use Ki myself. Decided to take this for a joyride. Anyways, nighty night, babe." He rose his arm up…then performed an elbow drop straight onto her temple.

A loud crack was heard.

Then all turned black…