68 Beholder in a Box

Gradually, as she moved through the air, the red-headed girl made a mental note of how much forward momentum she had left. Once her trajectory began to dip downward, she would 'jump' again, redirecting herself upwards as she carried the momentum she had with her. Like so, she made use of her lack of ability to correct her momentum and turned it into mobility surpassing what she could achieve with her psionics alone.

"Six, you're too far ahead, pull back!"

"Hold on, Unit Five is in trouble. Be right back."

"What! That's not part of the- Six? Six!!!"

She ignored him. Nine was by no means a terrible leader. He could make difficult calls at the drop of a hat and things tend to work out when he's in charge. However, at times he's too uptight and gets all stressed out when things did not go the way he had planned. He lacked flexibility, at least, that's what the red-headed girl thought.

Soaring through the air, she arrived at the building she saw Unit Five ran into while she was scouting for enemy positions, positions which she had already reported in. So, as far as she's concerned, her job was done and it's far more important to go aid one of their friends, those born and raised from the same facility as they were.

Hearing gunfire from within the walls, she vaguely guessed the location where combat was taking place in the building and, without so much as a second thought, jumped in across space and time, appearing out of seeming thin air in the middle of the firefight. She wasn't sure how she did it, but as naturally as one would know how to move their fingers, the red-headed girl never jumped into any walls in her life. She could somewhat feel it, a 'path' she needed to take to get to any given place within her range.

Appearing suddenly in the firefight, naturally, the red-headed girl was caught in the crossfire, with the shots fired by both friends and foes hurling towards her at Mach speed. Even so, such things did not bother her.

In but an instant, the bullets cutting across the air disappeared and reappeared. And when they reappeared, each and every one of them was pointed at the Lunarians. Their momentum was altered, only the direction they're facing had changed, but before said fact even registered in their minds, all of the shots fired smashed into the Lunarians, and though each of them came equipped with kinetic and anti-psionic shields, a few shots wounded up breaking through and even fatally injuring some of them.

The red-headed girl's psionics had weaknesses, that much was true. However, there were also strengths. While she lacked the ability to alter momentum and had limited range, she had speed and precision, enough to displace bullets in flight. At long range, she was nigh invincible. The only thing she could not deal with were the dreaded particle cannons whose shots held too much energy for her to displace.

"Six, you're not supposed to be here!"

Yelling at her, was a slender young man with a pair of glasses strapped onto his face. One of the lenses appeared to be cracked. On his uniform, 'P-015' was printed. The young man was called 'Fifteen'. On the ground, there was a young woman. She had short black hair, but more importantly, she was bleeding. It looked like she was shot. On her bloodied uniform 'P-014' was printed. Naturally, she was called 'Fourteen'. The red-headed girl only spotted those two, the rest of their unit was nowhere to be found. Perhaps they've been separated, or perhaps Fourteen and Fifteen had stayed behind to let the others escape.

Without a word, the red-headed girl vanished, going as she came, just as a blade cut across the space she was occupying. Having witnessed her psionics, the Lunarian soldiers decided to take an alternate approach when dealing with her. Knowing that projectile weapons would do no good, a number instead drew knives to combat her, and like their armor, the edges of their knives glowed with a strange light.

Behind the first one that swung his knife at her, about three steps away, the red-headed girl reappeared. She had her pistol aimed squarely at his head. As the Lunarian soldier turned his sight towards her, his eyes widened in terror, a flash from the red-headed girl's pistol blinded him, and an impact to his head bent his neck backwards.

The Lunarian soldiers wore special armors that came with both kinetic and anti-psionic shields. However, due to limited battery capacity, they were only activated upon detecting high impact objects or psionics within range. The deployments of the shields were near instantaneous upon such detection. NEAR instantaneous, that is. Unfortunately, it was not instantaneous enough at such close quarters. That was going to leave a bruise.

The red-headed girl clicked her tongue before vanishing once more, before another blade could land its hit. Even though the shot landed before the kinetic shield activated, it appeared that armor worn by the Lunarian soldiers weren't just for show and was able to stop at least a shot or two at point-blank.

Reappearing by Fourteen and Fifteen, the red-headed girl grabbed both of them and quickly teleported all three of them out of there and into a nearby alleyway. There were too many of those Lunarian soldiers in there for her to handle. Though she did not have a good look, she had a feeling that there must have been at least twenty of them. Perhaps it came with her psionics, but the red-headed girl has always had sharp spatial awareness.

"Six, you should go. Those guys will find us in no time. I'll handle it somehow."

"Shut up, Fifteen."

"Wha-"

As Fifteen tried to protest, an explosion nearby muted his words.

"Guess they found my 'gift'."

"Gift? You did that?"

"Yup."

Then, the red-headed girl disappeared again only to reappear a few seconds later.

"Come, I found a safe place."

"Wait, I said wai-"

Fifteen simply couldn't keep up. The red-headed girl had always done things at her own pace, and it had been a constant source of trouble and stress for Nine who was their squad leader.

Rapidly, the scenery around him changed about three times, and by the time he realized it, Fifteen was already in what appeared to be an abandoned room with Fourteen still held in his arms, and though they were rather dusty, the various assortment of furniture were somehow still intact.

"Fifteen, clear that table and put Fourteen on there."

"Uh, yeah, sure."

Having given up arguing with her, Fifteen did as he was told. On his hands, he wore special gauntlets similar to the one Thirteen was wearing, the ones with 'ANIMA' printed on it. With those gauntlets emitting a strange glow, he waved his hand over the dusty tea table, gathering the dust into a ball before sending them into a nearby trashcan. Fifteen, like Thirteen, was strong in psychokinesis, however, while he was strong and perhaps stronger than Thirteen, he lacked her speed, precision, and range, and thus was unable to catch bullets midflight and sending them back like Thirteen. Still, he was more than capable of obliterating concrete walls and pillars as if they were made of sand. Had Fourteen not been with him, he would have collapsed the whole building with both the Lunarian soldiers and himself inside it.

Gently, Fifteen laid Fourteen on the tea table, and with a pair of scissors that came with his first aid kit, he cut open her uniform and revealed the wound around her waist.

"We have to get the bullet out."

"Can you do it?"

"I... I'm not confident. I don't have Thirteen's precision."

"Fine, I'll do it."

The red-headed girl waved her hand over Fourteen's wound before swiftly turning her palm upwards, as if she's doing some kind of magic trick. Fifteen doubted the need to be so flashy, but even so, he couldn't help but have his eyes widened with amazement by what he saw.

Sitting on the red-headed girl's palm, there was a bloodied bullet, which she quickly tossed into the trashcan after showing it off.

"It's done, apply the first aid."

"I'm on it."

From the first aid kit's bag, Fifteen produced a small canister and with it, sprayed some form of liquid onto Fourteen's wound. The liquid seeped into Fourteen's wound and slowly formed a gel-like structure, sealing off all damaged blood vessels and stopped her bleeding completely.

"She'll be fine now, right?"

"Maybe."

The red-headed girl's response was curt and had it been as usual, Fifteen would have been rather annoyed at her. However, this time, she saved them, and any irritations he would have felt were swiftly forgotten.

"Thank you, Six."

"We're not done yet. We still have to get you two back to base camp. Where's the rest of your unit?"

"I had them retreat. I was supposed to stay and hold the enemy back but Fourteen insisted on staying with me."

"Hmm..."

For once, the red-headed girl was hesitating. Should she help these two back to the camp or should she rendezvous with Nine? For certain, Nine would want to continue their mission and secure a forward operating base further into the area. However, with these two in tow, he might try to escort them back to base instead. It'll be a good thing for Fifteen and Fourteen, but Nine will undoubtedly be punished for abandoning the mission, since he's the leader and all. The red-headed girl decided that she would do this herself. If anyone's going to be punished, it'll be her.

"I'll-"

But, before she could say it, she noticed a streak of light cutting across the sky through the room's window. It was the fourth floor of the building so she could see it without obstruction. The beam of light cut through the air and sliced a far off building into two, showcasing its destructive power. However, knowing that this particular weapon only had six shots, there shouldn't be any reason for them to fire it off at a building that had no one in it. Of course, the building might have some strategic importance or perhaps they're trying to collapse the building and use its debris to create some kind of advantage, but the red-headed girl didn't think that far. All she noticed was that the beam came from around where Nine and the rest were when she left them.

"Nine..."

***

Nine had his eyes shut tight, ready to embrace his death, hoping that it would last for only an instant. However, after waiting for what felt like an eternity, he decided to open his eyes once more, thinking that perhaps he had already arrived at the afterlife. Yet, before him, he saw a burning shell of a city, with sounds of gunfire from every corner and the sky filled with smoke and ashes. It was far from the peaceful afterlife he had imagined. No, it wasn't the afterlife at all, he was still there, on that hellish battlefield.

Hearing the rumbling engines, Nine turned towards his back, seeing that the tank had already passed by him somehow without flattening him. Apparently having noticed the same thing, the tank stopped and began to turn around. Somehow, they've passed by one another without ever coming into contact. How was that possible? Nine knew exactly how.

Before the tank could complete its turn, it was seemingly pulled, or rather, sucked away by what appeared to be a hole that appeared in midair, a hole in space. Just like that, in an instant, the massive mechanical beast vanished.

Nine reached out, trying to acquire the location of the one he suspected to have done this. However, as soon as he made the attempt, his head was assaulted by an intense pain that rippled through his skull.

"You got careless, Nine."

A figure wearing a bulky suit that appeared to be made of hard rubber walked up to Nine with a heavy gait.

"You're not supposed to be here, Seven. What happened to the coast?"

"They realized that they couldn't get passed me and retreated. They're probably planning to go around."

"Then you ought to return to base. You're powerful but you can only operate for so long.

Nine and Seven were siblings, Seven being the older one by a year. However, after an incident ten odd years ago, the two had become distant.

"If I did, you would have ended up becoming a pancake."

"I guess I would have, yes... Thanks, sis..."

"Don't mention it."

"I should regroup with the other. And you, head back to base. This battle is going to last for a while. We'll be having a hard time if you're out of commission."

Seven nodded, and at the same time, a hole appeared out of thin air right beside her, eventually sucking her in. These holes in space were wormholes, created by Seven's ability to manipulate spacetime. This one, most likely, led back to the base camp. As for the one that the tank had been sucked in, Nine had no idea where it led to. As the exit of these wormholes needed to be set up ahead of time, it couldn't be anywhere too extreme like say, outer space or the planet's core. Either way, it wouldn't be anywhere good, that is for sure. However, though such an ability was powerful, like the red-headed girl, Seven could only transport so much mass and energy at a time. And unlike the red-headed girl, Seven could only operate for an hour at a time before requiring 'cooldown', which lasts at least twice her maximum operation time.

"This is Nine, come in."

Unable to make use of his psionics, Nine resorted to using the radio to contact the rest of his unit. However, after repeating the call a number of times, nothing but noises came through. Occasionally, he could make out some human voices that he couldn't decipher, but that was it.

Suddenly, while he was deciding on what to do, a tremor spread through the area. It was a tremor that not only passed through the ground but through the air as well. Nine instinctively felt that something was off, and when a second wave of tremor came, this time stronger than the last, he understood what it was.

Space itself was quaking.

***

Far away from the frontlines, secured in the base camp, there was a large container. Around the container was an anti-psionic field, not to protect from psionic abilities, but to keep them in. Yet, in spite of the measures taken to dampen her powers, the one which all Psions were created from, the one who could be said to be the mother of the Psions created by Anima, the one who had inherited the might of an old god, she was able to observe the battlefield without obstruction while strapped down with various mechanical restraints within that container. By her side, was her only companion, a phantom that exists in another time, me, basically.

"What was that vibration?"

"It is the mighty roar of another god."

Having spent over ten years in isolation, forbidden to contact the other Psions, those she considered to be her children, Zero had developed some odd speech pattern.

"Meaning?"

"There's another one out there, one that is like me, and it is looking for a fight."

"Will Nine and the rest be fine?"

"I doubt it, not even Seven could handle this one. This one is as powerful as I am. A natural-born Third Generation I bet. Fu fu fu, so the time hast cometh."

"Did you just say 'fu fu fu'?"

"Is that not how it goes?"

"Please stop."

"You're no fun, Mr. Phantom, even though you're supposed to be my only friend."

That's right, for the longest time, I was the only one. Even though I was only asleep for a short time on my side, time seemed to be compressed when I'm in these memories.

"Zero."

"Yes?"

"You can really see me, right, from where you are, or rather, from when you are."

"Yes, that's right, I can see and hear you perfectly. You're the clearest vision I've ever seen."

"I'll come find you, alright?"

She Smiled, even though her eyebrows knitted ever tighter together, she smiled.

"I know you will."

***