Chapter 145 - 144 - Time Trouble(Part 3)

Wait for it...almost there...now! 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Pause>!" I exclaimed, just in time...as I froze time right as the Mutant's claws were inches away from slicing me in half...this is pretty intimidating from this up-close, had I messed up the timing, I'd be dead right now. 

That was a risky move on my part...but a potentially necessary one. I can only freeze time for a maximum continuous spell of ten minutes, but since I've already used Load a bunch of times, I've now got less that eight minutes worth of XFE to work with.

And obviously, I can't afford to drain it all. So my objective is clear...I need to make it to Director Silva as fast as possible, get as much information from her as I can, and hopefully, that'll be enough, allowing me to go back in time to Save Point 01 and take corrective measures to prevent this disaster. 

Naturally, I was already on the move, using Cut and Paste on myself to teleport amd cover as much distance in as little time as possible. As for why I decided to lure the Crocsnek away, that was simple...the way it reacted when it saw me, I think it's a fair bet that it's after me. 

And it was able to spot me from over two hundred meters away, and then recognize me instantly. Well, technically, this time it initially reacted to the sound of my feet landing on the ground...it definitely has extremely sharp hearing and eyesight. On that note, I'm also worried about its sense of smell. 

With all that in mind, I decided to lure it as far away from Director Silva's office as possible, in order to prevent it from interrupting, either deliberately or just by randomly rampaging. I winced in pain as the adrenaline started to wear off and my injuries began to throb painfully, especially the stump of my missing hand. 

Come on, bear with it for just a little while longer...I could see Director Silva's office building now, just a few more teleports and I'll be there. Just work through the pain for a bit longer, it'll all be gone once I go back in time. 

Alright, I'm here...the automatic sliding glass doors were shattered, good...otherwise I might have had to unfreeze time to get them to open. I walked through the broken doors and continued teleporting, till I was outside her office door. 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Play>," I chanted, before pushing the doors open and walking it...to see Director Silva with Sofia, a flashlight illuminating the room. 

"Who's there!?" Exclaimed Sofia in alarm, pointing the flashlight at me. 

"Ow, my eyes! Could you get that light off me, please?" I groaned, nearly stumbling back...I'm feeling pretty weak right now, must be the blood loss...any sudden moves and I feel faint. 

"Kilzachs? Where'd you come from-?" Director Silva began to ask in surprise. 

"No time! I need to know what's going on, right now!" I urged in a loud whisper, avoiding raising my voice too much...there's no telling how sharp that thing's hearing is, I don't want to risk anything. 

Tch, and that time freeze and teleportation combo has drained me all the way down to less than twenty-five percent XFE, I'm starting to run low. This is far from ideal, though that goes for this entire situation, and that's putting it lightly. 

"That's what I'd like to know, what's all the shaking-?" She started to reply with a frown. 

"It's an Ace Mutant, it burst out through the ground and is currently running wild just a few hundred meters away," I responded impatiently, desperate to try and get something useful out of this...come on, she has to know something, anything that'll help me undoing and preventing this from happening... 

"What!? That's just about the worst case scenario, how could that have happened!?" Remarked Sofia with a frown. 

I guess it makes sense that they wouldn't know...with the internet offline, there's no way to communicate, and if they haven't left this building, they certainly wouldn't know what's going on outside. And from what I could see, most of the X-Warriors that had been attacking the Mutant looked extremely terrified...the pitch black darkness and suddenness of the attack probably compounded their fear. 

"Oh, no...the power outage, it must have shut off the warding radiation too!" Suddenly exclaimed Director Silva in realization, standing up with a start. 

"Warding radiation? You mean the signal waves emitted that Mutants avoid?" Asked Sofia in response. 

Hm? Okay, good, now we're getting somewhere! 

"That's right...it's a copy of the radiation emitted from Mutant corpses, remember how we used to leave dead Mutants out around the Sanctuary to keep other Mutants from getting closer? This is a more effective version of that...so, ordinarily, Mutants wouldn't even get close to the Sanctuary," Frowned Director Silva in confusion. 

"Do you know what caused the power outage!?" I inquired urgently. 

"Well...a little while ago, I was contacted by one of the guards in the underground facility, specifically one in a section where captured Mutants are held. He sounded panicked, but before he could tell me what was happening, his comms were cut off and shortly after that, the power flickered for a bit, before shutting off completely. And then-...well, you know the rest-...w-wait a second, what happened to your hand!?" Director Silva exclaimed in horror, noticing my missing hand for the first time, as Sofia stared at it in shock. 

"Hm? Oh, right, it got crushed off, I think. Also, this may sound weird, but no, I don't know the rest...tell me exactly how things transpired after the power shut off," I urged her impatiently. 

"But your-...!" She began in alarm, before trailing off as she saw my expression, "...okay, fine. Let me think...right, after the power shut off, I felt a rumbling getting closer and closer, what I thought was an earthquake, which just got more and more intense until a heard a loud crash...after the crash, the rumbling felt even closer."

"Right, the crash you heard must have been the Mutant bursting through the ground. Okay, I think I'm starting to get it now...the power outage was the trigger, it deactivated the warding radiation, and the Mutant took advantage-...hm, but was it really just coincidence that it was closeby? No, wait...the first time I went through this, I felt the rumbling after the lights flickered a bit...but the power wasn't fully shut off and was somehow restored, so...," I trailed off as I muttered to myself. 

"Uh...what are you talking about?" Inquired Sofia in bemusement. 

"Maybe...maybe it followed us after that battle at the Wight base camp, but couldn't get closer thanks to the radiation from the Mutant corpses, which were replaced by the current method...or maybe it had been waiting all this time, staying dormant in order to recover from the damage it sustained during the battle at the Wight base camp?" I surmised uncertainly, before turning to Director Silva, who was looked pretty bewildered, "Hey, is there anything in the underground facility that, if damaged, would result in a Sanctuary-wide power cut?" 

"Oh, uh...yes, there is...the central generator. It evenly distributes electricity throughout the Sanctuary," She replied, continuing, "It's made to be highly durable, but yes, if it were damaged badly enough, then yeah...we'd lose power."

"The guard that contacted you, you said he was in charge of a section where you hold captured Mutants...is that section anywhere near the central generator?" I inquired warily. 

"...crap. The Mutants must have broken out somehow...but they're all Q-Ranked and below, and there's less than ten in captive right now...all the guards down there are X-Warriors, so they shouldn't have had much trouble," Frowned Director Silva, scratching her chin. 

"They would in the dark...they wouldn't be able to defend themselves against something they can't see," I pointed out. 

"I suppose so...but here's my concern, how did they break out in the first place? The cell we keep them in is extremely secure and pretty much impossible to break out of," Spoke up Sofia. 

Hm...guess I'll have to find out. I think I've gotten most of the information I need, a few more questions and I'll go back in time-...suddenly my line of thought was interrupted as a massive crash echoed out above us, the building shaking as cracks began appearing all over the walls and ceiling. 

"Is it the Mutant!?" Exclaimed the director in alarm. 

"Must be...we need to get out of here, right now!" Urged Sofia, before quickly jumping off to the side, right as a chunk of the ceiling fell down and crashed on the floor behind her, nearly crushing her. 

Tch, no more time to waste, the longer I spend time here, the more people that are going to die...time to go back. I began chanting, as the director and Sofia began to panic, rushing towards the door. 

"Quick, Kilzachs, freeze time so that we can-!" 

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Load Point 01>...!" 

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I'm back on the stairs leading up to the Academy...as a couple of loud thuds rang out in front of me. The security guards, they had slumped onto the stairs, their bodies limply sliding down to the ground...they must have died at some point during my time jumping. My bad. 

There's a security camera here, I'll look suspicious if I just walk past them without batting an eye, I should avoid that since I'm not going back to Save Point 01 again, not if I can help it...I feigned shock and took a step back, before calling an ambulance, adding a hint of panic to my voice, before heading inside the building. 

I felt a sense of dread as I headed up the stairs to the first floor, before making my way towards the classroom...I couldn't hear any commotion or anything, hopefully that's a good sign. 

When I arrived in class the first time I lived through today, I was the last to get here, everyone else had already arrived. I let out a slow exhale before gritting my teeth and opening the door, walking in while keeping my expression normal. 

Okay, it doesn't look like anyone's collapsed or anything, they're all awake and speaking, so none of them died-...I then grimaced as I spotted Kiran, his arms folded on the desk and his face sunk in between them. 

Is he just asleep or...? I can't tell if he's breathing or not, with that baggy hoodie over his body...I walked over towards him with a growing sense of anxiety, before poking his shoulder a couple of times...but getting no response from him... 

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