Chapter 153 - 152 - Time Trouble(Part 11)

"<Activate Anomaly, Tier Two: Play>."

As I resumed the flow of time, my surviving classmates immediately began exclaiming in confusion, with several gasps and hisses of pain, before a stunned silence fell over them as they got a look at the three corpses. 

"N-no way...are they d-...are they all dead?" Asked Lin in shock. 

Isn't that obvious? Andre's head got torn off and halfway eaten, Instructor Satou has a literal hole in his chest where his heart was, and Suri's chest was also deeply punctured, bleeding profusely. As everyone stared in shocked silence, Zoya tentatively stepped forward towards the instructor and Suri, but I barely even noticed her. 

I couldn't say a word, and it's not like it would matter even if I did...because as soon as I find out what caused this, I'm going back in time and preventing it. And a huge part of me wanted this to be someone's fault and not an accident...because if no one's to blame, then what the hell am I going to do with all this rage!? 

Where do I direct it? Who do I blame? Because if this was just an accident, then...then it's my fault, I'm the only one to blame. This would never have happened had I not experimented with my powers. And what am I supposed to do if that turns out to be the case? Just what will I-? 

"Hey, it's really faint, but I can feel a pulse! It's fading fast though, what do we do!?" Suddenly exclaimed Zoya, as she knelt down by Suri's body. 

"Stop the bleeding!" 

"Give her CPR!" 

"Get a doctor!" 

As everyone began clamoring in panic, I felt my rage dissipating, as I found myself rapidly calming down after hearing that she was still alive...

"Leave the rest to me...," I muttered, before chanting with a determined grimace, "Now, <Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Load Point 01>." 

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The instant I went back in time, I quickly checked my I-Watch...less than a minute before the end of the lunch break, what do I do? Destroy the teleportation platforms? Hm, no, I'll save that as a last resort...I still need to find out what caused this. 

In which case...my best course of action is to go meet with Director Silva again. Feels like I've seen her a lot today. And for all I know, this might not even be the last time...no, there's no point in thinking too far ahead, I need to focus on resolving the immediate matter at hand. 

I rushed down the stairs and headed for an empty training hall, when suddenly, I quickly halted before I could bump into someone, as I turned the corner. 

"Hey, watch it-...oh, it's just you, Kilzachs. You sure seem to be in a rush," Remarked the person that I almost bumped into. 

It was Suri...and relief washed over me as I met her gaze, and before I knew what I was doing, I had my arms wrapped around her in a tight hug. 

"Wh-what was that for?" She muttered in bemusement as I let her go, averting her gaze awkwardly as she turned red. 

"Oh, uh...don't worry about it. No time to talk right now, so I'll see you later!" I responded, before continuing to make my way towards a training hall, texting Director Silva as I ran. 

'No time to explain, teleport me in immediately, I'm in the Academy, Training Hall 08.'

I rushed into the training hall and towards the teleportation platform, glancing impatiently at my I-Watch, when suddenly, I received a notification. Alright, she responded! 

'Good timing, I was actually just about to contact you.'

Huh? Wonder what that's about...oh, well, no time to waste, every second counts right now! The teleportation platform then activated, and as I blinked, I found myself in her office. 

"Glad you're here, Kilzachs, there's something I-," She began as soon as I appeared. 

"No time, you need to shut down all the teleportation platforms in the Academy, NOW!" I exclaimed urgently. 

"Huh? What's this ab-?" 

"I'm serious, we don't have a second to spare! Trust me, a lot of people will die otherwise!" I urged her. 

"Alright, fine," She responded, after seeing how serious I was, before rapidly typing on her laptop, "Hm, it'll take a while to fully shut them down, but I can block any incoming teleportations to the platforms inside the Academy-." 

"Yes, do that!" 

"Aaand...done!" She declared, after about fifteen seconds of rapid typing and mouse-clicking, before asking me, "Okay, so what was that all ab-...? Wait, what's this?" 

"What is it?" I inquired, walking around the desk to get a look at her screen. 

She'd received a message, looks like it's from one of the bases we've built to the south...I stiffened as I read the message, my eyes widening...

"A whole bunch of the X-Warriors and staff manning the base just suddenly dropped unconscious?" Muttered Director Silva with a frown. 

"Don't tell me...," I muttered to myself, as the pieces started to fall into place...some crucial details were still missing though, I couldn't yet see the full picture... 

Suddenly, several more messages popped up on her screen, all from the same base... 

"Huh, what the...? A huge swarm of Mutants are approaching the base, but...the warding radiation should prevent that! What's going on here!?" Exclaimed Director Silva in alarm, before calling someone, presumably one of the people at that base. 

"D-Director, is that you!? Something's wrong here, there's hundreds of Mutants approaching!" 

"Calm down and shut all the entrances and exits, and then check for whether there's any malfunction in the radiation generator. Reactivating the warding radiation should repel them!" She responded in a clear, yet urgent tone. 

"Y-yes, ma'am!" He replied, before the echo of rushed footsteps rang out, as he hurried to fix the problem. 

The faint sounds of panicked cries was ringing out from the speaker as he made his way to the control room, before a confused mutter escaped his lips. 

"What's the matter?" Inquired Director Silva with a frown. 

"The entry code panel for the door...it's been destroyed! I can't enter the code to open the door!" 

"Well, that's definitely suspicious," I remarked, narrowing my eyes. 

"Yeah, it is...alright, fine, destroy the door, make it into that room no matter what, understand!?" Commanded Director Silva. 

"I-...yes, ma'am!" 

He activated his manifestations and broke the door down, but it took him a couple of minutes...and within that time, reports poured in from others in that base...as the Mutants managed to break into the building. 

Normally, even without the warding radiation, it should take way longer for the Mutants to break through the reinforced metal gates...but that was just it, they didn't break through. No, the gates suddenly opened on their own...and the only way to do that is from the control room. 

And not long after the Mutants broke in, the shutters inside the building started opening and closing at seemingly random, but it soon became obvious...that the Mutants were being shepherded to the teleportation room, which was filled with teleportation platforms. 

"Tch, the teleportation platforms are linking up with platforms inside the Sanctuary! This is bad, Mutants are going to be teleported in all throughout the Sanctuary!" Exclaimed Director Silva in alarm. 

"Then block them from receiving any teleports!" I urged her. 

"Yeah, what do you think I'm doing!? Do you have any idea how many teleportation platforms are in the Sanctuary!? Shit...I'll start by deactivating the ones in the most densely populated areas!" 

"Okay, I'm in!" Suddenly exclaimed the guy who'd called her, before gasping in shock, "What the hell-...everything's destroyed, all the controls are unusable! And the warding radiation...the signature has been reversed somehow, but that's-...this doesn't make any sense, only the shutter controls aren't damaged!" 

"Hey, is there anyone in the room!?" I inquired, getting a bad feeling about what was going on here. 

"No, there isn't!" He responded, before suddenly screaming in panic, the growls of a Mutants audible in the background, before the call suddenly got cut off, a silence cast over us as it did.

"It's Aku, it has to be...," I realized with a grimace, before turning to Director Silva, "They'll never catch him, this is really bad...he could potentially take out every single base we've got!" 

"How can you be so sure that it's that Wight?" She responded as she continued deactivating the teleportation platforms throughout the Sanctuary. 

"Okay, first off, why don't you just deactivate the platforms in the base instead of the ones in the Sanctuary? And second, yeah, I'm sure...unless there's someone else that can sneak into what's effectively a fortress completely undetected? The state of the control room convinced me, it has to be him," I stated with a grimace. 

"Shit, that's right, I can just block transmissions from the platforms in the base!" She exclaimed, sounding a bit frustrated at not realizing that sooner. 

And with that, in a matter of seconds, the problem was resolved...well, not quite, after she took care of the teleportation platforms, she sent out a quick emergency notice to all X-Warriors, instructing them to hunt down the Mutants that did make it into the Sanctuary. 

Damn it...I should have killed Aku when I had the chance, he's a huge threat with his abilities. He could potentially wipe out every single one of our outside bases at this rate, using the same method everytime and we still wouldn't be able to stop him, even knowing what's coming. 

"Kilzachs...we need to talk," Remarked Director Silva in a serious, demanding tone, "I know you prefer to keep certain aspects of your power a secret, but this issue is too big now to compromise for the sake of one individual...to put it simply, I have some questions."

"Yeah, I figured...and fine, I won't refuse, that'd be to my own detriment at this point...alright, then, I'll talk." 

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