SIS B4: Chapter 110: Preparations and Before Crusher

Daz put down his cellphone and sighed deeply. 'What on Earth is going through her mind?'

He turned to the distraught family which just had their missing daughter returned to them and shook his head softly. 'As urgent as Crusher's situation is, these people deserve my full attention and respect right now.'

"I'm sorry about that. Something unexpected came up," he explained.

The father of the family forced a smile. "It's okay, Your Majesty... We understand... About our daughter..."

"Of course, as I was saying, while the scars of the experiments are very visible, I swear my government will do everything in our power to ensure no discrimination whatsoever takes place. I have no plans to give false promises like the governments of old who only cared for public image and never actually did anything. No matter the cost, your daughter and all like her will be perfectly reintegrated into society, I swear."

The middle-aged man's wife nodded a bit hopefully. "That's relieving to hear..."

"You'll also be compensated for this harrowing experience. Know that your daughter is not alone, Mister Mato," Daz pledged. "I, and soon, all of New Earth too shall have her back."

The man's wife held her hands to her chest closely as she spoke in worry. "S-She'll be able to go back to school, won't she? She was looking forward to becoming a magical tailor so much..."

Daz nodded. "Of course she will. Your daughter isn't someone to be shunned, Misses Mato. She's a hero, just like the other 141 victims. All of New Earth will know of this soon. The Truthians can't get away with doing things like this that just end up hurting people for no good reason. I'll make sure of that."

Mister Mato stepped forward and firmly grabbed Daz's shoulders. He then stared straight into his eyes as waves and waves of fury poured out of him, assaulting Daz's Ember of Empathy.

"You killed every last one of those motherfuckers, didn't you?" the man asked though it sounded more like a demand.

Daz met his powerful gaze and nodded. Lying, he said, "Yes. The facility was destroyed as well."

It sickened him to avoid being truthful but he sadly had to be dishonest here. Zachary still had a purpose in this war.

Of course, Daz had plans to ensure the man received his just comeuppance for what he did, just not before he was done using the man to meet the ends of his own goals first.

Mister Mato smiled cruelly. "Good, good... And, I know you're busy, Your Majesty, but the medicine to avoid the worshipping compulsion you mentioned..."

"Will be entirely free and will be granted the very second it's been fully developed. Until then, as I said, we have a specialised therapist who is going to be making daily visits. Now, I hate to cut this meeting slightly short. Truly, I do, but something urgent just came up," Daz explained.

Mu and his clones would be pushed to their limits, he suspected. Not only was the man the main one responsible for lessening the emotional impact of the devastating attack not long ago, but now he would have to visit over 100 people every day.

Daz owed his fellow reaper for this, he felt. As if he wasn't already greatly indebted to the man who had originally crossed the ocean to kill him.

Mister Muto separated himself from Daz and nodded sternly. "Sorry to keep you and... thank you for saving our daughter, for saving our Aanya."

'It's pretty draining saying all of this meaningless fluff. I wish I could just do what I intend instead of having to repeat it over and over and over. Actions over words. Still, it helps these people with their emotions, if nothing else. I wouldn't say it if they didn't desire it. Again, feelings are a tough thing to control,' he thought.

***

"Your Majesty!" the two guards protecting the initial entry zone of Project Lockbox greeted Daz.

He had used his car to reach the closest teleportation relay and then brought himself straight to Los Angeles's own relay. From there, he flew with the Ridomochi Final Model right to the secret prison.

Of course, he did all of this covertly by disguising himself and using the car's cloaking feature. He didn't want any attention falling onto the high-security facility.

"The situation?" he asked as he immediately began walking.

One of the guards followed him and said, "She's just sitting in the corridor right outside of Prisoner Four's room, Your Majesty. She's yet to attack the door again since your timely intervention."

"I see. Prepare for the base's self-destruct sequence," Daz ordered.

"Y-Your Majesty?" the guard was clearly very flustered by this statement.

"Crusher wishes to talk to the Truthian, so talk to him she shall. I won't let him escape though. If things go poorly and I don't immediately kill him, blow this place to fucking hell and back. Am I understood?" Daz asked in a very commanding tone.

The guard collected herself and nodded. "I'll inform the warden immediately."

"Good. You'll all get a pay rise if this goes well. You've done a great job," Daz said.

He immediately felt some of the guard's worries dissipate while some greed and happiness entered her emotional field.

Just as planned. The only way to ever reliably hire people to protect such an important place like this that simply had to be away from the eyes of the public's radar was to make it far too lucrative to ever make revealing it beyond foolish.

Contracts could do the job too but at Rose's request, he had been trying to stay away from those to help with his paranoia problems.

Daz had agreed but not to further his sister's goals. Moreso because he simply couldn't trust anything from the system that lacked a Star of Eternity anymore.

Before too long, Daz found himself in the same sterile-white hallway as a lumbering figure blocking the way forward.

"Crusher," he called.

Slowly getting up and looking at him, she grinned. "That was quick. Took you, what, 15 mins to get here, tops? Sorry for being a right cunt."

"You had better be. What is this all about, Crusher?" he asked, failing to hide his annoyance and the slight hints of betrayal in his tone.

Her grin grew awkward. "I kinda don't wanna talk about it with anyone bar Soothsayer." She grabbed her neck and sighed. "Ah, fuck it. You deserve to know. I wanna evolve. I've a feelin' the cunt in there can help with that. That's all. I swear."

Daz narrowed his eyes. "You aren't lying but there is more to this... Fine. Crusher, you've been loyal to me ever since we met. I won't stand in your way here but we will share words after this assuming you don't die."

"Hahaha! I shouldn't have doubted that I could trust ya. Sorry, Uriel. Sure, we can chat if this goes well. If it goes tits up... well, not much I can do at that point," she said as she shrugged. "I wouldn't mind a spar if I'm right though."

"A spar I can manage, but only after all of this shit is done and behind us," Daz demanded as he walked over to the door's control panel and began the process of identifying himself to get it open.

Crusher whistled. "Rare to see you cursing. I really pissed you off, huh?"

"Yes, yes you did. Luckily though, you didn't try to blow up my city or actually succeed in doing so. You're just being a fucking idiot. A fucking idiot who is trying to better herself. I can respect that if nothing else unlike the other people who have 'pissed me off'. One is dead, the other soon will be so count yourself as lucky, Crusher," Daz explained as the control panel beeped and flashed green.

Crusher smiled. "Ol' Marglow and her holiness herself, eh?"

"Yes," he said, not overly fond of how happy she was.

'Perhaps I should have rejected her. What if this becomes a common occurrence? I value her a lot but I cannot afford her to be so reckless in the future. Zachary could have killed her and simply escaped if he played his cards right. The escaping part would be tough given my countermeasures but her death... That would have been a total disaster,' Daz thought.

The door swung open, revealing the bound man within

Zachary had been strapped to a chair that was dangling from the roof. Said chair was exactly 51 metres away from every single wall in the room.

On every surface in the cell, lay hundreds upon hundreds of guns and lasers, all ready to kill the man if he broke his bindings.

While the archpriest may be fast, he wasn't quick enough to avoid so much gunfire from every direction possible. Even the ceiling and floors were laced with weapons.

"Ah, hello," Zachary called cheerfully. "I assume it's time for more in-depth questioning? I thought it would take you longer. Is my family safe?"

"They are," Daz answered as he folded his arms. "But we aren't here on official business. Crusher has a request for you."

"Oh, is that so? Well, I'm more than willing to offer you aid if you require it. Crusher, yes? I've heard about you. You're a pretty... big threat," he chuckled at his pun.

Crusher stepped forward, directly entering the danger zone of 50 metres. At the same time, Daz summoned his briefcase and then surrounded the Truthian with all of his diamond needles.

Each one slightly pressing into his exposed flesh or his clothes, ready to rip him apart in a fraction of a second.

"Threatening, haha," Zachary laughing in good humour, clearly not taking the situation too seriously.

"Cut me off from the system," Crusher said. "Completely. I want the whole nine yards."

Zachary glanced at Daz with uncertainty. "Is that okay?"

"No, but do it regardless. I'm sure you're aware of what will happen if you try to do anything more than she requested," Daz coldly replied.

Chuckling nervously, the archbishop nodded. "Well... Okay then."

***

'Here it is,' Crusher thought as she sat down and closed her eyes.

She felt herself getting small, much, much smaller. Her muscles shrank and her height declined rapidly.

Before long, all that was left was a skinny woman with barely any muscles on her. In fact, she was even a bit anorexic. She was also only about 5'2" now.

"You weren't this small when we first met," Daz pointed out. "I thought you were a bodybuilder."

She could hear the suspicion and accusations in his tone. She'd expected to receive as much.

"I didn't magically start using the system when I first met you and I was," Crusher answered. "Wasn't fuckin' easy, lemme tell ya. My height was more limiting than you'd think. As for my weight..."

She slapped her legs and laughed. "Car crash five years ago. Can't use these babies. I just kinda wasted away for a while."

"Then what were you doing in a DIY store buying a sledgehammer?" Daz asked pointedly.

She laughed. "Being creative."

"Huh. Well, we all have our petty secrets, don't we, Crusher?" Daz noted, seemingly satisfied with her response.

"This ain't Crusher," she noted with a dismissive laugh. "This sorry sack of a human is Petra."

No response met her and honestly, she preferred it that way. She simply closed her eyes and looked inward.

Her Ember of Clarity worked perfectly fine, as did her other three Embers though they had no uses here.

With her Ember of Clarity, Petra could see the state of her body. Half of her spine was destroyed and her legs were just a tangled mess of muscle and bone. Honestly, it'd been a miracle that she'd survived the crash.

She loathed herself. She absolutely disgusted this useless body that had crushed her dreams. How could she ever become the world champion for bodybuilding in the woman's league when something completely out of her control had ruined her entire life?

"Any ideas why I was in the U.S. in the first place, Daz?" she asked, seeing no reason to use his nickname since she wasn't Crusher any longer.

"Hmm... I can think of a few. Do you want to be honest in his presence?" he asked back.

Petra chuckled. She knew damn well that the paranoid bastard would make sure this Truthian never left that chair he was strapped to for the rest of his life.

If said life only lasted for another few weeks or several years, she didn't care. "I don't give a fuck. Show me your wisdom, oh mighty high king of New Earth."

"I get enough sass out of Rose," Daz mumbled.

Rose... a girl Petra saw a lot of herself in but at the same time saw only a complete stranger. 'That little weirdo has so much more strength than I do...'

"Honesty?" Daz said. "I've got a hunch it was to get yourself killed somehow. The States didn't have any assisted suicide programmes though so I've no clues what plans you had."

Petra laughed loudly though it had little impact, what with her feeble frame. "You're scary perceptive sometimes. Anyone ever told you that before?"

"Oh, a handful of people. Then again, you did once tell me you were suicidal at one stage in your life. It hardly takes a genius to connect the dots," Daz said with a light shrug, still keeping almost all of his focus on the Truthian.

Petra nodded slowly then tried to push herself up onto her feet but ended up falling flat on her face. "Well, kinda saw that coming... Had to try though... Only miracle is the system, really."

She sighed as she smiled. "Mind stopping this shit now? I'm done."

Zachary nodded and did just as she asked.

Immediately power swelled in every cell of her body as she grew in mass and height. Within seconds she was once again Crusher, the Titan, giver of nicknames, laugher of things and leaders of misfits.

She groaned as she stretched then she froze. A system message was blocking her view.

[Congratulations! By returning to your roots and in some ways, your feared past, you have gained a far vaster understanding of yourself and the world around you as a whole. You have gained the qualifications to undergo your second evolution!]