Chapter Sixteen 

Part One: In Distress

 The Intrinsic within the 5th Core looked up at the deathly creature, they were in frozen fear; never before have they seen such an unexplainable being. It’s body, like every form of matter, all twisting at once. Amidst the crowd a woman, with long straight platinum hair and a delicate build, looked up at the anomaly looming over her city with shades on. She slowly lowered her shades to reveal her deep sea blue eyes; she had a slight malevolent smile on her face and her eyes twinkled. 

“Now that’s a sight you wouldn’t see any day!” She said in a tone that was unfitting for the current situation they were in. While everyone around her was horrified, she seemed unphased by her possible impending doom. She could almost feel the dread and terror in the air, in spite of that there she stood with a soft smile. 

“My, my, my! How unfortunate.” 

 It was Millue Constance; she stared bright eyed at the entity above, an Abyssiti this close to one of the Cores was unheard of, and yet. There it was, one of the creatures from beyond the rift. 

“Cephyr Orion would surely love to hear about this one. Perhaps it’ll give him the motivation to expedite his plans...” Beamed Millue as she pushed her black shades back onto her face. Then, just as quickly as it arrived, she watched as a single person began to violently cut away at its limbs atop the mile high wall. Millue grinned a mischievous grin.

“…or perhaps not.” She ended while turning around and carelessly skipping away, as everyone else watched the Abyssiti fall back behind the steel border. 

About an hour later, the air blew calmly, though it brought a slight chill with it. The moons were faded in the morning sky, except the shattered moon Luna, which had a glow just as strong as it would at night. Soleria Illow found herself pacing back and forth, while staring at her Slate. She was anxiously waiting outside of The Beacon, waiting for the Revival squad to return in one piece.

“I repeat, is anybody receiving these messages? Hello? Revival Squad, do you copy?” She called out, into her Slate.

The projected display from the device was showing that they were coming back, but she hadn’t the slightest clue if they were able to stop the Abyssiti, or not. The thought that they were unable to stop it, made her heart feel like it was sinking.

“Can anyone report the status of the interception? Is the Abyssiti handle?”

There was nothing but radio silence. Though they were clearly on the way back to base, she still couldn’t help but think the worst had happened. If they had failed, she would be the one to suffer the consequences, she could feel a pressure on her chest. Afterall she was the one who spoke up at the council meeting all those days ago. Cephyr Orion would carry out his heinous crime to eradicate humanity and her protest would’ve been for naught. Millue Constance would be able to say “Failure, even after all that! I suppose you were just all talk, shame.” Arsyle would look down on her, with his cold glare. She could almost hear his voice telling her “This position isn’t for the weak of heart, Illow…” The three Intrinsic’s doubts loomed over her, all assuming she doesn’t have what it takes to be an Observer, that she is nothing but an idealist. 

“…and maybe they’re right.” Muttered Soleria to herself. 

Then, breaking the young ladies' dissenting thoughts, the sound of engines permeated the air as the I-120 Trucker and a single motorbike rode through the Southern Enclosure and arrived at the main entrance. Razor and Patch were riding one cycle while Crest hitched a ride on the back of the truck. The vehicles came to a screeching halt, as soon as it stopped moving the Captain of the Revival Squad hopped off of the I-120 truckers rear. When he landed on his feet his muscles tightened; he winced in pain as his ankle made contact with the brick below, after the stunts he pulled today his body was surly at its breaking point; he could feel a sharp, agonizing, shock shoot up his spine as he stood. Crest clenched his jaw with each step, attempting to maintain his composure though he felt as if he shattered every bone in his body.

 Idol pulled out the ignition keys to turn the truck off before she stepped outside of the military vehicle. While Dart, Below, Quill and Zero got out of the back seat, Vanity and Fives stood nearby, having already exited the car. The 6 children came together to gaze in admiration of the Revival Squad, while Fives, Quill and Below watched the four Abyssus Units with wide eyes.

“You guys were incredible to watch! I’ve never seen Abyssus Units handle Abyssiti like that before…” began Quill, while beaming.

“That was awesome how you guys took down that creepy hand Abyssiti! It was like, Whoooshhh! Shank! Stab!” Exclaimed Fives as he waved his arms, trying to recreate what happened.  

Fives rushed over to Crest’s side and began to energetically hop up and down, like a child would. Crest on the other hand looked deadpan, he was paying the children no mind and continued forward towards the Beacon. 

“Oh, and how you just bolted up the Wall and demolished that creature without hesitation, Captain!” 

Smiling, Below looked over at Dart and then attempted to put on a more serious demeanor. For some reason she seemed more bummed out, than thrilled by the Abyssus Unit’s display. 

“It’s like you’re a super human or something to pull that off. Surprised you didn’t die on your way back down.” Added Below, with an awkward chuckle while scratching the back of his head. He was impressed though he was trying his best not to show it. 

Meanwhile Soleria Illow approached the group, she quickly scanned the team. “3 Revival squad members, plus their Captain…” thought Soleria to herself as her golden eyes looked around. “…one, two, three, four, five… and six.” She sighed a sigh of relief, she was doing a headcount to make sure everyone came back in one piece. To lose someone this early on in her plan would’ve been detrimental, luckily from what she could see, they all came back without a scratch. 

 “Thank goodness everyone is here!” Cried the Intrinsic as she joined the others. Everyone turned to their Observer, when they heard her voice call out to them.

“Great. Duty ever beckons. You all hang back a second.” Muttered Idol to the children, as she looked over at the golden haired individual. Crest and the rest of the Revival Squad walked over to Soleria. 

“We successfully eradicated the Abyssiti before it reached the 5th Core as you ordered Observer ma’am.” Informed Razor proudly. 

Crest scoffed and glanced down at the ground. “Though there might be some damage to the wall… if you care about something like that.”

Soleria chuckled, the wall was the least of her concern. She was happy to hear everything went well, especially on such short notice. She felt a weight lift off her chest; her home was okay.

“Ah, it's fine Captain. Wonderful work Revival Squad!” Cheered Soleria, giving the team a thumbs up. 

“You four are dismissed. Please enjoy the rest of your day!” 

Crest rolled his eyes at her gesture and walked off towards the giant metal doors of the Beacon without another word. His walk was staggered a bit, Patch could see he was stepping with a slight limp. 

“I’m going straight to bed, wake me up tomorrow and not a minute sooner.” Yawned Idol, sounding quite pressed, like she would meet a cruel end if otherwise.

Crest shoved the giant doors open, Soleria watched with a comforted smile, as the Revival Squad disappeared into the Beacon. She then did a small twirl, looking over at the 6 children. 

“I hope you all were able to learn something by accompanying the Revival Squad!” Beamed the Intrinsic.

“Yeah! Like how bad ass the whole team is! They’re practically unstoppable!” Cheered Fives as he karate chopped the air with vigor.

Dart rested her arm on Fives’ shoulder, taking him by surprise. She knew all the credit shouldn’t go to the Abyssus Units. They wouldn’t have even found the Abyssiti if it wasn’t for the help of someone in particular.

“Well… thanks to someone’s stellar hearing, they were able to track down and catch the Abyssiti before it climbed over the Walls.” She looked over at Vanity, who was taken aback by the sudden attention. 

“Oh.. uh it was nothing! Hehe… just using my gift to our advantage!” She said proudly. “Team work you know?”

“723-B right?” Asked Soleria, dumbfoundedly looking at Vanity. “I saw in your report that you have superhuman hearing! I’m assuming that’s why you are here.”

“I would expect you to use your ability for the mission!”

Dart’s eyebrow twitched. She had a problem with how Soleria said that, almost diminishing her efforts, objectifying her even. Quill noticed the look on Dart’s face change, it was a scowl. 

“You-” Dart started to say something, but Below stepped forward and interrupted her, earning a look from both her and Quill.

“I’m assuming you want us to go back to training correct?” He asked. Below swept his auburn colored hair out of his face.

“Since we kind of got interrupted by that life threatening event.” 

Soleria looked up and tapped her chin with her finger, thoughtfully. “Mmmm, no 197-B. I think you six have done enough today! You all can have the rest of the day to yourselves.”

“…You're giving us a day off?” Asked Quill looking over at Dart.

“I’m ordering it!” Responded the Intrinsic with a soft smile. “We’ll begin training again tomorrow, and soon you’ll get deployed to your first mission!”

Dart started thinking to herself, looking uncertain. Deployed to their first mission? “Would we even be a fraction as effective as the Revival Squad even if we trained?” Her look of uncertainty faded. No, she couldn’t speak for everyone, but she can determine her own fate. “I create my own bounds and limits, I’ll just have to make sure I become even better than the Revival Squad.”

“Well, I’ll be off! That’s my flight back!” Pointed out Soleria, as an airship glided across the sky and landed for her at a nearby pad.

“Bye, 555-A and 618-A!” 

Fives and Quill both spoke over each other as they responded, “Bye bye Intrinsic lady!” As Quill gave her a cute double handed wave. “Bye Mrs Illow!”

“And, 723-B, 197-B and 004-B, have a great night.” Said Soleria with a salute, though she was attempting to be serious, her demeanor still came off as playful. 

“Yeah, same goes for you Observer ma’am.” Said Below folding his arms. Zero saluted her back without a word, to which Vanity put her arms around their shoulders.

“Night!” She looked over at Zero with an awkward chuckle. “I said that for the both of us!” 

Soleria finally looked over at Dart. As Soleria stared into her dark blue eyes, she could see something that she lacked. Eyes are the windows into people’s souls they say, and all Soleria could see was that her eyes burned with a sense of purpose, determination, drive. She knew deep down that when push comes to shove her constitution is weak, even in this situation. However one thought appeared in the Intrinsics mind. “If this human… if she was in my shoes, would she be able to handle it better than I?”

Soleria looked vacantly into the unit's eyes “773-A…”

Her poofy golden hair blew in the chilled breeze. 

“Intrinsic…” Responded Dart coldly.

Soleria was going to say something, but for some reason her words wouldn’t leave her mouth. Dart was fiercely staring her down, so much so her words evaded her. 

“I’ll be back tomorrow… see you then, 773-A” She ended as she quickly broke eye contact and fled.

Soleria waved farewell to everyone, then turned to leave. Dart watched as she walked away with her head down, to return to her home within the 5th Core.