ACT IV – SCARLET SUPERGIANT

 

Part V: At the Top

 

As soon as Kriz and the young members of the infiltration squad went back to the elevator, Hikaru and Ayli looked at each other and then at everyone else, nodding at them. While the security guard who was with the hot heads was confused, Reimei could tell by the looks on their faces they had all understood exactly what that nod had meant.

They were to put their headphones on and start playing music as a precaution to hearing Mara Kilzarad’s voice and falling under the effects of mind control from here on. Seeing how serious all of them had become, Kriz didn’t even ask why they were doing what they were doing, simply pushing the button numbered 85 on the panel inside the elevator to send them to the very last floor of Eura Kin Tower’s ‘black’ half.

Vix, Kataleya and Aria quickly started vibing to the music playing in their ears and as they started practicing dance moves, one of them accidentally pushed Reimei right at Hikaru. Due to the unoccupied space in the elevator growing even smaller now, it looked like neither of them could move much, so while Yuki, Feoria and Ayli were trying to calm their dancing classmates down and Kriz was left comically puzzled, Miss Scarlettail and the young Summerbolt were pressed tightly against each other.

Their faces were closer than they had ever been, to the point where their noses almost touched and they could feel the other’s breath on their cheeks. Their bodies had almost been crushed into the other, Reimei feeling like her breasts were about to burst from the pressure of being pushed so hard against Hikaru’s chest. Then, for the first time since meeting him, the scarlet-haired beauty noticed the mad genius was blushing and trying to avoid her gaze – he was actually as embarrassed by this experience as her.

Miss Scarlettail’s heart had already been pounding hard before the realization, but in its aftermath it felt as if that heart was going to break through her ribcage and pierce the young Summerbolt’s body. And due to their chests having all but become one, she could feel his heart had become just as anxious.

The more Reimei focused on the two’s heartbeats, the more all the sounds in the elevator became muffled, even more so because of the music playing in her ears. Until eventually all she could hear was the thunderous roaring of their hearts that kept escalating and made breathing for both of them harder, their skin turning redder and redder as the song in the headphones was about to reach its climax as well.

Hikaru’s newest classmate started feeling dizzy due to so many emotions overwhelming her, which made her unintentionally lean closer to him, at that point their eyes meeting again, their lips – almost touching.

A part of Reimei wanted this unease to end as soon as possible to prevent her from passing out, but another part wished she and the spiky-haired teenager could be trapped in this moment forever.

Just the way they were. With no one else around them. In perfect sync. Melding more and more with the other, body and soul.

But then the elevator doors opened, Yuki, Feoria and Ayli pushing Vix, Kataleya and Aria out while Kriz dragged away the paralyzed Hikaru and Reimei with her. It took some time for the scarlet-haired beauty’s heartbeat and breathing to return to normal after that, becoming aware of her surroundings only then.

First of all, everyone else from the group was looking at her and Hikaru, who was still just as shook-up, with confusion. Second – they had wound up in another corridor with a black ceiling, floor and walls, but this one was shorter, had fewer glass doors with black letters on them in it and the door at its other end was made of metal instead of glass.

Kriz led the way after looking around at all the youngsters, as expected the lone metal door being precisely their goal. After climbing up three stairs to unlock and open it, the security guard stepped aside to reveal first and foremost the clouds in the sky that now felt like they were much closer to Reimei than ever before – she was after all at the highest altitude in her life so far.

It had even taken her skin a bit to register the strong winds that had come rushing inside the corridor with the opening of the door. Those winds reminded the scarlet-haired beauty that even during summer, temperatures at higher altitudes, especially at the top of lone buildings that stood much higher than all others in the vicinity, were palpably lower.  

She flinched in response to that as well as the realization of just how high up she actually was, Hikaru patting Miss Scarlettail on the back helping her overcome the fear and cold gripping her to an extent and take a step forward. Then another. And another. Then up the stairs.

And before she knew it, Reimei had stepped outside. Right away she felt as dizzy as when she had been pressed against Hikaru back at the elevator, for a moment getting the impression she was just floating very high above Deckstoru and could suddenly fall at any second.

Both Yuki and Hikaru supported their newest classmate this time, after alternating between looking at the two of them, the scarlet-haired beauty managing to calm down somehow and even walk on her own. Although she was still reeling a little bit after every other step, trying not to look at the cityscape view around her too much, but at the same time sneaking peeks at it because of how beautiful and mesmerizing Old Town and other parts of the city looked from this distance.

Further beyond them one could see the sea’s infinite blue in one direction, the hills of the Nebula Park in another and much, much farther then all that – the majestic mountains of the Fuorlean Range. It almost felt like another dimension, the music still playing in the observer’s ears making the whole experience even more dreamlike.

Upon starting to feel too intoxicated again, Miss Scarlettail did her best to focus on where she was walking right now instead – a rectangular steel platform with an almost black color encircled by silver safety railing that had been attached to one of the rows of massive solar panels serving as roof tiles for Eura Kin’s ‘black’ half. Only one part of the roof wasn’t covered with solar panels – the one where the door leading to the platform was located, another thing that stood out in this place as much as that being the several deva output sensors spread amid the platform along with some silver benches and chairs.

A tone was heard from Reimei’s phone not long after she had made those observations, upon unlocking it realizing Yuki had texted her. It did make sense that in order to communicate while listening to music and to avoid talking and alerting any possible enemies on the roof of their presence, they would have to use their phones like this.

Yuki: You OK Mei?

Its scary for me too because I dont remember having been this high up so dont worry

Well just work together on this

Reimei: Thanks, Yuki.

How come you don’t need any support like me up here, though?

Yuki: Turn around and look at Hikaru

After doing as Miss Iceflame had instructed, Reimei saw how Hikaru had stepped with one foot on top of the safety railing, had spread his arms and was roaring with his full might while having the widest grin possible on his face. The comically annoyed Feoria and Ayli went over to him to pull the mad genius back before he actually fell off, meanwhile Kriz looking comically confused, to which Vix, Kataleya and Aria responded with a shrug and a sigh.

Miss Scarlettail got another text from Yuki after having witnessed this sight, turning her attention back to the phone’s screen then.

Yuki: Hikaru loves high places and hes never been this high up before either

I knew he was going to have a blast when we got to the roof so I was looking forward to seeing that more than I was scared of the height

Reimei looked away from her phone and at the white-haired beauty, the two smiling at each other. Right after, the scarlet-haired beauty came up with something to text back to Yuki, a certain object falling at her feet preventing her from finishing it.

It was Ayli, who had burns on her skin and a pained look on her face, terror starting to crawl on Miss Scarlettail’s skin that already felt cold as she searched the roof platform with her gaze to find the one responsible. When she did, it was exactly the case she had feared the most.

Feoria was no longer trying to pull Hikaru back from the railing, but had instead activated her skin-heating deva, starting to scorch away her uniform while holding his neck in a lock from behind and burning the mad genius just as she had done with Ayli. The only difference in the appearance changes to normally occur with the activation of her deva was the fact that even from this distance, Reimei could see her irises were glowing in red. And the look on her face had switched from comical annoyance to a complete lack of emotion.

The scarlet-haired beauty instinctively sent a water wave at Feoria to separate her from Hikaru, Yuki jumping to the young Summerbolt to drag him aside as soon as the skin-heating beauty was pushed in the opposite direction. Ensuring he was safe had distracted Reimei from her own level of safety, however, being reminded of that when she felt a heat wave coming at her back from an unknown source.

As she turned around, she saw the three members of the Dance Club trio had the same emotionless look on their faces and red glow in their eyes as Feoria, Vix having hit Kriz with waves of dark purple energy, Aria having already ran toward Yuki while Kataleya had targeted Reimei herself.

The girl with dark green hair had enveloped her body in lime green light, concentrated beams from which had been fired at Miss Scarlettail who now blocked them with a water wall while a part of her attention was redirected to her phone again. Having managed to temporarily keep Aria at bay by making multiple ice blades and spikes emerge from the steel platform under her feet, Yuki had found an opening to send another text to her scarlet-haired counterpart.

Yuki: Jill must be up here and controlling our guys from somewhere

Mei go get her and leavemnhbjz

Aria had put her healing deva to use by channeling its cyan-colored energy through her own body to heal the cuts Yuki’s blades and spikes had inflicted and attack again, due to which Miss Iceflame had been unable to finish her text, but Reimei had understood it well enough.

After removing her water wall, Miss Scarlettail saw Ayli had managed to get back on her feet and activate her transformational deva to turn into a silver-furred hare that clad itself in pale red energy to launch as a projectile at Vix. Quickly shifting her focus from Kriz to her classmate, Vix herself transformed, but into a golden-haired vixen that then became a dark purple energy blade meant to meet with Ayli’s attack.

Amid the dual color blast caused by the morphing girls’ clash, Kriz had managed to jump at Kataleya from behind, shooting streams of slime combining a bright yellow, azure and red color to wrap around Reimei’s classmate clad in lime green light. Seeing that, the scarlet-haired beauty continued to scan the roof platform with her eyes as quickly as possible to locate any potential hiding places for Jill Lahala.

Before she could find any, she noticed Feoria had shaken off being hit by one of her waves earlier to attack Yuki from behind, Hikaru taking on the fully healed Aria who kept coming again and again in response to that to leave the white-haired beauty to deal with the skin-heating one. It looked like all four of the mind slaves had an opponent to keep them busy and buy Reimei time, but the window they had created was limited in duration.

The more drawn-out the fights on Eura Kin’s roof became, the more likely it was going to be for one of the slaves to release a sufficiently powerful burst of their deva to infect their opponent with mind control particles. And that was the worst possible scenario.

In short, Miss Scarlettail needed to act fast, getting back to her search for hiding places. Luckily for her, there were only two possibilities – structures that looked like tool and equipment sheds located at the opposite ends of the steel platform. It was a 50/50 chance as to which of the two Jill was using, but considering Reimei was closer to the one on the right, she went toward it first.

Miss Lahala giving the order for an attack meant the infiltration team had indeed come close to exposing her, but at the same time that attack worried the scarlet-haired beauty. Firstly, it seemed that Vix, Kataleya and Aria had mind control particles in them as well, which meant that most likely the same was valid for the rest of the Dance Club. And secondly, which was perhaps even worse – despite the hot heads implementing Ayli’s headphone strategy, all mind control particle carries had still been put under the enemy’s control.

Even that had not been enough to counter the whole plot, which left the one option that would truly be most efficient – capturing the mastermind herself, Jill. A mission that had now been entrusted to Reimei and after everything her classmates and friends had done for her and everything she had seen being done to them since her arrival, she had no right to fail. Jill Lahala’s capture had to be successful at all costs.

With those thoughts in mind, Miss Scarlettail grabbed the handle of the tool shed door, trying to pull it with all her strength to no avail. Either it was looked or someone had barricaded it with something from inside the shed.

Whichever option was used to keep her out, it would be no match for the power of the water drill formed around Reimei’s arm a moment later.

The drill pierced right through, being transformed into a water claw just as massive to grab hold of the door and yank it out of its hinges in order to reveal the interior of the shed. It had nothing but metal shelves full of boxes, some closed and others open with the tools inside being visisble, and a floor clattered with cables.

In light of her initial search failing and time being against her, instead of running down the platform and in between the four fights being fought there to reach the other shed, the scarlet-haired beauty pushed her deva to the limit of what it could do at 15% to transform her whole body into water and shoot it over the battles like a stream. A stream aimed right at the shed, a few beams of lime green light and spears of dark purple energy slowing down and pushing it a bit off-course, but that hindrance having only been able to buy the mind controller a couple of seconds.

Miss Scarlettail wasn’t even thinking about going through the door this time, instead turning the front end of the stream she had become into a drill of super-condensed water to pierce right through the shed’s roof and get inside. Even cripple Jill with a single hit to prevent her from giving further orders to her mind slaves, if possible.

The stream went through the roof, Reimei returning to her normal appearance after seeing the floor under her was completely empty and it was pointless to attack it. Upon landing, she scanned the shed’s interior that was a lot emptier than the other, this giving her just enough time to notice the silhouette sitting in the darkness inside before multiple golden-colored claws of different sizes were fired at her.

Though a water wall was used to block those, the claws’ piercing capacity turned out to be much higher than anticipated, which forced Miss Scarlettail to use a wave to push herself back to the door and open it from inside by force. In the end, that door was also torn off its hinges, the scarlet-haired beauty falling on it after her wave’s disappearance while the silhouette inside now jumped on top of her.

It was revealed as a woman in her late twenties with quite dark skin that really contrasted her bright yellow dress, raggedy hair slightly longer than shoulder level of a bright orange color and brown eyes. Apart from the dress, she was wearing a black cat ears tiara and black stockings with golden stripe patterns, in terms of her expression having a villainous grin on her face which highlighted her sharper-than-normal canine teeth. This description fitted only one person – Sunbird Languages teacher Jill Lahala.

Noticing the headphones still in Reimei’s ears, Jill’s grin grew even wider as she reached with the hand the elongated and sharpened golden claws of which she hadn’t touched to her opponent’s throat to take off those headphones.

Then she reached down to take the phone out of Reimei’s blazer pocket and throw it aside, finally returning her attention to the scarlet-haired beauty’s face.

(Jill) ‘What’s with the headphones, Miss Scarlettail? You put on some kind of battle soundtrack in case you got into a fight on the roof?’ – she then narrowed her eyes with the most despicable satisfaction and confidence – ‘Or is it to make sure none of you hear a certain something to put you under my control? Too bad it didn’t work, right?’

(Reimei) ‘Well, there are always other things to do about this situation.’ – feeling like she had bided her time enough, Reimei gave the nonverbal order to rapidly increase the number of water molecules she had already spread in the air around her and Jill, forming multiple tails from all that water to wrap around the Languages teacher – ‘Like capturing you!!!’

The tails moved Miss Lahala away from the scarlet-haired beauty, which allowed her to get back up, right after Jill cutting through all of her opponent’s constructs with a new volley of golden claws – this one being fired from her torso and not from her fingers. Evidently, she could use a creation deva for highly piercing golden claws – a powerful and dangerous ability, but far from the strongest Reimei had gone up against.

She quickly erected multilayered water walls to ensure she would be able to properly block the barrage this time, after seeing that none of the claws had been able to get through, switching to offensive moves. The walls were transformed into waves of water drills, crushing into Jill with full force and maximum speed – something Miss Scarlettail thought out to have at least wounded her Languages teacher a bit.

An assumption that turned out to be wrong, because with the disappearance of the water it was revealed all the waves had hit had been a clone made of clusters of claws, those claws now falling on the platform. While Reimei had been dealing with that distraction, Jill had gone back inside the tool shed and returned with an object in her possession – a backpack with cables connected to a microphone holder put around her neck.

(Jill) ‘I don’t think you’ve thought through how much of an advantage I’ve got with all the mind slaves at my disposal here, kid. You’d be better off letting me go.’

(Reimei) ‘I don’t think so.’

(Jill) ‘OK, then.’ – she now leaned her head down a bit, seeming to no longer be talking to Reimei – ‘All of you, jump off the roof.’

Hearing that sent a wave of shock through Miss Scarlettail’s mind, immediately turning to see how Feoria, Vix, Kataleya and Aria had put a sudden stop to their battles with Yuki, Ayli, Kriz and Hikaru to run and throw themselves beyond the safety railing, heading straight down. And since all of them had jumped some distance away from the other, only someone with extremely high teleportation speed would be able to grab all slaves in one go, under normal circumstances that someone being Hikaru.

The young Summerbolt could barely use his deva in the present, though, so it was up to everyone else to act as quickly as possible. Vix and Kateleya were closest to her, so Reimei used several long water tails to wrap around each one’s waist and pull back to the platform, Kriz using a slime-based teleportation to grab Aria while Yuki clad herself in ice and used it to teleport next to Feoria and then reappear back on the platform with her.

As surprising as everything that had happened so far had been, seeing Miss Iceflame use teleportation with a static deva – something unheard of – left the scarlet-haired beauty even more shocked.

Upon everyone being gathered back on the platform, the next surprise – one simultaneously welcome and not – came. All four mind slaves were no longer fighting against their opponents, the red glow having disappeared from their eyes and the look on their faces being one of confusion now.

That could mean only one thing – Jill had gone so far from them that whatever equipment she was using to control them was no longer effective. And after coming to that realization and looking around the platform, Reimei confirmed her suspicions.

The mind control plot mastermind had managed to escape without a trace.