ACT II – THE MAIN SEQUENCE
Part III: Untamable
Just when it seemed that the tide was finally turning in the zoo battle, a flood of acid reached Reimei and co., electric charges jumping on it while a silhouette was thrown out of that flood with the person’s glasses also falling in the acid and melting away into nothing. Miss Scarlettail stopped the further spreading of the flood right away with her water blockades, to which Rose added some rock ones, while Cane went over to the victim of this attack to help them.
As it turned out, that victim was another one of the scarlet-haired beauty’s classmates and a member of the Photography Club along with Yonira and Turora – highly intelligent germophobe Vale who could use both a sensor deva like Cane’s and an electric charge one. There were multiple burns on her skin that was a tone paler than average, the ties she used to tie her light brown hair in long twin tails having melted away, leaving that hair spread out in its full volume, Reimei seeing her light blue eyes without the glasses for the first time, though they were only partially open due to the pain she was in.
The Biology teacher picked her up in his arms while the person responsible for wounding her revealed themselves amid the acid flood as Miluna, her hair returning to normal and the chartreuse energy around her eyes disappearing to indicate her frenzy mode’s effect had elapsed. That didn’t seem to bother her like her devastating attack against her classmate bothered the people she was faced with, the dispassion in her gaze that was now revealed to have a slight red glow to it only further angering Cane.
(Cane) ‘I always knew you were a lowly coward, Mara, but never thought you could stoop this low!!! Does it feel good having classmates and friends fight and hurt each other under your orders?! Is that what the students of Sunbird are to you?! Puppets to mutilate until you get whatever it is you want?!!’
Miluna became rather confused now as she crossed her arms, Reimei being able to easily see through her deception, which angered her greatly as well.
(Miluna) ‘Mara? What Mara are you talking about? You think I’m under someone’s control, sensei? How did you possibly come to that conclusion?’
(Reimei) ‘You should’ve done a better job at disguising yourself! I’ve never heard Miluna talk the way you did just now! She’d more likely say ‘Ya think I’m being controlled, sensei? What’s wrong with ya?!’ or something like that! I don’t know if you’re Mara or not, but whoever you are, I know you made Miluna hurt Vale just now and you’re going to pay for it!!’
Miss Scarlettail wasn’t able to make good on her threat as tens of eagles with platinum-colored feathers that shined like silver in the sun and eyes that had exploded in chartreuse energy descended upon the tamer team, Rose’s colleagues immediately opening fire on the maddened birds. Miluna used the opportunity presented by the arrival of the back-up Rafael seemed to have sent her way to pierce through Reimei and Rose’s walls with massive drills of acid, Cane noticing this and warning the two women just before one of the platinum eagles tried to gouge his eyes out with its talons.
(Cane) ‘Don’t let any of that acid reach us, you two!’
The strongest earth deviant in Deckstoru seemed annoyed by the comment made by the city’s strongest sensor deviant as she threw a number of pebbles she had just created in her palm at the eagle to keep it away from Mr. Garasu, Reimei focusing on stopping the acid drills’ advance in the meantime.
(Rose) ‘Thanks for being so obvious, Cane! I don’t think anyone here would like to have acid burns, so of course we’re going to stop her!!’
(Cane) ‘That’s not what I meant! Not even a single drop must touch any deviant here! If it does, it’s very likely we’ll become susceptible to Mara’s mind control!! That’s how I think she’s taken control of so many people already! She uses a small group of infected to release massive amounts of their devas and infect any deviant nearby with mind control particles, taking control of them later as well!!’
Hearing this made Reimei think back on Annabel and Yonira’s battle from the previous day and how suspicions she had found Annabel using a large-scale technique that could hurt many of the students beside her rival. It also made her worry about another issue, but she decided to put that in the back of her mind for the time being because she needed to concentrate on dealing with Miluna first. One of the last few platinum eagles to have not been sedated flew at the scarlet-haired beauty from the side then, pushing her on the ground with its great momentum and trying to use its talons against her as another member of its species had done with Cane.
Thankfully, the Biology teacher himself put that animal to sleep moments later with a few tranquilizer shots, making sure Miss Scarlettail’s utter dread at the first attempt on her life by a bird of prey would be as short-lasting as possible. What was unfortunate was that while she had been trying to slow her breathing and heart rate down, her focus on keeping up the walls blocking out Miluna’s acid had faltered, that acid breaking through the water. Rose was the one who saved everyone at that time by making a number of rock pyramids come out of the ground with enough force to uproot several of the trees in the ape area, arranging the pyramids in such a way so as to let no acid reach any deviant or ordinari.
Several pyramids were also smashed in the acid-using beauty from both sides, although her deva managed to dissolve some of them, the rest of the structures still hitting her pretty hard, Mrs. Summerbolt having hid herself in one of her creations and coming out the moment her target had been brought to her knees. She used a rock-clad fist to render Miluna unconscious, Reimei going over to her classmate to pick her up and carry her on her back in a similar fashion to what Cane had done with Vale.
Sunbird’s newest student had no doubt that while the tamers had been busy dealing with this latest threat, Rafael had went off and put many more of the still awake animals in a state of frenzy, but as it turned out, that wasn’t the rescuers’ biggest problem in the present. Multiple rock walls were erected in the small area Reimei, Rose, Cane and the others were in, forcing the members of that group to come even closer to each other, these walls being different from the ones the childish-looking grandmother was using, however.
A silhouette came out of one of the walls, another jumping over them in the form of a beam of light, once each of these was no longer covered by their deva being revealed the former was Yonira, the latter – Annabel, both smiling in a manner just as triumphant and disturbing as Rafael from earlier. Just seeing the two of them next to each other like this was all the proof Miss Scarlettail needed to confirm her suspicions roused by Cane’s explanation from earlier.
What the Biology teacher had suggested was indeed true. Mind control particles could be spread via massive releases of the deva of one who’s already been infected by them, which meant Miluna, Nalisia, Yonira and Aguaro had been infected the moment they had come in contact with Annabel’s final technique from the previous day.
The enemy had outsmarted Cane’s group right from the start by embedding a spy in the Photography Club in the face of Yonira who was to be put to use once the battle at the zoo became chaotic enough. That time had now come as Annabel’s rival started covering everyone in rocks from the ground up to restrain them, Annabel herself bursting in light rays carrying particles which would put those that came in contact with them under the mastermind’s control. And there was no way to escape them in this sealed-off space.
