Chapter 33: Convergence Part 7

Kyle's POV

Waking up, my senses were still fleeting. Overlooking the fact that I couldn't feel any of my body parts for a short while, I wasn't going to back down at Zero's threat. Even so, I couldn't allow my brother to be tortured in such a way; I was prepared to sacrifice both our lives for the greater good, not have my brother be put in a prolonged state of psychosis.

Strangely enough, while still lying there on the ground, the first sense that had returned to me was my sense of smell. I started picking up on a faint smell of a metal, of some sorts. As my sense gradually grew stronger, so did the scent; it now felt as if I was close to whatever metal it was.

My muscles had begun responding to me again, so I slowly started to raise myself to my feet. The metal was now smelling rusty, and getting a lot more pungent. Now standing fully erected, with my eyes adjusting to the sunlight, I beheld the source of the smell. It wasn't any metal... it was blood.

Blood... blood... so much blood... It was everywhere. And their bodies... they were just there, all in pieces. Once upon a time, they were all I had. Now I've been forced to look at the remains of their bodies, all ripped apart. Jeffery, Marcus, Joshua, TK, and even Tom... they were all just laying dead in front of me.

"So this is what Zero meant..." I shuddered

I'd jumped a bit when I realized my shoes and pants legs were soaked in their blood, along with most of my trenchcoat.

Zero had mutilated and completely ripped apart my old allies; all because I was pursuing his identity...

It was that moment, that I decided, powers or no powers, I was going to make Zero pay for this.

"I, Kyle Forlurne, pledge to make Black Zero pay for everything he's done, as the last remaining remnant of the Rising Sun."

I didn't know what the feeling itself was at the time, but I felt a strong rush of serotonin, which is the leadership hormone; which can affect one's will power. And there was a glistening in my eyes, as my determination for justice had grown.

My proper sense had then kicked in, and I swiftly turned around to see if Zero had gotten to one of my closest friends as well. Dondre's body was still fully intact, surprisingly, and just appeared to be unconscious.

I immediately went over to wake him up. As the distance between us reduced, he'd seemed to be regaining consciousness. Evidently weak and struggling to stand, I helped him up to his feet.

"The hell just happened?" he questioned

"You're the speedster, you tell me." I responded

"Having superspeed doesn't give me discernment of the past Kyle."

"Shouldn't you be in too bad a condition to be hitting me with sass?"

"Oh my GOD why are there a bunch of human body parts over there?!" he freaked out

"Well after Shante knocked me out, I had this surreal vision that involved Zero. When I woke up, they were all dead."

"Just like that? Zero killed all of them?"

"Afraid so..."

"And why'd he leave us alive?"

"Your guess is as good as mine my friend."

~~~~~~~

I'd helped Dondre walk a couple feet, until his superspeedy regeneration kicked in an d he was able to transport the both of us to the lab.

"How are we even gonna explain this to Cas?" he questioned while we were in the elevator.

"I have, no idea."

"That trench coat of yours that's drenched in blood probably won't help with anything..." he pointed out

"Oh yeah, you're right." I'd gone to take off my coat, but it was too late by then.

The doors of the elevator revealed the interior of the lab.

The Prince seemed dumbfounded as to why my clothes were quite literally dripping blood, and probably why Dondre looked so beat up. Cassandra and Alisa had walked into the room, while I was still in the middle of stripping from my coat. The females stopped, with Cassandra giving off a slightly horrified look.

"What the hell happened out there while I was analyzing this girl's brain?" She posed

"Long story." Dondre stated.

"Shante and Zero ambushed us. After I woke up from psychosis the whole Rising Sun was dead." I informed

"Black Zero killed them? For what?" She questioned

"They'd lost their powers after convergence, so they were all looking to somehow take it out on Zero. He was sure to discourage their behavior.."

"But wasn't there something else?" Dondre questioned, "When you'd just woken up I heard you say 'So that's what Zero meant'. What did you mean?"

I half-sharpened my glare at Dondre.

"During the psychosis," I turned back to the rest of them, "Black Zero accused me of being after his identity, and said that this very same fate would befall my brother should I continue."

"And were the claims true?" Cas questioned

"Well yes; if we found out who Zero is, we would more than likely be able to answer a lot of our questions about him, and maybe even be able to beat him."

"So really, the killing of the Rising Sun members was to discourage you."

"Now, don't act like this was all my fault. If any of you had the same opportunities, you'd track down Zero too."

"Can you guys, argue about this later maybe?" Alisa interrupted, "We should probably get to the actual problem of Dark Cross and Ballista."

Cas groaned.

"I agree." she stated, "I was able to isolate a unique radiowave frequency from her brain, just as hypothesized. After not too long I created an anti-frequency to nullify it's effects."

"Ok, so finally some good news." Dondre commented

"I was able to throw together a bunch of components, given the limited time I had, and made this device, which is nothing more than a toggleable radiofrequency emitter."

"Simply fantastic." went the Prince

"Now to do a simple test."

Cassandra held up the device and turned to Alisa.

"Lisa, do you mind using your powers?"

Alisa held up her right hand and charged it with electricity.

Cassandra rotated the device's wheel from 0 Hz (hertz) to 8 Hz. As the dial value went up, the electricity produced by Alisa begun to recede. When it reached 8 Hz, Cassandra stopped, as the electricity was no longer visible. Alisa was evidently struggling to use her ability, but no results were gained.

"Perfect." Cas stated

"Yeah it is, but what about higher frequencies?" Dondre questioned, "The numbers on your dial go up to 15."

"The brain functions from 8 - 12 Alpha Hz. 8 would be the bare minimum to get results, you can go up to 12 Hz if the enemy is versatile enough. But anything past that could very well overload someone's brain, thus killing them."

"Then why is 13-15 on it?"

"We have no idea of the true capabilities of our foes, it may end up being the only option. It's just a contingency plan, so don't use it unless you absolutely have to."

"Well that's fine, we can just broadcast it throughout the city and stop Dark Cross."

"Broadcasting would take too long to setup, seeing as this is a short-ranged mono-functional frequency device. And by my calculations, we only have 10 minutes at best until Cross' corruption completely engulfs the city."

"So we're back to square one." I stated, "We have no way of tracking them."

"I might be able to help with that," Interjected the Prince, "While this is not my exact field of science, I'm sure that by doing a simple reprogramming of the device, we would be able to triangulate similar frequencies?"

"Yes but that would require me to broadcast the trojan signal via the satellites, which would still take more than the time we have." Cas responded

"Well you made a bloody radiofrequency device in less than 10 minutes, I'm sure you can do something."

After various looks and expressions around the room, Cassandra came back up with her verdict.

"I'll do my best, but I can't promise that it'll function flawlessly."