G.E.N.I.U.S

G.E.N.I.U.S

Fort, sector 4.

Westward exit.

409 AF.

When the gate was fully open the scene that he saw wasn't what he expected. Ivan's mouth was agape in confusion. He slapped himself twice to be sure that he wasn't just having some kind of abnormal nightmare.

The sheer devastation was just too much for him to comprehend.

The ground was fractured beyond repair, roads and buildings laid to waste. Clouds of smoke billowed from the ruins. And there was hardly any proof that people died there. Their lives, reduced to a small pile of ash, or a dash of blood. Their whole lives, decimated in a moment. Ivan could only imagine the horror they must've felt when it struck. The horror they felt deep within their souls moments before they lost their lives.

Tara appeared to be surprised as well, but in a completely different way. Her smile was so cheerful, so happy that was it became scary. Rather than being terrified, she was elated.

"You've got a good friend." She said it in an upbeat manner.

"...He did this? And he's calling me for help? He must need a psychiatrist."

"Why?" Tara was really confused now. Ivan just sighed. He had managed to collect himself. Now he only felt a little bit sad about shrugging off the fact that so many people died, just so he could focus on what mattered to him. He felt as though, those brave people deserved a moment of silence.

"That dumbass managed to destabilise the already unstable nuclear reactors. The resulting explosion took out his enemies. But don't worry, it's mostly safe. It looks like measures have already been taken to curb the radioactivity."

Attention host! You are still linked to {Jupiter} ! Please refrain from using words like *dumbass* to refer to him.

"Damn, I screwed up."

Fuck you too dumbass.

"Since when did you start saying words like that, Uranus?"

Since the moment Profane re-invented them. Doesn't matter though. I know the smoke is hard to see through, but I bet your gadgets can handle that crap. Find me and await further instructions.

"Who died and made you the boss, boss?"

Just shut up and get it done.

Ivan sighed and turned to Tara. To his utmost surprise, she wasn't there.

He frantically looked around, searching for her, but he didn't see her. She had disappeared.

'Where did she go? If only G.E.N.I.U.S could differentiate between humans and espers. I didn't put a tracking device on her either.'

"Dorothy, do you know where she is?"

The horse just neighed.

'What is wrong with me? I'm talking to a horse.'

Command confirmed!

Scanning brain waves...

Scanning brain waves...

Host, I'm pleased to report that you have zero mental or psychological abnormalities. You are completely healthy in that area.

"..."

'Please deactivate social system and adaptive command system. I'll stick to the traditional commands and barebones interface, thank you.'

Hey, do you really want to....

The distracting voice trailed away, replaced by a more robotic, mechanical voice.

[Social system] shutting down...

[Social system] shut down.

[Adaptive command system] shutting down...

[Adaptive command system] shut down.

[Voice activated command system] online.

[Traditional settings] configured.

Ivan sighed once more and blinked. Augmented reality contact lenses linked to G.E.N.I.U.S fed the system messages in the form of holographic display directly over his eyes. The holograms floating before his eyes also gave him information via graphs and pictograms, describing the humidity, temperature, and a host of other things including the level of radiation.

It was reducing steadily, and he was completely sure he wouldn't get radiation poisoning. Tara was still a concern though, but considering she shrugged off a bullet through the head, he might've been worried over nothing.

He blinked again, the holographic screen switching over to it's regular system messages page.

Hey dumbass.

"Not gonna live that one up, are you?"

You're running late.

Ivan swallowed hard, suddenly nervous.

'He might actually die... No. I have to have faith in his esper abilities, and do my part. Now, If I remember correctly, the old G.E.N.I.U.S was voice activated. I'll need a good eye to find them.'

"Activate all advanced audio and visual systems!"

Command confirmed!

[A.A.V systems] activated!

[Audio system] malfunction!

Attempt to troubleshoot failed!

Only [Advanced Visual systems] online!

'Dad... you're one heck of a bad engineer, my cyborg bits are still underdeveloped. Using this again brings back old times. It's been quite a while since I've had to throw myself into a fight like this.'

Captain Wesley and his vice Carl. The big-shot leaders of the Bulwark battle squad, stood side by side in a little bubble of a force field a bit of a distance away. His telescopic and infrared vision let him see their general shapes and heat signatures through the smoke and he immediately guessed who they were. He realised that the vice captain was also using technology-in the form of special binoculars- to see through the smoke. It was... a mystifying feeling when the two of them met eyes from 25m away. A feeling Ivan believed they both shared for that brief moment.

'Jupiter. Where the heck are you?'

He turned around, scanning the area for him, until he got a heat signature from behind a huge rock. It was him.

"Found you."

I can't believe it took you so long. I managed to land a six after all, so I'm suddenly immune to the radiation...but my chances aren't going up by much even with you here. Be careful.

"What are our chances?"

You don't wanna know.

Suddenly, an incredibly loud noise assaulted their ears. It was the sound of a person yelling as much as they could, into an augmented speaker phone.

"Peculiar! This thing works quite well! Attention evil-doers! Odd pathetic pieces of crap! I see ya! Every single last one of ya! My guy has eyes on ya! Whatever you pulled against us was unforgivable! And you will pay for it..."

'No. Jupiter didn't do anything. What happened was bound to happen sooner or later. The king is the evil one for cutting the budget on the nuclear engineers to fill up his own pockets. But then again, those men didn't deserve to die.'

Wesley grinned, raising his rocket launcher high. Carl nodded and aimed at Jupiter with a smirk. The force field was gone.

"...with your blood! Ya have been declared -by yars truly- as an enemy of da state! Die, lousy pieces of trash!" He screamed at the top of his voice.

Then Carl fired, sending a laser bolt at Jupiter. It was unavoidable. It would instantly kill any other person.

However, this was Jupiter. Not a regular person. The man practically threw his body out of the way in time for the blast of weaponized light to connect with the barricade he was hiding behind. It burst into flames with a quick flash of light.

'The only way to dodge it would be to move a split second before Carl pulled the trigger. Too early and Carl would just reposition the weapon and fire before he could react. Too late, and he'll have lost his head by the he would've attempted the jump.'

Jupiter landed on his side and started to roll. Carl repositioned his gun, and took another shot at Jupiter. However, for some reason, he just happened to miss, allowing the special esper to escape behind another broken wall segment.

The sniper shook his head, visibly annoyed. Wesley put his hand on his lieutenant's shoulder and shook his head. Then the sniper put the gun down, and Wesley's smile widened.

Ivan could almost picture the hatred in his eyes.

'Almost all of his comrades were annihilated. His rage is completely justified. Still, I'm not letting you kill Jupiter!'

"Platinum blade, emerge!"

Command confirmed!

His armour divided itself into nanoparticles once more, bringing out the platinum from within and reconfiguring itself again in a single second this time. It appeared as though the platinum saber came out of nowhere.

"Laser cannons, ready!"

Command confirmed!

His armour reconfigured itself at the shoulders, transforming into minty cannons.

"Thrusters ready! Now, full power!"

Command confirmed!

At the back of his feet, pipes emerged from within the armour. These things suddenly roared with blue flame, launching Ivan forward with phenomenal speed, right towards Jupiter's direction.

All battle systems activated!

'..Not when there's still so much I could learn from experimenting on him!'

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