Chapter 111 - The Fall of Number 9

"Besides that," Zeel continued as the pulsing-light filled the stasis chambers of Henri, Lexa, Adeline, and Clayton.

"That's about it I think, at least for now. The experiment looks successful,"

Zeel turned to the rest of the group.

"After they wake up, they will be some side effects of adjusting to their enhanced physiques and new abilities. Often times, these conditions require months to completely eliminate and are mostly harmless, like random Microsleep intervals," Zeel explained carefully, even going so far as to explicitly state what Microsleep is.

The last thing Zeel wanted was for someone to fall asleep suddenly, and the others to think that they died.

While Zeel was babbling, Marina stared off into space as if trying to see something, but just wrinkled her nose and thought nothing more of it.

Zeel had methods to stop Loric abilities from being used inside the base, but Marina felt like her abilities were somehow double-suppressed.

Zeel would only hinder the abilities slightly to stop unintended uses, but Marina could feel that something extra was going on, but she couldn't figure out what.

Alice, on the other hand, knew not to ignore her intuition.

"Strange!" Alice said as she looked blankly into space, obviously using her nanites to tap into the nearby cameras.

"What is it?" asked Ella a bit nervous, she felt as if everything was going too well recently.

Things can never go too well, so she has been on her guard since the boys captured Cody. In a way, Ella was Zeel's best student simply because she was the most inconspicuous person.

However, Zeel disliked Ella's heroic attitude. Heroes always died first in battle.

"It's nothing just this kid has been wondering in front of the building for a while now, I th-" before Alice could continue her thought process, Zeel interrupted.

"The experiment is successful," He said.

Alice raised her brows, it was unlike Zeel to interrupt while someone else was talking. Alice tapped into the video feed once more but the child in front of the building was gone.

Alice dismissed any further concentration outside the building. Zeel's base was far too fortified for anyone to injure them.

Everyone watched as Henri, Lexa, Adeline, and Clayton's eyes shot open from within the stasis pods.

"Wait! How long? Where – How?" Henri wanted to speak but could barely manage a coherent sentence, the others were also in a similar situation.

Zeel walked up to the newly awakened four Cêpans, handing each a spec bomb before placing his hand on Henri's and Lexa's heads, sending a torrent of memories directly into their brains.

"That is all the information you need to know. It will take some time for you to adjust, don't rush it and explain to the others what is happening. GOOD LUCK!" Zeel said and stepped away from Henri and the others.

Suddenly, the spec bomb in the Cepans' hands went active, pulling all Cêpans into the mirror dimension. Everyone was confused about this action, but Marina had already activated her nanites ring, causing her combat gear to appear in an instant.

Alice and Elizabeth's nanites combat attire was triggered on its own by the ringing of their intuition. Unlike Marina's, Alice and Elizabeth's nanites suits came from their Mbeamers that were now disguised as Rainbow Wedding rings.

Like the odd one out of the bunch, Malcolm didn't mind the tense atmosphere and instead chimed in.

"So all Setrakus Ra had to do was give the legacy power a choice?" Malcolm asked eagerly.

"Yeah, basically since I heard his wife was a kind woman, it would have likely given her enough power to protect herself at least. A Cosmic Force is born from necessity after all," Zeel concluded staring intently at Malcolm.

At this time if everyone didn't notice there was something strange about Malcolm, they would have wasted their entire time of training with Zeel and Alice.

John, Vishnu, Stanley, Ella, and Cindy also shifted into their nanites combat suit.

Malcolm started laughing and said "Thanks for the information,"

"Everyone duck!" Marina shouted having perceived something with her precognition legacy.

Malcolm fell to the ground and dissolved into a pool of blood instantly.

Zeel's body pulsed with a blue light that generated an Electromagnetic pulse that detonated the missiles that were aiming at the building.

Feeling that Zeel was a bit too late, Alice quickly covered everyone in a telekinetic barrier as a precaution.

And as it turned out, Zeel was indeed a bit too late causing the missiles to detonate near the building.

The shockwaves still winded everyone inside the building. Zeel felt strange since he could not sense the missiles coming until they were already right outside.

This should not have been possible with the technological level of Mogador.

Maybe, Zeel was losing his edge or maybe, his soul's decay rate had skyrocketed?

Sadly, the missile that just detonated would not wait for Zeel's thoughts to calm down. First came the shockwave, then the explosion itself.

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

The building shook as the outer concrete layer shattered before their eyes, disappearing into oblivion.

The Mogadorians had no doubt used their most advanced missiles for this excursion. This demonstrated just how desperate they were to kill Zeel and Alice. The rest of the Garde were just a bonus.

Luckily, the top four floors were built with a microglass synthesized by Zeel, himself; however, the floors below the top four were another story.

The building crumbled as more shots were fired from the outside, the group then found themselves in free fall, trapped in a glass coffin.

The debris of the building was falling above and below them.

Alice quickly used her telekinesis, opening the microglass layer so everyone could hop out.

This was quite easy since everyone knew to remain calm the more serious matters got. Everyone stabilized themselves on rocks that were floating in the air with the use of their own telekinesis.

Below, the group saw people being crushed by the falling debris. The little girl that was wandering around the building was sitting on the ground crying, about to be crushed by a rock.

Alice, not having a full grasp on the situation, opted to freeze everyone in place since her intuition was telling her saving the girl was a bad idea; however, before she could get a firm grip on everyone, Ella and Stanley swooped downwards.

Despite his stubborn attitude, Stanely was known to be a very kind soul. Ella was just naturally naively, heroic.

"Stop!" Zeel yelled, attempting to stop them, but he was too busy diverting the incoming Mogadorian missiles to pay attention to anyone other than Alice and Elizabeth.

Just as the rock was about to crush the girl, Stanley punched it into oblivion, holding the little blonde child in his arms.

Ella came behind Stanley hugging both him and the child. They both comforted the turbulent mind of the child. Ella extended her telepathy into the mind of the child, hoping to seduce the child into sleep.

However, all Ella felt from the child was an unmistakable calmness of someone who had everything under control. Every number, seeing the child safe, exhaled a sigh of relief but before contentment could truly settle in, Marina yelled "Drop her!"

Marina's yell was just a moment too late. With a red streak of light, a blade had pierced through Ella and Stanley.

Luckily, Ella managed to dodge the sword at the last moment. She had perceived the emotional state of the child in time to dodge the imminent attack.

The blade still managed to pierce Ella's abdomen, but this injury was not life-threatening. Stanley's body began to dissipate into ash before anyone could fully understand what happened.

The child, falling to her feet, began to grow until she became a fully grown Mogadorian female.

"Two down, six more to go," The Mogadorian said loud enough for the Garde to hear.

As if waiting for the child to complete her mission, thousands of Mogadorian ships appeared on the horizon.

"Two?" Cindy asked, confused since Ella had obviously survived.

"Poison, nasty kind. One nick and you'll die. It's just a matter of time," Zeel whispered.

Everyone could hear his reply due to their enhanced physiques.

Alice had already extended her telekinesis down below and snapped the neck of The Mogadorian that was about to take another shot at Ella.

"Then we should have her sit the battle out," Marina said quickly.

Zeel shook his head "We need her to fight. It's her fault for not considering all options,"

As the group was about to yell at Zeel's heartlessness, Ella floated up on a nearby rock "He's right, I can feel my vitality draining. I will fight for Stanley,"

"Count?" Alice asked as everyone snapped out of the shock of losing a fellow Garde - Number 9.

"Probably two thousand ships or more. The white one is there as well, which means Setrakus Ra is here," Zeel replied, as he enlarged the view from the horizon a couple of times using his eyesight.

Alice shrugged "That means they committed at least half their forces on earth to this attack?"

"Probably," Zeel nodded in reply.

"Time to work for a living guys!" Zeel shouted.

Ella managed to get on her feet alongside Cindy, John, Marina, and Elizabeth, with Vishnu having the least emotional reaction to the death of Stanley.

With a wave of Zeel's hand, antigravity boots attached themselves to everyone's feet except Alice's.

"All these people are going to die," Marina said in a melancholic voice as the group floated in the air, watching the scurrying humans below, who were either injured or panicking.

Mothers looking for their children, fathers dead, family members missing, children crying off to the side, they could hear sirens in the distance.

The group could imagine the death toll in the battle to come, knowing if they choose not to fight here, the casualties would be worst.

The Mogadorians would slaughter entire cities until the members of the Garde revealed themselves.

"Not necessarily," Alice replied which caused Zeel to make a wry smile. '

Alice waved her hand as barriers started covering New York City. The barriers were being relayed from building to building using signal receivers.

Zeel knew of Alice's secret actions but did nothing to stop it. He hoped she would reconsider by the time of the battle.

"Why? I needed New York city to fall so that these people can become martyrs for the cause. Even with our technology, finding all the Mogadorians bases on earth will take a long time. If humans help, we will be finished quicker.

We need them to mourn before they agree to help us," Zeel explained to Alice, making the group come to a rude awakening of why he chose New York City as the main base.

"That's not the way to do it, my love," Alice said running her fingers through his hair as Elizabeth joined her in the action.

"Since when have you considered yourself someone who requires the aid of others?" Alice asked.

Zeel froze at this statement, he did not want to admit it, but Alice was painfully right. Zeel never left anything to chance, always making sure to handle everything on his own.

But now, he was unintentionally considering the help of others, this was not the way he was trained.

Giving Alice a small smile while holding her hand, Zeel whispered "Thank you!"

Then he reached back and offered his hand to a jealous looking Elizabeth, who also took it with a small smile.

Zeel pulled Elizabeth close and whispered into her ears carefully "My entire race bears the sin of pride. Trust me, it gets you nowhere.

You do what you must to survive, and then you thrive in that survival until the mundane becomes a marvel.

Then the next time, you can adjust to a harder struggle, because there will always be a greater struggle waiting for those with greater power,"

"I know you don't love me, but we can learn to love," Elizabeth said as the rest of the numbers joined them by forming a united front.

The picturesque image of floating rocks, that held teenagers on top, was immortalized in the minds of the spectating humans below.

Floating above the city, John, Zeel, Alice, Vishnu, Cindy, and Marina prepared to confront the Mogadorian threat, unaware of the videos streaming on YouTube that were being recorded below.