Chapter 108 - The 30 Second Mission

"Okay, you guys ready?" Zeel asked a bit excited at the prospect of trying out a new weapon; while he may not be the most emotionally attached person, it was quite the opposite when it came to his own creations.

There was a small possibility the plan would fail, so Zeel had a Plan B in the worst-case scenario; though the plan B was also testing a new weapon, so he also made a Plan C. Had the others known this they would have no doubt aborted the mission before it even began.

"Good here!"

"Here too!"

"Are we sure I can teleport just outside the blast radius?"

"Okay awesome, computer pull up satellite imagery containing the location of the meeting," Zeel told the AI coined 'STARS2'.

A holographic image was pulled up showing Number 5 in a field near the outskirts of New Mexico.

A large energy signature was apparent a couple of hundred feet behind him, though the group could see nothing, if it had not been for the satellite readings they wouldn't have even expected the phoenix stone to be embedded below the ground.

"Got the location?" John asked Vishnu as everyone huddled up. Vishnu's teleportation was more space bending than the destabilization of energy, but Zeel did not allow him to realize his full potential.

Why would Zeel help someone for no reason at all? It was better that Vishnu came to the realization on his own.

The world was not forgiving and Zeel knew the greater power you held, the greater the responsibility the world would convey to you. Especially, if the world was dying like this current Earth.

"Yeah, with the strengthening of my powers, I can feel like we're already there it's just to pull us through now," Vishu replied after carefully getting a feel for it.

His improvement had been the most apparent. Vishnu could not only teleport but also spy since his teleportation would grant him an awareness of the location he is about to jump to before he even jumps.

Though after determining a location, he would have to jump within five seconds or lose the location entirely.

This would force him to focus much harder the next time, Zeel said it was caused due to a quantum tunneling effect of the probability field. Vishnu could temporarily concentrate the probability of electrons to a certain location, but Murphy's Law would once again apply after five seconds.

"Good. Now STARS2, launch the AGES bomb with a cloaking feature," Zeel commanded, a bit of excitement tinged within his usually calm, indifferent voice.

"Launching in 5…4…3…2…1… Launched, ETA 2 minutes,"

"How can we be sure they won't detect it?" Stanley inquired making everyone surprised he managed to actually ask a fairly intelligent question.

"Well," Zeel started to explain with exaggerated hand gestures and sound effects "The Mogadorians are looking for specific energy signatures: Loric energy signatures which your legacies give off, Human energy signatures – nuclear and the works in case we turn the humans against them, and lastly even Mogadorian signatures in the scenario we use their own weapons to attack them. So-"

"They can't detect energy signatures that don't exist on this planet or are not considered to be a threat to human life on this planet.

Alice and Zeel had their abilities before long before they came to this planet, the legacies further enhanced their abilities. So they shouldn't be looking out for Alice's telekinesis signature," Vishnu concluded after listening for a while.

"Yeah," Zeel nodded, his mind assigning Vishnu the fondness of a smart pet, "Computers are very complex things. You can tell them to look for everything strange, but that begs the question, what is strange? Then you'd say look for these specific things,"

Stanley looked confused at first before realization hit him and he wanted to ask "But-"

"Go Vishnu!" Zeel shouted.

*Zwerp*

In a flash of light, the group disappeared from the room.

A moment before the group disappeared at the outskirts of New Mexico, Number 5 aka Cody was standing in a field seemingly alone, though many Mogadorians and Humans were lying in wait, hidden away until the time for an ambush.

All of a sudden the alarms rang out but it was too late.

*whirp*

A disturbing sound to hear was soon projected across the vast expanse of land.

The AGES bomb was detected just before it made contact with the ground. The humans, Mogadorians, and other affiliated parties were expecting to die gruesome deaths but instead found themselves frozen in place and could barely manage any movements.

*Whoooosh*

John, Zeel, Stanley, and Vishnu appeared in the AGES gravitational field, where time is slowed to a crawl. They felt as if they were covered in mud, in the ocean, at a trench deep in the depths. They could hardly move at regular human speed but they all knew the time was limited for the mission objective to be fulfilled.

Everything moved in slow motion, one second became ten, so while the outside may perceive three seconds, it was really 30 seconds within the gravitational field.

Zeel and John bolted off towards Cody, Vishnu not as fast as the others began using his pondus legacy to phase into the ground where the effects of the gravitational bomb were less prevalent, his body only coming up to decapitate a frozen Mogadorian.

Meanwhile, Stanley bolted to the area behind Cody, with each step he shattered the ground below; however, he was barely moving at half the speed of Zeel and John.

Cody could barely move his hand to his belt, where he clicked a button for a well-placed bomb, possibly a suicide bomb as a last resort. The explosion could be seen coming from below ground as the environment began to shatter but none of the other numbers paid it any attention.

Zeel was all to use to the sensation of living faster than everyone around him. After all, The Crawfords was a powerful family in the Galactic Alliance because they sold time. And Zeel was the one charged with the public relation of the family's time selling business.

Zeel got to Cody first and with a hard knee to the stomach, Cody was soon in dreamland, no doubt coughing up blood in both his dream as he was in reality.

John, running as hard as he possibly could, had veins appearing on his forehead as he killed Mogadorians left and right. The strain on his body obvious for all the numbers to see.

Stanley had begun pounding the ground behind Cody, creating crater within craters until he reached an amulet in the ground. Quickly storing it in his satchel he could estimate 25 seconds had passed by.

Stanley thought 'Fuck, so much time has already passed? Wait, can I think faster than I can run?'

Zeel ran back to the spot they agreed would be the waiting spot, holding an injured Number 5 (Cody) and a strained John over his shoulder. Stanley made It back at the same time Zeel did but felt no pride for this achievement since Zeel was now carrying two people.

The time ticked down to one second and Vishnu had yet to get back, the ground could be seen breaking apart at speed visible to the naked eye, spurts of fire had begun to break ground.

As the ground broke open, flames accompanied by an injured Vishnu carrying someone over his shoulder came out. He was missing an arm with 3rd-degree burns on his back; however, he had on a determined face as he grabbed everyone with barely 0.30 seconds remaining. Everyone disappeared at that moment and the AGES field dissipated.

*BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM*

An entire 5-mile radius was taken out by one Mogadorian suicide bomb.