CHAPTER 316(Precious Cargo)

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CHAPTER START---

Sitting in the cargo hangar of a C-500 Stratofortress, a military cargo plane, retired army general Samuel Birch idly does a crossword puzzle in a book he brought along.

On the seat beside him is his suitcase, hastily packed after his family vacation was canceled. The vacation he was still dressed for in cargo shorts and a blue floral shirt.

He was an older caucasian man, almost 70 years old, with a head of white hair and a third eye on his forehead.

Just as he's about to finish the crossword puzzle, his phone rings.

He groans while answering, "Every time, really?" he sets down the puzzle book and pen on the seat beside him.

"This time I think interrupting your puzzle is justified," his daughter says through the phone. "You got taken away by a bunch of soldiers, the kids are scared dad, what's going on?"

"It's nothing for you to worry about my dear, just...tell them grandpa's friends needed help with something, that's all it is."

"Right," she says. "And for the people who are old enough to know what kind of things your old friends do?"

The man sighs, "Look, I can't say anything over the phone. Soldiers are stationed around but we have no reason to believe any of you are in trouble. Just enjoy the extended vacation and let me deal with this, alright?"

The woman takes a deep breath, attempting to appear calm. "Alright, and when should this be over?"

"Don't worry, between Horizon and Star', it'll be done soon."

"Both of them?! I thought you said it was nothing to worry about."

"It is nothing, just, try to relax, let your dad handle things, as I always do."

The woman gives a tired exhale, "Fine, just, don't forget to call so we know you're alright."

"I'll call when I can," he says before hanging up.

His puzzle book is then held in front of him which he casually accepts, "Thank you..."

The man continues to work on the same puzzle for a moment.

"Chance, that's the answer," Horizon's slightly mechanical voice startles the man.

"Oh god," the man drops the book which Horizon catches and clutches his chest. "You could have given me another heart attack with that stunt."

"Then it's a good thing I'm me, so you'd have been fine," Horizon says.

"How did you even get here, don't you have to swap with something?"

"I did, you're over the mainland now, I was waiting en route, and you'd be surprised how many pebbles are in this cargo hold."

"Right, well I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Samuel Birch, former 5-Star General of the United States Army," the man extends his hand.

Horizon shakes his hand, "Horizon, I wish I could say we were meeting under better circumstances, I imagine with your specialty, I would have likely worked for you."

"I'd imagine so," Samuel says. "I helped train one Mystery Class Quirk user, but as powerful as she is, you...you're special."

Horizon sees a glint of genuine curiosity in the man's eyes.

"I wouldn't go as far as saying that," Horizon says. "But we would have done incredible things, after all, your specialty was finding interesting ways to train and apply Quirks for military use."

"But sadly, none of them could ever reach the level of control your Quirk provides, the entire world doing everything you want it to, what's it like?" the man smiles, trying and failing to comprehend the idea of such power.

"If anything, it makes you realize how many people you share the world with," Horizon says. "But at the same time, you also feel completely alone, because only you can understand yourself."

The man smiles, "Yeah, I figured as much, there must be a lot of tears behind that visor."

"Then I guess it's a good thing it's one way," Horizon says jokingly. "Now, can we get to business?"

"Gladly, I've been kept in the dark aside from the fact that Kelvin somehow escaped the containment unit I built for him, how was that possible?"

"It wasn't, he was let out, by a hacker," Horizon says.

"That's impossible, that system was on an isolated server, you'd have to go to the facility physically to even get access to it."

"Well, Tech managed."

"Tech?" the man looks surprised. "They're real? Do we have proof?"

"It's a working theory, some telepaths are ripping data out of a prisoner we got, but from the looks of it Kelvin was released for a reason we don't understand."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, why break out a top-level killer, then just let him be free and not under your control, if anything he's supposed to be a distraction," Horizon explains. "But, this is America, Star' is here, so the moment he meets her, he goes back into a box, which is why it makes no sense."

"If you have something to ask, just ask," Birch says.

"What was he really?" Horizon asks. "He was listed as a wet work agent for the CIA, but even their off-network files don't track any of his missions, all the way to the Oval Office, so what was he, really?"

"That, is still classified, and even if you had the clearance, I'm not telling a foreign combatant this information," the man narrows his eyes at Horizon.

Horizon sighs, "Fine, be that way. I'll just have them turn this plane around so you can rejoin your family."

"What?"

"I don't like working with uncooperative people, good luck with regular soldiers defending you, and your family."

"You wouldn't," the man narrows his eyes at Horizon.

"Oh, but you know I would," Horizon leans forward slightly. "You're still the top army specialist when it comes to taking down people with difficult Quirks, even retired, they must have called you in for some advice about me, given you my physiological profile, well, what do you think I'll do?"

The man stares into Horizon's visor for a moment, then leans back.

"For the record, I advised them to keep you as far away from our borders as possible," Samuel Birch says. "Whatever you are under that visor, it ain't a Hero, certainly not the next All Might, maybe the next All For One...but probably worse, right?"

They share a tense moment, then Horizon laughs and relaxes in his seat, "damn, you really are good at your job."

"Yes, but unlike those people, you can be bought, which is good for us, bad for poorer countries."

"True, you people have the most money, but some things are more valuable than that," Horizon says. "Now, about Kelvin?"

"First, what's your plan?"

"Well this military escort takes you to a base just past Miami, we land there and lay a trap for him, simple and effective," Horizon says.

"I don't doubt either of you could easily crush anyone, aside from each other, but the method of capture isn't the problem," Birch says. "If he knows either of you are there, he won't show up, assuming he'll even hit an army base."

"His Quirk, Thermodynamic's, how strong is it?"

"It was worthless," Birch explains. "His Quirk can't be harnessed without technology, we had a machine built to allow him to release and direct his energy, see, he was never really a hitman."

"Already knew that," Horizon says. "Quirk control devices, for?"

"Energy sector development," Birch says. "The man was capable of absorbing and manipulating Thermodynamic energy at a sub-atomic level, absolute zero and absolute heat at his fingertips...it theory."

"And in practice?"

"He was just a big battery, could take in energy but too slowly for it to matter, and couldn't release it before the device we built for him."

"Then?"

"Then, we figured out a way to make batteries out of other things, they could then act like a perfectly clean nuclear power plant, sound familiar?"

"The new Geokinetics project, that's him?"

"He was the answer, how to use the energy the earth generates from its rotation to power cities, he was the medium we studied, and when we learned he could release that energy into certain specially made alloys to hold the charge for a later use, we put him to work on that as well."

"So he's the reason humanity has enough power to last thousands of years, without a drop of environmental damage."

"And what did he get for it?" Birch asks. "Turned into living energy due to excessive experimentation, shit luck if I've ever seen it."

"You must have figured out how to weaponize his energy, how hard will that be for him, on his own?"

"The most difficult component is his Quirk, it takes so much energy and he can't gain any more in his current form, only use his stockpile until it's done."

"Which will kill him."

"Sadly, but the materials won't be that hard for someone like him to get, what you really need is to track the containment suit," Birch explains. "It's got a special energy signature that should be unique outside of a nuclear fusion reactor."

"Give me the data, I'll send it to the satellites," Horizon says.

After sending the data to the satellites Horizon gets up and starts walking about the hangar, "so, what kind of combat applications does Kelvin's Quirk have?"

"Before his current form, none, but now, he can freely release energy at the cost of his stockpile, which is his lifespan."

"So super strength and energy projection to a high degree," Horizon says. "And if he takes off that suit regular physical attacks won't be able to hit him, such a pain."

"That will also make his stockpile decay," Birch says.

"Star' will be better at handling him, I'll just play babysitter," Horizon draws his blade and aims it at the wall of the plane. "I'll have her meet us somewhere at the airport."

"Airport? I thought we were going to the base."

"Nah, he'd never hit a military base, he's too well trained for that, but you suddenly needed to make an emergency landing at an airport two hours away is good enough bait, he should be in the area checking out the base either way."

"What ar---"

"Takt," suddenly a small draft begins in the sealed hangar as the entire plane trembles.

"What the hell is wrong with you, they could have just faked the landing!" Birch hastily clips his seatbelt back on.

"Modern sensors are too good, and he'll probably hack into them, better to be safe than sorry," Horizon laughs as he puts his blade away.

"You're crazy!"

"That's why this works, don't worry, we don't need all the engines to make it to the airport..."

---Elsewhere...

Sitting in an empty warehouse at a small desk is a man wearing a full-body grey body glove, covering everything from head to toe, even his eyes.

He types away on a computer as the radio beside him begins receiving a transmission.

"This is Bravo Actual with precious cargo, we have a critical engine failure and are requesting a runway for an emergency landing, ETA 43 minutes."

"Bravo Actual this is ATC, runway 12 will be open for you to land, sending navigation data now."

"Copy ATC," the pilot says.

The hum of energy vibrating, shaking the air, flows through the warehouse as the tall, lanky figure raises his head. 

"Airport, might not need bomb, less dead innocence, but, in case," he gets up walks over to a truck at the other end of the warehouse, and opens the back.

Inside is a large metal cube with a few devices attached, and the man casually hops into the trailer and puts a hand on the cube.

"Just...in case," he removes the glove part of his containment suit to expose his right hand.

It appeared a translucent glowing purple, instead of a skeleton being visible within, his nervous system itself was outlined, but constantly shifting and flowing in a bright white.

As he touched the cube the device began beeping, warning him, "Stabilization good, set deadman timer to...50 minutes," the man says as the timer begins to countdown.

"I'll GPS lock it when I get into position," he says while pouring more and more energy into the cube, causing it to glow bright purple from the inside out, starting at the core.

END CHAPTER---