Ch-3 Introduction: Alastor The Timeless (III)

No One's POV 

"... I understand the situation. Alastor, Bronya, please take care of Kiana." Himeko's voice rung from the other end of the coms.

"Da, Major Himeko. Kiana is carrying Mei. Physio readings are all stable. The Bronya shall handle all hostiles." Bronya then turned towards Alastor and stared at him for a while.

"Does Bronya have permission to eliminate all hostiles, Captain ?" She asked politely.

"Yes. I grant Da Bronya permission to eliminate all hostiles."

Upon breaching the insides of the battleship, Alastor turned to Kiana.

"Kiana, I'll be leaving Mei in your care. Protect her until she wakes up. Me and Bronya will clear the path for us to walk." Alastor quickly provided her with orders, before jumping across the room the go destroy some robots.

Something he did so fast his feet hadn't even touched the ground before his first target fell. In the sidelines, Bronya had Project Bunny forr concentrated lazers and explosive missiles to disable and destroys all enemies. This included honkai beasts, robots, zombies, etc.

Basically anything that stood in their way for annihilated.

There were even mechs in the way. Too bad Alastor's scythe tore through those pieces of tin like they were made of butter.

Welt would not approve.

After killing off hundreds of foes, Alastor quickly noticed a stir in Mei's body. He was the first to notice this lovemaking and immediately moved back to check on her.

"Ugh... Kiana... I..." Mei stirred awake, her eyes fluttering open and staring up at the person holding her.

"Mei ?"

Kiana called out her name in a worried and confused tone.

Bronya on the other hand, was relieved and happy.

"Mei!"

"Bronya. You must have provided us access to the interiors of the ship. How's the combat ?"

"I'd say it's going pretty well." Her answer wasn't provided by Bronya, but instead, by Alastor.

"It is as the Captain said. Defence system is familiar to Bronya. Hacking will be simple." Bronya reassured that they truly did have everything under control.

And if somehow Bronya fails to hack into the system by herself, which won't happen, Alastor would be there to provide external support. And Bronya had 100% faith in Alastor's ability to provide aid when she needs it.

"Are you alright, Mei ? Anymore injuries ? You did hit the ground pretty hard." Alastor's face was washed over by concern as he crouched to get the Mei's level.

Seeing the concerned expression he held, Mei smiled a little. They've known each other for a while and they've gotten pretty close since the Third Honkai Outbreak. Alastor couldn't help but feel concerned for his death friend.

Mei remembered when Alastor met her in Nagazora for the first time, when he saved her, Kiana and Bronya, and even helped them escape the city. He even fought and quelled the herrscher inside her and she felt eternally grateful for it. He stopped her from becoming a monster and he's taken care of them since their arrivals at Hyperion. 

"But what about Kiana ? Is she injured ?" Mei suddenly enquired about her close friend's physical condition. 

"I'm a-o-kay! I could run a marathon while piggy-backing Mei all the way!" Kiana pumped her first up and grinned. 

Alastor turned towards Bronya and asked, "You say you recognise this technology ? Then it must be Anti-Entropy technology, correct ?" 

"Affirmative. Designs, features and even slogans and logos, all bear the mark of Anti-Entropy. The Bronya do not understand why an unmanned battleship would appear here." Her words made Alastor look downwards with a visible frown on his face, his supercomputer brain immediately thinking of possibilities. 

"By the way, Kiana, you can put me down now." Mei suddenly remembered, she was still being carried by Kiana and she felt embarrassed and also uncomfortable by it, as she didn't want to exert extra burden on Kiana. 

Kiana on the other hand, did not want to let go so soon. 

"Hmm, so soon ?" 

"Mei, you should not strain your physicals." Bronya suggested. 

"Don't worry Bronya. I'm alright. Thanks for being considerate." Mei reassured her with a sweet smile, Bronya pushed forward. 

"Mei, over-stressing your physicals will be harmful. You do not have enhanced physical capabilities like Captain. The Bronya only managed to escape Anti-Entropy with your help, Mei." Bronya seemed to care about Mei a lot and she's made it very vocal as well. 

She doesn't try to hide her obvious affection for Mei. Bronya feels like she owes her. She remembers when she tried to attack their group in Nagazora. Back then, she narrowly escaped death thanks to Alastor. But ultimately, it was Mei that convinced her to come along with them and leave Anti-Entropy behind. 

"Let Bronya and Captain handle this one." 

"Hey!" Kiana raised her voice to get Bronya's attention, an action which seemed to have worked. 

"...what is it, Kiana ?" 

"Mei, you wanted to get off my because you gained weight but you didn't want me to know ?" Kiana made a wild guess on the reason why Mei wanted her to stop carrying her around. Because there's no way she doesn't want to be carried by Kiana Kaslana right ? Right ? 

No way! It has to be because she's self conscious. 

But Kiana didn't care. She'd still love Mei all the same, even if she gained a little weight.

"Oh dear, Kiana..." Mei closed her eyes and sighed softly when she heard her say this. 

Alastor deadpanned at Kiana. 

Bronya ignored her and decided to focus on fighting. She realised that if she were to open her mouth now, she wouldn't be able to stop herself. 

Alastor just swiped his scythe to the side, slashing through every single monster and mech in the room before finally moving onto the next room, allowing Bronya to lazer everything in their way. 

All the while, his eyes were focused on Mei. 'Her physical conditions aren't really that great right now. But luckily, my interference managed to prevent her honkai energy levels from spiking too high.' 

Alastor stopped in his tracks when he felt something tug against the sleeve of his shirt. He looked down at the much shorter girl, whom he absolutely towered over, and tilted his head in confusion. 

"Captain, Bronya had a suggestion." 

"Oh ?" 

"Let's make use of one of the mechs here." 

Alastor smiled when he heard this. A good idea indeed. At least he wouldn't have to do all the work by himself anymore.

"Uhm... What do you mean ?" Kiana asked, seemingly oblivious to the meaning behind Bronya's words. 

It didn't take long for Bronya to hack and get ahold of an Anti-Entropy combat mech. Kiana, the excited Kaslana, decided to be the one to pilot it. 

Originally, Bronya declined, as she wanted Alastor to be the one to take the helm, not Kiana. But Alastor laughed it off and decided to let Kiana drive the mech, which Bronya didn't support as she didn't believe in Kiana's skills when it comes to driving a mech. 

Kiana was excited and got into a mechanical, but Alastor didn't get into it and instead walked to another mech. 

He instructed Bronya to pilot this one instead, stating that he'd already finished hacking this one. 

And as for Kiana... He didn't even need to turn around to get his answer. 

The following explosion was enough to answer this. 

As it turns out, Alastor actually had no faith in Kiana's ability to pilot a mechanical and decided to let her drive it just for fun, while making sure to have a spare for Bronya to use. He also recorded a video of Kiana crashing the mech and turning it into a sea of flames. 

Kiana returned to the group with some soot marked on her face and battle suit, from the explosion. 

"How was my mech piloting skills?!" She excitedly asked for an opinion. "No wait! Don't answer that. I already know I'm exceptional." 

"Exceptionally inept." Said the Bronya. 

"Exactly what I expected from you." Alastor nonchalantly told her, but Kiana may or may not have misunderstood it as him supporting her mech piloting skills and she stuck her tongue out at Bronya, making the crippled russian orphan stare at her with fish eyes. 

"Come on! I took down a ton on enemy mechs before I went down!" Kian retorted, even pointing at the torrent of fire she left behind her. 

"Idiot Kiana pressed the self destruct button as well." 

"How did you know that?!" 

"I'm surprised you recognised the self destruct button..." Alastor said in a low voice, so Kiana didn't hear him. 

Bronya pressed the buttons of the second mech they had and used it to busy open the final door seperating them from the bridge, where they're supposed to go to complete the mission. 

Bronya stood at the edge and began typing away the the holographic screen she had in front of her dull grey orbs while the other three remained in the sidelines. 

"No login passwords... Full administration privileges granted. Non-conformance with standard protocols." 

Alastor raised an eyebrow while Himeko asked a confusing question to the group. 

"... They're giving us a free battleship ? The whole thing ?" 

"I doubt it." Alastor intersected. 

"Bronya, allow me to join you to check for any possible Trojans." 

Alastor stepped forward and stood next to Bronya. He's already calculated all possible scenarios. This is 100% a trap. A trojan. And if he were to let Bronya play with the system by herself, she might fall for it. So the first thing he must do, is identify this trojan. 

"Major Himeko, Bronya found some weird mail in the Master Control Unit." 

"Mail ?" Himeko's voice was laced with perplexity. 

"Read it, Bronya." Alastor commanded. 

'"Dear Kiana! Greetings. We hereby return to you the battleship Selene after 14 years. You shall ascend the throne and rule this world. But before that, you'll need 4 keys. Lightning of Conquest, Fire of Affliction, Storm of Desire and Death of Tranquility. You're birthday is the password."' 

This made everyone in the room and even Himeko, double take in confusion. Kiana ? A mail to Kiana ? And this ship was also to her ?

"Wait, why's the mail written to me ?" Kiana questioned, not understanding what's going on around her. 

"Kiana, what do you think about this ? Do you have a friend that would sometimes write these kind of letters to you ?" Himeko questioned. 

"No... I'm clueless... Don't you think I'd remember if I had a friend so rich the could give me a battleship ? Plus, my stupid old man probably cannot right anything like this." She didn't give up her opportunity to belittle her father when she got it. 

Meanwhile, Alastor frowned. He recognised the titles.

"Kiana's birthday is December 7th." Alastor said loudly, before entering the password into the system, all the while ignoring the complaints from Kiana from behind. 

Alastor immediately recognised the Trojans within the system and realised something. It was reacting to the cybernetics enhancements in Bronya's body and it would not end well if he didn't stop it. 

His frown deepened, his eyes narrowed and his pupils glowered. The nails of his fingers grew longer and sharper underneath his gloves. The then began to forcefully channel energy into and out of the system, making the lights flicker momentarily. 

Using his superior interface and hacking knowledge, he edited the system and deleted the viruses from their virtual reality, preventing anything from happening to Bronya. 

[SYSTEM: Navigation privileges granted. Re-routing vessel. New destination set: St. Freya High School.] 

"Huh ? They really used my birthday as the password..." 

"We'll fly the shop back to St. Freya and get to the bottom of this." Said Mei. 

"Leave leave the rest to me. I'll pilot this battleship back to our base of operations. Bronya, you can stop now." He informed Bronya to stop, and she listened to him without hesitation. 

He noticed a small rise in the electric discharge within her body, near the base of her brain. It made him narrow his already glowing eyes and suddenly, the chip glitched and the electric discharge was stopped, as if it didn't even happen.

Alastor then decided to turn the ship around and fly it back to St. Freya. 

"Mission accomplished, Major Himeko. I'm flying the ship back to the school, so be ready. Also, please arrange a full physiological exam for Bronya and Mei."