CHAPTER 3 - GATHERING STORM CLOUDS

29

28

Everyone present quickly rushed through the rules which appeared trying to ignore the countdown above it.

Killing is not allowed.

A clear hit on the body earns points.

Head - 10

Chest - 5

Rest of body - 1

Impact on palms and soles have no point gain.

The first team to 20 points wins.

Knocking out all team members also counts as a victory.

15

14

"You guys have an unfair advantage, you've got 5 and we're 4. ",one of their assailants shouted.

Immediately she spoke those words, a fist landed on her red hair. The girl behind her looked at her writhing on the floor like she was staring at garbage.

"Those are the Einstein twins, they count as one, plus that's also a disadvantage... One more person to get points off. ", She said removing golden strands from her view to reveal grey eyes.

9

8

"We're running out of time, focus, Antares and stand up, Pollux." ,The dark skinned girl in front said.

She was clearly the leader.

"I'm Pleiades.", she said pointing at herself, "That's..." "Zubeneschamali.", the fourth girl quickly ran beside Pleiades, her blue pigtails swinging as she ran and spoke, her blue eyes intense as if she was afraid of something.

Probably an embarrassing nickname....

Besides what's the point of introducing yourselves with fake names...

And they appear to know ours.

A serious disadvantage.

Coulumb straightened as the countdown reached 5.

The 4 girls bent their bodies slightly forward, compressed like a spring.

Pleaides' green eyes flared, "Sorry but, this is our victory, we're suited for these kind of things."

On the other side, only Coulomb appeared ready.

0

A net appeared in their middle, a giant cuboid enclosed the teams and a ball fell from the sky.

The ball, field and net appeared to be made of a strange green light.

The girls were confused.

Pollux had already jumped at 0, her target changed from Ein to the ball.

However Coulomb also made the leap.

Their fingers touched the ball and their eyes locked.

But the ball suddenly disappeared.

Inertia kept them moving and they hit each other and fell back in their respective courts.

Stein held the ball in his hands.

Without warning the ball appeared in the air and Newton was beside it, she hit it and it flew over the net.

Her target was Antares.

It's something similar to volleyball, with none of the rules.

From the previous accident at least I've verified that points can't be earned by contact, at least our limbs can enter our opponents court and most importantly knocked out also refers to pushing our opponents out of the court.

Coulomb understood that they were buying time and activated his ability to change charge density on himself then ran around charging his teammates' also with his touch.

He had already activated it on the ball when he touched it. It was a reflex action, he subconsciously assumed that it would be useful later on.

Now that his teammates were under the effect of his ability, he could make the ball be deflected from them for the next 60 seconds.

But the forces were weak, if the ball was thrown hard enough, it wouldn't stop it completely.

Antares didn't even flinch, which scared Stein more than he'd ever admit. He teleported the ball to himself a few seconds short of impact.

It was then he noticed Antares had 2 coins the size of her head hanging above her shoulders.

"Pollux, stop spacing out.", Pleiades shouted.

Remembering her goal, Pollux activated her ability.

"Schrodinger.", Ein said, "You're up "

She took the ball from Stein, jumped and threw it with both hands at Antares.

But the ball stopped a few centimeters away from her and suddenly moved in a weird arc towards Pollux. The arc eventually stabilized into a gradually tightening pseudo-orbit.

She took it from the orbit and passed it to Pleiades.

There was no need to ask, Stein couldn't teleport the ball because she had a greater Efferent Strength.

Schrodinger had been planning to change the outcome that the ball would hit, but her ability was useless if the odds were zero.

It had only been 12 seconds since the game started.

In that case, this should still work....

Coulomb ran towards Newton and stood beside her.

"You're probably our only hope, our insane strength is also our fatal flaw, our Efferent Strength is lower than theirs because our abilities are fairly unique, however, your usel.....", he stopped himself too late and before he could continue she said,

"I understand, you're all counting on me to win this".

Alright, the girls have only 5 seconds after contact for their ability, Schrodinger can make the balls hit as long as a chance exists but Pollux can stop that, Newton's throws are unstoppable by any force so Pollux can't do anything and I also suspect that her ES surpasses those of our opponents , however Antares was about to do something weird.

It's unreasonable but we're betting on the ball hitting in 5 seconds, we have to try combining both abilities so that we can make a maximum score.

We have to get our hands on the ball first, it's not like they'll just give us.

But a double head hit.....

I must have been hit on the head when I crashed into...

The ball appeared in his view and he stopped thinking even though he felt like he was close to the answer.

His eyes widened as he realized the target.

Stein?

Stein was almost unable to stop the ball due to his surprise. But the ball stopped exactly 2cm away from him and fell on the floor.

Stein is untouchable in this game, it's actually unfair but it's something they should know.

Were we granted a free throw, they think we can't do anything?

Newton ran towards Stein, collected the ball and gave it to Schrodinger.

She saw Stein subtly touching Newton's hand and had a general idea of what to do, she launched the ball as high as she could.

Newton appeared beside the ball in the air.

Pleiades was puzzled.

It was nothing short of foolishness to assume that the same strategy would yield a different result.

The ball sailed towards Zubeneschamali who hadn't gotten involved in the game since it began.

She raised her hands to stop it.

The ball hit her outstretched hands.

And didn't stop, it kept moving and took her out of the court.

The hell?

What just happened?

That was a test, why did that work?

What's her ability?

Why did she go out?

She could have just stepped aside once it hit her, couldn't she?

Is it really that powerful?

What the hell just happened right now?

Pleiades sent an evil glare to Pollux.

"It didn't work. ", she replied fidgeting, "She got pushed out of orbit."

Updating the threat level of Newton to maximum, Pleiades broke into a cold sweat. Her ability let her see events related to the past and future of inanimate objects, currently her limit was 24 hours. That was how they ambushed their opponents.

She saw the future of the arena, it was destroyed by Pollux when she took out their opponents team. She trusted what she saw and her team trusted her. But now she was beginning to doubt her vision.

"Antares", She said with authority and confidence to hide her growing unease, "Launch it"

Antares nodded as she picked up the new ball which had fallen from the green barrier.

The coins appeared over her shoulders again. She threw the ball in the air and hit it, the moment it passed over the net, it split in two.

One was going for Schrodinger and the other for Newton.

They both tried to block it but the balls passed through them.

An illu...

The thought was driven out of Coulomb's head by the ball's impact.

It didn't hurt at all but it was an unpleasant surprise.

Pollux jumped and punched the air.

Her yell of victory betrayed her team's stoic expression.

Schrodinger and Stein went to talk to Coulomb, while  Ein was left wondering why he hadn't been targeted even though he was the weakest.

"They've earned 10 points and we've knocked out one of them, we're at a disadvantage again.", Schrodinger said.

"Unless we figure out how it works or we can knock out Antares with the next hit, we've lost.",Stein added.

***************************

Rodney sat at a table in a coffee shop, opposite him were Marie and Sam.

He didn't ask any questions, he just watched them silently.

After several minutes of whispering with Sam, Marie broke the silence.

"Hello, My name is Marie Greene, this is my colleague, Sam Reinhardt, you are?"

"A bit too late for introductions, you've already abducted me."

"Abducted?", she repeated, then decided to change gears,"Shouldn't you be in school?"

A waitress dropped a cup that Marie and Sam didn't remember ordering for. Rodney pulled it towards him and took a sip.

"Why should I?"

"Because you're a child."

"And so?"

"It's what you're supposed to do."

"And who decided that?"

Feeling a slight headache, she attempted to change the topic again.

"Do your parents allow you to drink coffee?"

"Do you change the topic everytime you want to avoid saying that you are wrong?", he finally brought up a subject.

Before Marie'd do something irrational like hitting the child, Sam asked him, "What are you trying to do?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"Okay, fair... That's State Academy's uniform isn't it?", he said his eyes glowing with a strange light, "I wonder how they'd feel about one of their own playing truant?"

"Blackmailing a child, have you no shame?", he said disgusted.

"You better start talking.", Sam said picking up his phone.

"I don't consider your antics a threat."

Sam dropped his phone feigning disappointment. He stood up.

"Marie, Let's go... We won't get anywhere on the missing children case if we're wasting time with juvenile delinquents."

"Wait...", Rodney said before Marie could stand, "I can help you."

Hiding his smile, Sam sat down satisfied.

"So, who are you and why do you think you can help and why do you want to help?"

Rodney muttered something as he realized that he was played, then he answered slowly considering each word carefully.

"My name is Rodney..."

For everyone's sake, it best my last name remains unknown

"..... I'm 7, as you said before, I'm a student of State Academy....."

All useless info, now for the bombshell....

"..... I know you're working on the case of the missing children."

Marie stiffened but Sam looked unimpressed which was slightly unnerving for Rodney.

Surpressing the urge to strangle the bored look out of him, he decided to copy Marie's skill.

"What do you think is the most important question about this case?"

"The missing children case?", Marie asked.

He once again had to hold back, after a few seconds without saying anything sarcastic he realized he also didn't say anything at all and it had the same effect.

"Who took the children and why?", trying to regain some of her pride, Marie answered before Sam could speak.

This time Rodney simply couldn't control himself,

He stared at Sam with pity. Marie noticed Sam shaking his head and decided that it'd be better to avoid speaking.

" That's 2 questions and also the most asked, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's the most important, right now the most important question is how they were chosen and taken", Sam lectured Marie and then raised an eyebrow as he looked at Rodney for confirmation

"True, and I know the answer."

For the first time since they'd began their conversation, Sam looked surprised and he honestly was.

"They were chosen by their DNA, the abductor was after specific genes and their variations, so they aren't all necessarily geniuses, some just have the potential to be.",Rodney continued with a smug look.

I've finally obtained both as my subordinates.

"Hold up, you're saying he's only taken people genetically predisposed to be of superior intelligence and not people who actually are...",Sam recovered from his shock quickly and stated.

Marie was wondering what their conversation meant, it didn't change anything to her. She decided to order something to eat.

"So you have access to a lot of information regular people can't get their hands on.", Sam added when Rodney gave him a sharp glance.

Rodney tried to get rid of his suspicious expression but failed several times.

This man.... is not a fool, he's probably a candidate disqualified by age. I must be 5 times more careful when dealing with him.

His eyes narrowed as he concluded purposely ignoring Sam's last statement, "So you need my help."

At least I didn't have to say too much.

Marie was thinking that they had a lucky break. The previous waitress returned with 4 muffins and left. Rodney took all for himself, ignoring Marie's floating arm.

However, Sam was unconvinced, "I agree that you'd certainly be useful, but why do you need us? "

Rodney was already expecting this question, since he'd increased Sam's rating mentally.

"For obvious reasons...", he replied vaguely as he finished the first muffin.

"Then we're done here.", Sam said as he stood up.

This again, playing the same card over and over again is ridiculously boring, you know?

Still it brought the desired effect, after all Rodney wanted to use them.

"I wanted people with experience and different perspectives, it's actually a coincidence that we met but I feel like these kind of things happen for a reason."

"So someone like you can say something like that, huh?", Sam said as he sat down back,"That's still not the answer I want but it'll do for now."

"So it's settled then?", Marie quipped.

"Not even close, we're dealing with a minor here, we need to see his parents...", Sam said patiently.

"Eh?.... But why?..... Can't we just take him with us?", Marie asked childishly.

"You're saying we should abduct him?", Sam returned with another question and an irritated look.

"It's not against his wishes.", she replied stubbornly.

"He's a minor! ", Sam shouted.

"Fine, Whatever, We'll meet his parents and tell them we want to abduct their son.", she sulked.

"I'm sure they will be fine with it.", he said calmly when he noticed that his previous outburst didn't go unnoticed, "Given that they raised a child like him."

"Oi..... Is that an insult I sense?", Rodney jumped in.

"Take it how you want.", Sam said as he left.

Rodney finished the 2nd muffin and left the table, Marie noticed him talking to the waitress as she ate the rest.

When she finished, they were still talking, she went to Rodney to ask about the day they'd be meeting with his parents when she overheard him saying that she would pay for everything.

That's a given, isn't it?

But she still felt irritated. She paid and followed Rodney out and then asked Sam where they'd be going.

Once again, Rodney looked at Sam with pity.

"I thought this should be obvious, even for you.", he said. He was at his limit for patiently answering irrelevant questions.

Sam didn't get a chance to respond either.

"Well, I'll make a call.", Rodney said.

****************************

Stein and Coulomb decided that the best option was to try knocking out Antares, Schrodinger looked like she had other ideas but eventually she agreed.

"I have an idea. ", Ein said

"Why should we listen to you?," Schrodinger replied with a question, "Nothing good has come from your first proposal."

"Yet..... and nothing bad either, so listen up.", He said. "I think I can speed up the ball, guaranteeing our next hit. "

"During the practice session we had, the maximum number of alterations that can occur has already been determined as 2, why do you suddenly think you can go beyond the limit?", Stein asked as he gave Ein an apologetic look for going against him.

Ein didn't care though," Just a feeling."

For Schrodinger, that was the last straw, she grabbed the ball from Ein, took Stein's and Newton's hands, put them together and immediately after threw the ball in the air.

It was not a perfectly vertical trajectory, so Stein decided that conversations were over, he teleported Newton and she fired it straight at Antares.

The ball touched Antares and passed through.

Then Antares disappeared and appeared behind Pollux.

Damn.

If we thought about it more, we could have come up with a better idea.

I would have realized that she could just create an illusion of herself.

Coulomb noticed Schrodinger struggling to keep an uninterested face.

She's probably going to be docile for a while.... Wait.

He turned around sharply to face Ein, he had an evil smile stuck on his face.

So that's it, he risked the game so that he could control her, he's throwing the game away?

Now that I think about it, we can just try again.

But something feels off here.

He shook his head slowly as he smiled faintly.

I must have been listening to Ein too much.

"Everyone, get ready to dodge and also keep your head covered no matter what happens.", Ein commanded.

Their opponents were startled by the change in his behavior.

Pleiades noticed the uneasiness of her teammates.

"Antares, ignore him, he's trying to bait us into targeting him.", she said.

Our surprise attack was successful as expected but to win, we'll have to get lucky.

We probably won't be able to get any points for now, even if we do, we'll probably get 1 per throw.

Antares threw the ball, it went over the net and split in two as expected.

The two were headed for Ein and Schrodinger.

Then a third ball a appeared behind the one for Ein, it was significantly slower than the others.

The shock everyone felt was short-lived, it died with the realization that the ball was taken from Ein's hand.

He used his ability to change the relative time of the ball, that slowed the real ball down and once the duration of Antares ability was reached, the ball appeared. It didn't change the fact that it was a gamble on the fact that her ability had a time limit.

Coulomb couldn't stop himself from grinning.

I really joined an interesting team.

So that's what felt off. He didn't strike me as the type to lose purposely for such a reason.

His eyes widened as he obtained an even more impressive concept.

That was the idea. He neither had to lose nor argue his point, it's temporary but he's obtained full control of the team now.

He was at least able to prevent himself from laughing out. He commended himself on that and ignored his previous 'out of character' behavior.

He had a fleeting reminder of the dangers of relying on a single person but brushed it aside.

Ein stopped the ball leisurely with a finger.

"I hope, I don't have to explain myself anymore.", he said.

"If I say something, I'll bring the results.", He declared arrogantly, placing his left leg on the ball as he did so.