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DATE:7th of May, the 70th year after the Coronation
LOCATION: Concord Metropolis
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I was surprised someone like Changeling wanted my help. Generally speaking, aside from the UltraMan job, she operated in a higher pay tier than me.
How did my Bullet Time—which I'd barely even used these past years—compare to the ability to shapeshift into completely different bodies? It didn't, really. I suppose this caffeine ability was objectively stronger than hers, but that was separate.
'The Nameless'. I hadn't heard that codename in a while. Self-explanatory enough—no identity, no trace, no name. Simple branding for simple work.Unlike mine, Changeling's identity didn't seem particularly private. It made sense for a shapeshifter, I guess. Hard to track someone who could be anyone.
I didn't know her real name. Frankly, I didn't care that he'd lost his family—tragedy wasn't currency in my world, just background noise everyone seemed to have.
An ally against the Donn wouldn't be bad. But another person knowing I wasn't dead? That was a liability. I'd considered just killing her in that alley, but there was no point. If she'd wanted to sell me out, she would've told the Don already. The fact that I wasn't currently being hunted suggested she was being honest. About that part, at least.I wasn't sure how long she'd known I was alive, but given how sloppily I'd been operating lately I wouldn't be surprised if she'd been tailing me for days.
Problem for another day.
Tonight's priority was the laboratory. Alice and I had agreed to enter the underground facility at 10 PM, after confirming the Dean had left campus. Simple plan. Minimal variables.
The hardest choice I needed to make was to choose whether to have the cocaine or caffeine. The cocaine was safer, would let me focus perfectly, and could help me get out of trouble if I found myself in any. The caffeine could let me overpower the Dean in strength, but I am not sure how else it will affect me.
Still, it seems much stronger, and I need everything that I can get, so the choice was obvious.
I was careful not to activate it by mistake and got dressed in the combat suit. It was reinforced with some auxiliary mesh to keep my pistols and boom-gun, together with some magazines for them. The rest were in a small bag, alongside the mines.
Alice also dressed in her superhero outfit.
I felt very dumb when I saw her. How could I forget that her eyes are the same as Liliam's!
Her costume glowed faintly in the darkness—sleek silver material that clung to her like it was painted on. Lunar patterns traced across her chest and arms, shifting with each movement. Supposedly mimicked the phases of the moon or something. Very thematic.
The fabric was light, designed for mobility when she used her gravity manipulation to fly. Practical choice, at least. Glowing threads crisscrossed the suit like moonbeams, pulsing whenever she activated her powers. It was a bit dramatic, but heroes seemed to enjoy that sort of thing.
A crescent moon visor covered her eyes, glowing brighter when she cranked up the gravity around someone. The gloves and boots had celestial designs etched into them—stars, moons, the usual cosmic imagery. All crafted for precision gravity control, apparently.
The whole ensemble was some blend of mysticism and technology, very 'protector of the futuristic world' aesthetic.
Honestly? It was flashy. Impractical for stealth work, but then again, heroes didn't do stealth. They did grand entrances and intimidation through spectacle.
At least it looked expensive. Someone had invested in good materials—the suit moved well and didn't seem to restrict her range of motion. That mattered more than the glowing bits.
She looked genuinely surprised to see me in military tech—almost screamed, actually. The skull-shaped mask that Hao soldiers wore probably didn't help with the misunderstanding. Not exactly friendly imagery.
"I didn't see this costume in a while..." What has it been? A month?
Her whole demeanor shifted, like I'd just triggered some long-dormant memory. She practically beamed with energy.
"Ahh! There was a heist some time ago—this guy had the audacity to walk up to the teller and ask for money right after we finished tying up the robbers. I realized it was you back at the hospital, but I never got to say anything... I was so shy back then, but I thought you were so cool! It really inspired me."
Inspired her to do what, exactly? This was why I didn't get her type. They saw someone putting themselves in danger and interpreted it as courage. Some grand statement about bravery or heroism.
If she knew I'd only done that because I was running late to buy a suit and needed quick cash, she wouldn't be nearly so impressed. It was pure convenience, not some bold declaration of criminal audacity.
But sure, let her have her moment. Whatever kept her motivated for tonight's operation.
"...But where did you get all this military equipment?" I didn't think about this question when I bought all that stuff... I had to improvise quickly.
"You would be surprised how much you can find on forums online." Such a weak response. As if this trained hero would believe that highly illegal and confidential equipment was just available for any civilian to get...
"Oh, yeah... You are right!" I almost wanted to slap myself because of this stupidity. How exactly did she rationalize this in her head? That I looked cool so it didn't matter? Is this how the so-called follower of the greatest hero acts? I was baffled, more so than at any of her past idiocy. Whatever. I had a lot to do tonight.
We waited until the time was right before going to the Warehouse. We couldn't actually confirm whether the Dean left, but that was by choice.
I thought about using a drone to spy on her, but I feared she would notice. If she did find out, our chances of her actually leaving were about zero, so we chose to roll the dice.
We called John to get every hero he could to the Zenik Academy. After we saw what was inside, we would arrest the Dean.
Before we started anything, I had to deactivate the cameras. I used my ability and was hit once again by that familiar pain. My heart was pulsating out of my chest, and the sensation of drowning—my body moving too fast to absorb the oxygen—left me cradled in pain. I don't know how Blazer does this. Does his ability have some kind of catch that makes him immune to these repercussions?
Whatever the case was, I went inside and picked up all of the cameras. I wonder how to disable them before remembering my interaction with friction.
If I were to time it right, I could snap the cameras by turning them just as my heart ticked. These objects weren't designed to resist such friction.
In the time I waited for the oxygen to be absorbed, I looked around the warehouse for the entrance to the laboratory. My intuition pointed to a suspicious lever that was connected to a suspicious slab of stone. Wow, so hidden… No wonder the teacher's husband found the lab. I thought about raising it with my ability but I didn't want to risk breaking the lever.
So when time returned to normal, I invited Alice to use her own power on it. I'm not sure why she hesitated to explain her ability yesterday, but now that I know her hero identity, it was clear. Her superpower was pretty famous, because it was very strong. She was capable of manipulating gravity, either lowering it for herself or others to fly, or increasing it for others.
Did she really just want me to sleep earlier than normal? Why would she bother concerning herself with my schedule? No, it must have been something else. She must not trust me.
"You know, I didn't think you were the one who made that earthquake." Oops, guess she knows.
"This is a stronger form of my ability. I don't have that much control over it."
"I can see that. But it is so cool! You are like.... Captain Time Freeze!" Wait a second. How does she know how my power works? Up until now she was under the impression I had a form of super speed? She is quite smart for a moron. Almost scarily so.
When we got inside, Alice made the lever much easier to raise with her ability. Was this the secret to her super strength?
With my heightened senses, I caught the sound of a mechanism activating beneath us—gears turning, locks disengaging. A trapdoor revealed itself in the stone and cement floor, opening to darkness below.
Underground tunnel. Of course.
I handed Alice one of the powerful flashlights and we descended. The tunnel was in rough shape—ruinous and clearly neglected for years, maybe decades. Stone tablets had cracked and fallen from the decorated walls and ceiling, scattered across the floor like forgotten relics.
The beam of my flashlight swept across the walls, catching faded carvings.
Human figures, I think, though time had worn them down to the point of being unrecognizable. Could've been historical records, religious imagery, or just rich people decorating their secret passageways. Hard to tell.The air was stale, thick with dust. Each step echoed in the confined space.
Whatever this place had been originally, it clearly wasn't meant to be a laboratory. The Zilliam family had repurposed something old, something that predated the Academy itself.
That raised more questions than it answered, but at least we were moving forward.
I pulled one of the mines from my backpack and planted it in the tunnel behind us. Security measure. Unless someone had a Hao ID within five meters, it would detonate—not an explosive, but an electrocution device.
Clever design, really. It passively filled the area with electrically conductive gas, mostly water vapor. Anyone who wandered into range would get zapped with the same voltage as those old execution chairs. Effective deterrent.
At the tunnel's end stood a giant stone wall decorated with marble plates. A portrait of a man—possibly the original Zilliam Crimson, though the paint had faded so badly I could only make out vague sketches. For something supposedly representing their founder's legacy, his descendants didn't seem to care much about preservation.
Then again, maybe it wasn't worth the trouble maintaining a small forgotten tunnel. Did the secretive Zilliam family really want repair workers knowing this place existed? Probably not. Easier to let it decay than risk exposure.
It seems disrespectful, but at the same time I don't think I would have done it differently.
I scanned the wall for mechanisms or hidden switches. There had to be a way through. Hopefully the tunnel wouldn't cave in on us—structural integrity didn't seem like a priority when this place was built.
Then I found it.
The keyhole was his hand. Well, calling it a keyhole was generous. The 'hole' was actually a mold shaped like the key the figure was holding in the portrait. I understood it would've been difficult to engineer, but at that point, why even bother with the theatrics? The hand was mounted on a rotating plate that, when the key was inserted, could be turned.
I rotated it 180 degrees until the hand reached its natural resting position. The plate locked into place with a mechanical click.The wall split in two, sections retracting into the ceiling and floor with a grinding sound, revealing... more tunnels. Of course. Because one wasn't enough.
I planted another mine at the entrance before moving forward. Building our breadcrumb trail of electrocution devices. If someone followed us down here, they'd have a very unpleasant surprise.
Alice stayed close behind me as we entered the next passage.
We walked so much I think we left the school grounds.
I put the last one somewhere along the path.
At the end of it all, we entered a large hall. Dim lighting cast long shadows across the walls—atmospheric, if you were into that sort of thing. A single containment chamber dominated the room, illuminated by flickering, sickly green light. Very mad scientist aesthetic.
Inside floated a monstrous figure, grotesque form barely visible through cloudy liquid. Its flesh was a patchwork of raw muscle, twisted and swollen, with too many limbs writhing beneath the surface. Looked inactive, at least. No movement beyond the natural suspension in fluid.We should keep it that way.
Along the walls, smaller test tubes were arranged in neat rows—meticulous organization for horrific experiments. Each contained tiny, unfamiliar forms suspended in murky fluid. Not human, but not quite monstrous either. Small, delicate things that twitched faintly, like they were aware but helpless. Failed creations or works in progress? Hard to tell. Their features were too distorted through the glass to make out clearly.
So this was the Zilliam family secret. Illegal bioengineering. Creating monsters in their basement like some budget horror movie.Classy.
I swept my flashlight across the room, looking for documentation or computers. Someone had to be keeping records of this.
The air is thick with the scent of formaldehyde and metal, tinged with something organic and rotting. Machinery hums quietly in the background, punctuated by the occasional hiss of steam.
The monstrous figure in the tank shifts slightly, and the unsettling sound of wet flesh against glass sends a chill down our spines. At least for Alice—she was visibly disturbed.
"What? No... No way..." She approaches the vat but doesn't reach it before her legs give out. She was horrified.
"H-how could they have done this?" Were these clones in the making? Was that central... thing… human? Or was it created by Zilliam? Did he have more people in this experiment?
Seeing her lost in thought, I looked around the many desks littered with paperwork. I couldn't decipher them as they were also written in that Cordian Ancient. But the sketches? Them I could understand.
Zilliam Crimson was trying to evolve the human race, be it for his personal gain or for others. In his letter, it is revealed that he did this to rule over the Academy as he 'didn't trust' others with the supposed 'fate of the world'.
This must mean the current Dean is either his reincarnation or perhaps a descendant that had his memories implanted into them.
By the state of this facility, it really was closed off to the world. So what did the teacher's husband discover? Was it really this place?
Or...
"I am sorry it has come to this."
I whipped my head back. Zilliam stood at the entrance to the hall, hand raised, strange light emanating from her palm. Not good.
I raised my pistol, but before I could pull the trigger, the room flooded with her light. Then nothing.
***
When I woke up, I was still in the lab—except it wasn't. The space had expanded massively. Tubes upon tubes of those smaller experiments surrounded us now, stretching into the distance. The central containment chamber was gigantic, taking up half the visible space.
And there was no roof. Above us was only white—clouds mixed with empty sky, stretching endlessly.
Where the hell was I?
This wasn't the underground lab anymore. Teleportation? Some kind of pocket dimension? Illusion generated by her power? I ran through possibilities while checking my equipment. Everything was still on me—pistol… gear. Physical objects had transferred with me, which ruled out pure hallucination.
I spotted Alice on the ground near the central tube, but she was much farther away now—the space had stretched somehow. I ran toward her.
I screamed in her direction, but she didn't hear me. She was talking with... Zilliam.
The Dean stood over her, hand still glowing faintly.
As I closed the distance, I finally caught what Zilliam was saying:
"This is for the good of the world, Alice. You have to believe me!"
"No! H-how? How could I ever forgive you for this!" Alice scrambled to her feet, hands already glowing as she prepared to strike back.
I pulled my pistol and fired at Zilliam. The bullet screamed through the air, but she just looked at it. The round disintegrated mid-flight, turning to dust."I won't have you cause harm in my domain, William."
Damn. Her domain. That confirmed it—I'd lost consciousness, we both had. This was a dream. She was likely still conscious outside this realm, maintaining control while we were trapped in here.I had to stop Zilliam. Somehow.
Alice tried using her gravity powers to pin the Dean to the floor, but nothing happened. No effect, no resistance—just nothing.
"And that goes the same for you, Alice! I am sorry, but if you go against the peace he fought so much for..." Zilliam's expression hardened. "No, he was right. I'll have to eliminate you too."
She gripped her hand and we were both pulled towards her in the air. Then she started choking us with this power.
I was losing air, and fast.
Wait... Air?
And... this is a dream?
Hahahahahahahah! Why didn't I think of this earlier! I gave away all of the air in my lungs and I woke up.
I was tied on the ground, together with Alice. Zilliam was preparing some kind of device, possibly the weapon with which she killed Pamela.
I was locked with zip-ties. Not very secure now, Ms. Dean. I suppose she didn't expect me to wake up. My heart was pounding harder than last time. Was it stress? Or perhaps the fact it was the second time that I activated it today. Either way, it was harder to time my movements with the beats.
I first started by turning my hands inwards and the plastic snapped with a few tries. I did the same for my legs. I really hoped this place wouldn't cave in as it was visibly shaking under my feet. The walls themselves pulsated with me.
Should I kill Zilliam? She did try to kill us. But I was also wrong. She isn't the founder, so this means his immortality failed. She has none of his memories.
It could also be that I was lied to, but I shouldn't act on that presumption.
I raised my hand and gave her a slap... Her skin got burned in the places where I hit her.
I then gave her a punch to the stomach.
She didn't move much, but I figured the effect would compound after I deactivated my ability so I did just that. I even managed to breathe in air faster than last time.
Her cheek erupted in flame as the body caught up with all the heat transferred from the speed. Her body launched backward into the wall with brutal force.
The whole room shook violently—the lair sounding like it was tearing itself apart. I dropped prone to keep my balance.
I crawled to Alice and cut her restraints while the structure groaned around us. She still wasn't conscious, so I slapped her awake. Not gentle, but effective.
We stayed low while the shaking continued. When it finally subsided, I looked up to see Zilliam trying to stand.
Half her face was burned, flesh charred and peeling. She was vomiting blood heavily, thick streams pouring from her mouth.
I honestly hadn't expected to hurt her that badly.
She tried to raise her hand, but Alice was faster.
"Stay down!"
The injured woman slammed into the ground. The stone beneath her shook, but differently than when I'd used my ability—this was pressure from above, an external force pushing down. Alice's gravity manipulation, pinning Zilliam to the floor.
"It's over, Zilliam. This monstrosity... It has to be destroyed!" Alice was looking at the larger tube. Whatever Crimson had explained to her earlier was enough to convince her this thing needed to die.
"I won't let you take him away. No! If it comes to that, I'll..."
I heard something crack inside Zilliam. Her jaw? No—she'd activated something.
I could hear growling behind me. She activated the monster? Was she insane?
"Alice, let's get some distance. Quick!"
The tube was giving out just as the flesh's intensity heightened. It was going out of the tube's cracks.
"What the hell is that thing!?"
She looked at me disappointed, then at the woman bleeding on the ground.
"It is... the founder..." So his immortality did fail. What the hell was she thinking to let him out? Or perhaps... is it my fault? I did break this room somewhat, so the restraints may have been affected. And still, I was almost out of action.
I drank a shot of the professor's substance to alleviate my pain. They wouldn't be a good combination together, but it also wouldn't be good for me to go unconscious here. Not a second later and the glass exploded in all directions.
The monster was out and trying to kill us. Alice tried to restrain it, but his form was beyond the logic of our world and barely affected by the gravity that was pressing his general direction into the earth below.
I activated the original Bullet Time. Grabbed my shotgun pistol and emptied the magazine toward the monster in the tube.
Then I opened my backpack and pulled out all the grenades I'd bought. Pulled their pins one by one and threw them toward Zilliam's position.
In situations like this, the difference between my two forms became obvious. On caffeine—what I should probably call "Perfect Time"—my body existed outside the universe's normal rules of motion, but still interacted through momentum, friction, resistance. I was genuinely faster than everything, affecting the world as if I had that speed. My heartbeat was just my mortal body trying to adapt.
The original Bullet Time worked like Blazer's speed. I wasn't faster than my environment—everything else was just slower. The grenades lost their momentum the moment I released them, suspended in frozen time until I let it resume.Interesting. That explained why I never accidentally hurt people when touching them in Bullet Time. Different physics, different consequences.The Dean was almost dead either way.
Not the time for introspection. I released time.
The explosions hit simultaneously—sound, fire, concussive force all at once.
The creature cried in pain while the ceiling was caving in. But Alice didn't let it.
She used her power to have it remain still. She was smart, as we had to let the heroes take these things as evidence.
But the monster was still alive and recovering from the pain I inflicted. So I decided to help her out.
I grabbed what remained of my suit's spare liquid and struck it with a flint before hurling it toward the ceiling.
"Will!?"
It detonated, the blast sending us flying backward into the tunnel. We scrambled back to the lab's entrance just as a massive ZBANG' shook the entire structure.
Moonlight poured down through the opening. It illuminated what remained of the room in uncanny serenity, everything bathed in pale silver light.Was it done? Could I finally rest?
My improvised explosive had blown through the stone ceiling, ten meters of dirt above it, and the asphalt on the surface—though apparently not enough to clear everything completely.
The monster had been crushed by falling debris and now resembled more a puddle of blood and flesh than anything recognizable. Surprisingly, the lab itself remained mostly intact, the explosion having directed its force upward toward the sky instead of outward.
The chef had mentioned the Hao substance was 'liquid thunder'. Maybe that explained it.
I searched for Zilliam and found her buried under debris. Had to help Alice uncover her, but couldn't tell if the body underneath was dead or just unconscious. She was severely disfigured—hands and feet broken, either from the explosion's shockwave or the asphalt that came down after.
Above us, sirens wailed. Police, fire trucks, ambulances. Impressive response time if they'd come on their own. I doubted John had called all of them.
Relief hit me hard. I dropped to my knees, exhaustion crashing down all at once. I'd overused my abilities tonight—pushed too far, too fast. My muscles felt like they were tearing apart with every movement, burning from the inside out.
Alice hugged me, saying "It's alright," that "we succeeded," that "I can rest." Her insistence somehow kept me conscious when all I wanted was to pass out.
Two heroes jumped down through the hole I'd made—John in his suit, I think, and someone else I couldn't recognize. Police illuminated us with flashlights from above.
They called out, but their words blurred together. My eyes were heavy. Everything was heavy.
I let go, collapsing into Alice's lap, and closed my eyes.
It was done.
***