The Last Day of Quiet Resistance
Time passed quickly during my quiet resistance. Shine didn't show any particular reaction during that time, so nothing out of the ordinary happened.
I kept the microphone on and tapped it lightly. Shine stared blankly at me, her expression as emotionless as ever.
"Is there anything you want to eat?" I asked, throwing out a meaningless question as I always did. As expected, Shine didn't answer this time either.
I sat there blankly, letting the time drift by. I hadn't stopped by the library today to borrow any books, so I had absolutely nothing to do.
I began to doodle on a blank piece of paper on the table. No matter how I drew Dr. Hebrum's chubby face, it always ended up looking like a pig. I drew a ridiculous caricature of him groveling before the suit-clad laboratory director, then sighed and crumpled the paper up.
Today was the last day. Once I clocked out and left this room, I could return to my original body. I felt a slight sense of relief. It didn't mean my work was completely over, but perhaps because I'd grown somewhat attached to this girl's body after getting used to it, my heart fluttered strangely.
Celebrating my homecoming after a week, I thought about the lump sum of money I was about to receive. Maybe I should replace that old sofa first, and buy some new clothes. As I was fantasizing about how to spend the money once I got home, I felt a bizarre sensation.
An anomalous radio wave was flowing through the air. As an electrokinetic esper, I was highly sensitive to surrounding electromagnetic waves. A faint sound drifted into my ears. A radio transmission?
Standing up, I switched off the microphone. As the frequency humming from the microphone and speaker vanished, the mysterious radio voice grew clear.
"...Begin!"
"Begin?"
BOOM! My vision shook instantly as if struck by a massive impact. My body collapsed under the deafening roar that battered my ears. Slumping onto the floor, unable to even stand, I stared around blankly.
"What the..." I couldn't finish my sentence. CRASH! Another explosion shook my entire body. The floor beneath my feet convulsed relentlessly, as if a massive earthquake had struck.
WREEEEEEING! An alarm blared throughout the entire laboratory. Red emergency lights flashed, and the machines began to lose power. With a soft *pop*, all the electricity in the lab cut out completely.
The room plunged into pitch darkness. Since the laboratory was built underground, there wasn't a single window. My ears rang from the previous blast. Tripping and falling repeatedly as my sense of direction failed me, I conjured a small spark over my hand. Blue light scattered in all directions, illuminating the surroundings.
"What's going on?" The voice of a young girl drifted coldly into the dark. It didn't take long to grasp the situation. Various scenarios flashed through my mind. A terrorist attack, or an accident. There was a very high probability it was the former—an assault by the terrorist group the news had been raving about. I realized it instinctively.
"Lamonax!" I pounded on the firmly shut door, calling out for Lamonax, who should have been outside. But no answer came. Of course it wouldn't. This room was completely soundproofed from the hallway. There was no way he could hear me.
In a panic, I raised my hand and pressed it against the door's electronic lock. It would break. The wiring would inevitably blow out with absolute precision, leaving the internal machinery in ruins. But I had to do it. In a situation like this, surely they wouldn't hold me responsible. I wanted to believe that.
My hesitation was brief. The moment I channeled my power, a blue light erupted from my fingertips, surging into the lock. *Zap!* A massive blue flash burst out. Because I couldn't control it delicately, the locking mechanism completely exploded. Rubbing my tingling hand, I peered through the gap of the half-opened door.
Screams and the sound of collapsing structures echoed. The footsteps of dozens of people scrambled chaotically, ringing in my ears. At the end of the pitch-black corridor, brilliant flashes of light sparkled. I cautiously slipped out into the hallway. Walking through the absolute darkness was terrifying. I had no idea who might leap out at me, or from where.
Following the familiar path, I arrived in front of Dr. Hebrum's personal lab. My eyes, now adjusted to the pitch black, could discern faint outlines. Feeling my way forward, I slipped inside. I crept deeper, carefully avoiding the thick cables strewn across the floor.
"Dr. Hebrum?" I called out cautiously. Since his shift wasn't over yet, he should have been in here, happily munching on some delicious snacks. I blinked and sniffed the air. Behind the savory, sweet scent of pastries, a metallic, fishy odor wafted over. Cold sweat trickled down my back. A faint panting echoed in the darkness, and the silhouette of an adult male loomed.
"Who are you...?" At the unfamiliar voice echoing from the dark, I spun around and bolted. My heart hammered against my ribs as if it would explode.
"Wait...!" The voice and the sound of footsteps behind me drew closer. I couldn't shake him. He ran in a straight line toward me, as if he could see perfectly even in the pitch black.
I retraced my steps and hid inside the gap of the door I had just escaped from. The half-open, jammed door didn't leave enough space for an adult man to squeeze through.
"Don't run!" his urgent voice echoed. Panting heavily, I scrambled toward the corner of the room. My leg caught on a chair, sending it crashing to the floor, and I tumbled along with it. The falling chair struck the table, scattering the papers piled on top. Amidst the rustling noise, a screeching, grinding sound of twisting metal rang out.
The solid iron door was being destroyed. The metal plating dented, tore, and shattered. Small components fell and rolled across the floor. Every single sound registered with terrifying clarity.
"Oh, shit..." A terrorist. It had to be a terrorist. It was definitely the rebel group that had been raiding laboratories lately. In a panic, I raised my hands. The blue electric current gathering at my fingertips illuminated the room. As the blue light flared, I saw a man wearing a white mask. He was tearing the door off its hinges with his bare hands.
A physical enhancement esper. Simple, yet incredibly powerful. Judging by how he could rip apart steel plates, it was a high-tier ability. Perhaps due to my anxiety, the current gathering at my fingertips scattered wildly in all directions. It wouldn't focus into a single point.
"Wa...it...!" Ignoring his urgent plea, I unleashed the current. A tingling sensation surged through my entire body. *Zap!* With a violent shock, the electricity erupting from my fingertips sprayed everywhere. The papers scattered on the floor caught fire, and the clothes I was wearing began to burn as well. I had failed to control my ability. The employee ID card hanging around my neck shriveled from the heat.
I frantically stripped off the burning clothes and channeled my current once more. A vivid blue light flowed over my entire body. The blue electrical field I generated set the surrounding area ablaze, illuminating everything in a bright glow. Yet, the masked man stood perfectly fine even within my electrical field.
"Stay back!"
"Calm down! We're not here to hurt you!"
I didn't believe him. I drew out even more power. My hair stood on end as a sharp, tingling sensation coursed through my entire body.
"Aaaagh!" The man writhed and backed away. The blue current enveloping his entire body branched out in all directions, causing the machines in the room to explode. BOOM! CRASH! Brilliant sparks erupted. My control over the ability was completely off. The total output of my power was the same, but it felt out of focus. I hadn't used my ability in a while so I hadn't realized it, but this seemed to be a side effect of occupying a body identical to Shine's.
I delicately gathered the electricity scattering in all directions. As if soothing an angry puppy, I funneled all of it directly into the masked man's body. A faint smell of burning filled the air. White smoke billowed from the man's body as he endured the current.
"What are you doing?" At the sound of a new voice, I shifted my gaze. Another person, dressed similarly to the man and wearing a white mask, was leaning against the torn doorframe. The faint silhouette of her body and the pitch of her voice indicated she was a woman.
"Stop playing around and just bring her."
"You noticed?" The man, who had been screaming and writhing in pain, suddenly stood up straight. The voice distorted by agony was gone.
"Huh...?" I stared up at him blankly. He was completely unfazed inside the blue electrical field that carried the full brunt of my power.
"Looks like a high-tier electrokinetic."
"My skin is tingling. If it weren't for this suit, I'd have been roasted alive for sure." The man muttered as he approached me. I slumped down, completely drained of strength. The sheer pressure radiating from a large adult male was no joke. My legs gave out, and before I could even think of standing up, his massive arms scooped me up. My feet dangled off the ground. Suspended in the air, my arms and legs flailed helplessly.
"Up we go... Whoa, you're way too light. Do they even feed you here?" The woman leaning against the doorframe reached out. A beam of white light shot from her fingertips, carving a hole clean through the thick glass wall.
"Oh, there's more than one. Looks like twins." With those words, the woman stepped through the hole in the glass wall, scooped Shine into her arms, and walked back out.
What is this? What is this? What on earth is happening? I was carried away, cradled in the man's arms. Even in the darkness, I could feel a gaze fixed on me—it was definitely Shine's. Cradled in the woman's arms, she stared at me without showing any reaction whatsoever. My body jolted violently as we moved through the dark. The shoes I was wearing slipped off and fell to the floor.
"How many this time?"
"Just the two of us." I heard the man click his tongue above my head.
SLAM! Along with a heavy impact, a fierce gust of wind swept over us. The surroundings suddenly brightened. It was night. A pitch-black night sky stretched out above. The biting wind whipped against my cheeks, stealing my body heat. We were on the rooftop. They had reached the roof of the laboratory. Having forced the rooftop door open, the man dashed forward without hesitation.
What the hell? What is going on? Why are they kidnapping me? I'm just a low-level employee! My shortened limbs flailed uselessly in the air.
"Prepare the warp! We're leaving right now!" As the man's voice echoed, a massive circle manifested. A dark, unstable current of energy swirled out from it. Without a moment's hesitation, the man leapt straight into the portal. Clutched tightly in his arms, I was sucked into the void along with him.