‎Norvax was working with a gamble.

‎They'd managed to uncover the mysterious vault underground, and therein lay the problem.

‎Neither he nor Alissa could bring the damn thing to the surface.

‎And by now, the Crowd were most probably aware of the fact they'd discovered the vault.

‎So it was simply a matter of who would discover them first, their allies or the enemy.

‎Given the fact that the opponent this time was Talented Norvax, and Alissa's training would grant them a slim advantage, but Alissa was in no condition to put up a reasonable fight, having exerted most of her power in uncovering the underground vault.

‎Glancing at the dark-haired woman, Norvax's expression turned grimmer.

‎Alissa was certainly paler than usual, a clear sign of overexertion, and her breathing came in fast, shallow breaths.

‎" Can't you break into the vault with your suit?"

‎Norvax slowly shook his head.

‎" That's the problem. I'd have tried, but from the suits' readings, the vault is reinforced inside out. Whoever made it fitted it with an intricate locking mechanism rigged to destroy whatever's inside the vault if we simply approach it recklessly. And that's only the first problem."

‎Alissa's face darkened further.

‎" What's the other?"

‎Norvax smirked faintly.

‎" The suit's reading after an initial scan indicated that the vault was made of a composite material, Dextrite carbide."

‎Rather than using a single pure metal, whoever had ingeniously crafted the tenebrous vault had come up with the excellent idea to use a composite alloy of one of the hardest known substances on the planet.

‎Despite its hardness, Dextrite was incredibly brittle at extremely high temperatures, a glaring weakness.

‎But combining it with Carborite oxide overcame that weakness, making it a material that was incredibly hard to melt and penetrate at high temperatures, and by adjusting its structural integrity was difficult to shatter even with terrible impacts.

‎It was quite a bizarre feeling. What they needed was right in front of them, and yet, infuriatingly enough, they couldn't get to it.

‎After a few moments, the eerie silence around the warehouse was broken by the sound of footsteps.

‎Alissa turned to him, her expression turning grimmer.

‎"Friend or foe?"

‎" We're about to find out."

‎A moment later, Aisha's voice rang out in Norvax's head.

‎"We're here. Open up."

‎Norvax grinned slightly.

‎" Friends, from the looks of things."

‎Alissa breathed an audible sigh of relief.

‎" We're going to need a powerful telekinetic. Hope you brought one." Norvax thought, striding calmly towards the door.

‎" Of course, that vault isn't going to move itself out of the ground. Understandably, you couldn't breach it. Dextrite carbide is quite a sturdy material after all."

‎Just then, he suddenly froze, his hand hovering a few inches away from the warehouse's keypad.

‎Alissa turned to him, frowning slightly.

‎"What's the matter?"

‎Without replying, he quietly raised a finger to his lips.

‎" It's not Aisha."

‎Alissa furrowed her brows in confusion.

‎"How do you know that?"

‎"I never told her the composition of the alloy that the value was made out of. I need the password I'm speaking to right now just told me."

‎Alissa grimaced, slowly getting to her feet.

‎"Well, that means we're going to fight with our hands then."

‎Norvax walked away from the door, approaching the small crater in the middle of the warehouse.

‎" Open up. What's the matter?"The voice rang out in his head.

‎A quiet laugh echoed in his mind.

‎" So you've figured it out, huh. No matter, this is a small wrench in the grand scheme of things. "

‎With a thought, his nano shroud flowed across his head, covering him completely.

‎The shroud's headpiece had a unique quality.

‎Years of research with state-of-the-art facilities had enabled Praesagius R&D department to create a unique nanite ally that could resist psionic interference to some extent.

‎"What are you doing?" Alissa asked questioningly.

‎"preparing for a fight."

‎The reinforced door of the warehouse groaned, an immense pressure bearing down on the old warehouse.

‎" From the looks of things, they have a telekinetic on their side."

‎Alissa grunted, activating her ability.

‎Her eyes shone weakly with a beautiful green and dark light.

‎"What do we do now?"

‎Norvax calmly circled the crater.

‎" Relax, we still have not lost this fight yet. Besides our own reinforcements around the way, so there's no need to panic. for now we'll just hold the fort and do the best we can."

‎Stopping the crater's edge, Norvax tilted slightly, then turned, staring at Alissa.

‎" We're going to need a distraction of sorts."

‎Gesturing nonchalantly, he indicated for her to move back a few feet.

‎"For what I'm about to do, I suggest you get behind the wall of crates. You should make things much easier and keep yourself out of harm's Way."

‎Alissa darted around a particularly tall wall of piled crates.

‎A heartbeat later, Norvax began to run.

‎" What is he doing?"

‎A split second later, Alissa's eyes lit up in realization. She quickly ducked under a crate, barely dodging a shard of debris that whizzed past her, ripping through one of the crates in a shower of wooden chunks.

‎A cloud of dust billowed from the already unstable crater, steadily rising into the air.

‎"Given the circumstances, this is the best I can do for now."

‎The dust created a makeshift smoke screen that obscured any movements within the warehouse.

‎Norvax's run also pulled inanimate objects due to the vacuum left in the wake of his speed.

‎The rocks flying from the vortex of dust flew through the air at blistering speeds, punching through the wooden craters with ease.

‎Norvax grabbed a few rocks mid-run, smiling darkly under his mask.

‎" It's do or die time, I guess. Kill or be killed."

‎In the next moment, the large reinforced door groaned, then with a jarring roar, it flew off its hinges, hurtling back through the air.

‎"Time to welcome our guests."

‎In his hands, Norvax held ordinary stones. But at sonic speed, an ordinary stone moving at that terrifying velocity could turn into a lethal projectile.

‎"I see what you're doing," a young woman at the front of the small cohort that had burst into the war house said, a faint smile appearing on her face.

‎" But it's all in vain."

‎Another man stepped forward, his eyes glowing slightly with an icy blue light.

‎A strong wind suddenly stirred into existence at the activation of the man's ability.

‎The cloud of dust began to recede.

‎A split second later, a dark blur hurtled out of the receding dust storm, zipping past the small group of Talented, a small explosion of flesh and blood following in its wake.

‎Looking down, the wind ability user's eyes widened in shock at the remnant of what had been his hand.

‎An agonized yell echoed through the expanse of the warehouse.

‎Within the cover of dust, Norvax grinned gleefully, picking up the pace.

‎" One down, just a few more to go."

‎The woman at the head of the group of Talented frowned, her gaze shifting between the cloud of dust and the groaning man beside her.

‎She smiled faintly, her own eyes flaring aglow with an ethereal purple light.

‎The stones around her instead frozen mid-air, and the blood splatter from the man next to her froze as well.

‎"Well, that's not a proper way to get acquainted with fellow Talented now, is it?" In the next moment, a dark green beam of energy shot past, aimed at one of the men behind her, but then froze eerily.

‎"Energy manipulation as well? What a very interesting bunch we have..."

Alissa craned her neck slightly, warily peeping around a crate. Well, that sucks. If you could barely see through the cloud of dust, a split second later, Norvax materialized next to her.

Alissa jumped up in fright.

"Shit! You scared me! What was that all about? Norvax grinned, dismissing only the visor of his nano shroud.

"From what I can tell, we're dealing with talented, most likely, each of them is above class A-4. I took out one of them, but I don't think he's going to be on the ground for long, so we need to find a way to get out of this shithole before everything else takes a turn for the worse.

In the next moment, Norvax discovered something disturbing: the projectiles all around them, and debris hovered eerily in the air.

"What the hell is going on?"

Novak snapped his visor back in place, slowly rising to his feet. They must have a telekinetic type among them, and the way things are looking, they're probably setting up an interference field around this place. I've tried getting in touch with Jeff, but my coms are down.

Alissa's mouth fell open in surprise.

"Are you trying to say that they interfered with the signal that's leaving your suit?

Norvax nodded slightly.

"But either way, we're going to have to find a way of getting out of here alive, and I'm sure Jeff and Aisha are not twiddling their thumbs either. We're going to find a way out of this mess."

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