My Werepanther System: Starting with Nine Lives
Chapter 72 STRIPES/STRENGTH

Chapter 72: 72 STRIPES/STRENGTH

Thursday evening, September 6th, 2274. The Empowered Military-Republic of America’s Northern Airspace Domain, AKA The EMRA’s Northern AD, AKA Olympia District/Washington DC.

Victor’s day felt like a bizarre fever dream from start to finish. Or at least where he ended up currently.

The Mana Flux hit in the middle of a training event gone awry thanks to Syrus’ competitive hate for Rex. The two were like a stray dog and cat in the city, letting their animalistic fury collide with the rest of the population.

From there, the world changed. Literally. Figuratively. Metaphorically. Every way Victor could think of.

And still it didn’t compare to his prior realizations in regards to his adoptive family. His captors— who he was summoned by in the event of the world changing.

"I guess they have to make sure their return on investment isn’t too damaged." Victor thought with disdain as he gazed out the window of the militarized private jet he’d been picked up in back in Fort Amazonia.

They were diving downward as they neared home in the northern reaches of Olympia District. It took no more than a few minutes for the high tech shuttle to blast through a black cloud and give way to the tech-lit evening city of....

He strained his eyes less as they neared until he could make out high rises, skyscrapers and the gem of the city.

"OLYMPS. We’re..... home. In Neo-Arcadia city." Victor thought as they drove past the massive halo of mechanically hovering mini-districts above the city.

That was OLYMPS. The Overwatch Legacy-Yielding Military Practictioner’s Space. It had been flying for as long as Victor was alive. Even before then. It was created by the previous generation of Inheritence Ability users.

Victor was in the most recent generation. The fourth. Also known as The Verdant Generation. Green for the concept of introducing new bloodlines to implement mutations in the Inheritence Abilities.

OLYMPS was more than a tourist attraction. It was a city-sized technological superpower fit with pressurized lazer cannons that could turn a city-block to ash in the blink of an eye. There was so much sensitive information inside that one person couldn’t know more than two shuttles worth of data before becoming a risk to the entire planet.

It was fit with high optics facial recognition software connected to a mana-machinized brain known as the Athenos-Core and had enough power to rival the temperature of the sun if need be.

Victor nearly gagged as the jet dove past it. The blue lights of the Guardian Net anti-ballistics cast by OLYMPS flickered as they headed towards the ground.

He bounced in his seat as the wheels hit the landing strip and suddenly their ride was loud and physically jolting.

Victor closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As a result his mind was pullled back to earlier in the day.

It was all a flash.

Rex and Syrus.

Boom.

World changed.

Trainees were in hell.

Victor was different. He could feel the jolting flow of energy everywhere. Even now, with his eyes shut, he could see the livewire framework of energy flow in the jet. Where it centralized.

Up above, OLYMPS gleamed like an electrical sun.

"Master Fauve, we are ready for departure."

Victor opened his eyes.

One of the family hands stood over him and his seat. He was bald and well muscled with a black mustache and one stripe of scarring across his nose.

Victor remembered him. His name was Brand.

He got up and Brand motioned for the opening door down the walkway with a partial bow. Victor headed down and out of the jet.

The frigid yet damp air of Neo-Arcadia city hit Victor’s nose hard. He didn’t have the fondest memories of the place, but it was a nice dose of familiarity after everything.

He was down the steps in a blur and meeting up with six special service agents in militarized exo-skeletons. He recognized the make and design. They were called Ambush-Armorings. They looked like stripped exoskeletons that left much of the wearer exposed with metal and mana-steel framing built around their limbs. The legs were springy and explosive and it came with a sword arm that could cut through almost anything due to a special kind of metal from a hypersonic meteor that hit the eastern portion of the globe decades prior.

The wearers were almost always retired special forces.

Victor got into the car. Before he knew it, he was racing down the landing strip and into the city.

The city he never called home, genuinely at least.

Olympia District was advanced even for EMRA standards.

Floors upon floors of bullet train railways were built over pitch black conveyor-highways. Enforcement Officers belonging to mega-corporations flew in wing suits brandishing their company logo alongside their law enforcement agency. City-based jungle-monkey units known as Cyber-dogs ran the streets on motorcycles with horrifying effeciency.

Its function and clutter was inhuman.

But humanity always prevailed. Or maybe that wasn’t the right word.

Nature. The wild.

It lived on.

As they raced down packed highways and through cluttered tunnels, Victor saw life in the cracks.

He saw the homeless living off trash thrown from high rises above. Singing and dancing over oil drum fires, their festive shadows splashed across walls smeared with brilliantly skilled artwork that for some reason would get people charged and even killed.

It was from those same pockets of realism and nature that Victor saw the dark when he closed his eyes. He saw peace. He saw true night.

He hadn’t noticed it back in the jungles of Fort Amazonia, but his powers had become sensory based.

"Back when I had tiger-flame, I could feel heat in people. Just barely. But now, I can see the pulse of energy. All forms. It’s overstimulating. This is probably the worst place to realize that too...." Victor noted.

He spent the rest of the ride trying to nurture a growing migraine and failing. Because even with his eyes closed, he knew home.

Though, jail was probably a more appropriate term.

The car came to a slow halt as they hit the entrance gates into the Fauve Estate. A simple flash of a badge and scan of an ocular device had them rolling by and into the massive landscape.

The Fauve Estate was a massive white stone historical structure that looked like it was from a different time. Marble structures lined the perfectly manicured lawn. Statues of snarling tigers surrounded a drunken fool. Military regalia and achievements hung around his neck. Expensive super cars and artillery units from the past decades were sprinkled along the outer edges of the lawn.

Victor opened his door as the driver stepped out.

Brand stood halfway reaching for the door.

"Sorry, Brand. Force of habit." Victor said.

"It is all fine, Master Fauve. It’s the same for me." He smiled.

Victor nodded.

"It’s good to have you back." Brand said as Victor began to head towards the stone crafted steps leading up to the estate with its looming spires and endless halls.

"Is it?" Victor asked.

"Yes. It’s been..... quiet here. I wish you could’ve came under better circumstances, but the events of the Mana Flux.... and your brother, have made matters urgent on all levels." Brand explained.

"I understand. I need to be checked and confirmed." Victor said.

"You need to be deployed as well." Brand said as they reached the top step.

Victor turned and looked at him, "What?"

"Master Fauve, don’t you understand? The fabric of the entire world has been changed. Including rule and law. The average man may not feel it, but we do. There are those that have been waiting for this Guild to make a misstep. There are those that wish to mine the halls of OLYMPS for every rich resource it has. You are the one to stop it. As your father was the one to stop the last war. Unfortunately, your war may not be in another world. It may not be against another species. You may be pitted against your own kind."

Victor was amazed at the unintentional accuracy of Brand’s words.

"I was thinking the same thing." He thought in reply when the door suddenly opened.

A giant answered.

She was seven feet tall with dark red hair in a ponytail. It fell down her back like a mane of violet-fire. She wore a dark grey tanktop and cargos.

"City-warfare kit." Victor noted immediately. Even before he took in her massive bulk and detailed scarring along her arms that resembled tiger stripes.

Despite all this, she was beautiful. She had full soft lips. Eyes framed by lashes that could be mistaken for ravens wings and skin that perfectly tanned.

If only she knew how to smile.

But that would never happen.

"Victor." She said with a slightly Russian accent.

"Krysta." Victor replied to his quote unquote aunt.

She looked him up and down repeatedly before raising an eyebrow. "You don’t look very different. Maybe you lost weight."

"I’m not very different..... at least compared to the others." Victor replied.

"This is good." Krysta said before crossing her arms, "But I don’t believe the doctrine of spoken word. Only action."

Victor fought off an eye roll as he shut his eyes.

It was then that he saw it. Her energy signature. Firm and virulent. She charged, trying to snake him with her deceptive and explosive speed.

Victor was faster. Even more so after the Mana-Flux.

When he opened his eyes, he had her reaching arms by the wrists.

She smiled, "I’m glad you know how to take bait. Strong beasts do this. You are strong."

"Wha—"

A gaseous substance flew into his face.

"But not smart." Krysta added.

He turned and found Brand pointing a gas gun at him. "I’m sorry, Master Fauve. You know the drill, unfortunately."

Victor passed out.

Krysta let his face smack the stone grounds.

"Welcome home, kitty."