The Mentors looked down at the scene with shocked expressions, except for the ones who knew Zac the best.

  “Just like that?” One of the Mentors responded.

  “Just like that, yes. That’s how Zac operates. He identifies the biggest threats and eliminates them before they cause trouble.” Franky said while shaking his head.

  “I didn’t think he could deal with Travis’ Mind Matter like that?” Another Mentor said.

  “I knew; I just didn’t think he’d notice that fast under these circumstances. I figured that out around the end of our session; he figured it out in barely 3 minutes.” Mawu said with a smile on her face.

  She was always a fan of Zac. Like Devin, she could appreciate his brilliance and thinking out of the box. She also hoped they’d never be able to give him a Program. She feared that having a Program would make him lose his sharpness and cleverness. He was a great breath of fresh air among all these Programs and was essential the way he was.

  “Indeed, The Anomaly rarely disappoints. But things are not over yet. They still have Micheal.” Duendes said with a smile. Now that the best-case scenario was foiled and shit hit the fan, it was time for Micheal to shine.

  Micheal looked over at Travis’ unconscious body and cursed under his breath.

  “Regroup; Miko and I will cover your retreat.” Micheal’s whisper entered their ears.

  The two began to run toward Micheal and Miko, but Zac was behind them in hot pursuit. In a flash, he overtook them and blocked their way. Just when he was about to strike, he looked over his shoulder and saw Miko opening her mouth.

  “Shit!” Zac leaped out of the way as Miko let out a scream that generated a powerful shockwave.

  Zac dodged, but the shockwave heading straight for Patrick and Izumi, curved to follow Zac. He looked over to see Micheal guiding Miko’s shockwave. Zac threw out a dagger toward Miko, who stopped screaming to dodge. With a tug, Zac was pulled in by that same dagger lodged in a pole behind Miko. Zac was heading straight for Miko’s location as her shockwave fizzled out. Micheal quickly jumped in between Miko and Zac. Miko let out a small shriek, and Micheal wrapped the soundwaves from that shriek around his fist as he sent a punch at the approaching Zac.

  “Those two work together annoyingly well.” Zac thought to himself.

  Zac kicked the punch away, and the power of the punch knocked him off course. Zac landed hard on the ground but pushed forward without hesitation. He pretended to charge Micheal but quickly changed his target to Miko, throwing a dagger her way. Miko dodged, rolling behind Micheal, who in turn charged Zac, shockwaves still wrapping his fists like gauntlets. He sent a flurry of blows toward Zac, all of which were parried with Zac’s dagger.

  Every opening Zac was given, he took a swipe at Miko. She was no fighter, at least not yet, but her ability to read soundwaves and her natural decision-making made her very illusive. Zac went for another swipe at Miko, who dodged once while also kicking Zac’s attacking arm into the air. Micheal used the opening to punch Zac’s chest. Zac brought up his free arm to block and was knocked into the air. While he was airborne, Miko opened her mouth to shout in his direction while Micheal prepared to control her shockwave.

  “Shut up…” Zac said placidly as he clenched his fist in the air.

  “Eeeehh!!!!” Micheal heard Miko’s scream from behind him and the buzzing of electricity.

  He quickly turned his head to see Miko unconscious on the ground and tiny beads still sparking with electricity surrounding her.

  “Dammit.” Micheal cursed.

  “He never intended to directly attack Miko.” Kenji smiled. He had learned more for Zac in the last few minutes then his entire time with Franky. That wasn’t to say he was dissatisfied with Franky’s help, it was the opposite. He found his time spent with Franky extremely enlightening, but Zac was opening his eyes to different avenues.

  With every swipe and missed attack, he dropped those tiny beads. They must have stuck to her gear. He couldn’t put them on Micheal because he had the shockwaves as a layer of protection during their brawl.

  “Your actions are irrelevant. Think of your opponent's next action and move accordingly. If you can manipulate their actions, even better.” Kenji’s mind was racing at 1000 mph. He found himself engrossed in the decisions that Zac made. There was a reason Zac didn’t need a Program, it was simply because he was just better.

  “Bloody Hell!” Michael shouted, as he turned to face Zac but saw no one. He then quickly refocused as he stomped his foot on the ground.

  He sent out a gentle shockwave, and through that shockwave, he felt Miko on the ground and felt Izumi and Patrick. To their left, something was rapidly approaching.

  “Patrick!! To your left! 8 meters!” Micheal shouted. Patrick didn’t need to ask; he quickly erected a giant earth wall on his left side.

  “Coming around back,” Micheal shouted out again.

  Izumi was the one to act this time. As he did so, he waved his hand, and whatever was making Zac invisible was disabled. Or, to be more precise, Izumi bent the light being refracted by Zac’s clock to reveal him. As soon as Zac was revealed, he tossed a small orb in front of him,

  “Gotcha! POP!”At Zac’s command, the orb exploded in a flash of light.

  Like everyone else, Patrick and Izumi only had about 48 hours to get accustomed to their new powers. Patrick couldn’t erect large walls like that quickly, and Izumi couldn’t bend light at will either; he still needed to concentrate. All of his attention was on revealing Zac; he wouldn’t be able to stop this flash bang. Everyone watching was blinded momentarily.

  When the light faded, Patrick and Izumi were unconscious on the ground. Zac stood there, stretching his waist, looking over in Micheals's direction.

  “It’s just you and me now, Mike!” Zac’s cheerful voice filled the training grounds.

  Micheal got a bit jittery and took several breaths. He gathered himself as he got into a relaxed boxer stance as bounced on his toes.

  “Let’s scrap then, yeah?” Micheal said.

  “That’s my boy. Come on!” Zac motioned for Micheal to make his move, as he tucked his daggers away. As soon as Zac motioned, Micheal exploded forwards. He kicked off the ground, and he produced shockwaves to propel him forward. In two bounds, he had covered the 20-meter gap between them and sent a punch at Zac’s face. Zac lazily dodged while parrying the blow. The punch went past Zac’s face and a powerful concussive wave exploded behind it. Zac glanced back at the concussive explosion for a moment and smiled. Micheal sent several sharp, quick punches, all accompanied by powerful shockwaves tearing the ground apart. Zac calmly parried as his body looked like it was floating around Micheal.

  Micheal went to send another punch but stopped. He looked behind Zac and noticed that Patrick and Izumi’s unconscious bodies were lying there. Every motion Zac made was to slowly position himself in front of Micheal’s teammates, just to create this opening,

  “Gotcha.” Zac mused.

  Zac sent an uppercut to Micheal’s chin through the opening created by Micheal's hesitation. That uppercut was followed by a torrent of punches aimed to knock Micheal unconscious. After the initial uppercut, Micheal recovered and put up his palms to block Zac's assault. His palms had a layer of vibrating waves to act as shields to cushion the blows. The power behind Zac’s punches was far outside of his expectations. That first uppercut almost took his head off.

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  Micheal was forced back as the waves he used to defend himself began to shake more and more under Zac’s blows. Zac then sent a haymaker punch angled down at Michaels's jaw. Micheal blocked the blow but was brought to a knee. Zac continued to beat down on Micheals's wall of waves as he shouted mockingly,

  “That’s all you got?! HUH!!”

  “Errgghhh!!” Micheal let out a frustrated shout. He continued to block the heavy blows raining down on him with his left hand and pounded the ground with his right fist.

  A powerful earthquake shook the training ground and the entire underground facility. Zac was knocked off balance as Micheal thrust out his left hand.

  “Mate, I’m sick of ya cocky mouth, yeah?!” Micheal shouted.

  When his hand extended he unleashed a powerful shockwave. He had absorbed the force of every punch that Zac had sent. Now he was sending it back at him while adding more of his own power on top of it. While off-balance, all Zac could do was cross his arms in front of him as he was blown back. Zac looked over his guard to see Micheal standing up. He also saw that he had been knocked away from the unconscious bodies of Miko, Patrick, Izumi, and Travis.

  “Not bad, kid.” Zac thought to himself.

  Micheal shouted without giving Zac a chance to land; he amplified the sound waves and sent out a shrieking shout that was about as powerful as the one Miko had performed before. Zac threw out a dagger that embedded itself into some of the debris and pulled himself out of the line of fire. As he got his bearings, he heard a booming noise, and Micheal was in front of him in a crouching position in a blink of an eye.

  “You can use it like that?” Kenji’s eyes widened when he saw the way Micheal used a pulse to propel himself forward at incredible speeds. He started to get some ideas of his own. He was disappointed up till now with all of the other teams. However, team Micheal had shown him a few interesting things. However, there was no way he would be able to duplicate what Travis could do with Mind Matter,

  “There’s something wrong with that guy's head.” Kenji thought to himself.

  Micheal on the other hand, he was inventive, but at least what he did made sense. Franky told him not to try and spread his focus, Kenji agreed for now, but he could feel that he could do more than what Franky thought he could, but for now he needed information.

  “Show me more Micheal.” Kenji smirked.

  The crouching Micheal sent a rising punch towards Zac, who went to parry it. But in an instant, Micheal bent the light waves around his entire arm, turning it invisible for a moment. It came back into view along with the images of 7 more fists coming towards Zac.

  “Shit!” Zac proclaimed as he was forced to cross his arms in front of him to defend himself once again.

  Micheal’s punch exploded with a concussive force and knocked Zac into the distance. Zac rolled across the ground before stabilizing himself on one knee.

  “He’s learning his Program as he fights. This kid…” Zac’s train of thought was cut off by another earthquake. Zac looked at Micheal to see that he had jumped into the air after causing the quake. Zac tried his best to jump back and Micheal landed in the spot where Zac was standing just moments ago. Accompanying his landing was a focused shockwave that blasted out in front of him in Zac’s direction.

  “ARGH!” Zac’s metallic groan filled the air as everyone saw his body roll across the ground. Everyone went silent for a moment, as Zac didn’t seem to be moving. Micheal stood up straight up, panting heavily.

  “Did I get him?” He asked himself.

  “Did he get him?” Genkei asked Ume.

  “No.” It wasn’t Ume who responded; it was Kenji.

  “Not bad, kid.” Everyone heard that cocky metallic voice echo.

  Zac’s light-refracting cloak disengaged and revealed him standing behind Micheal with a gun pressed against the back of his head. Everyone looked over at Zac lying on the floor, only for it to be revealed to be a hologram.

  “When?” Micheal asked.

  “The moment I saw you in the air, I knew what you would do. You weren’t sure you were going to hit me directly. So the smart thing to do was to make a shockwave powerful enough to take me out. However, you’d never put your teammates in danger. So I set the hologram node and rolled towards the direction of your teammates, simple really.” Zac explained.

  “Simple, right,” Micheal said in disbelief.

  There was nothing simple about that. It was the greatest magic trick Micheal had ever seen, and he pulled it off in the middle of an intense fight during an earthquake. Micheal let out a sigh.

  “How were you able to take those hits head-on? I know you’re a Taboo Child or wat’eva, but you’re not Superman.” Micheal asked another question.

  “These clothes are very well made.” Zac simply responded.

  Micheal nodded his head in understanding. That cloak of his could turn him invisible, and he had little marbles that could instantly take down Chasers. No doubt those clothes hid some kind of body armor he was wearing underneath. Micheal sighed this guy was really like Batman.

  “You know it wouldn’t have worked if you didn’t let your guard down. You should have been able to feel me standing behind you, or sense the light waves being refracted, or a host of other things. You’re a Pulse Chaser, after all.”

  “As you said, it’s only been 48 hours,” Micheal responded.

  “Right...don’t ever hold back against me again. Next time I’ll be pulling the trigger.” Zac whispered into Micheal’s ear so only he could hear.

  “Don’t have to worry about that, mate; I don’t think I ever want to fight you again, yeah?” Micheal put his hands up in defeat, and Zac chuckled as he put his gun away.

  “The only teammate you should have been concerned about during our fight was Miko. I overloaded her Nano-machines, so they’d be out of commission for a while. However, everyone else was fine. They could take a beating, and the Nano-machines would have helped them recover. In a real fight, they would have been dead anyway. There is no point worrying about dead bodies.” Zac instructed.

  “That’s cold.”

  “That’s the life of a Chaser.” Zac retorted.

  “I’ll keep that in mind then, yeah?” Micheal walked away as he began to help his unconscious teammates. Micheal held the still-unconscious Miko as they walked towards Travis, who sprang up on his own,

  “Did we win?!” Travis shouted.

  “Does it look like we won?" Patrick knocked Travis on the top of his head.

  "Ya bampot!”

  “I guess not.” Travis sulked as he looked at the unconscious Miko and then looked over at Zac sitting on top of a dirt mound waiting for the next group.

  “You couldn’t get him, Mike?” Travis asked, surprised.

  “That man’s a crazy sort, yeah? I held back a little power because I thought I could kill him by mistake. But he was the one just playing around with us. I don’t think we’ve seen more than the surface mate. I also don’t think he was joking when he said all of us could attack him.” Micheal said with a worried expression on his face.

  “Ms. Mawu said that he’s the weakest of all active Chasers. That makes sense, he doesn’t have a Program. But if he’s the weakest, how crazy are our Mentors?” Travis said as he looked over at Zac.

  “I think the better question is, if he is that ‘weak’, why does everyone seem to be afraid of him,” Izumi said.

  “I guess we’ll find out. If a team has a chance, it’s them.” Micheal said as he looked over at Team Watabe. They all were Mentored by members of the Organization's top Team. On top of that, they had a Zero Chaser.

  Zac rested on top of a dirt mound and wasn’t looking at any of the other teams present. His mask was undone, and he was staring directly at Team Watabe. More specifically, Zac was staring directly at Kenji. He didn’t know why; he just felt an uncontrollable urge to reign that kid in personally. It all happened after he successfully got his Program. Zac was confident this feeling wasn’t jealousy. It wasn’t just Zac having this feeling. Kenji stared right back at Zac, unblinking.

  When he first got out of that tube, he felt an instinctual fear towards him. However, that feeling had faded and was replaced with a primal urge to fight and dominate him as well as a deep respect.

  The same thought went through both of their minds,

  ~I will make you kneel.~

  They stared into each other's eyes, Kenji noticed Zac’s pupils turn to slits for just a moment, and Zac noticed the same in Kenji. The shock of this event brought an end to their staring contest, and Zac commanded,

  “Next!”

  Back in the skybox, the Mentors looked over at Team Renegade. All of them were interested in seeing what kind of monsters these 5 could create. One of the Mentors looked over at Helana’s bandaged fists and then asked,

  “Hey, Helena, I’ve been meaning to ask. How did you damage your fist so bad that Nano-Machines couldn’t have healed them by now? It’s not some crazy new ‘training’ device, is it?”

  “Heh! You could say that.” Helena smiled as she looked down at Genkei with a pleased expression.

  “Devin, after seeing Micheal, how does he compare to Watabe?” Duendes asked.

  “He doesn’t,” Devin said flatly. This caught everyone’s attention. Micheal was extremely impressive to them.

  “Don’t get me wrong, Micheal is very impressive. But he’s an uncut gem, very raw and naive. Watabe was a sharpened and honed weapon, and then he got THAT Program. There is no comparison.” Devin explained his stance, and Duendes nodded in agreement.

  Duendes knew better than anyone where Micheal’s deficiencies were, and he knew how to fix them. He just needed time.

  “So what about Kenji?” Everyone looked at Franky, who just smiled back at the lot of them.

  No one bothered to ask Hachiman anything; they’d be lucky if he responded. Even if he did, at best, it'd be some cryptic nonsense limerick about the sword that no one would understand.

  “I guess we’ll just have to enjoy the show.” Mawu said with a smile. She was pretty excited to see what Team Watabe could do.