Cliff Cottage, Crescent Moon Bay Town, Santa Pyre. 10:16 PM.
I stayed silent for a while, and finally said, "You're right. Hmm, however shall I explain? It might be too complicated."
"Just try me; I'm not stupid, if that's what you're implying," she replied vehemently.
"No, no! Alright then, here we go. First, I guess I'll need to tell you about my field trip. I'll skip the boring details for now, but on Lava Side Island, my class visited the LS Plasma Corp Research Center, where I learned much about Pyrium. You follow?" She nodded. "Okay. We had a tour of the place. It was really cool. Now, they had this room where they kept a Particle Accelerator."
"Whoa, hold up! A what!? Isn't particle acceleration a science fiction kind of thing?"
"Of course not, Sis! For example X-ray machines use particle acceleration to generate x-ray radiation for scanning people. It's a very real thing." She nodded in understanding. "Okay, so to continue, I got to see it in action, accelerating the Pyrium sample placed inside. Then all of a sudden, an explosion erupted and these armed thugs dressed from head to toe in black just barged in!"
"Oh, no! That's horrible! Were you scared?"
"Scared!? I thought I was going to die! In fact, they were going to kill everyone except William, as he was the head scientist and director of the facility." Ameera looked on the edge. "Evidently, I did get shot, so everything after that was just a blur. Daina was trying to help me. But then there was another shot, and I heard zapping sounds. Daina and I could only watch as the haywire Particle Accelerator blew up. I saw a flash and then knew nothing."
"My gosh, you really had it tough." She got off her chair and came to embrace me, much to my shock. "But, I'm glad that you and Sister Daina made it out okay, better than okay even."
"Awww. Thanks, Sis." I returned the embrace. We released and she went back to her seat. I began to stare at my band. "Our bodies got super charged with Plasma Energy from the explosion, which caused us to undergo the APEH Mutation, resulting in our ultimate survival."
"Cool." We lapsed into silence. After a while, she spoke up again. "You know, something bugs me about those men you mentioned. They might have been part of some large organization..."
"...seeking to take over Santa Pyre?" I asked, finishing for her. I too was concerned now that this was brought back to my attention. Could they be the ones who hired the Pacific Poachers to attack Tanaka-san? I thought.
"Pyrium is super valuable, right? Maybe they want to control it so that they can become filthy rich," Ameera offered.
"I'm more worried that they want to make a weapon out of it... or worse. I mean, look at what it did to Daina, Mr. Tanaka and I. Imagine how devastating it would be if the wrong people had an army with this kind of power! It would be cataclysmic! They could take over the world in no time flat!"
"Man! That is scary to even think about! Maybe the three of you should really look into this matter. You guys may probably be the only ones who could stop them."
"You are right, Sis! I'll bring this up with them tomorrow. Alright, let's go back in."
"Yes; I'm tired." We got up and went inside.
December 26th.
The next day, at around 8:00 AM, I got Daina and Tanaka outside while Mom and Dad were cleaning up.
"I suppose you really wanted to talk about what happened last night," said Tanaka.
"I have something to add to it, a very plausible theory actually," I replied. "Daina and I already told you that the Research Center was attacked by three armed men."
"Yes, go on," Tanaka nodded.
"It appears that we have been sitting on a sleeping tiger, so to speak. The truth of the matter is that those men belonged to some organization, one that had its sights set on the Particle Accelerator. Ameera told me she thinks this organization has eyes on Santa Pyre's Pyrium itself."
"Bill, this is sounding like high level stuff," said Daina.
"There's more. This org has to be the one that hired those thugs, Tanaka."
"I see. I can just about believe it. Kore wa ayashii…" Tanaka observed our puzzled expressions and then translated, "This is mysterious."
"Oh!" replied Daina and I in unison. I continued, "It should be within reason to believe that this shady organization may, no, WILL strike again, and further tragedy will erupt when they do. I think we should bring this speculation to William and Julie and hear what they think."
"This is very much a tiger, and one that should not be ignored," said Tanaka.
"Let's ask Salyne and Sandrique to take us to their house on the way back," suggested Daina. "We can just say we want to visit them, for now. Again, we have no concrete knowledge so we probably shouldn't raise any alarm right now."
"I agree," I replied.
"As do I. Yuku zo… Er, let's go."
Williky Residence, West Flame City.
Tanaka, Daina and I went down to the lab and Mr. Tanaka entered the code at the door. Inside, we found Julie frantically moving around as if looking for something. "Julie-Sensei, is something wrong?" asked Tanaka.
Julie turned to us with haste. "Tanaka-san! Bill and Daina, too? Thank goodness you're here! You have to help!"
I suddenly noticed that the lab felt very cold for some odd reason. I could even see my breath. "What is going on?"
"Why is it freezing in here?" Daina was visibly shivering, meaning it was not just me.
"Kono kanji (This feeling)…" Tanaka looked at the door to the training room, prompting me to do so as well. "Nani (What)!?"
"Whoa!" Sure enough, the door was frozen, the wall around it also cracked from the expanded ice spilling from around the doorframe.
"It's William!" said Julie urgently. "He's developed APEH and his Specialty is Heat Reduction Control, or ice powers. His energy is out of control right now. He ran into the training room as soon as he felt something wrong." Julie was crying now, "We were having such a nice breakfast together…"
Tanaka took out his Plasma Band. "William will need this more than I do right now. Daina, can you break in the door? We need to get in and help him."
"Form Coat: Iron!" Daina armored herself up. She then went to the door and gave it her back. "Iron Smash Kick!" Daina curled her left leg forward before kicking it back. The ice broke and the door flew off its frame into the dojo. Instantly, the temperature in the lab dropped further as a chilling gale began blowing in.
"Julie!" Tanaka dashed to Julie and began taking her out of the lab least she suffer hypothermia.
As for me, I dropped to my knees while hugging myself tightly in a vain effort to stave off the cold. I began to feel especially lethargic, as if the cold was weakening me more than usual. "THAT'S COLD!" I yelled. Then I began to feel warm. "Huh?" I turned to see Tanaka holding a hand on me. I could see frost spiraling around us due to some wind move Tanaka was doing.
"Stay near me. Let's go to William-san," he instructed.
I nodded as I got up. Daina joined us as we started moving, still shivering. We entered the dojo single file. Just imagine our surprise finding William crouched in the center of the room, frost spilling out of him like some kind of man-made blizzard. The floor, walls and repaired ceiling was absolutely covered in layers and layers of ice.
And now that we were in here, Tanaka's wind barrier was struggling. "WILLIAM-SAN!" he called.
William got up, and looked at us, but he could not turn fully as his legs were stuck fast to the floor. "Everyone! Help!"
"Tanaka, we have to push forward before you run out of power!"
"Shikata ga arimasen, tsukawanakya (It can't be helped, I have to use it)." The space within Tanaka's wind barrier began to get hotter. "Bill-san, Daina-chan, stay together." Daina instantly got me into a hug. "Giga Power." To my shock, a veritable storm arose as a yellow light began to emanate from Tanaka's body, blowing away the frost clouds coming from William. Then, quicker than I could perceive, Tanaka rushed forward. He placed his Plasma Band on William's left arm.
"Whoa." A hot, yellow, glowing gas shroud was cloaking me and Daina, protecting us from the cold.
A similar gas cloak was wrapping Tanaka's body, but it was flickering like a candle flame being blown on. "William, you have to focus! Use Arthur-san's teachings and stop this!" Tanaka's voice sounded strained.
"I'll give it a go!" replied William's equally strained voice. He closed his eyes and assumed a look of intense concentration. He began to visibly shake as a cyan light began shining from him. "Argh!"
Tanaka's gas cloak began to recede, both on him and on Daina and me as the blizzard became stronger. "WILLIAM!" Daina and I shouted in unison, both of us noting how unbearable cold the room became.
"I can't… hold on… much longer… William-san!" Tanaka finally lost his footing and was sent slamming into a wall. "Aaahh!"
Daina and I finally collapsed as well, no longer able to even stand. "William… PLEASE!" I rallied one more time.
"My friends!" William finally got it together, just in the nick of time as I began to feel my very blood freeze. The blizzard stopped as William's cyan light got brighter. In fact, all of the ice in the room began to melt and the water moved towards William and vanished into his body as if being sucked in by a sponge, eerily similar to how could Daina and I reabsorb our elements after use. Once everything settled, the light died and William just gave one small smile before falling over.
"Light Boost, Level Two!" I was already there to catch him before he could land; my energy returned to me now that William's out of control power was no longer suppressing it. At least, that was the theory I rationalized. "William, are you okay?"
William was breathing hard. "Urgh… Is Plasma Energy… really this exhausting? I feel like… I died… due to starvation… and came back to life… just as hungry… as I started." I chuckled at that.
Daina came up to us supporting Tanaka against her shoulder. "Only when you lose control or do something extreme like you were just now," she answered.
"Now you know what I felt like after Arthur had me attempt shooting the sky's wrath from my fingertips," I added.
William laughed as he stood up, already looking better but still tired. "Noted… How's the damage? Is Julie safe?"
"Julie's upstairs, fine," answered Tanaka. "Let's go, too. We've got a lot to talk about."
William released a breath of relief. "Thank you. I guess I would imagine so."
Half an hour later saw us in the living room upstairs having a discussion. So it turns out, the wind blast from the Research Center's explosion had in fact channeled a small amount of Plasma Energy into William's body, so small that it took this long for his APEH Mutation to complete. Arthur had helped him out a bit before he left Santa Pyre. This morning, William's internal energy had gone into a "fever pitch", so to speak. The monitor told us his max was already 700 MJ, a really high starting point for a newcomer. Daina was at 330 and I was 450, so you could bet your bottom dollar that I was shocked.
"So, tell us, what brings you all here on this fine, boring Boxing Day?" asked William. We all chuckled at the irony.
I cleared my throat. "Well, a possible crisis concerning the entirety of Santa Pyre has come to our attention."
Daina took over, "It has to do with those men that attacked the research facility. We have reason to believe that they were part of a large and powerful organization."
"Last night, while we were spending time at Crescent Moon Beach, the Pacific Poachers came and attacked," said Tanaka. "They said they were hired to capture me. The leader had a weapon that could shoot negatively charged Plasma Energy. It locked my power for a good amount of time." Tanaka took out the weapon in question from his bag.
"Let me see that!" Tanaka handed it to Julie. She examined it carefully. "This thing… might contain a miniaturized version of the technology used to extract PE from the Pyrium we mine." Julie took out the ammo casing, and lo and behold there was a shard of SRT! "Aha!"
"Unbelievable…" commented William.
"This shady organization probably wants to control all of the Pyrium, and possibly by extension, take over Santa Pyre," I continued. "This weapon also proves that, frighteningly enough, they have knowledge about Plasma Energy, maybe even APEH."
"Okay, this is troubling indeed. I have been wondering about similar thoughts for a while now." William took a deep breath, which could be seen when he released it. "I was worried that they may want to make weapons out of Pyrium. I can never forget that powerful hybrid weapon that rifle wielder had. But this is even more unprecedented than expected."
"We must figure out what should be done," said Mrs. Williky quickly. "Some of our staff lost their lives due to the center incident. I don't want another tragedy like that to happen again, especially not at the expense of our beloved country."
"My wife is right. We have to do something. Do you have any particular ideas in mind?" asked William.
I stood up from my seat with a smile and stepped forward. My face was beaming with pride. "I propose that the first thing we should do is to become a super hero squad!" William, Julie, Tanaka and Daina looked at me strangely. "I have already come up with a name." They were shocked further. "We shall become... The Plasma Force! Let's work together, get stronger, and try to hunt down this threat to our homeland… dare I say the world, even!"
Julie stood up and clapped. "I think this is a wonderful idea and that is a great name. It really represents the element that gave you your abilities."
"Chotto matte kudasai (Wait just a minute, please), Bill-san, Julie-san!" exclaimed Tanaka.
"Let's think about this rationally. This isn't some kind of joke," said William.
"Wait, you two," said Daina, having regained herself. "As absurd as this sounds I think I'll cast in my lot as well. It is not like this is something regular authorities can handle. We've already seen an example of what they have developed. Who is to say they don't have members with APEH itself already? Arthur was worried about this exact sort of thing. We should get his opinion on it."
"Ah, I forgot about that," said Tanaka. "You're probably right."
"Bill, is there more to this plan of yours?" asked William.