The Rising Of The Anomaly - Chapter 143

What have I done…this was a mistake, a huge mistake…! I fucked up…yeah, I fucked up big time. What did I fuck up, you ask? Well, let’s go back to this morning, when this shit show began…

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Today’s the 14th of October, 2116, and it’s a Friday. And last night, I’d realized that my Tier One abilities had evolved a bit…which must have happened during that time when I almost triggered the Anomaly version of Manifestation Overdrive, but failed right as the activation chant began.

Anyway, the change to Tier One is this…I’m no longer restricted to one Save point. Now, I can set upto three of them. And I was pretty eager to test it out, to put it lightly…think about it, if I set a Save point in the morning and then another one in the evening, and I first return to the morning Save point…what happens if I then try to use Load to go to the evening Save point?

In theory, I should effectively travel to the future…the future which I’ve already experienced, but still! Tier One is easily the power I use the least out of all the options I’ve got up my sleeve, but this could change that.

I was currently outside the Academy, having just arrived for the day. I’m seriously excited about how this upgrade to my time travel powers is going to turn out, I can hardly wait to find out! As I walked up the stairs, I chanted…

“<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Save Point 01>.”

I then entered the building as the security guards let me in, before heading for my classroom. I opened the door and walked in, heading for my seat. I noticed Asshole waving at me in peripheral, I responded by flipping him off.

I sat down with a sigh, a feeling of impatience around me. Once I set the next two Save points, I’ll be golden, but until then, I’ll have to live out the rest of the day in real time…a fast-forward power sure would be nice.

Have I said that before? It feels like I have. Eh, whatever. No point complaining about something I don’t have, after all.

“Hey, good morning,” Greeted Seila, as I sat down.

“Yeah, good morning,” I replied, before glancing at Kiran, who was snoring, giving him a nudge, “You sure are in a deep sleep, aren’t you?”

He let out a slight grumble as he buried his head deeper in his arms on his desk, his eyebrows creasing slightly.

“He was complaining about how intense your training is, and then he passed out,” Remarked Suri with a sigh.

“I can see that, you train way more than any normal person does, and it’s kinda overwhelming when you try to impose those standards on the rest of us,” Added Mitchell dryly.

“Oh…well, my bad, I’ll keep that in mind. But in this case, to be fair, we don’t have a lot of time, so I don’t have a choice but to raise the bar…that said, I don’t think I’m pushing them too hard, just hard enough,” I replied sheepishly.

“I agree with you, one person slacking off can bring down the whole team,” Chimed in Katie.

“Hey, speaking of which, what’s it like…you know, being on the same team as…her,” Frowned Suri with a look of concern.

“Well…I am trying my best to set my grudge aside, just until the exam is over. But that’s a lot easier said than done,” I sighed wistfully.

“Look on the bright side, it could be worse,” Pointed out Seila, subtly nodding as Asshole and Makoto…yeah, fair point.

The classroom doors then swung open and Kumar walked in, his usual look of demotivation on his face. It’s an expression I’ve gotten used to over the past couple of months, ever since he took over as the theory session’s instructor for us.

And as always, his lack of enthusiasm was contagious, the Academy day beginning with the usual two hours of me doing my best to stay awake. No matter how important the lesson was, the way Kumar teaches, it’s just impossible to pay attention.

At best, I can absent-mindedly take notes on what he’s discussing like a pre-programmed drone, which is what I strive to do every time he teaches…but every so often, emphasis on often, I just end up dozing off.

It’s the weirdest thing though, a few minutes after the first session ends…I no longer feel all lethargic. Huh, maybe Kumar’s bored voice is unintentionally hypnotizing me into that state? Or, well, who knows, maybe it’s done intentionally.

Yeah, so when I’m like this, my imagination goes a bit crazy and random. Ugh…I really hope one of the remaining locked tiers of my Anomaly powers has a fast-forward type of ability. If I unlock something like that, then I’ll never have to sit through one of Kumar’s boring lectures again.

After what felt like ages, the session finally ended, as I let out a sigh of relief and stood up, stretching my arms and stifling a yawn…

“You know, I wasn’t going to say anything since you always get good scores on the theory exams…but I gotta say, Zax, it’s kinda annoying to see you dozing off every time during my lectures,” Kumar remarked, walking up to me as I began heading out the classroom.

“Yeah, well, it’s not like you’re any more enthusiastic than I am, so…,” I replied with a shrug.

“Fair enough, I suppose,” He sighed in defeat.

“Huh…that was fast.”

“Well, yeah, there’s no way I can muster any more enthusiasm for this than I already have, so it’d be hypocritical to ask that of you,” He responded, before leaving the classroom, “Alright, well, see you around, kid.”

“Sure, right back at you, half-pint.”

“Don’t push it, Zax.”

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The combat training session went by uneventfully, a little too uneventful for my taste, but I was outvoted. After classes, we’ve got a training session scheduled at that training facility today, and because of that, Kiran requested that we take it easy during this session, since it’s not very effective to begin with.

Bytra was on his side, though she didn’t say much…ever since that ‘conversation’ on the bus, she’d clammed up a lot more around me, though it seemed more like she was bottling something up and biting her tongue. But she still spoke up a bit more this time, which I suppose emphasizes how worn out they are.

And so, I gave in and let them dictate the pace of this session…but only on the condition that if they slack off too much, I’ll make up for it in the evening session by either increasing the intensity or the amount of time.

That seemed to work, and they maintained a reasonable pace of training during the session…it was still a bit too lax for my liking, but I suppose I could let it slide.

Anyway, with the end of the second session, it was time for the lunch break, so once we wrapped up the training, I headed for the cafeteria. As I arrived, there weren’t many people here, the crowd only just starting to stream in.

I then ordered myself some food and sat down with some of my classmates…huh, at some point, not eating alone became normal. It wasn’t even a year ago that I’d have never thought I’d voluntarily sit with others like this.

As I took a sip of my chocolate milk and began to take a bite out of a donut…the lights suddenly began flickering like crazy, and a loud murmur went across the cafeteria, as everyone began fiddling with their I-Watches…huh, mine seems to be malfunctioning too.

No, it’s working fine, it’s just unable to access the internet…which should be impossible. And then, the lights went off completely. Before suddenly coming back on…right as everything started shaking.

What now!? An earthquake? Oh, wait, it’s growing weaker…aaand it’s gone. Everything was back to normal. I wonder what just happened, the power outage and sudden rumble…could those have been connected? The timing seemed too suspicious to just be a coincidence.

Maybe it could have been an earthquake that jolted the electricity in the Sanctuary, before we felt it ourselves or something like that. Okay, so I don’t really know how earthquakes work, they’re pretty rare around here.

“Huh, that was kinda freaky,” Remarked Mitchell in bewilderment.

“It’s probably nothing to worry about, it looks like things have settled again,” Responded Zoya, as most people in the cafeteria seemed to have brushed aside what just happened.

Well…I just hope she’s right. Guess I’ll set my second Save point now…

“<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Save Point 02>.”

Hm, should I go back to the first Save point and come back to this one to see what happens? Nah, let’s save it for after I set the final Save point, there’s no rush whatsover, after all…

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I finished eating with still plenty of time left in the lunch break, and as I decided to head down early to the ground floor to go to the designated training hall for the final session of the day, I noticed a slight commotion by the entrance, the security guards were dragging someone away…wonder what that’s about.

This isn’t all that uncommon, some fanatics obsessed with Prodigies and X-Warriors try to break into the Academy and other facilities in the X-Warrior Zone every now and then.

Oh, well, best if I don’t get involved, for all I know, that could be someone who’s obsessed with me…not to sound narcissistic, but I am pretty well known in the Sanctuary now.

I ignored the commotion and continued heading for the training hall. It wasn’t long before the lunch break ended, and the rest of my classmates and the instructor arrived too.

Just a couple more hours before I set my final Save point, I can hardly wait…really hope these next two hours go by quickly. Instructor Satou told us to use the Teleportation Platforms, which are programmed to teleport in captured Q-Rank Mutants…this was becoming more common now, since with all the new bases we have outside the Sanctuary, capturing Mutants is a lot easier than it used to be.

Anyway, as we got ready to begin, a sudden clamour burst out from Zoya’s group. I quickly turned my attention over towards them as someone let out a cry of alarm, to see that a handful of Mutants had appeared…one of which was a K-Rank, a juvenile Two-Headed Serpent.

Before any of the monsters could attack, Instructor Satou quickly swooped in and took them all out, including the K-Rank, in a matter of seconds.

“Deactivate all the platforms, quickly,” He urged, shutting off the one that had malfunctioned, as the rest of us hurried over to the other platforms before they could begin teleporting Mutants in.

“Instructor, what just happened? You said we’d be facing Q-Ranks, and not more than five at a time, but that was like eight of them, and one was a K-Rank-…,” Began Zoya with a frown.

“All I know is that what just happened wasn’t my fault. I’ll report this and see if I can find out what happened,” He responded with a grimace.

Not long after that, the session continued, though Instructor Satou decided to have each team fight each other instead, unwilling to risk using the teleportation platforms, since shortly after he reported the incident, he received a mass notice from Director Silva; that the teleportation system that’s used to run the platforms was on the fritz and to avoid using them until further notice.

The rest of the session unfolded without any problems, and before I knew it, the day was over. It’s about time, it felt like this day had dragged on at a snail’s pace at times. And now, finally-…!

“Hey, about today’s training session, could we push it back, like, half an hour at least? I’m so tired…and it’s a weekend tomorrow, so it doesn’t matter how late we go,” Remarked Kiran, walking up to me.

“Huh? Oh, uh…yeah, okay, that’s fine,” I replied with a wave of my hand.

Normally I don’t think I would have agreed to that, but right now, I was too impatient to test out my power.

“Oh…cool, thanks,” He responded with a hint of surprise, before walking away.

Now, then, here goes…

“<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Save Point 03>…and now, to travel back, <Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Load Point 01>,” I chanted, finding myself on the stairs leading to the entrance of the Academy, “Okay, now for the moment of truth, let’s travel forward…<Activate Anomaly, Tier One: Load Point 02>.”

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Wh-wha…what the hell…? Everything’s dark, my ears are ringing, screams and panicked cries echoing all around me, as waves of pain burst throughout my body. What the…what the hell is going on here…?

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