Maybe Nikola had overestimated her progress in recent times, channelling more power than ever before. Screaming out in frustration had done nothing but fuel the fires inside yet never did she see it coming that they would spread to the outside as well. Looking at her burnt forearms, the woman gasped in pain as the cooked flesh interacted with the empty air. She would need an actual healer to look at them if they were to be healed right. There was some desire to use that emergency healing again yet Nikola had already heard the warnings. ‘No using them twice.’ With no real desire to explode into green bits, she had to make do with what she had.

Standing up from the floor, Nikola was given a surprise meeting with the ground once more. Her legs were very happy with their current state of being relaxed, utterly refusing to tense enough to bear her weight. That certainly wasn’t the greatest position to be in when sitting inside of a facility that had killed many Heroes through the ages.

The man from before began to walk over to her at that point, seemingly done with putting the broken railgun back into place. The front of the weapon was entirely blown away, chunks of metal barely hanging on. It would require repairs that no ordinary human could do, only the hands of an inventor able to make such a beast work again. And with how few of those were on the good side, Nikola doubted that such a weapon out in the middle of nowhere would ever be fixed.

Looking at the expression of the man, Nikola once more saw an empty face. There was no real emotion present, the eyes glazed over as they stared at her blankly. With a height of nearly two metres, the Hero did not doubt they would be a threat to her if he attacked. While she was relatively sure she could send off a bolt of lightning or use the metal around them, the overworked channels would take more than a second to load. At that time, those hands could easily wrap around her neck and put an end to her windpipe.

Instead, she found one put down to her level, the man offered a helping hand in getting up. Nikola took it without question.

“I think it might have worked,” the man said with a calm voice. “The shaking has stopped.”

“Or maybe you just can’t hear it anymore because our ears are too damaged,” Nikola replied, still hearing that mild ringing in her left ear. It was yet another thing that would need to be fixed before she would have any chance of sleeping. “But… I can’t detect them moving about anymore. At the very least, they stopped using their powers.”

Those waves of interference were certainly gone, hinting that the shadows had been dulled down. There was always the chance it was only a temporary truce that would end in just a few seconds but Nikola doubted that would be allowed from either side. Lux wished for it to be over and Jared… that criminal was ruthless.

“That means it must be safe to get out,” the man said before pulling the woman along. When that turned into more of a ‘dragging the woman along,’ the man just carried her instead. “You should become more durable.”

“Thanks, I didn’t realise that,” Nikola retorted, feeling the burns on her arm flare up as they walked outside. She noted that the lights had switched from red to light. That couldn’t be good. “I think this place is powering up now.”

“Perhaps,” the man said. “I wouldn’t bet much on it, however. It was like this three weeks ago as well when we found it.”

“You found this only three weeks ago?” Nikola was quick to question, seeing how much dirt had been moved around. With the shovels just thrown on the ground, she had a hard time believing that a small group of people could do this amount of work in three months and much less three weeks.

“We didn’t do all of this in three weeks,” the man corrected. “We did some of it. A good part of it was already dug out when we came upon it and we have just been doing the corners while exploring it.”

That seemed more possible. Letting herself be carried the rest of the way out of the hole, she looked at the work that had been done. The group that had done this had to be in the number of at least a hundred. Maybe fifty if they were dedicated.

On that note…

“What are you hoping to do with this place?” Nikola asked as she looked at it. Some of the exposed corners were falling apart more now that the structure had power. That couldn’t have been good.

“Sell everything possible and split the money,” the man said. “We’re not sure if the ones who dug it out to start with will come back so we are taking everything we can while it’s there.”

“That’s not the worthiest of causes,” Nikola commented, seeing some importance in the man’s words nonetheless. “But it isn’t the words of a criminal either.”

“We don’t have criminals anymore,” the man answered. “Everybody was taken care of already.”

“You make it sound like somebody took care of them.”

“That is what happened, so there is no reason to hide it. Your Hero’s Association should have known that already.”

Nikola somewhat agreed. Even when so many Heroes had been let go in the last couple of years, the Association should at least have done something for them. Seid was granted a sizable payout and a monthly stipend for the first years but she doubted that the man even got that money. No actual address made it hard to get any credit cards and he was technically wanted for breaking more than a few laws.

“Do you know where he is?” Nikola asked the large man, getting a blank stare in response. “The Hero by the name of Wave. Have you seen him?”

“It has been… two weeks since I last talked with him. He is not very kind.”

So he was still alive! That was something. And with the casual answer, seeing that man around sounded like a rather common thing. Had that stupid man just settled down in the city without a word?

“Well, if you see him again, make sure he calls me on this number,” Nikola said, getting out her private card. It had been a while since she needed to give that out. The man idly glanced at the numbers before putting them in his back pocket. “He has a few things to answer if he doesn’t want to get his ass beaten flat the next time I see him.”

“I will pass those words on.”

“See that you do,” Nikola encouraged, taking a deep breath as they got closer to the broken pieces of the forest. “While I need to say thank you for helping with this, I can’t keep your secrets about that facility. It’s going to be put away from the public and likely destroyed. They’re too dangerous to have.”

“Can you wait a few days so we can get a few more pieces of metal out?” the man asked, seeming somewhat begging.

“I would have loved to, honestly, but my old mentor might not be of the same idea,” Nikola replied, looking into the broken fields. Lux was standing there, looking over their body of Jared. Blood could be seen spilt on the ground and a small cut was visible on Harold as well. As she continued watching from afar, a portal opened up, allowing a few people entrance into the place as well. An older woman put a chain around Jared’s throat before the two other men took the man and dragged him through. The woman shared some words with Harold before going through the portal as well, the entire thing vanishing without any more flair.

It was some of the most efficient extraction that the young Hero had seen. Nikola supposed that’s what needed to be expected when the entire country wanted to feel safe. Letting the large man know of her intentions, the two went toward her old mentor.

“I see you won, Lux,” Nikola greeted, startling the dazed old man from his daydreaming. That was something that hadn’t happened much before. The young woman couldn’t remember getting close to that man without his notice. “Congratulations, even if you should have called for help from the start.”

“If I had, things would not have turned out this way,” Harold said, looking at the larger man holding her. “And what is your name, young man?”

“Oak Williams,” the man offered without any further explanation. Nevertheless, Nikola did her best to remember it, feeling that had been done once before. How weird. If luck was on her side, she wouldn’t need to visit this farm again.

“He helped be the saving grace,” Nikola said when no further words came out of the silent man. “This large man is a part of a group of idiots that decided that scrapping Hollow’s bunker for metal was a good plan.”

“That’s quite the opposite of smart,” Harold said with a shaking smile. “It’s a miracle you all aren’t dead.”

“Be happy about that miracle, Lux, because he was able to get one of the old weapons running,” Nikola fired back, some recognition coming back into Harold’s eyes.

“So that truly was one of those damned Rail Guns,” Harold murmured. “The sound was off but that ruthless effectivity isn’t something I will ever forget. I understand why I was able to win then. Mister Williams, you are both a courageous and stupid man. I’ll have to stop your group from getting close to that massive mouse trap, however. If that bunker has power again, it is only a question of time before it starts to attack anybody who gets close.”

“... Fine,” Oak said with a sigh. “Can we at least keep the metal already taken out of the place?”

“As long as you don’t show them to us, I’ll just think you said that as a joke,” Harold assured the large man, Nikola wondering who had swapped places with her old mentor. He was being awfully nice to a civilian. “Make sure that all of your tools and materials are far away from that place before tomorrow. A group should have been sent out to deal with it by then.”

That was the end of the talk with Oak Williams, a strange man that Nikola couldn’t help but wonder about. Harold helped get her on the golden carriage, the two leaving the moment that the regular police came around to secure the area.

Looking at the destruction, Nikola guessed the Heroes’ Association would have a field day paying for all of the damages. Those thoughts were shut down quickly, however, the woman fell into a deep slumber as her old mentor brought them away at a slower speed. She needed a doctor and some time to heal.