"I won't lose!!"
Chloe had woken up in a completely different location from where she was previously,her last memory was still freshly etched in her mind as she swung up her body from where she was laying and yelled out loudly.
"Where am I?"
She asked no one in particular as she looked from Mike who was sitting beside her with relief etched on his face, and Mio who was pacing back and forth around the strange room. She didn't seem to care much about the awakened Chloe.
Chloe took a scan of the room as none of them gave a reply to her previous question. The walls of the room was covered with what looked like deposit boxes, which made her ask the question...
"Are we...in some kind of Bank?!"
"Wow! Well Congratulations, maybe we should give you a medal for...I don't know...'Stating the obvious!'.
Mio stopped her pacing and turned aggressive, answering Chloe's question as if she'd been waiting for a chance to snap at someone.
Chloe didn't want to pick a fight with her as she was still feeling disoriented from her previous 'show off' performance. She lowered her gaze as she tried to reason with the snapping shark (Mio) who was glaring daggers at her.
"I just wanted to..."
"Shouldn't you atleast be thanking your savior first, you know if it were just me I would've left you to be eaten by those..."
"Mio!!!"
Mike's voice quaked the entire room as he called out Mio's name, stopping her from continuing her condescending remarks.
"Hmph, she went to showoff but ended up fainting, haa, how shameful."
She muttered under her breath while pouting and walked to a corner of the room and sat down, fiddling with her phone. She would have left the room but they weren't just in any room, they were in a bank vault. Why you ask?, well it's the safest place one could be in the Apocalypse and the only place Mike could think of.
The vault had a heavy titanium door and was tightly shut, the only way in and out was with Mike's teleportation ability.
"Are you feeling better now?"
Mike asked as he turned to Chloe and put his hands on her forehead to check her temperature. His expression was that of a worried dad.
"I'm fine, th-thank you...for saving me." She said in a soft tone, her eyes glued to the marble floor as she was avoiding his intense gaze. "(...his hands are so big and warm...i-it wouldn't hurt to stay like this for a while, huh?!...what the hell are you thinking you pervert!!, ugh!..)"
As Chloe's thoughts grew more elaborate, her cheeks grew from red to burning red.
"It's nothing, you saved us from the swarm too, so I guess I should also thank you."
On hearing Mike's words, Chloe's heart skipped a beat, her cheeks we're getting hotter and redder, as she parted her lips to continue their conversation, suddenly came the voice of Mio calling out loudly...
"Hey!, I took down a swarm too, so how come I don't get a thanks too!"
Mio who was sitting at a corner of the room although a bit far away from them, could still hear their conversation. She stood up, her arms around her waist as she stared at Mike with her pouting face.
"Oh yeah!, your right,...thank you too Mio."
"(That bitch!!, stealing my golden moment, I should give her a tight slap across the face...)"
Immediately after hearing Mike thank Mio too, Chloe's brows furrowed, her brown eyes turned red in rage, she gritted her teeth and just as she was about to snap at Mio....
"Chloe," Mike called in a low tone, and she turned towards him answering the call, "yeah?!"
"I know you just woke up, but...there's no time, we have to be prepared for anything"
Mike continued with a serious expression.
"...how do you mean?"
She enquired as her confusion and anticipation grew by the moment.
"I'll get straight to the point. Did you hear the system's voice in your head?, what's your ability called?"
Mike shot a barrage of questions at her without hesitation.
"...wait a minute," Chloe paused a bit, as the memory of the system notification she had received during the Chaos flashed in her mind. "...you mean...you have a system too"
"What?, did you think you were special?, like some kind of protagonist in a light novel or something?...haa you're even crazier than I thought."
Mio scoffed, hitting Chloe where it hurts. Truly when Chloe first got the system message, she thought it was exclusive and it was the beginning of her 'O. P' protagonist life. But due to the chaos at the time she couldn't enjoy her fantasies or even check her abilities and status in the system.
Chloe's eyes went red in rage, Mio's taunts had finally gotten to her, she couldn't keep calm any longer as she jolted up on her feet...
"You clueless bitch, I've had eno.... 'Ahhh!'."
"Gotcha!...again..."
Chloe had forgotten about her current weak condition and as soon she stood up, her frail legs gave out and down she fell.
Luckily Mike was there to be her knight in shining..."hoody" once again. The lot stared at each other intensely while still in that awkward position, Mike's arms were rapped around her tiny waist, her legs barely touching the ground, their eyes were locked tightly on each others.
*Badum!* *Badum!* *Badum!*
"(...wh-what is this feeling, my hearts beating so fast, I thought I only found him interesting, but...do I actually...)"
Chloe's heart thumped fiercely as her thoughts grew wilder and wilder.
"(...why do we always end up in these kind of situations,...I didn't notice this before but...Chloe's actually really pretty, well compared to Mio's goddess like elegant beauty, she's more of a hot baddy, from her small pink lips down to her alluring figure...wait what are you thinking Mike, you shouldn't think about her like that, not when you have...) "
"Ehem!!!"
Mio having reached her limit, disrupted Mike's escalating thoughts, as she couldn't bear the sight of them being so close to each other. It was quite evident in her face that she was jealous. From her furrowed brows to her gritted teeth and folded fists, at that moment Chloe could almost see her intense bloodlust she was emitting.
"Shouldn't You be asking her about her abilities?!"
Mio retorted, and the awkward lot immediately snapped out of their previous "hypnosis".
"y-yeah, Ehem!, your right!", Mike said while adjusting his perfectly worn black hoody. "Umm...Chloe? Could you say the words 'System View Ability List", he added, trying to get back on the topic at hand.
"Huh?, System View Ability List? Why should I... "
#INITIATING COMMAND, VIEWING ABILITY LIST#
Before Chloe could finish, the system's robot voice rang in her head like a door bell.
"Wow!, it's actually a system window, it says..
[ Ping! - Congratulations The Host Has been Successfully Bound To The Survival System ]
[ Ping! - Host has Awakened One New Ability ]
[ ABILITY LIST ]
[ Registered Ability =1]
[ Solar Flare- {the embodiment of the sun itself} ]
[ Ability Ranking - SSR ]
[ Description- Host Is Able To Generate And Emit Solar Energy, And Can even utilize some of the suns effects. However the more energy is used the more it depletes the host's stamina, if the stamina stat is not high enough, the host will loose consciousness or possibly die ]
"I see...so that's why you collapsed after using your ability hmm...interesting"
Mike said with his fingers rapped around his jaw, his eyes filled with intrigue.
"Haa, so you did overdo it, were you that desperate to show off."
Mio Scoffed, her expression indifferent and her arms folded against her chest.
"Shouldn't you be thanking me, atleast I gave it my all to protect you and...."
"And who asked for your help huh?!, I could have handled it with ease and still wouldn't become dead weight."
Mio snapped at Chloe before she could even finished her comeback.
"That's it, I've had enough of your crap you self serving bitch!, if it's a fight you want then let's go already!!"
Chloe yelled as she forgot about her current state and stormed towards Mio.
"Oh yeah?!, show me what you got bitch!!"
Mio returned the favor as she lunged at the incoming Chloe. Both their once colorful eyes we're deemed with boiling rage, one could literally see steam puffing out of their ears. There was no stopping the cat and dog who couldn't see anything else but the enemy in front, as they were blinded by extreme rage.
"Ok you two should just chill out"
*snap!*
Mike intervened with a snap of his fingers, instantly freezing time. The girls were stuck in their 'pouncing' positions. With Chloe's hands stretched out to grab Mio's hair and Mio's raised palm to slap the latter. Actions that were already set in motion could no longer be fully executed.
"(...what the hell is happening,...is this...Mike's ability?!, does he have the power to freeze time...) "
Chloe's eyeballs moved towards the approaching Mike, as every part of her body were frozen in place except for her brain and eyes.
"(...did he freeze time again, he should have let me slap some sense into that...wait, if he froze time then...how am I able to think and see?, I mean he didn't even touch me)"
Mio's eyes widened in confusion as she couldn't quite fathom the extent of Mike's abilities.
"Surprised? Mio?, well I've been thinking of freezing everything but people's brain, and decided to try it, well what do you know...it worked!"
Mike cleared Mio's confusion with a confident grin, but Chloe only got more confused.
"I'm gonna unfreeze you guys and were gonna have a nice useful conversation, blink twice if you agree."
Mike added and Chloe quickly blinked twice as she was terrified of Mike's ability. But Mio remained indifferent and only glared at Mike.
"Umm...I'll take that as an agreement."
*whooooosh!* *snap!*
Mike separated the two girls, and sat them down on their previous locations with his telekinesis and then with another snap, unfroze time.
Chloe took a deep sigh of relief, stared at Mike for a while and after she gathered the courage, she asked the question....
"What was that just now?...was that your ability?"
Mio just glared at the both of them without uttering a single word to Mike or Chloe.
"Well...yeah, it is."
Mike finally replied to Chloe's questions while stealing a glance at the indifferent Mio. "(...why do I feel like she's mad at me..)" He thought.
"I thought since you could manipulate objects and fly, your ability could be 'Telekinesis', but it has something to do with 'Time Manipulation?"
Chloe added more questions with no hesitation.
"Ehem!, well technically, telekinesis is one of my abilities."
"Huh?!!" Mike only seemed to confuse Chloe even more.
"You mean you have...multiple abilities?"
"That's not important right now, I think we should look into the new 'Ranking' feature in the system, and more importantly, since the wave awakens abilities, we should check if there's any change in our system, don't you think so Mio? "
Mike quickly changed the topic and turned to Mio who still didn't utter a word.