Darkness shrouds the dorm lobby due to the lack of light, and the dark night outside doesn't lend much aid either. Inside the lobby towards the elevators are the remains of the previous violent confrontation, with gaping cross-sectional holes within the transparent elevator shaft, and shattered debris on the floor.
The lobby is completely silent, with a cold still air from a lack of people, even with the great mess made that has yet to be cleaned.
After the wave of electricity engulfed the whole lobby, all of the electrical-based systems were down, meaning all cameras and alarms were inactive and thus unable to record or signal. The electricity had short circuited all of the systems, and until the morning when they could be repaired, they'd stay down.
Also, even though the lights were on earlier, most of the people inside the building were already fast asleep, since it was deeply late into the night. Especially with exams on the next day, the students who'd normally stay up late were tucked in, and the few students who weren't were in upper floors where they wouldn't have been able to hear the chaos in the lobby.
While it meant that there would be no aid until possibly the morning, it gave a necessary privacy that would be much appreciated by the one person still remaining in the room.
In the back of the lobby where the elevator shaft is, or at least where it once was, lies the destroyed pad that had crashed on the ground after the drop. On top of that destroyed pad lies the unconscious body of Rohan, who was defeated by the Babylonians before they made their hasty escape.
After falling unconscious, Rohan no longer dawns any part of his suit, as instead he lays exposed in his blue pants and green jacket. His hair lays on the surface of the white pad, and his eyes remain closed, his mouth hanging open as though he spent his last moment trying to speak.
Around him are the debris, with the podium having been smashed into pieces after he crashed into it, leaving chunks of white metal laid out all around his body. Circuitry also lays around him from the podium's internals, and outside of the pad is a ring of shattered glass-like material from the shockwaves. More ominous, under his body lies a pool of dark blood, almost appearing as though it was his own.
For the aftermath of a situation that appeared very much in his favor, with him even seeming to be taking the lead at the start of the fight, he didn't seem to have been the victor at all, for it was him left in the ring and his opponents having gone.
Rohan's head lays on the pad as his face appears relaxed in his sleep. However, that soon changes, as his face begins to tense up, with his closed eyes squeezing tighter as he seems to begin regaining consciousness.
He then slowly begins opening his eyes, blinking them a few times as he's still not completely awake. After a few blinks of returning to reality, he opens his eyes to its normal width. His natural blue eyes stare at the dark ceiling above, as his body stays on the floor limp.
He spends a few moments staring in silence, breathing slowly and calmly, at first with a blank mind, as he almost seems to forget where he is and why he's there.
He then slowly sits up, groaning as his body still feels in pain, as while he's unsure exactly of what happened, all he knows is that he can feel bruises on his back and neck.
He puts his hand on his forehead to feel it, trying to look ahead to know better of where he is. He stares down the lobby floor, and towards the exit door, where the dark night sky is ahead, the clouds hiding any cosmic beauties.
He moves his thumb over his cheek and rubs his forehead a few times, feeling a light headache. He tiredly groans more, and then takes his hand off his head before observing the rest of his surroundings.
He finds himself surrounded by the debris of shards and metal chunks, which leaves him even more confused. He puts his hands on the floor beside him, to which he feels an odd chilling wet substance. His eyes widen in surprise and from the cold touch, and he immediately pulls his hands off of the surface.
He moves his hands in front of his eyes to examine what exactly he put his hand on, to which he finds both of his hands drenched in blood. He stares at his bloody hands for a few moments with a puzzled face.
He then closes his hands into a fist, causing some of the blood to be squeezed out, with more pouring down his hand and towards his wrist.
Suddenly, a flash of memory hits him, as for a moment he recalls himself standing over Sriya, punching him viscously with armored fists in the elevator. He remembers Sriya's face being violently disfigured, his eyes covered in blood as the blood that covers his face is thick crimson gore.
While in the memory he doesn't seem to feel anything but bitter rage, in hindsight he feels some disgust towards himself for brutally beating him, going to unnecessary lengths in the way that Dana did to him in their battle.
The flash passes him, and he looks back at his bloody fists. He opens his hands, and looks around himself, only to find that he's lying in a pool of presumably Sriya's blood inside the destroyed pad.
Rohan sighs to himself, wondering what had come over him at that moment. From the start of the elevator trip, he had kept his cool, able to act intelligently and calmly to navigate through the various group members to reach Shuraj in order to analyze his Pouch for the 'Red Virus' device he spoke of.
While he remembers having to repress his feelings as deep down as possible in order to remain calm amongst the people he once saw as his closest friends, at least he could carry on and keep control of the situation.
He remembers how fearful the whole group was of his dominating presence, how they moved away from him, how they were so desperate to try reaching to him or controlling him and yet they'd all fail just the same.
In the beginning of that ride, he was in total control of the situation, no question about it. In fact, he felt more in control than ever in such a hostile situation, even if he needed to lie to himself in order to maintain that status.
Yet at some point during his dominant run, something changed, and he fell apart. At some point during the mission, his mindset collapsed and a new one took its place, a more primitive and weaker one that led him to ultimately fail to capture the Babylonians, his main task.
The whole plan was ingenious really, he knew that containing the whole group in the elevator took away their escape plans since it isolated them in a claustrophobic setting.
He also knew that while there were two of them well capable as fighters, one of them would have a lack of resources to fight with due to the few sources of electricity, with the only true one really being the pad, which isn't much of a source especially given Rohan's own capabilities.
The other fighter, while strong, would have the disadvantage of a small space, which would give Rohan the benefit of being able to weave around the opponent.
This would've allowed Rohan to swiftly defeat him through dodges and evasions until eventually managing to land a striking blow, and put him in a submission hold in order to deploy an EPD on him and the other.
While he was well aware that there were three others, with two of them having been capable of putting him in a hallucination that distracted him and allowed them to escape, Rohan had the advantage of a limited battlefield where he knew exactly where they would be, even if he couldn't see or hear them.
Regardless of how powerful the hallucination would be, as long as Rohan was able to just strike in every possible area, he'd eventually get them, since the small open space took away any chance of cover.
Lastly, the last member would've been no problem at all, as really Rohan may not even need his abilities to defeat him. All he'd have to do is knock him around until he could attach an EPD on him, and then he would've easily won.
That was the initial plan at least, and yet when the time came to act on it, he completely fell apart.
Instead, he chose to spend more time than necessary on fighting Sriya, when he had done more than enough damage to be able to put him under the EPD's control.
During the time he wasted fighting Sriya, he allowed Shuraj enough time to fight back, and worst of all, he blanked when Shuraj activated, seeming to have almost forgotten the mission in his blind rampage. He let Shuraj get a hold of him and let himself get ultimately defeated, allowing their escape.
He could've at least tried to take down the other three during that time, but instead he focused all his fighting on one man, and ended up defeating not a single one.
In the end, regardless of his supreme plan, it all failed, and he was left alone while they left off to commit their heist.
When he diverged from the plan, he also temporarily diverged from all his ideals. He let himself get lost in all of the rage he was overwhelmed by learning about their involvement by the first attack he ever witnessed, going as far as to devalue all of his old friends even when he told Dana he understood who they were.
While the group were indeed murderers no doubt, having slaughtered countless people without seeming to feel real guilt for their victims, Rohan went a step too far when he called them "bugs" that he felt he needed to "exterminate."
He had disregarded the words he exchanged with Dana, where he acknowledged the genuinity of the friendship he held with the group, and that they are still people with their own lives.
He had disregarded his own feelings towards them, the awareness that the friends he had for so long were people he had truly cared for, and even when finding himself opposed to them, they would still be the people he had seen as close friends for the past year.
He had disregarded all of those truths to speak the greatest lie he could, blurting out the most intense insult he could think of in that moment, as though his mission had shifted from trying to get rid of the harmful terrorists to protect the city's people, but rather to try harming the terrorists as greatly as possible.
Furthermore, he deviated from his morals in that moment, for up until then, it was a concrete belief within himself that he would not want to be one to take lives from others. For it was his fundamental mission to return the freedom of life to as many as he could, only needing to harm others in order to protect those freedoms from those that seek to rob them.
The only true reason why he needed to fight people such as the Babylonaisn was because such people were trying to rob the freedom of life from others, and that was the only reason. He was not on this mission for some sadistic joyride to see how brutally he could injure someone, he wasn't here to attack, he was here to defend.
Even then, even if he did have to fight such people who may have already robbed many others of that freedom, that didn't make it justified for him to rob those such people of theirs. Sure, he designed a combat suit to put those Exhuman criminals and terrorists down, but he only wanted to do the minimum requirement to keep them from hurting others, he didn't want to go as far as to strip them of their freedom.
Even all of those vile Exhumans: robbers, schemers, murderers, serial killers, even though they were all cruel and their actions felt horribly senseless, it wasn't Meditat's choice to judge whether they deserved to be stripped of their freedom.
He didn't want to kill anyone, no matter how horrible their records were, because he felt as though in the end, they had a freedom to live, and he couldn't remove it from anyone, not even the worst of people who walked amongst the Earth.
Yet when he stood over Sriya's body, driving his fists into his face with as much power as he could with the solid intention of beating him to death, he no longer was thinking about that. He wasn't thinking about the implications of taking that life, all he was thinking about was wanting to take it.
Even if it would take forever punching his strengthened face, he planned to keep punching him until he was dead, because all he wanted in that moment was for him to be gone. Regardless of all the memories he made with him, regardless of what he admitted to Dana, in that moment none of it mattered because all he wanted to do was to kill them.
When he lost his own control, that was when he lost. When he spent too much time on Sriya, he allowed everyone else to get the upper hand on him. When he let himself get swayed by the reminders of the atrocities they've committed, knowing how much they've really taken, knowing that Maria's death impacted Erica's life permanently in a way that Rohan never managed to fix, it drove him far over the edge and let the others take advantage of that immaturity.
Rohan looks back down at his bloodied hand, knowing that he let himself lose an easy mission. He had everything all set, and in fact, he knew that they knew that. He knew how terrified the group were of him because they knew he was in complete control of the situation.
He knew that the group were Babylonians, and he had the means as Meditat to take them down. However, while the group had strong theories on him being Meditat, enough to put them on edge, the lack of conclusive evidence they gained on their end made it so they couldn't be certain if it was right to engage in combat with him, for a mistaken move could be horribly costly especially if they accidentally murder him.
That means that at any moment he could choose to fire at them since he knew that they were capable of, and even if they had a weapon of their own, he knew that they couldn't draw it until they were sure that Rohan had one himself. He was in a standoff with them, and they weren't even sure if he was their opponent or if he was armed. It was such a perfect setup, and he lost all of it by getting carried away.
Rohan lowers his hand, and looks down the empty lobby, towards the exit. He lets out a soft sigh, knowing that there's a good chance that the group are already in the city, as while he is unsure of how long he had been knocked out, he knew it was for a while just by how tired his body felt. They could already be at the place, in fact they could have already completed the heist for all he knows, leaving him uselessly in the lobby.
But for him to just sit there and admit defeat would be a far worse crime, and something he just couldn't let himself do. He had gone this far, he couldn't back down now.
Rohan places his hands back into the bloody puddle, gripping the floor and submerging his hands in the crimson pool. He winces from the coldness of the liquid, but preserves regardless, pushing his body off of the ground.
He stands to his feet, stumbling forwards as his legs take time to wake up, but in seconds he stabilizes. He lets out a soft grunt as he feels his whole back dripping with blood since he was laying in the puddle, but he couldn't worry about that. He turns to the lobby, and takes a step forward, and then another, walking down the destroyed pad and to the edge.
As Rohan's feet lifts and moves off of the pad, it begins to illuminate blue, as mist starts to form around it and harden. The foot touches the ground below the pad, which is littered with shards, and the blue foot turns into the black boot, his armor being remade with his spirit reinvigorated.
It isn't just his one foot either, as blue mist wraps around his whole body, covering his legs, torso, and arms. He walks off of the pad and continues his march towards the exit of the lobby. His whole body glistens blue for a moment before colorizing appropriately, with the pencil on the chest glowing and bringing energy through the streaks around the suit.
His bloody hands become covered by the white and blue gloves, as well as the rest of his body, as if resetting himself.
His blue eyes glow as his whole head is then covered by a layer of blue mist, which hardens, and then colorizes to the white mask. His blue goggles illuminate as well as the vents on the rest of his face, activating the suit's systems.
He immediately hears Orial's voice, which shouts in concern, "Rohan, Meditat, are you there? Are you alright? Are you alive, sir?"
Meditat nods his head, and with a tired groan, he responds "I'm here, Orial."
Orial sighs in relief, and he replies, "That is good news. I lost connection after delivering the information on the device, so I was unsure if you were in the process of capturing the Babylonians. I would ask if you succeeded...but the view I am getting does not seem promising."
Meditat sighs in defeat, and he admits, "No, I did not succeed. It was my fault, I was being dumb and...I got carried away. Sorry it's just...knowing that they killed Maria...never mind. Sometimes I wonder if she should've just left me on the floor and saved herself...but I can't hang up on that forever, can I?"
Orial, seeming puzzled by the mention, asks "Uhm...should I know this 'Maria?'"
Meditat shakes his head, and he answers "No, you're fine. When the O.R.I.A.L building collapsed, I was inside, and I almost died from being trampled by the crowd while they were exiting. A former student who was roommates with Erica similar to how I'm roommates with Dexter pulled me up and helped me escape, but in turn she got caught in the collateral and was killed."
Orial lets out a somber sigh, and comprehends, "I see...that is...unfortunate. I feel like that incident likely carries some meaning, I was surprised to see that name there."
Meditat nods his head, and he explains, "That building like you said was innovating in artificial intelligence, and the guide there, who was ironically a robot even though he was masked so well that nobody else realized, explained to me their vision of a world where artificial intelligence and humanity could coexist in a peaceful, productive harmony. I was infatuated by that vision, and for a moment I even wanted to strive towards helping that, until the building came crashing down, and everything fell apart. That event was what opened my eyes to this cruel world of terror, and it was what ultimately led me to trying to change it when I discovered my abilities. But I realized relatively quickly that I couldn't do it alone, but I couldn't tell anyone I knew since it was just too much of a burden to bear, so I made you. And in remembering what that vision of coexistence was, I named you after them."
Orial responds comprehensively after the explanation, "I understand, still it is unfortunate that they collapsed and never recovered."
Meditat passes the hole leading down to the lounges below, where he used to wait for his friends. More blue mist appears, forming over the back of his head and down the body of his body. It hardens yet in a smooth and flowing state, and colorizes to the black chainmail hood and cape.
He refocuses himself, and replies, "Yeah, it is. Right now though, we need to focus on the Babylonians. Since I failed the capture, they likely continued on their mission to acquire or destroy the research machine, and if they've yet to complete that, then we need to get there and intercept them. And...this time I'm going to be smarter about this, I won't get a third chance, that's for certain. Actually, can you pull up live reports to try searching for what you can find about that, and tell me if it's still ongoing and if so what is going on?"
Orial goes silent for a few moments to process and complete that task. During that time, Meditat inches ever so closer to the door, his suit now complete.
Orial concludes his search and reports back, "It appears that they have yet to ultimately succeed nor fail. However, there are live broadcasts of the incident due to the highly popular area they are targeting, and it seems that they have already breached the Octagon facility, but this was just recently, only a few minutes ago perhaps. Enforcement is on the way, however their effectiveness is questionable since we know what the caliber of the threat is. I estimate that if you begin proceeding towards the facility now and utilize above 60% of your suit's maneuverability capabilities, you should be able to arrive at the scene before the heist is complete. I will begin routing for the course now."
Meditat nods his head, and he continues approaching the exit door. He finds that the door had been smashed open, likely by the Babylonians, letting him feel the soft nightly breeze.
He responds, "I see, I'll go beyond that just to be safe. Well, I guess I got my little break between fights, but I'm going back out already, and now all of them are likely suited up and ready in an open space, so it's going to be harder. But I'll still manage, I have to, I already promised to myself that tonight I would bring them in, and I will uphold that promise. Even if I have to send them off to people who'll just execute them, my friends, I'll do it, not because I want them dead but because I want the rest of the people safe. It's a capture mission, not an assassination, I'll keep it in mind now."
Meditat walks through the doorway, and enters the outside. The breeze hits harder as he looks up at the dark black void in the sky. He then hears a soft rumble of distant thunder, as it seems that there'll be a storm tonight.
He takes a deep breath, and concludes, "Well, time to go to work."
He lowers his knees and jumps off the ground, to which his body flies off the surface and into the sky with a great thick trail of blue energy behind, leaving a burst of energy on the ground that creates cracks in the floor. The blue comet flies up and into the dark black sky, arching before vanishing into the abyss.
Marching straight into the storm.