At the end of the long system of hallways past the lobby, eventually a doorway leads to a fairly large square shaped room hardly lit if it weren't for the red and yellow lights coming from towards the center of the room.
With the aid of the illumination, the room's interior is relatively visible, appearing to be a room with white walls and floor, which has a few ramps along the walls which lead into short platforms with railings that then lead to open doorways for rooms that branch off.
Along each of the walls are rows of what appears to be silver turrets lined up to encase the room. However, all of the cannons are lowered, and they all seem to be unoperational after having their fuel extracted. All of the turrets appear advanced with a smooth body and large cannons, yet they still are out of function, having failed to succeed in their job.
On the platforms behind the rails lay several bodies encased in armored suits, which seem to have been the last line of defense, however all of them seem to have been defeated with smoke coming off of their suits for they had been fried.
The suits are black and silver, seeming to be large and powerful, albeit they've still been easily defeated. A few more bodies lay at the far side of the room, having stood no chance, even with cannons protruding from their shoulders and off their forearms as it seemed they were armed. But no amount of weapons could defeat the enemy that broke through the door.
In the center of the room is a large circular black platform which is composed of a material that appears similar to glass, being leveled with the rest of the floor.
Sitting on top of the platform is a large white machine that nearly takes up the whole platform. The machine has what appears to be a bed mattress of sorts with the frame beneath the mattress seeming to be a semicylinder, which curves up beside the edges of the bed.
The cylinder has a temporary silver stand of its own to keep it on the ground without requiring a hovering mechanism, letting the machine stand straight despite its curved bottom.
Residing next to the platform is a silver podium that sits upright, being about four feet tall and with a curved top that faces the exit of the room.
Sitting on that curved top is the calculator-shaped device that emanates the red light, casting the holographic projection composed of several smaller buttons and one main screen. The device is attached to the top, gripping onto it with a pressuring force that acts as a suction.
Standing in front of the podium and device is the man who had caused all the mess, the man in the dark purple suit with yellow lights coming off of his vents and capacitors. He seems to stare at the screen of the device, as though waiting for it to finish its work.
His dark blue gauntlets sit by his side, his oversized metal fingers tapping the side of his thigh as he tries to wait patiently, knowing that now he's at the final stages of the heist.
His oval yellow eyes concentrate on the screen which shows its progression, waiting for it to reach completion while trying not to think too much on how everyone else is even though that's all that's on his mind.
His focus shatters however when he hears a voice behind him coming from the doorway, although it's not the voice he anticipated. It's artificially filtered like all of his comrade's, however he recognizes the distinct voice of Meditat, the enemy.
The voice speaks, "So this is where the labyrinth ends. It seems you being here means I'm not too late."
The man in the purple suit lowers his head, and he makes a tsk, as the immediate implications of his presence start flooding his brain. His team was supposed to take him down, and so if he was still able to reach him anyways, that meant only one possibility.
Indra turns his body to face the doorway that he had gone through, finding that standing in front of it is Meditat, wearing his Azure blue suit and staring back at him with glowing blue eyes.
Meditat's suit seems to have suffered a handful of injuries, with the noticeable dent in the forearm along with multiple scratches along the rest of the shell, yet the blue pencil continues to illuminate on the chest along with the rest of the streaks.
They are signs of battle, and yet he still stands before Indra, meaning that regardless of what blows he faced, he still eventually stood victorious over the team.
His black chainmail cape sits behind his back, with the wind no longer present to lift it, as there is a near silence when neither of them speak. His black hood resides above his blue goggles, which glare at the final Babylonian.
Indra stares back at Meditat with contracted eyes, glaring at him with an intense anxiety that develops into hatred, as he remembers his last interaction before he separated from Sriya for the last time, the final words they exchanged to one another.
The last words Cratus gave was asking if Indra trusted his team and friends, to which Indra agreed before confidently leaving them to fight Meditat while he continued the heist.
Now as he stares at Meditat, he realizes that he had made a grave mistake to let them fight Meditat alone. He should've stayed back and fought Meditat with them instead of blindly leaving them just to be defeated helplessly.
That confidence he had derived from trust shatters, knowing now that he was the last man standing.
Indra yells back, "What did you do to my friends?!"
Meditat lets out a soft sigh, and he begins walking forward, moving deeper into the room. He seems to approach Indra's direction, which causes him to step back in fear.
Meditat answers the question, "Don't worry, I didn't kill them. I just rendered them unconscious and put them under the paralysis of the EPDs. You've been under the effects of them before, so you should know what that entails."
As Indra slowly steps back from Meditat's discomforting advances, he responds, "You...still. No...they should've defeated you...I trusted them to defeat you...dammit why did I leave them? This can't be happening...everything was going to work out."
Meditat continues approaching Indra, getting scarily close. However, he seems to take a turn away from him, and instead walks towards the machine sitting on the platform. After Meditat moves away, Indra stops walking back, relieved yet still fearfully curious of what Meditat was doing.
Meditat approaches the machine and stops in front of it, inspecting it as he lowers his head. He examines the bed and frame under, and hums softly for a few moments while understanding the prize the Babylonians were hoping to score.
He then answers Indra's rhetorical question, "You left them to get this thing, right? This is the device you were hoping to steal, I guess it's some sort of scanner chamber designed for analyzing the part of the brain responsible for Exhuman abilities. I see that the people have been trying their best to do what they can, it's quite the marvel isn't it? I wonder how long it took to engineer something like this, but at least this is a sign of progress."
Indra turns towards Meditat, and he closes his right hand to a fist after listening to him.
He then argues aggressively, "You say that like it's a good thing, like this...abomination is some blessing."
Meditat replies while tracing his fingers above the bed, making sure not to touch it while inspecting the new piece of technology recently imported, "Hey, I think this is a beautiful design, and it's a pinnacle of science. This device will be revolutionary similarly to the first rocket. There's nothing to call an 'abomination' here other than your interception plan. Imagine spending years developing this, it must've cost a great deal for the research and I don't even know what technology is in this machine. Then imagine having it stolen by a group of boys who think they own the world. It sounds crushing."
Indra clenches his right hand to a grip next, and he quarrels, "Shut up, it's not something to admire, it's something to despise! This...thing that you call 'beautiful' is a sickening mechanism designed to break down our core and try to extract something to weaponize against us! And besides, that machine will only show them what they want to see by having a useful subject on that bed. How do you think they plan to get the Exhumans for their research? Requesting donors? No, they're going to pick poor people like us off the streets and throw us in these chambers, and after that they'll probably toss us in the incinerator! And one person won't be enough to get the results they desire, no they'll go through hundreds maybe, they'll milk as much as they can off this until they find a way to stop us. This is a horrific torture machine that'll doom us all. It does not belong in the hands of these savages, all they know to do with machines is destroy."
Meditat moves his fingers away, and he begins walking around the platform, inspecting it and the podium.
Indra notices Meditat's gaze, and he hastily shuffles his head to be in between Meditat and the podium, as though using himself as a shield for the Red Virus device. He moves with Meditat to make sure to hide the device, realizing that if he were to damage it, the whole plan would collapse.
He had worked so hard to get here, and he was using priceless equipment that he couldn't replace. This final mission had to work for him or it'd be over. If he let the machine stay, it would be a great defeat for him.
Meditat puts his hands behind his back, letting it rest against his chainmail cape. He circles around the platform to inspect it in its entirety while Indra follows him.
As his eyes stare at the black glassy floor, he observes, "Huh...so this is how they plan to move it, I guess with something like this distance won't be much of an issue. It's so similar to what they have in the Express Stations, although it's clear that this device is still slightly more advanced than what's offered to the public. They built the platform into the ground too, and I'm guessing that little podium is the control console. If I'm right, then that means that the reason for your 'Red Virus' being there is because you plan to reroute the course to be somewhere of your own domain where you can keep it to yourself, and you're likely trying to also hide any traces of where that destination is. Well, if that's the case then it should take quite a while, so we have some time. Anyways, your hysterical rant is amusing, but I think sometimes you have a habit of making extreme estimations about humanity, whether too low or high. But if you're worried about being used as a lab rat, I'll be willing to offer myself as a subject, besides this machine uses projective imagining so it's not going to cut holes in my brain."
Meditat stops in front of the platform, and he keeps his hands behind his back before looking back up at Indra, who continues to stand between him and the podium.
Indra growls in anger, and he shouts back, continuing the feud, "No, whoever is the subject of this research will be irrelevant in the long run anyways. Once they can analyze whatever they want about Exhumans, they'll surely construct some monstrous weapons designed to terminate people like us. It's going to be a second genocide, but this time we won't be able to live long enough for it to end before we end first. They'll start killing people like us again...don't you get the issue with that?? You're an Exhuman, even if you're a traitor you're still an Exhuman, you might be one of those targets!"
Meditat lets out a soft sigh, and he queries, "Don't you see the same issue when you slaughter countless humans in single attacks? You seem to ramble your fears about being hunted down by the government and whatnot, but do you not realize the hypocrisy when you yourself have been destroying so many innocent lives for years? Please, I'm actually getting irritated with your victim complex. Don't ask for sympathy when in taking that toy, which you probably don't even appreciate that's letting this whole heist take place, you massacred a whole skyscraper full of innocent people who were trying to make the world a better place. Don't pretend to be the good guy when you murdered Maria and countless others on that day, and then fake cried when I told you about it."
Indra clenches his fists tighter, and he lowers his head after the reminder of the incident. He huffs and speaks quieter, explaining "You know, for the most part you're a standup guy, but the one part about you that's always irritated me has been your ignorance and narrow minded nature. That device that I liberated wasn't meant to make the world a better place, it was a weapon, and I took it away from those demons. I'm using it for a better cause now, and about the deaths, I didn't mean to hurt the school or you, for that I'm sorry, that was what I felt genuine sorrow about. I was trying to get rid of the remains of that evil corporation, and I did succeed, I mean hey they never recovered. And besides, yeah I know that Maria was close to your ex or whatever, but really if you think about it she doesn't really matter anyways."
Meditat's eyes widen and his pupils dilate after hearing the last sentence Indra says. His body freezes in complete shock to the completely grotesque words that came out of Indra's mouth.
He softly asks, "Hey Shuraj...what the hell is wrong with you? What do you mean 'she doesn't really matter?' Even if I didn't have a close relationship with her, what does that have anything to do with her worth? How self centered do you have to be to say those things with such a genuine tone? You call me ignorant and narrow minded, and then you immediately say that, is that some quip? Even then, that joke wasn't funny, it makes you sound like one abhorrent bastard."
Indra sighs, and he turns his head, looking up at the walls where the turrets are stationed. His eyes survey the different turrets surrounding the room, pondering a response.
He then tries lecturing, "Look, I know that you were raised differently, you were born amongst humans and you've lived most of your life amongst humans. And hey, up until tonight I didn't even think you were an Exhuman but I still thought you were alright, so don't feel too bad about misunderstanding them. But...ugh...how do I explain...there's so much you don't understand and I'm sorry for the other's inhospitality, I think you really got them going with what you did to Sriya so I'm sorry if they might've seemed more aggressive than usual, really they're not that bad. I don't want to fight you, I know what you've said multiple times but I really think if we allied ourselves we could-."
Meditat interrupts coldly with a bold, "No."
Indra lets out a deep sigh after hearing his proposition cut off before even explaining himself.
He decides to move on, explaining "Anyways, what I mean to say is...here, I have a way of explaining it, hear me out: Many centuries ago before we managed to make our own food artificially, there would be people whose whole lives would center around raising animals from birth to adulthood, they would take care of them and nurture them like a parent. They did all that so then one day when those animals were just fat enough, they'd brutally murder them and cut their corpse into many pieces, and on top of that they'd take those pieces and sell them off to markets for people to buy. That's right, animals were born and raised just to be killed and have parts of their body sold, and did everyone reject those people and demean them and call them devils for such an egregious act? No, they bought that food and they were just fine with having that system continue running for so long. Want to know the best part of it all? They called those places where they killed the animals 'slaughterhouses.' They weren't even trying to hide it, but hey it was fine, because in the end they were just animals and they're below us so we can do whatever we want with them, they're only there for us to feed off of that's why we hunted them and ate them. It wasn't wrong, it was just the natural order of how things were meant to be. In the same way, we Exhumans are a step above normal humans on the chain, as humans are to animals we are to humans. Humans are nothing but resources for us in the way that animals were. Sure they can think and have feelings and desires, but so can animals, that doesn't change the fact that they're still unimportant. In the way that animals naturally provide humans with tools they need to survive, humans provide us tools like the ones behind me for us to keep going. It's a natural chain that's been there far before even humans, and when people like you whine about it, you sound like an annoying animal ethics activist that's just trying to halt the natural flow and hurt everyone that you're supposed to be with. Which is why you're making a mistake wasting your spectacular powers on trying to defend these people, these animals. And it's even worse that you're defending them from your own kind."
Meditat slowly grips his right hand, clenching it tightly from the painful words he had to hear Indra speak.
He proclaims, "You're full of yourself, you're not superior like you think you are, you are still human and the only difference between you and others is that your great ancestors happened to be hit by a wave of Exmatter centuries ago. That doesn't make you special enough to justify putting everyone below you! Humans are not animals, they are not below you. I overheard your plan, you're not just doing this to have this device to yourself, you hardly even need it. You're stealing this because you don't want them to have it, because you are terrified that the humans are catching up to you. You call them evil monsters like they have all the power over you and then call them insignificant insects, you keep contradicting yourself. You want to take this machine away because you know that humans are exposing your mortality, you know that your special innate abilities aren't going to be enough to keep you at the top forever. So don't act like you're better than them, because where you get special powers from birth, they're making all of this from true skill and dedication. They are far better than you will ever be."
Indra lowers his head and looks back at Meditat. He glares at him after hearing his response, and he loudly insists in a shout, "You're right in that they are trying to overtake us, but I'm not the one that's scared, it's them who are! The people higher up have no true strength, if their life were to be in danger they wouldn't be able to defend themselves. They are nothing but usurpers claiming power, and in their self aware paranoia they are trying their best to assassinate anyone who may stand in their way. The only reason why people like them stay in power isn't by being better than their competition, it's by getting rid of them. They're all corrupt monsters who know they're weaker than us but instead of accepting their place they try to force themselves above even if it means subjecting all of us to pain when we never did anything. They've killed countless of our kind for the single fact that we were born into those bloodlines, they forced us to retaliate! You lived a nice sheltered life but people like us have been on the run our whole lives from execution by this regime. Tell me Rohan, have you had to live years of your life in hiding because of who you are. Have you had to lose the chance of having any sense of normalcy in life because of who you are? Have you ever had to...lose anyone important to you because of who you are? No...you haven't...so don't act like you know us. Don't act like they're noble and don't act like protecting them is noble."
Meditat disputes, "Maybe I haven't, but there's a whole world of people that can't live their lives without fear of being suddenly killed by people like you. You've forced countless people under a life of paranoia where they can be senselessly slaughtered without reason."
Indra softly states, "So have they to us."
Meditat shakes his head, his blue eyes glare at Indra's yellow eyes, as he raises his head.
He declares, "You can tell me that I'm fighting for the wrong side, that the people I fight for are evil and meaningless. But I can say the same thing that the people you fight for are evil and senseless. And we'll be here all night if we do that, which is great for you because stalling is just what you need. Maybe my views are conservative to you, but they are views shaped from your very own actions. You might see a war against Exhumans and humanity, that's what you might've always seen, and if that's the case and that's how this night will play out, then I'm sorry but I'm not going to be on your side tonight. You were a good friend Shuraj, you helped me through a lot genuinely, but I can't let you keep doing this. If you really think that you're superior to humans, then you shouldn't need to rely on their aid to fight them."
Right after Meditat finishes speaking, his body immediately strafes to the right and up, his feet being lifted off the ground as he flies up in the air. A trail of blue energy comes off of his body at a slant as he becomes airborne in an instant, seeming to be quickly changing pace before Indra can react.
His eyes target the Red Virus device on the podium, and he aims his right arm at it, extending it out with his fists facing the device.
His right gauntlet then begins to transform, as the white cone widens out to connect to the extended middle, which then closes back again to form the barrel that covers his fist.
As the streak of blue energy lays over the cannon, running towards the barrel, the three ventilation rings illuminate over the barrel. The streak dashes through the rings, empowering the weapon.
At the same time, a blue light begins to illuminate from the darkness of the barrel, as he seems to already be about to fire a shot right after the transformation. The light becomes brighter as the shot charges up in just a second.
Indra's eyes widen, and he instantly and desperately tries to jump at Meditat to intercept him, throwing his arm up in the air and opening his metal hand to try blocking the trajectory.
However, Meditat was far higher up than him, and Indra didn't have the immediate charge in order to gain flight, meaning he's still far below Meditat, incapable of preventing the shot.
From the wide barrel, Meditat fires a miniscule bolt of energy from the very center, far smaller than his usual shots. The precise shot exits the open barrel, the target honed in on Meditat's blazing blue eyes, as his cape drifts from the sudden jerking of his body as he hovers over Indra.
The first shot of the final battle was fired.