Yellow bolts of electricity arc in the dark black sky as the heavy rain continues to fall with the sound of the downpour constant between the crashes of thunder.
Up in the air, Indra continues to fly forward, having escaped from Meditat's grasp. His body is surrounded by yellow arcs that propel him in the air, coming off his suit and snapping behind him to boost him ahead. His arcs however seem to be shorter than before, only going out about five feet, as it seems that he lost a significant amount of energy in the desperate attempt to push Meditat off him.
It seems to have paid off though, as now he's free to fly without being chased. His breathing slowly becomes normal as his breaths are calmer and more steady. All of his capacitors are still full if he needs to fall on them, but regardless he's surrounded by high rise buildings anyways, so he shouldn't need to worry.
While Indra continues flying, he contemplates what to do now that he's free. His first thoughts return to the mission, as he remembers why he was even out in the city tonight. His teammates are still in the Octagon, defeated, but if he were to be able to recover them and bring them back home, he could get Dana to help remove the EPDs in the way she did for him and Sriya during their previous encounter with Meditat. He can't leave his team, and so at least getting them was his first priority.
He also still has to deal with the machine. At this point he's unsure if the Red Virus would be operational, but chances are that it wouldn't be until Dana could fix the device since it seemed that Meditat fried the internal components, something Indra couldn't fix. While that's relieving to know that the device wouldn't be permanently lost, it means that for tonight he wouldn't be able to use it, which also means he can't take the machine.
The next best option was to fall on the backup plan and destroy it. It shouldn't be too hard, he should have more than enough energy to melt the bed to the ground and prevent it from ever being useful again. If he could do that, he'd set back humanity years if not more, which should help him maintain his dominance against them.
That would be his plan, he'd save his friends and destroy the machine. Defeating Meditat proved today that he was unstoppable, and part of him feels inclined to even cause some havoc before leaving just to push the knife deeper.
It wouldn't exactly be a priority to the mission, but after seeing how intensely Meditat fought him, he felt it justified if he were to destroy perhaps a few buildings to prove his superiority, just to close the coffin on the chances of humanity beating him.
It's maniacal for him to think about destroying more lives just to prove himself, but to him those lives don't mean much anyways, so there wouldn't be much damage done for him. But for others, he knows that such a sudden attack would be crushing.
While Indra schemes on what to do next, he hears what almost sounds of a deep explosion behind him. He turns his head, slowing himself down with a puzzled expression.
He faces the water past the harbor as it seems to be the source of the explosion, but as he sets his eyes on the origin, his eyes widen in utter shock.
While there are no more specks of light in the water after he destroyed the pods, under the dark water is a translucent blue glow, almost as though there's a mystic monster underneath. The blue glow becomes brighter, consuming the black water and causing it to illuminate as well.
Suddenly, a massive eruption is triggered in the lake, with a burst of water being pushed up in a tall cloud. Strong ripples are triggered from the burst, and within the cloud is a blue streak which emerges from the top of the water, the blue comet having returned from the aquatic floor.
Indra's eyes shoot wide open as he immediately realizes that he isn't indeed free as he once thought, as Meditat still wasn't done chasing him. He curses in his head as his plan collapses, knowing now that he couldn't recover the team nor focus on destroying the machine being forced back to fight.
He stares at the blue star in the distance, blazing in the dark sky among the heavy shower. He then turns away, and faces the south, knowing that he'd have to stay in the city but also he'd have to make distance with the team if Meditat was chasing him again, for he needs to keep Meditat away from the mission.
In a desperate improvisational act, Indra utilizes all four of his capacitors, draining them at once. Larger yellow arcs come off his body, and he uses them to then propel himself down the south of the city, racing down with massive electric arcs trailing behind him to create one large trail.
Soon after he moves, the blue star turns to a comet, which chases after him. While the bolt moves fast, the comet flies faster, trying to catch up to it as the two race down the city.
The yellow bolt flies in a straight line at first, and as it returns to being above the streets and by the skyscrapers, it begins trying to absorb more energy to keep itself going, having to deplete huge amounts quickly just to stay away. While the yellow bolt zooms over the gray streets, tremendous arcs of yellow electricity start to crawl out of skyscrapers it approaches, with the arcs connecting to the main bolt to power it.
While there isn't enough time to depower whole skyscrapers, the bolt siphons significant amounts of energy, and continues to do so to every skyscraper it can as it constantly extracts energy from each pair of skyscrapers it passes.
While the consistent extraction gives the yellow bolt a constant flow of energy that lets it accelerate without worrying about fuel, the blue comet inches closer to it, boosting constantly with greater speeds.
In fact, as the blue comet speeds towards the yellow bolt, a mammoth sonic boom erupts from the nose, leaving a great shockwave and a roar like the thunder above. The comet dashes even faster, having surpassed the speed of sound, and constantly climbing up to greater speeds.
In only a few moments the blue comet gets scarily close to the yellow bolt, and might've even grabbed it if it weren't for another sonic boom to erupt, this time originating from the yellow bolt, as it boosts itself to keep up. The bolt pulls ahead, flying down the northern region of the city and passing districts in seconds to stay away from the comet.
Even though the yellow bolt stays ahead, the blue comet tails not far behind, stalking it as its blue trail becomes thicker as it continues to accelerate without limit.
The yellow bolt, in an effort to shake the comet away, begins to take sudden turns on intersections. It first takes a hard left turn in hopes to avoid the comet, however the comet takes a turn with it, following straight behind with seemingly no easy way to trick it away.
The bolt continues to take more turns, weaving through the city's skyscrapers while the comet follows perfectly. The skyscrapers force it under restrictions, but it tries to use them to its advantage, although that advantage doesn't seem very effective.
The two streaks accelerate at exponential rates, with the comet trying to pull ahead of the bolt, and the bolt trying to outrun the comet and gain more distance from it.
Eventually the bolt takes one turn that seems to shake off the comet however, as it makes a hard left turn and doesn't seem to be followed. Instead, the comet continues straight, seeming to be flying away from the bolt as though lost.
Inside the monumental bolt composed of countless electric arcs pushing Indra as fast as he can, Indra lets out a soft sigh of relief to see that Meditat is no longer on his trail. He shakes his head, wondering if he can turn now, or continue ahead for a few more moments to confirm his liberation.
However, that liberation ends quickly, as Indra hears another boom come from his left, and his eyes widen as he sees the blue comet charge straight at him while the bolt passes an intersection. It doesn't even seem that he shook the comet at all, rather the comet intentionally took a different route to cut it off, giving Indra little time to react.
In a desperate act to protect himself, Indra lowers his body, curving the bolt down to get below the comet's trajectory. He watches in shock as the comet flies just above him, as he barely manages to evade the attack. In that split second, Indra sees Meditat flying above him, his fist out as he intended to punch him. He witnesses Meditat's resolve as his whole body is giving off blue energy, and the serious aura displays a determined hunter.
The blue comet flies past the bolt after having been dodged, and the bolt continues onward, moving straight a few blocks in seconds as it loses sight of the comet again. The bolt weaves through the skyscrapers again, and it makes a hard right turn, paranoid about the unexpected disappearances of the comet.
Indra shakes his head, trying to keep himself calm in the intense situation. He turns his head at every intersection, trying to look out for himself while he flies down the street.
His eyes then widen again as he turns to his right to see the blue comet hurtling straight at him again, moving much faster than before, seemingly far faster than the bolt.
Indra realizes that he doesn't have the time to make a tight maneuver like before, as the comet moves towards him at incredible speeds. Without many options, Indra takes the risky move of instantly stopping himself, halting all of his built momentum and causing all of the bolts to arc the other way to help stop Indra's movement.
He suspends himself in air for a moment before flying backwards, and he watches as the blue comet flies right past his face, and he once again observes Meditat pass him, his fist out as he tries to punch him out of the sky as his whole body is encased in the large blue streak.
The blue comet then passes Indra, continuing down the street, however even then Indra doesn't find that path safe. He instead turns his whole body around, and then boosts the other way, beginning to pick up speed as he changes directions entirely.
The yellow bolt flies down the other way, continuing to absorb energy from nearby skyscrapers to power itself as it tries to accelerate back to an acceptable pace, knowing now that it's far slower than the comet and thus at a huge disadvantage.
The arcs become longer as the bolt flies down the city the other way, and begins taking more turns again, trying to keep itself safe from the potential next attack. It weaves through the city as it flies past larger and taller skyscrapers, flying over a greater sea of pods as it enters the central region of the city.
The bolt flies through the central region and takes a straight line after seeming to have shaken off the comet after an extended period of time of not encountering it. It flies past skyscrapers with holographic advertisements and over great plazas full of people.
Indra looks around, turning from side to side constantly to check for another strike. However, nothing seems to come, which gives him a sense of relief as it seems perhaps Meditat overdid the job and truly got himself lost. Indra smiles softly, and continues forward.
While he flies, he hears the sound of a whoosh coming from above and behind him, similar to the sound of the comet. His eyebrow raises and he begins to turn his head, unsure of what seems to be following him.
However, before he can completely face the other way, his eyes shoot wide open as he sees the blue comet flying straight at him from above, having stayed behind without the bolt realizing it.
The blue comet successfully strikes the yellow bolt, and within the thick blue trail, Meditat throws his right arm forward with an open hand, grabbing the back of Indra's head.
The yellow bolt disperses nearly immediately as the blue comet continues flying down, descending towards the surface of the city at an angle, leaving a few yellow sparks before nothing, having been destroyed from the surprise attack.
The blue comet flies down to the sea of pods, and it passes straight through, having timed the strike to not hit anyone. The comet continues past the lanes, continuing towards the ground.
The comet then crashes on the ground, yet it continues moving forward along the gray road below. Meditat hovers above the surface while continuing to fly forward, with his hand gripping Indra's head while he drives Indra's mask straight into the ground.
Meditat's blue eyes blaze, his cape flapping in the heavy winds generated from his speed, as he keeps Indra's face in the ground, flying him down the street through the city.
People walking around the block all turn to see the incoming streak, and they all run in confused terror as the streak passes them, leaving a massive trail of destruction behind as the center of the road has a long crater left behind.
Meditat doesn't move his hand as he lets Indra's face keep rubbing against the road, with him hardly slowing down. His eyes stay on the back of Indra's head, and he grips tighter on the head.
The road under Indra's face is crushed, leaving a long crater, as his yellow eyes try to see through the carnage. The metallic purple crown on his head shatters, with fragments being left behind as the ring and streak break off. The absence of the crown allows his whole face to be driven into the ground, causing an even larger crater to be made from him.
His yellow eyes then begin to flicker before their lights cut out, and the goggles shatter.
Even then Meditat doesn't stop, and the prolonged force starts causing tears to open in Indra's purple mask, with more appearing in seconds, his mask slowly being ripped apart.
Meditat slows down, leaving the torn purple leather in pieces in the crater, as the blue streak thins out. His arm doesn't move as he lets Indra's face be driven into the ground, but he eventually does come to a full stop after having skidded down the ground for multiple long blocks.
A massive long streak of a crater is left behind, with people running away to evacuate, and the sea of pods being disrupted as pods try to switch lanes to move away from the escalation. The ads continue to run up in the taller skyscrapers, as the two have reached the main part of Versepolis.
Meditat keeps Indra's face planted as he stands over him, standing in the intersection of the gray glowing road.
He reminisces in his artificially filtered voice, "Do you remember when I told you guys about the O.R.I.A.L collapse, and you ran away crying? Sriya made the excuse that it was because your father was killed by an Exhuman, and so it was a touchy subject. To be honest, I was convinced, I even felt bad that you had to go through such a thing. And to know that he was lying even then, making up fake somber stories to cover up your hideous truth. You really are scum."
Indra groans exhaustedly, his body in immense pain after having been dragged down. He takes a deep breath, trying to regain his strength, not wanting to give up.
An arc of yellow electricity emerges from his neck, and it runs up the back of his head before shocking Meditat's hand in an effort to defend himself.
Meditat jerks his arm back from the shock, and before he can make another move, Indra lifts his body up with yellow arcs coming out of the front of his suit, which throws Meditat backwards and on the ground.
Indra orients himself back on his feet, successfully having freed himself of Meditat's hold. He raises his head and takes a deep breath, to which the back of his purple mask slowly slides off his head, falling to the gray road and revealing the back of his human head.
More electricity begins emerging from his body, creating more electric legs that lift him off the ground, he slowly levitates towards the other side of the intersection, trying to get distance from Meditat while observing the city in his naked eyes.
As he moves he questions, speaking naturally as Shuraj, his filter no longer present which reveals his true voice, "Did he say that? Huh...I guess that's not entirely wrong."
Meditat groans as he lays on the ground, and he lifts his head to look up at Indra, who hovers above him. His blue eyes blaze as he stares in confusion.
Indra stops moving, and he turns his head to look around the city again, looking up at the large holographic billboards. He then turns around to face Meditat, exposing his human face of Shuraj, his hair let out, which quickly becomes wet, as the rest of his body is still covered by the purple suit with yellow lights.
He looks down at Meditat's masked face, knowing now that his cover has been blown, revealing himself.
However, he's oddly not worried by that fact, in fact he doesn't even seem to think about it. His eyes glare at Meditat while his hair drifts in the wind, with electric arcs running up his purple shoulders near his face.
More arcs run around his body as larger ones create bent legs that carry him off the ground, and he takes a deep breath before letting it out in a sigh.
Indra then explains, "My father was killed, and the reason was related to Exhumans, but I guess Sriya has a way with words. See, when I was younger, I used to live with my parents like a normal kid, I had a lovely caring mother and a noble hardworking father. They weren't perfect people by any means, but they were more than good enough. My mother was a regular human, but my father was an Exhuman, he's the one I got these powers from. My father worked long hours, in fact he was almost always out, he'd leave at 5:30 A.M in the morning everyday and my mother would always be there to tell him to 'be careful' and 'come back in one piece;' it was partly a joke, but there was a serious undertone to it. He'd usually come home at 11:30 P.M, I remember because I memorized it so I could greet him before mom, although even then she was always one step ahead of me. But one day he didn't come home at 11:30, because one day while he was taking the subway back from work, since we weren't exactly swimming in credits because my dad had to have smaller jobs to avoid detection, some dumb boys were playing by the edge of the platform and one fell in. Apparently right after he fell, my dad's train was approaching the station after he probably waited an hour or something. Now if I was my dad, I would've just let the boy there, maybe someone else would get him up or maybe the grocery bills would be lower for the family, don't know, don't care. But my dad is an idiot, and so he jumped into the tracks with that boy, and for whatever stupid impulsive reason he had, he decided to just expose himself right there and use his abilities to strip the train of all its power, thus forcing it to a halt before it could hit the boy. And hey, it worked, he stopped the train and saved the dumb boy and was a hero, just like what you're trying to be! And so he picked up the boy to put him on the platform, saving the young innocent child, to which one of the security guards on the platform aimed a firearm straight at his head, and shot him. No warning, no questions, no thoughts, no hesitation, he just saw that 'Oh an Exhuman just used their powers in public and is now grabbing a weak little defenseless boy' and just shot him. The boy was fine in fact he probably forgot after that day, but my dad wasn't. So that day my dad didn't come home at 11:30, and in the morning, me and my mom were watching the news, and we saw the broadcast where we watched my dad in the station get shot in the head. And the header of that broadcast was, and I quote, 'Dangerous Exhuman Stops Train And Grabs Young Boy.' Yeah, that's exactly what my father was, a dangerous Exhuman, stopping a train because he hates public services and then deciding to grab a meal on his way out. And my mom was terrified, not just because her husband was killed, but because he was outed, and there was a chance that he could be traced to us. And if that were to happen, they might learn that he had a son, and while it's not exactly written law, it's sort of a silent rule that nobody wants Exhumans reproducing, ya know, eugenics and whatnot. And my mom was terrified that she'd be cast out as a witch for breeding with a devil, so before they could get her, she decided to go wherever my dad went, leaving me alone. And when that happened and when I had to run from my house in fear of them suspecting that I somehow killed her, I realized on that day that the world doesn't want us. Even if we save their frail lives, they'll do anything it takes to get rid of us. We aren't part of their world, and if we try to assimilate, they'll eventually pick us up and take us away like they did with my dad. They hate us because they don't understand us and we can do things they could never, so their instinct is to fight us. Which is what makes it so hard for me to understand why you're so adamant about protecting these mosquitos, because one day while you're standing between them and another monster trying to kill them, you'll get shot, and it'll be in the back."
Meditat gulps after hearing Indra's story, and he stands up to his feet, staggering backwards in surprise to the tragic tale. He looks up at Indra's human eyes, breathing heavily from the revelation. Now knowing what Indra went through, he could see why Indra had such a pessimistic view on humanity, because he had the best man, and that man was still taken from him.
He shakes his head, and desperately urges, "Then let's talk to them! If we can stop the fighting and talk to them, maybe we can explain that just because we're born with these powers that doesn't make us want to hurt them, maybe if we can bring awareness to this foggy war we can get it to end! Look Shuraj, I don't want Exhumans all exterminated, I know what I said before and I wasn't thinking, I mean I'm an Exhuman like you said and I don't want to die. It's just, seeing this fighting, it doesn't do any good, maybe good Exhumans have been killed by humans but killing good humans doesn't fix anything. Wars just have casualties, if we keep fighting like this we're never going to gain anything, we'll always be seen as savages. We need to reach an understanding with them, and maybe even if it's harder than just senselessly slaughtering them, maybe one day there'll be a world where humans and Exhumans can coexist together in harmony, as just people. Doesn't that sound nice, a future where nobody has to live in fear, nobody has to senselessly lose each other, we can just all be together? But if you keep killing everyone they'll never see you as anything but the enemy, so to get to that future, we need to stop this. Come on Shuraj...history can always change...we have the potential to make tomorrow better than today."
Indra glares down at Meditat, breathing slowly and heavily with rain running down his face after hearing the proposition.
He then claims, "Well, even though history does change, there's always been one reliable constant: War causes that change. Your idea is too idealistic my friend, and I don't even want to live among these disgusting insects. This world would be better without them, if anything we should be evolving past them rather than dragging their outdated glass bodies around. But you still want to save them, you still believe that there's some good that can come out of keeping them, don't you?"
Indra slowly begins to hover backwards and up, moving away from the ground. As he ascends, yellow electric arcs begin to emerge from the four skyscrapers cornering the intersection, and they all crawl to Indra before connecting, supplying him with great energy. Countless arcs and streams attach to his body.
Indra extends his arms and raises his hands out in front of him, aiming at the center of the intersection. His whole body surges with great coils of electricity as enormous arcs of electricity come off his body, and his eyes begin to glow yellow as the same shade as his goggles, being overcharged with energy.
He states, "Someway or another, I will make you understand."
Before Meditat can speak, Indra then fires immense streams of yellow electricity out of his hands, which strike the center of the intersection. More arcs continue to flow into him from the surrounding skyscrapers, as yellow arcs of electricity from other nearby skyscrapers start to feed those corner towers, adding more energy to be fed to Indra.
His streams become larger and more powerful as they begin to start drilling into the ground, slowly but surely creating a massive hole that digs into the Earth. With the continuous flow of charge coming from the surrounding buildings, which themselves are great sources of energy, Indra drills through the ground with the two streams of yellow electricity, which have their own streams wrapping around to amplify their strength.
His yellow glowing eyes stare widely as he projects as much power as he can into the ground, causing the nearby skyscrapers to start flickering and dimming as he extracts all their energy, only to pull arcs from other skyscrapers within reach. The hole widens and deepens, forcing Meditat to stumble back in puzzled fear of Indra's scheme, as he doesn't seem to stop but instead he continues beaming energy into the Earth.
Finally, Indra seems to stop, as he stops firing the streams, and no longer requires consistent charging. He stays hovering in the air, with enormous arcs still coming off his body, as he hovers in the center of several skyscrapers that no longer glow, their holographic billboards having vanished.
In fact, several blocks of skyscrapers have been depowered from the one act, all of their power having been used to drill the massive hole into the intersection, and below the hole exposes what appears to be an underground tunnel.
Indra looks down the tunnel, and just as he estimated, he watches as a smooth chrome vehicle races down the tunnel, the long body visible through the hole. The vehicle roars loudly as it races down, as it seems to be a subway train, similar to the one Rohan once used to get around the city.
As the long train races down the tunnel, Indra keeps his hands aimed at it, and he then fires two streams of yellow electricity at it, however this time for a different purpose. He times the streams to strike the back of the train, as nearly escapes past the hole, however his streams land and send arcs of electricity running throughout the chrome shell of the long train.
Indra maintains the streams, which then bring the train to a sudden halt, stripping it of its power similarly to how his father once did. However, his intentions aren't as heroic, as Indra then closes both of his hands, and swivels his wrists before bending his arms, making a pulling gesture.
Suddenly in that one gesture, Indra establishes his magnetic field, and the train begins to move backwards. Even more surprisingly, the train doesn't just move back along the tracks, but instead its path curves upwards, as it is pulled up and out of the tunnel. The long train is pulled through the massive hole that Indra carved out, allowing it to move up to the surface.
Meditat staggers backwards in shock as he watches the large and long chrome train be pulled from the ground, its long body ascending into the air and over Indra. His head is raised as he watches the body emerge from the ground, his eyes widening as he's terrified of what Indra plans to do with it.
He witnesses as the front of the train is eventually exposed, the flat yet smooth face visible as the entire train is lifted out of the tunnel, and into the air. It continues to move back until its above and behind Indra, its body like a long chrome snake in the sky, gripped by the will of Indra.
The whole train then slowly angles slightly up, just enough for the face to point directly at Meditat, as though it's being aimed right for him.
Meditat steps back, and he raises his hands in petrification, his heart stopping upon the sight. He stares straight at the face of the train, and he mentally apprehensively requests, "Orial, activate the AVG, emphasize any life forms within the vehicle and lower the vehicle's exterior opacity. I need to know if there's people."
Upon the request, Meditat's HUD activates the AVG, allowing him to see through the train's body. To his horror, he finds himself staring at a group of people inside the front cart, who all stare back at him with wide and terrified eyes.
Meditat is able to see adult men and women, but also young boys and girls, all fearful as they grip onto each other and the seats in front of them, all helplessly staring at Meditat.
Judging by the fact that the first cart is full, Meditat also realizes that the whole train is likely full of people as well, meaning that there's a substantial amount of innocent people on the train that Indra holds over him.
Meditat lowers his head to Indra, and he raises his hands up defensively, realizing what Indra's plan is, one that would be utterly horrid.
He begs desperately, "Wait Shuraj, wait, there's people in there, there's a lot of people in there! Wait, don't do this, you can fight me and do whatever you want to me but don't bring them into this! Put the train down, Shuraj don't do this, please Shuraj, please don't hurt those people, they did nothing wrong! I'm sorry about your father but these people didn't do anything wrong!"
Indra's yellow eyes blaze as he looks into Meditat's eyes, and he states vigorously, "If you think that these fragile bugs are worth trying to protect, then you can have them!"
He then forcefully throws both of his arms forward, and releases his fists, aiming his fingers towards Meditat.
Suddenly, the whole train flies towards Meditat, the long body being hurled at him like a colossal bullet with great force.
Meditat leaps off of the ground, and he boosts towards the train as it flies at him. He moves both of his hands beside him, their gauntlets in the standard state, and he grabs onto the front face of the train, gripping onto the chrome surface.
He immediately begins boosting as much as he can, with the back of his hands letting out a fiery trail, with his arms also letting out a tunnel of energy. His whole body begins boosting up, with his entire legs glowing blue with a cylindrical trail and his back pushing up with his cape flapping heavily from the pressure.
Indra brings his arms back, and throws them again with more force, amplifying the repelling force to the train. He forces the train to push harder against Meditat, utilizing the electricity he has to boost the train.
Meditat's body, while boosting as well as it can, starts to descend down from the overwhelming weight of the train, as Indra tries to shoot it to the ground. While Meditat knows full well that he could fly far enough to evade the damage of the strike, that isn't what's important, what is important are the people inside the train.
His body slowly lowers as the train gradually pushes down on him, fighting against the enlarging streams of energy coming from Indra as he empowers the repulsion of the train.
Meditat's glowing boots touch the road below, as he's pushed to the ground. He still doesn't stop boosting, but instead he tries harder, using all of the strength he has to maximize the boosts far beyond their limits without a concern of the dangers that could come from overly taxing himself.
Meditat screams through gritted teeth as his eyes stare at the people inside the front cart, who all stare with wide fearful eyes, unable to do anything as the doors are all locked, locking them in the chrome bullet.
The ground below Meditat's feet start to crack from the pressure caused by his boosts, as his body releases a raging blue fire of energy behind, so much so that it begins to burn a hole behind him.
Meditat tries as hard as he can to maintain control over the train, knowing that even though he's not exactly overpowering Indra, at least the train hasn't crashed.
However, while he is able to keep the train from crashing, his eyes widen upon noticing another development. He notices that while he pushes against Indra's force, the train seems to be getting pushed inwards, and the pressure starts causing the front cart's forward facing walls to start moving towards each other, thus closing in on the cart and shrinking its space.
The ground below Meditat continues to crack as Meditat watches helplessly as while he keeps the train from crashing, the carts begin to start closing in on each other, shortening the space that the people have.
The people sitting on the hovering benches towards the back stand up upon realizing that the cart is being closed in, and they start running to the middle. Such happens with the people at the front, as all the civilians try to stay from the moving walls.
The walls continue to move gradually, as do the walls of all the carts, for the opposing forces put pressure on each side, which Meditat understands, only making the moment more painful.
The entire train compresses as all of the carts become slimmer, as while the train doesn't exactly move, the end is moved closer towards Meditat.
Meditat pushes harder and tries to overpower Indra, hoping to break the opposing force and stop the compression. However, the harder he pushes, the harder Indra pushes back, forcing a state of equilibrium that only taxes the train.
Meditat watches through the train as more people get out of their benches and run to the middle, crowding around as their bodies bump into one another. They all look at the moving walls in fear, terrified as the space in the center becomes more cramped.
A few of the parents in the crowd try to run to the closing walls, pushing against it with both hands as they try their hardest to slow it down.
They put all their strength into the push and their mouths open as they scream, exerting everything they can to try combating the forces pushing them in, with one of them being Meditat, who realizes he can't do anything about it as letting go would only allow the train to crash into the ground.
Their feet slide backwards as their best efforts don't pay off in the slightest, incapable of moving the walls as their bodies are only brought closer to the rest of the group, as now nobody is seated, as everyone tries to use the least space possible.
Meditat can only watch helplessly as the people try their hardest to fight against the dire situation, trying to give as much space to buy time and trying to push against the walls. But in the end, nothing changes, as the walls compress closer on them, causing all of their bodies to push against each other.
Meditat screams louder as he exerts all the power he has, releasing a far stronger trail of energy that incinerates the ground below him, drilling his own hole while leaving burns behind. He uses more force than he ever needed to, trying his hardest to push against the train.
Indra only meets Meditat's strength with his own, utilizing more energy as more of his arcs wrap back into his gauntlets, feeding him more power that he exerts more energy to repel the train into Meditat.
His yellow eyes stare widely, almost hungrily, as he knows exactly what's happening, finding a sick delight from knowing that Meditat's best efforts were all in vain.
Tears run down Meditat's eyes as he screams as loud as he can, doing all in his power and more to push the train. The plates making up his armor, such as his black bands and the blue plates on his back begin to start melting from the overpowering energy he's emitting, and cracks start forming in his gloves as solid fragments of his suit fall off, revealing parts of his hand as the gloves couldn't maintain the strength of the boosts he drives into the suit.
While his cape blows in the heavy pressure, holes start burning through it, destroying pieces of the cape from the raging heat of the boosts. Spots of the cape are incinerated, leaving gaping holes with unconnected chainmail rings hanging out.
His suit continues to steadily fall apart as the carts of the train compress, as everyone pushes against each other with more space left in between them.
People scream in pain from the pressure as the walls close on them, and they feel their bones being crushed from all directions. The walls don't stop as they force the people closer together in tighter spaces, constricting them into each other as they realize there was nothing they could do.
Meditat continues screaming at the top of his lungs until finally, he watches as the walls close into the crowd, clapping together and causing a giant red explosion of guts and blood that splatter on the shut walls, as all of their bodies are absolutely crushed and popped by the walls made to protect them.
Meditat immediately goes silent, and the long chrome train compresses into a single plate, the train having contained the explosion of the people as all of them are killed in a single second.
Indra cuts off the streams of electricity, seeing that he's finished. He lowers his gauntlets as they continue to spark with energy, his arcs shorter now, as he hardly has energy left.
Beyond the intersection the two inhabit, entire districts that they had been fighting within are completely depowered, as all of the skyscrapers no longer glow, and the streets around them no longer project the holographic gray light.
It took a great deal of power for Indra to maintain pressure against Meditat, but alas he succeeded, as he stared at the flat chrome plate that remains of the train.
Meditat's eyes shoot wide open, as he feels the release of opposition force, to which he relinquishes his own. He grips the heavy chrome plate, and then boosts backwards, moving away from the plate and letting it drop to the ground.
He stands on the dark street in the dark city under the dark sky, and he lowers his head and looks down at the flat chrome plate, the plate that once housed a train full of innocent civilians, civilians who were just living their peaceful harmless lives.
Meditat staggers backwards, and he promptly falls on his knees, his eyes stuck on the flat plate.
His hands lay by his side, with exposed parts of his skin visible, as parts of his suit are covered in melted plates. His cape drifts calmly in the wind with several holes, having been partially destroyed and leaving only damaged remains. The edges of the cape have also been burnt, leaving curves throughout the edges, as though the chainmail cape was ripped as easily as cloth.
His suit's maneuverability system, including his pushes or otherwise known as boosts, operates on an advanced pressure technology, one that under normal circumstances produces no heat, as if anything it produces cool air. It's similar to a fan of sorts, pushing great amounts of energy out rather than like a flaming exhaust. It is what makes the system so safe, as under almost any condition the propulsion energy would not be harmful to anyone, which is why it was adopted for air hockey.
However, upon overexerting more energy than what the suit is meant to handle, which is quite difficult to do since Meditat's modified suit is meant to take on significant loads, that cool pressure can heat up to no bounds.
That is exactly what occurred to Meditat, as especially with the lack of feedback from the boosts, Meditat trapped himself in a cycle of exerting excess energy into the suit, and thus causing it to reach this burning state to the point of incinerating and melting parts of his suit, which were already designed against heat damage and thought to have been perfect at that.
But now, Meditat kneels on the ground, wearing his torn up suit as he stares at the plate, his great failure. He can't speak, he can't move, all he can do is sit and stare at his failure.
He wanted to save the people, but all he ended up doing was helping to decimate them.