32 Chapter Thirty-Two: Running Circles (1/2)

The team meets up with Tanya, who drives them to Pilloa. The day was Friday of December 23rd, 2191. Tanya was able to give them a ride because her daughter was once again staying with her babysitter for the weekend. So now everyone besides Demetri and Robin were together. This time, Tanya has brought a larger vehicle, capable of carrying everyone. A red van with multiple rows of seats in the back.

”It's a rental” Tanya says as everyone gets in the van, ”so if anyone trashes the car, I'm kicking your ass!”.

The team reaches Pilloa by noon. When they get there, Zia starts digging through the rubble that was once her house. The crew split up to look around the area for any clues of Siran having been here lately. After several hours, Alex, Finn and Vivi meet up with Zia who was still digging through the rubble but looking more and more discouraged the longer she spent digging.

”Nothing still, huh?” Finn asks in a sorrowful voice. Zia shakes her head in disapproval. ”Look” Finn continues, ”I'm not giving up the search for Siran, but maybe this wasn't the place to come to after all?”.

Zia climbs out of the rubble, looking very exhausted. ”I'm starting to think so too” she says.

”Well” Alex says, ”we can keep looking for a little while longer, but I say we should return before long”.

”Alright” Zia says as she walks away slowly. Zia walks into the woods and leans against a tree to rest. It was the same tree she had hidden behind when she first met Siran. As she sits down, she lets out an elongated sigh and says ”Where could you possibly be?”. Suddenly, Zia heard a large thump against the tree. She crawls around the other side and finds that mysterious sniper they had met before. The sniper still wasn't talking, but when he sees Zia, he lets out a loud sigh. Zia could see he was injured. There was a shard of metal stuck in his chest. The robes he was wearing were ripped and exposed an armor vest he was wearing beneath it. The vest was cracked as the metal shard penetrated his armor. Blood was coming out, but he has his hand on his wound. Using both pressure and magic to suppress the bleeding. The sniper picks up his other hand slowly, and grabs the metal shard. With one quick motion, he rips the metal shard out of his chest. The sniper groans loudly, but a large bright flash of light seems to close the wound completely.

”Is that... healing magic?” Zia asks the sniper. ”I've never seen a medical magic before, I thought it didn't exist”. The sniper shakes his head in disapproval. ”Who are you?” Zia asks, and what happened?”. Once again, the sniper shakes his head in disapproval, refusing to speak.

A few days ago, Siran was attacking a base by himself in the southernmost area of Omnia during the night. This area was just between a desert and the capital city Omnium Guild. The Omnium Guild was to the west of this area, and the desert to the east. As Siran stared down this large fortress of a military base, he puts on his mechanical mask, tucks his dark blue hat under his large cape-like scarf and picks up his sniper rifle. This sniper rifle he had made with knowledge he had learned from Vivi. He kept his magic pistol and his regular pistol in holsters on the back of his belt. He slips the hood of his robes over his head, leaving only his mechanical mask to be exposed. He and he alone walked up to this military base, with a gun in his hand, looking for a fight. Siran, the sniper approached the outermost wall of the base, and with a touch of his hand, the wall itself exploded and crumbled before him. The base was instantly on high alert. A group of soldiers instantly open fire at Siran, but all the fire seemed to be distorted around Siran. Siran raises his right hand and points it at the group of soldiers before him. As Siran clenched his hand into a fist, the ground beneath them shoots up like a piston. The soldiers flew into the sky and hit the ground with a heavy thud. The ground remained reformed, with each section of the ground that flew up in the shape of a hexagon. Each hexagon at a different elevation. The ground was permanently rearranged. Sirens go off as more and more soldiers come out. Siran starts firing at them with his sniper rifle, each blast causing a lot of damage. Each beam from his rifle that hit a soldier made that soldier disappear in a pink mist. Each beam that missed a soldier, hit a wall behind them. Each wall that was struck crumbled. The first section of the base had nearly completely collapsed by the time soldiers started bringing out large metal barrels with unlabeled contents. They rolled the barrels down from an area above Siran, like the ramparts. Siran hesitated to touch the barrels. Suddenly, a soldier threw a large fireball at one of the barrels and it caught fire.

”Gasoline!” Siran says with a panicked expression. As Siran tried to dodge, the barrel exploded, causing the other barrels to explode as well. The entire front gate section of the base has caught on fire. Siran pushes a large metal slab off of himself as the fire closes in. As Siran touches the metal, the sheer heat from the slab causes his gloves to burn and give off smoke.

”Ow ow ow ow!” Siran says as he gets up. ”Feel the burn! Man, I need new gloves, these are NOT heat resistant!”.

”Halt!” A voice calls out behind him. Siran turns around with his hands up and sees a large number of soldiers behind him, narrowly avoiding the fire that's closing in on them. There was nearly twenty of them. ”We're not afraid to make a few sacrifices” the soldier says, ”as long as we're able to take you down, Siran of The Six Guns”.

”Guess the jig is up” Siran says, ”but before I go, how about a game of catch?”.

”You're not going anywhere!” The soldier calls out as they point their guns at Siran, preparing to fire. Siran reaches behind him and pulls out that pistol Vivi had made. The handgun that fires regular bullets rather than magic, but also has that bomb charm. Siran holds the gun by the barrel, dangling it with his thumb and index finger, jingling the gun like it were a pair of toy keys. ”Catch” Siran says as he throws the gun with tremendous force. The gun flies over the first sets of walls, and over the center of the base. A bright glow could be seen from the gun as Siran says ”You sure you don't mind sacrificing the base? Because we're about to find out how honest you were”.

”What the?” The soldier asks, ”what'd you just do?”.

”I'm out of here” Siran says as he seems to teleport right outside of the walls. Siran moved quicker than anyone's ever seen, with his speed boost paired with a stability boost to keep his body from falling apart from the sheer force of his speed. Siran ran towards the east, trying to get his distance from the explosion. After getting so far away from the base, that the fires raging was the only thing he could see of the base, Siran found himself at the border of the desert. The grass seemed to just suddenly die and the rest of the scenery was nothing but sand. As Siran looks at the burning fires, he says to himself ”I wonder how big that explosion will be. I hope I didn't mess it up”.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light could be seen as a small mushroom cloud rises from where the base once stood. A black wave of magic lining the edge of the shockwave from the blast quickly approaches Siran.

”Uh oh” Siran says as he frantically puts up several digital shields to protect himself, ”too much magic! I put too much into it!”. The shockwave hits Siran's shields, instantly shattering them all, and then hit Siran. Siran got sent flying deeper into the desert from the shockwave, but he got knocked out immediately from the impact. When Siran woke up the next day, he found himself in a poorly made shack. There was an old man and what looked like a man in his late twenties in the shack with him.

”He's waking up” the younger man said.

As Siran sits up, the old man says ”My name is Jeremiah. I live here in Giga Desert. I found you unconscious near the western border of the desert, and from the looks of it, you must be some sort of mercenary. Do you remember who you are, or are you having any memory loss?”.

”I-I'm... Siran” Siran says as he rubs his eyes.

”Not sure if you really care” the other man says, ”but my name is Mark. Mark Jameson”.

”Mark... Jameson?” Siran asks. ”That's a stupid name”.

”Yeah well...” Mark replies, ”nothing I can do about that. Anyways, I'm stranded here like you are. I was traveling from Beinna to Omnium Guild, but my car just suddenly broke down when I decided to cut through the desert to save time. Now, every time I try to leave, there's these men in black uniforms of some kind with these... masks... they won't seem to let me leave this place”.

”Black uniforms and masks?” Siran asks as he thinks to himself. ”Sounds an awful lot like the MTRU”.

”What's that?” Mark asks.

”Don't worry about it” Siran says, ”but if they're here, then they either know I'm here, or there's a base nearby. Hey, old man-”.

”The name's Jeremiah” he replies, ”but I can assure you, there's a base nearby”.

”Wait, hold up” Siran says, ”why are you being so casual about this?”.

”Oh, I've lived here for so long” Jeremiah says, ”I came here on my own accord to live a quiet life. Little did I know at the time, there's a top secret base in the center of the Giga Desert. I guess it'd make sense that they'd research this place though, given that this is where Naris's dead body lies”.

”Yeah...” Siran says to himself, ”dead body... anyways, you said the center, right?”.

”Are you going there?” Asked Jeremiah.

”Yeah” Siran says, ”they want to research Naris, and I want to... research them”.

”You don't have to be secretive with me, young man” Jeremiah says, ”you're going there for a fight, ain't ya?”.

”That's the general idea” Siran says.

”Well, if you leave out of this door here” Jeremiah says as he points at the front door, ”then turn to your left about 120 degrees and then walk straight. That's the way to the base”.

”Thanks” Siran says, ”I should be fine finding my way there using the sun to tell me which way is east or west, but that helps too”.

”Good luck” Jeremiah says as Siran leaves.

”You're just gonna let him go and do all that crazy mess?” Mark asks Jeremiah.

”I've already done all I can” Jeremiah says, ”you're welcome to try leaving any time again. Maybe next time you can sneak past the mystery men”.

”Shit!” Mark says as he stands up and rushes to the door, ”that gives me an idea!”.

Mark rushes out and shouts at Siran before he gets too far away. ”Hey!” He calls out. Siran turns around and looks at Mark. ”If you come back in one piece, think you can get me out of here? I don't want to be stuck here forever like Jeremiah!”.

Siran raises up his thumb in approval for his response and then continues walking. As Siran walks, his head is still hurting from the explosions last night. First from the exploding barrels of gas and then the gun bomb.

”I really hope I don't get caught in another explosion” Siran says to himself.

Alone, Siran traversed this empty desert. The place became a desert because of all the endo radiating from Naris's body. The place didn't look the same as Oklahoma did because the endo simply killed off the plant life that was already there. However, here there was never plant life. When Siran last fought Naris, this place wasn't even habitable. The country had only recently formed from a super volcano erupting from the bottom on the ocean, and when Naris and Siran fought, the rock beneath them had only recently cooled off from its previous state of smoldering rock. The place was left barren, and over time, the rain and water eroded the rock into fine sand. As well as the endo kept anything from growing and increased the speed of erosion. That's all that this place had become.