METAHUNTERS
Thirteen percent spike in cortisol levels. You're hurt. Administering AX-7 serum to accelerate healing. Maarifa's voice had been meticulously tweaked by each of Ogunde University's students to be as relaxing as possible to them - Cecilia felt quite conceited when she realised she'd made her Maarifa instance's voice identical to her own. Her excuse was that any songstress worth her salt had to love her own voice. Cecilia stretched her arms as the asphalt coating them disappeared, supplanted with normal human skin once again.
Liquid strength flowed from Tabari Ogunde's fingertips. Alkahest poured forth, piercing into the nexus of a writhing mass of gigantic, snake-like rock tendrils. When in their rampaging state, Metahumans' bodies, at the centre of the mass of whatever they could create, looked like large fetuses. That had always been difficult for Tabari to get over. Nonetheless, they died all the same - by the hands of Vanguard, Schism and The Architect. Plus Maarifa, of course.
Cecilia Palemonas touched her left hand to a rock that the monster had created, and stone began to cover her body. More of the rock poured forth from her right hand, stopping the now-falling boulders from crushing the buildings below them. A slide of Alkahest transported the three down from the building they'd been fighting on back down to the streets of Lagos.
"Easy peasy once again. Guess we're just too strong for these metas now, eh?" Cecilia chuckled, looking back at the pile of boulders laying on the street. "Damn right, Cece," agreed Tabari. Jade von Reibnitz nodded in agreement. "Utterly unexciting." "It's... a shame we can't help out in Korea. The people there need us." "International politics are complicated, Cece," started Jade, "to the point where it can be a detriment to the people. For now, we'll do what we can here. After all, there's no team of Metahuman hunters as good as us."
Radiation signature matching Metahuman transformation pattern detected. Transferring coordinates to your navigation systems now. "...Two in one day? Jeez, it's like they heard us." Cecilia said. With Metahuman appearances being a once or twice a month occurence, this was most unusual. Through the displays embedded in their suit, a blue silhouette appeared inside a nearby building. Jade immediately took off towards the designated location. Her teammates were baffled by her infinite stamina as always, but they quickly sprinted after her. "Jade, focus on analysing this new threat. Cecilia and I will evacuate the building."
Cecilia touched her hand to the ground, and concrete pathways shot forth towards every floor of the building, creating simple and quick escape routes. She ran up the topmost one, breaking the window and leading the civilians out. Tabari did the same for the floor below, where the monster was situated. There, he got a quick glance of it - spiked rings of wood twisted and convulsed around the nexus, obscuring it from Tabari's vision. Then, right on cue, it shot up into the air, obliterating the floor above.
"Maarifa!" Cecilia called out, having fully evacuated the top floor just in time. Power seems to be the creation of wood - other plant matter unconfirmed. Its development seems to be faster than usual, so taking it out quickly is imperative. "Eh, shouldn't be a problem. I've got the read on it." Jade unholstered her laser gun, spinning it around in her hand once. A growing tangled web of wood rapidly advanced towards her, but a blade of metal produced by Cecilia cleanly cut through it, leaving only a large wooden trunk extending from its nexus halfway down to the office the students were standing on.
Next to the building - which was now missing its top floor - was the roof of another structure, with a ladder leading up to a taller building. Spears of Alkahest shot up, not managing to pierce the creature's thick hardwood nexus, barely denting the spinning inner and outer rings. "Dang. Where's Firewall when you need her?" Tabari joked, fending off a barrage of wooden stakes by firing identical replicas of said stakes. As with everything created using his Alkahest, they remained rigid, floating impossibly in mid-air, upon losing all momentum after colliding with the enemy's attacks. The metal coating Cecilia's skin quickly switched itself out for concrete. The ground rumbled as what seemed like a tidal wave of concrete shot out from her right hand - a towering, curved mass of the material, quite literally shaped like a tidal wave, reaching over ten metres into the sky, created in about twenty seconds. It blocked a barrage of attacks sent backwards by the Metahuman.
"The more we harm it, the faster it'll evolve." Tabari said. "So we kill it in one shot." Replied Cecilia. The wood around its nexus had continued spinning quickly, and was forming branches that then re-merged into what seemed like rudimentary cannons. Large wooden spheres shot out, exploding into large, sharp splinters upon hitting a surface. "Seven o'clock, 140 centimetres, Vanguard." Jade's quick command was the only thing that saved Tabari from taking a cluster of the splinters to his torso - he moved exactly as she told him to, and narrowly avoided all of the splinters. She'd jumped over to the nearby building, and was now climbing up the ladder situated there.
"So, any plan y-" "Yes." Cecilia was interrupted by Jade - quite rudely, most people outside of their class would've thought, but to Cecilia, the message was clear: Jade had seen something. From the wave of concrete, projectiles shot out, expertly deflecting the slithering wooden tendrils that were shooting Jade's way. She'd re-holstered the laser gun before she climbed up the stakes Tabari had left hanging in the air. She dove forward from the last stake, spinning her body 180 degrees, as two wooden stakes passed under her back and over her face. She'd now landed on the wooden trunk created by the Metahuman earlier. A sidestep dodged a powerful swing of a hammer it'd spontaneously sprouted, and when she snapped her fingers, a shield of Alkahest formed in front of her. It deflected a barrage of stakes, shattering right after the last one had been blocked. Jade dove forward once more, narrowly avoiding a whirlwind of wooden blades slicing at her former position. Now, she was less than a metre away from the creature's nexus. Tabari's Alkahest spears melted away, leaving tiny holes in the inner and outer rings. Jade waited until holes in an inner and an outer ring perfectly lined up, and unholstered the laser gun.
A beam of red light burnt through the weakened wood. Jade's jump sent her flying over the now-destroyed nexus, the concrete wall created by Cecilia stopping her momentum. She slid down the curved wall using climbing claws that formed from her suit. "Much more interesting." She remarked simply. Fine work, Architect. Your efficiency will surely make your teachers - and, dare I say, All-Seeing Eye, proud. "Ah, you flatter me so, Maarifa. But we're not close to done yet. Our directive's still clear, right?"
The three students spoke in unison. "Exterminate every last Metahuman."