unforgiven ➽ a Halilintar-centric fic

27 | burning light

The fallout was instantaneous.

Almost immediately, everyone present reacted as quickly as they possibly could.

With the Specialists-in-Training, Boboiboy immediately grabbed Fang's shoulder and they both disappeared in a flash of gold light, but not before cursing loudly and being told off by the latter all in a split second.

With Amato and Gempa, the Senior Specialist was at the ship's helm, steering the vessel away to avoid the worst of the damage. Having no time to strap on, Api, Gempa and Daun clung onto the passenger seats for dear life while the ship traveled at its fastest possible speed.

With Vargoba, the villain wasn't so fortunate. His large size only served to paint himself as a bigger target, his sides pinned to the ground by buildings and gravity. The power spheres in his armor fizzled and spasmed, his control over them waning as his circuitry whined and overloaded with power. He screamed as the power spheres upon his back short-circuited and flared, their destructive energy tearing through his armor and flesh.

Complete annihilation and destruction were imminent; but at the very core of the ticking time bomb, only one soul dared to forge forward into the heart itself.

"Cahaya!" Air screamed, eyes watering.

He'd closed his eyes and covered them with his hands, but he could still see the light permeating through them. His clothes were smoking and his skin was uncomfortably warm to the touch, like he had been sitting in front of a furnace for hours.

In the sea of light, he could hardly make out his friend's silhouette. He had curled into himself, cradling his head within his palms.

Air's voice couldn't reach him, but his heart twisted at the reality of his friend's suffering. He'd been so confident that it would work; so sure of himself that Air also believed that everything would be okay. He'd defeat Vargoba with an epic blast of light, then everyone could go home and tuck themselves into their warm and toasty beds.

How wrong he was.

"CAHAYA!" His throat scratched from overuse, torn to shreds after hours of shouting and dehydration.

Cahaya didn't hear him.

And the burning light swallowed Air whole.

Air opened his eyes.

White spots danced in his swimming vision, almost as if he were looking through textured glass. His brain pounded wildly in its skull, eardrums muffled with a high-pitched whine ringing within his ears. The surface of his skin was still warm, but it was nowhere near the burning he had to endure just a moment ago. The scent of smoke lingered heavy in the air, wafting from the charred hems of his hoodie and leggings.

All of that paled in comparison of the realization that he was indeed alive. He looked around in bewilderment and quickly discovered the reason why.

Standing between him and Cahaya was a man in a blue leather jacket and mask, the latter not for show but the source of his powers. He glanced past Captain Kaizo's shoulders and through the smoke, where he saw a shield of gold encasing his unconscious friend in a protective sphere.

Whether if it were protection for Cahaya, or everyone else – Air didn't want to think about that. Thankfully, he looked okay, his chest still heaving and breathing fine.

A grunt whipped Air's attention back to the Captain, who looked to be in poor shape. Like Air, his clothes were burnt and singed, but he was in a worser condition. The exposed bits of skin on his neck and jawline were reddened and peeling, which was what you'd expect from a burn.

The shield he conjured hadn't fared any better. In spite of its upgraded state, its surface was cracked and falling apart, which was something Air had never seen happen before.

Kaizo's mask retracted into a headpiece in his hair, revealing his tight expression on the verge of a full-on scowl. He stabbed his sword into the ground and leaned on it for support, lowering the hand that he had been holding up. From the air, two golden spheres descended to the ground-level, both carrying a person each.

Air's mouth fell open when he recognized the prisoners inside.

"You got them?" he blurted out. Kaizo regarded him with a raised eyebrow, like he was asking why are you surprised?

Kaizo was strong – there was no refuting that; but Taufan was on a completely different level. Kaizo was the type of strong where he could beat an entire pirate crew with nothing but a mop, but Taufan (for all his faults) was the type of strong to blow a room up just because he sneezed the wrong way. The pair facing off would be the equivalent of a tiger fighting a T-Rex.

"Power isn't everything in a fight," Kaizo said evenly, unphased. "Their immaturity and lack of experience allowed me to close the gap between our power differences." Then, under his breath, he muttered to himself: "Not like that first bit changed since the last decade."

That sounded personal. With how Taufan and Gempa are, Air almost felt bad for Kaizo. Almost. No one deserved to suffer from their wraths at any given time, let alone for an entire decade.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Air drilled. "Not that I'm ungrateful, but..."

"Classified information." Which was basically Kaizo-speak for I don't get paid enough for this. "You should tend to your friend. I've already contacted TAPOPS."

Wow. So he did have a heart after all.

Air glanced uneasily at the two silhouettes within the separate spheres, the people inside far too quiet and still. Taufan's twitched in his unmoving state, face scrunched up. Halilintar, on the other hand, looked rather peaceful, as if he had merely drifted off to sleep and hadn't attempted to claw his brother's faces off an hour before.

Speaking of Halilintar.

The red lightning from Cahaya's body. Its color was so distinguishable, so recognizable that Halilintar could run around the city in a flashing neon suit and it'd still be more inconspicuous than this. Did he have something to do with this, or was did Cahaya's experiments cause his own downfall?

The barrier around Cahaya fell. Air wasted no time in rushing forward, kneeling by the younger as he brushed his bangs from his face. Almost instantaneously, Cahaya's eyelids fluttered open, albeit weakly and unfocused.

That's the first step. He was still alive. What's the second? It was—

"Air! Cahaya!" The air around them picked up as the hiss of a hangar door sounded throughout the field. Gempa's body barreled straight into his, the mother hen immediately fussing all over him and Cahaya worryingly. "Are you hurt? Oh, Cahaya! Does he have a concussion? Do you have a concussion? Anywhere burning, bleeding and/or broken? What were you thinking!"

Yep, that's the Gempa he knew alright. He turned his body to mask his eerily warm side, the bleeding stopping but still flaring and puffing up around its edges. Gempa mustn't be in top condition either if he failed to notive his obvious attempts in masking such a large injury.

"I'm fiiiiiine." Air's voice came out muffled as Gempa stretched his cheeks out of frustration. He was in full Mama Bear mode now, but that didn't mean he couldn't express his exasperation in the form of the signature-Asian-auntie-cheek pulling. "Kaizo got here just in time!"

Gempa whipped around at the mention of Kaizo's name. To everyone's surprise, the Captain and the elemental exchanged glowering daggers as if the other had killed their entire family. (Which wasn't true, because they just saw Fang prance around a few moments ago!)

"Captain." Gempa's tone was ice cold, caring expression steeling to one of disgust.

Kaizo's face mirrored him, a figurative shadow passing over his features. "Lance Corporal."

No one commented. The two stared each other down coldly, unwavering.

"Wow, that was exciting! I haven't had this much fun since—" Boboiboy stopped himself when the tenseness of the atmosphere smacked him in the face with a metaphorical steel chair. He backpedaled and reeled in whatever enthusiasm he had and unsubtly elbowed his partner, grimacing. Fang merely scoffed, rolling his eyes.

Awkwaaaaaard.