Chapter 17: Empowered Senses

“How are we going to deal with them…?” Iris asked, peeking over the corner at all the slouched Phantoms loitering around as if guarding something. “They are too grouped up for us to deal with them one-by-one.”

“Well…” Archon snorted, spinning his warhammer around in his hand. “You have yet to see me in action, have ya? You guys already got to have fun… it’s my turn now.”

Iris frowned skeptically, recalling the dire situation he had been in mere minutes earlier. “I don’t want to doubt your power, but… are you sure you can take down all of them in a single strike? If you can’t, all the other Phantom patrols down here will be alerted. We won’t be able to just waltz our way out of here.”

“Relax, girl. What do you think you two are for?” he chuckled, an evil smirk on his face. “What’s going to happen is I’ll jump out there, directly in the middle of them all, and strike downwards with my charged hammer strike. The shockwave can wipe out most of them, but the ones closest to us and furthest to us right now probably won’t get killed.”

“… So you want us to take care of them,” Finn concluded. “I see. I can get the ones closest right now, but the ones furthest away are far out of my range.”

“I can kill those ones,” Iris stated confidently. “But if we want to kill them before they are able to alert their friends, it’ll have to be near-instant… telling you callouts will be difficult, Finn. I can tell you where they are right now, but the shockwave from Archon’s attack might make them move.”

“But if we want to prevent the other Phantoms from finding out… would crashing down with a massive warhammer really be the best idea?” Finn asked quietly.

“They don’t have ears,” Archon explained. “They communicate with one another through a special type of frequency, similar to brain waves but through the air.”

Finn fell into thought. “Hm, I see. I noticed this earlier, but these Drone-class Phantoms emit a low-pitched humming noise, correct?”

Archon and Iris exchanged glances, confused.

“Uh… I said they use special brain waves to communicate, but you can’t hear these waves as they are not sound. At least, not that I know of,” Archon said, furrowing his brows. “I’ve never heard anything myself.”

“Me neither,” Iris added. “Are you certain, Finn?”

“Yes. Whatever it is, what I heard was definitely not a hallucination,” Finn muttered to himself. “I’ll be fine. Iris, don’t worry about me, just hit your targets. I’ll be moving around, so keep that in mind.”

“Erm… Finn, I still think it’s better if I tell you their locations beforehan-“

“Stop doubting the poor kid,” Archon laughed, patting Finn on the shoulder. “He looks like he’s got a plan. I don’t understand it either, but I believe in him — and you should too. Trust is the first step in building a good rapport between two teammates.”

“… I suppose that’s true,” Iris said with a sigh. “Sorry, I’m not used to working together with someone else. Finn… I don’t know what you have in mind, but go for it. I’ll hit my marks — so you better as well.”

“I will,” Finn said briskly in reply.

Archon cracked his knuckles. “Alright… you two ready?”

Iris and Finn both nodded.

He grinned as a fiery orange aura surrounded him and his hammer, then peeked around the corner once more to confirm his landing location.

“Sweet… let’s do this.”

*****

– A Few Minutes Earlier, Elsewhere in the Sewers –

“D-Damn it, Storm, this is all your fault!” Octane yelled, kicking frantically at the walls of the invisible cube they were in.

“My fault?” Storm snarled. “You’re the one who took off after the Titan without even bothering to use your brain, falling straight into its trap. And now it’s my fault?”

“Yeah? Well if you hadn’t accidentally spooked it with your lightning, I wouldn’t have had to chase it down!”

“Tch…!”

“Grr…!”

The third member of the trio with them, Reaper, was unable to stand their bickering any longer, and decided to shut the two up with a single cold string of text.

[Recommendation to cease arguing like two feral canines with severe intermittent explosive disorder.]

“Ngh…” Octane and Storm both turned away from the other, realizing Reaper was right. Arguing amongst themselves wasn’t going to help them escape from this weird transparent cube of a cage.

They had tried everything — brute force, Storm’s lightning, and the entirety of Reaper’s arsenal of weapons that did not possess the risk of blowing themselves up. None of them worked against this mysterious material.

From a short distance away, the Titan-class Phantom sat, its huge figure filling up nearly the whole height of the room even when not standing. It could kill the three trapped prisoners before it anytime it wanted, but before that, three unknown intruders had infiltrated his lair.

Unlike its minions, this Titan-class Phantom possessed intelligence… somewhat. At the very least, it knew basic strategies such as using hostages to lure out their allies, which was exactly what it was doing right now.

It was clear the three invaders were searching for some people, based on how frantically the old one was yelling earlier. The Phantom knew this, which was why it refrained from killing its prisoners. It was better to eliminate all its possible threats in one go now rather than let them come back for revenge in the future.

The Titan-class tapped its large white fingers on the ground lightly, its thick and glowing body pulsating from time to time with bright energy.

Patiently, it waited for its prey.

*****

– A Floor Above –

Archon leaped out of cover and into the air, enormous warhammer burning bright orange with fire and might.

“Get a taste of… THIS!”

He crashed down from mid-air with all his strength, smashing directly into the sewage water and sending the Phantoms surrounding him flying away with a huge water splash.

Immediately, Finn, with Iris on his back, rounded the corner as well. Finn concentrated hard, searching for the same low-frequency sound he heard before when surprise-engaging the two Drone-class Phantoms from earlier.

All other sounds — the Phantoms’ shrieks, Archon’s roar, and the muffled noise of Iris’s gunshots — seemed to drown out as Finn attempted to locate what he was looking for.

‘Hmph… there!’

Finn suddenly activated the blades on his gloves by clenching his fists tightly and swung to his right, where he heard an extremely low-frequency sound normally inaudible to the normal human ear.

“SKREE!”

He heard the painful shriek of a Phantom and his gloves’ sharp blades sinking into something gooey, signaling that he had successfully struck his enemy down. However, another sound of the same pitch grew louder and louder, this time from behind him.

He quickly swung around, which would’ve thrown Iris’s aim off quite a bit, but luckily, she was already done taking down all the targets far away where Archon did not reach.

Finn swung his arm with all his hatred in the direction of the humming noise he was hearing and felt his arm penetrate through some sort of cold, soft material. His arm came out on the other side as the rest of the matter surrounding it suddenly dissipated into nothingness, accompanied by the ear-splitting scream that was second only to that of a banshee from movies.

Finn quickly returned to his original position and swung his head around frantically, searching for the next signal.

Until…

“It’s over, Finn. You can relax now.”

Iris cupped his face with her soft, gentle hands from above, the warmth erasing all coldness he had felt from the Phantom’s body when he pierced through it with his gauntlet.

Finn let out a deep breath and retracted the blades on his gloves, relaxing his muscles and easing the tension in his heart.

“You really pulled it off, kid,” Archon chuckled and shook his head in wonder.

“… I thought you said you believed in me,” Finn replied emotionlessly.

“I did, I just…”

“SKREE!”

Suddenly, a loud scream that clearly belonged to that of a Phantom rang out in the trio’s ears, as hundreds more echoed it before they could even react.

“We got spotted, somehow!” Iris shouted in a panic. “We have to go!”

“Ah, shit…” Archon muttered and gritted his teeth. “Looks like we overstayed our welcome. Stand back, you two!”

As hundreds of Phantoms appeared simultaneously in the sewer tunnels, scaling the walls and dashing wildly through the sewage to get to the trio of invaders, Archon swung his hammer back and charged towards the wall directly ahead of them.

“RAGH!”

BOOM!

He smashed his hammer with everything he had left into the wall as it caved in instantly, revealing a gaping hole inside.

“Come on!” he yelled, before jumping down without a second thought.

There was no time to consider whether this was a good decision or not as Finn and Iris followed, just barely escaping the countless Phantoms heading their way.

After all, there was nothing ‘good’ about this situation. It was either bad, or worse.

They picked their poison.