Chapter 361: Hope is...

"How... is she?"

"She's... fine. Just consumed a lot of energy. How about Gary?"

"He—"

"I... fine, flesh wound."

"...He'll be fine."

Katrina and Golden Fox were still in the shelter— or at least what's left of it. Both Gary and Bella were still on the ground, but their condition seems to be getting better by the second.

There were no longer ashes floating around them, with Katrina blowing everything away and even clearing the skies. She thought it would at least make the situation brighter... but now, seeing the damage the bomb caused, it just made her fear more.

They didn't notice it before, but they were in a crater now. To think they were even able to survive something like that— No. The only reason she was able to survive was that Bella shielded her with everything she had.

She would have probably not been this exhausted if she just covered herself. Katrina could still hear it — the wail. The bomb wasn't loud at all, it was even silent, but it produced this wail that seemed to be calling them from the underworld.

It happened almost instantly, yet at the same time, it felt like forever.

"F... fuck."

"...Bell."

And finally, after an hour, Bella woke up.

"Don't get up," Katrina whispered. Bella, however, still forced herself to sit up.

"I'm fine. It—"

She wasn't fine. As before she could even gather the strength to stand up, she fell right onto... Katrina's gigantic bosoms; both her hands, grabbing the pair.

"..."

"..."

And fondling it.

"..."

"...I'm gonna allow that."

"Pft, no fun," Bella then let out a weak chuckle as she carefully stood up — and although she still somewhat struggled, it wasn't as exaggerated as before.

"Fuck me... is everyone dead?" She then let out a breath as she started looking around.

"..." Golden Fox and Katrina didn't really answer her as they just looked to the ground.

"I thought we've seen the worse from the Seven Planes shit," Bella gulped, "But this? This is just evil... but at the same time it don't feel real, you know?"

"The difference between a thousand and a million deaths," Golden Fox muttered as she stood up, "It just feels... surreal. Like watching a movie."

"Where... are the others?"

"They are checking on survivors," Golden Fox said as she finally removed her mask, throwing it on the ground and revealing her small and somewhat very youthful face, "They... should be here anytime soon."

"...I take it no one survived near us?" Bella didn't really say anything as Chihiro removed her mask— after all, her eyes looked truly defeated.

"No," Chihiro quickly shook her head, "I checked within a kilometer... there's no one."

"Do... we already know the extent of the damage?"

"N—"

"The world's fucked."

And before anyone could answer Bella, Hannah suddenly landed on the ground.

"How is it!?" Katrina stood up as she approached Hannah.

"I... couldn't really check far. But I don't think they hit every city... there are still a lot of buildings standing far from here. But with the way the blasts happened, the whole world is probably fucking cripple right now," Hannah let out a loud sigh before letting herself fall and sit to the ground, "Let's... just wait for Silvie."

"...Sacramento?" Bella asked as she too sat on the ground.

"I... don't know."

"My... family's staying there right now," Bella sighed.

"Right... our families," Katrina's eyes turned wide, "I... I've completely forgotten about them."

"Hey, we'll get to them," Hannah raised her voice before Katrina could start panicking, "Right now, it's important that none of us start losing our minds."

"...Yeah."

"..."

"..."

"You think... they hit Japan too?" Chihiro then whispered; her eyes, trying their best not to let out a tear.

"We... know nothing yet."

And with a collective sigh, the group became silent. It wasn't until a whistle thundered in the air as Silvie landed on the ground that the silence was broken; but still, Hannah and the others did not really say anything as they just looked at Silvie, who shook her head in response.

"It's bad," Silvie breathed out; her clothes that she seemed to have gotten from somewhere, filled with blood, "There's... a lot of people that need our help. I tried moving people away from the radiation as much as possible... but they need real help. We need to get them to safety."

"How?" Hannah closed her eyes, "We don't even know where 'safe' is. I still can't contact Empress and—"

"It's gone."

"What?" Everyone looked at Silvie as she suddenly raised her voice.

"I tried searching where the space station should be... all I found were debris and pieces of it. As well as... a lot of dead people."

"They... got to it as well? What about Empress?"

"Not there," Silvie shook her head.

"Fuck... nowhere's safe," Hannah slammed her fist on the ground.

"Uhmm... what about the Academy?" Katrina then muttered as she walked to the center of the group.

"You... think the Academy is safe?"

"It... has to be," Katrina nodded, "Bulwark has... been increasing the security there every month."

"You... might be right," Hannah breathed out as she stood up, "No... you need to be right. But even if it was, we don't really have a way to bring the people there. Unless Silvie wants to carry them one by one."

"Well..." Silvie raised her hand, "I was actually thinking Bella could make a large platform and then... I lift that?"

"..."

"I can think of a dozen ways that can go wrong," Hannah shook her head, "We have to—"

And before the group could bring in their ideas, the sky that Katrina cleared once again turned dark. The group all looked up, only to see something... colossal covering the sky.

"What... the fuck is that?"

And their questions were quickly answered as a silhouette fell from the sky — Paige.

"...No fucking way," Hannah muttered.

"Y... Yes, way?" Paige forced a chuckle, "It... it was given to us by Emp—"

"You know what? It doesn't matter," Hannah breathed out as a wide smile crawled on her face, "I don't care if you're pulling all of this from your ass, but this is the help that we need. How many people can it fit?"

"It's... pretty spacious inside."

Of course, it was spacious— after all, it was just one of Paige's illusions; once again, powered by Paragon's telekinesis. She could have made it into just a colossal carton box if she wanted to.

"Huh... right," Hannah said as she squinted her eyes.

"I'll carry Gary," Silvie said. But before she could even take a step towards Gary, her feet started to leave the ground.

"There's... no need," Paige once again forced a chuckle as... a light suddenly beamed from the ship. A light that seemed to be pulling them up towards it.

"..." Hannah's eyes remained squinted as she stared at Paige, who seemed to be trying her best not to make eye contact.

"Why... didn't the OG provide us with something like this?" Bella muttered as she slowly floated in the air.

"Well... maybe because there are only six of us?" Katrina answered.

"Bitch, there's literally only two of them, Paige and Paragon!"

"I don't even think this is from Empress anymore," Hannah whispered as she looked at the two; before once again glancing at Paige who quickly strayed her eyes away again.

"Fuck."

And soon, Bella was able to see the damage in the air, "This... this is fucking worse than Toronto. How—"

And before she could fully examine the sea of grey, they were already swallowed up by the colossal ship. And as soon as they were inside, they saw hundreds of people — their eyes, all looking at the floor.

"We... already saved some people," Paige let out a long and deep sigh, "But as you can see... I don't really know if we can call this saving."

There were more than a hundred people there — none of them, however, were talking. Not even a whisper could be heard — not even a cry.

"Where... is Paragon?"

"There."

The group all turned their heads to where Paige was pointing, only to see Paragon floating in the air; once again, wearing a headset that covered his eyes, which seemed to be connected to something on the ship.

"...What sort of ship is this?"

"Aliens," Bella was the one to answer, "The answer is always alien technology. I been suspecting it for a while now... but don't you guys think that Para-G could be an alien?"

"...Well, that's more probable than him being Riley," Silvie nodded. And as soon as Chihiro heard her words, her eyes turned wide. She seemed to be wanting to say something as she raised a finger, but in the end, chose not to.

"...Ignore them," Hannah sighed and shook her head, before approaching Paige, "Can... you tell Paragon to set a course for Mega Academy? Let's take our time getting there so we can... rescue as many people as possible along the way."

"Hm," Paige only nodded before flying away.

"You... think there are any windows in this ship?" Bella asked as she looked around.

"It's probably better for the best that there aren't," Silvie answered as she lowered her voice, "These people... they don't need to see what happened yet. What they need right now...

...is hope."

Hope. Perhaps a concept that was slowly being drained away as more and more people arrived on the ship — the Baby Crew tried their best to help those that were injured, but most of them weren't even saying anything.

"Ma'am... you need to let her go so we can take a look at your wounds," Katrina approached one of the new ones that arrived, only to see her embracing a small girl... who has already lost half her body.

And she wasn't alone -- there were hundreds of them doing the same.

Hope, right now... is dead.