Honkai Impact: Transcend

Chapter 4: Pursuit

"Hey...do you feel the ground kind of shaking?"

The man turned to his confused companion, "I don't see anybody freaking out about an earthquake...but now that you mention it..."

The two glanced at each other silently, trying to see if they could sense it again. Indeed, not too long after, another slight tremor shook the ground ever so slightly. It now caught the attention of other onlookers, who shared glances in confusion.

Someone amongst the crowd hesitantly pointed in a certain direction, "I think it came from...over there?"

And those who were brave enough to walk forward did so, curious to figure out what was causing the sudden tremors. Amid the public confusion, nobody noticed a hooded figure with an umbrella calmly walking away from a nearby alleyway.

He dusted himself off, though there was hardly any dust on him, to begin with.

"Anti-Entropy mechs, efficient indeed, but always so loud and bombastic," Gray Serpent noted.

"Have fun, Thunder. And sorry for the inconvenience."

"Memories are always such a fickle thing, aren't they?"

xxx

"Stay down!" Thunder yelled, glancing around nervously at his surroundings.

It was bad enough that he had just experienced...whatever had just happened, but now an Anti-Entropy mech had appeared out of the blue just to rain on his parade even more. Worse enough, Thunder had to deal with this quickly, lest he let the mech stomp its way into the open public.

And that included preventing it from damaging even the buildings surrounding them. So far, it had kept its attention on him, but he knew that could change very quickly. It was pertinent that he kept any civilian structure safe if it were to cause an explosion in such a dense part of the city...

Wait.

Thunder jumped away from the mech and grabbed his phone from his pocket, turning it on rapidly. He quickly navigated to the call app, hoping to reach Himeko's number before it was too late. The mech came stomping forward to him. Thunder felt a rush of anxiety in his stomach as each thundering step shook the ground.

"Come on..." Thunder groaned. Now of all times, everything had to go in slow mode.

In a stroke of bad luck, just as he reached Himeko's number on his screen the mech hurled its fist forward, aiming to crush him in one go. Thunder let go of his phone and planted his feet on the ground, blocking the mech's fist. He felt a shock go through his arms from the force behind the swing.

"Goddamnit!" Thunder roared in frustration, "I was so close!"

He angrily heaved the titan's fist off of him, sending it stumbling. Thank goodness that this didn't seem to be one of those highly advanced mechs Anti-Entropy had in store. If he could shove it off of him with that much ease, this fight ought to be a synch.

Doing that before anyone noticed that there was a mech rampaging about was the tricky part.

A shame his greatsword, Ultima, wasn't on him. Carrying weapons out in public was a no-go according to Himeko.

Thunder just had to believe that his fists were more than enough for today. Hopefully.

He inhaled, and then exhaled sharply, "It's go-time," he murmured.

Bouncing on his feet, he squared the titan up and backed away. Thunder flinched when he heard the mech stomping towards him for a reckless charge, as Anti-Entropy mechs always tend to do. Couldn't they attack in more intricate ways? It made beating them into a pulp rather easy.