Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 238: Change

Stanley walked into his room and locked the door behind him. He sat down on the bed, putting a blanket over him before pulling the small device out from his pocket.

He tapped it onto his watch a small video started playing on his watch. A man appeared on it, Director Hobbs.

"This is a recorded message," the man began speaking. "Please make sure you are in a secure location."

Stanley didn’t do anything. He knew he was secure. "If you have settled into a secure location, I will begin."

"First of all, I would like to apologize for doubting that you weren’t doing your mission and had instead run away."

"Since your mission clashes with Hank’s, we have decided to pause Hank’s mission as yours is of the higher priority," the man said. "Deal with it how you can, but make sure they do not cause any more trouble. It will be hard to appease the Vorassian government if your little group of gangsters continue to cause explosions and damage that threaten the entire government."

Stanley frowned a little. The ones who owned and provided funds for these gangsters were originally politicians, and now they were going after them? He couldn’t help but get somewhat angry.

"And do not get involved in anything big, you need to continue to remain hidden. If the gang gets into something big, then you need to leave," the director said. "Take care of yourself first and foremost."

"Finally, Gray has mentioned to us about something big that is going on in Voras. I haven’t been able to find anything, but it seems it might involve the underworld. If you manage to find out what it is, use the device Caleb gave you to provide the information back to us."

"That is all. Hank and the rest will return as soon as they can, so you won’t see them again. Take care, Stanley. You’re one of the best we’ve got."

The message ended.

Before Stanley could even think more about it, he smelt smoke and quickly opened up his blanket. The device that he had received was smoking. It seemed it was self-destructing.

Stanley threw away the item and laid back on his bed, taking in the message.

So the small kerfuffle with the AAA was over. He wanted to apologize to Hank for beating him so badly. He wondered if he was feeling demoralized.

’What big thing is happening?’ he wondered. He hadn’t heard of anything after all. Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with him.

He had only been napping for an hour or two when someone knocked on the door loudly and frantically. Stanley quickly got out of his bed and went to open up, only to find Vera.

"Nova! She’s awake!" Vera said quickly before running back.

Stanley’s eyes widened in surprise and he followed her as well. He arrived at the communal room where Nova was sitting upright on her bed, being fed in little amounts by Aleona, who had arrived at some point.

Ulia had already left at some point it seemed and the 3 people at the side were also gone. Instead, the four leaders had filled the room, along with Sol, Fred, and Vera.

"Nova!" Stanley called out. "How are you feeling? Are you alright?"

"My shoulder hurts like someone shot me with a blaster, but other than that I’m alright," Nova said. She turned to look at Sol and sighed. For some reason, it felt as if it was her fault that he lost his eyesight. Even though she knew that it was not the case. It had been the fault of the person that had attacked her.

"We will have to improve our defenses from now on," the Gunblazer said to the side. "The fact that we don’t even know who attacked you is preposterous."

"I had the Codebreakers analyze the footage around your area, but it was all deleted. There is nothing left to analyze," Harvesh said.

"I’ve put my people on constant watch of the surroundings. We’ll know if someone suspicious comes by," the Demonspawn said.

"I think it is better to change locations now that you are awake. Let’s get you to a bunker or something," Aleona of the Flintlockers said. "Only then we will feel safe."

Nova nodded. "Let’s do that," she said with a solemn look on her face. She had realized just how dangerous the situation had gotten and was feeling mortified at the thought that she could’ve died.

Sol had lost his eyes, but it couldn’t gotten worse. She couldn’t play gangsters anymore and needed to get more serious than she had ever been.

She needed to stop everything else and work on her one goal. The reason she had left the cult. The reason she had started doing this whole thing.

To kill the man that she had wanted to kill. Needed to kill.

Her anger flared at the memories of the man who took away the lives of those she loved at just a touch and the cause for it had been the one she wanted to kill.

"Vera, I need your help."

The group shifted deeper into the Low where they hid safely in an underground bunker.

Nova and Sol slowly healed there, while Stanley and Fred did most of the tasks that came as a responsibility of Nova being the head boss of the entire group.

Stanley went to the dinner with Ulia and Fred, where Ulia told him that they were leaving secretly.

Fred felt slightly demotivated around this point. As Stanley had expected, Ulia had left him without even a word of goodbye. He had no idea where she had gone or when she would even be back.

He got no communication through to her and was starting to believe that it was even her that had attacked them. However, most just chalked it up to him being angry after a breakup.

Then, one day, Vera came rushing into a room where they were gathering.

"I did it," she shouted to everyone’s surprise. "I found the thing you asked for."