Previously on Talents Activate…

Chiamaka, a lady who did not believe in the supernatural, has been opened into a new reality, a world of beings able to manipulate blades, wield flames, invade minds, and affect different forces. A mysterious man, Ezeogu, having the probability of being her father wants to take her for reasons best known to him but her friends resist. Oge is about to battle the Ife’s crew meanwhile, Ifunanya is about to face off against Aisha and Tomisin…

Now, inside a phasic dome (see chapter two for phasic dome explanation)

Tade rushes in with a right hook to land a punch on Oge.

“Activate: Supernova fist!!! Ten percent should be enough,” he says.

Swiftly, he appears at Oge’s right and tries to land the hit but Oge easily dodges, parries his hand with hers, uses her left leg to sweep his feet off the ground and lands a heavy kick on his chest with her right leg which sends him crashing into the gate. Before Oge can fully turn to face the other teammates, she senses two bullets approaching her and quickly evades the bullets. She is about to move forward but Dominic smiles and says, “You’re done for, hag!!! Activate!!!”

Immediately, the bullets give off a huge explosion like a grenade.

BOOM!!!

They all wait for the smoke and dust to clear but before it fully clears, they hear a clap.

“That was quite the try. You’ve got a good talent I must say,” Oge says, standing on the fence of the building. She has her long duffle bag beside and unzips it.

“Now then, time to wrap this up,” she says, smiling as she slowly draws out one of her swords from the bag.

“She managed to get out of the explosion unharmed. She’s dangerous after all,” Ese says.

Dominic quickly rushes out and releases two shots at Oge who cuts the air with a horizontal slash creating an air wave that divides the incoming bullets in two.

“That won’t stop it. Activate!!!” Dominic yells and the bullets all explode at once.

Oge, without hesitation, has already moved more to her right to avoid the explosion and now heads straight to attack the rest of the team, diving down from the fence. Ese quickly moves, throwing a fist at her but Oge sharply responds by tossing her sword at Ese who blocks the attack with the thick metal band covering her hand from her wrist to her elbow. The sword bounces off the metal band and spins upwards. Oge swiftly does a front flip while in the air and kicks the sword at the tip of the handle, sending it back to pierce Ese from the top. Ese shifts back and dodges the hit. At once, Dominic fires at Oge with his two guns while she is still in the air. Oge sees the attack, takes a deep breath, smoothly but quickly, uses her leg to control the bullets and return them to Dominic who has already activated his advanced talent.

“Activate,” he says but is shocked when he sees the bullets heading for him.

“What?!” he exclaims.

BOOM!!!

Oge lands as the dust settles but Ese rushes in with a series of fast punches which Oge easily dodges as she steps backwards. The two pause for a while and Ese unlocks the heavy bands on both her hands, removing them. Her speed suddenly improves as she appears instantly at Oge’s front, continuing with her series of fast punches with its speed now thrice as fast as before however, Oge is still able to evade them.

“It’s like she can easily read our attacks. That or she’s faster than we can imagine,” Tade says to himself, analyzing the situation.

“Huff, huff,” Ese pants as she comes to a halt in her series of punches.

“How…exactly are you able to keep up with such speed?” she asks Oge as she takes a deep breath.

“Hmm? Asking that in the middle of a battle like I’m your friend? I’m here to kill, nah, capture you baby,” Oge replies.

“But I suppose telling you won’t change anything anyway,” she adds.

“You see, I was born with an exceptional reaction speed so if it would take a normal human one second to respond to an occurrence, it’ll take me 0.5 seconds or less to react to same occurrence. In simple terms, my natural reaction time is faster than that of others,” she explains.

“I see, so that explains how you can still keep up even without activating your talent. However, I’ll be ending you now,” Tade says as phasic energy begins bursting out of him.

“I’ll just have to use more speed and power. Eighty percent should be enough,” he says and charges straight for Oge. He moves so fast that in the blink of an eye, he is already at Oge’s side about to land a powerful blow on her.

“Well, I do have a client waiting for me,” Oge says.

“Let me end this for real baby,” she adds with a smirk.

“Activate,” she says.

Instantly, every member of Ife’s crew is lying on the ground, incapacitated with heavy slashes and blood gushing out from them except for Dan. Oge rests her sword on her shoulder and begins catwalking towards the gate.

“Dan, was it? Clean them up, wrap their wounds to stop the bleeding and package them up. Put them in the car trunk and please hurry up so that we can leave this place as soon as possible,” she says, in her seductive smooth voice, instructing Dan who is just standing watching.

“Yes, Madam,” he replies.

“Dan, you bastard!!!” Bimbo stutters, lying on the ground. She coughs out blood. Gradually, her vision begins to blur as her eyes close and she goes unconscious.

Meanwhile, at the same time…

At the Lofty Place, in the somewhat dark room with the music resounding softly in the background

“So, Onyinye, what information do you have for me?” Ife inquires.

“Well, wouldn’t that be one quick way of starting the conversation?” Onyinye responds and takes a sip from her glass.

“Absolut… you haven’t changed ehn? I’m surprised you’re not drinking straight from the bottle itself,” ID comments, referring to Onyinye’s liquor.

“Heh,” she giggles. “The night is still young,” she says, smiling at ID.

“Tch! I’m not here for this, if you don’t have any info for me, I’ll be taking my leave then,” Ife says and stands to leave.

“Well… I did hear something interesting about your crew being hunted by a certain proficient lady with the name, Oge,” Onyinye says, lowering her voice.

This gets the attention of Ife and ID.

“What did you say?” Ife questions, looking surprised. Just then, she receives a message from Bimbo, asking for help, telling her about the appearance of Oge. (This was before Oge had incapacitated the rest of the crew).

“What?!” Ife is shocked receiving the message.

“How did you get such information, Onyinye?! Are you part of this? You’ll answer to me later,” Ife says and quickly runs off.

“Ife, wait!” ID yells and moves to chase after her.

“Wait, ID. I have something to tell you too,” Onyinye says, stopping ID from proceeding further.

“What is it?” he asks.

“The girl you’re protecting at the moment, Chiamaka right?” Onyinye inquires.

“How did you know that?” ID responds.

“I have my ways but that’s what you came to discuss to me about right? For me to assist you in helping her, isn’t that so?” she questions.

“That’s right. Plus the fact that Ikeoku is also after Ifunanya, we have some serious battles ahead of us,” ID replies.

“I see. Then it is as I suspected,” she says and takes a long gulp from her glass.

“ID, why don’t you just forget about all these things and let’s just run away? What you’re about to embark on is too dangerous and there’s no guarantee you can make it out alive. We may not be together but I still care about you,” she adds, looking at ID in the eye while reaching to hold his hand.

“Onyinye…” ID utters and moves his hand away from hers as he stands.

“Whether I’ll make it out alive or not has not been decided however for now, someone needs my help and I’ll help in whatever way I can. I may not be the strongest yet but the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang the best, right? If it was you, you know I’d do the same anyway,” he says and begins walking away.

“Now I better find Tobi and others,” he says within himself.

Onyinye hisses and bangs her left fist on the table.

Simultaneously, at Aisha’s place, with the activation of a phasic dome, a fierce battle occurs…

Aisha, covered in lightning sparks, instantly appears at Ifunanya’s front and throws a fast blow at her but the punch goes right through Ifunanya as her image fades away. Ifunanya, quickly appears at Aisha’s back as her leg moves to land a hit at the back of Aisha’s head but Aisha blocks swiftly by turning and using her leg to stop the attack. Tomisin, hastily, teleports to the rooftop of the house and materializes two guns from empty space, pointing them at Ifunanya. She quickly releases two blasts at Ifunanya but Ifunanya suddenly appears above her, grabs her by the shoulder, spins and slams Tomisin into the rooftop floor.

“Ugh!!” Tomisin yells and teleports away. She teleports some distance away from Ifunanya on the roof and fires at Ifunanya again however, Ifunanya, in the blink of an eye, appears at her front and throws a punch at her but she quickly vanishes, materializing at the ground floor. But immediately she lands, Ifunanya appears there too, launching another punch. Aisha speedily rushes in, throwing two rapid blows at Ifunanya but she dodges both of them and steps back.

“Dazzling flash fist,” she says. Instantly, she moves immense speed with a very bright glow, passing Aisha in an instance and getting to Tomisin who is blinded by the bright light. Ifunanya lands a heavy hit on Tomisin’s abdomen which sends her flying some distance, crashing out of the fence, however as the punch lands, Tomisin points one of her guns upwards and shoots from it. But from beneath Ifunanya’s feet, the blast comes through and grazes her chin. Without delay, Aisha spins, drawing out one of her swords from thin air and releasing a huge bolt of lightning against Ifunanya.

Walkiya Yajin!!! (Hausa – Lightning strike)

BOOM!!!

The attack connects, landing a hit on Ifunanya. Tomisin gets up and enters back into the house area, holding her stomach and smudging off the blood spill from her mouth. Both Aisha and Tomisin wait for the dust to settle. As the dust clears, Ifunanya is standing there unharmed, with her hair now glowing radiantly like the sun, her eyes too burn brilliantly with a magnificent luster of yellow and a burning aura is emanating from her entire body. She’s holding a sword in each of her hands.

Crest Activation: Battle mode: Eze Nwanyị Ukwu nke Anyanwụ (Igbo – Empress of the sun)

“Now then, in order to end this as soon as possible, I’ll be using battle mode nevertheless, that’s not all,” Ifunanya says.

“Huh?” Aisha utters, putting her guard up and fixing her gaze on Ifunanya.

“I’ll be releasing the seal placed on myself a little so that before ID, Tobi and Nelo can get back here, this would’ve been over with. Also just to show you a bit of what I’m up against,” Ifunanya adds.

“Crest binding: Release!” she utters and suddenly there is huge atmospheric pressure such that it causes Tomisin to stagger a bit and creates mighty trembling on the ground.

“She has such kind of power?!” Tomisin is shocked.

Everywhere also begins to get increasingly hot even those at the Lofty Place which is quite far from Ifunanya’s current location feel the intense heat.

“This is bad, the energy overflowing from her is quite overwhelming. So this is what she has been hiding all this while, Incredible,” Aisha says. “I better get in shape too.”

Aisha causes her other sword to emerge and then she joins both her swords together and says, “Talent Activate: Sarauniya na Hadari!!!” (Hausa – Queen of the storm)

Suddenly, the air around her becomes very gusty, swirling around her like a mini tornado as heavy lightning sparks clad her entire body and a mighty thundering roar echoes across the city. Aisha’s eyes become entirely white with blue glow surrounding it and lightning sparks discharge from it. Tomisin quickly vanishes, appearing back at the rooftop. After taking a deep breath, she says, “I have to go all out too then.

Talent Activate: Ọdún Ọdẹ (Yoruba – hunters’ festival).”

She takes a stance like one about to fire an arrow and a long bow with three long arrows set on it appear, already positioned rightly on her hands.

Back at the Lofty Place…

ID is now with Tobi and is trying to locate the others.

“Do you have any idea where Ify, Aisha and others might be?” he asks.

“Hmm, maybe they’re in the restroom taking selfies and all of that,” Tobi replies.

“I don’t think so, because I can’t seem to sense even a bit of their phasic aura anywhere,” ID responds, looking around him.

Soon, they begin to feel intense heat.

“This heat, isn’t this Ifunanya’s—,” but before ID can complete his sentence, the loud crackle of a roaring thunder is heard.

“Aisha!!!” Tobi calmly yells. “Let’s go,” he says to ID.

However, before they move, ID remembers and says, “By the way, where’s Chiamaka? I mean I can sense Nelo around a bit but I can’t seem to find Chiamaka’s phasic aura too.”

“Probably she’s with Ifunanya and Aisha,” Tobi replies.

“Makes sense. In that case, Tobi, we’ll split up. Trace Aisha and Ifunanya and help immobilize the threat,” ID says and sighs.

“I’ll get Nelo and go after Ife, she might really need our help. Also, that Oge might be a good lead for us,” he continues.

Tobi pauses and ponders for a bit. “Fine by me. Whatever the threat is that we encounter, let’s make sure we contact ourselves,” he suggests.

“Alright then,” ID replies. They bump fists and part ways.