After opening his locker, a photo of his family came onto a man's view.
Seeing this, the man couldn't help but smile.
"Just one last job. One last job and I'm out of this mess."
'This mess' in particular being how he was still under the employ of the Velsulis Family.
Although he did occasionally find the time to spend with his real family, that was nothing compared to the time he had to spend as an 'operative' for the 'Family'.
At least, that was for now.
He was getting old.
And that meant that he was allowed to retire.
Even with his cybernetics, the current him could not ever hope to compare to the peak of his youth.
When he glanced downwards, an entire hand made entirely of metal was what came into his view. A dim blue light pulsed periodically on sets of lines that ran across his cybernetic hand while the hand itself reflected the light of the room, giving it a silverly glossy look.
Whatever sort of artificial 'super-metal' it was made from, Oskar didn't know. He stopped bothering about those sorts of details a long time ago.
As long as he got his money's worth, then he was fine with anything.
He didn't know why he did it exactly but he started moving his cybernetic fingers inwards towards the palm of his hand before moving them back outwards one by one in a wave like pattern. The whirring metallic sounds of whatever was inside the hand entered the man's ears as he repeated this action for a few seconds before-
"Oskar! There you are!"
A somewhat young and cheerful voice entered his ears which was accompanied by the sounds of light footsteps.
When Oskar turned to the source of the sounds, he saw Jordan Silvers, one of his fellow comrades who also worked as an operative for the Family.
Like most over-eager youngsters, he was already donning his combat exo-suit.
He wore the standard issue exo-suit that was given to combat operatives of the Family; a grey and shiny, skin tight suit which emphasised his lean figure. Robotic grey metal gauntlets, kneepads, shoulderpads, boots, and a breastplate which artificially enhanced his already high physical capabilities were melded seamlessly with the suit.
Similarly to Oskar's cybernetic hand, there were traces of pulsing blue lights running across Jordan's exo-suit.
Only Jordan's face wasn't concealed. He was completely clean shaven with short wavy hair that was styled leftwards. His eyes were a pale hazel colour which managed to match his brown hair.
With a sigh, Oskar proceeded to question Jordan's presence.
"What do you want Jordan?"
As Oskar spoke, he closed the locker with a slightly forceful slam, removing the photo of his family from his sight.
Once he did so, Oskar spoke up again with a slight tinge of bitterness in his voice.
"Can't you annoy someone else?"
Jordan only smirked when he heard what Oskar had to say.
"Well what can I say? Technically I can annoy someone else but is there any particular reason why I shouldn't annoy you?"
Jordan paused for a few seconds to chuckle to himself before he continued.
"Heck, I only said one line and I'm already grinding your gears."
"A reason is it? Alright..."
As Oskar said this, he turned to directly face Jordan, before starting to make his way over to the young man. As he did so, he slowly curled both of his hands, including his cybernetic hand into a pair of fists.
"Why don't you allow me to 'personally' give you a reason."
When Jordan heard Oskar's threats, his smirk only grew onto a wide smile as he himself slowly took a battle stance and curled both of his hands into fists in a similar manner to Oskar. Although Jordan has yet to bring his fists up, both of his legs shifted slightly into a more stable stance.
In less than a second, Oskar immediately exploded into a quick sprint, instantly closing the distance between him and Jordan.
In an astonishing feat of agility, speed and strength, he threw his right fist at Jordan, using the force of the trajectory of running to strengthen his blow.
However, rather than meeting Jordan's face, Oskar's fist instead clashed with Jordan's own fist. Short small sparks flashed from their fists as the prosthetic cybernetic hand of Oskar contested with the exo-suit enhanced gauntlet of Jordan. While the force of Oskar's attack forced Jordan's body a few feet backwards, the latter was still able to manage his composure and posture as his exo-suit's boots left marks on the metal floor.
Despite the overbearing sound of the clashing metal, Oskar still managed to hear some of Jordan's grunts from the impacts as he held his ground.
Although Oskar felt some of his 'muscles' strain from the exchange, like Jordan he continued to hold his ground.
Oskar would never let himself lose to Jordan.
As their fists continued to clash, Jordan taunted Oskar with a cheerful yet mocking smile on his face.
"You're getting slow... Real slow old man."
Of course, Oskar would only let out his own response in the form of a snide remark.
"Hah. I'm still fast enough to to teach scumbags like you a proper lesson."
Simultaneously they both pulled their respective clashing fist back, preparing for another strike before-
They embraced each other in a hug.
They hugged each other in what would be best described as a 'manly bro-hug.'
"I'm gonna miss you old son of a bitch."
"And I'm going to miss calling you out for your stupidity."
However, they were not given much time to enjoy this moment before they were rudely interrupted by a third voice which took the form of a cough.
"Ahem..."
When the duo turned towards the source of the voice, they found a female figure. Like Jordan, she also wore an exo-suit but unlike Jordan's suit, her suit was a lot more minimalistic.
While it still consisted of a grey skin tight suit which concealed all but her face and contained running lines which periodically pulsed blue lights, she lacked the same 'heavy duty' armaments as Jordan, instead only having two respective pairs of thinner yet still robotic gauntlets and boots.
The breastplate, kneepads and shoulderpads that were present on Jordan's suit were instead completely absent.
Her short blonde hair was styled into a short bob cut that was just long enough to reach the middle of her neck, leaving only her relatively pretty face which matched her petite figure exposed.
After making a tired sigh, the female; Tracy White spoke up.
"Sorry if I 'ruined' the moment but we have a job to do."
"Oh have a heart will you? At least show more emotions than the droids."
Oskar watched Jordan shrug as he made a casual remark as his reply to Tracy.
"This could be the last time we're going to be seeing Oskar. Surely even someone like you can understand that?"
When Tracy heard Jordan's response, she smiled as she shook her head.
"Yes, yes. Just save it for after the mission..."
Tracy paused for a short moment before she continued.
"Then we can go out and drink!"
"Haha yes! I knew you had it in you! No one believed me when I said it but it's true!"
Tracy instantly fell silent when she heard Jordan's remark, as if she couldn't believe what she just heard. Soon enough, she was able to find her voice.
"N-no... It's just... It's just tha-"
Oskar let out a short chuckle as the conversation quickly devolved into an argument between Jordan and Tracy, as things tend to do whenever those two were involved.
He was truly going to miss them.
...
Tracy didn't know what happened exactly after her argument with Jordan.
All she knew was that she was now in the halls of the 'Eden,' a cruiser class ship which serves as the mobile home and mansion of the Starr family with the rest of her crew by her side.
As soon as their own ship; the 'Chromata' warped next to the Eden, multiple 'penetration pods' with armed combat squads within them were launched at the Eden. One of these squads of course consisting of Tracy along with Jordan and Oskar.
The pod itself penetrated a hole through the hull of the Eden before sealing tightly on, ensuring that there was no loss of oxygen the moment the pod breached the hull.
The moment the three exited the pod and entered the ship, Tracy's team commander, Oskar Blak instantly asked Tracy a question.
"Tracy, are the surveillance systems disabled?"
In response to Oskar's question, Tracy positioned her right hand in front of her, placing a small holographic screen produced by her exo-suit in front of her eyes. Her eyes narrowing slightly as she replied to Oskar.
"Yes but..."
Tracy stuttered for a short moment before she continued.
"It's not by our own doing..."
Oskar's eyebrows rose in both confusion and suspicion as he questioned Tracy's answer.
"What do you mean that it's not by our own doing? Were the surveillance systems already disabled beforehand?"
Tracy only hesitantly nodded as she confirmed her findings.
"Yes. From the looks of it, it was disabled due to some electrical malfunction... Do you want me to look int-"
"Negatory. Just keep watching our backs and make sure nothing goes wrong."
Like before, Tracy went to nod in affirmation only to be interrupted by a sudden childlike voice behind them.
"Oh... What do we have here?"
Almost immediately the trio spun around in reaction to the sudden voice, aiming their weapons at the source as they did so.
Despite their hostile actions, the voice continued speaking in a rather nonchalant manner as it addressed the trio.
"To think I would see a bunch of my 'old friends,' so soon..."
What came into their sights after they spun around was a little girl, no taller than their waist, who had a rather plain face which was neither ugly nor beautiful. Tracy had no idea how the girl snuck up behind them and she especially had no idea what the girl meant by 'old friend,' but her instincts told her that it must mean nothing good.
Tracy didn't know what it was exactly but she felt as if there was something off about the girl.
As if air itself around the girl was... twisted...
As if her existence itself was a mistake of nature.
It was obvious, this girl had to be that 'psionic prodigy' that the Family was after.
Even though Tracy was accompanied by Jordan and Oskar, both of whom aimed their weapons at the girl, she still could not help but feel a bit anxious.
And judging from the way that Jordan and Oskar reacted to the girl, they were all probably thinking the same thing.
Soon, the girl's mouth twisted into a grin as she spoke.
"It's been a while... Tracy... Jordan... Oskar... Although I doubt it, do any of you three recognise me?"
The trio only remained silent as their response to the girls question. While they may have no idea what the hell she was talking about, that does not mean that they had to answer her question. The fact that the girl knew what their names were didn't even register into their minds as they held their ground.
On the other hand, the girl tilted her head to the side slightly when she saw the trio's silent answer.
With a sigh, she once again spoke up.
"Hmm... I guess not... Well none of that matters anyway... Ahaha... This is going to be fun."
Although her young childish face and sparkling emerald eyes gave off an image of pure innocence, her twisted grin combined with the way that her now disproportionate eyes that occasionally twitched told Tracy another story.
There was no denying it.
That thing standing right in front of her was a monster in the form of a little girl.