Although the road was part of the city of La Capital, it being surrounded by darkness during midnight suggested that it had been long abandoned. The only glitters of lights available other than the dim glow of skyscrapers far in the horizon were flickering road lamps littered around the dry grasslands, with collapsed concrete structures lying here and there.

The arid summer breeze was abruptly interrupted by a squad of police cars rushing down the lane, bringing with them shrieking sirens and blinding strobe lights. Following right behind them were armored trucks, their diesel engines roaring with the strength that carried dozens of armed personnel.

Inside the leading police car, officer Jose leaned against the black leather passenger's seat.

"Haven't got this much action in a while," he exclaimed, "'potential terrorist assault on the Energy Institute Laboratory' is outrageous for any crime organizations…what do you expect to be there, Dan?"

"A lot of gunfire, to say the least," the driving officer answered, eyes locked on the approaching building. His left hand rubbed the ragged beard that covered the entire outline of his rough face.

"I mean, Jose, it's a government institution we are talking about…only terrorists armed to the teeth have the balls and power to deal with that level of security."

"There's another possibility though," officer Jose replied, clearly hinting at something, "do you think it could be…"

He concentrated his sight on the rolled newspaper next to the seat. The headlines of "Supernatural Attack" stood out.

Upon considering the possibility, officer Dan frowned lightly as a quick shiver ran through him. Nobody was ignorant of the terrors those 'freaks' could bring…not after the war a decade ago.

"We all saw what they could did in that conflict," said Jose, "as soon as the Liberta government gave orders to unleash those beasts, Ledyanaya's army stood no chance!"

"I know they are deadly, Jose," replied Dan, "but the government did listen to the public – any projects related to them were officially shut down."

"Sure…but one can never be too careful. Rumors has it that some of them are responsible for the recent chaos."

"Well, just remember one thing…" said Dan as he turned the last corner that leads to the laboratory building, "the strongest powers turn the nicest folks into blood-thirsty demons. So, if you ever see one of them, send them straight to hell."

◆ ◆ ◆

Upon approach, the entirety of the laboratory came into view: an old, flat concrete building of three floors in height occupied an area of a football field surrounded by a small forest. A row of flags on the roof faced the gates, with the national flag of La Angosta in the middle.

As soon as the police cars and armored trucks came to a stop outside the gate, all personnel rushed out of the vehicles and went into position. The lights in the flat concrete building remained on, but the collapsed bodies of guards and the deadly silence suggested the abnormality of the situation. Some men moved farther behind the trucks and positioned themselves with the rifles, while most of the armed policemen stormed into the gate, heading directly for the buildings under the guide of their headlights. Officers Dan and Jose took out their pistols and stationed behind the opened doors of their car, eyes focused on the building.

Now that every detail of the site could be seen up close, the bizarreness of the situation was revealed: the area around the laboratory were mostly burnt, with parabola-shaped dark spots that are meters in length scattered around the gate – like the trail left by a rocket blasting its exhaust right on the floor. Meanwhile, the concrete walls were either cracked or had unusually circular holes in them, deep enough to show the half-molten steel reinforcements on the inside.

"Alpha Squadron, moving in," the squad captain's firm voice came from the intercom, as the flock of armed troops moved into the building hallways.

"Best of luck, captain," officer Jose replied into the intercom, eyes still locked on the entrance.

As the last armed police of the squad disappeared into the front door, officer Dan moved his head around and examined the horrendous scene he had tried to ignore for the past five minutes.

"Jesus, Joe, wouldn't you look at this…disaster," Dan spewed out all the disgust he had been hiding in a forcefully suppressed tone.

The hellish landscape consisted of burnt, black mashes scattered around the gate. Nobody could have recognized that they were once organic bodies if it weren't for the burnt bones and crisp limbs that stuck out of them. Like a graveyard in which corpses are emerging from underground, the proximity of the laboratory was littered with half-human looking piles. Even the metallic weapons once armed by the guards were melted and distorted completely out of shape, becoming what seemed like something straight out of an expressionism painting.

Officer Joe looked at Dan, the latter closing his eyes for a second – maybe the horrific scene was too much even for the brave and experienced cop.

"Just what the hell happened here?" The fearful possibility Jose proposed earlier crept up Dan's spine. "Please don't tell me-"

Before he could finish, all the lights in and outside of the building shut down instantly with a loud crack as the power was cut off. Darkness immediately fell upon the squad of policemen as they jerked backwards and held up their pistols. The only light in the vicinity were the headlights of the infiltration squad that shined dimly through the windows of the laboratory. Dan then spoke into his intercom.

"Officer Lopez to Alpha Squadron, what is going on-"

The conversation was interrupted by a blinding white light emerging from the top floor of the building. The light, which originated somewhere within the lab, grew from a tiny white spot to a sun-like fireball in a matter of seconds. Suddenly, the darkness was completely engulfed by a flash ten times as bright as the noon sun, painting everything in the vicinity a deadly white. The shockwave followed soon after with the sound of air being brutally ripped apart. The powerful shockwave hit Dan and the rest of the squad outside as a solid wall of sound, dropping most personnel onto the ground.

Dan had a hard time opening his eyes as the white light temporarily blinded him. The yelling of others and the sound of gunfire were all accompanied by an excruciatingly painful ringing. With Jose's help, he got up and forcefully shook his head in an attempt to restore sight and hearing.

"You all right, pal?" Jose asked, "need a medic?"

Dan didn't say a thing. Then, he grabbed his intercom and shook Jose off and ran towards the building with zero hesitation.

"Hey, get back!" Jose shouted after him, "you have no idea what you are after! You'll get yourself killed if it's one of those esper bastards!"

◆ ◆ ◆

"The hell just happened…why am I on the ground?" thought the captain of the Alpha Squadron, "so cold…why does it feel like that everything is fading away?"

The screaming from the intercom dragged him back to reality. What was once a hallway was then an abstractly-shaped room with an oval-shaped hole running through the ceiling, as if a cylindrical beam was shot diagonally through the floor. Above him, sparkles jumped out of the cut wires in golden rains. Suddenly, searing pain rushed through his left arm, followed by a weird numbness that resonated within him. Looking at it, he saw that the arm was gone. All that was left was a badly burnt black lump hanging next to his left shoulder.

"Now I remember…we encountered a figure up here, holding what seemed like a hard drive. Before we could even point the guns at him, he raised his hand and fired whatever the hell that thing is at us…"

He moved his head toward where his troops faced the blast head-on mere seconds ago – nothing but floating ashes remained, with what used to be assault rifles molten into a puddle of bent metal parts, still glowing red-hot.

With all his strength, he stood up and took out a pistol with his right hand. He walked jerkily, supported by the wall, towards where the attacker was.

"Alpha Squadron, this is captain Fernandez, report your status!"

Nothing came back from the intercom. Only faint noises of gunfire came from the neighboring hallways. Then, another blast was fired somewhere at the floor beneath him. Although there was no blinding light this time, the explosion was still deafening, enough to cover the screaming of the ones that were burnt to a crisp.

"Captain, this is officer Lopez," came a hurried voice from the intercom, "report your location, I'll come to you."

"Negative," stressed captain Fernandez, who could taste the bitterness of blood on his lips, "retreat immediately…we are no match for the attacker…I repeat, retreat immediately! It's one of them…"

He threw away the intercom as his mind was too faint to even put the device back to the pocket on his belt. Lying against the wall, he slowly moved forward towards the intersection with another hallway. Electric sparks leaked out of the walls while the dim hall was lit by red emergency lights.

Taking a turn, Fernandez now faces the doorway leading to the exit. There, stood a hooded figure. He walked slowly down the hallway while casually avoiding the concrete debris around him, as if all of this hellish scene was no more than a walk in the garden, while his left hand was occupied with a hard drive.

"Found you, goddamn son of a gun…" Fernandez swore under his breath, and pointed the pistol at the attacker.

Right before the trigger was clicked, he saw, once again, the emerging light as it grew into a blinding white beam. An intense wave of unimaginable heat followed. Before he lost his sight completely, Fernandez saw the hooded man turning around slightly, revealing a wicked smile under the ragged robes.

◆ ◆ ◆

"Where are you, captain?!" yelled Dan into the intercom, but no one responded.

Then, came the blow. The explosion struck again, this time from above Dan. He could feel the pressure pushing him down like a shoe stepping on an ant. He was slammed into the floor, knocking his pistol and intercom off of his hands. Panting, he immediately got up and tried to follow the stairs to the upper floors. But the cracking noises of the concrete pillars supporting the hallway caught his ear.

"Gahhh! God-dammit!"

He turned around and dashed out of the building as fast as possible. He raced toward the front door, where the flashing strobe lights guided him towards the outside world. Just when he jumped out of the front door of the laboratory, the portion of the building around the gate collapsed like a stack of cards, with the once rigid concrete structure disappearing into a cloud of smoke and dust.

"Dan! You good, pal?" Jose came running, supporting Dan with his arms, "the hell were you thinking when you ran in?"

Dan gasped without saying a word and walked slowly back to the car with the help of Jose.

"We are lucky that we survived at all, buddy," Dan said, gasping heavily, "we were facing against one of those things…"

Jose put him on the passenger seat, and rushed away to get the medic. Dan laid back in the chair, pulled out a cigar and lit it. He breathed in deeply for the anesthetizing smell to calm him down. He stared in front of him at the photograph stuck on the roof of the car. In the photo, a lightly bearded man laughed happily, holding an equally joyful boy in his arms. Dan took a deep suck of the cigar and breathed out. Laughing numbly, he shook his head.

"This wicked world is just so reluctant to offer even a cent of goodness, huh?"