Seven men wearing a black bulletproof vest over a black military uniform and a black balaclava over their heads stood in a town surrounded by burning structures and corpses.
They all had similar stature and outfits, the only notable difference was the pattern on their balaclava. They stood amidst the dead bodies, none of them saying a single word until a static noise came in followed by a voice on the radio. "Black Cloud, come in," it said.
Their leader, the one with a fang pattern on his balaclava, picked up the radio. "Black Cloud. Gelangen."
"Mission report?"
"For peace and for all the realms. Erfolg, Erfolg, Erfolg." He said with his voice devoid of any energy.
"Move to the extraction point and come back home."
...
They all sat in the chopper not saying anything to each other. Normally they'd sing about being immortals but they couldn't bring themselves to, not after what they did at Stoneview Heights.
It was their mission, and they were used to carrying out their missions no questions asked but something was wrong, one of them even pointed that out.
They knew that what they do, what they did, it was for peace, and it was for all the realms. Yet, they couldn't bring themselves to celebrate, not after indiscriminately massacring women, children, and the elderly.
The chopper lowered to the ground and the seven got down from it. They were in a vast desert with no sign of life anywhere near.
One of them, the one with a scorpion pattern on his balaclava spoke. "Where the hell are we?" He asked.
"This is standard procedure, agent, we do this every time one of our agents comes out of a high energy zone," one of the men who was with the extraction team replied.
"Yeah, relax Sting," said Metal, he was the talker of the bunch. His balaclava had two parallel lines that ran from side to side.
The leader of the Black Cloud looked around the desert before fixing his gaze in one particular location. "What are you looking at Fangs?" Metal asked.
"Something's coming."
The air is filled with the sound of roaring engines as several dune buggies and a pickup truck that had a huge rectangular object in the cargo bed appeared. The men got down from their buggies, they were each carrying heavy arms and they helped unload the rectangular object from the truck.
"What's happening?" One of the Black Cloud members asked.
"Agents, this is the decontamination process, it's standard procedure. The rectangular object is the decontamination machine, we are going to use it to reduce all the excess black energy around you. Black energy can lead to death or worse if not removed," one of the men explained.
Fangs looked at the armed men, he counted fourteen. He shifts his gaze to the weapons they were carrying and then to the decontamination machine. "Ah," he exhaled through his nose. "Oh well."
Fangs grabbed a handgun in a holster around Metal's belt and opened fire on the armed men. He gunned down four of them before they could react.
The men took out their weapons to shoot so Fangs threw the gun at Metal and charged forward, drawing a dagger from the pocket on his sleeve and leaped over one of the buggies. He slit one of the men's throat and dragged his body behind the buggy as the men began to rain lead on the Black Cloud members.
"Fangs! What the hell's happening?" One of the Black Cloud members who also took cover behind the buggy asked.
Fangs does not respond, he took out a grenade from the belt of the man he had killed and placed it on the ground next to himself.
Fangs then returned his dagger to his pocket and took out a submachine gun the man had on his back and passed it to his partner. He picked up the rifle the man was holding and reloaded.
Fangs looked at the other Black Cloud members to see they were taking cover behind the chopper. He gives them a small nod before picking up the grenade from the sand and removing the pin. The Black Cloud leader hands the explosive device to his Black Cloud teammate who tossed it at the men on the other side of the buggy.
They only had to wait a second before it exploded. Once it did, all seven members of the Black Cloud came out of hiding and began gunning down their opponents.
It didn't take long for the Black Cloud to be the last men standing.
Sting took off his balaclava. "What the hell was that?" He said.
"Clearly a code zero, we're out the Bureau," said Fangs.
"I knew it!" Sting exclaimed moving closer to Fangs. "I knew something was off about the mission. I said it! I told you and what did you say? What the fuck did you tell me?!"
Fangs punched Sting to the ground. "I don't give a shit what you said!" Fangs exclaimed. "It didn't matter then and it sure as hell doesn't matter now," he paused for a beat before letting out a deep breath. He opened his mouth to continue but before he could get any more words out, they heard a voice from one of the corpses' radio. The Black Cloud leader picked up the radio.
"Command to Strike team, is the mission completed? Have the Black Cloud been eliminated?"
Fangs brought the radio up to his mouth. "Negative," he responded. "We got your boys before they got us." With that, Fangs dropped the radio on the ground and smashed it to bits with his foot.
He turned to his crew. "Listen to me," Fangs started. "This isn't good, I know, but you gotta keep it together ... All of you. I know you're all tired and exhausted, I am too, but that's not gonna stop me. When I woke up this morning I thought I was going to spend the night in my wife's arms, I still do and nothing would be able to stop that ... I thought you guys had the same indomitable attitude. Did you forget already? We are the fucking Immortals. We would never die!" He exclaimed.
They got into the buggy and rode the vehicle opposite the path the men had come from. It took hours but eventually, they got to a small town where they were able to ask for their location and figure out their way to their respective homes.
"Now remember, just because this may be the last time I see you doesn't mean I'll forget you. We are a close-knit bunch ... Brothers. I'll never forget the day Olivia threw us all in a room together and said we were going to be a team. I'll never forget Heliopolis. I'll never forget Spain or Skyline or Metropolitan City. I'll never forget Skyhill. I'll never forget Skydance. I'll never forget the Northland or England or Scotland and so much more. I'll never forget any one of you.
"Robert 'The Devil' Rogers. Cameron 'Claws' Hayes. Victor 'Sting' Lamar. Ali 'The Boss' al-Kanadi. Jang 'Phoenix' Baekhyun. Ronald 'Metal' Bradshaw." The Black Cloud leader removed his balaclava. "Baron 'Fangs' Hubert."
"Immortals!" They said in unison. "Never say die."
They all started their separate ways, Baron had only taken a step forward when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Sting and Metal behind him.
"The Bureau could be at your home right now. You're going to need all the help you can get if you're to get your wife and kid out of there," said Sting.
"You guys don't have to," Baron said.
"Please, unlike you and the others, Victor and I don't have anyone to go back home to," said Metal. "The closest thing we have to a family is you, Noor, and Sasha. That kid, I'll do anything for her. So let's cut the 'you don't have to' shit and go get our family."
Baron smiles and the trio head for his mansion. They stopped first at a storage unit owned by Baron where they equipped themselves thoroughly with weapons. Baron also made sure to take a white object that looked like a clip. "What's that?" Metal asked.
"A gift," Baron replied.
...
The Hubert's mansion was swarming with agents from the Bureau, they knew the dark-skinned man would head back to his home to take his wife and child so they were there waiting for him.
They had men all around the building and inside some rooms in the building but what they didn't know was that Baron had a secret passage to his bedroom.
Meanwhile, inside the mansion, a little girl hugged her mother tightly. "Mommy, where's daddy?" The girl asked.
"Daddy's going to be home soon, okay honey?" said the mother to her child.
"I'm scared Mommy," the little girl said.
"I know honey but it's going to be alright." She looked at the armed men who had their backs turned to them before leaning in and whispering to her daughter. "Why don't you go to the bedroom and wait for me under the bed? Don't come out unless I call your name."
The little girl nods before racing up the flight of stairs, the sound of her foot hitting the steps drawing the men's attention.
"What the -- where the hell is she going?" One of the armed Bureau agents asked.
"I don't know," the older woman shrugged. "She must have gotten scared."
"Ugh kids," the man scoffed. "You!" He turned to his partner. "Go get her!"
...
The little girl got up to her parent's room, and to her surprise, her father was there when she did. "Da --"
"Shh!" Baron shushed his daughter, placing his index over his lips.
"Come here, honey," he beckoned the little girl who ran into his arms.
"Daddy, what is happening?" The girl asked.
"Nothing your daddy cannot fix my little tiger."
He placed his dagger on the bed, the dark-skinned man had drawn it when he heard footsteps approaching the room. He picked up a pen and turned to his daughter. "Let me see your hand."
The little girl gave her father her hand and the dark-skinned man scribbled something on it. "Mommy's downstairs right?" He asked.
The girl nodded. "There are plenty of big bad men with her, she told me to run up here," the girl said.
"Hurry back to her and show her this. Okay, honey?"
"Okay, Daddy."
The man turned towards the window but his daughter called his attention. "Daddy! You forgot your dagger."
Baron looked at the dagger and smiled. The first time his daughter asked him what it was, he told her it was the lucky charm; a gift from the young girl's mother; his wife, that had saved his life countless times. The dark-skinned man grabbed the blade before kissing his daughter on the top of her head. "Now, go!"
As the girl started down the stairs, she met the armed Bureau agent who was sent up to get her. "Come here big girl, let's get you back to your mom." He scooped her up into his arms and descended the stairs, setting the little girl next to her mom. "Sit tight, everything will be alright," he said before moving back to stand guard.
"Are you alright, honey?" The woman asked her little girl.
The girl nodded in response and showed her mother her hand which her dad had scribbled on. "When hear signal. Run for garage. Get car." It says.
The woman looked up at the guards to make sure they weren't looking before whispering to her daughter. "Who wrote this?" She asked.
"Daddy did."
"Huh?" One of the guards turned back.
BOOM!
A huge explosion rocks the front yard causing everyone in the mansion to shake.
"What the --"
A voice came in through the agent's radio. "Rabbit in the hole! I repeat: rabbit is in the hole!"
The agents guarding the mother and her kid rushed towards the front yard except for one who turned to the woman and her child. He started towards the duo and the mother reacted. "Sasha, run to the garage!" She ordered.
The little girl began as her mother instructed, while the man attempted to grab the mother who reached for a remote and hurled it at the armed man. The remote hit him on the head and knocked him off his feet.
The woman started after her daughter, heading for the garage where the little girl was waiting for her.
"Come on," she said, unlocking one of the cars and putting her daughter in the back seat.
Just as she ignited the engine, the Bureau agent she had knocked to the floor entered the garage and pointed the gun at the car.
"Sasha, get down!"
The girl goes down while the armed man begins unloading his clip on the car. The woman puts her car in reverse before driving back and hitting him with her car. She then drove forward then drove backward, hitting him once more with her car.
"Are you okay?" She asked the young ecru haired girl who replied with a nod.
"Everything's going to be okay, alright?"
...
Outside the mansion, the three members of the Black Cloud were gunning down their opponents when a car drove out of the garage and into the driveway.
"Let's get out of here!" Fangs say to his friends.
They began making their way to the car while still firing at the Bureau agents. Once they were close to the car, Baron pulled the door open but just as he was about to enter, he felt a change in the climate: a mystic was coming - a very powerful one.
The dark-skinned man stopped and looked up to the sky. There was a teenager floating in the air. He had vibrant blue eyes, caramel skin, and short snow-white hair.
"Zyair," Baron muttered.
The non-mystic knew the snow-white-haired boy very well from his days working at the Bureau. The kid was a prodigy and the two were familiar with each other as Baron spent most of his free time training the caramel-skinned boy in hand-to-hand combat.
"Shit!" He cussed before turning to his wife. "Listen to me Noor," he started. "You know that old park behind the TV station that was bombed months ago?" He asked.
"We met at that park," Noor replied.
"Great. You're going to drive there and you're going to wait for us there."
"Honey, don't ask me to leave you," she said with pleading eyes.
Baron took her hands in his. "Trust me, Noor. Can you do that?"
"Yes," she nods. "I trust you."
"Good. If we don't show up by midnight, drive to your uncle Victor's, tell him the Black Cloud got code zeroed, he'll explain everything to you."
"Honey ..."
"Shh ..." He closed the distance between them and kissed his wife.
"I love you," she said.
"I love you too. Now go!"
Noor got into the car and drove straight for the old park while Baron walked up to his teammate with his gun in hand. The non-mystic hung the gun to the belt around his waist and took out his dagger.
"You got neutralizers?" He asked Metal, the latter nodded in response.
"Good."
Sting and Fangs charged at the boy as soon as his feet touched the ground. Just before they reach him, however, Metal throws a neutralizer at the boy.
Neutralizers work like smoke bombs, they release a gas that can also be absorbed through the skin which temporarily removes one's mystical abilities.
Neutralizers would normally make one's mystical abilities null for several hours but Zyair was no ordinary boy. It took around ten minutes before his hand was surrounded with purple energy.
He hit Sting with a punch sending the latter to the ground. Fangs stepped forward, masterfully avoiding the caramel-skinned boy's attacks while also putting in enough strikes to make the snow-white-haired boy dance whenever he could.
"Neutralizer!"
Zyair tried making an energy barrier but Baron quickly placed his dagger between the teeth catching the teenager with his left hand and the neutralizer with his right.
Baron tackles Zyair to the ground and the neutralizer releases a gas into the air that renders the vibrant blue-eyed boy's abilities ineffective.
Zyair quickly got back up to his feet, and so did the Black Cloud leader. Baron throws a punch at Zyair but the latter swiftly dodges the strike, still possessing a speed advantage over Baron despite not having any of his mystical abilities.
Sting joins the attack on Zyair, it was barely a minute since a neutralizer was used but yellow energy soon surrounded the mystic's hand. He strikes Baron on the chest with his right but the dark-skinned man spins in the air and lands on his feet.
Fangs charged forward. "Neutralizer!"
Metal took out a neutralizer and threw it at Zyair who grabbed it from the air. The slight lapse in concentration allows the Black Cloud members to land successful punches on the snow-white-haired boy, making the latter drop the neutralizer.
It releases gas and once again removes Zyair's mystical abilities.
Sting throws a right but Zyair blocks, Baron throws a left and hit, Sting throws a right and this time, it lands successfully. Baron stabs Zyair with his dagger but as soon as he retracts his weapon, the wound starts to close.
Baron's eyes widen but he quickly recollects himself and jumps backward, he was still in the air when the snow-white-haired boy releases a bust of energy from his body. The energy was blue and it knocked all three of the Black Cloud members off their feet and onto the ground.
"Neutralizer."
"I'm out," said Metal.
Fangs turned to metal and sighed. He returned his dagger to his pocket and took his rifle, bringing it up to his shoulder.
"Switch to containment mode," he instructed.
"Are you sure? These are S-grade weapons, we can take him out," said Sting.
"Trust me, we can't."
"Alright."
Zyair walked towards the trio who shot some round objects from their guns to the ground. The round object blinks and blinks before releasing a green-colored energy that forms a shield around the caramel-skinned boy, keeping him away from the Black Cloud members.
However, the shield does not deter the snow-white-haired boy. He continued marching forward and once he got close to the shield, the mystic began breaking it with his hands.
"No way ..."
Metal turned to Fangs. "Baron, get out of aQSShere, we'll hold him long enough for you to get to meet with Sasha and Noor and get away from this monster," he said.
"No, we stay --"
"Just listen to us this once Baron," said Sting. "You've got a wife and a kid, if any one of us deserves to live it's you, so get out of here before we change our minds."
The shield begins to crack.
Baron smiles at them and turns the other way.
"One more thing Baron," Metal called the dark-skinned man's attention. "Let's not meet in hell anytime soon."
Baron began running from the fight. He had barely run a hundred meters when he felt the change in the atmosphere.
Fangs froze in his tracks and looked up to see Zyair slowly descending to the road in front of him.
The duo were standing face-to-face on an empty freeway that had trees on each of its sides.
They stood for some time, not saying anything until the teenage boy broke the spell.
"I looked up to you Baron," Zyair started. "Those people ... Why? Why did you do it?" The snow-white-haired boy asked.
Baron sighs, his hands dropping to his sides. "I wish I had an answer." Baron takes out an energy bank and tosses it at the caramel-skinned boy, the device explodes in his face but doesn't cause the teenager any harm.
An energy bank is a device that stores energy that most agents use when entering an area with no natural or dark energy. When an energy bank explodes, huge energy is released around which the agents then use for their mission.
Baron bolts into the forest on the side, throwing energy banks around as he looks for a spot to hide.
The energy bank began exploding and releasing energy into the surroundings and at first, Zyair raised an eyebrow at the strategy but he soon realized why the dark-skinned man was doing that.
Baron was a non-mystic but was armed with several S Grade weapons so it would be pretty easy to spot him in a forest with otherwise little mystical energy. This was why he was throwing energy banks up and down the forest. The energy released was to raise the average energy in the forest and make it impossible to locate any S Grade weapons.
"You know," Baron shouted while hiding behind a tree. "I always knew my death would be at the hands of a mystic but I never thought it would be you."
"You brought this on yourself."
"Sasha's waiting for me you know," said the non-mystic.
BOOM! BOOM!
"So what? You're just going to orphan a little girl?" Baron continued.
"Where was that line of thought when you orphaned so many at Stoneview Heights?" Zyair replied.
"Nah," said Baron as he took out a grenade and removed the pin. "I made sure to kill the kids too." He threw the grenade at Zyair.
The vibrant blue-eyed boy doesn't react, believing the object that was thrown to be an energy bank only for it to explode next to a tree the caramel-skinned boy was standing close to. The explosion caused the branch to break and fall towards the teenager.
Zyair moves forward to avoid the falling branch while Baron steps out from behind the tree and slides forward, clutching his dagger in hand to stab the mystic.
Zyair catches Baron and slams him into the ground. The non-mystic kicks himself up before moving forward with his blade in hand. Zyair slaps the dark-skinned man's hand away with his left hand while forming red energy around his right hand and striking the non-mystic on the chest with it, sending the latter several feet away.
"Uh ..." Baron coughed out blood as he dragged himself up to his knees.
Zyair started to form a ball of red energy with his right hand while Baron closed his eyes, thinking about his daughter, a huge grin appeared on his face.
"I don't blame you," The Black Cloud leader said. "I too was only doing what I was told."
Baron swiftly picks up his dagger from the ground and throws it at Zyair, the snow-white-haired boy shoots the energy ball while also shifting his head to the side, watching as the dagger flies harmlessly behind and into a tree.
Zyair turned back to the spot where Baron was to see everything had been obliterated. The caramel-skinned boy remained in the same location as a cold chill went down his spine. A portal opened in front of him and the mystic walked into it, leaving the scene.
...
At the old park, Noor and her daughter, Sasha wait for Baron. Noor checked the time on her watch; it was twelve minutes to 1 a.m. The older woman sighed, her gaze falling to the ground. "Mommy! Look!"
Noor looked up to see her husband dragging his bloodied and bruised body into the old park while holding his dagger in hand. "Daddy!" Sasha exclaimed, running towards her father.
Baron stabs his dagger into a tree and uses it as support so he can stand up straight while the little girl jumps and embraces her father. "N -- Not so tightly."
"Go easy on your father, Sasha," said Noor.
"It's fine. Come here."
Noor moved closer and joined the hug too.
"The dagger saved you again, didn't it Daddy?" Sasha asked.
Baron thought back to the final moments of his fight with Zyair. The caramel-skinned boy was pointing a red ball of energy at him, a move that would surely obliterate him since he was a non-mystic.
Just when the dark-skinned man had given up and accepted his fate, he remembered the white object he had taken from his storage unit. It was a blip porter, an object that briefly transports one to a different location. It was a one time use object so the non-mystic had been saving it.
Baron knew, however, that if he used it, Zyair would see him do so and just wait for his return before attempting to kill him again so the dark-skinned man had to cause a distraction. He picked up his dagger from the ground and hurled it at Zyair knowing the snow-white-haired boy would turn his attention away from him to avoid the blade and that gave him the opening to use the blip potter.
Baron smiles at his daughter. "Yes, it did, honey. Yes, it did."
.
.
.
Sasha opened her eyes, she was in an old building but didn't know where. A lady was typing on a laptop, sitting with her back turned to Sasha not too far away.
The gleaming purple-eyed girl looked around the place and saw her dagger which she picked up from the ground.
"Great! You're awake," she heard a voice say. The ecru-haired girl turned to see Hunter with a stone blue-skinned girl, both of them carrying plates with food on them.
The girl who was typing on a laptop turned to face Sasha. She had cinnamon-red hair and a white medical eye patch over her left eye.
The brown-skinned girl recognized the stone blue-skinned girl from Hunter's memories but not the one with the eye patch, she had yet to see Hunter's memory of his meeting with her.
"I made us something to eat," the sprite said.
"Huh."
-----