A young charming man with gold hair, having the face of an enchanting angel walked by the streets of elite city. He wore a butter coloured suit and pants, finished with black shoes and a nice hat the same colour with his suit that covered his face.
'Hmm.. everything seems slow and peaceful.' He thought, looking at the scene as he walked by. he could see various of the cyborg civilians going about their daily business, trying to make a living.
"Hey! you have to pay for that!" A cyborg store owner with robot legs and eyes yelled, catching a young man with a robotic left arm trying to steal an apple.
"Please.. i-i haven't eaten anything in two days." The young man begged. He didn't care as he was caught, as he still ate the apple while being dragged by the cyborg store owner.
"I don't care. You know the rules, if you don't pay with cash then you pay with other valuable items." Tom the cyborg store owner said, grinning evily looking at the man's robotic arm.
"B-but you can't take this. Without this I can't move both my arms." Grey the thief reasoned, but Tom wasn't listening.
"Then what other valuable items do you have?" He asked with a frown, but grey shook his head indicating there was nothing precious in his possession.
"What! So you're just a smelly no good church rat!" Tom roared a vein bulging on his forehead, and the next moment he shoved his hand into Grey's gut sending him to the floor.
"If you can't pay, then I guess I'll have to beat the hell out of you." Tom uttered, sending out series of fist's to a defenseless grey crotched down in the floor. The young man coughed up mouthful of blood after mouthful, but tom didn't care still beating the crap out of him.
"Barbarians.." Micheal muttered watching from afar. he could see the young man couldn't take much more of this aggressive store owner fists, as he had a frail body or he would die.
'I'll get penalized one day.' He chuckled, walking over to the location where some group of people had now gathered, hyping the store owner beating the thief.
"Scums like you don't deserve to live." Tom said.
"Yeah tell him!"
"Give him what he's earned!"
"Show him what's hell about." The angry mob shouted in an uproar, sending out abusive and hurtful words.
"You're better off dead than occupying space!" He roared sending out his metal robotics leg to Grey's head, the kick was fast but just as it was about to connect micheal caught it with his bare hands.
"Are you ok?" He asked grey as he crotched down to his view. He could see several bruises and cuts plastered over his face, along with multiple imprints of Tom's fist and kicks all over his body.
"Y-yeah.. thank you." Grey weakly spoke coughing up some blood.
"W-who the hell are you?" Tom angrily spoke, annoyed that this unknown individual had just interrupted his act of justice.
"You don't have the right to beat him to death." Micheal said his head bent down, still holding the man's leg stopping it from going any further.
"And why do you care? He stole from me so I can do whatever I like to him!"
"Yeah!" the crowd supported Tom, also enraged by the fact this stranger had just interrupted their show.
"Wrong." Micheal coldly spoke shoving Tom's foot backwards, sending him landing hard on his butt. He then helped grey up, placing his arm over his shoulder as he helped him walk.
"How much for the apple?" Micheal asked Tom still on the floor, not yet recovered from Michael's shove.
"It's expensive for you to afford." Tom chuckled, downgrading Micheal who had his head bent downward.
"How much? Micheal asked again, causing a frown to form on Tom's face.
"It's 200 blue quills." He grinned, thinking Micheal couldn't afford that but his smile later changed to that of shock, seeing Micheal easily bring out 200 quills sached in a small bag.
"He's debt been repayed, he's free to go now." Micheal calmly said, taking grey out to a hospital nearby.
"And who the hell do you think you are, to come here and play the hero card!" Tom yelled, but he immediately regretted that as Micheal finally revealed his face causing all their jaws to drop.
"You're right am not a hero, but am also not a monster. Truth is I don't know where I belong."
"I-it's Micheal as in Micheal the hunter."
"What the fuck! it's the HC's champion!"
"We're so dead."
The impression on the crowd faces immediately changed to that of despair and fear, as soon as Micheal showed his face.
"S-sir am so sorry, I didn't recognize you under that disguise." Tom shakily said bowing his head down in fear, never in his life did he think he would ever see the HC's champion in person.
"H-here take it back, the Apple's on the house." Tom offered the 200 quill back to Micheal, but the latter just simply shook his head.
"I've already paid for the apple, it would be unwise and foolish of me if i take back the money now. And besides, you need the money to replace the apple otherwise you would be punished for insubordination of taxes."
"B-but I can't possibly take from a hunter." He awkwardly said his head down, while his hands stretched forward with the sach of quills in his hand.
"I insist." Micheal boldly spoke placing the sach back to Tom's grasp, then helping grey out of the store leaving a shocked and frightened crowd of cyborg civilians.
Walking a little few steps, Micheal saw a hospital just up in front. going in, it wasn't that inviting or accommodating but it was ok fo the time being.
"M-micheal morningstar." The receptionist gasped, seeing the legendary hunter's icon standing before her presence.
"At ease.. I need you to help me take care of my friend here." He pointed to grey who was now unconscious, having lost some blood from his frail body.
"O-of course anything for you." She replied with a determined look, immediately calling other nurses placing grey on a board wheeling him to a room. Sitting down on the many chairs stationed at the reception, there weren't much people. infact there was none, only Micheal and little staffs working there.
After about thirty minutes, the brown haired nurse from earlier came to Micheal bringing him some good news.
"We've treated his injuries and stabilized him, but he's unconscious for now Mr Micheal." She said bowing her head slightly, to which Micheal casually waved his hand.
"It's alright. Can I see him now?"
"Of course." Micheal was then taken by the nurse, to the room where grey laid. Climbing the stairs, they stopped at the second floor. walking by the rooms, Micheal could see most were empty only few containing some people.
'Room 23.' Opening the door the HC's champion eyes befall on the bandaged grey, gesturing to be alone the nurse bowed leaving the room with only Micheal and grey.
'It's a shame.' Micheal inwardly said looking at grey in this condition, he didn't know him at all but still he felt he didn't deserve this kind of treatment.
"The world is truly a cruel place."
Micheal spoke out loud, even though it was only him and an unconscious grey in the room.
"Why don't I give you a new beginning." Micheal chuckled a bit, bringing out a gold card from the inside of the side of his suit, placing it on the desk besides grey.
"Think about it and give me a call when you're ready." With that he stepped out of the room away from the building, as he made his way to the hunters guild to handle important matters.
....
"Argh! where am I?" Atlanta grunted sharply, clutching her head as she opened her eyes. Scanning the room she saw she was still in the resistance, specifically the health department as there were different medical tools operating.
Turning she could see Rhoin sleeping on a bed besides her, some parts of his body were bandaged as some tubes connected to a machine were strapped to him.
[Judging by his vitals and steady breathing, I would say he should fully recover in about five hours approximately.] Nexus said already scanned Rhoin.
"Good." Atlanta muttered exhaling a bit.
[I am sensing some signs of relief after hearing your friend is ok.] Nexus chipped in, causing Atlanta's eye to go wide a bit.
'I-i told you he's not my friend.' She said, scoffing at Nexus turning to the other side of the bed. She didn't have any friends, and even the few she had she always had a way of driving them away.
She didn't know how and why sole stuck with her, even though all of what she'd made him go through. But she was glad he was always there for her, even when she pushed him away.
'What's wrong with me.'
[Maybe it's a sign that you're not so cold and uptight like you always act.] Her system spoke again. she knew Nexus had a point, but the thing was she was just too scared to let go and make new friends.
"Maybe.." she muttered. All her life she'd been alone cut off from people, but maybe Rhoin was a sign it was time for her to let go and write a new story.
"H-how are you awake?" The shocked brunette haired nurse exclaimed, seeing Atlanta already awake as she entered the room.
"What do you mean?" She was confused seeing this surprised female's expression.
"Most people would be unconscious a few hours after a shot of ice, while more than one would result in a longer period of a day or two, but you you're awake after just two hours." She exclaimed, staring at Atlanta with wide eyes. never since her days of being a nurse, has she ever seen someone come awake after receiving three shots of ice into their system.
'What's ice?' Atlanta thought. She guessed it was some sort of sleeping fluid, administered to her by gin against her will.
[Ice sleeping fluid: extracted from the fangs of a venomous snake, and mixed with several herbs and left to firment for a week. This transparent fluid has earned it's spot amongst the world's best sleeping fluids.]
'One of the best.' Atlanta now knew the reason for the nurse shocked expression. She had been acquainted to sleeping fluids, even having used some on hunters that were tough or tricky, but never had she used one like this. Usually the ones she used took some hours to have full effect on the hunters, but it wasn't a problem because then she had sole.
"I can explain. Maybe it's expired, or the quality has been tampered with." Atlanta desperately spoke, causing the nurse to stare at her weirdly.
"It doesn't matter." She slightly shook her head, heading over to Atlanta's side with some papers in her hand.
"What matters now is you're awake. how do you feel? Do you have a headache, or maybe some pains whatsoever." The nurse asked, all to which Atlanta softly shakes her head no. Moving on the nurse then went to check up on Rhoin, writing some things down just as she did with Atlanta.
"Alright you two are in good condition now, we'll discharge you lads after three hours after we've carried out complete assessments." Nodding, there was nothing Atlanta could do but patiently wait on different bed with Rhoin.
"Food will soon be brought for the both of you, in the meantime feel free and relax." She calmly said then walked out of the room, leaving only Atlanta and rhoin in the room.
And just like that hours flied past. Rhoin finally woke up after a few hours, and surprisingly him and Atlanta chatted a bit about some irrelevant things. They were also discharged from the health department that same day, as they went to their various departments.
Rhoin staying in the health department, while Atlanta's going over to stay and check up on sole and doc. Luckily doc was having some progress with sole as Atlanta could see he worked tirelessly, it gave her a bit reassurance everything would be better.
Rhoin and Atlanta also stayed in touch via comms, mostly Rhoin contacting Atlanta while she responded to some and avoided most. They were starting to have a kind of weird friendship which she couldn't fathom, and just like that another day passed, marking the end of the little vacation they enjoyed.
"Am so excited I can literally feel my heart wanting to explode right now." Rhoin enthusiastically said to Atlanta by his side, to which she glared at him awkwardly.
They had now gathered back at the elite squad department, along with the other students. She could feel their Peery eyes staring at her but she didn't care, they didn't bother her in the slightest.
'They're here.' She could also see the group of boys, that had attacked Rhoin and her not too long ago. She could tell they would stare at her from time to time, especially the blonde haired boy but she didn't care. she was more than ready, to handle whatever they threw at her.
"Alright everyone listen up!" Miss lira spoke, her voice a bit high pitched. "Am sure you've all enjoyed your little break time but it's over now, and it's time to focus on business."
"You're all elite squad members for the resistance, fighting for the good of elite city and our freedom from the damn hunters!" The students cheered, expressing their disdain and hate for the hunters.
"But to do that you'd have to undergoe through hell's flame, and finally be reforged into devils. So without further delay, let the training begin!" She shouted and the cadets responded with a 'yes ma', the looks on their faces was that of will and guts to do anything.
"Break a leg.."