Panji stepped forward alone, approaching. He activated something in both of his hands that he had been wearing since the beginning of the mission. A strange glove studded with a colored stone on both sides, now glowing dimly in the darkness of the night.
"Hey, isn't that only supposed to be used in emergency situations?"
"This is the right moment to test this device."
Panji looked at the high-tech gloves that covered him with amazement. It was an AMER project that had been worked on for years. The gloves were filled with state-of-the-art technology that had been designed in such a way as to provide the user with an additional ability. When he activated the gloves, a green light began to emanate from his fingers.
The object then spread from its original position on the hand, then up the arm, continuing to crawl until it almost covered the chest. The gloves were like an exoskeleton that enveloped both upper limbs of a human. Udin was amazed to see the sophistication of the gloves and fascinated by the technology in front of him. This agency was serious about fighting mystical things that people often thought were just hallucinations.
"Wow, that's really cool. But there will be consequences, right? After all, it needs to be recharged for quite a while after use."
"Hey! What are you doing?! That thing cannot be used recklessly," Lisa saw the scene through her sniper scope. She warned Panji sternly for using the technology without following the established protocols.
"It's okay, Lisa... I was just trying to synchronize my body. Besides, this device has become a signature for our team," Panji replied.
As the monster's swift blow came towards him, Panji finally punched and exchanged blows with the creature. The size difference between them should have crushed Panji, but fortunately, the device in his hand managed to protect him from the attack.
"Ability release!" Panji muttered flatly.
The green light flashed even brighter, and then sent the monster crashing to the ground.
"What... the... F!," Udin exclaimed, gaping in awe.
However, the greatness of the gloves was not without consequences. There was something inside Panji that was forced to come out. Suddenly, he felt exhausted. Along with that moment, he also felt his body being filled with explosive energy that made him feel incredibly light.
All the attacks carried out by the team members successfully inflicted deep wounds on the target. At that moment, the large creature trembled in fear. A firearm had wounded it, and a mere human had been able to withstand its attacks. It was unclear what kind of equipment they were using, but they had already broken through the limits of the boundaries that should not be breached.
'Why... who are you... why are you doing this?'
In the end, the monster finally spoke up, asking who they were and what they wanted. Its voice could be heard through each operator's headphones. Lisa remained silent, listening in through her sniper scope. Until,
"Kill it"
"Huh?," Nimi was surprised to hear the words just now.
"I said kill it!" Lisa said in a flat tone.
This was unusual behavior for her, but Panji took the command seriously. He jumped forward, his glowing gauntlet still activated, and struck the monster with a powerful blow that sent it flying.
BUAGHH~
The final attack was launched, effectively killing the monster. The cluster of UF rays emitted from its body scattered in all directions before eventually being absorbed by the extractor.
Now it was all over, Lisa, who had been observing the situation, let out a heavy sigh. She ordered her team to disperse immediately, preparing to return to their base.
"Mission accomplished. Let's head back to base. Oh, don't forget to take a sample of the creature for analysis in the laboratory!"
"Ms Lisa, are you okay?" Nimi asked.
"What?"
"No, I just feel a bit... umm..."
"It's enough for us to know that it was a dangerous creature that needed to be destroyed. There's no need to know more than that."
As if she no longer cared, the woman with braided hair put her black sunglasses back on and packed all her weapons. Lisa immediately ended the communication channel. Her team members were a bit confused, but they chose not to make a big deal out of it. After all, their leader was known to be serious like that.
"It's because of you guys that Ms. Lisa got angry."
"Wait what? Why me?" Nimi asked irritably.
"You used the camera carelessly and Panji used the Gauntlet at will. As for me, I didn't do anything wrong," Udin said.
"I'm sure there's a more reasonable explanation than what you just mentioned. Now it's your turn to take over."
Panji asked for permission to leave and follow Nimi, as he was hungry and wanted to eat some noodles too. Udin was left alone and became more confused.
"Huh? Why am I left behind? Panji! Wait up," Udin said.
After Panji left to eat ramen, Udin felt even more isolated in the dark and creepy place. However, shortly after being left alone, Udin felt something suspicious. He felt like someone was watching and following him. He became even more scared and anxious, but he had to wait for the UF particle extraction process to finish before he could rejoin the others.
"Geez, I hate my job~"
Unexpectedly, an interesting event occurred. After the monster's death, many glowing chains emerged, stuck in its body, and the number might be more than 20 from various parts of its body. From each end of the chains, even more ghosts appeared, of various kinds coming out.
"WHAT?! Nimi!! What's going on?!"
The girl checked her tablet again and found that there was a group of energy surrounding the field. However, the radar did not show any UF particles.
"Calm down, they're just ordinary ghosts. We don't have to eradicate them."
"So?"
"So, you just focus on your task there and don't disturb them."
While Udin was waiting, he suddenly heard a strange sound from behind him. Udin turned around and saw a woman with long hair wearing a white dress standing near him, silent. Udin felt very frightened, especially when the figure stared at him with empty eyes. He felt increasingly panicked and wanted to leave the place immediately, but he couldn't abandon the UF particle extraction device that was currently running.
In the end, he chose to turn off the transmission device that could listen to ghosts so he wouldn't hear anything, and also he turned off the lens that emits electromagnetic waves so he can't see them anymore.
"Damn it!"
It had been about 20 minutes of him just standing there. When the extraction process was finally complete, without a second thought, Udin quickly grabbed his tools and intended to leave the place.
"Goodbye to you, ladies and gentlemen. I don't know who you are, and I don't care either."
He quickly took a thousand steps, catching up with his other colleagues at Soedirman noodle shop. Little did Udin know, apparently the beings had been welcoming him all along.
'Thank you, stranger.'
'Thank you for freeing us.'
Unfortunately, he would never know what they were saying.
* * *
They worked together to clean up the location so that it wouldn't look suspicious the next day. Panji waved to the surveillance camera on the street that had been sabotaged to indicate that their mission was complete. Nimi had also helped the shop owner to rest in a safe place until it was time for him to wake up.
"Damn, the one who sold it was paralyzed. I haven't eaten noodles since earlier."
"Yeah, Nimi's fault," Udin added.
"Quiet, I'm just avoiding questions that could reveal our identities."
Finally, after everything was done, they walked home to their base. They discussed the results of that night's operation and agreed that even though they had successfully taken a sample of UF particles, they still needed to conduct more research to understand further about the astral beings that appeared around Grimoir
"I actually don't know what UF particles are... I haven't understood them since a long time ago," said Udin.
"Hmm, I don't really understand either. Where do they come from and how could they exist on Earth?" Nimi replied.
"Moreover, why could they stick to ghosts and humans? What was AMER thinking when they made this sophisticated device to collect them?" Panji added.
The man looked again at the two objects in his hands. Even after doing something crazy like before, he still couldn't believe that human technology could do such a thing.
The team still kept their curiosity about all the things in their job. However, their duty was only as a HUNTER department. They just needed to eliminate the astral beings as instructed by the central headquarters, without questioning further.
"It seems like Ms Lisa is always prepared for the worst-case scenario. She's always serious on every mission," Panji said.
"Worst-case scenario? You mean... extracting UF particles from a human body?"
"Well... probably."
* * * *