Chapter 10 GABBY FLASHBACK FIVE YEARS AGO “Oh come on, lighten up. It was a joke” Kenji said over breakfast. “What sort of messed up joke is that?” Adachi replied, audibly not having it. “Really?” he looked across the dining table and saw that none of us really enjoyed that expensive ‘joke’. “Jesus, am I the only one with a sense of humor here? You guys need to lighten up a little, huh.” “That was actually pretty dark” I remarked “Oh not you too.” “We took an oath to be the ones that protect these humans. The second you start welcoming the idea of overpowering them because you feel ‘nifty’, that’s where we’re gonna have a problem.” “Oh please, what are you gonna do about it?” he bit back at Adachi. “As a matter of fact, it wasn’t a joke” he shoved his plate away and abruptly stood up. “What now?” “Watch your words Kenji.” “No! I’m sick and tired of you telling me what to do, you overpampered prick. You’re not even the strongest, but we gotta follow all your dumb orders bec

Chapter 12 RYUU “When you told me road trip, I wasn't expecting—" "Boarding a flight?" I nodded. "Well, if we were taking a cab to Princeton, I wouldn't have gotten you some clothes. Plus, I did say we needed to get as far away as possible" Gabby replied, glancing out the window for the seventeenth time this trip. “Is there something you’re looking for?” “Yeah. Just a… yes. That landmark. We're here.” "Where's here?" I was about to slump back into my seat. "Our stop." "Huh?" "We're getting down here." "W… what do you—" "Come on." She got up stretching. Am I tweaking? We're almost six miles above ground level. What'd she mean by 'come on'? “Aren't you gonna get up?" “You’re joking right?” “What, are you scared?” “Me? Noooo. Because I routinely jump off— of course I'm scared. There's nothing normal about jumping off a plane mid-air. What would the other passengers think? What would the pilot think?” “Other passengers? Pilot?” No way. I shrugged off my seat and t

Chapter 14 RYUU "Three. Based on the three threat levels, we have three types of emergencies." "Yes. Green. Blue. Red." Harumi and Hiro maintained an impressive back and forth while we sprinted towards the scenery. "Green. Minor issue. Maybe one of our mates gets missing in the forest." "Or the food supply is running short. Green Emergency calls our attention to minor issues. Blue." "Important issue. An unidentified threat found around our borders. Any activity involving extermination or intentional ignorance is usually classified under the blue level threat." "Red? Infiltration. A foreign threat within our borders." “Ryuu" Harumi called out, "...you’re falling behind. Are you trying to conserve your energy?” The hell I was! These guys were fast. Way too fast. I couldn’t count the number of people that had sprinted passed my tiring ass. I was dragging Hiro and Harumi back. “They’re all heading North of the stream. It’s probably where the commotion is coming from. I know a

Chapter 16JESSICA“North this, South that, no it’s right around the corner. That bastard’s been making me run around in circles for almost three weeks now. And anytime I try to return to headquarters, he’ll run to the higher-ups, and they’ll just double my problems. For a #4, the runt’s a crybaby.”*SLASH*I cut through a piece of unchecked wood with my blade.I hated the way Jared would always run to the higher-ups whenever he wanted something to go in his favor. Just one of them saw his rants as actual rants, but I hadn't seen him in a while. Only God knows the amount of action I’d missed back at headquarters. For some odd reason, he didn’t want me anywhere near there. That had to be the only reasonable explanation for why he’d kept me gallivanting for so long.I wouldn’t have complained if I at least got a decent piece of action. But it’s been grass, grass and more grass.*SLASH*“Next time I see that asshole, I’m gonna kill him” I thought to myself, about to tick another unrestr

Chapter 18JENNIFER"I'm guessing the regeneration ability doesn't come with a regenerating set of brain cells" It said with nonchalance. The longer this fight went on, the more annoyed I became. I still hadn't found a way to kill this… whatever he was yet. As a matter of fact, I was yet to land a single blow on him. "Enough silly games. Why don't we end this once and for all" I tried catching my breath. "Thought you'd never ask. Simple technique… Multiplicity."Like it wasn't hard enough fighting one of him, now I had to contend with almost forty more. "Ready to end this?" I heard from no one in particular.This was my guess. He wasn't a mimic, but somehow, he managed to hit me with super speed, a decent amount of super strength, and now, multiplicity. Whatever he was, I hadn't heard of it. But if multiplicity was his way of ending the fight, then one very important detail sprung to my intuition. One, if he's a low or moderate level threat, he's a newbie. Since when do simple