It was a quiet, peaceful night, out on the outskirts of one of the many port cities that lined the coast, just another calm night. Then, as the coast slipped into the deepest hours of twilight, from the port itself, came a train barreling out onto the tracks. The train was speeding, and it's perceived destination seemed to be a abandoned factory. On this very day, would be the beginning of a series of events, events that would shake and destroy the world's foundation.
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"Hey Mike, wake up."
That was the first thing Michael heard as his eyes started to open up, looking at the dim train car that he was in. As he looks down at his hands, seeing the usual charcoal gray marks on his palms. His gray hair brushed to the side as he turned to look up.
"Yeah, I'm up, Joseph." Michael says.
Joseph, his friend and squad-mate, stood beside him, next to the train door. They had met in initial training, and were put in the same unit. He had mildly tanned white skin, flowing blond hair that went to his shoulders, similar to a mullet, and well worn aviator jacket on, with his actual military uniform lying below it. Below his jacket, was some blue jeans that was a bit more black than any blue, like it was covered with soot, and his weapon of choice being a revolver, hooked to the side of it.
"Man, you look like you've seen death. You're like, 21, and you already have grey hair?" Joseph joked.
Michael says, "I didn't choose my hair color. Why did you wake me up, anyways? We haven't made it to the location yet."
Joseph explained, "Roy had some oh-so important information to tell us, that he should have just told us back at our barracks instead."
After saying this, Joseph lamented, "Ugh, from what the briefing told us, this should be a job for the military, feels a lot less like police duty and more like active conflict"
Michael asks, while listening to Joseph express his great dissatisfaction with the current situation, "It is our job, you know."
Joseph says, "Just as you didn't choose your hair color, I didn't originally want to be a cop. I would much rather be cooking a grand dish in my restaurant, which I will also establish by the way, and talking with my beautiful partner."
As Joseph finished speaking, a voice buzzed out from the radio. "Stop daydreaming, we have work to do, Joseph." It was Roy, who had joined their team later through training. He was more of a cooperative person, and was the glue in the team, in and out of combat. He was also the person who most questioned Michael and especially Joseph's plans, if you could even call them that. He was the main strategist. "I'm still packing into the new barracks, which is why I'm doing communications back here."
Roy says, "Anyways, here's the details. We got some organized crime hiding down in the factory. Wouldn't be a big deal, but they have some very explosive weaponry, so we can't just go in there guns blazing, only you two can do that. You're gonna have to take most of them out, non-lethally is preferred, but I understand if that can't be done. I should be able to pick you all up from a helicopter, but in between now and then, you're on your own."
Joseph says, "So, per usual, us two have to do the jobs that would be done with large, vast forces, on our own. Good to know that I'm still the MVP."
Michael replied, ignoring Joseph, "Alright, we get the assignment."
Roy says, "Then, I hope to see you all soon. Send a radio ping when you're ready, I should be there in 10." before leaving the radio channel. Don't do it until you're sure everybody's knocked out, wouldn't want to attract unknown attention.
Michael and Joseph activated their armor, and took out their respective weapons, with Michael having his military uniform on, it being a sharp navy blue hue. He also had a sword attached at his side, specially made to attune with Mana.
Joseph told Michael, "Alright Magic Man, make sure not to overheat in your own flames."
Michael grinned, "Don't shoot yourself either."
The train slowed down. Michael pressed the palm of his hand on to the wall of the train. In a second, the mark on his hand grew bright red, and the wall was instantly blown out onto the ground, with what seemed to be armed gangsters running out from the shadows of the factory. Michael and Joseph jumped off of the train, onto the ground below. There were several trucks at the stop, with cargo seemingly loaded in there, and a whole loading area around them.
The gangsters readied their guns, and Michael and Joseph nodded at each other, before moving into action. The gangsters began to fire at them, and Michael struck the ground, with a wall of flames erupted, melting the bullets before they could impact. Joseph began loading special bullets, enchanted to be non-lethal and to focus on knocking the enemies out. He began firing the bullets, taking out a couple of the gangsters, while Michael rushed forward, hitting each gangster with one strong tap from the end of his sword, knocking them out. After a bit of mild resistance, the gangsters fell, leaving only Michael and Joseph. Michael and Joseph started breaching the facility, meeting light resistance from small groups of them.
By the time they reached the final room to clear out, they were both covered in soot, dust, and a bit of blood. The last room was a large, cylindrical one, filled with computers and filing cabinets. There was a indented part of the floor in the middle, and they walked around in it, checking for hostiles.
"We've already gathered most of the explosives, and if what I'm seeing is correct, we've about cleared out this place. It kinda sucks, I had some things I made for this. How about I ping Roy?" Joseph says.
"Sure, call him. We've knocked out about 40 people by now, I'd say there can't be that more in here." Michael replies.
Joseph sets up the radio, and sends a signal, indicating for Roy to pick them up. As soon as the radio pinged, a computer started up, like it took signal from the radio. Joseph walked up to the computer, confused. It read, "Confirmation acquired, temporarily releasing Subject Bay lock." Joseph tried to stop the computer, but the indented part of the floor opened, elevating what appeared to be a old mech. As Michael looked at the mech, it started creaking. It was covered in scratch marks, and feathers. There was a clipboard on the ground, that read, "Test Subject 33: Subject Information: Pilot, success prompted us to use him for the experiment. When exposed to the fluid, status quickly deteriorated, though overall strength met the required threshold. Result: Failure, did not meet requirements. Presented uncontrollable form and consciousness, did not have enough strength to maintain proper form and consciousness was akin to a wild animal, unfitting of a creature with the moniker "Angel". Recommended Actions: Please dispose of the subject, The Doctor would not appreciate such trash brought to his face. And, make sure to close down the site as well. Sites one through four are much more successful, with The Doctor even having better results on his ship. Inform either The Doctor or our contractor of this, then evacuate after disposing of sensitive material."
Joseph walked over, and asked, "What the heck's that, somebody's employment?"
Michael says, "Either some creative writing, or some kind of sick experiment."
Joseph says, "Just what I needed, to be a guinea pig for some kinda mutant-thing."
Michael replies, "I don't see any mutant-thing, so maybe the "Recommended Actions" were followed."
As Michael said that, the mech creaked louder, and cracks started to form in it. Shining light blazed out of the chest cockpit and cracks. Michael and Joseph jumped back, to see the entire thing collapse. When the dust dispersed, they saw in front of them, something they've never seen or heard of in their lives. They saw, what appeared to be a large, human-sized bird, with some human attributes. It's wings were white, with feathers that seemed to be made out of steel. It's claws were made of a similar material, with it's entire body being covered in little patches of the thing, and it had runes of a unknown origin on it's body. It was flying in the air, when it saw Michael and Joseph. It let out a ear-piercing screech, before pulling it's wings infront of it, shooting the feathers out on command. Michael focused, and began to cut the feathers, only barely breaking the material, while Joseph ran behind a filing cabinet, reloading his gun with higher damage, and more lethal rounds. The barrage of feathers ended, with them being lodged in nearly every crevice of the room.
Joseph yelled, "What is this thing? Doesn't look like any angel I've seen!"
Michael yelled back, "I'll distract it, try to flank it and shoot it from behind."
Joseph ran around the side, while Michael prepared fireballs to throw. The thing somehow reloaded it's wings, feathers sprouting out from inside the wings themselves. It began firing once more, but the feathers melted in face of the fireballs. The combatants hurled their respective projectiles at each-other, none able to crack through the storm. But, like thunder, a crack was heard throughout the room, as Joseph unloaded his gun into the back of the bird-thing, causing it to crash down to the ground. Joseph ran up to the thing, trying to continue the attack, when it jumped up, scratching Joseph's chest, ripping into his shirt and scratching his torso. It turned back to focus at Michael, but what it saw was Michael launching himself at it with fire, trying to hit a downwards slash with his flame-covered sword. It tried to dodge, but Michael was too fast, the sword slamming into the torso of it, deep down his shoulder. When Michael tried to do a followup slash, a flash of light enveloped the room, launching Michael and Joseph away. As they looked up, they saw it flying again, with circles of light surrounding it's wrists, with runes inscribed on the light. It pointed it's hands at them, launching beams of light from it's palm. Michael and Joseph began frantically running, trying to dodge the light with all the stamina they could.
Joseph ran up to Michael, and put what looked like two small rockets with wrist straps in his hand, before saying, "Use these to get up to him, they should be imbueable with Mana."
Michael's face had a brief flash of concern for Joseph, before calming down, donning the rockets before saying, "I got this, just rest and patch up."
Joseph said, "You got it, boss!" before walking backwards, as Michael channeled his Mana through the rockets. They lit up as soon as the Mana began to flow, and Michael quickly used them to launch him into the air. As he shot up at It, It began desperately shooting whatever feathers it had at Michael, but Michael tanked them as they lodged themselves in his body. Michael slammed into It, grabbing it by the neck. As they flew around haphazardly, Michael pulled his sword out, and lodged it into the Bird-thing's chest, before putting the rockets at full power, slamming them both to the ground. Michael had done this on purpose, as he had made a specific spell for this kind of situation. It was a verbal one, and had specific conditions, but was pretty powerful. If he had his sword lodged into something, then quickly forced that something into the ground, piercing it and having the sword pierced into the floor, he could yell out "Eruption!" and the Mana flowing through him, the something, and the general Mana in the air would tighten, creating a pillar of flames, akin to a eruption.
Michael slammed It down to the ground, grinding his sword deep through It and into the floor below, causing blood to spew out, before yelling, "Eruption!". Almost like a pillar from heaven, flames would engulf both Michael and the thing, lighting the entire room up. The thing would shriek loudly, before the sound slowly died down as the flames burned for longer. By the time the flames dispersed, all that was left was Michael, with his uniform covered in ash, even charred in some places, as the fire protection spell put on it couldn't handle this level of fire yet. The thing, faced a different outcome. It was burnt and charred, almost unrecognizable.
Michael fell to his knees, smoking. Joseph ran up to him, and Michael said, slurred, "Are you ok, Joseph?"
Joseph replied, "Me? Are you ok? You look like you were in a room filled with metal chickens and bombs!"
Michael laughed half-heartedly, leading to Joseph to sigh, before saying, "Roy should be here soon. I'll gather all I can, since I'm mostly bandaged up. You just sit there, and wrap yourself up too."
As Joseph walked away, groaning, Michael sat there, cleaning all the wounds he could, as he smirked to himself, satisfied with the battle somewhat. He stopped himself from enjoying it too much, lest he become that man, the man who's life he most wished to end.
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In a building, far away from the action, Samuel was crawling to the back of his room, terrified. Out from the darkness emerges two men with suits on, and one with a mask on like the doctors during the times of the Great Plague.
The man with the mask said, "I'm so, so, thoroughly disappointed! You can't even wrap up one tiny little experiment facility? Just move it all out when we tell you to! Don't sit on your ass and wait!"
Samuel replied, "I didn't expect the police to be on my ass! You leaked the information, you backstabber!"
The man with the mask scoffed, "I apologize for wanting to check your product, I wouldn't want some good subjects to go to waste. Besides, your men should have activated it, and let it run wild for a bit."
Samuel begged, "Just let me make up for it, I swear!"
The man with the mask laughed, "Make up for it by showing me what a poor product and associate looks like, will you?"
Samuel screamed, that being the final sound he would ever make.