[Outer courtyard - Under the red moon]
The wind bit at exposed skin. Shards of ice and liquid shadows danced in eddies, crashing with the force of a storm that no one could have imagined here, just hours ago.
The six heroes - five unlicensed and one among the ten strongest in the country - lined up back to back. The ground was covered with frost crystals and dark pools of congealed shadow.
Oracle was breathing heavily. For the first time, his slumped shoulders, his hair sticking to his forehead, showed cracks in his arrogance. His silhouette continued to mutate: fragments of shadow sloughed and crawled across his skin like rotting roots.
-Fools..." he snarled. "You understand... NOTHING!
Blizzard stepped forward, raised a hand, and from his palm a stream of steam spread, solidifying into ice stakes. All around, the temperature dropped so fast that everyone's breath was trapped in white clouds.
-Then save it," Ricochet spat, twirling his boomerang in his hand, the blade glinting under the red moon.
Oracle laughed, though dark blood trickled from the corners of her lips.
-Even with the ice hero... they won't be able to seal me forever.
Shadow clones sprouted from his back: distorted, faceless silhouettes that swirled around the team like hungry wolves.
The synchronicity of six
Aoi swallowed. He stood next to Daiki, they exchanged a glance. Goro flexed his fists, the steel plates on his forearms already almost bursting from the cracks.
Yume took a deep breath, raised a hand. His field of silence expanded a bubble that encompassed Blizzard and the others: inside, footsteps were muted, screams stuck in their throats. Only the beating of their hearts was real.
Blizzard spoke without moving from his centre:
-Divide your targets. Leave the centre to me.
Ricochet nodded, zigzagging towards a shadow clone. He threw his boomerang in a tight parabola: the blade sliced through two clones, causing them to sizzle and burst like burning smoke.
Goro charged another group, taking blows from the Shadow Needles, but his steel body absorbed them like wet paper blows. He grabbed a clone by the throat and slammed it to the ground, plunging it into a frozen puddle.
Daiki activated his pulse: ripples vibrated beneath Oracle's feet, destabilising her core. Aoi slid across the ice that Blizzard created as makeshift rails: he appeared behind a clone and swung through it with a spinning kick, just as Ricochet threw the boomerang back at him to finish him off.
Blizzard, a wall of ice
Oracle gathered all his shadows and clones. He stretched out an arm: a dark spear rose, as big as a dead tree.
Blizzard didn't even blink. He snapped his fingers. From the air, thousands of micro- crystals condensed, forming a wall of pure ice, polished like a mirror. The spear impacted, resounded like thunder, but shattered into a thousand fragments. Frost and shadows mingled, exploding into a thick mist.
Within the white smoke, Oracle emerged again. Her mask cracked, her eyes injected with red.
-No more seals! -he roared. No more chains!
The clones multiplied again, but each one was thinner, more unstable. Goro took advantage: he leapt like a colossus, smashing three with one punch.
Haruto moved to his side, catching his boomerang on the fly.
-Goro! Now!
The final blow
Blizzard raised both hands. Two columns of ice rose from the ground, trapping Oracle's feet, immobilising him. Every shadow that tried to break free was trapped, frozen in crystals that sizzled like blue embers.
Daiki and Aoi looked at each other. Shiftie vanished, reappeared behind Oracle, hit a blind spot on her back. BlockWave unloaded a pulse straight to the base of his neck, leaving him reeling.
Ricochet threw his boomerang one last time. The blade sliced Oracle's mask diagonally: the black metal split, revealing his face, human but eaten by black veins and violet cracks.
Goro raised his right fist, charged with all the rage he had built up over the years. His eyes met Oracle's, who was no longer smiling.
-This..." Goro snarled, his voice ringing like an iron bell. It's for everyone.
The fist slammed straight into his chest. A dry crack. The shadows scattered like ashes. Oracle fell to her knees, her gaze lost in the red moon.
The last words
Oracle coughed. A dark spot expanded in his chest. He looked up at the circle of six around him.
-The root... always... springs..." he said, his voice cracking.
No one answered. The shadows faded, their Shadow Needles withered like dead leaves. Oracle collapsed, unconscious, with nothing more to offer.
Blizzard dictates retreat
The silence was brutal. Only the sound of the boys' shuddering breaths filled the night.
Blizzard lowered his hands, his breath coming out as white vapour. He looked at the five of them. His expression was cold, but not hostile.
-I don't have time for long reports," he said. The police and the hero agency will be here in minutes.
Aoi stepped forward.
-What... what's going to happen to us?
Blizzard bowed his head, a spark of respect shining in his icy pupils.
-Go. Now. You don't have a hero's license. If you're found here, you're out of luck. I'll take care of delivering him," he nodded toward Oracle, oblivious. I'll say I acted alone.
Daiki opened his mouth, but Goro put a hand on his shoulder. The steel giant nodded, sluggish.
-Thank you.
Blizzard did not smile, but his words were a gift.
-Don't make me regret it.
The five wasted no time. They exchanged glances, knowing they would not leave the truth behind.
While Blizzard, imposing, stood guard over Oracle's living corpse, the boys lost themselves in the crevices of the mansion, searching for one last secret underground.
And the red moon began to hide behind the clouds.
[Underground - Armoured door]
The mansion shuddered in every corner. Dust fell from cracks freshly opened by the battle, and the creaking of rotting beams echoed like broken bones.
The five of them, covered in bruises and dust, ran against the tide down a corridor hidden behind a collapsed wall. None of them said anything. None asked why they did not flee as Blizzard had ordered.
They knew: Oracle had not fallen for a simple experiment... she was protecting something.
They came to an underground chamber where a two-metre-high steel door blocked the way. There was no visible lock, no digital access panel.
Just a grey surface, cold and solid like a nameless coffin.
Goro took a step forward.
He ran his palm across the metal, feeling every weld, every internal reinforcement as if he could read them with his steely fingertips.
Daiki, breathing heavily, asked in a whisper:
-Can you open it?
Goro didn't answer. He clenched his fist. The echo of his knuckles cracked in the darkness.
And then he unloaded a single blow, so sharp and so charged with pent-up rage that the door vibrated like a funeral gong.
A crack opened in the shape of a spider's web. Goro struck again. The iron buckled. With a third impact, the hinge gave way.
The gate fell sideways, kicking up a cloud of metallic dust.
The five stood before a corridor that seemed to descend straight into the rotting heart of the earth.
The laboratory of horror
They went down. The smell was the first thing: a mixture of rancid chemicals, dried blood and sterile metal.
The lab looked like a nightmare suspended in formaldehyde. Rows of giant containers, each filled with litres of phosphorescent green liquid, bubbled faintly.
Corrugated tubes hung from the ceilings like artificial veins. The sound of machines still running, despite the destruction on the surface, was a monotonous murmur that clung to the ears.
Yume stepped forward, brushing her fingertips against a container.
-All this liquid... it's the serum," she whispered, her voice hollow within the metallic echo. There must be thousands of litres.
Aoi took a step back, her pale face reflected in the greenish glass.
Haruto walked over to a console, pressed a couple of keys. The screens crackled, displaying vital sign readings. A single figure stood out:
"Subject 001 - 98% stability."
-Subject 001...? -Ricochet muttered.
It was then that Goro stopped listening to his companions. A tremor in his chest guided him to the back of the lab, where a containment capsule stood, isolated from the others. Inside, submerged in the greenish liquid, floated a boy. His hair, longer than he remembered. A respirator covering his nose and mouth. Eyes closed, eyelashes almost glued to his skin.
Goro leaned against the capsule. His steely fingers left a faint mark on the glass.
-It can't be..." he whispered. Daiki approached, surprised.
-Goro... what's wrong?
Goro swallowed. His voice was a spark that threatened to go out.
-It's... him. -His throat cracked. It's my son.
A confession no one expected
Silence turned to stone. Aoi covered her mouth with her hands. Haruto took a step back, as if he needed space to process the words.
Yume just looked at Goro, seeing for the first time that steel giant crack inside.
-Riku..." Goro muttered, reading the reports on the console next to the pod.
Pages and pages of clinical data, experiments, mutation records. Dates etched like scars:
"November 24, 2020," the day his son disappeared.
-They took him because he was a 'match'," he muttered, almost to himself. They said they could awaken something in him. And... and they locked him up in here like a bloody experiment.
The tears evaporated as soon as they touched his steely cheeks, but they wouldn't stop flowing.
The broken scientist
A crack of a gun. The five spun around.
A trembling man in a stained dressing gown was pointing a rusty revolver straight at Goro. His hands looked like wet paper.
-Stay away! -Where's Oracle? Where's my boss?! Yume stepped forward, cold as ice.
-He's finished. -His voice sounded like a knife. Oracle won't be back. This all ends today.
The scientist lowered his weapon. First his right hand opened like a dead flower. Then his left. The revolver fell to the floor with a thud.
His knees gave way. He put both hands to his head.
-No more experiments," he cried, amid hysterical laughter. No more confinement. No more 'compatibility tests'. Free... I am free...!
The boys looked at him, unsure whether to fear or pity him. Goro ignored their cries. He read a final paragraph:
"Subject 001: single stable sample to contain multiple variants of the serum. Status: induced hibernation. Vital signs: constant."
Riku's release
Goro spun around. He walked over to the scientist, lifted him out of the dressing gown. His steely eyes bore into the quivering pupils of the broken man.
-Is he alive? -he spat, his voice heavy with edge. Tell me he's alive! The scientist nodded frantically.
Yes! Yes - my job was to keep him alive. Asleep, but... but alive. It was always Oracle's plan: to grow a "carrier" for... for the root.
Goro felt his knees want to give way, but he wouldn't let them.
-Get it out. Now.
The scientist released his grip. He knelt in front of the console. His fingers danced over the keys. Red lights went out, suction pumps activated.
Green liquid began to drain, trickling down clear tubes. Each falling drop echoed in Goro's mind like a drumbeat of war and redemption.
When the capsule was almost empty, the front glass opened with a snap. A cold gas dissipated.
Goro waited no longer: he ripped out the last tubes that kept Riku breathing, held him in his arms, pushing his sodden hair away from his forehead.
Riku didn't open his eyes. His chest rose and fell, barely perceptible. But he was breathing. His heart was beating.
-He'll be like this for a few days. The scientist commented.
-Son..." Goro whispered, dropping her forehead to his. I've got you... I've got you again. Goro said.
A decision
Aoi, Daiki, Haruto and Yume watched the scene without saying anything. The truth was so stark that no one dared to break it with words.
The scientist stood up, still in tears of relief.
-Let me go with you," he begged, "Just to the exit. I don't want to get killed here when the cops come. I swear I'll go far away. They'll never hear from me again.
Yume turned around, distrust etched in every line of his face.
-It could be a trap. He could sell us out.
Daiki looked at Yume. He took a step toward her.
-You were once of the Cult too... and look at you now.
Yume pursed her lips. She didn't answer right away. Then she took a deep breath and nodded, her voice barely audible.
-Let him come.
Echoes of footsteps
In the background, boots and muffled voices could be heard. Police and hero agency agents were beginning to take over every corridor, every contaminated room.
But in that underground pod, only one thing mattered: a father holding his lost son. And a group of heroes with no badge, no license... but with a truth burned into them.
The escape would be their last act of this cursed night.
[Makeshift Lair - Two Days Later]
Dawn filtered through the holes in the ceiling, staining the cracked walls a soft orange. That makeshift lair, witness to so many strategies, laughter and confessions, now felt like a waiting room. A whispered farewell.
Goro was standing next to a mattress on the floor. On it, wrapped in clean blankets, rested Riku. His breathing was slow, almost imperceptible, but the calm in his father's chest was unwavering.
The others - Daiki, Aoi, Haruto and Yume - watched him in silence. No one had the strength to pretend this was a short see you later.
It was Aoi who broke the stillness, swallowing back the tears that wanted to come.
-How is she...?
Goro, looking more human than ever without his steel armour activated, stroked his son's still unruly hair.
-He'll sleep for another day or two. -His voice was low, tempered. The scientist said the serum remained stable. It did. It kept him alive.
No one wanted to ask if that was good or bad. It was enough to know that he was breathing.
A future away from the noise
Daiki looked around the lair: the stained walls, the half-hung maps, the remnants of makeshift tools. She exhaled a short, disbelieving laugh.
-And to think all this madness started here.
Goro stood up, resting his hand on Daiki's shoulder.
-It's over, BlockWave. For me and for him. -He gave everyone a look of unadorned gratitude. We're going north. To a town where no one asks questions. Where I can relearn how to be a father.
Yume, arms folded, hid his smile behind his hair. Haruto lowered his head, not quite sure how to say goodbye to the giant who had saved them so many times.
Goro looked at Daiki, a hint of tenderness in his tired eyes.
- Daiki. If you ever... need to talk, you know where to write to me. Handing him the mask he wore.
Daiki admiring that moment, nodded. And thanked him for everything. -Thank you for everything... Goro. He raises his head and adds, "Take care of him, Goro. Take care of yourself too.
The ghosts' farewell
No one knew who suggested it first, but everyone knew it was the end of the team. The Cult had crumbled, Oracle was locked up, and each carried wounds that needed no more battles... for now.
Aoi approached Haruto, who was trying to hold the backpack without looking her straight in the eye.
-Well... I guess we each..." she began, her voice trembling. But Haruto tapped him gently on the forehead.
-We're not good at saying goodbye, Shiftie.
Aoi blushed. She averted her gaze so no one would see her smile.
Daiki reached out to Yume. She looked at him for a second, then shook it. The shake was awkward, but real.
-What about you? -Daiki asked. What are you going to do now?
Yume looked out onto the street, where the cool morning air was kicking up golden dust.
-Disappear for a while. Change my name again. Maybe... keep looking for the one who still owes me answers. -His eyes flicked to Daiki for a moment. But who knows... maybe I'll stop by your place if you cook something decent.
Daiki let out a laugh.
-Don't get my hopes up, Yume or... Quiet Bloom.
Yume blushes, looks at Haruto and clenches her fist, "Why did you tell? Smiling Daiki says, "That's a nice name for a heroine.
The new promise
-Don't let the world break you," she said. The root always tries to sprout. But you know how to pull it out.
Haruto raised his hand in an awkward salute.
-Take care, boss.
-Thank you for everything, Goro," Aoi added, her voice soft. Yume barely bowed his head.
Goro nodded, turned and disappeared through the rickety doorway, Riku asleep against his chest.
Two paths intertwined
The rest gathered their few belongings. Outside, the city awoke, unaware that a war had been waged underground that would never make the news.
Haruto walked beside Aoi, backpack slung over one shoulder. She fiddled with the end of her scarf, looking down every time their hands brushed.
-Aoi..." said Haruto, swallowing saliva. I... after all this, it's clear to me.
-What? -she asked, barely turning around. He smiled. A little uncertain, a little proud.
-I'm going to the hero academy. I want to do well. With a license, with everything. Be a real hero.
Aoi paused. Her heart pounded so hard she feared it could be heard all the way down the street.
-Really? But you always said... it wasn't worth it. Haruto shrugged his shoulders.
-I changed my mind. -His smile was soft, clean. I met you... fought... I don't want to lose that. I don't want to lose you.
She looked at him, red up to her ears. She mumbled something barely audible.
-Then I'll..." she cleared her throat, "I'll go too. I want to be there to... to protect you from your idiotic ideas.
Haruto let out a soft laugh. He leaned towards her, their noses almost touching.
-Thank you, Shiftie.
Aoi looked up. And when their lips met, for a second there was no Cult, no shadow needles, no labs. Just two boys who dared to believe they could be heroes.
Epilogue
Somewhere, underground, green serum was still bubbling in abandoned tanks. But for the first time, there was no one to feed it.
And while the root slept, five broken pieces each found a place to start again.
END