Brave’s voice crackled through their communicators, his image flickering from Blackout Fortress. "Gunman’s gone. But the chaos he left behind is just getting started."
Weird exhaled sharply, arms crossed. His fingers curled against his sleeve before he forced out a scoff. "Damn shame. Thought he’d at least gloat a little before going out."
Brave’s tone remained cold. "He was a professional. The kind that doesn’t talk unless it benefits him. And in the end, he made sure he had the last word."
Khem’s expression didn’t shift. "Any leads on the prison break?"
"We finally have confirmation: the prison break wasn’t just about freeing criminals. It was a cover. SOF was too focused on stopping the immediate escape to see the bigger picture at first, but now it’s clear—the real target was the meteorite stone."
Weird scoffed. "Right. The ‘stolen nuke.’"
Brave ignored the nickname. "Listen up. That stone isn’t just an energy source. It’s a raw, undiluted power reservoir. SOF scientists spent years studying its properties, and eventually, they found a way to alter its energy output. Instead of granting abilities, they forced it to suppress them."
Khem processed the information quickly. "You turned it into a nullifier."
"Exactly. That’s how Blackout Fortress was built. The prison’s power-dampening field was powered directly by the meteorite’s altered energy signature. But now, that energy is gone. Without it, the prisoners still inside have fully regained their abilities."
Samui’s fingers hovered over her tablet. "And if someone figures out how to reverse the process…"
Brave’s voice grew graver. "Then it won’t suppress powers anymore. It’ll amplify them."
Silence fell over the room.
Brave continued. "Whoever has that stone isn’t interested in containment. They want power. If they manage to tap into its original function, they won’t just create stronger abilities—they could create entirely new ones."
Weird let out a slow, quiet curse. "So we’re dealing with someone who doesn’t just want an edge. They want evolution."
Brave exhaled. "And that’s just the beginning."
The weight of Brave’s words settled over them like a storm cloud.
Khem’s hands curled into fists. “Do we have any leads?”
Brave hesitated. “Not on the stone’s location. But we do have something else.”
A new file appeared on their displays—a live feed of a high-profile jewelry auction in the city’s central district. Glimpses of extravagant pieces, velvet displays, and well-dressed elites flickered across the screen.
Samui’s eyes narrowed. “That’s tonight.”
Brave nodded. “Saha and Thug have been spotted casing the event. It’s a prime target—not for the jewels, but for the meteorite-infused gemstones up for auction.”
Weird frowned. “So they’re either testing the waters or funding something bigger.”
Brave’s voice was clipped. “Either way, we stop them. They’re two of the five high-priority escapees from Blackout Fortress. This is our chance to take them off the board before they disappear for good.”
Khem shut off his display. “Then we move now.”
Brave’s voice remained steady through the communicator. “With Saha and Thug on the move, intelligence picked up chatter from an underground network hours ago. Surveillance teams confirmed sightings near the auction house, making it our best lead yet. we can’t afford to go in unprepared. You’re meeting with the rest of your team before deployment.”
Khem’s eyes flicked toward the mission details on the holo-screen. “Senshi and Shining?”
Brave nodded. "You’re meeting up with the rest of your team. They have been briefed."
Weird let out a long sigh. "Oh great, we’re bringing in the old married couple."
Samui raised an eyebrow. "They’re not—"
"They might as well be." Weird leaned back, smirking. "One of them yells about honor, the other acts like he’s the main character in a flashy action movie. Give them five minutes, and they’ll be at each other’s throats."
Brave ignored him. "Get moving. Your next mission is already set." The transmission cut out.
Khem, as always, wasted no time. "Let’s go."
Weird pushed off the table. "Fine, fine. Let’s see what the dragon guy and the human flashlight are up to."
The restaurant was small but well-loved, its wooden interiors bathed in warm lighting, the air thick with the scent of sizzling meat and fragrant broth.
At the largest table sat two men—Senshi and Shining.
Senshi was impossible to miss. He sat upright, back straight like a warrior at rest. His thick black hair and beard framed his face in the unmistakable silhouette of a dragon's head. Even while eating, he maintained an aura of discipline and quiet power.
Shining, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. Lounging in his seat, one arm draped over the back of his chair, he wore his usual obnoxiously bright red Hawaiian shirt. His golden shades reflected the restaurant lights as he casually flipped a coin between his fingers.
Senshi spotted Khem’s group first. He nodded in acknowledgment, setting down his tea.
Shining grinned. "Took you guys long enough. I was about to order dessert."
Weird flopped into a chair, hesitating just a fraction too long before letting himself sink in. He forced an exaggerated sigh, masking the unease coiled in his chest. "Great, just what I needed. A guy who thinks he’s a god and a guy who yells about dragons."
Senshi’s brow twitched. "You lack discipline."
Shining laughed, pointing a finger gun at Weird. "See? Five minutes. Told you."
Samui ignored their antics and got straight to business. "Brave sent us. We’re after Saha and Thug."
Senshi’s expression darkened slightly. "The escapees."
Shining clicked his tongue. "You’d think criminals would lay low after breaking out of Blackout Fortress, but nope—these two decide to go on a jewelry shopping spree instead."
Weird rolled his eyes. "Real classy villains. What’s next? A bank robbery?"
Samui pulled out her tablet, sliding it onto the table. "They’re targeting an exclusive auction in the central district. High-profile. High security. But none of that matters if Saha locks down the crowd and Thug teleports them out before anyone can react."
Khem studied the map. "We need a countermeasure."
Senshi stroked his beard. "We cannot allow Saha to immobilize us. If we cannot move, we cannot fight."
Weird smirked. "That’s where I come in. I can reflect her ability back at her—if she tries anything, she’s the one who freezes."
Samui nodded. "That makes you the key to this operation. If Saha isn’t neutralized immediately, we’ll lose the entire room."
Shining adjusted his shades. "And what about Thug? Even if we take her down, he can still grab her and escape."
Khem’s voice remained steady. "Then we use her as bait. He won’t abandon her. If we immobilize her first, he’ll be forced to come to us."
Shining exhaled, cracking his knuckles. "So it’s a snatch-and-grab, but in reverse. Fun."
Senshi crossed his arms. "We must be swift and precise. There is no room for error."
Weird clapped his hands together. "Alright, great. Now let’s hurry up and go stop Medusa and her teleporting boyfriend."
Senshi’s eye twitched. "Do not disrespect an enemy’s name."
Weird grinned. "Why? Scared she’ll hear me?"
Senshi didn’t dignify that with a response.
Samui stood up. "We move in ten. Get ready."
The team left the restaurant, stepping back into the night. Their mission was clear. This time, they weren’t letting their targets slip away.
The city’s central district was alive with opulence. The Grand Solis Auction Hall, an architectural marvel of glass and steel, towered over the streets below. Tonight, it hosted the wealthiest and most powerful elite—collectors, tycoons, and old-money aristocrats. Inside, the venue glittered with extravagant wealth—chandeliers casting golden light over velvet carpets, glass displays filled with meteorite-infused jewelry, and security guards standing at careful intervals, watching over their oblivious patrons. But not all security was hired. Hidden among the guests, the Special Officer Force moved like shadows in disguise.
Khem, as always, stood apart, scanning the room with quiet intensity. He wore a tailored black suit, the formal attire doing nothing to soften the rigid posture of a man always prepared for war.
Samui, blending in as an event planner, moved effortlessly between guests, a clipboard in hand—though beneath it lay hidden surveillance equipment.
Senshi and Shining, disguised as security contractors, stood near the vaulted backroom entrance, watching for the first sign of an intruder.
Weird, as usual, barely made an effort to blend in. Wearing a loose, half-unbuttoned shirt with an expensive but tasteless watch, he had already begun his act as an obnoxious rich brat, lazily sipping from a champagne glass he hadn’t even tasted.
Despite their disguises, all of them knew exactly why they were here. This auction wasn’t just another display of wealth. Among the prized items was a meteorite-infused gemstone, the kind that could fetch millions—but more importantly, the kind directly connected to the stolen Blackout Fortress stone.
If Saha and Thug—or Jashae and Dimension, as the SOF classified them—were going to hit any place next, this was the perfect target. And sure enough—they arrived. At exactly 9:17 PM, the hall’s laughter and conversation abruptly died. It wasn’t a slow hush of curiosity—it was instant silence, as if someone had choked the very air itself. A presence had arrived. At the center of the grand marble floor, where moments ago there had been nothing—stood a woman in a flowing white gown. She hadn’t walked in. No door had opened. No security guard had reacted. She was simply there.
Saha.
Her emerald-green eyes glowed faintly, reflecting the warm light from the chandeliers above. Her jet-black hair, bundled like a nest of serpents atop her head, began to move—slow, hypnotic motions, like something alive. Her beauty was haunting, but there was something deeply wrong about her presence. Every single person in the room turned toward her. Confusion. Hesitation. Instinct.
Then—her glowing eyes flared. And everything stopped. The auctioneer, mid-sentence, locked in place, microphone in hand. The wealthy guests, some seated, some standing, couldn’t move, couldn’t blink, couldn’t even tremble. A woman, caught mid-sip of champagne, remained frozen, the liquid suspended against her lips. The head of security, hand on his earpiece, his expression twisted in effort—yet his muscles refused to obey. And among them—Khem, Samui, Senshi, and Shining stood like statues. Their minds screamed, their instincts roared—but their bodies had already betrayed them. Not a single one of them had been spared. They had all looked.
Saha let out a satisfied hum, leisurely stepping forward. "Much better." She strolled past the frozen crowd, her emerald eyes gleaming. Among them, a wealthy guest stood locked in place, adorned with jewels—unable to stop her. With a smirk, she reached out and plucked an ornate amulet from the woman’s neck, the gold chain snapping with ease. The gemstone at its center shimmered like liquid fire. She didn’t know what it did. She didn’t care. It was hers now. "Aren’t you all so well-behaved?" Her smirk widened. But then—it vanished. Something was wrong. A presence. A disturbance. Her emerald-green eyes snapped to the one person still moving.
Weird.
Weird rolled his shoulders, cracking his neck with deliberate slowness. Then, he grinned. "Wow." He let out a long whistle. "You really got ‘em all, huh?"
Saha’s breath hitched—her entire body locked up. The moment their eyes met, she felt it—her power turning against her. A creeping paralysis ran through her spine. Her smirk twitched. "You—" She couldn’t move. She had been Reflexed.
Weird took a casual step forward, now the only mobile person in the entire hall. He lazily adjusted his cuffs. "Damn. You really should’ve read my file."
Saha’s emerald-green eyes burned in frustration, but she couldn’t shut them. She was trapped in her own stillness. And then—she made a choice. With a sharp breath, she disabled her own power.
The auction hall roared back to life. Security guards reached for their weapons, guests stumbled backward, shouts of confusion filled the air.
Khem moved instantly—but so did Thug.
A black rift tore open near Saha.
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A shadowed hand emerged—Thug reaching for her wrist.
His voice rang out. "Saha, let’s go—!"
And then—
The entire room exploded in light. Not a beam. Not an attack. A raw, all-consuming flood of radiance. Shining lit up the auction hall like a miniature sun. Blinding. Overpowering. Absolute.
Saha’s power had already been turned off, meaning she was just as vulnerable as everyone else.
Thug’s portal had already begun opening, but he couldn’t see. The light swallowed everything. He cursed, instinctively shifting half of his body into his personal dimension, leaving only his arms visible in the physical world. His hands groped blindly, trying to find Saha. "Saha! We need to go—" A hand grabbed his wrist.
It wasn’t hers.
Through the searing light, Khem moved with purpose. His vision burned. His breath steady. He saw Thug's grasping hand reach for Saha. And he took it. A crushing iron grip locked around Thug’s wrist.
Thug’s breath hitched—his body suddenly stopped mid-motion. The escape rift flickered. Then collapsed.
Thug’s entire form solidified, trapped in Khem’s unrelenting grip. He was frozen.
A sharp gasp—Saha, now fully aware, turned in horror. "Thug—!" Her breath hitched—her eyes began to glow again, her hair slithering into motion—
Then Khem’s grip closed around her ankle, freezing her before she could activate it. And just like that—she was frozen too.
Their escape had failed. They had lost. The auction hall was in shambles Guests scrambled for the exits. Security barked orders, trying to restore control. And at the center of it all, Khem stood motionless, holding both criminals in his grip.
"Secure them," he said, his tone flat.
The job was done. But the night was far from over. The silence that followed the fight was short-lived.
Saha lay frozen, one foot still inside the rift that Thug had failed to pull her through. Thug himself groaned on the floor, pinned down by Weird’s counterforce. Samui was already sweeping the scene, ensuring that no stragglers could interfere, while Senshi and Shining maintained a defensive stance.
It should have been over. Then the door appeared.
At first, it seemed like part of the auction decor—an ordinary wooden door, standing upright in the middle of the stage where the most prized valuables had been displayed. But there had been no door there before. It simply existed, its handle gleaming under the fractured chandelier light. The slow, deliberate sound of clapping echoed across the ruined hall. A hand casually pushed the door open. And through it, he stepped in.
A man in a pristine white open jacket, its high collar framing sharp, refined features. Beneath it, he wore a light gray dress shirt, neatly fastened with a white necktie, tucked into dark gray tailored pants. A white belt with a white buckle cinched his waist, perfectly complementing his attire. His white shoes gleamed under the stage lights, spotless despite the chaos around him. His spiky blonde hair looked effortlessly styled—disordered, yet intentional. A pair of dark shades hid his eyes, making his expression unreadable. The moment he entered, he barely spared a glance at the chaos around him. He ignored the toppled furniture, the broken display cases, and the struggling criminals. Instead, his gaze swept the room with absolute disinterest, like a critic unimpressed by an art gallery. Then, behind him, the Titan followed. The second figure was massive, easily towering over everyone else. His sheer bulk seemed almost inhuman, his exposed upper body thick with corded muscle, each movement radiating immense strength. He wore nothing but a pair of dark blue jeans, loose but not baggy, and black leather shoes, polished despite the raw power he exuded. His emerald-green hair was slicked sideways in a sharp undercut, exposing a thick brow and chiseled jawline. A blindfold wrapped around his eyes, though he moved with absolute certainty—as if vision was unnecessary. The room felt smaller with him in it.
Shining exhaled. "Oh, hell. Who invited the apocalypse?"
Senshi shifted into a combat stance, his fingers twitching toward a nearby carving—ready to summon his dragons at a moment’s notice.
Titan simply cracked his knuckles.The sound was like thunder rolling through the hall. Anyone tries to stop the boss," he muttered, his deep voice effortlessly carrying through the silence, "I break ‘em."
The White-Jacket Man kept walking. He didn’t acknowledge anyone. Not Khem. Not Senshi. Not even the unconscious bodies on the floor. His attention was on one thing. The vault. A massive steel-reinforced security door sat embedded in the far wall, surrounded by shattered glass displays. Inside, the rarest and most valuable items from the auction were stored—including what White-Jacket Man had come for. He didn’t waste time. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, silver device—a handheld plasma cutter. The moment he ignited it, a brilliant blue-white flame roared to life. Without hesitation, White-Jacket Man pressed the cutter against the vault. The reinforced steel melted like wax.
Khem reacted instantly. "Stop them."
Samui reached for her remote.
Senshi roared, slamming his palm against a gold-etched dragon mural on a toppled display case. "RYU!". A serpentine burst of fire erupted from the mural, coiling into a blazing dragon as it launched itself toward Titan.
Shining threw a concentrated beam of light, aiming to burn through White-Jacket Man’s device before the vault could be breached.
Weird, still holding Thug down, sprang forward, ready to throw the brute into another one of his own rifts.
Titan moved first. He lifted his foot and brought it down. Then, the battlefield rewrote itself.
Senshi’s dragon didn’t just disperse. It never existed. One second, it was a roaring blaze, the next—it was nothing, as if it had never been summoned in the first place.
Shining’s beam didn’t burn out—it cracked, like fragile glass shattering midair. The light splintered into fractured streaks before vanishing into the void.
Khem didn’t just fall. He was erased from where he stood—then found himself crashing into an overturned table across the room.
Weird’s footing disappeared. He had no chance to react before the floor beneath him simply decided it no longer wanted to exist. He plunged into the storage level below, swallowed by the collapsing marble.
Samui’s remote didn’t malfunction. It shorted out the moment she tried to press a button—as if even the concept of resistance had been denied.
Then, silence.
Shining’s breath hitched. His fingers twitched. That— that wasn’t how light worked. That wasn’t how anything worked. Light couldn’t break. It should have bent, scattered—burned through anything in its way. But here, in this moment, it had simply… stopped. He clenched his fists. What the hell was this guy?
Senshi’s eyes darkened, watching the last embers of his dragon flicker out. It didn’t even struggle. It was as if the attack had never had a chance to exist in the first place.
Khem exhaled sharply, pushing himself up from the wreckage. He felt the lingering force of the impact in his limbs. That wasn’t just strength. The Titan’s stomp had reset the battlefield. He had erased their attacks before they could even matter.
Samui stared at her remote, her expression unreadable. It wasn’t broken. It hadn’t malfunctioned. It just… failed.
A deep, jagged hole remained where Weird had stood. Then—a hand gripped the broken edge of the floor. Weird pulled himself up, dusting off his jacket as if he had merely tripped. “Okay,” he muttered, glancing at the Titan. “That was new.”
The Titan stood there, unmoving. No triumphant smirk. No signs of exertion. Just the quiet certainty of a man who had willed the fight into submission.
Senshi’s brow furrowed. "Enough." The martial artist moved before Titan could stomp again. His hands blurred through ancient kata, fingers twisting into precise seals as he shouted, "RYU!" A dragon of fire exploded into existence, this time bursting forth from the embroidered kanji on Senshi’s gi. The spectral beast roared as it coiled around its summoner, its burning form intensifying with every second.
Titan turned his head slightly, acknowledging the challenge.
Then, Senshi attacked. He launched himself forward with the speed of a warrior who had spent a lifetime mastering his craft. His fists struck like hammers, reinforced by the fiery dragon that mirrored his every movement. Titan met him head-on. A punch collided with Senshi’s incoming strike—an impact so powerful, it sent out a visible shockwave. Senshi gritted his teeth. He had never felt a punch like that. The moment of contact sent a chain reaction through the air itself, shattering the very oxygen between them. Senshi adjusted immediately. He spun, his next strike guided by instinct, his momentum unbroken. He went for Titan’s ribs—a blow that could break steel. Titan didn’t dodge. Instead, he absorbed the force—and returned it tenfold. His counterpunch was impossible. Senshi blocked just in time—but the force still sent him flying backward, crashing into the remains of an auction podium. His dragon dispersed in a burst of flickering embers. Titan rolled his shoulders, as if the clash had been nothing. Senshi, coughing as he pulled himself back up, locked eyes with him. Titan said nothing. He didn’t gloat. He didn’t taunt. He simply existed—as if to say, “This was inevitable.” Senshi exhaled slowly, steadying himself. This man wasn’t a fighter. He was an event. A force of nature. Senshi tightened his fists. His mind worked rapidly, analyzing every movement Titan had made. Overwhelming force. Reality-defying strikes. The ability to negate even the most certain of attacks. Senshi had faced stronger opponents before, but none who could rewrite the rules of combat itself. If he was to counter Titan, he would need more than strength—he needed precision. That meant he could still be beaten. Senshi steadied his breath.
Titan remained still, his blindfolded gaze unreadable. The air between them crackled with tension—the kind that only warriors could understand. Then, he moved. Not in a rush. Not in a frantic, reactionary way. He simply walked forward, each step making the ground beneath him groan, like the earth itself resented carrying his weight.
Senshi braced himself. He had to keep him occupied. The others needed time.
Khem was already back on his feet, his eyes darting toward the vault.
Shining had recovered, his hands pulsing with radiant light.
Weird had pulled himself from the collapsed floor, dusting off his coat.
Samui’s fingers flew over her malfunctioning remote, trying to force a bypass.
They still had a chance.
Then—Saha and Thug moved. Saha clutched her stolen treasures tightly, her green eyes flickering with frustration. Thug, his portal swirling open beside him, grabbed her wrist. “Let’s go, now!”
Then—"NO RUNNING." The world exploded into white. A detonation of pure radiance—brighter, hotter, absolute. Shining erupted with light, his entire body radiating like a miniature supernova. The shadows in the room were annihilated, every reflective surface becoming a mirror of unbearable brilliance. Not just to stop them. Not just to illuminate the shadows. To blind Titan. To blind White-Jacket Man. Titan’s power was unfathomable, but if he couldn’t sense them if he couldn’t react in time then that was a moment of weakness they could exploit. Thug yelped, staggering backward. The portal flickered, its edges trembling, his dimensional awareness disrupted. He couldn’t navigate blind. Saha’s eyes burned. She hissed in frustration, squeezing them shut, her jet-black hair writhing like angry serpents. For the first time that night, she was truly powerless.
Senshi’s voice cut through the blinding void. "You’re not going anywhere."
Saha spun— but she was already too late.
A fist of pure fire slammed into Thug’s ribs. Senshi struck with the weight of a war drum, his fire-infused blow sending Thug sprawling backward. His body rolled across the marble floor, skidding to a stop—half his form slipping into his flickering portal. Thug gasped, disoriented, coughing from the impact.
Saha barely had time to react before another force seized her ankle. Her breath hitched.
Khem. His grip was iron. Unyielding. Her body froze. A strangled gasp left her lips as her muscles betrayed her—her escape halted mid-step. For a single second, the room was still.
Then—Thug made his final mistake. Through blurred vision, through the burning glare of Shining’s light, he lashed out. Desperation. A half-formed portal flickered into existence beside him—his only chance, his only exit. He tried to pull himself through. Tried to escape. Tried to drag Saha with him. But Khem’s grip never loosened. And Thug locked in Khem’s unbreakable holdonly managed to pull himself deeper into failure. The portal collapsed in on itself. The rip in reality snapped shut, trapping them both in the real world. Their escape was over. They had lost.
The hall was collapsing in on itself. The grand chandeliers swung violently overhead, their chains rattling with the force of the battlefield. The marble floor was cracked beyond recognition, display cases shattered, priceless artifacts scattered like worthless debris. And in the center of it all— Titan stood motionless. Still. Calculating. Then—he shifted.
Not toward Khem.
Not toward Saha.
Not toward Thug.
Toward Senshi.
The warrior’s pulse thrummed in his ears. He had already endured one of Titan’s shockwaves. His body was still reeling from it. But Titan had chosen him. Titan exhaled. Then—he lunged. Senshi barely had time to react. The ground shattered beneath Titan’s feet—the sheer pressure of his movement splitting the earth open before the attack even landed. But Senshi was ready. "RYU!" A dragon burst forth from his hands.
Not from an artifact.
Not from a relic.
Not from a carving.
This was his own fire. His own spirit. A raw, untamed beast of flame, spiraling toward Titan with ferocity born of the warrior’s soul.
Titan did not dodge. He didn’t need to. He threw a punch straight into the dragon’s head. The impact ripped the very essence of the flame apart. The dragon erupted into scattered embersnot destroyed, but denied its existence.
Senshi’s eyes widened.
Titan was already upon him. The brute swung a colossal fist, the sheer force tearing the air apart.
Senshi ducked under the first swing, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have broken his entire ribcage. The missed punch ripped through the air, sending hurricane-force winds tearing through the shattered hall. He retaliated, his fists coated in fire, striking directly at Titan’s ribs. His attacks landed. They should have done something. But Titan didn’t flinch. His foot slammed into the marble floor, generating another shockwave. The entire auction hall trembled, the walls groaning from the force. Then—Titan swung again. Senshi blocked. Or at least, he tried. Titan’s punch connected with Senshi’s forearm, sending a force so overwhelming that Senshi was lifted off the ground and hurled backward.
CRASH.
Senshi slammed into the far wall. The entire building shook. A crack formed behind him, spiderwebbing across the marble.
Silence. Titan lowered his fists.
Senshi struggled to stand, his breath uneven. His body ached from the impact, his muscles screaming in protest. His flames flickered weakly, his last summoned dragon already reduced to embers.
Titan did not press the attack. He simply exhaled—slow and measured, as if signaling that the fight was already over. Then, without another word, he turned his back on Senshi. Not out of arrogance. Out of disinterest. He had nothing left to prove.
Senshi gritted his teeth. His pride demanded that he rise, that he keep fighting. But his instincts—the years of honed discipline that made him the warrior he was—knew the truth. Titan wasn’t leaving because Senshi had earned his respect. He was leaving because Senshi wasn’t worth the effort. That burned more than the bruises.
Through all of this— White-Jacket Man never stopped moving. Not once. Not when Shining’s blinding light surged through the room. Not when Titan cracked the battlefield apart. Not even when Saha and Thug—the only real distractions—failed their escape. He had already secured the meteorite stone, tucking it neatly under one arm as if it were nothing more than an expensive purchase. The chaos was irrelevant. Titan turned his head slightly—a silent question. White-Jacket Man answered without looking back. “Time to leave.” The wooden door at the far end of the hall—still standing in defiance of reality—swung open. A portal. Titan exhaled, his presence alone seeming to crush the air itself. Then, for the first time—he moved again. Not toward Khem. Not toward Senshi. Not toward the SOF team. Toward the exit. The mission was over. There was nothing more to be gained.
White-Jacket Man stepped through the door first, his posture unhurried—a man who had gotten exactly what he came for. Titan followed behind him, his overwhelming presence shrinking only as the door frame swallowed his massive form. Then—The door vanished. And with it—the meteorite stone was gone.
The auction hall lay in ruins. Marble floors split apart, chairs reduced to splinters, and the once-pristine velvet drapes hung in tatters. Shattered chandeliers swayed from their weakened chains, their light dimming as sparks flickered from exposed wiring. The room felt hollow. As if the moment Titan and White-Jacket Man disappeared, the very air had thinned—like the weight of their presence had been too immense for reality itself.
For a long moment, no one spoke. No one moved. Then— A low groan broke the silence. Weird shoved a slab of broken marble off himself, coughing. “Ohhh, screw that guy.”
Shining rubbed his temples, wincing. “I think I just went blind twice in one night.”
Samui, still crouched behind an overturned table, stared down at her remote. It was still intact. It was still functional. But she hadn’t even gotten the chance to use it.
Senshi, his body aching from Titan’s final hit, pushed himself off the cracked wall. He rolled his shoulders, wincing as he felt the deep bruises forming beneath his gi.
And in the center of it all—Khem stood unmoving. His grip still firm around Saha’s frozen ankle. His expression unreadable. The mission was over. But it didn’t feel like victory. Khem tightened his grip. Saha was paralyzed, her emerald-green eyes burning with frustration and humiliation. Thug was motionless, his body frozen mid-panic, his fingers just inches away from where his portal had failed. They had been captured. Just like before. But White-Jacket Man and Titan had taken everything else. The meteorite stone was gone. Khem had watched it happen. He had been right there. And he had done nothing to stop it. A heavy weight settled in his chest. They were Special Officers. They were supposed to be the ones who made sure things like this didn’t happen. Yet tonight, the SOF had been overwhelmed. By a force they didn’t understand. By an enemy they hadn’t even anticipated. And Khem hated it. His jaw clenched. His knuckles whitened. But his voice, when he spoke—was ice cold. "Secure them."
Samui and Senshi moved quickly.
Senshi bound Thug’s wrists, his flames flickering faintly around the restraints.
Samui activated a power-dampening harness, locking it over Saha’s shoulders—just in case.
Weird tilted his head, watching Khem carefully. There was something about his posture—something about the way his fingers flexed ever so slightly as he released his grip from Saha. Something unsettled. Something angry. Something frustrated. And for the first time in a long while—Weird didn’t crack a joke.
Shining exhaled, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “So. Anyone wanna tell me who the hell those two guys were?”
Senshi crossed his arms, his breathing still steadying after his battle with Titan. “More importantly—why did they take the stone?”
Samui had already pulled up her tablet, scanning for any traces of dimensional energy. She wasn’t surprised when she found nothing. “No leads. That portal was precise. Whoever made it didn’t leave a trace.”
Khem remained silent.
Shining sighed. “Alright. We got two of the escapees back, at least. But I gotta ask—what exactly do we tell HQ?”
Weird exhaled sharply. “Well, let's see—we stopped a heist, caught two high-priority criminals, got thrown around by an unstoppable monster, watched a white-jacketed asshole casually steal the most dangerous object on the planet, and ended the night wondering what the hell just happened.”
Shining clicked his tongue. “Yeah. That’ll sound great in the report.”
Khem’s voice cut through the noise.
"Brave needs to know."
Everyone turned to him.
Khem’s expression didn’t shift. But there was something in his gaze—something hardened. Something sharper than before. “We’re going to Blackout Fortress.”
Nobody spoke.
Khem exhaled slowly, his jaw tight. Senshi closed his eyes for a brief moment, then nodded. Shining tossed his broken sunglasses aside. Weird let out a low whistle.
Samui was the first to move. "Understood."
One by one, they followed. No complaints. No hesitation. Just resolve. Because this fight wasn’t over.
It had only just begun.