To stop Heart from moving too fast, Eden carried her as they soared through the slums. Logan following closely.

  “Heart.. I think we lost them,” Eden muttered, looking behind him on the trail. His magnificent wings extended far over the area.

  “Don’t get too comfortable yet,” Heart told him sternly. She couldn’t shake that feeling, “There’s a greater evil in slums right now.”

  Suddenly, a man leaped from building to building! He moved extremely quickly, obvious that he was a monster. He grasped Logan by the neck and flung him into Eden. Tackling them all three of them to the ground.

  “Prophet,” The man stood not too far from them. They took in the detail of their attacker. Being average height, white skinned, with black hair and black irises. He wore a jacket over a plain white tee and some jeans. His eyes were a bit droopy, as if he was lacking sleeping.

  “I have delivered them,” He stepped out of the way but, not too far so they could escape. A sandy-blonde haired woman stood nearby him.

  “Oh look at my lucky catch,” The blonde-haired man with electric blue eyes waltzed towards them. In a strange, religious white clothing.

  “A Davilla child, a boy following that certain [Genius] and a girl from that certain bloodline,” He stooped before them and grinned. Such a good-looking man had a presence of chaos. Heart’s eyes squinted, in both hostility and fear. This man was the greater evil she was sensing. “You guys would make great bodyguards, don’t you think?”

  “What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?” Jason got uncomfortably close in Heart’s face. Logan was going to through a punch, Heart stopped him. Eden was shivering from Jason’s wicked pressure.

  Jason stuck out his tongue. It was black and leathery, with golden fishlike eyes, “You should get a tongue like mine, nothing will stop you from talking.”

  Heart swung her hand and Jason avoided it, “Watch yourself!”

  Heart didn’t know who the man was, she wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill them. She kept the boys behind her in the rubble and stayed prepared. If they wanted to attack, they would have done so from earlier.

  Jason paced before them, “You know, I am only in this disgusting slum because I wanted to test a new product of mine.”

  He fished out a strange pill from his pockets, “It’s a mind control pill, I managed to mass produce them from the Potentia Historie.”

  “It’s a huge success; I tested it on some fools around here. Of course, I killed them afterwards,” He continued to monologue. He looked incredibly pleased, with this result his plans will go smoothly, “The blood is orange after you wash the walls a few times with bleach but that’s normal.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” Heart couldn’t understand the man before her. He was so obscure, giving explanations she didn’t need and making jokes. He didn’t respect them.

  “Oh? Why not? It keeps things interesting,” He continued pacing back and forth. Not batting an eye to them, he didn’t think they’d dare to escape. “I didn’t get the chance to test it on monsters. I don’t know if works on individuals who know how to use stimulus.”

  He walked up towards them and held the pill firmly. Heart hesitated, feeling his hostility pointed towards her was something different. As if she wasn’t a human being, simply a toy for him to use. “Now, if it works, I’ll have three powerful monsters on my side.”

  “And even if it doesn’t work, I have other ways to capture you.”

  Suddenly, Logan pushed forward out of Heart’s protection. He punched Jason’s arm, and it was so strong, it broke through flesh and bone. Easily breaking further past his elbow joint and would have reached his torso if Jason didn’t move.

  “You little son of a bitch! That hurt!” The man screamed. His arm regenerated quickly, producing new flesh and bone in matter of minutes. He grinned despite the anguish in his face, “I guess we’ll be doing this the hard way.”

  The man who intercepted them and the other woman came before Logan, to defend the evil man.

  “You messed with the wrong people! You’ll experience our god’s judgment!” The woman yelled at them, a strange black, blob creature exited her body.

  “You don’t even remember me, do you, Heart?” The man intercepted them. He was trembling, the reason they didn’t know.

  “I have never met you before,” Heart got up, seeing that this encounter would not be so easy.

  “I always knew you that you were fucked up…” The man spoke lowly while shaking more intensively.

  “Why did you hesitate, Heart?” Logan looked back at Heart and Eden. With an intense look of disappoint, “I don’t like being bullied. We was gifted with these powers, we should be grateful.”

  Logan glared at the evil man, “We should fight.”

  The evil man sneered, “Come at me, fool. I have been alive even before your father was conceived.”

  ~//~

  “Stop, do you sense that?” Before they got closer, Ryan halted and held his hand up. The slums were gloomy already but, there was a sinister presence near-by. They nodded to Ryan, and he spoke, “Looks like Heart just met up with Jason.”

  “I knew they were working together!” Brooklyn exclaimed; she just needed a reason to cause damage. Now she got it. She shared a wicked smile with Abigail.

  “That doesn’t mean they are working together,” Bryant said sternly. He could feel Able’s presence getting closer. Luckily for him, the other detectives didn’t seem to sense it. Or they did and just didn’t care.

  “You are so adamant about them being so innocent, what’s going on?” Martin glared at Bryant; he hated how he kept coming in the way. Martin sneered, “Is she some other poor girl you fucked?”

  “I couldn’t even if I wanted to,” Bryant actually got a hearty chuckle from that. He certainly found her attractive but, someone else already has eyes on her. And she had eyes on him too. “It just doesn’t add up. You guys just want a reason to kill.”

  “So what? Look, they have been around Jason for some time now and haven’t moved. I need blood on my hands since that bastard Kayne hogs all the missions,” Xavier marched up to Bryant. Two massive men trying to intimidate each other. “I have the need and chance to kill. You’re gonna dare come in my way?”

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Beat his ass, Xavy!” Abigail cheered, tired of seeing Bryant on his high horse.

  “Shut up, bitch. Or I kill you too,” Xavier momentarily directed his hostility to her, and she flinched.

  “We can’t close in while Heart is there, he will use them to escape. We learnt how Detectives operated at the academy,” Bryant didn’t like his attitude. No matter if he was the so called ‘second strongest’ of Diane’s Excellency.

  Xavier had intimidating looks. His large, muscular build. His silky, dark hair and pitch-dark irises. He had a massive scar that tore out flesh at the left jaw. Looked like a killer and acted like one.

  “Or did you learn nothing?” Bryant released his pressure, showing that no matter if it meant to take on all of them. He would do it.

  “Get off your fucking throne, Bradley! Don’t act high and mighty cause you’re the second top student in terms of conduct, or the Representative’s son! You’re no better than me!” Ryan had a temper tantrum again, not defending the group but rather himself. Pointing at Bryant and shouting at the top of his lungs, “In the end you share the same title as me! A fucking detective!”

  Bryant felt shame from hearing that, it was odd since he was usually so blind to his emotions. He wished he could announce to them that he wasn’t on their side, “I am ashamed that people like you are able to buy the title.”

  “Heart’s pheromones are telling of fear, not happiness to meet Jason,” Bryant continued with his points. “Are you blind to that?”

  “Obviously we know that, Bradley. They just have too much pride to admit it, they want to seem righteous,” Xavier spoke up. The other went quiet, feeling shame by Xavier’s words. “I am honest about it. You said it before, we want a reason to kill. And this moment is so convenient.”

  “And I said it before, this isn’t how Detectives operate.” Bryant morphed into his grotesque. His skin became thicker and darker in tone, his fingers adorned with rings and demonic wings protruded from his back. A strange seal was projected a nanometer from his pupil. His hair became glowing blue and at his tailbone exited three long fabrics, two being scarlet and the other glowing blue. Gray horns grew from the back of his head to his temples and straight up.

  “I’ll have your blood on my hands then!” Xavier moved to attack him as the other prepared to go around and go after Heart.

  Bryant smirked, he wasn’t going to fight Xavier and make his espionage become difficult due to suspicions.

  As his ally came right in time.

  “Rotten!” A wave of dead flesh and fingernails rushed forward, between Xavier and Bryant. Also stopping the other detectives from chasing after Heart.

  It was Able and the others!

  “Able! Go after Heart! We will handle right here!” Peaches said, as he and other stopped before the Detectives-In-Training.

  “Thanks! Give these fucktards a good lesson!” Using strange wings, he flew towards the sinister presence.

  “I am coming too! I can’t leave my best friend in danger,” Using her own demonic wings, Emilia followed behind Able.

  To not make himself look suspicious, Bryant soared after Emilia and punched at her. Purposefully missing and breaking down a wall with his strength.

  “Dammit!” Bryant acted his best, the other Detectives-In-Training took it as a signal that he was on their side. The members of Zebra Effect knew he missed on purpose.

  “You!” Carolyn exclaimed. The girl who wore a habit clutched her rifle. She had been quiet through all of the interactions, only getting prepared when it was time to fight. She seemed to be yelling at Peaches.

  “You!” Peaches pointed at her in a playful tone, he also recognized the girl. He didn’t think he would meet her so soon.

  “What the hell is that!?” Brooklyn shouted in confusion. She never heard Carolyn’s voice before, it was the first time.

  “Peaches! Explain yourself now!” Evelyn floated up towards Peaches with a raging expression. She was holding herself back from smacking him.

  “Princess, calm down,” He defended against all of her blows and grabbed both her hands. Pulling her to his mouth and whispered in her ears, “Take a whiff of her pheromones…”

  Evelyn turned to the girl with a glare and took a deep breath. Her eyes became watery and her expression excited, “Already! I wasn’t prepared.”

  “Enough!” Black scales formed all over Ryan’s body. On his back they came together to form structures to support artillery generated by metal in his body.

  He fired them at Peaches but in an instant, they were frozen in a column.

  “Watch it, boy.” Peaches said harshly to Ryan, his stormy gray eyes were glowing in that moment. “Don’t disrespect a king with a mediocre power.”

  “How dare you!!” Ryan exclaimed on the top of his longs, the blow to his ego being severe.

  Carolyn rushed after Peaches. She had the ability to swim through the ground. Grabbing Peaches by the collar, she dragged him through walls as they perfectly phased through them.

  “Where are they going?” Lauri asked in a panic, their numbers were getting fewer. This was her first fight; she wasn’t prepared for it.

  “Just for a little bit of privacy for their reunion,” Evelyn courageously floated before the Detectives-In-Training with a smirk. “How should we deal with this?”

  “We’re not dealing with this,” Tristan, another quiet type, finally spoke up. He was getting ready to fight, black veins appeared all over his arm.

  “What?” Evelyn and Lauri said in unison, confused by his answer. Since Tristan had more experience, they were following him.

  “We have disadvantage in numbers and you guys don’t have much experience with your new powers yet,” Tristan explained as he changed into his grotesque, showing that he is serious.

  Large black horns spiral from his head, being decorated with gems. Two pairs of black wings exited his waist. All over his arms were visible veins pumping with black blood and his nails grew sharper.

  “I can fight! Don’t rob me of my anime introduction episode!” Evelyn protested. She didn’t see the real dangers in this lifestyle yet.

  “Lynn… We should listen to him,” Lauri tried to reason with her sister, but she kept shrugging her off.

  “If you’re so weak then just stay still and let me kill you!” Xavier spoke up, tired of waiting around. Someone had to die by his hands. “Or struggle, that makes it more fun.”

  Evelyn couldn’t keep up with his speed, Xavier was before her and slashing his fingers at her.

  “Cambridge Seal.” A strange insignia projected before Tristan and a massive creature exited it. Being a 50-meter, black centipede with silver limbs and jaws. It blocked Xavier’s attack but took a dent to it.

  “Take this seriously!” Tristan yelled at them. The centipede clutched up Evelyn and Lauri, throwing them on its back and rushing off.

  “Ew! Where did you get this thing!?” Evelyn exclaimed as they raced off. She acted calm but, was truly traumatized by her near-death experience.

  “Execution.” Tristan wanted them to chase after him. So he had to get them agitated. Flying high, he gathered a black liquid at his nails and sent a black blade hurdling towards them.

  Xavier countered the attack easily! “You wanna die so badly! I will chase you to the end of this earth and back!”

  ~//~

  The battle was very difficult for Heart, she didn’t want to harm Logan or Eden with her unstable powers. She did so many times but luckily, Logan and Eden were fighting properly either way.

  She knew it couldn’t continue longer. They would get exhausted, and she’d be forced to use her powers. As much as she didn’t want to. She squirmed her face in anguish as they kept defending attacks.

  “Rotten!” A voice she hasn’t hear in a long time yelled. A wave of deaf flesh and fingernails rushed forward, intercepting the fight from continuing.

  “Jason!” Able landed before them and placed his feet firmly on the earth. An amalgamation of dead flesh and fingernails surged towards the blonde man.

  “Zorian, it’s like you know my every move,” Jason stood boldly as the attack rushed after him. Oliver stepped in between the attack and nullified it, at the cost of damage to himself.

  “Tsk!” As much as Able wanted to take the chance to kill Jason, his mission is to do otherwise. So, he grabbed Heart, Logan and Eden. Soaring off quickly.

  “My Mourning Stars!” At Jason’s call, Pearl, Nagasaki and Hiroshima came to his side. “Go after them!”

  “Naamah!” Emilia landed before the Mourning Stars could pursue. She screamed so loudly that black, harsh winds manifested. Forcing the back off, “You no backboned bitches aren’t going anywhere.”

  “Lia!” Heart called in confusion, reaching out for her but Able was long gone with them.

  “You shouldn’t keep this a secret, Heart!” Emilia reprimanded her best friend, truly glad that she was safe.

  “Tsk! There’s too much trouble around here, you just made yourself an unlucky little girl,” Jason taunted Emilia. H he was concerned of the Confederation appearing due to the fights. “Ezekiel!”

  A young man with three pairs of wings descending at his command, “Yes, father?”

  “Go after those four ahead, kill the Zorian and capture the other three. My Mourning Stars, kill this unfortunate little girl,” Jason gave his commands as he stepped back slowly. Emilia glared, awaiting his next move.

  Jason sneered, “Oliver, Yvette, take me home.”