“So it’s settled then, you youngsters are getting on some stupid brawl with the Beretta family right.”

  “That we shall, Sir.” A masked man spoke.

  On a small tattoo parlor by the junkyard a rather scrawny old man was careful inking a tattoo on a young man’s back, a rather unusually skinned young man, a man with a white mask with only two bck dots painted in pce of eyes, one could not see anything while wearing such a thing. The shape of his bones clearly showing in his skin that by now was already adorned with countless tattoo’s in almost all of his skin, more than anything the tattoo’s resembled the countless faces of many men and women. The old man was simply tattooing a pattern around them in the form of crawling hair flowing thought all of his body.

  “I don′t get it, every time I look at your back it’s never the same.” The old man scratched his head as he finished rounding upon the edges of the bck hair ensuing to give the illusion that it was all flowing downwards. “Of course, I’m never the same man twice.” The old man sighed. “Must be one of that weird superpower stuff all you youngsters have this days.” The masked man remained quiet, simply staring at the floor as the people around him looked at their surroundings with worry. The Yakuza clearly armed as they stood guard outside the tatoo parlor.

  “Rgghh, when you kids get violent is always us innocent folk who end up paying the price.” The Maked man raised his head his shoulders still limped at his sides as the tattoo artist compined at him. “There is no such thing as an innocent, not in Is franca. A city born from sin leaves no man untainted.”

  “Whatever just keeps us out of it, ok. I’m not asking for the moon here.”

  “Every man to his fate.” The masked man spoke in whispers, his tone unchanged serene flowing like silk.

  “Ehh…I suppose you kids aren′t all bad, at least you are trying. It’s hard not to feel bad for the folks in those factories, but if you kids thing you can just punch Salvatore’s people out of here that is never going to happen.” The masked man lowered his head again, looking at his bck boots. “It concerns me not. I′m of the scorching sun, for my own wish and only for that.” The old man finished his bor and stare at his client in confusion. “That′s news to me. ?So you aren′t doing this, to get revenge for your country, like your friends then? Now that I think about it you don’t even have one of those sun tattoo’s” The masked man put his thin fingers upon the forehead of his mask. “No, I very much not care for mere simple dirt; I have no need of a past either.”

  “?Then what’s that wish or yours boy?”

  “I cannot say it, as everything loses power when given shape. It needs not to be spoken, not ones true desires, its best to give them no shape. To keep them safe.”

  “Always a weirdo. Fine don′t tell me, I rather not know what creepy thing is inside that head of yours.” The masked man dropped his arm and his head remaining silence again, without showing any hints of discomfort as the tattoo was burned into his skin.

  But that quiet moment was broke, the sound of gss breaking and the fearful unmistakable loud bang of gun fire drowned the small shop in an instant. The armed Yakuza in front were thrown back the impacts of bullets, one scream the other couldn′t anymore as he fell backwards his own machinegun setting off in vain. More and more the sound of gss and walls breaking resounded, a barrage of bullets entering front the front and breached all that y within. The man in the mask and the old man never got to move, as he bullets reached and the wall behind was left full of holes, they both colpsed each sprouting blood as they fell.

  “Target was hit.” Outside the tattoo parlor a man in a white suit came out of a broken down car that wouldn′t have looked out of pce in that dirty old street. The broken window started to be surrounding by the Beretta family grunts, all very easy to recognize by the white suits they wore, all carrying machineguns and hand guns with them. Amongst them a man in white of brown skin and a thick mustache came forward.

  “?We have tasted first blood, tell all capos to begin operations, give them no time to breath!” He screamed to a radio in his hand and the other man around him guarded the car with they′re weapons drawn. The man with the radio signaled to the two gunmen who were just in front of the windows they have broken.

  “?Go in and confirm that the Noh is death, hurry now, we must keep moving, there is no going back now!” The man screams at them, clearly anxious and very clearly afraid as he moved his arm accusingly, the other two man didn′t question him and simply run inside the tattoo parlor.

  “This trashcan is one of their bases, this people are just crappy street gang.” Another of the man spoke while still holding his weapon towards the streets.

  “Yeah we are going…to kill them all out in no time.” The man with the radio spoke with a constant pause in his words as he reached for his neck with his free hand.

  “Sir I can confirm the target was eliminated, there were no survivors.” A man in white came out from the parlor with his gun lowered; his expression was rather grim, all of them, men in white, seemed to not know where to look they all were simply staring around bnkly at the tattoo parlor.

  “?Hahaha, see we took down one of their big shots already… Doesn′t matter how tough they are. ?A bullet to the head is a bullet to the head!” The man with the radio ughed as he pressed the radio and spoke.

  “The Noh is dead it all came perfectly, boss.” After reporting his succeed, he let go of the button and heard a bullet being shot.

  “What?”

  He turned back to stare at the parlor and he heard a gun ring out again and again, one of his men was already bleeding on the floor and other had taken a shot straight on its forehead and could only fall weakling among the rubble and broken gss, only the man in white right in front of him remained with his gun drawn, as he stared in silence at his companions he had just shot down without any mercy.

  “?What did you do!” The squad commander dropped the radio and pulled out his own gun pointing straight at the head of the other man, who didn’t move a single inch.”

  “Oh, this must have been your first time waging a war cking in sense; you all are clearly no super vilins. Never believe you know what to expect.” The man spoke with a weak and dragged tone, almost as if he had barely any will to speak at all, but that voice was another man’s voice.

  “!Ah…Ahhghgg!” In a panic the commander shoot the other man square in the shoulder as blood spitted outwards from his white suit, he remained in silence twisting from the impact but refusing to fall.

  “Hmmm… This is my answer for this artist’s death.” With a voice like a mere whimper the killer in white broke his arm backwards like a puppet twisting his limps, and without even stating back he shot the st survivor with a bullet to the chest. The hit squad commander colpsed the sight of his own man’s back after killing being the st sight he would ever have.

  “Now there is none who can paint our souls hopes upon our flesh... hmm”

  Feeling uncertain the figure in the white suit jumped back with a range beyond what was humanly possible towards the car the family had arrived in, machinegun fire was unleashed upon him in an instant and his body barely managed to escape unharmed. Crashing upon the roof of a car and with a backflip upon impact and then disappearing behind it.

  “Don’t stop, pin him down.”

  Two more bck cars came suddenly into the street and from the windows men in bck opened fire toward their target even if it had looked like one of their own. As the bullets rained upon a tall bck man walked closer to it, he wore a white suit with a hat like the rest, but he had a scar over his mouth that hided a respiratory device.

  “!Sorry, but you took the bait, Mr Noh!”

  With a furious scowl on his face the man punched the air releasing from his arm a vortex of fire that expanded onward engulfing the whole car inside its fmes and so it exploded in a power deafening sound, but the fmes didn’t stop the flew upwards burning the streets and the houses behind it, scorching them as a cloud of smoke flew upwards into the very skies. Fire wrath Johnson released fort devastation hoping to eradicate a single cockroach along with the whole street in a move. The men around him stopped shooting, standing in awe at the fmes and cinder that blew up into the atmosphere.

  “?Hahaha, he is not death right? ?Shoot if anything moves!” Johns raised his index finger with a fme dancing around it and pointed towards the burning car.

  A gunshot was heard and a man in white was hit on the head, spitting red blood over himself, the rest answered in a panic releasing a barrage of bullets into the cover of smoke that veiled the streets.

  “Eh... maybe blowing the car wasn’t the best idea” Johnson groaned as he opened his palm in fmes towards him. The smoke was beginning to dissipate so among the loud rumbling of machineguns he alone stood calm. A man screamed close by and Johnson only manage to see him colpse as his throat bleed with no one else at sight, only two of his man remained so he knew well what to do there and now. Johnson walked towards his remaining men and released a raging fme towards them. One of the st men in white smiled and threw machine gun away and in an instant jumped out of the way leaving the other men to be burned alive, but the fmes banished before they even scorched his white suit.

  “?There you are you are, you faker!”

  The fake man in white nded on the roof the car behind them, his face seemed to be cracking like porcein revealing a white mask below it. His white outfit turned slowly bck and began to unravel falling on top of car now in the shape of hundreds of long locks of bck hair that slowly fell from his body. The masked man’s chest was bare dispying clearly the tattoos of dozen of faces depicted upon his body and of bck hair swirling and connecting them all. His true self revealed as the elusive Noh.

  “Hmmm, you never noticed in time and so now your men rest.”

  “I heard you were harder to kill than a cockroach, living to the name.” Johnson walked forward towards the assassin, his face hidden by the scarf but his clear eyes locked upon his prey, with no signs of fear.

  “You are from the family, so bold of you to have come, tell me do you not fear Kojiro′s Wrath anymore?”

  “?That’s up to the boss, killing you is just a job!”

  Fmes sprout forward from inside Johnson’s sleeves, the Noh grabbed the roof of the car and impulse himself with both arms, and with a great finesse he slipped below the fire and quickly rolled on the ground reaching Johnson in a fsh. The nails on his hands grew like grotesque knives and with a quick spin he sliced Johnson’s knees.

  “?Shit!”

  Quickly Johnson released another barrage of fire just in front of his legs and the Noh did another backflip evading it just in time. The masked man remained with both arms in the floor his posture in resembnce of a frog just behind the reach of the fmes. Johnson groaned and clenched his teeth barely managing to keep himself standing.

  “You will need a clear head to reach me. Angry men are simple men.” Fmes flew forward towards the masked man who jumped above it, his body painted in colorful inks twisted gracefully as he spun on the air with a single jump. Nimble and fit, slim yet with a strong complexion, the masked man fell behind his enemy stopping his fall with a single hand and using that single point of pressure he jumped back and nded on his feet.

  Johnson didn′t wait a single second as his hand began to spread fmes again, but before he could turn completely and scorch the Noh alive he was pierced in the shoulder, deying him enough for the strange man to banish from his sight again.

  “Damn it” Long finger nails stabbed him in up to three times on his arm and Johnson ended up releasing more smoke from his neck in anger, his fmes only turned abze the asphalt on the street, The Noh was safe looking at him from atop a mppost.

  “But you do have strength and I cannot help but be enthralled, I wish to eat you, to make that strength mine.” Noh moved his fingers below the white mask and his long tongue slipped underneath it, it was not the tongue of a human.

  “?You want my power? ?You think you can handle it!” Fire burst outwards from both of his arms, as he moved them towards the mppost, Noh allowed himself to drop backwards, falling down with his sight upon the sky and once he touched the floor he speeded forward to pass the threshold below the two arcs of fire, his nails growing rge again. The fire banished just above him, but as he raised his cws he was grabbed with great strength by the neck and lifted off the floor, his skin burning intensely from that touch.

  “?A weakling like you will only combust himself!” His hands closed on the slender man′s neck and they burned his skin bck, fire wrath John engulfed him in an unbearable heat as he slowly chocked him to death. “?This heat never ends, it never stops burning! ?How much can you take, ha!” His neck was caught on fire as Johnson ughe, but the masked man never reacted not even with a single scream he remained numb.

  “?This right now, is how my skin always feels!...agg.” Jonson screamed to the inexpressive mask till he began to cough again in pain, a long stream of smoke was then released from his respiratory device, but Johnson was struggling from his coughing.

  For a moment his strong grasp wavered and the man he was strangling finally reacted, his nails grew rapidly and with both arms he pierced Johnson in his wrist in a gruesome dispy, he scream among his coughing, but his arms refused to let go.

  “Strong… I need to eat...consume you” The Noh spoke softly.

  The mask man wasn′t struggling any more, leaving his snails piercing the other man’s arms, Johnson could feel his strength leaving him little by little, and something else creeping on the corner of his eye.

  Something was crawling on top of his clothes, a swirling bck mass that came out from behind the masked man, strings of hair only visible by being so many, but with an unbelievable strength and they all encroached thought his torso, his legs and finally his arms. He tried to resist, but the many string forced his hands to let go of the thin neck he had been so eager to break.

  ¨?Why can′t you just burn me? Are you as well afraid of fire?” Even though the man shouldn′t be able to speak any more, he talked in mockery, his neck burned to a crisp and yet one could clearly see how very slowly his skin healed back into its pce.

  “I’ll eat you now, you are…truly worthy.” The bck hair crawled from behind his head and into the space below his mask, the hair took the shape of many fingers and slowly began to peel the mask from his face revealing his mouth. The mouth of the Noh opened from its center like a slit, showing hundreds of small sharp teeth, his tongue was set free, getting longer and longer as it reached past the distance to Johnsons face.

  “We will become one; exist as part of a greater whole. ?A greater being!” His mouth opened and closer, splitting saliva without any hold, his voice was hardly human anymore, it was grating to the ears and yet it clearly spoke with great delight and joy.

  Johnson couldn′t move any more the long hair had him chained to the ground locking every muscle of his in pce, but there was no fear in the man in white′s eyes. Just anger and a fury that made his eyes pop white.

  “?Eat a load of this!” The fire wraith answered, his anger overwhelming all fear.

  With all the strength that remained him Johnson began to force his hands back, clothes ripping apart by the countless strings of hair till they reached his flesh and made him bleed underneath, punishing for daring to move. Johnson′s whole arm bended unnatural threatening to break, but he bared it all and reached his scarf with his own hand moving it down his neck. Underneath his scarf was a very metal neck piece connected to a respiratory mask and two long tubes that arched down beneath his clothes and at its very center was a vault that he now turned open.

  A loud metallic bang was heard and a barrage of bck smoke exploded from his neck forcing the long tongue to retract, the smoke flowed outwards engulfing them both, and so the two of them disappeared as the smoke grew more and more all over the street and towards the grey skies, it spread forcefully by a strong air current and the street was left in silence below it. It kept expanding leaving the entire street in the dark till alone figure walked out of the smoke and into a small alleyway.

  It was the slender man in the white mask, looking far more decrepit than before as he leaned against the wall to keep himself from falling down.

  “Can′t breathe…” His chest moved strange as if something was moving inside it and below his mask he released a torrent of smoke that had entered through his mouth. Once he managed to spit out all of the smog, he got up, walking deeper into the alleyway with a limp, barely saving himself from a painful asphyxiation.

  “?Yehhaa!” From within the wall of smoke a figure spawned in a rampage, welding a gigantic axe and cutting him from hid retreat. The Noh wasn′t able to move in time and his arm was severed with a clean cut from the side. His skins ruptured and bleed while his entire body was sent flying against the near bye wall. He still nded in his feet raising slowly with half of his left arm cut open to the point his bones were clearly visible.

  “Man, you can still jump out of the way.” A short, but corpulent woman in a white suit with blond hair and bck sungsses wielded the axe over her shoulder, her face beaming with a jolly smile as if she was simply in a stroll. The woman made her axe dance upon the air with grace and ease and the masked man could only evade it at the st second. He moved below it as it cleaved through the wall in the alley, breaking its concrete apart.

  He ran his movement slower and clumsier than before, even a body as inhumane as his could reach its limit. But the woman didn’t give up her pursuit her axe swinging wildly in search of prey as she ughed.

  “?Hahaha you sure are something, let me have a bite!”

  The Noh jumped out of the ally as the huge axe breached both walls at his side at once , he quickly nded on his right arm and spin on the air throwing a knife before nding again. She raised one of her legs skipping over the knife, but lost bance and had to stop running and tried as she stood in one leg for a second.

  “Man, and Mr. Johnson already had cocked you very good and everything, give up and the boss might still forgive you.” The woman let the huge axe rest at her side as she slowly regained her breath again, she might be more tired than her smile revealed, but her grip one the axe was still quite firm.

  “If not I think I’ll cook you myself, yeah I don′t want anything else to get on the way, Haha I′m gonna have to check for poisons thought…Haha…”

  “?You wouldm′t eat my flesh?” Even though his arm was ripped upon and remained limp to his side, the masked man showed no emotions in his voice.

  “Yeah, I used to eat people a bit back in the day, but the boss says it’s too uncivilized or something, but hey I won’t tell if you won′t.”

  Once more the sound of guns ringed on the abandoned old streets and a bullet pierced Noh in the shoulder making his body spin as he fall from the impact. The woman rushed with a loud joyful ugh and swung down her weapon against him.

  But she was sweep of her feet; his hair had lurked below her and grabbed her ankles to make her fall along with her axe. Noh released her at once seeing that behind him a squad of men in white suit had their weapons ready. The masked man was bleeding again but his scrapped body didn′t slow down as he jumped out of their line of fire.

  Machine gun fire ran as he jumped to the next corner of the street. He was on the verge of passing out and the road in front of him was nothing as his vision suddenly went dark as he suddenly was hit on the back by a heavy blunt object. The woman had thrown it from afar to stop him on his tracks, he had gotten lucky it only manage to reach him with the handle of the axe, but the men in white had all reunited with their guns ready.

  “Nice catch, boys reel him in.” The woman gave a fist pump, jumping in pce with excitement and two of the man began to walk with caution towards him. The Noh was bleeding out fast, his tattoos now hidden by his own blood as his slim arms still tried to raised him up again. He made no sounds as he finally stopped trying and rather than that he simply raise his hand above his head and towards the gray skies above.

  “Please, we don′t want to…wither away.” And spoke in a fragile voice, a different voice. Someone else’s voice, but the man in white never heard him. There was a sudden change in the wind and a clear whisper could be heard. It was the sound of a drum, a hymn of sorts falling down into the streets and that of a string being released.

  It was sudden in an instant an arrow pierced the white suit of one of the man in front and catch fire on contact, he tried to scream, but was silenced with and arrow to the head as did his companion at the exact same time.

  “?Everyone back!” The woman jumped back evading an arrow and in a desperate move grabbed one of the men in white at her side and forced him in front of her. He was punctured with three arrows and died instantly only letting out one st scream, still using his body as a shield the woman jumped back into the street corner. The other men raised their guns in a panic and began to shoot back.

  Two more arrows where shoot into the street itself, with a round bck device at their tip, it blinked a red light for a second and then released a curtain of smoke that spread thought the street leaving the men shooting blind in hopes of hitting the fallen man. Amiss the confusion a another arrow hooked itself to the ground just at the side of the Noh, it was hooked to a long rope and he bitted it strongly with his teeth and grabbed it as best he could with the only arm he could still move. Slowly the rope began to raise him upwards by the side of a building.

  Only the woman remained sitting down in an alley with a confuse look on her face as she saw the men run from the smoke just to be pinned down one after another by an arrow to their backs. She ughed a bit and took out her cellphone out.

  “Hi it′s me Bel… yeah I′m fine, but… well” She ughed weakly, rolling her eyes away from the street in embarrassment.

  “Mission failed, boss.”

  ***

  “You came; you truly are the guardian of the heavens.” The Noh groaned slowly barely keeping his consciousness as his wounds were treated. The Noh sited upon a rooftop under Aoi Kojiro′s watch, the very captain of their misfit army had come to his rescue.

  “I…should have been faster…I.” Aoi Kojiro tried to fight of the tears, thought she knew how to treat some wounds on the battlefield she was hardly a doctor. His state was terrible even if he’s body could heal itself, this was too much. She was so gd he didn′t fall unconscious or else everything could have already ended. She tried to treat the burning of his neck by at least covering it up, but he didn’t allow her to touch his mask. Rather he grabbed her arm and gently pushed her away from his chest. He still had a bullet on his shoulder and a broken arm. She looked at his mask as if she hopped to see his eves from within those holes.

  “?What is the pn?” He said as coldly as ever.

  “Pn…?Do I have such a thing?” She stood up again as he id further down. She was truly ready for it wearing a fully armored vest on top of her clothing well equipped with two different bows, carrying at least four quivers at her waist; it was war again, like the first time they meet.

  She was ready as always, she had already spoken to all them warned them that something was going to happen.

  “You always do, you simply have to recall it. We must not forget our selves again.” The Noh told her as he looked towards her.

  “ahh…well, their pn was to kill you first before anything else. It was the smartest approach really, everyone else among us couldn′t reach Tonny Beretta before he flees again…We are a bit to showy.”

  “In that cases we must make him regret his failure.”

  “You can′t fight anymore. Not with a body like that”

  “Even so give me a few hours and I will find him, this body still has much to offer and our debt is yet to be paid.” The nails on his right hand stretched and he quickly inserted them on his shoulder and carved out the bullet with ease. His hair grew down his shoulders and began to pierce the skin sewing the wound with strings of hair.

  “There is nothing to be paid; besides you said tht you are only following us to consume Kojiro at the end.” She spoke with a smirk,

  “?Did I? I cannot remember, we were something quite different back then thought. This time thought, it is our war and ours alone so we must fight, for ourselves.”

  “Only For ourselves, hardly there already way too many people depending on us in this svers bay, I won′t allow it, this pce will be ours, it has to be for their sake.”

  Aoi stepped up into the border of the rooftop, looking down at the dirty street and all the men and women that reunited to look at the skies above they had come carrying drums of war and tall long fgs awaiting an answer, awaiting her call.

  “You are right we are not the same people we were five years ago, when Salvatore′s armies came, we could only sneak our way back but not fight them.” She spoke quietly so only Noh could hear her.

  “It was wise because of that we exist here and now.”

  “?Wise, but have we archive anything at all? We will never reach Salvatore, so our revenge is pointless, he′s just too far away.”

  “?Do you truly care for such revenge, do you think it to be wise?”

  “No, I haven’t, for a very long time, what matters to me are to at least free the people of this isnd and for Kojiro…to be safe. He has given off enough for us…”

  “If so it’s fine by me, you two do as you please, like back then we are only looking out for ourselves. To see your goal realized that is the role of the Noh.”

  “Hah… I really don’t get you at all…But thank you… ?Listen up!” She finally addressed the crowd and they all raised their heads towards the grey skies above. The Noh remained sited outside of view staring bnkly into the distance.

  “?We are at war now, we have fought desperately to make of this bay our own, because this was the pce where this isnd needed to change the most, the beginning of our conquest! But now the Beretta family is here as well, they want to take all that we have earned and remember that if they win we will end up in chains again, there is no honor nor courage in them, they are no different than the many svers we have broken, they will put you all back in chains and if not they will exploit you for every cent all the same!”

  The crowd remained silent, she could see anger and fear in their faces, most of them were here only too feel safe after all, that would never be possible if they remained in the scorching sun and she knew it. This was no army, just the many unfortunate people who had lost their nations to Salvatore; they were survivors who could die when their time to choose came no different to her, thinking that so she stood still in silence, her words failing her again.

  “?We can win; we have Kojiro strength with us! ?The strength that took down an army, the power that could stand even against the vey Salvatore, he will fight at our side and as long as he stands we will never break and the sun will be revealed above us once more! ?So fight, follow Adachi Kojiro and know that the world’s strongest man is at our side!” She spoke fiercely raising the bow into the air and finally her words resonated among the Scorching sun, they heard her and screamed in pride and rage. They would fight because they believe they could win, because they remembered why the Scorching Sun is truly feared. When her speech ended and everyone left to their assigned posts, Aoi walked away with a somber look in her face. Noh had finally stood up awaiting her, his body a ragged mess of bandages and scars.

  “You have ignited their spirit, congratution.”

  “No, my brother did, he Is the one they truly follow, they would not listen to a word I said otherwise.”

  “So you remain the moon, but will that be enough. ?Can Kojiro alone win this war?”

  “He cannot, he is too good for deceiving, he would never approve of anything, but a fair fight, but that is not a war, so regardless of his feeling we both must do whatever is necessary to end our enemies, we are the only ones who can, after all we never had much honor in the first pce.”

  “?A cowards assassination then?”

  “Its fine, Kojiro is our light; his kindness is still carrying us onwards, so it’s not that bad to be his shadow. I′m not like him or Howard, I′m no warrior and neither are you assassin.” The Noh bowed in silence, as he looked at the crying face, she probably didn′t knew that there were tears on her eyes.

  “I will pursuit Tony Beretta and kill him, Kojiro-sama will not be informed and much bloodshed will be spared.”

  “No, don′t kill him, we need to make him talk first.”

  “?Hmm…is there something else that concerns you then?”

  “Yes, this can′t be Tony Beretta′s idea he wouldn′t risk going against Kojiro, at the very least my brother is a deterrence that has kept even Salvatore away from us. Someone else is moving things here, some who cares very little for the Family or even us. I can sense it, your assassination attempt had no concern for the lives of their people, and they were sacrificed by a strategist that…- Her hands were shaken and the look on her eyes was as frightening as her brothers.

  “Someone’s moving our lives whitout caring for their weight, a strategist with nothing protect, the sort of person that would burn the whole of svers bay if they have to, and worst yet, someone who believes they can defeat Kojiro even with all of his strength. Even if there is only a small chance for it to happen, we need to destroy this phantom and I… wish to do it myself.” The Noh ughed in muffed sound.

  “Very well, two heads to end a war. I′ll be our pleasure” And so the masked man bowed lightly.

  ***

  “Understood, the best to do right now is too keep communications to a minimum and to double your security if needed.”

  Irvin Maximillian was finishing a rather unpleasant conversation in the phone, he was looking quite distress and even paler than usual. He stood alone in an old abandoned warehouse a building that had rusted to its core and had no sun light left on it. There he stood in the shadow with a table full of maps and sketches and a row of cellphones at his side, all well arranged with order and care, he seemed to not mind the darkness around him as he was far too engrossed on his mission to care for much else.

  “In any case we will proceed as pnned, The Scorching Sun are moving as expected, they will be far too busy to notice our assault on the factory that I can guarantee.” He walked from one side of the room to the other as he spoke on his cellphone, slightly fixing his yellow tie once more.

  “Very well I′ll report to you as soon as it’s done, keep me posted.” He hanged up and put the cell phone back on table just to pick a different phone, but rather than calling anyone right away he put his arms over the table and stared at the shadowed map of svers bay, only illuminated by a few dim candles.

  Our first move failed, the Noh remain unaccounted for and we lost Johnson as well, it’s understandable for Tony to be so furious at me. Irvin bitted his gloved fingers. There is no way to pn against the Noh we can only take precautions. Noh is an assassin he will go straight for Tony for sure if he can still move, that is… in addition, if Tony is captured he would sold me out in an instant. He has no reason not to; we are not real allies not yet.

  “?Mr. Storm could you kept track of the escaped Noh?” Irvin made another call from a different radio.

  “No, Sorry that woman took him under a veil of smoke, should I search around for him?”

  “No, not even your eyes could find him now, keep an eye on Hiroshi corporation till you see the fg raise, afterwards come back here, there was a small change and they may begin to search for me.”

  “So if they do that, does that mean I get to shoot someone?” Danny asked excited.

  “Sure, just remember thatyour job is to keep me alive, so let’s try to evade that if we can please.”

  “Haha, Roger that.” Irvin put the phone back to his row and raised his hand over and other one, but he just stood there hesitating to grab it. Its time then, there will be no coming back from this; this whole pce will fall into pandemonium soon and I can′t afford anymore more mistake from here on out. He took now a cellphone and with a bitter expression, made another call.

  “Dino is everyone ready to move out.”

  “We are all set here, just waiting for the dies to get ready to roll.” Dino answered looking rather excited, he had change his wardrobe completely, leaving behind his tacky dinosaur hoodie for a pin bck one, his custom guitar was gone as well. He barely looked like himself anymore.

  “Alright when the mission is complete you both can proceed to your next assignments, Dino don′t forget to throw away the cellphone at the end, you will have to continue in complete silence from that the step on, understood.”

  “Sure thing, I prefer to do thing at my pace anyways. “

  “Good luck.”

  “Same to you, just made sure I won′t regret leaving you alone.” Dino turned off his phone and scratched his messy hair. “Good luck… man.” He muttered to himself in a whisper.

  “Hey, be honest. ?Do you think anyone will recognize me like this.” Yong had awaited her chance to speak him again, she had also change her usual sport tank top and pants for a red sport jump suit with bagged gray pants and a sweater on top, she wore a medical mask over her mouth and had her hair arranged in a single bun. Finally she had a pair of thick sun gsses and a bck scarf and wool gloves.

  “You need a few more yers girl; otherwise people may realize you are more than a walking lump of clothes.”

  “?Be serious if anyone finds out about this my dad is going to kill me!”

  “As long we don′t use our powers no one is going to notice, we aren’t that well known in the first pce. Besides I′m risking my neck too, I′m going to have to speak with her after this whole deal and pretend I wasn’t involved, remember.”

  “?Her? ?Who is that?”

  “Hell itself that is who.” Dino raised both of his arms to warn to cease talking, she just shrugged. “So are we heading out then” She mumbled underneath her mask. “As soon as the dies finish their little couple’s moment.” Yong put her hands together. “Aww, look at Dino being considered for once.” He groaned back showing his teeth.

  “Spare me, you know it’s only fair they are the ones with a real bone to pick in there, we are just the hired hell and I rather not rush them; I can only imagine how long they waited for this day.” Yong cease her mockery, feeling a bit ashamed. “This guy is a pretty big deal, right?” “Yeah if Hiroshi corporation falls, most of the factories in this isnd will be left without any leadership, hell most of the svery rings here are all his.”

  “He is like the heart of the gray city. That will hurt even Salvatore himself…”

  “Yeah and we are gonna stab him to death and leave the whole damn bay to bleed.”

  The two of them were keeping to themselves on the outside of a huge garage, where the preparations for war had finally concluded. The gang of rebels in bck had taken of all their motorcycles and cars outside, each carrying as many guns as they possible could. The only ones that remained inside the garage where they′re bosses and so they kept waiting with looks of anxiety in their faces.

  Their leaders had a bit of a hold up as for the first time in a while they couldn′t come up with an agreement. Luisa Zafir was looking down on top of a colossal structure, thought it still had the remains of a car on its design, the machine could only be refer to as a crude tank of sort with an immense iron dome closed to its front. She stood on a pedestal on top of it surrounded by many shield of unbreakable iron and all sort of weaponry closing the distance between each of them.

  “Yes, I know, but you can′t seriously back down now, especially after making that huge chunk of metal with their dirty money. We need to move now; it’s our only hope of ever reaching that bastard.” Mercedes Oxida wasn’t leaning against her oversized motorcycle with her heavy mechanical arm resting to the side; she was annoyed, but did her best to not raise her voice.

  “But is it really wise, we will be putting the Scorching Sun to death.” The girl above spoke while fiddling with the controls of the strange contraption.

  “Well if that woman wanted a revolution for real she is gonna get it, so let′s see if they are more than just words, but this is not truly about that is it? ?You don′t really feel for them even a little bit do you, Luisa? She took her sit atop the contraption not letting her girlfriend see her envious expression. “No I don′t, I can′t say I care too much for the people we are gonna end up rescuing either, I’m no one that good.”

  “Haha, join the club, must people are just lucky enough to be alive at all, so no point in ever risking that for anyone else, no need to torture yourself over this either. ” Luisa′s head popped out between the metallic shields looking very angry. “?If so why are you doing this... If you end up dying just because of me I…”

  “Hold it, I′m just doing this because when a man pissed off I murder him, nothing more. Luisa held the bars in her driving cabin shaking them with anger. “I’m actually really scary of going back there. That′s all…. So just… ignore me, ok”She answered before disappearing back into the cabin.

  Mercerdes chuckled lightly and then jumped towards the tall vehicle in which Luisa tried to hide by using her huge iron grasp to propel her and reach her face to face.

  “Yeah, I got bad memories too… but that’s why we need to break down this pce. “

  “?Didn′t you told me you were still furious.” Luisa replied with her hands shacking on the keyboard of her contraption. “?That man didn′t just rob me of my freedom he stole and made a mockery of my work! She screamed holding back her tears and Mercedes showed her a small smirk.

  “Same, so let’s see if we can kill this ugly feeling along with that man.”

  “?Will it really help us? ?Will it really made me feel better?

  “Who knows, but it’s still worth a try. Will just have to do things my way this time and figure out tomorrow, tomorrow.” Mercedes didn’t look that sure of her own word, but still said them with a candid smile that only Luisa got to see. “Hmm… your way is a bit scary, but I trust you.” Luisa frothed her palms together and they had a singles chaste kiss on top of that strange machine. Luisa let out a shy ugh and quickly lowered the visage of her soldering mask over her face and in a fit she almost dropped the radio she grabbed from above and barely managed to catch it in time. “?Listen up everyone, we are rolling out of here, so get on your wheels and let’s go!”Luisa spoke thought the radio to all of their people to hear.

  Luisa grabbed a pull from above and as soon she did the iron shield around her closed tighter together making a small protective dome around her and the exhaustion pipes on the gigantic machine hummed tenderly. Mercedes jumped from high above falling just on top of her motorcycle and without missing a beat, connected her huge arm to its compartment and let the motors roar. She speeded out first, her armored bike blowing through the asphalt like speeding bullet and then gigantic contraction finally began its march, blowing through the rooftop of the warehouse as it step into the outside world for the first time. The rest of the riders screamed in excitement, the atmosphere of dusty old pier exploding in a cry for violence.

  “?Hahaha, the pn is on pal. Wohoo!” In a wild ugh Dino made his borrowed motorcycle roar and raised its tip a little.

  “?Calm down, you are going to throw me off too!” Yong was sitting behind him on the same bike and grabbed his back from the fear of that sudden movement. “?Don‘t like the drive, get your own ride then!” She groaned annoyed, but she didn′t let go as he drove forward. “?I don′t know how to drive!” She screamed as the two of them drive forward behind the wild gang of riders, with Dino ughing into the wind.

  There was no soul on the dusty streets as they rushed on a mad stamped blowing a curtain of dust at their backs, they were anxious, excited and far too desperate. The raiders had waited far too much and every second now was but a nuisance and anything that got on the way will be run over and left to die. Such was the cry of their rebellion and soon enough the iron fence of Hiroshi corporation was in front of their march.

  The freakish motorcycle broke through its center with its spear like shield and the rider with no hesitation traded gunshots with the security guard. The man was pierced with a barrage from her shotgun as she raided onward into the back side of the factory followed by all of her brothers that waited no more to release their triggers. The factory took no time to strike back and armed security guards began to surround the wild unhinged rebels, their weapons and clothing showing the clear difference between them, but there was no fear on the rebels and following the madness of their boss they opened fire without saying a single word.

  “Hmm… it’s those children again.” A man spoke looking at the hellish sight through a window, his voice very detach from the terrible scene almost apathetic.

  “This is different Sir… they got no demands, they are just shooting at us.” Another man answered with fear in his voice the situation had brought

  “I suppose they reached their breaking point, they are nothing but suicidal terrorist by now, it happens sometimes, all human have a limit to them, before they truly break and do something uncivilized they had to be taken care of.” A man spoke again with a mild annoyance in his voice from within the dark insides of the factory staring into the yard below.

  “?Sir, what should we do then?”

  “It’s none of our concern; the tantrums of children will never break these walls. None the less let’s move to a safer pce, precaution is the key of life and it’s never used in vain.” The two men stepped away from the windows walking deeper into the insides of the immense factory to allow the storm outside to end all on its own.

  “?Get out already, cabrones! ?Out, out, outttt!”

  Mercedes screamed intoned with the incessant sound of her machineguns fire, she rided on the battlefield spreading death in all she saw, her wheels turning and turning as if she danced upon those wheels. An iron stead that looked unbanced and crude and yet it refused to fall down with every sudden turn she took. The other riders fought just as valiantly, but their wheels weren′t fast enough and the bullets of the enemies took them down fast from their state of fury and to a passive grave upon the dust below. Their numbers fell, but like the fortress of war the factory was, it never ceased to release forth more and more soldiers, the very best money could shape, with the best weapons that such a factory could made. They′re anger could only take the raiders so far.

  And then, there were those walls. Painted in a pure onyx bck, bullets and explosion where everywhere now and yet those walls would never show a single dent. The factory was sealed from the rest of the world absolutely by them, Hiroshi more than anything took pride on those walls and so did Salvatore. All that was built from the iron of deep bck would yield to no human; it would stand as a sanctuary of safety to any secrets kept within.

  But these were strange times now, and no one really knew what being human was. It was an age of heroes, an age of vilins weirder than myth and vilins left no sanctuary undisturbed.

  The ground shacked amidst the chaos as one final vehicle of crude design and function drove through the broken gat; its movement resembled a tank, but its shape was more like a sphere and at its top a woman in a mask of iron pulled levers and pressed a keyboard as if pying an organ. With iron shields around her and an arsenal of weaponry that now began to sing, each machine gun on the sphere began to search, in a mechanical, but precise manner their target and with the command of the conductor they released a barrage of death upon them. As it moved forward slowly both friends alike could tell of its importance and so the fires of the war factory raged with a single goal, to dispy their superiority against that scrapped behemoth of a machine.

  The barrage of bullet aimed to kill a single woman, but the shield that surrounded her closed off completely like the exterior of an oyster.

  “?Leave her the fuck alone!” Mercedes rammed her fist into a guards head throwing him cold on the ground as she speeded up while keeping a constant watch on Luisa′s march.

  There came forth a loud and powerful explosion close to her bike and like a premonition she knew more would descent, a constant barrage of devastation and death fell from the very skies, the trails of smoke signaling a barrage of rockets descended in waves from above the factory. They had begun a full on assault with soldiers equipped with rocket unchers taking position from above in an arc surrounding the upcoming machine. Mercedes changed direction and speeded onwards toward the factory; she had heavy artillery of her own and never ignored anyone’s challenge. She grinned once more and pulled a lever with all of her strength and the machinegun inside her motorcycle spin out of the way to rebel a long cannon barrel. She could see a smile group of soldiers taking aim from above and with her usual devil may care tone, she singed the calcution she inputted into her weapon. The uncher shoot a grenade up into the air as the enemy fired a far much precise rocket towards her below.

  She moved her body onwards as she speeded ahead, dodging right at the st moment to the side, but her opponent could never move in time and the trajectory of her shoot was very precise, the grenade fell at the center of them all, bsting them away. She ughed lightly only confirming the explosion riding forward, but another trail of smoke flew towards her from right in front of her. She leaned to the left to evade by a hair and quickly recovered her bance to remain on her tracks. A group of guards stood on the ground with three of them pointing rocket uncher straight at her.

  “Eh….”

  She removed her arm from the speeding motorcycle and in an utterly mad move jumped from her vehicle to nd on her mechanical side, The motorcycle continued its march and the rockets crashed against its shield piercing and make it burn out in fmes, but it refused to stop charging on like a fiery wrath. Merced stood up with half of her face full of dirt and with her shoulders down in tiredness as she opened a small compartment on her prosthetic limb and pressed a small red button inside. The motorcycle crashed into the row of men as they tried a st minute run and in a far more power explosion that they could have ever hope to survive, her beloved machine went off, exploding out of existence along with the entire enemy squadron.

  Even so there enemy would not hesitate on their assault, they charged on believe their victory inevitability and so each them took aim, unching a rain of rockets from every direction towards the machine they could not understand. But the woman inside that protective cocoon wouldn′t hold back anymore, her people had already began to retire knowing that their limit had been reached, so she had to throw all she had as well, Luisa Zafire was betting everything in her new toy and her beloved machines have yet to ever betray her.

  The machine raised itself like a pilr by a cylinder that raised the sphere higher above, with Luisa secured at the very top and from its tall neck the vehicles unleashed four rail guns with their own long distance artillery, Luisa was shaking both from the fear of the explosion that keep crashing against her shields and also due to the etion of seeing just how far her invention could go. Even if that man had an influence on it all, she was still the one who built it with her caring hands.

  Luisa stop moving, the whole machine was analog contraption and she needed to care for every matter, four monitor in front of her turned on and with the speed of lighting began to type into her monitor the coordinates of each of them. Hearing her feeling the neck of the vehicle began to spin on its pce and the rails guns shoot their terrifying ballistic shots. Each shot brought fort devastation right on top of every single man that shoot against them, wherever on the ground or the building surrounding them.

  Mercedes might have lost her ride, but she kept running, shooting down every enemy her shotgun could find if only to ease Luisa′s burden, but there were still guards neither of them could reach, with their vehicle so close to the factory, the rooftop of Hiroshi corporation was an unavoidable blind spot for them, one that they full exploit and so row of men step up to the border of the roof to point their rocket unchers straight below and to the defenseless neck it had exposed.

  As one of the men pressed the trigger he found his arm being raised by force and ended up releasing the rocket into the gray skies above, the impact of the weapons release recoiled against his shoulder making him groan in agony, but by the next instant he found himself with his legs swept from the ground due to a powerful kick and a punch to his face was the st he saw.

  Two people attacked them at once, a figure dressed in a bck hood that broke thought them aiming at their necks like a beast on the prow and another one the kicked and knocked down the soldiers with a perfect momentum. That devastating pincer attack left only the man on the middle with enough time to react as he threw the rocket uncher away and pulled out a close combat knife. His opponent closed in fast dodging below the knife and raising her leg to release a devastating kick to his chest, a blow strong enough to throw him over the border of the building.

  “Nice, I think those were the st flies up here.” Dino sat on top of one of his victims back, he had severed his throat with a swipe of his cw, Yong though, merely looked below at the man who had fallen to his death and was now nothing more than mashed meat.

  “I feel like I′m killing too many people that don′t have anything to do with my mother. ?Will these really help us?” Yong spoke in a somber tone and very clearly expecting no answer to her question.

  “We will know soon enough.” Dino grinned as he looked down below to the gigantic machine that had finally reached its goal.

  The machine roared as the rail guns hided inside its interior again and its long neck descended back inside its base, the shields contracting into a small crevice now that the constant barrage of attacks had cease for the moment and the machined had reached the pure bck walls of the factory, it needed to achieve the reason for its existence.

  “Here goes nothing.” The woman inside the machine took a long breath.

  Luisa unleashed a lock with a key she had held in her b coat till that moment and with an unbearable excitement behind her mask she twisted the key an unleashed her machines true purpose. The outer dome in front of it began to open, each side, a metallic wall that all together resembled a flower in full bloom and within their core there was a drill, a very special dream meant to break through that man′s very pride.

  “Ok… let′s see if Irvin’s gift will change everything…” She mumbled as she pressed another button, but now with real hesitation on her mind as her finger stopped for a second before pressing it on.

  A small pipe gun from above the drill shoot a cylinder of gss that simply broke against the wall, its insides painted the bck wall with a gruesome greenish liquid that slowly began to corroded its center as it kept spreading outwards through the wall, it was a powerful acid, but its behavior was strange, almost as if the liquid itself wished to spread. “Eh…scary.” She knew of machines, but that strange substance they boy gave her, felt terrible alien to her.

  Even so if it allowed her machine to break through the unbreakable wall and now it was finally the moment for her just rewards. The drill spun as fast as it could, its weight and movement making the entire contraction began to shake. Luisa screamed moving the vehicle onwards for that one final stretch, the crash making her fall towards the front as she put on her auricur to block the upcoming noise, a screech too painful for anyone to bear could now be heard all around the dusted lot behind the factory, the machine pierce the corrode center on the wall and slowly began to make its way inside, this wall had an impenetrable surface, but a very thin interior, after all nothing could pierce it to begin with.

  The woman ughed madly, her cackling lost completely upon the terrible sound of the walls demise, it cracked. It was but a dent, but the pure bck color of the wall turned into a weak green like tone and countless cracks formed around the tip of the drill. The machine slowly entering the wall forced a small hole to grow into a gateway for them all.

  “?Hiroshi, Hiroshi, Look at it, look at your stupid wall!” Luisa screamed not even hearing herself, as the wall finally colpsed around the drill, it was hardly a devastation that would bring down the factory itself, but a breach now existed there, a path y open.

  Luisa stopped the drill now that it had become nothing more than a wreck and she had to leave it behind, abandoning her beloved machine to continue on in honor of its sacrifice. Luisa opened a hatch below her feet and descended further below.

  Outside the contraption trembled and began to fall apart, the lower half of it opened another small compartment that hide a very small four wheeled vehicle with Luisa already on the handle.

  “All right you made it happen, cari?o. Mercedes fell from above into the back sit of the small vehicle that could only carry the two of them. “Yes, he did splendidly and now we will do the same.” Luisa speeded up forwards barely manage to pass thought the hole by an inch. The enormous contraption remained behind the still taking the heavy punishment of the enemy attacks, crumbling little by little, but with its purpose more than archived.

  The two women drive through the spacious corridors of the factory encountering nothing more than workers screaming in terror as they moved out of their way. There was no opposition to speak of and their route was more than well-known after all Mercedes herself guarded these very halls, the enemy will realize what has happened soon enough.

  There was another sound coming behind them, the roar of another motorcycle speeding through as fast as it could to catch them. Mercedes pulled out her shotgun and turned back in case she had to blow off the head of someone else, but the driver was a man in a bck hoodie and a woman dressed in a big pile of clothes. “?Ey, yo′ need a hand in here!” Merced leaned back a little in her seat with a smile. “Carajo… You guys didn′t run away, Irvin′s people are crazier than I thought, welcome to your deaths my friends”

  Dino moved faster too keep her pace as they entered another huge open space full of workers in the middle of enabling countless pieces of equipment, there where guards as well in there who quickly opened fire, but the two intruders disappeared as quickly from sight as they appeared. “?This pce sucks; there are barely any guards in here!” Dino screamed at Mercedes with joy in his voice. “?Why would they have a heavy defense inside? That would have been the same as admitting their wall could fall.” Mercedes answered back in a rather arrogant manner, this had been a concern of her even in the days she worked the rounds in here, the desire to scream that she told him so, was clear in her voice.

  “?Hahaha, perfect, let’s eat him alive, all four of us!” Yong wanted to say something, but she was still too scared of his crazy driving to take her face off his back. “No, we need you two to stay behind and keep any pursuers from reaching us!” Luisa screamed back at him and incredible enough he heard her perfectly. ?“Don′t touch our prey, you say? ?Hahaha, gotcha, loud and clear!” Neither Mercedes nor Luisa answered him back.

  Dino stopped in his track drifting the motorcycle into pce right the entrance of a long corridor and the two of them steeped out of the motorcycle to look back thought the road they had traveled. “Man I thought I might get along with those two since they are women, but they are as reckless and dangerous as you boys.” Yong took of her helmet and began to stretch by touching her toes. “This is Is Franca, there is nothing but vilinous opportunist in here, sorry but you are the only weird one, girl.” Yong stood up straight stretching her arms behind her back. “But their goal saving this people and stopping that man. ?That can′t be evil? It’s the only noble thing I have seen tely” Dino ughed again showing his long lizard tongue coming out of his hoodie. “It sure is evil for the dude we′ killing.” The sound of machineguns made the two of them separate by jumping behind for cover at opposite sides of the entrance.

  The shooting was becoming fierce as a whole squadron of guard blocked their retreat.

  “?Haha, let’s leave talking of good and evil till there is no one alive shooting at us ok!” Dino showed all of his sharp teeth his hands becoming cws once more. “?Agreed!” Yong answered coldly and then two of them ran out of their covers towards the enemy in perfect sync.

  The other two continued on without looking back, their sight finally reaching the st and final obstacle after so many years, a gate of strong resilient iron, but a mere paper window compared to the all mighty bck wall. Luisa speeded up not fearing or doubting that they could breach through it and to answer her wish Merced stood up behind her raising her colossal steel fist towards the final gate. “?We are home, so open up!”

  Luisa didn′t let go of the accelerator as their fate grew closer to that iron end. Without saying a single word the both of them stared straight at the center of the gate as Mercedes released her trump card. Her palm opened completely leaving her arm with an open cannon aiming straight ahead and firing a devastating warhead to the center of the Iron Gate. Their speed never ceased and the two women charged straight through the explosion.

  In that moment they both closed their eyes from the smoke and awaited, but they never crashed their path had opened and the two of them together reach the very heart of the factory that man′s final sanctuary. Finally their vehicle gave up and the two of them were left in the center of the thick bck smog, the only sound around them being the flicking fmes beneath their feet. Mercedes jumped ahead coming out of the smoke with shotgun in arm. Luisa sneaked away from the smoke trying to keep herself to the walls in the risk of any attacks.

  “A pity, did I not warn you about precaution my friend.”

  There was a man lying in the floor, he was bleeding profoundly, his death being a piece of debris that flew off and hit him right in the head, an instantaneous. Mercedes simply walked forward without touching him.

  “He shouldn′t have been so close to the wall truly, at the end he was cking in luck.”

  A man spoke nonchantly outside of all the smoke, he stood there in a wide white room with hundreds of containers and computers pce at the end of it, but the man was now alone as his only companion past away in front of him. He was a simple looking man, an old man with hair grown white, nky and short. But a rich one that was clear too see from the exquisite clothes he wore, a bck suit with white stripes that fitted his body perfectly and the golden tie with a round medal at its center. He looked at the woman that was now aiming her shotgun at him with tired eyes but no other reaction.

  “Ms. Oxida I had hoped to never see you again, but here you are, shaming our company once more. The man spoke softly as if scolding a child; Mercedes felt no fear in his voice and quickly raised her shotgun between the two of them.

  “Hiroshi, Sir. All I wanted was to bring her here; she had much she needed to tell you, old coat.

  Luisa walked forward from the curtain of smoke finally taking the mask off. Mercedes never moved keeping her fingers on the trigger as she saw the man’s expression twist in anger for a single second. “Oh, Ms. Zafir. It shouldn′t hurt this much too see you again, but it seems I cannot help it… ?You ungrateful woman are you trying to make an old man cry?” He continue to speak without any care for the weapon pointing at him, his hands remaining behind his back as he shook his head in a bitter disapproval.

  “?Are you going to cim that again, that I should have been thankful to you… you don′t have the power to make afraid anymore, so I won′t lie again, I′ll never thank you again!” She screamed walking forward with a furious strife; Hiroshi was about to move when the shotgun was raised again just an inch from his temple. “I gave you a job, food, water and future. ?You spoiled child! ?Do you not know what happen to everyone else who ended like you?” Mercedes remained quiet as the man spoke roughly to Luisa completely ignoring her.

  “You took me from my family; you force me to serve you and whatever punishment you feel like giving… ?And worst you stole my creations from me, make me sve away from them and then took them from my very hands!” Hiroshi remained unmoving as he sighted. “You rather scavenge through the trash of a ruined city; lick the boots of people for food in some of those refugee camps, nonsense. None of those people have any worth; they can only lick themselves on the mud now, useless parasites with no future, people who couldn′t even die when they had to!” Hiroshi screamed at her, his face turning red in anger, his words flowing on more and more like ramblings aimed at no one. “?you would never have survived on your own it’s only because of me that you can even have the gall to compin!” He ended up screaming till his breath ran out, the woman simple standing in silence. Hiroshi tried to compose himself again and calmly spoke. “I give you a way to live for the good of society, to not waste yourself away, your intellect wouldn′t have protected you out there. This is the only thing that can be offered to the defeated.” He spoke weakly, trying to finish with a gentler and kind of tone.

  “Thanks then…but…”Luisa answered with a gentle tone of her own. “I don′t need anything more from you anymore, I will rather just have my freedom back.” Luisa lowered her mask, hiding her eyes from sight. “Because I′m happy now, I′m alright all on my own.” Hiroshi remained in silence looking at her in disgust. “Mercedes, kill him now.” She spoke so sadly it was barely, but a whisper.”

  “Yes, ma′am” She pulled the trigger, releasing a buckshot of bullets right in front of the old man′s face. The shotgun rang, but the bullets failed to reach the target, they simply diverged at the st moment ricocheting violently through the room, one hitting Mercedes in her metallic arm and making her drop her weapon from the sudden shock.

  Hiroshi smile for a moment as a strange field of electricity flickered around him.

  “?Useless, you will not reach me!”

  The medal on Hiroshi′s tie begun to shine in a blue color and something akin to gear started to spin inside it, that was no mere medal, but a device he held on to for his st resort. Hiroshi finally showed his hands from behind his back and pushed them in front of him as if wishing to move an invisible wall, both of his hands had iron gloves that shared the same blue light cursing through them as his medal.

  “?Get away you leeches, you maggots!”

  The blue field around him intensified in brightness an volume creating a visible shield around that and in accordance to his gesture it moved forward creating a tall wall of energy that moved towards them at great speed. Mercedes jumped back to throw Luisa out of the way and in the st moment moved her huge iron shoulder in a tackle to block the impact. It worked and the wall ceased to exist, vanishing in a flicking light, but her entire arm had begun to crumble, to simply touch that force field would disintegrate anyone’s flesh.

  “?There is no way you garbage could ever break our walls! ?You liars, you sneaked in like the rats you are!” Hiroshi screamed.

  . “Haha you′re still hung up about that, Haha.” Seeing that her arm still functioned, Mercedes pointed at him with her prosthetic arm. Luisa was still on the floor behind her, too confuse with all that was happening, she couldn′t bear the thought that it all may be for naught. Mercedes by her part was too angry to even thing about such stuff.

  “?It matters not, this is as far as you people will go! ?This is your limit I will not let any of you parasites drag me down, crawl in your own mud! The force field that surrounded him began to grow again, shining with more intensity as the very ground around started to crack from all the energy released around the man. “?I will murder you children with my very own two hands!” his face twisted in rage as his voice grew unhinged among the sound of electricity that kept charging the ambient around him.

  “Hahaha…” Looking at his facer Mercedes couldn′t help ugh, there was nothing scaring that old man′s face, just unbearable desperation, the bared fang of a cornered beast.

  “Good to see the real you man, an honest to god vilin in the flesh.” Mercedes pulled a chain from her arm releasing a long bde from its inside and so she changed her posture like a predator would. “?Now I can get into it, we both are nothing but blood starving beast!”

  “?Speak for yourself! ?You animal!”

  Hiroshi pushed the air with both hands forward and from his field another wall flew forward burning the floor through its path, his defense turned into a weapon just as unflinching. Mercedes ran to her right evading it and in stride closed the distance toward the man stabbing with the bde strapped on her arm, he quickly moved one arm in front of her and the barrier around him shined repelling the tip of the bde that now began to release steam from the intense heat. She didn′t lose face and ran towards his back, Hiroshi raised one of his hands gesturing to swipe the air in front of him and another barrier manifested moved rapidly from behind him and circling to crash against her. With a groan she rolled out of the way.

  “?You traitor, not only did I give you a live as a guard and took you of the slumps, you should bare your just deserves!” Mercedes quickly rushed ahead evading another wall that vanished in tin air after missing her, Hiroshi moved his palm forward releasing another barricade with each of his movements, but they could only move forward and so they became rather easy to evade.

  “?Ha, that′s rich coming from a man who sold his own country! Sorry old man, but your money wasn′t good enough to kept me killing for you, that′s all!” She rushed again towards him, keeping a good track of his hand movements that seemed to control his device.

  “You know nothing, Salvatore’s world shouldn′t be rejected, in our new world men will truly reach their desires without being unhinged by the jealousy of the bitter masses, my country was just too weak to see it. That’s why… ?I alone!” He kept screamed as if lecturing, just as she though he was growing conceited. She evaded one st wall by an inch and reached the man’s back, before he could even finish his sentence. “?You are just clinging to your live, like the rest of us!” Her bde pierced the blue force field and in a shocking moment it break thought if for a moment, but Hiroshi turned back with both of his palms in front and her next attack was repelled, but she kept attacking all the same seeing the barrier flicker with every ssh.

  “?You have nowhere else to hide now!” Once more the barrier disappeared from one of her blows, but Hiroshi looked at her unmoving, standing in pce as if he was stone. “?So what? ?I said it’s useless!” He pushed both arms forward and just where both of his palms connected the intensity of the blue light grew stronger and with the next ssh of her bde; her weapon broke completely, sizzling red from the intensity of the heat.

  She understood it then, that his defense was perfect and it forced everything that attacked to self-destruct. “Die” He spoke softly, cpping with both hands as if praying.

  Mercedes dropped her bde and shoot a hook from her arm towards the rubble behind her, she hated to run away, but she had no other choice. The hook grabbed itself to the wall using a magnet and quickly forced her back, dragging her through the air as two walls of energy manifested at both sides of her and crashed where she stood, she evaded it nding painfully against the wall.

  Hiroshi stepped forward as the distortions in the air floated around him in a dance, the very earth trembling an crumbling away with his step, president Hiroshi was truly rejecting all that existed around him, his expression growing calmer as he regained his prideful visage, now that his very fears had all been rejected.

  “At the end you are all just afraid of Salvatore′s world; That′s why you are all truly here.” Hiroshi fixed the sleeves on his suit taking care to dust them off. “At the end none of you will be cuddled anymore, you people couldn′t survive on the old world without feeding off, from others and…. ?Just like this girl who was too weak to live on her own, your lives will now be forfeit!” Hiroshi threw a punch in the air in the direction of Luisa.

  She understood immediately and got on her feet attempting to escape his anger, a wall flew from within his field charging forward like the violent waves of the sea as the atmosphere electrified and the ground was scorched. The man′s first remained in the air as his expression grew fond with delight. Luisa fell to the ground propelled forward by the sheer force of the t intense energy and crashing against the walls of the room, she had almost lost everything and her death was so close that now the tail of her b coat had been eradicated from existence, it had been a miracle that would never repeat itself twice.

  “?I said it’s useless!”

  He switched from one fist to the other, releasing another shockwave towards the fallen Luisa, crashing once more through the destroyed terrain and making the very ground begin to cave in. As his finally barrier reached her, from outside his eye the other woman appeared between them and then ground trembled. She groaned as she stood to her side meeting the ghostly wall with her own gigantic shoulder. “Agh…” She groaned in pain, as her shoulder took all that intensity and began to crack, piece by piece, gear by gear, the arm that Luisa had given her was turning into nothing, but rubble.

  “?No, stop… you are going to die.” Luisa spoke weakly only hearing the screeching of that struggle while still unable to get up again as the two of them had been force against the very wall. “Yeah, but just in case I′ll try just one more thing…” Mercedes walked slowly as her oversized shoulder broke apart, into something closer to a normal arm, her clothing beginning to be scorched on the shoulder, but she just grinned hushing a moan of pain, but now that she was finally at the end of the invisible wall so she pulled out the shotgun that she once more picked up.

  She let herself scream in pain and anger as she fired straight at Hiroshi and he moved, with eyes bulging in fear he changed his entire posture, holding both of his arms over his shoulders to brace for impact. The wall that burned away at her skin completely disappears along with all the pressure it carried. The air around Hiroshi turned blue as the field that surrounded him intensified again, deflecting all of the bullets away from him. “Ahh…agg..ah…” Hiroshi was breathing heavily as he held his chest, that had been to close for him and now the unbearable fear of death was back inside his eyes and stronger than ever.

  “It seems there is a limit to how much it can stretch past its point of resistance. ?Any ideas, love?” Mercedes spoke in a joking tone that couldn′t hide her painful and ragged breathing. There was a loud bang behind her, Luisa had thrown away her mask ceasing to hide her face o full desperation and fear and lowered her head letting her bck hair cover her instead. “You…you might be able to strike him if you could force him to defend from opposite side, but I don′t how…there is no way.” She broke down sobbing. “If that′s the case, sorry but I need you now.” Mercedes dropped her shotgun in front of Luisa without letting Hiroshi out of her sight. The old man seemed to have recovered his breath; the shock of it all had finally begun to pass.

  “?You want me to?”

  “Yeah, I′ll trust you with my life and we will either get to live together or die together, right, cari?o?” Luisa stared at her unable to understand her words, but with a final and dry cry, she put her hand over the unfamiliar weapon. “It′s true, that’s how is supposed to be… we could never reach that man otherwise.” Mercedes sighted weakly, not showing her face to her partner as well as her burned skin and she only wished to not worry her any more. “Let′s go then.”

  With those calm words Mercedes rushed forward with her fist drawn. “?How much must I repeat myself it’s useless!” Hiroshi was about to release another barricade forward, but Mercedes closed the distance far too son with a fist striking right to his head. He hesitated and putted his hands in front of his face, cowering without need out of sheer instinct. Mercedes smirked and moved to his side, where finally reacted to her swiping furiously with his hand. “?I said it’s useless!” Without letting the wall that emerged behind her scare her, she moved reaching his back, the wall charging forward. Now that she no longer carried all that weight, her tempo was at her best and he no longer had any distance to strike back, his moves where just to slow and his wits as well. That man had never fought before, that’s all Mercedes thought at the moment as her fist crashed towards his back.

  “?Detras de ti idiota!” She screamed at his face as he turned just in time to block her, a cold sweat falling down through his brow. “?What? ?Speak English you animal!” he pushed both of his palms forward forcing her to retreat just in time; she wouldn’t lose her weapon again. In that moment a loud bang was heard, it was the sound of bullets crashing just behind Hiroshi. “Agg” Hiroshi screamed in a panic turning his head to see Luisa still standing right where she had been, but now the girl that still shacked with fear as she held the barrel of a gun aiming towards his face.

  “?No!”

  He realized then, but it was far to te, Hiroshi stretched his left arm towards Luisa as she clumsily fired the shotgun, barely standing the recoil of the gun in her hands. In a panic Hiroshi manifested the shield behind him, making it glow in a bright blue, but his other enemy wouldn′t remain back anymore and strike against the force field, once, twice, till the third time that the shield finally dispersed around her mechanical arm, breaking along with her fingers, but her fist wouldn′t give up the fight just yet.

  Her fist crossed the threshold of his defense, but were stopped in pce by his right that moved just in time reforming the force field at the very middle of her arm, Mercedes grinned even if she could pass away at any moment. “?You can keep it!” Mercedes pulled a lock on her shoulder and in a sudden move, her arm was dislocated from her shoulder and she fell backwards while the rest of her arm exploded within the force field covering everything within with smoke.

  Hiroshi screamed in pain from within as the distortions in the air finally ceased his shield banishing completely, releasing all the smoke into the room, Mercedes quickly got up on her feet and walked forward within the smoke, her mechanical arm completely gone now so she raised her other fist and sent a straight jab square into Hiroshi′s face. He let out a whimper, but before he could fall to the ground Mercedes grabbed the device on his tie and ripped it off.

  “Ha, there it is.” She said in a tired grump as she walked forward with every step being a painful endeavor, her smile disappearing in her tired while herself on top of Hiroshi′s chest forcing him down with her remaining strength, Luisa looked at the of them from the other side of the room, her weapon already abandoned on the floor. “?You couldn′t possible, you!” he tried to scream as blood spilled from his moth, but his word where cut off by another blow to his face, Mercedes punched him without mercy with her remaining arm, breaking his nose. “Agh… you need to hear me out… I can give you…”

  She punched again leaving his face a bloodied swollen mess. “Ag…ghh.” He could only speak in a broken groaning; barely keeping himself conscious as she strike once more with enough force to made the ground below him thump. President Hiroshi had died in that moment and she just kept punching him again and again in dull almost mechanical manner.

  “That′s enough… we aren′t done here.” Luisa interrupted her, with a quiet trembling voice without moving an inch from her corner.

  “Hah…yeah, we are far from safe right now…ey,ey everything kind hurts now, hah guess the excitement is dying out.” She groaned trying her hardest to get up, Luisa could finally see that the skin and clothing on her left side had been burned. “So ?Do you feel any better now?” Mercedes asked her, barely standing. Luisa remained in complete silence till she finally moved from her spot and towards the computers at the end of the room.

  “All I know right now is that we aren′t safe yet, I think If I can enter their security system from here, I may be able to call for the enemy to retire and also to delete the security recording as well… freeing the prisoners too…” She stopped talking to look back at Mercedes who looked back in silence and finally smiled, if she needed time to think, she would made sure, that she would have it. After all Mercedes couldn’t feel a thing, after all she had killed that man just for her and only for her…it was the one thing she knew how to do. “Right the job is not over yet, well then, I have one st thing to do too.” Mercedes took a small metallic cylinder from insider her leather jacket.

  “Ey, Miss Archer, I guess you were right back there.” She pressed a switch on its surface and a long pike stretched from below the cylinder. “So I′m paying you back for sparing my life back then.” She raised and impaled the long spike upon Hiroshi′s chest.

  “So I′m giving you the corpse of your hated traitor, this is my first and st act as a member of your Scorched Sun.” The long metal pike stretched further above him, releasing a fg from its inside.

  A long white fg with a bck sun on its very center a sun with drops falling from below it as if it was melting away. She would use this simple fg to decre the revolution they wished for into this world. “Y guy’s better watch out, since someone very dangerous is coming for you all.” Mercedes fell to her bottom as she looked at the fg above her. “I′m rooting for you all, so you better make this whole town burn away to nothing, Let′s say goodbye to svers bay…” Mercedes muttered to herself as she let her head fall down and stared into the ceiling above.