Beast Hunters Book II

A Gamelit Harem Adventure Book 2

The Revolution

Dave Austin

Beast Hunters Book II © 2022 by Dave Austin. All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. 

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Table Of Contents

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Chapter XVI

Chapter XVII

Chapter XVIII

Chapter XIX

Chapter XX

Chapter XXI

Chapter XXII

Chapter XXIII

Chapter XXIV

Chapter XIV

Book 1;
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Part 2

Chapter I

It took them about 25 minutes—a black car followed by two ambulances. Despite the urgency, the sirens were off. We were shivering from the cold, our clothes ripped and our bodies slashed. Ashen's eyes were open, but he couldn't move, unlike Kendra, who had again fainted. The cars stopped in front of what was left of the house as dust swirled under the gloomy moonlight.

Two doctors rushed out of the ambulance and hurried toward us. Both looked tired, their eyes half-closed, and their shoulders slouching as they moved closer. Untrimmed eyebrows, rough beards, and taller fuzzy hair on top. In fact, they looked like brothers from a different mother. I helped one of them lift Kendra and lay her on one of the stretchers. Maggie and Elisa helped the other one getting Ashen in the other.

They thanked us for the help and tried to smile, but the desire seemed to be lost halfway through, and we were left with only one fake awkward smile.

In the meantime, a man too well dressed to be a man of action came out of the car and walked up to us. He didn't seem to be in a hurry from how he walked calmly, hands in his dark blue pants pockets.

He greeted me with a firm handshake and waved to the girls.

"You're Crash, right?" He asked me. He seemed to know the answer, but he still wanted to be sure. Not that it was hard to know when I was the only man there.

"Yes. And you? Where are you taking them?" I replied, looking at the ambulances closing their doors.

"To a hospital. Don't worry. You'll be able to visit them as soon as we take care of a few things." The man said and paused. The critical part was coming. We could feel the tension in his voice
"Is what you told the operator all true? I don’t doubt you, but, as you can imagine, we cannot act without confirming the truthfulness of all the facts."

"Yes, it's on camera. Maggie..." I said it, and she pulled the camera out of her eyebrow and handed it to me.

It was invisible at night, although it caused itchy skin. I gave it to the man. He looked at it for a few seconds, then removed a small sealed white package from his right pocket and tossed the camera. It had one of those openings where you had to drag it sideways and all the way to the end to have room to put two fingers in and take something out of it.

"Well done. We'll investigate it. The best thing now is to come with me. We'll get you some warm clothes and a place where you can spend the night. I warn you, one of you will have to stay up all night. We're having several conferences, and all help is welcome." The man said, without ever smiling or showing any kind of emotion... For him, everything was rational. Everything was as it had to be, no matter who was wounded or the upcoming blood storm.

"I'll stay. They better get some sleep." I said, "Am I going to meet the boss?"

"No, you don't... Not yet." He said, tripping over his words, losing his composure for the first time. He didn't seem to be expecting that question and had lost his lead, " We better get going. It won't be a long journey, but people are waiting for us."

He walked along with us to the car. He opened the back door and invited the girls in, asking me to sit in the front seat.

"We need to have a word in private." He said when he sat down, fully knowing the girls could hear him.

The car had the air conditioning on. The heat contrasted with the street cold, and our bodies shivered with the change. Maggie even sneezed as soon as the doors closed. But the warmth was welcome, and the man waited a few seconds before turning on the engine. It rumbled for a few seconds before it silenced, allowing only the birds' whispers to be heard, almost like a moonlit serenade. The man reclined his seat, moving it a few inches back, and yawned.

"I'm so sorry. I had to stay professional around the others. Damn it, we're looking at a shithole, right? I believe you. Ashen had already told me about this possibility. We went to the academy together, you know?" The man said, taking a cigarette out of his pocket, "Do either of you want one? I usually never smoke, but it helps me calm down."

"Me," Elisa answered. She tore the sleeves of her white uniform until she had only the straps and what remained to cover her chest.

"I don't smoke but thank you," Maggie answered him and yawned. She was sleepy, tired, and less cheerful than usual. We hadn't yet talked about how she felt about her father, and, at this rate, it would still take a while to get a few minutes alone with her.

The man rolled up his and Kendra's window. He handed her a cigarette, and from the car drawer, he picked up a lighter with which he lit both. The smoke flooded the car until it snuck out of the window, and the smell stayed as the orange light mirrored in the glass and spread across the light brown roof.

We stood silently while the two of them smoked their cigarettes all the way to the tip. They expelled the smoke and fogged up the windows, but not before the tobacco odor had risen up our noses. Elisa made smoke hoops that moved forward until they dissipated along the way.

"They'll be all right, won't they?" Maggie asked, her face damped by the flood of tears that flowed down her cheeks, "I can't help but think it's all my fault. I should have known what my father's goal was! If I had been more aware..."

"No! You have to stop!" I told her, frustrated by the whole situation. It was as if something in me had broken, and what once was hope was now taking on an angry form, "It's not your fault! It's all their fault: the albino, the Shinner, the reapers, your father, everyone. And we'll get them, even if only one by one. My father sacrificed himself to get us where we are. Ashen and Kendra aren't in the hospital for nothing. It's up to us to get out of the pit, even if we are covered in dust and boulders, and stop them. There's no way I'll let you stay like this."

"But..." Maggie started but was interrupted by the man.

"Crash is right, girl. There are moments for everything. Now we have to regroup and see what our options are. I assume you want to stay together, right? You'll need a watcher or a new member, at least. It is also likely that you will be assigned a new leader."

"I know who I want for our team." I asked him as he started the engine, "Do we really need a new leader? Can't we wait for Ashen to get better?"

"We'll see what the others think. I'm not allowed to make those kinds of decisions alone. Well, we better get going." The man said.

We were already on the road when he apologized to the girls, and, at the push of a button, a black glass split us from them. He told me they couldn't hear us and preferred not to have to do that but had no other option.

"The others will judge you. Your group comprises a thief's sister, the daughter of a tyrant businessman, and someone who is not even a Hunter. Not to mention that your watcher got to know the Reapers' chief of technology, who is also one of their leaders. Ashen shared everything with the rest of the bosses. Many of them fought not to proceed, but our leader gave him a confidence vote. Without Ashen there, the others will try again. It's nothing against you, but they're scared. The protests are increasing, and now human robots... Most people are stressed and won't think twice before blaming you."

I didn't answer him right away. I looked straight ahead to the empty road. We seemed to chase the moon without ever getting close. Meters ahead of us was a van whose blue and red siren illuminated the opposite lane and two men burning the wreckage we had left behind. I watched them as the fire melted what was left of the car's metal. We drove past them, but I still turned my neck to see them grab the beast's lifeless body and put it on the back of the van.

"Let them judge. We're the ones who discovered this whole conspiracy. Everything that was happening behind the shadows. And I know we can go further." I answered him. I looked at my hands, covered in dirt and blood, "We... We all have a past. Doesn't it matter what we do now? I don't know, don't I get a vote of confidence? After all, this all started with my father."

"Maybe you do. Some people support you, and I just wanted you to realize it won't be easy. I didn't want to say anything they'd hear because they wouldn't like to know how they're seen. Plus, I know Elisa can be a little... explosive."

"I understand you. But I don't like to be hiding something from them. We're not expecting to be met with hugs and kisses. We just want them to know what's going on, how dangerous it is, and to let us help. I'm not asking for much, am I?" I answered him.

"Not really. Some leaders are older men who do not understand or accept that Hunters have become so-called celebrities. Some hated, some worshipped."

A green light above the car radio indicated the time. 2 am. Time had gone by so fast that even I hadn't noticed it. I thought it was still 11 pm. I leaned against the bench and admired the moon's beauty besieged by stars. As we headed towards the different city exits, the bright spots became less and less until there were no more than a dozen of them left. The man, whom I did not yet know the name, had not answered me. He drove with one hand on the wheel and looked out the window like he was guiding himself by the stars. He took the first exit to Okinita City and turned to me again.

"We shouldn't take too long now. Although I always miss the right exit. I hope it's this one." He said, looking around, frowning his lips as he saw a blue sign indicating that the city was less than 50 meters away, "Okay, this is it. But, anyway, what we were talking about before... I hope everything goes well. We don't need to talk about this anymore," he added and pressed the same button as before to lower the thick black structure that separated us from them.

"Finally." Elisa said, "She fell asleep." She pointed to Maggie with her face against the window glass; red eyelids and blond hair covered with brown patches. She didn't snore, but her breathing was heavy.

"When we get there, I'll wake her up. Better let her sleep now." I said, "Elisa, have you ever been here?"

"You think so? It was always Ashen who came here. And after what happened, I was never interested. I don't think they'd even let me in if it wasn't for an emergency like this. It's like I told you, Hunters follow the rules too much."

"The rules were made to be followed." The man answered her.

"Not always, don't you agree? There are moments for everything. How do you think the reapers have grown so much? Do you think they follow the rules? That there's a manual on how to be criminals?"

"That's what distinguishes us from them. We can't do what we want," the man said as he turned left, heading down a narrow street. The buildings on both sides were old and did not seem to have been occupied for over a decade. The sidewalk by the entrances was full of garbage, doors were graffitied, and only one of the lamps was not broken. Although the doors and windows were closed, they didn’t prevent the smell of rotten bananas and tuna from slipping into the car.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" Elisa asked him, changing the conversation, "Damn. What a horrible smell."

"It's a disguise. The best place to hide is somewhere where no one will look."

"Or in front of everyone, like Shimmer," I added.

"We already have someone following him. Don't tell anyone I told you this, but we were already suspicious of him. We've just never been able to prove it. And he's not the only one we suspect," he told us, looking out the window and looking at the numbers on the doors.

"At least they're doing something... productive," Elisa said sarcastically.

He stopped the car in front of door 9. He took a gold key out of his suit pocket and put it back there again.

"Just to confirm that I hadn't forgotten her. Let's get going. Wake her up," he said, glancing at Maggie before opening the car door.

I got out of the car and opened the back door.

"Maggie..." I whispered as I slid my palm's backside over her cold cheeks, "Wake up. We have to go." I told her, my hot breath brushing the surface of her face.

"But..." She said and yawned before she continued, "Now? I'm so tired."

"I know, but we're here. Don't worry about it. It won't be long before you're in a comfortable bed."

I watched her stretch and heard her bones pop before she adjusted her clothes. Before leaving, she looked in the mirror on the car's front to confirm she was presentable. Elisa, on the other hand, leaned against the car and asked for another cigarette.

"I can't. There are cameras all along the street, and you shouldn't smoke on the job."

"After all, we have someone here who doesn't follow the rules," Elisa told him, already with her classic sarcastic smile...

"Don't come at me with that. You guys were devastated, and I thought a cigarette would brighten the mood. Ashen was my friend too. It's not easy for anyone," he replied, his voice trembling as he placed his hands in his pockets, "Maybe you're right. Perhaps some rules can be circumvented once in a while, but if we live to break them, how can we say that we are not on their side?"

He took the key out of his pocket again and went to the 9th door to put it on the latch. He didn't flip it either way. He waited until he heard a click and pushed the door. The entrance hall was spacious, depressing, and conveyed a sort of melancholy. The walls squealed, and whispers crossed through them. Spiders had made the corners their homes and wandered along their built webs. There was no light except the moonlight that shone through the broken windows upstairs. Even the tiles on the floor trembled with every step we took, and, for a moment, I thought it would fall apart.

"Let's take the elevator." The man said, "I forgot to tell you my name, didn't I? You can call me Tom."

"Is that your real name?" I asked him, dodging the dead rats on the floor.

"I'm not allowed to say it."

The elevator was different from what we were used to. It was an old one, with rusted bars separating us from the rest of the world, and half the buttons were no longer even numbered. What confused me most was that we hadn’t seen anyone in the whole street. Unlike that similar street near Elisa's house, no one lived here, no one had hit our car or peeped out of the windows. Tom pressed the zero button and the elevator began to descend. It rattled all over and the ropes that held it seemed to be about to unhook it. Sparks were popping up outside the door and Tom told us we'd better get away from the entrance. Maggie leaned against my chest and her tits rubbed against it. She seemed to like how it made her feel and repeated, the others unaware of what was happening, while her nipples remained erect.

"I know this looks horrible, but, well, it's our way of hiding. We've been here for years and no one has discovered us yet." Tom said.

The elevator stopped seconds later. He opened the door, walked out, and swerved to let us through. We found ourselves in a small empty room on the opposite side with a reinforced metal door and a retinal identification next to the door. The walls, floor and ceiling were brown, and, unlike the entrance floor, none was dirty except that, there, at least, was a lamp above us.

Tom walked to the door, bent his knees, placed himself at the level of the retinal reader and let it scan his eye. A picture of him popped up on the tiny screen and the door opened.

Chapter II

I had to blink my eyes several times and even rubbed them to ensure it wasn't a dream and I hadn't fainted during the fight. A house-sized room, dozens of cubicles separated only by plastic walls, and even another dozen people, some of whom were in a hurry going across the room, with papers in their hands. In contrast, others were seated, already hunchbacked, writing nonstop. A frantic, yet heavy and silent environment. The sounds were all technological or mechanical. The printer was running, the computer keys were pressed, and one or two pens fell on the floor, yet nobody was talking. They were so focused on their duties that someone must have forgotten to refresh the room because it reeked of day-old sweat. I assumed they were all doing overtime, most already worn out, working towards a common goal, the same as mine.

As we followed Tom and walked past the workers, they stopped to look at us. I never thought that feeling like a celebrity could be so bad. They all seemed suspicious, mentioning our torn clothes and dirty faces, and some murmured about Maggie, but I couldn't hear what they were really saying. Tom's voice saying that we had arrived overlapped.

"Be respectful. Tell them everything that happened. I'll play the video on the screen. In the end, you two can go to sleep. Crash, or James, yes, I better call you James in here, you can answer the questions." He said and laid his hand on the doorknob.

"Yes, I'll take care of everything. Take a bath and rest."

"Is there a place to bathe here? From the smell and the stained clothes, it doesn't look like much."

"We've got places up there fit for that. They're here working unpaid overtime. All because they believe in what we do here. There are people here who may not even have had dinner." Tom answered her.

She frowned and dropped a simple, "Okay, I get it."

Tom opened the door. 10 men gathered around a mahogany table, surrounded by cream-colored walls, and a chandelier above them. He was right; half of them were old men, wrinkled faces, overlapping skin layers, one or two warts, and a few with a gray beard and white hair. Everyone's eyes fell on us. One of them, the one in the opposite corner of the entrance, stood up. He signaled us to come in and while we were doing it, he decided to clean his glasses with the sleeve of his velvet coat. He seemed to be testing our patience and no one dared to call him out. I wondered if he was the boss, the leader of all that, and that was how he received people he did not know.

"Well, you're finally here. Sit over there." He said and pointed to three empty chairs facing the table, "We know you have a video of what happened, right?"

Tom took the airtight bag out of his pocket, grabbed the camera with his fingernail and carried it to the projector on our right. The video was converted, and, in seconds, an image showed up on the wall. He pressed the play and the video played out.

The video showed everything we'd been through since we got out of the car before the party. Tom advanced the scenes in which nothing happened and slowed down the tunnel parts and those in which we fought against the robot. Nobody uttered a single word until the video was over. The looks on their faces shifted from doubt to fear. Some itched their beards, others tapped the ground with the sole of their shoes, and others stood up and leaned against the wall.

"You can stop." The man from before told him. The video was at the part where Maggie watched the whole house burn down, after I had saved Ashen, "Everybody sit down, please. The girls can go out and rest. I think one of you will be enough to answer some questions," the man said, just as Tom had prepared me.

Maggie thanked them and walked to the door. Elisa didn't move for a few seconds and her eyes ran through all the men in the room. They all seemed to shrink as soon as their eyes crossed.

"If you need us, call us." She told me, loud and clear.

"Tom, take them to her rooms." The man in the opposite corner said, "Don't worry, James, we won't keep you here long. You must be tired."

I nodded my head. The three of them left the room and it seemed to get much bigger. The 10 men looked at me, with slashes on my body and a half-inflated eye, and I knew they already had an opinion about me without even getting to know me.

"Well, let's get started. First, my name is Aldrin, and I'm second in command. As you can imagine, we can't risk having everyone gathered in the same place. The first question I have to ask you is how much you trust them? We can't risk leaks at this time of the year."

"I trust them. I don't even think about having another team. We want to stay together and continue working for the Hunters' good," I replied, for the first time feeling back pain. It was as if, suddenly, I was carrying two bodies, one of them resting on top of me. I leaned back on the chair whose backside was rough.

"I see. You know you need a new team member, right?"

"Yes, I have an idea who I want. A girl I worked with at the academy. She's reliable and great at what she does," I told them and saw the skeptical glances multiply, "now what? What's the plan? What are you going to do?"

"That's a good question, kid. We've warned all Hunters of the possible dangers and asked them to always be in groups. Shimmer's being followed and we'll identify who's on the video. It'll be hard to get close to Lenetius, though, and we can't risk being discovered. So far, none of our infiltrators have informed us that they knew about us. We were lucky; they think it was just a rebellion by Lenetius' daughter and a couple of young Hunters. I don't think the attack on your base had anything to do with you. It was just a coincidence..."

"Like the council?" I slipped.

"How did you get that information?"

"You're forgetting that it was Elisa who was organizing it. News travels fast."

"Hm, you're right. I wasn't exactly happy when I heard it was her behind the operation, but when I saw who was going with her, I thought it would be successful. Only reason I allowed a few Hunters to participate. But now I feel like I sent them to their deaths."

"You couldn't predict what was going to happen, boss. They knew the risks." The youngest man at the table told him. He had a grey suit, wrinkled on his shoulders, and blue eyes matching his ginger hair. His face was oval, and his pink cheeks stood out.

"I know. And yet, we're getting shorter. Your generation is no longer so eager to join a cause."

"We're fewer but better, more devoted, more willing to give our lives for the cause. We all believe the Hunters are important to the civilization and we don't want corruption to triumph," the boy answered again.

"And yet, they seem to expand steadily." The man said and sank back into his pillow chair, "After all you've been through, the least you deserve is a vote of confidence. Write on this paper who you want me to call and I’ll ask them if they want to join your team. Now you better go to sleep. You must be devastated." Aldrin said and pulled a paper and pen out of his pocket, placing them on the table.

The rest of them moved it along until they got to me. I wrote her name down and returned it. The same thing happened again until the paper was in Aldrin's hands. He opened it, nodded, and saved the form in his pocket. I was going to say something when Tom came back in.

"They're already in their rooms. The hospital called me and said Ashen's going to make it, but he might have to stay there for a few weeks."

"And Kendra?" I asked him.

"A few days should be enough for her to recover. We have cutting-edge technology and she only had one broken foot. Ashen had several ribs and a concussion," he said, walking to my side.

"Good." Aldrin said and slid his hand through his hair, the dandruff coming out of his hair resembled snow fluttering on a snow globe, "Before you leave, James, there's something I'd like to say. I don't know if the others will agree with me, but I think it's the best thing to do now. I think you and your group should go back to being normal Hunters. At least keep that facet. If the Reapers and the others, whoever they are, think it was just a rebellious attitude of Lenetius' daughter, what's her name again?"

"Maggie, her name is Maggie." I said, still trying to figure out his idea. My head hurt and my body looked like it was about to shut down. Never in my life had I felt my arms so soft and my legs so close to becoming ghosts, incapable of keeping me upright.

"Yeah. Well, if they think so, the best thing would be to keep you in front of everyone. Normal Hunters who, incidentally, made a mistake in an attempt to grow up fast. We might even spread the story or have you doing it. Draw attention to yourselves, brag about what you've done."

"Chief... are you sure? Don't you think they'll try to eliminate them when they expose themselves?"

"I've thought about it, but I don't think they will. It'll only prove their point if they try to take them down. Truth be told, no one will believe that three amateurs have managed to get past all the security of Lenetius. If no one finds out we have his daughter on our side, it won't make any difference. And, Elisa hasn't been a Hunter in so long, unfortunately, no one will recognize her. I don't think we'll face much trouble."

"But am I supposed to talk about the human beast?', I asked, thinking that his idea was not even as misplaced as it seemed to me at first.

"Yeah, talk about it, say it was scary and you destroyed it. It will not be easy, boy. They won't believe you. They'll make you a liar and a cocky one, but it's the best way to stay in everyone's sight, so they won't try to attack you."

"That makes sense." I said, "so why do we need a new member?"

"Well, just because you pretend to be normal Hunters doesn't mean that all your battles will be on that stage. Do you understand me? I want you to keep helping us occasionally. You're already in rank C and with Elisa's help it won't be long before you get to A. Don't tell her, but the truth is, she could be one of the few rank S we have if it weren't for such an out-of-law attitude."

"You seem to know her very well." I answered him, rubbing my knee against each other, doing what I could to keep myself awake.

"A little. When she decided to drop everything, after what happened, I tried to convince her to stay. But she was determined to go out and create her own path. After that, we never kept in touch, even though I followed one thing or another that she did. She's not a bad person, and I'm glad to see she's found a home on your team again, boy. But, come on, I will not hold you much longer. Does anyone disagree with the plan?"

Nobody got their hands in the air, and I wondered if everyone agreed with him or no one dared to challenge him. Aldrin asked Tom to take me to my room and that we would talk in the morning, when we were all awake and after we had eaten something.

I thanked them and we both left the room.

I followed Tom down a corridor on the right until another door with an identifier appeared, this time adn-based.

"Damn it. I must look like an errand boy." Tom said, "His idea's not bad, but I know if Ashen were here, he'd have a better one. He always thought beyond others, always with an idea no one else had," he said, and I could see the pain in his black eyes, dilated pupils, and ripped skin on his lips.

"You were very close, weren't you?"

"We have been more. We were best friends at the academy, but then time took care of keeping us away. He went into the field and I moved here. We talk sometimes, but it's not like before... It's life, time passes, and friendships change."

After the door opened, we climbed some stairs to the second floor. Unlike the first one, there was no noise at all. I couldn't see a soul, there weren't even any shoes echoing through the walls, papers falling on the floor, or people crashing into others and complaining. We stopped at the third door in a row of dozens along the corridor.

"The place you're staying, at least until tomorrow." Tom said and opened the door, "It's not very spacious, but it'll have to do."

There was a bed lined up in a corner. The walls were white, as well as the ceiling, and apart from a bedside table and a cupboard on the opposite side, there was nothing else in the room. It was roomy enough for both of us, maybe three or four more people, but no more.

"I'm going to get going. I need to rest, too. By the way, if you want to shower before you sleep, the showers are down the hall. There's one for men and one for women."

I thanked him for all his help and waited for him to leave before I went to bed. The mattress was rough and stiff, but the pillow was perfect for laying my head down. I put my hands under my head and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about everything that had happened and that had taken me there.

Just a month ago, I was just a rookie, a Hunter with illusions of grandeur who hoped to be the new Foxel, and now I was involved in a conspiracy dating back to my father's time and from which I could not escape. I felt I was destined to be there, help them, and continue my father's legacy. I had grown up all my life thinking he was hated and mocked in his environment, but now I knew he was idolized in the most hidden corners of the organization. I sniffed my armpit and got nauseous, nearly vomiting. A strong rotten smell made me ask how the ten men had endured being in a locked room with me for so long.

Chapter III

Before I went to sleep, I decided I'd take a quick shower. I peeked before I left. The corridor was empty. It was the last moment I felt like being forced to have a circumstantial conversation with someone I didn't know. I opened the bathroom door, and the lights came on automatically. The floor was damp and shiny, and the glass was still cloudy. There were five urinals, five open-door cubicles, and a shower behind it, surrounded by a few benches. It was like I was back in my high school locker room.

I went to the showers and turned on the water. I stabilized it until it was so hot that it numbed even my thoughts, and I could lean against the wall and feel every drop hitting my body and descending. The filth abandoned my body, and the red of the dried blood and the damp soil mixed near the drain.

I didn't even notice anyone coming near me. Someone's hands landed on my shoulders, squeezing them with the right amount of force so that all my worries vanished at that moment.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Elisa asked me and leaned on me.

"Yeah, don't stop. How did you know I'd be here?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a walk. I heard the water running and assumed it was you at this time of the night. I got lucky." She said and took her hands off my shoulders. She put them on my chest and went down until she reached my crotch. The water was still pouring over my head, now striking both of us, covering us as I turned to her, already hard, and her lips slid to the bottom. The shower drowned out the sound of her gagging on my dick. The steam clouded the place, and I leaned my head against the wall, closing my eyes, just enjoying the moment. She licked the tip and walked away from me. Then, she slipped her hands down her own wet tits until her fingers reached her fluids and brought them into her mouth, making sure she sucked her fingertips until there was nothing left but her wrinkled fingers due to the scalding water.

I lifted her by her hair, switched places with her, and put her up against the wall. I grabbed her hips and lifted her until she was hovering in the air. I held her with one hand while guiding my dick into it. It slipped quickly into her. Thrust after thrust, I didn't stop, despite the water getting into my eyes. She was tight, and it just made everything even better. I felt her muscles squeezing around my length, reacting every time I entered her, and her moans got lost beneath the walls that surrounded us.

Her back stood against the wall, and only her head leaned back or sometimes fell on my shoulders when she needed to release a long moan. The hair hid the eyes behind a curtain of strands, a few gluing themselves to the fleshy and moist lips.

"Don't stop, please." She said, for the first time begging for more.

She scratched my back as she held onto me, and we both heard each other's hearts beating. I don't know how long we had been in it when she came, moaning louder, her muscles squeezing to the point of me losing control and landing her on the ground, pushing her head until she got on her knees. Not even 10 seconds passed when the thick white liquid hit her left cheek, nose, and forehead. The water dropped on her face, mixing with the fluids and carrying them down.

"I needed this." She let go, still with her mouth open and her eyes closed.

"I think we both needed it," I answered her, and I laughed.

We both stayed there for a few more minutes. I took the opportunity to spread the bath gel, which was in a package in the right corner, over my body. It had a delicate strawberry scent and could also be used on the hair. We got out of the bath and sat on the benches. I took one of the towels on the pile next to the wall and wrapped it around my hip. Drops of water were still running down my body, and I grabbed another towel to wrap around my hair.

"What did they say?" Elisa asked me, "The velvet coat guy talked about me, didn't he?"

"He did. He said he was happy that you had a team again," I replied, thinking about how I was going to tell her that we were supposed to become hunters again, especially normal ones, "Don't freak out, but we have a plan, and I don't think you'll like it."

"What?" She asked me right away.

"We need to stay low-profile. We're supposed to act like normal Hunters. At least as a front while we go on some extra missions. Well, we'll have to take on one mission or another in front of other Hunters, but not much more than that. I know you don't want to be Hunter again but do it for me. For the whole group, for Ashen who's in the hospital, do it because you believe in the mission." I told her, trying to decode what she was thinking, but she remained serene, "Apparently, they think what happened today was just a riot by Maggie and some friends. They don't suspect us. We need to stay in plain sight."

"What if they recognize me?"

"We're rank C, Elisa. No one there will recognize you. I know it's hard. You've been working in the shadows too long, with no rules, but I told you, we're a team, we work together."

"You know it's not something I like, but you're right. If you think it's the best plan, I'll do it. But I can't promise I'll have the patience to put up with all the shit. If there's one thing I learned when I was Hunter, it’s that most of them are impulsive and idiots."

"Fair enough. Be yourself." I said to her, "We'll have a new member. A former colleague of mine."

"And can she be trusted? You're sure about that? Maybe it's not the best decision," she said, coming closer to me.

"You're not jealous, are you? I didn't expect that from you, Elisa." I told her and laughed, holding her hand, "She can be trusted. You don't have to worry. I think you'll like her. Although she likes to spend hours reading or sleeping, she's also very much like you, if she has something to say, she says it straight away."

"I trust you. I hope you know what you're doing." She said and kissed me.

Her lips were still wet, and she was naked. When she got up to grab a towel, I noticed that she had the seat mark on her round ass.

We dried up and got out of there. The body aches reappeared, and I had trouble keeping my eyes open. I kissed her again outside her room before I headed for mine.

As soon as I lay in bed, I didn't get up again until the following day.

Chapter IV

I woke up with someone knocking on the door. Three abrupt knocks on several hallway doors. The sound echoed and lasted even after the person went down the stairs with what could only be boots, probably leather ones. I rubbed my eyes, yawned, squeezed and got up. It was like a layer of extra fatigue had left my body.

"I can see you're still the same." A familiar voice said, while I still had my eyes on the ceiling and was wearing boxers.

"Victoria?" I asked, swinging forward and sitting on the bed with my feet hovering centimeters from the floor. I leaned my head against the wall and looked at her. It had been two or three months since we last saw each other, but it was as if they were just days for us.

"What the hell have you gotten yourself into, James? They woke me up early in the morning, saying it was urgent and I had to come. They skirted roads and roundabouts several times so I wouldn't know where we are."

"I'm sorry, I didn't expect them to pick you up so soon. I even thought I would still have time to call you,' I replied, still half sleepy and seeing her twice, 'do you still remember what my father tried to find out?

"Corruption? I see. It's true, isn't it? For you to be here, in a secret place... The rumors of a special group within the organization are true. Let me guess, you were involved in that mess at the Lenetius owner's house, weren't you? Every Hunter knows that already."

"As insightful as ever, Vic. Yeah, it was me and my group. It didn't go very well," I said, as I saw her adjusting her glasses, her amber eyes hidden behind the lens, "our watcher was captured. We need a new one, someone who can tell us about the beasts, where to go, those complementary things that you've always liked. You were the first person I thought of. I know it's all very unexpected, that you don't even know the mission, but I'd like you to join us. I know you're trustworthy and we make a great team."

"Of course, we do. No wonder we were considered the best duo of our year. Well, it's not like I have anything better to do. So why not? What's the plan?" She answered me and walked up to the bed, sitting next to me and straightening her skirt with a red and black chess pattern and a red top upholstered by a leather jacket.

"Aren't you in any group?" I asked her, following the contours of her body. The years went by and she got even better. Her hips had enlarged in a few months and the clothes she wore diminished, "we're supposed to act like normal Hunters but also accept certain side missions. Good to see you're in rank C, too. Didn't you bring your bow?"

"I'm in a group. I've been in others, but none of them can hold me. Most of them are impulsive and fight with no plan. You know I've never been that type," she said and placed her hand on top of mine, intertwining them, "they wouldn't let me in armed. Just because you trust me doesn't mean they will, does it? But that's it. Are you thinking of getting up?"

"I see. I got lucky in the group I managed. I'll explain later. You'll love them, I think. Well, I'd be dressed by now if you hadn't come in with me in boxers."

"So, James, it's nothing that I've never seen before," she said, facing me and whispering in my ear, "as I recall, we have a pending matter."

"And you say it was me who didn't change." I answered her, her hand scrubbing my groin area.

"Well, I never said I'd changed" she told me and pulled off her glasses. She put them on the bedside table and tied the long blue hair in a ponytail.

She was already leaning over me when Maggie walked into the room without first knocking on the door. The glancing was embarrassing until I felt obliged to break the silence.

"Maggie! Are you better?"

"I have been much better. My head and body still hurt. And waking up with someone knocking on the door like he was trying to force the door didn't help... but who is this? Where did she come from?"

"Hi, I'm Victoria. Your new teammate." Vic answered her. Then she extended her arm, grabbed the round glasses and put them back on, "we were just catching up."

Maggie wasn't convinced, but she didn't say anything. Vitória got up, straightened her clothes and sat down on the table. I could tell she was wearing pink string panties under her tight pants.

"Was it you who banged on the doors?" Maggie asked her, having a sad look on her face and her sorrowful, twisted lips in the corners, "Let's not forget that Gordon exists, are we?"

"Of course not, Maggie," I told her, "This is just a precautionary measure."

"It wasn't me. It was the man who brought me up here. Tom, if I'm not mistaken. He said it was time for you to wake up." Vic told us, "Do you know him? I don't think he slept tonight. Slow pacing, dilated pupils and trouble keeping his eyes open. Not to mention the slurred speech. All signs of an exhausted person," she added.

"Probably." I answered her. I wasn't surprised, and Tom didn't seem like the kind of person who could stand idly by at such a crucial time. Even I couldn't, "We better hurry then. Maggie, do you know if Elisa is still asleep?"

"I saw her go to the bathroom. It shouldn't be long now." Maggie answered me.

We remained silent for a couple of minutes until Elisa came in. She didn't knock on the door, either, and kept her eyes on Victoria. We didn't need her to speak to understand that she wasn't delighted that day.

"Have you heard from the hospital?" she asked me, not even questioning who the new girl was.

"Yeah. Kendra will be there for a few days and Ashen might be there for two weeks. They're not sure yet, and I think Tom's downstairs waiting for us."

"All that's left is for you to get dressed." Vic said it and laughed, much to the disapproval of the other two.

"You're right, you're right." I said, and noticed that Maggie and Kendra had new clothes.

Maggie wore a yellow dotted dress that almost reached her ankles and Kendra had a black top, a cross-chain that went from her shoulders to her hips and a pair of grey sweatpants.

"This is all they had. " Elisa said when she first noticed I was staring.

"Now that you mention it, I need to go shopping. I can't wear this. I don't know how many people have used this." Maggie said, "I appreciate the effort, but still, damn it."

"Do you have any money? I don't think you can go ask to your father now." Elisa asked her while I was wearing my pants.

"I saved up some of the money we collected in our missions. I hadn't even thought about it. I don't even have a place to live now." Maggie replied, absolutely stunned.

"If you can't stay here, don't worry, you can sleep in my house. We get a mattress, open the sofa bed and give it to you and James, if he wants." Elisa answered her while looking at Victoria.

"I also have room for one or two people if necessary." Victoria added, "Oh, that's right, James, Tom said you had clean clothes in your closet. He's not sure they're your size, but that's all there is."

"Good, that's what I needed. Clothes that might get too loose or too small for me," I vented before I got up, their eyes all over my body and on my cock's silhouette.

I opened the closet and searched among dozens of black pants, some skinny and others that the hem reached my foot, and more than a dozen black or gray t-shirts and long sleeves of the same colors. I removed the ones that fit my size and dressed them while they looked at me quietly.

"We better get going." I told them that I had placed under the bed while putting on my shoes.

We climbed down the staircase. I hadn't noticed the day before perhaps because I was tired or because of Tom's voice, but now that we were coming down without anyone talking, I could hear that constant drumming at every step we took. It sounded as if there was nothing else under the stairs and they were made of plastic that could tear or break at any time. I opened the door and let them through me before I went out.

The room was asleep. The tables were almost all empty, except for one, where three boys had gathered and exchanged impressions about what they saw on the screen. A white-haired woman in her 40's in the corner of the room, filling a plastic cup using the steaming coffee machine. Unlike the previous day, there seemed to be no danger on the horizon, no warning that made them alert, their eyes bulging and their fingers red and swollen from thrashing the keyboards.

"Now what? Shouldn't Tom be here?" Maggie asked, "isn't that the guy who helped us before?" she asked and pointed to one of the rooms whose windows were transparent.

Foxel was talking to someone standing on the right side of the window. We couldn't see who it was, but the conversation didn't seem to be going well. The red-haired boy, known for his arrogance and carelessness towards even Rank A beasts, agitated his hands and frowned until a vein emerged and he also seemed to be screaming. The room contained all the noise inside him but the way he opened his mouth until he revealed his gum was a good sign that he was angry and upset with someone or something and was not stirred to display it.

"We better stay here and wait for Tom." I told them while trying to figure out what he was saying.

"He's complaining about Shinner not being arrested." Victoria said, "Is he a traitor? Who else is involved?"

"Since when can you read lips?"

"I'm taking classes. I thought I could use it someday, I just didn't expect it to be so soon." Vic said, "You didn't answer me, James."

"Yes, he's involved. We don't know who else. But we assume there are still a few of them. Shinner still doesn't know we know, we hope he'll take us to the others," I told her, keeping my eyes on the window a few meters from the door.

Apart from where I had been yesterday, all the rooms there had a window facing out. I assumed it was so that nothing would happen there without people knowing, thereby maintaining an ideal of transparency to which everyone was exposed.

"That Lenetius is also with the Reapers, right? I always told you that businessmen would be the reason for our fall. The ads in the cities only make us seem above normal people and drive them away." Vic said, unaware that Maggie listened to her attentively and who she was a daughter of.

Maggie cleared her throat before she said, "I'm his daughter. You're not that far from the truth as that. When I was younger, my father told me that advertisements offered a certain security to people. The public tests indicated that the idea of new weapons and shields, which were even stronger, calmed people."

"Sorry, I didn't know he was your father." Vic said and put his hand on Maggie's shoulder, "We don't always deserve the parents we have. But I understand what he told you. People like to feel safe but don't like the idea of having a group that could dominate them. These new events will not help."

"It would be foolish to spread what happened yesterday." Elisa interfered.

"Oh, you don't know? Your fight on the highway is on every channel. They're saying it was a fight between Hunters from different groups. They've already called a meeting with Dr. Parseus and protests in several cities."

"Parseus? Isn't he the current Hunters president?" Elisa asked, still a little suspicious, "Hell, they're all shit, feeding on lies. Stupid people are the ones who fall for these things," she added.

"Yeah, I saw the news on that TV when they brought me here. It was last-minute news all morning."

We all looked at a TV strapped to the ceiling. It was one of those square, old TVs that sometimes filled itself with static scratches. I hadn't even noticed her existence until Vic got our attention. It was an object displaced from time itself. It was strange to have that TV, a reminder of another time in a place with so much cutting-edge technology.

"Look, Foxel's leaving the room." Maggie told us.

He left the room with his sword behind his back, stored in the sheath, whispering something to himself and only stopped when he noticed us.

"Look who they are. I haven't forgotten what you did to me." He said, before he was interrupted.

"Foxel, it's not the best time." said Tom, leaving the room behind him, "you already know what they went through last night. Leave them alone. Go back to your life, they already have work to do."

"Okay, fine. Send Ashen my regards. And don't ever summon me here again. You know how much I loathe this place. It always stinks of sweat and I'm allergic to dust. Damn it." He said it and left with his right hand in his pocket, whistling a melodic song.

Even the boys in front of the computer looked at him as if him being there instigated frustration in everyone. They couldn't focus with the noise, but he didn't care. The woman refilled another cup of coffee and used her free hand to massage the left side of her forehead.

"Excuse me. Foxel is quite... how to say this, impulsive. But he's one of the best Hunters we've got, and I have explicit orders not to piss him off." Tom said, the skin under his glasses looking like it was about to turn into sticky liquid and leak down his nose and cheeks, "Come with me. You haven't eaten anything yet, have you? You better eat your breakfast before you leave. We have a mission for you. I also talked to Aldrin last night, and he thinks it's best if you sleep here for a few days. At least until the dust settles," he added.

"We know about the news on TV." I told him.

Tom looked at Victoria and then turned his gaze at me, "Don't worry about it. Do your job and then come back here. Avoid prolonged contact with the police or the population. Moving on, I got you some cupcakes. You like doughnuts, right? I didn't know if you had allergies or different tastes, so I bought various types. Follow me."

He took us to a room next to the coffee machine where the walls were light blue and the ceiling white, matching the different colored pouffes. In the corner was a long table with orange boxes, all of them of the same size, all open and containing sugary donuts, sugar-free doughnuts, some chocolate, others with jelly, among some white and others that I had never seen before. The aromas blended with the flavor of coffee, the orange juice that Tom had put next to the Donuts, and the chocolate milk next to it. The three of them sat on the pouffes and I sat on one of the pillow chairs against the wall.

"It's the rest room." Tom said, "When you're done eating, meet me in that room where I was. I know it's early and you may still be stunned from yesterday, but I have a mission for you. There are people in the administration who want to put you to the test as soon as possible. It will also be good to see how you work together," he told us, before leaving.

We hadn't eaten anything in nearly half a day. We threw ourselves at the cakes, devouring them, the sugar and the chocolate staining our chins and lips. Vic ate only two, Elisa and I ate five each, and Maggie ate only three white ones. She told us she didn't like chocolate and avoided any sugar. Something about keeping the body she had and hydrates. My mind had turned off at that time and I was only focused on one photograph in the lower left corner. It was an old photo of Ashen with his arm around Tom's neck, both looking at the camera, smiling as Ashen made a peace sign with his fingers.

"Strange to know he used to smile, isn't it?" Elisa asked me.

"Yes, he was genuinely happy in this photo." I answered her as I looked at the photo and rubbed my fingers so the sugar would drip.

As soon as we were done, we headed to the room where we had seen Tom arguing with Foxel. He was sitting in front of a table, among reams of papers, with a pair of bottle bottom glasses.

"Someone has to check yesterday's reports," he said, his throaty voice and a faint smile, "I'm starting to get tired of saying this but follow me."

Victoria was right. He was much slower than on the previous day, the tie with a gray and black pattern was curved, and he had a pale, almost ghostly tone. He took us into a room in one of the perpendicular corridors. Apart from one person on the way, the place seemed almost empty, a rest after the storm that had hit the organization yesterday. He opened the door to a room with dimmed lights, a naphthalene ball smell, and cheap cigarettes. Five people, three men and two women, were seated, far from each other, with a computer lying on their lap. They looked at us as soon as we came in, but quickly went back to the work of seeing multiple images flashing on the screen and making calls to other Hunters.

"They're watchers. Older people, who can no longer fight, tend to stay here and give out information through calls or communicators. Younger people, like you, can help in battle. It's not always like this, but it's the usual. We get the requests for help minutes before they reach headquarters and can analyze which ones are special. They have a different frequency, you know? You probably know that, but let's keep going." As he walked down the stairs towards the stage table, Tom said, " This room is usually fuller than this but after yesterday most are resting. Take this, you'll need it." He said and took one of the laptops off the table. It was all black and had a sticker saying "Hunters."

"Don't we win anything?" Elisa said.

"The computer is for the group. A program shows you special missions that no group has yet accepted, and you can accept them without coming back here. Try it."

Victoria turned on the pc and, with Tom's help explaining everything to her, accessed the program and a list of missions came up. She scrolled down, ignoring the missions with an acceptance stamp and those against rank A beasts, until she found one that seemed right for us.

Rank C beast - city of Eretreia - appearance reported 7 minutes ago.

Victoria read out loud, "Can I accept?"

Chapter V

We all agreed. We were all C rank, except for Elisa who was above us, but we needed to maintain our cover. We had to start somewhere, and it was a good start for the current team. We still missed Kendra, but we couldn't get sloppy just because she wasn't there. We had to fight for her, get revenge for what they'd done to her and punish them for it. Tom told us that there was still no news about Gordon and even the infiltrators they had in the Reapers were in the dark.

"No one even knew what was going to happen yesterday. Apparently, only the high-ranking staff knew," he added, "But, come on, get the hell out of here. Your weapons are in locker 33. It's the second door on the right side from the entrance. Your bow is there too." He said, facing Victoria, handing her the key.

He still accompanied us to the entrance and wished us good luck, going as far as greeting us with a tired nod. We all went to the locker room, some still ajar and others closed, few of them with special locks. Victoria opened the safe and, one by one, we removed our weapons from there. She had a nearly transparent rope bow that allowed her to shoot 3 arrows at a time or use it as a shield. I'd seen her use it proficiently dozens, maybe even hundreds, of times. She was faster than she looked and had a habit of always using the same strategy. She would shoot three arrows from afar, wait for the other person to reciprocate so she could see her attack and how he or she moved, then use her shield to protect herself, and only then finally strike seriously.

We were already at the door when Tom called us back.

"I forgot. Don't go out that way. Go through that door. The black jeep is yours." He pointed to a door on the other side, "here's the car key. I'm sorry, I'm tired." He added and gave me the key.

I was sick and tired of being there. Of the same sounds, of my limp body and of still hearing Kendra's voice complaining of the pain and Ashen's face covered in ashes. I had to get away from all that; there was nothing like a good battle against a beast to forget everything.

The door led us to a garage whose lights went on as soon as we stepped in. It was packed with dozens of cars and a few vans, nothing as flashy as Ashen's. Most of them were black, a couple of reds and blues, but none that would attract attention on any road at sunset time.

"It's that one over there." Victoria pointed to a black jeep, behind a light blue car.

It stood out from the rest. The black wheels were thicker than the others and even the color appeared to be much polished compared to the other vehicles.

It had air conditioning, radio, space for three people at the front and four in the back. Elisa took the seat next to me and Maggie and Victoria went to the back seats. The exit from the garage led us to what I assumed to be the backside of the previous night's buildings. I turned on the radio. A rock song, one of those performed in stadiums for thousands of people, energized me. A rush of adrenaline ran through my body until the colors before me sparkled. The brown on the old walls of the antique buildings shone in the light of the incandescent yellow lampposts and the sky, despite a few gray clouds, had a pale and crystalline color. I put the desired location on the gps. We were 15 minutes away from Eritrea and the streets were deserted, the walls covered with names and graffities like all the others in that area.

"Damn, I hate these streets. They remind me of those in my area." Elisa said and opened the window, "Well, even the smell is the same. That rotten smell, as if these streets hadn't been cleaned in years, and they probably weren't."

"We're getting to the highway. And then it's quicker," I told her, "I hadn't even noticed. It's almost 1:00 pm already."

"It felt good to sleep until later. It's been a while since we've rested so much." Maggie added.

"You're right. Victoria, I'm assuming the earliest you talked about was 11:00, wasn't it? Are you still running late for your duties?"

"It seems like some things never change," she answered me. She had the computer on her lap and kept telling us what the beast was doing. From the building's destruction, to the glass shattering we could hear in the recording, to the burning tar, "we must hurry. One of the police bullets must have hit a critical spot. He's pouring oil down the street and using his metal claws to ignite. I've never seen a beast capable of taking advantage of what's around him. Now I understand what you're up against."

The jeep didn't move as fast as the cars we were used to. I pushed the pedal all the way down, but it didn't make much difference. The only one was that we were already on the highway and I didn't need to brake to avoid hitting the walls as we drove through narrow alleys on our way there.

Lightning rays escaped through the clouds cracks and the wind screamed along.

"Turn next night." The GPS voice rang through the car.

A curved and uphill road, one of those that if I looked out the window, I could see the highway below us, and that leads us to a different part of the city. On that side the sun shone brighter and the clouds gave way to a lazuli sky.

"Are you ready?" Victoria asked us.

"Why shouldn't we be? I've been doing this a lot longer than you have." Elisa answered her and pulled a Hunter App out of her pocket, "I can't believe I have to pretend to be a C rank. Tom gave me this before we went to the garage. I don't even remember how to use it anymore."

"You better not talk to me like that," Victoria replied, grabbing the bow tightly until the skin of her fingers turned red, "I don't know if you're used to treating others like that, but not towards me."

Elisa laughed and slid her tongue across her thick lips, "Maybe we should solve this some other way."

"That's enough!" I interrupted, "You better find a way to get along. We're on our way, and we have an issue to solve. Behave yourselves." I told them.

"It's your luck, girl." Elisa said to her.

Victoria didn't answer her. Maggie was listening to the whole conversation but didn't say a word. I could see from the rearview mirror that she couldn't take her eyes off her glove. She had her hand closed and rubbed it against her leg. The buildings towered in the distance, taking shape and color, until we heard shots blasting through the air.

"Get ready." I repeated.

"Get in through here. Turn right and then on the second left. The beast is destroying a mall." Victoria said, keeping calm as usual.

The buildings there were different. They weren't made of bricks or stones. They were modern, tall, each floor with several crystalline windows and most of them with flowery attached on the outside. Skyscrapers that stretched above the skyline only interspersed by a four-stadium size garden. The city was a huge circle full of these same high-rise buildings and with dozens of entries.

"It's a technology business town." Victoria said, as I was making the last intersection, "each building belongs to a different one."

"There's a Lenetius here, isn't there?" Maggie finally spoke. Victoria avoided answering her, but she repeated, "Is there or isn't there?"

"There is one." Vic answered her.

"Let's focus now, shall we?"

As soon as I heard Vic asking, I knew something wasn't right. To do so was because she had seen something in Maggie's eyes that shouldn't be there, a darkness that grew through the fissures in her light eyes. Maggie didn't answer her.

Finally, we reached the beast. It was as big as a five-story building, half the one he was destroying, and the whole body was covered with steel pipes. He had two missiles on his back of which the extremities resembled two horns on his oval head. They seemed to get weirder and scarier, distancing themselves from the animal similarities in order to appear authentic robots that could make decisions for themselves. He had grey rectangular legs that matched the hexagonal chest of the same color, except for the black vertical lines in the middle.

"Now they even decorate their beasts?" Elisa said and laughed, "Let's get this over with as soon as possible."

The beast had crushed every car on that street. He had what looked like a giant glove in his hands and kept punching the buildings along the way. People were flying along with the shattered glass as if they were mere straw dolls. We left the car quickly and placed ourselves in a horizontal row, preventing it from passing. He looked at us, his eyes being just two craters that covered half his face, and as we waited for him to advance, fireballs began to hit him in the chest skeleton. Maggie fired them as she approached it fearlessly. I called her but she ignored me. Or maybe she was so lost in her revenge that she didn't even listen to me.

"What do we do?" Vic asked me, "She's not going to stop. She's letting go of all the anger she earned at her father as well as the guilt she feels."

"We help her. The beast will strike back." I told them, "Let's go. Use everything you have to buy time while I go get Maggie. I don't think that's the kind of beast we want to get close to."

They both agreed. They weren't exactly happy that they had to work together, but they both knew that work was above a pity discussion. Victoria placed three arrows on her bow, bent her knees and fired them at the same time. They flew up through the sky until the sun rays covered them and only then did, they fall at high speed, denying the beast a chance to defend himself before they landed on his head. He was stunned for a few moments and I seized the opportunity to run to Maggie's. Elisa did what she could to freeze the beast's feet, but we quickly realized it would be impossible. The monster seemed to have its own heating and the ice turned to water in a few seconds.

"We must retreat. Quickly." I told Maggie as soon as I got close to her.

"No, I won't back down. I will destroy this beast. Everything my father did will burn." She said, her voice sounding crisper than usual, the sweat dripping off her forehead as she drew the flames in her hand closer to her face, "The only thing I have of him is this glove. The weapon he gave me to test, to be his guinea pig, now it's going to be the reason for his demise. You have to understand my side. I can't just stand still after everything, you know?" she said, her eyes shining even brighter under the light of the flames.

She tossed another fireball at the beast's face. The flames crashed onto the beast's metal face and dispersed into sprinklers that leapt into his chest. The beast moved again and the first thing he did was to remove the three arrows from his head and break them in half. Bursts of electricity travelled through the top of his head for a few seconds until they fizzled into the air.

"Hell, why doesn't this work?" Maggie said, and for a moment I saw the same look in her that I saw in Elisa when she was angry. That morbid gaze of someone who believes in the world but not in people.

"We have to get out of here. NOW" I told her, the beast already marching towards us, leaking oil down the road around him and using one of his five metallic feet fingers to scrape off the ground until it burned. The flames devoured the already destroyed buildings, deforming the structure until there was nothing left but scorched metal.

"But..." Maggie started but I pulled her arm and pushed her to come with me.

"We don't have time. If you stay there, you won't stand a chance. There are other ways to deal with this." I told her.

"And why can't I handle this the way everyone else does? If it was Elisa, or even Kendra here, would you stop them? I don't need help." She said and walked in the opposite direction until my fingers slipped through the soft fabric of her dress, "I'll reach the full potential of the glove," she added.

She looked at the glove until it completely overheated, turning bright red and boiling. I told her to stop, but she ignored it. The beast was progressing, but even that didn't get Maggie out of the way. She closed her hand, her teeth gnashing and her veins bulging on her neck, and when she opened it again, she had a red plasma in her hand. The material was shapeshifting at Maggie's will. First into balls, or maybe rocks, and then into thin red thread arrows with the tip being a burning x. Her eyes reddened due to the glare and the sweat ran down her face like a waterfall. The young facial features acquired adult contours, the lines between the nose and the cheeks getting more prominent.

"Get out of there. Hurry!" Victoria screamed, firing three more arrows that drilled through the smoke. Two of them didn't even hit the beast and the other one hit him on the shoulder and broke in two. Goddamn it, she didn't have the same kind of metal as my bullets and without Gordon on our side the only way we could get that kind of material was Lipa. Well, I'd have time to think about it.

Maggie just kept standing there. She lifted her index finger and the three arrows positioned themselves in front of her, facing the beast, just waiting for her command. The silhouette of the beast emerged amidst the smoke, his feet dropping onto the floor like mini bombs, and the flames following him as if they were under his control.

"You, work together." I ordered Elisa and Vic. They kept attacking, one by one, instead of working together, "We don't have much time."

"I'll take care of this." Maggie said and stepped forward.

The beast was only a few meters away from her and all it had to do was swing his hand from one side to the other to dispel all the smoke in front of him. It looked even bigger than before or maybe it was just the fact that he was so close to us. I could see the screws on his shoulders and in the groin area as well as the fact that the monster had no teeth and the hole in his right leg that kept leaking oil down the street. She snapped her fingers and one of the blazing arrows fired toward the beast, breaching through the thin fog curtain that still separated the two and hitting it right in the chest. I had no idea what circuits it had hit but the beast lost control, beginning to spin on itself, hitting all the buildings it hadn't yet destroyed around it, punching them and kicking them as the chest reddened. Maggie snapped her fingers again and another arrow was shot at the beast. This time perforating the left knee, forcing the beast to kneel on one knee and emitted a sweeping metallic grunt.

I didn't like to see her so lost in her revenge that she wouldn't hear anyone else, but we had to take advantage of the situation.

"Let's hit him with everything." I told them, and I shot a bullet right in the center of the forehead. He got half shaken and turned his head at a dizzying speed until the bullet came out and fell on his body, bouncing from his chest to the ground, tinkling along the way.

The beast was trying to get up. He dragged both hands through the flames beside him, struggling on the ground to stand up but the burning arrow on his knee would not let him. He couldn't bend it. The scorching odor was getting worse. It became almost impossible for us to stay there without covering our noses. Our clothes were already coated with ashes. Maggie's dress looked different now. No longer had a bright color, only remnants beneath a grey veil lingered. Maggie released the last arrow. It flew in a straight line and hit the beast right in the navel area, if it had one, the flames spreading through the black lines of slight density that encircled the beast's hexagonal chest. Then, three arrows with the frozen tip hit the other knee. I looked back and saw Victoria pulling arrows out of her pocket and putting them in her bow. Before firing them, Elisa froze the tips to increase their strength and impact, as well as the possibility of immobilizing the opponent. They had found a way to work together and there was no doubt that the beast couldn't even reach our level. I couldn't waste any more of my own bullets and I had to pull the secondary pipe forward. Standard bullets would have to work.

Still, the beast hadn't given up. He kept trying to get up even though he couldn't bend any of his knees and still had his chest on fire. He lay down on the ground, the missiles on his back pointed at us, and a strange noise, resembling crackling, came from him.

"He's not thinking..." Vic started.

"Shit, he's going to fire the missiles." Elisa's finished.

I grabbed Maggie's hand one more time, and this time she didn't let go. She followed me until we got back to the rest of the team. The beast's body was falling apart, smoke emerging from all the breaches, different sounds, from things disintegrating, to splitting or being plucked from elsewhere. The body was being destroyed from the inside and before it was totally erased it was going to launch a last attack. Those missiles could kill us and take half the city with them. There'd only be one empty camp left on one side of town if that were the case.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" Vic asked, "It's the right time for that."

"I have one, but I don't know if it'll work." I said, "You have to trust me. If it doesn't work, I'm glad I could meet you."

Vic and Elisa smiled, and Maggie folded the corners of her lips. She was not yet completely back to her normal self but was slowly coming to her senses. The missiles were seconds away from being launched. The cracks had increased. There was no one on the street except for us. I had noticed that some people watched in the building windows behind us and recorded what they could.

"Vic, use your bow as a shield. It still creates a half-violet transparent barrier, right?"

"Yes, but it won't be strong enough to stop the missiles... Unless..." she said and looked at Elisa, "that's it! I see what you mean. It'll work."

"What are you talking about?" Elisa asked.

"As soon as my barrier comes up, you'll have to create a thick ice barrier behind it. Something that will cause the missiles to lose some of their power if they can't get through the barrier. Maybe then we can stop them. It's our only chance." Vic told her and looked at me, "You keep thinking outside the box." She told me.

"Come on, quick, we don't have much time." I told them, the missiles making a sound similar to an engine being launched.

Victoria put her bow on the floor and pressed a button on the dark yellow part that held the ropes together and a barrier appeared before us. It was pink at the beginning and as it expanded to both sides, the tips curved inward, the color darkened. Elisa touched it and beams of different kinds of purple traveled across the entire barrier. It was like pressing a finger against a computer screen and seeing the imprint take shape in other colors around it. Elisa put her palm near the barrier and closed her eyes. I assumed that doing something like that required excessive energy from her and that it wasn't something she was used to using even though I had no doubt that she could do it. Ice began to emerge from her fingers, clinging and sticking to the barrier, melting and spreading throughout the barrier until a pale stained white curtain obscured the violet.

"Now we wait." I told them.

The missiles were launched, such a catapult aimed at the wall that defended the city and crashed against it. The color changed from light purple to a faint violet, color rays traversing the entire barrier, before minor fissures began to arise in it.

The missiles didn't stop. All the flames in the tail had diminished but the barrier was starting to crack.

"Hold on!" I said to her, "you can do it."

Elisa raised her hand again and did what she could to freeze the barrier, to keep it stable for as long as possible. She ended up falling on one knee, her hand trembling, her screams flooding the whole street with chills as the hail that was now coming out of her hands, slithered across the wall and tried to mend the holes.

It was a constant struggle trying to repair some cracks while others opened besides, and Elisa was almost exhausted. The glove itself was failing and the ice was taking over. A trail of skin-colored ice began to climb up her arm and the more she used it, the thicker the layer became. Vic knelt down and put her hands on opposite sides of the bow, making sure that it did not leave its spot. Maggie watched as everything unfold, her eyes still lifeless, not seeming to fear the death that was one step away from us.

I approached Elisa and held her hand, the one that was still warm, caressing her and repeating that it would only take a few more seconds and everything would be fine.

"If something happens to me, I hope you know that you alone have helped me rediscover my love for doing good," she said, "I've never come this far. I know the glove can explode or consume my body but, well, one day it would have to be." She said and sketched a last smile before, between a scream, throwing ice rocks at the wall, gluing them together until there was a second-thick ice layer capable of stopping the missiles.

The minutes dragged on and the missile flames began to disperse. They were about to stop, the front-end losing strength and impact, until, after a few seconds of Elisa shaking my hand, both missiles fell to the ground.

"We did it!" I said, and felt her fingers drifting away from mine. She fell to the ground; the strands of reddish hair scattered across the tarmac and didn't move anymore. Vic was sitting on the floor, with her bow lying down in front of her, her Adam's apple bulging as she breathed deeply, trying not to lose control of her breathing. Only Maggie was standing, looking at their bodies, and finally at me. She uttered a voiceless "I'm sorry" and then ran to the jeep and didn't leave there. I knew she probably felt guilty, that it was the time when she needed to expel all the anger she felt outside, but it wasn't the right time. I sat down next to Elisa and listened to her heart beating as low as a clockbeat and her tenuous breath. The flames on both sides of the sidewalk were still rebelling and rising up to our height before they calmed down with every wind blast. There was no sign of the police. There were only a few people at the building’s door behind us, many of them having come down the stairs as soon as the fight was over to see up close what was going to happen.

I slapped Elisa's face lightly, but it didn't even awaken her. I tried to remove the glove from her hand, but it was stuck, the wrist area filled with ice pebbles with blue scrapings serving as a blockage. Oh, shit. No.  I knew I shouldn't have convinced her to do it, but, at the same time, it was our only chance. We'd have to deal with the consequences once she woke up.

"Can you get up?" I asked Vic, who was now lying on the floor, her arms stretched out above her head, her sweat acting as a natural highlighter, "I need help to get her into the jeep. Then I'll call the pickup. The fire department should be here soon. I'm sure someone's already called them."

"Yeah, just give me a few seconds." Victoria said to me, "I think this is the first time I've been forced to use the full potential of the bow. I don't think my parents would want to offer me another one, not after what happened," she added as she got up. Then she stretched out and cracked her fingers.

"They still haven't forgiven you for really choosing to be a Hunter, have they?"

"Not really. They let me go to the academy and even gave me the bow, always with the thought that it was just another one of my phases. Surprise for them, it was my dream since I was little, since I saw the old Hunters on TV. But you know this, let's get down to business," she said and stood up, "you've got a good group here."

I grabbed Elisa's legs and she carried her arms and together we took her to the jeep. Maggie was leaning against the opposite window, the glove on top of the dress and her hand reddish and bubbly. She had blisters all over her hand, white, pus-filled and nearly bursting.

We put Elisa in the seat next to her and buckled her up. Vic took her place in her front seat while I leaned on the door next to me to call the pickup. I was still in the middle of the call when two men started walking towards me.

"You are fucking Hunters. Get the hell out of here. Look what you've done to our city," they said, screaming, being applauded by the people on the windows and at the building's door.

"Boys, we just beat the beast. We saved you."

"This is all your fault. What about the buildings that were destroyed? Are you the ones who are going to pay?" One of them repeated. He had a wart on his left cheek and small eyes for someone with such a snarly eyebrow.

"We better get the hell out of here. Forget the experience points. It’s not worth it" Vic said, "I don't think they want to talk."

"I hate this but you're right." I said, as I opened the jeep door. I gave the address to the pickup and got us out of there.

Chapter VI

We were already on the road, on our way back to the secret base, when Maggie said, "Let's go to the main building."

"What? To do what?" I asked her, checking her through the mirror.

"Don't we have to take on new missions? Let's do it."

"Maggie, what's on your mind? Your hand's a mess, you won't be able to wear the glove and Elisa much less. We wouldn't even stand a chance against a level D beast at this rate," I replied, "let's go to the base and then we'll see. We've got time. I don't think the impact we had yesterday will have such rapid repercussions."

"But only one beast a day? I thought you wanted to be the best," she replied, appealing to my desire to be recognised, "Don't you think that having so many problems with a rank C beast when we're all at the same level is a sign that we have to train more?"

"You're right about that. But does it look like we're in the best condition?"

"I can do it on my own. They're normal monsters. They're stupid. You know that." She said, blowing all over her hand.

"And will you fight with what gun? You can't even put the glove on."

"I can. It hurts a little, but I'll survive. I'm not like Kendra or Ashen, you know? We must avenge them."

"And we will. But right now, we have to take a break. And that's it, Maggie. Enough of this." I told her, raising my voice for the first time.

"Okay, then." She answered, bit her lower lip and leaned her pink cheek against the fogged window.

The weather outside had gotten worse. If hours ago, the sun rays slipped through the clouds, now they were hiding behind them, the wind shrieking like a furious lion about to strike loudly. Although the fight lasted more than we expected, only 20 minutes had passed. The weather was always different when our heads were focused on the fight, when even the breeze was just whistling, and the vivid colors were nothing more than flashes in the background.

"What a headache" Elisa muttered, "My hand is freezing, and I can't move it."

"You should get some rest." Vic told her, "Someone must know how to heal that on the secret base. Maybe Tom?"

"I hope so. Shit, at least it worked," she said.

"James has good ideas once in a while," Vic told me, looking at me and winking, "I'm about to rise in rank."

"We climbed up fast, didn't we?" I answered her, while I was driving, the tiny rain now tapping on the front glass, "I heard that some of our colleagues haven't even left rank D."

"No wonder. Some of them have always been idiots. I heard your brother had been following your legacy."

"Victoria, you barely like anyone." I told her and she laughed, 'Yes, he is, but you know how much he hates being compared to me. We haven't spoken since I became a Hunter. I left him a message, but he never answered."

"James, he didn't even talk to you in the academy hallways." Vic said to me, "I think you need to give him some space. Maturity is not gained out of thin air."

"I know, but we didn't stop being brothers because of that." I told her, reminding myself of a time when we could both be at the table, together, with my mother, the two front teeth popping out forward, without almost ending up in a fight, "I was a little bit prideful, too."

"Don't you guys get tired of being stuck in the past?" Elisa asked us, "I still can't feel my hand. Looks like she was under anesthesia. Oh, shit. No. This is all your fault," she said, addressing Maggie.

"Maybe this isn't the best time for this..." Vic started but was quickly interrupted.

"It's the truth. You just don't have the guts to tell her. She gambled our whole lives because she lost control."

"You know why she did it." I answered her, trying to calm down the heated tempers.

We were already back on the normal highway. Time was shaping to our emotions. The rain dropped heavily, rattling against the jeep, obscuring the cloudy view in front of us. The warmth was pleasant, but the awkward silence left us all tearing the skin off our lips and biting them. Elisa hadn't answered me. She punched herself in the leg with her free hand, and before she spoke, she sneezed.

"That's all I needed. Now I'm sick."

"She's right." Maggie said, scratching the bubbles in her hand until she got bruised, "I've lost control. I put us in danger just to show that I could handle everything on my own. I'm sorry." She said and leaned against the soft textile seats. She had her eyes on the ceiling. She seemed to be avoiding looking us in the eye, as if facing us made everything too real, as if seeing us worried or disappointed would leave her desolated.

"It's all right." I said, "You're right about one thing. We need to train more. It doesn't matter how long it will take, other human beasts will appear, and I don't know if we'll be as lucky as we were last time. We will get back on our feet first and then we will do a few normal quests." I told them and the conversation died there.

The rest of the journey was made in silence, to the sound of the rising storm, the grey clouds and the yellow sparks that pierced them.

As soon as we got to the secret base, we went straight to the room where Tom was that morning. We left the jeep in the garage, exactly in the same place, behind the blue car that was no longer there, and I saved the keys in my pocket. The room was empty except for the doughnut box he had placed in the other room hours ago. There was also a white sheet of paper on the floor, marked with his shoe sole and a couple of sentences with a black line on them. I picked up the paper and put it on the metal table covered in deep-rooted scribbles. The page referred to an incident in which some group had been involved and that was related to Maggie's father. I told them that it was a piece of paper that didn't contain anything important and that I had saved it in my pocket to throw away later on. It was a conversation I wanted to have alone with Tom in order to avoid Maggie's complete collapse. After all, it was my duty as head of the group to protect them.

"What are you doing here?" An adult voice said. One of those voices that we know will have a lot of wisdom, that the years have passed upon him and with them the teachings.

It was Aldrin and he looked at us as if we were ants near his huge legs, slightly deformed due to his age and still stable as much as they could.

"We were looking for Tom." I said, "We've had some trouble with the beast." And I pointed to Maggie's hand and Elisa's glove, which still had some crystals preventing her from taking it off.

"I see. Don't worry. Don't worry. I don't think it's anything serious."

"No?" Elisa asked him, "You must not be senile anymore."

"Elisa!" I warned her before we got kicked out of there.

"Don't worry. I know how she is. Come with me," the man said in response to Elisa's murmurs.

"I think that's the line I've heard most throughout the year." I said, low, to Victoria.

The man took us into a room that was in a narrow, dark corridor, given the spider's webs in the corners and the wall plate already scraped off in several parts. We were greeted by a white-coated lady in her 50s, her green eyes almost colorless, her wrinkled hands and her backboned cheeks, that asked Maggie and Elisa to sit down while she ran some tests.

"You two can go. Come back in a few hours." She told me and Vic, wrapping up with a contagious smile, "I'll take care of them."

"Yes, Dr. Lena is one of the best we have." The old Aldrin said.

"I don't know if it's the best thing to do. To leave them alone." I told him.

"They're not kids anymore, are they? I'm sure they'll be fine." Aldris said as he dragged me and Vic out, "Get some rest." He put his finger on the DNA ID and opened the door for us.

We ended up going upstairs, just the two of us, to my room, and we sat back on my bed. It was as if she and I had never left and it was still morning except for the rain that was bumping on the rotten tiles of the disguised floors above.

She leaned her head against my chest, one leg rubbing against one of mine, the red hair blending with mine. Despite the tiredness, it was difficult to resist her hot, panting breath sweeping across my neck. Her lips pressed against my neck, gluing and detaching themselves, while her tongue glided from one side to the other. I raised my head and leaned it against the wall. Vic took the opportunity to put herself on top of me, her hips almost bursting the skirt lining, and the top not hiding the tits that were wagging now that she was bending toward me. I lowered her top. She didn't have a bra underneath, and her nipples were erect in the middle of the medium-sized areolas. I bit them until she released a long-lasting moan and threw her head back, biting her lower lip.

"I missed this already" she unleashed, not without moaning louder than before.

She'd always been a touch-sensitive girl. Her body squirmed at the slightest pinch and pressure. We threw the clothes to the floor and she lay on top of me. We kissed dozens of times, until the sound of the kisses eclipsed the storm that had begun outside.

"It wasn't just you." I answered her as I turned her over so she could stay underneath.

The moisture between her legs stuck them together and as soon as I strayed them, she dripped on the bed. The pink color shone, standing out from the skin color of her legs and crotch, as she stroked my hair and begged me to descend.

I kissed her from her neck to her navel, and then I grasped her hips and ventured into her sweet sea. I didn't even stop when she pulled my hair or when she told me to slow down because she was close to coming.

Her hands tangled up in the sheets as her back curled and the moans flooded the room. It was almost like a symphonic orchestra reaching its climax.

"You haven't lost your touch," she said, as soon as her body fell to the ground in a state of trance.

"We're not done yet," I told her and turned her over.

She had her breasts pressed against the mattress, her hands stretched above her head, and her ass slightly raised. My dick slipped easily into her. I had absolutely no mercy on her. The warmth of our bodies and the splash that echoed across the four walls whenever our bodies slammed into each other were the only thing that mattered there.

There was no clock in the room and the cell phones were still in the clothes pockets that color-filled the white floor. We changed positions once more, when she climbed on top of me and rode me until she nearly rolled her eyes. Her tits swung, her hair swirled around, and I could feel the end approaching. That sensation in the stomach core, when it looks like it's being drained, and a few seconds later, we pop. And that's how it was. I finished within her, with my hands on her ass, whilst she moaned in my ear, her breath still warm. We didn't move. The bodies asked for a rest; sweat ran down my forehead, my legs still trembled and when I tilted my head up, I noticed that she had my fingerprints on her ass.

"After all, you are even better." She said and stood up, letting my liquid run down her leg, "I'm going to take a quick shower and go to sleep. I don't think we can do much more today."

She dressed her clothes, winked at me before she left the room and vanished into the hallway. I was alone in the room again. I closed my eyes and I don't remember anything that happened after that.

By the time I woke up again, the rain had stopped. Or at least, calmed down enough not to be heard. A buzzing sound grew in the room and it took me a few seconds to realize it was my cell phone vibrating.

I had a message from Tom.

Chapter VII

"I was in the hospital. I know you've been looking for me. Kendra's getting out of here in two or three days. Ashen's going to need a little more time, but at least he can already talk."

The message had been sent two hours ago. Damn it. How long had I slept for?

I got dressed and went downstairs. A dozen people were sitting at the computer, while two were eating chocolate cakes in the living room. No sign of Tom, Aldrin or the girls. As I walked around the room, eyes rose up on me.

"It's weird when all your moves are being followed, isn't it?" someone said behind me.

"Is it always like this?" I asked him.

"For a famous person, yes." He answered me.

Only after his answer did I turn around. He was the youngest looking boy who had been at the meeting the first time I had arrived there. He was wearing a suit, the gray folds facing in, and a pair of black pants that were probably new as you could see from the lack of creases and how they hadn't gotten used to his body yet. The fringe wasn't quite the same size and a few strands of hair covered his black eyes as well as among his thin eyebrows.

"Famous? I? I arrived a few days ago', I replied, looking around again and seeing the eyes that were still on me. As soon as they noticed I was looking, they lowered them back onto the screens.

"Everyone here knows you've destroyed a human beast. They saw the video. You've discovered something we've been trying for years. Regardless of how lucky your members were to know the right people for it, you're still rookies who survived." He said and smiled, his lips disappearing to make way for the whiter, almost glossy teeth that I had ever seen, "They'll stop staring. Don't worry about it. By the way, I'm Jose, are you looking for Tom?"

"From anyone on my team, actually. But, actually, I could use talking to Tom, too. I have something I need to discuss with him."

"I think he arrived an hour ago and went to rest for a while in one of the empty rooms upstairs." Jose answered me. He called one of the boys who was working on the computer and asked him if he'd seen Tom. The boy repeated what he had said. Well, I'd have to wait for him to wake up. There was a moment when I stopped to think. All the recognition I'd always wanted was there. I had it, albeit on a small scale, but I didn't need much more. I was the boy who survived, from the group who had delved into the conspiracy theory and who had survived the attack of a beast who had no level.

The conversation was over there. He told me he had some business to attend to, said goodbye with a strong handshake and wished me good luck.

I didn't see Tom that day. Not even on the next day. I stayed with the girls, but we didn't leave the secret base. The doctor had been very clear. They needed a day to rest, to spread a sour cream that smelled almost like oil all over their hands, every three hours, until the pain, blisters, and swelling disappeared. Elisa no longer had her glove attached to her hand, but she still couldn't move it and had part of her bones fragmented. We spent the day in bed, talking, laughing, kissing to the sound of the thunderstorm outside.

The next day we woke up early. We almost slept together but there wasn't enough space in the bed. We got dressed, ate the doughnuts that Tom had left again in the living room, entered the black jeep and hit the road. I still tried to look for Tom before we left, but no sign of him.

I don't know what ointment they had put on, but the effect was perfect. It reduced her swelling and she could move her hand as if nothing had happened. Maggie no longer had any bubbles and there were only a few marks and scars left that would fade with time. We had maintained the same seats as last time. Elisa next to me and Victoria and Maggie in the back. We had taken advantage of the previous day to talk and she seemed calmer. At least she had gone back to apologizing and saying that she had to find other ways to release her anger. We all forgave her, even Elisa, who went even further and said she could give her some boxing lessons.

"That's what I did after Ashen took me out of the group. It helped me to calm down and improved the way I fought." She told her.

The invitation was made, and Maggie said she'd think about it. It was still 10 am and the sky was already clear. The thunderstorms of the previous day were now replaced by the pale clouds and the yellow of the sun's rays that dried the streets, lawns and even the damp windows of the city buildings where the headquarters was located. We were already arriving and the differences between the day I went there to register and now were remarkable. There was only one Hunters ad about new shields for sale, and the rest were anti-Hunters ads. One had the face of the radio woman and the following sentence underneath,

"If they fight each other, how long will it take them to fight us?"

I parked the jeep in front of the main building. Someone had graffitied one of the walls with a hatred symbol. A cross with an X on it, the sign of someone who rejects Hunters. There was also a sentence saying that we should all burn and another one, quieter and of a different color, saying that we should clean up the shit we were doing. The differences didn't stop there. The door, which before never stopped turning, with people coming and going, was now standing still, almost as if time had been frozen only in that area.

As we entered, we were greeted by the same girl I had innocently flirted with on my first day as Hunter. She had a sad look, her cheeks orange in contrast to her white and snowy face, and she wore brown pants and a transparent white sweater that let people see the black bra she had underneath.

"Oh, I remember you." She said to me, "Things have changed a little bit around here. With so many protests around the building, a lot of Hunters stopped showing up. The administration gave us orders to look more professional while they plotted a plan to return to the public's good graces." She answered, as she walked us to the stairs.

Apart from two groups in opposite corners of the room, there was no one else there. The walls had lost their vivacity and even the lights seemed weak and filled with insects that liked the heat around them. A sweet perfume lingered in the air. I inhaled in order to try to perceive what smell was, but it was different, new, even for me whose mother worked in a perfumery.

"The smell? It's the woman who works downstairs, the saleswoman, who sprays it every day. I think she did it. I've already asked her, but she says it's a family secret," the girl answered me as she listened to me take successive breaths, "But, well, be my guest. You can take the elevator to the fourth floor. It will take you to your rank floor. Don't be surprised if there aren't too many people over there."

We thank her and headed for the elevator. It was spacious enough for the four of us, had all the buttons and a transparent door. We could all watch as he went up, passing through the two floors below, each one with its own color, and different groups of Hunters talking, some walking towards the rooms.

"I haven't been here in years." Elisa said, ''Before it didn't have all these colors, you know? It was unusual for groups to hang around talking. We just stopped by to accept quests."

The elevator stopped. At the exit of the elevator was a group of three boys, all with red fur coats, two swordsmen and an archer. Their eyes fell on us and, not a minute later, they walked away.

"Is it me, or did they leave because of us and now they're talking about us?" Vic asked us.

"I'm going to go ask them why. Who do they think they are?" Elisa said and started walking towards them before I could grab her leather jacket.

We followed her down the hallway, and within meters of the living room, she caught up with them. She asked them why they were talking about us in that aggressive way that characterized her. They didn't dare answer her. They probably weren't expecting to be challenged, let alone by a girl with deathly drawn eyes, a frightening look and a black skull T-shirt. She stood out from all the other Hunters. There was no professionalism, respect or decency in her and yet no one could say that she did not belong there.

"But will you take long to answer? Do I need to freeze your body and leave only your mouth uncovered?" She continued, and they looked at each other, opening and closing their mouths as if they were looking for the right words.

"We...ah, it wasn't out of spite. We recognized you from the video... fighting other Hunters. You've ruined everything for us. Now we're hated wherever we go. The police avoid helping us. Even the people we save complain about us." One of them, the slender one, with a bowl-like hair, beaked eyes and denim pants, told us.

"We weren't fighting against..."

"Maggie. Doesn't matter. They're right. We made a mistake and we apologize." I interrupted her before she talked too much.

"Don't expect our sympathy. You should have thought of that before you fucked up." Another of the boys said, lifting his chest and drawing closer to Elisa.

I walked in between her and him and shoved him before he touched her, "Don't go near her. We already apologized. Settle for that." I said to him, "the best thing to do is for each of us to go our own way."

They grumbled, snorted even, but went the other way, returning to the elevator. Elisa calmed down and we headed for the living room. Missions were popping up on the interactive board on the opposite wall to the entrance. The translucent blue light swirled around the room, coloring the yellow walls, the black ceiling and the brown floor with thin stripes. The trash can in the right corner was packed and balls of paper surrounded it. No one had cleaned the room for days, maybe a week now, and neither the lavender sweet smell that came from the girl or the metal smell of the boy who was wearing a trench coat were enough to ignore the strong odour. The girls covered their noses and complained about the smell.

"It's coming from there," the girl from the other group said and pointed to the ventilation, "some rat must have died there. Since the cleaning ladies haven't shown up in days, no one's taken him out yet." She added. She had a sweet voice, and her teeth scraped off her thick lips when she spoke.

"You are..." One of the boys started it, but Vic interrupted it.

"Yes, we are. What is it?"

"No reason. I didn't think you'd show up here after all. I'm just surprised."

Nobody answered him. We just went ahead and sat on one of the couches in a corner. A couple of missions were disappearing, being accepted at other Hunters' homes elsewhere, and being replaced by new ones. Most of them were level 3 and 4 monster missions and some level 8 missions. After a few minutes, there came a level 7 and we accepted it immediately. The other group watched everything but didn't even move. They didn't seem interested in the missions. They were still talking about Shimmer being on television the day before, complaining that the rest of the Hunters' administration was lost. Apparently, he'd gotten ahead of us. If he were arrested now everyone would think it would be retaliation and without tangible evidence, they could not accuse him of anything. Things weren't going well for us and they were only getting worse.

We went back to the elevator. The boys' group was no longer there. We descended to the first floor, where the same girl bowed when she saw us, and we left.

Chapter VIII

As soon as we stepped on the first ladder we were greeted by whistles and a dozen people with posters slandering Hunters. They kept sending us away as we walked down the stairs, some of them throwing banana peelings at us and others trying to calm them down, saying it was just a peaceful protest.

"If you don't stop, I'll freeze you all," Elisa screamed and raised her hand.

"Elisa, damn it, let's just get in the jeep and get out of here as soon as possible," I said before the situation got worse.

People backed off and lowered their posters, as well as their fists, and none of them dared to talk. They shivered from fear of her, and even though I knew it was not the best time, I did not have the patience to put up with them or even to try to disarm the situation.

We got into the jeep and I got out of there, arriving at 80 per hour in a few seconds, and putting ourselves on the road, on our way to the city of Itaka.

"See? People don't even value our effort. The whole being a good person thing is exhausting." Elisa said, "Acting in the shadows is much more fun. If it weren't for you, James, I wouldn't be here anymore." She added, leaning against the bench and yawning.

"I know, but nobody said being a good person was easy either. If it were, everyone could be." I said, "Any idea how to stop this monster? From the images, it doesn't look like it's going to give us a lot of trouble, but you never know."

"Didn't it seem very... small?" Maggie talked. She was calmer than last time and already looked us in the eye, and yet the light behind the green appeared extinguished. She was missing a part of herself. Something had come off when her father called her as we ran away from the party. In other words, the flame she had, burned with the fire that consumed our house, and they both dissipated into the air.

"I was thinking the same thing. I don't know if it was the distant images but compared to what we faced last time it looked minuscule." Vic said and paused before continuing, " Nevertheless, we better not underestimate him. He's still a level 7 beast."

"You're right. Keep your eyes open and work as a team. We have a long day ahead of us." I told them. Maggie's words still lingered in my mind. We couldn't stick to one beast a day. We had to want more, do more, fight to save people, climb the ranking, all this while we were waiting for new developments. Almost a week had passed, and no one had told us anything; not even about Shimmer, not about Maggie's father or the albino, not even if there had been new sightings of human beasts. I still had the paper I had picked up in Tom's living room in my trouser pocket, but we weren't seeing each other.

Itaka was almost an hour away. It was a fishing town in the province. I immediately recognized the name; a few years ago, they were on the news after a beast had burned all their boats. The state financed the reconstruction of all that had been left in ashes and provided better weapons to the local police whose station was 20 minutes away. The further we moved away from society, the more the buildings and small slopes were replaced by faraway mountains, arid terrain along the narrow road, and the brightness of the day was grayed out. We were still at least 20 minutes away. On the radio, a hoarse voice sang a song from the old 90's in celebration of the seventy-five years since a classic album had been released. We enjoyed the melancholic view from outside; a light green rose on the horizon and some cows and oxen strolled through the meadow.

"It's the first time I've seen anything so beautiful," Maggie said, breaking the silence.

"You were rich, and you never traveled to exotic places?" Elisa asked her.

"Haven't I told you before? My father was always paranoid. I've always been able to explore our garden, but that's all. Apart from a dog I had when I was younger or the fish, I never saw other animals except in pictures and videos."

"That doesn't sound very healthy to me," Vic answered.

"Probably not. Don't you think the people here are happier? They probably have fewer worries and problems," she added, looking out the window, her forehead brushing against the glass.

"Maybe, but do they live like we do? To what extent do they not get so used to the tanning life that their life is just this infinite boredom?" Vic answered her.

"We are going to fight. What the hell are you talking about?" Elisa told them, running over their philosophical conversation.

"Let them be. I like to hear these thoughts. Life can't just be about fighting." I said, and in a way, it was strange to hear it coming out of my mouth. All my life I had wanted that, the fight and the high ranking, to meet new Hunters and other cities, but, now, I just wanted to take a few days to rest. I no longer saw hunting beasts as a diversion but as a necessity.

"Is it there?" Maggie asked, leaning forward and pointing to a piecemeal road that flowed near some straw buildings.

There was only the sea on the horizon and the waves were bursting against the already reddish sand. The blood blended with the light brown color before being swallowed by the water. As we approached, we noticed that some buildings were already undone, the wood that supported the dry straw broken to pieces and some of the trunks were naked.

"There!" Victoria stormed out of her seat, "the beast!" and pointed to a nook, meters away from us, a star-shaped shadow coming out of the wreckage of what was once a house.

I stopped the car at the top of the hill, and we walked downhill. It was a path of boulders and solid sand blocks only.

"Is it me, or does the beast look like a starfish?" Elisa asked.

"Now that you mention it... His body's all orange, five tips, the only difference is it's made of metal." Vic answered her, carrying the sachet with the arrows on one shoulder and the bow in the same hand, "What's the plan?"

"Isn't that what we have you for? For plans and choosing missions?"

"Knock it off. Come on, hurry up. He's heading towards those people." I told them, as I watched the beast move, using the two feet with four toes each, that supported the metal star that was his whole body.

He advanced forward, the black sphere in the middle of the body acting as a revolving eye, focused on the two women and three children who had hidden behind a rock.

We got between him and the people. I ordered Maggie to lead them to our jeep, away from the battle, where they could be safe while we fought.

The beast jumped and began to spin amid the air, hovering on it until it gouged off, the five horns becoming a single sharp that pierced the sky and whose pressure was so great that the grains of sand arose as it passed.

"Walk away!" I screamed, seconds before the beast rushed past us at high speed, cracking the ground and crashing into the boulder.

It spun continuously until it lost its strength and one extremity got stuck on the rock. Still, it didn't stop. The metal grazed the rock and it tried to fracture it.

"Actually, these beasts are not at all intelligent." Elisa said, "And as if that wasn't enough for her, she doesn't even have a decent body. Doomed to fail" she said and raised her hand.

Particles of ice filled the air, cooling the atmosphere until they reached the beast and froze not only the sharp point that was already hanging as well as part of the rock.

"Are you done?" Maggie asked as she went back down the ravine, "they told me that the rest of the population either fled or hid in the lighthouse" she added and pointed to a white and red lighthouse a meter away from us.

"At least that. Let's finish this and get out of here." I said it, but suddenly I heard a strange noise, almost as harsh as a chalk scraping on a blackboard. The noise increased, and the bifurcation grew until we could hear the rock cracking.

"He got out!" Maggie screamed.

We all stared at the rock. The beast had detached and hovered over the air one more time. The second round was about to begin. Before she even moved a gust of flames swept over her. Maggie, meters away from her, had her hand raised and, once again, the flames were out of control, flying in several directions, nearly like a whip that battered the ground, the wall, the beast and almost hit Victoria.

"MAGGIE!" I yelled, "Not again."

"This time I can control it. I know I can." She said, and as she closed her fist, the fire acquired delineated contours.

"She's doing it!" Victoria said, "Just a little more."

A vein popped up on her forehead, her thin skin wrinkled, and her nose frowned as her hand trembled and the flames finally focused only on the target. The fire sparks scattered across the air, burning it and behaving like fireworks.

"It's about time," Elisa said, and for a fraction of a second, she smiled.

We were happy. Everything seemed fine at that moment. Not even the strong wind blasts removed the fire from its course. Maggie's hand had stopped shaking. Water was splashing all over our faces. The truth is, we had gotten ahead of ourselves. We were so distracted, we didn't even see the beast spinning again. The speed at which it was moving led it to create an air barrier between her body and the fire. It fired off towards Maggie, digging a tunnel in between the fire, leaving her only a few seconds to throw herself to the floor and dodge. She fell to the ground, skinning her arms and knees, dirtying her hair with muddy, damp soil, and struggling to reach us.

"Damn it. We underestimate him," Elisa said. She tried to freeze his feet, but he leapt, gave a mortal and pierced the ice until it broke.

Victoria still fired 3 arrows, but the monster simply deviated, only one of them scraping him at the upward extremity. Maggie finally caught up with us. Blood flowed from her shoulders and knees.

"After all, this isn't gonna be as easy as we thought." She said and curved the corner of her mouth. She had that sassy, excited smile that Elisa had, too. They were getting more and more alike and that scared me.

"We need to paralyze him. As long as he can move that fast and spin, we don't stand a chance." Vic said, looking around, looking for anything to help us, "I should have thought of this before. We must get him to the beach. The sand should be enough to bury him," she added.

"And how the hell are we going to do that?" Elisa asked her.

"Well, on the count of three, we'll start running towards there." Vic replied, "Unless someone has a better idea," she added sarcastically.

"Not really. We've done crazier things than running with a beast behind us," I told them and laid my hand on the holster. I had two acix bullets left.

"One... " Victoria said and we all took a deep breath.

"Two." We rotated half of our bodies and placed our arms next to the trunk. The beast spun in the air, horizontally, like a motor about to be turned on, ready to go off at high speed, slicing whatever was in front of it.

"Three! Now!" Victoria screamed.

Nobody looked back. We started running as fast as we could. I noticed Maggie was getting left behind, slacking off because of her shaved knees. I went back, put my hand around her hip and helped her until we reached the ledge before the beach.

"She's coming," Victoria said. She didn't even need to look back. We could all hear the rattling of a fissure being opened as it drew closer. The waves crashed on the shore and that salty sea scent grew ever stronger.

"Get down!" I screamed and we threw ourselves into the sand, covering our mouths and our eyes. Maggie landed on top of me, her knees over my kneecaps, trying to avoid contagion and infection.

The beast brushed over us, stopping meters ahead of us, with both feet on the sand. It took a step forward.

"We have to flip her over. It has to stick one of the tips in the sand. Let's give it everything we got." Victoria said and took out three more arrows, "Here it comes again."

The beast spun horizontally once again. The tips shaped into one, luring the sand and creating a grain hurricane with it in the middle. Maggie threw a fireball but as soon as it hit the sandy wall it fizzled into the air. At the speed at which he was going, he was as strong in attack as in defense. An impenetrable wall that could also counterattack. Zigzagging along the beach, sometimes surrounding us, sometimes trying to hit us head-on. We lost almost 10 minutes drifting, back to back, spinning, anticipating the monster's movements. Our feet were also being buried in that sand and it took some effort, almost as if we were bearing a brick with our feet, to dodge it.

"This way we won't get far," Elisa said, "it's time to strike hard."

"Fireballs don't even scratch it, how do we do this?" Maggie asked her.

"Hm, I think I know a way," I told them. Watching him spinning and drilling Elisa's ice had given me a rough sketch of an idea, "Elisa, freeze the whole ground around him. You two attack him until he's distracted."

"But he'll break the ice again," Maggie said

"I'm waiting for that." I said, "If it breaks, there's only sand left. He doesn't have the brains for more. He won't expect it."

"Well, let's do it." Victoria said, putting three arrows on her bow, and deflecting her legs, "I'm going to shoot over the hurricane."

"I burn the edges. Let's make it burn from the inside too," Maggie added, the thirst for revenge gradually manifesting itself.

Maggie burned the tip of Victoria's metal arrows until they were so brightly red that they could be used to cicatrize the skin. For a moment it smelled like burnt metal until the sweet aroma of the seawater dissipated it. We followed the arrows up the clear sky until they entered the tornado from above. They also twirled, the fire spreading across the sky and the sand, engulfed by the beast's pressure. Elisa knelt down and after putting her hand on the sand, the ground froze in every direction.

The fire vanished, and with it also the sandy tornado. The beast landed on the ice and wasted no time. He jumped, turning upside down, and perforating the ice with two of its extremities, while his feet were turned upside down.

"This is it. All or nothing." I said as I watched it, the ice about to shatter.

It cracked, the opening stretching all the way to our feet, and it snapped. The beast did not have enough time to equilibrate itself and without arms it became impossible to get up. He ended up falling into the sand, two of the extremities getting buried. He tried to spin, twirl, but he could only move a few inches to the side.

"I'm going to end this," I told them. I pulled my gun out of the holster and walked to the beast.

The ice melted and the sand wetted. I aimed the gun from above to below and before pressing the trigger I thought about how I would only have one acyx bullet left. And yet, I wanted to end it all as soon as possible. Other missions were waiting for us and one a day was not enough. Maggie was right about that. I fired. The bullet went through the beast's body, destroying all the filaments, chips and everything else it found in the way. The beast's eye closed and it stopped moving.

"It's done," I added. I knelt down, took the Hunter APP out of my pocket and collected the experience points for the whole team.

"Congratulations! You have defeated a level 7 monster. 175 experience points have been given to each, as well as 350 hunter points. Do you want to continue as a team?"

"The acix bullets are in the end, aren't they?" Maggie asked, "I've been meaning to ask you that, but I didn't know how to bring it up after Gordon..."

"Yeah, I got one more bullet. There's a way to get more, but I don't know if they'll let us."

"You're thinking about talking to Lipa, aren't you?"

"Yes, it's the only way. Tom gave me 3 bullets that Ashen had given him, but he was very clear when he said they wouldn't get me anymore. They're spending everything searching for evidence of Shimmer and looking for the rest."

"Will you include me in the talk? Lipa's not that criminal who ran away a while ago, right?" Victoria said while we were still on the beach, chatting and gazing at the horizon, the light blue of the sky mixing with the blue of the sea that the farther it got, the darker it became.

"Yeah, you're right. A quick summary will do. Acix is a special metal. Much stronger than the normal ones like the one in your arrows. But it's expensive and rare, only a few on the black market sell it." I replied and took a break. I thought it would be better if she digested it all slowly, "Yeah, she is. And she's also Kendra's sister, the other girl in our group. She helped us in the past, Elisa has also worked with her, I don't think she will deny us help this time. If anyone knows where there's acix, it's her."

Victoria looked thoughtful for a brief moment before answering, "I see. But do you think she can be trusted? Are you sure she won't betray us?"

"She may be many things, mostly wicked, but she's not a traitor." Elisa said, "We better wait for Kendra to return. They're both their weaknesses. I know Kendra hid her from the police."

"Ashen really told you everything, then." I said, "How about you? You don't know anyone who sells acix? After all, you stayed in the underground for a long time."

"Maybe, but none of them will be available for a meeting with me as soon as they will for Lipa. Either I'm very wrong or as soon as the news spread of what happened on the council all the big vendors went into hiding. Lipa must now be the most sought after."

"Why the most sought-after?" Maggie asked her.

"The whole council is dead. All that's left is her and Albino, and no doubt he won't want her alive for long. She is the only one who has enough weapons, security, and reputation to prevent him from taking control of the entire underground network." Elisa explained to us.

"Things aren't really working out." I said, "You're right. We better wait for Kendra to return. Let's just warn the population that they can leave and return to the headquarters. With a little luck, the protest is already over."

"I miss Kendra. She could be rude sometimes, but she would never let us down." Maggie said and clenched her fist.

"Maggie... It's not your fault. We've been over this." I told her, "Come on, no more wasting time."

"I know, I know. Sometimes it's hard not to think about things, you know?" She answered me.

I felt like she was about to say something else before Elisa straightened out her brown leather jacket, "enough with the sentimentalism. Let's go."

Chapter IX

The lighthouse was in a small corner of the town. A man-made road, with both sides sheltered by different colored stones, salt water splashing over them. We opened the door and dozens of men took up a fighting position, protecting the women who covered their children and pulled them close to their chests.

"The beast is coming!" One of the men at the front spoke and the rest extended the wooden spears with the tip being a sharp triangle-shaped rock.

"Calm down, calm down. We're Hunters. We've already destroyed the beast. Somebody's going to come and get her." Victoria told them before we were accidentally gutted.

"Hunters? The beast killers?" The same man said, "This time they showed up before we were left with nothing. We have nothing to give you in return."

"We don't want anything from you. We don't do it for the money." Elisa answered him, feeling offended by the way he spoke, almost as if he was accusing us of being something that we were not. At least I wasn't that kind of person anymore.

"Lower your weapons." An older man with a long white beard and a red tunic said, stepping out among the men, "We apologize, and appreciate your help. We're not exactly used to being helped. Even the local cops aren't willing to come here more than once a month. They have richer cities to protect." The man said.

The men left first. Then the kids and finally the women. Most adults had wrinkled fingers, dry skin, and bruised toes. I didn't talk to the girls, but it was impossible not to notice that apart from the children and the older man, the others didn't wear shoes. The children jumped, smiled, hugged, and celebrated being alive. The parents ordered their children to be quiet and to avoid going to the beach. The beast's body was still there. The orange stood out in the arenal's light brown.

"Do you need help with anything?" The man asked us.

"No, thank you. We're good, and we should get back to the city now."

"Before you go, what do you think about lunching here? The city has no fish like us, and it is lunchtime," he said. The words were received with frowning glances from the men who strove to disguise that they were circling the man.

"I don't think everyone is happy with that idea." I said, "We don't want to cause any trouble."

"I can't judge every Hunter by the actions of some. All that matters are the now. And right now, you've saved us. It's the least we can do."  He said and signaled to the man who had spoken with us earlier to get closer, "Tell Justina to make lunch for 4 more people. We're having a feast today. Tomorrow we start rebuilding the houses that were destroyed. Make room for the families in my house too." He added.

We were taken to the biggest house in town. It was three times the size of any of the others and the wooden poles that held the roof were thicker than theirs.

"Are we really going to have lunch here?" Maggie asked.

"Well, we'd have to have lunch somewhere, wouldn't we?" I said, "And I bet you've never eaten fish as good as this."

"Why not?"

"This is not the fish your father's cooks bought at the supermarkets. It's fresh fish. You'll understand when we eat."

We were taken to the man's dining room. We walked in through the sliding, woven curtain windows after climbing a few steps onto a smooth wooden parapet.

A wooden table for 10 people, five on each side, was in the center. The background was the serene sea, the waves that now only drifted into the hot sand and the sun that awakened amidst the clouds on the shore. The walls were of fine silk, adorned with green and blue mandalas, and tapestries rich in cold colors. Five bowls of salad, tomato, and chopped onions were all over the table. There were also small dishes with coarse salt and other empty ones.

"It's for the spines." The man explained it to us when Maggie asked him.

We sat at the table. I sat where I could observe the sea while eating. I've always felt calm around it. I saw the waves contours as they rose just before crashing into the lighthouse's protective rocks and the shore. The white foam lingered on the seashore before the next wave dragged it along.

"It shouldn't be long now." The guy said, "It's your first time here, I assume."

"Yes, I had already been to a village similar to this one when I was younger, but never this one." I replied, "How can you survive here?"

"We have had rough months, but we always find a way. We sell some of the fish we catch and fruit too. The worst months are the winter ones. It's cold, you know? But we start a bunch of bonfires and the government provides us with those technological bonfires, where the fire is inside a little box but heats us anyway," he explained.

"Don't you get bored of living here the whole time?" Maggie asked him. She had sat next to me and her eyes brightened as she watched the sea.

"Sometimes. It's an exhausting life. But it pays off, you know? Helping our family, our people, seeing children grow up and replacing their parents, caring for them and the rest of the elderly. I'm not saying there weren't times when I wanted to move, but I'm glad I stayed," he replied, "Oh, lunch is coming." he added and rubbed his hands before putting the napkin next to the silverware, on his lap.

Five pieces of codfish, still fumigating, with the skin gleaming and white rice to go with it. The man thanked us for the help before he allowed us to eat. Three of his security guards were still scattered around the room, their arms crossed, dressed in white suits as if they were going to a jiu-jitsu competition, aware of our every move, from the stabbing we gave to the fish to the way we carried the fork to our mouth. No one spoke at lunch. We devoured the fish as if we had not eaten for days and, truth be told, what we had had as meals in the last few days was nothing. We always ate in the secret base canteen. Every day it was a different kind of mixture, which I'm pretty sure if I flipped the plate, it would be glued to it. Only Victoria and the man ate the fish skin while me and the others left it in the corner of the plate. Maggie wiped the edges of her mouth with one of her napkins. Elisa laid the cutlery on her plate and cracked her fingers. Our plates were empty except for the sauce trail that had persisted all around the rounded plates and a few grains of rice that had slipped away.

We spent a few minutes watching the sea. Even Victoria and Elisa, who once had their backs to him, looked at him now, with their eyes half closed due to the strong sun rays that collided on the roof and reflected before us, still captivated by the natural beauty of the landscape.

"We better get going," I said, getting up.

"There are others in need of help, aren't there?" the man asked me, signaling to one of his security guards to help him get up, by grasping one of his arms, "I understand. I'm glad you stayed for lunch. I missed the company already. It's good to talk to different people, you know? Before you go, just tell me, how are things in the city? You haven't defeated the Reapers yet, have you?"

"If we had defeated, we wouldn't be here, would we?" Elisa said, "Well, this was good while it lasted. Time to get back to the hustle and bustle of the city."

"The girl is right," he replied, "He hasn't opened his eyes yet." The man whispered.

"Excuse me? What do you mean?" Victoria asked him.

"Did you hear that? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You weren't supposed to. You may not know, but have you ever heard of a boy named Damien?"

"Damien? The Reapers' inventor? We had a colleague who worked with him. But... he was... kidnapped." I answered him.

It was still hard for me to talk about it, and I still wondered if I should tell him that, but something in me told me we were safe there.

"Gordon, is it? I heard. Don't make those faces. Just because I'm an old man at the end of the world doesn't mean that I've never left this place for a short time, or that I've never made friends."

"What do you know about Damien?" Elisa asked him and approached him. The security guards quickly came between them, ready to fight, arms up to their chest and fists in the air, "Damn. I'm not going to do anything. I just want to know," she added.

"Have you ever wondered why most beasts look like animals?"

"We talked about this before, didn't we, Maggie?" I asked, remembering an exchange of words we had had almost a month ago

"Yeah, against that beast that looked like a spider, wasn't it?"

"Exactly, we never asked Gordon why," I answered her, and the man laughed.

"Forgive me. I shouldn't laugh. I remembered how Damien got into trouble when he was younger. You know, he's always been a very smart boy. He had his particularities, of course, but we all have our own when we are children, don't we?" The man started and walked to the small parapet from where the breeze was flowing, "His parents were born here but followed different paths than their grandparents. They ventured into the city and had him but kept bringing him here every summer. I don't think he was happy there, you know? Even here he was lonely, always by himself. He liked to walk around and gave names to the animals. They seemed to me the only ones who didn't treat him badly. I tried to talk to him several times, but he talked back. He ended up in a lot of fights to protect those animals. I even patched him a few times."

"Very nice talk, but how did you know it was him?" Elisa asked.

"After everything that happened, Gordon visited me. He wanted to know what could have led someone like Damien to not care about the deaths of thousands of people. I wish I had a good answer for him." The man said and stretched his arms. His skin was dry and flaky, but he still had some genius.

"You're saying we can't stop him by talking him out of it, right?" Victoria asked. She licked her lips after speaking and began to remove the strands of hair that had fallen on her forehead.

"I don't think so. Not all situations can be peacefully handled. It's the downside of a colored world. There are many options and not all of them are good." He said, "Well, you got to get going, don't you? At least take a bottle or two of fresh water. Looks to me like you're going to need it." He said, looking up for a few seconds. The sun glowed like a white star in an all-blue brushstroke landscape.

One of the security guards handed us the two bottles, the labels stating that it was water from a fountain of a nearby mountain.

We said goodbye to him and one of the security guards accompanied us until we returned to the jeep. He didn't thank us, and he also didn't wave when Maggie did it as we drove away. The sea became nothing but a blue thread fading away.

"Coincidences..." Victoria started, "Who knew we'd find out about that?"

"I don't believe in coincidences, only in fate. It was meant to be, it had to be." Maggie said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Just ask us,” Elisa told her.

"If you had the chance to go back in time and kill him before he grew up, would you do it?" Maggie asked, and through the rearview mirror, I noticed she was looking around, waiting for one of us to answer.

"Good question." Victoria said, "I don't think so. Beasts are one thing, but killing someone is another, you know? I didn't sign up with the Hunters to become a killer."

"Being able to end it all with just one bullet? I wouldn't even hesitate." Elisa replied, "Isn't there a phrase about the need for many to be more important than the needs of a few?"

"Yes, but he'd be a child, at most a teenager. Could you still kill him? Look him in the eyes?"

"I didn't say it would be easy, but it was what was necessary," Elisa answered. She leaned against the bench and let her body slide until the sun rays didn't strike her head and slam on her eyes, "Damn. I can't see anything. Having bright eyes has its drawbacks." She added.

"True." Maggie said and paused, "You're running away from the talk."

"Me? Running away? Who do you think I am? You're the one who hasn't answered yet." Elisa answered, climbing back on the seat and looking back at Maggie.

We had already made it past the prairie and the animals. The air was getting heavier as we moved closer to the city. The sun shone even brighter, the clear sky seemed endless and the mountains were left behind.

"Honestly, I don't know. I guess I wouldn't know until the moment. It's hard to think about it without being there."

"Then why did you ask us?" Elisa counterattacked.

"I wanted to know what you thought, can't I?" Maggie said, "What about you, James?"

"Good question. I understand both sides, but I think I will take Victoria's side on this one. My training was to save people and destroy beasts. Not to kill people. Then we'd be just like them. That's not the kind of person I want to be." I replied.

She smiled, unlike Elisa who huffed, bit her lower lip and tilted her face to the window. The hills gave way to the small hillsides of the empty highway. It was 2:23 pm. The radio was off, and we could hear only the car wheels, the light breeze that entered through my semi-open window and a band of seagulls traversed the sky in the opposite direction. No one spoke again. The rest of the way was done in silence. They observed the landscape as I drove. My body softened with the sun and the peaceful lunch - my feet seemed taped to the pedal and my arms were stretched and static. The skin on my forehead was dry and when I frowned on it some grains of sand landed on my clothes. The same thing happened when I glided my hand through the hair that now looked like unwashed straw. At that moment, I just wanted to lie on a bed and spend the afternoon there. And yet, it was impossible for me. I couldn't do it. There was more at stake than just my desire to rest.

Chapter X

From afar, the tallest buildings rose as we drew closer. There were already people on the street wearing only T-shirts and others with their coats tied around their hips. The sun's rays evaded amidst the open spaces between the largest buildings, sometimes reflecting on the windows as well, cruising through the streets and bumping into the green leaves turning them green-yellow colored.

"Shouldn't we do the digestion?" Maggie asked.

"I think the time it took us to get back was enough. Plus, the time we stayed there enjoying the view. Are you in a bad mood?" I asked her.

"Not really, but I don't want to be either." She said while I was looking for a spot in the driveway of the main building...

The protest had departed but they had left the posters and the rotten fruit on the staircase. The two Hunters who were coming down simply swerved away instead of picking it up and throwing it away. They didn't seem to care. As if that was someone else's job and they couldn't waste 5 minutes of their time doing it. It was that superior attitude that had always pissed me off in them. Our goal has always been to help the world survive the Reapers, it was one of the purposes we were created, but that doesn't mean we have to ignore everything else.

"We better clean these stairs." I told them, "It won't take long."

"Us? Why would we clean up other people' shit?" Elisa answered me.

I parked, waited for the engine to stop roaring, and turned back, "Why wouldn't we? There are four of us. We'll take care of everything in two minutes at the most." I answered her.

I was the first one to get out of the car. They followed me to the stairwell. I picked up one of the banana peelings and a sign and threw them in one of the three rubbish bins a few meters from the building. Maggie and Victoria did the same. On the other hand, Elisa grabbed only one sign, with only two fingers, and distanced herself from it as if they couldn't touch each other. I was about to say something to her, but knowing her as I already knew her, I didn't think I could get more out of her than that. I decided to settle for how fast we were, and for the fact that the three of them helped me. I kissed each one's cheek and opened the building door for them to get in first.

"A gentleman, as always," Victoria said it and smiled.

The first floor was still the same. One group or another scattered around the room, the girl from before was now on her desk leafing through some papers and, next to her, the lady who had registered me. The elevator was going up with three girls in it. Someone, on his back and wearing a black cloak, similar to mine but with a finer fabric, almost textureless, was waiting for the coffee machine to fill the small plastic cup. We were leaving a trail of sand everywhere we walked. The other groups were looking at us. It seemed to me that everyone knew who we were. I wouldn't be surprised if most of them had seen the highway video several times or if they had passed it on a giant screen for everyone to memorize our faces.

"They're back!" The girl received us.  Unlike the gloomy morning, she was now smiling, her cheeks pink and her fingers polished, "I feel much better now. You don't even know what happened. Shortly after you left, we got an announcement that we could relax. According to a poll yesterday, half the population still trusts the Hunters. Those who hate, yell the most" She told us.

"What about the video?" I asked her.

"People don't care as much as we thought? Look, I don't know. I know I won't have to wear this professional outfit anymore. I've had enough." She said and unbuttoned the top two buttons.

"Look who it is... Already in C rank? In a little over a month? You were right after all. Most of them take a year or two. Either because they get hurt and need to stop or accept a mission from time to time and spend the rest of their time doing other jobs. Some are consultants, some are security guards. Some only sleep, but I like to see that you're not one of them." The woman who helped me pick out a gun said. She was wearing a yellow dress and knee-length socks of the same color. She had hips that stretched from one end of the table to the other and black bra straps underneath the dress.

"I warned you. The A rank is waiting for me. I'll get there." I answered her.

Elisa cleared her throat before she spoke, "Shouldn't we get going?"

"She's right. We can still beat two more beasts today." Victoria supported her.

"Let's get going then. Thank you for your support!" I told both the girl and the lady. They smiled at us and wished us good luck. The lady even asked if we were not interested in buying a new batch of all kinds of weapons that had arrived days ago, but I told her only that we would later stop by.

We used the elevator again and went back to our living room. It was empty and someone had already removed the mouse from the vent.

"Fortunately. I'd throw up if I came in here and smelled that rotten smell." Victoria said as she headed for the interactive board...

"Check if there's anything level 8 in there," Elisa said.

"Level 8? Isn't that a little too much for us?" Maggie asked her, "Now I'm not the one being impulsive."

"Don't you want to climb up the rank? We have to fight the bigger fish. There are four of us, each with its advantages and disadvantages. We just need to know how to use them. And what better way than in combat?"

"Maybe because we're not just risking our lives, are we? A city is not a training camp." Victoria said, "There's a level seven here, what do you think?"

"Push that one. Show us." I told her.

She touched the screen with her finger and the images began to load. First the buildings, then the people gaining shape, and finally the beast in a corner. I had never seen such a monster so big before. It was even greater than the one that was a wasp and spider mix. The body was a metal shell covered by light green grass, two lasers, one on each shoulder, that cut everything they touched in half, and, as if that were not enough, the beast still had a malleable metal tail with a steel triangle-shaped tip.

"I recognize those buildings. Wait, isn't this in Laterna?" I asked her, an itch rising my leg.

"Yeah, it says here. Help was requested three minutes ago." Victoria answered me.

"Accept it. Now. We have to go fast." I told them, "Come on, hurry up."

"What about it?" Elisa asked.

"It's my town. My mother still lives there, and I know most people there. If I can't protect the people I care about, what's the point of being a Hunter?"

"You should have started with that." Elisa said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go."

"This isn't going to be easy." Maggie said, "We better plan something on the way there."

"You're right," I said to her, "We'll think of something."

We ran to the elevator. They were calm but I wasn't. I was impatient, tapping my shoe sole on the floor and scratching my legs with my hands inside my pockets so they wouldn't see. Except for a call or a message, I hadn't seen my mom in nearly two months. She'd told me to visit her, but it became impossible for me with everything going on. I couldn't let anything happen to her.

We went down to the first floor and I said goodbye to the girl as I ran to the door. She was sitting at her desk, chatting with a group of five level A Hunters, all of whom had shields and weapons I could only dream of buying in a few months.

"I know you!" One of them screamed when he saw Elisa.

"Shit. Quick, quick. Before he catches up with us."

"Where do you think you're going? Hey, come here. You're..."

I couldn't hear the end of the sentence. We walked right past the door, down the stairs and into the car. Elisa kept telling me to get her out of there. I had never seen her like that before. She wasn't nervous, nor had she seen an old friend who couldn't catch sight of her. She was scared. Her eyes were wide open, a slight blue vein on her neck about to burst, her teeth gnashing, and her breathing panting for the first time since I met her. I was cranking the engine when the man appeared in the hallway. The sun shone on him and covered his face. His shadow covered all the stairs: the bright red robe turned orange, the metal straps on his shoulders reflected themselves in the green handrails of the staircase. Even the black suit he had underneath now seemed crystal clear as did the black pants and the metals attached to his belt.

"Don't think you're going to run away!" He screamed and started coming down the stairs.

I managed to get us out of there seconds before he stretched out his hand to bang on Maggie's window glass. I drove away as fast as I could. The road seemed to get even narrower. I think I ended up knocking over a mailbox or maybe it was a road sign, I didn't even see it.

Chapter XI

"Who was that guy?" I asked her.

"Shit. I never thought he'd be a Hunter again." She said, still gasping. She leaned against the bench and looked back once, as if she needed to confirm that he was not following us, "there is a lot that you do not know about me. What I did... Those years between me not being Hunter and now... I've done things that have changed me, things I'm not proud of. One of them was a mission to murder someone. That boy was one of the Hunters who was protecting that same man. Either I'm wrong or he's the only one who survived. I didn't think my past would haunt me. I thought he'd walked away from all of this."

It took me a few seconds to process what she was telling me. I knew that she had had a difficult life, that she had done things that I did not agree with, but killing someone? It was not that I was surprised but having to deal with it wasn't on my agenda.

"Was the person you killed... evil?" Maggie asked.

"They all were. Whoever sent me to kill him only wanted him dead to get his share of the illegal arms market. You get to a point where no one's good. Some are worse than others, that's the only difference."

"How did you kill them all but can't defeat a beast alone?" Victoria asked her, "Just one ice hand can't be enough for several Hunters, can it?"

"Don't push it. But you're actually right. If it were a normal fight, I wouldn't be enough. I planted explosives on the way and used a normal weapon. Their ears were still ringing, and their vision was blurred when I stepped in. They didn't stand a chance. Not everything has to be a one-on-one fight or a fair fight. We do what we can." She answered.

"Now what?" Maggie asked her.

"I don't know. If he's there, we can't go back. What if he tells everyone? What if they're waiting for me? I'm still wanted." She said, "Damn it. I hate this. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm sorry I screwed up."

"Easy, Elisa. We're going to figure this out." Victoria told her, "He's a level A. We just need to keep an eye on the lobby. And he only saw you sideways, I doubt he'd tell anyone without being sure." She added.

"Victoria's right. I know this isn't the best time to say it, but we better focus on the beast. We are minutes away from my town."

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm ready." Elisa said and closed her hand with the glove, "Let's do this."

"Any plans?" Maggie asked, "I can burn all the grass all the way to the metal."

"That's a good idea, but we need more. It's a level 7 beast, we can't even relax around it." I answered him.

"What if we use the same technique as last time? That jump you made... The one that impressed the kid. Do you think it could work?" Maggie asked me.

"I only have one bullet. It's acix, but if it fails, we won't have another chance." I answered her.

"Well, you better not fail then," Victoria said and winked at me.

Elisa was listening to us but didn't say a word. She was too quiet for someone who liked to always have the last word.

My cell phone had started ringing. I asked Elisa, who was next to me, to take it out of my pocket. At first, she didn't hear me, and I had to repeat it.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. Your cell phones?" She said and stretched her hand into my pocket, "It's your mother."

"Put it on speaker," I told her, hitting the pedal. I was already going 80 miles an hour and kept increasing.

My mother's voice burst through my cell phone. She was sobbing, her voice weak and low, and she was pulling her snot up. It took a few seconds before she could articulate a phrase that we could understand.

"We need help, son. The beast has already knocked down Mr. Kintas' grocery store. It's close to our house and the preschool. The police bullets are... They're all bouncing off his body."

"We're about five minutes away. Hide until we get there." I told her, "Tell me you didn't call Keno."

"He's coming too..." She answered me and I could hear the hesitation in her shaky voice, "I didn't know what to do."

"It's okay. Stay on the phone until we get there." I told her, "We have to overthrow the beast before my brother gets here. He'll want to help. Even if I ask him to be quiet, he'll ignore me. Damn it."

"I don't think it's going to be that easy." Victoria said, "Let's do our best." She answered me after I crossed the sign that indicated the entrance to the city.

Remnants of the debris were flying and falling on the jeep, the ground, and even other buildings. The beast tore down everything he could without stopping. My mother begged me to hurry. My heart rate was running high.

"We're already in town. Are you home?" I asked her.

"Yes, I can see the beast from afar. Why did you and your brother have to follow your father's work? Why was that? I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Stay right there, Mom. Don't worry, it's going to be okay. I have a good team with me. I'm hanging up now. I'm on my way." I told her.

She said she loved me, asked me to be careful and waited for me to hang up. The loud breathing and the grinding teeth vanished like a long whisper that distanced itself until it was no longer heard.

I turned to the right. I immediately saw the rusty green gate of the daycare center. There were pebbles on top of the metal fence bars which protected the place from unwanted people. However, to the beast that defense would be like plastic that he could knead easily.

"Maggie, go into the daycare and check if the kids are still there. If so, help them out. Saving them is our priority right now. I and them are going to buy you time." I told them.

I stopped the car outside the building. Someone was peeking through the fogged glass. The beast's lasers split and sliced the buildings in half and the metal tail wrecked them. He had two black eyes on his hexagonal face with a curved bottom end. He had a toad face but a tortoise-body. There were still people exiting the buildings that persisted nearby; some with only a backpack on their backs, others with nothing and there were those who looked like they were going on a trip. And yet they all had something in common. Fear was stamped on their faces. Some were tripping, scraping their hands on the sidewalk or on the road, others were rubbing their eyes and dripping nose, but all of them were trying to get out of there as soon as possible. They ran over each other without regard for anyone, the instinct of survival prioritizing them over all the others.

It wasn't windy and the dust spread throughout the city. The air became heavy, putrid and almost impossible to breathe. It was impossible to inhale without coughing or sneezing.

"Elisa, freeze Victoria's arrows. Vic shot them into the sky. We need to open it. We won't be able to fight like this." I told them.

Victoria removed three arrows from her left shoulder bag, put them in her bow and waited for Elisa to snap her fingers. An ice stream wrapped around the tip of the arrows until they looked like stalagmites. Their trunk was now a thin translucent stick with a frozen, sharp tip. Vic shot them up and they went on their way, piercing the sky, cooling it down until the dust began to disperse. Blue stains sprang up amidst gaps that were getting wider. Maggie had burned part of the door lock so she could get in. She was now knocking on the front door and calling for someone. The beast hadn't stopped. He was just a few meters away from us and opened his huge mouth, swallowing an air pocket with ease. Then he blew it out of his mouth like a dragon's breath, throwing us into the ground. I landed on the front-end of the jeep and Victoria and Elisa were tossed into the bins that were meters away from us, on the intersection between the daycare and the next street.

"This was... Unexpected." Victoria said as she stood up, covered in dirty napkins, "what a horrible smell."

"I think I dislocated something. Damn it." Elisa said, grabbing her arm, "It's sore but it's not broken or anything like it. This beast has pissed me off."

The green that covered the beast looked even brighter when the sun rays reflected on the metal. The families had already put themselves in their cars or fled to their friends' house. Anywhere was better than that place. The nursery school was the same as when I went there. They had painted the walls in the same color, and the rest remained the same except for the brick roof that had disappeared to make way for a modern sunlit roof. It was one of the most peaceful parts of the city. It was five minutes away from downtown and 10 minutes away from my house. If my mother were on the second floor, as I knew was likely, she could see my body silhouette. Mothers can always recognize their kids even in crowds.

"James, James." Maggie shouted, "There are over 20 children and two adults here. What do we do?"

"Tell them to run all the way to the end of the street. One by one. Adults stay for last. We'll take care of the rest." I answered and signaled Elisa and Vic to get ready.

We had to get those kids out of there. It was our duty as Hunters. The beast stepped forward and crushed a lamp. The glass broke against her leg until it was smashed and just over the size of a marble. The buildings tumbled around us, the smell of ashes and molten metal fortified, the smoke was beginning to merge once again, and the clarity was fading. Everything was happening at the same time. The moment was fleeting and there was no chance of holding him so that I could think before we proceeded.

Maggie was crouched, patting a girl with pansies on the back, probably convincing her that she didn't need to be afraid. The girl started running across the open field between the building entrance and the semi-open gate.

"I have an idea. It's not going to be pretty." I told them.

"Your ideas never are," Victoria answered me.

"Elisa, make an ice path from here to the beast's back." I told her, "I'm lucky I learned to skate when I was younger."

"Are you sure?" Elisa asked, "Are you really going to put yourself under the beast?"

"Well, I don't think we have any choice. We need to buy some time."

She nodded. She kneeled on one knee and laid her hand with the glove on the floor. She closed her eyes, and a few seconds later, the ice began to sweep across the road, feet away from us, until it created a path large enough for me to slide to the other side. The beast kept walking, unaware of the existence of a thick pathway under him, the frightful feet smashing the ground until there was only a crater left with the shape of his footstep.

"Vic, fire at the lasers. I can't get under him if he cuts me off with them," I ordered her.

"At your command," she said and picked up three more arrows, "Be ready."

I flexed my legs, lowered my arms and positioned myself at the right place so that by running in a straight line I could slide across the center of the structure. Vic's finger slipped through the thin bow thread and the arrows rolled out towards the beast's face. The first one hit the right laser. It began to spin sideways, tearing down the buildings that were still standing and slashing the clouds in separate white air cushions. The second arrow struck the beast's forehead. The third hit the other laser and had the same effect as the previous one. The lasers were out of control. They lacked direction or course. The red tore the ground, the buildings, everything it touched, leaving behind only a perfect cut.

"Wish me good luck," I told them seconds before I started running down the road. A light breeze grazed my face, the smoke and the ashes moistened my eyes and, just moments before gliding over the ice, one of the lasers shifted towards me. The red light moved up to me, shaking, and yet not leaving the same area. I only had a few seconds to dodge and to dive onto the ice, but not in the way I intended. Instead of riding on my feet or on my back, I slid with my belly down, my shirt going up to my navel and the ice burning my skin. I lifted my feet and stretched out my hands, but it was too late. I'd lost control. I tried to use my elbows to brake, but my skin burnt into blood. The belly was already in bright blood and I was leaving a bright red trail along the way. I heard them screaming my name in the distance. The rest of the words dissipated into the air and never reached me. The beast walked and the splinters and pebbles that leaped off the ground fell on me. I was already under it and I was trying to turn around. I was like a drifting boat, with no paddles and a brief moment away from drowning. I had to twitch all over myself to get the gun and pull the second barrel out.

Finally, I was able to turn around and I kept shooting until there were no more bullets inside the gun. The metal in that region was weaker and thinner. It was just a basic layer of protection. My bullets pierced the beast's shell. A sound of wires and sparks colliding with each other, fuses blowing and spawning small explosions within the beast, propagated across her body. I reached the end of the ice road and rolled out through the tarmac. My belly, shoulders, and elbows were all flayed. My skin was burning, my ears were ringing and even my head sounded like there was a two-plate drum set inside. The beast was standing a few steps away from the daycare and the jeep. I could see a child running to the open gate. Elisa and Vic were next to him. They took the child in and sent her running down the street. I ran to one of the sidewalk's corners, the buildings next to them already shattered, so I could reach the group again.

"Are you okay? You're bleeding all over yourself." Victoria told me and touched my bloody sweater.

"It'll pass. Have you rescued everyone?" I asked them, "I don't think the beast is going to be parked much longer."

I jinxed it. As soon as I finished speaking, the beast started lifting his first leg. It was slower, but it wouldn't take long to regain momentum.

"Three children left," Victoria answered me.

"We don't have that much time. Tell Maggie to get everybody out of there now." I said as I reloaded my gun, "We need a few more seconds."

Victoria walked into the daycare and talked to Maggie. Together, with the remaining children and the two adults, they began to run to the gate. I'd shoot the whole magazine, but the bullets didn't even pierce the beast's armor. Elisa's ice balls had no effect either. They hooked his legs and froze them, the ice spreading amid the holes and even the nails until the beast took its following step and shattered the ice into dozens of shards. It lifted one of its dinosaur feet and stepped on the lateral side of the fence that was ahead of it. It shouldn't even be possible to bend steel like that. The beast was two steps away and there was still Maggie and a child left behind. She cried and screamed that she was afraid, that she didn't want to get out of there. Maggie told her everything was going to be okay and that she could carry her. The dust had already dispersed and taken the putrid smell with it, nearly as bad as vomit. It now smelled like the greasy oil that was falling out of the holes I had made in his body.

"What do we do?" Elisa asked while the beast took another step.

Maggie and the child escaped by millimeters. They stood between the claws of the beast's toes, one false step away from being crushed or butchered.

I looked around. I didn't know what to do. We had never been this close to someone dying. I wasn't ready for that. For a moment, I froze. Everything around me slowed down. Maggie's hand moved smoothly to the back of the child's head, Victoria's mouth would rise and fall as she screamed at them to hurry. Even the beast's thick right leg lifted up so slowly that it was possible to see the liquid flowing from behind it as if it was a fountain and the ice was the water bag into which it flowed.

"James, James!" Elisa screamed near my ear, "Who's that?" said and pointed up.

Chapter XII

A shadow ran through the left-over buildings' rooftops and as soon as it could it jumped to the beast's back, removing the blades knuckles from the scabbard, mid-air, and plunging them into the metallic armor. The beast stopped and began to shake, trying to shove the boy off his back, agonizing as if he could feel all the pain. I knew that it was only interlaced fuses changing the beast's behavior and yet I had never seen one that seemed to be in so much suffering. The eyes seemed to have narrowed from the moment the sharp tips had pierced the armor. The boy's hair, dark as the beast's eyes, told me everything I needed to know. It was Keno. Only he would be crazy enough to roam across the buildings like that, and risk killing himself in order to be the hero. He was almost thrown overboard but his fingers tightened even more around the weapons he had on both hands. The body flew up, the legs were fluttering in the air, the hair was being pushed back and some papers that were in pockets floated until they blended with the dusty debris of the wrecked buildings.

"That's my brother." I said to Elisa, "I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to call him. He should be at the academy."

"At least now we can all focus on the beast." Maggie told me, "The children are all saved."

"Yeah, but how do we get him out of there?" Victoria asked and pointed to my brother who was trying to regain his composure.

"The only way is to knock the beast down or at least bring him to his knees," I told them.

"The beast doesn't even have knees, how are we going to do this?" Elisa asked, and just as she did, one of the beast's lasers hit the daycare center and chopped it in half, also ripping near the jeep, "we have to be quick."

I pulled the main barrel of the gun forward, "I'm going to use the last acix bullet I have. It's the only way."

"And then what? Weren't you going to use it to destroy him?" Maggie asked me.

"We'll find another way." I told her and I moved forward, "Elisa's right. We're here to ascend rankings. We're four people, each with their own abilities. We can't just depend on these bullets."

My brother was still in the same position. The beast flipped his face in all directions, even from the bottom to the top and vice versa, and almost tossed him several times into the sharp, metal cables that dwelt in the ruins. A wind breeze rushed past the beast and struck my hair whirlpools and the black edges of my coat. I raised my arm and fired straight away. That was my brother, I didn't need to think twice.

The bullet whirled through the air, opening up space within the heavy atmosphere until it found the metal in the beast's legs and dismantled it to the core. The bullet went in and out, following the pathway, repeating the same in the back leg. The casing disappeared in the mist. The legs on the right side of the beast dropped to the ground and made a pinhole, different parts of the tar staggered, one on top of the other.

"Come down now, Keno!" I yelled, "Quick."

But he didn't. He got up and began to walk along the beast's back, ripping the beast's armor until he reached the out-of-control tail, knocking down what it could, "Keno! What do you think you're doing? Fight with a team. Haven't you learned anything at the academy?" I screamed, pissed off, with the gun next to my body, making a snap sound every time I pulled the trigger. I didn't have any more of those bullets, but I pressed it even harder till my fingers were bruised.

"Your brother's a bit of a fool, isn't he?" Elisa asked me.

"Yeah, but most of all, he's stubborn," I answered her.

The four of us were standing by the jeep, watching the lasers shift upwards while the two other beast's legs collapsed on the ground. We were just spectators in a scene where my brother was attempting to steal all the limelight. The tail slammed the ground like a seal out of the water. The beast had lost control and was now just involuntary reactions, buzz, and sparks within her.

My brother finally stopped. He was on the other side when he jumped on the floor. He had a cocky smile and walked fearlessly as if nothing could hit him, nearly a cool guy doesn’t look at explosion’s scene. He didn't seem worried about anything. He didn't even notice how the tail swung behind him. We tried to warn him, but with the buildings collapsing, the sound never reached him. In seconds, the metal tail hit my brother in the back and sent him flying meters in our direction. He landed right on the jeep, cracking the windscreen and getting inside, the body scraping on the sharp fragments.

"Keno!" I shouted, turning back and opening the jeep door, "Don't move."

"Leave me alone! I'm okay. I'm fine. It's just a few wounds." He kept telling me as he writhed and put his hand in the bottom corner of his belly, struggling to get out of the jeep.

"You're still the same old fool. What do you think you were doing? You've put everyone at risk and on top of that, you've put yourself at risk."

"Of course, you had to come with the same old crap. Don't worry about me. I'll take care of this. I didn't need anyone's help to drill the beast, did I?"

"And what did you get out of it? The beast is out of control. We can't predict how it will act and we can't stay here. I doubt we have done enough to stop it, not even setting aside the lasers that can slice us at any time. We were lucky earlier, we may not be next time."

"Don't think we're going to work together." Keno told me, "I'll handle this all by myself."

For the first time, I freaked out. I gave him a slap that made his face turn and led him to put his hand on the right side of his face looking at me as if he wanted to retribute.

"Stop being a child. We don't have time for that. We have to work together. It's our city and our mother on the line. Do you really want to risk that on the tiniest possibility of being the hero?"

"Okay, then. Just this time." He said to me, "Just because the teachers are always saying that I have to learn to be a team player. I don't know why. They're all worse than me, and only slow me down."

"You really don't resemble Mom or Dad at all." I said, "Vic, do you have a plan?"

"Maybe. The most important thing now is to stop the lasers. I doubt that freezing them will work. Maybe chop them off?"

"Yeah, cutting them off sounds like a good idea. Keno, why didn't you just cut them off?"

"I didn't remember, okay? I was too distracted trying not to get thrown overboard."

"Okay, well... How do we get him up there?" I asked and looked at the three girls, as beautiful as ever, even covered by a thin gray layer and some bloody scrapes.

There was something strange about Elisa. She was looking at the blood on the jeep seats, but she was doing it as if she had never seen that dark red goo. She had one hand on the open door and the other on the jeep's hood. I didn't think she had heard my heated argument with my brother. I didn't think she was aware of anything but the blood flowing into the back seats. By the time I got close to her, the rest of them had already noticed her spirit absence.

"Elisa, are you okay?" I asked her but I didn't get an answer.

The beast was recovering. It had two perforated legs, an unfolded back, and yet it was working. Maybe he had a survival mechanism, a backup generator, something that kept him afloat. Standing there, looking at it, I wondered if we had done the right thing by accepting the mission that a rank A group might have chosen.

I laid my hand on her shoulder and as soon as I did, she snuck out through the open space between the door and my body and twisted my arm.

"What are you doing, Elisa? It's me!" I yelled at her until she woke up.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I don't know what the fuck got into me. It was like I was back to the day I hurt that Hunter we saw." She said, "I heard everything. You want to put your brother near the lasers, right? I can do it."

"How?" Vic asked her, looking at me. Her eyes screamed, "What's going on?"

"Fewer questions, more action. Keno, that's your name, right?" She asked my brother, who replied with a brief nod, "Get ready. The rest of you, back off."

I wanted to ask her if everything was okay except, she didn't look like her. I didn't know how to explain it, but I had a strange and itchy feeling in my body that urged me to be careful. We all walked away except for Keno, who was only two steps behind her.

"Elisa's acting weird." Maggie said, "She's like I was that time I lost control."

"You think so? She seems to be just a little shaken up after seeing the other Hunter." Vic said, "What do you think, James?"

"I have no idea, but I don't think everything's okay either."

"Now what?" Maggie asked.

"Let's see what she does." I replied, "Elisa, you better hurry" I added as I watched the beast crawl across the floor using the force of two left feet.

"After this, I won't have any energy left." She answered me and stretched her arm keeping her palm up.

Unlike the previous times what came out of her hand were not ice particles but thick, malleable blocks that molded themselves until they shaped and merged with one another. First, a head arose with sharp and protruding jaws that were beyond the usual, and only then did the body assumed a shape, expanding for a few meters until part of the ice lost thickness and developed into two crystal wings. He had two square squeezed eyes, no tail, and definitely didn't blow fire. The air around us froze as soon as the ice stopped writhing. The dragon fluttered its wings and cold windy blasts blew down the street.

"What's this?" Maggie asked, pulling away.

"This is the glove's potential. Did you really believe it wouldn't do any more than just that?" Elisa answered her and released an evil laugh, "in time you'll learn to control and create whatever you want. Unfortunately, it wastes all the energy you have in your body. It depends on what you create." She added and snapped her fingers.

“Why didn’t you do that against the you-know-who?” Maggie asked her.

“I couldn’t even stop him or freeze him. It wouldn’t really make a difference. But now, it might just work.” She replied.

The ice dragon hovered over the ground and waited for Keno to climb onto his back.

"You don't have to be afraid. He's not going to break." Elisa told him and sat on the floor, "Damn, I can't even feel my hand." She said, pulling the glove out and putting it on the floor.

"I wasn't afraid. That's weak. I just don't know who you are and if I can trust you." He answered her before he mounted the dragon.

The dragon took off. The dust rose and generated tiny waves of dirt ahead of us. He dodged the lasers easily. He was agile and stealthy even though he looked like he could shatter if someone pressed two fingers on each side firmly. He landed on the beast's back, nailing his three sharp ice fingers paws into the metal, and waited for Keno to jump out before taking off once more.

We didn't move. We watched the whole situation; the beast dragging on like a slug, my brother bending his legs, taking one step at a time, moving closer to the lasers.

My cell phone started to buzz. It was my mother again and I decided not to pick up.

"Do you think he'll make it?" Vic asked me.

"Yes. As stubborn as he is, he's as good as I am." I answered her.

My brother reached the beast's head, pulled out his sharp knuckles and started with the right-side laser. He used his handguns like an ax, scraping the steel, slicing them off slowly.

As he did so, the ice dragon burst across the air, cooling the temperature, sometimes landing and pulling out parts of the beast.

"How come you've never shown us this before?" Maggie asked her.

"It was never necessary. As I said, it takes all my energy. A dragon is hard to create." Elisa said, "There's something else. Something I didn't tell you about that day."

"What else are you hiding from us?!" Maggie asked her, "No more secrets." She screamed.

"Damn, okay. I didn't spread explosives around the place. I used ice birds to do it. I never felt comfortable doing them again. But... now... It was different. I felt it was a way of making up for what I did before." She added.

I sighed before I answered her, "You should have told us about this! At least about the glove's potential. We could've started training all that potential by now! Saving more people, killing more beasts. Fuck, Elisa, we're a team. When are you going to act like you want to be here?"

"And I do! I'm here, for all of you! I, uh... I like you!" She finally got it off her chest, "this is... pretend I didn't say anything. Look, your brother ripped out the first laser."

"We'll talk about this again," I told her before I looked at the beast again. One of the lasers was mid-air and my brother was running to the other side. The metallic structure landed on the ground and cratered there in front of one of the beast's legs. Not even seconds later the beast stepped on it and smashed it to pieces until there was nothing left.

My heart was pounding loudly fearing that my brother would fall. Not that I'd ever tell him how much I cared about him but didn't need to either. We both knew that. Instead, we showed it by competing against each other in our own way, by being each other's biggest rival. It had always been that way. The sweat dripped down and glued the clothes to my body and to the blood spilling from my elbows and knees. My brother must have been suffering the same agony as me, but he also avoided showing it. It was severe pain as if lots of needles stung us at the same time. The sound of the metal scraping on the lasers sounded muffled throughout the broken street; the piled-up debris of the destroyed buildings and the heavy and cloudy air that buzzed in our ears. It took a few minutes for the structure to collapse and have the same fate as the other. It, too, was stepped on until there was only dust left.

"Now what?" Maggie asked, "We don't have to worry about lasers anymore, but the beast is still huge."

"You're going to burn it from the inside." Elisa said, "We could have done this straight away, but this is better. Use your glove. Raise firebirds and send them to the gap in the beast's back."

"Why didn't you send me instead of him?" Maggie asked, eyes half open and the jaw clamped.

"Didn't you hear me?" Elisa asked, "So you have to try. You don't have to worry about getting hit by lasers."

"Did you just say that you like us, that you're here, and now you're operating without even consulting us?" Maggie counter-attacked, orange sparks jumping out of the glove.

"Control your anger, Maggie. Focus. Think of the shape you want your fire to have. Let the energy flow through your body." Elisa insisted, "Your glove is even more powerful than mine. The possibilities are endless."

Maggie's hand trembled as a fireball grew, the flames whipping the air and the sparks adorning the floor with bright red. She closed her eyes and the flames began to develop in different ways; first a square, then two arrows and finally it became a fireball again.

"Focus." Elisa repeated, "You can do it."

"I'm trying!" Maggie yelled at her and the ball swelled up.

"She's going to lose control again!" Vic said, "We have to stop her."

"No! She can do it. She just needs to focus." Elisa answered and looked at me like she was asking for permission.

"She... Maggie can do it. I believe her." I said, "Take a deep breath. Focus on what you want. Think about what's at stake, the people you can save."

She closed her eyes hard enough for the corners of her eyebrows to bend. The fireball floated over the ground until it hovered meters away from us. Gradually, a beak was formed, and red threads began to expand backward. But within a few seconds, the shape was gone. Maggie started coughing and apologized.

"I can't. I'm sorry" she said, bending her head, as my brother wandered along the beast's back until he found a place to jump overboard.

This time he walked slowly, pausing to look back, with his head curved and covered by the hood.

"Maggie, look at me." Elisa said to him, "Think about how much you can get back at your father if you get this. Let that feeling flow through your body. Don't hold it back."

Maggie closed her hand, clenched her fist and as soon as she opened it, a flame chain spun around her. It worked like a lash, elasticizing in front of Maggie, squirming until it had the shape of a flaming bird. But it didn't stop there. A second bird emerged from the flames that jut out of the original. Both hovered in the air, starlit red wings and with the rest of the body light red except for the orange beak.

"You're doing it. Focus. Imagine the birds flying to the back of the beast." Elisa told her, her eyes glowing as she saw the birds blazing the air as they flew up.

Keno was only a few steps away from returning to us. The symbol of the academy was covered by a faint dust layer. Of the golden-tailed eagle, only the yellow lines and part of the black eye remained. The trousers had ripped wherein the blood flowed, both on the outside and on the inside, until red threads ran down the trousers and colored them with a wine shade.

"It seemed to me that you had risen from ranks very quickly. Now I know why" Keno told me, "they do all the work for you, don't they?"

"Make sure you mind your own business. Don't forget you're still at the academy. How the hell did you get out of there without being caught?"

"They haven't figured out the secret exit yet. I'll be back in a few hours and tell them I was in a bad mood. No problem." He said, as the birds went over the beast's head and began to descend diagonally, "I've never seen anything like it. I didn't even know it was possible. If I had known, I would have chosen to wear a glove."

"You're too unstable for that. You don't know what can happen if you're not careful." I told him, remembering what happened to Maggie.

"I can control myself. I've been taking anger management lessons, okay?" Keno told me. He slid his fingers across his face until he wiped the whole area around his eyes, "So is this going to work or not?"

"I'm trying," Maggie said, her hand and knees trembling, her eyes still closed, puffing between her half-open lips.

I got near her and held her other hand. She opened her eyes and kept her gaze on mine and, for a moment, I could swear that there was a flame behind her green eyes.

A row of explosions traveled along the beast's back. It all imploded from the inside outward, the flames consuming it until mountains of fire arose before us and folded the metal until the grey was scorched. The beast didn't take another step. She fell flat on the ground and merged with him. The peaks in the tar metastasized as the liquid steel spread down the street. From the beast's body remained little more than the legs and the head.

"Did this really work?" Vic asked, surprised, just like the rest of us.

"Apparently." I said, "I knew you could do it, Maggie." I said and kissed her cheek.

"You're getting emotional," my brother said and laughed.

"Liking someone isn't a weakness, you know?" I told him and looked at the three girls in front of me, "they help me be better and, as you can see, they're stronger than most Hunters."

"They're tough as hell. On the other hand, you... I never understood why the hell you picked that gun."

"It was the same gun our father used. I grew up watching him use it. You know he was one of the best Hunters of his time, right?"

"He was... then he went crazy."

"Keno! You don't know anything."

"Is that a lie?"

"Maybe more than you can possibly think of. Not that it matters now." I answered him. I took a deep breath before continuing, "Vic, collect the experience points and call a pickup truck. Elisa makes sure Maggie's okay. Keno, go back to the academy."

"I want to visit Mom first. Then I'll go. I doubt they'll miss me. I locked the door. Anything I say I didn't want to be disturbed." He answered and slid his hand through his curly hair. The thick strands of hair moved backward and within seconds had returned to the same place.

"I've already called a Pickup and collected the points," Vic said. The Hunter APP rocked as soon as it collected them.

"Congratulations! You have defeated a level 7 monster. 175 experience points have been given to each, as well as 300 hunter points. Do you want to continue as a team?"

"She's fine." Elisa said, "A little tired but I pointed out that it was normal."

"Yes...yes...tired" Maggie replied, panting, with her back leaning forward and her hands on her knees, "I did it! What matters... It's just that I did it, right? One day I'll make dragons."

"Don't push it. We have time for that." I said, "You better get some rest now."

I walked a few feet away from them and pulled my cell phone out of my pocket. I had four missed calls from my mom. I called her and we talked for a few minutes. She told me that she saw the beast burning and I made a summary of what had happened avoiding telling her how willing Keno was to take the risk. It was the last thing she needed, and, in the end, she would still be mad at me for letting him commit such madness. I agreed with her that we would stop by the house and have a snack before returning to the Hunters' building.

I went back to the group. We were all tired, bleeding and with feeble knees, still trembling after all.

"Somebody's going to have to wash the car." I said, "But for now, let's hurry up. My mother... Our, she's waiting for us. Don't tell her what you did. You know how she gets if she knows."

"I never thought of telling her." Keno told me, "Go ahead. I'll be right there."

"Where are you going now?" I asked him, "I hope you're not going to get into any more trouble."

"There's someone I need to talk to before I go back to the academy." He told me and turned his back on us.

"By the way, how did you get here?"

"I brought one of the academy bikes."

"You mean... One of the motorcycles that only teachers are allowed to use outside of class?"

"I don't think you're the best person to talk about it. Aren't you the one who ran off with one for a whole weekend? Do you really think they wouldn't tell me that story?" Keno said, still on his back.

"He's got you now. And if I remember correctly, you stole the bike for a more selfish reason than he did." Vic interceded.

"It was a good weekend at least." I said, "I miss those days."

"Well, have fun remembering old times. I'm going to get going. Tell Mom I'll show up." Keno said and vanished in the opposite side of the beast.

There was no sign of the children or any of the adults anymore.

Chapter XIII

We got in the jeep. This time Elisa sat next to Maggie and Vic by my side. We were forced to use the white napkins, where the men of the former city had wrapped the fruit, to clean what we could from the blood that had seeped through the seats to the ground and to the back of the jeep.

"Your brother is just like you were when you were his age," Vic said it and laughed.

"But I grew up and I don't think he's going to do it," I told her as I started the engine.

Elisa helped Maggie take off her glove. There were no blisters even though the bruises she had from the last time were in living flesh. Elisa breathed on them. I had never seen her have such a tender attitude. It was like I was watching a legacy passing or even as if Elisa was accepting Maggie as her protégé.

"Thank you! You may have a hard temper, but, without you, I wouldn't have gotten this far." Maggie said to her.

Elisa laughed.

I drove until we got to the house where I grew up. Along the way, we crossed by a few people who had hidden behind the sidewalls around the corner, peeping and watching the battle. Most of them were young people who cheered us as soon as we drove past them. It always felt good to be so well received and have our efforts appreciated. It filled my heart with a warm embrace when I felt that what I did had an impact on other people's lives. That I was not only saving them but perhaps giving them the idea of wanting to follow my footsteps in the future. The boy I met in my second beast, these boys now, and even the girls next to them, could one day save me, when I can no longer walk without a walker, and have white sideburns up to my cheeks and wrinkles. Actually, I had never thought about my future. Even the ideas I once had seemed to have vanished now. For the first time, I was putting into play the idea that one day it would be necessary to sacrifice myself for the girls or for the hopeful idea of a better world. Even the idea of being arrested crossed my mind. A stream of multiple ideas that sailed through my mind and dispersed as fast as a puff on a summer's day.

"Are you coming?" Vic asked me outside the window, seeing me still seated even though I had parked the jeep in front of the house, and they were already out.

"Yeah, yeah, I got distracted for a few seconds." I said, "Let's go."

As soon as we left, I took a deep breath and looked at the two floors of the villa. All the streets in that area, from the parallel ones to the perpendicular ones, were occupied by single-floor and two-floor villas, some with swimming pools and gardens and others with only one of the two. I had spent my entire childhood there. Between colleagues' houses and mine, between attempts at somersaults and weekend barbecues, that lasted all afternoon and, if necessary, dragged on until dawn. It was a peaceful area, where, from time to time, on clear nights, it was possible to see the semi-starry sky and where, at night, one could not hear much more than the meowing of the wild cats that escaped from the nearby kennel. My mother had repainted the walls of the same old white as before. Knowing her as I did, she hadn't asked for anyone else's help. The roof had also taken some extra brown brushstrokes to hide the areas where the color had faded.

"James, James, is that you, my boy?" Someone around the corner asked.

I looked away and saw old Nick from the little grocery store where I used to buy candy after school. It was there where I bought my first single cigarettes too, I was still 16. I only smoked for two years. As soon as I got the news that I had been accepted into the academy, I smoked my last cigarette. I remember smoking it at my bedroom window on the second floor and prolonging it for half the afternoon. After that, I never had the slightest desire to smoke again. I didn't even like the taste or the irritation it left on my throat. I only smoked for the peace I felt after inhaling and after expelling the smoke out, the chest resting.

"It's me, yeah. What are you doing here? I thought you'd left town." I told him, and I signaled the girls to wait outside the house.

"For a while, boy. But, you know, there's no place like home. I missed the walks in the park, the sun bursting brightly on the green leaves and the light brown trunks. Even the barking dogs that used to piss me off. One of those things where you don't appreciate something until you lose it, you know?" He told me and fixed the bottle bottom glasses before licking his thin lips and continuing, "You're a Hunter now, aren't you? Like your father? I always knew you'd make it."

"Thank you! Luckily, I did." I answered him and smiled.

"It wasn't luck, boy. You don't think I'd see you running in the park every night before you went to class? Or at night, even when it was raining torrentially? If you got where you are, it's because you worked so hard. I hope you know we're all proud of you. Apart from you and your father, may he rest in peace, we only have 4 or 5 more people who have turned out to be Hunters. Not counting your brother, of course. But he's always been a little less hard-working than you." Nick said, leaning against an electricity pole, already panting, holding his cane with his trembling hand, "I'm beginning to feel the burden of aging on my body," he said and laughed with the few teeth he still had.

I had no idea he had seen me. I had never even noticed or thought about it. I would run twice a day, three times if I didn't have afternoon classes, focusing only on the goal of becoming a Hunter. Friends of mine used to say that I was crazy, that only 30 to 50 people were accepted every year, from all over the continent, that many spots were automatically occupied by legacies or through connections, but I never gave up. I didn't want to be accepted or rejected by my name, but by what I had done to get there. I thanked him and agreed with his last sentence. He said he had to go home and said goodbye. He continued straight ahead, in what for me was a left turn, and vanished. I still heard his cane trampling on the floor for a few minutes until the sound also dissipated.

"Can we go in now?" Elisa asked, leaning against a wall, with one of her boots on the floor and the other raised against the wall.

"Let's go," I answered her.

The once-black door had been replaced by a stripe-type door in different shades of brown. I knocked three times and waited until I heard my mother's voice say she was going. She opened the door and gave me one of those hugs that nearly shatters our bones. Her eyes were still damp and swollen and she had a pit underneath them. She looked like she hadn’t slept for days.

"Your brother?" She asked me after peeking up behind me.

"He said he had to go somewhere first."

"Oh, he must have gone to see his girlfriend. Don't tell him I know. The boy really thinks he's good at hiding her love letters or that I wouldn't be surprised when he started listening to love songs other than the screaming ones he always hears. Every weekend he visits me he has a new collection of songs to listen to." She told me while her eyes were leaping from girl to girl.

"Does Keno have a girlfriend? He listens to love songs? I've lost a whole lot then."

"Yes, I miss you, son. I know you're a Hunter now and you're busy. Maybe you already have your own house, but you could have at least said something or invited me there." She said, "Will you introduce me to your... friends?"

"Oh, yes, Mother. I'm sorry. They're my partners. As you could see, we're great at working together." I said, trying to avoid telling her that we were more than just co-workers, "it's Elisa, Maggie and you already know Victoria."

"Hey, Vic, I haven't seen you in a while either. You can come in, of course, but leave the guns on the couch in the living room, please. There's no need to drag them around. Everybody likes vanilla cookies and chocolate pancakes, right?" My mother asked, often smiling at us despite the fact that I knew that inside her heart was chained by the sight of so many guns and blood that she could do nothing about it, "Do you need bandages or alcohol to disinfect the wounds?

The girls nodded. Then they thanked her but refused. Elisa, speaking for all of them, said that they were fine and that as soon as they left, they would take care of it. My mother disappeared down the long corridor leading to the kitchen, leaving the door open for us to get in.

"Do as she say. Leave your weapons in the room." I ordered it, "Elisa, don't mess up."

"Don't worry. I know how to behave, okay?" She told me, puffing and stepping into my house. She removed her glove and as soon as she reached mid-way down the hall, she looked at me again, "where is the room anyway?"

"That door right next to you. The one with the glass square door." I told her, "Go ahead. I need a few minutes alone."

Maggie and Vic looked at each other before following the same path as Elisa. I stayed behind, looking at the photographs my mother had nailed to the wall about a dozen years ago. Most of them were from me or Keno, but among them were some of my father's. One when he started out as Hunter, with the black gun next to his brown pants, and the other when he won a prize for saving an entire city by himself. He wore a red cape over his slender shoulders, had a goatee on his chin with a few white hairs sticking out and a few bald spots amidst frown spots of black hair. My mom used to tell me that he was only 38 years old in that picture even if he looked like he was 50. She used to tell him that he had taken after his father and, like all the men in the family, they began to grow white hair as soon as they reached 30. I was not particularly happy to hear that, but we all have a fate to deal with. I haven't seen his face in too long. There were features that I no longer remembered and that I wanted engraved in my head. I sighed a deep breath before I walked into the room and left the gun on the couch beside Victoria's bow. My mom was in the kitchen talking to the girls. They were giggling frantically, each time louder, as I walked down the pale green walled corridor.

"What's she telling you?" I asked when I got to the kitchen.

"No big deal. Only the time you had to come home with only a towel wrapped around your hip after your friends ran off with your clothes after a physical education class."

"Mom, you haven't had enough of that story yet, have you? Don't I have better ones?"

"You do, but this one reminds me of a time when you were unaware of your actions. You know I had to explain to dozens of neighbors why you were half-naked on the street?" My mother asked as she flipped the pancake to the other side before it burnt.

"Yeah, you've told me that dozens of times." I said, "They probably don't even care about that."

"We’d like to know. After all, we don't know a lot about you. You're not one to talk about yourself much." Maggie said.

"She's right. There's a lot about your past that you seem to avoid telling. Great listener, bad storyteller." Elisa said.

Come to think of it, she wasn't far from the truth. They had told stories of when they were younger and I, apart from what I had said about my father, had not shared anything with them. Before I could reply, the toaster alarm replayed. My mother picked the two toasts out of there, melted butter on top, and laid them on top of a plate. The conversation died there. In a few minutes, we had several toasts, vanilla and chocolate biscuits in a bowl and even hot pancakes, steaming, with melted chocolate inside and strawberries around. It was anyone's perdition after a long battle. We were in the middle of our meal; my mother was sharing more stories of my naive childhood, and, amidst stories of beatings among friends and dates with girls when I couldn't talk to them yet, Keno came in.

"Sorry it took so long, Mom." He said, sat down at the table and grabbed a toast for him. He chose the one with less butter and asked our mother to provide him with one of the chocolate milk in the fridge.

The hours went by, some of which were slower than others, until I got a message from Tom.

"Get back here as soon as you can. There's news."

I warned the girls and told them to get ready and go walking while I exchanged a few last words with my mother and brother.

"Are you guys going to be okay?" I asked them and waited for the answer while chewing one of the toasts.

"Don't worry, son. Get on with it. And you too, Keno. You shouldn't be here."

"A few more minutes won't hurt anyone," he replied, "since when do Hunters get messages being summoned?"

"It doesn't matter. Focus on this year and a half that you have left and maybe you'll find out." I answered him and stood up, "Mom, I missed coming here already. I'll try to stop by more often. I promise."

I kissed her on the cheek, hugged her, and just before I turned my back, stretched out my hand to Keno. It took a few seconds, but he squeezed it. There was a long exchange of glances and, like everything else between us, we competed to see who was the first to look away. Elisa was calling me, but I pretended I didn't hear her. We stood still for minutes until my mother slapped us in the back of the head and told us to stop being idiots.

I waved at them, and walked down the long corridor to the living room and the entrance.

"What's going on?" Maggie asked, "As soon as you read the message, your expression changed."

"Message from Tom. Something's happened. We have to go fast."

"Did he say what it was?" Vic asked me as she climbed into the front seat.

"No, I told him we're on our way. We can't take a day off." I said, sighing, sitting down and cranking the engine.

Chapter XIV

The black motorcycle with the academy symbol was up against the wall. Our seats were still damp, the blood had already clung to the ground and the smell had spread through the car despite the open windows. The sun hit the hood and intensified the horrible odor. I turned on the radio and the air conditioning in the hopes that the trip would become friendlier, but nothing changed. The girls complained about the smell and used the torn sleeves of their T-shirts and sweaters to cover their noses. The clock on the radio read 4:22 pm. This time a thin voice sang over a saxophone and the sound stretched along the quasi-empty highway. Through the rear-view mirror, I could see the buildings fading away, totally overshadowed by the sun's glistening rays. The white clouds covered the sky, which had opened and made room for a yellow sphere that irradiated an overwhelming light. Driving became difficult with the light flashing straight ahead and the wind breeze seeping through what was once the front glass. It was just a space with broken tainted glass that had survived my brother's fall.

"I hope they don't get too upset about what happened to the jeep," Maggie said.

"The blood, the broken glass or the twisted hood?" Victoria answered her.

I laughed, "Well, all that matters are that today we've already defeated two beasts. They should give us a discount for that, huh?"

"I can't believe I've reached the point where I have to justify my actions," Elisa said. She looked out the half-open window, the whirlpools in her hair swirled, some fluttering out of the car and others tumbling down to her forehead.

"Do you miss the old days?" Maggie asked her, "I mean, would you go back if you could?"

"Good question. I don't think so. Even with all the advantages, and they are many, I missed having a team." She said, "But that doesn't matter now. What do you think Tom wants?"

"Maybe something with Shimmer?" I answered.

"I hope they caught my father," Maggie said. She had the glove on her knees and held it so it wouldn't fall off due to the slopes on the ground marking the end of the highway and that different small roads would appear only a few meters away.

"I bet it's no big deal. It must be an exaggeration, otherwise, he would have called." Vic said.

We all had different opinions about what was going to happen. Vic was right about one thing. He'd most likely have called if it was a very serious emergency. Still, the message repeated the urgent word twice. We were about to arrive at the ghost town used as a decoy for our secret base. The city was populated but not in that area, not in all the streets surrounding the old building used as the entrance. I made the last turn, closed my hands tightly on the steering wheel and felt my heart go up to my mouth when we hit the last hump.

"Don't talk about my brother or how we visited my mother." I told them, "They don't need to know."

"I didn't think to tell them either. Just because we have goals in common doesn't mean I already trust them. Ashen taught me that." Elisa said and put on the glove.

"Another week or two and he'll be as good as new," I said, believing also that yes, that he would go back to what he was, a Hunter level S respected by everyone.

I parked in the garage. Each vehicle had its place, and everyone seemed to take the rules seriously. They were organized by size and then by colors. I had never noticed before how organized the place was. It was like I unlocked a new superpower. For the first time, I noticed how next to the black coffee machine was a pink box with sugar cakes, how the corners of the walls would blend with the roof, hiding each other's boundaries in a gradient mixture. Even the tables matched the walls colors and the computers had the same tone.

"Finally." Tom said, emerging from among a crowd of boys around the age of 20, all dressed in a chess patterned sweater, that was crammed in front of his door, "we were all waiting for you."

"All of them? Who else?" I asked him.

"She." He said and pointed to the right...

"You missed me already, didn't you?" Kendra said, seated on a chair and with her feet stretched out on a table.

"Kendra!" Maggie said and ran over to her, "How are you? Can you walk?"

"Yeah, I'm fine already. I don't know what they gave me, but my leg is as good as new." She said and put it down on the floor, swinging it and pretending to kick the air.

She got up and walked to me. She leaned over, her tits rubbing against my chest and whispered in my ear, "We have to fuck. I spent the last week lying in a bed, and I'm tired of being still."

I gulped and laughed, struggling to hide how much I had enjoyed it. My dick was brushing against my boxers and my body heated up as my heart seemed about to implode. She had black shredded pants and a black top over her red bra. Her hair was already by her shoulders and the green shades disappeared through the thick black strands that kept growing.

"Hello," Vic said to her, "I'm the new girl in the group."

"Replacing me already?" Kendra asked me, raising her eyebrow.

"Not at all. Vic's a former colleague of mine. You're part of this group, Kendra." I said, "We need to talk to your sister."

"With my sister? Why is that?"

"Yes, I'd also like to know why you need to talk to a known criminal," Tom said, intruding and standing beside me.

"We need acix bullets and, by the way, arrows too."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Kendra said. She had sat on the table and attracted the attention of most of the boys there.

"And a whip too. She's the only person we know who can find that kind of thing."

"And you were going to do it behind my back? Ashen warned me you could be unpredictable and get off the record." Tom said. He tapped his finger on his lips and looked thoughtful, sometimes frowning, "on the other hand you are right. I can't get you that kind of metal and she can. Do you trust her? We cannot risk someone finding out where we are, how many we are, anything that puts us in danger. I'm putting my neck in the line for you."

"It's my sister. She won't betray us. She didn't do it before and won't do it now." Kendra said and pulled the top up.

"I trust her. We're allowed to contact her, right?" I asked.

"Yes. But don't tell anyone else. Let's keep this a secret for now. Use the rest of the day to rest and, beyond doubt, take a bath. Anyone else needs anything?"

"I have something to talk to you about." I told him and put my hand in my pocket to confirm that I still had the paper I had picked up in his room a few days ago, "you can go ahead. This is going to be quick." I said to the girls.

Kendra walked up to me again and murmured in my ear that she would be waiting for me in the room. She didn't even give me time to answer before she joined the other girls.

"A good life, isn't it? I miss those days. Girls, boys, whatever came into the net was fish." Tom said, "But what do you have to talk with me about?"

I took the crumpled paper out of my pocket and put it in his hand. His eyes rolled from one end of the paper to the other and then he looked at me again.

"Where did you get this?" He asked me and saved the paper in his pocket.

"It was on the floor of your living room. The girls don't know about this. What happened?"

"None of you were supposed to find out. This can't get out of here, James. Are we clear?" I agreed, Tom said, "We had a team following Maggie's father. They were transmitting new information to us at least once every hour. Suddenly, they stopped reporting it. We tried calling several times, but nothing either. We found them two days later floating in the river. Their bodies were sent to the normal police and we had to use the little influence we have to collect them before more people knew and the news spread."

"And you didn't think it was a good idea to share that with us? Do you know where her father is now?"

"We have no idea. He's not home and none of our spies have heard anything. We also know that Shimmer already knows he's being followed. Things aren't going well on our side."

"True. But what about the poll? We heard that in the main building. People still trust the Hunters, it's not as bad as it looks." I said, "Who's that group over there?"

"Just because the poll was positive doesn't mean it can't change. We're on a tightrope and the Reapers know it. One false move and we'll throw it all away." Tom answered me and sighed, "volunteers. All of them went through a selective period in which they were investigated and went through many interviews. I'm showing them the place."

"What about the albino, did you hear anything else? I see. The more the merrier, I presume."

"He's gone, too. There are reports that he locked himself in his condominium in the new black market, but we don't know where he is. Maybe tomorrow you can figure that out."

"We'll try. You know, Lipa's just a product of her childhood, and she's not as bad as you might think."

"The girl who killed 10 cops at once isn't as bad as she looks?" Tom asked me, the black eyes carved into my chest as if he was trying to pierce my soul.

I thought for a brief moment before I confessed that I didn't know that. Maybe she'd changed, at least it was what I said to myself. I did not see that girl I had met, who had called her sister as soon as she heard that the council had been attacked, killing 10 people unless it was necessary.

"You didn't think she was one of the most wanted just for smuggling guns, did you? Just because she cares about her sister, her blood, doesn't mean she wants to know about the rest of you. Don't forget that." Tom told me.

"I suppose you're right. Let's see how it goes tomorrow." I answered him. Kendra was waiting for me and I couldn't stay there the rest of the afternoon, "I'm going to go. Don't worry, this conversation will remain between us."

"I hope so. Let me know what the girl said and what day you're meeting her. Don't tell me where and when. The less I know the better. Ashen trusted you too and I do too, but don't think I'm going to risk my whole career for you." He said it and turned his back. He had already taken the first step when I stretched out my arm and put my hand on his left shoulder.

"What about Ashen? How's he doing?"

"Better. He's still not well, but he's getting better over time. The latest tests say he'll be fine in two or three weeks. Knowing him well, he'll be out here in a week and a half, ready for the next one. He never liked to be still." Tom said and wept a slight smile for the first time that day.

We went on opposite paths. I still heard him telling the young people to keep walking and explaining our breaks and how each one was entitled to one doughnut a day. I climbed the stairs, filled with vigor and with my chest raised, knowing what awaited me. At least that was what I thought. When I opened my bedroom door, my eyes captured an image that I knew, there, at that moment, would never come out of my memory again. The four girls on the floor, half-naked, lying on a fine white kitchen towel...

Chapter XV

"I thought it was better this way." Kendra said and winked at me, "While you were talking to Tom, we all agreed on this. None of us mind sharing you. And speaking of me alone, I kind of like it. Something is captivating about watching you sweat while you make someone else moan and I watch, you know?" She added and licked her light red lips.

"I'm not much of a sharer, but I think you'll be the exception" Elisa commented before getting up and letting her bra fall off.

The rest of them did, too. Breasts of different sizes but all of them oversized except for Victoria who had medium but slightly rounder boobs. It was an all-tastes buffet and I was about to enjoy it to the fullest. There were stiff nipples, some with the bigger aureola and even tits that reached the navel. It was paradise, an aphrodisiac dream I had never thought would happen in real life. Elisa gave me her hand and pulled me over to them. They were hungry and needed to quench their thirst too. Vic took my shirt off while Maggie took off my belt and Kendra unbuttoned my pants. Elisa's warm lips touched mine. I bit them and she smiled, tossing her head back with her mouth half open as if she was just a second away from uttering a long moan.  My pants went down to my knees. Elisa's body was rubbing against mine, her nipples getting hard and rubbing against my chest.

"Is this really going to happen?" I asked, still perplexed. There were only smudges and clippings from that time at Elisa's house but now I was sober, and they were 4 instead of 3.

Maggie's lips were the first to slide down my dick. I was semi-erect, but it actually got as hard as a rock in her mouth. It went from the bottom of her throat to the right side of her cheek until she repositioned it. It was like her cheeks were air-filled, but she had nowhere to puff it. Vic and Kendra enjoyed my balls; they licked them and then put them in their mouths until they couldn't anymore. Their saliva ran down their chin, and when they learned, it went on its way through their facial contours, going from their cheeks to the nooks and crannies of their eyes and finally to their foreheads. It didn't take them long for their faces to be almost unrecognizable. The blurred makeup, the black and moist color as if it were tears that flooded their faces. Elisa was now kissing my neck, traveling it from one end to the other, sometimes twisting her tongue on the most sensitive parts. The tip of her tongue seemed to carry small shocks that would spread until my fingers curled. My chest would rise, and my hot breath would grace Elisa's ears. There was no shame in that room. The world out there was no match for us. The trust we had in each other grew with each licking, every time our lips met halfway along the way, or the symphonic orchestra that was the moaning mix. Victoria took Maggie's place and started sucking me nonstop, her head bobbing, her red hair falling over her head and covering her face. Kendra and Maggie kissed each other for the first time, their breasts being flattened on each other, between youthful smiles, lip bites and neck squeezes. Elisa squeezed her own nipples and moaned, her panting breath ringing in my right ear. The room looked huge, almost endless as if the walls had distanced themselves to give us space. We weren't worried about the noise we made or even if we got caught.

"Let's go to bed," I told them, and they moved away.

The saliva was dripping off my dick with every step I took. There was still a thin white thread that appeared to be getting bigger but kept sticking to the skin. I lay on the bed and waited for them to come closer. Elisa was the first and she sat on me. She was wet enough to slide down smoothly. She was tight and with each roar the walls tightened even more. Maggie and Kendra were each beside me, kneeling on the bed, leaning and putting their tits in my mouth while kissing each other necks. Vic was in the corner of the bed, gazing at us as she masturbated furiously, her tiny fingers rubbing her rosy flesh and her bulging clitoris. She wriggled her head, moaning louder and louder, the fluids wetting the bed and her eyes rolling over. Elisa bounced on me, her head tilted back as she begged for more.

"Don't stop, don't stop." She said, nearly breathless.

I grabbed her ass and pulled her close to me, helping her move me even faster. Our bodies had special chemistry; they fitted perfectly, and I felt every movement of her hip in my being. It was a crazy carnival of pure pleasure and long-lasting climaxes.

"I'm cumming," Elisa said, sweat running down her face, her cheeks reddish and her tits bouncing.

A few seconds later she calmed down and thanked me. She got up and switched places with Vic who was already dripping from her pussy.

"Make sure there's enough for me," Kendra said.

Maggie was fingering her, with her slightly bent fingers, rubbing them on her g-spot until Kendra gripped the sheets so tightly that she ripped them off. Lust had no end. At that moment, with Victoria there, leaning against me, riding me, my mind sailed. I tried to hold on to that place; the soft fragrance of her perfume, their bodies touching each other, their smooth skins and the sound of her splashing on top of me, but I was already well beyond them. I wondered if my dad had had a chance at it too. If he had put it aside or if he had betrayed my mother, if those long days when he only came home at dawn had more than one reason to exist.

"Now me." Kendra said, "Let's see if I haven't lost my grasp on this yet."

I woke up just in time to see her sitting on me. She had the biggest ass and the edges covered my legs. It was hard to focus with her moaning in my ear. She bit my ear while she was doing it. I tried to think of something else for a brief moment, just enough to last a few more minutes. I had to hold on. I told her to get up and put her on all fours and fucked her like that. Each thrust harder, the hands gripping her hips until my fingers were branded on her white skin and pulling her black hair until she tilted her head.

"I missed this." She screamed, "Don't... don't stop, please." She said, her voice failing her, becoming increasingly acute.

Victoria got up, walked to Kendra, and laying her hands on her shoulders, began to shove her towards me. Her butt touched my belly once in a while and my dick was throbbing towards the end.

"I'm almost there," I told her, going even faster, even harder, until I felt a chill go down my spine as I was coming, and my hands trembled. I ended up finishing inside her and walked away, witnessing the liquid slide down her reddish lips and running down her leg. Elisa asked her to get closer and to bend before her. She licked my thick white liquid and swallowed what she could, a trail sticking out of her corner lips.

"That was... great," Maggie said, still sitting on the bed, leaning against the wall, masturbating.

"I really needed it," Kendra said between fast, breathless breaths.

"You should have invited me to this group sooner," Vic said and we all laughed.

The bodies shone with sweat, pink cheeks, and the sex scent, of animal instincts that had used us as guinea pigs there.

"We should take a shower," Vic said, "My legs are still shaking." She added.

"She's right. I like her." Kendra said and leaned against one of the walls, already with her panties in her hand, "Better say this before I forget but my sister said to meet her tomorrow. She sent the location."

"Isn't it the same place as last time?" I asked her.

"No. They must have moved the black-market place after everything that happened" Kendra answered me.

"It was the least they could do." I replied, "Do you think she can help us?"

"I'm sure she can. Although I don't like having to resort to her. It makes her feel cocky, you know? As if she wasn't enough already."

"We have no one else to turn to. Don't think I like this either." I told her.

They picked up their clothes. All they wore was their panties and their T-shirts. The white, soft legs were still glistening as well as the faces and the rest of the bodies, especially the zone below the breasts. They all gave me a mouth kiss before leaving my room. I seized the silence to lie on the bed, over the sheets, staring at the ceiling, hands under my head thinking about what had happened. The images were replaying themselves in my mind. The lips going down my length, touching my skin, them bouncing on my dick, and even Elisa licking up my liquid of Kendra's pussy. I released a wow that no one else heard and then I got up. I wore my boxers and pants and left the room.

When I entered the bathroom, I could hear the water running on the other side of the wall as well as the girls' laughter. I pictured them bathing together, groping, the water running down their tits.

I let the shower drip while I was taking off my clothes. The water heated up and the steam coated the space like a grayish, warm mist. I took a quick shower and went back to my room. They were still bathing.

The rest of the day went by in a heartbeat. We dined together in the canteen, where a dozen more people were eating the same mixture that they claimed was puree, the semi-fried potatoes, and the undercooked meat.

I hadn't slept well for several nights but there was something different tonight. Kendra's return and the poll had left a sweet taste in my mouth, the feeling that good times were upon us. The long-awaited bonanza after the storm that had engulfed us. My last thought was how surprised I still was with Keno having a girlfriend. The boy who didn't treat anyone well turned out to be spending time listening to love music for someone. I suppose everyone has their weakness and I had four.

Chapter XVI

I woke up the next day with someone knocking on the door. That banging noise was already becoming a habit.

"Who is it?" I screamed, having zero desire to get up. My eyes were half-closed, my body ached, and my lips were dry.

"It's me, Kendra." She said, "May I come in?"

"Yes," I said, "Come in."

As soon as she stepped in, I asked her if everything was okay. She had a dull look like she hadn't been sleeping much and was building up the courage to tell me something. Eyes as black as two putrid rubies that popped out on her pale skin.

"My sister texted me." She said as she came in, "the same as always. That I should be careful and to not be followed."

"We all have to be careful. We don't know if there's a spy here." I said, "We got to get going, don't we?"

"Yes. The other girls are already up. They're pouring water on their faces."

"How about you? Why are you here? Is something wrong?" I asked her, tapping the bed as a sign for her to sit there.

"No big deal. I'm still getting used to this life again. At the hospital at this hour, I'd still be asleep. But at least I can walk now. I was tired of being still." She said, looking calmer than usual, "Well, I just came to wake you up." She said and turned to the door when she was halfway through.

"Kendra, wait, is there anything you want to share with me?" I asked her.

She paused before answering, "No, thank you. I'll be quick too. You should do the same."

She left my room and was careful when closing the door so she wouldn't slam it.

I got dressed, cleaned my face and teeth and went down the stairs. They were already waiting for me. Some of the boys from the previous day's group were already sitting at the desks, pressing the computer keys, the robotic boredom wrapping the whole room. There wasn't even a sign of Tom. His office door was closed.

"Are you ready?" I asked them.

They all nodded. We headed for the living room. It was empty, two boxes of doughnuts in the trash can and a slight coffee scent perfuming it. Each of us picked up a doughnut before we sat on the couches and cushions. Kendra told us that Lipa was expecting us in Okinawa and that, just like last time, she had to go first before we showed up.

"Do you have to do that white-spot jumping stunt, too?" Maggie asked her.

"Yeah. It's my way of letting her know there's no cops or Hunters around. We've had that system for years," Kendra replied.

Between chewing the fluffy doughnut dough and drinking sips of water and lemonade we had little time to talk. We hadn't finished when another Hunters team showed up. Two boys, one of them with black hair overlaid with a green mix that dripped onto the white t-shirt, the black pants, and even the wind glove. I had never seen one of those before. A gold coating covered his slender wrist and a transparent crystal was held horizontally by two thin strips of metal. The boy next to him laughed with his yellowish smile, pausing just to scratch the undercut on the right side of his hair. Around his waist was a kind of belt, for lack of a better word, where he had dozens of metal shurikens. Blood dripped from some into the torn black pants and others were just muddy. They were both level D, almost in C, which the girl was already at. She was silent, her eyes amber in the light, greenish in the dark, traveling across our faces, while we were still shredding the food. Her purple hair was caught in a ponytail, but, nonetheless, the sword's gray grip gleamed behind the colored threads.

"Yes?" Elisa asked her.

"I know who you are." She said, with a haughty, deep voice, "thank you."

The boys readily shut up. They seemed surprised by her attitude. They leaned against a corner, beholding us, with their lips clenched, and the tallest, who had the glove, frowned his hairy eyebrow.

"Thank you?" Maggie asked her.

"The rest of the Hunters may not like you, but we know what you've done. The whole truth. You are almost celebrities here," she said, retaining her facial austerity, "you have given us reasons not to give up. Some of us were already giving up hope."

"Yes, yes, she's absolutely right. We've seen the video dozens of times. That was like an A-level and you guys managed to beat him!" The shurikens' boy said, on his tiptoe, expressing his enthusiasm with his hands, waving them all over the place.

"Is it really them? The way you wear your gloves only made me feel lucky to have them on too!" The other one added.

"Control yourselves, boys. Come on, let's go, we'll come back another time. They just need to rest." The girl said before she walked to the door, paused and said, "By the way, I'm Kaya."

The boys followed her. It was all so unexpected, we didn't even have time to react. None of us cared that they were there. We weren't celebrities at all. Instead, I saw us as mere Hunters at the service of a greater good. We didn't want them to treat us differently or even to see us as examples to follow. The truth was that we were still rookies and we still had a lot to learn.

"Odd, wasn't it?" Vic asked.

"Yes, it's strange to be recognized and not for something evil," Elisa said. She was sitting on one of the armrests and licked her sugar-filled fingers.

"At least they didn't complain about us." Maggie commented, "We weren't very lucky in the main building."

"Have you had that much misfortune?" Kendra asked, "I heard they thought we'd gotten into a fight against other Hunters."

"That's what they've been spreading, yes. But, well, we knew this could happen. Doing good does not mean having the privilege of having a queue of people applauding us and throwing flowers at us." I said, "Are you done yet? Let's get going."

We put the napkins and the plastic cups in the trash. When we left the other group was no longer in the room and half the parking spaces in the garage were empty. It was the first time we saw that room so empty and the truth is that the cars were well suited to disguise the mold in the corners of the walls and even the faint color in some areas. The jeep was as good as new except for a couple of scratches on the hood. The front glass had been replaced and the whole car had been cleaned. The smell of blood was now a camellia scent and the seats were black and padded.

Kendra, Vic, and Maggie sat in the back seats and Elisa sat next to me. Only she half-opened the window to allow in a refreshing breeze that swirled across the crystal-clear air. From the sun only fine traces of light showed up, striking the metal signs along the road and the remnants of sharp glass that were on the broken windows.

"Okinawa... our first mission was there," Maggie said.

"And it almost didn't happen." Kendra added, "If it wasn't for James over there convincing us to do the right thing."

"I did what I had to do. We came a long way since then." I told them.

"There you are, all sentimental. At least we don't have to deal with the terrible blood smell anymore today. I couldn't handle it anymore."

"Yeah! I hate blood. It's viscous and always reeks of rotten." Vic said, "That's one of the reasons I decided to practice the bow. The further away from a fight I am, the better."

"I like the adrenaline that runs through my body when I'm face to face with a beast. I actually used a double-edged sword, but in the meantime, I've switched. The ice glove offered me much more security in dealing with people and, of course, I didn't always have to carry it on my back or on my waist." Elisa answered her.

"James, why a gun? You never explained it to us." Kendra said.

We were already on the highway. We still had to go through a tunnel, a roundabout, and then drive for dozens of miles. It was 10:22. Ahead of us was just a truck carrying oranges and strawberries bags and on the other side two cars, one yellow and the other dark blue, traveling at similar speeds. The farther we got from where we had come, the more the clouds filled the sky, grayish, thick, obscuring the sun. We entered the tunnel and all the noise was drowned out. The orange lights of the lamps fastened to the walls, illuminating the whole tunnel, swirling through the car roof. Beams of lights hit the rearview mirror and mirrored on the tarmac.

"My father. He also used a gun, although it was a black one. He was the one who always backed me up and said I could be whatever I wanted. After a month at the academy, when it came down to deciding which weapon we wanted to learn, I had no doubt that I wanted to follow his legacy. I wanted my last name to mean more than my father's downfall." I answered them, while driving, always paying attention to the road even if there was not a single car in front of us.

"Didn't your brother have the same idea?" Vic asked, "But I'm also not surprised that he chose a weapon that would put him right in the front line."

"My brother is only two years younger than me, but he was born at the exact time my father was making the transition. Although I was only two years old, I still have vague memories of my father holding me and feeding me, but Keno doesn't. He only remembers the hell it was the first few years of his life. The fights between my parents, having to move, the whole mess... He always wanted to get away from it and even tried to change his name. Fortunately, he's calmer these days."

"That what was him being calmer?" Maggie asked me.

"Yeah. He's usually grumpier. Apparently, having a girlfriend made him softer."

"Too bad I didn't meet him. I feel like I missed some good adventures and you're almost at rank B." Kendra said. She was between the two girls but looking at Maggie's window. There was nothing to see except for the brown walls with yellow stripes, some graffiti and signatures, and the oval ceiling.

"Don't worry. More adventures will come." I answered her and I know she spotted my smile on the rearview mirror.

When we exited, on the other side, the green hills were now damp, a tiny rain falling on the new front glass.

"I don't understand anything about this weather." Vic said, "It was still sunny earlier."

"There are cities with different temperatures. Okinawa is a city with many factories and old buildings, if I remember well. Pollution contaminates the atmosphere and..." Maggie was saying when she was interrupted.

"How do you know that?" Elisa asked her.

"I read about it. I used to spend a lot of time reading, too. Benefits of having studied at home."

"I don't think that's an advantage" Kendra answered her.

"Better than spending my teenage years scared that my father would be taken away by the police at any moment," she replied, realizing seconds later that she had exaggerated, and her voice burst through silence, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean that."

"It's okay, Maggie. I get it. I get it. You're right. Maybe having a peaceful life would have been better. At least boredom doesn't kill."

"We all had problems in our childhoods. Don't get upset about it." Elisa told them.

"She's right. Even nowadays my parents think that being a Hunter is shameful, that they can't introduce me to their friends who are all bankers, lawyers, the kind of people who don't understand what it's like to fight for something they believe in." Vic told them, "But, Elisa, nobody knows anything about your parents."

"What do you need to know that for?"

"It's only fair that we all know the slightest bit about each other's lives, isn't it?" Maggie said, "If we're going to keep risking our lives for each other, we can at least get to know each other better."

"I agree with them, Elisa. Nobody's saying you need to tell your whole life but slowly share. Nobody's going to judge you, you know?" I told her.

"I know, but that's not it. I feel fragile and vulnerable knowing that someone knows what I've been through." She said, the rain overriding her voice, "Do you want to know the truth? How come I never mentioned my biological parents? I don't know who they are. Okay, are you happy?"

"What do you mean you don't know who they are?" Maggie asked her.

"I was adopted when I was 4 years old. They were great, but they weren’t my parents. It's like an essential piece of me was taken from me at birth. But forget it, it doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does! If it bothers you, we'll work it out as a group. Have you ever tried to find out who your birth parents are?"

"I tried, of course. The orphanage that contained all the information burned down when I was still 10 and my adoptive parents always told me they didn't know who they were and after what happened to them, I just gave up. I couldn’t even find out who had sent the killer after my mother. I’m a mess. Maybe it's better if I don’t know who my parents were, you know? The closest I had to a family since then was Ashen's group, and after he pushed me out, I ended up enjoying being alone. I think this is the first time since then that I feel like I have a family, or the closest thing to it." She said, all rushed, without even pausing to breathe, "Come on, that's enough. Looks like we're arriving." She said and pointed to a sign that said there were only a dozen kilometers away.

"You can talk to us about anything, Elisa. But all right, let's not insist anymore, shall we?" I asked and they all agreed.

The water droplets poured down on the wine-colored sign that did not move even with the desolating gusts of wind. Elisa closed the window. Her lap was already damp when she turned on the air conditioning. A stream of hot air crept through the inside of our clothes and spread through our bodies.

"I bet I'll catch a cold," Maggie said and sighed.

"You're missing a good coat." Elisa said.

"You sound like a 40-year-old man talking. By the way, if you don't have marks on your body from risking your life so much, it doesn't count." Maggie answered with a slightly sarcastic tone.

We all laughed. The only four-story buildings, five if we counted the ground floor, made up the entire row of dark brown that stretched across those streets. Smoke sprang up behind the structures, black and thick, flying over the brick roofs and covering the sky with a grayish fog. The city itself was sad. It had a melancholic temperament, the streets to be colored and the people always with their faces frozen, eyes half closed, suspicious of each other, clashing with each other's shadows and arguing at the coffees' doors due to trivialities. The last time we had been there we had not crossed the highway that gave access to the city. It resembled the second city we'd worked in. A certain antiquarian mysticism, as if a legend shared by the elders stated that the fog hid a secret behind it, to which only some would have the privilege of seeing it revealed.

"Now what? Where do I go?" I asked Kendra. I'd already slowed down. I was at 20 per hour, maximum 30, which was the legal limit around the cities unless it was an emergency.

"Here." She said and handed me her cell phone.

I wrote the name of the street, Lowland Street, on the GPS and waited until I heard the woman's high-pitched voice. She told us that we were about ten meters away and that we still had to make two turns to get there.

"Have you ever come here before?" Maggie asked Kendra.

"Not really. I know my sister has hiding places in several cities, but I have no idea where they are. I never had much interest. As soon as I could, I left the house and let her take the lead."

I turned left and went to a wide street, steps away from a circular zone, with a warrior statue with a shield and sword in his hand, in the center, and a couple of coffees around. There was a fresh fruit market in the corner. Dozens of people came and went, loaded with bags, not talking to anyone, walking along the sidewalk. Sometimes there were groups of two people, three at most, and they talked quietly, fearing that someone was listening. When we passed by, although on the other side of the street, I noticed that the market was not a building but a long street, in an endless alley, sheltered by a plastic roof.

"Here even the fruit seems to have less color," Maggie commented.

"I was thinking the same thing. No wonder Lipa has a safe place here. It matches her icy personality." Elisa said, "Damn, how come my pants haven't dried up yet."

"Also, why did you have the brilliant idea of coming in latex paints?" Vic asked her.

"I didn't think it would rain, did you? If I'd known, I'd have come in regular black pants like Kendra. It doesn't matter now either. We're getting there." She said, looking at the red dotted line on the GPS coming to an end.

I had already made the last turn and we had stepped into a narrow street, flanked by workshops and warehouses with dusty gates, a shrill noise, even worse than chalk being scraped off a blackboard, and sparks splashing on the bifurcated sidewalk.

"That one over there," Kendra said and pointed to a cross-iron gate whose sidewalk before it was cross-checked.

"It could only be. On top of that, it stands out from the rest." Elisa said, "Now what?"

"I'm going to text her that we're here and then I have to do the quasi-ritual, so she knows she's safe," Kendra answered her.

Chapter XVII

I stopped in front of the gate. She sent the message and left. She nodded to the camera on the upper right side of the gate and stepped forward, stepping on one white pebble and then jumping into another. The camera followed her movements. It didn't take more than a few seconds for the gate to rise off the ground, ascending, and disappearing into a facade that was in between the bulkhead.

"This means we can get in, right?" Vic asked.

"I suppose so. Let's get going before somebody starts to wonder why we're here." I told them.

Kendra knocked on the window next to me and waited for me to open it, "My sister told us to go in with the jeep and park it on the right side."

She walked along the jeep while I searched for a good place to stop. The lights were all off and the little clarity that illuminated the warehouse stemmed from the glass fogged roof. I parked next to a pile of white trash cans and rusty metal plates. Against the wall was a five-story metal shelf full of objects such as tape, ruler, pliers, scanners, drills, among others. Further ahead, in the place where the dim light stood out the most, the rarefied air had hundreds, if not thousands, of particles hovering in the air.

"Isn't your sister rich? She could have found a better place." Vic said, followed by a sneeze.

"The best places are the ones nobody suspects," Kendra answered her.

"Hm, hm, I see you haven't forgotten my teachings," Lipa said, coming from a blue painted metal door that only opened with a five letter or number code.

Despite the distance, the five green clovers blinked in the modern machine until Lipa's body was in front of us and blocked our sights.

"You just changed your hair color, as usual." Elisa said as soon as she saw her, "You're never going to leave this business, are you?"

"Probably not. Only if I die or find someone to replace me when I'm old."

"Lipa, don't say that." Kendra said, "I told you, you don't have to follow Dad's legacy."

"And I've already told you I like the freedom and the danger." Lipa answered her and before anyone else could say anything, her eyes stared at Victoria, "Do I know you?"

Victoria, as was to be expected, stepped forward and replied, "I am Victoria, the new girl in the group. Is there a problem?"

"Sassy. I like her." Lipa told me, "You look even prettier." She winked at me.

"Come on, Lipa, what do you have for us?" I said, trying to ignore the teasing.

It wasn't that her strong and ferocious personality or her tits tightened by the purple top she wore, and her silky legs covered to her knees by a red skirt with blue frills didn't appeal to me. It was that I knew that if I were to give her a finger, she would want my whole hand and I would not be able to say no to her. Not when I was baffled by the way her tongue slid across her thick lips at the end of every sentence or the way she swung her ass while walking as if it were a mesmerizing watch or coin.

"Follow me." She said, turning and walking towards the door where she had come from, "acix, right? I called some of my contacts. I got the right person, but it's not going to come cheap."

"We have money," I answered her.

She laughed as she pressed the buttons and unlocked at the door, "Not everything in this world is about money. This person has more than enough. He'll want something more specific." Lipa told us.

"Anything more specific? What are you talking about?" I asked her. That was her world and it was very different from what I was accustomed to.

"He will probably ask you for a favor. You decide whether or not to accept it, but if I were you I would. Arranging a meeting with him cost me two-gun shipments and a favor that someone owed me." Lipa told us.

We followed her down the arched white-walled corridor that seemed to never end. We passed a fire extinguisher and several small batteries of incandescent blue lights, lying on the floor and strapped to the wall.

"This used to be a secret passage used at the height of the third great war. I had to send someone to remove the cobwebs and paint the walls, but now it's great for transporting the material." She kept going until Kendra interrupted her.

"What's in it for you?"

"Not much. There's also something I need to ask him. I wasn't going to resort to him, but since you guys needed him... it'll work too." She said.

"I knew there was something more to it. You were being too altruistic."

"It's not like I haven't helped you without asking for anything. It just comes in handy now. You know, after what happened to the council, things haven't been easy. The albino attacked some of my warehouses. He's almost in control of everything that happens on the black market. I had to take care of my business out of the limelight. But something good came of his rise to power. He became violent and began to persecute the loyal members of the leaders he had killed..."

"And that's a good thing?" Kendra interrupted her.

"Let me finish. Some of the fleeing members have come to ask for a place in my trenches. My army has never been so numerous and with such varied skills."

"You're saying that sooner or later you two will have to face each other, right?" Kendra asked her.

"Something like that, yes. I know he's locked in his condo. We're both dealing with our problems in our own way." Lipa said, "But there's no point in wasting time on it now."

"Aren't you afraid?" Vic asked her.

"Fear weakens us. In this line of work, it's normal to be hunted anyway. Dying from a bullet is an honor. A sign of respect even."

"Damn it, Lipa. You haven't changed at all. You still have those ideas." Elisa told her and sighed.

"As I recall, you had them too." Lipa said, "You lost your guts, didn't you?"

"Of course not, but I realized that there is more to life than the longing for one more fight and the faint urge to die on the battlefield." She answered her, looking at me.

"You've finally found a family. You know, what I said to you still stands."

"Thanks, but I don't think this is the right time."

"What are you talking about?" I asked them.

"Lipa offered to help me find my birth parents. And just like before, I'm going to reject it. I don't want that in my life right now. And none of you dare say anything about it."

"We won't." I replied, "So where are you taking us, Lipa?"

"We have to go somewhere. I just don't want to leave through the front door. I can't risk it. Well, just a warning, the person we're about to meet is very impatient and stubborn. Don't try to argue with him."

"But who is he?" Kendra asked.

"He's an old hermit who's spent his whole life exchanging trinkets for others. He knows everyone, even more people than I do, and everybody respects him. He never screwed up a business. In this line of work that is essential. As time went by, he became a little paranoid and moved away from the limelight. Now he only accepts face-to-face meetings with people he's heard of or who can offer him something he can't afford with money." Lipa explained, "And definitely don't give him too much talk. The man's a great manipulator, and he loves to see people arguing. He's going to take something you guys hadn't even noticed and use it to drive you away. I suppose he sees it as fun."

"We have no secrets between us," I answered her, even though I still felt Kendra was hiding something from me.

Lipa laughed, "I hope not."

The corridor finally came to an end. She had led us to a wide section that seemed to have been used as a coffee shop once. There were round white and yellow striped tables with enough dust on top to fill the whole room with a light blow. On the floor, there were dozens of open boxes, with the lids beside them, and semi-automatic weapons inside. Some had only pistols and there was one only with grenades. Three men carried a box at a time, each with its own box, through a dark, rusty green door on our right. Each time they opened it, it crawled across the floor and the whole building seemed about to collapse on us. A drizzling rain was coming down on us. I looked up and noticed that the closest thing to a ceiling that was there was an electric net, one that was used to kill insects, and that, there, seemed to be used not only as a roof but also as a measure of defense. It was strange, to say the least, but no one else seemed surprised except Victoria who also had her eyes on it. Maggie tracked the men carrying the boxes and Elisa and Kendra were expecting Lipa to say what we were supposed to do now that we'd made it there.

"Anybody want coffee?" Lipa asked and went to the side of the small countertop on the opposite side of the room.

She bent over and pulled a coffee maker out of there. It was one of those old, non-automatic ones that needed to be plugged in. There was a plug on the white wall with black stains on her right. The men were still walking past us like we didn't exist. They didn't even look or glance at us when they stopped to stretch their muscles. They all wore a tight black sweater with their sleeves pulled over their shoulders. The sewing seemed about to burst every time they bent down and clenched their teeth to pick up another box. The three of them had a gun strapped to the back of their waist. As they leaned over, the shirt climbed, and the nine-millimeter gun popped into plain sight.

Only Vic and Elisa wanted coffee. Lipa did it all by herself. She didn't seem in a hurry. She pulled three cups out of a drawer, which was apparently on her side, put them down on the counter and filled them with a still steaming black liquid. Finally, she put a sugar sachet on beside them.

"It's not the best coffee in the world, but it'll have to do." She said as she fetched her cup.

None of them sat down. The chairs had no back and the red cushions were torn. They drank their coffee standing while we waited.

"We've already loaded everything into the van." One of the men said. He was bald, with green eyes and besides the dragon's tattoo on his right arm he had only one tattooed date above his left eyebrow, "20.05. 2122.". I assumed it was his birth date. From his face, he could be in his late 20s or late 30s.

"Well done. You can take them. Don't forget. If anything seems strange to you, call for help. We can't risk being attacked again. We need those guns." She said, took a break to finish drinking the rest of the coffee and finally wished them good luck.

The door closed behind them and the noise was carried across the air, raising dust from the tables. Vic rubbed her white sweater and even had to moisten two fingers in her mouth to see if she could clean the little brown spots that had remained on her clothes. They'd already finished their coffee and Lipa was storing the machine.

"Well, let's get going. Don't ask questions. We're going to the new black market, but we can't go in through the same place as normal people. All the security guards are on the albino's payroll."

"Did he set up the new market?" I asked him.

"Yes. He found the new place, controls who sells there and, unlike the old market, they have to pay him 10% of the profit. And with no one to stand up to him, no one dares to criticize him." She told us, as she walked past us and signaled to follow her, "But I found a way in without him knowing. Don't get in trouble, okay? They can't know we're there. And, if I remember correctly, last time we almost died."

"On the other hand, we discovered the whole truth," Kendra answered her sister.

"It didn't do much good, did it?" Lipa replied, "It doesn't matter now either. Knowing that the albino works with Reapers, some Hunters and even technology companies before he tried to attack me gave me time to put together a couple of prevention measures."

"What if he gets new, unique weapons before they even come out? Or if they're made just for his army?" Vic asked her.

Before answering her, Lipa asked me to help her with opening the jammed door. I got marks on my fingers from the strength I had to make just to open it halfway. Lipa turned on the lights. A string of neon lights, which surrounded the entire garage, dawned. Four white vans, each pretending to have a different use, acted as a cover for the weapons transport. One of them had a poster on the right side stating that they were carrying paint cans, the other one was for sofas, and the other two belonged to construction companies. We followed her to the van that was supposed to be carrying sofas.

"Let's use this one. You four get in the back. James is coming to the front." She said, "And as for your question, girl, yes, that can happen. But wars are won outside the battlefield. It's not with the fight that I'm the least bit concerned."

"I thought you weren't afraid of anything." The sister counterattacked.

"It's not fear. It's not liking him being so unpredictable and having no boundaries. It's hard to predict what he's going to do and how far he's willing to go. Above all, it's not knowing what his endgame is. Men like that aren't happy. He'll want more than the black market." She answered her with her hand on the handle.

"Why do we have to go in the back?" Elisa asked her.

"Because there's only two seats up front and the man we're going to see is an old-fashioned idiot. He'll value more if he sees a man in the forefront instead of two girls."

"Are you sure there wasn't someone else to turn to?" Elisa said.

"Yeah. He was one of only three options. One's not around and I had a problem with the other. He's all that's left. What matters is it's going to work. Now hurry in. We're early but we can't really be late."

Elisa still didn't like the idea very much, but even though she was upset, she did it. They slid the door and, one by one, got into the van and sat on the cushions that were lying on the floor. Two boxes similar to the ones with weapons we had seen before were in one corner as well as another orange box, locked, with a padlock that only opened with two keys. I sat next to her in the front seats. Before starting the engine, she opened the compartment under the radio and removed a cigarette and a lighter from there.

"It helps me calm down," she said and lit it, "they can't hear us back there." She added and placed her free hand on my leg.

"What are you doing?"

"I like to tease, James. I don't think that's anything unusual." She said it and started rubbing her hand against my leg even more, moving from the knee to the crotch.

My breathing thickened, "We have to go, don't we?" I asked her.

"Yes, unfortunately. He doesn't like delays." She told me and took her hand off my leg. She lit her cigarette and took a deep breath. With the other hand, she took her mobile out of her pocket and pressed the cardinal button for five seconds.

The iron door rose, and the daylight flooded the whole room. It seemed to be an old dorm used perhaps for the wounded or just where several people slept on top of each other. Several beds, all with four wooden legs, cushioned stables and serration sheets, were next to a wall. On top of the two wooden tables, one of them in the diagonal view of my eyes and with different signatures scraped in its thickness, there were several lamps that were about a hundred years old. They were made of glass and had a lamp inside and, as I had learned in school, were used in specific and secret locations during the wars. Unlike mobile phones, lights that hovered automatically in the air, among other lighting possibilities, those could not be located or canceled from afar. They were old and offered different benefits, almost as if they had adapted to the time they were in, in order to survive and, in the end, ended up in those corners at the end of the world, gathering dust until they were destroyed. The car drove off, bumped into a hump outside the garage, and Lipa drove us through narrow streets, turning right and left several times until we got back on the highway.

Chapter XVIII

"We're on time." She said, "Also, don't think I forgot that you promised to protect my sister and you failed," she added, driving with just one hand on the steering wheel, holding the cigarette with two of the fingers of the other hand and her eyes on me. She wasn't afraid of what could happen. She did not fear death and her dark eyes pierced my soul, blaming me for what had happened to Kendra minutes after she had taunted me. She stumbled between opposite poles and it was scary how much she could change.

"She's alive, isn't she?" I answered, disliking her accusation. It's not like I didn't give it my best shot.

"You need to improve your best. You were lucky last time." She said, still puffing her cigarette and expelling the smoke out of her half open window.

"I couldn't have guessed we'd end the night fighting a human beast."

"If you weren't so handsome, I'd have hurt you by now, you know?" She said, "I'm kidding. Don't worry about it. I know you tried. Even if I was there, the same thing would happen to me."

"Lipa, are you genuinely okay? You look a little..."

"Crazy? All geniuses are a little crazy, aren't they? I'm okay. I'm okay. Or I will be. Don't worry about it. At least the organization you're in has better conditions than I expected. The hospital where my sister was in was a high quality one." Lipa said and threw the cigarette out the window.

"The hospital? You were in the hospital?!"

"Sure. Don't you really think I wouldn't visit my sister?"

"How did you find the place? Or how did you even get in there without them noticing you?"

"I'm disappointed. I thought you expected more from me. The place was easy to find. I traced my sister's cell phone. Sounds silly, doesn't it? But it worked. Getting in was a little harder. There's security and cameras everywhere. I had to kidnap the doctor who looked most like me for one afternoon and wear glasses that covered half my face. I almost got caught, but I got enough time to talk to Kendra. She didn't tell you?"

"No. I didn't know anything about it. I think she wanted to tell me today, but she regretted it." I confessed to her.

"Normal. She's still ashamed of me. I don't think she'll ever forgive me for following our father's path."

"You knew that when you accepted, right?"

"I thought so. I just thought she'd understand that somebody had to do it. You may see this as an act of evil, but there's more to it than that. There are the monthly payments for those who work with me so they can support their families. There's a whole gear behind the pointers, isn't there? If it wasn't for me taking over my father's empire, it would be somebody else. You think he'd be as benevolent as me? Or so useful?" She asked me.

She drove down the road, the wind slamming in her face and throwing her hair back except for a few strands that glued to her damp lips. It was still raining, but the further away we got from the city, the more the grey clouds brighten up and fine rays of sunlight escaped through the mist.

"Benevolent, Lipa? You think I don't know about the 10 cops you killed? Does Kendra even know that?"

"No, and she doesn't need to know. Oh, shit. Who told you? The story is much more complex than that."

"It doesn't matter who did it, but I want to know the real story. You're not going to say you don't have time, are you?" I answered her.

"I'll tell you. I don't know why, but I feel comfortable around you. Maybe because I've always surrounded myself with people who don't hesitate to kill, and you'd do everything before you even thought about it." Lipa said, her voice lower than usual, the words slipping out of her mouth "Elisa knows this. Actually, she was involved, too."

"Did Elisa kill cops too?"

"That's the problem! They weren't cops. At least they weren't the good guys." Lipa answered, exalted, grabbing firmly the steering wheel, with both hands, until the bones were swollen.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I told you. I made my father's army grow. The control we had thrived on my command. Sometimes I had to be violent and fearful. That's how it works. It's been a long road. At the time Elisa was the right person for some missions and we used to end our nights in one of my bars."

"Do you have bars too?"

"Bars, brothels, laundries. Anything to make money or launder what I make in the guns business."

"And you're telling me all this? Me? I'm a Hunter, Lipa."

"Yeah, you are, and you're not going to tell anybody anything, are you? Part of you understands that I'm necessary, don't you?"

"I wouldn't put it that way, but maybe. I don't like to keep secrets, let alone from my girls." I answered her and sighed, knowing that I had no choice, "I also think part of you would like to stop all this. Now tell me what matters."

The sun glistened on the horizon. The orange flames rose above the distant skyscrapers and the rays reflected on the metallic litanies on both sides of the highway. We were on our way to another city, but Lipa didn't even slow down. She asked me for a brief moment of silence as we approached, driving past the red sign with the black letters wishing us a good stay and reaching the bridge that connected the city to the road. I had never been there before, but from the modern, tall buildings and luxury cars that crossed the bridge, on the exit side, I knew right away that it was an expensive city, one where money ruled above all else. There were no wooden houses or even roofs in danger of falling. The coffee shops were cheerful, colorful, flowery at the entrance and perfumed with the different scents of the eccentric people and the businessmen who came in to eat something before they went back to work.

"Well, I'm calmer." Lipa started, "We had finished a job. She helped me recover an important item and we decided to celebrate. Same old coffee, on the edge of a concierge town. It was near the sea. I always enjoyed hearing the waves crashing against the rocks. That day 11 cops entered the bar. Nobody knew who I was back then. There was a sketch of my face but meanwhile I had dyed my hair and made bangs. They came to fuck with us. They started with abusive compliments, then touching our hair and shoulders. We asked them to stop. The bartender, who knew us, tried to send them away but they refused. They were already drunk. They threw him to the ground and started kicking him. We got involved. The fighting started and they were no match for us but then they started shooting at us. You know what I mean? We had no choice. The shooting started and they were so drunk that the shots hit the drinks, the ceiling, and killed the bartender. When the bullets stopped flying, we thought they were all dead. Elisa and I ran away."

"If they were all dead and ran away, how do they know it was you?" I asked her. She was different. The voice trembled, tapping the steering wheel with two fingers, repeatedly, and blinked her eyes.

"One of them survived. He told the police everything and they started chasing us. I couldn't let Elisa go down. So, I bragged that I killed the 10 cops alone. In the meantime, the rumor picked up and the original version was changed. The police still insisted that there were two people but knowing that he had alcohol in his blood no one gave him any importance. He ended up being relegated to a road job." She said. She looked at the explosion of colors on the horizon and sighed, "I don't think I'd ever told anyone the truth. Feels good. In my job, rumors like this build a person, you know? It's funny to see that I started being respected after that. Salesmen wanted to do business with me just for my name, men wanted to join me. I became an underground celebrity overnight. But, okay, this is so you know that not every story you hear is true. There's always each person's side and the truth."

"And yours is equivalent to the truth?" I asked her. Her eyes were slightly contoured, haunted by fine orange traces. Everybody on those marble streets was sweating and staining their transparent T-shirts.

"I didn't lie to you, if that's what you're implying."

"If I ask Elisa, will she confirm?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't. It was the first time she killed someone. Do you really want to make her remember that?"

"No," I answered her. She had thrown me in a complicated position and knew it, "Well, it doesn't make much difference whether I believe it or not, does it? You're not going to change who you are or what you do."

"True, but I don't like you seeing me like this either. As if at any moment I could betray you. I know you think about it and I don't blame you."

"That's not all I see in you, Lipa," I answered her. She smiled and then two dimples popped up on her cheeks. In the sunlight, her hair roots stood out from the rest.

"You know my eyes are up here, right?" She said, seeing my eyes laid on the contours of her tits.

"Yeah, yeah, I got distracted. We better stick to the road. How much longer?"

"A little. He lives secluded. He's not a big fan of people. He never was. I always thought he was a sociopath."

"But isn't this the first time you've resorted to him?"

"No. It's the third one, I think. The other two were a long time ago. I've got new suppliers in the meantime. Like I said, he's weird. I'd rather avoid him." She said as we drove away from the city, "I lost about 20 men the last time I needed him. Fucking man made me go get a gun back that had been captured by the police. Just because he liked her color."

"I don't see you following anyone's orders," I told her.

"And I don’t. But he's the only one who sells 100% reliable information. There was no other way."

I nodded my head and the silence overcame the wind's hisses. We weren't on the highway anymore. She was leading us down a mountain road. On one side the hill rocks and on the other nothing, not even metallic protections or, at least, yellow and black ribbons warning of the danger it was and the possibility of falling down the ravine. There were only trees, bushes and wild animals down there. The road was steep and always upwards. The aroma of grass and wet trunks persisted in the air, which was gradually protected by layers of grey clouds. As we climbed, the sun disappeared through the green coating until there were only mere rays left that reached the van and grazed our faces for mere seconds. The atmosphere weighed on our bodies and held us to our seats. A sensation similar to when an airplane takes off and our whole body shrinks under pressure. Birds were chirping and I even heard a wolf roar or maybe it was a tree's arm falling on other trampled trunks. The sounds would mix and weaken. The smells would blend and change as we got closer to the summit. They were now more natural, sweetish and limpid. The human hand hadn't set foot there yet, and wind roared throughout the road. A mattress of white clouds covered the entire crystalline blue sky with the light green top of a few trees sticking out between some.

"We're getting there," Lipa said.

"I'll let them know," I answered her. I sent a message to Kendra telling her to get ready, that we weren't far behind.

"What I told you stays between us." She said, "And it's too bad we didn't have time for more." She added and winked at me.

Damn it. She was right. It was a shame, but I knew we'd have time for that. The best thing was to focus on the problem we were facing and then I would deal with her, strongly and mercilessly. I didn't think she would like it any other way.

"Five more minutes, I guess." She said, putting her hand back on my leg, "Seizing it while we can, right?"

Before I reacted, I looked forward. The road wasn't curved anymore. It was a straight line with an arid terrain surrounding it, and some trees a few meters away being used to hide a two-storey complex amidst them. There was no danger of falling off the mountain unless one of the tires was punctured or another ridiculous situation arose. I placed my hand on her leg, her skin soft and strawberry scented, and slid my fingers until I reached her thighs.

"Don't stop." She said, her panting breath and diaphragm rising up her chest.

I strummed across her skin until I wrapped her thong around my fingers and yanked it up, rubbing against her pussy, watching her grab the steering wheel tightly as she lifted her head, and through her heavy breathing, she moaned shamelessly. We were just a few feet away from the dark gate, and the trees no longer hid the solar panels on the roof or the artificial turf at the entrance.

I ventured into her body. My fingers rubbed her wet clitoris and her moaning grew. She was totally drenched, her body warm and sweaty, and the van zigzagging along the empty terrain.

"You're very good at this." She said, finishing with a long moan.

I didn't stop fingering her. Faster, my fingers curved, rubbing and pressing her g-spot, "fuck."

I didn't stop until she parked the car in front of the gate. It was an imponent square wall that surrounded the house and was about two to three meters high. 

"We'll continue this at another time." I said, "You owe me one."

"As many as you want." She said it and straightened out her clothes. She ran her hand past her hair, slapped each side of her face and opened the door, "Can you open the back door? I'll call the old man before he cancels because we're late."

"No problem," I told her, and I got out of the van, too.

The air there was clearer, and the sky was brighter. I opened the door and the four of them exited. It took them a while to open their eyes without flickering.

"Damn it. Where are we?" Elisa asked, looking around.

"I have no idea. On the top of a mountain." I said, "Elisa's calling the man."

"Only my sister to get us into this." Kendra said, "Have you ever wondered what will happen if he realizes we're Hunters?"

"I hadn't even thought about it. He must already know, right? Or maybe he has hunters’ customers?" Victoria answered her.

"Lipa knows what she's doing. Let's trust her." I told them.

She was still on the phone, the two cameras at the gate and the two at opposite corners pointing to her. We just stood there, breathing in that fresh air, and also emanating the wildlife smell. Me, Maggie and Kendra walked to the edge of the mountain. We couldn't see the bottom. Only clouds, like cheeky cushions, and wind arrows that ripped through the sky and made our hair flutter. Even our voices sounded louder. The pressure of height changed them and moistened our eyes.

"Come here." Lipa said, "Look at the cameras."

"Why?" Kendra asked.

"He wants to know who you are. The cameras must have identification programs."

We positioned ourselves a few meters from the cameras, stepping on the artificial turf, and waited until we heard a click. A door opened amidst the black wall, and a man with an AK-47 to his chest received us.

"Come in." He said it and leaned against the outside wall.

Chapter XIX

A row of well-armed men flanked the dozens of concrete stones that led us to a glass window. They all had the same tattoo on their necks; a red skull with two arched horns. As soon as we got to the window another soldier slid it to the side and asked us to follow him. He was a younger boy, with blond hair, short on the sides and wavy on top, medium height and wore some candle shoes whose bump on the marble floor echoed through the house's thick walls. He had a black book in between his arm and ribs and his back lined up perfectly straight.

"The teacher is waiting for you."

"Teacher?" I asked.

Lipa frowned as soon as I uttered those words.

"Don't you know who you came to talk to? The great teacher and merchant Dr. Poe?" The boy asked me. He had stopped in the middle of the kitchen. All the objects glowed, and the walls were made of black marble with whitish spots. There was only one modern light bulb in the center of the roof, but it was enough to illuminate the whole room that was half the size of my mother's house.

"Of course, he knows. He was just kidding. Don't mind." Lipa told him. She smiled and hit him slightly on the shoulder.

"We're not fans of that kind of humor around here." He said, "Anyway, the professor is in his cabin. The rules are simple. Put your guns in that basket, you can't raise your voice and you can't stay more than 10 minutes. Are we clear?" He added and pointed to a basket, one of those I was used to seeing in snake charmer illustrations, in the corner of the room that was next to the kitchen.

"Yeah. No problem. We accept the terms." I answered him.

He took us to the next room. Everything there was practically the same as the entrance. There was a glass window and a concrete stone path. But instead of soldiers, there was only one pool where two children, a boy, and a girl, swam and tossed water at each other. In the upper left corner was a metal hut, similar to a nuclear shelter. The door was open, and somebody was shuffling through objects lying on a table. The sun rays that reached there reflected themselves on the ground and on the grass that stretched over the rest of the yard. I only saw the man's slender silhouette and the strange way he walked, staggering at every step and clutching the table to do it.

"You may go. He's waiting for you," the boy said and walked away from us.

"Shall we?" Victoria asked.

"Yes, it's better. Lipa, you didn't tell us he was a teacher or a doctor."

"Or Dad" Maggie added, "Poor them. You guys better get going. I'm going to stay here and talk to them for a while."

"He's not any of that. He's a self-centered narcissist. But don't fight him. Let the conversation roll." Lipa answered me. Then she looked at the children, "I had no idea he had children. I didn't even know he had a wife."

"It's hard for anyone to want a man like that," Victoria said.

The man stepped out at the shelter entrance. He had an iron crutch with a diamond on top in his right hand. The daylight fell on a scar he had on his forehead, accentuating the stretched skin and sparse dry blood along the wound. He wore a brown polo shirt over a white shirt, grey trousers and a black hat with a circular flap.

"Come in." The man said. He had a strong, rugged voice, "Will she stay with them?" He asked, looking at Maggie who was just by the pool talking to the kids...

"Yes. Is there a problem?" I asked him.

"No. Their psychologist keeps telling me they need someone to talk to besides me or armed men." The man said, "Let's get down to business. Hi, Lipa. Acix, then? That's interesting. I didn't know Hunters were that needy. Unless they need the bullets for a new kind of... beast."

"Then you know what we're doing here," Lipa answered him.

"I know what they're doing here. I just don't know why you are here yet. All for your sister? Sounds weird to me."

"I need some information."

"Let me guess... you need to know if the albino has any more attacks prepared on any of your warehouses." He replied with an ironic grin, his lip writhing in the corner, "From your reaction, I will assume so. Come with me."

We followed him to the shelter. It was full of shelves with dozens of items, from weapons, grenades, high level technology and even documents stored in micas. There was everything there. Kendra gave me a slight nudge on the shoulder. I looked at the place she was looking at; the disassembled body of a beast, the filaments disconnected, some burned, the arms and legs on the floor and the chest on top of the bookcase beside a flying explosive device.

"I've got everything." The man said as he sat in a chair beside the metal table that was in the midsection. He seemed to have been working with a small flame thrower and metal parts that were still in the process of scarring.

"We just want the acix anyway," I told him.

"All right. 30 or 50 bullets?" He asked and took a box out from under a shelf.

"50. What do we have to do to get them?"

"Good choice. Obviously, the mission will be more difficult but for 20 bullets will pay off." He said and had that convinced grin in his mouth again, "I hope you're ready for a good adventure."

"What do you want, Poe?"

"Take it easy, Lipa. We have time for everything. So, this is your sister?" He said and signaled Kendra to come forward, "your sister saved you, you know?"

"Poe, that's enough! Tell us what you want and let's go." Lipa told him, with her fists clenched, controlling herself to keep a moderate voice tone.

"Oh, she doesn't know? You didn't even tell her that?"

"What are you talking about? Lipa? What is he talking about?" Kendra asked.

The man laughed, "Your father knew you were smarter and not so impulsive. He wanted you to earn his legacy, but your sister sacrificed herself for you."

"Lipa? Tell me he's kidding. Tell me you're not the person you are now because of me!"

"That has nothing to do with it. I'd still end up being this person. You never wanted this. I wanted it. I told dad several times, but he always wanted you..."

"Is that why you paid all my expenses to travel to the Hunters' Academy? That you paid me to stay there?"

"It was the only way! I knew what was waiting for you and I knew you weren't cut out for this. I couldn't leave my little sister in danger."

"And you didn't think it was right to discuss it with me? To tell me?" Kendra replied and walked up to her, her pupils were dilated, and her teeth were creaking.

"I didn't want you to feel like it was your fault! It's not. I made my choice. I wanted this." Lipa answered her and looked at Poe, "This isn't going to stay like this!"

"Two minutes." He said, "You have two minutes left. Do you want to accept the mission or not?"

"Yes, we do," I answered before the deadline ran out.

"What do you want from me as well?" Lipa answered him, on the verge of raising his voice.

"Nothing. This little moment was enough. Conflict is always beautiful." He told her, and grinned again, "Besides, they'll need your help for the mission I'm about to give them."

"What mission?" Vic asked her while her eyes were wandering through the shelves.

"Nothing big. It's actually good for you. I want you to destroy one of the Reaper labs." The man said and stood up with the help of his cane, "You can take five bullets out of here. The rest you get when you finish the job."

"The Reapers? Why?" I asked him.

"Who do you think provided them with all the acix? Instead of paying me the exorbitant amount we had decided on, they thought they could pay me with all that whole conversation about me having a place in the world they are planning."

"Doesn't the professor believe they can do it?" Vic asked.

"I don't care if they can do it or not. I'm a pragmatist. I don't want to join sides or get paid with promises. Even if they do, there'll always be others I can sell to. But not paying me? I won't allow anybody that. They have to suffer the consequences. And better than being left without an important lab is being destroyed by their rivals. Yeah, that's beautiful." The man said, rubbing his hands with a glow behind his brown eyes...

"What's so specific about this lab? If we're going to do this, I want to know everything," I told him.

"I expected nothing else from a man." The man said, "I'm sending the location to Lipa's cell phone. I've got the building blueprints here, and I've pointed out how many guards are in each place. It's going in, setting a bomb and getting out. The red X marks the place where you have to plant the bomb for the whole building to collapse. You don't even have to fight."

"What if we get caught?" Vic asked him.

"Well, then that's your choice. Either you run like the girls you are, or you fight under his command."

Elisa yawned. Even I was tired of hearing him, but we had no other choice.

"30 seconds." He said, "Any questions?"

"Just one. How long do we have to do this?" I asked him.

"Good question. Today's Tuesday, right? You have until Sunday." He said and pointed his cane to the door, "just one last thing. If you get caught, you're on your own. I don't know you. Now you can go."

At the door, two armed men were already waiting for us. They were looking at the silver watches on their wrists. Kendra was the first to leave. She shoved the two men and stepped into the house, scrambling, with her fists closed, talking to no one. Nobody stopped her. It didn't seem like the first time something like that had happened. I picked up five bullets in the midst of dozens of them and left, along with the girls, to the street. The sun was still shining, drawing silver stripes in the water. Maggie was still talking to the kids.

"Now what?" Vic asked me.

"We blow up the building. We get the bullets and then we'll see. Maybe we can even find something new in their building."

"Should we tell Tom?" Elisa asked, "I don't think we should. He's going to want more Hunters to join in, and we can't risk getting caught. It's a job for a few people."

"Have you ever had one like it?" I asked her.

"Yes, two or three times. Did you bring the blueprint?"

"Yeah, I got it right here," Vic said and showed her other hand, holding a blue wrapped paper.

"Let's get going then. We need at least two days to plan the in and out." Elisa said.

Maggie waved goodbye to the children and joined us. She told us that they wanted to get out of there but knew that their father's work forced them to stay there. If on the one hand she seemed sad about their situation on the other hand she seemed happy to be able to relate and mentor them.

Once again, we strolled across the concrete stones and the marble floor to the other side of the house. The blond man followed us, silently, accompanied by the same two men who had waited for us.

"Thank you for your time." He said and opened the exit door.

Kendra was leaning against the van, smoking a cigarette, the sun hovering over her silhouette. We were at the height of the heat and the wind had calmed down.

"Kendra, can we talk?" Lipa asked her.

"No. You had no right to decide for me. Let's go." She answered and got in the back of the van.

"Give her time," I said to Lipa.

"I know. Let's get going. I hope she cools down over time. She wasn't supposed to find out."

We kept the same seats in the van. The journey was carried out in silence. Lipa was just focused on the road. I texted Kendra halfway along the way, asking how she was, but she didn't answer me.

We went back to Lipa's garage. Once again, the transition was made quietly. It was as if death had fallen on us and no one knew how to deal with the afterlife. Nothing else happened during that day. We returned to our base. I told Tom what had happened but skipped the mission that had been given to us. The day finished with the shadow of all that had happened hovering over our heads.

Chapter XX

Three days had passed since we were at the top of the mountain.  Those were long, exhausting days that emotionally drained us. Besides some missions done to not lose our shape I still had to deal with Kendra being apathetic. She had received several messages from Lipa but ignored them all. She spoke very little to us except during battles or the hours we spent arguing and planning how we would get in and blow up the building, aided by Lipa over the phone. We decided that we were pretending to be fruit transporters, using one of her vans and that someone had dispatched us to that address. We talked about what was at stake. It wasn't just the bullets. It was also the possibility of us finally striking a powerful blow against the Reapers.

It was time. Saturday morning. It was still 9 am when we left the base garage. I sent a message to my mom. I wanted her to know that I was okay and that I was going to visit her the following week. Grey clouds peered through the still overcast sky. The sun was sleeping and so were most cities. Even the rich city was half-dormant with only a few of the coffees open, the lights still not lit, and the places empty except for two or three early risers. The highway was roughly the same. The lamps along both sides were still lit even if no more than five cars were driving alongside us. The grass on the prairie slopes wavered with the wind gusts.

"If something happens to me... I want you to know how much I love you." Maggie confessed as we were leaving that town...

"Nothing will happen to anyone. Cut the crap." Elisa replied.

"What if it does?" Maggie counterattacked.

"Let's try not to think so negative," Victoria said.

"Girls, we're going to make it. Just follow the plan."

"You're very confident," Maggie told me.

"I trust us." I told them, "It's a unique opportunity for us. We won't fail."

They smiled and said I was right. They talked about how easy it would be to get in and out, and how no one would notice us. The truth was that I wasn't so sure. I wouldn't admit it to them, but I was also afraid of what could happen. All it took was a guard to stare back, use the wrong time to go to the bathroom, anything out of the ordinary to catch us and raise the alarm.

Lipa was waiting for us in front of her warehouse. She was holding a cigarette with her left hand. She had black gloves, a scarf, and a leather jacket. The smoke was dancing in the rotten air until it dissipated in the mist. We all came in through the front door. The atmosphere was heavy and scarce. Kendra, Elisa, and Vic took the lead while I stayed behind to talk to Lipa.

"Are you better?"

"Yeah, I don't have time to be miserable either. I had some big business days earlier this week. A huge headache. Let's just take care of this so I can get back into the business."

"Are you going to ignore everything that happened? With your sister? With our group?"

"Our? I'm not in your group. I don't even intend to be. What happened is history. I'm going to help you with this, and then I'm going to go back to my life."

"What do you mean, Lipa?"

"I have had enough. Ever since I started hanging out with you, I've only been getting weaker. It's over. Let's hurry up."

"What about your sister? You're leaving her?" I asked her, as we walked down the hallway that led to the garage.

"To her, I have already abandoned. Does it make a difference?"

"Maybe more than you think," I answered, just before we joined the other girls.

I helped her open the rusty door once again. Only two vans were in the dusty garage. We held the same seats as before. Lipa and I wore white T-shirts and trousers, both with the custom-made fruity symbol in the upper right corner. She had it all mapped out in detail. She was more responsible than usual. There was no sarcasm or all that mischief that characterized her. Just the desire to finish it as quickly as possible. She started the engine and hit the road.

The streets, even in that place forgotten by the rest of the world, were empty. The market had already opened. The little natural light that shone there, at those hours, amidst the haze of the factories, which did not rest even on weekends, was enough to enlighten the whole place. Not even a dozen people headed there while two others left, full bags already in hand. The smell of bread and hot cakes flowed out of a couple of nearby cafes and spun through the air until it reached the van.

"How about a short stop? Just to get us something to eat?"

"Haven't you eaten?" Lipa asked me.

"Yes, but not much. Isn't it better to stuff ourselves with food before a mission like this?"

"Being Hunter has fewer and fewer perks." She said and stopped the van in a nearby alley. The aroma still lingered there but was already very dull.

"I'm going with your sister."

"Don't tell her what I told you. She doesn't need to know. It's better if that's the case."

"I didn't think to tell her. It's something you have to tell her yourself if you have the guts."

"And I do! I just think it's best to walk away without saying anything. It wouldn't be the first time."

"Do whatever you want. I am going to call her."

I jumped out of the van. The wind blew and froze my bones. I could barely move my fingers anymore. Damn it. I had no idea it was going to be so cold or I had dressed up a lot more than a simple black sweater and a black cloak similar to what Ashen had given me. Tom had informed us that he should be healthy enough to leave the hospital within a week. This mission was also for him, to make him proud, to show him that we had not given up. I also wanted to see the building explode. I wanted to dedicate the victory, even if it was a small one, to my father. He who had never given up even when everyone opposed him.

I opened the back door of the van. Elisa was the first to ask what had happened for us to stop so early. I told her I was going to buy us something to eat and asked Kendra to come with me. She was dressed all in black, with eyeliner and dark circles under her eyes, like she was going to a funeral and I just didn't know if it was hers or if it was the funeral of her relationship with her sister.

"I'm going to smoke then," Elisa said.

"Do you smoke too?" I asked her.

"Not really, but I've always smoked before a dangerous mission. It helps me calm down." She answered me.

Kendra and I crossed the crosswalk and entered the pastry shop next to an old tavern with the name written on a wooden sign above the entrance. There were two girls in the corner. They were drinking a cup of coffee and each ate a slice of chocolate cake that was still hot and melting on its sides.

"Good morning, what are you looking for?" A gentleman, already in his 50s, asked us. He had a soft smile with a steel tooth on the bottom of his mouth.

"It's six of those still warm loaves of bread and six of these cupcakes," I told him and pointed to the showcase where there were a dozen vanilla cakes with thin caramel linings and chocolate chippings on top of them.

He bagged the slices of bread and put the cakes in a little box. Then he pulled the Hunters' ATM version out of a drawer on his side. I ran my Hunter app through the code bar and the money was deducted from my account. We thanked him and he wished us a good day. When we left, two young men, scrawny and with visible facial bones, smoked two cigarettes outside the tavern. Their hands were swollen, trembling, and their eyes were empty and lifeless. They had no cheeks and the skin appeared to be being pulled in until there was not much left. It was a sad sight, almost haunting, because I knew that could have been my future if I hadn't been accepted at the Hunters Academy. It wasn't that there was no other job for me, something I could learn to do, it was just that there was nothing that I wanted, not even half as much as I wanted to be a Hunter. And if I didn't fight until I lacked the strength and the breath, for my dream, how could I live my future knowing that it was only the remains that were left of what I had lost?

"Are you all right, James?" Kendra asked me, watching me standing there, with the hot bread bag getting cold.

"Yes, you know I have this habit of getting distracted." I said, "What about you? We haven't had many opportunities to speak these past few days."

"I'm fine. I am only to blame for my sister being a murderer, a gun dealer and one of the most wanted criminals on this continent."

"Do you really believe that?"

"She sacrificed herself for me! She had no right to do so."

"Okay, true, but do you understand why she did it? She wanted all that and you didn't. Don't you think she saved you? Even if she did it for her."

"Maybe, but right now, I don't want to think about it too much."

"You may not get another chance to do it."

"What do you mean by that?" She asked and looked at me, her black eyes scrutinizing my soul.

"It's a risky mission, and something could happen to one of us. We shouldn't go in there with regrets or unspoken words."

"And since when did you become a cheap philosopher?"

"It's one of my many sides," I answered and came up to her. Our cold breaths, whitish as ghosts in the daylight, intermingled. I placed my free hand on her back and drove her close to me. I kissed her cold lips and bit them before I walked away, "for good luck." I told her before I headed to the crosswalk.

I still heard her trying to stifle her laughter. She followed me and we returned to the alley where they were. Maggie and Victoria were sitting on the van floor, at the edge of the back door, Lipa was smoking her cigarette and Kendra was about to finish her. Only Lipa was prepared for that cold weather.

"Damn it. You could have warned us that low temperatures awaited us here."

"I didn't think I'd have to. We won't be spending much time in this area either. Is everybody ready? Let's get going. There are some blankets in some of those containers, and the others contain fruit."

I looked inside. Dozens of sealed boxes, according to her filled with fruit, covering the entire ample space. There was only a small square of free space, at the bottom of the van, where they had settled.

"Are we seriously taking fruit?" I asked Lipa.

"Of course. You guys are new at this. What if they decide to peek into it? We can't get caught that easily, can we?"

"What if they see us?" Vic asked him.

"Why do you think the boxes in the entrance are taller? At most, they'll check to see if they have any fruit. I guess they're not going to look in the whole van."

"You think so?" Vic asked again.

"This is no exact science. James will text you when we get there and you'll move a few of the boxes to the middle. It should help to cover you up."

"Couldn't we do this at night?" Maggie asked, "By the way, speaking of the cold." She said it and snapped her fingers. A drop-shaped flame sprang up in her hand. We all got close to her except Lipa. The breeze heated up as we rubbed our hands and felt the heat grazing our faces.

"There was only this delivery scheduled for today. It was our only chance." Lipa answered. She tossed her cigarette on the floor and stepped on it until the smoke dissipated, "Let's go."

We stayed a few more seconds by the flames, and Lipa had already climbed onto her seat and slammed the window by my side.

"We better go. We can do this. It's going to be all right." Vic said. She sighed as she climbed into the van one more time. The others followed her. I went to my seat and we got back on the road. Lipa spent the whole trip with her eyes on the road, sometimes appreciating the hills and rows that flanked both sides of the road, but never looking at me.

"We're getting there." She said after making a detour to a campsite, where a road led us into a forest in the middle of nowhere.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" I asked her.

"Yeah. What better place to have an illegal lab than a place like this? Hidden from the general population?"

"You're right, but in the middle of a forest or whatever this is? It must have something to do with their master scientist's pet mania."

"What are you talking about?" Lipa asked me.

She drove through the forest's zigzags, past dead trees, dull plants, and even colorless bushes. Dozens of thick wires traversed the entire forest from one end to the other. Whatever they were leaving along the way, probably radiation, was killing the surrounding wildlife. A forest with greyish trunks and a rotten smell stretched for tens of meters. I took advantage of the trip to explain to her why all beasts looked like insects, mentioning, over and over again, how strange it was that there weren't any animals in the area. Not alive, dead, or even mutated by the smell or the radiation. There wasn't a living soul out there.

"Strange, but it makes sense," Lipa answered me.

"I even understand him. Not the whole world domination but the part of surrounding himself with animals when he had no one else." I told her, " I had never been through what he went through but we all had lonely moments."

"I assume so." She said, straining away from the conversation, "Look, there."

Chapter XXI

Ahead of us, just meters away, was a lab stretched over vast yards. With its rectangular shape, oval white roof, and a car entrance on the far right, the laboratory existed in a world of its own. Nature had no domain there. Science overlapped wildlife. The sea of trees stayed behind and made room for the gravelly soil. The road widened in two directions; one for those who worked there and the other for people like us who were only there to deliver supplies. There was still a solar-panel park. The sun shone there, the golden light changing to a silver shade reflected on the iron gates surrounding the entire laboratory. There were two well-armed men in dark green uniforms supervising the gate. Lipa stopped near them and waited for them to meet us.

"Fruit?" One of them asked. He was bald, tattooed and kept his arm shrunk and the gun up to his chest while he was talking.

"Yes. You can confirm that if you want." Lipa answered him. Her voice didn't tremble. Neither her fingers nor her legs. She lied easily without taking her eyes off the man.

"I need to do it." He said and asked us to get out, "Open the back door."

I slid the door and strayed away from it. Sun rays snuck out among the clouds and brightened the van's interior. The security guard peered inside and didn't suspect a thing. Then he pulled out one of the boxes, opened it and chewed one of the green apples. A trail of saliva ran down his chin goatee.

"Good shit. I'll take this one." He said and put the lid on top of the box. "Come on in."

"Wait." The other man, who had a pimple on his lower lip and an unshaven beard, said, "We must search you."

"Is it really necessary?" I said, "We don't have anything that's not allowed."

"That's up to us." The man said. His partner was delighting himself with the apple. He hadn't even peeled it off.

Luckily, Lipa had warned me that that could happen, and we had hidden our weapons in a secret compartment under the floor. The man groped me from my shoulders to my knees and did the same to Elisa.

"Watch where you're touching me." She repeated it while he roamed through her body.

He returned with the other man to their cabin, still chewing the apple, and with the gun by his hip.

"Too bad we can't eliminate them now." Lipa said, "Oh, well, let's do this."

"You like this, don't you? The adrenaline rush, the possibility that you might have to kill someone?" I asked her.

"I take no pleasure in killing someone. But when it must be, it must be. If I don't shoot first, the other person will. I can't hesitate." She said, driving down the asphalt road that led us to the lab basement. Two muscular men, wearing yellow overalls and blue shorts, were waiting for us at the entrance.

"Wasn't this supposed to be empty?" I asked Lipa.

"Shit. Yes, it was." She replied.

The men were walking towards us. The tip of the leather boots stepped on the concrete floor and the sound propagated throughout the warehouse. There were only shelves, empty boxes and vehicles for the supplies. Every step they took was like a pinch in my heart, the strings pressing it until my heartbeat was nearly nil.

Even though I wasn't sweating, a drop slipped from my forehead to my left cheek. My heart was racing even faster. I already had my hand by my gun when Lipa tapped my shoulder and nodded her head.

"I'll take care of this. Act normal." She said.

I didn't like to be in her hands, but she was the expert there. I couldn't risk the whole mission because of my ego. One of the men knocked on her side window and she rolled it open.

"Yes?" She said.

"We're here to help you with the cargo." The man said. Her partner was just a few feet away from him, staring at me.

Lipa opened the door, got out, and walked around the van.

"Isn't he coming?" The older man, with his untrimmed sideburns and wrinkled skin, asked.

"He has to call our boss and let him know we're here. He was afraid we'd get lost. But two strong men like you can do this without his help, can't you?" She asked them.

"Yes, of course. We don't need his help for anything!" The youngest replied, clenching his hands and flexing his muscular shoulders in front of her.

She laughed, played with her hair, stirring through the threads, and leaned her ass against the van's wall. She leaned her back to further accentuate her ass and the men looked at her, nearly drooling, lost in her hookup web.

"Can you begin? Please? I don't want to be late." She said, in her typical high-pitched voice, like a baby who needs someone to take care of her.

They went straight to work. They took out box by box while she pretended to polish her nails. As soon as they both got into the van to take out a few more boxes she took out two pink metal bars with the round edges sealed from her pocket and hid them behind her back. She smiled at the men again as they unloaded the boxes on the floor, stretching their backs to her. She walked up to them, and on the way pressed a button on both spears, which lengthened them until they were the size of her legs. They didn't even have time to turn around and see what struck them. She hit both on the head and they fainted on the spot, tumbling over the boxes and shattering them, the apples and pears rolling across the warehouse floor.

As Kendra told me, her sister knew how to use several weapons.

"You can come out of there." She said, by the back door, "You brought tape, right?"

"Yes, I came prepared," Victoria answered her and, from the brown handbag she had attached to her waist, she removed the tape and a pair of scissors.

"You've come more than well prepared," Maggie said and laughed.

I took a deep breath before I jumped out of the van. It was time to take matters into my own hands instead of standing back and watching them happen.

"Arrest them and cover their mouths. We better put them in that room. I think it's the pantry. I doubt anybody's going to come in here and be suspicious."

"Yes, boss," Maggie said and winked at me.

"Now I understand why Ashen wouldn't like to be called that. It's weird." I said it.

"You should get used to it," Maggie said, "I'm glad everything's going well so far."

"Yeah, but we can't stick around. We must hurry before they ask themselves why we're taking so long." Elisa said.

Kendra already had a piece of tape on her hands and glued them to the men's skin and lips while Vic used it as if it were a tattered rope tight enough to hold them there. I grabbed them both by the collar, dragged them down to the pantry, whose Maggie door had already opened, and tossed them in. Lipa and I took off our uniforms and kept them inside the van.

"Through that door, right?" I asked Victoria. Even though we all memorized the plan, it was up to her to know every detail.

"Yes, the first one is red. The next one's the white one, second on the left." She answered me.

We were ready. As a group of superheroes, and even anti-heroes, who were about to venture out knowing the likely consequences, we made our way through the concrete path, climbed the two small slopes leading to the door and stopped before we opened it.

"Keep your weapons close." I warned them before I opened the door and peered, "Nobody. We can move on."

A lengthy corridor with several doors on both sides, illuminated by five lamps, and with a dustbin at the main door entrance, right in front of ours. It was a double blue door with an iron bar in a corner and a paper in the middle stating "Pull, not Push." We stepped into the corridor, turned right towards the desired door, and sneaked into it. We knew there were no guards in that hallway. Not since he was rebuilt. The plant Poe had given us had all that information.

It was an old corridor with a flashing light, almost blown out, the walls covered with advertisements from years ago and smelled as if someone had died there a long time ago, but the smell had prevailed. That hallway led to an old bathroom. It was only used by a few former employees who had become accustomed to it or by young people in emergencies at times when the rest of the toilets had someone. No one had cleaned it in months. There were rolls of toilet paper unrolled over the floor that reeked of piss. Two of the cubicles had the door ajar and the third one was open and had hand-shaped shit marks on the wall.

"Now what?" Maggie asked.

"Well, according to the plants, there must be some passage over here." Vic said as she banged the tiles until she finally hit a hollow one, "Okay, here. We have to break this wall."

Lipa saved one of the metal bars, stretched the other and began tearing down the wall.

"That way we'll take too long. I've got an idea. Elisa freeze the whole wall, even the filaments in between the tiles."

Elisa stepped forward and put her hand on the wall. Within seconds, threads of crystalline blue sprang out of her hand pores and scattered across the wall until it crystallized and was frozen. I didn't even have to tell Lipa to come forward. She handed me her metal bar and took hers out of her pocket. Together we started digging the wall until fissures burst in the ice and the whole wall collapsed. Pieces of frozen rock fell apart on the damp ground and, ahead of us, the tunnel they had tried to hide during the renovations. We crossed over to the other side. It was a pantry; brooms and buckets were leaning against the wall in the opposite corners and there was also a crate of lost belongings. The light was off, but Maggie had raised a flame small enough to enlighten the place but not to draw any attention to us before we got out of there.

"Left now, right?" I asked Vic.

"Yeah, first door. But be careful, there must be two guards out there."

"I'll take care of that. Stay here." I told them.

I raided the lost belongings box and pulled a jacket out of it. I wore it, straightened it and peeked into the hallway. A guard on each side as expected. I stepped out of there as if I belonged to that place. I even whistled and sang like I didn't care if they saw me.

"Excuse me. Who are you?" One of the guards asked me. They both started moving towards me.

I was patting the inside of my pants pocket with two fingers, "I'm one of the scientists. Don't you recognize me?' I answered him.

"I've never seen you around here before." One of them answered. They had the same dark green uniforms as their colleagues in the lobby, "ID, please."

"Oh, you're asking me today that I forgot about it. You really don't remember me? Not even you?" I said and looked at the other one.

He seemed a little confused. He was a cross-eyed man in his 30s with dandruff on his eyebrows, "I've never seen you around here..." he said and looked at the other man who had to be his superior.

"I'm not going to ask you again. Identification. Now." The older one said.

Both of them had already gotten close to me and had me surrounded. That was exactly what I intended. I couldn't beat them from afar, but up close it didn't seem that hard to me. We had trained handicapped hand-to-hand combat hundreds of times over the 3 years at the academy. I could see their movements in slow-motion; how they put one foot before the other while walking, their hands swinging close to their bodies, the youngest of them blinking an eye, and the guns shape under their sweatshirts. As soon as one of them stretched out his hand to reach over my shoulder, I dodged it, twisted his arm and kicked him in the face. In less than five seconds one of them was already down, whining about the pain, while the younger one looked at both, not knowing what to do. I don't think he was ever placed in that position before. He didn't even defend himself when I hit him with a right hook in the stomach. He wriggled, still on his feet, but a well-directed punch to his chin was enough to knock him round to the ground. The older one was still stirring his fingers and I noticed that his hand was getting closer to the inside of his trouser pocket. I kicked him in the face, and he got unconscious as well.

"You may leave. These two are done."

The girls left the pantry and Kendra, with Vic's help, locked the men there. They took out the comms they both had in their pockets and gave them to Elisa so she could freeze and tear them apart. Maggie melted the lock so no one could help them. Our exit was a different one.

"So far, so perfect," Maggie said.

"I don't believe it," Vic said, "is that what I think it is?" she added, staring at the glass walls.

If on one side the wall was light blue and standard, on the other side the wall was made of thick, transparent glass. There were dozens of human beast skeletons rows, two scientists assembling one of them and three armed guards protecting them. Instead of guns, each had a Hunter's gun; one with a gray and blue ice glove, one with a brown and black earth glove, and the other with two small crossed swords fastened to the rear part of his trench coat.

"If they release that into the world, we're doomed." Maggie said and a flaming ball swelled in her hand, widening in size until it covered her face and the squints bounced to the ground, "we have to end this now. While they least expect it."

"Take it easy. Leave them be." I said, "Let's not get carried away. If we're going to blow this place up, we don't need to go in there and do the killing. Let's stay calm."

"Get down, quick! Before they see us." Elisa said.

We were so distracted by the apocalyptic sight, imagining what it would be like if a hundred human beasts were to leave with the mission of ruling the world, that we didn't even think that if we could see them, there was a good chance that they could see us too, and we couldn't risk being caught.

We crossed halfway down the hall on our knees until Lipa grabbed my pants sleeve.

"I know this voice. Oh, fuck. It's the albino. What the hell is he doing here?" She said, "Don't move."

"The albino? You're serious, right? Are you sure?" I asked her. His presence there didn't anticipate good things in our favor.

"Of course. I wouldn't forget his voice. We have to hurry. If he sees us, we won't have time to get out of here."

"Is he that good?" Elisa asked her.

"Yeah. Not many people are better than him in hand-to-hand combat." Lipa said, "Let's get going."

We were a third of the way there when the albino answered a call. At first, he just mumbled a long "HM..." until it was finally his turn to talk. His voice was like an age-old haunting, a memory that I had buried in a vault at the bottom of my memory but that someone had opened it and let it loose.

"I'll be there tomorrow. Prepare everything to my liking. Yeah. Yeah. The chubby one they captured in the assault on the base? No, he's with me. I've been holding him captive in a warehouse in Gendrana. Yeah. No. One week before I start my attack. We are now taking care of the final details. I won't admit failures, Shimmer. A new era is about to begin. Don't let me down." He said.

Vic had her phone recording everything while we strived to breathe without anyone hearing us. Kendra almost sneezed but Elisa held her nose before it happened. Only the pounding of our throbbing hearts seemed to override the Albino's voice. He was still on his cell phone. Scientists were still dropping metal pieces on the table and picking up others, attaching them to the human beast's body shape. There were different leg formats, arms, heads, and even different skin tones. They were so realistic that one of them could walk among us and we wouldn't even have the faintest idea. It was the scariest thing, for me, to know that I could have confided plans or something personal to a beast who smiled and hugged me while holding a false smile and at the same time shared everything with the Reapers behind me. My knees and arms were already aching from dragging them across that vinyl floor.

"We've enough. Let's move on. Hurry, hurry, hurry. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can try to save Gordon."

"I have a bad feeling about this." Maggie said, "I don't like this."

"Are you afraid that your father is here too?" I asked her. We whispered our words so no one would hear us.

"Yes, I hope not. It was the last thing we needed right now. Besides, my dad can fight, too. He's great at fighting with nunchakus with poisoned tips."

"How do you know that?" Kendra asked me. We were still crawling along the floor. We were already near the gate that was going to give us access to the whole laboratory's technology infrastructure.

"I saw old videos of him. When he was younger in fighting tournaments. My father always believed that in order to have a good mind it was also necessary to value the body." She said.

Elisa opened the two-grey doors and, one by one, we all went inside. It was dark except for the blue and red wires that glowed and the computer screen where there were programs running that I had never seen before. A mishmash of letters, numbers, and punctuation that arose on the screens and were replaced by others at a dizzying speed. Victoria pulled the explosive out of the bag and handed it to Lipa. She scheduled it to explode in 20 minutes and hid it between two high-caliber towers.

"Let's get out of here." She said, "Hopefully we'll blow up the albino and it's one less problem we have to deal with."

I wanted to smile, to celebrate like them, but something within me was telling me that it was too early for that. That weird feeling that something's about to happen. A creep on my back as if someone was whispering behind my ear and humming for me to brace myself. I made sure I had my gun in my holster and signaled that we should get out of there. As it was in Poe's layout, there was an emergency exit in that room. A long corridor that carried us within a few seconds to another part of the laboratory, one that was supposed to be empty and that was supposed to have direct access to the warehouse where we had left our van. I looked both ways again before we walked into the new hallway. It was like the other one, but both walls were identical and half the size. There was only one red door on the right side and there was a "flammable" sign on it.

"That must be where they weld the pieces," Maggie said.

"A few more minutes and it's all going to blow up. Then you'll have your bullets and I'll have my information and the pleasure of slowing down the albino." Lipa said and there was that glow she had behind her eyes when she thought or spoke of other people suffering. It was something that made her stand out from her sister. Even if they both had icy hearts, Kendra's still had a tiny flame inside her.

We were so close to getting the mission done. Vic kept repeating that we were two hallways and three doors away from the basement. Vic and Maggie were leading us, I was in the middle with Kendra and behind us were Lipa and Elisa. Vic's palm pulled the door forward, but she failed to move to the other side. She let the door shove her back and bump into us.

"Damn it. Vic, what are you doing?" Elisa asked her.

"They... People... On the other side. We have to run!" She said, her voice trembling, her eyes bulging like she'd seen the devil.

Chapter XXII

"What do you mean by that? People? Vic, wake up!" Elisa told her, swinging her around by the arms but without getting a reaction from her. Vic was pale, the color faded, and her lips were disjointed, but nothing came out but a slight swallow of the cake scent we had all eaten before.

We all had our eyes on the door. The atmosphere got heavy. A few strands of my hair adhered to my forehead, and my armpits dampened. A force pulled my feet against the ground and my toes trembled as I touched the trigger's cold metal. Someone kicked the doors so hard that both doors opened like an angel spreading his wings. The sound spread all over the corridor and drowned out the sound of our steps as we retreated.

On the other side of the door was the albino whose legs were in a perpendicular angle with the two swords boy beside him.

"Run!" I screamed.

But as soon as we turned around, we ran into the other two soldiers. Their arms were extended next to their bodies and they seemed to be waiting for the albino's orders. He laughed as he walked towards us, followed by the other boy, who had already removed the two weapons from his back and dragged them across the ground. They scraped on it and ripped it, causing the metallic sound to travel, and echo in our heads.

"What do we do now?" Maggie asked, "Do we fight?"

"We don't have much choice. Get ready." I said, and I removed my gun from my holster. I had the normal bullet's barrel forward and wouldn't hesitate to shoot. I never thought that the time would come, just a few months after I became a Hunter, that I would ever have to put into my head that killing someone was the only way out. Vic took the bow from her back, placed three arrows on it and pointed them at the albino. Maggie already had a fireball in her hand and Elisa had pieces of stalagmite hovering over her glove. I pointed the gun at the swordsman, Lipa lengthened the two metal bars, and Kendra unfurled the whip, prepared to fight like all of us. The albino didn't have a gun. Time was running out, and we could not see a future in which we would get out of there safely and undamaged.

"Good to see you here. It saves me a round trip." The albino said, "Lipa, it's been long since I've seen you. All I have to do is finish you off, and no one's going to oppose me when I subdue the entire black market. Good things happen to those who do good."

"With who do good? Do you believe that? We don't do good. Don't fool yourself." Lipa answered him.

The moment was a dance waiting for the music. All that was needed was a step forward, a finger slipping in the wrong time and shooting an arrow or a bullet, and all hell would break loose in that place. There weren't any walls or glass that could hold us there. It was hard to deal with the death of several scientists, let alone the possibility of blowing us up. I already had other people's blood on my hand, and I didn't want mine, much less theirs.

"Depends on the perspective. The world is rotten, and it needs to be reformed. All corruption, pain, everything needs to be eradicated. Criminals killing good people in wet alleys that smell like shit. I'm going to end it all." He answered her.

"How many good people will die to reach your perfect world?"

"As many as necessary. I see it as a sacrifice, and somebody's got to do it." He said, "Fortunately, Damien showed me the way. A world where no one is judged. A world where whoever causes evil is automatically eliminated."

"What if someone makes a mistake? What if somebody else does the wrong thing for somebody else? To protect her?" Kendra asked.

"For each other's sake, they must suffer. Damien taught me that."

"How could you let him manipulate you like that?" Lipa asked him.

"The clock is ticking," Maggie whispered.

"Manipulate? Not at all. He supported my entire growth without ever asking me for anything in return. He knew I'd understand, and that I would see the evil in the world." He said, "Well, this minute's conversation was good, but it's time to end it. There's no way a couple of kids like you can defeat all four of us."

"Four? I don't think you've come prepared to fight," Lipa replied. As he tilted his head and giggled like a madman, she whispered to us, "Get ready. This is going to get complicated."

"I don't need guns to fight," he said and put himself in combat position; with his legs bent and fists at chest level, "gloves and shoes made of acix." He said and signaled us to approach.

We had been in several fights but never against humans. It was something totally different. They could fight back in seconds, mold themselves to our attacks, but above all, they could be unpredictable.

Before another word was said, Maggie's fireball flew across all of us, at high speed, towards the albino. None of the other three men moved. All it took was a powerful punch, from the albino, in the center of the blaze for it to disperse into hundreds of sparkles. A warm breeze flowed down the hall and past my lips.

"I'm a little disappointed. A set of old acquaintances for an ending so... Unsatisfactory." The albino said. The acix protection that enveloped his hand had acquired a bright orange color with red contours.

"Old acquaintances?" I asked him.

"Sure. Lenetius' daughter. I haven't seen you since you were a kid." After placing both arms close to his body, he said, "and you... Elisa and the boy, did you think I wouldn't remember you from the bar? That I don't know you took my letter? Or that you, Elisa, had been following me for weeks? I'm sorry you weren't there to watch its havoc." He said it and laughed in a strangled way. He was loving that moment. Enjoying our anger, fear, despair, all mixed up in messy movements; from the frowning of our eyebrows to the writhing of our lips, to our rosy cheeks. It was a blending of emotions that were hard to control. Even I, proud to keep them under control, now found it difficult not to react to his provocations. I wanted to make him suffer even though I knew it was a path with no return.

"If you knew I was following you, why didn't you ever act?" Elisa asked him.

"Two minutes have passed," Vic whispered.

"I told you. I wanted you to burn with them too. Didn't they tell you that a lot of them were carbonized? Hunters and criminals were mistaken for equals. At the very end of life, we are all mortals." He said, "Finish them off. Try to spare Lipa."

The fight began. Colors popped up in every way. The swordsman smashed Elisa's ice into small pieces at the same time as Maggie's fire burned one of the other men's wooden spears. The other boy, probably the youngest, with spiky hair and light blue eyes, was flinging ice marbles. They tore our clothes and cut the skin open until it burnt to a crisp flesh. I joined the fight. I was reminded of all the lessons I'd learned at the academy. I pulled my golden gun out of the holster and bullet after bullet shattered the ice before it even reached us. The ground whitened up until the ice melted and turned to water. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kendra and Lipa fighting the albino. Both trying to strike him with the metals, but he used his arms and fists to defend himself whenever he couldn't get away. It was all happening at the same time. In that narrow corridor where the temperature was constantly changing, the walls were freezing and burning and the floor was covering itself with ice, spark scars and blood. Time was running out. There was no clock nearby, but I couldn't shake off the constant tick-tock that echoed in my mind.

The ice boy tried to freeze the ground under our feet, but Maggie punched it with her hand shrouded in flames. The ice burned and liquefied itself on the ground. Before she could even get up, a thick trunk burst from the ground and slammed her right into her chin, tossing her against me, and I held her before we both fell.

"We're not going to make it out of here, are we?" She asked me.

The other girls were still fighting. Victoria fired arrows in different directions forcing everyone to pause for a few seconds. They never reached halfway point, but they bought enough time for Elisa to pull herself together and generate more ice. The albino had thrown Kendra to the ground and now Lipa was dealing alone with him and the two-sword boy. She was losing ground and was already fighting practically on her knees.

"I hate to do this, but we don't have a choice. Let it all go, Maggie. All the anger you got in there. All the resentment. Release the flame."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, they shouldn't be expecting it. We must take advantage. Time is running out."

She closed her eyes. Her breathing slowed down. A red glow surrounded the entire glove and her blond hair tips reddened. A flaming chain unrolled, arising from the air like a braid being made, and hit the ground, vaporizing the water and fogging the corridor.

"Let's go with everything! Get on top of them!" I screamed. We weren't going to give up. We still had about 15 minutes, and we just needed an opening to get out of there...

"Come on!" Elisa said, "Vic, same as always. I've got an idea. Let's show them how we work as a team."

Vic prepped the arrows, and Elisa froze the tips. The three arrows blasted open through the fog towards both glove wearers, and just before they got there, Elisa snapped her fingers. Chains of ice burst through the tip arrows and, like a hug, wrapped the two men. They had their flanks blocked and three arrows ahead of them. The earth boy raised a wooden wall that shattered the arrows, but the chains did not dissolve, and fastened their hands to their bodies, extending also to the gloves and frosting them. They became useless, which angered the men even more, and started uttering insults and shouting uncontrollably.

"Two down. Now what?" Maggie asked, still with the fire chain in her hand, the flames spinning around half her arm.

"The chains won't last long. Take care of the other two. Quickly." Elisa said, holding hers.

I looked the other way. Lipa was on the floor, with the two pink metal bars hanging in front of her face, protecting herself from the metal swords that scraped on them. The metal collided with the metal and sparks splattered over the floor.

"We have eight minutes. Quickly." Vic repeated.

She already had three more arrows in her bow. Kendra had grabbed her whip, flung it at the albino and pinned his foot. She tried to keep him still, but all he had to do was lift his foot and she followed along, being greeted with a kick in the face. Blood dripped from her nose as she tried to escape him while he chased her until there was no longer any wall.

"Don't even think you're going to touch her," I screamed and fired an acix bullet. The bullet spun along the way, opening a path through the whitish air and lodging on the albino's shoulder. He was tossed through the air, striking the doors that had already closed once more and opening both.

"You're going to pay for this!" He said, on the floor, with his hand on the opposite side of his shoulder, staunching the blood.

Victoria shot the three arrows at the only man missing, and he sliced them mid-air with precision and ease. Amid the turmoil, all I could see was Maggie pulling her arm back and throwing her flaming whip in his direction. The chain stretched, eliminating the laws of physics, and behaving like a thick flame she could maneuver.

"Don't stop!" Elisa yelled at Maggie, "Let's get out of here, come on. While we can. I'm not going to be able to hold this much longer. They're freeing themselves." She said.

She was right. Small branches were emerging in the hand of the man with the earth glove and were clogging the ice. They squeezed it until the ice cracked, just moments away from tearing it to pieces. I ran to Kendra and helped her up, but she could stand alone. Then I did the same with Lipa. Both were hurt, but they weren't wounded below the waist.

"Maggie, throw him down. Now!" I screamed.

Her eyes turned blood red. The flames around her arm got all worked up. The chain receded and hovered in the air, half to the left and the rest upwards. The entire upper part was shaping, the chain unfolding to both sides until a dragon's head with a curly mustache on both sides and thick eyebrows surfaced and made its way across the air. It penetrated the man still with his swords crossed up in front of his chest. His clothes burned and dissolved, his face was singed, and the man dropped to the ground, totally inanimate.

"Run!" I screamed as loudly as I could until I could feel my vocal cords twitching.

We ran into the other corridor without even looking back. The ice chains had been broken. Uneven pieces of ice crashed into the ground. The albino still grabbed my pants, but I shoved him till he got out of the way. We were already amid the second hallway when we heard his terrifyingly scary voice, "Kill them. USE ALL YOUR POWER. IT'S AN ORDER."

"We can't stop now. Come on, we're almost there."  I told them. I ran almost sideways, always looking back, seeing if someone was following us.

When we walked past the last door, I looked back and saw the two glove wearers at the previous door.

Their eyes about to leap out of their bodies, the blue veins bulging in their arms and one in the ice boy's neck, their fists clenched and their clothes damp. The fun was over. Now it was serious and we didn't have 10 minutes to get out of there.

"Come on. Don't stop, keep running." I told them. I fired five regular bullets before I turned around and started running, too.

From afar I heard the bullets crashing into an ice wall. The casings froze, landed on the ground and snapped. We were only one hallway away, and my heartbeat was louder than ever. Even the walls that surrounded us appeared to have one, and they too battered and forced the walls to narrow, leaving us with no room to run together and to breathe.

I promised myself I'd just look back one more time. The earth glove wearer had his hand on the ground. His fingers trembled, tapping on the floor, until he lost balance and leaned against the wall. I thought that he had run out of strength, that the anger had triggered something in the glove, anything but what unfolded before my eyes. Dozens of small wooden spears with sharp, light-brown peaks shattered the floor. Like a boat sailing in a storm, the spears sailed forward, tearing the ground along the way, destroying anything that dared to get in the way. They moved fast and only the man's giggle by the wall could keep up with them.

"Maggie!" I screamed.

As soon as she saw what was coming, she fired three huge fireballs. They didn't do anything. They banged on the sharp points and split. But Maggie didn't give up. Her wrist was already scorched, and her knees were shaking. She summoned dozens of flaming arrows and ordered them to burn all the wood with just a swaying finger. We were already smiling at each other, about to celebrate, when the arrows crashed into thick ice walls. The wooden spear boat didn't stop. All it needed was a chimney and black smoke, with a putrid smell, blackening everywhere it passed to be confused with a real boat. Elisa tried to freeze the wood, but it didn't work. It was as if the Titanic had destroyed the iceberg in a few seconds.

"What do we do? We can't get to the door before it gets to us." Vic asked.

"There's only one solution. Take down the building. Hurry, now. Aim for the roof." I said it. The wood was just meters away from us.

As she walked, Maggie was already wobbling, raised a fireball the size of her hand and flung it against the ceiling. Victoria shot three arrows, and Elisa fired ice spears. Small explosions ran through the ceiling above us. It collapsed in front of us, obstructing the wooden boat's passage with scraps of the material it was made of. But it didn't stop there. The whole place started to fall apart. Cracks zig-zagged across the walls until they imploded, increasing the pile of debris in front of us. The wood was still trying to drill through but encountered some difficulties.

"Let's just get the hell out of here," Elisa said.

We ran to the basement. Nothing had changed. Our van was still there, with the white coats inside and no sign of any more guards. Lipa and I got in the van, and the other four girls returned.

"Step on it," I told Lipa.

Chapter XXIII

She took off, putting us on the path to get out of there. She didn't even stop at the gate. She drove straight through it, carrying it for a few meters until it fell, and the van ran over it. The van bounced but quickly Lipa took control of it and speeded up throughout the forest.

"Are we safe? We did it!" I told her and smiled at her.

But as I looked at her, I noticed that her eyes were flickering, her right hand was barely holding the steering wheel and her left hand was inches above her left hip. I asked her what was going on and she showed me a blood-covered hand.

"Something struck me." In a weak voice, struggling to stay awake, she said, "I can handle it. It's all right."

"Get in the back. They can take care of you."

"No, I can do it!"

"I'm not asking you, Lipa. Let's make the switch."

She grumbled but ended up stopping in a hidden place with a vast landscape of trees. I opened the back door and explained to the girls what had happened. With Kendra's help, we carried Lipa to the back and Elisa took her place.

"Shouldn't it have exploded by now?" Maggie asked. It was still possible to see part of the lab's white roof amidst the different shades of green.

"A minute and a half to go. We have to get out of here before anyone sees us. The guards must be looking for us." Vic said.

She was right. We each went to our seats and got out of there.

We were on our way out of the forest when a loud noise broke out for miles. Through the rear-view mirror, I saw the laboratory on fire, minor explosions happening at different spots until the whole complex collapsed on itself and was nothing more than a mixture of ruins and a black powder balloon that rose to the skies. Once again, the desire to celebrate grew inside me like a buzz that didn't shut up. And yet, I still couldn't. Not even a smile. Innocent people had died there. Maybe they weren't genuinely good, but they didn't deserve to die. There was a slight difference between what we had done and what the albino had done with the council. I knew that. I knew that while he had done it to seize the power, we had done it to save the world. But none of this changed the fact that we also had blood on our hands from that moment on. It took about two months, but I was no longer the boy with grandiosity lusts of yesteryear. I no longer lived without a sense of what was going on in the shadows, without knowing how close to the end of everything we were. There were still a lot of questions to be answered. Would that be the only lab with human beasts? How long would the destruction delay them? Had they all died? The answer to one of them scraped off the glass when we were already on the freeway.

"It's the albino!" Elisa shouted, "Damn, but won't he die?"

"They must have come after us and escaped. Can you slow them down?" I asked him.

"Not much. They're getting closer." She said.

They were in a red convertible, drifting away from the few cars on the road, and getting closer to us. The albino was firing a semi-automatic into the air and the two-sword man was firing at us. The bullets were going in all directions; one broke my rearview mirror, some pierced the signs along the road and some punctured other smaller cars which ended up losing control and crashing into the metal sides of the road. It was a high-speed chase and we were driving a gutter. My cell phone vibrated. Message from Maggie asking what the hell was going on outside. I called her and put her on the speaker.

"The albino and the guards are alive. They're after us." I told her, watching the pointer going from 80 an hour to 90.

"I'll help you."

"Stay there. You've used too much energy. We'll take care of it."

"Are you sure? It seems to be tricky out there." She said, the sound being drowned out by the bullets.

Now they were both shooting at the van. The earth glove boy seemed to have a wood-hardened wrist, but I wasn't sure from afar. I assumed that the same thing that had happened to Maggie was happening to him. He overloaded his own glove and the body was suffering the consequences.

"Hold the wheel," I told Elisa.

I stayed away so she could put her hands on it while pulling my gun out of the holster. I leaned against the window and fired an entire bullet magazine into their vehicle. One of their bullets still scratched my shoulder. Still, I had more aim. They were swamped with anger and I was only thinking about surviving. There was no room for failure. One bullet broke one of their mirrors, another punctured the hood, and one blew one of their tires. The open-top car began to deflate, whistling along the way, and losing control on the road. The left side scraped off on the metal road dividers until it lost its color and only the original grey remained. My phone's vibrated again. This time it was a message from Elisa. Just an address that I quickly typed into the GPS. Drops of sweat barred my vision. I yanked my hair back and wiped my forehead with my sweater sleeve. They were still on our glue. The ice boy filled the holes in the tires with ice strong enough to roll down the road. We were 10 minutes from our destination, but it could be an hour. There was no difference in the time.

"I don't know how we're going to dodge them." Elisa said, "Hell, this is not how I expected it to end."

"What the hell are you talking about? This is not the end of us. At the most a beginning in which we have the advantage over the Reapers for the first time." I said, "Do you remember the fight against the human beast? It also seemed to be our end, and we survived. Now it's all the same. Put that glove to work. You're not going to tell me the great Elisa doesn't have a trick up her sleeve, are you?"

"You're right. Damn it. No way I'm giving up." She said and we switched places again.

I was driving and she was on her side, with her hand outside the window, a thick stick of ice stretching diagonally until it reached the road and frosted the tar. Their car swerved backward, and as a result, we earned a few minutes' advantages.

"Excellent, Elisa! That should be enough to throw them off." I said it.

We were two minutes away from the town where Lipa's address was. The hearts quieted down, and the mind took the opportunity to finally rest.

"I have no idea where this place is." She said, "Lipa does have hiding places everywhere."

"As long as we're safe there it could be at the end of the world," I said and breathed deeply, reclining on the seat.

I drove down the highway and got off at the second exit of a roundabout. A ghost town arose on the slope of a mountain. The sun couldn't get there unless it was at its highest peak and there were still two hours before that. An everlasting shade covered the city from one end to the other, shadowing the depressing concrete-walled buildings and the old church, which was nearly colorless in the city's heart. There was no one outside. A few men in black suits with white lapels watched us from the parapet. I didn't think it was normal for them to have guests.

"Are you sure this is it?" Elisa asked me when I stopped in front of the church.

"You can see for yourself." I told her and put the phone in her hand, "This is the address."

We get out of the van and open the back door. Once again, I helped Kendra carry Lipa until we got her out of the van. She was pale, the blood varnished her dark clothes and dragged her voice as she told us to go inside.

"Come on. The blue door."

I wrapped her hand around my neck and helped her walk until we entered the church. The gold-plated walls had images of saints and angels engraved on them. Dozens of stools lined up allowing access to two small stairs leading to a stage where there were a microphone and an elliptical ceiling. Any sound there, no matter how low, would travel throughout the whole building in seconds. The place was lightened by clusters of three candles on four shelves, two on each side.

The blue door was in the lower left corner. A four-digit code was required to enter.

"2,4,1,2" Lipa said.

"Is your code my birthday?" Kendra asked her.

"I..." She started but ended up spitting blood, begging for help just with her eyes, "I needed... something that I wouldn't forget."

We traversed the old stone corridor until we reached an oval space with three different exits. Dirty water dripped from the shredded ceiling and a failure straw between the walls let in a veil of light that embraced the depths where we were and the damp ground, with puddles, where we stepped.

"Now what?" Vic asked her.

"Middle one. Black market." She said.

"Black market? Let's get into the wolf's den!" Maggie answered.

"Well, at least they won't be looking for us there," Elisa said.

Lipa seemed to be getting heavier by the minute. I kept carrying her down the new corridor; narrower and the ceiling was arched. At the end of the track, there was only a purple and violet silk tapestry.

"Behind," Lipa said and this time spat even more blood, the red dripping from her chin into her clothes.

Vic and Kendra deviated the silky curtains, and, behind them, a totally different world stood out in all its splendor.

Chapter XXIV

Neon lights hovered in the air and dozens of voices erupted in the parallel streets, mixing until everything sounded the same. From there we could see the dozens of tents and tables where the vendors had guns, items, everything and anything else, and a banner indicating the promotions. We couldn't waste time on any of that.

"Now what? Lipa, just a few more seconds. Where are we going?" I asked her.

Her eyes were almost blank. Her head dropped under her body and she faded for a few seconds.

"That house... there. Key, left pocket."

It was a house at the bottom of a skewed street, on the opposite side of where the confusion stirred up. All the houses there had windows with steel protections and the doors covered with thick metal. Men with bad aspect, scars, and yellow smiles, were like statues in front of some houses.

We arrived at the door that she had pointed us to and I knocked about five times until a hoarse voice asked who we were.

"Open..." Lipa said and passed out in my arms while the person was still opening the metal door. It glided across the floor, making no noise at all.

"Lady Lipa!" The man said, scrolling through our faces, "Who are you? What happened?"

"She's her sister and we're... friends? I guess so, yeah. We got into a mess and she got hit. She's the one who sent us here." I answered him.

"Come on in, quick. Has anyone followed you?" The man asked. He wore round-bottomed glasses and a brown leather polo shirt next to brown trousers with over-marked linings. His lips were covered with lipstick and his nose shifted to the right, "lay her on this table. Come on, hurry up."

"We lost them. Nobody followed us." I told him, and with Kendra's help, I laid Lipa on a marble table in the kitchen.

The man disappeared into the house corridors and came back seconds later with a young man. He had tattooed arms, a piercing in his right ear and a dark beard that covered half of his face. In his right hand, he carried a first-aid bag which he placed on one of the chairs by the table.

"Follow me." The older man said. Underneath the light one could see that there were already some white threads between the dark brown hair and one another on the eyebrows.

"We're not leaving her here."

"Don't worry. I can handle this easily," the young man said. Despite the blackness of his hair, he had a strangled voice, "20 minutes and she's as good as new. She just needs to rest."

We looked at each other. We didn't feel comfortable leaving her there, but there was nothing we could do either. We were doomed to wait. We all followed the man, except for Kendra, who stayed in the kitchen. The older man took us into a room on the second floor. A room with several sofas scattered around it and with a view over the entire black market.

"They can't see us here."

From that room, I could see practically the entire black market. The streets were like labyrinths and the buildings were all the same size except for a palace on the highest slope. The man explained to us that it was from there that the albino tried to govern the black market but to no avail lately. There were more and more factions uniting against him and his guards no longer dared to go beyond the walls surrounding his house.

"A war is coming and it's not going to be pretty. Who would think it would be a good idea to collect money and try to imprison criminals?" The man asked rhetorically, "You can stay here. There's food in the fridge downstairs, and I'm making lunch in a little while. I'll call you then." He said and left us alone.

"Now what?" Vic asked.

"We have fulfilled our mission. We have to get the bullets and Lipa needs information."

"What about Gordon? Now we know where he is." Kendra asked.

"Let's save him, of course. But, first, we need to arm ourselves properly. It must be a well-protected place."

"We did all right now," Maggie said.

"We almost blew ourselves up..." Vic answered her.

"But we didn't do it." She said, "My hand still hurts." She added and took off the glove, dropping it on one of the couches. She had scars on her hand, but they weren't as deep as last time.

"We've taken an important step today, but we can't stop at this. There's plenty to do. Vic send that recording to Tom. It'll be useful to them... this time they can't make excuses."

We ended up having steaks with mushrooms and crayfish. The afternoon went by fast. The hours were passing but the light never changed. The city didn't rest or sleep. Even when our cell phones claimed it was 9:00 p.m., the voices on the market were making themselves heard. Drunk men and women staggered through the streets, knocking on doors, dropping bottles on the floor and stepping on the shards.

By the end of the night, when all the other girls were asleep, two in each room, and only I had stayed awake in the room, thinking about everything that had happened, Lipa showed up at the doorstep of the living-room. She was wearing a skirt and a bra with a bandage on where she had been injured.

"Don't think I'm going to thank you for what you did. I'd make it on my own." She said.

I laughed before I answered her, "I didn't expect you to. I'm glad you're okay."

She came up to me and sat next to me on the couch.

"The albino won't stop at that." She said.

"Do you think he'll lose control?" I asked her.

"Yes. I know I have my limits, but his I don't know. I don't even know if he has them." She said, putting her hand on my leg, "We got something to finish, don't we?"

"What about the wound?"

"Are you calling me weak?" She asked, and we got into a staring contest.

"Me? I wouldn't dare." I answered her and grabbed her hand and put it in my groin, "Now what?"

"We stop talking." She said and kissed me. Her lips tasted like cotton candy and she had a soft perfume all over her neck.

Chapter XIV

She laid me down on the couch and got up. She grabbed a remote control on top of the small bookshelf only with alcohol bottles and upon pressing one of the buttons, blinds descended and covered the windows of the outside light. She then pressed the only purple button on the remote and the night tumbled over the room. Only two violet bars above the fireplace brightened it. Her silhouette moved across the shadows like a luminescent spectrum. She lowered my pants to her knees and kissed the outline of my erect dick.

"Shit. This hurt. Just sit there." She said it and I did it.

She got on her knees in front of me and lowered my boxers. My dick slapped her in the face, and she giggled. She let the tip slide down her face until it scrubbed her thick lips. My heart was beating like crazy and my body was heating up. I had been waiting for that moment since I had met her. She wrapped her hand around my dick and her lips on the tip. She swung her hand from the bottom to the top and kept licking the tip, her tongue twitching sideways.

"Don't stop," I told her, biting my lip to control my moans...

She drowned in my dick. Her throat filled quickly, and, within seconds, she was gagging until saliva flowed down the corners of her mouth and dirtied the fluffy carpet she had placed under her knees. I placed my hands on the back of her head and pulled her down even further. I still locked my legs around her head until she couldn't breathe because she had my dick in her mouth. Her eyes moistened while she scratched my legs with her long nails. I tilted my head, spread my legs, and let her do her job on her own terms. She was hot, gazing into my eyes for the whole time she was sucking me off.

Finally, she sat on my lap. Our bodies merged as I moved mine up and she swung hers down. I laid one hand on her ass and the other on her back and I pulled her towards me, her tits against my face, the nipples in my mouth.

She moaned in my ear, the warmth of her breathing making my hair curl. Even my legs trembled every time her ass rested on my legs, just to go back up and down again. Blood was filling her bandage. What started out as a red dot was now a bloody square that expanded to the four corners. I was sure it didn't hurt because of the adrenaline that was running through both our veins.

We remained in that position for a few minutes until she turned her back to me and leaned her body against my chest. She rubbed her own pussy while I was leaving my fingerprints on her tits.

Nothing else crossed my mind but the echoes of her soothing moans. I couldn't take much more. I finished up inside her and we stayed that way for a while. The sweaty bodies piled up and us in silence, the violet lights flooding the room and shining on the walls.

Only after a few minutes did Lipa step off and lie on the couch, with her head on one of the couch arms and her legs on top of mine.

"You have to apply the bandage again," I told her.

"Don't worry about it. I'm okay. I'm okay. You don't really think this is the first time I've gotten hurt, do you?"

"I presumed it wouldn't. We need you strong to help save Gordon."

"Save who? That's your problem. I told you I wasn't part of your team," Lipa told me, without taking my eyes off me.

"Still with that? If your sister hated you as much as you think she wouldn't have gone to your side as soon as the battle started, would she?"

"That was a family instinct. It's not real. Besides, I have my own problems. Albino's going to burn the entire black market if he has to, to find me. I need to rule the factions. Somebody's got to do it." She said. She had her hand on the bandage as she landed her feet on the ground, "you yourself know this wouldn't last forever. It's time to be realistic,"

"I was hoping I could count on you for a while longer, but, yeah, you're right. We're on the same side but on different endpoints," I replied. Her eyes were light brown under the colored light, "so this is how it ends, isn't it? You against the albino and us against the Reapers."

"We face the same evil, James. I'm still going with you to Poe and then you're on your own. I can provide you an undercover van, but that's it." She said it and got up. She picked up two glass glasses from one of the mahogany tables and a bottle of liquor from the bookshelf. She filled both glasses and handed me one, "Things will only get worse from now on. The days of walking around pretending everything's okay are going to end. There will be no room for indecision or to stand aside."

"Aren't you being too serious?"

"I wish I could. When you're in this business for as many years as I am, you learn to read certain patterns. They won't hide. Instead, they'll rush everything. If they have any more human beasts available, they're going to launch them into the world now. They will unleash chaos before Shimmer is arrested, before the albino is defeated, before people's fear of them diminishes."

I took a break. I wasn't sure what to tell her. It was hard for me to admit that she was right, that nothing would get better, "Let's go to war, shall we?"

"Yeah. And you better be ready. I don't want you to get hurt, none of you to get hurt." She said and drank the whole glass, "There's something you need to know. Elisa's parents... I know who they are."

"I thought she told you not to..."

"I've never been good with orders, have I?"

"What did you find out, Lipa? And how come you never told her?"

"First, you need to know that I had no idea how important her father was, and when I found out, I realized it was better not to tell her."

"Who the hell is he? Or them?"

"I'm sure you've met him. He's one of your organization's leaders. Aldrin, if I'm not mistaken. I have no idea who her mother is. This is the most I could find. I don't know why they even gave her up for adoption."

"I've met him, yes. I don't think he'd do something like that, but I suppose people are more than they let on."

"James, we all withhold secrets. Even you, right?"

"Some. Nothing serious. I once cheated on an academy test," I said, and we both laughed, "I saw what secrets they can do to people, how keeping something just for them can destroy them, I didn't want to be like that anyway. Change begins with us, doesn't it?" I said, "We should go to sleep. We are going to have a long day tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, the next day and the day after," Lipa told me.

We drank until we fell asleep. She lay on the couch with her head on my lap and I leaned against the couch. She was right. The war was about to start.

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Space Harem