Broken waves, blackened sky.

“Ugh, I can’t believe it! That arrogant, egotistical… prick!”

I looked to my back, and saw Isabelle, squirming and sitting with discomfort.

“What’s wrong… babe?”

Just saying that sent a shiver down my spine as I immediately started thinking of Steve.

With a sigh, Isabelle explained “I’m worried that Rose is… never gonna find love because she keeps on chasing after men she’d never have a happy and fulfilling relationship with.”

Just stay silent. If you don’t speak, you can’t fuck up your cover.

“But… I also can’t keep myself from helping her. Because… what if he is the one?”

“I… doubt he is.”

“Pardon?”

“He just… doesn’t seem like a good fit for her.”

“500 yards,” a U.S. World War 2 soldier yelled from the back of the boat.

“Still. As Rose says,” Isabelle added, turning around to mouth what to say to Rose, “Everything happens for a reason.”

I… don’t think that’s what that means, Raen said.

Everything happens for a reason…

Look, Rowan. This has nothing to do with… Pemo comforted me.

I had my powers at the time… I could’ve chosen to go with Steve. I could’ve… saved his parents.

You can’t change the past. You made a mistake. But that’s alright. You learned. And now, you have another chance.

“200 yards!”

Groaning, Isabelle turned back around, before complaining “That woman’s never gonna get laid without help.”

…

“If you don’t mind, I’m gonna go talk with the new kid for a minute. Try to figure out if I can trust him or not.”

“Ten seconds!”

I nodded in acknowledgment.

The boats hit the beach, and Isabelle vaulted over the side, and into the water, as I did the same on the opposite side.

When I stood up, the helmet of Luke’s suit started to form, but not before a single bullet hit my cheek, and… bounced off?

Shit. Hope nobody saw that.

Bullets started hitting the suit’s chest, but bounced off it as well. I looked at Steve, who was rushing up the hill with two energy shields, and saw as bullets bounced off his suit’s gut.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

What’s the point of using shields if your suit is impenetrable to bullets anyways?

I began slowly walking to the trenches surrounding the bunkers, the gunners desperately trying to shoot me down, but with no result.

When I was halfway up the beach, I looked to my left, and saw Isabelle getting up from her talk with Steve. She then ran over to me, turned around as she went into a backwards jog, and she gave me a flirty wink before turning around and running into the trench in front of the right bunker.

I took a long glance at Steve, who was entering the trench in between the bunkers, and my heart flipped.

“Luke.”

He was completely tearing through everything… Steve was an unstoppable force, and the objects in his way were merely eggs in comparison.

“Luke! You coming?!”

Shaking my head, I dropped into the trench, only for a bullet to hit Luke’s suit’s helmet, knocking me to the side.

Grunting, I turned to the shooter, only to see Isabelle, with a hunting knife in hand, leap over to the German soldier and stab his neck.

As she did this, the two other men in the team dropped down into the unit, metal tentacles shooting out of the blond man’s metal back, attacking hordes of soldiers trying to get in the trench.

Meanwhile, the brown-haired man unhooked 4 grenades from his belt, and threw 2 grenades each in front of and behind him, as dozens of soldiers rounded the corners of the trench.

“Issac. Dylan,” Isabelle greeted monotony, before shooting a grapple into my back, yanking herself in front of me, and throwing her knife forward through the hearts of three soldiers in a row.

Wait… oh, that makes sense. Issac Smith and Dylan Davis. Though… Issac looks strangely different.

As she went to collect her knife, I looked at the visor computer in Luke’s helmet, at what was the closest I could find to an instruction manual.

As soon as Isabelle got her knife back, I managed to figure out enough of the manual to learn of a “riot control mode”.

With a very short moment of hesitation I thought the words Suit, activate riot control mode.

In response, small bits of the suit fell off, before crawling along the ground, climbing up the walls, and finally stopping with clicking sounds.

A final swarm of soldiers ran around the corners of the trench, just before burst of electricity shot between the chunks of the suit, killing every enemy soldier who dared to face us.

Smirking proudly, and… also for another reason, Issac’s tentacles grouped together above him, slowly forming a ladder to the bunker above us.

In response, Dylan pulled out a C4 explosive and a detonator, and another of Issac’s metal tentacles grabbed the C4 and placed it on the wall of the bunker.

Dylan waited for Issac’s arms to retreat into his back, then he pressed the detonator, causing the bunker’s front wall to burst open; rubble flew forward and pulverized any soldier in front of the wall.

“Damn… you love making things explode, huh,” Issac flirted.

“Eh. Mostly you,” Dylan replied.

“Aaand I’m out,” I said, walking away as the two lovers snickered.

5 minutes later

I laid down on the peak of a mountain, watching intriguingly as Steve annihilated the soldiers in his way. Out of the corner of my eye, I also saw my illusion of Luke, which was pulverizing every soldier around it.

Yeah… Steve’s never gonna love me.

What makes you say that, Pemo asked with concern.

I’m deceiving him, betraying him, and I even took over a man’s entire life.

I’m… sure he would understand.

Not when I’m the son of his family’s killer.

A German soldier, crouching, slowly made his way up the mountainside behind me. But, as soon as he was at the peak, a single spark of red electricity connected between my back and their chest, before they burst apart like a human confetti.

Pieces of brain and spine splattered onto me, but I was too busy crying to notice.

It’s not like I even have a choice to do otherwise. I have to obey my father… he knows best.

With all due respect… that’s bullshit. You’re a grown man.

“Man”… even then, that word… didn’t feel right.

I deserve to die…

Then, I buried my head in my arms, and sobbed. I sobbed with pain, regret, desire, and cowardice.

…

“Steve Berkan has fallen unconscious. Simulation ending for safety,” a voice said, echoing throughout the entire room.

It’s not the actions that make a person, but their willingness to improve.