Hot air burst out the warehouse as Felix stretched out his arms, crackles of blue electricity flowed out his body, “Looks like I’m all healed up for now.”

“You’re going in there, are you nuts?! What are you?! Are you a robot?!” The young man frantically asked, confused to see Felix up and about after watching him crash into the rubble earlier.

“Hey… the person you’re looking for in there… who is it?” Felix asked.

The young man clutched on his own arm, “Oh, um… he’s someone who works here.”

“That doesn’t narrow it down. If it’s someone important to you, it’s in your best interest to tell me who he is.”

“It’s… it’s my uncle.”

“I see…”

“If you’re going in there, then can you find him? Can you save him? He’s my only family left.”

Felix looked at him and remembered the voice of a silver-haired lady with orange eyes, “From now on, yer me brother. We’re a family now.”

Another fire burst out of the building, grabbing both of their attention, “I’ll try, but let’s see if he’s alive first.” He nodded reassuringly as he walked closer toward the burning entrance.

He pulled out a worn-out mask and he put it on before heading into the burning factory. Sparks floated towards him as he walked into the burning building.

The agent cautiously navigated through the smoke and between the crates and burning wooden boxes, but as he placed his hands on one of them, he noticed the markings behind the ash. The smoke was thick and hot, and both the concrete floors and steel beams were littered with shards and other materials.

He wiped off the soot and saw the logo of a black bird surrounded by stars. “Cygnus Enterprise.” He muttered to himself. The deeper inside, he found blood leaking under some of the rubble. His stomach churned as glimpses of his memories resurfaced. A familiar, fiery sight. But he pressed forward, searching for survivors.

A loud crashing noise caught his attention.

As he peeked between the many cascading metal crates that surrounded the area, he saw an old man in a worker uniform standing against a figure in a copper-brown, mechanical suit.

In the old man’s arms was a large, pipe-like weapon, shaped similarly to a cannon, and covered with a glassy circuit pattern.

“You’re making this far too difficult. You see this thing’s power, don’t you?” The man threatened as he aimed his weapon.

“You haven’t been very good at wielding it.” A feminine voice came out of the armored figure.

“Mouthy one, aren’t you? Just give me the suit so I won’t have to kill you.” The old man activated the weapon and it made a high-pitched noise as its circuitry lit up.

The armored figure rushed up towards the old man with a raised fist, but before she could land the blow, it fired – a beam of light burst from the weapon.

The armored figure raised their guard, but their body was tossed against the wooden crates.

“What the hell is that?” Felix thought to himself.

“Wh-why are you doing this…?” The armored woman asked weakly.

“Because…your armor will finally free me from debt.” He answered.

The old man fired another beam, slamming her deeper into the concrete. “It will give me a fortune…”

He fired again, “I’ll finally be able to give my family the life they deserve!”

“From now on, yer me brother. We’re a family now.” The voice echoed once again in Felix’s head. He backed away slowly, but as he did, debris fell beside him, and he let out a startled gasp.

“Huh? Is someone there?” The old man glanced around before approaching where Felix was.

He fired the weapon once again; the white beam tore through the steel crates.

“Argh!” He yelled. The weapon started to sizzle, and electricity formed and crackled from it. The black barrel began to burn him, and he dropped it to the ground. “Blasted prototype.”

He pulled out a pistol and aimed at the armored woman, “Show yourself or I kill her!”

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There was no response.

The old man fired twice at the armored woman’s head. Her head drooped down as walls cracked, and the debris fell on top of her.

Carefully, the old man picked up the weapon again and looked around.

Felix kept his hand over his mouth to keep his breath steady. He extended his hand forward with a focused glare.

“C’mon… work.” He muttered under his breath.

He felt his veins pulsate as heat traveled down from his shoulder, to his wrist, and out of his palm. His black glove started to glow with a thin blue outline. With a crackle from his hand, a shining blue haze formed from the nothingness, amorphous and transparent, swirling in his hand.

A bead of sweat rolled down his cheek and onto the hand that covered it. There was a muffled excitement that escaped his lips, but he kept his attention on the weapon.

With a determined gaze, he kept his aim solely on the weapon. He waited with a stare as a small blue whirlpool spun in his palm.

All the rocks around his body slowly rose up in the air.

Five seconds passed — But nothing happened.

Or rather, not the way he wanted it to happen.

His concentration broke to take in breath, and the spiraling blue shroud dispersed, and disappeared into ephemeral dots.

All the rocks suspended in the air stopped glowing, and immediately dropped back down.

The clatter of stones and debris quickly caught the old man’s attention, and quickly approached where it came from.

As he got closer, he spotted a black cloak and a white mask between the smoke. The old man leapt and fired – another beam burst from the machine, destroying both the cloak and burning a portion of the pale mask, and leaving molten red iron and smoke.

But no one was there.

“What the—?” The old man muttered out.

The cannon began to spark and crackle, and he instinctively dropped it from the shock. A faint smoke emanated from the circuitry. “Damned thing’s already busted.”

The old man dropped the weapon and aimed his pistol once again. “Now… where are you?”

There was another clatter from behind him, and the man quickly turned around, “Hah, got ya!”

Blood spilled with a bang.

There was a bright flash from the skies, and with the loud boom of thunder, the lights in the warehouse followed. Only fires from debris were left to light the darkness.

The man felt something warm trickle down his own forearm. The man’s grip loosened as he felt the hole in his hand, “AHGHK!!”

As he clutched his bleeding arm, his expression turned to dread as he saw cold blue eyes stare at him from the distance.

He quickly made a break for the exit, gasping achingly through the fires and debris.

The cold winds greeted him as he made it outside, along with the sight of a young man rubbing his aching forehead.

“U-uncle, is everything alr—”

“What? What are you doing here?” The old man asked in confusion.

“I was looking for, huh?” The young man looked at the building’s entrance and saw a shrouded figure with glowing blue eyes.

Felix pointed his gun toward their direction.

The young man yelled out; “Wait, no!”

The sky roared with a strike of lightning – and the man fell to the ground.

“Uncle? Uncle!” The young man put his arms around the old man as he cried out against Felix, “Murderer! I thought you were supposed to help people!”

The only sound was the pitter patter of the rain against the cold concrete.

Felix lowered his arm and said, “You’d best get out of here.”

“Not without my uncle.” The young man clutched his uncle’s arm.

Felix placed his hand on his hip and sighed, “You can relax. He’s not dead.”

“Wh-what?”

“My gun doesn’t kill people. It’s only meant to incapacitate them. But the wound in his arm will kill him if he doesn’t get treated.”

“Then, my uncle—”

“Will be taken in for questioning.”

“What?” The young man’s voice was shaken.

“Your uncle isn’t a civilian, he was the cause of the destruction here.”

“What? How? What’s going to happen to him?”

“Sorry, kid. What happens to him isn’t up to me. A team is already on its way here, if you stay any longer, you’ll be suspected and taken in.”

The young man clutched his uncle’s arm, but before he could even move, Felix spoke, “If you try to take him away, I will consider you an enemy.”

“Please, don’t let him die… I don’t want to lose another family member.”

Felix nodded, “Go.”

The young man put down his uncle’s arm and hesitantly stood-up, his shirt covered in the man’s blood. The rainwater drizzled all over their heads.

With a frightened and frustrated expression, he ran, leaving behind his uncle.

“Murderer, huh?” Felix spoke with a soft voice, the blue in his other eye faded. He then pressed into his earpiece once again, “Marie, do you copy?”

“A little busy at the moment!” Maria sharply replied as the sounds of bullets could be heard, all while a voice could be heard yelling out, “Get the fuck away from me!”

There was clearly a shoot-out on her end.

“DIE, FUCKING MONSTER!”

“Call you back.” She said, an explosion could be heard just before she ended transmission.

“What was that about?” He blurted out in bewilderment after the transmission ended before breaking out a slight smile.

Felix returned to the factory and slowly approached where the armored woman lay with a cold indifferent stare.

He then went and picked up his mask, and traced its tears with his thumb, before closing his eyes and placing it behind him, as if to accept the loss.

His eyes quickly opened, however, as he heard a soft whimper.

He rushed towards the woman in the brown, copper-like armor and took off her helmet. The woman went into a violent fit of cough. Between her chestnut brown bangs was a deep-red bruise on her in the middle of her forehead.

“Sorry. I thought I had to call in the Ravens to come clean you up… HERCULES armors are tougher than I expected.” Felix mumbled out as he dug into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle marked with a medical cross.

“Who… are you?” She wearily asked. Her eyes were a bright shade of copper.

“Blue Phantom from the Golden Lion. I take it you’re from Cygnus Enterprise?” He said as he flashed his badge.

“Agent… CT-2…”

“Swallow this painkiller. It’s not much, but it’ll at least numb the pain until we can get you to a hospital.” Felix said as he placed a pill in her mouth. He then pressed into his earpiece “Blue Phantom to HQ, I’ve made contact with CT-2 of Cygnus Enterprise. She is currently in critical condition.”

“Th-thank…”

“Save your breath. The medical team should be on their way.”

He wrapped the weapon around his back using his torn black cloak, and he then put her in his arms.

“Argh, my back!” He grunted out as he struggled to lift her up.

The crackling fire slowly was drowned out by the pouring rain.

He looked up to the hole in the roof and muttered to himself, “I need some coffee…”

~