Time seemed to stop as the gadget flew through the air and landed right next to Cyan and Yata. Neither of the two had time to react as it released a burst of electricity around it, making direct contact with the two, while it also spread to the servers behind Yata. All the servers in their room short-circuited with a loud sound of crackling electricity, followed by another lower yet new sound of fire.

This was the least of the damages though. The other two fighters had received more damage from direct contact with the Static controller. Yata crashed into the floor, unconscious from the shock he received and the energy he expended during the fight. On the other hand, The static had caused Cyan to release Yata, as the effects of the gadget affected him gravely. Nonetheless he seemed to be faring better than Yata.

At a first glance he didn’t look that bothered by the gadget, but Shindo now knew a bit more on how his enemy reacted: his eyes were strained. He was in pain. And soon enough, the effects of the controller took place. Parts of his body fazed in and out of Shindo's sight. It was disturbing to see, but nothing Shindo wasn't used to.

In a panic, Cyan tried to check on the small flash drive he used before the fight. As Cyan took it out, Shindo’s lips twisted into a demonic grin.

"You..." Cyan slowly said, trying to regain his composure. His shaking hand still had the fried flash drive, however, his haywire abilities forced him on one knee. "Do you know what you just did?"

Shindo shrugged, his grin widening, yet he had to remain attentive. to suppress a grunt from coming out. He had used more energy than he had expected. What a frightening foe.

"I just lost all the results of a three-month stake-out," Cyan muttered in rage, trying to stand back up.

"Like I believe you took that long," Shindo rebutted, "From the way you killed the guards and the way you broke in, I would guess it took two to three days tops."

"Bastard!" Cyan cursed, as he finally managed a forced attempt of a fighting posture.

"So, the Agent stands!" Shindo mocked, still, from the corner of his eyes he glanced at the unconscious Yata. Good. Cyan's whole attention was on him.

"And he will fall back down from where he came!" A new voice caught the attention of the two remaining fighters. Both fighters turned to see a man with piercing grey eyes leading a group of six guards behind him. His styled grey hair flared with his anger. His business casual attire showcased both his formal demeanor and his seriousness. Mardav Hellent himself has appeared.

Silence filled the room as Mardav angrily surveyed the results of the fight. His eyes went from Shindo to Cyan, to the crackling servers, finally stopping on Yata.

"So, these are the bastards that have been killing my men." He spoke calmly, placing his hands on his back.

"I don't have the time to deal with this." Cyan muttered,

“Oh he–” Shindo moved to intercept the agent, but Cyan was faster than him at the moment.

"Rowena, Sheryl and Mark, capture him alive," Mardav commanded. Three of the security guards dashed past Shindo in hot pursuit of Agent Cyan.

"Now then, to the other two bastards that screwed over my place, or at least to the one still awake, do you have anything to say for yourself?" Mardav asked. Shindo slowly stepped in between Yata and the new party.

"What are you going to do to us?" Shindo asked. He leaned his head towards Mardav, making his grin look lop-sided.

A sigh escaped Mardav's mouth. "You'll be coming with me, and I'll question you on why the hell were you on my property, and then I’ll determine if I should let you go or not."

"What if I don't want to go with you?" Shindo asked back, defiant. An annoyed smirk crept up on Mardav's face as he put his hand under his jacket. The three guards behind him prepared themselves for an attack. Shindo holstered his polearm and brought out two RTCs.

"Guess I'll have to take you two by force then." As if on cue, the men behind Mardav launched towards Shindo, who spun the top of his controllers in preparation to fight again. However, he knew that this was an uphill battle. The fight with Cyan had drained a lot of energy from him. He truly was rusty.

Shindo gave one last glance towards Yata, just to check if that bothersome idiot was fine. He laid there on the floor, his chest heaving up and down, up and down. A scoff escaped him as he dodged the first blow from one of the guards. How ironic, that throughout this whole mission they have both been hostile to one another, but now, Shindo was the only crumbling wall defending Yata from capture.

His forced grin deepened as the other two guards closed in for a two-man shove. Shindo dodged, and dashed straight towards his newfound enemies. If they were going to capture him, he would give them hell.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

When he opened his eyes, Yata was laying down in a dimly lit street he barely recognized. He groggily stood up, holding his head with his hand. He barely recalled how he clashed knives with the Agent. Part of him remembered the constant pressure throughout their whole altercation. Another part of him remembered how Wattz gave it his all just to give him a few small windows of relief. Yet, he was sure of one thing: he let his emotions take control of him, and… he fell straight for Cyan’s trap. After that, he was here, laying on the barely familiar dimly lit street.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The Cat Hero took a while to gather himself, before he took a look at his surroundings. He was certain this place was somewhere in Vermillion Blue City, as he recognized both the architecture and the poorly-maintained streets. However, he wasn’t sure in which sector he was. The street was as simple as they came, and there were no street-signs or points of interest to help find where he was.

Yet… why was it that he felt oddly disturbed to be here?

"What's this?" A familiar female voice echoed through the street, "A little black cat lost in thought?"

"Who i—" Yata turned around in search of the voice, but he stopped mid-word. To his shock, he was greeted by a very familiar woman in a green and yellow costume. Her face was covered by a fitting yellow eye mask, which went well with her auburn hair and forest green eyes. He breathed, his knuckles tightening at the sight of this woman.

“Of course it’s you, Felix.” Yata sighed, before he started chuckling dryly, "As if my day couldn't get any worse."

"Don't be like that, kitten dearest! I'm just strolling around!" Felix said, raising her hands in mock surrender. "But it’s curious to see you here of all places. What brings you to Red Avenue after so long?”

Yata tried to talk, but his words got stuck in his throat. Red avenue? Of course he recognized this. He hadn’t been here since… well since that day. In an attempt to escape, he turned away from the heroine, and started walking away.

"Yata?" She asked, worried. Guilt washed over Yata as he dreaded what he was going to say next.

“You aren’t real. This–” Yata declared, stopping to motion to his surroundings, “This isn’t real. Especially, because you died years ago!”

"Sadly for you, we both know that this moment is real," Yata felt a hug from behind him. But it burned. It singed his skin, burning him to the soul, as the weight of the woman fell on him. It was heavy, however, he let the warmth envelop him. It was nostalgic, calming. Yet… He knew full well what this place was.

“Please don’t touch me.” He muttered, his voice quivering, “Not after what I did to you.”

“And there you go again, pushing away people and hiding yourself in your spite,” The former heroine said, “You truly can’t accept what happened?

Yata remained silent, but the heroine continued, “Six and half years, and you still don’t want listen to what I told you! That’s why you can’t see how you changed.”

“I haven’t become anything!” Yata replied, black tendril spreading around him.

“Lies!” She exclaimed, releasing him from the hug. Violent images of Green and Red erupted from Felix and circled around him in an angry spiral of emotion. It spread like a fire. Surrounding him as if he was the eye of the storm. It crept up to him, but he had nowhere to run.

“You forgot your vow Yata. Again. Felix's voice slowly started shifting, turning more masculine in nature. “What was it that you promised yourself that day, Thirteen?”

Yata clutched his head as the voice penetrated deeply into his own soul. “I–”

“WHAT WAS IT?” Screamed the voice, now deeply rooted in his head.

“I–, I–” He tried to talk, but he couldn’t find his voice. Flashes of a recent memory flooded his mind. An insult that had spawned anger in him:

"... Not only that, but you bailed on me and then threw me after I helped you. Is this how you treat your allies? By throwing them?" Wattz had said. Yata gritted his teeth at that.

More flashes of memory invaded Yata’s thoughts, each causing him a new pain. He could never forget that smile. The smile of his leader dying in his arms. Nor how cold her limp corpse felt. Another, his other teammate, was on her knees beside him. She screamed for her leader. She screamed for blood and almost blinded her eyes. And then he heard another scream unrecognizable to him. Followed by the manic laughter of the victor. Followed by the dying breaths of the woman. Followed by a vow never to be forgotten.

Felix spoke, anger glowing through the voice, “You vowed to care. Care for yourself. Care for others. Yet look at you now: twisting your beliefs to satiate your own pitiful spite. You misguide yourself with pettiness, masking it as caution. The same "caution" that led to you being called Thirteen.”

Yata almost screamed in pain, but he bit his tongue. It amazed him that he was still standing. But, he could not continue facing this. Not again.

In defiance and with guilt, he mustered everything in his power to get his small clover necklace. Black tendrils of misshapen electricity surrounded him, but he felt no feedback from his limiter. He struggled and struggled, and soon he got it out of his pocket, gripping it tightly enough to draw blood.

And with the sudden burst of pain, the dream cracked. The street started falling apart, and the whirlwind of emotion started to take the form of Felix. He unconsciously tried to reach out to her, but she pushed his hand away.

“Don’t you dare forget,” She threatened, as a devious smile appeared on her lips. She dissipated into nothingness while he woke up.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

“Uggh, goddamn nightmares,” Yata muttered, as he tried to open his eyes. He tried moving his hands to rub his eyes, but he found them to be tightly bound behind his back, along with a stinging pain on his palm. Alarmed, he shuffled his body around, where he also found his legs were tied up.

“What the hell…” Yata muttered, his movements growing more frantic.

“Oh, you’re awake,” A familiar irritating voice entered his ears, “About time.”

Yata stopped momentarily to focus his eyes at the source of the voice, “Wattz?”

“In the flesh,” Wattz answered, yet Yata noticed his smirk was more strained than earlier.

“Where are we? What happened to you? To us?” A barrage of questions left the cat hero’s mouth as he tried his best to assess where they were. His eyes were slowly adjusting to the room, but he still couldn’t see that well. He only saw the blurry green figure of Wattz sprawled next to him on the floor.

Wattz coughed a chuckle, “Well, what do you expect? We both got captured.”

Yata’s eyes widened for a second before he let out a sigh. “We failed then.”

“Everyone failed, Yata,” Wattz replied in an admonishing tone, “But us two, are in the worst position.”

“And you couldn’t be more right, Wattz.” Another voice said. Both heroes snapped their heads towards the voice, only to find two figures sitting in front of them, and one of them was very familiar.

“Mardav Hellent,” Yata said. The gravity of their situation finally weighed on Yata. He had failed completely. He had screwed up.

“Mr. Hellent, a pleasure,” Wattz spoke up. Mardav frowned.

“I can’t say the same for you two, Members of The Crisis Nemeses,” He leaned back with a frown, “Now, what exactly were you doing in my property?”