Marlow city, once a bustling city in its prime, now a rustic reminder of the cost of conflict. It's once sprawling metropolis was now lined with crumbling structures, long since abandoned homes and debris all through its streets. High atop one of the builidings, a thin silhouette revelaed itself, peering out across the span of streets and nestling itself on the ledge of the building.

Maple eased herself down to a rest on the corner of the small complex she had ascended, dangling her feet over the edge. She left out a soft sigh, growing impatient due to her role as reconnaissance. A gentle breeze swept across, fluterring her long dark hair over her thin frame. She quickly reach upwards and grabbed onto her bandana, a precious gift from her mother who had long been lost. It was a bright red color, a contrast to her pale skin, and was adorned with the symbol of a Maple leaf. Not only was it precious to her since it was from her mother, it was also one of the few things in this world that she had something in common with.

She gazed out across the distance, eyeballing one of the tall skyscrapers that was still somehow standing despite the damage that both the wars and weather had done to it. What was it previously used for? For her, she had no idea as it was nonfunctional before her time. The only world she had ever known was the dulled and dark world that spanned the globe. There was no such thing as a home, a room of your own, school, everything that the modernity of previous times offered. Her world consisted of a constant fight for survival for humans and Alphas alike.

Maple brought her knee up to her chest and brought her elbow to a rest on it, propping her head up with her hand. She glanced down at the gloves she wore and tugged them firmly, making sure they wouldn't come lose. The metal plates that adorned the top of the hands had become rusted and burned, partially in favor due to her powers. They were slightly too large and casued her fingers to look tiny as they protruded from the cutoff ends. Regardless, she was still glad to have them as they usually helped her prevent breaking her hands. Her enhanced strength was still not something she had fully learned to control.

Maple pushed herself up from the ledge of the building and began to pace back and forth. The call was taking too long to come in. Had something happened? Almost in response to her question, a loud explosion cracked the wall of silence and a dark plume of smoke began to rise from the eastern part of the city blocks. The walkie talkie attached to her hip soon crackled to life and deep gruff voice burst forth from the speaker.

"Maple, are you there? We've run into a bit of trouble." It was the voice of her father, Marcus Wright. Leader of the group Maple worked for, Generation, Marcus was responsible for bringing in food and supplies to the refugees that had taken up residence in Marlow city. Alphas were generally hated worldwide, but Marcus had made a resolution to show the large number of humankind that Alphas were not to be feared. They were once human as well. Sadly, fear had been a hard thing for them to overcome and Marcus still hadn't gained the full support of the refugees.

"Yeah, I'm here. What's happened?" While she was glad to hear from her father, this was not the call that she had been expecting.

"We're stranded. Helix goons have us pinned down and the supply truck has tipped. We can't get it out of here but we can't exactly escape either." Maple could hear the concern in her father's voice. They had been in many a situation before, but that didn't mean that they were used to it. 

"How bad is it? Is Briggs still with you?" Maple had realized that while she was glad to hear her father, she couldn't hear anything Briggs. He had been a long time friend of Marcus back in his service days and had joined Generation when Marcus had started it. A dark skinned male standing 7ft tall with the muscle to back his stature, Briggs could easily intimidate most just from his looks. He had been a huge help in their fight against Helix and the raids they had been on.

"Yeah, he's here. He's just too busy trying to kill as many of Helix's men as he can. How quick can you get here? We're gonna need some support to get out of this."

"Give me fi-no, give me three minutes. I'll be coming in from your east, so tell Briggs to lay off a bit when I come in." Maple shackled her radio back to her hip, then while taking a deep breath, began sprinting toward the edge of the building.

As she reached the edge, Maple sprung forward and spread her arms, diving down headfirst. If one were to witness the act, it would look like an angel of war descending from above. As she approached the ground, she rotated her body to face upright and braced her legs, slamming ino the ground with a hard impact. For any normal person, this would be a death wish, but for an Alpha, the increased stability of their bodies could handle such a leap.

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Maple patted the dust off of her ripped jeans and top, and broke out in a full sprint in the direction of the smoke. With her increased agility, arriving in three mintes should be no issue. She bounced across the abandoned and rusty vehicles that lined the streets, transversing her run onto the walls of buildings to clear debris as neccessary. As she drew closer to the smoke, she could hear the distinct sound of gunfire and shooting.

As she rounded the corner, Maple spotted both Briggs and her father, pinned down behind a cluster of vehicles, smoke pouring from large cargo truck that lay tipped on it's side behind them. On her right, roughly three squadrons of Helix soldiers were bearing down on them. With four soldiers to a squadron, Maple estimated that there were around twleve combatants, if Briggs hadn't gunned down any. They were scattered across the field, taking shelter behind various cars or debris that had fallen from the buildings.

The closest squadron to Maple hadn't noticed her presence yet and were still focused on Marcus and Briggs. Maple clicked the button on her radio, "Dad, tell Briggs to focus on the two squads on the left. I'm going after the ones on your right."

Maple didn't get a response over the radio, but she saw her father look in her direction then motion to Briggs. Within seconds, Briggs leveled his light machine gun in the direction of the two squadrons on the left and opened fire. The two squads were forced to take cover, granting Maple passage to the nearest squadron. She quickly broke into a full sprint.

The closest soldier broke his aim for a moment, and spun to face Maple. Too late. Maple's foot slammed into the soldier's mask, crushing the mask and any bone structure underneath. As he fell back, Maple latched onto his wrist and slung his body in the direction of his comrade. The now lifeless body slammed into the second soldier, causing him to drop his weapon. As he reached to retrieve it, his hand was suddenly obliterated with enough force to crush a vehicle. The soldier screamed out, looking at the bloody mess that had been his hand. Blood was spattered across Maple's gloves, but it was nothing new to her. She retrieved the weapon off the ground, and leveled the rifle at the third soldier of the squadron, and gunned him down in seconds. Without even glancing down, she pressed the barrel against the second soldier's face, and pulled the trigger.

Maple moved up to flank the two squadrons that were left. They were now caught on both sides, forcing one squadron to focus on Maple while the other contested Briggs. Maple ejected the magazine from the rifle she had picked up and checked its round. Twelve left plus one in the chamber gave her thirteen rounds to finish the second squadron.

In a flash, she leapt over the car in front of her and lined up the shots. Three squeezes, two kills. The farthest soldier and closest both dropped, blood oozing forth from the holes in their foreheads. The middle soldier had ducked down to avoid Maple's fire, and raised himself back up to return fire. He was greeted with a crushing blow to his sternum, crushing every rib he had. He hit the ground, writhing in pain and unable to take in air. His gasping could be heard through his mask, but it was had no bearing on Maple's conscience. They had started this fight. She brought her foot down into the soldier's face, ending any hope he had of escaping with his life.

With only one squadron left, Briggs began to advance foward. As he drew closer, the last three men were forced to stay in cover, lest they get shredded by the light machine gun fire. Briggs let out a deep laugh as he keyed his radio, "Sorry princess, these guys are mine."

It was a habit Briggs had developed. He had always referred to Maple as "princess", no matter how much Maple detested it. It was his way of trying to give her a little joy in such a dark and cruel world. Even so, Maple always blew it off with a sigh just laughed it off. She felt like the farthest thing from a princess.

"Sorry Briggs, I'm going to have to steal your fun this time." Briggs wheeled around to face Marcus, but he had already sailed past him. Marcus leaped across the vehicles separting him and the squadron, his army green jacket flailing in the wind. His silver hair looked like a streak of lighting as he bolted out into Maple's line of sight, his black headwrap holding on for dear life. Marcus slid feet first across the hood of the car the soldiers were behind, and landed in the middle of them. With one full rotation of his body, he fired off three shots from his revolver. All three soldiers hit the ground, lifeless.

"Well, that seemed rather simple didn't it?" Marcus' voice reach Maple, and she let out a disgruntled sigh.

She called back to her father, "Are you sure you needed my help? It didn't seem like you had too much difficulty there." Despite her father's age, he could still move faster than Maple than he wanted. All part of being an Alpha.

Marcus and Briggs began walking over to where Maple was standing, Briggs relaxing his gun over his shoulder as he approached. "Yeah, we probably could've handled it without you, but we figured you were getting pretty bored. Nothing like the possibility of death to liven you up eh?" Briggs had a grin on his face that ran from one side to the other.

Marcus flexed back and let out a chuckle, "Not only that, you can also help us get the truck back up and working again. The refugees need those supplies as much as we do you know." With a quick spin, Marcus began trotting towards the truck, which had now ceased it's bellowing of the black smoke that had signaled Maple where to go.

With a shrug, Maple followed behind. Besides, Marcus was right, they really did need the supplies. At least I didn't burn anybody this time.