The morning after the party the house is virtually silent. Most everyone is asleep recovering from the night prior. The only one awake is Youta who is running laps around the facility. After a while he heads back inside and heads up to Nathan’s room and boots the door, almost taking it off the hinges.

"Aha, you are asleep,!” He shouts, “Now it is time to wake up and train!” Youta belts out a large high-pitched screech that is almost inhuman. Nathan leaps to his feet startled by the man's screeching.

"Youta, it’s 5 a.m.”

“Exactly! It is the best time to train as everyone else is asleep. While they sleep you get a head start! Let us go!”

“Ok fine, but if you spend the entire morning beating me down I’m not training anymore.”

He gasps. “You threaten to quit training? That is almost the worst thing you could say! Let us go young, we must train now to work off that mistake.”

“Joy.”

Downstairs the door to the lab opens and Hinako and Lobra walk out. It appears they did not go to sleep the night before. Hinako walks into the kitchen and takes a cold slice of pizza. “I guess we missed all the fun.” She says somberly.

“Ah yes, but they will be glad we missed it when they wake. This tech is marvelous.” Lobra says patting the young girls shoulders.

“Yes it is. I cannot believe you had the last piece of research I needed to make that combat stim work. Thank you for allowing me the honor of working next to you.”

“Oh don’t flatter me; if not for your abstract usage of biometric material we would have never got that done. You really are smart for your age.”

“Maybe, but I am truly curious how this will influence them. If the jump in power is as exponential as my hypothesis this could really give us the edge over the masked man. It isn’t done but still we can likely have it done within the week.” As she is saying that Mike walks down the stairs. “I knew you’d be up soon. Always early huh?”

“Too much work to do to sleep in. You look tired? Did you stay up late?” He Asks.

“I’m still staying up right now. Me and Lobra have made a massive breakthrough on my project.” She says excitedly.

“That’s great to hear. Did you guys get any food last night?” Asked Mike.

“No, I didn't leave the lab. But it’s okay. Don't worry about me.”

Mike pulls out his phone and types for a minute. “Well happy birthday I got some on the way for you. You guys relax for a while, you’ve earned a rest. When everyone wakes up, come get me and we can showcase your new tech.” Just as he says, King Polar and Lena walk in from the back porch. “I guess we aren’t the only ones awake here. Rare for you to be up this early Lena. What gives?”

“Well Bear Man was telling me a story last night and I just had to hear the rest,” she said.

“Tell a story.” The bear man says proudly:.

“Oh a story? And what happens in this story?” Mike humors the man.

“I win a surfing contest,” the bear says waving his arms.

“Believable”

Lena Laughs. “He reminds me of an old friend I used to have who was a talking monkey.”

Junpei walks down the stairs holding a cup of coffee. “I used to have a friend who was a talking monkey.”

“Same monkey Junpei. Always has been.”

The few members of the team that are awake sit at the dinner table and converse while waiting for the others to wake up. A few hours pass, and as they do various people wake up and arrive in the main room. As the last person trickles in, Mike and Piers stand up.

“Hey guys I hope everyone got a good night's sleep. I also hope you guys had fun last night. I know it wasn’t much but it’s the best break some of us have had in awhile. Now, Piers has a plan.”

“Before that can I say something? I have something I’d like you guys to hear.” Says Lobra. “After working all night I have been able to confirm something and complete a project I have had going for a while. Piers sent me the report on many of your abilities, and I have been working on ways to enhance them. With some help from Hinako I have been able to verify if these work or not. So. As I call your name, step forward! Junpei.”

“Present and ready.” The man says proudly.

“You are a legend, one of the greatest warriors of our lifetime.” Lobra says clearly stroking the man's pride.

“I was, but I’m no young man anymore.”

“Well this project is for you. Should be the first one ready.”

Lobra opens a case with a large power cell in it. “For you I have this one.” She pulls out the battery. She motions the soldier to walk forward and hands him the device. “We created a new cell to replace your old one. The connections should work right off the bat. It will amplify your augments in your legs and arms. Allowing you to utilize them better. This should make you feel a lot more like your old self than you feel right now.”

Junpei lifts his shirt and rips a large old-looking pack out of a bracket in his chest. He slams the new one in and it jumps to life. “It kind of hurts,” Junpei says.

“Side effects happen. Sorry. It will be worth it.”

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

“Now for the rest of you, we have a lot of further work to do, but we can show you the roadmap one on one.” Says Lobra.

Piers smacks the table harshly. “Well, with that over with, let’s talk about my plan.”

"Hey wait I wanna see my power booster?” Yells Brian Dales looking at Piers with malice.

“They weren’t able to create anything for you since you responded to all my questions with answers like “My powers are too cool for you to understand,” not to mention you're not a registered hero nor are you somebody I trust so you don't get priority. Now team listen up." The room stands at attention and listens closely to Piers.

“Here is the thing. We have a group full of strong individuals here, but a lot of us have no teamwork. We need to work on that and we will begin with that today. With the help of Hinako and Lobra to get you guys as strong as possible, and a lot of training we will be ready to attack. So that goes into my plan. We beat him at his own game.”

“Which Is?” Asks Kazuke.

“Kazuke. You yourself said it. You had the man on the run before his goons showed up. While we may be able to defeat the man we do not truly know how many of them there are. Or how powerful they may be.”

“Yeah and?”

“So we hunt them. We ambush his men. One by one. Until only he remains. Then we go after him. With all of us combined we should be strong enough, especially if Hinako’s power scale figures are as good as she assumes them to be. After this serum is given to some of our members, we should have well over enough combined power to beat the man if we play it smart.”

“So, how do you presume we find his men? That’s a bit of an issue. Considering we didn’t even know he had followers until recently, Asked Kazuke.

“We will have to recon him and gather info.”

Reyna chimes in firmly. “That won’t be easy. He isn’t predictable and as far as I know none of us are keen on tracking. Even if we were, he isn't leaving a trail.”

“We don’t need to be. We just need to trick him. He attacked Jerry’s when nobody was there. He knew nobody was going to be there. But I’m guessing Kazuke being there on standby was not what he expected. We need that to happen again but this time on purpose. The next time he slips and he has an oversite. It won’t be just Kazuke there, it will be all of us.”

Hinako inquires, “Are you saying use one of us as bait? Pretend they're alone and when he attacks we catch him?”

“Perhaps. It would be easier to take his men out than him, but as we know they don’t seem to show up without him. With that being said we need a plan A, B, C, and D. We need to be flexible, but most of all we need to be a team.”

“When my old team was together, we learned to do joint abilities, and this group is far stronger and more capable than my old team. If we work on a large combo, I bet we can come up with something strong enough to take him down with or without his team,” said Junpei.

“Exactly if we work together we can beat this masked clown easily. As for right now everyone and I mean everyone goes to the training room. We need to get working on our synergies. If all goes well I’ll buy dinner for everyone again tonight.”

Most of the group save Piers, Leon, and Hinako head down to the training room. The three sit around the table talking and Piers phone rings. He looks at the caller ID which reads "Jill.”.

“Hello captain Piers Evans speaking.”

“Hello Captain Evans, I got word that your little operation moved base?”

“Yes, our old base was compromised so we moved.”

"Yeah, that makes sense. Where is this current base located?”

Piers' eyes perk up and he thinks for a second. “I’m afraid that’s classified. I wouldn’t be able to share any info like that over the phone.”

“Come on, it's just me. You know I understand these things well enough but I need to know so we can assist.”

“The police are in over their heads with this anyway. You don’t need to worry; we will handle it.”

“I understand that and I trust you but I need to be informed. This is my town after all. I took the oath to protect it.”

“Yes, I know, but this is a case-sensitive mission. I cannot share information about it over the phone, even with somebody like you. Sorry.”

“Well then why don’t you meet me? You can brief me there. At least give me the rundown on what we can do to help.”

“I’m not sure. I am not supposed to leave here. I'm on duty.”

“Have Leon hold down the order over there. It will be fine. I’ll meet you somewhere close to you to make it quicker.”

“Alright fine, but it has to be fast and you are only getting the basics. I will fill you in on what we need you to do on your end. Meet me at the Tenjin parking garage in 2 Chome-1-1 Tenjin, Fukuoka, 810-0021 tonight at let’s say Seven?” Piers hangs up the phone and Leon looks to him.

“What's going on?” Asks Leon.

“It was the police chief, she wanted me to brief her on what they can do to help. I’m going to meet her not far from here later today.”

“Do you want me to go with you? We did say to only travel in groups.”

“I will be okay. Just make sure people stay on track while I’m gone. I won’t be long.”

It is now five p.m., and downstairs the entire team is training. In the center of the room a training dummy. Mike lectures the room, leading them through an exercise. Everyone is tired and beat down. “Run it one more time. I think we are starting to get the hang of it.”

“Guess we aren’t a bad team after all. Most of you guys are stronger than I thought,” said Kazuke.

“Well done guys. Very well done,” said Mike.

The group heads back upstairs to rejoin the others. As they do,they notice Piers is missing. Mike motions to Leon and inquires what happened.

“Where did he run off to?”

“Went to meet Jill, gotta brief her on something,” said Leon.

“God damn it didn't we agree to not leave alone?”

“I told him, but he wasn't having it. You know how he gets with that condescending voice.” Leon puts his finger up and makes a snobby face. “I'm Piers; I'm the best driver in my organization, I'm the best shot in the west, I have the biggest brain and the largest ball sack.”

“I get it, but even so, I don't like this.”

****

Piers pulls into a large parking garage. It is virtually empty due to it being on a less populated side of the city. He arrives on the 4th level and parks. Jill is nowhere to be found. He leaves his car and heads up the stairs, and there are nothing but a few parked cars. As he heads to the top he sees one single cop car and he walks towards it. As he gets there the driver door is open but nobody is inside. The loud click of a firearm rings and Piers turns his head. It's Jill with a gun to his head.

“Don’t move.” She says.

“Jill, what are you doing?”

“Shut up and don’t move.” She says.

“Jesus Jill explains what’s going on. What are you hoping to get here?”

“You don’t need to know what’s going on.” A voice rings from the dark.

Piers turns to see who it is, and his face turns from confusion to anger. “I get it now. My gut told me something was off. But I never would have guessed you would stoop this low. What happened to that oath Jill?”

The figure walks closer to Piers all while Jill still holds him at gunpoint. “Now I’m not gonna beat around the bush, gonna get right into it.”

Piers is hit and knocked unconscious. They put him in the back of the police car and begin to drive away.