Regressors. People that have gone back in time as their younger self after experiencing death while retaining all of the memories of their previous life. Only one of the multiple types of irregulars yet the most dangerous one.
Even though they were heroes at first, knowledge of the future is an absolute weapon of unmatched power and thus laws and regulations came to pass, naming all but the first generation regressors as terrorists and punishing them via death to avoid leakage of information to the point of forming a government agency whose job exclusively was to find and eliminate regressors.
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Hans was sitting in an alleyway, fidgeting with his pistol. He was a tall man with silver hair, brown eyes and broad shoulders. He was waiting to be given the target's location so in the meantime he was counting his bullets. He had 2 magazines of regular ammo, 1 enhanced and 6 dragon-tooth rounds but he wouldn't be needing those. After he was done counting, his phone buzzed three times. It was the agency.
"They found the bastard," he said with a chuckle.
He reached into his pocket and took out his phone. He quickly unlocked it using his fingerprint and opened the message of the tracking team. But something was wrong. Instead of a vaguely familiar address or place in the city he was met with his home address.
"This can't be," Hans mumbled, trying to contact the tracking team with trembling hands.
"Hello, Mister Hans. The location of the target should have been sent to you by now." The friendly voice of Jinny, the young newbie of the tracking team, met his ears.
"Jinny, I think you gave me the wrong location."
"How many times have we made a mistake, Mister Hans?" Jinny replied with a giggle.
Hans breathed out loudly and aggressively and slammed his fist into a nearby wall, the brick caving in due to the force.
"Check again," Hans ordered “I won't be repeating myself."
"R..right away, sir."
The erratic clicking of a keyboard could be heard over the phone and it was the only thing that kept absolute silence from taking over.
"The location we gave you is correct."
"LOOK AGAIN!" Hans barked.
"I'm looking at it now. This is the address. Why are you screaming at me?" Jinny said, her voice feeble. It was clear the girl was on the verge of tears.
Hans' phone slipped from his hands and fell to the ground, the screen shattering yet Hans didn't bat an eye.
"HE'S IN MY HOUSE," Hans screamed, his body being covered by lightning, surging all around his body as if he was a tesla coil.
The lightning surged wildly, barely contained around Hans' body. He squatted and then, as if releasing a spring he jumped, covering two blocks with his single leap, the deafening sound of lightning striking filling the entire neighborhood and a scorch mark being left on the ground for months to come.
In mere minutes Hans was met with the front door of his modest apartment. The door was slightly ajar, just enough for him to know that something had happened. The lightning surrounding his body was crackling so his presence was already known. He slammed the door open, revealing his living room. Everything was normal, excluding the figure of a young man sitting on the couch.
"If it isn't Hans Baker. Turns out the work I put into this didn't go to waste," The regressor said with a chuckle. He had bright blue eyes and red hair.
Hans did not wait for the young man to finish his sentence and instead dashed at him, trying to grab the regressor's head. The young man punched Hans in the gut in retaliation as he slipped away from his strike. The impact of the punch was enough to make one of Hans' ribs give way and snap.
"You think I wouldn't know this cheap trick of yours? You're making my job a bit too easy don't you think?" The regressor sighed deeply and snapped his fingers, causing an explosion of fire to erupt next to Hans' face.
Hans barely managed to move out of the way, the flames passing right by his eyes. Suddenly, the lightning surrounding his body gathered around his fist, filling the room with near blinding light and the deafening sounds of a thunderstorm localized at Hans' fist. Hans knew that attacking his opponent using that much lightning would cause the interior of his house to be wiped out but it was what had to be done. He wound back his fist but before he swung at the young man he saw his bedroom door opening in his peripheral vision.
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Hans' eyes looked at the door, and emerging from it was his wife, Olivia. She had stunning blue eyes and long brown hair. She had a confused look on her face as if she had just woken up.
"Honey, what's going on?" Olivia asked in a daze. Something was off.
"Olly, please go back into our room. I'll make sure everything is alright." Hans said as the lightning gathered at his fist dissipated.
"Now, now, is that any way to speak to your wife, Mister Baker? Miss Olivia is pregnant, what would you do if something happened to the kid?" The regressor smiled at Hans.
Hans' bravado vanished and his demeanor grew docile. "I'll let you go. I'll declare you dead. No-one will ever look for you again. I'll even falsify the body. Just please. Leave my wife out of it."
The regressor's face turned sour and his hands were engulfed in raging flames. With a flick of his wrist a ball of flames shot towards Olivia, Hans barely intercepting the strike with his body.
Not having enough time to properly cover himself caused Hans' abdomen to get severely scorched, making him wince with every breath he took. Olivia didn't seem to react, just casually yawning.
"Why are you doing this?” Hans pleaded. “I just promised you a perfect life free of suspicion. Why are you throwing it away?"
The regressor spat on the ground, glaring at Hans.
"You killed my boy. He was barely 20. Last week I was supposed to meet a girl. The love of my life. And two years from now my boy was supposed to be born. Not everything would be easy but we would persevere." The regressor said.
"Then denying my offer doesn't make any sense." Hans rebuked "You get to live with your family again. You're a free man."
"My boy would go to college and the day he was supposed to come back for my wife's birthday you killed him. Apparently he regressed. And you, you jagged fuck, took his life. My wife wasn't the same after that. She lost her mind." The regressor continued, paying Hans no mind.
"I'll leave him alone. I'll wipe him off our record."
"The only reason I remained sane was the hope that maybe I would go back in time too, to get my revenge. But I know that I'll never meet my boy again. Even if I end up with my wife and have a kid again my boy will never be back. I want to show you the despair I felt when I lost my wife and kid. You'll never see your daughter be born, asshole!" The regressor revealed his true goal.
Bang
A bullet went through the regressor's thigh leaving a huge and severely bleeding wound. As the regressor's spoke, Hans loaded his pistol with his few dragon bone rounds and fired a shot. He couldn't use his ability since his lightning had a large area of effect. The trait of his skill that was very beneficial in one-on-one fights became a hindrance when he had to protect someone, or when fighting in a crowd. But Hans didn't need his skill to be competent. He was the most consistent enforcer of the agency for a reason.
The regressor grunted in pain and his body erupted in flames, similarly to how Hans' did with lightning. Hans could feel the extreme heat emanating from the regressor's body on his skin, making it hard to breathe. Yet Olivia didn't seem to understand what was going on around her. She was panting yet didn't move, it felt as if she was in a trance.
Hans turned to look at his wife but in that split second the regressor dashed and grabbed Hans by the neck, the embers covering his body scorching Hans' flesh.
With the flames so close to his face, Hans could barely breathe and that seemed to etch a smile on the regressor's face.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY WIFE YOU SON OF A BITCH?" Hans screamed. His pain receptors screamed yet Hans seemed to somewhat maintain his composure.
"Apparently even an F rank skill works wonders on normal people. Isn't the room a little warm? That can't be good for a pregnant woman." The regressor gloated, his sadistic smile widening, revealing a set of bright blue eyes under the flames.
Hans felt the faint vibration made when something hits the ground on his feet, he turned his head as far as he could and in the corner of his eyes he saw Olivia passed out on the floor.
Seeing his wife in danger because of his own shortcomings caused something in his psyche to simply snap. The despair and anger in his eyes melted away and were replaced by something much more sinister. The overwhelming desire to take away another person's life.
Throughout his career, killing was a necessary evil. The regressors had lived their lives and were meant to be dead yet he never enjoyed taking a life. To be exact, he hated it. But that was not the case that time. The entirety of his being simply wanted the man in front of him to cease being.
With a swift movement Hans pulled the trigger for the second time, causing a bullet to go through the regressor's elbow, severing the tendon and causing the hand holding his neck to go limp.
The regressor screeched in shock and pain, his smile being wiped off his face and the flames around his body increasing their intensity.
Hans didn't give the regressor a moment to breathe and immediately fired another shot at his abdomen, the bullet passing straight through.
Then he aimed at the man's head, really to deliver the final blow but the moment he pulled the trigger he was kicked in the chest, causing his bullet to barely graze the regressor's cheek.
Hans took a deep breath. His body was covered in third degree burns and every miniscule movement of his body was followed by extreme pain to the point that his was wincing permanently.
The regressor wasn't in a better condition. He was losing blood fast, the first bullet Hans shot must have hit an artery. Blood was pooling right under his leg and his face under the flames was going pale.
"At first, when I got this skill I called it ironic. Who would have thought I'd get a skill oh so similar to yours? But now? It's the gift that keeps on giving." The regressor chuckled as fire started to flash over his injuries, cauterizing them, thus stopping the bleeding.
Hans gathered himself and got ready to attack yet again. This time he aimed his pistol at the regressor's heart but moments before he pulled the trigger the flames on the regressor's body gathered into his hand.
Hans knew what was about to happen. It was his attack after all. He knew how to avoid it. But he couldn't. If he were to move a muscle, Olivia would be burnt to a crisp.
A sea of flames erupted from the regressor's palm, aimed right at him. He covered his face with his arms as his body started to char from the flames. Hans groaned in pain but his focus remained intact. He aimed his pistol at the regressor's general direction and fired two shots at the regressor's shoulder. He wanted to aim for the head but he had no way of pinpointing its exact location.
The regressor screeched when he was his by the bullets and the fiery blast was taken off course as the bullets knocked his shoulder back.
"You think you can use my creation against me? Think again." Hans barked as lightning started leaking from his eyes.
In the time the regressor took to lead the flames back towards Hans, he had already closed the distance between them.
The flames started assaulting Hans's body yet again but instead of protecting himself, Hans let his empty pistol hit the ground and reached with his hand and grabbed the regressor's face.
"I got you" Hans said with a pain filled grin on his face.
Hans let out a powerful surge of lightning directly into the regressor's head but in doing so he left himself open. The regressor's eyes widened as he realized that his fate was sealed yet he continued his assault in an act of mutually assured destruction.
-
Hans opened his eyes, meeting a vaguely familiar ceiling. He moved a bit to the side, trying to hug his wife in the morning as he usually did but he instead fell off his bed and slammed his head into the ground.
He stood up slowly and was met face to face with the needlessly large, full body mirror he had bought drunk while celebrating landing his dream job. But that mirror was broken by the moving company when he and Olivia moved into a bigger place.
Hans inspected the mirror but something was wrong. It was his reflection. He looked much younger and his hair was still black. They had turned silver when he awakened a week before his 23rd birthday.
Hans looked at his reflection in a daze. The pieces of the puzzle coming together to one simple conclusion. He had regressed.
"Fuck"