Pranav had never felt so calm before.
There were no more jokes, no more smiles to keep the mood light. No, tonight was the time for efficiency, for cold steel and shadowed steps.
Killing Remi had been turmoil. Since stepping into the new world, that question of “Kill or don’t kill” had always weighed heavily on his mind. Killing was easy, it was expected, in the Before. Their first had been done out of self-defence, but it didn't take long before they became the attackers.
Didn't help that they had a knack for it, and more than a few powerful individuals had asked for their services.
They complied, of course. Pranav would assume that 90% of the people in the before would have done the same in their shoes, humans were were pieces of shit who only cared about themselves. But here? There were some bad people, sure. But Pranav would be the first to admit that the Grunts he worked with didn’t deserve death, even if it would make their job a lot easier.
But now the leash was loosened, and the identities of Grunts Felis and Sirius made way for the last sons of the old Earth.
He wondered, as they snaked through shadows and old machinery, did Arun know? Did he know how quiet Pran’s mind had gotten since he was given permission? How certain he felt of his actions?
He supposed in the end it didn’t matter all too much. Arun led, Pranav followed. They would have their disagreements, but in the end it was all the same.
So Arun led, and Pranav followed.
“Cameras.” Arun said quietly.
“Keep our faces hidden and keep going,” Pranav said, tipping the hat a little lower. “They won’t know if they don’t see details.”
It was surprising how familiar it all felt, creeping through a place they didn’t belong in. Granted, they’d done it before and failed horribly (mostly on Pranav’s lack of muscles and foresight) but this time they weren’t raiding a facility with over a hundred Grunts, this time it was a factory with only 12.
Easy work.
“I’m picking up four,” Arun said softly. “Humans.”
They’d neared what could only be described as an office within the factory, fluorescent lighting making any sort of hiding useless. There didn’t seem to be all that many doors within the office, from what they could see. Three on either side that probably led to cubicles of sorts, with a final door by the end.
“Where are they?” Pran asked.
“Too far to tell, let’s get closer.”
They walked casually and without fear. It was a general rule that people tended to find nothing suspicious if they were familiar with their environment. From what Omega and Gloom had said, this factory was operating for months without any incident--and here was a cool fact--habits only took two weeks to form.
They passed by a door, one with voices emanating from within. Loud, confident voices, unafraid. Arun mouthed the number three and kept walking. They passed by a few more doors, before his brother nodded towards one that was slightly open.
Pranav could hear a man’s chuckling from within, and he pushed it open slightly to take a peak. There was a man in Chronos uniform inside, his feet kicked up on a table where monitors showed security footage.
But if he was paying any attention to what was going on within those screens, he made no show of it, instead his eyes were glued to a laptop in front of him, the glare of the screen contrasting the darkness of the room around him.
Pranav gave one more look to Arun as his hand slid to the handle of his knife. His older brother stared ahead with an unreadable look, before finally nodding.
He took in a breath, before taking three steps into the room and drawing his knife. The soft whisper of steel pulling free from leather was enough to get the man to look up from whatever he was watching, but by then it was too late.
The knife went in three times. The first pierced his throat so that he couldn’t scream, the second cut the carotid artery so that he wouldn’t find any strength from blood loss. The last brought the man to rest, as he jammed it underneath his chin with a sickly squelch, letting the Chronos Grunt slump into his seat, dead.
“You’ve got blood on your uniform.” Arun said.
“You try stabbing someone next time,” Pranav retorted, wiping the blood off his knife. “I would have gone for his lungs but these Uniforms feel too sturdy to puncture.”
He tested it by stabbing the Grunt’s chest, and sure enough, his knife didn’t pierce the fabric.
“Three more, how are we doing this?”
Pranav replied by sending out Aken, who breathed in deep and exhaled with an almost euphoric look. “It was about time.”
“Had to be careful,” He shrugged, before turning back to Arun. “We burst in, I’ll have Aken confuse them so that we have the advantage.”
“Then I’ll bring Valor and Zubat out too,” Arun said. “If any of them get their Pokémon out we’re as good as dead. So we should stack our advantages.”
“Are they going to be okay with…?”
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“I just need them to occupy Chronos before we do the job.”
Valor and Zubat seemed to get the memo as soon as they were out. The latter chose to clutch onto Arun’s shoulder like a mini turret while Valor psyched himself up for the coming fight.
All 5 of them crept outside the door where Arun sensed three. They could hear the voices better now, chatter amongst the group as they waited for a rotation on their shift.
“So I told her,” One said. “That if I make the bills, I risk my life out here, why the fuck is she on my case?”
Arun positioned himself in front of the door, lowering himself so that he was ready to tackle the first person through the door.
“So what’d she say?” Another asked.
Pranav flipped his knife to its blade, testing it’s balance.
“She was still just yelling and screaming at me, I had to smack her around a couple times before she got the message.”
Valor began to gather energy at his leaf, while Aken quietly phased through the wall.
“Heh. So did you actually…?”
Arun held up his fingers, 5…4…3…2…
“Cheat? I mean, did you see that piece of–”
Arun burst into the room, barreling into the chair where the first Chronos Grunt sat. A game of cards at the table was scattered as both bodies smashed into the furniture, sending it careening off to the side. Pranav strode in quickly behind, hurling his knife at the other Grunt who’s brain hadn’t registered what just happened.
“Ghk–!” The man clutched at his throat, surprised to suddenly find himself unable to breathe with cold steel embedded in his windpipe. Pran reached him before he had the better sense to go for his belt, planting a foot on his chest and knocking both him and his chair over before stomping down on the knife until it pierced tile.
The third had gone for his belt, the fact that they were being attacked finally registering as he tried to reach for his Pokémon. Unfortunately for him, that was when Aken decided to make his move, firing off a confuse ray and cackling as his target stumbled backwards. Valor followed up quickly, sending a wave of sharpened leaves his way. Most did nothing to the protected suit he wore, but that wasn't what the grass Pokémon was aiming for, no, he aimed for the belt, which was cut loose and left clattering to the floor.
Pranav made sure to kick the belt away, before levelling a bloody knife at the man’s face. The sound of a neck snapping and a body dropping was enough for the third Grunt to realize what just happened, as Arun towered behind his brother, glaring down at the Chronos member.
“You…you aren’t Chronos.” The man gasped.
“Great observation,” Pranav teased. “No, we’re some nobodies who want what you have.”
“You think the high table is going to let you get away with thi–”
Felis pressed the tip of his knife into the Grunts throat, bringing out just a drop of blood.
“Listen. We can do this whole song and dance. I ask you questions, you refuse, I get physical. We send threats back and forth yadda yadda. But here’s the thing, my brother and I are a little impatient right now, battle high and all that. So let’s skip all this, and get to the good bits.”
“...Like where I tell you what you want to know?”
“Bingo! Ten points!” Pranav grinned, looking back at his brother. “Can we get this guy a gold star?”
“We ran out.” Arun deadpanned.
“We ran out. Alright, so are you ready to answer our question?”
“I do that and it doesn't even matter if I get out of here alive,” The grunt scoffed. “This is Chronos. I’m dead either way. If I tell you shit though, then it’s my family on the line as well.”
“Unless we made it believable.” Pranav pointed out.
“How would you do that?”
Pranav smashed the hilt of his knife into the man’s nose, causing him to cry out in shock. Before he could understand what was happening the knife drove into his gut as well. The fabric protected, but it did cause enough damage to at least leave a bruise.
“Fuck…fuck you…” The Chronos grunt groaned. “Fuck. You.”
“You asked, not me. But you see my friend, we just answered the most important question. Do you get to go home tonight? And that answer is yes.”
“It’s not enough. This…this isn’t enough.”
“Well, I could always rough you up some more but I’m guessing that’s not what you’re talking about.”
“Is it your mind?” Arun asked. “They'll want to search your memory, right?”
The Chronos Grunt nodded weakly.
“Well boy oh boy do we have a solution to that,” Pranav grinned. “We’ve got our own bonafide psychic. How about we just completely wipe the entire day’s events for you?”
“You’re lying.” The grunt said, his eyes narrowing. “There aren’t many Psychics, and few are that good. If you have one you’re not just nobodies.”
“See you’re focusing on the wrong details, my friend. What’s the one question that should be on your mind?”
“...Do I get to go home tonight?”
“Exactly. So why worry about everything else?”
“Because what if you’re lying?”
“Does it matter? You’re dead if you don’t, but you have a chance if you do talk.”
The Grunt sat quiet for a moment, fingers gingerly touching his bruised nose as he thought about his options. Pranav knew he wasn’t going to kill this one if he complied, but the trick was convincing the man to see the same view. He had to appear as both threat and salvation, as friend and foe.
“Fine…” He eventually said. “What do you want to know?”
Pranav smiled. “How do we get downstairs?”
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The machine they had passed by earlier hissed as it opened, revealing a set of concrete stairs that led farther down into darkness. Pranav couldn’t feel things like Arun or Gloom could, but he had different methods of deciding whether a place was bad news.
There was dried blood on the latter steps, as if something was dragged down beneath. Chips and cracks in the steps showed signs of resistance, from who he could not determine. The worst of it though was the scratch marks. Scratches on the stone. Scratches on the walls. Scratches on the metal machine that covered the entrance. Something or someone tried to escape, and they failed.
Pranav shuddered slightly.
His brother wasn’t doing any better, Arun taking in deep breaths to calm himself down. Pranav decided he’d use the opportunity to make a call, bringing out his cell to dial the one number inside.
“Felis,” Gloom’s voice sighed. “Finally, we thought something went wrong.”
“Didn’t mean to worry you boss,” Pran replied. “Just decided to do things the hard way.”
“...and what does that mean?”
“You know how you wanted us to just grab some info and get out?”
“You didn’t.”
“Yeah we decided these guys were better off dead, so we’re just going to go handle that.”
“Felis, don’t you dare,” Gloom said. It was the first time he heard her angry. “That is not what I asked you to do. None of us are ready for a fight–”
“Oh calm down,” Pran grinned. “I told you we’d impress you. And I deliver on my word. It’s this or we die and you guys get to ride solo.”
“That’s not why I’m–” Click-!
Pran snapped the phone close.
“I take it she didn’t like your plan?” Arun asked.
“Nobody ever does.” He sighed back.
“That’s because most of the time they suck.”
“This wasn’t even my plan though. I’m following you.”
Arun paused, a contemplative look on his face before he looked at his little brother. “You are. Do you think we should back out?”
A little, but his apprehension was completely outvoted by his curiosity and hate for these people (He still imaged them as Big Al). “Na. No more Al’s, right?”
“Guess so.”
“Besides, I got like, 6000 off all those grunts.”
“You actually robbed them?”
Of course he did.