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...Hellish Paradise...

Being a kid was pretty fun, especially in the summer. There was no school, no problems, and straight-up nothing but fun. I used to play with the other kids in my neighborhood and head to the park, since it was close to my house.

Everyone there was smiling, happy, and doing something that entertained them, since going outside and touching grass was an actual thing people did.

I remember specifically that I was playing with a girl in this sandbox, and we were playing pretend with our dolls. The girl's brother was sleeping on the bench while my parents were watching me at the park.

I remember everything like it was yesterday.

.・゜゜・ ・゜゜・．

"Aisha, look! This doll looks just like me," Kristin said, enamored by the resemblance between my doll and her.

Kristin's specialty was looking like a cheetah, and my doll was one of the Cheetah Girls. It was a pretty popular franchise.

"I can look just like her, too. Watch me." I looked Kristin in the eyes. Suddenly, I had two ears at the top of my head and a tail.

"Wow, Aisha, guess that's why they call you a copycat," Kristin joked since

We both laughed together, and suddenly we heard an explosion go off. It was a firework from one of the boys.

"Max, what are you doing?" My mother called out.

Max? Who was he?

"Sorry, Mom, we're just testing out his specialty," Max explained, turning back to her.

Oh right, that's my brother Max. How old was he again, 5 or 6? One of them?

Max threw a can in the air, and instantly they turned into fireworks. The girl next to me screeched, covering her ears. That's right, Kristin is sensitive to the loud sound of fireworks since she's a cheetah.

"Max, stop with the fireworks. She's sensitive to those," I commanded, but he didn't listen.

"Too bad," Max said and threw another can for the boy to turn into a firework.

The girl covered her ears in pain. This time, I noticed they were turning red.

"Max, stop being a meanie and listen," I yelled at him.

I'm pissed off at him at the time because Max was being a smart ass and ignoring me.

"Max, listen to your sister," My father chimed in.

"That's unfair!" Max had a fit. "Fine then, here, take this." Max threw a water bottle at me and Kristin.

I knew what was coming as soon as he threw the bottle. I grabbed Kristin and rolled away with her.

"NOW JACK!" Max shouted, and Jack created a big firework that gave me a scar on my arm.

Kristin cried in pain after I rolled away with her, and I noticed her ears were bleeding. Kristin's brother woke up after hearing her cries and went to her.

"Kristin, what the hell happened?" Her brother worriedly asked, pushing me away from her.

When I rolled her away, she accidentally sprained her ankle. Kristin was in pain and crying loudly because I tried to protect her.

"What the fuck did you do to her?" Her brother yelled at me as if I weren't the one who tried to save her.

My parents stopped the boy from attacking me and started an argument with him. I looked at Max and Jake, who were fleeing the scene, and I knew I wasn't gonna let them get away home free after what they'd done.

I grabbed a rock and ran up to them, tackling Jack in the process with the rock in hand. I kept on hitting him with the rock until I saw blood coming from it. The rock kept scraping the flesh on his face to the point he became an indistinguishable bloodied monster.

"LOOK AT ME!" I shouted at him as he kept on closing his eyes tightly, pulling his head away from me.

I wanted to use his own specialty on him but kept on closing his eyes. Max tried to pull me off of him, but I pushed him back, making him trip and fall, hitting his head on the rocky stairs and knocking him out.

Both Jake and I stared in silence, and I took that opportunity to make him forcefully look me in the eye. Tears formed in Jake's eyes, but I successfully copied his quirk.

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Next to me was a rock about the same size as my head. I grabbed it and put it onto Jake.

"No, please don't do it. It's too big it'll kill both of us," Jake pleaded, snot and tears coming from him.

"Too bad," I repeated the words Max told me and made it into a firework.

An explosion went off, and it blew me away. I landed in the middle of the park bleeding and many parts of my body burnt.

Max was missing a leg, my parents were missing half of their faces, Kristin was missing both her legs, and her brother's entire head was missing. Jake's entire body scattered around the park because of the explosion. The park was on fire. I was the only one left alive.

However, something didn't feel right. Something seemed wrong with everything that had happened. Everything seemed odd. Kristin, my parents, the fireworks, Max.

Once again, who was Max?

He's supposed to be my brother, and I just played along, but I never had a brother named Max when I was 7 years old. A fire never occurred in no park, and my parents....

They never died in an explosion...They died in a car accident.

When I was 20.

Ivan promised me a magical place, but this isn't a magical place. This is pure hell.

Ivan...That's right, Ivan, Apex, the mission.

I was in a warehouse, I remember now, and suddenly there was an explosion, and Ivan bit onto me.

None of this is real.

Everything here is a figment of my imagination.

This isn't a magical place.

I'm in hell, and I need to be free.

I closed my eyes tightly and clenched my fist.

"I need to go back. Send me back. NOW!"

.・゜゜・ ・゜゜・．

I open my eyes and hear I am standing during this chaos. Dead bodies surrounded me in a circle. Dante was fighting with Ivan. Many agents were dead, with many body parts scattered or brutally injured, and Max was...

"Oh my god, Max," I said and ran to his unconscious body.

His leg was missing. His body was burnt, a quarter of his face was gone. Is he even breathing? Please tell me he's alive.

"Max, wake up," I shook him frantically.

Max could only open his left eye to look at me. He couldn't talk, he just looked at me, barely alive at this point.

"Come on, Max, let's g-" A sudden surge went through my body, and I fell onto Max, stunned.

The B-rank agent was tasing me while Dante finished Ivan, his hands bloodied, looking back grimly.

I'm knocked out, confused, and did not understand what was going on or why whatever happened, happened just now.

I wake up in a gown on a bed hooked up to an IV. However, that was the least of my problems because, as of right now, I'm trapped in a giant cube. There were many guards in front of the cube monitoring me.

I tried to get out of bed, but I rolled out of bed and fell on the ground, alerting the guards to come to me.

"Alert the boss that she's awake," one guard said.

The boss...Could they mean Max? I know he was pretty high in the ranks, so these guards must be lower ranked to call him boss. Last time I saw him, he was severely injured. I'm glad he's better now.

As the guards helped me get back into the bed, I saw someone enter the room. The person came closer to the light and approached me.

"Max," I exclaimed happily.

Instead, I became disappointed with the person I saw. It was Dante.

"W-wait, where's Max?" I asked Dante as he entered the cube.

Dante's face had a scar across his neck, going to his chin. His face was completely unrecognizable. At this point, he wasn't even human anymore. His face was. Cold, there was nothing there, no life, no anything.

"Agent Max is in the hospital currently recovering from our last mission. The doctors have informed us they don't know when Max will wake up. As a result, I am taking Max's place and working with what I can so that last time won't occur EVER again." Dante robotically explained to me, and I was in shock.

Max is still in the hospital after what happened. God, if only I'd said something sooner, we could've stopped him, and no one would be in this predicament right now.

"Wait, but that doesn't explain why I'm here. What's going on?" I asked impatiently.

The whole room looked at me as if I had said something wrong.

Dante took a breath before he started.

"You and many other B-ranked agents attacked us," Dante started.

Wait, what? That makes no sense.

"Ivan put us in a protective shield because half of the B-ranked agents with us that night were double agents working with Apex, one of them being a suicide bomber who planned to kill us. Supposedly Ivan betrayed them..."

Ivan leaked information that was too critical to where absolutely no one who heard could live on afterward. That's why Ivan grabbed all of us to put us in a protective shield. The problem was that what went off was a flashbang, not some regular bomb. After that went off, someone exploded a firework my way, knocking me out.

Afterward, I suddenly got up and attacked everyone using someone's fireworks specialty, not helping the situation at all, and being the reason Max is in the hospital right now.

Everything he told me was a clear sign of me being potentially mind-controlled or manipulated in some way. So why does he believe this even though he saw me get attacked?

"Dante, how does it make sense that I was one of those double agents? Not only did I warn everyone about the flash bang, but you said yourself you saw me get knocked out, and oh so suddenly I'm killing people," I asked him, wanting a further explanation.

"Max and I were the only ones who saw, but Max was unconscious, and there was smoke everywhere, so I couldn't see too clearly. The S ranks wanted you dead be glad I negotiated with them to keep you alive," Dante informed me, shocking me.

Once again, Dante saved my life... but at what cost? Me being held hostage here till when? We'll never know.

Speaking of which, how long have I even been here for? Whatever happened to Ivan? God, I have way too many questions.

Dante turned away to leave.

"If that's all your questions, then—" I interrupted him.

"How long have I been here, and how long will I keep staying?" I asked him.

"You've been here for 2 weeks and will continue to stay here until the other S ranks deem you trustworthy. Then you will continue your healing process at your home," Dante informed me, his back still towards me.

I've been unconscious for half a month. Just the thought sends a shiver down my spine.

"And what about Ivan?" I asked him, and Dante went quiet, leaving the cube, and the other agents followed to stand right outside the cube as well.

"I will send you your dinner. You must eat to recover well, and I'll be sending you a psychologist to check up." Dante left me with useless words as I sat on the bed, barely able to sit up anymore.

I lay back down on the bed with my legs hanging off of it. I'm too tired from forcing myself to stay up. I can already feel myself going to sleep.

I'm being held captive until I'm trustworthy, and then Dante never answered my question about Ivan. Damn it, this man is useless at this point if I want to get out of here.

Wait, no, he's not...

I have a plan to get out of here, and he's the only one who could free me. It's risky, but I have to try.

As the iconic Steve Urkel once said

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Did I do that?