Red lights...and a hallway, I felt like I was a child again...so weak and frail. A white-haired woman crouched down in my sight, holding my shoulders, a familiar man stood behind her wielding a halberd

"No matter what happens...you...you have to live" Creatures began appearing at the end of the hallway, their tendrils, were similar to the one back at the trial...They all looked similar to each other, yet, there were very distinctive differences, all of this felt surreal.

"Marin" The man spoke, clearly towards the woman. The woman took out a sheathed sword and clipped the sheath with the blade to my side.

"Right...good luck... Kiddo" The woman patted me on the head until something began pulling me.

I took a sharp breath, all I saw was white until I lifted my head, something felt off, using my arms I pushed myself onto my side and there I saw it, a weirdly designed sword attached to my uniform. It was a struggle to stand, after all, who really knows how long it's been. I took a step yet a sharp pain took over, I was ready to fall back into the snow so I extended my hand to catch myself, however, it went differently, the sword at my hip had summoned at my hand, the blade dug into the ground while my arm was able to rest on the curved hilt. I had only now just come to the realization that this was much more difficult. I raised and moved the sword as far as I could before I dropped back down on it. This was the only way I could move, I could tell my leg got worse as it felt warm, I looked down at it, my blood was still red, yet, I could see a hint of purple along with it. What the hell? There wasn't much I could do about it except for moving onward. It was a chore, it was painful, and I barely got anywhere. The only reason I kept going was because of my thoughts Who were they? Why did the sword appear now? What were those creatures? Why is there purple in my blood? I couldn't find an answer to any of them. I stepped forward one more time, my foot hit a root under the snow, sending me down, yet, instead my breath was knocked out of me as I landed on something metal.

"Sorry Sir" The voice sounded familiar.

"Dave?"

"Yes, I intended to follow Kenneth as he ended up alone, however, before I could reach him, I noticed everyone but you reunited with him, thus, I looked for you instead"

"I got knocked...far from everyone"

"I know sir, do not speak unless necessary, it is best you recover from injuries"

"But...I gotta walk"

"You may lean on me instead of using your sword as a crutch, it will ease your legs, and rid you of the need to move your sword every step"

"Thanks...Dave"

"It was not me who found you, I was not yet connected to everyone after they were brought back to life, instead I had help"

"From?" I moved back a little, that way I could see where Dave was facing, but still close enough to lean on him. I looked towards where he was facing and was greeted by a small cat. "A cat...led you?"

"Affirmative, you may introduce yourself"

"It's a ca-

"Hewwo! :D"

"...What the fu-"

"This is what the breaker is? Not the magic, ressurection?"

"That's like...common fantasy stuff not a talking cat"

":<" The cat looked sorrowful...it's expressions sorta remind me of Sam

"Guess I don't have much a choice, I'm Lee"

"Kaz!" With no warning Kaz hopped up onto my shoulder, surprisingly, they barely weighed a thing, at least with what I could feel. And so, although very slowly, the three of us continued on. It was much easier than using the sword like a crutch.

"You said you saw them with Kenneth...where'd they go?"

"They are unfortunately far, if you do not feel as though you can proceed, you may rest atop of me."

"We both know your stuff isn't strong enough to carry someone"

"That is true, although, Sam was carrying heavy stuff as well"

"Sam is also light"

"That is also true" Somewhere along the way Kaz decided to sleep atop Dave, leaving the two of us to converse instead.

"So...where'd the cat come from?"

"I do not know, when I was found, Kaz was with them, Kaz claims she knows us, however, previous records do not show that, I presume it is due to what Raymond and Kai have said about previous timelines."

"You're saying Kaz hopped timelines?"

"It is a claim I cannot prove, perhaps they are from the future of this timeline"

"Wouldn't that create a new timeline? As we're not keeping events the same?"

"I do not know how this Multiverse's timelines work, I am making assumptions based on literature and media, as it seems our world has some similarites to them."

"So much info..."

"I assume we need to know it all now, rather than later, perhaps there is a greater strength that's to come"

"Like that damned thing that launched me?"

"Pardon?"

"Some purple tendril thing launched me...thinking on it actually...it looked similar to the ones I saw in that vision..."

"No creature that can casue harm to the people in the trial should be here"

"Great...so we got problems"

"Raymond has formed a team with me, thus I can instantly contact him, I will provide a warning"

"Form a team?"

"One moment..." I saw one of Dave's four blue dots(Which were eyes) turn to a buffer symbol, a second later, it went away "I will explain it in terms easier to understand, rather than the explanation Raymond gave. Teams allow you to warp to each other, see each other's health and status, along with seeing them on the HUD's map, and mini-map"

"That sounds handy"

"It would have been better if a team was formed amongst you all at the start, that way the others could have found u-"

The lights of the trials shut down, now it seemed like it was midnight, however it wasn't the slow shutting down like yesterday, this time was instant, an intercom turned on with static, and a voice could be heard from some trees, and the ground.

"Warning! Everyone, outside forces have forced their way into the trials, here on out, everyone is on the same team, do not fight each other, I repeat, do not fight other people in the trials, we will be sending CEF forces" The intercom shut down. Like a swarm, in the corner of my eye I saw many names appear, like 'Anna has joined the team' and all that, it was a ton of names to read, I couldn't even keep up, yet, like I thought, I saw the others.

'Sam Calstianos has joined the team'

'Kenneth Broker has joined the team'

'Nicholai Broker has joined the team'

I managed to open the map in my HUD and I saw hundreds of dots, all with different colors, I hovered over one and it said their name, with that understood, I searched the entire map for them I searched the entire top side, seeing they weren't there, I began to go down the map, I was ready to search again until I saw Pink, Orange, and Yellow dot rapidly approaching me.

"I see him!" I heard Sam's voice from the trees and soon saw the three when I turned around.

"So they were right" Kenneth came over to my side and helped support me.

"Sit em down" It was clear that they acknowledged Kaz and Dave, however, there were obviously more important things, like making sure I could run from whatever that creature was. Once I was set down Nicholai held her hand above where my heart is, a green mist began coming out and I could see my leg being healed.

"H-"

"I learned it on accident when helping up Kenneth" Once the green mist stopped, she moved her hand away. "Try moving it" I moved my foot up and down, there was still a decent amount of pain, but not like before, this pain was much more manageable, from crushing, stabbing pain, to getting hit with a bat pain. I stood up slowly, only staggering slightly.

"So something did hit you, we looked away for a moment and you were gone the next second" As Sam, spoke I looked around, something moved along the tree-line and it wasn't showing on the map "I tried looking b-...what're you looking at?" Sam, and soon everyone else, looked over to where I was, I raised my hand and pointed towards the tree and after three seconds an outline of a creature through the wall appeared.

"What the hell?" The three summoned their weapons, I went for my sword, yet when I felt where the hilt was nothing was there.

"uh..." I looked down to my left, it wasn't there, when I checked my right side, once more, it wasn't there.

"What're you looking for?" Kenneth grabbed my shoulder.

"I-I had a sword, or, at least I thought I did"

"Correct" Dave assured me. "You had a sword, however, once you began leaning on me, it vanished."

"Great" I took out my knife and prepared myself. I began shifting backwards, with everyone doing the same a moment later. The outline soon faded.

"Hey Lee, try pointing again, maybe it's a ping system" As Sam suggested, I pointed again, like predicted, the outline appeared.

"Handy" I sounded irritated, this entire thing has just been me getting bodied, and my thoughts sounded that way too. The outline began to slither around, approaching us while sticking to the trees.

"Sir, as the Database implies, you are the leader of the team, what is the course of action?" It was hard to think of anything, I didn't know what it did after all and I didn't want anyone hurt.

"Sam, what's the ranged version?" I looked over at her dagger and sickle. After a moment, they changed into two pistols, yet, the design of them seemed odd, like it was something more. "Think you can use the chains to pull yourself somewhere?"

"I think there's a motor" While the chains were wrapped around the hilt of each weapon, it was coming from the bottom.

"Alright, here's the idea then" The creature began approaching much more rapidly. "Sam will pull herself onto that tree" Without me even pointing, the tree I was referring to was outlined and pinged "Sam will draw its fire, if it can't reach keep doing so, if it can, move around but make sure it's next to the tree, Kenneth will provide support, and Nicholai will cut the bottom of the tree with her scythe, hopefully it crushes it"

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"I can help!" Kaz was standing on Dave, I took another look and noticed her claws were sharp

"Then you'll help us finish it off" She seemed content with that.

"Sound enough plan!" Sam threw her sickle at the branch of the tree, it missed, and so she threw the dagger, stabbing it into the tree. She gripped tighter onto the hilt and soon she was reeled into the side of the tree, though, she stopped herself from hitting it by putting her foot forward.

"She got the hang of it fast" I looked back at everyone else, it seems we were in agreement. WIth nowhere else to go, the creature got out of the treeline, making itself visible, it was a disgusting monster, it was barely transparent with a purple hue to its entire body, it didn't even have legs, instead its lower half scrapped amongst the ground, yet no part of it was left even with its liquid like texture.

"Inside...that's a body isn't it?" At first I couldn't tell what Nicholai was referring to, yet, when I tried really hard to look at it, I noticed a decomposing body within it.

"No one mention it to Sam, we don't need friendly fire" Everyone nodded, with Dave using one of his robotic fingers to mimic a thumbs up, most likely due to the fact he couldn't nod without throwing Kaz off. Nicholai and Kenneth went to their respective spots, Nicholai beside the tree ready to cut it, and Kenneth on the opposite side. Thing was, the creature continued to approach me, Kaz, and Dave instead. I raised my arm, closing my hand into a fist, I waited as long as I could before I pulled my arm down, while making sure my hand was still up. Yet nothing happened, a moment later, instead of the bullet I expected from Sam, her dagger stabbed it instead, even with its liquid look, the dagger didn't go in and instead, actually acted as though it pierced skin. The creature made some distorted sounding noise before turning up at the tree. That was until an arrow hit it, and it turned to Kenneth instead, it began to approach him, and as soon as it was in range of the tree- "Sam, Off! Nicholai! You're up!" I couldn't see if Sam jumped off or not, I could however watch as Nicholai primed herself before swinging, cutting the entire bottom section of the tree except for a small portion that way it'd tilt where we want. The branches of the tree clashed with other branches, causing small pieces to fling around and leaves to crunch as the entire thing came down. The creature looked up before it was fully crushed, yet, it continued to writhe around, seemingly trying to tear itself in half.

"It is time for Kaz" Dave boosted forwards before curving up slightly, giving Kaz something akin to a ramp for speed. She slashed at the creature, it stopped temporarily, yet soon got back to it.

"Anymore ideas?" I saw Kenneth turn to me, with that, I decided to do what I thought was best. I rushed forward and when i got close, I gripped the hilt of my knife, put my left hand on the back of the hilt, and impaled it, intending to hit the corpse residing within. As my knife pierced through whatever invisible skin it had, it truely became something similar to slime, as my full hand went through it. It began reforming its invisible skin as I could feel my hand being crushed, but I raised my other hand and slammed it back down on the knife, stabbing the corpse within, I didn't even have to stab it in far, as soon as it was cut even slightly the creature had gone limp and its grip on my arm faded. I tried pulling my arm out, yet the grip it had on me was enough to keep me there.

"Heya...anyone mind helping?" I saw Kenneth perk up before he came over.

"On three" He grabbed my arm "One...two" His grip got stronger "And three!" We both began pulling my arm out, it was slowly ripping itself from the creature's grasp and soon I was out, both of us fell on the ground and my arm was covered in purple gunk.

"Ugh" I shook my arm rapidly, it was stuck onto me, it took a while before it came off.

"Are you two alright?" I felt an arm on my shoulder, and Sam's voice.

"I think so...What happened with the pistols?"

"It wouldn't shoot, even with the safety off" Sam looked disappointed in herself

"Well..." I stood up, Kenneth soon did the same "It worked out in the end, nothing to worry about"

"Yet I doubt that was it" Nicholai was there with her arms crossed "I doubt they'd need a full team to take that out, there are most likely more, perhaps that one was just a weaker variant, like a baby version"

"You think they get bigger?" Nicholai nodded in response to me.

"It wouldn't make sense for an entire military group to be made for such an easy to manage thing" There was short silence.

"I guess we should head to where everyone else is" Kenneth moved his hair back, looking in a direction I assumed was the gathering place.

"Agreed, the sooner we're with others the better" I moved my shoulder a bit, in hopes it relieved the tension it had. Everyone's feet began moving as we started going through the forest, but not before I turned over to look at the creature one last time.

"Holding up fine?" I was ready to get back to thinking however Nicholai spoke up instead.

"Yeah, feels like I'm straining it a bit, but nothing too bad" There was a minor limp to my movement, but not anything else that would be concerning. Dave and Kaz eventually got in front of everyone, probably because he wasn't getting tired from walking.

"So, where'd the cat come from!" Sam had a boost of energy to her.

"Kaz was with me when we were deployed" Kaz hopped off of Dave and landed in Sam's arms, where she was held with joy.

"Hehe~"

"Sam likes cats?" Kenneth looked backwards at me "Thought she had an allergy?"

"Being DTs probably got rid of it, just like the rest of her medical problems."

"We should still make sure it doesn't return though" Sam, stuck in her euphoria, ignored most of the conversation we were having, that was until she stepped on a branch, reverting her attention to reality. We all turned our heads to face ahead, we saw a crowd of people with their weapons drawn to us. "Oi relax, we look nothing alike to them you blind bast-" Kenneth placed his arm on Nicholai's shoulder

"And you should relax too." Everyone lowered their weapons.

"This is the last of em" Amist the crowd were a handful of people wearing black uniforms, and half-masks covering the lower portion of their face, devices on their wrist, and much more modified weaponry, I also took notice of a CEF armband wrapped around their upper arm right before their shoulder. "We'll have you all exit the facility while we deal with the threat" The crowd began to speak, yet I could only hear bits and pieces

"We ain't all rookies!"

"We dealt with some alone! Where were you then?"

"My group could get rid of em all"

"You know, if they're not bluffing we'd have lost this" Nicholai with her arms crossed spoke towards me, yet didn't face me in the slightest.

"I know that, considering they're double the size of our group." Nicholai was silent for a moment, leaning forward while looking at them.

"guess so"

"Don't kid yourselves" One of the CEF with a much deeper voice spoke. I had started to notice Sam raising her heel, looking around the crowd.

"Looking for someone?" She jumped a bit from the random conversation.

"Oh, I'm uh, looking for Kyle and Kayla...we don't know if they came back or not..."

"Ah...well...we don't necessarily know if they even died...they would be good people to help us train though."

"and they'd probably love fighting even more with magic." She got back to flat feet.

"You six" A CEF soldier came up to us "I'll be escorting you all to the exit of the facility"

"What'd, Raymond send you to help us?" I saw the soldier's eyes glint with annoyance.

"Don't think you are special, even with Raymond's rank he can't control our actions, meerly slightly influence them" I saw everyone's expression go from upbeat to paranoia.

"Lead the way then" With how it was now, the CEF soldier was leading the way, with Me and Sam right behind them...Kaz if you count her in Sam's arms, and the other three behind us, we created somewhat of a triangle formation.

"Didn't have to be a bitch about it" Nicholai mumbled behind us, I could tell the soldier heard but decided not to respond. It was how the soldier said, other CEF soldiers began taking the groups towards different exits.

"Reminds me of the outbreak" When I turned my head back I saw Kenneth doing the same, looking to groups of people disorganized, trying to get to exits, some even went on their own.

"Hm!" Sam joined the looking back crew, while Kenneth looked back forward, towards us. "You and Nicholai were trying to join the evacuation right?

"Right, though, we were too late, there wasn't enough room"

"Oh...that sucks..." Sam didn't say anything else, yet, we weren't in silence either, the trees began to rustle and the guard stopped all of us from continuing, by summoning a glowing katana. We followed suit, summoning our weapons...of course, with the exception of me still. Soon, we saw it, a creature just like before, yet, with different features, leaping out of the trees, we were ready to fire at it until a massive red line cut through the air and the creature, it was like time came to a halt until the creature tore apart into pieces along with the body within it. We all stood there shocked, eyes widened, and silent.

"Come along now, I don't intend to babysit you all forever" We all followed with our heads down, not saying a word. "You should know by now that they're corruptors"

"They don't look alike at all" Nicholai spoke quietly.

"No, because the one most of you dealt with were the base variant, if all corruptors were like that, we wouldn't need the CSF or CEF, as you should've seen, that one resembled a horror movie human, walking on arms and legs, climbing walls and surfaces, disfigured, all of that, all Corruptors have a purple hue or mist to them, but not everything with a purple hue or mist is a corruptor." He rested the blade of the weapon on his shoulder. "Here we are" I thought I was dreaming when I saw a wall similar to the one me and Sam found at the start.

The guard stood beside the door, looking past us and back into the trees, deciding I should do it, i steped forward and opened the door, to see that it led back into the room we were in when we first left Raymond's office. I stepped forward, into the door and room, where i was greeted by instant warmth. Unlike when we were first here, the room was quiet now that nobody was in here. The others soon followed, some sighing now that they were warm again.

"I love winter and all...but being warm is better" Sam sat down on a couch, with Kaz still in her arms.

"Seems everybody is back in one piece" Raymond came out of his office. "Most of the corruptors have been dealt wit-"

"You got some explaining to do" To the surprise of most of my peers, I interrupted Raymond.

"Pardon?"

"Our memories being locked, what's the deal with that?"

"The HUD can't make you remember things you've forgotten"

"Then what about the vision I saw? I was young, and I could've sworn I saw creatures that looked similar to the corruptors" Raymond sighed.

"There have been instances where corruptors have invaded earth, most humans, due to their lack of magic, had difficulties resisting the effects, and thus, most of them lost memories, it's probably why you don't recall your family"

"Lee was born with Brown hair, not white, so why are memories distorting and acting like he always had white hair?" Sam pitched in, standing up and walking back over to everyone

"Corruptors can influence sight, it's not far fetched to assume you all thought he had brown or green hair, does anyone even recall him going to get his hair dyed?" His question was a strong point, no one answered.

"There was a woman with white hair in that memory, is it farfetched to think it was my mother?"

"Not at all, if anything, it's highly possible, if you said there were corruptors, she may have sacrificed herself so you could live" I looked to the floor, a hand patted my shoulder.

"It's alright, we don't know that" Sam did her best to sound reassuring, yet, it wasn't her dying I was concerned about, more so... my past hatred for being left alone, and now I'm learning they died saving me...it was somewhat true...I was left alone, but the reason was the opposite, they did it out of care...and yet, none of this may even be true.

"So why not revive them?" Nicholai was no longer crossing her arms, instead leaning slightly forward.

"It's much harder to revive adults, though, to be specific, the age it gets more difficult is above 26."

"And I felt like I was 5"

"Unless your mom had you early, at minimum, she'd still not be easily revivable, you're 16, 17ish? hell even if she did have you early in her life she'd go past 26, and it becomes almost impossible after 40-50s."

"You were specific about 26, why is it impossible for 40-50?" NIcholai seemed curious, obviously looking for an answer now.

"It depends on the person, if they were healthy or not, as I said though, that's almost impossible, we managed to revive some older people, though we focused more on people experienced in conflicts and war to help strategize with us, sadly, even with my attention on you all, I have to focus on everyone first"

"I don't take offense to that, I get you had to do it rather than focus on some random kid's mom" I was slightly hurt, yet, what could I do about it?

"Any other questions?" He didn't sound hostile, rather more somber. No one answered, no one had anymore. Raymond nodded, understanding what the silence meant. "If you all want, you can form your team now that you have the time, I've uploaded the guide to your HUDs." He opened a portal about to go in. "If you're all worried about anything, you all have my contact info, I get you're all still young, and fighting for a world you don't know about is stressful...fighting at a young age is stressful, so...make sure you take care of yourselves and if needed, quit, your safety comes first" After that he went into the portal. It was silent once again.

"W-well...should we get our taem...er team, set up?" Sam fumbled her words slightly.

"Nothing else to do for now" I went into my HUD, instead of reading the database, I noticed the tab itself, I went into it, and without looking at anything else, pressed the create team button, and then a massive line of text boxes appeared. "Err..."

"Wh- what the hell is that!?" Nicholai turned over and changed her sentence when seeing all the text boxes.

"Well, good luck typing buddy" Kenneth patted my back.

"What do you mean? You're all helping" I smirked, while Sam was joyful to make a team, the other two looked dead, Dave seemed indifferent, not like he had anything but four circles for eyes to look at, and Kaz had fallen asleep at some point.

"Right, let's get this done with already" Nicholai sat down, and Kenneth leaned on a wall.

"Team nam-" I tried to ask, until Sam instantly responded after realizing what i was gonna say.

"Bravo 6!"

"No contest?" No one contested.

"huh...we can make an emblem here too...we'll do that later, Base/Outpost of operations...we don't...really have a base yet just for us huh?"

"Nope...skip, it's optional like the emblem." The other three had gotten into the same menu, but instead of typing, it was just to look at what I was seeing.

"Team Members" When I tapped on the plus symbol, it opened my contacts, I tapped everyone accordingly.

Lee

Sam Calstianos

Kenneth Broker

Nicholai Broker

Dave

Kaz...

"Kaz?" I must've subconsciously tapped her contact...no, how do i have it?

"Sir, do not think too far into it, it is probably easier to explain than you realize."

"Skill assessment...oh, this one is automatic, it changes after every fight...guess we didn't fight enough to be judged...and the text box is just to startle me...weaponry, also automatic, automatic...ah! Team...saying and team tag?"

"Like a slogan?" Kenneth sounded confused.

"I guess?"

"Tag! Like a game! B6STF! if it'll fit" I inputted what Sam said and instantly, I saw our names change, on the leftmost side it had it, for example.

[B6STF]Sam Calstianos

It actually was like a game...there was probably a setting to disable this.

"STF? Isn't that..." Nicholai looked towards Sam.

"It's a part of our saying! You all know it!" Sam, being eager as ever, went into the center of her room, closing her free hand into a fist and holding it out. "Come on! If we're gonna say it we gotta do it right!" I couldn't help but smile, I walked over and held my hand out.

"You two, come on" Kenneth and Nicholai followed our actions soon after, our fists were all making contact.

"Ready everyone!" Sam asked, clearly hyper. We all nodded, letting her take the lead. "Bravo Team!" We all opened our hands as we raised them to the sky while we all continued the cheer.

"Sticks together forever!"