Marianne paced around restlessly while William sat on the floor, leaning against the dark blue walls of the small room. The lingering smell of gasoline hung in the air. Who the hell refurbishes a carpark into an underground prison? Victor really thinks this place is his castle or something? William hugged his knees close to himself and closed his eyes, trying to catch some sleep. The incessant footsteps that were lulling him to sleep stopped abruptly. His eyes opened as Marianne placed her palms on the door.

“Don’t bother. You’ll cook us both before you even get through the first centimetre.”

“And why is that?”

“This entire room is constructed with Thermanite; a material used in guns to slow down heat conductivity, especially when firing at prolonged intervals. An alloy I invented to solve the overheating problem caused by self reloading guns,” William muttered nonchalantly. “It’s ten times as tough as carbon fibre and has a thermal resistance at least thirty times that of Tungsten.”

Marianne took a deep breath as if to say something, but merely let out a sigh as she let her hands drop back down to her sides.

“I... I’m sorry for getting us into this.”

“Hey, it’s free lodging; I won’t complain,” William said. “Gotta work on their customer service though.”

“Oh my god, this is no time for frivolity.” Marianne rolled her eyes, setting herself down on the floor as well.

“Relax, things aren’t too bad. Of all the people we could’ve met, we met Victor.”

Marianne gave William a quizzical look. “Is that supposed to be a good thing? He doesn’t seem too nice to me.”

“I’ve worked with Victor Dietrich before. He’s mixed, just like you. Half French, half German.”

William stretched out his legs and leaned against the wall.

“He’s also an architecture genius who started a construction company when he was only twenty five. That was only four years ago, but he was already a big part of government projects. He pretty much built the entire Sector 162,” he continued. “He can be pretty ruthless because of the people he has had to deal with, but he always kept to his ideals of protecting those on his side. As long as we show that we’re not the enemy, we’ll be safe.”

“It’s gonna take more than a synopsis to convince me.”

“That’s your problem then. Goodnight.” William yawned and plopped to the ground. He was snoring within seconds. Marianne stretched out and lay down on the floor, not realising how tired she was as well. She closed her eyes, her thoughts starting to clear out until one remained.

Where are you, Masako?

----------------------------------------

William woke with a jolt to a loud siren. “Can’t anyone get a proper night’s rest?” he groaned and looked over to Marianne. She was still sleeping soundly despite the shouting in the distance. He tried to look through the small window in the door, but could only see the wall on the other side. William pressed his face harder against the rectangular hole, trying to see more from the side-

He jumped back as the sliding cell door suddenly opened. William took a step out warily and looked around. The corridor was empty; even the guards were gone. He turned back and patted Marianne awake.

“Hmm…? What’s the matter?” Marianne sat up and rubbed her eyes sleepily.

“The door opened for no reason. Let’s leave while we can.”

Marianne stared into space for a few seconds before widening her eyes in realisation. “Wait, really?” She stood up and looked out of the door. “Let’s go!” she piped and took off running without William.

“Hey! Ugh...” William said in exasperation, running after her.

“Do you even know where you’re going?” William panted, catching up to Marianne who had finally stopped running. “We should’ve turned left instead of right just now. C’mon let’s turn… back.” His voice trailed away as he noticed what she was staring at.

Four masked men were standing opposite them, two of them holding William and Marianne’s bags each. Behind them lay the bodies of two men, most likely guards, blood still spilling out from their slit throats. William’s eyes widened in horror at the implication of what just happened, and what was about to happen to them as witnesses. He glanced at Marianne, who had already gotten into a fighting stance. The men silently pulled out their bloodied knives in response.

They charged.

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Two of the assassins took the offensive, their knives aiming for Marianne’s neck as they slashed in a quick, coordinated motion. But Marianne was faster. She took a small step to the side, dodging the knives with ease and grabbed the arm of one of the assassins.

She stepped forward and pushed her palm hard into his elbow joint in one swift motion. It broke with a loud crunch as her assailant screamed in pain, dropping his knife. Marianne threw a right hook straight to his temple, knocking him out instantly as his body flung to the side with the enormous force. She stared down the other assassin as he gripped his knife tighter, his hand trembling slightly.

William frantically dodged the wild swings of the other two men as he unconsciously retreated backwards. Their motions felt slower to him, although he was not sure if it was because of his enhanced reflexes or the bags that weighed them down.

Wait, there’s a pattern… Aha! An opening!

William quickly rushed forward and pushed hard against one of them. The assassin flew backwards as though he was hit by a car, crashing into a wall. Brimming with confidence from his superior strength, William jumped backwards and attempted a spinning back kick.

And regretted that decision almost immediately as the assassin simply caught him mid jump and threw him onto the floor.

Steel flashed before him as a knife plunged towards him, stopping only by mere inches from blinding him in one eye. William struggled against his disadvantageous position as the assassin used his other hand to force the knife towards him, inching closer by the second.

Blinding hot rage surged through William as he growled, swinging his assailant to the side.

Alright, you done friggin asked for this.

The hydrokinetic man stretched out a hand at the lunging assassin and lifted him off the ground before he could get any closer. A slight sadistic smile formed on his face as his victim gurgled, water droplets escaping from every pore and orifice of his body. Cracks spread across his rapidly dehydrating skin as a dying dry gasp escaped from the poor man’s lips.

The shrivelled corpse dropped on the ground, completely drained of anything William could use to continue lifting it up. The enhanced mutate breathed heavily to calm himself as water swirled around him.

“Are you alri- Holy crap! What did you do to him?” Marianne asked in shock as she ran to William. The glow in his eyes slowly faded away and the water splashed onto the ground.

“I dehydrated him.” William shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“Was that really necessary?” Marianne glared at him in disgust.

“Well, I’m sorry I lost my temper at a man who just tried to stab me in the eye; I’ve been skipping my anger management classes,” William replied sarcastically. “How did you subdue them?”

“One of them has a broken arm and the other has two. They’re both knocked out for now.”

“That’s not any better. I think I knocked the other one out too-” William turned and pointed at the man he pushed backwards, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Shit!” he cried out in sudden realisation and gave chase.

The path soon reached a dead end as the duo stared at the scene in front of them. An arrow stuck out of the last assassin’s forehead as he lay lifeless on the floor. Its nock was bright red in colour, slightly resembling a four leaf clover.

A figure fully covered in a dark blue metallic suit stood in the shadows with Marianne’s bag slung over one shoulder. He raised a crossbow without warning and fired two arrows with deadly accuracy.

William barely managed to move out of the way, darting behind a wall for cover while Marianne slid to the left. The arrow brushed dangerously close to her hair as she jumped forward, seizing the opening.

Marianne spun around, executing a perfect roundhouse kick and knocked the crossbow out of his hand. She quickly followed up with an aggressive flurry of blows, but the rogue seemed equally skilled. Marianne’s breaths grew heavier as she was parried and countered with ease. It did not take long before she was sent flying backwards by a well placed heel kick from the mysterious person.

Wasting no time, William rushed in for a full powered punch, but it was stopped dead in its tracks by the person’s matching strength. He felt his breath get knocked out of him as the rogue punched him in the chest while still holding onto his fist.

William’s eyes widened in shock as the rogue lifted him up with ease and threw him towards Marianne, knocking them both to the ground. He picked up his crossbow and aimed at them again, his other hand reaching into the back pocket of his suit. William quickly leapt forward, pushing Marianne aside-

BAM!

The rogue stumbled backwards, covering the right side of his face. Ears ringing, William turned back to look at the source of the gunshot. The shooter was knocked over by recoil, but quickly scrambled to her feet and loaded her shotgun again. She had actually missed her mark, but a part of the shot had still managed to break off part of the rogue’s metallic mask, revealing an eye with a bright red iris. It darted quickly from William to the shooter for a few seconds, before the rogue threw a small explosive at the ceiling. William raised his hands defensively as the ceiling broke off, creating a hole and shining sunlight in. The rogue quickly jumped out of the underground labyrinth through the hole.

“Oh no you don’t!” Marianne followed closely, jumping up through the hole in a single bound.

“Masako! Where did you come from?” William exclaimed.

“No time to explain. One of them has your bag; he escaped through the main door. I think he has a broken arm,” Masako said hurriedly, holding her shotgun with one hand and running towards the hole.

“I’ll help Marianne.” She jumped up, gripping the side of the hole with her free hand and pulling herself out of the hole.

William turned back and ran towards the main exit.