Chapter 1: Unexpected Visit

―Bright, it’s too bright.

She felt the cushioning of bed sink in the more she moved.

It seemed all her energy dissipated into thin air, and she could hardly raise her arm.

She noticed the I.V. bag attached to her arm. But even a tiny little tug was too taxing.

Confused and lost, there were no words that rang louder than that.

But if you had to be technical about it, she wasn’t really lost, since she couldn’t remember how she got into this situation in the first place.

Suddenly a door to her right slid open. A fresh breeze of cool air brushed her face.

A girl who looked no older than eighteen walked in carrying a tray with an assortment of items.

She wore a pink sweater accompanied by a dark blue skirt and a pink headband.

Aside from her outfit, her looks didn’t falter either. Her beauty could be compared to that of a professional model.

But one thing to point out is her very noticeable resting bitch face.

“Oh, you actually woke up, that’s unfor- I mean fortunate to see.”

She most definitely wanted to say unfortunate―

“U-um... Do you know where I...”

“No, and I don’t care. Open your mouth.”

She forcibly pulled down Mary’s jaw and poured in a mysterious drink down her throat.

Of course, the coughing at once came right on schedule.

Bleh, so bitter.

But oddly enough, her body felt a lot less heavy than before, and she was able to move around a lot more freely.

The room quickly filled with silence afterwards. She had a mountain of questions to ask but felt nervous around the girl or in better terms, afraid.

The room was enclosed wall to wall with the only sight of the outside world being through that door.

The girl had her back turned distracted by her phone, so running out and escaping was plausible.

“I wouldn’t do it if I was you...”

“What... Do... Huh... What do you mean?”

She cleared her throat after stumbling on her words. Shocked by the sudden comment.

The girl half-heartedly turned towards Mary; her expression clearly showed that she was not playing around.

“Do you think I’m dumb or something? You were obviously about to run. And honestly, I’m not in the mood to chase idiots.”

“But I didn’t even do―”

“Cool! Thanks for understanding.”

Anything.

She afterwards pulled out her phone and began to scroll through it.

“Also, can you stop being creepy and just say something already,” she sighed.

Mary thought she was talking about her but suddenly had a hunch to turn around.

She was startled to see a man sitting in the opposite side of her bed. He was only a few inches away from her.

“C’mon Zoey, you could’ve at least allowed another ten minutes or so. Look, she’s scared now.”

“No, that’s simply weird. Even I would fear you.”

“How long have you been there?” Were the only words she could muster. Slowly sliding away.

“Uh... About an hour or so... I don’t know, I lost track,” he shrugged.

“Well, um, could tell me... What’s going on? Because I’m really confused right now.”

“Hmm, how can I say this nicely... Your uncle’s dead.”

“What... That wasn’t nice at all. You’re lying, right? He’s lying, right!? Dead... My uncle―”

Her eyes widened from his reaction. “This can’t be true,” she thought.

He had a stern look on his face. He was serious.

“I’m sorry, but it’s true.”

Tears started rolling from her eyes, she was frantically breathing. Trying to process everything.

“How, but... But we... I was just... We were...”

“You were attacked. Just outside your home.”

“By whom...”

“We don’t know, by the time Zoey and I arrived they were already gone. Your uncle sent me a message earlier, but I was too slow,” he said clenching his fists.

“And what remained was your uncle missing his lower torso and you laying unconscious on the ground,” Zoey added.

He lowered his down after that comment.

She gagged a little bit but managed to control it. Her eyes stung due to the tears and struggled to think clearly.

“... But why would anyone kill him, he was just a mechanic. He got along with everyone.”

“Listen, this might sound hard to believe, but your uncle used to be apart of something a lot more ― serious.”

“Serious enough for people to murder him in broad daylight!?”

“Relax, Mary. That’s not all―”

“What do you mean ‘relax,’ I don’t know where I am, and the only person in my life is fucking dead, but you’re sitting here telling me to relax! Do you even care that he’s dead? Who even are you!?”

In the split of a second, Zoey dashed over holding Mary by collar. Lifting her a few inches off the bed.

“You... Need... To... Chill! Do really think his death hasn’t affected him either? Listen, I honestly don’t give a shit about your uncle’s death, but he most certainly does. Because if it was up to me, I would’ve left you out there to die. But he didn’t, so shut up and listen.”

“It’s okay, you can drop her, Zoey. She’s not wrong we’re just strangers to her,” he interrupted.

Zoey glanced at him and then back to her. She sighed while letting go of Mary.

She walked back to her original spot with her back turned this time.

“I know how you feel. I’m extremely pissed as well. I have known your uncle since I was a kid. I even saw him as a father figure, so I get,” he softly said.

She sat there in silence staring at her tear droplets. At this point, the blankets were soaked in tears.

“I promised him that I would take care of you if anything were to happen him. That promise was made because he saved my life, and I intend to repay that.”

“............”

“Your uncle used to be a part of this secret organization that Zoey and I work for called The Q.H.I., or The Quick Hero Initiative. Its goal is to create superhumans and give special abilities to people who want to help the world for the greater good. And we fight those who threaten the very peace of our world.”

He slid over a piece of paper holding sensitive information about her uncle.

“He looks different,” Mary thought. It was hard to believe that this was the same man who used to complain about the weather every single day. Even his name was different.

“Although, he never physically took the initiative, Joseph was one of the best intelligence field operative the organization has ever had. But being the best meant that he had a lot of enemies. Especially the ones that didn’t want their secrets revealed.”

“So, the people he used to gather intel on are most likely  the same people who killed him...”

“Correct.”

Mary was stun locked. An entire hidden life she didn’t know her uncle had, all coming back to haunt him.

“But the thing is our records don’t show anything new since he was disavowed a few years ago. But I believe he started investigating something on his own recently.”

Hearing this confirmed Mary’s suspicions about his sudden erratic behavior in the past few weeks. He felt a lot more protective than usual and a tad bit secretive.

“So, whoever killed your uncle, they saw him as a major threat,” he continued.

“But the real question is why did they let you live? Even though your uncle was the target, it would still be a liability to keep you alive. It’s odd,” Zoey added.

“I-I don’t know... Maybe it wasn’t worth killing me.”

“No... Zoey is right, our enemies have never spared anyone. Especially an IFO agent and their families. Unless...”

Zoey suddenly sensed that something was wrong. An immediate danger was afoot.

“Jun...”

“I know, I sensed it too,” he said while quickly standing up.

“Wait, what’s going on? Sensed what!?” Mary question.

“We finally know why they kept you alive,” Zoey answered.

Jun grabbed a device from the cabinet and placed it against Mary’s neck. It beeped for a second, before extracting a tiny object out from her skin.

“Ow... What was that for?”

“A tracker... They used you to get to us. Someone knew we would come rescue you.”

Mary placed her hand over her neck feeling it throb from the pain.

“We gotta get out of here now, like right now,” Zoey noted.

He nodded at her.

“You take Mary and get her out this place.”

“What about you?”

“I’m gonna go take care of the people up on the roof,” he replied.

She sighed, obliging.

Zoey picked up Mary carrying her as if she was a princess.

Before she could process what was happening, they were already out in the hallway.

Everything looked like a blur to her. The sheer speed they were running at made it impossible to move her head.

The wall to their left unexpectedly blasted open. An armed masked man charged towards Zoey.

Without a second to spare, she threw Mary up in the air and blocked the man’s weapon from slicing her face.

A glowing pink lasso appeared in her right hand, it tightly wrapped around his leg, she tugged it with enough force to cleanly rip off the limb. Afterwards kicking him back into the hole.

Mary, who had just been in the air for a few seconds, was already back in her arms. She had managed to catch a glimpse of the severed leg on the floor.

A harsh reality kicked in, as she realized that the person carrying her could easily kill her at any given moment.

Each floor they were on only lasted for a second before the next one.

The walls and ceilings around them had bits and pieces breaking off, ranging from all assorted sizes.

As she hit the next turn, they were greeted with more than a dozen men aiming their guns at them.

“Holy shit, holy shit, we’re gonna die!”

“Just shut up and don’t move,” she aggressively said.

“Huh...”

She placed Mary on her shoulder and started running headfirst into the group. The pink lasso from before now appeared in her left hand.

As the bullets started flying out, Zoey began whipping her lasso around, deflecting any that were on target.

All Mary could see was the back of the hallway and the bullets ricocheting around them. It was unreal, she thought.

Before she knew it, they were in the heart of the crowd. Bodies were flying left and right. The corpses were just piling up.

Even though she had Mary on her shoulders, Zoey was flipping around as if she was in zero gravity.

Of course, this wasn’t a pleasurable experience for Mary.

This innocent looking girl was an absolute killing machine.

And after a few seconds of nonstop fighting, she slid into a holt. Everyone around them were dead.

Besides the sounds of the building collapsing on itself, Mary’s heavy panting was loud.

“Behind us!” Mary pointed out.

Zoey quickly flicked the lasso over her other shoulder striking the soldier on the head.

The sound of him dropping echoed the halls.

Mary was then repositioned back into her arms. She took a sigh of relief.

Zoey on the other hand looked completely unfazed. In fact, she looked even more annoyed than before.

As they were about to move, one of the soldiers suddenly came crashing through from the ceiling at high speeds. Surprising both.

Jun hopped down from above covered in blood.

“Woah, what happened here. It looks like a warzone. You all right there, Mary?” He grinningly asked.

Mary gave a very shaky thumb up. “N-never... B-better...”

“Was that everyone?” Zoey asked.

“Yeah, I think so. I’m not sensing anyone else―”

Ding.

The elevator next to them chimed. Inside there was a single soldier who was just eating a chocolate bar.

There was a moment of silence as the three of them just stared at him in confusion.

The man swallowed the remaining piece in his mouth.

Ding.

The three walked out of the elevator leaving behind a dead soldier who had a chocolate bar wrapper stuffed down his throat.

The group made their way towards the front door. As they walked, Mary looked around and noticed that they were inside an abandoned hotel in the middle of a forest.

“Do we call for an extraction?” Zoey asked.

“No time, it’s too risky. We’ll have to do it the faster way.”

Jun took off a watch that he had been wearing and handed it to Mary.

“Wear this.”

“Uh... Okay,” Mary said while putting it on her wrist. “But what’s this for?”

Jun double tapped the screen, and an almost fully transparent clothing appeared over Mary’s body.

“It’s a special made G-suit. Trust me you’ll need it.”

“Wait, why would I need a G-suit?”

“For this...” Jun said patting Zoey in the back.

Zoey had her lasso wrapped at the top of one of the trees. She quickly grabbed Mary by the waist and launched herself into the sky.

What followed suit were the sounds of Mary screaming for dear life fading in the distance.

Jun had a surprising look on his face. In his mind, he for some reason did not expect that.

“She’s okay... She’s okay...” He said while hesitantly pointing to the sky.