Arc 2 - Chapter 7: Lagefor Has Been Breached

Gwen stood on top of the rubble, with most of them having wishing star eyes. Raising up a V sign over her right eye, she pushed up a bright smile while closing her eyes shut.

“Awwww … did you guys miss me? Don’t worry.”

Her whole body radiated a whitish light, once she extended her right arm forward. Breathing in and out calmly, a whitish rope formed within her palm, its particles mendicating out of thin air. With her rope finally grippable, she shifted her right foot back.

“I think it’s time for mommy to get dirty~”

She lunged … without uttering an ounce of decibel. With no shockwave to feel or reverberate against, all the liches looked around the destroyed bar. Their eyes in a frenzy, their breathing turned irregular, both liches squeezed their abs.

“Where did she go?” Questioned Ryan.

“Do you see her?” Questioned the teen.

So much so that Gemma let go of Fred, Harold pushed himself away from Gary, and Ryan and the teen pressed themselves against their backs. Harold signaled his wolves to circle him, their nuzzles sniffing the air like hellhounds. The teen did the same thing, with his bats circulating around both him and Ryan’s bodies like a set of armor.

The rest of The Dark Angels sat amongst the wooden floor, as they heard their hearts pound against their chests. While Harold turned toward Gemma, and spoke with a throat full of hoarseness.

“Gemma! Use your blessing to—”

“Nah.”

Summoned behind Harold, Gwen wrapped the rope around Harold’s waist, and put him in a bind. Unable to even ready her stance, Gwen appeared right behind Gemma as well, as her rope slightly opened to allow the female lich in.

“That’s two down.”

Binding them together, she smashed the two of them like a pair of opposite magnets, before she vanished again. Without blinking, both liches were stunned, as they couldn’t even register a thought to attack. But it was not long before Harold sneered, not at Gwen, but the girl right next to him.

“Out of all liches, I have to be next to a girl…”

“I think Luna should’ve pierced your heart…”

Continuing to have their backs pressed together, Ryan and the teen kept their eyes peeled. Moving their eyeballs repeatedly at a rapid pace, their breathing hardened the longer they saw no light being shone.

“Careful bro, she could be anywhere.” Said Ryan.

“Hell, she could be under us…” Muttered the teen, before…

“Up top, dummies!”

With her giant rope, Gwen threw it down to the lich duo. Trapped, her rope bound them together, followed by air jumping out from their blackish lungs.

Both hands on the rope, Gwen let the duo soar through the air as she threw them. Like baggage, Ryan and the teen slammed against Gemma and Harold, leaving Gwen to clap her hands back and forth. Hot sweat mingling her forehead, she swiped it away with her right sleeve.

“A good honest day's work.”

Everyone soon began to stand, as their legs kept themselves stable against the old wooden floor. Their breaths shaken, they had their eyes glued to Gwen, and none of them were bothered to glance at the four liches meddling in a dark corner.

‘I wonder where Harold’s wolves and Cameron’s bats are … ah forget it’

Gwen rubbed the back of her head, once she saw everyone’s eyes narrow at her. Pushing her lips to form a weak smile, it was safe to say she was oblivious to the situation.

“Uhm … What's with all the stares? Did I miss anything?”

“So you could’ve handled them from the very start?!”

Luna stomped through the floor, making the wood creek loudly once she reached Gwen. Grabbing her collar, Luna’s eyes twitched erratically, leading Gwen to raise her hands up in a form of surrender.

“I was buried deep in the rubble! If it weren’t for Jack, he wouldn’t have saved me!”

“Wait … why was Gwen the last person that Jack saved?” Said Diego.

Everyone turned their gazes toward Jack, once Diego said his thoughts out loud. Barely awake, Jack sat down on the mound of debris, as Hope healed the gushing wound from his achilles heel.

Being the center of attention, he let beads of cold sweat litter all over his face. His tailbone glued to the mound, he extended his palms outward and shook them back and forth.

“Hey, you guys ordered me to reach Hope and Benn first. You didn’t say anything about helping Gwen, so you weren’t specific on the order.”

“And yet you woke up Stan’s group first, a group not fit for combat like us. Keep in mind, we’re up against an entirely new threat.” Said Miles.

“How was I supposed to know…”

Miles folded his arms above his upper stomach, and looked down at Jack with sharpened eyes. Jack, who uttered out his sentence in a barely audible voice, looked down at the ground with pushed up eyes.

“It’s ok Miles. I think we should consider ourselves lucky that none of us died.” Said Stan.

“Agreed. As long as those liches remain in that light rope, then we should be fine.” Said Luke.

Luna let go of Gwen’s collar, as she took many steps back to be beside Luke. Nodding at his words, they let their eyes sink deep into their cheeks, while they massaged their chests with their hands.

Benn glanced from behind, since he wanted to check up on the…

“Hey Gwen. How tight was that rope?” Questioned Benn.

“Pretty tight? Why?”

“Did you bind their animals?”

“... maybe.”

They all furrowed their brows at Gwen’s hesitation, leaving them to turn around to where Benn looked at. Like Benn, they all looked toward the liches were—

Used to be.

““““““““““Oh no…””””””””””

They were gone, nowhere to be seen with their naked eyes.

Her smile weakening evermore, her left hand stalled on the back of head out of pure nervousness. Leaving cold sweat stains on her white t-shirt, her body odor was enough for people to sniff and notice. Now eyeing Gwen, they surrounded her, with half of them folding their arms or placing their hands onto their hips.

Glaring, frowning, all of them breathed heavily as if they contained what’s left of their building anger.

“Gwen…”

“Yeah?”

“Do you have anything to say?”

And to combat their frustration, she gave them a nervous chuckle.

“... oops?”

________________________________________________________________________

(Quintiles 29, 59 / 5:59PM)

“Why are we still stationed here in Lagefor? Aren’t we supposed to be summoned to El Niabea?”

“We follow Briggs’s orders, and Briggs wants us to remain here.”

“Still, I can't believe he’s not following the higher ups’ orders.”

Two agents sat at a table inside a lunch room, the cleanliness of the floors and walls ever present. One agent had long silver hair, having it stop right at his upper back. The other agent wore glasses, with a mole pressed underneath her right jaw.

“Never expected the Theologian Military and Museum complex to house so many federal facilities.”

“This is the largest federal sites in the world. Even our best tour guides get lost in the job.”

Having dinner trays in front of them, both had different meals in terms of culture. The short haired woman had a turkey leg and mashed potatoes, with mac and cheese to the side. While the silver-haired man ate a batch of tempura and miso soup, as steam prowled out from the bowl.

“Why are you eating so oriental? This is Lagefor, not Clastine.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with eating different foods.”

“sighs … weirdo.”

“If you’re so umpty about some foreign food, then—”

The sounds of an alarm screeched the lunch room. Both agents, along with a couple of soldiers sitting idly on clean kept tables, covered their ears with their hands.

‘This never happened before…’ thought the silver-haired agent.

“Red alert! Red alert! Lagefor has been breached!”

The lights above flickered violently from above, leaving the room to dim in light. Their eyes, widening from the speaker’s message, made the silver-haired agent take his breath away.

“Huh?”

They felt the walls rumble. Feeling as if an explosion was heard from the distance, shouts and screams pierced from the outside.

“It can’t be…”

“Red alert! Red alert!”

The silver-haired agent grabbed the woman agent’s hand, his grip firm yet gentle as they ran through the tables. Looking back, he saw her face molded in pale, her neck shining in the blanket of sweat drenching her skin.

“Wait, where are we going?”

“To do our jobs.”

Light ceased from within the room, leaving darkness to overshadow the screen. Everything, from the shouts and screams to the alarm…

“Lagefor has been breached!”