Lending A Help Part 1

1126 hours, 18 June 0145…

We have arrived at the safe zone and are putting our loots into the chest in front of the tent. After that, Axel called for a ride back home by calling the Osprey to take us back to HQ.

"The ride will arrive at 10 minutes from now. Make sure we lost none of our belongings in the middle," Said Axel to us.

And then, Christine replied while she's putting her backpack in front of the safe zone tent.

"Everything is safe and sound, Axel,"

I was looking at the forests around the safe zone to check if there's any remaining threats that's about to ravage this safe zone again. Thankfully, there are none that I've had to worry about.

"How about you, Tsuyuki?" Axel asked me.

And I answered while looking at him.

"Nothing,"

"Alright,"

After that, Axel entered the tent and said.

"How about if we cool ourselves inside the tent first?"

"Sounds good to me," I replied.

After that, I and Christine entered the tent to cool ourselves from this scorching heat of the sun from above.

***

Inside this tent, it was cooler than I'd expected. Not because there's a fan or AC inside this tent. It's because of Axel's hammer that's releasing a freeze element that's breezing through our faces. Three of us sitting on the carpets.

"Huff, this felt better," said Christine while laying down on the tent carpet.

The carpet was cold enough to cool our sweaty bodies from the scorching sun that's scorching through our bodies.

"I want to take off my jacket," Said Axel while taking off his long coated white jacket.

After that, he's putting his jacket into the tent bed and laying down on the cold carpet.

"Huff, that feels good!" Both Christine and Axel are laying down on the cold carpet, while I'm just sitting on a carpet and looking at the outside view of the scorching sun shining on the ground.

Although it's hot as hell, I didn't even take off my blue hooded jacket. Because I never get hot easily.

"Hey, Tsuyuki. Don't you feel hot while you're still wearing that jacket?" Axel asked while getting up and sitting on the carpet.

And then, I answered straightforwardly.

"I never get hot.," After that, Christine stood up, and said.

"By the way, I want to take off my hoodies. It's too hot in here.,"

When she's about to take off her hoodies, Axel blushed, looking at Christine taking off her hoodies. And then, he said to her.

"Wait! Are you even wearing any underwear inside of it? Why would you take off your clothes? Don't you realize you're a girl?" Axel said while he blushed and was about to close his eyes.

Despite that, Christine took off her hoodies and revealing her black short-sleeved undershirt.

"What do you mean?" She asked, looking at Axel confusedly.

While Axel froze in an awkward situation and blushed, looking at Christine taking off her hoodies.

"Oh… nothing… uhh,"

Christine smiled in a smug look at the blushed Axel, and then she said to him.

"Hehe, you're so funny, Axel,"

Axel looked at the other side in embarrassment because of looking at topless Christine. And then he asked me.

"How didn't you get turned on looking at her undressing, Tsuyuki?"

"Unfortunately, her things are kinda small," I replied jocularly.

"My god, Tsuyuki!" Christine said while pouting. Her pouting expression was so cute that I wanted to pinch her cheek.

"I'm just joking, hahaha" I added while giggling a bit. It's refreshing to see the three of us having fun after the exhaustive mission.

And then Axel approached both of us and showed us his domino box.

"By the way, how about if we're playing dominos while waiting for the ride to come?" He asked while brandishing his domino box.

"Alright, let's go!" I nodded, and accepted Axel's offer to play dominos together.

Christine also joined the game. And, three of us play domino to kill our boredom and wait until the ride arrives and takes us back to HQ.

***

1136 hours, 18 June 0145…

It's been 10 minutes since we've played dominos for around 5 games. And the result is:

Me: 1 win

Axel: 3 win

Christine: 1 win

"My god… Axel, you're too good at this game!" Christine said in a slight frustration while dropping the Dominos into the carpet and laying down in the carpet because she's keeping losing.

"Well, you're not cool enough to defeat me, aren't you?" He said while smirking and raising his left eyebrows.

"Admit it, you're just using your 1% of your power," I asked while pointing out Axel smilingly.

"Humph, don't mess with me when you're against me in the domino international competition," He said in a slightly arrogant tone, smiling.

After that, I looked at my smartphone to check out the time. And the ride doesn't arrive for around 10 minutes. So, I asked Axel.

"By the way, it's been 10 minutes. But the ride doesn't come up yet. There must be a nearby jet sound as the sign of the ride is coming. But it seems like they're still far from arriving at this place. Can you call the ride again?"

"Alright," he answered.

After that, he stood up, picking up his Walkie Talkie and contacting the Osprey pilot.

While he's contacting the Osprey pilot, I talked to Christine.

"By the way, Christine. Did you know about superstition? And did you have your own superstition?" After that, she answered.

"I had one. I ever though whenever I saw each leaves fallen from the tree, each person dies," Suddenly, I saw a dead leaf falling from the outside of this tent.

And then, I pointed at the dead leaves and said to her.

"Oh look, there's a falling leaves, that's mean someone must be dead," Hearing my words made Christine chuckle a bit.

And then she answered.

"Hehe, might be. But superstition will always be superstition. And it's up to you if you want to believe it or not," I looked down at Christine's green ring on her left finger, and I asked about her green ring.

"And by the way, Christine. Why are you wearing that green ring on your left finger? Do you have a fiancé?"

"No. This is my mother's ring. She gave me this ring as the sign of her affection. And I used it because I loved it," she answered while showing me her ring.

"Oh… ok…"

When me and Christine are chit-chatting with each other. Suddenly, Axel said something while calling for the ride back home.

"What? Oh… alright. I'll report you later on," Axel said in surprise.

I was curious why Axel was surprised. So, I approached him and asked.

"What's wrong, Axel?"

"This is bad, Tsuyuki, Christine. The ride was in a trouble where their signal's interrupted. And that causes their arrival to be delayed for another minute," He answered worriedly.

Me and Christine, were both shocked to hear the ride back home was in massive trouble.

"Could it be our ride, get shot, or some engine failure?" I asked again, curiously.

"I don't know. However, they've reported to us they'll come here sooner than ever besides the problem," He answered.

However, I'm confused about what kind of problem that the ride back home had, so I asked him back.

"What kind of problem? Didn't they told you about the problem they've had?" Suddenly, the ride back home called Axel again.

"Wait, the ride calling us back!" He said when he's picking up his Walkie Talkie.

And then he answered the call and said.

"This is Axel from Black Vulture, report!"

"We're sorry that *bzzzz* we're keeping you *bzzzzz* waiting. Unfortunately, our signal *bzzz* is *bzzzz* interrupted by *bzzzzz* some- *bzzzzz*" said the Osprey pilot while the signals were interrupted.

"Great… a superstition that used to be a laughingstock, now laughing at us back," I said to myself.

"What do you mean by that? Our ride back to home is in trouble, and something must be interrupts their signal!" he said worriedly.

I tried to find any clue about the problem. Suddenly, my mind reminded me of something that I'd experienced before.

"Could it be?" I asked myself. Suddenly, Christine startled both of us by saying.

"I knew it!" And then Axel asked again.

"What do you know, Christine?" And then, she explained the situation.

"I've heard that the Scorching Virus can interrupt and jam any signal. Considering this virus's categorized as an all invading virus that can invade anything,"

"I knew it! That stupid Radogaan is still out there!" I said to myself after I remembered about the problem.

And yes, Radogaan was still out there and it's probably still alive, although Red Cheetah was still taking care of that monster.

"Wait, isn't Red Cheetah is the one taking care of that monster?" Axel asked curiously about Red Cheetah.

Suddenly, the three of us got an emergency calls from operator Vladimir through our comms channels.

"This is operator Vladimir and Vanessa reporting to Black Vulture,"

"Go ahead!" I answered.

And then, Vanessa explained the situation.

"We've detected a hefty amount of Scorching Virus that interrupting your ride back home signal. It's originated from Radogaan, the infected monster you've fought earlier on before Red Cheetah taking care of it. Apparently, it's spreading through the midair. Despite that, the ground doesn't get infected. Besides that, you still need to be careful, and don't forget to wear your gas masks when fighting against that monster!"

After she explained the situation, I asked her about Red Cheetah.

"Can you inform us of the Red Cheetah condition?"

"Unfortunately, Scott is wounded heavily where his left waist slashed by Radogaan tail tips. And it looks like the virus is scorching through his body slowly. However, he'll get infected if that virus doesn't get taken care of quickly," Vladimir answered.

It shocked both Axel and Christine after they heard Scott was heavily wounded.

Furthermore, I said to Vladimir and Vanessa.

"See that?! That's why we had to slay that monster earlier, before those Red Cheetah assholes stole our jobs and ended up killing themselves!"

"I know! But how can we defeat that enraged monster where his power was buffed because of his Scorching Virus?!" Axel retorted to prevent me from taking nonchalant action that led me to endanger my life further.

However, I smirked and replied to him,

"Don't worry guys. We're a new-types, we're an Authonoids that have double the immunity, and double the power we've had,"

"But that doesn't guarantee our safety after the mission! Because being an Authonoid is all about life or death!" Axel said to me assertively again.

And then he continued.

"Are you trying to die like an idiot? Don't you realize that you're almost died stabbed by her last day and you're almost died because of Radogaan's tail sweep before?"

It infuriated me to hear him preach about life and death continuously. So, I approached Axel's face and replied to him.

"So what's the deal if I get stabbed by her or get eaten by that monster? I'd rather die standing than live kneeling for your bullshit order of nothing!"

Suddenly, operator Vladimir tried to calm us down and said.

"Guys! I know that you have some quarrel. But please, this is not the perfect time for us to quarrel about something else. Apparently, Commander Katoki gave all of you full authorization to slay that monster. However, we will give you a backup forces whenever you're in a danger,"

And then, Christine asked Vladimir.

"Are you sure you'll back us up? And how did you guys able to contact us if there's an interruption by the Scorching Viruses?"

"Trust us. We'll keep tracking you down by using a signal from the underground antenna. And we'll continue to track you down whenever you're in a danger," Vladimir answered clearly.

Suddenly Vanessa added, panicking.

"Oh no, this is bad! Scott's infection rate is almost reaching to a critical level, and the Red Cheetah team is in a massive danger! Didn't realize the infection went rapidly than we've thought!"

"Guys, you need to rescue them quickly!" She continued in a hurry.

"It's alright, we'll take care of them real quick!" Axel replied.

"We'll help them right now!" Christine replied.

And then, Vladimir asked me.

"And what about you, the leader of Black Vulture?"

I was staying silent because they had restrained me from accomplishing my goal for their own bullshit reasons. Although this time they're allowing me to accomplish this goal, I'll predict they'll suddenly pull me out again from reaching my goal.

"Tsuyuki?" Vladimir asked me worryingly, because he thinks I muted the mic.

"Tsuyuki, can you hear me?" Vanessa asked anxiously.

Therefore, I sighed in frustration and replied to them.

"What's the point of you ordered us to accomplish the goal? If in the end, you guys keep blocking our path,"

"What do you mean by that?" Vladimir asked, confused, while chuckling awkwardly.

"Because you guys always blocked us from accomplishing our goal for your bullshit reasons, I'd rather did everything by myself. And there's nothing you can stop me," I replied while picking up my Nakajima and Kiryu.

"Tsuyuki, what the hell are you talking about?" Vladimir asked me, confusedly.

"Don't put your life in danger again, leader of the Black Vulture! Don't you realize you're almost dead because of her stab last days?" Vanessa continued worryingly.

However, I ignored their worries and replied to them.

"If you tolerate everything, you stand up for nothing. If you no longer taking a chance that's existed in front of you, you're no longer deserve to live longer. And if you refuse to stand up, you deserve to die prematurely.,"

After that, I disconnected my comms channel from Vladimir and Vanessa.

"Wait, Tsuyuki! Tsuyuki! *Beep*" Said Vladimir after I disconnected my comms channel.

After I prepare myself, I'm stepping in front of the dark forest entrance. I equipped my EarPods again and listened to drum and bass music to reduce my stress during the battle.

"Tsuyuki, don't you realize that your love plunging yourself into the abyss and thinking you could get out alive?" Axel asked worriedly from behind.

I stopped for a second, looking back, and answered while sneering.

"It's alright. I never die," I answered when looking back in a glare.

When the drum and bass beat was dropped into the main beats, my heart was beating fast. And then, I dashed at lightning speed to rescue Red Cheetah and to slay Radogaan.

"TSUYUKI! WAIT!" Axel shouted at my behind.

Afterwards, both Christine and Axel followed my lead as they dashed to back me up.