I counted fifteen. Cocked the barretta before looking up at Raven. She was doing the same with her pistols, mainly the Glock 19s. The newbies, Sidewind and Desolate looked calm. So calm, in fact, it was unsettling. Mainly because Sidewind didn’t have a face, but instead an L.E.D. screen that would just show emoticon faces. It was currently set to “(:”. Desolate just stared straight ahead, through the back window of the van. 

“E-T-A, Dex?” I called out to the front seat. 

“60.” I understood clearly. Raven as well. Desolate might have even understood, though I was unsure as he didn’t talk much. But, Sidewind was elsewhere.

“60 what? Seconds? Minutes? Years?” he called out to Dex.

“55,” Dex answered back. I looked back at the android to see his “reaction” and his screen changed to “/:”. 

“Nervous?” I asked the cyborg. Desolate didn’t answer me. There was no way he didn’t hear me. He was ignoring me, which pissed me off, but I got over it. I moved on to the one directly across me: Raven. “How ‘bout you?”
“Chillin’,” she said. We’d done this several times. It felt like the times we were doing this was slowly increasing though. I think the Alpha Corps being forcefully shut down by an Earthly source gave the crime lords the balls to show their heads more often. Made it easier for us because it meant they’d gotten careless. 

“And you?” Sidewind asked me. 

“Fine. Ready to take out some more scum,” I said plainly. I twisted my body towards the android. “What about you? You got any feelings in that metal shell?”

“The screen tells all. But, that's the extent of it.”

“Ten,” Dex called back. We stood in unison as the van gradually slowed to a halt. Sidewind kicked the door open and left the door barely hanging on the hinges.

“There’s a handle, asshole,” I said to him.

“But… you gotta admit admit, this was cooler,” he retorted. I shook my head and hopped out behind Raven, Desolate behind me. We snuck over to some crates for cover without being spotted. The goons were too busy to spot the van either. There was a bunch of shouting, whining drills, and metal clanging. Either they were building something or pretending to build something while moving their actual product.

It was dark outside but the light posts from the wet docks gave us enough to see. Plus, the goons had stupidly bright flood lights surrounding their garage.

I signaled for Raven and Desolate to sneak across a gap to crates on the other side of the garage so we could attack from two angles. We had already discussed who would be drawing fire first in the van briefing, but the iidiotic android thought it’d be a good idea to throw a wrench in those plans.

As soon as Raven and Desolate crossed the gap safely and without alerting anyone, Sidewind cried out to the unsuspecting goons.

“Over here, motherfuckers!” he shouted, vaulting over the crates I still chose to hide behind. He pulled out his only distanced weapon, a laser Beretta given to him by the man that created-- well, recreated-- him. He began firing wildly while Raven looked to me for a backup plan. All I could give her was a shrug as a peak out from behind the crates and started firing off my handheld railgun.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Raven roll hers, and creep around the far side of her crates as Desolate stood in place, waiting for actual orders. One of the energy I fired must have hit a gas tank and it caused a massive explosion, sending not only goons flying, but the white product they were moving everywhere as well. Subsequently, I heard energized shouts from the back of the garage. Some of them were now high. 

For the first since we started this raid, we began receiving returned fire. I looked at Desolate, who must have been staring at me the entire time, because he looked as if he hadn’t blinked since we left the van. I gave him the signal to stay put and let the weapons run dry. Sidewind was still firing on top of the crate acting as if nothing they shot at him would penetrate his armor. Raven was completely gone, but I assumed not harmed. 

“They’re about to run dry,” Raven informed over the com devices. 

“Heard,” I answered back. I took this opportunity to return a few more shots before completely stepping out and walking forward firing my railgun. Sidewind hopped off the side of the crate, following my lead along with Desolate. I stopped as the enemies ran out of bullets and I stared them in their faces as I continued to walk forward, unbothered by what they might try next. In fact, they were focused and terrified of what I might do, they didn’t see Raven coming to flank them.

She fired two, each hitting someone different, then disarmed another, though it was unnecessary. She wrestled him to the ground and put another two in him, before lifting her gun and letting off one more into the skull of a fourth. 

Some goons that could have been on the outside of the perimeter or just arrived as reinforcements bursted through a side door in the garage. None of them were carrying firearms, so we all exchanged looks and nodded at one another in preparation for the hand-to-hand. 

I put my railgun away on my back, opposite my katana and withdrew my combat knife and extended the hidden blade in my cybernetic right arm. Raven took out two combat knives, Sidewind released his hidden blades similar to mine, and Desolate opened the holes in his palms. The goons were all carrying pipes and wrenches as if this was a 1920’s car garage. They circled around us, but it didn’t matter as Sidewind lept into action first.

He extended his right arm and jabbed it into the face of the goon directly in front him. Another tried to swing their weapon at him, but he swiftly moved the recently dead body into place as a shield. Desolate spins and attacks the body mauler, releasing a powerful sound-shockwave from his palm, sending the goon into a crate, knocking it over. I turned to see Raven slashing a guy’s heels, working her way all the way up his body, giving dozens of small cuts before she kicked him in my direction. As he stumbled towards me, I slashed his throat, and dodged the spurt of blood that came from it. As I was mid-dodge, another tried to swing down on me, but I deflected it with my right arm, grabbed and pulled his weapon from him, yanking him towards me. And as he stumbled, I pushed my hidden blade into his eye socket.

Another two came for me, but one became distracted by the other as Raven, stabbed him in the rib then flipped back away from him as Desolate released another soundwave, sending this guy flying into the back wall of the garage. Sidewind was busy focusing on his own goon, stabbing only one repeatedly as if he were getting vengeance on him. Desolate turned in time to redirect a pipe swing and release a compressed sound wave into the guy’s chest, sending him directly into the ceiling. As he came back down, Raven added injury to injury and axe kicked the goon to the ground before stabbing him in the back of the head. 

My sense alerted me of three guys swinging their metal weapons at me all at once, and I turned to absorb all three blows with my right arm. I took my combat knife and slashed twice at the goon to my left’s stomach, before stabbing and twisting, then removing it from his body. He dropped dead and I pushed the other two’s weapons off my arm before sweeping the one in the middle and bringing a hard, metal blow to his chest that cracked it on impact. I moved effortlessly onto the third, bringing my elbow across to connect with his face. Finally, I extended my arm to grab his face before he could be further than arm’s distance and I extended the hidden blade through his mouth. 

I looked around, still calm from the situation, and saw that the rest had been taken care of by Raven and Desolate. I looked to Sidewind, who was so busy focusing on the one guy that had already been for thirty seconds, he didn’t see the remaining goon hightailing it for the garage exit. I knew Dex wouldn’t be able to stop him and as I tried to draw my Beretta, a flash went off that temporarily blinded and deafened the four of us. 

As I tried shaking the effects off, the final goon was nowhere to be seen. I turned to the android that was to blame.

“What the fuck was that?” I shouted at him. His screen face changed to “/:”.

“My bad. I fucked on the throw,” he responded.

“So, you saw the guy escaping and thought the best idea would be to throw a flash grenade at him?” I was trying my best to get into his head and be sympathetic, but I was heated. I looked over to Raven, who-- because she didn’t have the serum-- was still recovering from the flash. 

“I couldn’t pull out my sidearm in time.” He was digging for a valid excuse as to why that guy just got away to alert his boss as to what happened. 

“Yet, you had time to pull out a flash grenade, remove the clip, and fail to throw it properly?” I was digging for the truth. There was a brief pause before he spoke again. 

“Yeah.”

I looked to Raven who seemed to be doing okay now.

“Why are they here, Raven?”

“The heroes pushed them off on us, if you want a valid answer,” she said, sticking her finger in her ear as if there was water in it. Sidewind’s screen changed to “):”. I looked at Desolate, who still had the same exact expression on his face as always. He was staring me in the face again, as if he was ready to be scolded.

“To be clear, I’m not mad at you, Desolate,” I said, then aggressively pointed at Sidewind. “It’s this idiot.”

“Hey, I’m better at this thing than you,” the android defended.

“Wow, you really do have Armstrong’s personality,” I snapped. “Only he wouldn’t own up to the stupid shit you just pulled.”

“Guys, we got company,” Dex told us over the comms. We looked out the garage and saw red and blue flashing lights. I glanced at the side door that the melee weapon-wielding goons entered through. I signaled silently for the three of them to run through it and they did, with me following close behind. I had assumed Dex had moved the van before alerting us and was making his way to the rendezvous point. It wasn’t far, but the cops had already seen me as I was the last one through the door. 

We ran across the street and into an alley as it was a shortcut to the rendezvous. I looked back to see that the side we entered on had been blocked off. As soon as I saw it, I kept repeating the same sentence in my head.

Please don’t block off the other end. Please don’t block off the other end. Please don’t block off the other end.

Sure enough, and with my luck, they did exactly that and Raven slowed to a stop and looked back at me from the front. I nodded to the fire escapes on the alley walls and as they boosted each other up, I pulled out my Beretta and began blasting at the cops on both ends of the alley. Raven already knew by me doing this that I was staying behind. She didn’t even bother looking back as the cops eventually swarmed me. 

 

I walked through the hall with one guard at each of my shoulders, the prisoners were resting their arms through the cage and screaming out at me. Some even tried to get their face the cell bars as if they could, it would do something. I didn’t recognize any of their faces, but I knew I had something to do with them being in jail or something to do with killing their gang members, family members, or both. 

“FRESH MEAT!” a prisoner shouted. I thought they couldn’t get anymore cliché. Until I heard some shout:

“WE GOT A LIVE ONE, BOYS!”
“DON’T DROP THE SOAP!”

“I’M INNOCENT! YA GOTTA LET ME OUTTA HERE!”

I reached my cell and my cellmate was standing with his back against the wall as if he was waiting for my arrival. But, based on what happened next, I’m pretty sure he was. The guards shoved me into the cell and as I tried to regain my footing, my brand new cellmate tried to shank me, but I sidestepped and turned the shiv on him, pushed, then twisted. I backed away as the guards pulled me from him and went to check on the prisoner, who was dead before he hit the ground. 

“Get him to solitary,” one guard barked at the other. The barked-at-guard stood and forced my arms behind my back as he pushed to a different section of the jail. And yes, I did say “arms” because these idiots couldn’t figure out how to get my cybernetic arm off. The trick answer to it was there was no way besides chopping it off like one might a normal arm. The Omega Squadron doctors made it so it was like I never lost an arm in the first place. It was that embedded into my brain. 

We got to a quiet-- almost dead-- section of the jail where prisoners in solitary were kept. The guard pushing me found an empty one and tossed me in there. I could have easily escaped him at any point during his guiding, but it wouldn’t do me any good if I got out of here illegitimately.

The guard said nothing as he shut the door behind himself. I walked up to the solid, metal door and tried opening the slit they put at the top of each door, but I found out it only opens from the outside. I shrugged and walked to my rock-hard bed and climbed on, falling asleep almost immediately. It was the best sleep I’ve had in a long while. 

 

Since I slept so hard, the next day came rather fast, as the guards were shouting at me to get up. They wanted me against the back wall with my palms near my head as they checked around my cell for any sort of contraband. They wouldn’t find any of course, besides the thing that was most blatant: my arm. 

The warden sauntered in, short white guy, white hair including facial, white suit. In fact, the only thing that wasn’t white on him was his red tie. 

“You have a visitor, Mr. Young,” he said in his southern accent. We weren’t in the south, so he was a long way from home.

“Who, Colonel?” I asked, insulting him. Don’t think he caught it, though. Either that, or he had been called that a little too much in here and he no longer acknowledged it.

“Come see for yourself, boy,” the colone-- warden said. Before I stepped out, the guards cuffed me, then I followed them down several corridors until we reached the visitor’s room. I was used to seeing the glass and two-telephone room, but this room was completely open. What freaked me out more is the fact that only one guy was sitting in the room as if he were waiting for me. 

“He’s not… waiting for me, is he?” I whispered to the jailer. 

“Oh, but he is, son.”

“You’re fucking with me, right? I don't know who that is.”

“Go see.”
I had no choice but to listen and walked up to the bench after a guard uncuffed me. I stared at the visitor the entire time and after a long moment of silence, he spoke first. 

“So you’re Alex Young. Or would you prefer your ‘street’ name ‘Arid’?” the guy asked me. I squinted at him. 

“Have we met?”

“In a way, we have,” he said. He stood up and began circling the table. I glanced back at the warden and guards. They hadn’t flinched after seeing him do this. This guy was obviously calling the shots around here.

“And what way is that?”

“You killed my men.”

“I tend to do that with criminals. You’re a criminal?”

“Oh, positively so. But, you and your lot are also criminals. Especially in my eyes,” he said, stopping his pacing and standing directly behind me. I was still calm, as I knew my reflexes and senses would save me in case he tried anything. 

“You want to stop fucking around and tell me who you and your people are?” I questioned, growing impatient.

“Last night, my friend. You stopped an operation on the docks. Saved your people and sacrificed yourself to wind up here,” he explained. I still had not received a straight answer and he could probably sense my impatience reaching the boiling point, even from standing behind me. “I am known in the underground as ‘Lucent’. I was given that name for the way I deal with traitors or really any who oppose me.”

I said nothing as he walked back around me to the front to see my facial reaction. I didn’t give him one.

“I set ablaze the faces of those that are unfortunate enough to fall into my clutches,” Lucent told me.

“You sound like a textbook villain. Is there really nothing special about you or what you do?” I taunted him. I wanted to get under his skin since I knew I couldn’t beat the shit out of him here. Not yet.

“I just told what it was.”

“Yeah, but literally any crime boss in the city could do what you do you.”
“But, I set fire to people’s faces before setting the rest of them on fire,” he said, trying to defend his weird quirk. 

“Yeah, but like I said, anyone can do that. But there are some things other crime bosses do that not everyone can. Or they have their own weird quirks that aren’t as simple as yours,” I pushed. “For example, Erza never ages. She also has all women working under her. Or even people like Alfonso Durante and his son. His son could control fire and he was known as the butcher, not only for what he did to people, but where his office was located.”
“That’s the same thing!” I hit a nerve.

“Why are you really here?” I asked him. His demeanor immediately receded to calm once again. A smile crept across his middle-aged, fair-skinned face.

“To see how you’re adapting to life on the inside. You have yet to go to trial, and be exonerated by the Alpha Corps or whatever bullshit you might be protected by. However, I will make sure you never reach your court date-- whenever that will be set.”

He was pretty confident in his words.

“My boys in here will make rather quick work of you,” he finished. He really thought he had won. But, there were parts of my life he had no idea of. The biggest thing being the training I went through with the African samurai Yasuke. Most people called him by his “hero” name, “Risen Ronin”. 

“Why don’t you have them finish me now?” I asked stupidly. 

“That’d be too easy, my friend,” he answered, also stupidly. “I want you to have to fight for your life while nearly everyone in here gangs up you. It might seem like you have a chance, but I want your spirit to break before you die. And I’ll have the cameras record it so I can re-watch it every night before I begin my brand new day.”

With those soft words, he left me with the warden and guards. A guard re-cuffed me and they walked me back to my cell. I was actually surprised they didn’t say anything to me on the way back. Maybe they were instructed not to. Didn’t matter that much to me.

 

After sitting for what felt like hours in solitary, the door opened and the guards cuffed me while walking me to another destination. I tried to get the answer out of them, but they ignored my comments.

They uncuffed me and shoved into a new room. The cafeteria. I looked back at them, confused.

“If I was placed in solitary, shouldn’t I be forced to eat in my cell?” I questioned. They still didn’t answer as they left the cafeteria and locked the door behind them. I turned back around and gauged the room. It didn’t appear to be a setup, but I was on edge.

I stepped onto the back of the line, got my food and found an empty table. I sat down and began to eat. The fact that I had gone through those steps without any sort of issues is what was keeping me on edge and alert. Plus, you know, I was in jail.

But, about halfway through my better-than-public-school food, the thing I feared would happen at a moment’s notice, happened.

“Hey, jackass,” a deep-voiced prisoner addressed me. I looked up from the bench I chose to sit at and saw at least six with tattoos covering every inch of skin looming over me. 

“You’re not addressing me, are ya, tiny?” I said to the deep-voiced brute in the middle of their huddle. 

“I was. Lucent paid us to kill you,” he said. Very forward guy.

“Well, have at it,” I told him. I knew I could take him--well all of them. I’ve fought more simultaneously before. Then, a little worry kicked in as a few more, tattoo-less, prisoners gathered at my table. 

“You Arid?” the supposed leader of the group questioned me. I nodded lightly.

“Who the hell are you?” the big brute of the first gang asked the tattoo-less, smaller leader.

“Lucent paid us to kill him, too,” the smaller leader responded. I only say “smaller” because he was only smaller than the brute, still larger than me though. 

“Well, I guess only one of us is getting the money,” the brute assumed. However, one of the tattoo-less, hairless leader’s goons spoke up about his logic.

“Perhaps, we’re supposed to all attack him at once. That would make a little more sense now, wouldn’t it?” he suggested. The tattooed, brute leader turned to him and socked him in his jaw. And one could guess where this led. Both gangs attacked each other and this led to everyone in the entire cafeteria to fight one another while I sat rather comfortably at my bench, finishing my meal as the guards bursted in and attempted to subdue the situation. 

 

After the situation died down, I was escorted back to my cell by two guards, but before I could step inside, the warden stopped them and told me that I had another visitor, making me question how many visitors a prisoner could have a day. Maybe I was special. 

I was taken back to the same room that I had my first interaction with Lucent. There was another body in his place, one I’ve seen before. 

“Hello, handsome,” Erza said with her legs crossed on the metal bench. I wondered what she was doing here.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to let you out. There will be no trial. There won’t be anything,” she told me. “The cops from that have been paid off to stay silent. All that’s left is for you to owe me a favor, shake my hand, and walk out of here.”

“That’s… really it? I’ve been in here, for-- what-- a day? And you’ve just… come to release me?” I asked, not believing every word of what she was saying. She smiled at me and extended a pale hand. As I reached for it, I looked into her eyes and saw that her normally red irises had turned completely black-- the same color as here pupils. It was odd, but I shook her hand anyway and turned to see the guards had already fetched me my belongings. 

 

She took me back to her club in Haven and we were in the VIP section of the bar area discussing what she actually wanted.

“So, I want you and your little resistance to… let’s say turn a blind eye to my organization. At least until you’re done cleaning up the rest of the ‘filth’ in the city,” she requested. Admittedly, I was a little distracted by the sheer amount of people-- women-- in the bar. But, I turned to her as soon as her request registered with my brain.

“Fuck no.”
“You owe me a favor, Alexander,” she told me. “Do I really need to cash it in this early?” 

“I’m not accepting that as your favor,” I told her, sitting back, crossing my arms. The tone in the bar shifted immediately. I felt like I was the only one that felt it because the rest of the ladies in there went about their business. Erza was staring at me intensely now. Her eyes looked as if they were completely black, but I wasn’t entirely sure due to the lighting of the club. 

“No, it’s not your decision,” she told me. This was the most intimidating I’d seen her. She was leaning close to my face as if reading me, all the while keeping a smile spread across her face. “I’m turning in the favor now. If you break the deal then further complications will ensue, Alexander. I don’t suggest going down that road.”

There was something obviously sinister in what she was saying and didn’t understand the subtext. I’d dealt with plenty of gangsters and crime lords that spoke the way she was speaking. However, this is the first time I’ve ever heard her speak this way and something was screaming at me to let what she was asking be my returned favor.

“Fine,” I caved. As soon as I said that, she sat back and continued smiling, but it was more relaxed. Her eyes also went back to the “normal” red color they were. Again, she moved so it could have been the lighting from what I was seeing in her eyes. 

Raven walked into the bar and plopped down at an empty seat at the middle of the counter. The women of the bar gave her glancing looks for-- I can only guess-- her looks. But, we were also a little known in the criminal underground, so maybe it was that. I looked back at Bathory.

“We done here?”

“So long as you keep your promise.”

I walked off and sat next to Raven at the bar. She sipped her drink that the bartender just poured for her and addressed me without needing to look in my direction.

“You wear that mask to bed?”

“Only when I’m feelin’ kinky,” I snapped. 

“How was jail?”

“Oh, now you care.”

“We knew you’d get out. I told them-- well, Dex knew-- to give you a day or two,” she told me, now side-eyeing me. The bartender approached me and I just pointed at Raven’s drink.

“There’s no way you could have possibly known,” I said.

“Wasn’t your first time in jail. Probably won’t be your last. Any of the times you’ve gone, you’ve found a way to break out,” she said, before taking another sip. The bartender brought over my glass.

“But my reason for going to jail is always bullshit. Well, except for this time. In the cops’ eyes anyway,” I said, lifting my mask only halfway up my face to take a sip. 

“You know, most people are beginning to recognize who we are,” she said. She was getting at the fact that I wore a mask regardless. “I mean, hell, Erza knows your real name. And neither me nor Dex wear masks. So what the fuck’s the point?” 

I took a gulp this time before slamming the drink down and ordering another. I looked at Raven, trying to give her a sincere look through my mask. 

“None of the people we take down have seen Dex’s face. He makes sure of that. The newbies don’t have identities outside of The Resistance. And you are connected to a half-angel, half-demon hybrid who is brothers with the biggest hero in Haven, possibly the world. You have jack-shit to worry about,” I explained. “Me, on the other hand, I live in a small apartment in a city that is after me for helping it. If you were in my position, wouldn’t you wear a mask?”

She ordered a second drink as well, and a third for me. 

“I never thought about it like that,” she told me. “Sorry.”

She rarely ever apologized. And this time, she wasn’t apologizing for saying what she said. She was apologizing out of pity.

“I don’t need your pity, Raven,” I told her. “I made the decision to do what I thought was right.”

“How do we know if any of what we’re doing is right?” she asked. She was speaking to me, but the question was up in the air to really anyone that might’ve been listening to our existential conversation. 

“Because if it’s not, then we’re the bad guys.”

The bartender brought my third and her second over. She raised her glass and I clinked it with my own and we both drank.

“I feel as if the gap between the regular humans and the superhumans is widening,” she said. I stared at her, reading through her subtext.

“You’re not talking about humans and superhumans in general,” I pointed out, trying to draw the truth out of her.

“I feel like Regal is gonna find another superhuman chick and just leave me,” she said. This was the first time since me making sure that she would be okay in her relationship that she opened up. I wasn’t prepared for it, but said what came to mind, hoping it was correct.

“I’m sure other humans in relationships with superhumans are in the same boat,” I blurted. She looked at me, giving me full attention.

“You don’t have to worry about that. Beyond your cybernetic arm and enhancements, there’s nothing about you that makes you a god like some of them,” she said. “Regal descended from an actual angel/demon hybrid. The rest of the people-- if I can even call them that-- were chosen by angels and/or demons. I feel as if it’s forbidden. That on top of me being a burden.”

“How are you burden?”

“I could never fight side-by-side with him against any of the alien gods they face,” she continued. “If another invasion were to come, all I have are my human guns to defend myself. Soon, it might get to a point where the enemies are so dangerous, that I have evacute with the citizens.”

I understood where she was coming from. Maybe what she was getting was another reason why we do what we do. To feel as if we’re still useful to whomever it may be. Useful to the right cause at least. 

“Well, while they deal with the alien enemies, we can continue to stop the street-level crimes. We’re still doing our part and-- who knows-- maybe in his eyes, you’re still a hero,” I attempted to encourage. “You guys’ll work it out. He’s a good guy. Or, seems that way.”

“Why do you assume?”

“‘Cause I have confidence in your choices.”

My words got her to smile. She raised glass again, and I raised mine.

“I’ll drink to that.”

 

After her saying that, I don’t remember much more than what I’m told happened. Supposedly, Erza watched us leave and get into a cab. Only the cab driver was not an actual cab driver, but a goon under Lucent. He carted our drunk asses to one of Lucent’s many hideouts. It was another garage on the docks.

He has us on our knees and arms tied to rectangular support beams inside the garage, arms spread like a certain religious figure. I was coming out of my blackout phase as Lucent’s goons kept splashing freezing-cold water on us. I was stripped on my belongings other than my pants and cybernetic-- his mistake. Raven was down to her bra, but still had pants on like me. Supposedly, all of our weapons had been taken.

I was still a little under the influence, so my inhibitions had been stomped to death temporarily as I taunted the guy that was threatening to burn us alive.

“Was that water or gasoline? I hope it was gasoline to stick with your whole ‘I set people on fire. Look at me, I’m a maniac, mom’ schtick,” I slurred. “I hope it’s with an actual lighter and not something pathetic and little-dicked like a match.”

“So, you’d rather die faster?” he questioned, leaning in close to my face and putting a gloved finger underneath my chin. I wanted to spit in his face, but I respected myself too much to sink so low, even if I was about to die. Instead, I said nothing and he let go of my chin and stood straight up. He flipped out his hand and a goon placed a rainbow-silver light in Lucent’s palm. He had a small smirk across his face, looking down at me as he strolled on over behind Raven and I. I couldn’t tell what he was about to do, but I knew I wanted Raven to make it out alive.

“Whatever you do, whatever you need to do, whatever you want to do, do it to me. Let Raven go,” I pleaded. I wasn’t normally one to plead. I had been in torture situations before, but never with someone who I considered my equal-- better, my friend. All I heard was a rather British laugh from behind me as I heard Lucent’s lighter flick on. His footsteps were approaching me from behind. I almost gave a sigh of relief before he jammed the flame into my back. My back was still wet, so it felt less hot at first. However, as the water around the middle area of my back evaporated, the flame’s temperature seemed to increase exponentially in a matter of milliseconds. 

I could sense his frustration. I wasn’t screaming or yelling in pain. I wasn’t begging him to stop. All I did was endure the pain for as long as it lasted. I was taught how to separate my mind from my body while enduring pain that I could not help. And that’s exactly what I was doing here. 

 

I had already received elite training from [army; marine corps; navy seals; air force] then additional training from the Omega Squadron. However, once the Squadron collapsed-- literally and figuratively-- I lost my arm in the destruction of it. A few straggling government-paid military doctors took me and healed me up in the [middle east or African] mountains. I escaped them once I found out they wanted to use me as a living weapon and found myself stranded on the other side of the world away from Haven. Fortunately, I was found by the immortal samurai known as Risen Ronin aka Yasuke. 

“Get up,” I heard a deep voice say. My face was buried in the snow after I just jumped away from the facility that brought me back to life. The guards weren’t even looking for me, assuming my body exploded with the rocky land below. I picked my face up and looked at a face that was covered in shadow as the sun was directly behind his head. He had a blown out afro and dark skin. His eyes were completely white meaning he was either blind or ethereal. Without uttering another word, the guy clad in samurai armor began to walk off. 

I stood up in the soft, freshly lain, powdered snow and looked around me. Nothing but mountains and snow as far as I could see. This guy would be my only way out of here, so I started to follow him. I had no idea where he was going, but he didn’t object to me following him. All I heard was his deep breaths that were visible in the cold even from behind. 

We walked for what felt like hours. I only knew it was actually hours because the sun had begun to set. And after the hours of silence, I finally broke and asked him a stereotypical question one would ask in this situation.

“Where’re we going?”

He said nothing and continued to breathe, his breath not being staggered for one instance as I asked my question. It was as if he didn’t even hear me. I asked another question any sane human would in my situation.

“You got any clothes on you? I’m kinda freezin’ my ass off here.”

He continued to breathe and walk as he did the entire time since we met face-to-face. Before I knew it, nightfall came. I was relieved when his pace slowed down to halt and he turned and sat on the snow. I plopped down in the snow directly across from him.

From behind him, out of what I assumed would have been a pouch of some sort, he pulled a pile of sticks. He threw the sticks in a perfectly formed pile between us and held his palm out at it. From his palm came bright-orange flames, giving us a fire, but more importantly for me-- warmth. I scooted closer to it, nearly falling over on top of the fire so my body could heat up. 

“So, you from around here?” I asked, trying to make the situation less awkward. He stared at me, or I think he did if he was blind and for the first time, spoke to me since we met.

“No.”

“Then, what are you doing out here? You couldn’t have been going for a walk, right?” I asked, trying to bring a little humor to the fire.

“I was out here to find you.” His words took a second to settle in. My pessimistic mind left me in disbelief.

“Bullshit. What’s so special about me?”

He went back to ignoring me. I figured he would say something like “you should already know the answer” or “if I tell you it wouldn’t be true anymore”, but somehow getting no answer was worse. 

“Also, you never answered me about having extra clothes on you,” I asked, still shivering from the entire day in sub-freezing temperatures. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 

“Separate mind from body, and you will feel no cold.”

“And… you just expect me to be able to do that?” I asked him. All he did was continue to inhale and exhale as if he was done with or conversation. 

After successfully calming down from the way this guy was speaking to me, I tried to mimic his motions and breathing. All of that went out the window when a particularly freezing gust of wind breezed past us. 

“Goddammit.”

“You imitate my motions, but do not imitate my mind,” he said. Then, it seemed as if his mind was away again. Perhaps that is why he would answer sparingly. It seemed as if his mind was actually somewhere else.

So, trying to take his advice, I regained my composure and mimicked his movements-- or lack thereof-- and breathing once again and imagined I was transported to the hottest place on Earth, which I imagined was somewhere in Central America. I was on a beach, but there were no people. It was only me, sitting in the sand the same way I was sitting in the cold. I could hear the ocean waves crashing against the sand and seagulls flying about screeching. I was here sitting and staring at this imaginary sun for so long, that I didn’t realize that morning had come. When I had awoken from my trance, I stood in unison with the samurai and continued to follow him to our unknown destination. 

 

After having sent my mind back to this memory as Lucent continued to burn my back, I twisted my cybernetic arm in such a way that the hidden blade within it, cut itself free and turned immediately stabbing Lucent in the jaw behind me. The guards, as time seemed to slow for me, raised their weapons. I cut myself free completely before they could pull their triggers and danced around their bullets as time sped up, deflecting some of their bullets back at them with my arm. The ones that weren’t injured began to reload and I used that time to cut Raven free. As I did, they cocked their weapons again and opened fire. She crouched and balled up as I jumped, hopped, and flipped her, deflecting each bullet with my arm. As they went to reload again, Raven nabbed Lucent’s sidearm and opened fire back on his goons. 

Needless to say, the two clean up shop in the garage, leaving only Lucent alive and leaking in the end. I picked him up by his head and stared at him in his desperate eyes before Raven handed his lighter off to me and I set his face ablaze in a glorious and vengeful fashion. As he screamed in pain as his body slowly cooked from the inside out, setting fire to everything in the garage around him as well, Raven and I walked calmly away and back to our hideout.