Anna ran to the doorway, pausing just before she opened it. ‘Wait, what if they’re on the other side?’ She thought and put her her back against the entryway’s wall instead.

Anna slowly began to edge the door open, trying not to move too quickly. She’d read in a comic once that human eyes are attracted to motion, she needed to be careful to not be noticed. Stealth was her friend right now.

The silence was all-encompassing. Anna couldn’t even hear her own heartbeat. She found herself constantly checking over the room she was in, trying to cover as much of it as possible with her cone of vision, subconsciously looking for the predator that must’ve been stalking her.

Shaking off her lizard’s brain fear, Anna turned back to the door. After a few seconds of slowly moving the door at a constant rate, she had a small window to look through.

Inching her way forward, Anna tried to get a good look...

And stopped when something quite obvious occurred to her.

‘What the fuck am I doing? I’m a god,’ she thought, facepalming. Trying to ignore her own momentary stupidity, Anna paused time, floating through the doorway as she separated herself from her body.

She almost screamed in surprise when she saw the figure standing on the other side.

He… She… They? Anna couldn’t tell actually. Their form was fairly androgynous. Their gender was impossible to tell from their face because of the half-dome helmet they wore. The rest of the body was covered as well, In some sort of armored bodysuit. Everything they wore was in a sort of matte dark red color.

They had obviously noticed the door opening seeing as how they had positioned themselves so that Anna wouldn’t see them. This was also belied by the fact that they had what appeared to be a las-rifle pointed at the door.

Gulping, Anna got closer and began to look them over for any markings that would betray their allegiance. Checking shoulders, sides, chest, back, belt, she found nothing.

Anna backed up and scowled. ‘Shit. So this isn’t regular special forces. They always have patches and stuff. To be fair, I doubted it. I’ve not seen anything that resembles this before.’

Anna had once read a comic that followed a fictional special forces team in a superhero esque world as they tried to enforce laws against super-powered criminals. The comic had been fairly accurate, including real-world tactics, organizations, and weapons. Anna had read all of the current issues out and researched it in interest a while back, giving her at least a little familiarity with the subject.

Waiving away her inane thoughts, Anna got back to studying the apartment and its intruders.

There were three of them. One was covering the front door, presumably keeping an eye out, another was handling the unconscious body of Jamie, probably knocked out by some sort of chemical cocktail administered by the dart in his neck, and the last was dealing with Anna.

‘Seeing as how they’re unmarked, and there aren’t more of them, this seems hasty.’ Anna flew around above them, flipping upside down for fun. ‘Did Jamie coming here force their hand?’

‘I guess that’s unimportant, what is important that I get Jamie and get the hell out of dodge. Now, how should I do that?’ Anna swooped around to get a good look at Jamie and giggled when she saw drool leaking out of his mouth.

Moving back Anna considered his body. He was a bit taller than her at five-eight, almost four inches greater than her own height, though it looked like he was skinny. ‘I might just be able to carry him,’ Anna thought.

‘I definitely could as Witness, enhanced strength and all that, but should Witness get involved here?’ Anna stopped to think. ‘She could, but what would that say about her capabilities and, more importantly, her relation to me?’

Anna had been deliberately only going to televised events as Witness was to not give anyone information about who Witness was. By only going to events that were televised, Witness could be anyone that watched those broadcasts. However, by showing up here, Anna could be giving away that she and Witness were linked in some manner, therefore generating interest in who Anna was. And while Anna could most likely fool them and stay under the radar, it would be a pain in the ass.

‘I think… I’ll have to hold off on using Witness. Just plain Anna is going to have to find a way of taking down three heavily armed trained specialists that may be enhanced genetically or mechanically.

‘On top of that, I’m going to have to do this in a way that doesn’t look suspicious or look like powers were involved. Just a whole lot of luck.’

Sighing, Anna pinched her nose. ‘Why do I not see this ending well?’

Gamma covered the door in front of her.

Well, them.

Gamma covered the door in front of them.

The Isipoki, as they were called, didn’t have physical genders and were told not to assign themselves one. Of course, Gamma and her siblings had done it anyway.

A symbol popped up on her HUD. The target had been secured.

Not bothering to glance away from the door to check, Gamma sent a confirmation back. That was a rookie mistake that Omega had made.

May her soul rest in peace.

Death didn’t bother Gamma. She’d made her peace with it awhile ago. It had been one of the first things drilled into their heads. They were the Isipoki.

They were already ghosts.

Another symbol appeared. Upsilon had spotted a civilian outside, coming in this direction.

Gamma still did not move, keeping her position covered. Upsilon would deal with it if it became an issue. She kept as still as a rock, not twitching, not shifting, barely breathing, Gamma watched the doorway, waiting for the civilian inside to come out.

Gamma didn’t like this operation. Omicron and Zeta were supposed to be here, but they weren’t. Her inquires only told her that they’d met ‘complications’ upon arriving.

They’d also been forced to act early as the target was tipped off by some other agency. Whether it was the Russians, Americans, or Europeans, Gamma didn’t know but, whoever it was, sent the target scambling.

By the time Gamma, Alpha, and Upsilon had tracked the target down, he’d already found refuge here, with the civilian.

Quiring command was no help at all. They’d just told them to continue with the operation and eliminate any witnesses. So, the three of them were forced to assault a home with an unknown layout, with an unknown amount of hostiles inside, that had an unknown arsenal at their disposal, all while possibly on a time limit as other agencies might show up at any second.

This mission was fucked from the start.

It, surprisingly, had not blown up in their faces yet. They’d spotted the target in the kitchen almost immediately after they’d busted in. Alpha had tranqed him causing him to go down. Which had been a relief as it hadn’t been a sure thing.

Gamma was having a hard time wrapping her head around these ‘powers’ that were in the briefing. One could maybe shrug off bullets, heal fast enough for it to be visible, and run faster than a bullet, and possibly weirder stuff but it changed from person to person and couldn’t be taken away?

She wasn’t sure she believed it. Maybe this was all a test set up by command. See how they respond in a situation with so many unknowns, a time limit, and these strange powers. Sounds like something command would do.

After they’d tranqed the target Alpha and Gamma had swept the living room and bathroom, checking for hostiles. Finding none had been a relief and Gamma signed for Alpha to secure the target and get transporting. She could cover a single room by herself.

Thermal showed that there was only one hostile in the room, but Gamma was as cautious as ever. Thermal vision can be fooled, another lesson she’d learned from Zeta.

May his soul rest in peace.

Another symbol, from Upsilon again. The civilian had moved on, none the wiser.

Twitching her fingers, she sent a confirmation again.

The door slammed open, almost hitting Gamma who was forced to retreat or be hit by it. Her enhanced reflexes allowing her to escape.

Pulling up her gun again, she was shocked to see the hostile not a few feet away, charging directly at her. Gamma had fought many others on her various missions and never had she encountered someone stupid enough or brave enough to charge directly at her before.

Her armor made her quite intimidating by design. Combine this with her six foot four height, the weapons she usually had on her, and most people usually ran away from her.

This is why she stood dumbfounded as the civilian barreled into her, knocking them both over.

The civilian ended up on top and pointed their gun at Gamma’s face. Gamma saw a brief moment of hesitation on their face and capitalized on it.

Abandoning the las-rifle, as it was trapped against her body by the civilian, she instead shot her hand down for the pistol at her waist. In the blink of an eye, Gamma had a las-pistol pointed at the civilian’s face and pulled the trigger…

And pulled the trigger…

And pulled the trigger…

The gun had misfired.

Both of them stared at the pistol for a second before focusing back on each other. Gamma saw resolution come over the civilian’s features.

Reacting quickly, Gamma used the arm already pointing the pistol at their face to knock the civilian’s gun to the side, so, Instead of being shot in the face, Gamma was instead shot in the shoulder.

Removing her arm.

Gritting her teeth in pain, Gamma tried to stem to flow of blood using her other arm while sending out a signal to the others. They wouldn’t have noticed the fight, their backs were turned and the SIBD would ensure that the whole thing had been in silence.

Gamma refocused on the civilian as they reloaded and fired their weapon at Alpha, hitting him in the back. He’d been weighed down by the target and hadn’t been able to react fast enough to Gamma’s warning. He went down with the target crumpling on top of him. Their armor was enough to ensure that that wasn’t a kill shot, but it definitely took out his spine.

He was out of the fight.

Upsilon had a much better time of things, managing to flip around from his place by the door and fire towards the civilian. They ducked behind the kitchen island to avoid the line of burning death, scrambling to reload.

As Gamma watched them, she sent a signal to Upsilon telling him to push. He popped out of cover and dashed toward the civilian’s position laying down his own suppressing fire as he went.

The civilian grew more and more frantic as invisible beams scorched the wall above them. They fumbled a round, dropping it, and were forced to waste more time trying to pick it up.

Upsilon closed in, getting closer and closer before he was forced to duck into cover again to change out his battery pack.

A brief lull fell over the battlefield as Upsilon waited for the civilian to pop out of cover and the civilian kept dropping the round.

Gamma watched as the round fell out of their hands another time, hit the ground, and rolled right into open ground. The civilian stared in horror and patted down the rest of their body searching for something. No, not something.

Ammo.

Gamma sent a push order to Upsilon. If the civilian was out of ammo then they could take them out and put this whole mess behind them.

As Upsilon rushed up to the civilian’s cover, Gamma watched their eyes settle on something laying next to them. Before Gamma could even begin to comprehend what they were thinking, the civilian had already grabbed the item, stood up, and thrown it Upsilon.

Smacking him in the face with a cooking pot and blinding him with the brown sludge that fell out and covered his head.

Diving to the side, the civilian picked up their previously dropped round, reloaded while Upsilon was blind, and fired. The magnetically assisted bullet caught him in the side and vaporized the parts of his intestines. Knocking him out of the fight as well.

And just like that, it was over.

A single civilian with a gun had taken out one of the world’s most advanced special forces unit in under two minutes.

Gamma sat, literally floored, as the civilian collected the target, just barely being able to lift him, and shuffled their way out the door. A few seconds later, Gamma heard the SIBD be turned off, and sound returned to the world.

A few more seconds of calm silence continued as Gamma just laid her head back and groaned. Opening up a com channel with her brothers, Gamma checked in.

“Check-in, Check-in, Upsilon, Alpha, do you read?” Her deadpan robotic voice asked over the radio.

“Alpha reads.” “Upsilon reads.” Two identical voices said back.

“Status report.”

“Spine has sustained heavy damage. Lower body motor functions are unavailable. Upper body motor functions are limited. Estimated three days to heal if not brought to a medical facility to be treated.” Alpha reported, confirming what Gamma suspected.

“Intestines and lower internal organs have sustained heavy damage. Lower body motor functions are impaired but functional. Estimated five hours to heal if not brought to a medical facility to be treated. Bleed out possible if moved before armor’s tourniquet function activates.” Upsilon detailed, causing Gamma to wince. The damage was worst than she thought.

“Understood. Upsilon will secure Alpha once armor’s tourniquet function activates. I will pursue the target.” She explained, standing up.

“What is Gamma’s possibility of bleed out?” Alpha sent back and, had his voice had been capable of it, Gamma knew she would’ve heard worry in it.

“Zero. Armor’s tourniquet function already activated.”

“Understood.” “Understood.” both said at the same time.

Gamma collected Upsilon's las-pistol from his body as she stepped over Upsilon and made her way to the door. Las-rifles wouldn't be practical with a missing arm.

checking for any witnesses that might see her. Not seeing any she stepped out into the night.