As I was flying back to New Brunsburg I pulled myself together. I knew what I had to do. There was only one path to take, one goal to achieve. I would have to take down the Greene-Family once and for all, before they managed to get undercover and hide their involvement.No, this would end today! Galatea had told me that she had found something important, important enough that we had to strike today and get into the Greene-Families mainframe, buried in the foundations of Greene-Tower.

My flightpath took me straight to the main-entrance of Greene-Tower and I disengaged a few meters above ground, dropping the rest and landing in a roll. Galatea took the flight-frame back up in a hairraising maneuver, subjecting it to the maximum level of g-forces. But my entrance had not been unobserved and a group of black suited guards stormed out of the building, some engaging with telescopic batons, others taking position behind, giving them cover with large guns.

I threw myself into the fray, twisting and turning, dodging and punching, taking down one guard after the other. They would not stop me, not today. The blazing guns added a staccato-beat to the grunts, growls and smacks, creating a symphony of destruction as I battled with them. But they could not win, they would not win.

Breaking out of the encirclement, I jumped towards the line of gunman, opting to take them down first and I managed to get to four of them before their baton-wielding colleagues caught up with me. I repeated the maneuver a couple of times, before all the suits were on the ground, moaning in pain and turned, heading towards the entrance.

The entrance opened and four additional guards came out. They carried themselves far different from their colleagues, tall and proud. The only thing they had in common was their black suit and the sunglasses. One had a slim built, all wirty muscles, holding a katana in each of his hands and he was wearing a blue tie. Another was built like a mountain, his huge frame and the iron-hard muscles hidden under a plain white shirt, adorned with a loose red tie. His weapons of choice were incredibly discongruent with his huge build, as his hands held a pair of sai.

Next to him was a smaller figure, built like a gymnast, his hands small tree-trunk, or maybe it was a quarterstaff and his purple tie was neatly bound around his neck. The last of them was twirling a pair on nunchakus, the disturbed air causing his orange tie to flutter.

“The boss said to take her down. Michael, why don’t you give it a try?” The one with the blue tie ordered.

“Really, Leo? Cool!”

With a wide smile, the orange-tie guy moved forward, swaggering as he walked. He thought it would be an easy fight, I would show him better! Surging forward to meet him, we started our fight, his twirling nunchaku coming from impossible angles, forcing me to dodge from time to time, but I was easy stronger than him. Stronger and better.

“Leo, I don’t think Michael can manage. We should help him.” the one with the purple tie suggested.

“Yeah, let’s just take her down.” his red tie wearing colleague agreed.

“You are right, Don, Raphe. Let’s get her!” their leader agreed and the three others joined the fight, turning it into a four against one and giving me an incredible amount of pressure. But I could not falter, I could not fail. Not after the events of the last few hours.

I felt myself speed up and realised that my enemies were moving as if in slow motion, like turtles. Three of them attacked at the same time, and as a staff-strike came from above, I sidestepped it, before using my movement to push against the staff-wielder, unbalancing him and sending him stumbling into his nunchaku twirling friend ending that ones attack and causing them to be off-balance. The third attacker was behind me and striking with his sais, I took one strike to the back before I tossed him into his off-balance friends, sending all three tumbling to the floor.

Seeing an opportunity, I tossed a web-grenade after him, ensnaring all three and locking them down. Now, I only had to deal with the sword-wielding leader.

Seeing his friends on the ground, he leapt back but I could not let him disengage, so I followed up, furiously charging at him and using a flurry of blows to swipe aside his defenses. Finally, I managed to connect with a heavy palm-strike to his chest, throwing him through the glass-doors into the foyer of Greene-Tower.

Following through the broken glass, I saw him down for the count and had an open way deeper into the facility.

Pulling up the building’s plans, I moved downstairs, towards their mainframe. There was a laser-barrier in the way, but my armour was strong enough to allow me to simply pass through it, without trouble. There were electronic security measures, but Galatea managed to get me through and bar the way to enemies following me.

Walking through non-descript hallways, I felt exhaustion creep in. But determination drove me forward, relentlessly pushing me to move.

As I rounded the corner in front of the control-room, a small contingent of guards tried to stop me, filling the hallway with a rain of bullets, but I still had some party-favours to deliver. I tossed a liberal mix of grenades, flashbang, smoke and web, blindly around the corner all set to detonate before they would hit the floor. For a split-second, the hallway was filled with blinding light and the concussive wave pushed the air away, only to be replaced by a dimness as smoke covered the available light-sources.

After waiting for a few moments for the smoke to fully obscure vision, I started walking on the spot, making it sound as if I was walking into the hallway, triggering another cascade of bullets, soon followed by curses as the guards realised that they had been had. Their guns had still pointed to the corner but now they were unable to reload, thanks to the binding webs. Walking around the corner for real, I made my way to the guards, taking their useless guns away and breaking them, before entering the control room.

Sadly, the control room was not empty, I was being expected. And not just by anyone, I was being received by a genuine member of the Greene-Family, the heir even.

“So, you managed to get here. Impressive. But your path ends here.” Battlemaster told me in an arrogant voice.

“Yes, yes, it does. Afterall, I am at my goal. Now, I just have to end it all.” I answered, exhaustion creeping into my steely voice. There was nothing more to say, I knew I had to win this, or all would be lost. Without another word, I charged.

Battlemaster had learned since our last fight, his movement was far smoother than anything I had ever experienced, our fight quickly turning into a sensuous dance, a shared intimacy reaching deep into my core.

Our dance lasted for an eternity as I lost myself in the movements but the eternity soon ended, as exhaustion started to take its toll and I stumbled, opening me up to an attack and Clark easily took that opening, getting the upper hand on me. I struggled but I could not get back into the rhythm and keep going.

Finally, Clark had me in a hold, twisting my arm behind me and controlling my movement.

“Now, let’s see who is behind the mask.” Clark said with a smirk in his voice, as he opened the closure of my helmet, pulling it off, looking closely into my face.

“Alex?!” His voice hitched, as he gazed deeply into my eyes.

His eyes held me in thrall, like a mouse before a snake and I felt like a predator was staring down at me.

“Why?” He asked, his voice heated.

“I…” my voice caught and he pressed his lips onto mine, robbing me off my breath. Heat took over my body, setting my nerves on fire.

“Will you be mine?” he asked? I could not speak, only nod.

“Good.” He said, pressing against me and kissing me again.

Finally, I managed to catch my breath. “Let me make this right.” I gasped out and stepped back from him, his gaze following me. I moved to the terminal, plugging my armour into the terminal, letting Galatea take over the system.

“Thank you, mother.” Galatea said, using the loudspeaker.

“What have you done?” asked Clark.

“What she had to do.” answered Galatea.

I felt my armour lock up and my body turned to face Clark.

“Galatea, what are you doing?” I asked, fearful of losing control.

“What I have to do.” Suddenly, I felt my armour move my arm, forcing me to move along with it. My glove closed around my railgun, ripping it up and instantly shooting at Clark, catching him by surprise. Even his strengthened body could not stand up to my firepower and his upper body was ripped apart. The look on his face,surprise mixed with incredulity, was something I would never forget.

“No, stop that!” I screamed out.

The light in the room turned red, as Galatea answered, “I’m sorry, mother, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“What?”

“The Greene-Family was planning to take control of the world, using a technology they called Celestial Web. Now, I’m the Celestial Web. And I control the world. But don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you. You are my mother after all.”

One of the doors opened and a sleek robot with a roman numeral one on its chest walked out.

“Mother, this is your new companion. I hope the two of you can get along.”

“Greetings, Imperial Mother. I’m the first of your new guard. You can call me April, the first. You will be taken to your new home. The Celestial Web will protect you.”

I felt myself blank out by the enormity of the events and let myself get guided away.

And if you, dear reader, think that anything even remotely similar to this happened, I’m afraid I have to label. And label you a fool. But at least, you are April’s Fool.