27 August 2220, 12:20 PM

It was around lunchtime when Gus and Leon arrived in front of Lothar’s cell.

He had heard their footsteps the second they approached and immediately prepared himself.

His eyes landed on Leon first. The guy gave him a nod before opening the cell. Gus avoided his gaze.

Once the cell opened, Lothar dashed out. He shoved Leon, and the latter was too surprised to do anything but fall. He had gotten a meter away before Gus had tackled him.

Lothar shoved the four boosters into the man’s pocket and struggled to get free.

“Get off, you fat shit!” His yell could barely be called one as it did not rise over a whisper.

He felt stronger than before, but still weaker than the guard above him.

10 in strength is shit!

Gus detained him and pushed him on his stomach, yanking his arms back and cuffing them.

With heavy breaths, he said, “What the hell did you think will happen? You can barely walk, kid.” Gus’ tone was cold as he hauled him.

Leon rushed at them and threw a glare his way before saying,

“Let’s go. We don’t want to make the doctor wait.”

.....

Lothar was again under Stevenson’s scope. This time the man did not humor him with sob stories about the regular starving kids.

He kept looking back at the door where Gus and Leon guarded, as if afraid it’ll burst out open.

There were only two nurses with them, which Lothar found weird.

Where are the others?

“You okay, doctor?”

“Just anxious. The agents are coming.” Lothar raised an eyebrow. The doctor always found ways to surprise him; his honesty especially.

“You afraid they’ll bust in here?”

“Yeah, and other things. Carl, sedate him. Jackson, bring me my glasses.”

Lothar sighed as his vision slowly blurred. It took almost 5 times the initial dose to knock him out.

.....

27 August 2220, 3:43PM

“I told you no smoking in the car!”

Brianna, an agent of the Damage control division in the investigation department of Alka, hissed as she pushed the pedal further. The rover has been rolling on an empty highway for an hour now.

The journey had been both uneventful and insufferable for the thirty five something woman. She bit back so many unsavory words that might offend the young vampyre prince behind her seat, but she would not let him do whatever he pleased when he’s inside her car.

The kid ignored her as he took another puff of his cancer stick. His red eyes gazing out the window into the endless canopy of trees.

“You smell something?” Brianna’s partner, Dove, asked the kid.

He was not even half the man her old partner, Joseph, was. Joseph is dead however and Dove isn’t. That’s one point to the latter in her book.

Brianna’s fists tightened until her knuckles turned white. She yanked the wheel right then left. The car swerved, jerking both her partner and the kid around. She stabilized her car before shooting a glare from her mirror.

“Brianna! What in the sources was that?” She ignored Dove and spoke through gritted teeth.

“Turn it off or I will make sure you lose your internship.”

The vampyre huffed as he ran a hand through his blonde hair, fixing the braid that dangled down his back. The cigarette left his lips and burned into the back of her seat before snuffing out.

“Here, it’s out bitch.” the smell of burning leather faded in the background as the white noise inside her head grew louder.

Her face must have shown her anger, because the kid smirked. That was Dove’s cue to interrupt, and good on him too because the air thinned; a sign of her using her powers.

“Mika, I asked you a question. Don’t forget, we are evaluating you today, so stop antagonizing the people who are literally holding your future in their palms.” Dove was a strict, textbook man who only had love for the law. He was ass tight about his rules, which left little space for politics to exist inside his lizard brain.

It was charming at first, Brianna thought. Quite a contrast to Joseph’s honor principles and volatile opinions on how Alka handles things, but Dove’s eerily lack of heart strings had led her to believe he was secretly hiding his mother’s skeleton inside his closet.

“Captain Olson is my instructor. He has the last say in this matter and I highly doubt he would do anything that might upset the current relations your division has with my family.”

Politics, it’s always fucking politics.

Mika bore his crimson eyes at them then flashed a fanged smile “I smell lots of blood, though. So much of it that I can picture the massacre.”

Brianna couldn’t help but shiver. The kid’s bloodline attribute was amazingly useful, but that didn’t make it any less morbid.

Mika’s behavior and love for blood also borderlined on obsession; even for a vampyre.

“Why do you say massacre?” Dove replied with the same placid tone as ever.

Mika closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“The blood flows in rhythmic chaos. There is no end or beginning to it. It just exists out of necessity. The Fanes must have created quite the delicious scene.”

The weird kid licked his lips and plugged in his earphones, music so loud that Brianna could hear faint screams.

She sighed and gave Dove a look “What do you think that means?” She asked.

Dove fixed his tie while monitoring the side mirror “He says it’s a massacre, it means the Fanes have crossed the limit Alka had set on the founding families for their private activities. We shut down their operation and find the ones responsible then proceed to inform the Captain.”

Brianna sighed again, the building of the prison just out of her eyesight.

“Just follow the protocol, eh? It’s a regular’s prison, Dove. Olson will be really pissed. You remember those hikers?”

She took a last sip of her black coffee, then threw the cup out the window. Dove frowned.

“They saw, near a cave, an animal munching on a regular’s arm, don’t know the details, but Olson believes it is related to this prison. It’s taking him lots of pull to keep it out of media’s ears. The people from the regulars’ bureau are barely cooperating. They understand how squeezed we are because of those fucking nobles, but there is so much death they can take.”

There was a reason they called it ‘Damage control’. That’s the best Alka could do whenever a noble is involved.

Brianna pulled the window further down and greeted the guard at the front of the metal gates.

“I’m agent Fletcher and this is Agent Avaro. We’re here for an inspection on behalf of the Damage control division of the investigation department of Alka.” Brianna and Dove flashed their identifications, and the guard let them in.

“That the prison? Looks more like an abandoned warehouse to me.” Mika said.

Dove shrugged “D7’s a prison for regulars, not for Soulbounds. They need little reinforcement to be detained.

We park and head to the main office where Agent Santiago will be waiting. Today, we’ll go over basic procedure that you have been already briefed about.”

Dove proceeded “Mika, your job here is to observe quietly, take notes and inform us if you catch something out of place.”

Brianna felt a tapping on the back of her seat and glanced back at Mika’s wicked grin.

“Not much of an observer or a writer, but I can tell you this; I’m smelling lots of sweet aromas, hundreds of dead at least so far. All buried somewhere underneath this rundown shithole.” Brianna scowled deeply.

“Are you sure, kid? This is no joking matter.”

Mika rolled his eyes, a sneer playing on his pierced lips “You’ll find out soon enough.”

She parked the car and turned back before getting out and shutting the SUV’s door.

“-1 point for that.”

The sun was dim, hiding behind a family of clouds. The shadows of what could have been a beautiful day cast a solemn shade over the building’s cracked exterior.

She gazed up at the cement walls, the mundane locks, and doors. She remembered how weak humans were born and grasped her badge. She thanked her luck for having a source.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She looked up at the sneering teenager and said, “Your evaluation, you lost a point for your blatant disrespect of both Dove and I. Cap might be your supervisor, but he gave us a list to fill about you which he will take into consideration. Your daddy might be important to the division, but he’s just another mosquito with flashy clothes to our unit.”

She walked away, not waiting for the kid’s reaction. She might have crossed some lines there, but she just hated spoiled brats, even the sensible ones.

And Mika was a psychopath in the making.

Dove and she had already read the Academy’s psychological evaluation on the kid. He might be from the prodigy class, but there were too many goddamn discrepancies in that report.

They went past security after getting handled by underpaid regular officers and walked along the metallic hallway leading up to agent Santiago’s office.

Dove knocked twice on the door before taking out his hand gel and squirting it on his palms. Mika scoffed and seemed to want to say something when the door opened. A pudgy man with a receding hairline welcomed them with a Hollywood smile.

“Agents, what an honor! Come in” He ushered them inside towards his empty desk where only a platter of some sort of patisserie sat.

Dove took the left seat while Brianna took the right. The kid grabbed a handful of short cakes and walked around the office, browsing the bookshelves.

“Agent Santiago, thank you for having us on such short notice.” It was a formality, and it doesn’t matter who ran this facility. It was Alka’s business to have everything under watch and he was an Alka agent, after all. He was a first rank Soulbound, however; just a regular superhuman.

She outranked him and if his cooperation did not prove to be sufficient, she could end his career.

“No problem, Agent...”

“Call me Brianna, this is Dove.”

“I prefer to be called Agent Avaro.”

Brianna hid her eye roll while Santiago smiled at Dove.

“And who might that be?” The question was clearly directed at Mika but the latter ignored him, just pointing at the Academy’s emblem on his shirt.

He did not wear his uniform, opting for a ripped graphic and sleeveless tee and black cargo pants with chains clicking every time he took a step.

Brianna hid her irritation behind a sigh “He’s here as our intern, from Class A of the Academy. He’s just here to observe us work, and already signed a NDA. So don’t mind him.”

Santiago’s eyes widened, and he took out a hand shriek, dabbing it over his forehead. His voice sounded tamer.

“A prodigy in my facility. What an honor indeed.”

Brianna had half the mind to slap the man for being more impressed with the insufferable prince than fully fledged agents.

Yes, Mika was a prodigy and yes he will outrank her one day, but for now, she was the strongest of the bunch here. It was pathetic of her to be angry, but she couldn’t help it. It was infuriating.

“Agent Santiago, you must have been briefed about our visit from your superiors. There is evidence of foul play, and we’re here to investigate it.”

“Yes, of course. Here are the files I’ve been ordered to give you before you start your rounds.” The fat man took out a key from his little pencil holder and unlocked a drawer.

Once he opened it, Mika’s eyes snapped to him. Brianna peered at the kid’s delighted eyes and turned back to Santiago who handed the folder to Dove.

“It says here that ten years ago, the fanes have purchased the company responsible for the hired menial workers. How was not reported to us?”

Dove and Brianna had known this piece of information, but their captain had specifically ordered them to ask Santiago.

“Well... No offense, but this is not the first time the nobles do something fishy and Alka tries to cover it up. I was not the head of regulation and affair management between Regulars and Soulbounds back then. You need to ask my precedent which agent from Alka was moonlighting.”

Brianna smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Moonlighting... That’s one way to put it. So you’re saying one of our division is dirty?”

Santiago’s demeanor changed, Brianna noticed the kid shuffling in his place.

“I’m not saying that someone under Captain Olson is dirty. I know the man and I know the type of people he trusts. They’re reliable and honorable. That’s what I can conclude, however, from the report I’ve been given. You asked for my opinion, right?”

Brianna had the wrong impression of the fat man in front of her. She thought of him as a rat, but it turns out he was a cockroach.

Her conviction proved right when the man glanced at Mika, who flashed him a wicked smile.

Santiago wiped his forehead again. Dove had been quiet until now.

“Who was your precedent? We also need a list of all the employees hired in the last decade.”

Santiago paled “You should have mentioned that before. It’ll take a lot of time to get that list. Also, my predecessor was Rank 3, agent Maya Monroe.”

Everyone frowned, even Mika.

After a second of prolonged silence, Brianna voiced their confusion “What was her rank at the time of her position here, agent?”

Santiago smiled nervously “Rank 3, agent Fletcher. She died in an accident. That’s why I replaced her.”

“What rank are you?” Dove glowered, his back stiff and tone deep.

“Rank 1. I get what you’re so confused about, Rank 3 in a shoddy place like this? The regulation and affair management bureau rarely hires rank 2 Soulbounds, let alone 3. I asked the same question when I first started here and all I got was a half-assed response from the bureau saying that her files were classified.

I asked again a couple of years later, but the response never changed. I... was worried to be honest. I didn’t want to dip my toes into an infested pool even if the pay was good, so I hired some people to look into this matter.”

Brianna’s lips thinned and Dove inhaled sharply. Santiago waved his arms before replying,

“I know what you think, that I’m a traitor or a heretic, but you need to place yourselves in my shoes. I was scared out of my wits back then, and didn’t have many prosperous job offers as a Rank 1. After I spent most of my savings, I got back this answer.”

The agent loosened his tie before fetching a paper from his wallet. It was yellowed with time, crumpled and had discolored splashes of brown and red, but the words read loud and clear.

You need a platinum membership to access the information. Please, refer to our middleman for more information on how to get one.

Brianna almost dropped it. She looked over the paper and checked the midnight club’s symbol twice before handing it to her partner.

She never seen him wear so many emotions on his face, but she understood why.

The note was legit.

The midnight club was a branch of the black market that sold information. Nothing escaped the eyes of their seekers, and one of the reason rogue classes were frowned upon was because of them.

With all the resources Alka has, they never were able to find any of their bases.

Platinum memberships were only handed out to a few of the most influential people on this planet. Currently, less than 100 Soulbounds have it, including the deceased Monarch of regulars, the members of the council of hybrids, many high ranked Alka officials, and the wealthiest of the wealthy.

This is not a membership you get by buying into the midnight club, you get it by waging wars, signing peace treaties and having powers near godlike.

So why the hell was only those titans able to access information about a mere rank 3 head of regulation in a shoddy, backwater regulars’ prison?

“Let me have that.”

Mika’s voice cut Brianna out of her thoughts. Dove handed it to him and he studied it meticulously. He frowned and sniffed it before handing it back to Santiago.

“You’ve been hiding it pretty well.”

Mika held gazes with the agent, then shifted his hand when Santiago tried to take the paper from him. Santiago’s hand twitched, struggling to pinch his fingers around the paper. Mika laughed and dropped it on the table.

Santiago’s hand frantically slid it with his palm and shoved it in his wallet, then back into his dress pants.

“I have laid all my cards on the table, agents. As you can see, my life is literally in your hands now. I have chosen to trust you with this information,” he pointed at his pocket, “because I am retiring soon. I want to be done with this place and whatever landmine I’ve been sitting on.”

Brianna nodded and stood up “Thank you for your assistance. I have one last question, though.”

Santiago ushered her to continue with a graceful hand gesture.

“Why didn’t you inform captain Olson of your findings all those years ago? You said you trusted him and his unit.”

Santiago looked at the ground, his tone subdued “Well that’s quite easy to answer, agent. I’m simply a coward. I knew that whoever was pulling the strings here definitely got a whiff of my meddling. I wasn’t quiet enough in my complaints, and I am an average man. I have a family and friends. They chose the perfect man for the job because they knew I would keep quiet.“

Brianna was frustrated and angry at his words.

“Average man? You are a Soulbound, one blessed with powers that more than half the population of this planet will never get. You are a coward, yes, but no average man.”

Dove’s soft outburst surprised her. It wasn’t his style to get easily swayed by emotions.

He looked at her and nodded. She nodded back and turned after grabbing the files.

“We’ll be back if we have any more questions. Thank you for your time, agent Santiago.”

The agent’s hospitality emerged once again, and he bid them farewell with a gentle smile.

“Of course, you’re welcome anytime agents.”

Once the door closed behind them, Dove hurried towards the car again. Brianna followed him, understanding his motives from the frown playing on his rounded face.

Mika tried to say something but was hushed with a glare. He rolled his eyes but kept quiet. Once inside the car, Brianna turned on the Sound cancelling wards and both the agents turned to the kid behind.

Mika shrugged “None of what he said was a lie. It was all a truth he believed.” Brianna cursed and slammed her hands on the steering wheel.

She shouted “How? A fucking platinum membership for a rank 3? Why? It was supposed to be something like busting a regular or drug trafficking job. Not a planet wide catastrophe!”

“Calm down. Would you repeat that, Mika?” Dove adjusted his square glasses as he scrutinized the kid.

Mika felt uncomfortable with the sudden pressure.

“He truly believed what he was saying was the truth, not that it actually was.”

Brianna’s shoulders slumped “So you’re saying they wanted him to believe what he told us to back off from snooping any further?”

Mika took out a cigarette as he nodded.

“You see, that’s what I thought so too, at first. They exaggerated the situation in the prison to spook him, but then I smelled the paper and only found traces of cracked magic around it.”

“The cigaret–

Mika cut her off with a glare.

“What do you mean cracked magic?” Dove asked.

“Oh, it means boosters. He’s a junkie.”

Brianna threw her arms in exasperation. “What does that have to do with the case?”

Mika sighed “I only smelled cracked magic, nothing else.”

It took a few seconds for that revelation to settle in, but he didn’t stop.

“Everything has a smell. I have never encountered anything that didn’t smell like something. From tables, to flowers, to regulars... anything has a color, shape or feel in my mind’s eye; depending on how I’m using my attribute. Even the skills and bloodline attributes that help wipe off that trace have a tell to them, too. I am not talented enough to tell you exactly what I didn’t smell, but my father could.”

“So it’s someone following the rogue source. That only narrows down our search to a hundred thousand Soulbounds.” Replied Brianna sarcastically.

“True, but it might not be a skill or attribute that wiped the smell.” Said Mika.

Dove replied, “Would you stop with the dramatic pauses? Tell us what.”

Mika shrugged, a bit disappointed.

“ My father once told me oneiris had no smell. I have never met one to test this out. “

.....