From between the branches and the leaves, the light of the full moon was disturbing the mighty darkness of the forest. And like any other night, the silence reigned over it as well, even the fast winds failed to make any sounds against the huge trees. This forest was lifeless, deserted, and terrifying. Its trees were as tall as mountains and larger than normal, they weren't the kind of trees humans were familiar with. This was the forest of Ro, located deep inside the Denmen territory.

The forest of Ro is home to trees that existed 10 000 years ago on earth, these trees have been preserved by the Denmen people for protection purposes. After the end of the great wardoks war, the Ro forest became desolate, because most of its inhabitants got wiped out. Therefore, the tranquillity and the silence engulfed it for years... until today.

Deep in the forest, between the large trees, and even as dark as it was, a dim light was making his path through the shadows. It was hardly visible, but it cast reddish highlights on the surface of the trees nearby. As you get closer you could hear the beautiful sound of the burning wood. It was a small campfire, lit by two wardokian soldiers.

"Do you think this location is secure enough?" One of them asked his companion while constantly looking around. He was wearing a black coat and a silver helmet. His rapid eye movement alongside his slow steps revealed his high disturbance, he was expecting anything to come out from the blackness around them. The silence made him anxious. "I feel like we are being watched!" He added and turned towards his comrade.

The other one was sitting near the campfire comfortably leaning against a tree. He was yawning several times, the cold and the boredom were his only concerns.

"I don't understand why aren't you worried, Cando. We are deep inside enemy territory!" The cautious soldier asked again.

Cando was playing with his dagger. He was trying to balance it on top of his index. When he succeeded, he smoothly tossed it in the air and rapidly caught it. He then grabbed it from its point, pulled his hand back, and threw it into a tree several meters away until it pierced it and got stuck.

The cautious soldier was watching him all along, he followed the dagger with his eyes until it hit the tree. He immediately noticed that It made a large crack in the trunk, it was a strong throw. While he was looking at the dagger for a moment, it suddenly vanished! And out of surprise, he quickly turned his head towards his comrade Cando to find that he has already spawned the dagger right into his hand again.

Cando made a long sigh, then leaned forward and said. "If you are this much worried, then you are underestimating me, Ukke!". His eyes weren't hiding his disappointment.

"Ah!..No! haha!" Ukke responded with a fake laugh of embarrassment, "Actually, I was a little bit underestimating him". He thought.

Cando kept throwing his dagger into the tree and respawning it into his hand. It was his way of killing time. "My mission is to guard you until Captain Loopy comes back from the human world, and I'm planning to fulfill it!" He said while continuing the throwing. He wasn't looking at Ukke while speaking to him. "Why don't you sit down, and keep quiet!" He shouted.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry..." Ukke responded as he sat down near the campfire as well. " It's just that as a jumper, I don't have any skills in battle! Actually, I've never engaged someone in a fight my whole life." Ukke explained shamefully.

Cando exhaled a strong breath indicating his annoyance about this small talk, but he replied anyway. "What about the basic training we all get at the academy?"

"I didn't pass it!" Ukke responded as he bowed his head.

"Tsk! Then you are as weak as humans! Maybe weaker." Cando replied spitefully. "Are all the jumpers the same? I mean, basic combat skill is a requirement!" he asked. Ukke didn't reply, he was just setting in a seiza position near the fire. Cando kept asking demeaning questions about his weaknesses. Jumpers weren't fighters, but they shouldn't be weak, this was his main idea.

Ukke bowed his head even more and clenched his fist on top of his knees, Cando was looking down on him. Even though he got used to it, his mad expressions showed that no matter how much he hated his weakness, he knew it was the truth that he can't deny.

Cando kept bullying his comrade just to kill time, he was the personification of the typical wardokian mean personality.

"How come someone like you is still part of the army?" He asked. Ukke didn't respond at all.

Cando's mumbling was the only noise that could be heard in the forest until he suddenly stopped talking. He got alerted and quickly stood. He was focusing all of his senses into his ears, he was trying to hear something.

"You!" He shouted to Ukke, "Get the transporter and follow me!".

Cando put out the campfire in a hurry, gathered his things, and rushed south. As for Ukke, he brought his fingers into his mouth and made a strange whistle-like sound.

In a second, a strange levitating vehicle slowly came down from above the trees. It had a boat-shaped interior, a platform to stand on, and a steering system. It had no wheels, it just remained levitated inches above the ground. Ukke got on the vehicle and drove it south following Cando.

As Cando was jumping on top of the trees with extreme agility, Ukke was on his tail driving the transporter. The trees were a challenging obstacle, but Ukke was driving between them smoothly, he had his eyes on Cando as well as on the road. After about 40 minutes of jumping, Cando finally stopped on a tree branch. He kept looking around until he saw it.

"Captain Loopy!" Cando shouted.

He jumped down from the tree and walked near the Captain. Cando made a weird stop, his blueish face became pale, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Captain... How..?" He said as he saw the captain struggling to remain conscious, without his arm and heavily wounded on his chest.

"That last jump was tough..." Loopy hardly spoke.

By this time, Ukke has reached their location. As he noticed the wounded Captain, he poorly parked the transporter and ran to him with his medical kit.

"Oh my God... Captain Loopy! What happened to you?" He shouted as he started treating the Captain.

Cando brought out a bottle of water from Ukke's bag, and tried to give the captain some water to drink, the captain was unresponsive, "He's still dizzy from the jump. " Cando said. As Ukke was treating that captain's wound, Cando was spilling some water on his face, they needed him to regain his sense.

Suddenly, the Captain who started to feel better, quickly realizes what happened and shouted, "Both of you enough of me!" He adjusted his position and then explained "Listen to me carefully, Two of our squadron leaders, Squala and Caditz have died in battle, the first priority is the bring back their corpses from the human world!". He looked at Ukke and said, "You, jumper! they are lying right here in this location within the human world. Go and bring them now!"

Ukke was shocked by what he just heard, but he quickly answered his Captain. "Yes, Sir!" He said. Ukke walked back from the Cando and the Captain, then he took a deep breath, adjusted his clothes, and crossed his hands in front of his chest, he was concentrating.

Meanwhile, Cando was lost in his thoughts, he couldn't help himself but wonder... Did Ruster do all of this? Was he able to kill 2 squadron leaders, and cause serious damage to Captain Loopy?

Cando remembers Ruster from the academy, he wasn't the weakest, but also he wasn't the strongest nor the brightness. He also fought among his side numerous times, and his power levels were - if not a little bit lower - average. "How could Ruster get so strong in such a short amount of time?" Cand thought. Before he could reach any conclusions, his thinking was interrupted by a question from Captain Loopy.

"You! do we have some ice?" Loopy asked.

"Uhm... Yes, Sir, I think we do have it on the transporter..." Cando answered.

"Then stop daydreaming and bring it to me!" Loopy painfully said.

Cando walked towards the transporter, he looked inside and saw a large container among some other stuff, he pull it down and brought it to the captain. Loopy spawned his arm and tossed it to Cando. "Put that in there." He ordered him.

Cando opened the container, which was filled with ice cubes to the top, he dipped the arm deep into the ice and closed the container. He grabbed it again and safely stored it in the transporter. As he was getting back to help the captain with his wound, Ukke said "Captain, I'm afraid I can't jump to the human world!"

Both the Captain and Cando were surprised, Cando looked at Captain Loopy who then asked "And why is that?"

Ukke came close and explain. "I sensed a large number of humans gathered exactly at this location within the human world. Jumping now would mean a high risk of getting spotted!"

Loopy was extremely shocked by Ukke words, then right after, his blood begin pumping through the veins of his face, as he stood up, blood started coming out from his chest and his arm like a waterfall. "This is unacceptable!" He ragefully shouted, "I can't allow this, I'll go there and kill them all myself! Humans shall not know of our existence!"

"Captain, please, calm down, you are losing so much blood!" Cando begged the Captain as he was trying to stop him from moving forward.

"Let go of me, I have strict orders, and I'm going to bring them back even if it costs... me... it costs me... my... " Loopy said as he was losing his balance.

Ukke saw that his Captain was going to pass out, so he quickly came and helped Cando held him up. " Captain Loopy, are you okay?" Cando asked. But the Captain was unresponsive, he has lost so much blood already that he passed out.

Ukke and Cando were treating his wounds to prevent further blood loss. They couldn't stop the bleeding from his chest. "There must be some sort of poison in this wound, it won't stop bleeding." Cando said stressfully.

They tried their best to fix him up, then they lifted him and carefully laid him down on the transporter. "He is not going to make it..." Cando said. "It's more than 8 hours ride to the nearest military hospital, he is going to die on us...." He added.

Ukke was rearranging his stuff, on the transporter, he was making sure that everything was locked in place, he carefully checked the belts on the captain, he also was tightly held to the transporter. "What are you doing? It helpless, there is no need in transporting him now..." Cando asked his comrade.

Ukke had rather a serious face, he was focused on his tasks. he took his tops off, wore his goggles, and said. " Cando, please get on board, and try not to fall okay?"

Cando had a perplexed look on his face. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"You asked me earlier how come someone like me is still part of the army?" Ukke responded, "Well now, you are going to find out!"

Ukke made a loud noise as he was holding on to the steering wheel as hard as he could, moments after, energy started building up around his body. The air started to dance around him causing moderate turbulence around the transporter causing it to shake. "That's a huge amount of energy!" Cando said to himself. As he was looking at Ukke, he remembered hearing some rumors about a jumper so fast that he could drive a transporter around the country in 1 minute. He didn't care much about it, but now he was wondering, could that be him?

"Hold on tight!" Ukke said as the transporter was slowly levitating. "Go!" he shouted.

The transporter launched itself with an extraordinary speed that made it practically unnoticed. Cando had a hard time opening his eyes due to air friction, but he managed to take a sneak peek around, the speed at which they were going was unbelievable. "Cando! How are you holding up?" Ukke screamed. The high speed made it hard to talk normally.

"I'm holding tight..." Cando answered hardly.

"We will be able to reach the hospital in about 30 minutes, keep hanging!" Ukke said.

As Cando was struggling to hold tight to the transporter and watching out for the Captain, he asked. "Who are you Ukke?".

Ukke made a big smile and said. "I'm Ukke son of Thorvald, and I'm the fastest man alive!"

########

Meanwhile, in the junkyard.

The police were all over the place, looking for an explanation to what they just found. One man was standing near the dead bodies of Squala and Caditz, he had a large smile on his face. "Finally, what I had been looking for all these years!" He said to himself. "Lisa!"