“So after you got taken Aaron, I…”

Typhon was royally pissed, though with how passive he was, you wouldn’t be able to tell… unless he glared at you. It would be kind of obvious then.

But still, he had let Aaron be taken, and that couldn’t be allowed, because Aaron was the greatest-

“I definitely don’t think that.”

“But I like to think you do and it makes the story more interesting to me.”

Anyway, Aaron was taken, and Typhon knew they had to get him back, and from what he had just learned, he figured it was easily possible… well, maybe not easy… but possible.

He alone had managed to fight, not defeat, but he lasted against all three of the Assassin Chained… with six Chained on his side, albeit injured Chained, he could easily make up the numbers.

So Typhon knew that he could get Aaron back… the problem was following those people to their hideout. Typhon had a really good sense of smell, so he’d be capable of telling where they were.

So with much annoyance in having to get on the metal death trap-

“Ah, knew you hated it… should just say so you know?”

“Man was not meant to fly.”

“Good point… eh, but I like breaking the norm.”

Ahem, so yes, Typhon was annoyed with the flying bus, but he’d need to drive now. So he got to the bus, and was glad to see someone awake other than him, and decided to offload his driving problem to Empusa.

“So he had you drive… well, you’re pretty good.”

“Thanks… I guess? I don’t know who you are or how you’d know that though.”

“I’m Medusa… long story but I’m on your side now.”

“Oh.”

During the drive, Typhon made sure to wake up the others, though he noted that Cyclops wasn’t going to be fine anytime soon and decided he didn’t need to fight, not that he should have had to in the first place.

With everyone now awake, the absence of their leader was much more noticeable, and of the six Chained who were awake, only one wasn’t confused and Empusa was too busy with the road and going in the direction Typhon indicated.

“What happened to Aaron? Where is he?” Mino asked, the triplets mumbling about ‘big boss’ being missing, and Typhon sighed, clenching his fist.

“He was taken by the Assassin’s Guild while you all were knocked out. The only ones still awake after The Hunter’s attack were Aaron and I. I fought off their Chained but their assistants entered the bus and took him.” Typhon explained with annoyance in his voice.

“Considering you seem near emotionless all the time, you convey a surprising amount vocally.”

“Nice observation snake-lady. Now let me finish the story.”

“Aaron, look out for a red building, turn left there.”

“Oh… oh those…” Mino was working himself into a righteous rage at the thought of Aaron being kidnapped… well, obviously. Typhon fixed his giant problem, but Aaron was the one who got the idea to do it, and convinced Typhon to as well.

“Why would assassins just take him instead of killing him… or us for that matter?” Eins had a relative question there, and Typhon nodded at the ‘elder’ twin.

“They apparently wanted us to join them… I refused, but they figured they could take Aaron by force… idiots.” Everyone awake in the bus agreed… after all, Aaron was the one who got them to all join, not Typhon, though he helped.

“Anyway, we’re following them right now, I got their scent, and they headed in this direction… unfortunately, I doubt we’d be able to take them down immediately, they’ll be waiting for us.” Typhon explained and the rest agreed.

“So what’s the plan boss, wait for a bit then bust in?” Zwei asked, and Empusa inwardly sighed wishing she could get rid of that tomboy nature of the female triplet.

“That should work… Aaron had been talking to me about plan making and properly using our strengths.” Typhon mumbled to himself but every Chained in the bus heard, wondering what their two leaders meant by ‘using our strengths’.

“Well, planning, it’s apparently really important, and to plan, information is necessary. Lucky for us, I have first-hand experience against their Chained and the assassins shouldn’t be on the level of the Hunter.” All of them got a bit quiet at the mention of Jaeger…

All of them had lost, and despite Typhon surviving, they had seen the way he had cradled his arm a bit while talking, something he normally didn’t do. And Jaeger was a normal human. So was Aaron for that matter.

It was eye opening for everyone involved… normal humans, despite generally being much weaker and not worth much to the Chained, could possibly get them killed, one just had to look at Jaeger’s skills… even Aaron could, Empusa recalled him making some C4 over-night somehow…

Anything would die with C4 in its mouth. And Aaron, with his insane plans and ability as a wordsmith, could somehow get it done most likely.

So no, they didn’t consider any human normal anymore, no longer feeling the need to look down on them, even sub-consciously, not when one could have killed them all.

“So we know which direction they are headed to and we have some idea of a plan… though… how many Chained were there, and who were they?” Empusa asked as she took a corner following Typhon’s directions, occasionally his nose would twitch as he’d point out somewhere.

“There are three Chained, two Biological Chained and one Mechanical, though the leader looks strangely human despite me not doing anything… anyway, three Chained.” The group as a whole took in the meaning of his words and realized that he had just fought three Chained at once while slightly injured.

“That is insane though, you realize that?”

“Not my problem they couldn’t work as a team, no offense you two.”

“None taken.” “No problem.”

“So, who are these three, and what should we take note of?” Drei was the quiet one of the triplets, but he was also the calmest one…

That didn’t say much when all three were pranksters though.

“Well Chimera was one of them… according to Greek mythology he’s amongst the most powerful and dangerous of monsters, so we should be careful.” Empusa turned down a side road and Typhon directed her once more.

“He had large bat-like wings, and can only hover, a lion-like body and a scorpion tail. He can also breathe fire… how, I don’t know though.” Typhon had no doubt Aaron could come up with an idea on how it worked though…

“Same concept as a flamethrower it sounds like, or possibly similar to a Diesel Injector in an Engine, spitting a fluid that ignites under certain conditions.”

“…”

“As for the second one, she was Medusa, she’s a Mechanical Chained, has poisonous claws… and it should be obvious, don’t look in her eyes.” Typhon warned as the group as a whole frowned at the idea of fighting Medusa.

“Oh, you can look there now. I won’t do anything.”

“Yeah, and I’m wearing a pink tutu.”

“Now Typhon, expressing your sexuality is fine but please, consider the other people in the car.”

“Aaron… it was a joke.”

“Okay… so the triplets can fight her. They generate their own poison and probably won’t get harmed by hers.” Mino added and Typhon agreed with his assumption, though the triplets shivered in fear… they didn’t want to turn to stone.

“As for their leader, he’s named Geist, he’s young, at least younger than I am, and he can let out a mist that messes with your senses.” Geist was… annoying, for a group. The group might attack each other by accident…

One on one though, Geist wasn’t too much of a danger.

“Okay, they’ve stopped… let’s wait for about… twelve hours I guess… they knocked out Aaron and he’s a pretty deep sleeper… idiots.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Hey, I’m not that deep of a sleeper!”

“Aaron, in Mino’s labyrinth I had to fight people as you slept. You didn’t even notice the next morning.”

“…I hate you all.”

“Anyway… thanks to that, it leaves us half a day to scope out the place, and recover.” Typhon explained as they nodded… then contemplated Cyclops… should they wake him?

“Let him rest, he’s a Cybernetic Chained unlike us, he’ll take a while longer to heal compared to us.” Typhon stated and they decided to listen… he wasn’t wrong after all.

“Right… I’ll scope out the place, you all wait here for now.” The Triplets and Empusa wanted to complain, but Mino nodded in acceptance, understanding his reasoning…

After all, Typhon had the best senses out of the group, not counting Empusa when she used certain animal parts… and the rest of them needed more time to heal… Typhon healed faster too apparently.

Typhon stepped out of the bus, jumping to the nearest roof with an assist by his chains as he moved much further away then looked to the building holding Aaron…

It was boring, much like many of the other buildings in Tartarus, as attention grabbing means problem attracting…

The size of it was an issue in itself, but Typhon knew that the members of their group were assassins; they could afford a ‘bit’ of attention, but too much and well…

They wouldn’t be proper assassins then.

The fact that they showed themselves was complete luck really, because if they hadn’t, Typhon had no doubt they would have died… well, he’d survive, he proved that when he found he could track their group.

But the rest of the people in their group were a bit more troublesome to defend.

So Typhon watched the building, not daring to get on the building itself, sniffing and twitching his ears, trying to get information with his heightened senses.

From what he felt… he couldn’t get accurate information, but more than ten people were in the building, maybe more than fifteen, three would be Medusa, Geist and Chimera…

Chimera was easy to detect using his hearing, all he had to listen to was the really quiet stalking of the lion-like Chained…

Okay, so maybe not so easy, but it was only Chimera that could move like that, so obviously it was him.

A small amount of scuffing caught his ears and he leant forward a bit to hear what sounded like furniture being dragged on the floor.

It was heavier than a chair… heavier than a table too, but judging by the intervals it was a smaller object… ah… a chair with a weight on it?

Aaron was most likely left on a chair and tied onto it… but the sound soon vanished… sound-proof room? The chances of such a room being on some random building were really small.

This was a reusable base of theirs… it would mess with them if Typhon broke it… but then the question was… if he did that, would the Assassin’s Guild be even angrier with them?

…Rather not antagonize the group more than necessary. No more damage than necessary to the building, lest all the assassin’s be pissed at them… rather the devil you know and all that.

So, with some information gathered, Typhon lied against the roof looking up at the sky, thinking about… a lot… things that he had been leaving out of his mind as much as possible. Things he had been thinking since before his fight with Jaeger, and even more afterwards.

One of the things he was contemplating was, the reason for his ability, and his sister, Echidna… why was their abilities made to help other Chained become more dangerous?

Or rather… that question Aaron had asked fell into his mind once more… that question was quite a bit more disturbing…

Why did Chained exist… and why weren’t they outside of Tartarus? Inside Tartarus, it had become common sense that Chained existed, but according to Aaron, outside of Tartarus, the Chained didn’t exist…

At least, none existed that he knew of.

But that still begged the question, Chained only existed in Tartarus… logically… that meant the Chained were created in Tartarus, so Tartarus itself, as in, the people in charge of it, were creating the Chained for some purpose…

And Aaron was framed into coming here because they wanted to use him for something… Typhon widened his eyes in realization as he knew what was happening…

They had wanted to turn Aaron into a Chained… it would make sense, something about him must have been compatible with whatever they used to create the Chained, so they wanted to turn him into one…

But then he escaped from the Guard, and entered Tartarus. Typhon also realized, belatedly, that Aaron wasn’t just running around to explore and find Echidna, but also to hide from the management at Tartarus.

Aaron… had more on his mind, always… and Typhon was realizing this more and more every time he found out something new about him.

“So you just went to lie on a roof? What were you doing?”

“Nothing but think.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Nothing important. Now let me continue the story.”

With his bit of contemplations done, and now knowing that they weren’t moving, Typhon went back and explained to the group what Typhon had found out.

“Okay, roughly fifteen enemies and three Chained… who are we going after?” Mino asked as Typhon nodded at his words, noting that they would travel together…

Less chance of getting hurt this way.

“…Chimera. Geist is the enemy commander and Medusa is a Cybernetic Chained. Chimera is the only one I can reliably try to persuade to join us.” Then Empusa spoke up here, even as she leaned against the bus window.

“Again? I know we’ve been amazingly successful when it comes to getting people to join us, we’re all proof of that after all, but do you think an assassin would join us?” Empusa asked as Typhon stared at her, his gaze strangely strong in that moment.

“Empusa. The past only has as much weight as you want it to. I don’t know the pasts of any of you, and I refused to have Aaron tell me anything he likely found out.” Empusa blinked at his words, the group looking vaguely scared upon remembering that their leader could find little things out quickly.

“How much do you know of our pasts?”

“Not much Mino, just some guesses… you wanted to be a teacher?”

“…Your guesses are scary, if only partially accurate.”

“But in this moment, does the past we have matter? You, the triplets, and Mino, you’ve all done something to get you sent into this prison. Two of you were in the Murdering Sector and the triplets…” Typhon didn’t even mention what those three had done, and the triplets were thankful for it.

They didn’t remember much of their time as the Hydra… but the taste of human flesh that once made them vaguely happy now only terrified them.

“So no, the past of someone doesn’t matter. We’re in this together, despite where we were before Aaron helped us.” The group as a whole, Typhon included, looked downwards in thought of their leader.

“…I mean a lot to you guys, huh?”

“You brought us all together, despite our differences. You are important.”

“…It means a lot to me to know that. Thanks.”

“Anyway, we’ll try and persuade Chimera, if he has any sentience for us to persuade. I’ll be watching the building, Empusa, you got my scent?” Typhon asked as Empusa wrinkled her nose a bit as she sniffed, before nodding.

Changing a human nose to mimic a dog nose with less space was painful and difficult, and the smells disturbing, but she could do it if necessary…

“Fun fact, a dog has better smelling ability because the amount of nerves for smelling we possess differ. We have about… let’s said fifty, and then they would have one hundred and twenty to fifty depending on breed.”

“…That was a useless fact. Interesting though… maybe that’s why I can smell so well?”

“Possibly… and yeah, It is interesting right?”

“Okay, I’ll be watching, after… eleven hours, come meet up with me, bring the rest, but wake up Cyclops before that and explain everything, please.” Typhon emphasized waking up Cyclops, because really, they needed someone to watch the bus while they rescued Aaron.

Typhon left shortly afterwards… and when time passed about eleven hours later, the group assembled on the roof.

“Wait, what happened in those hours?”

“A time-skip. Seriously, do you think a book would be interesting if it told you about when a character did laundry, when they went to a shop, doing something so plain?”

“…Point… it would be boring hearing something like, and so he stood there… and stood there… and so on.”

“Exactly, I mean really, Slice of Life’s are nice but… weird.”

“Alright, let’s go… I caught Chimera’s steps going to the left; they were having… a meeting I think. Let’s go.”

Typhon explained very little, but continued the explanation as they moved towards the right side of the building, Typhon noting absently that Aaron was placed directly opposite them in the other end of the building.

Once they arrived, the area was quickly cleared of any unrelated parties… seriously; no one wants to get between a large group of Chained and whatever they were doing, no matter how injured they were.

It was common sense to get out of the way of a moving train after all.

Typhon’s group went in, and they soon met with Chimera within a large room, and Typhon just stared at the giant lion-like Chained as Chimera seemed to sigh.

“I told Geist this would happen… well I assume you want to rescue your partner?” Typhon blinked, Mino blinked, the two male twins blinked and then Empusa and Zwei blushed…

He had a surprisingly nice voice.

“I hadn’t noticed?”

“Man, your voice sounds like you could calmly tell someone you killed their dog and slept with their sister… then they’d accept it just because you told them.”

“…you’re exaggerating right?”

“…”

“…Right?”

“Uh… yeah, we’re here to get Aaron… and recruit you, if possible.” Typhon didn’t quite know how to react to the calm smooth baritone of Chimera, but he already knew he blamed it on the Lion head.

Lions were manly, that had to be the reason.

“Well… I’m supposed to be stopping you… but honestly, I don’t want to. I was thinking of a change in management anyway… you won’t boss me around in an unnecessary way?” Chimera asked with a strange shrugging motion, strange because… have you seen a lion with a scorpion tail and bat wings shrug?

It looks… not weird, but unexpected.

“Oh we wouldn’t boss you around unless it was important… well, I haven’t heard any serious complaints, and it’s not like we enforce law through force. We’re friends.” Typhon explained and Chimera sighed.

“The power of friendship, how cliché. Very well, I’ll follow you… I hear you’re planning on escaping… sounds interesting.” Typhon was surprised at his acceptance… lucky break?

He walked over, and began to use Stabilization on Chimera, making said lion-like Chained roared in pain as he changed into a humanoid form… Empusa was quick to give clothes.

Well… Typhon felt that they were lucky to get away with not fighting Chimera… then he immediately regretted the thought…

See, Typhon knew how there really wasn’t such a thing as ‘lucky’ when it came to problems, and it was proven when Geist stepped into the larger room, looking at the group then Chimera with a sigh.

“So… leaving?” Geist asked as Chimera nodded, Geist just palmed his face in annoyance.

“I knew I should have asked the boss to do this himself, not many people like me in the first place… well, let’s do this.” Geist said, and Typhon cursed inwardly as he realized that the fog had already settled in slightly…

And Geist’s fog wasn’t normal, obviously. So Typhon had a choice, either he got rid of the fog, something he didn’t know if he could do or not, or fight alone against Geist…

Perhaps he should have left the others behind… no, he couldn’t say that, he had to trust his partners to be able to fight in the fog, they should be capable of that…

At least, if the fight goes by quickly… the longer they took, the more likely it was Geist would fill the room with fog to such a point they wouldn’t be able to identify each other.

Before they could fight though, Typhon blinked as he heard a door open… following by smidgens of conversation… then sighed, looking at Geist.

He had to wonder how Aaron had persuaded Medusa to join their group… but he’d ask later.

“…So, how did you get that right?”

“With will, charm, and the sharing of memories and emotions.”

“…I’ll ignore your insanity rather…”

But now, Typhon had a bit of a plan. Or rather, Aaron was inadvertently handing him one through casual conversation with someone a few corridors away.

Enhanced hearing was occasionally brilliant. Being able to control said hearing between normal and enhanced, was even better.

So now Aaron would be moving towards their vehicles, and he would be getting one… timing would have to be very important… he had no time to explain the plan though, as Geist lunged forward, breaking into a few knife stabs and slashes, making Aaron use his chains to block by stiffening them in a manner similar to a staff, a new trick he found out.

“Hey, don’t get lost in daydreams… I might kill you.” Typhon growled back in challenge as he shoved Geist back as he jumped back into the fog, which was slowly growing stronger, the source being Geist’s skin.

Typhon had to focus on Geist, but he did spare a glance to Empusa, mouthing the word ‘ears’, and Empusa resisted the urge to nod as she internally changed her ears to be stronger.

Using sub-vocalization, Typhon gave out his orders, knowing that only Empusa could hear him at that level of quiet… he could barely hear himself speak, so Empusa would have to catch his whispering.

She caught his orders and moved to give out the orders to the rest, though Geist was attacking Typhon he also watched out for the other Chained in Typhon’s group, knowing that he was in a really disadvantageous position…

He was alone against six slightly injured Chained, they were mostly healed actually, and Typhon… and Typhon had fought Geist, Chimera, and Medusa at the same time.

Geist had no delusion of grandeur, even if he was a Chained himself, he knew he’d lose this fight… but he could possibly injure one of the others… or better yet, kill them.

His boss couldn’t blame him if he killed one of them in this situation… while he had been asked to take them in alive if possible, they were first and foremost assassin’s…

Taking a life was quite a bit more natural to them then sparing one.

Unfortunately, for both sides of this fight, this fight was a disadvantage to both of them, and yet, neither could leave… which was why the fight continued.

Geist attempted to accelerate his Mist while lunging at Typhon, no longer going for slightly less lethal areas, now going for killing blows, and Typhon was…

Not, being pushed back. Typhon was physically better than Geist in the first place, not to mention Geist looked younger physically, Geist didn’t have the same reach as Typhon… he was smaller so he could dodge easily, but his hits didn’t have much weight to them.

Only a cut would harm Typhon, and only if Typhon was hit with the enhanced strength of a Chained… as for Jaeger, his sword would mostly give something similar to a paper cut to Typhon…

But the weight behind it would have staggered him a bit in surprise, and in that span of time, Jaeger would have destroyed him.

It was moments like this that Typhon felt glad to be alive… after all, there was an alternative that he didn’t feel comfortable with.

The fight was unfortunately lack-lustre at this point, with Geist who could barely do anything to Typhon, and Typhon who couldn’t quite aim correctly because of Geist’s mist…

Typhon did have one advantage in relation to Geist though, in that Empusa got the others to go directly into the corner of the room before the Mist had thickened too much.

Due to that, Typhon knew that the chances of him hitting his own partners were very low, while Geist would be the only one getting close to him in the middle of the room… at least Typhon assumed he was near the middle of the room…

It was getting a bit difficult to tell with how hard it was to see… hearing was also a bit dampened…

But Typhon could easily hear the roar of an engine… trust Aaron to pick a heavier car; he knew the benefits and the bad parts…

Now Typhon just had to get Geist into position… harder thought than done, but possible, in a really convoluted manner.

Typhon had been fending off Geist’s attacks for the past minute, and as for Empusa and the others… Geist couldn’t get them when they were holding each other in close quarters, they knew where everyone was.

Any foreign element in that equation would be attacked, even Typhon, at his own request.

So Typhon waited for the customary attack, while focusing on the engine… still starting up and moving… not yet, so Typhon dodged the stab while sending an elbow out.

He clipped Geist, but Geist wasn’t as weak as his stature suggested, he was still a Chained despite his lower physical abilities.

Geist took the blow and vanished into smoke… Typhon had to time this next bit correctly or it wouldn’t work out… and his hopes were answered when Geist attacked him…

And Typhon reached out and grabbed him, then ran to the wall closest to the noise, before he pulled his fist back, Geist’s eyes widening as Typhon spoke.

“This is going to hurt a lot.” Typhon’s punch didn’t hit the face of Geist, rather aiming for the stomach, and the wall behind Geist cracked as Geist felt some ribs crack before another punch came…

It was the fourth punch that sent Geist flying out of the room, the Mist leaving with him, and just as he tumbled on the road-

“Oh, so that’s when I knocked him over right?” Aaron asked as they got out of the Jeep, with Typhon nodding as he got out of the back of the truck, the triplets still going on about wanting to eat pancakes and waffles…

According to them, Waffles were pancakes with abs… made sense actually.

“Well, all’s well that ends well… not really.” Aaron frowned as they came up to the bus and got in one by one, Cyclops greeting them with his arms bandaged.

Aaron flopped into the nearest seat and sighed, palming his face, blocking his vision as he began to think… before he could go too deeply into his thoughts, two people spoke out.

“Aaron, the Guild won’t come after us, only Geist would, because it’s a matter of pride for him now.” Medusa was quick to cut that tract of thought out of his mind, giving him the conclusion without him having to worry about the thought process… as for the other person…

“Aaron… we need to talk, about you being hunted.” Typhon spoke out and Aaron breathed a sigh, wishing that Typhon picked a better time to ask that question.

“…Yeah, I’m being hunted by the authority of Tartarus, and seeing as you’re asking, I’m guessing you found out what they wanted to do to me?” Aaron asked, already guessing as to what Typhon had discovered.

“Aaron… with what you know now, about Chained, and Tartarus… I shouldn’t need to spell it out. They wanted to make you a Chained.” The rest of the group, with the exception of Medusa widened their eyes at the revelation as they looked to Aaron in confusion… and thought.

What would Aaron have been like, as a Chained… it was a question they didn’t really want to answer, even internally…

Jaeger was physically strong and knowledgeable of fighting, while Aaron had the mental aspects down pat… if he had become a Chained, especially a Bio-Chained capable of enhanced healing and physical feats…

He probably wouldn’t be on Jaeger’s level, but he’d be close… with time and training obviously, not that Aaron liked the idea of training.

“Yeah… they wanted to change me, and I couldn’t accept that.” Aaron admitted with some reluctance… being a candidate for becoming a Chained, one they even went out of their way to frame, meant that his abilities after becoming a Chained wouldn’t be ordinary amongst other Chained.

“…It had to be said, I’m sorry Aaron.” Typhon apologized for putting that information in the air, though he noted that Medusa wasn’t surprised. From what Aaron had said in the car, it seems she had somehow gotten Aaron’s memories…

So she likely drew the same conclusion that Typhon did after knowing what Aaron knew… a strange thing that was.

“That is fine Typhon… it wasn’t something entirely necessary to keep a secret anyway… with that being said though…” Aaron looked to Medusa, who blinked at the sudden scrutiny...

“Medusa… why aren’t you insane? I’ve been informed that Cybernetic Chained have mental issues due to their implants, so how are you fine?” it was a relevant question, and Medusa looked to be in thought, noting that Cyclops was also curious.

Of course he was though, he was a Cybernetic Chained as well, the only reason he seemed alright was because his insanity was focused somewhere in his alcohol, violence and cars… maybe all men were insane then…

But yes, Cyclops wanted to know why his fellow Cybernetic Chained was more… stable, in comparison to him.

“Right… I was waiting for when I could say this, guess now is alright a time.” Medusa said before taking a deep breath, and Aaron frowned… that was an action he normally took before saying or doing something dramatic…

“Typhon, I think your sister, Echidna, healed me.”

Ah… there’s the drama right there.

Looking at Typhon’s wide eyes, and how he was about to lunge at Medusa to get answers, Aaron reaffirmed his belief that Medusa having some of his traits wasn’t a good thing in the long run…

Now to sort this out… despite Aaron’s ability to ignore problems, he just knew the following conversation would be giving him a headache.

It would be after one lengthy explanation later that Medusa would smirk at Aaron and whisper conspiratorially:

“Khul Ja Shem-shamayim Aaron.” Oh… that woman…