A loud Siren was ringing across the hospital. The two nurses responsible for the newborns looked up from their work in astonishment. Without a word, both of them rushed to the nursery. They swung the doors to the ward open and looked around the room in worry.

“Where did that siren come from?”

“It sounded from somewhere close to here.”

“Quickly calm the little ones.”

They went from infant to infant checking their vitals as they calmed them down. The Head Nurse reached Rosie and she tried the coax the babe to sleep.

The baby Lord considered the facts. The Snatcher is going to come back sooner or later. He would have to solve the armband problem as soon as possible. The tag would keep tracking him and the snatcher would keep hunting him. He had to get rid of it.

The assistant bent over the baby Lord’s crib, It was finally his turn.

“There, there honey. It’s ok. It’s ok” the assistant tried to soothe him. The nurse was surprised looking at him. He was the only babe,who wasn’t crying in the whole room. She looked curiously at the baby Lord.

Her eyes widened as she considered a possibility. She snapped her fingers beside the baby Lords ears to check if he is deaf. The baby Lord flinched at the loud sound. Seeing this the nurse let out a sigh of relief.

“Well as long as you are okay” She smiled.

The baby Lord was breathing heavily now. This was his chance! He raised his arm and desperately tried to show his arm band.

He waved his raised fist, right under her nose.

‘Look at the band.’

The assistant didn’t seem to notice the baby Lord’s efforts. She gently rocked him back and fort

‘Look, damn it!’

The baby Lord cursed in his head in frustration. He had to get her attention somehow.

The baby lord put his armband in his mouth, biting it. Surely this will get her attention. The assistant eyes widened when she saw what the baby in front of her was doing.

“No! No! No! you will swallow it”

She tucked the baby Lord’s arms back into the blankets and tucked him back into his crib.

‘Shit! Shit! Shit!’

The baby Lord was livid. He had to make them see! They had to see the tag!

He looked towards the Head Nurse who was inspecting little Rosie. There has to be a way! The baby Lord’s eyes fell on Rosie’s armband. That’s right! Her armband was the same state as his. He remembered the Snatcher missing his first shot and it hitting Rosie. Her armband also got struck too!

Come on, he begged looking at the head nurse. Notice it. How many years have you been at this hospital? You are the Head nurse. Surely you would see something wrong.

The Head Nurse examined the babe for anything out of the ordinary. She held the babe’s wrist in her hand to check her vitals.

That’s it! You are right there!

Notice the arm band!

She gently rocked Rosie to sleep.

Notice the arm band! COME ON!!

The head nurse started tucking little Rosie in her blankets.

Noooo!

The baby lord reached for his kinetic power. It flowed through him like a torrent.

Notice it! notice it! notice it!

He Sent a pulse of sound towards Rosie’s armband.

‘Beep bloop Beep!’

He looked expectantly towards the head nurse.

‘Ma’am Doctor Blyde is calling all nurses to attendance’

The assistant said holding a walk-in talkie to her ear.

The head nurse sighed and rushed out of the nursery.

“No! No! No! Nooooo!”

Bleep bloop bleep!

Bleep bloop bleep!

Bleep bloop bleep!

He sent the sound pulse continuously, trying to get the nurses attention.

‘Come back here, Damn you!’

The nursery door shut tight, leaving the children alone in the dark.

x-x-x-x-x

The baby Lord was panting loudly, his eyes wide. He had one hand raised towards the door as though he was trying to wretch it open.

“Shit!”

He saw red. His heart was beating widely in his chest! He let out choked gasps, trying to catch his breath.

What should he do? He probably had fifteen more minutes or so, before the Snatcher realized there was nobody chasing him.

A flash of red gleamed in his eyes. The baby Lord could feel the snatcher moving rapidly away from the nursery, through the shards in his pocket. He looked at the yellow tag around his wrist hatefully. They seemed to be mocking him like his fate was inevitable.

It clung to his hand, weighing him down. They felt like chains that tethered him to the snatcher. They bound him.

The baby Lord was panicking now!

What should he do? He bought some time, but the Snatcher will eventually be back. He will find him again through that tag reader.

Red, red, red, the baby Lord kept seeing red in his rage. He raised his palm up and tried to form more crystals. The crystals formed with great difficulty. It looked muggy and opaque. It was barely holding on.

‘Looks like I’m running out of crystals too’

He has hit his limit. This will be the last crystal he can make.

One crystal. One final shot! He had no more turns left. This was the endgame. He needs to think of a way to get the Snatcher. The tags were the problem. If there wasn’t something tracking him down, he could make his escape.

The baby lord cursed in his head. Think damn it! He felt so slow. His mind was moving at a glacial pace. The limits he placed on his mind was still in effect.

The baby lord saw another flash of red. He clicked his tongue in irritation. Where was that red light coming from?

He scanned the room for its source. On the far side of the wall he saw a red dot that looked like it came from a laser pointer. That red color looked awfully familiar.

‘This is hardly the time. Damn it!’

He wanted to focus on the immediate problem in front of him. The Snatcher was the priority, but this red light was really irritating him.

The baby Lord craned his neck to see something below him. He looked down and saw a black object. It had the shape of a model gun. From its end a red beam of light kept flashing.

The baby lord stared open mouth at the device lying on the floor. It was the tag reader! The Snatcher must have dropped as he made his getaway.

A manic grin seemed to crawl across the baby Lord’s face. He began chuckling. He laughed and then he laughed some more. Very soon, a delighted giggling of a child filled the nursery.

“Well, Well, Well! Now that changes everything!”

x-x-x-x

“Mr. Steelburn, We are working as fast as we can!” The head nurse said as she tried to calm down Rosie’s Dad. The burly man was pacing around in agitation.

“What was that alarm? It sounded like it came from the nursery.” His voice rumbled like grinding iron. He paused abruptly in front of the Head Nurse.

Mr. Steelburn had his large arms crossed in front of his chest. He stared down at the diminutive nurse. He was a large man, though due to his age he let a lot of his weight go to his gut. He looked like someone who was in shape in his younger days. He had a thick set of beard and mustache and he looked like a muscled-up version of a Santa Claus. But right now, his face was filled with worry for his baby girl.

The head nurse raised her hands in a comforting gesture. She was used to dealing with erratic parents. She could sympathize, she was a mother herself.

“Sir, please calm yourself. Your daughter is fine.”

“Hmmm” Mr. Steelburn rumbled unconvinced. He looked around at the rushing staff. His eyes narrowed, there was something definitely wrong here.

A loud scream cut through the waiting room. The scream came from one of the nurses. She looked horror stricken at the monitors in front of her. The monitor which indicated the vital signs of the babies in the nursery all flatline. The machine let a high pitch beep indicating the death of all the newborns.

The technician monitoring the device looked on in mute horror. For a few heart stopping seconds, the room filled with worried parents and hospital employees fell silent as they heard the flat line.

“The vitals of the children have flat lined! They are all dead.”

Stunned silence greeted this proclamation. A bomb had been dropped on their laps! Heads of several fathers turned to the technician.

“What???!”

“The sirens came from the baby room after all”

“Quick! To the nursery!”

“Hurry!”

The entire staff and parents rushed to the nursery. They moved like their family’s lives depended on it. The moved in a frenzied dash towards their children.

A ghostly figure in white stood stunned at these developments. He too followed the crowd up to the nursery.

They trooped up to the glass windows to the nursery and looked inside. They looked shocked by what they saw inside. The place looked like a warzone. Instruments were broken, glass shards were laying, here and there. And a sea of towels spread out helter-skelter around the room.

The only normal thing in the room were the baby cribs. The cribs stayed unblemished in the sea of chaos around them. It stood in stark contrast to the room like a placid immovable rock in a raging river.

The crowd stepped into the room carefully. The concerned parents and staff crowded around the baby cribs to see the newborns sleeping peacefully. Their tiny chest rose and fell with every breath they took.

“What…is…this?” Asked Rosie’s Dad, his eyes livid.

“Not sure.” Said a short man standing next to him. He flipped open a switchblade out. “But I think I have to start carving out some eyes.”

The baby Lord looked at the chaos around him with satisfaction. He puffed himself with pride. The moment the Snatcher had lost the tag reader, he was finished. Till now he worked in the cover of darkness. He skulked around did his dirty deeds with none the wiser, But not anymore.

‘I’ve dragged you into the light, you bastard.’ He thought looking at the crowd of very angry fathers around him.

The men around the room were trying to stay calm not wanting to disturb their sleeping children but just underneath the surface, you could see their boiling rage just about ready to erupt.

‘Try and get me through them. They will tear you apart you little shit.’

The baby lord looked at the ghostly white figure standing in the corner of the room.

‘You have nowhere to hide anymore. Isn’t that right Dr. Blyde?’ The baby Lord could see the blurry flapping white coat around the snatcher as he stared around the room trying figure out his next move.

“Your Angelo, right? From Brittle Town.”

A rumbling voice broke the baby Lord out of his reverie.

“Steelburn.” The little man replied shortly He still had his knife as he scanned the rest the room. He had small beady eyes. And a scar running across his left eye and slightly protruding jaw. His smallish face gave him look like a rat.

“So, that’s Vergil’s kid, huh?” The big man stared down at the Baby Lord.

The baby Lord gulped and pretended to sleep. Better to let sleeping dogs lie.

“Ahh!” Angelo grunted again. His hand was twitching across his blade. He really wanted to stab something.

The burly man stared down at the rat faced Angelo. A shadow fell over his eyes. His hands moved like a blur and grabbed Angelo by the neck.

“Angelo” He said softly, with barely control rage.

“Tell me, you didn’t cause this. Tell me you didn’t bring this misfortune to my family’s doorstep”

Angelo’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets. His hands still clutched his knife. He brought the blade in a swift motion and sliced into the giant’s forearm. With his other free hand, he grabbed his gun in his coat and pointed at the burly man.

Steelburn eyed the gun but made no move to stop him, he didn’t even flinch when he was stabbed.

“Steel, you may want to keep your camp neutral. But sooner or Later you’re gonna make a choice. This assassin won’t be the last.”

There was a click as the gun’s safety was turned off.

The two men stared each other down. The air was charged like gunpowder. Then suddenly as they attacked, they raised their arms away from each other. Steelburn removed his arm from Angelo’s neck and Angelo returned his gun back into his coat.

No one among the surrounding crowd noticed their little exchange. It happened too quickly. Only the baby Lord stared open mouth at the display.

‘Assassin?’ He thought mutely.

The burly man looked at the baby Lord again. “So, Vergil not here to look at his boy? He missed the birth of his own son?”

Angelo rubbed his neck and said in a raspy voice. “All Father summoned him.”

Steelburn looked at Angelo. “Tell Vergil, that we will remain neutral. We won’t be interfering in your family feud.”

Angelo just looked pointedly at Steelburn, he had already said his piece.

The baby Lord looked back and forth at the bizarre exchange. Family Feud? This doesn’t look good. He really hoped this assassination attempt won’t be a daily occurrence.

‘Wait, Assassin?’ The baby Lord thought vaguely.

His eyes widened. ‘Assassin?!!’

His breathing got frantic. He was always under the impression that he was going to be kidnapped. Never in a million years did he consider that the good doctor was here to snuff him out.

The baby lord scowled at the skulking figure.

‘Well, I suppose, I shouldn’t insult Dr. Bylde. You are merely wearing his face’

‘Dr. Blyde’ was going around checking in on the infants. He brought out the stethoscope out of his pocket and checked the heartbeats of the newborns, all the while he kept a close eye on the baby Lord.

The baby Lord eyes went wide.

‘You bastard! I know your little scheme! I know, what you are up to! You’re going to pretend to examine me and then give me an injection of poison, aren’t you? All under everyone’s noses! It seems I didn’t scare you hard enough. You grew some balls!’

The baby Lord looked at his crumbling crystal he had in his hand which he had used to mess up the room. His internal mana supplying was hitting rock bottom. He was all out of gas, but yet he was still confident.

The baby Lord’s eyes narrowed.

‘It was fine when you played your game in the dark, but here things are different. This is your last chance Snatcher. I got no mana, no crystal, no nothing, and still I’m not worried at all!

There are people who managed to screw with me once, but they never get a chance to do so again. You still have time. You can still run.

You tried to kill me. I can let bygones be bygones. But, If you come to offer your head to me, on a silver platter then it would be remiss of me not to accept! So, what’s it going to be? life or death? Choose!’

The Dr. slowly made his way towards the baby Lord. All the while keeping up his pretense on checking the infants. He glided across the room and finally reached the baby Lord.

‘So, you choose death after all’

“Mr. Steelburn, Mr. Veinmar.” The Snatcher began, but Angelo raised his hand to cut him off.

“Veinmar isn’t here. I’m a stand in”

The doctor put his stethoscope on.

“Ahh! I see.”

He looked at the baby Lord. “Now young Veinmar. Let’s have a look at you”

He placed the stethoscope on the baby lord chest and pretended to listen to his heart beat. The Snatcher put a ponderous look on his face.

The baby Lord eyes narrowed. He let out a small chuckle.

‘Well, someone is looking to win an Oscar!’

The doctor put on a shocked look on his face.

“Mr. I’m afraid I have some grave---”

‘grave what?’ The Snatcher was interrupted in mid-sentence when the baby Lord grabbed his stethoscope.

Dr. Bylde’s eyes were wide as saucers. Who was that? Who spoke? It felt like it came right from inside his ear.

‘Where are you looking at? Down here, You little shit!’

The snatcher looked incredulously at the babe below him.

Angelo and Stellburn were looking at the doctor with narrowed eyes, but he was too engrossed with the babe to notice.

‘So? Did you have fun playing doctor?’

The Snatcher’s face twitched. The baby’s snarky voice made him want to scratch his ears out. In fact, he had been feeling a constant itch in his ears ever since he wore the stethoscope.

“Feel like scratching your ears, huh?” The baby lord asked in mock concern. He was still grabbing on to the stethoscope.

“Don’t worry. I just left a little present in your pocket. They should be nicely charged, thanks to all the running that you have been doing’

The snatcher looked shocked. He immediately made to take off his stethoscope.

‘Too late! Shi-ne, Ba-ke-Yaro!’

The baby lord sent his last dregs of his mana up the stethoscope to his ear canal, where the shards of kinetic crystals were present.

He tried to rip the stethoscope from his head, but it was too late!

The shards activated! A loud siren blasted directly in his head.

The snatcher, screaming clutched his skull in agony.

‘You had the shards in your pocket this whole time. I merely pushed them into your stethoscope.’

Blood leaked from all of Snatcher’s orifices. They sprayed from his eyes, nose and mouth. The blood coming out of his own mouth was choking him.

The snatcher was screaming his head off. He lost complete control of his glamour. Dr. Bylde disappeared as the illusion from the Snatcher faded.

The baby Lord raised his arms above his head in a familiar gesture.

“Keikaku doori! 計畫通り!”

The baby Lord made a slow intense dab without taking his eyes off of the screaming Doctor.

“All according to plan!"