Painted on the black boundless board of space, a planet resided nearby, frosted with gray swirls over dark green and brown lands and navy oceans. Scattered across the Earth like stars in the cosmos were yellow lights that acted like glitter for the planet, residue of complex life which maintained life itself even when temporarily unsupported. Behind the beautiful nightly Earth was the distant cyan globe of the supersun, shining brightly eternal, beaming with cyan flares from so far away and yet it was so large too, still considerably sized even compared to the Earth which was far closer. Its light was captured on the outlines of the Earth, but from behind, it did not reach, and on that side of the Earth would have been asleep.

Accompanying the Earth too was its own moon which hovered nearby, although on the moon were a few specs of light as though buildings were built on it, signifying that it had been colonized. Given the advancements in technology this was a reasonable feat, but it was still an accomplishment nonetheless, one that many other civilized Earths had acquired.

In the painting as well brought forth a new piece previously not there, moving straight towards the Earth. The piece was not as visually spectacular as the celestial bodies however, as rather than filled with colors or gleaming with power, it was instead a black rectangular box with no exterior features but just a smooth flat wall. Yet it did move on its own, given a voice as it hummed in the vacant space.

It moved rather speedily towards the Earth, drawing smaller as it approached closer. Its hum became quieter and its body shrank, until it completely disappeared into the planet.

Gliding straight to the destination, the Box flew through the black void with consistent pace, humming along as it then entered a navy blue space. It kept pushing down, flying straight into a sea of darkened clouds. Through the delicate layer of clouds it emerged, continuing entry as day became night. It dove down further without slowing down as random white flashes appeared in the sky, so far that its sources weren’t visible, until they passed.

Not even half a minute into reentry, the Box finally pulled up, readjusting itself with the planet’s relative gravity and tilting upwards to fly normal to its surface. The Box’s hum immediately became quieter, dropping without much transition.

Drifting forward inside the Earth, the Box flew over large single houses on green patches dotted along a network of illuminated gray aisles, some of which ended in circles while others were interconnected. The houses had flat rooftops and smooth metallic bodies, most of which were white with some exceptions being stone gray. They had multiple components defined by the different prismatic chunks, and behind them were largely vacant plots of more grass in square yards.

Neighboring the houses were also tall trees flourishing with green umbrellas, a typical suburban neighborhood modernized with sleek technology yet maintaining its natural aura. Along the edges of the black streets were parked pods most sized like an SUV, none of them currently active as the entire neighborhood in fact appeared dormant.

Its only source of sound, the Box cruised over the haunting neighborhood, the only source of light being the dim roads which spread light reflected by the houses. They were family homes, and there were many of them, many families living in this dark eerie neighborhood that apparently was in deep sleep.

Inside the sole living dwelling, which was the smallest of them all, the leader observed the neighborhood from the windshield, seated at the front as the holographic gauges helped him monitor the pod’s condition. He then stood up from his seat, not particularly needing to control the vehicle, as he was given free reign to walk around the chair and down the central aisle.

His arms behind his back, he announced loudly, “Attention, everyone!”

Lying on the couch ahead, Juno sat up grougily, seeing to have passed out during the short trip. She raised her eyes up at Razi through strands of her brown hair which she then parted to the side before raising her arms with a yawn.

In a flash the blue blur raced from the far end of the aisle straight up to the group, as Flynn appeared hopping twice in attendance to the meeting.

While Juno stood up after having fully awakened, Calypso approached the three from the dining table, as the four congregated at the front of the Box.

Last to join, Meditat slowly dragged himself to the group, his head hanging slightly low and standing behind the rest of the team.

Razi glanced at each individual of the group with keen and determined eyes, first Juno who was fully rejuvenated with an excited expression, clearly ready to take on the mission after the power nap. Then Flynn, who was more than ready, rolling his shoulders with wide and gleaming eyes as there was never a real problem with his preparedness, when he was in attendance that is. Next Calypso, who while did seem stung after the previous depressive conversation, did manage to liven up as she raised her head and stretched her shoulders, still able to set aside her distress to set her eyes on the mission.

Finally, there was Meditat, whose eyes were the only to not meet the announcer, but instead dwindled towards the floor. They seemed hollow as did his expression, not doing any preparatory stretching but instead was the only to not seem animated. While his body was in attendance, he simply dwelled nearby, as only his mouth wasn’t curved upwards.

Needing to center himself on the task at hand even if it meant needing to disregard a teammate, Razi calibrated his gaze on the center of the group before briefing, “Right, we’re nearing the target’s vicinity now. I know the exact house so follow my lead, and try to stay quiet as this neighborhood is officially quarantining due to passing the threshold of cases. The plan is simple, we are to first try knocking on the target’s door and civilly reason with him to let us in for discussion. However, there is a chance he will not do that, but be aware that does not immediately incriminate him, there is still paranoia about letting in people from outside. If we are not let in, we will need to execute a forced entry and search the house for him, where we will then try to persuade him into coming with us. This house has three floors, a basement, main floor, and upstairs, so me and Juno will search the basement, Calypso and Flynn will search the main floor, and Meditat will search the upstairs. This should distribute ourselves most evenly, and if anybody finds the target or anything else requiring immediate assistance, alert everybody else. In the case that we find the target and he displays hostile aggression, we may need to neutralize him, but do it with minimal injury. Does everybody understand?”

Going from left to right, Juno smiled and nodded her head cheerfully, Flynn nodded his head firmly with a determined gaze, Calypso nodded her head with ultimate resolve, and Meditat slightly bobbed his head, still not looking up at him but clearly following along.

A sigh released from Razi’s slightly open mouth as a distant mob of figures began moving towards the glowing street from the houses. He commandingly declared, “Very well, prepare yourselves, we will be arriving shortly!” as the mob amassed, congregated in front of the Box, and began piling on itself quickly, building a tower as more silhouettes stepped outside.

Juno’s eyebrows scrunched, and she tilted her head before quietly noting, “Uhm…honey…look behind you….”

At that exact same moment, Razi’s eyebrows also scrunched, as he seemed to sense something himself. His eyes sharpened and he pivoted his head to face the windshield, to which his eyes immediately widened to see the human tower raising the altitudes of the pod which approached it unknowingly.

Only managing to release the words, “Oh shi-,” Razi staggered back as several silhouettes leaped off the tip of the tower, and flung themselves at the pod’s windshield. Several clung onto the top of the windshield, close enough that they were more clear as being humans dressed in casual clothing, that being sweaters, hoodies, jackets, and shirts of various colors.

The humans bang their legs at the windshield, thudding it as the entire Shield staggered back, watching as more flung themselves onto the ship, some flying over the windshield.

Suddenly a thud could be heard, but above the team rather than in front. Flynn slowly raised his head as his eyes peeled up as high as they could. His mouth hung partly open as he stared at the clear roof, and he could feel his eyes being shrunk to the back of his skull in fear.

Above him, several people were standing on the Box, and they began banging their fists on the roof ferociously like feral animals. Drops of saliva fell off the people’s open mouths as they stared with vengeful glares, banging their fists on the roof constantly as others kicked the windshield, still clinging on without problem.

Forced to act improvised as the mission was now on him, Razi pointed his finger up at the roof and commanded, “Change of plans, we’re all deploying now, just follow me to the end where the house is once your first tasks are cleared. Calypso, take out the people on the Box.”

Calypso nodded her head and pulled her purple hood over her face. Purple streaks rained down her face before covering it in the black mask as her body became translucent with a purple hue. She then raised her fully masked head, and vanished in an instant before another thud appeared on the roof of the Box, followed by the sound of her grunts and male growling.

He then swerved to point down at another massive human pile amassing ahead of them for a second assault, instructing, “Juno, wall them off from getting any taller. I’ll open the bottom hatch now, behind you,” before a hole opened in the floor of the Box again, however this time rather than it being at the front it was further back around the dining table. Juno nodded her head, and quickly ran back towards the gap before dropping straight through.

Razi then turned to Flynn and ordered, “Take the same hatch and dismantle the piles, let them collapse on themselves, it’ll distribute the force and pad all of them.” Flynn gave a slight nod, and hovered his hands by the side of his face. His eyes were then masked by the materializing black visor before his entire head was then wrapped in his helmet. He then vanished in a blue blur which connected down to the hole behind the tail where he first stood.

Razi turned to face the windshield again, watching firmly as chaos ensued, watching flashes of purple on the ground as Eidolon dropped off humans attempting to claw at her, Intrepid levitated below the Box with extended arms as the humans at the top of the pile ahead began collapsing on themselves, unable to keep climbing as if being hit by an invisible ceiling.

Passing from below the front of the Box, the blue streak raced up the crowded street to the pile, and began circling it in another halo, forming a circular current as it seemed he was creating a tornado. As the tornado became taller and the wind was more intense, humans in the pile began falling off, as it started to collapse.

Watching all the action, Razi placed his hands on the back of his head, which was then enshrouded by his helmet as the red glowing visor appeared over his face on the white crusader helmet. The hatch behind him closed as the floor was rematerialized, as instead he had his sights on the newly cleared windshield as the last human was plucked off by Eidolon who flickered in front of the pod before reappearing on the ground. He took a few steps forward towards the windshield, but then stopped right by the seat as he stood in front of one other teammate, who kept his eyes on the ground, waiting.

Razi glimpsed back at Meditat, who had yet to receive any orders, waiting patiently as the rest of the team was in action. After staring back at Meditat for a few seconds, he decided in his demonic voice, “Oh, Meditat, just come with me.”

Meditat finally raised his head after hearing the makeshift command, and watched as Razi then began sprinting forwards, right at the windshield. He observed Razi who leaped forwards, somehow through the windshield itself as though it wasn’t even there, now outside the Box carried by the momentum of the pod which brought him down into the horde.

Standing inside the pod alone once again, Meditat let out a sentimental sigh, and reluctantly threw his black hood over his head. His eyes were cloaked by the parallelogram goggles, and the rest of his face became white as he summoned his mask.

Without any clear exit for the Box left open, he figured he was to do the same thing as Razi, even though it appeared that it would only lead to him slamming into a wall foolishly. Nonetheless, he had to work with the minimal instruction, and began charging towards the windshield. He then lunged forward, miraculously passing through the windshield as though there was none to begin with, and immediately feeling the powerful current of wind push against him as he was flung forward with increased speed like the leader.

Under the sole light of the bright full moon that lingered in the black night sky, the Box flew off into the distance past the dismantled pile above the blue arc that approached the ground where Furcifer ran, his body boosting forward with amplified jumps as he narrowly dodged every attacker’s lung. He weaved through them not with super speed but with immense precision, calculating every surrounding infected and expertedly strafing at the right time to evade their assaults.

He then opened his hands which soon grabbed onto the handles of materializing guns the size of assault rifles but with slim long bodies and disks on the outer sides which jut out and spun constantly with vents that emitted a blue light. Both silver guns lit up blue on vents along the barrel before firing a rapid flurry of blue orbs at the men, causing them to fall unconscious and slip into slumber on the road. Without being touched once, he jumped and dashed through the horde, shooting at them while constantly moving.

Ahead of Furcifer, the blue streak weaved through the crowd, moving back to catch up with the leader after having gone ahead to enact the first stage of the plan. Perceiving at absolute still time, Tachyon ran up to an infected boy who seemed a little under the age of ten, his eyes wide as was his mouth, holding the expression of a mindless beast as he reached forward. Not being threatened due to the fact that to him, the boy was frozen, Tachyon carefully tapped the side of the boy’s head, to which a blue streak emerged from his finger and crawled up to the boy like a shock.

He then picked up the boy from his back, and zoomed out of the street to the grass where the horde was far less dense. He then cautiously placed the boy on the grass, gently putting him to rest. After letting him down, Tachyon turned back to the horde and dashed towards them again, continuing this same process as more bodies kept appearing on the grass unconscious.

Casually walking through enraged adults that threw their arms at her, Eidolon phased through the infected, causing them to suddenly fall to the ground as if the simple act of passing through her deprived them of consciousness. She then held her hands out, still translucent, and the air enveloping a crowd of aggressors began fluctuating with a purple hue. Then with the close of her hands, all of the people in the crowd collapsed.

She kept moving forward, the team’s march down the neighborhood as more infected ran up from other houses and streets, chasing those who dared step outside and were yet to carry the curse.

Above the swarm Intrepid levitated, who pointed her hand at bunches of people, causing their eyes to close and for their bodies to fall. She then drifted forward, continuing the same move at a safe altitude, as right below her people’s hands reached, trying to grab her as they growled like untamed monsters.

Also up in the air, suspended by two blue glowing cables that extended from his hips, Meditat observed the street above the mob. He watched as the team continued to push through the people, using nonlethal means as discussed, but also noticing that more were coming from other streets in the distance. He then faced ahead to see that the end of the street concluded in a cul de sac, meaning they were reaching a dead end.

However, the leader had purposefully dropped them off here, and had mentioned that the house would be at ‘the end,’ which now likely meant the end of the cul de sac. That then carved out a defined perimeter of the mission, that being the space between the team and the end of the street where the house would be.

Noting the necessary space for traversal and cutting out the outside where more hordes were pouring in from, Meditat extended both of his hands towards the houses, needing to act not on command but on his own if he were to contribute anything to the mission. He sighed softly, knowing none of this was asked for, but at the same time nothing was asked for to begin with, so he had to act as if this was his own mission.

From both hands blue flames bursted out in great scale, and right after passing the houses along the street they stopped flying forwards as all flames naturally would but instead began crawling up the street, towards the end. From both sides a wall of fire grew, with a wall also growing from behind him to enclose the back. It was taller than the houses as well, far in fact, about fifty meters tall, seemingly excessive but with the note that the infected were willing to pile on themselves to climb higher. At least now, that feat would be far more difficult to achieve, hopefully impossible for them although such optimism was dangerous.

The blazing barrier extended all the way to the end of the cul de sac and wrapped around, fully encasing the street, before the flames then were transformed into a thick wall made of a concrete-like material, more than tough enough for anybody to break through.

After forming the blockade, Meditat lowered his hands as they stopped producing blue fire. He wasn’t sure if the team understood what he had done, but that wasn’t a concern to him. If this case truly mattered and lives were at stake, he had to be able to act on his own, as that was exactly what he was trained by himself to do regardless of if he had company or not.

He then boosted forward and detached his cables, becoming mobile above the rest of the group, who pushed forwards mostly on foot.

Furcifer sprinted ahead and leaped, aiming his guns in front of him and firing an exhaustive burst out of both, firing more of a gaseous wall than a burst which projected the mob in front of him backwards as the discharge knocked out many at once.

Seeing how the vast majority of his arsenal was lethal, he was working with restricted equipment, equipment he saw as far more inferior in strength yet equipment he understood he couldn’t use. Constrained with the little he had, he tried his best as he dodged lunges and even evaded an entire person who threw his whole body at him, as though completely unconcerned about his own being but rather consumed with adrenaline to fight.

Now that the mob was limited in numbers as they were no longer being resupplied, the amount still standing began to dwindle, although there was still a great quantity towards the end of the street where they needed to be. Taking on that horde, Eidolon and Tachyon reappeared in staccotic instances, neutralizing victims cautiously with ease of outmaneuvering them.

Unrestrained by the limits of comprehensible speed, Tachyon started strafing left and right while running forwards, an initially odd technique until explained as he generated his own army of his own mirages, creating duplicates of himself that first run together in parallel before then diverging off to more efficiently deal with the infected.

Now several blue streaks raced through the street like branches, all of them one person and yet so many.

Charging forward, guns blazing, Furcifer ran up the street, strafing left to right while constantly readjusting his aim as every shot put down another infected. He ran past purple streaks that slashed the sky in front of Eidolon, who was in the air above the horde before she then vanished and reappeared several feet forward to deliver the same blow.

Furcifer kept running as blue streaks darted behind and past him, as within those streaks were Tachyons, sprinting with afterimages made individually by their movements as they grabbed hold of people, stunning them and running them away.

He didn’t stop, leaping forward past Juno as crowds of people were lifted off the ground by an invisible force, and all of them then fell asleep before being placed back down.

Soaring right past Furcifer was another blue streak, but this one being darker in shade than the runner, also up in the air. At the head of that streak was Meditat, who raced through the street, and in each hand he wielded one of the same dual bladed energy swords that revolved around the disk, all four of those blades spinning and bending to slash people from right above them as he moved at his own pace. His own body spun and flipped in the air as he glided with grace, finally showing initiative in battle as he cleared clusters at once, being pulled forward by tugs of cables that shot out of his hips to give him full arm control.

Temporarily dipping down to the surface, Meditat brought his knees up as he slashed through people low to the ground, causing them to fall unconscious as his blades functioned by stunning, as he had the opposite deal with the leader as the majority of the weapons he would conjure were nonlethal.

Meditat then ascended back up by highly angled cables extending off his golden shoulders, raising him back up as he quickly approached the end of the street where the cul de sac lay. He flung himself high up in the air, and both of his weapons deformed into blue flames before vaporizing, being erased.

Spinning above the horde, he then manifested other items from blue flames seeping out of the hands he held the items with, but rather than having the shape of a weapon they were instead white canisters with a vent in the center that exuded a blue light.

After forming both canisters, he then tossed both of them down on the street below, letting them sink down with the mob. He backflipped one more time in the air with a final boost right as both canisters hit the ground amongst the horde, to which both exploded in a blue blast with diameters greater than the street’s width. The discharged energy rose up right below Meditat as he was in the middle of his flip, narrowly avoiding his own weapons as his eyes stared up at the night sky, caught in the position of laying with the blue blazes of the explosives’ energy under him like a blanket.

Clusters of people fell to the ground as they were swarmed by blue glowing particles as residue of the blast, and as they all collapsed Meditat landed in front of them on his feet, standing in the center of the cul de sac where the infected were, subduing them all in one fell swoop.

Not too far behind Meditat, the few remains of the horde were taken down, as second to reach the cul de sac were the Tachyon mirages, all of them running in parallel before coming to an abrupt stop right in front of Meditat.

The moment the Tachyons stopped, all but one vanished in thin air, that one being the one standing in the center. He then stepped next to Meditat, and turned around to see a purple streak emerge over a couple people, and in front of it Eidolon suddenly appeared in a purple flash, also now at the end circle.

Behind the three, Juno put a few infected to sleep above Furcifer, who ran into the final crowd before discharging another exhaustive burst from his plasmic guns, causing them to all collapse. He ran through them before coming to a stop as Intrepid descended to the ground beside him, and he relinquished both of his guns, letting them dematerialize.

He then glanced at his four teammates, first Intrepid beside him, then Eidolon, next being Tachyon, and finally the one in the middle being Meditat, who looked back at him casually, standing over the pile of subdued bodies.

Both Furcifer and Meditat stared at one another for a few moments, as an odd tension could be felt from them, a spark in Meditat’s eyes that seemed to appear at some point during the fight. They stood in front of each other for a few more tense seconds, until Furcifer then faced the house right behind Meditat, one of the houses along the end circle.

He then silently began approaching the house, and following him first was Tachyon then accompanied by Eidolon and Intrepid. Meditat watched for a few seconds without moving, gazing at them as they all walked towards the house together, his own expression impossible to read due to the obscurity of the mask.

Then he started to follow, joining them as they all marched to the end of the circle and up the front gray driveway towards the stone gray house, which towered above them menacingly under the full bright moon.

All together the group walked past the front lawn of well trimmed grass, and once they reached the end of the driveway they walked to the right where they found a slimmer gray path that diverged right in front of the closed garage door. The head of the pack was Furcifer, marching with heavy steps in front of Tachyon, Eidolon, Juno, and finally Meditat respectively.

All of them walked to the end of the path in front of the titanic stone wall behind the house, and they all made a turn up a few low stairs leading to a red rectangular door whose color completely contrasted the rest of the house almost spitefully.

Reaching the door at last, Furcifer stood straight in front, and quickly glimpsed at his team behind him marking them all present as they waited for him by the steps, awaiting his next move. He nodded to them once, as he had already instructed them on the plan, which they could finally now start as intended.

He turned back to face the red door, and standing right in front of it, he closed his right fist and knocked on the door hard twice. After slamming the door, he then loudly stated, “Doctor Frank Stein, we would like to have a word with you regarding the current pandemic! The street is safe, so please open the door! We would like to cooperate peacefully, but this is an urgent matter.” before then knocking twice on the door again, even harder.

Now all that there was left to do was wait, and wait they did, all awkwardly in front of the door in the street filled with bodies. They faced the door for a long ten seconds, and in that time they exchanged glances with each other, Tachyon to Eidolon, Furcifer to Intrepid. However, in those ten seconds, there was no response.

Attempting another peaceful greeting, Furcifer knocked twice on the door harder, shouting “Doctor Stein?!”, and waited another five seconds. Yet even after that, there was no response. No door opening, or even a verbal shout indicating reception. Nothing, just silence, just complete lack of feedback from inside the house.

Sighing in defeat, Tachyon swerved around away from the door, and took a step away. He lowered his head and in a disgruntled voice, determined “It seems he’s not there, well I was looking forward to seeing him, not going to shoe with you. Oh well.” while the double barreled shotgun materialized in Furcifer’s right hand as his black blade extracted out of his left gauntlet.

“We will,” declared Furcifer in an ominous voice, and without a second thought as Tachyon turned to face him, Furcifer raised his right knee and gutsily kicked the red door right in the center.

That one single kick caused the entire red door to burst forward, breaking off the wall which bent inward towards the house. The giant metal red door flew forward before hitting the granite floor, causing a loud thud which sent shivers down Tachyon’s spine.

Without any hesitation, Furcifer stepped into the house, raising his shotgun up and his left arm over his chest, preparing to slash at any moment.