2:53 pm…

In some barren place…

Many military vehicles and soldiers are moving to a designated point, escorting a secret shipment to be delivered to the Red Confederacy. This is without a doubt the first convoy Eve mentioned. Phrixus is hiding and maintaining a certain distance inspecting the hauling party with a pair of binoculars.

“Multi-purpose vehicles, a bunch of well-armed soldiers and trucks with the forbidden treasure, at least they take this seriously…” Thought Phrixus

Instead of a direct assault, Phrixus leaves his pollaxe behind and approaches the convoy furtively. During his time training in Arizona, with help of his allies, he discovered and practiced difficult but powerful ability if used right. With strong psychic exertion, he creates a sort of mental bubble to infiltrate in the enemy lines, making them think he is another soldier. Already following the pace of his foes he begins to induce a delayed state of frenzy to a few troops, which will only manifest for ten seconds before his disguise falls, then the affected soldiers begin to act madly, attacking their fellow allies using their weapons or bare hands. Amidst the chaos, Phrixus tosses three grenades to the closest groups of troopers, injuring and killing many of them, then he proceeds to create his protective psychic field to deflect the bullets, at the same time he charges and eliminates them one by one with his pistol and knife, while a part of the regiment was dealing with the frenetic soldiers, Phrixus takes a rifle from the ground and kills the remaining soldiers, all the combined psychic abilities takes a toll to his mental energy, causing him to be fatigued but he remains able to keep fighting.

The truck drivers began to get out and surrender, all of them forming a group with hands up.

“We give up! Take the cargo but let us live.” One of the drivers says.

“You can go, only with one condition,” Phrixus says.

“What’s that?”

“Tell your superiors they have to try harder.”

“We-we will tell them.”

“I hope so, now be gone.”

The drivers clamber inside of the nearest multipurpose vehicle to flee the area.

“Phrixus here, do you copy? Over.” He speaks into his radio using the new frequency.

“Salvage Team here, loud and clear, is the AO clear?”

“Affirmative, no hostiles present.”

“Arriving quickly!”

While the team was on their way, Phrixus went to investigate the cargo, every truck was carrying many reinforced metallic cases, each one of them with labels like “SENSITIVE MATERIAL”, “DANGER” and “PROPERTY OF THE RED CONFEDERACY” in Spanish, Russian, Mandarin and Korean, Phrixus thought in spite being only eight cargo trucks, they were transporting enough Omicron Stars to buy two advanced aircraft carriers. He wonders if the government still possesses more of these stars to sell and if this convoy is just a small part of a big transaction.

“The power to play God… in the grasp of the wrong hands…” Phrixus thought, before hearing the sound of a chopper getting near.

A VOA heavy transport helicopter drops his invisibility cloak and lands near the convoy with soldiers getting out and retrieving the shipment, the captain in charge approaches Phrixus.

“Good work, not bad for a lone wolf, looks like Eve Grant knows how to choose the right people for these jobs.” The captain says as he pulls out a cigarette.

“What will you do with the Omicron Stars?” Phrixus asks.

“What everyone does, investigate their properties and possible applications to our soldiers, the details are classified but know that our research principles aren’t similar to those damn reds.”

“If you say so…” Phrixus is unconvinced.

“You relax, all this is in good hands, good luck out there.” The captain finishes his smoke and climbs back in the chopper.

The last container is loaded in the transport vehicle, which departs immediately. Phrixus heads to his hideout for debrief.

***

41 minutes later…

“…and the cargo has been secured,” Phrixus tells Officer Grant

“Well done, they might take alternate routes and additional security measures for future convoys, the only way to reveal further deliveries is getting the coordinates on any confederate outposts in the country, you should know the drill, I transferred your pay for completing the mission, Eve out.”

He scratches his cheek, wanting to relax with his friends now that he is done with this mission. “Where are those two…” muttered Phrixus and decides to call Roberth by phone.

“Hey brother, what have you been up to?” Roberth says.

“The usual, saving the country from the clutches of the confederacy and making a hole in Ernesto’s wallet and his clique, less money for their false ‘revolution’.” said Phrixus, smugly.

“Since the moment they seized the throne of Venezuela they haven’t stopped that revolutionary narrative, like saying that in the past we were living in a radioactive wasteland but they ‘saved’ us, everything has gotten worse so far, but they always get away with everything by playing the blame game” Roberth sighs.

“It only works here, having all the federal agencies in your pocket you can do whatever you want… so, what about you, how’s Valeria?” says Phrixus.

“Everything is ok, she’s alright after that bitter incident, besides, we were about to go to your hideout with an acquaintance of yours.”

“Very well, I’ll wait here. See you soon.” He ends the call. “Time for an upgrade.” Phrixus then contacts Duncan to get more equipment.

***

52 minutes later…

Roberth, Valeria and the guest arrive to the hideout, get inside, and listen to hammering sounds from afar. They assume he is on the forge, so they go in to find him. Reaching the place they notice Phrixus working with some tools, a trunk with the VOA insignia on it loaded with all kinds of components, pieces and parts which they couldn’t figure out, doing who knows what.

“…And here we have the mad scientist. Hello!” Valeria calls out.

Phrixus doesn’t look up. “You are slow to arrive…” Phrixus then pauses his work and turns to greet the group but is surprised by the third visitor.

“I assumed you were dead, Alejandro, haven’t seen you in ages,” says the visitor, proving to be a friend of Phrixus from elementary school.

“Oviedo! Where the hell have you been hiding?” They hug each other and pound each other on the backs. “Tell me, what are you doing with your life?”

“Surviving as always, they told me you stayed at Thales academy but looks like you committed yourself to something more unexpected.”

“Of course.” He makes a gesture to follow him and take a seat. “Tell me then, what’s up? They didn’t just bring you here to visit, did they?”

“Well… I have a particular problem and since I don’t know anybody for this kind of situation, you are my only hope…”

“Shoot now partner, who is picking on you?”

“To be honest, is not me but my brother, he was at a party having a good time with a girl when some jerk got jealous. I always thought his boldness would be his peril and now that guy threatened him with death, according to some friends he has ties with some gangsters of The Rabid Dogs, I’m afraid he’s going to get in trouble, and the worst-case and possible scenario… they will kill him.” said Oviedo, worried but remaining firm.

“That name again, who are they exactly?” Phrixus says.

“Of all the criminal gangs which have formed in the country, The Rabid Dogs are the worst of the worst; assassins, raiders, smugglers, everything that is bad… if you see one of them do a favor to the people and make sure to kill each one of them,” Roberth says.

“Another plague to take care, if you go to hunt them, call me,” Valeria says to Phrixus.

“Me too, I want to join the party.” Roberth punches his left hand, emitting some sparks in the process.

“Wow, you have powers too? I also have abilities but I’m not as seasoned a fighter as you…” Oviedo says.

“Back to the topic at hand, tell me where this guy is and I’ll get rid of him.”

“He’s gonna be in the same place tonight, I don’t know the guy but if you flirt with this cute girl,” he shows him a picture of a gal on his smartphone, “that should be enough to lure him, one more thing don’t kill him, that poor bastard is not worthy of a bullet to his face, just get rid of the rabid thugs and make sure to scare him enough to not mess with my brother anymore.”

“Consider it done.”

“You are my savior, well I have to go, have fun tonight.” Oviedo says, leaving the place.

“It’s a good time to show my new knife…” He picks up a Bowie knife and points it playfully at Roberth’s face. “Don’t move or I’ll poke you in the eye.” said Phrixus in a good-humored way.

He moves aside the knife gently, although he knows Phrixus likes to banter like that with him and Valeria in an odd but harmless way. “Yeah I get it, you really need that big of a knife? It’s not like you want to skin a tiger or an elephant…” Remarked Roberth with curiosity.

“To brand it with the blood of the rabid dogs of course, besides, I have been manufacturing other gadgets so I don’t rely so much on my pollaxe.” He shows them a gauntlet with two short slightly curved blades on the upper part and another gauntlet with a long telescoping blade. “Just so I don’t get bored with killing bad guys.”

Valeria inspects the weapons. “Consider setting up a smithy.”

“Only when I retire, and I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel regarding that,” Phrixus says.

“In one word, never,” Roberth says.

Roberth and Valeria went to view the interesting and eccentric creations which Phrixus makes in his leisure time, cobbling together all kinds of gizmos from decorative objects, chemical experiments, to any kind of weapons, recycling the metal and components of discarded hardware, appliances or widgets he can find using all the knowledge he absorbed from many technical books. A few things that come close to “art” are sculptures of varied sizes, the biggest one only being tall and wide as a common dining chair, and smallest ones the size of a teacup, made of any surplus material laying around from metal to wood and concrete, these “scraptures” as Phrixus calls them are carved or assembled aimlessly until reaching a satisfactory finish, according to him ambiguous shapes are more thought-provoking and grease the “cogwheels of the mind”. The next set of paraphernalia is more related to combat situations—and perhaps the favorite of Phrixus—all kinds of different swords, maces, axes, hanging in walls or in racks, either for decoration or combat they work in both ways/ Looking elsewhere they spot a large and meticulously safeguarded storage cabinet with many proper security measures for a good reason: inside are all kinds of containers with different kinds of fluids, solutions, solvents and compounds for his needs, from maintenance and improving his gear to creating his own explosives and incendiary devices, or playing as a chemist as a pastime by testing and observing different reactions with assorted materials, Roberth and Valeria are engaged about what else Phrixus is going to show next…

***

27 minutes later…

“…And with this customized grinder, you can get more cutting edge on a blade than a common one,” Phrixus says.

“With the things you do when you are bored… I hope you don’t blow up the place if you decide to try something ambitious,” says Valeria.

“That would be easy but I won’t take it into account. Anyway, I’m going to get some goods, do me a favor and feed my pets in my absence?”

“What do they eat exactly?” Roberth asks.

Phrixus takes them to the kitchen. “This part of the fridge has the food for Dixy, and this one is for Laso.”

“We’ll do it just this once.” Valeria says.

Phrixus leaves his hideout to handle his business for Oviedo.

***

7 hours later…

Phrixus gets out of his car and arrives at a nightclub, judging it by its location he knew it was the kind of place you should watch your back. He pays at the entrance, enters inside and seeks the girl, the music was booming the place was filled with lighting and special effects that could give a person a seizure. After two minutes Phrixus finds the attractive girl.

“Hello, I saw you over there and I wanted to meet you, I’m Alejandro.” Phrixus says.

She looks neutral and a bit wary, nonetheless she replies, “I am Ana, what do you want to talk about?”

“I want to dance with you.” says Phrixus

She is yet undecided but decides to ask another question: “How good are you at dancing?”

“I’m inexperienced, but it’s not an excuse for me to remain on the bench.” Phrixus says with confidence.

That answer caught her off guard, “Really?…” she speaks after a few seconds. “You know… for a moment I thought honest guys like you were extinct, many good-looking ones approach me and ask me to dance, they say they are pros but in less than a minute on the dance floor they prove otherwise. My real issue is they don’t dare to admit beforehand that they don’t how to dance or even worse, they try so hard to impress me… I’m fed up with devious and phony boys.” She said the last sentence with a scornful tone.

“If they believe ‘showing vulnerability’ equals ‘weakness’ then they are gonna be stuck in a rut forever.” says Phrixus.

“Of course… It’s not like just because you admit you don’t know how to dance it’s the end of the world, I don’t get why it is hard for some people to answer a simple question with authenticity…” She sighs and watches the people on the dance floor.

“Dropping their inflated egos might be a good start, just enjoy the moment. When I stopped being too concerned about what others thought of me it gave me so much freedom, so, as I said before, wanna dance with me?”

Ana looks backs at Phrixus, smiling. “Yes! Come, I’ll teach you how to dance.” she responds with enthusiasm, grabs his hand and goes to the dance floor.

Unfortunately, much to Phrixus’s chagrin, the guy who Oviedo mentioned appears with an unfriendly attitude in less than a minute. He pushes Phrixus by the shoulder rudely. “Hey dumbass leave her alone, get lost or you are going to get into trouble.” He spoke with a menacing voice.

“Don’t bother him, Daniel! You never asked me to dance anyways.” She said snarkily.

“I can’t believe you never expressed interest before.” Phrixus says, amused by the situation.

Daniel steps up to Phrixus. Phrixus just assumes a mocking face with a smile, narrowing his eyes and crossing the arms, finally, the punk breaks the silence.

“You and me. Outside. Now.”

“This better be worth it.” Phrixus is almost enjoying himself. The guy is not big, and won’t put up a good fight. Perhaps if his gang are outside, things will get more interesting.

Both of them leave, Daniel is the last one and stays close to the nightclub for some seconds, Phrixus notices him leaving the place accompanied by three individuals, maintaining a certain distance and pulling out bladed and blunt weapons, one of them has his arms exposed and reveals a tattoo of The Rabid Dogs.

“It was your worst mistake, pissing me off, we’ll leave your face intact so at least your family can see you at your funeral.” Daniel makes a gesture with his head, ordering the thugs to attack.

The aggressors charge, the first of them lunges at Phrixus. He fends off the blows, grabs and slams him to the ground. One of them tries to stab him but Phrixus catches his arm with weapon in hand and punches him in the chest with enough force to push him forward, the last one attacks with a hammer. Phrixus dodges it and counterattacks with multiple jabs, then pulls his bowie knife and executes him with a precise slash to his throat and a kick to his chest. The thug who was slammed to the ground grabs Phrixus by the neck from behind but he performs a maneuver to get free and stabs him three times, killing him in the process. The last one gets defensive with his dagger, Phrixus follows his plan, the thug carries out a tricky attack to get an opportunistic blow only to backfire; Phrixus predicted his tactic and punctures his chest with the knife, twists the blade and pushes him away, the punk observing his goons slaughtered flees in terror, Phrixus runs and catches him.

He drops the man to the ground then turns him around to see his face. “An owl told me you were picking on a friend of mine, if this is the way you deal with your problems I should chop you down into little pieces…”

“I’m sorry, forgive me please I wasn’t my intention to do this I swear!” says the punk begging for his life.

Phrixus adheres to Oviedo’s request that he not end Daniel’s life, just give him a proper scare so he is no longer a threat to his friend, despite this punk having connections with The Rabid Dogs. He is very lucky to be getting a second chance. “If I hear another incident with Oviedo,” he puts the point of the knife on his abdomen, “I’LL EVISCERATE YOU LIKE A PIG!”

“I get it I get it, don’t kill me please!”

“Good!” He gets away from him. “I’m glad we have solved this issue, do not get into trouble and always go to mass on Sundays,” says Phrixus, departing from the place where the fight occurred to return to the nightclub, but it seems people are leaving the building as there are some police officers over there and it’s almost empty, only the staff of the club are being interviewed, the quarrel certainly brought unexpected attention. Phrixus is still far away from them and hasn’t been spotted yet.

“Goddamn it… now my night is completely ruined.” Phrixus sighs in frustration and leaves the area, he never got the girl’s phone number, furthermore, intense places like nightclubs tend to stress him out; more calm and relaxed places or the pleasant, productive cacophony in his hideout are more satisfying and fulfilling for him.

***

Phrixus returns to his place, Dixy and Laso greet him cheerfully. He looks for Roberth and Valeria next. In the main hall he finds a note:

Phrixus,

We already fed your pets, we’ll return tomorrow.

“Well, time to make handcrafts.” Phrixus goes to his workshop and begins to create a few decorative articles and other goods. Before going to work he turns on the TV and puts on a news channel, after many minutes of being busy an announcement gets his attention:

“A kidnapping has taken place in the Tierra Negra neighborhood at 3:37 pm, the victim is a 16-year-old female called Diana Herrera. The abductors are demanding an exorbitant ransom for her liberation. Her father has declared they don’t possess such a large sum of money, unnerved relatives and friends are currently at her house to pray for her release and ask for donations. If you have any information concerning the young student, please communicate with these phone numbers on screen…”

After watching the news, Phrixus began to ponder the situation. He resolves that he was given these powers for a reason. He’s not only meant to help the country against The Red Confederacy or The Rabid Dogs, he also needs to purge the criminality in the town he lives in…