Not sure where I found the time to write this....

And I'm glad about you guys still reading it ^^.

It's a bit longer than usual so enjoy it.

Ps. Most of me being able to write is luck based, so sorry to say that I wont be able to post a chapter a day. I will post one whenever I find the time to write one.

Oh, and please don't mind my sense of naming chapters.... I'm a bit unimaginative concerning those...

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Once more we stealthily made our way through backyards of the slum. Our coms were kept quiet again to keep the probability of being compromised relatively low.

If that woman was on the side of the Fallen we would have a small chance of harming "Child's play". But from what I had been able to gather from Liam, "Child's play" didn't seem aware of what was coming for him..

That or it was a well made trap to get rid of the remaining members of A3.

I didn't voice my thoughts for now, it would be better to talk about this when all six of us where together, although I didn't doubt that they had the same idea as me.

The position of the other three was simply a small hill just outside of the town. It was directly in front of the street that lead to the hideout of our target. This was probably the reason why Ignar had chosen this position. Free sight on "Child's play" and his esper seemed to be the best choice.

They had hidden well though. If not for the map in my visor and the marks pointing out their location I probably would have ran past them.

Ignar had positioned himself lying on the hill with his rifle aimed towards the town. Liam had copied this behavior.

Both of them were covered by some kind of fabric that seemed to hide heat signatures.

Rose on the other hand had readily greeted us and even though her face still wasn't visible behind the cold metal of her helmet she still seemed in a good mood.

"So you're finally here. Liam told us everything but we don't think that this woman had anything to do with the Fallen. They are literally not reacting at all. Even if this was supposed to be a trap on their side they would need to do something. Especially now since we know something went awry."

Her voice sounded metallic through the speakers and Karen answered instantly.

"I don't know whether we have enough information to even attempt to get him. Sergeant Kisk should have had detailed info about most of the members under "Child's play"s command. Saying we're strong is not arrogant but saying we can easily win this without any knowledge of the force we're dealing with isn't too smart either.

So I'm just going to ask you what we know. As of now the only thing we have is what Liam and Ignar have found out."

She motions the named to tell them what they know.

While Liam stands up to face us Ignar remains on the ground looking through his scope unmoving.

"We have not seen "Child's play with a lot of people to be honest. I do not know what he's thinking but he doesn't seem to be surrounded by guards. We have identified some of them but not all. He moves through the town like a normal person. Nobody seems to mind him being here, I doubt that anyone knows who he is. He-"

Karen interrupts him before he can finish.

"How many espers does he have and who are those espers, that is the most important information right now."

Nodding Liam carries on.

"We've seen "Overheat" with him but that was to be expected, she's his right hand. Aside from her he has multiple lv 3's at his side. The ones we know about are a man who has a power similar to , someone we only know as as far as we know she's able to move at extreme speed, a physical strengthen type able to harden his body in some way and..."

he pauses a second before going on.

", he's the one that buried our comrades together with . Aside from them he seems to have a small number of lower level subordinates that we do not know about. He might have stronger ones too but those we were unable to discern."

"So besides "Child's play" there is no one else with any kind of mind control? I still think it will be dangerous, so I'm going to ask all of you.

If we try to take revenge for our comrades we might step into a trap. Should we do it while we still know the exact location of our target or wait and tail him until we receive further information?"

The smarter thing would be to wait, we all knew this but Rose stepped forward before anyone else could react.

"Captain, we've been through worse and mastered much more difficult missions. I'm for going in as long as we still can. If we wait for too long we'll lose him... and let us not beat around the bush here. We WANT to get back at him."

Liam behind her nods in agreement.

"She's right."

Songe doesn't show any signs until he himself simply says.

"I'll follow your orders Captain. Waiting for backup would be the smart decision but getting him now would be more efficient."

Behind us Ignar starts to move and his old voice carries over to us.

"I can easily take him out from here. I say we go in and finish this as long as he has no backup. Even if it's a trap as long as we get "Child's play" we should be able to retreat pretty easily."

Karen nods as if she had expected these answers from the beginning. Then everyone turns around to me watching me in anticipation.

"So Alex, what do you think?"

I crouch down and think about our situation. I was confident that we could face a lot. I had seen what our limbs were capable of. And to be honest, I agreed with Ignar, I could not think of a single thing right now aside from mind control that would be able to effectively stop us. As such the answer was pretty clear, I wouldn't do it for revenge as Rose. I didn't know the others good enough to feel anything like that but if I really wanted to be part of A3 I would need to start thinking not as a normal human.

I slowly nod and get back up.

"We should take him out, now's our best time to do it. He might leave today or tomorrow, or even in weeks but we don't know this. I agree with Ignar."

"Then it's decided."

Karen slowly lifts her hand pointing towards the city. Her voice sounding unemotional and dull.

"Ignar, you're going to stay here. If anyone dangerous or suspicious shows up you will tell us immediately. We will attack at the moment you take your shot at "Child's play", not one second before that. You think you can take him from here?"

Unmoving the lying figure of Ignar slowly gives his answer.

"Not sure why but he's not sleeping. The shot though is easy. His movements are slow and the wind is close to zero. Together with the high speed of the bullet he can't evade. To answer your question, yes I can take him from here."

"Good... The rest with me, Ignar, Liam will tell you when we're in position, keep an eye on him. We're going to go in hard, Liam and Songe in front, Rose will charge in after and Alex and me will come in last."

She pauses for one second taking a deep breath.

"But if Ignar misses his shot we're going to get out instantly... This goes especially for you Rose. No unnecessary fighting. Understood?"

"Yes Ma'm."

Five voices answer her question.

Nodding Karen once more heads towards the town.

"Let's go then. It's 0010 right now, I want this done in under an hour."

With that last remark we follow her downhill, one last look back reveals nothing but some yellow bushes and dust. Only a small part of a black barrel marks the location Ignar was hiding.

Once more we had to sneak through the gardens and back yards of different citizen. Luckily we had no problems except a dog that seemed to notice us walking by. It had barked a few times until it's owner pulled it back into his house. We simply waited behind a small tool cabinet until both of them had disappeared.

I was nervous when we finally reached the last fence separating us from their hideout. It was bigger than the surrounding building.. Not by a lot but noticeable when close up.

I thanked my mechanical limbs that they weren't shaking from anticipation. I was finally going to fight for real in such a long time. I crack a smile while edging along the outer wall of the building. Songe in front who had shouldered his gun and seemed to get ready for the signaling shot.

Ignar, shoot on sight. We're going loud now, coms on full strength. Tell us immediately if you miss or not. Alex, Songe will breach through the wall right here, you'll follow inside with Karen. Don't hesitate to use everything available to you to take them out...

And one last thing. Do not give them time to react.

That's all. Signal will be Ignar's call.

Then we wait. We knew Ignar wouldn't simply take the first possible shot. He would take the one with the highest possibility to hit.

Time went by and I grew nervous. I never had had much patience so waiting was even harder for me. Next to me the other members of A3 stand still as statues clad in black, unmoving and lifeless.

I didn't know what to say. Everything around me remained silent. No one moved, no one made a sound. I mustered Songe staying in front. He had spread his legs and placed his hands on the wall. I knew he was our demolition expert but I didn't know what he would do.

Then it happened, we only heard a small rupturing sound, immediately Ignar shouted through the coms making my ears hurt.

"I GOT HIM. I repeat, he's down, go now, gogogogogo! I'll keep you covered as good as I can!"

A smile appears on my lips as my entire body and artificial muscles tensed up.

Another voice started speaking over the com. This time it was Songe.

"3, 2 , 1 NOW!"

For a second my vision was blinded by an enormous flash that followed his shout. The wall in front of us instantly caught on fire but Songe did not care and simply pushed on through it with the power of his limbs alone. Quietly followed by Liam aiming his rifle and Rose with a handgun in hand. I hear shouting and then it was our turn to follow.

I copy Liams movements exactly and step through the burning wood. Smoke hinders my vision as I slowly move forward. Then Karen quickly steps next to me and we both scan the room we had infiltrated. Inside I can make out multiple people lying on the ground, a mark in my visor tells me that they are deceased. Next to the most frequent one I see Songe, his arm burning white with heat while he holds the body of another person by its head.

Rose starts whispering through the com.

"Four down Cap. No high levels, just the small fry. Going ahead, we made some sound, they know we're here."

The living room had been completely destroyed but it didn't seem like the espers had put up much of a fight.

Suddenly a shout came from outside the room and one of the wooden doors flew out of its hinges, hitting Liam square in the breast and knocking him a few feet back. Splinters flew everywhere as the remainder of the door hit the wall.

"Welcome little robbers, you have no clue who you'r-"

The figure stopped talking as he looked over the destruction we had caused. His entire body seemed to be covered in mud and rubble, not showing us any facial expression. Then he tilted his head.

"You're not robbers... You're mo-"

He could not finish his sentence as a multitude of bullets started hitting his armored face making him retreat a few steps.

"YOU FUCK !"

A scream cut through the sizzling fire and before any of us could react something sped past us with incredible speed. It was Rose, her entire body clothed in the light of overcharging her gear. Ramming her opponent head on the both of them fly into the room had come from. Stone shards and dust flew everywhere but Karen reacted fast and shouted through the com.

"Everyone! Push on!"

Songe nods once and instead of running towards the open door he simply charges at the wall easily breaking it apart. Then Liam walks through the doorway while me and Karen aim through the newly created hole.

Inside multiple figures await us. They were obviously higher level since they were not fazed at what had happened, though seemed unconscious on the floor. Two of them were engaged in hand to hand combat with Rose who still seemed to be fired up with hatred.

An elder seeming woman quickly dodged under one of Rose's strikes that simply lodged itself into the wall behind her. Another man with dark red hair and bloodshot eyes made an attempt to grab her arm but he got stopped by Songe who burned his arm with a sickening sound.

Then I noticed the others. I don't know what I had expected but seven people playing cards was not on that list.

Instantly I took aim on one of the players, a young man with black hair but before I could pull the trigger I heard the sound of something flying past me and half of my gun fell to the ground.

Fine... I have more than a rifle to defend myself.

The same seemed to have happened to Liam and Karen who both throw the wrecks of their guns towards the table.

"Go."

It was not spoken loudly, it was a simple order and me and Liam gladly followed it. In union the three of us charge forward. A weird greenish ball flies towards Liam as we run forward but he simply knocks it aside with a combat knife he had pulled out from somewhere.

Karen on the other hand had taken out her pistol and shot at the cards and glasses remaining on the table. As shards flew everywhere the espers where distracted for a second. But this was all we needed, I was already in front of the first one of them and lodged my fist deep inside of the stomach of a man in his late 30ties who had green veins covering his body.

It did not help him though. His eyeballs turned white as the pain in his organs mate him puke up whatever he had eaten. Dodging this filth I grab him by his shoulder and throw him to my left using the momentum to jump at the next target.

Behind me I can barely make out Karen who simply pops a bullet into the guys head without hesitation.

I reach the second person on the table while the others had jumped away. This time I faced a young man, a teenager to be honest who simply smiled at me dubiously and threw something towards my face.

Having anticipated something like this I duck down and hear something scraping the top of my helmet. Then I am in front of him... or at least where he had been, using his attack as an distraction he had flown up to the ceiling avoiding my attack altogether.

A smile twist my features as I extend my hand towards him and motion him with my finger to come down. At the same time use my power to create a small portion of dark matter just below him.

His own smile freezes instantly as he falls to the ground, breaking one arm with a crunch.

"You must be ."

I don't know why I had said anything while I placed my black foot on top of his head slowly increasing the pressure.

I had forgotten how sadistic I could be but before I could entirely crush his head something big flies at me at a high speed and I barely manage to block.

I crash against and through the wall behind me and land in the bathroom... together with Songe who had been thrown at me.

"Who the fuck do you think you are PUNK!"

Behind him the man with the red hair shoves one of the remaining espers to the side to step towards his victim.

"You're way too early to challenge me!"

Then before he can utter anything else a black leg appears behind his head. He did not avoid it though and simply took it head on. Looking down on Rose he hesitated once.

"So even was no match for you. Well, the stronger the better I SAY!"

With that another duel had been started and I can make out the battered corpse of the old woman Rose had fought before.

"You ok Songe?"

I shake him once and lean him against the wall. He quickly answers me.

"I'm alright, we need to take care of the others, Rose will handle that monster."

I nod and both of us step back onto the battlefield.

I had not noticed but in the short amount of time that had passed everyone in the house seemed to have entered the room, though many of them already lay on the ground unconscious or dead.

Most of their powers seemed to work no different to guns, as such they could not use them carefree, since they might hit their comrade.

Good for us I though while knocking a young woman out that lashed out at me with a whip seemingly made out of light.

Even though we were outnumbered 3 to 1 the tides quickly turned to us and the fighting died out. In the end the only ones still standing where the red haired man fighting Rose, who had regained consciousness and a young woman armed with a metal baseball bat defending herself with incredible speed.

I shook my head as I pushed the corpse of an older man away from me whose head had been burned by Songe's arms and walk towards who was fighting Liam alone.

Then I hear Rose shouting once more, this time she seemed to have calmed down and the red light of the overcharge had disappeared.

"Were is ?!?!?! Where's the one that killed our comrades!!!"

Then something unexpected happens. Rose who had the upper hand in her fight until now hesitated for one second and was instantly knocked back by her enemy.

But it was not only her...

Liam had frozen in front of , and then I started to feel it too and looked towards a small staircase leading upwards to the second floor.

Then I see them. Two people.

One of them a young teenager with curly brown hair and dark eyes that seemed to pierce through the entire destroyed house. Wearing a suit he seemed out of place in this destroyed building.

The other a tall woman with long dyed brown hair and blue eyes. She had the air of a secretary.

Then he spoke.

"Well then ladies and gentlemen."

Extending his arms he makes a motion with his arms seemingly enclosing the entirety of A3 and his remaining subordinates.

"I welcome you all to my little establishment. How about it? Shall we play a G A M E ?"

Stressing the last word his face distorts into an ugly smile.

Five people thought the exact same thing that moment and I did not need to be a psychic to find out what.

Shit.