●　● North Marikina District, Manila, The Philippines

Sam had herself backed up against the side of an old apartment building, facing a string of empty lots that led up to a tall combination building that separated her from the two attackers. She had been waiting there for nearly a minute, but she wasn’t waiting on their attack to make a move.

“Sebastian, hang in there! I don’t know where these pilots came from but they’re…-!” Kerry’s flustered voice crackled through the radio interference. Sam knew how far she had to have gotten based on the limited reach of their LOS communication amplifiers that Tyrus’ Underground lent them. Sam looked back at her map once more, and then up again to see nothing but the empty streets and dust settling.

And in that time frame, Sebastian never responded, and it seemed to confirm the plan she had going through her head. With a series of blasts, several pairs of rockets flew around the building, turned upward and into the air, then proceeded to detonate in sequence. And during those two seconds, it was all the cover she needed to ditch her armor segments and turn westward, jumping off full speed. “Sebastian! Kerry! I’m headed your way!”

“HQ!” Someone from Devin’s team’s voice rang out with heightened panic. “Yanga can’t save him! Whoever that Nguyen guy is to you, you’d better hurry your asses up! You’re losing him!”

At the top of her jump’s peak, and as the buildings flew by below her at blinding pace, the thought of losing Sebastian and Kerry if she didn’t hurry up was already a heavy enough presence, but after hearing that, the guilt of her cause of Andre’s situation now changed for the worse. If only she could push the Axiom to move faster, and if only even a small fragment of her adrenaline-fueled grip could be transferred to her boost reserves, maybe there’d be a way to put a stop to those fears from coming to fruition.

A quick look behind her showed two distant LTACs unable to keep up, but their goal was still certain.

Andre’s crash site was a mere three jumps away, Sebastian’s being one more, and Kerry’s an additional two. I already fucked things up with Andre. No way I do it again. Andre first, since Sebastian and Kerry are at least holding up. But then she remembered Sebastian yelling out in panic just moments earlier. Or maybe not. Shit, please tell me everything’s straight with-

A loud chime rang out from one of the alarms, and it wasn’t from targeting or any other threat warning. It was the vitals update alert, and her heart suddenly sank into her stomach.

“HQ… never mind. He’s gone,” Devin lamented through his exhaustion and frustration.

.

No, not yet! Wait!

.

“Nguyen’s gone.”

.

Her landing was uncharacteristically rough, nearly plowing through a line of unaware motorists in front. Barely managing to take back off on her next jump, her crumbled focus continued its struggle to stay on task.

I didn’t even get to apologize- no! He’s not done yet! The medics…!

“The Andre I knew isn’t giving up yet! Help’s still on the way!” Kerry fought through her fears and her struggles to offer back to Devin’s concession, all the while with rifle fire echoing in the backdrop. “Damn it!” she added immediately after a loud cracking sound. “Sebastian, hold on!”

“I want to be a Harbinger. One like you.”

Danielle lowered her gaze in disappointment. “Are you ready to lose everything?”

Her body started to tremble upon recalling that exchange, and she could feel the screams building up from underneath. She saw her next landing coming up near a mostly empty lane, but through her visuals she couldn’t wash away the images of Sebastian and Kerry suffering a similar fate. She hadn’t heard Sebastian’s voice since his last plea for help, and she heard the unsettling noises over Kerry’s line. And with no update from Andre, the nightmare situation sank in more and more each second.

And worse yet, even with no choice but to leave Andre to the incoming backup medevac team, Sam now had to pick which of the remaining two to save. Throughout that and the next jump, she continued to battle between which route to choose, as the next landing would be the point of no return, having only west or north to go from there. No one spoke other than the field operators during that time, and it felt like an eternity before one of the squad lines opened up:

“Medevac is here! Switching Nguyen off to the medics!” Devin hollered out, not realizing how much this was going to save Sam’s day. “Moving out to your location, Kerry!”

I’m so sorry! Pull through somehow, Andre!

The Axiom touched down with a heavy thud, dug its right foot firmly into the pavement as it curved left and took a turn hard westward, and recharged for one last jump. I got you, Sebastian. No way in hell I let you down this time.

.

.

●　● Infinity Marikina HQ, Manila, The Philippines

Al, arms crossed and chin buried in his neck, paced around his work station, earpiece busy with several channels’ worth of exchanges. His brow was heavy, lips drawn back tight, seemingly with a world of words held back with all his might. Something had happened in his exchange with Vincent earlier, but no one around dared ask even after all this time had passed.

Tricky approached him, snapping him back to reality. “No changes. Should I redirect Sam back south toward the two chasing her?”

“No,” he spoke after a moment’s hesitation. “I can’t say anything to distract her. Her focus is the only thing keeping her alive.” He didn’t notice the incessant tapping of his fingers on both of his arms, showing he was still debating something in his mind. “Besides, it seems like she’s on sudden bad terms with her teammates. Best she just go in and get the best job she can get done.”

“Then, what about the real Cloak? It’s not even stealth-equipped this time, so maybe it’s an all-out attempt, and maybe it’s his last go in his mind for all we know,” she spoke in a more hushed tone as she adjusted her position to where she could look him straight in the face. “You asked a favor, and my people are trying hard to provide as we speak, but you still have a conflict of interest here if you don’t let us pull one of the orders’ plugs.”

If that’s really him, Sam can’t handle him even if she was in top condition, he thought before trying to answer that stinging question, but after he saw the live feed from Sebastian’s encounter moments ago, seeing that oversized sword and how it was wielded, it was already confirmed in his mind. It was now only a matter of how he’d handle the dilemma.

“It’s not my fault you and Mom created a selfish, lazy, aimless wreck,” a younger Isaiah chided over a voice call while Al stood leaned over his desk at his family’s law firm. “And again, it’s not that I’d have her tag along with me. I’d just give her some opportunities to branch out as you did for me.”

“Listen,” Al replied before drawing in a long, difficult breath. “For the hundredth time, she’s not built like us… like you. She can’t handle it, so it’s best you give up on that and leave her out of everything we discussed.”

“Fine, so be it,” Isaiah conceded, following it with a brief pause. “Just don’t be surprised if she gets sucked into the next big conflict given her age and her accolades.”

“You’ve been so confident about your little affiliation’s chances at pushing the renewed alliances agenda, so why would you be worried? Your whole mantra has been about joining a cause that would prevent war, so-”

“-Failure is always a possibility. There will always be the chance I just fade out of existence completely. Not just from Akkadia, but all in all.”

“Stay safe, Isaiah,” Al curtly replied, unwilling to continue down the direction the conversation was being carried. “And be back within a year if things don’t go smoothly like you said.”

The memory of the last time he ever heard from his son several years back faded as he battled with the unexpected. How did he end up fighting for extremists?! How did he stray so incredibly far from our original talks? This shouldn’t have even been a remote possibility! Who convinced him of taking up such twisted ideals?!

He then began visualizing the mental agony Sam might be going through in her head as she leapt towards what looked to him as a deadly confrontation. After Isaiah failed to show up years after his promise, he was intent on not losing Sam, but now it would appear he’d have to lose one, and it drove him near insanity on the spot. Sitting down with hands pulling over his face, those thoughts continued rendering him incapable of making a decision after all.

“Mr. Knight, time’s almost up,” Tricky chimed back in with a tap of her watch.

“I know,”Al muttered woefully through his hands before letting out a long sigh.

And then a separate female’s voice came from behind the two of them: “I remember the day we all charged the Hargrove lines together,” Kaylen spoke with a flat, emotionless tone as she looked over at the sortie monitors. She now stood between Al and Tricky, catching both their surprise and their confusion. She looked back at Al and shrugged her shoulders lightly. “I remember you tried to do too much, then, and I get the feeling you’d be up to something. I don’t know what it is, but don’t you dare interfere. Don’t repeat that day.” And with a patronizing pat on his shoulder she looked back up at the monitors as if to confirm something, then quietly vanished with her security detail.

But almost as if Kaylen had left Al a personally written, confidence-inspiring note, Al sprung to his feet in sudden realization. “Keep that original order in your back pocket,” he spoke aside to Tricky before stepping around to a separate monitor looking over the LTAC location markers on the map. He then cleared his throat to shout out a command to the room: “Changing main directive for Operation Excalibur!”

The barked order brought swift silence around him.

“Bring in the Cloak… codename Reaper… in for interrogation!” he continued with reawakened conviction. “I repeat, change directive from elimination to apprehension!”