(Octavian 29, 59 / 7:22AM)

  (Sean) Are you still holding a grudge after a whole year?

  Sean continued to raise both of his hands high, as a trickle of sweat formed alongside his pale cheeks. Tracing along his glowing porcein skin, the single droplet of water finally fell onto the wooden floor that evaporated from the 0% humidity.

  Luke curled his lips into a rge frown while having his hair block his right eye. Unable to lose concentration on the elf in front of him, even the footsteps from behind him weren’t enough to break him out of it.

  (Hope) Luke!

  Giving Luke a small tug toward her, she had both of her hands gripping onto his forearm, having her fingernails dig deep into his skin. Her eyes started to form tears, her body soon began to shake under the immense pressure that both men were in.

  (Hope) Just leave Sean be, I got over it.

  (Sean) See Luke, be like Hope. At least she moves on, you know, move forward.

  (Luke) Some things I can forgive … but what you did …

  (Sean) Look, it was an accident. I know I messed up, but that’s what humans do you know.

  Luke gripped the colr of Sean’s bck leather jacket, gripping it tightly as the height difference between the two of them was immense. With Sean being four inches taller than Luke, Luke had the advantage of having a hellish gre that surprisingly suited his face.

  Even though he was well known for having a soft and caring smile.

  Inhaling and exhaling in rge quantities, Luke’s lungs started to expand outward as he forced unneeded air into his body.

  (Luke) What humans do?

  (Sean) Yeah. Everyone makes mistakes. Besides, some people have done a lot worse.

  Seeing that Luke remained silent, Sean lowered his hands down to his sides.

  Luke looked down onto the wooden floor, his face darkening evermore with his eyes radiating the vibrant color of red. Hunching his back, he couldn’t dare to look at the gingered-haired elf that was in front of him, turning his head to the left.

  Sean moved his body forward, hovering over him with a wry smile.

  (Sean) Don’t mean to change the tone, but how’s everyone doing? Is Jack good? Stan and his friends? What about Gwen?

  Luke let go of Sean’s colr.

  Like a pendulum of anger that soon released from his body, Luke slowly lifted his head upward with a nervous face. His legs, stomach, chest, knees, elbows, arms, feet, and hands; all were utterly loose like owl feathers in the early fall.

  Hope and Miles looked away toward random parts of the wooden floor that were beneath them, not wanting to look into Sean’s eyes.

  As for Luna, she stared right into his eyes, not letting him escape from her grasp.

  (Luna) Gwen died during the attack on Lagefor.

  (Sean) W-What…?

  His entire tone changed in a snap.

  Repcing his cocky yet nervous tone with that of full-on confusion and despair, Sean let his hands drop down to his sides. Unable to bring his arms upward to his stomach, chest, or even face, Sean’s eyes started to twitch under the heaviness of the news.

  Turning his attention back to Luke, Sean curled up his hands into fists.

  (Sean) Is this true…?

  (Luke) Yeah. She died by someone more powerful and smarter than her. And she made me the commander of the team as her st wish.

  (Sean) Oh.

  Sean gnced all around the diner, his eyes peering into the empty tables and corners of the building that they y in. Analyzing specifically the corners, Sean continued to stare into the pitch-bck void, his eyes fully immersed in the depth of the comfort of the shadows.

  Luke furrowed his brow, gncing at the corner that caught Sean’s eye. Even though both men were looking at the same pitch-bck corner, something was amiss in between those dark corners…

  (Luke) Sorry, you didn’t hear this sooner.

  (Sean) Sooner?

  (Luke) Well, how would the news reach?

  (Sean) But why her…?

  Sean continued to bnkly stare at the dark corner, as a bck figure leaned its body onto the stone wall.

  Like in suspended animation, the silhouette folded its arms as it stared bnkly at the ground, not paying attention to anything around it. Keeping his eyes on the figure, Sean snted his eyes while talking to Luke without maintaining eye contact.

  But at an angle, Luke couldn’t see what the shadows y, as his hair somewhat blocked his sight.

  (Luke) Well .. it's complicated.

  (Sean) How would that be complicated?

  (Luke) Look. I know I shouldn’t say this, but what’s done is done. We were the ones that were with her, you weren’t.

  (Sean) What?

  Sean instantly grabbed a hold of Luke’s colr.

  Even though Sean didn’t hold any anger or rage inside of his throat, the only thing that he let out was a small chuckle. Pushing his eyes upward, he lit up a small smile despite his knuckles starting to ache from the force he inflicted upon Luke’s jacket.

  Hope and Luna, as well as Miles, pced themselves right behind Luke.

  (Sean) Let me get this straight. Gwen kicked me out, you guys don’t want anything to do with me, and now you’re compining that I didn’t show up to bring her sunflowers?

  (Luke) I don’t mean it like that—

  (Sean) Then what exactly?

  Pulling Luke close, Sean had his face centimeters away from Luke’s, as Sean continued to smile and grin even though his fists said otherwise. His feet began to motion his body in an unstable manner, he glued his heels down while straightening his back.

  All the while Luke made a cold frown, the crevices of his lips reaching down onto his jawline.

  (Sean) No no, tell me. What do you propose that I could’ve done? You already knew that I had no means of contact.

  (Luke) Then—

  (Sean) Go on.

  Pulling away, Luke tightened his stomach. Putting his left hand into his leather jacket, he looked away from the ginger-haired man, his chest feeling as if he breathed in a heavy block of gold.

  Letting his right hand rub his front thigh, he also took two steps back rather than just one. Unable to talk with him any further, Luke also took the extra mile to let out another load of air, his breath reaching Sean’s face.

  (Luke) Nothing…

  (Sean) You have no arguments against me. You practically always vilinized me like I was some sort of deadweight.

  Sean noticed a clear gas of whisky right next to him.

  Extending his right hand, he grasped the gss shot with just his thumb and pointer finger, his eyes purely focused on the brown liquid. Letting the gss caress his lips, the foul contents of the devilish drink scrub away the water and moisture that kept his mouth clean from sin.

  Stinging his throat, Sean instantly put the gss down on the bar table, wobbling backward as he then pointed toward Luke.

  (Sean) Because Gwen died, you’re cking a team member. You were assigned to recon, same as me, but now that you’re commander, who’s going to be recon?

  (Luke) I could do both things at the same time.

  (Sean) You’re not recon material. You wanna know why?

  Sean showcased his right hip that holstered a bck-coated Tommy gun. The grip of the gun shone its waxed state toward the rest of the Dark Angels, Luke raised both of his hands to his shoulders.

  Followed by Miles and Hope raising them along with Luke, their eyes peering onto Sean’s hands. Luna meanwhile, hovered both her hands on her hips, watching Sean carefully like an eagle.

  (Sean) You have a simple blessing of instinct, combined with luck. You may be a good survivalist, but who knows how well in terms of actually succeeding in trying to get info?

  The bck silhouette from the corner that Sean kept his eye on started to walk out from its dark home.

  Slowly, the figure pulled up for the sun’s rays to cast its shadow, causing the four Dark Angles to look at the figure whose hands were in his pockets. Wielding just a bck leather jacket, bck scks, and bck leather boots…

  The figure was Sean.

  (Luke) What are you doing…

  Gncing at the figure that looked exactly like the ginger-haired man in front of them, Sean let out a chuckle as he continued to showcase his Tommy. Noticing that Luna had her fingertips on the edge of the metal batons that she holstered, Sean tilted his head back while looking down at them.

  As the figure with ginger hair and sharp elf ears also let out a smile and grin, exactly the same as the real deal, the figure also showcased its Tommy gun as well.

  (Sean) Let’s py a little game of tag. If I win, you get to let me join back into the Dark Angels.

  (Luke) And if you don’t?

  (Sean) Then I could request another round.

  Luke scrunched up his face, followed by a cold frown curling the ends of his lips down to his jawline. Combined with his hands hardened into fists yet again, his forearms bulged despite the ck of muscle and meat attached to them.

  Luna took out both of her batons with both of her hands, holding them while giving daggers straight at Sean. Pointing her baton at Sean, he nodded once as he pced his left hand onto his gun.

  (Sean) I see that Luna is down to py.

  (Luna) I’ve been urging to punch someone for a while now.

  (Sean) Good luck, because I’m not that easy to catch.

  (Luke) Hold on, I didn’t say that we’re going to—

  Having his right hand in his pocket, Sean took out a metal device, holding it with both of his hands. Throwing the object down to his feet, he jumped back while making headway to the back of the restaurant.

  In no time, Luna lunged forward, her batons not fully unleashed even though she carried them like bdes.

  (Luna) Come back here!

  As soon as Luna was right on top of the bck metal device that Sean threw.

  An explosion of smoke burst free from the walls of the gray steel.

  In just one-fourth of a second, the plume of blinding smoke instantly clouded top of them, surrounding them in every aspect and angle. Covering their eyes from the initial bst, Luke had his sleeve tainted with dust that came off from the top of the ceiling.

  Being covered by dust, the others let out horrid coughs.

  (Luke) Sean!

  (Luna) Shit! Where did he go!?

  (Miles) I always hated that thing!

  (Hope) We got to find him before he makes a huge scene!

  Luckily, Luke was the first to escape from the plume of smoke. Opening up his eyes, his irises soon began to puff up as the strain started to jab him like a sickle. Using his hand like a fan, he continued to cough as he turned his body to see the cloud of smoke that still held the poor coughing souls.

  (Luke) I’m over here!

  In just a few seconds, the three of them got out of the smoke, panting and exasperating heavily since oxygen was deprived of them for a good half a minute. Thumping his chest two times, Miles pced both of his hands on his knees while hunching his body forward. Letting in the excess oxygen to be trapped within his body, Luna and Hope did the same.

  Luna looked up toward a bckened window that couldn’t be reflected even from the morning's rays.

  Hope looked down onto the wooden floor that engraved a footprint.

  (Hope) That’s Sean’s footprint! We got to find him now…!

  (Luke) Don’t worry, we’ll find him.

  (Sean) Hello?

  Sean put both of his hands inside his pockets.

  Right in the dead center of the restaurant, Sean started to ugh uncontrolbly as he pced his right hand on his stomach. Hunching forward in the process, his cackle managed to stir something from within Luna, who began to hover her fingers over the buttons tched on her battens.

  But she pced her thumbs back onto the side of the metal.

  (Luna) There you are!

  By positioning herself, she leaped from the old creaky wooden floor while barreling two metal batons straight toward him. Thrusting back her right arm, she then threw it onward as she closed the distance between herself and Sean.

  All the while Sean continued to stand with his arms folded between one another.

  As she aimed the baton onto the crook of his nose, the metal made contact with his—

  She passed through Sean like thin air.

  Taken aback, she stumbled forward with both of her hands and arms barely holding her up as she fell down. Her two metal batons denting the wood near her, she ignored them as she looked up to see Sean still standing with his arms folded.

  (Sean) What’s the matter?

  (Luna) You fucker…

  Sean began to flicker and glitch, as his body soon dissipated like some sort of hologram.

  Grinding his enamels against one another, Luke let out an angry groan from out his throat, his vocals colliding against one another. Turning his head toward the front end of the restaurant, Luke noticed that the door had a huge dent mark, as the wood was recently damaged.

  Putting his right palm onto his right eye, his hair soon grazed against his knuckles; he couldn't even soothe the normally calm man.

  (Luke) Damn it…

  With no other choice, Luke and the four others had one job.

  A job to track down Sean to the bitter end, even if it means that they’ll gain an audience by doing so.

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  (Octavian 29, 59 / 7:27AM)

  The four of them let their boots blister their heels against the white concrete ground beneath them.

  Swinging their arms back and forth, the four of them noticed a ginger-haired elf that ran through the somewhat busy sidewalk. Near his tail, the four of them pushed their legs to their limits, their stomachs all squeezing and stiffening from the sudden sprinting that they forced on their bodies.

  As they didn’t feel like this for an entire month.

  (Luke’s thoughts) We should’ve done at least some training during the past month. I sort of feel sluggish now…

  Despite the ck of stamina they all now have, the muscles that already were formed and defined still gave them the chance to push forward. Even though the elf was starting to slowly fade away into the distance, Luna however had an advantage like no other.

  Being second in front, Luna closed her eyes as her breathing continued to intensify. Gripping the edges of her batons, she allowed her feet to rex for just a split second.

  Until she vanished.

  Popping up right in back of Sean, he quickly gnced at the blessing that he hadn’t seen for a long time. Letting out a smile, he moved to the right to avoid a hit from her batons.

  The trickles of hair being felt from just the simple swing alone from Luna, his entire body tightened like a calf during leg day. Continuing to let out a sly grin, a bit of sweat rolled down from his cheeks as the sun battered its morning heat.

  (Sean) Woah, that almost got me.

  Making a hard turn right, his chest started to thicken from the pain that so wanted to take a break. But right in back of him, that break would have to wait as he plowed through a wide-open alleyway littered with empty beer bottles and trash.

  As rats and mice scattered into the deepest pits of the shadows, Sean noticed a dead end that took the pce of a rge stone wall.

  Instantly stopping, his face was mere inches away from the wall, along with his palms putting pressure on the littered stone. Having his back literally against the wall, he saw the four Dark Angel members who finally managed to catch up to him.

  (Sean) And now you finally have me.

  Raising her right hand, she still held the metal baton simir to that of a bde. Pinning her eyes onto his stomach, Luna then thrust the baton onto the area of his body where his liver was located.

  But sure enough, her metal baton passed through the seemingly ginger-haired elf like nothing.

  The baton denting the stone wall that was in front of her made a simple click along her fingers feeling the reverberation of the cnk. Tightening her grip on the metal further, the elf in front of her started to glitch and wither like a hologram, the same as before.

  (Luna) That bastard!

  (Luke) Is he going to keep doing this?

  (Sean) I don’t know, am I?

  And right in back of them, Sean tossed up and down a simple green apple with his right hand.

  Seeing the many gres the four of them were making, Sean cocked his head to the left while letting out a small chuckle. Looking directly at Luke, he walked toward the center of the front of the alleyway, the burning rays of the morning already tanning his pale neck.

  (Sean) I mean, I’m tossing this apple up and down, so is this split image of me the real deal or just a hoax? Sometimes, you just got to experiment, you know?

  (Luna) I don’t give a shit!

  Spreading both feet apart, Luna lunged straight toward the teasing Sean who was wide open for her. Pcing her left baton back onto her holster, she then extended that same hand as her fingers started to shake erratically.

  Unlike before, Sean lunged to the left, sprinting in full force while biting down on his green apple. Dodging through the many citizens and pedestrians on the sidewalk, he got stared down heavily as people made way for him, but not because he’s popur, but rather…

  (Random Citizen #1) Damn, elf!

  (Random Citizen #2) Don’t touch me!

  (Random kid) Mommy! Mommy! An elf!

  (Random Citizen #4) Yes dear, just this once, you can look.

  Ignoring their compints and prejudices, Sean looked back to see the four of them hot on his trail yet again, with Luna already trickling down with sweat. Clenching her jaw shut, she quickly vanished yet again as she popped out right in back of him.

  Extending her left hand, she finally grabbed hold of the back end of Sean’s jacket.

  Like stopping at the edge of a cliff, the motion of which Sean ran was put to pause in the snap of a finger. In one particur frame, his legs and feet moved forward while his upper body allowed them to swing up like a cartoon.

  A bead of sweat rolled down his temple, he tried to look back, using his peripheral vision as some bits of his ginger hair were in the way.

  (Sean) You finally got me huh, bummer.

  (Luna) Oh, you’re not getting away easy…

  (Sean) You won right? And you know the rules. I get to py a second round right?

  Using her left hand that gripped his colr, she motioned it to put the elf down by smming him onto the ground. His face and upper body being the first body parts to sm onto the concrete in full force, many of the pedestrians and citizens watched stoutly with wide eyes.

  Noticing the tanned woman put down was none other than an elf, the citizens walked away rapidly, not wanting to be a part of their business.

  Luke and the others arrived next to her, he pced his hand on her shoulder, his boots barely touching Sean’s legs.

  (Luke) Hey, not too hard.

  (Luna) Oh, please. You were urging to punch him in the face. Don’t make me the bad guy.

  (Luke) But…

  Sean gnced up at Luke, his eyes bloodshot red with a small stream of blood flowing out from both corners of his eyes. Tightening his eyes on the young man, Sean grit the ends of his teeth despite Luke and Luna not having the angle to see them.

  Luke looked down at the elf that grumbled underneath Luna’s left hand, his eyes pushed down as his hands began to shake.

  (Sean) You…

  (Luke) I’m sorry Sean but you’re drawing too much noise.

  (Sean) Damn you…

  Luke knelt on the same level as Luna, his knee grinding against the pavement that began to blister his skin. Tapping Luna’s shoulder with his fingers, Luna slowly withdrew her left hand that held Sean in pce.

  For the elf that grumbled, he remained motionless on the ground, feeling the bits of dust and pebbles that he was all too familiar with. His chin showing a bit of bone, he put it right onto the pavement, keeping his head up as he spread both of his arms and legs wide.

  (Sean) Why do you guys hate me so much… I never did anything to you guys…

  (Luke) You’re too unstable. Out of everyone, you cause the most issues, like a walking disaster.

  (Sean) That’s … cough cough … your reason?

  (Luke) Look, you don’t think about your actions. Consequences are pretty much the st thing you expect.

  Luke pced his other knee down on the ground, as well as having both of his palms hovering over the dusted sidewalk. Keeping in mind the ck of pedestrians and civilians that left because of the racket they did, the ambiance of people walking with boots and heels was dramatically dimmed to a freezing point.

  The elf pinned his eyes onto an alley to the left of him, keeping his eyes remaining on it which caused Luke to pce both of his hands onto Sean’s cheeks. Turning his head, Sean now saw himself in Luke’s red left eye.

  (Luke) And don’t try to summon your clone too.

  (Sean) Just tell me…

  Sean had his palms ft on the ground, pushing himself up with his elbows wobbling back and forth. Continuing to cough, a bit of dried-up blood smeared against his top and bottom lip as he looked up at the man two years younger than him.

  Instead of tears, Sean scrunched up his eyes, letting the dust and dirt get inside as it slowly began to sting like miniature bees.

  (Sean) Why can’t you just let me be me?

  Luke let go of Sean’s cheeks, having them formed into fists while pcing them on the ground.

  Pushing up his face, Luke let out a soft exhale of air from out of his lungs. Like a defted balloon, he tilted his head down as the side bang that covered the right side of his face blocked Sean from seeing it.

  Using both of his heels, he pushed himself up from the pavement, not even bothering to cp his hands to get rid of the dirt and rubble from his palms. Still maintaining his hardened knuckles, miniature scrapes were present along the border between his front and bottom hand.

  (Luke) You’re not bad Sean, but that recklessness of yours will end up killing us.

  (???) Oi! What’s going on!?

  Running down the street was a man the same age as Jack.

  The man had a cowlick on the right side edge of his dark brown hair, with a scar tched on top of his left eyebrow. Wearing a brown outdoor jacket, a few bits of loose string and fabric were seen from the ends of his sleeves. He wore typical khaki pants, along with bck leather boots that were really simir to that of what the Dark Angels wore. His skin being a shade darker than Luna’s, the man also had light brown eyes.

  Raising his right hand and arm, he waved at the four of them that surrounded Sean.

  (???) What are you doing to Sean?!

  (Luna) It’s none of your business.

  (Luke) Luna, let me handle this.

  Luke raised both of his hands toward his shoulders, causing the man wearing the brown outdoor jacket to also raise both of his hands in return. Stopping right in front of the group, the tanned man looked to see Sean staring blindly at the alleyway, his eyes pushed down with a hint of sadness in them.

  (Luke) Do you know Sean?

  (???) He works for us. He gets into fights, but he’s useful in a good way. But why body sm him into the concrete?

  The man let his left hand be pced into his brown outdoor jacket, while his right hand was id motionless to his side. In return, Luke slowly lowered his hands, but having them point onto the sidewalk.

  Luke darkened his eyes, extending his left hand so that his fingertips tched onto Luna’s right shoulder. Squeezing it tightly, Luke used whatever strength he had to give Luna a push forward, which sent her to almost trip as she gnced back with a devilish gre.

  Yet despite her teeth cmping down at the sudden nudge, her gre toward the tanned man softened, her frown still prevalent on her nonchant face.

  (Luna) He pissed me off. I don’t like it when people piss me off.

  (???) That’s why you body-smmed him?

  (Luna) Do you have a problem with it?

  (???) … I’m not looking for any trouble.

  Pcing his right hand into his pocket, the man lowered his head despite his back being straightened out.

  Luna took a few steps forward to confront the man, as his height was simir to that of Luke’s. Being a few inches taller than her, he was also a lot thicker than Luke, but not so much as Miles or Benn.

  Despite her mean gre, his feet weren’t letting him back down, as he didn’t draw away from her stance.

  (???) But nor am I going to walk with my eyes blinded. Expin now.

  Inside his pocket, the man curled up his hands into tightened fists, hiding them away to appear less threatening to Luna.

  Luke and the others surround Luna from the back, with him being the one to tug back Luna’s right shoulder.

  (Luke) Luna listens to him. I could expin to him what happened. He doesn’t want trouble.

  (Luna) So what? Sean has been nothing but a pain in the ass—

  (Luke) But we caused him too. Come on Luna, just this once, forget Sean’s punishment.

  Taking a gnce throughout the street and block, there were no signs of pedestrians or civilians at all since they all scurried off. Being some of the only people on the street, it was enough for Luke to gaze across every corner and alleyway that he could see.

  As if someone was still watching him.

  Having his hands tugging back at Luna, she slowly let the motion of Luke’s pull be brought to her, allowing her to be drawn back. Still having her eyes gring at the tanned man, the man soon released both of his tightened knuckles from his pockets, yet he kept them in there.

  (???) Now what did he do?

  (Luke) It’s a long story, but before he worked for you, he used to be a part of our group.

  (???) Again, what did he do?

  (Luke) Oh … he challenged us to a game of tag and then threw a smoke bomb underneath our feet. Me and everyone else just wanted to catch him normally and put an end to it, but Luna here…

  (???) sighs … I see.

  The man walked forward, trying not to bump into any of them as he made his way toward the pstered Sean. Kneeling on his left knee, he hovered both of his hands onto Sean’s colr, his fingertips on the verge of making contact with his bck leather jacket until…

  The man looked to his left, noticing an entire group of Sean’s just watching them.

  (???) What are you doing Sean?

  (Sean) Just a little payback…

  Everyone soon noticed the group of Sean’s that walked out of the dark alleyway, all holding gss bottles and wooden bats. Luke, whose soul started to shake from a reverb service bell, instantly jolted up to hover both of his hands on his hips.

  Miles and Hope all did the same, as Luna took it a step further to draw out her own bdes in return. Pitting his upper jaw with his lower, he soon brought Sean’s face close to his, his eyes widened with red strains forming along his sclera.

  (???) Drawback now!

  (???) Need any help, Christian?

  A pair of old teens stopped right in back of the Dark Angels, as the group all pinned their eyes on the two of them.

  One of the teens was a girl the same age as Luke, her skin being much darker compared to Christian, but a shade lighter than Miles. Having a bob hairstyle, the tips of her hair reached down onto her colrbone, and the shade of color was light bck. Being an inch taller than Hope, she was thinner compared to her.

  The other teen was a boy two years younger than her, his skin being the lightest tan completed amongst the three. His hair was messy, along with bits of leaves that strangled his scalp, his shade of hair was the same as Luke’s. Only a couple of inches shorter than him, he also has the same body type as Luke, slim and muscur.

  But the two wore the same outfit as the man with the cowlick, brown outdoor jacket with khaki pants and bck leather boots.

  (Christian) I didn’t tell you guys to be here.

  (???) I told you, Chris. What did I say? I say I say what did I tell you!?

  (Chris) Shut up. You don’t make sense at all Pacifica.

  With a group of Sean’s wielding bats, two old teens wearing the same uniform as Christian, along the street being completely open to who knows what.

  Luke and the others remained silent, as the worst had finally dawned on them.