(Libertatem 1, 59 7:55AM)

  The room was pstered with maps and papers that littered the dark wooden floor.

  Between the room and the hallway, an entire group of soldiers and agents led by a blonde-haired agent were all positioned in a single file line. Inside of the blonde agent’s right pocket, was none other than his right hand, his fingers grasping onto something cold and dark.

  His eyes peered into a figure that sat down on a rotating luxurious chair, with the figure looking out the window as the morning sun shone down on him. Despite no signs of the man in the chair twitching or making a move, it kept every agent and soldier at bay, their fingers grazing the contents of their weapons.

  (Agent Briggs) Who are you?

  (???) If I tell you, it will ruin the surprise.

  (Agent Briggs) How about you stand up and turn around or else I’ll give you a little surprise, right on the back of your skull.

  (???) Hmm?

  In an instant, the figure slowly stood up as he pced both of his hands onto the armrests of the bck chair to help himself up. Noticing that the figure was wearing sandals, the rest of the agents and soldiers took a whiff of the figure wearing a priest-like white robe, followed by the man’s hair color being a light green.

  And by just hearing the man’s shrilling cold voice, Briggs gulped a heap of saliva down his throat, putting every soldier and agent into a silent panic.

  (???) You know I don’t want to kill any of you.

  Everyone quickly pulled their weapons out of their pants or jacket pockets, all pointing the pint of their barrels straight onto the back of the old man’s head.

  Slowly, the old man raised his hands, his knuckles facing the agents and soldiers with his palms hitting the rays of the morning sun.

  Taking a step forward, Briggs pced his left hand right onto his right hand that gripped the handle of his eagle revolver.

  (Agent Briggs) What makes you think you could kill us?

  (???) You guys are weak, and fragile, even a simple gust of wind would push you all down.

  (Agent Briggs) Says the old geyser that doesn’t look like he ever punched someone in his life.

  (???) You’d be surprised…

  The old man pced both of his hands into his sleeves, having one of his hands overpping the other inside of the white robe. Turning his body around, everyone including Briggs got to take a look at the old man’s wrinkled eyes that were protected by his oval-shaped gsses.

  Tilting his head upward, the old man let out a smug smirk, as the corner of his right lip reached the bottom of his right ear. With just that simple smirk alone, Briggs moved his pointer finger from the side of the gun to the trigger, caressing the metal with his sweaty fingertip.

  (???) By just how powerful I can be.

  Two figures came out of the corners of the room.

  A quarter of everyone pointed their guns toward the tall man with blonde hair, while the other quarter pointed them toward a woman with red hair and rectangur gsses. As for half of the soldiers, they remained their barrels drawn to the unholy man that was standing right in front of them.

  (???) What was that again? That I looked like I never punched anyone in my life?

  Briggs remained silent as he gnced at all three dangerous figures that faced him. Not hearing a response, the old man slowly started to walk forward as his average height slightly towered the below-average height of the blonde-haired agent.

  Standing directly in front of him, the barrel of the gun that Briggs pointed was merely pced right along the left side of the old man’s chest.

  (???) It is true that my knuckles and hands looked as if they were covered and marinated in baby oil, but…

  In an instant, the weapon that Briggs pointed was suddenly aimed down onto the ground.

  His elbows and arms were working along with his hands as if something was pushing his weapon down to gravity.

  Grinding the back ends of his mors, Briggs gnced at his two hands that were csping the gun together, his hands that were bound by none other than an extra pair of hands.

  (???) No human has ever dented my knuckles.

  Briggs buckled his knees as he began to hyperventite, his chest heaving up and down as his airflow weakened.

  Letting out a simple chuckle, the old man’s mint breath reached onto Brigg’s dirt-covered face. Tilting his face upward, he began to look down on the scared agent as the old man took a step back.

  (???) It would be stupid to kill all of you, mostly since you guys work directly under the government.

  The two figures stood side by side with the light green-haired old man, their hands curled into fists. Without the need for basic weapons, the two of them soon began to alter or change the atmosphere of the room, causing many of the soldiers to lower their weapons in a heap of surrender.

  Which even caused the cold frowning Briggs to drop his too, along with the two other agents that were beside him.

  (???) Let’s change some events in the story, shall we?

  ______________________________________________________________________________

  (Octavian 25, 59 / 7:32PM)

  A month after the events of Lagefor.

  The city of business and growth still shined and busied even after the hell that it was bestowed upon. Gss shards, little bits of debris, and some buildings still being reconstructed from the base up; the entire city was nonetheless thriving even after the trauma it went through.

  The south and north sides were the only ones in which minimal damage was reported, as ordinary houses and businesses were mostly unhit from the attacks of the crazed liches. As for the west and downtown districts of the city, damage was still visible as cranes and construction workers were a common sight.

  But for the eastern side of the city.

  Some say that it will never be fully up to speed, as many of the buildings slowly started to rot and crumble under the burnt scars and ash caused by the bringer of death.

  As well as a rge ke that was recently formed by a rge crater.

  Now deep in the eastern part of the downtown district which was several blocks away from the industrial district that may never be recovered, was a regur two-story building. A building so basic, yet so structurally stable, that—

  A loud boom was heard.

  Deep inside the building, the walls shook with intensity as bits of dust scraped off against the wooden door frames that accumuted unneeded dust. The walls shook with so much intensity that even a man wearing a brown cowboy hat was startled when eating his nightly ice cream.

  (David) What in the world?

  (Jenny) I wonder who that could be.

  (David) There’s only one—no, two men that could’ve done that.

  Already standing up, David made his way as he wrapped his ice cream cone with his right hand while licking bits of melted vanil from the edges of the cone. Jenny, who was also eating ice cream with just a spoon and cup, walked alongside him as the two of them made their way toward a white door.

  A white door that was already surrounded by a group of men and women.

  (David) Luna, care to tell me what’s he doing in there?

  (Luna) How should I know? Those two messed up my evening nap.

  (Hope) You shouldn’t even be napping in the evening.

  (Luna) Shut it you—

  The white door swung open, allowing a rge cumution of bck smoke to be poured forth into the hallway. Luckily for the group, the hallway they were standing on was part of the outside, with a little roof covering their heads. And with the garden in the back of them, flowers, tulips, and even some roses were growing along the pathways.

  As well as a little batch of sunflowers that surrounded a gray tombstone.

  Out of the door, were none other than two young men who wore white b coats, safety goggles, mask ventitors, and tex gloves. Instead of stumbling out of the door like drunken fools, the two of them elegantly walked out of the smoke-filled room with their hands at their sides, keeping their heads straight toward the garden.

  At the same time, both men took off their masks, while wiping away an abundance of dark smeared smoke from the outside of their goggles. Moving their goggles so that they were pced onto their foreheads, the light brown-haired man slouched forward.

  (Luke) Hehe, sorry about that. I was trying to make Manganese heptoxide into a weapon that I could use.

  Everyone folded their arms as they let out a unified sigh.

  With his right hand, Luke scratched the back of his head while letting out a wry smile, avoiding eye contact with two particur girls who were side by side with each other. Since he had his right eye blocked by his side bang, it made him seem as if he was a nervous little wreck.

  (Hope) Stop doing those experiments, you’ll hurt yourself.

  (Luke) I know, but you know me. I love chemistry.

  (Luna) And your little hobby ruined my evening nap.

  (Luke) Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to you by owing you a stack of donuts.

  (Jack) What about us huh? Me and the boys were doing an arcade tournament.

  Behind Jack were Miles, Stan, Gary, and Diego; all staring into Luke with snted eyes.

  Jack, who walked close to Luna’s left shoulder, pointed his finger toward Luke while taking a step forward with his right foot. Following, many of the men had their hands inside their pockets as they started to parade right behind Jack.

  Luke being Luke, a bead of sweat rolled down his left temple as he pced both of his hands right up to the level of his ears.

  (Luke) Well uh…

  (Jack) I was this close … this close to winning …

  (Luke) Ok…?

  (Jack) 'Ok' what? That’s all you got to say?

  (Luna) Shut up, Jack. Just restart your dumb tournament.

  (Jack) Ass kisser.

  (Luna) Shut up!

  Swiftly, Luna used her right hand to grip Jack’s bck leather jacket, as she dug her fingers right onto his colr. Having a firm grip, she beaded her eyes upward onto the well-groomed man who puckered his mouth to keep himself safe.

  His arms motionless to his sides, he turned his head away from the enraged woman as he looked toward David himself.

  (Luna) Got anything more to say, dumbass?!

  (Jack) … no.

  (Luna) Hmph, that’s what I thought.

  Luna let go as she pced her left hand into her leather jacket, looking down onto the ground while rubbing her teeth with her enamels. Her cheek muscles were shown by just her facial expression, she turned her body around as she didn’t let anyone see her face.

  (Luna’s thoughts) I’m not an ass-kisser!

  She stomped toward the inside of the building, heading toward the door that would lead to the rest of everyone’s rooms and dorms.

  Seeing that Luna wanted to spend some time alone, it just left the rest of everybody to look at Luke once again. Rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand, Luke closed his eyes as he wryly smiled his way out of the stares he received.

  (Luke) So uh … yeah, I promise not to go overboard when doing experiments.

  (David) You better son. Remember the st time you invited Jack to help out with an experiment?

  (Luke) But that was Jack’s fault. He made helium explode.

  (Jack) Hey, helium is a pretty dangerous gas alright!

  (Luke) It’s almost impossible to make helium explode though.

  (Jack) Hey, guess you could say I have bad luck.

  (Miles) Yeah, really shitty luck.

  Luke let out a simple sigh as his fingers started to twitch from the memory of many months ago during that experiment.

  Clearing his throat, he put both of his hands into his leather jacket’s pockets. With just both corners of his lips, he let out a big and grinning smile that barely reached the height of his nose.

  (Luke) Alright, well I should probably take a break for today. Fred’s been working on my rocket boots this past month, and he was working on it while I was messing with the manganese.

  (Stan) Yeah, the man always looks tired when working on it anyway.

  (Gary) Hold on, manganese heptoxide releases just a small combustion when exposed to organic matter, so how come you made an enormous explosion that rocked the building?

  Everyone went silent as they all stared into Luke once again.

  Pcing his right hand underneath his chin, Luke looked down onto the ground as he slightly tapped his right jawline repeatedly with his pointer finger. Puckering up his lips, he then soon began to tap his right heel on the ground while occasionally gncing at the group in front of him.

  While all Fred did was just stare at the garden in front of him.

  (Luke) I uh … decided to try out what happens when I put that mysterious liquid that I and Fred were tapping into when analyzing the boots.

  (Stan) I heard about that. Is the liquid gasoline or any sort of compound simir to it?

  (Luke) No, it’s a different compound, like a different element altogether… anyway, when I put a single drop of it onto the heptoxide, well…

  (Gary) It led right here.

  (Luke) Yeah, pretty much.

  Stan, Gary, and Diego nod together as they then look toward Fred.

  Being right beside him, Luke pced his left hand onto Fred’s right shoulder, his palms feeling the burning smoke that still lingered on his now bck-smeared b coat. Tilting his head to the right, Luke continued to have a grinning wide smile that could rival Hope’s.

  (Luke) Hey Fred, you ok buddy?

  Almost like a cartoon, Fred plunged face-first into the floor.

  Making a loud thump, smoke, and ash scattered across the wooden hallway as Luke and the others took a step back. As silence deafened everyone’s ears, Luke slowly walked forward to where he went down on one knee, while pcing his right hand onto the side of Fred’s right face.

  But as soon as his right hand made contact with Fred’s partially visible face, a loud snore rang across the hallway.

  (Luke) Fred…?

  (Miles) How much you wanna bet that the sleep deprivation knocked him out?

  (Diego) Nah, probably the explosion that Luke did.

  (Stan) I bet both.

  David, who also knelt right along Luke, used both of his hands to pick Fred up from the ground. Having the silver-haired young man continuing to sleep with his miner hat still neatly tucked into his head, David looked toward Luke as he also now stood up from the ground.

  (David) I’m taking him to his dorm, the kid barely gets enough sleep.

  (Luke) I’m the one always telling him to take breaks…

  As David headed toward the door that led to the rest of the dorms, Luke gnced back at the group of males as he then let out a little smirk.

  (Luke) So about that video game tournament.