Present Day, Aremia

The base was in a panic except for a singular group of men and women. Each one had defining characteristics, and there were a total of nine people in the group. The ‘killer’ Zero was among them, and he had a look of utter calmness about him. His team captain was leading them through the halls to the garage where they would take two assault vehicles.

The Alespids had attacked a country side settlement, and the team was going to end the attack. The team itself consisted of five men and four women.

The captain, Carter was a tan skinned man with brown hair and green eyes. The co-captain, Saben, was a black man with black hair and brown eyes. The demolition expert, Cassen, was a white woman that was muscled had blonde hair and blue eyes. The assault expert, Maroe, was a white woman that had dyed neon green hair and dark blue eyes. Two twin snipers, Alex and Garen, shared brown eyes while Alex had dyed Brown hair while Garen had blonde hair. Sarah, a regular fighter that assisted Carter and Saben, was a white girl that had dyed neon blue hair; she stuck around Cassen a lot. Rena, the infiltration expert, had black hair and dark green eyes. Then there was Zero, the magical tank in a way, his hair was black with several streaks of gray running through it at random spots, and the most notable thing, his somewhat glowing perfectly gray eyes.

They all wore matching armor in different variants and parts that made it look as though each had their own type. The most notable people were the twins who wore only knee and elbow pads that were plated with metal like everybody else’s. A close second was Cassen who only wore the armor plated leggings and knee pads as well as a pair of combat boots. Third most unique was Zero, as he was the only one to wear all the armor, which consisted of afore mentioned items, a plain cuirass, in replacement of the normal upper arm guards he had magic nullifying bands, and over the runes on his forearms were a pair of matching guards that were meant to deflect small knives.

Each person had their own unique color and a couple of them had emblems placed on the right or left chest of the cuirass. The emblems were of animals that were given to them by their teammates, an animal that described them. Carter had a hawk on the left side, Maroe had a weasel on the right, the twins both had doves placed on their lefts, and Zero had a wolf on the left. Carter was blue, Cassen was red, Saben had green, Maroe had yellow, the twins had brown, Sarah had purple, Rena had white, and Zero had Black.

All these things marked them as what they were, natural super-soldiers, and they all had the abilities to match. Over one-hundred missions passed through them and each one was completed with unmatched efficiency. Not the best, but they always get the job done, something Zero made sure happened even at his own risk. That’s why he got the wolf emblem; he was loyal enough to die for his team.

That’s what led up to where they were now, in two assault vehicles moving in on a location that was under heavy attack. The team’s job was to divert the Alespid’s attention from the people that were retreating and then exit so artillery strikes could finish the Alespid forces. So in other words, it was an in and out sort of thing that required the swiftness of the team. It would be a hard mission because in order to do it, they had to hold down a single position for a time, then move and repeat the process I order to not get cornered I one place.

Zero’s abilities would play a key factor because as soon as the Alespids began converging on them, he had to keep a mind’s eye on the retreating forces so he could tell the team when they were out of the area, or if the Alespids were still going after them. In addition, if it was necessary, he would erect a barrier around the team if somebody were to get injured severely or if they just needed a breather before returning to the fray.

The rest of the team had the responsibility to help him survive for those express purposes. Not that he needed it really, but they were taking precautions. Those cautions were spurred by the smoke they saw rising not so far away from them. They had been driving for nearly an hour to get to the location, but it was a rather horrid sight as they approached. Even this far away from the town, people had set up small camps to tend to the wounded that were able to get out after the initial attack.

Most of the team was putting up idle chatter while Zero was removing a couple of the runes to allot him enough power to do his job. Now don’t get anything wrong, he was a very powerful mage, but he was very unfamiliar with the magic that was required to keep an eye on all the forces in the area. The extra magic was needed in order to keep focus on his surrounding area where he actually was, plus he had to compensate for his complete lack of skill with that spell.

Finally after a while Carter spoke to Zero, “Hey you ready for this, we’re counting on you big time and if you’re not ready just let us know and we can wait for a bit.” As he said that he turned in his seat to face the back area of the vehicle where Zero sat.

Zero gave the short reply of, “I’m always ready when it comes down to something like this Carter. You know even if I wasn’t ready I would still haul myself as hard as I could to do the task I’m needed for.” That made Cassen laugh as she was sitting across from Zero. Both men looked at her with puzzled looks.

“Zero, you realize that if you aren’t ready for half the crap we do, there is the big possibility that you’ll die,” Cassen said with a smirk. Zero returned that smirk and chuckled to himself.

“You realize that even if I die ill become a bomb right, making every last thing within a twenty mile radius get blasted with different affects. Most of them lethal by the way,” Cassen just shook her head at the mage as he said that. She knew perfectly well what would happen as he had already made several magic bombs go off in near death experiences.

Carter smiled as the two went back and forth, some of the topics being rather immature as Cassen poked fun at Zero for being a virgin. Only to have Zero come back and ask if she’d like to be the first, that got the boisterous woman to blush in an unusual fashion because she never actually blushes at anything really. She didn’t have a crush on Zero, but it obviously made her shy when her ‘brother’ as she called him said things like that.

The brother title was given to him shortly after he joined the team which was when he was eighteen years old, and at that point in time, he already had a reputation for not taking shit from the Alespids in any way, shape, or form. Which was rather horrible because that reputation began when he was thirteen years old when he dropped an Alespid dead with a combat knife and a steel pair of brass knuckles, which was actually one of the topics that Cassen brought up, and all Zero could actually do was laugh.

“The day it happened was not a very pleasant one to say the least, but I’ll tell you how it went down,” Zero said after his fit of laughter died.

                                                                         Eleven Years Ago, POV: Rayan

It was raining like a bitch outside of the barracks, making it nearly impossible to get any sleep that night. Not that the fat kid beneath me was going to let me with all that damn snoring that he was letting out. It was near fucking impossible to hear anything but one or the other, so I just hopped off the top bunk I had gotten myself and treaded over to the door. It was fairly easy to sneak out the door without anyone noticing me because all the noise.

In the hall that I had entered were several more doors that led off to different sections of the building such as the mess hall, officer’s room, and the armory. But all I was after was the door at the end of the hall that led outside, and that was only because I liked the rain; and I bitched out enough people for making the pun that was inevitable. That didn’t deter me any from going out the door and into the rain.

I had the two things I always slept with on me, a combat knife and a pair of steel brass knuckles. Those had a very bad story, and I hate thinking about it, but I can’t help but to think, what would have happened had I gotten to her faster? Would she be safe and not resent me, or would we remain strangers to one another? I banished those thoughts though, I was in the rain and that was enough reason to not dwell on such thoughts. This was my happy place so why taint it with bad memories?

After those morbid thoughts hit me, I started walking away from the building I had just left. I began to think about my role in the war now; the offer that was given to me was to find me a squad that was family like, and in turn, I would serve as long as that squad existed. That was enough to lift my spirits since they said that they were narrowing the search down, but they still had to go over hundreds of teams that would suit me. Not to say that I wasn’t wanted in them, it was just that most teams already had a practiced magic user, and I was still technically developing since my magical levels were growing more and more.

What was more is that they said my magic growing as it is hasn’t been recorded since magic was discovered back on earth. That was in the year 2178, and now it was 3497, a full one thousand years for magic to settle within human beings, and it was still growing in me. Not that I’m complaining, but it didn’t seem like a good thing that it was growing as it was. They say that a human’s magic grows as they use it, and while I haven’t used it much, my level is at par with kids with their magic and were training it actively.

The notion that my power was so much at that moment filled me with glee and dread for two different reasons. Glee because that means I will be really strong when I finally get to training, and dread because I heard that if somebody is too strong, they have to wear nullifiers to help control the magic output. I doubted that i'd get strong enough to have to wear those though, as when humans train their magic, its power only rises slightly. Control was more of a key factor in how much somebody could do.

I had at that point reached about the center of the town that the barracks resided in, it was actually calm for the time it was, and because of that, I relished the feeling of peace. The thought that a peace such as this could exist was beautiful. But all good things must end, and it ended with a very sad sight. An old man was sitting within a bus stop, sheltering from the rain as best he could. From the cloths on his back, he was homeless.

I frowned deeply at the sight, but what could I really do to help him. He was sleeping so he didn’t see me, but that didn’t change what I saw on that bench. I shook my head and walked on to get away from the depressing sight before me. I just kept walking, thinking of how I could have made a difference if I had been near the old man when he was first set into the streets. What could I have done to help him just now?

The thoughts were not very pleasant but they were a reality. And ever since my damn magic took hold in me and began to develop, I was forced to think of such things. From being a retarded husk to an over thinking freak, not what id call pleasant, I bitterly thought. I had become a freak from a cripple what was there that could really be done to avoid that ridicule. Not a whole lot that’s what.

Lights were glowing from the houses not far away; it wasn’t that late so it wasn’t surprising to see the lights. Still didn’t feel pleasant to be near though because it transformed freak, into freak with no family. I sighed in defeat; my thoughts were getting progressively more negative. So I just closed my eyes and calmed myself fairly well.

Until a scream tore through the storm, but I didn’t know where from, it sounded as though it came from a kid my age. Another scream sounded and a few doors opened after with people looking out to find the noise.

The next scream though made me tear off straight ahead, I found the direction with a focus I never had before that point. It took me only seconds to locate the direction more precisely as another scream came out, now discernibly female. My anger rose, and I barely took note of the glowing red lines tracing up my fingers.

It took a full minute of running and following the screams, and I noted that the girl was running because the direction kept shifting. By now though I had become fully aware of the red patterns, as they began to move around and form intricate patterns on my hand, they gave off a feeling of hellish hatred when I looked at them, but I don’t really understand the meaning behind said feeling.

Now though as I came around the last corner, did I see what had enraged me beyond belief. An Alespid had cornered a girl who was by now soaking wet and shivering from the cold and fear. I jammed my hands in my pockets and brought them out with the steel knuckles on. The knife was the next thing to be grabbed with my right hand.

With those I just lost my sense of calm and yelled in rage. I charged and as soon as the Alespid had turned, a solid left hook rocked his humanoid jaw. The second hit I threw was a punch from my right hand, which held the knife, the Alespid tried to dodge and I turned the strike into a slash. I still partially missed him though, leaving only a small cut on its left arm.

It retaliated before I could recover and hit me with an uppercut that caused my head to jolt backwards. The punch hit me straight in the stomach, and the next in the chest. I stumbled back putting room between us, and when I checked the girl was gone, hiding somewhere no doubt.

I was brought back to the fight by the sound of a blade being drawn. The Alespid had drawn a sword that most Alespid officers carried, and now knowing what skill level the Alespid was, I got cautious. He held the long sword with practiced ease in a two handed grip. We circled each other, waiting for each other to strike, but it seamed I had more patience.

He charged me, coming with a slash from the right; I jumped backwards as it flew by my torso. I gave a quick punch to the side of his head and backed away again. He stumbled a step back and I took the time he was recovering with to analyze the fight.

He had about fifty to eighty pounds on me, all muscle. We were even height at six foot four. He had a higher skill level, a better discipline with a blade than me, and a longer blade. Thicker skin and a higher functioning brain than mine, however we were both enraged, and so bath of us would be clumsy. Maybe if I can calm myself down, I can think better and beat him, I thought.

My time for thinking was up however as he charged again, this time thrusting the blade forward at me. I pulled my self to the side while using my knife to deflect the blow slightly. It seemed to work as hi footing gave slightly and missed a step forward. The result was him falling forward, but he caught himself with a hand, putting him in a knelling position right in front of me.

I exploited it by kicking him hard in the face, and as expected, he fell to the side. He dropped the blade as well, and so I took the fight to the ground. I straddled his stomach dropped my knife into its sheath, and hammered on the Alespid’s face. I could feel as his cheek bones gave under the assault, and only then did I realize that my hands were still glowing red.

He recovered slightly and punched me in the face, and I could feel the cartilage in my nose break, but that didn’t stop my assault on his head. In fact it spurred me on, hitting harder and harder. My mind fell into a blur as we kept hitting each other, him clinging to life, and me to consciousness, as the pain got worse every time his hand hit my face.

Finally though after what seemed like forever, I heard a nasty crunch as his skull gave way. I didn’t stop though, I kept hitting over and over until his body stopped twitching, and his skull was busted completely open. The sight of his battered brain matter made me want to wretch, but I held it back.

That’s when I heard the sirens of the approaching police, I couldn’t move though, my head hurt too much to form the will to move. So I just sat there, looking down on the body, blood running down my face all the while. When a hand touched my shoulder I jolted back into full awareness, and looked at the concerned face of the officer behind me, my officer standing next to him.

They slowly helped me up, and I saw the girl sitting in the back seat of the car, tears covering her face. That for some reason stung worse than the wounds covering my face. It always hurt me to see others sad or in pain, but I couldn’t focus on her, I needed to give a report to my officer, not that he really needed one because he could see the outcome already.

He gave a sad and proud smile to me, showing that he wasn’t mad that I had snuck out, but happy that I survived the encounter.