Afterlife- The Rescue

Chapter 01

“And that's all for today's lesson. The homework for this week are chapters 8 & 9. If there are no questions from anyone, you all can leave the class.” The teacher said as he wrote the homework on the whiteboard. “ Mr Goh, I’ve got a question.” Luce said, raising his hand.

“On page 37, there are sketches and notes done by the metahumans detailing their plan to overthrow humanity during the great war . How would we know these articles are credible and not forged? Perhaps they were just protecting themselves from their attackers.” Luce inquired.

 “Well, Luce, if you had paid attention to the previous lessons, you would have known that Koi Var, the original leader of the five, had burnt all the evidence before he was captured by the authorities in hopes to remove suspicions from the rest of his comrades.” Mr Goh replied. “Now, if there aren’t any questions about the homework, please kindly move your rears out of my class.” Almost as if on cue, the school bell rang and noise and excited chatter filled the hallways as students were preparing to head home for the week.

Luce packed his stuff and headed towards his locker. While he was placing his books into his locker, he was suddenly pulled backwards and his locker door slammed shut.

“Hey egghead, do you seriously think that those superpowered freaks were some heroes or something? HAHAHA! If they’re so heroic let’s see them save you from getting your ass whooped.”

A figure which loomed over him said as he raised his fist up and punched him across his jaw then proceeded to kick him in the chest. Just before the third hit could land, a loud cough was heard from behind them. There stood a blonde girl, dressed in a white shirt with a tie and in dark blue jeans who warned them to stop or else she would have to send them to the principal's office. Fearing getting expelled, the bullies scoffed at Luce and walked away.

“Ello! I’m Sarah the head prefect from your class!” Sarah said with a bright smile on her face. “Are you alright? Here, let me help you up” extending her towards him.

“Yikes! Did you hit the door on your way out of class again?” A boy dressed in a hoodie and bermudas mocked. 

“Hardy har har, got into a fight with Jason and friends.” Luce sulked as Sarah tended to his injuries. 

“Again? That's like the third time this week. But hey, at least you got a beauty tending to your injuries this time. Ever planning on introducing her to me?” the boy said.

“Hiii! I’m Sarah, head prefect of Luce’s class. And you are?” Sarah said cheerfully, extending out her hand once more. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Luce’s childhood and only friend, Eddy.” introduced Eddy. 

“Well, you’re not his only friend anymore! Let’s all be friends. You know what they say, one more friend is one less enemy” Sarah said cleaning up the mess. Without waiting for a reply she left the two to their business. 

“Hey I didn’t get your-” Luce was interrupted by the repetitive beeping of Eddy’s watch. Without saying a word, they looked at each other and nodded and quickly walked out of school.

“Are you sure the girl is here? We have been searching for a couple of hours now, still no sign of the girl.” Jay asked.

“Well, according to the information given by Oracle, she was last spotted here. Oracle said to look for a light-brown building after the speedrail station at the end of town.” Kayden said without looking back at Jay.

“That’s all? No specific locations or details? Almost every building in this town matches that description.” Jay said puzzledly. “By the way, what happened between the both of you? I haven’t seen you guys talk to each since the-”

“Shut it, we’re on a mission. Idle chatter will have to wait.” Kayden interrupted. As the duo continued walking around the neighbourhood, nothing looked out of the ordinary. Filled with nearly identical buildings, Kayden and Jay spent hours walking through the concrete jungle trying to search for the exact location of the lost one. 

The lost ones are a term used to describe metahumans which had been left behind when the Metahuman colonies were formed after the events of the Great War. Over the years, multiple ‘rescue’ missions have been conducted in an attempt to rescue these metahumans from being hunted down by the government. Kayden and Jay were on one of those missions in Arce city where Oracle had spotted a metahuman through her Mental Projection.

After hours of searching, the duo came across a girl which matched the description provided by Oracle. Before Kayden and Jay could chase after her, they heard a loud scream followed by loud footsteps which indicated that the army had been deployed. Knowing what it meant, Jay stood still, contemplating on whether he should stick to their assigned mission or attempt to save the metahuman in trouble.

“Come on focus. We need to stick to the mission.” Kayden said, seeing Jay’s dilemma.

“We can’t just leave the metahuman to fend for himself.” 

“Look, we don’t even know if they are metahuman for sure or not. Our mission is to get the girl and disappear, nothing more, nothing less.” Kayden responded as he constantly looked back to ensure that they did not lose track of the girl.

“You’re not fooling me Kayden. You and I both know whose footsteps those belong to. The only time they are deployed is to handle metahumans.”

“Well then you should also know that they are programmed to function like a swarm, once given a target they won’t stop until the target is exterminated. Judging from the footsteps, they outnumber us 10:1. We’ll need a miracle to stop them.” Kayden said impatiently as his eyes darted around the entrance of the building. Nothing.

Agitated at the fact that they had lost sight of the girl, he commented that it was dangerous to risk their lives and place everyone back at the sanctuary at risk just to save one person.

“Arghh...where did she put it?” the girl grumbled as she rummaged through the closet which belonged to her late parents. The girl grew more impatient as she rummaged through the closet as though she was rushing for time. After searching for a couple of minutes, she found what she was looking for: A rusted silver box with a logo of an eagle engraved on it. Opening the box, she took out a small black box which contained a pair of wireless earbuds and placed it in her ears. 

“How does this junk work?” she muttered to herself as she played around with it. As she double tapped the headphones, an armour with the words ‘STCA-MK II’ engraved onto the shoulder pads started forming around her. As the amour formed she heard a loud knock on the door and without waiting for the suit to finish forming, she jumped through the window, landing feet first onto the ground.

Sensing something was off, Kayden and Jay hid behind the elevator. 

“We’re too late, looks like they found her before we did.” Kayden whispered

“So we’re going to leave her alone too. I presume” 

“No. From the looks of it, they’re not bayonets'. Just regular armed guards. Two armed guns with standard taser batons. As long as we catch them by surprise, we should be able to handle them. This should buy the girl enough time to run away.” Kayden said glancing upwards from the corner behind the elevator. As the elevator door opened, the duo grabbed the guards by the neck with their arms and pressed their collarbones, knocking them out. Without wasting time, they ran after the girl

Several blocks away from the action, a loud boom was heard which caused the nearby civilians to panic. Without saying a word, the girl released another blast of sound which did not faze the bayonets' at all. Instead, they picked up their pace and walked straight towards the girl and a child which she was trying to protect. “I’m... I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.” Tears rolling down the girl’s cheeks as she closed her eyes, hugging the child.

“3..2...1…” the girl closed her eyes and counted under her breath. Unexpectedly, nothing had happened, she slowly opened her eyes to see Jay in front of her deflecting the incoming bullets. Meanwhile Kayden, Luce and Eddy held off the bayonetts. 

“Surprise hun, your miracle is here. Now, if you’ll be a sweetheart, could you do a pal a favor and throw something towards me? Deflecting bullets with just air is terribly inefficient.” Waving his arms to track the path of the projectile, Jay sent the rod flying through the air and smashing the bayonetts in its path.

“Pleased to meet your acquaintance, the name’s Slingshot. And yours?” Jay politely introduced himself to the still shaking girl.

“Hailey. The little girl over here is Kai and we’re-” 

“Focus, mannerisms can wait till later, we don’t have much time till their backup arrives.” Kayden said, interrupting Hailey as he sliced apart the last bayonett. Immediately as the last words left his mouth, they were ambushed by multiple new soldiers which had caught them by surprise. 

“Under normal circumstances, I would’ve killed you freaks of nature right here and now but due to some nonsensical law called the ‘Gene Replacement Act’ you freaks get to live. Sounds like a ticking time bomb if you ask me.” A man wearing a full black uniform filled with numerous bages and a silver chest piece growled.

 

“Oh? Trying to squirm? Escaping is futile you know, these soldiers have been physically enhanced and trained to handle metahumans in the event the Bayonetts are unable to perform their duties.”

“Le… Leave us… Alone... ” Kai muttered.

“What’s that little girl? Didn’t your parents teach you to speak up when you talk?” the man said mockingly.

“Oh my bad, they got killed by a bayonett few years back.” The man smirked as he approached the kid.

Agitated by the remark, Kai yelled to leave them alone and levitated the surrounding vehicles. Seeing it as a threat, the soldiers around Kai and tasered her, which caused her to lose control of the vehicles, which sent it crashing into the nearby power plant. Seconds before the plant exploded, Kayden, Jay, Luce, Eddy and Hailey’s suits started glowing, indicating that Eddy was about to teleport them away. 

“Targets rematerializing in 3...2...1” A woman said as she stared at a computer screen.

The team re-materialised on the ground panting, heart pounding quicker than a race car.

Lying on the ground, Hailey breathed a sigh of relief and said: 

“We’re finally safe now Kai! We can finally lead the safe and free life mum and dad always told us about.” 

Silence filled the room as Hailey waited for a reply, a minute passed. Two minutes passed. Three minutes passed. Those around her started growing concerned and stared at one another, debating on who should break the news to her.

“Kai?” 

Hailey said worryingly as there was no reply. Looking around, she started getting nervous and walked out of the room calling for her sister and telling her that this wasn't the time for games.

After a few minutes passed, she walked back into the room that they were in and sat down in a corner and started sobbing. “I’m sorry, we couldn’t save your sister.” Luce consoled Hailey while offering her tissues. 

“How... How could... You… Leave her to die?” Hailey choked on her words as she tried to speak through gritted teeth and her tears. 

“Don’t you think we tried? Given our limitations, this is the best we could do. If we didn’t bother, you’d be dead too. Wake up and smell the roses kid, life isn’t what it used to be. We’re fighting a war of survival, and it doesn’t matter how hard you try. You can’t save everyone.” Kayden said nonchalantly. 

“That’s rich coming from someone who has so much blood on his hands.” A low pitched voice said from behind them.