The sun shone brightly on a beloved local southern Carolina mall previously elsewhere. Beige marble flooring with chandeliers. Lengthy escalators and elevators are filled with diverse civilians. Out of almost a hundred guests, three teens enjoy the final week of their summer after their junior year. A young woman with pink highlights in her dreads locked eyes with one of her closest friends. "Summarize it for me, Dare?" She inquired from one of her friends. Derek glances at his hands briefly before fixing his gaze toward her once more. "Raw lemon chiffon essence swirling in my hands changed my attitude in the moment. I felt egotistical but egotistical like I've earned it— before I felt the urge to entertain. Urged to entertain everyone that I got a brief glance at while the brightness from the energy in my hands dramatically grew dimmer by the second. Everything went black and I couldn't move any part of my body before I blacked out. That kind of explains it, Noa." He enlightened the eldest of the Hayes family. Alec buried his chin into his arm while laying on the table of mall's cafeteria. "When you grabbed the apprentice headmaster's inhuman blow before going out like a light, Dare, somebody in the audience held a face like he never lacked full faith in you." He enlightened the young man in a slate gray hoodie.
Derek glanced up towards the left of himself. "I've been thinking about the possibility that my uncle and grand-uncle planned that scuffle for us." He replied to the young man in a slate blue jacket. Alec nodded his head slowly with half of a smile on him. "Luigi and his meat, err— students managed to convince me that we weren't welcomed but it might've been both plotted and his shot to empty some genuine envy on you." He replied with an uncertain tone. Derek shook his head and performed an 'x' shape with his hands. "Whatever's the case— that guy was monstrously talented, the academy itself was boring and I'm glad that it's on another continent and I won't have to see it ever again!" He shouted with frustration clear in his voice.
Noa's eyebrows flew up towards the ceiling in a flash when she heard him. "Pap let me know about that academy and it is deeply connected with the founder and families themselves, each of us. Every young man that wants to advance the ranks is forced to enlist his service for at least nine months before they can rank up to a patriarch." She enlightened the pair of slate gray and blue clothed brothers of hers. Derek briefly lowly sighed in reply before slightly grinning. "Well, besides that— benefits include meeting the mysterious spectator in the crowd, learning more from Luigi and our dads attended so maybe we'd hear more about their experience and time when they were attending from the headmaster?" He thought aloud with a slight enthusiastic tone while the other two seated at his table fixing their gaze upon him. Alec moved his eyes back on his brother. "Hopefully, it's the most fun you've ever experienced but it won't be for me because I'm actually not ranking up and definitely not attending that academy ever again." He added with sincerity heard from the two seated next to him. "Ahhhh—!!?" The Trio dining at their mall's cafeteria heard from numerous others after most of the lights abruptly broke, leaving the mall mostly dark and dim where they were relaxing. Derek, Alec and Noa exited their seats and surveyed the dim surrounding them but citizens full of confusion, fear and panic were all that they picked up. Alec snagged a flashlight from his pocket which lit up half of the cafeteria that he pointed it towards. Noa's gaping mouth as she stepped away but nudged into her flashlight enjoying brother. Alec and Derek followed where she had her gaze fixed on the second floor to a mysterious shrouded individual leaning on the railing of the second cafeteria floor.
The mysterious shrouded individual ambled closer towards the Wiley, Williams and Hayes trio. Derek readied himself and his guard as they approached and grew taller with every step. Alec grabbed the shoulders of his siblings and he found himself in the center between them. "What could he want guys— what on earth could this meathead want with us—?!" He questioned with a whisper before noticing he had nothing covering his arms. Noa lit up the emptied cafeteria with her magenta and cyan energy which she formed her costume acting as protection from as he inched closer and closer, taking his sweet time. Derek followed her plan with his own energy. Noa threw her hand in front of him. "You don't have the reserves after taking on the apprentice headmaster of Onoria, right?" She questioned after stepping in front of him.
Derek's brow furrowed and he stepped forward. "True but let you take this shredded, shrouded fella with apparent beef with us on by yourself, crazy?" He responded with an incredulous tone. Noa glanced toward him. "Give him everything you've got and I'll make sure that he can't touch you." She replied as she held her hands in a sphere. The shrouded individual that approached from the dim second floor and Derek found each other twenty feet apart. The shrouded man stretched his shoulders and grunted while taunting the youthful Wiley.
Derek closed the twenty foot gap between them with no effort and tossed a left hook at him. Alec spectated with a similar shocked expression to his sisterly friend earlier. "I've never seen Derek miss anything this much before?!" He thought to himself as he backed away from the fighters inch by inch. Noa felt her heart racing. "Retaliation. What attack is this guy going to retaliate against? Retaliate already" She repeated while refusing to drop her focus.
Derek gave the shrouded stranger his swiftest hooks, most efficient attempts to deliver an uppercut and kept his guard up during jabs. "I'm not going to be able to do this alone." He shouted while continuing to miss. The shrouded stranger facing off against the trio glared towards Nia while she grinned at him. He briefly eyed the mall's ground before hopping over Alec's leg sweep. Alec recovered in an urgent manner and readied his guard expecting a counterattack only to not receive any.
Noa saw an opportunity while his gaze was fixed on her brothers, instantaneously moving in front of the stranger, with a round house and came the closest any of the trio could to touching the stranger. Derek, Alec and Noa began to swing their limbs at the same time. Noa and Alec attacked him with a hook from behind and a sweep from below yet he spun himself in the center before delivering two kicks in retaliation as he was in the center of their blows. Derek watched as Noa and Alec were knocked unconscious.
He froze as the shrouded stranger approached him once more. The bulky stranger kept his slate grey and slate blue colored eyes fixed on him before grabbing his smart phone. "I've avoided the girl's wrath. Hack abilities from spacial manipulating one trick ponies irritate my soul. Packages are secured and I'm on my way to delivering them to the world under Goregrew City." He spoke over to whoever was on the other line. The inhuman voice that Derek heard from the stranger forced a terrified expression on his face and a gasp that matched.
The Xeteroh squadron abruptly felt intense pressure, including Adder, forcing Anthony to cower on the floor. The inhuman screaming happened once again. Soldiers began noticing and believing that it sounded like numerous inhuman creatures were closing in on their location prompting the team to ready their focus and position their firearms to fire. A soldier with a pompadour began quivering. "Sir— what's happening to us down here?!" He questioned with a fearful tone. Acting commander Adder briefly rested his hands on his hips. "Airborne virus Fearlinger which means that we're closing in on a spectre experiment and one is down here with us." He enlightened his team. The pompadour soldier had shivers and his breath grew even heavier. "It must be under us— thank the Eirala deity!" He cheered after he cleared his throat and attempted to recover his ability to focus on his objective. Acting commander Adder tossed two fingers down the corridor. "We've been fighting the worst of humanity for so long that my crew's forgotten the worst of scientific curiosity and freedom." He thought to himself while the eighteen others and himself continued down the wide and long marble hall. Benson captured a glance of his acting squad commander through the others. "He's asking himself if we'll make it past tonight because our seniors are rusty, Leoh." He whispered behind him. Leoh shrugged before continuing to follow Benson and the rest of their team. Screeching was heard sounding from behind them.
Adder and the seventeen others turned around to face them, which is right behind him, each member besides Anthony Lenin swiftly turned around facing the same direction as their acting commander, training their assault rifles towards the disembodied noises. Adder, Leoh, Benson, Annette and the remaining members of their team were backing away slowly, away from the noise, when suddenly, Anthony, who's still cowering on the floor considering pulling out his hair is physically bullied when a bloodied civilian with no melanin shattered a steel door on his left goes for his arm with the strength to rip through his body armor and tossed him against the wall.
Benson had been the first that blasted the civilian in his head with his silenced secondary firearm, until the closest members near the three joined the red hair recruit's lead and opened fire following him, dispatching lead into the savage civilian and after the soldier's magazines were emptied, its movements ceased.
However, by the time that he broke his hesitant demeanor in his best effort for Anthony, the inhuman creature had already shredded through Anthony's body armor and bitten his arm up and down like it was corn. Benson's eyes filled with a tear while gazing away from the wound and missing arm. "Jee— I'm sorry Anthony, if only I was faster, damn it!" Said with a lower volume in his voice. Anthony fixes his closing eyes towards Benson. "Continue doing your best down here for me." He replied before his final breath.
Thirty more similarly decayed civilians limped and sprinted out of the doorway that the infected original civilian had shattered through, fearsome roars sounded from their frontline as they charged. Benson and the backline of the execution crew crouch sprinted under the fire during their reload. Adder and the frontline began spraying lead onto the pale horde with very few falling or slowing. Benson glanced back towards Anthony as the horde ignored Anthony. Realizing they were wasting ammo encouraged Adder to order a retreat further down the corridor. The acting commander with a few other men in the frontline were abruptly gripped by a humongous, boney and slightly decayed hand passing by a mysterious steel door of the hall. All of the soldiers who hadn't passed by followed into the room with the final member slamming it shut. Benson, Leoh, Annette and the sixteen others were lost as they witnessed the elongated arm of a gargantuan decayed individual move their acting commander and three others it held closer towards its mouth. Acting commander Adder breathed in and out before one of the sixteen members that retreated into the room chucked a hand grenade with all of his might. The hand grenade blew up on contact with the gargantuan decayed creature's arm that it held the commander and his underlings with unexpected power. The gargantuan decayed creature swiped the crew after they recovered back to their feet. "Stupid biih!" They heard from it before it began screeching. Adder and his three other men who were grabbed dodged it in their own individual fashion.