The engine hummed as the car drove through the street.
Makoto glanced at the white haired boy who is sitting on the passenger seat beside him.
Karen was calm.
Too calm
Disturbingly calm.
"Karen....."
"Just drive." Karen said calmly.
"Those people...."
"Like you said. People die all the time in this city."
Even Samara is no different.
The two were silent.
The surrounding start shifting.
Lesser advertising drones, more graffiti. Lesser cars, more silent. Lesser civilians, more shady individuals on the streets.
Neo Manila. A part of Undercity that many would rather not enter for the reason that this is the hub for many criminals and mercs.
For these outlaws, this kind of place is akin to a haven. A place where the laws won't even care to bother with you, such place became a place for them for their illegal transactions.
Even on the streets, at least 8 out of ten are somehow related to the underworld. Either a merc or a villain, doesn't matter. In the eyes of the laws they are scourge that doesn't deserve freedom. But here, even the law is afraid to touch them.
A necessary evil that this city needed.
Makoto become even more nervous as they approached the place that they've been told where the syndicate main base is located.
Then, they saw it.
At the very end of the alleyway, a group of men with weapons standing.
A barricade of men that stopped the car on it's tracks.
The two kids walked out of the car and approached the group.
"I suppose even the idiots we've sent to pick you up still ended up getting battered by you guys." The leader of the group sneered.
Makoto didn't bother responding.
He instead turns to the white haired boy and asked, "Look, we already got our ears swollen from Wak's nagging a week ago. Can we wait another week before destroying the syndicate?"
"Too long. I would already been forced to return vwck to Samara at that point."
"Come on, just one week."
"Sorry but almost half of the middle east except for Philistine want me dead.".
"What the hell did you do to have half of a subcontinent wanting you dead?!" Makoto shouted.
"The Muslims forgot to practice the last message of their prophet."
"The two of you...."
"Are you the leader?" Karen suddenly asked, shutting the man off.
"What?,"
Karen nodded, "Good."
And without much explanation Karen lifted the car behind him and threw it towards the group.
A huge boom resounded throughout the Neo Manila the very next moment.
Meanwhile, in a five stars hotel located in Undercity a man can't help but asked, "What the hell was that noise?"
"I don't know, probably some villain causing trouble again." A woman in red dress said as she smoke her cigarette.
"A bunch of useless fool!" The man who seems to be the leader sneered as he throws the wine glass to the floor.
The wine glass shattered to million pieces.
"What's the matter with you?" The woman in red questions the man.
"Three branches gone! In one single night and many of our people have been captured by the police!" the man angrily overthrow the table beside him.
"So those useless goons of ours failed to get the kids who disrupted our job?" The woman in red dress can't help but be amused.
"Those batteries were the newest products of the Hummingbird Corporation. If we can get our hands on those products and get our people to reverse engineered them, we can make millions!"
"And yet those two kids had stolen all of them!"
Just thinking of this was enough to make the man pissed beyond redemption.
If Karen were to find out that the explosion were caused by the syndicate being petty that he had stolen those batteries, god knows what kinds of violence will he inflicted on these two.
Of course to these two, what they've done was not considered petty. In Undercity, gangs and crime syndicate practically ruled over every districts. When some kid messed with their mission, that means they are not competent enough to accomplish their job.
And an incompetent group mean bad image. Bad image mean high potential for betrayal and backstab from other allies.
"I suppose the media is on our side. Just an hour after the explosion, they were already painting the kid in a bad image." The woman in red chuckled.
Mist and Rose. The two leaders of the Red Smoke Crime Syndicate. A villain group that involved in smuggling illegal goods and selling cheap but 'good quality ' prosthetics to the people of Undercity.
Not exactly a powerful gang in Undercity. But they still has quite the influence, even connections with a big boss from the Uppercity.
As the two are discussing, another explosion resounded.
Mist was startled.
He look off into the distance where a smoke can be seen rising in the distance.
The sounds of footsteps can be heard. The door bursts open and one of their men, disheveled , panicking and scared entered.
"Master Mist! Lady Rose! Those two kids are here!"
Hearing this, the two villains of Undercity furrowed their eyebrows.
As of right now, the base of Red Smoke is being invaded by two mercs.
Gunshots rang out while aspects are being activated across the district.
To the horror of the villains, the two kids far surpassed any of their attacks.
Inside a building owned by the Red Smoke.
Karen's skin has become harder than metal, easily deflecting any bullets coming to contact his him. Red strings shot out of his knuckles, weaving around his body to cut down every single bullets coming in his way.
The red strings cut through a rifle like melted butter before wrapping around the man's arm. With a pull of his arm, the man was yanked towards him. Karen punched the man right on the face.
The man stumbled back down, dropping to the ground unconscious.
Makoto was as swift as a blowing wind.
He nimbly dodge every incoming bullets, even using the pair of daggers in his hands to cut some bullets in two.
With every enemies coming his way, his dagger would slash down with precision. A slash that end they lives in an instant.
"Avoid the killing. Their blood will stain your clothes." Karen said sternly as he smashed the head of a villain against the pavement.
"These guys are trying to kill us. I'm just returning the favor." Makoto said with a grin.
Two daggers gleam under the moonlight, slashing down against two of the villains shooting at them.
A villain jumped high into the air.The moment his body descends towards the two, he pulls out a dagger ready to strike them.
An arm suddenly stretched out.
Karen grabbed the man by the collar before throwing him out through the window.
"I don't think a man can survive falling from that height." Makoto can't help but cringed.
"He'll live." Karen said only to hear the sound of car crashing the very next moment.
"I think a car just ran him over." Makoto whistled, seeing the chaos that is happening downstairs.
Indeed, downstairs the entire district has already fall into chaos.
Members of the Red Smoke are running around, trying to search for the two intruders who had attacked their base.
In the chaos that is happening, the civilians who are present are being attacked, dragged through the street.
"Where are those kids?!"
"Someone search them! One of them was reported to be able to shape shift!"
"Karen, what are we going to-" Makoto wasn't able to finish his words when Karen has already thrown an unconscious villain down through the window.
The second villain and then the third was defenestrated.
Makoto is watching in horror as one by one of the villains was thrown out.
"I have a mom! Please!!" A villain protested and much to his horror he was still thrown out.
The two turns their head to an injured villain on the ground.
Without much thought the man said his prayer before jumping out through a hole in the wall.
"They are up there!" Upon witnessing their comrades falling to their injuries, members of the Red Smoke gang had realised the location of the two boys.
"Over there!" Footsteps can be heard approaching.
A group of villains burst through the door at the end of the hallway. Leading them is a muscular man with hulking figure.
There was no need to be afraid.
As they approached the two, Makoto had already blasted a powerful air force from his palm.
A powerful concentrated air blast his the towering man the front. In an instant the man felt like a literal tsunami is hitting him. No matter how strong his strength enhancing aspect is, before such powerful air blast he was thrown aback.
His body collided with the men behind him. All those people approaching fell after one another like dominoes.
Another footsteps can be heard.
Frrom the end of the hallway a group of men are running at them, weapons and aspect.
One of the men was pointing a minigun gun at them. with a click the barrel rolls releasing torrance of bullets.
Xl-98, a mini designed for the purpose of piercing through walls.
Karen dash forward blocking every incoming bullets, skin hardening to the extreme. His arms reached forward grabbing the front of the barrel before melting to cover all the bullets from pouring out.
The minigun instantly heated up, before exploding. It's shrapnels flews everywhere, injuring the other men.
The two fought from one floors to the other. With every floors, more of gang appears to block them. This forced the two to fight the villains until none of them remain conscious.
Across the hallways, despite the inclose room their mastery mastery over their martial are on full display.
Karen grabbed a flaming punch aiming for his head before swiftly smashing the man against the window.
Turning around, Karen grabbed the now unconscious man and threw him at the two villains running at him. The two villains was thrown back in an attempt to catch their friend.
When the two look up , they were met with Karen's fist passing through the body of their unconscious friend only to be to materialise back and hitting their face. Both were knocked unconscious.
Soon after, the two arrived at the top floor.
However when they opened the room at the end of the hallway, a blazing fire immediately engulfed the entire building.