07:01 – City of Altérion
A live news broadcast was airing on the set of the national channel Altérion 24. A presenter in a tailored suit stood facing the camera. Behind him, a headline in capital letters ran across the bottom of the screen: CHILD KIDNAPPING THWARTED.
The journalist began speaking in a warm, professional tone:
« Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you are having a wonderful evening. In today's news, a major child trafficking operation has just been thwarted at the East Harbor. According to exclusive information transmitted by our embedded journalist with the Armored Units, the transaction failed thanks to the rapid and decisive intervention of law enforcement. The main trafficker managed to flee, but several of his accomplices have been in custody since last night. One of the suspects questioned claimed that the mastermind behind this network is none other than Dexter Mako, one of the last drug and human trafficking barons still active on our continents. »
The presenter paused dramatically, adjusted his cue cards, and then smoothly transitioned with a practiced smile:
« We will return in depth to this burning issue right after our other headlines of this year. Notably, this crucial question that has been puzzling all our specialists lately: What is the true difference between rice, a bald man who laughs, and a bat? The full answer at the end of the broadcast. »
Miles away, slumped on the leather sofa of a large, modern living room, a young man watched the screen with undisguised annoyance. His name was Thorson. He sported a voluminous head of ginger hair, a tan complexion, and a few freckles scattering his face.
« Ah, there it is… It's always exactly the same thing », he growled, sighing in frustration. « We go out to save lives, I get beaten up by a historical monster, I take two bullets to the heel, and despite all that, they can't even bother to mention us in their damn newspaper. »
Suddenly, a young Black woman appeared from the back-kitchen doorway. She was dressed in comfortable sweatpants and a tight black tank top. Her long dark hair framed a face with scarlet-red pupils, and complex cross-like tattoos ran down both her arms. She called out to the redhead in a tone that brooked no argument:
« Yo, Thorson. The boss is calling us downstairs. Everyone needs to assemble. »
« And for what now? », Thorson asked, feigning laziness.
« Well because… if he's calling you, there's a reason », she retorted, turning toward the hallway. « Besides, the guard rotation is already there. Everyone is already downstairs, it's just you and me missing. So move your butt and come on, before everyone starts imagining weird scenarios about what the two of us are doing up here. »
Thorson let out a laugh, painfully stood up, and followed her steps. They crossed the high-tech kitchen. Arriving in front of the back wall, the young woman, Adriana, approached a hanging frying pan and struck it sharply in a very precise rhythm. Immediately after, she delivered a violent heel strike to a specific floor slat.
With a pneumatic hiss, an entire section of the left wall slid cleanly open, revealing the metallic cabin of a secret elevator.
Both stepped inside. Thorson scanned Adriana's silhouette from top to bottom and, flashing a deliberately provocative smile, launched:
« Oh… Still looking as great as ever, I see, Adriana. »
The young woman froze dead in her tracks. She slowly turned around, giving him a dark, frustrated glare, before pointing to the inside of the cabin with a threatening gesture:
« You better step ahead right now if you don't want me to smash your head right here. »
Thorson complied, raising his hands in the air while putting on a mockingly offended face:
« Oh, alright! So now you consider me a creep? Me? Well, you shouldn't have dressed like that either, then! »
Adriana rolled her eyes, the elevator closed with an armored click, and the cabin began its rapid descent into the bowels of the city.
After a few seconds of smooth descent, the doors opened to reveal the lowest underground level. A gigantic, technological, and futuristic room offered itself to their eyes. The matte black walls were crisscrossed with red luminous lines that pulsed softly.
At the back, a titanic screen divided into three sections projected tactical maps and data streams. Just below it sat an immense control board, and in the center of the room throned a massive meeting table, stamped in its middle with the official logo of the DH ARMY.
Almost the entire team was already present, comfortably settled around the table in civilian clothes. As soon as Thorson and Adriana approached, Infinity exclaimed loudly:
« Well, it's about time! We were waiting for you, guys. What the hell were you doing up there? »
« I was just going to look for this old man », Adriana retorted, pointing a finger at Thorson. « He was planted in front of the news like a retired old businessman. »
The two took their seats among the pack. Thorson leaned his elbows on the table and clapped both hands onto the dark wood surface, breaking the chatter:
« Alright, boss. What do you have to tell us? »
At the very end of the table, sitting in the central seat, was Ivan, known on the field as Dark Wolf. The young Black man sported long African braids that stopped at his shoulders. His pupils glowed with an intense blood-red, and a large cross-shaped scar ran across his left cheek.
Dressed in a black t-shirt featuring a stylized wolf, he spoke in a calm voice that naturally commanded respect:
« First, to begin with, we say hello, Thor. And I welcome you all. If I gathered you here this morning, it is to debrief on last night's events at the East Harbor. I think you all understood that this operation was a large-scale trap. Khalid already suspected it on his end, but Techno Rider definitely confirmed our suspicions thanks to his research on the field. »
At the other end of the table, one of the team members frowned with a suspicious look. It was a young white man with short-cut hair:
« Wait, I have a question. Who gave the rookie permission to go on a solo investigation? And above all, how did he manage to find all this out? »
« I was the one who ordered him to dig deeper », Ivan answered calmly, locking eyes with the questioner. He continued: « Out there, he crossed paths with someone unexpected. But I would like him to explain it to you in his own words… Horace? »
At the end of the table, all eyes instantly converged toward the corner where the new recruit was sitting.
Horace, alias Techno Rider, was a young Black man dressed in a simple blue tracksuit. He wore long twisted locks, possessed red pupils as well, and sported random tattoo patterns on his arms, the distinctive mark of all the members present. He stared at the DHA table with an almost childlike admiration, murmuring to himself:
« I don't believe it… I am actually sitting at the DH ARMY table as an official member. This is literally the best day of my life. »
Snapping abruptly out of his daydream, he realized that the entire pack was staring at him in silence. A wave of intense embarrassment washed over him, his cheeks warming up:
« Ah… Uh… Are you talking to me, boss? »
« Yes, Horace », Ivan smiled slightly. « Please, tell everyone who you met last night. »
« Right, let me explain », Horace began, straightening up in his chair to adopt a more serious tone. « I was in the East sector to meet Douglas, our usual informant. He had scheduled to meet me in the basement of the railway station. But as I was heading down the stairs, someone intercepted me stealthily. It was a woman. She was completely bundled up in heavy clothes, impossible to see her facial features. She pulled me aside and formally warned me that Douglas was a traitor on the enemy's payroll. She's the one who dumped everything that was brewing behind the scenes and the exact final goal of their plan. »
Khalid, alias Big Zero, the young white man with short, curly hair who wore prescription glasses, sat up in his seat, casting a triumphant look around him:
« What did I tell you? I told you there was a massive conspiracy going on! But of course, nobody listens to me. As soon as Khalid speaks, nobody cares under the pretext that he's paranoid… Right, Ivan? »
Ivan cast a sorry but honest gaze toward his ice specialist:
« Forgive me for not believing you from the start, Zero. I promise you I will take your warnings much more seriously next time. »
« Alright, so what do we do now? », Thorson asked, slumping all the way back into his chair, discouraged. « Since our only informant has crossed over to the dark side, we're going to have to grind like absolute maniacs to dig up the slightest bit of exploitable info. »
Ivan remained silent for a moment, intertwining his fingers, plunging into deep thought. Then, a smirk appeared on his lips:
« There is only one thing left for us to do to regain the advantage. »
He turned his gaze toward a young white man who had been keeping his head lowered quietly against the table since the beginning of the meeting:
« Meta… You are officially back on active duty. »
The young man slowly raised his head, his eyes shining with a gleam of gratitude, and answered with a timid smile:
« Thank you, boss. »
A BIT LATER: THE TRAINING ROOM
The DH ARMY training room was a gigantic space with immaculate white walls. At the back of the room, a multitude of reinforced targets and tactical mannequins were lined up for exercises.
That morning, three people occupied the space.
In a corner, Horace was practicing handling conventional firearms, unleashing a regular, noisy racket of precision shots.
Right next to him stood Lame. The warrior possessed long, smooth, silky hair that fell elegantly to completely mask his left eye. He stood perfectly straight, arms crossed over his chest, with an Olympian calm.
On a low table placed near him, a dozen tactical throwing knives were lined up. Lame calmly placed his gaze on one of them. Under the effect of his psychic will, the knife rose slowly into the air, hovering at shoulder height.
With a simple flick of his pupil toward a target located at the other end of the room, the blade shot out like an arrow, slicing through the air before embedding itself with bullet-like precision right in the bullseye. Without even deigning to look at the subsequent projectiles, he repeated the operation mentally. The knives took flight and zoomed one by one, crashing into the center of the targets without a single one missing its trajectory.
A few meters away from them, Khalid was training as well. He instantly generated sharp ice crystals between his fingers and threw them forcefully toward his own targets. With each impact, a thick layer of frost spread, partially covering the wood and metal structures.
Lame, while continuing his telekinetic throws, decided to engage in conversation with the new recruit:
« Tell me, Horace… Your codename on the field is Techno Rider, right? »
« Yes, that's correct, Mr. Lame », Horace answered politely, ejecting his empty magazine to slide in a fresh one.
Lame continued, curious:
« I was wondering… What exactly is the nature of your power? We didn't really see you use it last night during the harbor battle. »
Horace took the time to empty his new magazine into his target, then lowered his weapon to answer in detail:
« My power is visual isolation. To put it simply, before I received my dose of Nova, if I fixed my eyes intensely on a person, I would begin to perceive all their movements in slow motion. But the catch was that I had to stay 100% focused on them. If my gaze drifted by even a millimeter, I would go back to seeing time normally.
But since the Nova, my power has evolved. I can now lock onto and isolate up to three targets at the same time, though the constraint of visual focus remains the same. When I trigger an action under power, I see absolutely everything in slow motion, which gives me a phenomenal reaction speed. On the other hand, it's limited in time: I have one minute of activation per use, with a mandatory cooldown of forty-five seconds. »
« Interesting… And tell me, what pushed you to want to join the DHA? », Khalid asked while projecting a new block of ice at a mannequin.
Horace lowered his weapon for good, his gaze lost in his thoughts. After a brief silence, he answered frankly:
« If I joined the DHA, it's not solely out of pure admiration for your exploits, but especially for the immense respect I have for Dark Wolf. In his early days, he appeared in the media as someone happy, proud to be an outlaw hero. Even back then, I thought he was incredible.
And even afterward, when he became this cold, distant, and mysterious leader that everyone fears in the newspapers, he never lost his flow. To me, he still embodies absolute courage, impassibility, and that form of raw justice the world needs. So you'll understand that when I had this almost surreal opportunity to join your ranks… It was absolutely impossible for me to refuse. »
« You're lucky to have been recruited by the boss, kiddo », Khalid uttered with an ironic smile.
Horace, intrigued by this remark, frowned:
« Why do you say that? Is the competition to get in really that fierce? »
Lame took the floor to answer in place of his comrade, his tone turning graver:
« It's not a question of competition, Horace. The fact is, Ivan never recruits. He absolutely loathes it. Simply because… He categorically refuses to put new lives in danger. Seeing good men die under his command is something he can no longer bear. »
« Oh… », Horace delivered, touched by the revelation. « So I really had pure, literal luck? »
« No », Lame countered, locking his working eye onto him. « You have talent above all… Or else, he just wanted to give a kid a reason to keep on dreaming. »
Suddenly, a dynamic and rhythmic voice echoed from the speakers hidden in the angles of the walls, cutting their conversation short:
« [ Yo, what's up brothers! Here is your favorite DJ live from the consoles, DJ In, In, Infinity! I'm dropping the schedule of festivities and missions for tonight.
Group one: Cortana and Vega, you move immediately to the Kanaké sector for an intervention.
Group two: Zero and Meta, you are assigned to a highly confidential infiltration mission inside the DGB. No time to lose for them, they are already on their way as I speak.
And finally, the big piece. Big Zero, Lame, and Techno Rider: you inherit a priority arrest mission scheduled for tonight at exactly 21:12, in the Alosad sector. Stay on your guard, guys, intelligence describes a vicious enemy capable of putting you in a daze and paralyzing you on the spot. So watch your backs, bros. End of transmission! ] »
« A three-man mission? Tss… Great », Khalid immediately grumbled, crossing his arms in a terrible mood. « I much prefer working solo. Besides, the Alosad district is notorious for being riddled with weird gangs, criminal organizations, and chetans of the worst kind. »
« Oh, calm down, little brother », Lame temporized, calmly putting his hands on his hips. « We will only be three, it's true, but look at the bright side: it's going to allow us to see what the new guy has in his gut in a real situation. And don't be so dramatic, there is no major terrorist organization lurking in the shadows over there that we don't already know inside out. »
Khalid let out a deep sigh of weariness:
« I really hope that one day, you will finally accept the fact that I am not paranoid. »
That night, three distinct groups from the DH ARMY launched themselves simultaneously through the dark streets of Altérion.
For the team composed of Lame, Big Zero, and Techno Rider, the orders were clear nonetheless: a simple routine, a mundane arrest mission.
But what none of them could yet suspect was that during this intervention in the underworld of the Alosad, they were going to uncover a secret so terrifying that it would plunge the DHA and the entirety of the country's political forces into a conflict of titanic proportions.