The crew is in the research lab of UTD. Machines and devices scanned their bodies. Their weapons were also being researched by scanning devices.
"Um, can I ask why are we placed here?" Asked Mysty.
"We want to have a little research on those amazing moves you all performed during the infection. So, the process of you all being able to glow is called?" Asked Rale.
"You mean awakening?" Asked Albur.
"Yes, right. That process is very interesting. It is capable of messing with gravity and give powers by mutating the adrenaline. Such power is a massive science discovery. Though its quite risky to use."
"OK?"
After a while, the crew was released from the scanning devices.
"And Mr. Filix, your rifle is sure pretty interesting as well."
"Why so?"
"We discovered a white orb in your rifle slot. We currently don't know what exactly it is. But it have a power to disable every biological or systematic processes for 5 seconds. Including the flow of electricity, the flow of blood, cause deaf and blindness and even whole system shut down. Seriously, where do you get that from?"
"Uh.....I rather not say...
"If we exclude that mini hyper gem in the second slot, what about the flash drive in slot 3?" Asked Rale.
"Uh..."
"We noticed that Commander Glitch is emotionally agitated towards it. What exactly is it?"
"That's....the computer virus Harry Einstein invented...."
The UTD researchers were shocked upon hearing Albur's words.
"Seriously? That virus was known to have been kept in the deepest parts of the office of the planet executives! We only get little information about that to develop a replica of it."
Albur looked at the rest of the crew. Johnson sighed while Mysty shrugged awkwardly.
"We knew about that the virus won't be able to activate unless in contact with a high energy substance to awaken its powers. Is this the one that destroyed Commander Glitch?"
"A-apparently"
Rale looked at the flash drive.
"I'm sorry but this will be classified as government property. We will need to keep this thing."
"AWWWW SNAP. "
Rale then handed the flash drive to the researchers.
The flash drive moved a little.
"We will have to take it, I'm sorry, but you aren't allowed to keep it."
"Fine."
"By the way, Mr. John, we want some answers from you."
"Wha- yeah?"
"We constantly see you vanishing in battles and reappear in different locations. What is that move? It doesn't seem to appear as teleportation nor quantum tunnelling. "
"Ah, that is a...technology I discovered. "
"What is that? "
"Well, maybe not I discovered, but I managed to use it without any problems. Its the digital realm traveling. "
"Wait a second, is that the technology that brings people to a parallel realm that is similiar to the online digital platforms?"
"Exactly."
"Experiment D190R had been trying to accomplish that tech for years. You know how to do that?"
"Would you want me to tell y'all all the working principle and formula?"
"Most certainly!"
Johnson then followed the researchers to another room. Covie followed him as well. Leaving Albur and Mysty with Rale and Rhea. Rhea looked at all the busy researchers, and smirked.
"These guys are indeed pretty interesting. "
Albur and Mysty stared at Rhea.
"Please don't mind agent Rhea's words, she is always like that." said Rale.
"It seems you really like sweets. I always see you with soda and lollipops in your mouth." murmured Mysty.
"I don't, actually. I have low blood sugar."
Mysty silenced herself after hearing that.
After a few minutes, Johnson returned to them.
"Man those researchers are overreacting, its just the working principle and formula of the digital world traveling." He scoffed.
"Well, now should we move on to the plan discussion?" Asked Rale.
The crew nodded their head, and retrieved their weapons.
Rale brought the crew and Rhea to a giant platform in the headquarter. Then, he clicked a button on the desk of the platform. It then formed a hologram of flash drive.
"As you all probably know, lately there had been an unknown creature that appeared in the City hall and attacked people right? I am sure you are all aware of that."
The crew nodded.
"That creature is suspected to be highly linked with a computer virus we had been working on for a long time."
Rale then pressed another button that made the hologram show more details about the virus.
"The AC-23 virus, is a powerful virus that we had been working on. This virus have the ability to rearrange codes in a system after corrupting it and take full control over it. We originally developed it so that it would match the computer virus Harry Einstein created long ago."
But then, Rale's face became serious
"But it was stolen days ago."
The crew gasped.
"The lab was raided, and all scientists and researchers their were dead, 0 survivors."
"What the, what kind of sick freak will do this kind of thing?"
"After we tracked down the virus's location and through some of the witnesses, we ensured that the virus was stolen by a very dangerous criminal squad. The Deadly Circus."
The crew raised an eyebrow, confused.
"What? Never heard of them before?"
"Uh....to be honest, no....."
Rale shook his head after hearing Albur's words.
"Wait, is that the criminal squad that is known to have a one only S tier criminal? " asked Mysty.
"Wow, finally! Thank you Ms. Robin. Indeed, the Deadly Circus is a terrifying criminal squad that have the one and only S tier criminal in the whole world. Polices fear them, military soldiers tremble upon hearing their name. Not even us, UTD could arrest nor eliminate them."
The crew froze, in shock.
Rale then signalled Rhea, Rhea then switched the hologram to a line graph. The graph is written 'killed victims' and the arrow is at a very horrifying level.
"In the past decades, the Deadly Circus has killed more than 1000 victims in just one year. Their crime scene are very clean, no blood, no fight or struggle signs, just clean and tidy. That is where we could ensure they are killed by them. Since this is a very dangerous being, we mostly avoid mentioning about them to not frighten the crowd and cause even more problems."
"Wait hold on a second, if they indeed killed that much people, I believe Mr. Hamilton have already invented the R.E.C.O.V.E.R systems, why don't they revive them using it?" Asked Mysty.
"That is a horrible part, legends said that they kept the bodies of the victims instead of just leaving them at the crime scene. Police and soldiers that survived in their hands all said that their base is filled with the smell of dead bodies. And the most terrifying part, their base kept changing location. Just like a circus."
The crew was stunned by fear upon hearing those words.
"They somehow managed to survive the raiding of Commander Glitch and now, they are back for more. Their killing tactic changed. They started investing in computer viruses. Making them even dangerous and unpredictable. We get very little information about their identity. The following information were gathered from very little info." Rale then switched the hologram again. Then, it showed the hologram of 4 figures.
"The leader of the Deadly Circus, the Cruel and Gory killer. The one and only S tier criminal in the entire world. He was known to kill his victims in the most gory way while being slow and painful. No one knows who he was, and there are no signs of life when thermal devices scanned him. And the worst part is his powers of manipulating sorcery. "
"Sorcery?"
"He holds power that doesn't seem to be from this world. He could create barriers, summon lightning out of no where. For now, no scientific explanation could explain his entire existence. "
Albur gulped.
"The following 3 are the servants of the killer."
The hologram then cuts to a cloaked figure.
"We are not sure about his identity, but according to camera footage about their dialogue with the killer, this cloaked figure is known as Juggler. He is a very dangerous A ++ criminal that is shown to have high swordsmanship. He is reported to be constantly chasing down victims and end them with his blade."
Rale switched the hologram to a tragedy mask man and a clown scarecrow. The hologram then showed multiple blurry camera footage of them.
"For these 2, we don't get much information about them. For the tragedy mask, we actually rarely see him kill. Judging from the bloody mops he had been carrying in all footage, he might be a janitor of the circus that cleans crime scenes. But for the clown scarecrow.....we get very very little to no information about it. It is only known to be found on dark roadside at night and cause multiple missing cases."
Then, Rale switched to another hologram.
"But lately, we discovered they had a new member and he might be the reason they are able to fuse the AC-23 virus with the glitches. "
Rale pressed a button, the hologram showed a familiar face. Albur's former best cameraman. Wilton. The crew was shocked, Albur couldn't believe his eyes.
"What....Wilton?"
"Isn't he in prison?"
"Well, 2 months ago, he had already escaped. The Cruel and Gory killer some how managed to sneak past the prison guards and gave him a computer virus. He not only used it to escape, the virus completely messed up the prisons systems. Causing the his escape not being discovered for a long time."
Rale shut the hologram.
"Being a former servant of Commander Glitch, he must've provided the Cruel and Gory killer lots of information about the glitches to let this event evolved into this...."
Albur took a step back.
"Wilton....."
"How the heck did I never notice he broke out of prison?" Johnson said in disbelief.
"Man...the enemies this time might be worse than glitches." said Mysty.
"They sound so scary..." Covie wrapped her arms around her body.
"Now, back to the AC-23 virus. During our research, we found that the Cruel and Gory killer somehow got the technology of the glitches. He managed to mutate the glitches with the AC-23 virus as a mutagen. The virus itself could already rewrite codes and take control over it. When materialized, it could reform an organism's organs and mutate them into horrifying creatures. For now, we came up a name for it called Virus Lifeform. "
Rale turned the hologram into the hologram of a Virus Lifeform.
"They possess super strength, agile speed and aggressive behaviour. Their saliva contains the same virus that could also mutate other organisms as well. We don't have the antidote so they are very very dangerous."
The a shiver ran down the spine of the Glitch Wipeout Crew. They begun to fear what they are about to face later.
"So, what is the current plan for now?"
"Well, one of our drones discovered that at the center of the city hall, sits a broken tent and the Deadly Circus members are seen coming out from there. And we detected large amounts of the energies of the AC-23 virus as well as a machine that seems to be a generator."
"Aw man, generators again?" groaned Mysty.
"And there is one problem, we found at least 3 corrupt splinters in their place."
"What the..."
"So, our plan is to destroy that place. We have ordered glitch killing bomber jets to stay in the air while you all enter to confront the criminals. We don't plan to retrive the virus, we are destroying it. When you all entered the place, your job is to drain the Deadly Circus member's energy and stamina as much as possible. Once they are tired, the lab jets will then use a special teleeporter to transfer you all to the digital realm. After that, the bombers will destroy the whole city hall, leaving nothing but ash. The nuclears will absolutely be enough the make those criminals cease to exist. Up till then we will retrive the corrupt splinters."
"Woah wait hold on a second. We? A group of people that have no training about fights. Face 4 ridiculously powerful criminals and drain their energy? What are we? Elites?" Questioned Johnson.
"Our special squads were not enough to defeat them. The Glitch Wipeout Crew is the only elite capable of doing this. Since you all fought Commander Glitch before, despite without the virus, you kept him in place for quite a while even though UTD and the military haven't yet to back up."
"But wait, what about the city? Won't the nukes destroy the city?"
"We put barriers near it. Its the same barrier used to defend asteroids."
The crew looked at each other. And sighed.
"Get us the equipments we need."