"Hey, how the hell are we ever gonna find John if we keep walking around aimlessly?" Duncan asked.
"I can find them," Conrad said calmly.
"Okay, ho—" Duncan paused as realization hit him. "Oh, it must be your ability or something, right? What is it?"
"My ability allows me to perceive the past. Right now, I'm following John's trail from a few hours ago," Conrad explained.
Duncan's eyes widened in shock. "That is insane, dude! So you can basically view the world like a video that you can replay?"
Conrad nodded.
"Why didn't you tell us earlier?!" Duncan exclaimed.
"What's the point of telling you? It's not like you'd be useful anyway," Conrad replied coldly.
"Hey! Don't think you can take John on your own! Sovereign said he's really strong!" Ethan shouted.
"Yeah! If you wanna take down someone like John, you're gonna need guys like us!" Lucas added, flexing his biceps.
"Lucas, are you gonna keep doing that?!" Duncan snapped.
"Hell yeah, I am!" Lucas said confidently, flexing again.
Conrad groaned. "I can't wait until this is fucking over… I feel myself getting dumber by the second I'm stuck with you idiots."
"Does that include me?" Duncan asked, pointing at himself.
"Just shut the fuck up!" Conrad shouted, raising his fist.
"Calm down, partner! I thought you were the perfect soldier. You're supposed to be calm and composed!" Duncan flinched.
Conrad exhaled sharply. "I know. But you assholes are dragging me down, so just… shut up."
"Hey, I just realized. Your ability is similar to Knox's. He can trace footsteps and you can… well, you know what I mean," Duncan said.
"No. Knox's ability isn't tracing footsteps. He just has an unusually good sense of smell and sight. His true ability is unknown, but if I had to guess, he probably doesn't even have one," Conrad scoffed. "He's such a disappointment…"
"Oh, I never knew that," Duncan nodded. "By the way, when you use your ability, do you actually reverse time or do you just see what happened in the past?"
"It's like replaying a video a few seconds back, just like you said. But my limit is ten hours into the past, which is still quite a lot," Conrad explained.
"Damn, so it must be impossible for anyone to hide from you, huh?" Duncan said, genuinely amazed.
"Can you interact with the things you see in the past?" William asked.
Conrad groaned. "Obviously not. If I could, John would already be dead."
Conrad's eyes narrowed as he watched John's past self walk through a door. "Looks like this is where he stopped…"
"Do you think this is his hideout?" Duncan asked.
"Yeah. More like a base to him," Conrad cracked his knuckles. "Get ready, weaklings."
They pushed through the door and there stood John inside the base — along with eight other people.
"Looks like I didn't need to wait that long, eh?" Milo said with a smirk.
"Hannah?!" Conrad said, genuine surprise flashing across his face before it hardened again. "Duncan, you take Hannah. You three handle the other seven maggots."
Conrad stepped forward to face John while the others moved into position. "I'll deal with John…"
Conrad threw a powerful right hook. John ducked and countered with a heavy shot to Conrad's abdomen, staggering him back.
Conrad charged again, punching John in the shoulder to disrupt his guard, then landed a punch to the face followed by a sharp kick to the leg.
John rushed forward, but Conrad grabbed his shoulder and slammed him into the wall, following up with a brutal body punch.
Meanwhile, Hannah raised her arms to block Duncan's punch. She countered with a clean straight punch to his chest, knocking him back slightly.
She followed with a hard kick to his thigh, forcing Duncan to drop to one knee. Hannah grabbed his head and drove her knee into his face.
She didn't stop — throwing lefts and rights, up and down. Duncan finally caught one of her punches.
"You fucking…" A puddle of blood poured from his mouth. "Bitch…"
Duncan slammed her through the nearest wall, smashing her head against the concrete. He then flew through the tunnels at high speed, dragging Hannah brutally along the ground.
He rained fists into her abdomen, causing blood to burst from her mouth. Finally, he wrapped his hands around her throat, choking her with unrelenting force.
Hannah struggled desperately, her breath coming in short, wheezing gasps. "Ahh… Euhh…" She punched at Duncan's face, cracking it, but his grip refused to loosen.
ZAP!
Duncan suddenly froze in place.
Hannah broke free from his grip. "HAAAHH!!" she gasped loudly, desperately sucking in air.
Aya had fired the neuro-disruptive raygun at him.
"Thank you!" Hannah said, breathing heavily.
Duncan turned toward Aya, eyes filled with bloodlust. "Who the fuck are you, asshole?! We were having a fair fight!"
Before he could charge at her, Hannah slammed him into the ground.
---
William punched Milo hard, sending him flying into a wall. "Fuck!" Milo shouted in pain, coughing out blood.
Benjamin blasted William with a laser cannon. It didn't wound him deeply, but it clearly hurt. Emma pressed a neuro-disruptive electric baton against William's chest.
"AAAHHH!!! GRAHHH!!!" William screamed in agony as his body locked up from the electricity.
Benjamin rushed over, pressed the laser cannon directly against William's head, and fired. SPLAT! Blood, brain matter, skull fragments, and flesh splattered everywhere.
"Fuckin' hell…" Benjamin muttered, now covered in blood and brains.
"Taste my muscles, peasant!" Lucas roared, punching Mitch straight in the face.
Surprisingly, Mitch's head didn't cave in. "Holy shit, this armor is a fucking monster!" Mitch exclaimed, laughing.
He was wearing the high-tech armor John had stolen from HEX. Mitch punched back, actually drawing blood from Lucas. The gear granted not only speed and durability, but strength as well.
Mitch unleashed a combo: a right hook, body shot, uppercut, liver shot, and finished with a brutal punch to the solar plexus.
He stepped on Lucas's chest, pinning him down. "Okay… how do I use this thing…"
Mitch fumbled with the holographic interface, pressing random buttons. Suddenly, something began charging up. The cannon on his arm lit up. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed it at Lucas.
"Oh God, please don't explode…" Mitch muttered as the weapon grew brighter.
"Wait, please! Please, we can talk this out! I'll tell you everything!!" Lucas begged.
Benjamin's ears perked up. "Hold it, mate. He could give us valuable informa—"
Before Benjamin could finish, Lucas's head was blasted open.
"Should've told me earlier…" Mitch said flatly.
They all turned toward Ethan.
"Oh fuck…" Ethan stammered, voice shaking. "Wait! You want valuable information, right?! I'll tell you everything you need to know!"
"You fucking TRAITOR!!" Conrad shouted, throwing blind punches in rage.
John finally ended the fight with a brutal uppercut to Conrad's chin, knocking him out cold. John himself was wounded and bleeding heavily, but no bones were broken.
He dropped to his knees, panting in exhaustion. "It's over… right?"
Duncan's unconscious body was thrown back into the base.
"What do we do about them?" Hannah asked, wiping blood from her face.