Straining himself, Sun groaned and pushed himself up. As his back met the wall, he exhaled and lifted his head. In his disoriented vision, he saw the figure of Missio who had collapsed to his knees.
The Lieutenant General was panting heavily as the rain assaulted him. The rain assaulted him too and that made Sun grimace.
'I'm... going to lose.'
He had to admit if things didn't change he would surely be going to prison. Even though he could feel his body rapidly recovering, he knew that more Operators were awaiting Missio's command to come out and attack him when he was most vulnerable.
'This is... bad.'
His mind spun with countless ideas, trying to figure out a way to escape this situation as his body healed. However, no matter what he thought, he couldn't think of a way to escape without at least crippling one of the Operators.
He didn't want to go down that path though.
In the end, his mind recalled a conversation he had had with Dick a few months ago...
***
A few months ago, during one of his shipments to the former Assemblyman, Dick had given him a strange object.
Sun stared at the tiny wooden cube on his palm with an incredulous expression.
"So, what does this do?"
The politician laughed, raising his hand and placing it on the boy's shoulder.
"It's called Jack-in-the-box… I'm not giving this Relic to you out of goodwill. It'll come in handy in a few months or so."
Sun frowned, grasping the cube in his palm.
"You're really secretive, aren't ya? What's going on here? And what is a Relic?"
Dick's grin widened, a sinister glint appearing in his dark eyes.
"All will make sense soon, Avatar…"
***
Back in the present, as the rain was pouring down upon him, Sun's body had finally recovered enough for him to move.
'Jack-in-the-Box…'
He dug into his pocket, pulling out the tiny cube and placing it in the middle of his palm.
"Let's see what you can do..."
As Dick had told him, he concentrated on the Relic and poured some unknown energy from his body into the wooden cube, making it shimmer with a golden aura.
The cube basked in the mysterious energy and unfolded into a colorful box.
Missio approached with slow steps, tired from the fight which had lasted for no more than two minutes and asked:
"Ready to give up yet?"
Sun chuckled with a hoarse voice and impulsively gripped the handle of the box.
"No."
Smirking, he slowly spun the handle of the Jack-in-the-Box. Instantly, a sinister child-like laugh resounded across the street.
Missio blinked and appeared in a lightless void the very next moment.
The Bereft froze in his tracks and glanced around his surroundings. There seemed to be no light and only darkness for who knew how far. There were no sounds, no movements, no other person in this desolate expanse other than him.
Sensing a presence behind him, Missio slowly turned around and saw...
A large puppet smiling at him, its mouth gaping with darkness. It had no eyes yet Missio could feel its gaze right on him. It had no legs and seemed to be crawling out of the lightless void.
Its body was being held up by countless strings that stretched into the darkness above and disappearing into it.
Missio's body stiffened as he saw the strange puppet, a wave of sudden fear washing over his tired body.
'What...?'
The puppet's horrific smile widened as it raised its mechanical arms. It reached out towards Missio, covering his head and pulling him somewhere else...
***
The clouds rumbled, casting a dark shadow upon the land of Endless rain. Sun slowly stood up and took a sharp breath, lowering his head.
Missio lay motionless on the ground before him – unconscious.
In Sun's hand, Jack-in-the-box played an eerie tune. A joker puppet stuck out of its opening and danced to the rhythm of the tune. The Drug Lord groaned, shakily wiping his face as thunder roared through Kharagen once more.
'…He should be down for the count... Now, let's get out of here.'
Groaning, he checked his battered body. He seemed to have recovered from most of his injuries and his exhaustion had almost subsided. Sighing, he turned towards the streets and began walking away.
However, at that moment, in a state of total battle clarity, he heard something whistle through the air.
Anticipating what was going to happen next, Sun tilted his head and barely dodged another tranquilizer. The Drug Lord narrowed his eyes, silently watching the tranquilizer fall to the ground before spinning around.
A frown made its way onto his face as he saw another Operator – Krishna, pointing a gun at him. Lowering his weapon, Krishna locked eyes with Sun and pressed his fingers against his earbud.
"Attention all teams. The Lieutenant General has been taken down. Prepare for a full-on assault."
Sun met his gaze as another bolt tore through the sky. Chuckling quietly, he lowered his head and muttered with a sigh:
"Ah... why does everything have to go wrong just when I'm about get my way?"
He raised his head and immediately noticed a shadowy figures dragging Missio's body away.
Sun sighed and gazed over his surroundings. He could faintly see some of the operators lurking in the darkness, like a tiger waiting for its prey to let its guard.
Their gazes were especially fixed on Jack-in-the-box that was resting on Sun's hand.
The tension in the air was thick and it felt it would break at any moment...
However, right then, the surrounding Chaos seemed to convulse and... the rain froze for a singular second.
A chill ran down Sun's spine as the raining resumed. Instinctively, he looked past the Operators and towards the Lieutenant General.
'What the hell?'
His pupils instantly dilated.
There in the rain, Missio stood alone with a dark shadow cast over his face as if nothing had happened to him. The Operator would had dragged was laying on the ground – unconscious.
'How in Pangea's name?'
The Drug Lord felt a bad premonition as a shiver ran down his spine. His face paled as he looked at the Lieutenant General.
Taking a closer look at his opponent, he saw something strange – the rain was curving around him as if it was refusing to land…
No, rather reality was bending around him.
A deathly cold chill ran through Sun's entire being.
Suddenly, the rain didn't feel cold anymore.
He continued to stare at Missio and eventually, Missio's body began to tremble.
Sun's eyes widened.
"Shit..."
The next second, Missio fell onto his knees, grasped his skull and let out a primordial scream that cut through the air.
Sun peered towards Missio in utter horror.
His scream... it felt as if Missio's very own soul was being ripped out as if… as if he had relived some horrible memory that he wished he could forget.
Sun's pupils dilated, shock overtaking his psyche.
'What–?'
Right at that moment, Missio's back deformed into a disgusting mass of flesh. A pair of ethereal quartz wings violently erupted from his scapula.
Those wings were the most beautiful thing Sun had ever seen...
It was as if… as if he were gazing at the wings of an Angel.
They stretched across the horizon, fluttering and covering them from the rain – but not from Missio's own ear-piercing shriek.
Missio's scarlet red eyes gleamed with even more intense glow, a crimson fire igniting within the depths of his pupils.
He gasped, tears streaming down his face and struck his against the road, sending a net of cracks through the street.
His fellow Operator buckled, covering their ears. However, they too collapsed moments later, the sound rendering them fully unconscious.
Sun's eyes rolled back and he collapsed as well, unable to withstand the primal roar. Jack-in-the-box fell from his hand and landed on the wet floor alongside him. The puppet joker slumped, seemingly having lost all power and rolled back into the box.
Without being supplied with of the unknown energy, Jack-in-the-Box collapsed back into a small wooden cube.
And then the only one left standing was Krishna.
Krishna grimaced, clicking his tongue and spinning around, a concerned look appearing on his face as he watched his friend dig his head into the concrete road.
"Missio!"