While the Out Law crew scrambled to assess the damage and transfer what remained of the cargo, a panicked shout rang out from the rear of the convoy.
"Mr. Zenos!"
One of the men waved frantically.
"What is it?"
Zenos replied curtly as he strode through the wreckage toward the scene.
"Something's missing… It's gone from this truck."
The man pointed into the container at the back, now completely empty.
"How does something just disappear?!"
Zenos muttered, irritation creeping into his voice. Beneath the mask, his eyes darkened with anger.
"I don't know, sir. But the door shows signs of a very clean break-in. Someone must have taken advantage of the chaos and slipped in to steal it."
The man reported, gesturing toward the precise cuts on the digital lock.
"…That bastard."
Zenos murmured under his breath as the image surfaced in his mind, someone he had shot three times, only for the body to vanish without a trace.
"Forget it. Move what's left. Now. We've wasted enough time."
He gave the order sharply, then stood there for a moment, staring at the tampered lock, the sting of being outplayed again burning quietly beneath his composure.
.....
The massive modified pickup roared as it slammed the accelerator, tearing away from the battlefield at full speed. Inside the cabin, the air was thick with tension. An unexpected passenger made it worse. Alicia from the P-Type unit lay unconscious, slumped in her seat.
"Are you sure bringing her with us was a good idea, Jenkins?"
Drago asked, glancing at the enemy woman with clear distrust.
"It's still better than leaving her for Out Law to take."
Jenkins replied, steadying the wheel as he drove through the dust.
Knock. Knock.
The sound of someone tapping on the rear window drew everyone's attention. When they turned, they saw Murray, the heavyset technician, wearing a dust mask painted with a grin, waving cheerfully at them. Beside him sat Darius, calmly exhaling cigarette smoke despite the violent shaking of the vehicle. Between the two of them rested a massive object.
It was an electromagnetic pulse device, an EMP prototype from the late 20th to early 21st century, stolen straight from a military museum. A legendary weapon. Earlier, Zenos had taken the risk of deploying it to disrupt P-Type communications, and that first blast had conveniently revealed exactly which truck it was stored in.
With Darius's illusion abilities masking their presence and Murray's expert lockpicking skills, the two of them had slipped in unnoticed and secured this critical advantage from the back of the Out Law truck at the height of the chaos.
"Not bad, Murray. That EMP scrambled everything, and you still managed to get it all back online in seconds. I've gotta respect that."
Darius said, exhaling a stream of dull gray smoke out of the truck as he leaned back against the edge of the pickup, completely at ease.
"Hah. That's nothing."
Murray let out a smug chuckle, pride clear in his voice as he patted the massive metal device they had just stolen.
"Once we're back at base, I'll see if I can trim this thing down. Make it a bit more compact."
The massive pickup kept roaring forward, tearing through the toxic haze on its way back to their hidden base. Wind howled past in violent bursts. Then, in that instant, a dark blur shot through the dust and pulled up alongside the vehicle at high speed.
Whoooosh!
A jet engine screamed to life. Edward, riding the Rocket Bike he had just stolen from Zenos, twisted the throttle hard. Flames blasted out from the rear in a long streak as he handled the high-speed machine with surprising control.
"Kid's got something, huh…"
Drago murmured under his breath from inside the cabin, his gaze fixed on the boy who was beginning to show the makings of a true hunter.
.....
Inside the rattling armored vehicle of the P-Type unit, the air was heavy with gloom and the metallic scent of blood. Gareth pushed his sensory abilities to their limit, feeling his way through the thick wall of dust as he guided the battered team back toward the safety of the dome.
"Where's Alicia?"
23 forced the question out, irritation laced with unease.
"No idea… By the time I got there, there was no sign of her."
Lloyd replied flatly, his sniper rifle resting steady at his side.
"Damn it! The mission failed, the cargo's wrecked… and now we've lost one of our own too?!"
23 cursed, unable to hold back his frustration over the disastrous outcome.
"Calm down… If she's with Drago, she should be fine."
Lloyd said, trying to pull his commander back under control.
"As long as she didn't fall into Out Law hands."
In the back seat, Sophie had begun to regain consciousness, but she remained silent, as if her soul hadn't fully returned yet. Beside her, Lewis, now reverted from his beast form back to a human, lay completely still, his body covered in severe wounds. The weight of silence pressed down inside the vehicle.
.....
As the convoy rolled into the secure zone of the underground base, Connor wasted no time shouting orders to prepare the emergency room. He gave a quick nod to Drago and Jenkins, signaling them to carry Alicia's blood-soaked body toward the operating room, moving on pure instinct as a doctor determined to keep her alive.
"Why are we even helping her?! She's just going to spread some kind of infection to all of us!"
Chloe shouted in protest, storming after them in frustration.
"It's called a parasite… And besides, enemy or not, I'm a doctor. Whoever it is, I treat them."
Connor replied in a calm but firm tone before stepping forward and disappearing into the medical wing with the emergency team.
While the chaos in the medical wing continued, Darius leaned against the wall, exhaling cigarette smoke as he stared at the massive object in the back of the truck.
"So… what are we doing with this EMP?"
"Bring it to my department."
Murray cut in immediately, excitement clear in his voice, his eyes practically lighting up like he'd just found a new toy.
"Yeah… that works. We'll leave it to you."
Kelly agreed, circling the EMP with quiet admiration for the ancient technology that still held such power.
"Hey, Murray…"
Edward spoke up, pointing at his new ride.
"Can you tune this thing for me? It's a bit too big… and a little too heavy for me."
He patted the Rocket Bike he had just taken, a hint of pride in the gesture.
"Easy. Piece of cake. I'll slim it down for you."
Murray replied cheerfully, already moving to direct the crew as pulleys lifted both the EMP device and the jet-powered bike into his personal lab.
.....
The atmosphere inside the P-Type meeting room was thick with tension and the lingering weight of defeat. 23, Sophie, Lloyd, and Gareth sat in silence, their expressions fixed on the failure that had just unfolded. Lewis had already been separated and rushed to a special medical unit the moment they arrived, his injuries far too severe to ignore. Not long after, the sound of steady, deliberate footsteps approached. Colonel Pierce entered the room, his composure far calmer than anyone expected.
"Go ahead. Say whatever you're going to say."
23 spoke first, his tone edged with sarcasm but grounded in acceptance of their failure.
"Criticize you? Not at all…"
Colonel Pierce replied with a soft chuckle, drawing frowns from the others.
"The mission failing is part of it, yes. But you need to understand something first. We've just run into variables that were never part of the plan."
"Then why were our communications completely cut off?!"
Gareth cut in, frustration clear in his voice after being forced to fight blind on the battlefield.
"That was an EMP device. It was stolen about a month ago."
Pierce explained as he walked toward the monitor.
"It's old technology from the late 20th to early 21st century. It releases a direct electromagnetic shockwave, rendering anything that relies on electronics useless in an instant. Communications systems, navigation sensors, all of it."
His gaze swept across the surviving team.
"The fact that you made it back under those conditions… that's extremely valuable data to me."
"And another critical variable we've overlooked this whole time… is a man named Zenos."
Colonel Pierce continued, pressing the remote to pull up footage from a vehicle camera. A faint image of the scarred mask appeared on the screen.
"Who exactly is he? I heard he used to be a mercenary."
23 asked, his voice firm, the frustration from their defeat still burning in his eyes.
"We have very limited information on him."
Pierce replied evenly.
"As far as we know, he's lived in the Outlands since childhood. By the age of twelve, he had already stepped into the life of a mercenary, taking on high-risk jobs across the world. Eventually, he settled in Biotope 5 with the Out Law under Don Isaac Claudio."
Pierce paused for a moment before continuing, his tone sharpening slightly.
"Back when he was still operating independently, his price was exceptionally high, and so was his success rate. Zenos prioritizes the mission above everything else. He doesn't stop until it's done. That's what makes him more dangerous than any brute-force opponent you've ever faced."
The colonel's explanation fell over the room like a weight. Silence followed immediately. The P-Type members began to realize that the enemy they had just faced wasn't just another Out Law leader. He was a killing machine, forged by a lifetime of bloodshed on the battlefield.
"And what about Alicia… what are we going to do next?"
Sophie asked, her concern unmistakable as she fixed her eyes on Colonel Pierce, waiting for an order to bring their teammate back.
"As for Alicia… I don't believe she's in immediate danger."
Pierce replied calmly, leaning back in his chair.
"If she really is with that rebel group, they won't harm her. From what I know, the man named Connor isn't the type to treat human lives as expendable. For now, we can leave her in their hands."
The unexpectedly composed answer drew frowns across the room, but no one dared interrupt the officer who held control over the battlefield.
"And the next move? What are we doing now?"
23 pressed again. He could already sense it. This defeat was about to be turned into the next piece on Pierce's board.
"That… is exactly the point I intended to discuss with all of you today."
Pierce said, a faint smile forming at the corner of his lips as he activated a new holographic map in the center of the room, signaling that the next operation would be far more than a simple crackdown on criminals.
.....
At the deep-sea port on the far edge of the continent, the evening air was thick with tension. Eighteen Out Law trucks stood in formation, sealing off the area. Armed units were stationed at every strategic point, maintaining a tight perimeter. Through the thin gray mist drifting over the water, a massive cargo ship slowly emerged, cutting through the fog in near silence.
The low hum of the ship's engines blended with the sound of waves striking the shore, a sign of the captain's precision as he guided the vessel into port despite the poor visibility. As the gangway was lowered, a major exchange between two powerful underground factions was about to begin, with a cargo of immense value at stake.
The metal ramp slammed against the edge of the dock with a heavy clang. It was secured only loosely for the sake of speed. One by one, the eighteen Out Law trucks carefully moved aboard the massive vessel. Once the valuable cargo had been fully arranged, the drivers disembarked and returned to shore, just as they always did.
But the atmosphere grew even heavier as a group of suited men stepped down from the ship, led by a figure impossible to ignore. His face was concealed behind a full mask, adorned with intricate red and blue stripes. At the center of the forehead, a silver star glimmered with an unsettling presence. He wore a perfectly tailored suit and tie, carrying himself with the composure of a high-ranking businessman standing amidst ruin.
"Why is the shipment incomplete… Mr. Zenos?"
The man with the star mask spoke politely, yet beneath his tone lingered a chilling pressure.
"We ran into unexpected complications. That's everything we were able to recover."
Zenos replied evenly, though the damage etched across his body still told the story of the battle he had just endured.
"P-Type, I assume…"
The man answered softly, his gaze sweeping over the empty space where the missing cargo should have been. Behind the mask, his eyes were unreadable, too deep to tell what he intended to do next about the immense loss.
"And the test subjects… did you secure them?"
The man with the star-patterned mask asked, his voice steady and untouched by emotion.
"Not yet. We're still in negotiations. As for the EMP… they took that too."
Zenos answered plainly, acknowledging the scale of the failure without hesitation.
"Ah… they really are a problem, aren't they? That P-Type group."
The suited man let out a long sigh, his tone laced with quiet irritation.
"Well, at least this trip across the sea won't be a total loss. We'll settle it next time."
He turned and walked back up the gangway, leaving the matter behind as if it were nothing more than a delayed transaction.
"You're leaving just like this, boss?"
One of the subordinates asked, glancing at the missing cargo with confusion.
"And what exactly do you think you can do? That man, Zenos… he's probably the last person in this world you'd ever want to get involved with. On his own, he could sink this entire ship without much effort."
The man with the star mask replied, his tone carrying both warning and reluctant acknowledgment.
"Let's head back… we didn't really lose anything this time. Most of the cargo is still intact. Besides… we still have to pay a visit to the Zambezi Blood. No point wasting more time here."
At his command, the sharply dressed group returned to the ship without hesitation. One by one, they disappeared from sight, leaving the Out Law behind to watch as the massive vessel slowly pulled away and vanished into the evening fog. Silence settled over the port once more, leaving behind only the scent of salt in the air and the burden Zenos still had to face with Don Isaac.