Blood Runs Cold

Chapters

Chapter 1: past and Present
Chapter 2: Wonders and Worries
Capter 3: Problems and Anger
Chapter 4: New Normal and Bigger Issues
Chapter 5: Entry and Trade-off

Chapter 1: past and Present

It was unnaturally cold in Aremia the particular day that it was scheduled for, the thing being scheduled was a burial. The man being buried was an army cadet, but the most unnatural thing was that the man’s killer was attending. Reason being it was an accident, except in the killer’s eyes. He was a part of the team the cadet was assigned to, and just like so many times before, things had turned out poorly. His team was saddened but they understood what had happened, which sadly, the killer refused to see.

His name was Zero or that was what he made every person he knew call him, and he was pale skinned with gray and black hair which contradicted his young age. He was a very strong ‘mage’ as most called his type. The people of Aremia were mainly militaristic due to its rather tragic history, but everybody made it work in favor of themselves as selfish as that sounds. Not that most of that mattered to Zero, but that isn’t what he didn’t want to ‘see’ as stated.

Now his magic was among some of the strongest in recorded history, and safety measures were placed to restrict his power. Namely the nullifiers on his upper arms coupled with runes all along his fore arms. Not that he couldn’t remove the runes as he placed them there, but it didn’t do much to limit the power with which he cast with, that was one reason he was dubbed a killer.

His magical power was tied with his emotion and thus when one or the other got out of control bad things happened, and it just so happened that the cadet got caught within the range of his magical crossfire. Everybody was saddened but Zero was no exception, as he had done things such as what happened before, and it was starting to put a heavy tax on his body and mind. That was the reason he wasn’t a part of the sound off he scheduled for the man, his sadness and rather chronic depression made his magic slightly unpredictable.

He wished with every single thread of hope in his body that he could someday control it, but he knew with every sensible part of his being that it was close to impossible, and the saddest part of all, was that he understood that he would be better off alone than with others, but he wouldn’t let his team come to harm after all they went through. That was why he didn’t just call it quits and go to a place where he couldn’t hurt anybody, as he had a tendency to end up hurting even those he wanted to protect.

And as the coffin was lowered into the grave he thought back to when he didn’t have the ability to hurt people. The time when he was alone in an orphanage and nobody noticed him. And when he was just starting to gain the abilities that he resented, and with those thoughts in mind, he turned away and went back to his place of residence that he shared with the rest of his team.

19 years earlier

It was just a usual day for Rayan as it always was as he was unable to play with the other children at the moment. Just like always they played a sporting game that he was unable to participate in or watch for that matter. Why you may ask, is that Rayan was blind, and everything just escaped him slightly due to his extreme learning disability. It was two of many things that made him different that limited his ability to interact with others.

It was also the reason that nobody wanted to adopt him, he was outclassed by the other children and that was another cause for his bad mental state which consisted of both natural and external things like the several times he walked into walls or the focus disability he had.

It was depressing to say the least for Rayan, as nobody bothered much with him besides meals and such. Though he did have a slightly accelerated growth rate, as for a five year old, he was four foot one and towered above the others somewhat. Not that he could really acknowledge it very much; he only knew that there were a couple of offhand comments about his height.

None the less when a siren went off he immediately started feeling for the door that he thought was near the bench he was in. sadly he never found that door a he tripped on a rock that protruded from the ground. Rayan hit the ground with a muffled thump.

Right about that time he heard the other children running past him, and whether out of spite or an accident, one of the stomped on his hand as he got up. Rayan let small cry as he felt one of his fingers break, and subsequently fell to his side out of the way while holding his finger. Rayan could feel the break between the knuckle and first joint in his ring finger.

Now some may wonder exactly why a simple siren would cause such a panic, and Rayan was not exactly too bright on the topic either. All he really understood was that it was protocol and if violated, a severe punishment would be dealt out, if of course ‘They’ did not kill the violator.

Rayan never really understood what ‘They’ were, but when the military men were giving their instructions, like they do every month, and he was taken aside by a man who was trained to deal with mentally defunct people. All Rayan was able to really understand was that most of the creatures were differing shades of black and gray. Usually the creature’ eyes are red, and are large burly creatures that consisted of corded muscle that showed up strangely against their skin.

Now he didn’t really have a great thought process at all, and when he was introduced to his newly broken finger, pain was all that really occurred to him. He could hear a calling that may or may not have been his name before a door slammed. He sat there cradling his finger for a while until he got the worst feeling in the pit of his stomach. It didn’t help that at the sound that was coming near him.

Footsteps got closer and closer to him until it stopped; by the sounds of what he heard there were at least three creatures if he was doing his math correctly. And that’s when he got terrified to his very core; one of them spoke in very guttural Aremian. “What is this thing, a young child perhaps? But why is it that The Prophet ordered us here, certainly he wasn’t expecting us to find a child here.”

A second creature spoke at that point, this one softer but still guttural in nature, “Idiot, of course this is what he expected us to find. It came to him in a vision you fool, he saw all of this before it happened. But my question is why exactly did he order us to come here?”

“Maybe the old Prophet is going to have to step down to his son, because after this I don’t believe his mind is where it must be, though I must say, through all the humans I’ve put an end to, this one certainly gives off a strange presence.”

“I will admit to that but I think its best if we leave before any more of the humans show up, I don’t particularly feel the need to kill today and I’m going to follow that feeling.” After those words, a light set of footsteps faded but only one. One, and possibly two remained and even though the pain was extreme for Rayan’s mind, he still felt the fear of death clinging on.

It only got worse as the creature touched Rayan’s side, and it was not very pleasant, mainly for the fact the thing had three primary fingers and a very long thumb. It just prodded at Rayan’s side, and it was persisting to the point of giving a shard prod to his ribs. Nearly without thinking and it wouldn’t be surprising if he wasn’t though through the pain and fear, Rayan slapped the hand away from him, and the result was a rather terrifying chuckle from the creature.

“The child appears to be rather consumed in fear as his scent is reeking of it. Though ever since we got here it has been holding that hand, and from the look on its face it may have a possible injury,” said a calm and controlled voice, this one being less inhuman than the two previous.

“And why exactly would you make a comment about that General? Do you show concern for this creature, and I ask because I do not wish to see you go down on behalf of heresy. ,” said the first voice.

“Do not concern yourself on my behalf young one, for I do not care much at all for these humans, I only care for the things that they posses. I do show an interest in this one though as its eyes are open, yet it does not scream in terror at our bodies like so many others would.” With that, the second creature took a step or two closer and knelt down to Rayan.

This one however took a hold of Rayan’s chin and turned his face upward. The creature let out an ‘oohhh’ upon closer inspection of Rayan’s eyes, which were a solid gray color. “What did you find General?” the first one asked.

“It appears that this human is blind, as he cannot see me. It is not often a human has a defect such as this. Maybe I can help with that.” After that was said, there was a brief pain for Rayan on the side of his head where ‘General’s” fist contacted, and then he was unconscious.

Equestria present day

Twilight Sparkle was having a fairly good day; she had started it by helping her friend Fluttershy with her animals for a while. Reason being the animals were spooked by something that was unexplainable, but there was a certain feeling in the air that just felt wrong and out of place. Though after some calming down the animals returned to their normal behavior, but something was still off, and for a change it wasn’t one of her friends, Rainbow Dash’s, pranks.

It was in the air more or less, something that had no real form. It was somewhat infectious as well because Fluttershy was acting abnormally down. It was as if somepony had poisoned the air with sadness. It was baffling to Twilight but she didn’t really have the power to stop it.

She did however send a little to Princess Celestia via Dragon Mail. She hoped that her teacher could possibly do something about the strange happenings, but it would probably be a while until a reply was received. So until she received said reply, Twilight focused on the positive, and spent time with her friends.

So after she helped Fluttershy, she proceeded to have tea with her friend Rarity, and talked about local gossip. Though Twilight wasn’t an active gossip pony, she did like to hear some of the stories Rarity heard. With those two things down, she went back home to the library.

At the library through some ‘accident’ as Spike called it, was a mess. Books were strewn about the ground in an unorganized mess. Spike himself was knocked out due to an encyclopedia to the head. So for quite a while she just picked the books off the ground and sorted through them placing a few in their places, most in piles to be sorted later, and a couple that she decided to read later were placed by her bed.

After giving more instructions to Spike to sort books into different categories, so she could later shelve them into the appropriate places in the library. But she had made prior engagements with the local farm-pony Applejack. Twilight was going over to have a nice diner with the Apple family, and as a result wanted to go early to get a few pointers at how to cook properly. And it was the best way to learn without outright saying she couldn’t cook, so she chose the less embarrassing of the two ways.

So going into Sweet Apple Acres was a nice change from the town’s buildings. Though that’s when she felt that feeling again, the sadness that seemed to affect Fluttershy was within the apple orchard as well.

With that revelation, Twilight quickened her pace to the house her friend resided inside of. She knocked on the door and in only a few seconds a very tired looking Applejack opened the door.

“I hope you don’t mind I came a little early Applejack, but I’m curious if you’re feeling what I am right now,” Twilight both stated and asked her friend. By the looks of it though, Applejack was more than just feeling it. Large bags were forming underneath the orange coated mare’s eyes and it was a little unsettling.

“Oh I don mind none Twi. But yeah if yer talking bout the weird feelins in the air, or at least that’s what I think it is. Well pardon mah manners come on in, we just started makin dinner so it shouldn’t be long now,” Applejack said in reply to her friend.

With that out of the way, Twilight made her way inside after her friend and closed the door with her magic. Twilight followed her friend all the way into the kitchen, keeping up idle chatter while Applejack cooked some delicious looking apple products.

When Twilight began helping set the table, Applejack finally asked, “Twi I know ya wanna know what this strange stuff is as much as I do, so can ya contact the Princess bout this? Its startin ta affects mah family an ahm gittin concerned.”

Twilight replied with, “I’ve already contacted Princess Celestia about this because it seems to be affecting Fluttershy as well. I hope that the Princess has an answer for this.” With that Twilight sat down as the rest of the Apple family filed into the room.

That’s when Twilight saw what Applejack was talking about, they all looked slightly down, and her pondering got interrupted by Applejack who said, “I just hope somepony can solve this is all.” Twilight nodded in response to this.

Chapter 2: Wonders and Worries

Nineteen Years Earlier

Pain was something that immediately registered in Rayan’s brain, only difference is that it seemed to be everywhere, not just his injured finger or head. His body felt the equivalent of being set on fire. Or at least that’s what Rayan thought, of course though he wouldn’t know as he couldn’t say from experience.

That didn’t stop the half-yell half-whimper that found its way out of his throat. It garnered immediate attention from the person that might have been outside the door, but then again the person could have also been in the room. That didn’t matter a whole lot though as the reaction also consisted of a call to a doctor.

By that point though Rayan was tossing around in the bed he was in, and as soon as anyone got close enough they grabbed his arms and legs with the assistance of another passerby. Surprising enough, they were having difficulty holding the boy down and so when the doctor arrived, a very mild sedative was administered.

It took affect within a minute and Rayan calmed down, some of the fire going with it. The Doctor made his presence known at that point as well, as he started checking the boy over for any natural cause of the pain. The result was that he couldn’t find a single cause for pain.

So he took a look over his body, and it was a weird sight even though he knew Rayan came from an orphanage. Dirty black hair was on top of his head that was relatively short, and bandages covered his upper face, covering his eyes and side of his head. The side of his head as the doctor took note of the blotch of blood on the side, but that wasn’t the cause of the boy’s pain.

In reality the boy came in with a small cut on the side of his head from blunt force trauma, he had no internal damage except for the already existing abnormalities in his cell structure that caused some different things in him. None of those could cause pain though and as such, he couldn’t solve it.

The Doctor shook his head and took the wrapping off Rayan’s head seeming as though new bandages were needed. What he didn’t expect was the gray eyes that looked abnormal to him. He got that the kid was blind from the scans done, but his eyes weren’t normal in any regard.

His answer to that thought was given when Rayan weakly said, “I can see, I-I can see.” That’s all he seemed to say for a second straight before looking around the room at all the apparatus scattered about. He seemed to forget about the pain he experienced and most likely still was, but his mind once again only responded to the most prominent things, and at the moment it was his sight.

The Doctor was stumped, the scans said he was blind, but he could see fine. Even the kid said that he could see now which meant he was blind. What the Cass happened? What the Doctor simply left to report the findings to his superiors, the child was unnatural. Not only that but it was reported to the hospital that he came into contact with the Alespids and survived.

Maybe those creatures had something to do with it? The Doctor was entirely unsure of anything involving the child at that point.

Back in the room though the two people who had previously held Rayan left, it seemed that they were no longer needed so they wouldn’t stick around. Rayan didn’t even know they left since he was so absorbed in his own world of wonder.

Unknown to him though, is what that burning really was, but he didn’t even register the pain anymore. What he also didn’t know was the faint glow his eyes seemed to radiate, but that still was of no concern to the boy. What he did know however was that he could see, and that’s all that mattered.

He sat there for an unknown amount of time, and it really didn’t matter to Rayan, he was having fun looking at things all over the room and playing with his undamaged body parts and seeing how they worked at the joints. It was weirdly fascinating to him and it was fun to look at all the colors that were previously hidden from him.

So when a couple of men in scrubs came in and started wheeling his bed out the door and down the hall, he was filled with wonder. He just sat back and watched all the people and things pass by him, and that was oddly fun in Rayan’s mind. The people gave him smiles as he passed by them and older men and women said hello to him.

He passed by several doors, just sitting back and watching the things as he went down the people filled corridors. That is until the men taking him turned abruptly into one of the doors, and right in the middle was a big machine. The machine was rather large and took up half of the room with a section in the middle that looked like a metal slab with a pad on the furthest side of it.

It was on that slab that they placed him, and one of the men then gave the instruction, “If you could sit still for us we would be happy to give you a treat afterwards. It would also be nice if you answer some questions, but you don’t have to if you don’t want.”

Rayan simply laid there while that was said, and replied with, “OK mister, ill try to be still. What kind of questions though, are they funny questions?” while Rayan spoke his reply, the two men went into a room that was attached to the one Rayan was in.

The room they were in had several monitors that would display vital signs and Rayan’s brain when activated. The second man answered his question, “No there not funny questions but some may be a little weird.” With that said the two men began to press a sequence of buttons to start the machine, and as a result a low hum began.

The first man spoke again this time, “Now do you know where you are?”

Rayan answered, “Well I think it’s a hospital ‘cause that’s where sick people go right?”

The first man answered and questioned back, “Yes you are in a hospital because some very nice people are concerned about your health. Now do you know why you’re here?”

“No not really, did something bad happen to me?”

The second man jotted down notes as the boy answered the questions; seeming as how the boy was supposed to be slightly retarded, but was carrying a fairly good conversation for his age. Also the fact that he didn’t remember what rendered him unconscious. The first man told him what happened by what they were told from the orphanage matron.

Rayan came back with the question, “Why did they do that?”

All the first man could say was, “I’m sorry but I don’t know why they did it.”

The second man started to write things once again, this time on his curiosity which would have been passed off by anyone else. He had been doing his job for a while and knew that a boy with the issues that Rayan possessed should not be like that. He should be blissfully unaware. This kid though, it was as if he was possessed by something that wasn’t natural.

On the monitors, he made a note were taking notice of an unnatural amount of activity in certain places, as well as places around his lungs, stomach, and eyes. Luckily all the things on the monitors was being recorded so he didn’t worry about copying down those and focused on the conversation.

Rayan was currently saying his full name which was long, it consisted o two first names one middle name, and three last names. The second man had trouble writing down Rayan Dante Corvon Dalent Zarestell Verespen. The spelling was the damn kicker as he had to rewrite most of them as they didn’t sound like they were spelled. Asking was actually embarrassing as the kid said the name with such damn confidence.

After that the first man continued to ask about trivial things, such as ‘where do you live’, ‘what do you like to do’, and so forth. The boy answered with enthusiasm even though a couple of the answers were rather depressing to hear. He kept jotting down notes though as that was his job. He looked over at the monitors every once in a while to see that the points at which showed unnatural signs were changing constantly.

By the time they were finished; eleven pages of information were copied down. And the second man, who had copied it all, had a major writer’s cramp that refused to subside. Then they just took him back to his room, all the while Rayan kept a jovial smile on his face.

General's location, Alespid Air Base

After the human military had appeared, the two had made hast to their retreating partner. The three being the ones who had found the boy cowering on the ground, it was strange when they arrived back, as The Prophet had greeted the two males and his daughter back without guards.

The smile that stretched across the old Alespid’s face was large, and he spoke of the boy again. About how the boy would play a pivotal role in the future, but to the General, he was speaking of fantasies until his words came true. His daughter, who no doubt kill the two males if they spoke of the supposed insanity The Prophet suffered from, so they kept it shut.

So for a total of an hour of The Prophet’s ramblings, the three returning Alespids went to their respective resting places which didn’t differ much from a human’s room. Or in the case of the second male in the group, a bar that he would most likely try to pick up a female. General didn’t give a damn about him or The Prophet’s daughter; he was more interested in the human child.

It gave off such a strange presence that didn’t particularly feel like a human’s. in all reality, the child was a lot less afraid than he expected it to be, but then again, he was blind and of low intelligence most likely. But that didn’t detract from his interest, in fact it added to it.

He would most definitely ask The Prophet’s daughter if she felt the presence as well. It was obvious that she left because being near the human her father spoke of gave her some form of discomfort. As to why, General didn’t know, it was just a child with a weird presence.

The idiot male that was with them that spoke rudely of The Prophet was oblivious as always. Which drove General to want to replace him with a smarter partner, but he would have to speak with The Prophet’s daughter first, since she would be tagging along for a while on General’s team, he wanted her consent. Not that he needed it; it was just a formality to see what the guest wanted.

One way or another the damn idiot was getting replaced due to his incompetence and ignorance. General looked into his mirror to see the reflection of a creature that looked battle hardened inside and out. Gray skin covered his body, human eyes, a nose that was sunken into his face, slightly elongated cranium, muscles that would make a human bodybuilder shy, piercing red eye color, thick primary fingers and a smaller thumb. What the mirror didn’t show was his thick legs which consisted of hard muscle and his clawed animal like feet.

Attractive by Alespid standards but hideous to human eyes, not that he cared much, but he thought, Maybe ill give a try at picking a female up soon. It’s been years since I last enjoyed the company of one. With that he left his room to talk to The Prophet’s daughter, and then to the bar to see if he had a chance at a female.

Ponyville present day

Over night the strange feeling started to subside by Sweet Apple Acres but it didn’t diminish near Fluttershy’s cottage. Or at least that’s what Twilight thought. It seemed that way as Applejack made a comment to Twilight as she passed by Applejack’s cart. It simply consisted of her asking if something had been done because the family began to feel a bit better.

Twilight still hadn’t received a response from the Princess though, and Twilight was beginning to worry. The Princess would usually send a letter to at least calm Twilight if not saying she would try to fix it.

So Twilight did what she usually would to try and calm herself, she sorted and read books. Spike took note of her worry though and made the offer to send another letter, but Twilight turned the offer down. The Princess would respond eventually. So that’s how her second day was spent after discovering the strange anomaly.

The third day however was started by Spike shaking her from her sleep. Twilight replied to this with a simple groggy, “What?”

Spike gave the excited answer of, “Princess Celestia replied to your letter Twilight. Come on get up and ill make some breakfast while you read It.” the reaction was instant as Twilight sat up and snatched the letter with her magic. Spike went downstairs as she unrolled the letter. Inside it read:

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

It seems that Ponyville is not alone in this experience. I have received several complaints of strange things occurring that have no explanation. The most prominent is strange emotions affecting the surrounding area in which they are found.

The emotions themselves range from sadness, to anger in some places. This is the first ever happening of this strange event and I don’t wish anypony to be harmed by it. Please be cautious Twilight as we do not know what this is, but I recommend getting everypony in the affect radius of it out of that area.

You’re Teacher,

Princess Celestia

Now that Twilight understood what she had to do, she hopped out of bed, fixed her bed mane, and ran to the door. She opened it and called back to Spike, “I’m going to be right back Spike, I have to go talk to Applejack and Fluttershy.”

Before Spike could respond, Twilight shut the door and ran through Ponyville, giving hellos to those that said hi to her. It wasn’t very difficult to find Applejack as she was coming out of Sweet Apple Acres when Twilight approached.

“Applejack, I just got a letter from the Princess, she said you should get out of you’re house until the feelings go away,” Twilight said and proceeded to pant from the exertion of running so far.

Applejack gave a worried look before saying, “But Twi, what about Th Acres, ah jus can’t leave it alone, ah need ta buck th apples an Macintosh gots ta plow th fields.”

Twilight only had to think for a split second before replying with, “Well how about you come back and work your hours when you need to and just sleep somewhere else to be away as much as possible.”

Applejack had to contemplate for a few seconds before saying, “Ah guess I can do that, but ahm gonna be a while ta git ready an I gotta find a place ta go for me an the rest.”

Twilight smiled brightly and said, “Well I can spare two beds if you need them.”

“OK Twi, ah’ll talk ta th family an figure it out.”

With that Twilight made her way to Fluttershy’s house in a similar speedy fashion, and gave a similar message, minus the bed part because Rainbow Dash dropped in and heard the conversation, so Rainbow offered a bed for a while.

With that Twilight went home and had her breakfast. She still couldn’t help but wonder exactly what was happening for this to happen. In the end though she decided that if her friends were safe, it didn’t matter.

Capter 3: Problems and Anger

Present Day, Aremia

The base was in a panic except for a singular group of men and women. Each one had defining characteristics, and there were a total of nine people in the group. The ‘killer’ Zero was among them, and he had a look of utter calmness about him. His team captain was leading them through the halls to the garage where they would take two assault vehicles.

The Alespids had attacked a country side settlement, and the team was going to end the attack. The team itself consisted of five men and four women.

The captain, Carter was a tan skinned man with brown hair and green eyes. The co-captain, Saben, was a black man with black hair and brown eyes. The demolition expert, Cassen, was a white woman that was muscled had blonde hair and blue eyes. The assault expert, Maroe, was a white woman that had dyed neon green hair and dark blue eyes. Two twin snipers, Alex and Garen, shared brown eyes while Alex had dyed Brown hair while Garen had blonde hair. Sarah, a regular fighter that assisted Carter and Saben, was a white girl that had dyed neon blue hair; she stuck around Cassen a lot. Rena, the infiltration expert, had black hair and dark green eyes. Then there was Zero, the magical tank in a way, his hair was black with several streaks of gray running through it at random spots, and the most notable thing, his somewhat glowing perfectly gray eyes.

They all wore matching armor in different variants and parts that made it look as though each had their own type. The most notable people were the twins who wore only knee and elbow pads that were plated with metal like everybody else’s. A close second was Cassen who only wore the armor plated leggings and knee pads as well as a pair of combat boots. Third most unique was Zero, as he was the only one to wear all the armor, which consisted of afore mentioned items, a plain cuirass, in replacement of the normal upper arm guards he had magic nullifying bands, and over the runes on his forearms were a pair of matching guards that were meant to deflect small knives.

Each person had their own unique color and a couple of them had emblems placed on the right or left chest of the cuirass. The emblems were of animals that were given to them by their teammates, an animal that described them. Carter had a hawk on the left side, Maroe had a weasel on the right, the twins both had doves placed on their lefts, and Zero had a wolf on the left. Carter was blue, Cassen was red, Saben had green, Maroe had yellow, the twins had brown, Sarah had purple, Rena had white, and Zero had Black.

All these things marked them as what they were, natural super-soldiers, and they all had the abilities to match. Over one-hundred missions passed through them and each one was completed with unmatched efficiency. Not the best, but they always get the job done, something Zero made sure happened even at his own risk. That’s why he got the wolf emblem; he was loyal enough to die for his team.

That’s what led up to where they were now, in two assault vehicles moving in on a location that was under heavy attack. The team’s job was to divert the Alespid’s attention from the people that were retreating and then exit so artillery strikes could finish the Alespid forces. So in other words, it was an in and out sort of thing that required the swiftness of the team. It would be a hard mission because in order to do it, they had to hold down a single position for a time, then move and repeat the process I order to not get cornered I one place.

Zero’s abilities would play a key factor because as soon as the Alespids began converging on them, he had to keep a mind’s eye on the retreating forces so he could tell the team when they were out of the area, or if the Alespids were still going after them. In addition, if it was necessary, he would erect a barrier around the team if somebody were to get injured severely or if they just needed a breather before returning to the fray.

The rest of the team had the responsibility to help him survive for those express purposes. Not that he needed it really, but they were taking precautions. Those cautions were spurred by the smoke they saw rising not so far away from them. They had been driving for nearly an hour to get to the location, but it was a rather horrid sight as they approached. Even this far away from the town, people had set up small camps to tend to the wounded that were able to get out after the initial attack.

Most of the team was putting up idle chatter while Zero was removing a couple of the runes to allot him enough power to do his job. Now don’t get anything wrong, he was a very powerful mage, but he was very unfamiliar with the magic that was required to keep an eye on all the forces in the area. The extra magic was needed in order to keep focus on his surrounding area where he actually was, plus he had to compensate for his complete lack of skill with that spell.

Finally after a while Carter spoke to Zero, “Hey you ready for this, we’re counting on you big time and if you’re not ready just let us know and we can wait for a bit.” As he said that he turned in his seat to face the back area of the vehicle where Zero sat.

Zero gave the short reply of, “I’m always ready when it comes down to something like this Carter. You know even if I wasn’t ready I would still haul myself as hard as I could to do the task I’m needed for.” That made Cassen laugh as she was sitting across from Zero. Both men looked at her with puzzled looks.

“Zero, you realize that if you aren’t ready for half the crap we do, there is the big possibility that you’ll die,” Cassen said with a smirk. Zero returned that smirk and chuckled to himself.

“You realize that even if I die ill become a bomb right, making every last thing within a twenty mile radius get blasted with different affects. Most of them lethal by the way,” Cassen just shook her head at the mage as he said that. She knew perfectly well what would happen as he had already made several magic bombs go off in near death experiences.

Carter smiled as the two went back and forth, some of the topics being rather immature as Cassen poked fun at Zero for being a virgin. Only to have Zero come back and ask if she’d like to be the first, that got the boisterous woman to blush in an unusual fashion because she never actually blushes at anything really. She didn’t have a crush on Zero, but it obviously made her shy when her ‘brother’ as she called him said things like that.

The brother title was given to him shortly after he joined the team which was when he was eighteen years old, and at that point in time, he already had a reputation for not taking shit from the Alespids in any way, shape, or form. Which was rather horrible because that reputation began when he was thirteen years old when he dropped an Alespid dead with a combat knife and a steel pair of brass knuckles, which was actually one of the topics that Cassen brought up, and all Zero could actually do was laugh.

“The day it happened was not a very pleasant one to say the least, but I’ll tell you how it went down,” Zero said after his fit of laughter died.

Eleven Years Ago, POV: Rayan

It was raining like a bitch outside of the barracks, making it nearly impossible to get any sleep that night. Not that the fat kid beneath me was going to let me with all that damn snoring that he was letting out. It was near fucking impossible to hear anything but one or the other, so I just hopped off the top bunk I had gotten myself and treaded over to the door. It was fairly easy to sneak out the door without anyone noticing me because all the noise.

In the hall that I had entered were several more doors that led off to different sections of the building such as the mess hall, officer’s room, and the armory. But all I was after was the door at the end of the hall that led outside, and that was only because I liked the rain; and I bitched out enough people for making the pun that was inevitable. That didn’t deter me any from going out the door and into the rain.

I had the two things I always slept with on me, a combat knife and a pair of steel brass knuckles. Those had a very bad story, and I hate thinking about it, but I can’t help but to think, what would have happened had I gotten to her faster? Would she be safe and not resent me, or would we remain strangers to one another? I banished those thoughts though, I was in the rain and that was enough reason to not dwell on such thoughts. This was my happy place so why taint it with bad memories?

After those morbid thoughts hit me, I started walking away from the building I had just left. I began to think about my role in the war now; the offer that was given to me was to find me a squad that was family like, and in turn, I would serve as long as that squad existed. That was enough to lift my spirits since they said that they were narrowing the search down, but they still had to go over hundreds of teams that would suit me. Not to say that I wasn’t wanted in them, it was just that most teams already had a practiced magic user, and I was still technically developing since my magical levels were growing more and more.

What was more is that they said my magic growing as it is hasn’t been recorded since magic was discovered back on earth. That was in the year 2178, and now it was 3497, a full one thousand years for magic to settle within human beings, and it was still growing in me. Not that I’m complaining, but it didn’t seem like a good thing that it was growing as it was. They say that a human’s magic grows as they use it, and while I haven’t used it much, my level is at par with kids with their magic and were training it actively.

The notion that my power was so much at that moment filled me with glee and dread for two different reasons. Glee because that means I will be really strong when I finally get to training, and dread because I heard that if somebody is too strong, they have to wear nullifiers to help control the magic output. I doubted that i'd get strong enough to have to wear those though, as when humans train their magic, its power only rises slightly. Control was more of a key factor in how much somebody could do.

I had at that point reached about the center of the town that the barracks resided in, it was actually calm for the time it was, and because of that, I relished the feeling of peace. The thought that a peace such as this could exist was beautiful. But all good things must end, and it ended with a very sad sight. An old man was sitting within a bus stop, sheltering from the rain as best he could. From the cloths on his back, he was homeless.

I frowned deeply at the sight, but what could I really do to help him. He was sleeping so he didn’t see me, but that didn’t change what I saw on that bench. I shook my head and walked on to get away from the depressing sight before me. I just kept walking, thinking of how I could have made a difference if I had been near the old man when he was first set into the streets. What could I have done to help him just now?

The thoughts were not very pleasant but they were a reality. And ever since my damn magic took hold in me and began to develop, I was forced to think of such things. From being a retarded husk to an over thinking freak, not what id call pleasant, I bitterly thought. I had become a freak from a cripple what was there that could really be done to avoid that ridicule. Not a whole lot that’s what.

Lights were glowing from the houses not far away; it wasn’t that late so it wasn’t surprising to see the lights. Still didn’t feel pleasant to be near though because it transformed freak, into freak with no family. I sighed in defeat; my thoughts were getting progressively more negative. So I just closed my eyes and calmed myself fairly well.

Until a scream tore through the storm, but I didn’t know where from, it sounded as though it came from a kid my age. Another scream sounded and a few doors opened after with people looking out to find the noise.

The next scream though made me tear off straight ahead, I found the direction with a focus I never had before that point. It took me only seconds to locate the direction more precisely as another scream came out, now discernibly female. My anger rose, and I barely took note of the glowing red lines tracing up my fingers.

It took a full minute of running and following the screams, and I noted that the girl was running because the direction kept shifting. By now though I had become fully aware of the red patterns, as they began to move around and form intricate patterns on my hand, they gave off a feeling of hellish hatred when I looked at them, but I don’t really understand the meaning behind said feeling.

Now though as I came around the last corner, did I see what had enraged me beyond belief. An Alespid had cornered a girl who was by now soaking wet and shivering from the cold and fear. I jammed my hands in my pockets and brought them out with the steel knuckles on. The knife was the next thing to be grabbed with my right hand.

With those I just lost my sense of calm and yelled in rage. I charged and as soon as the Alespid had turned, a solid left hook rocked his humanoid jaw. The second hit I threw was a punch from my right hand, which held the knife, the Alespid tried to dodge and I turned the strike into a slash. I still partially missed him though, leaving only a small cut on its left arm.

It retaliated before I could recover and hit me with an uppercut that caused my head to jolt backwards. The punch hit me straight in the stomach, and the next in the chest. I stumbled back putting room between us, and when I checked the girl was gone, hiding somewhere no doubt.

I was brought back to the fight by the sound of a blade being drawn. The Alespid had drawn a sword that most Alespid officers carried, and now knowing what skill level the Alespid was, I got cautious. He held the long sword with practiced ease in a two handed grip. We circled each other, waiting for each other to strike, but it seamed I had more patience.

He charged me, coming with a slash from the right; I jumped backwards as it flew by my torso. I gave a quick punch to the side of his head and backed away again. He stumbled a step back and I took the time he was recovering with to analyze the fight.

He had about fifty to eighty pounds on me, all muscle. We were even height at six foot four. He had a higher skill level, a better discipline with a blade than me, and a longer blade. Thicker skin and a higher functioning brain than mine, however we were both enraged, and so bath of us would be clumsy. Maybe if I can calm myself down, I can think better and beat him, I thought.

My time for thinking was up however as he charged again, this time thrusting the blade forward at me. I pulled my self to the side while using my knife to deflect the blow slightly. It seemed to work as hi footing gave slightly and missed a step forward. The result was him falling forward, but he caught himself with a hand, putting him in a knelling position right in front of me.

I exploited it by kicking him hard in the face, and as expected, he fell to the side. He dropped the blade as well, and so I took the fight to the ground. I straddled his stomach dropped my knife into its sheath, and hammered on the Alespid’s face. I could feel as his cheek bones gave under the assault, and only then did I realize that my hands were still glowing red.

He recovered slightly and punched me in the face, and I could feel the cartilage in my nose break, but that didn’t stop my assault on his head. In fact it spurred me on, hitting harder and harder. My mind fell into a blur as we kept hitting each other, him clinging to life, and me to consciousness, as the pain got worse every time his hand hit my face.

Finally though after what seemed like forever, I heard a nasty crunch as his skull gave way. I didn’t stop though, I kept hitting over and over until his body stopped twitching, and his skull was busted completely open. The sight of his battered brain matter made me want to wretch, but I held it back.

That’s when I heard the sirens of the approaching police, I couldn’t move though, my head hurt too much to form the will to move. So I just sat there, looking down on the body, blood running down my face all the while. When a hand touched my shoulder I jolted back into full awareness, and looked at the concerned face of the officer behind me, my officer standing next to him.

They slowly helped me up, and I saw the girl sitting in the back seat of the car, tears covering her face. That for some reason stung worse than the wounds covering my face. It always hurt me to see others sad or in pain, but I couldn’t focus on her, I needed to give a report to my officer, not that he really needed one because he could see the outcome already.

He gave a sad and proud smile to me, showing that he wasn’t mad that I had snuck out, but happy that I survived the encounter.

Chapter 4: New Normal and Bigger Issues

Ponyville, Library

“Alright everypony, I got you girls here because I’m concerned with the strange emotions floating around, literally by the way,” Twilight said. Twilight was on the first floor of the Library, her friends all there with her. Each had a look on their face that said what they thought about the meeting.

Rainbow Dash, a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane, had a look that showed her annoyance with the topic. Applejack shared the same look Fluttershy, a butter colored Pegasus with a pink mane, had, which was one of concern. Rarity, a white unicorn with a styled purple mane, had a look of light worry on her face. Pinkie Pie, a pink earth pony with a darker pink mane, looked as she always did. Twilight had a look that spoke her worry about it in volumes.

Rainbow spoke up first, “Why do we even care about it, Applejack and her family are fine and so is Fluttershy. Our crisis has already been diverted so why should we care anymore?” All five ponies gave her a look that told her that her words weren’t appreciated.

Rarity gave her input next, “Twilight darling, I do believe that this strange thing is cause for worry for everypony, but what exactly can we do? It’s not like we know what’s causing it, and so we can’t do anything about it.” Twilight nodded at her friend’s statement and adopted a look of concentration.

Her reply was, “Well, we may not be able to get rid of it, but we can try and keep ponies away from the places that seem to be afflicted with this strange anomaly. So why don’t we try and keep tabs on those places and try to keep ponies from entering the premises.” Twilight looked rather proud of her plan, and the rest of the mares present looked like they were thinking, well except Pinkie, she just stopped moving which was her equivalent of thinking.

“Well ah think that it’s worth a try Twi, but how do we keep track of them places all th time. I can keep track o th acres, but what about th other places that seem ta be gettin strange?” Applejack voiced.

“Well we all move around a lot on a daily basis, so I thought that I could compile a list of places that are affected, and we can check them if we go near one. How does that sound?” Twilight asked them.

“That should work well enough, I mean, I go around the entire town at least once a day so I shouldn’t have a problem with that. So just pass off one of those lists next time we meet, I gotta go and do my weather duty,” Rainbow said. Shortly after she practically flew out of the Library, forgetting to close the door when she was out of the Library.

Twilight shook her head slightly and shut the door with her magic. After that she looked back to her other friends with a look that asked, is the plan good? The remaining mares each gave an affirmative, and went about leaving, except for Fluttershy and Applejack.

They had been living with Twilight for the duration of time that their homes were affected, and the feelings hadn’t left yet, so they would remain with Twilight. After that, the three went about what they do almost every day. Applejack went to go and do same chores around the Library, Fluttershy settled on reading a book, and Twilight was organizing a group of shelves yet again.

Every once in a while they would speak to each other, talking about things that had to do with the tasks they currently preformed. Applejack asking about what she should do with some things that she was arranging upstairs for her and Fluttershy, Twilight saying how long she would be, and Fluttershy asking about snippets of the book she didn’t fully understand.

All in all, they were acting as if they had lived together for their whole lives. What they didn’t know however that a stranger anomaly was growing within the Everfree forest.

Everfree Forest, unknown location

The place in which the emotions originated, it was filled with overpowering energy. And all that energy coalesced into one spot. In that spot was a swirling mass of different colored energy.

It seemed to be a portal of sorts, but what kind was not known, or it wasn’t a portal at all which was very possible. All that any would be able to tell if they found it, was that it was made of very powerful magic, magic that if uncontained, could cause problems if not kept in check. It wasn’t natural in a way.

It felt different than any normal portal; it gave off a presence instead of anything related to magic. Its mere existence was a mystery, and yet, it was probably the most frightening thing in the area, that fact wasn’t surprising though. All creatures steered clear of the area as though it was on fire.

The truth of that fact though, was that they felt the presence in a different sense than a pony would. They felt the good and evil mashed together in an incompatible mix. The portal was just the result of the violent clash.

It defied natural balance, casting out random spouts of energy that healed or destroyed the nature around it. The direct area itself had the color slowly bleed out over time, resulting in the colors being muted shades. That alone told any and all that the portal had a very malevolent presence.

It was only a matter of time before the portal showed its true meaning, a meaning that absolutely nothing would ever know, until it was nearly too late.

Aremia, country side, town: Carsen

Zero’s blood was boiling at the sight he was seeing. His team could see it clearly, all because of the red lines trying to come past his wrists; his runes prevented that progression though. Although the downside to the lines being trapped on his hands, meant that anything he would do would gain a large power boost. Zero only got more pissed off though as he couldn’t keep his emotions in check.

They were approaching the main building of operation, which was just a large shot out, but intact, office building. This section of the country side was cleared of the Alespid threat prior to the team’s arrival. Good thing to, because if Zero had been a part of the clean up, there would be a lot more to clean up.

The town was in shambles, buildings still in the process of collapsing, and tents with injured people everywhere. It was a horrid sight, and one of the twins had to throw up from the sight of a man with his intestines spilled at his sides. Zero only got angrier, meaning that the lines burned brighter casting off a visible red glow.

Still, the team parked the two vehicles they took and proceeded to the inside of the building. Once inside they all had the urge, Zero still shaking with rage included, had the serious urge to face-palm. People were literally tripping over each other in their hurry to carry out orders that were most likely inconsequential.

So they had their two strongest teammates take up the front to help push people out of the way, those people being Cassen and Zero. Good thing to because more than once did a Private slam into one or the other in their rush. Cassen laughed and Zero shook his head every time, but never once did they slow the brisk pace they had set.

Once they got up the stairs though, a new sight greeted them. It was fairly calm other than a couple people rushing between the stations they were monitoring. The only spot that had completely calm people in it was dead center of the room. That was where they were headed, and since they were out of the catastrophe zone, Cassen and Zero moved back into their places.

Once they reached center room the team gave a serious solute, and were given three in return from the four commanders, one of which was giving commands through a microphone attached to a bulky radio. When they eased out of their stances, Carter said, “Sirs, what are our orders, as I understand, we are the distraction, so how do we go about this, Sirs?”

The reply came from the commander at the Radio who said, “We want you to do just that, we don’t care how, but as soon as we call for tactical retreat, you make all Cass break loose, understood.”

“Sir, yes, Sir,” the team chorused in unison.

With that out of the way, the team just went down stairs, Cassen and Zero once again leading, and went outside to the armory tent. The tent in question had been supplied with the weapons the team would use via teleportation. And being the way it had to be during the mission, the team literally loaded up.

Each team member grabbed two pistols, one custom, and one standard. Their weapon of choice for their class, and a combat knife, they all also adorned a black bandana around their necks. Several pouches of ammo were added to their chests upper arms, minus Zero on that one, and upper legs. After that, a second primary was put on that was slung over their chests on top of the ammo, each S.P. being a sub-machinegun.

Zero, though he had what everyone else did, added more to his outfit. A sword that formerly belonged to an Alespid was over his back; the blade was at least four and a half feet long, it was two inches thick and slowly narrowed to the blade, meaning that it looked somewhat wide. A second combat knife was added to his chest so one was on each side. A second custom pistol was added beneath his standard pistol, so one rested on his right hip and thigh respectively. A mask was covering his lower face and nose that was plated with metal. Gloves that were plated with metal were on his hands, and that completed his look of pure bad assness. Or so the team thought.

With that tedious task done, they went back over to the vehicles they arrived in. this time though, Cassen was driving the vehicle Zero was inside with Zero in the passenger side. While she was driving they made idle chatter about the abilities of the team, then Zero made a good point, “All of the team can use magic right, so do you guys choose not to use it?”

“Well I don’t know why we don’t, but most of our magic is passive anyway, like me, I can sense explosives in a way,” Cassen said. Zero was looking over while enchanting his bullets, but as soon as she said that, Zero lost it and began laughing like an idiot. “What the Cass are you laughing at jackass?”

“If you can sense explosions, does that mean you ignore yourself when you bitch at me?”

“You mother fucker, I ought to kick your ass for that one.”

“You’d be hard pressed to touch my ass, that’s one part of me I intend to keep unharmed by anything.” When he said that, Cassen began laughing, and realizing how that sounded, Zero laughed shortly after.

Until Carter ruined the moment, “I’m on the radio back here, so could you keep it down.” Zero looked back to see Carter go back to talking on the radio, and smirked.

“Sure we’ll keep it down Carter, but I hope you know we’re going to get loud later,” and Zero made sure that the person on the radio could hear him to, the resulting laughing made Carter frown with a blush. “What the Cass, are you a man or woman Carter, get that blush off your face damn it.” The man on the radio laughed harder, and then Carter realized the microphone was still on.

Carter looked at Zero and said, “That wasn’t cool at all Zero. That was embarrassing as all Cass, so never in your life do that again.”

“So I can do it in yours still?” Zero asked with a grin.

“You son of a bitch cut it out!” Carter said loudly.

“You know it’s rude to call somebody a bitch that you don’t even know right.” After Zero said that, Carter groaned in frustration, Cassen laughing all the while at his misery.

Zero turned back to the front and began enchanting his bullets again, as he had spent most of the day before to enchant his team’s bullets; it was only fair that he got some of the extra fire power too. It was a tedious job to do for sure, but in the end, when an Alespid’s head explodes, it is made entirely worth it. All that was cut short though as Cassen yelled, “FUCK, INCOMING!” and bailed out of the door.

The three in the back, bailed out and then Zero did what he always did to protect the car behind his. He bailed and as soon as the rocket made contact with the vehicle, Zero sent a shockwave through the air, sending the vehicle away before it could become an impediment to the other vehicle. Of course they still drove through the smoke and left over flame from the explosion but that was safer than hitting an exploding wreck.

All the people who bailed recovered and drew their weapons, Carter his assault rifle, the twins with their sub-machineguns, Cassen with her sub-machinegun, and Zero with a scoped pistol. As soon as they were drawn, bullets began hailing on Zero and Carter who were on the right side of the road. The people still in a vehicle were fast to get out, but they weren’t quick enough for Zero and Carter not to have to take cover. So without delay, the two men jumped into the ditch that provided decent cover.

When they heard their teammates returning fire, they twisted around as they were facing away from the enemy, so they could help fire at the Alespids. Lucky enough, the Alespids survived on scavenged weapons when it came to a gun fight, so they didn’t have ammo to waste. The team however, had several clips on standby, but only had the supplies in one vehicle left as the other was demolished. With the precision that the twins offered, Zero sending magic missiles every now and then, and a couple concussion grenades from Cassen, the Alespids didn’t stand a chance.

As the team gathered up by the enemy cover that no longer housed said enemy, they gave each other praise as that kept spirits high. That was the team’s key to winning their battles, without positive thought, you can’t win a thing. Not to be confused with them thinking they could win everything, as they recognized that in some situations, they would die if not careful.

After their little moment of happiness, they began to check over the Alespids, another part of their success in battle. If they ever fought a kill squad like that, then they would not only recover left over ammunition from the bodies, but check for rank and faction. Rank to know what kind of trouble they would face in the real battle, and faction due to the fighting styles each faction carried.

After several trips to the vehicle and refilling their ammo pouches, they had one person man the truck while the rest walked at the sides of the road. The vehicle was moving slow enough for the people on foot to keep up. It was a convoy position type deal if one were to look at the formation, and the team had the shared feeling that they would end up gaining more troops inside the fire zone.

It was common knowledge that some people wouldn’t leave the team, and try to help, but that almost always ended poorly. So the team just took it slow, because as Zero said once before, you don’t rush an enemy that holds a hard point unless you want to die. Simple but effective, one of the team’s founding traits

Little did the team know, even to Zero himself, something was slowly changing in his head; be it good or bad, it was changing drastically.

Chapter 5: Entry and Trade-off

Country Side Town Carsen

Crack…… Crack…. Crack

Every time one of the twins shot, an Alespid went down. There was no contest to see who was superior at ranged combat, let alone a fire fight; which was what the rest of the team was doing at the edge of the town. Carter and Zero were in flanking positions on either side of the fight while the others were facing them head on.

With the car sitting back with the twins, they didn’t really worry about losing their supplies, but the Alespid’s were dug in. it would take a while to get them out of their positions or kill them. That is, until Zero loosed a large ball of cracking red energy into their cover.

The result was rather profound as a few of the Alespid’s were dead and missing limbs. The others were too shocked from all the blood that just hit them. They were so shocked that by the time they regrouped, half of them lay dead. When they turned and returned fire, the humans all ducked back into cover.

Carter’s voice came in over the shoulder radios a second later, “Alright, we got them on the run. Let’s finish this group and hurry to move on. No doubt that little firework Zero launched is going to get us some attention.” After speaking, Carter sent off a few shots from his Primary assault rifle. Cassen hurled a grenade behind them and when they moved forward to avoid the blast, Zero let loose a magic bomb again.

That seemed to be the end as the two explosions detonated in unison on the enemy group. Now when it seems like something is over, you don’t expect to be attacked again. So imagine the team’s surprise when six Berserker Class Alespid’s barreled out of the smoke and into the first six people they could grab.

Now the Berserker’s looked just the same as the others and were only able to be identified by weapon of choice. They always used a sword and their hands or claws; ironically the same blade Zero carried was the kind they used. Though Zero had altered his to be identifiable, the alteration was small; he had added teeth, for a lack of a better word, to the blade of it.

As soon as they had appeared though, combat was brought back to life as they humans and Alespids beat the crap out of each other. The leader of the Alespid squad was fighting Zero, and the second in command was fighting with both the team’s Captain and Co-Captain. The twins didn’t fire a shot due to the possibility of hitting one of their friends and instead rushed in to help fight the Alespids off.

When they arrived, they split up to help Sarah and Maroe as they needed it the most. Cassen was faring well against the rather large Alespid that challenged her, meaning they were locked in a rather rough clinch. Rena was using her far superior speed to dodge the strikes of the Alespid she was facing off against. The Captains were using everything they had to beat back the Alespid Co-Captain.

Zero however, was locked in a bladed dance with the Alespid Captain. Which was what they were doing could be called, because for creatures their size, grace was hard to find. They did find it though, and they made sure that it aimed at one another. Swinging and blocking blows from and at each other. Although, while it could be described as dancing with the ways their bodies twisted and turned, one slip-up meant absolute death.

Zero wasn't planning for himself to die though, and it was made apparent by the fact he didn’t lunge straight into the Alespid. The Alespid Captain thought the exact same thing, and that was exactly how their little dance was made. It consisted of the simple movements every blades-man knew by heart.

Swinging, deflecting, dodging, and repeating those motions over and over again. Zero had the edge though, because his blade was charged heavily with his rage fueled magic. It gave him the edge in the way that whenever their blades contacted, it gave more of a kick on the Alespid’s arm. When one of the Alespids fell though, the Captain Alespid began fighting with fierce blows, actually managing to drive Zero back slightly with each strike.

No sooner than the seventh strike was swung, did Zero drive his blade through the Alespid’s chest. He released the embedded blade, and grabbed the arm that was midway through its ark. The Alespid wasn’t able to do anything before his heart stopped beating due to that, and after he fell, Zero took his blade from the carcass of the newly dead Alespid.

Without a second thought, he re-sheathed the blade, drew a knife from his chest and ran at the Alespid that was starting to beat back Carter and Saben. To say the least, the Alespid didn’t know what happened before a knife was sticking out of its throat. Zero yanked it out though as quickly as it was placed and then repeated the process four more times.

Two of the Alespids were left by time Zero was done mutilating the throat of the Alespid. Carter and Saben remedied that with four shots from either man’s pistol to each respective Alespid. They dropped with little resistance, blood quickly pooling beneath the wounds. The team members that were fighting them gave quick thanks and made their way back to the vehicle.

Looking over each other, they determined that nobody was injured, but they were all exhausted from the fight. Zero less so than the others as his fight was more sedated than theirs. Still, he gave them all the suggestion to rest before continuing, and they all happily agreed.

So they talked amongst themselves to pass time, doling out complements to each other for doing so well in the fight. Zero all the while giving tips how they could be more effective, not that there was many he could give, but it was no doubt helpful all the same. That is when it turned to hell though; at a rather loud ROOOOOAAAAARRRRR. The sound was unmistakable, as the team had fought several of the creatures, but never once killed one.

It was a Halen Alespid, a large scaly Alespid that resembled a mythical dragon, and varied in size by subspecies. Zero was the one to start getting the car ready while the others rested for a bit longer because if that monster was coming at them, then there was going to be a very large problem. That problem consisting majorly of the fact that they didn’t really know how to kill it without the heavy ordinance, so they settled for running rather shamelessly away from the area they were just fighting in.

It was a difficult travel as the paths they traversed were littered with broken items such as cars, light posts, the road, and many other things. The bodies were the worst thing though, because not only did they litter the streets, the human bodies were mostly non-recognizable.

Their faces were the only things that still resembled a human; the rest was a bloody mess. More often than not, the deceased had internal organs splattered across the street. The affect was profound on Zero, as he was getting angrier and angrier as every body past.

What none of them knew at that moment though, was that the red lines on Zero’s hands had started traveling up his arms. Zero was only faintly aware of it, as he could feel his energy flux rather violently in the back of his head.

Though while that was happening, the team slowly figured out exactly what was going on inside of the town. And while they figured that out, Zero finally started using his magic to sense the presences around him. What he found, though, was not what he wanted to see.

“They’re already retreating, the call hasn't been made yet Carter, something is wrong here,” Zero’s voice betrayed an emotion that wasn't normal for him, worry. As soon as Carter heard that, he looked at Zero dead in the face, and seeing his eyes glowing in their unnatural way told Carter it wasn't a joke. Not that he thought it was one anyway, but he was never left out of the loop on a mission.

“Well for now, we’ll just keep going, if that behemoth is behind us we can’t risk turning around. Maybe we can find a radio somewhere and call in,” his voice was all but certain, and his team picked it up. Nobody said a word though.

As time passed, and the team kept walking, Zero grew more and more suspicious of what was happening. For he saw that all of the human troops were out of the town’s borders, but nothing was following them. In fact, everything in the town seemed to be still. As if nothing was wrong, but he knew better than that.

“Carter, we need to find a good place to hide. Something is seriously wrong with this and I don’t like it,” He said.

Cassen answered him before Cater though, “What do you mean something is wrong? What’s going on Zero?” along with her words the rest of the team nodded in agreement.

“I don’t know what it is exactly, but whatever it is, it can’t be anything good. Maybe we can take refuge in one of the abandoned buildings. C’mon into this one, if the Halen finds us, let me handle it. From what I’m starting to think, we’re not walking out of this alive anyhow.” Every last face turned to Zero when he said those words.

It wasn’t an often occurrence that anyone, no matter who, would imply what he just had. The especially grim outlook didn’t help a whole lot either. They knew Zero was never one to try and be that way, but the reality was sinking in slightly. It was an old military tactic, a trade off, the town in place of several others, because the one thing they realized only then.

Most of the bodies on the streets were civilians, almost none having a defense against the Alespid forces. They were set up, and so was the town, but one thing was for sure; both sides played their parts perfectly.

It wasn’t very factual, but it was the only explanation as to how things were going; well, the only explanation to the team. It was rather common that they got shit end deals, but the fact that their own people did it; well not one thing could be said about that.

When they reached the house, a silence had overtaken them, only broken by the sound of Zero kicking out the window on the locked door. After unlocking said door, they all filed into the house. Each person having thought about what was about to happen, Zero and Carter and Saben knew what had gone down when it became obvious.

It was a trade off, one city, as well as a group of HVTs, in exchange for a temporary cease fire treaty. It wasn’t uncommon for a trade off to happen, but this one was larger than the ones recorded. Usually it was just a few scientists or something, but never an entire town, let alone military forces.

But all they could do was wait for the impending hell; however, nobody knew exactly what Zero had in mind at that moment. What he was thinking of was one of his more drastic plans, and his team would most likely not like what he thought. But it was obvious death was waiting on the doorstep, and when they stepped out to greet him, it was over.

Zero was going to do a magical discharge, and as most already knew, his amount of magic made it quite lethal depending on how it happened. The one he was aiming towards doing was a complete and total discharge, one that if he survived, would leave him in a completely void state for a while.

The chances of survival were very slim, and Zero was going to make the last stand; one of the few to ever lead to a victory. So as the team began to prepare themselves and the surrounding area of the house, Zero started pulling away the runes on his arms.

Cassen was the first to notice, who then told Maroe, who then told Alex and Garen. It stopped at them though, as they were the only ones behind Zero one-hundred percent. When he did get the runes off, he finally noticed, as well as the watching people, the lines that were reaching up to his elbows.

“That is problematic for the Alespids I guess,” Zero muttered to himself. When he got rid of the last rune, he went on to take off the nullifiers. That was one of the best and worst ideas ever. Now in most cases, magic is used completely by the user; but in rare cases, the magic amplifies the user’s emotions and thus thoroughly warping the amount of control the user has.

Zero was one of those rare few, and so when the nullifiers came off, he instantly felt his magic flux dangerously. His mind blanked for several seconds, his vision blurring and his thoughts getting a bit simpler. It didn’t last long though, and he finished his preparations, which only consisted of loading and checking his weapons.

The lines continued up his arms from his elbows while he did his tasks, and if he were to have taken his shirt off, the lines would have been visible on his shoulder blades and barely onto his chest. His eyes also suffered a change in the process; they had become a glowing red color.

The rest of the team who saw this, other than the ones who witnessed it happen, were very skeptical of what Zero was planning. He was never one for feelings though, and it showed when he literally just said, “Man the Cass up.” After that he continued on with his duties of getting the house ready for a fight.

They stacked the furniture against walls to reinforce against bullets. They blocked off the back door entrance, but left the front door open. Upstairs was made into a snipers nest for the twins, and Cassen set herself up in the doorway nearest to the front door. The doorway she was in led to a living room, where Zero, Carter, Saben, and Rena set up positions by the three windows. The rest of the team placed themselves in support positions near the back door should they need to help, or if the back door itself was breached.

Zero was having trouble a little to keep magic from sparking up because it was clear that it wanted out of his body. Like it had a mind of its own in a way, but it was still Zero’s body, and he forced the feeling down. When he was finished fighting was when it would find that release. But until then, Zero just kept the magic where it belonged, though the thought of where it actually did belong hit him.

I don’t know where the Cass magic stores itself. Last time I checked there isn't a gland because that would be stupid. My magic can’t be just contained in my body so that one’s out the window. Maybe it sticks in the subconscious; gah this is making my brain hurt, Zero thought. That was also the time it became obvious that they were about to get attacked.

It was obvious because the Alespids didn’t even try and mask their approach. They closed in with the sound of loud echoing steps, ranging from hooves to boots to claws pounding against the ground in a loud march. Every single person on the team uttered prayer to their own gods and idols, or to a loved one lost in most cases.

When the Alespids arrived, they didn't expect the absolutely calm approach a group of them used. The group was one that Zero knew, and he grinned when he saw them. General had been a good fighter, but in the end, he had died and passed the team he led on to his grandson. The grandson in question took after his mother and had a more equine look. The female and rather canine looking Alespid was of higher status, she was the Prophet’s second daughter. A bull like Alespid was right behind them, and a giant hammer was slung across his back. Two normal Alespids who took after the original Alespid design were flanking the three.

The biggest issue presented was the Alespid that flew silently above them. The Halen Alespid was circling the house, and if it wanted, it could have burned the building to the ground. But since it didn't, the team could only guess what was about to happen. Their answer came from the lead male that had approached the house.

“I believe we have encountered one another before Sir Dante, however, I do believe that I and your team are far less acquainted. I don’t suppose you would be willing to come quietly would you?” Zero stood up and shook his head at the Alespid, and that was enough of a message to convey what would have to happen.

The Alespid sighed and turned around, giving the command, “Kill all of them but Sir Dante. Xenes’rhal wants him alive for her father.” As soon as that was said, the Alespids that had taken their places slightly away from the house and behind cover opened fire with the weapons they had. The house took most of the damage, but some bullets pierced into the furniture on the inside.

The team returned fire in only a matter of seconds, and most of them were lucky enough to hit an Alespid and take it down. The only ones who had not fired were the current support members, and on the Alespid’s side, the in-command team had not attacked. The Halen Alespid didn’t attack though, knowing that if it did, Zero would most likely die from it.

So instead it retreated to cover behind a building not far away. So this is how I end my story. Fitting in a way, started by Alespids, ended by Alespids, Zero thought.

Rifle fire echoed all through the streets as the two sides fought. Firing at one another from cover, and trying to kill what was an obvious target. The team, while suffering no casualties yet, was getting run ragged from the fight.

Alespids constantly charged the door, only to have Cassen send them back out with a string of shots from her shotgun. The rest of the team had expended their primary weapons and instead favored their side arms and SPs. Zero had begun using his two custom pistols to fire at closer targets. Saben and Carter were using their standard pistols to fire at enemies further out. The rest of the team besides those four were upstairs using their SPs to fend off the Alespids in a wider area.

Everything was going fine actually, and then Alex yelled, “Garen is down!”