Being A Superhero

BOOM! BANG! BRRRRRRRR! BOOM!

Sounds of gunshots and explosions rang everywhere. The inside of warehouse building were now in ruins.

"We need back up!" Cypher yelled into our comms. "Navigator! Where the heck is our back up?!"

"The Beta team are being held up in the 2nd sub level floor. You have to hold up 'til then." The Navigator replied through our comms.

"What do you mean hold out?! We can't take much more of this! We're taking heavy fire here!" Cypher replied in Panic.

The rest of the team didn't look too well. The enemy was raining hell on us while we're waiting to be finished off by them.

Cypher continued to argue with the Navigator on the other side of the communications.

I sat leaning behind one of the crates while taking cover from the heavy fire. The pain on my shoulder and left abdomen were slowly killing me.

I'm slowly bleeding out.

Why did it come to this? How did it come to this?

Mom… I'm sorry… I think I won't be able to save you anymore.

I closed my eyes and waited for Lady Death to take me.

__5 HOURS EARLIEIR__

"Let's go get your mom." Monkey King said.

The doors slide open after Cypher fidgeted with the passcodes. "Security Cameras Immobilized. Perimeter secure. I currently have the live feed of all cameras in the 1st floor and the 2nd sub level. We have to get to the 3rd sub level to access their camera. They seem to run on a different server."

Monkey King gave a nod. "Okay let's move out. I'll take the front. Cypher, you're behind me. Sleeper and Paradox will take the middle. While you're on it, make a small barrier to mask the sound of our footsteps. Shadow, take the rear together with Kai. Take Kai's shadow and smoke out anything that can threaten this operation."

He gave us one last look before he turned serious. "Now that everyone is good with their roles, stay in position and protect each other."

We gave a nod and we started moving in.

__1st Floor, Warehouse 4 HOURS and 30 MINUTES before "HEAVY FIRE"__

We were progressing well enough. This huge warehouse is actually… well… huge… It's like they were using a Teleporter in the front door to transfer us somewhere else.

"It's surprisingly quiet…" Kai said.

She's actually right. There's practically no one here so far. I thought we'd be greeted by people by now.

"Where are all the guards?" I questioned.

"We've been walking around for half an hour now. Where are all the people? There should be at least a watch dog at this point." Shadow pointed out through the comms.

"This doesn't feel right…" Cypher pointed out.

After walking around a few more minutes, we finally reached what seemed like an elevator.

"L-look…" Sleeper warned.

The elevator was going up and it stopped at this level. Three people wearing black protective suits came out. They must be the guards of this place.

"The SL2 has been locked. Until then, no one comes in or out of that place. I'm the only one among us with the access codes for that place. You two check the perimeter while I go check the cameras in here. It's been a while since we heard from the people guarding the front door. Something doesn't add up. Go check it out. We don't want another incident." One of the guards holding what seemed to be a holo-tablet was giving orders.

Without a second thought, MK gave out a signal to Kai and Shadow to take out the two guards after reaching 50m from where we were.

Immediately, the two of them disappeared.

Monkey King then gave a couple of hand signals to Sleeper who was beside me. She then jumped onto one of the pipes near the roof and started heading to the guy with the holo-tablet.

After waiting a while, she finally knocked the guy out with her sleeping powder. Cypher didn't wait around. He immediately started going through the man's holo-tablet.

MK went ahead and started searching for something over the man's body. "Bingo..." He said in a whisper. "Now what do we have here?" He lifted up a wristband from the guy's pocket and dangled it in front of Cypher.

Cypher took the band and started scanning it. "This is exactly what we need to get through the 3rd and 4th sub levels."

This doesn't feel right though. A guy, goes up, and suddenly, we have access to the 3rd floor? Anyway, maybe it's just our luck today.

"All clear Captain." Kai reported as she appeared beside us.

"Great job. Let's move." Monkey King commanded

"Wait. I have to get into the servers in the 3rd and 4th sublevel first. If you look at the elevator, they have six cameras. Each camera has a different server attached to it. This prevents any foreign subjects from entering the mainframe." Cypher said.

"English please…" Shadow mocked.

"It means… that we have to go through the second floor to find their servers so I can hack into their 3rd and 4th sublevel's cameras." He responded.

"Okay, I guess that this will be harder than I thought." Monkey King responded.

I looked at the time and saw that we've already wasted an hour at this point. Looking for the server room would add up to that.

"I guess there's no time to waste here. Why don't you just hack into the security cameras and find the room Cyph?" I asked.

"Already ahead of you." He said with a smile. "There! It's a room with a red door near the cargo bay."

We went inside the elevator and went for the 2nd sublevel.

"That's odd…" Cypher said while facing his Holo-tab.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked

"There are no guards in the 2nd sublevel." Cypher replied.

That's odd indeed. But no one seems to notice it. It's like we're walking into a trap.

"We'll use that to our advantage." Monkey King said. "We'll split up into pairs."

"I-I'm not sure t-that's a good idea c-capt." Sleeper said nervously.

"It'll be fine. We just need to cover each other's backs. And if something goes wrong, we'll immediately head for each other's location." Monkey king assured.

"But there's only one hacker…" Cypher said.

"Don't worry. We'll report through the comms as soon as we find the server room." Monkey King said.

We nodded in agreement. It was really the fastest way to go through this place. One of the rules of being an assassin is to do things swiftly, accurately and decisively. Otherwise, the longer we stay, the more we are setting ourselves up to be discovered.

"Shadow, you're with Kai. I'll go with Sleeper. Cypher, Paradox, you guys pair up. As soon as any of us finds the server room, immediately call the rest up. If there are unexpected surprises, deal with it accordingly." Monkey King instructed.

__2nd Floor Sublevel, Research and Storage area, 3 HOURS before "HEAVY FIRE"__

As soon as the elevator doors opened, the rest of the team bolted. Cypher and I just ran according to his pace.

"Are all of you this fast?!" Cypher was shocked.

"Yep. We assassins can't afford to slow down when on a mission but we still need to be careful." I replied.

The search went on for at least an hour now but no one could still find the place.

"Why can't you just hack into the blueprint of the place and search for that place?" I asked Cypher.

"I tried it. They don't have one. It's like this place doesn't exist at all." Cypher replied.

"That's impossible. Everything is being digitized nowadays." Kai responded over the comms.

"I know that! I tried hacking into their mainframe from here. But again, I can't! Not unless we find that server room!" Cypher yelled.

This is bad. Everyone is starting to be on edge. We have to find that room pronto.

As I turned to a corridor, I suddenly went into defensive mode and pulled out my gun. Why? It's because…the lights were out and it was eerily quiet.

"Did you turn off the lights Cyph?" I asked.

"No… No I did not…" He replied.

"What? What's going on over there?" Shadow asked.

We slowly walked towards the place to check it out. The atmosphere was getting thicker and thicker by every step.

"Team… get to our position… now." I said as I slowly backed away from the place. It was so suffocating that I nearly passed out.

"Sending you all our location. I've slowly mapped out the place using our lenses and communications. You guys should be nearby." Cypher said and then he turn to look at me. "What's going on?"

"I don't know. But something is definitely up with this place." I replied.

Cypher immediately became serious as he speedily typed on his holo-tab. After a few minutes, everyone arrived in our location.

"What the hell is this place?" Kai asked in a sassy tone.

*ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAR*

"I don't know, but I'm not willing to sit here and find out." I replied in a shaky voice.

We slowly backed away from the dark corridor after hearing a sound from what seemed to be a beast. It sounded like it came from the far end of this corridor.

I don't know what it is, but it sounded like trouble.

All of us slowly moved away except for Monkey King.

"Uhh… I don't know if Paradox covered the place with his skill but I know you heard it too, MK." Shadow warned.

*ROOOAR!*

"EEK!" Sleeper shrieked and hid behind Kai

"I heard it too. Whatever it is, it might answer us as to why this place is quiet, and what the experiments are about. We have to know what that… 'thing' is as well and see if it's a threat." Monkey King whispered

I felt like I needed to know as well. So I slowly walked forward to lead everyone. "Let's go…"

We slowly walked forward trying to feel everything in front of us.

Yes, it was THIS dark I'm telling you.

At this point, the only source of light was the exit that was far behind us. We relied on our instincts and senses to move forward. But it was impossible now.

Suddenly…

What's that smell? It smells like rust and it smells pretty bad. It actually smells REALLY bad.

"Hold up." Monkey King suddenly stopped us and it became quiet for a few seconds.

"Eww… something's sticky is on the floor." Kai complained.

"Shhh!" MK warned us to keep quiet. He then whispered to me. "Make a barrier around us Dox so that others outside won't hear us. See if you can find anyone or… anything ahead of us."

I nodded which was practically stupid since he could not see me.

I created a sound barrier that prevents any sound inside from going out. Then I put my headphones on and raised my index finger upward and snapped.

I tried to detect anything in the room, it's actually my extra set of "eyes"

"That's weird…" I said in a confused tone.

"What? What is it?" Shadow asked in a panicked tone.

"I can "see" four heartbeats in front of us." I answered.

Confused, sleeper asked, "H-how is that NOT weird?"

Suddenly, the whole place lit up.

We all turned our heads at the back to see Cypher with his holo-tab lit up, illuminating the entire room.

"I… think I know why…" Kai said

We all looked at where Kai was looking at and we saw lots of blood and scattered body parts all over the place. There were even scratches and signs of a fight in the room.

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Kai said while covering her mouth.

Seriously? She gets sick at this yet she hacks people in half with a giant scythe. I really don't understand women.

"Why didn't you use the holo-tab to light up the place earlier Cyph?" Shadow asked.

Cypher just gave a loud sigh and replied, "Because this was a covert mission, and I thought lighting the place up would disrupt the mission. I really don't know how you Alpha Team members run your op. Anyway, it lit up because I finally was able to hack into the servers of the 3rd sub floor even without the server physically here. The 4th sub floor is a different story. It's taking longer to crack since the servers are different. It's like it doesn't even exist in the same building."

"Great job. Before hacking in the cameras, try to access the files and see what these guys were working on." Monkey King ordered.

"Way ahead of you, MK. It'll only take a few more seconds." Cypher replied.

The rest of us started to scan the room to look for clues. There was a door heading to a different room and it felt eerie so I didn't go ahead alone. But there was this feeling of wanting to check it out.

I slowly walked over and slowly grabbed the handle of the door to turn it open and just before I was about to touch the handle.

"Got it! Okay…" Cypher yelled and it scared the crap out of me.

I turned away and we gathered towards Cypher.

"It looks like they were indeed doing experiments with the SPS gene." Cypher summarized.

"I knew it!" Shadow yelled as she punched her left palm.

"No… That's not it… They made something called the SPS Serum." Cypher replied.

"I see. So it's the SPS Serum, huh? Then this must be the work of the Daily Virus." I said as I contemplated on it.

"Wh-what's the SPS Serum? A-and what's a D-daily Virus?" Sleeper asked in a timid voice.

I looked at her and answered. "MK and I had a run in with the Daily Virus in my early days as an agent. They are a group of researchers and scientists that are illegally studying the SPS gene. They harvested the genes from people who have the SPS. It was not a pretty sight. But long-story-short, they used the SPS gene to create the SPS Serum."

This was basically illegal. To extract even a small vial of active SPS gene, they should at least harvest 3 liters of the host's blood. That itself was inhumane.

During our run in with them in the previous mission, we found an entire warehouse containing people with SPS genes or people who were "given" the SPS gene, who were in glass containers.

It was possible to make other SPS humans through the serum. Like a one in a million type of chance. Because without the Celestial Alloy to control the SPS gene, it would yield unpredictable results to the host infected with it.

"Bingo. Searching through the server's mainframe, I was able to get details about the workers here. They were really from the Daily Virus, and get this, they weren't experimenting on humans." Cypher explained as he hastily tapped his holo-tab.

"Really? Then what were they experimenting it on?" Shadow asked.

"G-guys… I think I k-know what they e-experimented on…" Sleeper said in a very shaky voice.

We all turned to see what she was pointing at. The door that I was about to go in was now opened and behind it were two large figures that were definitely vicious and indescribable, yet, their features look familiar.

"Animals… they're experimenting on animals…" Kai said in a scared tone.

*ROOOAAARRR!*

__END OF CHAPTER__