3 Fight For Survival

Perched on a tree, Code 072 twitched his ears as another unfamiliar sound entered his hearing.

Click. Click. Crack.

The sounds of metal and plastic colliding and the occasional cracking of tweaks resounded in his ears.

'They are here.'

Routinely, Code 072 went vigilant as he lowered his body, sticking it close to the trees, as he slowed his breath, ensuring that no sounds escape from him.

"Charlie to Bravo, status," Commander Blitz softly said into his walkie talkie.

"Bravo to Charlie, no signs of them...wait. They have been spotted, three of them. Request to engage."

"Engage."

Just as he was about to call Alpha, a rustling sound came from the front.

"In front! Prepare to engage!" Commander Blitz immediately commanded as he pointed his handgun at the bush. His team immediately followed suit and the atmosphere became extremely tense.

Through a gap between the leaves, Code 072 spectated from above.

Slowly, a boy around fourteen years old calmly walked out of the bush. He had a fiery red hair with a slightly tanned skin.

"My, my...can you let me walk away?" The red-haired boy spread out his arms, as if to say he was defenseless.

Commander Blitz did not reply as he zeroed in on the numbers on the boy's neck.

'Code 000! Dammit!'

Code 000 was one of the strongest codes among the remaining codes, matched with his vibrant and passionate personality, his ability was to create and control fire to his own will, better known as pyrokinesis.

"Heh! Fire!" Hoping to catch the boy by surprise, commander Blitz immediately ordered to engage. 'Let see how you are going to dodge tens of bullets at close range.'

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of gunshots rang out as the experienced soldiers fired at the boy without reservations.

Boom!

Instantly, a fire wall appeared in front of the boy, melting most of the bullets upon contact. Once the soldiers have emptied their magazine, they stopped their firing as they waited for the corpse to appear.

However, when the smoke cleared, the boy stood there smiling.

"Ouchy, that hurts old man. You should have warned me, playing dirty against a child. Tsk tsk," Code 000 berated as the bullet wounds healed by themselves.

"H-how??! How did you melt our bullets?" Commander Blitz stood in a daze as he gazed at the scene unveiling before him.

"Don't you know? I was able to control the temperature of fire. Just recently," Code 000 said with a mischievous grin.

"Impossible!" Commander Blitz staggered backwards as the boy before him seemed to appear extremely intimidating.

"Well now, it's my turn. Medium well I assume?" Code 000 laughed as he brought his arms back and in a pushing motion, he released a wave of fire towards the soldiers.

The searing heat incinerated them within seconds, without giving them a second to scream.

Looking at the charred surroundings in front of him, Code 000 clicked his tongue in displeasure before walking forward.

At that instant, a boy with a silky black hair jumped down from a nearby tree, and landed a few feet away from Code 000.

"AHH! Code 072, it's you! You gave me a fright, hahaha!" Code 000 jumped in fright before laughing at his own silliness.

Code 072 plainly looked at him and nodded, while witnessing several bullet wounds on Code 000 began to heal by itself.

Strangely enough, all the codes possessed strong basic regenerative abilities, albeit it was not to the extent of generating lost body parts.

"I say Code 072, you are as boring as always. Express. Some. Emotions." Code 000 articulated each word clearly while teasing Code 072.

Feeling like he should do something but was unable to do so, Code 072 reverted his eyes at the ground, avoiding eye contact.

"Forget it. You come with me. You can't protect yourself without a weapon," Sighing, Code 000 gestured Code 072 to follow him.

Softly, Code 072 muttered, "Okay."

On another side of the training ground.

Code 089, Code 030 and Code 001 took cover behind a large boulder as few bullets chipped the sides of the rocks.

"They are inching closer, what's the plan? What's the plan?" A slightly muscular boy repeatedly asked as he anxiously looked at the two girls in front of him. He was code 030, he possessed an immense amount of strength, however, his intelligence was lacking. By a bit. A tiny bit.

"Shh, quiet. I'm thinking," a purple-haired girl squatted beside Code 089 as she massaged her temple. She was Code 001, she was able to materialize her words, though at a cost; The larger the effect, the more damaging it is to her body.

"Alright, I will make them lose balance. Code 030, you will take this chance and kill them. Code 089, protect him," Code 001 carefully planned out and estimated that there should be a 90% success rate.

Code 089 and code 030 nodded as they prepared themselves.

"By my will, make the enemies before me trip." Code 001 eyes glowed purple as the atmosphere around her twisted.

As if she has commanded fate, the soldiers in team Bravo mysteriously tripped over.

While they were temporarily disoriented, Code 030 charged out with his fists in the air.

Upon making the first contact, Code 030 stepped on a soldier that was in the midst of getting up, immediately crushing his spine.

Upon gaining a slight alleviation, Code 030 punched forward at a soldier who had just picked himself. His head exploded into tiny bits.

By this time, the remaining soldiers had regained their footing and surrounded Code 030.

Code 030 flinched as the soldiers opened fire.

Ta Da! Ta Da! Ta Da!

Slowly, Code 030 opened his eyes and realized that a golden energy barrier had shielded him from the barrage of bullets.

"Hahaha! Fire somemore fools!" Code 030 taunted as the bullets ricocheted off him.

"Hurry!" Code 089 shouted as she raised her arms in the air, evident that she has generated the energy barrier.

"Ah! My bad!" Code 030 let out a surprised yelled as cracks began to form on the energy barrier.

Without much hesistation, Code 030 let out a battlecry as he charged into the platoon of soldiers, killing two soldiers at once with a swing of his arm.

Meanwhile, behind the rock.

Code 001 rested against the rock, her eyes closed as she felt the regenerative powers kick in. The bones in her leg began to readjust itself back to its proper position.

Code 001 clenched her fists as she endured the searing pain. The cracking sound resounded erieely in her ears.

Soon enough, the gun fire came to an eventual stop. Code 030 emerged victorious as he let out a toothy grin and gave a thumbs up.

Code 089 sighed in relief while glancing worriedly at Code 001.

...

Meanwhile, an entirely different scene played out on another side of the battlefield.

Other codes with support abilities or weak defensive abilities were all killed under the intense barrage of bullets.

...

After thirty minutes, Vincent announced the end of the death match and turned on the limiters on the Codes.

"The Chosen Ones, please proceed back to your rooms," Vincent calmly spoke into the mic.

"Now we have thirty of them left. Another death match should leave us with ten. I bet Code 000 will be the victor," Richard rubbed his chin as he stated his opinion.

The rest nodded in unison. Including Alan.

However, little did the researchers know that a code with a higher potential for growth would have to sacrifice something in return.