10 Chapter 10

Earlier, after Aaron separated from the Ians.

Aaron chased after the soldiers, harassing them to give civilians time to evacuate.

As Aaron kept the soldiers busy, he studied their actions and habits. They simply chased after civilians.

As Aaron cut down another soldier an explosion sounded off in the distance.

"Ah, looks like they're finishing up. I'm impressed, they're improving better than I had anticipated."

Aaron quietly praised the two of them as he dodged the attacks of the soldiers. The soldiers continued their barrage as they kept their distance.

Although the soldiers' goal was unclear, time was clearly precious. The more time they wasted on Aaron the further their advantage slipped away from them.

The hairs on the back of Aaron's neck stood up suddenly. Aaron smiled as he charged straight for the soldiers. As the soldiers barrage assaulted Aaron an electrical wave passed through the soldiers blowing them away.

"You two are doing better than I predicted, keep this up and you two will go places."

"You say that, *pant pant* but we're running on fumes here."

Blazer called back as he caught his breath. Their energy consumption was enormous as they hadn't hesitated to use pseudo flying to catch up.

Aaron smiled and placed his hands on their shoulders.

"Reinforce, rejuvenate."

The Ians glowed as Aaron's magic spread to the two of them. Their fatigue was washed away, and they felt that their abilities had been increased.

"If you can do something like this, you should have done it from the start."

Sailor complained to Aaron as they turned back to the soldiers who were still recovering from the impact. Aaron picked up two rifles from the soldiers and tossed them to the Ians.

"Using it to often is a bad idea. Using reinforcement on other people is difficult, right now it takes up a lot of my energy."

Aaron knocked out all the soldiers he could before they recovered. The Ians stunned the rest.

"Anyways, you got any idea who these guys are?"

Blazer called out to Aaron. The soldiers had no distinguishing traits in their uniform, and until they were interrogated, they wouldn't get any information.

"My best guess is a trained military, and a damn good one. Most thugs crack as soon as things go south. Even the best prioritizes themselves over the mission."

As they discussed the identity of the soldiers, the police force arrived. The soldiers that were still alive were taken to be interrogated. Aaron and the Ians were taken in and questioned about the incident as well. After the police let the three go, they returned to their dormitory room.

Later that night Aaron slipped out of his dormitory. He made his way through the city back to the military facility. The rest of the squadron had already arrived, and the Lieutenant was scrolling through a file.

"Do we know who they belong to?"

Aaron called out to the rest of the squadron, a slight tick in his voice. Hate appeared behind him with a grin on her face. The Lieutenant glanced up from his file before clearing his throat. He input a command into his notepad causing the large monitor to light up with the file he was reading.

"To recap, Sergeant, the attack was an assault from six separate units. There was a total of 36 casualties and 140 injured. Beyond the rifles and suits, we have yet to find any evidence that we could tie to a culprit. The assailants, while perfectly healthy, appear to be in some sort of haze, magical or chemical has yet to be determined."

The Lieutenant opened the profiles of all the captured assailants, a simple physical description. As for their identities and allegiances, they were completely in the dark.

"They haven't done anything after being captured, they simply sit around like they're sleeping. They don't react to any stimulus, and since the General is currently away, we have no means of interrogating them. The equipment itself is highly advanced but has no distinguishable traits. They are simple stock models with no customizations."

The Lieutenant poured over a long list of information that for the most part they had already concluded or investigated. Hate yawned to herself as she impatiently waited for the Lieutenant to get to the point.

"Do we have anything that we can connect them to?"

Hope asked the Lieutenant calmly. The energy in Hope's body was cycling violently, causing the air in the room to vibrate with a quite hum. All the people in the room could feel it, Hope was angry. They all cycled between looks of discomfort and slight dread. Only a few of them had ever seen Aaron like this before, but they all knew about the incident that he created the last time he was like this.

Hate on the other hand just smiled to herself quietly, not uttering a word. She was, for the first time in ages, excited. Hope and Hate had a very thin line dividing them. Hope was quite vigilant, he kept himself contained, in check, perfectly harmless. It was so rare that an opportunity like this arrived.

The Lieutenant gazed at the two of them with helplessness in his eyes. There was only one person who could stop them when they were like this. As he resigned himself to whatever happened, a message popped up on his board.

Like a man who found an oasis after spending an eternity in a desert, Wilhelm opened the message with all haste. After lightly scanning over its content he breathed a sigh of relief.

"The General is on his way. He will find what he can from the remaining assailants, but in the meantime, he has discovered that the Ozarkstat regime has been sending agents into the country within the last few months. He has sent a list of some individuals they were able to identify."

The Lieutenant sent the document to the staff in charge of the assailants. A few minutes later the staff confirmed that all the people on the list were part of the assailants who had caused the incident. The Lieutenant thanked the staff as he put together more information form the General's documents.

"We have confirmed that there is a facility that oversaw the project. The facility in question is located in the mountains located west of the capital. I've sent the document to your devices. Deployment will be at 2300 tomorrow, get some rest and make the necessary preparations, dismissed."

As the Lieutenant wrapped up the briefing Hope walked out of the building. Hate followed behind him, smiling to herself. She didn't utter a single word the entire night. She had what she wanted, there was no need for pleasantries. For the first time in a long while, she was going to get exactly what she wanted.