Chapter 7 - Case Files 401

My memories could be vague, but this is as far as I could recall.

June 2039, 3 years ago. The inevitable tragedy set foot on this very year. Let's dive into the beginning, because that is how everything begins.

***

"Hey, Raz. General called you in."

A member of staff called my name. I wonder what the General required from me. I immediately make my way towards the conference room. As I made my entrance to the conference room, I was introduced to three of my favourite teammates. They seem to be getting the same order. Alex, Lilith and Xavier are my favourite teammates. The best of the best. Somehow we are gathered here for a very specific reason. We all know about it when suddenly, the General starts to speak.

"From today onwards, all of you shall be rebranded. Instead of you doing the operations under interchanging units, we shall fix you all into one group. We would like to test your capabilities as a category type agent. Raz, you on strategy. Alex, you on tech. Lilith, you on defence. Xavier, you on assault. The four of you are experimental towards the future of Base Zero."

Well, at least we got an official team formation. But something about "experimental" bugs me, as if we are worthy to be lab rats.

"Hey Raz, I could think of a name. Why don't we call ourselves the Swords Link?"

"What, because we linked?"

All of us let out a laugh after Lilith suggested that we call ourselves Swords Link. Eventually, things got better from there. As we are able to synchronise with one another, our fight has become better. Operations went smoothly and our communications among others have improved significantly. We could get a hold of ourselves. At least for now.

2 Months later...

Evening has fallen and the day is about to get dark, and it also indicates that my job is done for the day. As I prepare to go home, my movement is interrupted by a voice which I recognize very well.

"Hey, Raz. Listen, you wanna hang out with me tonight. Just the two of us. I know a place."

"Alex, you know I don't drink. Besides, even if I drink, I wouldn't be as alert as I always am."

"Hey, Raz, chill. You don't have to drink. Maybe we can get you some juice. Or something rather soft."

Drink or not, this guy better not get drunk before we even started. I agreed to his invitation because I pity him for being alone later. Still, what is the entire point of drinking other than to get drunk.

At the bar....

"You know, Alex. We could just chill at the Base Zero lounge. Yet we make an effort to go here. Plus what is even good about being here? It is all noisy and stuff."

"Too late for that. Besides, our lounge is mediocre. Nothing can be done there. But, Raz, I have a proposal. And that is the reason why I bring you out here."

Alex took out something from his bag and showed me some kind of a blueprint to a certain project. What is shown to me is a pair of special glasses. As I expected from a tech guy.

"This is what I called, the Azura. A special clairvoyance gadget that I had plans to make that will certainly enhance the capability of a normal human. But, I am unsure how we can secure the blueprints of this gadget so that it cannot be replicated in any way possible."

"I see. So you want me to suggest a better security system so that no one has access to this blueprint other than us?"

"Precisely"

All that effort to show me a gadget. I mean it is worth it. I analyse the gadget with my observation skill. Indeed it is a gadget from the future. I think his point is to actually share part of his Metavoid powers to us since Alex has a great Metavoid skill. As I analysed further, I found the solution.

"What better way there is other than we actually create a complex key which requires both of our verification to access it? Perhaps biometrics but in a more complex way."

"Sounds great, but what if one of us went missing?"

"Then consider it obliterated."

"Oii"

I let out a laugh for pissing Alex off. It is amazing how Alex could come up with such an idea. Alex went on and ordered his drink, while I only got some orange juice, at least to quench my thirst. As the drink arrived, we both took a sip and paid the amount required. Of course, Alex treated me. Well, I kinda felt bad, but since he wanted it, why not. After drinking for a while, he then proceeds to ask me a question which changes the whole thing.

"I actually have a reason to show this Azura to you. Since you are the team leader, perhaps you could hear my reasoning."

"To share your Metavoid with us all right? I mean it is a good idea so-"

"No. I want us all to work together to rebuild Azalea City. Imagine a city without crimes. Using our authority we would be able to create a new Azalea City."

The Alex I knew won't impose such a question. Eyes shall not lie, and I can see it. He is determined to do so, but that is against a hero's ideal.

"So by creating the Azura we would be able to read all of our enemies and dominate them. Thus we impose a threat to all invaders."

"Not just that, Raz. Our mission will be a whole lot easier. Besides, we could even take control of the whole of Azalea City and use it to our own advantage. Perhaps we could become god."

"Alex, what the hell are you thinking??!! Controlling this city is the government's job . If you do so, you will become the villain, which you will call yourself a hero?"

I began to sound stern towards him. He is way out of line to be someone from Base Zero. My motive is simple, which is to ensure peace and let there be no havoc. I don't want control over something so big, and I follow my motive to protect Base Zero and minimise any damage. We would only trample over human rights if we take over this city just to fulfil our selfish ideals.

"But why Raz. As I said, the security in Azalea is enhanced if we become the ultimate agents of Base Zero."

I banged the table so loud that other customers in the bar began to question the situation. I immediately held Alex by his hand and dragged him out roughly out of the bar. As we exit, the rain has started to pour.

"ALEX!!! You know me, and I know you. We have known each other since we were young. We join Base Zero to protect Azalea. That is what we have promised. I have never heard such words coming out of your mouth. Remember till you die, we are protectors, not leaders. Don't ever THINK that you could protect Azalea with domination. You will regret it. And I can assure that."

I left immediately without a second thought. Leaving my best friend in the rain. I felt guilty, but he deserves to be scolded as such. It's way out of line. I cannot tolerate such ridiculous statements. As I turned behind, I saw him glaring at me as if what I said was totally wrong. I ignored his antics and made my way home.

The next day...

The next day is where everything changes. Alex is seen walking behind me as if he is trying to avoid me. But then he decided to muster up his courage to talk to me.

"Hey, Raz. Sorry about what happened last night. I felt guilty just by thinking about it."

Kinda feel bad for not forgiving him to be honest. From what I see, he is honest about his feelings. But it could be possible if he is putting up a facade.

"I forgive you, but make sure you don't do that again."

We then made our way to the conference room, awaiting for the General to brief on the next mission.

"Swords Link! You have a mission"

General then brings up a hologram which shows two suspects at the ship port.

"Swords Link, your mission today is to arrest these two suspects that belong to a terrorism case. I need you four to set up a strategy and capture them alive. Remember, if things escalate, resort to counter attack, but make sure they are alive, when they are captured. Understood."

"YES SIR!!"

We made our way out of the Base Zero HQ and immediately headed over to the ship port.

At the ship port

Things are going smoothly so far, as we saw the two suspects making their way out of one of the shipping containers as if they were stealing some things. We did see crates coming out of the containers, but unsure whether it is stealing or not.

"Alex, what do you see if Lilith and Xavier are to engage?"

Alex uses his clairvoyance skill to assess the future timeline.

"The two could negate the electrical flow upon being engaged by Xavier. Lilith's defences will get broken down by their mechanised arm."

Surprisingly that sure is the counter to diamond despite Lilith's barrier being made out of diamond. I began my plan by sending in Xavier to do what he is told to. Xavier sends a flow of electricity in order to stun their movements. The battle begins when the electrical flow is negated. Lilith as instructed forms a barrier surrounding them, which they then break with their mechanised arm. Upon breaking it, I immediately used my Metavoid, Identity Split and summoned a clone behind them. As I made my shot with my automated pistol, they blocked it, but they took all the shots from behind, stunning them from that point onwards. We did it, but that easily?

"You two are under arrest and shall follow us to a secret location to serve your punishment."

As I approached and decided to put a handcuff on them. As my handcuff is about to be placed on both of them. Alex prompted me to stop. From his clairvoyance view, he saw an explosion, which was too late by then. One of the suspects took out a remote detonator from his pocket and immediately hit the switch. A nearby skyscraper exploded. The heart and icon of Azalea City is destroyed and engulfs in flames. The whole thing indeed became an inferno.

"What the fuck did you do???!!!!"

"I had to. You crackheads are gonna arrest me. I knew you would come for me. The APD won't make any arrest because we cannot be traced. This is what you get for tracing us."

They let out a laugh mocking us of our incapability to protect Azalea City from its destruction. I immediately issued a warning towards the General for further actions. General asked us to stand down and let the Azalea Fire Department handle it. Base Zero had issued a fire unit to save the civilians and put out the fire. What happens next is beyond our expectation. Upon looking behind, a gun is pointed towards the two suspects. Shots were then fired into their heads. When I looked again, it was Alex. He proceeds to shoot multiple times in hatred and rage. His scream is like someone in agony. We proceed to pull him away from the situation.

"ALEX!!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING??!!!"

"My family is inside the building. They are shopping for some new furniture for the new year. But this FUCKERS EXPLODED THE WHOLE BUILDING. JUDGING FROM WHERE THE EXPLOSION IS FROM, IT IS NEAR THE FURNITURE SHOP. THEY DESERVE TO BE SHOT IN THE HEAD!!"

"WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BRING THEM IN ALIVE! JUST BECAUSE THEY DID THAT, DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO SHOOT THEM AND PUT AN END TO THEIR MISERY. JUSTICE WILL DO IT. FOR NOW, YOU ARE DISMISSED AGENT ALEX!!!!!"

Alex looked at me dead in the eyes. It seems that his hatred had been diverted towards me. But all of the sudden, he decided to point the gun towards my head, which indicates that he is indeed hating on me

"You won't get it, Raz. You will understand it soon enough if you lost everything you loved. I don't serve leaders that don't understand justice. I don't care about your orders. Dismiss me all you want, I will be going there and save them."

In total rage, I dismissed Alex without a second thought. He then proceeds to walk away. I had to do this. Otherwise, this story might circulate around Base Zero that an agent had killed someone because of emotion. I reported it to the General to which the General suspended Agent Alex and Swords Link for a month. We were not allowed to serve in Base Zero during that suspension period, when we became normal civilians.

1 week later...

It has been a week. My calls did not get through to Alex. Not even my texts. Not even the others could reach him. But soon enough, I received a text from the General to which we are not expecting it at all. The message was made to every Swords Link member. Why are we receiving a message during the suspension period? This doesn't seem good at all. I closed my phone and immediately headed over to Base Zero HQ. Upon arrival I am greeted by Xavier and Lilith. I am shocked by one particular thing.

"Guys, where is Alex? Did he not receive the text message? I dismissed him, but then the General issued the order right?"

Questions after questions just to stabilise my mental state. My curiosity is gone upon General arriving at the conference room.

"You did dismiss him. But that is not why I summon you here. Alex is why you people are here."

My heart beats rapidly as anxiety is feeling my whole body. Is he dead? Or perhaps involved in an accident that he had to quit Base Zero. Or maybe even worse. Don't tell me....

"Azalea Space Center is your destination. In spite of the current situation, the whole HQ is under total defence. Robot units have been summoned. We heard about his Metavoid. So we are taking precautions. Intel suggests that a rocket is to be launched from there and the target is a residential village far from here. I need you three to persuade him and if possible arrest him. You three know him well. Move out"

Upon hearing that, I cannot believe he would launch a rocket. He did apologise, but he did not regret it. I should have known, that talk is serious, and the apologising part is all a facade. As we got into our car Lilith prompts a question.

"Raz, are you hiding something?"

"Yeah man like we could sense it. Is there something we don't know that you both knew about it?

Looks like I cannot hide this fact. As expected from Swords Link members, they are really observant and attentive.

"A day before the inferno, we had an argument. Alex said that he is done seeing all the invaders keep spawning out of nowhere. He suggested having a gadget powerful enough to take over Azalea City so that he could protect Azalea City and implement peace, which we all know is impossible. I am sorry for hiding this from you both. I did not know that it would escalate to such a state."

"Don't be. We are not mad. We just need to know what is going on so that we could persuade him better. I don't know what he is capable of at this point."

The conversation ended there as we made our way to the space centre.

At the Azalea Space Center...

The atmosphere is tense. We made our entrance and we saw many dead bodies laying on the floor, all with a light blue slash onto their bodies. What the hell is going on? This is like a massacre party. Blood trails everywhere. Bullets everywhere. There is no way someone with clairvoyance skill could do this much damage. As we made our way to the main deck, we saw a rocket ready to blast off. Somewhere in the distance, a memorable figure stood there entranced by the sight of the rocket. I then proceed to call that figure by its true name.

"Alex. I heard about it from General. I am sorry for dismissing you. And I am sorry on behalf of the General for dismissing you and Swords Link. Honestly, I need you to come back to your senses."

Alex then turns around to look at us with a glare of hatred.

"Alex was my name. My name is Arcadia. Like my father, Arcadia. I took his name to bring glory to him. This rocket shall change the future Raz. BUT YOU DON'T SEE IT AT ALL!!."

Alex then brings out his sword and stroking the ground so hard sparks form and leaving a light blue mark. Tears fell down from my eyes looking at my best friend turned against me. I then bit my lips so hard that it started to bleed to prevent myself from crying. Xavier saw me and decided that I do not continue with the persuasion but leaving it to him instead.

"Alex, I don't know much about your story, but what you are doing is wrong."

"Let me drill this into your heads. This rocket contains a Metavoid liquid. Once this rocket explodes, those who survive will be just like us and are able to defend themselves. I am simply recreating a method that my father had once done, but failed due to his mistakes. And my motive is to become better than my father. He had his own motive and I have mine. I do what I want to, and you people can witness that Azalea City will be better if I take control of it."

Xavier then sighs in disappointment. I heard what Alex said. This is wrong. Now I know that he is recreating his father's ideal. Then he is indeed a traitor at this point. Xavier then proceeds to speak up and puts his hands with crackling electricity fueling with disbelief.

"Then I guess we should stop you here, Alex. I am sorry for everything."

Xavier then launches a great amount of electricity, directing his attack towards Alex. Alex in response dashed and appeared before us, striking his sword on one of the railings to break the bridge apart. The bridge crumbled as we tried to get to a safe point. I instructed my teammates to hold me tight as I used my Metavoid to teleport myself with my Metavoid by summoning my clone and teleporting towards it to a safe point on a higher bridge. As we reached there, Alex dashed in front of us and attempted to slice us, but Lilith managed to create a barrier which then got sliced instead.

"The sword is the factor. The sword turns you towards the dark side. That is why you have such good fighting skills fitting for a villain."

Alex got annoyed after I said that.

"Shut up, Raz. I am a hero. I shall be the hero to recreate Azalea City one day. Everyone on that day will bow before their new hero, and you all shall be worthless by the time I finish you off."

Alex strikes his sword which hits the ground hard. We then split up to attack from multiple directions. Xavier lights up his electricity towards Alex, to which Alex effortlessly deflected it. Xavier fights him head on with all his might. But that dashing movement from Alex caught Xavier off guard. Unknowingly, Xavier got stabbed from the back . I screamed Xavier's name in total disbelief.

Lilith gets angry and forms a diamond sphere surrounding and containing Alex inside to seal his movements, which holds him for a while. But Alex splits the sphere in half, dashed and appeared right in front of Lilith. Lilith with her diamond hands attempts to punch, but fails, which Alex then punches Lilith with his bare palm at full strength, slamming Lilith at a nearby wall. Lilith went unconscious.

"You are all that is left, Raz. You won't make it out alive here to tell the tale."

"Beats me! Someone will come after you even if you manage to defeat us all."

"Bunch of nonsense crap!"

Alex engages towards me. In the nick of time, I summoned my clone and attacked Alex on full strength of my gun. With his clairvoyance skill, he evaded and deflected all the bullets effortlessly making it hard for the bullets to hit him. Then he teleports behind me, but I teleported to my clone to evade it. Unknowingly, he teleported again, but this time towards my clone. Thus, his palm hits me at full strength slamming me to a wall and a few debris fell on me. I screamed in agony as the pain engulfs me.

"You are indeed weak, Raz. I thought you might be a huge problem. But I am wrong. Now bear witness towards my capabilities as the new hero of Azalea. Bow before me, or die with the rest."

"I won't buy your offer. You betrayed us and yourself. You are fucking delusional."

Upon hearing that, he proceeds to press the remote to his rocket which is to be launched in ten seconds. He is open, but I cannot get a clear shot. With his clairvoyance, he should be able to predict my next move. I lowered my gun, as I saw no hope, while I was stuck in the debris with only a hope for a miracle. I then heard a voice on my earpiece, which is from Xavier.

"Do your part, Raz. Farewell....my dear friend."

9 seconds.

A sound of crackling wire from the rocket can be heard. He is distracted by something.

8 seconds.

Alex looked around for the sound. Now I understand what my part is.

7 seconds.

Xavier fires a huge electrical current as his final moments to shock Alex.

6 seconds.

That is my chance

5 seconds

I launched my Metavoid towards my right and goes on rapid fire towards Alex

4 seconds

As Alex is shocked the bullets travel at high speed towards his chest.

3 seconds

Alex fell down the bridge. Possibly dead.

2 seconds

1 second

Blast off

The rocket launches into the sky towards the target. I successfully stopped Alex from doing more damage, but at what cost. The mission failed, but the threat is gone. This is my regret till the very end. I could not stop the rocket. I have led my team and everyone to death. Xavier was found dead, but Lilith's body was never found.

This is my trauma that always haunts me till this day. I cannot forget the faces of my teammates. I have led them to death. I have led them to the deadliest trap. I have failed my friends. I failed as the strategist of the team. This is Case File 401. The most tragic case to have happened in the whole history of Base Zero.