2 From Hero To Zero
When Angie was pursuing the Puppeteer ahead before her other teammates by flying above the factory, she heard some kind of...howl(?) coming from above her.
Angie: "What the-..."
She turned her head upwards to the sound she heard as she stops her flying in midair by flapping her wings expertly for a gentle break.
Not long after she saw her lousy captain making his 'awesome entrance' again heading to the factory miles away up there in the sky.
Me: "Woooooohoooooo!"
I glided down through the air in high speed and when it's about 2 000 ft from the land, the hidden jetpack mechanism inside of my suit on my back started to reveal itself and blasted a powerful force of burst, letting out refined booming sound, l simultaneously letting me fly in the sky with ease.
Angie: "..*sigh*...There he goes again."
She sighed whilst shaking her head sideways in disbelief while a smile can be seen at the corners of her mouth as she totally understand how her 'remarkable' captain works.
Me: "Hey, Angie."
I greeted her as I flew past the far and then she delicately flies, following me from behind afterwards.
Angie: "Looking good, captain."
Me: "Thanks. So what's the status?"
Angie: "What do you mean by "What's the status?", sir? You were watching everything, didn't you?"
She asked in a very sardonic tone.
I know that even though she is likely joking with me right now but with that attitude towards your captain is just plain rude.
Come on now, Angie. With that very beautiful angelic appearance, it is just miserably not compatible with that kind of attitude of yours.
Angie: "The dark caster is heading towards the north wing of the factory and surely there will be nowhere for him to escape as soon as he reaches the dead end of that side of the factory. Therefore, we will be able to catch him before the sunset, sir."
She reported herself monotonously in a calm voice.
Me: "A'ight, no time to waste then."
While Angie and I were gliding in the sky swiftly together as a pair, I could see Arthur and Douglas are running, leaping from a container to another in synchronizing while they're being lead by Mink below.
Those three are very peculiar of a trio I might say, as their personalities are quite contrary to each other but they still manage to keep themselves in line nonetheless without getting flawed.
....for the most of the time though.
Next, static noises suddenly resonated from the comms of my gauntlet.
Arthur: "Captain, I see the dark caster 20 metres straight in front of us at the north wing. Twelve o'clock."
Me: "Copy that. I and Angie are right on your 7. This time, we'll definitely be able to bring him to justice."
I said as I shortly cut off the transmission.
Meanwhile, the Puppeteer: "Fuck, this is useless! I'll never get to Oriel in time."
The man in black whined as he's limping on every breathes he took.
Looking tired to continue to run away with the full feelings of anguish and pain piling up in his head, his escape route had finally ended up being a dead end with a tall concrete wall stood in front of him.
The Puppeteer: "MOTHER FUCKER!"
He cursed in angst.
He turned around, in the hope to find another escape route in time but then in surprise, sudden rows of poles made out of holy light; [Light Javelin] abruptly projected in front of the Puppeteer by Angie from above to block him from escaping.
Angie: "This is the end, Puppeteer. There's no way for you to run now. Surrender...or we'll get you the hard way."
She warned the puzzled criminal as she landed on the ground gracefully with her glowing sceptre in her right hand.
Me: "Please do what as she says. I don't wanna get my hands dirty just to get this job done."
I said in alert after I've landed on the ground next to Angie, pointing my summoned duel handguns menacingly straight to his head as a threat.
The Puppeteer: "Hehe....hehehe....hahahaha! You...you want me to surrender!? What a foolish request indeed!"
Hence, his body creepily twitches with dark power, horrifyingly making his hands surrounded with some sort of dark energy as his shadow eerily lurking out from its original position from the ground, slithering around his whole anatomy.
The Puppeteer: "Do you think that I'm THAT weak!? Well, think again, Mr Hero!"
After spouting such incompatible confidence despite his situation, he laughed maniacally thus the shadow on his body lurched itself towards Angie with an incredibly high speed, too fast for Angie that she wouldn't be able to dodge it in time.
Me: "ANGIE!"
I shouted in fear and in instant, I instinctively ran towards her as fast as I could to push her away from the shadow attack for me to take the damage instead.
Me: "I need to protect my teammate!"
I cried out in panic at the back of my mind.
I closed my eyes, readying myself to receive the unimaginable pain that's coming for me from the criminal's attack.
Shockingly, a loud thunder roared out of nowhere through the crowd, shaking the earth as the chains of green lightning struck the shadow projectile continuously, repelling it to the opposite way of me and Angie and hit on the other side on our right, leaving huge cracks on the ground.
Arthur: "Tsk tsk. Now now, no need for such a rush decision."
Said Arthur from above as he jumped down from one of the factory containers with his eyes glowing brightly in mesmerizing emerald green colour.
With that, he then proceeds in chanting some spells expertly thus quickly summoned another chain of green lightning and simultaneously binds the Puppeteer on his knees which continue to electrocute him in around 2000 volts of lightning currents.
The Puppeteer: "SKREEEEEEE!!!!"
He screeched loudly in pain and agony as he passed out in the next seconds.
Arthur then turned his head, facing me with a very concerned look on his face.
Arthur: "Are you alright, Captain?"
He asked in haste mixed with the sense of worry.
Me: " Yeah yeah, I'm okay...but.."
I paused for a moment as I glanced at the passed out criminal at the corner of my eyes and frowned.
A few seconds later I return my gaze on Arthur and continued.
Me: "...Do you really have to do that?"
I gestured my head pointing at the half baked most wanted criminal as small clouds of smokes came up from his body just like in the cartoons.
Arthur: "Ouh.....whoops? I guess I overdid it again, hehe."
He chuckled sheepishly, scratching his fur behind his head.
Not long after, Arthur leisurely switched his attention towards Angie who's currently dusting the small specks of dust on her wings and butt with her hands which occurred because of me when I tried to push her to save her from the shadow attack which led her to fall onto the ground.
But hey! I did it with a good cause, okay?!
Arthur was asking her if she's got any other injuries from the impact and from the way I look at her and hearing her respond, nothing serious had happened to her other than a few scratches here and there.
I sighed at Arthur.
Me: "Seriously, you need to chill down, dude."
Despite the complaint, I patted his head and ruffled my fingers through the lynx's fur hair playfully.
He blushed by the gesture as his cheeks became redder when I was doing so.
Arthur: "I-I will! Thanks for the advice!"
Huh? It wasn't even a piece of advice, to begin with. What is he talking about?
Whatever. That lynx's blush earlier was actually pretty cute though so certainly am not complaining here.
Me: "A-anything for you, bud."
Jeez, what the hell am I stuttering for!? Stop being such a weirdo!
There, on top of a container nearby, I saw Mink and Douglas watching us from up there.
As soon as they noticed my attention towards them, they immediately jump down from the container to meet with the rest of the group.
Mink: "So, we're done here?"
Me: "Yeah, looks like it."
I cautiously walked towards the fainted criminal, knelt down near the unconscious guy as I put the anti-magic handcuffs to block the Aura flow within his body as a precaution as it will be more easier for us to handle him if he is somehow awake from his sleep on the way when we're trying to bring him to the HQ for custody.
Then, my heart suddenly skipped a beat in revelation as suddenly, Maya, my Divine Guardian Spirit, out of the blue yelled inside of my head telepathically as she warned me about something.
Something....huge and powerful.
Maya: "Bal, something is coming!!"
...
...
-The present-
Inhaled deeply through my nose and exhaled softly throughout my mouth, my body relaxes as I repeated these actions of meditation as I'm slowly have taken back to the reality I'm in.
Me: "That's it. That's all of it. The last thing that I remembered was that I was chasing down a criminal and we did apprehend him at the last minute but..."
Then I gasp.
The most important thing has suddenly appeared at the edge of my mind.
I slip out the jacket over my shoulder to check if the [Familiar Contract] I once made with a spirit is still there or not.
Fortunately, thankfully, the bar code or as known as the contract mark, is still there.
Another idea pops out from my brain.
Me: "...Maya."
I said the word in a daze, softly out of my mouth with the slightest hope in my mind that there's still a chance that my [Spirit Call] will summon her by just simply saying her name.
However, as few seconds passes, nothing happened.
I said the name again, but this time a bit louder.
Me: "Maya!"
......
......
Only silence answers the call.
Me: "No...."
I curled up onto my knees sorrowfully, depressed after I've realised that my worst nightmare has come to reality.
A nightmare of being alone.
Few sobs escaped from my mouth, tears starting to fall again from the edge of my eyes down to the fur of my cheeks.
A few minutes later, as the soft breeze surfs gently against my fur, I sigh.
I ponder at the river in front of me, thinking.
After a while, I slapped my cheeks with both of my hands, hard enough to leave my cheeks with cherish-red paw prints marked on them.
Me: "Yeah, crying will not solve the problem. I need to act more like an adult, in fact, I AM an adult."
I stand up on the boulder proudly where I was sitting on with a brand new motivation, blazing wild in my eyes and heart.
Me: "I'm the captain of the most famous, the best of the best squad in whole Agrian, The Wild Spirits! Of course I will be able to survive through this disaster without much problem! This is nothing for me. I'm stronger than anyone can be as I am the number one World Wide Hero; BALTHAZAR BROOK! HAHAHAHAHA!"
With my hands rest around my waist, I laughed proudly to the fullest as my laughter boomed into the empty space of my surrounding which gradually sweeps away the clouds of negative energy that's been hovering above my head.
Or so that's what I thought.
My laughter then slowly settled down by itself thus proceeding myself to gaze upon the river with its crystal clear water covering its shining riverbed of pebbles in front of me.
My face which was a happy face then fades, turning into a sad one with a nostalgic expression sculptured on my face as I am reminiscent of the last moment I had with the rest of the team.
Me: "I miss everyone..."
