Mission For The Future

As the honking of hover cars buzz and the broadcasting of news and several digital adverts bellow across dozens of billboards littered over the city of Aidenstal, a group of obscurely hooded figures -- six to be exact -- discretely leap from building to building under the cover of the night, making their way to a location of utmost importance.

One of the hooded figures misses a step and falls over, the figure's face is left bare once the hood flies back, and the dimly lit neon lights that make up Aidenstal illuminate part of her face.

Denee Einstal takes a deep breath, looking down at her reflection from the tiny puddle of water left here from the minute drizzle an hour prior.

Denee finds herself looking back into her own green eyes. A mistake she regrets when she finds utter terror in them.

A terror stemming from what she and her group are about to do.

Even her short white hair and perky pink lips are not left unaffected by the fear coursing through her, as she finds her hair disheveled and dried out, dry and lacking in color are also her lips.

"Are you okay?" A gentle but strong voice calls to Denee, she raises her head to find her husband, Henry Einstal -- brown hair, blue eyes, and a light mustache across his upper lip -- on one knee, reaching his hand out for her.

Denee shakes her head, then struggles to take Henry's hand.

Once she does, he pulls her up and clasps her hands in his.

"Denee, you don't have to do..." He makes to persuade or rather dissuade, but she shakes her head again, then raises it to meet his gaze.

"I'll see this through to the end." Denee squeezes Henry's hand ever so slightly, not just to reassure him of her commitment, but to find strength in him.

He nods, then pulls up his hood, and she does likewise.

They continue on their way, leaping from building to building.

Each time hiding behind crates, chimneys, and anything that could possibly make them disappear, every time a drone flies overhead.

They keep going, making their way towards the outskirts of the city, until finally, they arrive.

They arrive at Aidenstal's sector dedicated to garbage disposal.

Denee scans her gaze over the massive land area filled to the brim with garbage of all kinds

She turns her gaze and narrows it to the enormous building situated at the center.

A building shaped like a sphere and constructed in such a manner that it resembles some form of a military base.

She makes her way to the edge of the building that stands just before the ocean of garbage ahead.

When she reaches the ledge, she turns to her comrades.

"Is everyone ready?" Denee asks, intent deep in her eyes.

They all nod, then she turns her gaze back to the building.

She wastes no more time and snaps her fingers, doing so creates a small circle of golden lights that float in front of her hand.

At once she begins to inscribe characters onto the circle, having each inscription disappear once done.

The others behind her do the same, summon a golden floating circle, and begin to inscribe in them.

In but a second, their inscription speed increases to the degree that they inscribe over ten characters a second.

Their hand movement exits the motion of an ordinary swirling hand on air, to a blade becoming invisible as it speeds within a helicarrier.

Denee inscribes the last character, once done, the golden circle glows and its hollow insides fill up with a golden hue, now resembling a floating plate, rather than a circle.

She places her hand on the golden plate, spreading out all five fingers, which in turn causes the plate to glow and then finally vanish.

A second later, she raises her feet off the ledge and shifts her weight onto the empty space in front of her.

But instead of falling, she finds leverage in thin air.

She makes her way forward, continuously walking on air.

She turns back and finds her comrades doing the same.

Henry takes Denee's side and they make their way for the spherical military-like building.

Once they get close enough, they find there is no way inside, at least, not for them anyway.

But this was to be expected.

Denee snaps her finger once more, and the circle appears.

She inscribes over two dozen characters onto the circle in just three seconds.

Once done, the circle glows and fills its hollow inside with a gold hue again.

Denee places her hand on the golden plate and it vanishes, after which she reaches out her hand for the surface of the building and it fazes through.

She makes her way inside like water makes its way through the fabric.

The others follow behind.

What awaits them on the inside is an enormous empty space.

The only things inside are platforms that extend not too far from the side of the walls of this building.

The platforms circle the entire building and occur repetitively the lower the building gets.

On said platforms are humans in robot armor patrolling.

One of said patrols makes his or her way over to them, but before they are spotted, Denee snaps her fingers and inscribes with the speed of light.

After touching the plate, she and her comrades disappear from sight and sound.

They continue to analyze the enormous space and in the middle of it all, a few meters below, is a glass dome that stands suspended above bridges that interconnect the dome on all four sides with bridges leading to the walking platforms.

Inside the dome is a cube, floating above a glowing pad built into the center of the dome.

Upon seeing the cube, Denee's eyes light up.

"There it is." She says, not caring to lower her voice as she is fully aware her magic spell is doing that for her.

"We're so close." One of her comrades says.

Henry scans the guards, taking note of each and every one of them.

"Henry?" Denee calls out.

"A total of 60 Technomancers, 20 Shells, 15 Husks, 15 Hollows, 5 Wraiths and 5 Knights." Henry says, eyes still fixated on the Technomancers.

He calls them out each according to their rank, Shell being the weakest and Knight being the strongest.

"Any No...Novas." Another comrade asks, breaking his words and calling the rank out as though saying it would bring disaster upon them.

"No." Henry says and Denee in turn begins to scrutinize the Technomancers, forgetting for now the floating cube.

"What about a Tyrant?" Another comrade asks, this comrade however calls the rank with no fear whatsoever in her voice.

Even though a Tyrant would spell their dooms in a heartbeat.

Denee feels a shiver rattle up her spine upon hearing that word, and so does everyone else.

She turns to the comrade who said it.

A short and timid-looking young girl.

"Mary." She says, reprimanding her, but Mary doesn't even flinch.

"What do we do now?" A comrade asks, diffusing the tension that had risen from the word Tyrant.

Henry shoots his eyes in every direction, ready to answer the question.

"Mary, can you handle the guards outside the dome?" He asks, causing Denee to raise a brow.

"Henry, that's all of them."

"I can." Mary says and Denee turns to meet her gaze.

"Mary, I know you're strong but..."

"You don't know how strong Denee." Mary says, calling her by her first name, despite being several years younger.

"Henry." She calls out.

"Trust me." Henry says, shooting his gaze to Denee.

She doesn't like the idea one bit, but she chooses to trust her husband, so she lets it go.

"The rest of us will go inside the dome, and lock it from there."

"Well then, let's get this over and done with." Mary says, making her way to the edge of the platform.

"Wait, we'll have to get in first. Then you handle them." Henry says, making his way over to the edge as well.

Denee makes it to his side and without being told, she snaps her fingers and begins to inscribe on the circle, activating the appropriate spell.

Henry bests her to it by a second, after which he leans forward and begins to descend rapidly.

The others follow, descending one after the other, leaving her to be last despite finishing up her inscription a second after Henry.

She looks down, fearing the height and distance between her and the dome, then she takes a deep breath, shuts her eyes, and falls.

The bottom drags her with a speed greater than anything she has ever felt.

She makes it to one of four bridges suspending the dome in less than ten heartbeats.

Just as she is about to hit the bridge, she pauses midair.

Henry corrects her orientation, so she is upright not lying down.

She makes it onto the floor with a sigh of relief.

Henry turns to his peers and towards the dome.

"Mary, stay here and..."

*BEEP*

*BEEP*

Alarms below in the distance and all around them, snapping something bad in their hearts as they realize the alarms are for them.

"Hey! Stop there!" A voice muffled by robotic armor yells, pointing at them.

"How are they seeing us?" Denee asks, fright fueling her question.

"Forget that, Mary!" Henry screams and Mary pushes past them making her way towards the horde of Technomancers making their way to her.

"Denee." Henry calls out.

She hesitates for a second but follows Henry and the others and they enter the dome.

Denee proceeds to tap a spot on the glass dome and a circle appears.

A circle bearing letters.

She taps on them almost with the speed of light and every entrance of the dome shuts.

Denee takes a second to watch Mary conjure up her golden circle, which activates a spell that incinerates over a dozen Technomancers.

Denee continues to watch until the dome goes black, cutting off the view from the outside.

She turns to the only source of light in the dome, that being the floating cube.

She races for it as fast as she can.

Once standing in front of it, a lectern-like platform rises from the ground, bearing on it a screen that lights up.

Denee taps the side of her head, and the slot opens, which a chip slides out of.

She places the chip into an empty slot in the lectern with a screen.

As she does so, the floating cube rotates, sensing the presence of the chip.

She proceeds to search the screen, which is a representation of the cube's information.

She taps on the screen faster than light, a skill honed by magic Practitioners.

"How long?" A group member says, watching every corner of the blackened dome.

"I just started." Denee retorts, feeling anger mixed together with the fear and anxiety coursing through her.

"But can you give us a rough estimate?" Henry says as explosions and screams exude outside the dome.

"5 minutes." Denee says, finally finding what she is looking for, except the file, is encrypted. "Make that 10."

She continues at it, typing so fast her fingers become blurs, all in an effort to crack the encryption.

The explosions and chaos echoing from the outside grow in intensity and volume.

But in a second, everything goes quiet.

Which forces everyone to unwillingly hold their breath, Denee inclusive.

But in another second, a pound reverberates throughout the dome, pausing Denee's and everyone else's hearts.

The pound returns, again and again.

Denee forces the distraction away, while she continues cracking the safeguards.

Henry snaps his fingers and calls a golden circle on each hand.

The others do the same, preparing themselves for anything.

The pounds grow in volume, then they stop.

*CRASH* a hole explodes in the dome, and a projectile is sent flying at them.

Henry inscribes over three dozen characters onto his circle in a second, which creates a shield that covers them all.

The projectile falls onto the shield, and what they find knocks the air out of their lungs.

"Mary." Henry gasps when he finds what resembles Mary, now a disfigured and lifeless corpse.

She slides off the shield and thuds onto the floor.

Denee freezes when she discovers the strongest member of their group, an unrecognizable corpse.

A second later, an enormous thud reverberates across the ground, which shakes them to their core.

When they investigate the origin of the shock, their souls forget them.

A Technomancer, on one knee, covered in black armor, with a glowing bright red streak across the front of its helmet made for seeing.

The Technomancer rises and towers 9 feet in the air.

Henry inches back, as he feels his nerves fail him.

"A...a Tyrant." Henry says, causing the very air to freeze in place.