Chapter 17: Extraction Branch

Zephyr kissed the woman as she unlocked the door to her apartment, she moaned in his ear as he began undressing her, but quickly stopped as she held his hands.

"Not yet, I wanna take a bath first," She said with a smile as he backed off a bit.

"Sorry… It's uh, been a while," He laughed nervously. The woman sat him on her bed and winked as she walked into the bathroom.

"No peeking~"

Zephyr felt his heartbeat speed up as she said this, and he nodded, infatuated with the woman.

'What's happening to me?' He thought as he sat giddily on the bed. 'Why am I not cautious?'

Zephyr blinked slowly, his smile faltering. He'd been at the casino, but as soon as he saw the woman he'd ignored everything and went with her.

'Orion is alone in the most dangerous place in the city and I didn't even think twice about leaving him there?'

Something was up, yet Zephyr couldn't think about it, all he could think about was the soft splashing behind the door, the melody the woman was humming.

He didn't even know her name, yet he'd dropped everything for a night with her?

Zephyr didn't recognize himself, Orion was supposed to be the impulsive one who didn't think things through, so why was he sitting in this random woman's bed?

"What's wrong?" The woman asked, stepping out of the bathroom with only a towel on. "A lot on your mind?" She whispered seductively, pressing him down and sliding on top of him.

"Say the word and this towel will fall," She whispered again, licking her lips as Zephyr's smile returned.

"Drop it."

"You dumbass!" A voice said behind him as the window smashed open, Luna kicked the woman off of Zephyr, glaring between him and her as she held a gun up.

"Luna? What are you doing here?" Zephyr asked, quickly sitting up and summoning his sword artifacts.

"Your chains wore off, guess you weren't thinking?" She spat, glaring at him with pure anger as the woman stood up.

"God sis, did you have to kick me that hard?" The woman said, standing nude as she smiled at Luna.

"Sis?" Zephyr said.

Luna ignored him as she glared at the woman. "Why are you here Ven? You know this is our mission," Luna said in a distasteful tone.

"Oh Luna why else would I be here? The boss wants the nexus in his branch, why should the experimental branch have it?"

Zephyr felt a cloud lift from his mind, and he finally began speaking clearly.

"What the fuck?!" He yelled, jumping up and summoning his swords.

"What did you do to me?" He growled, pressing the blade against Ven's throat.

"Back up," Ven said with a sigh, and Zephyr did so immediately, smiling at her as if he was in love.

"Stop using your ability, I can't beat his ass if someone I hate is here."

Ven ignored her, smirking between Zephyr and Luna. 

Luna, with a flick of her wrist, lowered her gun, her gaze softening as she looked at Zephyr struggle against Ven's manipulative powers.

"Ven, enough," she commanded, her voice carrying a weight that seemed to momentarily pierce the seductive haze enveloping Zephyr.

Ven shrugged, her demeanor casual as if they were discussing the weather. "Fine," she sighed, and the command in her voice evaporated. Zephyr shook his head, as if waking from a dream, his expression morphing from infatuated adoration to confusion, and then to anger.

"What the hell was that?" Zephyr demanded, his voice rough with the remnants of manipulation. "You—you played me like a puppet!"

Ven, unabashed, wrapped the towel tighter around herself. "It's what I do, darling. Manipulate, control, seduce. It's why they made me." Her eyes flicked to Luna. "But unlike some, I embrace my nature."

"Our nature isn't being unfeeling bitches who control others," Luna spat, raising her gun again.

"I'll just make him take the bullet Lu, and we both know you don't want him dead."

Luna looked at Zephyr for a second before hesitantly putting the gun away. "If you're here then I guess-"

"Yep, so are the others, all of us except for you of course... Why not come back to us? What's the point in playing with a useless department in The To?

"Wait, Orion is alone at the casino, what if he-"

"Oh he'll be fine, it's not like something crazy could happen in only 20 minutes right?"

Just as Ven said this, an explosion at the casino caught all of their attention, lighting up the night as people's screams echoed down the streets.

"Huh... I guess it can."

...

Orion through a man into the wall, his eyes dark as he slammed another fighters face into the ground, destroying his neck completely. 

"Wow, you're just like they said you are... Except stronger," The blonde from earlier, Eva, said in an uninterested tone as she hit two of the fighters down and walked toward him. 

"What's this? Marking your territory?" Orion asked, scanning over the scene, he'd taken out 12 fighters, but the other 22 were down as well, had she done it?

"Well, The TO trained me well, and when I see my prey..." Eva rushed forward, red energy gathering at her palm just as she struck Orion. "I can't help but want to hunt."

BOOM!

Orion shot up into the sky with the explosion as the casino was destroyed, dozens upon dozens engulfed in the red energy as Eva soared past him. " You're not escaping that easily," She said, more emotion in her voice than before as she smiled.

Red swords appeared in her hands as she divebombed toward Orion's airborne body.

"Hmm, forgot I killed O, I don't usually fight with my hands, guess I had tunnel vision or something," He said with a smirk as he tossed a few metal balls into the air.

"Protect the king!" A robotic voice said as dozens of bots popped out of the orbs, latching onto Eva as Orion materialized his hoverbike and rode to the ground.

The city was a mess, with people running and screaming about "The Reckoning", others grabbing cash that had survived the explosion.

"Ugh!" Eva grunted as she slashed through the bots, her eyes filled with hate as she landed in front of Orion. "You're not a real man if you can't fight me," She said angrily, pointing a sword toward him. 

"That's a bit sexist no? This isn't the 2000's," Orion said in an annoyed tone.

"Orion!" Zephyr's voice said behind him.

"What the hell is all this?!"

Orion looked over at Zephyr, seeing Luna and a woman he didn't recognize.

"What? You didn't expect this?"

"Hah, Satrina you're looking cute!" The woman Orion didn't recognize, Ven, said as she smiled at Eva, or rather, Satrina.

"Ven? Did you get discovered?" Satrina asked, still glaring at Orion.

"Yep! Little Luna busted me just as I was going to take control, we would have had a free pass to the nexus…"

"You both need to go back to The TO, the extraction branch shouldn't be here," Luna said with a scowl, her hand inching toward her gun.

"Boss says we need to make sure we get it and not you guys Lu Lu, oh well!" Ven said with a smirk.

"Your boss? We were wondering why he wasn't at the board meeting, is he trying to split up The TO even more?" Luna asked, scowling as Satrina and Ven stood next to each other. 

"It's been fun, but we should regroup with the others, lead us right to The Nexus okay little sis?" Ven said with a smile as the two vanished, though Orion swore he heard Satrina's complaint. "I wanted to fight him some more..."

"You two," Luna said as soon as they left, looking at Zephyr and Orion in disgust. "Pull something like that again and I'll make sure you're both just extra material for the lab, understand?" 

Orion was quiet as he looked at the burning casino. "All that and we have no leads on the snake coil..." He said with a sigh, looking at Zephyr. "Did you get laid buddy?"

Zephyr widened his eyes before looking away. "Uhhh No."