Chap 114: Failed Xenogene Blocker

The Commander’s strict voice drilled into Tee’s ears. In an instant, she was upright, her feet on the ground. She didn’t glimpse Kie as they both darted their gaze to the hologram screen above the sand.

“…Suite up and report to the mission base for an assignment.”

The hologram remained above the sand, but the Commander’s face was gone. They looked around to see their teammates in the distance. The green vortex near them glowed brighter than the fire they had been sitting around.

“You’re lucky we didn’t fall,” Tee said as she rushed toward the vortex.

“Forget that,” Kie blurted, dashing off beside her. His gaze wasn’t on the vortex but on the table with steaming food. “I need one of those jerked fishes—I’m starving.”

The hologram screens near the Commander showed soundless videos of a speaker on stage. The Commander’s words hit empty ears when dark tentacles ripped the speaker’s mouth from the video. Heads flashed past the dark creature on stage before everything tilted with a jolt. The screen went black.

The videos replayed the event from different angles, some not focused on the speaker alone. One video showed not one, but two dark beings on the stage before switching to static. When all the screens displayed pitch black, the Commander’s words began to register in their minds.

“…The district’s new chief, and for the first time in history, one nominee was a Xenogene victim. Things took an unexpected turn when not only the speaker, but the nominee mutated on stage. Both hosts were reported to have undergone multiple trials for a mutation blocker, but as evident from the outcome, it was not a successful cure.”

The screens switched to empty chairs on a wide, flat pavement. Grilled-down entrances and windows lined the surrounding buildings. Specks of color came from the few items clumsily left behind by civilians who had fled the area.

“The entire area is evacuated. Mid-Guard officials reported both XenoSapians were eliminated. However, several civilian reports indicate there is still a XenoSapian threat. My team and I investigated, tracked, and confirmed that to be true. Both XenoSapians are alive, making the perfect training opportunity for my Alpha team.”

Tee gritted her teeth at those worthless tools. She was going to miss her relaxing evening on the beach to clean up their mess. Curses!

“…Though both XenoSapians have only been alive for two hours, both hosts were in their fifties…”

After the Commander revealed the age of the XenoSapians, the teens’ minds went blank.

Zod’s ears twitched. What the bloody hell was the Commander signing them up to face? Was that punishment for bringing back an egg and destroying the living quarters?

Miko was glad she was properly dressed for the new task. After hearing the details, she would have swapped it in a heartbeat for fighting off a litter of beasts in her silk night dress.

First Snickers was gone, and then this assignment. Saeda was sure fate was mixing crap into the tea of her life. She sighed. Who was she kidding? Instead of dreading the danger, she should face it head-on and get it over with. Afterwards, she could continue searching for Snickers.

Both Tee and Kie wondered the same thing. What did the beasts they were about to face look like? They glanced at each other.

They teleported. Irregular puddles of blood on the concrete pavement grabbed their attention. The imagined faces of screaming, fleeing civilians stopped flashing through their heads, and they returned to the present.

The warmth in the gentle wind chased away any chill from the mission base’s air conditioning. Sweet baked bread mingled with the iron tang of fresh blood. Scattered metal chairs and fallen hologram signs littered the area. The blood patches didn’t form a trail, so they would have to search for the two beasts.

Tee wasn’t surprised the area wasn’t swarming with MG offs. They were probably still betting on who should walk into their death traps. If not, they had gone elsewhere after telling the public all threats were eliminated. But that would be a sure sign they lied.

Kie kicked down one of the PRO-Xeno-victim signs. “Xenfreaks these people are voting for,” he mumbled, trying to impress Tee—or at least see her reaction.

Tee kicked down another sign, which broke on the pavement. “Yeah, Xenfreaks,” she said.

Startled by his two teammates, Zod got an idea. “How about we start making some noise to attract the XenoSapian?” He rushed over to a metal bin and began kicking it.

Tee’s voice cut through the clangs. “Hey Kie.” She didn’t think calling him Cooper on a mission was wise. “What do you make of all this? Why did those MG offs lie about eliminating the threat? This job must be buzzing on the mutation hotline.”

Kie spoke down to his left boot, which stomped over the face on a sign. “They’re waiting for global curfew. With all the civilians safe in their homes, they can really start hunting the two demons.”

Of course he would think that. He wanted to become one of them—a Mid-Guard dog.

“Just as I thought,” she muttered.

Miko and Saeda blocked out the loud clangs, scanning for any monsters charging toward them. They weren’t sure whether they wanted the beasts to come or not.

The sky was a pale blue. All the buildings in the area looked uninviting with their grilled-down entrances and windows. They were in an urban zone. Civilians were either in deep basements or in far‑away homes in the surrounding sectors.

Across the wide concrete pavement stood a gate of thick metal bars—too close together for any large XenoSapian to pass through. The only logical place to start the search was the empty train station on the opposite side. All the trains were gone with the evacuated civilians, but the dark tunnels would be good for finding lurking beings.

Saeda wasn’t in the mood to try sensing monsters with her unreliable aura sense. Zod’s clangs were already starting to echo in her head. “Tee, have you found the monsters yet?” she asked, arms folded.

Tee couldn’t hear Saeda—her foreseeing vision was already miles into the dark train tunnels. She was way ahead of them.

Time drew nearer to the global curfew at six, and the empty station Tee scanned testified to that. She knew not even the homeless would dare tarry around that danger zone. Anything moving there would most likely be one of the two monsters they had to kill—unless the MG offs decided to show up.

She froze her vision and held her breath. There it was—one of the beasts. It stood with its back to a metal gate separating it from the train tracks. Its tar‑black skin blended with the grim reaper’s cloak. The veins looked like creases from years of being un‑ironed. It had a beefy build, taller than her. Around a seven-by-four rank seemed reasonable.

Tee let her vision come back. “I found it, and I think it’s a seven-by-four rank.”

“No,” Zod gasped.

“I could hug it two times,” Miko said.

Tee ran toward it and ignored them. She hadn’t asked for commentary. Her teammates followed. Soon they noticed large footprints in dried blood along their path. The blood patches grew fainter until the shape of the feet disappeared.

The abandoned train station reminded Tee of the Pavilion mall in her district—where she first activated her foreseeing ability and where Jack got beat up.

Jack…

Why did he have to be gone? And why was some Xenogenist MG-off wannabe giver he what he never did? She vowed it wouldn’t be for long—she was going to end it. Just not yet.

When they glimpsed the demon, they stopped running. The XenoSapian had moved away from the gate where Tee had first seen it. Between them and the beast were smooth floors dimly lit by high‑ceiling glass.

“Your rank was incorrect,” Kie whispered. “That’s an eight-by-three rank.”

“No,” Tee said, eyes glued to the beast. “I am right and you’re wrong.” She summoned a sword.

After they killed that XenoSapian, Kie was going to use his sword to measure it. Tee would soon learn he was a master at ranking XenoSapians. If only he had a death-ball. Instead, he’d have to do things the old-fashioned way—slice the head. He summoned two swords.

“Is there a plan?” Saeda asked, glancing at the swords in Tee and Kie’s hands. “Or are we just rushing out there?”

“We slice the beast’s head and then continue our search to find the other—”

The monster’s super hearing picked up the raised voice. It turned sharply, darting its gaze toward the five prey with blood pumping through their veins.

“…Crap,” Kie blurted, shutting his mouth.

The skin on the lower part of the monster’s face tore apart, revealing its mouth. It unleashed a wall‑vibrating roar and stamped its feet, charging at them. There was no time for another plan.

At once, the five Sentinels bolted from the dark hallway into the dim light. They sent spinning swords at the monster. It elongated its arms, darting like needles past their weapons.

The monster’s dagger-like arms pierced the gap in their formation. The Sentinels sliced both arms into smaller sections, like snapping green twigs. Simultaneously, their sword strikes plunged into sections of the monster’s body and pierced out the back. Clangs and screeches rang out as swords crashed into the ground and walls. The monster’s dark, gooey skin flowed down to erase the rips.

The monster stomped to halt but didn’t have time to retract the remnants of its arms. Its black-filled eyes reflected the five Sentinels with their shimmering devices, two feet away. In a flash, its smooth outline distorted as sharp spikes erupted across its body.

Tee and her teammates stamped their feet and leaped backward. The swords in front of their faces sliced away the monster’s spikes that came too close. When their feet touched the ground again, they saw the monster clearly.

It kept the spikes inches above its skin like armor. Some spikes retracted and thickened to regrow arms, though the new ones were more than two and appeared at odd locations.

“Should we spread out?” Tee asked. “We should get behind it, hit its blind spot, and slice its head off.”

Miko pressed her feet into the ground, ready if Kie agreed. She was the fastest and felt she might need to make a bold move.

Kie didn’t like that idea. Spreading out would drag the fight on for several more seconds. Having four comrades with him should make it faster—yet that thing was still breathing! His thoughts flashed away as an energy beam whooshed past his left ear.

It was Zod who had dismissed one sword and blasted energy from his palm at the monster.