Chapter 10

Chapter 10

[Tezuka Kejinto (Falcon) - 20 years old]

Tezuka is annoyed. Way more than just annoyed. He is also royally pissed off. At the fact that Sky never came to the fort with him and that he was still at the beach.

He crosses his arms on his chest with a deep scowl on his face. One of his feet has been tapping on the hard floor for the last ten minutes.

“I’m so sorry! I just… I can’t do it!”

Tezuka is trying so hard not to start yelling at his idiot comrade through his radio device. “Night… you could have at least let me know instead of making me waste my time.”

“I have been trying to get through to you! But you were underwater, so you could not hear me!”

“Just…” Tezuka sighs lightly. “Just keep the link open. Get back to Owl. If I get hurt here, it’s your fault that you are not here. You’re lucky that our mission is to find some kind of evidence that France is now the ally of Japan and South Korea.”

“Sorry!” Sky says apologetically. “I’m on my way to Owl’s position.”

“Useless blondie.” The leader of the squad shakes his head in disappointment.

“I heard that!”

Tezuka ignores him and takes one more look at the French fort. The gate must be at least fifteen feet tall, but that is not what he is worried about.

What he is really worried about is what’s beyond the gate. He needs to look inside before he sneaks inside the fort.

He lays down on the ground, trying to bend into the green grass with his camouflaged outfit. He takes a golf-sized steel ball out of his fanny pack. After he pushes a nearly visible button on it, two tiny wings sprout from the ball. After he tosses it over the gate, it immediately flips its wings at the same speed of a hummingbird’s flipping wings.

Tezuka is looking at the military super-thin tablet, which is receiving feedback from the golf-ball-sized drone flying across and scanning the entire base. He frowns in confusion at the result he is receiving from. He says in a trembling voice, “Wh-what is this…?”

What he is looking at is just an empty base. No, it is not exactly empty. Apparently, thousands of corpses in French soldier uniforms lay spread out all over the base. He has not even found a single survivor.

What even startles him the most is that the corpses seem to be still fresh.

“Falcon!”

Tezuka almost jumps out of his own skin, but he manages to somehow stop himself from screaming. Angrily but quietly, he says into his radio device, “What the fuck do you want, Night?”

“Owl is…! He….!”

“Calm down! What is it? What about Owl?” Tezuka has a really, really bad feeling about this. “Has something happened to him?!”

“Y-yeah! He is dead!”

The lavender-haired soldier is completely speechless, as he almost drops the tablet but catches it right away. He… He cannot believe… No, he refuses to believe it! Ryu cannot die! They are supposed to stick together all the way to the end!

“Sir?”

“Y-yeah, I’m still here…” Tezuka says softly.

“Um, remember that French woman was with Owl? Well, she’s gone.”

“That fucking bitch!” Sadness is being replaced by anger. Tezuka clenches his fists tightly. France is going to pay for this! “Night, please stand by. I’m going into the base. It won’t be long, as everybody is already dead.”

“What?!”

“Believe it or not,” Tezuka picks up the tablet and takes one more look at it. “See, Night --” He stops quickly when he thinks he catches something running from one building to another, but then it disappears. He shrugs it off as one of his illusions. “Eh… I mean, something’s seriously wrong with this base. I’ll check it out. Please don’t leave Owl’s side, ok?”

He hears a light sigh and then “ok” from Sky. He makes sure that he packs everything and that they are secure. He glances up all the way at the thirty-feet tall wall of the gate. 

He is more than eager to use his newest power. Last time he used it was last week. The first time he used it, he became the world’s fastest man. He had no idea how to use it again after that, so when he got back home, he got right to training and trying to figure out how to use it again. 

Of course, he kept it a secret from everyone, including his wife.

He calls his new power, “Rush!” He can feel that his feet are getting warmer and warmer every second.

As soon as he lifts one of his feet, he gets to where exactly he wants to be within two full seconds. He is on the other side of the gate, so he makes sure to stop using his powers so that they would not burn his feet anymore. 

He takes a good look at the area. As exactly what he sees on the tablet, he is looking at hundreds of fresh corpses in French soldier uniforms. Who the hell did this…?

He quickly dives behind one of the old barrels as soon as he catches wind of two whispering voices.

“...well done, Kasai.”

“Thank you, Jikan. So, you said he should be here soon, right?”

“Yes. I’ll make sure he’s dead this time. He and his friends will not bother us anymore from now on! I hope Hakai took care of that Asian soldier, yes?”

Tezuka clenches his fists in anger when he hears them mention his comrade. He brings up his tablet once again, trying to scan the whole area once again. Soon, he detects two people talking to each other under one of the steel stairs, which is no more than just fifteen feet away.

“Why is it that just three guys can stop our plans, eh? Wouldn’t that take, like a thousand men or something like that?”

“It’s because they’ve been touched and were given with the greatest powers by Double God. That’s what makes them our greatest threats in the future.”

Double God? Future? Tezuka shakes his head in confusion. Who are those people?

“I see,” Kasai says thoughtfully. “So, we just kill them off, so they won’t interrupt us anymore, correct? Is that why you showed up a few days ago?”

“Yes,” Jikan is playing with her long silver hair, as she shifts her eyes toward another way. “In this time period, they should be at their weakest now. He… He should be hiding by now.”

Kasai gives her the biggest mischievous grin on his tan face. As he is lifting his hand, something is powering up around his palm. “This way, eh? One hit, and it’s all over?”

Tezuka is trying to lean closer to his tablet, trying to figure out something bright around the Kasai guy’s hand. He widens his bright blue eyes in shock when he realizes that he has already been discovered.

With the power of rush, he quickly dives out of the hiding spot near the barrel just in time it gets destroyed instantly by a large fireball attack. He quickly tries to stop himself, sliding a little further toward two strangers until stopping completely. 

“So, Tezuka Kejinto, eh? I’ve been waiting for a long time… just to kill you!” Jikan smirks at him, as she adjusts her white buttoned shirt a little. “You… You are the most persistent guy I’ve ever met! That’s so annoying! You, always stopping us from succeeding any further! You’ll pay for all that you’ve done to us!”

“Who the hell are you?! I’ve never seen you in my life before!”

“That’s right. You’ve never met us, but Jikan already did,” Kasai gives a small chuckle. “With her on our side, the future can be adjusted as many times as we want in order to get exactly what we want…”

“As you can already see… Ryu Mitsukai is dead. The future has been changed! Without him, you’re nothing,” Jikan flashes a big grin on her pale face with a little pink cheekbones. “He can’t become your eyes anymore!”

“So, it was you…! You killed him!” Tezuka says angrily. “I don’t give a fuck about your so-called future! You want to kill me? Not if I do it first!”

Kasai and Jikan burst out into loud laughter.

“How so? You don’t even have any powers to begin with!” Jikan says. “Now that you can’t run faster than we do, we can lay you to waste today! And then after that, we will make sure that Washington D.C. will never exist again!”

“You’re going to destroy D.C.?” Tezuka asks angrily.

“Yes. Say hello to Ryu for us!” Kasai stomps one of his feet on the ground. All of sudden, the earth under Tezuka starts shaking so violently, causing him to collapse to his knees.

Shit! I’ve never fought any opponent like this before! What kind of magic did they just do?! Tezuka is trying to find his balance as he is getting up, despite the minor earthquake. As soon as he succeeds in holding his pose, he quickly picks up his pistol and aims it at Kasai. 

“Ha! You can’t be serious thinking about shooting at me! Because it won’t work!” Kasai scoffs.

Tezuka shoots his weapon anyway, not even believing the stranger, who is probably the enemy of the United States, for even one second.

“Eh?!” He says in shock when his fast-flying bullets get blasted into flames just inches away from Kasai’s chortling face. Playing a little with his gold bracelets, he gives Tezuka a satisfying smirk. 

“Without Double God on your side, you won’t be able to stop us!”

“You know Double God?”

Jikan blinks in surprise. “You were already touched by Double God? How is it possible…?! It wasn’t supposed to happen until just a few months later! Did the past change again...?"

“Well, then… we are not going to have any problem in future… as long as I kill this guy, right? You may go back to your own timeline,” Kasai begins to crack his knuckles. “Then, we will perform the Fall of the Moon together.”

Tezuka scowls in frustration. He has no clue what the hell the new enemies are talking about. The Fall of the Moon? What the hell?

"Okay, then! See you in a bit!" Jikan winks her light purple eye before she creates a white door out of nothingness. She opens it, which reveals a large white swirling hole, and then blows a kiss at Tezuka. She walks through the portal, which then vanishes into thin air.

Time traveler? No, it can’t be! Tezuka glances at Kasai, who is chortling lightly. “What’s so funny?”

“It’s because we are finally winning!” Kasai opens his arms widely, as if he is daring the American soldier to begin attacking. “Not even Double God can break the chains of Earth!”