Chapter 11

Chapter 11

[Tezuka Kejinto (Falcon) - 20 years old]

Not even Double God can break Earth’s chains? Tezuka thinks to himself. Is that why he asked me for my help? And then, he gave me this power?  But… Why me?

“So, Tezuka Kejinto, have you taken a look at your situation? Eh?” Kasai asks. “Look around. No survivors, yes?”

Tezuka frowns in confusion.

“What would happen if I kill you right here… and they find you here?” Kasai gives him a big grin, only to get a puzzled look from his new opponent. “France will place the blame on the United States. That will trigger another war between them! And then… We will make sure that Washington D.C. will be completely destroyed! Nobody, not even you, will ever interrupt our plan!”

Tezuka widens his blue eyes in shock before he becomes enraged when he realizes that Akane and all of his friends live in that area. Not only them, but also other precious citizens whom he does not even know but is trying to protect. “Why you…!”

“Ready or not, here I come!” Large flames are suddenly being shot out of the ground around Kasai, who then charges himself at the American soldier. 

By using rush energy, Tezuka keeps dodging all types of Kasai’s fire attacks, such as fire bullets, fireballs, fire fists, and so on. But he knows that sooner or later, he will run out of the power of rush. He tries to throw a fist at Kasai’s face only to get burned without even landing a punch.

Shit! He begins shaking his burned fist, trying to ease the pain. Having no other options, he has to get the hell out of here. He has no chance of winning against this powerful guy.

So, he turns to run away. Far as much as possible away from his opponent.

He makes a breath of relief when a fence comes into his sight. He is almost there, and then he can get out of here.

Only to have a large and wide wall, made out of earth, being shot up right in front of Tezuka, who stops himself from crashing into the wall.

He does not even have time to think of a way to get past the earth wall when he suddenly gets blasted by a basketball-sized fireball.

“What, you went down after taking just one hit? You can’t be serious! I heard that you were very powerful in the future, but I never thought that you would be weak in this era!” Kasai gives a few chuckles after he arrives at the place of the nearly-unconscious American soldier.

Tezuka cannot move at all. His body is in so much pain that it has completely shut down on him. He can barely move his eyes. As his dull blue eyes land on Kasai, who is walking toward him, he knows it then. He knows that he is going to die in this place.

He has always known that he may die anytime during his missions or in the war, but even now, he is not prepared to die like this. 

And… Ryu is dead.

So, besides Akane, what or who else is there to live for? 

I’m so sorry, Akane. Tezuka barely clenches the soil into his fist. He slowly closes his eyes, awaiting his death.

“You’re finished!” Kasai points his palm at Tezuka. A fireball is being formed a few inches away from his hand. “Say goodbye to the fu --”

Bang!

Tezuka snaps his eyes open at the familiar loud sound. What was that just now? Was that a bullet… but where?

Kasai is holding his bleeding hand after barely moving his hand away as soon as he hears the loud bang. He quickly stomps closer to Tezuka and yells angrily, “Is there someone else with you --”

He yelps in pain when a second bullet hits him in the shoulder. “Hakai!!”

“I got here as fast as I could!” Hakai appears out of thin air and puts his hand on Kasai. “We have to retreat now! Boss’s order!”

“Tch!”

They literally disappear into the air as a third bullet goes right through them, hitting the ground this time.

“Falcon!”

“Night?” Tezuka asks in surprise. “You swam here? And… you shot him?”

“It wasn’t me!” Sky jogs towards Tezuka. As soon as he stops, he quickly takes off his black gloves. “Please forgive me!” He carefully turns over Tezuka, who screams in pain. “You have a severe case of burns, but you’re lucky it’s only a second degree burn.”

“If it isn’t you who shot… then who did?” The lavender-haired leader asks in confusion. 

“I did.”

Sky and Tezuka glance over at the man whom they recognize very well. He is climbing down one of the wooden towers. 

“Ryu…” Tezuka says softly. “You’re alive. And walking very well. How?”

“I met Double God,” Ryu looks down at the ground as he drops his pistol onto the ground. He collapses to his knees as he sighs in exhaustion. He grabs his head. “I got the power of aguila… Owl’s eyes.”

“With his sniper skills and the new aguila energy, it’s 100% guaranteed that he can hit something within the range of hundreds of miles!” Sky exclaims.

“Oh, I see… But you got shot in the head. How did Double God bring you back?” Tezuka asks.

Ryu shakes his head. “Sky healed me.”

“What…? I’m confused.”

“I also have the healing power… I met Double God six years ago,” Sky sighs lightly, as he places his hands right above Tezuka’s burn wounds. They begin to emit bright green glowing auras around. “I tried to conceal it from you as long as possible… but Ryu was dying, so I had no choice. Rosa ran into me shouting in French, so I followed her to Ryu. It was thanks to her that Ryu’s life was saved.”

“So, you did really swim here?” Tezuka gives him an amusing smirk.

“Actually, I had to carry him here,” Ryu laughs heartily.

“Shut up!” Sky yells angrily.

~*~

[Tezuka Kejinto (Falcon) - 20 years old]
[Skylar Lawrence (Nightingale) - 24 years old]
[Ryu Mitsukai (Owl) - 20 years old]

“So, how are we supposed to report this to Eagle?” Sky asks after wrapping up Tezuka’s chest with bandages. “What about Rosa? Can we bring another person back to our country? What if they take her into custody because she is from France?”

Tezuka notices that Ryu has a dark look on his face but decides to ignore it this time. “I suppose I can try to convince Eagle again…”

“What about this…” Ryu opens his arms, making a gesture telling them that there are still dead bodies here. “What if France finds out about this and places a blame on our country? The war has been around for too long enough. We can’t face another enemy.”

“No…” Tezuka frowns when a new realization hits him. “It’s not about countries facing each other… What if… it’s the ones we faced today? The ones who almost killed us? What if they started the war in the first place?”

Sky and Ryu glance at each other, as if they are having the same thoughts - Tezuka is crazy.

“There’s a woman who claims that she is the time traveler… I would’ve never believed her if it wasn’t for Double God who gave us the powers,” the wounded lavender-haired soldier carefully gets up on his own. “Let’s return to the mainland and find Rosa… then we return to our country, as this base is completely destroyed by the… unknown organization. We can report this then.”

“We are not telling them about our powers?” Ryu asks.

“It is not the time yet,” Sky shakes his head. “They would never believe us.”

“We can show them!”

“Think about it,” Tezuka rubs his chin. “They sent us to China because they thought that Japan and South Korea were getting assistance from them. And then, they sent us to France because they thought that they were joining Japan and South Korea. So, why aren’t they sending us to the real enemies - that is, Japan and South Korea?”

Their conversation ends when a helicopter arrives at this place. They quickly find Rosa and bring her to the United States.