Chapter 6

Chapter 6

YEAR 2045

[Tezuka Kejinto (Falcon) - 19 years old]
[Skylar Lawrence (Nightingale) - 23 years old]
[Ryu Mitsukai (Owl) - 19 years old]

Tezuka has been mentally bracing himself for the next ten minutes in case the female soldier who saw him may alert everyone. To his surprise, she has not done that yet. At this point, he feels stupid not knocking her out or making her keep quiet in the first place. His mind just went blank as soon as he encountered her. Damn male hormones!

He has been moving from one cargo to another for a while, staying low and hiding from the enemy’s sight. This area is a little bigger than he thought. He almost smiles widely when he hears a familiar yelling voice coming from one of the tents. 

“I have no fucking idea how to speak Chinese or Japanese or whatever the fuck it is! Look, I was just hiking and then got lost, but then you fucking surprised me and kidnapped me --” Smack!

If Sky is still being interrogated, then that means the enemy still hasn’t gotten anything about the United States or their secret mission. Tezuka can hear at least three Chinese soldiers speaking angrily to each other. If he barges right inside, one of them will alert others. If that happens, not only he but also Sky will be outnumbered and possibly be killed.

That means he will have to distract them somehow and try to lure them away from Sky. He knows that every tent in the area has two exits; one in the front and another in the back. He looks over the cargo, taking in the area. He is quite sure that he memorized the whole area before sneaking in because he knows where it is --

Ah, here it is!

The box of fireworks is sitting near the tent where Sky is. Why the fireworks are there, Tezuka has no idea. Maybe some kind of Chinese tradition?

Tezuka does not believe in God, but he is mentally thanking him for the wonderful coincidence. He takes out a small but two-inch thick branch which he took from the forest. By using a lighter, he sets fire on it easily. He blows it gently, trying to make it spread a little more before throwing it at the fireworks.

As a soldier, it requires not only concentration, honesty, and discipline, but also patience. As much as Tezuka wants to barge in and rescue Sky right away, they can get killed if they make even one wrong move.

Crackle! Pop! Bang! Crackle! Pop! Pop! Bang!

Tezuka lightly smirks as two Chinese soldiers run right out of the tent with confused looks on their faces, yelling and swearing in their native language. 

Tezuka knows that there must be at least one more soldier in the tent, so he quickly tosses a smoke grenade inside the tent.

He waits patiently once again while he hears two more voices yelling angrily. He wraps his thick scarf around his head. When the smokes are dense enough, he barges into the tent with the hope of not running into the enemy.

It seems to take forever for him to scout for his comrade until his arm barely brushes something. He whips around, slightly startled by the light touch.

"Sky," he whispers, as he kneels down. Now that he can see him this close, Sky is tied to the wooden pole with blood all over his head, left shoulder, and right leg.

"Tezuka...?" Sky whispers back in surprise. He thought Ryu would be rescuing him first but here the cold-hearted bastard is.

“Don’t talk. Get on my back,” Tezuka uses his dagger to cut the thick ropes, untying Sky completely. When he feels his comrade’s arms wrapping around his shoulders, he picks him up in the style of fireman’s carry. It is easier to run this way.

He begins running as fast as he can, looking for any kind of light that can lead him exiting the tent. With most soldiers being distracted by the sudden explosion of fireworks, it should be easier for the American soldiers to escape.

He mentally jumps out of joy when he spots the sudden light, so he runs through it, exiting the enemy’s large tent completely.

Only to be stopped. With a sudden appearance of a shotgun aiming at Tezuka’s forehead.

He closes his eyes quickly, awaiting his death.

BANG!

~*~

“...Fight.”

Tezuka snaps his blue eyes open. He does not feel any pain at all. Does that mean he is in heaven... or worse, hell? Either way... What happened to Sky and Ryu? Are they dead too? Or did they find a way to get back to the United States?

“Tezuka?”

“Y-yes?” Tezuka is startled by a voice. He heard it for the first time but he is way too preoccupied with himself and his comrades.

“Don’t fight. Please don’t fight anybody. They are not your real enemy.”

Tezuka frowns in confusion. What is going on? What is... whoever it is talking about? Is it Double God again?

“Earth is in chains that not even I can break. Only the Breakers can free it.”

Tezuka keeps spinning around, trying to find HIM or wherever the voice comes from. What the hell is he talking about? Is he crazy or something? “Where the hell are you?!”

“I give you the power granted by the Fifth Universe. Please be careful with it. Don’t overuse it or else your body will be exhausted... or even dead. Good luck!”

~*~

Tezuka snaps his eyes open just in time he hears a loud bang. As soon as his feet move to the left, he can feel them getting warmer and warmer. He watches a large bullet being fired out of the enemy’s shotgun... slowly. As if it is in slow motion.

The soldier swears in his native language, as he turns to Tezuka, aiming his shotgun at him once again, but he decides not to shoot again this time. He widens his narrow eyes in surprise when he realizes that his enemy is completely gone. What...?! How?!

Tezuka has no absolute idea what he just did. Or even what he is doing right now at this moment. He is running through the warrior village, passing the enemies. They do not even notice him at all. They are doing their usual business, being on lookout, cleaning their weapons, joking around, or eating.

Am I running....? Have I always been that fast? No... it can’t be. What is this power?

He begins feeling something burning his feet so badly, so he looks down at his fast feet. He realizes that his boots are completely gone, as if they were melted away. His bare feet are completely red. What the fuck is going on?!

He makes a loud screeeeeeeeeeeeech noise when he tries to stop running but only ends up sliding sideways. By doing so, he creates a long and narrow ditch. 

Suddenly, his adrenaline rush is completely gone, and he starts feeling lots, lots, lots of pain. He tries to put Sky on the ground carefully and then kneels down, trying to touch his throbbing feet. He jerks away from them as soon as his hands get strung. His feet aren’t just hot but burning hot.

He freezes when he hears an angry voice yelling in Chinese. As soon as he hears a loud click, he raises his hands up in the air quickly. Shit! 

He knows that he was warned that he would be very exhausted if he used up too much ‘power’ or whatever it is, but he did not think that it would be this soon. The Chinese soldier pushes him around with his own rifle, getting a good look at him.

“Falcon! Don’t move at all!”

Tezuka almost jumps startled when he hears a familiar voice in his radio device, but thanks to his military training, he keeps himself calm and cool. 

Just as the foreign soldier cries in pain when his rifle is thrown out of his hands by a flying bullet, Tezuka swiftly runs toward him and does a round kick to the jaw. But this time he is not as fast as he was, and his feet aren’t burning up anymore. He realizes that he has forgotten how to use the power. Last time, he was way too focused trying to escape from the enemy and keeping Sky safe that he unconsciously kick-started his power.

“Hurry up. I’ll keep an eye on the enemy. I’ll let you know if they get too close.”

“Owl?” Tezuka asks, slightly relieved to hear Ryu’s voice from the radio device. But still he just wants to make sure that he is not imagining the voice or something like that due to his exhaustion. “How do you know I’d be here?”

“I got lost for a while, so Hummingbird helped me out a little bit. Then, I ended up here... at the highest point I could find. Just get out of there fast before they recognize our true nationality,” Ryu says.

Tezuka glances at the Chinese soldier, who is completely knocked out. He picks up the bullet and places it in his pocket. He just wants to make sure that anything made from the United States does not exist here at all. He turns and walks over to Sky who is now unconscious as well.

He groans in pain as he places his comrade on his back. Now that his combat boots are completely destroyed, every step he makes really burns and stings his feet, but he has no choice but to suck it up. 

The enemy must have heard about an invader from the first soldier who saw Tezuka by now. That means, as Ryu said, Tezuka has to hurry up and get the hell out of here with Sky.

Groaning painfully with his legs still shaking, Tezuka places his comrade on his back as a piggyback. He almost collapses to the floor, but somehow keeps his joints in place. “Come on, Night,” He groans again.

He takes one more look at the area, trying to remember which route to use. But as soon as he hears some Chinese-speaking voices, he quickly makes his move. He starts running through the warrior village as fast as he can, silently hoping that he can get out without getting caught.

He almost jumps out of joy when he spots an exit. The gate is still open even after the panic recently occurred. He keeps running faster and faster with the rise of adrenaline rush.

All of sudden, the same female soldier from before jumps right in front of Tezuka who has to stop himself from crashing into her. Where she came from, Tezuka has no idea. There is nothing surrounding them except the fence... but she didn't leap from it.

Shit! Tezuka curses mentally at himself when he realizes that she is aiming a shotgun at him. If she shoots, then the whole of China will go into a rage against the United States. 

"Hello again," she smirks slyly at him. "You're impressive. You were able to sneak away without getting seen. In fact, nobody has seen your face yet... Well, except one, yes? He has been knocked out anyway."

"Who are you?" Tezuka asks, trying not to move even an inch. He is trying to take light breathes, as if any movement on his chest would cause her to shoot him.

"Name's Akane Wu. How about you?"

"Falcon."

"That's not even your real name!" Akane snaps. "Falcon? Are you even joking?"

Tezuka narrows his blue eyes in suspicion. "What do you want from me? If you want me dead, then kill me when you have a chance."

She makes a click sound when she adjusts her shotgun, her finger now on the trigger. "You really want to die? Even after everything you had gone through recently? You rescued your friend. You almost got killed. Was that for nothing?"

Tezuka hears some loud footsteps and some shouting. "Seriously though. What do you want?"

"I want to get out of China."

Tezuka raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "Out of here? Why?"

"No time to explain. I want out. If you refuse to help me, then you and your friend are dead.”

Tezuka glances at the highest hill where he knows Ryu is aiming from. He does a gesture which he waves his hand across his throat, letting his partner know not to shoot. He just imagines that Ryu is just lying somewhere on the ground and is raising one of his eyebrows in confusion because the Chinese woman is still aiming her shotgun at him. He mentally laughs at himself.

"If you're coming with me, don't get way too behind."

Akane gives him the biggest grin he has ever seen since they first saw each other in that tent. She moves her shotgun away from Tezuka. "Good."

Finally. Tezuka thinks to himself. Now that he has rescued Sky from the enemy, all he needs to do is to figure out whether the Chinese are hiding the nuclear weapons or not. Akane is the perfect person to answer his questions, which can lead to the truth.

They get to the area where Tezuka was scouting the enemy village. "Please get the duffel. It's in the bush."

Akane does so, and they take off immediately. Tezuka is mumbling into his radio device, speaking to this Owl person, as Akane overhears him. But she doesn't give any shit about it. She is finally getting out of her own country. She doesn't care about where she is going. As long as she steps out of China, she is happy.

"Akane, we are going to meet Owl soon. Then, we will have a serious talk," Tezuka says.

"This soon?" Akane frowns. "Can't we just wait until we --"

"Our ride won't be here until tomorrow morning," Tezuka says. "Besides, we haven't told you about our mission yet."

Half an hour later, they get to the destination but Ryu is not here yet. Tezuka sighs lightly, as he carefully places his comrade on the ground. And then, he just collapses to the floor, completely exhausted.

"Where is the med kit?" Akane asks. She looks into the duffel after Tezuka points at it, and takes out the med kit. She quickly starts the treatment on Sky's wounds.

"Is he going to be ok?"

"Not sure. I'm no doctor," Akane shrugs her shoulders and pours alcohol all over several wounds on Sky’s chest and arms, making him cringe at the sudden pain. "The bleeding stopped, but I'm doing the best I can."

The lavender-haired soldier glances at his unconscious comrade and then at the beautiful woman right next to him. He hates such people like her. They killed his mother in the first place and nearly destroyed his country.

But now that he has gotten to know Ryu better. Maybe not all Asians are bad. Even Akane is helping him out, even though she is the enemy. He is not sure what Akane is scheming, but he does not care anymore. Maybe she is not too bad, after all…

Especially with her gleaming dark eyes and long glossy black hair. He wants to touch her smooth hair so badly and --

“Hey,” Akane interrupts Tezuka’s thoughts, “Can you get the bandages?”

“Wha… oh, okay,” Tezuka says softly. He mentally curses at himself and wants to kick himself for having such stupid thoughts like that. Besides, it is not like she will ever be into him.

“Here you are!” Ryu jumps from the tree’s branch and lands safely on the ground. He carefully places his sniper rifle against the bark of the tree. “Is he ok?”

“We don’t know yet,” Tezuka hands the bandages to Akane who then begins to wrap and cover Sky’s wounds. “They did quite a number on him.”

“Falcon, we need to talk,” Ryu grabs Tezuka’s arm and starts to drag him away from Akane - as far as they can. “What’s going on? Why did you allow her to come with us? She’s the --”

“Enemy, I know. I am not that stupid,” Tezuka sighs lightly as he runs his hand through his smooth lavender hair. “She was going to kill me for real, but she wanted something from me. So, we sort of made the deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

“Well, she wants to get out of China --”

“Whoa, whoa! You’re helping her to leave the country? How are we supposed to do that? Eagle would never approve this!”

“She helped Night!”

“She threatened you!”

Tezuka grits his teeth at how much right the sniper is. “What now? We just leave her alone with nowhere for her to go?”

Ryu glances back at Akane who is still treating Sky. He narrows his dark eyes in anger, “You always told me that you hated the Asians for what they had done to our country. You even hated me from the first time you saw me.”

“Now it’s about you?” Tezuka scoffs and pushes Ryu aside, walking back to Akane and Sky. He stops before he reaches them, “You know what, Owl? You’re an excellent sniper, but maybe they made the mistake of placing us together in the same squad.”

Ryu does not say anything any further. Instead, he is mentally stabbing Tezuka’s back with his deadly glare.