THE FORMIDABLES

#1 | ALL THE LITTLE KIDS

- Old World, Azure Safe House, Monday, 2am.

The Old World was mainly uninhabited but there were few areas that were home to private organizations. The Azure Safe House was located in the continent of Australia.

"I swear no one would know what goes down there if they weren't told. It's supposed to house displaced persons." Raftar shook his head at the building in the distance with a laugh. The building he and his comrades stood at was an abandoned warehouse about 20 blocks away from the Safe House.

"Yup. But that won't matter since we're blowing the place up." Kusakabe (also called Blaze Storm) stated, taking the binoculars from Raftar. "Safe House my ass. It's a brothel and not just that, they deal in human trafficking too. What a combo." He scoffed.

"I'm not coming along this jungle justice mission, I kill for the hell of it. Not 'cause it'll help others." Blood huffed. He was the son of the current leader and commander of the Ashen and a bloodthirsty fellow.

"So what? You gonna tell your daddy to switch missions for you?" Raftar snorted. "Besides, we were hired by the WAHT. We're getting paid and that's what matters idiot." Raftar always hated Blood because of his snobbish attitude. He was grateful to Lance for denting Blood's ego significantly.

"WAHT wants us to blow up the place? Wouldn't they want to rescue them? Anyway, should've been assigned with Siren. She could've helped us easily take out those Snake Soldiers in front." Blaze Storm lamented.

"Siren isn't the best fighter and thus will stand no chance. Dread should've been here instead. Oh and don't you know? We were hired by WAHT and the government paid double to blow the place up. The Commander's two timing." Raftar pointed out.

"Look! They're obviously hot and bothered. They keep getting distracted by that lady in blue getting into that Ferrari. That's why Siren would be perfect." Blaze Storm sighed and turned to the other person on the rooftop with them.
"Yo, aceman, what do we do now? If we engage, things will get messy and if their backup arrives before we're done, we're done."

"Maybe you guys will be done. I'm skilled enough to take them out." Blood boasted, glaring at the "aceman".

"That's not the point idiot, we all can take them out, we're from The Ashen after all. It's just that it won't be a walk in the park since they're y'know, snake soldiers?" Raftar argued.

"The only person that can take em out quick enough is him, not any of us." Blaze Storm pointed at the damp mop of blonde hair intently watching the Safe House through a pair of binoculars he took from him.

"What he can do, I'm better at it." Blood barked, feeling attacked.

"Look who's talking. You're forgetting it's the same person who gave you that wonderful scar underneath your left eye." Raftar cackled.

"A work of art that puts the Monalisa to shame." Blaze Storm laughed.

"Ah! Good one!" Raftar snickered.

Blood felt his blood boil, they were Lance's friends in The Ashen and had a lot of respect for him. Worst of all, The Commander made him go on a mission with Lance himself. 'Does he want me to learn from this excuse of an assassin?'

Blood reached for his sword to attack, blinded by rage he thought to kill them all but before his fingers could reach the hilt of his sword, there were two katanas stopping him. One held in front of his neck and the other at the nape. And of course the person welding them was Lance. Swallowing his pride and valuing his life, Blood dropped his hand from his sword afterwhich Lance drew back his sword.

"I've got it." Lance stated, capturing the other two's attention. "There are 15 snake soldiers guarding the perimeter. 4 on each side but there's only 3 on the left wing because it's the least likely to have anyone coming in or out from being nearest to the meteor crater."