Southern Cross: Hitman

Chapter 10: Blue-eyed Monster

That feeling must be the same feeling that Gary's team felt when they arrived for the first time at the north. Entering a place teeming with elite soldiers, inside and out, must have felt like hell; to think that they had no better option but to die here rather than to die unexpectedly elsewhere. I felt a crazy chill down my spine as we crept closer, that was why I didn't understand how could Rico still give such an unfazed gaze. He stalked out the base with frightening eyes, like those of a hunting predator carefully scouting its prey's movements. Maybe he had mastered REM, that's why his confidence was overwhelming.

"Sabi ng Chief, mag-ingat ka raw sa mga kilos mo, baka raw maibigay ang posisyon natin-- whatever that means," I told Rico as we were about to strike.

"Sabihin mo, hindi natin iyon maiiwasan. Wala tayong Cloaker."

I didn't understand what he said that day-- not yet. What I knew was that in an instant, as we pushed closer in, a weird sensation ran down my spine-- like something or someone was watching us. I noticed Rico constantly pausing to check his watch. He must have felt it; the same feeling when entering a wild beast's territory. But he seemed cool, without even flinching from the growing fear we felt.

Suddenly, we were surrounded by five men. Their eyes were blood red, hairs white, their greyish skins were cloaked with leather trenchcoats. The one on my right grinned, constantly rubbing his mouth. They were too fast to notice, even for me who uses REM--though it was incomplete. The two other agents behind me were trembling, one passed out all of a sudden.

"Huwag kang bibitiw sa takot," Rico uttered. "Sandata nila 'yan. Sa paa mo sila bantayan ng REM."

Rico pulled his suspenders. With a hiss, the buckles went loose and dropped two Glock 17's. He caught and fired the one in front. A headshot. The enemy had no time to react.

Thanks to my REM, I could watch every single detail of the fight. I also saw Rico as he swatted the bullet case from his gun as a distraction for the nearest incoming attacker, effectively slowing it. After pivoting clockwise, he fired twice. Both his opponents ducked and rolled. The remaining two simultaneously attacked, though I anticipated one and kicked him away. The other got through to Rico but couldn't hit him. I too was wondering. How?

Then he told me something that burned into my mind:

"Ito ang dahilan kung bakit tinapos ang mga miyembro ng Scout Ranger Squad."

He pulled his suspenders once more, effectively unbuckling it.

With another hiss, he vanished into thin air.

Maybe I blinked too slow, so I tried to use REM to follow him. But even with the ability, he was still too fast. The air around him distorted my vision as he moved, he turned blurry as he continuously ran around the place. The enemy couldn't follow him either, so it decided to randomly pull the trigger at everything. A big left straight stopped it on its tracks, followed by a body blow and a right cross. Its jaw almost broke, it threw up blood when it was thrown to the boulders nearby. The other two tried to retaliate but all of a sudden, Rico was standing beside them. He kicked one on the rib, stepped on his head and shot the other on the head.

Three down, two dead, one disabled, two to go.

In a blink of an eye, a consecutive series of gunshots echoed. Rico was left standing at the center of dead bodies. He expelled both clips out and looked at us.

A blue-eyed monster. That was what he was.

I won't forget those cold lifeless eyes that seemed to see through your soul. Revenge. It was all about revenge. Those were the eyes of a wild dog when it finally caught its prey; a futile struggle between the rabbit and the fox who grabbed it by the neck. Though he was an ally, I could feel the agents trembling before Rico Bryant, his bloodlust almost covered the whole area with fear if he didn't snap out of it in the last second.

"Tara na," he calmly said.

Camp Agila seemed abandoned, even though Rico said there were about forty soldiers surrounding the area. I had to rely much on REM during the break in, as the enemies were so fast to be able to read their moves. Rico kicked the front gate and we stormed in. Two freaks were already on us, but Rico shove them to the side. I shot one to heart. The other quickly retaliated and pointed a P-23 towards the agent beside me. Suddenly, Rico kicked it off, it ended up shooting one of its comrades instead that were coming in for back-up. Rico swept two of them then turned as he flared his Glocks, effectively killing both.

Then he disappeared again.

I was sure that I was watching closely, but he vanished again right in front of my REM. Maybe his alias weren't just a metaphor. He really could disappear like a ghost.

There were a lot of gunshots, but after ten minutes, silence filled the halls of the camp.

We weren't sure how it happened but it did. I was horrified at the pile of dead mutated soldiers, most were killed on sight by the blue-eyed monster and others from malfunctioning. They weren't prepared for an attack, moreover, from an enemy that was a hundred times stronger than the average soldier. I could feel his rage, Rico burned too far down the line in his quest for vengeance and was running berserk.

Some had three shots on the head, some were skewered using broken chairs. It was a place of holocaust that day, Camp Agila was reduced to a slaughterhouse by only one man. A massacre was the more defining word, but who would believe that a soldier camp would be annihilated like that by one person in minutes?

We heard a screeching car and an explosion. I peeked through my binoculars and saw a woman slowly coming out of the car. Two other men emerged after and from the other side Rico was walking slowly towards them, both of his hands had pistols. The other men tried to subdue him but one suddenly fell down on the ground from a headshot. The other was startled, Rico then dashed beside him and shot him point blank on the temple. As the man dropped, Rico threw his guns to the side. He took off his gloves and spoke to the woman.

I won't forget their conversation (I was reading their lips because we were too far away to hear.):

"Naaalala mo ko, Lt. General Marina Hepburn?" Rico said.

"A-ano bang kailangan m-mo?! P-pera ba?!" she squealed.

"Naaalala mo ba ang Scout Ranger Squad? Naaalala mo ba ang kahayupang ginawa niyo sa mga kasama ko?"

The woman was shocked. Her expression became intensely terrified. She could barely move, her face turned pale with fear of the monster she thought had been gone years ago.

"Nagtataka ka kung paano ako nabuhay? Ako rin e. Hindi ba't tinapos ninyo ng buo mong hukbo ang aming tilap, ginamit upang subukan ang mga experimento ninyong mga halimaw? Kaso yun ang pinakamalaki ninyong pagkakamali."

As Rico walked closer to Hepburn, he pulled out his necklace. He snapped off the pendant-- the scarlet bullet case from the .45 caliber that killed his partner.

The Lt. General panicked, whipped out a gun from her side. As soon as she gestured to shoot, Rico flicked the bullet case.

Rico FLICKED the bullet case.

It sank deep into her skull and punctured behind. The bullet case flew out, still had the momentum, then planked into a tree about 50 meters behind them. That bullet case is still there to this day, but investigations never moved onto it.

After the whole ordeal, Rico moved out from the group. It was another year that passed before we heard from him again. By then, he was recruited by a friend to another specialist team specifically formed to counter super soldiers. He moved down south, far from Camp Agila and the region that took out his friends. The team was a five-man squad called Southern Cross.

Come to think of it, that friend was the one known as Cyclone Jinn.