After the Darkness

The Mission Part 1

Warning ahead for intense violence, sorry if this is a trigger for anyone. It's only to increase for the next couple parts then it should settle down. 

Dmitri POV 

As the people from the dining room began to fill up with people real quick. I wondered over to my team and family. Stella was standing with them and then moved to be with the Shadows. I understood that she was needing to calm down Tom before he delivered all the intel we have on the Korean ring leaving out Edmin. Edmin was their fish to kill, and they needed to heal after the hell they put them through. I was worried but I had faith that Maeve would know what to do. I just hoped the Maeve wouldn't disappear like all the other times we had meetings to brief for a mission. I know that she will be most likely in the shadows listening and learning as she always does with the people. She planned out the attacks that we will be giving to the two teams based on the information she gains from them. I hoped that they wouldn't balk too much because all the rest of the Phantom team was placing their trust in her to make sure that they go home to their families. Maeve's training will most likely keep all of us alive because it not normal just like her. 

Mikhail POV

The briefing of a mission is usually informative but this time feels different.  I have to bet it's the Shadows being here along with the hidden tension between the Toma and Blackbourne team with Stella. It was awkward as all get out when Luka and Elias nodded to me to get started. There was way too much talking for me to get everyone's attention. I asked "Whistle?" to Stella and she nodded. Stella lets one of her famous whistles lose and everyone including us had our ears ringing for a few seconds. "Sorry everyone that you had to hear that but you all need to quiet down so we can get started," I said calmly to the now quiet room. Raven let loose serval curse words in our mother language and I laughed at him before looking at the rest. I waited until everyone was looking at me before started this long brief "First off, this is an Academy Military mission/job for you military fork in this room. The reason why this was able to be pulled off is the targets of this mission is very closely connected to the big bear who funds it. They are going to be focused on the big bear and will keep us alive for our half of the mission. We are tackling the Korean ring. I know that they have been in the news, and it's not good. Using intel that we blessed to be allowed to have from the Military, it's way worse then we think. The Academy is solely focused on stopping the money from getting into their hands and getting the victims out to the Shadows. The military team behind me is the Shadows. The military council demands that in our reports we use their codenames and only their codenames. You only report what they tell you to report back to the council. We now have to keep them safe for future missions. Also, good news, all the Academy teams are the only teams that get to know who are the Shadows are now and future missions. Count yourselves lucky bastards." When I looked up from the files before me I was met with surprised expressions and "Oy, what the hell they expect us to keep secret now? The fucking Shadow team is fucking amazing as fuck and they should be known" Gabriel said with several repriming looks form his team.  That was when I noticed that Stella wasn't zoned out like she normally is, I become worried when I saw that her Ghost face was on and wasn't going away anytime soon. Stella stepped forward on to my side and started to stare down Gabriel real quick. I was worried that I sent the signal to Luka to do something quick and fast. Gabriel, bless his heart, open his mouth and said "Trouble, why are you looking at me like that?" with a confused tone. I stepped back as Luka took my place and guided her back to the other Shadows. He resumes his spot and explained "Stella is one of the Shadows and the best out of the eight of them. She will most likely be punching you for saying that their names should be known. What they do for a living is dealing with high-level jobs that the government passes out to them.  The people they usually go after are the people that are more dangerous than what the academy feels comfortable giving to us. This secret must be secret if you want her to come back home alive and not in a grave." With those words, he continued the briefing of this mission.

Luka POV

How could he be so draft with this news? I mused as I finished my speech about Stella and the rest of the gang. I started where Mikhail left off "The Phantom Academy team will be the lead team due to connection we have forged with the Military. We will give a goal to complete, and how you do that is up to the liaison and team lead of your team. We will be here if you need advice as well as the Shadows. Helpful fact, the Shadows will call their strategies by animal names. Don't be surprised if you hear them advise you all with Spider. Other then that, the Shadows will handle their part how they normally do so. Here the Academy and Shadows are equal with power to decide. Don't assume anything about them, they will surprise you when you are worthy to know. May share with the people who live within this building but no one else. Now, that is settled can we please carry on?" Several nods whipped across the room as I signaled to Techno to get the intel opened up knowing that it takes a few minutes to open up with all the security measures they have. "The money flow is hard to track so be ready to grab whatever you can get. Get as close as you safely can to learn all the paperwork trial. We will need proof of paper trail or something to give to the police of the country. Now for covers for all of you, we are pulling the designer and clothes expert from all of the teams who live here. The teams here are going to be connected to one of the Shadows behind me except Stella. Don't ask me about the relationships unless you have talked to the team about it. We will be complete newcomers to this ring. We are going to be at a disadvantage right off the bat. Be prepared for anything and anyone moving in to stop you. The money and favors that we all receiving will graduate anyone who hasn't and give you nice padding to add to it. Don't die as an order from the Shadows. I except that you all form some form of a relationship with all of them since they run differently from us. Anyway, now it's up to Tom, who is known as Techno for you lot to know. Tom, what do you need from us now?" Tom stepped forward with his laptop which was a high tech military grade. He connected cables from the laptop to the projector on the wall. Before he opened the program, he put encryption after encryption to protect the intel. Then the program opened and the rest of the Shadows except Stella stepped forward. I was wondering where she was when I saw her standing nearby Owen Blackbourne and Sean Green.  I pointed to her with my eyes for Tom's question of her location. Tom started to speak "You will hear us refer to each other by our numbers. The odd numbers will be the guys and the even numbers will be the females."

Tom POV

"I'm Tom or Techno and my number is 1. Jenna is Heartwood and her number is 2. West is Apollo and his number is 3. Raina is Sparky and her number is 4. Richard is Lockhart and his number is 5. James is Giant and his number is 7. Anora is Echo and her number is 8. Ghost is number 6 and can you not disappear again for the briefing." Owen and Sean jumped at that moment revealing Stella standing proud behind them with a smirk on her face. "Stella is Ghost, don't be surprised if she is the hardest to find out of all of us. Let us get started with the intel. Here is the Korean ring base pointing to the screen behind me to what we call Devil's lair." As I continued with the intel, it was getting worse and worse to hear this all over again. Blackbourne who grabbed Stella and place her in his lap was holding tight enough that I could see that even she was uncomfortable with the tight grip. She could handle tight grips any time when we were being victims of Edmin's crazy ways to hurt us in more than one way. She was our rock for the time period, and she still needs the most help. She wasn't as social as people think she is. All of us hope that this would finally close this chapter of all our stories. Sean was frozen to know how badly the victims of the ring would be hurt. Thankfully they didn't ask yet where we got this intel. Only time will tell if this question would be asked or not.