I did not attracted danger this time. I went to the ruins a family experienced, confronted them, helped them to one of our agency's old hospital and shifted some to our agents' houses who once worked in Las Vegas like Leo did.
This is what we had been doing. The city was suffering from random attacks from like those two boys who once attacked me while I went after Stella to retrieve the stone. That was the beginning of the coming thunder.
Hades had taken control over the government. The police was under him and they were on guarding our street just in case we try to run away.
Many other agencies instead of the ones that were private were bought by him creating a big mass of chaos around the country. Injured were left unattended as hospitals were demolished for he built illegal industries for the manufacturing of robots with heavily weaponised and gave them artificial intelligence.
The metallic ball which once attacked me—known as ballugns—were released often now which were injected in Augmen and certainly became the most dangerous weapon since it would claw you until you cry in pain and would inject you the Augmen which would surely made you nastier just like it did to my friends before and poison you on the other hand so you work for Hades and he'll give you a poison treatment in return but during that treatment, your body would be fully transformed and you'll no longer be your previous self anymore and would become one of Hades' sectators.
And we were unable to go out as with tight security and because of ballugns but we learned their weaknesses such as the guards would doze of during night because we would jinx their drinks or food. Last time Austin slipped Chloe's nail glue remover into the guards fruit punch —he was out of toxic substances—and that guard had a mouth burn.
I took my shoes off and walked to the kitchen to drink a glass of water. A shadow of a figure pacing around the kitchen greeted me. She had her head in her hands and walked around murmuring to herself some inaudible sentences. 'Everything's ok Stella?' I asked her as I opened the fridge and poured the water in the glass.
She looked up , a bit startled but a wave of relief washed over her face. 'Yes. Oh god I'm so glad you're here.' She said.
'O-Kay.' I said uncertainly. 'What's wrong?'
'Elsa Lauren...' Stella held her tongue as I greeted my teeth. I didn't hate her but she had done enough damage to us that liking her seemed to me impossible. She played the game so smoothly and till now, I have my doubts for Stella too but I was keeping quite a sharp eye on Stella just in case and so was everyone else.
'Go on.' I encouraged her. 'What's with her?'
'The police is under Hades and Lauren was imprisoned. Is it possible that I just go and check on her? Stella asked me.
'Why does it matter? She committed a capital crime. She would be sentenced to death soon.'
'I know but Elsa, there is still one day left for the Execution. Besides no matter how bad she becomes, she's still my sister.' Stella tried to reason with me.
I pounded over her words. 'What would you do if I say no?'
'I won't resist.' She looked down on her feet feeling ashamed.
'Fine then.' I told her. 'If you won't be back till 3 am, Stella then I'll suggest you to never.' I drank the water and tip toed to my bathroom to take a shower. I gave her four hours to gain my trust , four hours to gain everyone's and part of me wanted her to come back.
I didn't sleep rather worked.
I had to make a plan. The plan that would give us enough hope to continue fighting. I get up and see their faces full of hope as they want me to tell them prophecy but I give them just a smile but now I couldn't let them down by giving them no plan.
I redrew Stella's rough map of inside of Hades' headquarter with dying hands. I drank coffee twice though it had never been my drink. Mine was hot chocolate at which I was terrible. I stood up and stretched just when footsteps whispered someone's presence. I didn't bothered to look up as the footsteps were enough to give me a heart attack but I managed to keep straight face.
'And might I know why are you up till now?' Leo asked as he joined me on the kitchen counter.
'No you should not.'
'Elsa—
'—Leo , for one day. Please.' I cut him off.
He walked over to me and pointed his index finger on my forehead. 'Elsa Carter Stone. One day, you were attacked. One day you were kidnapped. One day, you're helicopter was to be crashed. One day. Elsa. One day. So much happens one day and I'm not repeating the history.'
I rubbed my face. 'Oh God. You exalt so much.'
'Whatever you say.'
'Why did you get up?'
He shrugged . 'Isn't it is obvious?'
'What is?'
'Cause you weren't there Jewel.' He said.
'Aww...' I pinched his cheeks. 'Look how much my baby has grown up! Mama's so proud.'
He looked towards the ceiling. 'God! Why of all women did I have to fall in love with this one?'
I death panned. 'Its your problem then. Why blame God?'
'Im not blaming.' He shook his head. 'I'm simply asking.'
'What?'
'That do this girl, standing in front of me love me too or not?' This question was enough to redden me.
I cleared my throat, itched my neck, my legs , rubbed my face , took a bath, climbed up Mount Everest, jumped off it, dived in the sea, and died. This was what I wanted to do instead of answering his question.
'I...Er... ' I pounded over my words that seemed to disappear at that moment. 'I need to die.'
'What?' He tilted his head looking oddly innocent and handsome.
'Dive. Cry. High.' I said random words and he furrowed. 'Bye.'
'What why?'
'Ok it's too much rhyming now. I mean I need to go so bye.' I said a sensible set of words finally and took a step towards my training room.
'Wait.' He held my forearm and I turned around by myself before he'd forced me and then I'll crash into his muscular bare chest and would lose all my breath and turn into a much redder tomato and he would probably ask me the same question again and I'll again lose my mind and the cycle would go one.
'Aren't you going to sleep now?' He hid his disappointment behind a small smile but his act of innocence cracked open to reveal the tint of disappointment and suddenly I felt weak for not committing my feelings.
'I...' I trailed off as again my thoughts lead me to the possibilities that might help him to arise the question.
Suddenly a door shutting sound brought me back to my senses as Stella entered and tried to pretend that she didn't see us in this awkward situation where Leo had his hand over my wrist and I was tuned around at an awkward angle that my back was twisted and my legs were almost stretched at 180 degree of angle.
And Leo was shirtless.
That alone was enough to make her more red. 'I'm back and Lauren wasn't anywhere.' Stella stated.
Her instant appearance made Leo's grip loose and I basically rushed over to her and hugged the life out of her murmuring my thank you'd specially for saving me from such an awkward situation and dragged her over to now hers and Chloe's room leaving a confused Leo behind who remained rooted to his spot utterly bewildered at what just happened.
The next morning I woke up late.
The moment I had finished myself the morning routine, everyone had already settled in the training room waiting for their useless inefficaciously pathetic and futile leader to overcome her simply quotidian tasks to give them a promised ray of hope ; me.
I grabbed an apple and sat on a chair. I chewed on my apple while everyone waited for me to tell them something. 'Why don't we take everyone's opinions?' I suggested and since we had been working on it for so many days, we all had at least one plan so all agreed.
The meeting started with Greg's plan who suggested a simple plan ; to take over their forces and kill Hades, save Marie , destroy the stone.. Apparently we needed a plan for it but nevertheless, everyone appreciated his effort and clapped a little too loudly.
Next was Stephen who suggested to disguise as Hades' guards and sneak into the building and would destroy his resources to make him weaker and finally would destroy the stone. It was good but it needed amendments. Nevertheless, I noted down the pointed to build a plan meanwhile.
Chloe's plane as similar to Stephen's because they both had been working with each other a lot with just a little changing that they should kill Hades first before doing anything else.
The twins had made quite a good plan. They suggested to replace the ballugns with anti-Augmen. It will help those would were a victim to it , grow normal. But then , the problem of getting the anti-Augmen in this much quantity arose. We would go into laboratories, grabbing a few chemists from SAB's old hospital to test for anti-Augmen but since when Hades' took over the police, conditions weren't like before anymore.
Stella had a plan many didn't agree on much. She wanted us to take Augmen that would help us to mix with the sectators and so we will enter his headquarter. After entering in, we will take anti-Augmen and would be good but it had a lot of problems. 1. As much as I've researched, you don't have any control over your brain so taking anti-Augmen would be impossible. 2. If we do take, it won't be easy to wander in his headquarter and 3. It might be possible during our anti-Augmen session, I lose my ring.
So it was rejected before hand.
Leo suggested as to make a obvious plan in entering the headquarters and involve some Hades guards in too. In that way, the guards would surely cheat upon us and tell Hades everything but we'll do opposite. So the preparation Hades must've made for us would give us a good distraction to slip in the headquarters. The plan was good and so was efficient but it needed to be a master one and judging from my prophecy-less nights, I knew we didn't have enough time for such plan.
But that gave me an awesome idea.
I got up from my chair just as Leo settled in his chair and rushed towards the front of the table. I clapped my hands at how excited I suddenly became. 'Guys! Brace yourself. The rollercoaster is going to be steeper now.' Was all I said and we settled in as I shared my plan with them. They all agreed upon it and so off we set saving the world.
▪️▪️▪️
I leant back on my chair and cracked my knuckles. I checked my watch. 5:49 in the morning. It was the third day since we had been working on the plan.
My ponytail was in miserable condition so I fixed it and stretched. I walked over to the map and marked red on a spot with almost closing eyes. But everyone was in the same state as me.
'Hey look, if we go here...' Austin , Justin and Stephen gathered around me and I engulfed into another long discussion.
'This is the entrance and if we make it through it, I guess we'll get a hold on it.' I pointed and marked it red. I held my neck as it hurt due to my terrible position I had been standing like for an hour or so.
'There you go.' A hand put a hot chocolate cup in front of me. I diverted my eyes up and saw Leo with a whole lot messy hair and a cup of black coffee in his hand. He was looking down on the map I had marked spots.
At that moment, I almost forgot how much indulge I was in work but he still remembered me. He didn't mention that question again but I knew that he was quite disappointed. And why wouldn't he , when he kiss me , it startle me so much that I don't kiss back. He got disappointed too. The way he wakes up almost immediately after I leave and how he says that he couldn't sleep without me , these small acts just melt my heart but I give him nothing back. And that was a disappointment for me.
I pulled him into a quick hug that his coffee spilled a bit on my shirt. He was stiff until he placed the mug on the table and hugged me back, a bit more tighter , a bit more warmer. 'Thank you so much.' I murmured in his neck and heard him smile on my neck. 'For everything Leo.'
He placed a small kiss on my neck and pulled back on arms length so that he could look at me. 'You don't need to.'
'I do. You do so much for me and I give you nothing back . You take care of so many of my little things and you make me so much happy and make me laugh so much that I never did before and—'
'—Shut up or I'll kiss the life out of you.'
I shut up.
'Aww... now I want a Leo boyfriend.' Austin interrupted. 'If you're really that sweet but except for that kiss part. I mean like gross.' He made a face.
I laughed. 'But last time I checked you were interested in girls.' Justin said.
'Last time I checked you were into girls too. Not bitches.' Austin addressed towards Stella. 'But whatever. I'm interested in coffee , I don't care if a girl or a boy make it.'
Justin rolled his eyes. 'I feel so humiliated that I shared a womb with you.' He capped his pen. 'Go take mine.' He pointed at the coffee placed on the other end of the table.
'I love you!' Austin rushed to grab his coffee.
'Ok now I feel more humiliated.' Justin mumbled but apparently Austin didn't bother to listen as he drank his coffee merrily.
'You know what guys? We should have a group name.' Austin suggested.
'Oh I have one. How about 'The gorillas'?' Stephen looked up and said.
'Sorry bud. But the group means all of us. Not just you.' Austin remarked.
'How about 'The blasters'?' Stephen suggested another one.
'Again Stephen. We're talking about everybody here. It's you who eat Mexico food and do the blasts.' Justin remarked and earned quite giggles and eye rolls from everyone.
Silence fell over.
' 'The bashers'. How's this?' Austin said.
' 'The dark bashers.' Leo added.
' 'The dark hunters.' ' I corrected and soon a satisfied smile spread across everyone's face. This was it. We were dark hunters. But we never chose to be these. We were predicted and now we just earned a name but it felt a responsibility to do it.
And tomorrow would be the day we'd set up to fulfil such a journey.
oOo
Hello my lovelies! You have just read chapter 48! It means that you have read more than half of my story. It means that it is going to end soon. *cries in the corner*.
Well, it's gonna be a good journey and we'll finish it together happily and awesomely.
Are you excited about their journey?
Do you think their plan would be successful?
What did you think of the name?
What was your favourite part of the chapter?
Do comment me down below and change the colour of the star if you feel like it. It is simply the best thing that I receive from you guys.
Thank you for reading.
I'll see you soon.
Love, huzaila.