To reel it back a bit; a couple days prior.

  While Kito's crew was fighting Naoki, Makoto, Saizo, Ken, and Viral, and Mishima and Jin were preparing RUPTURE for the apartment bombing, on the opposite side of the world, two gentile people are having tea on an apartment balcony.

  Quinn, adorned in a puffy navy blue cardigan, an equally blue pair of wide jeans, a black beret, a black wool shirt, and specially designed high-tops with cute little designs on them, sits on a metal chair and drinks their ginseng tea.

  Opposite to them is a beautiful woman, with teal hair that went a little past her shoulders. She's wearing a black wide brimmed hat, as well as a black shawl with stars embroidered on the inner side. Underneath is a teal sleeveless crop top that came up to her neck, a black skirt that reached her ankles, and dark oxfords for shoes. She's drinking green tea.

  "So, Aquarius," started Quinn, "how's the spirit medium business going along? I think I remember you saying that you were planning on going to the Underground for business, right?"

  Aquarius put down her tea and responded. "I prefer the term 'witch' than spirit medium but so far, it's going pretty alright. I don't have that much time because work is busy but, I get a couple of clients on the weekends. I got the paperwork done for the Underground so as soon as they approve it, I can start business there too."

  "Speaking of the Underground..." interjects Quinn. "Remember the guy I was talking about?"

  "The incel with the trenchcoat? Yes."

  "Well?" Said Quinn, shimmying their shoulders in an excited groove. "Have you thought about the plan?"

  The witch rolled her neck around and closed her eyes. "I mean... It's just..." She sighed. "Look dude, I love you and all that, but I'm not sure if you should keep on luring guys for this."

  "Oh come on! I only do it to people who deserve it."

  "What exactly has he done?"

  "Well, just from his demeanor, I can tell these sort of things, y'know?" Explained Quinn. "He's an arrogant, pretentious ass-hat that wants to take advantage of me one way or another."

  "Aren't you doing the same thing to him though?"

  "Trust me, upon meeting him for the first time, I could tell the exact type of person he is. He's the type that if he were to find out what you are, he would have problems with it."

  Aquarius grimaces. "Yeah, that does suck. But is that your justification?"

  "Yeah. But I'm past the point of caring for that type of thing. It's like I told you before, life is all about what you can do in the short amount of time we have here. So even if its at the expense of bigots, I'll gladly take what I can get. And from there, we can enjoy ourselves to our fullest extent, away from legalities. Hell, if we could somehow gather enough power, we could have enough power for a coup, y'know? This country's in dire need of a rebalance after all. It may be hard but we can come up with systems afterwards. And from there, we'll show those assholes what they deserve!"

  Aquarius simply drinks her tea.

  Quinn clears their throat and scooches back into their seat. "Aqua? You got quiet."

  "Nah man, spit your shit queen."

  Quinn chuckled. "Of course, I'm just exaggerating. But don't you think that's the life?"

  Aqua shook her head. "That's certainly... one way to live life, but I'm not really in that phase anymore. I got my powers for different reasons but if that's how you want to live life, then be my guest. However," firmly assured Aqua. "I don't want to make these things personal. I'm too old to be dealing with drama and fighting. So if something happens to you, I can help you, but I won't be getting involved with any of the danger."

  "But with you helping me, wouldn't that make you an accomplice?"

  "Not necessarily. When I help you and Edward, it would benefit both of you, not just you. Whether its with the context of helping you or not, the result would be the same. But again, after that, you're on your own."

  Quinn sighed and lowered their head while smiling. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks for helping me again."

  "Of course," replied Aqua, sipping her tea.

  .

  .

  .

  Meanwhile, at the CIA headquarters, Vincent, Dani, and Chief Washington are all in a dark boarding room. The spacious boarding room is filled with a couple of rows for workers on computers, tracking down everything necessary for missions. Three large walls are filled with screens via projectors. The main screen depicted a man in a suit; "Travis Bullwinkle".

  The Chief impatiently checked his watch. "Where the hell are they..." He muttered.

  The doors opened to reveal a tall man, seemingly in his early to mid 40s. His slick backed hair was also spikey, thanks to the amount of gel hardening the tips. Despite the crows feet on his face, he adorned himself with various earring, piercings, rings and golden accents to boot. A youthful aura stemmed from this man; with a nonchalant smile and an eager attitude, he sauntered on over to the main floor and grabbed himself a seat. "Sorry for being late," he said aloud in a joyful, yet toned manner.

  The Chief clicked his tongue. "Tardigrade. Seriously, how old are you now?"

  "I wouldn't worry about that right now." He says, leaning back on the chair.

  "So what's your excuse for being late now?"

  "Don't have one." Simply replied the senior agent. "So are we going to start or?"

  With a twitching eye, The Chief responded. "Not yet. It seems you're not the only one that's late."

  In the span of five minutes, two more figures barged into the room.

  "You're late." Scolded The Chief.

  "Sorry about that," responded Jinsei. "It's been a while since we've first traversed the grou-"

  "JESUUUS guys," interrupted Edward. "This place is a real fuckin' maze ya know that?"

  The rest of the men all stared at Edward. Jinsei telepathically commented to Edward "I'd appreciate if you didn't get us kicked so soon."

  Both Edward and Jinsei took a seat between Tardigrade and Vincent.

  Edward looks up and down at the walking contradiction that is Tardigrade. "Who the hell are you?"

  Tardigrade glanced at the other walking contradiction that is Edward, and decided to oblige his presence with a lazy fist bump and no eye contact. "Tardigrade."

  Edward fist bumped the agent. "...You're named after a water-bear?"

  "Yeah."

  "Gentlemen," interjected The Chief. "We can gather for introductions later-"

  "I'm not sure if I'd care to." Assured Tardigrade with an increasingly bored expression.

  Edward glared at Tardigrade and gripped onto his own thighs.

  "But, please do continue. My apologies" Said Tardigrade.

  "Right," said Dani, then pointing to the screen with a laser pointer. "This is Travis Bullwinkle. Some of you may recognize him as the CEO to one of the world's most successful insurance firms. And that's a problem for us. Recently, he's been found dodging taxes left and right without regulation."

  Edward squinted at the screen and interjected. "Wait, isn't that more of an IRS issue though?"

  All of the agents, including Chief Washington gave an irked face.

  "Yes." Said Dani through gritted teeth. "It was their problem."

  Edward looked to the left and to the right. "...The hell does that mean?"

  "It means," answered Vincent. "Don't worry about it, and just let them finish."

  "Thank you," said Dani. "The main issue however, is that we gave him a large portion to start up his company back during the 90s. We, or more accurately, the previous Chief, propped up his start up company to be on the same level as established firms. Over the years, Bullwinkle's firm has only gotten richer. And now, he's gotten too big for his britches to share any of his money. So, we're going to liquidate both him and the company."

  "Question." Started Vincent. He pointed at both Jinsei and Edward. "What are they doing here?"

  "Ah, I'm getting to that. In essence, for this mission to work, we'll be having Tardigrade eliminate Bullwinkle. We'll have Vincent take care of the before and after of the aftermath with the police, and that leaves you two. Jinsei, since you seem to be the leader of your group-"

  Edward clicks his tongue upon hearing the utterance.

  "-you're simply here to observe how operations go and make things smoother from here on out. As for Edward, per Jinsei's recommendation, you'll be helping us hack into Bullwinkle's mansion's security measures. No evidence will make things go way smoother. You are good with technology, right?"

  "Yeah."

  "Then... yeah, that's basically the mission. We'll schedule it in the next four days so, prepare yourselves to go to New York."

  Dani looked over at Washington, in which the Chief dismissed them all.

  Vincent and Edward both leave out of the room first; Jinsei and Tardigrade stayed back for a few moments to consult with the chief.

  "Hey," started Vincent. "So uh, where's your friend? The mohawk one?"

  "Solomon? I don't fuckin' know dude. The guy's insane. Last I heard, he was in Colorado."

  Vincent squints. "Doing...?"

  Edward frustratedly shrugged his shoulder. "Wha- I just said, I don't know man. He's doing Solomon shit. Why do you ask?"

  "Isn't his ability to be completely undetectable?"

  "Yeah?" Said Edward in an annoyed tone.

  "Well then, shouldn't he be here instead of you?"

  Edward grimaces. "What are you tryna say huh? He's better than me?"

  "Well in this specific mission, yes. If Tardigrade just carries him on his back, the both of them would be completely invisible and we wouldn't need to hack into Travis' security measures."

  Edward doesn't say anything for a couple of seconds before going "you're really fucking annoying, you know that?"

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  Vincent scoffs. "Me? What did I do? You're the one with the bruised ego. Oh come on, don't tell me your dick is that small. Getting your ego hurt by the truth? What are you, 12?"

  "I oughta kick your ass you stupid twink."

  "Well I- Twink? TWINK?" Shouted Vincent. "Bitch, you're shorter and skinner than me you dumbass. I would ragdoll you, twink."

  Right as the both of them got up, something that felt like a claw machine gripped onto their shoulders. For a moment, they felt as if both of their trapezius and clavicles were crushed, only for the grip to momentarily loosen up again. "Boooys." Said a cold, yet playful voice. Both Vincent and Edward look down at the hand, only to see its adorned by various gold rings. "I'm assuming this is all just locker-room talk, right?"

  Tardigrade's grip switched from a firm clamp to playfully pulling them closer to himself and hanging his arms around their shoulders. "It'd be a shame if these were actual threats, hm?" He then patted both of their chests simultaneously and let them go.

  "Let's try to be friends here, mkay?" Said Tardigrade with a playful smile. He sauntered off. From afar, Jinsei looked back at both Vincent and Edward. He gave a very annoyed stare at them both, before following the senior agent.

  Both Vincent and Edward huffed, readjusted their cool, and walked towards the other two.

  "That old guy smells." Muttered Edward. "Like unsmoked cigars and... old man fingers."

  "Yeah, it's overpriced cologne. Get used to it."

  "... Also you can't say twink after I already said it," explained Edward. "Using the same insult after someone else says it means you're the beta-"

  "Are we seriously going back to this?"

  Vincent rubbed his face and thought to himself. "(I think I would honestly prefer getting slammed through a wall by Chad over talking to this guy.)"

  .

  .

  .

  A day later, after traveling on private jet and arriving to New York, the four of them all ride a Honda civic that was prepared for them. Cramped, they drive around downtown New York.

  With Vincent as the driver, Tardigrade on passenger, and Jinsei and Edward in the back, Tardigrade pointed at a large tower that was right next to them. "See that right there? That's the company's tower. Waaaay up there is the bastard's office. And pretty soon, it'll be ours. And then after that, no one's."

  Edward narrowed his eyes. He noticed a cafe is a neighboring building.

  "What does the schedule entail?" Asked Jinsei.

  "Well, today is just getting ourselves situated." Explained Tardigrade. "Tomorrow is setting everything. The day or rather, night after is actually executing the plan, and the day after is when we go back to base."

  "I see." Said Jinsei.

  "It's getting late, so we'll head back to the hotel." Said Tardigrade.

  .

  .

  .

  At the hotel, Vincent and Tardigrade get one room while Edward and Jinsei get the neighboring room.

  "Alright boys, it's been a long day, and as we all know, jet lag is a bitch." Insisted Tardigrade. "That being said, we'll meet you both at 7 in the morning. Don't be making too much noise," he says with a grin. "We can hear everything."

  "I'm not gay." Assured Edward in a strict tone.

  Stunned, the other three all traded glances with one another. Vincent snickers after a couple of seconds. Tardigrade smiles. "Of course you're not."

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Said Edward with an aggravated tone. Before then, he looked at the ground, clapped, and looked back up at them with a smile. "Oh I get it, it's a joke! Good one guys! Nice teasing me and all that."

  "..."

  "..."

  "..."

  After a moment of silence, Tardigrade ended the conversation with a tired "goodnight," entered the room along with Vincent, and slammed the door behind them.

  Edward and Jinsei both do much the same and without saying a word, brush their teeth and go to bed. Jinsei kept giving awkward and annoyed looks at Edward the entire night, yet Edward, too bothered, only kept on thinking...

  .

  .

  .

  The next morning; present day.

  7:29 AM

  The four of them are at the hotel's breakfast dining room. Their plates are full of veggie bacon, fluffy eggs, banana muffins, sausages, cereal, apples, and milk.

  "Damn." Says Vincent with his mouth full of food. "This food sucks."

  "We got the cheapest hotel so beggars can't be choosers." Says Tardigrade in between eating sausages.

  Arriving late to the breakfast, Edward, still in his pajamas, groggily walks to them and prepares himself some orange juice and toast.

  "My! It's sleeping beauty," teases Tardigrade. "About time you woke up. Say, how was your dream?"

  "Shut. The fuck. Up." Groans Edward with his eyes still closed. "I'm not in the mood."

  Jinsei turns to him and notices Edward has one hand on the table while the other concentrates on his phone, reading an article about Travis Bullwinkle's recent controversies. Edward scoffs as a majority of Travis' excuses and apologies revolve around "unforeseen consequences" and blaming it on "depression"

  "Hm." Mutters Jinsei, looking at Edward. Jinsei then picks up a fork and stabs Edward's hand that's on the table.

  "HHAAAGGHH WHAT THE FUCK?" Shouts Edward, struggling to yank to the fork out of his hand.

  "Behave. You're making us look bad."

  "You BITCH you don't just do that," yells Edward. As he continued to complain and scramble for a first aid kit, Tardigrade smiles at Jinsei.

  "I appreciate it but, you don't have to do that. A man doesn't overreact."

  "I see." Simply says Jinsei. "I'm glad you're mature. That being said, I believe that people need to be punished in order to prevent them from making the same mistake twice."

  The senior agent smiles and gets up to make his coffee. "Fair enough."

  .

  .

  .

  A couple hours later, with Edward's hand patched up, the four of them cruise towards acres of gated land. Acres for a private golf course, several pools haphazardly spread throughout the land, mini-bars, barracks for the guards, and of course, an obnoxiously apparent mansion that looked more like a castle.

  "So Bullwinkle owns all of this land?" Asks Edward, still rubbing on to his hand.

  "Yeah," says Vincent. "And pretty soon well, you already know what's gonna happen. It's a shame though, if we had more practice with contracts in the 90s we wouldn't be here but, it's not the end of the world."

  As the car approaches the gate, a guard with a G3 rifle stops them. He's a tall, fat man with sunglasses, a bullet proof vest, and stern face.

  "Name?" Asks the guard.

  Vincent pulls up his badge; it's not enough to disclose that it's CIA, for that would raise too many questions, but it's enough to tell a normal person that they mean more than business.

  The guard analyzes the badge and gives it back to Vincent. "Do you have a warrant?"

  "Look man, I'm just doing my job here. Could you just let us in? We need to talk to your boss about some business."

  The guard shrugs. "I'm sorry but if it's business, you should talk to him about it. If your names not on the registry, or if you don't have a warrant, I can't let you in."

  Vincent makes a neutral face, as he stares at the guard. Before then, he takes off his glasses and stares at the guard, dead in the eye.

  "437 Mapleberry Ct. One wife. Two daughters. Four dogs."

  The guard's breathing gets heavy.

  "I-I'm sorry I-I can't-"

  "It's either you, them, or this gate that's gotta go." Vincent puts his glasses back on. "Make the right choice."

  Gritting his teeth, as much as the guard wanted to point his rifle at the men, he knows better, and opens the gate for them.

  "Thanks." Says Vincent, pulling forward.

  After they arrive in front of the mansion, the four of them stare out.

  "Bullwinkle is still at his office, so the security is a bit lax at the moment." Explains Vincent. "But with Eddy here, he can just hack into the mainframe and when the night arises." He turns around to Edward. "You can just stay at the hotel while Tardigrade does his job, right?"

  "Yeah." Scoffs Edward.

  "Cool." Vincent then plops a laptop onto Edward's lap. "So get to it."

  Reluctantly, Edward takes 15 minutes to hack into the security system. Every five minutes, a new guard would come up to the car and ask what they were doing. Likewise, Vincent proceeded to threaten them with their own personal information. After that was done, they all left the compound.

  .

  .

  .

  Mid-day.

  The four of them are back at the hotel.

  "Well, with our 'homework' basically out of the way, that leaves the rest of the day to do whatever we want." Explains Vincent. He claps his hand. "Tardigrade and I are going to use the car and we're gonna go bar-hopping. What are you guys gonna do?"

  "I'll stay inside. I still have lectures that I need to script." Says Jinsei.

  "Question," Starts Edward. "Why do we have to wait a day and not do it today?"

  "In essence," answers Tardigrade. "Blame it on bureaucracy. We're still waiting on those pencil-pushers to finish up filing and writing those forms, just so when its time to bury everything and claim everything as our own, it's a lot smoother. They just appointed tomorrow night to be the day he dies rather than today or last year or whatever."

  "Gotcha. Well in that case, I'm gonna go to mall." Says Edward.

  "Do you want us to take you there?" Asks Tardigrade.

  "No, I don't want to get in your guys' way. I'll just get one of those new taxi apps."

  Tardigrade glances at Edward. "If you insist."

  Vincent and Tardigrade leave, while Jinsei goes inside the room. This leaves Edward to wait outside for a ride, and go straight to the cafe that neighbors the insurance firm's skyscraper.

  .

  .

  .

  After sitting down at a cafe chair for half an hour, Edward stares at the cashier worker.

  "(No...)" He thinks to himself. "(That won't work. Too many witnesses. And if I don't come back, that leaves the laptop as evidence. God damn it.)"

  He then takes his lap-top and goes to the bathroom. Standing while staring at the screen, he can see the building's security feed. Possessing access to every camera, he freezes the cameras so at best, they look like nothing's happening and at worst, the cameras are messing up. Either way, he only has less than 15 minutes to complete his mission.

  He stands on top of the toilet, folds his laptop to the point where it can still be 'awake,' lowers the screen brightness, pushes one of the ceiling tiles upwards, and rests the laptop up there, making sure it doesn't fall. After a couple of seconds of stuffing the tile back, the laptop doesn't fall down. With that, he storms out of the bathroom, and into the building.

  Entering the building, he sees two elevators; one for civilians to explore the high rise, and another for workers. He sees two business men walk out of the elevator, and speed walks towards it.

  "Uh excuse me, sir?" Says the desk lady.

  Edward ignores her and enters the elevator. He quickly presses the button for the highest floor. After a couple of seconds, he realizes something, and picks the level to the second highest floor.

  Breathing in and out, he can feel the presences of people coming towards him.

  "God damn it."

  Once he reaches the second highest level, he gets off and sprints for the stairs.

  There, he sees Travis' secretary, a middle aged woman, clearly startled. "S-sir, Mr. Bullwinkle isn't looking for- oh-ok. Security!"

  Climbing up the stairs, with the sound of distant echoing footsteps coming from the bottom as well, Edward rushes for the final level. He sees that the stairs also go up the roof. He takes a couple steps up the stairs, before going back down to the main floor. There, he sees a long hallway, and a tall, brolic black man almost as wide as the hallway itself. The bodyguard cracks his knuckles.

  "Oh come the fuck ON." Mutters Edward.

  The bodyguard then pulls out a Glock 19 pistol.

  "OH SHIT."

  Dashing forward, Edward uses ki to enhance his body, closing the distance between him and the bodyguard in less than three seconds. Hopping from side to side, he barely dodges the first two bullets, only to get hit in the stomach by a third bullet. He can feel his stomach bleed.

  "(Shit!)" He thinks to himself.

  Kicking the gun out of the bodyguard's grasp, Edward punches the bodyguard three times in the stomach. The bodyguard stumbles backwards, clearly confused by the twink's surprising strength. The bodyguard tries to wrestle Edward to the ground, but Edward manages to slip away and runs straight for the office doors. Barging in, he sees Travis Bullwinkle.

  Startled, holding a revolver with a shaky grip, a man in his early 40s with a weak mustache and a frail build stares at Edward. "Wh-what the hell is going on out there?"

  Edward stares at Travis, takes three steps inside the office

  And raises his arms.

  "I surrender." Declares Edward.

  Travis, the bodyguard, and a squad of police officers all swarm Edward. They kick him down and bruise him up while they eventually cuff him.

  "I'm down I'm down already FUCK!" Yells Edward, in between getting his head knocked around. Despite using ki, Edward remembers his specialization. No matter how hard he's trained in ki the past few weeks, he's still barely above the level of the average human. One good hit to the back of the head would do the same thing to him as the average human.

  Edward and the cops all go down to the ground building. News reports take a good look at the scene, as well as Edward's face. Traffic piles up from the scene. Interviews left and right at the accounts. He got his 15 minutes of fame, as seemingly, the nation would witness this report, before being shuffled to the next story.

  On the way to the jail, Edward, with a pummeled face, asks the police officers. "What are you names and badge numbers."

  The officers don't say anything.

  "Come on, your names and badge numbers, I have a right to know."

  "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or-"

  "TELL ME NOW."

  The police officers sigh. They say their designated badge numbers. As for the names:

  "Officer Barnes."

  "Officer Remington."

  Edward makes a mental note.

  .

  .

  .

  After three hours, Edward waits in the police stations holding cell. He lays uncomfortably in the cramped, moldy cell, with his arms tucked in the back of his head, and his legs crossed.

  "Mr...Edward?" Calls out an officer.

  Edward looks over.

  "Someone is here to bail you out."

  A vigorously annoyed Vincent steps close to the holding cell.

  "You're really fucking annoying you know that?" He says through gritted teeth. "And you're in deep shit now."

  Edward smiles. "But you still need me."

  "After tonight, I'm not so sure."

  .

  .

  .

  After Vincent gives him an earful about being discreet, they both go back to the hotel.

  "Good night." Says Vincent. "And don't you EVER do something like that again. Lots of noise fucks everything up. Bye."

  Vincent slams the door behind him.

  Edward stares at the wall between his room and the other agents' room.

  "Four inches..." Mutters Edward. He looks at the ground, envisioning a small radius around him. "Thin walls after all... I can make that..."

  Edward finally enters his room, and waits.

  .

  .

  .

  1:34 AM

  Edward watches TV, glancing at the clock every now and then. He compares it with the time the cafe closes, which was at 11 PM.

  Jinsei still sits on his bed, typing away at a scripture.

  "Hey uh, I'm gonna go to the bathroom." Says Edward. He enters the room's bathroom and locks the door.

  .

  .

  .

  1:35 AM

  Edward walks through the cafe, and into the cafe's bathroom. He fetches his laptop from above. He then rummages through the store's fridge, with ki, breaks the lock on it, and chugs two bottles of juice, all without finishing either.

  .

  .

  .

  1:37 AM

  Back inside the hotel's bathroom, he puts the laptop in one of the bathroom's drawers. It'd be suspicious if he came in without a laptop and came out with one. He washes his hands from the roof tiling and walks out.

  "You can use it now. I'm heading to bed." Yawns Edward. He plops on the bed and faces away from his roommate. "G'night."

  "Where did you go?" Asks Jinsei with a serious voice.

  Edward pauses, and then forces out a scoff. "What do you mean?"

  "Nobody goes to the bathroom and announces that they're going to do that. They just go to the bathroom."

  "Well I just said it in case you wanted to use it before me. Sorry for being courteous."

  "Edward."

  Edward turns to Jinsei.

  "I know you. So tell me.

  Where did you go."

  Edward stares at Jinsei.

  "I know you would like to know. But even if I did want to tell you, there's a small issue."

  Edward points at the walls and mouths a sentence.

  "The walls have ears."