The team sat around the large briefing table, the glow of holo-screens illuminating their faces. Each display flashed news headlines, each more damning than the last.
"A Meteorite stone Stolen Right Under Special Officer Force's Nose!"
"Unstoppable Terrorist? Who Is the White-Jacket Man?"
"Public Outrage Over Authorities' Incompetence!"
Khem sat rigid, staring at the screens with an unreadable expression. Samui folded her arms, her mind already running calculations. Shining removed his cracked sunglasses, rubbing his temple. Weird, for once, wasn’t smirking—his fingers tapped against his armrest, tension in every motion. The holo-screens flickered, shifting to footage of the auction’s ruins. The Grand Solis Auction Hall – Destroyed. The once-opulent venue was now a battlefield. Shattered glass, splintered marble, and collapsed chandeliers littered the scene. Authorities swarmed the site, collecting evidence, restraining surviving criminals. And the vault? Empty. The meteorite stone was gone. Brave stood at the head of the table. He had been quiet, letting the weight of their failure settle over them. Now, he spoke. "You all did everything you could," he stated. His voice was firm, unwavering, but not comforting. "But let’s not lie to ourselves." His gaze swept the room. "We were outmatched."
Weird exhaled sharply, finally breaking the tension. "Great pep talk, boss. What’s next? We sit here and pretend we didn’t get our asses kicked?"
Brave didn’t respond to the sarcasm. With a flick of his wrist, the holo-screen changed—revealing the man responsible.
Wise.
No title. No aliases. No need for introductions. The most wanted terrorist in the world. The man who had stolen the meteorite stone.
Brave tapped the screen, zooming in on Wise’s unreadable expression behind dark shades. "You’ve all seen him in action now. You’ve fought him. But let me make one thing clear—this isn’t just another criminal mastermind." He turned to face the team. "Wise is a living disaster."
Silence settled over the room.
"His ability allows him to create anything he understands. Weapons, structures, technology—if it exists in reality, Wise can make it. But he doesn’t just copy the world’s existing technology. He improves it. He invents." The holo-screen shifted, playing classified footage from past attacks linked to Wise.
A high-security military base—obliterated. Not by bombs, but by a weapon that had no recorded blueprint, no known manufacturer. Something that never existed before Wise. An underground research lab—erased. Scientists vanished, leaving behind only a field of anti-gravity so unstable that even drones couldn’t approach the site. A corporate bank’s entire digital security—shattered. Not hacked, not bypassed. Destroyed. Wise had created a virus that rewrote encryption itself in real-time.
Brave’s voice remained steady. "He’s not just a builder. He’s not just a replicator. Wise is an inventor. A one-man technological revolution. If he imagines something, and it follows the laws of physics, he can make it real. And if science says something is impossible…"
The footage cut to a white flash consuming a fortified government facility. Brave’s gaze darkened. "Then Wise finds a way to change science." Brave’s expression remained cold as the holo-screen flickered again. "We have reason to believe Wise orchestrated the prison break at Blackout Fortress. Not directly—but through one of his agents. The force field was disabled, the meteorite stone was stolen, and chaos unfolded exactly as he wanted it to."
Samui frowned. "But he didn’t personally control the escapees?"
Brave shook his head. "No. Wise wasn’t inside. He didn’t need to be. The moment the power nullifier failed, the entire prison exploded into violence. It was a calculated consequence."
The screen changed—surveillance footage from Blackout Fortress, grainy but clear enough to capture the devastation. A security gate crumpled like paper. Armed SOF officers pinned to the walls by sheer force. Fires raging as hundreds of criminals tore through the corridors. The screen flickered again. Another feed appeared—this time, from a different location. A hidden underground facility, its walls reinforced steel, lined with high-tech equipment. The logo of an unidentified crime syndicate was stamped on a massive vault door, now dented and buckled. A new figure dominated the screen.
A towering mass of muscle, his emerald-green hair slicked to one side, his body too large, too powerful for the room around him. A blindfold wrapped around his eyes, but he moved as if vision was irrelevant.
Brave’s voice was sharp. "This is Muscular. Codename: Overkill."
Clip: Security guards firing armor-piercing rounds. The bullets strike his chest. They do nothing.
Clip: A steel vault door slamming shut in front of him. Muscular places his hand against it—then rips it from its hinges like cardboard.
Clip: A dozen gang members rushing him with energy weapons. Muscular doesn’t dodge. He lets them fire. The blasts hit—and he walks through them, untouched.
Brave continued. "Muscular wasn’t part of the Blackout Fortress breakout. He was too busy destroying an entire underground crime syndicate."
The footage zoomed in, capturing the exact moment Muscular broke the organization that created him.
Clip: A massive armored vehicle attempting to escape. Muscular grabs the back of it and stops it mid-motion.
Clip: A terrified executive kneeling before him, begging for his life. Muscular raises a hand—then brings it down. The entire floor beneath them collapses, sending the man plummeting into the darkness below. The footage paused.
Brave’s voice remained firm. "He was created by them—an underground fight club that engineered combatants for blood sports and large-scale crime. They tried to control him." His jaw tightened. "They failed."
The next clip showed Wise stepping into the ruined facility, his pristine white jacket untouched by the destruction around him.
A conversation played, partially recovered from an audio feed.
Wise’s Voice: "You already destroyed everything. What’s next?"
Muscular’s Voice: "Dunno. Something bigger to break."
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Wise’s Voice: "Then I have an offer."
The footage cut off.
Brave exhaled. "Wise didn’t recruit Muscular. He gave him an outlet."
Shining adjusted his shades. "Yeah, we noticed."
Weird scoffed. "So what, this guy just loves destruction and Wise lets him off the leash?"
Brave’s gaze darkened. "Muscular doesn’t just destroy. He believes he’s unstoppable. And that belief makes him stronger."
Samui studied the footage. "His power has no limit?"
Brave exhaled. "His strength scales to whatever he imagines. If he believes he can lift a mountain, he can. If he decides he can punch through an entire city block, he will."
The holo-screen changed one last time, displaying two stolen meteorite stones. The one from Blackout Fortress. The one from the auction.
Brave’s voice was grim. "This could just be about power." He turned to face them. "Or—Wise might be assembling something. We don’t know. But we can’t rule it out."
Silence hung in the room.
Khem’s expression remained unreadable. Samui frowned, analyzing the implications. Weird leaned back, arms crossed, but said nothing.
Shining sighed, rubbing his temples. "So we’re guessing now?"
Brave’s voice was steady. "No. We’re preparing for the worst." The holo-screen dimmed, leaving the room in tense silence. Brave’s voice remained steady, but his expression hardened as he continued. “This whole situation started with the Blackout Fortress breakout. And before we go any further, you need to understand exactly what happened that night.” The holo-screen flickered to life again, displaying a satellite image of Blackout Fortress—a massive, reinforced structure isolated on an unmapped island, surrounded by stormy waters. “This prison was designed to be inescapable,” Brave stated. “The island itself is a natural deterrent—no bridges, no tunnels, no direct flight paths. The only way in or out is via SOF-controlled boats.” The screen shifted to internal footage, taken from security feeds within the prison itself.
Clip: The force field generator room, glowing with the signature energy of the meteorite stone.
Clip: Power fluctuations occurring—seemingly at random.
Clip: Sparks flying. The entire force field suddenly shutting down.
Brave exhaled. “That’s where it started. The power-dampening field collapsed.”
And then—Blackout Fortress fell into chaos.
Clip: Prisoners in their cells. At first, nothing changes. Then, one by one, they begin to react—eyes widening, fingers twitching, power awakening.
Clip: A pyrokinetic prisoner setting his bunk ablaze.
Clip: A gravity manipulator lifting an entire section of the hallway into the air.
Clip: A telekinetic slamming guards into walls.
“They didn’t plan the breakout,” Brave said. “They just took advantage of it. The moment their abilities returned, it was an instinctive response—riot.”
The team watched the footage in grim silence as the once-orderly prison turned into a battlefield.
Clip: Guards holding defensive lines, barely containing the chaos.
Clip: A fire-wielding criminal melting through reinforced steel doors.
Clip: A high-speed escapee dodging gunfire, weaving through containment units.
Shining muttered under his breath. “Hell on earth.”
Brave didn’t respond. He kept watching the footage. His voice rang through the prison’s announcement speakers, amplified and unyielding in the footage. "All prisoners, FREEZE!" Every prisoner in the footage freezes mid-motion—even those still fighting. Flames stop flickering. Inmates mid-strike halt instantly, their bodies rigid and unmoving. The chaos turns eerily still, as if the entire prison has been paused in time—while the guards remain free, exchanging stunned glances as they realize what just happened.
Shining stared at the footage, disbelief evident in his voice. "You're telling me you stopped the entire breakout by yourself?"
Brave answered with a straight voice, "Yes."
Samui let out a slow breath, shaking her head. "That's... unreal. You stopped an entire prison riot with just your voice."
Weird let out a low whistle, leaning back in his chair. "Mister Commander really out here breaking the laws of nature like it’s a hobby."
Senshi folded his arms, his expression unreadable. "If this is what he can do with just a word... imagine what he could do if he really let loose."
Khem remained silent, studying the footage intently. After a moment, he finally spoke. "What about the five escapees?"
Brave's expression remained firm. "By the time I stopped the prisoners, they had already escaped." He then switched to footage from the generator room, a moment before the breakout. The meteorite stone in the footage remained in the container.
Khem’s eyes narrowed. “Someone sabotaged it.”
Brave nodded. “The meteorite stone was stolen.”
Clip: The security feed running normally. The generator room still intact.
Clip: The camera capturing a faint blur.
Clip: The next frame the stone was gone.
Silence fell over the room.
Samui’s brow furrowed. “That doesn’t make sense. There’s no sign of a breach. No logs of an entry. No unlocked panels.”
Brave exhaled. “Because the infiltrator was never seen.”
Clip: The footage rewinding—this time in slow motion. Clip: A perfectly smooth sequence of events. The frame remains unbroken. The footage itself untouched.
Yet—the stone vanished.
Brave’s voice was grim. “No alarms were triggered. No officer saw anything. The footage ran smoothly.” He let that sink in. “Because the one who took it… couldn’t be perceived.”
Shining rubbed his temple. “So we got some invisible phantom thief?”
Samui’s voice was calm but sharp. “Not invisible. Unnoticed.”
Brave’s expression darkened. “Exactly. Whoever did this didn’t need to disable security. They didn’t need to sneak past guards. They just walked in, took the stone, and left.”
Khem’s eyes narrowed. “And now the stone is in Wise’s hands.”
Brave exhaled sharply. His gaze flickered toward the distorted energy readings on the holo-screen. “…Possibly.”
That single word carried weight.
Weird tilted his head. “Possibly?”
Brave nodded. “We can’t confirm it. No visuals. No signals. But everything points to Wise.” His jaw tightened. “And that’s the problem.”
A heavy silence hung in the room. The implications weighed on them—one stolen stone was bad enough. Two? That changed everything.
Samui broke the silence. “So what now?”
Brave exhaled sharply. “No. It’s worse.” He pushed aside the holo-screen, his expression grim. “Because we don’t know where he’ll strike next.”
A tense pause followed—then Samui tapped at her tablet, narrowing her eyes at a new data stream. “…We might have a lead.”
The holo-screen shifted again—but this time, instead of a direct location, it displayed a scrambled web of distorted energy readings, intercepted radio silence, and cut-off satellite feeds. “These aren’t visuals,” Samui clarified. “We can’t see where the stone was taken. But after the breakout, we picked up anomalies.” The screen displayed satellite tracking of the stolen stone’s unique energy signature.
Clip: The signature flickering in and out, as if being masked. Clip: The last registered signal disappearing near an abandoned industrial sector—before being wiped clean from all surveillance. Clip: Nearby security cameras cutting out—no visuals, no traces of interference.
Brave’s eyes narrowed.
“This was a deliberate blackout.”
Samui nodded. “Someone—or something—scrubbed every record. No cameras, no witnesses, no leftover traces. The energy signature cut off the moment it entered the area.”
Shining frowned. “And let me guess—that area just so happens to be one of Wise’s old stomping grounds?”
Brave’s jaw tightened. “Exactly.”
Weird let out a slow whistle. “So. We didn’t see Wise. We didn’t track Wise. But we sure as hell know it was him.”
Khem’s fingers curled into a fist. “We don’t need proof,” he muttered. “We already know the truth.”
Brave exhaled sharply. “Wise planned this long before the breakout even happened. He didn’t need the riot. He didn’t need to infiltrate the prison himself. He just waited.”
Wise had won the first round. And SOF had no idea where he would strike next. Brave’s words settled over the team like a storm cloud. They didn’t just lose the auction heist. They lost control. The enemy wasn’t just moving faster than them. They were moving smarter. Ahead of them. And now, the SOF wasn’t reacting to crime—they were chasing ghosts. Wise had stolen the future out from under them. And before they could even chase him— Someone else was already knocking on their door.