No Second Chances: The Beginning Of The End

Elvira’s gloves returned to the form of wristbands so the rest of the Nano-machines would get back to the mechanical hound, allowing her to manipulate it in order to scout the zone around. While she was at it, she could notice drones flying nearby. This is bad; if they scan this zone and find us, they will not hesitate to send a whole army here. –Elvira thought before bringing the machine back. “We need to go now, it seems like there are some annoying birds searching for the STFM, if we don’t get out of here, it will be a matter of time for them to find out we are alive.” –Elvira pointed out while the hound was approaching the crack in the mountain.

Hisato stood up worried and tried to pet his dragon as Sinns motioned him to stay down. “You are staying here; if you managed to stay away from the government’s eyes for two years, you can keep yourself hidden for longer, so you are staying while we leave.” –Sinns explained while walking towards the hound along with Elvira and Chronos who looking back at the dragon which looked very similar to an oversized domesticated cobra.

Elvira leads Chronos and Sinns to the hound quickly and once again set off towards Casamira, following the mountain range and trying to avoid the drones. Given the quick departure and the consequences that would bring, Hisato couldn’t even muster enough strength to follow them, so he kept himself in the shadow as he has previously been doing. However, a drone passing nearby at a maximum height caught a glimpse of him hiding back in the crack of the mountain. The engineers behind the control of the drones managed to remap the majority of the mountain range; after sending a second swarm of land drones, the engineers began to burrow inside the mountains to scan them in order to create a 3D map of the possible caverns.

Without much room to hide, Hisato tried to escape from the drones by running away towards his natal city in search of shelter. On the other hand, Chronos, Elvira, and Sinns hurried to the border with Falladis, which was heavily guarded by a special task team created by the survivor heroes that took part in the raid of the forest and the previous two heroes that couldn’t stop Gree, Phil, and Nat from escaping.

Once on their way, to the border between Falladis and Delcyt, Elvira began to think about going to her family and let them know about how she is still alive and trying to solve some important matters. Maybe I can try to talk things with them and so they can keep me in secret. I’m not sure if they are still under the military watch, but I can’t just leave without letting them know I’m alright. –Elvira thought while they were approaching the vicinity of her family’s service station which was also heavily reinforced with military vehicles and troops in standby nearby.

There was no room for Elvira to see her family if there were that many troops and only god knew if there were any heroes among them who could represent a threat to the team, or to her family, so Elvira gave up on the thought, wishing to be able to get back to her family in the future. Sinns noticed how Elvira looked down while heading towards the border and sigh while trying to figure what she had in mind. On the other hand, Chronos was trying to keep the drones at bay by launching a couple of spears at a time in order to destroy them before they notice the hound.

As they approached the border, an alarm went off and all the standby troops in the post were getting quickly in formation to detain the incoming intruders. Maybe people were expecting the appearance of another vehicle with similar features as the last one but they were unsure since the individuals were “floating” in a flash report given by the one who turned on the alarm.

The soldiers were waiting to see any movement to shoot instantly but all they could hear was several stomps but nothing in front of them. John was prepared in the watchtower scoping the vicinity in order to find the source of the stomp but nothing seemed to be off. Suddenly, something crashed against the main building of the camp, then some speakers around the camo went off and the voice of an engineer was heard. “Everyone present without special abilities, evacuate the zone, the enemy stole a STFM and headed to this border.” –The engineer spoke through the speaker with certainty after reading a report sent to every military facility from the capital.

After hearing these orders, most of the troops headed to the vehicles nearby and hurried away while Michael was in the front of the facility along with the other heroes that survived the Pandora raid. The team was trying to inspect the zone of impact in front of the building, which to them it seemed to have nothing else in it but just a big hole. However, the hound began to move again and the debris on the ground cracked as it moved, alerting Michael as he was strengthening himself with his ability. Michael managed to grab the hound, but now that the hound began to move once again, he was being dragged by it as he held tightly onto the machine. As the hound managed to create havoc, drawing the attention of the special team in the facility, Elvira, Chronos, and Sinns were making their way towards the commercial route of the border.

“Will it be alright if you leave the rest of the gloves in that thing? You might not be able to get them back if that was the case.” –Sinns asked Elvira while sneaking around the building.

“There is no use on getting them back now, if it wasn’t for the distraction it would be harder for us to get away and try to get to Grace.” –Elvira replied while there were shots coming from the watchtower, which meant the sniper was focusing on the hound which Elvira purposely made visibly. Without wasting any time Chronos also attempted to strike down the watchtower to create a further annoyance for the ones guarding the border.

3 large pillars made out of ashes arose from under the watchtower and destroyed its base, making John fall from it and breaking one of his legs in the process. Michael hurried to help him along with the rest of the people left in the facility while the group of Chronos, Elvira, and Sinns already left through the commercial route.

The plan was a success, but I can’t stop thinking about the fact that they would also send a team after us. Elvira and Sinns seem very sure of this plan, I’m not certain of what will happen from now on but I can’t stop thinking about what Hisato said, would it be probably what Pandora wants? A future without Rulers… -Chronos thought while running behind Sinns and Elvira as an explosion was heard coming from the customs facility where they came from.

Seemingly the hound exploded due to the excessive separation between the Nano-machines from the wristbands and the ones in the hound as a safety trigger implemented in the gloves to avoid its reproduction by foreign governments. After the explosion, a lot of debris was thrown around injuring other members of the team. Michael instantly carried John to the medical bay and issued a report about what just happened and how they don’t know who did this terrorist attack to the border. Michael also requested compensation for John’s broken leg but he was cut short by an officer walking into the office. “Due to incompetence for having lost control of two very delicate situations and the failure to retrieve a very unique prototype, we now revoke you from your mission of staying here in the border camp. We will send a final compensation report and dismiss you back to the capital where you will be sent home.” –The officer reported before saluting and leaving the office. Michael held his head and rubbed his sides in order to ease the accumulated stress on his head to then sigh and stand up to go back to the medical bay in order to check on John. Everything happened within 4 hours of the incident and Michael tried his best to not lose his mind while seeing how John’s leg was being treated as John was still unconscious.

On the commercial route of the border, Chronos and Sinns found a sort of camp while Elvira was taking care of their backs in case there was any drone or military convoy searching for them. “You are still a walking disaster, Chronos, and Hisato’s dream might have been a revelation. I don’t trust you but I will keep my alliance with you until we get back to Gree. For the time being rest, since we will need you in case anything happens.” –Sinns pointed out to Chronos in a very straightforward manner while he was entering a small tent.

It is only natural, I don’t even know what I am myself, and yet I am here, looking for answers along with strangers that wanted to kill me a couple of days ago. –Chronos silently thought while a sudden headache made him frown in pain.

He slowly sat down weakened and annoyed due to the sudden pain, shortly after, the sky turned black as an accumulation of clouds revolved around the zone, letting rainfall afterward. Instinctively, Chronos tried to make a small tunnel on top of the tent using his own shirt in order to be able to drink the rainwater which brought some memories back of his life before meeting other human beings.

In his memory, an elf always walked around the vicinity of the mountain and found Chronos hunting around like a beast; he took pity on him and eventually managed to find a way to educate him by using food and water. The unknown elf wasn’t malicious, and seemed to have lived for many years; fairly enough the elf never approached a certain area which Chronos always went back after hunting his food along as doing his necessities. The memory brought him to the moment where he saw the Elf poking a hole on the top of his tent and using a cloth to cover it, so there would be a drop falling from it constantly, allowing him to drink from it freely as the rain kept falling.

“To think that an unknown elf would teach me so much but I never learned his name, it is a shame that I would probably never be able to meet him again.” –Chronos talked to himself while drinking from the cloth while there was a heavy downpour falling.

Elvira was approaching the tents to avoid getting totally soaked and met Sinns eavesdropping on what Chronos just said outside of the tent where he was in, while she had her index finger covering her lips as a sign for Elvira to be quiet. Elvira was a bit confused but went inside the next tent quietly. Did he meet an Elf? Was he talking about the one in Pandora’s forest? Was that Elf not related to him? What was he doing in that forest then? Was he about to become a guardian? So my guess about him being an anomaly is right. –Sinns began to overthink while holding her own chin with one hand and her elbow with the next hand as it was her bad habit before Elvira came out of the tent and dragged her in as her clothes were totally soaked.

Chronos sighed since he knew Sinns somehow listened to him, but he was getting too tired to think about it any further, so he decided to close his eyes for a moment in order to regain strength for when the rain stopped. However, Chronos found himself in a dream where he could see Pandora in the distance, faintly mentioning to him something he couldn’t really hear but seemed to be highly important, but Chronos at that moment didn’t pay much attention to it.

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