Not long after the commotion, some people rushed to the scene, each carrying their own weapon. 

"Come on, kids, Secure them!" One man ordered.

"Freeze! All of you!" one man shouted. Clearly ignored the painful groan of the injured men.

Haze, Dryad and Allison froze on their spot. But then Haze sighed in relief as recognized who they were,

"Dan Varga.. Miro.. Yurich.., and..," he gulped, "..Tatiana. Of course.. I should've known."

As those people came –securing the area, the three came out from their hiding.

Tatiana looked up to Haze and smirked, "Well.. well... if it isn't my beloved loser. How're ya, darling? Seems like you really can do nothing without me, huh?"

Haze rolled  his eyes, "Yeah.. Yeah. Whatever." He muttered sarcastically, not taking her seriously, "You rescued me again, huh? Then.. Thank you, my queen. I mean.. my EX queen."

"Hah!" Tatiana scoffed.

Dryad nudged Haze's arm and whispered, "Who is she?"

"My ex..." Haze sighed. "Pain in my ass..." he whispered back.

The group quickly tied up those guys, except the three.

"You'll take them to the officers? If my guess is right.. Haze asked one of them.

"Oh, yeah," Miro answered. "Let's just say it's a Bounty Hunting mission. A spontaneous mission, actually." He grinned mischievously.

"The sect members.. Most of them are nobles. They’re involved in something shady, but there were too many corrupt governments so there's not much evidence to prove anything yet," Yurich explained shortly. "So we were hired to..."

"Enough! Don't give him the details, you fool! He's not in our team anymore, remember?" Tatiana warned.

"Damn... I forgot," Yurich muttered under his breath.

Dan pressed the small button on his headphone, "Blue Falcon to Silver Husky, all secured. Over..."

After it seemed like listening to some order given to him, Dan spoke again through his headphones, "I got it. Anyway..., what a record! Took down all of them from more than 3,5 kilometers away when you're just waking up from a long.. deep slumber. Are you sure you're a human?" Dan laughed a bit, joking around before taking off his communication device.

"huh?" Haze tilted his head and frowned by that code name, slightly taken aback. "Silver Husky... You knew the rule that we can't give the same code name to different members, right? Or has the rule changed?" 

Yurich and Miro exchanged a brief look before one of them answered, "No. It hasn't. The rules are still the same."

"So.. what do you mean by that? No one should ever use that! It was Alexey's-"

"His code name. Yes." Dan cut him off, leaving Haze frowned deeper.

Haze became more impatient, he wanted to know as soon as possible. Haze approached Dan hurriedly and grabbed his collar by force "What did you say?! Who were you talking to?! Tell me the truth!!"

"Hey!!" Miro was about to separate them, but Dan raised his hand to stop him.

"Damn you.., calm down, mate!  Fine, fine.. we tell you the truth. Release me first," Dan said with a sigh.

Haze released his grip and slightly pushed Dan aside. "Okay! Spill it, who was that call?!"

"Silver Husky. You knew the code name. I was talking to commander Alexey."

"w...what? Alexey?!" Haze's eyes widened and his breath became ragged slightly as he realized the truth, "So it's true! You all faked his death?? Without telling me?!" His hands clenched into fists and he could feel his nails digging his palms. "What the hell!! Why are you doing this to me?!"

"Just... consider it was for your punishment," Tatiana shrugged.

"That's a cruel punishment which drive me insane! Where is he?! Where is my brother?!" Haze asked again, almost in tears. A mix of joy and sorrow washed over his face. "He.." He swallowed hard, trying not to cry, "...he wasn't dead! Right?"

Miro sighed heavily, "Yes, yes, that was a close call... But he's alive."

Tatiana looked at his ex, now with sympathy in her eyes, "Sorry, Haze. We wanted to make it look real. Because due to that accident, he was in a vulnerable state and he would become an easy target for our enemy. We couldn't risk that. He's the Nation's asset. So, we faked his death, just then we could take care of him properly without worrying about possible threats."

Haze breathed out slowly. "Is he here? I wanna see him....", he mumbled, still unable to believe this news. He could only smile weakly as he felt tears forming behind his eyes.

"He's up there. Shooting these bastards from the blimp," Dan pointed to the sky with eyes. 

Haze and Dryad followed his gaze. 

Right. They were too busy in that chaos so they didn't even realize that there was a silhouette of a blimp from afar flying towards them and it grew larger every second.The humming sound of a blimp now carried through the air.

"He was.. shooting from a moving blimp!?" Haze blinked in disbelief.

"Yep, crazy, right?," Dan answered. "He's more than 3,5 kilometers from here. Yet his aim was pretty good! He’s really the ghost sniper", he chuckled. "It's impressive! We have no idea how he did that, though. Now I started to believe that he's a demon. I mean.. come on.. no human could ever do that!"

Miro added, "Three days ago, he just woke up from a coma, and when he learned that we were hired to investigate suspicious activities of some kind of sect members, he suddenly gave us an unexpected order, surprised us by saying that he knew their exact position" Miro shook his head.

"So that's what happened...," Dryad whispered. "Coma! That explained everything. That's what made Alexey a wandering soul? Maybe during that time, his soul back and forth from his body to my place? It’s just like… Out of Body Experience?” she thought to herself in heart.

Yes. And it was the truth.

Dan tapped Haze's shoulder, "However, I want to tell you something bad."

Haze raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Dan answered, "dr.Rhode said that he's having partial amnesia. So, he doesn't remember most of things, including about you."

"What?" Haze frowned. His heart sank upon hearing this.

 "I guess... That makes sense, since he fell from a high building," Dan continued.

Hazard lets out a heavy sigh. "You’re right...It makes sense, now that I think about it." He nodded, remembering what he witnessed at the scene. 
"So... he's just... completely clueless about everything?"

Dan answered, "Well, not everything. all of his knowledge and skills remain intact. He still remembers 4 languages, does not forget how to assemble a gun from scratch, in fact.. he's become more accurate, and now he just broke his farthest record!" 

Tatiana shook her head "He's a monster..."

"Demon," Dan chuckled.

Moments later, government officers in black uniform arrived, with a bunch of agents following right behind them. Some people also went to other direction, placed the lights and turned them on, giving the better view and signaling the blimp to move closer to their position.

"Ah! You guys are finally here! Our job is done, then. We'll hand them over from here," Dan reported to the captain of the officers. 

"Yes. We'll take care of everything from here. You’re dismissed," The captain shook Dan's hand firmly. "Good job! As always. Thank you for your cooperation."

Dan chuckled, "You're welcome. But we don't need a simple 'thank you'." 

The captain laughed a bit, "I know. You'll get the reward. Anyway, how did you guys know that the cult activities held here?"

Dan smirked and clicked his tongue, "tsk! Leave that to our secret."

The humming sounds of the blimp became clear as it flew above them now, lower its altitude. Lights shone on its side, illuminating the surrounding areas. Dan, Miro, Yurich and Tatiana stepped forward when several strings of long wires came down from the blimp, ready to take them away to the ship's cabin. They attached the wires to the harness and secured it around their waist. 

"Wait!" Haze grabbed Miro's forearm, "Can I come too?" Haze stopped Miro before he  could move away.

“Squad leader?” Miro glanced at Dan for a second, asking approval. Dan shrugged and clicked the button on his headphone, 

"Blue Falcon to Silver Husky, requesting permission to take passengers with us. Over."

After a moment's silence, Dan said again, "Copy that." He turned off the communication.

Haze turned to him, with eyes filled with hope. "So?"

Dan nodded and gave a small smile, "Request granted. You three, come abroad after us."

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From the author:
"Hello! So glad that you reached this chapter. You've gone this far following my story! I'm touched! 🥹

I am terribly sorry that my English is not perfect. I'm still learning.
Thank you for supporting me by reading my story. I do really appreciate that and hope you'll enjoy each chapters. Thank you again!

Cheers!

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Bonus images :
Members of Aspidiske Mercs featuring in this chapter:

Squad Leader Dan Varga (left, behind)
_code name : Blue Falcon_

Miro Stanislav (middle)
_code name: White Bear_

Yurich Selensky (right)
_code name: Gray Tiger_

Tatiana Sylph
_code name: golden fox_