Eeeee...mmmm!

Liam stretched his arms on the sides trying to sip out the chewing lethargy.

A big moon hung up in the sky illuminating the forest in a mysterious veil of goth and weariness. Folding his hands behind the head, he looked back at the once lively mansion, now in ruins. The fire inside was killed by him just a few minutes back and everything standing in between. Though he could already feel the exhaustion slowly setting in from using his chi, he checked once again for heat signatures with his infrared vision just to be sure he was not leaving any remnants of living proof behind.

There was no sign of life anywhere anymore anyhow. Except for the static floating scar from Rayo's radio, it was all crickets and the ghastly night wind.

Liam put his hands in the pockets and stood beside Rayo. She was reporting their current status of mission completion and whereabouts.
From the strenuous suppression of irritation and endless query for this awfully simple task, Liam could tell it was Frorer on the other side which made him chuckle.

He must be so mad right now

Liam thought, shaking his head. Only he would be so angry for a job well done. He knew Frorer would find a fault in them sooner or later and get back at them for the disgrace they caused him and make them pay good and hard. But nothing was stopping him from stealing fun imagining Frorer's already twisted face twiddling uglier.

Rayo could finally put down the radio and exhaled.

"Frorer?"

"Yaap, who else could it be?" Rayo groaned with the same lace of annoyance in her voice.

"I can bet if this guy was given a real pistol instead of airguns, he'd gladly put us off in the APA(Annual Performance Assessment)."

"He'd have more holes in him than anyone else if that was the case," Rayo proclaimed which left no doubt in Liam that she would be the first one to punch in a hole. Liam whistled grinning. Because it was true and she was not the only one who was this enthusiastic about the idea. Liam was sure of that as well.

Rayo put her hand out as they neared the car. Liam handed out the keys and gleefully rode shotgun. He found it pretty saintly how Rayo could always tell what he needed or to be precise, wanted without him even saying a word because at that moment he felt numb from the thumping pain surging down his shoulder blade and he did not even have the energy to move his mouth, let alone his limbs. That's what their chi did to them. Left them like feeling like a piece of chewed gum. Out of juice and out of life, but still useful. Ten years into it and still...

I. Don't. Wike it.

Liam pouted in his mind and took out orange juice from the gloves compartment. It was just what he needed to recover from this con- temporary pain. His fuel.

Air brushed through his hair as the car darted down the pitched path. Slowly, he could feel his potassium level alleviating. And the numbness too. Though he would be more than happy to nose dive into his cozy bed right that moment, they still had two more rotten-to-the-root-corrupted politicians to send to hell up in the north and a gonna-put-Satan-to-shame saintly preacher to his god down in the Middle East and they were looking at at least 15 hours of flight, even with their A91 Night Sparrow, the fastest flying jet in the world.

Liam groaned. It was at times like these he wished there were more phantoms like them. More with chi-s who could take down these monsters off the world and off the grid just like they were soaring, above all and answerable to none. That was how Phoenix had been able to maintain world peace over the decades. It was not some treaty to civilized or threat to be terminated hanging over the rotten humanity. It was broken beyond repair a long time back. And the only thing that could save whatever was left of humanity was nothing but crashing off the decaying core and shaking it off while thriving from the better parts. Humans might not be in bounty and grace right now, but at the very least, they had hope and hope's what keeps people alive.

But what good is it if the ultimate weapon keeps falling short?

Through the bone grinding training and the heart-ripping mental pressure, the number of Nix making it to the bare title of Sergeant was low as it was, the number of phantoms was even lower. More than the process, it was the capacity of the body to be able to stand through the trials and scissors of incorporating their genes with their chi that made it such a dreadful process. The rate of bodies rejecting the process was so high that Phoenix had been able to produce only 24 phantoms in the whole tenure that it had been standing. And quite recently, it seemed to be falling short. Joining forces with the local law enforcement seemed really lucrative to Liam from time to time but sometimes for the fact that it was them they were sometimes after and definitely for they were not only the ultimate weapon but also the secret ultimate weapon, they could never really join hands with anyone other than themselves.

But Liam was glad. If it was not for Rayo's idea, they would have to be running in circles around two more douchebags to smother. While Liam was a big fan of diminishing everything by brute force, Rayo suggested the idea of letting the wolves kill each other while they only ripped off the alpha. So for months they sat the plan in motion and waited. Little by little, they gave out intels to the druglords about each other via their first year Nix, Private Luce. They fed each one just enough information to kill each other rather than destroying everyone completely. And only the most intellectual one survived. The one that they finished off just half an hour ago. That Diego finished off each of his opponents quite tactfully and rounded up his man under him, just like Rayo calculated. And the rest was easy. Which suddenly got Liam thinking.

"Hey, Ray."

"Hmm?" Rayo said without lifting her eyes off the road.

"What if the case of the fugitives is connected to this?"

" What do you mean?"

"Like what if the fugitives appeared just like Alvaro?" Liam quizzed further.

"Al- who?"

"Alvaro. Diego's right-hand man. The one holding the severed head of the drug lord of the North?" Liam added, throwing his empty can in a poly. He gave her some time to recollect. Rayo was just as exhausted as he was, if not with the same amount of pain. While Liam's core element was fire, Rayo's was electricity which was more catastrophic and taxing. Hence, Liam mostly handled the dirty job, leaving Rayo open to be their ace of strength and agility.

"What about him?" Rayo finally answered.

"How did he get to and back from the North so fast? As if he just appeared out of nowhere. We didn't spot him getting in." Liam now sat up on his seat. "Like...neither did they have any fast means of transport nor is there a shortcut to make the transition happen so fast. Like, how the hell did he get there, kill the leader already and come back within such a short time? Also without us noticing? I mean if to say, he was inside already before we went in, Diego already would have been on the move. We know he was waiting for Alvaro to come with the head."

"Maybe there is a secret route which only opens inside the mansion," Rayo retorted, pondering a bit. "We really shouldn't forget that it's his terrain after all. It's where he's been on command for quite a long time now. He should have all these in his knowledge."

"Yet it...," Liam countered but stopped mid-sentence.

They were now driving through the tarmac and just a few meters away stood the black beauty in its inky glory. A91 Night Sparrow, the chariot for their next mission. But that was not what left Liam dumbfounded. It was the person standing at the deck. Even from that distance, Liam could make out the charismatic smile cascaded on a very known frame.

It was Patrick Jane, Corporal of House 8 and their favorite Nix after their mentors. His regal alabaster uniform was dazzling golden under the runway light.

Liam and Rayo exchanged startled looks. They could not think of one reason as to why a Corporal would be in their ride to a petty mission in his uniform. The only times higher-ups dawned that uniform was when an Oracle member would be chosen or found died and Liam couldn't believe himself to be lucky enough yet to hear Frorer's expiration news for Jane to be smiling like that.

They got off the car and saluted. Jane, in exchange, hugged them hard which in any formal setting, would have earned them at least five laps around their central field for their such insolence towards a Corporal. But it was Jane ane and he didn't care for such.

He pulled Liam's cheek hard and ruffled Rayo's hair taking a full glance at them.

" Ah yes! The uniforms will suit you guys perrrrfectly."

They were even more confused.

"Get in. We're heading to the headquarters."

"But we're supposed to be northbound right now."

"Ssh. Just get in. It's an order. Actually no. It's a request from one Corporal to another," Jane winked.

Home Sweet  Home!!!!

Liam grunted slumping down on his bed. He let the fluffy mattress engulf him whole as his stress from the whole day slowly drifted away. But then it stopped drifting. Because his new badge just popped open and got under his skin.

What the hell!

Squinting, he jumped up and took it out. It was a beautiful golden badge with the official insignia of Phoenix embedded on it.

It was the badge of a Corporal. It was his now.

Rayo and Liam were promoted to the position of Corporal, the second in command over the whole Phoenix, not even an hour ago.

Liam slid down again and held up the badge. It still felt unreal. He could not believe he was a Corporal. The same as Jane. Same as Tori and Jacob, their mentors.

Heck! Same as Frorer!

Liam grinned. He had always dreamt of this day but it was never like this. The day of announcing a new Corporal is a day to witness in Phoenix. It was one of the days all the cadets look forward to. It's grand and warm and with a whole lot of noise. Everything that did not happen that day.

It was true all the Oracle members were there which was a sight to see. But it was in the middle of the night, without any prior notice and...

Rushed?

In fact, he was not sure who recommended making them the Corporal.

For a lieutenant to be promoted to the position of Corporal in an emergency, politely to say, out of the blue like this, at least a  recommendation was required which needed to seem logical enough for the Admiral to sign it. Liam knew it was Jane who recommended but he just could not tell why he would do that now for no good reason and how the hell he could convince Kawasaki for the same.

Because Kawasaki was reputed as, or to be precise infamous as the most unbendable person in the whole of Phoenix. Never in the history of Phoenix could anyone make him bend the laws.

Except for Tori of course

Liam just recalled. It was only Tori who ever made him bend the law and that was when Jacob and Tori applied for separate accommodation for Liam and Rayo which was strictly against the rule of Phoenix. No Nix was ever allowed to leave the premise before they became Captains.

The rule still prevailed. Except, Tori found herself a loophole and bent it in their favor. Though they had to sign thousands of clauses and give up hundreds of privileges, in the end, they did get to keep the house.

Liam never understood why they went to that length just for a separate base but he sure was thankful. Because he could feel his exhaustion melt away in the mattress as his body spiraled down in a deep abyss of sleep.

Thousands of random thoughts crisscrossed Liam's mind as he failed to fathom why such a mere mission was making him feel so drained.

The last time he felt such was when he spurred with Lynx because his chi was a force to reckon with but this was...

A dangerous thought peeked into his mind which slipped away just like that as Liam's eyelids embraced themselves for the day.