"In time of distress, people often have two instincts- Fight, or Flee. There is also a third option- Deception."

- UNKNOWN TO US

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"We've go to go. Now." Carson was a bit forceful with his statement as he waved them over, wiping the threatening tears.

Yugo opened his mouth to argue, but Melissa quickly elbowed him harshly. "Let's go, we can't waste time arguing here." she agreed with Carson.

"But we can't just all leave! We need somebody to slow them down!" Yugo seethed.

"I know that, but you," she shoved him, "Need to go." Yugo fell over, which honestly hurt more than he thought.

"But-"

"Your 'Affinity' won't be of much use here." she retorted, and she looked down into his brown orbs.

Yugo offered her no argument, and he nodded reluctantly. The knocking resumed, slightly louder.

"Good, now go." she ordered, pointing off in the opposite direction.

"Promise me this: You come with."

"What? Now is not the time-"

"You don't know how to use it! Besides, fatigue."

Melissa thought for a moment. "You're forgetting something- I'm the Angel of Violence," Yugo gave Melissa a stern glare, "I don't need my 'Affinity' to-"

"I wasn't speaking as to that skill." Yugo crossed his arms.

"I've got that covered don't worry! Just go!" Carson broke off their argument, "You too Melissa!"

She frowned, "Just... Be safe okay?" she said, and Carson just gave her a shy smile.

"I'll have Zach and Chris, I'll be fine," the two kids in mention came over to Carson's side, "But I'll warn yo-" There was a loud bang, and Carson glanced over his shoulder, "They're going to flank all sides, so go!"

Melissa reluctantly walked off, and she found herself rushing out the back door, Yugo right behind her, hoping that the trio that they all left behind would stay safe.

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Zach cracked his knuckles loudly, and Chris just stared at him in disappointment. "What?" Zach asked.

"Nothing." came the blonde's reply. Chris looked over to Carson, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I'm pretty sure," Carson then looked down the hallway Yugo and Melissa went through, "Besides, we need to buy them time, and hop that they'll all be fine." He walked towards a room that was in the same hallway.

"Hey, wait up!" Zach called after him and dashed off, and Chris decided to follow suit.

"We gotta hurry! If they see us when we use them, then there's absolutely no way we can dissuade them."

The trio went into the farthest room on the left, where they quickly dressed up so that all distinguishable features of the trio were well hidden. They then heard a crash. They had breached the door.

"Do you think that the ot-"

"Yes, there is a reason why I had the others go on." Carson interrupted Zach's question.

"How do you know?" came Chris's muffled reply.

"Because we know that the others are somewhat familiar with their 'Affinities' and the extent of their powers!" Carson then turned around, "Besides, they have the Angel of Violence with them, they'll be fine even if they're ina pinch."

"Let's hope so, otherwise they're screwed."

"No, they'll be doing the screwing of the Military. Let's cause a ruckus." Zach replied, giving the other boys a smirk.

It didn't take long, to use the underground and inner passageways, to spread out the 'Ruckus' that they were about to cause.

Zach was hidden behind a loose panel in the cabinet in the living room. He clutched a fist, the other hand rested against the panel as he waited for Carson's signal.

"Where are you?" came a gruff voice of an Army soldier, not too far from where Zach was hidden, "We know that you're here!"

Suddenly, there was a crash, and several men went  "What the- Hey, who is that?!" There was the signal. Zach quickly pushed the panel with all of his might, and he burst from the inside of the cabinet, and he fell on top of an unsuspecting soldier, who let out a loud groan as he was squashed underneath the six foot, three inch adolescent male.

"Well well well... Butter my butt and call me Biscuit, look who's crashing this party!" Zach sang out. Immediately Zach was surrounded by various soldiers, each with their own guns pointed at him, and Zach stood up.

"P-Put your hands in t-t-the air! Y-You're surrounded!" shouted one of the men, his gun pointed at Zach's heart.

"Really?" Zach replied, casually glancing around as he counted the number of people present, "One... Two... Three..." he continued until he reached at least ten men.

"H-Hey! H-Hands in the air!" Fear seemed to be present in his voice.

Zach then casually raised his hands in the air, seemingly surrendering himself to them, asking "Quick question: Do you guys have masks?" out of nowhere.

"What?" the soldier seemed baffled, looking around nervously.

"I'll take that as a no... Perfect." Zach smiled coldly, and shut his eyes loosely. He heard the familiar hum of his pendant. He began to form a cloud around him. The soldiers began to panic a bit.

"F-Fire!" he heard the trigger snapping, and tens of bullets rang out, and with them, the smell of smoke was present as Zach stood there.

And then there were none. The bullets were gone, dissolved by a pinkish gas that hung closely around to Zach.

"W-What is he?" was the only response he could get out, because immediately Zach rushed forward and shoved an open palm right into the man's face, and a loud hissing noise was heard, and the man crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

"W-W-What are you?" the frantic shouts repeated the previous man's question, and it didn't help at all as Zach began to pummel the remaining soldiers with various attacks, dodges, and gas attacks.

All appeared to be going well. Zach was moderately panting, and he raised a hand to wipe his forehead from sweat.

Zach eventually in the center of a mass of unconscious bodies, all appearing to be asleep.

Appearing being the key word. Zach turned around, wondering how Carson and Chris were faring. And just as he had heard the familiar yells of Carson, Zach heard another BANG!  Zach fell to a knee, a hand clutching his right shoulder. His head swiveled around, a blinding, burning pain shot through his body, and the warm sensation of blood was spreading down his arm, and he saw the smoking barrel of a pistol as the soldier stared at Zach, and eye closed and his arm shaking.

The soldier's face was pained as they lowered their arm. Zach forced himself to walk forward to them, careful to make sure that his shot arm didn't move. He stopped right in front of the soldier, and crouched down and blankly stared at the soldier.

"You'll" started the soldier, "Never, get away with this..." Every word seemed to be more drowsy than the last.

"Hm," Zach contemplated, "I think I have already." he reached his arm down and crafted a makeshift sling to put on, wincing as he did so as pain shot through his shoulder and torso.

After Zach had made sure that the surrounding soldiers were for SURE asleep, Zach made his way towards the other two boys, whom of which Zach lost track of during the duration of the fight.

Zach ended up falling to a knee once he was halfway down the hallway, drawing Chris's attention as his head peered around the corner, finding Zach's newly collapsed form.

"Holy..." Chris started, and he ran over to Zach, who just groaned in pain.

"Yeah," Zach replied, "Now will you just shut up and help me up?"

"You can be rude sometimes, you know that?"

"So I've been told. Now hurry up, I want to see Conner so he can pull this bullet out of me."

"Fine. Hold still." Chris commanded, and Zach nodded his head quickly.

Chris then grabbed Zach's uninjured arm and swung it over his shoulders and glanced over to Zach, who just nodded. "On three... One." Zach grabbed Chris's arm with his available hand, "Two..." Zach shut his eyes as Chris exclaimed "Three!" and Zach clenched his teeth as the duo rose to their feet, and they uneasily walked over to the side door, and Chris opened the door, and the duo walked outside.

Carson was waiting for outside for them, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. Once Carson looked over to the duo, his expression changed from annoyed to worried as he rushed over to the duo.

"What happened?" Carson inquired as he saw them.

"I got shot, what does it look like?" Zach answered annoyingly.

"We have no time to lose, we only managed to delay them," Chris replied, "We need to catch up to the others at the place!"

"O-Oh right." Carson walked over to them and began to run off in the backyard of the current residence.

"Where exactly are we going to?" Chris asked Carson.

"We are going to somewhere safe, and where nobody will expect us." was all the raven-haired boy told them.

"And how exactly are we going to deal with my gunshot wound?" asked Zach.

"Once we catch up to them," Carson mentioned with a grunt, putting a patch over Zach's wound, "We can get Conner to pry the bullet out hopefully..."

"Hopefully?"

"Hopefully the bullet is indeed made out of metal and not another substance. There, you don't need help walking." Carson backed off, and led the way.

"I never really needed it in the first place." Zach scoffed, and began to walk after Carson. Chris seemed too quiet, but he eventually began to follow as well.

And thus, the trio began to pursuit the others.

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Melissa didn't like it, separating from the others. Not one bit, but she didn't have much of a choice.

She looked back worriedly, and hoped that the three boys would be okay. She looked away long enough that she walked right into an arm. She looked back right in front of her as she realized why.

They were stopped right in front of what appeared to be a large mansion. It was a dark gray and it had an iron gate at the front, as well as tall hedges on the inside, so Melissa couldn't see the front yard really well, only the second and third stories.

"Are you sure that this is the place?" Melissa asked, quite confused.

Conner looked at the piece of paper in his hands, then at the address number on the mansion, then back at the paper with his glasses on. "Yes," he replied, "This is the exact address that Carson gave me before we left."

"How do we know that there aren't people here?" Sakura inquired, "We'd be trespassing."

"Carson wrote one other thing," Conner offered, "He wrote a single sentence: The Garrison Reinforcements have arrived."

"' The Garrison Reinforcements have arrived?'" Vincent repeated, "What is this, the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 game?"

"I don't think so," Lulu responded as she walked over to Conner and peered over his shoulder, "Maybe this will lead us somewhere maybe?"

"Possibly, but if that's the only thing that Carson wrote on the paper, how can we be so sure?" Vincent replied.

"Simple," Lulu took the paper from Conner's grasp, and confidentially walked over to the gate, "All we got to do is this." She reached out and pressed a little button.

There was a dull buzzing noise, and a voice then answered "Yes; What is your business here today?" it asked. The voice sounded hoarse, but definitely masculine.

Lulu stole a glance from the piece of paper before responding "'The Garrison Reinforcements have arrived.'"

There was silence at first, but then there was a whirring noise, and the gates swung open, and all the teenagers' jaws dropped open with shock.

"See? I told you guys." Lulu bluntly stated, and she walked inside, the others following suit, leaving Melissa and Yugo. He turned to her.

"You coming?" he asked her. He began to walk inside.

"What?" Melissa snapped back into reality, "Yeah sure." They walked inside the gate, and the gate swung shut. It didn't take long to get inside the mansion. The interior was larger than expected, and it was a bright white.

"Welcome," a man walked down the steps, "It took you guys long enough." Melissa assumed it was the same guy who spoke at the gate, as his voice was just as hoarse.

"I'm sorry," Melissa replied, "But who are you exactly?"

"Oh, sorry," he walked further inside, "The name's Leotard, Leo for short. I'm Carson's Uncle and the Temporary Head of the Garrison House."