Grian walked down the crosswalk. The city was pretty lively that day, a lot of people were walking around, either going to work or going shopping.

He walked around the corner, and kept walking until he reached the tall office building with a big sign with the words 'Aque Corp' written on it. He entered the building, which was filled with employees, and headed straight for the elevator, entering and immediately pressing the 'floor 4' button.

With a ding, the elevator doors opened, and he walked out along with a few other people. He walked down the corridor, and entered one of the office workrooms as the infrared doors automatically opened and closed. Two people immediately noticed him walking in, and greeted him.

"Oh, good morning Grian."

"Morning, Grian."

"Morning, Iskall, Mumbo." Grian greeted his two co-workers back. He walked over to his desk, and got on his computer. First thing he did was check the news to see if there was anything new. As he got on Hermald.com, the first things that appeared on the news page was news about rumors on the big companies, new inventions made by the Aque Corp or X-T-V, and other unimportant stuff. He scrolled down to the bottom of the page, where he finally found some interesting news.

Watching Shadow : Latest Sightings

Has the identity of Freeze Eye really been revealed, or is it just a rumor?

"Swifters" : The Unseen - Full Biography

How likely are you to be next?

Lacuna Zero Seven - The only person known to have survived the Virror

Detective Joe finally speaks up about the hitmens in the city

"Whatcha reading?" Iskall asked as he passed by Grian's desk, holding a cup of coffee.

"Scary news stuff." Grian mumbled a reply, scrolling through the news at the bottom of the page, trying to decide which one he was going to read.

Iskall stood beside Grian, still curious, and read along with him. "Oh, these headlines sound interesting. Are you reading about the hitmens in the city?"

"Mhm" Grian finally chose to read the first one, about Watching Shadow. "These articles are hard to find, since the authors are all pretty shady and so no one reads them."

"I see..." They both went silent for a moment, both just silently reading the article. "So this is the hitman known as 'Watching Shadow'?" Iskall spoke up when a picture of WS appeared on screen. "The same one in the SS Alliance with 'Cross Shot' and 'Red Bullet'?"

Grian stopped for a bit, hearing what Iskall just mentioned. "The what?"

"Oh, right. I forget it's not common knowledge." Iskall said. "Basically, there are rumors that the three of those hitmans have an alliance with each other, called the Slashing Shadow alliance."

Grian nodded. "I see, so is it like an official hitmans office or something?" he asked.

"Not really, I don't think it's official." the other responded. "The thing about the SS alliance hasn't even been confirmed or denied to be the truth yet, so it might just be another false rumor."

"Oh, can you guys stop talking about such things?" Both turned to the door, where 3 people just entered.

"Morning, Stress." Iskall greeted. "Morning, Pearl, Hypno."

"Morning, Everyone." Grian also said.

"Morning, Iskall, Grian." Stress greeted back, while the other two just waved. "Why were you two talking about assassins and such just now."

"Oh, we're just reading an article about the 'Watching Shadow'" Grian stated.

"Mhm." Iskall nodded. "The topic about assassins and hitmens are just so rarely discussed, so we're discussing it."

"Well, then, now that you two have discussed it, I suggest getting back to work and not talking about such scary things." Stress sighed.

Iskall rolled his eyes. "Yes ma'am." He muttered before walking back to his desk.

The time when everything was normal