Volume Twenty Eight - Catchup

== Chapter 325 - Heroes Reunite ==
GAME OVER, said the screen. CONTINUE?
Kasper clicked no, and sighed in relief. That was another mechanic of the game he had completed, and soon it would be time to make the first level. He felt Candice wrap her arms around him from behind him, and smiled softly.
"That looks so cool, Kasp!" She shouted.
"Thanks so much, Can." Kasper replies, as he turns around and they start nuzzling, before they kiss.
It had been far too long since they had seen each other last...he didn't want to think about it. That was in the past now, and they would defeat Darkstar, and then, at long last, they could rest.
They both laid down on a sleeping bag, arms wrapped around one another, as they cuddled.
"I...I was in such a dark place...while you were gone..." Candice breathes, as Kasper rests his forehead on hers.
"I'm just glad you were able to pull yourself out of that." Kasper replies softly. "You've always been the life of the party."
She smiled sweetly at him, as they kissed once more. That was over now, no more evil dragons, no more crazy pirates, no more terrorists or monster aliens. They could just rest, they could take a break, and deal with Darkstar, the last villains they knew were out there.
Jack and Andromeda were sitting together in a swing on the balcony, looking on at the big city below.
"It's been...a while...since we've been here." Jack remarks.
"Yeah..." Andromeda replies quietly, smiling a little bit, as she leans into Jack, who wraps his arm around her. For so long, Darkstar had tormented them, but a bit of a rest later, a bit of training later, it'd finally be time to take the fight to them, to find their base, to take them down. He was looking forward to that time, very much, as he smiles.
Soon, this would be the last time they'd have to deal with Darkstar, to deal with any villain.
"...Hey, Jack..." Andromeda starts. "...If...I had a dark secret to tell you, and...I told you...would you leave me...?"
"Of course not!" Jack retorts, hugging Andromeda. "I love you more than anything else in the world! I will always be with you, no matter what."
Andromeda tears up, and hugs Jack back, smiling more. "Thank you...so much..." She replies, her voice cracking, as they lean their heads against each other, just...happy.
Then, they look back at the city, it was beautiful today, and would probably look even more beautiful tonight, and they were looking forward to the sunset.
== Chapter 326 - The Mall ==
Jack, Andromeda, Candice, Kasper and Shunsuke stood in front of a large mall, relatively amazed, as they walked inside, looking around.
There were game stores, food stands, toy stores, sports shops, and more, and of course there were a great number of people visiting all the various stores. Ever since peace was made, people seemed less stressed out, and cities were more bustling, and it was a beautiful sight to see.
Peacetime was something they had technically never known until recently, but now that they had it, they never wanted to lost it, ever again. That was something they knew.
"PLUSHIES!" Candice squeals, running over extremely quickly to the toy store and looking at a unicorn plush with a big smile and wide eyes. "We have to get it! We have to get it! We have to get it!"
"Sure thing." Kasper replies, chuckling a little bit as he walks over to place his credit card into the cash register.
"Oh...it's all yours!" The toy store own says, amazed.
"Yay!" Candice shouts, hugging the unicorn plush and Kasper tightly, Kasper's response being his face turning bright red.
Jack and Andromeda watch with smiles on their faces, and walk over to an ice cream shop to order something there.
"I'll have chocolate please." Jack asks. 
"I'll have mint." Andromeda says.
"Alright, then." The ice cream man replies, going to make the ice cream, as Jack and Andromeda sit down on a bench, Andromeda leaning on Jack's shoulder as he smiles and wraps his arm around her.
"I love these moments so much..." Andromeda remarks. "Just...being with you, just being able to relax."
"Yeah, me too, Anne." Jack replies, leaning his head on hers.
"Your ice cream is finished." The ice cream man says, handing it to them.
"Thank you." Jack replies.
"Thanks." Andromeda responds, as the ice cream man nods.
Shunsuke was looking at a game store, wondering when he'd find Kasper's game on there. He thought it would be fun to play, when that time came, and then remembers the time he had earlier spent with his Bisabuelo.
The war's end was a welcome one, perhaps in due time diplomacy could start between humans and Netraxians. At least, now, it was only Darkstar. Whatever they had planned, Shunsuke was sure it would be stopped, he was sure he would stop it...the way his family would stop it.
He thought of his Winchester, back home, and of the practice he did with it. It was nice to have that.
== Chapter 327 - The Beach ==
"Cannonball!" Candice shouts, diving into the ocean and splashing Kasper with water, Kasper flinching a bit before laughing with Candice, as they start splashing each other.
Andromeda was currently sunbathing with glasses on, looking at the tanning mirror she was holding, as Jack sits beside her with a picnic basket and an umbrella.
"You look great, Jack." Andromeda says to him, as he blushes.
"Y-you too, Anne." Jack replies, as he opened the picnic basket and the two watched Candice and Kasper's playfight, those two looking so very happy, which made Jack and Andromeda also feel happy.
They look over at Shunsuke playing Volleyball with a few other people, and very easily carrying his team, as they scored victory after victory over the opposite side.
"Damn, no fair!" One of the people on the opposite side yells.
"Heh, guess so." Shunsuke replies. "I think I'll step out for now."
And as he walks away, Candice puts an inflatable beach ball in his hands.
"Come on, Shun! Jack! Anne! Let's all play in the water!" She shouts, running back to the shoreline as Shunsuke, Jack and Andromeda follow, Kasper waiting there while closely examining a surf board, pondering whether or not to ride it.
"It doesn't look like there's any waves." Jack remarks, as Andromeda looks on at the ocean, and the clear blue sky, for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.
"I can help with that." Shunsuke replies, swimming quickly out to the sea and waving his arm through the water, with enough force to create a massive wave!
"Woooooaaaaaah!" Jack yelps, as Kasper, briefly shocked, gets on the surfboard, and starts wobbling a lot on the wave, trying his hardest to balance, as Candice looks on in fear.
"You can do it, Kasp!" She yells at the top of her lungs, as Kasper began to balance better on the surfboard.
"I'm doing it..." He remarks. "I'm doing it!"
He pumps his fists into the air, which causes him to lose his balance and fall into the water, the wave dissipating shortly after.
"KASPER!" Candice screams, diving into the water to bring Kasper to the surface, and begin preforming CPR on him.
"Wh...wha..." Kasper breathes, as Candice, smiling and tearing up, kissed him gently, Kasper kissing back as they hugged.
"I can't bear to lose you again." She says softly.
"I promise you won't." Kasper replies just as softly, as they lean their heads against each other, Jack, Andromeda and Shunsuke watching.
== Chapter 328 - The Vacation ==
"I can't believe we're finally going to Mars!" Candice says, very excited.
"And not being taken there by a pirate, either." Kasper replies.
They laugh for a bit, as they walked through the spaceport, seeing a number of spaceships taking off or landing.
They also saw a tall, burly, yet somewhat plump man with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a black suit, standing in front of one of the Transportation Security Screener.
"Come on, can't you get one here sooner?" The man asks.
"We're working as hard as we can, just give us a bit more time!" The Transportation Security Screener replies frantically.
"Hey!" Jack shouts, as the man turns towards him, raising an eyebrow.
"Eh? Who are you?" The man asks.
"Stop harassing that Screener, you can wait for a vacation to Mars!" Jack retorts.
"Oh, you misunderstand." The man replies with a chuckle. "I'm not going on a vacation, I'm going on a business trip. I need to figure out why the Hell Mars isn't giving me the resources I need."
"Well...can't you wait?!" Jack yells.
"Nope, I'm on a tight schedule." The man answers. "You wouldn't understand, you don't look like the kind of guy who's parents even grew up with a hundred dollars at a time."
Jack's eyes widen in anger, as he throws a punch at the man, who just catches the punch and elbows Jack back.
"Agh!" Jack grunts, as he gets back on his feet to swing a kick at the man, who ducks beneath it before using his forearm to block another punch and kick from Jack.
"Can't take a joke?" The man demands, before palming Jack in the face, sending him stumbling back.
"Gah!" Jack yells, as he goes to throw another punch at the man, who just sidesteps it and delivers a karate chop to Jack's back, forcing him to fall to the ground.
"ARGH!" Jack roars in agony. "I can still fight!"
"No, you can't." The man retorts. "And you shouldn't, I was just joking."
"I...agh..." Jack starts, standing back up after struggling a bit, and glaring at the man. "I actually did grow up in a slum!"
"Really? Me too!" The man replies. "You look surprised. It ain't the rich that get richer, it's the smart that do that. Some people do science, I do spacecraft."
"Wh..." Jack trails off.
"Well, my company does anyways." The man continues, before turning his attention towards Kasper. "Oh...you're my son's friends!"
"What?" Andromeda demands.
"Ah, shit. I never told you all my name, did I?" The man then remarks.
"It's Friedrich Maibaum." The man finishes.
== Chapter 329 - Family Reunion ==
"Dad...?" Kasper breathes, as Friedrich hugs him once again.
"How've you been, Kasper?" He asks nonchalantly, as he lets go.
"I...nearly died..." Kasper answers, gasping for breath.
"Oh...well, it's a good thing you didn't!" Friedrich replies, as he turns towards the Transportation Security Screener. "Do you still not have a ship ready?"
"I'm afraid not, sir." The Transportation Security Screener answers, Friedrich sighing.
"Well, I'll just take you on my private spaceship, then." He says. "Was gonna do it the normal way to get them paid, but it looks like they can't offer their services, right now."
The six walk through the spaceport, Friedrich leading them to a plane-like spaceship that was about the size of a school bus, and plated with gold.
"Woah! Shiny!" Candice exclaims, looking at the spaceship as she held her unicorn plush. Friedrich, amused by her reaction, laughs heartily.
"Yep, it is alright!" He replies, as the spaceship's door lowers down into a staircase for them to walk inside.
And what a beautiful inside it was, the walls a bright white, the lights overhead being fake chandeliers with glowing yellow, flame-shaped lightbulbs, the seats being plush and having golden-buckled seatbelts.
"It's like a cruise ship..." Jack breathes.
"I bet you'd wanna see where guests sleep, too." Friedrich responds.
"Maybe." Jack replies, as he sits down next to Andromeda, who smiles softly at him.
As Kasper and Candice sit down at the same table, the four all look outside at the massive spaceport, seeing what looked like cargo craft docking outside, the crates etched on with the words 'OPHIUCHI D III STARDUST COMPANY'.
Shunsuke goes to sit on the seat parallel to them, looking out his window to see a cruise craft take off with the words 'TRIP TO FURUHJELM V' sliding across its many screens.
He smiles, as Friedrich walks to sit in the most luxurious seat, a golden one.
"Next stop: The Red Planet!" Friedrich bellows, as all the doors close and seal, and the spaceship takes off.
"Woah!" Jack yelps, shocked by the sudden movement, as the spaceship then flies towards the Sol Warp-Lane.
As they reach said Warp-Lane, it isn't long before they are racing towards the Solar System, and it wasn't long after that, that they reached it, zooming past the asteroid moon Phobos and catching a glimpse of its brother moon, Deimos, as they approached it, the Red Planet, the place that all early attempts of space colonization had been aimed at, so long ago.
They had reached Mars.
== Chapter 330 - The Red Planet ==
The spaceship soon landed inside a docking bay, the dome surrounding said docking bay closing when they entered the airlock, the door to the actual landing area opening after that, and closing when the spaceship flew throw, landing on a VIP-Reserved place.
Jack, Andromeda, Candice, Kasper and Shunsuke all looked on in awe at the vast red desert that they knew the dome was meant to shield them from. It was amazing to finally be here, on this planet second only to Earth in terms of its legendary status.
Shunsuke's idea to take them here, was one of the best he ever had.
"I was born in the slums of the biggest, really, only country here. It was tough work, getting to where I am now." Friedrich remarks, as they step out of the spaceship and walk towards a very shiny bullet train.
"This place is amazing..." Andromeda remarks. "It looks so...different from everywhere we've been. It's either just been normal, frozen or molten, but this place is...it's a desert...a red desert..."
"Thinking out loud is just the thing I like to hear as a first impression of my homeworld." Friedrich replies, as they get on the bullet train and sit down, the bullet train zooming along the rails.
"This makes me wonder if the other planets in the Solar System are colonized..." Candice breathes.
"They are, actually." Friedrich replies. "Some are harder to live on than others, though."
"Well, thank you so much for bringing us here." Candice responds.
"You should be thanking your dad, Candice. He's the one who let you come here." Friedrich replies.
"Oh, right..." Candice trails off. Then, the train begins to slow abruptly, mildly shocking Kasper, and they soon saw exactly why.
"If you guys didn't learn about, or forgot, lemme tell you what this place is." Friedrich explains. "This...is Olympus Mons, my home."
== Chapter 331 - Olympus Mons ==
As they went through the dome surrounding the massive volcano, they saw a great many slums, as well as screens broadcasting something which vaguely looked orange from the train.
When they reached higher density towns, they saw that on the taller buildings there were screens showing a tall man wearing a red and white military uniform beneath a red and white trenchcoat, a man with swept black hair, and a slightly bushy black beard, with orange eyes and near-deathly pale skin, and his arms behind his back.
They knew immediately upon seeing him who this man must be, as they had heard of him during the war.
"Greetings to all of you, citizens of Muskville." The man says, with a small smile on his face. "As we celebrate the first month after the end of the Netraxian War, I would like to announce that we have made a number of breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, robotics, hard light and nanotechnology, and as such will soon be able to introduce to all of you our latest project. We look forward to a safer, and brighter, future for all of humanity, and would like to thank Gliese Industries for our recent import of valuable semiconductors and raw materials. Do not hesitate to ask us any questions you have."
"Hammond seems to be in a better mood than I've heard of him." Andromeda remarks.
"Yeah, he's been real thrilled with the end of the war since it means he can do his duties as the Commissary General of Mars." Friedrich replies. "I'd try not to get on his bad side though, but I'm sure you all already knew that."
"Yeah, we did." Jack answers. "I've heard some stories about Musktopia. Is it true that it still looks how space bases used to look?"
"Yep. Even after we made the whole volcano habitable, people still liked the look, so we kept it, it'll be a sight to see since you won't really find it even on the Moon." Friedrich explains.
And then, they saw it in the distance, another dome which held a city full of black and white, cylindrical structures, with a logo reading 'PLATZ-X' etched onto each and every building.
They could see that the further into the city the buildings went, the larger they became, the largest looking like some mix between a castle and a 21st Century rocket or space station, complete with solar panels and robotic arms.
The sight was certainly something to behold, it was like looking through a window to the 21st Century, and to Jack, Candice, Kasper and Shunsuke, that was awesome.
== Chapter 332 - Musktopia ==
As they entered Musktopia, they saw that the very furthest from the capitol were domes the size of houses, probably built before Olympus Mons' dome was, Jack thought.
And they moved through the row of larger and larger domes, they entered the city proper, the cylindrical skyscrapers towering over them as real rockets would, and saw near the middle of a park a large metal statue of a tall, thin man, the words at the base of the statue reading 'XAVIER MUSK'.
Drones with what looked like mass drivers attached to them were patrolling the city, and quickly moving out of the way of the train. Cars here still seemed to use wheels, but much like trains, those wheels were attached to what were essentially rails, keeping them on track.
And of course, the place they were nearing, seemed to be that rocket-esque capitol building, which had what looked like giant mech suits standing guard, holding what looked like telephone poles for spears.
Said mechs quickly form an X with the spears to block the train, as drones fly through and scan every passenger.
When that had finished, the mech suits return to their previous position, and the train goes inside, stopping at the train station as the six got out and looked around at the massive transport area, which was filled with staff, soldiers, tourists, cargo, and more!
"Wow..." Jack breathes.
"And this is just the entrance! Wait till you see the actual hallways!" Friedrich replies, as he leads them towards one of many, many doors, which revealed itself to be an elevator.
When they went inside, Friedrich pressed the button to the 815th floor, the elevator rushing upwards at breakneck speeds, as everyone but Friedrich and Shunsuke holds onto bars for support.
As the elevator comes to a stop, and the door opens, they walk into an extremely long hallway that was white with a red and gold carpet and bluish white lights, leading to a black door, flanked by two heavily armor guards with rifle-sized railguns.
When they opened the door and walked inside, they saw, standing in front of a blue-tinted window and behind a desk with a computer and lamp on it, with a chair to his side, staring out said window, with bookshelves on either side of the room, and his arms behind his back, Commissary General Reuben Hammond.
"I am honored to welcome you all to Zenith Tower." Hammond says, turning around to face them with a small smile, with his orange eyes that looked both tired and relieved.
"It's an honor to finally meet you in person, Sir." Jack replies with a salute, Hammond chuckling at this.
"There will be no need for that, Holland." Hammond says, sounding a bit amused.
"Right." Jack replies, as he stops saluting him.
"Nice to see you again, Hammond." Friedrich says.
"It's good to see you too, Maibaum." Hammond replies, looking back towards the window, and out towards Musktopia below.
It was clear both from below and from up here that Zenith Tower, well, towered over the city it was the capitol of, and in fact was the center point for the dome itself, with there being an observatory stationed above even this floor. Jack at least knew that much about this gargantuan structure.
"So, onto business, right?" Friedrich asks.
"Indeed." Hammond answers. "Everyone, please meet me in the...Meeting Room."
== Chapter 333 - The Meeting ==
Hammond sat down at one end of a meeting table, the end that faced the window to the Meeting Room, as Friedrich sat down at one of the seats, and two others created holograms of a man with neat white hair and a white mustache, dull pink eyes, wearing a white and dull purple suit, and...Romuald.
"You..." Jack breathes.
"Hello again, Jackson Holland, Andromeda, Candice Distler, Kasper Maibaum, Shunsuke Vaquero." Romuald replies.
"I still haven't forgotten what you did to us..." Andromeda retorts.
"Then you haven't forgotten that you attacked me first." Romuald replies coldly. "Anyways, onto business."
"Yes, about that." The man with white hair and dull pink eyes starts. "I still don't understand this little project of yours, Rueben. It's going to cost me billions to ship that much hydrogen all the way to Mars."
"Does everything with you have to be about money, Haral?" Hammond demands, before sighing. "Billions is nothing compared to the hundreds of trillions of credits you have, your company is the biggest and richest in the Human Star Realm. I'm sure you can spare fifty three billion credits for something you see so trivial."
"But what good is it even going to do?" Haral demands, narrowing his eyes.
"It's going to give Olympus Mons friendlier and more reliable protectors." Hammond answers. "I care about morale just as much as strength, and you nee both those and intelligence to win a war."
"Does everything have to be about war with you, Reuben?" Haral sneers. "We're at peace, relax yourself!"
"It's just the language I use." Hammond retorts. "What I mean is that the current robotic defenders of this country have rudimentary A.I. and very little ability to discern friend from foe. Giving them that ability, and bringing them one step closer to sentience, will mitigate that risk and put everyone at ease."
"We both know that's not actually why you're doin' this." A slightly gruff voice, familiar only to Candice and Hammond, replies, the doors closing behind the man who had just entered.
== Chapter 334 - The Intruder ==
He was a somewhat thin man of slightly above average height, with pale skin, very slightly reddish grey eyes, messy yet short black hair, and black stubble on his somewhat thin face.
He wore a black shirt with a small turtleneck on it and a sash running from its top left to bottom right, as well as black cargo pants and boots, and over his shirt was a black jacket with a white fur collar.
Around his neck was a necklace with a cross attached to it. The man was slightly hunched forward, and looked as though he hadn't slept for days, and even as though he was currently drunk, though it was hard to tell.
"Mr. Fedora filled us both in, remember?" The man continues, staring at Hammond. "He's already told us who we're actually supposed to be pointin' our guns at, and you're preparin' for him. Why do ya have to stoop down to Ol' Starwind's level and lie to everyone's faces about the real reason you're fundin' this project of yours?"
"Who exactly is this?" Haral demands, as Candice runs towards the man.
"Uncle Falqo!" She cries, hugging him tightly.
"Uh, hey Kiddo." Falqo replies.
"...A friend of mine." Hammond answers. "And he's right, we are preparing for a threat that Kiyomasu has informed us of."
"Ah, yes, the Galactic Defense Force. I know frauds when I see them, and they're the biggest frauds I've ever seen!"
Haral retorts.
"Have you looked in the mirror, lately?" Friedrich replies, as Haral glares viciously at him.
"And who is this threat that Kiyomasu has informed us of?" Romuald asks.
"He apparently goes by the name of Atlas Abraxas, and he's apparently been using a number of disguises to infiltrate and manipulate various factions, most notably the Shazarak, as Sechsgrad." Hammond answers, as Jack and Andromeda's eyes widen in shock.
"Sechs...grad...?" Andromeda breathes.
"Yep." Falqo answers. "And get this, he's apparently a Socqreath, a royal one too. And Kiyomasu suspects that he's the one who helped the Shazarak destroy the Socqreath homeworld."
Everyone fell silent at this, as Andromeda's face of pure rage made almost everyone back away.
"Anne...?" Jack asks cautiously, putting a hand on his shoulder--and immediately being thrown back!
"Gah!" Jack shouts, as Andromeda stands up, her head bowed down, as her Psychic Weapons began to slowly creep towards everyone.
"I HATE SOCQREATH!" Haral screams, as his hologram vanishes. "Well..." Friedrich remarks.
Suddenly, Andromeda is shot in the head by an electric blast, and falls to the ground, unconscious, as they turn to see Hammond standing up, his silver and gold gun, with orange lights, pointed at where she was.
"Anne!" Jack shouts, running to make sure she was alright.
"Get her to the Infirmary." Hammond orders, as the two guards on the inside go to get a stretcher.
== Chapter 335 - Truth ==
"I can't believe you!" Hammond roars at Falqo, who stood there with his arms crossed, the two of them alone in Hammond's office. "You let classified information loose in an uncontrolled manner that has led to the entire meeting being canceled!"
"It was better for them to know." Falqo retorts. "They're not gonna' say shit for the same reason we aren't, cuz we don't want a mass panic."
"You..." Hammond nearly snarls. "...if you were one of my men, I'd have you shot!"
"If I was one of your men, I'd shoot myself." Falqo replies casually, putting his hands behind his head, as Hammond sighs in frustration.
Jack, Candice and Kasper were sitting on a bench in the Infirmary, Jack thinking about what had happened as he worried about Andromeda.
"I can't believe she snapped like that..." He breathes. "She hadn't done something like that in so long..."
"I'm sure she was just super upset to find out what really happened to our homeworld." Candice replies. "I know I was...really, everything Uncle Falqo and General Hammond said was super hard to believe."
"Yeah..." Jack says. "It's just...I don't want her to go back to how she was before, back to being almost like a...a monster..."
"I'm sure she won't." Candice replies comfortingly.
The doctors were currently scanning Andromeda, with a number of IVs injected into her bloodstream as they tried to make sure she wasn't permanently injured by the blast, or by any other hits she had taken over the years.
And it was then that they noticed something...odd. They put her inside an EMRI Machine to get a more accurate scan of her brain, and found something inside it, something artificial.
"What is..." One of the doctors trails off, as they increase the resolution to see much better what the thing in their brain was, and to their surprise, confusion, and slight horror, it happened to be...
"...A microchip?" Hammond asks.
"Yes, merged with her hypothalamus." The doctor answers. "It seems to be increasing her aggression levels at times, but it only seems responsible for fifty point three percent of her outbursts, most of those outbursts the more recent ones."
"...She's been programmed to be a killer...?" Hammond demands.
"It...would seem so..." The doctor replies.
"...There's only one reason someone would want to turn the Queen of the Socqreath into a violent killer..." Hammond remarks, sitting in his chair and putting his fingers together. "...And I have a feeling I know exactly who would want to do it."
== Chapter 336 - For Hire ==
Back on New Earth, a number of muscular male Socqreath were playing cards and laughing, as the whimpering of a woman could be heard from another room down the hall of the building they were in.
"Who wants a turn with the chick, next?" One of the Socqreath asks, as they all laugh harder, and place a wine bottle on the table in the center with their Psychic Weapons to spin it.
"Me! Me! Me!" One of the taller Socqreath chants, as they all watch the bottle spin and spin and spin.
But before it could stop spinning, it was shot, and shattered, by a bullet from the door.
"Huh...?" Another one of the Socqreath trails off, as the door is sliced in half, and kicked down by a figure wearing black and green military armor, his helmet black with a number of green horns on the right side of it. The figure held a katana in one hand, and a Glock 17 in the other, as he slowly walked towards the Socqreath without saying a word.
"Get him!" Yet another one of the Socqreath roars, as two of them rush at the figure, only to be bifurcated and shot in the forehead before they could process what had happened.
"What the fuck?!" The taller Socqreath screams, as the figure keeps walking.
One of the Socqreath throws a table at the figure, who slices it in half faster than the Socqreath could see his arm and sword move, as he kicks one half of the table into that Socqreath, splattering him against the wall.
Another Socqreath rushes at the figure, and is decapitated by him almost immediately, without even being able to throw a punch.
Yet another Socqreath sends his Psychic Weapons at the figure, who blocks them with his sword and fires at the Socqreath's forehead, the Socqreath catching a bullet with his Psychic Weapon yet losing focus on the sword, which slashes him in half.
The figure sees the last of the Socqreath in the room trying to run down the hallway, and fires a bullet through the back of his head, as it comes out square between the eyes, the Socqreath dropping dead.
The figure then walks down the hallway, and sees the whimpering girl, shooting her dead without a second thought, as he sheathes his sword, holsters his gun, and takes out his communicator, which was beeping.
"Who is this?" The figure asks.
"I know your work, Blackshot." A familiar voice on the communicator replies. "I want you to kill Andromeda and Candice Distler, as soon as possible."
"No problem." Blackshot responds.