Zteel

"Preparations are now complete, Boss. Awaiting your orders."

Quade, Ford and Ivy gathered around Drew's desk in a dimly lit office room.

"Great." Drew chuckled to himself with an amused expression before standing from his seat and stretching his arms with a cigar in hand. "Get your lackeys ready to do more of the dirty work."

He stood with a tall frame, wearing a black suit and tie with brown hair.

Quade crossed his arms with a smirk on his face. With eyes closed, Ford leaned on the shades of the indoor glass window walls within the office room with hands in pockets. Ivy closed her eyes and shook her head with a chuckle.

Drew continued. "Walking around in those jackets, flexing their ranks among each other, only determined by their physical prowess, it's despicable.

They disregard us, cast us aside, but this is our chance. Now's the time to show that even the lowly powerless can still climb to power."

"Drew," Quade called. "I'm only saying this because I'm your right-hand man, but I think we should take it a bit easier on the heists."

Drew turned his attention from the side window leading outside of his small office room to look at him.

Quade continued. "As successful as we've been as of late, these ain't no regular cops we're talking about. We're still in Lunanova."

Drew laughed. "What, I'm supposed to be scared of Noriko or something?"

Quade rolled his eyes and sighed. Without a word, Ford nodded his head confusedly.

"Uh, yes." Ivy spoke. "Yes, you should. We all should. She's no joke. Drew, you hired each of us, the three people closest to you, because we've all experienced firsthand what it feels like to be a convict in this country, as have you.

Sometimes, you might not know everything, you've gotta heed our advice and precautions."

Drew shook his head. "No, no… Look, I've been in this business long enough. Noriko is way too busy to pay any mind to petty crimes. This sector of the District's been riddled with crime since its inception into the country.

My history as a convict happened quite some time ago. I've been a free man for a long time now, and as long as I stay within this region, business is booming."

"Drew, listen," Quade pleaded. "You can't keep talking like you're not responsible for leading this mafia. We've co-spearheaded for you for some time now. You're the one who spearheads it all.

All the crime in this area is almost exclusively because of us. The cops ain't clueless. They know who we are, and if we don't plan for that, it'll only be a matter of time before we're caught and this whole operation is suspended indefinitely."

"They're not stupid." Ford added, shaking his head. "Far from it. Lunanova is already damn near an empire. As bad as this region is, it's only getting better by the day. If you ask me, we've been getting lucky."

He stood up off of the wall. "They've got a Lieutenant, Doran Bakar. He's certainly a threat, and I've got some of my guys telling me he's heading their operation.

We know you're intelligent, a mastermind, Boss. But facts are facts. We're gonna have to ease up on the gas."

Sighing, Drew reluctantly heeded their warnings. "Fine, I hear you. But this is gonna be good. We'll take care of this and take a break."

Ivy interjected. "You've said that the last eight crimes now, Drew—"

"I know!" He shouted, noticing that the raising of his voice caught the others off guard. "I know, okay? But it's just business, and they've gotta learn.

This heist is going to be one for the ages, a true chance to leave my mark—our mark—on this place.

We're gonna show this cursed country just how patronizing it is."

Quade, Ford and Ivy looked at each other and headed for the door.

"Yeah, a'ight," Quade assured sarcastically.

"That man's crazy," he added as the three of them walked down the hallway.

"You may be right, but we owe him, big time. When we had nothing, he brought us up and gave our lives a purpose to live for."

"Oh yeah?" Quade scoffed. "Speak for yourself. I'd be just fine without him. I'm here for the money, most of us are, you'd be lying were you to say otherwise."

Ford shrugged his shoulders and nodded as a means to acknowledge the validity within Quade's words.

"Don't get me wrong, I want to help be the cause for a better representation of the population that lack Modi Operandi as well. And as much as I like money, even I can admit it gets to a point where your lust for it can be too strong."

Ivy glowered at the ground, exhaled and shook her head. "Yeah, you're right. But for now, let's worry about getting ready for tonight."

Quade, Ford and Ivy hopped on the elevator of the building that served as their mafia headquarters down to a bunker below ground level.

Through many floors, the entire office building was occupied by coworkers and subordinates of the mafia and was arranged like typical corporate headquarters.

Because of this, from the outside looking in, it appeared to be an unsuspecting place of regular business.

Despite the many crimes the mafia was involved in, a lot of its members didn't partake in crime that required physical interactions.

In fact, none of its members had Modi Operandi, so those that executed the crimes settled for modern handguns or firearms.

When the three arrived at the bunker, it was filled with many plasma firearms, classic firearms with metal ammunition, and lethal equipment, mostly organized into crates.

However, Quade, Ford and Ivy navigated their way through the assortments of weaponry toward the back of the bunker where a smaller vault room was located.

Quade input a code into a panel beside the door, prompting it to open automatically. Inside, he reached for a singular earpiece and a plasma rifle.

Ivy grabbed a pair of gloves and a plasma pistol while Ford put on a holster, grabbed two plasma handguns and a pair of gloves as well.

The three traveled to each of the above floors of the building individually. "Everyone, listen up!" They shouted individually. "The boss is ready. We leave tonight, it's time to round up and get back to work!"

--

Nyota, Sage and Kilo left their hotel in the morning and walked to the precinct.

They decided to leave before Tatius, Enki and Idalia, who mentioned that they would catch up to them later on.

"So, Nyota," Sage started. "We never got to talk about yesterday."

"Yeah," Kilo added. "We're gonna act like nothing happened?"

Nyota laughed. "It was nothing. I still can't control my MO."

Kilo shook his head. "Nah, I don't want to hear that. You're gonna piss me off if you keep talking like what you did wasn't highly impressive. Stop being so humble."

"Humility isn't the worst thing," Sage responded. "But at the same time, what you did back then is something anybody would find hard to not be excited about."

"Forget all that," Kilo rested his hands behind his head. "I wouldn't be able to hold my composure. With your lightning-charged kicks, you were basically moving at the speed of light!

I'd be basking in the moment, like I ruled the world or something."

"Sure, maybe you're right." Nyota looked at his hand. "But let's not forget what you two did. I can't believe that's your first time brawling alongside each other. And Sage, your MO enhanced."

"That's right!" Kilo remained ecstatic. "Genesis Beacon… would you look at that. You went from lighting stove top fires with the snap of your fingers to creating a large cannon of flames from the palms of your hands.

It was incredible, although you tried to kill me, which is something I'll probably never forgive you for." He crossed his arms.

"Yeah. Well, the others did well, too, and it's true we're trying to improve our MO, but let's not forget what we came here for. We're on a mission, so we shouldn't get too ahead of ourselves."

Kilo sighed. "Fine, as long as you know I'm proud of you guys." He put his arms around Nyota aggressively.

"I'm gonna get there one day."

Sage and Nyota looked at him. Then, Nyota nodded to Sage.

"One day soon," Sage assured. "All three of us are going to prove to be formidable to anyone who stands in our way."

"Yeah," Kilo looked off into the distance, an expression of deep thought written over his face.

Eventually, Nyota and the brothers made it to the precinct, followed by the Big Three not long after.

"Ha, look at these three, desperate to please Doran!" Enki teased as they walked into the precinct doors.

"Morning!" Idalia greeted Nyota and the brothers.

Tatius waved at them.

"Morning!" They replied.

"Great!" Maverick greeted the six at the door. "Follow me, Doran's going to officially break everything down for you."

Maverick led the cadets to one of the meeting rooms where he and Doran had been analyzing more information relevant to the case.

"Great." Doran passively said as the cadets filed into the room. He stood above a table littered with papers he had been analyzing. "Come, crowd around.

First of all, I want to commend you on making it this far, which you may believe may not be far at all, but I've been told I can be kind of hard to work with, so your being here speaks to your commitment and resilience."

He continued. "So up until now, all you know is that you're here to combat crime, correct?"

The cadets nodded.

"Well, the crimes are usually somewhat tame, in terms of preserving human life. But although rare, sometimes life is disregarded. Nonetheless, one very skilled detective may find this odd.

Well, we've confirmed that most of the crimes committed are a result of a mafia's work."

The cadets muttered.

"Yeah, fun, right? The Midas Mafia, more specifically. Anyway, we haven't been able to get the names of the people at the highest levels, let alone any aspect of their identities.

We've been able to catch some pawns from its lowest ranks, but naturally, they won't speak.

They'd much rather face jail time than whatever penalties the people calling their shots would implement."

Maverick added. "Funny, it's either because of extreme loyalty or extreme fear."

Doran shook his head. "Extreme stupidity is what it is. I should mention that of the members we've caught, which is roughly around ten or so, none of them have had an MO.

It's unclear whether or not this is purely a coincidence. I, of course, doubt that it is.

Anyway, it's clear these people aren't going to stop anytime soon. You six are to help us predict what their next crime is going to be, where it's going to be, and apprehend these idiots.

Gods forbid I meet them myself. They'll be in for a rude awakening. They've committed so much of the crime down here; they're ranked at a national threat level of 'Charlie.'"

"Borderline of 'Bravo' at this point." Maverick added.

"Lieutenant," Nyota raised his hand. "What exactly are these ranks?"

"Well, there are five ranks, national ones exclusive to the District of Lunanova: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo. Echo being the lowest and Alpha being the highest.

Without going into each and every level, most crimes receive an Echo grade, a consistent history of felonies and small misdemeanors. Obviously. what we're dealing with is a little bit more than just that."

"And Alpha?" Idalia asked.

Doran looked at Maverick, his arms rested on the large round table.

Maverick laughed. "We've never had to deal with that. That's like, god level essentially."

"Were they to come literally strike us down," Doran added.

"You know, it's just a formality for relative ranking, extremely hypothetical." Doran turned his attention back to the cadets. "Any questions?"

Sage raised his hand. "Why is 'Midas Mafia' the name?"

"Because everything they do has to have money involved."

Maverick elaborated. "Ironic for a bunch of low lives who claim that they're working toward achieving some larger, metaphysical cause.

We don't exactly know what it is, to be honest. Some of them mention something about Noriko, others about power…" Doran shrugged his shoulders as he trailed off.

"Any others?"

The cadets shook their heads. "No sir!" They responded in unison.

"Alright then, meeting adjourned. We'll keep in touch. Don't go too far now," Doran joked. "Might need you when we get back on the field."

"Sounds great!" Nyota assured.

Hours passed and the sun was setting. Nyota, Sage and Kilo were walking back to their hotel with Tatius, Enki and Idalia after buying food from an eatery.

For the most part, the six talked among themselves between two groups, until Idalia opened up the conversation.

"So, Sage," she called. "How do you guys feel about the mission?"

Kilo and Nyota were still talking between themselves until they paused and sneakily turned to watch as Sage spoke to Idalia.

"I'm looking forward to it, probably even more now than ever before, and I'm sure it's a shared sentiment between my brother and Nyota as well."

"I see, it must be cool having your younger brother around as you guys battle crime together and whatnot."

Kilo grew irritated. "What does she think I am?" He whispered to Nyota. "Some background character in a silly show about Sage?!"

Nyota laughed.

Tatius noticed the interaction, too. He nudged Enki and nodded toward Idalia ahead.

Enki laughed. "Hey, Idalia, what's this?"

Apprehensive, she paused and turned around. "What? What are you talking about?"

Without answering, Enki continued to laugh with Tatius.

"Oh, shut up!" She called. "You must've forgotten who defends you in battle. My crystals can be used for more than just defense, you know!"

Sage laughed anxiously, rubbing his hand through his hair. "Now, now, no need for all that."

"Look at him, all nervous and stuff," Kilo bragged. "If I were him, I'd handle that situation much better."

Nyota gave Kilo a peripheral gaze. "Yeah… sure."

As the cadets neared the hotel, they heard a loud noise from the opposite side of it.

BOOM!

"The hell?!" Enki yelled.

Idalia exclaimed. "What's going on?"

The cadets froze as nearby civilians panicked through the street.

Gray smoke and embers emitted out of the side of the hotel where the sound came from.

"Oh c'mon!" Kilo yelled. "Not my glorious temporary home!"

"Quick, call Doran!" Sage ordered. "Right now, we need to focus on evacuating the area. Idalia!" He called.

"Right! We'll clear the inside of the hotel." She ran into it with Enki and Tatius.

Nyota, Sage and Kilo ran to the front of the building, directing traffic on the street and out of the hotel.

Soon after the explosion, sirens could be heard wailing. However, they weren't yet the sirens of police on their way to the scene.

They were sirens coming from a bank down the street.

"Shit." Sage said to himself.

"I called Doran!" Nyota reported to Sage and Kilo. "He's bringing many reinforcements. I heard the bank, we can't worry about that right now. We need to focus on clearing out first."

Smoke from the hotel created a thick haze that filled the busy street. Looking out into the haze down the street, Nyota, Sage and Kilo could see SUVs with completely tinted windows driving in their direction.

Some stopped ahead of them, while others stopped earlier in front of the bank.

It was unclear what the intentions of the people within the vehicles were.

But it was clear that they were entering the bank and creating a wall of men with riot shields on the opposite side of the hotel, blocking road access from the hotel to the bank.

"Attention civilians," a man could be heard projecting his voice on a megaphone among the smog.

"Today's the day. The reign of bigoted prejudice against the powerless will come to an end. We're going to run this region for the coming times.

Resist, and just like your livelihood, we cannot promise you your lives."

"Well," Sage stated passively. "We've got ourselves a fight, boys."

Kilo balled his hands into fists. They started to heat up. "Damn right."

Nyota frowned, then smirked. "Yeah, well this is what we've been waiting for."

Electric energy coursed through his veins, lightning flashed around his body, and he could feel his legs heating up.

"This is going to be exhilarating."