“Heh, of course…I’m sure we’ll be useful to your organization.”

  No introductions, no greetings, there was no need for any of that - Rose never came all the way for formalities, after all. She never concerned herself with any of that, and this sentiment was shared among the other party, as a couple of the men made themselves useful.

  Gripping the edges of a crate, the men placed their attention toward the shelves. As wood scraped against concrete and grunting left the mouths, the men brought the crate to Rose.

  Her eyes beamed at the snowy powder occupying the crate, its value preserved in the wrapping of plastic bags.

  “Here it is, Ms. Thatcher. Five hundred grams of pure cocaine…just a taste of what we manufactured,” With the men displaying their product to the duo, Xavier described. “We have several laboratories in Columbia where our production lies.”

  Ah, shit…that’s that good shit. Zack thought as his gaze was plastered on the cocaine. Shame I can’t get any…

  “That’s good and all, but is cocaine the only drug you produce?” Strangely unamused by the presentation, Rose questioned. “You’d be more useful and valuable to the Bluebloods if there was variety.”

  “I’m glad you asked. Cannabis, heroin…we can supply whatever you guys demand,” With a smirk, Xavier replied.

  Like the sound of bees buzzing around and water slipping through his fingers, their conversation slipped past Zack’s interest. His gaze drifted past his partner and instead scanned the room, eager to replace his disinterest.

  Granting his wish, Zack caught sight of Xavier’s men matching his gaze with smiles too boot. Their grins lingered long…far too long for just a friendly gesture. At least his detachment to the meeting was now replaced by the nervousness that encroached upon Zack.

  Uhh…are they just being friendly? Wait…are drug manufacturers even friendly? Zack pondered. Is there something on my face?

  “From the looks of it, you’ll be useful as you say,” Rose remarked as she gazed at the crate of cocaine before her. “I’ll let the director know this was a successful meeting.”

  “Thank you for your time–”

  “For your sake, ensure you’re always useful,” Rose interjected. “The director doesn’t tolerate disobedient dogs…you should have seen what happened to one of our last manufacturers.”

  What could it have been? The frequent interruptions? The unamused and cold disposition Rose displayed? Or was it her last remark? It was all trivial in the end, though. His pinched and furrowed eyebrows, flared nostrils, and a tightened jaw gave shock to the two.

  “...Haha, you can’t be serious. You really are the same Blueblood dogs!” Scoffing out a dry laugh, Xavier remarked.

  “What–”

  BAM!

  No warning, no expectation, Rose only experienced a heavy sensation on the side of her face. Snapping her head sideways, As a shower of the snow-like substance and wood splintering decorated the air, Rose was blasted into the warehouse infrastructure like a ragdoll.

  “Ugh!”

  “ROSE–” Perceiving this sudden, unprovoked attack, Zack yelled. As natural as this shock was, Zack made the wrong choice, as he too experienced a heavy blow to his side. “Ugh!”

  Thanks to the fist of one of Xavier’s ‘henchmen,’ Zack was displaced across the warehouse and occupied an opposite area to Rose.

  “Tch…you pieces of shit…must have lost your minds!” With anger dripping from her words like a potent venom, Rose got to her feet. “I’m going to kill you all!”

  “Tch, it’s about time we got to rock these bastards’ shit,” One of Xavier’s allies, the perpetrator of Rose’s injury, remarked. “I was getting tired of having to work with all you damn criminals.”

  “Huh? What the hell did you just say?”

  “You are a goddamned idiot, Rose! We are all super soldiers in disguise!” Dropping a bombshell, another exclaimed. “We just used Xavier to get to you!”

  “...Tch, super soldiers…?” Throwing daggers at Xavier’s soul, Rose muttered with narrowed eyes. “So, you’re a shitty rat then?”

  “A rat!? Don’t you dare call me a rat! My affiliations were never with you! It was with the organization you bastards recently massacred!” Xavier retorted, his words inducing shock in Rose.

  What!? There was a survivor? But I thought we got all the gang members. Rose speculated. Did he escape or something?

  “It’s your turn to meet your end! You damn Bluebloods!”

  The hostile and aggressive words which spilled from Xavier’s guts were like a cobra spitting venom at their enemy. But Zack was prepared to rear his own fangs, donning his weaponized gloves onto his hands.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “What a pleasant surprise that the S-Class criminal, Zack Isaac was also here!” Turning their sights to Rose’s ally, one of the disguised soldiers remarked. “If you two don’t want to get the hell beaten out of you, I suggest you surrender now–”

  BOOM!

  Only a fool would ever think surrender would float in their heads, especially after this grand display of trickery before them. Zack was eager to show them the error in their thinking, leaping like a kangaroo across several meters. As his gloves beamed like a christmas tree, Zack demanded a thunderous bang from his own hands upon impact with the ground.

  The explosion ripped through the warehouse with a deafening boom, its concussive waves developing faulty cracks in the infrastructure. Like stacked dominoes, the shelves toppled over, spilling crates and more snow across the floor. The intense vibrations which travelled through the warehouse put the blinking lights out of their misery.

  “AAHHHH!!” Xavier’s body was treated like a piece of trash, as he was launched several meters. His visible bruises and bleeding exposed his inability to measure up to anyone else in this building. He was well aware of his physical limitations. I-I gotta get out…of here!

  “Damn!” Recoiling backwards from the shock, a super soldier yelled dramatically. “This dickhead’s got some power!”

  “Of course! He’s a S-Class psycho!” Another responded. "Even if he doesn't have any explosives, we can't screw around with him too much."

  “There’s more where that came from–” Recognizing Zack’s threat as an enemy, a super soldier targeted him at blinding speeds. “Wow! Ugh!”

  Invading his personal space, the super soldier assaulted his enemy with a right and left hook. Zack weaved and blocked both hooks respectively in time, but the super soldier was relentless, driving a knee in his gut.

  “Cough!” With the wind knocked out of him, the super soldier followed up by grabbing Zack’s collar and sending him crashing into the toppled crates.

  Amid the chaos, Xavier set his sights on the exit. Every movement felt like hell after the hard blow he received, but Xavier never stopped. He dragged himself inch by inch, leaving a trail of blood behind him. His efforts were paying off…but they never went unnoticed.

  “Where the hell do you think you’re going, rat!?” With a loud and aggressive voice, Rose yelled. The cracks produced by Zack’s handy work increased in size as the warehouse began sprouting roots through them. “You’re going to suffer for this–”

  Rose had full intent to murder this perceived rat, but there was a far more urgent matter. The edge of her eyes bore witness to movement towards her. With a loud thud, another super soldier had charged and would have struck her…if not for a large, thick plant stem born from the roots and growing in the way.

  “Damn! This is quite tough!” Pulling his fist from the body of the plant stem, the super soldier commented. His fist was covered with a green goo produced from the stem, which also stained his clothing after spraying on him. The remaining roots wasted no time and decorated a portion of the warehouse into a field of oversized plant stems. “Ugh! Gross!”

  “Why are you focusing on that guy– Wow!” Attempting to build pressure on the woman, another super soldier attempted to assault her, only to narrowly dodge a spike which grew rapidly from a stem. “Tch, these things are annoying.”

  “You goddamned soldiers are far more annoying than anything else right now,” Finding herself greeted with the presence of three super soldiers, Rose retorted. Damn it, I had no intention of fighting three soldiers…especially not in such a closed space. Rose pondered as her gaze drifted to Zack. I don’t want to…overwork my blessing, but Zack has his hands full with super soldiers too. I’m not going to let them kill him.

  Having his hands full may have not been the right phrase, as his scuffle with the super soldier became more intense.

  Zack lunged with a high kick, but the moment he committed to this action, his opponent had side stepped it. The super soldier grabbed Zack mid air by his leg and applied a downward thrust - bang! - Zack’s back met concrete, hard enough to crack it further than it already was.

  “Ugh–Wait!” The super soldier wasn’t satisfied as his grip wasn’t released from his enemy’s leg. Applying an upward thrust instead, Zack was forced to have an intimate relationship with the ceiling.

  As a mixture of rubble and dust descended, a burst of light radiated this darkened warehouse, all thanks to Zack’s body blasting through a portion of the ceiling. His descent was just as removed from grace as his ascent, as Zack ragdolled through the ceiling hole and onto the ground.

  “Haha! How did the ceiling taste!?” Adding salt to the wound, the super soldier taunted.

  “Tch! I’ll murder you!” Fueled with rage, Zack lunged to his feet. Before having a chance to vent his rage, unknown arms threaded under Zack’s armpits and grappled behind his back. The fingers of the unfamiliar arms were laced tight, demanding Zack’s chin to go downwards and arching his back. “Ugh! What!?”

  “I see you don’t pay much attention to your surroundings while fighting,” The perpetrator for this was another super soldier, who mocked him. “There were five of us, you idiot.”

  Zack squirmed desperately, but the Full Nelson held him like a prisoner. He was stuck…and more importantly wide open.

  BANG!

  Like a dog witnessing a meal left unattended, the super soldier took advantage of the restrained Zack by commencing with an uppercut to his core. Despite Zack’s grunt, the super soldier let loose. Hooks, jabs and punches slammed into Zack’s face, stomach with no rest nor cease, not even after the gasping and blood which left his mouth.

  “Dammit! Zack!” Hearing his pained grunts, Rose called out in frustration. Her concern could only stay as that, with the incessant attacks from the super soldier trio. She needed full focus to manipulate the plant stems and spikes to defend and against their hypersonic movements and combat. Shit! I need to use more power to murder these freaks…even if my body suffers!

  The attacks continued pummeling Zack, even causing his legs to buckle, but the hold he was placed in kept him from falling.

  “Damn! You’re a sturdy ass bastard, but you’re clearly suffering!” The super soldier unloading those strikes in Zack remarked. “If you want to surrender, you can do it, but I’m not stopping if you don’t!”

  Forced to become a punching bag, there was only one thing that Zack could do. His only option was to surrender…is what I would say if Zack wasn’t like...you know. The only option he had…was to bend his forearms, grab the face of the super soldier restraining him and shove his thumbs in his nostrils???

  BOOM!!!

  Originally perplexed by Zack’s act, the super soldiers’ expression morphed into horror as a bright coral orange gleam radiated from his gloves. With a roaring blast, the head of the super soldier restraining Zack experienced watermelon smashing. His friend also recoiled from the concussive force.

  Receiving the audience of all who occupied the warehouse, the staggering Zack was stained with blood and brain matter…and so was the walls.

  “Ugh…I can’t believe I had to stick my fingers up someone’s nose,” With a disgusted expression directed at the shocked foe who used him as a punching bag, Zack muttered. “So, goddamned gross.”