Ascenders Rift

In an old and abandoned factory that was quite a distance away from the livelier areas of EarlingStar, there were a few trucks and containers packed together as a few individuals garbed in black moved about in a shady manner. At this time, a white car in the style of a Sedan had begun to make its way towards this factory, turning off from the dirt paved road that led to the distant main highway.

As it slowly pulled up, a trail of dust would form behind it due to the track. Suddenly, a few of the men who were busily moving halted their actions and promptly headed over to the car. They each held a semi-automatic firearm in their hands while coldly looking at the white car that now halted before them. Not long after stopping, the door of the car opened, and three familiar-looking faces appeared.

The heavy bearded Marcus, mature beauty Donna, and the slim-faced Alton with his shaved chin, this trio upon leaving the car glanced around at the gunmen with indifference for a slight moment.

Alton then took a step forward and spoke coldly with his eyes flashing in an icy ray, "Where are they?"

The gunmen hearing this said nothing, they merely looked at each other and nodded before separating as they created a path between them, allowing passage to the factory building.

Alton seeing this snorted before gesturing to Donna and Marcus as he spoke, "Let's go."

Following these words, he took a step forward and passed the gunmen along with Donna and Marcus. In a few moments, they had bypassed the other workers on the outside and entered the seemingly run-down factory.

Yet, upon arriving on its interior, the scene that appeared before Alton and the others was a scene viewable only in a properly stocked research center. Machines and monitors were showing various information, along with profiles of many different individuals as teams of men and women worked without rest to compile them together.

Alton nodded at this scene as he spoke under his breath, "Good, it seems that everything is coming together."

"Indeed so," Marcus replied.

Donna merely nodded as she swept her eyes towards the various screens, trying to compare the details to things she's previously recorded but lost.

Soon, a few individuals had noticed Alton's group; they made a gesture towards an area as a few individuals had started to walk over. These individuals were dressed differently from the others in the factory, wearing state of the art uniforms with an emblem of a machine's face wearing a soldier's helmet on their chest and arms.

Moments later, this bunch had arrived in front of Alton and the others, they gave them a military salute before speaking, "Agents Beckfield, Grayson, Tyrel, Kelson and Jones at your service. It's a pleasure to meet the esteemed emissaries of RADA."

Alton looked at the group before fixing his eyes onto Agent Beckfield as he spoke, "It seems that you're showing progress with the tasks you've been given. Tell me, how goes the data reconstruction? Have you found out any details through your associations with the MSS?"

When Alton said this, he couldn't help but glance at the military emblem on his chest. Agent Beckfield, upon hearing this smirked and replied, "Emissary Alton, you've come at the right time, we've recently had a big breakthrough in our group. The MSS Chief has passed down a list of classified details that we're planning a mission for next week, he had given this list to all top-class agents and with a little nudge on our part, we had managed to acquire them from a few contacts. I believe that most of this information was from that raid made to your lab at the EarlingStar Academy."

As Beckfield spoke, he handed a tablet over to Alton and silently awaited his reply. When Alton and the others looked it over, their eyes shone with excitement as they spoke.

"This is good; it's more than half of the Coded List candidates. Excellent work Beckfield, you and your team did a splendid job of recovering this information," Alton said with a happy expression as he looked at the tablet with beaming eyes.

"Good work, this will save us a lot of trouble," Marcus added with a smile.

"Indeed so," Donna also said.

"I thank the emissaries for your praise; we only did what must be done," Agent Beckfield said as he made a court bow followed by the others.

Alton nodded as he saw this, he looked at them and spoke, "When is the next set arriving?"

Agent Beckfield paused for a bit before he replied, "I'm not certain, but by the latest, it should be tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow... the 26th, hmm, fine that's also workable, we will proceed to..." Alton was about to inform them of a few plans, but suddenly, there was a slight change.

Sniff! With a sniffing sound, Marcus suddenly shifted his eyes around and room as he spoke, "Do you guys smell that?"

"Huh? Smell what?" Donna asked puzzledly.

Agent Beckfield and the other agents also looked towards Marcus in confusion, Alton on the other hand, had a dark look on his face when his nose twitched as he spoke in alarm, "This is the scent of blood! Just what's..."

He was about to say something, but suddenly, he heard a flurry of gunfire along with a loud sound much-like that of a truck's engine followed by the entrance of the factory being smashed open, sending rocks across the area that crashed into a few computers and machines.

"Ah!" The screaming sound of those on the inside and outside sounded.

"We're under att--" A capable sounding voice from the outside was about to say something, but suddenly, another change had arrived.

Boom! Following a boom, more collisions were heard as from all corners of the large factory; black trucks with a similar emblem to the agents and the significant words MSS had crashed into the walls with their sides half-open. A few individuals with black raid suits and helmets with high powered weapons in their arms were seen within them, positioned for combat.

Alton seeing this, became solemn as he glared at Agent Beckfield and shouted, "You imbecile! How could you let this happen? How did you let the MSS get details about this base?"

"Y-Y-You're Excellency, I-I didn't know how..." Agent Beckfield wanted to explain himself, but suddenly, a fist swept towards his head, smashing his skull apart as his brain flew out.

"Tsk! This stupid fool, Marcus, Donna! We're leaving!" Alton said as he shook his fist and wiped the blood off before he ran towards the stairway.

"Right!" Donna and Marcus replied as they promptly followed, their figures moving like blurry shades as they bypassed the surrounding chaos.

"Shit! What do we do?" The other agents said as they face turned pale when they saw how Agent Beckfield died.

Agent Grayson gritted his teeth and spoke, "We can't stay here; let's ditch everything and run!"

When they heard this, Agent Tyrel and the others nodded and began to scatter about the area. Yet, even before they started the move, the soldiers from the MSS had already taken action.

Ratata! The sounds of gunfire resounded as most of the men in the room became neutralized, these bullets were made from exclusive technology that allowed them to incapacitate rather than kill those shot.

A few of them swept towards Agent Grayson and the others forcing to halt as they fell to the ground with looks of regret on their faces.

"Dammit!" Grayson cursed as his body became paralyzed, and his mind faded.

A woman that seemed like the captain of this team looked at the tablet before she pointed towards various directions and spoke, "Secure the most important and destroy the rest. As for those traitors, we'll also be taking them into custody."

"Yes, mam!" The other soldiers replied as they immediately carried out their actions.

Suddenly, an attendant walked closer to the female captain and spoke, "Mam, what about those from the RADA group? Are we not going to deal with them?"

The captain shook her head as her eyes flashed in a strange light when she spoke, "While we can kill them with concentrated fire from our Second Class piercing rounds, they are Level 2 humans with the powers of that Rift System. They would cause us to suffer too many casualties, for now, we should leave it to the others..."

"Understood," The attendant said as he went back to perform his tasks, the captain shifted her eyes from this area looking towards the side as if she could already see the scene beyond the factory.

***

A distance away from the chaos, Alton, Donna, and Marcus had arrived at a nearby forest. Their figures swished about at blur-like speeds as they shuffle about the landscape, arriving at the nearby river with a log creating a path the other side.

Marcus wiped the sweat from his forehead as he washed his face with the river water and spoke, "Whew! We got away..."

Donna was also sweaty; she nodded while cleaning herself up and saying, "It seems so,"

While everyone else was feeling relieved, Alton, on the other hand, was in a bad mood. He hit the lake with his fist, causing it to splash as he cursed, "Blast! Those fools, how did they let this happen? How do we face the leader after this news gets out?"

Donna and Marcus wearily smiled as they knew it wouldn't end well for them if they were to head back with this result. They shook their heads, not saying anything.

Alton sighed and calmed his mood before he spoke, "Even if we've suffered such a loss, we still have nowhere else to go, let's get moving, there might be a few of them on our trail."

"Okay," Marcus and Donna replied, they were about to move, but soon, their eyes along with Alton's had fixed towards a certain direction

There, at the opposing side of the river, standing at the edge of the log was a man. He had a chiseled face, sharp-looking eyes with long hair reaching to the nape of his neck that flowed about due to the nightly winds.

He looked at the trio and spoke with a smile, "Well, you've made it right on time."

Alton looked at the man, and his eyes flashed with surprise before he spoke, "You... you are Alan Lawson, correct?"

Donna and Marcus's eyes flashed with surprise as they only now realized it was him. Alan noticing their looks smirked as he replied, "Correct, I'm here to pick you up."

Alton soon after calmed down before he laughed and spoke, "Hahaha, Alan, I knew you were crazy, but I didn't think you'd be this foolish. You don't think that you're the strongest in the world now, do you? I'll have you know that myself and companions here are merely lackeys of RADA, and even with our strength, we are more than capable of annihilating you. If it weren't for there being certain constraints to the chief and higher numbers of our group, then do you think that we'd need to have so much trouble in dealing with a guy like you?"

"He truly is a fool, trying to take us on is no different from seeking death," Donna said with a smile while cracking her fingers.

"Don't blame him; he's been living thinking he's king for a while, it's only natural that he'll be arrogant," Marcus said as he fixed his ponytail with a confident look on his face.

Alan didn't get upset; he merely smiled and snapped his fingers before replying, "Who said that I'm alone?"

"Hmm?" Alton was a bit confused, but soon after, his face turned serious when he gazed around his surroundings.

Soon, three familiar-looking individuals had appeared from three different corners. A beauty with silky black hair and slender upturned eyes, along with a fat bearded man with a large backpack filled with many weapons and a skinny man with a straight nose, half-shaved hair, and glasses.

"You... you're that bunch from the MSS, how did you survive those wounds?" Alton exclaimed in shock, as he recalled gravely injuring two from the team.

Angeline looked at Alton with a cold look in her eyes as she smiled and replied, "Don't you worry about that, we'll have plenty of time to discuss this later."

"Haha, this should be a nice round of payback," Hank said as he lit a cigarette and took out a weapon from his backpack.

"Maybe so..." Thomas added as he played with a knife that had a hole in its center with his finger.

Alan looked at the dark look on Alton's face as he spoke once more with a voice at added even more tension on this gloomy night, "Shall we begin,"