Episode 7: Highway Star

  The Ural Mountains, Russia

  “Hello, everyone...” The man in black greeted them with a calm, overly confident voice. “Did you really think you were the only ones who could glide through the heavens? Your Mach 1 power is nothing compared to my Mach 3.”

  The declaration left Chris stunned. Part of him was terrified, but another part couldn't help but think: ‘That black suit is so cool. If I had one, I could probably fly way past my limits.’

  Kurin stood with gritted teeth, his anxiety plain to see.

  “I’m warning you...” Victor said, swiftly drawing a weapon from his side holster. “Don’t even think about running. My accuracy is legendary, and the bullets from this gun are many times faster than I am. Don’t gamble with your lives.”

  He twirled the pistol with flair. “This is the Colt Single Action Army, known to the world as 'The Peacemaker'... Classic and beautiful, isn't it? But don’t underestimate it. I’ve upgraded its internals. Its muzzle velocity and precision are beyond your imagination. Haha!”

  The man in black cracked his neck. “Oh, I almost forgot. My name is Victor... Victor Vance. Or, if you prefer something more modern, you can call me V-Sonic. I don’t mind.”

  Victor scanned the three of them from ten meters away, a silhouette of black against the stark snow. “One teenager and two small children... aren’t you going to introduce yourselves?”

  Chris opened his mouth to reply out of habit, but Nenets cut him off.

  “That gun... a weapon of the Southern humans developed over millennia. From stones to steel, from blades to cannons, and finally to nuclear fire... weapons that even some gods had to bow to,” Nenets said coldly. “But it’s a pity... that toy you’re holding isn’t worthy of facing us!”

  Snap!

  Before Victor could pull the trigger, 'The Peacemaker' was wrenched from his hand as if by a giant magnet. It flew through the air and landed effortlessly in Nenets’s hand, leaving Victor staring in shock behind his visor.

  “H-How?!” Victor stammered.

  Nenets tossed the gun to Kurin like a worthless toy, then pointed his palm at Victor. Suddenly, the man who had just bragged about Mach 3 was pinned in mid-air by an immense force. Victor flailed helplessly, his "elite warrior" persona vanishing in an instant.

  The sight made Chris flinch. A chill ran down his spine as he remembered the incident in New York—the man he accidentally levitated before he exploded.

  “I... I didn’t do that to the man in New York!” Chris blurted out, his voice trembling as he stared suspiciously at Nenets.

  Nenets met Chris’s gaze calmly. “I didn’t do it either... and I have no need for such tasteless displays.”

  “Then how do you know about me?” Chris asked, still wary.

  “We’ve been watching you since the day you became news,” Nenets replied. “Don’t underestimate us. I have ‘eyes’ in every corner of the world.”

  Meanwhile, Victor, still dangling in the air, began to beg. “Please... don’t kill me! I was only following orders!”

  Nenets moved his hand slightly, lowering Victor gently onto the snow, but issued a command that stunned everyone: “You... strip. All of it.”

  “What? Why would I do that?!” Victor asked, confused, clutching his chest.

  Nenets didn’t answer. Instead, he compressed the air around Victor until the man screamed in pain. “I said... strip!”

  “Ow! Okay, okay! Stop!” Victor frantically pressed several buttons on his complex tactical suit. The powerful black armor began to loosen and fall onto the snow.

  Behind the Mach 3 armor was a red-blonde American man, about 35 years old. He looked like an ordinary computer nerd—lanky, 185 cm tall, but with almost no muscle. He was left in a thin undersuit, shivering violently in the brutal Ural cold.

  “How do you achieve Mach 3... and without this suit, could you still do it?” Nenets asked, hitting Victor’s weakness. He then levitated the suit toward Chris.

  “Here... put this on,” Nenets told Chris. “You saw the steps when he took it off. It will help you greatly.”

  Victor, now in just his thin layer, could barely stand. The sub-zero temperature was already biting into his skin.

  “How did you find us? I asked, and you haven’t answered,” Nenets repeated, his voice as icy as the wind.

  “I-I’m going to die! It’s cold to the bone!” Victor stammered, hugging himself.

  “He only has one trick: speed. He has no idea how to maintain body heat,” Kurin analyzed calmly.

  “Yes... speed is all I have,” Victor said, his teeth chattering. “But... I can be useful! I’m a scientist!”

  “Master Nenets... please show him some mercy. Make him warm, or he’ll die before he tells us the truth,” Kurin requested.

  “Fine,” Nenets replied, extending a hand. Instantly, the shivering nerd was enveloped in a wave of warmth. Color returned to his pale face.

  “A secret U.S. satellite... a program called 'Ghost' hidden within almost every commercial satellite worldwide,” Victor confessed. “It’s an intelligent AI system that monitors every detail on Earth. It can see your pores. I was one of the creators... we call it 'The Eyes of God'.”

  “And who taught you to fly?” Nenets pressed, while Chris struggled to put on the black suit, fumbling with the locks. Victor watched, annoyed by the clumsiness.

  Victor looked at Nenets. “Let me help him. Or he’ll never finish.”

  Kurin moved to block him instinctively, but Nenets raised a hand. “It’s fine, Kurin. He’s under my watch. He can’t try anything.”

  Victor walked to Chris and patiently showed him how to wear the suit. “Press here... lock this first.” He managed the mechanisms until Chris was fully encased, except for the helmet.

  “I really am Iron Man!” Chris joked, looking at himself. However, it looked more funny than cool—the suit was clearly too long and baggy for him.

  “I designed this for myself and my team,” Victor said proudly. Seeing their skeptical looks regarding the fit, he smirked. “Ever heard of ‘Free-size’? This suit is adjustable. If the height difference is within 10 centimeters, the system handles it.”

  Victor tapped a series of contact points on the suit. Suddenly, the internal mechanisms hummed. The suit constricted and molded itself perfectly to Chris’s frame!

  As Victor pressed the final button, the suit hummed and snugged tight. Victor then placed the high-tech helmet on Chris and locked it.

  “Whoa...” Chris exclaimed. Looking through the visor, the world became miraculously clear. The HUD (Head-Up Display) adjusted his vision and magnified details.

  Suddenly, a red flickering text appeared on the HUD along with a command code from HQ: [MISSION: STALL THEM / DELAY AT ALL COSTS]

  “Master Nenets... he’s been ordered to stall us!” Chris reported immediately.

  “I thought so!” Nenets hissed. “Why send someone with only tech and no sorcery to face us if not as bait? And now they know you aren't alone. Chris... take that suit off! We need to leave before something more dangerous arrives.”

  “No!” Victor raised his hands frantically. “Don’t take it off! I’ll show you how to cut the connection! This suit is better off with you, Chris. It will be more useful in your hands than mine... trust me.”

  Victor quickly instructed him on how to evade the trackers. “Chris... give a voice command. Say: ‘My name is Chris... Reset the system and cut all external connections.’ That’s it. It won't receive orders or send signals back to HQ. You’ll be free!”

  Chris didn’t hesitate. He spoke the command. The HUD flickered, and the Pentagon alerts vanished. “It’s empty now... just me and the suit,” Chris said with newfound confidence.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Area 51 Operations Room

  Inside the high-tech hub, monitor light hit the scarred, stern face of the man in charge.

  “Where is the main team?” General Miller, the absolute ruler of Area 51, asked coldly. He stared at the Ural coordinates on the map.

  “Twenty minutes out, sir!” the officer reported. “All units ready to strike upon arrival.”

  The Pentagon: General Stone’s Office

  “Four more Sonic Boom signatures detected, sir! All heading to the exact same coordinates,” an officer reported, pointing at four red dots on the screen. “But their speed isn't as high as the first one.”

  “What is Area 51 doing?! Why am I in the dark about this? Get me Miller now!” General Stone barked.

  “We tried, sir. He’s not picking up... wait, a return line is opening!”

  “Patch him through!” Stone grabbed the phone. “General Miller! What the hell are you doing?”

  “Don’t worry yourself, Stone,” Miller replied dismissively. “I know exactly what I’m doing. This is a Special Ops unit under direct secret orders from the President. If you call him, he’ll deny everything. This is Top Secret—need-to-know basis. And you don’t need to know.”

  “This is national security! I’m the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs! Why wasn't I briefed?!” Stone roared.

  “The reason you weren't briefed... is so you can honestly say ‘I didn’t know’ if something goes wrong,” Miller sneered before hanging up.

  General Stone went quiet. His anger turned into a weary resignation. He set the phone down and sighed. “Forget it... I’m retiring soon anyway. I’ll just do my job within my remaining boundaries,” he told his aide, looking suddenly much older.

  The Ural Mountains, Russia

  “So your team is coming... and though they aren't as fast as you, I bet they have arts and weapons superior to yours, don't they?” Nenets probed.

  “But it doesn't have cool thrusters like Iron Man,” Chris muttered, inspecting his suit. Everyone else sighed at his obliviousness.

  “You idiot...” Kurin grumbled.

  “Listen, Chris... you are the Liberator. The filthy secrets of Area 51 must be exposed!” Victor said seriously, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. “Great Sorcerer... can you help me remove the 'tracker' from my neck?”

  Nenets smirked. “I was just testing your resolve... boy.”

  Chris stifled a laugh. ‘He calls him "boy" even though he’s tiny himself.’ Nenets glanced at him, and Chris immediately stopped, knowing the deity could read his mind.

  “I saw that foreign object a long time ago,” Nenets continued.

  “But be careful...” Victor warned, trembling. “If you touch the detonator, it will explode instantly!”

  Nenets floated close to the nerd. “Take my hand.”

  Victor hesitated, fearing death, but Nenets’s powerful gaze compelled him. “Trust me... and you will see and know for yourself what to do.”

  The moment the man of science touched the hand of the ancient god... the supernatural began!

  As their fingers touched, Victor’s mind was pulled into a new dimension.

  “You are a God...” Victor whispered in awe. “I can see everything... it’s like my flight HUD, but a thousand times clearer!”

  As Nenets’s other hand reached for his neck, Victor felt no threat. Instead, he felt as if he were controlling the entire process. “I... I’m controlling your hand! I can see my veins, my tissue... Yes! I found the detonator in the tracker!”

  “The skin is open... but it doesn't hurt. Unbelievable! There! The tracker is out!” Victor narrated the process with excitement.

  Nenets pulled his hand away the moment the object was out. The vision vanished. Victor was back in the snowy reality, but the thrill remained. “Master! Get it away from here! If the sensor detects my body heat is gone, it will detonate!”

  Nenets used his power to fling the tiny, blood-stained tracker two meters away. Suddenly...

  POP!

  A small explosion, like a firecracker, went off.

  “That’s it?” Kurin asked, looking disappointed by the lack of destruction.

  “That’s it,” Nenets replied calmly, glancing at Victor. “But it was enough to end this boy’s life instantly if it were still attached to his nervous system.”

  Area 51 Command Room

  The atmosphere turned critical as Victor’s vitals and coordinates vanished from the main monitor.

  “The Arrow is broken, sir!” the officer reported in a panic. “Victor’s tracker reports it has been detached and destroyed!”

  General Miller’s jaw tightened. His eyes flashed with malice. “He dared to defect... or that group has a way to neutralize our tech faster than expected.”

  He slammed his fist on the desk. “And the main team?! When will they arrive?!”

  “Under ten minutes, sir! All four signatures are entering the Ural region. Everything is on schedule.”

  “Good,” Miller muttered. “Order them... upon arrival, no negotiations. Eliminate anyone in the way. Bring the ‘Product’ back—in whatever condition!”

  The Ural Mountains, Russia

  “Young Chris... take off the helmet and give it to me!” Victor said urgently. “The suit has trackers too, but no explosives.”

  Chris handed it over. Victor put it on and gave a firm voice command: “It’s me, your former master, Victor! Command: Remove all tracking components from every part of the suit immediately!”

  “Acknowledged, Master,” the AI replied.

  Moments later, six tiny capsules were ejected from the helmet, torso, arms, and legs. Victor caught them. “Master Sorcerer... destroy these!”

  Nenets flicked his hand, gathering the six capsules in mid-air before crushing them into dust with a clenched fist.

  “Master... please let me go with you!” Victor dropped to his knees, pleading.

  “Hmm... why the sudden change of heart?” Kurin asked suspiciously.

  Victor sighed, his eyes bitter. “Area 51... it’s a hellscape of secret experiments—aliens, the occult, the supernatural. Many of the world’s tragedies were ordered from there. Their iron rule is: no one retires. The only way out is as a corpse.”

  He lowered his voice. “This was the first mission I was allowed to leave the base. General Miller isn't the highest power there. There’s someone else... a mysterious person no one has ever seen. We only hear a voice from behind a desk. No one knows his name, but he is the one who taught me how to levitate and gave my team our special abilities!”

  BOOM!!!

  Four thunderous sonic booms echoed through the atmosphere. The main team had arrived.

  “We have to run now!” Kurin warned urgently.

  “Please... let me go!” Victor begged. “They know I destroyed the tracker. They won't let me live! And they have sorcery and weapons a thousand times deadlier than mine! We have to go!”

  A moment later, four black-clad figures descended from the sky, landing in a line before them. The aura of malice was so thick the air felt frozen.

  “Are these... good people?” Nenets asked Victor calmly, as if asking about the weather.

  “Good people? These are the most bloodthirsty killers the world has ever seen!” Victor replied rapidly. “They even kill each other for real during training! Miller kidnaps elite soldiers from other countries just to use them as sparring fodder for these guys... I couldn't watch that cruelty anymore!”

  “I see,” Nenets said briefly before turning to the others. “Alright... let’s fly out of here.”

  Nenets began to levitate, slowly moving right past the four assassins.

  “Wait! Hey! We’re just going to walk past them?!” Victor cried out, baffled. Even Chris stood frozen. Only Kurin followed Nenets calmly. The strangest thing was... the four brutal assassins stood as still as statues, as if they couldn't see Chris’s group at all!

  After soaring through the cold and putting significant distance between them and the coordinates, the four maintained their speed, heading south. The first light of dawn touched the horizon, revealing the vast Russian landscape.

  “How... how is this possible, Master Nenets?” Victor asked, breaking the silence. “That team is the best of Area 51. They have advanced sensors and sharp hunter instincts. But they stood there like statues and let us fly right by!”

  Nenets glanced at the science-obsessed nerd and replied simply, “When we reach the next resting point... I will tell you. For now, maintain speed. We have a long way to go.”

  Their next goal: the southern border of Russia—a land where the climate would shift, and perhaps a gateway to an ancient, hidden civilization.

  Area 51 Command Room

  “How did you let them just fly by?! Are you blind?!” Miller screamed at the command center. The helmet cam footage from the assassins showed them standing still as the targets moved right past their faces.

  “HQ... I see no one! The area is empty!” the team leader reported, sounding confused. In his eyes, there was only an empty snowy field.

  Suddenly, the situation on the monitor changed!

  ROAR!!!

  A thunderous roar broke through the comms. Amidst a sudden blizzard, massive polar bears charged out of the darkness. They were nearly double the normal size, their eyes a glowing, unnatural red.

  “Polar bears! Where the hell did they come from?!” the leader shouted. “Break formation! Open fire! Don’t let them get close!”

  The four assassins unleashed their superhuman powers, moving at high speeds and spraying modern armor-piercing rounds at the encroaching bears. The sound of gunfire and roars blended into a chaotic symphony. Yet the bears seemed unfazed by the wounds, and their numbers grew at an alarming rate.

  “Get high! Now!”

  The four black figures soared into the sky, raining heavy weapons fire down until the snowy plains turned into a sea of fire.

  The Ural Skies

  As the four flew through the clouds heading south, the flashes of explosions and the sound of gunfire followed them on the wind, even from a great distance.

  “What are they shooting at?” Chris asked curiously. He tried to look back, and the HUD in his new helmet showed thermal heat signatures of explosions occurring in the middle of nowhere.

  Victor frowned. “Yeah... my helmet’s sensor (which Chris is wearing) says there are no other living beings there besides my team of four. They look like they’re losing it, fighting things that aren't there... What did you do to them?”

  Victor looked at Nenets with awe replacing fear.

  “Don’t worry about it... let’s keep moving,” Nenets replied smoothly. “They are merely shooting at the 'shadows' in their own minds. The more they struggle, the more bloodthirsty they get, the deeper they sink into the illusion I created.”

  Kurin nodded, accelerating. “Save your breath for the rest stop. We need to cross the Russian border before the ‘Underground ones’ over there realize we’re coming.”

  Area 51 Command Room

  “Are they insane?! What the hell are they shooting at?!” Miller ranted.

  The footage showed a pathetic sight: four elite killers using advanced weapons to blast snow and trees into splinters.

  “HQ! These giant bears won't die! Our weapons and arts don't scratch them! Requesting temporary mission abort!” the leader reported, his voice shaking with fear.

  “Yeah! I’m going to abort your lives!” Miller slammed the desk. “The targets are miles away! What are you four doing?!”

  Just as Miller was about to lose it, a cold voice entered his mind directly...

  “They are caught in an illusion...” The mysterious voice was calm yet powerful. “Recall them. I will break the spell... It seems we have truly found something ‘Valuable’.”

  Miller stood still, his rage turning to reverence.

  “We will plan anew... For now, just track them with the 'Eyes of God'. Do not be rash.”

  “Mission abort! All units return to base immediately!” Miller ordered, his mood still dark, but filled with dread at what his master called "Valuable."

  Russian Secret Base (Somewhere in the Urals)

  On a thermal and vibration monitor, a Russian intelligence chief frowned at the strange events.

  “Are the Americans insane? Coming here to blast the forest to pieces for what?”

  “Unknown, sir. Scans show no other living targets in the area. Maybe a training exercise or a show of force,” the officer reported. “But the problem is... how do we handle these uninvited guests?”

  The chief went quiet, looking at the flight paths. “According to the latest data... we now have eight ‘Flying Humans’ on our soil.”

  “Yes, sir... the first group of four is heading south. The second group of four just flew back the way they came. Which side should we track?”

  The chief gave a cold smirk. “Track them all! The Americans are arrogant enough to think they’re the only ones with toys... they won’t expect that we have ‘the same’ ready to welcome them!”

  ————————————————————————————— Ruth VT-Hin —————