Code Collector

The drone was destroyed the next moment. One by one, the monitors became static. The heavy artilleries inside the drones couldn't even protect it for a second longer, just so that it would show the faces of the attackers.

This made Evan grit his teeth and clenched his fists. The anger boiled inside of him had been bubbling and the aura of his fury had seeped out. He had never seen anything like this before. 

"I'm going in," Evan announced, making all the police officers around them look at him in shock. "I hereby remove these Hunters as classification of humans. They are threats that wiped out an entire squad. They are not humans. They are beasts, non-sentient beasts that will attack anything that they see."

"But sir—"

One of his people tried to persuade him otherwise, but Evan had already put on his gear. He was now convinced more than ever that he was going to go.

"It's no use trying to talk me out of this," Evan said. "You saw what those creatures can do. We can't let more men into peril."

The commander of the police officers himself led a group of men. He summoned his sword, wiping it as he prepared for battle. "We will kill anything that's inside that hospital. That hallway was till filled with so much blood and guts, that it's impossible that our men are the only ones who're the victims."

Out of nowhere, a figure leaped from inside the building. It ran straight through the parking lot of the hospital and lunged for Evan. It was like everything was in slow motion. No one expected for something like this to happen so suddenly. Something was attacking Evan and it was going full speed.

"Commander!" one of Evan's men yelled, but it was too late. The figure was already in the air and was halfway to scratch Evan's head off of his body.

Bang!

Evan blinked and blood was all over his body. His eyes were wide and his lips were agape. He was still digesting everything that happened. It was all so quick. He was still trying to process everything.

"I–I…" Evan stuttered.

"I told you, you need me," Gary appeared from the crowd. He slung his gun over his shoulders and walked up to the commander. "Why are you so— Evan?"

"C-Claudette…" Evan trailed off, pointing his hand on the dead corpse. "That's Claudette."

Gary froze and his head slowly turned to the body. He gulped as his eyes lingered on the body of his friend, his ally, and one of the people that he treats as his family. 

"What…" Gary's knees fell to the ground with a loud thud. He looked at the dead body of his friend. Claudette's head was blown away from the shotgun and she was laying lifeless on the ground, boood spilling everywhere. "Claudette…" 

-

"And then it was revealed that there was a poison in Claudette that seeped to her friends," Gwen finished her story. "Gary's team became like fighting zombies and they were powerful and tenacious. Since then on, Gary couldn't fight properly. His current strength was only a quarter of his old strength."

"But how did you seem to know everything first hand?" Allen asked. "Were you there when the crime happened?"

"I was," Gwen replied. "I was one of the people in Evan's command station. I was the person who yelled for Evan to dodge Claudette's attack."

"So…" Allen trailed off as he tried to make up words. "His entire team…"

"All of them turned to zombie-like creatures," Gwen said. "Claudette their healer, Hannah their assassin, Clint their tank, Bryan their warrior, and Stephan their mage. Although they lost their humanity, their power was doubled and the team was already strong. Imagine how hard it was to deal with them."

Allen looked through the dark night skies as he thought what pain Gary felt the moment he knew. The man looked calm most of the time, but he was hiding this secret. No wonder he didn't have any other friends, he was traumatized by his past.

"But anyway, that's what happened to Gary," Gwen said. "So, it's really hard to deal with him when friends are mentioned. His troubled past would always haunt him. It's a wonder how he could still weild his weapon after what happened. Most people when the lose a teammate would have hesitations when their weapons are involved. Gary lost his entire team and he can still hunt fine."

"That's a question not one of us can answer," Jeremy entered the room. "Only Gary can answer that."

When Jeremy entered the room, he was already dressed and a towel was hanging over his head. He wore a pair of sweatpants and a tank top that made him look like a casual person than a patient.

"Maybe because Gary is a strong man that he can do it," Allen spoke. "He's one of the best Hunters I know, and now that I learned his true power, I'm even more amazed."

"Weird kid," Jeremy looked at Gwen and the woman did the same. They both snorted and cracked a laugh.

"What?" Allen scrunched his face in confusion. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Most people would say that Gary's an old soul with a wasted potential, but you think differently," Gwen said. "It's like you're looking up to him or something— oh, my god."

The woman received a smack on the back of her head from Jeremy. The latter had a deadpanned expression on his face as he repeated the action two more times.

"Stop it with your habit of shipping men," Jeremy said. "It's weird."

"I bet you're just jealous—"

She was smacked again, stopping her mid sentence. This made Gwen purse her lips and scrunch her face. "Meanie."

"I'm doing it for your own good. That habit of yours needs to stop," Jeremy said. "It's uncomfortable for me."

"Well not for me," Gwen grinned and hopped off the bed. She ran to the door and threw her middle finger at Jeremy. "I'll go get us drinks."

The woman left the two boys in the room. Jeremy sighed and shook his head, then he fixed his things. 

Allen watched Jeremy move and he felt relieved that the man was fine. They still have a deal to finish, and Jeremy getting hurt would only make things more complicated.

He also wanted to take Jeremy's perspective on what happened to three years ago. The man was with Gary at the police station, so maybe there's something else that Gwen missed.

"You're going to ask what happened to Gary back then, right?" Jeremy looked at Allen and their eyes met.

"Yeah," Allen replied without looking away. "He's my friend, after all. I wanted to know everything that I happened to him, so at least I could understand him more."

"Nothing much happened when we went to the station to take the report," Jeremy said. "Although he did receive a call at the middle of the questioning. He stepped out for a moment, and when he returned, he was distraught and distracted. Something was definitely on his mind that time."

"Do you know what the call was all about?" Allen asked, but Jeremy shook his head. "Oh."

"But I do know that the call was from one of his friends," Jeremy quickly added. "Maybe from their healer or something."

"Interesting," Allen whispered to himself and fell short of words.

Silence filled the room for the next few minutes. Allen was thinking deeply about what the call was all about while Jeremy was busy fixing his stuff. A couple of minutes more had passed and Gwen returned with three cans of soda.

"What took you so long?" Jeremy asked. "Why are you always so slow?"

"That's only because this hospital has confusing signs and most of their vending machines were empty. I had to go out to the nearby convenience store," Gwen said as she threw one of the cans to Jeremy.

The man caught the can and grinned. "Thank you so much, darling. Nothing beats a refreshing drink after an entire day at the gym."

"What were you doing at the gym anyway?" Allen asked. "Were you even allowed to go?"

"Yeap," Jeremy said. "I was there to take the challenge newbie firefighters does as a form of their rights of passage."

"Oh," Allen formed an O with his lips but he didn't really understand anything. "That's cool, I guess."

"It is. We have to take steps equal to the number of floors of the Twin Towers. It's to honor the deaths of the firefighters of the 911 terror attack that happened—"

"Wait," Allen cut Jeremy off. "The what?"

"The 911 terror attack. Maybe you didn't know about that since it happened so long ago, but it happened in the 21st century. Starting then on, firefighters does this ritual," Jeremy said.

"911," Allen whispered. "Twin Towers. The Smith Twins."

The Smith Twins were behind the Phantom Cunt act.