The Diary of Aaron Sterling

The Diary of Aaron Sterling follows the The Adventures of Mavus Series. The diary continues the story in the perspective of Street Angel Aaron Sterling, as he and his fellow gang members work for the tyrant Calliope Ariandal.

The Street Angels have been contracted by the New Militia to carry out Ariandal's tasks in exchange to providing families a home in New Croft.

The series starts with Aaron and his gang members contracted to recover the body of Adam Blair, but their attempts intercepted by Plyth the Serpent King. Before Aaron can kill the serpent, they are intercepted by Mavus Shaw and the Inquisition.

Chapter 1 - Interception

"Yo, GK, we're not alone."

I kept Rigor steady. We had no choice but to drop the body. The Serpent was here too. I thought he was on our side, but it looked like he decided to betray Ariandal for his own personal gain. Idiot.

"Drop the body. I can't kill Plyth in this closed space."
"Aight."

Marcus dropped the body and we booked it behind some rocks. Plyth returning back to his hiding spot. Whoever these people were, they looked like they were after Adam's body too.

"GK, Jericho's got intel on the people who are coming. It's that other T0 and some chick from Darkstar. Should we kill them?"
"No. You guys wouldn't stand a chance against Shaw anyway."

We didn't come here to kill anybody. Ariandal had told us clearly. "Extract the body of Adam Blair, and escape. No fighting should be necessary."

Marcus and I hid behind the rock. Jericho returned from his scouting position.

"If those fools get the body, our heist is as good as done."

Right on queue, Mavus' bot had already grabbed the bot, and he as well as the girl ran off, leaving Mavus to face Plyth alone.

Jericho turned to me. "GK, I'll leave the Tier 0 and Plyth to you. We'll pursue the body."

I nodded to Jericho. "Be careful, this girl is Darkstar, she's definitely got a few tricks up her sleeve." Jericho and I exchanged hand signals. The signal of the Street Angel. Marcus looked at me. "That girl doesn't look like she's got powers, but it looks like her three lackeys back there are Tier 5 at best. We would be able to dispatch them."

I turned to Marcus. "Just knock em out, alright? Don't need any more blood on our hands. Just take the body. Let me know through coms once you've gotten it and I'll wrap it up."

We split up.

Suddenly the room shook, and Mavus' robot shot up, facing Plyth in combat. But something was off. He looked... weak. Why didn't he just create a bunch of cannons like what the rumours said he would? He was fighting the robot hand to hand in one mech.

Mavus shot up and around, zipping like a fly and landing a bunch of punches and missiles. They glanced off Plyth's hide.

"You think you can defeat me? Maven? I have evolved beyond Blackflame's Form 4! You are no match for me, and soon I will prove my usefulness to her lordship, and slay you with my bare hands!"

I put Rigor back into its sheath and watched the fight. Mavus went by Maven now, and he continued taunting Plyth with his usual unfunny banter. He was always like this back when we were in class together as well.

"He's actually pretty funny once you know him" Trevor once said. I never saw it.

Plyth caught Maven with a swipe of his tail, sending him hurtling through a bunch of rocks. Maven got back up and started firing a bunch of beams. This was stupid. I remembered Ariandal telling me that there was a Tier 0 in the resistance, but if this was it, that was pretty disappointing. One swing of Rigor and he'd be finished.

The fight continued until Maven suddenly stopped, exiting his mech. He looked like he was struggling to breathe or even move. He fell to his knees. "Junon... the visions..."

I looked up as Plyth was about to kill him. Suddenly, my coms unit lit up. It was Ernest.

"We need Mavus alive. Eliminate Plyth."
"Acknowledged" I said. I emerged from the rocks.

This guy betrayed the New Militia just because he had one tiny power up and got a big head. This was something I just couldn't tolerate. Most of the people in the Street Angels lived by a code of honour. We would give our life to protect the families, even if we had to do whatever was necessary. If it meant we had to kill, then we would kill. If it meant we had to steal, we would steal. If it meant we had to lie, then we would lie. Everything we did and every sacrifice we made was for the greater good. Our own personal gain only mattered if it benefitted the bigger picture.

I flexed my legs, the Power Force filling my system with energy, and I shot forward between Mavus and Plyth. Plyth was still trying to swipe down, so I concentrated the Power Force into my fist and launched a punch, sending Plyth's entire body backwards through the walls of the cave. Wind pressure filled the entire cave complex as Plyth slammed through wall after wall.

I looked back at Mavus, who was still clutching his hands to his temples. So a panic attack, huh. Suddenly, the Darkstar girl came out of nowhere, and I recognized her immediately.

Junon Gareth, the engineering superstar. Everybody's favourite college crush. I never saw the appeal of her; her personality was annoying. She ran over to Mavus and injected a syringe, waking him up. She looked at me, unable to make out my identity. My face was still masked by the Street Angel bandana mask.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Doesn't matter. Where is the body."

Junon stared at me. "The body is property of the Inquisition. If you're here to retrieve it, then I'm sorry."

I looked back at Plyth, who was barely conscious from my punch. "You've got a lot of nerve to try to make demands, after you've witnessed what I did to that bastard." Junon stared at Plyth. "You're... you're Giantkiller aren't you?"

I looked at Junon. She had definitely tried to toughen up, military clothes and everything. But at the end of the day, you could only get so far without powers. That's just the world we live in.

"GK, we have the body, and the members have been knocked out." Marcus buzzed into my coms unit.
"Aight, I'll meet outside. I got some business to take care of."
"Do what you have to, we'll meet at the bikes."

I looked back at Plyth, who managed to regain composure, snarling at me. "Giantkiller, do not interfere with my bout against Maven. He is my kill."

I cut him off. "No. You are my kill. You betrayed the trust of the Street Angels and the New Militia. I've been ordered to eliminate you." Plyth's serpent eyes went wide. "What? No! I still need to prove myself to Ariandal, I still need to-"

I shot forward, appearing in front of Plyth before anyone could register my movements. I unloaded an uppercut that sent Plyth flying right through the roof of the cave, destroying everything in its way. The wind pressure caused the walls to begin cracking and caving in, as Junon and Mavus were blown away.

I bounded upwards, creating a massive crater beneath my feet. I shot upwards faster than Plyth and drew Rigor. Plyth looked at me, his eyes in utter terror at what he knew was going to happen next. "Please, Giantkiller, spare me. I only wish to be spared by Ariandal. Mercy."

No mercy for traitors. I looked him in the eye, Rigor already behind my back, ready to strike. "If you wanted to be spared, you should have stayed like a good snake." I swung Rigor, and the blade sliced Plyth cleanly in half. The force of the blow also caused sideways pressure, which blew the two portions outwards. The cave as well as the surrounding landscape also took a huge beating , now containing a massive canyon like structure from Rigor's swipe. The others made it out in time, already at their bikes.

I landed next to Plyth's severed corpse. I walked out of the exit that I had created with Rigor.

"Wait... Aaron." Mavus croaked. I turned around.

"This isn't over yet. I will beat you." Mavus looked determined, which was unlike him.

"You'll never beat me" I replied. Mavus looked shocked. "Why?"

I looked him in the eye. "Because you never knew what it was like to become strong for someone else. Your powers were given to you. Tier Zero from the get go. I had to work my ass off to become Tier Zero. You're only saying this because you've finally met someone who is stronger than you, and you want to preserve your pride. That motivation will get you nowhere."

Junon was speechless. I left the two as I exited the cave and bounded to the bikes, where Marcus and Jericho were waiting, with Adam's body.

Marcus grinned at me. "Plyth in pieces?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Let's roll."

We rode off. In the corner of my motorcycle mirror, I could still see my old classmates still staring at me.

Chapter 2 - Giantkiller vs. MVN

Marcus and Jericho engaged in friendly banter over who could drink more.

I was silent throughout most of the bike ride, thinking about what Plyth had said. Blackflame Form 4. Blackflame was one of Ariandal's operatives, one of the best. He was defeated and brought back into Darkstar after a fight with Mavus. Strange.

Suddenly, something in my mirror caught my eye. A squad of mechs, lead by none other than Mavus.

"Alright buddy, you won this time, but I'm taking the body with me."

Persistent guy.

Marcus shouted back. "You ain't getting jack kid. This is our bounty." His hand transformed into a diamond mass, and he fired diamond shards at Mavus's mech, which was deflected by his sentries.

Mavus and his squadron flew into the sky, bombarding us with smoke missiles. Suddenly we stopped. He had trapped us in a force containment field.

"Seriously?" Jericho threw his hands in the air.

Mavus landed with his mechs. Marcus fired more diamond shards, but the mechs turned to him and knocked him to the ground. Jericho retreated, drawing his gun, firing it at one of the mechs. There was no point. They were bulletproof. Mavus' Main mech went up to me and head butted me in the forehead. I skidded backwards. A stream of blood began to leak down the right side of my face.

"Let's duke it out, while I take back my property." One of Mavus' mechs grabbed Adam's body and flew off. Screw this. I leaped upwards, above the arena and pursued the sentry in the air. Suddenly, a tractor beam grabbed me in my leg and hurled me into the ground. The sentry flew off. I bounded to a nearby boulder with explosive speed, before anyone could react. I grabbed it. The boulder was about the same size as a kitchen. I hurled it at the sentry, smashing it and sending it off course.

I unsheathed Rigor and slashed at the containment field, the massive wind pressure completely neutralizing it.

"We got this, GK." Jericho and Marcus pursued the mech, whose flight abilities were damaged from the boulder. I shot forward in front of Mavus, who was attempting to use his technopathy on the sentry.

"You want a fight? You got it."

I kicked Mavus' sentry square in the chest, disrupting his technopathy. The bot was sent flying backwards, smashing through dozens of boulders and landforms. I turned to the other mechs that were attempting to attack me with missiles. I blocked them all with Rigor and brandished the greatsword, sending the remaining mechs hurtling into the sky, destroyed in the process.

Main flew up into the air, zipping forward, unleashing a ton of missiles. I blocked them. Main flew back, attempting to kite me. His arm elongating attempting to land a clean punch on me. I caught his sledgehammer of a hand with my arm, the impact causing several land masses to be blown away.

Maven locked his arm into mine, then flipped around, attempting to burn me with his feet propulsors. I grabbed a propulsor and squeezed it, causing massive sparks, crushing his foot. Maven suddenly began flying around.

"Not....cool!!!"

Maven let go and unleashed his beam barrage. I zipped behind him. Before Maven could turn around, I punched him in the face, crushing and deforming his mechanical face as his body was sent flying through more landforms, leaving behind a trail of destruction and dirt.

I approached the site of wreckage. Mavus was sitting on the ground, his mech completely destroyed from the force of my punch. He looked at me with defeat.

"This isn't over."

He ran up to me and tried to throw a punch, but I caught it, throwing him into the side. I spoke into my coms.

"Mavus tried to attack my squad, I defeated him. Do you want me to bring him to the Capita?"
"No. Leave him. Our objective is to obtain the body." Ernest replied.

Mavus looked at me, spitting blood. "Why are you helping the New Militia? Don't you know how crazy that lunatic Ariandal is? Don't you know how many people she has killed?"

I looked back at him. "That doesn't concern me. You're in no position to tell me these things. Why did you join the Inquisition? Because you wanted to impress Junon? Because you got bored? I'm fighting with the Street Angels to protect my people. You're fighting with the Inquisition because of a girl. We are nothing alike."

Mavus got up, shards of metal from Main's body accumulating on his hand, creating a small repulser. "I'm fighting for Junon, and everybody in the Inquisition. This isn't just about me anymore. The fact that you're helping Ariandal is wrong, no matter how you phrase it."

He fired the repulser and I dodged it. I closed in and grabbed Mavus by the throat. "What's wrong, is the motive. Clearly, you haven't experienced enough humiliation yet."

Suddenly, Junon appeared out of nowhere. "Stop! Just let him go Aaron."

I turned to her, and threw Mavus on the ground. He was still retching.

Junon quickly ran by his side. She looked at me. "You shouldn't be fighting us. We came from the same place, went to school together. You should be on our side!" I shook my head. There was no point wasting time with these people. I had a mission to complete.

"Tell Mavus to stop pursing us. Or he's going to get much worse than a bloody nose."

I returned to the bikes. Marcus and Jericho managed to defeat the mech sentry. I nodded at them, and we drove off with Adam's body in tow.

Chapter 3 - Adam Blair

We entered the refuge, where Ernest was waiting for us. The refuge was a place for the survivors of the Automatons to thrive and continue living their lives. We, as the Street Angels were tasked to protect what was left of the defenceless with our lives. Since the Automatons had mysteriously left, the families began to repopulate, but due to the lack of resources, and the emergence of a new threat, the soul beasts, we were forced to find other ways to sustain the people. That was when we met Calliope Ariandal, who offered the people a place in her haven, New Croft, in exchange for our services.

I dumped Adam's body to the mage. Ernest lifted it with black tendrils, calling in one of his subordinates. The subordinate began to chant, a technomancer.

The body began to restore itself, broken components mending. Adam's eyes flickered, and suddenly became shocked.

"Aaron? Where- where is Junon? Sam?" Adam began flailing.

Ernest looked at me, inquisitive. "You know this man?" I looked at Ernest. "Yeah, he was a classmate of mine." Ernest nodded. "Then for the time being, you will watch over him. He will be of use to Lady Ariandal." Ernest pushed Adam to us. Ernest gave us a gesture of farewell, and he dissipated into gold sparks.

Jericho eyed Adam like he was live bait. The guy had changed from the last time I met him in college. His appearance had become a little more rugged, almost looking like... John.

Jericho sized Adam up and down with his vision evo. "This guy is the weakest cyborg I've ever seen, but he's got some fight in him." Adam was still staring at me.

"Aaron... what happened? Where am I? What... what happened to you?" I looked at Adam. He was always the slacker in class, and now that the Automaton invasion had happened, I guess he was one of the few who were repurposed.

"Doesn't matter. All that matters is you're alive. Ariandal has plans for you, so try not to die again, okay?"
"We need to find Junon."
"What?"

Marcus snickered. He went up to Adam. "Kid, you're going to the enemy?" His hand transformed into a diamond, ready to impale Adam for asking such a stupid question. I put his arm down.

"We need him alive. As for your request, no can do. Junon is part of the enemy now. You're with us."

Adam looked at me. "Who is us?" Marcus smirked. "We're the Street Angels. We're all that's left of society. In exchange for giving these folks," Marcus spread his hands to the refugees who were still living off of rags. "A place in New Croft, we need to serve Ariandal. It's a pretty big sacrifice, but that's what we're here for. To do the dirty work and take the heat off of those who deserve a better life."

Adam noticed my biker vest and tats. "You've become a gangster. Look, I need to go to Junon. She must be worried sick, I need to talk to her." Adam tried to walk off on us, but I grabbed his wrist.

Adam flailed. "Let me go! I need to see her! You don't get it!" Jericho cut him off. "No, you don't get it. If you leave now, our assignment is done. We need you alive."

Adam kept flailing. He wanted to go to the Inquisition to see Junon because she must had been "worried sick". So he was basically a robotic simp. Disgraceful. I let go. Adam stumbled and got up in my face.

"What's your problem? Junon is alive! She's with Darkstar! We need to go back to them. Ariandal is evil Aaron, why can't you see that? If you're not going to be on my side, then maybe I should just-"

I bonked him over the head with my fist. Adam fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

"Jesus GK, you didn't kill him did you?" Jericho exclaimed. I looked at Adam. "Nope, he's just unconscious. We just need him alive, Ernest didn't say anything about having him conscious."

Chapter 4 - Conlan's Army

Ariandal appeared in a hologram. Marcus put the com unit on the table.

"I have a mission for you three. But I'm going to need Adam to come along, as well as a stealth meta." A stealth meta. I nodded to Marcus. Marcus hollered Miki over. Miki was training her knife skills with one of the refugees, teaching him how to fight. Miki walked over, and greeted us.

"Sup, you called me ove- oh shi- Lady Ariandal! It's a pleasure!"

Miki bowed, nearly bonking her head on the table. Ariandal smiled.

"I want to recruit a few soul beasts to my area, but my operatives have informed me that the Inquisition army, the soldier faction, has intercepted and have killed a number of my operatives. This will not stand. I want you to place a tracker on one of the soldiers without them knowing. Then the rest of you will kill enough soldiers to make them retreat back to their Fortress. This tracker will be enough to wipe out the Fortress defences with an anti-magic wave. Once you have returned, I want you, Adam, to activate the tracker."

Miki started playing with her knife. "You got it boss." Marcus and Jericho nodded. Adam didn't look too happy, and unfortunately, Ariandal noticed.

"I know this is hard, my dear boy. But soon you will understand what we aim to do. These refugees seek a home, but with the Inquisition and Darkstar interfering with the plans of the New Militia, this will never come to fruition. You don't want these people to die, do you?"

Adam wanted to say something, but I shot him a deadly glare. Adam put his hand down.

Ariandal nodded. "Mmm, so you all know what to do. Please contact Ernest once you have completed the objective, and we will move on from there."

We rode on our bikes. Since Adam felt the most comfortable around me, he wanted to ride behind me. I hated having passengers, but for the purpose of the mission, I let it slide.

"Aaron?" Adam asked.
"What do you want."
"I need to see Junon. When I died, I broke her heart. I need to make things right. Please, just this once."
"You'll see her when we invade the Fortress."

Miki signalled. In front of us was the soldiers, led by Commander Conlan. We stopped.

The soldiers were slaughtering all of Ariandal's operatives, just as she had predicted. Adam looked at us. "Are you guys really going to kill those people?" Jericho looked at him.

"No."
"Really?" Adam asked, surprised.
"No."

Miki and Marcus laughed. I managed a slight smirk. Good old Jericho. Jericho walked up to the edge of the cliff and activated his vision evo. His eyes lit up teal.

"4500 troops. Ranging from Tiers 4-7. Piece of cake."

Marcus and Miki dragged Adam, under Miki's stealth cloak. I stood with Jericho, watching the army slaughter our scouts. These guys were just doing their job, and the Inquisition slaughtered them. They better be grateful we were only going to kill a portion of their troops.

Jericho nodded to me. The tracker has been set on one of the ranged units, which lit up blue on our ends. A one way light for me to make sure I didn't kill that particular soldier.

Miki, Marcus, and Adam returned. Miki gave me a thumbs up. "Rain hell, Giantkiller."

I bounded to the ground, right in front of the army, breaking cover. Conlan and the troops stared at me. One against four thousand five hundred.

"Who are you? Are you with them?" Conlan shouted. I didn't say anything, there was no need to. I was only here to complete an objective. I looked back and realized that Miki and Marcus were trying to restrain Adam, who was trying to warn the Inquisition. Damn rat. I was going to give him a piece of my mind after this.

I took out Rigor, and planted it firmly on the ground, opening my eyes. The army charged.

Chapter 5 - Dumped

I assumed a front stance. My arm muscles flexed as I ripped Rigor out of the ground in a huge arc. The movement caused a massive slash of wind pressure. Dirt and rocks divided, sending thousands of debris of varying sizes flying out of the sides which ended a third of the army.

The chaos subsided and Conlan stared at his army, which had been reduced to two thirds of their original size. In place of his troops was a massive fissure that seemingly divided the entire land in half. The troops lost morale quick.

Conlan turned to me and shouted. The army continued to charge. I had to limit my power to prevent killing all of them. I zipped into a squad a slashed at the cohort, sending them flying miles into the air. Wind form the shockwave of impact caused a mini tornado that sent incoming troops mid air. They hit the ground, unconscious.

Orders were orders. I clenched my left fist. My fist, bicep and tricep glowed orange. I punched the ground, causing a massive chasm to open, swallowing the soldiers. I used a piece of falling rubble to jump back to the ledge, slashing and sending soldiers flying. Even with a small fraction of my power, the army was overwhelmed.

The army was reduced to half, a third, then a quarter within the span of twenty seconds.

Marcus provided backup ranged attacks from the cliff, with Jericho providing Marcus with extra precision.

Suddenly the enemy began to retreat. I looked at Marcus, who nodded at me. I leaped back to the top of the cliff, regrouping with the team. We made our way to the bikes. Once we reached the bikes, we realized that Adam hadn't moved from his spot. He was glaring at us all.

"How could you... you killed them!"

I narrowed my eyes. Miki looked at him confused. "Yeah, that was the mission. Are you deaf or something?"

Adam shouted at us. "How could you kill a bunch of people? You're all monsters. I'm not going back. You're going to have to kill me."

Marcus went up to Adam and got in his face. "Yeah. We did kill those people, and yeah, we are monsters. What did you expect a bunch of gangsters to do? Huh? We're here to do the dirty work, so the real people get to live their lives. Those families who have nowhere to go can finally live a normal life. We're the sacrifice. That's just how the world works buster."

"Is it now?" We turned.

Before us stood a squad of fighters. Darkstar. We were given intel on the members. The Black Jason, The Fox, Coldarrow, Lupine, Reverb, Overseer, and Joust. Standing with them was Junon.

"What are you doing? Hey come back here!" Jericho shouted at Adam, who was running towards Junon. Junon's face was horrified and was welling up in tears.

"Junon! It's Adam! I'm here! I'm alive. We can finally be together again. Nothing matters anymore with you beside me."

I stepped forward to pull Adam back, but my coms lit up again.

"No. Let it play out." Ernest spoke. Apparently Ernest told the other Angels too, because we all stopped in our tracks.

Adam tried to pull Junon into a kiss, but she instinctively pushed him away. Adam looked betrayed. "Ju- Junon?"

Junon stared at him. "I thought you were dead... I didn't think..."

Adam tried to embrace her, but Junon walked back. "I- I can't be with you anymore... I'm with someone else." Adam's smile melted. "Wha- What are you saying?"

Jericho shouted. "It means she's sucking face with another guy now kid. Now get back here before I crush your metal skull and tell the Lady that you had an accident."

Adam fell to his knees. Junon was sobbing. "I'm so sorry Adam... but I've moved on... you should too."

Typical. But at least this should make our assignment a little easier now that Adam was like this. The Black Jason stood forward. "That's enough. Adam, we can still work this out. Come with us."

Adam stared at the ground. "Take me back... Aaron."

I stepped forward and took Adam's shoulder, but Jason grabbed my wrist.

I looked at him in his eye right through his mask. "Don't touch me."

Jason glared at me back. "Let go of our friend." We glared at each other. Mask to mask.

I stepped closer to Jason, making us face to face. "You don't want this fight, Jason. As it stands, your team is Tier 1 at best. I can easily eliminate your squad."

Fox and the others stepped closer to Jason, but Jericho stepped forward, his eyes glowing teal. Suddenly, all the Darkstar members hit the ground. Jason looked at his squad, then at Jericho. "How?"

I was still glaring at him. "Jericho is a Tier 3 Telepath. Every member of your team has been incapacitated. Still have a death wish?"

Jason turned around, slashing at all of us with dark energy. I dodged. Marcus generated a diamond shield, protecting Jericho and Miki. The black energy was absorbed.

Marcus tapped on his com device. "Ernest, permission to beat this guy's ass?"
"Approved. Don't kill him, but send him unconscious. Don't kill the tracked agent."

Jason yelled, powering up. He leaped into the air, his daggers into black tonfas. He spiralled, attempting to jab me, but his attempt was deflected off of Rigor.

Jason zipped around, trying to catch my blind spots, but it was useless. The Power Force provided me with acute reflexes to match his attacks blow for blow. Jason began to summon clones, which I eliminated in seconds through a wide swipe of Rigor. The air pressure sent Jason flying.

Jason jumped back and prepared a huge slash. The "Citybreaker Slash", he had named it. Ariandal once told me that the city breaker slash was capable of levelling a city if aimed directly at it.

The blade released a massive black arc aimed right at me. I sheathed Rigor and wound back my fist, delivering a massive haymaker which nullified the arc. The shockwave hit Jason square in the chest, sending him through the side of two mountains.

Jericho scanned the wreckage site. "He's unconscious. Let's move."

Junon managed to recover quickly. She rushed forward with surprising speed, attempting to hit me, but I caught her wrist. Junon tried to hit me with her other hand, but I caught that too.

"Let go of me Aaron!"

Miki raised an eyebrow. "Umm, you were the one who tried to hit GK first lady..."

Junon was struggling, fighting back tears. "Why? Why are you helping Ariandal? We could have been on the same side! Mavus, you, John, Adam. We could have been together! Fighting the Corruption!"

I regarded her. She had some nerve to tell me these things after single handedly crushing Adam like that. But then again, she had fallen in love with someone else. There wasn't much that could be changed about that.

Junon looked at Adam. "Please, come with us. It doesn't matter how we feel about each other, we're still friends. We can help you Adam!"

Adam looked at Junon, still betrayed. He turned around and walked to the bikes.

Junon turned to me, crying. I stared at her, emotionless. Marcus's hand grew into a dagger, and he pointed it at Junon. "Leave, or you'll end up like those soldiers down there."

I let her go. Junon stood back, glaring at me, her eyes red. "I'm not giving up on you Aaron. And I'm not giving up on you either Adam."

I turned around, walking back to my bike. I got on my ride, with Adam behind me. I turned to Junon one last time. Her tears were streaming down her face. I revved the engine along with the other Angels. We left, returning back to the refuge. I looked in my mirror. Junon was still looking at us from the distance.

Persistent girl.

Chapter 6 - Our Home

We returned to the refuge outside Corinth. If only the refugees could be migrated to Corinth, but the limitation of the place was that only a Tier 4 and up vision based metahuman could bypass its defences. Only a small squad could enter the place.

Miki went back to a group of survivors who were waiting for her to return. Jericho went back to his place, which was a busted up enclosure of cement, held together with a cloth for a roof. Jericho leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on the table, clicking on the TV.

Despite the apocalyptic wasteland, internet had never died out. Several volunteers made an initiative to revive it, and since then, content creators continued making vlogs and videos. It was one of the deals that he requested when Ariandal offered us our reward for our service. YouTubers and internet. Jericho was one of a kind.

I walked with Marcus to the rendezvous to update Ernest on our mission. All around us, families continued their normal lives, as best as they could given the wasteland they were living in now. A child ran by us, his clothes in rags. I saw Marcus clench his fist.

"These kids will have the best clothes they can ever dream of once they're in New Croft.