Merrick stares at the stasis tubes of the hybrids, their status reaching 28%, quickly ahead of schedule than planned. He walks through the other stasis tubes of Elusive's perfectly developing right next to them, looking through his notebook's documentation.
The rows of tubes glow up, in his presence, revealing their development time and status report. Merrick simply walked right past them, not paying attention as he felt each tube, sensing them shift in his attention.
In the corner, a young white-haired man with angelic, golden eyes awaits Merrick's attendance.
Sitting together, Merrick pours themselves a glass of hot tea, carefully filling it up to the rim. "You wanted to see me, Isaiah?"
Isaiah blows softly on his hot cup. "How is the transaction around the meteorite?'
"That is none of your concern," Merrick assures, setting down the kettle.
Isaiah's eyes sharpen. "Oh, really?"
"How are my followers at the village?" Merrick inquires, staring at a test tube.
"The people there are prosperous and fine," Isaiah answers, taking a sip. "Nothing out of place. Children play. Adults work or stay at home, the farms are stable, and there are no disruptions or unrest."
"That's great," Merrick nods. "There'll be many villages just like that one, then sooner or later, the teachings of the Covenant will spread more to the eyes of the people. "
"Covenant, huh," Isaiah repeats, almost as if making a mockery of it, catching Merrick's attention.
"Don't overstep your role; you're just a messenger, Isaiah. One of many disciples of mine." Merrick scolds, one leg draped over the other. "Don't stray from your ultimate goal, spreading my teachings through the general public."
Isaiah rises from his chair before quickly leaving the room. He passes right past his comrade, a drenched, silky-haired man, as the two leave the chambers. Not even a goodbye or a thanks for the tea.
Merrick's gaze follows them, stern and unforgiving. "Azrael."
"Yes, master," Azrael answers, putting away his clipboard.
"The Wardens are already planning to steal the meteorite once the train enters the state," Merrick explains, putting on his coat. "I'll have an Elusive transport you inside when the time comes before the Wardens can steal it."
"As you wish," Azrael nods.
"In the meantime, come up with names for your future comrades and siblings in arms," Merrick suggests, pointing at the two hybrids in suspended animation in their water tank. "You'll be most in charge of teaching them and getting them adjusted once they're finished."
Azrael slightly turns his head towards the stasis tanks. The room remains still as Merrick leaves the room, the Elusives growing in their tubes slowly moving back to sleep.
Meanwhile, at the state border between Nevada and California, the team rests for their nightly slumber.
Adam sleeps in the backseat as the others sleep up front, blankets wrapped around. Kiara dreams of a beach, her feet feeling the cold sensation of the water drifting between her toes. She struts through the sand, not walking, strutting.
The sun draws attention only to her. The sand shines and sparkles like gold and silver mixed together. As she struts, the world around her flips as she is now transported into a skydiving airplane. A habit of her brain not being able to keep one scenario for a dream.
She didn't mind, though, as she happily jumped out of the plane, spinning in a barrel roll before releasing her parachute. All before beating up a bunch of henchmen trying to fight her. The plane explodes for some reason, just for some extra flair.
Meanwhile, Zhang dreams in a flowing traditional golden embroidery black robe, slicing through a flowing waterfall like a calligraphy brush.
The blooming cherry blossoms scatter through the wind, smoothly landing on the tip of Zhang's blade. A rogue swordsman enters the enchanted forest, bringing out his weapon. Zhang closes his eyes, turning his back towards his enemy as he raises his katana forward.
The two stand off, neither making a singular move.
A very unexpected dream for a person like Zhang. Thought he would be dreaming about past missions and training drills instead.
Finally, Adam's head leans against the cold window, snoring.
The world inside reflects a saturated kids' drawing with scratched-out lines and uneven coloring. He is dressed in a noble knight's armor with uneven edges, raising his blade against a large dragon.
The villagers with button eyes and drawn-on smiles huddle amongst one another, afraid. Adam–the noble knight—walks forward as the dragon sneers its sharp teeth.
"Don't worry, everyone. I'll handle this from here," Adam assures, blade glinting through the harsh sunlight. The dragon readies itself, puffing its chest right up, ready to breathe… money?
"Eh?" Adam mutters, covering his body, confused as a wad of cash blows over him. The cash falls onto the floor, turning into dust. Grabbing a dollar from the air, Adam's make-believe world is transported from a kingdom in trouble to an unkempt house.
Books are scattered across the floor. Old packages and boxes leaning on top of one another. Adam's eyes drops down seeing he's holding a couple of hundred-dollar bills, as his hands start to shake.
His lips quiver.
Looking up, Adam sees a man scurrying off the floor, tumbling but getting right back up. His clothes were beaten and worn, his face bruised as if he had gotten into a fight. He pounces forward, slipping on the floor, but he doesn't care as his hands lunge for the money inside Adam's hands.
Raising his arm defensively, he wakes up from his nightmare. Catching his breath, he glances at Kiara and Zhang, sleeping in front. Not wanting to wake them up, he carefully leaves the car as he walks out into a field of empty containers and trees.
Taking a firm step forward, he summons his broadsword in his hand. The next couple of hours, I slowly lost track as Adam practiced in the cold, paying attention only to his target.
The sun started to peek in the distance, but Adam didn't stop, continuing to smack his blade against a tree stump, practicing his swings.
"You got up early."
Adam turns his head, seeing Zhang walking forward, arms crossed. "Training earlier than I expected, shocking. Where's this enthusiasm when I'm teaching?"
"I just had a bad dream."
"So you did," Zhang says, studying his tone. Adam swings his sword, putting in spiritual energy in this strike. It slices the container in half effortlessly as Adam catches his balance.
"Not bad," Zhang comments. "You put a good amount of power and spiritual energy into that attack."
"Yeah," Adam says, brushing him aside. He moves to one of the halves of the container before repeating that same motion. Zhang watches, arms still crossed.
"Your back foot is extended too far out," he instructs, pointing at Adam's footwork. "It should be at least a 45 to 90 degree angle. You're also not distributing your weight correctly; that's why you keep stumbling and losing balance after each swing."
Adam straightens himself, pulling his back foot in a bit.
"Repeat," Zhang orders softly. Adam swings, hitting the steel container.
"Again."
Adam glances, confused. He repeats the motion.
"Again."
"What do you need from me?" Adam asks, leaning against his sword's hilt.
"You woke me up from my sleep, and I wanted to see what you're doing," Zhang answers, hand extended out silently asking for the blade. Adam hands Zhang his sword.
"This has a nice weight to it," Zhang compliments, swinging the blade himself. "You picked a good choice as your main. Yet you're holding it like a greatsword."
"They're really the same anyway. They're both swords," Adam says, shrugging his shoulders.
"True, but if you want to call yourself a knight and a swordsman, then get your terminology correct," Zhang says, tone dry as the Sahara Desert. He brings himself forward into a sword stance, one hand holding the hilt with the other behind his back. "Control your breathing."
Adam watches, interested.
"You're doing the principles correctly, slashing wide and bringing over shoulders for a diagonal slash," Zhang explains, bringing the sword in a series of arcs. "However, you're leaving too many weak points yourself by relying only on wide and downward slashes."
He keeps the blade close to his chest, legs bent down. He pretends to engage against an invisible opponent, rushing forward, legs bent, maneuvering the blade to the left, then to the right while keeping it tucked in.
He lifts the sword flat before rushing forward, taking a powerful step forward, to redirect the momentum into a blocking position.
"You know how to use a sword like this?" Adam inquires, confused.
"I know a lot of swordsmanship tips, Adam. They may all be different, but they still carry the same fundamentals," Zhang answers, handing the sword back. "Let's test yours now."
"Ooh, really," Adam chuckles, bringing up his sword. Zhang summons his katanas, clashing against the edge of Adam's blade. Bracing himself, Adam readies for whatever Zhang is preparing for him, sharply clashing steel with steel.
Eventually, after a while, Kiara wakes up, spotting Zhang and Adam wrapping up their sparring session. She wipes the crust off her eyes, checking the battery on her phone. "Guys, when did you two wake up? It's so early."
Zhang unsummons his katanas as Adam collapses onto the floor, defeated.
As the day passes, the train rattles across the tracks, whistle blaring at top speed. The men inside continue their daily chores while making sure the meteorite is kept safely in its case–a double-padded velvet briefcase, to be exact.
In the meantime, Kiara lies on the car hood, phone in hand, swiping through old messages. Adam catches his breath, relaxing on the grassy field like he owns the place. Zhang presses on his comms, hearing orders back at the Surveillance Corp chambers.
Kiara hits the group chat. Ten unread messages from her friends. Her eyes skim through their photos, among them were celebratory birthday shots, others were at the beach, and some were simply gaming to their hearts' content in their dark, dingy basements.
Staring at the screen, she didn't know how to respond; she tucked her phone back in her pocket.
"Kiara. Adam. I just got news from Surveillance Corp," Zhang says, walking forward. "The train is arriving much sooner than expected. Roughly in an hour from now."
"That's great," Kiara says, surprised. "What happened?"
"They took a different route, so that means this place is now useless to us," Zhang answers, swinging the car keys. Kiara's face drops, pressing her lips together.
"We have to hurry to the new location, we can make it fast if–" Zhang relays, before Kiara suddenly grabs the keys from his hand.
"If it's fast you want, then it's fast you'll get," Kiara says, hyping herself up. "We can make it under there in a heartbeat."
Zhang and Adam look at each other, cautiously.
Oh boy, were they right.
The car roars through the grassy field, probably destroying thousands of miles of grass along the way. She clasps the steering wheel, not even steering it correctly, more like subtly turning left, then to the right just to move.
The car bounces a bit, probably running over a huge rock. You could hear the tires screaming for mercy as Kiara maintained her top speed. Everyone inside was basically praying that the tires didn't give up on them as Kiara had her hands on the wheel.
In the distance, the incoming train loudly roars as Kiara hears its cries. Jackpot, they made it in time.
"Kiara, pay attention. That's a cliff," Adam says, voice stiff as a rock as he holds his seatbelt. "Slow down."
Noticing the cliff approaching quickly, Kiara slams on the brakes, the car nearly dangling off the ledge. Zhang takes a mean look at Kiara for even daring to take the keys and almost runs them off the ledge.
She silently reverses the car back as the car falls into a painfully awkward silence.
"We made it," Kiara acknowledges, quietly.
"Never take the keys from me again," Zhang orders, strictly.
Leaving the vehicle, Zhang and the others survey the speed and distance of where the train is–a good couple of hundred meters away from where they stood. Yet the path it covers is moving faster than expected.
"That's a fast train," Adam says, pointing out the obvious. "How do we get from here to there?"
"We can't go down from the cliff, it's too steep," Zhang relays, counting off their options. "We can't drive down, it's too dangerous. We can't exactly get on safely from the sides since it's moving too fast. We have to enter through the roof."
His hand burns with spiritual energy, flowing through the air like ink splotches splattered through the air. "White sun. Flow and rest. Hearts not repressed: Jian Dragon."
Crackles spark through the air, summoning an outline of a long, flowy, golden dragon with a serene, soft mane covering its neck. Its long, jagged claws dig deep into the ground as it fully manifests itself.
Its scale reflects the harsh sunlight, shimmering off a spectrum of colors.
"Whoa," Adam says, surprised at the size of this companion.
"You could have summoned him this whole time," Kiara says, sarcastically, crossing her arms. "What's the point of a car then?"
"He doesn't like to be ridden by people," Zhang answers, "Also, he wastes a lot of spiritual energy to summon and keep him around."
As the team starts to get on top of the spiritual dragon, Jian growls when Adam tries to get on. The two lock eyes as the boy gets on top of the dragon's back, something Zhang subtly notices.
The dragon quickly takes off, descending down the cliff as fast as a cannonball. The three hold on tightly as it redirects its course towards the speeding train, quickly catching up. The roof rattles above inside the vehicle, alerting the men inside.
"Lock all the doors," the Seller orders, leaning next to one of the suited men. Nodding quickly, a group of four exits the car.
Kiara jumps off the dragon's back as she rolls onto the roof. Adam and Zhang catch up, jumping off as the dragon dissipates back into pure spiritual energy, returning to Zhang's hands.
They carefully walk through the high-speed winds, trying to find an entrance below–Adam, however, kept being hit by random leaves and sticks. The train travels under a tunnel, making everyone drop below.
Every unnatural curve and turn loses its balance ever so slightly. Kiara's foot slips, almost falling off before grabbing onto a random sharp edge.
Zhang carefully pulls her up.
Finding an open door, the three quickly enter inside, closing the door shut. Catching their breath, they find themselves in a dining room, and up ahead are sleeper cars.
"This is what a train looks like?" Adam says, commenting on the interior.
"You two stay back and survey the train," Zhang orders, keeping his suit tidy. "I'll find where the meteorite is kept. Don't be seen by anyone."
"On it," Adam and Kiara say at the same time.
As Zhang moves up front, Kiara turns her gaze towards Adam. "You've never been on a train before?"
"Not really," Adam says, not looking back. "What about you?"
"I used to travel to the beach and nature walks with my parents," Kiara answers, feeling an unusual tension in the air. "They had a lot of free time, so we used to go out whenever we could during breaks."
Adam nods blankly. "Good for you, t-that's great."
"Are you okay?" Kiara asks, worried.
"I'm fine," Adam says, glancing over his shoulder. "A bit motion sick, this thing is fast. Let's just get this mission over with, already."
Kiara nods; however, she knew something was bothering Adam.