A young scout had just reported that their safe zone's Glints hadn't returned from patrol. They were still out in the fog, and their transformation timers were running out.
"And no one here is going after them?" Bryan asked.
The younger man shook his head. "We don't know exactly where they are. Even if we tried, we don't have time. We have to wait until our Glints are active before we can enter safely. By then it'll be too late. They'll be dead or turned into Fades."
"We'll do it," Thomas said without hesitation.
The younger man blinked. The old man frowned. "You sure about that? No telling what waits out there."
Thomas cracked his knuckles and gave a small grin. "Guess we'll find out."
The crew drove straight into the fog. Thomas guided the truck through the thick mist, following the rough directions they'd been given. The road was uneven and cracked, forcing him to move slow while the others spread out ahead on foot, senses sharp for movement. They didn't know exactly where the missing scouts were, and searching the fog was always difficult. Visibility was poor, and even close sounds echoed strangely, making it hard to tell where anything really was.
More than an hour passed as they scanned the endless gray. By then, Bryan and Nevin had reached their Glint transformation threshold, the familiar pressure building in their bodies as the fog energy started to react within them. Iris stayed inside the truck to avoid another uncontrolled surge, but she kept her eyes fixed on the fog ahead, ready to assist from her seat.
"There," Bryan's voice echoed from above. His Winged Tiger form glided low over the mist. "I see them."
Thomas narrowed his eyes, trying to make out the shapes ahead. Through the haze, a small group of survivors came into view near a collapsed bus. All of them were in their Glint forms, holding a defensive line around the injured at the center. They looked exhausted, but they were still fighting to protect what was left of their team.
Two of the scouts were in critical condition. One, a man with thick armored plating across his back, had been impaled by a metal pole. The jagged end still pierced through his torso, pinning him against the wreckage. Another had a shattered leg twisted at an unnatural angle, his reptilian Glint form twitching as he tried to fight the pain.
Unlike Thomas's crew, this group didn't have a healer. The two injured hadn't even reached Stage 1 in fog power, which meant they couldn't regenerate on their own. Without help, they wouldn't last long. The rest had minor wounds but refused to leave, their faces grim.
Thomas understood why. The two downed fighters were their strongest. If the others abandoned them, they'd never survive the fog alone.
Time was running out. Stay too long, and their transformations would lock in, turning them into Fades.
"Move fast," Thomas ordered.
Bryan and Nevin reached the survivors first. One of them, a man with jagged crystalline growths along his arms, looked up with wild, desperate eyes. "You... you came for us?"
"We were sent by your elder," Nevin said as he knelt beside the wounded Glint. "Can you move?"
The man nodded weakly, but the others were in worse shape. A woman with scaled skin was barely conscious, slumped against the bus wall. Another sat trembling nearby, fog energy leaking from their body, their Glint form breaking down.
"I can handle the minor ones quickly," Nevin said, kneeling beside them. "But for the critical cases, I'll need more time."
"Can't we just turn them back into humans?" Thomas asked. "We can bring everyone inside the Hammer truck."
"That might work for the ones with small wounds," Bryan replied. "But the two with major injuries… the change back might kill them."
They were out of options. Their fog timers were almost out, and Nevin couldn't heal the critical wounds fast enough. Transforming them back was too risky. Either choice could end in death.
Thomas clenched his fists, thinking hard. There has to be a way.
He crouched beside the impaled man, preparing to lift him despite the risk. Better to try than stand and watch them fade away.
Then, from somewhere beyond the fog, came the low rumble of an approaching vehicle.
An ambulance appeared through the fog.
An actual ambulance.
For a moment, no one moved. The sight was so out of place it didn't feel real.
The vehicle bore a clean white logo on its side, The Medics.
Several Glints escorted it, surrounding the area with practiced precision.
Dr. Callahan Voss and his team stepped out of the mist like they had done this a hundred times before. Their movements were calm and deliberate. Unlike most survivors who feared the fog, they moved through it as if it was their home.
Thomas instinctively stepped in front of the wounded, but Dr. Cal didn't even look his way. His attention was already on the injured.
"They're at the threshold," Dr. Cal said, voice steady. "We don't have much time."
Harlan Kade, a Harpy-Glint with sharp, hawk-like eyes, was already in motion. His talons worked quickly as he inspected the wounds, cutting away dead tissue and clearing space for deeper treatment.
Lynn Aster, a Sphinx-Glint who handled diagnostics, knelt beside the impaled man. Her golden eyes glowed faintly as she scanned him. "Major internal damage. If we remove the pole without support, he'll bleed out in seconds."
Victor Reiss, the Gorgon-Glint anesthesiologist, moved next. "I'll handle the pain." He let a few drops of venom drip from his fingertips and pressed them against the man's neck. Within seconds, the man's face relaxed, his breathing steadying as the paralysis took hold.
Avery Salis, the team's driver and monitoring expert, was the only one who hadn't transformed. She knelt beside the man with the shattered leg, checking his pulse. "His body's in shock. Vitals are dropping. If we don't set that bone now, he's not going to make it."
Dr. Cal's tentacle-like appendages, a result of his Cecaelia Glint, a mutation that made him part human, part octopus, moved with cold precision. The limbs coiled around the jagged metal pole impaling the man's torso.
"On my count," he said evenly. "Three… two… one."
With a swift, steady pull, he removed the pole in a single motion. Harlan was already there, sealing the wound with quick, practiced stitches before the bleeding could restart.
Thomas and his crew stood back, silent. The team worked like a machine, no wasted words, no hesitation. Each of them moved with purpose, as if every second was rehearsed. It was unsettling and impressive all at once.
Nevin finally spoke. "You… you work inside the fog?"
Dr. Cal glanced at him, calm and composed. "Someone has to."
The Medics continued their work, barely acknowledging Thomas's crew. Within minutes, the worst injuries were treated, and the survivors' breathing had steadied.
Once the wounded were treated and stabilized, the Medics carried them into the ambulance, like the hammer truck, it is also a mobile safe zone. Within seconds, the patients were turned back to human, all before their fog timers ran out.
Thomas crossed his arms. "You're good."
Dr. Cal didn't look up. "We know."
Both the Hammer and the ambulance started their engines and head back to the settlement together. The two vehicles moved side by side through the fog, forming a convoy toward the safe zone.
Before they could leave, one of the settlement traders rushed forward. "Wait! You saved our people. Please, come inside the safe zone. We'll give you food, shelter, anything we can offer."
Dr. Cal met his eyes. "We don't take payment."
Thomas frowned. "Then why do it?"
Cal's expression stayed unreadable. "Because we choose to."
Bryan's tone was cautious. "I can tell you've got the medical side covered, but you don't look like fighters. Aren't you afraid of being out here in the fog? What about the Fades?"
Dr. Cal's gaze shifted toward him. "The fog isn't what you should be afraid of. It's the people who think they can control it."
Thomas opened his mouth to ask more, but the Medics were already gone, their ambulance and escort disappearing into the mist as if they had never been there.
After returning the rescued group to the old man's settlement, the crew didn't linger. They decided to keep moving, heading back into the fog. This time, Iris was driving while Bryan and Thomas stayed outside, walking beside the Hammer. The change wasn't random. Thomas had received a private message on his interface during the rescue, and they were now following up on it.
Archivist: I heard you are in District 10. We require your service in this district and are willing to pay in Pink Fragments. Let me know if you are interested.
Thomas had shown it to Bryan, and after a brief exchange, they agreed to meet. That was where they were headed now.
"I think that's them. They're close," Bryan said as he descended from above, wings folding as he landed near the truck.
They moved deeper into the abandoned city. Broken buildings lined the streets, cars left rusting where they had crashed long ago. Then, ahead, six figures came into view. Their Glint forms gave off a faint glow under the dim light. Two stood at the front, focused and ready, while the other four stayed behind them, silent and observing.
One stepped forward, voice calm and clear.
"You must be Thomas."