Verano

“From non-human to human, from rich to poor. We expose all dirty little secrets. Because each and everyone hides one.”

A boy in his teens, wearing a kimono, elucidates. He had his palms atop each other, covering his smile. He tilts his head forward as he looked directly at the customer. They were in a well-decorated building, with a table dividing the two of them.

“Well, who’s this person you want to expose?” He asked. There was a moment of silence, before the woman finally spoke.

The customer blinks, “Sorry, I brought the files you asked me to bring.” She slides the folders, smoothly, across the table.

Kaine gives her a nice smile. As he lifts the folder and opens it. He skims over the irrelevant information. “Freno Sreoini, a criminal.” He looks up from the folder, not smiling anymore. “Can you specify what criminal acts he’s doing?”

“Human trafficking of magic and non-human. Kidnapping and drug trafficking, bribery and larceny.” she details them.

Kaine scribbles something down on his notepad. “Next, is it revenge or are you confessing?”

The customer averts her eyes away with an unreadable expression, yet she kept on a soft smile. “It’s a mix of both.” she mumbles clearly.

“I-I...can I ask you something?”

“Sure, why not?”

“How would I know, you finished the job?” she fidgets with her hands, still avoiding eye contact.

“Just check the news after.” He grins, reassuring her.

“Since, I’ve answered your questions, you did bring the money...right?” his tone changes into a more threatening voice at the last word. The customer picks up a black briefcase and slams it onto the table. Making Kaine flinch a bit. The customer unlocks the briefcase and turns it around, showing it to Kaine. “450,000 revos.”

He slams it shut. With a pleased grin, “Please wait, 1-6 business days. Thank you for working with Verano.” He lets his hand out for her to shake. She shakes it, nodding with a relieved smile. “Thank you, Mr. Surior.“. She gets up to leave, closing the door behind her.

“We got a big job, this time.” He says, in a cheerful tone, pumping his fist in the air. He gets up from his seat, taking the briefcase with him, shifting in the chair, closer to the desk. He stretches, “Gotta tell Aleta. Goodness, she will be happy!“. He picks up the yellow folder, with a bright smile, shining brighter than the sun. The boy flicks the light switch off, locking the store.

He walks over the bridge, that was above the public park, in a nearby distance, is a building with a massive commercial tv covering some windows. The tv showed the usual, dates of events, summarized news coverage and bounties, and faces of recent and well-known criminals. The man who he got a job to expose, Freno Sreoini, the bounty of 12 million revos.

Kaine makes it to the door of the factory, which is the current location of their residence. He slams open the door, pausing at the front door. “I have great new—”

Something was thrown at him, hitting his head in the process. He stumbles back. “We just repaired this factory. Stop opening the door with such force!” A girl, around his age, rebukes, she was sitting on the dark grey couch. The interior of the factory was thoroughly decorated, considering the fact that it was abandoned, not too long ago. The exterior, looked abandoned. It had black stains and graffiti on it.

“Aleta!” he quickly gets back on his feet, picking up the briefcase.

She closes the book she was reading and places it on the coffee table. “I hope the great news you have is that we have a job.” she answers, crossing her legs. “Yup, you’re correct.” He waltzes in, placing the yellow folder and the briefcase on the dining table. He turns around, in surprise, to see Aleta in front of him. “Have you ever heard of Freno Sreoini?” he asks.

“I don’t think I would know anything about him. It’s not like his face is plastered on every commercial tv in Drewon.” She exaggerates. “Why do you feel the need to add sarcasm in everything.” Kaine shoves her face away, with an eye roll, when he hears snickering coming from her.

“But, seriously. Everyone and their mother knows Freno.”

Kaine opened the folder, it had documents and pictures of Freno, buildings and dark blue orbs. It had handwritten notes from the customer.

“This client gave us a ton of information. It says, here, he uses an apartment basement as one of his bases.” he points towards a picture of an apartment building.

“He has three warehouses with undisclosed items in them. He only has one other base,” he lifts the photos all at once. Revealing, the addresses of the warehouses. The boy faces Aleta, “That’s the addresses.“.

“What are those things?” she asked, pointing to photo #5 which had a crate full of orbs.

“Do gang leaders like playing with marbles?” she jokes. It gets a slight snort from Kaine.

The boy unlocks the briefcase, “Just look at how much money we got!”

“450,000 revos!” he presents the briefcase, like a medal. Her eyes light up with excitement. “4...450,000?! We earned that much?” she asked. He grins, “I know right, I had to keep cool. This is the first time we got a big target!” he felt the same excitement as Aleta, they pranced around like a child.

“So, the plan is, to try to find more information on the orbs. Check out what is in the warehouses too.”

She nods.

“Then, let the night commence!”

Kaine wore a black kimono while Aleta wore a black buttoned shirt. “I texted you the addresses,” he informs, cleaning his katana. She glances at Kaine, “Are you done cleaning?”

“Yeah, in a moment,” The boy says, wiping the blade as he gets up from his chair, and walking towards the door. He pauses for a moment, opening it. “Well, let’s go.” his thumb pointed to the door. She smiles, “I know.“, grabbing her jacket and backpack.

Kaine jumps on the ledge of a building. From a nearby distance, he could view the destination of the base. He taps the microphone on his ear. “I’m at the apartment, is everything good on your end?” he asked. “Yup, I’m in the base.” she responds, as he could hear her sprinting. He grins, “Alright, be safe.” he jumps down onto the streets and walks in.

Inside, it was—actually normal. Kaine was confounded, he actually expected the place to be more, criminal, rather than old-fashioned. He also expected his subordinates rather than actual civilians. Kaine absolutely hates getting civilians involved, in his jobs.

He sees, a person wearing a light indigo uniform walking towards a door; it was like a jumpsuit prisoners wore. It was an immense gray door with stains splattered around the door. It could capture anyone’s attention because it didn’t fit the colour palette of the room.

The person unlocks the door, opening it with a document in one hand. Kaine slips through the door, entering. The man continues on, mindlessly perusing the document in his hand, whistling. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, and Kaine sneaks behind. He stopped in front of an elevator, before turning around to face Kaine. “Stupid, you thought I didn’t know?“. Kaine curses, the elevator dings and the door slides open, and Kaine uses that opportunity to hurriedly kick him.

The subordinate slammed his back onto the wall of the inside elevator, Kaine kicks him again, as he falls to the floor, he rams his foot onto his chest. “I can’t get caught already.” he smiles, before stomping on his face. The boy presses the only button there, as the doors close.

The elevator dinged, and the door swung open. Kaine looks up to see nothing but the same dark grey walls, just dirtier. He expected the place to be filled with more subordinates. The boy dropped the severely injured man on the floor and walks out of the hallway, to be met with his expectations were right. The whole hallway was filled with all of them, ready for battle. He could only smirk, as the fire of battle filled him up. “Just what I expected.“. Kaine unsheathes his katana, with bits of electricity wrapping around his sword.

“Too many files.” The girl complains, rummaging through the files cabinets. She defeated almost all the henchmen and is looking for evidence. She found a few pertinent files out of the thousands. She plucks out a file and reads it, her eyes widening in surprise with her mouth gaping open.

The human trafficking victims are connected to one of the most powerful people in Drewon, Henry Lockridge. The billionaire who is currently running for the minister of magic. There was something that had to do with something called, Verdos. Aleta has never heard of it, and from what she grasped, she was pretty sure it was some type of drug.

This is bigger than their typical business, they don’t deal with things like this. They could catch the eyes of other crime groups and even the government. Aleta contemplates if she should tell Kaine to get out of there, but realizes this could sell for a lot. “Unbelievable,” she mutters. She grabs other important files and leaves the room.

A gun cocks, as Aleta abruptly stops in her spot, in a narrowly empty hallway. “Y-you fucking bitch of a monster,” he swears, pointing his gun at her. She smirks, as she turns around, with her glowing red eyes looking toward the man.

A brisk of large winds rapidly blasted towards the man, thrusting himself across the hallway onto the wall. Long narrow pressurized air, zipped through the hallway like a bullet, striking the right side of his abdomen. there was a hole that looks a crescent shape. He slid down the wall, leaving a trail of red, dark blood. “Where were you all when I was fighting half of your crew?” she asked, turning around with a smile.

There were a dozen of them in the hallways, with guns and swords. She could sense a few with magic. She stuffs the documents in her backpack. A narrowed beam of light pierced the top of Aleta’s right ear. She grunts softly, covering her ear. The girl lets go, to see her hand covered with blood. “Ow!” she yells.

She heard snickering coming in front of her, “Lights in.” The man smirks, with his chin jutted upwards. His downcasted haughty eyes looked down at Aleta with a condescending aura binding around him. “A bunch of fucking bastards,” she mutters, with a glare, thrusting her chin upward. She shakes the blood off her hand.

She snaps her fingers as a beam of pale light whizzes through the air, narrowly dodging her. “The light must be blinding you if you can’t aim properly.”

He grounds his teeth at her remark. As he was about to use his magic again the floor suddenly vibrated the debris on the floor spun around, and the air in the room.

it gradually gets bigger, turning into a hasty tornado.

The powerful winds were destroying everything in their way, toppling the subordinates like dominos and yet, Aleta stayed unaffected. She uses the opportunity to run away.

Kaine exhales heavily, drops of sweat leaving his face. Blood splatted on the walls and the flickering lights that were above him, he does a quick swing to his left, to remove the blood off his katana. He continues on, leaving the half-dead bodies of the subordinates behind.

The security cameras caught everything, the elevator incident and the recent hallway massacre. “The rumoured electricity user, is here? I have no business with him.” the man muses to himself, he leans back in his chair legs crossed on the table, viewing the TVs. He rubbed his chin. “Fucking children ruining everything.” he mutters, with his fist slamming the table, he gets up and leaves. The man was furious, that man was Freno Sreoini.

He continues storming, realizing, the electricity user might come for his supply. But, that sudden realization fired his anger even more.

He punches the wall, it forming cracks and soon breaking. He heard coughing before seeing a figure amidst the dust cloud. “Show yourself!” he demanded, fixing his shoulders. The figure stood, with the dust slowly disappearing. He asks, “You must Freno Sreoini? I’m Kaine Surior.”

“What do you fucking want? You massacred my subordinates.”

“I’ve been hired to expose or rather fight you. You get to choose,” he answers. “Revenge.” he bared his teeth, with a sharp glare.

“I’m fine with that choice too.“, he replied as he puts away his katana.

His yellow eyes glowed through the dust, then there was nothing. The man felt a presence behind him, “Just a quick hit.” the boy mumbles under his breath. He goes for a punch and he screams in agony, clutching his slightly bruised hand. He winced at the wound, “Enhancer, you’re an enhancer.“. It was so obvious, no one can punch a wall and destroy it.

The man turns around with a wily laugh. “I’m gonna crush your little fucking skull, Surior.” he points at him. The man ran toward Kaine, and he too ran. The boy was about to punch him, when he stopped and aimed for his abdominal area. That means, his theory stood correct, enhancers can’t enhance more than one body part.

“Why are you acting this way? Never gotten punched before?” The boy asked, in a snide manner. Freno managers to put a smirk on display. The temperature drops, and Kaine shivers. The air was sharp and freezing, the boy didn’t like how the cold air trembled his body.

The man stomps on the floor, and ice forms on the floor. A block of ice shapes on the icy surface as it slams Kaine upwards, he breaks through the ceiling, landing in the empty but peaceful streets of Drewon.

He spits blood as blood drips from his head, he had a stern look at Freno, who climbed out of the hole. “Sorry, fighting in that hallway is suffocating,” he explains. The boy gets up from the small hole he made from the impact, dusting himself. He sighs, “Alright.”

Suddenly, Kaine whips his head to the side as an icicle sprints through the air stabbing into a building behind Kaine.

“Wasn’t that a nice dodge, Surior?”

“I know it was.” Kaine yells as the street turns into ice. Winter just ended, and now it looks like a winter wonderland. He’s not a fan of winter. “You can enhance the weather?” he manages to say from his shivers. “Of course, I can practically enhance anything!” the man cracks a loud evil laugh, with a vicious smile.

He puts his trembling hand out with his palm facing the sky as a blue electricity orb appears, he was barely resisting the temperature.

“Take a hit, please try this time.” Freno made a snarky remark. The boy grits his teeth, flicking the orb. That turns out to be bouncy, it bounces and rolls, hitting the man’s feet. Zapping him, “Why, aren’t you so spry—”

The orb exploded. It was a ticking time bomb, that has unexpectedly exploded.

“The defenders are coming,” he mutters, he could hear their annoying stomping and gun cocking. How annoying. Kaine hated every single one of them, they always come at the wrong moment.

The boy was overwhelmed by the situation—that didn’t mean he was going to back down.