Trigger peered into the hole that had just been ripped in space; behind the three figures stood Dr. Varma, who gave him a wave and a thumbs up. Looking closely, Trigger was sure she was back in the lab in Tokyo. The rip in space closed, and Trigger looked at the three figures before him. In the middle stood Devin in finely pressed slacks, a turtleneck, and a long navy blue trench coat with The Renegade’s Chaser chest on its left lapel.

  On Devin’s right stood a man in an open black hooded cloak with a black mask that conformed to his face. The mask melted away to reveal Zac’s smiling face.

  “Not bad, kid.” Zac complimented.

  Trigger gave a giddy chuckle as he received Zac’s compliment. Those were few, and far between and were something for him to relish. His chuckle stopped dead when he saw the man opposite Zac.

  There stood a Korean man in a fine-tailored suit. He was someone Trigger had never seen in person but recognized immediately. He shared the same hazel eyes as Trigger, and much of the same facial features.

  “Dad?” Trigger said, less than enthused. It was like the word and its meaning died in his throat.

  “Isuel, my boy.”

  “It’s Trigger.” Trigger corrected, emotionlessly.

  “Of course.” Mr. Cheong responded with a sad gentle smile.

  “What, what are you doing here?” Whiskey asked in terror as she looked over at Devin.

  Devin’s emerald eyes stared holes in Whiskey,

  “We were well aware you would try something like this.” Devin scoffed.

  “I was aware. You’re whipped.” Zac corrected as Devin chuckled.

  “Zac!” Whiskey seethed.

  “Is that you, Lefty? Oh, would you look at that? There’s a Righty now too.” Zac joked at Whiskey’s and Pike’s expense. Their annoyance was visible for all to see.

  The last time Zac and Whiskey confronted each other, Whiskey had her right arm lopped off by Zac. She was never inclined to share the details of the events. Even though Chasers could regenerate limbs with time, Zac was hardly the type to let an enemy forget about their failures.

  “My name is Whiskey, Zac!”

  “Shut up, Lefty. And I’m on the clock, sweetheart. So it’s The Anomaly, but just for you, you can call me Nom Noms.” Zac chuckled.

  “How’s your brother, Whiskey?” Devin interjected.

  “He’s fine; thank you for not killing him and his team at the train station.”

  “If it were anyone else, I would have.” Devin’s cold voice sent shivers down Whiskey’s spine.

  “Yes, your bias is well documented.” Pike spat out.

  “Your point? Everyone has bias. Like your biases against Taboo Children.” Devin chuckled.

  “That thing needs to die,” Cinder shouted.

  “You are free to try.” Devin made a simple motion with his hand. The Conductor and the others were teleported next to Trigger in that instant.

  The others looked at the three figures in front of them with excitement. Sage was the first to speak,

  “Sensei, what took you so long?”

  “I had to make a stop in Finland. Plus, you guys looked like you were handling yourselves just fine.” Zac chuckled.

  Sage nodded her head in understanding. She had assumed that their hoods also relayed the footage of what was happening in real-time; Zac’s words confirmed her suspicions. Devin looked back at the children and then at Whiskey and her group.

  “You are correct; Taboo Children are considered a threat by our mandate. However, there are three issues at play.” Devin smiled.

  “What issues?” Pike asked in frustration.

  “The first, while I recognize that Trigger is a Taboo Child, he is also a Chaser, and it appears his colleagues will not simply watch you kill him.” The Conductor and the others surrounded the tired Trigger at Devin’s words.

  “So to kill him, you’d have to kill these children, and I can’t allow that. Issue two, The Anomaly here is also a documented Taboo Child; where is this fervor to kill him?” Devin asked.

  Whiskey looked at The Anomaly with irritation. She knew why but was not bold or shameless enough to say it aloud. However, Pike was not the same,

  “He’s not a threat!” Pike spat out.

  “I’m going to take your other arm, or maybe a leg?” The Anomaly responded with a sinister grin.

  “Third, to recruit a certain someone, I promised to protect Trigger here until he could defend himself. So, that’s what I’ll do. I won’t move a muscle; I won’t attack. I’ll defend Trigger and these children. So, by all means, proceed with your mission.” Devin placed his hands in his pockets as space rippled around himself and the children.

  “Keep, Cinder, Dust, Whiskey, Pike, and the one they call Pocket alive. You can do what you want with the rest.” Devin’s voice was slathered with disinterest over comms.

  At his command, Whiskey jolted in shock as she looked at Zac and the third man that had come with them. She had never seen him before. Cinder, who had been so focused on Devin, had hardly noticed him until now. Cinder audibly gasped and staggered backward several steps.

  “B-B-B-B-B-Bone Collector.” Cinder stammered.

  “Why are you here?!” Dust shouted in fear, when she heard Cinder.

  She thought this old monster had retired or had died. The Bone Collector was one of the Weaving Adders’ most prolific and dangerous Chasers, and then 17 years ago, he disappeared. A realization washed over Dust’s face, and she looked at Trigger. His mask was gone, and his hood was pulled back. He looked like the spitting image of The Bone Collector.

  “Bone Collector. I would have named you Voodoo Daddy.” Zac pouted.

  “Sensei, please,” Sage mumbled in embarrassment.

  Bone Collector looked at the shocked reactions from Dust and Cinder but saw the calm of both Pike and Whiskey. He smirked in derision,

  “You two knew he was my son? Yet you still had the nerve to come for his life? Pike, you, of all people, should know better.” The Bone Collector stared Pike down, who turned his head away.

  “Even more insulting, you didn’t have the wherewithal to dispose of all these dead bodies? It seems I’ve been too quiet lately.”

  “No!” Pike shouted as he looked around him.

  From the Skinwalker town to the mine shaft, countless dead bodies spread. Both Skinwalker and Chaser alike. Pike looked over at the Bone Collector and then quickly charged. His speed exceeded even what Trigger had shown up to this point as he went to attack the Bone Collector. Whatever was about to happen terrified him to his core. However, a black blur met him, and a fist bashed into the side of his face before he could make it even half the distance. Pike tumbled across the ground and finally gathered himself to see The Anomaly standing between him and The Bone Collector. A black mask instantly covered his face as the rest of his body became clad in new black-scaled nano-armor; the outline of those scales glowed an aquamarine color.

  “Initiating Program”

  “Nooooooooo!!!” Pike shouted out a panicked protest to no avail.

  “Death March.” The Bone Collector crooned.

  As he looked into the distance, an eerie green mist radiated off his body. He took in a deep breath as he closed his eyes.

  “So much death here. How lovely. Awaken.” His eyes opened and glowed a sickly green color.

  The area went quiet for just a moment before the wails of the dead filled the forest. The Chasers turned back towards the town to see countless Skinwalkers and allies rise from the dead. Many of them felt their scalps grow numb and almost descended into panic. Whiskey quickly shouted out to calm everyone down.

  Bone Collector, Program: Death March. Allows the Chaser to reanimate and control the bodies of the recently deceased. All reanimated Corpses will retain all their skills and abilities they had before death, including access to special abilities such as Programs.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  “I tend not to like working with others. But I think I can make an exception in your case Anomaly.” The Bone Collector bellowed.

  “I’m so honored. I’ll leave those three to you. I’m going to play with this back in town.” Anomaly said sarcastically as he shot out like a cannon blast.

  He was a streak of black and blue as he ran past Pike, picking him up by the face and launching him back towards the horde of Undead running towards them. The Anomaly thrived in chaos. Fighting Pike in the middle of a mini-zombie apocalypse, what could be more chaotic than that? Whiskey was taken aback by the speed The Anomaly just displayed. So was Trigger in the others,

  “Sensei, calls it Dragon Scales. It is five times as effective as the nano-armor Trigger devoured.” Sage reported to the others.

  “Even if it’s five times better, he shouldn’t be that fast.” The Conductor commented.

  “Sensei was never serious with us. He also likes to say, ‘To find success in this world, the you of today, must be twice as great as the you of yesterday. While always thinking of how to deal with the you of tomorrow.’” Sage smiled with pride as she watched the Anomaly.

  Whiskey had no time to concern herself with Pike at the moment. Devin had instructed them not to kill her, but she wouldn’t watch those under her simply be killed. They still had a mission, and they had no escape anyway. The Chasers gathered here weren’t even a fraction of their total forces. Most were expendable at the end of the day, but losing all of them, just for one Taboo Child, was unacceptable.

  “Everyone go assist Pike. I, Dust, and Cinder will focus on the Bone Collector. If we take him out, those undead go with him. Devin isn’t going to interfere, and The Anomaly left him here alone. The three of us will be plenty.” Realistically speaking, The Bone Collector’s power came from controlling the dead; there were no dead in the vicinity, this was their best shot.

  Dust nodded and dived into the earth, and Cinder turned into a puff of smoke and shot off into the air. The rest all charged toward the Undead horde. They all had a renewed sense of confidence. There was no way The Bone Collector could control all of this Undead efficiently while dealing with the coordinated attack of three competent Chasers.

  “Ergh!” Pike grunted as he received another punch to the face from The Anomaly. He reeled back and pressed forward himself. Thanks to his Program, he could predict and keep pace even while missing an arm. However, annoying enough, The Anomaly had fewer weaknesses and tells to exploit than Hachiman.

  “This damned freak.” Pike cursed to himself.

  The two continued their furious exchange until Pike managed to kick the Anomaly away. At that moment, he was forced to avoid an attack from a reanimated Skinwalker who had turned himself into a bear. He pulled out a dagger and sliced the beast’s head off, shouting in frustration. Quickly, he turned to see The Anomaly slicing the head off of one of the Chasers that had come to assist with the horde.

  “Goddamn him!” Pike shouted and charged toward The Anomaly.

  The dagger in his right hand struck down only to be blocked by the two daggers in Anomaly’s hands. With a chuckle, he kicked Piked away. As Pike landed on the ground, he shouted at the Anomaly,

  “You proud, fighting a one-arm combatant?” He tried to goad him on.

  The Anomaly looked down at his left arm, which was fully intact, and looked over at Pike’s lack of a left arm. He shrugged his shoulders, as he causal decapitated an undead that targeted him,

  “I’ll tell you what. I won’t use my left arm, or my Dragon Scales. If you don’t use your Program?” Anomaly’s suggestion was met with silence from Pike.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought… idiot.” The Anomaly mocked.

  “Now, come over here and give me that leg.”

  The two then resumed their intense melee.

  “You wish to attack me head-on? And so haphazardly?” The Bone Collector smiled at Whiskey and the others.

  At that moment, Earth exploded around the Bone Collector’s location. Steel tendrils came from the earth to wrap themselves around the Bone Collector. The tendrils were stopped in their tracks by bones protruding from the ground; the Bone Collector then jumped into the air. Those Bones trailing behind him. As he was airborne, Cinder’s smoldering cloud of smoke attempted to rush over him.

  Those bones trailing behind him created a shield in front of him and a foothold. The smoke crashed into the bone shield, and an electrical blast shot off The Bone Collector’s body. The cloud of smoke let out a cry and turned back into Cinder as they fell to the ground, unconscious. Bone Collector then turned his attention towards Whiskey,

  “Damn you, you old fossil!” Whiskey shouted.

  She reeled back her arms as she created a vast sum of water. She pushed her arms forward to attack, but her body refused to move. As she struggled she stared up at The Bone Collector, who was floating towards her, two of his hands extended in her direction. She could see the shaking in his arms and knew he couldn’t fully contain a Chaser in such a way. She grunted as she tried to overpower the influence The Bone Collector was exerting over her. She could feel her bones moving against her will and her blood growing heavy in her veins.

  She shouted as The Bone Collector grew closer; the Bone Collector shouted in return as they both exerted their wills. When Whiskey could feel herself gaining the upper hand, The Bone Collector was within arm’s length. He quickly released his control and touched Whiskey’s forehead,

  “Sleep.” He whispered.

  Whiskey’s eyes drew heavily, and her gathered water fell. The Bone Collector sighed and brought his hands down to his side.

  “Where’s Dust, aye?” Bumi asked, a bit confused.

  It had been a while, and Dust hadn’t taken action. The Bone Collector nodded as if he had forgotten about the girl and made a hand motion. Out of the ground, Dust rose. She was bound in something similar to a stockade composed of bones. Dust glared at Bone Collector, who just scoffed in return.

  “You Mound Chasers are all so odd. You control earth minerals, yet you go out of your way to do something as difficult as making and controlling metal. None of you take the time to learn to control Calcium.” The Bone Collector shook his head and walked back to Devin and the others.

  “You children are The Anomaly’s batch, so I shouldn’t have to tell you anything, but do not follow the example of these young Chasers.” The Bone Collector turned to speak to Trigger specifically.

  “What does he mean?” Hoarder asked.

  He felt their course of action was correct considering the circumstances.

  “Death March is far more than briefly bringing the dead back to life. It has aspects of calcium manipulation, blood manipulation, electrical manipulation, and limited telepathic abilities. At its initial level, these are all done subconsciously and are fine-tuned toward the manipulation of the recently dead. But Bone Collector is one of the oldest active Program using Chasers. He’s had plenty of time to hone his abilities.” Devin informed the children.

  “But most importantly, the only people here aware of this are me, The Anomaly, and Pike.” Devine smiled.

  Sage started to giggle as well. When Pike made that slight at her sensei, she was a bit perturbed. She could only imagine how upset he was. However, it turned out he wasn’t upset at all. His target was always going to be Pike. Regardless of how incredible the Bone Collector was, if Whiskey, Dust, and Cinder were fully aware of what he could do, he wouldn’t be able to handle them on his own so quickly without the assistance of that undead horde.

  “I don’t usually work in teams, but a duo with The Anomaly was a pleasant change of pace. Speaking of. That was quite fast.” The Bone Collector mused as Zac landed in front of the group. On his shoulder was the unconscious Pike messing his right leg.

  “I could say the same about you, old man.” Zac joked as he tossed the unconscious Pike at Dust’s feet.

  “But you two… what the hell took you so long?” Zac looked towards the forest as Mawu and Hachiman walked out with annoyed faces.

  “This thing is weird,” Mawu said as Hachiman tossed the unconscious Pocket.

  “I’ve never seen a Storage Chaser like this. They can project their storage space outward to capture, defend, and sever pockets of space offensively. Hachiman almost lost his head. I was almost severed in two. This Pocket is quite impressive.” Mawu reported.

  “Their ability is impressive but unwieldy. I could have killed them swiftly if we weren’t instructed to keep them alive.” Hachiman complained.

  “Speaking of, you can stop now,” Devin commanded The Bone Collector.

  “Ah, right.” The Bone Collector looked over his shoulder and saw the remaining enemy Chasers still fighting his undead horde.

  “Burst.” The Collector whispered.

  At his command, the blood of the Undead boiled, and their bodies exploded. The concussive force was enough to knock Chasers unconscious, and the robust bones of the Undead Skinwalkers and Chasers acted as shrapnel. Most of the enemy Chasers didn’t have time to react to the sudden explosions and died instantly, shredded by those fractured bones. Those who managed to survive were lucky but were no longer in any condition to fight.

  “Trigger, your dad is intense,” Amaterasu said.

  “Yeah, sure.” Trigger was despondent.

  “Hello, Mr. Bone Collector,” Siren said sheepishly.

  “Mr. Cheong is fine for my son’s friends.” Mr. Cheong responded.

  “It’s time for everyone to head back.” Devin interrupted them, creating a tear in space that would lead everyone back toward the Tokyo branch.

  “Yes, my son and I have much to talk about.” Mr.Cheong smiled at Trigger.

  “I have nothing to say to you.” Trigger snapped.

  “Yeah, well, I’m not going anywhere this time. So I can wait until you’re willing to listen to my story.” Mr. Cheong smiled gently and then walked through the tear in space.

  “Kenji, he’s your dad, and this stuff is crazy, I don’t think,”

  “Akiko, Zac has been more of a father to me in the past 2 weeks, then that man has in 17 years. I waited all my life to even see a shadow of him, and then I decided to stop waiting. I outgrew him. So now HE can wait.” Kenji interrupted.

  “Point taken.” Akiko sighed as she followed Kenji through the rift.

  “Want me to stick around?” Zac asked Devin.

  “No, you better head back too. I don’t know how Stefan will react to the condition you left Pike in.”

  “Oh please, it’s not like his limbs won’t grow back.” He scoffed and walked through the tear. Once Zac had left, Devin looked at the five Chasers lying before him, Dust being the only conscious one. He turned to her and said,

  “Get me in contact with Ms. Laurent.”

  “Don’t you have her number?” Dust spat.

  “This business, call her.” Devin’s cold voice shook Dust.

  With a wave of his hand, the bone bindings disappeared, and Dust landed on her knees. She looked up at Devin with fear and then quickly called in,

  “I need to speak with Ms. Laurent immediately. It concerns Operation Doomsday.”

  “Doomsday? Ah, so dramatic.” Devin groaned.

  “Is Devin there? Put me on broadcast.” Léonie’s voice came over comms.

  “Devin my love, are you there? Did you kill everyone?” Léonie’s voice sounded more irritated than concerned.

  “I didn’t kill anyone. But the Bone Collector was upset that you were targeting his son.”

  “Shit. How many survivors?” Léonie sighed.

  “Dust, Whiskey, Cinder, Pike, and Pocket. There are a few stragglers here and there. So tell Stefan the mission failed, and you guys need to come pick up your shit.” Devin responded.

  Léonie was relieved; those five were some of the treasures of The Oleanders and Weaving Adders. They all could be replaced, but finding individuals of their skill level would take much work.

  “Devin, there’s more to this than you understand.” Léonie tried to plead with him.

  “Are you referring to Heka?” Devin inquired.

  “So you know?”

  “I know a lot of things. We’ll discuss it over dinner.” Devin chuckled.

  “Understood. Dust, evac will be there in 45 minutes. Hold tight; I will be coming personally after contacting Stefan.”

  “Bye...” Devin gave a dry wave to Dust and then vanished from sight.