The underwater laboratory loomed before them through the submarine's reinforced windows—a massive structure that seemed to grow out of the ocean floor itself. Twisted spires of metal and glass reached upward like the tentacles of some mechanical kraken, pulsing with an ominous bioluminescent glow that had nothing to do with nature.
"OK, everyone's earpieces connected?" Anjero asked, checking his equipment one final time. His hands were steady despite the terror gnawing at his stomach. Somewhere in that fortress of horrors, his little brother was being held captive.
Jeremi's voice came through the comm system with its usual emotionless efficiency. "I'll go find Tenki. You two worry about the five kids."
"Got it. You be careful out there," Anjero replied, though he suspected Jeremi was probably the least vulnerable member of their team.
"Just join me when you two save them," Jeremi said. Then, so quietly it was almost inaudible: "Shadow Step."
Jeremi simply... disappeared. Not in a flash of light or dramatic flourish, but as if the shadows themselves had reached out and claimed him. One moment he was there, the next there was only empty space and the faintest whisper of displaced air.
Anjero turned to Yuko, who was checking his pistols with methodical precision. "OK, Yuko, it says the kids are being held on the lower level. There should be a couple of grunts there keeping guard until they awaken."
"Yeah, heading that way now," Yuko replied, his usual cheerfulness subdued by the gravity of their mission.
They moved through the laboratory's corridors with practiced stealth, their three days of intensive training evident in every step. The facility was a maze of pipes, machinery, and holding cells, all humming with the artificial energy that Tenki used to accelerate spirit awakening.
**The Containment Cell**
In the lower levels of the facility, five children sat in a reinforced cell that reeked of fear and desperation. The youngest couldn't have been more than nine, while the oldest—Shinkei—was barely sixteen. All of them bore the telltale signs of forced awakening: exhaustion, confusion, and the faint shimmer of spirit energy beginning to manifest around them.
"Hey, let us go!" Shinkei called out to their guards, his voice carrying more defiance than fear. "We don't even have powers, so what's the point of capturing us?"
The nearest grunt—a man whose own spirit energy felt twisted and artificial—turned toward the cell with obvious irritation. "Shut the hell up! Or I'll force you to awaken with some pain."
That's when it happened.
One of the younger girls—she couldn't have been more than eleven—began to glow with a soft green light that pulsed in rhythm with her terrified heartbeat. The energy around her felt alive, organic, filled with the promise of growth and renewal.
"Hey, you're glowing green! Stop it now!" Shinkei whispered urgently, recognizing the danger.
"I can't!" Nanshi Flowers replied, tears streaming down her face. "I don't know how to..."
The grunt's attention snapped to the glowing child like a predator scenting prey. "Hey, what's that light? Yo, we got one! She's awakened!"
The response was immediate and dramatic. A small potted plant sitting on the guard station's desk suddenly erupted into monstrous growth, its vines and branches expanding at impossible speed. Within seconds, it had grown large enough to fill half the corridor, its newly massive form lashing out at the guards with predatory intelligence.
"Hey, stop that right now!" the first grunt screamed, but his words were lost in the chaos as thick vines wrapped around his ankles and began dragging him toward what might charitably be called a mouth.
"I can't! I don't know how to!" Nanshi sobbed, but her distress only seemed to make the plant more aggressive.
The second grunt, thinking quickly, drove his fist directly into the little girl's face. The impact was sickening—the sound of knuckles connecting with a child's delicate features echoing through the containment area.
Nanshi crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and the monstrous plant immediately began to wither and shrink back to its original size.
"Bring her to Tenki," the first grunt ordered, rubbing his bruised throat where the vines had tried to strangle him.
"No! Don't!" Shinkei's voice cracked with desperate fury as he watched them reach for the unconscious girl.
That's when his own spirit awakened.
Red light exploded around Shinkei's hands, and jets of flame erupted from his palms with the fury of a brother watching his protector fail to protect. The fire was wild, uncontrolled, but devastatingly hot—hot enough to melt the cell's reinforced lock and set the guard's clothing ablaze.
"Hey, get him too!" the first grunt shouted, but Shinkei was already moving.
Despite having no formal training, Shinkei fought with the desperate skill of someone who had nothing left to lose. He used his newly awakened fire spirit to create distractions and openings, then followed up with hand-to-hand combat that would have made his martial arts instructors proud. His first punch connected perfectly with the first grunt's solar plexus, dropping the man like a sack of stones.
But the second grunt was more experienced. As Shinkei turned to face him, electricity crackled from a stun gun, and agony shot through the boy's nervous system. He collapsed, his body convulsing as the electrical current overrode his motor functions.
"Got both of them now," the remaining grunt said with satisfaction as he hefted the unconscious children. "Boss is gonna be pleased."
**Tenki's Quarters**
The laboratory's upper levels were a monument to corrupted ambition. Banks of monitors displayed readouts from dozens of kidnapped children, charts tracking spirit energy extraction rates, and schematics for devices that could steal a person's very soul. At the center of it all sat Bradoon Tenki, looking exactly as he had three years ago when he'd tortured a thirteen-year-old boy—except now his eyes held the manic gleam of someone who had tasted power beyond mortal comprehension.
"Yo, boss, we got two of them," the grunt announced as he dragged the unconscious children into the chamber.
Tenki's face lit up with the expression of a collector who had just acquired rare specimens. "What spirits? Hahaha!"
"Fire and plants, boss!"
"Two Originals!! We got a great batch today, boys." Tenki stood up from his monitoring station, his movements accompanied by the subtle discharge of unnatural energy. "But I'll be keeping these two for myself."
One of the other grunts shifted uncomfortably. "But boss, don't you already have too many?"
The question hung in the air for exactly one second before Tenki's expression shifted from pleased to homicidal. "Silence!"
He pointed at the offending grunt, and the man simply... exploded. Not in fire or force, but in a cascade of spirit energy that left nothing behind but a brief shimmer in the air and the smell of ozone.
"Great," Tenki muttered, examining his fingertip as if checking for damage. "Now I can't use this power for another three hours. So wasteful."
That's when the entire laboratory shook as if struck by an earthquake. A tremendous boom echoed through the facility's corridors, followed by the sounds of combat and shouting.
"Devanga, that wasn't you," Tenki said, though his tone suggested he already knew the answer.
The young man with the earth spirit—older now, but still recognizably the same person who had helped torture Mashù—shook his head. "No."
"You get the other grunts and check that out," Tenki ordered the remaining guards.
"Yes, sir!" They fled the chamber with obvious relief.
As their footsteps faded, Tenki turned to his lieutenant with an expression of anticipation. "It looks like you won't be bored anymore, Devanga."
The earth spirit user cracked his knuckles, stone dust falling from his skin like dandruff. "Nice. I've been waiting to kill something."
**The Lower Levels - Simultaneous**
The intercom crackled to life throughout the facility: "We need everyone on the south wing immediately!"
One of the guards stationed near the remaining children looked up in confusion. "I wonder what that's about."
His question was answered when Anjero and Yoku dropped through the air conditioning ducts like avenging angels. They landed in perfect formation, their spirit energies already charged and ready for combat.
"OK, we're in," Anjero said, water vapor beginning to swirl around his hands. "I wonder what that was."
The second guard spun around, reaching for his weapon. "Hey, who are you?"
"Yoku, handle this," Anjero ordered.
"Gotcha. SLEEPSHOT!"
Yoku's specially modified bullet struck the guard directly in the temple. Instead of causing injury, it released a concentrated burst of spirit energy designed to induce immediate unconsciousness. The man dropped like a marionette with cut strings.
"He should be asleep for a while," Yoku said with satisfaction.
Anjero rushed to the cell where the three remaining children huddled together. "OK... Hey, there's only three here." He looked directly at a girl who seemed to be the oldest of the survivors. "Hey, you—did you see a boy here that looks like me?"
The girl nodded vigorously. "Yes, I did! He fought one of the guards and shot fire from his hands and everything!"
"Fire?" Anjero felt his blood run cold. His little brother's spirit had awakened—which meant Tenki now had exactly what he wanted. "Oh no. Yoku, get these other three to the submarine."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to save the other two."
**Two Minutes Later - Upper Levels**
Jeremi moved through the laboratory's upper levels like a living shadow, his spirit allowing him to phase in and out of physical reality at will. Surveillance cameras couldn't track what they couldn't see, and guards couldn't fight what they couldn't touch.
He paused outside what his reconnaissance had identified as Tenki's main laboratory. "OK, this should be the room. PHANTOM PHASE."
His body shifted into its shadow form, allowing him to slip through the solid door like smoke through a keyhole. On the other side, he materialized just long enough to activate his communication device.
"OK... come in, I found Tenki. He's on the second level in the laborato—"
The words died in his throat as he sensed the presence behind him. Moving with reflexes honed by too many near-death experiences, he spun around to face his attacker.
Devanga stood there with the casual confidence of someone who had never lost a fight. His earth spirit energy made the very floor beneath their feet tremble, and small stones orbited around him like a miniature asteroid belt.
"Well, hello, victim," Devanga said, his voice carrying the casual malice of a predator addressing prey. "Are you the one making all that noise in this place?"
Jeremi said nothing. In his experience, talking during combat was just another way to get yourself killed.
Devanga's grin widened at the lack of response. "Man of silence, I see. I'll make you talk on your deathbed! LANDSLIDE BLITZ!"
The attack came without further warning—the floor itself erupting upward in a cascade of stone and earth that moved with the force of an avalanche. But where a normal person would have been crushed instantly, Jeremi simply... wasn't there anymore.
The shadows had claimed him again, and the real battle was about to begin.
Somewhere in the facility's depths, Anjero raced through corridors toward his brother's location, unaware that upstairs, the confrontation that would determine all their fates was already underway.
The rescue mission had become a war zone.