The Reaper Virus

Gideon Montare was like any other family man in Fiore. Tough as nails merchant by day, fun-loving parent and spouse by night. Always putting his family ahead of anything else, his wife Elsea and his daughter Ceanie, Gideon would always perform well with a conviction to give his wife and daughter the best and most comfortable life they could have. He was the owner of a restaurant in Era, and while not the best, it was most definitely good enough to attract an unending stream of loyal customers. The man was also a great boss, not the type to just sit tight in his office but the type who would be the busiest man in the entire restaurant. He would wait on tables, serve the dishes, clean the tables, chat with the customers and if needed, he could also be found cooking in the kitchen, working shoulder to shoulder with the head cook with the same ease.

His employees would always chide him for overworking himself, being the earliest to open up and the last one to close up the restaurant. Gideon would always wave them off goodnaturedly, knowing that they were concerned about him. He knew himself the best after all, since he was also a health buff. He needed to be always healthy if he wanted to take care of his wife and daughter.

The lights were turned off one by one, save for the one by the cashier as Gideon was working on tabulating the business for the day. His last employee to leave for the night shouted out a good night to which the restaurant owner replied earnestly. He was almost done as well and he would be able to close up after this. It was a normal routine for him like any other night, but the fates would not have it. As he wrote down the amount of revenue they had brought in today into the accounting books, the man was just about to place the Jewels back into the cash register when a sudden pang of pain hit him.

Gideon’s eyes widened in shock and pain as his left hand dropped whatever he had holding and his right hand shot to his chest, clutching hard at where his heart would be. His mouth opened but no sound came out. And just like that, Gideon Montare fell off his seat, his left hand snagging onto the open cash register and bringing it crashing down along with him. The man’s heart had stopped beating. In the morning, when his employees would return to the restaurant, not knowing that their boss hadn’t closed up for the night, they would receive a shock when they saw their boss dead on the ground.

The doctor verifying the death would sign it off as a heart attack from over exhaustion, as would all the other cases across Fiore and other countries. However it was just the beginning. With a rate of someone in the world having a heart attack and dying from it every one minute, none of the doctors around the world noticed the pattern until it was too late. And in Fiore, when it was finally discovered, it was an accidental discovery because of the near-death of a Magic Council member.

The Council member’s name was Dunan Thomas, a well-respected Council member who had once carved out a name for himself as the Undying Dunan. The man’s magic, a lost magic, allowed him to recover from almost any wound while keeping him immune from diseases. The immunity from all diseases had also allowed the man to live a very frivolous life in his younger days, the number of women he had gone through countless, regardless if they were proper or not. After all, the man had nothing to worry about sexually transmitted diseases.

But the new virus had almost beaten him. The man had succumbed to a sudden heart attack, to the shock of all his colleagues. While the other victims’ deaths were instantaneous, the lost magic in Dunan Thomas had kept him alive for a few precious seconds, giving enough time for someone to administer healing magic and pull him back from the brink of death. And that's how all the experts on diseases were brought in on the case, working day and night since a week ago racing to find a cure while people were collapsing from heart failures.

The virus, called the Reaper virus within the labs running tests to root out the source of the virus and also to work on the vaccine, was kept a secret from the general populace. The only ones outside of the Magic Council that were privy to the information were the higher-ups of the Rune Knights. And to top it all of? There was no progress being made at all on producing a vaccine for the Quiet Reaper.

Shane read the encrypted message sent through a custom-made iLac model with a stony expression and furrowed brows. He had received a very troubling message, one that threatened to leave him with a headache. At the same time, it also got his blood racing. Deleting the message after having memorized the message in one go, the rogue Rune Knight turned off the iLac and placed it back into his pants pocket. It was a lovely day to be out in Era and the former General of the Spec Ops division was enjoying a cup of coffee carefreely on the second-floor verandah of a quaint little cafe, situated in an alley not too far away from where he used to work. He could spy the Rune Knight headquarters from where he sat, grinning slightly.

It was no secret now to the whole of Fiore that Shane Stern, once the General of the Rune Knights, was now a fugitive wanted by the Magic Council and the Rune Knights. According to official reports, the ex-Rune Knight was wanted for the brutal murder of a Magic Council member called Western Donovan. General Ceostra and Major General Phacelia had been tasked with his arrest but through some method, Shane had managed to escape. As far as he knew, the Magic Council had tagged him the highest spot on the wanted list, instantly increasing his infamy to the same level as a Warlord.

And if the Magic Council knew that the former General was lurking within Era, sporting nothing but a full beard, the entire city would definitely be thrown into chaos with Rune Knights poking every alley looking for him.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Shane went through a mental list of the people that would be able to help him on this job. The man opened up his iLac and went through the documents stored within. If any Rune Knight had poked over his shoulder to take a look, they would be shocked still as the former General scrolled through the confidential dossiers of all the Rune Knight personnel. And they were even updated to boot, with not a single new recruit missing. Shane scrolled around for a bit, stopping on Major General Phacelia for a few seconds, before shaking his head slightly.

He had given his Major General, a good man by his standards, too much trouble. He would loathe to pull that man further into trouble unless necessary. And then his finger stopped swiping, as a certain dark-haired recruit appeared into view. The rogue Rune Knight grinned, finally finding the perfect candidate for the job. The blonde mage navigated to his contacts and with a few clicks later, Shane sent out a message to the particularly feisty yet intelligent recruit that he had had the chance of working with on a few occasions.

“Meet me tonight at ten at the old church on Crickett Avenue. I hope I’ve earned enough of your trust in the past to believe me when I say I need your assistance for something major. Shane Stern,” the message wrote. Looking at the animation of the message being sent on the screen of the iLac, Shane checked the time and then walked out of the cafe after paying for his drink. It was only three in the afternoon. He had plenty of time for what he was going to do next before it was time to meet Lilith.

[1379 words]
[Total WC: 1379]

“Good morning,” Shane called out to the security guard at the entrance to the three-storey building with a cheerful smile on his face. “This is my first day. Do I go in this way?”

“Show me your tag. Which lab are you working with?” the security guard asked in a drawling voice as he extended his hand out to Shane. Shane fumbled around in his coat pocket and pulled out a nametag after a few seconds, with a photo that matched Shane’s current appearance. Shane had disguised himself through magic, making himself look younger and changed his hair color to black with shorter hair. The name below the image, however, was written: Steve Rogers.

“Tag on your front pocket, Rogers,” the guard said as he returned the name tag to Shane after jotting down his details in his logbook. “Scan your tag on the scanner and you will find the elevators up ahead.”

“Thanks,” Shane replied with an earnest nod and a grateful smile before doing as instructed. The former Rune Knight had only just obtained the working passcard an hour before, having struck up a deal with one of his sources. He missed the days where his Rune Knight identity could get him anywhere he needed regardless of the level of security clearance, but it was a good chance to use all the favors he had saved up all this time. Shane’s network of informants wasn’t only limited to what the Rune Knights had to offer.

As he stepped into the elevator with a few other researchers who were dressed in white coats, Shane jabbed the button for level B3. The elevator moved downwards and stopped at B1 and B2 first with the other researchers walking out at their respective floors, leaving Shane to himself. When the door finally opened at the third basement level, he walked out casually, nodding and smiling to anyone he passed by. Most of them just nodded in return before walking briskly away.

When he finally reached the doors to a lab with a nameplate inscribed with the name “Dr. Elizabeth Rosabel” on it, Shane knocked twice on the door before opening it. As he entered the brightly lit room, filled with plenty of apparatus and equipment Shane couldn’t recognize, Shane saw that the Dr. Elizabeth wasn’t even looking at him. She was too busy looking through a microscope, her left hand manipulating a dial that would allow her to zoom in and out for her observation while her right hand was holding a pen and busily writing down whatever came to her mind. She had been too distracted by her job to notice Shane’s entry which made it easier for the latter.

“So you were the one who made the daring theory that the Reaper virus is similar to something from Joya?” Shane spoke up as he half-sat, half-leaned on one of the tables closer to the door, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Dr. Elizabeth Rosabel spun around in an instant, a look of surprise on her face, as she looked at the man who had entered her lab without her notice. When he had entered the room, the former Rune Knight had already reverted back to his original appearance, hoping that the woman wouldn’t recognize him behind the beard.

“Who are you?” the young woman said, in a hushed tone but alarmed. “How did you get in here?”

“I knocked twice. Door was unlocked. Dr. Elizabeth, you were the one who theorized that the Reaper virus was similar to something that’s already disappeared from the world and if we wanted a cure, it would probably be found in the jungles of Joya, yes?” Shane answered her questions nonchalantly with a shrug before delving into the meat of the issue at hand.

“Yes?” the female doctor answered guardedly as her eyes darted around the room wildly. From what he knew, Elizabeth Rosabel was an outdoorsy type and with an intrusion like his into her lab, she was the type to find a weapon and bash his face in rather than scream for help. Shane couldn’t be bothered about her attempt anyway, as long as she didn’t try to shout for help.

“Liz, please focus. I’m here to help. You need to find your cure in Joya, I’m the one who can bring you there and back in one piece,” Shane explained in a calming and soothing voice but the moment he finished, a microscope flew in his direction. It was a spare one, not the one that the doctor had been peering through. It was a solid throw but not good enough as Shane snatched it out of mid-air and put it back down on the table.

“Liz. I’m a Captain from a special division in the Rune Knights,” Shane continued speaking, not in the least pissed by the expected act of resistance from the woman. He was the one who had barged into her lab anyway. However, the moment he mentioned he was from the Rune Knights, the female researcher began looking at him through slightly squinted eyes.

“What’s your name? And how do I know you aren’t lying?” Liz asked as she took a moment of silence to scrutinize Shane and reanalyze what he had said. She had grown frustrated as well by the lack of response from her higher ups regarding her theory and consequential field expedition. This was partly due to her wild theories and experiments that she was always busying herself with, giving herself a bad reputation among her fellow peers. But right now, Elizabeth Rosabel was damnably sure that the solution they needed was from Joya. She had recognized a specific trait in the Reaper virus that had resembled one of the findings from her previous experiments.

How word about it had gotten to the Rune Knights wasn’t surprising, considering how she had spoken about it to anyone who would give her time, trying to convince them, albeit losing them after five minutes.

With a flick of his hand, Shane pulled out a metal pendant that indicated his identity as a Rune Knight and then returned it to his Requip dimension. “You’ve seen my Rune Knight pendant. My name’s Shane Stern. Like I said, I’m here to bring you to Joya, help you get what you need, and then return here to finish your research.”

-----

“You don’t respect the dead much, do you?” Liz spoke with distaste as Shane sat on one of the unmarked tombstones while waiting for Lilith’s arrival. Shane ignored the woman, watching the watch on his wrist until he heard the sound of stones and grass being crushed underfoot. When Lilith was finally in view, Shane called out to her with a loud voice. He wasn’t afraid of being heard, since the old church had been abandoned for quite some time and the surrounding neighborhood wasn’t exactly the type you wanted to hang out in.

When the raven-haired female Rune Knight finally appeared, Shane turned to look at Lilith. There was nothing much to say about how much she had changed or anything like that since Shane hadn’t really left the Rune Knights that long. However, he was still grateful that the girl who had only worked with him a few times had trusted him enough to meet him alone. He knew how Lilith was like, and if she really did walk into the church alone, she really did walk into the church alone. There was no need to worry that she had other Rune Knights waiting in the dark to ambush him.

“Thanks so much for trusting me, Lilith,” Shane said as he stepped forward, with a grin on his face.

“Liz, please meet Lilith. Lilith, she’s Doctor Elizabeth Rosabel,” Shane gestured to the both of them in turn as he did the introductions. When the girls were done, Shane continued, “Liz, can you please explain to Lilith what we spoke about?”

The doctor nodded and cleared her throat before speaking, “Currently there’s a virus that’s making its round around Fiore. Everyone, or at least the people who know about it, call it the Reaper virus. Once the virus gets into your system, it’s a matter of time before it just decides to have fun and give you a heart attack. At the moment, we are not making any progress into figuring out what makes the virus go berserk to induce the heart attack. And there’s no cure as well. However, from what I have studied before, the Reaper virus is very similar to an old virus from Joya that’s supposed to have died out. I have tried to talk to my superiors to get me there to get samples to figure it out but no one listened to me. Until Stern broke into my lab today and brought me out here.”

“The level of panic and ensuing havoc will destroy Fiore once the public finds out about this. To avoid that, I’ll be using my own resources to bring Liz in and out of Joya and get this all wrapped up. You know this isn’t really the kind of thing I do, Lilith. I need someone with more brainpower than myself to get us through this and I decided you would be perfect for the job.”

Elizabeth Rosabel:

[1548 words]
[Total WC: 3870 words]

“Like how all the missions I command begin. On my airship. We’ll talk more about this on our way there,” Shane said with a smirk. He had been glad that Lilith had trusted him enough to meet him at the abandoned church in the middle of the night, and he was even more sure of his choice when the dark-haired female Rune Knight had agreed to join him on the mission. A thought at the back of his head nagged at him, for attempting to carry out this mission with just the three of them, especially when it concerned traversing hostile territory and the protection of what could be the only person capable of creating the cure for the Reaper virus. However, Shane didn’t have a choice. His best squads, the Chess Team and Team Bravo, had been sent out on their own missions, no longer being kept in reserve for deployment on jobs that required the best of the best. Lilith was definitely a necessary requirement to the job, regardless of the quality of soldiers he could bring on this job.

What he could prepare was a group of able-bodied mercenaries, freelance mages that didn’t belong to any guild but were disciplined to a certain extent. Shane led the two girls through the graveyard and deeper into the church compound before moving past a broken fence and into a clearing. Trees surrounded them all around, providing enough cover for Shane to hide his prized airship, the Boltreaver. Standing to one side of the clearing, near the open door to the back of the airship was a group of five mages, each of them suited up in rugged wear for their mission. All of them glanced at Shane and quickly stood up, excitement and anticipation clearly displayed on their visages.

“Get your gear ready and your ass into the ship,” Shane spoke indifferently toward them, pointing casually at the open door of the airship before turning around to Elizabeth. “Liz, please follow them into the airship. I’ve got something to discuss with Lilith first.”

Elizabeth Rosabel gave Shane a questioning glance, squinting her eyes slightly but she said nothing after a few seconds and merely nodded, walking towards the airship as well. When all of them were finally waiting in the airship, Shane turned around to look at Lilith. He wasn’t underestimating the girl nor painting her as a damsel in distress, but he felt that it was best to check with her again. Unlike all the other missions that she had been given and all the other black ops he had run, this was a truly illegal mission. No organization or country would bail them out if they were caught in enemy hands, nor would anyone sent out anyone to rescue them. If they failed, this was it. This would be their last mission. And he felt that Lilith might not necessarily understand the gravity of the situation.

“I have something that I think you should know before we start the mission,” Shane started, before clearing his throat. However as he wanted to continue speaking, Shane’s mind churned again. Ever since he had started as the General of the Special Operations division, he had evaluated each one of the members that had joined before and after him. He trusted the capabilities of each and every one of them. Among them, Lilith would rank in the top few in terms of efficiency when it came to her assignments. And to question her decision now was tantamount to doubting her abilities.

“In every op that I run, every soldier has a nickname to safeguard our identity. Mine’s Cap, short for obvious reasons. It’s your time to choose yours. Liz will be Doc, just to keep it simple while the rest of the team will be called by their last names,” Shane said instead, putting whatever worries or concerns he had to the back of his mind and chose to start the mission with something exciting instead.

-----

At 15,000 feet in the air, cruising through the skies towards the destination, the airship driven by one of Shane’s most loyal soldiers who had taken time off to join this mission, Shane stood up from his seat near the cockpit. The entire back portion of the Boltreaver had been modified, cleared out and installed with two rows of seats facing each other. With one arm raised above his head, palm pressed to the top of the airship, Shane looked at the watch on his right hand and smiled grimly at his team that consisted of another Rune Knight aside from him, a research specializing in viruses, and five mages that had signed up for the job.

The five of them sat together in a row. The one closest to Shane was a female mage with her long hair parted to the side and shaving the other side. She was dressed in a various shades of dark purple. Her electrical and shadow abilities pinned her as a mage that specialized in speedy attacks. Her name was Colomar. Sitting beside her was Shrike, another female mage that was bundled in thick layers of clothing that included a hood over her face, leaving a shock of white hair extending from below the hood. What seemed like a spear poking out from a tall bag nestled between her legs was actually the barrel of a sniper rifle. Moving on was Correia, a man with long dreadlocks and dressed in a dull, earth-toned sleeveless shirt that he had grudgingly put on compared to the neon green one he had worn when he had first met Shane. The expression on the man’s face was a mixture between anticipation and fear. Despite suffering grievous injuries that had taken his lower half away and eventually restored with an entirely mechanical lower half, making him a cyborg, the fear on his face showed that Correia was absolutely human.

The other two down the line was Aleksandra, the musclehead of the team of recruited mages. From the back, her gigantic built, her awe-inspiring muscles and cropped pink hair would mislead anyone to think it was a guy, but from the front, she was well-endowed enough to make it impossible to get her gender wrong. Shane had personally evaluated her weaponry, and he couldn’t demand any more from her heavy plasma cannon. The last of the five was a man entirely clad in grey armor, not revealing even a single bit of flesh. In fact, he was even more cyborg-like than Correia. The man hardly ever spoke but Shane knew better than to belittle him especially when he had his sword out. Shane only knew him as Sparrow.

“Everyone, unbuckle and get your parachutes over your back. We will be flying over the most hostile parts of Joya, and while most Joyan tribes are welcoming of outsiders, you can be absolutely sure that whoever we are searching for, hates us to our very core. Hence, we will be making our entry as silent as possible. For this, we will be doing a HALO drop. You will follow my lead. You jump when I jump and you open your chutes when you see mine open. No hesitation. You get the timing wrong and you will be a splat on the ground,” Shane spoke with an indifference in his voice. This was all normal to him, anyway.

A trembling hand slowly rose up, and Shane looked in the direction of Elizabeth. Shane smirked as the woman found difficulty in expressing her question.

“You’re with me, Doc,” Shane reassured with a smile before turning to the rest again. “Make sure you put on your communication devices as well. We’ll be dropping in five more minutes.”

------

Air rushed into the airship, creating a whooshing sound in his ears as Shane stood near the door when it opened. Elizabeth was securely strapped to his front, so that she wouldn’t have to control any parachute. The woman looked like she was going to positively faint, her limbs barely functioning with Shane making up for him with his strength. With one hand holding the side of the airship, Shane looked at Lilith, flashed a grin and a thumbs up before letting himself and Elizabeth fall.

He trusted the rest of the team to know what to do based on his earlier instructions. As the team cut through the air, Shane held up his watch, a series of digital numbers counting down rapidly from five digits to four digits. The moment the last of the four digits disappeared to leave only three, Shane pulled on his parachute. They were treated to a sudden jerk as the parachute caught air, before slowing their descent and as Shane fixed his eyes on the landing zone, a curse left his mouth just as quickly. Their landing zone was a clearing entirely covered with tall grass that stood as tall as seven feet, and ringed by trees. But at the moment, it was crawling with enemies.

“Landing zone’s hostile, team! Move low the moment you touch down and head for the left side of the landing zone. Get behind those trees,” Shane shouted through the communication devices as he watched magic spells being thrown across their landing zone, two different groups of enemies on each side of the landing zone. It was just their luck to land right in the middle of battle. Right now, from their aerial view, the battling forces occupied the top and bottom side of the landing zone, leaving only the right and left free to move through. However, the right side led to a downwards slope that might not be ideal for them to traverse in the dark.

“Vixen! The moment we land, bring Doc to safety. I will be right behind you,” Shane called out through the communicators. While he spoke, his shield was already out, strapped to his left forearm, glowing for a second before eight beams of light shot outwards from the shield, finding their target in each of the team, providing them with a magical barrier that should ward off at least one or two attacks. Shane and Elizabeth was protected by the magical barrier as well. The moment his feet touched the ground, Shane dropped down low among the tall grass, unbuckling Elizabeth from him. The woman was shaking, her eyes unfocused as fear had taken over her but Shane grabbed her by the shoulders tightly.

“Doc! Doc!” Shane hissed twice before he got the woman’s attention. “Follow Vixen! She will protect you while I bring up the rear. Go!”

[1765 words]
[Total WC: 6413]

The moment Shane saw that Lilith had taken charge of the situation, leading the way out of the battle zone, he raised himself slightly out of the tall grass to get a view of the situation. The moment his blonde hair peaked out of the brown grass, swaying wildly in the storm of magical energy being shot out in every direction, Shane was forced to duck again, a tight beam of flame narrowly missing his head. The former Rune Knight cursed silently before trying his chances again, this time shield raised slightly higher and nearer to his head just in case. Bringing his head up just enough for him to peek above the grass line, the operative was horrified. There were two groups of mages battling it out, individual fights between members of the two groups spotted here and there and they have landed right in their middle.

Their arrival had flamed the tension even further, with both sides upping their firepower, each side misunderstanding the situation and thinking that their enemies had reinforcements. Scanning the entire field while still keeping an eye on Lilith and Doc’s progress, Shane found the members of his squad. Colomar and Shrike had managed to get out of the way, making a huge detour around the field to meet up with Lilith and Doc while Correia was in the midst of taking down two targets in close combat.

“Cap! Orders?” Aleksandra’s voice appeared next to him. Despite her stature, she had managed to approached him silently. Sparrow was beside her, having been identified by his almost-silent breathing through Shane’s hearing. Shane took heed of her question without looking in her direction and after a quick scan of the area, began to give his orders.

“Aleks, to your three o’clock, blast the shit out of them, aim low. Sparrow, move fast and meet up with Vixen,” Shane ordered the member with the highest firepower, aiming for the direction opposite of where Lilith and Doc were moving through.

“Received,” Sparrow whispered as he dashed with a low posture through the grass. His stealth was something to marvel at, nary a disturbance in the grass as he moved through them, like a fish in water. Shane watched in admiration, while Aleksandra rose to her full height, her plasma cannon requipped into her hands. The weapon was huge, hanging by a strap over her left shoulder across her chest as the cannon rested on her right hip. Her right hand was placed over the grip, with her fingers resting gently on the trigger, wide and heavy enough that it would require her to press down on it with all four fingers to activate it. Her left hand was holding down another grip perpendicular to the trigger, to keep the weapon in place.

“I am unstoppable!!” the woman shouted all of her being as her cannon responded in kind with its own roar. Bolts upon bolts of plasma were expelled from the cannon, shearing through the grass as the weapon was held just below the grass level. Like a razer going over a grizzled chin, the grass was cut down to half of their original height, revealing the muscular woman with the cannon as she gunned down whoever was within range of fire. For a few minutes the only sound was Aleksandra and her weapon roaring, and when the unholy din had ended, all was quiet.

“Go go go go go!” Shane caught her by the shoulder and spun her around in the direction of the rest of the members and the two of them quickly ran upright through the grass. The moment they exited the field and hit the tree line, the shocked enemies had already regained their senses and instead of resuming their battle, had chosen to attack all of them at once instead. At the back of the group, Shane was constantly shouting for them to move faster despite the ascending slope. They were running up a mountain.

[662 words]
[Total WC: 8081]