The One Left Behind [Part 3]

In one of the many training rooms of the XSG’s new Wu Headquarters, a large crowd had assembled to behold a sight they rarely got the chance to see; a martial artist against other martial artists, pure skill and physical might surpassing the various mystical and semi-mystical arts of his opponents. They were skeptical at first, but their doubt was slowly replaced with awe and amazement in the face of incredible displays of prowess the lone martial artist showed. Again and again were his opponents defeated, and soon the news of an undefeatable martial artist spread through the base, attracting the attention of various warriors who sought to disprove the apparent invincibility of the uppity fool.

But Mellow Proudmoore was no fool.

He moved in a dervish of striking limbs and viper-fast kicks, sending opponents wielding fiery fists or lightning breaths falling to the matted floor in a boneless pile. He would help them off, and kindly gesture for the next challenger to step forward.

It was a test, for himself and his fellow XSG operatives. To see how well they measured up against his skill and how he measured up to theirs.

It was frankly fascinating to see so many different types of martial art styles in one place. He fought against Elves with a martial art style centered around geokinesis, lizardmen with the ability to project and direct air, humans who would breath and mold fire into exotic shapes and forms. He even fought a few mages who came up with the clever idea to meld spellwork with fisticuffs, forming a unique blend of might and magic that Mellow had only seen once on his homeworld.

But while these styles were certainly fearsome, they were still overly flashy and lacked the edge that Mellow’s mastered Savate had. The brutal efficiency of mere punches and kicks driven through sheer physical strength outweighed the fantastical effects of wind blades, fire breaths, and thrown boulders.

And in his spars with other close-combat specialists of the XSG, it showed.

Instincts and skill honed to superhuman levels after countless battles against powerful opponents, pushed into straight supernatural territory after being enhanced and augmented further by Doctor Gottfried’s genius, broke martial forms and techniques honed to perfection across generations. Brute skill and immense speed picked apart the grand gestures and graceful movements with an almost methodical efficiency.

After he downed yet another martial artist, Mellow got back up and wiped the sweat from his brow. His muscles ached from the exhaustion, but it was a good kind of ache. The kind that spoke of progress and gradual advancement.

He glared at his arms, frowning at the unnatural lack of feeling from them. He dismissed his growing distaste and addressed the fighters gathered around him.

“That’ll be all for today boys and girls!” Mellow said. “Thanks for the spars everyone! Learned plenty from you all!”

Various murmurs of polite dismissals of his thanks were heard, and Mellow nodded at everyone as they filed out of the room. He walked over to his own training back and took a long swing out of his water bottle. Despite it being a few weeks since his sudden revival and the replacement of his arms for a pair of mechanical ones, Mellow wasn’t quite able to settle into his new lifestyle as a pawn for the much bigger organization known as the XSG.

He wasn’t able to reconcile the fact that he was now working for the bad guys, he supposed. But such a conundrum was to be expected.

Mellow left the training arena and walked down the hall, fresh from a shower and intent on getting his stomach filled with food in preparation for the mission he and his squadmates were assigned to. He rounded a corner and bumped into a familiar looking individual.

"Oh." he blinked and remained relaxed when others in the hall stood straight and saluted. "Hey there Cancer. Sir." he looked him over. "You look like you've been through hell. You okay?"

Gesturing that the saluting isn’t needed, the Sign member motioned Mellow to follow him

"Ah, it’s okay. Had a new mission.” He shrugged tiredly. “It’s so bothersome to fight girls. Had to find a way to manage the mission without killing her. Took more out of me than I thought it would." He clapped Mellow on the shoulder. "Come, let’s get something to eat."

He led Mellow towards the closest cafeteria. It wasn’t usual for most of the Signs or many other Elite Agents to be there and eat something. However, Cancer had been among the few who regularly did that just to talk with the other members of the organization, even the lower ranked Agents. Having talked with Mellow a few times before, he proved to be much more easy-going and friendlier than most other XSG AGents. Due to those traits, that put Cancer solidly in his 'Bro' list.

"I suppose I could." Mellow joked, half-grinning as they entered the cafeteria. "You look like you could use the rest if a dance with a girl could tucker you out that badly. Besides, someone has to keep you from collapsing into your food."

"Well... fighting members of the Demon of the Empire's Team isn't easy. Especially while trying to destroy valuable information they had on us at the same time." Cancer took a plate and filled it with some spicy mixed noodles and a soft drink.

"Ah, so Kaito's still active?" Mellow chuckled fondly, filling his own plate with a literal mountain of sandwiches and a large mug of steaming hot and extra sugary coffee to wash it all down. "Good eldritch abomination he is, looking out for his peeps. He's an enemy sure, but you have to respect his dedication."

"Of course he is. Putting him down would be far too hard even for a big Team.” Cancer nodded. “Luckily, he wasn’t there. One of his higher officers was though; Akemi something. Still enough to make that task pretty exhausting."

Cancer wasted no time in wolfing down his plate and practically inhaling his meal. In stark contrast, Mellow took his time to savor his food; chewing slowly and washing down every mouthful with a sip of the sugary caffeinated drink.

The pair ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes, spending more time filling up their empty stomachs and rejuvenating themselves with much needed energy than actually speaking.

After finishing his meal, Cancer took a moment to stop and look at the young man across from him.

"I wanted to talk with you about something." He asked, prompting Mellow to look at him.

"Sure man." Mellow bit down on another sandwich, talking through a full mouth. "Go ahead."

"Well, I heard that Libra, despite all the odds against it and her uncouth behaviour, actually can stand you pretty well compared to most others.” He started, resting his chin on an open palm. “I wonder how you managed to do that. Honestly, it’s quite amazing to me. She rarely speaks with other members of the team, or even officers.” He smiled, chagrined. “Aries is among the few people she actually cares for and speaks with on a regular basis outside of missions."

Mellow chuckled. So he was curious?

"Two things; Pain tolerance and persistence." Mellow sighed. "Believe me, she is a literal minefield of sore points and problems. In my quest to annoy her, I stepped on more than a few mines and gotten quite the number of scars. Like this one." Mellow showed Cancer a nasty looking scar over his left eye. "Got a little too into teasing her lack of womanly bits that she got pissed and beaned me on the head with a house-sized chain.” He grinned wolfishly “Worth getting her flustered for a few days straight, though."

He took another bite of out a sandwich sip of his coffee.

"But that's the thing; the more you interact with someone, the more you get to know them. In my case, I learned plenty of stuff about Libra that I'm pretty sure most of the Signs don't know about."

"Not too hard considering she rather sticks to herself as long as she doesn't want to get revenge on someone. But still impressive nonthenless." Cancer said jovially voice, his face spotting the always present smile Mellow knew him to have. Yet that smile was gone a few moments when he moved a bit closer to him whispering something to him.

"Speaking of revenge. Normally, I shouldn’t tell you this, but considering all the things that happened and what the eggheads think or at least assume, I do hope you realize she even just made that all possible because she wants revenge on that Morgan guy and on Immortals in general. His words rubbed her off very badly, and it became worse when she considered who he worked for. Who you worked for.” He pulled away “Now, don’t get me wrong; I hate immortals too. And you should really think about dropping that whole schtick. But… the thing that made it possible for you to get so close to her? It won’t stop even if she would begin to like you. She will only try to get you on our side. Which, to be honest, would be quite nice.” He quirked a half-smile. “You are a good guy, Mellow. Nicer than many Signs. You joining us for real would be quite refreshing."

Mellow felt his smile dim into a sad one.

"You too huh? Can't say I'm surprised." Mellow whispered back. "So, I'll have to give you the same answer I gave Libra; no. Don't get me wrong, you're all nice people and I'd rather we fight together than against one another..." Mellow let his shoulders slump. "But I just can't bring myself to hate an entire race of people, Cancer. My heart doesn't work like that. Sure, there are plenty of Immortals that deserve the hate, but there's also plenty more that're just as kind as any other mortal. It might sound impossible to you, but I have personal experience enough to back up that claim."

Mellow bit into his sandwich, partly to eat and partly to give himself some time to think about he would say next.

"I know I won't be able to persuade you to let go of your hate, but you can't let it define you. I've met too many good people who've fallen into that same bloody cycle of vengeance and hatred, and I really hope you don't end up one of them." he shook his head. "You're too nice a guy for that."

"Ohoho~” Cancer laughed, relaxing into his chair. “I, like all the Signs and many others, have been using that hatred quite well. Letting it be our ultimate goal and motivation worked out for us. Some of us may give up if the XSG fails. Some may never give up. It really doesn’t matter. If we succeed, there is no need for a cycle of vengeance and hatred since we effectively end it. If we fail, then perhaps. But we probably will all die then and considering nearly all of us higher-ups have no real family or loved ones left outside of the XSG, there isn’t anyone to go onto a path of vengeance for our sake."

With a hand gesture, a knife appeared in his hand. He played with it for a bit, lazily spinning it in his hand and around his fingers before ramming it into the wooden table. Mellow watched the entire thing and tried not to get too tense.

"That’s one of the reasons Ghost asked us to be crueler than most, actually...” he mused. “No one should be happy to follow us. We live and die for our mission. No one else should try that. If we fail, they will have to think of something new to end this all.” His gaze turned distant and his smile gained a darker edge to it, the positivity gone. “I saw my entire village slaughtered by religious zealots. I see no reason to stop now that we are so close to our goal. They all may not be guilty, but sometimes sacrifices need to be made. And these will be both of us, the XSG and them, the Immortals." A pause. "Also, I think I know some things you don’t know about Libra."

His smile turned positive again at the mention of spilling Libra’s secrets, finished with the previous subject. Mellow took in the change in attitude and mused deeply. From the way he talked about the Signs and how they worked, how they were seemingly coincidentally without love ones, how Immortals seemingly caused some form of pain to them or another... It couldn’t be a coincidence that Ghost so happened to be nearby to offer them a way to achieve that vengeance.

Maybe that Ghost guy isn't as inspiring as they all initially think. But that was his private thoughts on the matter. It's not like he can truly investigate those suspicions as he is now. In the meantime, he'd be better off enjoying what he had.

"Oh yeah?" Mellow grinned wide. "Do tell, I'm always up for hearing tasty tidbits about Libra."

"Please don’t try that. Ghost isn’t the ideal leader, but he is one determined to stomp out anyone trying to look into him.” Cancer whispered to him. Mellow blinked and tried not to sigh too loudly; there went his last bastion of privacy. “Just stick to the XSG members instead of the Boss."

"Yes, I do know some things” Cancer resumed speaking in his normal volume, voice jovial. “Did you know the whole collection of clothes she has is from every city she visits? One piece or more per city, supposedly. With that, her collection truly is an international one. On that clothing thing... she does wear feminine clothes, but only because her old teacher said it would make her look more appropriate in serious situations, and that she would look more womanly because of it. Naturally, she and that chest complex of hers took that advice. And talking about that, do you know what her fetish is? Because we do.” He chuckled. “That came out when she drank with us for the first and last time. She really can’t hold her liquor."

"Dude, I've been living within smacking distance of her for the last month. How could I not figure out what her fetish is? Try as she might, there's not a lot of ways she can hide her secrets from these expert fingers.” Mellow laughed and waggled his brows. “She's a solid dom, with a thing for chains. I don't know if she likes whips or blind folds, but I'll see if she can be goaded into trying it out." He chuckled darkly. "But I certainly didn't know she can't hold her liquor. I think I know what I'll be goading her into next."

Cancer grinned, speaking up as he started playing with the knife again. "You are right. She does like dominating people. More importantly, she likes hurting people; especially guys she thinks are attractive or at least have some connection to what she wants. However, what she told us back then goes beyond that." The kitchen knife vanished, replaced with a stiletto that he expertly manoeuvred between his fingers. "You see, that liking to pain and domination actually swings both ways. Although she rarely shows it as, and I quote; 'I would never find pleasure from some bitchass wimp who can take some blows'.”

He chuckled and spun the weapon in the palm of his hand with an expertise that made Mellow whistle. “She does like fantasizing about her being taken and taking someone who can take the pain and still stay sharp. One reason why she is so fixated on big private parts; usually they belong to powerful guys or monsters. But so far, she always found it disappointing, even if she liked the show when we fought as example the minotaurs a while back. Too wimpy for her, she said.”

“If you really want to go on with her fully, I am sad to say that you will need to take even more beatings. Really not my fetish and style, but I am not one to judge and if you want to get closer to her, it’s the thing to do. Luckily for you, Libra showed much more about herself to you than anyone else before. Or at least anyone in the XSG. Perhaps she will be reason for you to be convinced.” His expression softened as he willed the stiletto to disappear. “I really hope so."

Mellow nodded thoughtfully, finishing off the last of his sandwiches with a grin. It'll be fun to get that out of her with enough time, teasing, and a little alcohol. Still, did he have to emphasis the 'pain' part? High tolerance to it he may have, but Mellow doesn't really like it.

"Thanks for the info, then." Mellow nodded, gathering his used dishes. "I'll make good use of it in the future. Now, I've got a plane to catch that's headed for Varces with my team on it. I better get going before I'm left behind. Any advice I should know?"

Striking a thinking pose, Cancer thought about it before saying his piece. " Don’t try to cause too much trouble and make sure to keep a low profile. Especially during the times you are allowed to act freely. Don’t try to run and escape, but I am sure you know that already.” He hummed. “Something specific to Varces... try to cause a diversion. You guys don’t want to fight big groups of Knights and Soldiers. That would simply be too much for your team. Instead, try to make most of the base busy with something. I am sure local wildlife like monsters or perhaps the nearby orkoide tribes will be useful for that." He stood up himself, beginning to walk away towards the opposite direction Mellow went. Before he fully was out of sight though he swiftly turned around once more and called him "Oh. And try not to die! That’s important!"

"I died once!" Mellow called back with a laugh. "I'm sure I can chance it one more time!" Chuckling, he continued on his way to his teammates.

Time to get to work.