"He's on the move," I muttered.
"Stay close. Don't strike yet. We're almost there," Jacob instructed through the comms.
"Wait… what's he doing?" Javi asked, his voice sharp with suspicion.
"Looks like he's writing something," Ralph observed.
"Is he gonna—?" My breath hitched. "Oh, fuck. He noticed us."
"Wait, what?! You guys don't know how to silence your music? What kind of Echoists are you?" Jacob snapped. "Just run! Try to lose him!"
"Too late," Javi said grimly.
***
The sack was yanked off my head, and I had to blink a few times to adjust to the dim, flickering light. The air was thick with sweat and damp wood—one of those places where bad deals went down and people never walked out.
I scanned the room. Stone walls. A single bulb swaying above us. A group of men in black suits standing like they were carved from stone. But my focus went straight to the guy in the middle.
Short. Round. Balding. His belly stretched his silk shirt like he was smuggling a watermelon. He wiped his greasy forehead with a handkerchief, then flashed a grin that made my skin crawl.
"Damn," Javi muttered beside me. "No handsome villains anymore?"
I exhaled sharply. "Great. A pig in a suit."
Oh… it's you guys! I almost didn't remember you're reading this. Yeah, you must be wondering how we got into this situation. So here's a quick recap.
I really gotta stop leaving you guys hanging. Okay, I promise—this is the last time I'm doing this.
So... after Jacob, our Harmonic—the guy who's supposed to supervise us—crashed the party and told us we were going on our first tour that night, we set out. The mission? Rescue the son of a very wealthy businessman.
We got a lead.
A guy told us he knew a guy, who saw a guy, that had something to do with a guy, which led us to another woman.
The woman claimed she knew nothing. Then, out of nowhere, she told us a guy came to her. That guy knew nothing either, but she knew a guy who knew a guy… who had once heard about a guy… who used to work for a guy… who once did a job for another guy… who just so happened to owe a favor to this one guy… who had an ex-girlfriend that left him for a guy… who once got scammed by a guy… who used to sell things to a guy… who once shared a cab with a guy… who had a barber that cut hair for a guy… who had a cousin that borrowed money from a guy… who lived in the same apartment complex as a guy… who had a drinking buddy that once mentioned a guy…
~ Three hours later ~
…who finally led us to a warehouse.
That's where we saw the kid. And that's also where we got company. Those lil goons in suits, like... who do they all like wearing suits?
Levi and Jacob (our supervisor) stayed back to fight while the rest of us pursued the kidnappers—with stealth, of course.
And now? Well... let's just say things didn't go exactly as planned.
Guess what? We got kidnapped too.
And now we're here… with a pig in a suit.
Wonders shall never end.
"I'm Kunal..." his stupid mouth uttered. "I was doing some business with my boys… then I heard loud music—"
He started rambling.
"Oh, fuck it. I'm not listening to this," I said.
The Echomaker snapped into my hand like Thor's hammer, all dramatic and shit. The ropes tore like they were made of noodles. I barely thought before I swung—WHAM—right into the pig's ugly face. He hit the ground like a dropped bag of rice.
The second my fist connected, the room exploded. Metaphorically of course.
One dude reached for a gun—Ralph was already there. He didn't even think, just grabbed the guy's whole face and slammed him into the floor so hard the boards cracked.
Some other idiot ran at Javi. Javi barely even looked up before twisting his hammer mid-air—BAM!—right into the guy's ribs. Bro folded like a plastic chair.
Damn, maybe these weaklings aren't so weak after all. But they're still side characters tho.
Me? I had two of them on me. One went for my arm—bad choice. I twisted the Echomaker, and the frets turned into the grip just as the edges sharpened. My first hit knocked the guy's weapon away, the second? A clean strike across his arm. He yelped and let go. I kicked him straight into his friend, knocking both of them over like bowling pins. Just like the MC I am.
Ralph? Bro was just grabbing people and throwing them like trash bags. Extra, ughh!
Javi flipped his hammer mid-grip, dodged a punch like he was bored, then drove the handle straight into the dude's stomach. The guy hit the ground wheezing like an old generator.
I turned back to Kunal, ready to drag his face across the floor—except...
He was gone.
Just—poof.
The floorboards where he'd landed were empty. No blood, no dust, no nothing. Just... air.
I blinked. "Yo... where's the pig?"
Ralph looked up from where he'd just body-slammed a guy into a wall. "Huh?"
Javi, mid-swing, frowned. "Wait. He was right there."
Then I felt it.
A faint shift in the air, like something had just... moved. Not walked. Not ran. Just—shifted. 001, take over the narration please, I'm exhausted.
The lights flickered again, buzzing like angry wasps. A sudden chill crawled up my arms. My grip on the Echomaker tightened.
Something wasn't right.
That's when I realized—
"The kid's gone too," I muttered.
We all stood there, surrounded by knocked-out goons, trying to figure out how the hell a whole man and a child had disappeared.
Just then, Jacob and Levi teleported before us, battle-ready and alert.
"Are these the kidnappers?" Jacob asked, scanning the dead bodies.
"It would seem so," I responded, my eyes narrowing. "But something feels off..."
"Levi, can you teleport us out of here?" I added quickly, sensing the tension rising.
Levi shook his head, his breath slightly uneven. "I can't teleport this many people... and to be honest, I'm still winded from that last fight."
"Then we're trapped"