"Wait! Wait! Please, don't kill me! I'll tell you everything!" The man who was talking with the woman who planned on taking him to the Golden Boar was dangling in the air as Angela held him by the throat.

All around them was silence as every single person had been killed by the three of them, minus this man and his female friend.

The woman was currently knocked out on the ground with power-dampening gauntlet cuffs attached to her arms.

"Jin told us to keep you alive, so count yourself lucky." Angela cooled down her fingers, the frost biting against the man's neck. She was showing him that they meant business, and if he made one wrong move, it was over for him.

"Before we begin, let me get rid of this." Jin slammed his palm against the man's belly, an emp combined with mana pulsing through his body, rattling his organs, but also destroying the bomb inside him.

"I don't want you to die like that woman from the casino."

"Smart thinking." Addison had forgotten about the casino woman blowing up in front of them and was not interested in experiencing that again.

"Tell me, what is Project Omega? And before you answer, just know that I'm not in the mood for you to say that you don't know. Each time you utter those exact words, I'm cutting off a body part."

Jin's voice shot daggers into the man, and he gulped in fear. The contingency plan the Sons of Adam placed inside every one of their members was now off the table, and he had no choice but to comply.

"P-Project Omega is an operation we are currently working on. It's said that once completed, the power dynamic of the world will change." The man tried his best to explain.

"How so? Is it a weapon?" Jin asked

"I-I don't—" He caught himself before saying those words. "That's above my clearance. Y-You see the tattoo on my arm, I'm a part of the Brotherhood gang. We are just foot soldiers in the cult. We only know so much." Though he tried to keep calm, he was panicking on the inside.

"Hmm. So what does Project Omega have to do with Phoenixes?" Addison asked

"T-That part was left out in the briefing. A-All I know is that a phoenix core is a vital component of Project Omega. Without it, the project will fail."

Jin thought about the many possibilities a phoenix core could be used for. Healing seemed like the likely option in his mind, but there were many other ways to use a phoenix core, such as using it to power a weapon, some other type of device, or even a performance-enhancing drug.

"Hmmm. And the permanent power-dampening? What is that for?"

The man gave Jin a weird look, as if the name wasn't obvious enough. "To permanently remove the powers from women, obviously!"

"I see." Jin slammed his fist into the man's belly, knocking him out. "Let's free these birds and clean this place up. After that, we'll report back to HQ."

"We'll report back to HQ." Angela mocked Jin. "You just want to sound cool."

"Is that an ice joke?"

"No. I'm... never mind."

---

It didn't take long for the three of them to clean up the area and free the flame and red birds. Addison moved all the dead bodies to one area where she then burned them.

Angela made sure the burning didn't spread throughout the grove, using her powers to contain the flames in a specific location.

Jin dismantled all of the tech that was currently blocking all radio signals, allowing for communication with the Aegis Corps to be restored.

He also took this time to look through the database left behind on the cult's computers, but everything was protected by layers and layers of encryption. So, he took one of the laptops with him for later.

"Jin to Lockjaw, we've completed our mission. Heading back to base now."

"This is Lockjaw, copy that. See you back at the base."

"SQUAKKKKKKK!!!!" The phoenix rubbed its head on Jin's shoulders, thanking him for rescuing its family.

"Heh, no problem, buddy. Fly safely out there, okay? It's a dangerous world."

"SQUAKKKKKK!" The phoenix flapped its wings and took off, the other birds following behind.

"It's time for us to leave as well."

"Last one there is a rotten egg!" Angela flew off on her hoverboard.

"Wow. What is this, middle school? Am I right, Addi—" Addison took off as well, not wanting to be a rotten egg. "Unbelievable."

Jin tossed a metal disk over the man and woman he didn't kill, a holo-barrier wrapping around them, then took off into the skies with them following as his prisoners.

---

"And that's everything that happened." Jin finished giving his report to Mrs Lockman with Mrs Horton present, as he was in her office.

"I see. So this Sons of Adam cult is still busy, huh?" Mrs Horton tapped a pen on her desk, thinking about what to do next. She had wanted Jin to stay away from this mess, but it seemed like the mess would always find him.

"What could they be planning?" Mrs Lockman wondered.

"I don't know. According to Jin's report, including the one before Olympus fell, this cult is aiming to remove us women from power."

"But that's impossible." Jin butted in. Sure, technology exists that can remove a woman's power, but you all still have access to technology. It's not like we're a society split between powerless men who rely on tech and powerful women who don't rely on it."

"What are you trying to say?" Mrs Horton asked

"I'm saying that if there's tech to strip your powers, there's tech to bring it back. Also, beings like you, Mrs Horton, are alone to tip the scales of the world. You can end all of them with the wave of her hand."

"If I know where they were." She muttered under her breath.

Mrs Lockman looked at her tablet, then swiped two images from it into the air. "Hopefully, these two people you captured can give us some answers."

"Yes, hopefully." Mrs Horton leaned back in her chair and wiped the strain from her eyes. "Jin, for now, rest, okay? I'll call you when there is another mission for you to take on. And before you ask, no, I'm still not allowing you to be involved in this."

"I understand."

"Oh, and here. This is your room key. Since you're an official member of the Corps now...kind of...You have your own living quarters at the apartments that are provided to members."

"Thanks." He took the room key and then left her office.

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