[Thursday, Morning, Secret Base]

Having already arrived at the junkyard and gone down through the circular platform, Jonathan was now in the elevator, descending toward the secret base, dressed in casual clothes. With all the equipment he had picked up, they were now being worn by him.

The ring was on his finger, the glasses hanging from the collar of his shirt, the gun attached to the waistband of his pants, the bracelet on his wrist, the pen and the bomb in his pockets, and the vest on his torso.

He was probably doing it wrong, but it's not like he had much sense, and he didn't have the proper clothes for this either, anyway.

If anyone questioned him, he would simply say they were fake or something like that. At most, they would consider him a weird guy.

With the elevator door opening, the sight inside — which looked like it had come straight out of a science fiction movie — greeted him once again.

Walking, he passed between the agents, greeting them with a wave and a friendly smile.

Some returned the gesture in the same way, others with silent nods, and like that he arrived in front of the familiar room where they had all already gathered.

Upon entering, seeing that they were all already there, he said in a friendly tone. "Hey, guys. Good morning."

"Good morning!" — Alex replied, with an energy you wouldn't expect from someone who woke up that early.

"Good morning." — with his arms crossed and his strong accent, Ivan greeted as well.

"Hey…" — Yusuke said, leaning on the table with his hand on his cheek and a sleepy look.

"Good morning to you, Jonathan." — slightly bowing his head with a faint smile, William greeted him back.

"Hi, good morning." — Nalini greeted him with a soft wave, also seeming somewhat sleepy.

"Hmm." — Emília waved at him while humming.

"Good morning, Jonathan." — Nina returned with a smile as she leaned on the table.

"Good morning." — Xiǎo Xun'er returned with a soft nod, saying it calmly.

"Good morning to you, and you really like showing up late, or something like that, don't you?" — Vanessa also returned the greeting, though questioning him with a raised eyebrow.

Smiling, Jonathan shrugged:

"I'm not late, I arrived fashionably late. And you know how they say: the best always comes last."

She huffed at his answer, turning her face away, while a few others laughed at his words.

Then he turned his gaze to Maya. "Hey, Maya. Good morning."

Lightly nodding her head with a slight smile, she replied. "Good morning, Jonathan. Thank you for coming. Now, please sit."

Doing as she said, he sat quietly. And just as he settled into the chair, he noticed something: everyone else was wearing casual clothes and, just like him, had all the equipment they had chosen simply placed on themselves.

"Looks like I wasn't the only one who had the same idea, huh?" — he said with a slightly raised eyebrow, still looking around.

"What?" — his gaze met Alex's, who asked confused.

Then, shifting to Ivan beside him.

"What?" — he questioned back, looking at himself too, not understanding his look.

Jonathan then shifted his gaze to the two he least expected, William and Xiǎo Xun'er.

The first simply shrugged. "I just prefer it this way."

And Xun'er, on the other corner, nodded calmly in agreement. "It's more convenient."

Jonathan nodded at their answers. "Seems legit." Then he finally turned his attention back to Maya.

"So, did I miss anything or were you all waiting for me to get here?"

"I was explaining to the others what the mission would be and where you were going." — answering him, she then waved her hand, making a hologram project from the table. "As I had said before you arrived, your objective is in Switzerland, in a secret base near the Swiss Alps."

In the hologram, the image was of a snowy mountain.

And then, zooming in, it showed a huge metallic gate fused with the base of the mountain. In front of it, several women with futuristic weapons guarded the gate.

"Damn, it must be cold as hell there. And those daughters of— aren't wearing anything." — Jonathan said when he saw that the ten women guarding the gate weren't wearing thick clothing. Quite the opposite: they all wore tight black tactical outfits, made for combat.

"Just looking and hearing the sound of the wind already gives me chills." — Nalini said, shivering slightly.

"Right." — Jonathan agreed. The hologram also produced sound, and you could faintly hear the wind. That climate definitely wouldn't be friendly.

"You don't need to worry about the weather. You'll have the proper adjustment for that." Maya said, addressing them.

"You intend to send us there alone?" — William, who had been silently watching the hologram, questioned Maya with a raised eyebrow. The others also looked at her in a questioning way.

Crossing her arms, Maya shook her head.

"No. That was something I was just about to say."

Turning to the back, she gestured toward four women sitting in the back. In response, they silently stood up and approached.

"These will be the four agents who will accompany you. They will serve as your leaders and supervisors."

"Just the four of them? Isn't that a little risky?" — Jonathan asked, sounding doubtful. Some nodded in agreement.

"You have a point. However, these four are some of our best agents, each having already undergone genetic enhancements. So don't worry, you'll be in good hands."

"Well… if you say so." — seeing her confidence, Jonathan and the others could only believe anyway.

"This is Francine." — Maya pointed to the closest woman. She was already wearing an all-black combat suit. Tall, muscular, and bald, she silently nodded with her arms crossed.

They returned the greeting, while Jonathan thought, 'She looks like a female version of The Rock, just missing the tattoos.'

"This is Ivete." — next to the bald woman was another tall and muscular woman, though not as much as the first. Black, with short cropped hair close to the scalp and a large bald patch.

"Hello." — she greeted them simply, in a calm tone.

"This is Elisa." — the shortest among the four, though she also had a muscular build. A white blonde woman, with her hair tied in a bun and the sides of her head shaved. Like Francine, she greeted with a silent nod.

"And this is Bridget." — the last one surprisingly seemed the most normal.

Though tall, she had a slim build, at most slightly athletic. Dark brown hair tied in a bun, with loose strands falling at the sides of her face. She smiled warmly and waved, wiggling her fingers. "Hi."

They all returned the greeting, clearly getting the impression that she was the friendliest of the group.

"That said." — Maya crossed her arms again. "These will be the women responsible for your protection and guidance. As I've already said, they are among our best agents, so you don't need to worry. This mission won't be difficult either, since after all it's your first."

She looked at each of them, until Jonathan raised his hand.

"There's something I want to ask. Why are you sending us, regular people, for this kind of thing? Ever since you said we were going to retrieve the remaining pieces of the Correction Disc, I've been thinking… why exactly are we, who are literally important pieces, doing dangerous missions? Shouldn't you send only the agents? Or is there something you didn't tell us, that makes it necessary for us to retrieve these pieces ourselves?"

His question drew the others' attention toward Maya. They all had the same doubt.

"He's right, that was something I was also wanting to know." — Vanessa asked, staring at Maya with crossed arms.

Calmly, the woman met each of their eyes silently for a moment before finally smiling and saying. "I was waiting for you to ask that. And the answer is simple: this is all preparation. A training. In other words, so that you can deal with everything Doctor Eva's remnants will throw our way — especially your way."

Jonathan opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off.

"And why don't we simply train you normally, like we would with other agents?" — she asked herself, smiling at him.

He gave a silent nod.

"The answer to that is simple: time.

We don't have that time."

She raised a finger.

"One year. That's all the time we have. One year to complete our objective, because otherwise we'll be eliminated one by one. You may not grasp that yet, but soon enough you'll understand that we're in a race against time."

'Is the situation really that bad?' — Jonathan wondered internally, frowning.

He knew the others were dangerous. But if they were sending literal key pieces on dangerous missions like this… then things were worse than he thought.

Looking at the others, he saw that many also looked uneasy.

"Are you satisfied with my answer, Jonathan?" — Maya asked.

Letting out a sigh, he nodded.

"Yes. I am."

"Great. Now go with them. They'll help you get ready."

Maya gestured to the four women, who moved toward the glass door to leave. He and the others stood and followed silently behind them.

They walked through the hallways, turning a few corners, until they reached another room with glass doors and walls.

It wasn't a meeting room, judging by the amount of equipment — suits, weapons, and other things — scattered as far as the eye could see.

The four women entered first, and they followed.

Inside, as they looked around curiously, the four handed each of them a case.

"Inside each of these cases are your suits. You can change over there." — Francine said, pointing toward the corner where there was a door.

Exchanging silent glances, they walked to the door she indicated. Upon entering, they found out it was some sort of locker room.

Finding it strange, but not questioning why something like that existed there, he chose one of the stalls and went in, as everyone else did.

Placing the case on a table, he opened it, finding a very familiar black combat suit.

He took the pieces out and found a jacket, pants, boots, and an inner layer.

Scratching his cheek as he thought that was a bit little for someone who had to deal with futuristic weapons — and didn't even have a helmet — he ended up shrugging, accepting it as it was. Maybe the outfit had some kind of protection like a barrier too.

He then began to get dressed.

...

With a soft sound, the elevator door opened and Jonathan, behind the four women together with the others, walked out only to face what looked like a hangar.

He took a few steps but immediately stopped when he saw the massive open gate, the snow falling in heaps along with the wind, the ground outside completely white.

That sight made him wonder. '…How fast are these elevators?' That thing had to be moving at least at the speed of sound to cover a distance between continents in just a few minutes.

"Jonathan?" Alex called, looking in his direction with Ivan standing beside him while the others continued toward a plane.

Turning his eyes away from the outside, he kept moving, joining the others heading toward the aircraft.

"What was that?" Alex asked once he reached his side, walking along with him.

"Nothing, I just realized how fast these elevators are. I mean, it makes sense after all — how else could we meet in the same place while being in different countries?"

"What? I thought we were all in Australia?" Alex asked, staring at him confused.

"What do you mean? Weren't we in Russia?" Ivan questioned, sharing the same confused look.

Jonathan stopped when he heard that.

Seeing the sincere confusion on their faces, he understood they were genuinely asking.

Saying nothing as he stared at the two of them, Jonathan simply patted their shoulders and shook his head before heading toward the plane.

Behind him, the two just exchanged glances without understanding.

...

With the interior of the plane completely silent, Jonathan stared through the round window near his seat, the landscape outside being pure white snow with the occasional mountain.

Sitting in a seat facing the back of the plane, he shared the same type of seat as the others, all buckled in securely.

Pulling his face away from the window, he looked at the others — the guys were sitting beside him, with him occupying one of the corners, and the girls were sitting across from them.

As soon as they entered the plane, Francine instructed them to sit while the four of them stayed in the cockpit.

Then, lowering his eyes, he flexed his hand, feeling the normal temperature, the cold outside not affecting him at all.

"I didn't expect these suits to be so efficient." He commented to himself, referring to that inner outfit that covered him completely except for his feet, hands and head, with him having put on all the pieces including his vest.

'Is this nanotechnology?' He wondered, pulling at the tight collar on his neck.

"Isn't it?" Nalini said while also looking at her own arm. "I think it must be nanotechnology or something like that, though I'm glad they're comfortable." She finished with a smile.

Nodding to her, Jonathan was about to speak when the cockpit door opened and Bridget walked out along with Ivete.

"Alright everyone, we're approaching our landing point. Once we're down, we'll discuss how we're going to proceed, okay? But don't worry, this mission won't be that difficult, you can be sure of that." With her friendly smile, Bridget spoke with her hands on her hips, ending with a thumbs-up.

Receiving their nods of understanding, the two returned to the cockpit.

Silence then returned between Jonathan and the others, with them just waiting for the eventual landing in a calm atmosphere.

Until a deafening explosion rang out and the plane shook.

"What the hell!" Jonathan was practically jolted in his seat with the tremor of the aircraft, the abrupt shift in events catching him completely off guard.

"What the hell was that!?" Vanessa shouted with furrowed brows, looking toward the cockpit.

The others reacted with the same surprise and shock as they were also shaken.

And their questions were quickly answered when Bridget, Ivete and Elisa rushed out of the cockpit.

"Everyone! We're under attack! Quick, we—"

Bridget started, but she was interrupted by another explosion and another strong jolt, and right after they steadied themselves, the cockpit door burst open again.

Francine came out looking tense. "Shit! The shield went down! Quickly, we have to get them—"

Until she, who had gotten close to the other three, along with them, was completely obliterated when a red energy beam tore through the floor and the side, destroying the ceiling and opening two massive holes in the plane.

With the once-silent plane now filled with the sound of wind coming from outside and snow beginning to fall inside, Jonathan, Alex, Ivan, Yusuke, William, Vanessa, Emilia, Nina, Nalini and Xiao Xun'er just stared silently at where the four agents had been.

They had a clear view of their bodies exploding into pools of blood before their remains were sucked out through the hole in the aircraft.

Jonathan stared at where they had been, the corner of his mouth trembling more and more.

"...Easy mission, huh?" he muttered in an ironic tone.

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