"Kyaaaaaaaa!"

A sharp and extremely loud scream burst out of nowhere, breaking the strange silence that had settled between them with the death of the four agents.

Looking toward the source, Jonathan and the others found Yusuke with his hands raised in front of his face. He was the one who had screamed like that.

Meeting their silent gazes, Yusuke looked around quietly until he coughed into his fist, trying to play it off. But glancing sideways, he saw how they kept staring at him without any reaction.

Feeling even more embarrassed, he raised his hand and pointed at Vanessa. "Why are you all staring at me like that? She's the one who screamed," he said shamelessly, without even twitching his face.

The accused girl only looked at him dryly.

Shaking his head at the total lack of shame, Jonathan still felt grateful — at least it broke the tense mood and made them a bit more at ease. Even though the danger was far from resolved.

"What do we do? I think the plane is going down," he asked, looking outside through the hole, the wind whistling from outside.

"What we do is obvious. We're jumping," William replied as he took off his belt and stood up, heading toward the parachutes stored in the back.

While putting on his parachute, he spoke. "We need to be quick. We don't know when another one of those lightning strikes will come."

His words alerted them immediately, sending chills down their spines as they remembered it, making them quickly stand and move closer to him.

Being the first to get to his side, Ivan grabbed a parachute and put it on quickly as he walked toward the hole in the airplane's wall.

And just as he fastened the parachute, he simply jumped, shouting something in Russian excitedly.

"Давай!" (Let's Go!)

That made Jonathan and a few others stop, watching in speechless disbelief.

"Crazy son of a bitch…", Jonathan muttered at seeing his complete lack of hesitation.

"He knows how to use a parachute… right?", Yusuke asked, looking doubtful at them.

"He knows," William answered confidently… until his lip twitched. "At least I hope he does."

Turning to them, William was about to speak when Xiao Xun'er took off running.

Realizing she was going to jump as well, Jonathan tried to stop her: "Wait, Xiao, we have—"

But she cut him off: "We don't have time. Talk on the ground," she said calmly, and just like Ivan, she jumped without a hint of hesitation.

Seeing that, Jonathan's mouth twitched. 'These motherfuckers aren't afraid of heights? Am I the only one uncomfortable here?' Looking to the side, he saw that Yusuke, Nalini, and Vanessa also seemed uneasy.

"She's right. We don't have time. Let's go," William called, approaching the hole. "Remember, pull the red cord. If it jams, pull the blue one. Use these handles to guide yourselves and pull to slow down," he explained, holding the cords and handles of his own parachute as he walked backward toward the hole and immediately threw himself out, even backwards.

"...Shit," Jonathan muttered weakly. With a sigh, he hesitated no more. He and the others ran toward the hole, jumping one by one.

With his jaw clenched and eyes narrowed, the sensation of freefall took over his senses.

The slightly cold wind hit his body, the cutting sound filling his ears in a constant hiss while his hair whipped around wildly from the force against his body.

Turning his head slightly and looking from the corner of his eye, he saw the plane quickly falling behind. And right after that, to his immense shock and relief, that energy bolt appeared once again.

This time it struck right beside the hole and, as a result, split the plane in half. The aircraft began to break apart as it plummeted toward the ground.

Jonathan watched it with slightly widened eyes. 'That was close…' he thought, sweating coldly.

"Kyaaaaaa!"

Hearing the sharp scream again, Jonathan turned his head to the other side, seeing Yusuke once more with his hands to his face.

Jonathan stared silently at him, one eyebrow raised — his face saying everything. The response he got was an awkward smile and a rub on the back of the neck as Yusuke said something Jonathan understood as, "My bad."

Shaking his head, Jonathan gave him an OK sign, and Yusuke returned it with a nod.

Moving his eyes, Jonathan then searched for the others. He found Alex a bit above — but seeing him made Jonathan's face twitch.

"What the hell is that idiot doing…", he muttered against the fierce wind, watching Alex spin chaotically in the air.

He would have been worried, if not for the massive smile on Alex's face while he clearly laughed to himself.

Shaking his head, Jonathan approached quickly, signaling for him to stop spinning.

Alex gave an OK gesture and stopped… but kept saying something while laughing to himself.

Jonathan simply stared at him blankly. Realizing his mistake, Alex gave an embarrassed smile, mumbling something Jonathan read as "I'm fine."

Nodding, Jonathan then moved toward Nalini, who was close to Alex.

Unlike him, she was simply falling silently, tense. Getting closer, he grabbed her arm and shouted, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. As fine as possible!", she replied, giving a tight smile.

"You'll be fine! Remember: it's the red cord!", he reminded her, and she just nodded quickly, too nervous to speak again.

Moving away from her, Jonathan lifted his gaze, seeing Emília and Nina further above. The two gave him an OK sign — Nina even smiled, completely relaxed.

Then Jonathan searched for Vanessa, finding her farther to the side and lower. He immediately approached and shouted, "Vanessa! Are you okay?!"

She looked back and found his face with a furrowed expression. Jonathan gave her an OK sign, and she returned it.

"Remember: it's the red cord!", he shouted again.

She nodded silently before turning her face forward again.

Looking for William, Jonathan found him even lower. He hurried toward him, but before he could shout, William turned first.

"You don't need to worry about me! Get ready! The ground is coming!"

Jonathan then shouted back, "Where are Ivan and Xiao?!"

William pointed to the right.

Following the direction, Jonathan saw Xiao's small form in the distance and, even farther, a black dot — Ivan. That made his face twitch as he remembered the guy's madness.

"Get ready!", William shouted, putting space between them and pulling the parachute cord. The equipment opened, stopping his fall sharply.

With his head snapping upward following William's movement, Jonathan ended up seeing everyone else do the same, including Xiao and Ivan far off.

Lowering his eyes to the approaching ground, he finally opened his own parachute. His fall slowed immediately, losing all momentum.

Holding the handles, he guided the parachute, but as he descended, he realized how checking on everyone had affected him — he was still coming down too fast.

"Shit, that's definitely gonna hurt," he muttered, seeing the snow-covered ground approaching.

Getting close, he clenched his teeth, bracing for impact.

And then, with a dull thud, he hit the ground hard, the force practically throwing him as he fell face-first.

But the pain never came.

His vest had activated, a blue barrier protecting his body and contouring his figure.

Looking curiously at his hand, he stood slowly as the barrier faded. Hearing William shout, he turned, seeing him running over.

"You okay?", William asked, stopping at his side.

"I'm fine. My vest's barrier activated at the last moment."

After answering, Jonathan looked back and saw the others landing.

"Come on," he said to William, removing the parachute and running to the others.

He reached Yusuke first and helped him remove the equipment.

"Dude, your fall looked pretty bad from up there, you good?", Yusuke asked.

"I'm fine. My vest activated on impact."

"Really? I think I'll ask for one of those for myself," Yusuke said, hand to his chin.

Jonathan looked at the others approaching at a run.

"You okay?", Alex was the first to ask.

"I'm fine. My vest barrier activated at the last second."

"Cool then," Alex replied, smiling and crossing his arms.

Jonathan confirmed the girls were okay, exchanging glances and getting positive signs.

"Let's go after Ivan and Xiao," Nalini said, looking around with her hand over her eyes.

"Xiao is coming over there, the one I don't see is Ivan," Vanessa said, pointing in a direction.

They saw Xiao calmly running toward them — and no sign of Ivan.

"I saw him falling in the same direction Xiao did. I think we have to go that way to find him," Nina said, hands on her waist.

William nodded. "Exactly. Let's go."

He called them as he ran toward Xiao. Approaching her, the girl stopped and pointed with her head toward where she came from.

"Ivan fell in that direction."

Without saying anything else, she turned and walked back the way she came, with everyone following behind.

But only a minute after they started running, a flash of blue light erupted in the distance, surprising them, followed quickly by the sound of an explosion, the snow beneath them vibrating lightly.

They stopped and watched in silence as a cloud of smoke slowly rose far away.

"Shit." Without wasting a second, Jonathan immediately began sprinting in that direction at full speed, his hand going to the holster on his thigh and already drawing his weapon, also keeping his holographic shield ready.

The others followed, running fast and preparing themselves as each grabbed their respective weapons.

But they didn't run far before spotting Ivan running toward them at high speed.

"Hey! Hahahaha!" He raised his hand greeting them, his excited laughter barely audible.

"What the hell…", Yusuke murmured in confusion not far behind Jonathan, and he wasn't the only one who didn't understand.

"Ivan! What happened!?" William shouted while running beside Jonathan, his brow furrowed.

"Hahahaha!..." But still lost in his joy, Ivan didn't answer right away, only laughing until he got near them, and only then did he speak.

"Hahaha you should've seen it! Those idiots felt all of my power! Ahahaha." Stopping in front of them, he spoke while continuing to laugh proudly with his hands on his waist.

Jonathan and William exchanged a look for a moment before the first asked, "What exactly happened?"

Stopping his laughter, Ivan waved his hand dismissively. "It was nothing much, some of those women came after me shooting on snowmobiles, but since they were all grouped together I just used a few of my bombs and threw them at them." he said with his heavy accent, smiling brightly and giving a thumbs-up.

"Right… you didn't get hit?" Jonathan asked back, still processing the answer, his gaze drifting to the bag resembling a large pouch Ivan had on the back of his waist. 'Bombs huh?'

"Oh, that? I just used one of my barrier bombs," Ivan replied simply.

While Alex waved at him and gave him a thumbs-up, Jonathan decided to set that aside and looked at William. "That means they already know our position, what do you suggest? I think we should contact Maya first."

"I think the same, and we should also get out of here and hide somewhere," William said as he fiddled with a small pouch attached to his thigh.

"Yeah, except there's a problem — where do we hide?" Jonathan said, looking around at the endless white.

"Don't worry, I've got the solution." William said with a smile, pulling a small baton from his pouch and raising it after pressing one side.

The baton then extended slightly, its top part opening, and then a beam of blue light stretched upward before quickly expanding over them, forming a shimmering bubble around them.

"This is a protective barrier. It's not only resistant to attacks, but it also camouflages us," William said with a faint smile.

"Yeah, that works," Jonathan nodded and immediately contacted Maya through the implant in his eye.

Meanwhile, William motioned for the others to follow him, and they all began running in a direction he chose.

While running, Jonathan managed to reach Maya, who quickly projected a message.

[Jonathan!]

The text appeared along with her worried face.

[We're fine, though your agents died, the plane went down and we were forced to land, they already found us too]

He watched as she sighed in the hologram, shaking her head, rubbing her forehead for a moment silently. Only then did she raise her face and stare at him seriously.

[I understand, I was trying to contact you for a few minutes but we had interference, I'm glad to hear you're all fine and in this case, given your situation, I recommend you retreat, rescue is already on the way]

'Interference? I guess this thing blocked it then.' Jonathan thought as he looked at the blue energy bubble, then looked at the others. "Maya told us to fall back while we wait for the rescue she already sent."

"Hmm…" Running beside him, William hummed thoughtfully until he suddenly stopped, making everyone stop too. Then, looking at Jonathan, he asked, "Actually, I have a counter-suggestion — why don't we complete the mission ourselves?"

Hearing that, Jonathan just stared at him with a blank look. "...What did you say?"

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