They made eye contact before stepping over to the door, grabbing a few things to make some light sandwiches, trying to figure out how to relay the news to the rest of them, trying to figure out a plan.

Six sandwiches were made and handed out. Exel scarfed his down and then looked longingly at the crumbs on his plate, imagining it was another one. Sarah ate quickly before stepping off and speaking with Grams in another room. The others took their time, taking each bite slowly, savoring the flavor and spices added in.

In the main room, with couches and chairs, even a rug across the floor, they spread out, resting and relaxing a bit into the old furniture. Slooky stared up at the familiar ceiling, watching a rogue spider make a web in the corner of the room. He laid his sandwich on his chest, rather than using a plate, occasionally picking it up to take another bite.

“You know,” he mused. “If those Halla people were different, we could totally hang out with them.”

Startled from picking at the crumbs on his plate with his fingers, eating every last bit of his meal he possibly could, Exel sat up straighter in one of the chairs.

“You’re kidding! You’d go there again?! Are you serious?”

“Heck no!” Slooky cried, his eyes wide. “Does it look like I have a death wish?! I was saying if.”

“Again? Wait.” Bue looked between them from her spot on the couch, cross-legged. She’d stopped actively taking bites of her sandwich, only half of it gone. “I don’t remember meeting them.”

Exel shook his head.

“It was before you joined the team.”

“Oh. What did you go there for? What kind of mission was it?”

She leaned forward, curious, waiting for one of them to respond. After swallowing another bite, Slooky did.

“Retrieval.”

“Had to go find this sealed box that couldn’t be opened by force. Something like that, if I’m remembering right,” Exel added.

“Why? What was in it?”

“We don’t know. Didn’t ask, like usual.” He shrugged, setting his plate aside, devoid of crumbs or any signs of use.

“It was just a regular mission, until it wasn’t,” Slooky whispered mysteriously, drawing a short laugh from Bue.

“You know the number of times we’d have said ‘by your hand’ that day? I lost count.”

“I didn’t!” Slooky stared up at the ceiling, still, as the others grew quiet. Suddenly, he sat upright, catching his remaining bit of sandwich in hand as it fell off of him. He looked at Exel and then at Lott. “I mean, I wasn’t counting for any of you. I was counting mine.”

“How many?”

“Twenty-nine.”

“Excuse me?” Bue laughed at the number that was so extraordinarily high for a single day. She’d had close to ten on her first real mission and hadn’t reached that number since. But 29? It was laughable to the one who hadn’t been there. “That’s so unrealistic.”

To everyone else, though, it wasn’t quite as strange. And especially since they knew what happened to him that day.

“I am not joking.” The words leaving Slooky’s mouth were serious, lacking comedy. “That’s the real count.”

“Twenty– what the heck happened there?”

Horrified, Bue looked between them all, unable to fathom such a disaster, even in her own imagination.

Four and a half years earlier, they weren’t a team of seven, but of six. As usual, they received their mission from the Captain, and they didn’t ask unnecessary questions.

“We’re to retrieve a box that looks like this. If you can open the lid, it’s a duplicate, not the box we want.”

“So, we’re snatching an un-openable box?” Slooky chuckled, nodding and rubbing his hands together with a grin on his face. “Sounds fun.”

“It’s with the Halla,” they said seriously.

None of them asked what the box was or who it had belonged to before.

The Halla people were something even Fallacy couldn’t truly control. There was a boundary that prevented them from entering into a safety bubble for everyone who went in-pod. However, if one were to venture beyond that border, entering the lands that belonged to them, it was akin to stepping into hostile territory. They hated the sight of others. Though their shape and design resembled those of humans, with darkness that covered entire sides of their necks, height that surpassed that of ordinary people, and clothes that remained unique to their kind, it was easy to tell if one came across someone that called themselves Halla.

And it was likely those who did see them wouldn’t survive the encounter.

As the Ghosts prepared, they set up several plans on different maps, discussing the pros and cons of each, all from what they knew of the Halla’s habits and patterns. They’d taken several days to collect information, learning there was an event nearly all of them were set to attend, the decorations getting set up as they watched from a distance.

The Captain stepped to the door and released a tamed bird to check on the condition of things at the moment. All was well, and exactly as expected, the Halla people leaving their houses and heading toward the west, to a planned celebration.

“We’ll travel together along this row of houses.”

Deciding on the quietest and quickest route, as per their motto, they prepared themselves. Weapons equipped, put into scabbards woven into their clothes.

Click.

Slooky attached a smoke canister to his waist, eager and itching to use it.

“They’ll be distracted off to the west by a ceremony taking place among their people.”

Lott wiggled her fingers in her gloves, testing to make certain it wasn’t restricting her movement before strapping them in place, avoiding the spikes on the knuckles of the fabric. She patted her thighs, the two weapons secured there.

“Take care to put down everyone without being seen. Any shout could draw the rest of them over.”

Exel rolled his shoulders, readjusting the crossed scabbards on his back until they were comfortably placed. Instead of forgoing his arm plates, he put them on, protecting the backside of his upper arms from stray attacks.

A finger pointed down at a lone building. “This is where it will likely be located. Upon reaching it, Magnice, Sarah, and Slooky will fan out to find it. The rest of us will be on lookout.”

Magnice filled out every last bit of his body with, at least what appeared to be, every single weapon he owned. His belt was full, thighs holding multiple items, his ankles, wrists. Even one on his upper arm, strapped in before he put his cloak on, strapping that closer to his body so it wouldn’t billow too far back. The others had told him it wasn’t a necessary addition, but he’d always begged to differ, saying that the cloak helped him, gave him a boost.

“In and out. Fast. Let’s get this done,” their Captain ended their words quickly, holding up a hand for their bird to land. It chirped, mission accomplished.

Sarah looked between her weapons before deciding upon her favorite lance. The familiar feel of the cool metal was calming to her as her racing thoughts slowed. She focused on what needed to be done. Her gaze drew up, confidently meeting those of their leader.

Looking everyone over, their Captain nodded and pulled their hood up over their head, a signal to head out, to be quiet. They filed out of the room, the plan on their minds, ready to execute and bring home another success as a team.

But that wasn’t how thing unfolded.

As a group, they knocked out several random natives as they made their way to the building, far easier than it had been on previous missions. Everything was a simple walk through town, the enjoying of a piece of cake that was sliced and plated without any effort on their part. Three in. Three out.

Lookout didn’t even get a chance to say anything before they were surrounded, the Halla holding weapons and glares, snarling and growling at the intruders. And they didn’t wait to put blades to throats, going for the kill.

Spinning away from the first blade, their captain halted as an arrow passed right in front of their eyes, sinking into the wood of the building wall next to them. They drew their sword, blocking the blade and sought out the long-range weapon with their eyes, spotting it in the far distance. Seeing it fire again, they threw the Halla warrior back before sprinting forward, swiping the arrow from the sky, stopping right next to Exel, in a dead-locked stance with someone matching his strength and skill. Lott threw a punch, knocking one of the men aside, and another punch, straight to the torso of a woman taller than her, sending her back several feet.

As much as they were prepared to fight, and could perform at high levels, they were without a doubt, outmatched and outnumbered.

Magnice and Sarah heard the commotion, rushing away from their respective places when an arrow broke through a window, embedding itself into the floor.

Slooky, as the fight raged on outside, in overwhelming circumstances, the other two racing out to help, noticed an odd panel as he turned to leave and help. The moment his hand touched the edge, the wall opened, sliding away. On a table in the empty room was the box. The one they’d been looking for. The one they needed to retrieve. Without hesitation, he walked toward it, picking it up, trying the lid. He grinned when it didn’t budge and turned to go, box in hand.

Then it wasn’t.

He looked up.

And up.

And up.

Dark eyes glared down at him from a height of seven feet.

“You can’t have that.”

He let out a strangled laugh and bolted for the door. The man suddenly appeared in front of him, as he entered the next room. Slooky glanced back to see the panel sliding shut, the box on the table, the man with the dark eyes gone. He whipped back around, just as they vanished again and reappeared right before his eyes.

It was something akin to fiction. He’d heard of it, sure, but enough so-and-so heard that so and so heard… made something rather lacking in believability.

But it was real.

And this person wasn’t their friend.

It was an enemy.

One who could teleport themselves to locations in their line of sight.

Slooky scrambled to find footing as he attempted to race from the house, screeching at the top of his lungs at the horrifying new addition to the fight.

“Teleporter! They have a teleporter!”

But he couldn’t get out – couldn’t get away from the glaring man with incredible powers, now holding a massive blade in his hands.

Alarmed by the sudden progression of events, their Captain surveyed the area, the weapons, the people. It wasn’t just that a few of the Halla came back their way and stumbled upon them. It was…

All of them.

Looking around, it didn’t take a genius to understand what was going on.

It wasn’t remotely close to what the Ghosts had planned or known of.

A ceremony.

Lack of presence on the way to the building.

But this…

It was like they’d expected they would come, had known when and how they’d arrive. They were prepared. Laid a perfect trap.

Unwilling to give up that important valued box, contents unknown.

They watched Magnice, back to back with Lott, empty his pockets through the shattered window, preventing the teleporter inside from eliminating Slooky. And the favor was returned, a tiny dagger soaring through the air, past Magnice’s head, in the opposite direction from where Lott was focused, sinking deep into a hand of a native, sneaking around for an attack.

Spotting the village leader in the back, behind the line of determined warriors, the Captain saw them tuck a paper back into their pocket, and grit their teeth in frustration. Swiping their blade through the air again, removing another whistling arrow, they didn’t notice someone come up behind them.

The sound of a collision behind them drew their attention, and they saw Sarah, blocking a strike that hadn’t been aimed at her, as her feet had only just settled there. She pushed them back and made a wide arc through the air, hitting them and knocking them out, leaving her ribs exposed in the process.

Metal scraped against metal as they blocked a sword. Sarah, taking the opportunity given, knocked them out as well. They tapped hands as they swapped sides, like passing an invisible baton, or giving a slowed high-five.

The others started using their special skills, just to save themselves from attacks, unable to do anything but defend. Turning to the side to block another attack, being slowly pushed back, Exel felt something slam into the armor he’d put on the backside of his upper arm. What he saw startled him so much, the Captain had to step forward to save him from losing his head. It was like he was in a daze, an arrow stuck to him, Magnice preventing a second attack before he came to his senses again.

As it happened, the teleporter Slooky’d warned them about, took the opportunity to launch an attack on the least aided person at the present moment, throwing a wild set of swings with their blades, sending Sarah bending over backwards to dodge. She lifted her lance for the third strike, but faltered as it broke apart from the singular hit.