Insurance Needed

It'd now been two weeks since the debut of Squad Zero, and the team was already making success. Although no signs of the Sins were found just yet, civilians felt safer with the presence of Squad Zero around. Mysterious and inexplicable incidents were investigated, only to reassure the clients with their requests in the end. The name Squad Zero was beginning to take hold within every district as their work was defined as more time passed.

"They're such virtuous figures. I really look up to them."

"The Sins are probably scared now that Squad Zero's around. I'm not surprised!"

"I'm sure they've already caught lead of the Seven Sins' trail. It'll only be a matter of time before those seven convicts get caught."

Hope was flourishing.

As this happened, Squad Zero only continued to prepare more and more for a true encounter with a Sin. Training was done on their off-duty days, hosted by Jasper who gave them no mercy.

"He can be brutal, but it's understandable. He's worked even harder to get to where he is now," Axel smirked while telling the others during a break time meal.

"Is he this harsh to you usually?" Suto asked. "I'm surprised he isn't going easy on you because you're his younger brother."

"My brother respects me. And therefore he'll treat me no different than the rest of you. He wants me to train just as hard so I can become just as good as he is one day. He's always been my role model. Growing up under his shoulder, I've always looked up at him, observing every single one of his accomplishments and looking at the way he achieved them. He's an amazing person."

Everyone else at the table nodded in agreement. "I don't know how your brother does it. They call me an all-around type of person but your brother knows how to juggle more in his hands at once than I can," Suto laughed.

"Yeah. I thought he was only geared towards combat, but he even knows a thing or two about engineering. He's given me many opinions on the upcoming support items I've recently developed for the team!" Jarrett chugged his water.

Hugo now jumped in. "And it goes without saying that he can think like a genius too. I may be the team's strategist, but he provides me perspectives I'd never usually consider."

Everyone nodded and laughed along, speaking highly of their great leader, Jasper. During this moment, he was in an office sitting across Minister Harrison.

"You've been leading your team very well, Jasper."

"Thank you sir."

"Economy has even risen because people are finally going out again. You've reassured the masses just as I'd wished."

"And that means extra commission, right?"

Minister Harrison nodded. "That'll be added on your next pay."

"Put my extra commission into Wardell's pay."

Minister Harrison was surprised. "Really? You're surprisingly fond of Wardell August."

"I'm trying my best to support him and his sister. He needs the money more than I do. And as for the deal we'd made—"

"It hasn't been a full month yet Jasper."

He was stopped in his tracks. "Right sir, but—"

"Yes, Squad Zero has flourished for its first two weeks. But the opposite could happen just as fast in the next two weeks. The deal was the outcome after a month. If you can hold your ground for the next two weeks, and show me something amazing, I'll guarantee that your request goes through."

Jasper was somewhat irritated. But he was still motivated unlike any other. He stood and saluted, "Sir yes sir!"

Back at the hub, Jasper now joined the rest of his team in the debriefing room. A session was to be hosted by both Hugo and Jarrett.

"Alright guys, what do you have for us today?" Jasper asked.

"First off, I'd like to begin discussing proper countermeasures for the Sins and their abilities. It's important we keep all these things in mind when we come into contact with them. So we'll go through each Sin one by one."

Everyone in the room straightened in their seats, ready to listen attentively.

"First we'll start with the Sin of Gluttony. Its ability to wipe memories within any chosen span of time can be threatening to our coordination. According to the Forbidden Document, it can be done with both physical contact and ranged contact. This makes Gluttony an even bigger threat, since he can possibly affect us from somewhere we don't know."

"So how're we going to counter this?" Wardell spoke.

"I'm going to continuously communicate to all of you through ear-pieces."

"Huh?"

"You see, the Sin of Gluttony is only able to wipe memories that he knows exist within a person's mind. That means he's limited to erasing memories of moments starting his initial encounter with you, nothing further back."

"Makes sense…"

"So even if Gluttony were to wipe every single one of your memories in the middle of combat, I'll be here, at the hub, and out of range of his ability, constantly reminding you all of what you need to do. In the case that you'd forgotten something without realizing, I'll be repeating instructions every minute or so just to ensure you're all kept up to date. With this countermeasure in play, his ability will be nothing more than a nuisance that delays our movements every now and then."

Jasper stood aside. "But even slight delays in the middle of combat can cost us our lives. We'll need to prioritize taking the Sin of Gluttony down first if we know he's present within the area. Only then will we be able to fight without having to worry."

"Right. Jarrett will prepare the ear-pieces for all of you all to wear and that should settle it. Moving on, I'll kill two birds with one stone here. We've got the Sin of Lust, and the Sin of Envy, both of whom deal with abilities using their eyes. Engage eye contact with either, and you've basically lost. To primarily counter this, Jarrett has constructed us special contact lenses to wear that will block out the official visibility of our irises. This is important because their abilities affect the iris specifically. Remove that from the picture and now their abilities become useless. But there's one thing to note," Hugo caught his breath. "As extra precaution, we all need to practice the suppression of our emotions for the case that we're ever caught in the presence of the Sin of Lust. It's those very emotions that could be the end of us."

Everyone subconsciously turned towards Zika, which coincided with Hugo's next words. "Zika, you're the Sin of Lust's biggest counter here. I have never once felt an omission of emotion off of you. Your aura is completely empty. There'll be nothing for Lust to amplify."

Hugo now switched his gears. "This leads right into our fourth Sin; the Sin of Greed. His ability also deals with emotion, but he garners more danger than Lust. Unlike the Sin of Lust, he does not need your eye contact to instigate his ability. If your emotional essence stands out to the Sin of Greed within its presence, you're displaying yourself as a victim already. Once again, you're his direct counter, Zika."

She nodded in reply.

"As for the rest of you, if you recognize a rise in emotion when in combat, and the Sin of Greed is present, immediately pull yourself out of battle and retreat. Unless either of you can secure a proper hold and suppression of Greed's ability, its capabilities in battle are not worth testing."

Jasper decided to jump into the speech. "I understand that you all have your own motivating emotions that drive you to fight. But once we can confirm that the Sin of Greed or the Sin of Lust are present, please suppress yourself. We cannot afford to have any of you lose control of your emotions when in battle, no matter the personal feuds," he glanced at Wardell. "Do not let your emotions become our burdens, understand?"

"Yes sir," everyone replied.

"Good. You can continue now Hugo."

"Now let's move onto what I'd consider are the biggest threats out of the Seven Sins. Let's call them the Big Three; Sloth, Pride, and Wrath."

"Ah…"

"We'll start off with what I think is actually the weakest of the three; the Sin of Pride."

"Pride!?" Wardell leapt upwards. "Pride was able to strike down a plane out of the sky. Literal human artillery. How is he the weakest!?"

"Don't let my words deceive you. I am not at all underestimating the power of Pride. He is undoubtedly one of strongest out of all Seven Sins. But compared to the threat that the other two from the Big Three pose, he's manageable." Hugo now gazed upon everybody. "So as you all know well by now, Pride can manipulate the movement of atoms in the air. That means using air as a weapon itself, or using air to move other physical objects and things. We don't know the absolute extent of his manipulation, such as whether he can move himself using air or not, but we need to expect the worst. Our best shot at countering Pride is using synchronous team formations."

"I'll elaborate," Jasper jumped in. "We'll soon be practicing a new set of attack formations I've come up with, specifically for Pride. Since Pride's focus would be on aiming at targets, we need to approach Pride in a way that would overwhelm him. He only has two hands, but there can be up to five of us attacking at once. Even if the Sin were to throw two of us off balance, there'll be three more of us coming from different directions that can put an end to Pride."

Everyone else nodded, hesitantly.

"I know it sounds risky, and it can result in some of us getting injured, but just know that taking down Pride would be a big advantage for the rest of us. It'll be worth it."

"Jasper's right. The Sin of Pride deals overly destructive damage, so taking it out of the picture could be our winning tide. As for the other two…" Hugo sighed. "Unless they're out of the picture, we absolutely cannot win."

"The Sin of Sloth and the Sin of Wrath?"

"Yes. These two make our mission of taking the Sins into custody quite literally impossible. There's the Sin of Sloth, who can control the minds of anyone it chooses as long as they are within its radius, and the Sin of Wrath; an individual with regenerative capabilities who can heal any damage done to its body."

The reminders made everyone flustered.

"The Sin of Gluttony was already big enough of a threat to our coordination, since it could delay our communications and synchronizations. But then there's the Sin of Sloth, who's on a whole other level, because it can completely cut off our coordination. Once it takes control of its victim, they become one with Sloth without even realizing. Sloth's ability can even shift the morals of an individual without them realizing. So if one of us starts swinging away at each other or even civilians, it shouldn't be a surprise. Immediate action should be taken to stop the one possessed by Sloth. You could almost treat it like a virus. Once one of us is taken by Sloth, we have to act quick, and most likely but unfortunately take them out before they can deal too much damage."

"That's absurd!" Wardell said aloud. "Sloth can just straight up control our minds!? How do we have a chance against that?"

"If we take Sloth down, it can't use its ability."

"You make it sound like it's simple."

"I know it isn't. But just like Gluttony, Sloth is a Sin we must remove from the picture before we can settle comfortably in a battle. Those two have too much influence on our combat if we leave them unattended. Sloth is definitely at the very top of our priority list for Sins to subdue first."

Wardell stood up now. "What I don't get is that Minister Harrison wants us to retrieve these guys alive? Knowing the threat each of them pose, wouldn't it be more efficient to just kill them on the spot? If we don't, it can result in more casualties from just trying to subdue them, wouldn't it?"

Hugo nodded in agreement. "You're right, which is why I'll inform all of you now; Minister Harrison only needs three of the Seven Sins to be taken into custody. He says three minimum are needed to conduct a proper investigation on how they came to be, and where they came from. As for the other four, we're allowed to kill them."

"Then in that case, Sloth should also be number one on our hit list. He's someone we can't only subdue, but must kill off in order to succeed in winning against the Sins."

"Then so be it, we'll proceed with that plan." Hugo nodded, impressed at Wardell's eagerness. "Lastly, we'll move on to who I consider the doomsday of the Seven Sins…"

"How dramatic…"

"The Sin of Wrath. From what's been described about this Sin in the Forbidden Document, it seems unstoppable. Inhuman physical strength, physical durability that can withstand even the shot of a tank, and immeasurable regenerative abilities that can restore the cells of his bones, organs, and skin alike. Wrath is an absolute monster."

"What the hell do we do against that?" Axel asked.

"I wish I could say we could kill him and put him down, but it's likely he'll be one of the three we plan on taking into custody. Killing Wrath might just be next to impossible, especially if it can heal any possible injury done to itself—this includes decapitation of limbs. We will instead develop an immobilizer that can put the Sin out of consciousness, almost like a general anesthetic. Once Wrath's knocked out, we can take it into custody where it'll be placed under a complete Cardinal Nexus lockdown; equipped with numerous layers of security that will keep it immobilized, and exhausted."

"Sounds great Hugo, does everybody understand?" Jasper asked.

The idea of an undamageable, yet overly powerful individual brought slight fear to some of the underlings in Squad Zero. But listening to the plan bestowed to them, they tucked the fear away. They all saluted, "Sir yes sir!"

"Good. That should kill this debriefing session. I hope none of you are underestimating the Sins after this. They are to be feared…" Jasper suddenly smiled. "But so are we. Squad Zero will put an end to this time of uncertainty for our civilians. It's time the Sins are—"

A ringing phone interrupted his speech. Surprised, Jasper reached down into his pocket and pulled it out.

"Minister Harrison's calling me?"

Jasper picked up the call.

"Jasper, have you seen the news?"

His heart skipped a beat. "No, I haven't checked. What happened?"

"I think you should see for yourself. Consider this an opportunity to grant your wish. Good luck." The call ended.

Confused, Jasper looked up at Jarrett. "Could you retrieve the channel for the latest live broadcast by any chance?"

"You got it sir." He skipped over to the front of the room, connecting to the mainframe of the wall screen. Once connecting, he punched in a few codes into the connected laptop, and suddenly, a live broadcast was being played on screen.

{ LIVE NOW: 6 Unidentifiable Individuals Wrecking Havoc in Pactolus District }

The visual displayed the live feed of a camera man, who stood afar, recording an oncoming crowd of civilians rushing to safety.

"What's happening?"

It was then, that Jasper's eye caught something. "There!" He pointed. In the far back seen chasing the crowd, a group of six white-suited individuals could be seen. Three were somewhat scrawny, yet ran swiftly towards the civilians; two were tall and bulky, shaking the ground beneath them with each step; one was large and built, accented with shiny gold linings across its body suit; all of them provoked danger as the Heart of Pactolus District was thrown into chaos with fear.

"Who are these people!?" Someone yelled, while running past the camera man.

"Why are they wearing weird white suits? I don't wanna find out!" A Nexi screamed.

"Are these the Sins!? I don't wanna die!" Someone sobbed.

"Where's Squad Zero? Where's Squad Zero!??"

The pleads of despair had now reached Squad Zero.

"Everyone pack up right now." Jasper stood still, staring into the mayhem that unfolded on the screen before them. "It's time for Squad Zero to really make an impact now."