The First Strike

It was just past 1 am when Team Monarch arrived back at the motel. As soon as they entered the conference room, they were greeted by the other members of Team Freedom. Quickly, each player ran to their original team captains, thankful that they had made it back alive.

"Shade!" Greeted Arora happily. "I'm so happy that you're back!"

"Your clothes are full of holes though... But thankfully you don't seem to need my healing since I've been completely useless so far!" Added Kate obviously bothered by her current lack of power.

"Did something happen to you, Shade? It must have been a tough fight for you to come back looking like this..." Muttered Celia.

Before Shade responded, he noticed that Celia wore quite a worried look on her face. He couldn't tell if she was worried about him or if something else was bothering her.

"Yeah, it's a long story. We ran into some trouble but I think Anwir will explain the details in a minute."