All That Glitters (ATG)

Chapter 1: Midnight shenanigans

• S K Y E •

They weren't ordinary men with skull masks wielding gold hilted longswords chasing us. No, they were evil men with longswords.

As fun as it seemed, playing tag with a bunch of those assassins in school at midnight was however not a very good idea.

"Katsuki, take Kirino and Chase with you to the exit. Skye and I will handle this."

The strawberry pink head girl commanded. Her eyes sharp, not leaving the enemy for even a second.

The former three already broke into a sprint and were soon out of sight. The threat we were facing was only a few hundred yards away. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

The 'men' in button-shoulder cloaks ran at us with their blades as we skipped around the limp bodies of their former coworkers with precision.

The scene definitely looked messy. Bruised knuckles, broken bones, dead bodies, the blood that painted the polished white marble floor red and the all but familiar scent of iron that lingered the air. It was hauntingly alluring.

Two more men appeared towards the corridor and ambushed us, me in particular.
Wrong move buddy.

The ends of my lips twiched, hand-to-hand was my forte after all. Giving the first man daring enough to lunge at me a powerful side kick, I sent him flying over the edge of the railing. I waited to hear the sickening yet satisfying 'crack' and I made my way to the second man.

He seemed to sense the difference in strengths because he immediately shifted back, wide eyed. He threw his dagger, that feel clumsily past me and ran back in a hurry. I would have chased him to his doom if Alixis hadn't stopped me.

"Skye. No need to waste your time with the little ones. We need to head back to the rendezvous point."

I gave her a look with both brows raised. She shook her head sternly, her luscious curls dancing against her shoulders. And I groaned. It always bugged me. We let more men off the hook than we could count. How would we know if they snitched about the situation to their superiors? Regardless, I dropped the topic.

"Hurt?" I asked while surveying for any survivors. Our school looked more like a graveyard than an institution of education.

"Thankfully not."

"They just keep comin'. Do they have an infinite supply of disposable humans or somethin'?"

There was a brief wave of silence before she spoke.

"It is worse when we do not know who we are up against."

Her voice laced with disappointment.

Is she blaming herself again?

Five weeks fighting these people and we still don't have any information about them. Alixis being the one in charge and all must definitely feel exasperated with us being in the dark for so long.

Alixis types in some words on her keyboard and hits the send button before taking the lead.

"Clean up will be here soon."

"Ugh. Fortunately that ain't our job. Just imagine cleanin' up this mess!"

"Skye, enemies or not they are still human. Respect them. Even when dead."

I clicked my tongue. Grown men who worked to kill high schoolers for a living did not deserve respect. They deserved to burn in hell and that's exactly where I was sending them. Shame on Alix for being soft on them.

We halted near the emergency exit of the school. Kirino ran to us while the other two lads did not budge.

"Are you okay?"

Alixis shook her head. Kirino then turned to me. Her eyes widened as she gasped.

"Skye, you're bleeding!"

She said with worry. If Alixis was soft, Kirino might as well be liquid itself. I glanced at the bloody slit across my forearm. It was pink and puffy around the edges, a clear sign of infection.

"M'fine."

"You are not! Here let me fix you."

I clicked my tongue in vexation. She forcefully tugged my arm, her palm hovering over the cut. With a quick snap of her fingers, a warm feeling spread over my body. There was a slight itch but within seconds the cut sew itself. There was no sign of any injury anymore, except for the dried stain of blood that nothing could be done about.

"Thanks."

I said as I kept my eyes on my forearm. Her power never fails to surprise me. No matter how serious an injury was, with a snap of her fingers it was as if the wound was non existent.

"We are done for the night. Let's head back. Katsuki did you retrieve the gem?"

Alixis inquired. Katsuki fetched the purple gem from his pocket and tossed it to her. She gave him an annoyed look which was too much even for her eternally imperturbable face.

"Don't you trust me?"
He asked.

"No, not at all."

"Well, I don't need you to trust me. I can do absolutely anything without your trust."

"Its because of my chance level of trust I have for you that you get to join in on missions such as this."

She mocked. She knew that it was because of her that the council allowed a irrational pinhead like Katsuki to help with missions. I scoffed as they continued to bicker. Kirino tried to stop them but there was only so much that she could do.

"How many did you kill?"

Chase, the quietest of our group spoke. He didn't look at me when he inquired. His hands rested in the pockets of his jeans. His ocean blue eyes strained on his boots as he kicked imaginary pebbles.

"Dunno. Ten? Twelve? Maybe even more."

"I see."

"Why?"

"If we managed to capture even one alive, we could have brought him in for interrogation."

I kept quite. There was one that we let live. Though he must have gotten pretty far judging from how terrified he was. Maybe we'd be able to capture one alive next time. But would we even survive next time?

"So how exactly do those gems work?"

I asked, Alixis in particular. She glanced at me over her shoulder for a second then looked back ahead. Everyone went silent as if to listen to her explanation too.

"I am not exactly sure. But you intrinsically need to inject the substance inside the gem into a persons blood stream. It works the same way our artifacts do. That is by temporarily awakening our abilities."

She said, clutching her dog tag around her neck. Subconsciously, our fingers found our artifacts. Me my ring. I fidgeted with it for a good moment. What would have happened if someone were to take away my artifact?

You'd be powerless like you are supposed to be.

I shook the thought away.
In a hidden part of our world, people need artifacts to activate their 'abilities'. Artifacts are hard to come by. They are either hereditary or given by someone who trusts you. And then there were some people who could activate their powers without an artifact by instead using these synthetically created absurd 'gems'.

It infuriates me and probably the others too. That's why the council asked for us to retrieve these gems so they could understand it more. One thing was certain. The creator of these gems was the same person we were up against. And they are pretty skilled judging from how they could mimic the composition of ancient trinkets.

I stared at the midnight blue starless sky as I took my time, walking behind the rest. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in. This is not why I took up this job. It was far too peaceful albeit the occasional danger we had to face. Sure, I wanted absolute discord. Chaos was were I kept finding myself, but I longed for the safety of my friends. For them, I'd give up chaos.

But my wish went unheard. We heard a shriek erupt from the road further down. I sighed for what seemed like the tenth time today, I switched my abilities on to dash ahead of everyone else and reach the target. Someone was getting hurt, and high schoolers would be coming to their aid.