The Earth After Rebirth

Each of them entered the first room. They considered splitting up, but decided against it. Remembering the burly men that beat up Hiro's dad. If one of them were caught by them and cornered, they'd have no chance. But together, well, they could try.

They trusted the training they endured until this point, but they also understood the dangers that could occur, being cautious wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I guess this is some kind of storage room." Ishaan commented seeing piles upon piles of boxes.

"You know, I'm surprised at how arrogant they are." Kiro couldn't help but chuckle at his realisation.
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"What do you mean?" Hiro asked him feeling a little better now that they were away from what they witnessed.

"We haven't detected any cameras, the security around here is lax. They must really be confident that nobody would ever find this place."

Of course Kiro was partially correct, the decision to make it so was sewn to their arrogance but also their caution. They didn't want anything coming back to them.

Whether it's paper or a digital footprint. The less people knew about the underground ring the better it was to maintain its secrecy and so far it had worked for them.

Though the Blakeson would have a hard time explaining why an illegal slavery den was beneath their company building. Even then, it would be easy to make that go away.

The boxes they were looking through had papers, documents that seemed to be detailing people who live in the lower district. Their lives, homes and families. The work they did, the routine of their daily life.

They targeted various families, and whichever member was chose had a red circle on their face, something they confirmed because they stumbled upon the Misaki family's file.

"Wow, they've really thought this through. I can't believe how organised this all is. Just how sick are these people? Dedicating your whole life spying on people you're gonna enslave?" Nikolai's question was rhetorical, he knew exactly how sick. He had his father for comparison.

They all understood his question was just from shock and disgust, that's why nobody bothered to answer him.

Kiro took out a pen, clicking it, a red beam of laser came to life and started scanning every documented he pointed it to. This was another prototype of President Scott.

They came prepared for everything, even bugs entirely made of machine of course, that could crawl on walls and disable any cameras it could detect. And Jon Scott assured them that nothing could hope to escape it's sharp senses.

"Kiro, there's your family too here." Felix commented, dreading his response a little bit.

He practically flew to where Felix was, it was fortunate he still remembered where they were because even though his strides were large ones he tried his best not to make any noise.

"Bastards." He muttered, he was met with his entire family, including his grandfather. There was a rising anger within him, one that reminded him of a reality he wished to forget.

Strangely enough, none of them were circled. He perused the file, every detail was correct, well as correct as 10 plus years old information could be. But he noticed something peculiar at the bottom of the page.

"Waynworth origins redacted? What does that even mean?"

This was something other documents didn't have. He didn't even understand why these needed to have the back history of every family they were planning to steal from.

"Maybe your family's origins are so deep not even the rich from our society can reach?" Nikolai commented standing over his shoulder.

"Deep? Suppose that's why we lived in poverty my whole life?" He mocked, slightly annoyed.

If that were true, that meant they were once prestigious just like his grandfather once told him. But he didn't want that honour. Something that was stripped by notorious rich people in his society wasn't anything he wanted to reclaimed. He much preferred creating his own.

"Maybe you descended from the royalties of the old world we read about?" Ishaan suggested.

"I think that'd fit the Blakesons more."

They laughed a little, for a moment forgetting where they were and what they came here for then they heard footsteps and something being dragged on the floor.

Kiro placed his finger on his mouth signaling them to quieten. Silence fell in the room they were in, they strained their ears. The dragging suddenly stopped.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Something fell with a thud on the other side, they could hear them just outside.

"Huh? Just keep dragging this idiot. I can't do this alone." The other was clearly annoyed.

"I could've sworn I heard sounds in there."

Kiro slowly reached for his inside pocket, taking out the baton taser and extending it. The others followed suit. They crouched down as they did, trying to hide behind the boxes.

"It was your imagination. Now let's get this over with."

"The boss said to always to check whenever something felt amiss."

The other man audibly groaned. They could now hear the footsteps drawing closer and closer, then the door was opened.

The other rolled his eyes, he was about to turn when his companion pointed on some of the open boxes.

Kiro sighed, showing himself. In their panic they'd forgotten to tidy up, but even if they did remember he doubted they would have had time.

"Wh-who are you?" The man stuttered.

One by one, his friends showed themselves. Kiro was much closer, and he acted immediately before they got over their shock.

He closed the door before they had the chance to run out for reinforcements. He used the baton to hit one of them on the knee as hard as he could, and he heard a crack.

The man wailed, shooting insults in rapid quick succession.

Nikolai and Felix lunged at the second one. He blocked their attempt but he was outnumber, as the other three placed their batons on different parts of his body and released an electric charged.

He fell to the ground immediately, spasming occasionally. He was clearly still alive. They looked to the one who was still conscious.

"You assholes! My boss will have your heads for this."

"Who's your boss?"

The man clenched his teeth as if to say they'd have to beat it out of him if they needed to. Just as he raised his weapon, the door opened which startled everyone that was there.

A man stood at the door frame, looking anxious. A man they were familiar with.

"The cook?" They all sang in a chorus surprised.