[h2]C H A P T E R [s]1[/s][/h2]
[b]N o t   A   S i n g l e   S t a r[/b]
_________________________________
[h3]Fort Hood, Texas
—- // JANUARY 23[/h3][@Zoey White]
"[i][color=black]That's 2 for ya'.[/color][/i]"

Antoine flashed an appreciative smile at the promised child he looked after for a moment, but quickly flattened his expression as he made his way back to the vehicle parked nearby. Hoping that the other two would follow suit, he once again snapped the driver door open and scooted his little behind into the seat. He stared at the steering wheel intensely for a few moments, grasping the severity of his actions that would come. But he was paid well for this job, and he had mouths to feed back home just like everyone else. 'Sorry America' he thought to himself as he raised his keys to the ignition, slipping them inside to turn and start the engine. 

As the truck hummed to life, Akasha slid into the seat directly behind Antoine. The young pink-haired figure leaned into the back of the driver's seat, a shit-faced grin developing upon her face. Their backpack was carefully placed at their side, zipped and secured to fully conceal the contents within from any unwanted eyes. Their destination wasn't too far of a drive, they returned to the to base perimeter and sponsored Akasha in with their false identification cards and drove the slow but not overbearingly so route to the on-base home of the residing commander of Fort Hood. His address was actually quite easy to get a hold of for the operation, and due to the security of the base the man's home was quite unprotected. 


"[i][color=salmon]The end has come for all mortals. Indiscriminate of race, or gender, or anything really. It's just an express trip back home after all right? Ha ha ha![/color][/i]" The young pink-haired demon child snickered quietly, her hands raised up to her maw as she places fingers into her mouth. Akasha seemed to tearing at the seams in anxiousness for the atrocity they were about to commit. Antoine parked a few houses down from the estate, it was quite large even for a captain, military men did well for themselves in this day and age. The brick building was two stories in height, simple two car garage, double glass panel door at the entrance, no security detail. 

[hr][h3]???, Romania
Midnight// JANUARY 24[/h3][@OwO]
"[i]Work together! Did you see what happened to those others guys? No way in hell![/i]" The soldier pulled the handgun from his holster and tossed it off to 6 with the sheer look of terror painted upon his face. The soldier stomped his way to the very back of the building, finding a secured closet and diving into the safe darkness within. Soon after, the complex would begin to shake violently, file cabinets tipping from the walls and other meaningless decorations breaking as they fell to the floor.

Then a shout. "[i]They're in the building! Surround it, there's only one entrance.[/i]" A gruff voice audible right outside the door of the building was heard, and shortly after, the exchanging of gunfire from two separate directions. Then the banging, [i]Thud!... Thud!... Thud!..[/i. The rhythm was chaotic and inconsistent, multiple people trying to enter perhaps? The door was secured of course, a much-braver soldier stood at the entryway and kept his back to the reinforced wall at it's side. While the door was made of thick layered steel, we didn't know what was behind it. There were no windows after-all!

But behind that door was a battlefield, Russian men whom had ventured for miles upon miles till tonight to reach this place unmarked on any map. It probably took a lot of coordination, planning, and the hard work of countless men dedicated to taking down the church pigs whom had reached their dirty fingers into their country too many times. This is retribution, true divine punishment for the evil men that had strung puppets nearby for far too long and trusted that fear could keep them under control. But fear was a Russian thing, they knew how it worked better than any. Or that is what they thought when they breached this mysterious compound with the intent of victory.

The figure from the forest line calmly approached the compound, stepping through the broken barbwire and blankly watching the carnage ensue. He had his own agenda, looking to the non-simpleton soldiers 'six' ironically in number. They were assembling a large breaching charge upon the entrance wall, which sparked joy within the boy's mind as he skipped through the snow approaching the group. He was quiet, nothing but hums and grumbles coming from his mouth as he eventually made it to the group of Russian demolitionists. He gestured silently, pointing to the explosive and then the door, and then the wall, and then gesture an explosion, and then pointing to the big ear to ear smile on his face. The Russians as a result stood dumbfounded, their black facemasks concealing the majority of their facial express but we could assume their thoughts would something along the lines of. 'What the fuck?' The men then shook their head, one of them that secured the charge to the door threw the other five a thumbs up to give the all clear. They then uniformly backed away several feet before another pulled a remote from his waist, and pressing the detonation button.

[hr][h3]Several Miles from Varkhaus, Finland [Wilderness]
Midnight // JANUARY 24[/h3][@ERode]
"[color=forestgreen]Thanks, I guess. If I died up there, it'd probably be better easier than surviving out here.[/color]"

The tall, tattooed, dark-haired, hunk of man smacked his cheeks a few times with cloth-gloved hands to wake himself from the stupor of the falling helicopter. He looked down to the promised boy, a grimace developing on his face and squinted brown eyes. This was the situation after all, just an old soldier and this freaky kid out in the cold wilderness with no food or water. But that was only his problem, after all, and maybe Augustine's if she survived. He pointed south, a stern expression developing from the negativity that once consumed his face.

"[i][color=forestgreen]We need to head towards the town South of here. I don't care what the Saint said, I will die out here if we don't keep moving. And as much as I'd like to have your back, I can't just sit here. I've survived in some shitty situations, but this one, this one is pretty bad.[/color][/i]" He nodded to 13 and looking away from him and to the direction in which he mentioned.

Meanwhile, the Saint had slowed her advance towards the two's direction. The sprint was further than she anticipated, and the ground's unstable elevation and rocky surface even in the woodsy environment was difficult to traverse for the woman. 13's coat kept her warm for the most part, but her face was beginning to crack and split. Her eyes strangely began to turn a golden-yellow, strange, but her charge did not falter and she kept moving. That was, until a single bullet grazed through the woman's platinum hair taking with it a chunk of her locks and piercing a tree a few feet in to her right. She froze. Every instinct within her body telling her to move, but she fought those senses and stiffened every ligament within her body.

In the distance a man in furs and black leather with the German Flag painted on his back whispered quietly to himself as he laid in a blanket of snow. "[i]Found ya' you monster bitch.[/i]" 13 and the pilot would hear this gunshot in the distance, perking up and drawing his own handgun from the his side. 

Distant figures would begin to appear around the clearing they stood within, the same identifiable black coats and fur. These weren't military men however, they were the the resurfacing Red Army Faction- they hadn't created much of a presence lately but they had an affinity for finding themselves picking out specific targets that they dumped money into stumbling upon. And it seemed that this promised child and it's keeper was their target today.
[hr][h3]St. Peterburgh, Russia
Midnight // JANUARY, 23[/h3][@Rune_Alchemist][@Kazemitsu]
The soldiers within the second floor had advanced through the storage room that they entered from into the second floor display gallery. It wouldn’t be long before they realized the lockdown that had taken place. It was a trap, they both realized this, but they had been trapped before. Information gets leaked, in this day and age people would sell eachother out for a shilling. And that was exactly what happened. The automaton guards on the second floor would soon sight of the two, though their directive did not target them, so the red light simply glanced their direction before moving on.

“[i]Thank god.[/i]” The dark-skinned operative breathed into a sigh of relief. 

“[i][color=598527]Don’t thank something that doesn’t exist.[/color][/i]” His compatriot responded.

The dark-skinned soldier widened his eyes as he looked back to his friend too late, realizing that a weapon had already been on him and then. [i]Bang[/i]! Quick, simple, the double-agent crept down over his wounded former-ally and pulled the weapon from their hip. A smile would be offered through his ski mask, eyes looking down on his former friend as if he were less than him. 

“[i][color=598527]And that’s what your faith earns you.[/color][/i]” He sneered, a muffled laugh hissing out only being cut short as he noticed the caustic vapor sifting through the vents. It traveled down pretty quickly, streaming through the second floor first and then down to the first floor shorty after. 

It slowly began its corroding process melting away the metals, woods, and plastics of the inner workings and the millions of dollars that they would cost. As the substance met the automatons the process would be slower, it wasn’t your ordinary metal, this substance was specifically made to withstand something of this nature. Information was key in warfare, and it seemed the enemy had more information than 3 and 11 did. 

As the shadow tendril encroached around the automaton’s leg and attempted to pull it from the construct’s body, 3 would find the automatons were not simple mindless entities. It in turn activated a module with itself causing the magnetic plates to drop from it’s forebody to its legs rotating in a condensing spiral. The others would then mirror this stance, seeming to kneel down in a lowering defensive position with their weapons drawn out in a defensive phalanx.
[hr][h3]Tokyo, Japan
Evening// JANUARY 24[/h3][@Melkor]
That power nap was exactly what Henrietta needed, she felt refreshed, renewed, reborn, realizing that she needed to find 5 today or the church was going to send someone to Japan to help. She couldn’t have that, no help, flying solo was how Henrietta preferred things so people couldn’t step on her toes and she in return couldn’t step on theirs.

She remembered the smell in the building and decided to pursue that lead. Fresh blood in an apartment complex in the same general area as the disappearances? That’s fishy. The huntress decided to skip the shower, skip wiping the drool stain from her sleep, and bust out the big gUns. From he leather bag she retrieved a pair of goggles, dorky looking things albeit but they could have looked cooler the purpose of them was to imbue the wearers vision with the ability to see stains and other not quite visible to the eye signs of things. Two small ultraviolet lights at each side, magnified lenses, they were something out of Sherlock Holmes and she wore them with pride.

Exiting her room she began to peer around the walls, the nearby stairs, the rooms to the other doors within the building. There was mess everywhere, though this wouldn’t exactly specify if it were blood or some other bodily fluid Henrietta’s sharp sense of smell would come to that conclusion. One door on her floor in particular had a strong metallic sent coming from within. Room 36 of the tenth floor, could this be where 5 made his nest?

Should she break in? She could likely find some other form of entrance into the room other than the door, were she more tech savvy she could likely go downstairs knock that bitch out and manually add her I.D permissions to every door. But this was something, anything was better than nothing. She removed the goggles and slid them back into hr bag and instead took out a largre cylindrical metallic device. “[i][color=black]You made me so this 5.[/color][/i]” She would then rotate the device’s top half causing a green light to turn on. Wherever 5 might have been, if it were in a ten mile radius from her location his skin would start to itch and his mind would begin to feel foggy.
[hr][h3]Geneva, Switzerland
Midnight// JANUARY 24[/h3][@Eleven]
“[color=gray]N o w h e r e .[/color]”

That masked figure had appeared, or perhaps a different one? He looked the same, the ringmaster getup with the overcoat and the suit underneath and even the top hat. Did he have a double worked separately from him, or perhaps the one in the ballroom was a fake? It mattered not at this point as spun and twirled his cane as clacked hardened heels to the floor below until he finally was a few feet in front of the two. 

“[color=gray][i]N e v e r,  e v e r,  d i s o b e y. I’ll give you a little warning today, my little angel.[/i][/color]” The masked man Gabriel sung his words without a care in the world, not a sliver of fear or remorse in his words. And he leaned down towards ten, grabbing the boy who should have been strengthened by the chemical agent by the head. “[color=gray][i]You’ve got a neat trick, boy, but you’re much too rebellious to be of use to god.[/i][/color]” Gabriel’s Hess canted left and right further investigating the promised child that seemed to be losing consciousness, his pupils dilated, veins throbbing out of his body. It was like a rabid animal, looking up at a human whom had just caught it in a cage. Ten’s many hands would lash out towards the masked man, but they felt weaker despite the drug given to him earlier.

The man then glanced back to seven, his aggression seemingly non-existent towards the girl who had clearly used her abilities on some of the church’s men. “[i][color=gray]You continue being a good little girl, little Seven. Your handler should be arriving shortly, just wait outside.[/color][/i]”

It wasn’t but a moment later that 10’s head erupted into a bloody mess of bone and blood within the masked man’s hand. It was quick, effortless, like a bug too small to even put up a fight. Just what the actual fuck was this guy to be able to execute a promised child with relative ease. What was his name again? Gabriel, God’s Strength, who bore a for god a number of different tools to assist the race of man, including a lantern. The masked man wiped his hands off upon his hands as the lifeless child fell to the floor and convulsed, looking to eleven a final time he spoke with a little more sternness. “[color=gray][i]Begone, and if any of the idiots come out before Emmanuel. You may kill and eat them.[/i][/color]”
[hr][h3]Liverpool, England
23:00// JANUARY 24[/h3][@Vocab]
“[color=gray][i]Always save one, just in case we need a hostage or an example for a later time.[/i][/color]” The priest sang calmly as he stepped through the carnage towards the survivor. He beamed his pristine white teeth down at the poor kid with a inky black pompadour. 

“[color=gray][i]Don’t worry, your friends are in heaven now. Nos, remember that question I asked? I don’t like asking the same thing twice so I’ll ask you to think deep down and try to remember.[/i][/color]”

The punk teen could barely manage to get words out of his quivering lips, his eyes nearly glossed over and the priest reached out and grasped his hand. It was warm, it made him feel a brief and subtle sense of comfort. The priest continued to feign the sympathetic look upon his face, a thumb tracing over the man’s palm in hopes that he would be won over.

“[i]Th-th-th dock.. R-r-royal Alb-b-b..[/i]” the youth struggled to get those words out. His sense of reality beginning to slip away as he fell in and out of consciousness. 

“[i][color=gray]You’ve done good boy. You can Rest In Peace now, meet up with your friends in heaven. I’m quite jealous actually, I have a daughter and a wife up there. But my job isn’t done, holy war, quest for redemption and all of that.[/color][/i] The priest plucked a knife from his boot and quickly slit the boy’s throat vigorously pouring blood as his muttering turned to choking gasps for breath.

The priest then rose to his feet and pointed his bloodied knife to the west. His lensed-eyes holding a different, more adventurous and excited look to them. The man wasn’t right in the head, I guess that’s why he had been a priest for the church in this day and age after all. No that wasn’t it, most priests actually just sat around and did religious stuff in a church or out in the world. Was he doing that? 

“[i][color=gray]Its about a two hour walk to the docks if we don’t dilly-dally, what do you say, shall we wrap up this vacation within this god-forsaken country? I’ll want some pictures of us in the Cathedral first.[/color][/i]”