Apocalyptic Returning

Chapter 16: Dia De Muertos

The sun shone bright in the sky on a nice summer day over. There were small patches of clouds that mingled through the sky, blocking the sun's light from fully encompassing the park below. A park full of joy and laughter as kids played on the swings, ran around playing games and climbed across the playground.

Sitting on a bench along the pathway surrounding the park, an old but lively Hispanic man watched the children play. The man smiled playfully as children ran past him and spoke to each other in Spanish. And he continued to watch until out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something that sent chills down his spine.

On the other side of the playground, stood a young Japanese woman, leaning down and handing a kid a piece of candy. The child took the piece of candy and thanked the lady while running off. Then after waving goodbye to the kid, she turned to stare at the old man, along with everybody else in the park.

Feeling an ominous energy from behind, the old man slowly turned his head. The old man looked up at the figure of Atrox Muerte looming over him, the red eyes of Atroz staring down into the old man's soul. And for a long moment, that's all the two did, state at each other as everyone in the park ran away in fear except the Japanese woman.

"¿Qué es lo que quieres, Muerte?" The old man asked while turning his head back to face forward.

As the Japanese woman made her way towards them, Atroz responded with "Necesito su ayuda, Sitzer."

Closing his eyes before taking a deep breath, when Sitzer opened them, the Japanese woman was standing in his face. "¿Por qué razones podrías necesitar la ayuda de este anciano?"

"You still hold a grudge over Apocalyptic Returning, don't you?" Atroz questioned. "Or have you forgotten what they did to us and our people?"

"How could I ever forget-" Sitzer sighed while standing up, the Japanese woman backing up. "What they took from us."

"Wow" The Japanese woman voiced. "So dramatic."

Peering into her eyes, Sitzer noticed some scattered strands of white hair mingled in with the Japanese woman's light blue hair. "¿Cómo convenciste a Yumi para que se uniera a ti en esta cruzada tuya?"

This caused Yumi to let out a slight chuckle before speaking. "Settoku chikara wa hitsuyo nakatsu ta." Smiling down at Sitzer, her exosuit began spreading over her body starting from the back of her head. "Ano uragirimono no musashi wa korosu tame ni 、donna kikai de mo yaru."

"Ah...to think I almost forgot about what happened to Japan in the early days of World War Three." Sitzer smirked as his own exosuit began to spread across his body.

"Let's go!" Atroz ordered while turning away from the two, his patience ran out.

"You left me!?" Lux yelled to the back of Jackal's head. Finally gaining a chance to speak with Jackal, he let out everything he was building up. "You didn't even come to check if I was dead or not, did you?"

"Look kid, I said I was sorry, really I am." Jackal said while walking through the forest, Lux following close behind. "But you have to look at it from my perspective too. You went off with that idiot Faraday to fight, right? Even after I basically pleaded with you to stop, but no, you had to be a big boy and go off and show how capable you were."

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Lux wondered how he was able to make it out of that jungle alive. "Because you all still keep treating me like some kid. Faraday was the only one that actually treats me like an adult."

"And look where that got the two of you." Jackal pointed out. "He believed the two of you would be strong enough to take on Zaraph. And people wonder why I call him an idiot." Suddenly stopping dead in his tracks, he fell silent for a long moment before making any sort of movement.