Devotio

Chapter 1

"They ran this way. Spread out and find them. The boss wants them alive. Only open fire if your life is in danger but do not under any circumstances fire to kill. If you find them, do not attempt to apprehend them on your own. Contact a member of your group. Move out."

The two people the Chargarde Soldiers were looking for were currently watching from a nearby rooftop, trying to catch their breath.

"I told you that was a trap, but no. You just had to test your luck and now, I doubt we can get two blocks without alerting them." The younger one said in a spiteful tone. "I can't believe you still don't understand that if it looks too good to be true then it probably is."

"Well excuse me for trying to be optimistic about things right now." The older one spat back. "One of us has to hope for the best and that usually fall to the one that still has hope left."

"What's there left to hope for?" The younger one almost shouted. He sighed and looked at the broken city around them. "Look at the world we live in. There's no hope out there."

The older one rubbed his head. "It may not look like it but there were still people who hope the world can go back to what it once was. Remember a few days back when we lead those soldiers away from a completely defenseless group? Remember how that was your idea? You're the one giving people hope. You can change the world if you try."

"Che. It was just time to leave and those soldiers just happened to follow us because we're wanted like criminals. You make it sound like I'm some sort of savior in a cheesy Hollywood movie. If it was that simple, someone else could've done it years ago before it fell this far into disarray."

"You're always so negative. I can't believe you're my brother, Chibisuke." The older one smirked and threw an arm over his brother.

"And you're so positive, Ryoga." Echizen returned his brother's smirk with one of his own. "Well, you got us into this. What are we going to do; how are we going to get away without them noticing?"

Ryoga scratched his head then grinned. "Gelus Spaera." He flicked his hand, palm up and a small ball of ice appeared. "Snowball fight?"

Echizen raised an eyebrow. "You think that's going to do the job?"

He started bouncing the snow in his hand. "Come on Chibisuke, have a little faith."

==========

"Sector Three clear."

"Sector Five clear."

"Sector Four clear."

The radios of the soldiers sounded as they reported in. There was no sign of the brothers, or anyone for that matter. The streets were bare and the only noise was the clank of their boots.

"Shubou-sama will be very angry if we don't find them." Red One said. "Keep searching. We might as well not even go back if we can't apprehend two te-" A snowball hit him in the back of the head. "Gah."

"Sir." Red Six ran over to him. "Sectors One, Two, Six, Eight, Seven, and Nine have all reported being hit with a snowball."

"They're not the only ones soldier." He wiped the snow from his head and pulled out his radio. "Regroup in Sector Five. We'll devise a new plan of attack." The group of soldiers all met as ordered after a few minutes. Red One pulled out a map with the city on it. "These Sectors Three, Four, and Five are clear while the others seem to have activity in them. Seeing we're looking for two teenage boys who both possess the M-Gene, it's highly likely that they're able to set up a trick like that."