New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The mercenaries had stayed outside the mansion grounds during the entire event, ready to enter at a moment's notice.

But when they saw the young man walk out, his clothes soaked in crimson liquid, along with his face, face and hands, they gasped.

He looked like an incarnation of a god of death and massacre, blood just dripping off of him as he walked past them.

Alfred stopped him, looking him up and down.

"Are you injured? Is any of this blood even yours?"

Although he asked this, he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

"I'm fine," Alex replied, his voice monotonous.

Alex kept walking, reaching the bus, his feet squelching in his shoes. But just as he was about to pull on the door to enter, a panicking Katherine pushed the door open screaming.

"Oh no, you don't! You will not be stepping into my mobile HQ looking like a vampire from an awful movie sixties movie! In the van, with the perps! Now!"

Alex looked at her, frowning, but she seemed hell-bent on this. With a sigh, Alex took a step back.

"Better yet, why don't you fly back home? I heard you could do that now," she said, half joking.

But she could see in Alex's face, the exhaustion setting in. She didn't know how much energy all the powers he used took from him, and wasn't about to ask.

But it couldn't have been a small toll.

Alex looked at her, his face reflecting his annoyance, but he walked over to the van, staying quiet. The back of the van in question was still open, and he could see a bunch of the earlier men, still in handcuffs, loaded at the back like prisoners about to be transferred.

When he hopped into the back of the vehicle, taking the last available spot, the merc that was about to hop in to keep the men in place opened his mouth to complain. But an icy gaze from Alexander shut him right up.

Alfred closed the doors, tapping his man on the shoulder.

"Trust me. They aren't about to overpower him. If something, I would be more worried about getting to the compound with no more prisoners alive."

A shiver ran down the mercs spine as he imagined opening the van doors to a bloodbath. He silently prayed that their last passenger behave himself.

Soon after climbing into the back of the van, he felt it shake slightly, a sign that it had gotten into motion. A contingent of vans and a bus left the outside of the Bianchi residence, leaving only a few other vans, in which the cleaning crew was getting ready to erase any trace they had been there.

Along the ride, Alex closed his eyes to grab a quick power nap, unafraid of the goons and thugs around him. If a single one of them tried something, it would be their loss.

A few of the criminals had the fleeting thought of trying something, while Alexander was heart breathing deeply, his slumber unabated by the surrounding danger. But as soon as they moved, a presence deep inside Alex pulsed a wave of mana, sending but a single image and sound into their minds.

The sound of an enormous wolf growling, along with a set of deep blue eyes, staring right into their heads. The few that had any funny ideas immediately sat back down, their bodies shaking in terror.

Most of them were toughened men, with more than one death under their name. But something about the mental pressure applied from that stare, along with the instinctual reaction to its growl, made them understand they were not predators in this van.

They were prey.

The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, as the van shook slightly to the potholes of Montreal, reaching a small building in an industrial part of the city. On the building, a large name in dark blue lettering was visible, standing out on the black glass facade.

Bellemare & Delphis Security.

The contingent of vehicles drove around to the back, where they entered a garage door that led inside. And from the interior, they started driving down the underground parking.

Once they had stopped, Alfred went to the van where Alex was and opened the door.

Seeing him sleep, with all the other perps compacted as much as they could toward the front of the van, he chuckled to himself. He was surprised none of them were dead, but relieved at the same time.

This meant he hadn't gone off the deep end yet.

Touching his leg lightly to wake him up, Alfred called out to him.

"Come on, boy, wake up."

As soon as he lightly shoved his thigh, a hand came at him, slightly covered in white fur, along with gleaming black claws, which reflected the light of the underground parking on their sharp edges.

But Alfred was no slouch. His sidearm pulled out just as fast and tucked into Alex's ribs just as the hand reached under his chin.

"Relax, kid. It's just me. We are here."

Alex saw who was disturbing his sleep, and the gun tucked uncomfortably against his side, and smirked.

"Very impressive. One of these days, I'll be faster than you," Alex said, his arm returning to normal, as he pulled it back, stretching himself.

Alfred returned his cocky smirk.

"Maybe one day. But for now, know that I can still kick your ass if you make me waste time. Come on, I have a job to do."

Alex looked at the perps in the van and understood he meant them, so he chuckled as he hopped out of the back of the vehicle.

"Sorry. I didn't want to get in your way. Just taking a nap."

Alfred waved his hand dismissively as he called out to one of his mercs.

"Talbot! Show the kid where the showers are and get him a spare uniform to change into. Mr. Bellemare will want to get a full debrief before he leaves. And I can't in my right mind send the kid upstairs looking like he bathed inside his enemies."

Talbot, the young woman who had tried defending her colleague earlier that day, saluted Alfred.

"Yes, sir!"

She then motioned for Alex to follow her as she walked away.

Alex now realized he recognized their uniforms. It was the same uniforms as the ones from the underground compound, under Jack's private hospital.

'Is that how they know each other?' he wondered, as he followed behind the stocky woman.