Emilia stepped back toward the hangar; smoke from the sewers swallowed the streets. and slowly the area.
Ronnie's boots sparked against the asphalt. Static danced across his shoulders. The air itself began to tremble—not from fear, but from pressure.
Ronnie (to himself, low): "He's faster than he looks…"
Suddenly—Harlekin emerged.
Not from in front.
From above.
Upside down, perched spiderlike on a steel pipe. His blood-streaked knife twirled lazily between his fingers. The clown suit fluttered in the wind, and those white eyeholes locked onto Ronnie like twin abysses.
Harlekin: "Tell me, bolt man… Do you know why clowns laugh?"
Ronnie (calmly): "No. But I know what screams sound like."
In a blur—Harlekin dove.
Ronnie vanished in a blue-lightning flash, his afterimage torn apart as Harlekin's blade sliced through air.
The pavement behind Harlekin erupted—Ronnie reappeared in a charged tackle, grabbing Harlekin midair and slamming him into a parked hover-crate.
Harlekin (laughing, twisted): "HA! You scream! In your inside! All of you do!"
He threw both feet up and kicked Ronnie off, flipping backward, landing like a spider once again—this time, he opened both arms.
Ten blood-red wires shot from his sleeves, dragging corpses—Ronnie's fallen strike force—like puppets into the battle.
Their eyes were blank. Movements are twitchy. Controlled.
Ronnie's fists are glowing with blue lightning. He didn't hesitate.
Ronnie: "You're desecrating the dead."
He blasted forward.
The puppets were fast—twitching and erratic—but Ronnie didn't waste time. One clean sweep of his right arm, and a chain of lightning tore through three of them, vaporizing their bones in a crackling arc.
But Harlekin was gone again.
Laughter echoed from every wall.
Harlekin (mocking): "You came to find your son, didn't you?
Looking for a ghost in clown makeup to give you answers?"
Ronnie's eyes sharpened.
He remembered.
Harlekin's presence. His whispers.
The missing reports. The way he knew things he shouldn't.
A shadow passed behind him—too fast to see.
Ronnie turned too late—a knife plunged into his side.
Blood sprayed.
Harlekin leaned in close, mouth near Ronnie's ear.
Harlekin (soft): "All fathers lose their children, eventually."
Ronnie roared, unleashing a full radial lightning burst.
Harlekin was blown back, crashing into the second floor of the hangar's wall—concrete exploded from the impact.
Ronnie (roaring): "Enough with your games, Clown!"
Harlekin licks the blood from his lips.
Harlekin: "If I may ask, what is it with people like you?" (He jumps off the broken wall.) "Always striving for justice, doing everything they can to fight crime."
Out of the fog surrounding him, a small crying boy appears.
Harlekin (with a wide smile): "Always trying to protect the last good people of Neoterra, while not being able to protect your own son."
Ronnie (whispering): "Elion…"
The boy is dragged into the fog. Disappearing into nothingness.
Ronnie roars loud in fury. Lightning spreads and shoots out of his body.
Ronnie (furious): "Give me back my son!"
Covered in lightning, he charges at Harlekin, but it was just an illusion. He hits the wall hard.
Harlekin (voice echoed): "Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie. Too proud to forget."
Harlekin appears next to him from the fog. In his hand, his blood-drenched knife.
Harlekin (smiling brightly): "Too blind to see."
He stabs at Ronnie, but he is quickly punched in his face.
Ronnie (silent, angry): "I have enough of you."
He grabs Harlekin by his throat. Lifting him above his feet and punching him again in his face.
Harlekin hits the ground again.
Blood sprouts out of his mouth on the ground; with it he draws a symbol.
The symbol glows brightly, and a Harlequin balloon flies out of it.
Harlekin grabs the balloon, flying out of the hangar into the air.
He waves with one hand, the one with which he holds his knife.
Ronnie: "You are not going anywhere."
He throws another lightning bolt at Harlekin, but this time he aims for the balloon.
It pops. With a loud laugh, he falls into the thick smoke between the buildings.
But when the smoke cleared… Harlekin was gone.
Only the knife remained, stuck in the ground—its blade bent into the shape of a smile.
Inside the hangar, Emilia ran to Ronnie as he clutched his bleeding side.
The others had woken—Henry, Jack, Ichiro, and Lenny—now gathering at the hangar's edge in stunned silence.
Jack (eyes wide): "…Who the hell was that?"
Emilia (voice cold): "The one they sent when they became too desperate."
Henry stood by the hoverjet's ramp, one fist still faintly glowing blue. Jack stayed a step ahead, arms crossed, his eyes locked on Ronnie's every move.
Ronnie, holding his side where Harlekin's knife had cut deep, stepped through the flickering shadows of the hangar. His suit was scorched and cracked at the chest.
Ronnie (calm but sharp): "I don't know who you kids are… But you're not just wandering adventurers."
He stopped. Looked each of them in the eyes.
Lenny lowered his gaze. Ichiro's hand stayed near his katana. Emilia stayed silent.
Ronnie (to Emilia, voice iron): "You. You know him. The clown."
Emilia (quietly): "…His name is Harlekin."
Ronnie: "I figured. I've been tracking him for a year. Until tonight, I had never seen him up close. Now I have corpses in my team, and I still don't have answers."
Henry (stepping forward): "Then stop pointing your damn finger and ask."
Ronnie (eyes narrowing): "Alright then. Who are you people?"
There was silence.
Then Emilia stepped forward.
Emilia (low): "We're not your enemy. But the people you're chasing? They are hunting us too. And we're not ready."
Ronnie studied her, and in that moment—he knew.
Ronnie: "I've seen your face before. You were younger, but you've dealt with the Syndicate before. It all makes sense now."
Henry (cutting in): "She was part of their world once. But she left.
Ronnie (thinking loud): "They send a damn Soul Reaper after you."
Emilia (confused): "Soul Reaper?"
Ronnie: "You didn't know that damn clown is a Soul Reaper?"
Henry steps between them.
Henry (his fist clenching): "Did you say Soul Reaper?"
The name echoed in the silence like a curse.
Ronnie's jaw clenched.
Ronnie (softly): "Number 7, to be exact. My son… (He lowers his head so they won't notice him lying.) disappeared years ago. They probably know where he is."
Jack: "…Your son?"
Ronnie (nodding slowly): "My adopted son. He had fire in him. The kind that makes enemies in the wrong places. And I think he got caught in their web."
Emilia stepped forward—carefully.
Emilia: "If he crossed paths with them… They either wanted him… Or they used him."
Ronnie's hand lit with blue sparks.
Ronnie: "Then I'm going to burn that web down."
Henry exchanged glances with the others.
Ronnie lowered himself onto a crate, wincing, lightning still cracking softly from his wounds.
Outside the hangar, the Neoterra skyline began to wake.
Inside, a fragile alliance was forming.