Instead of going in the usual way, he decided to enter through a different entrance. He walked around the building where there was a small basement path below. He sneaked in and climbed up to a room.
"Calm down…" As soon as Leo slipped into the hideout through the different entrance, he heard a voice.
He peeked around the corner. There were actually four people inside his hideout.
Three of the girls (Anya, Rem, and Tessia) were sitting on stacked boxes.
Beside them sat a girl in a cropped combat top, thigh-high stockings, and an oversized jacket. Her short sky-blue hair matched her equally striking blue eyes.
A blonde man with a buzz cut stood near her. Both his arms looked a little bulkier than normal.
The remaining two strangers wore full protective gear, each holding a gun.
Vince, Levi, and Nick sat stiffly on the old sofa. Their faces were hidden from Leo's angle.
"Are you planning to hide there forever?" the buzz-cut man called out.
His gaze wasn't even on Leo; it was on the wall, but it felt like he could see straight through the wall and spot Leo.
Leo looked up and noticed a tiny mechanical camera-spider attached to the wall.
He sighed, tightened his grip on his gun, and stepped into view.
"Who are you people?" Leo demanded, raising the Harpie.
The man chuckled. "Heh… a Harpie. Haven't been threatened by one of those in years."
Leo glanced at the girls. They looked like they wanted to speak, but the blue-haired girl quietly signaled them to stay silent.
"Calm down, kid," the buzz-cut man said. "We—"
"Don't move," Leo cut in. "Talk from there."
The man laughed harder. "Lower your gun. That little thing won't hurt us."
The others smirked in confidence. Leo didn't lower the gun; instead, he scanned the room.
He shifted his aim suddenly toward the broken-handled fire extinguisher that was mounted on the wall.
Bang!
The bullet hit the broken handle.
BOOM!
The extinguisher got hit and leaked, the pressure launching it like a rocket. It then slammed straight into the blue-haired girl's forehead and knocked her out cold.
"Unyaaaan..." The girl let out a funny noise and fell down. Everything happened in a single heartbeat.
Everyone in the room blinked in astonishment. As the smoke cleared, Leo was already above the fallen girl and pressed the Harpie against her temple, glaring at the others with sharp and vigilant eyes.
Only then did he notice something strange.
The boys on the sofa weren't panicking. They were wearing wireless headphones, watching something on a tablet. The girls weren't terrified either; they were eating snacks. All of them looked at Leo with astonished expression.
Leo blinked and looked back at them, confused.
Before he could say anything, his eyes blurred as the world spun. In the next instant, he was pinned to the ground.
The girl he'd knocked out was suddenly awake, sitting on top of him. Her knees pinned his arms, her weight holding him down in a dominating position.
"That hurt…" she muttered with teary blue eyes.
"Uh… sorry?" Leo said with a forced smile.
A Few Minutes Later
"So you people came here for us?" Leo asked, standing now with the other kids.
"Yeah," the buzz-cut man, Jake, said. " We were commissioned to locate the survivors of the Dream Orphanage and bring them back. Especially the girls. Because one of these three girls is our target to protect. But we don't really mind saving you all."
Leo had a thousand questions spinning in his heads. He then recalled something.
Natasha was holding a baby when arriving in this city for the first time. He looked at the girls; he already knew which girl was their target, but Leo decided not to reveal it.
Jake took the old notebook on the table, filled with different handwriting from the kids.
"I'm surprised you brats know how to read and write," Jake said.
"Sister Natasha taught us…" Vince replied.
"Of course she did. She loves teaching educational stuff," Jake sighed.
"You knew her?" Leo asked sharply.
"Hmm. Actually… we're mercs," Jake said proudly. "Mercenaries from Echo Haven."
The kids blinked.
They'd heard of Rangers, Techies, and other professions, but mercenaries from cities were on another level. They would take any job, and their team always consisted of different professions.
Jake groaned. "Seriously? Did Natasha teach you nothing? You don't even know Echo Haven?"
The blue-haired girl, Cyan, stepped forward.
"We're from a different city," she explained. "You guys should know that big corporations rule the continent. Dozens of cities fall under their control. Whatever they say in those cities is the rule."
She paused, then added, "This city is under—"
"— Pentagon Corporation," Leo finished.
Cyan glared at him for a second and nodded.
"Correct. We are from a city called Echo Haven. It's a kind of famous city in the Nexus Core Domain.... By the way, this Old Morrow City is in the Pentagon Domain...." Cyan's expression growing serious. "The thing is, Natasha, the nun who ran your orphanage, was actually a former member of our team."
Everyone froze.
Cyan continued, "She had a separate mission, and that was to protect a certain individual and stay hidden. But the enemies of that person eventually tracked her location. That's why they attacked the orphanage."
---
That Night, when Leo and the others sneaked out to pluck mangoes.
Inside the Orphanage,
Natasha had just finished serving dinner. The kids were laughing. The hall glowed warm.
Then, she paused as her eyes sharpened. She left the room and locked it. Then she stood before the door.
"Looks like you weren't just some ordinary nun," a cold voice mocked from outside.
Figures stepped out from the shadows, surrounding Natasha.
Natasha's hand split open, revealing a small laser weapon embedded in her palm.
Then chaos erupted.
---
Back in the present,
"Natasha could've escaped. She was a well-trained merc. But she probably refused to abandon those children in the orphanage." Cyan's voice softened. "They all died… and the attackers disguised it as a fire."
The children's eyes reddened; the girls were already sobbing.
Cyan sighed softly. "Fortunately, Natasha managed to send a final message before she died. She reported that the protection target was alive."
Cyan looked at the girls. "One of you is the protection target. We don't know which one. But Natasha requested us to save all surviving children."
"Why did it take five years to reach here?" Leo asked.
Cyan glared at him again while touching her small head bump. Leo turned to look at Jake.
"That's a good question. We never received the message. To explain it clearly, when Natasha sent it, the attackers must have blocked any outgoing signals. They must have had a skilled Grid Weaver with them. But Natasha anticipated that and uploaded the message to her cloud storage. If she didn't access it for five years, it was automatically set to forward everything to our merc group. That's how we found it, reported it to the person who hired Natasha for this long mission, and then came here within a month to find all of you…" Jake said.
"In her message, she also mentioned that you kids would definitely survive, even if we received it late, because there is a dependable kid who will take care of everyone…" Cyan added, glancing at Leo.
Leo closed his eyes, lost in deep thought.
Then Jake crossed his arms proudly. "We're taking all seven of you to Echo Haven. It's one of the best cities in the world."
"Better than Neon City?" Vince asked excitedly.
"Neon City?" Cyan scoffed. "That experimental hellhole? That is the worst city under Pentagon Corporation. I can't even imagine that this somewhat peaceful Old Morrow City and that chaotic Neon City are under the same corporate company."
Vince's hope shattered instantly. The slum rumors painted Neon City as the land of freedom and opportunity. Hearing otherwise felt like someone flipped his entire world upside down.
Again, Cyan turned to Leo briefly; he avoided her sharp gaze.
Jake clapped his hands. "Alright. We're taking all seven of you back to Echo Haven."
Leo walked toward the corner where they kept their water jug and took a drink.
Cyan followed him quietly, still staring at him.
"My head hurts just looking at you…" she muttered loudly.
Leo turned. "Beautiful sister… I'm sorry…" he said, glancing at her forehead.
"Beautiful?" Cyan gave him a skeptical look, but Leo's expression was honest.
"How about this… you can hit me back," Leo said. He gently took her hand and pressed it to his cheek. Closing his eyes, he waited.
But instead of slapping him, Cyan softly brushed her hand against his cheek.
"Alright, alright," she laughed. "You're smart. That move you pulled? Even a trained professional like me got caught off guard."
Leo froze. Heat spread across his face.
He turned away, cheeks burning.
Cyan's eyes brightened at his reaction. She stared at him, amused.
This boy… is unexpectedly cute.