How could he have missed it? It was obvious even for the dumbest person that in this situation, a scream like the one V had let out a moment ago, could have been heard probably all the way to the upper floors. That's why, not much after the scream, steps started to come right from the stairs behind Travis.

It was likely that only the guy on the second floor was already here, but if he knew, the other 6 guys (not counting the one that Travis killed) already had been alerted and were in their way back to the first floor.

His plan had failed because he didn’t thought it all the way and acted too hasty. A little mistake had compromised his entire chance of escaping. It was frustrating but there was no one else to blame but himself.

- HAHAHAHAHA! Game over Mr. Agent

V’s laugh and mockery snapped Travis out of his thoughts back to reality. He could hear more steps getting closer with time and before he could do something about it, he was being pushed against a column in the center of the building.

The agent watched the criminals getting closer and making a circle of 7 or 8 feet of radius around him. The circle opened to let V in, who walked until he was only two meters away from the agent, and, while wrapping some bandages on his wounded wrist, said with a smile on his face:

- You almost got me there Mr. Agent, you are a really dangerous fellow and our organization could really use someone like you. It is a shame that you have to die here

- Since you are so confident that you are going to kill me, can you at least tell me who you work for and what do you want from me?

Clicking his tongue a couple of times while swinging his index finger in front of him, as saying ‘no’, he opened his mouth again:

- I won’t fall for your tricks Mr. Agent, you are not getting any information of me. But since you have been a really interesting opponent, I’m going to tell you the name of our organization, since, after today, everyone will know and fear us

- The only scary thing about you is your horrible face

- Haha, very funny, but I wouldn’t make jokes if I were in your position. Well, as I was saying, you will have the honor to be a stepping stone on our path to the top of this rotten world. Thanks to you and every other agent we’ve killed, in the future everyone will know the name: Army of the Underworld

Travis hadn’t heard of that name before, but one thing was for sure: if this guys had targeted not only him, but other (possibly Special) agents as him, they were too dangerous to be kept alive.

So, he decided to do something about it.

- Army of the Underworld, huh? Never heard of them, but that sounds more like the really bad name of the even worse under metal band

- It is impressive that you can keep that sense of humor when you are about to die. I respect you for that

- Yeah well, I wasn’t sure I was going to die tonight, but after the information you gave me, now I know for sure

Intrigued by the agent’s words, V put his sword back on its sheath, walked towards Travis and when their faces were almost touching, he asked:

- And why is that Mr. Special Agent Travis Singh?

- Because - He looked at every single person surrounding him - all of us here…

Before even finishing his sentence, Travis took his sword out, which he had back in the sheath when it was clear he wasn’t going to win just by fighting.

At this sight, V jumped backwards and everyone got ready to attack.

But Travis wasn’t aiming at V. He wasn’t even aiming for a person.

When Travis decided that he couldn’t let this people escape, a memory suddenly came to his mind almost like an epiphany:

It was a memory he didn’t even knew he had. It was from his early days as an agent. He was at the HQs on his lunch break, since at the time his shift started at 8 in the morning with a break at 12 a.m. and again until 4 P.M.

He was enjoying a sandwich he had prepared that morning with a nice cup of coffee, when two agents entered the room talking about a building that had caught on fire somewhere on the outskirts of the city. Out of curiosity, Travis asked where this building was, and almost choked on his sandwich when he heard it was actually right beside his house. He rapidly got back to his house in the little time he had left on his break, just to see if everything was okay. Once he reached his home and confirmed that nothing had happened to his house and that the fire had been extinguished, he went back to the HQ and asked one of his superiors that was working on the case a full report on what had happened and the status of the building.

The fire had been caused by an electric malfunction that no one noticed until it was too late. Luckily, no one died and only a couple of persons got some minor injuries.

The only thing that caught Travis’ attention, was that the report said that the building had one big structural weakness after the fire on a column that went through the entire building. The column had suffered an enormous damage and was barely keeping everything in place, but any minor disturbance would break it and the entire building could collapse.

As he recalled that day, he elaborated a plan in case that everything else didn’t work. He would lure his enemies to the center of the building where the column was, making it seem like he was getting push back, and at the right moment, he would strike the column and hope it was enough to make the building collapse.

Of course there was a counterpart to this plan: he was going to get crushed too. He didn’t like the idea, but if this guys were as dangerous as they said, then it was a price he was willing to pay.

-…all of us here are going down!

Travis completed his sentence as his sword hit the thinnest and weakest part of the column with a big *thud*

At first, the only thing that happened was that, accompanied by the horrible sound of metal breaking, Travis’ sword snapped in two pieces right above the handle, which only got a laugh out of V and his men. But a moment later, the laughter stopped as a vibration started shaking the entire building.

Before they could react, the column mimicked the sword and snapped where it had been hit, and with the entire force of its weight being pulled down by gravity, fell over two of the criminals, smashing them to the floor, killing them instantly.

Shocked by what had just happened, the rest of the criminals could only stare at their allies’ bodies squashed under a big concrete cylinder, as if it was an illusion.

What made them return to their senses were the debris that started falling from the roof, some of them as big as a football, leaving holes that connected the first and the second floors.

Everyone started to freak out while looking for the exit, but when they found it, it was completely blocked by a piece of concrete the size of a car.

There was no time to look for another way out, since the windows had been blocked with wooden planks, so the only thing that they could do was run in circles while evading the big chunks of concrete falling on their heads.

Meanwhile, the only two people that hadn’t move a single step were Travis and V. They were looking at each other. V had an expression distorted by the hate and anger he was feeling towards the agent. On the other hand, Travis had a smile on his face, almost as if he was proud of the fact that he was most certainly dead.

Of course he wasn’t smiling about his death, but he smiled because he had lived a nice life and had fulfilled his duty as a WP agent. He hadn’t always liked his job since there was still too much corruption and filth inside the system, but he had done his part to change this, and hoped that at some point in the future, everything would be cleaned from the inside and justice would return to the world.

Peacefully, he looked at the handle that was left on his hand. It was a metal piece, carved so it seemed like tens of vines of beautiful light green color were climbing it, with an almost to realistic ornament in the middle, where the handle and the cross met each other, in the form of a jasmine flower. He had gotten this made personally for him when his mother died, because it was her favorite flower.

Travis sat down on the floor with his legs crossed, put the handle down and whispered:

- Thanks for helping me all the way till here, it’s not likely but I hope you somehow get out of this one and help someone else through hard times

Of course there was no answer. He felt stupid for a moment but his train of thoughts was interrupted by a horribly acute voice, one he was glad he’d never had to listen again after this:

- WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?! BURY YOURSELF ALIVE ONLY FOR THE SAKE OF STOPPING US? ARE YOU STUPID?!

Lifting his sight, he could see V’s face turning red with veins that were on the verge of exploding, and an expression that resembled that of a demon.

Letting out a sigh, Travis answered calmly:

- Sorry, I only did my job. Nothing personal

- I’m going to kill you with my own hands old man

Taking his sword out with a sudden but sturdy move, V jumped towards Travis, aiming directly for his head… But…

- I don’t think so - said Travis while pointing up with his index finger.

V stopped in place and looked up. He opened his eyes as big as they could be when the sight of a giant boulder, falling directly above him, entered his field of view. He lowered his gaze again to meet Travis’ one last time. The latter gave him an annoying smile and spat his last words

- See you in Hell, kid

One last scream came out of V’s mouth before the giant piece of building slammed him and Travis to the ground, ending both their lifes.

The following five minutes where pure chaos. The entire building fold over itself, breaking apart in big, medium and small pieces that hit the ground with immense force, some landing tens of meters away from their original position.

Sadly, Travis’ house, which now was ownerless, wasn’t far enough to not get damaged as Travis had thought. Some pieces of debris had reached one side of his house and smashed it. The wall didn’t fall instantly, but the constant bombarding was too much for the wall to handle and sadly gave in, with the rest of the house following and, like its owner had a moment ago, fell victim of the destruction of the building.

From a long distance, a spectator watched the destruction demonstration with a pair of binoculars, and when the dust settled, put them down, brought its wrist to its mouth and said with a monotone cold voice:

- The work is done. He is dead

Someone responded, the sound coming from a little device on the persons ear

- What about V and our people?

- Also dead, all of them

- What a shame - the voice replied - He was impulsive, but he had potential to become a Head or even a Superior, given the time

- That’s not a problem, we have a lot of replacements for him that can be trained

- I guess you are right. Well done, Nergal, your job there is done, you can come back to report everything to your boss

- Roger

With a *bip* the communication ended and the person referred to as Nergal turned around and made its way back.

The sun was rising when people started to leave their houses, obviously alerted by the sound of the building falling. Twenty minutes later, the place was filled with agents, firefighters, two or three paramedics in standby in case anyone was hurt, reporters and spectators that wanted to know what had happened.

Four hours passed until the report was made public. The rescue team was able to find all of the corpses, but they only could identify the one of a Special Agent of the WP named Travis Singh. The nature of the accident was unknown, but they assumed the building just collapsed because of the state it was in. As for the reason behind why ten people were inside the building, they couldn’t know. They theorized that the agent was following a lead that led him to the building, when he was ambushed by this people, but all of them got trapped in the incident and weren’t able to escape.

People talked about it for some days since it was on every news channel, but day after day, everyone let it on the past, until no one remembered the accident, the building nor the people that had die inside. No one cared anymore… Well, no one but one person. 

Later that day…

-Theo! Come back here - He heard her mother's call behind him, but Theo didn’t listen. He was too fixated on a thing he saw on the floor between the debris.

It was glowing thanks to the only ray of sunlight hitting it. Under a little piece of concrete, a gorgeous green shine was calling for Theo’s attention. He quickly passed under the police yellow tape and walked directly into it. Moving the piece of building to the side, he picked up what seemed like a piece of metal.

Once he cleaned it a bit with his shirt, Theo was surprised to see that the color was actually a beautiful light green, and that it wasn’t just a piece of junk, it actually was the handle of a sword. Even if the blade was broken and only a tiny piece not more than 2 cm long remained, it was still something amazing to find on a place like that. He didn’t know how it got there, but without hesitation he grabbed the backpack that hanged from his shoulder and put the handle inside.

Just in time, his mother came from behind and grabbed him by his shoulder, making him turn around.

- Why did you do that? It is dangerous to come here!

- I’m sorry mom, I saw something and got distracted

- It’s okay Theo, just don’t run away like that again. Next time just tell me and we can at least come together

- ’Kay mom. Sorry for that

- Come on, let’s go. You can tell me what you saw while walking back home

With that, Theo and his mother went back on their way. The little boy took the handle out of his backpack and gave it to his mother who kept it until they could get rid of the bit of sword still attached to it since it could be dangerous for an eleven years old.

So Theo waited until night, when his mother came to his room with the handle, now completely blade-free, and freshly painted and cleaned. She had taken the job to clean it and restore it a bit so now it was a lot more bright and beautiful than earlier when he had found it. Theo thanked her mom with a big hug and a kiss, took the handle and put it on his desk so he could always look at it.

Theo didn’t know it yet, but that day, that moment and that handle, would mark the beginning of his journey to become the greatest WP agent the world had seen.

End of the Prologue.