'Shard dust.
An illegal substance created by mixing soul shards with a variety of other drugs from the dark times. Initially it was created by scientist of the first generation, sometime after the nightmare spell first emerges with the purpose of helping Awakened's to saturate their soul core faster; Through means of either injection, oral or nostril. At the start, the drug did have high success rate but was quickly outlawed after discoveries of 'unwanted' side effects, due to the nature of how the drug was created. While it's true that it does help Awakened's to fill out their soul core at a faster rate, it also increases their dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin levels to a dangerous amount after few repeated usages. Due to this, the drug is highly addictive and withdrawals symptoms is extremely severe due to its involvement with the soul core. Thus, it was quickly outlawed, being classified as an illegal, dangerous and highly addictive recreational drug by the government shortly after its creation.'
After a quick run through of the summary of his current mission for the Shadow Clan, June leaned on the wall and slowly placed the paper back into his customed storage memory. The mission objective was simple; Awakened June was meant to infiltrate into a drug smuggling operation under his black-market alias 'Corsair', then to derail the operation before it spread to the citizen of Night Garden, which just moved back into the dream realm after spending some time on the Indian Ocean. Similar to his first mission for the Shadow Clan, he was chosen again due his status as an elite black-market operative, allowing him to have an easier time fitting in undercover compared to other members. Unfortunately, due to unseen circumstances, Ray and Fleur would not be able to join him in this mission this time, so for the time being, he's doing this alone.
With a sigh, he slowly turned his head to observe the surroundings. The current building they were at was in rough shape, due to the chaos of the waking world during the war between the two major clans of Song and Valor, it was located in the outskirt as well. The walls of the dimly lit room they're in is punctured and is on the point of collapsing anytime by now, the wooden floor is crooked, wet and damp. June could smell the scent of rotting rats being devoured by decomposers such as insects, coming from every corner of the abandoned building. No wonder these drug smugglers picked this location as a meet up place; it was the perfect place to hide from the authorities and government grunts.
'Hmm, a few awakeneds and a handful of mundanes.'
He'd took out his stainless-steel flask, filled with shaken vodka martini, then take a quick sip from it.
The group he was infiltrating currently was small in number, roughly around 7 people, including Corsair himself. Normally he wouldn't have taken this contract, however from what Awakened Kim had told him, this small ragtag group was connected to a larger drug smuggling operation who has been able to avoid the fire keepers and the government for sometimes now. They're also responsible for the smuggling of 'Shard dust' into various places of the Dream Realm such as Bastion and Ravenheart. This has caused major problem in both great citadels and the waking world, causing this group to go onto the Shadow Clan radar.
'Well so far this does seem like a low-level mission. No wonder why they only sent one shadow'.
Just as June finished his train of thought, a loud and boisterous voice suddenly caught everyone attention within the room.
"Alright, so that settles it! Everyone hurry up we're moving!"
June then glanced at him with a cold and calculating look, before straightening up and walked over to the boisterous man direction. The man was indeed quite tall, with June being slightly taller than him. Like June, the man, or Awakened Jasper was also wearing a mundane outfit, with a coat and shirt underneath. Jasper was also the leader of this small ragtag group, so June was keen to pay attention to him. Beside from his tall and broad frame, Jasper had a bright ginger hair, a patchy beard and his eyes were emerald green. From his observation of Jasper, which mostly involved words of mouth from others around him, it seemed that the man aspect involved something about stealth. Though Corsair could not exactly tell how it worked as Jasper still haven't used his abilities yet in the time he had been here.
After a while, when everyone has gathered around the room, Jasper then reiterated the plan to the entire group. The plan was actually quite simple, first they meet up with the seller at one of the old, almost bankrupt family diners that resides somewhere near the outskirt's borders, then they'll grab the 'shard dust' and head over to the Dream Gate that is located at the centre of NQSC, to enter Night Garden.
"Ahh schmucks! We gotta go already?"
The man farthest away from June spoked out in a squeamish voice. Then after a few seconds, he'd then opened his mouth yet again, staring at a direction no one is at. Awakened Kaleid behaviour is quite off putting for most people who just met him for the first time, even now after a day or 2 of meeting the guy, June still haven't gotten used to his antics.
"I'm not whining! It just that-"
'Is he talking to himself?'
Corsair thought, it took a while for June to process this scene in front of him. After a brief moment, he'd then let out a sigh.
'Well, that's quite a unique and unfortunate aspect'.
With that, the ragtag group consisted of mundanes and awakeneds smugglers made their way out of the long-ruined building, into the cold and chaotic street of NQSC outskirt.
Taking a step on the puddle outside, June looked up to the sky. The cloud was darker than before, it was about to rain.
'I hope this mission goes smoothly...'
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Just before the rain started getting heavy, the group of smugglers and a shadow has finally arrived at the seller location. The diner they were at was quite small, no larger than 200 square meters in size, with a few chairs and tables set up here and there scattered, arranged in a random order. Surprisingly, the place was still up and running even after all the chaos that had happened in the waking world during the war, though barely. The walls were damped; the floor was in bad condition and there was no heater to shield them from NQSC cold weather either. Due to it being situated at the border of the outskirts, the food here, though still resembled the real thing somewhat, was all cheap synthetic crap. Which honestly was still better than that synthetic paste that people eat commonly in the outskirt.
As June looks around the building he'd just entered, he began to ponder to himself.
'I suppose this is where people who lived in the outskirts went when they wanted to treat themselves'.
Shortly after, an enigmatic individual stood up from his seat and begin to approach Jasper. The man has slit like eyes, brown hair with a reddish tint and was average in height. His clothes were quite mundane as well, with a bright blue hoodie and long trousers; Though to June, it was apparent that this guy was their seller, who is trying too hard to not stand out, with his whole clumsy body language sticking out like a sore thumb.
'Ah, an amateur.'
With a sigh he began to continue to scout his surroundings, a habit that he developed back in the Antarctic campaign, while the smugglers began to talk to the slit eyed man. Whatever they were talking about could be the last of June problems, as his eyes suddenly widened and a shock sending a shiver down his spine, as he heard a familiar voice at the corner of the diner.
"Ahhh it's cold..."
The voice belonged to a beautiful girl with fair skin, raven-black hair that is tied up using a black pin with a snake design. She's wearing a black jumper with greyish outline and a grey boot to accompany it. She was currently sitting at the corner of the diner all alone while waiting for her order to arrive.
'The Princess? What the hell is she doing here!'
It wasn't very long before the two shadows made eye contact with each other, which made the atmosphere feels even more awkward than it was before, somehow. Without waiting for anymore seconds, June breaks the awkward silent, his fingers forming subtle signs that no one else in the diner could have noticed beside the two shadows.
[What are you doing here, all alone?]
His signs were still as precise and mechanical as before, Rain thought to herself. In response, her delicate fingers formed back signs of her own.
[Just feeling a bit sentimental today, what about you? On a mission I assume?]
Corsair then looked over to the group of smugglers he was infiltrating in, his hand was placed low, around pocket level. Signs then continue to form from his fingers.
[A low level one from the looks of it, no one else is here aside from me. Apparently, I'm supposed to derail this drug smuggling scheme.]
Paying close attention to his surroundings, he saw that the princess shadow was forming a few more signs.
[That sounds interesting, have you done something like this before?]
June then let out a sigh.
[No, all my contracts up to this point, has never involved drug smuggling. It's usually more of bodyguard jobs and taking out certain individuals.]
Suddenly the resounding and boisterous voice of Jasper, who was carrying a grey suitcase, presumably filled with 'Shard dust', caught everyone attention in the diner.
"All right everyone! We got the stuff, lets head out!"
June glanced at the ginger haired man.
'This moron, if you're trying to hide from the authorities then keep your voice down.'
The slit eyed man smiled and then turned his back away from the smugglers, walking away to the direction of the backdoor, into the alley with his hand was waving back at Jasper and the rest.
"Well, if that's all then I shall take my leave."
A second later, June remade eye contact with the princess of Shadows, Rain. His hands moved subtly forming a few more signs.
[This might sound inconvenient, but can you take care of that slit eyed bastard?]
With a nod from the princess, Corsair and the ragtag group of smugglers moved out from the front door of the diner.
The rain has stopped a little earlier it seems, though due to the recent rain the atmosphere was colder than before causing the mundanes and even a few awakened's to shivered.
Taking a deep breath as the cold breeze blow his through his black hair, he looked up, sighed and take a few steps on the wet pavement. It was just then that a loud thud could be heard from back in the alley, near the diner, which caught the attention of everyone in the group.
'Damn it, she made too much noise!'
"What the hell was that?"
It was a voice from one of the mundanes smugglers in the group. The mundane then looked at everyone and spoke.
"You guys stay put; I'll go and check it out."
Without a moment to wait, June spoke up in a calm and cool tone which interrupted the mundane who was heading over to the alleyway.
"Oh, I supposed I've forgot to tell you this. But I'm supposed to meet up with an associate of mine here, she'll be helping us out."
June could feel the glances of everyone within the group, all staring at him with questions and doubt written all over their faces, who could've blame them? After all it was a fast lie that June had made up to cover for Rain on the spot.
June then glanced back at the mundane; It was due to his reputation as an elite among executives of the black market that helped June steered away from any questions about the statement he just had made. No one dared to question his intention, after all he was the famed 'Corsair'.
With that, June walked past the mundane, heading towards the dark alleyway where Rain was at while the rest of the smugglers stared back at him in silent.
The smell here was atrocious, with damp walls on both sides and muddy street. As he continued to go in further into the alley, he finally spotted the Shadow Clan princess over at the corner of his eye. Rain suffered from a light scratch on her pale cheeks, so nothing to be worried about really. It seemed like that slit eyed man was a better awakened than he had originally thought, but due to superior combat training and wits, the princess had managed to capture him and tied him up next to a dumpster.
With a sigh of relief, June spoke up.
"Good work on capturing him, though you made too much noise in the process."
Rain then looked back at the blue-eyed devil, letting out a small sigh.
"Sorry about that, the bastard was tougher than I thought..."
June then continued to walk over to Rain, stopping at a few meters away from her.
"Actually, because of that I kind of.... need you to come with me to complete this mission, if you don't mind."
Rain then glanced back at June, with a cheeky smile.
"What? Don't say the famous Corsair need my help?"
Rain then let out a few small chuckles, then continued to speak.
"Sure! I don't mind."
June then looked away to the side, letting out a light cough.
'Cute!'
Rain thought to herself as the tall blue-eyed man was seemingly flustered.
'Wait what am I thinking about? Snap out of those thoughts damn it!'
Rain thoughts were suddenly halted when June continued to speak again. The Corsair summoned his customed storage memory, then pulled out a black cloth mask.
"Wear this."
After Rain wears the cloth mask, she'd then stared back at June, asking him a few more questions about the mission.
"Before we head out, care to explain to me what the mission is about?"
June then, quickly briefed her on the mission and its objectives.
"The gist of it is that we are trying to derail a drug smuggling operation, prevent the drug known as 'Shard dust' to spread into the streets of Night Garden."
June then paused for a moment, then resumed.
"The group of smugglers I'm, now 'we' are infiltrating into, belongs to a bigger organisation that appeared not long after the war. 'Thousand dust' as they called themselves, had been causing a lot of troubles for the government in the real world and the fire keeper in the dream realm as well. The slit eyed man over there was the 'dealer' and 'seller' for NQSC, now that he's taken care of, our objective gets much easier."
Rain then went quiet, taking a moment to ponder to herself and take in the information Corsair just had given her.
"So, what now? We're heading over to Night Garden?"
With a sigh, June walked away from Rain, responding to the question and send a signalled for her to follow.
"Exactly."