Lucien's world descended into complete darkness.
The last sensation that Lucien felt was etched into his memory. He felt an incredible amount of pain.
It was a claw slicing through his flesh and bone. As Lucien's final breath escaped his lungs he tasted dust and iron in a grim farewell.
Five minutes had passed.
The abandoned industrial area lay cloaked in the shadows of the city. The citizens of Tokyo knew the scary truth: the night belonged to monsters.
They emerged when the sun went below the horizon, and no ordinary person or weapon could pierce their skin.
Almost a decade ago, in a desperate fight for survival, the government initiated a response to the monsters. They called it The Nightguard Corps.
These soldiers were normal human beings and lacked supernatural abilities, but they fought in combat suits.
The Nightguard suit grants them supernatural abilities and unnatural strength, but only for the duration of the night.
Three shadowy figures emerged in their own armor at the industrial area alley's entrance, their movements were purposeful and synchronized.
One soldier's fists sparked with kinetic energy, ready to unleash a force that had never been seen before.
Another's blades came out of his hips. It looked like they were covered in venom.
The third stood proud, her chest plate glowing with a fractured luminescence. It looked like a dying star.
With a sense of urgency, all three of them approached the monster.
It screamed and twisted, as if an unseen puppet master held the strings to control it.
A single blood-green eye opened, revealing an unnatural transformation as the reptile doubled in size and width.
The reptile was preparing for a death-battle that would echo through the silence of the night.
It had absorbed the power that the night gave him, becoming a walking cataclysm.
The smallest of the three ran to Lucien and knelt beside his broken body.
Her gauntlet glowed in a divine light as she laid a hand on his heart.
A gentle pulse of purple and blue light raced through his veins.
It looked like nanites were knitting his flesh and bone back together.
His heartbeat stuttered and was irregular but then it slowly became steady.
He woke up confused, immediately gasping for air. The healer's suit relaxed its glow as Lucien's eyes began to open.
She retracted her helmet. No name beneath, only her green eyes reflecting fierce determination.
Behind the two of them, the other two jumped into action.
The blade‑armed Nightguard soldier closed the distance in less than a second. The two blades sliced a deep gash across the monster's stomach.
The reptile let out a big scream, each vibration broke a nearby window.
The kinetic puncher charged head‑on, fists ablaze with raw force and kinetic energy.
His blow put a hole in the creature's ribcage, but the monster caught his fist and threw him against a brick wall of a factory.
The lights in the healer's chest module flashed brighter.
She unleashed a wave of restorative energy toward his comrade, mending tears and bruises in her comrades' suits even as she kept Lucien alive.
Out of nowhere, the monster convulsed. His muscles were getting bigger. In just mere moments he tripled in size.
Its eyes went from green to blood‑red. The night itself seemed to recoil.
"Power surge!" the blade‑warrior shouted. He pivoted a crushing swipe that smashed through the wall of an abandoned house.
The gauntlet‑bruiser recovered and leapt into the air, delivering a devastating punch to the face of the monster.
Concrete fractured beneath its impact.
For a heartbeat, they had the advantage and the determination to continue to overpower the monster.
Then it recovered and it swiped up both warriors and it punched them through three different factories.
From the edge of his blurry vision, Lucien watched the carnage unravel. His chest burned where the healer's nanites worked to repair his heart and organs.
His hands tingled with the gifts of the power of vengeance: speed, strength, telekinesis, and mind‑sense.
Blood pounded in his ears. His eyes were swollen and shut. Covered in his own blood. The god within him whispered, urging him to rise so he could overcome the monster.
After a couple more seconds, he forced himself upright.
Pain seared through his whole body, but he ignored it. The alley's streetlamps flickered, casting his shadow long and jagged.
The healer saw him move and turned, eyes widening.
She shouted to her teammates, but they were too far away and couldn´t hear her.
Lucien stepped forward.
The brute force of the monster had drawn its focus to the soldiers of the corps alone. Until now.
The creature pivoted to its right, unleashing a roar that cracked the air like lightning.
Lucien's heart thundered in fear. He focused on his telekinetic grip and summoned the shattered beams and metal poles across the whole industrial area.
He threw it towards the beast in a swirling tornado of metal and glass.
The monster staggered, but only for a moment. Its claws got sharper and shredded the debris that was coming towards him.
Lucien sprinted.
In a blur, he was atop the beast on its shoulder. He struck with every ounce of gorilla‑like strength he possessed: a single, savage haymaker to the hollowed skull.
Below them, the soldiers rallied. The venomous blades sliced glimmering arcs in the air; the kinetic gauntlet unleashed seismic blasts; the healer was protecting them whenever they got hurt.
As the first pale fingers of dawn crept over the horizon, the three warriors delivered their final, combined assault:
A slashing arc of venomous blades slicing through the limbs.
A concussive shockwave of pure kinetic punches.
A burst of healing light to protect the other two.
The monster's form disintegrated in a final roar that shook the very stars. Its ash drifted away on the morning breeze, leaving only silence and destruction.
Lucien dropped to his knees, breathing heavy and unsteady, as the healer rushed to his side.
She knelt, placing her knee as a pillow. "You did well," she said softly, voice calm and soft despite her exhaustion.
Lucien met her gaze through his pain‑blurred eyes. He managed to give her a shaky nod.
All around them, the Nightguard Corps suits powered down.
The blade and gauntlet warriors approached, forming a protective circle around Lucien.
They stared at him. Three strangers who had just fought to save his life, but still knew nothing of his true nature.
Above them, the sky brightened and the day began.
Lucien sensed that far more battles would come towards him. He lay down and looked at the three figures that just saved his life.
No names were spoken.
No questions were asked.
Just a moment of silence.
And in that pregnant silence, Lucien understood: he was no longer alone like he was for fourteen years, but he would never be the same.