CHAPTER 265: UNDO.

Operation Wolf Slayer ended in a disaster.

The coalition’s main target, Klaus Stahlwolf, disappeared without a trace. Eyewitnesses claim he was mortally wounded before being taken away by something, but as the hours passed, no one was able to track his location. The Moon Dagger had disappeared as well, along with every last relic in the white mansion’s collection room. With that, the two main objectives of the operation were no longer achievable.

The losses kept compiling well into the night. Giovanni Romano was assassinated in the chaos, and the blame naturally fell on the coalition. The Sorcerer family went on a rampage that did not stop until most of their executioners were killed, but not before they took the lives of hundreds of the NVPD’s and BEO’s elite officers.

Then there were the heroes participating in the operation. Team Raven Heart lost three of its members, while Team Blizzard Force lost two, but only one of them was killed in a fight against the dreaded Romano executioners. Team Silver Wind was still whole, but its members were severely injured.

Above the New City district, the Cloud Chaser floated peacefully as if separated from the chaos under it. At one point, a sudden tremor ran through it, sending the crew into high alert, but the blow didn’t come from an enemy, nor was it intended to do any damage.

In one of the hallways connected to the main bridge, an alloy panel crumpled around a single point. Pierced through it was a man’s arm, the sharp edges of the ripped metal having carved through his skin and tailored suit.

"... Damn it..."

Jordan Evans trembled, unable to suppress his rage. One small oversight. That was all it took. After everything he had done, all the precautions he took, the plan still ended in failure, and he was left with nothing to show for his efforts.

A third party working with a local merc. He had assumed that they would abandon whatever goad they had once they realized the BEO was involved, but that was an irrevocable mistake.

The matter should have been treated with much more caution, and the investigation should have been more thorough. Even if their time had been running out, forcing them to proceed despite the uncertainty, they shouldn’t have let their guard down. They should have dedicated a lot more resources to guarding against any potential threats.

Unfortunately, no amount of regret was going to fix the situation.

"Damn it..."

A failure of such magnitude wouldn’t be easily dismissed, and its true impact would only be felt later down the line. Those who orchestrated the raid weren’t going to be happy with the results, and the guests attending the wedding and those who happened to be staying in the hotel wouldn’t just let the matter go down silently.

The collateral damage had been contained, but with each of the victims belonging to the upper class, the uproar they would cause was going to echo through the entire nation. Someone was going to have to take the blame, and with him having led the operation personally, Jordan knew there was no surviving what was to come.

"... damn it..."

~[ ]~

The world was far too bright. Though he had just opened his eyes, Werewolf squeezed them shut once more. His natural reaction was to rub them, but when he tried to reach up, something pulled on his arm, preventing it from moving.

"What the..."

He tried to move again, but it was to no avail. After a while, it became clear that he was retrained in a rather uncomfortable position, with his arms raised and pulled behind him, and his knees on the floor, with his legs restrained as well. Pain would course through his joints if he were to try and strain his shackles, and as the confusion continued to build, panic quickly followed.

[Ah, you’re awake.]

His canine ears twitched at the sound of a familiar voice, but when he turned to its source, he only saw a camera hanging in a corner.

"Bea- Night Gale! What is going on here!!?"

[Oh, you can talk.] There was a hint of surprise in her voice. [Do you know who you are?]

"What do you-"

[State your full name, birthday, and occupation.]

The request felt a little strange, but after a moment of hesitation, he decided to comply.

"My name is Wolf Eiskrone. I was born on the 5th of January 2073. I’m an officer working for the Bureau of Enhanced Operations, currently a part of the superhero team Silver Wind."

He repeated the answer in his mind as if unsure of its correctness, and when the silence continued, the tension only got worse. A few seconds later, he received another command.

[Undo your transformation.]

"Wha-"

For some reason, even though he could see the fur on his shoulders and feel his maw moving, the furry hero still failed to realize that he was still in the final form of his transformation. Just as he was about to undo it, he realized that there was something very odd about the whole matter.

Keeping his transformation active didn’t require any mental effort, but falling asleep or losing consciousness usually reverts him to his base form. As a very bad feeling festered in his heart, he searched his mind for the dial that controlled his transformation then rotated it all the way back.

A jolt of pain coursed through his body, reaching into every cell, but it vanished soon enough. Little by little, his body began to shrink. The white fur covering it fell off, and his muscles lost their mass. His bones readjusted as well, and before long, he was back to being a normal person. A normal person with animal ears and a tail.

A sense of relief washed over him once the transformation ended, but sadly, it didn’t last long. The restraints keeping him in place adjusted as well, so even though his arms were less than a quarter of their size when he was transformed, he still couldn’t release himself.

"Um... Night Gale? What’s going on here?"

His question received no response, and as the silence lingered, the anxiousness returned. The worst part is that he couldn’t remember how he ended up in this situation.

As he desperately tried to recall, the faint sound caught his attention and he looked up to see the heavy gate, which he thought was a wall, split open. A petite woman appeared through the gap, her arms folded as she stared ahead. Their eyes met right away, and going by her expression, she didn’t seem as happy to see him as he was happy to see her.