The training yard froze when Mr. Qi's command sliced through the morning air. "Enough." His travel pack hung heavy on his shoulder, the leather straps creaking with tension. Luna's practice sword halted just shy of Lexi's throat, the blade trembling in her suddenly numb fingers. Across the courtyard, Ari's poisoned needles clattered to the stone as Master Zara sucked in a sharp breath.
"Training is canceled," Mr. Qi announced, his gaze lingering on Luna's crescent pendant. "You'll return to Mr. Dave immediately." When Ari opened her mouth to protest, he silenced her with a raised hand. "I'll be traveling for a few weeks. Do not attempt to contact me and lookout for missions" The unspoken warning in his voice sent a shiver down Chloe's spine - she'd heard that tone only once before, when she'd accidentally accessed encrypted temple blueprints.
The transition back to Miami's grimy reality hit like a bucket of ice water. One moment they stood in the temple's moonlit courtyard, the next they were blinking under the flickering neon of Dave's Combat & Fitness, its cracked sign buzzing like an angry hornet. Mr. Dave didn't look up from the disassembled Glock on his workbench. "Qi called," he grunted, tossing Ari a set of car keys that she caught mid-air. "Said you brats need real-world seasoning." His grin turned feral when Chloe groaned about shooting drills. "Better. Live ammo. CQB simulations. And..." He nodded to Ari's gleeful expression, "...evasive driving through downtown traffic." He said making her jump in happiness.
" As long as I can drive crazily as I want, I have no problems with training" Arie said making Chloe give out a frustrated groan.
Luna's stomach knotted as she approached the Grey family mansion hours later. The marble foyer felt like a mausoleum, her sneakers squeaking against polished stone. "You're late." Mrs. Grey's voice dripped from the parlor shadows, her vodka tonic clinking with accusation. "Again." Luna kept her spine straight - just like Master Wong taught her - but her stepmother's next words struck like poisoned darts. "You reek of sweat and that filthy, " Mrs Grey said pointing her fingers at her , " " Don't stain my space, I don't even understand why he brought you back anyway" The pendant burned cold against Luna's skin as she forced herself to breathe before walking upstairs to her room.
It's been almost two weeks since Mr Grey went to do the voluntary work organized by his company.
Training with Mr. Dave became their new rhythm. Mornings began with Lexi blindfolded, her fingers flying over firearm parts as Dave barked corrections. "Again! Faster!" By afternoon, Chloe's eyes glazed over ballistic calculations, mumbling, "So math can actually kill people? Metal." Ari whooped through donut spins in a "borrowed" sedan, while Luna disarmed three attackers in a simulated subway ambush, her movements sharp with pent-up fury from last night's rooftop note from Ari: "Midnight. Bring snacks."
But the real test came on a moonless Thursday. "Infiltrate the Red Dragon dojo," Mr. Dave ordered, tossing them blueprints. Lexi's staff took out security cameras with silent precision while Chloe hacked the alarm system with a modified garage door opener. Ari's "distraction" involved firecrackers and a very pissed raccoon. They moved as one unit - until Luna's pendant flared during extraction, showing her fractured visions: Mr. Qi kneeling in snow before a crescent-marked grave; a cold-eyed doppelgänger studying a vial of black blood; whispered words - "She's waking too soon."
Back at the gym, the others knew instantly. Lexi wordlessly handed Luna a staff. Ari produced throwing knives from her boots. Chloe's laptop already showed satellite feeds of approaching black vans. And Mr. Dave? He racked a shotgun slide with a grin. "Guess we're accelerating the curriculum."
The fluorescent lights in Dave's Combat & Fitness buzzed like angry hornets as Luna's fingers tightened around the staff Lexi had shoved into her hands. Outside, car doors slammed in quick succession—three, maybe four vehicles. Ari didn't need to peek through the blinds to know what was coming. "Black SUVs," she confirmed, flipping a throwing knife between her fingers. "Federal plates, but the window tint's all wrong for government issue." Chloe's fingers flew across her keyboard, satellite images of their location flashing across three stolen laptops. "Back exit's clear for exactly—" The crunch of combat boots on gravel cut her off. "Scratch that. They've got the alley covered." Mr. Dave racked his shotgun with a grin that didn't reach his eyes. "Guess we're doing evasive driving lessons early, Ari."
The world narrowed to bursts of adrenaline and the staccato rhythm of controlled breathing. Lexi's staff shattered the front window as suppressed gunfire chewed through drywall. Luna moved like liquid shadow—disarming one attacker with a crescent kick, using his body as a shield against the next. Chloe jammed a jury-rigged flash drive into the gym's fuse box, sending 300 volts through the door handles. The resulting screams bought them exactly eleven seconds. Ari already had the stolen cop car's engine roaring to life as she drifted through the narrow alley, showering sparks when the bumper clipped a dumpster. "Move!" Lexi yelled, dragging a dazed Chloe by her hoodie into the backseat as bullets pinged off the pavement behind them.
The abandoned marina safehouse reeked of salt and diesel—one of Mr. Dave's "retirement investments." Moonlight bled through broken skylights as they regrouped, the scent of gunpowder clinging to their clothes. "Start talking," Mr. Dave growled, tossing Luna a rag for her bleeding knuckles. "What did you let slip?" Luna's pendant pulsed as the memory surface.
" You could have died. You listen little girl, you don't get distracted in the middle of combat or else you'll drag your hand your teammates to death, understood?" Mr Dave asked and the girls couldn't help but get chills from his voice, the other three girls looked surprised by his outburst since they have stayed with him since childhood but they've never seen Mr Dave behave like this before even when they broke his favorite coffee machine.
The girls turned to look at each other as they noticed something was wrong too, theyve had such missions in the past but none had turned out this way so why this time? That's when realizations kicked in and their eyes widened.
" Something is wrong with this mission is itself!" Ari voiced and Mr Dave gave a nod of confirmation.
" Besides Qi and myself, no one knows about this, so how come this sabotage?" He said but before any of them said another word, he added" Find the reason for this attack and it's roots, that's your next mission" He said before stalking to his office leaving the girls.