1 A Total Recall

As the sunlight shines brightly upon the land of an unknown region, the slight pain I felt in my eyes suddenly burns directly to my face above my eyelids.

Something rough and hard like rocks and pebbles was scrapping against my back.

I slowly open my eyes into consciousness and soon, I realized that I'm lying on the ground without any recollection of how and what just happened before I even got here.

Me: "Ughhh....oww my head. It's throbbing so much! I feel like I'm having a bad hangover. Did I overdrink last night?.... Wait a minute...I don't drink. What the heck happened?!"

I briefly bring myself up in a sitting position in questions and rub my eyes as I'm not able to see my surroundings clearly yet as they are still blurry for me.

And the realisation finally hits me when the thick earthy smell quickly hits my nose after I casually sniffed the air.

Soon, as my vision returned to its normal state thus I saw huge trees are all aesthetically organized, side by side on my left while a river flows steadily on my right, continue with by another row of trees on the other side of the river clearly don't know where or what the fuck am I doing here sitting...

Or perhaps...

Am I...STRANDED??!!!

And is that forest? Why the hell did I get stranded in the middle of a forest?!!

Me: "Wh-....what the fuck!? What the fuck am I doing here?! How did I get ended up here in the first place?!"

I silently panicked in my thoughts as I completely don't know how the hell did I got stuck in the middle of a forest with zero memory of what's happening to me right now.

The most important thing is that where is 'here'?

Me: "No no no. This can't be happening. This...this must be a dream, isn't it?"

I can feel my head is getting dizzy as I knelt facing myself towards the river, feeling defeated as I can't remember what's happening to me in this ridiculous situation.

Did I die? Is this hell? Though this place is too calm for that.

Well, except for the agonizing heat coming from the sun right above my head but other than that nothing is too unusual other than being near a forest.

Then I decided to go to sit nearby the riverbank as I see my beastman face of a wolf reflected on the surface of the water.

I...I need to compose myself.

After that, I sit in an upright position on one of those rocks which is as big as a boulder with both of my legs crossed quietly.

Me: "I need to remember..."

I take a deep breath through my nose and exhaled steadily out of my muzzle.

This meditation process was taught by one of my professors when I was still studying in the academy back in Agrian. Also the finest one at that.

Undeniably I found this method succeeded in calming my mind as my memories are flashing back to me like a wild flood.

(Three hours ago)

(Somewhere in the outskirts of Agrian: Redstone Factory, Industrial District.)

????: "Hah...hah...hah..."

An injured man wore in a completely torn up black clothing or he's what we called, the 'Puppeteer', was panting while covered in his own blood on his sophisticated getup coming out from his wound around under his abdomen, running away in a hope of escaping to wherever he is heading.

Thanks to the adrenaline rush rushing through his body, he desperately runs as fast as he's could despite the pain he suffered.

Well, not completely because he grunted quite a lot while he's at it...

But he'll manage.

The Puppeteer: "Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!"

He cursed on the very circumstance that's currently happening to him.

Meanwhile, as the wounded man is running into the factory area, I was actually somewhere else. Somewhere...a bit higher than you'd expected.

I'm watching the criminal ran aimlessly from above and from above I mean by using the satellite...and yes, it's my handmade satellite.

Not to brag but I designed this baby myself and with the little help of my best friend, Maya, and a little financial support from the Minister of Defense himself after I was given his permission of launching the satellite, I was finally able to launch the satellite without any problem occurred in my way.

Anyway, look at how useful the satellite is now as I could track all of my targets everywhere and whenever I want.

It seemed that all the tons of paperwork, months of research, and experiments I did months ago was very very very worth it.

Ughh, the PAIN!!!

I think that I could get mentally exhausted by only thinking about it.

Me: "This is your captain speaking. Can you hear me?"

I asked, communicating with my other teammates through the comms using my gauntlet located, attached above my left arm.

The squad: "Yes, sir!"

All the other units responded in unison.

Me: "Heh, so serious! Loose a little."

I chuckled playfully at my own statement as my whole adequate teammates grumbled through the comms loudly towards my carefree self.

Mink, a loli vampire who got a big ass battle-axe with her whenever she's on a patrol as its the only weapon that suits her very well, gruffly speaks.

Mink: "Bal....sir, with all due respect, you know that we're on the pursuit of the GODDAMN MOST WANTED CRIMINAL IN THE WHOLE GODDAMN AGRIAN??!!!!"

I could hear Douglas, a dragonkin with bright crimson scales covered all over his muscular body, and Arthur, a lynx beastman who's a literal walking battery, were simply chortling in the background.

Mink: "Come on, sir. We're on a mission here and you're still not taking this matter seriously. We should-.."

Knowing her, she's got a pretty bad temper and will nag at me throughout the mission but before that could ever happen I quickly cut her off politely.

Me: "Mink, listen. Before you scold me any further, I know that the situation we are in right now is pretty serious and of course, a very high potential risk at that too. And you're telling me that if I don't take this whole matter seriously it will jeopardize the whole situation and I agree with you. But! I wanna ask you something, have I EVER failed you?"

I spoke, pointing out the fact that the way how I roll my things will never ever lead my team to their irresponsible death.

However, only silence speaks to me. Which is also pretty awkward, not gonna lie.

Me: "I'm your captain, Mink. I know that I've always acted all carefree and taking any of these cases seriously and sometimes a little bit too ahead of myself which I also realize that myself. Because that's how I do my job. We've been working together as a team for almost 5 years now so have a little faith in me, would you? Do you trust me?"

Like seriously bruh. We've been teammates and friends ever since our teenagehood.

From the hero academy where I met you, which is also how I met all of my teammates and all of us form up the great team we are right now because...you guys are all my precious friends. And no one will ever change this fact.

Seconds later, Mink sighs in defeat.

Mink: "Heh, yeah...knowing you...you're just a stupid, happy-go-lucky, oversized dog..."

Urk! Every single word that was spurted out by her mouth was like someone had stabbed me on the stomach with lots of knives and twisted them sadistically again and again in my body.

She literally has no filter on what she's about to say to someone or to anyone, that girl.

But from what I see, she just lacked the awareness of how she speaks to people.

Me: "Wawawa?! H-hey, I'm still your captain you know tha-.."

I'm sure that'll gonna leave some scars on my heart if she keeps going on like that but as I was about to continue my whining she immediately cut me off.

Mink: "But!.... I think you're the best captain that I've ever had in my life."

She then quickly cut off her transmission, leaving me speechless after hearing those corny words coming from her.

Me: "Uhhh....what...what did she just say?"

Surprised, I felt my face was somehow is suddenly burning hot...or in other words, I am blushing...real hard.

Arthur: "Hey, get a room you two. We came here to nab a criminal from ruining people's minds and not hearing some two love birds having a cliche drama through comms between teammates."

That lynx's words were full of mischief, teasing me which ended up fueling the pinkish color tone on my face in submission.

I groaned in annoyance plus out of pure embarrassment.

Me: "I know that AND I don't need to hear that from YOU."

I said irritatedly.

Angie: "Hey, guys. Stay focused, alright? It's almost sunset and the Puppeteer will dangerously double up his magic power after dark, remember? We need to hurry and not waste any more time."

She said whilst she flew above the factory with her strong pair of feathered wings as she's a fae.

Me: "A'ight, thanks for the reminder, Angie. Wild Spirit squad, it's time to move in action! Seize the Puppeteer in less than 15 minutes. The faster we handle him, the faster we can go home. Now move!"

Sternly, I gave them my order using my commander-like tone, and to be honest, I felt kinda satisfied because of it.

Everyone in unison: "Yes, sir!"

I monitor my radar on the gauntlet which has already connected with the satellite to keep track of the Puppeteer's current whereabouts and proceed on pressing a bunch of serial numbers as a soft light of blue hues pixelated on my entire body and ultimately takes a form of a high tech suit suitable for the mission.

Me: "Let's do this."

I stood up from my seat inside of an aircraft similar to the military ones while it was shaking from the turbulent of the wind current collided against the aircraft's vessel.

Yeah, I own a satellite...AND a customized aircraft!

BOOYAH!!!

Anyway, I hit the big red button on the cold metal wall when a red siren started to blare in the cue as the door of the aircraft cargo bay slowly slid down open, letting the strong breeze of a very high altitude running against me and my fur wildly.

Yes, I'm preparing myself for skydiving, straight to the factory thousands of feet away under this very aircraft.

I'm a badass so what can I say.

As I was standing at the edge of the platform ready to dive, an optical device called, MATA, began to equip itself little by little from particles only on the left side of my eyes.

Me: "Here we goooo!!!"

I leaped off from the aircraft as MATA began to calculate the height between me and the factory when I was free-falling which was to be accurately 14 000ft from the sky and it would approximately be 7 minutes for me to land soon.