August 22nd, Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain. 19:00 

On the Fort located between the Spanish and Portuguese border, there are tons of Zlocan knights patrolling around the fortress. Drones are put on alert to detect intruders in the hallways while Zlocan Walkers are guarding a precious item kept in the San Bartolome Church. Near the entrance, a Zlocan guard is watching every corner of the area, all to make sure his job is done well.

As he's whistling, a tree branch starts to move, causing the guard to inspect if there is something suspicious about said tree branch. After checking for a moment, he initially shrugs it off, thinking it was just some stray animal let loose on the forest. That is until a shadowy figure grabs his neck and snaps it. The figure then puts the dead guard on the bushes to make sure no one sees the dead guard.

"Have a nice break, pal," the figure says to him while smugly giggling, at which he jumps on a wall.

***

Inside, three guards are patrolling every corner of the tree near the old Templar castle. Everything seems normal, all quiet with nothing to bother them. The quiet breeze around on the sunset is their only "companion" at the moment.

"Hey, hoose! Want a piece of me?" a voice shouts on the right side of the church, causing the guards to detect him and shoot him with some burst of their rifles. As soon as they open fire, the figure mysteriously vanishes. The guards are confused for a moment, closely observing the place where the shadowy intruder was.

Suddenly, without even the blink of an eye, the guards are struck with long golden knives in their necks.The figure puts a device in front of them that cloaks their bodies into the simple floor. Most would never notice.

"Poor devils, we are in modern times and yet they can't tell real from illusion," the figure says as he leaps off the distance.

***

Near Convento de la Gracia, drones are stationed near the wall to detect the presence of intruders. As they continue to patrol, a mysterious grenade-like object is tossed to the ground. The drones start to scan, but then, just before they recognize it, the EMP bomb detonates, causing the drones to deactivate.

To further add to their humiliation, a shadowy figure cuts the fallen drones in half with a saw blade.

"I think you have a visit to the junkyard guys," the figure says before leaping near a wall and dashes as well.

***

On Ronquita Street, an Inquisitor tank division is patrolling the streets doing their job of finding any sign of dissent in their way.

That is until the tank commander notices something unusual on the street.

"¿Qué diablos es eso?"

He signals one of the Inquisitors to check the object scattered on the ground. The object turns out to be a...Playboy magazine. The Inquisitor can't help but find the situation a nice little peek out of duty.

"Mira muchachos, al parecer alguien se le perdió su juguete calientito."

But before he prepares to share his fun with his comrades, the magazine explodes on his face, causing shock among the Inquisitors. Before they can act, someone throws a gas grenade towards the main group, and they're incapacitated in less than a minute later. The figure who did it is in fact, a female figure.

"Meninos nos dias de hoje..." says the figure in Portuguese before flying off to a rooftop with a grapple hook.

***

On Llano de la cruz street, a Zlocan patrol is rounding up local rebels for attempting to revolt against the occupation, but even in the face of execution, the rebels don't show signs of fear in front of the execution squad, all while facing their heads down away from the Zlocan Knights.

"As by order of the great Kujar himself, and the will of all Zlocans, you shall all be terminated for disturbing our way in advancing the evolution of this Universe, which will be remade by the savior race. Any last words?" the knight recites in the so-called 'Creed of the dishonorable'.

All the rebels did is to stare silently. Their scowls, even when they're looking down, show more than enough that these Knights want to know.

"Is that so? Well, it serves you well at least. Knights, ready your guns of victory, prepare to use it against the unworthy weaklings!"

But just as they are about to shoot, a chakram swings around like a boomerang and slashes the throats of the executors. The officer is startled by this as he starts looking around the area but before he can react, a dagger is launched at his forehead, ending his own life. The rebels look straight again, wondering if there's something else that suddenly gave them a chance to live on. They then see where the blades come from, it's also from a female shadowy figure. Said figure then gives the rebels the peace sign before parting away with a smoke bomb.

"Quien sea quien fue, de seguro tiene la bendición del señor.." one rebel says.

***

On the San Bartolome church, the vigilant mechs are patrolling every corner, all of them equipped with stealth-detecting devices to make sure that no kind of stealthy device comes through. All with steady detection, ready for something in action, even with the tiniest amount of sound.

A device suddenly lands at the head of the mech, causing it to malfunction. This causes a huge amount of sparks to fly around the cockpit, leaving the pilot trapped inside. And just when the pilot thinks his luck is running out, he observes while trembling that the other mechs are suffering the same. And a female shadowy figure standing above them.

The shadowy figure prepares a hook and launches it towards the tower of the church as high as it can, quickly climbing up steadily to it. She does it alongside the other shadowy figures from the other sides of the city.

***

Inside the tower, a precious item is held in a glass box, the item being a golden cross of the old Templar order. Zlocan knights are guarding this precious item, likely something out of interest of study from earth-related items.

That is until they're ambushed by the shadowy figures without even the blink of an eye.

Finally, after moments of hiding, the shadowy figures reveal themselves from the shadows.

The first one has green medium-length hair with black eyes. An American simply known as Sequence.

The second one has yellow spiky hair with a puffy tail with black eyes and is a Canadian known as House.

The third one has brown short spiky hair, orange eyes and an Egyptian known as Ace.

The fourth one has white tomboy hair with cyan eyes and was a Brazilian known as Diamond.

The fifth one had black windy hair, purple eyes and a Japanese known as Open.

The final but not least figure has purple, sleek, long hair, orange eyes and a Russian known only Widow.

But the thing they all had in common, is their clothing, with the same gloves, the same red shirt, the same trench coat and the same black pants. The differences are that the male figures had neckties while the female figures had bowties.

"Looks like we're on the money, SHADOW team," Agent Sequence says.

But just as they are about to approach the item, Open accidentally stumbles upon some piece of glass, falling on the floor. Her teammates are startled by this, some even groaning in response to the accident.

"Oh my...Sorry everybody."

"Sorry?! Lady! That klutziness of yours should be enough to fire you, geez!" Sequence shouts.

"Keep it cool people, it's only a matter of time before the foreign armies realize our actions and regroup at the temple. Right now, let's take the grand prize to our collection of artifacts, because if we do, then the boss is gonna be pleased as hell," Diamond says

They proceeded to break the glass containing the cross and grab it. But before they know it, a huge battalion of Knights and Inquisitors have surrounded the entire church, perhaps taking notice of the odd activities happening to the patrols and now they mean business.

"Damn them! These foreign slackers are getting cleverer in keeping up with our trails. Heh! Well, I guess they are not clever with this!" Widow says as she presses a remote control device in her hand.

"COVER BLOWN, INITIATING WITNESSES CLEAN-UP" says a voice in the comm.

"Alright, now let's get the hell out of here before the fighters come!" Ace says.

"How can we do that with these slackers surrounding us? Rushed as usual, Agent Ace." Sequence sternly tells him.

"Enough talk, let's drop the silence and begin the noise," Diamond says.

The SHADOWs then prepare to jump on the balcony of the church as the enemy forces breach the room.

The escaping agents are managing to dodge bullets and blasts the enemy is firing thanks to their survival skills. They land on the roof of a nearby building, and they proceed to jump on other buildings as they continue to dodge the enemy fire. However, when they try to jump to another building, Agent A slips on a piece of broken concrete and nearly falls over, H notices this and rushes off to save him.

"Go Agent House! I'm only delaying your survival in this conflict!"

"No way Ace! I don't care about anyone's fate, you will be alive with us no matter what!" House says as he grabs Ace's arm and pulls him out of the ledge, saving him.

"What are you doing you Blockheads?! Stop screwing around like those lovers in movies and keep moving!" Widow shouts as they proceed to run from the enemy.

Then, not even in the blink of an eye, Sequence noticed something terrible.

"The fighters! They're coming in a few minutes, if we don't reach the wall in time, we will turn into crisp!"

"Not if we can help it," Diamond says as a helicopter appears near the wall, ready to pick them up.

"The transport! Quick, hop in!" House says as he and the others jump on the helicopter, nearly falling on the wall.

As they fly away from the zone and the Zlocans try to figure out what just happened, three BAE Replicas fly by the fortress, releasing their payload to the ground. The explosions engulf the place in a huge radius, enough to burn down most of the buildings and even the highest towers in a matter of seconds as they spread the fire around the area, leaving into an orange-ish hue of light. It reduces the entire place into nothing more than a burning rubble.

The agents start to relax at the sheer relief that they managed to escape with cross unscratched, especially from the fact that they will have a fine reward for the retrieval of the cross.

Although the only exception in the sense of enjoyment of victory is Open, who looks at the burning fortress with a distant look on her face, her eyes narrow and her hands holding together near her chest, all as if something went wrong on the mission. Ace notices this.

"Something wrong Open? You don't look happy at the fact that this mission didn't go as planned?"

"No. It's not that. It's....those people."

"What do you mean? You are not happy that the enemies were killed?"

"I was talking about the ones who deserved a better fate than this, and yet you chose this...Aren't we supposed to have a code?"

Agent Sequence then stands beside her and puts her hand in her shoulder. It was supposed to be a sign of warmness...but she could only feel the coldness in it.

"There is a code Agent Open, We can't leave traces of our activities to no one, regardless of the type of person. Our duty is one where the eminence of secrecy is valued the most, and without secrecy, everything we stand for is all for nothing. Sacrifices should be done for the good of many and you know it well." Sequence says.

"But why even the ones not involved?!"

"Because our only interest is the artifact to collect to our boss, not being a protector of the people."

"You were supposed to be better than that..."

"Can't be helped, lady. In war, anything can be done no matter what you believe," Agent Ace replies.

"You agree with him too!? How could you..."

"Now now, please listen to us, young agent..." Agent Widow says.

"I won't...You lack morals! And decency! I only joined because of my belief in that while we collect precious treasures, we could help people, but no! You only care about money and nothing else in this world!"

Agent Widow soon started to clench her fist tightly as she starts to approach, almost grabbing her by the collar.

"You...ungrateful bitch! Let me teach you the concept of obedience in this group!"

But just as she was about to use her fist to break every part of her...

"Quit it, all of you! This is not the time to discuss our morals in missions, for now, just let you two mind your own business. Our boss says that we must be strong and together unlike any other," A intervenes while shoving W aside to prevent any further conflict.

"Fine, but next time Open whines about morals, I swear that I'll leave her mouthless for the rest of her life," W said with a cautious tone and returns to her seat.

Yet, the feeling of anger and resentment still remained.

House stands beside her and then gently pats her head. He at least knew what he should do when it comes to missions like that one.

"It's fine, my dear girl, it is important to know that there's always a hard choice someone has to do in difficult times, even if is something that questions morality," House says while holding her.

"Maybe you are right, but still, is there a chance that something like this won't happen again?"

"Eh...Well if we are quick and swift enough then yes, but maybe if also you are not so clumsy."

"Hehehe, yeah, clumsiness always leads to wonders you know," Diamond says.

"Seriously?!"

"Ah, just being my usual self Open...or else you may get some bitter truth as well."

The pilot of the cockpit then picks up a radio and tells the agents:

"Fellow agents, I've just received an incoming call from Mr. Pete, would you like to answer it?"

"Yeah, patch it in," Sequence says.

A television screen then appeared behind the wall of the cockpit, on-screen it shows Mr. Pete, a middle-aged man with grey short hair.

"Hello hello, how are my fellow shadows today?"

"Ehh, just a huge unexpected ambush we got in the retrieval of the cross but don't worry everything just went fine in the end!" Sequence says while showing the glowing cross towards Mr Pete.

"Ohhh, such a lovely piece of ancient knighthood, this will surely will make a great fortune for our great organization! Anyways, the reason I called is that I have news to bring to you."

"A good and bad one?" Widow said.

" Well, yes, because if not then it will have been teatime news and sod off news get it? Of course, there are always these two types of news!"

"OK OK...Anyways, can you tell us what this news before we further prolong this nonsense?"

"Oh yes, sorry! Well, the bad one is that currently, the 12th Group is having an armament crisis. The thing is, while we have a secretly huge air force at our disposal, the recent operations in many parts around the world have reduced a huge part of our deployment equipment due to huge presence of Zlocan activity, which means that we have to reduce the firepower used in operations against hostile forces, especially aircraft."

"Damn it! We will have to spend the rest of the days waiting and waiting to get our chance to get enough equipment, not that it matters if we will be part in some retrievals anyhow," House says.

"Well, that worry will be fixed with the good news Agent House."

"Oh really, what it is then?" Diamond asks.

"Well, first off, we may expand our area of operation in North America thanks to a sudden victory of the UEF. Looks like the Zlocans are taken care of, as we make our next move in the country. And yes, I'm aware of how unsure this may be but remember, every bit of chance counts."

"Also, did Vatista get the objective?" Diamond asks.

"Absolutely positive!"

"It would have been better if we could have gone there though..." Widow replies.

"Shush! Also, since the momentum is changing, we've thought of assigning a new mission for you in the States, but for now, you must rest until further notice, locate us near the East Coast where you'll get your briefing, that is all and good hunting."The transmission then ends.

"Whoa, taking advantage of war is quite a hefty reward to get, isn't it Fellas? This will surely make me enjoy the payment a whole lot more," Widow says.

"Yeah! A treasure hunt far greater than the others from past," Diamond says.

"OK OK, I know you guys are excited as hell for the next mission but you need to be patient and make good use of your rest until we reach to our next location. And for you O, you must promise that you will operate the mission as it goes and behave properly on the results, or else..." Sequence says as he approaches.

"Just let's get back to the base, I don't want to hear more about this, I've suffered enough threats today, I don't want to receive another one."

"Whatever you say gal..."

The helicopter then flies back to the hideout in the Spain-Portugal frontier, where they will take their next destination to the United States.