“You look cool, man. Really cool.” Joel complimented, scanning my costume up and down with his arms folded. “Like something out of a story—or, movie.”

    A grin slipped away from me, “The designers on my team had an eye for artistic detail. Now, listen, I’m going to need you to perform everything with precise timing. One screw up from you and I might fly straight into a window like a real bird.”

    Joel chuckled, “Don’t worry, I won’t be distracted.”

    “Good to hear. If they somehow cut our communication lines, you can activate this.” I held up a spindly-looking device, placing it in his palm, “It’ll blast through their chatter, allowing us to reconnect.”

    “You made that?”

    “Yup. So, is everything clear to you?”

    “Crystal.” Joel slid into the computer chair, rolling in front of the keyboard and tapping in the passcode.

    “Alright, I’m going to take off then.”

    “Yeah man, do your thing. Skedaddle.”

    I turned and leapt off my apartment’s balcony, blasting into the sky.

    “Your coordinates seem to have been preset, sir.” Longitude and latitude displayed itself in front of me along with a satellite picture of the compound, “Confirmation?”

    “Yes, that’s the place. Thank you, Carson.”

    A short buzz hissed in my ear, “Com-check. Joel talking.”

    “Loud and clear, Joel. This is Kestrel.”

    “Sweet. I’m getting all your vitals and brain frequencies very well. Your suit seems to be running in prime condition. I’ll maintain silence until necessary.” The transmission went quiet after that.

    “Sir, why is he here again? I could easily have told you all that.”

    “I heard that.” Joel growled playfully.

    I smiled, “He’s here to deal with hacking their system as I come in. You couldn’t handle that kind of processing.”

    “Ah, I see,” Carson commented. “Ghost sequence is being initiated.”

    “Thank you,” I narrowed my eyes on my target—the front door. With enough speed, I’d be able to shoot over their first wall and the security team on it. With a thought, my helmet magnified my vision, enabling me to spot four guards that would be my immediate threat upon entry. The Ghost sequence would keep me off their scanners until I was in actual eye sight. As planned, I flew over the wall and landed on the two doors, smashing them down with my talon claws on the ends of my feet. After landing, I whipped out my pistols and took out the four guards.

    “Very nice. You’ve got a team of six inbound from the outside. You can either run or gun them all down as they enter through the doorway.” Joel informed.

    “Thanks.” I twisted and hurled a grenade at the threshold. My timing allowed it to land and explode right as they raced over it, taking them all out.

    “Good choice.” Joel commented.

    My talons retracted, and I raced on my own feet down the next hallway. I kicked down any doors in my path with ease. Occasionally, a security guard happened to meet me who I immediately dispatched. I focused all my rage and hate into my strikes, anticipating my confrontation with Ward. I entered a large rectangular hall with an opening in the middle and pathways leading around it. It also had more floors going up. Ejecting my wings, I hopped off the floor and flew up the opening, heading to the 37th floor where my daughter was being held.

    By now, the entire building vibrated with its emergency signal. Guards stampeded throughout the building, attempting to intercept me. This corridor allowed me to pass every security measure that could’ve stopped me.

    “You’re doing good. Turn now, to your right.” Joel ordered, displaying a holographic line curving in the direction I was to go.

Turning my head to the right, my flight suit zoomed over the floor and I landed, keeping myself aware of my surroundings.

    “Heat signatures, sir.” Carson switched my vision to show seven bodies approaching around the corner. One of the bodies became outlined in blue, “That is Ward.”

    When they came in view, the heat signatures vanished, leaving me to see the actual people. Ward didn’t seem surprised at all to see me there.

    “Welcome, I guess.” He sighed, flopping his arms up and to his sides.

    “I know you’ve moved her by now, Ward. Make this easy for yourself and tell me where she is.”

    Ward slowly shook his head with a patronizing expression, “No can do, buddy. You’re gonna have to do what you’ve gotten so well at doing these days. Kill us.”

    “Fine.” With that, I leapt into the air while firing my wrist blades at Ward who slid to the right of me. I landed with a somersault, unholstering my pistols and shot down three of Ward’s companions. When I turned to face Ward, he was already beside me and performing a tackle. We sprawled on the ground, tangled in our own limbs. Using my enhanced strength, I heaved myself up onto my knees with Ward on my back. I then body slammed him into the marble floor. A bullet from one of Ward’s men clipped my face mask, sending me back onto the ground. Ward gestured to stop shooting and rose to his feet, ambling toward me. I pushed myself onto my feet and hurled a punch at Ward’s face. Ward, in turn, sidestepped and landed one on my kidney. I countered with a spinning kick into his head which knocked him toward the wall and then unholstered my other pistol, firing it into the rest of Ward’s men. After I finished them off, I took hold of Ward by the throat, clamping down on it, “I’ll only ask you twice. Where is she?”

    Ward flashed his bloody smile and nodded to the corner of the wall he was backed up against.

    There she was, staring around the corner with an expression of horror. I could tell she’d been hurt by light bruises on her face and head.

    “Talitha!” I sighed happily, releasing Ward. I rushed to embrace her, but she backed away in fear. “It’s ok, darling. It’s me. Your dad.”

    Her lip quivered as she replied, “You—you’re a bad man.”

    I shook my head, smiling, “No, sweetheart. I’m here to take you home.”

    Her gaze left mine to look over the bodies lying about the floor. She then shrieked and took off running in the opposite direction.

    “Wait, what are you doing!? Get back here!” I leapt in front of her, blocking her path. I knelt back down to her level, “Honey, I had to kill those men—”

    “Kill!” She cried, hiding her face from me. “Get away from me, you monster!”

    Ward rounded the corner, catching my eye, and folded his arms with a satisfied grin.

    My mind suddenly clicked, “Oh God, they’ve implanted some kind of trigger that associates me with death and pain.”

    Letting go of her shoulders, I lifted myself back into a standing position, facing Ward.

    “Uh oh, I think he intends to kill me now, Talitha.” Ward sneered.

    Talitha gasped and raced in front of him to block me, “No more killing!”

    “Get out of my way, Talitha.”

    “Make me!”