“Damn you, Drakon!!!”
A loud crash punctuated the almost deafening roar inside the large room. Everything was silent and dark, except for the furious breathing of the leader.
It was a blackout.
His teammates, no, his brothers didn’t react to his outburst at all because they were all busy dealing with their own emotions. Most of them looked shocked as if they had just seen a frightening ghost and it traumatized them. A couple looked despondent, slumping on their seats or on the floor like there was no hope for tomorrow.
When their eyes began to adjust to the darkness, one of them finally spoke after the long, uncomfortable silence. “Drakon and his two disciples fried all our computers. Dammit! Nasty fellows, that’s what they are!”
His words prompted the others to speak as well.
“Fuck! Drakon and his two little shits WhiteTigress and BlackPanther can all go to fucking hell! I’m keeping a tab on all our computers that they fried. I swear that I’ll surely make them pay one day! With interest!”
“Shit! Even my phone is fried!”
They all checked their phones in a hurry. Soon, angry curses filled the dark room one after another. All of their phones were in the same pitiful situation.
The leader also checked his phones. All of them were dead except for one. “This works.”
“Really? How come your phone is safe?”
“Wait. That’s the phone that Master El Payaso gave you!”
The leader nodded. He already calmed down after his earlier outburst. He used the phone’s flashlight to light up the messy room. A couple of his brothers opened the curtains to let in the streetlights from outside to add an additional dim illumination to the room.
“Master is awesome as always,” one of his brothers commented, immediately lifting the defeated atmosphere. “Even Drakon can’t touch the phone he provided.”
“Isn’t that obvious? Master is the best—one of the best hackers in the world.” This person quickly corrected himself upon seeing their leader’s cold expression.
Their leader always reacted negatively whenever they claimed that someone other than the legendary Fantom was the best hacker in the world even if it was their own master, El Payaso.
“True. Any device that had been personally customized by our master is almost always immune to other hackers’ attacks.”
“Fantom would’ve breached this,” the leader murmured while twirling the phone in his hand.
Nobody commented, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with him. He didn’t mind.
“I guess Drakon and his two disciples aren’t in the same level as Fantom yet, no?” He smirked, displaying the dashing dimples on both his cheeks. It was as if his furious outburst earlier didn’t happen by looking at his current charming appearance.
Then he pursed his lips while looking at the computers scattered in the messy room. They could try to repair them in order to recover the data from tonight’s hacking battle which was very important in analyzing their performance and learning from their mistakes, and at the same time, planning a better strategy on how to finally defeat Drakon and his two disciples, WhiteTigress and BlackPanther. The three had long become not only annoying thorns in their butts but also an obsession as they now viewed Drakon’s team as a formidable rival that they must defeat no matter what.
Some of his brothers were already beginning to dissemble the computers to examine the extent of the damage but his guts told him that all the devices were dead. Drakon’s team short-circuited them with the forced blackout and killed them beyond repair.
He stood in front of the windows and glanced outside. The office building in front of the hotel that they were staying was a few storeys lower but it was bright. He looked around and discovered that the whole row of buildings in their side of the street was covered in darkness because of the blackout while the surrounding buildings were operating like normal. The contrast was jarring and only highlighted their team’s defeat tonight.
“Do you really think that Drakon did all this?” a brother asked beside him who was also looking at the sight outside.
He murmured his assent.
“But maybe he and his two little shits just got lucky,” the brother muttered.
He chuckled. “You really think that, my brother?”
His brother didn’t reply.
He continued to chuckle. “One thing that I learned from constantly battling Drakon is that everything he does has purpose.”
“I think you’re overestimating him too much.”
“And I think you’re underestimating him too much.”
The two stared at each other but the other man was the first one to retract his eyes, avoiding the leader’s eyes.
The leader patted his brother’s shoulder and leaned closer to whisper directly to his ear. “We have never won a single battle against Drakon yet, my brother. Don’t you think that’s telling something, no?”
“Yeah…I guess.”
“I suggest that you change ‘I guess’ to ‘I know’, my brother. Although battling Drakon is extremely fun, we are not here to play. You remember that we are here to complete an important mission, yes?”
“Of course. Sorry about that, brother. I understand now. I won’t underestimate Drakon and his two disciples again.”
The leader patted his brother’s shoulder again before letting him go. He continued to observe the bright buildings outside in contrast to the darkness in their side of the street. His eyes narrowed but the corners of his mouth were already beginning to curl up.
“Fufufu. As expected of Drakon. You never disappoint me.”
Then the phone he was holding began ringing all of a sudden. Everyone stopped what they were doing and whipped their heads to look at him, specifically at the phone in his hand.
This was a special phone and only one person could contact it. Thinking that it was that person, he answered it without delay. Before he could even say hello, however, a child’s voice spoke from the other end of the line, completely catching him off-guard.
“Gotcha! Hihihi. Meow~”
His eyes contracted.
“Oopsie daisy, wrong sound! I’m supposed to be a tigress. Here it goes. 1, 2, 3…ROOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!!”
He almost dropped the phone when the loud beast sound assaulted his unprotected ear.
Then the call ended.
