Two years earlier. Before the Agency. Before the world tilted on its axis again.
Mike Carter had never believed in fate. Not until the day he met two strangers in a firefight and realized the universe had bigger plans.
Sector 18 – The Slums of Old Haventon
It started, as most tragedies did, with smoke and screaming.
Mike ducked behind a rusted hovercar, pulse-gun clutched tight, his breaths short and sharp. His neighborhood had seen violence before—gang wars, corrupt enforcers, food riots—but this… this was different.
Shadowed figures in dark crimson robes moved like predators through the alleys, their eyes glowing faintly under the moonlight. They weren't looters. They weren't even human.
Cultists.
"Why now?" he muttered, heart pounding. "Why here?"
The scream came again—female, desperate. Without thinking, Mike broke cover and sprinted through the flames. He didn't stop until he found her.
A girl, cornered in an alley, holding a broken stun baton. Her dark hair was matted with blood, but her eyes burned with fierce defiance.
"Get down!" Mike shouted.
She ducked. He fired.
The robed figure fell, twitching as sparks tore through its body. The girl looked at him, stunned.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Someone who hates these bastards as much as you."
She smirked. "Good answer. I'm Eleanor."
Fifteen Minutes Later
They were pinned in a shattered building when the third stranger arrived.
Boom!
The explosion knocked two cultists into the street, their bodies crumpling with unnatural cracks.
Mike turned. A guy in a patched tactical vest, carrying a repurposed mining cannon, gave them a two-finger salute.
"Looks like you two could use backup."
"You're insane," Eleanor said.
"I get that a lot. Name's Lucas."
And just like that, the trio was born. Not from choice—but survival.
That Night – Rooftop of a Burnt School
They sat around a small fire, the city below eerily quiet.
"So what were they doing here?" Mike asked, still shaken. "This wasn't a major sector. No political targets. No tech worth stealing."
Lucas leaned back. "Heard rumors the cult's hunting something. Someone. 'Legacy sparks.' Whatever that means."
Eleanor added quietly, "They were scanning people. Genetic scans. I saw it. They were looking for something in our blood."
Mike felt a chill crawl up his spine.
He didn't tell them about the dream he had just before the attack.
The field of fire. The tower of light. The voice calling his name.
Two Days Later – The Agency Recruits
The three were picked up by CPOA agents near the ruins. At first, Mike resisted. He wasn't built for rules or structure. But Eleanor pushed. Lucas laughed his way in. And somehow, it made sense.
They didn't just survive that night.
They passed a test they didn't know existed.
And deep down, the cult knew it too.