Outside, a thunderstorm was already brewing. Fog arose in the air and rain began pouring down from the dark sky above. There was no need for Storm to create cover as someone else already had it done.

Archon turned right out of the manor and dashed onto the sidewalk, the rain meaning nothing to him as the rest of the squadron followed.

“Fanatic, where’s the signal coming from?!” He yelled as he ran.

“West, 5.2 kilometers!” Fanatic replied, looking down at a phone in his hands before putting it away.

Archon immediately skidded to a stop at an intersection and turned left to head westwards, gritting his teeth.

“5.2 kilometers… that’s…”

“Gonna take a while to get to?” Melvia finished, smirking smugly. “By running, yeah.”

Saying this, she stopped running and activated her Shapeshifter Angelica, becoming a convertible in an instant. The car suddenly honked twice, signaling for us to get in.

Archon shook his head in exasperation as he pulled open the door and got in the driver’s seat. “Melvia… you’re one crazy woman.”

The rest of the squadron got in as well — the car was enough to fit six of them. Finn took shotgun with Iris sitting on his lap, while Storm, Fanatic, and Octane took the backseats. As for Reaper, well… he attached himself to the roof of the car.

Archon stomped on the gas pedal harshly, which would definitely result in an earful from Melvia later once she turned back, but now wasn’t the time to be worrying about that.

The 154th Squadron zoomed into the night, en route to aid the other Ghost Hunters in subjugating this midnight Outbreak.

“We’re almost there, Archon — turn right, then turn left at the first intersection!” Fanatic shouted from the backseat like a human GPS.

Archon did as told, swerving right at the crossroads before immediately turning left.

“Okay, 250 meters directly ahea- huh?”

Fanatic suddenly stopped, glancing down at the phone in confusion.

“What’s wrong, Fanatic?” Archon asked in a hurry, skidding the car to a stop as they reached a dead end. “I don’t see an Outbreak portal anywhere…”

“The signal… it just suddenly disappeared,” Fanatic replied, frowning in thought. “I don’t know what happened, but…”

“What is going on…” Storm muttered.

“O-Oh, wait!” Fanatic suddenly cried, eyes widening at the screen. “A new signal just appeared in the opposite direction of the lair!”

“What?!”

“I’m not sure what’s happening either…” Fanatic clenched his hands uncomfortably.

“Let’s just go to the new signal point for now,” Octane suggested. “Maybe we can find a clue or something there.”

Archon nodded in return and put the car (Melvia) into reverse and pulled back onto the road before heading in the direction they just came from.

“It should be right up this road…” Fanatic murmured as they drove up an elevated highway, illuminated by the dim streetlights.

“Oh, right there!” Octane shouted in a panic, pointing directly up ahead. “I can see it!”

Archon stomped on the gas pedal to go forward as a large swirling white vortex came into view, acting as a portal. Ghost Hunters could be seen battling against various Phantoms that came out of the portal, but then-

“It’s closing?!” Archon slammed on the brakes as everyone got out of the car, gasping in shock as the white vortex indeed — closed.

There was no time to worry about that just yet, however, as the Phantoms were slowly escaping.

“Finn, 10 meters to your left, two Morpher-classes,” Iris whispered. “I’ll take care of the right ones.”

Immediately, the pair leaped into battle along with the other Ghost Hunters on the field. Finn activated the blades on his gloves and used Iris’s call-outs to quickly eliminate the two Morphers she had pointed out, then used his own enhanced hearing to dull out all other sound and track down the locations of the other Phantoms via the extremely low-frequency sounds only he can hear.

“SKREE!”

One Phantom swung its many tentacles at him, but Finn merely dashed forward and cut straight through its body before the tentacles could even touch him. Another attempted to attack Finn from a different angle, but he detected its low-frequency emissions with ease and used his speed advantage to quickly eliminate his target.

Unfortunately, he suddenly heard another low-frequency sound coming from behind him — one that had been masked by the others. A Phantom was trying to sneak attack him from the back, and it was too late to turn aroun-

“SK-K-“

The Phantom suddenly stopped and fell backwards, a gaping bullet hole in his forehead. Iris stylishly blew out the smoke from the tip of her revolver and reloaded it with great dexterity.

“Saved you again, Finn~”

“… Thanks.”

“Archon, new signal, 8.2 km from here to the north!” Fanatic called out.

“Tch…” Archon glanced around at the other Ghost Hunters, who had finished up cleaning up the Phantoms as well. “Hey, do any of you know what’s going on here?”

“We are unsure either,” a young man replied, frowning in thought. “All I know is that new portals are appearing all over the District, and whenever a squadron arrives there, a new one is spawned at a different location. At this rate, we may even need to summon A-Class Squadrons to help…”

“This must be the doing of the Emperor-level Ghost,” Iris concluded, a firm gaze in her eyes as she sat on top of Finn’s shoulders. “They have the ability to infinitely spawn Outbreak portals, if I remember correctly.”

“I didn’t even think of that…” Archon muttered. “Usually, Emperor-levels are passive until we go to them…”

“But the theory does make sense,” another Ghost Hunter added. “However, if that’s the case, how will we stop this…?”

“For now, we can only keep going to the signal points and eliminating all the Ghosts that spawn,” Archon said. “Try to have your squadron’s members spread out throughout the city. How many other squads are part of this operation?”

“Code: Summon alerts all Class B Squadrons and below in the District, so there should be roughly 30 different squadrons patrolling the city right now excluding us two,” the Hunter replied.

“I see… alright, keep it up.”

The Hunter nodded. “You too.”

With this brief exchange, Archon returned to the car. The other members of Squadron 154 also got in and set for the other portal, but the signal had already changed once again. Fanatic read out the coordinates of the new one and the crew immediately set off.