He went to look for his partner, squeezing through the spaces between the cargo, where he found her huddled on the cold concrete.
As he raced to her side, he lifted her up, "V.V., Are you alright?"
"Do I look alright?"
"Good point, I'll call—" As he was about to press into his earpiece, she clutched his arm, "What are you doing? Get Lewis!"
"But—"
"Go!"
"Right." Barely able to stand, the injuries he sustained from the explosion reared its head, but Felix pushed himself back up. He planted his feet so he wouldn't fall over.
A thin layer of light radiated around his legs, formed by thousands of glowing particles.
He took one step forward, but as his foot hit the ground, the light around his feet burst.
Blue sparks scattered into the air. His body shot forward faster than he could comprehend, and he lost all control, slamming downward and bouncing across the concrete, until he finally slammed into the steel wall, exploding like a blue firework.
Maria could not help but chuckle at the sight of this.
"Idiot." She laughed between pained groans.
Lewis turned his head after hearing the metal bang behind him.
The harbor hummed with the rhythmic waves on the shoreline. Each one echoing in unison with every grunt he took to get back on his feet.
"Come on, I need you to work one more time..." His body started glowing once again, dimming and rising with each uneven breath.
Lewis took a few steps back to peek, and saw his pursuer was too close for comfort and was glowing.
"That useless bodyguard failed! What kind of parents raised such useless a piece of shit! Waste of my fucking money!" He grumbled silently, before shutting himself up as the agent glancing in his general direction.
He placed his hand over his mouth and held the briefcase close to his chest.
With anger fueling him, Felix got back up and took a deep inhale. His blood started to boil, the azure particles coursing through his veins started to shine brighter, creating a blue outline of him.
As his whole body radiated, a thin, spherical blue fire crackled around his body. He shot forward once again, leaving behind an exact blue afterimage of himself.
He made it to the corner in the blink of an eye, and saw Lewis Shaw from the edge of his peripheral vision.
The criminal appeared to run incredibly slowly from his perspective. He felt the wind brushing against his skin, and heard the whistle in his ear. He saw the cracks of dried paint and the bits of rust on the metal cargo. His senses were in overdrive.
Despite this, he was still unable to control his body. He could not stop. As soon as his foot landed on the ground, the rest of his body shot forward.
With another loud crash, and the light surrounding him exploded into countless particles.
The criminal instinctively looked back and saw the blue-eyed agent make a beeline straight into another shipping container, shot forward by his own strange power.
Stunned and stuck on the shipping container's metal dent, Felix's mouth was left agape.
The only thing that moved him was the gentle shore breeze that swayed his hair ever so slightly, and the blood pouring down from his nose, splattering on the ground.
Seeing his pursuer slam himself deep into the metal walls, Lewis could not help but let out a laugh.
"—Lewis…"
It was weak, but as soon as he heard the hoarse voice call out his name, the criminal tensed up. Still in danger, he promptly withdrew.
"... Shaw." The agent dragged himself out of the crater and fell flat on his back. In his disoriented state, he stared at the sky, watching the pastel clouds move.
As the clouds shifted, they revealed the crescent light hiding behind it.
Seeing the moon, Felix pulled out the four-leaf clover necklace from underneath his shirt, and his fingers let out a blue spark.
"I won't… let you escape…" He breathed in and got back up on his feet, barely able stay on his feet. As he toppled over, he shifted his movement and went on all fours like a wild animal.
A blue electricity crackling around his body as he crouched, arching his back like a panther ready to pounce. But before he could, something metallic fell in front of him.
His gaze followed the object and saw a black metal rod clatter a few feet ahead of him.
"Oh…BOLLO—!!"
Before he could even finish shouting, the stun grenade exploded.
Blinding light and deafening sound overwhelmed him. A grin formed on the brown-haired man's face, watching from between the steel crates. "Sorry about this, Felix, but enhanced human means enhanced senses, right? That must mean double the damage. Seeing you in action was… educational."
Lewis quietly ran between alleys with weighted breaths as he constantly kept looking back.
With his back pressed against the red brick wall, he noticed that the back entrance to one of the old, rusty warehouses was wide open. He slowly walked inside, checking his surroundings. Old wooden crates and cardboard boxes stacked upon one another, covered in nets and decorated with dust.
The criminal walked closer into the middle of the room and let out a relieved sigh, only to hear the door shut behind him. He gulped and took out the gun in his suit.
"Lewis Shaw." An unknown voice spoke his name, echoing throughout the entire warehouse.
"Who's there?" Lewis aimed his gun towards the place he entered.
He cautiously walked backwards, but quickly turned as he heard the clanking sound of wood behind him. His breathing grew heavier, and a bead of sweat dripped down his face.
"Otherwise known as the Houdini of the Mafia... or at least, that's what you want to be called, right?"
"Where are you?" Lewis yelled in anger and anxiety.
"Two counts of human trafficking and several counts of drug smuggling." Echoed from above him. The faint clatter of metal started to fill the silence.
"Show yourself!"
Lewis yelled in frustration and aimed at the ceiling. Only for a chain to dangle from above and around his hand.
"Huh— w-what the fuck?!" He dropped the briefcase on the concrete, and a tuft of dust scattered while he tried to get the chains off with his other hand.
There was a figure standing in the shadows, "Are you afraid? Your henchmen have been taken out one after the other, and now you're alone.... It's just you and me."
"Who the fuck are you?!" Lewis yelled while he was struggling.
From the shadows walked out the man with auburn brown hair, with glowing red eyes piercing the darkness, "Call me Vermillion."
Chains rattled as it suddenly shot Lewis into the air.
"Huh? HAUGH!!!" The criminal's screams echoed from the warehouse.
Still recovering from the flashbang, Felix faintly heard Lewis's scream, and limped towards the warehouse where he was hiding.
But when he made it inside, he found their target hanging from the roof and wrapped in chains. His lips were covered in duct tape as he mumbled about.
Felix upped his guard as he walked closer towards him, only to see that there was a note stuck to his body that said, "Vermillion – Frontier Industries."
The chains creaked slowly as Lewis swung back and forth angrily, but unable to escape.
Felix's blue eye radiated against the shadows as he looked around, but there was no one left besides them.
*
The two returned shortly after handing off the criminal. While Felix was still in the middle of writing his report, the chief's assistant, Murphy, had stood waiting for their arrival. The two agents were told to head the chief's office as soon as possible.
"Another mission already?" Maria grumbled as she opened the door, carrying a bandaged Felix over her shoulder. Her tone was restless and exhausted. But the scratch on her cheek was already close to fully recovering.
"Marie, I said I'm fine."
"And the doctor said your jacket isn't designed for blocking explosives."
He laughed and turned his head over to the chief's assistant. "Ugh… Murphy, could you make me a coffee?"
Maria gently let him down and voiced out her own request, "Soda for me."
"I wanted to inform you that after your recon mission in Beijing, the higher ups thought about promoting both of you. I have no confirmation of this, however, due to your current failure, that may be postponed."
Felix spoke, "We failed to retrieve the package; I'm surprised it wasn't canceled altogether."
"I don't have enough information yet, however, I was informed that we retrieved the package."
"What?"
"I don't know myself."
"Did it come from Frontier Industries? Because there was this note. Lewis said he was captured before he could see what happened, but under him was this letter with Frontier's seal on it. It's signed by "Vermillion." Does it ring a bell?" Felix showed the chief the letter.
"I could do a quick search." The chief answered as she went to her computer, "I can't find anything on the records, however, though there is a recently admitted Crimson—" The chief stopped, as if to prevent her chuckle from slipping out.
"Crimson?" Maria raised her eyebrow.
"Don't mind it. According to the database, there is no one registered as 'Vermillion.'" The chief answered.
"I see. That's strange." Felix remarked.
"What was in the package, anyway?" Maria asked.
"Illegally manufactured plutonium-239."
"What, were they making a nuclear bomb?" Maria scoffed.
"That or they were harnessing nuclear energy."
"What about Julius, do you have anything on him?" Felix added to the conversation.
"We're working on it, but a single name isn't much to go by. We could've had a better lead if only a certain someone hadn't killed Harbinger." The chief turned her gaze toward the other agent in the room.
Maria looked upwards with an air-headed expression and replied, "Hm?"
"Agent Harbinger wasn't known for his computer skills. Be that as it may, the fact remains that his corpse was left behind in the Dragon of the Little Sun, along with his gear and other possessions that belonged to the agency… More specifically, he apparently had something known as the Matrix Key."
"Matrix Key?" Felix asked.
"A valuable piece of stolen technology. One that can automatically unlock any digital data, developed by one of the agencies. And it was likely left on his person."
"Oh… shit." Maria blurted out.
"We have reason to believe that said key is something the Jackal is after. We cannot let him retrieve it." The chief gave the two agents folders and documents as she told them, "Your mission is to retrieve the key before anyone is able to make use of it. Mission is active at sixteen hundred hours, tomorrow."
"Right." Felix answered.
"Weird, last time we only had a couple hours to prepare." Maria remarked.
"Last time was a special case. Thankfully this time, the robins got us some intel, which will give you ample time to prepare. Any questions?"
"Ah, yeah, um… you wouldn't happen to know of a blond guy and a white-haired girl, would you? They both had red eyes. We ran into them earlier, they kinda—"
"Broke my door. Can I have that repaired?" Maria cut to the point.
"Ah yes, I can't tell you any details, but the both of them will surprise you with how similar they are to you two." The chief smirked.
Maria raised her eyebrow and bluntly asked, "Are they also enhanced humans?"
The chief lost her smile and took a puff from her cigarette and gazed at the ceiling of her office, ignoring Maria's question.
"Skip the foreplay, they're enhanced humans, aren't they?" She cheekily added.
"How did you—"
"It was hard to see due to the sunlight, but their eyes were glowing. It wasn't hard to put two and two together."
"Damn it, Maria!" The chief angrily shoved the two agents out of her office.
With documents in hand, the two agents were left standing at the door outside the chief's office. Felix glanced over Maria, "Guess I was right on the money."
To which he replied with a shrug.
~