Present day.
On the dusty flat ground lay a solitary figure with raven black hair. A young man with a bead of sweat trickling down from his brow, to his nearly opaque goggles, to his cheek, while he adjusted his aim on the rifle.
His target, a wooden dummy, hid behind nine others that already had holes in the center of their chests, taken out with incredible accuracy.
Staring down the scope of his rifle, he fired.
An ear-splitting sound rang out of the firearm, sharp and quick — another bullseye.
The target shattered, and its wooden fragments flew over the grass fields behind it. Had this been a real person, they would have dropped dead.
Directly above him, the display on the black screen changed from a score of ninety into a score of one-hundred – It was a perfect ten out of ten.
A small smirk formed on his face. It was clear that he was satisfied with himself. But as he looked over to the distance, he saw several trainees still fighting on the field, and his smirk deflated. He glanced around, and saw the closest people near him were more than a hundred meters across.
There was nothing to celebrate. This was simply what was expected of him. Something he expected out of himself.
Though he had already finished the course, the young man reloaded his rifle once more. He paid no mind to the discomfort he felt laying on the dirty ground under the scorching sun.
He was alone. So, he did what he wanted.
Rather than target the center, which he had already perfectly shot, the young man focused his attention on the target's head instead.
One hundred meters once more. A second attempt outside of his usual routine.
His fingers brushed against the trigger, and a familiar sight flashed in his mind. A warmly lit window against a stormy blizzard. Like a candle light being devoured into a white void.
A sharp sting clawed against the back of his head, and he grit his teeth. He felt a sense of irritation, but this memory was one he was trying to call upon.
Hidden behind his goggles emanated an unnatural light from his left eye, turning the opaque glass blue.
There was a moment of hesitation as he pressed his finger on the trigger. He drew a deep breath through his teeth and mumbled under his breath, "Come on… work."
A drop of sweat slid down his face as he focused, and as soon as it dropped to the dry ground — he fired.
The gun's recoil pushed against him as azure particles burst from its muzzle.
A hole formed on the target, but the bullet struck on the white space inches from the target's head.
"Tsk. Bollocks." He clicked his tongue. Though it did not affect the score on the board, he still felt irritated by his mistake.
His perfect streak was ruined, and the blue light behind his goggles faded.
The young man returned to the bench, and picked up a cup full of coffee that had been sitting there since he first started.
He lifted his goggles, and swiped his raven black hair to the side, revealing his mismatched eyes of dark copper and sapphire blue, the latter of which appeared to be faintly glowing, but its radiance was almost unnoticeable in broad daylight.
Beneath his copper right eye was a small mole, it was the only other thing that stood out from his face.
The sun-bathed training field was full of sparring trainees, and smelled of sweat and metal, as it usually does. There was nothing out of the ordinary, it was the same old routine, the same old grunts and yells that blended into one another.
His back hunched as he took a sip from his foam cup, which had cooled down as the hours passed.
Another slow day, huh?
His expression was dull and dry as he silently stared at the trainees sparring with each other.
All he could do was watch and take sips of soothing coffee in solitude as the slow day went by. Above him fluttered a red flag with an insignia of a golden lion printed on it.
A few clouds passed by before he got up from the bench and stretched his arms outwardly.
"Sir Felix!" A voice called out for the young man, snapping him out of his lonesome thoughts.
Felix stood up from his bench as a man in a black suit called to him from the shade of the building. With a pen and a clipboard in hand, the man spoke with a gentle tone, "I'm sorry for calling out to you, but the heat was rather harsh, sir."
"Yeah, yeah... Have the car prepared for me, Murphy." The young man replied despondently as he took the documents from the agent's hands.
"A-actually, sir, the chief called for you directly." The suited man, Murphy, clarified.
"Is that so?" His stomach turned a little. It was a gut feeling that told him that his quiet day would go down the slope. He handed back the clipboard to the agent before walking into the building.
"Hey, I'm a little bored so can I keep your pen?" He asked as he showed the pen still in his hand.
"S-sure."
"Thanks."
Felix fiddled with the pen with a look of disinterest as he made his way through the cold, chrome corridors.
What's so important that the Chief has decided to talk to me directly?
The agents in his path silently stepped to the side as he passed through. Though he paid them no mind, as he got closer to the chief's office, a middle-aged man approached from the opposite direction, refusing to step aside.
"If it isn't the Child of Stars." A raspy old voice greeted. "How long has it been?"
Oh god, no.
The young man shuddered as his fear was confirmed. A familiar, stubby, man with aged white hair stood in front of him. walked towards him from the other side of the corridor.
"Two months I hadn't seen you… Was hoping to make it three." He spoke out loud.
"As rude as ever, I see. So, how are you doing?"
"I was doing much better a minute ago. You know, before I got to see your face, Professor Tetsuya."
"Haha, good to know you're doing quite well." The old man answered dryly, as if going through routine.
"'Well' is relative considering what I've become."
The professor stroked his white beard, "What you have become is the first step towards the future."
"Yeah, yeah, the latest link in the evolutionary chain to bring about everlasting peace." Felix snidely mimicked the phrase that he's heard a hundred times. "So, about my right eye?" He asked not about his glowing blue iris on the left, but the plain dark one on the right.
The professor grumbled, "It will turn blue in due time. When that happens, your gifts will finally… Oh my, I can hardly wait." He then stopped and looked at Felix with a concerned expression, "Until then, let's hope that you get along with the next generation."
"Next generation? Wasn't the Implementation was shut down?"
"Merely postponed, but it resumed last year after receiving funding. Hence why I have been gone for so long. We have just went through another batch."
"It resumed…?" He echoed bitterly.
The old man opened up one eye to look at him, "Does that bother you?"
Felix put a brave front, and with a shrug, he answered, "…Not really. As long as I make it to the top of the leaderboard, it doesn't concern me. It won't be fun without a challenge."
"There are many monsters out there. Even from different projects than our own. If you really intend to climb the ranks, then you'll have your chance starting now. I'm sure you'll surpass them all, even David."
There was a sudden snap that echoed across the hall. The pen in Felix's hand was broken in half. A sweat dripped down from the professor's face, startled by the sound. Yet Felix just smiled, saying "Right, right… I have to meet with the chief now, so."
"The recent batch had only one survivor. She's a rather lively girl, so I hope that you both will get along."
"Only one, huh? Hope I meet them soon."
"That's right. Call me as soon as you need my assistance." The professor smiled in amusement.
"I won't." He happily replied.
The two of them began to walk in opposite directions, and their steps echoed across the chrome halls.
A few minutes later, Felix stood in front of the chief's deep black door.
Only one survivor? So she's like me…
He reached for the knob, but quickly retreated his hand as his blue eye suddenly strained.
Fragments of a shattered memory invaded his mind, filling it with incomplete visions of fires and red flashes. He struggled and stumbled in the empty hall, wanting to claw out his eye.
A vision of the golden girl reaching her hand out to him, trapped inside the fiery sphere of golden light.
With shaky fingers, he reached under his shirt and pulled out a pendant of an old four-leaf clover. He took a deep breath and clutched it tightly.
But it's not like I forgot how it felt.
"Felix Aster, requesting permission to enter."
A soft feminine voice answered from the other side, cheerful, "Come in~ We have milk and cook— ow, ow, that hurts, stop it! Thtap it!!"
His eyebrow raised with uncertainty due to the unexpected response.
When he opened the door, he was met with a peculiar sight. Inside the office, the chief he knew to be stoic was wearing an irritated scowl while pinching the crumb-covered cheeks of a young woman on the couch.
"I can see you're... busy." He said as he slowly pulled back the door.
But before he could close it, the grey-haired older woman coughed, stopping him in his tracks, "Ah-hem."
He sighed and went back to the office. He turned around and looked at the table, which actually had a platter of milk and cookies placed on top of it.
"What's going on? Am I going on a simulation, Chief?" He asked with furrowed eyes.
"Not quite. Allow me to introduce you to Maria Readman. Codename; Venom Vanguard." The chief pointed toward the young woman dressed in a black shirt with a pizza printed on it.
"Or… or just V.V. for short." The dark-haired woman interjected.
"Uh, nice to meet you… um… Venom… is she a new recruit?" Felix asked the chief in a manner that did not acknowledge the young woman's presence in the room.
"Indeed, yet this young lady possesses field experience, as opposed to your combat simulations." The chief uttered in a mocking tone as she pushed back her dark gray hair to the side.
"Well, maybe if you'd let me out in the field instead of long-distance assassinations, I might just improve." His voice dripped with petulance.
The chief walked back to her desk by the wall of the room behind the window. "It was Professor Tetsuya's call to make it so you wouldn't be sent out to actual combat. He wanted to 'test the waters' long enough to see if you could handle it."
"I'm the best agent here."
"Then explain why you're ranked thirteenth?" The chief shot back sharply as she pushed up her round, orange-tinted glasses. "You're nowhere near the number one."
He clicked his tongue, unable to respond. Maria tilted her head awkwardly as she silently watched.
"But I suppose that is why he wouldn't allow you to be compromised until you were ready. They wouldn't want their financial support wasted without ever achieving anything of value."
With a disingenuous grin, he asked, "And when will I be ready?"
"Now."
"Wait, really?" He was taken aback by the Chief's immediate reply.
"That's right. This is why I wanted to introduce you to her. For you to get to know each other."
Felix glanced down to see the young woman staring at him with wide and curious black eyes, "Know each other?"
Chief turned her head towards the black-haired girl, as if to give her permission to speak, "Maria."
"Right!" The young woman gulped down the cookies stuffed in her cheeks and walked up to the young man.
"Hi there! My name is um… M-Maria Readman, codename Venom Vanguard, or V.V. But honestly, I'd just prefer that you call me Marie. Nice to meet you." She introduced herself with multiple names, and stretched out her hand towards Felix with a carefree demeanor.
The young woman stood much shorter than he did, and had ebony black hair.
"Uh, likewise." He awkwardly shook her hand.
"This girl, with the mouth stuffed with cookies, is an Elite Agent?"
"Her records are rather shaky, but she's the real deal." Chief remarked.
"Heterochromia?" Maria muttered curiously as she got a closer look at him. She stared into his blue eye, radiating with a foreign, unfamiliar, almost alien-like light.
"Yeah, I got it after the implementation." He replied as he looked at the hand he shook with, which was now covered in cookie crumbs.
She tilted her head and asked, "Yeah, weren't they both supposed to change and start glowing?"
"… I'm still undergoing the process…"
"Strange… I-I'm sorry what was your name again? Sorry, I'm bad at names…"
"Felix Aster."
"Felix… Aster? As in the Black Cat of Ruin?" Maria immediately turned to the chief as she pointed at him with a squeal of excitement in her voice.
"Indeed." The chief answered.
"The Black Cat bit is… actually not official." He mumbled out.
"Wait but then why do people call you that?"
"It probably has something to do with my eyes." Felix scratched his cheek as he clarified.
"So… child of stars, then?" The chief cheekily added.
He looked at the older woman an annoyed smile, "Yeah, let's not go with that."
With both hands clasped behind her back, she leaned in close with a big smile and uttered, "Could you be fun I wonder?"
His eyebrows curled as he pushed her head back with his index finger, "Huh? Is something wrong with you?"
She giggled in a cold yet cheerful tune, "A great, many things." Going back to the chair and taking another cookie.
"Don't mind her, she just has some childish tendencies. She's enhanced, just like you."
He looked over to the chief, "Wait, what?"
"She's a first stage. Like you, she was the sole survivor of the previous batch. So please, do try to get along."
His focus then returned to the young woman, who was staring at him while silently stuffing her mouth.
The professor said I would meet them soon, but… already?
From the chief's desk, a holographic projection popped out.
Felix's eyebrows curled with curiosity as he read it out loud, "The Dragon of the Little Sun… in Beijing? Why send us to some small-time mafia group?"
"We'd send operatives already stationed there, but it appears that they've either gone MIA, or the ravens have brought back their corpses to us."
His lips parted, startled by the information.
The chief lifted her gaze with a cold stare. "Besides, if you're serious about making it to the top of the leaderboard, then…"
"I wasn't refusing."
"Keep a low profile, infiltrate the facility and assist Maria to gather information." The chief explained, handing the two agents the documents.
"Hmm, intel gath—Wait, did you say assist?"
"We can't have you taking the wrong documents… again."
"But—"
"Before you say anything, it's not simply your incompetence to work with technology. Maria is a professional cracker, her skills are top notch. Your job is to protect her. Keep her alive and safe."
"Protect her? But I've never done anything like this before."
"Guess it's time for you to learn, best agent. Your main problem will be getting into the building; Maria can handle the rest once you get inside while you protect her."
He glanced over behind him and saw the girl perch her head over her hands.
"No worries, this won't be your usual escort mission. I won't be the useless NPC who gets in the way." The young woman smiled.
He responded with a puzzled look, "A what?"
"You have my permission to kill, but preferably keep the damages to a minimum. I reiterate. Keep. The Damages. Minimum. Both of you. We don't want the tensions to rise any higher. Am I understood?" The chief emphasized with each breath.
"Crystal."
"If you understand, then you are dismissed. Good luck, and leave nothing to chance." The chief said as she sat down and pulled out a cigarette.
"Yessir." Both agents replied, but as Felix saluted, Maria glanced over and mirrored his motion with a peppy smile.
The two headed for the door with Maria walking out first.
But as he was about to leave, the chief called out, "Felix."
"Uh, yeah?"
"There have been a number of agents going off the grid lately. Even the ones in the leaderboard. Several MIAs. Corpses are piling up."
"I know." He answered dismissively.
Refusing to let him leave the room immediately, she spoke with a concerned tone. "This is not a simulation. Nor is it a long-ranged assassination. You will be in danger, and she won't be here to protect you. If you really want to make it to the top, don't die."
His eyebrows curled at her sincere words, and simply nodded to reassure her, "Right."
As he exited the room, he lowered his head and sighed. Maria, who was in front of him, lifted up the metal platter right at his face, "So, um… cookie?"
"When did you get that?" He scowled at her for a few seconds.
The young woman slowly felt uneasy by his stare, "You… don't like cookies?"
"Sigh, thanks." He dryly replied as he took the cookie from the platter. As he took a bite, his expression softened as he muttered, "Mhmm, this would go well with some coffee…"
"Right?" Her eyes quickly sparkled as she looked at him eating it, "I have more, oh, and this is also really good!"
His cheeks turned rosy as she leaned in closer to him, their faces just inches apart.
The conversation continued back and forth between the happy-go-lucky lady and the silent young man as they went off to prepare for the mission.
~