They reached the upper floor and paused just around the corner of a dimly lit hallway. At the end stood a single steel security door, where two guards stood, carrying rifles.
Felix raised a hand, signaling Maria to stay back, "I'll handle this."
Adjusting his stolen uniform, he stepped into view. The thick thud of his boots on the tiled floor echoed down the corridor, immediately drawing the guards' attention.
"H-Help!" He staggered slightly, as if he was wounded.
"What are you doing here? Where's your post? There are intruders!" One of them barked in Chinese, his brow furrowing.
Breathlessly, Felix responded, "We were ambushed… they're on their way here." He spoke in English as he kept moving closer, halfway through the hall.
The first guard exchanged a glance with the second, who raised his rifle.
Felix lunged forward, and in the blink of an eye, dived underneath the guard's gun.
Startled and frantic, he could barely aim as Felix neutralized him with a sharp punch to his jaw, instantly incapacitating him.
The second one took notice, lining his weapon at the intruder. But the blue-eyed agent was faster, slipping past his defense before he could pull the trigger.
He grabbed the man's wrist and pulled over him to the side, making him fire at the ground. Dozens of lead shards pierced through the floor in succession, leaving it cracked. But as the weapon ran out of ammunition, Felix grabbed the man's head and drove it against his knee.
In one swift motion, the guard's face turned into a bright red as he collapsed.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Felix gently placed their bodies against the wall, one of which was still mumbling incoherently.
Maria strolled up to him, commenting, "We may be overusing that fake-guard play."
"It still worked, didn't it?" He exhaled.
"Only worked because you're fast on your feet." She responded, mildly impressed.
"I'll take the compliment. We have to hurry. The guards downstairs probably heard the gunfire."
"Why didn't you just use your quiet, pacifist gun from the corridor?"
"Ion has an effective range of five meters. It wouldn't have reached them." He explained, retrieving an ID card from one of the guard's uniforms.
She took a look at the grumbling guards, "Maybe you should've just shot them in the head instead of going through all that effort."
"No unnecessary killing." He glared at her.
"Then shall I?" She smirked and pulled out her knife.
"No." Ignoring her, he swiped the ID card on the door's lock. After a short few seconds, there was a soft beep, and the lock clicked open.
A blast of icy air greeted them as the door slid open, much colder than the rest of the building.
"After you." Felix gestured. Maria took a step into the server room.
It was dark inside, and filled with servers. Rows upon rows of black pillars filled the room like a library. The only light was from the blinking blue and yellow lights behind the glass panes of the tall machines.
As they took a few steps inside, a sharp pop and crackle echoed from behind. Both agents turned toward the window wall, where vibrant fireworks burst across the night sky, their reflections scattering across the glass. Below, the city glittered with life and excitement.
Maria looked at the glittering glass panes with a hint of contempt she saw her own reflection.
Felix took a few steps further inside, "So this is the data center?"
"Looks like it…" She answered, smashing her fist against the glass pane, cracking it in two.
"What was that?" He reacted, hearing her shatter one of them.
"... It's unconventional to have a database on the top floor." She responded, not answering his question.
The faint pop of a distant firework took her attention, glancing forward. She walked on ahead opposite the door's direction.
In the center of the large room was a single onyx black table with nothing on top of it, "Maybe they just like the view from up here."
Felix pressed the ID back to the door, shutting the entrance.
Maria threw away the lab coat and walked and spun the leather chair on the table. She pressed a glowing red button on the table, and a holographic projection popped out in front of her. A keyboard started glowing on top of the glassy table.
"Stay on guard, I need to work my magic. Unless you wanna take a crack at it." She ordered, putting the drive on the table, a neon red circle forming beneath.
Felix shrugged and obliged. He took off the torn-up uniform, pulled out his pistol, and kept his attention glued to the door.
Maria placed her hand on the screen and let out a soft hum. One by one, the system's encryptions were unlocked. With a smile, a stream of .
Suddenly, an array of holographic screens suddenly popped out in front of her.
"I'm in. Now what… could I… be looking for?" She hummed in a singsong.
The dark-haired woman scrolled through dozens of screens. She then stopped as one of the visuals came to her view. One of them, the image of a crown.
She opened another, containing a blank silhouette with the word 'Jackal' underneath it.
"Heh…" She smirked.
Felix turned his head towards her, "Hmm?"
"Come, take a look at this." She gestured for him to come forward.
"What is it?"
Maria drew in and expanded one of the holographic screens, revealing a grainy recording of a city caught from a helicopter.
"It's… records of the Fallen Sun Catastrophe…" She tapped on the screen, letting the video play out.
Golden flames swept through the skyline, engulfing the city in what looked like a sphere of yellow light. Above it was a photograph of the horizon, where it looked like a nuclear fireball formed on the city.
As the yellow haze reached the camera, it appeared as if the video froze. But it did not stop playing.
Maria pressed on the screen, swiping the video forward.
Until a few minutes later, the city — it's buildings, vehicles, trees, and people all of the frozen things started to come apart, slowly unraveling pixel by pixel under a yellow filter.
There was no deafening explosion, no sudden burst of fire. Only an eerie stillness that disassembled the city, turning everything in it into mounds of fine grains and particles.
"… This was the one that happened in China…" Felix's voice cracked, muttering under her breath.
"This must be it then." She smiled and collected all of the holographic screens, dragging down towards the drive, where they transformed into strings of letters and numbers.
As it began copying into the drive, Felix took a step back, feeling light-headed.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
"I remember the day when that happened… It was a busy day in the agency…"
Felix shifted his gaze back to the door, hearing the muffled sound of gunfire popping outside.
Maria smirked, "Yeah, I bet it must've been pretty—"
He suddenly pushed her away from the table, "Get down!"
The hatch hissed open, just enough to let the barrel of a gun get through.
With a loud bang, a bullet travelled towards the two agents, shredding off some of her hair as she fell to the ground. The window wall cracked open behind them cracked open.
Felix whipped out his pistol and aimed towards the entrance.
There was the slow sound clapping coming from the door, and a silhouette spoke, entering the room.
"I didn't expect intruders to be here." A firework lit up the face of a blood-covered man walking in, dressed in a vest and a top hat, " Why don't the two of you enjoy the festival outside?"
~