The sound of rushing water was all that could be heard in the washroom. Felix looked at his own reflection, his face and hair dripped with a cold water that helped him calm down and focused. He wiped the glass and gazed into his own mismatched eyes.
As he walked out of the washroom, he noticed a familiar aroma. He was greeted by his partner who leaned against the wall.
"You alright, bud?" Maria asked as she handed him the cup of coffee that he had requested earlier.
"Yeah, I'm just… just a little sick." Felix wiped his face.
"Well, we already accepted the request, so are we gonna give up? Don't tell me you're gonna pull out before anyone's satisfied?"
"Pull out? Who said we were giving up?"
"Mhm… Sorry, that was inappropriate of me given you just had a panic attack."
"What was?"
Maria sighed with disappointment in her tone, "So, you wanna talk about what happened just now?"
"I don't know… it just feels like my head began to burst for some reason, and by the time I realized it, everyone looked shocked."
"Well, you kinda just went and blew your load all over." Maria's face expressed disbelief at how she was unable to stop herself.
"I um… What?" Felix looked at her with cluelessness stapled to his expression.
"I mean, your psychic power went wild earlier."
"Psychic power?"
"That thing that makes you, y'know, an esper…Never mind, think you can elaborate further then?"
"I see. So it's called psychic power?"
"You… don't watch a lot of entertainment, do you? Still… what happened just now was…"
"Something in my head just started to…you ever feel like there's a part of you that's missing?"
"You mean like when you look in the mirror, sometimes there's no face there at all, or you don't even recognize who's in the reflection?"
Felix tilts his head up with a confusion, "Not really… That's oddly specific, are you alright?"
"Hey, you're the one who just had a panic attack." She shrugged.
He took a nip out from his coffee and asked, "How do you deal with that?"
"I, um… Yeah, I… deal with it pretty well and um…" Maria crossed her arms as she scrambled for the right words.
From the corridor, the two new agents walked up to the two of them.
"Hey…" Isabelle nervously spoke.
"You're both still here?" Felix blurted out.
"Yeah, we came here to say goodbye, and to thank you for accepting our request."
He scratched his cheek and said, "You're espers, too. And my guess is that you know how to use your… "psychic powers" properly.
"Properly… is a stretch, but we do know a little bit." She replied.
"Can you show me what it means to be one?"
"Oh, uh… yeah." Nero's eyebrow raised slightly, taken aback by the earnest request.
"Of course, although we're still new at it ourselves. So I was told that we would train with someone called… David Soldier?" Isabelle's eyes lit up.
"I- I see." Felix responded with a hint of surprise and annoyance.
"We'll be taking our leave, see ya' pipsqueak."
"Good luck!" Isabelle beamed and waved.
As the two left the corridor, Maria turns to Felix, pouting, "You never asked me to show you what it means to be an esper."
"You were always so cryptic about it, I figured you wanted me to find out for myself."
"Mhm, then how about a crash course later?"
"I guess I'll go prepare my suitcase."
"Actually, Felix… your weapons." The chief spoke as she approached with a white suitcase, and as she opened it, they saw two ornate handguns, one jet black, and the other chrome white, both of which adorned with a blue lining.
"Oh, pretty." Maria said as she got to it first.
Felix raised an eyebrow, "Two of them?"
"That's right. It was Anastasia's suggestion."
"Is that right? Does she want me to follow in her footsteps?"
"Well…" The chief paused for half a second, "That's for you to decide. Test them out, see if they suit you."
He then picked up the two guns and inspected them, the white one had the word "Agony" etched on it's ivory surface, while it's black counterpart had "Misery" engraved on it, both of which were written in elegant blue script.
"Those are some pretty sadistic names." Maria whistled.
"Don't look at me, it was Anastasia's suggestion to call them that." The chief shrugged, taking no responsibility.
"What makes these any different from Ion?" He asked.
"Like Ion, Agony shoots out waves of energy or your power. Misery, however, is an experimental firearm designed to be reshape to any ammunition you load into it, within a reasonable size of course, and can even handle firing hollow rounds."
"So I'll never run out of bullets. Then what'll happen to Ion?" He asked as he placed the paper cup by the window, taking a look at his new guns.
"It will return to the development storage, as it looks like you used them to play baseball against bullets."
Maria glanced over to him with a nod, "That's sounds accurate."
"But I'll get it back, right?"
"The prototype will return as an obsolete model."
Felix had a disheartened expression. As Maria saw the look on his face, she protested, "Can't he keep it as a memento?"
"It belongs to the agency. I'm sorry, I can't give them to you."
"Alright…" He let out a resigned sigh.
"As for the main difference, it's made of a special material called Aestrellium."
"Sounds dumb." Maria blurted out while inspecting the gun intently.
Felix examined the white gun, his fingers traced the engraved word, and he blankly read out, "Agony…"
The chief then cleared her throat and continued, "Right, the professor also wanted me to tell you that Agony is special. It's an improved version of Anastasia's gun, and that it's specifically designed to convert and handle as much power you put into it and turn it into ammunition, even while you're still learning how to control it."
With a despondent tone, he replied, "… I see."
"It's a shame that Luna did not teach you how to use your abilities, but David's been waiting for you to—"
Felix clenched the gun and spoke in a hostile tone, "Chief…"
"Ah." The older woman paused, not wanting to push his buttons, "My bad."
He then turned around without looking at the two of them and started to walk away, "Marie, I'm gonna practice at the shooting range while we still have time."
"Ah, o-okay…" Maria responded.
As Felix left, she looked to the side and saw that his coffee had sat by the window, still half-full. She then looked at the chief, twisting her foot on the floor and asked, "Did something happen?"
The chief's orange-tinted glasses reflected into pure white as she looked down at Maria, "Felix had a mentor who disappeared three years ago."
"Luna, right?"
Maria gazed in silence, waiting for the chief to continue, "And her partner was the Black Hound, David Soldier."
"So in other words, he blames David for his mentor's disappearance?" She was quickly able to put together what the chief was implying.
"I think it's a little more complicated than that."
"Simply for me."
"Maria, it's only been a month since the two of you were assigned together. He'll tell you himself, and eventually, he'll have to come to terms with what happened. For now, I think it's best that you focus on the mission."
"Right, the mission." She sighed and shifted her gaze to the cup of coffee left behind.
"It's better that he tells you himself. Even if I explain what I understand, I won't be able to convey the feelings he holds." The chief said compassionately.
The dark-haired woman looked at the chief with a cold stare and spoke in a low, frigid voice, "Spare me the heartwarming nonsense. I'll figure it out on my own."
Though the Chief was normally dauntless and experienced, she felt a chill crawl down her spine as Maria gave her that cold glare.
She flipped her hair back with her right hand and started to walk away.
As the strands fell back down, it revealed the startled expression on the Chief's face.
From the corner of the corridor stood Isabelle. Her face was a mix of nervous and confused from what they heard.
At the sunbathed training ground outside the Golden Lion's facility, the sound of clicking echoed from the training grounds, as Felix restlessly pulled on the triggers of his new guns. Sweat drips from his face while his tongue sticks out like a dog as he takes in heavy breaths.
He grit his teeth, staring at the targets on the other side, untouched, unmoved, undamaged. He let out a silent growl as he tightened his grip on his new guns.
"Sooo, about Luna…" With a cup in hand, Maria approached Felix.
"Chief told you?" Felix said with an exhausted tone.
"I did hear Allison bring it up earlier this morning."
"She told you, didn't she?" Felix reiterated.
"She didn't tell me enough."
"You probably don't need to know more."
"I'll be the judge of that. Here." She said as she gave him a paper cup.
"The coffee from earlier?"
"New one. Just the way you like it."
"I see. I'm sorry. It's just that—" He replied as he looked down.
Felix remembered his last interaction with David, "I will train you." His words rang clearly in his ears.
"I think you should take a rest."
"I'm well-rested as is." Felix replied with a calm rage beneath his tone and took another shot.
"That's enough, bud." She quietly whispered as she placed her hand on the back of his neck.
Suddenly, he felt weak, his vision faded into dark, and lost consciousness soon after.
*
The blades of the airplane whirled as the two ascended into the skies.
The two sat in front of each other once again on black leather seats. Maria read up on the mission documents while Felix was completely in a daze. His mismatched eyes widely stared into the distance.
"It looks like we're headed to a hotel." She muttered to herself.
"Mister Aster, your coffee. Miss Readman, your mimosa and strawberry tart." An attendant spoke as she placed their orders on the table. A black coffee, an alcoholic beverage, and a sweet dessert.
"Ah thank you!" Maria peppily responded.
The attendant flashed a brief smile and left as soon as she finished putting their food on the desk.
"C-coffee…" He absent-mindedly replied, his eyes were open, but had no focus.
"That's right… now drink up." Maria smiled softly.
The moment he took a sip of the coffee, his expression turned back to his usual scowl, "Ugh, this coffee is too bitter."
"Oh good, you're back to normal." She replied passively.
"Hey, wait a minute, you knocked me out—"
"I had to. You were being uncooperative."
"Sigh… don't do that again."
"No promises." She smirked.
Felix leered over as Maria opened her suitcase. In it, displayed a gun, similar in appearance to his own.
"You also have a new gun?"
"Yup. Twin guns, kinda like yours. Speaking of, sorry about your old gun, though. It was important to you, right?"
"It's alright, I have these…" He answered as he looked at his twin guns.
"For now, until the agency replaces it again." She blurted out with a hint of dissatisfaction.
"Right… So how are they? The guns I mean?"
She spun them around, "Light, easy to hold. Bullets that could break through five inches of steel."
"Odd, why didn't the development lab give me that kind of firepower?"
"Wasn't it because you don't kill unless "absolutely necessary?"" She gestured in air quotes.
"Mhm… So what are they called?"
"I wanted to call it Maria Junior, but they were already given names. "Predator" and "Proditor". They said it was fitting for taking down the hunter and the traitor."
"Better than Agony and Misery." He scoffed.
She shrugged, "I still prefer knives. Guns just kill too quickly for me."
Felix looked at his twin guns, and with a contemplative expression, responded, "… My mentor always told me that if I had to kill, I should do it quickly and as painlessly as possible."
Maria crossed her arms with a look of mild annoyance, "And yet you didn't want me to kill Harbinger."
"Y-yeah."
"You were only prolonging his suffering, you know?"
He gulped, "Yeah, I know…"
The conversation turned silent once again as it was left at that. Felix returned to scouring through the holographic screen.
"That's odd… it says here that location is an abandoned building in a bustling city, but their current position is…" Maria remarked as she zoomed into the screen.
**
Felix prepared his gear, placing his new twin guns into the holsters under his coat. As they hovered closer to the location, Maria gulped as she watched him put on goggles.
With the wind caught in their throats, the two of them were forced to yell as the airplanes' opened its hatch.
"WE'RE JUMPING TO THEIR HIDEOUT?!" Maria shrieked at the top of her lungs, clinging on the other side of the airplane.
"YES." Felix replied as he placed the goggles above her head and dragged her closer.
"ISN'T THIS REALLY DANGEROUS?!" Maria clutched Felix's arm.
"PROBABLY." He answered against the strong whirling gust against his cheeks as he pulled her closer to the hatch.
"I WASN'T TRAINED FOR THIS!"
He turned to her with a shocked expression, "HOW CAN YOU NOT BE?!"
"REASONS!"
"WE DON'T HAVE A CHOICE! WE'RE ABOUT TO MISS OUR JUMP!" Felix grabbed her waist and pulled her down with him.
"NOOOOOOO!" Her scream faded into the atmosphere as the two of them plummeted together.
~