Donovan approached, his face as serious as ever. Then, he said to Sylvia who's already deactivated her disguise, "I can activate the bomb. Just say the word and we can finish this mission any time."
Sylvia's expression relaxed. She chuckled, "It's just one lab, Donovan. There's probably more out there in this world."
She's right... What we're about to blow up won't probably deal that much damage to Celestial Smugglers.
"...That would take us days." he said.
"Haha. Think about it, Donovan. If the higher-ups really wanted us to take down the entirety of Celestial Smugglers, they would've sent more people with us. It's obvious, isn't it? They wanted us to take those weapons created from Annihilith crystals to Umbrellas so they could examine it. This whole mission is a theft in disguise!" Sylvia explained, her eyes serious.
I see... As expected of a team leader... Hey, stop praising her, Donovan...
"I see. But since we've already collected the weapons, we could leave any time."
Sylvia sighed, "That's true, but we've basically failed this mission."
Huh? Perplexed, Donovan asked, "Why? What do you mean?"
"If we leave now, the Hasdivians will see Umbrellas as an enemy. We stole their weapons and blew up the lab... Plus, we've caused the death of three Hasdivians. Did you forget, Donovan? When doing missions as Visitors, we're not supposed to be exposed. We arrive silently, and leave silently."
Yes, I remember now... It seems the entirety of Donovan's memories is yet to "load" completely.
As Sylvia explained to Donovan, Paul sighed and slowly said, "I'm sorry, Sylvia... It's my fault..."
Sylvia chuckled gently, "It's fine." Then, she turned to Vi who was unusually quiet, "Ahem. Vi?"
Vi stayed silent for five seconds, and eventually gave in. He said, "I'm sorry too."
Sylvia smiled, accepting the apologies of her two teammates.
Suddenly, as they were talking, Harold said, "Hey, you guys done? My umbrella's going to give out soon."
Sylvia turned to face Harold, "Haha. Yes, sorry Harold." Then, she said to Donovan with a gentle smile, "Activate the bomb. We're leaving."
Donovan silently breathed a sigh of relief, then, he made a thumbs-up gesture. His thumb moved down, and an explosion could be heard from underground, followed with the ground shaking.
"Harold, we're leaving." Sylvia said.
Harold nodded, and while his umbrella was blocking the entrance, he inserted the Umbrellas Card to his umbrella's shaft. Sylvia, Donovan, and Sasha did the same. Sasha instructed Paul and Vi to hold their umbrellas, and Sasha pressed the Emergency Teleport button on the two half-injured Visitor's umbrellas.
In an instant, the six Visitors were enveloped in light as they disappeared from the scene. The Hasdivians from outside entered the restaurant. Then, one shouted in Hasdivian language, "Check the lab!"
...
At the Portal Chamber.
Donovan, Sylvia, Sasha, and Harold appeared with a flash of light. As for Paul and Vi, they teleported at the Healer's Sanctuary.
Donovan fixed his suit, and Sylvia's katana turned back into an umbrella. She said to Harold and Sasha, "Check up on Paul and Vi. Oh, and Sasha, give Donovan the Storage."
Sasha nodded, and gave Donovan the cube-shaped device that can turn into a chest. The two followed their leader's order, unfurled their umbrellas, and floated away.
Sylvia turned to face Donovan with a gentle expression, "Go get Tiero. Tell him everything."
Donovan nodded, and walked away. Sylvia sighed, and found a metal bench to sit on.
It was currently 8:10 a.m., and Donovan found the intimidating Tiero doing his duties. He approached, "Tiero. We're done."
Tiero turned his head towards Donovan. Then, he saw the man with brown hair and green eyes give him the WNC of Hasdi. Tiero received the card, and asked Donovan, "Everything went well?"
"We got the weapons, but we failed to cause any significant damage to Celestial Smugglers." Donovan said.
Tiero nodded, and reached out his right hand. Donovan knew what he wanted, and he gave Tiero the storage device.
"I assume you're now aware this mission's objective all along was to steal the weapons, yes?" Tiero said as he put away the device.
"Yes." Donovan nodded.
Tiero nodded as well. "We'll examine everything in the card, and we'll decide if you get rewarded or not."
A World Name Card records everything that happens the moment a Visitor steps on a planet. After a mission, the card is put on a device that recreates everything that happened to a Visitor and their teammates in the form of holograms. Then, that's where it's decided if the Visitor failed or not.
"We were exposed, that's the gist of it." Donovan said suddenly.
Tiero paused for a moment, and said, "Nevertheless, you still obtained the weapons. The reward will be lessened a bit. How many people did you do the mission with?"
"Six, including me."
"Six..." Tiero sighed, "Alright."
After that, Donovan walked away.
From Donovan's memories, I have to return here tomorrow. Then, I'll get the reward. Hm... Sometimes, it was money, and sometimes it was spells. Oh, that reminds me, the currency of Umbrellas is the same from my Earth... It's still American money, the dollar. Hm... Does this mean that this city was once a city in the U.S.? And after this universe's Earth was destroyed, that basically meant that only Americans survived...? That's depressing...
Donovan went back to Sylvia. She was sitting on a metal bench, her figure as ethereal as ever.
He sat beside her, and asked, "Do you think they'll give us the reward?"
"We may have been exposed, but we still got the weapons, correct? Hehe, relax." She leaned back against the metal bench.
"I'll get going now. And thank you." Saying thank you is fine, right? I hope so. I really don't know how to act out Donovan's personality...
Sylvia hummed, "If we run into a situation in Bohler, make sure to respond when I call, okay~?"
856-Bohler-33, the planet that Sylvia and her team was currently investigating so they could search and rescue a previous Visitor team.
"Okay." Donovan nodded, stood up, and walked away.
...
After taking a second bath, Donovan sat down on the sofa and reached out for the remote. He opened the TV, searching for something good.
As he kept switching channels, it switched to a horror movie where the main character was face to face with the monster in the basement.
Donovan recalled what happened in his second visit to 843-Karlon-45 and couldn't help but feel a shiver down his spine.
What the hell even was the deal with that old man?
Donovan sighed, turned the TV off, and sat on his chair facing his computer desk.
...
4:43 p.m.
On a lively spaceship out in space.
Four aliens of unknown origin stood around a table as they drank.
Their destination was Umbrellas, and they were already nearing it. The spaceship was on autopilot.
Then, one of the aliens said in their alien language, "We're going be to rich, gang! Hahahaha!"
The other three "laughed." At the center of the table was a creature on four legs, thick, brown fur, and it was heavily injured. Its fur was stained with blood.
While drinking, one of the aliens staggered and accidentally pushed their fellow alien, and they both slipped like they were in a comedy show, causing the liquid they were drinking to spill. It spilled on the control panels.
The spaceship began malfunctioning, and the two aliens that slipped got into a fist fight while shouting profanities in their own alien language. The other two laughed at what they were seeing, unaware that their ship's autopilot was starting to malfunction.
Then suddenly, they slightly bumped into another spaceship, knocking all the four aliens down, rendering them unconscious.
The creature at the center of the table jolted awake as the spaceship began to spin counterclockwise.
At that moment, four small ships surrounded the out of control spaceship, and the spinning spaceship suddenly stopped and stabilized.
The four small ships "carried" the malfunctioning ship, and brought it inside Umbrellas, passing through the barrier.
They brought the large spaceship in an open area, where Visitors began to gather.
Then, a creature in thick brown fur secretly escaped the ship and fell on some green bushes.
The creature was already heavily injured, and falling on some bushes was very painful. Then, the creature with brown fur saw a man in a suit. He had brown hair, green eyes, a small stubble, and he held an umbrella. It was none other than Donovan Volgard.
The small and heavily injured creature's body suddenly started fading away as it continued staring at Donovan who was busy watching the scene of the spaceship being lowered.
At that moment, Donovan's heart skipped a beat, and a cold wind hit his back. He felt something was off.
Huh?