Colleen

The abandoned building that the rebels used as their base of operations was a dump, Colleen Odyssey thought. The agent sat cross-legged in a chair in front of a table covered in drawn maps and a bunch of rudimentary drawings outlining routes and shortcuts throughout the surrounding area.

Without warning, the door slammed open. Colleen, knowing it was her sister, uncrossed her legs and stood up.

“Lola,” she said sternly. “How many times have I told you to cut that out?”

Her sister ran up to her, not considering that the papers on the table weren’t stapled down. Lola’s use of her speed inside such a small space caused the maps and other sheets to fly off the table.

“Sorry about that,” Lola said. “But did you hear the news? The Alpha Corp is sending in a team.”

Colleen looked at her sister closely. As her twin, Lola was identical to her in appearance, but Lola decided to wear her long raven hair down while Colleen had hers tied in a ponytail.

“That’s not surprising.” Colleen waved her off. “It was only a matter of time before Alpha began investigating the assholes stealing from them.”

“That’s not all, sis. I hear Jane Sunheiser is leading the team. Aren’t you excited?” Lola said. Colleen expected her to start jumping up and down at such news.

Colleen wasn’t thrilled like Lola. She knew for the Alpha Corp to send in their golden girl to handle the situation, they meant business. Jane would not be an easy opponent to handle.

“You need to calm down. If you start jumping for joy and get yourself stuck in the ceiling, I’ll leave you there,” Colleen warned.

“Aw, don’t be like that. You can’t say you’re not excited. This whole operation has been such a bore.”

“‘Excited’ is not the word I would use,” Colleen said. “Get the others in here. They need to know what we’re about to deal with.”

“Right away, sis,” Lola said.

As her sister walked out of the room, Colleen sat back down in her chair. Kodak-Cresh had been clear in their intention here. They’d teamed up with this local resistance group under the facade of helping them with their efforts to supply goods to this run-down region.

The Alpha Corp’s response had been quicker than she’d anticipated.

Lola walked back into the room and five additional Kodak agents trailed behind her. From just a quick glance, Colleen was aware that every member here was at least tier two. Everyone was a dangerous and powerful force to be reckoned with.

Of course, Colleen and Lola were still their superiors, in both power and rank.

Her sister stopped in front of her and said, “I rounded up our best, sis.”

Colleen simply stared at the crew behind Lola and saw they weren’t in a straight line. Some of them either stood with inadequate posture or were chatting amongst themselves.

Colleen sighed, wondering how she got saddled with such an undisciplined crew of Kodak agents.

“Everyone, listen up,” she said, putting extra edge into her voice.

The other agents immediately stood straighter and stopped the idle chatter. If nothing else, even an undisciplined and unruly Kodak agent responded well to strength. No one here in this room matched Colleen in stats.

“We’re about to have company. Our rivals at Alpha Corp have sent in a team to deal with the resistance,” Colleen said. “Every single one of you better be ready to bring the heat, along with the subordinates under your command. They’re few in number, but Alpha agents mean business.”

Three of the five Kodak agents were wearing helmets. But Colleen could tell none of them were particularly excited. She glanced at Lola, who responded with a wink. That signaled to Colleen that her sister hadn’t divulged that Jane Sunheiser was with them.

“Need more excitement? The Alpha agent leading this team is none other than Jane Sunheiser,” Colleen said.

This garnered an immediate response from everyone. Lola grinned ear to ear like a child. One particular Kodak agent with a white skull painted on the entire face of his helmet clenched his fist without saying a word.

Everyone else just looked at each other while cackling and giggling amongst themselves.

“I can see everyone is looking for a piece of the action,” Colleen said. “But remember that Jane isn’t just a pretty face. She is a tier three agent. You cannot afford to be reckless against an agent of that caliber.”

Colleen’s warning didn’t do much to quell the arrogance and excitement in room. She stared at the agents silently. If they didn’t heed her warning, they would simply die and Kodak would have no trouble replacing them.

“Our objective is the capture and interrogation of Jane Sunheiser. She comes in alive,” Colleen said.

The entire room fell silent. Everyone here was looking forward to putting Jane’s skull on their wall.

“If any of you disobey, I will skin you myself and whatever families you have will receive a sanitized explanation of your fate. Is that understood?”

Lola smiled at her while everyone else didn’t dare utter a word. Colleen didn’t even hear any of them breathe. Good.

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The agent with the skull-painted helmet raised his hand. “So if we can’t kill Jane, what about the rest of her team? And how many friends is she bringing?”

“Our mole has informed me that there are six members of this strike team. Subtracting Jane and our mole, there’s four others.”

“Can we kill them?” Lola asked.

Colleen briefly considered whether Jane’s team should be wiped out or not.

“Not all of them. Leave one or two alive. If Jane truly cares about her team, we’ll take another one alive to use as leverage to get her to talk during interrogation. We need to know as many secrets about our enemy as possible.”

“Does this strike team know we’re here?” the skull helmet Kodak agent asked.

“According to our mole, no. They assume it’s a simple mission to rain on the resistance’s parade. Let’s keep the element of surprise for now. Allow their ship to land in the region and let them scout around for a bit. Then we’ll hit them with all our might.”

The agents all cheered and gassed each other up, exchanging the most pathetic lines of bravado and arrogance Colleen had ever heard. Even Lola gave the others a side-eye. Colleen knew in her heart that at least half these fools would die underestimating their latest enemy.

“Everyone, return to your stations and inform your subordinates of my orders,” Colleen said. She waved her hand. “You are all dismissed. Get out.”

All of the Kodak agents except Lola walked out with inflated egos and firm declarations of what they would do to their enemies. Colleen didn’t hide her exasperation as she buried her face into her palm.

Lola walked over to her and awkwardly tried to comfort her by placing her hand on her shoulder. Colleen’s body armor, like all the other Kodak agents, had sharpened spikes jutting out along her shoulder piece and front torso.

Colleen looked up into her sister’s bloodshot eyes. “Don’t bother, Lola. These are the idiots Kodak has given me. Well, maybe except for the one with the skull. He at least asked intelligent questions.”

“Well, what did you expect? The ones we usually boss around got their asses shredded by Michael Cynosa during our raid in the States. Then we had to use our reserve agents for a second grab at their shipment while it was coming overseas. Most of them got killed too.”

“I know,” Colleen said. “Michael is as efficient and brutal as ever. I only wish I had been in the field and crushed him myself.”

“Nonsense, sis,” Lola said. “You’re our queen. Your strategic mind is too important to waste as just another operative on the field.”

Colleen smiled and grabbed Lola’s gloved hand. “Thanks. Now quit the smoke show. Was there something you needed from me?”

Lola stared at her for a moment. “You’re a lot more strict this time, even by your standards. Something wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s just that the stolen cargo the second Kodak team got us is important. Extremely so.”

“What? If it’s medical supplies and food, how is that important to us? Hell, we’ve had to split some of that with the resistance ever since we formed our alliance with them.”

“Not that, Lola. You really think Kodak would get in bed with these fools if we’re only getting food and water from them?”

Lola shrugged. “Probably not. So what exactly did the second team steal that’s so important? I mean, it had to be if Michale Cynosa himself was there guarding it and if two teams of tier twos and threes got wiped.”

Colleen got up from the chair and gestured for her sister to follow her. “I’ll show you what we robbed from the Alpha Corp.”

The two Kodak agents walked together down the dimly lit hallway. Colleen and Lola approached a broken door guarded by a lone Kodak agent. Colleen exchanged nods with him.

“How unfortunate that my sister has you guarding this boring room,” Lola said. She began caressing the agent’s cheek. “Maybe you would prefer to be with me?”

The agent didn’t give her a response. Colleen turned and swatted Lola’s hand away. “Leave my agent alone. He’s doing important work.”

“What could you possibly be hiding in this room that requires an agent to stand outside on guard?”

Colleen turned and walked towards a metal crate, figuring that showing would be a lot more fitting.

“This right here is what our teams died for,” Colleen said as she dug her fingers underneath the lid and shifted it aside.

Lola stepped beside Colleen and took a peek inside. Her eyes widened.

“Wow,” she said. “I have no clue what I’m looking at.”

“Canisters containing the Alpha Corp’s next-generation enhancement serum, their new Arctic serum,” Colleen said.

“What’s so special about this shit? Looks like cheap juice to me,” Lola said.

Colleen didn’t bother holding back her sigh. Lola never took things seriously. “According to the decrypted files, this new serum seeks to combine the traits of all three shards into one agent. Any agents enhanced with this will receive all the strengths of the shards while minimizing all weaknesses.”

“I know we’re known for our brute strength and resilience,” Lola said. “And the nutjobs over at the Church of Nano-Evolution have their magic tricks and shit. But what do Alpha agents specialize in again?”

Colleen narrowed her eyes at Lola for talking so lowly about Alpha. “Alpha agents are generally more levelheaded compared to us and the Church. They’re also the jack of all trades in terms of battlefield roles. Their brains are just better at juggling multiple roles when necessary, even if they’re not so stellar at it. So I guess the serum seeks to combine our brute power, the magic abilities of the Church and Alpha’s calm and rational minds.”

“That’s… actually not bad,” Lola said.

“Do you understand the gravity of our situation now?” Colleen said with extra emphasis. “Our enemies have a new enhancement serum for their agents. And it will become a big problem for us if they get this rolled out on a wider scale. According to the stolen documents, they don’t have a lot of this stuff ready yet. Imagine a new batch of Alpha agents with this flowing through their veins. And if they can retroactively hand this out to their veteran agents, Kodak might as well give up.”

“You’re right, sis,” Lola said, her smile wiped away. “I mean, good for them for innovating. But bad for us.”

“Our mole has given us extra intel on Jane Sunheiser. Not only is she Alpha’s golden girl, but she’s close to the higher-ups of Alpha. Meaning she most likely knows the identities of the agents who are slated to be enhanced with the Arctic serum. Either that, or the locations where they have more of the serum.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“Then she’ll know who does. And we’ll torture the shit out of her if she doesn’t talk.”

Colleen remained silent and allowed her sister to absorb what she had just told her. They couldn’t afford to play around with such an opportunity to sabotage their rival shard.

“Oh, and take this with you,” Colleen said. She took out an elegant gold-plated sword hilt from her belt. “If Jane Sunheiser is your opponent, you’ll need this to match her.”

“It’s that serious? You’re telling me I need this cheat of a sword to beat Jane and drag her back with us?” Lola questioned.

“This viper fang sword is your only chance of matching her up close. And I want it back, if you don’t mind.” Colleen added an extra edge to her last sentence, a subtle threat about returning without the sword.

Lola grinned. “Since we’re going all in, are you coming along with me? It’ll be fun to tag team that Alpha bitch.”

“Unfortunately not. Our superiors want me to make sure everyone is fulfilling their role. And someone needs to be on site to protect this stolen shipment of Arctic serum. Even if we fail in the capture of Jane Sunheiser, we could still make use of this batch of serum.”

“That’s too bad, sis. But very well. I will return with Jane after I kick her ass. She won’t know what hit her.”

“Good,” Colleen said. “Get it done.”