Kate

Kate flew into a wall, her wounded shoulder taking the brunt of the impact as she yelled in pain. She slumped down to the wall and didn’t have the energy to even stand. She laid on the ground on her knees clutching her injured shoulder.

How Dan manged to inflict this much damage to her and continue getting back up no matter how much pain and punishment he suffered went beyond pure luck. Something about that kid just wasn’t right.

While Kate’s mind was focused on her persistent enemy, she didn’t see the boot that smashed into her cheek that sent her entire body rolling across the wet ground. She flipped herself onto her back and allowed her head to lazily turn to see who kicked her. Lola Odyssey was the one who did it.

Kate had no clue how much time had passed since the twin arrived on the roof and began beating the shit of out her for failing to stop the container from being stolen by Michael Cynosa and his team.

Somehow, whether intentional or not, Dan made her so laser focused on him that she forgot to just disengage and simply kill off his two weaker teammates and secure the container. Because the other Kodak agents couldn’t put adequate pressure on those two, it allowed one of them carrying the heavy weapons to shoot down all of their air support.

Dammit. She could have easily crushed this entire trio of tier ones if she funneled her aggression towards the weaker two and then using the rest of her forces to overwhelm Dan when he was alone. The rest of the Kodak agents would have gawked at her for suggesting such a plan against what should have been easy pickings for them.

Truthfully, as much as she hated those twins, she deserved this beating. Lola walked up to her and grabbed her by the neck. The twin lifted her up until her feet couldn’t touch the ground and she held her in place.

Kate watched as Colleen slowly walked up behind her twin. Her superior had her arms folded and she kept her gaze on Kate. She braced herself for whatever was about to come.

“I cannot believe I’m standing here looking at you,” Colleen seethed. “A bunch of low level Alpha trash put you in this state and you let Michael get away with the container.”

Kate knew that Colleen forgot to factor one element to their failure today.

Dan Orion.

“Ma’am, you don’t understand…” Kate muttered. It was difficult trying to speak while someone had an iron grip on your throat.

Lola only continued to tighten her already iron grip around Kate’s neck. Colleen tapped her twin on the shoulder and Lola dropped her to the ground. Kate couldn’t stand up as she hacked and coughed, trying to catch her breath. It didn’t help that her shoulder was still injured and she couldn’t move one of her arms.

Kate noticed something in her peripheral vision. An archaic-looking aircraft in the shape of a mechanical raven covered in spikes approached the roof of the building and hovered above the landing pad. Both twins took their eyes off of Kate and stared at the sky above. The thrust from the aircraft blew extreme winds in their direction and Kate’s hair which covered her face blew wildly in the opposite direction.

A hatch from the back of the aircraft opened and a dozen individuals jumped off and landed at various points on the landing pad.

“Fucking show offs,” Lola sneered.

“That’s rich coming from you,” Colleen remarked.

Kate recognized the spikes on the shoulders and arms of many of these individuals. They were all Kodak agents. The one closest to them hopped off the elevated landing platform first and landed on the ground in front of them. The agent was a female brunette with the same skin and eye color as most Kodak agents possessed. What made her stand out was her confident stride toward the Odyssey twins.

“So they sent this chick…” Colleen whispered.

As the agent walked closer, Kate saw the agent was noticeably taller than both twins, standing roughly the same height as Jane Sunheiser. Something about her serious gaze reminded Kate of her former squad leader.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Lola said.

“We’re the backup that Overlord sent,” the female agent said. Her tone of voice was level without a hint of urgency. “Judith Blight, at your service.”

Kate saw the other eleven Kodak agent stood ominously standing on the landing pad. All of them seemed content with allowing Judith to do the talking.

“You do realize that you’re late, right?” Colleen pointed out. “Michael Cynosa and his team raided the hotel and got away with the container. Our forces shot down their ride but still couldn’t get to the serums. We got humiliated because our additional backup didn’t arrive. You better have prayed to whatever deity you worship, because I’m not in the mood to hear any excuses from higher up.”

“I can guarantee you won’t touch me if it comes to that,” Judith said, her tone remaining unchanged. “As for an explanation, my team and I just got done repelling an invasion by a small cell of Church agents who have somehow formed a secret cult in my sector and one of my patrols found them on accident. It was a major hornet’s nest dealing with those fanatics. The weather didn’t help since our bird was getting its paint stripped off by razor hail.”

Colleen and Lola continued staring at Judith, both obviously finding her explanation unsatisfactory.

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“And?” Colleen said.

“The Overlord has his hands full since the Church decided to launch multiple surprise invasions of the inner regions. How they managed to sneak in that many of those fanatics through our border is still under investigation. Some of our best agents which would normally be handed to you at your request were instead garrisoned to defending the inner regions.”

Colleen stared at her during the explanation. Her pissed off expression seemed to soften up, if only a little.

“I can’t believe this shit,” Colleen said. “Is it that bad that Overlord could only spare me a dozen agents?”

“These dozen agents were hand picked by me,” Judith said. “I can guarantee they won’t disappoint you, or at least not nearly as much as this one over here.” She pointed right at Kate.

Colleen diverted her attention away from Judith and walked up to Kate and crouched down. She held the hilt of her infamous viper fang sword right to her chest. Just a single command and she could instantly impale her with that blade. “You have one chance to explain yourself.”

Kate continued coughing and gasping for air. She didn’t care that her mouth was letting in just as much rain water as it was air.

“You didn’t even face Michael Cynosa yourself. You had Adam and a bunch of other agent by your side to kill three tier ones. How did you fail?” Colleen asked. She kept her speech slow and deliberate as if Kate was a child.

Kate wasn’t surprised at this. She didn’t know how much older Colleen was compared to her, but she knew she held much more power both in combat abilities and rank. She knew she had to answer carefully.

“One of those tier ones,” Kate said, still gasping for air. “Somehow, he has powers that set him apart from the other two.”

Colleen and Lola exchanged glances with each other. “Powers? And somehow this was enough to overturn you and your team?”

“His name is Dan Orion. He has an ability that’s too similar to that berserk power you two have in your arsenal,” she said.

“Excuse me?” Lola said.

“There’s no mistaking it,” Kate said. “The bleeding from the eyes, the red energy coming from his body and his increase in strength. Somehow, he has it.”

Lola looked down at her and simply narrowed her eyes. They had a tough time believing it. Colleen looked up at her twin then looked back at Kate. “Actually, I don’t think she’s lying. Some of the dead corpses we found in the VIP rooms below had dead agents with strange wounds. A few of them looked like they had holes punched into them.”

“And we’re sure those weren’t from someone like Michael? There’s no way a first tier Alpha agent would have that kind of strength,” Lola said.

“No,” Colleen said. “You said you were chasing him up the hotel when I sent you away. Even he’s not fast enough to keep ahead of you and kill that many agents along the way.”

The two twins hadn’t killed her yet, and Kate was relieved. Both of them turned their attention back on her and Kate swallowed. Out of all the previous missions and precarious situation she got herself into, having these twins stare her down made her shake the most.

“What about Adam? How did he get so injured?” Colleen asked.

“No kidding,” Lola shrugged. “That guy’s armor was seriously charred. I have a tough time believing those Alpha trash could smuggle in a flamethrower.”

Kate breathed heavily before answering. “Dan has another deadly ability. He can make his enemies combust into flames. There’s a red glint in his eyes before it happens. That’s how he managed to wound Adam so much and keep him at bay.”

Both the twins remained silent. Kate only had the rainfall and the rolling thunder to listen to as the twins took in this info.

“Interesting,” Judith muttered.

“I’ve fought enough agents from the Church shard to know of such an ability,” Colleen said, caressing her chin. “It’s called the glare. At its full potential, an agent could literally disintegrate a target in seconds. It’s a offensive magic attack powered by anger and hate. At its weaker potencies, it will cause a target to burst into flames, which is still deadly.”

“That’s fucking suspicious,” Lola said.

Colleen put her hands on her knees and slowly stood back up. She grabbed Kate by the neck with one arm and lifted her back on her feet.

“You’ve given me a strange description of this Dan Orion. So he’s a first tier working for the Alpha Corp who has two strange powers. And each of these powers are similar to the unique abilities only ours and the Church shard have.” Colleen gave a sideways glance at her twin. “Lola, does that sound familiar to you?”

Lola put her finger over her lip, then gave a response. “The batch of Arctic serums we just had. You told me that it’s a serum that combines the strengths of the big three shards. Are you saying that this low level trash has that serum flowing within him?”

“Indeed, no other possibility” Colleen said. Kate saw the hard lines in her boss’s face and the gritted teeth. Her stare looked like it could cause bodily harm. She then got up in Kate’s personal space, so close that the two were almost nose to nose.

“If Dan has this special serum flowing within him, that means that even a lowly tier one could potentially give our forces a tough time with his access to all of these powers unique only to their respective shard. Now do you understand the gravity of your failures? We had samples of the Arctic serum in our possession that would have opened up more opportunities for us. But you let Michael’s team slip from your grasp.”

Kate stared into Colleen’s bloodshot eyes. She could never properly look any Kodak agent in the eyes except her boyfriend Adam. Everyone had red or black sclera with bloodshot irises which made every Kodak agent look like demonized parodies of their former selves.

“I should kill you right now for such incompetence,” Colleen seethed.

A hand grabbed Colleen by the arm and she jerked her head in the direction of whoever dared grab her. Unsurprisingly, it was Judith. “No Colleen, I’ll need her alive for what I’m planning on next.”

The two stared at each other for what felt like minutes. Kate wondered who this Judith really was and how much power she held within Kodak to have an intense stare down with Colleen Odyssey.

“This Dan Orion she speaks of,” Judith continued. “He could be a problem that needs to be dealt with. But there’s also an opportunity for us. We can also kill two birds with one stone, so to say. But if you kill off our subordinates, we won’t have much of a team to work with.”

Colleen continued staring at Judith until she slowly and creepily turned her head back to face Kate.

“One more fuck up, and I will have you executed out in public on the street. Get your wounds patched up,” Colleen said. She simply walked with her twin following close behind her. Neither of them bothered to look back. “And Judith, you and your team need to come along. We have more to discuss.”

Without any reply, Judith looked back at the agents on the landing platform and gestured them all to follow her. Kate watched as all of the agents walked back inside the hotel without even looking back at her.

Kate held her wounded shoulder and the arm was still limp. She stared up into the dark void that was the blackened sky that rained down intense showers and hail.

“I fucking hate this shit,” Kate whispered.