Felix stood proudly on his feet and let out an excited smile, “It worked…” The blue glow around his body had dissipated.

The visor had split in two, and the other fell, revealing the assassin’s green eye. With a pained and shocked expression, he looked up and asked, “What… the hell… was that…?”

“You were good, but I expected better from a Cinderash.” He answered as he shot him with his gun. Three translucent, concentric rings went through the assassin, incapacitating him.

He then looked ahead, and went to look for his partner, where he found her huddled on the cold concrete.

As he raced to her side, he lifted her up, “Marie… are you alright?”

“Do I look alright?”

“Good point, I’ll call—” As he was about to press into his earpiece, she clutched his arm, “What are you doing? Get Lewis!”

“But—”

“Go!”

“Right.” Barely able to stand, the injuries he sustained from the explosion reared its head, but Felix pushed himself back up. He planted his feet so he wouldn’t fall over.

A thin layer of blue light formed around his legs.

He took one step forward, and burst straight ahead — leaving behind blue sparks.

But the light around his body burst, scattering blue particles into the air like a firework while his body was shot uncontrollably forward before bouncing across the ground and crashing into the steel wall.

Maria could not help but chuckle in between each pained groan.

“Idiot.” She laughed under her breath.

Lewis turned his head after hearing the metal bang behind him.

The harbor hummed with the rhythmic waves on the shoreline. Each one echoing in unison with every grunt he took to get back on his feet.

“Come on, I need you to work one more time...” His body started glowing once again, dimming and rising with each uneven breath.

Lewis took a few steps back to peek, and saw his pursuer was too close for comfort and was glowing.

“That useless bodyguard failed! What kind of parents raised such useless a piece of shit! Waste of my fucking money!” He grumbled silently, before shutting himself up as the agent glancing in his general direction.

He placed his hand over his mouth and held the briefcase close to his chest.

With anger fueling him, Felix got back up and took a deep inhale. His blood started to boil, the azure particles coursing through his veins started to shine brighter, creating a blue outline of him.

As his whole body radiated, a thin, spherical blue fire crackled around his body. He shot forward once again, leaving behind an exact blue afterimage of himself.

He made it to the corner in the blink of an eye, and saw Lewis Shaw from the edge of his peripheral vision.

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The criminal appeared to run incredibly slowly from his perspective. He felt the wind brushing against his skin, and heard the whistle in his ear. He saw the cracks of dried paint and the bits of rust on the metal cargo. His senses were in overdrive.

Despite this, he was still unable to control his body. He could not stop. As soon as his foot landed on the ground, the rest of his body shot forward.

With another loud crash, and the light surrounding him exploded into countless particles.

The criminal instinctively looked back and saw the blue-eyed agent make a beeline straight into another shipping container, shot forward by his own strange power.

Stunned and stuck on the shipping container’s metal dent, Felix’s mouth was left agape.

The only thing that moved him was the gentle shore breeze that swayed his hair ever so slightly, and the blood pouring down from his nose, splattering on the ground.

Seeing his pursuer slam himself deep into the metal walls, Lewis could not help but let out a laugh.

“—Lewis…”

It was weak, but as soon as he heard the hoarse voice call out his name, the criminal tensed up. Still in danger, he promptly withdrew.

“... Shaw.” The agent dragged himself out of the crater and fell flat on his back. In his disoriented state, he stared at the sky, watching the pastel clouds move.

As the clouds shifted, they revealed the crescent light hiding behind it.

Seeing the moon, Felix pulled out the four-leaf clover necklace from underneath his shirt, and his fingers let out a blue spark.

“I won’t… let you escape…” He breathed in and got back up on his feet, barely able stay on his feet. As he toppled over, he shifted his movement and went on all fours like a wild animal.

A blue electricity crackling around his body as he crouched, arching his back like a panther ready to pounce. But before he could, something metallic fell in front of him.

His gaze followed the object and saw a black metal rod clatter a few feet ahead of him.

“Oh…BOLLO—!!”

Before he could even finish shouting, the stun grenade exploded.

Blinding light and deafening sound overwhelmed him. A grin formed on the brown-haired man’s face, watching from between the steel crates. “Sorry about this, Felix, but enhanced human means enhanced senses, right? That must mean double the damage. Seeing you in action was… educational.”

Lewis quietly ran between alleys with weighted breaths as he constantly kept looking back.

With his back pressed against the red brick wall, he noticed that the back entrance to one of the old, rusty warehouses was wide open. He slowly walked inside, checking his surroundings. Old wooden crates and cardboard boxes stacked upon one another, covered in nets and decorated with dust.

The criminal walked closer into the middle of the room and let out a relieved sigh, only to hear the door shut behind him. He gulped and took out the gun in his suit.

“Lewis Shaw.” An unknown voice spoke his name, echoing throughout the entire warehouse.

“Who’s there?” Lewis aimed his gun towards the place he entered.

He cautiously walked backwards, but quickly turned as he heard the clanking sound of wood behind him. His breathing grew heavier, and a bead of sweat dripped down his face.

“Otherwise known as the Prison’s Houdini... or at least, that’s what you want to be called, right?”

“Where are you?” Lewis yelled in anger and anxiety.

“Two counts of human trafficking and several counts of drug smuggling.” Echoed from above him. The faint clatter of metal started to fill the silence.

“Show yourself!”

Lewis yelled in frustration and aimed at the ceiling. Only for a chain to dangle from above and around his hand.

“Huh— w-what the fuck?!” He dropped the briefcase on the concrete, and a tuft of dust scattered while he tried to get the chains off with his other hand.

There was a figure standing in the shadows, “Are you afraid? Your henchmen have been taken out one after the other, and now you’re alone.... It’s just you and me.”

“Who the fuck are you?!” Lewis yelled while he was struggling.

From the shadows walked out the man with auburn brown hair, with glowing red eyes piercing the darkness, “Call me Vermillion.”

Chains rattled as it suddenly shot Lewis into the air.

“Huh? HAUGH!!!” The criminal’s screams echoed from the warehouse.

Still recovering from the flashbang, Felix faintly heard Lewis’s scream, and limped towards the warehouse where he was hiding.

But when he made it inside, he found their target hanging from the roof and wrapped in chains. His lips were covered in duct tape as he mumbled about.

Felix upped his guard as he walked closer towards him, only to see that there was a note stuck to his body that said, “Vermillion – Frontier Industries.”

The chains creaked slowly as Lewis swung back and forth angrily, but unable to escape.

Felix’s blue eye radiated against the shadows as he looked around, but there was no one left besides them.

~