"So, Nitarja will seduce the right security guard and steal his ID, after her success you will dress like the guy and sneak in. Then seamlessly finding the target, you will poison him and vanish into the thin air totally unnoticed, even before they are able to say, what the fuck is the guy thinking?" Frei stared at Crow seriously while they were sitting behind a table on the black sofa.

"What the fuck are you thinking? This will not work in a thousand years!" Frei threw his hands into the air. "Are you really not just some ice cream peddler?"

"And how are we supposed to do it, if you are so smart?" Crow folded his hands on his chest with his pride a little bit hurt after Frei's reaction.

"Certainly not like this, thousand things may go awry." Frei was not at all impressed with Crow's talent in planning operations.

"Yeah, what if the guy is a gay? How am I supposed to seduce him and steal his ID?" Nitarja obviously thought of something even Frei had not. "What if he does not have his ID with him and what if there is a password, or a biometric identification? Also, most security guards there walk in pairs, what about the other guy? Should I have a threesome just like that or . . ." The two men began to stare at Nitarja more and more up to the point where they both nodded their heads.

"Nitarja, how about you plan the operation?" Crow asked trying to shamelessly shrug off his responsibility.

"Ugh, you guys. .. " Nitarja was surprised by her new sudden role and laid back against the soft leather of the sofa.

"No, seriously, how would you complete the mission?" Crow insisted with his eyes hanging on her lips.

"I . . , firstly, I do not think the risk is worth the return. Do we really need to kill them? What if we kidnap their children and blackmail them in a standard hostage situation?" Nitarja proposed coldly and Frei felt his spine tingle. "Do they have children?"

"Eh, I think yes." Crow said with uncertainty.

"How many? How old? Names? What school do they attend?" Nitarja began to ask questions and Crow fidgeted uneasily under her unrelenting fire.

"I, wait, I do not have enough information!" He shrugged his shoulders in a gesture of helplessness.

"I guess that will be our first task." Frei stood up from the sofa, as they clearly did not know enough about their targets.

  A few hours later, they were waiting near a laboratory where one of their targets was working. Frei looked again at Crow who wore a white cap and his gaze slowly crawled down to a bucket full of cold, blue substance. He had to admit that his disguise was flawless, but Nitarja next to him did not improve the overall impression. Working hard to suppress his laughter, Frei fought with a device that should serve as a terminal for paying for the ice cream, but was unable to make it function.

"It is funny that you really are a peddler selling ice cream in the end." He said while battling the incomprehensible symbols on the foreign piece of technology.

"Yes, it is very funny, but someone is unable to do even that." Crow glared back at Frei who nearly dropped the device.

"My god, give me that before someone can recognize that you have not sold anything in your life, I hope you can count." He snatched the bluish black box from Frei and began to tap on its side.

"I can, just give me a bit more time to fiddle with it, We are too far for them to notice anyway." Frei handed over the device and shot a glance in the direction of the entrance to a large facility that had number of tough looking security guards in front of it.

"I had no luck in experiencing banana being out, It may take a few days." Crow said gloomily after a while, tossing a pile of ice cream back and forth in the bucket, but stopped when some people neared their stall.

"What a sad life, I can help you out with your banana." Nitarja turned at Crow, her breasts almost completely exposed, as she was dressed in an outfit totally unsuitable for someone selling ice cream.

"We can just hope that we can get our hands on the little bananas without incident. It would be a nice addition to out ice cream." Frei continued and Nitarja shifted her eyes at him, her stare full of surprise.

"Phaha, I had my hands on little ones a plenty, but the ice cream from them is usually average." Nitarja giggled and both Crow and Frei looked at her, shaking their heads. Frei crept a little closer to Nitarja and whispered in her direction.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Nitarja, have you forgotten? Banana is the target and little bananas are his kids!" Frei hinted, but she did not appear to be surprised at all.

"It does not change much about the meaning of the statements, yes?" She whispered back and Fre just inched away from her with a groan. Crow insisted on using code language when talking about the targets, but Frei had a feeling that it made them look even more suspicious.

  The street was busy and they even happened to sell some ice cream, yet, the people leaving the facility where the Antares project took place were obviously just office workers or security staff, there seemed to be no researchers at all. As time dragged on, they had to pack their stall to come back another day.

However, their patience did not pay off, as even after a few days, the target was still holed up inside with no opportunities in sight.

"As it goes, there will be no banana ice cream. Have you not made a mistake?" Frei grumpily complained, fed up with all the waiting, but before Crow could answer with one of his venomous remarks, they saw that two of the security guards in front of the facility began heading in their direction.

"I have it, but be ready to run if they are gay." Nitarja whispered and the two Mages were near them before Frei or Crow could have expressed their displeasure with her plans.

"Hi there, we'd like to have ice cream. Even for our colleagues over there." One of them, the one with short black hair requested, while pointing back in the direction of the research facility.

"Hi, of course we would be thrilled to provide our services to though guys like you!" Nitarja moved closer to one of them and Frei thought about how to stealthily kick her to interrupt her silly behaviour. They had scrapped that plan a few days ago!

"Yes,yes your services will be required." The man smiled, but it was the fake smile of a viper and that was the last thing Frei saw or heard as a second later, there was only darkness.

* * * * * *

  His head throbbing, Frei opened his eyes slowly, his senses beginning to function again, he saw a gray wall and noticed that he was looking at it through thick glass. He tried to move his hands, but he was tied to a pair of steel beams that ran vertically behind his back.

"Welcome, welcome, we were just running out of experimental subjects." A voice said, making Fre instinctively turn his head in its direction. It was uncomfortable, because the man stood too far to his right. When he turned his head, he realized that Crow was tied in the same manner as he was and when he looked at the other side to his far left, there was Nitarja.

  All three of them were fixed to vertical steel beams and trapped in a large glass containment with numerous unfamiliar devices outside of it. He immediately tried to use his powers to get out, but it did not work.

"Nitarja, Crow, wake up! We have to get out of here!" Frei shouted in vain, his comrades limply hanging in their bindings. They needed to free themselves quickly, as the crazy people in the facility had certainly nothing good in store for them.

"Of course you have been heavily sedated, as we can't have you run wild in here." The man spoke again and Frei only now recognized that he was one of the researchers they had been looking for. He was an aged man with grey hair and beard, but there was excitement in his eyes like he was just a little kid.

"How better use the small fry sniffing around than to make you participate in the very project you are so interested in!" He exclaimed and laughed for a second like a villain making a speech before executing the hero that had been hunting him all the time.

"Before the data are ready, I can entertain you with what this particular experiment will be about." The researcher began gloating with a superficial smile on his face.

"You have surely sniffed out that we conduct experiments about space, dimensions and the very essence of universes. This particular experiment is my new ambitious branch project. In general, the purpose is to find out ways to merge two universes together in a major way, so that the weaker one could be infiltrated quickly and drawn-out struggles were avoided." He began circling around the cylindrical glass container apparently enjoying the fact that Frei had to turn his head around like a marionette to follow him with his eyes.

"But what if we had the ability to create a brand new universe and then annex it to our own?! What a marvel that would be!" The man began to be exited with his own words, his gray facial hair twitching.

"We started with souls, but found out that just souls injected into inter-dimensional space ain't gonna cut it. Information has to be provided as well! So, we are gonna inject data as the conceptual structure with some pieces of matter and souls this time." He stopped to check on several screens hanging on the grey walls of the chamber.

"Well, that last two parts is you of course. Do not be afraid, you will not get lost. Galacron was kind to provide us with their soul-tracking technology to enable us to find you if the experiment really succeeds and a universe will come into existence. Be honored to be a part of this project, it will be a major way to grow the Arcane Universe above all others if we succeed!. But enough talk, the data had been fully loaded."

"Let's make history!" The man pressed several buttons on the wall and the lights in the room darkened. The next second a steel door opened and he left the area, as he was apparently willing to sacrifice only others for his dreams in case something went wrong.

Frei strained his muscles to get out of the bindings, but it was futile.

It was the worst situation ever.

[Ehm, quite interesting. If what he said is true, we will be the first to act. Do not forget to reestablish our communication channel if you survive. If not, your brave sacrifice will not be forgotten. For a time.]

Frei heard Gabri'El's voice in his head right when he thought that the situation could not be any worse.

"Great, even if I am not to turn into a mindless inter-dimensional goo, two universes will be warring over the something that will emerge out of this experiment." He ceased his struggle and watched the gray wall in front of him that began to wobble and soon ripples began to flow on its surface, like it was a water surface instead of a solid metal wall. The ripples began to spread in all directions and soon, even his own hands began to bend like in a third rate horror movie. He caught a glimpse of himself in the glass in front of him and immediately shut his eyes.

This was not happening!