Bright Lights
Fox saw a small yet incredibly heavy-looking vehicle move towards them. It was a very small submarine. Strangely enough, it had an apathetic skull face painted on its front as a couple of smallish, thin arm-pincers moved around its front. They grappled towards the truck, somehow grabbing it without breaking anything before turning around. The arms didn't move as the submarine slowly turned, the mechanism they were attached to the submarine with slid around it, barely moving the truck in the meantime.
Once the submarine turned around completely, slightly facing upwards, it began moving forth. It had a small jet on its back that seemed small but was actually 90% of the submarine’s diameter. It was smooth and didn’t seem to make much noise, though.
Somehow, Fox had the inkling that this submarine couldn’t just move around, turn, and even face upwards or downwards, but might even fully rotate in the water.
Fox looked at Nala Loba, who gave him a slight, smug, thin smile before ignoring him, resuming her cold, aloof, indifferent face. For the following minutes, with the water down their collarbones to the soles of their feet, the team waited until they neared a rather massive object.
The small submarine was about 1.5 times larger than the truck, but this massive other submarine was at least a few tens of times larger than the small submarine. Furthermore, they were still in the lake between ANS and Lýmoca. How were news of something like this never known before?
Before entering the massive submarine, which the small one led them to, Nala Loba grabbed his attention and spoke after he looked at her, “You need to wear this when we go in.”
Fox looked at a black bag made of cloth, similar to the top-notch strap used to hang weapons and cases around one’s body. He lifted his left eyebrow and asked, a bit doubtful, “Why?”
“Oh… because I say so.” Nala Loba smiled after touring her eyes around their sockets, searching for a reason before casually playing around, throwing him the bag. Fox looked at the Captain, a little bamboozled because of her, before pressing his lips together. The boss said it, since it was so, he wore it.
Fox asked as he had the somewhat dizzying, strange notion of the truck moving and getting closer to a surface. “You know my smell, the noise, and my footsteps can read the surroundings, right? I was trained in PSD, after all, after Riverlye.”
“Hmm…”
Fox only heard a small hum before silence engulfed the truck, except for the gurgling water. And mechanisms working on and grabbing onto the truck from the sides. Rather large contraptions to either hold it in the air or just to be put.
“Aren’t we-” Fox felt the passage of time extend a bit too much without moving and nobody saying a thing. He lifted his right hand to the door’s handle, but a hand grabbed his wrist, stopping it from exerting force and pulling the handle, with Nala Loba’s voice echoing rather close to his head.
“No movement. This ‘thing’ operates secretly, don’t you think there’s a reason it can’t be detected yet? We wait until we’ve arrived at a dock before anything.”
Her voice was really close, and if there were lights, which weren’t, even though they were inside the massive submarine now, Fox would’ve been able to distinguish it through the tiniest gaps hidden to the naked eye.
“Say you understood,” her voice sounded again, so close that her breath landed on the bag, further pushed to the left of his chin. She was serious and not playing around, cold and indifferent, but the sensation she gave Fox was an itch but not an itch on his left jugular, turning him slightly crazy.
“I understood,” Fox said without moving his body, with a tranquil tone. He could swear he felt her move her head, nodding, accompanied by some water movement, before her presence disappeared from such a nearby distance.
He didn’t hear the water move as she retreated, but he felt she was already properly sitting back on her seat. Fox released a heavy sigh in his mind before relaxing, meditating on his breath.
… About an hour later, Fox felt the truck re-enter the water as the contraptions let go of it. The sensation was similar to when the truck drove into the water before, but much more instantaneous.
The bag on his head was taken off by Nala Loba, who didn’t give him more glances and just stared ahead. Fox’s narrowed eyes immediately became used to the morning light of the first hours as the submarine brought the truck onwards.
When nearing a berth, the submarine stopped the truck and went under it, propelling it with its arms into the allotted site, even extending them further without losing maneuverability nor power.
At last, the truck park-docked into the site, with a machine lowering a limb to securely grab it and move it unto a flat surface. Fox felt the fall of the truck’s wheels on the ground like a sudden headache being relieved. He took a breath to tranquilize before the truck’s doors opened on their own and the metallic plates on the windows slid back down with ease.
Fox came out of the truck, feeling the morning’s coldness rush at them. Being far from an official city, with this place looking but like a town with a simple shipyard for fishing, and the few quays here and there, which seemed to be made for the wealthy.
At once, Fox felt instantly relaxed. His lungs breathed without obstruction, his skin palpitated, and his nose flared smoothly as his stomach inflated and deflated in comfort.
‘Ah.’ Fox opened his eyes in alarm when he remembered something. Looking down at his clothes, he checked the red panting to see if it was still there. Fox felt at ease when he saw the patterns were still there, although he couldn’t confirm for his face and neck.
“Now you care?”
Hearing Nala Loba’s timely remark from the side, he looked towards her, not having something to explain himself with, or just say. On the other hand, she smirked from the left corner of her mouth, hooking her lips a little downwards before staring ahead, ignoring him.
Fox stared in the same direction after a few, no, several seconds. He didn’t know if his staring was too obvious, he just liked looking at her, it felt as nice as breathing, just like now. ‘Well, that was enjoyable.’
Indeed, it was. The cold morning and the water falling from his body, keeping it wet as the breeze hit his skin and clothes. Fox even took his gloves off, just wanting to feel the air and the extra sharp of coldness from the wind against his wet hands. So relaxing…
“Your WID is ‘ringing’.” Nala Loba voiced. Fox sobered from the reverie and took his personal window out of the left side of his belly. Looking down at it, Fox frowned before relaxing his eyebrows. He spoke in a simple manner, “It’s the District, I have a new mission to prepare in 2 days. Babysitting a celebrity.”
“Huh? Is she that famous and pretty?” Nala Loba asked with a thin frown of her brows. Fox cocked his head to the right. That’s right, only certain people would not just hire them, but know about the Piya Sanctum District. Fox looked at some information, not showing it on the hologram towards her, and despite its quality, he nodded, puckering his lower lip, “She is, pu.”
Nala Loba’s indifferent cold eyes, slightly narrowed, relaxed when he yet again made a sound from his lips. She didn’t know why, but she just looked at them. Fox looked at her, to which Nala Loba seemed to wake up. Returning her face to ignore him and stare ahead with smoothness, she commented, “Well, that’s your task. It’s possible to gain lots of money depending on what happens during those missions, congratulations.”
“…” Fox wasn’t dumb. He was either warned or treated like a manwhore just now. He shook his head a little, wondering what the pay would be like here instead, and continued enjoying the coldness. Then, a military officer, well over his 90s at least, walked to them.
The team congregated at the side behind her, but they didn’t move towards Fox, while Nala Loba walked to the military officer. Before greeting her, the military officer looked at Fox, startled a bit, but barely showing it. Then, he nodded to Nala Loba, who just put her left hand on her hip.
“With this much extra, how much will our extra be?” She asked. The military officer nodded again, saying with a neutral-stern expression, “It’s a lot. We already identified some of the gold, it should belong to some K Tribes nations.”
“Uhuh, exactly what the silver wanted. So, how much extra?” Nala Loba dismissively nodded, not caring about the morality of the situation, and asking for the total money. The military officer blinked, opened his mouth to breathe in, and moved his chin a bit, clearly uncomfortable.
Under Nala Loba’s waiting attitude, he could only say, giving in, “I think 1 mil per head is admissible. But that little rat can’t get-”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“6 mil extra to 6 heads, got it. Got it?” Nala Loba looked at the military officer still. She was slightly shorter, but he was still shorter than Fox. The military officer looked to the side before nodding with narrowed, heavy eyes.
Her firm stance and solid attitude reigned victorious before Nala Loba looked at him and nodded towards him upwards. Fox returned the gesture with a little nod before walking to them.
Nala Loba turned to him, while the team looked at him from behind her. She raised her voice, speaking as always, indifferent, cold, and aloof. “Fox, your performance was satisfactory. There’s not much to say. Keep your WID in check, we might invite you again. Maybe for less energetic ‘situations’, but for a good pay, if you’re willing to risk national conflict, that is.”
Fox looked at her, then at the team, and then at Nala Loba again before speaking without thinking, shaking his head, all so smoothly. “Oh, I’m more than sure.”
“Hmph~,” Nala Loba lifted her chin and harrumphed through her nostrils from her throat. She seemed in a good mood, if even just a tiny bit.
Now, it was time to leave, to return to Proteros and keep living their daily life.
***
Proteros, late morning, just a few minutes before the daily meeting with his cabinet, even in the weekends.
Luis was alone at his office, finishing some important documents he started going through since the early morning. He didn’t know why, or at least liked to think so, but he couldn’t be at ease lately. Only by starting the day by ‘overworking’ since the early morning until the daily meeting put him at rest.
On this moment, from a pile of ‘pages’ a secretary brought just a quarter of an hour ago, Luis grabbed one of the new pieces of information before jolting with a startle. He lowered the sheet and read it over and over again, jolting his neck backwards before shaking his head.
***
Fox arrived at Proteros just at the first hour of the noon. He was brought to Proteros’s airport with a private jet, also bringing the Captain’s team with her. They didn’t speak with Fox anymore, although they chatted among each other. It was clear a level of camaraderie had developed between them since who knew when.
After silently bidding farewell, he directly went to his boutique, thanking Fabiola for taking a spare hour from her academy to open it early on. The youngsters were there, working and attending more clientele than usual. Fox greeted them silently before hiding in one of his caves in the back.
At last, Fox returned to his lavish, costly suite.
Although he didn’t need one, not utmost necessarily, Fox took a shower. It was a bit lukewarm leaning towards the cold side at first, before adjusting it to slightly warm. It felt fantastic, perfect.
Fox had a nice time showering, cleaning his skin even more times than he counted. Using more water than expected wouldn’t cost him more in this already hefty price of 10k a night. Fox exited the showed feeling great. He dried his body before wrapping a towel around his waist, leaving another like a cape on his shoulders to feel more comfortable and cozy.
Heading to the sofa, Fox scratched behind his ears and some spots near his nape. He was just 2 meters from the living room, a couple of steps below the rest of the floor, when he felt something. From the upper corners at the back of his head, Fox felt as if something was pulling the inside, from beneath his skull, of his brain, to the outside, spreading and stretching it.
His feet suddenly didn’t work well. Fox’s left foot, which was just stepping forth, stopped and dashed to the right, tripping his right foot. His body slumped to the floor, falling on his left side, head knocking against it before his unfocused eyes regained clarity.
However, as the pain was just leaving, trailing off with a sense of cold sweat and freshness behind, his chest sunk heavily before he started coughing. Fox didn’t even feel his mouth opening, nor after, when he started barking harshly.
Very few, but obvious, bits of blood were expelled from his mouth, coating some of his insides.
“KAF- cough, cough,cough- cough cough cough cough cough COU- CO- KAF KAF KAFF…!!”
Fox’s head returned to feeling that pain, but now extended across his forehead, further down his neck and vertebral column. Every cough thundered the pain again, with subsequent coughs worsening it time after time. Fox’s eyes became bloody and sick, and the veins of his forehead bulged in no time, leaving his body and throat helpless to torment.
An unknown amount of time later, Fox laid on the floor near the living room in a semi fetal position with his body bare. After realizing he wasn’t coughing anymore, as he spent the last few periods of time not even feeling his body anymore, everything having grown numb, Fox struggled to stand back up again.
His hunched back heavily and slowly, so slowly, moved to stand up. He grabbed a towel still in his grasp, bringing it with him, and dragging his heavy feet to slump backwards on a sofa. Fox stared at the ceiling. His eyes were bloody still, but not as terribly as before.
His throat quaked, emitting a few coughs, somewhat impossible to stop, but similarly nothing like before. Staring up, Fox felt how his body regenerated despite the damage and who knew what else happened to his body. His polycoria eyes warped a little, as if his impenetrable black pools were balloons, pinched by someone’s fingertips out of playfulness.
His heart hurt, too. Fox lifted his left hand, making a weak, widespread grasp with his fingers above his heart. He let go of it, feeling not just a bit tired, but like he never ever wanted to move again, even live.
‘What… is happening to me?’ Fox kept his eyes narrowed, resting, almost lifeless, staring into the ceiling. The results of his health were there, existent. But was it meant like this? To live up to 50, at best, like this?
. . .
Within the simple course of time, Fox continued his life, and 2 days went by.
Now, Fox had made a contract with PSD to sell his basic and good quality bions. He would get all the money from them, except those whose complexity was far much more difficult than even the acclaimed complex bions. Not only because they were a headache to build, even for decades-old experienced crafters, but because their materials were also very rare.
Most often than not, the more a special agent advanced in their use of tools, besides firearms, the greater the quality of the manufacturing and material becomes. The processes become complex and more complex. Adding the rarity of materials, or their cost, it made an already complicated situation into a heavily pressured matter.
Fox could make these, but only after scheduling for their creation. It wasn’t something complicated, and it took about the same time he needed to build as many bions as he could with the 3 months package in a day. But while these helped make a lot of money, the speed rate at which he could make other bions surpassed that of other crafters, ending up a little worse off.
Either way, that would now gain him a bit of reputation each time. Little by little, he would be known to craft those babies, and should any Blood, team, or the District itself want to mass-order any of these, he would be in the list.
That was at least one of his plans to get rich, and so on. He still had just a bit below 3 months worth of ‘free’ bions components, parts, and the like, adding the firearms parts to build some himself, and ammunition.
The boutique flourished a bit more, putting a pleasant, proud expression on Fabiola’s face, and a good notion in Fox’s heart. He was present in the boutique for the following days without error.
His condition flared up, that was the best outcome Fox could come out with, and the state in which it could be described. But in the next 2 days, like before, Fox was as usual and didn’t show any signs of sickness. If anything, his light brown skin seemed a little pale with the ‘right’ angle and light, which he noticed when standing in front of a mirror.
Fox closed the boutique with Fabiola, who brought him a large cup of tea. It was still warm and smelled good. He turned around and faced the ‘nightness’ of the city before telling Fabiola, “Tomorrow, I will be unavailable for the whole day starting from the mid-morning.”
“Oh, another one of- err, you know what I mean?” Fabiola slurped her coffee with a straw, the psycho, before correcting herself midway through her words. Fox looked down at her, noticing her ‘understanding’ progress before nodding.
Since it wasn’t going to be a secret from tomorrow onwards, Fox nodded and grabbed his phone from the space between his right hip and pants, “I’ll be in charge of a ‘baby celebrity’ for 2 weeks or so. I get handsomely paid each day.”
“Oooh! Who is it?” Fabiola’s eyes sparkled. Fox remembered a few things of his new client and smirked. Seeing him not answer to her justified demands, Fabiola pouted a bit and furrowed her slender eyebrows, “Oiii! Gasp! Wait… could it be-”
“You’ll know tomorrow anyways,” Fox palmed her nose carefully, smirking a bit as he let the lass guess or not who it might be. Fabiola jumped on the spot, following him for a bit as he walked to the stop bus, “Oh, come on, come on~! I think I know who it is. Hey! Can you get me an autograph? Pleeeeeaaase? Help me meet her, too. Can’t you? After all we’ve been through?”
Fabiola was no brand-new girl in this world. She started using puppy eyes and an adorable, not high-pitched voice to implore. But Fox was no newbie dealing with this side of his. He clouded his processing of the exterior world and continued walking, shaking his head in a firm stance.
… After seeing Fabiola off in a bus, with a police element throwing him a begrudging glare, Fox went to the Plastics Recycler Factory. He was paid 1.2 million credits for the ‘heist’ back then. After debating for long and heatedly with his inner self, he decided to use 800,000 to begin repairing his baby.
When he walked into the HQ, he found a cute young woman with her face covered with stitches. However, they made her look a bit more attractive, gaining a teasing smile from Fox.
With that smile, Mena seemed to notice him. She looked towards him before lowering her face. She didn’t wait for Fox to come and lower her older sister status, saying, “For your information, you will be thankful for me in the future. So, if you plan to say something or do something right now, I’ll just let you know who you messin’ with, boy.”
“Aish, I was just going to say you look pretty, pretty sister.” Fox walked to the counter, stood before her, and smiled a bit. Mena made a disgusted, exaggerated face and countered, “Ajá, and Loba is a demon with ugly horns, ugly tail, and smells bad, doesn’t she?”
“Eh…” Fox was baffled. Mena smiled victoriously, just what she wanted… needed. “Even if it wasn’t those 3 yappers, then the few soldiers and the officer who wouldn’t stop complaining about you would have been enough to let a few in the District know, hehehehehe…”
Mena had her long, arduous, to Fox only, and contented giggling for almost half a minute. After she was done, still laughing and holding giggles back, which Fox could only allow for she was the ‘bigger sister’, she made an attempt to stop.
“So, what did you come here for? Other than make money with your bions?”
…
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Let It Rain's note: Fox never stopped making 'pu' sounds. Just a reminder; note reminder.