Is Gone
In front of the Head, in his study, Phesx stood with a straight back and his equipment on the desk. The Head stood beside the desk, looking at him, gesturing to the cloak and small piece of reddish crystal with his head before addressing him. “Your mission is to obtain an important item. It is in one of Sargonde's museums. It is located in a small room. Likewise, it might be impossible to grab it during the day efficiently, as it is surrounded with guards elsewhere. But these are outside the target’s room at night.”
“You won’t have much time to act, but you will have enough,” the Head passed Phesx a small note. He read it before giving it back. The Head walked around his desk to stand in front of Phesx, “Usually, you would gather information about this as your mission, not directly act. As you can tell, you’re no ordinary Neophyte, Fox.”
“This also means something else. You won’t be messing around there. You’ll prove yourself whatever happens, I’m sure. That’s all. Take your things and leave.” The Head sat and gave Phesx another glance before diverting his focus to his desk.
Phesx Caolia grabbed the cloak and the crystal. He first put the cloak on, it was an obscure gray with nothing special. Its appearance was mediocre, but it was durable. Only lethal actions, such as using knives, gunshots, or explosions, would damage it. It also isolates water.
Then, he picked the crystal with his index finger. He thought for a moment before poking it at his nose. His face was masked by a light crimson crystal color extended from the tip of his nose. It wasn’t metal, but a bion for theatrical purposes. It made a bit of sense and was comical.
Taking it off, as it was only necessary if he was to be seen through cameras, Phesx turned around and exited the Head’s study. He headed to the workshop, planning to get some things. His training had already been charged for 50,000 credits, the usual, it seems.
When he returned to the workshop, Waleks was also there, with Pheli bored watching something on her screen. He walked to Pheli as Waleks had a surprised face. Pheli lifted her eyebrows, simply voicing, “What do you need?”
Phesx tilted his head to the right. Pheli knowingly turned her screen around with a resting face before continuing fidgeting with what looked like a weapon’s part. Phesx checked the catalog. After checking, he selected 2 extra 35-bullets magazines for the small pistol.
“Are you sure? It’s your first mission.” Pheli said, but she had already walked towards the back of the workshop. Phesx quietly nodded. Pheli disappeared for a few seconds while he made the payment, losing another 24,000 credits. It flew away so fast…
With only 54,000 credits left, Phesx looked at Waleks, who curiously stared at him. He lowered his head in greeting, to which the weapons craftsman lifted his chin. Pheli returned, carrying 3 boxes. Back to the counter, she placed them beside each other and opened them.
“Your voids, and your magazines.” Said Pheli. The box in the middle was the largest, with an exoskeletal gauntlet contoured to fit a hand. It would cover the sides of ones’ fingers and in between the palm and backhand. The other second-largest box had a few sets of 2 or 3 blue spheres the size of a fingernail chained together. The smallest box had the 2 extra magazines.
Phesx Caolia nodded before taking the magazines to his back, and the blue spheres under his right and left sleeves. As for the gauntlet, he could only afford one, so he placed it on his right hand. While an Artista couldn’t just be left-handed or right-handed, the same with one’s feet, Phesx did best with his right side.
“It’s just nice.” Phesx Caolia said to Pheli. She slowly nodded before he turned around and left the workshop. A few moments later, Waleks drew her attention, shouting. “Psst! What was that? His first mission, and he gets a ton of ammo? What do you think it was for?”
“Something fitting? Tellez must be bored.” Pheli said with her left hand on her cheek. She returned the screen towards her and continued staring at it, bored. However, now, she seemed intrigued in something else.
… Phesx exited the headquarters. He remembered the destination the note’s details marked, hopped onto his bike, and rode off. He didn’t have his cloak on anymore, of course. Phesx rode towards a large parking lot, much like the ones he saw in Preut, albeit destroyed.
Stopping at the side before the parking lot, Phesx walked to a bustling bar situated underground, whose bathrooms had windows at the ground level…
Whoosh. Jumping from the window, Phesx wore his cloak on the move after calculating the time he saw at the bar. It was near 2:45 AM, which was what the time he needed to get to the museum. This zone was a bit of an entertainment renown zone in the city, center of Sargonde.
The museum has been showing a beautiful piece of history from the times the Lýlaco Empire was barely forming. It would constantly shift from being shown to the public a few hours a day to being locked and kept safe all night.
The museum wasn’t too large, not more than a college, and it was located a few streets from the bar Phesx stopped at. It was still open at night, but right now, it was past 2 AM, so only guards and employees remained inside. The ways to enter were many, all with their own risks. Thus, with his cloak on, Phesx decided for a challenging but possible and functional route.
Instead of climbing or using another roof to somehow get onto the well-protected museum with cameras watching every corner of the museum’s streets, even more with their precious daily exposition, he went through the front door.
It was a single door leading to some stairs. Hiding behind a few cars on the other side of the street, Phesx waited until he saw a guard return inside, with the sounds of another coming out.
He moved fast, making no sound, and moving behind the guard returning. He stepped fast and really low when both guards met at the entrance, as expected by their schedules, and made a passing sound with his cloak’s lower end. The exiting guard turned around, alerted, but he saw the other guard simply walk inside and figured it was him.
Continuing, the guard leisurely went on to patrol outside. On the other hand, the guard returning inside also heard Phesx, but he saw nothing when he turned his head. Yet, as he frowned and faced the stairs again, a pair of arms moved to his face. Phesx strangled the guard’s neck and dragged him up the stairs with smooth, quick steps as they faced the ceiling.
Just as he was coming up, with the floor in his right arm, choking with a red face, another guard turned around the corner to his left. Phesx Caolia turned around and gently motioned to push the guard’s left shin, making him tumble, before grasping his neck to also choke him.
With both guards helpless in his hands, Phesx lowered his body until his shins were up against the back of his thighs. He still moved faster than these guards’ walking. He looked for a corner to hide them as he weakened his hold on them, feeling them lose consciousness.
After leaving them inside a dark room, Phesx Caolia put his mask on and walked through the corridors. His legs looked slow, moving only a bit, but his speed was quick. The museum was well-lighted at night, with the guards not needing a flashlight to see.
As Phesx walked through 4-way hallways with open spaces showing downstairs, he almost looked like he was crawling, running on 4 legs like an animal. He crossed through corridors when he didn’t hear footsteps walking towards him, and waited in those he heard guards coming, but had to take the path they came from.
The latter, Phesx dashed as fast as possible, avoiding making any sounds, and showing his cloak, not leaving it behind his every move. He was successful, but he was sweating every time, no doubt, passing under the corner of every guard’s eye.
At last, Phesx walked to the end of a wall with his back against it. He peeked and saw several guards keeping one door covered. It was indeed as the note said, with more than a dozen guards watching everywhere to keep anyone from catching them off-guard.
Phesx waited the moment he could evade their eyes for at least a couple of seconds to walk into the corridor and take the door to a side room. Once in there, already knowing no one was inside after concentrating his hearing, he looked at the window.
The place he entered was a small storage with large, decorative windows. Phesx looked at them before smirking from the left corners of his lips. Taking a few steps back, he didn’t bother looking outside before rushing into it.
Pprrriiiekki~… Phesx’s launched his body with his limbs pressing forwards, protecting his head, torso, and groin. The windows’ glass broke apart like it was melting, only leaving behind a cracked gap with the shape of his body breaking through.
Phesx Caolia jumped towards his left at the last step. Once he was outside and heard a couple of gasps, he spun to his left before stretching his left leg, impulsing himself upwards with the wall. With his left hand, he palmed the flat surface before rushing his right foot onto it.
Impulsing himself a little upwards again, Phesx repeated the same action with his left foot, then the right, then the left, over and over again. He went up a few tens of centimeters every time, heading towards the windows where his objective was, with a smaller window, more narrow.
Just as he heard guards outside reporting him as they looked up, Phesx arrived at the last step towards the narrow window. His left hand served as a directional support so far. But now, he stopped with both feet placed together on the wall before jumping into the air. Phesx immediately dived towards the upper corners of the window, breaking into it like before.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Phesx rolled after diving 5 meters into the floor, sliding towards one of the podium stands as alarms sprung everywhere. He grabbed a small green apple-shaped sphere, with waves of what seemed fire circling its top. He inspected as he heard the alarms and the confusion of the guards just outside.
Step, step… step, step, step… step.
Some guards moved to the room he entered before, others remained outside, while a few headed towards the door. Phesx directly crouched and hid behind another stand, large and thick enough to cover him.
They opened the door, coming towards him with strong flashlights on, despite all lights in every room in the museum turned on. After a couple of guards walked inside, checking everywhere with their sweat smelled by the hidden thief just a few meters before them, more entered the room, moving slower.
Phesx Caolia heard everyone’s footsteps as he placed his lower back on the floor and prepared to slide away, when he tilted his head as he heard a few curious footsteps.
… Outside, a few streets away, atop a taller building, José and Cala looked at each other, frowning as they wondered Phesx’s actions. Phesx could’ve escaped already, not needing to remain inside.
… Back at the museum where the most important item was safeguarded, the first guards to enter neared the item’s podium stand, which was now vacant, while the others slowly ventured in. One of them spoke, “Shit, Dylan. The little fruit is gone. There’s no one here! We should look elsewhere! We’re not paying for that, are we?”
Wiip- bang! Bang! Bang! Crassshhh…
Before the guard named Dylan could respond, turning his head to that guard, Phesx pulled his body forth with the podium stand covering him. As he did, he shot at the lights, turning the room a bit darker.
Phesx’s feet kicked the guard’s shins before folding his legs, making the guard fold his as he was kicked into the air before Phesx started rolling and changing positions while sliding through the floor. The guards were scared shitless upon hearing those loud bangs. Then, they became stupefied looking at a guard treated like a rag doll by someone’s legs, and then more as the thief shot at the roof no matter the angle he was in. This stopped the guards from just firing away.
At last, Phesx stopped sliding and hit the guard’s head onto another podium. The room became wholly dark, leaving the guards unsure how to act. Phesx Caolia looked down at the guard under him, scared but fast to act as he pulled his handgun up and aimed it at Phesx.
With shots fired, anyone would have started shooting by now. But before the muzzle faced him, Phesx took the handgun from the guard after rapidly hiding his small pistol, breaking the guard’s wrist. These handguns were simply worse than military handguns.
Bang, bang, bang, bang… Phesx ducked as the guards finally fired at him. He crouched up and fired at the guard next to him on the arm before kicking his face with his sole. Then, he aimed at the other guard who advanced fast, hiding behind another podium stand.
While the guard covered his knees well, his shoes showed behind. Phesx aimed at them and fired, rapidly neutralizing another civilian. Meanwhile, the other guards kept firing at him. Phesx aimed at another guard in front, shooting them in the thighs, but then felt something strange.
He retrieved his hand from peeking around the podium, finding it locked and with their mechanism jammed. Phesx took the magazine out, pulled the safety switch twice, and loaded it again before it went back to normal.
‘Ah, so-called ‘safe’ handguns.’ Phesx Caolia cursed a little before timing the number of times the guards shot. With handguns like these, one could barely fire in bursts. If one did, the handgun would lock itself up, all for the sake of not abusing such a power as any firearm grants its holder.
When he detected an opening, he peeked to the right and shoot the guards’ knees, hands, and feet, leaving them weak and helpless on the floor. Some guards took cover, which Phesx looked at with vicious eyes. He took cover as well before peeking to the left, where the other guards just went all out to stop him from ‘killing’ their comrades.
Instead of just peeking, Phesx fired at them, unloading, switching, and loading again in less than a second and a half after each burst, shocking the guards on the other side hiding from him.
Once he took the guards on his left down, he aimed at the right again. Phesx exited his cover and stepped forth. One of the guards seemed to hint that at the others before they all came out to get the thief, peeking their heads and shoulders.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang… Phesx burst the handgun time and again, but this time, he only needed 1 second unloading, switching, and reloading again. The guards’ shoulders and hands were shot, falling to the floor except for 1, who waited until the others fell.
Bang bang- bang bang- bang bang- bang bang bang…
As soon as the last guard not writhing on the floor stepped outside his cover, Phesx rained him with bullets, recharging the handgun nonstop. The guard did the same, showing exemplary experience, more than any other guard. Both sides fired at each other, one walking forth, and the other taking cover.
The other guard couldn’t aim well enough to hit Phesx, while the guard also hid well, half-safe from Phesx’s aim. Their accuracy was top-notch, but neither could shoot the other without being shot down in return. Sweating and nearing each other, their eyes trembled.
At last, Phesx ran out of bullets, while the guard had just recharged. He threw the handgun to the guard, crouched, and slid forth while picking another guard’s handgun, slapping them unconscious while passing by.
The guard was hit on the left side of his forehead with its butt, but Phesx received a gunshot on his right shoulder, momentarily impulsing him backwards. Although it only grazed skin and blood streaked into the air from his shoulder. As soon as Phesx grabbed another handgun, he aimed at the guard and unarmed him by shooting his hands.
Standing up, Phesx took large strides forwards, returning what the guard did to him just now. Impulsing his body sideways with each bullet. When his handgun locked again, Phesx recharged it but saw the guard extend a bright green blade from his right sleeve.
Phesx dashed forth with his left leg, grabbing the guard’s right shoulder before intertwining their arms together. Then, Phesx let the handgun fall, already recharged, before immediately taking his small pistol out. He aimed at the entrance, where a shadow had just run inside. Meanwhile, the other guard couldn’t move his right arm to stab or even cut Phesx’s body. He watched as Phesx Caolia turned his head and shot twice.
Bang! Bang!
The shadow’s head lost a portion off before slumping to the floor. When Phesx turned his head, holding the ‘guard’s’ arm as the latter tried freeing himself to no avail, he felt his left leg struck from behind by the guard’s heel.
As soon as Phesx’s left knee bent, the ‘guard’ jumped and freed his right arm before immediately pointing the bright green blade down at his throat. Phesx’s eyes shrunk. He let his body fall down completely, no longer half-kneeling, and flashed his legs to kick at the guard. Jolting his head to the right, his left jugular was almost cut through.
Phesx’s right hand searched the freshly recharged handgun before firing at the guard from the belly button to the collarbone, but the guard had armor beneath his clothes. Phesx even heard a light gasp from the ‘guard’ as the handgun locked just as he aimed it at the guard’s face, but before the guard could form a tiny smirk, Phesx flashed his left hand. A small pistol’s muzzle faced the guard’s mouth.
Bang!
As a head was blasted to pieces, Phesx felt his head dizzy for a second before the ringing subsided, and he immediately stood up. Giving no breaks to even himself, he rushed back into the room. Just before going in, he dashed into the air, faced his right, and let small blue things fall to the ground.
His small pistol aimed backwards with his left arm over his stomach, while his right hand extended to his left, opening his palm to cover the space in front of it. His left leg covered his groins from the front as he fired. Time paused for an instant.
Bang! Bang- kraaaasshh! Krasssh! Krassshh!! Rumblee~!
The hooded figure behind him was shot twice, once in the stomach as Phesx just dashed into the room, and another in the head, with his left hand moving a little bit in motion. 2 sets of blue spheres fell around that hooded figure, scorching their feet but mostly landing on empty floor.
The other side had 2 shadowed figures, who aimed at Phesx Caolia’s head and fired. Phesx could feel his life in danger as he barely saw bullets arching towards his head, flying with utmost accuracy to kill him. But his right hand, wearing the gauntlet, received those bullets instead, drawing them towards it yet causing them to lose some force behind them.
Phesx Caolia felt his hand hurt and penetrated, but the bullets were stopped. He grinned victoriously. The 4 sets of blue spheres he sent towards them to the floor blasted away, making the 2 hooded figures dance, giving Phesx time to aim at them with his small pistol.
They moved, trying to escape Phesx’s small pistol’s muzzle, but a hooded figure went limp with 2 clean headshots on their forehead, removing almost half of their head. The other hooded figure used the still standing corpse to protect themselves from 2 shots, landing on the right ribs.
Phesx rearranged his aim as the hooded figure jumped to the side, escaping the awful sensation of his feet burning with instantaneous, but continuous, shocks of electricity. Phesx hit his back against a podium, nearly breaking it. His left arm stumbled, but he still held his small pistol. Even then, his arm moved too much.
His right hand bounced off his left shoulder after collapsing with the podium, losing protection. Phesx rapidly lifted his left arm, but a gunshot went off, and a bullet penetrated his left shoulder.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Thud- bang! Bang!
After being shot, Phesx Caolia maintained his left arm up and fired twice. The hooded figure was sent tumbling to the floor with a bullet to his right heel before Phesx crushed the middle of his neck with another. Then, he fired again at the hooded figure after it fell, breaking its skull twice to unrecognizable levels.
“Aagh…” Phesx groaned, standing up with pain in his shoulders as he headed to the window. Seeing no one there, probably rushing here in the museum, as everything happened in less than a minute, Phesx exited the room and let himself fall from nearly 30 meters.
Just before Phesx dropped dead, he breathed in, feeling his insides, joints, bones, and organs windy from the inside. With his right arm pressing against the top of his head, he rotated his body downwards while facing the ground. His left foot endured his whole weight and force behind the fall before impulsing himself into the streets, not just kicking.
Crack!
The gauntlet helped him a little as the tiny stones and dust were pushed away by the gauntlet’s deviating field before rolling on the ground and breaking his left shoulder. Phesx finished his roll by standing on his feet, grimacing and cringing at the pain. He shook his body before hammering his shoulder with a reverse fist once. Then, he rushed to the side, warping out of any eyes around some corner.
Behind, still in the museum, the guards writhing on the floor were left aghast. They had kicked their lives’ potential into action and pedaled or stood up to run from the explosions, but they were over before they fled to safety.
After everything was over, they looked at the corpses, of which none had a pretty ending, especially the first shadowed person they barely noticed rushing into the room after the thief seemed to have run away.
However… now, they were left alone to see all the mess. Even the guard they stopped cheering on in their minds when they noticed they couldn’t recognize him was dead, but those they knew were comrades remained alive, if only feeling pain in their limbs.
‘What the fuck was that?!’ They all thought. Before long, yellow lights flashed from the outside, giving them relief that reinforcements were finally here. Then, as they heard other guards coming up, yelling at them, and them in return, they saw red lights outside, meaning ambulances were on their way. They sighed in relief. At least they could tell this story to their families.
…