Felix was flat on the ground, eyes locked through the rifle's scope on the far edge of the training field.
Bang.
A cloud of dust puffed into the air as he made a near perfect shot, inches shy from the very center.
"That red power earlier… " He muttered to himself, the thought lingering as the dust cloud lifted.
Two images flashed in his mind: his adoptive sister smiling at him, and the silhouette of a large man with a mechanical arm — both staring with fiery eyes.
He recollected his previous interaction with the old professor, the memories still very fresh in his mind.
"I thought the Implementation was shut down?" He asked.
"Merely postponed. There have been benefactors pushing to jumpstart it, not wanting their investments to go to waste. There have been a handful of successes so far. Enough to make certain people… optimistic about when it formally resumes." The professor answered.
"Maria's the only survivor of her batch, but those two… their eyes weren't orange." He muttered curiously while reloading the rifle.
After reflecting on the memory, his gaze returned to the red center of his target, already riddled with holes. He thought about the visitor's eyes. The depth of her crimson eyes.
"Glowing eyes… just like mine… but red? A breakthough?"
Footsteps crunched behind him as he pulled the trigger once again.
With another near-perfect bullseye, he turned to face the figure behind him, "Didn't expect you to come to the field just to visit me."
A familiar, scruffy voice answered, "But, of course. Unless I'm walking through a war zone, I'll always make time to see you. I heard that you had an encounter with an Elite Agent."
"Yeah. Perfect timing. I had a couple questions."
Professor Tetsuya scratched his beard, "So, how was the taste your first real battle?"
"Does nobody read my report?"
"I will. I simply prefer to hear it directly from you. It was against Harbinger, correct? I've heard his skills rivaled those of the top ten."
Memories flashed in his head, the events of the last mission replaying: The bullet between his teeth, the explosive whip, Maria's blood pouring down his face, and the burning blue sphere swirling around his body.
"Well, he was just the slightest bit harder than my spars with sis." Felix scoffed.
"Seeing as you were working with young Maria, I suppose it wasn't so bad." The professor chuckled.
"She was definitely something else." Felix reloaded the gun. "For a stage one, she was more enhanced than human. Must be one of your better results."
"Truthfully, I was not present during that tragedy." The professor admitted with a low grumble.
"You weren't?"
"When I said she was the only survivor of her batch, I meant that literally."
"Sole survivor, everyone died, reason why it got postponed in the first place, et cetera, et cetera." He spun his hand, as if to gesture to move the conversation along.
"Including the doctors." The professor's brows curled sadly.
"Oh…" He turned to look at the old man, "Lucky you weren't there."
"According to the footage, their body cracked apart, and their heads apparently exploded… According to young Maria, the meat chunks shot through the doctor's heads."
Felix gulped. Maria's words suddenly bubbled up to the surface.
And what I had to go through just for that… I'm not sure I'm gonna risk becoming a stage two.
Despite the image, he forced out a grin, not missing a chance to mock the professor, "Ah, so it's lucky you don't get your hands dirty with every little thing?"
The old man looked hurt by his petulant remark, "Maria is one of the first of the new generation. Few others have also gone through the process successfully."
He fired — another bullseye, "So I was right, the two from earlier..." His voice trailed off.
"Two from earlier?" The professor echoed.
"There were two people from this morning… a blond guy and a white-haired girl. Both of them had red eyes. Did you make another breakthrough?"
"Red eyes, you say? Due to ASTRAEA's current state, I have only seen to the first few trials."
"Guess you don't want your hands bloodier than they already are."
"We both have our sins, boy. Others handle Provisional Batch Delta. I do remember reclassifications. Something about Stage Two-Point-Five being turned into Stage Three. So other researcher's working with my formula might have created a few successful ones, which may have lead to red eyes."
"That makes me half-right. I'll take it."
"I remember this because I read about your unique position in all of this. Due to them being classified as Stage Three, you will now be designated as a Fourth stage Esper."
"So you shoved red in between orange and blue, and I get to be called 'Fourth stage." An upgrade from being called your 'masterpiece.'"
"One step closer to making more like you."
"More like me, less than human." The young man sighed.
And one step moving farther from sis.
"Think of it as… more than being human." The professor scratched his beard, "Now if we could only find more willing volunteers."
"Right. Because next step in artificial evolution is a better way to think about it. Try telling that to people, they'll join in a heartbeat."
"For now, just be considerate to your peers, like Maria, the way Luna was to you."
He recollected the events from earlier this morning, and clearly remembered Maria's teary, angry expression.
"… I thought I was." Felix answered with a confused, quiet tone, remembering how Luna used to drag him out of bed.
"My, did something happen?"
"I went to her room and tried waking her up. But she didn't seem to like that. She won't even talk to me..." He sulked.
"Dear, what made you think storming into her room and waking up a young lady was a good idea?"
"I.. huh…it's just how Luna… something about it felt… I dunno. "
"Anyone would be mad at that, Felix. You should apologize. See things eye to eye."
"Sigh, now's… not a good time. I'll let her cool down before I do."
"I would like to help, but I'm still rather occupied. I simply wanted to meet with you, but now I have to—"
"Wait, eyes…" Felix stood up, "I actually had a question about my eyes."
"Ah, yes. Your blue eye. As I've told you before, I will make the time to explain to you when the rest are—"
"You haven't read the report yet, right?" He cut the old man off, "Both of my eyes turned blue for a little bit during the mission, and apparently did earlier today, but… it doesn't last for too long. It's… becoming more frequent."
"So it's made it to that point." The old man's voice carried a hint of satisfaction, "It won't take long for your abilities to fully develop. I will make it so that I can explain it to all of you at the same time."
"Ah, right. But... what I wanted to ask was something else."
"What is it?"
"Do my eyes… do they look like flowers?"
With furrowed eyebrows, the old man scratched his beard, "Light disperses outwardly from your pupils through the nerves of your iris, so I suppose you could interpret it like flowers."
"I see… Yeah, that makes sense."
"Be glad. You're starting to be more like Luna now."
Felix scratched his rosy red cheeks before quickly turning to the side to hide it, "R-right. See ya, professor."
After the professor left, Felix pulled out the four-leaf clover necklace under his shirt and smiled. "She said I was in Blue Mode earlier. If I can make the power work on instinct, then…"
He breathed deeply, gunpowder and dry earth filling his nostrils.
"Come on…" He whispered, "Work."
Both of his eyes started to glow bright blue as his finger pressed against the trigger, firing one last round with a wide grin on his face
— And missed.
"... Bollocks."
*
Deep in the chrome corridors, Murphy opened the door to a dimly lit room containing a single chair and an obsidian glass table.
"This will be your station, miss Maria." The old man announced.
The dark-haired woman stepped inside, feeling the frigid chill of the air, accompanied by the low rumble of the air conditioner. She saw a glowing red dot on the glass table.
"What is this e-sports looking training room?" She scoffed, scanning the almost empty room, "What happened to working alongside the analytics division? Why do I have a personal station?"
"A promotion of sorts. The Director thought you would appreciate the privacy. Of course, if it's not to your liking, you're allowed to refuse and return to Analytics."
She sat down on the leathery chair and dragged herself closer to the table. She pressed on the red dot, and with a soft hum, several holographic screens popped up from the table, each displaying a collage of faces, events, and disasters.
"Hm…" She placed her finger on one of the faces on the tabs. As she pulled it out, a new screen split off from it. She then gestured with her fingers, creating four more projections.
With her thumb pressed against her chin, she tilted her head. "Oh my…"
The old man placed a dark red folder atop table, "Here is what the Chief wants you to look over."
Maria opened up the folder in response and looked over the documents, flipping through the pages, she grinned, "This is…"
"I'll leave you to it. If you'll excuse me."
"Roger that." She cheerfully waved, waiting for him to exit the room before getting started.
As the door shut, Maria returned her attention to the screens and slowly typed, "Felix Aster." To which it projected the words, "Access Denied."
"Can't access the information to my own partner, huh?" She pouted. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, thinking of what what else to search for, "Then… those two from earlier, he called her Isa, didn't he?"
"Project ASTRAEA Isa." Only to be met with, "No Results Found."
"Hm, weird. A nickname, or her info isn't public." She continued her search.
"Agent Harbinger," a profile appeared with only the word "REDACTED" popping up.
"Free access to the entire database of the twelve agencies and it can't even answer a single question." She sighed and scratched her head. Her eyes narrowed, "Then, how about… The Fallen Sun incident…"
The screen flickered, projecting another screen that listed down the countries, "America," "Germany," and "Italy."
"I see…" A smirk formed on her face, "So that's what we did."