The skies above were a soft blue, with not a cloud in sight. Felix made his way through the terminal, coffee cup in one hand and a suitcase in the other.
Ahead of him, in front of the jet's entrance, stood Maria.
"What a beautiful morning." He said out loud, more than enough for her to hear.
Walking forward, he paused every three steps, taking a sip and breathing the cool morning breeze. Maria folded her arms.
"Oh dear, I'm working up quite a sweat." He said, halfway a moment to wipe his face with a handkerchief.
"I wonder what time it is?" He said aloud. She watched as he pulled down his sleeve to check the time.
Maria's eyes glanced to his wrist. Her eyebrow twitched. There was no watch there.
She began tapping her finger against her arm, growing increasingly irritated as Felix spent nearly two minutes walking, then two minutes pausing, before resuming.
When he finally made it to the jet's entrance where she stood, he smiled, "It's such a nice morning, I thought I'd take a moment to appreciate it."
"I understand completely." Maria nodded, gritting her teeth. She placed her hand on his shoulder, "I won't be there keep you steady, okay? No one's gonna be there to pick up after your mess, understand?" Her voice dripped with condescension, her dark eyes full of pity.
He crushed the paper cup, empty, "Oh… what a shame. I ran out."
"Did you bring a jacket? A grappling hook? What about communication devices? We both know how much technology hates you."
"I actually brought two. But since you won't be there to explode the other one, maybe I'm over prepared." He shot back.
"Hope you do a better job body-guarding this girl than you did with me. If you want my advice, just try not to let her get shot."
A vein pulsed on his forehead, unable to retort, "I'll... try my best."
"You grow up so fast." She teased, placing her hand on Felix's cheek with a teary, mocking smile on her face.
Verbally defeated, he grabbed her cheeks and stretched them out, "What is wrong with you?!"
"Ah guwayt— menny thi— s-stahp it!" As she tried to squeeze out her response, he pinched her cheeks tighter.
He sighed and let go, before giving her a serious look, "You want me to get you an autograph or something?"
"What, you thinking of taking a photo with idols or something?"
"Huh?"
"I hate idols. I'm more of a rock kinda girl." She answered in an oddly triumphant tone.
Felix raised an eyebrow, "You hate idols?"
"I dunno. They always seem so upbeat and overly cheerful. Always ecstatic to make fans happy. It all seems so fake to me." She said in a sharper tone, dripping with petulance as she looked away.
"They're performers, it's their job."
"Exactly."
"Depressing and harsh. If that's it, then I'm going—" Felix replied, taking a step forward.
"Actually," Maria's tone shifted again, more serious now. "There's something I wanted to ask."
"Mhm, what is it?"
"What is it that's bothering you?"
"— nothing's bothering me." He hesitated.
"Don't lie to me, you've seemed different since this morning." Her dark eyes narrowed slightly.
"Like I said, it's nothing."
"It's about Jackal, isn't it?"
"Huh?"
"I saw you smirk when you heard his name."
"Hm… right. I'm just… we finally get a trail." Felix had a twisted smile, "We finally get to find him."
"Right… Good luck, and leave nothing to chance, as Chief Vivian would put it."
"Thanks."
As he was about to walk past her, however, Maria grabbed him by the shoulder again, "You may be the first esper, or the professional masked assassin, or whatever people expect of you… but at the end of the day, you're still just you. Resident dumdum and... my irreplaceable friend. So, tread lightly. Don't bite off more than you can chew."
"Don't worry, I'll be okay." He replied as he placed his hand on her head.
"Go, protect the peace or whatever."
From inside the jet, Felix saw Maria waving at him. He waved back, and caught a glimpse of the silver-haired woman and the blond young man from earlier, stepping out of a black car at the agency's entrance.
With his cheek resting against his hand, he continued to gaze at them until they became dots too small to observe.
As the engines hummed, the world began to shrink. Felix leaned against the leather chair and closed his eyes.
*
Alone in the dark, Maria sank down on a leathery chair, staring at the screen full of windows. At the very top were four labels, ASTRAEA, CHIMERA, HERCULES and THESEUS.
The one she was scanning through read out, "Project CHIMERA."
"So that's what they are..." She mumbled, her fingers tapping on the transparent keyboard, "How about…"
Slurping on the soda, her continued, typing the words on the bottom of the name, "Homo Lucerna"
Words such as Batch Alpha, Batch Beta, Batch Gamma, and "Batch Delta - On Going" appeared.
"New Homo Sapien, Light of Man, artificial human evolution…" She read out loud, "Here I thought we lost our humanity, but the furries have it way worse."
She scrolled through, and a list dropped down.
Several profiles appeared, and as she clicked on some, Felix was listed at the very top, followed by other names such as David, Anastasia, Jane, Maria, among several others.
"Where's that Isa girl…"
She clicked on the one that read Zephyr Clan.
Maria clicked through another file, then another, and another. Only to be followed up by the word Redacted on every profile. Most were heavily censored or non-existent. Entire paragraphs were blacked out. Some profiles contained nothing except a name and a date.
"Huh, what happened here?" The dark-haired woman sighed, "…Could she be from outside the Golden Lion?"
Scrolling through the names again, where one in particular caught her eye.
"This must be his mentor…" Maria hovered the cursor towards the one called Luna Aster, "No pictures, huh? Ugh…" She sighed.