Dusk was setting in. Over the grassy distance, two sets of ten targets had holes in them.
"Finally done!" Rico stretched out his arms, the horizon outlining him.
"All targets have been eliminated!" Kaitlin proudly declared, "Should we write our note for Felix?"
"Good point, too tired to do it now. How about a snack, first?" He raised his finger.
"I've actually been thinking… with all the snacks we've been eating, it might be time to cut back on the snacks."
"Are you kidding? Didn't you see the rations Saya had earlier? Five thousand calories."
"Yeah, but those were for chimeras…"
"Hey, they're augmented humans, we're augmented humans, how different can it be?"
"But we're not chimeras, we're espers."
"Fine, there's still some pie in the fridge." Rico insisted, "Humor me."
In the cramped, light-blue kitchen, the two sat down. As Kaitlin ate the pie anyway, Rico stood up, spinning the lighter up and down on his finger.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"After seeing your little stunt earlier, I wanted to see what else we could do." He answered.
"You wanna start another fire?"
"It's not like I have energy to excess like yours… but something tells me that I'm more than just enhanced physically…" He said, keeping an open palm, yet the lighter refused to fall, "Stage ones don't have psychic power, my ass. Look, Kate, it's sticking to me."
"You really shouldn't be doing things. They told us to wait until we stabilized."
"Pfft, yet they already let us go on—"
A tall armored figure walked in, gold plates were overlapped and had faint lights glowing along the seams. An opaque visor hid the figure's face, reflecting the room.
"A space man…" Kaitlin blurted out.
"Space man?" The tall armored figure repeated in a muffled, feminine voice.
"Why's an astronaut here?!" Rico asked, dropping down on a chair, his arm on the table.
"It's rude to stare, you know." She said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Ah, sorry." Kaitlin responded, before snapping her fingers at Rico, "Rico, stop staring."
"Oh… sorry… It just looks so cool." Rico said.
"Well, at least you kids have manners." The armored figure said, removing the helmet, "Name's Dorothy — Dorothy Dearinger, at your service. I'm part of Project HERCULES." Her hair was as golden as her armor.
"Shouldn't it be Heracles?" Rico commented.
"I guess… I just came here for a glass of water." Dorothy said, her voice now clear. She grabbed a cup and filled it from the tap.
"Do you mind if we um… if we took a look?"
"Oh, sure. Just don't break it." She said, tossing the helmet towards them.
Rico instinctively grabbed the helmet, but it plopped down with a thud. "Heavy!" His voice strained.
"Care to introduce yourselves?" She took a large chug from the cup.
"I'm Agent Carrot." Kaitlin smiled.
"I… don't have a codename yet." Rico responded, his focus fully consumed by the helmet.
"Alright miss Carrot and mister I don't have a codename yet."
"Very funny. I've been thinking about a codename, recently, but you can call me Rico." He said, staring at his reflection on the helmet's visor.
"How are you a spy with such big, bulky armor?" Kaitlin asked.
"Operative doesn't necessarily mean spy, kiddo." Dorothy replied, "Just as Project CHIMERA has chimeras, THESEUS has cyborgs, HERCULES agents are called Bulwarks. We're built for heavy duty missions."
"Bulwarks, huh?" Rico responded, staring at her armor.
"Like the suit?" The tall woman sat on one of the chairs in front of them, "If you're combatants, you could get one if you join HERCULES."
"We are combatants, actually."
"And don't we have to move to Cygnus to join HERCULES?" Kaitlin asked.
"Not really. Just a bit of paperwork." She glanced at the two, "You kids don't look like combatants, are you ranked?"
"We… haven't broken into the top one-hundred yet." Rico's voice shrank, "We've only been on two missions."
"I see. So which project did you join? Are you augmented, or natural? Because that's definitely not natural." Dorothy pointed to Kaitlin's glowing red eye.
Kaitlin leaned back, answering, "We're part of project—"
A man with dirty blond hair walked in, asking, "Dorothy, You in here?"
"Yup, I'm here." She glanced at the door.
"Friend of yours?" Rico asked.
"That's Albert." She pointed towards him with her thumb, "He's someone I recruited."
"Recruited? But he's not wearing armor."
"Is he part of Project HERCULES?" Kaitlin bluntly asked.
"Oh, no. Albert is a non-combatant." She shook her palms in front of her.
"I'm not a non-combatant, I'm still thinking of which project to join." Albert argued as he walked inside.
She scoffed, "He's scared of the SynchroSpine installation."
"I'm not!"
"The what now?" Rico raised an eyebrow.
"It's the neural implant that connects us to the armor, otherwise we lug around with delay." She turned around, showing them a chrome shell protruding on the top of her spine, marked by patches of scarred tissue.
"That does sound scary…" Kaitlin mumbled.
"Doesn't that feel… really bad when you're lying down?" Rico concluded.
"Had to learn to sleep on my side. But it's the price we had to pay to protect the peace, right?" Dorothy explained, wincing as she cracked her neck, "Besides, taking it off feels so much worse. Your nerves get shot for days on end."
"Have you considered Project CHIMERA, they have nice snacks." Rico remarked, holding the helmet over Albert's head.
"I'd rather not gamble that coin toss." He said as he stood right behind Dorothy, who turned her head to Kaitlin, "What about you, Carrot, what upgrades did you get?"
"Huh? Upgrades?"
"Yeah, your glowing red eye. That's THESEUS, isn't it?" Dorothy asked.
"Uh, no… Project ASTRAEA, actually." Rico answered in her stead.
"Bioluminescent, not bio-mechanical." Kaitlin stated.
"Oh, like that David guy." Albert chimed in.
The blonde woman raised an eyebrow, "You chose the deadliest of the Projects?"
"Deadliest?" Rico echoed.
"Yeah, you know, there are four projects combat right?" Dorothy slowly turned towards the man behind her, raising a finger, "Actually, Albert… do you remember the names of the combat projects?"
"Uhh…" Albert paused, looking elsewhere, "Yeah, why?"
"Could you list them down?" She asked.
"Well, there's HERCULES, CHIMERA, ESPER, and uh…"
"Esper?"
"Yeah, the glowing eyed folks, like this girl." He pointed to Kaitlin, "That's what she's called, right?"
"Ugh… It's ASTRAEA." She scoffed, "And the last one?"
"The cyborg people…"
"The project name, Albert. Not the people."
"Ship of... Thesaurus?"
Rico held back a giggle, while Kaitlin hid behind him, chuckling.
"This is what I have to go through…" She rubbed her temples, "Project THESEUS, Albert."
Albert rolled his whole head, "Is there a point to this?"
Dorothy's breath hitched, slightly infuriated, "If you're gonna be a combatant, I wanted to know if you understood your options and each consequence. Between HERCULES, THESEUS, CHIMERA, and ASTRAEA — ASTRAEA was the one with the highest mortality rate." She explained, her smile unnerved, "A couple of implants is nowhere near as scary as that. And these two went through it."
"We didn't actually know the death rate at the time, they just told us there was a chance we could die…" Kaitlin said meekly.
"Even if we did… we decided to go big or go home." Rico added, "It's our best shot at getting revenge…"
"Oh, what's that about?" Albert asked.
"Don't ask that." Dorothy nudged him in the chest.
"Ow!" He rubbed his chest, "What? He was already telling us!"
"I told you, it's taboo to ask about people's pasts here." She shot him a glare.
"It's fine…" Rico said, his voice tightening, "We want revenge on Jackal… For uprooting our lives… and for all the lives he took with the Fallen Sun calamity."
Dorothy rested her head on her hand, "Another Jackal hunter, huh?" She said, her eyes lowering, as if hearing the story before, "Just be careful, newbie."
"But… Wasn't the Fallen Sun a hoax?" Albert asked.
"What?" Both Kaitlin and Rico said in disbelief.
"Yeah, Jackal was a political puppet, wasn't he? Come on, a group of ten people killing six million? Where would they get the nukes? Has to be a hoax, a government conspiracy, I heard it had something to do with mercenaries."
Rico's fist tightened, while Kaitlin's mismatched eyes watered as she bit her lower lip.
"Albert…" Dorothy slowly turned her head towards him, "Where do you think all the refugees come from?"
"Obviously, it's just an excuse for immigration."
"Albert, just stop talking…" She sighed.
"Fine…" Albert folded his arms.
"Sorry about that… As an apology, how about joining us on our assignment?"
"Don't we need clearance for that?" Rico asked.
"It's in a few days. I could talk to Chief Vivian about it. Could bump you up a rank or two."
"What's the mission about?" Kaitlin asked, "Might be too dangerous for us the way we are now."
"It's just a transport mission. Moving some criminals to ship them off to Cocytus Penitentiary. Should be easy. But there's this one guy called Lewis Shaw, people call him the Houdini of the Mafia, so a couple extra hands wouldn't hurt to keep him from escaping."
"Transport mission, huh?" Rico commented, turning to Kaitlin, "Our third mission, Kate. What do you think?"
"Alright." She smiled widely, showing her tooth gap.
"I call it an apology, but in truth, it'd put my mind at ease to have a couple of espers coming along in case things go South. Plus, you guys get to talk some sense into this idiot, let him see more of the world." Dorothy explained, pointing her thumb back at the man standing behind her.
Rico glared at Albert, "Yeah… You're already part of a morally gray organization full of superhumans, so why is it so hard for you to accept it?"
Albert raised his hands wide open, condescendingly responding, "I just need proof, okay?"
Several veins pulsed on Rico's face, taking a loud, deep inhale. But before he could explode, Kaitlin spoke up, "We kinda wanted to do something first."
Rico raised an eyebrow, "We do?"
"We still have to write the letter to Felix."
"Oh, right…" He muttered.
Dorothy's face lit up, "Ah, so you're close with the Blue Phantom? My friend's interested in him!"
"Who are you guys talking about?" Albert asked.
"Ugh…" Dorothy pinched the bridge of her nose, "He's the poster boy for Project ASTRAEA…"
"Just, give us a few minutes, alright? We still need to deliver it to him." Rico said, handing back her helmet.
"No rush. The mission's not until a few days." Dorothy smiled, lifting her phone, "Do you have his contact? Maybe I could set him up on a date with my friend, Carol."
A door opened to a hospital room, and a dark-haired woman stepped in, carrying a card.
*
"Hey buddy…" Maria greeted, "The two knuckleheads asked me to give this to you…"
Felix was unconscious in bed, breathing thinly.
She set the card on the table beside him, and sat down beside his bedside, "It's about time you woke up, it's way past ten A.M."
"Hngg…" He groaned weakly — a blue, crystalline haze flowing out of his right hand, bones and flesh reconstructing from the stump.