Chapter 11
Song for a Stranger
After watching Felix slam into the brightly lit sign, the sniper ran to the building's rooftop entrance.
Felix picked himself back up and found himself left with nothing more than the rifle that had been used to shoot him with. In a fit of rage, he lifted up the giant character and slammed it against the concrete roof. Alabaster sparks sprayed out behind him.
As his breathing calmed, he pulled out his cobalt gun and entered the building.
Walking, he kept to the walls of the corridors. There was only the sound of his gentle steps as he opened each room on the floor one by one.
When he reached for the knob of the room, he heard a faint metallic click. Bullets fired off through the door from the closed room behind him. Felix pressed his back against the wall beside the door, his shocked expression hid behind a pale white mask.
The door slammed open, and his target sprinted away.
Before he could chase after him, he noticed a small metal cylinder clink from under his foot — a thick, pale gas expanding from the cylinder at his feet.
Felix barely had a moment to react before it curled around his ankles. He kicked the smoke bomb across the corridor and forced himself forward.
His eyes began to tear up as he let out a series of coughs. The air burned his throat and clawed at his lungs, each breath a tightening around his throat.
But he continued after his target. He holstered his gun and crouched down, planting both of his palms on the ground, almost like a cat ready to pounce.
His legs started to radiate with a thin blue light.
In a flash, blue energy erupted around him, and he shot uncontrollably through the hall, splitting the gas in its path with a tearing hiss.
Every door through it opened with a sharp bang.
Felix only stopped by smashing into the other end of the hall, cracking the wall. He groaned, upside down, but he quickly returned to form and walked slowly by each of them as the gas subsided.
His head turned as he heard a rustle come from a room next to him.
He stopped and cautiously entered a wide, dimly lit apartment, with violet, velvet floors and flickering lights. The glow in his eyes left a ghostly trail through the dark room with every step while his target waited from above.
The agent scanned the room, turning his head to every corner. He kneeled down, peering under the tables and the sofa. He kept his breathing steady and reached under his cloak. But before he could pull out his gun, a faint creak broke the silence — his target dropped from the ceiling.
He rolled out of the way and narrowly avoided an ambush. The assailant stabbed the floor, before reorienting himself forward, leaping forward with all of his weight.
Felix caught the assailant's wrist, but both of them hit the floor with a thud.
The two wrestled, with the assailant on top, he drove the combat knife against the agent's chest, muscles shaking as he desperately pushed it down.
But the enhanced human easily pushed his wrists back up using only one hand, "Come on, Asahi… you're nothing compared… to my partner!"
Felix headbutted the assailant, then threw him off.
The assailant rushed before Felix could get on his feet. With a wide swing, he slashed Felix's mask off. But as soon as the featureless white mask clattered to the velvet, Felix looked at him, and a sharp gasp escaped him.
Frightened by the blue glow, he attacked like a cornered animal, throwing wide swings with reckless abandon while the agent evaded each strike with ease, and countered with a kick to his gut.
But when Felix drew out his gun from it's holster, the assailant threw the knife at his head.
Felix caught the weapon, smirking as he twirled it around. Only to find that his target made a break for it, and headed out the door.
"No, you don't!" He readied the knife, but before he could throw it, he noticed a small round object blinking rapidly below his feet.
"Bollocks!"
He jumped over the sofa after a hit of realization.
Boom —
The blast tore through the room. The force of the explosion shattered the windows. The shockwave rippled through his body, the searing heat brushing against his skin.
Particles immediately formed all over Felix's body, forming streams of blue electricity that weaved around him.
"I… have to…" His ears rang while small streams of blood poured down his face.
His mask was right in front of him. He grabbed it and got back on his feet, leaning against the sofa to stay steady, "Protect… Natsumi…"
His target, however, appeared to be floating in front of the door.
"Nanja kore!" The man's cries were muffled by an iron grip clamped over his mouth. His legs kicked until his feet no longer reached the floor.
Felix's eyes sharpened with anticipation as his target rose up higher from the floor, to the point where his feet could no longer reach the floor.
A man stepped forward from the doorway and his eyes pierced through the darkness of shadows with a molten orange glow.
"Go on…" The stranger said, "Shoot him."
Felix pulled out his pistol, ambient light bouncing off the metallic gray sheen as he pointed it at the man in the air.
"Hanashite! Hanase" His target struggled.
"No? Alright then." The man was swung down headfirst like a hammer, the sound rattled the room.
"Asahi…"
As the large figure got back up, his height dwarfed Felix by a full head, with broad shoulders that looked sculpted, stretching the black suit he wore.
After the man was instantly incapacitated, the large man spoke, "Still not necessary, even when he threatened the heiress?"
Felix fired — successively, repeatedly, relentlessly.
But each bullet disappeared without impact, orange flames swiping them away.
He kept firing up until all that was left was a hollow click.
Without a word, the silhouette extended a hand—a metal one, moving like little fireballs, swiping them away. He opened his palm, and every spent bullet fell like sprinkles all over the floor.
The blue agent dropped the pistol, switching to his cobalt gun.
"Are you really going to waste all of that energy?"
"Just come out already." Felix said, pulling the trigger.
Waves of concentric energy rippled through the air.
The figure braced his right arm, withstanding the full brunt of the blasts, shredding bits off his sleeves, exposing the metal arm underneath.
"That's enough."
Orange light flared across the man's mechanical hand — then across Felix's weapon. The cobalt gun slammed into the floor, dragging Felix's arm with it.
The figure finally stepped into the moonlight.
Pale orange hair and a sharp jaw. His right arm, cybernetic, encased in chrome and glowing with circuitry. His left arm carried a tied up body like it was luggage. On his face was a horizontal scar that ran across the bridge of his nose, his expression was a composed confidence.
His eyes radiated with a burning, fiery glow that contrasted Felix's eerie cold azure light.
"David…" Felix tried to pull his gun back up, unable to lift the object enveloped in orange light.
"You know it's customary to refer to me as Black Hound during missions, right Felix?"
The orange glow dissolved into particles like embers flickering away. Felix quickly lifted his gun to his face.
"Put that thing away…" David crossed his arms, and an oppressive atmosphere suddenly enveloped the air, "Unless you're absolutely sure you want to engage me."
Felix holstered his gun, intimidated by the Black Hound's presence, "And yet you called me by my name."
"Just because you have a mask, doesn't mean you have a double life, Blue Phantom." The thickness in the air vanished with the large man's taunt.
He slid his white mask off, asking, "Why are you here?"
"Hmph. Would you like some pie?" The large man asked.
"No, I don't want any apple pie."
David frowned and replied, "I was in the area and heard your voice. Thought I'd provide assistance."
"You intercepted our communications and interfered with my mission."
"I got rid of a drone that almost killed you and caught one of the assassins. You're welcome."
"H-hngg…" The tied-up man groaned.
"Who's that?" Felix asked.
"See for yourself." David dropped the man that was over his shoulder, "He was another shooter I caught close by, before you slammed into that billboard."
Felix pulled the man's mask off, seeing a tanned man underneath, "What the…Asahi?"
"H-Huh? Haruki…" the tanned bodyguard asked, barely conscious, "I'm not surprised. The heiress' personal bodyguard."
"I see… so my first guess was right, you're with the Jackal, Golden Survivor."
"I… he forced me to do it." Asahi admitted with desperate eyes.
"When was it? How?"
"I'll tell you the details later... Right now, you need to go back."
"What?"
"Jackal showed me pictures of her… told me if I fail then… Please, bro… Please save Ayame!" He said with one last breath before losing consciousness.
Felix's expression turned to worry, "…I will, bro..."
"You're not gonna kill him? Even after he betrayed you?" David asked, biting from his slice of pie.
"He's unconscious and defenseless. What does he mean by...?" Felix mumbled out as he put his hand on his chin, wondering what Asahi meant.
The Black Hound sighed, "Do you really think they hired only two assassins?"
"Then this was…" His expression became anxious as he turned his focus back to the stadium, looking through the shattered window. "…a distraction?"
"He was stalling for time, and you're in no condition to continue. I'll take it from—"
Disregarding David's words, Felix pressed on his earpiece to the other agents; "Robin's one, two— Arghk!" An intense static noise surged through the wire.
"I wouldn't recommend doing that while you're near me." The man pointed out as he raised his glowing, mechanical arm.
"That damn arm of yours... tsk, I'll leave them to you." Felix snarled.
"Before you go. I've heard that your power has finally awakened, have you learned how to control your power yet?"
Felix glanced over to the tall man with a distraught expression.
"The power, the haze, the aura. You've taken one step forward, but I can see that you're still using it instinctively." David explained. "Like the robins said, you should be able to block ten, twenty, thirty, even dozens of bullets. But you don't know how to. I will have to train you, Felix."
"No… you won't." Felix ran out of the room.
Left there with the two unconscious bodies, David sat down on the table in the wide room and opened up a small pastry box.
Alone in the darkness, he slouched on the chair and watched Felix shoot up into the air from the shattered windows, "Both of his eyes are finally glowing… but his hair's still black."
"Bollocks, huh? He really is becoming more and more like her…" David Soldier muttered to himself before taking a bite from his apple pie.
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