Deafening sirens of police mobiles and fire trucks chorused with the frantic shouts of the alarmed people. As the police tried to escort the crowd away from the area, the firemen tried to extinguish the fires on a burning building. Scattered on the street is a mixture of numerous debris, people who are either dead or wounded, police, firemen, and agents—the latter three doing their best to deal with the situation.
One of the people on the street is a young lady wearing an emerald-green agent suit. Just like all the people in the area, her expression is torn somewhere between fear and concern. However, as she gazed at the panicking people in the area, her eyes suddenly lit up with a burning fury so intense that they seem to burn hotter than the fire burning on the building in front of her.
"Are there any civilians inside?" she asked, turning to a nearby policeman.
"All the civilians have been evacuated from the area, but the terrorists are still holding a lot of hostages. They're somewhere at the fifth floor of the building. They said that if we don't follow their request within the next hour, they will blow up the entire building," the policeman replied.
"What do they want?" the young lady asked.
"Lots of money, an entire truck of military weapons, getaway cars where they will load their hostages, and getaway helicopters. If we follow their orders, they will leave their hostages unscathed in particular places after they take off," the policeman said.
"Do they have a weirdo in their group?" the lady asked further.
"Their leader is a weirdo—a fire elemental," the former replied.
"Of course we're not going to let them boss us around."
"Definitely."
A girl in tears suddenly approached them. "My mommy's still inside that building, and she told me that if I ever get lost, I should ask for help from the police or agents. You're an agent, right? I want to see my mommy but they won't let me in the building. Please help me."
The lady in green knelt in front of the girl before smiling. "Don't worry, I will bring your mommy back to you, okay? For now, I want you to stay here and wait. You're a strong girl, and I'm sure that your mommy will be very, very proud of you."
The young lady took her green cloak off as she stood up and walked towards the burning building.
"What are you doing?" the policeman called at the lady. "We're still awaiting orders!"
The young lady in green looked back at the policeman. "We don't have time, and there are people who are in dire need of help. I just can't stand here and wait for orders when I know that I can do something right now. I am an agent, and it is my job to save the people in whatever way I can at any given time," she said before turning around.
"Come back here, Esmerelda!"
But the young Esmerelda walked straight towards the burning building. A man carrying a megaphone suddenly appeared from one of the windows in the building. "Stop right there or we'll shoot you! I said, stop!"
Gunshots suddenly erupted from the building, causing the people in the area to take cover. Esmerelda, however, stood mightily in front of the building with her arm shielding her face. A green barrier suddenly rose in front of her, blocking all the gunshots directed at her. Sparks flew around her as the bullets hit her barrier and ricocheted off.
She then jumped towards the building and crashed right into the window of the fifth floor of the burning building. Upon landing, she knelt and slid on the floor towards a couple of men who immediately fired their guns at her. Esmerelda shot a green rope each at the two men as she slid on the floor. The green ropes wrapped around their bodies tightly, completely immobilizing her opponents. She then jumped into the air before pulling the ropes with a mighty heave, causing the two men to crash into each other forcefully. Both of them fell to the floor unconscious.
Another barrage of gunshots coming from a wall erupted behind her. She crouched low on the floor and shielded her body with her green barrier. Esmerelda, still shielding herself from the continuous gunshots, stepped several paces back before dashing towards the wall and crashing against it. She blasted through the wall with the help of her barrier and collided with the gunman on the other side. With a powerful punch in the head, she sent the gunman flying across the room where he crashed on the wall and slumped unconscious to the floor.
"You have some guts to dash right into this place, girl," a man's voice suddenly said behind the young Esmerelda while pointing a blazing hand at her.
"You have some guts to hostage people in this city and expect that you can get away so easily," Esmerelda replied before slamming a ball of green light on the floor. There was a blinding flash of light, causing the Fire Weirdo to shield his eyes.
Using the momentary distraction, Esmerelda kicked the villain right in the head and blasted him backwards. The villain retaliated by sending balls of fire at her. She wove and ducked around the fireballs which exploded upon hitting the walls of the room. Esmerelda flicked her fingers at the villain and sent two jets of light at him. The Fire Weirdo intercepted the jets of light with his fireballs, creating explosions between the two.
Before the villain could even think of what to do next, Esmerelda jumped at him from the other side of the room. Due to the smoke caused by the explosions, the Fire Weirdo was caught unaware. The young lady turned around in midair and kicked the villain right in the face. The villain finally collapsed on the floor, bleeding and dazed.
Esmerelda approached him as she clicked her fingers, summoning a purple string around the wrists of the villain that tied his hands tightly together.
"Do you think you've won already?" the Fire Weirdo asked, his lips curving into a wide grin.
The young agent seemed to move out of instinct. As a tiny fireball shot from the villain's finger and flew towards a wall, Esmerelda shot a ball of green light at the direction where the fireball was heading. The fireball reached its destination first, but the ball of green light already expanded and trapped the explosion inside it. Nevertheless, the explosion is powerful enough that it rattled and shattered everything inside the room. Even the young agent was blasted away, but she was able to regain her balance and support herself on a wall.
When everything around her has finally settled, Esmerelda approached the villain who is now unconscious.
"Yes, I just won," she said before picking the villain up and throwing him to a corner.
In the next hour, the hostages were escorted out of the building by the police and the agents while the others carried all the unconscious villains. While all of this is happening, the young Esmerelda just stood under the shade of a nearby tree and watched in total silence together with her two friends, Carlo and Stella.
"You sure you're not hurt? Man, you're hardheaded as always," Carlo asked her. "You do know of course that you will receive an earful from Sir Alex once all of this is over?"
"Worth it," Esmerelda replied.
"What was going on in that head of yours when you dashed straight into that building? You almost died earlier, for the record. If you weren't able to contain the bomb inside your barrier, you're already ashes by now," Stella asked. Despite their exasperation, Carlo and Stella couldn't hide their amazement with their friend.
The young lady in green just smiled faintly. "I was also just as scared and nervous as everyone else earlier. I know that I should've waited for orders, but time simply wasn't on our side earlier. I knew that I can do something to help those in need and prevent bigger damage, and so I faced those villains. Remember what Professor Quentin used to say to us in our Combat Education?"
"If you can do something, then do that something," Carlo and Stella replied at the same time. "He surely drilled that statement in our brains," Carlo added.
"Exactly," Esmerelda said. "You know me. I just can't stand and watch while people are suffering. Even if my bones are broken, even if I'm bleeding to death, or even if I'm still in my pajamas, if someone asks for help, then I'm going to help them without second thoughts. We are agents, and we should always be ready to help those in need at any given time, in whatever way we can. It's our job to make people safe, even if it means sacrificing our own safety for their sake."
Stella just raised her arms high up in the air as if to praise some unseen god in the sky. Carlo, on the other hand, looked up all of a sudden with his hands on his face in an attempt to suppress his tears.
"DAMN NINJAS CUTTING ONIONS HERE!"
●●●
"Good morning, everyone! We are joined today by none other than the 3-time Magical Mayhem champion, Emerald's consistent 1st Best Student from 1st year to 4th year, and Agents Monthly's Most Promising Agent of the Year awardee, Esmerelda Evanesca!"
A deafening round of applause followed those words. The young Evanesca just smiled and nodded awkwardly at the people cheering her.
"First and foremost, thank you very much for gracing us with your presence today," the amicable host said. "How are you, Ms. Evanesca?"
"I'm feeling a bit nervous, but I think I'll be fine," the young agent replied.
"Well, Ms. Evanesca," the host continued, "I'm sure that no one's surprised of your being the top pick of the Agents Monthly for their prestigious and highly-coveted Most Promising Agent of the Year award. I mean, your credentials certainly do the talking for you! We just mentioned some of your achievements because we don't have enough airtime to enumerate all your accolades."
The young agent smiled. "Thank you."
"Well, we all know why you're here. It's because of the hostage crisis that took place just several weeks ago. While others criticized you for acting so reckless, the vast majority admired your spirit and marvelous skills. Of course, your number one defender is the Agents Monthly. What can you say about this, Ms. Evanesca?"
"I was only doing my job," Esmerelda replied. "Of course I understand that there are certain protocols that should be observed by agents in different situations, but once you're in the field and facing the danger, those protocols don't matter anymore. What matters the most is how you're going to keep the civilians safe at all times."
The host nodded. "It's funny because nearly every single agent who have achieved greatness talked just like you," he said with a chuckle. "We always ask this question to our guest agents here in our program, Ms. Evanesca. We all know that the term 'agent' sounds so professional. Throughout the history of the National Magical Law Enforcement Agency, we've seen truly skilled agents with exceptional skills and capabilities. However, not all of them reach the stardom of being called a hero. For someone like you, who's clearly headed towards that path, when does an agent become a hero?"
A few seconds of silence followed the host's words. Several moments later, Esmerelda let out a sigh before smiling gently.
"Well..."