"Darn it." Brian cursed, punching the wall as Lydie continued to dial Fuze's number with a worried expression, "so Adrienne was right - I should really keep an eye out on both of you... I'm sorry Adrienne." The laboratory door burst open and the said female Adrienne Le Blank dashed in, green eyes behind glasses arose in panic. "Fuze Nethercott?!?! Is Fuze Nethercott here?!" She shouted shakily, eyes darting around like an injured prey looking for a predator.
Brian and Lydie shared a look before the head scientist shook her head. "Damn." Adrienne cursed while gritting her teeth, "I thought I told you to keep an eye out on him Brian." The blonde closed his eyes, muttering an apology. Before Adrienne can hit Brian repeatedly with her weak punches, loud seething was triggered.
Everyone looked at each other with a tense expression, everyone's ears ringing from the unholy shrieking of the sirens. Brian, Adrienne and Lydie shared a restless look. Those were emergency alarms. No matter what you're doing, you must meet Mr. Häyhä in the central assembly hall within five minutes.
And so, everyone dashed out of the laboratory in the south wing and headed north; towards the central wing. People shot each other nods and looks of acknowledgement as they rush past each other before finally stopping in the central hall, waiting for the boss to come.
Brian scanned everyone in the hall for his close acquaintances; a restless Lydie and Adrienne beside him, a half-asleep Akamai and Rin, a curious Ma171, a stoical Threatening and...... Brian widened his eyes the slightest at the sight of Folisha with an evident rope scar on her neck, scowling. "Hey are you alright Folisha?" Brian asked, "you should rest."
The pastel pink haired spy's tired frowning face immediately disappeared and was replaced with an euphoric smile as she turned to Brian with a furious blush. "Brian cares abo—?! A-Ah Brian~! Aha don't worry about me, I may be a blind bat but I'm strong! I don't have to rest. I'm so sorry for worrying you!" She chirped.
"Greetings everyone. I believe we have quite the emergency today."
Mr. Häyhä's flat robotic voice with a slight Finnish lilt echoed through the assembly hall and everyone went quiet, not daring to speak. The tall blonde smirked as he strolled into front of his army of agents, assassins, hackers and spies alike. "Where's Gaela Itenokami?" The man asked the crowd. An unnerving chill ran down Brian's spine as the powerful man's cold brown eyes gazed into his. "Cadet Gaela Itenokami is currently in St. Peter's University sir!" Ma171 piped up, "she's in dorm eight hundred and eight, setting up wiretaps and cameras." "Give her the emergency signal. I want my gem here." "Of course sir."
Mr. Häyhä scowled, looking down at his group of followers not hiding his distaste. "When will you all prove yourselves worthy?" He growled, "without Gaela Itenokami, you're all worthless. The paradise we all yearn for isn't going to appear out of nowhere. You're all garbage. Trash. At least be more like Ma171, Lydie Wang or most importantly the wonderful Gaela Itenokami and prove yourselves useful." Dead silence. No one dared to talk back to their boss. "What's more is th—"
"Shut the f*ck up Cillian." Someone finally shouted. Everyone went quiet. Brian widened his eyes a bit. Whoever talked back have guts. There's only one person in this agency who dares to call Mr. Häyhä by his first name. "Shut the f*ck up Cillian." Rin Shiota repeated, her blazing radioactive blue eyes widening in fury as her side ponytail swayed to the side, "we aren't all total robotic obedient dogs like Gaela and Maili. You should stop treating them like things Cillian, f*ck off. Show some respect to my friends and comrades you ungrateful xитровыебанный."
Brian's heart stopped beating for a second. Rin did not just say that. After spending years learning Russian, Brian couldn't help but to shutter (how does Rin, an amateur Russian speaker, know that word? Who's teaching Rin how to curse? Brian don't want to know but alas he think he can guess it's a certain one eyed comrade).
Mr. Häyhä stared at Rin. Rin stared back.
"Shiota is it? Do you want to die?" Mr. Häyhä asked very suddenly, giving Rin a smile that doesn't seem right. "Lmao b*tch please I have Brian on my side." Rin sassed in confidence, "I can't die try me m8."
Mr. Häyhä wasn't the boss (and the most feared man) in the agency for nothing. His reflexes were too fast for anyone to see, including Brian. The blonde doesn't even know what happened but all he knew is that he dashed right in front of the blue haired side ponytailed girl instinctively and whacked a zooming bullet alway with the Yoake. Rin froze, clearly not expecting that. Brian was internally shaking for doing such actions against his boss but it's for the sake of protecting Rin.
"......Cadet Speller." Mr. Häyhä started, cold voice wavering in the air as he lowered his specially designed handgun (if Brian recalled correctly, it's named Scorpion. It's created by a talented gunman who have ties with Gaela...), "I've heard a lot about you." "I won't let you harm Rin sir." Brian simply said. "Hm? Is that the Yoake I see? Isn't that Gaela's specialised katana?" Mr. Häyhä asked, staring at the '夜明け' symbol on the blade. "Gaela bestowed this blade upon me." Brian replied as bluntly as possible.
"...Hm. Where was I..?" Mr. Häyhä suddenly asked. "An emergency sir." Ma171 answered. "Ah yes. An emergency. Fuze Nethercott hasn't been back for a while. That's why I summoned you all...." Before the boss can continue his message, a beep interrupted him. "Pardon me." Maili muttered, irises zooming in and out as diagrams and codes zoomed in her eyes, "sir we got a message from an unknown location... How does someone know how to send me a message?" Maili finally said uncertainly, "shall we listen?"
"What does it say Ma171? What's the topic?" Mr. Häyhä asked. "Fuze Nethercott and Lydie Wang..." Maili breathed. Mr. Häyhä's face darkened as he drifted his gaze over to Lydie, who just widened her eyes. "Ma171 let's give it a listen." He finally said. "It's a link to a LIVE video. Pardon me. Let me connect myself to the projector and turn on the speaker." The sky-blue haired robot replied. The robot connect herself to the projector in the hall via Bluetooth and the projector before it whirred in life and displayed dark abandoned insides of a shed.
In the centre middleground of the video was Fuze Nethercott tied to a chair, blindfolded with what it seems to be minor injuries littered on his body. His lab coat was tattered and bloody and his pale face bruised. He coughed and groggily lifted his head. Adrienne scowled. "It seems like he's meddled by a neurologist." She hissed.
Mr. Häyhä's cold brown eyes immediately darkened as he stared at the screen intensely while others gasped and clicked their tongues in frustration. Brain glanced at Lydie, who's shaking and trembling like a little rabbit with her eyes widening in horror. "Hello there, members of The Agency." A calm smooth voice with a German accent began. Everyone fell silent.
The infamous killer appeared in the screen, malevolent turquoise eyes staring into Brian's soul. "I am TRAXX. I have Royal Guard Fuze Nethercott by my side. Hand over Lydie Wang and nobody gets hurt. You don't want anything bad happening to Her Majesty's royal guard do you Cillian?" Mr. Häyhä's face hardened.
"I could ask Fuze Nethercott where Lydie might be and free him but it seems like we have quite the problem. You sure have a number of compliant dogs Cillian." TRAXX growled as she smashes a spray paint canister onto the injured apprentice scientist's head. "Tell me where the lead scientist Lydie is." She hissed. Brian shot the said female a glance. Brian never seen her so pale before.
"N-Never," Fuze spat, "I'll never....... t-tell you where she is.. S-She's my friend and I've known her for a long time..... I would never betray her. K-Kill me, torture me......... break me. I-I would never give her away." The male then proceed to turn to the camera steadily, limbs jerking in an unsettling manner (but it almost seems fake for some reason. Brian feels uneasy about this). "M-Mr. Häyhä, if you're watching this, don't mind me...... I'm sure Her Majesty will understand the situation. Tell Lydie to—"
An ear deafening explosion erupted in the background of the video. Everyone covered their ears and TRAXX spun around to check what's going on. Brian's face darkened - TRAXX's widened eyes said to him the killer did not expect this.
The serial killer proceed to brush strands of her long neon green hair out of the way as her gaze landed steadily on an infamous figure with a plague doctor mask and a long ponytailed girl beside her with a mask on top of the exploded ruins of what it seems to be a warehouse with a white haired boy at the very far back in an Icelandic sweater. Brian's face grimaced. The Angel's executioner and the praiseworthy Winter that he faced off with before. The boy at the back must be the so-called Hvítur. TRAXX furrowed her brows fury as soon as Winter revealed an unconscious ninja.
"TRAXX." The Angel's Executioner started, "hand Fuze Nethercott over." Lydie held her breath, curling her lips as tears streamed down her face. Brian don't know how to calm the scientist down so he just laid a land on her shoulder as reassuringly as possible if that even makes sense (Brian's not sure if that's what he's supposed to do. Well, he saw Threatening doing it to him as well as multiple people before). "Never," TRAXX snarled, "I'll never let you kill Fuze." "It's either him or this weak ninja here." Winter echoed, flinging a body onto the floor, "tch, she's weak. Someone like her would never survive in the real world. I guess I can rise to the very top quickly if everyone's this weak."
"Hey Ka— I mean, TRAXX. Go and save Sa— I mean, your apprentice." Fuze suddenly urged (Brian narrowed his eyes. Didn't he have some disorders just then or is he pretending? If so, why?), "don't worry about me. I'll fine." "No Fuze. I don't wanna loose you too." TRAXX murmured. "I really don't want to loose someone close to me again because of me and that damn Executioner..." TRAXX's voice was barely audible. Brian paused. Fuze knows TRAXX? Was he hearing things? Interesting.
"No. You all aren't going anywhere. We need Lydie." Winter hissed, running off towards camera and the camera clicked. The LIVE video ended. Nothing but a deathly silence loomed over the Assembly hall. All eyes are on Lydie Wang. "F-Fuze...." She rasped, large crystal tears spilling out of her eyes. "Don't cry miss Lydie," Ma171 comforted, "Fuze'll be fine! He's Fuze after all!"
"We'll get him back." Akamai growled, "I ain't gonna loose someone Alfred looks up to." "Better get him back quick." Folisha said in annoyance, "TRAXX and Angel's Executioner? Bullsh*t. Let's clean them up too, if we want a paradise, we don't need them." "Fuze needs our help. We need to get him back. Right Brian?" Rin asked, "he's essential to this agency, we need him." Brian simply nodded.
"I-Idiots!" Adrienne snapped, "you know what we signed up for. It's either kill or be killed. We have an occupation that toys with lives. Fuze is as good as dead..... I-It's not like a care about you all or anything but I don't want to loose any of yous; you're all essential to the Agency." "Even if we want to save him, we don't even know where he is." Threatening spoke up, defending Adrienne. His dark black eyes were strict and full of authority. "We might not be able to make it out alive. This is the infamous TRAXX and the Angel's Executioner we're talking about here. Fuze is too weak even if he's under Allah's care. Allah get to choose who dies and who lives after all. Fuze will forever be remembered as a martyr."
Before anyone can debate what they'll do, the giant projector whirred to life again. The Angel's executioner stood in the centre ground with an unconscious Fuze in its grasp. "Meet me in..... Well, the Agency have very advanced technology. I'm sure you can track us down. Bring Lydie Wang with you and we can do a trade or else...." The Angel's Executioner pulled out a calligraphy pen that Brian knows too well (there's no ink inside, it's a skewer-switchblade that shoots out when you press the pen cap... Fascinating), "Fuze Nethercott will die."
The video ended.
All eyes are on Mr. Häyhä who fell silent and just sighed, a frown appearing on his face. "Ma171, contact Mr. Yue and my brother. Get Gaela back. Rí an Ghealach, get ready for a mission as well as anyone whose not assigned with a mission today. Akamai, Ma171, Lydie, come along. We need as much people as we can summon...... Damn you TRAXX and Angel's Executioner...... Just wait until I kill you two with my own two hands."