by Jack Parker
My nostrils flared in irritation from the smoke and the heat. "Where is everyone?" I asked before I let out a cough.
"Hell if I'd know." Fear replied hoarsely. "This is where we're supposed to be. Something must have happened."
As if on cue, gunshots sprang all around us, a couple of them nearly grazed us.
We quickly fell into cover and assessed our situation.
"Ok." I started. "An explosion just occurred, we've got fires everywhere, and we're being shot at. Did I miss anything?"
Fear gave me an amused glance. "Yeah, I think you forgot your knives." He teased.
I huffed and punched him on the shoulder.
He rubbed it, but immediately went still as a bullet skimmed past his cheek. "Holy shit!" He exclaimed. "That was close."
I gritted my teeth together as I attempted to uncover the location of the mysterious shooters. "Well, I'm at a lost." I said bluntly. "I don't suppose you could somehow throw your swords far enough to hit them?"
Fear gave me a 'what the hell?' glance. "No." He said. "In case you didn't notice, these are swords not boomerangs."
"Thanks Captain Obvious." I replied sarcastically.
He was about to retort, but we were sprayed with more bullets.
Another set of gunshots went off, however, and then it was quiet.
Fear and I looked at each other before we carefully peaked out of our hiding spots as we heard footsteps.
Once our heads were out of cover, we saw Agent Claire walk towards us. "Morning gentlemen," she said. "I don't suppose you could offer me a cup of coffee?"
My friend and I looked at each other again, before we fully exposed our bodies.
We climbed over the rubble, and walked towards Agent Claire.
"Thanks for saving our asses." I said. "Do you know what's going on?" I asked.
Agent Claire took on a more serious tone. "As you noticed, there was an explosion earlier. A small bomb detonated on one of the observation towers." She paused, and looked at both of us gravely. "It's the Phantoms." She whispered.
My eyes widened and then narrowed as I took in the information. I should have known it was them.
I inconspicuously took a deep breath before I spoke again. "So what do we do now? The main area is on fire, and we're probably overrun by Phantom agents."
Agent Claire nodded in agreement. "We have to evacuate the Shroud. I saw other Seeker agents doing just that. There's nothing that we can do here. Before we can leave though, you both need to get appropriate weapons."
With that, Agent Claire turned around, and hastily crossed the main area.
Immediately, Fear and I fell into step behind her.
It turned out that she led us to the weapons storage area.
She went into the back and took out two black cases and set them in front of us. "This one's yours." She said as she looked at me. "And this is for you." She said rather shyly as she addressed Fear.
Fear opened the case and his eyes widened as he stared at the content in shock. "The new Devil's bow. How did you…?"
"Let's just say a little bird told me." Agent Claire replied and winked.
Fear stared at her in slight amazement before he regained his focus and set up the weapon.
In the meantime, I opened my own case and whistled at the sight of a beautiful serrated shotgun that was made of titanium.
I brought it close to my face, and admired the shine that the metal caught from the distant fires.
"I don't mean to interrupt your personal fantasies, gentlemen, but we are running on a tight schedule." Agent Claire said, which pulled Fear and I out of our admiration.
I secured the shotgun within my grasp.
I turned towards Fear and saw that he too was ready. His hands held onto the beautiful sniper rifle.
We made eye contact and then we looked back at Agent Claire, and nodded.
She also nodded in confirmation, and turned around and sped walked out the door.
Fear and I followed behind her, each of us kept an eye on our six.
Agent Claire walked forwards carefully as she looked around for any enemies.
The sound of a struggle caught all of our attentions, and we may our way towards the source.
We came around a pile of more rubble and saw some Seeker agents battling with Phantom agents.
Horrifyingly, each Seeker agent was slaughtered with no mercy.
I gritted my teeth in anger as rage boiled within me. The desire to kill the Phantoms itched all over.
As if sensing the change in atmosphere, one of the Phantom agents turned around and looked right at us.
He then signaled his buddies and gestured to us.
"They've seen us!" Agent Claire cried out.
Right away, Fear took a defensive position in front of the Combat Specialist, and held out his rifle. "Come and get me bitches!" He challenged.
The Phantom agents sped towards us, yet Fear showed no sign of, well, fear.
He lined the rifle's sight to face the Phantom in the middle.
With a sharp breath, he pulled the trigger.
It was a bull's eye; it hit the Phantom right in the chest, yet the other two still kept on running.
Not one to be distracted by a kill, Fear turned his attention to the agent on the right and fired again.
Like the first one, that agent was also hit, however the last one was awfully close to us.
Fear would not have had enough time to take him out too.
In a last minute effort, I fired at the remaining Phantom's abdomen.
He went down gurgling as blood flew from his mortal wound.
I looked up and realized that Fear was looking at me. "What?" I asked. "Can't let you have all the fun."
He gave me an indifferent look as I smiled at him sheepishly.
Another explosion from above caught our attention.
We all looked up and saw dozens of Phantom agents sliding down ropes and surrounded us.
"Oh crap." I commented.
All three of us formed a triangle with our backs to one another.
I held my shotgun at the ready, Fear had his rifle aimed at the Phantom blocking the exit, and Claire took out her duo pistols.
"Hey Fear," I started. "Just so you know, it was me who stole your computer's CPU. That's why it never worked."
Fear glanced at me in shock. "What the hell John?" He cried out. "Why are you telling me this now?"
I huffed in exasperation. "I don't fricken know!" I shouted back. "Maybe it's because we're about to die, so I wanted to be cleared of anything that was on my conscious?"
"Would you guys just shut the hell up?!" Agent Claire yelled, which caused both Fear and I to stop talking.
We resumed our focus on the coming Phantoms. They consisted of Warriors, Assassins, and some other ranks that I couldn't identify.
I gritted my teeth as the Phantoms continued to get closer.
All of a sudden, a loud beeping noise arose and one of the armored vans came crashing through the front glass.
The three of us got down as we covered our faces from the flying glass.
The beeping noise turned out to be the van's horn blaring to catch our attention.
We realized that the Phantoms were momentarily stunned, so we ceased that opportunity to run to safety.
The doors automatically opened, and we quickly got inside.
Immediately, the driver put the van to reverse, and as soon as we were outside, the driver hit the gas and the van sped away.
Once I regained my bearings, I crawled towards the front, and finally saw who the driver was. "Pete?" I asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
The Head Warrior glanced at me briefly. "I'm here because of the Phantoms." He replied.
He sped through the dark streets, and expertly dodged any obstacles in our way.
I crawled into the front passenger street and put on my seat belt.
"Jesus Christ Pete, what the hell is going on?" I demanded.
The Head Warrior ignored me, too focused on driving us to safety.
Fear and Claire were in the back and kept on bouncing around as neither of them had their seat-belt on.
"The Phantoms attacked Seeker HQ. Seeker agents that were there are either dead or have been taken hostage." Pete finally said as he cursed in his breath.
My eyes widened at his news. "I thought they were after the Shroud?"
The Head Warrior shook his head. "No, it was all just a well-executed plan. Seeker HQ was their main target. They drew all high operative Seeker agents away from it so that they could move in. There's word that the Directors are dead."
I gritted my teeth as the van hit a rather nasty looking hole, but the Head Warrior still kept on driving.
"What does this mean for us?" I asked; my heart was beating like mad.
"It means that we're in a full scale war. The whole world is now involved." The Head Warrior replied as he looked at me dead in the eye.
I felt my blood go cold at the horrifying reality.
This was exactly what Rachel feared for.
"Sir, what happened to Rachel and her team?"
If I hadn't been paying attention, I would have missed the Nano-second time frame in which the Head Warrior's body went rigid.
I immediately knew that something was wrong.
Pete turned his head away. "We lost contact with Agent Moore and her team shortly after they arrived in New York. We suspect that the Phantoms have captured them."
My heart skipped a beat as I took in what Pete said. "What?!" I shouted. "How the hell did that happen? Where is she?!"
The Head Warrior didn't even wince.
Instead, he turned sharply into a dark alley and stopped the van.
He turned to look at me. "I mean that she is MIA. The only bodies we found onboard the plane were those of the pilot and Agent Elvira." The Head Warrior looked away, his grip on the steering wheel increased in pressure.
I narrowed my eyes and snarled. "So what, the others just vanished? For God's sake, we're the Seekers! Are we really that pathetic that we can't properly find people?"
The Head Warrior slapped the steering wheel in frustration, and whipped his head around, his eyes were wild with anger and loss. "Don't start acting like you're the only one who lost someone! Several of my friends and colleagues are dead, and I have no idea what happened to the others."
I was about to retort, but a hand gripped my shoulder.
I turned around and saw Fear looking at me sadly while Claire was at a loss.
"John, not like this." Fear said gently.
I looked at my childhood friend. He too was worried for Rachel and the others, though he was calmer about it than I was. How could I have been calm?
I looked away, and gripped the car seat tightly as I struggled to find my inner balance.
For a moment, there was a tense, awkward silence in the van as neither of us knew what to say or do.
Thankfully, Pete cleared his throat, started the van and drove once more.
The silence continued on for a bit longer, until I got tired of it. "What's our next move?" I asked, wary of not pissing off the Head Warrior any more than I already had.
Luckily, he was a professional and went along with it. "We'll have to regroup at a secure location. Gather as many surviving Seeker agents as we can, and strike back at the Phantoms."
I raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly are we going to do that?" I asked.
The Head Warrior ignored my tone, and took out some sort of scanner.
I looked at him in confusion.
"Do you remember all those medical tests you underwent when you first joined the Seekers?" Pete asked.
All three of us nodded our heads.
"Whether you were aware of this or not, every Seeker agent was implanted with nanobots that could be activated in case of an emergency. Frankly, now seems to be the perfect moment." With that, he pushed the button, and suddenly all of our veins started to glow.
I looked at my arms in awe, completely shocked that something like that was hidden inside of me for all of these years.
I looked back at Fear and Claire, and saw that they too were looking at their bodies in curiosity about this fact.
I turned my attention to the Head Warrior. "So, where to?" I asked.
He turned around, and gave me a slight smirk. "To the place where you least expected."
Chapter 28: New Playing Field
~ Rachel's POV ~
The sound of dripping water woke me up from my slumber.
I carefully opened my eyes as a burning sensation passed through them briefly. Once it went away, I saw nothing but darkness. I had no idea where I was, or how I even got there.
At first, I thought that I had gone blind, but then I was able to make out some detail of the cold, tiled floor.
The next thing I noticed was the intense headache that pounded in my head. I was about to rub my temples, but I realized that both of my hands and legs were tied up behind me.
I struggled to free them, but the movement caused the pounding in my head to increase, and I suddenly vomited.
I wrinkled my nose in distaste as the smell bothered me.
I abruptly tensed as the sound of a door opening echoed in the quiet.
I hushed my breathing in an attempt to remain hidden, however the disturber of the silence opened the door to my cell, and stood at the entrance.
My eyes winced as light came into the cell and illuminated me.
Unfortunately for me, all I could see was the person's outline.
I wasn't sure whether I should have been grateful that the figure closed the door to shield my eyes from the glaring light, or to feel panicked.
The figure took a step towards me.
Despite how hard I tried to push myself away from the figure, my bounds were too tight, so I didn't get more than a good centimeter away from my initial position.
The figure made a noise of disgust, and I instantly froze.
"Ugh, nasty." The figure commented.
I figured that he was referring to the vomit on the floor.
The figure made a sniffling noise, before he shuddered and made a "heh" sound. "You're a spunky little one, aren't you?" The figure said.
I stared at the ground wordlessly, and focused on calming down my breathing.
I heard shuffling above me, and when I lifted my head up a bit, I was staring eye to eye with the figure.
His face was mostly covered by the darkness from the room, yet I could make out his eyes which were glowing an electric blue color.
I felt my face pale at the sight.
The figure chuckled. "I suppose you now realize who I am?" He asked.
Unable to reply, I found it hard to do anything but stare at his eyes.
It was the first time I had ever seen a Phantom's eye up close. The shades of color swirled like a hurricane, and what little light there was present glowed through the pupils.
The Phantom stared back at me, not blinking even once.
Eventually, the staring got too much for me, so I ended up looking down, and rested my head against the cold floor.
Apparently the Phantom agent had other plans as he pressed two fingers under my chin and forced me to look up again. "That was rude of you." He commented. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to not stare at a person for too long?"
Once again, I didn't answer.
The Phantom then squeezed my cheeks slightly. "Oh wait, that's right. You don't have a mother." He said as he grinned maliciously.
I narrowed my eyes, and spat at him.
For a moment, the Phantom agent tensed before he slowly wiped my saliva from his cheek. It seemed like an eternity had gone by before the Phantom reacted.
I didn't anticipate the strength of the blow as he slapped me with incredible force across my cheek.
It knocked me down so hard that I saw stars in my blurry vision.
My face rested against the ground, and I saw the Phantom get up and wipe ima
ginary dust from his cloak. "That was also rude." He finally said. "Looks like I'll have to teach you manners, young lady. Luckily, I know just the trick."
His tone caused shivers to crawl down my spine, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end in apprehension.
The Phantom agent chuckled quietly. "Well, there's nothing that I can't do once I set my mind to it. Don't worry darling, I'll have you back to good in no time."
I could practically hear the smirk in his tone.
Abruptly, the Phantom knelt down again, and forced me to look at him. "Do you want to know why our eyes glow?" He asked almost excitedly. "You see, once a person is taken in by us, their eyes are retrofitted to allow them to have night vision, hence the 'glow' that you see. Why is it that you think that no one sees us, yet we always see them?" He grinned at the last part.
I stayed mute as I struggled to control my vision and the dizzy feeling that I experienced.
The Phantom huffed in disappointment. "Agent Moore, why must you continue to rebel? Don't you see that we only want your cooperation? No harm will be done to you if you do as we say."
I inhaled sharply. "Over my dead body." I quietly, but firmly said.
The Phantom agent looked at me for a moment before he shook his head. "You leave me with no choice, Agent Moore." He replied.
I tensed as he got up, and shuffled through his pocket. He took out a thick collar with spikes on them.
As he approached me, I instinctively tried to move away.
The agent laughed briefly. "There's nowhere to go, Agent Moore. You're stuck here until you decide to cooperate. Until then, we'll be keeping an eye on you with this."
To emphasize his point, the Phantom agent knelt down, and pushed me to the wall.
I gritted my teeth as the movement caused the bounds to tighten and peel into my skin.
The Phantom agent dismissed my hiss of pain, and proceeded to put on the collar around my neck.
I winced as the short spikes pierced into my skin to firmly attach the collar.
The Phantom leaned back. "There, all good." He said. "Now we can keep an eye on your vitals, among other things." He smirked.
I glared at him weakly as I spat out blood to the side.
The Phantom agent took out a device with a small handle on it. "This here will control the amount of voltage that will course through your body. Allow me to demonstrate."