“What the fuck is going on here? I said don’t ruin my day. I swear if you fuckers…”
Phavian gives her a placating gesture before continuing. “You have put up with a lot of my shit in the past few weeks, from the moping, to the anger fits, to being standoffish. I just wanted to say I am really sorry about all of that, especially when all you wanted was to make me feel better.”
“So you aren’t going to jump across the table and eat my face? From what I hear you’ve been on quite the psycho rampage.”
Giving a slight chuckle as he looks down, “Yeah, not my finest hour. Thanks to Anaar though, I’m much better. We are much better. We are a couple now, and we will even be going on our first mission tomorrow. All things considered life couldn’t be better for me right now.”
Codi turns to look at Anaar with an odd look on her face for a few moments, then pounces on him, giving him a hug with a sloppy kiss on the cheek. “I don’t know what kind of magic boy pussy you have, but whatever it is, make sure you keep that shit working around the clock! I haven’t seen Phave like this in what seems like forever! Now I can stop hating you too!”
I like how she slid that last part in… “Umm… Thanks? Glad to have you back too Codi. Though I’m going to need to limit your exposure to Maggie, she is taking on far too many of your traits. She is especially susceptible now probably.”
“Wait, why would she be… Oh my god did you already tell her you and Phave are together?! Did you even let the dick juices dry before telling her?! What the fuck?!”
“I didn’t even know she had feelings for me like that! I just thought she was the Codi to my Phavian, I didn’t know she wanted something else! When I found out though, I knew she needed to hear it from me, so waiting would have done nothing but made things worse.”
“Well at least you made use of that big brain of yours for something…” Her face and tone becoming remarkably soft all of a sudden, “Honestly, I think she will be fine. She has just been trying so hard for so long, it is no doubt a jarring experience to be yanked out of the race. Give her some time, and everything will be alright.”
“Thanks Codi. I really hope so, because I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her. In other news, congrats on an epic win, bumping yourself up four places in the rankings. You are top five now!”
“That’s right fuckers! I’m coming for you Phave! Well, that is as long as you aren’t in like psycho sadist mode. If you are, fuck that, I’m just going to eliminate myself as soon as the Melee starts.”
“Shut up Codi.”
“Codi, I have never really had the opportunity to see you use your powers in earnest. You are using them all the time, but you are never trying to hurt us, much. I can’t help but think you have a similar fear I do, that you are going to cause some serious harm to someone that can’t be fixed if you really cut loose, because instead of lighting them up like I expected, you simply defaulted to paralyzing most people. Well that is except for the one Titan at the end. That orb packed a serious punch. I’m guessing it is a one-shot deal if you weren’t using it all the time.”
Banging her hands on the table, “You know I hate when you do that shit! What is the point of explaining something you have already figured out?! I’m just going to say yes to all the above. Geez… fuckin’ weirdo…”
“Codi you made it even further, though somehow we still never managed to crossed paths. How the fuck do we keep doing that? We only have one more shot at this shit.”
“Honestly, you could have stayed far away from me and I wouldn’t have been happier. Hearing the things you did, I don’t think I would have trusted you to be all ‘Let’s be a team’ and shit. It would have been more like, you beating me with my own arm or something.”
“I was not that bad!”
“Yeah you are right, you were fucking worse! In what world do Titans end up in the hospital after a Melee?! You are one sick fuck you know that?!”
Looking down sheepishly, “I’m trying to make amends… I went through a lot of fucked up shit all at once. I hate to say it, but it broke me.”
“What kind of fucked up shit exactly…?”
“Well let’s see, the only man I have ever loved kinda savagely rejected me-”
“Hey!”
“Don’t ‘Hey’ me! That shit was savage, and then you let me wallow in misery for a week as you mysteriously disappeared.”
“I apologized for that.”
“Then, thanks to crazy people being after you, they decided to kidnap and beat the shit out of me instead, to get to you!”
“I came and saved you though!”
“Yeah! Whatever was left of my pride and manhood just ripped away right there!”
Codi throws up her hands for silence as she tries to make sense of everything. “So wait, you mean to tell me Anaar was hiding from bad guys for that week, and when they couldn’t get to him, they took you, basically holding you for ransom?”
“That’s pretty much the gist of it.”
Anaar looks over, shrugs, then gives a nod to Codi. “Pretty much.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you people?! Who could be chasing you? I knew you were too damn perfect!”
“People who wanted me to do bad things since I’m a Demolitionist. I was clearly not on board with it.”
“Well fuck! All this shit happening behind the scenes and no one knew! Well I guess all’s well that ends well. Phave is still number 1, and you two are finally together which means he can stop being such a little pussy.”
Grumbling to himself, “I was going through some shit man…”
“Well either way, this is a good look on both of you. Now Maggie will have no choice but to come into my open arms…”
“Codi…”
“Fine. I’ll leave her alone. For now.”
Turning their attentions to other topics, they chat aimlessly for a while before parting ways. As they watch Codi leave, Phavian mentions they should probably set about preparing for their mission.
“What exactly do we need?”
“Well I can tell you what we don’t need. You and your damn arsenal of weapons. At best you should bring one, and even then, none of them really conceal easily, or are very modern, which paints a big red sign on your forehead in public. Around here it is normal, but you have to remember out in the world people don’t just walk around with a bandolier of knives, or swords hanging from their back, especially those, or tonfas hanging from their sides. I think we need to get you a nice pistol that you can use on missions. Most times you need to equip yourself. Since this is with the CIA, I don’t think it would be too much for them to give us a gun or two, but it would be better if you had your own you were comfortable with.”
Anaar gives a frown as he fingers the bandolier he was known for wearing around his chest. After a moment however he visibly brightens. “So we need to buy me a gun right?”
“Yes. Also, you need some clothes. This shit you are wearing isn’t going to cut it, and you only have the one outfit from the Melee.”
“Wait, you just said we shouldn’t stick out. Wouldn’t it be fairly noticeable if we were running around in body armor and damn near combat fatigues?”
“Well to that end you do have a point. The Headmistress said it was a recon and potential retrieval mission. Blending in is the name of the game there.”
“In that case, maybe we should hold off on the whole convert my closet initiative, since we would likely want clothes that were a bit more traditional to where we will be?”
“I can live with that I guess…”
Seriously, what is so wrong with the way I dress?! Everyone is trying their best to give me some kind of makeover. “I guess we should head to B4 for guns then?”
Taking the elevator to the deepest floor, Phavian stops for a moment to peruse, as he liked finding new odds and ends that might be useful for missions, while Anaar strode to the counter with a purpose. Letting him go for the time being, Phavian finally joins Anaar at the counter after
a time.
“No.”
“What?”
“Absolutely fucking not!”
“Come on! What do you mean?!”
Waving over everything on the counter, Phavian tells the attendant that he could take it all back, as they would not be needing it. “I’m putting my foot down, you cannot walk around with a Desert Eagle! Not to mention two of them!”
“But you said I needed a gun to be normal on missions!”
“Yes, a gun. Singular. Also a gun, not a fucking cannon!”
“It’s a semi-auto, magazine fed though!”
“This is what happens when I leave you alone with Ripp! It is already bad enough you think having a damn arsenal is okay. Now you are completely desensitized to the fact that you are trying to carry two hand cannons! No!”
“Ripp would let me get them.”
“Of course she would! She would be damn proud. But this is not normal! The point is to be normal like any other operative.”
Somewhat pouting, he watches as his shiny new guns are taken away. “So what now? I thought I had a boyfriend, not a dad…”
Ignoring his comment, “We get you a nice 9mm that you can practice with, so you are comfortable before the mission. You are right about the clothes, but we at least need to get you something decent to meet our handlers.”
“Yeah no, I’ll pass on both of those, we can just go.”
“What do you mean you will pass? You need to be properly equipped and dressed for these things!”
“And I am. I have on clothes, and honestly I don’t need a gun anyway.” Grumbling underneath his breath, “Especially if I can’t have the ones I want…”
“You know what… I don’t care… If you want to show up to your first mission unprepared and looking like that…”
“And what exactly is mission attire? Is it business casual? Semi-formal? Spandex? I’ll take my chances.”
“Now you are doing this just to be an ass aren’t you?”
“No, I’m doing this to remind you why you fell in love with me in the first place. I’m not you. Stop trying to make me a carbon copy of you. If I find that there is some issue, I’ll adjust accordingly, but otherwise you don’t need to police every little aspect of my life.”
Phavian sighs, then leans up against him. “I just want what is best for you.”
“Which means when you constantly tell me what I am doing is wrong, you are basically telling me that you know better for me than I know for myself. Now how do you think that makes me feel?”
“I guess you have a point…”
“Of course I do.” Turning to leave, Phavian stops him.
“What about your guns?”
Shrugging lazily, “I don’t need them, I never did. I was just trying to be compliant with your wishes.” With that he continues striding out of the store, leaving Phavian to smirk, then run to catch up with him.
The following morning Anaar and Phavian are picked up by their handler, which makes Phavian ecstatic as missions without Transporters just made for a much more miserable experience. After being briefed, they find out that due to the extensive intelligence gathered ahead of time, the mission parameters had changed, making this a full retrieval mission.
Going later in the day would prove to be the most successful for the mission, which meant they would have a few hours to properly plan their entry, retrieve the materials and make their way back out. When questioned why the CIA would need the help of students when they should have clearly qualified agents for the task, they were told that while they had agents with the linguistic skills to carry out the mission, currently there were none with both linguistic skills and combat readiness in the event it became necessary.
The mission’s success hinged upon no one being alerted to the fact it was Americans that were after the items. As such, Phavian and Anaar’s features were ambiguous enough to remain free from suspicion as long as they played things smart. Their target was a briefcase that was hidden deep within a compound. Fitted with appropriate attire, they were transported with a series of jumps not far from their target location. With the knowledge they would be going in dark, and the mission must be successful, meaning the retrieval of the case, the two men set off for Anaar’s first real mission.
Noting the change to early afternoon, the two men continue their trek toward the compound, while discussing their strategy.
“High value items such as these are usually kept in the most secure locations of a compound obviously. We need to keep our ears open for anything we might understand. Because they may be speaking a dialect, some things we may not immediately pick up on, but context clues should help. In the event we get stopped by someone, if we speak the language cool, that person take the lead, if we don’t… Well let’s just try not to get stopped.”
With a nod, Anaar tries to walk as inconspicuously as possible, impressed at how well their contacts were able to outfit them in similar attire. With their faces partially covered, they blended in rather well. Based on the information they had, it appeared they would need to find an entrance into the main building of the compound, which was still quite far from where it was suspected the briefcase would be located.
Scanning for cameras or other drones, it was a good thing their intel held true that this compound would not have much advanced technology at their disposal, which made detection less likely. When they reached a side door, Phavian approaches it with an intense look on his face. Stopping him before he did anything, Anaar gives him a questioning look.
“What are you doing?”
“I was going to freeze the lock and break it so we can get in.”
“Alerting any number of people, and dropping the likelihood of getting out without anyone noticing? If someone comes in after us to a broken lock the alarms are going to go off like crazy.”
Giving him a snide look, “Fine then Mr. First Mission, you have a better idea?”
“Uh yeah, I do! The whole reason we are being sent on missions together in the first place!”
Placing his hand to the lock, it changes into living water, snaking its way through the mechanism. In a few seconds there is an audible click, and then Anaar opens the door.
“Fine, I guess that way is much better. I didn’t realize you were a human lockpick.”
Entering the building, they both pad as softly as possible, given they did not receive any intel on the type of resistance they could expect inside the building. Keeping their eyes and ears open, they managed to move smoothly, but not in a manner that would that would raise immediate suspicion if they were spotted. They came across a room of men, armed, but they seemed to be enjoying some sort of game. As the game becomes heated, the two creep away down the hall up a flight of stairs. With a low whisper Phavian leans close to Anaar’s ear.
“Did you understand what they were saying?”
“Barely. Their dialect is definitely quite different from the Farsi I’m used to, but they weren’t saying anything of use anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”
“Good to know. I have heard some Arabic too, but thus far, since the recon portion of this mission was completed before we arrived, there hasn’t been much need to keep a close eye out.”
When they reach the top of the stairs, Phavian extends his arm, signaling Anaar to stop. With a head jerk, he motions to the to the three cameras mounted in the ceiling. “Can you disable them?”
“Who do I look like, Codi?”
“Can’t you just drench them in water then?”
“That is ill advised, that model of camera is designed for outside use, and is waterproof.”
“They are waterproof. They are meant for outside.”
“Not even going to ask how or why you know that!”
“I have an idea. Want to see what we can do together?”
“What’s the plan?”
“I cover the lenses in water, you freeze them. To the person watching them, they will still be on, but just be blurry. Hopefully they are used to things being
peaceful, so they aren’t paying close enough attention until it is too late. It beats me just blowing them up, making it obvious for whoever is watching the cameras.”
“I guess you are made for this, let’s do it.”
Creating small pools of water inside the cameras where the lenses are, Anaar gives Phavian a nod, and he flash freezes them. Finding the coast clear, they make their way up, checking the doors, none of them seeming to house anything of import. Coming to one of the last doors on the floor, Phavian is just about to open it when Anaar gets an overwhelming feeling of wrongness, grabbing his hand.
“What?”
“I don’t like what is behind that door. Actually, I just realized we weren’t wearing our gloves, hold on a sec.” Scrubbing each of the knobs with a small construct of water, Anaar looks back and nods. “Something tells me things aren’t going to go so well once we enter here. Make sure your face is covered and put on your gloves. We might need to make a break for it.”
“And you know this how?”
“Don’t ask! Just do it, I think shit is about to hit the fan.”
Covering his face and putting on his gloves, Phavian grumbles something about him thinking he was the leader, then opens the door once Anaar gives the go ahead. As soon as the door opens, a powerful military grade turret begins rapid firing high caliber bullets, three catching Phavian in various areas before he can activate his defenses. With the rest of the bullets coming to a harmless stop at his body, Anaar can see the pain in his face from the three bullets that caught him first, and his difficult struggle to keep up his defenses.
With a quick survey of the room, Anaar vaporizes the four cameras, then places a barrier over the staggering Phavian to give him a break from trying to keep up his Energy Negation. Reducing the turret to dozens of pieces with threads of water, he pulls Phavian into the room, creating an aquatic mat on the floor to prevent him from leaving behind DNA evidence as the blood had begun dripping down his leg. Placing a thick sheet of water over the door, he pulls the fading Phavian’s face to him, his eyes pained with agony.
“I know you are in pain, but you need to freeze this sheet of water over the door now! That is the only thing that is going to buy us enough time to fix this.”
Divulgence (Song of Sophangence Book 2) Page 16