Author's Note:
EDIT: Added a few paragraphs to make some things about the VSSE's use of the drug clearer and that it's used with consent (The scene near the end of this chapter where Robert and the VSSE chief talk about it). Thanks for the review and suggestions, June Ellie!
【Chapter 6: Pale / Plea】
His girlfriend in danger, it was only natural for Robert to sign himself up as part of the backup operation. Going with four other agents in a chopper, he was quickly briefed about his mission en route.
The VSSE had been developing an experimental drug that was supposedly able to negate pain and fear. It was meant to be used as a last resort to help agents deal with their enemies when they were in a pinch in order to ensure a mission's success, especially when said enemies needed to be taken down at all costs.
Trishy's team of four was supposed to transport the first finished samples for field testing through a hidden forest route, until an information leak caused them to be ambushed by Wild Dog's men. They were certainly eager to get their hands on such a useful drug.
Robert cursed inwardly. He just couldn't count the number of times Wild Dog had to ruin everyone's day anymore. When he arrived on site, Trishy was the only one left standing in the forest clearing, desperately fending for herself among the dead bodies of her teammates and the wreckage that used to be their vehicle.
"Trish!" Robert yelled, jumping out of his chopper with the other agents to assist her.
"Robert!" She welcomed him gladly, face streaked with tears of fear and devastation at the situation and the death of her friends.
"Where's the drug?" Robert asked.
"I have it!" Trishy said, motioning to the suitcase at her feet.
"You're wounded! Take the drug to safety and rest in the chopper. We'll handle this!" Robert ordered. Trishy nodded, grabbing the suitcase and running away. If such a drug were to fall into Wild Dog's hands, he'd be unstoppable.
"Not so fast!"
It was Wild Dog himself, entering the scene on an armored vehicle. Robert watched in horror as Wild Dog shot at Trishy, successfully hitting her in the leg. Trishy screamed, crashing roughly onto the ground.
"Wild Dog!" Robert shouted angrily, shooting at him.
"Hahahahaha!" Wild Dog laughed, deflecting Robert's bullets with his metallic arm. "Got a surprise for you!"
With that, Wild dog then activated his tractor beam, aiming it at Trishy's wrecked vehicle and lifting it up with ease.
"What?!" Robert couldn't believe his eyes. The last time he saw Wild Dog use his trademark weapon, he had never been able to lift something that heavy. Apparently, he had powered it up. He didn't have much time to think about it as Wild Dog swung the vehicle violently towards him.
Robert managed to dodge the attack, but all his other comrades weren't so lucky, easily crushed by the wreckage. Wild Dog then swung the vehicle at the chopper Robert arrived in.
"No!" Trishy exclaimed, watching their only chance of escape burst into flames. Wild Dog laughed maniacally.
"Looks like we're on the winning side," he taunted.
"Like we'd let you! More agents will be here soon!" Robert replied.
"You'd be long dead and we'd be long gone with the drug by then!" Wild Dog laughed.
Trishy watched in horror as Robert tried to take down Wild Dog's forces alone, greatly outnumbered. To think that she could only curl up in fear and pain here instead of helping him.
"Argh!" Robert yelled as a bullet pierced his arm. Wild Dog and his men continued shooting him relentlessly, seemingly taking pleasure in cornering Robert. They knew that the lone agent had no chance in fighting all of them at once. Trishy realized that she had to go and help Robert no matter what.
Shivering, her hand reached out to open the suitcase she held. Grabbing one of the syringes with the bright green drug inside, she quickly injected it into herself.
The effect was immediate. She could feel the pain from her wounded leg disappearing, as though she had never been shot. Looking at Wild Dog's horde of men, for some unexplained reason, she felt as though she could take down all of them. She had never felt better or more confident her whole life!
Getting back to her feet, she grabbed her machine gun and charged straight at Wild Dog's men. She caught them by surprise, shooting at them without any hesitation.
"Trish?!" Robert called out when the attack on him stopped.
He saw Trishy fighting so aggressively in the distance he almost couldn't tell that it was her. Laughing loudly, Trishy looked as though she enjoyed tearing the enemy apart. Robert was horrified at how fast she took down all the grunts by herself. Then he saw the suitcase with the drug lying open where Trishy had been just a few minutes ago, an empty syringe on the side. His eyes widened in disbelief.
"You're going down, too!" Trishy yelled challengingly at Wild Dog.
"Heh! Die!" Wild Dog shouted back, using his tractor beam to pick up a sharp piece of metal from the chopper wreckage and lunging it straight through Trishy's stomach, sending her crashing to the ground.
"NO!" Robert yelled. But to his horror, Trishy just got herself back up, wrenching out the metal from her stomach and lunging it straight back at Wild Dog.
"GAH!" Wild Dog barely evaded it, looking shocked himself. Trishy laughed, emptying her machine gun at him without mercy. Unable to keep up with her, Wild Dog retreated.
"Hmph! Don't think that you've won!" He said, pressing his big red button and disappearing with the explosion.
As the smoke cleared, Trishy panted as she stood. Sweat and blood covered her from head to toe. Robert was left speechless as he looked at her. A normal human shouldn't be able to stand with all the wounds she sustained.
"Trish...?" Robert called out, worried and scared for her safety and well-being.
Trishy turned to glare at him through disheveled hair with bloodshot eyes. Robert gasped in shock. The woman standing in front of him didn't feel like Trishy anymore. She lunged at Robert with bloodlust, like she was still unsatisfied after killing all of Wild Dog's troops. Robert knocked her gun out of her hands and pinned her to the ground.
"Gaaahhh! Gwaaaahhh!" Trishy screamed like a siren, trying to break free from Robert's grasp.
"Trish! Trish! It's me, Robert!" Robert tried to get her back to her senses in vain. She only replied with more screams, certainly not recognizing him. Hearing the sound of a chopper hovering above him, Robert knew that his backup had arrived.
"Fuck! What happened here?! Is that Agent Caryn?!" One of the newly arrived agents asked as he approached Robert with his four teammates.
"It's the effects of the new drug and she's wounded badly. We need to get her out of here!" Robert told them hurriedly.
Trish being very uncooperative, they tried to knock her out, only for her to break free from Robert's grip and bite one of the agents in the process. They successfully knocked her out afterwards, but had to knock the other agent out as well once he began showing similar symptoms.
On the way to the VSSE labs to complete the transportation of the drugs, Robert held Trishy's pale hand the whole time, praying to every god to save her.
Trishy and the other infected agent were kept in the labs, strapped to beds with straitjackets for a whole year as the VSSE scientists tried to figure out if they could be cured. They also had to invent fake stories for the two agents' families to explain why they were missing.
Robert visited the labs often to see if they had made any progress with Trishy. When he had the time, he'd also go and comfort Trishy's single mother, telling her lies that Trishy was alright, and that she'd come back soon. He told those lies to himself every night as well as he laid in bed, the ring he was supposed to give her lying on his bedside table.
The drug was supposed to be kept top secret even within the organization, as they wanted to prevent further info leaks from attracting more criminals. Only the superiors, those related to its development, and a select few of the VSSE agents knew of its existence. Robert himself wasn't allowed to talk about it to anyone.
Keith and Christy, despite not knowing the details of what happened to Trishy, tried to reach out to Robert sometimes. Robert gladly accepted their invitations, although he found that he couldn't be truly happy until Trishy's problem was solved.
Despite doing his best to keep his hopes high and be optimistic about it, Robert's world came crashing down when he visited the labs one day and the scientists told him that they had to put an end to Trishy the previous night.
While they were trying to test another possible antidote on her, she had fought back and broken free of her straps by forcefully ripping her arms off. She managed to bite three of the scientists in retaliation as they tried to stop her. In their own defense, they had to shoot her down.
Robert was even more devastated when they said that they had to cremate Trishy's body immediately, her blood being highly infectious due to the drug.
Another fake story was invented for Trishy's family as the VSSE now couldn't return her body. Trishy's mother was so devastated that she took her own life before Robert even knew it.
A few days after that, Robert found himself staring emptily at Trishy's name that had been newly carved onto the VSSE memorial, to be remembered as a brave agent who died courageously for the good of the world.
It would have been great if the tragedies that befell him ended there, but no, Robert just had to uncover something much worse.
Robert thought that after all the horror that happened due to Trishy using the drug, the VSSE would have learned its lesson and stopped using it immediately. But a little digging around uncovered that they were still producing and using the drug, particularly in the most confidential and difficult missions. Robert also found out that the most recent additions to the VSSE memorial were all agents who had fallen to the drug during their missions.
Learning the horrible truth, Robert stormed the VSSE Chief's office.
"Sir! You can't possibly be serious about continuing the use of the drug, can you?! How many more people are you going to kill?!"
"People die all the time during our missions, Mr. Baxter. You know that," the chief assured him, "The drug might have irreversible side effects. But from the statistics, it has a 100% chance of ensuring the mission's success. None of our agents died in vain."
"You turned them into mindless zombies! And their partnersーtheir best friends had to be the ones to end them once the mission's over!" Robert retorted, "Have you looked at what it did to the people around them, too? We can return none of their bodies and their families never had any closure!"
The VSSE Chief looked away solemnly. "It's our duty to do whatever it takes for the world's peace."
He looked at Robert again, unchanging in his resolve, "I've warned all the agents about its effects before giving it to them and told them not to use it unless it's a world-ending situation and it's absolutely necessary. I trust our agents' choice when they decide that they need to use it."
"..." Robert looked at him desperately.
"It's unfortunate that no matter how hard we try to improve the drug, it's physically impossible to maintain its effectiveness without any side effects. Please understand and respect the sacrifices that our agents made."
The conversation ended there.
Robert continued trying to persuade the chief to stop the use of the drug, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He watched Trishy's name on the memorial get buried by a lot more names sharing the same horrible fate as hers. Robert wondered if there was any meaning to carrying out justice if they had to pay for it by stomping on the agents who carried it out.
Slowly, he began finding it difficult to stand the smiles of the citizens around him as he walked through the city, knowing that it had been paid for by the blood, suffering and tears of his friends, seniors as well as juniors. The VSSE chief being able to keep his composure despite all that sickened him. He felt angry and spiteful at the man for even allowing it.
Sitting alone in his room emptily twirling Trishy's ring between his fingers, Robert felt something in him break.
He couldn't stand living this lie anymore. He hated how the VSSE was so pretentiousーthrowing away its agents like a one-time-use tool in the name of 'justice'. He also hated the fact that none of the other agents would or could try to stop the chief's insane plans. In addition, it was also nerve-wrecking that the general public was oblivious to it all despite all the agents' sacrifices, living life for granted, hurting each other everyday instead of being grateful that Wild Dog or some other seasoned criminal hadn't blown them to bits yet.
Holding onto Trishy's ring tightly, Robert made up his mind to take matters into his own hands.
This world and all its lies needed to go.