Deadly and Blonde

Chapter 4: Old friends

Half an hour after leaving MIST headquarters, Aya found herself sitting in the back of a battered old C-130 Hercules bound for Hereford, apparently the agency didn't want to bother with all the red tape that getting her guns aboard a passenger plane would entail. Aya looked around, she was seated on a bench running the length of the cargo bay up against the fuselage of the plane. The cargo bay was mostly empty except for a few crates and the small pile of her luggage and equipment lying nearby. There was nobody else in the bay with her, so this was going to be a very long, boring flight. Aya sighed, "Ah, the glamorous life of an FBI agent."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Aya looked up as a young woman walked through the hatch into the cargo area. She didn't recognize her for a moment since she was wearing a set of tactical armor complete with headgear. The woman smiled and pulled off her helmet. "Hey Aya, long time no see."

"Tamsen?! What in the world are you doing here?"

The woman shot her a mischievous grin, "Now, is that any way to greet an old friend? Rupert sent me of course. Sir Hellsing apparently managed to convince him that you shouldn't go completely alone, so I'm here as your partner in crime for this one."

Aya got up from her seat and embraced the other woman. "Of course, how rude of me. It's great to see you again Tam." She released her and stepped back, "I thought you were transferred to the New York office."

"Well I was, but once I was promoted to a full hunter they decided to let me choose which office I'd work out of. I knew that you were still down a hunter since Rupert retired from that and took up his administrative position. Not that I thought the LA office really needed another hunter since you're as good as a dozen of us, but I love it around here and I missed you."

"I missed you too. Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"

"Well, I had wanted it to be a surprise, but then this situation came up and I got pulled for duty since I'm the only one who you've ever kept and gotten along with as a partner for any period of time." She gave Aya a little grin, "Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Aya laughed, she had worked most of her career in MIST as something of a lone wolf, she had always avoided having a partner since she didn't want to have to worry about alienating them with her abilities. Then about a year and a half ago she had been assigned to take a trainee under her wing. The Bureau had seen Aya as the only possible mentor for the girl. Tamsen had exhibited some pyrokinetic abilities, so it had been deemed appropriate to pair her with the only other MIST agent with 'Superpowers'.

"Well, it's great to have you with me again. From what I understand about what's going on this time, this situation in London could either be an isolated incident or be very, very bad. Of course, with my luck I'm sure it'll be the latter rather than the former." If the creature was indeed a Mossback, then it meant that someone was pulling the strings behind another neoteny project. Mossbacks weren't a naturally occurring type of NMC, so it had to be made by someone.

Tamsen yawned, "I'm sorry, I haven't been able to adjust to the time zone change yet. I actually only got in to California yesterday."

"I understand. Take a nap, you'll need to be rested for this mission."

"Thanks." The girl yawned again. She pulled off her armored vest and sat down on the bench next to Aya. She nodded off almost immediately and fell asleep in a sitting position. It wasn't long however before she flopped over to wind up leaning on Aya's shoulder. Aya looked at the sleeping girl's face for a second and smiled. During their time together, Tamsen had largely come to regard Aya as something of a mother figure. Tamsen had been orphaned as a child, she'd grown up with her father until she was eleven and her mother had died before she'd ever known her. Aya brushed a stray bit of hair out of the girl's face and smiled; she could still remember so clearly when they'd first met.

At first neither had been thrilled with the pairing, Aya didn't really know what to do with the rookie, and Tamsen had been intimidated by Aya. The administration had never explained to either of them why they'd been paired together, so seeing one another's special abilities had surprised both of them. It had been about a month after they'd been paired together that they were sent on their first real mission together. The two had been assigned to clean out a derelict ship that had come ashore in a cove to the south and had shown evidence of NMC activity.

The ship had turned out being something of an ambush. Aya and Tamsen had been one of two teams that were sent in at the same time. The other two hunters that had been sent with them had gone in first and not reported back. Assuming the worst, Aya had lead Tamsen through the ship. They had combed through most of the wreck without any traces of their allies or any NMC activity when they came to the main forward hold. They found both of the other hunters just outside the hatch to the cargo area dead, it looked as though they had gotten in the way of something trying to get in or out of the hold and it had swept them aside. Both of their heads had been smashed flat against either wall next to the bulkhead. To Aya's surprise, Tamsen hadn't even been phased by the grisly scene.

Aya could sense that there was something very nasty waiting for them in the cargo bay, but had gone in anyway. The hold had been pitch black and upon walking away from the entrance to search for a light switch, the door had slammed shut behind them. By this time, the light sticks that they had with them had started to fail, and they couldn't see any further than a few feet in any direction. Then Tamsen asked her if she had a light. Aya had responded that she'd only had the glow-stick with her, upon which the girl said that she'd meant a match, or a lighter or any other source of flame. "What would you need that for?" Aya had asked of the girl, unsure what she thought she could do with a lighter or a match.

"Just trust me." The girl had responded. And, figuring that she'd nothing to lose by it right now Aya had cast pyrokinesis. To her shock, the ball of flame stopped short a few inches from her hand. The burning sphere hovered and floated over to float above Tamsen's open palm. It was then that they realized the gravity of their situation. The orb of flame provided enough illumination for the two to finally be able to get a good view of their surroundings. As the ship was lying at a slant, the floor of the bay sloped down from where the two stood. The lower half of the room was flooded and teeming with bog-divers, and to Aya's dismay, in their center was an ocean-diver.

"Well, this is certainly bad." The girl had said. "Any weaknesses?"

"Fire mostly. But I don't have enough energy to be able to wipe all of them out, and these assault rifles aren't going to cut it."

"Alright. I'm going to have to ask you to stand back for just a moment then." Tamsen walked out in front of Aya and stood there with her hands outstretched for a moment. Then the ball of flame floated ponderously away, until it was half way between them and where the water started. "You might want to get behind something, this place is going to get very toasty in a few seconds." Without questioning, Aya had backed off and ducked back behind a stack of metal sheeting.

Tamsen looked back over her shoulder to see that Aya was under cover, then turned back around to face the horde of ANMCs that were starting to advance on them now. Her eyes blazed for a moment, and the ball of flame seemed to explode. One moment later, a solid wall of flame stood between the divers and the hunters. Then the wall started to move forward. Aya could hear the cries of the dying creatures as they were systematically immolated by the inexorable wall of flame. Then the wall of flame had faltered, and Tamsen fell to the ground. Aya ran to the girl's side, she was still alive and conscious, just exhausted. The girl had managed to take out the vast majority of the infestation.

"I'm going to finish this now. Can you guard yourself against some flame for a couple of seconds?" The girl had nodded yes, and Aya walked forward almost to the water's edge. There weren't many bog-divers left, but the ocean-diver was slowly pulling itself out of the water. It seemed injured, but was still a serious threat. Aya closed her eyes and concentrated, and cast Inferno. She cast it twice, and was able to wipe out all of the remaining NMCs in the hold. Exhausted, she collapsed next to her partner and both slipped into unconsciousness.

Aya had awoken in a hospital bed, and was relieved when she looked to the side to see that Tamsen was in the next bed over. Rupert was sitting in a chair between the two beds. "You two gave us quite a scare last night. We sent in all of the hunters we could find, only to find you two unconscious in a room full of barbecued bog-divers."

"Is she alright?" Aya asked as she gestured to Tamsen.

Rupert turned to look at the girl, "Yes, she'll be fine. She's just exhausted herself." He looked back to Aya, "You did well, get some rest and we'll debrief the both of you when you're both feeling up to it."

Things had gotten much better after that. The two women had found comfort in each other, both of them having experienced similar isolation due to their abilities and both of them having gone through rather traumatizing childhood experiences. The two had become close friends, and Tamsen had eventually adopted Aya as something of a surrogate mother.

Aya smiled, but was shaken out of her pensive state a moment later when the plane hit some turbulence and with a small cry Tamsen fell off the bench. "Ow, talk about your nasty wake-up calls." She looked up at Aya, and at the dent in her jacket at the shoulder where her head had been resting. "I'm sorry, did I fall asleep on you?" She noticed Aya seemed a bit dazed, "Did I wake you?"

"Oh, no; I was just thinking about when we first met." She smiled and helped Tamsen back up to sit next to her. "Go back to sleep. Just remember to fasten your seatbelt this time." She didn't have to ask twice, she heard the click of the seatbelt being fastened, and felt the comforting presence of the girl leaning against her again. Aya smiled, she'd best be getting some sleep on this flight, it was a long way from Los Angeles to London. Aya closed her eyes, and drifted off into sleep.