Disclaimer: I do not own Maplestory

Ch. 4: Revenge of the Gray Guys

In the following days, Phil slowly but surely regained his memory. It would often have the process of Agent Marco or someone else starting a sentence about an event or situation, and Phil would finish the sentence. Of course, this was only the superficial part of the situation; there were careful details that Phil eventually remembered, but Phil would recover everything in the very near and foreseeable future.

Phil would often spend his spare time balancing chemical equations, drawing Lewis Structures, and calculating the mass percent, molarity, molality, and normality of solutions.

Incidentally, Phil regained almost all of his memory on the day when the rest of the cadre completed their own training (or almost all of it), which included everything that Phil himself had done. (Un)fortunately, they also learned the skills of Cygnus Knights after that.

"Hey. Kyrin sent these books to us," said Dr. Kim.

"They're…Cygnus Knights skill books. Where did they come from?" asked Brent. Everyone turned to look at Phil, as he was the only one who had ever been in Ereve.

"Don't look at me," said Phil, lifting both hands up. "I didn't ask for any skill books."

"Kyrin said that a Wind Archer dropped them off. He didn't give his name."

Nobody spoke for several seconds.

"Anyway," said Dr. Kim, breaking the silence. "I feel that you should take a look at these skills. They might help you in the long run."

"What!" cried Evelyne. "After all of this hard work and training! I'm so freakin' tired I could sleep for a year! Why do I have to learn more?"

"I'm pretty sure you know most of the skills already," replied Agent Marco. "Just learn the ones that are new to you."

"Plus," added Phil. "Remember that I have to learn all of them. That is, I have to look at every single book. You, and the others, only have to look at one."

-X-

"Pistol-ready position," commanded Agent Marco. Brent, Celina, Evelyne, Josh, Steven, and, Phil, held the laser pistols at approximately 45-degrees upward. On this day, they were practicing their pistol marksmanship. Josh loved it. Celina hated it. The rest were "okay" with it.

The Agents automatically shifted to "standing position without support," as they extended the pistol and held it with hands, their feet a slight distance apart, and the wrist and elbow of the pistol locked and pointed toward the imaginary "target."

After that, they switched to the kneeling position, then the crouching position without any commands from Marco. They simultaneously dropped to the prone position, lying flat on the ground. Then they got up.

Agent Marco barked a new string of commands at them, which they executed immediatly.

"Traversing to the left; traversing to the right; traversing to the front; traversing over the left shoulder; traversing to the right rear; traversing to the left, kneeling; traversing to the front, kneeling; traversing to the right new side, kneeling!"

All of them stopped in unison.


The rest of their training included survival in the worst conditions, region-specific combat, unarmed offense and defense, and "field-expedient" weapons, such as using three-foot sticks.

-X-

"Heads. Your turn."

Phil and Brent were inside the common room and were flipping coins to pass the time. They had no cards to play with, and just messing around with the mesos they had. The others were outside showing off to each other and practicing their skills.

"Alright," said Brent. "I choose tails." He flipped the coin, and it landed on tails.

"Ha! I'm gonna win."

"I feel kind of uncomfortable, Brent."

"Of course you do. That's because you're about to lose."

"Not. Not that. It's about the Aliens. Something doesn't feel right. They looks as if they've grown… smarter."

"And what's your point? How much smarter could they have gotten? Definitely not smarter than us. Besides; we'll still wipe them all out sooner or later."

"I feel it…but I can't describe it."

"Well, let's finish the game first."

Suddenly, Evelyne, who was also inside, caught movement out the corner of her eye. It was a Mateon moving freely around the Omega Sector, and it seemed that no one had noticed it. She grabbed the meso as it was in mid-flip and threw it out the open window, shouting "Meso Explosion!"

"Hey!" shouted Brent. "What did you do that for? I was about to win!"

Brent's question was quickly answered as the meso hit the Mateon dead center with an explosion, and it died with a loud squeal.

"Hmmm…how did that Mateon manage to get in?" asked Evelyne.

"Hey, I see how it got in," said Brent. "The laser wall is down."

A few seconds passed until that stared at each other and shouted in unison "The laser wall is down?"

They quickly rushed out the building. Obviously, the others had noticed too, and were pulling out their weapons. The alarm sounded soon after, but lasting only for a few seconds before it died down. Then it turned on again, and quickly turned off. All the lights were flashing intermittently, and the alarm gave a weird whining sound. Soldiers were running all over the place in confusion.

Inside the Command Center, everything that was a computer or connected to the computers began malfunctioning. Dr. Kim looked around. "A virus," he muttered. "The Aliens must have done it."

Several Mateons had entered the general area of the Omega Sector, and a few Plateons had also followed in. However, they were no match to the trained soldiers, as the Aliens were rapidly gunned down with their automatics. However, the greater threat was still to come. They would need to be stopped before getting to close.

The six Agents rushed out, wearing most of their equipment, past where the laser wall was supposed to be, firing their weapons at the Aliens the entire time, with Marco staying behind, "In case if any Aliens were to slip through." And boy, he could not have been more right. Off-Limits was swarming with Aliens that weren't usually there, including some Barnard Grays, some Mechateons and Plateons, and even a few Zeta Grays.

They quickly cleared out Off-Limits, as the purple octopi Aliens were quickly decimated. The Aliens which were "smarter" turned and ran. The Agents gave chase. Phil, Brent, and Celina went towards Kulan Field after the Grays, and Steven, Josh, and Evelyne went after the purple octopi in Boswell Field.

A few of them slipped through, but were quickly killed by the senior Agent.

During the next eight hours, Dr. Kim and Professor Porter were at the computers and servers to eliminate the virus. The Agents helped too, which allowed them to complete the job in that time.

"Well, the virus has been completely cleared and all the computers and servers are back up running. That was sure one hell of a job, though," said Dr. Kim when the task was over.

-X-

"Why do I have to learn ballet?" whined Evelyne.

"You want to know why you have to learn ballet?" Asked Marco. "Here, let me show you. Let's go out to Off-Limits."

When they got there, he motioned to stand at a specific spot, which, unbeknownst to Evelyne, was the center of the area.

"You have been practicing your 'spinning,' correct?"

"Uh, yeah. So what?"

"I want you to spin as fast as you can and, at the same time, throw your shurikens. I don't care how you throw them, or in what direction, or your accuracy. Just throw them as fast as you can, while spinning."

Evelyne nodded, and did as Marco commanded. Marco leapt onto a higher platform as Evelyne began her "spinning."

Stars began flying every which way, hitting every Mateon in the place. By the time the Mateons realized what was happening, it had already been too late.

The result was horrific. Virtually the entire Off-Limits was cleared of Aliens. When she stopped "spinning," all the Aliens in site were dead Aliens. Wide eyed, she was lost for words.

Marco hopped down from his spot and landed next to her.

"You see? Everything we teach has a purpose, even if the purpose is not clear at first. You may not understand, but in due time, you will."

She looked at him. "Then why don't tell me, us, about it? When you begin to teach us?"

"Because you will learn it better that way." he replied. "You won't be thinking about the results while the duration you are training; also, when you finally see the results, they will have optimal effects, like this time."

The two headed back to the Omega Sector.

-X-

It came in the middle of the night.

The deafening klaxon blared through compound, and, like the previous time, a weird whining noise followed. Everyone realized that the laser wall was once again down. However, the confusion was not in what was happening; instead, it was in how. How could the same thing be happening so soon again, with so many workings just been done? (They later found out that the virus was a "smart" virus; during the scanning and removal process, the most crucial parts of it had hidden away and not been detected. After the "job" was done, it came back out and went to wrecking the system.)

Everyone got their equipment and into attack position much faster than before, though they could all hear Dr. Kim and Professor Porter shouting things like "How can this be happening again?" and "What the hell?"

It was difficult for the soldiers to see, due to the poor lighting, and many of them were firing blindly at the Aliens. The six Agents, with their night-vision sunglasses, could get a semi-clear view of the area, and their equipment also helped illuminate the place.

There somehow seemed to be more aliens than the last time, though it didn't seem probable.

"What in the world is happening?" screamed Brent as he shot down several Plateons with his Laser Rifle.

"Don't shout so loud!" was the reply from Celina, who was several yards away, casting her own spells and blowing apart dozens of the purple aliens. "We're on receivers, remember?"

"Just attack!" Phil said through the receivers over the roar of the explosions. He whipped around and sliced apart a number of Mechateons with his Crescent Moon. Switching weapons to his Laser Rifle, he commanded "Rapid Blast!" and mowed down a mob of Aliens that consisted of both species.

A series of star-field attacks from Chief Grays in retaliation knocked him backwards. Quickly recovering, he fired several rockets at the old Grays and they were no more.

"We need a better plan," said Phil,

"Use the most powerful skills you have on three," said Agent Marco as he finished with his most recent problems with the Aliens. "One…Two…Three!"

There was a deafening scream of "CHAOS STORM!" from Josh a moment later, as hundreds golden arrows flew out of nowhere and slammed into the Aliens, and in effect thinning out their troops. This was followed by a cry of "Combo Destruction!" from Brent, as the 20 combo orbs, which he was able to charge from Combo Mastery, that circled him created a colossal explosion and killed every Gray and Octopi around him.

"Iron Curtain!" Cried Evelyne as thousands of shurikens, similar in affect to Arrow Rain, rained down upon the Aliens.

"Apocalypse!" Commanded Celina. Holy blasts of energy, a blinding light that penetrated the Curtain, unmistakably stronger than Genesis, as it, quite literally, turned night into day, struck down even more monsters, though it couldn't be seen exactly how.

"Thunder Sphere!" An orb of electrified power came from Steven shortly after. It sailed through the field, electrocuting and short-circuiting the machines and killed numerous Grays.

"NOVA BOMB!" Agent Marco and Phil commanded in unison. The blinding detonation destroyed the last of the Aliens.

Everyone stopped, panting hard from the fighting, as the activity died down and everything became more tranquil.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, a missile came flying out Kulan Field and exploded head on with Agent Marco. There was no time to prepare for it. He was sent flying backwards all the way back to the Omega Sector.

Everybody rushed back to the Omega Sector to Marco. By this time, all the systems had recovered and turned back on. Agent Marco was lying on his and had blood all over him. The faint lighting gave him an eerie glow.

"That missile… had my name on it…" sputtered Agent Marco. He coughed out some blood.

"No…don't…" Began Phil.

Marco managed a sad smile. "I'm… an old man…too old for … my line… of work."

Phil knelt down next to him. "I have…taught you…everything…I know." Continued Marco. "Pro—promise … me… that you will…continue…the legacy…of…the Agents."

A single tear ran down Phil's right cheek. "I promise."

The single tear was followed by countless others, diluting the blood, in his wish to have just one more moment with the man as the only father he ever knew.

Evelyne knelt down beside him. "We'll all be missing him," she said in a soft voice.

-X-

Several days later…

Everybody was at the lab, and Dr. Kim recapped on all the rest of the gadgets, as well as introduced new ones. For example, he showed that the watch could not only tell world time, but had a GPS, diamond buzz saw, a small laser beam, radar, altimeter, barometer, thermometer, compass, was able to send out distress signals, and several more functions.

Their shoes/boots, Dr. Kim said, had retractable cleats.

"No rocket shoes?" Said Steven in dismay.

"Nope. Not yet. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think there will ever be any, since all of the previous prototypes carried barely enough fuel to even get you off the ground."

Steven frowned.

"However," Dr. Kim added. "We are working on a new type of jet-pack."

"You do that, Doc." Said Steven, his hopes obviously raised

"Do you have your Astral Blade with you?" Dr. Kim asked Phil.

"Uh, yeah," said Phil, and took it out.

"I'm not sure if Agent Marco ever told you this, but the Astral Blade, along with the other forms, will adapt and change to the situation, time period, etc."

"What does that mean?" asked Phil, puzzled.

"In time, you will learn," was the reply.

"That's what they alway's say," muttered Phil.

"Oh, and by the way, take this. Professor Foxwit recommended this for you." Dr. Kim took out a blue cape. "This is called a Sirius Cloak."

"What does it do?"

"Well, it says that it enhances the wearer's speed, strength and movement in battle. So I guess it's like a Icarus cape with with couple strength enhancements."

Phil took it and looked it over, but didn't put it on. It seemed that looks was where it all ended.

"One last thing," said Dr. Kim. "This is a Swiss Army Knife."

"Okay…" Phil said slowly.

"Hey. Don't look down at it just because it's small. It has several functions that could save your life. It fact, it did for me. It saved me from Crimson Balrogs on a ship to Orbis once."

"Well, when I was young, these Crimson Balrogs invaded a ship I was on and grabbed me."

"What happened?" asked Celina. The others wondered how such puny blades would be any effect against a massive beast like a Balrog.

"Well, I happened to have one of the blades out, and it fell out of my belt. Those dumb beasts saw it, and let me go, diving after the shiny thing. I was close enough to the ship and managed to climb back on unharmed. I never saw them again."

"The Balrogs or the knife?"

"Neither."

The six of them exchanged looks, not quite able to believe Dr. Kim's story. But, hey, it could help them in the future, and each took one "Swiss Army Knife." It wasn't big, and didn't take up much space, anyway.

"There have been quite a few modifications made on the Knives that you have," said Dr. Kim as everyone was about to turn and leave. "Would you like to hear about them?"

Everyone turned back toward him and nodded simultaneously.

"Very well." Kim picked up a spare one on the desk.

"Along with the regular saw, blades, tools, and the like, there are several useful functions onto it. One thing here is a tranquilizer dart." Dr. Kim flipped the "launcher" out from the body of the Knife.

"It has a shock absorber in this 'launcher,' which is pressurized. A swivel mechanism on the dart allows the dart's tail-fin assembly to store flat and open in the first moments of flight. It has an effective range of 120 feet. The dart uses a similar mechanism to the rockets fired from the Laser Rifles, the ramjet, for maximum in flight. The dart is tipped with a rapid-action knockout chemical, which causes unconsciousness in a matter of seconds. This unconsciousness can last up to an average of one hour, though has no serious side effects, which can be good or bad."

"Over here," continued Kim, as he pushed the "launcher" back into the body and brought out another function, "Are the lights, white and infrared, which will aid in vision."

"Finally, it has a small drill on this side. However small it may be, it is still exceptionally powerful. It can create a gap large enough for you to shoot a laser, arrow or knife through, though most of your lasers will probably be powerful enough to pierce walls."

"And if that isn't enough, right next to the drill is a vacuum. Although they can be used independently, they can also be used together. You know how there can be tell-tale dust when you drill holes? Well, the vacuum will take care of that for you."

"And I have a surprise for all of you," said Dr. Kim, motioning for the Agents to follow him.

"Where are you taking us?" asked Steven as all six got up simultaneously.

"You are getting your mounts," Dr. Kim replied.

"Mounts?" asked Josh, slightly confused.

"Of course. Everyone needs mounts."

"So what animal are we getting?" asked Brent. "Adventurers get hogs, Cygnus Knights get ostriches, and Aran had a wolf."

"It is much better than any of those."

They went into this sort of garage in the Omega Sector Silo. There, Dr. Kim picked up six cylinders that were 15" long. He tossed one to each.

"This is a mount?" Evelyne asked skeptically. They were actually quite heavy for their size.

"I'll show you," offered Dr. Kim. Evelyne handed her cylinder to Dr. Kim, who removed the lid and pull out…something. Dr. Kim hit something and it quickly unfolded to take the shape of…a motorcycle. It looked very sophisticated, too.

Everyone else started removing the lids of their 15" cylinders and pulled out the thing that was inside, and the "thing" also quickly unfolded to become a motorcycle by the same command.

"This motorcycle," said Dr. Kim, who was using Evelyne's as an example, "has several functions. All of you have just seen one that is very important—it can fold up and be put into a 15-inch cylinder. Other than the basic speedometers and what not, there are also several other features and uses, which I will explain right now."

"The tires are made of polyurethane elastomer structure. What this means is that it has a 'honeycomb' of pressurized cells; it cannot be punctured or lose pressure. They are so small that if one or more break, it has little to no effect on the performance of the bike or tires. These tires absorb shock and resist weathering more effectively than standard rubber tires."

"It has a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) sprayer, which is one of the most slippery substances known to man, often used to coat not-stick cooking pans. It is basically oil slick. It should be able to stop whoever is behind you from pursuing you. It is pressurized so that when it is activated, the oil will spray out of the nozzle. It is pointed at an angle which will have minimal affect to the rider."

"Next, it has a Rapid-Scan Radar that scans the area hundreds of times per second, along with a Long Range and Ultra Wideband (UWB) Radar. All of this collects the information around you, whether when you are moving or not."

"There's also a Center of Gravity Balancer, which allows the rider to ride on the bike at ridiculously wide angles."

"The wheels have anti-riot spikes. These should keep some monsters off of you."

"The standard headlight conceals a magnesium flare headlight, which reaches 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit in less than 1 second, which creates a light of blinding intensity. An infrared headlight that is also concealed, which aids in night vision."

"The front also has a machine gun and rocket launcher. However, that is not the only place where rockets can be fired. There are four exhausts in the back; two of those exhausts can fire rockets. These rockets are almost the same as the rockets you have for firing from your Laser Rifle, though they may be slightly larger and pack more of a punch."

"It has an on-board computer, which can calculate and monitor everything in all kinds of weather and environment—snow, wind, fog, rain; and countless other devices. This also translates to auto-pilot. And what looks like a reinforced/ bullet proof glass is actually a heads-up display; of course, it is also protected."

"There are units around the motorcycle that can generate a force field around you, though that won't last very long. These same units use a GPS system to blend into your surroundings, basically camouflage, being able to conceal you."

"There are these things called 'sonic screamers.' As you can probably guess from their name, they produce these high frequency sound waves that will send monsters and people's senses haywire."

"There are also these 'stealth units' which allow for near silent movement, depending on the speed. Of course, they won't work well at the higher speeds."

"Remember the oil slick? Well, if that itself won't work, here's something else: it can also spray smokescreen. The motorcycle carries a pump; however, the tires never need to be pumped, because the tires are flat-free. The pump is where the smokescreen is sprayed from. The smoke is dense and nontoxic; the smoke is created by heating a mixture of distilled water and propylene glycol and forces it into the air under pressure."

"The front is reinforced to allow for smashing through anything. Or, as I might add, anyone."

"And finally, as a last resort, it has an ejector seat for the direst emergencies. Under the seat is a cylinder of carbon dioxide pressurized at around 200 psi. The seat post rests on a piston connected to a pressure regulator at the top of the gas, and a clamp holds everything in place, preventing the cylinder from firing. They are almost always built into the motorcycle, but I don't think that it has ever been used by anyone. I doubt any of you will have to use it. But it is there, just in case."

Dr. Kim pushed something on the motorcycle and it folded back up. He returned it to the 15" cylinder and handed it back to Evelyne.

Evelyne stared at the cylinder. She was completely baffled by all the functions abilities of the motorcycle. She looked at the others. They too were perplexed by all of this.

"Uhm, what is the maximum speed?"

"The maximum speed is 2.5 Mach," replied Dr. Kim, as if it was completely normal. "However, few have used that top speed. It can go from zero to 70 miles per hour in three seconds."

-X-

"So," said Dr. Kim after they got out into the open area. "This is everything that Agent Marco has prepared for you, everything that an Agent has to help complete their job."

Phil nodded. "And continue the legacy of the Agents."

They would go on missions, saving those in need without leaving any evidence.

Perhaps a few dramatic battles would go with them.

The rest of the time, they would kick back, relax, and talk about the "good old days."

They had no idea how wrong they were.


Author's Note: This chapter may seem kind of rushed; my time for writing has been drastically reduced because of loads of homework, physical therapy, tests that I need to make up, and being in this contest that I had not realized that WAS a contest at first (it was competition involving several of the schools in my area. Lol)

By the way, because the "arrows" don't work (if you know what I'm talking about; they're used for html format/ encoding; they look like sideways "v's") the brackets, { } will be used to signify speech through receivers/ radio.