Chapter two
Evangeline Carson, or Eve for short, was considered a prodigy in the field of inventive technologies. A talented hacker and inventor, she was the one who designed most of the high-level agents' gear.
As such, when one was on a mission, it was her responsibility to monitor for transmissions. Tonight was no exception, so she wasn't in the least bit worried. She had faith in agent Ashce's abilities, mainly because he had never needed assistance on a mission.
Her peace was shattered when the emergency transmission alarm began to scream at her, causing her to snap the circuit board she had been fiddling with in half.
"What the hell?" she screeched, frizzy blonde curls flying. "This had better not be another one of your pranks Robertson!"
"Wasn't me!" yelled back another technician. "Check your board!"
Grumbling, she turned to her console and donned a headset, only to freeze as Ashce's voice came over the speakers, faint, pained, and breathless.
"T-this is agent Ashce. Recovery of target unsuccessful...trap of some kind...need...recovery..."
The transmission cut off abruptly, and in it's place a set of coordinates flashed onto her screen.
Eve stared at it in cold shock for a moment, before exploding into movement. She grabbed her data pad and tore from her station at a dead run, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"FIELD AGENT DOWN! I REPEAT, FIELD AGENT ASHCE IS DOWN! RECOVERY TEAM ALPHA REPORT AT VEHICLE BAY FOUR! FIELD AGENT DOWN!"
Agent Ashce was legendary amongst the organization for being unbeatable and undetectable. For him to go down in a mission was never even heard of. Robertson began repeating the message over the loudspeakers, and the entire base rang in utter shock.
Eve pelted down the corridors at her considerable top speed, putting relay racers to shame. Her destination, the western-most vehicle dock, was already swarming with activity. The Alpha recovery team, a group of a dozen agents of varying talents, were the best at their job of retrieving downed agents from failed missions, to prevent local authorities from discovering the organization. It was absolutely vital that high class agents be retrieved, dead or alive, but preferably alive.
And Ashce was very high class, even the commander herself was present.
Eve skidded to a halt in front of the commander's imposing figure, panting slightly. "Ma'am!" she gulped nervously. "Why...?"
Cerius' steely eyes narrowed dangerously. "Carson, you are to personally direct Recovery Team Alpha to our downed agent, he most likely has highly sensitive data on his person vital to the project." she barked, but leaned forward and continued in a softer voice. "Make sure he gets home alive Evie."
"Got it auntie."
With that said, Eve leapt into the lead vehicle. "Lock and load people! Moving out!"
Ten minutes...an agonizing ten minutes that seemed to stretch to an immeasurable time as the team navigated the tunnels under the city by Eve's direction. Each driver was highly skilled at maneuvering through the narrow paths, but at their speed there were more than a couple of close calls.
Even more so now at Eve's sudden order.
"Going topside at exit 32 bravo!"
Thankfully that particular exit was an isolated area, so there was little chance of collision upon surfacing. Little more than a mile further she gave the order to reduce speed, their target was close.
"One hundred yards! All vehicles drop speed!"
As ordered the cars slowed dramatically, waiting for Eve's next command.
"Ten yards! Stop!"
Mission vehicle thirteen was now visible, as was the agent slumped against it, clearly unconscious.
Eve just about exploded from the car and rushed to his side. His breathing was shallow and uneven, a faint smear of blood standing out from his deathly pale skin.
Most disturbing though, were the dark red lines spreading from the wide, rune laden band on his wrist, and the blood beginning to pool around him.
The little technician just about sobbed at her friend's state, but held it in. She could freak out later, now was not the time. She searched the pouches of his harness until she found the small data hacker, taking it and stepping back.
The recovery team paramedics were swift and efficient, accessing the fallen agent's injuries and loading him into the ambulance.
"He's unresponsive, possibly in shock. Puncture wounds on left wrist of unknown cause, watch that exposed circuitry on the band." summarized one paramedic, inserting an IV into his patient's right arm. "I see no other injuries, best take caution."
The trip back was even more agonizing than the first, seeing the agent's ghostly pale face half hidden by the oxygen mask. It was all a whirl of lights, sound, and motion that had Eve lost, and standing before the closed ER doors before she knew it.
Commander Cerius stood beside her, a solid and unmoving presence, and a pillar of strength to the petite tech.
"Auntie?"
The commander gave the girl a rare, small smile, and lay a hand over her shaking shoulders.
"Take heart little one, you got our phoenix home, we just need to watch him raise from his ashes."
Eve giggled despite herself. "Ashes of Ashce? Did you give him that name on purpose?" she asked.
"Don't tell him that. It was either Ashce or Wolfe, that latter didn't fit with his classification."
"Very punny auntie."
"Oh yes, very. The highest of immortal creatures, the Great Firebird, a good match with our undefeatable warriors."
"And he's the only one we have."
"Exactly."
xXx
Pain, the first thing he became aware of. Everything hurt, but he couldn't actually feel anything.
Sound, high pitched ringing, rustling, and chirps. Was he outside?
No...the chirping sounds were too consistent to be birds...so where?
Wait...murmers? Someone talking?
"...ome on...ake...wake up...come on Ashce..."
He knew that voice...Eve?
He tried to speak, but his throat was frozen. He tried to open his eyes, but they felt so weighed down. He couldn't move, his body was paralyzed.
"...you'd think a guy would wake up after a three day nap, eh?" came Eve's voice again, to which came a reply Yuri couldn't make out. "Seriously! I mean, he can't sleep for longer than four hours at a time, he told me two months ago."
Funny, he didn't remember telling her that tidbit.
"Carson, I need to take blood sample, you need to move." came another voice, one he didn't recognize.
"Ok, ok, keep your shorts on doc!" Eve snapped. "But this is the fifth time, why?"
"We need to keep a close watch on his condition, we don't know what to expect here."
A small stab of pain lanced up from his right elbow, and he groaned, trying to pull away.
"Ashce!"
Yuri's eyes snapped open at last, Eve's relieved face the first thing he saw.
"Oh god, you're awake! Finally!"
"Ugh, Eve? Where...?"
"Medical ward, ICU." she said, wringing her small hands. "You had all of us scared out of our wits, even me!"
The ICU? Was he really in that bad of shape?
"What happened?" he coughed. His throat was horribly dry and the respirator was not helping matters.
"You don't remember?"
"No."
Just then another doctor came in, shooing Eve from Yuri's side.
"Miss Carson, now is not the time."
She scowled. "Yeah right, your little experiments are more important than his peace of mind."
"Quite the contrary, but I need to examine him, you can catch up later." the doctor said gently. "Now Agent Ashce, I am doctor Genzir, your case manager." the man said, straightening a pair of reading glasses on his nose. "You've been unconscious for more than seventy two hours, three days, and we have yet to isolate the cause of your condition."
As the doctor spoke he pulled the respirator from Yuri's face, letting the agent breath on his own. "Do you need anything?"
"Water, for one." he rasped, coughing.
Genzir smiled and fetched a glass. "Well, you're surprisingly lucid for someone who just woke up after three days of unconsciousness mister Lowell."
"Not exactly normal doc..."
Thirst quenched for the moment, Yuri finally noticed that his left arm wasn't moving, encased in innumerable wires and layers of plating metal shielding it from the air.
"Ok, scratch that, definitely not normal."
Genzir frowned. "I would advise that you refrain from moving much young man, your arm and upper spine are in a very delicate state. The technicians are still decoding the data you retrieved, so we don't know what that blastia's purpose is yet."
Yuri eyed the mess of wires leading from various points on his body to the machines surrounding him. "What are all of these?"
"Electromagnetic frequency monitors, Bio-electric sensors, things like that. The welts running up your arm are still spreading, and you had a massive seizure not long after they reached your back, so we suspect that the blastia is tampering with your nerves."
The agent stared at the angry red lines lacing over the skin of his shoulder. "My nerves? You've got to be kidding me!"
"I'm afraid not. Once we have an opportunity to put you through a CT scan we will know for sure, but I fear that our hypothesis is more or less correct."
Yuri sank back onto the pillows in a daze, not hearing the doctor's queries or taking notice of movement around him, the world steadily getting quieter and darker as he succumbed to blissful unconsciousness once again.
xXx
The next thing Yuri knew were the unpleasant, tingling jolts running through his body. He opened his eyes, only to shut them again as a bright light assaulted them.
"You awake?" came Eve's voice, a note of guilty concern lacing it.
"Hurts..."
"Sorry." a click sounded. "Light's off."
He opened his eyes again to see Eve sitting at his left, a tool of some sort in her hand and some of the metal plates surrounding his arm lifted away. "What the hell are you doing?"
The frizzy blonde technician grimaced. "Sorry, but I really need to examine this blastia." she mumbled, fidgeting in her seat. "I need to know why it's bolted into your wrist like that and what it's doing to you."
"Well stop!" he snapped, trying to sit up. "It hurts when you fiddle around with it like that!"
Taken aback at the venom in his voice Eve flinched away. "I'm sorry Ashce, I didn't know!"
"Indeed, none of us knew." came a new voice from the doorway. "Do go easy on my niece Lowell, she's only doing her job."
Yuri blinked, faltered, and collapsed back as he realized just who had entered the room. "C-commander!"
Cerius stood tall and imposing in the doorway, her steel blue eyes almost glinting in the half light. Crossing the room she handed Eve a thick folder from the stack she held and sat down in another chair. "Relax. Our scientists have finished decoding and analyzing the data you retrieved, I thought I would go over this with you personally."
Eve seemed to shiver for some reason. "It's bad, isn't it Auntie?"
The stern commander's impassive features visibly hardened. "Yes. The reports indicate that intel was wrong about the weapon, while still a blastia, it is not the energy cannon or 'hopelon blastia' we were originally expecting. The prototype we sent Agent Black Phoenix Asche to retrieve was the model now stuck to him, a kind of heavily enhanced Bohdi-blastia, developed as a kind of control terminal to what can only be called a superhuman weapon."
"Excuse me?" Yuri asked. "What's a bohdi blastia exactly?"
Eve looked positively scandalized. "You're kidding...you don't know about bohdi blastia after all the time you've been working here?"
"Not really, I don't even know what blastia really are."
If there was empty space on the table in front of her, Eve would have slammed her head on it, repeatedly. "I can't believe this..."
"Evie, please just explain." said Cerius.
"Ok Auntie." she sighed. "Listen, blastia are a kind of magitechnology, machines made of special metals and crystals inscribed with rune formulas to manipulate a kind of energy called Aer. Aer is the basic energy that all forms of life require to survive. Without Aer, things die. Too much Aer, they also die. Levels of Aer need to be balanced for life to thrive naturally. Blastia pull Aer from the surroundings and convert it into other energies to preform a function, like the bohdi blastia used to preform 'magic'. Bohdi blastia, however, also pull Aer from the user, and can lead to death by over exhaustion. You got all that?"
"You're saying that this thing can kill me?"
"If you overexert yourself, yes."
"Well, with that covered let's move on." said Cerius. "As we've concluded from the data, this particular blastia is made to enhance the host's body itself by manipulating nervous impulses, apparently by highjacking the nervous system itself, and quite possibly part of the brain."
Eve started at this announcement, looked at the tools in her hand and the uncovered blastia before her, and rather violently lurched back in horror.
"N-no way! And I was messing with that?"
"Calm down Eve, I'm fine." Yuri said quietly, an unreadable expression in his eyes. "Just...don't do anything else."
"But I'm afraid she must." came Doctor Genzir's voice, calling everyone's attention to him. "If not her, than another will, and I doubt you would permit someone unfamiliar fiddling around it if you do not know or trust them. A control panel and casing must be made and attached to the device if you don't want outside stimuli interfering with it, it may prove very uncomfortable for you."
"Whatever."
The doctor raised an eyebrow at the blase response from his patient. "You may not care at the moment, but you will later on. It's time we begin the testing."
'This is going to be such a pain' thought Yuri. 'Bigtime.'
