"Let's bring some firecrackers." Sal pulled a flashbang from a pouch and primed it then threw it in a high arc over his cover and into the line of sight of the slavers. He grabbed the blonde and forced her head down just as a faint click reached his ears.

BANG!

The grenade went off with a bright flash of light, a split second later Sal bolted out of cover and sprinted for a large pool table, he forced it up and onto its side with ease and used the thick granite of the table as a bullet shield, taking cover behind it.

Celeste followed the Agent quickly, fear evident in her face and eyes as her whole body began to shake once more.

"OPEN FIRE!" Shouted a slaver as a cacophony of gunshots rang out from the other side of the table, followed quickly by harsh thuds of the bullets colliding with the granite.

"Well it looks like I don't have to stay quiet anymore." Sal said as he holstered his Glock and took the P90 off his back, prepping it and readying himself for the bloody firefight to come.

Celeste shook as she stared at the agent beside her. "A-are we going to make it out?"

"Woman if you knew how many missions I've been on, and how little I've failed, you'd be more confident in our situation." Sal said as he brought his P90 around the right-hand edge of the pool table, showing as little of himself as possible as he took aim at the slavers.

"Failed?"

"I don't plan on making this one of them." He replied as he opened fire, trading bullets with the hostiles which caused the blonde to flinch with each burst.

"How many have you failed?" She asked as she started to feel even more worried for her life.

"Will you focus on our current situation for fuck's sake!"

"But… but I haven't used a gun before…" Celeste said as she looks down at the PDW in her hands. "Let alone shot someone."

Sal grumbled and quickly ducked back behind cover as a bullet grazed the wooden side of the table where his head was just a moment ago. He turned to her and pointed at the gun in her hands. "Take the business end of that weapon and point it around the cover at those fucks before they get smart and flank us on your side!"

Celeste recoiled at the forceful order from the man in black combat gear and shakily glanced around her end of the large table.

"I don't care if you don't even hit them, just fire in their direction and make them think twice about coming your way!" Sal shouted over the loud rapport of gunfire. He peeked back around the corner once more and opened fire upon the slavers, keeping them at a distance and behind cover by being not overly particular with how accurate he is.

Celeste held the P90 out round the corner and started to blind fire it, squeaking in shock when it recoiled and bucked in her hands and the muzzle climbed upwards, causing rounds to ricochet off the high roof.

"Damn it, Woman. Grasp the weapon firmly and gently squeeze your trigger finger so it fires off short bursts of three rounds, full auto will just burn through mags." Sal threw over his shoulder as his eyes roamed around the room in front of him, searching for targets of opportunity.

"O-ok." She replied as she tightened her grip on the gun and followed his instruction.

Spotting a crystal chandelier hanging above a group of eight or nine slavers, Sal snapped the muzzle up to the suspending cable and fired a quick burst of bullets at it. The chandelier started to creak and shudder before it shunted down a foot. The cable slowly unfurling from the damage the bullets had caused.

A lone crystal fell to the floor and shattered at the feet of the slaver group, the only warning for their impending doom, one of them stops firing and slowly looked up as his curiosity got the better of him.

"Ooh Fuck!" He shouted as the chandelier comes crashing to the floor on top of the group, killing some and critically injuring others. The force of the impact causes crystal fragments to fly out like a fragmentation grenade and injure those around the impact site.

"Holy fuck!" Shouted one of the slavers in surprise, they had been grazed by a crystal fragment and were now bleeding from a gash along their right arm.

"These aren't police!" Another shouted in a momentary pause in the firefight.

"No fucking shit…" Muttered Sal as he took the break in the fire as an opportunity to move, slipping out of cover and focusing on his targets.

The slavers stared, shocked, at the man before them, standing out of cover like a man with balls of tungsten carbide as he levelled the weapon with them.

"You really need to tone down the collateral damage Sal…" M advised Agent Salamander.

"I've done worse." Sal smirked as he precisely aimed and shot six quick shots, downing the targeted slavers before the rest of them could react then ducked back down behind cover as gunfire filled the room once again.

"Get ready, we are making a break for the exit on the other side of the room, taking the long way around those one-armed bandits." Sal said to Celeste as he pointed off to his right.

"But… but…" She murmured weakly, she shook the SMG in her hands uncertainly.

"Just move and shoot, doesn't have to be accurate just needs to keep them in cover so we don't get hit." Eyeing her uncertain face, he decided to give her no more time to process the information and sprinted out of cover, firing the P90 at the slavers with one hand and flicking heavy tables up with his other hand to provide his companion with more cover.

Slamming into cover behind a gambling machine, he looked back at the blonde and motioned her to start moving. "Get your ass in gear and get over here!" He reached into his grenade pouch once again and withdrew another Flashbang, sending it out to the thugs to stun them.

After a moment's hesitation from the blonde – which was enough time for the grenade to detonate – she hurried over to his side, a bullet soaring through her hair and splitting some of it apart. "I-I'm here! But I felt a bullet almost hit me!"

Sal provided covering fire for the woman from around the corner of the machine until his gun clicked dry. He pushed Celeste past him and to the next machine then popped out the mag and replaced it with a fully loaded one.

"FRAG OUT!" Shouted a slaver as he pulled the pin from a grenade and threw it.

"Nah fuck that for a joke!" Sal shouted back as he slipped out of cover and sent a bullet at the grenade, hitting it a couple of feet from the slaver and detonating it in mid-air. "And that is why you don't announce when you throw frags unless it is danger close, Motherfuckers!"

Fragments from the grenade hit some of the grenades on the belts of the surrounding hostiles, severing the safeties and triggering the primer, causing further detonations and blowing apart a few people.

"Move now, Celeste, we have a window!" Sal said as he sprinted flat out around the backs of the machines, past the woman, and began to burst fire his P90 at the remnants of the slavers between each machine.

Celeste follows hot on his heels, wanting nothing more than to get out of the death trap called the casino.

As he ran, Sal pulled up yet another Flashbang grenade and primed it, he let the safety go and counted to three while sprinting before he flung it up over the machines so it would blow up in mid-air, flashing and disorientating the slavers but making his ears ring a bit due to the proximity, even though the machines deflected most of the blast.

Having the path pointed out for her by the agent protecting her, she runs out of the door and hid behind the large wooden double doors, waiting for the Agent to join her.

Sal swung the weapon around onto his back and grabbed a heavy poker table, easily dragging it out to the hallway. He closed the doors and slammed his foot into the table, driving it up against the doors and barricading them.

"Are we safe?" Celeste asked, timidly.

"Not until we are off this ship and out of the docklands." Her guardian responded as he set up some sensor traps with knock out gas grenades so if anyone passed through the door then they'd get knocked unconscious. He didn't give two shits if they were slavers or cops.

"How do we get off the ship?"

Sal shrugged and pulled out his Glock again, preferring to take the silent approach since they made it out of the firefight. "You alright? No wounds?" He asked as he started moving down the hallway.

"I think one just missed my head when I was running, I felt the wind and heard it fly past."

"M, we need a way off this damn ship that will have us avoid any more surprise parties." Sal said with a nod of acknowledgement to the blonde next to him. "Yeah, I heard you say that during the firefight. You got lucky."

"You could head down the mooring cable that you came up, head down one of the boarding ramps or even use some fire and jump off the floor you are on."

"First one would be safest, second means I could come across police and slavers having a shootout and the third one means I'll be one big and obvious target until I land and shut the fire off."

"Well if you are going with the first one then head to the very front of the floor you are on, jump out of the window and slide down the slope on the front."

"Copy that, M." Sal turned to Celeste and raised a questioning eyebrow. "How big are you on slides?"

"Slides?"

"We are going to slide down the front of the ship then make our way down a mooring cable to the docks, then disappear into the shadows."

"Wait What!?"

"Shush, keep your voice down woman, we aren't out of danger yet."

"Why can't we go down the stairs instead?"

"Because we'll come across either cops or more slavers or both if we go that way."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, and I'd rather not leave a trail of bodies for us to be tracked, so let's get a move on already." Sal replied and broke out in a steady jog.

"O-ok" Celeste said as she followed as best as she could.

The two snuck their way down hallway after hallway as firefights raged on behind them. After a tense 15 minutes, they reached the fore of the ship at the floor they are on, Sal pressed lightly on a window and found that it is sealed shut, he could punch it open but that'd leave jagged glass in the frame which could cut the woman he was meant to be protecting. "Going to have to blow it open or something…"

"I've got it." Celeste said as she pulled a golden key from the pouch on her thigh.

"No, I don't want to risk any loud crashing noises drawing attention to us." Sal said firmly as he pushed her hand back down slowly.

"But…"

"I know you may want to feel like you are being useful but I've got to get us both out of here in one piece and without being tracked. I can't do that if you bust a wall open with that summon."

"But…" She mumbled weakly.

"Once we are out of here and it has calmed down, I'll answer any question you have."

"You didn't have to be a dick about it…"

"At this time, I've stopped caring, my mission is to get you out of here safely, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, slavers on one side and cops on the other." He replies sharply as he took his right glove off, holding out a finger and creating a short jet of fire from the tip of it. He brought the flame to the window and slowly melting around the edge of the glass.

"You're a mage?" Celeste asks, unable to stop her curiosity as she watched the magical fire separate window from frame.

"Yes."

"What else do you know aside from fire magic?" She asked curiously.

"Can't say here."

"Why?"

"Because we still are not safe."

"Oh right…"

The sound of a helicopter reached Sal's ears and forced him to press against the wall beside the window. He grabbed the blonde and brought her close to bring her out of the sweeping searchlight.

"What is that?" Celeste asked quietly, gingerly resting against the man she had to trust with her life, her hand on his shoulders and arms against his chest.

"Police heli, will make things a lot harder, they would have infrared night vision cameras on that bird so they'll see us as clear as daylight. More so me than you…" He used his hearing to track the Helicopter as he drifted along the front of the ship, its searchlight shining against the wall opposite him.

"Oh."

Sal carefully checked out the window when he heard the rotors move further around the front and made sure that the danger has passed before he released the blonde and got back to work on the window.

Once the window came free, he pulled it into the ship and stuck his head out to see how far down they'd have to go. "I'll have to carry you down that drop, I don't think you'll be good to walk after it if I let you go down yourself. Especially since you're barefooted."

Celeste huffed and crossed her arms under her bust, causing them to lift up a bit. "Why don't you think I would be fine?"

"Many reasons, but now is not the time for chatter." Sal said then quickly brought his head back into the hallway, he picked up the blonde in his arms and moved out the window.

"I didn't consent to this~!"

"Shut up and hold on, this is going to be a fast one."

Celeste gripped onto the Agent for dear life as he broke out into a controlled run down the slope of the front of the ship. She was barely managing to hold in a scream as the wind whips her hair around along with her torn dress.

Sal ran down the slope until he reaches the bottom, bending his legs as he landed on the deck to cushion the impact before setting the woman down on her feet. "Ok let's move to the cable that I came up."

"Can I please have a second…?" She asks as she bent double, placing her hands on her knees and trying to calm her racing heart.

"No time and it's also too dangerous here, we are out in the open and can be seen and shot at by a lot of directions here."

"Please?" She asked as she looked up at him with teary eyes while trying to calm her nerves.

He sighed and gave her a wave. "Alright. Ten seconds, then we have to move."

Sal swung the P90 back around and held it ready for combat as he looked around and kept an eye out for further danger.

"M is there any chance on tapping into the camera on that heli, I need to know when to get into cover."

"I'll check that for you, will be a tougher nut to crack than the ship's security system."

"Thanks M." Sal replied as he checked the time on his watch. "Time's up, time to move."

"Fine, fine…" Celeste said as she straightened up and walked to him.

Sal put the weapon on his back again and picked her up in his arms once more before heading to the mooring cable.

"Again?" She complains with a faint blush.

"We have to get down onto the docks as soon as possible so we can slip away through the docklands, so I'm going to run down the cable and I'd rather not have your feet torn up."

"What are you, some kind of ninja?"

"I was trained in many things." Sal replied playfully as a smirk danced on his lips. Breaking out into a run, he moved across the deck and vaulted the railing, landing on the cable and causing it to bounce and twang. "Steady…" He murmured quietly while shifting Celeste about like a balance pole for tight rope walkers though it was a difficult feat due to the woman's weight distribution.

"Oi don't use me like this."

"Would you prefer that I use you some other way?" Questioned Sal with a raised eyebrow.

"Just shut up and move…"

Sal ran down the cable, timing his steps carefully so the cable didn't fling him off or his foot misses the cable due to the bouncing.

"Bad news Sal, the hack will take longer than expected so you'll have to go without an eye on the eye in the sky."

"Shit…"

"What's wrong?" Celeste asked, slightly panicked.

"I asked for a tap on that police camera on the helicopter, it will take too long and we'll probably be detected before the hack works."

"Oh…"

Sal leapt off the end of the cable onto the dock and sprinted across the open ground for the stack of shipping containers nearby.

"You can put me down now."

"In a sec." Sal replied as he broke past the threshold of the containers and deemed it safe enough, he put the woman back on her feet and watched her wobble about for a moment before glancing around them.

"Where to now?" Celeste asked after she regains her balance.

"My bike, but it is halfway across the docks. At least we don't have to worry about the slavers now, only cops."

"Is that really any better?"

"Well hopefully they won't shoot at first sight down here, best we leave the P90s here, we don't want to give them cause to shoot us."

"Ok." Celeste replied as she placed the gun and ammo belt down on the ground, copying Sal's own motions.

"I'll need my jacket back now, I have to cover my own guns and equipment."

She nodded and slipped off the matte black jacket and held it out for him to take. A shiver ran down her spine, after removing the warm jacket she started feeling a little bit cold.

"Thanks, now hopefully if we get spotted they won't see any weapons on us and try to shoot us, but who knows, we may get a trigger happy cop." Sal said as he took the jacket and swung it around his body, sliding his arms in as it moves about him.

"Which way?"

"Follow me, and keep an ear out for that helicopter, if it sounds like it's coming closer then let me know." He replied and looked around for boys in blue as they started moving up the docks.

"What are the chances of being found by the cops? And is it really a bad thing?" She asked after a few minutes.

"Depends on if they are patrolling around the docks or not, and it could be bad, one of us could be shot."

"But what are the chances of being shot?"

"By the cops? Depends on who is behind the gun, I've been shot at a lot by them..."

"Oh ok. Hey, it sounds like the helicopter is coming." Celeste pointed out as the sound of rotor blades came ever closer.

"Yeah it might make a pass. Hopefully, it won't see us between these containers." He replied as he kept walking. He paused at the end of the containers for a moment and took a look out over to the warehouses.

"What do you see?"

"No cops yet, we might have to make a move soon, maybe risk being seen by the heli if it means we get to our extraction faster and get out of here." He waited a minute for the helicopter to fly over their heads then made a run for the warehouses, moving to the rear end of them to avoid any police patrolling out front.

"How much further do we have to go?" Celeste asked as she did her best to remain close to the agile man

"About half a dozen buildings, I parked between two of them."

"Ok."

After a few minutes of walking, the two reached the gap between the 5th and 6th warehouse just as a pair of polices officers turned the corner ahead of them.

"FREEZE!" Shouted one of them as they both took aim with their pistols at Sal and Celeste.

"Woah, cool your jets." Said Sal as he came to a stop and put his hands up beside his head.

"Why are you two out here? There's a police operation going on!"

"We were enjoying a date night out on the edge of the docks, but when we heard gunfire we decided it wasn't the best idea staying here." Sal replied calmly. "So we were trying to make our way back without being scene, just in case we got into trouble."

"Is that so… why is this woman's dress torn?" Asked the second officer, as pointed to the blonde.

"Sorry, she likes it rough, we probably got a bit too carried away." The Agent replied offhandedly. He slipped an arm around Celeste's shoulders and brought her close, causing her to flush red and look down in embarrassment at her red dress.

The two officers did a double-take and slowly lowered their pistols halfway. The first one spoke up, still uncertain about the situation. "Well we'll have to call it in anyway, just wait there."

Celeste kept her hands up but Sal relaxed, holding the woman protectively as he eyed the police subtly. An Officer grabbed their radio and brought it up to their mouth. "Control we have two people here, a man and a woman, they claim to be having a date night at the docks and tried to leave the area when the operation started."

"We have cordoned off the entire docks and did a full sweep of the area, so unless they had a little love nest hidden away, they're lying, check them for weapons." The woman on the radio replied.

"Sorry, rules are rules." Said the officer as she put the radio back on her belt and moved forwards to Sal. "I'm going to check you first as you could be hiding something under that jacket."

"Fine by me." Sal said as he carefully watched her, he stepped forward and a little in front of his charge.

The officer reached out and starts giving him a pat-down. When she felt something in his jacket she pulled it open and came to a dead stop as she saw all his weapons and equipment. "Oh Shit…"

Sal moved faster than anyone could react, striking the woman's solar plexus to force the wind out of her and stun the officer. He pressed his advantage and spun her around, simultaneously drawing his Glock before wrapping an arm around the neck of the officer and levelling the suppressed pistol at the second, using her as a human shield.

"What the fuck!?" The male officer shouted at no one in particular as the situation just got flipped on its head, his pistol immediately snapping back up towards the assailant.

"Shut up and don't make any rash decisions, I'm under orders to use neutralise anyone that stands in the way of my mission so I won't hesitate to shoot either of you." Sal spoke calmly to the two police officers but kept his gun trained on the man a few metres away from him.

"Who the hell are you?" Asked the officer he is holding hostage as a shield, her voice raspy from the harsh punch.

Sal reached down to her belt and grabbed the radio from it. He brought it up to his mouth and clicked in the transmit button. "This is Agent Salamander. I've got two of your officers here who intercepted me and my charge out back of the warehouses as we were about to exfiltrate. Call them off."

"How dare you…" Said the officer as he slowly edged closer and closer to Sal with his pistol aimed at them.

"Cool it Motherfucker, wouldn't want to hit this woman here." Sal replied as he tightened the arm around the officer's neck.

The police helicopter flew around and hovered over the water to their right, the camera pointed at them.

Sal glanced at the heli and activated the radio again. "We gave you Bora and those girls, remember the deal, it won't take us much to take him back if you break the deal. You already fucked up my operation once, don't fuck it up again."

"Let them past you two, we don't want any trouble with his agency." Came the female voice through the radio.

"Smart woman." Sal replied over the radio as he waited for the cop to lower his pistol and holster it before letting his shield go. He handed her the radio back and holstered his own pistol. "Any longer and your friend over there might have opened fire by the looks of it, I'd get a new partner if I were you."

As he started walking down the waterfront again, the male cop redrew his pistol and took aim at the Agent once again. "You think I'm just going to let you walk?"

"Go fuck yourself pal." Sal said as he pivoted on the ball of his foot with inhuman speed, delivering a roundhouse kick to the raised pistol and knocking it clean out of the grip of the officer. He followed it up with another brutal kick, his boot to the armoured chest of the cop and sending him flying into the wall of the nearby warehouse. "Raise your gun on me after being ordered to stand down again and you'll get much worse than that." He said as he motioned Celeste to follow him to his bike. "Come."

"Wait, you're Agent Salamander? The one that Bora was impersonating?" Celeste asked quickly as she did her best to keep up with the man's long and quick strides.

"Yes, it is part of the reason I was selected for this mission, you see Bora had been tarnishing my reputation, being sloppy and unprofessional among other things."

"But he was using fire-type magic…"

"And that is all we have in common, and even that is stretching it. I use a unique fire magic, hence why I earned the name Salamander, a lizard that breathes fire, but that isn't the origins of my magic."

"What is?"

"That's classified." Sal said as he looked over his shoulder. "My bike is down here."

"Classified? Why would it be classified?"

"Because it's not something someone can just learn." He replied as he ran his hand through his hair, changing it back to its natural salmon colour and returning his eyes to their original onyx. He put on his motorcycle helmet and requipped a second one which he held out to her. "Here."

"Thanks?" Celeste said as she put it on. "It fits perfectly, whose is this?"

"It's a spare I keep around if I need to take someone on my bike, seems like you are the same size as my handler and her sister."

"Why them?"

"Well M, Agent Demon, likes to go fast, she is my handler, her sister is Agent Soul and I think she just likes to hold on to me tightly when we go for rides, well actually they both do."

"Oh."

Sal nodded and got onto his bike, starting it and motioning her to get on behind him. Once she got on behind him and held onto him, he took off and leisurely drove out of the docklands, heading for the Safe House in the city.

"VIP secured and on the way to the safe house."

"Copy that Sal, nice handling of the police back there."

"Thanks, I was lucky that one of those cops didn't expect to find a kitted out agent and froze up when she saw all the gear."

"Imagine what it would be like if she saw you when you weren't in incognito clothes."

"Yeah yeah, so any new developments?"

"They found Bora, naked and tied up on the bed, guess they weren't expecting him to be gifted to them in a neatly tied package."

Sal laughed loudly as he drove but a voice that isn't M's comes over his comms immediately silenced his laughter.

"Agent Salamander, it's the Director. I want you to bring Celeste straight to HQ."

"But sir, what about my stuff at the safe house."

"We'll send a runner to pick them up and be delivered to your apartment, just worry about getting her here."

"Yes Sir, I'm changing course and coming home." Sal hit the brakes and flung the bike around a tight corner, changing his course as he headed for the highway to Magnolia instead of the Safe House in Hargeon.

"Where are we going?" Celeste asks loudly over the roaring bike.

"Back to Headquarters. I got ordered to take you there by the Director of my Agency."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but you better get comfortable, it's a long drive."

Well, this concludes the third chapter and Agent Salamander's mission in Hargeon, hope you have liked this chapter, feel free to follow/favourite and if you have any feedback then review.

See you all next time.