Midnight Iris’ orbit.

  Interior of Intergalactic Resources Executive Ship.

  12 hours earlier.

  A ship sits still in the ethereal glow of the planet’s atmosphere.

  Inside, a small display powers on, and soon a video feed of a woman, a secretary, appears on it.

  ”Larsenia, what is the meaning of this? Why are our ships leaving Midnight Iris in such high numbers?”

  ”Vice President Crondeston, I was just about to call you.”

  A stern woman with near-white hair questions her words on the other side of the screen.

  ”We had to vacate the planet, we lost it to ISSA, Tyrchids have started the process to become members.”

  ”Why did you act alone? Reinforcements were on the way, an Enforcer Squad no less. You should have held it to the last until they arrived.”

  ”An Elite team? Why? I-I had no idea the location was that vital.”

  ”Of course you didn’t…" She scoffs. "He, nor the Enforcers, are going to be pleased by this.”

  Sam and Doug listen in on the pilot’s conversation, watching from their chairs further away.

  They were late to leave, so they got to ride in the Director’s ship, all other ships had already left.

  ”Stand by, I will inform him right away.”

  A furious clacking of a keyboard, the blue light of the monitor reflected in her eyes hiding anger and disappointment.

  The typing stops and for a while, it is completely silent.

  ”Larsenia, you are fired for incompetence. Please visit our office in Metropolis today to return your security keys, key cards, and other company property.”

  ”W-what?"

  I'm... fired?!

  "But, I’ve got two guards on my ship, I’ve got to-”

  The vice president fills the screen with her face, attempting to peer behind Larsenia, to get a good look at the guards.

  ”Come closer and state your names.”

  They unbuckle from their seats and do as they are told.

  ”Sam Fiscer.”

  ”Douglas Blantel.”

  The Vice President retreats and seems to read something off of her screen.

  ”Our sources say that you were seen escorting the Tyrchid and this Frank person to Larsenia’s office. Is that correct?”

  Her… sources?

  ”Yes, that’s correct,” Sam admits, Doug looks at him from over his sunglasses.

  “Does Mr Blantel agree?” She coerces.

  “Yeah... that was us, ”Doug’s expression breaks into a short-lived grimace.

  “Good… good. You are both fired as well.” She states without remorse and lets the statement hang in the air.

  “Now then, looks like you all have the same journey.

  Drop off your company property at the same office and immediately leave the premises, you will spend your termination protection period on forced vacation.

  All of you.”

  The broadcast ends and the screen turns off.

  Larsenia slumps on her pilot’s chair and leans on her hand.

  Doug speaks up.

  “Why’d you blurt that out? We could have denied-”

  “Do you think lying would have helped, that nobody would say anything?” Sam cuts him off and rants.

  “After we paraded through the facility with the Tyrchid in tow? After that stupid idea, you authorized.”

  “What's gotten into you? Weren't you all chummy with Amethyst and on board with our handling of the situation? Now you blame me for this?!”

  “You went with it, it's your responsibility. Besides... it’s not ultimately our fault we lost our jobs.”

  “Come on now... You’re not-”

  “Why do you think we got fired? Not because we escorted them to the Director, it’s because Larsenia caved to their demands and decided to run away!”

  “Sam!”

  “Douglas,” Larsenia says sternly, grabbing his attention immediately.

  “Sam is right, I’m the one to blame. It was my poor judgment that led us all into this situation.”

  Doug grits his teeth and pushes his shades deeper before turning around and retreating to his seat.

  Sam follows suit and re-buckles on the other side of the cockpit.

  Larsenia collects herself, straps in, and plots a warp course to Metropolis.

  ***

  A few minutes later,

  Intergalactic Fighter Ship.

  Registered owner: Enforcer Squad Delta.

  “Delta come in,” A voice hails us through the speakers and a screen turns on with the pale visage of the secretary of our leader.

  I, a beautiful young woman wearing a broad gold necklace, with numerous red gems attached to it, answer her and whip back my long luscious black hair.

  “Delta, listening.”

  “The mission is canceled, ISSA was faster.”

  I hear an angry grunt and groaning from behind.

  “Return to HQ, stand by, and prepare for plan B briefing, everyone except Sola. He wants to see you”

  “Understood”

  The broadcast is cut.

  He wants to see me?

  “Ohohoho what have you done now?” A clink of a metal knuckle duster sounds as a meaty hand is placed on the back of my pilot chair.

  A massive muscular woman with short curly blond hair towers over my sitting form and laughs deadpanned.

  Two red gemstones embedded on both sides of her mouth to her cheeks, very slightly glowing, look rather painful.

  She's Beam, a most fitting, if not ironic, nickname. I kind of like her, I think. Or maybe I just find her entertaining.

  “He must be furious.” A large man with broad shoulders, covered by a long sharp jet-black coat, comments.

  Leaning to the wall of the ship on the left, he appears to not actually touch it.

  He adjusts his stetson-like hat but with a much broader brim, of equally enigmatic color.

  Atro enjoys giving off a mysterious air but often fails to live up to it. I'm not sure if he's just persistent or clueless.

  Personally, I'd go with the second option.

  Be as it may, I don’t honor either of their comments with a response.

  “Or maybe hissss secretary issssn’t enough for him anymore.”

  A slithering hiss says from behind, the only other person apart from me to have the common sense to actually sit down during spaceflight.

  “Time to learn how to ssssu-” his other snakehead echoes and narrowly dodges a thrown iron knuckle. It slightly dents the wall of the ship and clatters to the floor.

  The man with two snakes attached to his body, Karme and Kaarme, slithering around his shoulders and neck isn’t fazed, nor are the snakes.

  In fact, it would have been extraordinary if the human head of the body had reacted, since ‘it’ is known for being in a state of perpetual unconsciousness.

  Somehow, I find the two of them most irritating of all, not only because of their speech but also due to the 'flailing noodle twins' being my most sane teammates.

  That perturbed me most of all.

  “Karme has a point, she is very attractive,” Atro says factually.

  “Saying such things with a straight face...” I hold my head between my hands seductively and coyly look at Atro.

  “Careful or you might make a young girl fall for you,” I flutter my long eyelashes along with my sweetest and most innocent of tones.

  Ugh, gross. I resist making a face and pushing my tongue out in disgust, just barely.

  I can sense his tough act crumbling from his body language, even if I don’t see his eyes in the shade of his hat.

  “Are you sure it wasn’t Kaarme?” Beam gets caught to a totally different point of the comment.

  “You still can’t tell the difference between the heads? Not even when they both look way different?”

  Disappointingly, he doesn't surrender to my charms just yet, or hides it well, as he meets Beam’s look unfazed, revealing the entirety of his objectively handsome face.

  “Of course I can. Give it a rest, you trying to make me smile?” Beam cannot help but grimace slightly, the red glow a bit brighter in her gems than before.

  “Go ahead, give me your biggest grin.” Atro throws away his hat like a Frisbee and it lands on Karme like he was a coat rack.

  He immediately squirms underneath it and manages to drop it on the floor, returning to watching the two fighters intently.

  I yank the steering sticks and turn the ship around to return to base, the whole ship rapidly tilts to the right and back again.

  I hear the two troublemakers stumbling around but not falling.

  “Is fighting amongst yourself all you can do?”

  “Stay out of this newbie, we enriched are having a talk,” Beam rudely shoots me down.

  “Yes, yes!” Karme shouts, he's the bigger of the two, like an anaconda.

  “Give us a good laser show!” Kaarme riles them to continue, a mere string in comparison to his ‘brother’.

  “Yeah, time to settle this, I’ll show you what true strength is!”

  “You sure you can do that, At-ro-phy?” Beam pronounces mockingly and realizes she never fetched the other iron knuckle she threw.

  Atro growls and throws off his jacket, which only lies on his shoulders, revealing his naked insanely muscular upper torso.

  His head turns an unnatural 180 degrees back while he turns his body around, a sight to behold for the first time.

  Though I can't say I was still used to it.

  A massive hairy arm is revealed sprouting from his back, very grimly sticking out of it.

  His skin around it, barely healed from the recent operation.

  “I don’t even need a sword to beat you, just a single arm will do,” He flexes the gigantic gorilla arm.

  I sigh.

  “Atro, your grating words, and that massive ego, so off-putting, not even mentioning that arm, rivaling you in its atro-city. Just shut up already.”

  “You’ve got some gall girl!” He brandishes his animal arm at me.

  “Hahahaha!” Beam uncannily says instead of laughing, almost smiling, her cheeks illuminating from the glow of her gems almost activating.

  “Did the Leader hit you in the head with a beam when you were enriched or is there some other reason you’ve got sawdust for brains?”

  Beam’s face goes sour and she quiets down.

  “Karme and Kaarme, how the hell are you the most experienced in this squad? How are you still alive with your personalities?" I stop my berating for a moment to savor the moment.

  “Your body should really rein you in.”

  The snake heads writhe and wriggle agitated in response.

  “Unwise move...” Karme says.

  “To mention him” Kaarme continues.

  “He is our vessssel and nobody els’s, you got that girl?” Both heads threaten in perfect sync.

  The human face of their body is still and expressionless, almost looking lifeless.

  A silence of emptiness, like the space outside, spreads inside the cockpit of the ship.

  “Maybe Sola really has the makings to be an Enforcer” Atro cuts through the void, with a surprising smile to boot.

  “Hahah, you said it” Beam booms with an off-putting combination of a hilarious laugh and a serious face.

  “Sssshe is gifted. You are new, but already know ussss.”

  “Know what to ssssay, how to annoy us besssst.”

  The two heads take turns to say. They seemed to always speak in a certain order.

  “Of course, I wouldn't be here otherwise”

  “Save some pride for when you’ve actually been enriched,” Beam says and finally picks up his fist weapon from the floor.

  “Might not be that far off.” Atro picks up his hat and jacket too and dons them both again.

  “Do you really think he called me because of that?” I answer cutely feigning ignorance.

  “A missssion.”

  “To prove you are not wasssste.”

  Finally…

  It’s my turn.

  I can’t help but smile a wide grin at the rapidly passing stars of the ongoing warp.

  A smile, so wicked, so devilish, it almost makes me laugh as I see it reflected back at me in the windshield.

  ***

  Intergalactic Space Station.

  Docking Bay.

  We walk down the fighter ship’s metal slope, the trio ahead of me.

  “Come train Atro?” Beam asks.

  “Nah, apparently R&D wants to see me.”

  “Maintenance?”

  “Doubt it, too soon.”

  Beam quickly changes her aim after rejection.

  “Target practice Karme & Kaarme?”

  “Sssso, we are your ssssecond choice.”

  “Inssssolent woman.”

  “Yes or no?”

  “It issss.”

  “Acceptable.”

  They take a corridor to the left together and Atro continues ahead of me for a bit before going to the right.

  Left by myself, I proceed straight onward, through the wide and grand corridors of Intergalactic's Headquarters.

  Scientists, grunts, and other personnel I come across give me a wide berth as I stride proudly past them.

  They seemed to be much more numerous in recent days, not knowing the exact reason for that bothered me.

  I can’t help it, I live for the power, revel in the superiority, and especially the respect I get.

  Well, from everyone who recognized me as a member of the Enforcers that was, those who didn’t would soon falter as they found out.

  Except those in the Enforcers themselves, those who were Enriched.

  Just thinking of them soils my good mood.

  To vent I give a passing cleaner a look that could kill, along with my best mad grin and crazy eyes.

  He jumps in surprise and hurries off terrified with his cleaning equipment.

  I laugh out loud heartily and wipe off a small tear.

  It’s all coming together...

  I would like to thank the two no-shows for giving me the opportunity to join this squad.

  The sacrifice of your very life is appreciated, as well as whoever the other guy is who’s been on a secret mission for what feels to be forever.

  No wonder Delta’s squad ranking is way down in the dumps. Did they really wait for him to get back before replacing the squad member with Atro, or why did they decide to do it now…?

  That spoiled brat… Already Enriched before even joining an Enforcer squad? Who does he think he is?

  I’ve climbed up the corporate ladder for all my life, from a row soldier, to among the most Elite.

  Not that I did much fighting to get here, since my strength lies elsewhere, but that’s beside the point…

  What an absolute travesty, such gifts are wasted on that dirtbrain of a man.

  Atro can be the Leader’s pet all he wants. Just you wait once I get to taste real power, once I earn the highest honor too.

  Enrichment...

  With it came many freedoms, much better pay, and more dangerous missions.

  But most importantly of all, inhuman powers.

  Surely, this time it’s my turn? Even if our Leader’s not as easy to sway as I’d like him to be, I can’t deny I don’t enjoy the chase.

  A cute smile there, a quivering lip here, a sigh planted at the most opportune time… And itsy-bitsy little lies, to further my goals.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  After all, what fun is a hunt without challenging prey?

  It’ll only make it that much more satisfying once I finally surpass him.

  I shake the fantasy and memories from my head as I arrive at his secretary’s office.

  She barely acknowledges my presence and just gives a sharp glare and a sideways head gesture towards the leaders' door.

  I push open the massive double doors of black and put on my most captivating smile.

  “You wanted to see me, Sir?” I coat my words with allure and purity.

  “Ready to earn your Enrichment?” His deep voice asks the turned long leather chair’s back hiding him entirely.

  “Of course. I’m ready to prove myself. To do anything…” I let my words trail off.

  “Do whatever is necessary.”

  “A good answer,” He slowly spins around in the chair to face me.

  A writhing, bulging mass, humanoid in form, but malformed with various animal parts. The most Enriched of everyone, the word was that he’d live forever.

  “I have a special mission, perfect for just your strengths.”

  I remember the days well, back when you were still a feared leader.

  Not anymore.

  Now, you are just a dotaged, rotting, old man.

  Even your once gigantic, powerful implanted arms, like Atro’s, are now shriveled to human size, or smaller, like a child’s.

  I remember seeing footage of you wielding them and all of your other appendages with such finesse and skill.

  An unmatched, unbeatable arsenal of various racking claws, sharp blades, and puncturing stringers. Anything one could possibly need.

  You had been on the front lines of many operations back then, the face, and the soul of Intergalactic…

  Of course, that’s all in the past now. I can’t even remember the last time you spoke publicly. Even now, you hide behind your, admittedly, strikingly stylish and sharp black jacket.

  Only your face is visible to the few who get the honor of meeting you, and even that had been artificially cut and chiseled to look normal, like a human’s to keep up the facade.

  No way you’d look even a fraction as good without frequent operations, not even mentioning combining it with your degrading body.

  All of this is of course a secret, but you cannot keep anything from me.

  Not forever.

  I have my own ways of acquiring information, unmatched in both: form and function.

  Wait… the sleek black jacket…

  What is Atro to you? How close are you two? How did I miss this until now?

  You can’t be seriously prepping him to be your successor?

  A genuine feeling of anger surprises my heart used to only feeling loathing and malice.

  A feeling I had not felt in a long long time, almost makes me drop my act and show a glimpse of my true feelings to somebody.

  As the leader lays down the secret mission’s details, his movements are sluggish and associated with heavy breathing, marred with frequent pauses during talking.

  He tries to hide his state as best as he can.

  It wouldn't be long now that he’d be gone.

  No wonder he is so eager and hasty to test me, to Enrich me.

  He needs everyone in top form for his plan.

  “It shall be done, great leader,” I bow graciously and manage to hide my sickening grin.

  I’ll gladly play along… for now.

  I leave the room, flash him a final tempting smile, and the doors automatically close after me.

  The secretary gives me a sideways glance as I leave her office through another set of double doors.

  “So was it an Enrichment mission then?” Atro leans to the cold steel wall, next to the doors, looking as enigmatic as ever, with his jacket pulled high up.

  “Yes, a secret mission too,” I say and manage to conceal my despise behind a grin.

  “Seems to be going around.”

  “But I think I’ll be working with you all still, or at least towards the same eventual goal. Not like he removed me from Delta.”

  “Interesting.”

  “I can’t say any more than that,” I notice a sword of massive size, sheathed and leaning on the wall next to him in the corner.

  “R&D really outdid themselves this time huh?”

  “They say I’m the only one capable of wielding this one, so I was chosen for its prototype use.”

  “Oh, how wonderful...”

  How truly wonderful Golden Boy. There’s no way that pea-brain Beam couldn’t lift that too…

  The bias and injustice make my grin rise high enough to reveal my white row of teeth bitten together, which I swiftly and covertly veil with my hand.

  A light chuckle to top it off and the deception is complete.

  ***

  Grial System.

  Crimson Merlot – Refuel, Bar, and Exo-Winery.

  Metropolis is a few warps away, stopping to refuel at space stations on the way was mandatory.

  This is the higher-up’s smaller ship with less fuel capacity than the cargo ships after all.

  We had stopped to refuel the ship two times already on our way to Metropolis.

  As we land for the final refuel, Larsenia passes us by exactly as before.

  I thought again of going after her, but she’s already sauntered past me, exiting the ship alone.

  I should have gone after her and talked to her the first time, but…

  I don’t know what I could say to her. I know what I wanted to say, but that wouldn’t help our situation, only confuse her further.

  The only way the trip could have been any more awkward was if I didn’t have my sunglasses on. We hadn’t spoken a single word after we argued after the broadcast, the trip passing sluggishly in silence.

  The only words after that had been: “I’ll refuel, be right back,” Larsenia said those exact words each time.

  I wonder what Sam is thinking about, perhaps he ponders where his future working career should take place?

  This development seemed to have hit him especially hard, seeming different and changed.

  Truth be told, he seemed a lot different back even when we got fired.

  Sam would always fold under my pressure, my command, often very easily but now he seemed even confrontational.

  Well, a month isn’t exactly a long time to get to know somebody.

  I take off my sunglasses and clean them with a cloth I always carry with me.

  Happening to glance in Sam's direction, our eyes meet.

  His look seems like he is evaluating me, inquisitively peering through me.

  I return the gesture and look back questioning.

  Our gazes locked, frozen in mettle.

  The ship’s back door opens with a whizz and a whirr.

  Larsenia walks from in between us returning to the cockpit, breaking our line of sight.

  I quickly blink my dry eyes before Larsenia’s hips have passed.

  But Sam is looking away already, towards the windshield and through the window.

  It's over, as quickly as it had started.

  …

  What was that about?

  ***

  Carnation System

  Planet “Metropolitan Sanctuary of Life.”

  City of Metropolis.

  We land on the landing pad of 'Intergalactic’s operations and offices, public facility'.

  They sure liked their names long and complicated.

  We exit the ship, Larsenia stays behind to do a quick check on the ship, so Sam and I proceed without her.

  “Wanna go return our stuff together? For old times’ sake?”

  The proposal catches me off guard.

  “Sure, one last hurrah.”

  I hesitate to ask, but still do.

  “Got any gigs lined up?”

  “Maybe I’ll return to where I used to work before. You?”

  I ask as we walk through the automatic doors.

  “Where did you work before? I don’t think you told me.”

  “Just a shoddy private security company, you’d hate it.

  Upper management is even sterner than Larsenia on duty and with a worse temper than that Rocco guy”

  “Not going to deny that. As for me… I don’t really know what I should do.”

  I take ahold of the rim of my shades.

  “Maybe I’ll become an entrepreneur and open an optician’s shop.”

  “What? Is that a joke? Getting fired must have really rattled you.”

  Sam turns back to me as he is swiping a key card to grant us access to the staff-only portion, the non-public areas.

  “I’m being serious.”

  “Hah, well you’d probably do well in that business.”

  “Thanks, I guess.”

  We make it to the men's locker room and Sam opens the way.

  We need to gather all our stuff first before returning our key cards, we can always get out without them, but even locker rooms are behind readers.

  Inside, a dressing room, multiple lockers are lined up. I'm not sure why we even have lockers all the way out here when we work anywhere but here. Some dusty corporate rules I guess, at least some space to store your stuff is nice.

  Since we hadn't been here after we got hired and got assigned to Midnight Iris, our lockers had been stored away. We have to access a console and request our lockers to be brought up, to replace somebody else's.

  Our lockers zing up one after the other.

  I open my locker.

  Oh, here they are.

  I rifle through a selection of different ordinary sunglasses, propped to a clothes hanger, of various shapes and sizes, and find a pair of yellow ones.

  Very distinctly shining from between them all.

  They’d have fired me too if I’d actually forgotten these here...

  Maybe I should request a repaint... how am I supposed to use these and not attract attention?

  As it stands now, I’ve only got one good pair...

  “Man, I joked about how you have a whole collection of sunglasses, I didn’t know I was actually right. Did you already open up shop?”

  I slip the yellow ones into my pocket.

  “You done already?”

  “Yeah, I don’t have a lot of stuff. I know we agreed to turn our stuff in together, but something’s come up in that security company I told you about already.

  Mind if I go ahead without you?”

  “Uh, no that’s fine. It was nice working with you” I offer a hand.

  “Likewise” Sam shakes it.

  “In case we never see again, good luck, and hope you’ll find a new job. Or maybe I’ll hear there’s a new optician around soon.”

  “Yeah, see ya around,” I say and Sam leaves the locker room.

  That’s a bit disappointing…

  He’s the one who wanted to go together.

  And now he’s already going back to his old job?

  Something doesn't add up...

  It’s not like I have any evidence, but...

  I take out my communicator and call Larsenia to check up on her.

  Three beeps let me know that she’s unreachable, outside of signal range or something's up with her phone.

  The first is nearly impossible in this day and age...

  Something’s definitely up... I can feel it in my shades.

  I pat my belt and feel my holstered pistol underneath my shirt.

  Leaving the unwieldy laser rifle in my locker, I lock it back up and exit the room to the hallway.

  I check both ways of the long corridor but see no Sam or Larsenia around.

  I walk inconspicuously past the Ladies' room, as I reach the thin wooden door, I quickly swipe the side of my shades.

  Outlining the area with my eyes, I start a scan of the room, it finishes in a flash, showing me three life signatures inside. None of them match my data of Larsenia.

  I’ve got to hurry.

  ***

  Earlier.

  A keycard reader beeps a green light and I step inside the server room of the facility.

  Large racks of quantum computers tower inside the room, and a cool airflow whisks around my long hair, meeting me at the door.

  Many rows about ten meters in length, formed numerous short corridors inside the room.

  I’ve been buying my time to get in here on many occasions, but the risk was simply too great.

  The perfect situation never showed up. Even now, it's not ideal, but I've just got to work with what I’ve got.

  Even as The Director of Midnight Iris, I had no authority to enter with my own card, however, she incidentally, I was still responsible for printing out all of her subordinates' cards.

  So what if I happened to make one extra card for a guard, who doesn’t exist?

  The door closes automatically after I've entered, I'd need the card to leave again.

  I check the status of my disruption device attached to my phone, a sleek black attachment a little longer than the communicator, attaching to its side.

  Its battery was still holding up nicely, so far it seemed to have gotten the job done.

  Even if I had plenty of experience using it, it could be a bit finicky at times.

  It had a habit of coming off slightly and not getting enough power to function, I’d been burned by it enough times by now to not rely on it blindly.

  I just hope this time won’t be one of those.

  The room is dim, almost dark, as I couldn't well just turn on the lights, now could I?

  Only the LEDs of the machines themselves provide any sort of lighting, as well as the faint red dots of surveillance cameras.

  She stepped in direct line of sight of them, confident she couldn't be seen.

  Squinting to see, I approach the main server terminal in the middle of the room.

  As I am about to reach it, a bright red-hued light flashes on.

  A maintenance light, in case of outages.

  Shit! Curse those low-tech motion sensors.

  I hurry to the console, it's too late to stop now.

  A traditional physical keyboard greets me and a small screen that lights up as I press a key on it.

  An admin login screen bars my way.

  I find an Intergalactic Data Drive (IDD) slot underneath the tabletop, and take out my Galactic Data Drive (GDD) stick, with the adapter for their tech already fitted to it.

  Inserting it into the slot, I hope our tech guys weren't just gloating about having cracked Intergalactic’s systems.

  Only a moment and the program on the GDD stick passes the admin login screen, and a treasure trove of full admin access greets me.

  Let’s see, any new schemes Albert? Maybe the current location of your space station?

  Larsenia dives deep into their folder and file structure.

  After some dead ends consisting of marketing strategy: the next products Centizard would advertise and some in-progress promotional materials and videos of the subject, she finds her way to the less-legal side.

  Hmm, outgoing shipments from all facilities, the top one place, being coordinates that point to nothingness in space.

  Promising.

  I download the shipping manifests quickly.

  What else-

  Whirrrr

  The door!

  I quickly yank the GDD out and dash away from out in the open, to the shade and dim blinking of lights of the corridors of servers.

  Clack.

  Thoughts race through my head, but most of all...

  They definitely saw me.

  Did they come in or are they raising the alarm as we speak?

  Are they here... with me?

  I creep forward, down the corridor, towards the door.

  I need to get out of here while I still can.

  Taking a small detour, of one corridor to the right, going straight for the door would be too risky.

  As I silently progress, I hear nothing but the calming and regular beeps of servers and the noise of fans.

  I start to think I'm alone here after all.

  A loud clatter from behind gives me the fright of my life as I instantly turn towards it.

  A… communicator? Its silver shell shines in the crimson light it had landed in.

  I gasp in realization and quickly step backward and turn around.

  A fist headed right for my face, narrowly dodged.

  But before I can retreat or turn around entirely, my shoulder is grabbed, and a knee slams into my stomach.

  I gasp for breath and stagger backward, folded in two I cough and wheeze.

  Before I can realize what happened my brain rattles and I find myself lying on the floor.

  Dizzy and aching I draw my pistol, but a kick flings it away. My fingers sting from the impact.

  I struggle to pull myself away and as I glance up, I finally get a good look at my assailant.

  He is shrouded in darkness, and a face lacking emotion turns into a grin as I recognize him.

  “Sam?!”

  My voice echoes along with my pistol hitting the ground with a loud clatter somewhere in the distance.

  Just then, a gaping hole appears in his chest, jolting his whole body.

  The hole smolders and burns, with a crisp smell of burning flesh along with a drip of thick plasma inside the wound.

  Red blood and some blue substance start gushing forth from it.

  Sam staggers but does not fall, though his smile fades.

  He turns around and covertly draws his own gun.

  I struggle onto my feet and dart away to hide against the end of the server corridor, peeking at the situation from there.

  “How good of you to- “

  Sam says but gets blasted in the head, an explosion of pink plasma, followed by a fountain of blue and red.

  He finally falls to the ground limp, the entire top half of his head missing.

  What the fuck is going on!?

  I carefully sneak to the next server corridor, toward where I think my pistol landed.

  “Larsenia!” A familiar voice calls out to me through the deathly silence.

  Is that-?

  “It’s me. Doug.”

  Douglas? But how? Why?

  I continue searching for my pistol, Sam just tried to kill me, how can I trust Douglas now either? Weren’t they friends?

  My skin crawls as adrenaline pounds my headache loudly in my skull.

  I search the corridors for my gun in the darkness. I crest another corridor and find the blinking lights illuminating the hard uneven surface of my pistol.

  “Nifty piece of gear that,” A voice right behind me.

  “Almost couldn't see you-”

  I scoop up the pistol and use the same momentum to slug a punch in the direction of the voice.

  My fist connects and I hear a whimper.

  In the darkness I find Douglas holding his jaw as I point my gun at him.

  He wears his sunglasses, even in this situation.

  “Larsenia,” He says calmly.

  “Why did you just punch me?”

  “I’m not buying it, Douglas, if that’s even your real name.”

  “And yours is Larsenia then?” He says and gets silence as a response. “Just lower the gun and let's talk.”

  “You might have killed Sam, but that doesn’t make you my ally. We can talk now, but make it short, I’m in a hurry and I might just shoot my way through distractions.”

  “Us spies should work together, at least consider each other as allies when we are up against Intergalactic, yeah?”

  “We don’t need ISSA’s help, just keep on conserving your aliens and leave the law enforcement to us,” I shake my traditional 9mm pistol at him.

  “Because Galactic Police can certainly be trusted to handle all conflicts. Just like today?”

  Douglas beams a smile, his eyes hidden behind those shades, but I bet they look smug now too.

  “Fine… let’s just get out of here quickly… You first.”

  Doug and Larsenia make their way, past Sam’s corpse and his communicator.

  Wait, where’s his communicator? It was right here.

  “Did you already loot his phone?”

  “Yeah, you think I’d leave empty-handed?” Doug shrugs with his back turned.

  “You saw that blue, too right? I think he’s one of those.”

  He levels a serious gaze at me.

  “Abomination or not, looks pretty dead to me.”

  “Well, either way, we shouldn’t stick around, let’s go.”

  ***

  They exit the server room, acting like they belong, and proceeding as if nothing happened.

  Nobody comes to stop them, nor even hails for them, no alarms blare.

  Larsenia suspects Douglas had some of his own tricks to help them with this.

  They both return to their dressing rooms and actually get ready to leave, only a few minutes later they meet back in the hallway.

  Without saying a word, they make their way to the public side of the building and visit HR, currently serving in customer service.

  They quickly turn in their key cards and other company property and get handed the official documents of their resignation.

  As they exit the grand automatic glass doors of the Intergalactic facility, they let out a relieved sigh.

  Around them opens up the industrial side of Metropolis, lots of massive factories, office buildings, and complexes with roads and streets separating them.

  Lots of places to hide or run to, unlike in the den of your enemy.

  They walk down the fairly empty streets. Everyone else is still confined within the buildings like normal people not fired from their undercover jobs.

  “So, why did you come for me? Are you after information?” Larsenia asks opening up the conversation, the two of them have been silent on the topic ever since the server room.

  “Yes, information on the latest moves of Intergalactic,” Douglas shoves his sunglasses further up his head. “You got something from that server, right?”

  “Well, not much, Sam interrupted me a bit too quickly”

  Douglas stays silent, unsatisfied with her answer.

  “I saw their shipping manifest, from all the facilities under the Metropolitan wing, the traffic to their HQ has increased drastically in the few recent days.”

  “How interesting. Any idea why?”

  “No, clue. But they must be planning something big, goods shipments, resources even personnel are all being funneled there”

  “Hmm…”

  “You wouldn’t know anything on the topic yourself?” Larsenia peruses.

  “Well, it’s too early to say. But I think we are even now.”

  “Hmm… is that so?”

  “Nice working with you ‘Larsenia’.” He gives a small two-finger salute and stops at the corner of the street they arrived at.

  “Sure, ‘Douglas’.”

  “May we meet again,” He starts walking away.

  “Likewise.”

  I have a feeling all of this has just started.

  ***

  “What? What is this?”

  “Urghh” The other person with him holds his nose and tries to not gag from the smell and sight of it.

  Splatters of coagulated blood and some runnier blue liquid are splayed on the floor.

  Bits of organs and brain bathed in this goop.

  The two people retreat outside of the server room in a rush and the first person makes a call.

  “What happened in the server room? It’s like somebody died in there!”

  “…”

  “Well you better, we aren’t stepping inside again until it’s cleaned up!”

  “…”

  “I don’t care, as long as it's gone, the more I think of that red and blue stain there more I-”

  “…”

  “Yeah, yeah whatever, we won’t say a thing, who’d want to torture their colleagues describing that anyway!” He cuts the call.

  “Looks like we’ve got time to kill hah, suckers. Let’s hit the diner?”

  “Urgh… how can you even think of… of food... right now” The caller's friend holds his stomach.

  “And... Are you not worried... what could have possibly happened there?”

  “Nah.”

  “Maybe a coworker died and somebody is in the midst of cleaning up his body!”

  “My gut tells me it's best we keep this to ourselves, lets never speak of this again.”