Cabimas, Venezuela, 2:36 pm…

Roberth and Valeria check on Phrixus’s lair most days, acting as custodians of the place for a few hours, making sure it doesn’t get any unwanted visitors and spending some time with the pets. They like to wander around and appreciate Phrixus’s things, from his weapons to odd sculptures made of surplus material such as metal, concrete, clay or large pieces of stone. Roberth and Valeria are unsure what the pieces of art could mean, by the unpredictable inspiration of Phrixus is best left to the imagination…

Suddenly Roberth notices four men on one of the live feed monitors displaying the outskirts of the fort. The men seem suspicious, pointing to this particular building and talking cautiously. Whatever they have in mind is nothing good. They head to the main metal door which is locked and guarded against any kind of petty intrusion, they knock on the door and wait for a response.

Roberth is hesitant to answer back, but he decides to reply via the intercom. “What brings you here.”

“We are friends of Alejandro,” one man says, “We would like to see him.”

Roberth knows these men are lying. “He is currently on a business trip, he won’t return for three months. I’m happy to give him your names and any message you’d like to leave for him.”

The men exchange looks and maintain silence for three seconds. “Tell him Santiago wishes him luck on his endeavors.” With that, they leave the place.

Roberth could perceive a sense of deception in his voice. By their attitude, they could just be regular goons or an omen of something bad. “Who the hell is Santiago anyways…”

“Who was that?” Valeria appears behind him.

“Some guys… looking for Phrixus, I spotted them by the security cameras and they acted very weird, they left but I feel they could return, I don’t like the look of this.”

“Strange, nobody except us knows the secret fort of Phrixus in the middle of an almost barren industrial zone, I think we should stay here until night, let’s see what happens.”

“Right, better they don’t poke around here.”

***

5 hours later…

Valeria is currently petting Dixy after feeding her, suddenly Dixy tilts her head and stands up, hissing at the door that leads to the main hall and proceeds to leave the room. Valeria follows her and Dixy maintains a defensive stance in front of the main entrance. Looking at the live feed monitors she spots four men, they must be the ones who Roberth talked about. They are carrying a few tools with them: a crowbar, a hacksaw, and a hammer, hinting they are probably trying to break-in. Without wasting time she goes to alert Roberth.

“Hey Roberth! I think those men you talked about have returned. They’re trying to break in and enter from the back.”

“That’s it, I’m going to get my mallet.”

While Roberth goes to retrieve his weapon the group of burglars heads to the backyard of the fort, it also has a reinforced door, which they didn’t expect. Still, it doesn’t deter them, and they are trying to figure how to open the door when Valeria and Roberth exit the lair from the main door and head to the robbers’ position. The men are startled and two of them pull out pistols.

“What do you think you are doing?” says Roberth.

“Damn it I knew this wasn’t gonna be easy, we know Alejandro-Phrixus or whatever he is called hides here.” He aims his gun at the duo. “He caused us a lot of trouble in the past.”

Roberth says, “You better turn around and never return, for your own good, there is nothing here for you.”

There is a moment of unnerving silence.

“The boss doesn’t want us to return empty-handed,” one of them says. “Let’s just end this now.”

The four men open fire, Roberth charges forward to receive all the bullets while at the same time deflecting them harmlessly while Valeria advances behind him. Both of them manage to kill three of the men and severely wound the last one.

Roberth grabs the man, who is struggling to breathe and bleeding profusely. “If you want me to help stop the bleeding, you’d better speak, who are you and who sent you?”

The man coughs and starts speaking. “The VRA wants revenge against Phrixus for his actions… it was his fault our country is now a,” he breaks into more coughing, then recovers, “a puppet state… of the USA… you are lucky to have powers… I thought you weren’t that invincible…”

“VRA? how do they know Phrixus’s lair is here?” Valeria says. “Ask him that?”

Roberth sees the man has stopped breathing. He shakes him, then leaves him for dead. At first the sight of dead bodies used to upset them, but now they are not bothered at all although it remains an unpleasant experience; as long they need something of importance they don’t mind. “Too late, sorry. We have to check the bodies to find any clues.”

Looting the corpses they manage to find some kind of large map and a note:

Check the map using the implement we gave you, it should pinpoint the location of Phrixus’s hideout in the zone, once you manage to locate it, try to get inside and gather any important information. We know he is not here in the country currently so you shouldn’t have any problem, if there are any other people inside sneak around, use lethal force if necessary.

Do not come back with nothing.

-U

The map itself is unrecognizable. They can see topography mixed with cryptic patterns and strange markings in certain places, but they can’t recognize the location or read the map’s key. The decide to keep it, hoping Phrixus might get in touch and be able to help them.

“We better get rid of the corpses,” Valeria says.

“And give a call to Phrixus to let him know what happened. Maybe he can read this map,” says Roberth.

***

1 hour later…

Roberth and Valeria call Phrixus by phone.

“Sup’ Phrixus. How are the things going there?” says Roberth.

“Preposterous! Just assisted with a showdown in Japan, finished my mission with flying colors and got sent to the waiting bench, it is like waiting for a Christmas day that never comes…” jokes Phrixus.

“You got a death wish, buddy?” Valeria says.

“It’s not a death wish, it is a sport… so anyways, what are you up to?”

“Well, we recently stumbled upon some VRA saps trying to get in here but we took care of the problem,” Roberth says.

“The Venezuelan Revolutionary Army eh? I’ve been keepin’ an eye on their shenanigans since their inception. They didn’t give you any trouble, did they?”

“No,” Roberth and Valeria both say together.

“They’re pretty shoddy,” Phrixus says. “Did they have anything interesting?”

“Now you mention it, we have found some kind of map but we can’t figure out anything about it, it has weird symbols and some kind of contour we can’t understand, do you have any ideas?” says Valeria.

“Mmmm, I bet it’s written in code. Check the file cabinet with the label “Interpretation Tools,” the last case should have a special sheet for those kinds of maps, use it with a portable UV lamp which is also there, hope that map is something good.”

“We will, we’ll call you tomorrow, keep having fun out there.” With that, Roberth hung up the phone.

Roberth and Valeria head to the specific file cabinet, and after rummaging through the many appliances they find a peculiar plastic sheet and the UV lamp.

Roberth says, “Let’s see how this works…”

Unfolding the map on a table and placing the plastic sheet of top of it they begin to scrutinize the map with the UV lamp. It reveals a zone of Cabimas with precise detail: structures, terrain, vegetation. Phrixus’s lair is marked with a symbol, indicating it was their intended target. The rest seems irrelevant, but a corner of the map reveals a different symbol in the middle of a tropical forest, about one hour from where they are.

“This one catches my attention, what do you think it could be?” says Valeria.

“The mark looks like a safehouse or a campsite, maybe we can find something useful there. Let’s not let Phrixus have all the fun,” says Roberth.

“In that case we should go tomorrow, it is better to investigate with sunlight.”

***

The next day, 11:21 am…

Roberth and Valeria are on their way to the designated area according to the map, so far they haven’t found anything unusual but they keep up the searching.

“I hope that map was right, we could be walking in circles here,” says Valeria.

“We’ve been walking for an hour and a half, we should be near,” Roberth whispers.

Then they come across a small campsite, quickly hiding in the foliage to observe the place; there are some tents, sturdy boxes with unknown supplies and some armed men, their uniform reveals a paramilitary background.

“Could they be VRA?” Valeria whispers.

“Very likely, possibly a cell operating in this city and the ones looking for trouble in Phrixus’s lair, we should get rid of all of them so they stop messing around,” Roberth answers equally quietly.

“I’m in, what’s the plan?”

“Always the same plan, I will charge forward and distract them. You follow, and clean up.”

“Go for it.”

With his weapon on hand Roberth approaches the campsite while Valeria maneuvers through the flora. Roberth’s sudden presence startles the guards who proceed to aim at him, a few seconds pass before Roberth decides to speak,

“Phrixus sends his regards.”

The soldiers exchange looks and in a second they open fire, while Roberth charges forward without suffering any injury from the bullets. Once in close range he dispatches the soldiers one by one. Valeria swoops in and quickly eliminates the remaining men. The combat lasts for only a few minutes before all the troopers are down.

“Looks like that’s the last of them,” Roberth says. “We should search the place.”

“I’ll take a look at that tent far ahead, it is the most conspicuous,” says Valeria.

Roberth checks the large tent which acts as the command center of the campsite while Valeria heads toward the solitary tent. Opening the curtain reveals only some unsealed crates with basic supplies such as canned food, drinkable water, medicines, uniforms with camouflage patterns and few assorted carpentry tools. But one crate holds a lot of interest for Valeria.

“Five Kevlar vests, it should be enough…”

Grabbing a nearby backpack hanging up in a pole, she packs the vests and a woodland-pattern uniform inside it and take the goods with her. Leaving the tent she checks the rear part to see if there is something else. There is nothing but a cobweb with an average-sized spider. Suddenly and without warning she feels a primal inquisitiveness for the arachnid and, getting closer to the bug, she brings her hand slowly to it. The spider only steps back a little but shows a hint of a defensive posture. Valeria waves her hand to incite it, and in just a second the arthropod lunges at her and makes a quick bite to her hand before it falls to the ground and flees. Valeria doesn’t flinch from the sting, she only stares the two small spots on her hand, mesmerized.

“The strands can be spun… intertwine them… create something new…” mumbles Valeria absent-mindedly.

“Hey are you alright?” Roberth notices the two small spots on her skin. “What happened to your hand?”

“I… ugh… got this daydreaming again, found a spider and let it bite me, I think I can use its poison…” Valeria says.

“Like… you can sting someone with your fingernails like a scorpion?” He seems concerned.

“I think so... it is similar when I get a sample of blood off somebody, I can absorb its strengths. This is the first time I got this kind of dissociation with critters, but it feels like it’s an experience trying to teach me something… I’ll delve into this later.”

“Just don’t get sick. Animal venom is not the same thing as the alien meteorites...”

“Of course… So, find anything useful there?”

“Not much, only a file regarding a vendetta against Phrixus and their plans to get any information inside his fort. As far as I can tell this is only one cell of the VRA in this state, so we should be wary of any future confrontations.”

“They will come back then... in that case I have to design my battle dress for the occasion, we should go to the hideout now.”

***

At Phrixus’s lair, 3:24 pm…

“Before Phrixus departed he used his mind powers to teach me a lot of tailoring and left me the tools to work with many textiles. With the Kevlar of these vests and this military uniform I can create an armored jumpsuit to have better protection without losing agility,” Valeria says.

“That explains why his jacket never looks ragged, how much time will it take?” says Roberth.

“Like six hours, but it will be worth it.”