After a quiet night of tea and small talk, morning rolled around with both Midas and Sophie ready to start. However, while she gets ready for her first test, Midas takes a step outside and makes a last ditch effort to contact Skye to see if she's at least alive.

"Agent Skye, are you there?" Midas asks through his earpiece, putting a finger to it. Audible static can be heard, but so can a faint cry.

"Hey I don't know who you think you are! Messing with legendary adventurer Skye!!" It calls, very distant and far away.

"Skye, this is Midas. Please respond!"

Instead of Skye's panicked voice, an angry, dark voice responds to Midas' plea.

"Well, well, well. Look who isn't shark bait."

"Chaos Agent. What have you done with my agents?" Midas demands, the gold on his wrists slowly going up to his elbows.

"Me? I've done nothing at all to your fellow agents...not yet anyway." The Shadow leader explains. "But even if I did harm your agents, what could you do? There's a question you should be asking yourself."

As the Chaos Agent mutters that question, the connection between Midas and Skye's earpieces fizzles away, leaving static as the only noise.

"I swear when I get my hands on him..." The golden mastermind growls, clenching his fists.

"Um...are you ok M?" A concerned voice asks. Midas turns around to find Sophie ready and waiting for her new tutor's order.

"Y-Yes, I'm quite alright." He responds, the gold falling back down to his wrists.

"You're just worried about Skye, aren't you? Don't worry, you're not alone in your worrying. I am too." Sophie remarks, putting on a brave smile.

Clearing his throat, Midas suggests that they begin the boat trip to the center of the island.

"Are you sure you're ready? This could be dangerous." He asks, addressing his concerns.

"I'm sure we'll be ok. I'll bet it'll be some kind of stealth mission, right?" She reassures him.

*****************************************

If all goes to plan, we may be able to bust Skye out of the Agency...or whatever the Chaos Agent has named it to now in my absence.

The idea is a simple but smart one:

Pretending to be henchmen working at the Agency, the most logical place for Skye to be would be the prison cells where we used to keep any Shadow henchmen that tried infiltrating our base.

"So if we take down 2 henchmen and steal their disguises, we can go in without any issues. Thus, we'll get to Skye in no time." I explain, turning my head over to Sophie. "Understand?"

She nods her head. "I understand!" And gives me a happy, smile.

I swear, her smile and innocent looking face reminds me of her so much. How I miss her, it's been 14 years...I wonder if she even remembers me?

Ah! Nevermind. No need to dwell on the past.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. How's your wounds?" Sophie suddenly remembers.

"My wounds?"

I look down and notice that my arms have bandages wrapped around them.

"Oh, I see."

Slowly taking them off, both of us notice how quickly the wounds have healed, much to Sophie's surprise.

"Woah, they healed quick! How?" She wonders, shuffling next to me.

"Well, I'm sure Skye mentioned something about my curse...my golden touch." She nods in understanding. "Well, the power can heal me from time to time." I explain.

"Ooh, that's cool!"

Indeed it is, although it's taken me a long time to appreciate this curse...

*****************************************

Parking the boat outside the barriers, the duo crawl upwards to find the state of the new Agency:

It's completely revamped, with bigger defenses, more henchmen and tighter security.

"Damn. They're putting my defenses to shame. This might be harder than I thought, child." Midas sighs, putting his hand on the back of his neck.

"It can't be that bad. We can get Skye out of there." The girl says, determined.

"Alright. Let's do our best."

Using his revolvers from his vest, Midas takes down 2 henchmen who seem more focused talking about favourite vacation spots than doing their job.

"Put this on and take the SMG. I'll take the AR." He ordered quietly, dusting off the disguise.

"Yes sir!"

Walking into the entrance, the duo act casually in the presence of the other henchmen. One wrong move could result in them either being thrown in jail...or being executed.

"Halt!" A female voice calls.

All henchmen, including Midas and Sophie turn around to see a newcomer among them.

She holds a gold and black drum gun in her right hand, and a wrench in her left. Supporting black hair and pigtails, a nosering and earrings, she wears a vest with the Shadow/A.L.T.E.R logo, purple tattoos shaped like cogs and other mechanical engineering objects, gloves and dirty jeans with rare stitched patches on it.