Chapter 15

Phantom and Jester

Maria clung tightly to Felix’s arm like a cat to a bath, while her deafening screams filled his ears, drowned out slightly by the wind rushing against them.

As they got closer to the building, Felix readied to pull the pin on his parachute. Maria, on the other hand, hurriedly opened up hers, causing her to launch upward by the wind and leaving her airborne for a little while longer.

Felix had touched down, and his parachute followed. He lifted his goggles and stood in wait while Maria slowly floated toward the him, unaware of the mechanical eyes that had watched them floating from above. Cameras zooming in on them as they reached the roof.

He had a wide grin on his face as he helped her down, her eyes were sealed shut with panic.

As soon as she felt the ground beneath her, she looked away with a flustered expression and yelled in a shivering voice, “Shut up!”

“I didn’t even say anything.” Though he did not utter a single word before this, his wide grin said all that needed to be said.

She slowly looked at him with teary, flustered eyes.

As she did, she noticed a glint in the distance. She pushed Felix to the ground, “Get down!”

The concrete ground was suddenly riddled with bullets. As the two got back up, Felix saw from the corner of his eye the armed drone floating above them while it prepared to fire once more.

On the ground, he drew out one of his guns and fired, but every round missed the small target and disappeared into the sky. Before Felix could reload, Maria drew out one of her knives and flung it towards the moving target. The knife spun and made a sharp turn midair, and struck the drone right in its center.

“That…” She said, looking to Felix, “…is what it means to be an esper.”

“But I didn’t learn anything.” He responded.

Maria pouted, “Oh.”

“Come on, no time to waste.”

The two agents walked to the door, Felix gestured for Maria to stop where she stood, “Wait, it’s probably boobytrapped.”

Maria snickered in response.

He stood at the side of the door as he reached for the knob while Maria waited beside him.

“Mhm?” Felix jiggled the knob.

“What?”

“It’s, uh, it’s locked. I don’t have anything to pick lock it with. Bring out your grappling hook, let’s look for another entrance.”

“Or break this one down.”

“Oh… right, stand back.”

Felix pulled out the gun from under his coat, but before he could take aim, Maria whispered, “The thing you need to know is that being an enhanced human, an “esper”—”

“Huh?” He glanced over to her to hear what she had to say, but she came rushing toward the metal door.

With a loud bang, the metal door suddenly crashed inward to the building. A cold sweat dripped through Felix’s face as he slowly turned and saw Maria’s leg steadily hanging from her kick.

“—Is that it lets you do things no one else can.” Maria smirked.

“What just—?”

“No time to waste, right? After you~” She replied with one hand on her chest and the other pointed to the entrance.

“Th-that’s not—We should try this again.”

“Aww, Felix. This isn’t a competition. If it were, then I’ve already won.” Maria answered sweetly, much to his chagrin.

As the two reached the hallway, Felix extended his arm in front of her and said; “It’s possible that they’ve set traps all over the building.”

“I suppose bullets are just gonna fly from all over the corridors?”

“They did earlier, didn’t they?”

She shrugged her arms and suggested, “Alright, so split up to cover more area?”

“Right, be careful. Good luck.” Felix answered as he put on his mask.

“And leave nothing to chance.” She smiled.

They nodded to each other and took different directions. They dashed through the bright, peach hallways with a single bound.

The two agents became nothing more than a dark flicker on the surveillance cameras, all while a figure gazed over them.

Maria traveled through the corridors, where she noticed a silhouette from the other corridor. She quickened her pace, but as she followed the shadows, she found herself at the entrance of the indoor parking lot. The air was damp, and the green lights were hazy.

She brought out her gun in one hand, and her knife in the other, and sought out the shadows that moved in between the wreckage. Yet as she took a step forward, there was a thick, metal noise that caught her attention. As she looked down, fires and shrapnel suddenly burst out right in front of her.

Felix stopped in his tracks as he heard a sound coming from one of the rooms in the hall.

He approached the door as quietly as he could and slowly opened the door.

Immediately he noticed that the scent inside was foul.

It was dark, but that there were pale green lights seeping into the room through the window shades.

The black-haired agent looked down and noticed the flowing red fluid that flooded up the floor. As he went further into the room, it did not take long for him to find the source.

On the bed, where the sheets leaked blood, he found three bodies piled up above one another.

He hesitantly came closer towards them to investigate, and saw that they were all riddled with bullets, as he slowly searched their bodies, he noticed something small glinting – it was a pin with a red bird symbol marked with a red ‘x’, hidden in the stains.

Felix put his mask to the side of his head and muttered, “Robins…what happened?”

A loud barging suddenly came from the white, wooden wardrobe from the corner of the room, Felix brought out his white gun and aimed it.

He was ready for battle, but a sense of dread made him feel uneasy as he approached the wardrobe. As he took a step forward, he felt a crunch underneath his foot.

He then lowered his nervous gaze and saw a crushed syringe near his foot. A drop of sweat had formed on his face and slid down his cheek.

The crush syringe gave him visions of a golden fire that burned through every other one of his thoughts. He shook his head as he saw Professor Tetsuya’s desperate expression, and a child with golden hair reaching out to him.

“Not now.” He muttered in a frustrated voice.

A man burst out from the wardrobe and tackled him to the ground.

“What—?! Get off of me!” Felix yelled out in a panic.

The man’s face got up and close to Felix’s, with wide red eyes and dark bags underneath.

He growled and kept Felix pinned to the ground while a putrid string of saliva flowed out of his mouth, dripping against Felix’s cheek.

In panic, Felix smashed his forehead against the man’s jaw.

As man moved back and clutched his mouth, Felix grabbed his arms and threw the man over the bed and slammed over the corpses stacked over it.

“Eww…” He quickly wiped off his cheek in disgust.

The man growled, foaming in the mouth, and rushed back at him. But Felix quickly grabbed his white gun and shot him, stunning the man in place.

“Who are you? Were you the one who did this?” Felix huffed out as he quickly got back up.

“M-more… give— give me m, more!” The man growled out as he pushed through and pounced back at him. “MORITZ!”

Felix instinctively pulled out his black gun, and with a big bright burst, the man was slammed against the wall, while the recoil threw him back against the other wall. The powerful impact caused the lightbulb to flicker and buzz.

“Tsk.” He clicked his tongue, still unnerved by the sudden assault. “Bollocks.”

Felix got up and he calmed his breathing before approaching the man’s body. He placed his hand on the man’s neck.

“Good, he’s not dead just yet… hopefully I could still get a few answers from him.” He sighed in relief, despite the man already bleeding out from his shoulder.

Felix put on his mask and slapped the man’s face. “Wake up.”

“G-guh…” The man mumbled out.

“Who did this to you? What happened?” Felix asked as he kneeled down to him.

The man’s face contorted with deranged anger and yelled, “M-MORITZ!”

He grabbed Felix by the throat, but Felix stared at him with cold blue eyes and placed his gun on the man’s forehead. A pink and red mist then splattered on the wall.

Felix holstered his gun, and noticed his hand quivering slightly. He clenched his hand tightly and got up.

“Moritz, huh?”

He glanced back to the three other corpses in the room. He walked to the light switch so that he could investigate. But as he flipped it open, a sharp metallic clink immediately quickly made him run through the door.

By the time he got out, the room burst out in flames. On the ground, he looked up and saw a figure of a young man standing on the other side of the hall.

A civilian?

Felix thought to himself as he got back up.

No, who is he?

He brought out his white gun before walking back to check, where he found a young man, and noticed a glint from behind the standing figure. His mask reflected on the small camera of a drone hovering in the hall.

With a loud whir, it began to fire at him.

“Damn it, damn it!” Felix yelled out as he swung his gun, fending off against the hail of bullets.

With each blow, his feet scraped further back on the floor, until his back was pinned against the bright peach-colored walls. Many of the bullets slipped by him and struck him straight in the chest and arms and legs.

As the drone ceased firing to reload, and Felix slipped to his knees.

His blood dripped from under his white metal mask. And his white metal mask, which was made of a material harder than titanium, had shown minor scratches on it.

The lone figure whistled out and spoke, “Whoa, you agents are something else. How are you still alive?”

Felix lifted his head up and saw a young man with bright orange hair and a black star tattooed underneath his left eye.

His appearance was one reminiscent to one of a performer or jester.

There’s… a kid?

“Are you… who are you—?”

“Answer my question first.” The orange-haired jester interrupted, seeking to exchange information.

Felix answered between breaths with a slight smirk on his face, “Bullet-proof coat.”

“Oh, oh really? So, then, if I do this, then it won’t kill you?” He clicked on a button, and the floating machine once again struck Felix with a volley of lead.

The jester grinned and sought to torture Felix for his amusement.

“GRAAAGH!!” Felix yelled out as his torso was riddled with bullets.

“That’s enough.” The jester pressed on a button that made the drone stop its attack, “Since you answered my question, it’s only fair that I answer yours. My name is Moritz Wulfe.” He introduced himself with a giddy grin.

“Moritz…?” Felix looked up as blood began to pour through his teeth, “Were you… the one who did that to those people…?”

“If the holes in their bodies and the drone I’m using didn’t make it obvious enough, then yes. I was the one who did it. Now tell me who you are.” The young man, Moritz, said as he pulled off Felix’s mask and threw it to the side.

Felix took a thin inhale to answer, and glared at Moritz, “Blue Phantom.”

“That’s pretty edgy. Is it because your eye glows? How did you even do that? Why is it glowing, and why is it blue?” He shot out several questions with a mocking grin.

“It’s because… you’re gonna be black and blue by the time I’m done with you.” Felix let out a weak laugh as he slowly pushed himself back up against the wall.

“Funny, but I’m a little busy with a business transaction, so let’s make this quick. You said it was because of your bullet-proof coat that you’re alive, so what happens when I do this?” He mused as he pulled up Felix’s coat and slipped a gun straight to his chest.

Felix tightly closed his eyes in panic, a voice echoed from his thought, ‘what it means… to be… an esper.’

A vision quickly flooded his mind, one of a burning, golden star right in front of him.

The air started to crackle around Felix as a faint blue haze outlined his body.

But as he fired, the bullet stopped in the air, trapped in the space between his gun and Felix’s chest, letting out a high-pitched ring.

The azure shroud surrounding his body formed a dome-shape, swirling with crystal-like flames.

Moritz’s soulless black eyes widened, he took a step back in shock of the sight of the burning blue man in front of him, but his eyebrows furrowed and he resolved to pull the trigger.

Felix tightened his grip and aimed his white gun, Agony, once more, and the blue glow that emanated around his body was all sucked into his weapon.

A vicious scowl formed around his face, and both of his eyes shined a radiant, azure blue.

Moritz stood there astounded, “Holy shit—”

As he pulled the trigger, a ferocious torrent of blue flames ravaged the halls, which shot Moritz across the hall, and crashed him against wall with tremendous force.

The sparkling blue light dissipated with a crackling sound. The floor, walls, ceiling, appeared to have been shredded in a spiral, drill-like pattern.

Felix’s hand began to tremble, and in a few short moments, he was unable to carry the gun anymore. The pale white gun fell on the torn surface of the floor.

He took a deep inhale and looked at his shaking hands, but he tightly clenched it and mumbled excitedly to himself in an exhausted voice, “It worked…”

The black-haired agent collapsed to his knees and blood started to leak from his nose.

“…Son of a bitch…” A voice spoke.

Felix lifted his gaze, the light in his other eye had faded, and were once again black and blue. He was shocked to see the young man still conscious, and even more so to see him cling to the walls.

Moritz gradually lifted himself up and pushed aside the broken drone that protected him from the blast.

“Nobody told… that you’d had superpowers.” Moritz grumbled as he worked his jaw.

Felix picked himself back up and wiped off the blood on his mouth. Small streams of electricity flowed around his wounds, as if they were threads stitching him back together.

Moritz picked up the drone and tore off the broken pieces, “And here I thought the only one I had to worry about was someone called Black Hound.”

The exhausted agent lifted his gun to try and prevent the orange-haired jester from acting. But his hand could barely stay upright.

Moritz aimed what had remained of the machine, the gun barrel, at Felix, and manually began to fire it.

Electricity crackled from Felix’s right eye as he motioned his hand in a wave, creating a transparent blue curtain that caught the bullets, taking away most of their impact and causing them to weaken enough that they could no longer reach him.

With no bullets remaining, the jester lowered his weapon and grumbled, “Fucking monster…”

An explosion from below shook the hallway and grabbed both of their attention.

“Huh?!” Moritz mumbled as he glanced to the side, where the explosion had come from.

But he stepped to the side as he saw a blue glimmer headed straight towards his head.

He narrowly dodged Felix’s fist, and quickly pulled out a combat knife from his sleeve.

Moritz swiftly slashed at Felix’s throat, which Felix ducked under and skid across the floor, escaping the lethal blow.

Like the last embers of a fire, the light around his body flickered away.

Moritz quickly fell back, “Whoa, I don’t want to fight…”

“You tried to kill me.” He huffed.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I was fighting you. I was just trying to kill you.”

“That’s—!” Felix suddenly felt his skin opening, and immediately realized that there was a shallow slice on his throat, “How… did…?”

“You might want to check what that noise was. But, before I skedaddle, can I ask you something?”

With agonized eyes, Felix looked at him and answered, “No.”

“I heard the twelve organizations had a leaderboard, and that the top ten was supposed to be a cut above the rest... Are you one of them?” He asked his question all the same.

“You’re not leaving here.” Felix pulled out his black gun, but it felt heavy and shaky.

“So you didn’t make the cut?” Moritz twirled his knife, “That’s disappointing.”

The jester waved him goodbye.

As he walked on ahead, Felix pulled the trigger, with a loud bang, the bullet penetrated the wall, leaving a crater on it. Yet the young man continued to walk.

“Huh?” He blurted out.

Felix fired two more times, yet as if completely unfazed, Moritz looked back at him with a large smirk. It was like Moritz was skipping the space between Felix’s vision, the man vanished from the bullet’s trajectory.

Moritz threw his combat knife at Felix’s head.

It spun forward, and looked easy enough to evade. But as Felix moved to avoid it, he felt something pierce the black coat of his shoulder.

“Urgk!” He yelped out as he found the combat knife had already dug into him. “What is this… what’s going on?”

He was completely confused, but before he could properly react to it, he noticed that Moritz aimed his pistol at him.

Felix waved again, forming five thin, nearly thread-like lines of blue light, from his fingertips.

Moritz lowered his weapon, “Killing you is more trouble than it’s worth, and a waste of bullets.” He sighed and glanced at his pistol.

“See ya.”

“Come… back… here!” The shallow wound on his neck made it difficult for him to even yell.

“You’re not too sharp, are you? I just spared your life, don’t go wasting my charity on you.” Moritz threatened as he glared at Felix.

For a brief moment, the jester appeared different. His face was all bruised and battered, and was covered in blood.

He then turned around and left.

Felix dropped to his knees, and blood sputtered from his nose and mouth. There was an unbearable hot sting from his throat and nostrils.

Okay, so a bullet got to me… maybe a couple of bullets got to me… I have a broken rib, maybe two. All of my limbs are in throbbing, and some brat that wasn’t in the intelligence report just humiliated me.

Felix let go of his mouth let out strained, violent coughs.

He dragged himself toward the wall and sat against it. He then pulled out a small, red-marked bottle from his pocket and popped out one of its pills.

The last words Moritz said echoed in his ears as he swallowed the pill.

An unwelcome memory invaded his thoughts. The vision of a hand drenched in blood, reaching upward while trapped in rubble. With eyes closed tightly, Felix muttered out, “What did that old bloke say? Charity… redemption... prosperity… or whatever.”

Another explosion suddenly shook the building, which forced him to action.

What I should do now is look for Marie… He opened his eyes and he pulled out the knife buried in his arm.

As soon as he caught his breath, Felix picked up his mask and continued onward. A little bit of his blood spilled out with every step he took as he dragged himself forward.