"How do we keep getting into these situations?"

"Eleven years of friendship and I still don't know."

**make sure to read the intro 'The New World' and prologue before you start here :)

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Bello-Bioz Era
New City of Macau

Hour 25:09

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In the corner of the city, if one was skillful enough to figure out those mere silhouettes under an occasional peer of an artificial star blinking down on Earth, one would see them dive into the depth of the darkness as they dive into the depth of the sea.

Despite all the flames and lanterns lighting up anywhere on the Earth but here for the New Year, this part of the city was awfully quite and lawfully written to thick dark.

Like seagulls with keen eyesight aiming their prey, they descended towards the Bello-Bioz rooftop, making no noise apart from the sprawling wind above them roving into the horizon.

Heba jumped out of his wingsuit and waits, counting a good twenty-three seconds of chaos of other members getting out of their suits and forming into a circle around him to end. He shot an irritated 'faster...' as he saw someone getting tangled up in their suit.

This was not the best team he had worked with. Humans on Lands, though held a reputation for their crazy inventions they have done in past three hundred to four hundred years, they were still the same weaklings compared to his kind. He knew he couldn't expect much from them anyways.

His distaste for them, though well carved on his face, did not reach any eye passing his veil.

For the past seven years of his solitary life on Lands, fighting riots---not essentially because he loved peace but as he believed he would still be there somewhere--this piece of ebony fabric had covered up all twisted secrets of Chief Commander Heba.

In a world full of different Types of humans, he took it very mandatory to keep things to himself, to manage his distance even from all the Earthians and Skys. Thus, the veil was always there.

From those shining turquoise-blue lines, that marked his brand on his pale skin to all the emotions, smiles, smirks, tears alike, they kept hidden behind yarn.

"We no longer hold same red blood. That era is gone", the chief commander would reason to himself when he overheard anyone trying to convince a fellow Earthian lad on mingling with the Skys and Seas alike.

He always had to bite down the urge to just excuse himself into someone else's conversation and rant on what monsters were Skys or how pitiful weak Earthians were.

Standing on the top of the skyscraper now, he swiftly scans through his surrounding for any danger, namely a sneaky Earthian or a recless sky-bastard. He wasn't going to take any chances tonight.

His sharp vision cuts through the thick inkyness of the night as he observes the world down and above. Gigantic metal and glass towers, planted on either side of the lengthy, shiny crystal track that runs down dividing the city, seem as they can grow even taller despite them piercing the sky already. They shaded the land below twenty-four-seven saved for an occasional flash of a spotlight from a Sky's city reaching the Land.

Bello-Bioz, the thirty-story laboratory complex, or in other words their target for the day has a great potential of offering a promotion to every member of the crew if they succeed. And he would very much like a rolling chair and an air conditioned room over ropes and an electro-camouflage.

The plan was simple. Access an underground lab beneath the store in the south of the building, obtain the Mari16¢ and take it back to the Agency. If they make it, the Agency would be happy and reward them. If not, the meeting with their big boss back at base camp wouldn't be a pleasant one. After two failed attempts and three sessions of   scolding, warning and threatening Heba wasn't looking forward to another one.

Wasting no second Heba starts calling out the names of each agent, quickly jotting down stuff on the holographic screen popping out of his wrist.

"Agent Ray..." he whispers, as the sound did not travel an inch farther from their small circle, a six feet two inches buff standing right next to him whispered back his presence.

"Agent Ze... Agent Froy..." so went the list, each time someone from the circle responding to him.

And then Heba finds himself waiting for a certain name to come up next.

Agent X.

That one Earthian, who had been keeping him up from his slumber recently. The nane that he would mumble into his sleep trance, scream into the void of his room as he got waken up to cold sweat and shaking.

It was annoying. The dude wasn't anything if not a pain in the arse but since the day he had gone on a mission and never came back, Heba's mind seemed to be troubled. 

And not knowing much about him didn't help him either. X was a mere colleague that happened to have worked with him on a mission. Inside the agency, everything is a one-time thing. Strictly business and nothing personal.

During the mission, they fought like one coherent machine. Tightly knit. A destructive force. But at the end of the day you won't even know your peer's favorite food or even their favorite leisure time. Once done and scattered you wouldn't even see the same guy twice.  New recruits would come and go like waves crashing a shore and whatever bond you create would end with the mission.

Only Heba knows who he really is, and where he is coming from. Or for Heba more likely to what brought him here.

If any hint of a spark was there between them as his boss had assumed it probably should have come from the grenade X had thrown at Heba's face by mistake.

At first, it was just rage. There was a time Heba itched to get an eye out of that stupid guy who tried to blast up his face: the only charm that he was aware himself of possessing. He had sworne he'd shoot everyone from whoever had decided to let him in FFI to let him in his quarters. Those days were the toughest of new recruit X's agent life, hiding behind bushes, buildings, trucks and even clueless peers so the wrath of Heba wouln't storm his way.

When Big Boss had employed X under Heba's group mumbling something about 'teamwork, forgiveness  and second chance' chief commander Heba was out of decent terms to address both his boss and the cursed colleague: X.

Sure, X was a little clumsy. He could make a whole forest fire or a flooding river kinda situation out of nothing if left alone unsupervised for too long. But he was a whole ball of sunshine, oozing energy and positivity. A personality that one would call bubbly, where Heba was a thunderstorm himself, waiting to harshly rain on anyone coming his way.

Their bonding somehow had been a long rocky path with Agent X indulged in hard labour and unreasonable nags and scolds, but the smile on his face never wavered. He would crack jokes on his fuming chief possibly in the most awkward situations. "Come on chief...Why so serious?" He would chuckle in the middle of a battle as if he was high but then effortlessly take some impossible target just to blow up a rival's head.

And the same man would trigger an alarm while rounding a corner next time. He would need others to take care of his sorry ass and clean up after him. But he would return his favors with the nicest hugs and most comforting words, which were too odd coming from a supposed-to-be-a-killer like him.

Heba wondered what brought this man to FFI. Or where he was going with all his antiques he cherished. But unfortunately he never got a chance to clarify. Agent X was long gone by the time Heba had finally sorted out his thoughts.

As if things weren't bad enough already this unfamiliar thought of X resembling him in many ways than one really ate at Heba's mind. So the news of him going missing in action didn't sit well with Heba.

Over the years of his experience as an agent, he has witnessed this; agents going on missing is a natural and frequent thing. They are revenants after all and the only point of coming back from a mission is to risk their existence once again the other day. Heba doubted  that it had come to be the fate of Agent X. But for some odd reason, he couldn't swallow that thought past his throat without a burn. And being this concerned about a stranger was totally new to this chief.

"Earth to Daldong! " Agent Ze's whisper yell draged Heba back to reality.

"What's wrong chief?  have been trying to get your attention for a while now." She tapped onto her earpiece in their secret code.

"Sorry. I got carried away a bit." Heba tapped on his own. He noticed all eyes on him, patiently waiting for their next command.

"Are we done with the roll call? Shall we unpack now?" Ze tapped in again to which Heba nodded as he hand gestures the instructions to the others.

And back he was drawn in reality, busy releasing the safety on rifles, assisting his batch, and guiding them. He switched all the gadgets to night vision and activated electro-camouflage with the help of Ze.

"Stay sharp", commanded the chief.

They'd done countless rehearsals already. Heba could feel those months of restless practices still burning in his muscles. Though he knew his strength now he has the weight of few more lives on him. And his experience urged him to be careful. He slid down first through a crevice of the roof using a rope, landed on the ground touch down, full stop, and waves at others to follow the suit.

A/N- First read is done. Fixed a few things but there can be errors still. Please let me know if you see any. Leave me a comment and leave a vote if you enjoy :)

wc-1696