The dark-haired man looked up at the sunset as his feet dug into the sand on the beach. He wore a yellow loose beach shirt and shorts that stopped just on his knee. He turned to see the others sitting around in a circle on a mat with a cooler in their middle. They each wore their beachwear and held a glass cup in their hands, taking sips of their drinks, throwing their head back, and laughing.
Hailey turned to him and waved. "Come on, Rohan, I saved you a spot."
The dark-haired man walked up to the group and sat in a space between Hailey and Ishary. Ada filled a cup and passed it to him. He took a sip of the drink before setting it in front of him.
"Now that everyone's here, why don't we have a few rounds of 'Never have I ever'?" Hailey suggested.
Ada's brow shifted closer as she turned to the red-haired. "What are we? Some bunch of kids that have nothing better to do?"
Jesselyn nodded in response to Ada's question. "I mean, we have nothing better to do," she said. "Plus it's gonna be fun ---one ask and whoever has done what was asked have one full cup."
"But that's not fair, Rohan here doesn't get drunk however much he drinks." The dark-haired man looked at Rory and winked. She pushed her lips forward and rolled her eyes.
"Have you any better idea?" Jesselyn asked.
Rory sighed and shook her head no.
"So? Are we gonna?"
They all nodded yes while Ada shook her head and sighed reluctantly. "I'll go first then," she said. She paused for a second, scanning the group before speaking. "Never have I ever experimented with bondag…"
"Whoa! Ada, come on… not those types of questions," Jesselyn interrupted.
Ada chuckled and put her hands up. "You didn't even let me finish."
"We all know what it is you want to ask and I don't think anyone here has experienced anything of that sort, right?" Jesselyn turned to the others as if expecting one of them to oppose her. She sighed with relief as they all shook their head no and turned back to Ada. "See?"
Ada rolled her eyes and gulped down her drink. "Whatever."
The dark-haired man furrowed as he watched Ada gulp down her drink. He opened his mouth to speak but swallowed his words and turned to Rory. "Never have I ever gone skinny dipping."
It took a few seconds before Ishary slowly moved her cup to her mouth.
"Ohh, tell."
"It's nothing serious, just a group outing with the Blue squad after a long work. So we had a trip to the Medi forest and you know--- cooled off some heat, nothing else, so let's move on."
"Never have I ever…"
Ada threw her head back and groaned. "This is boring, can we please ask some serious questions? For instance, Rory, who are you more infatuated with Erins, or our very own Mr. Coco."
Rory's eyes widened. She raised her head and locked eyes with the dark-haired man. The tenth Storm agent shyly looked away from him and turned to Ada. "What?"
"Come on, you say you like Erins Tothe but we all know there's at least a lake of affection pouring towards him," she pointed at Rohan.
The dark-haired man opened his mouth to speak but stopped as he realized his friends weren't moving. He shut his eyes and when he opened them, he was standing in front of a mirror, staring at himself and himself, back at him.
"So this is your plan?" His mirror self queried. "Stay here, away from everything that's happening outside?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Rory left it all on you, Ishary as well," he paused. "You know what you have to do, Rohan --- you know damn well staying here will only give Miss Havishma more time to counter whatever you throw at her."
"You have what it takes to put an end to her madness. Peace she says, but you've seen what happened to Clave-Ar and Earth… you and I know damn well she is going to destroy any planet that she feels poses a threat to Winter Weir, even if it means destroying the whole galaxy. You have to stop her, Rohan."
"Why should I?" The dark-haired man queried. "She's acting for the good of Winter Weir, and if she succeeds, we'll never have to send any of our own to war."
The mirror Rohan shook his head. "You've seen it, you've seen the infinite timeline and all the actions of the others, which one of those trillion timelines was there peace? You are trying to make yourself believe that there'll be peace but we both know with Havishma breathing that'll never happen. Her concept of peace is fucked up, and you can't stay here forever, you'll eventually need to wake up and put an end to this all, and the sooner, the better, so… what will you do?"
.
"I ran some checks like you asked," a blue agent started as Miss Havishma walked into the lab where the dark-haired man was kept.
The pale-skinned woman looked around the lab to find Storm 01 lying unconscious in a container, a device around his head and some tubes around.
"And?"
"You were right, the Z-syrup is acting like a parasite in him and altering his chemistry and biology," he said. "… Brainwaves and… his head is totally messed up."
Miss Havishma moved over to the screen to put an image to the Blue agent's words. She slowly nodded as she took in the information on the screen. "It's exactly what happened to his friends."
"Both of them show symptoms of amnesia," she paused. "That must be the way the Z-syrup is healing them, which is why he has been unconscious since we bound him with the neutralizer, and Sox claimed he uttered some things that didn't add up… if this is how the Z-syrup works then we have a lot of work to do, agent."
They both turned to the door as it opened and an Electro agent walked in. "Miss Havishma, Miss Gurley has arrived."
Miss Havishma answered with a nod before turning to the Blue agent. "See to the other agent room and compare the data. The hearing will begin soon so you need to act fast and extract the information and data we need. His friend doesn't look like she had much time either… get to work."
"Understood," the agent replied.
Miss Havishma slipped her hands into the pocket of her oversuit before following the electro-agent out of the lab. It only took a few minutes before the pale-skinned woman entered her pad where the head of ARCHER, Madeline Gurley, was waiting with her assistant, Emerald Klay.
"I'm glad you could make it on such short notice, Madeline," Miss Havishma said while taking off her oversuit. She moved to a machine on the counter in her room and filled three cups with a drink before walking back to where the other two were.
"Well, you've been working so hard even after you only just returned from… Earth I didn't want to be the lazy one." She paused and pulled one of the cups to herself. "Speaking of, I heard the Moonfour was used on Earth."
Miss Havishma nodded. "It was."
"And that planet is now just rubbles?"
"It is."
"And you know that this put the whole of Winter Weir in jeopardy," she stated while Miss Havishma moved her drink to her lips. "Our satellites picked up multiple movements of warships moving from Star planets to their home Planet as if they are in preparation for war."
The pale-skinned woman dropped her cup. "Why are you bothered about that? We have the Moonfour, we could simply erase any planet that even."
Madeline and Klay both furrowed in unison. "Don't think too much about it, Department H is responsible for space and external activities, so why don't you take care of things internally, like the reason I called you here."
Madeline groaned and leaned back. "Very well."
"The Primal Q, are the agents still working?"
"What?" Madeline queried.
"The section of ARCHER that swoops in whenever the Prime is responsible for any activities that need investigation."
"I know what Primal Q is."
Miss Havishma crossed her legs. "And?"
"The agents were moved to other sections, we had no issues since Prime Starr, why?"
The dark-haired woman moved to her desk and returned with a flash drive. She set it on the table in front of Madeline before returning to her seat. "That has evidence of the current Prime's assistance to the spies that infiltrated this planet."
Madeline leaned forward and picked up the device. "Not only that, but it also has evidence of Damiano's conversation and alliance with agent Storm 01 to murder Prime Conhresman, and the late Chief of Department H, Augustine Bury."
"What?" Emerald eyes widened in shock.
....
ns 15.158.61.17da2
