With the Overlord's plan shattered, Felix was convinced he could leave his vigilante life behind him. But when an epidemic breaks out on the other side of the world, Felix acts as the Night Cat once more, sure the Overlord is behind another evil sch...
I bump into someone and fall to the floor; I'm still alive, I think. I just can't see with all this smoke. So much smoke. I don't feel hurt. I don't feel any new rips in my Overwatch suit, either.
Gut-turning screeching then sparks in my face. I cover my ears and roll away to what feels like the corner of the room. Between screeches and sparks I hear men yell. Screech and sparks. Yelling. The kind that turn your insides over. The kind men make when as they fight to the death.
I can barely see the floor even though I'm crawling across it. I dare not stand up and get caught up in whatever is happening within the smoke.
I bump into Kassandra's bed and after some feeling around I learn she isn't lying here.
Metal screeching near my ear and then an elbow to my face. I'm knocked onto my back and I slide into something fleshy but firm. I try to scramble away but whoever it is catches me before I get too far.
I recognize the feeling of her body against mine. The relief is brief, because she then latches onto my throat, takes some of my life, then strangles me.
She must have recognized the taste of my blood or something, because she lets go as urgently as she attacked me. I gasp for air then scoop her up in my arms and avoid the sparks on one side of the room. My head hurts and my vision is even hazier now. Kassandra holds on to me tightly. I'm out of breath but I slide across the room anyway, praying the doorway is exactly where I'm thinking it is.
I skid to a stop, out of the doorway and out of the smoke, only to find a suited man pointing a gun at me.
I can't raise my arm fast enough to shoot him in his heart. He'll shoot me.
"This way, come on!" he beckons, a British accent discernible between the screeches and yells.
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Seven's two swords screech across his foe's. Seven is a fair swordsman, but so is the assassin before him. If Seven was to take a wrong step, the assassin would surely punish him for it. It is a beautiful state, Seven feels, fighting so near each other and in thick smoke.
After a while, the smoke clears and Seven gets his first clear look at his adversary. All thoughts of the vampire are gone, for what he sees surmounts even Seven's imagination.
The assassin stands before Seven, his mouth stitched shut and his head shaven. Seven doesn't recognize him, but by the suit and body armor, he is one of the Overlord's loyal sentries. He notices a familiar snowflake patch on his arm beside the Overwatch triangle. It takes a moment for Seven to remember a young recruit who used that insignia. Every trace of that boy is gone, Seven thinks as he redirects his focus to Snowflake's destroyed face.
Seven knows one of them would kill the other, either here and now, or tomorrow at the Overlord's front porch. The Overlord personally trained Snowflake kill Seven. Only now does Seven see how foolish it was to have believed himself irreplaceable. Snowflake was the new, Seven was the old.
Seven meets both his swords against Snowflake's one. He forces his knee into Snowflake's muscular body. The killer swings Seven around and kicks him in the face. Seven falls back in the tiny hospital room, granting Snowflake another. Snowflake points his sword's hilt at Seven and loads something into it.
BUUUU-sst. Seven feels the arrowhead slice through his side. Seven takes a knee, anticipating Snowflake to move in and finish him.
Seven throws himself on his back, narrowly avoiding Snowflake's attack. Despite having so little leverage, Seven parries Snowflake's next advance with one sword and swings the other.
Snowflake's hand slaps the ground and blood showers Agent Seven. He cannot see but he hears his opponent breathing heavily. He then crosses his swords in front of him to block Snowflake's counter.
Snowflake had tried to take advantage of his fleshy garden hose to blind Seven, but the latter was anticipating this too.
Seven now feels the cut in his side scream out swear words at him. He feels the pressure on his swords relieve and listens to the sounds of victory - Snowflake sheathing his sword and scurrying away, breathing through his nose in his panic.
Seven falls over, holding his wound. If he could just stay conscious, he could keep the pressure on it...
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Later that day
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"I assume our little vacation is over?" I ask.
"Indeed it is. Your agency wants you back," said the British agent, "Is your friend alright?"
"She is fine now. Any news?"
"The other human-cat has broken out of containment. Your agency has traced him to a rogue naval fleet in the Sea of Japan. Intelligence confirms the Overlord is in command of this naval presence has ordered to seize Korean imports."
"Did the Overlord send that assassin back there?"
The British agent gives me a sideways look and nods. The agent brings us to a humble Vauxhall Corsa, at which I give the agent a quizzical look. The agent is slightly embarassed and says, "Well I'm no James Bond! Get in or bugger off!"
Felix climbs in the backseat, his ailing vampire queen in his arms. "Was that Agent Seven protecting us from the assassin?" I ask.
"Yes, sir," said the agent.
"I imagined so."
A half-asleep Kassandra mumbles quietly. She urgently wants my attention.
"The baby's kicking," she moans.
"What?"
She moves my hand onto her belly. The agent gently pulls the car over to look.
