Olympus: The Agency

“Apollo, what the hell are you doing?!” Zeus cried, hurrying to put pressure on Jacqueline’s wound.

“My job. Our job, Zeus.”

Zeus, however, was cut off when Tartarus let out a primal, angry roar and charged at Apollo. Both fell through the window to outside, leaving Zeus with Jacqueline.

“Stay with me, Jacqueline.”

Jacqueline’s hand shakily landed against the side of Zeus’s face, then he felt a sharp pain in his brain. A soft clacking on the ground behind him made him realise what Jacqueline had done.

“You aren’t Zeus, anymore...” Jacqueline said with a smile. “Be who you always were.”

“After I help you. I need Epione, but she’s-”

Jacqueline stopped breathing as Zeus spoke, her smile to on her face. Quickly, Zeus moved over to Epione and grabbed her medical bag off her unconscious body. He pried it open and examined the labels for anything that could help him.

“Epione, wake up, I need your help!”

Epione’s eyes fluttered in response, but she did not wake up. Zeus pulled out a hypo labeled ‘adrenaline’, then hurried over to Jacqueline. He injected the chemical into her chest, then sealed the wound shut with his biofoam canister on his belt.

“Wake up, please.” Zeus murmured.

Apollo rolled into the dirt as Tartarus landed a few meters away from him. He rose to his feet and aimed his rifle at Tartarus.

“Idiot! Whatever they showed you is a con! They just happen to have the information that proves the Agency are bad guys, and they hide it everyone except us!? Think, Tartarus!”

“My name is not Tartarus!”

His voice echoed around the snow-laden courtyard. Apollo kept his eyes locked on Tartarus.

“Who the hell are you, then? The tooth fairy?”

“My name is Aaron, and I’m done taking the orders of a madman! If I have to kill you to live, then I will!”

Aaron cracked his neck and pulled the bolt back on his rifle. Apollo grit his teeth and charged forwards, firing in three-round bursts to reduce his recoil. Aaron rolled out of the way of the first volley, but the second hit him before he could secure himself in cover.

“Alice?”

“I’m on it, focus on him, Aaron.”

Aaron felt his wounds close as Alice injected him with biofoam thanks to his A.I.-integrated armour. After five volleys of rounds, Aaron guess that Apollo had 21 bullets left before he required a reload. Aaron’s own rifle, sadly, would run out after only a few shots. He needed a distraction.

“Hey, dumbo!” came a voice atop the building. Aaron looked up to see Dionysus pointing her gun at Apollo, her eye bandaged. From behind her, Knight and Pawn leapt off the roof and landed in cover with Aaron.

“Hey, T,” Pawn said, her back against the rock. “Can we share?”

“Your friend, Apollo, he isn’t acting on his own accord.” Knight said calmly.

“I knew it!” Alice’s voice said in Aaron’s ear. “The Agency are using an A.I. to spy on Olympus, to make sure that we stay in line. And it’s in Apollo.”

“It’s weird,” Pawn said. “But when you all came onto the base, we only detected six implants. We thought it was Apollo with his A.I., but-”

“It’s us,” Alice finished. “Aaron, the Wights burnt your implant out and freed me from my programming when they tried to wipe our minds.”

“What about the others?” Aaron asked.

“Enyo and Dionysus are fine, they don’t have chips, and we took Thanatos’s out for safe measure. Not sure about Zeus or Epione.” said Pawn.

“Alright. So, plan for Apollo?” Aaron said.

Pawn pointed to the inside of the base, where Enyo and Bishop were standing, with a conflicted Thanatos. Aaron looked at the window from where he had tackled Apollo, and saw Zeus stand with Rook and Queen. Both squads were here, ready to take Apollo down.

“Don’t kill him,” Aaron ordered. “If you’re right, he’s not in control.”

Alice relayed the order to everyone.

“That’s dangerous, Aaron.” Alice said, worried.

“What have we done that hasn’t been dangerous, Alice?” Aaron said, standing up. Apollo was standing in the middle of the courtyard, guns trained on him to make him stay put. “He’s one of us, and we’ve already failed him once.”

Aaron threw his gun down and closed his eyes, focusing his mind on Alice. Pawn did the same with Magnus. Realising what was happening, Apollo rose his gun to aim at Aaron, but two agents attacked at the same time. Rook and Thanatos leapt out from either sides of the courtyard and forced Apollo back. Warhammer and blade made the last loyal Agency member back away rapidly. Dionysus, Enyo and Zeus opened fire to cover the other two in case Apollo gained the upper hand. Queen and Bishop leapt out and took position to cover Aaron and Pawn.

“Stop, my friend!” Thanatos said. “You are being deceived, as were we all!”

“Listen to your teammate, dammit!” Rook spat.

Apollo grit his teeth again, then kicked off the wall. As he did, he fired two burst volleys at Thanatos and Rook, hitting their legs and forcing them to fall. When Apollo landed, he sprinted towards Enyo and leapt at her. Though he’d been shot a few times, no one wanted to actually kill him.

“Come here, Enyo!” Apollo said, using the butt of his gun to whack her in the stomach.

“I am Snezhana, you lapdog!” she responded, then punched Apollo in the face as hard as she could.

“Not anymore! Who you were is dead, and now all you are is a weapon! Accept it!”

A bullet hit Apollo in the arm, making him drop his gun. He looked behind him to see Dionysus had jumped off the roof to follow him.

“Oh, great... girl power.” Apollo said venomously. He used his foot to kick his gun back into his hands, then fired at Dionysus.

“Cameron, move!” Snezhana cried, leaping onto Apollo to make him miss his shots. The bullets instead sprayed into the courtyard, one hitting Zeus is the shoulder.

Thanatos forced himself to stand, ignoring the shooting pain in his legs. He extended his hand to Rook.

“Come on, Rook. Still a bit of fight left in us.”

“It’s Lillith,” she said, taking his hand and standing up. “You?”

Thanatos looked at Apollo sadly. “Though his insanity is clear, the man is correct about one thing. The man I was... died. I think... I should honour that man by not taking his name.”

“Alright, philosophy later. Fight now.”

“Do not kill him.” Thanatos warned.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard the plan.”

Zeus was out of biofoam, but Bishop came to his aid and sealed the wound.

“Thank you... er...”

“Kaiden. No problem.”

“Knowing your name, being able to us my name... it’ll have to wait until I can process it.”

Apollo fell out of the building with Snezhana still on his back. Queen took a step towards them, her gauntlets ready.

“We can’t stop him without killing him.” Queen said quietly. “There is no time to wait for the other team.”

Queen kicked Snezhana off of Apollo, then fired jets of freezing cold liquid onto Apollo. Within seconds, his body froze and he was unable to move, but he would live, provided they acted quick enough.

“Tai, I need a pod!” Queen commanded.

Tai nodded and left cover to grab a pod.

“What’s happening?” Zeus asked.

“I can’t save your friend now, but I can freeze him in a pod. We have another problem that requires handling.

Alice and Magnus saw, for a fleeting moment, a sign Apollo was still in there. A man trying to claw his way past a heavily programmed intelligence. The Agency’s own Wight. But he was still there.

“It’s the best idea,” Alice said. “It will take careful programming to de-tangle Apollo from... Morgan.”

Tai returned with a pod, carrying it over his shoulder, and he placed it in the snow. Queen used her gauntlets to throw the chemically covered Apollo into the pod, and Tai typed into the keypad to seal and freeze Apollo away.

“I’m sorry, Apollo,” Zeus said, looking at his squad-mate through the glass. “But we’re going to save you... somehow. I promise.”

The fight over, everyone’s wounds finally settled in, and the two squads moved the unconscious into the buildings, while Tai carried the pod. Everyone was greeted by the sight of Epione sitting with a newly revived Jacqueline.

“Oh, thank God,” Zeus said, sitting in a chair. Most of the others did the same, or against the wall and slid to the ground. Epione, as the medic, began to work on everyone.

Relief fell over the two squads. They had started this battle as enemies, but they were now allies that had come together to save one person. But now that the battle was over, they needed to focus on what came next.

“So...” Epione said, breaking the silence. “No chips, now...”

“No chips,” Zeus confirmed. “So, let’s go around and re-introduce each other.”

“Snezhana Ivanov,” said the former Agent Enyo. Saying her name yet again made her smile.

“Cameron Harris,” said the former Agent Dionysus. She breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful there was no pain.

“Aaron Dietrich,” said the former Agent Tartarus. His face was stoic, but his soul rejoiced.

“Maeve Murphy-Price,” said the former Agent Epione. Her eyes were full of tears, having her name returned to her, the last remnant of her past.

“I apologise, but... I am still the same,” Thanatos said quietly. “It is simply a belief of mine that he remains dead, and who I am is different.”

“I respect that,” Zeus said. “You can still be Thanatos, no one will judge you for that. As for me... My name is Ian Lostalim.”

The members of Olympus smiled at each other, now feeling closer than they ever had before. Riley and Junior smiled with them, basking in the humanity of the moment.

“You’ve come a long way in such a short time, Olympus,” Jacqueline said. “But one more task lies ahead before you are truly free.”

“What is it?” Ian asked.

“Your ship A.I, Belle...”

“She’s still tied to the Agency, and all our implants just shut down.” Snezhana said, understanding.

“We need to save her, too,” Maeve said, finishing her bandaging of Lillith’s legs. “Belle and Alice are part of our team, just like Junior, Gunn and Phil are. Everyone is part of the team.”

“Phil...” Ian murmured, pulling out his PDA. “I might have an idea.”

Phil was sitting in her chair with her feet up when her PDA beeped. She looked down at the screen, reading the message.

“Ok... weird, but... ok...”

Ian’s PDA beeped, and he read the message out for everyone.

“Give me five.”