Olympus: The Agency

“Why is this door taking so long?” Zeus said, his eyes scanning the room.

“You want to hack the base and open one door, or do you want me to do it?!” Riley retorted. “You do your job and I’ll do mine.”

The sounds of gunfire outside were beginning to quieten. Either Gunn and Abigail were ending their opponents, or they were unable to fight back as much now. Either way, Olympus needed to hurry up and kill Renee White before she was able to escape.

“Hurry up, Riley,” Zeus said.

Riley grumbled in response. He took a screwdriver from his belt and stabbed the door controls. Electricity sparked and fizzled, then the door opened. Riley pulled the screwdriver from the controls, spun it in his hand, then pushed it back into his toolbelt.

“One open door, fussy britches.” Riley said.

Zeus whistled loudly. Tartarus closed the door they had come from, locked it, and hurried over. Epione stood up from behind the entrance desk and walked over calmly. Apollo stayed beside the window, looking outside.

“Apollo, fall in!” Zeus commanded.

“Zeus,” Apollo said, pointing outside. “This is more than a trap.”

Zeus walked over, placing his hand onto Apollo’s shoulder to drag him further into the base, but stopped when he saw who was outside.

Two members of White Squad were standing outside. Agent Rook was holding Gunn by the collar, dragging his unconscious form in one hand while holding her large warhammer over her other shoulder. Agent Queen dropped Abigail onto the ground, locking eyes with Zeus through the glass.

“White Squad is here?”

“Makes you think about Aquarius sending us here, huh?” Apollo mused. “Is Renee even here? Or is this The Agency attempting to get rid of us with a clearly suicidal mission?”

“Lock it down, Apollo,” Zeus said. “If Renee isn’t here, then we change mission priorities to killing every member of White Squad.”

“Wait, really?” Epione said quietly.

“Riley, stay in the system and locate Agent King. Olympus, let’s go take care of Queen and Rook.”

Epione walked over and pulled Zeus’s arm to make him look at her. “I’m with Apollo, this doesn’t feel right. We need to figure out a way out of here.”

“We will, once the mission is completed.” Zeus said bluntly. “If we die, we can be re-cloned.”

“Wake up!” Tartarus bellowed from the doorway. “You aren’t important to them! You’re a tool, and right now, you’re proving how much of a tool you are! For all we know, the others are already dead!”

“Lock it down, Tartarus!” Zeus responded.

“No, I refuse to die because you want Daddy to love you more!” Tartarus spat. Zeus was about to speak, but sighed instead.

“I just...” Zeus said quietly. He breathed in and continued. “With these chips in our heads, this is the only life we have. I’m trying to do what I can to keep us all alive. Cerberus died before he could prove himself, and not he’s dead for good. I don’t want that to happen to any of us. I miss my wife and son... but this is my life now. This is our life now. Right now, trap or no trap, we’re here on an assassination, and we can’t go back until we do. Refusal means permanent death, for all of us.”

Epione looked out the window at Rook and Queen. She wasn’t eager to fight those two, but Zeus was right. This was their life now.

“Alright, sir,” she said. “I’m with you.”

“Same,” Apollo said with a shrug.

The three of them looked at Tartarus. He closed his eyes and pulled his rifle off his shoulder.

“Better hurry then,” Tartarus said monotonously. “Before their reinforcements arrive.”

Zeus looked out the window and gestured with his head, inviting them both inside. Olympus backed away from the door.

“Riley, focus on what I told you before,” Zeus said. “If we don’t take out King...”

“Got it, just keep them off me,” Riley said, using his wrist-com to hack into the base’s system.

The door opened, allowing the two rogue agents to enter. Tartarus silently cursed the invention of electronic locks.

“Olympus Squad,” Agent Queen greeted them. “Welcome.”

“Agent Queen, Agent Rook.” Zeus responded.

“No,” Rook said angrily. “Those are the names he gave us when we were his slaves. It’s Felicia and Lillith now.”

Zeus took note that despite using their names, they weren’t engulfed with intense pain. He had wondered why The Agency didn’t just detonate their skulls.

No implants. Escape was possible.

“How?” Zeus murmured.

“Four on two, ladies,” Apollo said, covering Zeus’s musings.

“You’re right,” Queen said. “Even fight.”

“Zeus, what’s the order?” Tartarus asked.

Zeus looked at the two former agents before him. He wanted to escape and they could tell him, but he’d already spun his team into a fervour. Maybe if they were lucky, White Squad would take them prisoner.

It was a bad plan...

It was terrible, but he couldn’t take the risk of dividing the team again.

“Apollo, Epione, take Lillith. Tartarus, you’re with me on Felicia.”

Apollo didn’t wait. He rose his rifle and fired at Lillith. She used her hammer to block most of the bullets as she dove behind the entrance desk. Using her hammer, she lifted the desk up into the air, then threw it hard at Apollo.

Apollo saw the desk coming straight towards him. His pupils contracted, then the desk hit him. The force of the heavy projectile took Apollo through the window and he landed outside.

Lillith moved to follow Apollo outside, but Epione jumped on her back and jammed a needle into her neck. Lillith grabbed Epione and pulled her off, but before she could do anything more, Lillith cried out in pain. She looked down at the screwdriver in her knee, then over at Riley by the doorframe.

“You little dweeb,” Lillith said, throwing Epione at Riley. Epione hit the doorframe as Riley rolled out of the way, pulled his gun out and firing at Lillith. With her attention focused on Riley, Lillith didn’t see Apollo leap through the broken window and jam his knife into her back.

“Guess who!” Apollo quipped.

At the same time, Felicia raises her hands. Upon her forearms were two highly-technological gauntlets with nozzles along the backs of her hands. She pressed buttons to activate them, then she blasted jets of flame at Zeus and Tartarus.

Tartarus leapt out of the way, turned and landed on his knees, then fired a round into Felicia’s hand. The bullet tore through her gauntlets and hand, mixing napalm into the wound and setting her hand alight. Felicia cried out in pain and fell to her knees.

Tartarus aimed at Felicia’s head. As he did, Alice’s hologram appeared in front of his gun.

“You’re just going to kill her? She’s down.”

Tartarus grumbles. He kept aiming at Felicia, but his hands were shaking. He remembered the blood on his body from the civilians on the last mission. He remembered having his power taken from him, and he was still a murderer.

Zeus hit Felicia in the face with the butt of his gun, knocking her out. He approached Tartarus and lowered the assassin’s gun.

“Mercy is not a weakness, Tartarus,” Zeus murmured. Tartarus nodded, still looking at Alice’s hologram in his vision. She smiled at him before disappearing.

Lillith’s roar of anger alerted Tartarus and Zeus that the fight was far from over. Riley was lying on the ground, unconscious, while Lillith was ruthlessly punching Epione in the face over and over again. Apollo stood up shakily, having taken his own shares of beatings, grabbed the office chair and used it to knock Lillith off her feet, before falling down himself in a heap. Epione crumpled as she was released.

“Epione!” Zeus cried, aiming his rifle at Lillith. “Surrender, Agent- Lillith. Felicia is already down, and you’re not in any position to continue.”

Lillith was bleeding from eight different wounds, was nursing a broken arm and a few broken ribs, had a missing tooth and her left eye was red as if it had filled with blood. She glared at Zeus, spitting out a mouthful of blood to the side so she could speak.

“It’s never over. Not until Nevada is dead. You know that.”

Tartarus hit Lillith in the face with his gun, knocking her out.

“So much for that plan,” Zeus murmured to himself. He offered his hand to Epione, who took it and stood up while leaning on her commanding officer. Tartarus checked on Riley while Apollo pulled himself up with the waiting area chairs.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that back there, T,” Apollo said, breathing heavily. “You hesitated.”

“Not now, Apollo,” Epione grumbled. “Is Riley alive?”

“Riley’s alive, but he’s not getting up any time soon. There goes our hacker.” Tartarus said.

“How are we going to find King now?” Epione asked, looking up at Zeus.

The locked door Riley had began this battle attempting to access opened, and a woman walked out from the doorframe. Zeus grit his teeth, helping Epione sit down and raising his rifle. Tartarus and Apollo followed suit, but Epione’s eyes fluttered and closed as she lost consciousness from the pain, slumping over in her chair.

“What do we call you now, Agent King?” Zeus asked.

“Though I would prefer Jacqueline, I will accept King if it makes this conversation easier. Zeus... I don’t want to fight you, or your soldiers, but I am willing to kill all of you to protect this base and it’s inhabitants.”

“Where is Renee White?” Apollo said.

“Not here,” Jacqueline answered. “She has been here only once, and has never returned. This is my base, which I operate for the Realmic Concord.”

Jacqueline looked at the unconscious and bleeding bodies of Lillith and Felicia before continuing. “I am willing to negotiate a cessation of hostilities to allow for the healing of allies. In addition, I would like all members of Olympus Squad to read something. After which, we can continue to fight if that is what you desire, or we can discuss things further. Do you agree to my terms?”

Zeus glanced at Riley and Epione, and silently wondered about Enyo, Thanatos, Dionysus and Junior. Gunn and Abigail were still outside, and had likely suffered frostbite. This was indeed a generous offer from Jacqueline, and all he had to do was read something?

“I accept, but only that I will read it. Everyone can decide if they wish to read it on their own.”

“Pass,” Apollo said immediately, keeping his rifle trained on Jacqueline.

Tartarus nodded. Jacqueline pulled a tablet from her belt and opened a file, allowing Alice to scan it so Tartarus could read, before handing the tablet to Zeus.

Zeus began to read, his eyes being stabbed by the bright light of the screen. The more he read, the more his suspicions on the Agency became confirmed. He was a weapon, a tool, for someone who was not who they said they were.

To the galaxy, Zeus was a monster, as was every other Agent. Olympus was being prepared for more missions, once their ‘morality had been cleansed’. Zeus dropped the tablet, looking at Jacqueline. Tartarus hadn’t moved, still reading on.

“Is this true?” Zeus asked bluntly.

“Every word. It’s the same as what I read. The plans, the rankings, the hate... it’s all real. You are currently a scalpel in a surgical shadow war to gain power for someone else. Riley being alive pressures others to side with the Alliance. Belle houses vital intel about Alliance governmental officials. That war you stopped was started by another squad, not by Copperhead. You’re part of this, but you don’t have to be, Zeus. Not if you let me help you.”

Jacqueline smiled. “You can trust me.”

A shot rang out and a blossom of red appeared on Jacqueline’s chest. Zeus turned to see Apollo’s gun smoking.

“Maybe,” Apollo said. “But she can’t trust me.”