Chapter Text
The car pulled up a few buildings away from where Phoenix needed to go. The agent, who was currently working on a crossword from the newspaper, looked out towards the supposed lab he needed to break into. Zor you’ve gotten bold putting your lab building in the open. Especially since the world knows about you now. Phoenix thought to themselves, sighing. The agent put his crossword down and grabbed his items for the mission. Their earpiece, a silenced handgun, that Zoraxis keycard from the file, an Argus C3 camera, and their brown leather gloves they found at that base they were in, while dealing with Dr.Prism. Phoenix got out of the car, making sure to hide anything that could reveal they are from the agency, before walking towards the Zoraxis lab. They put earpiece in once they got close to the building, tapping it to let Reginald he's ready.
“Ah Agent, let’s get to work shall we? Looks like the best way would be through the..front door? Well that just feels like a trap for the agents.” Reginald said before sighing, “Alright agent give me a second to find a less..trap seeming way in”
Phoenix looked around the building and noticed a fire escape on the left of the building, thankfully facing an alleyway. I can either, A.stand here and wait for Reggie to find a way in, then get to whatever room I need to get to…or B.I go up this fire escape, make my own entrance, possibly get shot, and get to whatever room I need to get to. What to do..What to do Phoenix pondered, Fire escape. The agent walked over to the fire escape and jumped up to the ladder that was partly up, catching the last bar of the ladder before climbing up. Once He got to th first landing he looked up at how high the fire escape went, debating if they should just break in now then take the elevator or walk up all those stairs.
They chose to break the window.
An alarm started blaring where the window was, [To the shock of nobody], Phoenix quickly climbed in and looked around for anybody, thankfully there was nobody here, yet at least. The Agent ran down a hallway looking for an elevator that they hoped existed. Due to the alarm, it didn’t take long before Phoenix saw a couple Zoraxis operatives. There wasn’t anywhere to hide, so fight it was, the agent grabbed a painting off the wall with their telekinsis and threw it at the head of one of the Operatives, before pulling his gun out of their holster and shooting the other operative in the chest. Phoenix quickly ran to the other operative who was dazed from being hit with a panting and quickly putting them in a chokehold, holding it long enough to render them unconscious, or dead, Phoenix didn’t really care which. It’s not like killing the Zoraxis operatives is against the rules of the EOD…right? Oh well!
Luckly for the agent the elevator isn't too far from where the now most likely two dead Zoraxis operatives were. Only problem now is that Phoenix wasn’t 100% sure what floor he needed to go on. He assumed the top floor, but that might be wrong for all he knows there’s nothing but a storage closet full of buckets up there. However, before The Phoenix could even press a button Reginald tunes back in.
“Agent! What are you doing! I leave you alone for five seconds to look at the cameras and find a way in, and you break in, and kill two Operatives!?” Reignald exclaimed clear annoyed with the agent.
Phoenix looked around for the closest camera to him, once he found it he signed back to Regienald.
“I got bored.”
“Bored!? Serious-” Reginald sighed, cutting himself off, “Well whatever, you’re in now. I see you’re at an elevator, there's an office on the 30th floor, belonging to one of the higher ranked in this building, so be careful.”
Phoenix gave Reginald a thumbs up before getting into the elevator and selecting the 30th floor. While waiting Phoenix was thinking of anything that could possibly happen on the way to this office, or at the office. Getting attacked by Operatives, getting caught before being able to to find any information that could be useful to the EOD, not being able to find anything at all that could even be considered useful, dying. Phoenix gently shook his head at the thought of dying, despite surving sudden death three times, the idea of death still scared Phoenix. They had always been scared of their life getting cut short, funny that they chose being an agent as a job with that fear. * I really need to take a break after this* .
Once the elevator reached the 30th floor Phoenix realized that the whole office was the 30th floor. *
What with Zoraxis high ranks and making their whole office one floor?*
Phoenix stepped out of the elevator and immediately got to work searching the office. They noticed a chalkboard near the desk, walking over to it they noticed that the bored had a small diagram on it, nothing super detailed but enough, sure enough, It was ‘The Hivemind’. Phoenix took the camera out of an inside pocket of his jacket and took a picture of the bored, before walking over to the desk and sitting down as they sat the camera down on the desk. They examined the desk, noticing some paper on a clipboard in a corner of the desk. They pulled the clipboard over to themself and read what was on the papers. It seemed like it was a seris of reports on how experiments went.
12/27/1967
Fail. Subject was electrocuted by wires in the shackles
12/30/1967
Fail. Subject was killed by
Smitherson
due to a failure to comply with the experiment.
01/04/1968
Fail. At first the shackles seemed to have worked, however due to some malfunction the subject was deemed dead. They lasted longer than everyone else so far
01/09/1968
Fail again. Subject decided to steal a knife from a guard and try to pry at the shackles, causing the explosive fail safe within the shackles to activate.
01/15/1968
Success. Finally, after many modifications to
The Hivemind
we finally got it to work on a subject. The Doctor will be glad to hear that we can now control people like animals. More experiments will be run still.
Phoenix quickly took the papers off the clipboard after reading the logs, folded them up and put them in his inside coat pocket. They started to dig through the drawers for more information, finding nothing that seemed to be useful, until they grabbed a book from the bottom drawer. The book happened to be attached to a cord, it was too late when the agent noticed the cord, causing an arrow to hit the agent in the shoulder. Son of a bitch! Phoenix held his shoulder where the arrow was.
“Agent! Are you okay? Is that an arrow?” Reginald asked confused, not everyday you see an agent get shot by an arrow now a days, “Quickly agent, find where that arrow came from, I have a feeling it wasn’t the only one waiting to be fired”
They quickly looked up and around for where the arrow came from and noticed a hole in a portrait. They grabbed a lighter that was on an accent table with the telekinesis and used it to burn the Portrait revealing a small hidden compartment, similar to the one of John Juniper's jet. There was a small hole in the wall, perfect for an arrow to go through, just in case Phoenix grabbed a book from a shelf and covered the hole, having it float there so it doesn’t fall. Taking a deep breath, ignoring the pain from the arrow, Phoenix went back to examining the room looking for anything that could lead to more information.
They tested a few things, pulling the book hoping for a secret door, pulling the desk drawers out at different amounts, even just lighting random things on fire. There wasn't anything the agent could find. Phoenix sighed and leaned back in the chair, before noticing what looked to be a button high up on the wall. Using his telekinesis he pressed the button, causing a bookshelf to open up like a door. So there WAS a secret door. Phoenix got up and walked to the entrance.
“Careful agent, we don’t know what could be in there, and don’t forget about that arrow in your shoulder.” Reingald reminded Phoenix
“Okay Dad” Phoenix signed to the camera Reginald was looking through
Reginald just sighed, how is he just wanting his agent to be careful to make him a dad. He never understood his agent sometimes. Phoenix looked around this room as he took out his camera and took pictures of everything he could in there, anything that could be useful. They noticed a computer and walked over to it, before turning it on. It needed a password, of course it did. Phoenix stared at it for a minute of what the password could be. They suddenly remember that word from the file he took.
esprit
. Phoenix decided to type it in, and it worked.
Welcome Luina Whitesent
Luina Whitesent? Must be whos office this is, whatever i’m in now. Phoenix looked through the files on the computer, he was happy this wasn’t like the modified computer from Dr.Prisms house, it was alot easier to get through. Eventually, Phoenix found emails between Luina and what seemed to be her team. They were talking about the Hivemind experiments, and how they were planning to use them. One email however caught Phoenix’s attention.
Date:01/19/1968
To: ALL
From: Luina Whitesent
Don’t forget to make sure they all work properly, we need a lot of those shackles. If this all goes according to plan we will finally be able to get rid of that agency, and what’s a better way to stop them, then to control their own agents. So make sure we have enough, and that they are durable enough. I don’t want a single defect to slip through this shipment
’Control their own agents?’ They’re planning to control agents with these shackles? Not civilians? Okay maybe this is a big problem and not as small as I thought. Phoenix hadn’t grabbed his notepad so he decided to just snap a picture of this email. They quickly left the room, they were pretty sure they had enough information for now, it was only a matter of time before someone came up here, and they really needed to get their shoulder looked at.
“Agent! Wait! You’ll need to find another way out of the building, there are Zoraxis operatives currently in the elevator on the way up to this floor” Reginald shouted panicked
Shit. Phoenix immediately looked at the giant window behind the desk, and waalked over to it before looking out the window. They were on the 30th floor, they wouldn’t survive the fall, it was just free fall and not in an elevator, and this window wasn’t facing the fire escape, in fact there wasn’t a window to the fire escape on this floor. *That has to be a safety violation.* Phoenix sighed and pulled their gun out, shooting at the window, breaking it.
“Phoenix! What are you doing!? Do not and I mean do NOT jump out that window.” Reginald exclaimed
Phoenix looked at the camera and signed, “Do you see another way out of here?”
“No. However, I have an idea. Hide. The elevator is almost there, so hide somewhere and wait til the operatives are out of the elevator and away from it. Then run into the elevator and use it.”
Phoenix just stared at the camera, basically just having a look that said, “seriously? That's dumb”
“Phoenix, it’s either that or you become paste on the sidewalk, and we aren’t able to get the information you found”
Phoenix sighed and ran to hide behind a chair in the room. It was somewhere in the room, where he couldn’t be seen from the elevator and was able to get a clear shot of the elevator. It wasn’t long before the ding of the elevator went off, Phoenix sat next to the chair watching and waiting for his chance to move.
“Quickly! Check everywhere! We can’t let those agents steal anything” An Operative barked
Phoenix only moved when he needed to stay hidden, slowly moving around the chair when the three operatives walked around. When he was in the clear he quickly moved and hid behind another piece of furniture when one of the operatives started to turn around. They held their breath the closer the operatives walked to them. They were so close to the elevator, just needed a chance to bolt. Eventually they operatives noticed the broken window and ran over to it to inverstagate. Phoenix saw his chance and ran into the elevator and pressed the button to the ground floor. Only to see on a small screen within the elevator,
PLEASE INSTERT YOUR ZORAXIS KEY CARD
If the agent could talk he would’ve started cussing out of annoyance. A Zoraxis key card? They didn’t have a Zoraxis keycard. Why did the elevator suddenly need one now? Of course. The base is in lock down mode now because I broke in.
“Agent! What are you doing!? You have a key card remember! The read card stole from that file” Reginald stated, “now hurry up and use it”
Phoenix quickly reached into his jacket pocket, pulled the keycard out and put it into the slot below the button and started to spam the button for the ground floor.
“HEY!” Phoenix heard an operative shout, causing the other two to turn and look at them.
Phoenix grabbed a vase with his telekinesis and hit it over an operatives head. The door closed mer seconds after, but almost immediately after he heard two gunshots. One bullet hit the agent in the leg, the other grazed his head, thankfully it landed in the wall behind him. Phoenix leaned against the wall of the elevator, he could feel the wound and it stung, but it didn’t hurt to much, yet at least. Phoenix knew that the second that his adrenaline rush worse off, he was in for a world of pain.
“Phoenix, are you alright?!” The handler asked worried
Phoenix didn’t bother responding, they were focused on getting out of here with the papers and their camera intact.
Once the elevator reached the ground floor, Phoenix bolted out, running straight for the doors not wanting to face another operative. To the relief of Phoenix, he got out without running into another operative, they wouldn’t taken a breath, but they just started running to where his car was. Once they were in their car, they turned it on and tried to drive it. Of course the auto pilot was still on. Phoenix hit his head on the steering wheel causing the horn to go off for a second, before Phoenix jolted up from it.
“Don’t worry Phoenix, the auto pilot sound be starting any second now. Now patch yourself up the best you can. Can’t have my best agent bleeding out in his own care.” Reginald said in a calm tone, “I’ll be waiting for you back at base, there sound be a medkit in the glove box.”
Phoenix opened the glove box and pulled the medkit, they reclined their seat all the way back so they could have move room to move and work on themselves. They started with the arrow in their shoulder. Grabbing some gauze from the medkit before grabbing the arrow. Taking a deep breath, they ripped the arrow out of their shoulder and quickly pressed the gauze on the wound, with their free hand they grabbed bandages out of the medkit and wrapped it around the wound as well as he could with one hand. Once he was down with that he started to wrap bandages around his right leg that had been shot. Phoenix didn’t even notice that his head was bleeding from the bullet that grazed him until he felt something warm on the side of his head. They grabbed more gauze and some medical tape, before tapping the gauze to the side of their head and laying down in the fully reclined seat. Taking a deep breath, trying his best to ignore the pain. At least the mission was successful, at least they hoped so.
Before closing his eyes to get some rest on the way back to the base, Phoenix suddenly felt sick and dizzy. The agent was confused as to why, then it clicked in. *That fucking arrow was slow acting posion*. Phoenix quickly grabbed the news paper he was doing a crossword on, on the way to the mission. He wrote down on it, ‘POISON TIPPED ARROW’, just in case he passed out on the way back. They set the news paper in the passenger seat, carefully grabbed the arrow and set it next to the news paper. Phoenix just signed, before laying back down in the reclined seat.