The sky was still covered in blackness as the silence of the apartment was rudely interrupted by the high pitched beeping of an alarm. As the alarm continued to wreak havoc on the peaceful apartment something started to stir in the bed, slowly and heavily. What followed next were several grunts as someone started to sit up in it, slamming her fist on the alarm which immediately quieted down. She proceeded to turn on her night lamp, revealing a still half asleep Ocean, weakly looking over at the clock.
“4:45 in the morning, uh,” she weakly sighed as she stood up, her eyes still only half opened. “Oh, how I hate mornings,” she continued to mutter to herself as she slumped through her apartment, still dressed in a loose shirt and a pair of panties, as well as a leather belt with a familiar belt buckle on it. Her apartment was in top shape, nothing littered the floor, and everything was in its right place. As she looked through the large window, she could see the streets below here, a few cars driving by below her, apparently she was not the only one that woke up so early, but that was not really surprising in a city like this.
The apartment was decorated rather sparsely, nearly everything remaining the same since she had moved in, just a few pictures had been put up, but she really didn’t mind. Either way, she liked the modern look of the rooms they way they were, and since she didn’t really know how long she would stay in Canterlot city anyway, this was good enough for her.
What was however not good enough for her was the fact that she was already awake at such an early hour. She loved her job, but this, this was just the worst. She hated the morning, every day it was the same, hear the alarm, drag yourself out of bed, get ready for work and a little breakfast and then it was off to a normal day at work, well as normal as it would get as a government agent and Kamen Rider at least.
After a quick shower, she had sat down at her table eating her poor excuse for a breakfast, a bit of breed and a few sausages, nothing special really. But there was one thing on the table that let even her groggy face light up with joy, coffee. The delicious lifesaver that she couldn’t live without anymore. She couldn’t await the warm brown liquid running down her thought, slowly warming her up from the inside. Really she couldn’t imagine a life without it anymore, especially she couldn’t understand how Phoenix could live without it.
But that didn’t really matter right now, right now she was to busy emptying the entire can cup after cup, every sip just making her more and more awake and ready for what the day might bring. A day without Phoenix and that was very much welcome, especially after what he had pulled two days ago, still, she was already starting to miss him and his antics. His stupid grin and these cute eyes that- before she could finish that thought her phone started to ring.
As she pulled out her phone, she sighed on last time, looked at the number and quickly accepted the call. “Yeah, hello.”
“Ah, Ocean, I see you're already awake,” the deep voice from the other side of the device returned.
“Well, you said we would meet around five forty, like always, so how is that a surprise?” She retorted, still a bit ill-tempered. “Ahm, I mean. Of course, like always,” she quickly added.
From the other side, only a deafening laugh could be heard. “Ocean, you don’t need to be this formal, I told you this already, at least a few dozen times, so relax, drink your coffee and just be ready. I have a lead on someone higher up in Tartarus, finally. Someone called Sable Spirit. She is an older woman from Neighpone and apparently works as an assassin. Yeah, I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. Apparently, she is very well known in the underworld, well being in a job for over fifty years and surviving does gain you some respect.”
“Huh, well, that is certainly impressive, what also means, we will have to be even better. If she survived for over fifty years in the world of cut-throat assassins, there is a good chance that she already knows that we are coming,” she carefully replied.
“Yeah, very much possible, but it’s our only lead, so unless you have any other options?” Ocean remains silent. “Good, that settles that then. So, I’ll leave you to your breakfast then, hope it’s good and that you don’t miss the kid too much,” Onyx chuckled on the other end of the line.
“Why would I miss him? A few days without him are exactly what I need. A break from his insanity is very much welcome,” she sighed in exhaustion.
“Oh, and I thought you would miss him very much, and not just his personality,” Onyx chuckling only grew in size with every word he spoke.
“What do you- Oh, haha, very funny. You know, if you repeat a joke ad nauseam it gets boring really fast,” she hissed back, staring daggers at her phone.
“Oh, come on, you are not fooling anyone, and the kid doesn’t either. I’m sure you two would give up a wonderful coup-“ and that was as far as he got, Ocean cutting of the connection. Superiors be damned, this was just enough. With a loud sigh, she swallowed her last drop of coffee, stretching herself one last time before she finally left the apartment.
>-------<C>-------<
It hadn’t taken long till Onyx had parked in front of the house she was living in, driving his beautifully black car. Being so high up in the MRG did indeed provide some neat little benefits, that much was clear. Maybe enough to let yourself forget about the huge responsibility that was resting on your shoulders, something that Onyx was quite good at hiding.
“So, I hope you’ll get your phone checked Ocean. That the thing just shuts off during conversations is not becoming of an agent of your caliber,” he smirked at her as he pulled down his windows, Ocean looking rather panicked while he spoke and was about to say something as he continued. “Oh, don’t worry, you know me, I don’t care, and in all honesty I kinda deserved it, now did I?” He laughed back at her, her panic quickly melting away.
“Thanks, I appreciate it,” she sighed in return, opening the door of the car and entering. “Still, I would prefer it if you would stop with this, I’m kinda getting tired of this joke.”
“Well, then stop giving us so many opportunities,” he laughed back as he hit the gas and the engine sprung to life. “But really, that would probably end if just... you know…” He shifted around with his hands on the steering wheel as he spoke, eyes fixated on the street before them.
Ocean meanwhile gave him a look that probably could kill if that would be possible. “You know what?” Ocean dryly added.
“Ahm, you know, just ask… you know…” Now it was Onyx turn to panic, grasping for words.
“So, on another note, what is the plan?” She continued, completely ignoring his pathetic attempts to find a not awkward way out of this conversation.
“Uhm, yeah… the plan, right. She has an apartment downtown, and as far as we know she is currently on a sort of a vacation, so she is going to stay in the city for a while. She apparently loves this city and its citizens very much, doesn’t stop her from murdering them, however. She has already been here a week, and I’ll have kept tabs on her for the entirety of her stay. Spirit generally keeps to a tight schedule. She wakes up around seven in the morning and leaves the house around eight. After that, she pretty much wonders through some parks, enjoyed the scenery and so on. You know for a seventy-year-old woman she really is impressive.”
“Well, she is still an assassin, you expect her to not be impressive when she survived that long?”
In response Onyx unleashed another one of his infamous laughs, it echoing through the entire car. “Yeah, good point, but how amusing an old woman being a professional assassin might be, I think we should get back to the fact that we have to observe her. So, after she is done with her usual stroll through the city, she tends to eat at a special restaurant, ‘The Elysium’. It’s rumored that it might be connected to Tartarus, but nothing of substance could be proven until now. What is not clear is if they are just that good, effective bribers or simply not there, but the name screams Tartarus if you ask me.”
Ocean merely nodded in return, in the meantime casually reading through the files they had on her, every new page she flipped to let something fester in her stomach, turning, moving, a bad feeling. “You really think we can pull this off?” She looked over to her superior, carefully raising an eyebrow. “We might get the entirety of Tartarus against us if anything goes wrong here.” Her breathing started to get more and more heavy, staring at was written on the pages.
“Hey, that is unlike you. Anything wrong?” Onyx returned, sounding rather worried, even letting his one eye wander from the street over to her.
“Oh, it’s nothing, just a bit nervous, like always,” she weakly replied.
“You? Nervous? Since when?” He replied in a mixture of confusion and disbelief
“Oh, yeah wouldn’t notice I guess. Have to be a shining example for the team. Every mistake could cause goodness knows what. Yeah, I know, an agent of the MRG on my level should be past this and make confident decisions on the fly,” she weakly chuckled.
“Oh, you think that? Actually no. You have to make quick decisions, sure, but the best agents are never sure that everything will work out. They are worried about every decision, they just don’t show it. Every decision has weight behind it, the weight of the people under you, your comrades. If you don’t think about them what good are you as a leader?” Onyx replied slowly, his eyes again fixated onto the road, his usual cheery demeanor not shining through for once and instead replaced by a man that seemed to have seen his fair share of tragedies.
“But you aren’t that way, right? Or mother? You two are the best of the best as if you would make mistakes? If there are casualties, there was no other way. At one day I would love to be just like that,” she returned, a weak smile on her lips as she stared through the window the of the car.
In response, Onyx merely chuckled weakly and added: “You really think that? I have made mistakes, countless of them, till this day. If Monochrome and I didn't make mistakes we wouldn’t be here in this car, searching for a traitor in our midst, now would we?” Ocean remains silent, unsure of how to respond to his answer. “You know, I don’t like to tell this story, but oh who really cares. That happened to me years ago. We were investigating something the locals called ‘The Sewergator’, apparently, a local legend that a baby alligator had been flushed down the toilet, you know usual stuff, and had mutated. People didn’t really believe it until the first body of a homeless person was found mangled and bitten to pieces, truly gruesome stuff,” he seemed to drive off for a moment.
“I assume the incident was magical in nature? There wouldn’t be any other reason for the MRG to get involved otherwise.”
“Yeah, hit the nail on the head there. We indeed received magical energy readings from the area, nothing too out of the ordinary, probably just an animal that had gotten its hands on an artifact, nothing a group of senior agents couldn’t handle, well that was what we assumed anyway. What actually happened when we arrived in the small town was something entirely different. We had taken up shop in a small motel, and one of my man, Shadow Cover, was making sure nothing would jump us during the night. As luck would have it, we were right, and in the night something happened. We were all sleeping as we heard the first shot, then the second and the third. When we stormed out of our rooms, we could see that a figure in dark robes was just slipping around the corner. In my hubris and in the heat of the moment I ordered Cover to chase after the figure,” Onyx interrupted his speech to swallow.
“What happened then? Did he get hurt?” She sounded intrigued, excitedly waiting for what happened next, like a child listening to a gripping story.
“Well, that is one way of putting it. After we had caught up to him we found him on the ground, parts of his flesh had been torn off by what we assumed were razor sharp teeth, blood covered the entire ground, and he was only barely clinging on to live. This was the moment where I made my biggest mistake, I was so enraged and filled with hatred that I never even thought that my plan might backfire. I send my man down the sewers, an entrance right next to Cover, and of course, I went with them. We had called an ambulance, and I left Lucky Clover with him, she should make sure he would be safe when that bastard came back. I, Bullseye and Flaming Ruby went down into its lair, weapons drawn and ready for anything that might come our way, or at least that was what we thought,” while he spoke he increased the grip on the steering wheel, his expression turning far more aggressive, just like his style of driving.
“We were down there for at least fifteen minutes, hunting for that thing and nothing, absolutely nothing. Ruby asked me if we maybe should retreat and wait for a better opportunity, but I just refused, said that this was our best chance to get that bastard. Oh, how I wish I listened to her that day. But we pressed on. About five minutes later, we were already quite far away from our entry point at that time, we finally heard something. Someone was slowly wading through the knee-high sewage. This was the moment we thought, I was in the front, Bullseye and Rose were giving me covered. We heard the strange sounds coming from the other side of the edge, and instead of being cautious and taking a good look at the surroundings we jumped out from behind the edge, guns pointed straight at the bastard. He was shocked, he wore this soggy black robe, completely covering his face and the moment I screamed at him to take his hands into the air he complied and begged for mercy, it looked pathetic,” Onyx basically spit out the last few words with such vitriol that it almost scared Ocean.
“But you got him, even if one of your men was hurt in the process,” she tried to respond, only for Onyx to shake his head, slowly, now the anger replaced with regret.
“Yeah, I thought the same, but he tricked us. First, everything went well, he got on his knees, no complaining, just being compliant, not doing anything suspicious, picture-perfect actually. Should have known that he was full of shit. The moment Ruby had put the handcuffs on him something happened, out of the water under him a glowing, ethereal hand shoot up, no, it was more of a claw, and in an instant it had dragged Ruby underwater, leaving us with this bastard. Bullseye was the first to react, still holding his weapon directly on him and well, he fired, straight through his shoulder. Our robbed killer was rolling on the ground in agony, but apparently, this was not enough to stop him. Out of nowhere, Bullseye was impelled by another pair of razor-sharp claws, straight through his stomach, he was dead in seconds. I finally got a good look at that beast, it looked like a crocodile, just on two legs and extremely muscular, oh, and of course, made out of light. At this moment I just had enough, screw trying to bring this bastard in alive, that would just get us all killed. I spun around and put a hole through his head, almost instantly the light constructs evaporated into nothingness, and there I was, alone, two of my man dead as well as the suspect,” he finished with a low growl. “And you know what they did to me because of this?”
“I… I don’t know,” Ocean quietly replied.
“Promoted me. Said I showed great skills in the face of diversity, congratulated me on my decisions, apparently I saved a few people that were stuck in this bastard’s lair, not too far away from where I killed him. We saved two lives that day, but I lost two of my man instead, and one of them so injured that he could never return to active duty and spend three years in a coma, and they fucking promoted me for that. I made mistakes, I should have made sure that we could handle him, that we were prepared, but I didn’t, I might have saved these two civilians, but under what cost. But I can’t undo it, I just can learn from it,” he finished with a heavy sigh.
“Huh, but in the end, your decisions saved those people, doesn’t that mean you were right?” Ocean carefully asked.
“Technically, but I made them out of the wrong reasons. I didn’t know that they were there, I let my anger get the better of me, that they were saved was just a side effect of all of that if I’m honest. I should have not gone after him, but I did, and that was a mistake because I didn’t think of the consequences. Still, if I had known that they were there I might have done the same thing as well, but we will never know,” he said, now more mellow that angry. “Just remember, if you make a mistake, accept it, learn from it and don’t repeat it, that is what makes a good agent.”
She nodded in return. “You know, this kinda reminds me of something Pheonix once said. If you make a mistake just don’t do it again,” she weakly chuckled, staring through the window seemingly into nothingness.
“The kid seems to be smarter than you give him credit for, at least in some ways,” he chuckled back, the bright smile having returned to his face.
“Yeah, in some way,” she returned absentmindedly, still staring through the window.
“Oh? And I thought you didn’t miss him?” He burst out into laughter again.
Her head quickly turned a bright red as she angrily returned: “Oh, just be quiet… sir.” This just got her another laugh from the man, she quietly letting her head sink into her hands.
>-------<C>-------<
Time went by with not much happening, Spirit following her usual routine almost like a robot, even when the weather was not the best for a little walk through the city, it being very much cloudy with signs of rain already on the horizon. The woman seemed normal, feeding birds, reading the newspaper and admiring the flowers in Whitetail park, like any old woman on a walk. Well, the fact that at no point in time did she show any signs of fatigue were strange, but if you weren’t effectively looking for it you wouldn’t even notice.
Onyx had decided that he would stay in the car, monitoring the situation from afar while Ocean was tracking the elderly assassin and that seemed to work, even if he regretted his decision rather quickly thanks to the fact that he had not much to do. Still, it was the smart move and if he had to suffer a bit, oh well.
And so the hours went by, Ocean carefully making sure she didn’t garner any attention. Still, for an assassin, she lived a rather boring life if this was really how she decided to spend her days, or it was the rock inside the storm of action her life normally was, either or, she really didn’t care, she just hoped that nothing would interfere with her investigation for once.
Still, the worst part was still upon them, ‘Elysium’. Onyx had managed to get her a table inside the restaurant at the same time as Spirit would eat there, but it was beyond her how exactly he managed to pull that one off. ‘Elysium’ was one of the most exclusive restaurants in Canterlot City and almost impossible to get a place in, but somehow Onyx had managed to get her one, she rather not ask how he had worked that miracle.
Roughly an hour before Spirit would eat at the restaurant she had to return to her home to get ready for the following observation. To quote her superior: “You have to look the part if you don’t want to garner any unnecessary attention there, and I’m sure you won’t have that problem if you just get into the right clothing. You’ll fit right in.” ‘Fitting in’ involved a long flowing black dress and an excessive amount of makeup, oh and of course her belt, thank goodness Onyx couldn’t see her like this, that would only get her more snarky comments from him, and she could very well live without that.
And about half an hour after she had put on her disguise she stepped into the entrance of the restaurant, it being located at the top floor of one of the skyscrapers, towering over a good few other buildings and giving a stunning view over the entire city. Everything went smoothly, one of the waiters leading Ms. ‘Winter Crystal’ to her seat, right next to where Sable Spirit had taken place next to a muscular man with grey skin, black hair, and an equally black suit. Spirit wore a black dress with red accents, as well as a black veil over her face. She had a milky skin and white hair, you could definitely see that she was in her seventies, but the energy with which she acted was remarkable, joking with the man on her table.
That went on for a good ten minutes, Ocean carefully listened to everything that was said, but until now there was nothing worth listening to, that was until the man called over one of the waiters and silently spoke with him, the man slowly nodding after every few words. What came next let her blood freeze in her veins. Still, she had to keep up appearances, he came over and said: “Ms. Crystal, the gentleman over there wanted to ask if you would be able to exchange a few words with him if possible.” She slowly nodded in return and followed the man, sitting down next to them.
“Ah, Ms. Winter Crystal, what an honor to meet you, or should I say miss Ocean Skies. It’s an honor to finally meet one of the heroes of this city face to face, well, meet again actually,” the man said, in a calm and friendly manner, smiling at her, but she could tell that something was off about him.
“Oh, so I see you know my name, but I sadly don’t know your’s, Mr…“ she returned just as calm, well at least on the outside.
“You may call me Cerberus, and this is Ms. Sable Spirit, an old friend of mine. It’s been a while since the last time we meet, not under the best circumstances if I remember correctly. I tried to give an apology to one of your friends, what was his name again?” He continued in his most soothing voice, still the air of danger still deeply ingrained into it.
She gave a cold look back, after which she continued: “Thunder, Thunder Cloud. And he is doing just fine without your dirty money.”
“Dirty, oh why would you call it dirty? It’s money earned from hard work like any other really. I still don’t get why he wouldn’t take money from another restaurant owner,” he chuckled back at her.
“Yeah, restaurant owner, as if,” she chuckled back dismissively. “Heard a lot about your stake, extra bloody if I remember correctly.” That got him to narrow his eyes at her.
“So, what gets us the honor of meeting one of the most well known MRG agents in our little restaurant here? Did we do anything wrong?” He returned, sounding as innocent as he could be.
“Oh, I’m sure of it, judging by the type of business you take part in, but that is not why I’m here.”
“Let me guess, you wonder where we get our ingredients for the wonderful food we provide here, isn’t that right?” Cerberus smiled at her with that cocky grin that she wished to wipe off his face.
“Well, actually yes. So, interested in providing me that answer before I have to resort to less friendly ways of getting my information,” she returned, her tone making it unmistakably clear that she was not in the mode for any games.
“Oh, didn’t you hear that you shouldn’t threaten a man in his own business, that is just a sign of bad manners,” he returned, now a sense of imminent danger in his voice. “if you are only here to start a fight I would suggest that you leave, Ms. Skies.”
Ocean was about to say something in return as Spirit intercepted and said with an old raspy voice: “Sweety, don’t start a scene here, that does not suit you.” She turned around to face Ocean and smiled at her. “Young lady, I know you have taken an interest in me, so why don’t we play a little game, in I would say five minutes in the back alley of the restaurant? If you can entertain me a little, I might actually tell you all I know about those secret ingredients you are so interested in.” This took had taken her by shock, she was willing to give her the information, just like that? There had to be a catch somewhere.
“Sable, are you sure?” Cerberus said, apparently just as shocked as Ocean.
“Oh, sweety, you have to have more faith in your elders. Don’t worry, this won’t take long,” and with that she stood up and left the room, leaving both of them behind, stunned by what had just happened.
“What are you waiting for? You don’t let a lady wait,” Cerberus broke the silence, Ocean merely nodding silently. “And one last piece of advice, give up on what you are trying to accomplish. It will only end in ruin.” Ocean, however, continued her way towards the door, ignoring the warning of the man.
>-------<C>-------<
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” She heard from here communicator in her ear.
“Well, it seems she has an artifact, so I have to take it away from her anyway at some point, and I would prefer it if she has not any chance to kill even more people before that,” Ocean replied, steadily making her way towards the back alley behind the restaurant, determination showing on her face with every step she took.
“Well, make sure you are safe, but if anything happens, just call me, and I will send Pinecone a little message. Don’t let her kill you,” he finished with a weak chuckle.
“Don’t worry, I won’t.” She finished, as she stepped around the corner, now standing the alley, dumpsters and other trash cans filling the sides of it.
“That is good to hear sweety. However, you should not underestimate your elders, that is just a sign of bad manners,” Spirit said, stepping out from behind a few dumpsters, her dress flowing in the wind as she did so. “But it would also be considered bad manners if I would let you wait, now would it.” And with that, she touched the vail that until now had been covering her face, it starts to glow in bright light. Ocean didn't waste any more time, activated her Driver and started to spin it after inserting her Charger into it, in return.
\ SCANNING CHARGE! /
“Henshin!”
\ 50, 80, 100! THUNDER CHARGE! /
While Ocean had been clad in her electric blue armor and had immediately rushed towards her, the light around her opponent had finally faded again, revealing a new Corrupted. The monster looked almost identical to her human form, sleek and thin, but now she was hovering above the ground, her dress looking far more ragged and shredded. Her skin now snow-white and two red glowing eyes glowing behind the vail.
As Charge was about to slam her baton in her side, the Corrupted managed to simply glide out of reach, the attack missing her just barely. Charge continued her assault on the monster with more swing of her weapons. However, every single one missed its target Spirit slipping away at the last second every time.
After one particular forcefull strike the Corrupted merely waved her hand in Charge#s direction creating an immensely powerfully gust of wind, sending the dumpsters and trash cans, as well as Charge flying like paper in a tornado. With a loud crashing sound Charge landed in the middle of the debris that had been carried away by her opponents attack, who still was hovering over the same spot she had started the fight.
“Your technic is quite impressive, but you just lack the experience to come even close to someone like me. Sadly, I’m not impressed. If you decide to actually be a challenge next time, meet me here in two days, but if you are just as pathetic next time I will have no qualm about killing you, remember that” Spirit said, her voice echoing through the alley like a cold whisper.
“Wait!” Charge tried to stop her, unleashing a full magazine on the Corrupted, she easily avoiding every single shot like it was nothing.
“Have a nice day sweety, and don’t disappoint me again,” she dismissively added and with another wave of her hands the wind that had previously swept her off her feet came up again, achieving just what he had done before, sending her sailing through the air.
With a loud grunt, she landed in the next wall, crashing to the ground like a wet sack of potatoes. “Dammit!” Ocean hissed as her armor slowly dissolved, leaving her just as vulnerable as any other human.
“Ocean? Ocean, are you ok?” She heard the voice of Onyx in her ear as she slowly managed to drag herself up from the rather uncomfortable ground.
“Yeah, yeah, besides a few bruises to my ego, I’m fine. Damit, I blew it, didn’t I?” She hissed back, holding her arm while doing so.
“Don’t worry about that right now, we are just going to call Pinecone, and we will deal with this in no time.” He calmly replied, however, there was still a bit of concern and worry shining through his voice.
“Yeah, sure, but before that, I have to visit someone else,” and with one last groan she had returned to her feet, still clutching her arm as she dragged her body through the alley. “You don’t have a problem with that, now do you?” Onyx remained silent. “Good.”