Aria Blaze was learning about one of the far less exciting and thrilling, and more tedious and dull aspects of working for an agency, top secret or not. One that the action movies and shows that she watched had at most only mentioned in passing. One of the most dreaded aspects of work for all employees.
Paperwork!
Everything that happened yesterday from their arrival at the airport to their leaving Archaic Yearling at the museum all had to be typed out. All as factual and accurate as possible, with no exaggeration. So it was that Aria sat at her desk, staring at a computer screen as she tried to write out what happened.
A task made all the harder by the fact that they had failed.
Officially, it had been a success. Their assignment had been to distract any potential criminals with the fake crown while the real one was taken to SMILE and secured safely. In that aspect, they had been completely successful. However, even if the crown had been fake, and some of the thugs had been injured, they had still managed to steal it and escape. As far as Aria was concerned, that meant they had failed. That she had failed. It had been eating away at her all night, and staring at the computer screen as she tried to remember it and write it out was pissing her off all over again.
With a huff, Aria pushed from the desk and got up. She needed to take a break.
Was there a gym area? The idea of using a punching bag sounded appealing.
"Agent Blaze," a voice called out.
Aria turned to see Kerfuffle approaching.
"Agent Blaze," she called out again as she walked up. "I was just looking for you."
"Well you found me," Aria replied. She crossed her arms. "What do you want?"
"The police found a body in a lake this morning. The body is in a bit of an unusual state, and we think it's one of the people who attacked you, Agent Pharynx, and Miss Yearling, so it was intercepted and re-routed here. We wanted to see if you could identify him, and maybe see if you knew anything about the injuries."
"What kind of injuries?" Aria asked. She was doubtful she could help with the identifying of injuries, but was kind of curious.
Kerfuffle gave a shrug.
"I don't know. I haven't seen the body yet, and Doctor Moondancer didn't tell me." She smiled as she took a step back and motioned with a hand. "Come on. The body is back down in the lab."
Aria followed, eyes focused on the other woman's backside as they went. Admittedly, Kerfuffle had a pretty nice butt, but that was not the reason that Aria was watching (just a nice bonus). It was more about trying to figure out what was off about her gait. It looked to be something to do with the left leg, which meant that would be the one Aria should focus on in a fight. Unfortunately, Aria did not have Adagio's observation or deduction skills. She could pick up on some details from watching a person, but her focus was more on physical weak points, allowing her to deal with any physical threats. Adagio was always the one who had studied attacking psychological ones.
A thought occurred to her as they walked. The two of them were supposed to be co-workers, which means they were supposed to trust each other. That meant that if Aria wanted to know something about Kerfuffle, she could actually just try asking Kerfuffle about it. There were two risks with that, though. One was that the woman would not be willing to share her story. The other was that in turn, Kerfuffle would expect Aria to share some personal information as well.
The former, Aria could deal with. It would just mean that Aria would have to butter her up and get closer before trying again. Not something Aria was entirely fond of, but she had done it before, and again, being co-workers, it would probably be better if they could cooperate. The latter, however, was not something she wanted. People having knowledge about her meant they potentially had knowledge to use against her.
Aria would ask Adagio for ideas about it later. A thought which caused Aria to mentally groan and physically roll her eyes. She could already see a twinkle in those raspberry colored eyes and wicked smirk on those golden lips as Adagio commented in a condescending tone about how Aria needed her help. Just thinking about it made her want to punch Adagio in her stupid, smug face. The bitch.
As it turned out, the lab had multiple areas, each sectioned off from each the others and the front. The small room that Aria entered was freezer cold. Enough that not only could she feel the chill the second she stepped in, but could see the frost of her breath. One wall had the large steel drawers used in morgues to store bodies. The rest of the room was covered in tile. There was a slant to the floor, leading to a large drain in the center.
"Do you actually use all these things?" Aria asked, staring at them.
"Not really," Moondancer answered, standing beside an autopsy table with a body bag on it. "Since my appointment here, we have only had two at most, and that was for perhaps a single day." She pulled on a pair of rubber gloves. "Come over here. I'm about to uncover the body and begin the examination." Taking a hold of the zipper, she pulled it down.
As soon as the top teeth separated, water began pouring out.
"Grab some vials," Moondancer ordered as she zipped it back up, stopping the flow.
Kerfuffle did as she was told, grabbing as many glass tubes as she could manage. Once she was back, Moondancer unzipped the bag again. As before, water poured out from it. Kerfuffle pressed the vial against the surface,letting the water fill the tube to the top. Once one was full, she would switch to another.
"The body was found in a lake," Moondancer explained. Her eyes narrowed as she stared down at the bag. "Even if some of the water had been collected with the body, it would not have filled the bag to this extent."
She looked up.
"Step back."
Aria and Kerfuffle did as they were told. Moondancer pulled the zipper all the way down. More water flooded from the opening and splashed against the floor.
With the water away and the bag open, Aria looked at the corpse. It was the body of a man, with rusty red-brown skin, black hair, goatee, and a scar over his left eye... socket?
"Where the fuck are his eyes?" Aria blurted out.
Moondancer reached down and grabbed the man's nose and jaw, pulling his mouth open.
"That and his teeth were part of the reason it was considered strange."
Aria looked into his mouth.
His teeth were missing.
Moondancer let go and stepped back, pulling off the gloves.
"Kerfuffle, label the vials and put them on my desk for later. I'm going to have some agents collect samples from the lake for comparison."
"I'll wait here," Aria stated.
"I'll be right back," Kerfuffle assured her. "You know where the door is if you get too cold or need anything."
"Put on gloves if you're going to touch the remains," Moondancer added.
Aria let out a grunt of acknowledgement as she made her way over to the table. She grabbed a pair of gloves from the box and pulled them on, flexing her fingers as she got used to the sensation. Once comfortable with them, Aria leaned forward and reached down. Her thumbs pressed against the top and bottom of the left eye socket, pulling the lids open.
A hand grabbed her wrist.
Aria tensed and straightened up, taking a step back. Her free hand balled into a fist, pulling back behind her.
The body moved, sitting up. Its head turned to face Aria, water running down from the eye sockets. Its mouth shifted.
"Siren," a voice said as the mouth moved. It was deeper and raspier than Scar's had been when alive.
"And who the hell are you supposed to be?" Aria asked.
The brow furrowed and lips pulled back. It looked like whatever was in control was trying to make the face snarl. The fact it had no teeth made it so it was not threatening in the slightest. In fact, Aria found it kind of funny.
"You may call me Ahuizotl."
It let go of her wrist, pointing a finger at her.
"You cost me two fine warriors."
Aria's eyes narrowed as she bared her own teeth.
"So what?" she growled out. "This is your plan to get back me? Some sort of waterlogged meat puppet?"
"DO NOT MOCK ME!" Ahuizotl roared. "I was worshiped as a GOD while you fled from accusations of witchcraft! My name was feared for generations!"
"Now you just sound like something stuck in an old man's throat," Aria shot back.
While she had never met a spirit or "god" in this world, she had met plenty of mortals, and had learned something pretty quickly. It was that the more someone talked about how powerful and dangerous they used to be, the less of one they actually were. Because all the power, all the glory, all the authority they once had was now gone. In more modern terms, it was like those people who peaked in high school, and spent the rest of their life talking about how great they had been then, while hating the life they had now. Admittedly, it had been something the three of them had done as well when they had first arrived.
Still, hearing Ahuizotl talk about how he used to be a "god" and demanded to be treated with respect for such had Aria Blaze lowering her opinion on how much of a threat he was. The body proved he was able and willing to kill, but she was sure that he was not going to actually try anything with him.
He grabbed her by the neck. Ice cold fingers pressed against her throat, squeezing with vice-like strength, threatening to block her windpipe. A pain built in the back of Aria's neck as she was lifted off her feet.
"Know this," Ahuizotl growled out, "you may be safe in your little city, with your agency, and group of child-mages, but should you ever enter my domain, I will kill you. I will watch you struggle vainly, fighting desperately to breathe, to survive, and enjoy every second of it. Then, once you are dead, I will take much gratification in feasting on your eyes, and leaving the rest to rot."
Aria's vision blurred around the edges. She grabbed at the hand, trying to pry the fingers from her throat.
Ahuizotl let go.
Aria fell to the floor, legs collapsing beneath her. She gasped for air, hands rubbing at her throat.
"Blaze!" Kerfuffle cried out. She ran over to Aria, shoes tapping on the tile as she did. Crouching down, she placed a hand on Aria's back.
"Are you okay?"
Aria gave a nod, her throat ached, each breath burning as she inhaled.
"Here," Kerfuffle said, taking a hold of Aria's shoulder. "Let me help you up."
Letting go of her throat, Aria took a hold of the other woman's hand. As she stood, her gaze focused on the body. Once again it was laying on the autopsy table, lifeless.
Ahuizotl was gone.