Chapter 5

Same day – Moscow General Hospital

The first thing he felt when he woke up was that his entire body hurt all over.

"That bitch! She pulled a fast one on me," he thought.

He tried to open his eyes but immediately found out he was blindfolded. He then focused his ear.

Clattering of equipment, footsteps, beeping. He could also smell the familiar disinfected environment. "I'm in a fucking hospital".

He tried to move his hand. It was cuffed. He tried to move his body around. No good, he was strapped down.

It doesn't matter, he thought. His superiors will probably get rid of him. Tying up loose ends used to be his specialty, now he'll be tied himself, probably by the team that was sent after Arc. It was pretty ironic, he thought. He's dead unless he got out of here before the officials squeeze him.

Someone entered the room. "You're awake now huh?" said a tough voice with a bad Russian accent.

"You must be wondering who I am, no?" said the Russian while walking towards the bed. "My name is Petr Veltsin, FSB."

The Federal Security Service (FSB) is like the post-communist version of the Committee on State Security (KGB). Kind of like the Russian version of the FBI. Though they usually only handled powerless or "Blank" crimes and incidents since the Monarch's own criminal-fighting organization has been established. The CMIO, or Counter-Magic Investigations and Operations was the Monarchy's own established international police institution. So Will wondered why someone from the FSB was even talking to him.

"The doctors say that it's a miracle that you're not very injured from the blast, your comrades weren't so lucky though. One of them didn't make it while the others will never recover." Petr said.

Willy noticed that this cop still has no idea about his identity, he had a good chance.

"Here, let me remove your blindfold for you." It took a while for Willy's eyes to adjust to the light. He then saw that Petr is 5'7" has an ugly face and an abandoned body. His cocky attitude matched his appearance.

"You were there at the Rossiya last night. You were found unconscious wearing energy-proof vestments and unlike your comrades your gun had bullets made to puncture through ions. Let me ask you this.Were you there to hunt down a mage? Mage-hunting is a crime worse than treason now."

"You should know that our government supports the Monarch's rule and the NGs, they don't appreciate it when someone goes mage-hunting, especially while they are in Mother Russia."

In times like this it's better not to say anything.

"Why go to all that trouble for one mage though? There are thousands of them walking down the streets every day. But you chose this one, why?"

He doesn't know anything.

A nurse went into the room. "We'll have to move him to recovery now. Excuse me." said the nurse in Russian.

"I'll talk to you later then, jaeger." Petr said while his bed was being moved to the hallway. Jaeger means "hunter" in Russian.

While the nurse was pushing his bed through the hallway, a passing patient dropped something on his hand. Willy took a look at it. It was a lockpick. The nurse then opened a different room. He was pushed inside then the nurse took something out of her pocket, an old-model cellphone, put it on some clothes in the room and left.

Willy used the lockpick to remove his cuffs, and then he removed the straps on his body. The phone suddenly rang as he put on the clothes.

"How are you, Will?" said a masked voice.

Willy knew that the voice was masked just in case someone was listening in and it was also set up to prevent any tracking done. They weren't funded by the government or something. They were just a bunch of expendable mercenaries. They were only chosen becaue it was given to their attention as something they all were interested in. That was what William Perkins knew, and he didn't care whether which way, as long as he can fulfill his vengeance.

"Thanks for the rescue."

"You disappointed me again last night. You should make up for it."

"Don't worry, I will."

"There will be a van parked behind a convenience store two blocks south-west from the hospital. You can see it from your window. Get there quickly."

"You have any leads?" Will said while looking out the window. He could see the black van not that far away.

"Go now. The police will notice soon." He hung up.

Someone was banging on the door then. It must be Veltsin, he thought. He looked out the window. He was at the 2nd floor. Luckily it was still low enough for him to jump on a parked ambulance. He opened the window and quickly made the jump. The fall made him stagger.

"I'm clearly getting too old," he thought.

He rolled down the ambulance and landed on his side. He stayed there for a while, but he knew there were others outside. He got up and looked around, there were cops a while back at the entrance. He looked up the window when he heard the door break. The cops looked down. He looked eye-to-eye with them. He ran when the cop talked into his earpiece. The cops from the entrance were following him now. He'll lose the cops, he always did. He would then go to the van.

What he didn't know was that someone had tapped into their phone conversation. Someone else knew that William Perkins is a hunter, and knew that he would go back to his group, so she would follow him. A descendant of the Shadow Clan and a guardian of the mages and espers alike, a woman with long black hair that was as dark as the void. Laura Silenus, second leader of the Re-Gen faction, named after the event. She was also intrigued by what mission someone as important as the Scholar would give to two of his students, so she dug in further and used her "resources" to follow them. She then found out that their mission was the same as hers.

"There is no room in this world for people who resent change." Laura said while observing William Perkins through the eyes of her familiar, a shadow demon.