Recruit

Dright could not believe his eyes. The Blue Carnage was not a "he," but a "she?" Dright's eyes widened, then scratched both of his eyelids as if doubting what he saw. He then looked again, and now he was definitely not mistaken. She was also wearing a hood, covering her whole head completely.

Dright saw a very feminine figure. Blue Carnage had a slim waist, with beautiful thighs, her legs wore black-long socks, with a garter belt barely visible from underneath her skirt. Dright analyzed her thoroughly and unconsciously stopped at her breast. It wasn't small, nor is it big. It was just at the right size.

"Ohoo..." Dright unconsciously let out.

A few seconds later, he remembered the conversation he had with his father before heading out. Since the only thing that letter contained was "Meet me at the agency..." he couldn't start his task right away.

...

"Dright, you are to investigate a certain hospital. Some reports of our agents say that the workers there drug their patients with hibernating medicine. This itself is allowed, but the fact that they use it on all of their patients, no matter what their illnesses are, is fairly suspicious. You are to investigate the reason why they do this and to execute proper punishments. If they are conducting illegal experimentation on humans, you are to eliminate them on the spot. Leave no survivors..."

"Sure thing Father."

"... Call me Chief when you're on duty... and do not neglect your other mission. The Blue Carnage. If you are to encounter him, you are to--"

...

"Recruit her ..huh..?" He mumbled silently.

Upon uttering these words, Carnage suddenly launched a blue fireball towards Dright, which he easily dodged by moving sideways.

"Yo, Carnage. I've heard quite a lot about you from the higher-ups. I'll be blunt.. would you like to work for us..?"

". . ."

Upon hearing this, Carnage tilted her head, gesturing that she has no clue why they'd want her. Because of this, Dright let out a sigh and was about to begin explaining. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he suddenly drew and shot his gun, grazing past Carnage's hood, making it fall, uncovering a part of her head.

The sound of a person falling to the floor was heard. Dright shot at a scientist that was trying to escape right at the back of his head. Because of Dright's sudden action, Carnage did not realize that her hood fell immediately. Although it wasn't intentional, Dright was able to get a glimpse of her hair.

"...That hair..." although it was a bit dim inside the room, the light was enough for him to see. He saw a very familiar hair color, letting these words out of his mouth.

Upon realizing that her hood fell off, she immediately placed it back. Carnage felt very uneasy. Because of this, a ring of flame formed behind her. Later on, flames from that ring rapidly shot at Dright as a distraction.

Dright got surprised not by how she acted, but the color of the fire was different. It was colored in a pale red glow. Because of his shock, he couldn't dodge on time, letting the flames burn some of his clothes. Strangely enough, these flames didn't feel hot. It just attached itself to the part of his clothes where it hit. His clothes were very much undamaged. Because of this, he ignored the flames.

Dright countered her by shooting at her while continuously dodging her attacks, jumping from place to place, and was using his portals if necessary. He also used his portals to deflect some of the flames, but it seemed pointless.

Carnage defended by burning the bullets accurately with her usual blue flames and consuming back the fires that Dright deflected. She attacked with red flames and defended with blue flames while staying at the same place.

Even if the red flames seemed harmless, Dright's instincts told him that these things are to be avoided at all costs.

Suddenly, Dright felt that he was getting sluggish.

".... this is bad... my energy... is fading..?"

He thought while he kept on dodging. It was to be expected since what he did in the control room was excessive. He made too much portal at the same time, way surpassing his limit. His exhaustion aside, he felt very heavy even for a tired person. This heaviness was too much. Because of this, he limited his portal usage as much as possible.

"... is it because of these flames..?"

His attention shifted from Carnage to the red flames. He observed it momentarily while running around and dodging Carnage's attacks with his weakened body. He then stopped behind a capsule to block the attacks and to catch his breath.

Five seconds later, Dright decided to extinguish the flames. His instincts screamed that he shouldn't let the harmless-looking flames let loose on his clothes anymore. So he finally took them out by cracking the capsule he used as a shield and used the gushing fluid out of it.

By the time he finished, the barrage of flames had stopped, and the Blue Carnage was nowhere in sight. In that instant when he ignored Carnage was what led to her escape.

Dright scratched the back of his head and gave up on recruiting her. Without knowing where she went, he couldn't make a portal that leads to her, so tracking her down seemed impossible. Moreover, there were also plenty of doors that lead to his current location.

He tried to move around, jumping and stretching, testing if he was no longer sluggish. It worked. He felt lighter now ever since the red-pale flames vanished.

He then crossed his hands and placed a hand on his chin and mumbled,

"So she can use other kinds of flames as well... so far, I've observed that her blue flames can burn anything in split seconds... those red flames, on the other hand, can weaken people without burning them, like a debuff from those RPG games, huh.... those flames can be very troublesome..."

Again, he scratched his head then let out a sigh.

After this, he strolled around the room, looking for surviving enemies and analyzing the whole laboratory as well, for his original task... it turned out pretty badly. All the experiments he passed by were failed subjects. There were no heartbeats on their heart monitor located at the base of every capsule. Seeing these, Dright felt bitter and pity all over again.

By inspecting the corpses of the scientists, something caught Dright's attention. It was something horrible. It was the symbol, the badge of one of the darkest organizations that have been threatening peace for a long time. The badge of the group that calls themselves... "the Grimmers." Their symbol consisted of an image of a man, wearing a plague mask, with crow wings, all crammed on a circle. It all made sense. Why did such horrible experimentation occur in this place? It was because of The Grimmers.

Then...

A sudden beeping sound caught his attention. It was the sound of a heart monitor, beeping calmly. Dright immediately tried to locate where it was coming from.

A few seconds later, Dright came across a capsule that reached up to the ceiling. It contained an unconscious-naked girl, hugging her knees as she floats in place within the green glowing liquid. This was the capsule where the sound was coming from.

The girl had a petite body, fit for a person at the age of 10. She had long silver hair, reaching up to her knees, floating idly along with her. Nothing was unusual about her, unlike the other test subjects.

Dright wasted no time. He quickly tried to find some sort of switch at the base of the capsule. While doing so, he found some letters engraved there.

"PROJECT: OBLIA"

"...."

That was all.

....