Nessie

The healing session lasted for an hour and 13 minutes. Sebastian slept through most of it while the drained Eva collapsed and slept right after. Over an hour at full power was just too much.

"She alright?" asks Harley.

"Yeah, Ben said she just needed some rest," answers Sean.

SHHOOM

Sebastian teleports in the pantry where Sean and Harley were having coffee and having a conversation about the incident that they had just learned about that had transpired hours ago.

"Morning, boys," Sebastian heads straight for the fridge to grab a gallon of orange juice.

"The kid lives," says Sean.

"Because the kid is tough."

"We heard you did the void thing, that true?" the curious Harley asks.

"Yep."

"Can we see it?"

"Nope," Sebastian pours himself a full glass.

"You good? They said you nearly lost an arm," Sean queries.

"Never been better," he answers before downing the entire glass.

"That was like a one in 50 instance, you guys are making too big of a deal about this."

"You personally called for Eva, must've been real bad," Sean reasons out.

"These things happen, it happened, let's move on," Sebastian is ever dismissive. "And please don't tell Rina."

"Too bad 'cus she was the one who told us," says Harley.

"Uh-oh," teases Sean.

"Fuck you, guys. I'm going to work." SHHOOM

Sebastian teleports right outside Benedict's office, eager to start the new work day and leave the slight incident behind. He goes straight in like usual. "Benny booyy, let's get some work—"

He is welcomed by the sight of Rina who was in mid-conversation with Benedict.

"..done"

"Just in time," says Benedict.

"Sure it is", Sebastian whispers to himself before hesitantly taking a seat from across Rina, half sure he was going to get a long lecture right after.

"You're gonna love this," Benedict with subtle excitement written on his face.

"Love what"

"We found her," Benedict still trying to control the excitement he was feeling to burst out.

"You found wh—wait, don't tell me…"

"Yep."

"YOU FOUND NESSIE???"

"WE FOUND NESSIE!!!"

The two mean laugh in celebration and joy for the next few seconds while Rina was just sitting there wondering why there are two grown men in front of him geeking around and acting like a bunch of kids that saw a cool rock in the garden.

"I NEED TO BE ON THIS PLEASE TELL ME I'M ON THIS"

"Of course you're on this, hell I'M on this"

"Wait, you're coming??"

"Am I coming, of course I'm coming! THIS IS NESSIE!!"

The two jump around in excitement again. This was the first time Rina had seen Benedict display this much emotion.

"Okay, what is with you guys and this monster?" the utterly confused Rina finally voices out her confusion. "I mean, I get Seb 'cause he's talked about this endlessly so many times before but you, Ben, I don't get."

"Rina, this is the Loch Ness monster we're talking about here," Benedict explains. "THE Loch Ness monster, THE REAL DEAL."

"I still don't get it."

"Nessie is cool, stop hating," says Sebastian as the two men share a look in approval to which Rina just rolls her eyes and sighs.

"Can we talk specifics?"

"We will be doing that later, I just gave you a heads up," says Benedict.

"Or you just called me in here because you wanted to release your excitement to someone you thought wouldn't judge you," Rina sighs and leaves the two men in utmost glee.

She heads to the infirmary to check on Eva who had been unconscious for the past three hours while Sebastian was busy going around and telling people of the good news.

"You're in awfully high spirit for someone who just nearly died," says Marko who was in the lobby having coffee and reading a newspaper.

"That's because I'm FINALLY seeing Nessie," Sebastian joins him after gleefully strutting around.

"Huh, so they finally found her."

"Yep, and you're DEFINITELY not coming."

"What is that supposed to mean"

"You're not gonna bash her to death, you animal. She's a gentle, majestic creature."

"But you're allowed to turn her into sashimi?"

"Hey, it's a quick and merciful end. One she deserves. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find a good camera I can bring," the still overjoyed Sebastian walks away.

Benedict calls in Rina for the mission briefing. She arrives at the facility's war room – another spacious room, slightly smaller than the mission control room and also filled with monitors and computer screens with a large round table sitting on the center of the room.

Benedict and another agent were already waiting in the room – Kristoff Schmidt, a tall and slim man with black, slicked-back hair. Kristoff is an inventor and one of the head engineers in Eden as well as being an Inner Circle agent.

The man who was the most excited for the mission was nowhere in sight.

"Where's—"

"Way ahead of you," Benedict cuts Rina off, he already knew what she was going to ask because he had the same question in mind. He pulls out his phone and calls him.

"Where are you"

"What are you doing in the mall, I told you five minutes ago we're briefing"

Rina sighs followed by a facepalm.

"Okay, just get over here FAST."

"And get the EOS R5", Benedict ends the call.

Rina glares at him, raising her hands in disappointment.

"Sebastian is running a bit late, we'll have to start without him."

SHHOOM

The man arrives and hurriedly takes a seat beside Rina.

"Never mind," says Benedict. "Did you get it?"

"Yep, guy was yapping so much I just told him to shut up, hand the thing over, and take my money."

"Get what?" asks Rina.

"I bought a cool camera."

"You bought a camera? What are you, a tourist??"

"I had to for my boy here," Sebastian's response leaves Rina with even more confusion on her face.

"The old man didn't allow Ben to come, I'm capturing the moment for him."

"Enough of that, we are here to talk business," Benedict interrupts the two's slight quarrel. "But yeah, don't forget the pictures."

Sebastian responds with two thumbs up and a large grin.

"The target for this mission is the world-famous Loch Ness monster"

Holographic images of the monster pop up in the middle of the table.

"Nessie was first sighted in 1933, way before the Circle was established. Back then, Nessie was no more than an urban myth. It wasn't until 1999 that the Circle confirmed its existence, caused by a particular incident."

"Reports from the incident stated that a large, unidentified and undocumented creature had emerged from the lake and killed four people who were boating at the time."

"Since then, Nessie has gone completely under the radar for reasons we still don't know how and why. Until now. Nessie was reported to have emerged three hours ago. This appearance only lasted for a brief six minutes before submerging again. And this time, we have complete visual on her."

"Nessie is not particularly dangerous. She's large, fast underwater, and from what we're assuming, a possible camouflage ability. Other than that, we have no knowledge of any significant offensive capability whatsoever giving this mission a rank of B."

"Three people for a B-rank?" Rina wonders about the odd decision regarding the team composition.

"Kristoff will mainly play a remote support role. He's not going to be joining you in the field," Benedict explains. "You and Sebastian will be the only field agents in this."

"If there are no longer any questions, you agents are ready for deployment."

SHHOOM

"Ooof course," Rina had anticipated this happening.