3- Guests

In a simple country, in a small town, Robert had just finished working overtime and headed back to his apartment.

"Mom, I'm home!" He announced casually, locking the door behind him as he looked around, waiting for a response.

"I missed dinner again! I'm sorry..."

Walking towards the living room and dropping his bag, he flipped the switch, but there still was no sign of life. He checked the time on the hanging clock. It was eight-thirty sharp, and his mother was a not a night walker for groceries, at least to his best of knowledge she was not. Concerned, he took out his phone, making his way to her room, and surprisingly he found her cell phone unattended to, ringing. He confirmed that the call was his, and his anticipation heightened.

"Mom!" He called out all through his search in the apartment. At his last searched venue, he heard the doorbell and rushed to get the door.

Two smiling faces welcomed him, while his heart sank in peace.

"Robert! I didn't expect you home this early."

It was his mother. She looked in her late thirties, but was actually in her late forties. Unexpectedly, he hugged her tightly in a warm embrace before he let them in. He and his guest lightly exchanged greetings as she entered. To his miscalculation, she actually went to get some food of which their guest was assisting.

"You can drop it here," she warmly instructed in a smile while Robert assisted his mother with her own load.

"Thank you, Mara." He appreciated.

"It's no problem." She seemed to blush.

"Have a lovely night," she quicky said, in a little bow.

Robert and his mother were taken aback.

"Oh no, dear! Won't you at least stay and have dinner with us. You helped me all this way," she tried to reason.

"No, no, it's quite alright. I've already had dinner."

She answered in a smile, grateful for the offer.

Robert noticed she seemed in a hurry to get home on time.

"Oh... Well in that case--"

"Mom!" Robert chuckled in a warm call, knowing she wanted to suggest something that would make her stay a bit longer.

Robert understood that Mara wanted to get home because it was already late.

"Alright!" 

She finally agreed.

"I'll walk you, Mara."

"Don't worry about it, Robert. My house is just across the street. " She chuckled a bit, stating the obvious.

Robert wanted to insist, but he could tell she didn't want to be escorted.

She leaned in, sensing his disappointment.

" I just want you to stay home with your mother. She was really stressed out when I met her, and I'm not comfortable with you leaving her at home alone."

Robert finally understood the reason. He nodded, glancing at his mom, before back at her.

"Just text me when you get home," he still insisted.

"Okay," she smiled, finally agreeing.

"Goodnight, ma'am."

She greeted finally as the family of two walked her to the door, exchanging their final goodbyes.

Robert shut the door, once he sighted her leave the through the compound gate.

"She's a wonderful girl, isn't she?"

Robert sighed in a groan, "Yes, mom," knowing what she implied.

"Then..." she teased in a curiously funny gaze.

"Please, can we just eat? I'm famished!"

They both laughed lightly at themselves, knowing the avoided subject.

"Alright, son."

Making their way to the table, the doorbell announced another visitor, again. Sighing in tiredness and hunger, "I'll get it," he dragged.

"Let me come with you--"

Robert could only turn back to stare. Was this woman not tired? He was sure she was from what Mara had told him, that she was. Or perhaps she was just proving stronger than she actually was.

"--in case it's Mara. She might have forgotten something."

She tried to justify her actions, noticing her son's expression full of questions, abruptly searching for what Mara may have left behind while Robert chuckled at her silliness before attending to the door.

She heard him open the door, but silence followed. She didn't pay much attention to it when she suddenly found a little wallet on the floor. Merry, she headed towards the door with the intent of cutting into their conversation:

"Don't worry! I've..." She trailed off.

She looked to the ground before the door, and her pair of eyes met her only son unconscious and bleeding from the head.

She looked at the figure at the door, and began to quiver. Her shaking hands dropped the wallet, while unfallen tears slowly reddened her eyes, before they caught sight of the gun in the figure's hand, and her anger shot up to its peak.

From slowly breaking down into tears, a scream of helpless vengeance abruptly emerged from a broken hearted voice as she jolted at the figure in harmless revenge.

"You killed my son!" She screamed, dashing at him, as if she could harm him.

Threatened, a bullet pronounced self-defense, and the stupefied mother painfully crashed to the floor in a thud, oozing out the the thick liquid from her aged veins.

She was shot.

He shot her.

"Agent! What have you done?" The figure heard from his single wired ear plug.

"You are only permitted to attack the boy if necessary. NO OTHER VICTIM!" The voice panicked.

"Well she's dead. Send the squad to come get the package."

The voice on the other end fell silent, terrified at how cruel and heartless he could get, when suddenly, the sound of ruffled feet caught his hearing, forcing him to snap his head in the direction of the sound.

"Agent D," the partner of other spoke with caution, "Be careful. I just spotted something on the system move in those bushes."

Agent D didn't respond. Holding firm his gun as he approached the only bush around and in sight, he closed the distance, with hunch of something being wrong increasing intensely.

"I didn't hear a bush move." He informed, puzzling his colleagues when, "Watch out!" A latter yelled.

He turned swiftly, blocking an attack with a knife, exchanging blows with a silhouetted opponent that also dodged as good as he did.

He dodged an air kick to his head in a backflip, landing in squat, sweeping the ground with his leg to brush his opponent off his feet on landing from the kick, but his opponent landed early and jumped intime to avoid the move, left kicking Agent D in the head, but he caught it just in time.

From nowhere, the opponent leaped with his last leg, his right leg, locked it with the left in captive, with his body at an angle 180°, he spun 720°, two circles, which resulted in freeing his left leg, and successfully smashing a kick at Agent D's jaw, landing in a defensive position.

Agent D was surprised for the first time on a mission. But not more surprised than his colleagues watching from the security footage in van outside the compound.

"Agent D? Agent D!" The talkative colleague called, seeing him down for the first time. Sighting him move, he sighed in relief.

"I've sent for back up. They will be there in three minutes."

"Shut up!" He heard, hating his humiliation.

"I expected more from a D-Agent." The silhouette opponent scoffed, revealing she was indeed a female. And his pride got stabbed in deeper, taken down by a female. His reputation just got stained, and worse once he returned back to headquarters.

"And I was told I was facing the number one. Or am I mistaken, Agent D?"

While she taunted him, Agent D sighted two other figures get in and out of the house within seconds. They seemed to be with this silhouette opponent. Slowly, he rose to his feet, brushing the spot of the hit as well as the blood stain from his lips. He found her eyes, and she didn't flinch at his towering height. Her confidence was questionable, but his was not shaken, not intimidated by her, not even by the slightest. Yet, when he found her eyes, a frown found his face. They glimmered trickles of cobalt glitters.

"That's D1 to you."

Out of the blues, he shot certain bullet, tiny like the mouth of a broken syringe, from a pen tranquilizer that was hidden inputted at the shoulder of his black electronic suit, which he took out while brushing the stain off his lips.

But to his surprise, another surprise, he witnessed the glitters in her eyes circle three times in her pupil before they abruptly stopped and glowed for what felt like less than half a second, outlining her eyes frown deeper in defense. In a moment, her fingers caught the tiny piece aimed at her neck, baffling Agent D, and his two IT backups watching from a hacked night camera.

"Did you see that?" The latter questioned unbelievably.

"Play it again. Play it again." The talkative disturbed, baffled while the footage was rewinded.

Just then, backup arrived, but Agent D, was still stunned, being his first time of such an encounter.

'How did she... catch a pen tranquilizer bullet...in the dark?'

The thought had no answer, making it difficult for him to phantom. But that wasn't a problem. He could deal with that question later. What mattered now was the attached new goal: to capture the Robert and take her as well.

As if she read his mind, in a flash, she turned invisible, the sound of the dropping bullet announcing her absence.

Agent D with the back up became on full alert, not hesitating at her vanishing, he shot around him with his weapon in hope that he'd get her while she turned away to escape. But that didn't happen. His mind roamed for answers, but a fact stayed certain in his mind.

He didn't hear a sound, leaving him to his last questions:

'Did she turn invisible, or did she teleport?'

"Dax. Rex." He called, speaking to them through his micro-chipped ear phone.

Dax and Rez gulped silently, glancing at each other.

"You'd better have an explanation for what just happened."