Agent X

Narrow escapes and sudden visitors

The arrival of the police shook Agent X out of the reverie he'd fallen into. He brushed off the few tears that had escaped from the corner of his eyes and took a deep breath to find his center of balance, just the way Sheaf had taught him to.

Shell, meanwhile, seemed like a deer caught in the headlights. She blinked for a while, at a complete loss for words, and suddenly snapped out of her daze with a jeering look on her face.

'Looks like you've brought in the police as well, Agent X. Why is that? Couldn't handle a bunch of defeated Operatives like us on your own?'

'Sneer at us all you want, Shell. The plain, hard facts are that you've lost. It's the end for you now. As we speak, the police are surrounding SHADE's HQ and capturing all the operatives in there for aiding terrorisim and criminal activities.

Without your presence, quite a few security measures have been relaxed there. We've just taken advantage of that fact and driven our advantages home' He listed with a casual shrug of his shoulders.

Shell shook her head. 'You work fast with surgical precision, Agent X, I'll give you that. But you've made the mistake of underestimating your enemy severely. Inspite of all the temper issues that I have, did you really imagine that I'd take such a huge risk and come over here without making sure I didn't have a backup plan incase things went south?'

'Oh, we did consider that possibility,' X replied with a humorless chuckle, 'and we looked into the matter seriously as well. This area was thoroughly scanned multiple times by skilled trackers to make sure you didn't set a trap over here. It was even checked just before we came in to make sure you didn't put in anything here that could aid you in escaping.'

He'd relayed all this information with an indulgent expression, like he was humoring a small child's silly doubt. Shell didn't seem deterred by his response though; on the contrary, a slow smile spread across her face when she heard what she wanted to.

ACE's smug confidence visible dwindled right from their faces. All of them suspected that she was bluffing and trying to buy herself time, but somehow her mirth and relief seemed genuine and real. Shell looked like she had an escape plan in hand, and that she was going to implement it any second.

X's eyebrows furrowed in concern and he gave a sharp set of instructions to a woman standing next to him. Just as she nodded and reached for her communicator, possibly to tell the police to come in and capture SHADE, Shell seized her oppurtunity and carefully drew something from her pocket.

One of the operatives guarding them quickly shouted to X in warning, but before he could even respond, Shell pulled out her smoke bomb and threw it in front of her with all the force she could muster.

Their surroundings were immediately filled by an opaque white fog, and everyone was left coughing and waving their hands around to dispel the smoke that was blinding them.