Chapter Seven

The next day did not go as planned when the Halure Barrier failed in the dark hours before dawn and the three (plus Repede) went to the city border to help in the sudden rush of attacking monsters.

Karol's involvement was invaluable, being a veritable expert on monsters and a powerhouse capable of batting aside some of the largest attackers got him the highest kill score that morning before the artillery was finally brought to the front. So, with all the dead monsters, his trophy collection was significant, as was his payment for each one.

Yuri was also quite successful, even if the hours of constant fighting left him completely exhausted. His Blastia enhancement gave him near superhuman strength, but his stamina had yet to fully return from his long recovery.

And Estelle, well, she made herself at home with the medics, healing the wounded as they were brought in.

Once the calvary and heavy guns were brought together at last, Yuri all but collapsed in exhaustion and was immediately fussed over by his companions.

"Oh Yuri, are you alright?"

"Nii-chan! What's wrong?!"

"Woof!"

Yuri coughed, spitting out the blood that had trickled down the back of his throat from a crack in his sinuses and subsequent nosebleed. "I'm...fine." he gasped, breathless. "Damn I'm out of shape!"

"You've got internal bleeding and head trauma and you're complaining that you're out of shape?" a random medic asked, stunned. "I saw that charging beast body-slam you into that defensive wall."

"He'll be fine." said another. "The guy's got a Bhodi Blastia, people like that are tougher than steel."

"It wouldn't hurt to get medical attention though." the first shot back.

Yuri couldn't help but laugh, and let the concerned medics check him over before and after Estelle used her healing Artes on him.

"Mild case of exhaustion." pronounced the second medic. "A full meal and a nice long nap for you bud. That Blastia of yours is really something, new model?"

"Experimental." Yuri grinned.

"Huh, don't know if you're insane or lucky." the man chuckled. "But good luck anyways."

"Same to you."

Once the sun had risen fully the major threat was over and the monsters pulled back kill scores were taken and bounties tallied. Together Yuri and Karol raked in a few hundred shy of ten thousand gald, mainly because their efforts took down one of the biggest and nastiest beasts, a half grown Gattsuo.

Once back at the hotel (ordering a big breakfast from room service), they began the much needed discussion.

"So, you know why the barrier failed kiddo?" Yuri asked as he combed his hair. The prolonged and gory fight left his long locks matted with blood and tangles, so he had to take the time to pick each snarl apart before he washed his hair.

"Sort of." Karol replied, shuffling through a notebook, his own hair damp with his bangs hanging in his eyes. "Every year around this month the Barrier weakens for a week or two, mostly because of it's organic properties from fusing with the Tree, but it doesn't actually fail very often."

"So, any ideas?"

"None, I'd have to take a closer look at the Tree or talk with a technician. I might be well read on the subject of Blastia, but I'm not an expert."

"Fine, then we ask around for an expert when we check in with the agency." Yuri said. "After a shower and a nap that is."

XxX

"Well, I'll be damned, the Black Wolf himself at my division." said a sarcastically smiling sub-division commander at the Halure Agency department. "Made a name for yourself haven't you Lowell?"

Yuri sighed. "Nice to see you again too Rowan."

"At least you remembered my name this time." the man sneered.

"In my defense, you shaved your head, grew a goatee and six inches taller, then put on fifty pounds of muscle. I didn't recognize you as the skinny, baby-faced guy I went to high school with."

That put Rowan in his place, who looked stunned, then sheepish. "Ah, sorry Lowell." he muttered. "What'd you need here?"

"Three things." Yuri said. "One, I'm on an investigative mission and supposed to meet up with three other Agents I only have codenames for. Two, protection detail for the princess here. And three, Karol has some legal documents that need processing, his parents were researchers for us and were killed last year."

"That Capel's kid?" the large man asked. "Huh, there's a shocker. I'll get Legal to send someone up in a bit. About the Agents, what are the codenames?"

"Vernier, Steppe, and Crys."

Rowan typed at his computer for a minute before turning back to the dark Agent. "Sorry, no info. These guys are deep cover. Only thing I can tell you is that one of them answers to Commander Tenebrous in Aspio."

Yuri groaned. "Ugh, great...I hate Aspio."

"Well, too bad." Rowan answered. "Orders just came in, you're to rendevous with Agent Crys ASAP."

"Crud."

"Why do you hate Aspio Yuri?" Estelle had to ask.

"Stuck up eggheads and people too nosy for their own damn good." Yuri hissed, displeased. "They're really elitist there, you can't go to the University of Aspio, the world's best school, unless you're filthy rich or have an absolutely perfect grade point average and an IQ of a hundred or more. I tested into the Combat Artes program back in high school for a year, and for a bunch of supposedly smart people they aren't very creative with insults."

"Sorry to hear about that." Rowan sympathized. "But it's necessary. The Agency will get you access into the city and the research facility, and from there you're to report to Commander Tenebrous."

Yuri sighed. "Fine, orders acknowledged. Now what about the legal stuff?"

An Agency Lawyer was called in and the Capel legal documents were processed. The most important issues regarded the accounts, patent rights, the research data security and funding, and custody of Karol.

The research data and leftover funding from unfinished projects were to be turned over to whichever scientist Karol and his Guardian chose to continue the research. The patent rights remained under the Capel name along with the accounts, both to be monitored by Karol's Guardian.

Custody went to Yuri.

As Karol's last living relative, albeit distantly related, the boy's parents left Yuri Lowell parental rights in their will. Yuri, being as young as he was at only twenty two, baulked at the idea of being named 'father' or 'uncle' to a teenager, and promptly declared Karol his little brother instead.

With that taken care of and custody papers in hand the group remained in Halure for one more day, waiting for Flynn, only to receive word that the Lieutenant would not arrive in Halure for several more days, since he was stopping at every town along the mountain route.

Yuri set them on the way northeast with only minimal cursing.

XxX

Aspio, the City of Shade, was a unique and somewhat daunting place. The original "city" was a research facility set into a large underground cave system under the northern mountains, and the city limits expanded outward as decades passed. The high security areas were still in the caves, a place where sunlight never reached and sensitive experiments could be conducted in a more easily controlled environment.

And, unfortunately, being the home of the most secure facilities in the world, the city officials were paranoid as hell about spies, thieves, and terrorists.

And the Aspio Agency Base was right at the border of the Cave district where security was heaviest.

"Welcome." said Commander Tenebrous once they were, at last, brought to his office. The Commander was a thin, pale man with dark hair and eyes like bottomless pools of deep thought. He was renown for his quiet dedication, and infamous for his unflappable nature in the face of the grisliest of horrors found in the dark of Aspio.

"Commander." Yuri replied with a slight bow.

"I apologize for the delays." Tenebrous said simply, his voice an unaffected monotone. "Your orders to rendevous with Agent Crys still stand."

"Understood, but the only information I have is a codename and that this Agent reports to you."

"Agent Crys in an Undercover Operative." the Commander explained. "You know the rule Agent Ashce."

Yuri sighed quietly. "'None may dispense any information concerning Undercover Operatives save their Regional Commanders.' I understand now sir."

"You are to meet with the Agent in the University Square at fourteen hundred hours. The Agent will approach you with the passcode." Tenebrous ordered, sliding a folder across his desk.

"Acknowledged."

Yuri had enough time to get his companions settled at the hotel before getting through security by two o'clock. He was fifteen minutes early, and was people watching, trying to identify the Agent when a young woman surprised him.

"Hey, you got the time?"

Given that there was a massive clock above the Square, this was the passcode, and Yuri couldn't believe his eyes.

A sixteen year old girl, wearing an Aspio University hoodie and mismatched thigh-high socks with her shorts stared at him with a cockily raised brow under messy brown bangs.

The infamous Rita Mordio, prodigy engineer of Aspio University, was the Agent?

"Well damn, you're not what I was expecting." Yuri muttered. "Name's Lowell."

"I know." Rita replied. "Ten's had me waiting for you for over a week."

"You free to leave the University?"

"Yep. I'm going on leave."

"We'll be traveling..."

"Fine by me." Rita said with a devious smirk. "I've been wanting to get away from this place for ages, and besides, I heard about the Halure Barrier failure and getting to check it out is on my list of priorities. If you give me a few hours I'll have everything packed and ready to go."

Yuri chuckled at the girl's attitude. "We're leaving the city at eight in the morning sharp. Meet me at the Umber Street Gate by seven."

"Fine by me."

XxX

Karol and Estelle were just as shocked to find that Rita was the Agent they were waiting to meet was Rita as Yuri had been.

And Rita was not thrilled to see the young Karol.

"Hey! I did not sign up for babysitting!" the young genius yelped when they were introduced.

"Chill. Karol's perfectly capable of taking care of himself." Yuri scolded.

"He's twelve!"

"Thirteen, and five times stronger than a champion bodybuilder." the dark agent smirked. "He's also my little cousin slash baby brother, I got custody after his parents were killed. Since you and Estelle are both Casters and I'm a melee fighter he balances out the team as our powerhouse. If you have a problem don't make it anyone else's."

"And the dog?"

"My partner."

Further discussion was put on hold while they got in the car and on the highway.

"So what can you guys do?" Rita asked them. "I know Agent Ashce is one of our best combat and infiltration experts, but what does that mean exactly?"

"Estelle's a novice healer." Yuri explained. "She's working on a few Strike Artes, but mainly she stays in the back of a fight. Karol has the strength to take on big monsters alone, and tough enough to survive. And Repede is smart and faster than you'd believe, no one expects a dog to use weapons in combat."

"And you?"

"Combat Strike Artes, above average strength, super-conductive to Aer and Mana energy from my Blastia, and training as an assassin, spy, hacker, melee warrior, and generally a badass."

Rita laughed. "I think we'll get along well agent Ashce." she snickered. "I'll play artillery for you guys with my Magic Artes, I'll even get to test my prototype while I'm at it!"

"Call me Yuri, and what prototype?"

An evil grin. "A prototype Caster's Bhodi Blastia designed to give the user thrice the power output for half the energy cost. All the calculations are good to go, it just needs a field test."

Yuri chuckled. Rita was turning out to be an interesting companion, with both a colorful outfit to match her colorful personality. Her Adventurer outfit was an interesting variation of a Caster's robe, a sleeveless front open tunic held closed with toggle fasteners and barely reached her mid thigh, showing off her mismatched socks. A wide, blastium-laced sash was wrapped around her waist, just above the belt that secured a spellbook holster against her lower back, her primary and sub weapons.

Her entire color scheme was burnt orange over a black undershirt with yellow accents, a pair of Caster's goggles topping the outfit off as a headband.

"Rita, I've been wondering...if you don't mind my asking, why don't your stockings match?" Estelle asked shyly after a while.

"I just like them this way." Rita shrugged. "They're the same type and fit the same, so the patterns don't matter to me."

"Well, they're cute that way." Estelle admitted. "It suits you."

In that moment the younger, but more worldly-experienced girl made fast friends with the naive older girl and the two chatted about everything and nothing all the way to Halure.

And in the City of Blossoms Rita was met with a resounding cry for assistance from the city's Barrier technicians.

"This is weird." the prodigy murmured, examining the massive tree. "It looks like the organic portions of the Barrier are...sick."

"Readings of the Aer flows are coming up abnormal in half the critical areas and perfectly fine in the rest!" a technician wailed, stressed to the point of tears. "We've taken dozens of samples and tests and nothing's working!"

"Let me see the data."

While Rita worked Yuri, Estelle, and Karol were left to their own devices. The monitoring station of the Barrier Blastia was situated at the base of the Tree and considered a high security area, so unfortunately the group was not permitted to simply come and go as they pleased.

So, lacking anything better to do, Yuri chose to take a nap on an outlying root while Estelle read one of Karol's books and the boy hunter updated his Monster Book.

The swordsman was startled out of sleep by an excited Rita.

"Yuri get your ass down here!" she hollered. "Get down here and let me see your Blastia!"

The young scientist was surrounded by a group of technicians, all of them looking as excited as she.

"Okay, what gives?"

"We got reading from this sector, which has been abnormally sluggish this past week, and it's suddenly behaving normally, if not better than it's usual!" Rita explained.

"And this has what exactly to do with my Bhodi Blastia?"

"Everything! Since you and Estelle have been sitting here at the base of this Root sector the energy flows have optimized! A combination of your two Blastia is producing an incredible energy process!"

Yuri blinked in confusion, then shock as a flashback hit him. A man's voice mentioning a 'sister', the 'Brightest Star', and his Blastia model name, 'Vector Beta'.

The 'Brightest Star' referenced the legend of the single brightest star in the night sky, the Brave Vesperia, brother of the Child of the Full Moon. If you reversed the initials of Vector Beta, you got B.V., Brave Vesperia.

A 'sister' probably meant something about a paired unit, another Blastia to work in tandem with his own.

"Well shit." he muttered.

"What? Something wrong?" Rita asked.

Yuri jumped down next to the prodigy and leaned in closer to whisper. "I just remembered some details, my Blastia is one of a matched set."

Rita's brown eyes widened as the implications struck her, remembering the critical data Yuri had given her on his Blastia, the data he retrieved that fateful mission.

"The power flow discrepancies in the data..." she murmured. "A resonance effect between the Aer formulation of Estelle's...and the Mana condensation from you...holy shit!"

"Not sure what conclusion you just reached, but my thoughts exactly." Yuri groaned.

"This means a thorough investigation later." Rita mumbled. "But right now I need the two of you to help me fix the Barrier."

The mage prodded the swordsman and healer into the deepest part of the Tree of Halure, where the Core of the original Blastia remained still after thousands of years of the Blastia Body's fusion with the organic tree. The jewel-like core, covered with runic inscriptions, sat exposed in a half open column, ripples of visible Aer weaving around it and up through the Barrier Blasita.

Rita promptly chased all the technicians from the room and swept the area for cameras.

"Okay, we're alone." she said briskly and hustled the other two closer to the Core. "If my calculations are correct, and they always are, the combination of your two Blastia functions will help repair the damage to the Core."

Yuri started, surprised, and noticed what Rita had, hairline cracks in the great blue stone next to him.

"Okay, two questions. First, how did this happen? And second, how are our Blastia supposed to be able to fix it?"

Rita pulled up her Holo-screen and tapped rapidly at it. "I examined Estelle's Blastia during the car trip, and I found that her body processes huge quantities of Aer at a phenomenal rate. Her Blastia is actually a regulator, a kind of cutoff switch. From the data you gave me, your Blastia makes your body condense Aer into Mana, and possibly that Mana into solid crystal structures. Those kind of crystals are what Cores are made of, and this one is degrading. If I use your two Blastia in concert, we can regenerate the damage to the Core."

The following procedure took several hours. Yuri and Estelle had to learn how to manage the Aer flows together and direct it to form into crystal, and from there they had to very, very carefully regenerate the missing Core material as per Rita's very specific instructions. At the end, even though the substance generated was only a few grams worth, the pair were physically and mentally exhausted, but the Barrier Tree was beginning to flourish again.

"Damn, let's not do that again anytime soon, okay?" Yuri groaned once they were back at the hotel. "Rita, I'm glad you're so good at B. , that tech manager was creeping me out."

"Same here." Rita replied. "I'm glad I convinced them all that what I needed from you two was Blastia specs."

"No kidding, please don't ask me to do that again any time soon." Yuri moaned in fatigue and more than a little pain. "My body might have been modified to work with the Blastia, but this hurts."

"Muscle pain?" Rita asked. "Describe it."

"Kind've a combination of the feeling you get after your foot falls asleep...and the aftermath of the mother of all bruises."

Rita grimaced, suggested some mild painkillers, and advised the man to go to bed. They were to set out in the city to search for Flynn in the morning.