Mirror Lady

Dr. Vega's smile couldn't be wider. "Tomorrow," she replied "We'll get you acquainted with your colleagues then assign you your first mission." Dane had forgotten he was supposed to be in a team. He wondered who his teammates would be. He fell into a trance thinking about it.

"Hey, focus!" Vega said, snapping Dane out of his trance. She explained what was left to explain and gave him his officer gear. She also recommended that he rest, advice he didn't need to hear twice as his head throbbed from all the information he was forced to digest. Passing by the "special" Iotils made his stomach turn, he felt he'd run into something like them again. A ball of worry made its home in a corner of his mind, he felt an inexplicable fear when he left the C.I.R.S. building.

At home, Dane checked Chip to make sure he wouldn't turn into a Kraken before heading to bed. Thoughts stopped him from resting peacefully. In the span of a few hours he had become an officer for a secret organization, it was alot to digest. He'd have to get used to it. On that, he fell asleep.

******

Dan bolted down the halls of the C.I.R.S. building, he was being followed. He was too scared to look back. Something told him looking back would spell his demise. Not even the walls seemed to reassure him as they held malicious grins, they wanted a piece of him too. He shot at them with what looked like a cross between a water pistol and a power drill, complete with blinking lights and a label that read 'Experimental Anti-Iotil Projection Device.' A gun. It was a gun. A C.I.R.S. issued one at that. The walls didn't bleed, they didn't even flinch, they were walls. Luckily his escape was in sight, the door to the outside world was barely an arm's length away. Suddenly the scene began to shift and he was falling. This time he had the courage to check his surroundings, he was falling into the jaws of a giant creature. "Chip?!" he screamed as he realized who the jaw belonged to.

Dane woke up with a sweat. It was just a nightmare. An awful nightmare. A glass of water would refresh him, Dane thought as he jumped out of bed and made for the kitchen. He poured himself a glass and drank it in one gulp. The desert dryness left his mouth. A nightly walk was looking especially enticing, he could use it to clear his thoughts.

Oh, how the wind felt good on his face. He smiled as he felt the night on his skin. The usually crowded O'Brien Avenue was deathly quiet. "I'm a superhero now," Dane said to himself. He laughed and shook his head, he sounded ridiculous. The nightmare made him realize just how much those "special" Iotils had scared him. It made him question if he even wanted to do this job.

It was a question the universe immediately forced him to answer.

A scream tore the silence and the ground rumbled. Dane's fears were coming to life and his entire existence flashed before his eyes. Now was when he decided if he was going to do this or not. He didn't need any confirmation, he knew he was dealing with a "special" Iotil.

The decision was made. He ran towards the source of the scream.

The second he saw the creature, bullets flew. The entire street seemed to be rising from the ground. A large crack had been opened and served as the creature's mouth, jagged circles served as its eyes. The nearby street lamps also seemed to be under its control, it whipped them around like tentacles. Being made of steel, their movements weren't as fluid as they should be. Still, they were fluid enough to kill most people. He counted eight lamp tentacles, in one of them was a woman. The girl had vibrant auburn hair and hazel eyes, her skin was healthy and sunkissed. Freckles decorated her round face. She looked like she could be Dr. Vega's nerdy younger cousin. 

Her appearance was of little appearance, what was important was that she needed help. Dane quickly reloaded his C.I.R.S. certified gun and shot at the lamp tentacle holding her. The Iotil's grip loosened and the woman managed to wring free. Dane didn't even bother turning the gun's attention towards the ground. He looked at the places he'd previously shot, it didn't even leave a dent. His attention was rather focused on the girl, he had to make sure she could get away safely. Unfortunately, Dane didn't have any Half-Life patches on him. Even if he did the impact would've been minimal, the amount of patches required to subdue an Iotil of this magnitude wouldn't even be worth it.

Dane's mind flashed with crazy. Vega was starting to influence him.

He dove right between the creature's eyes. As it tried to slam him with a tentacle, he dodged. Due to the metal's rigidity, the creature couldn't stop itself from landing a blow on its own flesh. A crack appeared on the pavement. It was working. Dane kept dodging until the crack grew bigger. Dodging under a tentacle, he took a knee in front of the crack and shoved the barrel of his gun inside. He shot every single bullet he had until the pavement stopped trying to kill him. Soon the floor returned to its original form.

That was one of his objectives complete.

He looked for the auburn-haired girl. She was standing at the end of the street trembling. Dane approached her. "Are you ok?" he asked. The girl took a second to answer, "What was that?" she asked. Dane almost told her the truth but then realized there was a reason for the C.I.R.S. to keep their business a secret. "Nothing, you won't see it again," he said trying to comfort her. It was strangely effective.

Dane decided to take her to Dr. Vega. He was pretty sure in the barrage of words she had hurled at him before he left he heard something about a "Victim Rehabilitation Program."

On the way to the C.I.R.S. building, Dane learned alot about the girl he was accompanying. Mainly that she was extremely talkative. Her name was Ivy Moores, she had three older brothers and had lost her mother a week ago. Those were all things Dane learned within their first five minutes of conversation. He actually found himself enjoying her incessant rambling, it was nice.

They entered the building and Dr. Vega smiled at them both. "It seems you're already acquainted. Dane, this is Ivy Moores, she'll be accompanying you on missions from now on."

Dane turned at the girl with a surprised look.

"What?!"