Preparations

“Your objective for this mission is to retrieve a package. Codename: Sarcophagus. It is no exaggeration to say that it is the most important piece in this agency’s AI research. During this operation, it is unavoidable that your endurance will be pushed to its absolute limits.

Her voice played in their heads over and over again as they prepared. The first thing their fists touched every morning spare a change of clothes was the inside of a fight glove and the front of a punching bag in the facility gym. This, at least, was typical for them. The pool was not.

“Do we know what it looks like?” Raven freely took a smoke in the small blue office, a far cry from the intimidating cabin of the Spiral Director. Across from him, Agent Hawk, his senior, to some degree, was plotting the course of his infiltration as the mission’s primary organizer.

“No.”

“Do we know what’s inside of it?”

“No. Well- I don’t.” The planner’s large glasses almost took up more of his face than his short and feathery blonde hair, coming second only to his perpetual smile.

“How are we going to make it there?”

He slid two blueprints onto the table.

“Once you’re in the building, you go through this water duct.” He casually pointed to what might’ve been the smallest line of white on the entire paper.

“Water duct?”

“That’s right. And it’ll lead you straight to where they’re keeping it. Slip on through, and- boom. Sarcophagus.”

Raven took an exasperated puff of his cigarette. Hawk could practically smell the regret atop the smog.

“Look, you’ve done plenty of stuff like this before. Your sneaking suit should get you there just fine.” He lifted Raven’s equipment to the forefront, giving it a hollow knuckle tap. “Just keep your oxygen safe.” If not one thing else, he seemed serious about that last point.

“How long will we have?”

“I dunno, like… five minutes, tops- by then the alarms’ll go off, and then-“

“…Yeah. Yeah. I got it.”

“Don’t even worry. I’m gonna be watching you guys the whole time. You’re just goin’ for a little swim.”

Hawk gave the single least reassuring smile in the agency’s history.

From then on they were hitting the water each morning. Raven and Fox, same time, same pool, every day. It was hell in there.

Fox slammed on his ear, the towel around his neck failing to do much of anything for his wet, cold body.

“I still can’t hear shit… how long was I in there for?”

A near-defeated and equally wet Raven held up just a single finger.

“Oh, fuck you!”

Two more days of training were spent in utter pain. They both wished they were out on the field already when this was the alternative. Once you went under the surface of the blue, everything went away. In time it became like meditation- conserve your air. Protect your conscience. Defend your internal systems from the urge to come up for air. Fighting their own instincts, they both soon learned to become one with the liquid.

After the first six hours of practice, the duo had burst out of the tank again, leaving up against a wall until it was as soggy as they were, Fox clawed the aqua out of his system until he could just barely hear himself speak.

“…How long?”

Raven held up a full hand.

“Fuck yeah!” Fox seized it in his own immediately, the warriors rising in celebration. A glorious moment, though even it wasn’t long-lived. The Director wanted them out there immediately.

“Why’s he want this thing so bad?” Fox shoved a thin silver pocket of forty-five into his trusty Colt.

“Just focus on staying alive first, alright? Whatever it is, he knows we can get it.” Raven shoved the long-barreled P30L into his holster. 

“Oh, glad to see you worrying so much about me. Isn’t it the system who picks us?”

“He can overrule the system. He handpicked us for the job.”

“Does that make you happy?” Fox asked in passing as he strapped the heavy vest to his torso. Unfortunately, it was bare of explosives, at Q’s request .

“…I guess it does.” The kid admitted, strapping his metal beak back to his face. “Won’t matter if we fuck this up.”

Fox nodded. “Okay, okay. Don’t sweat it, I’ll have your back.”

Raven was already out the door.