Something Startling

Ed and Ian were in the kitchen, most of the lights in their house still off as it was well past 3 AM. Aaliyah and Danny had returned to bed shortly after they had heard that Ed returned home, both of them no doubt tired due to their jobs.

            "As I told you twice before, I merely went for a jog," Ed said as he stirred a cup of coffee, put the teaspoon into the sink and took a sip.

            "And you didn't drag your bow with?" Ian asked.

            "Not as far as I can tell, no. Besides, do you see it on me?"

            "I suppose not... Sorry man, it's just that there was another incident with the NDI, as I told you at dinner. It's been bugging me that you are the only other marksman as good as Oracle that I have ever seen."

            "Yeah. Believe me. You will be the first to know if ever I am to become a self-proclaimed super hero."

           

Ian had gone to bed after that, though Ed had decided to head upstairs to the deck and finish his coffee first. While he did, he thought about his jog earlier. He had been gone a good part of two hours, so that meant that he either had been way more worse off than he had initially thought in terms of his health, or that he had gone and done something else in the meantime. But it couldn't have been the latter and he was sure of it. At least, he felt sure of it.

            For some reason he couldn't put his finger to, he couldn't really tell himself, make himself believe that he had only gone out to jog even though that it was literally all that he could recall doing.

            He thought about: he crossed the old train tracks a few minutes after he had started his run, made his way through the neighbourhood and jogged past the school he, Ian, JR, and just about everyone else but Danny and Aaliyah had attended back in the day. He then ran around the school, across to the primary school right next to it, crossed a few blocks over and then turned back.

            "Surely that couldn't take me two hours..." Ed muttered as he took the last sip of his coffee. Something did not seem right and he knew it. The way Ian had questioned him made him feel extremely defensive, as if he had something to hide. But he knew that he had been telling the truth. But he couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe his own memory.

            Ed put the cup down on the bar counter, picked up his cat who had been laying on it, sleeping, and headed to his room where his girlfriend was bound to be asleep already.

 

The next morning Ed woke up just in time to kiss Aaliyah goodbye as she left for work, which had already been well after both Ian and Danny were gone. He found himself in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee and staring out the window to their front yard and driveway.

            "Hey dude," JR said as he came down the stairs and walked over to the sink.

            "Slept alright?" Ed asked without looking in JR's direction.

            "Mm-hmm," JR replied as he took a sip of water straight from the tap, "I put your bow back in your room."

            "Back?" Ed asked, this time turning around to face his friend. "What do you mean?"

            "Yeah, I found it under your car while cleaning out the garage earlier. You should really look after your things a bit better. We should also get someone to check on the garage's motor."

            "What's wrong with the motor?"

            "Well nothing now. But it was left a bit ajar this morning, which caused for a lot more leaves to come in during the night. I don't want to be picking up leaves whole autumn if it's going to keep getting jammed while you guys drive at night." And to that JR skulked back up the stairs and to his room.

            "Huh..." Ed mumbled as he walked to his car, knelt down and looked under it, just to see absolutely nothing but floor. He then inspected the now-pristine garage which had nothing out of the ordinary to it as JR always cleaned the garage out of his own when he couldn't sleep.

            Ed then picked up his remote from inside the kitchen and opened the garage door, and closed it again. He did this a couple of time before he ultimately decided for himself that nothing was wrong with the garage doors. He would probably ask Devon to have a look at it just to be sure, though.

 

Ed had spent the rest of the day doing nothing but cleaning the bar and trying to write, both of which he ultimately stopped at about ten minutes in, every now and then. Aaliyah had told him the night before that she would be spending the night at her place so he did not plan on expecting anyone.

            Just as he dozed off, his phone buzzed quietly in his breast pocket, so he stood up and paced around while answering the call.

            "Hey, man," he said.

            "Hey Edward, sorry to bother you," said Hugo, who was on the other side of the line. "Ian asked me to check out a little piece of a cellphone, and direct any findings to either you or him only, and as I can't seem to get a hold of him..."

            "Yeah, that's alright," Ed replied, though he thought that it was weird that Ian only wanted the two of them to know of possible findings. As far as Ed could recall, Hugo and Dev had become quite the chums after Ed had first been recruited by the Agency back in the day.

            "Okay, well, we managed to scrub some DNA off of it, and believe me when I tell that that was not the hardest part. I had it analysed to no avail, which was normal for a sample as little as that, but I cross checked a few things and had it analysed again. What I found was a bit disturbing -- the only sample I could get even a partial match on was that of an even smaller sample that Ian had sent my way back when you two were dispatched in Denmark."

            "Denmark..." Ed said and tried to pry open his memory banks, hoping that the librarian in his head hadn't died after his brainstorming last night. "All i remember is having to fend off against a couple of Other against while waiting for extraction..."

            "Ian told me that he had the sample taken off one of the girls you hooked up with."

            "Oh! Yeah, I remember. She had seduced me, then ended up capturing both Ian and I in our sleep. Dev was the one who cut is loose, but only after the two of them had quite the sword fight. She ended up escaping."

            "Yeah, well. I hope this helps, man."

            "It will, thanks," Ed said and ended the call. Why he hadn't thought of that earlier was anyone's guess. He knew that he only knew Melisa. And he knew that he had never met her before. But he also knew that she had a sister. Or at least a very, uncanny looking, double. And somehow, they shared the same DNA.

            He dialed Ian, but only got voicemail, so he tried again. And again. Finally, Ian answered.

            "Hey dude. Can't talk."

            Ed merely ended the call. He knew Ian would call once he was ready. He also knew that Ian now knew that he had something important to say, so Ed took a sip from his coffee, then lost interest in the rest, threw it down the drain and got himself a glass of water instead.

            He headed upstairs, where he sat back down on the deck chair, and started to doze off, much fast than he had anticipated he would.

 

Ian rolled his eyes as the call ended, pulled his handbrake up, turned a sharp left and tried his best to dodge oncoming traffic as an unmarked Others minivan tried to ram him off the road. He managed to hit his brakes just as the minivan made another attempt to ram him, which caused them to drive into a building. Ian knew that that had only been enough to keep them off of him for a few moment, but moments they were nonetheless. He took advantage of the time, got onto the highway, and started speeding. He needed to get as fast away as possible.

            Just as he took the onramp, three Others vehicle came for him, driving against traffic, which thankfully were not a lot.

            One of them swerved sideways and block the onramp, and thanks to recent road works, Ian had no other choice but to stop. He decided to be different, and put his foot on the gas, flooring it.

            Three Others agents, who had gotten out of the van ducked out of the way, but the same could not be said for the fourth, who was still getting out. Ian jumped out right before his Subaru rammed into the minivan, sending it rolling away while the Subaru slowly rolled to a stop, it's whole front crushed in, making it look like a car sandwich.

 

Ian got up as fast as he and ran toward the turned minivan, taking cover behind his crushed Subaru as gunfire came from behind him.

            He kicked the passenger door open and retrieved a silenced M12 from below the seat and ran back to his car because he thought that the Subaru would give a lot better protection. He felt at his pocket, just to find out that he had probably left his phone in the car, or lost it somewhere in his jump -- either way, he knew that he would have to get a replacement.

            "Let's just hope Ed starts worrying," Ian said sarcastically as he peered up, and gave off a couple of shots in order to see where the agents of the other two minivans had set up shop.

            As he did that, he heard a faint popping sound, followed by a couple of swooshs. He heard two bodies falling to the ground, which was followed by cursing and swearing from the rest of the Others as more popping sounds were heard.

            Then it was quiet.

 

Ian peered out from behind his cover, and after noticing one more agent behind the bonnet of one of the minivans, Ian skulked closer without making a sound. He passed three bodies, all whom had been shot in the head with black crystallite arrows, but had no time to explore further as he skulked closer to the remaining agent.

            Ian whistled, which made the Others agent swear under his breath, before he pooped out of cover, only to be shot by Ian.

            Ian then sighed and turned around, where he noticed another agent who had been flanking him all the time. He had no time to react as the agent was right on him. He couldn't lift the gun fast enough, and he knew that trying to do anything physical was futile due to his jump moments ago.

            Ian braced for impact as the agent sprinted toward him, ready to spear tackle him into the minivan. He dropped his shoulder so it would connect the agent's blow with as much negative force as possible, but just as he did, another faint swoosh resounded through the air, and then a pop. The agent never finished his tackle, and Ian opened his eyes.

            He gave the downed agent one glance, then shot his head in the direction he had thought the arrows had come from. Just as he did, he noticed a man with long brown hair ducking back from the roof he stood on, and saw a shadow fall to the ground, disappearing into an alley.

 

The Colonel arrived a little later and merely shook her head as she pressed her boot on one of the agents, and pulled the arrow from his neck.

            "It's cold," she remarked as she handed Ian the black arrow.

            "And it has two notches in it..." Ian noticed as he inspected it closely after rubbing the blood away with his tattered T-shirt. Only Ed makes notches in his arrows, Ian thought as he winced after the EMT checking out his back applied too much pressure on a bruise.

 

Ed woke up hours later, exactly where he had dozed off. His neck was stiff, and his legs felt weird. As if he had been pulling off some crazy Parkour moves in his sleep. He then headed to his room where he removed his bow from the weapon rack he had constructed the week before.

            As he took the bow into his hands, he felt as if he had already used it. He the vaguely remembered that he had attempted to calibrate it sometime before he had dozed off, and smiled at his own ignorance. He then walked over to his huge mirror wall, sat back down on his bed, and suddenly got an urge to recalibrate, so he did.

 

Ian came home a few hours later, headed upstairs without saying a word, entered Ed's room, stormed up to where Ed had just gotten up to greet Ian, grabbed him by the neck and pinned him up against the mirror wall.

            "Calm down!" Ed exclaimed, and applied some pressure against Ian's neck with a sharp object.

            Ian snapped out of it and dropped Ed, then walked to the door, brushed his hands through his hair, and looked at his friend, who had dropped the arrow he was almost forced to use in self-defence onto his bed. "Meet me on the deck. We need to talk," he said and walked out.