All Lina could do was stare down the barrel of the bio gun. She couldn't move a single part of her body. All she could do was close her eyes and even that took quite a bit of effort. Felman had a twisted grin on his face he had wanted to have an opportunity like this for a long time. Lina and Leviathan had been two sharp thorns in his side for too long. So many of his plans had been ruined by the Inverse twins. So he did have some ratification about this, but at the same time he felt slightly robbed.
"You know I've wanted to kill you both for a very long time. Only now that I have you two like this I don't feel as happy as I should. The problem is that this is too easy. Killing you now like the way that you are wouldn't be that gratifying. But I have to kill you two today or my boss wouldn't be very happy with me. So you can see my problem here." Felman lowered the gun and walked around pacing a bit. "I bet you are wondering why I would be taking orders from somebody hmmm? Or maybe you are wondering whom I'm taking orders from? Well which is it? Oh yes I forgot, you can't talk can you?" He laughed darkly and laughed even more when he looked at Lina. Though she couldn't move her face or body in the least bit, the anger, rage and helplessness that she was harboring was evidently expressed in her intense flaming red eyes. "Oh what do I do? I want to kill you yet I don't, but I have to kill you." He just kept thinking out loud in his mocking tone taunting them as much as he could. "Well I might as well kill somebody right now." He brought up his gun looking Lina straight in the eyes. His gun was aimed at her and just when Felmen was going to fire, he jerked his gun to aim on Martina and fired. The exploding sound of the gun going off was louder then a normal one but happened in the same amount of time. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The shot from the gun, the spray of blood and Martina's body being sent flying backwards hitting against the wall. Anger almost radiated off Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis. But Zangulus was the worst. You could just see the murderous bloodlust vengeance in his eyes. If he had been able to move, he would have lunged at Felmen, probably like everyone else would. But all were still frozen like statues. They tried to move but nothing move. Only the small tips of their fingers. They could wiggle them slightly because the gas was starting to ware off.
Felmen looked over at the aqua haired girl's unmoving body and giggle in childish delight. "I bet she didn't see that coming. But with all the fun and games aside Lina, I think I'd better kill you now. I wouldn't want any problems now would I?" He aimed the gun back on Lina again, and Lina knew that this time he was going to fire on her. Lina shut her eyes as the gun cracked off it's next shot heading straight for her and she braced herself for the impact. Only she felt nothing. No siring pain, no jerking force and not even the heat of the shot. Lina opened her eyes in confusion to find that she was no longer in Felmen's hideout, but in fact in one of the medical labs in STF. And Lina wasn't the only one, Zangulus, Gourry, Zelgadis and even Martina were there. Filia and Xellos looked at Lina in the eyes.
"I bet you are wondering why you are here Lina. Luckily De Tanga had been assigned to watch over you guys and teleported you guys out of there before you got shot." Filia said as she got bio scanner ready with a fluid vial attached to it. She took the scanner up to Lina's neck. "What I'm going to do is injected something in your body that will neutralize the effects of the paralysis gas. You will be able to speak and move after that." Filia did as she said she would and Lina did find herself able to move again, only to fall straight to the floor whamming her body hard on the ground. The fluid did loosen up her muscles but it did it too well. It was an immediate effect and the sudden change from being completely stiff to extremely flexible made Lina's body feel like it had the consistency of jelly.
"Opps. Guess we should have expected that too happen. Are you alright Lina?" Xellos asked the fallen red agent with a large annoying smile. Lina only glared and pulled herself back up to a standing position. Meanwhile Xellos went off to go inject the others.
"How's Martina?" Lina dared to look over at the shot girl. She had many yellow agents surrounding her with various medical instruments.
"She was hurt pretty badly. But luckily Felmen isn't a very good shot. She's going to be in a bit of pain for a few days but she'll be fine."
Lina sighed in relief but then her face turned to anger. "If De Tanga had been assigned to watch us why didn't he get there sooner?! Martina or someone else could have been killed!" Lina growled at her with misplaced anger. It's not like De Tanga was there for her to scream at.
"He couldn't have even if he wanted too. He hadn't been properly informed this morning about your assignment until after you had left STF headquarters. You are lucky that De Tanga even managed to find you at all."
"Well still what the hell are those STF head officials thinking?!" Lina grumbled really wanting to give them a piece of her mind.
"Well Lina Inverse was almost killed today." Senator Gaav started the discussion around the table of senators and other important people at their conference room.
"Yes indeed but De Tanga was able to get them out of there before there was any serious damage much like we expected." Senator Deep Sea spoke with very little emotion or concern.
"But the point is that we confirmed our suspicions that Deverold Felmen was working under Ozer's orders. Though it does seem odd that Felmen would take orders from him. Felmen is notorious for hating any authority over him. What reason would he have to take orders from Ozer?"
"Chances are Ozer is threatening him in someway. Meaning we might find Felmen's body pop up dead sometime soon." The room was silent for a moment. Yes having Felmen out of their way would probably be a good thing, but if Felmen was able to be killed then that shows how unsafe Ozer's enemies were. Felmen besides being known for his crime rings was very good at keeping himself protected from the law or anyone trying to harm him.
"Maybe we haven't addressed the most important question of all." Senator Fibrizo waved his finger in the air. Everyone looked at him with curiosity.
"And that would be what?"
"Why would Ozer go such extreme lengths just to kill Lina and Leviathan Inverse? Yes we all know that he has a grudge against Blitz so maybe hurting Blitz's kids would give him satisfaction. But why go to such measures? He broke into STF's highest security just to infect Luna Inverse with that toxin with a high risk of getting caught. Why would he do it? He also managed to get one of the most notorious crime leaders to do his dirty work like a common henchmen. Do you see my point?" No one answered Fibrizo, because his point was a good one.
"Well unless he feels especially threatened by Lina, Leviathan and Luna, then all of Blitz's family might very well be in danger." Senator Cassandra broke the silence.
Lina walked around the STF halls aimlessly trying to get back proper feeling in her body, but it still did feel somewhat like jelly. Leviathan and Gourry had gone off to get something to eat and Zangulus had stayed behind at the medical labs to watch Martina, whom hadn't regained consciousness. Lina assumed that Zelgadis was doing the same thing as her but she didn't know exactly where he was.
Figures I get stuck with the most worst case. Lina grumbled in her head. Because she was the first one to be inject with the muscle relaxant she got a slightly different dose then everyone else. Basically she was the guinea pig to figure out the right dosage they needed to give everyone. Lina had been given too much so while she suffered with her body being like jelly. If she hadn't had this problem then she would have gone with Gourry and Leviathan to go get something to eat.
"Are you having problems too?" Lina looked up to Zelgadis who also was having troubles with his body movements. Only instead of being too loose his body seemed too stiff.
"Yeah too much relaxant. You?"
"Not enough." Zelgadis was the last person to have the fluid injected. By the time it got to him there wasn't enough left to do a proper job. But the gases effects would have worn off sooner before they could get anymore of the fluid.
"Looks like we both got shafted. To be honest I am hungry and I want to eat but I can't move properly. Hell it's just hard enough to stand up. I feel like I am going to collapse to the floor like a puddle."
"I feel like I'm going to fall backwards or forwards. My balance right now is so messed up."
"Damn Zangulus, Gourry and Leviathan get all the breaks." Lina was a bit bitter but it really didn't matter to her that much.
"Want to head over to the indoor gardens and sit a while?"
"But that's so far away!" Lina complained.
"Well we need the exercise anyway. So let's just go over there." Lina sighed in defeat. "Alright then Zel let's go but if I fall on my face it's going to be your fault."
"I'll take the full blame if that does happen."
Ozer sat in his chair with his communicator in hand which was on. The person Ozer was talking to? Deverold Felmen.
"I heard that you failed to complete the task you were given." Ozer's voice was cold and emotionless. He wasn't really angry at all. In fact he had expected Felmen to fail anyway. But then why even set this all up? Because now Felmen would be paranoid that Ozer was going to come and punish him for not doing as he had asked. It took most of Ozer's restraint to keep from laughing.
"Yes I know Ozer. I'm sorry, but I didn't know that they had some monster looking out for them. Please Ozer just give me another chance! I know that I can get them if I try something else." Deverold Felmen who was normally a cool character that seemed to fear nothing, was reduced to a freaked out blubbering mess. Oh how Ozer wanted to laugh, but he needed to keep in character himself.
"No more chances. You failed me, you can't make it up to me." Ozer remained with his cold emotionless voice.
"You-you aren't going to punish me are you?" Felmen's voiced squealed on the word punish.
"Deverold Felmen if I were you I'd watch your back." Ozer didn't even give him a chance to say anything, he just cut the link.
"You aren't really going to kill him are you Ozer?" Vernas looked to his 'partner in crime' with a questioning glance. Not that Vernas cared much if Ozer killed Felmen or not he was just curious.
"Probably not. But he doesn't know that."
"So basically you just turned the most levelheaded and rational thinking criminal mastermind into an overly paranoid mess?"
"Pretty much." Ozer finally let out his laughter that he had been holding in.
"You are very evil and twisted Ozer." Vernas just shook his head and went back to his work while Ozer only smiled in content.
"So why do you think we were all sent on that crazy little assignment?" Lina asked Zelgadis as they laid down on the grass staring up into the fake protected blue sky.
"I think that they knew it was a trap. I think they just wanted to find out who and why Felmen would take orders from."
"But we didn't find out that piece of information."
"That's true we have no proof, but who do you think it was?"
"You mean who Felmen was taking orders from? My guess would have to be Ozer of Elbor Vernas. Or both even. Ozer has a grudge against my father and Vernas just plainly hates me."
"Gee I wonder why?" Zelgadis chuckled slightly and looked over to Lina who was frowning. "Now why are you frowning for? What are you thinking about?"
"I was just thinking about how messed up this whole situation is. I still don't even know why we have been assigned to this whole Vernas case or why even the STF higher officials are so dead set about getting you guys as red agents. It just doesn't make much sense."
"Yeah I know what you mean, I ask myself that question all the time. You'd think that they would put green agents or more higher leveled red agents on this case. But then we aren't the only ones on this case. By the way how are the other guys doing anyway?"
"The other guys are trying to locate where Vernas' hideout could possibly be. The only reason why me and Lev aren't doing that too is because of you guys." Lina sighed and stared at one of the fake projected clouds. It looked like a whale to her.
"Have they had any luck so far?"
"Nope not one bit. Every lead they've tried have been dead ends. I've uncovered more useful information staying here in STF headquarters then all of their work on the streets." Lina rolled her eyes and Zelgadis chuckled.
"So I guess having us level two red agents aren't that bad."
"Hey wait a minute we don't even really know if you guys are level two agents. We never went to go check your test results because of all that assignment stuff this morning."
"Hey you're right! I wonder if I passed..."
"Well then let's go find out!" Lina said triumphantly getting up too quickly for her still jelly like feeling body. The result, she fell forward and would have fallen flat on her face if Zelgadis hadn't had caught her. Zelgadis blushed a bit more so when Lina flashed him a very large smile.
"Oh my hero!" She gave him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek before springing out of his arms. Zelgadis whom was a bit dumbfounded at what had happened quickly got to his feet and followed Lina.
Leviathan and Gourry were still eating in a nearby restaurant. Both of them were making pigs of themselves eating far more then anyone in the restaurant expected. Except the owner, he was well aware of Leviathan's appetite and welcomed Leviathan warmly anytime he came. Why? Because he, Lina and Gavin ate more food then anyone else so the owner got a lot of money.
So the two were still in the middle of their feeding frenzy when Leviathan's communicator activated.
"What do you want?! I'm eating!" Leviathan grumbled. If there wasn't one thing he hated more, then it was being interrupted right when he was in the middle of a meal.
"Nice way to talk to your sister. Anyway since you are with Gourry I'd just thought that I'd let you know that me and Zelgadis are going to check out to see if Zel passed his level two exams. We'll go check if we can find out if Gourry and the others passed too. Bye!"
"Hey Gourry are you curious on whether or not you passed?"
"Nope." Gourry said while he attacked another chicken leg.
"Oh really? How come?"
"Because I checked this morning before you and Lina talked to me. I know that I passed already."
"Everyone else forgot about it, how come you remembered?" Leviathan was almost scared. Was this really the same Gourry they all knew to love and hate, or was this some sort of impostor?
Gourry shrugged and went back to his food. Rather then dwell on it, Leviathan also returned to his meal.