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"Eos, come in please."
The voice came from the Hunter VG. Immediately, his colleague, with whom Ace had been chatting in the headquarters' cafeteria, fell silent. Ace, however, had come to terms with being constantly on call, and without even a sigh or frown, pulled out his device.
"Ace here, what's up?"
"We need you here in the field right away. Some nasty EM viruses are wreaking havoc," replied the colleague from the scene. "Spica Mall, 1st floor."
"Gonna be there in 10 minutes," Ace replied.
He then ended the call and jumped up from his chair.
"Could you hold onto my mega snacks?"
Ace pointed to his tray, which had neither plate nor drink on it, but solely a pile of his favorite candy bars.
"Sure, I'm gonna put them on your desk. Good luck, show those damn viruses."
Ace flashed him his sly trademark grin and saluted his buddy jokingly.
"Thanks, I owe you big time," he called across the room as he was already running for the exit.
The wave change with Acid allowed Ace to travel at tremendous speed across the wave roads. Within just five minutes, he was already arriving at the mall. Which is where he left the wave road, making himself visible to everyone present. The mall's customers had long since evacuated, however, and so he only encountered Satella Police officers and a few firefighters who directed him to the focal point of the virus invasion.
The colleague had not exaggerated in saying the viruses were "wreaking havoc". The shopping center resembled a battlefield. Technical devices were burning everywhere, inevitably setting flammable objects on fire. There was certainly not much left of the latest summer collection in the window of a fashion store he passed.
He quickly found the colleague who had contacted him and with him the location of the battles; man versus EM virus. Countless different viruses materialized in the food court, firing not only at the surrounding area, but also at the emergency personnel who sought shelter behind overturned tables and walls. Ace quickly identified the source of the viruses; a television screen hanging on the wall of a fast food restaurant apparently had a significant security leak.
Ace barely wasted a second before jumping into the fray. EM viruses were quite dangerous in large numbers as they could quickly overwhelm you. But they weren't particularly smart; after all, they strictly followed a programmed system. Their movements were therefore very predictable.
First of all, he took care of the viruses that were already running amok. They were destroyed with a few well-aimed shots of his special blaster. This gun of his EM fusion form was considerably more powerful than the Satella Police's firearms, especially since it was much more versatile. He could also move much faster and was capable of all sorts of (almost inhuman) things. He had been on duty as Acid Ace for a while now, but Ace was still fascinated by the abilities power of this EM body.
It didn't take long for Ace and Acid to clear the viruses. He was already in the mood to celebrate, when an even more dangerous virus squeezed through the security hole in the TV, which was already being gradually closed by their unit's programming experts. Cursing under his breath, he threw himself into the fight.
The battle against the super-virus dragged on for a long time, as the damn thing was well protected against a great variety of attacks. However, in cooperation with his colleagues, about a quarter of an hour later they had also destroyed this virus and the TV's security system was restored.
Acid and Ace had rarely maintained their fused form as long as this time, but apart from a slight case of fatigue, Ace felt nothing unusual. He did a brief inspection of the mall, which had definitely seen better days, and removed any remaining viruses he found. Luckily, the building was only burning in a few places, but a thick layer of smoke hung in the air, so the emergency personnel were all wearing gas masks. Fortunately, in this form, Ace didn't need one.
That was when his supervisor rushed into the large building. He, too, was wearing a mask and had several officers in tow; crime scene security and virus experts, if Ace remembered correctly.
"Eos, status report!"
Arthur saluted and disconnected from Acid. His knees felt a little weak as he returned to his human body, but otherwise everything was surprisingly normal.
"Sir, all viruses have been removed, the damaged device that triggered the attack has been repaired, and investigators are at work to determine a possible culprit."
He coughed when he felt a sudden dryness in his throat. Oh, he'd almost forgotten about the smoke. A nearby firefighter rushed to him and handed him a breathing mask. He quickly put it on and curtly thanked the helper when he could speak again.
The supervisor nodded. "Good job, all of you. All officers who were engaged in combat are to leave the building. The investigators and firefighters will take over. I'll expect your report tomorrow. Stay on call in case of questions."
And with that, the man ran off in another direction of the mall to do his job and clean up the mess. Ace instructed a nearby officer to direct his colleagues out of the building and made his own way out. One of the firefighters wanted to accompany him, presumably for safety reasons, but Ace waved him off and instructed him to take care of his Satella Police colleagues and the fire situation. Actually though, Ace turned and found his way to the restrooms, which were thankfully undamaged and therefore deserted. He staggered the last few meters on his weak legs.
As he slammed the restroom door behind him, ripped the mask off his face, and tumbled into one of the stalls, breathing heavily, Acid spoke up.
"Ace? What are you doing, we should-"
Bluurgh. The sickening, acrid taste and smell of vomit only made Ace more miserable. A few more times he felt like more was coming up, but his stomach was already empty. Every dry heave was more painful than the last.
He barely reached the toilet flush with his shaking hand and slumped to the floor, exhausted.
"Ace! Are you okay?!"
"I'm feeling sick as hell..." His head felt heavy, he was now shaking all over.
"You need help, we'll call the paramedics on the scene!"
"No!" Ace almost felt it coming back up. He waited a moment for the feeling to pass. "No, it's not that bad. And it's... it's fine."
Acid materialized next to him from the Hunter VG. He hovered in front of his partner.
"Ace, you just spent longer than ever in the wave change, you may have suffered permanent damage."
Ace grumbled in frustration and slowly and unsteadily straightened up against the wall. He exited the cabin, picked up the breathing mask from the floor and staggered to the door.
"I'm fine, that right there didn't happen," he instructed Acid, forcing him to retreat into the Hunter VG s touchscreen via a few taps. He also made sure to mute his partner.
Ace took a few shaky breaths – in and out –, put on the breathing mask and ran to the exit as confidently and straight as he could manage, through which emergency personnel were still frantically running in and out. No one took a notice to his disheveled look.
A huge crowd of police cars, fire trucks, paramedics, emergency personnel, curious passersby and the media had formed outside the door. Ace ignored them, walked up to one of the fire trucks and took off his mask in a safe distance from the building. A firefighter, who was briskly but thoughtfully handling equipment in the truck, looked up as Ace held out the mask to him.
"Thanks for this, you'll probably need these."
"Sure thing, thanks... Sir, are you all right?"
Ace felt caught out and wondered what had given him away. Did he still have vomit hanging somewhere? Or did the guy smell it? That was when he noticed that he was still shaking noticeably. Wonderful, Ace, how inconspicuous.
"Yeah, I'm all right. Just still a little shaken up, was in the middle of it all."
He pointed roughly in the direction of the 1st floor of the mall.
"Oh, I see. Maybe you should stop by the medics for a minute anyway. Just to be safe."
"Yeah sure, will do."
He didn't go to the paramedics. After saying goodbye to the firefighter, he tried to look busy, looking for a gap in the hustle and bustle where he could retreat and disappear. There were hardly any places where he wouldn't be noticed right away. Shoot, he wanted to get his rest as soon as possible and take a deep breath.
His skull was buzzing – he couldn't find a way out. Did he have to go back inside? That would give him away.
"Arthur?"
A little too frantically, he turned to the familiar voice. He felt sick again, but put all his effort into the innocent grin he put on.
"Doc! What are you doing here?"
Dr. Goodall eyed him in surprise (obviously because of his very suspicious reaction) and then shot him an uncomfortably critical yet worried look.
"Arthur, you're all green in the face! Sit down before you fall over!"
He wanted to protest, but she grabbed his arm and led him to a bench in the restricted area. There was nothing one could hide from her, he'd always known that. But as reluctantly as he sat down on the bench with her, he was actually grateful for the break.
"I'm fine, really," he said, laughing heartily. Liar. What did he hope to gain by tricking the old bat?
"You've fought as Acid Ace, haven't you? For how long?"
Arthur sighed and ran his hand over his face in exhaustion. She had beaten him again. Almost.
"I don't know, half an hour, maybe an hour."
God, this bench was suddenly so comfortable, despite its hard metal grating. He leaned against the backrest, trying to get rid of the nausea and dizziness. His eyes must have been closing for a moment, because suddenly someone pushed up his eyelid and shined a light into his right eye.
"Ah, hey! What are you doing?" Ace yelped as she finally released the eyelid and he was able to squint.
"Arthur, you just almost lost consciousness. It's the effects of your wave change, you need to get checked out."
"No!" said Arthur quickly. If he let them do that, they would ban him from using the EM fusion again and he couldn't take that chance. Without Acid Ace, he could never achieve his goal and save them from Dealer....
"I'm sorry, but you can't. And it's all right. I'm just tired..."
Dr. Goodall shook her head. Without a word, she took his Hunter VG out of his pocket and materialized Acid.
"Please get one of the medics," she instructed Hunter. Acid nodded and floated briskly away.
"What is this?"
"I'm afraid your judgment is pretty clouded right now. You don't look good at all, Arthur, and if you've sustained permanent damage, it could be very dramatic for your body. We need to get to the bottom of this," she told him forcefully.
Wow, once again he surprised him with how much patience she had. He was acting like a stubborn child, but she didn't get angry. She was still totally composed. Ace didn't know what to say. She was right, of course she was. But something in him still resisted. Was it too late for resistance now? After all, he had already been busted.
"I... All right, but please promise me something."
Dr. Goodall was silent. She looked at him expectantly with her sharp eyes.
"Please let me continue to work with Acid. I need the power of Acid Ace, I have a mission to accomplish. A very important one..."
Her features softened, saddened. Almost pitying. She was at a loss for words herself.
"Arthur... I don't know what this mission is, but I understand how important it is to you. Still, I can't and won't take responsibility for you hurting yourself or possibly even killing yourself because of it."
"Please, Doctor, I..."
God, he felt so sick. He couldn't let any of this happen. They couldn't take Acid away from him. That would kill any hope of saving the love of his life for good. Everything he had worked for. Everything he lived for.
Ace dropped his head into his hands, exhausted. And misjudged the distance when trying to brace his elbows on his knees. His right arm slipped and (thanks to the damn lingering dizziness) his whole upper body toppled over. Someone was talking at him, but he only took it in like it was spoken through cotton. He was caught and leaned back against the bench. His field of vision flickered. What was happening here? He was so exhausted.
He tried to take a deep breath, but somehow his body wasn't doing as he ordered. Panic rose in him. Oh God, what was happening here, why was he no longer in control? And why was he getting dizzier and dizzier? He was barely aware of his surroundings, everything was happening in slow motion and yet too fast.
"Arthur! Arthur, can you hear me?"
"Doc," Ace said breathlessly. "Something... something's wrong. I'm so tired, I..."
He tried to back away from the bars, but they wouldn't let him. Damn it, why wouldn't they even let him have what little control he had left right now?
"Help is coming, try to breathe calmly. Arthur. Come on, deep breaths."
He tried, but it wasn't easy. His lungs resisted taking in air. Was this the end? It couldn't end like this. But he was powerless, not getting enough air, his perception clouding. More and more, he sank into the depths and his goals with him.
It all happened so fast. Dr. Goodall's mind jumped from one to the other, panic overtaking her. She had to help, but she also had to get Acid back as quickly as possible. Ace struggled with unconsciousness. He was hyperventilating, turning a terrible greenish blue in the face. Everything she had gained from years of life experience had suddenly disappeared.
She tried to get Arthur to breathe more slowly to relieve the panic attack, but he didn't seem to hear her. She grabbed his shoulders, talked at him, but it was no use. After many agonizing seconds of Arthur slipping away from her, a paramedic and Acid finally showed up. She briefly told him what he had to know.
She let the man do his job, he immediately tried to use a similar tactic as she had before, but when the attempt failed, he seemed to decide on another solution. By this time Arthur was apathetic. The paramedic dug out an empty syringe, filled it with a transparent substance, and administered the injection into the crook of Arthur's arm. Suddenly, all was quiet and Ace slumped over.
"Ace!" cried Acid, and even in his mechanical voice you could hear the worry.
In her paralyzed state, Dr. Goodall stared at her friend and colleague. But she wasn't looking at him at all; she was trying to grasp what had just happened. They were on the scene of a virus invasion, Arthur had seemed very much alive before, albeit sick, then in panic, and now he was lying on a bench, knocked out by a sedative.
"Ma'am, everything is going to be okay, it's just a mild sedative. Can you tell me what has triggered the attack?" the paramedic wanted to know as he took Arthur's pulse and moved him into recovery position on the bench.
"He...," the doctor began, struggling to find the words, "is an officer with a special unit of the Satella Police. He was inside on duty and looked pretty sick when he came out. We had an altercation and then this seizure started."
"Did he experience anything traumatic in there?"
The man waved a colleague over.
"No, I don't think so. But his work is... a little complicated. Will he be all right?"
"At the moment, I can't say for sure. We'll look into it more at the clinic and then we'll let you know. How can we contact you? Or are there any relatives?" the paramedic asked.
"None close to him," Acid replied.
"You can reach me through WAZA, and I'll write down my contact information," Dr. Goodall said.
It hurt to have to watch their friend and partner being loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher and driven away. Acid and the doc would also make their way to the hospital. They had taken Ace's Hunter VG and contacted his supervisor at the Satella Police. He, of course, immediately wanted to know what had happened, but Dr. Goodall only informed him of the bare necessities for now. She was concerned for Arthur's well-being, but his pleas to continue working with Acid still rang in her ears. And she wouldn't betray a friend in that way. First, they would have another talk.
About two hours later at the clinic, they received a detailed report. Ace had no external or internal injuries, but his heart had been beating dangerously slow and he showed signs of an unusually severe case of exhaustion. He also seemed to have said something from which the doctors could tell that he was mentally distressed. The panic attack was directly related to that. And Dr. Goodall blamed herself for it. She had told him these things, questioned his ultimate goal.
The worry and remorse took up her mind for the rest of the day.