'Sometimes' reflected Felicity 'You have to take a step back to see what's actually going on.'
She stood at the edge of Ginpachi Park staring into the desolate remains of Kaidan. The air had an oily, slightly spicy scent. Tendrils of thick black fog drifted through the streets and alleyways. The very air itself seemed wrong. The city was quiet, like a skeletal corpse. But that quiet was only an illusion; the corpse was filled with maggots eating away at it at every turn. Bubbly gurgling coming from the infected that milled about mindlessly on the streets until they caught sight of something at which point they would scream and chase down whatever they saw. Static from electronics in shops windows that continued working even if no longer plugged it, occasionally a sinister mocking laugh beneath the static.
It was horrible.
She was amazed that she had become so numb to it.
Agent Feleth had been sent to Kaidan to act as the eyes and ears for other Illuminati field agents operating within the quarantine zone and as a liaison to the dubious allies in the oni House in Exile. For months she had been situated in the Jigoku no Yu bathhouse, a nice place to visit but not the kind of place you'd want to live in. Not only was it a bathhouse run by demons, but some of the less reputable members of the greater factions had taken to using it as a safehouse as well. Inbeda didn't seem to care as long as they helped kill his demonic kin invading the land behind the building.
Most of the time she remained in the bathhouse, taking reports from oni and Illuminati scouts and documenting them in TEMPEST shielded computers and quantum-ciphered mem-sticks to head back through the portal to New York. They'd learned pretty early on that surveillance drones and cameras were just as susceptible to the anti-anima corruption as living things were. In fact, the more advanced the easier the black signal seemed to take them, as evidenced by the battalion of corrupted Orochi humanoid drones scuttling about.
Even though she spent most of her time in the bathhouse she did occasionally have to venture out. To meet a contact, to see something for herself, to defend the bathhouse from demonic incursion... Months of sneaking through the blackened streets of the city, avoiding the "filthies" and hungry ghosts. Watching as safehouses were taken, civilians succumbing to the taint. Meeting other Society members out in the streets. Most too busy or edgy to stop and chat.
Her life had entered into a dull routine. Even gaining access to the inner quarantine zone was just another day. More monsters and more tasks for The Eye. She didn't look at the people anymore. Just numbers in reports. It was what her life had become. She didn't even notice the atrocities anymore.
She was supposed to stay over Christmas but really enough was enough at that point. Texts and calls from her family asking her to come home for the holidays, even if just for semblance of a happy family. Hearing about the brazen attack at the Albion Theatre in Ealdwic. All the festive greetings and gripings from other Secret Worlders over the Twitterverse. She needed a break.
Leaving instructions with Bob on what to continue monitoring she had snuck off in the night and slipped right past that twit Ricky Pagan into the Agartha portal and made her way back to California just in time to arrive to meet her family for Christmas Eve. A few days of tense, yet comfortable family gatherings and the warmth of the ocean had done much to lift her spirits. Then a day in Ealdwic, visiting the old sites and even taking in Medrinas Gridstream show in the park. She didn't know how much she needed the break until she actually took it.
And now. Back. In Kaidan. The belly of the beast.
The air was foul. How had she gotten used to it?
Opening her backpack she took out her standard issue Illuminati gasmask and put it on over her face.
This time she would not become complacent.
Time to clock in.
