5 Meeting Charlotte

"You can see the young lady now, Sir." Julian snorted and pulled his mind out of a deep slumber. A man wearing a long white coat stood in front of him. He clutched a small clipboard against his chest, graphs in all kinds of colours showing on the pages. Julian rubbed the drool from his lips and reached for the bouquet of flowers next to him.

It had been two weeks since they went and took down the mad bomber on the other side. After three days, Julian had been released from the hospital when he agreed to take it easy for the rest of the month. Carmilla hadn't been so lucky, however. The wound at her back was deeper than Julian initially had assumed; Her nerves hed been severed and rendered her right arm useless. Yet the doctors didn't give up. After a gruelling operation costing several hours, they reconnected the cells and returned her body to its previous state.

She had been in a coma ever since, to give her body enough time to recover. The doctors used electrodes to keep her muscles from withering. Julian expected it had something to do with the boss of the Artifactors. After all, an individual that had the power to manipulate the police certainly could doctor… well, the doctors. It hadn't been until yesterday that she had awoken from her chemical-induced slumber. The doctors said that she would make a full recovery in a couple of days.

"I wonder what this means…?" As Julian walked through the sterile hallways, the pungent smell of antiseptics permanently invading his nostrils, he reached for the small paper that whacked him in the face at the end of their last battle. The only thing he had found out about was that it was some kind of ticket. A ticket for what? He didn't know.

Soon, he reached Carmilla's hospital room. Behind the white wooden door, he heard the mechanical beeping of machines. He took the silver-coloured knob and walked through the door. A cool breeze brushed against his cheeks, accompanied by the flapping of heavy blinds. He closed the door after him and gingerly made his way into the room.

A single purple-haired young woman stared at the children playing in the courtyard, several stories below her. When she heard footsteps, she slowly turned her face. Julian gulped; She looked a little worse for wear. Her eyes had fallen, and her skin had an unearthly grey hue to it. Her usually sparkling emerald eyes only housed a dark kaki-coloured colour as she flashed a weak smile. Her glasses hung from one ear with her hair peaking in every direction imaginable. Even with the hospital gown, Julian could see various clear plastic tubes feeding the young man vitamins.

"Hey, Julian." Carmilla croaked. Her voice sounded like a broken vase; Beautiful when it was whole and abhorrent when it was not. Her two-week stay in coma-town certainly didn't do her voice any good. To say nothing about the rest of her.

"How are you feeling?" Julian took a seat near her bed and placed the bouquet in a nearby glass vase.

"Are those for me…? You really shouldn't have…" Carmilla's lips lazily turned up before her smile slid off her face, replaced by a mere thin stripe.

"So, anything new?" Despite her injuries, Carmilla thought about her work. For a moment, Julian wondered if he wanted to answer that question. He didn't want to saddle her up with work when she hadn't fully recovered. Carmilla continued glaring at him and ignored all of his attempts to make her rest for now.

"Fine… I found this." Julian tucked the small piece of burnt paper between Carmilla's fragile fingers. The emerald-eyed woman took a quick glance at the power and tilted her head.

"This is a train ticket." She said flatly. "Specifically, a third-class ticket from and to Gromwell." Carmilla circled a half-burnt part at the edge of the paper. Julian could barely make out a single three-shaped symbol. Just how was she able to…? Julian chuckled and put the piece of paper back into his pocket.

Forget it, he thought. She always had been a stickler for details, even back at Cybersecurity HQ.

"Speaking of which… What happened to my position back at Cybersecurity?" Julian was curious. While Carmilla worked as both head of the government's cybersecurity division and as a member of Squad 13, he didn't know how it would go with his job.

"I… fired you. And myself. The boss said that it would be better for both of us to focus on our missions." Julian was dumbfounded. Why didn't she tell him?!

"What?!" Julian's voice tore through the silent hospital hallway. "How am I supposed to live?! Pay my rent?" Carmilla's eyebrows curled into an elegant wave.

"You have no house anymore. It blew up, remember?" She deadpanned and tilted her head. Julian glared at her; He didn't want her to repeat that obvious fact.

"Right, right, my future house. And how am I--?" Carmilla stopped the avalanche of questions with a simple wave of her hand. She nodded at her bedside table, drawing a painful grunt from her lips as she felt a needle shift against a nerve.

"What are those?" Julian shuffled towards the table and grabbed the first of many brown files. He ripped it open and found a couple of pages inside. On it, an unsettling amount of information about his private life. Julian shot a soft glance at Carmilla who just widdled her thumbs around.

"… You hacked my computer, didn't you?" That was the only way she could've gotten this kind of information, Julian reasoned. At the very least, he didn't remember telling anyone where he hid the teddy bear he used to fall asleep as a kid.

"Sorry, I just had to test my mettle against you." Carmilla didn't sound even the slightest bit apologetic. She merely shrugged and leaned against the sot cushions propped against her back. "I mean, how could I not? Seven years ago, you joined us and already cracked the code of the secret messages of a grand drug ring!"

Julian shrugged and put the papers back with the rest. Just as he wanted to retake his seat, the door swung open, and an unfamiliar figure strode in. They hid their face in the shadows of a large white hat, strands of deep crimson hair flowing after her. A long white dress, decorated with delicate lace figures of exquisite flowers embroidered on the skirt, flowed around her legs. The sound of classy 4-inch heels, made in a unique shiny material, echoed through the small hospital room. A tiny copper clock hung around her neck, pearly-white strings keeping it there.

"Whu--?! What are you doing here?" Carmilla looked shocked. The purple-haired woman let out a horrified shriek when one of the needles feeding her vitamins poked further into her skin.

"…You know this woman, Carmilla?" Julian couldn't ever remember seeing her. He judged the woman not older than 40 yet with the wrinkles peeking at the corners of her eyes, he wasn't exactly sure. However, she carried herself with grace. The perfume she wore was of an eccentric variety as well. Julian thought he recognized a combination of vanilla and cinnamon, with a hint of jasmine woven through it.

"Julian! She is—" Carmilla's sentence stopped in her throat as the mysterious woman calmly raised a gloved hand.

"So you are Julian? The boy that just joined the Artifactors?" The woman took a step towards the perplexed young man. Before he could react to it, the woman already stroked his cheek. Julian had to blink a few times. Underneath her hat, he saw the faint glimmer of deep brown eyes.

"I might be…. But who are you? It's only proper that you introduce yourself first." Julian's eyes squinted to slits as he inspected the woman in front of him. Or rather, her behaviour. He hadn't seen her take a single step; It was like she had teleported from place to place. Her smile had something… unnatural. It was too kind, too calculated.

"Why, I'm your boss, of course!"

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"What's the reason for your visit, Charlotte?" Julian leaned against the windowsill and sipped from his tea. With one eye, he looked at the people going in and out of the hospital while the rest of his gaze kept busy with the newcomer. Even after she had introduced herself, Julian felt something was off about her. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, and he didn't have a base for his accusations and still…

"I've come to give you your next mission in two weeks." The woman declared as she dug up a brown-coloured file from within her purse. It was made a flapping noise as she placed it on the nearby coffee table. Julian judged it to contain about 30 pages. He reached for it, but the woman gently slapped his hand out of the way.

"Don't read it yet," She said in a soft tone. "Relax for a while. Recover from your wounds and your previous battle." She flashed Julian a faint smile before she turned to Carmilla.

"Please, take your time to recover. I know how you are after a fight, but this time, I'm grounding you to your hospital room until the doctors discharge you." The woman silenced Carmilla's complaints with a simple wave of her silk-gloved hand before she shifted her attention at Julian.

"That reminds me," She reached into her purse and handed Julian a key card. It stated 'Squad 13' in black letters with a white background. Julian noticed a curious symbol imprinted on the background of the card. It was a twisted infinity-symbol with various obscure insignias positioned around it in a circle, seven to be exact.

"This is your key to headquarters. I've taken the liberty of rooming you with Carmilla, who you'll serve under." The woman handed Julian a detailed map to Headquarters' front door, along with a piece of paper to go get his uniform and standard-issued equipment. Apparently, the Artifactors got a sweet uniform, some kind of walkie-talkie and a gun form the moment they joined. On top of a big pay-out to boot!

"What, what…? He'll be rooming with me. B-But—" Carmilla blushed. Her speech stalled in her throat as her mind slowly overloaded.

Julian chuckled. It was the first time he saw the purple-haired woman like this. Normally, she'd react calmly yet kindly. She was considered one of the more popular bosses to work for in the government. Not because of her looks, but because of her leadership.

"Oh, grow up, will you?" The woman brushed Carmilla's complaints to the side with a swat of her gloved hand. "He is 25, you are 29. I see no problem. Besides, he'll be staying with us for a long while now."

"So that means he…" Carmilla's eyes went wide. Her gaze bounced from Julian to Charlotte and back. She gulped audible, seemingly unable to believe what she heard.

"Yes, I've initiated an express procedure to get him enlisted. On the one hand, because we are severely understaffed. On the other hand, to limit the civil unrest." The woman pointed at a newspaper article that Carmilla had cut out just the day before.

Julian knew what it was. Everyone in the city and probably the country knew what it was about. The two explosions that occurred had shaken the usually lulled people of the capital city. They were getting anxious, fearing where the next blasts were going to be. The government couldn't say they apprehended the suspect either since he rotted in the other world. Which gave rise to the weirdest theories.

"Thanks. I'll try not to forget coming around for my weapons." Julian shoved the key card and paper deep into the pockets of his coat. He still didn't trust this woman. He always had a hard time warming up to people; It took Carmilla 5 years to make him stop avoiding his colleagues at work.

"Very well. Now then, I've taken enough of your precious time," The woman stood up and strode to the door. "Julian. Make sure she stays in bed." Those were her last words before she disappeared through the door, only leaving the smell of her perfume behind.

"I can't believe that woman!" Carmilla ruffled her hair in frustration. "Just when I was getting fired up to train, she comes here and blows off all my plans."

"Well, in your current state, you'd only do more worse than good." Julian said as he grabbed the paper files the woman had dumped on them. Carmilla huffed and mumbled something inaudible. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. A moment later, a doctor entered the room to say that visiting hours were over.

"Well, see you back in the room, Carmilla." Julian grunted and took off. As his hand rested on the doorknob, he heard Carmilla's croaking voice behind him.

"Julian…? Thanks for the flowers."

A soft smile tugged at Julian's lips as he closed the door and paced out of the hospital. On the street, there hung an invisible mist of fear. People looked behind their backs, quickly ushering their children along to be home as fast as possible. The taverns and restaurants were nearly empty, which was strange since it was close to dinner time. As the ordinarily pearly blue sky turned a deep orange, Julian reached for the small bundle of papers Charlotte had delivered.

"Oh?" Julian's eyebrows raised into a bushy curve as he read the first page. 'Details on infiltration Gromwell', it said. Most of the pages contained information about the city's political and economic climate, located on the border between the Elven kingdom, Silvestris, and the human realm, Hominus. The past years, the political climate had grown stable under the strict rule of the governor. And with the help of some Elvish tradespeople, commerce was booming.

"Boring…" Julian felt like his mind was dying with every antiquated word he read. He quickly shut the file and walked into the filthy alleyway that gave way to headquarters. As he descended the cold metal staircase towards the room he now shared with his boss, Carmilla, he resolved to train harder.

The last fight had been too close. Julian knew that. He knew he could push his powers to great heights, but he never had reason to train himself. Julian had always finished off his enemies with a simple smack to the face from whatever he could get his hands on. But now he'd fight against others with the same kind of powers as him, he'd need to think up a whole new slew of tricks.