Epilogue: Nadia

Europe

Vanguard International security chief Grissom Montag had been standing at the hospital desk for at least fifteen minutes. He'd been tapping his fingers to a steady beat on the table, but he could only be so amused by the beating of his own fingers. Steadily drumming, he began to whistle "The Marching Song" from Bridge on the River Kwai, reminding him of the mission he'd once taken to Japan. In all honesty, he had no idea what artifact he'd been sent to retrieve, but the women, on the other hand, we unforgettable. Grissom grinned wildly in the midst of his whistling just thinking about it. In fact, he was so lost in his thought, that he'd not even noticed that a nurse had finally approached the portion of the desk where he'd been waiting.

"Can I help you, sir?" the beautiful nurse asked again, lightly touching Grissom on the arm.

"W'ot?" the Brit suddenly stopped. As he moved his head down to behold the nurse, his eyes widened and his mouth curled into a slightly seductive smile. "Why, 'ello there, m'dear!"

The nurse's cheeks flushed as she returned his smile and asked again, "Can I help you, sir?"

"You may, dear girl," he said, placing a hand over hers, which was still touching his arm from earlier. "Name's Grissom Montag, but you c'n call me Griss." He winked at her before he continued. "Lookin' fer a teammate o' mine who was transferred to this 'ospital after an all-too-brief stay in Mandelovia. Name of 'Nadia Ljvazet'. The mate in the lobby told me I'd find 'er on this floor. That so?"

"Depends," the nurse said coyly, withdrawing her hand. "She a... girlfriend or something?"

"Darlin'," Montag said with a wink, "I ain't the kind to be tied down so easy... get me drift?"

The nurse's smile broadened. "I think so," she said, momentarily turning to her computer. Griss kept his attention on the beauty before him, winking at her or raising his eyebrows flirtatiously whenever she'd momentarily look up from her work. "I think I've found her, sir," she finally said, furrowing her brow. "But this can't be right. We've been told that room was empty, that patient having been sent home for recovery."

Grissom leaned in, squinting his eyes. "That don't make much sense," he said, scratching his head. He tapped his fingers on the table again, this time in thought as opposed to boredom. "We 'adn't 'eard anythin' about it... and I know fer a fact that Grimm left instructions that we were to be notified on any progress..."

He raised an eyebrow at the nurse, who merely shrugged, just as, if not more so confused than Grissom.

"If I may," Grissom continued, running a hand over his five-o'clock shadow, "who was it that told you about the patient being taken out?"

"One of the new nurses," the innocent nurse said, raising a pensive eyebrow. "She came in from Russia, I think. Short jet black hair... and a sort of dragon tattoo on her chest..."

Grissom's eyes widened as his face paled.

"What?" the nurse asked, looking at Griss' confused expression.

"Nevermind," Grissom said, waving his hand dismissively. "She'll do fine on 'er own, I'm sure..." he muttered under his breath.

Clearing his throat, he looked up at the nurse, who smiled once more at the attention being paid her. Grissom could do nothing but smile in return.

"W'ot time you get off, luv?" Grissom asked. "Work, I mean..."

"A couple of hours yet..." she said, leaning forward on the desk, giving Griss a great view down her top. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, it appears as though I got a bit o' time to spare and no one to spare it with..." he said with a wink, pulling a pen and a pad of paper out of thin air. Quickly, he scribbled down an address and a phone number. "'ere's me 'otel. Go ahead and get yourself all dolled up and come on over for a seafood dinner, courtesy o' room service. We'll eat a bit o' food, drink a bit o' wine... and see what 'appens after that, eh?" He winked again, just as a way to seal the deal.

"Sure," she said, a wicked grin on her face as she looked at the paper. "You mind if I bring my friend Anastasia?"

Grissom could help but look a bit astonished for a moment. "Y'know, 'on... I like the way you think!"

"See you in a couple of hours then, Griss?"

"I'll be waitin' in ever-eager..." he paused, as he leaned over the desk, his lips closing in on hers, "...anticipation."

He kissed the nurse passionately over the desk, breaking away only after their connection had lasted for at least thirty seconds.

Grissom licked his lips greedily. "Yeah... I'll definitely be waitin', m'dear..."

And with that, the former mercenary turned and exited the hospital, whistling to himself as he went...

Epilogue: Pre-Genesis

Mandelovia - The Royal Prison

In a high-tech prison beneath the castle of the President-Prime Minister of the technologically advanced nation of Mandelovia, two women sat melancholically staring into space. One was a beautiful woman with shoulder-length black hair with a - quite literally - heavenly build. She was as nothing that had been born on Earth. This was because she had, in fact, not been born on Earth. She was a goddess - actually, a demigoddess. Daughter of the only remaining Greek god, Morpheus, Morphina had joined the Strikeforce in an attempt to relieve her father's debt to Jack Merlin, the founder of Strikeforce 1. She only hoped that her service was enough to do that. She sat in her cell, with her cellmate, pondering what exactly had brought her, of all persons, to this end.

The other woman was equally beautiful, with short-cut bright red hair. Her red leather jacket had long since been flung across the room, revealing her bare shoulders, sticking out from her sleeveless shirt. If one looked close enough, they could began to make out a small tattoo of a rose on her left shoulder. It matched her name - Rose. She was reknown across the world as one of the most dangerous women alive. Her prowess with guns, knives, and any manner of combat made her quite a formidible foe. The fact that her metahuman ability was to exude pheromones to attract her prey made her no less deadly. A woman of many skills, Rose sat in her cell, with her cellmate, silent as ever, wondering why she, of all people, was unable to get out of this predicament.

Two armed guards stood outside the cell door, each one staring straight ahead. Sturdy titanium bars held the women in, keeping them from their outside world. A force field kept them in the prison. Rose turned from her self-pity and suddenly cocked an eyebrow. Her tactical mind raced as she quickly looked about the room, her eyes darting from her cellmate to the guards to the force field control panel. She snapped her fingers, attracting the attention of the sulking Morphina.

Rose sprinkled invisible dust from her fingers, then quickly held out her palm and blew across the top of her hand. She then pointed two fingers at the guards and nodded to the demigoddess. Morphina studied her pantomime curiously, then, as it dawned on her what her teammate was suggesting, she began to smile, nodding slowly.

She stood in her cell, creeping slowly toward the bars. Reaching between her cleavage, she pulled out a bit of a light periwinkle powder from between her breasts, gently rubbing it in her fingers. Letting the powder rest on her palm, she reached the bars, gently blowing the powder first at one guard, then at the other.

Within moments, the guards had inhaled the powder and immediately slumped down onto the floor, unconscious. Rose stood, then, smiling wickedly as she reached into her hair and removed a hairpin from her red quaff. Leaning against the cool titanium bars, Rose studied the layout of the room, looking about at the security cameras all peering at the cell, then at the force field panel. Carefully, she positioned her hairpin carefully between her middle funger and thumb. With deft skill, the assassin flicked the pin into the air, as the pin ricocheted off the wire powering one of the cameras, knocking it loose. The pin then sailed across the room, flying off of a wall, and spiralling back to take the wire from another camera. It then sailed over to the force field control panel, hitting squarely, the 'Depower' button, essentially making the force field disappear with little more than a blue flicker.

Rose winked to her comrade, bent down and picked up one of the guard's key cards, swiping in through the side of the prison door. Slowly, the doors began to open as Rose slipped her hand back through the bars. As the doors opened, she nodded to Morphina and quickly made her way for the doors.

"Rose!" Morphina called as the assassin turns to look at her once-teammate. Rose cocked her eyebrow expectantly.

"Thanks," Morphina said, bowing slightly. "I shall not forget this. I will repay you."

Rose simply smirked and shrugged as Morphina tossed her the red leather jacket she had worn. The assassin then turned again, running out of the castle.

Running toward freedom...

To be continued in a FRINGE Comics series - F.E.M.M.E. - coming soon!