Disclaimer: I do not own Totally Spies.
Okay, I'm back in business. Since my Kim Possible fics seemed to be doing so well, I decided that I might as well try my hand at some other spy fics. And what better than Totally Spies? The main character, named after myself, is the same, but it's a completely different story. Don't be alarmed by some OOCness, most of my fics are full of it anyway. Alright, now that that's all taken care of, who thinks I should just get to the story?
' ' - thought
( ) - author's notes
***** - scene change
=+= flashback =+= - self-explanatory
The Assassin: WOOHP Files
Chapter 1
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Nate Sindel, assassin for WOOHP (World Organization Of Human Protection) sat in a small box seat at an opera, calmly watching as the fat lady sang, relieved that it was almost over. He did have a job to do after all. Which was the assassination of the person in the box across from him. Slowly his hand slipped into his pocket, and unzipped the bottom of it, reaching for the long-barreled gun hidden there. Once he had retrieved it, he held it below the rail of the box, and slipped the long silencer through one of the gaps. His target never saw it coming as the trigger was squeezed, and only the most inaudible of sounds was heard. The old man felt only a slight twinge of pain as the dart stuck into the side of his neck, and he was dead before he knew what hit him.
'Looks like the neurotoxin did its work,' he thought as he stood and stepped through the door, making his way to the lobby. 'Act casual, don't draw attention.'
"Sir, the show isn't over, did it not meet to your approval?" asked a young woman behind the desk in the lobby.
"No, it's not that," he said with a small smile, "I just have a prior engagement to attend."
"Of course," she bowed respectively, which he returned, his green braid slipping forward over his shoulder.
*****
Once outside, he stepped into an alley and removed the bow tie from around his neck. Instantly the rest of his clothes began to change from a tuxedo to a green tank top, tucked into baggy black pants and black boots (think Heero Yuy (Gundam Wing) meets Cloud (FF7)). The waist-length green braid behind him was reminiscent of Duo Maxwell, also from Gundam Wing.
"Feels good to be back in my own clothes," he said as he made his way to the end of the alley. "Let's see if I remember this, fourth brick from the bottom, second from the right."
He tapped the right brick and the wall split open, revealing an elevator. Stepping inside, he pressed the button for the basement, and felt the omnipresent lurch as it started downward. The gun barrel tapped lightly against his thigh, and his head was tilted back slightly.
"Another day, another job done, maybe I'll take a vacation," he thought aloud looking up at the numbers as they changed. "Who am I kidding, they won't even let me leave."
The elevator jerked to a halt, and the door slid open, but it wasn't his floor. Three girls he had seen before, but never met, stepped in. All three seemed to be a year or two younger than himself, and not even out of high school yet. One wore green, another wore yellow, and the last one wore red. One was a redhead, the other had black hair, and the last one was blonde. He eyed them all for a few seconds and shifted his gun from his right to his left hand, slipping it into the holster.
"What do you think Jerry wants this time?" the blonde asked.
"Don't know Clover, we're just gonna have to find out for ourselves," answered the redhead.
'So, these are the three agents that he's been telling me about,' he thought while still eyeing them up and down, not displeased with what he saw. 'I don't see what's so special about them.'
The elevator ground to a stop and the doors opened, all four stepping out into Jerry's office. Nate had slid around them and walked right up to the head of WOOHP, unholstered his weapon and placed it on the desk. Placing his hands on either side of it.
"We need to talk about the poison in these darts, its not acting fast enough," he said removing the cartridge. "The guy I shot lasted about two seconds, that's two seconds too long."
"That's the most powerful poison we have in stock," Jerry said picking up the magazine full of small darts. "Well, I'll send them a memo, just wait outside the door, I need to talk to you a little later."
"Understood," he turned on his heel and started walking, passing by three stunned girls.
The doors opened and closed with his exiting, leaving three spies with a few questions.
"Jerry, who was that?" Alex asked while picking up and examining the weapon.
"Oh, Nate, he's one of our assassins," Jerry said nonchalantly while looking through some files.
"An assassin, I thought WOOHP agents didn't kill, only captured," Sam said.
"Yes, well, technically he's not an official WOOHP agent," he shuffled a few papers and turned around to the screen behind him. "He's my son."
"You're son?!" the three spies asked, awestruck.
"Yes, what's so hard to believe about that?" the head of WOOHP asked when he found the right file. "See?"
Nate Sindel's file popped up onto the screen, no picture came with it, for security purposes. It did give most of the rest of information: name, age, height, weight, relatives, and other such things. Nothing but the essentials was given; the system had been hacked before, and they weren't going to have their security compromised.
"It's still kinda hard to see you as a father, Jerry," Clover said while trying to suppress a giggle.
"How do you think I'm able to deal with teenagers so well?"
"I always wondered about that," Alex said. "So what's the mission?"
"Well, you all understand the system of continental drift, and the fault lines that encompass each continent plate. We've had reports from our geological department of strange activity on the San Andreas Fault. Something, or someone, is causing erratic shifts, creating massive earthquakes."
"Now we know where that quake came from," Sam said to the other two, who nodded in agreement.
"Actually, what you felt today was only the aftershocks of a tremor that hit about a hundred miles north of Beverly Hills."
"No way, the news said it measured, like, four-point-two on the Richter Scale."
"Yes, the actually quake measure a perfect ten, the area was completely leveled," a picture of wasteland appeared on the screen, several collapsed buildings littered the ground. "We believe this to be a test, and a successful one at that."
"Where's the disturbance centralized?"
"Here, at the exact center of the fault line," he pointed to a flashing light on the map. "Now, get to the hangar, your gadgets are waiting for you there."
The floor beneath them opened and they fell through.
"Nate, come in."
"What?" he asked stepping through the door and adjusting his hair a little. "Someone else you need me to take care of?"
"Yes, the three spies who just left, I want you to follow them. Usually they come through, but I've sent better agents than them, and none have come back. I want you to cover them, as backup, nothing more."
"Right, backup," he rolled his eyes and turned around.
"I mean it this time."
The door closed and Nate took the elevator to the hangar; he arrived a few seconds after the girls' plane had taken off. He stepped up to his plane, looking very much like all the others, except it was green. Upon sitting in the chair he felt a small twinge at the base of his skull, the feeling that came from being connected to the plane. The controls lit up with a single thought and the engines fired up, moving him towards the launch doors.
*****
"Guys, this is creeping me out," Alex said as they walked down the hall. "There's no one here, but I still get the feeling we're being watched."
"Me too," Clover added while lightly holding herself.
They had made it to the center of the fault line, and found something they really hadn't expected to see. A massive hole right in the fault, with large cylinders, at least 50 feet in diameter, sticking up. There were eleven in all, fitted into a line along the fault, and were humming slightly. On top of the very center one was a building, where they had entered. Now they were completely lost, and weren't really sure where to go.
-----
Nate had followed, as he was ordered, and entered soon after them. He had actually been right behind them, ducking in and out of side passages. He didn't mind the welcome break from his other missions, but this was far too dull for him. Just walking and walking and more walking, not finding anything. After getting fed up with this he decided to go on his own. What he had found was not what he wanted to see; a room full of bodies hanging upside down, decapitated and skinned, like a meat locker for humans. He counted nine bodies, the three spy teams Jerry had sent ahead of them.
"Shit," he ran through the door, it was time to make his presence known. 'Why do I feel like this, they're fellow spies, so why is the drive to protect them so strong?'
-----
"This isn't good," Sam said while choking back the bile rising in her throat.
They had stumbled upon the place where the bodies had been mutilated. Alex was standing outside, having thrown up once when they walked in, then again when Clover had thrown up. She didn't have a very strong constitution when it came to things such as this. On had rested on her stomach, the other was held over her mouth, just in case. Clover was sitting on the floor next to her, in much the same way. Sam came out a few seconds later and turned away from them, vomiting where they couldn't see her.
"Who would do something like that?" Alex asked looking up at the gray metal of the ceiling.
"A sociopath," said a calm voice.
All three looked up at Nate, who wasn't really looking at them; he was looking down the hall. Eyes trained as if trying to spot something in the distance. Finally he turned to look at them, and a line of something flashed across his eyes. The door to the lab closed and locked.
"And he's near," he continued.
"What are you doing here?" Sam asked trying to wipe some of the stomach acid from her lips.
"No time for explanations, you three have to get out of here," he stooped to help Clover to her feet.
Even though she was confused and still feeling slightly sick, she still had enough strength and composure to make "goo goo eyes" at him. He ignored them and let go when she was on her feet, moving over to check Alex. From his belt he produced three pills, and handed one to each of them.
"Those should help with the stomach thing," he said while stepping up to a terminal in the wall.
The lines flashed across his eyes again and the computer came to life. Files were accessed and downloaded, other deleted, others activated. All the while his eyes stared intently at the screen, never even lifting a finger to touch the keypad. After a few minutes he looked back at them.
"What are you still doing here, get back to your jet," he said harshly.
"Hey, Jerry gave us this mission, and we're gonna carry it out," Clover said feeling better from the pill.
Nate sighed and went back to the console. Immediately a large blast door closed right next to Clover, causing her to jump into his arms, he promptly dropped her. Such things were irrelevant to him, after that time in his life, he had vowed to never get involved with anyone, ever again. It had made him cold, hollow, the perfect vessel for death.
"I ran into the other agent teams that Jerry sent," he said calmly without taking his eyes off the screen. "They were completely mutilated and left hanging upside down in a freezer."
"Oh man," Alex said placing her hand over her mouth.
"There, the self-destruct sequence has been activated," he looked at them seeing them as what they were, scared teenagers. "Follow me."
They did exactly that, following him through the halls at top speed, to get to the exit. It wasn't far, since they hadn't gone down any stairs to get to the lower levels. Once outside they raced their respective jets and took off, flying side by side to get away. Nate hit his VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) engines and hovered to watch the explosion. And it was one hell of an explosion at that, the entire are had been flattened, luckily they were out in the middle of nowhere.
"Rest in peace, friends," Nate said and flew off.
*****
"I told you you were back up, did I not?" Jerry asked the young man standing in front of him.
"Yes, but..."
"No buts, I don't care what the situation was, you were not given orders to intervene."
"Will you listen to me, they were mortal danger, what was I supposed to do?"
The three spies in question were standing off to the side, waiting to be debriefed. In the mean time they were watching this squabble between father and son, a son who didn't so much respect.
"Would you get off my case Jerry, you weren't there, you're never there," Nate pointed a finger at his father. "This person had decapitated them, most likely after skinning them alive, then stuck them on meat hooks. Four women and five men, dead, and you're telling me that I wasn't allowed to save three more. For the love of god, they're children."
"Well...uh..."
"Don't you dare tell me that what I did was wrong? Why don't you go on a few missions, then tell me that my actions were out of line," he turned to the three girls. "I'll see you around."
"Right."
"Yeah."
"See ya round," Alex waved cheerfully.
The doors closed with its usual hiss sound as he left. Surely if the door had been on hinges, then he would have slammed it off those hinges. The girls turned back to Jerry, who was straitening his tie, trying to regain his composure. They waited silently for him to get ready.
"Girls, I want to say that you did a good job today, even though you were interrupted," he mumbled the last part.
"Jerry, you didn't tell us about the other teams you sent there, why?" Sam asked quickly.
"Well...I..."
"Yeah, that's what I wanted to know," Clover jumped in too.
"And why didn't you tell us you had a really cute son?" Alex asked.
"Yea...what?" the other two looked at her.
She just smiled and decided to stay quiet, hanging back behind the others who, at the moment, were busy grilling the head of WOOHP. He didn't fully answer any of their questions, they never gave him a chance. There wasn't much else he could do with them interrupting him every two seconds with a new question. Then Sam finally got around to a final question.
"Back at that place, he accessed a computer by looking at it, how did he do that?" she asked slamming her open palms on the desk.
"Well," he glared at Clover, who was about to interrupt, "we 'enhanced' him, a little with cybernetic components. Look."
The screen behind him was covered with black and white lab photos that showed a young boy of about ten, sitting on a table with his back cut open and large metal plates being put in under the skin. They couldn't see his face, but they figured that he was most likely unconscious with plenty of painkillers. Other photos showed what they did to his arms, legs, feet, hands, eyes, skull, and even his mouth and nose. Some of the pictures reminded them of the room they had been in not too long before. In that room had been the uniforms, heads, and skins of the other agents.
"Please, turn it off," Alex said as she shielded her eyes. "Please."
"Alright," he turned the screen off and the three of them turned back to him.
"How could you do that to your own son?" Clover asked with a bit of a sickened expression.
"He volunteered, after his mother had been..." he stopped there, having already said too much.
"What happened to her?"
"That doesn't concern you girls, I don't even know why I'm telling you this," he reached for a button to send them back. "Have a good night, you'll need it for the test tomorrow."
A large vacuum came down and sucked them up into it, depositing them somewhere in Beverly Hills.
*****
Nate stood with a few other agents in a line in the firing range. In his hand was his trusty Colt 45 long barrel, reverse barrel revolver (like the one used in Trigun, with the added feature of an Angel Arm). He was glad one of the people in R&D watched anime, or else he would have had such a destructive weapon at his disposal. Carefully he took aim and fired, placing the bullet directly in the head of his target. Then he just went by where the barrel pointed, not using the sights; every bullet that hit the target hit exactly where he had it pointed. One in each arm, one in each leg, two in the chest and one in the groin. He pressed the release button to pop the chamber and unloaded the six empty shells. Then he placed in six bullets attached to an apparatus to hold them, and squeezed it to release them.
"Nate, you don't have to overdo it, you know?" one of the female agents, a brunette, said looking at the thirty empty shells around his feet.
He turned to look at her, holding the gun at the target and fired all six round in a few seconds. One hit the target dead center, the other five grouped around it.
"I know, Sarah, but it's just too boring around here," he said as he holstered the gun.
"Then why not ask for some time off?" she said with a little smile. "Maybe you and I could grab a cup of coffee."
"That idiot of father won't let me take time off. He's so uptight about me being found out that he'll come up with some stupid excuse. Just the other day he said that the technicians had tests to run on the Angel Arm. They've run all the tests that they could and it works fine."
"So, sneak out, they can't stop you. Come on, it might be fun."
"Yeah, sure, why the hell not?"
He followed her out of the room, both of them depositing the safety goggles and headphones in the basket by the door. There was no way to tell where she was leading him, he couldn't read a human mind, but he did know his way around WOOHP. They were headed for the personnel levels that housed the faculty and agents who lived on the base; his room was on this level. She continued to lead him to her door, and stepped inside, telling him she would be out in a minute.
'It's just coffee between friends,' he thought to himself. 'No more, no less; she's three years older than I am anyway.'
She emerged a minute later wearing jeans and a loose sweatshirt, civilian clothes. She smiled at him, and he returned it accordingly and his clothing began to change. Over his tank top and black pants grew a sleeveless green trench coat (like Vash the Stampede's, only green and without the sleeves). He ran his fingers through his hair and adjusted it a little.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
Slipping his hands into his pockets they walked to the elevator to the surface. He knew the cameras were following him, but with a little look at a computer terminal, they were caught in a playback. The part of his leaving was deleted as the cameras froze briefly with a blank view of the corridors and elevator.
*****
"Oh...my...GOD!" Clover screamed looking in the window of her favorite store. "Look at those shoes, those are perfect to go with my new pants."
"Hey yeah, those are good too," Alex pointed at another pair.
"No, these are better."
"Guys, is that who I think it is?" Sam asked as she looked at the Starbucks.
"Where?" Alex looked over her shoulder, as to get a direct line to where she was looking. "Hey, I think that is him."
"Him who?" Clover said while still eyeing the shoes.
"I thought Jerry said he wasn't allowed outside of HQ?"
"Well, Sarah's with him, I guess she's his escort," Sam shrugged and looked at the window of the shoe store.
They continued to shop, slowing making their way closer to the coffee shop. Every now and then they would sneak a glance at the table. Every time they looked the two at the table weren't talking, as if they were having a silent conversation. In actuality Sarah and Nate had nothing to talk about, this was exactly what he had figured it to be, coffee between friends.
"Well, look who's here," Clover said with mock surprise as she stepped up to the table. She called back to the others, "Guys, it is them."
"Hey Clover," Sarah said and took a sip of her mocha latte, Nate said nothing. "See you guys have done some shopping."
She said this while eyeing the five or so bags hooked onto each girl's arms, all that bags seemed stuffed to capacity. All three girls took seats at the table, Alex being quick to grab the one next to the silent male.
"Yeah, just the bare necessities," Sam placed the bags under the table and looked at the menu in the distance. "What're you guys doing here?"
"Having coffee, what does it look like?" Nate asked giving her a stupid look.
"Well obviously there's that, I mean why are guys here?"
"Why didn't you just ask that then?" he took a sip of his coffee, black. "We just needed some fresh air."
"Oh."
The better half of the next five minutes was in silence, none of them could think of something to say. The girls thought that maybe they should talk to him and try and get to know him, he was fellow spy after all. None of them could think of where to start, or who should start. They shifted uncomfortably on the hard seats, having gotten used to sitting in cushioned booths. Alex decided to take the initiative and ask:
"So, Nate, you...uh...got a girlfriend?" she asked finally breaking the silence.
Nate almost spit out the coffee that was in his mouth, Sarah swallowed rather loudly, and Sam and Clover just looked at her. After the older agent had set his cup down and swallowed the rather bitter liquid, he turned to look at her,
"No," he said simply and went back to his cup, which he now noticed was empty.
Thankfully she didn't press the matter any further, leaving him to his thoughts as he held the empty cup. The three girls looked around awkwardly when Sarah went back to the counter to refill. None of them really wanted to believe what Jerry had told them, but there were the pictures.
"Hey, Jerry's your dad, right? Why don't you call him that?" Clover asked.
"I haven't called him that in almost eight years," he said with a light glare on his face. "He's not even my father really, the WOOHP doctors and technicians are my parents."
"But..."
"Why do you want to know these things?" he asked with a snap to his voice. "What business is it of yours?"
"Well, we just figured that since we're all spies here, we might as well get to know each other," Sam snapped back, surprising him a little, making him smile.
"You make a good argument," he said with a small laugh.
Sarah arrived a few seconds later and was surprised to see him laughing. She had only known him to laugh when something was extremely funny, or when someone had outsmarted him. The spies she had known since they started at WOOHP, and none of them were exceptionally funny, so she went with the latter.
"So, what do you want to know?" he asked.
TBC
There, I've got to cut it off there, the chapters getting too long for my liking. Anyway, I hope you like it, please review. All reviews will be taken, so go nuts.
Okay, I'm back in business. Since my Kim Possible fics seemed to be doing so well, I decided that I might as well try my hand at some other spy fics. And what better than Totally Spies? The main character, named after myself, is the same, but it's a completely different story. Don't be alarmed by some OOCness, most of my fics are full of it anyway. Alright, now that that's all taken care of, who thinks I should just get to the story?
' ' - thought
( ) - author's notes
***** - scene change
=+= flashback =+= - self-explanatory
The Assassin: WOOHP Files
Chapter 1
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Nate Sindel, assassin for WOOHP (World Organization Of Human Protection) sat in a small box seat at an opera, calmly watching as the fat lady sang, relieved that it was almost over. He did have a job to do after all. Which was the assassination of the person in the box across from him. Slowly his hand slipped into his pocket, and unzipped the bottom of it, reaching for the long-barreled gun hidden there. Once he had retrieved it, he held it below the rail of the box, and slipped the long silencer through one of the gaps. His target never saw it coming as the trigger was squeezed, and only the most inaudible of sounds was heard. The old man felt only a slight twinge of pain as the dart stuck into the side of his neck, and he was dead before he knew what hit him.
'Looks like the neurotoxin did its work,' he thought as he stood and stepped through the door, making his way to the lobby. 'Act casual, don't draw attention.'
"Sir, the show isn't over, did it not meet to your approval?" asked a young woman behind the desk in the lobby.
"No, it's not that," he said with a small smile, "I just have a prior engagement to attend."
"Of course," she bowed respectively, which he returned, his green braid slipping forward over his shoulder.
*****
Once outside, he stepped into an alley and removed the bow tie from around his neck. Instantly the rest of his clothes began to change from a tuxedo to a green tank top, tucked into baggy black pants and black boots (think Heero Yuy (Gundam Wing) meets Cloud (FF7)). The waist-length green braid behind him was reminiscent of Duo Maxwell, also from Gundam Wing.
"Feels good to be back in my own clothes," he said as he made his way to the end of the alley. "Let's see if I remember this, fourth brick from the bottom, second from the right."
He tapped the right brick and the wall split open, revealing an elevator. Stepping inside, he pressed the button for the basement, and felt the omnipresent lurch as it started downward. The gun barrel tapped lightly against his thigh, and his head was tilted back slightly.
"Another day, another job done, maybe I'll take a vacation," he thought aloud looking up at the numbers as they changed. "Who am I kidding, they won't even let me leave."
The elevator jerked to a halt, and the door slid open, but it wasn't his floor. Three girls he had seen before, but never met, stepped in. All three seemed to be a year or two younger than himself, and not even out of high school yet. One wore green, another wore yellow, and the last one wore red. One was a redhead, the other had black hair, and the last one was blonde. He eyed them all for a few seconds and shifted his gun from his right to his left hand, slipping it into the holster.
"What do you think Jerry wants this time?" the blonde asked.
"Don't know Clover, we're just gonna have to find out for ourselves," answered the redhead.
'So, these are the three agents that he's been telling me about,' he thought while still eyeing them up and down, not displeased with what he saw. 'I don't see what's so special about them.'
The elevator ground to a stop and the doors opened, all four stepping out into Jerry's office. Nate had slid around them and walked right up to the head of WOOHP, unholstered his weapon and placed it on the desk. Placing his hands on either side of it.
"We need to talk about the poison in these darts, its not acting fast enough," he said removing the cartridge. "The guy I shot lasted about two seconds, that's two seconds too long."
"That's the most powerful poison we have in stock," Jerry said picking up the magazine full of small darts. "Well, I'll send them a memo, just wait outside the door, I need to talk to you a little later."
"Understood," he turned on his heel and started walking, passing by three stunned girls.
The doors opened and closed with his exiting, leaving three spies with a few questions.
"Jerry, who was that?" Alex asked while picking up and examining the weapon.
"Oh, Nate, he's one of our assassins," Jerry said nonchalantly while looking through some files.
"An assassin, I thought WOOHP agents didn't kill, only captured," Sam said.
"Yes, well, technically he's not an official WOOHP agent," he shuffled a few papers and turned around to the screen behind him. "He's my son."
"You're son?!" the three spies asked, awestruck.
"Yes, what's so hard to believe about that?" the head of WOOHP asked when he found the right file. "See?"
Nate Sindel's file popped up onto the screen, no picture came with it, for security purposes. It did give most of the rest of information: name, age, height, weight, relatives, and other such things. Nothing but the essentials was given; the system had been hacked before, and they weren't going to have their security compromised.
"It's still kinda hard to see you as a father, Jerry," Clover said while trying to suppress a giggle.
"How do you think I'm able to deal with teenagers so well?"
"I always wondered about that," Alex said. "So what's the mission?"
"Well, you all understand the system of continental drift, and the fault lines that encompass each continent plate. We've had reports from our geological department of strange activity on the San Andreas Fault. Something, or someone, is causing erratic shifts, creating massive earthquakes."
"Now we know where that quake came from," Sam said to the other two, who nodded in agreement.
"Actually, what you felt today was only the aftershocks of a tremor that hit about a hundred miles north of Beverly Hills."
"No way, the news said it measured, like, four-point-two on the Richter Scale."
"Yes, the actually quake measure a perfect ten, the area was completely leveled," a picture of wasteland appeared on the screen, several collapsed buildings littered the ground. "We believe this to be a test, and a successful one at that."
"Where's the disturbance centralized?"
"Here, at the exact center of the fault line," he pointed to a flashing light on the map. "Now, get to the hangar, your gadgets are waiting for you there."
The floor beneath them opened and they fell through.
"Nate, come in."
"What?" he asked stepping through the door and adjusting his hair a little. "Someone else you need me to take care of?"
"Yes, the three spies who just left, I want you to follow them. Usually they come through, but I've sent better agents than them, and none have come back. I want you to cover them, as backup, nothing more."
"Right, backup," he rolled his eyes and turned around.
"I mean it this time."
The door closed and Nate took the elevator to the hangar; he arrived a few seconds after the girls' plane had taken off. He stepped up to his plane, looking very much like all the others, except it was green. Upon sitting in the chair he felt a small twinge at the base of his skull, the feeling that came from being connected to the plane. The controls lit up with a single thought and the engines fired up, moving him towards the launch doors.
*****
"Guys, this is creeping me out," Alex said as they walked down the hall. "There's no one here, but I still get the feeling we're being watched."
"Me too," Clover added while lightly holding herself.
They had made it to the center of the fault line, and found something they really hadn't expected to see. A massive hole right in the fault, with large cylinders, at least 50 feet in diameter, sticking up. There were eleven in all, fitted into a line along the fault, and were humming slightly. On top of the very center one was a building, where they had entered. Now they were completely lost, and weren't really sure where to go.
-----
Nate had followed, as he was ordered, and entered soon after them. He had actually been right behind them, ducking in and out of side passages. He didn't mind the welcome break from his other missions, but this was far too dull for him. Just walking and walking and more walking, not finding anything. After getting fed up with this he decided to go on his own. What he had found was not what he wanted to see; a room full of bodies hanging upside down, decapitated and skinned, like a meat locker for humans. He counted nine bodies, the three spy teams Jerry had sent ahead of them.
"Shit," he ran through the door, it was time to make his presence known. 'Why do I feel like this, they're fellow spies, so why is the drive to protect them so strong?'
-----
"This isn't good," Sam said while choking back the bile rising in her throat.
They had stumbled upon the place where the bodies had been mutilated. Alex was standing outside, having thrown up once when they walked in, then again when Clover had thrown up. She didn't have a very strong constitution when it came to things such as this. On had rested on her stomach, the other was held over her mouth, just in case. Clover was sitting on the floor next to her, in much the same way. Sam came out a few seconds later and turned away from them, vomiting where they couldn't see her.
"Who would do something like that?" Alex asked looking up at the gray metal of the ceiling.
"A sociopath," said a calm voice.
All three looked up at Nate, who wasn't really looking at them; he was looking down the hall. Eyes trained as if trying to spot something in the distance. Finally he turned to look at them, and a line of something flashed across his eyes. The door to the lab closed and locked.
"And he's near," he continued.
"What are you doing here?" Sam asked trying to wipe some of the stomach acid from her lips.
"No time for explanations, you three have to get out of here," he stooped to help Clover to her feet.
Even though she was confused and still feeling slightly sick, she still had enough strength and composure to make "goo goo eyes" at him. He ignored them and let go when she was on her feet, moving over to check Alex. From his belt he produced three pills, and handed one to each of them.
"Those should help with the stomach thing," he said while stepping up to a terminal in the wall.
The lines flashed across his eyes again and the computer came to life. Files were accessed and downloaded, other deleted, others activated. All the while his eyes stared intently at the screen, never even lifting a finger to touch the keypad. After a few minutes he looked back at them.
"What are you still doing here, get back to your jet," he said harshly.
"Hey, Jerry gave us this mission, and we're gonna carry it out," Clover said feeling better from the pill.
Nate sighed and went back to the console. Immediately a large blast door closed right next to Clover, causing her to jump into his arms, he promptly dropped her. Such things were irrelevant to him, after that time in his life, he had vowed to never get involved with anyone, ever again. It had made him cold, hollow, the perfect vessel for death.
"I ran into the other agent teams that Jerry sent," he said calmly without taking his eyes off the screen. "They were completely mutilated and left hanging upside down in a freezer."
"Oh man," Alex said placing her hand over her mouth.
"There, the self-destruct sequence has been activated," he looked at them seeing them as what they were, scared teenagers. "Follow me."
They did exactly that, following him through the halls at top speed, to get to the exit. It wasn't far, since they hadn't gone down any stairs to get to the lower levels. Once outside they raced their respective jets and took off, flying side by side to get away. Nate hit his VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) engines and hovered to watch the explosion. And it was one hell of an explosion at that, the entire are had been flattened, luckily they were out in the middle of nowhere.
"Rest in peace, friends," Nate said and flew off.
*****
"I told you you were back up, did I not?" Jerry asked the young man standing in front of him.
"Yes, but..."
"No buts, I don't care what the situation was, you were not given orders to intervene."
"Will you listen to me, they were mortal danger, what was I supposed to do?"
The three spies in question were standing off to the side, waiting to be debriefed. In the mean time they were watching this squabble between father and son, a son who didn't so much respect.
"Would you get off my case Jerry, you weren't there, you're never there," Nate pointed a finger at his father. "This person had decapitated them, most likely after skinning them alive, then stuck them on meat hooks. Four women and five men, dead, and you're telling me that I wasn't allowed to save three more. For the love of god, they're children."
"Well...uh..."
"Don't you dare tell me that what I did was wrong? Why don't you go on a few missions, then tell me that my actions were out of line," he turned to the three girls. "I'll see you around."
"Right."
"Yeah."
"See ya round," Alex waved cheerfully.
The doors closed with its usual hiss sound as he left. Surely if the door had been on hinges, then he would have slammed it off those hinges. The girls turned back to Jerry, who was straitening his tie, trying to regain his composure. They waited silently for him to get ready.
"Girls, I want to say that you did a good job today, even though you were interrupted," he mumbled the last part.
"Jerry, you didn't tell us about the other teams you sent there, why?" Sam asked quickly.
"Well...I..."
"Yeah, that's what I wanted to know," Clover jumped in too.
"And why didn't you tell us you had a really cute son?" Alex asked.
"Yea...what?" the other two looked at her.
She just smiled and decided to stay quiet, hanging back behind the others who, at the moment, were busy grilling the head of WOOHP. He didn't fully answer any of their questions, they never gave him a chance. There wasn't much else he could do with them interrupting him every two seconds with a new question. Then Sam finally got around to a final question.
"Back at that place, he accessed a computer by looking at it, how did he do that?" she asked slamming her open palms on the desk.
"Well," he glared at Clover, who was about to interrupt, "we 'enhanced' him, a little with cybernetic components. Look."
The screen behind him was covered with black and white lab photos that showed a young boy of about ten, sitting on a table with his back cut open and large metal plates being put in under the skin. They couldn't see his face, but they figured that he was most likely unconscious with plenty of painkillers. Other photos showed what they did to his arms, legs, feet, hands, eyes, skull, and even his mouth and nose. Some of the pictures reminded them of the room they had been in not too long before. In that room had been the uniforms, heads, and skins of the other agents.
"Please, turn it off," Alex said as she shielded her eyes. "Please."
"Alright," he turned the screen off and the three of them turned back to him.
"How could you do that to your own son?" Clover asked with a bit of a sickened expression.
"He volunteered, after his mother had been..." he stopped there, having already said too much.
"What happened to her?"
"That doesn't concern you girls, I don't even know why I'm telling you this," he reached for a button to send them back. "Have a good night, you'll need it for the test tomorrow."
A large vacuum came down and sucked them up into it, depositing them somewhere in Beverly Hills.
*****
Nate stood with a few other agents in a line in the firing range. In his hand was his trusty Colt 45 long barrel, reverse barrel revolver (like the one used in Trigun, with the added feature of an Angel Arm). He was glad one of the people in R&D watched anime, or else he would have had such a destructive weapon at his disposal. Carefully he took aim and fired, placing the bullet directly in the head of his target. Then he just went by where the barrel pointed, not using the sights; every bullet that hit the target hit exactly where he had it pointed. One in each arm, one in each leg, two in the chest and one in the groin. He pressed the release button to pop the chamber and unloaded the six empty shells. Then he placed in six bullets attached to an apparatus to hold them, and squeezed it to release them.
"Nate, you don't have to overdo it, you know?" one of the female agents, a brunette, said looking at the thirty empty shells around his feet.
He turned to look at her, holding the gun at the target and fired all six round in a few seconds. One hit the target dead center, the other five grouped around it.
"I know, Sarah, but it's just too boring around here," he said as he holstered the gun.
"Then why not ask for some time off?" she said with a little smile. "Maybe you and I could grab a cup of coffee."
"That idiot of father won't let me take time off. He's so uptight about me being found out that he'll come up with some stupid excuse. Just the other day he said that the technicians had tests to run on the Angel Arm. They've run all the tests that they could and it works fine."
"So, sneak out, they can't stop you. Come on, it might be fun."
"Yeah, sure, why the hell not?"
He followed her out of the room, both of them depositing the safety goggles and headphones in the basket by the door. There was no way to tell where she was leading him, he couldn't read a human mind, but he did know his way around WOOHP. They were headed for the personnel levels that housed the faculty and agents who lived on the base; his room was on this level. She continued to lead him to her door, and stepped inside, telling him she would be out in a minute.
'It's just coffee between friends,' he thought to himself. 'No more, no less; she's three years older than I am anyway.'
She emerged a minute later wearing jeans and a loose sweatshirt, civilian clothes. She smiled at him, and he returned it accordingly and his clothing began to change. Over his tank top and black pants grew a sleeveless green trench coat (like Vash the Stampede's, only green and without the sleeves). He ran his fingers through his hair and adjusted it a little.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
Slipping his hands into his pockets they walked to the elevator to the surface. He knew the cameras were following him, but with a little look at a computer terminal, they were caught in a playback. The part of his leaving was deleted as the cameras froze briefly with a blank view of the corridors and elevator.
*****
"Oh...my...GOD!" Clover screamed looking in the window of her favorite store. "Look at those shoes, those are perfect to go with my new pants."
"Hey yeah, those are good too," Alex pointed at another pair.
"No, these are better."
"Guys, is that who I think it is?" Sam asked as she looked at the Starbucks.
"Where?" Alex looked over her shoulder, as to get a direct line to where she was looking. "Hey, I think that is him."
"Him who?" Clover said while still eyeing the shoes.
"I thought Jerry said he wasn't allowed outside of HQ?"
"Well, Sarah's with him, I guess she's his escort," Sam shrugged and looked at the window of the shoe store.
They continued to shop, slowing making their way closer to the coffee shop. Every now and then they would sneak a glance at the table. Every time they looked the two at the table weren't talking, as if they were having a silent conversation. In actuality Sarah and Nate had nothing to talk about, this was exactly what he had figured it to be, coffee between friends.
"Well, look who's here," Clover said with mock surprise as she stepped up to the table. She called back to the others, "Guys, it is them."
"Hey Clover," Sarah said and took a sip of her mocha latte, Nate said nothing. "See you guys have done some shopping."
She said this while eyeing the five or so bags hooked onto each girl's arms, all that bags seemed stuffed to capacity. All three girls took seats at the table, Alex being quick to grab the one next to the silent male.
"Yeah, just the bare necessities," Sam placed the bags under the table and looked at the menu in the distance. "What're you guys doing here?"
"Having coffee, what does it look like?" Nate asked giving her a stupid look.
"Well obviously there's that, I mean why are guys here?"
"Why didn't you just ask that then?" he took a sip of his coffee, black. "We just needed some fresh air."
"Oh."
The better half of the next five minutes was in silence, none of them could think of something to say. The girls thought that maybe they should talk to him and try and get to know him, he was fellow spy after all. None of them could think of where to start, or who should start. They shifted uncomfortably on the hard seats, having gotten used to sitting in cushioned booths. Alex decided to take the initiative and ask:
"So, Nate, you...uh...got a girlfriend?" she asked finally breaking the silence.
Nate almost spit out the coffee that was in his mouth, Sarah swallowed rather loudly, and Sam and Clover just looked at her. After the older agent had set his cup down and swallowed the rather bitter liquid, he turned to look at her,
"No," he said simply and went back to his cup, which he now noticed was empty.
Thankfully she didn't press the matter any further, leaving him to his thoughts as he held the empty cup. The three girls looked around awkwardly when Sarah went back to the counter to refill. None of them really wanted to believe what Jerry had told them, but there were the pictures.
"Hey, Jerry's your dad, right? Why don't you call him that?" Clover asked.
"I haven't called him that in almost eight years," he said with a light glare on his face. "He's not even my father really, the WOOHP doctors and technicians are my parents."
"But..."
"Why do you want to know these things?" he asked with a snap to his voice. "What business is it of yours?"
"Well, we just figured that since we're all spies here, we might as well get to know each other," Sam snapped back, surprising him a little, making him smile.
"You make a good argument," he said with a small laugh.
Sarah arrived a few seconds later and was surprised to see him laughing. She had only known him to laugh when something was extremely funny, or when someone had outsmarted him. The spies she had known since they started at WOOHP, and none of them were exceptionally funny, so she went with the latter.
"So, what do you want to know?" he asked.
TBC
There, I've got to cut it off there, the chapters getting too long for my liking. Anyway, I hope you like it, please review. All reviews will be taken, so go nuts.