Disclaimer: Everyone's owned by their respective owners. Todd's owned by Marvel, OC's belong to me, plot belongs to me, blah blah blah blah blah...
Author's Note: Here I am again! I know... those of you that are reading it are probably gonna yell at me for putting up a new story instead of updating the one's I'm already supposed to be updating and haven't in eons.. but I promise I'll update them as soon as I can. Promise!
0o0o0o0
I looked down at the files that were sitting on the desk in front of me. There were ten of them in all, but I didn't need to look at any of them. I knew each and every one of them, all of them having been close friends long ago. They were the Gorilla Squad, trained assassins that had all refused to kill after a mission went wrong and they lost their second in command. None of them had been willing to tell exactly what had happened on that mission. That was why they had all been marked for cancellation, and escaped from F.O.U.N.D. using the skills that they had been taught from birth against their creators.
The other nine members of my squad sat at the table around me. We were the Snake Squad, trained to infiltrate and gather information. They all had the same pile of files in front of them. None of them were looking at them either. They all knew all the members of Gorilla Squad as well as I did. The twenty of us had grown up together, looked out for each other, raised each other, and most importantly, kept each other out of trouble despite the fact we had been pitted against each other in training. We were two parts of one family.
Mr. Toltser walked in and stood at the end of the long briefing table. He took a few minutes to look at each and every pair of eyes that looked back at him unblinkingly before starting to talk. Even then, we all had to stay deathly silent so we could hear him.
"You all know of the desertion of Gorilla Squad. You all suffered from their actions. F.O.U.N.D. raised them, trained them, gave them a place to live, fed them, and then they deserted you and us. I see that none of you have even looked at the files. You may think you know the people in those files still, but you don't. They've all been living on the outside for too many years. The humans and their beliefs taint them all. They scattered as soon as they escaped, thinking that it would give them more chance of surviving. But as you very well know there is safety in numbers. They all hold valuable information and it is your mission to bring each and every one of them back. Be warned, it will not be easy. They will all resist you to the best of their abilities. Bring them back at all costs." He said, before walking back out of the room the way he came. I looked back down at the files in front of me with a sigh before grabbing the topmost one. It had a picture paper clipped to the outside of it. The picture was of the leader of Gorilla Squad, with the white greasepaint that made it possible to see him spread over his face. A slight grin played on his face, showing that he had been in a good mood when it had been taken. I looked at my teammates, and opened the file to read the contents.
0o0o0o0
I looked at Sight, the leader of my squad. Despite his blindness, he knew where we all were because of his mutation. He was able to see on the infra-red spectrum when he wanted to, which was almost all the time. You couldn't afford to not see what was around you in our line of work.
Around us was the rest of our squad. They too all watched Sight aptly, as their lives depended on knowing what he wanted done. He was the oldest of all of us, which was the reason why he was in charge. He was the most experienced. But we all also trusted him with our lives, as we did each other.
We crouched outside a house that looked to be on its last legs. It looked like it was ready to fall over with the next light breeze, which was a surprise to all of us. We had thought that any member of the Gorilla Squad would hole up somewhere they'd be sure to be safe. This place was anything but safe for anyone and anything. I wouldn't even let a bug live there.
Sight gave us our orders and we all split up to surround the house. I ran through the overgrown grass and uncared-for bushes towards the front doors. Everyone else in my squad except for Sight would be covering the perimeter. Sight would be hidden at the edge of the property telling us where everyone in our squad was, where the civilians were, and where the target was. Everyone on the Snake Squad and Gorilla Squad had beacons surgically implanted into their necks that gave off waves that only Sight could see. Only the squad leaders and their second in commands knew this fact though.
I stood hidden just off the front porch of the house, waiting for the go-ahead. I looked to my left and right, knowing what to look for to tell where everyone was. They were all still getting into position. I rolled my eyes at their slowness; we had done this five times already to five other members of the Gorilla Squad, why were they taking so long this time?
"Go ahead, Fish." I heard Sight say into my ear through an earphone. I nodded, knowing that he'd see it. I jumped into a standing position and ran through the front door. I heard Ecks doing the same thing through the back door. I saw a stairway and ran up it, hearing Detect follow behind me. The house had three stories so one person was going to look through each floor. I had the top floor.
I reached the third floor and started looking through the rooms. Sight had informed me that the civilians were all asleep and would stay that way for another few hours, complements of a sleeping gas that only affected people without the implanted beacons. So the only person awake would be the target.
I looked at a door that looked like it was well taken care of, with a padlock above the doorknob. With a grin, I knew that that would be the room. The target would make sure to keep whatever secrecy that he could, he had been trained to.
I pulled out my tools and expertly picked the lock. I could hear someone trying to escape through a window, but not being able to. I rushed in and helped, seeing that it was Mutt who was keeping the target inside the room. I grabbed the target's arms and pulled him back, while Mutt grabbed his waist and helped me push him back onto his bed. I pulled a long length of rope over my head, where I had held it over my shoulder. I used the rope to tie his arms together, and then his legs. I picked up what I hoped was a clean shirt and tied it around his mouth, to keep him quiet.
"Got him, do we need him awake or asleep?" I asked Sight.
"Doesn't matter to me, whatever's easier to you." Sight replied. I looked at Mutt, seeing her shrug. I pulled a needle out of my pocket and turned the target over onto his side, so that I could partially see his face. I hadn't been paying attention before, but now I saw who it was I couldn't believe it. I had finally found him after all these years.
"Todd."
0o0o0o0
It took us three and a half months to get track everyone on the Gorilla Squad down and find them. It took us the longest to find Thief, because of his mutation. You'd think it'd be easy to track an invisible guy with greasepaint over his face. But at last, we had all the Gorilla Squad in separate cells down in containment. We couldn't risk them being together, because then it'd be easy for them to escape. We couldn't have them escape, because then we'd have to start searching for them all over again. They wouldn't make the same mistakes twice.
Everyone in my squad had happy looks on their faces. We were all glad to finally have gotten everyone back, the rest of our family back home. But our momentary happiness was cut short when claxons started blaring, signaling that we had made a mistake, and that some, if not all, of the Gorilla Squad had escaped again. Every single member of my squad jumped up from the cushioned chairs we were sat on, waiting for Mr. Toltser to come and debrief us. We ran out of the room and down the hall, towards the staircases that weren't on any of the original floor plans of the base. They had been built in afterwards, as an afterthought of a way to get around should the base loose all power, including the many backup generators that we had.
We ran down the stairs, forcing others in the stairwell to plaster themselves to the walls to get out of our way. We had priority over whatever they were doing as long as the klaxons were going and they all knew it.
We got out on the second basement level and ran down another hallway. Sight, Inch, and myself all went to check on the first set of cells, then everyone else went to check on the others down the hall. I saw that one of the cells was opened, but how I didn't know and was damn sure I was going to find out.
"Why the hell's that cell opened?" I demanded harshly of the nearest security guard. He looked like he wanted to cower underneath the glare I was giving him, but held his ground instead.
"We had been checking on them and saw that the one called Thief had apparently escaped. We opened the door to check." He told me. I looked at those around me, which was a large amount of the team, having found that the rest of the Gorilla Squad was still in their cells. They all looked ready to kill the man in as many ways as there were drops of water in the ocean. I opted to simply hitting him in the side of the head.
"You incompetent halfwits! You couldn't see him because he's INVISIBLE! You let him out!" I pushed the now cowering guard out of my way and picked an emergency telephone up off of where it sat hidden on the wall.
"Lock down the base. No one goes in or out. Turn off all power to the building, have guards at every door and staircase. Thief was accidentally-" I sent another glare to the guard "set free. We don't know where he is, but he can't be far or out of the building yet. Give everyone infra-red goggles." I hung up the phone and stormed over to the guard. "As for you, report to cancellation. You're fired. Ecks, make sure he gets there. I don't care how many pieces he's in, either. That'll only give them all the more fun putting him back together down there." I said heartlessly. I looked at the rest of the cells again, and saw that Todd too was gone. "As for the rest of you, find them. Todd's out too." I pointed to the cell that Todd had been in only minutes beforehand. The ventilation duct that was near invisible on the outside was now opened.
"And now they're helping the others escape while we stand here yelling at your incompetence!" Sight growled. He had never been one to yell at another living being, even if they really deserved it. It was one of the reasons why he was Snake Squad's leader, he could manage his anger. I looked and saw that the guards still hadn't left to find Thief and Todd, and now Shadow and Elf had escaped too.
"Well go and find them!" I yelled at the guards, frustrated that they were so stupid. They all ran off to do as they had been told. Syke was gone too now. "Just great, they have their team psychic free." I grumbled, pointing to Sykes cage. Everyone that had stayed with me looked towards the cage.
"Okay. Here's the plan: Inviz and Mutt stay here to watch for them. Portal, go find Ecks and search the floor above us. Inch, Wash, and Band-Aid, go to the security center and look through the ventilation ducts. Gorilla Squad'll know more escape routes than anyone else so we need to try and stay ahead of them. Detect you go search the floor below us. Fish you search this floor, and I'll watch the other cells." Sight told us all. As he said our names we left to do as he ordered. Inch, Wash, and Band-Aid usually got put together for the simple fact that they're the youngest members of the team, all of them being about five years old give or take a year.
"Good luck, everyone. Remember: we want Gorilla Squad alive. One of them knows where the Marzinite's hidden and we won't find anything if they're dead." I said to my team over the radio hooked into my ear.
"Godspeed." Sight added.