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This story is focused on plot, with sex used to enhance and develop it. If you are looking for instant gratification, this is not for you, as sex is scarce in this chapter, although I promise loads to come. With that said, enjoy!
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Slowly and silently, I crept up to my targets. They were standing at the beginning of a grand, opulent hall, furnished with marvelous splashes of art, cool stone statues of men long-gone. The carpet was of the finest material imaginable and depicted complicated and hypnotizing patterns of a variety of dark colors, and the marble walls were illuminated by the golden chandeliers dangling from the high ceiling.
The men were a stark contrast to the richly embroidered hall which screamed of wealth. They were two big, tall men with tattoos covering every inch of their exposed skin. Their tanned faces were full of scars and piercings, and their eyes were bloodshot and seemingly alert. Their clothing consisted of identical pair of stained old suits and, more importantly, two large rifles resting comfortably on their backs.
Unfortunately, I could not simply snipe these mafia members from the comfort of the hotel next door. That might be seen as a suspicious event, and before I`d know it the place would be crawling with reinforcements, not the most auspicious thing to do in the world.
Therefore, I was creeping along a ceiling beam right above the two men who were engaged in a fascinating discussion.
"Hey, dude, I think the plural of spaghetti is spaghettis," the one stated.
"No dude, the plural of spaghetti is not spaghettis, it is spaghetti", the other one replied.
The first moron frowned. "How can it be the plural of its self? That makes no sense!" he said.
"I guess you are right, it must be spaghettis after all."
With that settled, they turned back to the entrance they were supposed to be guarding, not noticing my inwardly cringing figure over their heads. Deciding to make it swift, I silently dropped down and rolled on the floor, ending up right between the two.
I stood up right as they noticed me in their midst, and I could swear I saw gears turning in their heads as they were confronted with this surprising event.
"Bedtime, gentlemen," I said as with two strong strokes I crushed their windpipes. They fell without a sound, and I froze, waiting to see if I had been discovered. When I wasn`t confronted by an entire building of angry mafia members, I let out a slow breath and continued through the hall, sticking to the shadows as much as possible.
I passed room after room full of expensive, most likely stolen furniture, and I barely stopped after each room to scan it for hostile enemies and to grudgingly admire the place. Whoever owned it certainly had a taste for fashion, I thought with a smile. Too bad he won`t be alive for too much longer.
My name is Alexander Red, and I am, as you might already begin to suspect, a highly trained assassin. I am not only a good assassin, I am the
best
assassin, and that is not just arrogance speaking, we have enough time for that later, but rather a pure fact.
I have been engineered by my father to be the perfect fighter. Somehow, he manipulated my genes, or that`s what I assume he did, to make me stronger, smarter, and faster than anyone else.
Who is my father to play god, you ask? Excellent question, one I have asked myself often enough. I am not the first of his experiments, in fact I am the tenth generation, hence my operation name Agent X10. My father is a high-ranking officer in an intelligence agency, the CIA to be exact, and has tested and perfected his procedure on nine other agents before turning to his own son. I am also the last of my kind to be modified in such as fashion, and I don`t know if he will create more.
Back on the mission, I heard loud voices coming from a particularly grand entrance, and I slowly made my way to it. I held my breath and listened, but they were jabbering in some language I didn`t understand, which was curious. I am fluent in all major languages and learn extremely fast, which means that I can learn any language in about a week, simply by exposure.
I wasn`t going to stick around for a week, however, and so I peered as stealthily as I could around the corner. The room was different than the rest. It was a large assembly room with space for about 100 people.
Cartons and boxes were littered around the place, with two dozen workers scuttling around, preoccupied in their tasks, which seemed to be moving the boxes around. I could see that the room was once beautiful, but the armed men had torn down the paintings, smashed and destroyed anything not firmly attached to the floor, and singed the walls and the ceiling. A pungent smell hung in the air, and I felt like a cage full of hairy, sweaty, unwashed male gorillas would smell better.
I took all of this in in a fraction of a second, when a worker in the back looked up and met my gaze. His eyes opened as he prepared to shout and I whipped up a gun and shot him between the eyes before he could do so much as utter a single sound. He slumped lifelessly to the floor and I cursed as the deafening shot rang out. All activity halted as everyone came to a stunned stop to find out what was going on.
That was when I acted.
Pulling out a second gun, I jumped into the room and began firing rapid headshots in a quick burst of ammunition. Blood sprayed in the air as my bullets found their marks, and after a few moments my ammo ran out, and I dived to safety behind a bunch of big, heavy looking boxes to reload. The stunned mob broke out of their shock and quickly started firing at my position. The noise was tremendous, if I weren`t wearing special earplugs exactly for this situation, I would be deafened too quickly for my liking. My enemies didn`t have the same luck, and after a while the first stopped shooting, clutching their ears.
I sprang up and sprayed them with my second load, running towards the next best cover, and between the thunderous sound and the bullets, they didn`t stand a chance. Within moments all but a handful were dead or dying, and those that turned to run didn`t get far before the back of their heads exploded, I noticed with the grim satisfaction only an assassin can have.
I reached the other entrance and with a quick, analyzing backwards glance, I left the room. Already now it began to reek of death, mixing with the already vile smell to create something approximating a chemical bio-weapon. I dearly hoped I wouldn`t have to go back this way, but I was getting ahead of myself. Focus and finish the job first, worry about possibly deadly gas later. With my priorities reasserted, I continued with my mission.
Since half the city must have heard the shooting, I moved quickly through the bright hallways, not bothering with stealth anymore. I knew the target was in room 404, and I took notes of the numbers of the doors I was passing.
399... 400... 401... 402... 403...
Finally, door 404 came into view, not that I needed to look at the number to know this was the door I was looking for. The original oak door had been ripped off its hinges and the surrounding wall torn down to make place for the new, improved door, if one could call it that. It was a massive iron block with intricate carvings of monstrous creatures and strange worlds, and as I watched the monsters came to life and battled in the iron door, roaring and swiping at each other with sharp claws.
I blinked, and the image froze again. Was it my imagination? Before I could react, the door slowly creaked open, and I seized my chance to leap into the room.
"Welcome, human." A deep voice rang out, and I turned to the source. An ordinary looking man stood behind a large wood desk. He was dressed in a business suit and had made his dark hair into a fashionable haircut. The most striking feature was his poison-green eyes on his malicious face.
I didn`t waste any time and shot him between the disturbing eyes, expecting him to fall over.
Except he just grinned and kept standing.
"What the hell?" I muttered.
His grin widened and I saw sharp teeth, too many for a normal man to have.
"Human weapons don`t work on me, little one," he said. "You are the first to have made it this far. You will make a fine meal."
With that, his eyes began to glow in earnest as he advanced on me with a predatory look. I was getting worried now. That thing wasn`t human, and weapons didn`t work on it!
Thank god I was a master of almost all martial arts. He was almost upon me when I leapt up and swung my fist into his surprised face. My hardened knuckled met him with a loud crunch and the powerful blow lifted him into the air. I took a nimble step in his direction and with an overhand blow slammed him into the floor. I jumped on him, but before I could do anything he jumped up faster than should have been possible and backhanded my body like an annoying fly. I gasped for air as the wind was knocked out of me and I was flung into the far side of the room, where I fell limply on the floor, my body refusing to move.
The being with the glowing green eyes walked over angrily to me.
"How is this possible? No mortal can touch me, let alone hurt me!" With one hand, he grabbed me by my neck and in a vice grip lifted me off the floor. I gagged uselessly as he hissed into my face. "Who sent you? Tell me or I will promise you a most gruesome death."
He studied my dangling and captured form, and when I made no move as to speak, he swung me over his head and into the floor. My vision filled with stars as I felt him lean over me, but I swung my elbow and was rewarded by what sounded like his jaw breaking. Ignoring my swimming vision, I jumped on him and wrapped my hands around his throat. He gurgled and thrashed violently but I held on for dear life, putting everything I had into it. I let out an animalistic scream as my fingers dug through his throat and crushed his windpipe. He let one last mighty heave that flung me off him before slowing down and eventually not moving at all.
I panted heavily as I watched his limp form. What was that all about? What the hell was going on?
His form began glowing green, and I groaned as I sat up, not ready to fight again.
His entire body was turning into green light and vanishing, and after a few moments, all that was left was an almost empty business suit with an object lying in it. I stood up and more limped that walked to where he had been. There, lying in the remains of the creature`s suit, was a golden ring with a bright green gem on top.
Without knowing why I was doing it, I tenderly picked the ring up and put it on my ring finger. It glowed briefly and I gasped as energy flooded my body. It swept through my bloodstream and healed any injuries it found. Within moments I was feeling the best I ever had, and the energy receded, leaving me perfectly healthy again. The glowing stopped, and the ring vanished.
