There is a time in everyone's lives where the possibility of something going south is so low, that there was little to no chance of failure. It's just too good to be true. This was not what I thought, because I was too stupid to see the signs of the artifact going haywire.
I was on my very first solo mission, well sort of. I was on my own, but I had a Master Assassin to follow me and make sure that I didn't get killed. All she did was follow me in the shadows.
It was simple: gather as much Intel as I can on the Templar Grand Master, Adrian Welcrest, and if the situation warrants, capture his right-hand man/lap dog William Armsworth.
I am Dean Wilkes; I am an agent, of sorts, for the Assassins. To my mentors I'm a novice, but I already feel so much more than that. I am a master of free running, hiding in the shadows, sneaking, I could pick pocket the money out of your wallet even if you were watching me, and even fear, a tactic that I mastered on a field trip to the Indian Brotherhood near the borders of where the old Sikh Empire used to be. And I'm only 16.
The Master Assassin's name was, Julia, she was absolutely beautiful. Long dirty blond hair, tall and thin like me, but just as athletic, cute little nose, and pure blue eyes. But just like me, trained to kill. She's only a higher rank than me because she was initiated into the Brotherhood before I was. I had a crush on her. And I think she had a little thing for me, but she never showed it.
Our trip to the facility took 18 hrs. The facility was located in Illinois, but we were located somewhere in the state of New York. It was kind of weird, the brotherhood sending us on a mission halfway across the U.S. but they decided to send us there, instead of sending assassins from Chicago to tackle this mission. I thought that there was something going on that when more deep than I had originally thought.
We rode together in one of the Brotherhood's cars. They have different cars for different purposes. The have cars of all sorts, ordinary, service, city, four-door, two-door, police cars, military, pickup trucks, Chevy, Ford, GMC, Toyota, and even Ferraris. Julia and I drove in a black Chevrolet Camry. We looked like a young couple out on a date.
"Do you think we could make it the full way if we drove through the night?" Julia had asked me. To be honest, we definitely could've, but I didn't want to drive all night.
"Ya I think we could, but I would like to stop at some point." I said.
"Do we have money for a hotel room?" she asked
"No but I have an idea" I replied.
We made it into, and my idea came into place at a Marriott Inn & Suites.
"Here's the plan, we climb to a room and we use Eagle Vision to see if there is anyone inside."
Have you ever tried scaling a 13-story building all the way to the top floor? Unless you're a criminal of some sorts my guess is no. But, let me tell you a little tidbit of information to use when doing so. PICK THE BUILDINGS THAT HAVE THEIR OWN TERRACES!
Julia and I are both amazing at climbing, but we don't normally train on walls that don't have anything to grab onto. I decided just to climb all the way to the top of the building to use Eagle Vision.
Eagle Vision, a 6th sense if you may call it, is a combination of all the five senses into one feeling that can be used to find anything. It's practically like having all your senses work together at the same time to create an amazing combination that can see ANYTHING.
I closed my eyes, concentrating. I opened them, to see with all my senses. The floor right below me had no one in it at all. I told Julia that we should use this one.
We sneaked in through the ventilation.
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Julia asked.
"Yeah, it's just a few more steps."
Just then we both heard the sound of metal creaking. And not a moment later we fell through an overhead vent on a bed. Julia landed right on top of me.
*Groan*
"Thanks for breaking my fall." Julia said.
"Groan," I started, "it's ok, my face broke my fall anyway. Let's just get to bed."
I got up and went to the bathroom to freshen up.
"Hey Dean?" I heard Julia yell.
"What?"
"There is a small problem."
"What is it?"
I got done refreshing. I opened the door and looked to see Julia standing next to the bed we fell on, the ONLY bed in the room.
"Uhhh, that is a problem," I started. I like Julia, but us sleeping in the same bed together would be very awkward. "I have no ideas"
"What are we going to do?" she started, "the only chair here is made of wood. And we can't just call down to the lobby and say 'hey me and a friend just broke into this room, we were wondering if we could maybe upgrade a room to one that has two beds, oh and also some room service."
"Yeah, no." I started. Feeling sort of chivalrous I said, "I'll sleep on the chair tonight. You can sleep in the bed. You're the master here."
"No I'm not letting that happen." She said.
"No, I said I will sleep on the chair" I countered
"No, I said it's ok if you sleep with me on the bed."
"Julia, it's fine, I will sleep on the chair."
"NO, as a Master, I am ordering you, a Novice to not sleep on the chair."
She used the only thing in this world that would have made me cave, the "I have authority over you" card.
"Ok, fine." I said. "Let's just get to bed. We have a very big and long day ahead of us."
Later that night…
I felt cold. Bitter. Stabbing. Unforgiving. Chilling. Cold. I was running away. The thought of looking back made my blood run even colder. I heard him yelling behind me
"FIND HIM! AND IF HE COMES BACK DEAD YOU WILL BE TOO"
"I have to get this tracking device off my ankle." I thought to myself.
I frantically looked for something to pry it off with. Then, I found it. A large rock, twice the size of my hand, I sat down and took it with two hands. I raised it above my head. I blinked and for a split second, the tracking device had a face, and a body, dressed in medieval armor with a red cross on the helmet. I was much older, dressed in black silk robes. I looked up to my hands to see the rock replaced with a large mace, and burned to my left hand a symbol, an A with the bar in the middle lowered to the bottom and curved downward, the symbol of the Assassins. There was only one thing I could do.
"Goodbye, old friend" I said as I lowered the mace to the man's face.
"Goodbye, James" the man said, with a tear in his eye.
I woke up, in a cold sweat. Breathing heavily. My tank top soaked in sweat. I looked over at Julia. She was sound asleep, with a little smile on her face. I looked at the clock. It said 4:06 AM. I'll wake her up at six.
I carefully go up out of bed, trying not to wake her. I went to the bathroom sink. I cupped some water into my hands and brought it to my face. These nightmares were becoming all too frequent, all too real.
"You awake?"
Julia's voice startled me.
"Yeah" I quickly thought of an excuse, "I was just using the bathroom."
"Well hurry up and come back to bed." She said yawning.
I walked over to the bed and got in.
"Where you having a nightmare?" She asked.
"No"
"Well I was fine, but just a minute ago my good dream became a nightmare. I think it was when you went to the bathroom." She said.
I was starting to think that she had nightmares on a nightly basis just like me. Only mine won't go away just by being near someone.
I sat there for a few hours, while she slept like a baby I was awake, thinking about the farm.
We left around 6:30. We barely said a word to each other on the way.
I got suited up just before we arrived. The typical assassin getup normally consisted of a pair of loose jeans or sweatpants, accompanied by a loose jacket always with a hood to hide our faces. Our equipment included night vision goggles, a lock picking kit, a silenced pistol, hacking equipment, smoke and stun grenades, I stole a whole box of fear tools from the Indian Brotherhood, that's another story for later, and the one thing that divines the Assassin existence, a hidden blade. How do we fit all of that stuff on our persons? That is a story for another time.
The hidden blade is the weapon of choice of the earliest of assassins, but the more modern ones are electric, able to knock out an enemy or target with a tap of the two metal prongs to skin. The main use is to shove the blade into the enemy's body, effectively killing him/her.
Around 7:00 PM Julia and I arrived at the facility, heavily guarded top-secret lab hidden somewhere in a forest in Illinois. The word around the Order was that the Grand Master himself was there. If you'd ask me, I would say it's a load of bull. Why would they send me on my first mission if the Grand Master were hiding there?
"Aright, Dean, this is your mission." Julia started "You call the shots. You're the Master, and I'm the Novice."
"Alright." I said. "First things first we need to get a view of where we are, then find the fastest route to William's computer."
"Good plan" she replied.
We climbed the highest tree we could find. We got to the top to get a look at the facility, a three-story tall building, with eight-foot high electric fences surrounding the perimeter. The tree was about 10 feet away from the fence. We had to find a way inside.
"There is a large pile of empty cardboard boxes over there towards the end of the fence." I said noticing the pile. "Leap of Faith."
We jumped from the tree. The leap of faith is simple, jump from a building, somersault in air and land on your back in the middle of a soft pile.
I used eagle vision to see if there were any guards. Three armed guards patrolling the grounds, and one sniper on a perch overlooking the whole area.
"Julia, take out the sniper, don't care how." I said. "And take out the guard closest to his tower, I will take the other two."
"Yes, sir" she answered with a solute.
I put my hood up. Time to take out some Templar scum. I waited until the sniper wasn't looking anymore, then snuck out of my hiding spot to the first guard.
I snuck up to him, the guard had his back to me, perfect opportunity to take him out. I slowly walked towards him. He didn't suspect a single thing.
As I got within touching distance from the guard, and with the flick of my wrist the two-pronged stinger came out with an electric whine. The guard noticed the sound of the electricity, but before he could look I tapped his neck with them. After a small spasm, he fell to the ground. But, when he had fallen his head hit the side of the building he was patrolling, ending with a loud thud.
The other guard had noticed this. Before panic had made itself known, and before the guard started to turn, i started to run. 40 feet, the guard slowly twisted his body. 30 feet, the guard's was body was facing me. 30 feet, he turned his head. 20 feet, he saw me running. 10 feet, he started to set his sights on me. 5 feet, I extended my blade. 1 foot, I shoved the stingers in his chest, killing him.
My first kill, and the first time I almost died. I silently congratulated myself. But the memory was short-lived, as all of a sudden, I heard the sound of a bullet entering the concrete ground a foot away from my feet, and seeing a red dot officiated an inch near the bullet hole
I put my hands on top of my head, and turned around. I looked up to see the sniper with his gun pointed at my chest. I started to panic, and just as he was about to pull the trigger, the guard was pushed off his perch. I looked up, to see Julia smiling and waving at me. With a sigh of relief, I waved back.
After she got down from the perch, we looked for a door. We found one near the ladder of the sniper's perch, with a key card mechanism next to it. Luckily, Julia had swiped a card from the sniper. Now all we need to do is get the data.
We searched through the halls of the facility for William's room, which should contain his computer. After about five minutes of nothing except storage rooms and the occasional guard, that we knocked out and hid in the storage rooms, we decided to split up.
Julia went on her way and so did I. after another five minutes I found his room. I looked inside to make sure that he wasn't inside. After seeing that he wasn't in his room, I went to his computer to download the files. I pulled out my smartphone, which doubles as a hacking device, and plugged it into his computer. With the touch upon my phone's screen, all of his files started to download to my phone. This process would take about five minutes.
A few minutes into the downloading, Julia had walked in.
"I see you're up to no good." She said, with a smirk.
""Oh god" I thought to myself.
"Yes, I am almost done" I said.
"Well, I found something interesting," she started, "that is, if you are interested"
"If it's cool, i'm in," I started. "And by the way, it's done"
"Follow me." She said.
I followed her through the corridors. To be honest, i was a little uneasy about this, the mission was over, unless we found William. But there was something about this that gave me an off feeling. She led me to a library.
"I don't get it. It's just a library" I said.
"It's what you can't see with the naked eye" She replied.
I closed my eyes and concentrated all my senses into one vision, Eagle Vision. There, on one of the bookcases, a book was shimmering in gold. I went up and pulled it. Behind the book was a button. When i pressed the button the whole bookshelf started to move, leaving a set of stairs. I looked at Julia and smiled.
"Ladies first" I said still smiling.
We walked down the flight of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs there was a small dimly lit hallway with a room at the end of the hallway.
We walked to the room. Once we reached the room we noticed that it was a laboratory. There was lab equipment everywhere. But the weirdest thing was in the center of the room. An altar with a necklace sitting on it. The necklace had a pendant. The pendant was a hand with a paw in the middle of the palm. But there was something else about it that sent me off. The pendant had markings all over it. But julia had taken a sudden interest in the necklace for she went up to pick it up.
"Don't touch it." I said.
"Why?" She asked.
"The markings remind me of a-" I started only to get cut off.
"Stop right there!" A voice sounded behind me.
I turned around to see the Grand Master himself standing in the hallway, with his lap dog right beside him with a gun pointed towards my chest.
"Did you really think that you could just break into my top secret facility and steal my research?" Adrian asked.
I put my hands up.
"To be honest," I started, "Yes. but i had no idea that you had a shard of eden in the facility"
"Ah yes," He began, "the shard, have you any idea what abilities it grants the user."
"The ability to see through the eyes on an animal, I don't know" i replied
"Not quite" he said, "you see, this little pendant here has the ability to turn the wearer and his followers into animals."
"Ah i see," i started, "you plan to change into a chiwawa."
Julia giggled at my joke.
"HA HA HA" the grand master laughed, "Be careful what you say, subject 501. But there is another ability it grants the user, a form of teleportation."
That name, I hadn't heard in two years. But I still took a step back, and put my hands in front of me to defend myself, my heart racing. I had to think fast, I am NOT going back to the Medieval period. Just the I thought of something, I put my hands down, and slowly reached my hands behind my back. I pulled out a two pronged spike, and a smoke grenade. I pulled the pin on the smoke. Before I knew what I was doing, I threw the smoke at Wiliam.
The canister hit him in the chest before exploding in a cloud of thick smoke. Julia and I dodged to the side, before five bullets pierced through the smoke. Using Eagle Vision I slowly crept up to william as he was unloading his old clip. I ran up to him and kicked him in the shin. He fell over clutching his leg. I gripped the spike and with some proper aiming, I pinned it to the ground, the two prongs weren't touching his leg, but where they came together they pretty much skewered him to the ground. I released the spike, and a small cloud of gold enveloped him, and a second later he was screaming in fear. No time to explain how they work just yet.
The cloud of smoke started to dissipate. When I looked around I gasped in horror. There was Julia, holding the necklace, and Adrian with his hand over her mouth and a gun to her head.
"You have a choice here." Adrian started. "You can leave, let me keep her as my prisoner. Or, you can take her place as subject 501 again."
I didn't know what to do, I am not going back in the machine, but I can't let her go through the same torture I went through. I had to choose.
"I will take her place." I said before I thought.
"Fine," he started, "There are handcuffs in Will's pocket, put them on."
I turned around and when to Will, who passed out from the panic. I grabbed the handcuffs from his jacket pocket. I cuffed one of the cuffs to my left hand, and as i was about to do the same to my other hand I heard Adrian yelling. I turned around to see Julia with Adrian's hand in her teeth. Just as she let go Adrian hit her on the top of her head with the butt of his gun. She fell, knocked out, and dropped the necklace
"NOW" I thought.
I lunged forward to grab the necklace. As I slid on the ground, Adrien realized I was going for the necklace. Just as the necklace hit the ground, something happened, the pawprint on the hand started to glow white. The glow got bigger and bigger until it looked like a portal or sorts. No, it was a portal, and it had a gravitational pull, it was pulling us in. I tried to grab onto the leg of a table or something, but nothing was close enough. I realized that Julia wasn't being pulled in, so before I thought, I put the other cuff on her hand. And we were pulled in.