Our story begins one fateful day on the streets of Nevada, inside a dingy shack.
A stubbled man lay in a corner, snoring loudly, a beer bottle grasped in his right hand, and golden, heart-shaped locket in the other. He woke suddenly as the door slammed open and a 1337 agent stepped in. "Ahhhh..." the man yelled with a start, "Wh-who are you?"
"I have no need to tell you my name. However, Mister...ah, here we are, Frederick DeNero, we need your help." the agent said. Frederick raised his eyebrow and replied, "Eh, I think you got the wrong guy. I'm retired. Not doing mercenary work anymore. The last I killed, I lost someone I loved."
He flipped open the locket, revealing the image of a young girl, who was smiling. The agent then chuckled.
"Oh, I think I can make something work."
He whipped out a gun and shot at Frederic, who held up the beer bottle equally as fast, and it shattered. Frederic stared at the broken bottle for a second, and then narrowed his eyes and lunged at the agent, stabbing the broken glass into his head. His adversary toppled, and the gun fell out of his grasp. Frederic picked the gun up and cautiously advanced outside, where he was fired upon by several more agents. He rolled out of the way and shot one, then used another as a meat shield against the last two, throwing the bullet riddled body at them. While the pair was distracted, he killed the first of them and prepared to kill the other, only to find that his gun was empty.
"Oh shi-
Frederic was interrupted by two A.T.P. Engineers grabbing him from behind. A needle was inserted in to his back, and soon he found himself slowly falling asleep.
He awoke in a small, plain chamber, sitting at a chair in front of a table, with handcuffs around his wrists and feet. Frederic looked to the side and saw the two guards: GO3LEMs, the extremely powerful super-soldiers of the now-destroyed Project Nexus. It seemed that these two had been rescued from the carnage, and were acting as personal guards for somebody.
The door slid open, and out stepped an agent, who took his glasses off and stared at Frederick for a while. "Do you know who I am?" he finally asked. Frederick spit at him, ad the liquid projectile hit him right between the eyes.
"You realize, Mister DeNero, if you were not so valuable, the you would be dead within five seconds of doing that."
"Phwa. Sure. I would escape a second after that first shot rang out, and you would be dead on the groud."
The Agent growled and if on command black flames began to burst from his back; evil tendrils looking for someone to kill. "I am far more powerful than anything you could imagine, little mercenary, and I could rip you apart in a n instant! Fear me!" he roared, and the room shook.
For the first time in his life, Frederic felt scared.