Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned in this fic that are from James Cameron's Dark Angel. Any characters you may recognise belong to James Cameron and Fox Studios.
Author's Note: In a few of the following chapters, the fic follows the events in Designate This. Please bear with me as this is only for the beginning to help readers who may not have seen this episode to understand where I'm coming from in the future of this fic. Conversations and events that are from 'Designate This' do not belong to me, they once again, belong to Fox Studios.
There's never a day when it seems like it happened to someone else. It always felt real; the pain, the torture, the exhaustion. It's a thing called Manticore. A secret government institution that specializes in producing genetically enhanced super soldiers. We were created and subsequently raised in training to be soldiers and assassins. In the year 2009, twelve of the X5 series escaped and I, along with many of the others, were held in psy-ops to ensure it would not happen again. Almost eleven years later, I had become the perfect soldier, killed many government agents whom opposed my home, my family, my Manticore...I am X5-434.
Headquarters, 2019
"Lights out, 434."
I didn't move, just stared up at the ceiling; my muscles ached from the training session of this afternoon. I'd fought another X5, alas; he was more advanced in the martial arts department than I was. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, focusing my mind on what was to be my new assignment: an ex-Manticore professor. After the escape of the twelve X5's, professors and assistants among many others fled the Manticore headquarters in fear of the government finding out about them. The new and improved Manticore soldiers and assassins hunted down the runaways and killed them; I was among them, of course.
"Lights out, 434! Now!"
I turned my head to the guard standing at my door, peering in through the small bars at the top.
"Yes, sir!"
I motioned to the guard and the lights turned out, bringing in the darkness that meant the end of another day.
"State your designation."
I was in a circular room, the walls made of steel and charts of DNA on them. It made this experience all the more daunting and unpleasant.
"X5-434, ma'am!" I stood tall, chin held high and looked directly into her eyes.
Doctor Elizabeth Renfro or Madame X as she's known pulled out a file and skimmed through it before setting her sights back onto me.
"You've been briefed on your assignment, I trust?" asked Renfro, looking back through my file.
"Yes, ma'am!" I answered confidently.
Renfro nodded and closed the file, "excellent. We've designed a cover for you, 434."
I looked at her expectantly and she smiled slightly, pacing in front of me. She ran her fingers delicately through her short, blonde hair and looked at me again.
"You're going to go in undercover as a martial arts student to our dear old doctor Frederiksen...I hear he's teaching quite a class down in Seattle," Renfro sneered.
I nodded and waited patiently for her to keep explaining anything else about my mission.
"I want you to wipe out his whole family, do you understand me? His wife, children, even their cat. Do we understand each other?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"What?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Thank-you, 434. Dismissed," Renfro waved a hand and a guard stood beside me, ready to lead me to wherever I was going.
I followed the guard obediently and just reached the door when Renfro spoke again.
"Oh, and 434...if you so happen to hear any information on a certain X5, don't hesitate to inform us."
I turned around and looked at her, "do you mean X5-452, ma'am?"
Renfro nodded and I bowed my head slightly, "I will not keep any information hidden."
"Good."
And with that, I was escorted out of the room.
"434!"
"Yes, sir?"
"You have one week to complete this assignment before you return to headquarters for the New Year," a drill sergeant told me.
"Yes, sir."
He handed me a large yellow envelope. I looked at it and then back to the large man.
"Permission to open the envelope, sir?" I asked, despite all my thoughts against it.
The drill sergeant seemed to think over my question and looked over his shoulder.
"Permission granted," he said finally.
I slipped a fingernail underneath the sealing of the envelope and slid it open. I glanced up at the sergeant and then into the envelope; a pair of keys jingled as I slid the contents out onto the hood of a car. A sector pass, I.D card, mobile phone, pager and a few pamphlets fell out.
"Care to explain, sir?" I pushed slightly.
"The keys are to your motorcycle, which has also had a tracking device implanted into it. A sector pass in case things do not go according to plan and you must follow him into another sector of Seattle, an I.D card for obvious reasons and the mobile phone is to be used for contact. If by some unknown reason we cannot reach you on your cell, we will page you and we expect an immediate response. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
"The pamphlets are for hotels, there are seven because as you know--"
"Never stay in one place for too long, sir. One hotel for each night, I understand," I concluded for him.
"One week is all you have, 434. No longer!" the sergeant barked.
I nodded and looked at the black Honda CBR1000 motorbike; I smiled slightly despite myself and put the contents back into the envelope before slipping it inside my black leather jacket. I grabbed the sunglasses off the sergeant's head and slid them over my own eyes, put the keys into the ignition and tore out of the Manticore headquarters' garage. Off to kill another ex-Manticore, what a life.
