Earth-717 Special #1: Project Origin
Chapter 1: Black Room
"You have one new message."
"Iain? It's Genevieve. I received the incident reports from the Perseus facility. Were you aware of the gross misconduct that was occurring under your watch? This is completely unacceptable. I hope you have a fitting explanation for all this, because frankly I am this close to filing a full internal investigation and shutting Perseus down. I will not tolerate either incompetence or insubordination within this organization. I've put too much, sacrificed too much, for it all to go up in smoke because of the failures of others. Do I make myself clear? Give me a call back as soon as you get this and we'll set up a meeting with the board. This is your only chance, Hives. Talk to you soon."
"Don't you remember this place? The place where you were born?"
Blood streamed down the man's face.
"I can feel your thoughts. The ones we put there. The ones that shaped you."
He turned his head slightly to the side.
"Welcome home, lapochka."
July 11th, 1987
9:36 PM
Janice was typing inside of her cubicle when she sniffed, smelling something warm. Looking up from her work and out into the hallway, she saw Bill walking by with a pizza box in his hand.
"Hey!"
Bill stopped and looked at her.
"Hey, Jan!"
"You got pizza?"
"Yeah. Pepperoni and extra cheese."
Bill opened the box, displaying the pizza to her. It looked delicious.
"Smell that?" asked Bill. "Oh, so good. Want a slice?"
"Um . . . . yes."
Janice grabbed a napkin off her desk and reached into the box, pulling a slice out of it. The gooey cheese stretched and ripped as she yanked out the slice and held it in her hand on the napkin. She smiled at Bill as she bit in, while he closed the box. Janice moaned with pleasure at the taste of the pizza.
"Good?"
"Yes. Oh my god. Mmmm. You get it delivered?"
"Yeah."
"You buzz the delivery guy in? Aristide will be pissed."
"Ah, Genevieve's a fucking rotten bitch anyway."
"True that," chuckled Janice. "That woman needs to get laaaaaaaid. Bet that bony ass hasn't gotten any dick since the Lizard King died."
Bill broke into a laugh, holding his hand over his mouth. Snorts and giggles could be heard from people in the nearby cubicles.
Suddenly, the lights all went out simultaneously.
"Huh?"
"What?"
"You fucking kidding?"
"Power outage?" asked Bill, looking upwards. "What happened to the backup generator?"
"I dunno," responded Janice. "Hey . . . ."
Janice looked over at the phone on her desk. The red light was flashing.
"How can the phone still be . . . ."
A chill shivered up her spine as she felt something move behind her. Slowly turning her head, she saw Bill drop the pizza box. Out of the corner of the window behind him, she could see the face of a little girl, looking through the glass. She noted to herself that that was impossible, given that the window would be several dozen metres into the air. The girl's brow was lowered, with unwashed black hair flowing down both sides of her face. She was wearing a red dress.
One of the overhead bulbs exploded, and then the office was filled with the sounds of gunshots and screaming. Bill was repeatedly struck by bullets from an automatic weapon held by an unseen assailant. Janice screamed as he fell to the floor, his clothes gushing in blood. Frozen by fear, she looked up at the little girl again. The girl's darkened, orange eyes seemed to be staring right at her.
Right through her.
"Kill them. Kill them all."
Janice felt the cold, unbroken gaze of the girl pierce her mind. All that was left was shrieking until her brain crumbled to dust.
ACCESSING DATA FILES . . . .
DATA ACCESSED.
PERSONNEL RECORDS. AUTHORIZATION: FURY. NICHOLAS J.
-Agent Ten: Belova, Yelena-
-Skills: Marksmanship, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Leadership-
STATUS: ASSIGNED.
-Agent Eleven: Sun-Kwon, Jin-
-Skills: Medical Expertise, Field Medic Combat Training, Forensics Analysis-
STATUS: ASSIGNED.
-Agent Thirty-Two: Kaminsky, Kyle-
-Skills: Marksmanship, Computer Sciences, Weapons Engineering-
STATUS: ASSIGNED.
PERSONNEL RECORD REPLACEMENT.
DATA FILE: AGENT EIGHT.
DELETE?
Y.
AGENT FILE DELETED.
NEW FILE. INPUT RELEVANT DATA.
-Agent Eight: Romanova, Natalia Alianovna-
-Skills: Marksmanship, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Infiltration-
STATUS: ASSIGNED.
MISSION COMMANDER:
-Agent Five: Betters, Rodney-
STATUS: ASSIGNED.
CONFIRM MISSION PARAMETERS?
Y.
MISSION PARAMETERS CONFIRMED. FILING ORDERS. CREATING ARCHIVE . . . .
LOG OUT?
Y.
LOG OUT: FURY. NICHOLAS J.
Kaminsky held the door open for Jin. After she had entered the meeting room, he looked back to see the new agent walking towards him. She had long, red hair that reached down nearly her entire back. Despite the harshness of her cheek bones, she had a beautiful face. He noticed that she had green eyes; a rarity amongst people with her hair colour. He silently wondered whether or not her hair colour was natural, given how vibrant it was. She was wearing a black, form-fitting catsuit with an equipment belt. A handgun holster was affixed to both of her hips. The buckle at the centre of the belt had a red hourglass symbol on it.
He held the door open for her as well, putting on a smile as he did so. She walked past him without looking at him. He frowned and rolled his eyes as he entered the meeting room, letting the door close behind him. He scratched the back of his neck as he took his place in line with the other agents, including Yelena, who was already in the room before they had arrived. She was wearing a similar bodysuit to the new agent, but with small white patches on certain areas. She also had blonde hair. Jin was to his left, Yelena to his right. The new agent was standing on the other side of Yelena.
Rodney was standing in front of a computer on the meeting desk. The portly man was wearing his blue officer's garb, along with a cap that had an eagle logo inside of a circle. Kaminsky noted to himself that he had never seen the man without his cap on. Rodney took a sip from his coffee mug, which had the same eagle logo on it.
"Now that we're all here, let's begin," said Rodney.
Rodney reached out with his right hand and pressed three keys on the keyboard. A projector attached to the ceiling started displaying a slide show of images on the nearby wall. All four agents watched as the images flickered. The first one was of a fairly nondescript office building.
"Seventy two minutes ago, the Armacham Technology Corporation's main headquarters in Portland went dark. The complex they own is composed of three main office buildings and several smaller facilities, all connected via the same private generator."
The images flipped from Armacham's company logo to several other shots of the various buildings making up the complex.
"On top of this, there are reports of an unknown armed force having seized the compound. They've allegedly taken hostages amongst the employees, but no demands have been made at this time."
Kaminsky raised an eyebrow.
"What's Portland PD doing?"
"Nothing. They've been given strict orders to maintain the perimeter but not attempt any kind of infiltration."
"What?" asked Jin. "Who authorized that? And why are we involved?"
"The Director has been monitoring a situation that's been brewing inside of Armacham for a while now. He's the one who gave the order for Portland PD to stay back and let us handle this."
"Handle what? You still haven't told us what this is about, or why you pulled together this team."
Rodney exhaled as the image on the wall flipped to an Armacham file with plenty of censored black bars on the text.
"What I say right now does not leave this room," stated Rodney. "Fury pulled us five in on this. Why us specifically, I don't know, but my orders are that no one else is ever to learn what I'm about to tell you."
Kaminsky and Jin looked at each other with suspicious eyes. Yelena folded her arms. The new agent didn't move.
"According to the files Fury sent me, Armacham was working on a secret project involving a mutant. No details on the identity. Don't know the name, age, or even gender. What we do know is that apparently . . . . it's a telepath."
Kaminsky widened his eyes.
"Oh shit."
"Confirmed?" asked Jin.
"Yeah. The Director's sources say it's the real deal, not like that goose chase a few years back. We have our first confirmed telepath. Able to manipulate psychic energy for numerous effects. Read minds, manipulate thoughts . . . . no one knows how far it goes. This could be the most powerful mutant ever recorded. If word of this got out, it could send the entire country into a panic. According to the classified field report, people at Armacham were experiencing what they referred to as . . . . a paranormal disturbance."
"Fuck."
"No wonder he wants this under wraps," said Kaminsky.
"You're getting sent in under First Encounter Assault Recon protocols. This is a completely unprecedented combat scenario. Secure the site and be ready for anything. I'll be running mission command from here. Agent Ten, you are team leader."
"Understood," said Yelena.
"Agents Eleven and Thirty-Two, you are performing your standard support roles."
Rodney then looked at the new agent.
"Agent Eight, you'll be on point."
She nodded in response. Kaminsky furrowed his brow.
"Your helicopter leaves in ten minutes. Any questions?"
Kaminsky chuckled.
"Yeah, I got one. Are you serious?"
"Yes. Grab your gear. Ten minutes."
"They left her in there. Can you believe it? Left her in a little black room."
The man stared as the blood continued to drip from his forehead.
"Locked away forever. Out of sight . . . . out of mind. They thought no one would be the wiser. That no one would ever uncover their little secret. The skeleton they had buried so long ago."
The man cracked a small smile.
"They were wrong. Someone found it. Found her. Found that little black room, the little black box . . . . and took a peek. They deserve to die. They all deserve to die. Because that's the thing about skeletons . . . . they have all the time in the world, and nothing left to do . . . . but remember."