Chapter 2

(Dante's pov)

04:09 AM

I managed to find an abandoned shelter in Spain once I got away from any ADVENT soldiers and started boarding up some holes in the shelter so that no one sees me in here. But the thing that scares me is the chip installed in my skull. It's that there's no doubt in my mind that ADVENT will find me in a heartbeat if I'm not careful. To calm my nerves, I decided to sleep(crazy part is my eyes are still opened when I sleep.) a bit and lay down on a bed(that's in decent condition.) and did my best to forget about the bad things that happened...that lasted for a while when I heard the front door open...

The sound of heavy boots coming from the first floor and I was beginning to get worried that ADVENT found me but...I was wrong. The sounds of the heavy boots stopped as I heard a loud sigh.

"I know you're there, kid. Come down." Said a Caucasian man.

I ready my machete as I slowly went down the stairs and I see a average built man in a brown trench coat, brown pants, brown boots, brown hair, brown eyes, has leather gloves and has a scar on his head.

"Relax, kid. I'm not one of those escorias(scumbags) who want you dead." He sighs.

"Then who are you?" I asked not lowering my guard.

"Vulpe." He said as he sat down on a chair.

"Not your real name?" I asked him.

"Codename...I know who you are. A poor kid who was experimented by his own mother then later defects by killing the ADVENT troopers and officers cause he can't stand seeing bloodshed on innocent civilians. Hell of a thing you did to kill them all with only your machete. The speed...the ferocity you had...fantastic."

Whoa...he's good.

"How did-"

"I've been watching you the moment I saw you get experimented. The group I'm with weren't too happy seeing their love ones get experimented on just to be ADVENT material."

Vulpe takes out his cigarette from his coat, lights it up with his lighter as I slowly lower my machete but I'm not going to put it away in case this guy does anything stupid. He starts to smoke to calm his nerves as he looks at me with a neutral expression on his face,

"You're part of the resistance?" I asked him.

"You could say that but enough about that...you got that chip buried in your skull and if we don't get that chip out of your skull, ADVENT will no doubt hunt you down." He said as he gets off the chair.

He then puts his hand in his pocket and takes out familar tool out of his coat. That looks like the same tool Tygan used to remove the chip out of the commander of X-Com.

"Which is why I have this." Vulpe said as he showed it to me.

"Will it hurt?" I asked rather worried.

"Yeah..."

He suddenly looks at the front door open and sees a female Viper rather nervous.

"Vieni qui, cugino(Come here, Cousin.). He won't hurt you."

His cousin!? What the fuck happened to her?!

She slowly slithered behind Vulpe then suddenly looks scared to see me with the machete. Shit...I feel like an asshole scaring her like that.

"Now...Now, Maria. He won't hurt you. He's just as scared as you are." Vulpe said as he looked behind him.

That tone tells me that I should put away the machete or there's going to be trouble. So...I slowly sheathe my machete and kept my hand on the handle of the machete to be on my guard.

"Who...are you?" Maria asks me.

"Dante." I sighed.

"I'm...Maria." She introduced herself more nervous.

"Maria. Get me the anesthetic. I'm going to remove the chip out of his skull." Vulpe said.

She nods as started searching through her bag.

"Is she..."

Vulpe nods slowly...and grimly.

"Yeah...just like you. All I can say is my brother did this to her and got her away from ADVENT when she was sent to kill innocents at Italy. Christ...she never liked getting in fights nor is she a big fan of killing innocents. Now ADVENT want to kill her all because she doesn't want to get involved of mass murder."

"And where did you get that tool?" I asked him.

"My contact gave it to me...before he was shot in sight for stealing ADVENT technology."

Maria gives Vulpe the anesthetic syringe as Vulpe removes the cover of the syringe to reveal needle.

"Okay enough chit chat. I'm going to put you to sleep so I can remove the chip out of your skull more easily. You won't feel a thing...well once the anesthetic wears off you might feel a slight pain. Now...ready?"

"Fine...no funny business." I frowned.

"I promise you, kid. I'm not with ADVENT. Now...sleep dreams." He said as he injected the anesthetic in my arm knocking me out.

...As I was sleeping, I was starting to see a very strange...dream of me (I guess which looks like me as an 17 year old) and another man in military gear.

"You're leaving, Marco?"

"I'm sorry, little brother, but I need to go back."

"To stop some bad guys?"

"Right. I want you to stay with dad to be safe. Behave, okay?"

"Sure thing, bro. Come back alive, okay?"

"Heh...sure."

Then it just ends...was the game giving me memories that I didn't know about? Hm...how curious...I didn't wake up maybe an hour or so due to the effects of the anesthetic kicking in.

When I woke up, I started feeling a bit of pain in my head as Maria looks at me surprised.

"Oh! You're awake!" She said.

"Glad you're awake, kid. Had me worried that I may have killed you by accident."

"How long was I out?"

"The whole morning." He said as he looked out the window.

Yikes...I missed breakfast.

"I left this for you to eat." Maria said as she holds a big fat rat by the tail.

She gives me the dead rat as I swallow the rat whole...ugh. how do snakes get used to that? Kind of hurts my stomach.

"I'm going to have to try and get used to that..." I groaned.

Maria giggled and lays down next to me as Vulpe kept being on look out outside of the house.

"We should be good for now though I won't keep my hope up if ADVENT decides to attack again. We're going to have to go to Rome for more safety."

"But won't the resistance get suspicious about you being with aliens?" I asked him.

"Not the group me and uncle are at." Maria tells me.

"And why is that?" I asked with concern.

"Because I told them about your situation about being experimented on and felt bad for what happened to you. After all most of those people know you and your brother and seeing you look like this has really angered us to see ADVENT stoop to that low. However...I'm going to say this once and once only. Not all aren't too fond of aliens that came from ADVENT roaming Rome so don't anything stupid that you'll regret. If they start something, let me know. Got it?" Vulpe warns me.

"Got it." I sighed.

"One last thing...be on your guard. ADVENT are unpredictable and can attack us than we least expect it."

I just nod as Vulpe walks up the stairs while Maria started looking at Vulpe for a bit then looks at me.

"Are we the only ones that were two kids that were experimented on?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Well for now I guess. I'm not sure if they were others and I pray to God that it didn't happened to them too." Maria said with sorrow.

I hope to God they didn't either...