Chapter 3

First Blood

A briefing room buried deep inside the Triskelion rang with occasional commotion of newbloods and team leaders, both discussing the upcoming assignment shown in front of them. Among the agents and staffs coming and going stood a fairly muscular figure in his borrowed tuxedo, who had powers no one in this room could possibly determine in the near future.

"So this is my first assignment?" Anakin questioned while staring at the holographic briefing displayed in the center of the table, with his new teammates circled around the state-of-the-art projector. He was looking at a job that required him to bring down a drug cartel operating somewhere down in a wasteland called Mexico, only that Mexico was in fact quite far from a wasteland.

An easy in and out job, any SHIELD agent with a class 2 clearance or above would say, and so would Anakin if only he was fully aware of what he has to do. Unfortunately he was nothing but confused, only able to learn info about his job through the tongues of his fellow teammates who were obviously more aware than him.

From what he could hear he had to rig the cartel facility with some 'plastic charges', right in where the building's structure is at its weakest. Simple enough, he thought. If the Force doesn't fail me. And before that, was sophisticated stealth entry that comes with strict rules and regulations that were meant to ensure success. But Anakin couldn't care less about it, he never had the luxury to have any food with even the slightest scent since his rebirth.

"Yes you've heard it right, rookies. You first test of what you've learned in the past three months. What you're seeing is a warehouse in the suburbans of Mexico City, a favourite location for drug cartels like THE Mafia, or whatever name you practice. You'll be riding into the city as a fellow citizen who just came back shopping in the West Coast. You will surround and infiltrate the target building through here, here and here." Anakin's new commanding officer Lee pointed on the screen.

"When you do you will proceed to your designated hard points to plant your package. Once you do so, depart immediately through where you came from without delay, or there's gonna be a lot more paperwork for all of us to take care of." Commander Lee continued. "And strictly no firearms unless absolutely necessary, for the sake of this mission." He added before leading the team to inspect their gear.

Anakin was more than capable of understanding the nature of his job, thanks to his countless experience during both the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War in which he was partly responsible of starting. In fact, the only thing that got to his nerves were the sheer amount of stealth needed to pull this off, something he's not a big fan of.

"From this point on these blue guns you're looking at will be your new best friend. Commonly known as ICERs, these things might differ from the guns you usually practice on. Barely any recoil, newly made grip, but most important of all, they can't kill." Lee explained patiently. "But make no mistake, it can still cause a heck lot of trouble if in the wrong hands."

"Arm up. Victors are rolling out in T-minus twenty!" Lee ordered sharply, killing any drowsiness still left in the bodies and minds of his men. Anakin skilfully filled his pockets with weapons, mostly given to them in this room they're in. He took a peek at the pistol's glowing slide, loaded a fresh magazine with the same glow on the side of it, and carefully concealed it in his standard issued windbreaker.


Tristan glanced at the endless queue of the undead traffic lined up in the opposite lane. The people rotting in their sedans and jeeps were shouting out in dismay to the slow progress of the immigration counter lying dozens or hundreds of meters ahead of them. Some were simply too impatient to remain in their cars and decided to get out for a stretch, not surprising for the novice agent who lives only ah hour's drive away from the Mexican border.

The lane they're on wasn't any better, bad odds for any covert operatives like them or the special forces units, shall they ever be ordered deep into this land of drugs. They've been stuck in the same position for the last half an hour, so long that some of the members were beginning to wonder who hired such inefficient border staffs in the first place.

The young Tristan had no idea what the agent sitting next to him was up to, as his eyes were shut right when Lee gave him permission to take a break. To top that, the traffic jam which every human being hates has hardly caused him problems. "Just what the heck is he made of?" Tristan joked.

"You've been asking that for at least four times." The driver reminded, no less frustrated than Tristan or anyone who wasn't meditating like Anakin was.

"Well, but I still don't have a valid answer." He said. At that point their ride was finally able to move a dozen of inches, good progress for the agents even though it was slow enough to put everyone out by the end of the day. "It's not gonna end till nightfall, do I get it right?" He asked.

The driver paused for a moment or so and got a good look of their situation. At least seventy more cars to go, in other words, even nightfall's not going to get them anywhere. Thankfully Lee's plan ensured that whatever time they approach, the plan will go without a hitch, or so he claims.

Anakin jolted upright and bashed his head with the ceiling of their sedan with no warning, startling the driver and mostly, Tristan. "You all right?" He couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah. Just got caught up meditating." Anakin answered. By then the sky had already undressed its blue shade. A series of yellow lines glowing above the horizon took its place, and lying in the middle was the sun about to disappear very soon.

"All right. I call that progress. If I were you, I'd get some rest Tristan." The driver commented after resting his right foot on the pedal and held it there for a second.


Anakin paced into the alley with a shroud of dreadful smell. A rat happened to sprint past him, apparently short of food, but he, as he should have, paid no attention to such minor detail and focused on getting into the shaft right above a stained trash bin. After that he's going to drill a hole into a weak point of the complex with an experimental drill which Tristan's carrying, while his other teammate's in charge of fooling nearby cameras with the old-fashioned trick of sticking a replica of the area it's filming.

He stepped on top of the fragile bin, ignorant to the wobbly structure ready to fall apart any moment. Tristan nervously kept his eyes on the alley they came from, afraid that an unsuspecting thug would suddenly make an appearance around the corner.

With his force powers Anakin easily made his way into the shaft almost narrow enough to break his skull, but not without making a few bangs and thuds as he progressed deeper into the complex with a handful of plastic charges.

He was about to call for Tristan through his radio when he lost his balance and nearly fell through an opening directly below him, which would make him collapse on a guard below and compromise everyone else. He was about to panic, but with the eyes of the guard closing in he hurriedly withdrew his body from the opening, and managed to stay out of sight.

He didn't dare to talk to anyone, knowing that no matter how low he keeps his volume, the guard would surely hear the chatter. For a moment he thought of using the Force as he always did in his old days, but no longer could he, as he was teamed up with normal people who never even knew the true definition of a midi-chlorian. So with no other choice, he bagged the idea and made a jump for the guard, with the ICER in his sweating palm.