EDIT: Oh man, I really screwed up on this chapter. Edited out a huge section that I'm still ashamed of ever putting there. Vito doesn't have a barcode, or is named 56. He is simply Mr. Scaletta. Hope you guys don't mind my massive error (it's gone now) '-.-

Ch.4

Vito woke up in a white room that eerily resembled a doctor's office and was just as cold. There was nobody else besides him. The bed he lay on lacked sheets and he felt himself shivering in the drafty room; then he realized that he no longer had his normal clothes on. Instead, he was wearing grey sweatpants and a white tee shirt. He wasn't sure he wanted to know who had undressed him.

Across from him, the door opened and a woman in a navy blue suit walked in, wearing glasses with her dark red hair up in a bun. The heels of her shoes clicked on the tile as she walked towards Vito, extending a hand. Her voice was dainty and British.

"Hello, Mr. Scaletta. I'm Diana, 47's-"

"Controller, yeah, yeah, I know." Vito ignored Diane's extended hand and rubbed the side of his neck, still sore from where the damn agent stabbed him with a needle. He felt more like a captive than anything. After a moment of keeping her hand stretched out, Diana let it fall limply to her side.

"I'm sure Mr.47 has told you everything already."

Vito eyed Diana suspiciously. "Yeah, unless there's something else you're keeping from me. Answer me this: Are you gonna give me back my clothes?"

"I'm afraid not. From now on, you are to wear the outfits that we assign you."

Vito was a little annoyed at this. He'd worn that leather jacket for as long as he could remember, and it was kind of like an old friend. "You mean I have to dress like 47?"

"Similar to him. We dictate that all our agents dress formally."

"Doesn't really make any sense, but as long as I don't have to wear the gloves I am a-OK with it."

Diana looked like she was about to say something else, but something beeped in her pocket and she paused. Her face seemed slightly apologetic as she said, "There's something I must tend to before we can continue this. So please, Mr. Scaletta, excuse me." And just like that, she turned and walked out of the blank room, her black pumps clicking on the polished floor. Vito didn't know what else to do as he sat back on the uncomfortable mattress, letting his eyes roam around the room.

After they gave him a relatively tasteless meal, Vito was still sitting in his bedroom, and he'd been there for so long that he'd already memorized every detail of his room…permanently.

Let's see…white door…white walls…white tile…white bed…white hallways…white, white, more white…I think I've seen enough white to last me an entire lifetime.

Finally the door opened, and in walked Diana, followed by a man in a suit. Vito was so goddamn bored that he was willing to beg her to take him out of this suffocating place. "My apologies for making you wait so long," Diana said while a clipboard rested in her hand. "Follow me, please." Vito was more than happy to.

As they walked down the hallway once more, Diana began to brief Vito on his first mission- at least, his first mission involving the Agency. "You are to accompany 47 to Colombia, where there is a cocaine trade being handled by a drug lord named Miguel Rodriguez- he is to be your main target. Your second target is Luis Andres, the main overseer of the cocaine production and distribution around the city of Bogotá. Miguel will arrive at the site in about four days to see Luis about the cocaine production. I advise that you stay on your guard during this mission as there are sure to be armed overseers throughout the plant."

Vito furrowed a brow at this. "I thought 47 said that you guys were politically neutral."

"We are. This mission was requested by a disgruntled investor."

"Hmm. So what are we supposed to do while we wait for Miguel to arrive?"

They rounded a corner to face a (not surprisingly) white door. When the man opened the door, Vito and Diana stepped inside what looked like a gym occupied by, what Vito assumed to be, other agents. Various exercise machines and equipment lined the walls, and in the center was a large mat with a table at the side. Standing on the mat was no one other than 47, dressed in the same clothing that Vito wore- he still looked elegant, much to the annoyance of Vito.

As he approached the agent, Vito had at least five hundred snide remarks to make that revolved around being stabbed in the neck with a syringe. The first that came out of his mouth was, "Mind taking it easy next time you lay the roofies on me?"

47, as usual, was in no mood to kid around with the Wise Guy. He stated dryly, "As far as I am concerned, Rohypnol was mixed in alcoholic beverages, not taken via needle injection."

Vito was quick to snap back, "Oh, I forgot, you save the roofies for your dates. My bad."

Although 47's face remained placid, Vito saw a flash of indignation in the agent's eyes. Good. He wanted to see something in 47 that still made him a human.

Diana moved uneasily between them. "Let's keep this civil, boys. As an answer to your previous question, Mr. 56, we are going to spend the time training you for this mission. We've assumed that your involvement in the Carlos family has already made you a suitable marksman, although we will have to confirm that later. Right now we are going to focus on the stealth part. For the majority of the day, you are to practice sneak tactics and stealth kills along with melees. 47 will guide you through these."

Vito stared uneasily at 47, wondering whether or not the agent will take this opportunity to kill him and make it look like an accident. But considering 47's caliber, 47 was not prone to accidents, and Diana was surely aware of that. Diana probably wouldn't believe 47 if the agent 'accidently' snapped Vito's neck or 'accidentally' broke a few of Vito's ribs while demonstrating a direct attack. Besides that, Vito felt that he was pretty capable of handling 47 by himself: not to brag, but after taking out O' Neil in prison, nobody wanted to mess with Vito, the Wise Guy, the Steel Knuckles, the Ultimate Killing Machine (okay, okay, maybe he came up with that last one, but he felt it was a fitting title all the same).

Diana stood back from the two, the clipboard resting against her navy suit jacket. "Mr. Scaletta, please walk to the table. Let us try sneak tactics first. I would like you to unlock this toolbox using only this bobby pin." Diana placed the pin in Vito's hand as the man in the suit set a padlocked box on the table across from the new agent. Diana pressed a button on her watch, presumably a stopwatch. "Begin."

Piece of cake, Vito thought to himself, remembering all the times he had broken into cars with hardly a problem, I could break into this thing using only a toothpick.

As it turned out, however, the padlock was being a bit of a bitch. Vito had to focus a little more on it than he would with a regular car door lock, and he had to be careful not to let the bobby pin break inside of it- now that would've been a problem. Vito finally wrestled open the box, but probably not in the time he'd originally expected. Diana checked her watch. "12.07 seconds. Not a bad time, Mr. Scaletta. Let's try a regular door now."

If the toolbox had been a bitch, the door was a motherfucker. Vito felt frustration grow inside of him as he wrestled with the lock using the dinky little bobby pin, feeling the cold glare of 47's eyes on him, almost like he was challenging Vito to beat a certain time. He finally swung open the door, and Diana stopped her watch. "8.5 minutes. Quite impressive as well. That was a Shlage Classic Primus you just unlocked, a commonly used lock in the U.S. A new Shlage lock typically takes between 5 to 15 minutes to picklock." Vito stood back, hands on hips, and glanced over at 47 like he suddenly remembered that the agent was there. "Mind telling me what this guy's time was for the door?"

Diana pursed her lips like she was trying to dig up an old memory. 47 answered for her. "4.3 minutes."

"Ah-huh." The urge to break 47's face on a brick wall suddenly came over Vito again. Not that he was jealous or anything, but he couldn't believe that it took 47 less than half the time to picklock the door. The Wise Guy had always considered himself a pretty good lock picker, but now it seemed he had met his challenge.

For the rest of the day, Vito had to practice stealth maneuvers, takeouts, and finally, after strangling practice, hand-to-hand combat; His opponent was… well, you know already.

Vito and 47 stood across from each other on the mat; around them, other agents had stopped what they were doing on the exercise equipment to watch with casual interest, small smirks on their faces. Vito could practically hear what they were thinking; A new guy against our top agent? This might not go down too well.

Vito bit his lip. Hate to disappoint you guys, but I'm not as easy to beat as you think. Vito had a need to whoop some ass ever since he got into this place, and the fact that it was 47's ass made it even better. He'd taken out several guys when he was in prison, so his fighting skills weren't something to brush off. On the other hand, 47's probably weren't either.

Diana stood off the mat next to the suited man. She tapped her pen on the clipboard. "Hopefully you will never need to resort to close combat, but it is essential to learn for when you must. 56, you are to attack 47, who will protect himself from your advances; try to break his defense."

47 put his hands up in front of his face before placing himself more firmly on the mat. Vito walked over to 47 casually, like a guy with his hands in his pockets would, before suddenly throwing a fist towards the agent's face. 47 easily caught it in one hand and shoved Vito away. Just getting warmed up, the Wise Guy thought to himself, remembering how Joe used to teach him how to fight on the streets. Hit 'im in a place his hands can't get to that fast, Joe used to tell him, like his stomach or something. Or even better, below the belt. Bastard'll never see it coming.

God knows what'll happen if Vito tried to punch 47 in the crotch- probably something that involved rope, a gianormous dartboard, and 47's pistol of choice; so he ultimately decided to aim for the stomach instead.

Vito clenched his fist and swung it towards 47's stomach, only to have that caught as well. Vito then swung his other clenched hand towards the agent's stomach, faster than 47 was able to deflect. Vito felt a glimmer of satisfaction as his fist smacked into 47's stomach, hearing a whoosh of surprise from the agent. 47 flung a knee up and rammed Vito's fists away, taking a step back and bringing his fists up again, this time with an aggravated look on his face. Around him, Vito felt more eyes trained on their little session, some agents more surprised than others. Vito felt a sneer form on his face, feeling a rush of adrenaline flow through him, keening to make another hit. Oh, he was going to make several hits before this was over. 47 will be limping away; this he was going to be sure of.

Okay, erase that previous thought; getting another hit on the agent proved to be impossible this time. 47 seemed to have his guard down a bit when Vito made the first hit; but now he was stuck on full defense mode, fluidly dodging Vito's hits like he already knew everything Vito was going to do. With each deflected punch, Vito felt a spike of anger go through him; he'd never had an opponent make these many deflects at once. It was like Vito was going in slow motion, and 47 was casually moving around to avoid the Wise Guy's hits.

Vito stopped to mop away some sweat on his brow, panting as he observed the agent's face, blank as usual. 47 had absolutely no signs of fatigue; rather, he seemed to be bored and annoyed that this had been going on for so long. There was not a trickle of sweat on him, and they'd been going at it for the past thirty minutes. The agents had long ago begun to ignore them, resuming their sessions with small smiles on their faces like, another one bites the dust.

Diane tapped her pen on her clipboard again, lips pursed. "That's enough for now. Scaletta, you are now on the defense. Try to deflect 47's hits."

Oh. Shit.

Vito barely had enough time to cover his face as his opponent's fist swung straight in between the eyes. The smack of the forceful hit resounded throughout the gym, causing a few agents to stop and look up in surprise. Then Vito felt the movement of 47's other fist come in for a blow…right below the belt.

Bastardo.

Vito reached a hand down to deflect the blow, and thankfully was successful in his goal of not getting ball punched. He stared blatantly into 47's eyes and sensed that the agent had probably planned to make Vito sterile judging from the force of the blow. Not that Vito planned on ever having any kids, but the thought aggravated him severely nonetheless. Punch after punch came, and Vito was constantly on edge to not get pummeled into the ground by the tireless agent. Four or five times he had been hit, and once 47's fist grazed the side of Vito's neck threateningly.

Then, in a single fluid motion, 47 knocked Vito out from underneath his feet, grabbed the Wise Guy in mid-air by the shoulders, then slammed him into the ground on his back, causing Vito to hit his head hard against the mat. Vito's eyes widened in shock and pain, then focused on the viscously blank stare of 47 as the agent's right hand forcibly squeezed Vito's shoulder while his left hand rose up to deliver a blow.

"Time out, time out!," Vito wanted to yell, but found that a strangled growl had forced its way past his lips instead. Without thinking, he shot out his free arm and punched 47 right in the face, surprising the agent to the point of loosening his hold enough for Vito to roll out underneath his opponent. Vito was on his feet as soon as 47 shot up to his, and they both tackled each other at the same time with equal ferocity. Both men slammed onto the mat, 47 getting the upper hand once more as he glared balefully down at the newly appointed agent underneath him. Vito's hands found their way to the agent's neck, wrapping his fingers around the other's throat in a steel-like grip. 47 was quick to return the favor, his gloveless fingers brutally choking the air out of Vito.

The cries of Diana were tuned out as each man attempted to strangle the life out of the other, and several agents stopped their workout to run over with alarm. Vito saw the look on 47's face, and the look spoke of death, right down to the tightly clenched jaw and the steely blue eyes. The look of a killer. He was pretty sure his expression was an exact reflection.

Vito didn't know how long it took until there were enough agents to try and pull them apart. He felt his mind go numb from the lack of air, and 47's image began to waver in his unsteady gaze. He wasn't about to stop though; he figured if he was going to have an early death he may as well drag the agent down to hell with him.

Suddenly, the hands around his neck loosened considerably as he felt his own hands get ripped away from 47's throat. At least half a dozen burly agents pulled Vito away from 47, but hate still ran rampant in Vito's heart as he struggled out of the agent's grip with a snarl and pounced at the agent, who knocked his coworkers away from him and clenched his fists towards the Wise Guy. Right before they collided Vito was yanked away by the collar, and the pain seemed to pull all the adrenaline from him. The lack of oxygen in his brain hit him full force, and Vito suddenly found himself bent over double on his knees, greedily gasping for precious air; across from him, he heard 47 breathing heavily as well, although the agent was regaining his oxygen in a much more dignified manner- in other words, not bent over on the ground like his adversary was.

Smarmy prick… Vito grit his teeth, imagining the satisfaction of landing one more punch on the freak before he was dragged away and thrown into his hellhole of a room for more agonizing hours on end. No sooner had Vito regained his senses than being forcefully pulled up by hands and forced to meet the angry stare from Diana. 47's controller looked the two men over before she spoke.

"47, you know better than to lose control of yourself, especially on a recruit who also happens to be your new partner. As for you, , one more mistake like that and you will not stay in this agency for much longer. Do you two understand me?"

Vito felt like a little kid who had just been spanked. As he glanced over and saw the somewhat shocked expression on 47's face, the Wise Guy figured that the agent was not used to being lectured like this, if he had ever been lectured before. They nodded in unison at Diana, who frowned and tapped her pen on her clipboard before saying, "Take them away. Hopefully they'll be more civilized towards each other tomorrow."

Once more, Vito was pulled through the white halls and forced into the deafeningly white room. Before the door shut on him he yelled, "Can't I at least hang up a goddamn picture?! Place needs a little color!" Of course, he was ignored.

He slumped onto his bed, suddenly exhausted and sore from the day's exertions, not including the tussle he had with that son-of-a-bitch 47. His fingers tentatively reached up to feel the bruises slowly forming around his neck, and somehow knew that 47 was doing the same thing in his own blank confinement. He wondered if the agent was forming death wishes against him as well, but then figured that the agent felt himself too high and mighty to even let Vito into his thoughts long enough to do so.

He was sweaty and hungry, but he didn't care enough to yell this to the agents who were no doubt standing guard outside of his room, making sure the newbie didn't escape. He fell over onto the mattress and into a dreamless sleep, the image of 47's face scowling down at him the last thing on his mind before he closed his eyes.

Just what did I get myself into…

AU: A certain agent comes into the next chapter!