A/N* Hey everyone! Sorry this took so long. School and the holidays has made me really busy. But I promised myself to upload at least one chapter just for you guys! For future reference, though, don't be surprised if it takes me a while to update. I promise that I will upload each chapter just as soon as they are done! Before we get started, I'd like to give a quick shout-out to Ridler. His stuff is awesome and I highly recommend him. I'd also like to give a shout-out to Raven Ethar and Kirmon64 for reading his story! With that said, here at long last is Chapter Seven of Red Dead Assassin!
Chapter 7: Headquarters
A flash of white light and a few minutes of waiting and the world of the Animus began to take form again. Buildings and people began to grow out of nothing. Street cars, a bay, clubs and theaters, museums and apartments, and finally a large, red bridge all sprouted from the infinite landscape. As the bridge panned out and became focused, Desmond saw, in all white lines, a figure of a hawk with it's wings spread on a crown and beneath, a caption that read, "San Francisco, CAJanuary, 1914".
When the city had fully appeared, the Animus began to zoom in on a train station on 22nd Street. Sending Desmond back into Jack Marston's body. He and Red were just stepping out of the train, their rucksacks slung over their shoulders. They started walking twords a horse drawn carriage waiting for them in the street, when Red spoke to Jack.
"Don't worry about the horses," Red assured, "We're having them sent to a safehouse, a farm in the country. Your Pa's horse will be fine there. Besides, we won't be needin' them while were in the city."
"Fair enough.", Jack shrugged as they threw their bags into the carriage, "So how far away is this place?"
"Not far at all. Just a ways into town. It's at a construction site."
"A what?", Jack asked.
"It'll make sense when we get there. Now get in." Red opened up the carriage door and they both went in.
As the carriage went into the city, Jack marveled at all the sights. The streetcars, all the vendors, the clubs, the docks, he could even see the marvelous Golden Gate Bridge in all it's glory off in the distance.
"Never been to the big city before, I take it?", Red raised his eyebrow and asked.
"No, I ain't never even been outside New Austin!", Jack replied.
"Well take a good, long look cause where we're goin', you won't be havin' much of a view. Trust me.", said Red.
"Shoot, You serious?", Jack whined, "But there seems like there's so much to see! So much to do!"
"You ain't on vacation, boy! You're here to work! To train! To mold yourself into an unstoppable killin' machine!", Red then got in Jack's face, looked him dead in the eye and said, "They're gonna work you so hard, you won't have the time to take a piss let alone see the goddamn bridge!"
Scared, Jack decided to keep his mouth shut when Red shook his head and looked back out the window.
"Freakin kids today!", he muttered.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Red spoke up again.
"Besides, you'll get to see plenty of sights from all over in this line of work. It can take us all over the world. And that's doubly so nowadays. All of Europe being at war, the US to follow soon enough.", he scoffed, "I tell you, it's genius."
"Genius?", Jack asked.
"It's a classic Templar strategy. They do something that makes a few cities, in this case whole countries, to go to war. It goes on for a couple years and ends with a lot of bad blood between everyone involved. People are left angry and confused, desperate for direction. It's then that the Templars make their grab for power."
"What then?", Jack asked, interested.
"I dunno. But you can be sure that as long as we're around they won't get away with it. They never have. It ain't gonna be easy, though. The shit's really hit the fan in Europe. Out people are gettin' killed off left and right. Templars are getting away with God knows what; this is a very interesting time we're living in, kid." Red bummed a cigarette and blew a ring of smoke out the window before continuing,
"Very interesting indeed..."
After a while, they finally stopped. Oddly enough, it was indeed at a construction site. It was near the park and was truly a sight to behold. The entire block was surrounded by a high wooden fence, but even then, Jack still could see a huge, beautiful, albeit half-finished, dome. He recognized it as being one much like back in the Itallian Renaissance. He could also make out several tall, marble pillars, organized in colonnades next to the dome.
He could hear several men working and shouting instructions from the other side as another pillar started sprouting up, held together with ropes. When the pillar finally stood tall, the ropes were released and he heard cheering.
Jack then turned his attention back to Red who had walked up to a small door in the fence. He rapped on in a few times and shortly after, a large man with a beard and a hard hat opened it and popped his head out from behind the door. Red then flashed the insignia on his arm and the man quickly let him in.
As the two men walked in, Jack was greeted with an even more impressive sight. Behind the magnificent dome and pillars, was the beginnings of a large building that stretched across the entire area one side to the other. In front of all of this, landscapers and hole diggers were working on the beginnings of what looked like an in-pond fountain and a beautiful landscape with flowers and grass and the like.
Speaking of workers, there were hundreds of them. Some were digging holes or landscaping, some were working on the building, others were taking instructions from architects on how to build the pillars or the dome. All of this... but nothing that looked even a bit like a secret Assassin headquarters.
"Kid,", Red said giving Jack a slap on the back, "welcome th the Palace of Fine Arts."
"Now hold on a second, Red, what happened to–", Jack started before Red interjected.
"Hold your horses kid, I'm taking you there right now.", he said, "Trust me, it'll all make sense in a minute."
The two started walking twords the colonnades when Jack asked, "What's all this even for?"
"The World Fair next year. I guess it's supposed to be a tribute to Renaissance art and architecture or something like that. I ain't into that kind of stuff.", Red told him.
"I think that sounds kinda fascinating. Who's in charge here?", asked Jack
"An architect called Maynord. Bernard Maynord. He's a sharp guy. He even built the HQ. Speaking of which, here we are.", Red said as they arrived at the colonnades.
"Alright Red, all I see is a bunch of pillars. Where is this place?", Jack turned to Red and insisted.. In response, Red simply held up his hand and pointed to the ground. Incredibly confused at this point, Jack asked, "What does that even mean?"
Red then shrugged in annoyance and pushed him out of sight, in between four of the pillars.
"Look," said Red, "you remember that earthquake San Francisco had around eight years ago?"
"I was a bit young, but sure. It was all people were talkin' about that year. Didn't it knock down half the town or something?", replied Jack.
"Something like that. Anyway, as you might know the foundation San Francisco is built on is real weak on account of the earth being so moist. It was part of the reason the quake was so devastating. But since the earth was so moist, the quake also displaced it. A lot of it. So much that it formed a huge cave under the city. And all that water eventually evaporated and then condensed on the dirt, hardening it enough to form a foundation in the cave strong enough to build a building in.
(A/N* Of course! Don't you know anything about science?)
"We found the cave and got Maynord to build the HQ for us. He's always been a supporter of us, you see, and his Palace of Fine Arts was a great cover-up for the base."
Jack was incredibly impressed. It was all so ingenious. Now he really wanted to see it.
"This is extraordinary! How do we get there?", he asked.
"You slide there.", Red simply said.
"Slide there?", Jack hesitantly asked.
"Yep."
Red then walked up to one of the pillars and retracted his hidden blade and stuck the blade in a small slit in the pillar. Shortly after, Jack heard a small muffled pop followed by a small part of the pillar sinking into itself. Then, Red put his hand on this part and demonstrated that it was a kind of door on wheels similar to a sliding-glass door. He then opened it enough for Jack to peek inside. The entire pillar was hollow. A steel tube enough for a man to fit in ran all the way to the top and down into blackness.
"Okay once I open this all this way, it'll close by itself after 30 seconds so we'll have to –"
"Wait Red, hold on a second!", interrupted Jack, really nervous now, "I ain't so sure about this. I mean, is there no other way in?"
"There is, but it involves trudging through a mile and a half of raw sewage. Which would you prefer?", asked Red.
Jack bit his lip. He didn't seem to have much choice. "Alright, fine", he resigned.
"Good.", red said, putting his bag down for a minute. He then proceeded to give Jack a tutorial on the slide. He told him to hold his stuff tight to his chest with crossed arms, to keep his chin tucked in, and to cross his ankles as soon as he jumped in. Jack positioned himself accordingly.
"Ready, kid?", Red asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be.", Jack replied after taking a deep breath.
"Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit", Red smirked.
And with that, he rolled the door open all the way and told Jack to go. Taking in a huge gulp of air and squeezing his eyes shut tight, Jack walked up and, without letting himself think about it, plunged down into the darkness, crossing his ankles immediately after doing so.
Jack let out a scream as he fell farther and farther. After about thirty seconds of doing so, he felt the slide slowly start to curve upward. When it finally did so, however, it merely dropped again. This time it was much shorter and it sent Jack into what felt like a large spiral. For a while, Jack continued downward in that spiral until he decided to open his eyes. When he did so, he saw a small glint of light shining off the tube.
No sooner had he seen this light had the spiral taken him to slant downward drop which eventually went completely horizontal and sent him flying into a small pit filled with pillows. Once he gathered his thoughts, Jack looked around and saw a ladder leading out of the pit. So he grabbed his bag, replaced his hat and got up. Trudging through the soft pillows, he eventually got to the ladder. When he did so, he heard a commotion from the tube followed by Red shooting out of it falling into the pit as well, Upon seeing him, Jack reached over and grabbed Red's hand and pulled him over to the ladder.
When they got out, Jack took a look around. They were in a relatively large room lit by a chandelier hung from the ceiling. Across the wall, facing where they had come in, was the Assassin's symbol written in red. Beneath and around that were Arabic letters arranged as words.
"Woah.", Jack said as he gazed at it. "Red, what does that say?"
"That's the Assassins Creed, written in it's original Arabic. Out symbol, our philosophy, and our three most important tenets. You'll learn all about that in good time of course."
Red then led Jack to the other side of the room though a door which led to a small flight of stairs. At the top was a wooden door with no knob. Jack stood behind Red as he knocked on the door, resulting in a slit in the door to open up revealing a pair of eyes.
"Password?", the man on the other side asked.
"Notlob.", Red replied.
"That Marston's kid?"
"Yeah, he's with me."
The man then closed the slit. Jack could then hear a bunch locks unlocking on the other side followed by the opening of the door. The doorman was a black haired man with glasses and a moustache. He smiled at Red and shook his hand before letting the two in.
"We got your message a couple days ago. Is it true? Did Marston's boy really get to Ross first?", the man asked.
"That's right.", confirmed Red.
"Well it is an honor to meet you", the man said turning to Jack, "Your father was one of our best assassins. And he was an even better man, even if he didn't think so."
"Thanks mister.", Jack said shaking his hand.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? I'm Elijah. I'm the doorman down here, as you might've guessed. And this is the Security Floor."
Jack then looked around at the room he was in. It was large and circular. The West side had a few bunk beds (one of which was being slept in) and a locked gun cabinet. The East side had a small kitchen with a wood table where several men were playing cards, another gun cabinet, and a door that read "Exit" over it.
But the most glaring aspect of the room and the first thing Jack noticed was the huge machine gun turret in the dead center of the room which had a few sandbags around it and was pointed at the door.
"This is as good a place as any to start the tour, I guess.", said Red to Jack who was still in awe about the gun. "This here's the Security Floor. First line of defense in case of an attack. The gun's new. Heisted it myself as a matter-of-fact. Off a Templar base last year. It was my birthday gift to Isaac."
"Isaac?", Jack asked.
"The Master of the Assassins. Our leader. Which reminds me, we better get going. He'll be wanting to see you before your training begins.", said Red. "Just to make sure you're really committed to this." He then turned to Elijah and said, "See you."
"See you later, boss.", he replied, "And good luck, Marston!"
"Thanks.", waved Jack.
The pair then walked behind the gun to the opposite side of the room twords an elevator that Jack hadn't noticed before. When they got to there, Red pushed a button that was next to it, followed by a few moments of the sound of grinding gears. Shortly after, the door opened revealing a short, young man at the elevator's lever.
"Hey, boss!", the man said, "Going up?"
"Yeah, Bill. I wanna go to my bunk first and then to Isaac's. Junior here's coming to meet the old man.", he replied.
"Will do, boss!", Bill said as the two walked in.
Red closed the door and the group started up. The elevator moved slowly, which allowed Jack to see the headquarters through the bars of the door. Red explained each room as they went up. One floor above Security Floor was the Gym and Track Floor which was, of course, a huge gym filled with weightlifting equipment and pull-up bars with a standard track going around it. Jack could see about a dozen men making use of their facilities. Some alone, some with their teachers.
One floor about that was the Hand-to-Hand Combat Training Floor. Which was comprised of a large ring and a few training dummies and punching bags. Jack could see that a part of young recruits were sparring in the ring and a few students were receiving instructions from their respective teachers, practicing on the dummies.
One floor above that was the Melee Combat Training Floor. A kind of dojo made up the room as well as more dummies and a wall covered in variable swords, axes, knives, and staffs. The floor above that was the Shooting Range, and it was just that, a shooting range.
Each of the previously mention training floors were shaped like a half circle. The other half was taken up by what Jack could see from all three floors to be a ruined three story building which Red said was the Parkour Obstacle Course and would help teach him one of the Assassins most advenatious traits, Parkour.
The elevator then stopped, for they were at their first destination, the Barracks Floor. They walked out and started walking down the hallway where it led out to. The hallway had bunk beds taking up either side and curved in a spiral all around the floor. The beds all had small chests attached to the end for each man to put his things. After every second bunk bed there was a door that led to a bathroom.
After walking for a ways and shaking hands with a few more Assassins who knew Jack's father, they arrived at the neatly made bunk which was Red's.
"So what do you think of the place so far, kid?", Red asked as he started taking a new set of clothes out of his chest.
"It's incredible! It's amazing! It's an architectural marvel! I mean I never– I would've never though in my life that–", Jack was interrupted by Red who told him,
"Yeah, yeah, I get the picture. Jeez, you're an excitable little cuss ain't ya? Well you better be more reserved when you meet Isaac. I don't want you embarrasin' me." Red finished taking out his new clothes and then started untying his tie.
"Lousy penguin suit! Been waiting for days to get outta this thing!", he muttered.
"These ain't your usual clothes?", Jack asked.
"Hell no! I only wore this to infiltrate the Templars and find out about Ross."
It only took a few minutes for him to change out of his suit and into a plain shirt, a long black wool coat with gray fur trim, and black trousers. He then put on his white cloak over all of that and the two went back to the elevator.
On his way up, Jack saw three more floors. First was the Mess Hall Floor, a large, circular cafeteria filled with several long tables. Above that was the Communications Floor, a circular, white room filled with at least two dozen people sitting at desks either writing letters or sending telegrams. Some of them were putting messages in tubes and sending them down one of many large tubes which lead to one of the floors. Finally, there was another large, circular, white room only filled with several scientists and engineers in lab coats. Some were tending to chemistry sets, testing either bits of evidence or concocting poisons, and others were at work benches prefecting Assassination gadgets.
After passing that floor, they had finally reached their final destination. The Top Floor, the Master's Quarters. When the two walked out of the elevator, Jack took a look around. The room was large and circular, like all the others, only this one had a rather high, domed ceiling with a chandelier hanging down. The room itself was dark purple on the ceiling and turquoise colored on the wall. The room had four large bookcases on either side and at the opposite end from where Jack was, there was a desk covered in books, papers, and various trinkets. Behind the desk was a small bed up against the wall, next to it was a grey owl on a perch, and sitting at the desk was a very interesting looking man.
He had long, white hair and a long, white beard an wore a black robe. He looked a bit like Merlin except without the hat. The old man looked up from what he was working on and smiled at the two men.
"Safety and peace, Red!", the man greeted him.
"Upon you as well, Master.", Red bowed back.
The old man stood up and slowly started walking twords the men. When he reached them, he turned to Jack and said,
"You are Marston's boy, eh?"
"Yes sir. M-my name is Jack.", he replied, talking off his hat in respect. The old man then reached out his hand and shook Jack's.
"My name is Isaac. And I am the Master of the Assassin Order in the United States."
"It's a pleasure to meet you... Master.", Jack replied and bowed his head.
"So, Red tells me you wish to be an Assassin like your father before you."
"That's right,", Jack said nodding, "I feel I can't stand idly by while the whole world gets taken over under everyone's noses."
"Ah! You sound just like your father.", said Isaac, "When he was young he always talked about freeing the people and bringing justice to the wicked. But when he got older and got betrayed by Dutch and his gang, he changed.
"He thought the sun rose and set with Dutch and when he just left him on that boat to die, it destroyed him. It was like everything he ever worked for, all the people he killed, everything he believed in, his whole life, was all for nothing. The day he and Abigail left us, he ranted at me about how 'We'll never be free even if we do win' and 'We have no idea what we're even killing for anymore'. It made me very sad to see him so cynical.
" But he had always served us well and was still like family to me. So I let them leave. Believe me, Jack, when I say that if there was anything I could've done to save your father, I would have. I told your father that if he left, we wouldn't be able to protect him. But he said he didn't need it. I'm not saying what happened to your father was his own fault, I only want you to understand that your father knew what might happen and accepted it.
"With that in mind, I want to know if you are truly committed to our cause. Very few Assassins live to old age. Those that do still can't leave or they get hunted down and killed by the Templars, like your father. Training will take many months, more likely years. And even after that, it's a hard, hard life. I'm sure Red has told you all this already, but the path you've chosen is not an easy one at all. Knowing that... you are willing to sacrifice everything to join us? I'd like to know your reasons"
Jack too a deep breath and responded in a strong, steady voice,
"Sir, I've seen things in my short life that no person should see in their lifetimes. I've seen men shot and killed since I couldn't even walk. I've seen the bloody, ruined corpse of my father lying in the dirt. I've seen my late mother kidnaped along with me and help in a damp, dirty prison cell for months. I've seen injustice, disease, and misery take the life of my mother. My parents did literally everything for me. They starved, suffered, killed, were humiliated, and died for me. So believe me, sir, when I say, that I have absolutely nothing to lose. Nothing but my life. And I am more than willing to give it up so as to help make it so that one day what happened to me will never happen to no one else ever again. Just so long as I can take as many dirty rat bastards like Ross down with me as I can."
There was a short silence. Until Isaac slowly started to smile again. He then let out a chuckle and patted him on the back.
"Jack Marston," said Isaac, "I am honored to welcome you into the Assassin Order. Your training will begin just as soon as we can find you a teacher."
"I'll teach the kid." Red volunteered, "I feel like I owe it to his father to watch out for him. That don't mean that I'm gonna go easy on him, though. Don't you worry Master."
"Ah, very good! Very good!", said Isaac, "Count yourself lucky, boy. Red's one of my best men. He'll make a fantastic teacher! Isn't that right, Ulysses?", he turned to the owl who hooted in response. "Yes, yes, yes.", he said as he walked back to his desk and sat down.
"You may rest tonight but be ready. Your training starts at dawn tomorrow." With that, the two men returned to the elevator and headed back to the Barracks.
"That was quite a speech you gave back there. I was impressed.", said red on the way down.
"Thanks, Red. All I did was–", Jack was interrupted again by Red.
"Hey, it's Master now boy! I'm your teacher now, remember?"
"Oh. Sorry."
"Hey, I'm just joshin' you, kid.", smirked Red aiming a punch at Jack.
The elevator then opened and the two went back to Red's bunk.
"You can have the top bunk.", said Red.
"Thanks!", Jack replied, putting the things in his rucksack in his chest.
After chatting for a bit, the two men went to the Mess Hall and had a supper of Spam and potatoes ("Get used to it. Get really used to it.", said Red) and then headed back to their bunks. Jack got acquainted with a few young recruits in the neighboring bunks for about an hour after that and then it was lights out.
As Jack got settled in his bed, a thought occurred to him.
"Red. Psst, Red you awake?", he whispered.
"Yeah, what?", Red groaned in reply.
"You think I got what it takes?"
"Hell yeah! It's in your blood, kid!"
"Alright." There was a pause and Jack spoke up again.
"Red?", he whispered.
"Yeah?", Red replied.
"It's worth it, right?"
"Yeah. If your strong enough, it's totally worth it."
And with that, the two men fell asleep and a small caption appeared that read, "Memory Sequence 3 Complete".