Chapter 7

"Name soldier?"

"Douglas Fawkes, sir."

"You're being shipped to a military base located in Versailles, security's been pretty shaky in France ever since that private company started running the show there." The lieutenant showed Fawkes out and returned to the others.

Douglas had recently finished boot-camp after arriving in America around August of the earlier year. He lived alone in a small apartment in Boston, Massachusetts; he almost never exited it unless it was military business. Whenever he did go out he wore a gas-mask that went along with the uniform given to him. For reasons unbeknownst to him, he was technically female. He once had a girlfriend in the city, but now that he looked the way he did he could never find the courage to approach her. Douglas was around sixty years old, though looked around thirteen. His hair was blue, and despite attempts at re-coloring their color would not change, nor could he have it cut. In the end he simply tied it in a small pony-tail; tucked into the back of his shirt. Even he did not know the reason for any of these aliments, but learned to deal with them by hiding under a uniform constantly, never making connections to anyone outside the military. His only memory was a photo of him and his girlfriend, hand in hand walking down a small sidewalk in Paris.

"Ma petite chou fleur…" he placed the photo back into his pocket as he scrounged the daily paper. He sifted though it quickly, not finding anything of interest. A nearby phone began to ring; he reached for it.

"Hello? Who is this?" Douglas spoke into the phone in a deep French accent

"Just a reminder that you ship out at five-hundred tomorrow morning, be ready," the line disconnected.

Time flew by, Douglas only waiting for his departure as he locked his apartment door, and headed to the harbor. He boarded a ship bound for France in the early hours of the day, it was a cool January morning; things settled down after the first week of the New Year.

"So what's up with the one that always wears his gas-mask? Is he trying to hide something or what?" a soldier aboard the ship casually asked another in an Irish accent.

"Your guess is as good as mine, I went to the same boot-camp as he did; he didn't even sleep in the same bunk as the others!" said the other soldier, who wore an eye-patch over one of his eyes-obtained in fighting an earlier conflict.

"Well to pass the time on this snail-ship we should try to solve that mystery."

"Beats sitting around here doing nothing, just watching the sea move ever so slowly…damn fish."

Douglas had made sure he was far from the others at most times, sitting in the center of the ship away from the soldiers gazing across the ocean.

"I wish we could've taken a damn plane…" a soldier muttered while traversing the ship, rifle in hand.

"Maybe if we take the mask off that'd be the easier way"

"I don't know- the quiet ones are always the ones that kick your ass the hardest."

"Then we wait for him to fall asleep"

"What if he doesn't?"

"It's nearly a day's trip, why would he stay up the entire time?"

"Paranoia probably, wouldn't be surprised if he was a tad paranoid of everyone here."

"Then you come up with an idea, smartass."

"Okay fine, we can probably cut the hold of the mask if we're careful, though we have to make sure no one sees us doing it."

"Hah! That guy makes it his duty to stay away from everyone else!"

The two made their move while Douglas paced back and forth, occasionally pulling out the photo of himself and his former lover. The Irish soldier withdrew his knife, and approached Douglas from behind, only for him to swiftly turn around, wielding a revolver with the image of a woman engraved on the side of it, directly at him.

"What were you trying to do, exactly?" Douglas spoke softly in his deep French accent.

"Look, I was just curious as to why you wore that mask all the time, but I was too afraid to ask!" the Irish soldier quickly responded.

"If you must know, perhaps you will stop bothering me about it," he removed his mask to reveal the face of a teenage-girl, though it was unlike any that the Irishman had seen.

"Jesus! Now I know why you keep that damn thing on, for the love of Christ put it back on; reminds me of the garbage that them japs started churning out not too long ago," Douglas put his mask back on.

"Now that you know what lies beneath this mask, please stop bothering me…" He walked away slowly, and passed the soldier with the eye-patch.

"Now if that isn't the scariest thing I've ever seen, glad no one else ever saw it."

"Let's just forget that happened and pray we do in fact forget it; maybe a little of this will help," the Irish soldier withdrew a canteen and took a long drink, the other soldier following.

The ship stopped at a port in Normandy, and let all the soldiers off there, as they got off hummers awaited outside to deliver them to the base in Versailles. Douglas chose to ride the metro to the city, not wanting to be with the others longer than he had to be. He used his own money to pay for a ticket, and rode it all the way to Versailles; on it he drew attention due to his uniform, but shrugged it off. Though one stop in particular happened when the metro stopped in Paris, a man in a brown hat wearing sunglasses entered the car, and took a seat near Douglas.

"Not a bad day, mate, not too hot and not too cold," the man spoke to Douglas

"I suppose…" Douglas spoke in a young girl's voice, after recognizing the man as the sniper, not wanting him to discover what he had become.

"What gives with the uniform, you with the army?"

"Yes, I'm a private in the united states army"

"Well that's great, nice to know they're letting girls in now; least more so than they did," the train came to a stop at the station in Versailles, the sniper getting up along with Douglas. "Well good luck with whatever they have planned for you, little girl," the sniper said as he walked out of the station ahead of Douglas.

As he walked out of the station, Douglas made his way to the base that he was to be assigned to. He walked through the wonderful streets, only the occasional car blasting through, a majority of the travelers were on foot. He took time to admire the design of the apartment buildings that hung above the numerous shops. Despite being raised in France, he hardly remembered it due to the long hours he had to work at his previous occupation with RED. As he wandered through the streets to the base, he thought about his name; he had decided that in order to conceal his identity, to take a new name upon arriving in America. After a walk through the small corner, he arrived at the base he was to take residence in, upon entering he was greeted by one of the guards.

"I assume you're with the group we've been expecting, you're the first one here; Generals been waiting on you people…"

"Why, is it important?" Douglas asked in his French accent

"He'll brief you once the rest have arrived, I think they're estimated time of arrival is about...now" the guard said, staring at the watch on his wrist. Numerous hummers drove up to the base's door, letting soldiers out one-by-one. When they all had stepped inside, a man stood before them all, donning several medals on his chest.

"I've sent for you soldiers because we have a problem here in fair old France," he pointed to a large map of France behind him "We have reason to believe someone's been pulling the strings. Allowing them to operate in total secret; normally this wouldn't be a problem," he paused momentarily "But numerous reports have come in about the happenings in that place, and most disturbingly was the complete cover up of a massacre of over 20 French officers outside their doors; roll the clip."

"Give me a second here…" the operator of the computer that controlled the slide behind the general fiddled with it, and soon a video began to play.

"Merely two hours ago Miyoti Takatzi, age fifteen, was abducted from his home by two men, one Tavish Degroot, and the other unidentified," the video paused.

"Now those men were working for the WPA, the business in question, we have reasons to believe they are creating some sort of super weapon; show them the clip for the next day," the video turned black, and cut to a different section.

"Authorities have recovered the body of fifteen year old Miyoti Takatzi, found dead only hours of his reported abduction," the video paused again.

"Now here, here is where they began playing their game; we have several photos from December 31st, 1996, where a photographer managed to catch a photo of the kid in that building; put it up," he told to the operator, who sifted through the power-point presentation, soon revealing a clear photograph, apparently taken at a distance, of a window in the eighth floor of the WPA building; seemingly inside of the window was Miyoti. "Some of you may still be wondering about the multiple police deaths I mention earlier, well the only proof we needed was a bloody mess that was reported by numerous men we had stationed in France, though was never allowed to be broadcast or spoke of by the French people due to their cover-ups!"

Outside of the base, the sniper peered inside through a small crack in the wall he had carved out carefully from a weak piece of dry wall using his kukri "Lets see, nope, nope, nope again, ah there's the right one…" he scanned the crowd of soldiers intently listening to the general as he aimed his rifle carefully through the wall and prepared his shot "Wave goodbye to your, wanker," he took the shot, instantly killing the general and stirring panic within the audience.

"We've got a sniper, quick, find the bastard before he takes another shot!" one the guards yelled as they scrounged the building for signs of him

"Piece of piss!" the sniper cheerfully walked away, easily going undetected by the panicked guards.

"So, sniper, I see you haven't changed a bit…" Douglas appeared behind him in his French accent.

"Oh, you; hey wait, weren't you the little girl on the train?"

"Yes, I was, though I simply changed my voice to fool you."

"Well that explains a lot, but why the voice of a girl?"

"It's the only other one I can do without my disguise kit; I lost it awhile back…"

"Well I hope you're faring well, I'm going to get a nice sum for that wanker…"

"Until we meet again, sniper," Douglas walked back to the base, quietly reentering to avoid suspicion. Later the sniper made his way back to the WPA building.

"So I see you've made the kill," Melody turned her chair to the sniper as he entered her office.

"I did, now what's my reward this time?"

"Ah yes, take this," she passed a check to the sniper, written for two-hundred fifty thousand Francs "And be on your way, I have things to attend to."

"Damn straight," the sniper took hold of the check and pocketed it, heading out of the office and back into the lounge area.

Several hundred miles away from Earth, lay an enormous structure that orbited its neighbor, Mars. It was Zerstorung's space station, which he used to monitor Earth while remaining hidden. Within it he kept his army on standby, along with himself and his advisor, Esool. He simply wore a monk's robe; his face shrouded by a hood, though when lifted revealed a completely blank space.

"The assassin failed, my liege," Esool approached Zerstorung with the news, speaking with a raspy voice.

"Of course, she isn't dead now is she?" Zerstorung spoke in a deep, thundering voice.

"She is not; I've made sure she will make every attempt at the boy's life."

"Good, I will make plans for our attack, whether she succeeds or not."

"I'll communicate with her right now; excuse me for a second my liege," Esool stepped out of the room and drew a phone from his robe and hit a single number.

"Hello? This is Esool; I've called about the boy,"

"Oh, you, I tried but I suppose he's tougher than you made him out to be"

"Well I want you to devote all of your time to that boy; you will not go un-rewarded for your efforts."

"If I can't kill him I won't be rewarded now will I?"

"Choosing to disobey will result in grave consequences; I advise you listen or face death."

"Whatever, no one else seems to be hiring around here so I'll get right on that," she hung up the phone and returned it to her pocket.

"Alright your majesty, I have straightened her out and hopefully she shall succeed," Esool said as he reentered the room.

"Excellent, now return to your duties of monitoring their puny planet, I have business to attend to."

"Of course," Esool exited the room, passing several guards on his way out.

Zerstorung disappeared from the room in a flash of light, teleporting to an unknown location. All that was there was an abyss of fire and smoke, the only living thing there was a tremendous beast. It towered over Zerstorung, staring at him with eight beady eyes. Its face mildly resembled that of a triceratops; as it glared down at Zerstorung.

"What brings you here?" The beast's voice echoed throughout the abyss infinitely.

"I come bearing a proposal; I can free you from this place if you simply agree to my terms."

"I would gladly accept this freedom; my earlier attempts of escape were thwarted quite some time ago…"

"I would free you from this place, but with it I only ask that you aid my army with yours."

"It is far from an army, I would consider them my children; it is my only wish that they are returned their dominance that was taken from them by man."

"So we have a deal?" Zerstorung quickly replied.

"Once you free me I shall comply with our agreement, I already know the looks of your men; I will be waiting."

"You will be freed soon enough, soon enough…" Zerstorung vanished and returned to his room upon the station.

"My liege, you're back I see, I have news for you," Esool spoke to Zerstorung as soon as he arrived.

"And that is?"

"The deadline for our attack is sometime in 2006, Melody has been given until then before she takes the fight to us"

"Then we shall strike in say, 2003, I'm sure we shall be ready by then."

"As you wish my liege, I shall make preparations," Esool left the room once more and spoke to the guards outside as he left Zerstorung's view.