CHAPTER 11
Well it has certainly been awhile! This chapter, wew, so much to figure out. I don't plan things out or think to far ahead for the most part. I make it up as I type. I do it that way because, to me, I feel like the characters are guiding themselves through the story and I'm just nudging them along. This chapter took forever and those of you who have been dying for more, sorry I kept you waiting. I hope you enjoy! This get's pretty deep so if it's hard to follow I apologize. Also if you don't know, my profile has character information for anyone wanting to learn more about my OC's that isn't in the story.
"So he has gone off the grid?" Kinley asked.
"Yes sir, we had one of the Batch 3 prototypes track him out of the city. The rat is as good as dead." His informant replied.
"Excellent. You know what to do when the prototype returns." Kinley chuckled. He was relieved that finally this troublesome rogue rat would be erased. He hadn't expected that when he had given the rat his orders he would go AWOL. He had even personally gone down to meet the Batch 2 remnant at that parking lot to gage whether he would succeed or not.
"Yes sir. By the way, the Brystol incident has been cleaned up completely. We tracked down the last survivors of her group and eliminated them. We have seized all her information as well."
"Good, everything is going according to my plans." Kinley replied. "Any word from our man on the other side?"
"None sir."
"Then it is safe to assume he has been found out and either taken prisoner or killed. No matter, all he had to do was use their technology to research an effective augmentation method, and now we have two prime specimens of his program results running around. We still need to capture them and dissect them, but that will come in due time." Kinley replied. It had all started for him when he had been researching a method for covertly sending agents into dangerous areas without them wasting time sneaking behind enemy lines.
After many months and countless tests they had developed a prototype portal, and the person he sent through was one of his trusted subordinates, a man named Rosco. Rosco had been fitted with a special bracelet which had been developed with the same technology that went into the portal, but only was able to convey sound waves, since it's small size meant it lacked the power to transport anything solid. With it, even if something went awry, he could still communicate back to Kinley to inform him of what happened. He went through the portal and called back immediately, saying he had no idea where he was. After an hour or so he called again, saying he wasn't even on their planet, but a different one entirely. Over time Rosco, who had discovered that the place he had transported to had just ended a huge war, infiltrated the government, since the aftermath of said war had left any kind of documentation meaningless, due to the circumstances of the war.
Rosco became a high ranking official in the new government, thanks to coaching from Kinley. Rosco told Kinley how the government functioned, which was similar to G.U.N. in some ways, and Kinley told Rosco how to manipulate it. Rosco was surprised by the technology that this world had, and that war was the only thing keeping everything progressive. Rosco worked his way to a high military standing in a country called the United States of America, since Kinley liked that the country only spent money on its military. Rosco now had a near limitless budget, and due to the way the global government worked, access to any project that anyone was working on.
Rosco kept Kinley up to date on all projects and programs submitted to the council, as well as looking into any past proposals. Kinley ordered him to fund both the super soldier program as well as the portal program. Kinley told Rosco that they could easily manipulate that world and even conquer it, given all the insider information they had, as well as having access to technology these people didn't have. Rosco liked the thought, and was eager to speed up their progress. This led to him dumping a ton of money into both programs, which caught someone's attention. Raeger, also a higher up in the United States, grew suspicious when he noticed that one man had spent almost 1% of the military budget.
Raeger discreetly looked into where the money went and saw that this man was secretly funding two programs, one that was out of the country, and the other which was recently disapproved by the council. Seeing an opportunity for gaining influence in the council, as well as hoping to take over the super soldier program, Raeger settled for monitoring what the man did. Raeger held off for a while before deciding on assassination. He had monitored the man's movements and realized he wasn't very active in the projects he was funding, so Raeger saw an opportunity to cut a huge chunk of work out of his plans. If he could kill the man, he could probably take over his projects and no one would notice, saving him the trouble of reporting the projects to the council.
Raeger decided on that course, figuring that if he presented the council with a working portal, he would gain plenty of respect and favor. He then got word that the man was flying to Japan to check out his portal program's progress. Raeger got in touch with some people and they agreed to sabotage the flight back. Rosco had his meeting with the portal research team and tested the portal. Rosco subtly gave the team hints about how to calibrate the portal so it would have the best chance of sending a volunteer through to the other portal while secretly coordinating with Kinley about his progress. Kinley was pleased with the super soldier progress. Having them on the enemy side of the portal would be a major advantage in the upcoming conflict. After that, Kinley didn't hear from Rosco again, and he was totally unaware that someone was soon to be onto his plans.
Raeger had hijacked the portal shipment and posed as Jarving's CO, who had been Rosco. He didn't tell Jarving about the portal shipment, figuring that Hitoshi would have no reason to contact Jarving to confirm the delivery. They did a few tests with the portal, going so far as to send a micro-camera through it. What they discovered completely changed Raeger's plans. The camera, only the size of a pencil eraser, went through the portal and only survived for a few seconds before the EMP from the portal fried it. Still, its few seconds of life were all they needed. The camera had appeared on a rooftop and overlooked a city that was obviously not on Earth.
Raeger got a bad feeling about where all this was leading and decided to just erase all of this from existence, hoping to destroy the portal and eliminate Jarving and his super soldier program. However, things didn't go well, and he had to keep adapting his plans again and again. His original ambitions returned when he got an idea about starting a conflict and using his inside information to appear to be the man who had all the answers. The council would have to defer to him and after the war, he may even be given control over the new world. His mind, like Kinley's, was fueled by a hunger for conquest and influence, like humans of old when they carved out vast empires for themselves to rule over.
"Alright gents, we got a job to do. Seems the same guy who had us sabotage the plane in Tokyo wants us to do something else for him."
"What's he got for us this time V?"
"I'm glad you asked J." V replied. "It seems that the man we killed in the plane "accident" was running quite an operation, and now we have to clean up his research team." V stooped down over a beat up, dirty table he and his team were gathered around. V had summoned them all to their small place of operations in Okayama, Japan. V had made Okayama his home after the war, finding peace in the Koraku-en garden. Its name, meaning "later pleasures", resonated with him, and he would visit the park before every job. He lived in a small house, which he used as his headquarters, near the Okayama Civic Hall.
"I suppose that all we got is names and locations?" J asked.
"That is how we operate." V responded. "Guy's name is Jarving. He is hiding out in Seattle, which is in L's territory." V gave L a nod. L resided in Kansas, a state which was pretty much in the dead center of the United States. Each man of the team lived in a separate country, strategically placed around the world so that they had a man in the right areas for work. It was their job to learn their territories inside out so that if a job was in their area, they would be fit to lead the operation.
"Alright, I guess this ties in with all the crazy shit that has been happening in Seattle recently." L chuckled.
"Care to fill us in?" W asked. Each member of the team ignored everything outside their respective territories since that would be useless information to them, thus they were very unaware of anything going on with the rest of the world. W was in charge of Africa and Madagascar.
"It's a long story you don't need to hear W." L replied. "Hey V, where are B and K?"
"They couldn't make it." V answered. "It's just us four." Each member was pretty much independent, getting to choose whether or not to participate in a job. V was the leader, but it was mainly just a title given to him because he was the best organizer. He arranged the meetings, but no one technically had to come. If they didn't come they just didn't get to participate in the job and make money.
"We can make it work." J said. "So L, what is the plan?"
Bilge walked through a dense forest. It had been maybe a day since he left the city and he had been purposely wandering aimlessly through the woods. He finally felt somewhat peaceful. His thoughts had finally calmed down and his awareness had slowly become accustomed to the sounds of nature. His heightened senses made the effect even more impactful. They also helped warn him that he wasn't alone.
Bilge felt the hairs on his neck begin to stand on end as he walked. Trusting his animal instincts, he quickly tuned out all irrelevant noise and listened to the woods. He stopped moving, listening. Bilge heard the birds' chirps of warning to each other as their wings took them away. Then he heard it. His ears twitched as he faintly heard the metallic sound of a bolt on a sniper rifle. Suddenly, he leapt to the right and rolled behind a tree. As he rolled, the loud bark from a rifle echoed through the woods. Bilge gritted his teeth in pain as he pressed his left hand to his right side. He felt blood oozing out between his fingers and let out a low growl. With his right hand he slid his knife from its sheath and listened. His assailant had foregone any stealth as they quickly approached. Bilge slowly stepped out from behind the tree as his hunter got close.
Bilge quickly examined his opponent as they stared each other down. They had sent a tall man, bristling with muscle, after him. He had a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder, a handgun holstered on his hip, and a combat knife sheathed in the vest he wore.
"Your aim is shit." Bilge growled.
"Idle banter won't help you." The man replied. His voice carried no emotion.
"It would sure do you some good." Bilge snarled. He didn't let the man reply, lunging forward with his knife raised. The man dropped the rifle and drew his sidearm as well as his knife. Bilge flew toward the man, his nimble, quick agility not letting the man get a good bead on him. As Bilge got close he jumped up and drop-kicked the man square in the chest, staggering him back. He landed on all fours and pushed himself up, spinning his leg up and around, and kicked the gun aside. His knife immediately followed the kick but was blocked and deflected. The man slammed his left knee into Bilge's head and swung down with the butt of his gun. Bilge ducked under the bunt and slid his knife behind the man's right knee, pulling the knife back and ramming his shoulder into the man, knocking him onto his back.
The man tried to bring his gun over to aim at Bilge, but the rat was too fast, scrambling up onto the man's chest, pressing his knife to the man's throat and violently ripping it to the side. Panting, Bilge crawled off the dead man's chest and checked his side. The bullet had passed cleanly through, but still left quite a mess. Bilge took what he could from the dead man and used his shirt as a bandage. As long as he could stop the bleeding his body would heal fine.
"Guess I have to go back now." He growled to himself. "Last thing I need is more fucktards coming after me." He put on the man's vest, carefully sliding it over his makeshift bandage, and slid the handgun he took into the holster he had strapped to himself. Finally he scooped up the sniper rifle and pulled the bolt back, smirking at the golden glint of a shell casing, waiting patiently in the barrel to be fired. He gave the dead man one last look as he racked the bolt forward with a metal clack.
"If this is all they have to send after me, this will be easy." He slung the rifle over his shoulder and began walking the way he had come from, his keen sense of direction guiding him back to the city.
V led the way off the plane followed by L, W, and J. It had been a long uneventful flight to SeaTac airport and they were ready to get started. None of them had any carry-on luggage. They headed to the baggage retrieval and picked up their gear, which was hidden inside various instrument cases. V was a nostalgic, and carried an authentic violin case used by gangsters of old to disguise their guns. His case contained a broken down tommy gun. L, J, and W followed his lead with the instrument cases, but weren't as time honoring. L carried a tuba case, loaded with different types of grenades, twin Glock 18's, and an M4-16. J carried a trombone case with a top secret, prototype sniper rifle he had gotten as payment from a past client. W was a minimalist, and never used the same weapons twice. He carried a beat up old trumpet case which contained a trumpet. He never transported his weapons, preferring to buy a couple dirt cheap guns locally and dump them when he completed his job.
They used a bus service that L had arranged a week prior when he had departed for Japan. L had booked himself at a hotel in the city with room for the other three, and after the bus dropped them off at its park-and-ride, they took L's car there. After checking in, they got settled into their room and began checking their gear and weapons. V set up his laptop and opened up the info Raeger had sent regarding Jarving.
"Alright guys, I got the info on our target. L, you're in charge now. You know the area and what has been happening better than we do." V gave L a nod and offered his seat to him. L sat down and took a few minutes to look over the information.
"The I.A. complex is about a half hour away. Jarving is most likely laying low there. We should have no problems. From what I know there was a massive explosion that was covered up here recently, and the I.A. has been investigating." L explained.
"All we care about is what is required to kill him." W groaned. He hated debriefs and just wanted to get the job done.
"Look dumbass." L growled. "This is highly relevant. The I.A. has been cracking down here recently, which means that we are going to have to be that much more subtle about this. I know for a fact that a couple weeks ago they were pretty much grabbing anyone they saw off the street and interrogating them. So shut your god damn mouth and quit bitching, this is not the time or place we want to do a rush job, understand?" W stood up grumbling and left the room.
"Wew!" J smirked. "You fucking chewed his ass out like a piece of raw steak."
"I get his focus on the job but he's so fucking narrow minded it pisses me off." L said, taking a deep breath. "He thinks that anything not relating to how we are going to do the job is irrelevant. Well Seattle has been a hot spot of activity lately and it is under major scrutiny, so we can't disregard anything as being irrelevant." He continued.
"I agree." V said. "From what you've said, even so much as getting caught speeding here could result in a lot more trouble than it usually would incur."
"Precisely, let's unpack and drive around a bit so we can see what is happening around here." L finished, closing the laptop. J and V followed him out of the room. They found W in the lobby and piled into L's car, beginning their long drive to scout out the city.
"We are way too exposed, this is suicide Victor!" Zulu yelled.
"We have a clear line of sight!" Victor retorted.
"I'm keeping my head down, we could be fired upon at any moment."
"Sir you're being dramatic." Victor chuckled as he drove their newly bought Guamo Ecta towards Cream's school. "I have a full 360 degree view so no one can ambush us, this car drives like a quality golf cart, and it was cheap!"
"I thought we were not going to borrow money and find jobs instead." Zulu growled.
"Ok Mr. Concealment, how do you take an eight foot tall man and blend him in as a waiter, hmm?" Victor asked sarcastically.
"Give me lip again and you'll be running home, shit head."
"Pff, trying to pull rank on me?" Victor shoved his middle finger into Zulu's face and laughed. "Sir, your future wife has more authority than you do."
"You sexist son of a bitch!" Zulu exclaimed.
"How is that sexist?"
"That is a typical stereotype of a woman! Positive or negative, gender roles are sexist!"
"Since when have you cared about sexism?" Victor asked, struggling not to laugh.
"Since just now you prick!" Zulu turned and gave Victor a hard glare before both men burst out laughing. "Ah, but seriously." Zulu chuckled. "This car is complete trash."
"Oh shut the fuck up." Victor laughed.
"Hey watch your god damn mouth, that's Cream's fucking school right there so no swearing!" Victor glanced over with amazement as Zulu held a deadly serious face after such a ridiculous statement.
"Zulu, sometimes you make me feel like a white girl who can't even "even"." At that comment, both men lost it and were still laughing hysterically when Cream climbed into the backseat of the car.
"Hey Daddy! Hi Uncle Victor! What are you two laughing about?" She asked, her sweet, innocent voice quelling their laughter momentarily.
"Cream, your uncle is a sexist pig." Zulu laughed.
"Cream, your father is a complete moron." Victor chuckled.
"You guys are silly!" Cream giggled. Victor pulled the car away from the curb and drove to Cream's house. They spent the short ride asking Cream about what she liked and disliked about the car.
"Ha! Cream loves it!" Victor declared triumphantly as they entered the house. Zulu however, remained silent. Cream scurried inside and hopped up onto a seat at the dinner table. Victor went for his corner seat when Zulu grabbed his shoulder. Victor gave him a questioning look, wondering if Zulu was pouting about the car. Zulu held up his arm and Victor's eyes widened as he noticed Zulu's hairs were raised.
Zulu gave him a nod and moved his finger in a circular motion, silently telling Victor to check the house. Victor glided like a ghost out of the room and Zulu noticed Cream was watching him. He held a finger to his lips and approached her, placing himself between her and the entryway to the dinning room. Zulu felt her clutch onto his shirt and reached back to give her a gentle squeeze. Zulu listened hard, barely making out Victor as he made his way around upstairs silently.
"Daddy, where are Alan and Emily?" Cream asked timidly.
"That's what I'm worried about Cream." Zulu replied.
Kinley walked down the hall flanked by two of his subordinates. He'd been leading a G.U.N. meeting discussing what actions to take regarding the two men from the portals when he'd gotten a call from one of his men saying that they had captured two people of interest. He was slightly irritated, having not issued any orders for this particular course of action, and had all but dismissed the idea of these two people having any importance. He stepped into a room with a one way mirror that looked into an interrogation room. There were two chairs in the interrogation room, occupied by a male and a female, next to a stainless steel table in the center of the room.
"Ok what's all this about?" Kinley growled. "I don't remember giving any authorization to go out and capture people."
"Sir, we were incorrect when we said we had tracked down and eliminated everyone who was with Brystol's group. Remember Alan?" The man smirked. "With all the Brystol excitement, he was temporarily forgotten about."
"Oh yes, so why is he here alive?"
"Guess where we found him?"
"Do I need to have someone torture you for answers as well?"
"Ok, we tracked him down to the house we know those super soldiers hang around at, the girl was there too when we broke in." The man replied.
"That is very interesting. They put up a fight?"
"None sir, we know what Alan is capable of, and operated appropriately."
"Good." Kinley replied. "We have leverage now. Our only problem is Sonic and his group."
"Well I have good news sir, Batch 3 is ready."
Bilge sloshed his way through the sewers. He felt a strange familiar feeling as he went, and couldn't quite comprehend how he knew where he was going. He had decided to use the sewers to get into the city unnoticed. He was heading for a manhole which was a block away from the building he had been dispatched from for his mission to wipe out the people in that parking garage. As he walked he planned out his strategy, and half an hour later he arrived at the ladder leading up to his exit with a plan in mind. He climbed up the greasy ladder and listened. There were sounds of cars, but they were a ways away. He guessed he must be in a side street or alleyway and with little effort, eased up the cover to peek around. He was in an industrial loading/unloading area for trucks, which was currently empty. He climbed out of the hole, careful not to bump the barrel of the rifle into the cover, and slid the cover back into place before taking a hard look around.
He quickly picked out his target building, the reason why he chose this exit. It was an older building, and quite tall, with fire escapes leading up to the top floor. He wasn't aware what the building was for, but all he cared about was the vantage point he would get from the roof. He quickly darted off and snuck his way to the building. Once there, he glanced up at the ladder, which was around 15 feet above his head. He lifted his foot and pressed it to the wall of the building and pressed down, sliding his foot down the wall. Satisfied with the resistance he got, he stepped back a few paces, then bounded forward. Right as he was about to hit the wall he leaped up, planted his foot, and pushed himself out and away from the wall. His upward momentum from his initial jump was just enough for him to catch the bottom rung of the ladder.
Smirking to himself at the thought that giving him augmentations was the biggest mistake anyone could have ever made, he pulled himself up the ladder and made his way up the fire escape stairs. Once on the roof he looked out over the surrounding area and located his target. True to his estimates, the building was roughly a block away, with the industrial load/unload area being the only thing between him and the building. The roof he was on had a 3 foot high lip running around its perimeter, presumably so you couldn't easily fall off. Bilge rested the rifle on the lip and peeked through the scope.
The building was nondescript, and looked very unassuming. It was a sleek black with black windows like a typical business building. It stood 5 stories tall, only a couple stories taller than the building he was currently on. He could make out nothing through the opaque black windows and growled in frustration.
"So much for that. Dammit." He muttered to himself. "Well I guess it is to be expected from a coward."
Bilge thought about how to best recon the building, given that the only way to have any idea about it was to go inside. He wasn't trained for tech stuff, so hacking the system was out. Bilge weighed the option of barging in versus sneaking in. Sneaking in was the obvious choice, but going with the predictable strategy wasn't always a good pick. He then scoured the building's exterior through the rifle's scope and noticed something which made his objective much harder. There were no security cameras outside at all, meaning they were all inside and placed by the windows facing outwards.
"Son of a bitch." Bilge sighed. He glanced around the bottom of the building and then he saw it, his way in. There was a driveway that went down under the building, an underground parking lot.
"G.U.N. must be responsible for this." Shadow growled.
"Must be the same ones who sent that rat to Brystol's hideout." Rouge added.
"Well if he hadn't taken off we could ask him!" Amy exclaimed in frustration.
"Let's calm down guys." Tails said calmly. "There aren't any signs of a fight here, which means they had to be taken alive right? Rouge and I can hack into G.U.N. and find out who is responsible."
"Doubt it'll be that easy." Shadow said.
"Hey, every little bit helps." Sonic replied confidently. "I'm sure you two will find something, then we can go kick some butt!"
"I'm all for that!" Knuckles agreed, slamming his fists together.
"You guys have been quiet, what are you thinking?" Silver inquired, glancing over at Victor and Zulu.
"This is getting very sensitive." Zulu replied. "There are a lot of politics going on here, too much that doesn't make sense. G.U.N. knows full well by now that we are involved with you guys, and you're regarded as heroes. Rogue, Shadow, I need to know how G.U.N. operates."
"Well, they are the global organization for law enforcement and military." Rogue said.
"It receives orders from the President of the United Federation, but operates at the sole discretion of a man only known as the Commander." Shadow added. "I think I know what you're getting at. If the Commander was involved, G.U.N. could perform operations secretly that aren't approved of by the President."
"You don't think…" Blaze started.
"From what you just told me, I think it's safe to assume that whoever we are up against in G.U.N. is involved with the Commander." Zulu said grimly. "A lot of stuff that's happened has been completely covered up from the public's eye, hence why there's nothing about the Brystol incident on the news. Now if the person we are up against wasn't involved with the Commander, there is no way they could operate this freely with G.U.N. personnel without getting caught. Hell, even if the President got suspicious and pressed the Commander on what was happening, he could easily cover it up with any number of excuses."
"I don't get it." Sonic said. "The Commander is our ally, why do this? We've cooperated in the past."
"Sonic, power is very corruptive." Victor replied. "We are talking about an organization that governs the entire world. They also govern themselves. Think of it this way. A police officer breaks into a house while the owners are at work and steals something. The owners come home and report the break in. The entire police force knows the officer did it. Now, since they are the only ones who can enforce the rules and investigate crime, they can completely ignore the fact that the office did it, because no one can do anything to them."
"Now Sonic, replace that small police force with a giant organization that has a range of authority from giving people speeding tickets to waging global war, add in the political sway they must have with the President, and you can see how easy it would be to go from good to bad, not to mention that people within the organization would sure covet the Commander's position." Zulu concluded.
"The way things have developed, it's pretty clear this has gone past justifiable means." Shadow agreed. "At the start I would have said the Commander was worried about the possible threat you could pose. Now though, it's safe to say that this isn't normal."
"I don't think the Commander we knew is in charge anymore." Rogue muttered.
"Ok let's slow down for a second." Silver said. "So, at some point recently someone has taken the role of Commander. Now, how recently we don't know, but what we do know is that they are now using any means to bait us out."
"Hold on." Blaze interrupted. "We should go back farther. We know for a fact G.U.N. made the combat drugs found in Zulu, so there was some sort of communication between G.U.N. and where Zulu and Victor came from before they got here."
"So what?" Knuckles asked.
"My point is that their amazing discovery that there is another whole separate dimension was never made public." Blaze continued, slightly irritated by Knuckles cutting in. "Our dimension's existence is public knowledge since G.U.N. wasn't involved with our portal activity, and didn't try to hide it when they found out since they knew Sonic was involved. When Zulu appeared though, they did not try to collaborate with us at all, instead sending Shadow and Rogue out to track him down. They have hidden everything from the public, even with Sonic's involvement."
"From this we have to conclude that they are involved with what's happening in some way and don't want any evidence that they were involved to come up later on." Silver said, crossing his arms. "They have something big planned involving Zulu and Victor's dimension."
"So if that's true, then what I theorized to Victor would make sense." Zulu said. "I had a theory that the man who secretly backed Jarving was actually from G.U.N. and used a portal to get to our dimension. Somehow he and the Commander must have coordinated with each other to arrange a meeting for the transfer of the drugs."
"We are missing a lot of why's still." Victor pointed out.
"Why don't we go to the President?" Sonic asked. "We have his trust, and he could turn things around for us."
"Yeah! We should have done that a while ago!" Amy eagerly agreed. Zulu shook his head.
"Unfortunately it's not that easy. First off, the Commander would likely not let us anywhere near the President. Second, even if we somehow managed to get to the President, we would put him and many others in the Commander's crosshairs. I'm sure he has quite a few men in the President's detail on a payroll."
"Also remember Brystol." Shadow added. "She was leading a secret group of people who investigated G.U.N. internal corruption. She was probably aware of all this, and doing her best at prolonging the Commander's plans until she could get something to pin on him. She was probably unaware of who the Commander was, thus not able to make any moves."
"Without her in G.U.N. as our insider, there is no one who can prevent anymore nefarious internal activities." Victor growled.
"I think it's about time Rogue and I began hacking." Tails said excitedly. Rogue gave him a nod.
"We can't do anything until we know where to go, so leave it to us to find out." Rogue said, addressing the group. She and Tails departed, heading to his house where he had the proper tools and software.
"Ok guys." Zulu said, getting everyone's attention. "Victor and I have something important to tell you."
It was dark as Bilge lay prone behind a car a couple hundred feet from the underground garage entrance. He slowly began crawling, inching himself along, hugging the curb. It was dark enough that as long as he stayed by the curb and moved slow, he wouldn't be seen.
'If those cameras have an infrared setting I'm fucked.' He thought to himself. He continued sliding himself along until he approached his first obstacle, a street light. Carefully Bilge slid his way out into the dark street and made his way around the radius of illumination. Given the layout of where he guessed the cameras were, this was his only way to approach with the least chance of detection.
Sliding himself back up to the curb he carried on until he reached the sloped driveway to the garage, which was also brightly illuminated by two large lights in the upper corners of the garage opening. Bilge assumed that there were also two cameras in the same places as the lights.
'Ugh why am I doing this? I should just march in and gut them all.' Bilge thought, quickly losing patience. He had no idea how he was supposed to get by this. After a while of thinking he growled, threw caution to the wind, stood up and bolted for the garage.
"Ach!" A guard choked and began coughing on his food.
"What Rich?" His buddy asked.
"Did you see that?" Rich said as he frantically typed on the keyboard in front of him to back up the camera feed. Rich hit play and they watched as a dark blur flew into the garage area.
"What the hell was that?!"
"I have no idea, go get a security team Larry." Rich replied. Larry quickly left and assembled a team of 6 armed men to go investigate. They took an elevator down to the garage and spread out to search.
"Eyes on me?" Larry asked.
"I see you Larry, not sure where our friend is hiding though." Rich replied over Larry's earpiece.
"Damn. Hey! Check behind those two trucks over there!" Larry ordered, pointing at two large black cargo trucks at the end of the garage. The garage was a 30 meter by 30 meter square with 4 rows for parking, one row against the wall where the driveway was, two rows in the middle facing each other, and a final row against the back wall. The elevator was in the center of the back wall. The two trucks in question were to the left of the elevator in the front corner. There was a single camera watching the front of the elevator where Larry was standing. Larry supervised and kept Rich up to date as the men searched the garage.
"Over here is clear!" One armed man called out from the back corner to the right of the elevator. He had been checking where three cars were parked. The six men had split up, three to the left and three to the right, one taking the rear wall of the garage and two taking the front.
"Right side clear!" The other two men on the right side called, regrouping with the third and making their way to Larry.
"How's the left?!" Larry barked. He glanced over at the man checking the back corner.
"All clear here, how about you guys?!" He replied and called out to his teammates who had been checking the trucks. There was no response.
"You three, back him up, check that corner!" Larry ordered. "Rich, we may have a problem, possibly two men down." He slowly drew the handgun he carried on his hip and cocked the slide.
"Shit!" One of them screamed, followed by multiple cries of pain as gunshots erupted.
"Single hostile! It's a-" Whoever was calling out was silenced and the gunfire abruptly stopped. Larry desperately hopped back into the elevator.
"Rich, holy shit, they are all down, one hostile!" He urgently jabbed the door close button. As the doors slid shut Larry saw a large black rat appear and grab the doors, forcing them back open.
"Larry what's going on?!"
"Larry can you hear me?!"
"Larry!"
Alarms began blaring throughout the building. Kinley, who was with his three personal bodyguards and one of his scientists looking over Batch 3 before sending them off, looked up with annoyance.
"What the hell is going on?!" He yelled. Three of his men ran into the room.
"Sir! Security says we have a single intruder who got in through the garage! Not sure who it is, all he saw was a black blur on the cameras, possibly seven men already down!" One of them stated urgently.
"What?!" Kinley barked. "Get men to the elevators, now! Whenever those doors open, fill whoever it is with lead!"
"Sir!" The men ran out and Kinley turned back to the scientist.
"We have to hurry it up, let's send them off to that fox boys place!" Kinley ordered. The scientist typed in some commands into a console that was hooked up to four cylindrical capsules full of blue liquid. Inside each tube was a person with a dozen or so tubes running from them to the capsule. Slowly the blue liquid began emptying out and one by one the people inside began to gain consciousness. Kinley gestured with his hand for the scientist to hurry up, so he entered another command and the capsules slid open.
The first one out of their capsule was a tall man with a sculpted muscular body. He was at least a head and a half taller than Kinley, who was not a short man. The next two were a woman and a man, both physical specimens. The woman was slender, equal height with Kinley, and was rippling with muscle. The man was a head shorter than Kinley, but was extremely broad shouldered and barrel chested. The last to climb out was a man who immediately made a slight shiver go up Kinley's spine. He was around the same build and height as the first man, but was very pale.
"My four horsemen" Kinley said in awe. They all stood in front of him with blank expressions on their faces, having been administered combat drugs before being let out. Kinley let his eyes wander over the woman's body, since they were all naked. Suddenly, far off in the building, the crackle and rumble of gunfire began, bringing him back to the situation at hand.
"Ahem!" He cleared his throat. "You have been trained for this moment, and all your gear is ready." He gestured behind him to four large green cases. "Inside is your equipment, tailored to each of you. Each of you also will receive a small GPS device which will guide you quickly to your target. When you get there, skin them all alive, gut them, torture them, I don't care, I just want no further problems from them." There was no response. The four stepped up to the cases, grabbed their respective one, and marched out of the room to gear up. "Alright, status on the intruder?" Kinley asked one of his personal guards.
"Floor one, no response from the team who was guarding the elevator there. Other units on that floor are on the lookout. Seems our intruder is forcing us to either go through them to leave the building, or retreat to the roof." The man replied.
"It must be Bilge, shit." Kinley rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Get our two hostages and get to the roof! Let the men handle him, we are leaving."
"Yes sir!" He responded. He rushed out of the room leaving Kinley and his other two guards.
"Alright! You two with me, call in a helicopter." Kinley said, leaving the room followed closely by his two men, one using his earpiece to call for a chopper.
Bilge kicked open a door and ducked inside as bullets peppered the doorway. He hit the eject button on his handgun, dropping the magazine to the ground and sliding in a full one. He cocked the gun and quickly peeked around the doorway to look down the hall. He immediately ducked back as bullets tore into the wall. He mentally noted how many hostiles there were and where they were positioned before deciding his killing order. He took a breath and leapt into the hallway. Everything slowed as adrenaline flooded his system. He fired twice before hitting the ground, killing two in the front who were crouched. He rolled through his landing and fired again, maintaining his focus as bullets flew by him.
Bilge quickly fired three more shots, killing the remaining three. He felt burning and checked himself, finding two grazes on his left arm and one on his right thigh. He ignored the wounds and crept down the hall, keeping his pistol trained on the corner. When he got to the corner he did a quick check and found himself in the clear. He holstered his sidearm and relieved the men of their ammo and any weapons he would need. He decided on a shotgun and a small submachine gun. He also found one of the men's vests had a few metal plates, and he slid them into his vest.
Shouldering the shotgun he pressed on, finding the stairs and heading up to the second floor. As he rounded the stairs up to the second floor landing he slid back behind the tall solid railing as bullets rained down from above. He crouched, switched the shotgun from his right to his left, and pivoted out of cover, firing the shotgun at one of the four men on the landing. The one he was aiming at grunted and collapsed, clutching his chest. Bilge spun back into cover and smirked.
'Slugs huh? Perfect.' He thought. He repeated his strategy, pivoting out, firing, then ducking back into cover. When he killed the last man he reloaded and crept up the stairs. When he reached the landing he switched back to his right hand and looked around.
"Uhhhh…" A groan came from behind him. He spun, leveling the shotgun on the source of the noise. It was the man he had first shot. His body armor had taken the impact of the slug and knocked the air out of him, as well as most likely breaking some ribs. "Please…don't…" He coughed. Bilge sneered at how pathetic this was, and set down the shotgun. The man's look of relief turned to horror as Bilge grabbed him by the hair, pulled his head up, drew his knife, and pressed the tip of it under his chin before stabbing the knife up into his head, killing him instantly.
The helicopter noise slowly became apparent in the distance as Kinley, his three guards, and their hostages, Alan and Emily, waited on the roof. Four armed men stood at the roof entryway, overlooking the stairs.
"Well you two, just think of this as a minor delay to your interrogation." Kinley said, addressing Alan and Emily. "Don't try anything funny or I'll toss you out of the chopper."
"What's even going on?" Alan asked. "Chickening out because Sonic and his friends are here screwing up your plans?"
"Haha! Please." Kinley replied arrogantly. "Sonic and his team aren't here. Speaking of them, they won't be coming to save you after tonight."
"What? What do you mean?!" Emily asked, a sour feeling of dread filling her stomach.
"Oh nothing." Kinley smirked, loving the look of despair on the young woman's face. Her hair began billowing in the wind as the helicopter closed in, slowing to a stop and hovering over the building, beginning it's decent to the roof. Suddenly, barely audible over the noise of the chopper, gunfire sounded from the stairs. Everyone looked over to see the muzzle flashes and heard the staccato sound of an automatic weapon as bursts of fire sprayed over the railing, dropping the four men guarding the stairs in quick succession.
"Dammit!" Kinley screamed, a hint of fear in his voice. The helicopter's landing struts were level with Kinley's head and he turned and climbed up into the chopper, not waiting for it to land. "Two of you, grab them, one of you hold him off!"
"Him?" Alan yelled, trying to be heard over the rotor noise. Suddenly a shadow with blood red eyes appeared by the stairs. Alan and Emily watched as the guard who was ordered to "hold him off" fired at shadow but it vanished, moving behind an air vent. Abruptly it lunged out from behind the vent and charged the man while he was reloading, the glint of a knife appearing. In no time the red eyed shadow reached the man. He swung the butt of his gun at its head, but missed. The shadow kicked the man's knee and grabbed his rifle as he collapsed.
The two men holding Alan and Emily raised their rifles but couldn't fire in time as two well placed bullets slammed into their heads, crumpling them to the ground. Kinley cursed and slammed the helicopter door shut, signaling for the driver to take off. Alan and Emily watched the chopper fly up and away before turning to see the two blood red eyes staring at them from a safe distance. Slowly the figure stepped forward so they could make out who it was.
"Holy shit!" Alan exclaimed. "It's you!"
"The rat?! You came to save us?!" Emily asked in disbelief.
"Don't flatter yourselves, I only came here for that man who just left in the chopper. I didn't know you two were here." The rat growled as he crossed his arms.
"Regardless, you saved us. Thank you." Emily said sincerely. The rat didn't reply as he stepped forward and cut the zip-ties that bound Alan and Emily's wrists. He sheathed the knife, turned, and began walking away.
"Wait, our friends are in trouble." Alan said. The rat ignored him.
"That man said something very concerning, please rat, we could use the help." Emily pleaded. The rat stopped and sighed in frustration.
"The name's Bilge. Follow me, I need to check something before we leave." He growled and continued walking, although at a slightly faster pace.
"Bilge the Rat huh?" Alan said, testing the name.
"Don't wear it out." Bilge shot back. He led them back inside and headed for an armory he had passed by on the 3rd floor earlier. When they reached the room he stopped in front of the door. "Alan, stock up on what you need here then meet me in the parking garage."
"Where you off too?" Alan asked. Bilge was a bit surprised that there wasn't any suspicion in his voice.
"I'll explain later, no time right now." He said dismissively and hurried down the hall. Alan watched the rat walk away and turned his attention to Emily.
"What's on your mind?" He asked her, seeing the thoughtful look on her face.
"He's changed." She said simply.
"Well I wouldn't give him too much credit." Alan chuckled. "Certainly though, effort is being made. Now, let's get some gear."
Bilge headed down to the second floor and looked for the lab. When he was here for briefing and dispatch he remembered a lab where they were working on the third batch.
'If I'm right, because of Brystol's watchful eye, he moved all the research and development for the assassin program here from the main G.U.N. research and development labs at the headquarters after my batch was finished, so she couldn't possibly tamper with his final product.' He thought as he searched for the lab room. Finally he located the lab and went inside to find four empty capsules that were similar to what he remembered crawling out of. When he entered there was a gasp and he turned his attention to the source, drawing his knife.
There, hunched over a computer, was a scientist that he recognized. That was the man who had did this to him. That was the man who tortured him and put him through hell.
'I can't let him live. He has to die or this sick program will never end. How many people has he fucked with and broken? It's his fault I can't be normal ever again. I will make him suffer.'
"Well well, look who it is." Bilge snarled, slowly approaching the man and twirling the knife expertly around in his hand.
"Y-you?!" He whimpered. "You're s-supposed to b-be dead." Bilge sneered.
"I'm aware, I already dealt with one of my successors, and I think you're going to tell me where the other's went, along with answering a few other questions of mine." The scientist saw a malicious glint in the rat's blood red eyes and turned to run.
"What was that?" Alan asked, pausing in the hallway. A loud scream had echoed down the hallway from their right.
"Could it have been Bilge?" Emily asked.
"Doubt it, but I'd bet he was involved with it. Let's go." Alan hurried down the hall, the added weight of the bag and rifle he was carrying doing nothing to slow him down. Emily, also with a bag, lugged it behind her as she chased after him. After a few minutes they located the room where the scream came from. They rushed into what appeared to be a lab and for Emily, the sight was gruesome and disturbing. Bilge stood beside a desk that was covered in blood. A man hung from the desk by his right arm, which was stuck in place by a knife, which had been stabbed through the hand and into the desk. His left leg was bent at a 45 degree angle in the wrong direction and his left hand was missing every finger nail.
"Oh my god…" Emily muttered, clamping both hands over her mouth and turning away, nausea overcoming her. Alan opened his mouth to speak but he froze, seeing the look on Bilge's face which was full of anguish and rage. He took a quick glance around the lab, seeing the empty capsules and got an idea about what the situation was.
"He's the one, isn't he?" Alan more stated than asked, stepping up to the rat. "He did all this to you." Bilge responded by baring his teeth, not taking his eyes off the body. Alan glanced back at Emily, who had her back to them, unable to handle the sight.
"Four of my successors were sent to kill your friends." Bilge said, suddenly coming out of his trance. "He purged the system here of everything relating to Batch 3 and most likely sent off the research to wherever that chopper was going." He glanced over at Emily and shook his head. "No time to stand around, I'll fill you in on the way."
They hurried down to the garage, no one speaking a word. They loaded up a truck and climbed inside, Alan behind the wheel, Emily in the middle, and Bilge next to the passenger door. Alan pulled out of the garage and sped down the street.
"Head for the fox's house, but first take a left into this alley." Bilge ordered. "I have a weapon stash on the roof." Alan braked hard and spun the wheel, causing the tires to squeal as the truck barely made the turn into the alleyway. Bilge jumped out and scurried up the fire escape ladder and stairs. Only a few moments later a loud thud came from the roof of the truck causing Emily to jump. Alan saw Bilge hop to the ground in the mirror and climb back inside with a rifle slung over his shoulder.
"Where did that come from?" Alan asked as he floored the truck and got them back onto the street.
"They sent someone after me who tracked me down in the forest outside the city. I killed him and took it." Bilge replied casually.
"So that is why you returned. You wanted to stop them from sending people after you." Emily responded.
"Can't live in peace while being hunted." Bilge growled. Alan watched Bilge from the corner of his eye as the rat answered and saw there was much more to his reasoning than that. He kept quiet however, now wasn't the time for deep talks and morals.
"So Bilge, what are we going up against?" He asked.
"From what little I got from the scientist, my batch, the second batch, was a throwaway, mainly for testing augmentations. My batch had five subjects, four humans and myself. Only I and another man survived the augmentation process. After my batch, there was a prototype for batch 3, which was sent after me. They were supposed to collect the results and analyze the prototype when he returned, but they had a breakthrough, and were able to finish batch 3."
"A breakthrough?" Alan asked.
"He didn't say, as much as I pressured him." Bilge replied, causing Emily to shiver. "He wouldn't give me any details, just that they were superior to me and they would definitely succeed with killing your friends. I wasn't able to discover where the man in charge fled to in the chopper or if there was to be more batches made." Bilge clenched his fists.
"What we can assume then is that there are four correct? Unless the four capsules were for something else?"
"No, there are only four, you are correct." Bilge answered. "They were the same type of capsules I came out of."
"So four augmented assassins like you, alright. Emily, I want you to stay in this truck when we get there. We don't know what the situation will be when we arrive."
"Actually Alan, it would be best to drop you off before we get there." Bilge suggested. "During my briefing for assassinating Brystol, I was told there was a possibility I would encounter you and given a quick rundown of your capabilities. Your expertise as a sniper would be best used from out in the woods away from the house."
"I did pick up some communication earpieces. I can scope it out from a good vantage point and guide you in." Alan said.
"Sounds good." Bilge growled.
A defiant, zip-tied Tails looked up at the giant man that stood in front of him. The man's expression was blank and emotionless, despite the fact that his nose was broken and bleeding. Behind the man, a shorter man and a woman were dragging Zulu and Victor into a corner. Both were unconscious and bleeding from a number of wounds. Amy was seated to the left of Tails, zip-tied and gagged. Her hammer was still across the room on the floor where she had dropped it after being disarmed. Shadow lay sprawled out on the floor, unconscious, having been attacked by a tall pale man, who was now downstairs in Tails' basement.
Silver was blindfolded and gagged, zip-tied against a separate wall to the right of Tails, next to Blaze who was wearing fireproof gloves and was handcuffed instead of zip-tied. Sonic lay on his stomach next to Tails, his hands cuffed behind his back to his feet. Rogue and Knuckles were seated against the left wall underneath the living room window, both cuffed and unconscious.
"You won't get away with this." Tails struggled to say. He'd taken a harsh beating during the sudden attack and still hadn't gotten his breath back.
"Already have." The man in front of him replied with the barest hint of a smirk. As Tails was about to reply his words caught in his throat as the pale man stepped into the room, having finished checking the basement. He had piercing black eyes, sharply contrasted by his white skin.
"No one else hiding here, time to begin." The pale man said, his voice surprisingly normal sounding. This caught the attention of the shorter man and the woman who were cuffing and securing Zulu and Victor. They both stepped over to the tall man in front of Tails and they all drew knives. Amy's eyes widened and she began squirming and making muffled squeals. Sonic gritted his teeth.
"So what is your plan?" He asked.
"Our orders are to skin, gut, and torture you." The pale man replied, gesturing with his knife towards the group. Tails gulped, struggling to hide his fear. "Secure the black one." He continued, having noticed Shadow, still unconscious in the middle of the room. Then, as the shorter man knelt beside Shadow to cuff him, chaos erupted as a gunshot was heard from outside.
The living room window shattered and the pale man's head exploded, his lifeless body dropping to the floor. The second the window broke the front door burst open as a black rat leapt inside and opened fire with a gun, unloading lead into the chest of the large man who fell back onto Tails. The shorter man and the woman dropped to the floor for cover from the shooter outside, but had no cover from the rat in the hallway. They both drew handguns and the man fired at the hallway corner to suppress the rat as the woman crawled forward. Tails kicked the man's body off of him and watched as the rat tried to peek around the corner. It was then that Tails recognized the rat was the assassin who killed Brystol.
The rat ducked back just as a bullet hit the wall and Tails wondered why he wasn't shooting them. He glanced over and saw that Rogue and Knuckles were propped up unconscious against the wall behind the man and the woman.
'He's not shooting because he might hit Rogue and Knuckles.' Tails realized. He thought hard, wondering if there was anything he could do when the rat rolled out of cover. He made his move while the man was reloading and caught the woman off guard, spraying lead into her face. The rat had waited for her to creep up far enough so he could shoot her without risking a stray bullet hitting Rogue or Knuckles. The man finished reloading in a flash and began shooting the rat. The rat dropped his empty gun and was knocked back as the bullets hammered into his chest, falling flat onto his back. The man stood up carefully and hunched over a bit so he didn't reveal himself through the window. Tails watched him approach the rat as the rat raised his head to look at him.
Tails saw his mouth moving but couldn't make out any words. The man kept his gun trained on the rat as he stepped forward when suddenly the left wall exploded, a large hole appearing a couple feet above Rogue and Knuckles' heads. The short man's back exploded with blood as he was flung forward onto the floor. The rat wasted no time jumping up with a knife, pulling up the man's head by the hair, and stabbing the knife into his head from under the chin.
"Emily, all clear, bring them in. Alan, nice shooting." The rat rasped. Tails was at a loss for words, along with everyone else who wasn't unconscious. It was suddenly extremely quiet, save for the black rat's heavy, labored breathing. Suddenly Emily, Vanilla, and Cream rushed in through the front door.
"Oh my god!" Emily gasped. "Is everyone ok?!"
"Tails." Vanilla said with authority, breaking through his shock. "Who needs medical attention?" Despite her worry, Vanilla was all business.
"Shadow, Zulu, and Victor got the worst of it." He responded shakily. "Rogue, Knuckles, and Silver also got beat pretty bad. The rest of us I think are ok."
"Momma!" Cream yelled. She was knelt beside Zulu and Victor who were both still unconscious and bleeding badly. Vanilla hurried over and began doing a rough assessment of their injuries. Alan ran inside and began cutting off everyone's zip-ties. It was when Alan was searching the dead men for the handcuff keys that Tails noticed the rat had disappeared.
"Alan-" He started.
"It can wait Tails, I know you have a lot of questions, as do I, but those can wait." Alan said. He gave the fox a reassuring smile. "Let's make sure everyone is ok before we discuss tonight's events." Tails gave him a nod.
"You're right."
"Tails!" Vanilla yelled. "I need a table!"
"I have a couple in the basement! Sonic, Alan, can I have a hand getting them up the stairs?"
"Don't even ask." Alan replied. The three hurried down the stairs and brought up a few tables. Vanilla, with the help of Alan and Sonic, lifted, Victor, Zulu, and Shadow carefully onto each of the three tables.
"Shadow has minor cuts and bruises but severe internal trauma. Zulu and Victor share similar injuries including severe cuts to their joints and head trauma." Vanilla diagnosed. "I'm going to stop Zulu and Victor's bleeding first before moving to treat Shadow."
As Vanilla treated Shadow, Victor, and Zulu, with the help of Cream, everyone else sat quietly, waiting for those still knocked out to regain consciousness. There were so many questions, yet, as Alan had said, everything should be discussed and explained when everyone was awake so no one would be left out, so everyone stayed silent. Amy, Tails, and Blaze had taken to cleaning up the house as best they could while Sonic paced back and forth, frustration evident on his face. Emily was tending to Silver and keeping an eye on Rogue and Knuckles in case they woke up.
"So this is where you disappeared to." Alan said, stepping outside. "You know you should get that looked at."
"Like hell I'm submitting myself to that crazy hippie rabbit and her annoying daughter again." Bilge grimaced in reply, getting a chuckle from Alan.
"You and your attitude." He sighed. "I guess it can't be helped. You know, at first I thought you just were playing a tough guy."
"Tch. Like I give a shit what anyone thinks of me." Bilge snapped back.
"I saw the look on your face when you were staring at that scientist." Alan stated firmly. Bilge growled and crossed his arms, turning away from him. "Look, I'm not saying I understand you completely, but I can read people well, and that look said a lot. Deep down you have good morals, and you know what is right and wrong, but they fucked you up didn't they, and this is all you know how to do now." Bilge's arms dropped to his sides and he clenched his fists.
"You know." He snarled. "I can't remember anything before the program. I don't know how I ended up there, or who I was before the program, or even if I had family. They wiped away everything, and programmed me to be this way. I don't know what I've lost."
"Well Bilge, I hope you stick with us." Alan replied. "I know you can't help it, wanting to be a lone wolf and isolate yourself, but back at that place where you rescued Emily and I, she told me you've changed. I was a bit skeptical of course but when I saw that look on your face, I knew she was right."
"Save the sappy shit for someone who gives a fuck." Bilge growled. Alan laughed out loud.
"That won't work on me anymore haha! I know what you're really saying, and you're welcome. Let's get inside and see if we can patch you up." Alan's tone was friendly and inviting. Bilge used all his willpower to turn and follow the man back inside, refusing to let his manipulated mind ruin this possible opportunity of acceptance.
