Hey everyone! I'm back and no longer a high school student! Yay!
This original chapter takes place during the episode Agendas.
No matter how much I wish I do not own anything but by OCs.
Enjoy!
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Derek reviewed the file one more time before he prepared to leave. He was currently in a small café in Blüdhaven reading a file on his target- an aging tramp steamer that was currently docked in Blüdhaven's harbor. The tramp steamer in question was registered under the US flag by the name Valor and according to the ship's manifest if was carrying barrels of oil from the Middle East. But in reality the ship was a smuggler's ship owned by Josh Walter, also known by his moniker "Black Rat".
Two weeks ago the Order's intelligence network pinged funds being transferred from multiple Templar shell companies to offshore accounts. At first the transfers didn't attract much attention from the Order, the Templar moved funds around all the time, it wasn't until the Order anylists realized that all of these minute money transfers were being sent to accounts all connected to Black Rat.
Given the sizeable deposit the Order wanted to know what the Templar had Black Rat smuggle into the country. Usually the Templar could use Abstergo industries or one of their other companies to arrange transportation of whatever goods they wanted inside the country. If the Templar wanted this so far removed from them that they were willing to hire a greasy, weasely smuggler that was so disconnected from the Templar's usual methods of transport that the Order had only realized the connection between the two a mere two days before the ship made port then whatever Black Rat was transporting had to be very important to the Templar.
Derek's job was to infiltrate the Valor and investigate what it was the Templar were having transported and acquire it, or if necessary destroy it. Fortunately he was finally out of that wheelchair and casts thanks to the League's advanced medical technology and he was enjoying his mobility.
At least he would be if the constant giggling didn't drive him insane.
Said giggling was coming from a pair of teenage girls his age. One was a pale brunette with shoulder length hair and a shirt that just barley clung to her shoulders and a tan blonde with waist length hair and a shirt so bright pink that it made his eyes water. It was obvious that they were giggling about him given that they were making several not discreet glances at him and then would cover their mouths and giggle like little school girls. Derek had to admit they were physically attractive, if you ignored the air-headiness that practically radiated off of them.
And their giggling.
"Can this get any worse?"Derek thought desperately.
Oh no the brunette is coming towards him. With extreme difficulty Derek managed to restrain himself from throttling her once she sat down at his table. "Hi." She said as she batted her eyelashes at him, obviously trying to be flirty and seductive but failing miserably. "I'm Chel and my friend over there is Kathy, we were wonder if you wanted to come with use to a party one of our friends is putting together."
"No." Derek deadpanned bluntly, trying to convey to her how much he didn't want to go with her and her friend.
"Are you sure? I bet you I could make your night interesting." She added with a mock whisper at the end. Derek knew these types; even if he was interested (which he wasn't!) she would just use him for a single night of 'fun' and then throw him on the street in the morning. Unfortunately he also knew they were incredible persistent and wouldn't give up with a simple no.
"Okay, so how do I scare her off without directly threatening her?" Derek really wouldn't have any qualms about threatening her, but it would attract unwanted attention. A sudden though crossed Derek's mind and he suppressed a small smirk. "Sorry, I'm meeting up with my girlfriend tonight." The girl started to sneer, no doubt about to make some snide comment about how she would be more 'fun' than his girlfriend when he causally added, "I have to go return a few of her throwing knives."
Chel blinked, "Throwing knives?"
Derek nodded, "Yeah, I'm surprised she even let me take them, she can get possessive about her things, and she once threw knives at a guy that was keeping her away from her doctor."
Chel looked uncomfortable and looked a little pale, "Uh…"
"And then she broke the jaws of a few guys that tried to hit on her…"
"Um…never mind." Chel said and then quickly bolted, no doubt uncomfortable about the description of his "girlfriend" and what exactly that said about him if he was dating her. Derek held back a grin at the obvious look of discomfort as she sat back down with her friend. But even as he relished in the discomfort of the air heads it puzzled him why he had described Cheshire as his girlfriend. He could have picked anyone, or just made up someone, so why her?
She was beautiful, with her long mane of hair and soft pink lips that always seemed to a teasing smirk and her… "Whoa. Stay focused Derek." Returning back to his original train of thought while Derek did find her physically attractive but he knew plenty of girls that where pretty too and he didn't give a second thought about them. And unlike Chel and Kathy who had already chosen their next victim, Cheshire had shown great intelligence during her attempted assassination of Luthor, her disguise had been clever and had he not have been trained to think in the same way she probably would have gotten close enough to detonate the bomb. She was …interesting. "Ugh, I can't think about this right now." Derek thought sourly, "I have to focus on my assignment."
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Creed calmly stroked through the cold waters of Blüdhaven as drew closer to the Valor. While the water was very cold Creed didn't really feel it, his outfit was well insulated to keep his body temperature from dropping and it did a rather good job of keeping the water out too. Though Creed doubted it would have been much of a problem without the suit either, during his endurance training his instructor would have him swim in water just as cold, if not colder, in nothing but a pair of trunks to increase his resistance to extreme temperatures.
As he approached the Valor he noticed that the ship looked even more worn up close. The entire thing seemed to be holding itself together with nothing but rust. When he got close enough he grabbed onto a ledge and lifted himself out of the dark water. The rust made I more difficult for him to get a grip, but after a few minutes he managed to pull himself up to the edge of the deck.
Creed's finger's gripped around the cold rusty edge of the ship as he prepared to pull himself up onto the deck- only to stop short at the sight of a guard patrolling the ship. Creed's muscles coiled like springs as the guard drew closer to his hiding place. Creed tensed in anticipation as the guard stepped into arm's reach and turned to face the edge of the ship Creed lashed out. The poor guard didn't even know what hit him as Creed's hidden blade pieced his meager amour and heart in one blow. Without so much as a sound Creed pulled the now dead guard down and threw him into the dark waters of Blüdhaven.
For a moment Creed felt a pang of guilt as he watched the lifeless body sinking underneath the water. He hadn't killed anyone since he had joined the team. When Batman had tracked him down after the Cadmus incident and had offered him a spot on the team he had made it very clear that he would not be allowed to kill any of the villains that the team went up against, and he went on about how heroes weren't judge and jury and their job was to catch the villains to bring them to justice. "But…" Creed thought as he hauled himself onto the deck to the Valor "I'm not a hero- I'm an Assassin." He was working on the team, but he wasn't a hero, he was just a stray assassin they had picked up whose only remaining family was a psychotic uncle who was the head of the Order's worst enemy. But like the well trained assassin he was he pushed any distracting thoughts out of his mind and focused on the mission at hand.
Creed silently moved across the tramp steamer's deck using the shadows from the containers scattered on the deck and the layer of darkness from the moonless night. None of the guards appeared to be very vigilant or focused on their jobs. One appeared to be asleep in his chair and two others were more focused on getting their cigarettes lit than watching for potential intruders.
Looking at the grating that led down below to the hold he saw that it was covered in a layer of thick rust that would most likely make a very loud noise. Creed bit his lip, trying to decide what to do- try and find another way to find out what the cargo was, or risk discovery?
With an inaudible sigh Creed made up his mind and reached for the grating and just as he was about to lift it up…
"He Joe," Creed's head shot up at the sound and then relaxed a little with the realization that it was just a pair of guards. "What'ya suppose was in that suitcase the captain had?" Wait, what?
Slinking back into the shadows Creed remained silent as he tried to get closer so he could eavesdrop on the guard's conversation.
"Don't know, don't care. So long as he gets back with the money," Joe snorted. "Greedy fool gets to go to the bar and gets paid while we have to stand out here."
So he was at a bar. That narrowed it down. From What Creed could recall there was only one bar within walking distance of the docks, and if he left now then he would get there in about ten minutes.
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10 minutes later…
It hadn't taken Creed that long to find Black Rat; the mad hadn't even left the exchange location before diving into his money greedily. Creed had found him crackling madly as he had counted his payment. Seeing that the suitcase he had smuggled into the country was gone Creed took out his frustration on Black Rat. Which is how they got into the position they were in now, Creed holding the older man against the wall as he interrogated him on his transaction.
"What was in the suitcase?" Creed growled out, his tone cold and menacing.
Black Rat, paralyzed by fear, couldn't answer the question.
"Well?" Creed asked again, his tone promising pain if the greedy man didn't answer in the next few seconds.
"I don't know!" Black Rat shouted as beads of sweat poured down his face. Which was a rare occurrence. He normally did check whatever illegal cargo he was carrying in case he was caught by customs- if only to know what to get rid of, but his, ehm, investors made it very clear that if they go so much as a hint that he knew what they were having him smuggle was they would have him dead by morning. And while his greed would normally ignore such threats the utter certainty in the dealer's eyes made it very clear that that was not an empty threat. "I swear I don't know!" Black Rat exclaimed, "All they told me to do was bring the suitcase here and I would meet up with a contact and they would pay me then!" Black Rat usually did a good job of keeping information of his transactions secret, after all a happy customer means they'll come back for his services again, this rat knew to leave a sinking ship.
"Who was your contact?" Creed growled. If he couldn't find out what was in the suitcase he could at least identify the contact.
"I don't know!" Seeing the Assassin's lips curl in displeasure he elaborated, "One second I'm holding the suitcase, the next I have a sack of money thrown in my face and the suitcase wrenched from my hands!"
Creed stared at the greasy man in his grip for another minute, willing him to tell him more about his deal, but it appeared that this well of information had dried up. With an irritated sigh Creed dropped the man onto the cold cement. By now his mysterious contact was long gone, they only thing he would be able to do was inform the Order intelligence that the Templar had smuggled something into the country. But first…
"Oh, thank you thank you thank you." Black Rat groveled at the teenager's feet.
"I wouldn't be so quick to thank me." Creed said with a slight smirk.
Black Rat paled, "Y-You're not going to k-kill me are you?"
Creed shook his head, "While I'm sure the world would be a much better place without you I'm not going to kill you, you're going to have enough problems as it is."
"What does that mean?"
As if on cue the timed explosives that Creed had left on the Valor detonated. The ship erupted into a ball for orange and red fire, lighting up the sky in an eerie glow. Black Rat could only watch in horror as his prized possession was destroyed in a ball of fire. By the time the explosion finished the ship now resembled a children's toy that had been put through a blender. Its stern was nothing more than a burnt out husk and the bow was starting to collapse in on itself as its supports gave out to the intense heat.
"I heard that Blüdhaven's customs officers had been looking for a reason to detain you." Creed casually said as if he was commenting on the weather. "I think I just gave them one." And with those parting words Creed left.
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Josh Walter had nothing. His ship had been taken away from him along with his freedom, and he couldn't even use his moniker anymore.
Blüdhaven's police had caught his not long after Creed had left, his face had been circulated through the district quickly enough and when they had found him he didn't try to run, more focused on mourning his ship and loss of profits that being concerned about being caught.
Which was why he was now in a holding cell waiting for the customs officers to come pick him up for interrogation.
A brief shadow passed over him and when he looked up he found himself looking up at another hooded figure. This one was dressed in all back garments and had a black mask over their face, giving him no facial features to work with. In fact the only thing he could tell was that the hooded figure was a female, and possibly a young one too given she was a little bit smaller than the last one.
"I already told you people everything I know." He grumbled, not really caring what the girl wanted.
"Oh did you now?" The girl's voice was toneless and synthesized, but he could still hear the threat in it.
"Yes I told you every…" Walter suddenly trailed off in horror as he caught sight of something on the girl's waist. Unlike the last hooded figure, whose belt buckle was some kind of strange triangle, this hooded figure's belt buckle was a red cross. The same red cross that his employer had worn when he had taken the job. Blood rapidly drained from his face as he realized what he had just admitted to. "No, no, no,nonononnono!"
Josh Walter's screams of mortal terror went unanswered as the desk guard greedily figured through a wad of hundred dollar bills. He then set them aside and called in the death of Josh Walter. Later the ME, who would also have a similar wad of cash on his desk, would inform investigators that Josh Walter died of a heart attack, brought on by the shock of losing his ship so suddenly.
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"Did you acquire the package?" Vald asked, not even bothering to turn away from the various monitors in front of him.
The masked female assassin stepped out of the shadows, not at all perturbed at the fact that Vald didn't even bother to turn around. "Yes, the package has already been delivered to the R&D labs and the loose end has been taken care of," She reported in a synthesized monotone. "They are confident they will be able to reverse engineer the nanotech.
"Hm." Vald hummed the closest thing to approval that the girl had ever gotten. "Pity we had to steal from our associates but the League's security around Serling Roquette is too tight to have 'acquired' her directly." Vald mused. With that Vald finally turned around to face the girl. "The Light is preparing to obtain the second half of the project- ensure we obtain a sample."
The girl bowed and slipped back into the shadows, leaving the grandmaster to his thoughts.
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So good news first- now that school is out I should be updating more frequently.
Bad news- this story only has three more chapters left.
More good news- this story will have a sequel!
Completely unrelated but very cool news- I went on a school trip to Europe and bought and Assassin Creed T-shirt in Florence! How cool is that!