Disclaimer: I do not own Totally Spies
Claimer: I do own any OCs in this fic
Note: I'm going to try some HTML codes in here, so don't be scared if you see something you don't recognize.
' ' - thought
( ) - author's notes
***** - time/scene change
*** - dream
=+= flashback =+= - self-explanatory
The Assassin: WOOHP Files
Chapter 3
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Nate quickly and quietly made his way through the darkened maintenance hall. The three spies he was now assigned to protect had gotten into trouble, again. In the week since they had found out that their mutual crush David was evil, they had confronted him about it. They had been captured and were now being held captive. He sighed as he continued en route to their location, the screen in his forearm giving him updates as to where they were.
'Three floors down, okay,' he thought as he studied the schematic of the building.
He stopped and tapped the wall, it was hollow, meaning there was an airshaft behind him. The skin on his left forearm opened and a blade whipped out like a switchblade and he sliced himself a decent hole in it. Hoisting himself into the duct, he placed his palm against the inside of the shaft, and when he pulled it away, a small, round magnet was attached to it, connected to his hand via a half-inch thick cable. He dropped through the hole, lowering himself down three floors to a ventilation grate. Looking through it he saw the three girls, ialmost/i nude, shackled to a cart, being wheeled down the hall by a robot of some kind. He kicked the grate out of the way and slid through, the magnet above him released and slid back into his hand.
"Nate, oh thank god!" Alex said as she struggled against her bonds.
"Yo, how about getting' us outta here?" Clover said as she tried to crane her neck to look back at him.
"You just don't listen, do you, I told you he was bad news, but did you care, noooooo," Nate said as he walked up and calmly punched through the robot's side, and ripped out the circuitry. "Just because he's cute doesn't mean he's nice, I'm sure Sam here knows that all to well."
Sam was silent, this was exactly the same situation they had been in before.
"I thought as much," he said as he broke the cuffs that held them in place, and reached into the bag slung over his shoulder to produce three new uniforms for them. "Here, you'll need these."
"Thanks," Clover said.
"Could you...uh...you know, turn around?" Alex asked.
Nate, understanding their claims of modesty, turned around and looked down the hall. Small lenses switched inside his eyes, moving from normal vision to infrared, to X-ray, to night-vision. With that he looked down the hall to see what was at the end. It was a door, a very thick door from the looks of it.
Once the spies were dressed they fell into step behind the assassin. It didn't take them long to reach the door, which slid open to a very well lighted room. Nate had to cover his eyes, which were still on night- vision, because it was so bright. The lenses over his eyes changed and he was able to see again. There seemed to be no end the odd things he saw in his line of work. The room seemed to be nothing but computers, with a David at each terminal. One computer, though, was raised above the others, with the real David sitting at it. He didn't even give the new arrivals one look, let alone a second glance, before saying:
"What took you so long, just put the intruders over there."
His remark was met with the sound of a hammer being cocked. That caught his attention as he stood and looked down at the revolver aimed at him. Nate's smile widened a little as he started to squeeze the trigger. Just as the hammer was about to strike, a sudden weight fell on his arm, disrupting his aim. Clover had jumped on his arm and spared David, but not his computer.
"What the hell are you doing?" Nate asked as he threw the blonde to the floor.
They never got a chance to finish as all the David's in the room, roughly four dozen (48), stood up and turned to look at them. A glazed look covered all their faces, clueing the four agents into the truth that they were all androids. And all of them had their sights set on the WOOHP spies. The androids moved fast, faster than Nate had expected, and soon a he had two dozen holding onto just him, six on each arm, and six on each leg. The girls had six holding each of them, while two more held guns at each of them (count it up, that comes out to forty-eight).
"See what you've done?" Nate yelled at Clover.
"I can't help it, he's so cute," she gushed.
'Well, might as well let him tell us his plan," Nate thought, not really wanting to talk to the blonde spy at the moment. "So, you made an army of yourself, why?"
"'Why?' is the easy part," the original David said as he walked down the short staircase from his computer to the floor. "The more of me to work these computers, the more work I can do to control the entire global economy. Once I controlled that, the world would be at me feet."
"Oh, well, that's actually more than I expected from you," Nate admitted as he looked around the room, causing David to do so as well.
"Yes, no one would ever suspect someone like me," David continued, not really listening to Nate. He continued to rant about his plans and how people would be so surprised.
'This is taking too long,' Nate thought as a pulse ran down his arm to his gun.
The pulse radiated from his weapon and Davids holding him began to short- circuit. Their eyes dulled and their grip loosened, enough for him to throw them off. The clatter alerted David, who turned to see the androids holding the girls get blow away. He snapped his fingers and a robot arm descended from the ceiling, grabbing him and lifting him away from the floor.
"No you don't," Nate fired and hit one of the hydraulic lines.
The arm, with no hydraulic pressure to power it, fell limp, almost dropping David in the process. This did not hinder it on its way up into the ceiling, though, so Nate took aim again. He fired, this shot went passed David and struck the source of the arm, causing it to fall to the floor, crushing its occupant in the process. Nate looked down at the crumpled form of his target, then back at the girls, who had turned away.
"Head back, I'll finish up here," he said and they all nodded heading for the door.
"It's gonna be kinda weird not seeing him all the time," Clover said.
"Yeah, but I guess it was for the best," Sam added.
Alex stayed silent, looking back as Nate grabbed the hard drive out of a computer and proceeded to set explosives. He set one explosive under each terminal, in each corner of the room, and then one directly under David's head, just in case. Dusting his hands off, he walked back to the door and closed it, dropping a demolition chain as he went. A demolition chain is basically a long string of HE (high explosive), that, when detonated, goes off in series. At the door to the outside, which was inside the freezer in the food court of the old Beverly Hills Mall, he placed the detonator, and set it for two minutes.
"Time to go," he said and the tiles below them opened as they were whooped away.
*****
Nate stretched out on his bed, yawning, and looked over at his wall of weapons. It had taken him the better half of eight years to collect them. Upon obtaining each one he had automatically scanned it and his brain instantly began processing moves and situations in which to use them. He didn't know why it did this. Though, it didn't surprise him, with all the memory wipes he'd gone through he was surprised he knew his own name. A knock at the door woke him from his dozing, and, out of pure reflex, he swatted a small green button on the side of his bed. The rack the weapons were on slid into the wall behind it, which promptly closed.
"Come."
The door opened and in walked a girl, a girl who looked a lot like him. She was roughly his height, with a slimmer built, but still showed off the fine lines of her muscles. The hair was the same color, except much longer, reaching almost to the floor, and was dripping with some thick, purplish gunk. She wore no clothes besides a skin-tight leotard that did much to show her figure. Her eyes were what caught his attention, though, so like his they were, but had more, how do you say, soul in them. He looked over at his reflection in the metal walls, his eyes were dull, the color not as vibrant as he remembered, and the usual spark they held was absent.
"What do you want?" he asked rather hesitantly.
She started forward, stepping into the light, the purple stuff he'd seen in her hair was revealed to cover her entire body, and stuck to the floor when she lifted her feet, leaving long skims of it linking her feet to the floor. She stopped when she was about a foot from the bed, where Nate had taking up a seated position, his legs hanging off the edge, and feet planted on the cold floor. Her slimy hands reached out and cupped his face, just beneath the lower jaw, and began to lift him to eye level.
"Find me," was all she said in hoarse, rasping voice that he doubted was hers.
"What do you mean?" he tried to move away, but the slime seemed to have turned to glue. "Where are you?"
"Find me," she repeated, and began to press herself to him, being absorbed into him.
***
BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!
Nate awoke with start, and smashed the alarm clock next to him to little bits. He sat up and placed his forehead in his hand with a sigh. It was the same dream he'd been having for about a week now. Always the same situation, always the same girl, and always the same stupid alarm clock waking him up before he could reach the end. Even though he had turned off the alarm clock, it always seemed to turn back on; he had even removed it and thrown it in the closet, and it still found its way back to his nightstand. Now it was destroyed.
"Dammit, who is she?" he looked up at the ceiling, at the camera that was supposed to be hidden. "Well, I'm up, might as well get ready for a day of boredom."
A beeping caught his attention before he could head to the bathroom for a much-needed shower. The instant messenger screen had opened on his computer, and he had a message. Silently he cursed himself for forgetting to turn on the away message. It was from Alex, surprise surprise, and she was asking if he was doing anything. It took him a second to remember it was Saturday, so the three spies were probably thinking of something to do.
He didn't respond, instead he turned on his away message and stepped into the bathroom. The shower turned on automatically and warmed itself to the appropriate temperature. He pulled off his sweat-soaked tank and threw it in the hamper, no matter how many times they told him that there was no problem with the heating system, it never failed to turn his room into an oven. The boxers soon followed, and he jumped into the steaming shower, a vent in the ceiling pulling out all the excess moisture. His knees gave out and he slumped against the wall, sitting on the floor with the water hitting him in the face.
'This doesn't make any sense at all,' he thought to himself as his mouth filled with water. 'Why would she have any interest in someone like me, she four years younger than me. It's just a schoolgirl crush that's all.'
He stopped thinking about her right then and there, never again would he get involved with anyone. He had been fooled by a pretty face before, like so many other agents had been, and, in the end, he killed her. There was no way in hell that he was going to go through that again. He had no problem with killing anyone that got in his way, even the innocent. Looking down at his hands, he saw the paint he had put on his knuckles begin to wear away. What looked like gold was pushing through his skin, and seemed to be attached to his bones, while more of it disappeared into his hand, gripping the tendons of his fingers. He stood up and, grabbing the soap and shampoo, began to wash up.
*****
"Ah, nothing like a peaceful day at the library," Sam said as she walked up the steps of the library.
"Yeah, while you're doing that, Alex and I are gonna hit the mall," Clover said jerking her head over at the silent Alex.
"Is she still bummed because he didn't return her message?" Sam whispered.
"I guess," the blonde whispered back. "What she needs is shopping therapy."
"Right, I'll meet you guys later," the redhead said and continued up the steps.
She opened the doors and waved hello to the librarian, and the new guy who was working the shelves. She couldn't figure out why Clover and Alex avoided the library, it was a great place to spot hot guys, and even girls. Sam had never considered herself bisexual, but couldn't help but watch as some of the girls who worked at the library reached up to put a book away (this bit is just for all those perverts out there, especially Leviathan). She had contributed it to teenage curiosity, though she did sometimes catch herself staring a bit to long.
So lost in thought she didn't notice the isle she'd gone down, and definitely didn't see the person she was about to run into. She didn't know what hit her until she was on the ground, massaging her aching posterior. A hand was offered to her, and she took it, following up the muscular arm to see Nate at the other end. She blushed noticeably, and let go once she was on her feet.
"Well, fancy meeting you here," he said and went back to the shelf in front of him.
"Yeah, what a coincidence," she giggled stupidly, looking at the books he had, all of them about dreams. "Trouble sleeping?"
"Hm?" he looked at her, then at the books. "Oh, yeah, kinda."
"Bad dreams?"
"Not exactly bad, more like confusing," he said grabbing a book off the shelf and checking the back of it, then put it away. "What are you here for?"
"It's Saturday, I always come to the library on Saturday, pretty just look at this and that," she looked at shelf to figure out what section this was. "Mind if I join you?"
"Not at all, I can't stop you."
"Hey, could you grab me that book up there?" she asked pointing to a book just out of her reach.
He grabbed it and handed it to her, it was something about native and foreign dialects, you know, the way people talk (like the difference between how people from CT talk and how people from Texas talk). She walked out of the isle and into the sitting area, which was full of armchairs, and a few tables with hard, wooden chairs. Nate followed, and placed the two books he had on the small coffee table in front of one of the armchairs. Sam took the seat across from him and opened her book.
"I thought they didn't let you out without a chaperone," Sam said.
"Look straight behind you," he said as he scanned the book. "Sarah's looking for something to read."
"Must be hard to be under constant surveillance."
"You are too, it's just not as noticeable," he then pointed to the back of his neck, "A microchip planted at the base of your cerebellum sends out a signal to the WOOHP satellite, so they know where you are at all times."
"Oh."
*****
"Ah, girls, good of you to come," Jerry said a few days later as the four spies walked through the door.
Nate was with them, and his demeanor quickly changed from laughing at something Alex had just done, to be straight faced. The three girls waved lightly and were stifling back slight fits of laughter. What had Alex just done, an almost dead-on impression of Jerry. They weren't going to let the head of WOOHP know what had just transpired, so they tried to appear as collected as Nate did.
"What are we here for Jerry, a mission?" Clover asked.
"No, you're here for training," he said nonchalantly.
"Training, but didn't we do that already?" Sam asked looking confused.
"Yes, basic training, now for something more advanced. This is going to teach you to anticipate any situation."
"Um, Jerry, I think we've already gone through every situation that's possible," Alex said.
"Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet," Nate said with a small smile. "Who's their instructor?"
"Thomas will be instructing them, so I'll have to get another team to take over their missions."
"Thomas, eh, you mean the gay guy?" Nate asked cocking his head to the side a bit.
"I do wish you wouldn't call him that."
"What? Just making sure these three know what they're getting into," he looped his arms around the three girls' shoulder, sticking his head between two of them.
Jerry didn't comment to that, he just remained silent, not really wanting to get into another argument. He figured it was better they find out now, than to realize it later. Thomas was very professional at work, never letting his sexual preference get in the way of his work. He's not exactly a gay stereotype, what with the lisp and the obsession with fashion, though he does discuss it with the other female agents. Actually he could pass for straight if you weren't in the know.
"And what do I do while they're training? It's so damn boring here," Nate crossed his arms over his chest.
"Well, I guess that's up to you, now isn't it?" his father said crossing him arms. "Just show these three where they need to go, and don't disturb them."
They left without another word, the girls finding it better not to talk to him after something like that. He led them down a hallway, and then took a right, another right, a left, a right, down a flight of stairs, and then through the door at the end of that hall. Inside was a plain room, the walls black, with yellow lines to show where the metal tiles ended and began (like a holodeck from Star Trek). Inside was a young man of about twenty-five, holding a clipboard. Light brown hair was cut short, and spiked up, while blue eyes flicked towards the door, concentrating on the first one to enter.
"Ah, Nate, what brings you here?" he asked while staring at him intently.
"Just delivering your new students," he said and opened the door wide enough for the three girls.
"Hello girls, now, which one of you is which?"
"I'm Sam, and this is Clover and Alex," the redhead said pointing to herself then the others.
As natural as the Gulf Stream making its way up the East Coast, Clover looked up and down the instructor's body. She couldn't understand how anyone who was so good-looking could be gay. It just didn't seem possible to her that he wasn't available. But, at the same time, she couldn't help but think what it would take to get him to change his mind.
"Well, I'll be going, train hard," Nate said as he started for the door.
"We will," Alex said with a wink.
"Oh, don't go, I could use your help," Thomas said.
"Not a chance," was all the assassin said before closing the door behind him.
*****
Hours passed slowly as Nate sat in his room, taking apart his Colt, cleaning it, and putting it back together. All in all it took him an hour and a half, simply because he was obsessed with having it shine like the day he got it. If he didn't want it so clean it would have only taken him twenty minutes. Looking over at his nightstand, he saw that a new clock had been installed. Silently he cursed whoever was doing this to him, as if they didn't want him finishing the dream. He just shrugged and picked up the holster for his gun and looped it around his waist, then around his left leg. A quick tug at his color and the trench coat, this time with sleeves, grew from his tank top, which itself had begun to change. In less than a minute he was in his trench coat, underneath was a bodysuit made of something like leather, but, unlike leather, this material breathed.
He walked over to the rack and picked up his shotels, the blades, starting at the top, dismantled themselves till nothing was left but the handles. Those he hooked to two clips at his waist, and then reached for his scythe, the blade, and half the handle retracting just as the shotels did. He slipped that into a small loop on the back of the coat. He grabbed a very odd-looking katana next (if you're a sword fanatic, like me, then you'll know exactly what the Samurai 3000 Katana [© United Cutlery] is, if you don't know, look it up), and slipped the scabbard of it through his belt. And last, but certainly not least, he picked up the revolver where he had left it on his bed and holstered it through a slit in one of the flaps.
Finally he stepped through door and proceeded down the hall to the training room, another holodeck. He already had the scenario picked out, and was planning on venting a little of this frustration. It didn't take him long to reach the same level the others were on, but the room he wanted was a few doors down from them. Upon entering the room he looked over at the computer and selected the scenario.
"Alright then," he placed his hands on the shotels, "computer, begin."
The walls of the room shimmered and altered to give him the view of a city destroyed by some unknown cataclysm. Buildings were crumbling, the streets were cracked and showed signs of a great upheaval. Dead bodies littered the ground, and the sound of crying could be heard. He hadn't run this program before, so he decided to do the agent thing and check it out. Taking his hands off his shotels he started running down the street, and around the corner.
Two people lay in the middle of the street, clinging to each other, as if trying to shield themselves from whatever killed them. There, on the ground between them, was a little girl who couldn't have been more than five. She was the one crying, desperately trying to get her parents to wake up. An explosion rang out above her and a large slab of the building next to her began to fall. Even though it was a hologram, Nate ran forward as fast as he could and grabbed the girl, never even stopping as he got out from under the shadow of the impending death. The two bodies were crushing flat with the sickening sounds of crunching bones and splattering innards.
He looked down at the little girl who was now crying into his shoulder. It amazed him at just how real this hologram was, normally it was almost impossible to get actual human emotions into a hologram. He'd heard enough raw emotion in his life to be able to tell the difference, but this was really starting to irk him. The look on her face, the slightest changes in the pitch of her voice, even the body language, it was all there.
'They could not have fabricated this, this is real,' he thought as he gently tried to console the girl. 'What is this feeling, I've never felt this way towards a hologram.'
"Nate."
He whipped around, and there was the girl again, standing atop the slab of building that just fell. She was wearing something similar to him, except without the weapons. Also her extremely long hair was braided, ending in a heavy, metal ring. The light in her eyes that he had seen was dulled slightly, but it was still there, even though it was a hologram.
"Who are you, what do you want?" he asked placing the little hologram on the ground.
"I don't have long, I've set up a block on the audio and visual surveillance equipment in this room, but they'll find a way around it soon. Listen, you must get out of here, away from WOOHP," she said in an urgent voice.
"Last time I saw you, you told me to find you."
"Yes, they've been watching your dreams, that's why you keep getting woken up before it can end. They continue to replace your alarm clock so you won't finish it."
"But..."
"Here, this will help you hide from them," she knelt down and picked up a small piece of stone, no larger than a small bearing; the stone melted away to reveal a small microchip. "You must replace the transponder in your neck with this..."
"But what about you, you still haven't told me who you are," he interrupted running over to her.
"Please, do as I've said, and all will be made clear," she placed the chip in his hands and slowly began to be absorbed into the rock. "You'll know what to do soon enough, but you must first get away from here, far away. Now finish your mission."
And then she was gone, melding into the rock. He quickly slipped the chip into his pocket and went back to the little girl, who had stopped her crying. Picking her up he grabbed a stray piece of cloth and wrapped it around her. Holding her in the crook of his arm he placed his hand on a knife that was ever present in its sheath at his hip.
"What happened here?" he asked her.
"(Sniff)...T-they came (sniff) s-so fast..." she said between sobs.
"Who, who came?"
"Those," she pointed over his shoulder.
Turning he saw a very Terminator-like robot, it was leveling a very large gun at him. Like lightening he snapped around and threw the knife he was holding, severing its head from its body. He then unholstered his gun, and, with five quick shots, he blew off the arms, then the legs, then the upper torso from the lower. With the last bullet he blew apart the head, then reloaded.
"Great, how many?"
"Lots."
'Let's see, objectives of this program, find soul (is it soul or sole, cuz I don't know) survivor, done, get to main computer and destroy it, get out of city,' he checked the program in his head and saw what he had to do, it seemed simple enough. "Okay, let's get going."
He placed her on the ground and, while holding her hand, started walking. In doing this he could easily have use of both his hands in an instant, without having to drop her. It didn't say that he had to make it through the mission with the survivor, but he felt that he would get better marks if he did.
*****
Some hours later the three spies practically fell out of the door in their rush to get out. All three were tired, sweaty, and their appearances were completely disheveled. Their hair was a mess, their make-up hadn't faired much better, and the nail polish (which I count as separate from make-up, why, I don't know) was chipped and crac...
"OH NO, I BROKE A NAIL!!!!!!!!" Clover screamed at the top of her lungs, holding the offending nail out in front of her.
...Ahem, as I was saying, their nail polish was chipped and cracked, and their hands were covered in blisters.
"Clover, settle down, its not the end of the world," Alex said as she placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder.
"For me it is, I just got a manicure yesterday, there's two hundred dollars down the toilet," she continued to cry.
"Quit being a baby, as if a broken nail is the worst of your problems," Sam said as a bit of a halfhearted joke, "you definitely don't want to see your hair right now."
"WHAT, WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY HAIR?" she wailed as she crawled over to the wall panel and looked at her reflection. The scream that ripped from her throat was load enough to cause the other two to cover their ears.
I won't say what her hair looked like, so just imagine your worst hair day ever, and multiply it by about ten (give or take). Think about it, with all the hair spray she uses, anything that goes wrong is definitely going to stick. It was inevitable that it would happen, considering what they'd just gone through. But her sour mood didn't last long.
"Oh well, it could look as bad as yours," she pointed at them.
"Maybe we should try to find those WOOHP stylists," Alex said looking at a map on the wall to see if she could find the salon. "I can't make heads or tails of this thing."
"Betcha Thomas knows, we should ask him," Sam suggested while also studying the map.
All of a sudden the hall they were in shook, as well as most of the rest of WOOHP HQ. The door down the hall opened and Nate stepped out, looking about as worn out as they did, and he kept mumbling something. One of his sleeves was missing, and what appeared to be a very large, metal arm that was rapidly shrinking and being covered by skin. When it was completely gone, in his hand was the Colt, which he holstered. He turned and started walking down the hall, away from them, not even taking notice of the three girls.
"Woah, what's with him?" Clover asked placing her hands on her hips in an irritated posture.
"I don't know, and I'll bet he isn't in the mood to talk," Sam said.
"Do you think it has to do with the program he was running?" Alex watched him walking away, holding herself back from following.
"Maybe, we'll have to ask him next time we see him."
*****
"She was a hologram, so why do I feel this away about her dying?" Nate asked himself that night, as he used one of the scalpel-like blades in his fingers to cut open the back of his neck, over the small bump that was his position transponder.
He pulled the chip out and, before the cut could close, placed the new chip in. The incision healed and he opened a small chamber in his arm, placing the transponder inside. That way he could ditch it when he left. Whoever that girl was, he felt that he could trust her, unlike most of the staff at WOOHP. She didn't have the same commanding tone to her voice, she was asking him to do these things, not telling.
"She said all would become clear," he said as he lay down for the night. "Well, here goes."
He turned off the light and fell asleep, slipping into the realm of dreams and fantasy.
centerTo Be Continued/center
There, this one's a little longer than the others, probably gonna be one of the longest. Even though it was so long, I still managed to leave a cliffhangar, hehe. Who is the girl, and why does Nate feel so strange about a hologram? The answer to the latter question will be answered with a flashback next chapter, while the former will be answered in a few chapters. I hope to get a few more reviews than last time, I thank Leviathan and Chaos for their reviews, but I need more. I, like most authors, am a review whore, the only reason I write is to get reviews, to be recognized for the truly great author I am. Oh well, all you people want is sex, violence, and more sex...perverts. Well, this is me telling you all that I'm out, later.
Claimer: I do own any OCs in this fic
Note: I'm going to try some HTML codes in here, so don't be scared if you see something you don't recognize.
' ' - thought
( ) - author's notes
***** - time/scene change
*** - dream
=+= flashback =+= - self-explanatory
The Assassin: WOOHP Files
Chapter 3
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Nate quickly and quietly made his way through the darkened maintenance hall. The three spies he was now assigned to protect had gotten into trouble, again. In the week since they had found out that their mutual crush David was evil, they had confronted him about it. They had been captured and were now being held captive. He sighed as he continued en route to their location, the screen in his forearm giving him updates as to where they were.
'Three floors down, okay,' he thought as he studied the schematic of the building.
He stopped and tapped the wall, it was hollow, meaning there was an airshaft behind him. The skin on his left forearm opened and a blade whipped out like a switchblade and he sliced himself a decent hole in it. Hoisting himself into the duct, he placed his palm against the inside of the shaft, and when he pulled it away, a small, round magnet was attached to it, connected to his hand via a half-inch thick cable. He dropped through the hole, lowering himself down three floors to a ventilation grate. Looking through it he saw the three girls, ialmost/i nude, shackled to a cart, being wheeled down the hall by a robot of some kind. He kicked the grate out of the way and slid through, the magnet above him released and slid back into his hand.
"Nate, oh thank god!" Alex said as she struggled against her bonds.
"Yo, how about getting' us outta here?" Clover said as she tried to crane her neck to look back at him.
"You just don't listen, do you, I told you he was bad news, but did you care, noooooo," Nate said as he walked up and calmly punched through the robot's side, and ripped out the circuitry. "Just because he's cute doesn't mean he's nice, I'm sure Sam here knows that all to well."
Sam was silent, this was exactly the same situation they had been in before.
"I thought as much," he said as he broke the cuffs that held them in place, and reached into the bag slung over his shoulder to produce three new uniforms for them. "Here, you'll need these."
"Thanks," Clover said.
"Could you...uh...you know, turn around?" Alex asked.
Nate, understanding their claims of modesty, turned around and looked down the hall. Small lenses switched inside his eyes, moving from normal vision to infrared, to X-ray, to night-vision. With that he looked down the hall to see what was at the end. It was a door, a very thick door from the looks of it.
Once the spies were dressed they fell into step behind the assassin. It didn't take them long to reach the door, which slid open to a very well lighted room. Nate had to cover his eyes, which were still on night- vision, because it was so bright. The lenses over his eyes changed and he was able to see again. There seemed to be no end the odd things he saw in his line of work. The room seemed to be nothing but computers, with a David at each terminal. One computer, though, was raised above the others, with the real David sitting at it. He didn't even give the new arrivals one look, let alone a second glance, before saying:
"What took you so long, just put the intruders over there."
His remark was met with the sound of a hammer being cocked. That caught his attention as he stood and looked down at the revolver aimed at him. Nate's smile widened a little as he started to squeeze the trigger. Just as the hammer was about to strike, a sudden weight fell on his arm, disrupting his aim. Clover had jumped on his arm and spared David, but not his computer.
"What the hell are you doing?" Nate asked as he threw the blonde to the floor.
They never got a chance to finish as all the David's in the room, roughly four dozen (48), stood up and turned to look at them. A glazed look covered all their faces, clueing the four agents into the truth that they were all androids. And all of them had their sights set on the WOOHP spies. The androids moved fast, faster than Nate had expected, and soon a he had two dozen holding onto just him, six on each arm, and six on each leg. The girls had six holding each of them, while two more held guns at each of them (count it up, that comes out to forty-eight).
"See what you've done?" Nate yelled at Clover.
"I can't help it, he's so cute," she gushed.
'Well, might as well let him tell us his plan," Nate thought, not really wanting to talk to the blonde spy at the moment. "So, you made an army of yourself, why?"
"'Why?' is the easy part," the original David said as he walked down the short staircase from his computer to the floor. "The more of me to work these computers, the more work I can do to control the entire global economy. Once I controlled that, the world would be at me feet."
"Oh, well, that's actually more than I expected from you," Nate admitted as he looked around the room, causing David to do so as well.
"Yes, no one would ever suspect someone like me," David continued, not really listening to Nate. He continued to rant about his plans and how people would be so surprised.
'This is taking too long,' Nate thought as a pulse ran down his arm to his gun.
The pulse radiated from his weapon and Davids holding him began to short- circuit. Their eyes dulled and their grip loosened, enough for him to throw them off. The clatter alerted David, who turned to see the androids holding the girls get blow away. He snapped his fingers and a robot arm descended from the ceiling, grabbing him and lifting him away from the floor.
"No you don't," Nate fired and hit one of the hydraulic lines.
The arm, with no hydraulic pressure to power it, fell limp, almost dropping David in the process. This did not hinder it on its way up into the ceiling, though, so Nate took aim again. He fired, this shot went passed David and struck the source of the arm, causing it to fall to the floor, crushing its occupant in the process. Nate looked down at the crumpled form of his target, then back at the girls, who had turned away.
"Head back, I'll finish up here," he said and they all nodded heading for the door.
"It's gonna be kinda weird not seeing him all the time," Clover said.
"Yeah, but I guess it was for the best," Sam added.
Alex stayed silent, looking back as Nate grabbed the hard drive out of a computer and proceeded to set explosives. He set one explosive under each terminal, in each corner of the room, and then one directly under David's head, just in case. Dusting his hands off, he walked back to the door and closed it, dropping a demolition chain as he went. A demolition chain is basically a long string of HE (high explosive), that, when detonated, goes off in series. At the door to the outside, which was inside the freezer in the food court of the old Beverly Hills Mall, he placed the detonator, and set it for two minutes.
"Time to go," he said and the tiles below them opened as they were whooped away.
*****
Nate stretched out on his bed, yawning, and looked over at his wall of weapons. It had taken him the better half of eight years to collect them. Upon obtaining each one he had automatically scanned it and his brain instantly began processing moves and situations in which to use them. He didn't know why it did this. Though, it didn't surprise him, with all the memory wipes he'd gone through he was surprised he knew his own name. A knock at the door woke him from his dozing, and, out of pure reflex, he swatted a small green button on the side of his bed. The rack the weapons were on slid into the wall behind it, which promptly closed.
"Come."
The door opened and in walked a girl, a girl who looked a lot like him. She was roughly his height, with a slimmer built, but still showed off the fine lines of her muscles. The hair was the same color, except much longer, reaching almost to the floor, and was dripping with some thick, purplish gunk. She wore no clothes besides a skin-tight leotard that did much to show her figure. Her eyes were what caught his attention, though, so like his they were, but had more, how do you say, soul in them. He looked over at his reflection in the metal walls, his eyes were dull, the color not as vibrant as he remembered, and the usual spark they held was absent.
"What do you want?" he asked rather hesitantly.
She started forward, stepping into the light, the purple stuff he'd seen in her hair was revealed to cover her entire body, and stuck to the floor when she lifted her feet, leaving long skims of it linking her feet to the floor. She stopped when she was about a foot from the bed, where Nate had taking up a seated position, his legs hanging off the edge, and feet planted on the cold floor. Her slimy hands reached out and cupped his face, just beneath the lower jaw, and began to lift him to eye level.
"Find me," was all she said in hoarse, rasping voice that he doubted was hers.
"What do you mean?" he tried to move away, but the slime seemed to have turned to glue. "Where are you?"
"Find me," she repeated, and began to press herself to him, being absorbed into him.
***
BEEP!BEEP!BEEP!
Nate awoke with start, and smashed the alarm clock next to him to little bits. He sat up and placed his forehead in his hand with a sigh. It was the same dream he'd been having for about a week now. Always the same situation, always the same girl, and always the same stupid alarm clock waking him up before he could reach the end. Even though he had turned off the alarm clock, it always seemed to turn back on; he had even removed it and thrown it in the closet, and it still found its way back to his nightstand. Now it was destroyed.
"Dammit, who is she?" he looked up at the ceiling, at the camera that was supposed to be hidden. "Well, I'm up, might as well get ready for a day of boredom."
A beeping caught his attention before he could head to the bathroom for a much-needed shower. The instant messenger screen had opened on his computer, and he had a message. Silently he cursed himself for forgetting to turn on the away message. It was from Alex, surprise surprise, and she was asking if he was doing anything. It took him a second to remember it was Saturday, so the three spies were probably thinking of something to do.
He didn't respond, instead he turned on his away message and stepped into the bathroom. The shower turned on automatically and warmed itself to the appropriate temperature. He pulled off his sweat-soaked tank and threw it in the hamper, no matter how many times they told him that there was no problem with the heating system, it never failed to turn his room into an oven. The boxers soon followed, and he jumped into the steaming shower, a vent in the ceiling pulling out all the excess moisture. His knees gave out and he slumped against the wall, sitting on the floor with the water hitting him in the face.
'This doesn't make any sense at all,' he thought to himself as his mouth filled with water. 'Why would she have any interest in someone like me, she four years younger than me. It's just a schoolgirl crush that's all.'
He stopped thinking about her right then and there, never again would he get involved with anyone. He had been fooled by a pretty face before, like so many other agents had been, and, in the end, he killed her. There was no way in hell that he was going to go through that again. He had no problem with killing anyone that got in his way, even the innocent. Looking down at his hands, he saw the paint he had put on his knuckles begin to wear away. What looked like gold was pushing through his skin, and seemed to be attached to his bones, while more of it disappeared into his hand, gripping the tendons of his fingers. He stood up and, grabbing the soap and shampoo, began to wash up.
*****
"Ah, nothing like a peaceful day at the library," Sam said as she walked up the steps of the library.
"Yeah, while you're doing that, Alex and I are gonna hit the mall," Clover said jerking her head over at the silent Alex.
"Is she still bummed because he didn't return her message?" Sam whispered.
"I guess," the blonde whispered back. "What she needs is shopping therapy."
"Right, I'll meet you guys later," the redhead said and continued up the steps.
She opened the doors and waved hello to the librarian, and the new guy who was working the shelves. She couldn't figure out why Clover and Alex avoided the library, it was a great place to spot hot guys, and even girls. Sam had never considered herself bisexual, but couldn't help but watch as some of the girls who worked at the library reached up to put a book away (this bit is just for all those perverts out there, especially Leviathan). She had contributed it to teenage curiosity, though she did sometimes catch herself staring a bit to long.
So lost in thought she didn't notice the isle she'd gone down, and definitely didn't see the person she was about to run into. She didn't know what hit her until she was on the ground, massaging her aching posterior. A hand was offered to her, and she took it, following up the muscular arm to see Nate at the other end. She blushed noticeably, and let go once she was on her feet.
"Well, fancy meeting you here," he said and went back to the shelf in front of him.
"Yeah, what a coincidence," she giggled stupidly, looking at the books he had, all of them about dreams. "Trouble sleeping?"
"Hm?" he looked at her, then at the books. "Oh, yeah, kinda."
"Bad dreams?"
"Not exactly bad, more like confusing," he said grabbing a book off the shelf and checking the back of it, then put it away. "What are you here for?"
"It's Saturday, I always come to the library on Saturday, pretty just look at this and that," she looked at shelf to figure out what section this was. "Mind if I join you?"
"Not at all, I can't stop you."
"Hey, could you grab me that book up there?" she asked pointing to a book just out of her reach.
He grabbed it and handed it to her, it was something about native and foreign dialects, you know, the way people talk (like the difference between how people from CT talk and how people from Texas talk). She walked out of the isle and into the sitting area, which was full of armchairs, and a few tables with hard, wooden chairs. Nate followed, and placed the two books he had on the small coffee table in front of one of the armchairs. Sam took the seat across from him and opened her book.
"I thought they didn't let you out without a chaperone," Sam said.
"Look straight behind you," he said as he scanned the book. "Sarah's looking for something to read."
"Must be hard to be under constant surveillance."
"You are too, it's just not as noticeable," he then pointed to the back of his neck, "A microchip planted at the base of your cerebellum sends out a signal to the WOOHP satellite, so they know where you are at all times."
"Oh."
*****
"Ah, girls, good of you to come," Jerry said a few days later as the four spies walked through the door.
Nate was with them, and his demeanor quickly changed from laughing at something Alex had just done, to be straight faced. The three girls waved lightly and were stifling back slight fits of laughter. What had Alex just done, an almost dead-on impression of Jerry. They weren't going to let the head of WOOHP know what had just transpired, so they tried to appear as collected as Nate did.
"What are we here for Jerry, a mission?" Clover asked.
"No, you're here for training," he said nonchalantly.
"Training, but didn't we do that already?" Sam asked looking confused.
"Yes, basic training, now for something more advanced. This is going to teach you to anticipate any situation."
"Um, Jerry, I think we've already gone through every situation that's possible," Alex said.
"Oh, you ain't seen nothing yet," Nate said with a small smile. "Who's their instructor?"
"Thomas will be instructing them, so I'll have to get another team to take over their missions."
"Thomas, eh, you mean the gay guy?" Nate asked cocking his head to the side a bit.
"I do wish you wouldn't call him that."
"What? Just making sure these three know what they're getting into," he looped his arms around the three girls' shoulder, sticking his head between two of them.
Jerry didn't comment to that, he just remained silent, not really wanting to get into another argument. He figured it was better they find out now, than to realize it later. Thomas was very professional at work, never letting his sexual preference get in the way of his work. He's not exactly a gay stereotype, what with the lisp and the obsession with fashion, though he does discuss it with the other female agents. Actually he could pass for straight if you weren't in the know.
"And what do I do while they're training? It's so damn boring here," Nate crossed his arms over his chest.
"Well, I guess that's up to you, now isn't it?" his father said crossing him arms. "Just show these three where they need to go, and don't disturb them."
They left without another word, the girls finding it better not to talk to him after something like that. He led them down a hallway, and then took a right, another right, a left, a right, down a flight of stairs, and then through the door at the end of that hall. Inside was a plain room, the walls black, with yellow lines to show where the metal tiles ended and began (like a holodeck from Star Trek). Inside was a young man of about twenty-five, holding a clipboard. Light brown hair was cut short, and spiked up, while blue eyes flicked towards the door, concentrating on the first one to enter.
"Ah, Nate, what brings you here?" he asked while staring at him intently.
"Just delivering your new students," he said and opened the door wide enough for the three girls.
"Hello girls, now, which one of you is which?"
"I'm Sam, and this is Clover and Alex," the redhead said pointing to herself then the others.
As natural as the Gulf Stream making its way up the East Coast, Clover looked up and down the instructor's body. She couldn't understand how anyone who was so good-looking could be gay. It just didn't seem possible to her that he wasn't available. But, at the same time, she couldn't help but think what it would take to get him to change his mind.
"Well, I'll be going, train hard," Nate said as he started for the door.
"We will," Alex said with a wink.
"Oh, don't go, I could use your help," Thomas said.
"Not a chance," was all the assassin said before closing the door behind him.
*****
Hours passed slowly as Nate sat in his room, taking apart his Colt, cleaning it, and putting it back together. All in all it took him an hour and a half, simply because he was obsessed with having it shine like the day he got it. If he didn't want it so clean it would have only taken him twenty minutes. Looking over at his nightstand, he saw that a new clock had been installed. Silently he cursed whoever was doing this to him, as if they didn't want him finishing the dream. He just shrugged and picked up the holster for his gun and looped it around his waist, then around his left leg. A quick tug at his color and the trench coat, this time with sleeves, grew from his tank top, which itself had begun to change. In less than a minute he was in his trench coat, underneath was a bodysuit made of something like leather, but, unlike leather, this material breathed.
He walked over to the rack and picked up his shotels, the blades, starting at the top, dismantled themselves till nothing was left but the handles. Those he hooked to two clips at his waist, and then reached for his scythe, the blade, and half the handle retracting just as the shotels did. He slipped that into a small loop on the back of the coat. He grabbed a very odd-looking katana next (if you're a sword fanatic, like me, then you'll know exactly what the Samurai 3000 Katana [© United Cutlery] is, if you don't know, look it up), and slipped the scabbard of it through his belt. And last, but certainly not least, he picked up the revolver where he had left it on his bed and holstered it through a slit in one of the flaps.
Finally he stepped through door and proceeded down the hall to the training room, another holodeck. He already had the scenario picked out, and was planning on venting a little of this frustration. It didn't take him long to reach the same level the others were on, but the room he wanted was a few doors down from them. Upon entering the room he looked over at the computer and selected the scenario.
"Alright then," he placed his hands on the shotels, "computer, begin."
The walls of the room shimmered and altered to give him the view of a city destroyed by some unknown cataclysm. Buildings were crumbling, the streets were cracked and showed signs of a great upheaval. Dead bodies littered the ground, and the sound of crying could be heard. He hadn't run this program before, so he decided to do the agent thing and check it out. Taking his hands off his shotels he started running down the street, and around the corner.
Two people lay in the middle of the street, clinging to each other, as if trying to shield themselves from whatever killed them. There, on the ground between them, was a little girl who couldn't have been more than five. She was the one crying, desperately trying to get her parents to wake up. An explosion rang out above her and a large slab of the building next to her began to fall. Even though it was a hologram, Nate ran forward as fast as he could and grabbed the girl, never even stopping as he got out from under the shadow of the impending death. The two bodies were crushing flat with the sickening sounds of crunching bones and splattering innards.
He looked down at the little girl who was now crying into his shoulder. It amazed him at just how real this hologram was, normally it was almost impossible to get actual human emotions into a hologram. He'd heard enough raw emotion in his life to be able to tell the difference, but this was really starting to irk him. The look on her face, the slightest changes in the pitch of her voice, even the body language, it was all there.
'They could not have fabricated this, this is real,' he thought as he gently tried to console the girl. 'What is this feeling, I've never felt this way towards a hologram.'
"Nate."
He whipped around, and there was the girl again, standing atop the slab of building that just fell. She was wearing something similar to him, except without the weapons. Also her extremely long hair was braided, ending in a heavy, metal ring. The light in her eyes that he had seen was dulled slightly, but it was still there, even though it was a hologram.
"Who are you, what do you want?" he asked placing the little hologram on the ground.
"I don't have long, I've set up a block on the audio and visual surveillance equipment in this room, but they'll find a way around it soon. Listen, you must get out of here, away from WOOHP," she said in an urgent voice.
"Last time I saw you, you told me to find you."
"Yes, they've been watching your dreams, that's why you keep getting woken up before it can end. They continue to replace your alarm clock so you won't finish it."
"But..."
"Here, this will help you hide from them," she knelt down and picked up a small piece of stone, no larger than a small bearing; the stone melted away to reveal a small microchip. "You must replace the transponder in your neck with this..."
"But what about you, you still haven't told me who you are," he interrupted running over to her.
"Please, do as I've said, and all will be made clear," she placed the chip in his hands and slowly began to be absorbed into the rock. "You'll know what to do soon enough, but you must first get away from here, far away. Now finish your mission."
And then she was gone, melding into the rock. He quickly slipped the chip into his pocket and went back to the little girl, who had stopped her crying. Picking her up he grabbed a stray piece of cloth and wrapped it around her. Holding her in the crook of his arm he placed his hand on a knife that was ever present in its sheath at his hip.
"What happened here?" he asked her.
"(Sniff)...T-they came (sniff) s-so fast..." she said between sobs.
"Who, who came?"
"Those," she pointed over his shoulder.
Turning he saw a very Terminator-like robot, it was leveling a very large gun at him. Like lightening he snapped around and threw the knife he was holding, severing its head from its body. He then unholstered his gun, and, with five quick shots, he blew off the arms, then the legs, then the upper torso from the lower. With the last bullet he blew apart the head, then reloaded.
"Great, how many?"
"Lots."
'Let's see, objectives of this program, find soul (is it soul or sole, cuz I don't know) survivor, done, get to main computer and destroy it, get out of city,' he checked the program in his head and saw what he had to do, it seemed simple enough. "Okay, let's get going."
He placed her on the ground and, while holding her hand, started walking. In doing this he could easily have use of both his hands in an instant, without having to drop her. It didn't say that he had to make it through the mission with the survivor, but he felt that he would get better marks if he did.
*****
Some hours later the three spies practically fell out of the door in their rush to get out. All three were tired, sweaty, and their appearances were completely disheveled. Their hair was a mess, their make-up hadn't faired much better, and the nail polish (which I count as separate from make-up, why, I don't know) was chipped and crac...
"OH NO, I BROKE A NAIL!!!!!!!!" Clover screamed at the top of her lungs, holding the offending nail out in front of her.
...Ahem, as I was saying, their nail polish was chipped and cracked, and their hands were covered in blisters.
"Clover, settle down, its not the end of the world," Alex said as she placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder.
"For me it is, I just got a manicure yesterday, there's two hundred dollars down the toilet," she continued to cry.
"Quit being a baby, as if a broken nail is the worst of your problems," Sam said as a bit of a halfhearted joke, "you definitely don't want to see your hair right now."
"WHAT, WHAT'S WRONG WITH MY HAIR?" she wailed as she crawled over to the wall panel and looked at her reflection. The scream that ripped from her throat was load enough to cause the other two to cover their ears.
I won't say what her hair looked like, so just imagine your worst hair day ever, and multiply it by about ten (give or take). Think about it, with all the hair spray she uses, anything that goes wrong is definitely going to stick. It was inevitable that it would happen, considering what they'd just gone through. But her sour mood didn't last long.
"Oh well, it could look as bad as yours," she pointed at them.
"Maybe we should try to find those WOOHP stylists," Alex said looking at a map on the wall to see if she could find the salon. "I can't make heads or tails of this thing."
"Betcha Thomas knows, we should ask him," Sam suggested while also studying the map.
All of a sudden the hall they were in shook, as well as most of the rest of WOOHP HQ. The door down the hall opened and Nate stepped out, looking about as worn out as they did, and he kept mumbling something. One of his sleeves was missing, and what appeared to be a very large, metal arm that was rapidly shrinking and being covered by skin. When it was completely gone, in his hand was the Colt, which he holstered. He turned and started walking down the hall, away from them, not even taking notice of the three girls.
"Woah, what's with him?" Clover asked placing her hands on her hips in an irritated posture.
"I don't know, and I'll bet he isn't in the mood to talk," Sam said.
"Do you think it has to do with the program he was running?" Alex watched him walking away, holding herself back from following.
"Maybe, we'll have to ask him next time we see him."
*****
"She was a hologram, so why do I feel this away about her dying?" Nate asked himself that night, as he used one of the scalpel-like blades in his fingers to cut open the back of his neck, over the small bump that was his position transponder.
He pulled the chip out and, before the cut could close, placed the new chip in. The incision healed and he opened a small chamber in his arm, placing the transponder inside. That way he could ditch it when he left. Whoever that girl was, he felt that he could trust her, unlike most of the staff at WOOHP. She didn't have the same commanding tone to her voice, she was asking him to do these things, not telling.
"She said all would become clear," he said as he lay down for the night. "Well, here goes."
He turned off the light and fell asleep, slipping into the realm of dreams and fantasy.
centerTo Be Continued/center
There, this one's a little longer than the others, probably gonna be one of the longest. Even though it was so long, I still managed to leave a cliffhangar, hehe. Who is the girl, and why does Nate feel so strange about a hologram? The answer to the latter question will be answered with a flashback next chapter, while the former will be answered in a few chapters. I hope to get a few more reviews than last time, I thank Leviathan and Chaos for their reviews, but I need more. I, like most authors, am a review whore, the only reason I write is to get reviews, to be recognized for the truly great author I am. Oh well, all you people want is sex, violence, and more sex...perverts. Well, this is me telling you all that I'm out, later.