A/N

Well... here I am, again. This will be one of the last chapters. I hope you enjoyed this series, and a lot of the questions posed in the prologue wil be answered in the second edition.

The review system is a tad glitchy, so I can't remember who sent reviews. Thanks to you guys, anyway.

I hope you enjoy reading this, and if any of you watch Vampire Diaries, please check out my Alaric standalone. It will involve vampire hunting, alcohol, and the whole works.

Chapter 13: Dawn of a New Age...

In my entire life... I have never felt more hopeless. It was my decision to convince the ex-commissioner to retire, and it's my fault he's dead. Heroes don't get do-overs, but if I did... then I would definitely change that fateful moment. Life is bound to end, but not in that way. No one should ever suffer at the hands of another, simply to erase the truth.

Yet, he did.

And it's all my fault.

"Are you okay?" a voice gently asks from behind me, similar to that of my employers. In fact, it is hers.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking. That's all." I respond, facing my desk and avoiding the obvious gaze of Karen Starr. Her teasing is something that I don't want, right now.

"Is that so?" she spins my chair around so I'm directly looking at her face. "It's not your fault and you couldn't have stopped it. That's a fact, Alex. If every time you made a bad choice, you break down, then nothing would be accomplished. We wouldn't protect those who need it most." she assures. However, I only just caught the 'we'. Whether through a slip of the tongue or accident, I found the experience in her voice.

"We?" I probe, making her face quickly arrange into a smile.

"Obviously you, dear." she says, once again returning to her flirtatious tone. "Who else would I be talking about?" she asks, innocently smiling.

I don't buy it. Not for one second.

"Nobody, I guess." I say. "Then again, you could have other 'sponsors' couldn't you? After all, you did want to get one. So... why stop?" I shrug my shoulders, brazenly calling out my own boss, for some odd reason. It will be a miracle if she doesn't fire me on the spot.

"I guess I see that you have potential. Otherwise, I wouldn't have considered the offer in the first place." she deftly parries, showing her natural charisma. Charisma is also the traits of spies, liars, and actors, I resist the temptation to confront her whilst I can. The workplace isn't a terrific place for a heated discussion. Leave it, Alex.

"Fair enough." I theatrically sigh.

"Sir, we have a situation!"

The voice crackles over the earpiece with desperation and heavy breathing, signally that something has gone very, very wrong. Emphasised by the cries that can now be heard, I can tell the situation is certainly dire. Other than that, I have to assess the predicament accordingly. I hate my miserable life.

First and foremost is the safety of Mrs. Starr. "Mrs..." I notice the absence of my unfortunate sponsor. "Damn!" darting to her office, I check and she is also missing from there. It appears that I have to figure out a secondary plan. If it's not too inconvenient.

"What is this magic?" a deep grunt comes over the comm. "That man wore it around his ear." he muses to himself. I guess plan B has to be soon.

"Hello."

"A man is inside my head." the voice states, obviously confused about modern technology. "Get out!" he yells, followed by a loud bang, with a cry of pain. Did this guy really hit his head on a wall? What an idiot.

Playing along, I say "Why are you here? Leave, now."

"I want Titan! A fight is needed!"

Okay... I'm presuming that this is the same vile being that killed the commissioner, I think. Since he appears to enjoy going around and assaulting innocent lives, I will need to stop him before this gets any worse than it already is. You ready, tough guy? I'm coming.

Now wearing my suit after a brief visit to the dark cave full of mysteries, I jog into the main building. Wherever this villain is causing chaos, people will be streaming away in the dozens. So, I was unpleasantly surprised to find no people fleeing for their overpaid lives. That should mean the intruder has already to this section of the building. Or... he is still here. Personally, I'm hoping for the latter, because it means he gets knocked out quicker.

A quiet rustle of paper causes me to instinctively spin around, anticipating an attack. It remains that way for a while- me on guard, listening carefully for any hints.It's nothing, I assure myself. I'm still a little jumpy from all this stress.

Suddenly, I am thrown across the office with a tremendous barge.

Landing heavily on a desk and sliding off the side, I secretly wish I didn't rupture a kidney or anything as inconvenient as that. Damn, I curse as I force my aching body to stand again. "That's going to hurt for a while. Oh... gone." I comment at the rapid recovery due to enhanced human healing.

"You know that hurting people is against the law, right?" I sarcastically ask the bulking assailant, who is the exact same person I assumed. " My laws."

The scandanavian-looking man glares with tenacity. "I only obey the laws of the gods. And they demand I fight the strongest."

"Are you serious?" I ask, amused and slightly disturbed by his religious zeal at the same time. "This is the twenty first century! No god demands that you fight. Who are you? Thor?"

"How dare you insult the god of thunder!" the wannabe yells. "I am a warrior of Odin, and Valhalla only awaits the best warriors."

Trying to wrap my head around the fact this guy could be a viking, I come up with the next question. "Soo... you want me, but that doesn't explain how you knew I was here. How did you know?"

Beserk sinisterly laughs in a hearty bellow "You don't want to find out." Oh yes, I do. "Now, you die!"

Almost before I could react, he picks up a computer and launches it at me. However, I manage to catch and discard it in one swift motion, dropping it to the ground on my left. "Come get it," I taunt by motioning for him to bring it on.

With a roar, he stampedes towards me with full steam, smashing wooden desks and chairs out of the way. Just before he reaches me, I pull out my M9, and roll under cover- a desk- to my right, and shoot his thighs. The darts sink into his flesh and cling on for dear life. Although he scrambles to remove the sleep-inducers, the damage has already been done and he stumbles around, dangerously close to tipping over.

But, I doesn't last and he stabilises, more furious than ever. "Not good." vaulting over the desk, my feet barely touch the ground before I am rammed into, being catapulted into next week. "Owww." I moan, and attempt to get up. However, I am impeded by the viking and he stands over me.

Strangely, he doesn't attack and instead rears up like a horse, or a bear. As he prepares to come crashing down, I side roll and simultaneously kick his right shin, dropping him momentarily to one knee.

Taking my only chance, I escape his death blow and run away to the safety of a cubicle. Fiddling with my holster, I sigh at the empty holder. Must have lost it earlier, I think. The next plan is to play on his weaknesses, and I spotted a few.

All of his attacks almost seem animalistic and crude, yet retaining a smart brain behind them. Barging into me when I was most vulnerable, ripping out the darts- he knows what he is doing. Beserk's only real vulnerability is his charge, where my speed and agility gives me a great edge. So, how about we use it?

Taking in a deep breath, I leave the small square and head into the open with my hands up. "You got me!" I deceive him. Speaking of which, where is my boss? "It's over! You can kill me." I say, but I may have overkilled it a little.

Grunting from the energy exertion, he charges again. This time, I am heading in with a gameplan- to win.

When he reaches exactly three arms lengths away, I start with my plan and bend my knees slightly. When he exceeds two arm lengths, I extend and leap up with as much power from my enhanced muscles as I can.

Clearing Beserk's head by a few inches, I spin around three hundred and eighty degrees, kicking him directly in the forehead. After that, he went down like a sack of heavily muscled potatoes. Fairly surprising considering his apparent toughness, or lack of it. Now... for the interrogation.

Grabbing him by the neck with my right hand, I slap him across the face, hard enough to grant him consciousness. "Who sent you!?" I snarl in his face, trying to be at least mildly frightening. "I want names! Places! And everything!"

My enemy chuckles to himself. "A shocking revelation." he vaguely answers.

"They always want to do it the hard way." I clamp down on his trachea, cutting off his oxygen supply. Strangles gasps come from his mouth as he struggles to breathe under my grip. Figuring my show of force is done, I loosen my hold and listen to him gulping for air. "You get my message?"

The expression on his face answers the question for me. He's realised that I don't hesitate to cross the line in search of justice. "The man you are looking for, he is by the place where ships sail." he reveals.

Examining his face for hints of lying, I see none and knock him out with a brutal headbutt.

Accomplishing my goal of finding out why he is there, I wish I didn't. Firstly, somebody knows I work here, and is ready to kill people to get to me. Secondly, the name disturbs me, however I'm not quite sure why. All things analysed, the day was a mixture of a success and failure. Once again... story of my life.

"A little rough, don't you think?" a female voice asks from behind.

A/N

Thanks for reading this, and if any of you watch Vampire Diaries, please check out my Alaric standalone.