A Gala. That's where Guy is reported to be. A goddamn fancy-ass Gala. I didn't know how to behave myself at events like that! Let alone how to dress! I'd be around the upper-class, the aristocracy of 1990's America. There'd be more money in a single persons Net Worth than I'd have in three lifetimes! Nevertheless, we were given our cover names, our backstories, our outfits, our gear, and our tasks. Charlie and I were to locate Guy, get him alone, and capture him. Felix and Flo were on creating distractions to lead to extraction. After, we'd take him to a secure location, then Felix and I would use our interrogation training in order to make him tell us everything. The plan was foolproof. Apart from the fact that the four people on the mission were all fools.
We all arrived at separate times, with different times apart. Charlie at 20:46, Felix at 20:52, I arrived at 21:03 and Flo came at 21: 10. Upon entering, I was asked for my name. "Olivier Jeán." I told the front-of-house. My cover was that I was a French lawyer with a Summer house in the States. I was invited to this Gala by a close acquaintance, Miss Valerie Robin, which was Charlie's code name. I made an effort to walk around the ball in an attempt to find not only Valerie Robin, but also Guy, the suspected confederate of the family-murdering psychopath Roger Jackson. I took champagne off of a tray carried by a waiter. I'm 6' 2", so I can easily pass for being 21, despite being only 16. After 4 minutes and 17 seconds of searching, Miss Robin was located. I glanced around, sensing the room with each simple step. I saw two of the front-of-house look over at me, whispering. Mentally drowning everyone out, I used the hearing part of my Agent ability in order to hear what they were saying. They were confirming whether the person I was walking towards was actually who I said invited me.
"Ah, Miss Valerie," I said with a thick French accent, "You look, eh, trés beau, this evening."
"You don't look half bad yerself, Olivier." I did not know that Charlie was going for British, so I almost was visibly caught off guard, "Wonderful you could join me."
"I apologise for being late, the front tyre had a puncture. Plutôt malheureux, wouldn't you say?" I took her hand and kissed it softly, "Shall we walk?" I held out my arm for her to take. I glanced down, and saw a pistol in her clutch purse, as well as a suppressor. I reminded myself that I was strapped up too, with some bonus magazines as well. Valerie and I talked about nothing for the next 15 minutes. Trivial things relating to our backstories, such as the ferry ride to the America's, the long drive up here, our places of residence for the evening, etc. A lot of the time, I felt as though I was being watched. I could occasionally spot Felix and Flo within the crowds. They were never together, only making conversation with other attendees. I was constantly sending out y own subtle vibrations in order to try and find Guy more easily. It was nigh impossible! There were too many people in this one room! He might not even be here! I could feel Charlie begin to tremble, likely out of fear. She looked up at me and chuckled, like I had said something funny. I was distracted and started to laugh too. Not paying attention to where I was going, I accidentally bumped into someone. I knocked his drink, and it spilled down his shirt. "Hey, watch where yer goin'!"
"Sacré bleu, I am so sorry, monsieur." I quickly reverted back into character, "Please, I 'ave another shirt, in case this happened pour moi."
"Why, thank ye kindly, Mawn-sewer." He had a strong Southern drawl, and vastly mispronounced Monsieur. I looked up at the shaggy-faced individual. It was him! It was Guy! I tried not to let a look of shock jump onto my face as I continued to speak.
"What is your name, s'il vous plait?"
"Guy. Nice t'meet ya..?"
"Olivier. And this is mon associé, Valerie."
"It's a pleasure, Mr. Guy." He took an outstretched hand and kissed her ring. "May we buy you another drink?"
"That would grand, Miss Valerie." This was our signal. If Charlie and I ever took another person over to the bar, then it was a sign that we had found our man.
"What, 'ow you say, tickles your fancy, Monsieur Guy?"
"I'll have a Bloody Mary, bartender." Guy winked at him, which seemed suspicious.
"May I have a Manhattan, bartender?"
"Coming right up miss." He started missing both drinks at the same time. "And you, Sir? You seem like a classy fellow. What classy drink would 'tickle your fancy'?"
"Martini. Gin, not vodka, stirred for 10 seconds while glancing at an unopened bottle of vermouth, merci beaucoup." The bartender seemed confused, but immediately understood my order. Within a few minutes, all three drinks had been graciously prepared. The three of us stayed at the bar, exchanging conversation about nothing and everything. Glancing around occasionally, I could see Felix and Flo make moves to create a distraction.
"So what brings you to this fine establishment, Mon-shore and Miss?"
"I was invited by Miss Valerie, as a 'plus-one' as you say."
"A family friend gifted me a ticket, as a 21st birthday present."
"Well how kind of them."
"Et toi, Monsieur Guy?"
"Me? I'm on official work business." He opened up his suit and revealed a patch.
A Black Star patch.
"You recognise this, don't you, Agent 23?"
Every single person at the ball whipped their heads around at me, staring me down. Banners unfurled along all of the walls, with the gaze of Black Star symbols burying into our souls. All of a sudden there was an explosion. I didn't know what was happening, until I heard screams of confused Black Star lackeys. Guy turned away and started sprinting, bumping into multiple people. I saw Charlie put on a pair of goggles. Had the lights gone out? I could still see though. Hold on...
I can see in the dark!
The vibrations that emitted from people still have me a very clear picture, like there were lights still on. I had an advantage, and so Charlie, Felix and Flo. They must've been given night vision goggles. Shaking away the excitement, I saw Charlie leave my side, running after Guy, trying to manoeuvre through the crowd. I ran after her, and in the moment, I saw bursts of light flash above me on a balcony. Felix must be fighting with some Black Star agents. Flo would be helping him, so I needed to catch up with Charlie. The thing I did remember was being blocked by Black Star, and then trying to fight me. It was quite the ordeal, as I had never fought such a big group. I reached for my pistol, but was kicked in the side. The attacker went for another kick, but I caught his leg and slammed my elbow down on his knee, breaking it. Now that I wasn't having a friendly sparring session, I could be much more aggressive and brutal.
Two came at me with knives, and I caught their forearms and flicked the knives out of the grasps. I caught them and threw them at their chests. Blood spurted out, and I felt it splatter on my face. Someone pointed a gun at my head. I sensed it next to me, so I knocked the barrel, and a bullet hit someone random in the crowd. I could tell because there was pained screaming. The gunman tried to chip at my neck with his hand, but I caught it and head butted him, then took his gun and shot him twice. Hearing the shout of a man running at me, i deconstructed the gun and threw the parts at him, knocking him out. I then took the gun of another attacker, shot them, then executed the unconscious screamer. Three more people took out knives and ran at me. Shooting two of them, I threw the empty pistol at the third. Whilst he was distracted, I kicked him in the stomach, swiped his dropped knife, then moved past him and stabbed it into his back. I removed the blade from his spine, just in time to sense someone bring a blunt weapon down on me. I turned and deflected it with the stolen knife, to find out that I was going to be hit with a wooden club. I grabbed the club and slammed it into their ribs, then I took it and hit them twice on the back of the head. Blood continued to paint my clothes, so I could only assume that my suit had turned red in the violence that occurred, and continued to occur. Vibrations in the air caused me to strafe away, barely dodging a machete. I span around and sliced across the madman's face, swapping the knife for his machete. Behind his corpse was another machete maniac, coming down at with his blade. I blocked it, and we were locked in combat.
I pushed back up, then swiped at his stomach. He jumped backwards, then lunges at me. Stepping aside, I weaved around him and planted my shin into his ribs. Doubling over, he rolled forward, turned, them leapt at me again. I could sense two people either side of me pointing their pistols at my skull. I ducked, just in time for them to shoot each other, instead of me. Slashing across the machete mans knees, I kneeled on his chest and slit his throat open. With my entire body painted in blood, I scanned the area. Every single corpse was the body of a Black Star hench-person. Machete in hand, I made my way outside. I was greeted by a panicked Felix and Flo, a captured Charlie, and gun-wielding Guy.
"Drop yer weapons, you crazy kids!" He pointed the gun at all of us at once, deranged gazes piercing our hearts. I threw my machete away, Flo retracted her outstretched arms, and Felix stopped charging up his electricity. Charlie was attempting to grow her muscles, trying to escape, but Guy's hold on her was too strong. She nodded at Flo. Flo nodded back. She stretched her arms for a long-range punch. Guy panicked and fired at her. The bullet bounced off of her rubbery skin. She was impervious! And the bullet narrowly missed Guy, but distracted him enough to get hit in the face by the rubber fist. Charlie very suddenly grew her muscles, loosening Guy's grip on her. She barely managed to elbow him in the stomach and fully break free. Charlie grew about two meters, then slammed her hand down on Guy, taking him into her grasp instead. Felix sprinted over and shocked him into a state of unconsciousness.
The battle had been won.
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Soon after Guy's defeat, an extraction helicopter piloted by Director Ashfield descended to collect us. We threw his limp body on board and began to fly back to base. Charlie, Felix and Flo were just staring down, but I knew that they were looking at me. I could sense it. They could see that my shirt had become red, and that I had been through a gauntlet of bloodshed. Flo only had to knock people unconscious, Charlie could become a human battering ram with her muscles, and Felix only had to electrify them to have a victory. Me, on the other hand? I could only predict. The only other abilities I had at my disposal were just weapons mastery, advanced marksmanship skills and martial arts expertise. I wouldn't let my lack of a flashy superpower put a dampener on my gladiatorial victory this night. I would be strong like the others.
Taking off my stained shirt, I wrung out all of the blood into an unused bucket. Almost a third of it filled up. I was not able to clean all of it out, so I left my brand new pink shirt dry over the journey. Whilst I changed, I could sense the gases of the other three. Felix in particular held his for a rather extended period of time. When our eyes met, I could sense a warmth in his cheeks as he turned away. I smirked slightly, before slipping on a khaki t-shirt.
"You guys okay back there?" Ashfield called back to us.
"Yeah!" We'll all answered simultaneously.
"You know what the next step is, right?"
"Yeah!" We all said again.
"Felix and I will use our training in interrogation tactics in order to extract all of the information from Guy."
"Glad you understand. We'll be headed back to the Hoover building to carry this out. Just don't kill him, okay?"
"I'm not gonna fuckin' tell you anything!" A voice piped up. A conscious Guy began speaking up for himself, throwing obscenities in our faces. Felix sighed, stood up, and put his hand on Guy's temple. "What's that gonna fuckin' do, huh?" Felix sent sparks into him, knocking him out.
———————————————
After about a 2 and a half hour journey, we finally landed back at base. Putting his limp, sweaty body onto a stretcher, we ran him to The Slaughterhouse, our interrogation room. A dank, lightless room in the gallows of the Hoover building. Winding corridors guided us towards it. Opening the rusty steel door, Felix and I watched Ashfield, Flo and Charlie go into a different room to observe us. The one-way mirror was made to look like another one of the crumbling, decade-old brick walls that imprisoned us. The stretcher was taken, and Guy was sat down at a metal camping table, handcuffed, and woken by a bucket of icy water.
"GAAAA!!" He screamed, "Where the fuck am I?" Felix grabbed a dangling light bulb and pointed the beam at Guy's face.
"You know exactly who we are, Guy. And I think you know exactly what we want."
"I don't know what the hell yer talkin' about!" He tried to shield his eyes, but couldn't. The handcuffs restricted his arms so he could make zero movement. Felix kept blinding him, drying out his eye fluids. I stood behind him menacingly.
"Your eyes are drying out, Guy." I whispered in his ear.
"AAAHH! Where the hell did you come from?"
"You want to be able to cry when we mess you up, don't you?"
"Shut up!"
"Then tell us," I whispered again, with a sharp intake of breath, "What we need to know!" I screamed into his ear as threateningly as possible.
"You really think that's gonna scare me? Ha! Ya'll really don't know me at all!" Felix signalled for me to go to the far wall. Without breaking eye contact with Guy, I knocked on the dilapidated brick surface, and a compartment opened up. It revealed an assortment of intimidating tools: hammers, screwdrivers, corkscrews, pliers, a taser, a paddle, knuckle dusters, you name it. Some we're for threat, others for practical usage. The first thing I did reach for, however, was an unorthodox torture device: a boom box. Only one tape came with it, which was probably the most annoying song we could find. I slammed the box down in front of Guy, and I could sense that his heart beat was beginning to accelerate. This was an advantage of being able to sense vibrations and the environment: sweat, trembling, subtle voice inflections, heart palpitations. If he showed even the tiniest sign that he may crack under our pressure, I would be able to sense it. And I could sense that he was getting some anxiety when he saw what take I showed him:
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham!
Felix handed me some ear plugs. "We won't be able to hear the song with these," he explained, "and we won't be able to hear you either. If you scream for help, we won't care. If you call us slurs, we won't care, but it will help in our case against you. We won't rest until you are an empty shell of a broken man. Only then will we be ready to hear what you're gonna say."
"You guys don't know what you're doing. You're crazy!"
"You only just figured it out?" I pressed play. The song began. I could feel a subtle fear reaction in Guy. This song must be especially annoying for him. For the first play through, we just sat and stared at him with dead, yet wild, eyes. He tried to stare back, but looked away eventually. Once the second play through began, I got to work.
"Wanna know something about me, Guy?"
"What?" He spat.
"I'm goddamn blind."
"That's impossible!" I leant in front of him, so he could get a good look at me. He could see that my eyes were glazed over, like a fresh corpse. Grey and unwelcoming, he now knew for sure that I cannot see. I walked around behind him and put my hands on his face.
"I'm goddamn blind. But I can see through you," I said as I felt up his face, slapping it occasionally, "I can see that deep, deep inside, you're scared. You're a sad, scared little man. I can sense everything you do, from the smallest drop of sweat, to the subtlest tremble of the lip. You can't hide your true self from me," I bent over to his ear, "FOR I. SEE. EVERYTHING!" I kicked out one of the chair legs from under him, and he fell to the floor, almost weeping. I walked on his stomach as I made my way to the tool compartment. I could feel that Felix was nervous, but I didn't care. This man works for the man who killed my parents. He must be punished accordingly. Taking the hammer, I went to plant my knee on Guy's chest. Felix tried to stop me, but he knew it was futile. "TELL ME! TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK HE IS!"
"I don't know! I don't know where he is!"
"YES YOU DO! I KNOW YOU DO! WE HAVE EVIDENCE TO PROVE IT!" I shouted, raising the hammer.
"You won't do it!"
"YOU THINK I WON'T? I KILLED ABOUT A DOZEN PEOPLE YESTERDAY, IN COLD, BRUTAL VIOLENCE! YOU THINK I WON'T DO THE SAME, HUH? YOU'RE A LACKEY, JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM!"
"Please! Don't do it!" He wept.
"ONE. FINAL. CHANCE!" I raised the hammer. "ONE."
"No, please don't!"
"TWO!"
"I'm telling ya, I don't know!"
"THREE!"
"Fine, fine! I'll tell ya everything I know!"
"TOO FUCKING LATE!"
I slammed the hammer down.
ns 15.158.61.44da2
