The Assassination Enigma
Prelude/Preview:
'My name is Ethan Winchester and I work for a company of assassins... Well, we're more like contract killers secretly working for the government really, but you get the point. We get a mission and a target, and once the deed is done, we've rid the world of another blood-thirsty monster. Necessary containment, the government call it. As long as I get to kill bad guys, I can't complain. The company is on paper called the Division Of Natural Energy And Engineered Reservoir Organisation, or as most people know us by, DONE-AERO, for short. I know, I know, I didn't come up with that silly name and to be frank, I'd refrain from using it, but that is what we're called. Pretty clever huh? If people only knew... As part of the cover-up they're able to provide us with the latest technological wonders of the world, including access to extremely rare and limited Elemental Weaponry, manufactured only in our Weaponry and Research department and only used by our organisation. Oh that's right, did I forget to mention it? The year is 2575, and the place, New Harmony, The Beginning... The Beginning you ask? Well, it's kind of hard to describe really, but summed up briefly, it's humanity's third home planet after the destruction of the two previous. Most people just call it Earth 3 these days, it's easier that way. Now don't bother asking where New Harmony is on this planet because that would take too long to explain. Anyways, where was I... Oh that's right, the alarm...'
In a small apartment on the third floor of an old scrawny looking building, a man still in his work wear from yesterday was seen struggling to reach out to his sounding alarm clock on the table beside his couch. Barely reaching it, he managed to knock it over as it finally stopped. The clock showed 7am, but the man was too sleepy to even bother checking. Not long after he drifted away, but only for what seemed like ten minutes as the doorbell suddenly started ringing several times over, followed by a few heavy knocks on the door; Ethan was too tired to notice. The door wasn't locked however, as a woman strolled right in. Her name was Lucy Thompson, Ethan's second in command on his 4-man team; the other two were Roy Remington and the new recruit named Natalie Colt. They were going to get their first assignment as a newly composed team today and Ethan had already overslept. "Ethan!!" Lucy's voice was loud and clear as he woke up in abrupt fashion, landing face first on the floor. "L-ucy??..." Ethan mumbled, fumbling around on the floor trying to get a grip of himself, still half asleep. "We're going to be late if you don't get your act together right this instant!" Telling him firmly, she seemed annoyed at his bad habit of always being late. As Ethan mustered strength to get up and to the bathroom, he mumbled back at her "Alright ma'am..." Her eyes locked onto him like a lion to a gazelle. "What was that?!" She retorted, and not daring to talk back to her again, he bolted for the bathroom. While Ethan was taking a leak, Lucy looked around and scanned the room. Garbage bags tossed all around, remains of yesterday's dinner still on the table, and filthy dishes from days prior, but more importantly, a picture of a glamorous girl in lingerie hanging on the wall. "Is it really appropriate to have that picture on the wall, considering who she is??..." Lucy's eyes were fixed on the poster, not sure whether to shake her head in discontent or to laugh. "What now??" Poking his head out from the bathroom with a toothbrush in his mouth, Ethan looked over at Lucy, and then over at the poster on the wall. "This picture, you're taking unnecessary risks... What if she finds out?? She'll definitely beat you to death, that's for sure..." She followed up. Looking back at her with a stern look, Ethan snuck his head inside the bathroom again as if not paying attention to what she had said. It was a fair warning though, because if she did find out, he most definitely would be dead. 'A sacred treasure from her past life, she doesn't need to know I still have it' Ethan always used to tell Lucy, but that didn't stop her from questioning him each time she saw it. "We need to get going, ready soon?" Lucy started to get impatient, they couldn't stall much longer. "Yeah, yeah, let's get going." Finally done, Ethan signalled Lucy towards the apartment door as he quickly grabbed his jacket and keys, then they were off.
Not long after, they arrived at the company. Checking in with their key cards, the two of them headed straight for the training hall as Ethan was still yawning and rubbing his eyes. It was mandatory for all assassins to check in to the training hall at least three times a week, otherwise they risked losing points on the Assassin Scoreboard, which ranked all the assassins in the company based on mission success, loyalty and overall shape and form of the assassin. It was important that they stayed fit and healthy. Ethan was currently ranked as number 7, while his teammate, Roy, was ranked at number 5. Neither Lucy nor Natalie had ever made top 10 yet however. On the flip side though, Ethan never bothered much about this scoreboard to begin with since there were actual ranks within the company that overruled the scoreboard anyways. It was more of a mean to keep an inner competition amongst the assassins to see who was really the best, and he wasn't the most enthusiastic about it, or so he claimed.
Having changed into proper training gear, the two of them were already at it. It was important for an assassin to stay in shape in all manners of lethality, including hand-to-hand combat, something in which Ethan never truly got the hang of. So, Lucy always took him through a few rounds of sparring matches even if he didn't really want to. The whole room was padded and dim lit, the former to prevent injuries and the latter to train the eye to see the opponent even in the dark. Managing to outmanoeuvre Lucy for a change, Ethan caught her momentarily off guard as he threw her over his shoulder and straight to the ground, landing on top of her and locking her hands down to the ground. They both were surprise by this indeed, as Ethan hesitated on what to do next for a few seconds, meeting eye-contact with Lucy. At a complete standstill Ethan just looked at her, and noticing this, Lucy saw the opportunity to break free. A quick jab to the face with her elbow, she then tossed him off her with her legs wrapped around him as she rolled him over on him stomach, locking his right hand in an arm-lock behind his back and forcing him to tap out. "Damn it I almost had you!" He laughed, but not without clutching his hand in pain. Still on the ground, he looked up at her as a grin formed on her face. "Almost..." She replied. "Well, hand-to-hand combat was never my strong suit; you know I like to pick off my opponents from a far. Next time, don't be so rough on me, that really hurt you know..." Almost as if complaining, Ethan pulled a lazy smirk back at her. Giggling, she simply reached her hand out to him to help him up. "Maybe next time Ethan." A smile followed by a reassuring nod, who was he to deny her charm? Grabbing on to her hand, he was helped up to his feet again as he brushed off any dust that had gathered on his clothes, and as he did, the Director of the company entered. "Oh, is it's you John?" As if wanting confirmation, Lucy asked the man that had just walked in on them. Simply turning for the light switch, the man turned on the lights as both Ethan and Lucy were blended by it. "The briefing is about ready; Roy and Natalie are already there. You better hit the shower and get there; we wouldn't like the newcomer's first impression of you two to be having to wait, would we?" John seemed to be in a good mood today, laughing to himself. Ethan just looked at him with a dazed look as if not following his humour. At least, he did not seem impressed by his attempt at making them laugh. "Right... We'll be right there John." Watching as he walked out the room ahead of them, Ethan then looked back at Lucy, taking a respectful bow before her. "Thanks for the lessons, My Lady." He said ironically. "Pff, you dork... We better get going." Laughing at him, the two of them then nodded at each other as they went to their respective locker-rooms. Not long after, they were at the briefing.
"Alright now that you are all here, I suppose I'll give you the rundown..." John Mauser... The Director of the company was a stern but relaxed man who always saw the bright side of things. It took a lot to make him mad, and even then he usually laughed it off. "So who's the target??" Ethan asked eagerly, more than ready for a new assignment. "Not so fast Ethan, shouldn't you say hello to Natalie first??" John asked curiously. Putting his hands behind his head and placing his feet on the table however, Ethan seemed uninterested. "I already know her, what more is there to learn?" He asked. Realizing John didn't know what he was on to about, Ethan then pointed his hand at Roy as he continued. "As you know, eight years ago Roy and I worked together in the Firing Squad division for two years before I worked alone for two years, before then teaming up with Lucy in these past four years, with Roy rejoining us last year. Of course I know all about his girlfriend, or should I say, wife, Natalie. What more is there to know? Let's just get on with the mission, shall we..." Having worked in the company for 8 years, joining them when he was sixteen years old, Ethan was the longest serving of the crew. At the age of 24 however, he was not the oldest, as Roy's age was 35, Natalie 27 and finally Lucy, 21. Despite being the leader of the team, Ethan was outranked by Roy both on the Scoreboard as well as the actual rank in the company. Being team leader on the other hand though was not based on either fact, but on how long you had been in a team or how long you had been with the company, which ultimately made Roy third in command in the team. Looking at him, John let out a deep sigh, as he then pointed at the screen behind them. "Very well, I'll just leave the data on the screen then..." On the screen behind him were full profiles of each of them, including everything from age, lineage, ethnicity, mission reports, favourite weapons, ranks, kills, and so on and so forth. "So who's the target?" Lucy finally followed up. "He's a separatist scientist only known as Gabriel..."
Putting up an obscured image of a man from behind on the screen, John then continued. "Or, that's what we were lead to believe initially until he cracked one of our mainline portals and put in coordinates no one around here has ever seen before. ”Coordinates?" Roy questioned. "Yes... As we all know, the mainline portals are used for quick-travel between the nations due to the Great Gaps and the atmosphere on this planet, but for some reason the coordinates have been altered, not to a different planet or place, but..." John hesitated for a moment, he knew what he wanted to say next would baffle them all. "Well, what is it??" Natalie pressed for information; this had to be one juicy target for sure. "To be honest we're not sure... From the looks of it, it seems like the timeframe has been altered to match a different time than ours, but to suggest that he's invented time-travel might be a stre-..." "TIME TRAVEL?!?!" Ethan shot up in excitement; there was no way he would want to miss a single detail about this. "We're not sure... But yeah, it seems that way." "On what basis do you make this claim exactly??" Remaining calm, Roy sought the actual facts of it all, not the first to believing in such fairytale nonsense. "Well that's the thing... The coordinates are locked to a place called Denmark, and as we all know by now, that Country or that Planet for that matter, doesn't exist anymore, heck, it's been over 400 years since Earth 1 was destroyed. But there's more..." Pausing for a bit, John swiped the image on the screen over to something else. "Our analysts were able to hack into the timestamp of the jump and it appears the coordinates specifically mentions 2050... Could this refer to-... year? In any case, this mainline portal is located in hostile territory so you will need guns and equipment to make it there. Once there, you should be able to follow where this Gabriel went and what he's planning on doing. It can't be anything good I reckon, as this mission comes from the highest authority..." "Section A??" Ethan asked, knowing that meant a serious mission. "Indeed..." John answered. "And if I'm not mistaken, the last Section A mission you and Roy were on were your last mission as a team in the Firing Squad, am I right??" John pressed. He knew neither Ethan nor Roy were the ones to talk much about what really happened back then but at the same time, he needed to make sure they knew the gravity of the mission. Paying close attention to this, Lucy coughed at John to continue...
Clearing his throat, he said; "Anyways, I believe Alice, Peter, Daniel and Maria all have something new for you, so we might as well take it from there..." "As long as I get my Singular Atomic Waterpulse Rifle, I'm all good, but glad to hear that there's something new in development down there..." Ethan boasted. "What about the Anti-gravity boots, have Alice been able to perfect them yet?" Lucy followed up. "Hey don't forget about the elemental grenades, last time we tested them we levelled a whole building." Roy butted in. "As long as my Duel Icebreakers; Silent Wind & Blizzard Blast are fixed from my last mission, I'm happy." Natalie whispered to herself, but it was still loud enough for the rest of them to hear. "Oh yeah, I haven't seen them in action before, are they any good?" Ethan followed up. "Can't be better than the Microwave Heatblast-Eradicator, can it?" Roy asked curiously. "Are you kidding?? Nothing beats my Automatic Energybeam Thunder-slicer, you know that. We all saw how many points I scored on the scoreboard last mission because of them." Raising her fist in the air, Lucy seemed eager to get a hold of her gun again, just like the rest of them. As if watching over a group of kids, John clutched his head due to their noise-level before he asked them politely to head to the Weaponry and Research department with him to find out more. Making their haste over there, it didn't take long before they were there...