[Original Fiction] The Assassination Enigma

Michael92

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The Assassination Enigma

Introduction/Preview/Draft/One-Shot

Author's Note:
Chapter 1 is left intact as it was for the contest (except some grammatical/structure improvements), the inclusion of notes at the bottom is the extended bit. Since I'm releasing this for illustrative purposes only, I decided not to rewrite the first chapter, but instead focused on showcasing some of the notes. This is a one-time release btw, so don't expect any further releases. If I decide to make something real out of it, it will be as a (series of) book(s) one day. Anyways, hope it will be a fun read for anyone that can be bothered, cheers!~

*So if you want to know more about the characters' looks and stuff before or after you read, I added in a whole bunch(!) of descriptive notes at the bottom for the characters from my personal notes, amongst other things!*



Chapter 1; A New Assignment:


'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 workwear 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, then tossing him off her with her legs wrapped around him as she rolled him over on his 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 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.

[...]

A short while later, 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 teamed up and then worked together in the Firing Squad division for two years before I worked alone for the next two years. After that, I teamed up with Lucy and in these past four years we've worked together, with Roy rejoining us the last of those years. So yeah, 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 taken 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 one. "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 believe 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 division, 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..." Suggesting that they all should move on to the Weaponry and Research division for further intel, John moved to the door to show them the way. "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 repaired after 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 the noise they were making, before he asked them politely to come along with him to find out more. Making their haste over there, it didn't take long before they were there...

~ End Chapter 1 ~


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Author's Note: As you you can see, this was a very rough and compressed draft I smacked together for the contest. Due to this, I completely left out the massive character descriptions I had for each character as well as several scenes I had planned, even altered and abridged a whole bunch of stuff and story in order to get as much meat in it as possible, but at the same time, trying to keep it as seamless as I could.

Ultimately, it would have taken too much time to do it as envisioned at this stage if I wanted to do it all (like a one-shot, complete story), even though everything is mapped and fleshed out really (notes for at least 5 potential books, so at the end of the day I got something more out of this, one could say). I call it a draft/preview because the whole thing might be written over again from the beginning eventually. But at least now, with the inclusion of some notes (yes only a small fraction of what I actually penned down), I get to showcase a little bit more of what I originally had in mind at least, so be sure to read on if you are interested ^__^ Please be advised these are raw notes, so I haven't checked for grammar at all really. Whenever you see a "[...]" it means I've cut the notes short and removed parts I don't want to show off.

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Character Profiles:

* Main Characters:

* Ethan's Team:


* Ethan Winchester. White male, European decendant. Blue eyes. Short styled blond hair, clean shaved, slim but muscular built. Squad leader, major experience in the firing squad division but has since then become more of an assassin. Energetic jokester with a serious nature when forced to. Lucy has been teaching Ethan Chinese so he's able to fully understand it but he still struggles speaking it. Has one scar just to the left of his left eye, through the edge of his eyebrow and down to his cheekbone. Heigth; 1.87 M. Weight; 87 KG. Age 24, birthday May 7th. Orientation: Straight.

- Favorite weapon; The Singular Atomic Waterpulse-rifle. Waterpulse-rifle for short, long-ranged. Fires piercing rounds of carbon compressed black water, one shot at a time. Not completely silent but hides his location well enough. The Sniper, waits for the target to get into range for the shot. Confirmed Kills: 867. Total Kill Count: Unknown.

- Him and Lucy goes way back, having been part of the same team for 4 years. Before then Ethan worked as a Lone Wolf for 2 years after being part of a firing squad together with Blair and Roy for 2 years prior.

* Second Main: Lucy Thompson. Asian female, Chinese decendant (looks inspired by actor Lucy Liu). Dark-green eyes. Dark short hair covering her ears and neck, styled to the side across her right eye. The hairtips of her black hair has a white ish color (she's eventually let her hair grow out), slim, curvious (boob job - make a joke here) and well trained muscular body – Fit. Second in command, silent and deadly. Worked together with Ethan for 4 years. Gentle, caring and laidback, but also strict and ambitious when on a mission. The "mother character" of the team more often than not despite her young age. Fluent in 6 language, including English, Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish and German. Lucy has a scar after a gunshot wound through her left shoulder, as well as a scar beside her navel. Height; 1.75 M. Weight; 75 KG. Age 21, birthday March 12th. Orientation: Bi-sexual?

- Favorite Weapon; The Automatic Energybeam Thunder-slicer. Thunder-slicer for short, short-ranged. Fires razorsharp electric widespread energybeams in quick succession that cuts anything in half. And to top it off, they don't make a sound! The Silencer, sneaks in from behind while the attention is fixed elsewhere. Confirmed Kills: 551. Total Kill Count: Unknown.

- Lucy has a necklace that is very precious to her (details on look later) and at one point as they go back in time she fears it has vanished like with the rest of their weponry. Later on she gives it to Ethan as a luck charm. They've never had a romantic moment in those 4 years they've worked together but they go along quite well and the potential is there if they both allowed it. She used to be the silent type that only went about her job but after being "forced" to work with Ethan for a year she herself decided to continue the partnership and open up a little to him. On the other hand she helped him get rid of the Lone Wolf persona he had been riding with ever since splitting ways with his last team and Blair, and for him to be more relaxed and open again too.

* Third main: Roy Remington. Black male, American decendant. Dark-brown eyes. Bald,, clean shaved, big bulky powerhouse. Third in command in the team but higher ranked overall than the rest in the company, likes to do things loud and clear, even to the point of being reckless. Veteran from the tactics division but has worked with Ethan and Lucy for the past year. Always focused on the success of his missions, serious and ambitious, goal orientated but has a funny side as well. Fluent in English and French. Has a lot of battle scars on his face, although neither one of them are too deep. Height: 1.95 M. Weight; 115 KG. Age 35, birthday November 10th. Orientation: Straight. Married to Natalie.

- Favorite Weapon; The Microwave Heatblast-Eradicator. Heatblast-eradicator for short, short-ranged. Fires big blasts of radiation heatwaves that incinerates anything it comes in contact with, slowly and painfully. Efficient and deadly. The Bang for the Big Bucks, takes the attention towards him. Confirmed Kills: 997. Total Kill Count: Unknown.

* Fourth Main: Natalie Colt. Hispanic Female, Latin-American decendant. Light-brown eyes. Long brown hair down just past her shoulders, slim, curvious, natural-looking body. Newcomer to the squad, usually goes by unnoticed both in daily life but also in her killings. Careful but thorough, has a loving nature, laidback but skilled. Smart person in the group. Fluent in English and Spanish. Has three bigger scars. One down her right leg, one down her left arm and one across her back. Height; 1.68 M. Weight; 60 kg. Age 27, birthday October 26th. Orientation: Straight. Married to Roy.

- Favorite Weapon; The Dual Icebreakers; Silent Wind & Blizzard Blast. Silent Wind & Blizzard Blast for short, mid- to long-ranged. A weaponry that that can fire dual rounds for mid to long range combat. One options allows the user to fire automatic piercing rounds of thin ice-spikes in rapid succession to impale their targets, while the other allows them to fire a deadly widespread blast of blizzard in the opponent's face. To top it off, the weapon can be seperated for duel wielding although that is said to be quite difficult to master. The backup shot, if all else fails she comes in. Allrounder. Confirmed Kills: 279. Total Kill Count: Unknown.

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* Rival's team:

- Very vague on details here but Ethan's Rival from the notorious team that follows them back in time the first time gets descriptic characterization.

* Rival: Blair Katana. Black female, bi-racial decendancy. Born to white father and black mother. Lightbrown skintone. Thick fiery dark-red curly hair that goes down to her chest, but she always has it tied up when out in the field. Born blind so she has artificial eye replacements. One dark-red colored and one dark-purple colored. Orphaned at early age like Ethan, Lucy and Natalie. She doesn't have a family name that she knows of, so she's been taking the last name Katana since she loves to carry an elemental katana around, almost notorious for using it. Arrogant, confident, cocky, rash and sometimes too upfront with what's on her mind. On the flip side, she can often times be seen depressed and quietly seated by herself but still giving off a stern and serious look when someone approaches her, before lauighing things away. Bossy and goal orientated. She does not settle for second place. Ethan's ex girlfriend. She's all about glamor but also efficiency so her attire reflects that. Has a facial scar down her left chin, presumably from combat. Sexy but deadly. Height: 1.84. Weight: 80 KG. Age 24, birthday December 24th. Orientation: Bi-sexual?

- Known Ethan since they were together in the Firing Squad from age 16-18 but also before that growing up in the same orphanage. Something didn't end well when they split parts but it's very vague info on what exactly that was. Ethan doesn't talk about it and Lucy doesn't know what really happened either, at least not the full details of it. He usually goes quiet when she's around as if he's feeling guilt or has regrets and tries to avoid her completely. Ethan went Lone Wolf on his missions for 2 years after their partnership ended, before teaming up with Lucy.

Blair always teases Ethan sexually with words and touches and even scolds him whenever something is wrong or as she just pleases, to which Lucy often have to step in between as she doesn't like what she's seeing or how she's treating Ethan. This again prompts her to ask if she's Ethan's new girlfriend or something now, and that he can't stand up for himself. At this point Roy usually shuts her down. His incredible build and stern look when he's serious can even get her to back off. She has immense respect for him but doesn't care one bit for Lucy or the new team member Natalie. Lucy often asks how the two of them could have been together seeing all this but Ethan really doesn't have a good reply to it. Blair secretly still has a crush on Ethan but is never upfront about it. She outranks Ethan in the organisation and is regarded as the most efficient and deadly assassin in the entire organisation both based on successful missions but also on the company's scoreboard. She's ranked number 1 there while Ethan is only number 7. Only Roy at number 5 makes the Top 10 list in addition to them amongst our characters. Despite all this, she does not outrank Roy in chain of command however. Because of her reputation and prowess, people have even provoked a rumor of the long forgotten prophecy of the "Bringer of Stability" actually being her, an old folktale from a distant past long perished. She likes to bring this up whenever she can, whether in an argument to prove she's right or simply to boast at times, but others just scuffs it away usually.

- Favorite Weapon; The Apocalyptic Heaven-splitter Katana, Heaven-splitter for short, all-ranged (short, mid and long depending on the situation). She doesn't believe in elemental guns doing the job throughly and clean enough, and always asks "why choose one elemental gun when she can carry a katana that can harness all the elements at will?" It's able to cut through anything like butter and expand and change shape accordingly to the element it's harnessing. Whether it's thin razorsharp electrical currents flowing through it amplifying the sharpness of the blade and electrocuting the victims; countless deadly spikes of ice sticking out from all sides that freezes and impales anything on impact, freezing them from within; lighting the blade on fire to turn anything to ash and leave the scene of "crime" with no remaining evidence; or turning it into a heavy broadsword of water that crushes anything it smashes into pieces; it can even fire splinters of rocks from the tip of the blade for long-range battle as well. Her Katana was custom-made by Michael Vijaya himself on special request, long after they'd changed focus from their initial testrun of making elemental blades into their main productline of elemental firearms. It's said to be his finest creation, even to this date. Although there is rumor of another that he keeps to himself. Confirmed Kills: 1346. Total Kill Count: Unknown.

* All 5 of the main characters are equipped with 3 types of elemental bombs provided by the company;

* Sand/Earth bomb - The Sand/Earth bomb can drown an entire room in sand, mud and dirt, suffocating the enemies and crushing them.

* Light/Sunray bomb - The Light/Sunray bomb works pretty much like a flashbang, just more advanced and can burn people's skin and melt their eyes out.

* Darkness bombs - The Darkness bomb on the other hand removes all light from an area making it pitch black. Great for escaping manoeuvres or when trying to get closer to someone unnoticed.

* The great war - There was a civil war that had dragged on for 10 years after Humanity moved to its 3rd home planet. The war ended 5 years after Ethan was born.

* 4 of the 5 characters are orphaned at early age;

- Only Roy has a father still alive that he knows and he also grew up with his mother.

- Ethan never knew nor remembers his parents.

- Lucy can only recall her mom from when she was a child.

- While Natalie vaguely remembers both.

- Blair on the other hand was orphaned at birth, not because her parents were killed or died in battle like with the rest, but because she was left for dead by a mother and father that didn't want her (presumably because she was born blind). Troubled childhood feeling unloved and unwanted, went to the same orphanage as Ethan. Always a troublemaker. Bonding with Ethan however helped her get more in control of her feelings, although she still likes to use her katana viciously to unleash her wrath and pent up anger upon her enemies.

* Character aging throughout story:

- Both Ethan and Lucy ages during this story, with Ethan mentioning that it's Lucy's birthday while they're in Denmark and Lucy pointing it out that it's his birthday while they're in China. Sequel takes place 3 years later.

* Love dilemma:

Blair -> Ethan
Lucy -> Ethan
Blair -> Lucy
Ethan -> Maria
Maria -> Ethan?

- Ethan was the one to break up with Blair for reasons unknown. She might have been too unstable and wild for him, or he might have felt undermined in the relationship. In any case, he had to get away to get some space and a new start. Flesh out later. Blair still has feelings for Ethan and Ethan has trouble separating himself from her whenever they meet and she comes up to him.

- Lucy has secret feelings for Ethan, something which Blair suspects. In the end Ethan sorts of finds out this and in the sequel it is revealed that Lucy indeed loves him. Ethan has to make up his mind whether he loves her back or not.

- During the sequel, Blair is revealed to be bi-sexual and falls for Lucy while still being in love with Ethan, creating a strange situation.

- Ethan still has a crush on Maria but he's not sure whether it's just that, a crush, something to which Maria tells him to sort out first.

- Maria is not closed off to the thought of a little 'adventure' with Ethan but is clear that she wants nothing to do with the love triangle he's caught up in with Lucy and Blair. Only if he sorts that out may they talk. This gets further complicated when Ethan brings her back from the dark after she initially betrays the team.

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* Blair's other two team mates:

* One Black Male, Afro-American decendant. Age 19. Flesh out later.

* One White Male. Age 23. Flesh out later.

- Both extremely handsome and muscular, making Ethan seem small in comparison. Though neither one of them can compare to Roy. Share the same character traits as Blair.

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* Two other teams:

* Mark something, red haired with a decent full-beard. Team leader, Hispanic male, Age 24, Ethan's close friend, was part of the same Firing squad with him and Blair?? Comedian, always has a joke on the side and like to live life to the fullest. Flesh out later.

* Other team leader, more focused and devoted. Asian Male, age 27. Flesh out later.

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* Villain/Target: Only known as "Gabriel," his true identity and origin is unknown. Is he even human? Has the ability to "shapeshift" instantly with anyone he comes in contact with through touch, liquid (spit, blood), and so on and so forth, so no one really knows his true face. Is part of a group known as the Seperatist that opposes the DONE-AERO organisation. Will think of more of a motive as we go. True goal of Gabriel unknown. Ultimate power? Galactic domination? Ethernal life? His interest seems to be in a gem that's related to the origin of the Revitalizing Pills. As the Emperor he has long tied up dark hair, old ancient Chinese culture-style. Anyways, this is what is known;

- The villain tries to go back to the year 208 the first time but he hasn't managed to lock on the right cordinates which makes him drop in Denmark 2050 instead since the presence of the gem is also detected there. He's looking for something called the *Come up with name later* gem that will grant him true power, which is later revealed to have been destroyed in their universe in order to use its power for Revitalizing pills production, hence why he has come here in search for another. It's said to awaken his inner potential. When pressed by Ethan, he's only vague on what the stone does or where it comes from [...]

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The Company:

* John Mauser aka The Director, head of the Logistic and Briefing division. Most of his looks and etnicity is left vague, open for intepretation and the readers imagination.

* 5 Scientists working in the Development division;

* Maria Falcon, Age 27 (Ethan's crush and the girl on his poster in his home. 3 years older than Ethan), birthday May 3rd. Orientation: Bi-sexual? White Female. Likes to dress as risky and sexual as possible, often times ignoring company protocols and easily getting away with it. Usually just wears a sports bra under her open lab coat and a jeans-shorts that's almost too short for practical use. She has created a device that allows her to change clothing at the will of her imagination, and even uses this ability when Natalie asks her if it's okay to dress like that at work [...] Only has a few lines whenever she needs them. Long blond hair down to her hip, clear blue eyes. Height: 1.75 meters.

* Alice Wakizashi, age 22. Asian Female. Orientation: Lesbian. Dorky, nerdy but cute and down to earth. Always wears her lab uniform that completely covers her "little" body, almost being too big for her. Super energic girl with hightech glasses, always happy and always smiling. She wears them not to see better but to see beyond what the normal eye can see. It's part of her mainline creations. She's very vague on what they can see, but it's hinted at that she can see through and under stuff, which Ethan gets curious about and is about to ask her if she can see under people's clothes before Lucy promtly smacks him in the back of the head before he can finish his sentence. Short pink hair. Likes to hype up her creations and make sound effects to describe them while jumping up and down in excitement, goes into very lengthy details which makes the Director cough, asking her to keep it as short and tidy as possible. Height: 1.56 Meters.

* Peter Dragunov, age 30. Orientation: Gay. White Male, tall and slim. The realist. Always keeps his looks the best he can, don't like people touching him or messing with his attire. Wears a sharp dark green expensive suit. Dark slicked back hair down to his shoulders, clean shaved, wears glasses for real. Makes very little pomp and glamor out of his introductions to his gadgets. Briefly tells them how they are made and what they do. Always has a toothpick in his month whenever he can't have a sigarette due to company rules. Height: 2.05 Meters.

* Daniel Yuchang, age 42. Asian Male, muscular but slim. The supervisor. Short brown spikey hair, a full beard but it's trimmed down to the minimum, always looking like a 3 days beard. Has the looks but he doesn't really care what other people thinks about him so he doesn't bother doing too much with it, to such a degree that the females always asks him to adjust the tiny details which he just laughs off. He has a black leather jacket that he literally never takes off. The only important thing is his looks and his hair. He too has artificial eye replacements after one of his experiments went wrong. They do not stand out like Blair's however. Head of the science team. Always have the final say whether something get's green lighted or not, he's the one that reports to John whenever they have something new in the works to show or to discuss further. Famous for making the "Nuclear Bomb Bullet" that is thin as a normal bullet but can blow up an entire building once it hits something. Height: 1.90 Meters.

* Michael Vijaya, age 58. White Male. Grey hair, cleaned shaved. Despite the odd last name, he's not a decendant of Asian culture. More explained below. The retired supervisor, famous for inventing the elemental weapons and co-founder of the entire organisation. Packs a lot of mucles for his age and doesn't look a day past 50. Mid-long hair that goes past his eyes and ears but he's using products to make it look really fuzzy and slides it carefully past his right eye towards his right ear. Whenever he gets exited and starts jumping in on an explaination, he always has to correct his hair so that it doesn't fall into his eyes, to which John asks him to get a haircut, lol. He's a bit too much on the humorous side and likes to joke around a bit too much, jokes that doesn't always reach out and are understood by the others or that simply goes by unheard. He has a great smile and he always gives a thumb's up if he sees or hears something he likes or approves of. He always wanted to be part of the inventing phase so he let the other co-founder run things from the top with organisating and dealing with the financial aspects while he had final say in productional matters. Once took Daniel under his wings and trained him up as his protégé. As he approached retirement he stepped aside and let Daniel take his place, only working as an adviser now really. Him, Daniel and John goes way back. Only comes in for certain mission. He's the one that explains the whole time/space jump to alternative universe towards the end. His real last name is not actually Vijaya but he changed it after hearing about a famous bow of the old. His real last name is actually unknow to the public. Natalie asks about this because she doesn't know where that family name originates from. Subtle hint here that all last names are based on weaponry in this new era. The other co-founder is publically know but does not get mentioned by name here. Height: 1.87 Meters.

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* Plot:

* Main Story; Assassination target escapes twice through "time/space" portals before getting caught in the final act.*

* Story starts in the future, then goes back to present times before finally being in medieval times. For each period, the planning process to do the assassination takes longer and is harder to make because of available equipments and tools at disposal - they can't take whatever they want through time/space.

* First time Ethan is about to pull the trigger but the target escapes through "mysterious" means, like vanishing in thin air. They follow him backwards in time.

* The second time they have to fight themselves into position just to get a chance at making a shot, facing numberous obstacles along the way before finally making it to the location but alas, being too late once more.

* Third time they face the target down eventually after spending months in the past figuring things out, and in the end it all comes down to having to fight head to head with swords. Then afterwards they have to make a get-away being chased by royal guards as they try to get away.

* The villain starts out as a nobody but get's more "important" and powerful for each time they have to go back in time, making him harder to reach and more heavily secured. In the present times he's a President but in ancient times he's an Emperor.

* The first era hit attempt only lasts for a day, the present time hit attempt takes one week before going down, while the ancient time hit takes 6 months to pull off.

* Time Frame:

- The Future: Where; New Harmony, The Beginning aka Earth 3. Time; 2575. Target; Seperatist Scientist only named "Gabriel". He's stolen a device that allows him to "bend space," or so the intel tells. Only the higher ups really knows what it can do as explained in the end. It turns out to be much more than that. The characters have elemental weaponry.

- The Present: Where; Denmark, Earth. Time; 2050. Target; The Danish President (Lars Jensen). Conquror of Europe.

- The Past: Where; China, Earth. Time; 220 AD. Target; Emperor Cao Cao.

* The worlds in the timeperiods;

* The futuristic world has a lot of advanced technology that allows the Assassins to do the impossible...

* Anti-Gravity Boots; For instance they are equipped with anti-gravital boots that allow them, when turned on, to climb the air at free will, even giving them short bursts of speed if needed. The three settings/modes are;

* Float - Allows the user to float up high, silently and slow like a ballon. Either to climb a high building, a mountain or something else. The only safe way to exit this is to grab onto something as they turn the function off or to change the option into "Climb Mode"

* Climb - Allows the user to walk up or down through the air like they were walking on stairs. They can also walk forward or in any direction they please. They just have to make sure they are walking upright. Getting turned upside down for too long is not recommended.

* Burst - Allows the user to shoot bursts of blue colored air out of the shoes' heels or from under them in order to cover ground more quickly or to leap across gaps or into the air while still remaining perfectly balanced.

* It is said that only the best assassins knows how to combind these options and uttilize them to their fullest potential for both speed and acrobatic manoeuvers, making them almost unseen by the naked eye. Although you can't use all of the modes at once, you can quickly swap between them and use them in succession within split seconds. If one gets really creative and manages to keep their balance while doing so, they can jump forward, halt mid-air and do a backwards sommerassult only to land behind a chasing enemy for an opening, for instance.

* Invunerable Protective invicible film; When activated the assassins are cloacked in an invisible protective film that protects them against all rates of fire. It is only visible when fired upon and it's as if they are walking around without armor. The Film comes out through their chest-piece and radiates about half a meter from their body. If their chest piece somehow gets damaged, their protection might cease to protect them. The film only protects against firearm, elemental and explosive damage, so if they get reckless and run into a building wall or fall from a high place, they can still get injured or destroy their equippment. It also covers them from under their feet, removing all weakpoints from things like mines, etc. Only things that's in a person's hand or feet can enter at will, as well as whatever the person walks into of objects that are "safe". The protective film has it's own AI system that helps determinds such differences. They don't need to adjust settings to switch between offense and defence, it's an allround thing designed perfectly for this purpose. They only have to be carefull not to reach any of their bodyparts outside the shield because that is the only time they are open for such damage.

* Revitalizing pills; If by some means the assassins get injured or killed, they can revitalize themselves or even get brough back to life by this life-essence capturing pills. They are said to reactivate and rejuvanate the brain and repair all wounds and cells, practically making them invincible. They still age though but there are means to halt, turn back or extend this process as well. Like they can be 50 in human years but their body has only aged 30 years for instance. What the pills are made off is unclear, but speculation are said to be from a magic gem of the old with such healing abilities. It becomes an important element in the last act. The villain's true goal.

* They are unable to bring any of these equippements nor previous mentioned weaponry and bombs to the ancient past, only being able to bring their backup sidearm that only has one magazine and that are basically standard metallic pistols, as well as a few other things. It's speculated that they are only able to bring stuff that existed in the time period they go to, or rather the compond of it, for instance metall, etc. That is why the Rival team doesn't go back any further and lables it as too dangerous as their elemental weaponry would be rendered useless there and they would be "without means" to complete the job.

* In the future they have everything at their disposals.

* In the present they have everything except the Anti-Gravity Boots, the Protective Film and the Revitalizing pills.

* In the Ancient Past they only get to bring their sidearm and nothing else. Roy still got the tracker but it doesn't work.

* The characters has to scramble about in order to find suitable weaponry of the timeperiod they find themselves in once their ammo starts to run out or their weapons are lost or destroyed in battle, making it harder for them to succeed the further they go back and more basic it gets. The "Will" of the assassin and their metal strength is tested to the fullest.

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:lok::lok::lok:
 

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Well starting from the beginning, nor pun intended, I like the first person perspective when providing the exposition. It's really like a prologue so I'm just going to call it that to keep this simple. Prologues can be a bit dry/boring even when necessary because its informative, or something outside the story trying to set things up. SO changing that to a first person writing format helps add personality to make the information not so "informative" if you know what I mean. One question is um...lol they screwed up another earth! I know this is a fiction book but I couldn't help but feel that the earth was intact during 2019. So like damn that time span. Its your story, but I feel like if you just upped the year to 3000 ish most readers won't be so conflicted. Or maybe that's just me overthinking things. MAYBE your humans in this story are just that bad of a race collectively. They need to get their ish together.

The prologue helps get you introduced to the main character and get a taste of his personality. This is enhanced by the next paragraph and he's pretty likeable I must say. Its early in the story and they feel pretty relatable. Loved the bit about the picture. Gets the reader asking questions and although you're pretty certain you won't get this information right away you keep reading in hopes of figuring out this tangent mystery. Like I said its setting up some interaction and character arcs...is that what you call it? IDK but you know what I mean.

Next you introduce the scoreboard. We all love our rankings and statistics so its a cool thing to add in. Its also a good fix to add in that being at the top of the scoreboard does not necessarily equate to being the best. It imo also gives insight to Ethans bad assery. Dude doesn't care about the scoreboard yet he is 7th. In the meantime we know its not a particularly easy feat because his other two partners have yet to crack the top 10 besides Roy who seems like a talented person who is working hard. 5 might be his limit whereas Ethan could probably crack 3-5 if he really tried. Just my opinion at this point.

Are Lucy and Ethan a thing? xD I feel tension and its not the angry kind. Huehue...anyway there was even more tension in the meeting. What was that hole "I know who Nat is" about. It was so unbelievably awkward. JUsr found out Roy is a lot older than him but I still stand by Ethan being better than him!

OKAY so read the notes and some of my questions were answered or verified. So yeah Lucy has the hots for Ethan. I feel for her. Ethan needs to make up his mind. A cool cast of characters and you already have your enemy plotted out so constructing the story shouldn't be too hard. I didn't make this note above but you answered my question about the year an everything toward the end of the piece. But yeah some good notes and organization on the characters and structure of this world. This is pretty interesting indeed. Wouldn't mind reading this at all.
 
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Michael92

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Well starting from the beginning, nor pun intended, I like the first person perspective when providing the exposition. It's really like a prologue so I'm just going to call it that to keep this simple. Prologues can be a bit dry/boring even when necessary because its informative, or something outside the story trying to set things up. SO changing that to a first person writing format helps add personality to make the information not so "informative" if you know what I mean. One question is um...lol they screwed up another earth! I know this is a fiction book but I couldn't help but feel that the earth was intact during 2019. So like damn that time span. Its your story, but I feel like if you just upped the year to 3000 ish most readers won't be so conflicted. Or maybe that's just me overthinking things. MAYBE your humans in this story are just that bad of a race collectively. They need to get their ish together.

The prologue helps get you introduced to the main character and get a taste of his personality. This is enhanced by the next paragraph and he's pretty likeable I must say. Its early in the story and they feel pretty relatable. Loved the bit about the picture. Gets the reader asking questions and although you're pretty certain you won't get this information right away you keep reading in hopes of figuring out this tangent mystery. Like I said its setting up some interaction and character arcs...is that what you call it? IDK but you know what I mean.

Next you introduce the scoreboard. We all love our rankings and statistics so its a cool thing to add in. Its also a good fix to add in that being at the top of the scoreboard does not necessarily equate to being the best. It imo also gives insight to Ethans bad assery. Dude doesn't care about the scoreboard yet he is 7th. In the meantime we know its not a particularly easy feat because his other two partners have yet to crack the top 10 besides Roy who seems like a talented person who is working hard. 5 might be his limit whereas Ethan could probably crack 3-5 if he really tried. Just my opinion at this point.

Are Lucy and Ethan a thing? xD I feel tension and its not the angry kind. Huehue...anyway there was even more tension in the meeting. What was that hole "I know who Nat is" about. It was so unbelievably awkward. JUsr found out Roy is a lot older than him but I still stand by Ethan being better than him!

OKAY so read the notes and some of my questions were answered or verified. So yeah Lucy has the hots for Ethan. I feel for her. Ethan needs to make up his mind. A cool cast of characters and you already have your enemy plotted out so constructing the story shouldn't be too hard. I didn't make this note above but you answered my question about the year an everything toward the end of the piece. But yeah some good notes and organization on the characters and structure of this world. This is pretty interesting indeed. Wouldn't mind reading this at all.
Haha good no pun indeed :sigar::ROFLMAO: Imma try to make this short, but I usually have a lot of things to say when someone leaves lengthy reviews, haha. You know that by now I guess ;P

Well like you can already tell, most of this was mashed/abriged to fit the format of the contest, but I accept all questions for sure lol. Some of the inspiration I drew on when writing this, amongst a lot of others, is the Halo franchise which also takes place in the year 2500-2600 era but at least there, Earth is still intact lol, or at least it was by the last game I played which was Halo 4 (Halo 6 comes next year). Dunno if you are familiar with that franchise, but in that universe a lot has happened in those 500 years into the future. Colonization of plenty of other planets, wars with aliens, alliance with aliens, etc. The Fall of Reach in particular and that game (Halo Reach), as well as the backstory of how Harvest fell (from Halo Wars amongst others) are basically inspiration as to how they are living on Earth 3 in my story. The difference is that in the Halo universe the planets mostly gets taken over, not destroyed, lol. In my story though, despite the fact that I haven't laid out the details at all beyond this prologue so to speak, I'm assuming that OUR Earth gets destroyed between 2050-2100 due to human nuclear war but that space travel already is a thing and that a new planet has been found since our Earth is "unliveable." Not pulverized like in Star Wars, lol, but life can't be substained there so we have to move. Then I picture space travling widening and that by year 2300-2350, which is 225-275 years before Ethan's story begins, most of mankind leaves for other planets either because Earth 2 gets too polluted due to overpopulization (might be smaller than our Earth and all its resources are spent) or once more destroyed by either internal or externial war from alien races. I didn't pan out the details for this backstory like i just said, so I don't really have that set in stone yet to be honest xD But by book 5 and possibly sooner, there will be space travel to other planets, etc for sure. Futuristic stories tends to be too futuristic compared to when things actually are invented (Back to the Future, 2001 A Space Odyssey, etc), but I feel with 500 years it's pretty safe, lol. I didn't want to move it too far ahead to be honest.

Funny thing is that the very next scene where this piece cuts off sorts of introduces the rest of the main characters except for Blair (mentioned in the notes), and a looot of stuff happens in that scene, stuff I actually wanted to write for the contest but dropped due to word count already having reached 2k, lol. Who the girl hanging on Ethan's wall is actually revealed here, but alas, lol. Not even sure if I left that bit in the notes here or if I removed it before release to keep it a secret xP

Yeah the Scoreboard... Looking at it I'm actually amazed at how much information and ideas that I created and penned down, that I got into this small piece (considering I penned down over 30k words worth of notes), stuff I probably wouldn't even have mentioned yet if I didn't think it was cool enough not to let the other readers and voters know about prematurely, lol. If you read the notes, you will already know who's ranked number 1 I guess, haha. It still irks me that I didn't get to do the next scene because it would have introduced so much more as the notes describes, that's why I threw in notes here to sort of give it a "this is what it can/will be" vibe without actually having to write it yet. Not being able to write Maria and Blair into my piece is probably the biggest regret since they offer so much to the table, but I had to stop somewhere, and I had to start somewhere. Starting from the beginning seemed the most natural despite the fact that I penned down actual scenes for a lot of things to comes, so it's not all notes per say.

Also one thing to add, being top of the Scoreboard makes you the best, the most lethal assassin, but that alone doesn't earn you actual ranks in the firm so you can be low ranked despite this (I drew a lot of different inspiration for this, but a good comparison is how let's say Naruto still remains a Genin but is the strongest around before he becomes Hokage. Like Rank comes with age and experience, while the scoreboard makes you the MVP sort of lol). I'm sure you already got that, but had to make sure, haha.

Well that scene was a bit awkward for sure xD You can call this a case of "I wanted to get information out to the readers asap" instead of letting it come naturally at a later point (again due to making it into the contest). This scene will most certainly be rewritten if I ever get around to it for sure. Move a lot of information of when they joined, how long they served, etc until a later point, lol. But from an in-universe point of view, I like to think of it as a case of The Director not knowing Roy personally, and thereby assuming nobody knows who the new recruit Natalie is, haha.

As for Lucy and Ethan, if you read the notes, particularly about the love triangle bit:

"Love dilemma:

Blair -> Ethan
Lucy -> Ethan
Blair -> Lucy
Ethan -> Maria
Maria -> Ethan?
Ethan -> Lucy?"

You can understand that it's exeptionally complicated (and this is over the course of 4 books and a prequel, and a lot of back and forth, especially with Blair being his ex and all). I did talk a lot about my future plans while being cryptic as to what my piece would entail in the Friendbase server before the first contest, before you joined in, even topics of polyamorous relationships, etc. Too bad you missed it xD

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Aah, I see. Well, glad you enjoyed it then =D I would love to show all my notes but I don't want everyone here to see them, lmfao, maybe I'll upload some docs too into our chat with Pete like you two have, haha. This is after all only a small crack at the notes I've actually penned down ;D Hopefully this wasn't too long of a read either xP

Edit: Oh and before I forget, I actually ended up coming up with the Kill count for this release alone, as that wasn't something that was originally in my notes. Not that the Scoreboard is based on the kills alone, but it gives you a better overall idea of one of the deciding factors.
 
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