Patient Zero [AlexieD & Lowfoam]

Started by AlexieD, April 28, 2017, 10:03:48 AM

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AlexieD

Dex didn't know he was getting summoned to the Generals office for a serious job, He thought maybe there'd been more word on his family and they were finally going to cut him loose for the first time in months from the paperwork and mind-numbing office work they'd had the crack-shot sniper doing. His heels clicked on the sterile smooth metal flooring of the underground base as he made his way down the long winding corridor towards his goal.

He'd only been there a couple of times, originally when he'd been 'recruited' and stuffed in the training box for only god knew how long. Since he hadn't been able to see the sun or even a calendar for that thought he hadn't been able to track the days they'd had him strapped to the chair as they tried to indoctrinate him, and succeeded in doing, into working for them and doing as they wished.

To tell the truth, Garcia (Code name: Dex) had thought this entire time he'd been a desk jockey but in reality he had been in cold storage and had only been thawed out hours prior by the organisation known as Raven. They'd implanted the idea in his head that for the last year he had been riding the desks in the training centre turning newbies over like he'd always wanted before everything happened.

As he came to a halt at the door he sucked in a deep breath and ran his long thin fingers through his salt and pepper coloured hair. It was getting close to the point where he'd have to dye it black again. Flecks of silver tarnished the dark locks that sat atop his head. The Mexican-American raised a hand and attempted to knock on the door as it slid open with a hiss.

"Th'least you coul' do is let me do the polite thing" Dex muttered in a soft voice knowing full well she'd hear him and waited to be welcomed in for fear of her wrath. The General, his handler, was always a touchy one. She never really made things clear until she spoke words, most people could be read with a good stern look. This one was impossible. She was as stony as a gargoyle that decorated the tops of haunted houses (Which he theorized she also lived in). "No time for formalities and your games of grab ass" The woman said as she turned the chair to face the door. "We have an emergency assignment that only you and your expert...Skills can do" Her fingers steepeled as her steely blue eyes narrowed at the man as he stepped over the threshold and the door hissed closed behind him.

Dex glanced around the office, it was always dimly lit and very bland. Where most people would tarnish the walls with their achievements 'The General' as she was only known to him as always kept her walls clear. "My skills? And really? Grab ass, I thought our interactions were a little more meaningful? I'm hurt... But really, You have me riding a desk for a year and only NOW do you give me an assignment? Tch, What could be so important?" He said gasping softly and moving towards her desk his arms crossed over his chest expecting her to throw a manifest at him.

Her steepled fingers cracked as she flexed them quickly into a fist. "We need you to retrieve something for us, But we... can't find it" She admitted with a sigh. The General wasn't one to show emotion but for once in her life she looked a little scared. "What I am about to tell you is Top secret... Take a seat, Dex. We have much to discuss" . Garcia sighed softly and took the seat she had motioned towards.

"Tell me, Dex. How much do you know about Patient Zero?"

Lowfoam

#1
The General stared blankly at Dex, not at all enjoying his attitude. He'd always been very flippant, despite Raven's best attempts at emotional and mental conditioning. In the back of her mind, she idly wondered if Hayes was onto something with his sect, but she roughly brushed those thoughts aside. No. Hayes had paid a steep price for what he'd done. He lived a cursed life, now, if one could even call it a life. She certainly didn't seem to think so.

"I chose you for this job because you're the best. Don't prove me wrong. You showed promise all those years ago, and I'm certain you'll show the same promise again." She rifled through the pile on her desk and produced a thick, black, ominous pile. She slid it over to him, taking the liberty to open it and display the bulk of the pile.

"You don't remember this - we made sure to have you forget as thoroughly as possible. But thirteen years ago, we needed a test subject. You were new to Raven, so we decided to see if you'd hold your own against a new experimental program. Thirteen years ago, we tasked you to fight against a new prototype weapon. Your battleground was an open field, a sunny day. . . and a child."





"General. Pleasure to see you." Hayes said. Gabriel Hayes was an imposing man, not necessarily in size or bulk, but certainly with the aura he projected. He went to the gym, that much was obvious, and he was an average height for a man, but he was. . . terrifying. His eyes were flat and cold, his brown hair close-cropped and tightly styled. He bore an assortment of scars, some clean, some jagged, one even framing his left eye.

The General shook his hand in turn, though she did a good job at disguising the fact that she wanted to shudder. Hayes looked normal on the outside, but she knew better. He was a fucked up individual.

And the GOD project was equally as disgusting.

"And I see you brought our opponent. Pleasure to meet you, Dex." Hayes continued, reaching out to shake Garcia's hand. Hayes was immaculate. He did his homework. He probably knew Garcia's social security number and the routing number of all of his private bank accounts. Being a high ranking official in Raven had its perks. But being Hayes. . . that carried other benefits. Hayes smiled, but it lacked any true emotion, and gestured for him to take his place in the field.

"The test is simple. Whoever is incapacitated first loses. Quite simple. I'll give you five minutes to prepare yourself or any equipment you might need." Hayes walked off, leaving the General and Dex to talk with each other, or for Dex to begin preparing. After five minutes had expired, Hayes grinned as a transport truck wheeled in, bringing Dex's opponent.

"This is Zero." Hayes said, opening the door.

A girl walked out. Blonde hair was tied up and done in a perfect bun behind her head. Blue eyes stared out at the world, hollow and empty. Emotionless - almost like Hayes. She was dressed in fatigues, sparse bits of combat armor covering up her body. It hardly looked more than like protective sports gear, if one were being honest. Hayes placed a hand on Zero's shoulder and smiled.

"Are you ready?" He asked, looking to Garcia.
These are links I think you might find interesting:
  My On || Off Thread
  My One x One Thread

I wish that someway, somehow
That I could save every one of us
But the truth is that I'm only one girl.

AlexieD

#2
As the folder was shoved towards him Dex tried to remember 13 years ago. But there was nothing, a void. Something he had never thought to question. But then again who remembered things like that. It was probably just another job they had him do, track someone down and get their co-ordinates to the higher ups so they could do whatever they did with them. He always wondered if it was plain and simple assassination? or if it was more of infiltration and disabling of certain projects that were counter productive to the world? He'd always been apart of the organisation from what he could remember. They'd recruited him at a young age in hopes to be able to use what he'd learned from his father before he mysteriously disappeared. (Probably because of Raven, But he didn't tend to look too much into it]

"Thirteen year'sah go? I don't even remember what I 'ad for breakfast, Gen--erale" He said raising an eyebrow and opening the folder but all it contained was a single word on a blank Raven letterhead.

'Steele'

and everything came rushing back.

------

Garcia had been dragged to his first battle between the divisions; At least that is what he had been told they were. Who knew if they were sanctioned or if it was just the higher up waving their proverbial dicks at one another. All he knew was he'd finally been handed back his gun for preparation of the small 'game' they had planned for him. He'd been training under the company for a good handful of years. Granted most of it had been behavioral conditioning to weed out the cocky attitude he had gotten from his mothers side of the family. The prized sniper sat perched on his shoulder via it's fraying strap held together by spare scraps of leather he had managed to cobble together here and there. He stood in a military 'at ease' stance, his arms crossed behind his back as he awaited his orders as the two handlers conversed.

When the truck rolled in he wondered if what he was up against was something that rivaled those monster movies he had heard talks of that were making the rounds in Hollywood. But when a small pipsqueak of a girl pilled off the truck and in fatigues and armor he wondered if it was a joke or another one of those conditioning tests the higher ups liked to spring on him time to time to make sure they maintained a grip on his mind. For the first time since arriving at the site the Half-Mexican piped up and said something to his handler.

"Chu've gotta be kiddin' me, mang" He said throwing a finger at the small dead eyed girl "Chu' want me to fite a little gurl?" Dex said with a scoff to his voice "What, Scared of a little girl Hernandez?" The General said not breaking eye contact with the man her lip sneering into a smile. She had heard rumors of Hayes' new experiment but she had wanted to see it in action for herself. So why not scope out what he'd been up to with a little 'friendly' competition. "No one said there'd be kids... I ain't scared... You know it takes more than'ah pre-pubescent girl t'get me shakin' in my boots, Jefe" Dex said shaking his head as he contemplated turning down the assignment but he knew he'd be in for it if he didn't go along with it. "But if'ts what ya what... well... Ah'll use th' trancs" the man reached into a pouch around his waist and readied his bullets for the battle. He didn't know what monster Raven had him against but it was going to be some kind of adventure.

"Ya best not be expectin' me to slaughter a child... I told ya, I don't kill... 'specially not kids best ya gon' get is a sleepy pre-teen" He said tensing his jaw and narrowing his eyes at his Handler. To Dex everyone that was younger than him was classed as a 'Kid' or 'Child' even if it was just a year or six months it didn't matter at all.

Lowfoam

Hayes smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. Hayes was. . . a little terrifying to the casual person. Like a wolf waiting to rip a little rabbit to shreds. The hand that was on Zero's shoulder squeezed her a little. A calculated excitement was there, like he knew the outcome but wanted to see the end result. Zero said nothing, did nothing - she was little more than a robot, dead eyes staring at Garcia with no emotion behind them.

"Well, then, that's a shame, soldier. She'll have no qualms with stabbing a knife into your trachea." Hayes continued, patting Zero's shoulder. "Let's get started. You have five minutes to incapacitate each other. No lethal force is authorized, but I strongly recommend you come at your opponent like you mean to kill them."

Zero took that as her unwritten cue that it was acceptable to walk away from Hayes. Hayes didn't bother moving for cover - he wasn't going to. He knew Zero would never allow anything to strike him or come even remotely close to hurting him. He was confident that any byproduct from their fight would be contained. The consequences would be far too dire if she was anything less than perfect.

It was a remarkably mundane day. The sun was out, the temperature was fair, there was only a light breeze to help dispel any kind of heat. Zero stood approximately twenty or so feet away from Garcia, blue eyes examining him, taking him in.

Satisfied, she began to walk forward. No rush. No hurry. Just walking. Every second that passed brought her another step closer to him.

She wanted to gauge his first reaction, test the waters. Find out what, exactly, he'd do.
These are links I think you might find interesting:
  My On || Off Thread
  My One x One Thread

I wish that someway, somehow
That I could save every one of us
But the truth is that I'm only one girl.

AlexieD

#4
Garcia's nerves were a little rustled at the fact he was being put up against someone he was expecting to be younger than he thought. But it didn't take the seasoned hunter too long before he was just as steeley eyed as the opponent he was to incapacitate. It wouldn't be too hard, She looked small and waife like. One shot from a tranq dart and she would be fast asleep dreaming of rainbows and lollipops (Because he totally believed that is what young girls thought of). But there was a look in Hayes eyes that should have signalled there was more than what he was seeing right now. But Dex, Dex was cocky at this age. Not too much but just enough to under-estimate the girl.

"Chu best 'ave some kind of bet on this, General" Dex said disengaging his sniper and making sure that every last deadly bullet was out of it's chambers. "S'gon be over quicker than you can say... How do you americans put it? Jack Robinson" he said with a cheeky grin before pulling the leaver back on the side of his gun and trudging off into the brush so he could set up his vantage. Being a sniper he relied on range when it came to these sorts of battles. The same way a hand to hand fighter would rely on getting up close to their victim.

He didn't know exactly how it would go down with so much unknown about his opponent but that was half the fun, tracking and learning their movements. What sort of freaky powers did this 'Zero' have? And why was she so young? Garcia had been put up against other snipers before and had always bested them. After a few moments the sniper found a decent spot to set up shop, kneeling down he set up the small tripod for his gun and got comfortable behind the scope.

Blinking a couple of times his eyes flickering to a dark colour as he stared down the scope for the first time since his modifications through gene splicing and therapy had been applied to his mortal frame. Raven had insisted that he get mods on the company dime but being the proud Hunter he was thought it cheating if he got anything that made his father's gun completely redundant. So going with the infrared vision instead of some kind of ability to see far distances or an auto aim function. He currently wanted to just be able to rely on his reflexes and instincts.

A little augment here never hurt anyone.

His eyes flicked around looking for the small waif they had turned on him. But there was no sign of her. Which was odd as every person and thing gave off an infrared  hell even a heat signature. But right now he was coming up with nothing. Was she wearing some kind of lead jacket? Did they know of his abilities and had been able to counter them? His hands gripped the gnarled stock of his gun trying to calm his nerves as they started to fray.

Lowfoam

Hayes dismissed Zero with the wave of his hand. She saw it out of the periphery of her vision and nodded in understanding. And it was on. She trekked her way into the forest, though it was silly to assume they didn't have eyes and ears everywhere. Roughly a two mile stretch of greenery had been wired up with cameras and speakers and all kinds of listening devices. Hayes and Garcia's top shirt were watching from the safety of the clearing.

And Zero was alone with her thoughts again.

. . or lack of them.

It was all drive, orders, and mission objectives.

Current objective: track down Garcia.

Secondary objective: do so without detection.

For a while it was just her and the forest. Zero moved swiftly and with purpose, but she was careful and made sure not to make too much sound. Eventually she stopped, sensing and feeling his presence in a way that most people couldn't. Her senses were heightened, sure, but combat had taught her how to refine and sharpen them into something far deadlier. Mixed with everything else. . . it made her a force to be reckoned with.

She bent down and swiftly grabbed a stick, bending it soundlessly, feeling it splintering under her thumb. Inhuman, yes, but Zero was the farthest thing from human. She set it down.

Seven seconds. She moved away from the site.

Seven seconds later it had snapped, cracking through the forest.

Seven seconds later, another snap. Another and another and another.

The sound was a circular source.

But where was she?

The cracking moved closer. Still a circle, but five feet closer. Every time Zero completed a lap, she moved five feet closer.
These are links I think you might find interesting:
  My On || Off Thread
  My One x One Thread

I wish that someway, somehow
That I could save every one of us
But the truth is that I'm only one girl.

AlexieD

The snapping of twigs sent shivers rattling through Dex’s body. Something that shouldn't have been happening, he was usually steely and cold when it came to hunting a target, bullet or tranquiliser it didn't matter. But the fact she was so young and apparently was on his level when it came to power had rattled the not as seasoned as he'd like but soldier nonetheless. He couldn't get the dead look in her eyes off his mind, so much it had started to make him fall apart at the seams. He could feel an anxiety making itself known in the back of his throat in the form of a lump. He knew the tranquilisers he'd loaded into his gun was enough to take down an elephant but the thought of shooting at a child still nagged at him.

But orders were orders.

He had to move or she would get the jump on him and it would all be over and the General would have his guts for garters. (not that he knew she wore them but it was a term all his American colleagues tended to use when referring to the handlers ways of dealing with loss).

He scooped the sniper up into his grips, his hands beginning to sweat as he tried to stealthily move through the undergrowth of the Forest they had been released into. His breath was laboured as he tried to skid under fallen trees in an attempt to find a better vantage point. Something to be able to view the open area and catch even a glimpse of the small girl. He scrambled atop a small rocky outcropping and again blinking his eyes to activate his latent ability.

”¿Dónde has llegado a la pequeña?