Alpha Project II: Axis

Chapter Three: Assignment

"And who do you represent?" Lara asked, cautiously entering the room.

"I represent The Alpha Project. I am here to give Axis Squad it's first mission."

Lucia and Riku rushed into the room.

"If you represent that, then why did you try to kill us?" Cole asked, bitterly.

"And why did you kill all of those civilians?" Lara asked, clenching her hand in a fist.

"Our organization was not responsible for those deaths," the voice said, quickly.

"And the biometaloids were simply there to test your personal skills,"

Cole laughed, loudly.

"A kitten could have beaten those pathetic things," he laughed. Riku looked at his feet. He didn't want to agree with this psychopath, but he did here.

"The rocket was simply meant to test how you would react. If you had fled, the rocket would have changed course and explode where it could not do any damage,"

"You mentioned a mission," stated Lucia. "I want to know more about it,"

"Very good," the voice responded.

"There is an infected teenager in Romania. Our association approached him about join or group, as we did with you six. Unlike you, however, he refused, rather violently."

"And I guess he wasn't in a situation where you could force him to join," Cole cut in.

"There is a private jet waiting on the roof. The sixth member, who you five abandoned, is there. He has been briefed on what you are tasked with. He will explain the details, then you shall be transported to Transylvania. Good luck." on that, the loudspeaker exploded. Cole growled.

"I still plan on killing him," he turned around and walked out. Lucia shrugged and followed him.

"Well, I guess we'd better go t..." Lara began to say, but the other two had disappeared.

"I guess I'd better go," she said, as she began to make her way to the roof.

Leo sat with his feet up, looked towards the entrance of the jet. The jet was, ironically, jet black. It wasn't the largest jet he had ever been in, but it was most likely the most expensive. Considering that it was being piloted by a hologram was only part of it. He wondered how the much the stealth field costed. He had seen it first hand, or more accurately, not seen it first hand. He was humming the song Get Lucky to himself, looking down at the scene of the plane crash. Almost all of the bodies had been taken away. A team had just arrived to begin cleaning the debris and they cleared quite a bit of debris. Suddenly, his vision was blocked by a wall of pure darkness. He didn't seem surprised and looked around, attempting to see if Lucia was nearby, playing a trick on him. About the time he gave up looking, the side of the wall opened, revealing three white steps, which lead into a very welcoming room.

"Enter, Agent Ganci." A female voice said. He shrugged.

"What's the worst that could happen," he said to himself, before walking aboard. The door closed behind him, and he could feel himself, along with the room, moving. He looked at around the room he was in. The floor was a simple, red carpet, with the walls matching that color. He immediately knew he was in a private jet. To his right was two tables on each side of the room, each next to a small window. Each table had two couches facing it. They looked soft enough to fall asleep on. They also looked big enough to support three people a couch.

"I guess this is our new headquarters," he said, aloud. He walked to the table at the far right side of the jet and sat down on the couch, facing the door. As he got comfortable, he felt the jet begin moving. Suddenly, a holographic woman appeared next to the table he was at.

"Greetings, Agent Ganci, may I take your order?" she said.

"Excuse me?" Leo said, sitting straight up.

"Is there anything you would like to drink?" she asked.

"Umm," he thought for a moment, looking at the holograph. The woman looked like dozens of the stewardesses he had seen before, like a culmination of all the ones he had seen, yet was somehow prettier than all of them at the same time. She glowed shade of green, similar to how he had seen holographs in movies.

"Do you have Cola?" he asked. The hologram nodded and left the room. She returned a second later with a tall glass of soda. She placed it on the table in front of him. Next to it, she placed a vanilla colored file. She smiled at him, then left the room. Leo stared at the glass for a moment, before cautiously taking a sip. He then opened the file and looked at it's contents.

"Operation: Wooden Stake." he read, aloud. "Interesting..."

He lost himself in the mission briefing. He read the briefing in his head, from beginning to end. He got through it fairly quickly and put it down on the table. When he looked up, he say Riku sitting across from him. Leo nearly jumped out of his seat.

"Oh, hey Riku," he said, once he regained his composure.

"Where is everyone else?"

"Kira is right next to you," he said. Leo quickly looked to his right and saw the puppeteer sitting next to him, gazing out the window. He sighed, wanting to move away, but didn't want to seem impolite.

"And the others are coming."

"We're here," Cole's voice corrected as he entered, followed by Lara and Lucia. Lucia climbed over Leo and sat between him and Kira, which Leo was not going to complain about. Riku moved over to the end so Lara and Cole could sit. Lara sat next to him, but Cole sat on the opposite side of jet, in the corner. Kira looked at him, almost wanting to move next to him. Leo looked back the the file.

"What's the mission?" Cole growled from his corner. Leo cleared this throat and began recounting the file from the start.

"So, apparently this team was supposed to consist of eight teens, as opposed to the six here now. In addition to us, there organizers of this project attempted to recruit one infected teen from Bulgaria and one from Romania, to complete the entire "axis" theme they had. Well, the teen from Bulgaria,"

"THE MISSION," Cole growled. Leo looked at him, sighed, and skipped forward.

"So the Bulgarian recruit accepted peacefully, but was found murdered. The assailant is still unknown. The Romanian recruit, however, declined the offer. Rather violent, actually."

Riku cut in.

"Wait, I thought we weren't allowed to refuse."

"We aren't." Lucia said. Leo continued

"It is believed that this guy murdered the Bulgarian. In addition to the fact that he is incredibly powerful, the company responsible for our little group has marked him as too dangerous to let live. Its our job to go to Romania and take him out."

With interest, Cole got closer to the table.

"And who is this guy, exactly?"

"The name they found him under was Marketh Free, but he apparently goes by Vlad the Thirteenth. It's a family name."

Lara's eyes widened. "So we're dealing with a vampire?" she asked, slightly shaken.

"He's not a vampire, though he can manipulate blood and is superhumanly strong and fast."

Silence filled the room for a moment. A chill spread through the room, mainly affecting Lara.

"He apparently has another power, but whatever it is, it has not yet been discovered."

More silence. The group either had nothing to say or, in Lara's case, was too busy keeping herself calm to ask anything.

"So, lets go to Romania." Leo said after a minute of silence. No one objected. No one was allowed to.