Marinette waited in undisturbed silence, wondering what immediate danger she would encounter today. She sat in the familiar white room that she had spent countless hours in over the years. This facility, known as GUARD, was the only place she felt genuinely safe and wasn't constantly looking over her shoulder. GUARD stood for Government, Undercover, Agents, Remade, Division, and Marinette was quite familiar with what they did there, after all, she had spent the past three years alongside them.
The fluorescent beat down on her skin as she started to grow impatient. She sat in front of the plain white table, beating her fingers against the pale grain of the wood like a drum. The rhythmic tapping was the only thing that drowned out the deafening silence of the empty room.
The same white chair, same white walls, same white desk, same white door. It was all a routine. They would come in to give her the assignment and she would go to complete her mission. It wasn't anything new. She had been here for three years and she knew the logistics. Being an undercover spy wasn't easy, but it was the only life she knew. It was lonely, a lot of scars, a lot of pain, but it was her life. This was her second chance, and she wasn't going to blow it.
Suddenly the door on the right of the small room crept open and three familiar faces appeared through the doorway.
The first to immerse through the narrow door was the tall redheaded woman called Tikki. She wore her usual pencil skirt and blouse. Her rich crimson hair just brushed her shoulders as she walked into the room. Her eyes were like two big blueberries that gleamed and she had a few faint freckles that spread across her cheeks.
She looks as stubborn and overbearing as ever, Marinette thought. She and Tikki had a rocky relationship to put it simply but things had been going well between them lately, so Marinette decided to behave and be patient, she wasn't going to risk disturbing the newfound peace the two of them shared.
Trailing behind Tikki was Plagg. The tall, green-eyed man was dressed in a dark trench coat whilst carrying a large tan, yellow file that was tucked tightly beneath his arm. Plagg was tall, very tall, and had broad shoulders. Strong and muscular but a true gentle giant.
He did have a frightening sense to him. Marinette knew there was no immediate threat to her safety from the man, but there was potential danger to whomever may cause him trouble. Luckily, Tikki, Nooroo, and Marinette never caused him any trouble, nor did they have a reason to. After all they were his oldest and dearest friends.
Some saw him as frightening and he did have that look to him. He had piercing eyes that seemed to look straight though you and his black pupils appeared to be an endless void. He was bigger than most people but he was fun to be around, Marinette especially enjoyed his company.
Unlike Plagg, Nooroo didn't pose any type of danger. The only way he would be seen as a threat to GUARD is if his tongue slipped and he revealed one of their secrets. Secrets only he, Tikki, and Plagg know. Secrets that need to be kept buried.
Nooroo was skinny and wearing his usual shiny grey strippin suit and purple tie that complimented his cool toned skin. He had hair as silver as polished iron and bright violet eyes that almost looked unnatural. He appeared somewhat like a child standing next to Plagg and Tikki who were both rather tall. Tikki was still a head shorter than Plagg but Nooroo stood far below his shoulders.
Personally, Marinette took a liking to Plagg but saw Nooroo as more of a colleague than a close friend. But he had saved her life a few times in the past so she couldn't complain. He had a youthful face that made him appear to be in his early twenties instead of mid thirties. Unlike Tikki and Plagg who were field agents, Nooroo spent his time inside GUARD walls and did not have the scars that lingered on the skin after a battle.
After a long time of waiting, Marinette could not hold in her impatience anymore. Things at GUARD had been slow the past couple weeks and she was dying to go back into the field. "What do you have for me?" She asked the tall redheaded woman.
"Agent 1492058," Said Tikki, staring down at a clipboard whilst ignoring her question. She only ever called her by her identification number '1492058', when things were serious, Marinette started to grow worried but kept it hidden under her usual expression. The three figures peered down at her as Tikki rattled off question after question. Their bodies seemed to form a wall, trapping Marinette with her nervousness about the situation, cornering her until there was no means of escape.
"For the past 3 years, you have been serving here at the Government, Undercover, Agents, Remade, Division, program correct?" Tikki asked in such a matter-of-fact tone that took Marinette off guard. It was just so different from her usual gentle but authoritative voice.
"Correct" She answered, suspicious as to why they were asking questions they already knew the answers to.
Tikki clicked open a pen and began marking down her answers. "And is it true that you were subjected to genetic experiments from age 11 to 16 by Akuma?" The redhead questioned.
"Yes." Marinette's suspicions grew with every word out of the woman's mouth.
She honestly wished she could answer 'no' to the last question but there was no ignoring her past. The organization Akuma is a diluted group that will stop at nothing to gain power and is GUARDs sworn enemy. When Marinette was a child, she had been one of their guinea pigs for genetic weaponry. She had been ripped away from her family and had her memories stolen from her.
Part of her wished she could remember her life before Akuma, what were her parents like? Did she have parents? Any siblings? Pets? If Marinette could choose a pet she would want a hamster. Did she have interests? Hobby's? Friends? Questions floated around her mind all day long, hoping somewhere in her mind there was a door with all the answers she needed, all she had to do was find the key and her past would be unlocked. But after years of searching for the nonexistent key, she decided it would be best not to wonder about the what if's. Whatever the past held wasn't her life, not anymore, that life belonged to a little girl she would never know, and frankly she didn't want to know. Whoever that little girl was is gone and in her place is a generally engineered monster. And chances were that whatever her life was will only be a disappointment compared to what she had dreamed her childhood was like, but such dreams were not a reality. Her reality consisted of pain, death, blood, scars, and tears.
Luckily, Tikki and Plagg rescued her from Akuma, saw her potential and founded GUARD. GUARD was a government organization that used Marinette's skills to help bring Akuma to its knees. If Tikki, Plagg, and Nooroo hadn't founded GUARD, she would have probably been put in a laboratory by the government. She would be left in the hands of scientists to be dissected and stitched back together as they attempted to understand the unique girl's anatomy and what Akuma had done to her over her years of experiments and surgeries. Or quite possibly, she would be deemed a threat and thrown into a prison cell. That thought almost made her laugh, there is not a single government cage that could hold her.
"Is it true that these experiments have given you telekinesis? And is it true you can move objects with your mind?" Tikki asked.
"Yes." Marinette had the power to bend any item to her will and defy the laws of gravity.
Yes, she could force a door closed or grab a book from across the room, but she could do so much more than that. She was able to lift a jet with her mind and keep bullets from hitting their target. She was the greatest weapon to ever exist. Akuma had given her an extraordinary ability. But unfortunately, they had granted it to her with the intention to hurt people. In the process of making her they created a monster that was more metal than muscle, more machine than human.
"And you are the only living survivor of these experiments as far as we know?" Tikki asked, shaking Marinette out of her thoughts.
"Yes." She answered.
"Well," The short red headed woman said, she finished writing notes and placing the clipboard off to the side and snapping her fingers. Plagg listened to the command and sat the thick file on the table. "Now that the formalities are out of the way, sorry about that, given the circumstances we needed to go by the book on this one. Take a look at your assignment." She said, nodding towards the thick file.
Marinette opened the messy file, it had pictures and crumpled papers flying out of the folder in all directions. There were countless documents, hundreds of pages lined with computer code, and amongst it all was a picture of a handsome blonde boy.
"I don't understand," Marinette stated. "What is this?"
The three of them darted eyes at each other before they all pulled their chairs out and sat across from her, dismantling the wall that was pinning Marinette down and letting her tense muscles relax a bit.
"Listen Marinette, um," Nooroo said shyly, his regular thin tone was replaced with hoarse and brittle words that caused him to clear his throat several times before continuing. "There's something we haven't told you." His unnaturally pigmented eyes filled with worry as he spoke, and as always, peeled away from her gaze and started darting around the room.
Marinette kept her eyes fixed on the papers she had now sprawled messily across the white table top. "What?" She asked with a growl through clenched teeth. She trusted these people and trust wasn't something Marinette took lightly. You gain Marinette's trust; it means you gain her respect, loyalty, and devotion as well. You break her trust, she'll break you. Simple as that.
"Look, Mari," Plagg said, folding his hands in front of him while calling her by her pet name. Only he ever called her 'Mari', no one else had gained such a privilege. "The day that we found you at Akuma... well let's just say you weren't the only thing we found." He explained.
"What do you mean?" Marinette asked with a blank expression despite how anxious and upset she was. She was a spy, she knew how to hide emotion. It was one of her more lethal qualities.
"We call it 'The Algorithm'," Plagg added in his usual low, gruff voice which always made his words sound serious. Maybe that's why people were intimidated by him, Marinette thought. "When we rescued you from that Akuma facility we came across a room. The place was covered wall to wall with computer screens. All of them were displaying thousands of lines of code." He reached over and picked up a stack of paper with black ink covering the white page with lines of random numbers and letters. "We have hundreds of files covered in code just like this, but the thing is that when we found that room, we were sure of just one thing." He said, allowing his words to trail off before Tikki finished his sentence.
"Akuma is planning something."
"Exactly," Plagg agreed. "We had no idea what, but we had never seen another room like that in any Akuma base. Whatever they were planning must have been important and when we found you, we were certain of it. So, we copied the Algorithm and stored it on a hard drive. We started running the program as soon as possible."
Marinette grinded her teeth and let out a halfhearted sigh. "And why didn't you tell me? I was stuck inside Akuma walls for years, they trained me. Raised me! I know how they think. I could have helped." Marinette was half-standing in her seat but Plagg put his hand up to stop her and she retreated back to her chair.
"I know you're upset, but we had our best minds on it." Nooroo explained while twiddling his thumbs. "There was nothing you could have done." He spoke calmly but his steady manner only made Marinette's face turn red with anger and resentment. "We didn't even know what it was before we called you in here." He stated. Marinette repressed her resentment and spoke placidly.
"And what is it exactly?" She decided the best course of action was to behave diplomatically, arguing would only waste precious time.
Tikki leaned over and scrambled through the stacks of papers until finally she found what she had been searching for. She found the picture of the blonde boy and held it up for Marinette to see. It looked like the kind of photo you would see in a school yearbook. He appeared to be about the same age as Marinette. He had light emerald colored eyes and a sharp jaw. Handsome for sure. He wore a white button-down and a thin black tie around his neck.
"His name is Adrien Noir," Tikki explained. "He's 19 years old, a university student at the Paris College of Arts. He is a part-time model and has an above average GPA. But overall, he's one of Akuma's targets."
Marinette took the small photo and examined it a bit, based on what Tikki said he was smart and by the look of his picture strong too. She took one last look before handing it back.
"But why do they want him?" Marinette asked, puzzlement evident in her tone. Akuma usually targeted the wealthy or powerful in hopes to use their resources to further their cause. They had no use for kids who were fresh out of high school and drowning in student loans.
"Because," Tikki said while glancing at Plagg. Her bright blue eyes seemed to ask if it was wise to share this crucial piece of information with the young spy. Marinette hated how Tikki thought she couldn't handle whatever it was they were hiding, luckily Plagg, per usual, had her back. He moved his head ever so slightly to indicate a nod which urged Tikki to continue. "We think Akuma is going to do the same thing to him as they did to you."
And with those few simple words, Marinette's heart dropped.
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Word count: 2475 (Not counting this)
Okay I am done spamming you all.
This story will be updated every Friday.
I hope you like it.
There is lots to come, so be ready.
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