Episode One : Part One

Episode One : Part One

Lorna pushed the green button to her left at her co-piloting dashboard. A warm voice came on the aircraft’s intercom. “When is landing?”

“T minus ten minutes.” Lorna answered.

“Great job at locating the base. I want you take take them out and bring them in, as clean a sweep as possible.”

“We’re flying in in stealth, neither are they expecting us. But as soon as we make a landing I expect they’ll know we’re there and retaliate.” Lorna responded.

“T minus nine.” a voice from Lorna’s right responded. It was Ali. She was the pilot of the small craft; a girl with a quiet confidence about  her and spoke little unless it was important.

The mission was pretty simple considering who they were going after, Warrington. He’d been manufacturing banshee pills, an addictive and illegal drug whose prime effect was turning human beings into mutates with super powers. Too much of it drives its users feral, primitive.

Warrington is head and chief in the market which has grown and caused significant trouble in urban areas in particular. He has remained under the radar and unreachable, about ten times removed from any local dealer. It’s a pretty large operation that was about to end in one cut throat mission, or at least Lorna hoped so.

“We’re gonna take ‘em out, X” said Lorna.

“I have no doubt you will.” replied the voice on the intercom.

Lorna looked around at the other seats behind her, in the small craft. There were five more seats behind the piloting seats. Two of them were occupied with other agents. Both dressed in full black combat uniforms with a yellow X crest on the left shoulder.

“Here’s the gameplan guys. The factory isn’t that big so no backup is required till pick up. They’re on their way, but we’re ahead. There can’t be more than about 75 personnel in the facility, we take ‘em out and bag ‘em, quick and clean.” said Lorna. She was their commanding agent.

“We get it boss-lady.” A sarcastic tone came from a white haired young man sitting in one of the seats. His eyes glowed as silvery white in anticipation.

“Don’t start with me Alex.” Lorna replied.

“I’m only messing. Just don’t get too bossy on this one sis.”

Lorna sneered in response.
.

The other man remained mostly quiet. A very tall, slim, built fugure with skin as green as Lorna’s eyes sat in the seat next to Alex. He had overly large and scaly forearms with horns at the elbow hinge.

“Ali stays with the X-Craft, so it’s just us three.” Said Lorna.

“T minus three.” said Ali.

Within three minute the craft was making a soft landing on the roof of a small facility in the middle of the desert. The facility appeared to be abandoned from the outside except there were three large and functional black vans parked there.

Lorna pinned her short blonde hair up in a ponytail and the three agents were leaping from the aircraft even before it fully landed.

“Agency X assemble!” Lorna exclaimed as she landed on the factory rooftop. “Anole, smash us in.”

Without a thought the tall green man smashed in the door of the rooftop exit with his large fist.

“Good going Hellboy!” said Alex.

Anole looked at him, displeased, but didn’t answer. He was someone of even fewer words than Ali, but not one to play around with.

“If you’re going to use em, then stick to the assigned code names, Havok!” Lorna grunted as she barged through the broken door.

They heard the factory alarms that had started screeching. All three ran down a few dimly lit, cement gray corridors and soon heard steps charging towards them. No sooner had they turned a corner that they saw the factories first line of defence approaching.

        About eight factory guards, all large and scary-looking charged towards them. Three were evidently mutates, one with glowing red eyes, another with fur, fangs and claws, and the third blue skinned. Whatever their powers were didn’t matter; Alex and Lorna took out their stun ray guns and fired expertly, immediately taking out the three while anoles fists dealt with the other five. Anole moved with superhuman agility and acrobatics as easily as though he were born doing it. The final move involved Lorna tossing small metallic ball and chains which wrapped around and secured the unconscious guards for when it came time to take them in. If they woke, the bondage would stun and knock them out again.

“Just got the scans.” Ali’s voice came from the communicator in the agents’ ears. “ The building is pretty hollow, with the two floors above ground having just  metal corridors at the sides. Most of the equipment is on the ground floor, large vessels and machines it seems. I’ll try and see if I can hack cameras. You guys just make another left now. Oh, and thermal scans indicate another group coming right up at you. I’m out.”

“Thanks Cipher.” Lorna replied.

The three ran through a door to an open corridor. Over the railing the other two floors could be seen.  The ground floor had large vessels with a red fluid among other industrial equipment.

Five more guards were just about on top of them and the rest were making their way up the stairs from the ground floor. All had guns.

“These guys have heavy artillery.” said Alex, who was just a ways in front of Anole and Lorna.

“Let’s show them we have bigger guns. Get outta my way.” Lorna pushed pass Alex to the front.

“Don't push me around, Polaris!”

Lorna extended her arms. Her eyes and hands glowed with a green aura; so did all the guns. The guns were all suddenly crushed by Lorna’s magnetic power. Then the metal ball and chains levitated out of her pockets as she hurled them at guards all over the factory with her powers. They stunned any human they came in contact with, instantly knocking them unconscious.

“That banshee-juice down there smells! And so many of the guards are mutates. This is disgusting!” said Alex.

“Let’s teach ‘em a lesson about knock offs then. Blast ‘em Alex.”

Another group of guards were barging up the stairs and headed towards them. Likewise the agents charged towards them and Alex, with his eyes glowing and silvery hair flailing with energy, blasted they with beams of white energy from his fists. All the guards were knocked out, but one still stood. He must was over eight feet tall and as muscular as a bison.

“Another cruddy mutate.” said Alex.

“Take care of this one, Anole.” Lorna ordered.

Anole immediately grew out large reptilian armour on his torso that ripped his uniform in places and had two large horns protruding from his back.

“I hate lizards.” said the guard.

        With that, Anole leaped over Lorna and Alex toward the mutate. Lorna and Alex ran pass while the two fought fist to fist with superhuman strength. Though the guard was much larger than Anole, the agent had his own advantage of agility and training.

Lorna and Alex immediately found themselves entangled in another batch of guards on their way down to the ground floor. They fought with fist and feet, taking out the guards with their superior combat training as they made their way down the factory floors. They’d fought like this on several occasions before, together.

“We better got to boss level soon. These goons are beginning to annoy me.” said Alex, with a heavy crack of his fist to one of the guards jaw.

The guards were not terribly difficult to take out in hand to hand combat, and the two were highly trained in non-lethal methods. Within minutes Lorna and Alex fought their way to the ground floor. Surrounded by what appeared to be the last fifteen guards a bout of tag-teaming with combinations of jabs, high kicks, uppercuts and a few energy blasts here and there knock the guards out. Lorna took the last one with a high kick to the head; he fell to the ground with a resounding thud.

“I’ve been waiting for this.” A raspy voice came from a shady corner of the ground floor, pass vessels and equipment and under the shadows of the corridors above. It was a man with low cut blonde hair and a business suit; Worthington. He had a pair of brown angelic wings on his back.

To his left was a woman with long, lanky black hair in a skin-tight white get-up. To his right there was a man who himself was lanky, with pale skin, green hair and an unattractive smile. All three persons were looking as devious as they actually are.

“It’s time you paid for taking my brothers.” said the winged gentleman.

Just as the man spoke the eight foot guard fell with a resounding thud to the ground floor next to Alex, knock out with Anole stooping on top of him.

“Good.” said the gentleman. “We’ve been waiting for him too.”

“I see you couldn’t resist your own juice, Worthington.” Lorna smirked. “Fancy new set of wings you got there. It’ll look good on you in prison.”

Worthington frowned in contempt. “I’ve got more than just that blondie. Take them down brothers!”

Worthington soared toward Lorna, the female changes into a werewolf and the other man, still with a dreadful smile on his face, frog-leaped at them. Of course, Lorna, Alex and Anole were very prepared to take them on.

Three hours later Lorna watched through the large glass window of a conference room as the last of The Brotherhood, once again being conscious after being taken out by the agents, being escorted through the white hallways of the Agency facilities. They were all bound by special cuffs and shackles specially designed for persons of extraordinary abilities. The look on Worthington’s face was cross and pensive. Whatever escape plan he was plotting, he would have a warm time trying to get out of the Triskelion prison facilities; facilities also specially designed for his type, the extremely dangerous.

Lorna turned to face her team. Anole sat silently at the far end of the oval table in the conference room. Alex sat much closer to the front of the room, fidgeting with a pencil on one side of the table side. Ali sat on the other side, legs crossed, her elbow on the table and temple resting in her hands, her waist length dreadlocks hanging loosely from her head.

“X will be in soon for debriefing. He also mentioned to me that he had an important announcement.” Lorna said. She walked towards the chair closest to her at the front of the room. Just then the door at the front opened and a tall man with a completely bald head and a cane stepped in. He appeared to be in his fifties and had a gentle face, which made his left eyepatch seem a little less intimidating.

“Good evening agents.” He said.

“Good evening Commander X.” They responded in unison.

X gave a warm smile. His countenance was more fatherly than military but he could switch in an instant when necessary. Commander of Agency X, he understood when it was necessary to be tough. He had been Commander since inception of Agency X ; he was responsible for the rigorous training that all the Agents had received since brought in at a tender age.

All agents were brought in from their early teens. They were still pretty young, still in, and barely out of, their teens. All the “X-agents” that sat before him constituted the first batch to make it into the field.

Agency X was drafted by the US group as a militant group which dealt with mutant, and some superhuman, affairs. It has been the widely accepted stance for years that mutants deal with mutant affairs, especially criminal affairs of the highest order. Who better than them to deal with their own –though Commander X was not himself a mutant- ? And since most of the booming population was still young, the agency had to turn to the youths, particularly taking in the troubled or disenfranchised.

Still with a warm smile X said, “You have done well. That’s the last of The Brotherhood.”

“All I did was pilot.” Ali smiled.

“Still, Alisa, you know very well this could not have been done without you. You’re not only our pilot, but our ultimate tracker, investigator and stealth extraordinaire.” X responded. This was true; Alisa, code name Cipher, was the best at all those things. The was the best at gaining intel and finding anything that didn’t want to be found, which was either ironic or expected given her power set.

“Very true.” said Lorna. “That said, it’s time to move to the next mission.”

“I was thinking more along the line of a break for you guys.” said X.

“What!” exclaimed Lorna. She was a workaholic, always getting on top of the next mission. She never cared for much else. Her motive, though, was more than just the satisfaction of a job well done.

“Alas, that may not be happening just yet. We have Intel on a looming threat that you in particular would be interested in. With that, let me introduce that newest member of our team, Jimmy.”

They were all so focused on X that they hadn’t noticed that a young man was now standing at the door. He had strong, chiseled facial features and blond wild hair that melded intimately with his bushy sideburns. He was wear full X-agent uniform.

All the agents jumped up in alarm.

“Howlett?!!” exclaimed Lorna and Alex simultaneously.

“How and why did you let him in the agency?! He  can’t be trusted!” exclaimed Lorna.

“Compose yourself Lorna. He’s our intel. He can help us get your father.” said X, sternly. At his words Lorna leaned back in her seat subdued but evidently still riled.

Howlett snickered, “Yeah Lorna, calm down.”

X continued, apparently in no mood to take objections or sass, “He's also been in training with us for a while now and I have reason to trust his intentions. Now, you all are dismissed. I propose you take time to get some rest and get acquainted. We meet again tomorrow right here to deal with the urgent situation.”

Lorna immediately became enraged. without a word she raised from her seat and stormed pass Howlett and the door. The only thing they heard from her was her voice from down the hallway loud and in a sarcastic tone, “Yeah right. ‘Get acquainted!’”, she howled.

Alex, following Lorna’s lead, walked out, passing Howlett without even acknowledging his presence. Ali and Anole got up next in a reluctant manner. “Good evening Commander.” Ali sighed. And proceeded out while Anole gave X a slight nod.

On her way out Ali stopped at the door and looked at Howlett with with a smile. Her face had a slightly questioning look as she summed up the new teammate with reservations.

“You’re the new intel huh? It's cool. But I'll be watching you.” she said.

As Anole walked out behind her he looked down at the shorter Howlett with a coy, charming smile- a far way from his usual serious expression. And with that the four X-agents were gone.

….........