"This next mission might seem odd to you. More than one of you, and your orders are quite clear. Do NOT kill the target." The female voice filled the room, a tape recording sent to the three assassins that were in the room. Each one was given the proper notifications of a new job, stamped with the official seal from up high. This was no joke, somebody was serious about needing three people.

They were seated in the regular briefing room. A small room with plain white soundproofed walls, nothing in with, and a large monitor on the wall, speakers on both sides

"Your client is H.E.A.R.T ourselves. You've all heard the rumors, I'm sure, of assassin dying after completing a job, their targets somehow still alive. At first, we did not concern ourselves with it, however..." The voice trailed off, as the monitor flared to life, showing a report. Data on an assassin, with the code name of Whisperer. And among the data, a picture of his lifeless body. "One of our men, Whisperer, fell victim. And we do not know what." The voice said, coming back.

There was the sound of a throat clearing. "That will not stand. You three are to go after Whisper's target, capture him, and bring him back alive. And we WILL find out what happened.

------

A cloaked figure viewed the building. An old warehouse, located on some docks, no lights on. To anybody who didn't know, it would seem abandoned.

Unfortunately for the man inside, Ghost knew.

"Outside is clear. Moving closer." Though her mouth did move, the words were heard by her communications device all the same, hooked directly to her vocal cords. She moved forward, appearing as though she was floating. She wondered to her self, how this would go. She wasn't used to interacting with people, much less working with them. The two she was paired with were strangers to her as well, though she was sure the higher ups had a reason for pairing her with them. All she hoped was that this mission would go off without a hitch.

"Recap. The warehouse is the front of a drug making ring. Top level is simply a warehouse for moving product, there are two underground levels for other work. Target is on the second underground level. We are to take the target alive." She said, reaching the warehouse. Suddenly, a transparent copy of the cloaked cyborg appearing, floating upward. The copy reached he roof, walking forward, peering into the windows, scanning the inside of the building.

"...****. Five guards, and they're well armed. This is a serious operation, more so than I thought." Ghost relayed to her teammates. "Any suggestions?" She asked, returning the nano machines that formed the copy to her. Sneaking past the guards would be easy, of course, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was sneaking back out with the target. Even if they knocked him out, it would be more difficult than escaping alone.

Twenty years old, huh? Somehow, today didn’t feel like a birthday for the new agent. Wasp groaned, slowly inhaled, and pushed a sigh from her lips as she processed the information that the tape recording oh-so bluntly reviewed. “Don’t kill the target? That’s a first,” she muttered before turning her communicator on, the little gadget tightly sewn into her jacket sleeve. Wasp had just reached the location when Ghost’s words prodded at her ear. “Copy that. You think they’d settle for some smokes?” Her voice was low and rumbled in places like gravel, but the sarcasm and humor in her tone was still present. The young adult wished for this shift to end promptly; the student had a paper to write and she wasn’t to let her prized scholarship go to waste. Juggling the two lifestyles wasn’t going to be easy, she realised, especially after this new turn of events.

Drawing near to the abandoned looking construct, Wasp noticed, well, gasped in awe, at the transparent floating figure on the other side of the building. Time to check in, she guessed. “Wasp here. I’m on the other side of the warehouse to Ghost. Or was it Ghast? Uh, hah, anyway, I have enough on me to knock the target out with a nice dose of ‘sleepy times’... I don’t know exactly what you two can do, but I fight with needles, not strength. Maybe one of you could keep a good watch on the guards? I’d be best going to the underground levels.” As Wasp fiddled with the metal panels that stuck out from her black leathered gloves, she couldn’t help but smile.

Never before had she have to talk on a campaign, to rely on others to get a job done effectively, and although the situation seemed scarily daunting, it boiled a new excitement for the cyborg assassin as her hands wriggled in its gloves like agitated spiders. The pieces of steel that ran along her metacarpals made a deadly soft ‘vrrrrr’ in response, allowing one porthole on the tip of the glove’s index finger to open. Finding a nice, sheltered corner of the building, Wasp looked around her, ensuring no one was watching, before promptly reaching for one of her famed recipes. A mixture of melted down rohypnol and some other obscure chemicals, an opaque bottle of what she called ‘insta-faint’ made its way into her tenacious left palm, and when needed, soon onto her eager finger. Wasp stood in the shadows of the building for a moment, awaiting a reply from her coworkers. Things were going to be interesting, she thought, I truly wonder what they’re like~

_________________

Some cybernetic organisms could very well have received code beamed straight into their brains, but then again that wasn't necessarily safe. Someone could very well have intercepted the transmission, which made Shark wonder if something was up.

The tape recording would very well have suggested that whoever this was most clearly didn't want anything to be heard.

What was said next, however, made him even more stalwart in the way he planned to address this mission. Unlike many others who might have only been in this for the money or something of the sort, Shark actually looked at his service to H.E.A.R.T as though it were a moral prerogative. Since the organization was there for him when he was younger, he actually didn't view it as a self-serving assassin's group.

He viewed H.E.A.R.T as family.

Nevertheless, working as part of a team was going to be a challenge for certain.

So was not killing the target for that matter!

Meanwhile, just like Wasp was relying on her normal tricks, Shark was doing the same. He focused on the lower levels of the building, of which a tiny portion had served as a parking garage. Having looked over a number of various vehicles, he had apparently decided on one that he had thought was...acceptable as it were.

The path down here was not uneventful, however. Largely having kept to the walls, Shark had shut off his normal glow-packs to ensure that he could move unimpeded by the guards on the way down, though he realized that Wasp would have eventually taken care of them as well.

Smirking to himself, he placed his hand on the exterior lock. Fortunately the individual had not been so smart as to use a mechanical key with a semiconductor chip. Rather, it was a modern electronic lock, which was far easier to trick and subdue than more traditional models.

It only took a few moments before he had heard the satisfying click that ensured that he was inside. Naturally it wouldn't have taken much longer to activate the ignition either.

At one point, when internal combustion was all the rage, he wouldn't have been able to do that. The engine noise would have been enough to blow the whole entire operation, but electric cars were far different.

He had the lights off, so even that wasn't going to make any sort of a scene. Rather, he was ready to announce to his two other colleagues what he had done.

The announcement was ready to come through a secured and discreet channel, but it was an announcement nonetheless.

"Hey guys, the getaway car is ready."

Honestly, though, he wished this were less of a...mercy mission to say the least. Well, it's important to remember that even leaving one target alive seemed like a mercy mission to him, but Shark was quite an extremist among extremists so his views were likely unusual anyway.

"Got it, Shark." Ghost answered, sending a hologram back up to the top of the building. "Get out of sight, meet us at the stairs to the second basement." She ordered, her holographic copy reappearing and going up again. "Wasp, I'm watching the guards now. One to your left, two to your right, and two on the side of the building. Take out the one to your left, he's guarding the first set of stairs, head to the first basement and meet with Shark. I'll meet with you two soon." She instructed. "They can handle themselves well. Good." She thought. A small smiled would have formed on her face if she had one in this body. Instead, her real body made her moves, sneaking into the warehouse.

Once she was inside, she moved to the shadows, focusing. Suddenly, she saw herself hiding in the shadows, seeing things from her hologram and her own visual sensors. A disorienting thing, it always took her a second or so to get used to it. Once she did, though, she was on the move, sneaking past the guards like a shadow. Looking at them as she passed, she noticed their way of standing and holding their weapons. "Paid thugs, huh? The people of actual worth must be lower down." She mused to herself, reaching the stairs down. This was going well so far, maybe having multiple people was less of a hassle than she thought it would be?

"Shark, Wasp. Stay alert. They have **** for guards on top. They have equipment, but most likely not the skills. That COULD mean this whole operation is a joke, but it could also means the top is simply as an alarm for the lower levels." She told her companions, eyeing the walls of the parking garage basement, noticing small holes and large slits. She understood then, having seen such a thing before. Guards on the first floor nothing more than cannon fodder to alarm those on the lower floors. First lower floor designed to fence off and harass intruders with small turrets, allowing time for the lower level to get ready. A good method...if the "alarms" worked.

It was then she got to the stairs to the second basement. "Okay, we stick together this time. We find the target, I send a hologram in, and under NO circumstances will you two go in until I give the order, understand? We don't know exactly happened to Whisperer, it quite possible they didn't even get their hands on the target, so we have to make sure it's safe."

It merely took seconds of waiting before she heard Shark’s message; as soon as his words processed through her mind, her eyes widened and a chuckle stifled. “Not gonna lie, Shark, that sounds pretty badass.” Escape the mission via vehicle? Where were the cameras and movie director? Perhaps it was commonplace in this field of work, but a kid like her didn’t know how to drive in the first place, and so the idea seemed pretty snazzy. Wasp quietly chuckled at her musing as Ghost’s next pieces of information soon followed, echoing through the young adult’s thoughts. As she spoke of the guard’s whereabouts, Wasp lined her vision to the right and gradually panned to the left to where Ghost’s command specified. “Aye, aye, cap’n,” she retorted through her communicator, eyes creased into smiles as her glove happily engulfed the little potion.

Light steps pacing towards the first underground level’s stairway, Wasp eyed the security guard standing about, and as she saw his aesthetic, a few ideas popped to mind. As the man dared to turn his back to the assassin, her next actions moved like a blur. She surged towards the tall figure, gripped his mouth with her left hand and held his neck with her right, the metal spikes of her gloves protruding like claws to pinch his skin. When this lock was in place, a needle seemingly produced from her index finger gave her unfortunate victim a forcefully harsh poke, and down, down, down went the sweet, sweet rohypnol, the liquid sinking from her glorified syringe and deep into the guard’s tissue. The guard didn’t even have time to process what had happened; the mere shock of being injected, combined with the instant effects of the drug, were enough to knock him out cold before Wasp could even formulate a witty remark. Shame, really, for that was truly the best part to her! The needle retracted back into her glove, allowing her fingers to freely brush at her locks. Anxious of the guard’s friends noticing what had happened, she slowly dragged the body into a sheltered exterior part of the warehouse, and took a few attempts at wriggling his body into a warehouse packaging box that was left sitting around. When finally in place, Wasp looked the guard over and turned to walk to the stairs... Then froze. Took two steps back. Swiveled back around on her heels. Peered into the box again. “I almost forgot,” Wasp whispered as though the body could hear her, “I’ll be borrowing this for a bit, okay?” Stretching a hand into the wood, Wasp lifted the guard’s sunglasses from his face and raised her arm back out, inspecting the frames before packing them into her jacket.

With a small shrug and a content “Mhm”, Wasp descended the stairs.

It was far from dark enough to need to use her bionic eye lenses, so she simply allowed her pupils to adjust themselves as she scanned the area before her. Feeling for the wall as she walked across the length of the area, her eyes eventually passed by the hidden garage from the other side of the room, and in turn, the highly anticipated ‘getaway car’. Oh, fellow cyborg uniforms, it seemed! The stairway was in line of sight from the garage, yet hidden from the main entrance and shrouded by shadows; Ghost made a good decision to meet up at said location. “‘Ey, Ghost, Shark, nice to initially meet you on a fine day like this, huh?” She dryly chuckled thorough the communicator as she walked towards her team mates, briefly waving a mechanical hand at them. She was amazed at the fascinating technology they donned, looking them over before her attention turned to Ghost’s words and the stairway.

“Alrighty, you cool cats - er, haunting spirit thing and giant fish - sounds like a plan. From the looks of it, we seem a capable bunch, but then again, Whisperer was no one to sneeze at.”

_________________

That aforementioned message from Ghost was a vote of confidence, or at least Shark had taken it as such and it certainly had boosted his ego slightly. Then again, there wasn't any ego boosting needed, which might be why he took a little one off comment so ridiculously seriously.

"Alright, I'll head out of here. Anytime you wanna head out we can, just hop down here. I'll meet you at the stairs in a few."

The fact that he got that statement of how badass he sounded -really- helped to stoke that ego fire, but then again because of his training as an assassin he didn't act like he had one. Maybe he had just often liked to pat himself on the back internally.

While generally no one would ever leave the keys in a motor vehicle with the engine running, he figured that there might be a way to bypass the usual mechanism that kept the lights on. It took Shark a few moments to hack the internal system, and soon he stepped out with the vehicle having every appearance of being locked and off, when it really wasn't.

That freed him up to follow Ghost's previous orders. Even if he had a bit of an ego, he wasn't above doing what was best for his team at any time.

Moving quickly, he ducked behind a few posts that held up the ceiling when he saw the consistent telltale signs of guards that had appeared to be everywhere. The place was swarming with them, but he hoped that no one had found out about what they were doing just yet.

Leaping with his biomechanical legs was easy, and he was able to move behind the poured concrete columns with very little difficulty. Twice he paused for only a split second to release dull black throwing stars that instantly - and most importantly soundlessly - ended the lives of his targets.

So far he had been doing his best to keep things quiet, and he didn't want to screw that up now.

Once Shark got another message, he smirked a bit, "Or it could mean they're trigger-happy idiots, which would make this whole little mission a ton louder than I like. I'm in position now. There are thugs down here too, but I didn't want to do anything that would make too much noise just yet."

Eventually, though, his message had drifted off and she had arrived with him. "Hey, I'm not the type to move too early, you know that." Shark frowned, figuring that he wanted some more information before they actually Whisperer up.

Like Wasp had said, Shark was actually a little concerned in spite of all his confidence.

Whisperer was an excellent agent, so what was this place like that they could take someone like that out of commission? What was going on?

That wasn't normal. Whisperer would have been able to kill anyone who came in for the kill or the capture.

"Good work on the guards, Shark." Ghost mentioned, seeing their bodies as Wasp appeared, nodding at her. "You're the peppy sort, aren't you?" She asked the girl after her introduction, her tone of voice making it hard to tell if that was meant to be negative or just a statement. Something resembling a chuckle after saying implied that, if it was negative, it wasn't very much so. "But you are correct. Whisperer was one of our top men, so whatever this was...isn't normal. Keep that in mind." She said, opening to the doors. However, before she went down, she turned again to Wasp. "I realize you're new, so a word of advice." She said, reaching over and pulling the sunglasses out of her pocket. "Don't take anything from a mission. It can and WILL be used to track you." She explained, placing them back into the pocket.

"Considering we're taking a person this time, though, I'll allow it." She said, looking down the stairs. "Shall we?" She asked, heading down. So far so good, she thought. Shark was showing his skills, even though judging from his profile he didn't like it being a "mercy mission". The fact, however, that he was showing his skill despite his dislike simple spoke more to his ability. As for Wasp, she had potential, Ghost had to admit. She kept this up, and she could be almost as good as Ghost was

Almost.

"I'll go in first. Shark, you follow second, Wasp'll take the back." She said, heading down the stairs, holding up her right arm, a panel opening up. She took out some wire, and when the last of them reached the bottom of the stairs, she stretched a length of it across the bottom step. "Anybody comes in after us, they'll trip, letting us know." She explained, looking around.

The stairs had led to a single room, with an unblocked entrance to a hallway that soon turned out of sight. There was two doorways that could be seen, and a security camera scanning back and forth. Ghost listened closely, and nodded her head when she heard heavy footsteps. "Guards, and with a much tighter space then the first floor...drop them. Can't risk them finding us."

Wasp flushed for a brief second at the sound of ‘peppy’. “One could put it that way, huh?”

Was it an obnoxious quality for a H.E.A.R.T member to have? Thinking back, Wasp had quite the reserved and calm persona as a child. An analytical kid, alone in her slums, lost in thought, dissecting the drugs of whatever polluted Father brought home that day. Amidst the busy hum of the city, the smell of cigarettes, burnt marijuana, petty theft and the constant shouting of provocatives read like noise to the youth. “That child’s lost her marbles. Too much thinking is all Veloce does-” The nattering and chittering, the chattering and twittering, the pandering and pitying that made the itching and the twitching feel like the rhythmic ticking and tacking of her spoon against the pill. Tick, tick, tick, the noise crescendoed, her arm swerved faster, the power spreading, tempting and teasing, pushing and pleading, saying why-don’t-you-just-give-in-yet?

But such thoughts shan’t provoke her now.

Wasp jokingly sulked as Ghost pulled away the guard’s glasses from her jacket, producing a meek ‘ohh’ from her lips as she explained the possible dangers. When the sunglasses were placed back into Wasp’s pocket, she nodded and clasped her hands together, placing them under her chin to gesture a ‘thank you’. “Aye, thanks for the warning, cap’n dear~” she murmured, reaching to pat Shark on the back to usher the two in front of her.

Wasp gulped as they descended the stairway, which seemed to loom at an uneasy angle. Heights were ironically always a problem for Wasp, and the old stairs didn’t do much to provide any solace. Once they had settled, Wasp smiled approvingly at the trap Ghost created, before her attention turned to the small area. Whisperer’s target was a suspicious figure indeed - who else would go to all this trouble to set all this up? “How ominous,” she blinked, her vision turning to thermal imaging as the bleak darkness of the room enveloped them, “I’ll take the cute outlier coming my way,” she reported, noticing the warm-coloured blob of a person that strayed from the other guards, walking towards the other side of the room to where the trio had just come from.

Her next nifty trick came into play. A sterile needle grew from her glove. An inconspicuous makeshift drug only known to Wasp (well, besides a few street drug dealers that Wasp had infamously diluted for them), fell into her contraption. Her glove quietly vibrated as some of the tube’s contents disappeared from the glass and infused into the needle. A few drops was all this potent mix took to make someone ‘drop’, as Ghost put it. Wasp would connote the word to dropping acid, but imagined that Ghost and Shark would not approve, so didn’t draw to that conclusion. Tensing the metal of her glove, Wasp pulled back on a panel of steel that sat on her wrist. Similar to a mini crossbow on her hand, she used the momentum of releasing the metal’s tension to send her needle jabbing through the air. She smiled at how her weapon didn’t seem to faze the guard at first, perhaps feeling like a mere sting in the shoulder blade, before they fell to the ground in a matter of seconds. “I knew that darts tournament in my local pub, that one drunken night, would count for something,” she snickered to herself, looking to her fellow assassins to witness their techniques as she paced behind, readying another needle to back them up.

_________________

Once again Shark let the praise from Ghost sink in, though he actually didn't permit himself to show any sort of arrogance show through this action.

Soon enough he did smirk though, and added something to what Ghost was saying. "Even the car. I'm ditching it once we're out of here. Sad; it's a nice ride too."

With a forceful nod, he stuck behind Ghost after having been ordered in second. Despite the fact that assassins really could never be trusted so to speak, he actually had genuinely trusted Ghost in most matters, especially considering that he was indeed loyal to their organization.

The fact that she had made sure anyone following along would trip made it the whole bit better.

Despite his rather high opinion of himself, Shark was actually quite impressed by the tricks that Wasp seemed to be pulling.

In a few moments he had elected to select a guard as well, once more removing one of his notable throwing stars to take care of the aforementioned individual.

Admittedly it took a bit longer than the method that Wasp used, which had surprised him, though if there were any commentary on it, he would probably allow himself a congratulation toward the other. In fact, he figured that it might have been best to throw something in there like that in a little while.

While he might have been relatively competitive with his teammates, it was just so that he would never get lazy in his work. It never stood in the way of getting the job done, he would hope.

"I think that takes care of everyone down here, except one eye."

There was a slot in his left wrist that ejected a fresh throwing star into his mechanized left fingers.

Once he had control of a fresh piece of metal, he aimed it toward the cord that connected the electronic security camera that was providing the scanning service and immediately severed it straight off without knocking down the security camera.

"I think there might have been a motion sensor in it as well, but if there was then that's disabled now too."

Shark looked around, trying to see if there was anything else here that he should have been concerned about.

He didn't see anything, and honestly he trusted more than anything that Ghost and Wasp would have been able to take care of business if there was.

"Wasp, if you learned all of that just from a drunken darts tournament, then maybe I need to start drinking." Shark offered her a smirk with his comments, which had of course been sardonic but included a vote of confidence toward her impressive abilities inside of it as well.

He certainly did seem to take his team very seriously if nothing else.

Georgie woke up in a bed. An unusual start to his day, as he didn't happen to own a bed, or a house, for that matter. His head, which had been pressed deeply into a plush white pillow, lifted in order for him to properly take note of his surroundings. He was in a spacious studio apartment, with the main colour palette of blue and white. It seemed like a place where an art student, riding on their trust fund, would live. Large windows to the right of him revealed the upper side of the city in all its splendour. It was quite obviously morning, with streams of light pouring in to hit the dark hardwood floor of the apartment. Georgie sat up fully, attempting to piece together the events of the night previous. It had been a day off from work, leaving him extremely bored. He decided that he was going to have some fun, so he...
Movement to his right sent him into defensive mode, spinning in the direction the movement was and clutching his fists in an attempt to extend the blades normally hidden in the spaces between his knuckles. This did not garner the response Georgie was hoping for, as he was not in his assassin gear. In fact, he wasn't even in his civvies; he was completely naked.
The causer of the movement was a dark-haired girl with pretty blue eyes, lying on the bend, bending her elbow and placing her head in her hand to look at Georgie. "hey baby," she crooned, putting her hand down so that she could wiggle up beside him, "you were super fun last night."
Georgie was disappointed. The rush of energy he had gotten couldn't be used now. Unless he... nah. She had given him a good time the night before, now that he remembered clearly. She was a girl who had been hanging in his usual haunt, a preppy coffee shop in the east side of town. He pulled a few of his most popular tricks and she had fallen right into his hands, inviting him over to her place. What was her name again? Georgie didn't have the slightest idea.
"Great," Georgie said in an apathetic manner, rolling away from her and towards his pile of clothes that lay on the floor. He stepped on to the floor, pulling his jeans up neatly to cover his naked lower half. A white tee with a blue breast pocket went over his head, messing up his already disheveled hair even more. Being one to care about appearances, he ran his hands through it, pushing it back and then forward and up into the wavy casual style he was known for.
"Babe, why are you ignoring me?" The girl was complaining, sliding to his side of the bed and grabbing his arm. He let out an annoyed sigh, seriously reconsidering his choice to let her live.
"Sorry sweetheart, but this is a one-night stand." His curiously accented voice lacked interest in what he was saying, as if he had already moved on from the subject and was frustrated by the girl's lack of perception. He reached for his black hoodie, eyes glazing over in boredom as the girl let out a cry, talking about 'how nice he had been last night'. "Oh, 'baby'," he said, flipping his head up, "good girls don't give it on the first day. Nice apartment, by the way." He smiled brightly, displaying the positivity and friendliness he had had the previous night, before letting it slide off into an expressionless stare, hazel eyes analyzing her carefully, the way she held the white duvet up over herself as if it offered her protection, the way her eyes widened and lips parted ever so softly. How cute. He gave her a nonchalant wave before heading out the door, ignoring her protests and humming the William Tell Overture.

Georgie stepped out of the apartment complex, letting in a pleasant breath of fresh air. The girl, it seemed, had not followed him. Thank goodness, the hassle had been almost unbearable. Despite this, he was in a pleasant mood as he walked down the street, breathing in the crisp September air. Autumn had always been his favourite season for the colours and coldness, as well as the sound of dead leaves underfoot.
Georgie's perception of where he was was weak, as he had been occupied during the taxi ride to the girl's apartment. He looked out on a pathway, mostly concrete with the occasional garden block situated here and there, filled with grass, small bushes, and a small maple tree each. He decided to follow the walkway, stuffing his already chilling hands into the pockets of his hoodie. Normally automated heating systems lined paths like these, but it appeared that this one had either not been updated, or perhaps the machine was malfunctioning.
He walked for about twenty minutes at a methodical pace, Georgie's mind blank except for the occasional stray thought. The world was brought back into focus as he noted a familiar fountain. It consisted of five metal panels which water ran down to collect in the pool below, and rose back up to the top of the panels in an unseen way. Georgie saw no beauty in it, only viewing it as a cheap attempt at 'modern art', but at least it was a familiar landmark. His monotonous pace increased to be a little faster, more excited, but still controlled. He turned down three roads before entering an unadorned, plain-looking building. He navigated his way around useless people before reaching one of the lower levels, where his place of work resided. H.E.A.R.T. An assassination business that he held close to his heart. Georgie's lip twitched at the slightly lame but amusing thought. He didn't particularly care for the company much, except for the fact that it had given him a job.
Georgie kept his gear at the office mostly, in a special equipment room. The room would have been spacious if not for the mass amount of gear that covered every possible table surface. Despite this, everything seemed curiously organized, with neat white labels or signs. His gear was in a locker on the east wall, number 67. He had considered it as a code name for a while, but decided that Smiles fit him better. He grabs his gear and began putting it on. The procedure for putting on his special gear and alternate prosthetics was somewhat complex. At first he had needed the assistance of two people to put the creation on, but could now do it himself easily enough. The part he enjoyed the least was putting on his helmet; it augmented with his brain, causing him pain as these extremely thin connection wires went through his temples.
He wasn't even sure that he had a job today, but he knew that the special suit would be useful anyways, especially if he wanted a proper breakfast.
Georgie exited the supply room, the world now incredibly clear and beautiful thanks to his helmet. He checked several functions of the device to make sure it was still in tip-top shape, zooming in on a discarded orange peel on the floor, saying "I'm a pretty lady" in Preprogrammed Woman Voice 01. All functions seemed to be working smoothly. His camouflage also seemed to be working as his suit changed to match the colour of the wall behind him. As he did this, he noted three people exiting the briefing room. After a quick debate on whether or not to reveal himself, Georgie decided to press himself into the wall, watching each person pass with a keen eye. Two women, and a rather tall man, all prepared for an assassination. Three people for a single assassination? Looked interesting, an alleviation for his ever prevalent boredom, as well as good practice for his sneaking abilities. He was very patient person when it came to tracking, wasting no movements and sitting for as long as he needed to properly take out a target.
With that, Georgie slunk after the party of three, ears buzzing in excitement. He remembered the code names of these three people, miraculously. Ghost, Wasp, and Shark. Georgie was surprised; he rarely ever took the time to remember peoples' names unless it was required, or if the person was interesting.

The trail was difficult to follow, but Georgie managed to keep a hold of their trail, following them to an old, derelict warehouse. He looked out on the docks in the horizon, the smell of salty air soothing him and reminding him of home. He turned, realizing that he shouldn't lose his targets, and ran after them quickly.
In the brief moments that Georgie had been distracted, the three assassins had already dispatched of several guards. This isn't a normal operation, he mused, it seems more like... a rescue mission?. His ears buzzed as he connected to the network of their communication devices.
"....be I need to start drinking." A man's voice filtered in loud and clear. Georgie grinned, deciding that an abrupt revealing of his location would bring the most amusement.
"A drink? I wouldn't mind a whiskey myself," Georgie announced through the device in his vocal chords, alerting all of them to his presence. His tone was full of mirth, pleased that his tracking had been successful. He knew he was in close to them as he walked down a flight of stairs. The H.E.A.R.T. workers were standing in a hallway, evidently having just performed two successful kills, and the dispatchment of a security camera. His camouflage was turned off, revealing his sleek black outfit and cheekily grinning helmet. "Sorry to pop in unannounced, but Boss decided you could use just a little extra help." The lie fell easily from his lips, his heart rate not showing any trace of falsehood. He was well practiced in the art of deception. After all, he wore the smile.

_________________

"About time you decided to join us." Ghost said, turning to Smiles. Her holographic copy walked past him, having been looking over the top floor to see if anybody follow them. To see some one had, and that they were another member of H.E.A.R.T was a bit of a surprise to Ghost, all things considered. "Boss decided we needed some extra help, did he?" She asked, chuckling. She shook her head, turning around. "I'll act like that's believable, for now. You'll probably be useful. Maybe if we're caught, we can use you as a shield, hmm?" She continued, turning to the other two. She was being a bit rude, true, but it was to quickly check his temperament. If he couldn't handle some small ribbing, then that spoke to his ability to get along with others.

"Good job, you two. The four of us will make easy work of this mission, that much is obvious." She said, walking down the hallway, taking out more wire. She got to work, tying up the doorknobs to the doors that filed the hallway, hooking them together. "Nobody will come to bother us now." She note, nodding.

"Now, we wait for a fifth. They'll scout out the rooms so we know where exactly our target is. I'll send in a hologram to try and get them to reveal what they used to get rid of Whisperer. If they have it, rush in. You'll get rid of what they're using....Smiles, I believe your name is? Anyways, you get rid of what they're using. Don't destroy it, just make it unusable for them. Shark, you gab them and hold them down, and Wasp, you'll knock them out. We bring them to the car, throw them in the trunk, get out and grab the fifth member of our little team, and head back to base. Am I clear?"

While waiting for their responses, Ghost thought to them selves how much more efficient a team was compared to a single assassin. Much more likely to be caught, yes, but for higher priority missions like this, where H.E.A.R.T would go the extra mile to clean up... Maybe there was a future to this? She would have to see about that later.

Nodding at Shark approvingly, her mouth parted as to respond. “Aye, you look like you need one, anyw-” Her words were cut as the member known to H.E.A.R.T as ‘Smiles’ commented through the communicator. Words caught unawares to the woman, she jolted in shock, abruptly lurching a few steps forward to rebalance her steps as a soft curse hushed from her lips. Rising up to straighten her back, she combed her fingers through her hair. “Looks like I need one...”

Partly annoyed for getting startled, and partly amused at Ghost barely reacting at all, she let out an exasperated sigh and watched her talk, a grin slowly emerging from the initial confusion. “I like you more and more every second, Ghost; lend me his spare parts for me to test on when you’re done, okay? Too many of my new recipes are trial and error.” Dryly commenting, she smiled at the two before her. “My, my, there’s a funny-bone in you guys’ anatomy? Wouldn’t of guessed,” her rhetorical question wafted through the stiff air as she watched Ghost get to work with the trap, walking behind the group with her arms naturally crossed as they advanced. Until Ghost alerted them to wait, that was.

“A... Fifth? I never heard about this,” Wasp raised an eyebrow, unsure why H.E.A.R.T wouldn’t mention so in the first place, back when their objective was first explained. She shrugged the thought off. Perhaps the new members were impressively good at their job and so didn’t need to be mentioned... Hopefully. “Smiles, eh?” She squinted, noticing the smiling helmet as her eyes looked over him. His gear was undoubtedly as impressive as the rest, as expected. Thinking how interesting it would be to see what he, and the new mysterious fifth member had in store for them, she waved a robotic glove at him as to usher the team closer, as they stood amongst the darkness and listened to Ghost’s commands. “Clear as day. Knock ‘em blocks off. Over.” Making a saluting motion to the team, her eyes lowered when she turned to look at the doors around them. The new supposed scouting member would definitely be of good use here. It was truly difficult to find any signs of life through her short sighted lenses at current, and with such a large area, who was to know?

“Shark, when you ‘hold them down’, as was aptly put, be a dear, well, shark, and expose their trapezius for me, will ye?... Huh, does that sound strange out loud.” She pointed to an injection sweet spot between her shoulder and neck, and with a following thumbs-up gesture to the tall man, listened to the rest of the group’s chatter. This time, she kept an ear out for the unfamiliar voice.

_________________

Georgie's lips fell into a grimace of annoyance, unseen to those outside his helmet. Ghost's comment had simply been a test of his compliance, but now with Wasp chiming in with such confidence, after being so flustered at his arrival, it had become a problem. He was used to playing the joker character, as he had in school, but he was always the hero type, the one looked up to, never the underdog that was jeered at out of spite. He never had a lack of power, using his talent for knowing exactly what people wanted. Flowers for her, carrying something for him... it was all so dull, but the rewards were well worth it. A sudden thought drifted through his mind, turning his frown into a smirk. He could just kill them all; that would be a quick way to gain their respect. Wasp's needles wouldn't pierce his hard armoured shell, Shark's projectiles were laughable, and Ghost seemed to use illusions, as noted by the fake copy of herself that had walked past him. That kind of mental trickery wouldn't work on Georgie. Yes, this was a good plan. He would cut them open, break their bones, bathe in their blood. Then he would kill everyone in the building, just to finish the job. He was thrilled as he took the first step down the stairs, his vision tunneling as his darker, truer self began to burst through, screaming for control. The feeling was so invigorating, so delicious, he coul-
The tunnel broke as Georgie felt pressure on his ankle. A trip wire had been placed at the bottom of the stairs. His reflexes were quick, saving him from sprawling out embarrassingly. Instead, he shifted his body weight so that he went into a neat forward roll before jumping up, finding himself almost nose-to-nose with Wasp, who was baring her neck in a way that made Georgie shudder with longing. But control was back, and now he could think reasonably. There wouldn't be any more excitement in murdering them than in killing the no-ones like the men currently crumpled on the ground. He decided to simply give Ghost what she wanted; a humorous reply, showing that he could play nice with others. It wasn't like he could undo the mistake of falling over the trip wire. He would show his prowess later, prove to them that he wasn't just some buffoon.
"I make a better frying pan than a shield, to be honest," his voice was full of mirth but his eyes were cold as flint. All of those emotions had mentally exhausted him. "Your trip wire works, by the way." He gazed into Wasp's plain brown eyes for a moment before pivoting to face Ghost, giving a mock salute. "Orders understood." He lowered the salute and turned to look down the hall, mind whirring, body tensed and ready to begin the assault.
Ghost had said 'a fifth'. Another member to join this gong show was exactly what Georgie did not want, but the universe was playing him for being a cad, he supposed. Plus, he was getting the excitement he had wanted, longed for. It seemed that this simple stealth practice had turned into a full-on adventure that wasn't likely to end soon. Ghost had also mentioned a 'Whisperer'. So this was definitely an extraction mission, Georgie noted, to rescue one of H.E.A.R.T.'s own. The cloak-wearing women was suggesting that some specific device had been used to bring down this agent. How Georgie was supposed to disable but not destroy this device that he knew nothing about was beyond him, but he'd figure it out. Hopefully. And by God, he realized suddenly, I didn't even have my morning coffee.

_________________

Initially, having a new individual with them there actually had ended up making him feel slightly off. It was unusual. This mission seemed to be getting more and more people, yet he hadn't previously been notified about that.

Of course he was going to be unnerved, since any of these individuals could have been an enemy agent.

Worse, they might have even been an agent of the forces of law and order.

Regardless, Shark didn't do anything that could have shown he was off in the slightest.

"A...fifth? We wait for a fifth? Hey man, why weren't we told about all these people?"

The way Shark had said it was well within the confines of his normal personality, so he hadn't given away too much of his suspicions just yet.

Then again, it made everything more interesting, and he had come to trust Wasp quite a bit. Wasp had also proven herself to be quite capable, and he had appreciated that.

As for the funny bone comment, Shark genuinely smirked and looked back for the time being.

"Really? You didn't know it? I think I can be a lot funnier than you think."

Nevertheless, he wasn't entirely sure what they were supposed to be doing at the moment. The fact that Wasp was a little more talkative, however, made him trust her quite a bit more.

The fact that Georgie's look of annoyance hadn't appeared outside of his mask did wonders to avoid hurting Shark's opinion of him.

Naturally the fact that he didn't know that the other individual actually had any plans to kill him beyond his regular suspicions would have also helped as well.

Sighing slowly, he was subconsciously, perhaps, starting to formulate a plan to disable that device as such. Well, actually, subconsciously wasn't exactly the right term.

As if he needed any further reason to become attached to Wasp's methods, she seemed to say the most perfect thing after all of it.

"I would only be too happy too." He offered a thumbs-up sign as well that seemed to suggest that he would truly have only been too happy to hold them down a certain way and expose their trapezium area.

Shark certainly had made it sound like it wasn't a major issue for him. He seemed to tend to like just how it was that she thought.

Despite any of this though, if there were any ulterior motive in the way that Ghost was talking about Smiles. It was a bit of a lapse in his personal judgment, which was usually quite spot on in most things.

He didn't realize that the leader was actually saying that she knew that Smiles wasn't really supposed to be there, but he still was rather suspicious of all of this anyway.

The day prior to the mission, Rana Amirmoez had arrived at the office to find an envelope lying on her desk, containing a recorded mission brief and a wireless flash drive. It didn't surprise her that it was nearly twenty-four hours before the other assassins would receive their mission data. H.E.A.R.T. knew very well that she might be late, what with her business outside of assassination. They didn't know that said "business" was work with the police as a consultant. They probably wouldn't trust her if they did. Regardless, they conformed to her unpredictable schedule to the best of their ability.

The brief was on what Rana recognized as a cassette tape, an old form of audio media from a bygone age. Normally, she'd have just downloaded the mission data onto the computer implant in her brain, but she lacked the specialized equipment to do that with a cassette tape. She easily reached the conclusion that somebody wanted to make sure that the mission's information would be even more difficult to retrieve.

The mission itself seemed simple enough, though unusual as far as H.E.A.R.T.'s standards went. Go after Whisperer's last target, inside of a warehouse which acted as the hub of his drug business, and bring him in alive for interrogation. H.E.A.R.T. didn't deal in kidnappings. They were assassins - their business was in killing. The most unusual detail, though, was the client for this particular mission.
It wasn't coming from a rival organization, or a wealthy but lazy assassin seeking to safeguard his career. It was coming from H.E.A.R.T. itself, and it warranted three field assassins and Iris (Rana's assassin persona) on recon. It was rare enough for two field assassins to go on a mission, and Rana almost always worked with one assassin. Clearly this wasn't just about money, or the suits would've only sent a small group. They seemed to think that the fate of H.E.A.R.T. depended on how Rana and her allies handled this mission.

The contents of the flash drive, fortunately, were a standard affair; on it were profiles on her allies' equipment and skills, blueprints of the warehouse (though her own blueprints, straight from the police database, would make a good cross-reference), a list of the known guards, and GPS coordinates that would lead her to the getaway vehicle. She quickly browsed through these files, attempting to commit as much as possible to memory before encrypting them. The only way anyone could gain access now was with an eight-character alphanumeric code that only she knew.

With that out of the way, she sat down at her desk, connected to the wireless webcam mounted on one end, and began her usual maintenance check on her eyes. She wanted to be in top condition in preparation for tomorrow...

----

As it turned out, Rana WAS busy on the day of the mission, and thus couldn't be briefed with the others. She had been called in by the police, ironically enough, to help investigate the murder of Whisperer. She hadn't discovered much more about the case, but would probably get called in the next day for further investigation. The police were like that. On top of all that, she had to take a long and convoluted route through the city, swapping disguises more than once, before she was completely certain that she wasn't being followed and could safely change into the signature clothing of Iris - gray pullover hoodie, gray jeans with knees covered by patches of black fabric, combat boots, gloves, a ski mask, and orange eyes as opposed to her usual emerald.

Being paranoid was both a blessing and a curse sometimes...

By the time Iris arrived at the getaway vehicle, the operation was well underway. A quick infrared scan showed that the vehicle was still running and the keys were still in the ignition, despite it being left unoccupied by Shark. With nowhere better to go for now, she opened the passenger door and slipped inside, quietly shutting it behind her before making her way into the back of the vehicle. She'd relax here until she needed a better angle. She promptly tuned in to the audio network that her allies were on, remaining silent for a moment to catch up on what was occurring with the mission.

Iris was momentarily shocked to discover that there was an extra party member present - Smiles, a bloodthirsty acrobat. Iris hadn’t received data on Smiles, but fortunately she didn’t need it - Iris had worked with Smiles once before, and knew exactly what to expect. She was also pleased to know that Wasp had made it onto the team - they, too, had worked together on a previous mission the previous year. As risky and uncommon as teamwork operations usually were, Iris was a safe partner for most assassins due to her tendency to avoid stepping into the crime scene when it wasn’t necessary, so she almost exclusively worked with a partner when she wasn’t doing solo recon missions. The other two assassins were unfamiliar faces - Ghost, whose ability to summon spectral doppelgangers using nanomachines, and Shark, who struck her as more of a classic assassin than the others. It seemed that they were preparing themselves to storm a room that might contain the weapon that they had used to take out Whisperer, and that they were aware that she would arrive shortly.

She flipped open her phone and put it to her mouth. She didn’t have any vocal cord adjustments, so she was stuck communicating with her allies through audible speech. To hide this, she used the phone as a prop, as well as various codewords. She waited approximately half a minute, to give the illusion that the phone was going to voice mail, before talking. “Yeah, hi. Sorry that I’m late - I had some IRL business to take care of. Parents. You know. Outside this weird warehouse or whatever. If you guys could let me know where you’re all at right now, that would be swell. Gonna hang up now - just holler when you’ve got an answer. Thanks.” She flipped the phone shut and waited patiently inside the car for a response.

_________________

Ghost looked Smiles over once more, having to hold back a laugh. Oh, he would be fun, she knew. The small white orbs on her mask shifted into a symbol of a thumbs up, before returning to "normal". "Good job, most people would be too shock by the sudden fall to re-orientate themselves so quickly. " She complimented, her words sincere, yet tinted with amusement. She wasn't sure what to think of this man, appearing where he did not belong, then acting like he did. Was this a game to him, she wondered? That answer would have to come later, she realized, when the job was done.


"It's simple, Shark. Only the team leader knows everything about the mission. H.E.A.R.T picks the person most faithful to the organization as the leader, as they can only be trusted. What if one of you were working for a rival assassin group? The law? If every member knew every part of the plan, only one would need to betray us." She explained to the man, crossing her arms. "And that, you see, would be bad. This way, though, if we ARE betrayed, it's easier to figure out who did it. I understand why you don't like it, but surely you see why it's set up this way?" Her voice was soft as she spoke, wanting sure that she was only trying to explain, not look down on him for not knowing. Team based operations like this were new, and even she didn't fully understand them, to be honest.

But she was the leader, so she couldn't let that show. If the leader showed weakness, it MADE the team weak. She knew that all too well.

At this point, she received the call from Iris.

She called back, not waiting for the girl to say hello before giving her info. "Second floor basement, by the stairway down. Listen up, your job is simple, and as soon as you get it done, the mission is virtually complete. You're a scouter, right? Can hook up to cameras, if I'm understanding right. I just need you to check the cameras in each room, and tell me which one has the target. Your briefing should have had what it looks like."

It didn't take very long for Iris to receive a response. Judging from the voice, the person responding was Ghost. A shame that Iris wouldn't get to work with Ghost for much longer - her ability to create nanomechanical doppelgangers to scout ahead would no doubt have proven incredibly interesting.

And something didn't seem right about the mission being over so quickly. Granted, HQ probably expected some serious **** when incapacitating the target and returning them to the getaway vehicle, but as far as Iris was aware, the mission had been a cakewalk up until this point. Still, she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth - this mission was two birds with one stone. Once H.E.A.R.T. figured out how Whisperer had died, she could hit a payphone on her way back home and give the police a certain anonymous tip...

Until then, though, she had a mission to complete.

Deciding to go with the phone charade again, she quickly accessed one of the more basic features of the computer implanted within her head - mobile phone capability. It would look most natural if she had been called back by the person that she had attempted to ring up earlier. Only a second later, the cell phone in her hand started to ring. She flipped it open, raised it to her ear, and paused for a moment before speaking.

"Gotcha. I'll give it a try, but it'll take a while without a physical connection, so hang tight..."

She lowered the phone, putting her call to herself on hold, and pulled up the phone's browser. While her fingers typed away, relying on instinct to search up a list of convenience stores that A) stocked Diet Coca-Cola, B) were open at this time, and C) were in a random residential area on the other side of the city, her eyes were busy with something else. Her eye sockets stung slightly as her vision changed, and it took her a moment to refocus. As she had suspected, she was momentarily locked out without a physical connection. She could hack past it, no problem, but it would take a while, and she risked being discovered. She closed the browser and raised the phone to her ear again.

"Okay, connection will take a while, so quick question. Risk connecting to the warehouse Wi-Fi, or get a physical connection?"

_________________

Ghost gave it a quick thought over, juggling the options. The answer, to Ghost, was obvious. If she had to get a physical connection, that would put her in possible danger. Scouts weren't exactly the best people to put in danger, Ghost figured. Too easy to kill. But, if she connected via wi-fi, she would be safer, and even if she WAS detected, the team could move out quickly enough.

"Wi-fi. Don't might be guards lurking around, and if you're caught...well, let's not think about it, alright?" She answered, nodding to the others members. "Don't worry about getting detected, we can move fast." She added. Ghost didn't often work with scouts, as her holographic copies could be used just as well, but she had to admit, it was kind of nice. Meant she could focus on other things, and conserve her energy.

The more she thought about it, the more and more the concept of a "team" of assassins appealed to her. She would have to mention something to the people working upstairs about it when they returned to base. Even if the possible risks were great...it would make jobs go by much quicker. Which means more jobs, which meant more money. Which was good for the group, but Ghost didn't care about that.

But it also meant more info. And that's what Ghost wanted.

"Aight, then!" Iris smiled slightly behind her mask - as risky as being caught hacking into surveillance footage would be, the hacking itself would be a lovely warm-up for her brain before she needed it for the pressing deductions that she feared (but also hoped) would be waiting behind the door. She lowered her phone, tapping idly away at it.

It didn't take her too long to break into the system. It was a rather old system of security cameras, probably set up back when the warehouse was just another warehouse. There wasn't much preventing her from worming her way into the feed, nor was there as much risk of her being discovered unless she did something too big or too odd, like replacing the feed with an online video. It took even less time to find the target.

The target was in a room labelled Room 7, at the end of a hallway of similarly-built room. While the rooms leading up to it were secure storage or chemistry labs or guard barracks, this room was simply an office. Small, but in a cozy sort of way, with the proper decorations for an office. Without context, Iris might have mistaken it for the office of an accountant or entrepreneur. The door into it was set in the very center of the wall. The wall to its left was covered from end to end with bookshelves holding dusty literature. Mostly biographies, judging by the titles. The wall to its right, on the other hand, was covered with just as many filing cabinets. Either the target was very organized, or wanted their clients to think that way about them - organized people can be both the most dangerous and most trustworthy, depending on the circumstances. Hanging from the wall opposite of the door was a framed painting. Iris didn't recognize it, but it was a very unusual painting, with what appeared to be a disembodied face and hand in space. With the low camera quality, Iris couldn't tell, but the face and hand were actually made from the bodies of angels. At the very center was an oak desk, stained by coffee and ink, and sitting behind it was the target.

Iris promptly shared the camera feed of Room 7 with Ghost, the image occupying a corner of the assassin's vision and leaving her capable of retaliation if necessary. With a tap, she sent a dummy text to herself before raising the phone to her ear again.

"Aight, I sent you the details. Need anything else, or is that all you wanted for the party? Maybe a game to make things more interesting?"

_________________

Ghost chuckled, shaking her head. "No need for games. Getting info is fun enough for me." Ghost said, her copy heading towards Room 7.

"Alright, I got the info. Remember, I'll scout it the room out, and see what he used. Once I found out, Smiles busts in and gets rid of it, if he can. Then Shark grab him, and Wasps knocks him out." She explained, turning towards the room. It was time to show why she was part of this group.

Scaring people into giving her info
---

It was an average day for the drug lord. Made some deals, shipped out some drugs, ruined lives, and made some money. Any day which money was made was a good day, but the warm feelings a good day would normally bring were missing. Replaced by a sense of dread and coldness. An attempt was placed on his life, and though it had been prevented, it still told him his enemies were getting braver. What else would they try?

"Well... as long as I have you, no cyborgs can touch me." He said with a deep chuckle, reaching for something.


"As long as you have what, exactly?"

The man jumped, placing a hand over his chest, looking up at the ghostly figure in front of him. "W-who the hell are you! Get out! GUARDS?" He yelled, frantically grabbing over his body, trying to find where his prized gun.

"Your guards are dead." A voice said. It was a rough voice, like the person it came from was suffering. It also, somehow, sounded distant, yet too close to the drug lord for his comfort. "And soon...you will be as well." It continued, the two eye-like orbs of white looking directly into his eyes. "I have come for you. For your sins." It said, holding out a long, crooked finger.

---

Ghost was giggling like a mad woman, having too much fun. "He's SO FREAKED out!" She told the others. "Okay, okay, time to get serious."

--

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU FREAK." The drug lord screamed, finally finding his gun and firing it. His skin turned white when the bullet just passed though the ghost, as he dropped the gun in shock.

"What did you USE!?" The ghost suddenly asked, it's voice now a symphony of many deep cruel-sounding voices, given an netherworld echo. "What did you use to kill the assassin?"

"THIS! I-i used this!" The drug lord whined, taking out a small, silver disk. It was smooth and thin, with a blue button in the center. Ghost looked at it, trying to find anything about it.

"...Don't mess with m-"

The druglord suddenly reached froward, pushing the bottom, smirking as a pulse was sent out from it. "And that solves that." He smiled, leaning back, going back to work. He took out some paper, writing something done on it. "I think Jackson wanted a shipment...Tuesday works, yeah..." He muttered to himself, completely ignoring Ghost.

"....?" Ghost was silent, completely confused at this point. Was the disk the thing? It didn't DO anything, so why was he so calm? Just as she was about to mention something, there was a popping sound.

And another. And another. And suddenly even more. And without warning, she lost contract with her hologram, as it just disappeared.
---


"Okay, he has it. WHATEVER he just did, it completely wiped out my hologram. It's dangerous." She said, turning to the others. "Smiles, it's a small silver disk on his table. You get rid of it, and I'll make SURE your next paycheck is a big one." She added. Whatever it was, it was electromagnetic in nature, judging from the pulse. But a simple EMP wouldn't knock out a cyborg, that was one of the first defenses put into place.

"Okay...on the count of three, I open the door, and you three head in."

She cut the wires on the door, and place her hand on the handle.

"One...two....three!"


And now the mission rested on the rest of them.