Sunlight was shining through the small gaps of the blinds in Boreas' apartment, hitting his face as he sat there in front of his computer. He didn't pay much attention to it, as the information he had found caught all of his attention. Months worth of research had finally cultivated into this very moment.
***
Catalyst wasn't exactly a secret organisation, as they were politically active. Although their agenda was questionable, it wasn't enough to stand out. Rumors claim that the faction had a foot in on the black market, and illegal weapon deals. No one have ever been able to verify this information, and it was never brought up publicly.
Boreas was not one to just drop a gut feeling. He sensed that something important was going on in the faction, and decided to do some research. He searched through the internet, and didn't get much. He found a few "conspiracy theories" involving Catalyst, but none of them had any substantial proof to back it up. So he turned to the more shady kind of information, and eventually had some luck finding a member of Catalyst. He was just a small fry, but nevertheless he kept his cards close. Boreas used all of his cunning, and eventually gained his trust, without ever revealing his real identity. He had, of course, made a name for himself in the crimanal world for a purpose like this.
At that point he knew that he had himself an inside man, that he could play like a chess piece. He used him to gain some information for further research. Apparantly it didn't take long for Catalyst to know that something wasn't going as they would have it, and his inside man vanished from the face of the earth, with no trace of him ever being connected to Catalyst.
This was, of course, planned for, and proved vital information to Boreas.
***
"What do we have here.." Boreas mumbled to himself. On his computer screen was an alphabetically list of names of humans with supernatural abilities. He opened up the first file on the list.
Name: Albert Fret.
Occupation: Museum director.
Date of birth: 04/23/1977.
Ability: Electric conduit. Absorbs electricity and unleashing it at will.
The amount of information gathered was impressive. His, Albert Frets, entire life, compressed into one file. Below the basic information was a link to another folder containing snapshots of Albert. At first glance it was easy to see that they were taken without him knowing. Using these photos would allow one to easily identify him.
Boreas quickly skimmed through the file, and got an image of what kind of person he was. At the bottom of the document was a rather disturbing entry.
"Subject is enlisted for recruiting. Rejection of the proposition is not an option. Subject will be disposed of, proved necessary". Below it was a single highlighted word. "Exterminated".
Boreas smirked.
"I knew it" he thought to himself.
He read through the rest of the files with the letter 'A' and recognized some of the names from some of his other researches. His exitement was clearly showing, and he couldn't help smiling smug.
He got to the letter 'B'. His smile quickly faded. He braced himself for what to come. As he read through the files, his heart gradually began to beat faster, and faster.
He reached the letter 'C'. He sighed in relief, and leaned back in his seat, tilting his head back and stared at the roof while taking some deep breaths. He hadn't expected his name to show up, but there was always a little uncertainty.
He stretched his fingers full of new found confidence and satisfaction, and continued with the list.
As he read through the files, he deducted that they all had recruitment potential in common.
***
"Sir, we've got a security breach on the database servers. The encryption of the software used is incredible. I've never seen anything like it, and we're having a hard time identifying it's origin" a woman said over the intercom. The man known in Catalyst as "Deman" had been leaning back in his oversized chair, smoking his favorite brand of cigar. He smiled wickedly to himself.
"It was about time" he said to himself. He leaned over to the intercom.
"Inform Dark Whisper of his next target. And make sure he understands the importance of this assignment. I will not tolerate failure. Do you understand your part?" he said with no hint of emotions whatsoever.
"Yes sir. I'll do it right away".
"And Steph".
"Yes sir?".
Deman smirked.
"Destroy the decoy".
***
Jericho's forehead was filled with sweat drops from his intense workout. He grabbed his towel from the nearby workout bench, and wiped his forehead. His heartbeat had started to settle down, and his panting ceased. A phone rang nearby, and his dark green eyes quickly located it's position.
"Yes?".
"Dee Wee?".
An irritation wrinkle appeared on his forehead.
"I told you to stop calling me that. It's Jericho to you. What is it?".
"A mission from the boss. He asked specifically for you. You are to go to the usual retrieval point and await further instructions.".
"Mmm.." Jericho had just taken a sip from his bottle of water.
"Oh, and by the way. He doesn't tolerate any mess ups.".
"No need to worry. I never fail". He hung up.
Jericho picked up his black shirt and his sunglasses and headed for the door, where his already packed bag stood.
***
Boreas looked out of the airplane window and saw only clouds. He had been surprised by the sudden shut down, but had luckily made counter measures, and had copied the entire database onto his laptop, which was resting safely in the handbag compartment.
He continued to gaze out of the window, deep in his thoughts. He was aware that Catalyst was on to him, and concluded that his sudden leave would give him a 2 days headstart, at best and most definitely less. His face showed no expression as he sat there on first class in his white Armani suit. A single sweatdrop appeared on the side of his forehead, and slid down his face. He loosened his tie, and let his head fall on the head-rest.
An announcement was heard throughout the plane, but he didn't pay much attention to it. He already knew that it was just stating the fact that they're just a few minutes from reaching the airport in Mexico City.
***
Jericho's mission was simple. Find and eliminate.
The "Oracle", as they called her, would take care of locating him, roughly. Her ability can pinpoint a location within a 3 km radius, which would be more than enough for Jericho.
In his hand he had a file labeled 'Boreas'. It contained little valuable information on him, but it did include his abilities. He had already read it through many times, and was silently planning how to proceed, as the plane was reaching it's destination. He opened it up again and skimmed it through. Boreas' actions up 'til now had been expected, even though his current location seemed a bit odd, and had surprised Jericho when he got the phone call.
"We'll hit the drop off point in 5 minutes. Get ready" a voice said over the intercom. Jericho got out of the seat, and grapped a parachute. He had gotten quite used to these kind of drop-offs, and stuffed his sunglasses in a pocket, and zipped it up.
By the hatch stood his equipment bag waiting faithfully for him to pick it up. He grabbed it, and took the plunge.
***
The oracle had located Boreas to be at a secluded area in the desert. Jericho had been stalking his prey for a few days. He used those days to memorize the terrain.
Boreas seemed to be out camping in the desert, doing some field research, and so far hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. His tent was placed in the midst of some gargantuan boulders, with alot of space between tent and rock. Jericho was lying on top of a boulder, looking through his thermal binoculars. The red silhoutte of Boreas was lieing in his tent, seeming to be asleep.
The cold desert night forced Jericho to wear a thick jacket, which he normally wouldn't use on an assasination mission, but decided that staying warm would be the best way to keep his motoring skills intact.
He decided that now would be the best time to strike. He packed down the binoculars in his bag, and slowly moved in on Boreas, silently with his cat like grace unfit of a man of his size. The gargantuan boulders provided alot of unnecessary cover, and the night made him almost invisible in his black attire.
Jericho was now only a few steps away from the tent containing Boreas. Everything had gone smoothly, but a stirring uneasiness had been troubling Jericho for a while.
"Welcome" a sudden voice said from behind him. Jericho instinctly turned around, while his right eye was starting to emit a dark glow and he made a quick hand movement in the direction of the voice, from which a tiny bolt shot out from his hand. It travelled with incredible speed, only to crash into a rock, creating a silent thump.
"I've been expecting you." Jericho's green eyes was scouting the nearby surroundings intensely searching for the origin of the voice. He spotted something very small, that appeared to be glued to the rock that he had just hit. He calmly returned to a normal stance, and approached it carefully, and when he reached for it, he felt that it wasn't glue, but ice that was keeping it in place.
"Ahh, I see you've found the speaker. There's a receiver in it aswell, so I can hear everything you say. Let's have a little chat". Jericho could feel the confidence emitting through the small speaker in his hand, and was silently loathing himself for being played like this. At that very moment Jericho accepted the fact that this wouldn't be an ordinary assasination mission. He noted to himself that Boreas had a visual of him, which proably was from a video feed judging by the use of speakers.
"Do you like it? I designed it myself. But enough about me. I'm guessing you've been sent by Catalyst, am I right?" Jericho's face showed no expression, and he didn't give him the joy of replying, instead he crushed the speaker with his hand.
"Ohh, the macho type. How freightening" the voice said dripping with sarcasm, from a different location. Jericho was starting to get real annoyed by this Boreas, and his irritation wrinkle appeared on his forehead.
"By the way, it won't do you any good trying to destroy the speakers. As you've guessed by now, there's more than just one, and it would be a waste of time finding them all."
"What do you hope to gain from this?" Jericho said with no hint of his annoyance showing. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and concentrated on finding the location of the real person. He knew that those wireless speakers had a relatively short range, as he had quite a number of such gadgets similar to them. Boreas was nearby.
"Information. And lots of it" Boreas said. Jericho's concentration had paid of, as he could hear an almost unnoticeable delay between the person and the speaker.
"Oh really? And how do you intend to get that?" Jericho's keen night vision had located 5 more speakers, and 2 small cameras. He memorized the locations.
"By force if I ha.." more did he not get to say as Jericho's right eye started to emit a dark glow. He reached for his pocket containing his sunglasses, put them on, and quickly turned around on the spot, whirling up lots of sand and made quick hand movements in seven directions. Seven bolts shot out from his hand. As his eye returned to it's normal colour, he heard seven metallic crunches, confirming that the bolts had hit their marks, and made a silent leap behind a nearby boulder.
"Now we're even" he thought to himself, and smiled wickedly.
***
Boreas had picked Mexico City because of his contacts there, and knew that he could get all the supplies he needed as soon as he landed. He also needed a secluded area, which the desert supplied, in case of something, not meant for the public to witness, happened.
Boreas had handpicked the spot he wanted to go to on the plane, and had made arrangements for his supplies to be at the airport, and to have a few guides come along to carry his lugagge, so he could leave immediately.
As soon as they arrived there, he sent them away and started to equip the surroundings with gadgets, and placing bottles of water strategically aroung the area. While he was waiting for something to happen, he made it look as though he was doing some field research, and picked up the occasional desert scrub and analyzed it. Anyone watching would be convinced that he was doing field research.
***
Boreas planted his laptop in the sand beside him, got up, grabbed his bottle of water and started to run. From the boulder he had just been leaning against to the next cluster of boulders, was quite some distance.
He forgot all about his surroundings, and headed straight for the cluster, which turned out not be to a good idea. He didn't see the desert scrub in front of him, and resulted in him tripping over it, and dropped his bottle mid fall.
Lieing on his stomach, flat on the ground, he looked behind him at the boulder he came from. The unknown person was standing on top of it.
Boreas analyzed the situation, and it didn't take much brain to see that he was at a disadvantage. Atleast he had the moonlight to raise his odds a bit.
Boreas got up and took off his tie and blazer, and threw it on the ground, meanwhile the giant of a man jumped down from the boulder.
"I guess there's no point in running now" Boreas said, looking straight at the man. Boreas noticed something familiar about this man, but couldn't quite put his finger on what. The man grinned, and Boreas felt a chill down his spine. Something about this person made him feel uneasy, and his heart started pumping steadily faster, and he felt his adrenaline pumping along.
Boreas pushed his sleeves up his arms, and readied himself for the impending battle to come.
"I guess I won't be needing this" the huge man said and took off his jacket. As he dropped it, he suddenly charged towards Boreas.
"He's fast" Boreas thought to himself momentarily grabbed by panic and was barely able to redirect the incoming punch, away from his face. Boreas took a few steps backwards, maintaining his focus on the opponent and kept his hands up, ready for the next attack, but the man didn't leave much room for him to recover, as he quickly closed in with a new attack aimed at Boreas' stomach.
This time Boreas was ready, and redirected the punch away from himself, grabbed the mans elbow with his left hand and froze it well below 0 degrees celcius, and directed a punch towards the mans, now exposed, kidneys. He concentrated on thrusting the man back, and released a burst of telekinesis as the punch connected, pushing him a few feet away.
The man landed on his feet and grabbed his elbow, showing definite signs of pain. He stood a bit without moving, but then started flexing his elbow joint.
Boreas noted his fast regeneration to the mans abilities. Boreas eyes quickly scouted the sourrounding area for his bottle of water.
"Very nice. But that won't be enough to save you" the man said and revealed his teeth in a unpleasant smile. The man charged again and striked a punch with his left hand towards Boreas' head, and had in the mean time moved his right hand over to his left side.
Boreas hadn't noticed the mans right eye had begun to emit a dark glow, or the small aura of darkness sourrounding his hand, before he had already redirected it.
Boreas felt immediate pain in his right hand he had used to redirect it, and instinctly froze the palm of his hand to soothe it. He barely noticed a mist like darkness swiftly gathering near the mans right hand. A katana then appeared within the blink of an eye. He made a strike towards the abdomen area on Boreas.
"Crap!" Boreas thought, and tried to jump backwards, but the attack was too close.
"I won't make it" he thought to himself. He closed his eyes and concentrated on thrusting himself backwards.
The katana cut open his shirt, and made a small scratch on his stomach from where blood began to ooze out. Boreas landed a meter away from where he just had been standing, and manged to regain his foothold.
"Nice little trick. I didn't think you would use your telekinesis on yourself" the man said obviously amused by Boreas' attempt to dodge the attack. The katana vanished from his hand in a little cloud of darkness, and he walked slowly towards Boreas.
Boreas remembered where he knew this person from. Well, not person per se, but rather demigod. Boreas remembered reading some ancient texts about a demigod whose abilities matched what he's seen so far.
Then he remembered that the demigod hadn't revealed his most dangerous ability yet.
"I know what you are" Boreas said, mustering up all of his courage.
The demigod stopped momentarily which Boreas instantly used to his advantage. He raised his arm in the direction of the bottle, and concentrated on thrusting it towards him. The bottle flew through the air, and Boreas grabbed it with ease. He screwed off the lid, and concentrated on shaping in into a katana.
The demigod watched, and his left eye began emitting a white glow, and white started slowly covering his iris.
But he was a tad too slow. Boreas had already grabbed what would be the hilt of the sword, and had frozen the water instantly.
"Now we're more even" Boreas said and smirked. He raised his sword and started to charge.
The demigod put out his right hand, and his katana appeared in a small mist of darkness, and prepared for the attack to come.
The demigod grinned evilly, obviously excited.