OVERRIDE

Chapter 6: Choices

"Your world just got a whole lot bigger," she grinned, helping me to my feet.

"So what now, Red?" I asked.

"Well, I'm aware you may not be so fond of us, considering what we've done. But you did choose to join us," she emphasized the last part, reminding me that this was my choice, despite what the other option was.

"Where are we, exactly?" I looked around, noticing the strangely familiar surroundings.

"We're in Arc-J5, this is an old Imperos military base from back in the war," she slipped out a hologram keycard from her suit and swiped it near the cuffs on my ankles. The small red light turned blue, and with a subtle ring the cuffs unlocked. I slipped out, glad to be free from the constraints.

"It's been a while since we've had a new member, Ave. I'm sure everyone will happy to meet you," Red smiled, picking up the cuffs and twirling them around her fingers.

"Now would you mind telling me what the fuck that was?" I said, referring to when Jumper disappeared from thin air.

She let out a hearty laugh before snapping her fingers, "You'll learn everything, once we know that we can trust you."

"You shouldn't."

"Let me rephrase that, right now, we need your loyalty. The trust will follow," a wicked smile grew along her face, "Ghost, you can put the rifle away now."

A man suddenly fell from the ceiling, hitting the ground pretty hard next to Red. He wore an exosuit as well and had a sleek mask that only covered the top half of his face, leaving his lips and chin exposed. His bottom lip was pierced and his chin was covered in messy stubble. He held a gold and black sniper rifle, a deadly design that was most definitely illegal, probably something that the military didn't even have access to.

"This is Ghost," she said as he greeted me with a nod, "He doesn't talk much, but he's the best damn marksman I've ever seen, and, one of my most trusted."

Ghost slung his rifle around his shoulder, where hovered for a second before locking in place to the back of his exosuit.

"He won't hesitate to kill you, if you betray us," she said plainly.

"You really enjoy threatening me, don't you?" I crossed my arms.

"Most definitely," Red smiled mischievously, "But now, on to your induction."

"Excuse me? I don't remember agreeing to any 'induction'."

Red snapped her fingers yet again, ignoring my confusion, "Xedalia, send Jumper back for me."

A moment later there was a bright glow in the middle of the room, and with a flash Jumper appeared in it's place, bright particles floating around him like last time.

"The induction is simple, Ave, you will complete your first contract in Blacklist's name, properly this time, Ghost here will be your..." she paused trying to find the words, "competition should I say?"

Jumper walked around, leaning on Ghost's shoulder with a playful grin.

"I'll kill you, old man," Ghost said quietly. That was the first thing he said since he's been here, and I wasn't sure if I should have been surprised or not.

"You've killed before, but that was personal. In our family, you'll have to kill people you've never met. Not knowing if they have loved ones, what their plans for the future are, or even why your contract wants them dead. You just do it, and that may be a lot tougher than you think," she turned towards me, "Like I said, I need your loyalty. I need to know that despite how you feel or how much you trust us, you'll get the job done anyway."

"What if I don't want to?" In all honesty, I wasn't expecting they'd trust me to kill some random person so soon.

"You don't have much of a choice, rookie," Jumper said.

"We want to see if you could take a life, not knowing if they are innocent or not. Too see if you could show the same ruthlessness you showed to Aderr, to a random person on the street," her tone turned dark as she spoke, and it caused chills to run down my spine, "Your task is simple. Both you and Ghost have been assigned the same contract, your job, is to kill the target before Ghost. If you succeed, you live and we'll officially introduce you to the family. If Ghost gets to them before you, you die."

"Red slow down for a-"

"You'll get a head start of course, Jumper will take you to the target's location in Arc-J5, Ghost will be starting from here," she continued explaining like all this was completely normal.

"Don't worry rookie I'll fill you in on the details when we get there," Jumper casually made his way over to me, and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Hold up"

"Oh, and by the way, Ghost will be trying to kill you the entire time too," she said, snapping her fingers.

"Wait a minute-" I said glancing sideways at Jumper.

Is he really about to-

Jumper began to glow beside me, reminding me of what happened when he had placed his hand on Swave's shoulder before.

"Don't die Ave," she said teasingly.

"Red-"

Before I could finish, the world around me flashed white, my body breaking apart, everything moving too fast to comprehend. It felt as if I was going through a particle transporter, only much faster. A second later we were in the more uppity parts of Arc-J, standing right outside one of the tallest apartment complexes in J5. My run down apartment couldn't even compare, I felt too broke to even be looking it. Buildings as high tech as these were rare nowadays in Aertide, but in other nations like Eden, you could find them around every corner.

I quickly turned around looking for Jumper, almost thankful when I found him still standing beside me.

"What the hell? Do you guys usually do this with your new members?" I wasn't used to the fast travel, and was still trying to get a hold of my senses.

"Actually, no, this isn't the usual. But I'll follow Red's lead," Jumper noticed my slight distortion, and apologized, "You'll get used to it rookie, but for now let's get down to business."

Something in me wouldn't allow me to look straight at him. They couldn't expect me to get over what happened. To act like he was my friend, or even my acquaintance, was simply was impossible right now.

"Go on," I said, staring at the blue building reaching into the sky.

"Your target is a man named Lens, he is the owner of this building, and has a bad habit of cheating the resident's of their money. Some rich prick finally got fed up with it," He held a hologram array in his hands. It activated, showing the image of a young man with a mechanical jaw.

"Half the job is already done for you, and don't worry, Ghost won't start his hunt until I return to Red. Hope you're ready rookie."

"How am I supposed to be ready for this? I don't have anything to even kill him with."

That's if I can kill him...

"You're on your own with that one," he began to glow, ready to head back to Red.

"I'm guessing we're pretty far from that military base, so I should have to upper hand," I mumbled, trying to give myself a pep talk.

Fail and you die, Ave. Take a life to save yours. Simple as that.

I could practically feel Red smiling from the base as Jumper started to disappear again.

"Are you ready for your first contract kill, Assassin?"