(Dakota Gray^^)

There were three total L.A.C.E. agents who infiltrated the DCL

I immediately saw Agent 8, a middle aged Russian man with a greying buzz cut, that I recognized instantly.

He was known as Artur Slate.

He used to be my trainer

I was a little taken back that L.A.C.E. sent him. He normally worked on his own and was particularly known for being a loose cannon. Unlike most L.A.C.E. agents, who seemed to tolerate their forced occupations, Artur genuinely enjoyed being a killer. Something about taking life away from someone else seemed to excite him. While no one remembered their past at L.A.C.E., there had been a rumor that Artur had actually willingly joined L.A.C.E.

The second agent I spotted quickly after a desk was launched into the air and exploded upon a small barricade of DCL agents who all held M16s in hand. They were sent flying backwards as the desk smashed straight into them. I knew only one Special who could explosive charge objects like that. It was agent 16, Leah Bentley. She was just a year older than I was, I had even trained beside her at one point. The Masters used to make us spar until one of us couldn't stand any longer.

She was a resolute being and neither of us ever liked one another much.

The Algerian woman was a lithe agent with good hand to hand combat yet she was not considered one of the top agents like I was. She and Artur made a good team though. With her explosive charges and Artur's moderate telekinesis ability, they could send modified bombs through the air at will.

The third one was perhaps the most surprising of all. I recognized his young puppy dog like face and curly blonde hair easily.

It was agent 11.

I had been his first trainor when he began the process of becoming a true agent at just the ripe old age of 13. I used to have a soft spot for him but by now he had probably been hardened into merely a shell of the boy I once knew. His name was Callum Kursinski and he was one of the youngest agents within L.A.C.E.. He seemed far too young to already be out in the field already but I guess now he was old just enough. Just 19 years old and already a murderer.

He was just barely a man.

Beside me, Dakota held a P99 in hand with his face perfectly emotionless. If the premise of powerful Specials who wouldn't hesitate to rip his head off intimidated him, he didn't show it.

A female voice rang through my earpiece suddenly "Hey Sterling? We let you out for a reason, what's the run down here?" Saratoga's hoarse voice asked through the link. I thought quickly as I watched the three L.A.C.E. agents make mince meat of the poor DCL agents. Those poor humans hardly stood a chance against the L.A.C.E agents. There were already several DCL members and agents strewn upon the floor. Most of them appeared to be dead.

"Well first of all, how many Specials does the DCL have in all?" I asked curiously hoping for at least half a dozen or more.

"Just three. Teddy, Sara and I" Royce replied. I internally groaned in mild irritation. I quickly realized that Dakota, Mr.Poker Face, was only a human.

Great.

"Oh well, so much for power in numbers" I stated absently. "There are three agents down there, two cerebrals and one corporeal. The female is the one to worry about, she can explosively charge any inanimate object. The bigger the object the bigger the explosion is. Williams probably has the best defense against her," I answered quickly thinking about Royce's shield like projections.

" The older male has enhanced strength with partial telekinetic capability," I continued.

Suddenly Saratoga butted in. "One of them is just a kid," She proclaimed, noticing Callum. There apprehension was in her words. At the same time Callum had a DCL agent pinned to the ground as he shocked the helpless agent witless.

"That doesn't mean he won't try to kill you," I replied through the earpiece to her. "He is an electric eel hybrid with electricity stimulus. Do not let him touch you. Australia, see if you can get a tranq in him, he doesn't have the skin enhancement," I finished through the comlink.

"Rogering that," Melbourne's breathy voice replied through the link. He sounded as if he were rushing up a steep hill or flight of stairs.

Suddenly Artur's crazed grey eyes found mine from across the room. His eyes were bloodshot and his pupils were black like a sharks. "изменник!!" He yelled in russian as froth like spittle came out from the corner of his mouth.

I recognized the word.

Traitor.

Dakota, who stood beside me, rose his P99 and quickly sent off half a dozen shots directly at Artur. Artur rose his hand at the same time that Dakota rose his gun. The bullets were met by an invisible wall that stopped them in mid air.

They dropped to the floor uselessly.

Artur gave a wild grin. "Hiding behind the DCL like a coward Agent 17? How low you have become," Artur taunted in his thick Russian accent.

A muscle in my jaw tightened in agitation. It had been a long time since someone had referred to me as agent 17.

Agent 17 was the name given to me by the Masters.

"Oh, I'm not hiding," I replied directly at him. I was pissed off now, just seeing Artur and remembering the training he put me through triggered a nerve.

A particularly temperamental nerve.

I took off, sprinting towards Artur and Leah in a blaze. The pair quickly reacted by sending an explosive charged chair straight towards me. I focused upon the explosive chair and redirected it to my left where Callum was coming in for an attack.

He just barely dove out of the way as the chair just missed him by a hair. Saratoga appeared a split second later and pressed forward an attack upon the younger male. I noticed a flash of metallic silver around her hands that looked like knives attached to her hands. I didn't have much time to look closer as I approached Leah Artur who smiled like the madman he was.

As I sprinted, I lowered my hand as if throwing a ball under hand like a softball player. When I brought my hand upward, a telekinetic tidal wave followed my actions and was sent racing towards the pair. This action not only sent the fallen and mostly destroyed debris in front of me backwards, but it also launched Agent 16 straight right off her feet and into a wall.

Artur, on the other hand managed to block the wave somewhat with his own telekinetic shield. He only stumbled back a few feet rather than being sent through the air.

I was a only few yards away and finally met Artur head on with a leaping punch. I was without any physical weapons on my person so that did create a small dilema.

Thankfully, I did know how to kill with my bare hands.

Artur blocked my punch with the senior precision that came from being a seasoned agent like himself. His technique and style would be flawless so I would have to beat him with speed and power. His small block against me didn't stop the onslaught of sharp jabs and quick blows that came next. I held nothing back as I attacked my former trainor without hesitation.

My technique had obviously gotten rusty from lack of use, but I quickly began to break through his defenses. He was doing his best to not allow me to actually touch him for too long.

Finally, Artur made an offensive move and went for a cheap neck punch that I dodged swiftly. Unfortunately, I was unable to dodge the next blow from his powerful strong left hand that hit me in the gut. I grunted in pain before my own fist came into contact sharply with his cheek. I could feel the titanium bones within my hand come into close contact with his cheekbone. Artur stumbled backwards into one of the demolished desks and nearly tripped over his own feet.

A few drops of blood began to trickle lazily from the right corner of his lip. "You're getting a little slow there old man," I jeered as I approached him with telekinetic energy gathering around my fist.

I was about to finish him with a last power blow when I saw part of a flaming cinder block hurtling towards me from the corner of my eye. I reacted with just a split second to spare as I swatted the explosive charge cinder block away from me. It exploded a couple yards away against some fallen roofing tiles. I could feel the heat from the small explosion on my pale cheeks.

I could see Leah from where I stood now as she flung another cinder block half at me from roughly 30 yards away. She had finally recovered from being slammed against the wall.

I rose my hand to throw the block off course. This time however, the flaming cinder block was met by a shimmering force field before it could even arch downwards. Royce was nearby with his hand risen. His jade colored eyes were fiercely determined as he pressed forward. I would never have guessed him to be a harmless doctor from looking at him now.

He seemed completely sure of himself and I could see Dakota sneaking stealthily from behind her with a gun in hand .

I just barely had the chance to see Saratoga battling against Callum who wielded an electrically charged knife. His gun must have been knocked from his hands earlier. Callum was nearly a blur against Saratoga. But she was holding her own as she was mostly just trying to stay away from his hands that were pulsing with electric currents. " Anytime now, Teddy," Saratoga stated through the comlink as she ducked away from lunging swipe.

I turned my attention back to Artur who had recovered from my blow and was already approaching me once again. " Give me a second, that kid is fast," Teddy's Australian voice claimed through the earpiece before I met Artur once more in a flurry of fists and well aimed kicks. Speaking of well aimed kicks, Artur managed to get me off balance with a sly kick to my shins. I tried to regain my balance but was instead met with a telekinetic shove that sent me fumbling backwards.

I regained my balance quickly as I blocked another punch with my forearm. The sheer force from the punch pushed me to the ground. Artur grinned maliciously as he found he had the upper hand based on my vulnerable position. The next thing I knew he had dug his meaty fist into my lower rib cage.

I grunter in pain before I subconsciously sent a telekinetic shock wave outwards defensively. This gave me a little breathing room as Artur now staggered awkwardly several feet away. A second spasm of pain erupted from my midsection from that punch but it only inflated my temper further.

I was practically seething now.

I gathered all my will power as I focused my mind upon Artur. A surge of telekinetic energy suddenly pulled him upwards and toward me. I could feel an immense pressure upon my shoulders but I pushed through the feeling. He was telekinetically lifted upwards until he was completely suspended in mid air. It felt like I was trying to lift up over 200 pounds over my head witch was probably how much the larger Russian man weighed. Yet the adrenaline that pumped through my veins encouraged me to push forward as Artur found himself in a full body bind made of pure telekinetic energy. With a swipe of my arm downwards Artur was slammed straight into the concrete ground brutally. His body crumpled on impact like a ragdoll.

At first I thought maybe I had accidentally killed him, as his body laid there completely motionless. I approached him cautiously and looked closely at his sturdy body. Thankfully, his chest rose up and down slowly showing that he indeed was still living.

My breaths came out raggedly as I recovered from releasing so much energy. Even with the adrenaline rushing through my system, my limbs still ached from all the telekinetic power I had used. It was kind of like I had just come out of a really intense four hour training session.

I pressed my earpiece as I turned around to survey the last two L.A.C.E. agents who needed to be taken care of.

"Agent 8, is down. How are the rest of you doing?" I asked through my earpiece. It felt a little strange to be asking if they needed help. It felt almost as if I was actually on their team. L.A.C.E. normally only had us work alone or in groups of two at the most. But of course, this team pact with the DCL was only temporary.

I could see that Saratoga had stopped her fight against Callum who had stopped suddenly as his hand went to his neck. He staggered into the debris as the tranquilizer took effect. Callum didn't appear wounded otherwise, witch I was thankful for.

I had a bit of a soft spot for the boy.

I glanced upwards to see where the shot came from and spotted Teddy in one of the upper office levels holding a sniper rifle in front of him. He certainly was an excellent marksman to be able to shoot someone as fast as Callum from that far away.

It must have been from him being a Special.

I could see Royce and Dakota fighting against Leah from across the level. The pair fought well together against the now struggling agent. Leah was amazing at hand to hand combat but it seemed Dakota quite easily outmatched her in skill. I don't know who taught Dakota to fight the way he did, but he fought as if he had been an expert at martial arts since he was 4 years old. And with Royce easily defending against Leah's explosive charges with his shield projections it soon became an unfair fight. Leah might have stood a chance against just one of them but with the two of them working together like a singular unit against the agent...

She was hopelessly outmatched.

Even if this little team at the DCL was small with merely 3 total Specials, who weren't terribly powerful by any mean, they did work well together.

Of course they did have me helping them.

But still, they had obviously all been working together with each other for years. I could almost imagine that maybe if I hadn't been kidnapped by L.A.C.E. that maybe, just maybe, I would have joined the DCL like they did.

I helped Dakota and Royce completely take down Leah which wasn't very hard. The two men had already done most the work for me.

Personally, it was quite beneficial that the Masters of L.A.C.E. decided to send these three. It was a naive, even sloppy, decision to send them to finally kill me once and for all but maybe some of the other, more qualified agents might have already been on separate missions. Whatever the reason, L.A.C.E. had put themselves into a very vulnerable position. The DCL now had not one but four total either former or current L.A.C.E. agents as their captives.

Of course Callum, Artur, and Leah would never give up any information willingly. The serum would never allow them too. The DCL could never even force the answers out of them. They didn't have the same neurological mindset that would allow then to disobey the serum like I did.

Unfortunately for L.A.C.E., while their agents may have been totally unsuspectable to all manner of a natural interrogation, they would never be safe from me.

I didn't even have to ask questions.