Name: Zach Williams

  World: Earth

  Gender: Male

  Age of Death: 24

  ...

  Life Summary:

  Zach was born into a poverty-stricken family located in one of his world's most powerful nations, the United States.

  This was mainly due to his father's heavy gambling, which depleted what little wealth the family had and led to him fleeing the country very early in Zach's life.

  Complications that followed his escape culminated in the subject's abandonment by his mother not very long after the fact.

  Coinciding with these events, the nation's higher authorities promoted a branch of their intelligence agency into its own independent organization.

  This organization was known as Dark Cove.

  Dark Cove was presented as a specialized solution to certain national security threats under circumstances where other branches of defense were limited, mostly due to a need to operate under legal boundaries.

  Naturally this meant Dark Cove didn't have to answer to any laws that were set by the government, something the higher-ups knew would not be popular with public opinion, so all information regarding its activity was kept secret.

  It was deemed a necessary evil where the results made up for the methods used, and the public wouldn't understand it.

  Due to the need for secrecy, normal recruitment methods could not be used since trusting normal people to stay quiet on such a large scale was too risky.

  What they needed was nothing short of unquestioning loyalty to Dark Cove complete with full control and knowledge of what their members did at all times.

  The best way to accomplish such a task, as presumed by the leaders of Dark Cove, was to train up young children from an early age in specialized facilities that would make them ideal followers.

  As part of this recruitment process, the newly abandoned Zach was taken from the streets to be transformed into an elite agent by the organization.

  This process was neither simple nor easy.

  To incentivize growth, all the basic necessities of life depended on how one performed in the tasks they were given.

  Furthermore, the way performance was assessed relied purely on how one compared to their peers, meaning there would always be someone at the top and someone at the bottom.

  Originally Zach did not show promising results, failing to compete with other trainees in just about everything.

  This left him as one of those at the bottom.

  He had to survive on rags for clothes, scraps for food, and overall harsh living conditions.

  Adding insult to injury, trainees were intentionally made aware of who performed better or worse which created social divides and with it social ostracization that Zach found himself at the forefront of.

  Many of those at the bottom resigned themselves to their fate from all this and stopped trying, but a rare few found reasons to persevere.

  Zach was one of these few.

  After years of enduring the harsh treatment of Dark Cove combined with brutal training, he was finally able to compete as one of the top recruits among his peers.

  Sadly, this did not come without long-lasting effects to Zach's mind.

  His rise was largely due to establishing an almost fanatic belief in Dark Cove's leaders, glorifying them as if they were benevolent deities who had saved him from the depths of hell with a second chance at life.

  Even when he was no longer unwelcome by the others, he refrained from any meaningful social connections, dedicating every second to self-improvement in order to pay back the organization's leaders for the large debt he thought he owed them.

  This wasn't a random or unexpected turn of events by any means however, it was the product of the non-stop indoctrination that the administration of Dark Cove had instated while the minds of their future soldiers were under great stress and early in their development.

  And soon enough, at the ages of adulthood, it was time for their investments to pay off.

  Agents were sent on individual missions to assess the practicality of the organization and based on the results, bring adjustments to the funding of Dark Cove as necessary.

  Zach's mission required infiltration of a civilian naval carrier with high-profile targets that were to be eliminated, for what he saw as the greater good.

  *****

  For a very long time I had been presented by the same static scenery of dark waters being illuminated by the moon's ever present white glow.

  My earlier nervousness was all but gone now with a hypnotizing boredom slowly putting my mind on autopilot, not that it mattered much.

  There weren't a lot of obstacles to hit in the open ocean.

  Suddenly, a red dot appeared on the radar of the Jet Ski I was riding.

  As it slowly approached the center of the screen, I knew it was almost time for me to get to work.

  It was going to be a stressful first mission but also a good first chance to prove my worth for Dark Cove and give back a little for everything they had given me.

  It wasn't long before a bright yellow dot hugging the horizon entered my view, marking the location of my mission and verifying the radar's signal.

  The dot soon turned clearer and clearer as I neared it, transforming into the sight of a gigantic white yacht adorned by bright lights and large stripes of black paint.

  The side of it read "The Captain".

  Slowly and stealthily, I found my way to the back of the boat where a docking area for smaller vessels was located.

  The nerves were coming back, but with no more time to waste I brought my focus back to the task at hand.

  From the intel I had received, my targets were two billionaires who had been suspected of funding enemies of the state as well as a myriad of other suspected wrongdoings.

  Although there was not enough evidence to pin them down in a court case as required by the nation's laws, they still needed to be stopped one way or the other.

  Their elimination was not only key to stopping the enemy but also bolstering the state's defenses since a large amount of their wealth would be rerouted back to the state.

  Once situated in the docking area, I disembarked my vehicle and quietly entered the luxurious boat, meeting a hallway of exposed pipes traveling the walls and ceiling in different directions.

  It was the type of area I was sure had never been visited by the actual owners of the vessel.

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  Traversing through the halls, I stopped at an approaching turn in the halls and swiftly took cover near the corner.

  Seconds later a man in a suit wearing an earpiece passed by accompanied with a holstered gun resting on his hip.

  It went without saying that the ship had an armed security entourage, after all they were carrying some pretty valuable cargo.

  From the position I was at, a quiet take-down would've been child's play but I decided against it, there were too many unknown variables about the security measures of the boat to risk such a thing.

  The lack of response from even a single guard could result in a full lockdown of the ship, making my task a lot more difficult or even impossible.

  Upon continuing, I finally reached a door fitted with a circular window on it showing the dark star-sprinkled skies outside.

  Before going through the door, I took off the tactical body suit I was wearing to reveal a black tuxedo underneath.

  There was an ongoing party on the boat, so I was advised to disguise myself and blend into the environment until I found my targets.

  As I wandered in search I couldn't help but notice the lively atmosphere.

  Everywhere I looked there were small groups of people talking while lavish food and drink were being served around them by waiters.

  One platter of food especially caught my attention, it was something I had only seen in my textbooks, and I found myself itching to try one.

  'Maybe I should...' I thought to myself at first, but after some deliberation, I resisted.

  I needed to stay focused, the faster this was done the better it was for me.

  As I continued to scour the ship, I found no sign of the people I was looking for and soon enough I had looked everywhere available to the party guests except one.

  It was relatively isolated, so I didn't expect to find anyone there, but I had to search it anyways to make completely sure.

  To my surprise I did actually find someone there, but it wasn't one of my targets.

  It was a kid dressed in cargo shorts and a T-shirt sitting on a couch holding some weird device.

  He did not match the theme of the party to say the least.

  I didn't know where else to look, the only option I had now was to wait a while and search again in hopes that they showed up.

  Giving the odd kid another glance, my eyes fixated on the device he had in his hands.

  I was tired of keeping my curiosity in check for so long and having it provoked again, I decided I could let loose this once.

  Although I was told to keep my interactions to a minimum so as not to leave behind clues for the investigations that would follow, it was bound to go nowhere even if they did find my traces.

  I walked up to him and directly asked,

  "Hey kid, what's that you're holding?"

  He jumped up slightly, as if he were exiting from a stupor, and turned over to my direction.

  "What?"

  "I said what are you holding?"

  "Um... a Gameboy?" He responded in a confused tone.

  I remember being briefed about similar looking devices called cellphones but that looked too strange to be one.

  I couldn't be too sure however, having never interacted with one in person due to Dark Cove's restrictions there was always the chance I was wrong.

  I sought clarification.

  "It's not a phone, is it?"

  The kid looked more confused.

  "No... dude how old are you?"

  Now I was also confused.

  "How does my age connect to the device?"

  "Because you look too young to not know what a cellphone is and not old enough to mistake one with a Gameboy. Unless... wait are you one of those homeschooled rich kids?"

  "Well I was schooled where my home is... bu-"

  "Yep, that explains it." He interrupted, "Parents like yours make me glad I have mine, and that's saying something." He somberly added.

  I wanted to explain more but his interruption gave me enough time to realize that it was best if I just played along.

  Thinking about it a little more though, I also realized he wasn't too far off from the truth with my actual parents.

  "Sorry, that looked like it hit a sore spot, you actually stopped having that blank look on your face for a second."

  'Oh, must've let it slip.' I thought.

  I was usually pretty good at not letting my emotions out.

  "Anyways, you wanted to know about the Gameboy. The name pretty much says it, you play games on it."

  "Like hide and seek?"

  "Dear god."

  After a couple more minutes of the kid trying to explain it and me still not being able to wrap my head around it, he gave up and just handed it to me.

  I didn't mind, after all I learned best through practical experience over anything else.

  With a little bit of guidance from the kid and some trial and error, I eventually managed to get a hang of it and at the same time, I was completely entranced by the device.

  "I didn't expect anyone at this type of place to be so interested in a Gameboy." The kid offhandedly commented as he watched me play.

  I was about to respond when suddenly I heard approaching footsteps coming our way.

  To my surprise it was one of the patrolling guards I had seen earlier.

  "Your father is looking for you sir Alex, please follow me this way."

  His expression turned apathetic at the guard's message.

  Silently he got up from his seat and followed him through a door that led inside of the yacht.

  I watched them leave without saying much until they were completely outside of my vision.

  Thinking I should go back to searching for my targets, I got up to leave when I remembered I was still holding the kid's Gameboy.

  Without a second thought, I chased after them so I could return it.

  Dark Cove always emphasized how important it was to repay debts, so without a second thought I went to go do just that.

  After entering the door they went through, I was greeted by another hallway that led to many more doors, and upon closer inspection of them I saw one door was slightly ajar.

  I quickly ran into the room and scanned for any signs of the boy, but instead, I found the two targets I was supposed to eliminate along with the guard from before.

  "Who is this, what are you doing here?" One of the them questioned.

  Remembering what I was here to do, my training kicked in.

  Without responding I dropped the Gameboy and speedily locked the door.

  Before the guard could pull out his gun, I took out my silenced pistol and bashed him in the head to knock him out.

  Wasting no movement, I raised the gun and aimed it over to one of the targets.

  A moment of silence ensued in the room, though one could still hear the muffled chatter of the party outside which bled through the walls.

  Just as quickly though, it was broken as the men began trying to negotiate with me for their lives.

  'Only one thing left to do...' I thought with my finger over the trigger of the gun.

  The familiar feeling of squeezing the trigger played in my mind, something I had done so many times preparing for this moment that I could perfectly recreate the sensation in my head, only difference this time being my choice of target.

  Suddenly my ears started to ring, my breathing got heavier, and to top it off my vision blurred.

  Now that I was actually in the position to take someone's life, I was having second thoughts about it.

  But I couldn't fail Dark Cove, not after all they did for me.

  My hand crept to pull the trigger as my mental reservations started to loosen.

  Milliseconds before I finished the job, the bathroom door of the room opened.

  Everyone inside the room froze yet again, including me.

  "Wait, you're the guy from before! What do you want with my dad?"

  Standing in the doorway was the odd kid from the party.

  My head rushed forth with even more thoughts of what I needed to do now.

  I owed the boy a sort of debt, but the success of my mission was on the line.

  Being faced with a dilemma only added to my hesitation.

  Before I could come to a decision a loud thumping noise began coming from the locked door of the room.

  Shaking away the complicated thoughts, I managed to regain myself just as the door was broken down and two guards with guns entered.

  Without any more thinking my training kicked in.

  I pointed my gun and shot the guards before they could react.

  ...

  In the peripherals of my vision, I saw the horrified faces of my targets and the boy.

  My mind ran full of thoughts once again, but knowing I was now on a timer, I started to run out the room without a sparing an extra second, dashing for my getaway as I frantically bumped into party guests.

  Finally making it back to the docking station, I jumped on my escape vehicle and tried to start the engine with my hands trembling, only for my hands to tremble even more after hearing the echo of multiple footsteps sound out behind me.

  Reaching my location the guards began to fire their guns as I sped away at full throttle, just barely escaping a bullet-filled death.

  The sound of guns firing kept ringing out behind me, though with the increasing distance between us, their chances of hitting me diminished by the second.

  Thinking I was safe again I started to calm down, but then one last bang rung out, sending my lower back screaming into a mind-numbing pain.

  *****

  Zach's mission was declared a failure, and his was the only one among his peers.

  The other agents had made astounding successes, displaying the effectiveness of the organization to those in charge which led to a large budget increase for Dark Cove.

  Due to Zach's injury at the end of his mission, his lower body was left paralyzed, denying him any chance of going back out to the field to make up for his shameful failure.

  His loyalty however, was still recognized by the higher-ups who in no way would allow an asset they had spent so much on to waste away, so they assigned him the trusted position of record keeper.

  Even with things eventually panning out for Zach, his mental status had taken a nosedive from what he had experienced, resulting in a fixation on entertainment devices, a fixation that grew as he managed to acquire them through his newfound freedom with his position.

  Rather than being satiated with just that however, his obsession grew to other parts of the society he was estranged from as he began consuming more media in the form of movies, TV shows, books, and so on.

  Fictional, non-fictional, and semi-fictional stories transformed into entertainment allowed Zach to expand his knowledge of the world and with that his sense of morality.

  After years and years more he came to a realization.

  Dark Cove was not a morally just group.

  The assassination targets of his mission were found to not be guilty of the accusations after deeper investigation yet weirdly enough, they later ran for important government positions.

  Consulting the records of his mission also showed that there was no evidence to suspect them of colluding with any enemies of the state either.

  Zach then came to know of the true purpose of Dark Cove, something that was a lot more sinister and selfish than what they were told.

  It was a political tool used to puppeteer the government by a select few officials.

  In an attempt to be the so-called good guy of his own story, Zach slowly began publicizing the physical copies of Dark Cove through the internet after secretly gaining access to it.

  Not too long after, Zach was tortured until he made a clear confession to his crimes and was later killed without the public ever knowing he was the one who had leaked that information.