John Xeno, MI6 Issue #1 - Mission Comes First

John’s morning started like every other morning, his alarm rang at 7:00, he opened his eyes, and started scanning the room, his training kicking in. He stood up, checked under the bed for any explosives, the window, the lamp and under his desk. “All clear” he thought to himself as he started preparing for another day of training under Freya. His spirits were high as he knew he would start training on his new found abilities. His room was dustless, as appropriate for any respectable agent in The Order. His walls bare except for a single poster featuring Arthur Danger(In one of his better movies “Better to die twice”) and a mirror. The white walls reflected the morning sun and made the place look much brighter than you would expect, sharpening all of the edges and corners like a high contrast image.
He wore his protective gear which consisted of a stab-proof vest, hardened knee and elbow pads, padded sleeves and steel capped boots, perfect for close quarter combat. He exited his room into the large hallway, rooms on each side. It connected to the main hall. The walls were covered with motivational posters, and pamphlets showing the incredible things that the MI6 had done for Queen and country. Truly a sight to behold. John took a long deep breath, readying himself for another day where he needs to prove his worth, both to his mentor and to his newfound responsibility. He touched his chest, it was still aching from the operation, he dared not to look at it, for the scars are frightening.
He walked to the main hall, feeling his chest pounding with each step, as though it was judging his every move. It was bright from the blue neon lights and the sun which shone from the large windows on all sides. The main hall connected to the living quarters, the dining hall, the training hall and to the operational theatre.
A loud tune was heard from the speakers. “It is 7:15, breakfast is served in the dining hall” A large crowd of people started walking towards it. John looked at the crowd, he could see his colleagues who’ve passed the rigorous testing phase, some weird looking people, and some older agents, whose hair started greying. The smell of fresh brewed tea hit his nose and he started following the crowd. The dining hall was packed, as usual, yet oddly quiet. John wondered about that for a moment, yet the thought vanished as though it didn’t exist when his stomach grumbled to the sight of fresh eggs, bacon and cheese.
John sat next to one of his buddies, a new agent, Brandon Brewmeister, he was merely a year older, and yet his eyes looked like those of a sphinx, ancient and wise. “One small pizza with chicken” John said, expecting a warm greeting back from his friend. He learned that Brandon would be transferred to one of MI6’s calling centres, an important role which makes sure operations go smooth and without issues, so he made sure to study all of the code words used. “Go to hell John” He replied, he looked towards John. “You know like I do this means I will never be able to operate again”. “You can’t be sure of that, I’m sure Bil will send you to our division before you know it!” John said, with as much confidence he could muster. The rest of the meal went silent, as both parties did not want to press the issue. After clearing his dishes, John headed to the training hall for his 8:00 am training session. At the entrance he saw Freya, she had a stern look on her face, which softened a bit when she saw John. “You know that being on time is 5 minutes late John, now hurry up and enter chamber #4” He entered the training hall. The hall was a star shaped room, with 5 different training chambers, a large gym and a changing room with showers. The place had a slight shift of colors, from the white and grey walls of the main hall to more of a relaxing blue.
He went straight to the chamber number 4, walking past several other trainees and a few agents, all readying themselves for another fruitful day of training, exactly as they were supposed to. “A healthy body leads to a healthy mind, and a healthy mind is the only mind which can influence assets” Freya always says, being a leader in the Psychic order, the saying had another layer of meaning.
He looked at the door, wondering what’s beyond it, he touched the handle, it was cold and metallic, uninviting, signalling to whomever touches it “This is not a place for you stranger, you best be on your way”, yet John had invited himself in, ready for any obstacles life(or, more accurately Freya) will throw at him. He opened the door and stepped in the dark room.
The lights lit up, row by row, each time revealing another section of the large, seemingly empty room. John quickly scanned the room, it had white walls, white ceiling and white floor. The floor was covered in a few places with dark spots and large scratches, indicating a fight happened here. The ceiling and wall had similar markings. John inspected the scratches closer, knowing well that he had a few moments before the training began in earnest. The scratches were deep and sharp, indicating a large beast with long talons fought here. He looked over to the dark spots. “Ashes, smells like… gasoline” He thought to himself, the natural conclusion was that someone fought a large beast with fire. Only when he inspected the large dark spots he saw blood, red viscous blood, almost dry. With it he noticed some blue liquid. The blue liquid hit him with a strong copper smell, it was metallic and blood-like.
“Agent Xeno, come in” A voice came through his communicator.”Agent Xeno here, Ma’am, what are your orders?” John replied, Freya responded “Your training will begin in one minute, you may take any equipment from the wall, good luck, agent”. A wall rose from the ground in front of John, it had a massive array of weaponry, from simple batons and knives, to pistols and assault rifles, it even had some weapons which seemed like they didn’t come from this earth.
John mind raced through all the options, calculating the risk of this encounter, the probabilities of the encounter being defeated by any of these weapons, making sure to take into account the scratches, burns, blood and blue substance he found. The obstacle is either a large beast, able to hit the 12m ceiling, survive fireballs and have blue blood, or a person wielding said fire powers and who is able to survive a long encounter with such a beast. John took the kusarigama. It’s ball and chain made from tungsten and the blade was a finely crafted titanium alloy.
A minute had passed, and the lights went out. Darkness shrouded John as the screeching sound of an opening door pierced through the empty room. Heavy footsteps were heard, John’s eyes adapted quickly to the dark due to his recent surgery, and he was able to see that it wasn’t a beast, nor a man, but a floating humanoid, about 20 meters from him,it’s skin blue and translucent, wavy as though it was like a leaf in the wind, it’s hands were human, but their fingertips were black, it’s face looked contorted and in pain, as though strings were attached to each muscle and a devious clown was playing with them, but what struck John the most was the symbol on the creatures chest, a portrait of him and his mother, before the accident happened.
John analyzed it, trying to remember what that creature was, obviously something as the portrait the creature showed was not common knowledge, so it must be something psychic. He flipped through the magical creature manual that he was given in his mind. He drew up blank, no creature he has ever read looked like this one.
He waited patiently, waiting for the creature to attack first. It was a stalemate, the creature looked towards John and he stood still, at least as still as a leaf in a windstorm, John looked at the creature with disgust, how can it show his most cherished moment on its putrid body. John’s frustration of the situation rose, and he charged the creature, aiming to capture it with the chain. He threw it at the creature, and though it was a heavy chain, weighing almost as much as the weights he lifted, the creature flicked it away with his wrist, seemingly effortlessly.
John ran around the creature, hoping he could catch its unprotected back, but as fast as he was running, the creature was one step ahead of him, turning his head at supernaturally fast speeds, following every move and trick John learned. Finally, John threw the chain against the creature, hoping that if it can’t catch the chain, at least the weight of the weapon will stun it for a brief moment. The chain rotated in the air, before being caught by the creature, he held it mockingly with a single finger, showing John the difference in their strength. The creature dropped the weapon, it’s heavy thud ringed against the walls and echoed through the chamber. He charged at John, without blinking John went into gear, utilizing the training he received from Freya.
The creature punched John, but he blocked it with his forearms, he felt a crack in his right arm, and a bolt of pain flew through it. The creature punched again in the same spot, but John still kept his arms up. The creature swung his fist again, this time aiming to break John’s hand, it moved it’s hand backwards. John saw the miniscule opportunity he had, and threw an uppercut against the creature's face, as his fist touched the creature’s body, it felt cold, ice cold, colder than sticking-your-hand-it-the-freezer-to-get-the-last-of-the-ice cold. His hand passed through the creature's face and he lost balance, falling on the hard stone wall. He saw the creature’s hand, it’s fingers transforming into long black fangs with serrated edges. John panicked, he understood that this is the beast he had concluded survived multiple fire blasts. John ran, to the end of the room, breathing frantically.
“Agent Xeno, use your powers!” Freya said to him, John tried to concentrate, using the technique she taught him just yesterday. “Breath in, hold, out, breath in, hold, out” John’s mind cleared and he refocused. He knew what he needed to do. The creature flew towards him, John had but a moment to defend himself. John screamed at the creature. He felt his mind reaching the creature.
It felt weird at first, his vision changed and the training chamber transformed into a long hallway, it was old and rusty, it had doors with barred windows on either side the lights flickered and in the end of it he saw the creature, but instead of it being blue and translucent, its’ skin was solid, pale and wounded. Only now John saw the multitudes of scars the creature had, the pain it was in and the trauma he had encountered. It wasn’t a creature, it was an old man, scarred by war and disease, it was trapped inside his own mind, his body but the remnants of the hatred he had in life.
John understood that this creature will not be defeated by weapons.
John went next to the old man, he swung his fists against him weakly and flaily. John wandered how such a formidable physical body had such a weak mind, wishing for only understanding. John sat next to the man, waiting for it to relax and open itself to John’s mind.

Time had passed. At first minutes, long minutes of flickering light and shambling wood and stone. He flicked the lightswitches near him, yet to no avail.
Then an hour passed, and another, John noticed he had not wished for food or water. Time must move differently here than in the real world.
At the 6th hour, John decided he would need to mark the time, and looked around for anything he could mark the walls with. After a quick search he found several loose screws, and decided to use them on the soft wall. He had made a mark for each day that has passed, more accurately for mornings he had awoken.
Days passed, each one John grew closer to the old man. At first the old man was hesitant, shielding himself from even John’s glances, but after a week, he had finally looked at him. John smiled, knowing he had made progress, but that single smile had made the old man cower again.
Another week had passed, or so John thought as he made his 14th mark on the wall. He had studied every nook and cranny of this old passway. He tried to open the doors to either side but they were blocked by a brick wall each time he had opened one, and that was after breaking each lock on them. The only thing keeping him sane in this situation was the knowledge that it was a test, and that he didn’t want to fail Freya, who had hand picked him for a prestigious training program. John woke up, as he opened his eyes he saw the old man looking down on him, John jumped from his position and instinctively rose to a combat position, his arms up and blocking his face and his legs well spread.
The old man pointed towards a door John hadn’t seen before. John walked towards the door, it looked old, but not as old of the doors that were in the hallway. He touched it, it was cold and damp. He touched the metallic handle, it was oddly smooth and polished. John pushed the handle downwards.
John opened the door, just to find snow and rain falling down on him. He took another step, and he saw he was in London, just south of the Big Ben. The great clock showed that it was 6:02pm. John looked at his own watch, which had stopped tracking time since the first moment he stepped inside the corridor, so long ago. It was cold, as you would expect, yet John welcomed the cold air, a very much pleasant change from the old damp air it was in the corridor.
As he continued looking around, the door behind him vanished into thin air. John heard a voice in the communicator. “Agent, target spotted on the Big Ben, move to eliminate, watch out, he’s armed and dangerous”. John replied. “Yes sir, on my way now”
John started walking towards the tower, he noticed suddenly that he had a holster with a pistol, 2 magazines and what seemed to be a very old radio device connected via wire to his ear piece, he was startled, but not enough to stop, the mission must go on.
As he was nearing the tower, he subconsciously turned around and drew his pistol, it was a Browning, an older model, its handle and slider were spotless, as befitting an agent of The Order. He saw a figure aiming at him from one of the rooftops, John pressed the trigger twice, and the figure fell. The shot rang through the eerily empty street.
He continued onward, he knew who he was looking for. A tall white male, muscular build, an impressive moustache and an unreasonable hate for the crown. John started running when it clicked, he was stopping an assassin from shooting the bloody Queen.
He reached the tower, and started climbing its old stone stairs, the adrenaline kept his pace as he passed each floor, knowing that each step brought him closer to the enemy. He finally reached the final floor. A wooden door blocked his way. John had 2 choices in front of him, either kick in the door, hoping the assassin will miss his shot and overpower him, or try to lock-pick quietly, and succeed before he manages to shoot.
John calculated the distance between the shooter and the Queen’s parade, taking into account the weather, the speed of the leading car, the position of the shooter and the wind speed, he had about 45 seconds before the shooter will be in range. He decided to pick the door's lock, he took out his tools and started working the old mechanism. John counted the seconds as each pin popped into place. After 30 seconds the lock opened. John quietly opened the door. As he looked inside the room, he saw it was empty with just a sniper rifle laying near the window. John continued scanning the room as he felt his body fly off the right side of the room, his face ached as he was tasting metallic liquid filling his mouth.
“Welcome agent, to the dilemma of your life.” The man said to John as he stood over him. He held in his hand a controller with a big red button. John tried to stand up, but he was dizzy from the hit he had received earlier. He looked at the man, now recognizing him as Lennon Steward, the crazy psychopath Freya put in prison over 20 years ago. “How on earth did he get here?” John wondered as the man continued talking. “If I press the button, the Queen will die, and if I don’t, a dozen people with Atmans will be killed in a massive explosion in the nearby train station.” He said with a wicked smile on his face. John noticed he had a long scar across his face, from his eye brow to his chin.
“Your choice agent, the Queen, or your precious Atmans?
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John woke up in the training facility. Groggy and exhausted. “Agent Xeno, congratulations on passing this exam, you are now ready to rejoin the operators in the field. Come to my office for a debrief of the situation.” Freya said to John, her voice was different than what he remembered, but maybe it’s due to the time that has passed.
As John’s vision came to normal, he saw a hand, Freya’s hand reached out and helping him stand up. John stood up and looked at her, she was tall, taller than him. She wore her protective suit, it was black padded leather with patches of blue icons of The Order. John saw her face. He was in awe every time he saw her eye, it was as dark as the night sky, yet glittered with all the stars in the cosmos. ”Get a move on already Xeno" She said to John, as she started exiting the training chamber. John heard her again “Are you going to stand there for a long time? Now, agent”. They entered the facilities elevator, in it a poster, weirdly enough it was Arthur Danger in one of his less known films “Mind Prison”, he never liked that one.
The elevator doors opened, they started walking towards her office. “What was the blue creature?” John asked, curious. “It was a projection I made into your mind, you could call it illusion magic, but it’s just a more advanced technique of telepathy. Nothing you saw in that room was real from the moments the lights went out” She replied. John saw her crack a half smile, she always does that when talking about her powers.
They went into Freya’s office. Her office was quite large, clean and pristine. John looked around him, he saw an awards cabinet filled with various medals and trophies, he saw a newspaper heading and a large television on the wall, other than that there were a few file cabinets, a large black wooden table and a couple of chairs in the room. Freya stood near the large glass window which faced the Thames, her back towards John, she looked menacing, even from behind.
“Do you know why I stopped the training exercise, agent Xeno?” She asked, her voice hard and cold. “I guess I passed the exam, ma’am, otherwise you would tell me to do it again” John replied sheepishly, choosing every word carefully. "Ma'am" Silence filled the room as Freya looked at him, examining every aspect of her young protege. “What would you do in that situation John?” Her voice braking the stillness of the room. “What do you mean Ma’am?” “If I had continued the exercise, would you save the Queen or the people in the station, or would you try to do something funny?” She asked, this time looking deep into John's eyes, watching every move he makes and every shadow of emotion he emits. “I would save the Queen Ma’am, that was the mission, no matter the cost. Queen and Country, in that order, Ma’am” John replied, trying to pour as much confidence as he could into his words. “Even though that meant you were judging who was to live and who was to die?” She asked, prying further into him. “Yes Ma’am, mission comes first, that’s the first lesson we were taught” He replied. Although the words came out of his mouth, John wasn't sure if he himself believed them.
Freya frowned slightly, she turned and switched on the TV. John looked at the screen, it looked like an old news report, the date written 12.12.1992. The broadcast had a female reporter wearing a business attire, she stood in a street, there was a fire behind her and screams of pain and chaos were heard, you could see police cars and a few heroes in the background, trying to pull people out of the fire and rubble. Her voice broke John's concentration as she started talking. “A large explosion was heard earlier today, as a confirmed terrorist attack on London’s central station happened just an hour ago, the police are on site to assess the situation, currently eight people are confirmed dead, and a dozens more are injured, we are live at the scene where...” Freya turned off the TV.
“That is a naive way of thinking John, very naive, and I’m disappointed you said that, but I guess that what ideology and youth will make you choose” She didn’t face him, she couldn't. He could hear her tone change. “But here, you will learn from your mistakes, and if you won’t you will die on the field, do you understand me, agent?” Freya turned to him, she was disappointed and angry, John never saw her emit any kind of strong emotion, it made him nervous, he tried to maintain his composure, but he found it difficult. "Do you understand me Agent Xeno?" She was almost shouting as her fist slammed against the hard wooden table, making several short cracks around the point of impact. John jumped in his place, his reply quick to come "Understood ma'am" “You are cleared for duty John, but believe me, you will need to impress me to continue being on the field.” She continued, her anger calmed, and she returned to her “normal” self. “You have a new mission, you are to meet a young lord from Camelot and escort him to wherever he needs to go and do what he was asked. As this is an official mission you will be given gear, but you better not spend ANY valuable resources if you want to see the light of day again, agent”, she said. “You are excused, don't call unless critical”
John exited the room, and just as he was about to close the door, a single sentence, spoken in Freya's voice came into his hand. "I choose Her Majesty"