An Assassin that was a liability.

Frankfurt, Germany.

Marlos Perez had been recently admitted to The Mysterious Organization named Spectre which was a hidden power that controlled the world from shadows. Although he was recently promoted to the position of a rookie assassin, he had been training for around four years for this promotion. Keep in mind, an assassin had to train at least 10 years to be at the same level as him, and they usually started when they were in their early teens. He was a bit old at the age of 27, but he had been selected due to his hard work, and his overall potential at reading situations and applying different tactics to hunt down a target with eerie accuracy had earned him the nickname"The old genius".

He had been recruited by the current top assassin in the organization, Code name"Senior". Senior was also his mentor and had selected the rookie because it was evident from his reports that only Marlos had the potential to be able to carry on as the best assassin of the organization, despite his late entry. Marlos was skilled at finding vital spots, had a natural talent in hiding himself in plain sight through camouflage, and had an overall temperament of a killer with no remorse.

However, it just wasn't supposed to be.

On his first mission itself, he was given the task of locating a traitor of the organization. He was hiding in the city of Frankfurt and had been seen near the Cathedral, and had been suspected to be trying to put light on the organization's existence and inner workings, which was intolerable for the higher-ups.

He wasn't supposed to kill him, just locate the person and report it to the higher-ups. They would then call in the big guns to hunt down the traitor, and everyone could go their different ways.

The mission was executed without any hitch, but they had underestimated the traitor. Max Adler was a simple nobody from local support staff, which was supposed to collect information for Spectre to help maximize the amount of information present for the assassins to kill a target even if the assassin was not too familiar with the surroundings. They were basically scouts and were the leftovers from the assassin program, who weren't able to attract any attention from the higher-ups.

As Marlos was following the target through the streets of the city, he realized that he was being followed. And these weren't some amateurs. They were hiding their tracks pretty well. He only relied on his intuition at the moment, as his senses had no clue about the location of these followers.

He was currently facing a dilemma. "Should I withdraw?" he thought to himself.

He could go back and report to his superiors but the better option would be to continue because if they followed him back to the base, it could be a bit problematic. Currently, in a hurry, he could only leave a message for his mentor, which was,

"Approaching target. Being followed by more than one threat. Continuing forward."

As he continued towards his target, he finally realized that this Adler guy was trying to lure him into an isolated blind spot which confirmed his suspicion.

"Either he wants to recruit me, or he is going to confront me and use his pawns to go for the kill."

This wasn't an ideal situation but then he thought,

"This might be a good chance to gain merit and achieve a higher placement."

When they reached the destination, Adler stopped. He turned around and said,

"You have balls to continue following us even after your location is compromised. You can come out now, rookie."

Marlos started analyzing his surroundings. He had no chance to retreat now because he had already calculated the number of people following him. There were 4 people, and they had surrounded his location in a solid formation. He had no way to leave without at least being heavily injured, and that would be the best-case scenario. These guys were not quite at the level of his Senior, but they were a force to be reckoned with because of their coordination.

"Fine. I'll come out. It was getting a bit bland just following you anyway."

Marlos came out from his cover because he knew there was no reason to hide anymore. He still had a mask on, but his target already knew who he was. As soon as he came out, the 4 people all came out of their covers who were all wearing cloaks to hide their identity.

"Cloaks, huh? Classic. Looks like someone has been playing a lot of games recently."

Marlos tried to make small talk to buy some time. Senior would be here any minute. He just had to stall for some time.

"Classic or not, they are still pretty efficient at hiding identities, aren't they?"

Adler chuckled and responded. He then shifted his sight towards his men, and said, "Just kill him. He is that bastard's protege. He would never turn on the organization."

He readied himself with his knife and his gun, and so did the four people in front of him.

"Is he really a nobody?" Marlos thought to himself. Anybody who knew about the existence of his senior couldn't be someone insignificant. Was the intelligence about the target true?

The four men attacked him simultaneously. He was able to dodge the attacks of the first three with relative ease. When he was about to dodge the attack from the fourth one though, he felt something was amiss. He used his footwork to forcefully twist his body to evade the attacks that were aimed at his joints. It was a pretty taxing set of movements.

But then, the fourth assassin disrupted his rhythm by executing a simple diversion trick. He shot towards his arm, but at the same time, he charged towards Marlos and put his foot at the position which would successfully trip Marlos if his leg continued at the trajectory that it was currently in.

Marlos clicked his tongue. He didn't expect to be trapped like this. He used the remaining strength in his limbs to contract his right leg muscles and forcefully change the trajectory of his leg, which was painful, but it worked. However, he had no time to rest. The previous group of three immediately pounced at him, and he had to use his knife to parry, but even then he was still hit by one of the bullets on his arm.

"These are the times that I wished I had a shield like that one overly righteous hero."

Pain. His arm had been pierced by the bullet, while missing the bone. His arm was starting to go numb.

"You aren't a too bad rookie. Even your master when he was at your level wouldn't have lasted this long. No wonder they didn't consider age to be an issue for you."

Adler praised. He was pleasantly surprised.

"However, I do not need you. Shoot him in the head. Let's finish this."

One of the assassins shot out of the blue. They were like mindless zombies to his commands.

"You people must really be proud of yourself to pick on a rookie like that."

That voice was like music to Marlos, while a death sentence to the rest of them.

"You are finally here, you lazy old prick."

Marlos whispered. 5 bullets were fired, all in different directions.

All 4 assassins, except for Adler, were dead. the bullet that was aimed for his head, had been repelled.

"How many times have I told you to be a scaredy-cat instead of a lion when on a scout mission. With your trash luck, you might just survive that way, considering that as a cat, you require those extra 9 lives."

Senior responded.

"You talk too much, old prick. I did what I had to do." he countered.

Senior gave him a smug look. He then looked at Adler, and said, "So, Mr. Rogue scout. Are you willing to surrender or will I have to drag you back for interrogation?"

"Oh, my dear John. You still are the same naive idiot that had been abandoned by master all those years ago."

Senior froze. He gave a stiff look and asked him with an icy tone.

"So it's you. It's been a while, punk."

Adler smiled. He then took off his skin mask and revealed a face that had a very large resemblance to that of seniors.

"This is so cheesy," Marlos commented."Let me guess, twin brothers, trained under one master, reuniting after many years."

"Didn't know you were a stereotype, old prick."

The fake Max chuckled. He said,

"You hit jackpot with him as your disciple. He has a quality that you will never have, a heart."

He looked at his brother and said in an Icy voice.

"But, unlike you, he wouldn't be able to continue living after seeing me."

Marlos panicked. he knew that him getting involved in this matter meant certain death for him because the man in front of him was confident. He did not have the slightest sense of panic. And an assassin's worst enemy was a person who didn't panic. Again, his intuition started ringing all the alarms that he currently had.

All of a sudden, Senior's receiver started ringing. It startled Marlos out of his panicked state, but little did he know that his relief was going to be short-lived.

"Don't worry. Mark isn't against us. He has decided to join the organization, with only one precondition."

It was from the higher-ups. They had decided to take him in.

"He is a threat to our security. You must know his previous history."

Senior responded. No one wanted to kill his brother more than him.

"It has already been decided. You don't have a say in it. Don't worry, we have a way to control him. Now, for your real mission,"

"Kill Marlos."

Senior froze for the second time today. Marlos was his protege. He was really attached to him and had wanted to make him his heir to the throne of the most famed assassin in the world.

"Why? You know that he is my disciple. I can't kill him."

"Again, not your call. This is your brother's precondition. If we don't accept, he has promised to kill Marlos in the worst way possible, and become the biggest enemy of the organization. Your brother is way more valuable than Marlos, plus he is already a top tier assassin at the age of 32. If he didn't choose to be a ghost, he would be your biggest rival for the title that you flaunt with such confidence. When compared to your brother," he paused and then continued.

"Marlos is a liability."

Senior was fuming. He had never expected his brother had this kind of scheme for rattling him. If he had to kill Marlos, it would take him some time to return to his prime mental state.

"Ok. I'll do it. But I need an explanation when I return to the base."

Senior was gritting his teeth. He couldn't stop his brother if he really wanted to kill Marlos.

He had no other choice.

"John, it's time for you to teach your disciple the most important lesson of the syllabus."

Mark smiled and said. John said something right after his brother.

"Sorry Kid. I apologize for bringing you into this mess."

He sighed. this was going to be difficult.

"It's just like you said, rookie."

Mark said. He ended with a familiar line,

"He is just doing what he has to do."

Bang!

And then there was darkness.