Project Alpha

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An hour had passed, and nothing but silence bathed the room. Everyone in the room was split into three groups within the cafe. Alan sitting next to the two officers, formed the first group. The second group was the two waitresses seated in the side booth, silently gossiping with one another with stern faces. Lastly was the unfortunate poor owner who had to deal with the awkward atmosphere in his establishment. The two officers glanced at Linda and back at Alan. Alan felt an unbearable amount of pressure coming from the two. Although the two officers have yet to do anything to him in the current timeline, the thoughts of their previous actions made Alan hesitant to speak to them. He stared at his phone and noticed the time.

"Man, it sure is strange that no one else is here. Right old man?" Alan realized he was wasting valuable time at this point. The officers beside him showed no intentions of letting him leave either.

"That's because of this damn experiment the city is conducting." Linda broke her usual character and spoke in a bitter cold with a deadly stare that caused Maverick to shrink in his chair. Tony glared back at Linda with an unflinching look.

"How does a civilian like you even know that?" As he said that, Maddie mimicked Linda's glare.

"Word spreads quickly through the grapevine, you know." She stood up, walked beside Alan, and rested her arm on his shoulder. "Now out with it. Why are you here, and what are you trying to do to our adorable little man."

"To help him," Maverick spoke up and faced the waitress head-on. "If you are aware of the damn experiment this city is conducting, then you should also know there are those who oppose it."

"To oppose them is suicide," Maddie muttered to herself. She then sighed and glanced between both officers. "What are a gorilla and a timid chimpanzee gonna do to help Alan during this crisis?" Both officers glanced at one another and pulled out their guns. Alan instinctively grabbed Maddie's hips and ran in front of her with his blade. Maddie stuck her tongue at the officers. Falling for her taunt, Tony aimed at her.

"Ahem!" Linda walked over with a small camera in hand. Tony clicked his tongue in irrigation and dropped his weapon. Maverick did the same and sat back down.

"See, gorilla."

"You little-" Tony held his tongue, "Whatever, help us out here. Clearly, you know more than us." Maddie nodded with an arrogant smile. Tony was about to move towards her, but Maverick grabbed him.

"Project Alpha," Maverick stared at Maddie. "What do you know about it?"

"Nothing." She immediately responded. "Doesn't ring any bells."

"Liar." Tony then again pulled out his gun.

"Can you please stop pulling that thing out, man!?" Maverick grabbed Tony's left hand, which held the gun. Maverick's scrawniness failed to move his arm an inch.

Alan once again pulled out his sword and stared the officer in the eyes. "What if we tell you? What will we get out of it?" Both Linda and Maddie gave Alan cold stares. While Alan himself failed to notice, black marking reappeared on his body, burning through his clothes in response to the stares.

"Cocky bastard." With two last words, Tony pulled the trigger. Within a split second, Maddie was at Tony's neck with the tip of her knife barely touching his skin. Behind her was Linda holding her back. "Heh, just as I expected, you two are something else." The man stared into Maddie's emotionless gaze. "A sexy woman, such as yourself, skilled in the arts of assassination, too bad you appeared to have gotten rusty. Or may I thank you for saving me, Linda Norn?"

"YOU BASTARD!!!" Alan stood, shoved the two women aside, and slammed his hand on the countertop. He punched Tony in the face with a bruise on his forehead and a rubber bullet in his hand. "What kind of cop just shoots a civilian for making him mad?" Oblivious to the armed women behind him, Alan slammed his foot and yelled at the officer. After he was finished, Tony laughed.

"And I'm the gorilla. But before you can even think about protecting others, you gotta lose the heart." Tony said with a lighthearted tone.

"Seriously," Maverick had a pale face. "How are you not fired yet?"

"That's beside the point." Tony put his gun away and sat back in the chair, pretending that nothing had just happened. "You got the dirt on Project Alpha or not?" Alan reached into his pocket and pulled out the implant Apollo had given him. He tossed it to Tony.

"I personally don't know anything. But I'm sure this implant does." Alan sat back down beside the officers with both waitresses at his side. Seeing the sight before Tony caused him to crack a smile before looking at the implant. His little smile quickly faded into an irritated frown.

"Well, that shit's useless unless it's in your damn arm." He signaled to Maverick, "Now then shall we have fun?" A smile grew on his face as Maverick pulled out a strange tool-like object. Linda and Maddie noticed the thing he pulled out and went to hold Alan down.

"Wait!" Alan struggled, "Why are you two on their side?"

"Because you caused this," Linda said.

"Call it thanks for protecting me." Maddie smiled. She then lent into his ear. "Also, I wanna know what Ouroboros knows. Then again, I'm sure the implant will disappear once you complete this trial."

"Huh!?" Before Alan could respond to Maddie, Tony injected Alan's right arm with a substance unbeknownst to Alan.

Maverick put on a pair of heat-resistant gloves and moved the strange tool closer to Alan's right arm. The instrument emitted a bright glow as it carried the implant he had received from Apollo. After a few minutes of pointless struggling, the two held him down long enough for Maverick to insert the implant. After the implant was inserted, the two women let Alan go. Alan held his right arm in pain from the implant and the burning.

"See, that wasn't so bad, now was it?" Tony said while drinking from a white mug.

Alan eventually stopped feeling the pain and looked at him in the eyes with tears forming. "THAT FUCKING HURT!!!!"

"Okay, okay, calm down, crybaby." Tony put down his mug, "If it makes you feel better, they normally do this after they put the patient to sleep."

"... I'll kill you…." Alan said in a low growl.

Another hour passed, and the two waitresses treated the area where the implant was inserted to ensure it didn't get infected since they did it in a hasty and unprofessional fashion.

"Now then, do you know how to use it?" Tony asked.

"I just got one today. Of course not!" Alan said in an irritated manner.

Tony gave Alan a quick run-through of operating the implant he had just received. Alan, having a few hiccups here and there, managed only to learn the implant's basic operation level before Tony started pressing him to open the research on Project Alpha.

"Whoa, hold it," Maverick said, holding Tony back. "Don't overload him."

Alan gave Maverick a thankful nod before opening his holographic console to show the folder that housed the information on Project Alpha. Alan noticed movement in the corner of his eye, so he turned his attention to the only person leaving the area, Linda. 'That's suspicious….' Alan thought to himself before continuing. He opened the folder that housed the information and immediately pulled his attention to the "Confirmed keys" section. Only three names appeared on that list with information regarding them.

~~~Alan Macemon~~~

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Key: Sloth

~~~Evangela Seamon~~~

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Key: Envy

~~~Renne Norn~~~

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Key: Wrath

"What the hell is this?" This information baffled Alan.

"Tsk," Tony looked at the list disappointedly, "So that's what the Professor is planning."

"What do you mean?" Alan asked.

"Simple, it's a corny plan that only an 8th grader would plan to make. Project Alpha, or Project Beginning, being orchestrated by Professor Omega, or Professor End." Tony quickly scanned another file relating to the project. "So he's trying to play God with this Alpha and Omega nonsense."

"That's what it looks like." Maverick chimed in.

Alan read through the documents and spotted something that made him feel very uncomfortable. "Although the keys are needed for this plan's success, they don't have to be alive. We can use those snakes to kill the keys and then capture the key's souls from whoever kills them." Alan read aloud. "What does he mean... wait…." Alan recalled what Alice had told him regarding how nanomasses work.

"That's why they used weaponized corruption, to get the terrorists to kill the targets for them," Maverick concluded. "Damn it… Operation Ice Storm. It all makes sense. The Professor wants that walking zombie to kill everything for him while he swoops in, killing him to gain all the keys at once."

Hearing what he said, Alan recalled his talk with Apollo before all this started and rushed towards the door.

"They are already dead." Tony calmly said, halting Alan's movement. "Arthur already killed two of the three girls that were near your residence."

"One survived…?" Alan said in shock.

"Yes... But her whereabouts are unknown. But it's safe to assume that he has captured her due to the fact that only her legs remained at the scene." Maverick said.

Hearing this made Alan's black markings thicken. "Alan, calm down," Alice said to him. "As much as I hate to say this, their deaths were necessary to understand the motives behind our enemies. Don't forget you have that pendant around your neck that allows you to reverse time."

"..." Alan forced himself to calm down. "So," he looked at the two officers, "What do you want?"

"As we said earlier, we want to help you stop the Professor," Tony said.

"But before that-"

"You want us to help you find the girl, no?" Maverick asked, interrupting Alan.

"Please…"

"Alrighty then, that settles it." Tony said, "Welcome aboard! Our first stop, to wherever that girl is being held captive."

"How are you scary and cheerful?" Maverick looked at Tony.

"Because coffee does wonders on the body. Now let's go!" Tony grabbed Maverick and Alan by their shirt collars and dragged them out of the cafe.

Maddie watched the group leave before sighing in relief. "Linda, you can come out now. They were too busy to connect the dots. Though, I do feel bad for an alternate you."