Chapter 5 - The Partial Imprint on Alice

Zeel began dashing towards the outskirts of raccoon city, his heart beating in anticipation for some reason he could not yet identify.

It was almost as if his body was leading him to the discovery of his life.

A notion that both intrigued and scared him to no end; Zeel considered waiting a couple of days so that his emerging emotion could be kept in check, but this was an opportune moment to get access to the liquid mercury he required.

Awakening his nanites was of the highest priority, but the resulting hibernation period would also be troublesome.

Zeel noted and kept track of his emotions with great caution. The last thing he needed was going on a killing spree because he experienced anger for the first time.

Zeel often compared his emotions to humans discovering fire, playing with it too much will eventually burn you. Using the basic materials available, Zeel was able to create his own synthetic polymer that could aid in his combat effectiveness.

Zeel still had to carefully govern what skills he could use, not only to lessen the strain on his body but also in case of unexpected situations.

"So I have roughly 4 minutes to get in and out before a tactical team arrives, the main objective should be just to study the environment and find the entrance to the underground facility," Zeel mused while running at beyond-human speeds.

Finalizing his objectives for the current mission, Zeel's plan was relatively simple – get in, find the entrance, get out before the tactical team arrives, follow them in, kill them, escape with no one being the wiser.

A relatively simple, but effective plan.

A couple of minutes later, Zeel saw a mansion in his peripheral. It was quite conspicuous now that he really took the time to look at it.

Zeel had scanned this mansion many times over the past couple of months, but nothing seemed particularly eyecatching about the residents or mansion.

Still, he was curious about the girl that lived here.

Zeel entered the mansion without much concern. His combat effectiveness should account for any surprise attacks or ambushes.

This proved to be a misjudgment on Zeel's part, the moment he entered the mansion, the pungent scent of the air startled him.

With all his senses enhanced, he could detect subtleties that most other humans could not.

Not long after entering the mansion and doing some rudimentary investigations, Zeel began to feel slightly dizzy.

Zeel swayed briefly and fell to the ground in a partial slumber. The gases diffused in the air caught Zeel off-guard.

The air of the 21st Century was always contaminated with gasses so Zeel did not pay much attention to the scent of one more gas.

The gas was not enough to knock Zeel out entirely, but it did manage to numb his senses by quite a bit.

Zeel did not detect any life-threatening agents within the gas, so he allowed the gas to take its course. Within one minute he was back onto his feet with only slight dizziness in his steps.

*******

(Zeel POV)

Feeling a bit dizzy, I drowsily wake up and walk towards the stairs in a half-conscious state.

I could feel my emotions bubbling below my calm façade. My stoic demeanor was barely holding up, I hoped for it to end soon.

I could not deal with my emotional dilemma at this time.

Then, the moment my life changed occurred.

Homo-Superiors were a species that respected connections. Usually, soulmates would be the most sacred connection, but before soulmates, they were those bonded by psychic imprints.

Psychic imprints were akin to a marriage in the absence of a soulmate. Both parties had to be truly in love for a psychic imprint to occur. It was impossible to remove a psychic imprint without major sacrifice.

What happened next was exactly due to my carelessness.

A lady... No! More like a girl since she didn't appear to be a day over 25 years old.

I could determine her age just from a glance, the majority of the women I had dated were significantly older than myself.

She seemed incredibly fragile compared to the women I previously dated. Yet, she appeared even more appealing to my eyes.

This angel-like beauty had blonde hair but the roots were much darker. This indicated that she was not a natural blonde but I had the nagging feeling she was born with her hair that way.

Her steps were light, and her muscles well-defined. Her skeletal structure was perfectly symmetrical. My observations graced every part of her body, inside and out.

It was within my nature as a Homo-Superior to want to know everything about anything I laid eyes upon.

I could usually tell a person's entire life from their appearance alone.

Does she want to be seen?

Does she sing?

Is she used to wearing high heels?

I could tell it all at a glance, but the only clue I could get from this girl was … 'She is a mostly blank slate?'

She wore a red dress and I could tell she had recently woken up.

She made love to someone within the past 48 hours if the pheromones she was giving off was any indication. As I studied her contours from the length of her fingers to the tips of her toes.

The longer I stared, the more entranced I became until I entered the point of no return. I should have guessed that something was amiss with my reaction. I had seen far more beautiful women before.

Suddenly, I tried to turn away, but I was a bit too late as the emotion bubbling beneath the surface all this while was finally freed.

My emotions emerged in response to the extreme stimulus and what I coveted the most right now was.... ever since I was born there had been one emotion I craved above all others … love.

At the moment our eyes met, I could feel myself drifting towards her. Her eyes were consuming my own, and I was drifting towards her willingly.

However, quickly stopped the drift before I entered the core of her very being. Luckily, I stopped just in time, there was no telling how a 'purely human' would respond to the strain of a psychic imprint.

The girl on the stair gasped and panted briefly. She should have also felt the connection established just then. It was a partial imprint, but it was still very strong. I knew that the girl and I would be inseparable from this moment forward.

Now, the feeling of love and revenge became ever-present within my subconscious.

It was faint, it might not even provoke a normal reaction in anyone else, but I was quite the opposite. I had only recently discovered my emotions, I had the control level of a child who saw a candy.

Alice, the girl who was coming down the stairs, watched me intently.

We entered a staredown, both of us feeling a weird sensation of Deja Vu.

From the look on her face, I am sure what she actually felt was the partial imprint I just accidentally did on her.

As she continues to make her way down the stairs, our eyes did not move as we began circling each other.

From her eyes, I could tell she was a trained killer but also new to the experience – another contradiction I noted about her.

This action continued until we circled all the way to the center of the mansion, judging that it would be a fitting position for any fight; though at this point, I could judge her level of hostility was minimal.

However, good things never last. The next moment, I felt my intuition flare, jumping towards Alice and pinning her on the floor. I pushed a guy away who ran towards us from the side.

Suddenly, the windows break and I swear I thought I was in 'Halo World' for a moment.

Jacked dudes with guns and neat-ass uniforms come in guns blazing. I barely gave the intruding tactical squad a chance to properly stick their landing; I moved with the intention to kill – as I was thought to do through painful lessons.

I immediately went for the first person to eliminate in any party – the medic, this much remained true even if this multiverse of madness. Not sparing a second, I grabbed her neck with enough strength that it shattered beneath my squeeze.

I could see the group tensing up as they were about to retaliate so I decided to kill another and take one as a hostage. I needed a form of identification, and the Tech-guy would obviously be the one to hold hostage.

I dashed towards the one known as JD since he seemed the least empathetic of the bunch, meaning he was the most rational – which would be detrimental for me in the coming negotiations.

Not even two seconds had passed, I slid on my knees between two soldiers and simultaneously threw a knife into JD's chest while also grabbing their tech specialist – he was easy to identify since I just had to look for the one with the most tech on him.

Beneath their prying eyes, I still managed to secretly reprogram the identification tool on Kaplan's computer. Even if I was weakened, a Homo-Superior could innately modify technology, even without our nanites.

Holding my knife on Kaplan's neck, I then began the questioning as if I was the one being ambushed "Who are you guys?"

"What the fuck!" James, the leader said as he watched his medic and JD fall after I had successfully captured Kaplan.

The entire ordeal being a bit quicker than everyone expected – what can I say? I didn't exactly use all my strength, the speed I demonstrated should the humanly recognizable limit.

"Knife down!" James yelled at me.

His team focusing their guns on my head hidden behind Kaplan's, ready to fire even if it meant through Kaplan's head.

"Who are you?" James asked.

Rain, however, was not having any of it, she yelled "knife down or I'll shoot!"

"I'll shoot! Knife down! Don't test me motherfucker!"

"Everyone relax!" James said not minding the fact that his team of five was now down to three.

"The name is James and we work with Umbrella Corporation!" he said emphasizing 'Umbrella Corporation' like it's supposed to be a holy name.

I had already secured my exit but opted to try and trick them anyway.

I release Kaplan and said feigning ignorance "Oh! We work for the same Corporation. I don't understand what you guys are doing here though.

I am sent in to eliminate unknown threats and usually work alone. I am a bit higher up so you shouldn't have the clearance to know of me!"

My bullshit made James narrow his eyes at my combat-suited uniform. Luckily, my story wasn't that farfetched.

Contrary to popular beliefs you don't look someone directly in their eyes the entire time when lying. You only stare them in the eyes when you are saying keywords related to the lie.

James, Rain, and Kaplan were naturally cautious but Kaplan still briefly scanned me with his computer.

"Name?" He asked.

"Classified!" I replied as I noticed everyone going tense until I faked a sigh and said "Zeel Crawford,"

After entering my name, a big "Classified! Umbrella Special Branch!" popped onto the screen.

James frowned and looked at the device saying "Checks out,"

I directed a thumbs-up at Kaplan. He was my favorite so far... well, he was the most useful so far, I should say.

I made my way towards the woman who looks at me with a stoic face.

"Zeel," I said as I stretched out my left hand.

"I don't know my name," she replied, turning and walking away.

'Hard to get huh?' I thought internally, a small smirk gracing my face.