"As our hooded guy said, you have a chance to fulfill your destiny." Said one of the masked men.

"I don't think I'll like it there." James Bland said. He could feel his energy draining; he could feel his life slipping slowly into the void of death.

"You'll love it there, Bland!" replied one of the assassins, "Plenty of ironing, drying paint, opportunities to grout tiles..." He trailed off, giving James time to think.

Grout... Wait! Get a hold of yourself Bland! You have to pull through...

"Bland." Said one of the men, snapping him out of his train of thought, "You have a choice. Die here, or come with us.

"Or wait for a savior to show up." Said the other masked person, a female voice this time.

Bland heard the sound of a gun firing and the sound of a body drop. He looked in awe as the assailant that had threatened him with a gun now lay dead on the floor.

"The name's Kelly Drake and I am a doctor." She said, taking off her balaclava.

"Umm..." Bland said, distracted by her. He had long, brown hair that complimented her green eyes and athletic features. In other words, he was distracted by her.

"Umm... Bland, James. Yes. I..."

She was rummaging through a first aid kit that he had failed to notice her pull out, searching for the correct medical equipment to treat the injury.

"This is going to hurt," she said seriously, "A lot. I'm going to knock you out for now."

Bland woke up on a bed like you would see in an emergency room. He checked his surroundings, seeing that he in fact was in the emergency room.

"Wha... where am I."

"Emergency room of an abandoned MI6 base." Said a woman's voice.

"Kelly, right?" Bland said, still taking in his whereabouts and noticing Kelly sitting in a chair in the corner, reading a paperback novel.

"I had to stitch you up pretty good," said Kelly, "It's a wonder you pulled through at all."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Thank you for helping me," Bland said, "I really mean it."

"It's my job." She said, putting the book on a coffee table beside her.

"Do you know what they mean by 'traitor'?" Bland said, surprising himself with his eagerness to know.

"Absolutely." She replied.

"So, what does it mean?" Bland asked

"You sure you want to know?"

"Absolutely."

She sighed.

"Several years ago Specter began a new program called Madskull. It was meant to create conditioned super soldiers of some type, so that they could kill James Bond and kill MI6 simultaneously."

"Did it work?" asked James.

"You tell me, you fought one."

"Well I sure don't like it, but he probably would've won if he didn't let me live like he did." He admitted.

"These super soldiers took over the MI6 base you were working at completely."

"Were?" James asked, puzzled.

"I had to move you out of there or you would have died." a sad look passed over her face. "Like everyone else when they destroyed it."

"If these Madskull guys are so powerful, why don't they use them all of the time?" James asked, "Why haven't they replaced the workforce entirely?"

"Because they're on a timer. After they complete their mission, they're dead. The first ones weren't like that though. The first ones didn't have timers, so after they completed their mission, they lost control of their minds. You and I were lucky, we escaped."

"Escaped?"

"We were going to become Madskull soldiers, but we hatched a plan. We needed to break out of there, since we knew what was going to happen to us. We escaped as they were injecting the heightened strength resistance, and intelligence chemical combinations. That's why we both have superior abilities compared to other people. For example, I can remember everything I've ever seen or heard."

"Neat." Said James simply "What can I do?"

"Well, your excitement limiting chemical combination got screwed up big time, and you broke out of the chemical tube before they had a chance to correct it. In other words, you're... Bland. You consider uninteresting activities to be absolutely exhilarating. You finally live up to your last name, so that's a plus."

"That's it?" James said.

"I guess." Kelly replied. "Also your name sounds weirdly like-"

"I know." James said flatly. "So, where am I anyway?"

"The official headquarters of MI6." She said. "Where James Bond trained."

James thought for a moment.

"Kelly?"

"Yes?" she replied.

"Do you think James Bond was killed by Madskull?"

"I think so." She said. "Also I found something weird in your suit coat pocket."

"You went through my stuff?"

"Security measures." She said.

"What did you find?"

"A dark, robotic tarantula. It looks like it has a microphone and camera on it. It's basically a mobile spider-shaped webcam."

"Kelly, you need to get that thing out of here." James said, panicking, "It's a robotic spider that one of the people from Madskull tried to trap me with."

"Care to explain further?"

"I went to the wine cellar to discuss Madskull with George. This spider claimed to be him, but I found him hanging in the closet. That spider tried to trick me."

"Crazy." She said.

"Kelly?"

"Hm?"

"Thank you."

She smiled and returned to reading her book.