Azrael finished rolling the equipment lockers into his room, and put them away. He'd managed to snag a copy of the Advanced Warfighter System, and the Future Force Warrior armor. It was the excess from TeCU-3 that the UN was tossing out.

With that, he stripped down to nothing and crawled into his bed.

"Good night Chicago.."

With that, he promptly fell asleep.

Next Day, 1003 hours

Jason did his best not to punch Director Stoyanovich as the man ranted and raved about "what went wrong" and "people getting hurt", completely ignoring the fact that they now at least had some evidence. Though it wasn't much to go on, it was at least a step in (hopefully), the right direction.

"If it were up to me," Stoyanovich wound down "I'd probably have you out of here. But it's not my call, and besides, the Joint Chiefs apparently need you for some kind of side project. Apparently they need you as an advisor and planner on some type of military operation. I don't even know what it is."

"Great," Jason said half sarcastically. "When do they want to see me about this?"

"As soon as possible today."

Jason figured he'd better just get it over with.

OOC: This is going to be a series...I'm just having trouble getting words down.

"Archon, Monk hassent a represenetive." Crow said as he monitors the station "We have as you ordered tried to re establish diplomatic communications after purging our modems, but we're finding ourselves unable to connect to the cyber world. Our servers are holding under the strain, We're bring Geo stations 5-12 online to compensate for the increased power demands. It seems the world has us under some kind of information blockade."

"We need to reestablish contact." Raven said. We'll need to hack satelites and use them to force our connection back online.

M4 rolled himself to the area he was given. He found it to be a small room with several ports; information, communications, power. He checked his internal battery and found that he indeed could use a charge. He drove over a power port and plugged himself in so that he could recharge a little, ready for whatever task they would have him do.

Jade was in her office playing bored out of her mind. Since Cyber Eden had severed all ties with all embassies, Jade had been left with no work. Sure she took on some extra jobs, mostly small systems hacking, but that was busy work. She was presently sitting at her desk playing Civilization for the umpteenth time. A knock resounded through her office. "Come in." A man in a military uniform speckled with medals approached her desk. While Jade was not fond of the army, she still knew respect, so she stood and saluted.

"Mrs. LaFleur, I have a matter of great importance to discuss with you."

"Sure, please sit down."

"No thank you, I need to be brief. We need you to come back into service."

Jade raised an eyebrow. "You know I can't do that."

"I'm well aware of your stance on the army, but this is an exception. Firefights have been breaking out all over the world. Our troops have been spread very thin and we have almost no reserves to spare. I need you to head up a rescue mission."

"Sir, I know I have prior experience, but I can't, please don't ask me again."

"Mrs. LaFleur...Jade...they've taken Carol."

Jade's eyes flashed. Carol was the Canadian UN ambassador and a good friend of Jade's. She was always smiling, always laughing and had really helped Jade get accustomed to her job in the beginning. Jade knew from experience what would happen if the enemy got ahold of an ambassador. "They could take the country." Jade sat down and ran a hand through her hair.

"You see the dangers this poses, both personal and for the country."

Jade looked down in though for a moment. She then stood up decisively. "I'm going alone. One mission General, that's all. I'm not doing this for you, I'm going to get Carol back."

"Very well. You leave tomorrow for Belize where she's being kept. You'll get an arsenal of your choice for the Cyber World combat. Good luck."

That evening Jade came home and told Monk everything. "I need to go."

"What?" Monk said after the information hasd been passed. "What do you mean you need to go? And did you say... alone!?" He stood up and rubbed his temples, pacing around the room for a bit, "Jade... You know I can't let you do that. Listen, I love Carol just as mush as you do, but I thought we decided that we were gonna stay away from the military and this whole stupid mess. I promised that I wouldn't run into this war, and I expected you to do the same..."

OOC: Collab post from MC and I

BIC: Jade flopped her head back on the couch. "Monk, you know that I don't want to do this. By all accounts this should be left up to the secret service. But they have no one left, and if I don't go, I'm basically handing the country over to them on a silver platter and signing Carol's death wish." Monk sighed and dropped his head, "What of me, huh? What would happen if when you fly in there solo, it's a plan to get you captured or worse, a plan to get you out in the open to kill you. Why did you even decide to do this solo, that's what I don't get at all."

"Because I didn't want them sending me with some new recruits who are just going to get killed. They don't have any experienced soldiers left to give me, and I'm not risking the life of some kid who got recruited...like me."

"Noble of you... I understand where you are coming from, but what can one soldier do alone? What are you going to do, what are you going to be up against, where is this all taking place? Have you thought all this through yet?" Jade replied with a wry smile. "Do I ever think things through? She's being held in Belize, and the intelligence reports say that they have limited weaponry and are common soldiers. These aren't agents Monk, I think I can handle them." Defeat... there wasn't anything he could use against that. Except... "Why didn't you volunteer both of us?"

"I have to break my promise. It doesn't mean you have to as well."

"Well... I can't have you going alone..." Jade looked at Monk, "why not?" He paused, and then replied, "I don't want to risk losing you when I could have had the chance to save you. Jade raised an eyebrow. "And what makes you think I'll need saving?"

"Cause... You seem to have a knack of getting yourself in trouble..."

"Since when?" He shrugged, "I don't know... I just can't think of a good enough excuse to try and let me follow you..."

Jade stood up, "you really want to come that badly?"

"No... I just don't want you to go alone." Jade walked over and embraced her husband. "Thank you and I'm sorry I'm making you break your promise."

"Hey..." He replied, wrapping his own arms around her, "You started it..."
"...I know..."

"I love you."

"I love you too..." Monk picked his head up, "So... when do we leave?"

"Tomorrow..."

Then we better get ready, huh?"
"Yea. I guess so."


"Then let's get to work!" Monk said, a warm smile playing across his face. "Monk.." Jade said as he began to leave. "This will be the only mission ok?" He turned his head, "Let's hope so." He said, some hesitation in his voice. "We can only hope so..."

Standing downrange from the targets, Jax gripped his P99 tightly. Unlike Azrael, he'd gotten more than a little tired with the cubersome beretta, and had now switched to the MI6 staple.

He fired twice more, then took off the glasses and ear-protectors. Then he grabbed his binoculars. Twelve shots at 30 meters. Not bad. There had been better, but Jax had been awake for about half an hour.

The training with Cyber Force was...wierd. They left it up to you. There were no sergeants who remembered glory days. There were no 5 o'clock wake-up calls. There really wasn't anything. They put the facilities in front of you and let you do your thing.

Jax had heard there had been a casualty in the first mission. Going out on a limb, he checked Rhiya's service record. It was outstanding, superior to the history Jax had. Rhiya had been a front-line fighter with an amazing Cyber World talent. Jax was a washed out sniper who just came from law enforcement.

He was scared. He'd been told he had to protect the entire world. Above all, he felt inadequate. Glumly, he reloaded his P99, ejected the mag, and put in another bullet. Then he safed it and stuck it in his holster, which he carried by hand as he was still in his pyjamas.

He took a shower, he shaved, then noticed something odd while getting dressed. For once he didn't have a uniform. Thus he elected to just wear a black t-shirt with "RCMP" written on the front, and a pair of jeans. Abscently, he took his side-arm with him, as he'd been told that Cyber Force was considered to be on constant operational status, and as such had to be ready for most types of combat at any given moment.

Then he did something he didn't normally do. He took his breakfast with him, and walked over to Wolf's office. He knocked on the door, then entered. Upon seeing Wolf looking mildly flustered, he snapped to attention and gave the crispest salute he could.

"Sir! Permission to speak freely, sir!"

Wolf abscently looked up, shuffling some papers around and nodded.

"At ease."

Jax hadn't expected that much, but took it gladly. He looked at Wolf, then sighed sadly and said, "Sir, do I belong here? There are many more much more qualified. Why am I here? Why is there so much faith in me? Why me? Why should I be here?"

***

Azrael woke up a bit later than Jax, but didn't do any shooting. Instead, he got dressed in a comfy t-shirt, a bunnyhug, and a pair of jeans, and walked out to the garage.

There was his new ride.

GMC Sierra. 4x4, turbo-powered engine, complete with nitrous and bulletproof plating.

It could literally roll right over his old Firebird. Hot damn, Greg had outdone himself again.

"I take it you like it," came Greg's voice from behind him. Azrael spun and hugged him.

"You are a god among men."

"Yep, she's a monster alright. Even got heated seats."

"This is the most beautiful thing you've ever given me."

Greg smiled and pushed Azrael off. He then handed him the keys, and pointed at the big truck. "She's got an onboard computer akin to Wolf's car. If you ever get wounded, you just need to get in there and tell her to retreat. She'll drive you to the nearest log-out point or nearest safe zone, then continue going to the command centre until told to stop by Wolf or the Field Commander."

With that, Greg walked back inside. It was odd, Azrael noticed, to see Greg without a lab-coat. It was wierd to think that Greg was now his administrative superior. Those thoughts were pushed aside by sheer glee, and he jumped (literally) into his new ride. After revving the engine a few times, he took her for a spin and went by a mall.

At the mall, he bought some stuff for his room. Mainly the essentials, like toilet-paper and toothpaste And some Pringles. Finally, as a peace-offering, he bought a large box of assorted chocolates to give to Kaitlin, in part as a belated wedding gift. He hadn't been at the wedding. He'd been in Spain.

Wolf had read Jax's file, he knew perfectly well why the soldier would be feeling this way. Tough part was, he didn't really know how to answer either.

"Well, you're here because not only are we a bit limited in the sniping department, we also belive in giving second opportunities to people. In addition, since you were formerly a cop, you'll be able to help with investigative work as we track down whoever is using Mastermind's name, unless it is indeed Mastermind himself."

OOC: Live damn you!

IC: Jax crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

"That's a pretty flimsy excuse. And you're definitely bullshitting me, I was never in an investigative branch. I took my shield test, and that was it. You don't know, do you?"