OOC: Me? Post? Noooo... [/sarcasm]

Ryan had been somewhat dazed by a rather hard hit to the head on the side of the train. Lucky for him he had a helmet on, but there was quite a dent in it now because of the force, making the thing pretty much useless. Taking the helmet off and tossing it to the side, Ryan reminded everyone that he wasn't dead quite yet.

"Ryan here. Sorry about the delay, but I'll be out there in a minute."

Climbing through the clutter of the inside of the train, Ryan managed to get to the outside, only to be greeted by the sounds of gunfire focusing on key points. Lucky for this soldier they hadn't seen him yet, giving him some time to at least get to a better opening.

Letting loose about ten shots, Ryan introduced himself into the battle, attracting the attention of enemy soldiers, forcing Ryan to at least find some cover for the time being while he reloaded.

"Keep shooting, keep 'em away, keep your god damn head on straight," Ryan muttered to himself and bullets riddled his cover while he slipped a new magazine into his rifle.

OOC: I'ma think I'm going to do a series post here.

BIC:Jason quickly realized that trying to stay within the train for defense was a double edged sword. On the one hand, the enemy soldiers would be reluctant to use heavy weapons because they could cause more damage to the train and destroy the environmental nanites. But on the other hand, if they pinpointed where Jason's team was within the train, they could just blast apart the cars that the nanites weren't in.

The judgement call was getting harder to make as he kicked an enemy grenade away, blowing up two enemy soldiers and tearing up the side of an oncoming jeep. He didn't want to risk the less-augmented troopers, and Jax was already out here; in fact Jason was surprised the train crash hadn't taken the RCMP man out of action.

"Kaitlin, get out here if you can and give us some backup; things are going to be harder if they get into the train, and we could use the extra firepower out here to prevent that from happening"

The words were barely radioed when he was knocked to the ground by an explosion. As he struggled to his feet, Jason saw that his assaliant had been the BMP, attempting to use its primary cannon to gib him.

Oh, sure, while we're at it we might as well have nuclear warheads raining down on us, Jason thought.

Up above, J2 made her presence known by hitting the BMP with a strafing run from the Phantom's chainguns. It did little to slow the progress of the vehicle though.

Jason ran forward at the BMP. G36 in one hand, Colt .45 in the other, he shot and kicked his way through enemy soldiers. The BMP leveled its cannon at him again, but Jason leapt into the air and landed in front of the vehicle.

Leaping up onto the armored transport, Jason saw the cannon being aimed at the train. With no clear time before the shot was fired, Jason struck with a knife hand at the barrel of the gun. If a normal person had tried that it wouldn't have done anything in the least to the barrel, and the person probably would've shattered their wrist. However, Jason's nano-augmented strike dented and warped the barrell, and he knew that he'd get the desired effect that he intended.

He flipped back off the BMP as the gun (stupidly) fired, the shell snaring in the warped barrel and detonating. The turret was lifted clean off the BMP, taking a lot of internal components with it, and leaving a smoking husk of a troop transport.

Still coming down from his jump, Jason dropped a grenade into the hole left by the turret's exit, and gutted the vehicle.

Jason quickly and quietly basked in the victory over the armored behemoth, but unfortunately he basked in it a bit too long.

A HumVee came to avenge it's armored compatriot by bearing down on Jason. He managed to see the vehicle in time and jumped up onto the hood, but he wasn't able to draw a bead on the driver in time before he slammed on the brakes, sending Jason flying. His backwards flight was interrupted by the train, which sent a wave of pain up and down his spine. He barely managed to stand as the vehicle came speeding at him. He only had enough time to snap draw his other .45 and shoot.

3 bullets went through the windshield of the humvee and hit the driver in the torso and neck. The driver flew back dead in his seat and let go of the wheel, but it wasn't going to change the inevitable outcome.

The Humvee hit Jason in the torso at about 60 mph and pinned him to the overturned train. He could feel his ribs and shinbones crack, and intense searing pain all over. Then things went black.

oh,fuck.

***

Kaitiln had just gotten out of the train and was standing on top of it when she saw the HumVee smash into Jason.

At that point, she immediately forgot the mission. Those objectives flew out the window. She only cared about one thing: making sure her husband was okay.

Leaping down and shooting a couple nearby troops with her M16, she ran to Jason's side.

"Jason? Jason!? Please for the love of God be okay!!!" she said, hoping she'd get a response. She didn't. Jason didn't even move.

She checked for a pulse, and barely found one. Any other info she could've gathered on Jason's status was interrupted by her having to take cover froma barrage of rifle shots.

As she returned fire, she began to feel a numbness surrounding her. Jason had always been a constant presence to her. A man infalliable and near indestructible no matter how bad things got. He had risked everything for her, taken bullets for her, almost died for her, and yet he had came through it okay. Yet now he lay pinned to a train in a blasted and wrecked shell of a country, barely clinging to life in what would have to be the biggest Charlie Foxtrot in SpecWar history since Desert One.

She looked upon the charging masses and suddenly a new sensation began to replace that numbness. It was hate, pure and unbridled. The hate soon gave way to an equally unbridled rage.

A bullet grazed her shoulder, but she didn't feel it. She didn't even think about it. There was only one thing she was thinking about...

Destruction.

Kaitlin's eyes suddenly glowed an intense red. And deep within her mind there was a distinctly evil laugh.

She dropped the rifle and drew her swords.

Kaitiln set upon the soldiers so fast that they weren't even able to react until 10 of them lay dead, sliced cleanly in two. Even after they reacted it didn't matter much, Kaitlin was moving too fast, and being way too strong. Bullets were deflected in a firestorm of metal that simply felled the shooters that had tried to hit her. One soldier almost got the drop on her with a survival knife, but she got him with a back kick that shattered his sternum, which slammed into his spine and actually partially pushed that out of his back.

She was only 30 seconds into her rampage, and 40 soldiers were dead.

An attack jeep sprayed bullets at her from the 30 cal. machinegun mounted on the top of the windshield. She dodged the shots with blinding speed. Then she leapt over to the HumVee that was pinning Jason and kicked it with a massive burst of strength.

The Hummer flew backwards and slammed head-on into the Jeep. Both vehicles went up in a fireball that wiped out 5 more soldiers, not counting the ones in the jeep.

The assault continued. Kaitlin slew Mastermind's soldiers wherever she could find them, at least those that weren't being picked off by the others. And still her lust for vengeance and destruction wasn't satisfied.

OOC: EDITING from last night/early morning whenever

BIC: ***

Jason's eyes slowly opened. He didn't know exactly how long he'd been down, but he knew it was long enough for someone to dislodge the hummer from pinning him. However, he could also hear gunfire and explosions so he also knew that the battle was still ongoing.

He tried to struggle to his feet, but pain lanced through his body. Collapsing back to the ground, he coughed up the blood that had gotten into his lungs before the nanites healed them.

Damn...my augmentations haven't been pushed like this in a while...apparently I'm not going to heal quickly.

Suddenly a body landed next to him. Well...at least parts of one. An arm and a leg to be percise. The rest of the corpse landed about 10 feet away.

The hell? Jason thought. Then his eyes caught sight of the carnage. Bodies everywhere. Vehicles overturned, smashed, or in flames. And right in the middle of the bloodbath, was Kaitlin, slicing and dicing her way through troops like a woman posessed. Not to mention she was practically howling in rage.

He couldn't call out to her, he was too weak, yet he still had one method of reaching her.

***

Kaitlin was considering taking off after the now mostly routing enemy when a voice, Jason's voice, resonated in her head.

"...Kaitlin?"

Suddenly the rage began to feel less prevalent.

"Kaitlin...are you okay?" the voice asked.

Kaitlin turned and saw Jason still lying down, but he was looking at her and his eyes were open.

She finished off the last opponent near her and began walking back towards him.

You fool! A voice cried out in her head. "Ignore him for he is weak and only slowing down your destructive rampage!"

Voice, shut up. I don't know who you are or what you're deal is, but frankly you're a part of me i don't like. The killing is over now...Jason needs me.

There was no further response from the mystery voice.

Kaitlin began to feel weakened and tired from the physical exertion involved in dispatching the soldiers. But she kept walking until she finally made it to Jason's side.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Jason forced a pained smile. "I'm...fine..." he said, "Are...you okay?"

Kaitlin wearily nodded. "Yeah...I guess I just sorta let everything cut loose when I saw what happened to you. Can you stand?"

Jason shook his head. "I haven't put the nanites to such rigorous tasks in years...apparently I'm not going to be walking or even standing for a little while."

Kaitlin nodded. She took a quick look around the battlefield. While most of the enemy soldiers were calling it quits, some were still pressing their attack.

Kaitiln carefully picked Jason up to a standing position and helped him to cover in between two overturned train cars. They sat there, both armed with pistols, just in case any enemy troopers noticed them.

OOC: ok...go nuts peoples

Jax was slowly advancing down the train, M4 up. He slid to the side, getting into cover and peered around the edge. No hostiles in sight. He stepped out and began working his way down the train. Oddly enough, the one thing that stood out most on his mind was that it was very very uncomfortable in full black coveralls. Now he saw the wisdom in Azrael wearing the t-shirt. Originally, he'd dismissed it as rebellion against an organization he felt had wronged him.

There was a crunch. It wasn't from his foot. Jax crouched and moved right, making sure to not press against the wall. Bullets could ride walls. Two people entered, brandishing guns. From the distance, Jax couldn't tell the make and model. Slowly, he exhaled and brought the barrel up. Memories of his sniping lessons first with the Princess Pat's, and then the RCMP flooded into him.

With a silent whisper of, "Forgive me," he lined his sight up and fired. The first man's head snapped sideways brutally, and he crumpled. Spurred forward by fear, the second man stepped aside and snapped his gun up to scan the room. At long last, he saw the black clothed figure, and then he found himself in Valhalla...

Jax rose and stepped forward to make sure they were dead. Unlike Azrael, he derived no pleasure, no satisfaction, from taking the life of another. Unfortunately, it was part of his job. That's why when he looked outside and saw Kaitlin in action, he was filled with disgusted awe.

"Oh my God..."

***

Guusman was nervous. There was scattered gunfire heard throughout the train, and radio reports were getting less and less frequent. Furthermore, when you switched you frequency to the perimeter guys, all that was heard was screaming. Nevertheless, Guusman shouldered his weapon and soldiered onwards.

Azrael dropped behind Guusman and his two companions. His hands wavered momentarily, going between his knife, his Browning, and Betsy. Get your head back in the game, was all that he could think. Was he quick enough for the knife? Could he kill all three before they could get their guns toward him? They moved like professionals. That meant no. Betsy was too loud as well, and would make a mess farther down the train.

Slowly, he drew his Browning as quietly as possible and pulled the silencer for it out of a pocket. Making sure to keep quiet, he screwed it on and glanced between the three. Then he levelled it.

Paf paf paf

The three hit the ground, and Azrael holsted the browning. He leaned down and checked their guns. AK-74. Arguably the most reliable gun in existence. He was ready to take it for his own when he heard footsteps from behind him. Checking his routes, he looked up. Thick electrical cables that weren't live anymore. Thus, he hopped and hauled himself up and onto the cables.

Another two walked by below him. This was a knife situation. When they were in the right place, he dropped. On one, he hamered the knife into their sternum, then turned to the other. This was resolved with a vicious punched from his left hand before his right elbow came around and crushed his wind-pipe. Jax would've given the man a mercy bullet.

There was no mercy in Azrael. It was all coming back. Everything except the "why." He continued down the train.

OOC: Finally! Jade and Monk's mission in it's entirety. Thanks so much to MC for co-writing. Part 1

BIC: Jade and Monk seemed to have been walking through the dense rainforest for ages without being disturbed. They were making progress towards where Carol was being held, and there was no sign of any resistance. Jade spoke quietly to Monk, "something isn't right here, I haven't even seen any security around.”

Monk was silent with his answer. His eyes were peeled on the layout surrounding them, his ears open for any foreign sound, a twig snapping, leaves rustling, even a slight change in wind speed he would pick up, but she was right; there was nothing right now. Not another soul. That didn't change his answer though for he knew that as soon as he broke the silence, they'd pick it up, whoever 'they' were.

As Jade's statement went unaddressed, the bad feeling she was getting in the pit of her stomach was growing. This wasn't as intuitive as Monk's sixth sense or whatever he had, but she couldn't ignore it. There must be a reason for the lax security...Jade kept looking ahead and down and noticed a tiny red light. Her eyes widened as Monk was about to step on it, and she quietly cried a "stop!" to Monk. She looked around herself and began to notice the tiny lights spread all over the jungle floor mere inches apart. "Landmines..."

He stopped his foot right about the red light as he could feel the subtle light radiate on his sole. Slowly he brought it back and placed it down next to the other, cautiously looking around, seeing the red beacons that lay on the ground around them. He whispered lightly, "We have been lucky not to step on one of these, and I am surprised I didn't sense these. I must be getting rusty." He knelt down to try and inspects one, "Hm..." Jade cringed as Monk knelt down. "Be careful."
"I've never seen these before... new model I suppose..." He stood up slowly, "Although I can guess what will happen... let's try our best not to step on one of these. Besides, from the look in their spacing, if we step on one, they'll all go off in a massive chain reaction. If the initial explosion doesn't kill us, the raging forest fire probably will, and if that doesn't, this place will be easier to see then black on white..." Jade nodded at her husband. "We can't afford to waste time though. Maybe we should chance taking to the trees," she pointed at the sky. Monk watched the invisible beam that fired from her fingertip to the branches that blocked the sun. "Hm... not a bad idea." He looked back down with a smirk on his face, "Fan of climbing trees as a kid?" Jade bent her knees and leapt up onto one of the branches. She smiled, "loved it."

Monk's smile widened as he too leapt up, clasped a thick branch in his hands, then rolled himself up to stand on it and look around. "See anything?" Jade tried to look through the think and dense foliage, but could scarcely see a thing. "Not a thing unfortunately, you?" He shook his head. "Nothing from my end. Are you sure we're going in the right direction? What are we even looking for?" Jade consulted her PDA. "Well we're looking for a coffee housing warehouse. All national ambassadors have a tracking beacon implanted in their skin, so I'm tracking her. However, the signal is being slightly jammed. So I only have a general idea of where she is." Jade smiled again at her love, "ready to go a hunting?"
He looked around once more. "Coffee housing warehouse?" He sniffed the air. "Monk we're in a coffee forest...smelling won't help much." He took another quick few sniffs, then turned his body and started off, "This way..."

Jade could barely protest before she jumped off after him to keep up. Where did Monk think he was going? It's not like he could differentiate between harvested coffee and unharvested coffee, could he? "I'd believe anything about him right about now..."
He seemed to jump from branch to branch as a monkey would, leaping from one branch to another, then catching one in his hands to swing himself to another, cutting through the air as if running on the ground. This is ridiculous, thought Jade as she struggled to keep up with Monk, here I am jumping through trees in the jungle of some godforsaken country to do a job I don't even want to do...I must be nuts.

In a flash as sudden as his start, he stopped and knelt down a little on the branch he paused on, brushing some leaves from his view, pointing to a building a little ways from them. "There it is..." Jade looked down at the building, it was heavily guarded, much more heavily than they both expected. "I guess this is where all the jungle guards went. Any ideas for infiltration?"
Monk thought for a second, then looked back to where they first detected the land mines. "Hm..." He paused, and then looked down at his feet in search of something. Jade cocked an eyebrow. "I don't like it when you get that look in your eye."

"You know... we could find out what those mines do..." He ripped off a piece thick bark from the tree. Jade's eyes widened. "Are you insane? You're going to get killed!" He gave her an odd look. "Wha? No no no, you get the wrong idea. I was going to toss this piece of bark over to where we were, and set off the mines over there and grab the guard’s attention to that spot..."

"So you're going to blow up the entire forest and maybe us too. We don't know what kind of explosives those things pack, nor do we know the blast radius. We could get hit as well..."

"Hm... I guess this is true." He put the bark back in it's spot, but stayed low, "Do you have another idea?

"Maybe..." Jade hooked her PDA up to her neck and scanned the surroundings as numbers popped up in her line of vision. "Ha! I knew it! Some of these trees are artificial enhanced with nanites. So if I can just find the right coding..." Jade began to mentally hack an area of trees. Soon the nanites were disabled and a large section of trees disappeared. A large contingency of guards went to check it out, while a smaller amount stayed behind. Jade extended her index and middle finger in a very Monkish pose. "I win."

"Ok... you got a good group away... what about those still by the front door? If they are attacked and have the time to alert the others... then we still have to deal with all of them."

"Then we shall have to attack them quickly enough to not alert the other Mr. Stealthy ninja man." His eyes narrowed, "Do not compare me... ninjas..." it hurt to say the word, "I am a monk..." Jade smirked a little, she liked to push his buttons. "I'm sorry." Before they could begin the fight, Jade placed a soft kiss on Monk's lips. "Please be careful and come back to me love." His eyes fluttered closed as they kissed, then opened narrow, "Do not think I will forget this conversation..." And with that, he fell backwards from the tree.

OOC: And part 2

BIC: Jade straightened up and leapt from her perch. In mid air, she drew her glock and her sword and began firing before she landed. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she was off and running at a group of guards. As soon as the fight had broken out someone had screamed, "Sound the alarm!" and a few guards took off running towards the security console. Jade was busy holding off a group of guards and could not get to them. "Monk! Some assistance please?"

He was no where to be seen. It was as if he had vanished from the face of the earth. The fastest one was about to hit the button when a hand thrusted out from nowhere, grabbed his wrist, lifted him from the ground then found himself being hurled into the rest who had followed him. Quickly getting up and looking around, his automatic leveled to fire at the attacker, he found no one in sight. "What the hell?" He asked to no one in particular. He took a few cautious steps toward the console once more, he being the only one brave enough to go against this phantom. He was standing in front of it once more... and still nothing. It must have been a figment of his imagination. He lowered his gun and calmly reached for the button once more, blinking once to get the sweat out, and when he opened them again, he found himself on the ground on top of the pile that was his comrades. "Ghost!" cried one out as he turned and headed for the forest.
Some of the others joined him as they vanished from sight, leaving three souls willing to stand their ground. The front man once more took point, this time the other two flanking him on either side, all three with their guns at the ready. They all got back to the console and looked around for the etheral being, "I see nothing..."

"There is nothing over here; it is safe to push the button..." The one in front nodded and looked down as the button, as if pushing it would open the gates of hell, which has already happen to him twice. "Third times the charm... right?" He asked cautiously, reaching for the button, his gun still up for attack. Afraid to blink, his eyes burned from the dryness, yet stung from the sweat as involuntarily his eyes closed for the last time that day. Monk, from the tree above dove down and sleeper pinched the front guard than tossed him safely away from the button, while spinning his fist around the other two, knocking them in the back of the skulls and knocking them out as well. "Must we make so much noise my dear?"

Jade snapped a nearby neck, a technique she learned from Monk. "Must you always disappear until the last possible second?"

"Yes."

"Then yes, I must make noise."

"But my way won't tell the entire world we're here..." Now it was Jade's eyes that narrowed as she slashed a guard across the chest. "Well the gunfire would probably do that as well you know," she said as she dodged some bullets. Monk crossed his arms. "That's why you take to the shadows. As you may have noticed, you have already killed three men, another you paralyzed, and the fifth... well... is no longer a man. Out of my group, I had 3 run from fear, one on the ground that will sleep soundly for the next few hours, and another two who won't see the light of day until tomorrow due to the blows to the head."

"So?"

"My way is less suspicious, more humane, and much more fun..."

"Well unfortunately I don't have the amount of stealthy monkish training that you do, so I have to do things my way."

"Well... just let me know when you are done..." And with that, he jumped up and vanished again. Jade gritted her teeth as she blocked an incoming kick. She knew that Monk was just getting her back for the ninja crack, but he sure did know how to piss her off. She ducked a punch and laid one of her own in the guards solar plexus, dropping him into unconsciousness instantly. Jade holstered her gun, crossed her arms and quietly said, "I'm done..." Monk dropped down behind her, hands landing on her shoulders, "Shall we continue?" Jade leaned back into Monk for a moment, seemingly drawing strength from him. "Yes." He looked around her shoulder, "You ok?” Jade looked at Monk. "I'm fine..."
He paused with his answer. She was lying, but now was not the time to start a fight. "All right... we shall continue." He walked around her and towards the door of the factory.

Jade followed Monk, drawing her glock again while hacking the door. It creaked open in front of them exposing the inside of the factory. Machines lined the room and barrels of coffee were strewn around the factory. Above them, Carol dangled, tied to a wench above a giant grinder. Jade made a face, "maybe the guy likes James Bond a lot?" Monk gave her an odd look, "James Bond?" Shrugging and taking a step into the place, he looked around for anything suspicious. As soon as Monk took that one step into the warehouse, a huge amount of guards came literally out of the woodworks. They sprung out of the coffee barrels, jumped out from the other rooms and even crawled out from behind the machinery. Jade readied her weapons for another fight when a figure yelled, "stop!" She looked up and standing near Carol was a man in a white Armani suit. His face was heavily scarred and he held a knife to Carol's ropes. "One move and she dies. Now tell us who you are!" Jade scowled and looked at Monk. "He doesn't know who we are?"

"We have been out of the field for a while..." He replied.

"Evidently." The man made a motion towards Carol and Jade's eyes widened. "Ok! No need for that!" Jade dropped her weapons and raised her hands above her head. "I'm....Lauren Adis...." She spoke to Monk quietly through her teeth, "make up a name..."

"My name is..." He thought for a second. "Bond. James Bond." The man chuckled, "well Mr. Bond and Ms. Adis, it seems like your rescue efforts were in vain. Ms. Danvers is in my possession and so are you. You!" He yelled to one of the men, "take the girl and the one in the ridiculous outfit into the other room and tie them up."

"...R... Ridiculous outfit?" Jade laughed nervously and patted Monk on the arm. "Now, now James, it doesn't seem like we're in the position to be arguing." He looked over to her, "I like this outfit..." The men grabbed Jade and forcibly tied her arms tightly around her back. They did the same with Monk. They then led them into the back room and tied the couple to some piping using heavy chains. The men sniggered before they left, "we'll be back to have some fun with your lady friend soon." They then slammed the door and bolted it. Jade turned to Monk, "that wasn't very nice was it?"

"...I... I really like this outfit." He looked himself over. "I mean... don't you? Where did he get off saying that?" Jade rolled her eyes. "The outfit remark he can't stand, but he lets the remark about molesting his wife slide..."

"Oh no... I'm angry about that... but..." He tried to break the chains that were holding them in place. Jade struggled against her bonds as well. "I think that they were expecting augmented soldiers even though they don't know who we are." As Jade continued to struggle, the men returned. "Struggle all you want girly, these bonds are made with adamantium alloy. Now for some fun." The men began to advance on Jade as she realized that she was in no position to fight back. A look of fear spread across her face as she glanced at Monk.

His teeth gritted and sweat started to bead as he kept pulling the chains apart, with no luck of course, after about another second of fighting, he broke down, fell to the ground and panted, "I... I can't do it." He said aloud. "They're right... they are too strong. I cannot break these chains... I cannot save my partner..." His head dropped down as he started to sob, his hair covering his eyes. "I'm a failure!" He started screaming. "I have failed you! I am a failure as a human, and a failure as a man! I do not deserve to live!”

Jade tried to pull on the chains, but even with her nanites they would not budge. The thought of the men having their way with her while her husband watched was terrifying her. She tried to lash out with her feet, but found them bound by the same chains. Screwing the fake names, she turned to Monk, her face stricken with terror. "Monk, help!" He only started to scream the louder, "Monk! Monk help us!! You are the only one who can!" He started to howl with his tears, kicking making as much noise as he could in his emotional torment.

OOC: Part 3

BIC: "Oh my God! Would you just shut the hell up!? Ralph, go knock him out!" The one named Ralph, a big pudgy fellow walked over to Monk and raised his gun up to smack Monk in the face. With all his might, he swung down and connected, soon finding himself face first in the wall. "You know... that could have hurt..." Monk said, getting up and rubbing his wrists. "Man... I have to give it to you. Those chains were almost impossible to break." The others backed off slowly, all of them with their guns up to fire, but each one waiting for the other to shoot. "Reminds me that when I get back home I need to get back into shape. As for now though..." His eyes lowered and narrowed, hair falling in front of his eyes, "...what say I begin my training right... now..." He charged forward before any of them could get a single shot off, broke the muzzle of two of the automatics, stole another and broke the holder's jaw with it, spun around and held the gun at the leader's head. "Drop it... NOW!" The guard did so. "Good, now all of you still standing... go over there." He motioned to the opposite side of the room, and they all followed his orders. They all turned, their backs to the wall as they watched Monk take the gun in his two hands, and snap it over his knee as one would an oversized branch. We walked over to Jade, grabbed the chain, pulled the thing apart and stood up slowly. "You will wish that it was I who attacked you. There is only one that I know of that has the potential to beat me... and guess what... you made her very upset, and I don't know if I can restrain her."

"Why didn't you just leave her in the chains?" One of the more dumb ones asked. Monk walked over, made a fist, and smashed his face in leaving a nice dent in the wall. He shook the blood off and looked back to her. "I'm tired... but I beg of you... please do not hurt them." He walked over and loosely wrapped his arms under her shoulder. "I'll hold her back for as long as I..."

"...can." As that word escaped his mouth, Jade pulled free of Monk's very loose grasp and decked the first man, breaking his nose. The next guard fell to a swift snap kick and the third to an elbow in the sternum. They all dropped like rocks, though she had not killed them. Jade was panting, not from the physical exertion, but rather from the fear that she had to feel just moments before. Small tears mixed with the sweat from her face as she walked back to Monk and leaned her forehead against his chest. "Thank you..."

"I had a feeling you needed to do that more than I did." He wrapped his arms around her, "I promised you that I would never let anything get to you. I intend to keep that promise... even if I die before you..." He kissed her forehead, "I love you..." Jade hugged Monk back, "I love you too," she sniffed once and pressed her lips against his, "after this we need to save Carol." He nodded slowly. "Yes..." He looked over to the guards, "You know... I think I killed my guy..."

"I won't hold you to it."

"It's not that... It's that you won..."

"I won?"

"You didn't kill your enemies..."

"You were fighting for me, we're even."

"Ok... Lets go!" He turned to the door and opened it slightly to look in the hallway. "See anything?" He shook his head. "No..." Jade paused only to pick up her weapons before following Monk outside. They were high above the warehouse floor on to opposite side where Carol was being held. "We should do this fast."

"You have a plan?"

"Do I ever have a plan?"

"...Not normally... no..."

"So then let's go." Jade sped off towards Carol and in one swift leap; she landed on top of the wench. She took the tape off of Carol's mouth and quieted her with a finger to her lips. Jade examined her bonds and motioned for Monk to come to her while she pointed and mouthed the word "chains." He took note of his surroundings, then nodded when he saw the coast was clear... for now anyway. Not as quick, he got to her, knelt down and took a firm hold of her binds. He started to pull, and with a little effort, was able to break them apart, only to have one of the links fall to the ground and make a nice echoing sound through the entire factory. "Crap," Jade grabbed Carol and jumped to the floor just as a bunch of guards and the scarred man came out weapons drawn. "Carol run for cover." Jade drew her weapons and looked up at Monk, "one more time." He was gone, leaving her alone on the floor. Jade smiled, this time keeping quiet and knowing full well that her husband was there. She let her nanites flow in a burst of energy and began to tear through the troops.

Monk most certainly was there, in fact he dropped down silently behind the scarred boss pinched his throat, pushing the other two guards off the ledge and splattering on the ground below. He picked up the limp leader and jumped over the railing, then rolled just he was to hit the ground fireman carrying the white suit. "We can leave now." Carol crept out from behind her hiding place as Jade finished off the last guard with a heart punch. "Yes let's go, the sooner this mission is over, the better."

Jade and Monk had dropped Carol off at the base and left before anyone could bother them with debriefings and paperwork. Finally home, Jade collapsed on top of their bed and sighed heavily. "That, was quite enough of that I think." Monk nodded, "I agree... yet I have a feeling we shall be seeing more of this sometime soon." Jade got off the bed and walked over to Monk. "I would hope not. For now anyways we can get back to our lives. And I believe I know where we left off," she said with a seductive grin, tugging Monk's shirt and leading him over to the bed.

Beowulf was busy trying to figure out how to activate and launch the environmental nanites. He at least had the trajectories locked in, somewhere far away from the battle. Unfortunately the canister launch system had been damaged in the derailment, and Beowulf was busy going head to head with the security AIs for control of the backup.

"I already told you, there is no fucking way that I'm going to just hand you the keys to this thing!" the lead Security Chief, a brawny AI named Mackey said.

"We're on the same side you arrogant bastard now hand them over!"

"You want the keys? You're giong to have to take them from me!" The AI sneered and held his hand with the backup keys out.

"Fine" Beowulf kicked up, hitting the AI in the hand and making him release the keys. He then hit the AI in the trachea with a quick two fingered jab. As the AI hit the ground, Beowulf caught the keys in midair.

The chief's two AI comrades attempted to take Beowulf down, but he kicked one in the face and stabbed the other one in the eye with the keys. He hit them once more each in the face just to make sure they stayed down.

Putting the keys in the backup system, the launch sequence began.

Wait a minute...if the train is on its side...oh bugger.

***

The upper hatch of the nanite transport car opened up, facing some of the enemy troops since the train was on its side. The canisters went flying at a mostly horizontal angle, right into the throng of troopers.

Four canisters smashed into troops, pulverizing bones. One went through the windsheild of a jeep and out the back. The other 15 canisters flew by without hitting anything and releasing the nanomachines.

As for the other 3 canisters, they did the same thing, releasing the nanites which did whatever repairs they could do to the scarred land and then rendered themselves inert and unusable.

"Jason, I released the canisters."

"I can see that Beowulf, good work."

Despite losing their objective, the remaing troops began to press their attack.

"These guys just don't quit." Jason said, firing his .45 at a couple soldiers, dropping them.

"This seems a lot like that time we got trapped on that mountain."

"Yeah it does, except this time we're not entirely alone."

As he said that, a volley of missiles from the Phantom rained down on a platoon of soldiers, throwing their bodies into the air.

Kaitlin took the distraction to limp out and grab two AK-74s and some ammo.

"This should help things a bit," she said with a grin.

Ryan was still behind the cover he'd first gotten behind when he'd made his way out of the train. He'd been receiving heavy fire pretty much the whole time and only managed to squeeze off a few shots at a time without getting a hole blown into his head. He'd even stuck his staff into the ground to make it easy to reach if any enemy got around to him. Luckily for him that hadn't happened yet. With all of these circumstances in mind, this was counting as one of the most hectic missions he'd ever been through, and he was getting through every minute of it more through instinct than anything else.

"Bastards just don't give up, do they?" Ryan thought, irritated as he popped an incoming soldier in the head and another twice in the chest.

Crouching back behind cover, he reloaded and reached for another magazine. He was really running low, and he'd been conserving ammo. If he kept it up at this rate, he'd be out before he knew it. He'd have to rely on his staff and knife before he could get one of the enemy's AKs if that happened.

"Gee what fun..." Ryan though sarcastically as his few options ran through his head.

Leaning out and taking out three more reckless soldiers, Ryan checked his surroundings for any enemy AKs. All of them, unfortunately, were out of reach. Unless he wanted to look like swiss cheese, there was no chance he'd be getting any.

So, he had to resort to waiting. And he wasn't always good at waiting in these cases. Especially since he decided he wouldn't fire since he had to attract a few enemies.

Grabbing his staff in his hands, Ryan peeked around and saw, to his luck, three curious soldiers who were probably just following orders. They weren't too far away at this point, but if he wasn't careful Ryan could easily be outdone. Taking a deep breath, he readied himself for the attack.

***********

The three troops crept along toward Ryan's cover. They were confident they could get this guy, Cyber Force or not. Still, they had to act smart to do this.

"You two, go one way, I'll try and go out behind him," one ordered the other two, obviously higher ranked.

"Yeah, get rid of us and get the glory yourself," one of the other two mumbled.

It wasn't long before they were at the stray rubble and waiting for their confidence. One of the two slowly went around, leveling his gun at what could possibly be there. The moment seemed to take an eternity, but he eventually saw him. A roughed up man in a marine uniform. This was the guy, and he swung his gun around in what seemed like slow motion.

It was a little too slow, though, because a metal staff seemed to come out of nowhere and slam into his gun, and then his face. Then everything blacked out.

*********

Ryan was quick to react. He'd swung his staff around to point the enemy's gun away, spinning the other end straight into the man's head with a loud clank. Yanking on the man's uniform and pulling out his knife, Ryan finished it with a brutal stab to the man's throat.

As the second came around from the same side to try and help his partner, he was swept from under his feet, falling straight onto Ryan's knife.

This was when the the third soldier took his time in sneaking up around the other side, only to be met with a round to the head from one of his comrade's AKs. Ryan obviously didn't care anymore, he just felt good to have some ammo.

"Sir, you got any idea how much longer this is gonna last?" Ryan radioed to Wolf, completely baffled at the numbers the enemy had since they were still going strong.

Jason let loose a 5 round burst at some soldiers, thinning their ranks. Kaitlin followed suit, dropping a few more of the enemies.

"Hard to say," Jason radioed back. "They'll keep at this until they're either all dead or they get distracted...hmm...hold on a sec."

Jason switched channels and radioed J2. "J2, Beowulf put a tracking program in the GPS computer on the enemy's mobile field HQ. If you can damage or disable it, it might cause the troops to worry about separate attacks."

"I'll see what I can do," the AI replied.

***

The enemy commander was baffled by the fact that over half his troops were dead, another 15% had fled the battle, and mixed reports came in about "some devil lady" massacring the troops.

He was also angered by the fact that apparently the canisters had been launched from the disabled train. Now he was just running the battle out of spite, determined to destroy the soldiers that had refused to back down.

Suddenly the mobile HQ was rocked by an explosion.

"What was that?" the commander radioed the driver.

"I don't know! A missile just came from nowhere!"

"It's an ambush, drive us out of here!"

The truck moved forward, intent on falling back. All of a sudden a barrage of machine gun fire from the still unseen Phantom took out the radar dish on the HQ vehicle.

The truck sped up trying to evade the etheral attacker. But it was blindsided by a missile that hit the left rear tire, taking a chunk of armor with it. The HQ truck then flipped over and slid on it's side for about 20 feet.

The commander winced as he tried to get up on his broken leg. "2nd and 3rd platoons, fall back and protect the command vehicle. 1st and 4th platoons, continue the attack.

***

Back on the battlefield, over half the enemy troops suddenly turned back.