Cyber Wars 2.0 Chapter 7: Fury Unleashed
 

Jason thought for a second. "We could put you in a computer still connected to the network running 40 copies of SimCity at the same time...no wait. I got a better idea. You could hide out in the controlling servers of one of the Cyber World arcades. That should foster plenty of innovation. Of course, you might...that's might accidentally attract undue attention to yourself"

OOC: *kicks self in the ass* i didn't realize JAD had left now...which means i now have to write for Coyote as well. ...this is going to be a challenge for sure.

BIC: Coyote didn't take long to think. "I'm partial towards the Arcade...management if you will. Be like that useless X-men villian who trapped the mutants in games. Except I promise not to hurt anyone, cause you're right. I do like attracting attention to myself, but given the circumstances I'd rather not."

Jason grinned a bit in relief. "Well, ok. You pick an Arcade of your liking, and let me know where you are...discreetly of course. And just call if your cover gets blown."

"You got it. Good luck with the whole 'making the world safe' thing. Watch yourself on the walk back."

and with that, Coyote waved his hand and transported Jason back into the more normal parts of the Cyber World. Though true to Coyote's nature it was nowhere near where they had been earlier. Rather it seemed he was in Cyber Houston.

Well, once i can get to a hub i can get out of here He thought as he set off down the street, using his PDAP to track for a hub location.

about 2 minutes of walking later he suddenly became aware that he wasn't alone. He was being followed by 7...no 8 people at least. They were following at a distance, wearing dark red cloaks that were no doubt concealing weaponry. He also noticed at least 4 more people walking towards him in similar attire, and he noticed that the cloaks had First Order insigniae on them

Well, i guess i wasn't as in the clear as i thought.

he checked to see what weapons he still had available. His .45s were there, as was his katana, but those wouldn't last him long enough against 12, possibly more, assassins. he also realized that Coyote had given him a small gift; An EMP grenade.

...odd, he usually isn't that charitable he thought. Still, as he continued moving while the assassins closed in, his mind began to try and formulate a plan.

If i run they are capable of catching up to me, which is why i guess there are more in the back than in the front, unless they expected me to run backwards...but the hub is ahead of me and they know i need to get there. Therfore. he thought as he gripped the EMP grenade, They won't be expecting THIS

with that he turned and whipped the EMP grenade at the assasins behind him. At the same time he drew his katana and began running at them. The EMP went off just before he crossed into its blast radius, the pulse affecting 6 of the 8 assassins to the rear. Running at them, he slashed away cutting down two of them and wounding a third as he heard weapons beginning to be drawn and cocked. Leaping off the hood of a parked car, and then the back of an 18 wheeler, Jason vaulted himself up onto the roof of an apartment building as bullets whistled by him.

He checked for an open comm channel to the Cyber Force base in RW and found that luckily the First Order hadn't jammed comms yet.

"This is General McKenzie. I'm under heavy attack from at least 12 first order assassins in Cyber Houston. Relaying coordinates now and requesting immediate support, over."

~Base L.A.~

The senior tech's eyes widened, and he looked back at Tia.

"Jack me in," she ordered, turning immediately and sitting down.

A flurry of keypresses later and she materialized in a stream of code and white light near Jason's position.

But still not quite near enough. Gathering her bearings quickly, she then levitated and flew up and away from the logout/login point, towards Jason a block or two down. As she approached at high speed, she brought her fists up and prepared an electric surprise for her former colleagues...

OOC: damn it, i'm writing something important and i get writers block. ARG!

BIC: Kaitlin had been meditating, attempting to drown out the voice in her head that just seemed to be getting stronger and stronger, when her CODEC went off.

"Major, we have recieved a distress call from General MacKenzie, he is under attack from numerous First Order assassins in Cyber Houston."

"I want a rig ready to log me in by the time I'm in the ops room, I'm on my way!" she said as she got up and ran towards ops.

***

Meanwhile, Jason was trying to keep the advancing assassins off of the roof. so far his guns were keeping them at bay, but 3 were headed up the fire escape, using the metal framework to take cover from his fire while sending rounds back up in his direction.

A fourth assassin leapt up onto the roof brandishing a scimitar. Jason parried his strike with his Katana, but the assassin kept up the attack. With a powerful strike Jason severed the scimitar at the hilt and then drove his sword into the assassin's sternum. he pulled out his .45 and shot the assassin twice in the chest, the force of the shots sending the soldier sliding off the blade and onto the blacktop surface of the roof.

Running back over to the fire escape, Jason sliced away at the two support beams holding it onto the side of the building. With a massive creaking and wrenching noise the fire escape broke loose and fell down to the street, taking the assassins with it.

ok, so far 2 are dead and 4 are incapacitated, maybe dead, he thought he heard the assassin on the roof struggling to stand, so he shot him in the head. all right...3 dead. Still...would be nice if...

he checked his PDAP and saw Tia and Kaitlin closing on his position. He opened a channel to them.

"Tia, Kaitlin, thanks for coming to back me up. Listen, I want to take one of these bastards alive for questioning. Find out where the orders are coming from. Something tells me it ain't Mastermind, and I want to know who it is"

Leave that to me.

Tia swooped in a half second later and unleashed a furious hailstorm of electricity - multiple lightning bolts shooting forth from her hands and striking each First Order at once. All of them, surprised at the suddenness of the attack, took a moment to adjust and subsequently found themselves being tossed backwards against walls, into the streets, and into dumpsters around the building.

Tia floated down towards the rooftop then and began concentrating, trying to tap into the minds of every one of the assassins left alive and take control. Even should she fail to assume control of their consciousnesses, she could still at least freeze their motor skills. It would take a few seconds longer, though... if she even succeeded.

Many of the assassins were having trouble getting back up, Tia's lighting storm played hell with their augmentations. But they were getting up, and they continued their assault, attempting to reach Tia before she could tap into all their minds.

Two Assassins leapt from a nearby rooftop onto the roof where Jason and Tia were. Jason leapt to one side as the Assassin's opened fire with submachine guns.

Jason returned fire with his .45s, catching one of the assassins in the chest and head. But the dying man's gun still fired, and two rounds hit Jason in the leg, sending him sprawling.

As the other assassin tried to draw a bead, 3 throwing knives flew through the air and embedded themselves into his torso. He looked at the knives in curious shock, and suddenly Kaitiln sent him over the edge with a flying jump kick.

As Jason got back to his feet, he saw that Kaitlin had brought enough ammo to level a city block (mostly in frag and WP grenades), but she also had a KI-42 Assault Rifle.

Walking to the edge of the roof, Kaitlin began firing the rifle one handed and tossing grenades, taking out many of the disoriented Assassins.

"You picked the wrong husband to try and Assassinate" she said as an assassin was consumed by fire and bullets.

That left only one assassin trying to make a beeline in a futile attempt to save himself from Tia's power.

Mind blocks, hm?

Tia tired of her little toys either running away or getting killed, and dropped the mental approach for a more physical one... one that involved her simply seizing the escaping assassin in a telekinetic grasp and yanking him back over towards their position. Then when he was close enough to smell she flipped him upside-down and brought him over to Wolf. "Ask away, he's not going anywhere."

OOC: Zeph i apologize in advance for taking over for Tia for this post.

BIC: Jason grinned slightly in approval, and drew his .45. he pressed the gun up to the assassin's temple.

"All right, you're going to answer all the questions I ask, otherwise Tia is going to rip you limb from limb with her mind. Maybe I'll shoot you and end your suffering, but i doubt it."

"You goddamn heathen! put me down!" The assassin spat.

"I'm going to let that slide since i still haven't asked you any questions." Jason said. "But now the lighting round begins. First off, who are you working for?"

The assassin hesitated. Jason nodded over towards Tia, and suddenly the assasin's right ankle began to twist unnaturally.

The assasin let out a slight yelp of pain, realizing his nanites weren't going to help him. "Ok Ok! Fine. I'm working for Mastermind who else do you think i'd be working for!"

"Mastermind is dead, wrong answer" Jason said hitting him with the pistol. "Who are you REALLY working for?"

"I'm telling you it's the truth! The leader of our chapter says our orders come straight from our lord...and i've even heard him before! Though..."

"yes?"

"He...doesn't sound...the same. His voice is disjointed and he stutters, but both he and my leader have assured us that it's simply because of all the damage he's sustained."

Jason chuckled a bit. "I think you and the rest of your men are being played here. The disjointed and stammering is usually the sign of an imperfect program copy. Something tells me your "chapter leader" is using Mastermind as a figurehead to solidify his power. Which brings me to my next question. Who is your chapter leader? And where was he last?"

"That...I cannot answer. Last place i saw him was in Russia. That was days ago, he left separately from us."

Well...crap. At least we've got something.

"I guess you can't help us any further," Jason said as he brought the gun in line with the assassin's temple."

"Oh, you think you've got it all covered don't you?" the assassin sneered. "You think you'll just work your way through and kill all of us, no problems? Well, here's something you didn't count on. You didn't count on your worst enemy manifesting itself. right here. right now."

Somehow he was able to turn his head to face Kaitiln. "Activate the enemy within yourself." he said to her.

As soon as that sentence escaped his lips, Kaitln suddenly grabbed the sides of her head and began screaming in agony.

"What the hell...Kaitlin what's wrong?!"

The assassin laughed. "You really don't know do you?" he laughed only for about a half second more before Jason shot him in the head.

"That's all we're going to get out of him," he said to Tia as he walked over to the writhing Kaitlin.

"Kaitlin, what's wrong? Speak to me." She didn't say anything, the screaming had stopped but it was replaced by painful moaning and deep breathing.

"please tell me you're all right..." Jason said.

Kaitlin turned to look at him. Oh, I've never been better.

Jason only had a half-second to realize her eyes were glowing an intense red before he was thrown back by a fireball that seemingly just came from nowhere.

Kaitlin stood up, and Jason could see that flames were seemingly coming off her body, and yet not hurting her.

"At last I am free, free to destroy all who stand in my way."

Tia tried to stop her but Kaitlin sent her sprawling with another fireball that she just seemed to conjure right out of her hand. Laughing manically, Kaitiln (if Jason could even still call her that) threw her arms out to her side, sending a massive explosive shockwave across the entire roof, and sending Tia and Jason flying 6 stories to the ground below.

Tia, despite being knocked around by the blast, managed to slow hers and Jason's descent, but Jason still could feel something in his back give a bit as he landed on the roof of a car.

Jason could see Kaitiln, who had now somehow spawned a pair of ragged batlike wings, take off into the air, firing fireballs indiscrimiately.

Oh God Kaitiln...what the hell has happened to you?

He would have shouted it, but fear overrode it.

He activated his codec, and willed himself to speak. "We've got a code red, I want everyone logged out immediately. Something has gone terribly wrong."

***

In a few seconds, Jason found himself back in the ops room, but he realized that Kaitiln still hadn't been logged out.

"Sir," the ops tech said. "For some reason whatever's happened to her is also preventing her from being disconnected from the system. The best we could do is isolate Cyber Houston. Citizens are being logged out now, but there's a chance she could...do some damage."

"Why can't we log her out?" Jason said.

"It apppears that something has activated a "dead-man" trigger of sorts within her. If she's logged out while she's like this," the tech gestured to the monitor, "she'll die."

Jason almost went pure white from shock, he fumbled over his words a bit. "I need to make some calls. Keep me appraised of the situation. If anyone is willing to go in there to monitor her from a distance, that's fine. But do not engage her in combat."

With that, Jason turned and ran to his quarters. oh shit oh shit oh shit. Kaitiln has gone completely batshit crazy, you don't know why, and if you don't figure out soon...she's gonna die.

a couple tears ran from his eyes as he realized that. She's going to die and there's nothing you may be able to do about it.

he forced that thought from his mind as best he could. No, I'm not going to think like this. I'm going to save her. I just...

a thought occured to him. I need someone who knows viruses. I mean, that's what this has to be.

he grabbed his phone and dialed Jade's number.

OOC: OH! OH! I GOT IT!! IT'S MINE!!

Monk opened his eye as he watch the phone ring. Sighing, he got up from his meditation and picked it up, "Listen... I'm sorry. No, we do not want your product! Leave us A..."

That's when something stirred in his heart. Something bad. Something serious. "H... hello?"

Jason was a bit taken aback by Monk's reflexive response, but after he switched over to a stuttered hello, he knew taht his friend somehow knew what was coming.

"Monk, it's Jason. Kaitlin is in a lot of trouble. Something has happened to her that will kill her if we keep her in the Cyber World, and will kill her if we try to log her out. I think it may be a computer virus, and I need Jade's help, and probably yours as well. Is Jade around so i can talk to her?"

He knew he tripped over a couple of the words from emotion, but at this point he wasn't concerned about sounding strong.