Cyber Wars ch6- "Coyote's Maniac Mansion"
 

Jade arched an eyebrow. "Coyote, you know that I want you to shut down your explosive device. Now name your terms and we can get serious."

OOC: Sorry for the short post.

Wraith presses a few buttons on a panel and stands back as the door slides open with a hiss. He breathes deep once and steps in, looking around at the change of scenery.

Unlike some people, he'd always preferred to do his training in a real world setting. Right now he's standing in a small dojo, looking at a limited selection of weapons and simple training devices. "Meh...they'll do."

He steps over to the closest rack of machines and begins stretching, hearing the door close shut behind him.

"You have my terms. Good day." and with that the virus was gone.

OOC: and now...the agents revived!

BIC: Smith had no clue how long he had been out. All he remembered was a flash of gunfire, then nothing after that. As his program slowly came back online, he found himself facing another one of Mastermind's screens. The screen was constantly fading in and out of focus, due to the effects of the viral bomb. Smith himself found he couldn't move, and his head hurt, a lot.

"Smith, you failed horribly. The anomaly now knows what I did to him. As for the runner, he is still alive. And his AI construct has damaged my program. This is unacceptable." Mastermind's gltchy screen glowed red,

Mastermind, I had no way of knowing about the viral bomb. If it hadn't gone off, Beowulf would have been deleted. Smith said.

"What about the runner and the anomaly?"

Their commander, Jade, brought down the data building in order to escape. There was nothing I could do. They were out of the system by the time I had recovered.

"Fine...we need to take things to the next level. I know what the runner is after. Once you can move again, bring his objective to me."

Your wish is my command, Mastermind

OOC: Whew... you remember that this was really the chapter 6 chapter... I got nothing as of yet... Also, my posting may be slow due to an... unseen thing. I'll be on, but it'll be random...

Monk could feel his eyelids get heavy, but a knock on his door stopped him from falling. He quickly looked himself over to make sure he was presentable, well, as presentable one can get when one has tubes and wires in him. After the quick inspection, he looked towards the door, "Come in..."

"They better run the diagnostic, cause I'm only doing this once." He armed the doomsday device and activated a preset operation. an unpopulated region of cyberspace blinked out of existance. leaving a message in the now scarred land as the program filled the void. "Oh give me a home, where the buffalo rome, and the deer play with the stag, where seldom is heard as a discouraging word and all the cowboys dress in drag. Home. Home on the strange"

Wolf walked into his friend's room. He could see Monk was still batlling himself to stay awake, so he decided he would have to make things quick. "I'd ask if you're feeling okay, but you look worse than the Grim Reaper's passport photo."

He paused, then continued. "So, seems like you and Jade really like one another. That's a good step in the right direction for you. I just hope things for you two don't go the way things went for me 5 years ago."

Monk smiled at the name of Jade, but them frown at the sound of his friends distress. He pulled himself up and look at him, "Wolf...? Are you all right?"

Wolf debated for the 5th time whether or not Monk should hear this.
Well, he would understand... he thought

Wolf decided to tell him. "5 years ago, Mastermind ruined the life I had. Now I know what I'm going to tell you in no way can compete with what he did to you, but that isn't my intent."

He paused, then continued. "5 years ago, I was still going by my real name, Jason MacKenzie. I was a corporal in the US Army, part of the Junior ROTC program. As part of my West Point training, they had dispatched me to China to help with the peacekeeping force that was dealing with the Communist collapse and the power struggle that resulted.. I was selected because of my weaponry skills, despite being only 18 at the time. I was leading a small ROTC team that included my girlfriend, PFC Katlin Vong. She had joined the ROTC and enrolled at West Point at around the same time as I did. She was attractive, intelligent, and shared the same fondness as me for firearms. We basically fell in love at first sight. Anyways, we had been together for about 5 months before we got sent to China. The ROTC forces basically did light duty with occasional street patrols, but nothing too major. About a month into our tour of duty, however, we got sent on a real mission. Apparently some renegade troops had seized a shipment of humanitarian supplies in addition to some weapons and ammo. My unit was sent to investigate because the regular forces were busy fighting some of the Communists at the Great Wall."

Wolf took a moment to collect himself, fighting back the tears as he remembered what happened next.

"We got to the suspected hideout of the renegades, which was a small abandoned industrial complex. But they weren't there. Or so we belived. All of a sudden, an RPG launched from one of the rooftops hit our HumVee, destroying it and killing the driver, Corporal Davis, as well as PFC Andrews, the gunner. Then the renegades, dressed in black BDUs and bearing a logo I didn't recognize at the time, started attacking from all sides. We fought back, but one by one the soliders in my unit fell, until it was me and Katlin. As I turned to tell her to run, I noticed she wasn't firing, and that none of the shots were even coming near her. I asked her why she wasn't firing, and in one motion she brought her M16 up and shot me in the right leg. I collapsed to the ground, in pain, and was expecting to die. But all the gunfire stopped. Katlin walked up to me, and spoke in a metallic voice that was not her own.

'Normally, I would kill you, but you may of yet be of use to me. I just need to wait for all your hope to die!' she...well...whoever said. I didn't know who was controlling here at the time, but I later found out the truth. It was Mastermind. Somehow he had captured and brainwashed her, as well as those 'renegade' soldiers. The enemy soldiers, along with Katlin, walked away, leaving me to bleed out on the floor of the Industrial Complex."

Wolf brushed away a few tears then continued.

"When the rescue teams found me, I was the only survivor. I told them what happened, but since Mastermind wasn't a realized threat yet, they didn't buy it. There was a Court Martial, and I was almost discharged, but they weren't able to find conclusive evidence that I was working with the renegades, who by now had disappeared. Even though I was acquitted, I was still heartbroken about what had happened to Katlin, as well as my unit. I decided to find out the one responsible for this mess, and make him pay; especially since my own government still didn't belive I was innocent. But of course, Mastermind found me first. The night I was acquitted, 5 armed men showed up at my barracks. They told me who they were, who they were affiliated with, and what they wanted with me. Of course, that same metallic voice was the one I heard. Knowing I couldn't let this abomination win, I gave his messengers a .45 caliber response, and then I packed up and ran. I fled China and wound up in Australia, where I changed my name to Wolf and joined Andy's special forces unit. For three years I battled Mastermind's forces in the real world, but I could not find Katlin anywhere. Then I got an email from her...or maybe the humanity left in her. She was asking me to help her, to free her from his clutches. I knew that RW combat would not be enough, so I joined up with the UN's Cyber Guard unit as a mercenary...and eventually wound up here. For 5 years I have been trying to find her, and trying to free her from Mastermind, just like I have done with others like you. Now Coyote threatens her existence, and possilby mine as well.

Monk just looked at his friend. Here he was, lucky to out of Mastermind's hands, but Wolf... no, Jason would forever be in his grasp, and what of this girl? Again, Monk had just found the one for him, when Wolf had found her, only to betray him. Monk took a deep breath, and choose his words carefully, "As Jade put it to me... lightly..." He thought for a moment. "How did it go... 'Shit happens... and then we move on.'" He forced to make eye contact with Wolf.

"What happened in the past happened in the past. There is no way to rewrite what has already been done in the book of life. However, one can write a better ending for the future, for it is in they're control." He rubbed the spot, which was still red from Jade, "I had this slap of reality hit me just now." He grinned, hoping to lighten the mood.

However, now he knew that his best friend was in need of help, but Monk knew he was powerless. There was nothing he could do, not now anyway. He was too... weak." No... I can't let lack of strength stop me now... I have to go... with them... He tried to force himself up, but even without the aid of others, he couldn't do it. He was now the only one stopping him from going. "Wolf... help me up... we have a mission to go on... and by the way... Don't tell Jade that you helped me..."