Beowulf appeared next to J2 in full combat gear, armed with an M16-M203 rifle, and twin Omni-Falcons. He also had a small satchel on his back carrying about 3 pounds of C4.

"I am assuming," he said as grin played across his muzzle "That that was a rhetorical question. So...where are we going?"

***

Kaitlin was currently jacked into the training construct of Base Chicago, testing to see if her new nano-augmentations had affected her accuracy or her throwing skills. Currently she was in the construct's firing range. At her end of the range was a .45 pistol and a few knives and throwing stars. At the other end was a paper target and a wooden knife dummy.

She picked up the .45, made sure the program had loaded it, and took aim at the paper target. She noticed her arm moved a little faster than normal while she was aiming, and it threw her off a bit. As such, her first shots went a little wide, just barely grazing the edge of the human sillhouette on the target.

Damn it... she thought as she stopped firing, and took aim again, this time concentrating more on aiming dead center. As she fired, she noticed her augmentations had cut down on the blowback from recoil. Her hand stayed almost perfectly still as she emptied the .45s clip into the middle of the target. Checking the target as it came up, she could see that the 5 bullets she had fired in a more controlled manner had left almost 1 bullet hole. The 5 bullets had been shot in almost the exact same spot on the target, just missing by the smallest of distances.

that was pretty cool, she thought, pleased with the fact that she could still shoot well. I wonder...

Kaitlin hit a few buttons on her PDAP, and an M60-S (OOC: small version of the M60, like in Hitman 2.) appeared on the table at the range. Kaitlin picked it up, took aim, and opened full up on a second paper target. The target literally fell to pieces as the 50 rounds from the M60 shredded it. However, it was still intact enough for Kaitlin to see that at least one-third of the bullets had passed through or near preexisting bullet holes, and that all of the hits had been on the silhouette.

Okay, no problems with guns...how about knives?

She picked up the first knife, tested its weight in her hand, and brought it up to throw. As she released it her arm moved forward far faster than she expected, and her throw was low. The knife clattered across the floor of the range, making a metallic echo.

Damn, I did not expect that to happen. she thought as she picked up a second knife, and thought for a second.

obviously my arm is going to want to move a little faster than normal. That's all right, I'll just time my release better.

She brought the knife up, and let it fly. This time her aim was far better. The knife whistled as it flew through the air and embedded itself up to the haft in the dummy's torso.

She grinned widely. That was cool. Wonder how far deeply a knife can go...

The third knife actually kept going beyond the haft, leaving only a bit of the handle sticking out from the target dummy's head. Upon later examination, it would be found that the tip of the knife was actually poking out the back of the dummy's head.

Kaitlin went through the rest of her pointed arsenal, leaving all the knives and stars except the first embedded deeply in the target dummy. Some of the stars had even penetrated very deeply, leaving large spin cuts, almost as if they were saw blades.

Well, this leaves only one more thing to test out...hand to hand combat. she thought as she dialed a number into her PDAP.

***

Wolf had just finished converting a second M203 grenade into an EMP grenade when his PDAP rang. He answered it. "What is it, Kaitlin?"

"I'm busy breaking in my nano-augmentations and decided I need to test my hand to hand skills. Care for a sparring match?" Kaitlin asked.

"Sounds good. I'll be right there." Wolf replied. He hung up the phone, jacked into the base's Network with his computer, and entered the construct.

OOC: Next time...training battle!

Devin flipped his own PDAP open and grinned as he heard Angel.

"Heh, sure. Just arrived in the city myself - where are you?"

"That really really big hotel. Remember the one we once had a shoot-out in? Remember, I was supposed to pretend to be a bartender and the final bodycount was something like 30?"

Angel flopped on his bed as he sent this, then turned the TV over to TSN.

"Oh, right, that one... I'm surprised they didn't chase you out with pitchforks and firebrands - thank you, dear - no, that was just a cute attendant handing me my luggage. I'll be right down."

Slightly horrified at being called "dear" by Devin, even with explanation, he took a moment to collect his wits.

Then he called the best chinese food place in the entire country, and told them to deliver.

The construct reshaped itself as Wolf entered. The gunnery range vanished and was replaced by a dojo not too different from the one that the Cyber Force computers in Base Los Angeles used. That was probably because both dojos had been constructed, or at least modified, by Wolf himself, using a few design engines and coding that he had learned while he was in high school.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Wolf asked Kaitlin as the two circled, staring each other down.

"Yes of course I'm sure. Besides, it's not like this will cause any permanent damage."

"Well...that's true," Wolf said.

"My point exactly." With that, Kaitlin ran forward and tried to jumpkick Wolf. Wolf merely stepped aside quickly, leaving Kaitlin to crash to the ground. Instead of crashing however, she shakily managed to tuck and roll on the ground and get back up.

"You're forgetting I can move just as fast as you...If not faster." Wolf said as Kaitlin turned back to face him.

Kaitlin didn't respond, she just retook her stance, but this time waited for Wolf to make the first move. Wolf was all too happy to oblige, launching at her with a triple scissor kick. Kaitlin barely managed to block the kicks, but she recovered fast enough to send a palm shot at Wolf's chest as he came down. Wolf deflected the blow with his right hand and brought his left around in a hook at Kaitlin's face Kaitlin ducked under the punch, then got Wolf in the chin with a flip kick. Wolf crashed backwards onto the floor, but he quickly got back to his feet.

"Guess you're not as fast as you thought." Kaitlin said jokingly.

"No...not when I'm not using the nanites to their full potential." Wolf responded.

"Wait, you were holding back?"

"Well...I wasn't going to go all out on you." Wolf said as he took a stance. "Not at first...anyway." Then he launched himself at her, fists flailing in the somewhat easily recongnizable eagle claw style. Kaitlin dodged those attacks, but didn't realize that that was what Wolf had been counting on. As Kaitlin dodged his fourth swipe, it left her open to the roundhouse kick he delivered to the side of her head, spinning her around in the air until she hit the ground. She quickly got back on her feet, and grimaced in pain.

"All right...I see how this is." She came at Wolf a little faster than before, using a quick flurry of punches and kicks. Wolf either blocked or dodged the attacks, and tried to counter her last punch by grabbing her fist and aiming for her ribs with his free hand. Kaitlin saw this coming however, and slid down under the punch, and also twisted Wolf's arm as she came up behind him. She tried to kick him in the ribs, but Wolf blocked the kick with his own leg, and spun around, releasing Kaitlin's arm in the process.

The two battled for what may have been 5 minutes, each parrying each others moves, but occasionally getting a hit in. Kaitlin was keeping up with Wolf, but she was consistently on her toes because it seemed that Wolf was either altering fighting styles in between blows, or he was simply using a style that she had never seen before.

Wolf feinted left and then moved right, catching Kaitlin in the side with a kick. Kaitin stumbeld a bit, but managed to return the attack by punching Wolf in the chest. Wolf could notice that she was moving a little slower than before, and surmised that she was tiring.

I'd better end this before she knocks herself out. he thought. He noticed they were near the dojo wall. He knocked a punch aside, leapt up, kicked off the wall, and caught Kaitlin in the face with another kick. She fell backwards into one of the columns in the dojo, cracking it slightly.

Wolf walked up to her, and noticed she was breating really heavily. "You all right?" he asked.

"I'm fine...just really...tired."

"Well, that's to be expected for a while." Wolf replied. "You don't want to push the augmentations too hard, or they'll burn out. Just keep that in mind."

"I will." she said as she got up into a sitting position

Wolf sat down next to her. "Any other questions you have about the augmentations?"

"Yeah. I found that a couple times it was hard to aim correctly or throw a knife the right way because of the speed at which my arm moved."

"Again, that can be disconcerting at first, but there's an easy way to deal with that. You simply have to remember that you are in charge of the nanites, not the other way around. You can simply suggest with thoughts how you want the nanites to behave in certain situations and so on. Eventually you can get to the point where you can simply suggest things subconciously and the nanites will do them."

"So, I can just think about how fast I want to move...and they'll react accordingly?"

"Exactly, although it may take time for them to work on the level you need them to perfectly."

"All right...I think I get it. Thanks. That was a good fight by the way. I liked the challenge you presented by altering styles."

"Eh, it's nothing that special. It's just a combination of Ninjitsu, Karate, Tae-Kwon-Do, Russian Martial Arts, and a couple other disciplines that I sort of merged together as I learned them while searching for you."

"Well, it's still a pretty good combination."

"Yeah, it has served me well in the past." he said with a grin. He got up. "Okay, I think you've got the basics down. I suggest you finish preparing for tomorrow and then get some rest. You're going to need it."

He logged out of the construct.

OOC: I'll be starting the next part up tomorrow so finish up anything character related tonight.

Angel and Devin sat around in the room, cleaning their guns, eating chinese food, and watching a football game.

Somehow, the guns seemed one hundred percent normal.

Wolf had pretty much finished selecting what weaponry he was going to take on the mission. Right now he had twin .45s, twin omni-falcons, twin TMP-75s a KI-42 with underslung M203-MWS launcher, the Laptop Gun, and his Katana. He also had the 3 unmodified EMP grenades, as well as the two launchable ones, in addition to 1 M203 grenade and 2 frags.

Now he was just deciding on whether or not to take one more weapon, the Golden Magnum he had nicked from Kreish's body. Turning the weapon over in his hands, he contemplated the decision.

I don't really like using revolvers...take more time to reload in theory than clip weapons...even with speed loaders. he thought. but on the other hand, if what Kreish said about this weapon is true...and I got a lucky shot...then that's one less super soldier.

He checked the weapon, saw that it was clean and loaded up, and clicked the cylinder back into place.

Yeah...I'll bring it...you never know when it might come in handy. he thought as he set it next to the other weapons he was bringing, as well as the nanoarmor vest.

He looked at the clock. It was almost 11 PM. He had spent over 7 hours preparing, and training, not to mention finding some rest time in between.

I better get to bed. he thought as he washed up. In less than 15 minutes he was asleep, his mind on the coming mission.

OOC: Before anyone says he's carrying too many guns, just remember that Neo had at least 8 guns when he stormed the govt. lobby. (not sure if he had 2 sets of dual barettas or not). Besides, if you were going up against super soldiers, you'd want to be a walking arsenal too.

(( Why should we? Angel's walked into fights with twice as many guns before... >_> ))