Demons of the past
 

Angel glared at the man who'd clotheslined him. It was someone from his old comp-sci class. He had fleeting memories of the man stroking Andrea whenever Angel had been more than a meter away, and he had memories of how the man had set his lust-controlled sights on Andrea after Angel had returned from the snowboarding trip with her in tow. Then she'd filed a restraining order, and Angel assumed the man was in prison.

"You...Angel...how...poetic I guess. You should be called Demon, because you took away my angel!"

Angel rose swiftly, then ducked again as the clothesline missed him. Angel then rose, spun, and slammed his elbow into the back of the man's head.

Mikhail...that had been his name. He'd had russian parents, like Angel.

"Andrea was never yours Mikhail. That's where you went wrong. You wanted her as a property you could use for whatever you wanted, and throw her away."

Mikhail came back, far far faster than what Angel had expected. His tackle slammed into Angel, and while still in mid-air Mikhail inverted to give Angel a suplex. To counter, Angel kicked his legs free, twisted halfway, got a grip, and turned it into a chokeslam. Then he let go at impact, rolled away, and came up on his feet, obscenely large sword brandished.

"You...you monster. My angel didn't want you. She was above you! She wanted me...couldn't you tell from all of her smiles? Her looks? But you! You kept dragging her back to make her a slave!"

Angel ignored what the man was saying. "Wait, let me get this trip. You almost get charged for sexual harassment, and I'm the monster here. Besides, I never saw you going half-way around the god-damn world, and putting life and limb at risk to save her."

Mikhail got faster yet, and slammed his elbow straight into Angel's stomach before Angel could bring his massive sword to bear. This drove Angel into a marble wall, and through it, to roll a good 15 feet.

Angel sprung to his feet, then swayed to the side, letting a punch that was probably at sonic velocities whish by his head. In return, Angel grabbed it, ducked under it, then yanked it sharply down while holding the arm out, locking Mikhail's arm in place.

Unfortunately, Mikhail turned towards Angel and gave him a brutal uppercut that lifted Angel into the air. Angel landed on his fingers and nimbly turned it into a backflip before snapping his forearm up to stop a chop, and getting his calf to block a knee. His bones vibrated at that blow.

Then Angel snapped his left arm around and smashed the side of Mikhail's head with a blow that would've snapped a normal man's neck. Mikhail wasn't normal however, and he spun with it, jumped, and snap kicked Angel in the face.

Angel stumbled away, feeling blood streaming down his face from a broken nose, and tried to prepare for the next attack. It was Mikhail's knee slamming into his chest, with a crack of Angel's breastplate. Mikhail wasn't finished however, and he brought that leg onto Angel's shoulder and pushed it past before snapping the other leg into Angel's face, which bounced back, then was yanked sharply forward by the foot behind his head.

Then Mikhail grabbed Angel's head with his thighs, twisted, and threw Angel right past Devin. Angel slammed into the wall with a large crack, and felt his vision swim. Desperately, he clung to consciousness.

Mikhail stalked forward and hissed, "You fool. You killed Andrea. Her death was your fault. MasterMind promised to give her to me when he finished with her. Your interference caused her death. If you weren't around, she'd still be alive and she'd still be happy!"

Angel's damaged state of consciousness merely absorbed this and accepted it as fast. Suddenly, Angel felt like the entire universe was gone, he was going to die, and there was nothing he could do.

Mikhail pulled out a Colt SAA and flicked open the cartridge. Then from his pocket he withdrew a single bullet, and explained, "I have engraved the names of every member of your pathetic team onto a bullet. All six of you. As the time comes, I will kill each one of you one by one."

He put the bullet into his Colt SAA, and placed it against Angel's head. "Goodbye, demon." He pulled the trigger.

There was a click. A quote from far earlier in life, when Andrea had been out hunting with him. "A bullet never lies."

He'd targetted a deer, and pulled the trigger on his rifle. It hadn't gone. She'd swept her hair out of her face, then watched him fumble for another bullet. "Dear," she'd said, "A bullet never lies."

Suddenly, reality took on a whole new spin. That bullet hadn't lied when it had taken her life. In fact, because of it Angel tackled everything thrown against him with unequaled ferality.

He glared at Mikhail, and Angel felt his own mind melt with the fury of four years of surpressed hatred.

With a cry that sounded like an animal, Angel snapped upright and slammed his forehead into Mikhail's face before slipping ahead and delivering a withering series of chops to Mikhail's upper torso. Mikhail stumbled back, and looked at his companion for help.

Said companion was occupied with Devin. Desperately, Mikhail fumbled with the revolver, drawing the bullet for Devin. Angel on the other hand was grabbing his sword and sprinting back at near sonic speeds. Mikhail snapped the revolver up. Angel slid in the way and raised his massive sword.

Mikhail fired. It rebounded from Angel's sword. Then Angel flipped his sword around to throwing knife position and whipped it at Mikhail. It caught him full in the chest, and the force threw him across the courtyard. Then it pinned him to a wall, the massive sword sticking out of his chest.

Angel calmly stalked towards him, picking up the fallen Colt SAA. A bullet never lies. Devin wasn't meant to die then. Angel wasn't meant to die then. Angel opened the cartridge and pulled out the two empty casings, one to give to Devin, one for later use.

Then he reached Mikhail and pulled out the bullets. He chose one. Kaitlin.

"Now, remember this Mikhail. Losing Andrea was a pain greater than anything you can imagine. This bullet is for my cousin Kaitlin. This will be the bullet that causes your death because Wolf never deserves the pain this bullet is meant to bring."

Angel loaded the bullet, and placed the revolver against Mikhail's forehead.

"By the way. Just so you know, Andrea and I were supposed to be getting married. And when we both wrote our vows, we both said that the other was the best thing to ever happen to us."

Then Angel shot him, and ended the perversion of Andrea's memory. He glanced back to see Devin cleaning up his own affairs, and abscently twirled the SAA as he watched.

Jade and Wraith screeched up to the fallen out hotel. Bodies littered the street as they followed the trail of carnage inside to find their only means of getting to their allies cut off by means of the stairs being cut apart. Running back outside Jade saw a half broken away fire escape.

Leaping onto the awning of the hotel doorway, Jade took another jump and grabbed the fire excape as part of it groaned and fell away to only leave one side intact. Hoisting herself up, Jade and Wraith made their way up to the highest floor where Wolf and Kaitlin were engaged in a fire fight with a bunch of soldiers. Using her Glock's, Jade cleared away some of the soldiers from the window area and hopped into the 5-star-now-reduced-to-1-star hotel room. "Cavalry's here ladies and gentlemen."

After a few moments of exchanging fire, Jade heard Wraith cry out and ran to see him pointing out the window to where a group of Frist Order Assassins were climbing up the remains of the fire escape...and the wall. "Wolf, we need to get to the roof, we're about to have some heretic company."

OOC: Must...adopt adapt and improve!

BIC: "You got it!" Wolf said to Jade, "Just give me a second."

Wolf gathered up the weapons he could from the dead enemy soldiers. He grabbed a pair of 10mm Colt Delta Elites, two MAC-15 SMGs and an AK-47. Checking the gas level in the chainsaw, he noticed there wasn't much left. He poured out the remaining gas onto the floor.

"What are you doing?"

"Budget renovation! Grab whatever weapons you can carry and put the flamethrower on the floor, preferably in the gas puddle."

Kaitlin looked at him oddly. "Look," he said. "That's not going to be much use up on the roof. Right now I want to cut off the enemy's access to the roof."

"Well, I guess you're right." she said putting the flamethrower down. She picked up a Benelli shotgun and another .45 pistol. Adding 2 grenades and a 5PY-D3R to her arsenal, she nodded to Wolf and Jade.

"All right, let's go." Wolf said.

Suddenly part of the wall simply fell apart as a First Order Assassin broke in. More asassins began to come into the room, and Wolf began to take a Ninjitsu stance.

"You three...get to the roof now."

"But..."

"Go...I'll be right behind you." Wolf gave Katilin a quick kiss, and she nodded to him before following Wraith and Jade up to the roof of the hotel.

Wolf looked at the 10 or so assassin's surrounding his position, and a plan began to form in his mind.

"So...who wishes to die first?" He asked.

One assassin, clad in garb that was better suited to the deserts of Mad Max than an urban battlefield, walked up to him.

"I believe it is you who will be the one dying," the assassin said just as he threw a high speed punch at Wolf. Wolf blocked the attack effortlessly, snapped the assassin's arm at a unnatural 90 angle to the right, and then kicked the assassin right in the head, sending him flying over to the flamethrower and landing him on top of it.

Wolf scooped up a loose frag grenade, primed it, and tossed it so that it landed right on the stunned assassin. He immediately sprinted to the stairs that led to the roof.

"Have fun!" he shouted at the assassins as they began to tail after him, various guns and swords drawn. He had just managed to make it up to the roof when the grenade went off.

The blast immediately immolated the unlucky assassin, who had managed to heal but not get out of the way in time, turning him into a charred skeleton within seconds. The blast threw burining napalm and gasoline all over the floor and walls, and ceiling, and also created huge jets of flame that burned in numerous directions. One jet of flame went right up the stairwell, burning a couple of assassins that had kept chasing Wolf, and just narrowly missing Wolf himself as he knocked the door to the roof off of its hinges with a nano-enhanced dive.

The other assassins had either run for cover or leapt out of windows to avoid the hellish blast. However, Wolf's intended result had been accomplished. The entire story was going up in flames. However, it would take more than that to deter the persistent First Order.

Wolf could see a few burned assassins coming up the stairwell, and others were simply climbing up the walls to get to the roof. From across the street, 3 more assassins leapt from one roof to the hotel roof.

As Wolf prepared to get ready to fend off the attackers, his enhanced hearing could pick up something. It was a low creaking sound...the sound of the roof beginning to lose support.

He turned to Jade. "We're going to have to either make this fight quick...or keep moving. The roof doesn't have long."

Meanwhile the assassins kept closing in on their targets.

The groan of the roof resounded in Jade's ears. As she looked for a means of escape, First Order assassins blecked her way. "We're going to have to make a way off this roof." She leveled her Glocks and fired at the nearest assassin. He reared back, but kept coming. "Oh right, that whole human wall thing." Adopting a Washin Ryuu stance, she slammed the butt of her gun into the assassin's head and gave him a spin kick. As she landed, part of the roof under her crumbled away. She took a leap back, leaving a gap between the two. Backing up while facing the assassin, she felt herself hit something. Spinning around with her guns raised, she came face-to-face with Wolf, breathing a sigh of relief.

"This place isn't going to last lon-...is that guy behind you on fire?"

Wolf turned and saw that Jade was right. There was an assassin with most of his left arm ablaze, charging towards him. Wolf ducked under the assassin's left hook, feeling the heat from the fire as it passed overhead, then he caught the assassin on the chin with a viscious uppercut. The hit knocked the assassin back a couple feet, but Wolf still wasn't comfortable with that distance, so he introduced the assassin to the entire last clip of his Colt 45. The bullets left bloody holes in the enemy soldier's torso, but of course it didn't even faze him. Almost as quickly as they had appeared, the wounds began to vanish, and the assassin renewed his attack on Wolf.

Wolf did whatever he could to keep the assassin's burning limb away from him, blocking attack after attack, and even countering a few (with little effect however). He noted with little surprise that the assassin didn't even seem bothered by the fact that his arm was being consumed by flames. Unfortunately, that observation nearly got him killed. The assasin caught Wolf in the face with a fire-enhanced right cross, staggering him. Then the assassin kicked Wolf sqare in the chest, knocking him onto his back and cracking the rooftop beneath him.

The assassin was moving to finish Wolf off when Kaitilin's Benelli roared twice, sending a double load of 12-gauge buckshot into the assassin's back. The assassin winced slightly in pain, and turned to face Kaitlin.

Wolf seized his chance, getting up and running forward as the piece of roofing he was on crumbled away, Wolf charged at the assassin, leapt, and dropkicked the assassin right in the back. The surprised First Order zealot flew through the air and slammed face first into one of the struts supporting the hotel's reserve water supply tower.

Wolf dashed over to the slightly stunned, mostly pissed assassin and slammed his head into his knee, breaking the assassin's nose. Wolf then held the zealot up by the throat, the assassin despearetely flailing in an attempt to get Wolf to let go.

"You know, with all that fire on you you might get heartburn. Mind if I take a look?" Wolf said in a voice that had more contempt in it than even a Mastermind Agent AI could manage to muster. Wolf put all of his energy into his right hand, and punched right through the assassin's ribcage and ripped out his heart. As the assassin slowly stopped twitching, Wolf threw him and his disembodied heart off the roof.

"Well...guess I extinguished it." Wolf muttered.

"Um...Jason your hair's on fire!" Kaitiln shouted

Wolf put a hand to his head, or at least tried to before he noticed the intense heat radiating from his hair, and came to the conclusion that Kaitlin was right.

"OH SHIIIIIITTTT!!!" He shouted. Looking for a way to extinguish the flames, he noticed the water tower. As he tried to get to it, two more assassins blocked his path. He kicked one of them into a second support strut, and that's when the only part of hell that had yet to break loose did just that. The tower began to fall downwards, pretty much intent on landing right on top of Wolf and the two assassins. Wolf had the good foresight to get out of the way to avoid being hit by the tower as it crashed through the weakening roof, the two assassins not even slowing it down. Water sprayed out of the tower as it fell into the hotel. Wolf got hit with a good sized wave of water, which while soaking him also managed to extinguish his hair. The relief was short lived though, as he could hear the roof really begin to give way.

"We've got to get off of this roof! It's gonna give!" Wolf shouted as he began running for the edge of the roof. Running at speeds not normally traveled by humans, Wolf managed to air dry himself in the process. As he reached the edge he leapt to the roof of the adjacent building. Kaitlin was right behind him, and Wraith and Jade we're preparing to follow their example.

Unfortunately, the enemy assassins were getting ready to do the same as well.

Angel looks calm, entertained even as Devin finishes his fight in again record time, a series of quick reversals and blows stunning and crippling Mikhail's lackey. At last Devin catches him with a hard right hook and breaks his left shoulder with a hard palm, and then draws his fist back for a killing blow when he freezes in place, unable to move a single muscle.

What the fuck!?

Even his voice won't move, and he quickly realizes that he feels like he's not even in control of his heart or lungs, both breathing and pumping out of rhythm from where he was. Oddly, it actually helps him catch his breath, and from the corner of his eye he can see that Angel's having the same problem. The suited man, however, looks free from the grasp of whatever the hell it is stopping them and stumbles back, coughing blood and panting for air as his wounds begin to heal.

That's enough, boys.

Both feel confused for a split second as the woman's voice talks, accompanied by a mental image of a woman, clad in form-fitting black leather from head to toe, floating in midair not more than a few yards from where they're standing. As the momentary confusion passes they look to her "face", only to see a mask there covering everything save her hair, which hangs freely from the top in a high ponytail.

Shahdee, get up.

"Heh, good luck on that," Devin thinks to himself as she "says" that, but she gives him a quick rebuttal.

Don't be so sure.

Both Angel and Devin give a small grunt as they're spun around a step to face Shahdee's dead body, Angel stuck just standing there in mid-step and Devin looking silly with his fist ready to hit nothing.

And both are horrified, shocked, and dumbfounded as they watch Shahdee's head float back over to her neck and begin to re-seam itself, the skin sealing up last after her spinal cord and muscles stitch back together. Then, her augmentations kick in and do the rest of the work, and in one second she jerks back to life with a spastic cough, rolling over on her side to cough up blood and fluid from her lungs with widened eyes.

"How the hell--?!"

-Did she do that?

Another grunt as they spin back in a half-step to face her, floating over towards them now a couple centimeters from the ground.

Miracles are commonplace in our order.

Angel strains against the grip on him, but in no way can he move, stuck in place with no control over his own vital signs. "Who the hell are you?! How are you doing this?!"

Your friend has already answered you.

And in a flash of insight she relays him Devin's thoughts from the last few seconds in one single stroke, in which he realizes she's a telekinetic telepath. Though still no help on the "who" part, as if it matters anyway. "Oh."

She floats down a little further and stops in front of him, looking up a bit as she's now below eye level instead of above.

Angel. Carrier of Aegis.

Angel would force a smile at her singsong voice if he only could.

"Pleased to meet you. Now let me introduce you to my FIST!! ARGH!!"

Futile, as before.

Nice try, wiseass.

Floating over then to Devin, she takes longer looking up and down him.

Devin. Former member of Red Cell.

"Pleasure's all mine."

Devin thinks to himself a few choice words that she can only smirk at, behind the mask. Then she floats backwards a bit until she's looking at both of them, pausing for just a moment to catch their undivided attention.

In case you haven't noticed, I've taken control of all your bodily functions. You're unable to move, and I can stop your hearts at any time I wish.

"Then why don't you just get this over with and stop playing with us?" Devin asks her.

Because I'm waiting for someone.

"I'm right here!"

The woman turns around and watches as Scrya hops down from a jeep and hurries over, getting there in three short hops, looking like Inuyasha. Mikhail's lackey, who was standing around trying to look important until now, spins to face her and steps back beside the woman, taking up the defensive.

"You're fucked now, lady," Devin thinks with scorn.

Scrya looks between her and Shahdee as the woman just shrugs Devin's comment off. "Shahdee."

Looking in the woman's face again she adds, "Tia."

Scrya.

The man in black growls and moves towards her, but Tia sticks her hand out in front of his chest, stopping him with a wave of telekinetic energy.

Wait.

Shahdee comes up to Tia's side, one hand rubbing her neck. After throwing Devin a dirty look, she faces Tia and asks her, "Should we take her, Tia?"

No. Your mission is done here. Go back to our Father now, he needs you. You too, Fowler.

Shahdee glances between her and Scrya, but nods and begins walking away, past Scrya's right side. "As you command..."

And Scrya, for whatever reason, just lets her go.

But not without getting a comment in as she walks past.

"You fell awfully fast to Devin, Shahdee."

Shahdee pauses in her step and turns to face Scrya's back, looking just a tad indignant. However, she holds that emotion in check and spins around again, warm Egyptian eyes fixed on the space ahead of her. "I never was a great soldier."

"Right. You were the spy." Without turning to face her, Scrya adds with a wry grin, "Not much of a soldier."

Then her attention focuses squarely on Tia. "It's been a long time."

Tia nods and replies.

We thought you'd died.

"You thought wrong."

"Look, are you two gonna fight yet or what...? 'Cause -- and I don't know about you, Devin, but I'm getting tired of being stuck like this."

"Damn straight."

"The guys got a point," Scrya says with a slight nod in their direction.

Maybe...

Tia turns her head slightly to look back at them, but faces front again and crosses her arms.

But I only came for Shahdee. We'll finish this another time.

"Well you're gonna get a lot more than HER!" Scrya screams as she leaps at her with explosive speed, intending to drive a fist in her.

Tia, however, reads her thoughts and dodges, sliding sideways in the air to let Scrya fly on by. Scrya, for her part, twists over in midair and adjusts her course, then lands on the ground and charges at her again as Tia lands on the ground for a change.

Punch, hook, chop, kick, sweep, fist, leaping roundhouse... everything misses as Tia reads her and dodges each shot. It doesn't take Scrya long to realize what she's doing... since, after all, she did it all the time in practice spars eight years ago.

And how did she beat her then?

Speed.

Too much speed.

As Tia stands from ducking the leaping roundhouse, Scrya twists her body and tucks into a tight spinning dropkick, looking to drive her feet into Tia's chest.

Nice.

That's what Scrya heard just before a powerful telekinetic blast wrapped around her and threw her down to the ground With Authority (tm). Rolling in the dirt to a sloppy stop, Scrya gets back to her feet with hazy eyes and dirty hair, while Devin and Angel feel the grip on them shaking, but only just barely... in fact, they feel their hearts skip a couple beats and their breathing slow a little. Shaking it off, she looks up at Tia and remarks, "I see you've learned a new trick or two...!"

Tia takes up a fighting stance across from her, and she can feel the grin behind that mask.

One or two.

Scrya strikes a new pose of her own then, cutting the air with a couple strikes and stopping to look over at Tia. Both stand off for a second, then charge at each other, Tia reading Scrya's every move as they swing faster and faster, disappearing in a blur of blocks and parries as their three-second, thirty-plus-strike "fight" heats up to a conclusion, whose grand finale sees Scrya "thinking" for an uppercut but really swinging her left leg up for a high chin kick.

Tia reads it, sure, but only too late. All she can do is lean back and out enough that the chin kick becomes a chest plant that knocks her airborne.

The force is so great, Scrya actually feels herself being shoved backwards from the rebound inertia.

Still, she has footing and Tia doesn't, but Tia corrects this by floating in place, using her momentum to put distance between them.

I said we won't finish this here!

Angry, she stretches her arms to her sides, holding them low with her palms open and sends a series of telekinetic bursts downwards at Scrya, all of which fall short and move along in a line, forcing Scrya to run sideways, towards Devin and Angel. Just as she gets close to them, though, swearing under her breath, a massive column of dirt erupts where a powerful burst strikes the earth and causes it to explode. Skidding to a halt just in time, she then has to deal with two more columns erupting nearby, trapping her inside a triangle point.

Scrya shields her eyes from the dirt and grits her teeth, crying out under her breath as the dust begins to settle.

"You're not even try--HUUUNH!"

Her sentence cut short by a particularly powerful blast meeting her chest, she has to recollect herself -- and her balance -- as she rolls on the ground behind her.

"Get -- up! Get -- UP!"

Scrya suddenly remembers an old Richard Pryor routine and feels like shouting back, "Fuck you!"

Instead, she gets back to her feet and glares up at Tia as she floats to the side and lowers her arms and guard, over to where a handful of other people have now appeared. Devin and Angel are turned to face them, and see the mountain of a black man from the tower together with Shahdee and a white tiger, which paces back and forth growling at them once their eyes meet. However, what really catches their eye about the tiger is when it changes form and color, and shifts into a man's shape, pale skinned and striped like the tiger. His wiry frame is crouched down on the ground, while his face grins at them maniacally and laughs, equally as disturbing as his emaciated appearance. Behind all of them, however, is another man, one who's dressed in a tattered trench coat and black clothes, with black face paint on one side of his face and an eye patch over the other side. Scruffy, unkempt hair lines his head, some of it in rough dreadlocks but all of it hanging around him and making him look like the dirty kind of dangerous. Nobody knows what his purpose is, but he sure looks some kind of menacing, hanging around in the back with his body only partly turned to face them, glaring out at them sideways with his one good eye.

Scrya recognizes them all.

Standing up to address them, she asks, "Tia, Shahdee... listen to me... Mastermind is not your God. He never was, and he never will be!"

Silence.

Hmph.

Silence punctuated only by Shahdee crossing her arms and looking sideways with a sigh, avoiding her gaze.

Of course not. There is no God on Earth.

Angel damn near does a double take, forgetting for a moment he can't move.

"Wh-wh-- Huh?! Then, what the hell?!"

Scrya looks between them as the wiry one snarls and looks away, sitting on his haunches and rubbing one trouser leg. "You mean..." she starts, looking back at Tia. "You've realized... your Truth was a lie?"

"Well, we're not stupid."

Scrya glances over at Shahdee, looking a little lost now. "When did you figure it out?"

Whatever tension there was in the area melts away with that said, the man in black behind them all fidgeting with a few necklaces, silver ones bearing skulls and obscure symbols. Tia floats back down to just barely off the ground then, crossing her arms and lowering her head a little.

Three years ago. All of us did.

"But... you still call him Father?" Shahdee nods. "Why?"

Why? Why call him Father, or why still follow him?

Scrya opens her lips to speak, but Tia raises a finger, stopping her.

To us, he is a father.

"But why?" Scrya steps closer, ignoring Angel and Devin in the backfield, still looking ridiculous frozen mid-stance. "He's nuts! He wants to take control of everything, take control of you!"

Yes... The world needs order. It needs to be taken out of this dark age. That is what Mastermind represents... supreme order. A chance at peace, even if it means war.

Scrya understands what she's saying... but she's not about to debate them on the concept of an artificial god to run the planet. Lowering her head with a nasal sigh, she delivers her ultimatum. "Look... I'm not even going into this whole God thing anymore... just... please... think about what you're doing... because if you don't, we'll have to kill you."

Shahdee looks up at her, while the man in black stops fidgeting and turns away, having enough of this conversation. The wiry man, for his part, just harrumphs and then smiles wryly, looking at the ground to his side as Tia lowers her head a little more.

If that's our fate...

She then looks up a little and uncrosses her arms, letting them fall to her sides.

Then we've accepted it.

Scrya looks at the black man for the first time, having avoided his gaze on purpose. Pleadingly, she asks him, "Eric?"

He dodges her eyes and looks away, withholding comment.

"Eric, please?"

Come home, Scrya. We'll be waiting.

And then they log out, and Angel and Devin find themselves able to move and breathe on their own again.

[/unwelcome plot twist]

OOC: Damnit Zeph...unwelcome plot twists are unwelcomed here...oh god I didn't just say that...*cries*

BIC: The roof began to give as large portions of it collapsed. Jade looked over her shoulder briefly to see that the large flames from Wolf's explosion inside had began to reach the propane tanks inside the hotel. Seeing Zeph already leaping to the next building, Jade sprint and leapt as far as she could, clearing the gap and half of the next building that Wolf and the others were on. Rolling and skidding to a halt, she scrambled to a standing position and yelled,

"The hotel is gonna blow! We need to get farther away!"

The others followed suit as she jumped to the next building, as an explosion rocked them. Blue and red flames shot out of the hotel and black smoke filled the air as the force of the explosion sent them all sprawling. As it died down, Jade could feel a chill in the air and wetness in her hair. Looking up from her face down position, she saw white flakes falling from the sky at an alarming rate as the wind picked up.

"Wonderful, MM hacked into the weather controls to the city..."

OOC: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

How long had they been fighting for? Five minutes? Ten minutes? An hour? It could have been a full day for all the two fighters knew. Blows were being tossed, only to have blocks match them. If there was a low kick, there was a knee to stop it mid flight. It was obvious the fight was going nowhere. Neither fighter had connected with an attack, so no damage was on either combatant. This battle was truly about the will to win.

The two pushes each other away once more to look each other in the eyes, both panting. Monk had no idea where he was, Real World, Cyber World, Heaven, Hell, it didn't matter. All he knew was that air was very important at this time. "Myth... we are getting no where. The more we fight, the more people die!"

"I don't care how long it takes... one of us will be the victor."

"Do you know how long we have been fighting for? Time has passed us by..."

"Who cares?"

"Why must we do this!?"

"Because I want Mastermind dead!!" There was an aura of contempt in his voice, then there was a fist in the air aimed right for Monk's head, but like always, Monk tossed his arms up and pushed the fist harmless, swinging with a hook for Myth's midsection, only to find his own hand pushed down, his wrist grabbed, then picked up and tossed up in the air. Again, Monk just placed his feet on the ground and tried to toss Myth over his shoulder into the wall, which would have worked if his feet didn't kick up from under him, propel of the wall and back to the ground. "I want him... dead..."

"Why? Why do you want him dead? We all have reasons, but I can't seem to figure out why you..."

"Why me!? I'll tell you why I want him dead! He replaced me! He tossed me aside for those... First Order bastards! They took him away from me!"

Monk was taken aback. There were no words passed for another few minutes as the two fighters took the time to catch their breath. After the time, there wasn't an attack, instead, only words. "They took him... away?"

It was obvious that Myth was a little shaken. He stood up and clenched fists at his side. "If they weren't created, I would be Mastermind's favorite... Instead... He tossed me aside."

"He tossed you aside? He saw you as flawed? I thought he made you in his own image."

"He did. That's where he went wrong." Relaxing his hands, he took a breath, then explained his side of the story. "There is only so much you can do from a computer, you know that all too well, don't you?" Monk nodded. "The same with Mastermind. Even in all his great power and vastness, he needed someone on the outside. Someone who would do his bidding, yet still be as powerful as him. So he sent agents out to find the most suitable body."

"That's where I came in... right?" Myth bowed his head. "Why me? According to my memories, I was the worst in my class. Why take the runt?"

"Do you know why you lost so many of your spars?" There was a pause to think of an answer, but none came, "It was because you were ahead of the game. You were taking kids on in their early teens when you were the age of 5."

"But... my mind... my memories..."

"Changed and altered to suit Mastermind's needs. He wanted you to believe that you were in a Monastery, and that you were good, just... he wanted you to believe that it was because if Mastermind that you became the fighter you are today." There was another momentary pause in the commentary, "It was a safety measure taken by Mastermind in case of what happened, happened."

"You mean... If I broke from his grip. If was to be free from his brainwashing?"

Myth nodded. "That... and in case I did the same thing."

"You? He created you. Why would you turn from your master, your creator?"

""Because he turned on me. He found me to be a failure because I lost that battle with Wolf so long ago."

"You mean when he freed me?"

"When he freed us. It was because of him I knew my true power."

"Then... I don't get it. Why don't you just kill me from the inside out?"

"Mastermind is a careful program. As many precautions he took with you, he made equal if not more with me. He sealed up some of my memories and altered them in a way that made me feel less then what I really was." Monk took a step forward. He didn't know why, but he was stopped when he saw Myth's hand come up. He settled back on his feet, then decided that this would be a good time to catch up on breath. He sat on the ground, crossed his legs up over each other, and continued to listen to his enemy's story.

"Mastermind made me just as a cell would. He slowly took himself apart and copied the files to make a clone of himself. After making a perfect copy, and getting his own thoughts back together, he went through MM v2 as it was called, and took out all the parts that he deemed unimportant, and added some that he though would be in his best interest. He made the perfect son. Now all he needed was a specimen to host this new program. That's where you came in. He took your bodies natural strengths and weaknesses and applied them to my program. Stealth, reaction time, everything your body was good at was used. Using the "perfect" human and the "perfect" AI, he had the perfect fighter. He made one fatal mistake, and that was they kept the two apart."

"Which is why you would take over." Monk tried to figure this out by finishing his thought. "I would lay dormant while you took over the body, and when you slept, I had it."

"More or less this happened. If you want to put it in those terms, you were put into a coma."

"Then... I do not see the point of merging the two together. If anything, that was the wisest thing to do. The two would reject each other and then battle it out to the death... like we are doing right now."

Myth again nodded in agreement. "You are right, but what if these two 'minds' thought alike?" Monk lowered his head in thought. "If the two minds thought alike as we do now, then we could have put our powers together and may have became the most powerful being in the world. It was as if there were two nuclei in a cell, each with different DNA. The second reason why he didn't merge us together: He was afraid of us, he needed control."

"He didn't expect me to wake up..."

"No he did not..."

"So this is all my fault? Because I awoke from my coma, you lost control, and because you lost control, Mastermind lost control." Myth nodded. "But... if he lost control, why didn't he just kill us when he had the chance?"

"Don't you think he tried? He didn't have the right power to kill us. Even at half power he couldn't take us down, he needed something stronger."

"The First Order..."

"They were the perfect being, in his eyes anyway. The original owner was killed off, think of it as cloning. He would clone his files... take out the files of the original host, and put in the new ones. To protect from rejection, he took some of the original DNA and mixed it with technology."

"Nanites..."

The cold dark stare of Myth was long gone. He was no longer a murderer, he was now a lost child, his cold eyes shaking, "There is something else I have that they don't. The ability to learn. I don't mean facts and tactics, I mean about life."

"Let me guess. After I awoke from my coma, our information started to mesh together. You up took human emotions."

"Right. Mastermind assumed that you would stay in that coma, and that our 'minds' would remain separate, but because of everything, everything worked against him, and before he knew it, it was too late."

"Our minds became one."

"Not in the sense that you think."

"That's why I was able to defeat those First Order's so easily. It was because this brain was mine!" Myth lowered his head, "In stead of using half my brain, I was able to use every part of it. That's why my movements were so fluid and swift... And that is why you want this fight."

"Yes. However, you have proved it to me..." Monk gave him a curious look. "I knew this fight was going to be even, I knew there would be no outcome. I however didn't expect you to not take any damage. Monk... I am an AI. As real as I may seem, I am still a program. I still have the power to out think you. However... it was proven to me that I really don't have that power. You can defeat him." He closed his eyes and lowered his head.

"What are you doing?"

"Activating one last special talent of mine. Self destruction."

"No! You don't have to do that!" Monk jumped up to his feet.

"Yes I do. In order for you to be able to defeat him, you will need your mind clear. It's up to you, and the rest of your friends as well. Besides, don't worry... I'm not going that far."

"What do you mean?" There was a bright light as the room around him turned white.

"And by the way... use a gun every now and then, huh?"


When Monk opened his eyes, he found himself we he stood before he was teleported away. In Cyber L.A.... or... what was left of it. When he last checked, the L.A. Coliseum was in one piece, and not a bunch of rocks and bodies. Looking down he saw something on the ground, a belt with two things on it. Clasping it on, he pushed his temple in, "Wolf... Monk here. Where are you, and how can I help you… and what the heck happened here?”

Wolf looked at the snow in bewilderment. This was starting to get to be too much for him. He had just had his hair set on fire, then he was drenched by a falling water tower...and now it was snowing...in Cyber Los Angeles. Something was starting to give in his mind, even though all three events were all plausible...just not very.

Wolf was just staring blankly into the snow, even as multiple assassins began to close in on him.

"Jason, duck!"

Kaitlin's shout snapped Wolf out of his delerium and he threw himself to the ground as a stream of 9 mm bullets split the air over his head. Kaitiln had fired her 5PY-D3R at 3 oncoming assassins, causing them to stop and either dodge the bullets or seek cover. Of course, one of the assassins just stood still and took the shots, knowing they couldn't possibly kill him. That assassin came at Wolf, who finally had his mind back in the battle.

Wolf spun around while still prone, sweeping the oncoming assasin's legs out from under him. Adopting a Shotokan stance, he faced down his primary attacker, while the other two moved into position next to him. The two assassins on his side jumped at him simultaneuosly. He ducked down, causing the two to hit each other in the face with bone-crunching blows. Wolf chopped away at their stomachs in rapid succession, then sent them reeing with a 360 degree "hurricane" kick. The assassin in front of him took the opportunity though to grab Wolf's leg and throw him to the ground. Rolling with the fall, Wolf brought himself up into a three-point catlike crouch and drew his Gold Magnum Revolver. As the gun cleared his holster, the lead assassin leapt into the air. Wolf tracked his opponent and fired.

The slug hit the assassin dead on in the chest and fragmented apart as it passed through his body. The fragmentation, combined with the unique muzzle velocity of the weapon, dropped the assassin out of the sky like a marionette with its strings cut.

Holy shit this thing works! Wolf thought as he went up to the prone assassin and snapped his neck to make sure he didn't survive the gunshot wound.

The two other assassins decided confirm that they were still in the fight at this point by attempting once again to double team Wolf. for the second time that day Wolf's stolen piece of MM tech was knocked away as he went on the defensive, throwing his hands up in an X block to avoid a series of downward strikes from the lead attacker. Meanwhile the other assassin got behind Wolf and knocked him to his kness by stomping on his calf muscles. This allowed the assassin in front to deliver a hard snap kick to the side of Wolf's face.

Wolf wasn't about to let a thing like that take him out, however. Grabbing the front man's wrist on his next chop attempt, Wolf tossed him aside, sending him sliding a good 15 feet across the tar roof of the building. He then drove his right elbow into the gut of the assassin behind him, and then spun around in a crouch and hit the assassin square in the chin with a right striaght. He then boosted off the ground and crane kicked the assassin in the chin, flipping him over and making him land on his chest. The assasin quickly got to his feet and came at Wolf again. Wolf simply stepped aside, grabbed the man's shoulders, and kneed him in the chest repeatedly at high speed until he could hear ribs breaking. He then hoisted up the assassin, swung him around and tossed him off the roof.

"If you survive that we'll have a rematch!" he said. Then he heard the sound of a shotgun shell being chambered. He turned and saw the assassin he tossed to the side earlier was leveling an M37 at his heart. Just before the assasin could pull the trigger however, there was a flash of steel and his arm fell off.

Wolf looked to see who had done the impromptu amputation, and saw Kaitlin standing right next to the just as confused assassin.

Suddenly noticing the woman next to him, the assassin tried to hit Kaitlin with his other arm. Kaitiln simply drove the katana into the assassin's chest and sliced up, slicing apart the sternum, windpipe, and brachial artery in one cut. The assassin fell to the ground writhing until Kaitiln stabbed him in the back of the head with a knife.

"You seem a little off your game," she said to Wolf.

"Yeah...well how often does it snow in Los Angeles?" Wolf asked as the two prepared to fend off more attackers.

Suddenly Wolf got Monk's CODEC message. He took cover behind an air duct and activated his CODEC. "Monk, we're on top of some buildings in Beverly Hills. Wherever you are, get here fast cause we could use some help. There's a whole shitload of assassins gunning for us here."