Angel looked down out of the helicopter, above the office building in Montreal. The noise was almost deafening, and the roof didn't look like it was the kind of thing you wanted to land on. There was a lot of ventilation shafts.

Oddly enough, it was a Bank of Montreal building. This made Angel snicker.

"Looks ugly. Drop, but be prepared for some serious shit when we get in."

Angel clipped the line onto his vest, and jumped. There was that sense of freefall, then the line kicked in and slowed him down enough that he could cut it and roll without breaking his bones.

Angel came up, DC-9 ready, and used his MRI vision to check the immediate surroundings. Nothing. Around him, his squad landed and immediately secured the drop zone.

Wraith grits his teeth as Devin disappears and Monk leaves, cursing internally. Damnit, we needed to stick together if this was gonna work!

One of the soldiers, taking advantage of Wraith's unfortunate situation (being left alone), manages to get a solid haymaker in on Wraith, putting a big bruise on his cheek.

In the moment that the fist fight pauses, Wraith looks back at the man with a glare that could melt ice. "All right... now I'm pissed."

♪ "The Underground in America", Pantera, from The Great Southern Trendkill ♪

Undeterred, the soldier goes to hit again, but the punch sails through Wraith's ghosted body as he leaps and spins, ending up solid behind him in the air and upside-down, where he grabs the soldier's head and twists, snapping his neck. As he lands, he draws some knives from inside his coat and lets them fly, the automatic mechanisms in the new-style knives retracting their shields. Six soldiers fall a few seconds after when the knives go through their helmets and into their skulls, nano-enhanced eutactic blades working to perfection as they slice and saw their way past the plastic of the visors. The ring of soldiers begins to close around him though, and he finds himself in a predicament. Crap.

Looking down however, he sees somebody's dropped weapon, and recognizes the design. Perfect.

He kneels down and picks up the weapon quickly as the soldiers draw their own weapons, and begins pulling wires and crossing connections, and then throws the weapon back into the crowd and dives for cover. Confused, a couple of them shrug off the gun as it slaps into their body armor and continue forward, but the gun -- a newer, chemically-powered submachine gun with a plasma-induction underarm flamethrower -- has ideas of its own and explodes into a fireball of immense size, blanketing the room ( and incidentally, the soldiers) with flame.

Wraith covers his ears and waits until the explosion finishes and the fire apparently dies down to peek out of his hiding place behind a decorative panel, to see his handiwork with a smile. All over the room, dead bodies and fire, and not a single one of them looks to be moving. Grinning wider as he steps out, he mutters, "Thank God for that Basic Electronics class."

Heading out into the center of the room, he finds the door that Devin disappeared behind and heads towards it, passing through easily as he assumes his ghost form.

Jade had been winding her way into the inner areas of the MM base, using her neural map to guide her, hacking through the changes that MM was trying to make to the building. As she rounded a corner, she ran into J2 whom she promptly embraced. "Are you ok?"

Yes, Wolf and Kaitlin freed me, I'm here to help.

"And Beowolf?"

He...didn't make it. He sacrificed himself to save Wolf.

Jade put a hand on her shoulder, "I'm sorry, this is all my fault for sending you on this mission."

No, we knew the risks. This is just another life MM has to pay for.

Jade nodded. As she turned to start walking again, a large group of death guards poured into the room. Jade drew he gun in one hand and her sword in the other. "Feeling up for a fight?"

Always...

"Father respected you the most. It would be my honor to fight by your side." Raven said to Jade as he bounced into the light of the room. He tilted his bird head and regarded her. "May I?"

OOC: The following is basically Zeph's work, I just had to edit the reactions of my characters a bit.

BIC: Wolf stopped in place and listened hard, trying to corroborate what his instincts told him.

"End of the line."

Violently he spun to face the voice, but just as soon as he turned he felt himself going in the other direction, the result of a powerful blow. Luckily, the wall behind him broke his momentum.

Or... maybe not luckily... he slumped to a heap on the floor and looked up in time to see someone scoop Kailtin up and drag her to her feet, and from the look of pain on her face she either couldn't resist or wouldn't.

Wolf growled and got up with a pained look of his own, the man placing her between the two of them, and glaring at Wolf over her shoulder. Looking him over from head to toe for a moment, Wolf's immediate thought was

he's something out a bad John Carpenter movie: trench coat; long and black, spiky, messy hair; black facepaint over much of the right side of his face; no shirt; black, tattered jeans...

The man stood across from him as Wolf got to his feet, just returning Wolf's stony glare. "Let her go," Wolf demanded.

The man, silent as a mute, just looked between her and him, pausing, then shoved her away and back down on the ground. "As you wish, Jason MacKenzie."

Wolf's eyes narrowed. "I"m not surprised you know my real name...but you have me at a disadvantage, for I do not know you."

"Who I am does not matter," he replied in a calm, mid-heavy voice. "What matters is that you will have to get through me, if you want to proceed."

Wolf's eyes glanced over at Kaitlin as he assumed a fighting stance. "Gladly."

Not wasting a moment's time, he launched himself at the man, intending to strike first and build momentum in his attack.

"Die."

The man stands in place as Wolf leapt, never leaving his place as he reached out with his arm, and with a "whoosh" it became a ghostly green, similar to Wraith's power... except his arm has enough solidity to grab Wolf's throat and hurl him sideways, where he crashed through the floor some ten meters away.

"Jason!"

Stunned, Wolf got back on his feet slowly, unable to understand how he could have Wraith's powers; and on top of that, the ability to actually touch things while in that mode. He recovered quickly, however, and rises up with his katana drawn as the man hurried over.

"You die!" Wolf snarled, rebuking the asassin's earlier statement.

His katana swung through the air with supersonic speed, but with another gasp of shock, he met another sword, now held by the man. "How the hell?!"

Then his mind caught up with him, processing the sight of the man's arm reaching out to the side to become ghostly and stretching, then the sword materializing from the tip of his arm and growing, until it became solid and detached itself from his body, gripped in his hand and ready to block Wolf's attack.

They stare off for a second, his calm eyes meeting Wolf's shocked-angry ones, while Wolf could feel the man's strength outmatching his own, slowly pushing the blade away with what apparent ease and not a hint of strain in his face. Not much on words, the man struck back at Wolf, and the two have a brief clash of steel, until Wolf knocked the sword away and sliced at the man's body in a mad rage, cutting away at only so much ghostly space. Between attacks the man managed to get a punch in, a very powerful one that sent Wolf flying into the wall behind him.

Again.

As Wolf looked back up, pain wrenching his body and face, he saw the man sneering a little for the first time in this battle. A growl of anger matches that sneer, as the man closes in on him slowly to press his attack.

OOC: Zeph's reccommended soundtrack for this fight: "13 Steps to Nowhere" by Pantera.

Now that that public service is over...this will continue once my thought process catches up.

Angel got up to the door and neatly slipped to the right. He snapped the DC-9 down and covered, and another member of the squad ran up and placed a breaching charge on the door. There was a flurry of activity, then the charge went off and blew the door wide open.

Angel was the first in, his NVG vision snapping up to immediately compensate for the darkness. He had the DC-9 down as he ran down the stairs, and brought it round, sweeping over a dusty room filled with pillars.

"Clear floor."

The squad swept out and found nothing. They repeated this little exercise on the next two floors. One floor #4 though, one of the squad members had his voice cut through clear.

"Hard contact. Repeat, hard contact."

Angel flat out sprinted at that point, rounding a corner with his DC-9 leading. Nothing. He kicked down the door to the next office and immediately sweeped the room visually. A man levelling a gun at him. A Steyr AUG to be exact. Not your normal self-defence weapon.

Two bursts was all Angel fired, while dive-rolling at the same time.

"Hard contact."

By then, gunfire was starting to be heard throughout the floor. Then dead silence. Angel came out, sweeping the floor with his gun.

"Breach next floor."

Monk didn't pay attention to what was going on behind him, he now only had one mission in mind, and that was to get to the back-up button and stop Mastermind's plan-B. Flattening himself on a wall he thought about what he had to do. Flipping open his PDAP he took a quick look at the layout.

"Hm... It looks like there is a lot of walking that I'm going to have to do." Closing it, he looked down the hallway the was perpendicular to the wall he was on. Nodding, seeing no one there, he rushed down the hallway.

OOC: I'll get something up... just not right now...

Angel proceeded cautiously. It was a very large room. Quickly, he turned on his MRI and sweeped the room. One person. One single person.

The gunfire from behind him was silencing, and Angel saw the person start to get closer.

"Sergeant? Get up 3 floors and hold."

"But...Angel...we c-"

"DO IT NOW!"

Angel heard the hustle as the team complied with his orders. There was a clanging, and then there was silence.

The team had gone. Angel strode forward, and levelled his near empty DC-9 at the figure.

"What should I be calling you? Grave isn't right."

The figure started to turn around so Angel flicked off his MRI.

"I mean, I could call you Dick Cheney for all anyone cares. But that doesn't soun-"

Angel stopped and felt his aim shake. Standing on the balcony that looked down into the room was none other than Andrea. Lithely, she walked along the balcony and looked down at Angel.

"Darling? You're still alive?" Said the apparent Andrea.

Then before Angel's eyes, she shifted and warped into a pasty little bald man who was cackling. In a voice that could only be described as infuriating, he chuckled before saying, "Ah, I loved that."

Angel snapped his DC-9 back up and yelled, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?"

The little man cackled and said, "Just call me Shift. Now, Angel, are you aware of the glory you stand on? In this building we have where nanites can be made, programs rigged up, Agents programmed....this is a holy place. You should respect it."

Angel fired, sending five bullets, all that was left, lancing through the man's chest. To Angel's horror, Shift healed.

"Right, right. What am I? Mastermind found out how...deliciously tortured your pasts were. He saw how he could manipulate you all. That is why he made me. I'm not like the First Order. My body is...unique. It's made up unnaturally elastic proteins. To make a long story short, I can change my shape at will. Now, Mastermind, glory be, used this to his advantage. In reality, we killed Andrea quickly, and now do this to you. Had I 'survived' your encounter with Grave, I would've killed you in your sleep. The body you put into the actual grave? Just a quick copy I grew from myself. The informant that told the position of Mastermind's base? Me. Most of Red Cell? Me, once again. Granted, a few random people survived. Most of the people you all so tenuously clung to were actually dead. Mastermind just wanted to mentally unbalance you enough that we would have the upper hand."

Shift snorted loudly.

"That didn't work well. Now, as such, after I baited McKenzie, Mastermind thought there might be a member who stayed behind. So, he sent me to guard this place."

Angel was trembling with barely restrained rage. Their entire past...their failures, their triumphs...it had all been a lie? Andrea had died as he had fled? He had fought, and bled, for his own downfall?

Angel snapped a knife free and threw it straight at Shift. It pierced his throat and actually stuck him onto the wall. With a horrible sucking sound, Shift freed himself.

"Excellent try Angel. However, to kill me, there's really only one solution. Incineration. Granted, your little bullet to my head back in Washington took a few days, but, it wasn't so bad. Now, as much as I would absolutely ADORE your pain, I'm going to leave you a playmate. I'm off to kill Andrea's sister by the way. I'll give you 5 minutes to stop me. When those five minutes are up, I'll absord her. Let her feel herself being digested, and converted into nutrients and mass for me. But I'll be slow, oh so slow. I might have some fun with her first."

Angel was shaking with fury. Shift left through an upper door. Then Angel's eye's projectile warning went off. Barely, Angel managed to dive roll as an ebon blur whished by him, slamming against a wall.

Quickly, Angel rose and dropped into a dragon stance. There was a man dressed in a black japanese suit that was withdrawing his hand from a, now, large hole in the wall. First Order. Shit.

The last one Angel had fought RW had taken his eye, his guns, and his hope.

The First Order glared at Angel, who, acting purely on impulse, merely dropped. Once again, the First Order shot by, but sprinted up the wall then clung onto the ceiling.

"So...Angel...come to die?"

Angel ran through his guns, then grabbed the C-96 that was stuck in his waistband. He pulled it free, and gave it a single, stylish, twirl before hearing the satisfying SNICK of the bolt going in place and the safety coming off. While doing this he started walking towards the First Order's placement.

"Let's go bitch."

Wolf was still trying to fathom exactly what his opponent was, but he also knew he couldn't just sit still and think. No, action was necessary.

The assassin advanced on Wolf, brandishing his katana. He charged in, attempting to remove Wolf's head with one quick slash, but Wolf managed to block it, knock the attack aside, and caused the Assassin to embedd his blade in the wall. Wolf punched his opponent in the side of the head with his free hand, then lashed out with a kick to the chest that sent the assassin staggering back a few feet. To his surprise, the assassin showed no sign of pain at all, he didn't even flinch when he had hit him.

"Impressive Jason," the man said just before he attacked Wolf again. Wolf did his best to block the punches and kicks that the assasin threw his way, but he was moving too fast. Faking left and going right, the assassin caught Wolf in the face with a punch, staggering him. As he tried to catch Wolf in the face with a Roundhouse kick, Wolf caught the incoming strike with his arms and threw the assassin across the room.

The assassin simply landed in a three point stance and resumed his assault, going even faster now. Wolf could barely keep up, taking repeated hits to his limbs and torso. After what felt like minutes (but was only 30 seconds) of this assault, he could feel his left arm snap just before the assassin grabbed him and tossed him into the air, then kicked him hard in the back, sending him crashing into the opposite wall.

By now, almost all of Wolf's energy was gone. He slumped down onto the floor, the only thing he could see was the feet of his opponent slowly approaching him, his vision began to dim as he

"What a shame that you should fight for so long, only to have it end like this." the man said. "Too bad you won't live to see the new order Mastermind will bring."

The assassin picked up Wolf's katana and raised it. "Goodbye, Jason MacKenzie"

Suddenly Wolf's eyes snapped open, his eyes glowing almost pure white. His wounds suddenly vanished from his body.

As the assassin brought the sword down, Wolf rolled over, caught the blade in between his hands, and pulled hard. The sword stayed, the assassin didn't. He ended up slamming into the floor. Seemingly unfazed, the assassin got to his feet just as Wolf did. The assassin charged him, but Wolf simply jumped over him. But he didn't come down.

The assassin looked up, and saw that Wolf was hovering about 8 feet off the ground. He sheated the katana, and shrugged slightly.

"It's amazing what one can do when they put their mind to it," Wolf said just as he dove at his opponent, clotheslining him. Wolf then flew back to him as he got up, and hit him with a quick flurry of punches and kicks. Now the assassin actually was starting to show signs of discomfort from this, or maybe...

"Is that fear in your eyes?" Wolf asked almost patronizingly. Slashing his opponents shoulders, He flew off towards the ceiling.

The asassin only answered in violence. Going transparent, his injuries healed instantly. In the blink of an eye his right arm morphed into a squid-like tentacle, wrapped it around Wolf's torso and throat, and slammed him into a wall, just a little below the ceiling. Wolf was slammed into the wall multiple times, until he finally went limp.

The assassin blurred as he quickly drew himself up to where he had impacted Wolf into the wall, returning his arm to it's natrual state, so that he was slowly closing his fingers around Wolf's throat.

"You're grounded," the assassin said.

Wolf spat out blood as he managed to talk despite his windpipe slowly being crushed. "That's what you think." he pointed downwards.

The assassin looked, and saw that Wolf's katana was going right through his chest.

Wolf twisted the blade, then heaved up and across his foe's torso, slicing through the man's spine, lungs, and ribs in one seamless cut.

Wolf could feel the pressure on his throat begin to subisde, but he still felt tired. The exertion of energy to pull off what he had just done had drained him completely.

As he lost conciousness, he could feel himself and his opponent fall down towards the ground.

Fortunately, Kaitiln had made a full recovery in time to catch Jason just before impact.

OOC: Don't worry Zeph, I think this can still leave your plan very much intact. And I'll have the follow up to this posted probably tomorrow...maybe late tonight if I'm lucky.

Jade didn't wait for the guards to make the first move, she immediately began firing on them. She turned to Raven, "I'll take all the help I can get, thanks." With a final nod, she and J2 launched themselves at the group of soldiers with their swords drawn.

OOC: I'll have a better post up tonight.