Raven changed into a form that looked a young boy with feathery black hair. He summoned a ball of chaos. He wasn't sure what to do though.

Kaitiln laid Jason's unconcious body on the ground, and inspected his injuries. His left shinbone had been broken, and it looked as if a couple of ribs might have been fractured as well. He also had a gash in his head that was bleeding profusely, and numerous other cuts and scrapes on his body, courtesy of the wall he had been slammed into.

Hitting a couple keys on her PDAP, Kaitiln summoned in a tattered black bandanna bearing the CF-Alpha logo, and wrapped it around the cut on Wolf's head.

He must have pushed himself too far... Checking for a pulse, she found it still strong. But fortunately it seems as if he didn't burn out his nanites. Still...I can't help but think this is probably what he saw when I was in his place back in Germany.

She held onto his hand, patiently waiting for him to regain consciousness. Convalescence can't be rushed, not even if the world is at stake. Seconds ticked by.

Slowly, Wolf's eyes reopened, the glow from his nanites was now blue, as opposed to the iridescent white they had been before. Now the glow matched his eyes, as it always had. However, the glow was very faint, a sure sign of fatigue.

"...Well...that was a close one," Wolf said as he turned to look at Kaitiln.

"I'll say...although I never expected you to...fly."

"I didn't either...but it just kind of happened. I heard that assassin talk about Mastermind bringing about Order...and I kind of snapped. I guess the combination of mental and spiritual energy, plus the enhanced nanites, allowed me to 'know' I could, rather than 'think' I could. However, the exertion involved almost killed me, so don't expect me to try and do that again."

He pulled himself up into a sitting position, and tried to stand up, but his leg was still giving him trouble.

"I guess my nanites are taking a little longer than usual." He said as he began to sink back down to the floor. However, Kaitiln hoisted him up and let him lean on her shoulder.

"I'll carry you. You've burdened yourself with the fate of the world for so long, the least I can do is help you shoulder the weight."

Wolf grinned a bit. "I guess you're right. Help me over to the assassin's body, I need to get my katana back."

The two made their way to the body of Wolf's opponent, he was lying face up, in a giant pool of his own blood, with the sword sticking straight up through his chest.

Wolf yanked out the blade and returned it to his scabbard. He took one quick look at the man's eyes, and knew he was dead by the glassy look in them.

"Funny that I knew him for less than 5 minutes, yet he reminded me of why I came here...why I'm still fighting. He was supporting the belief of Mastermind's that you can make a desert and call it peace. I'm fighting to make an actual peace, one that doesn't involve Total Annihilation. It's been a long road...and this nightmarish war still goes on."

"Well don't worry, soon you...soon we will achieve that peace. Soon this nightmare will end."

Wolf smiled "I know."

The two made their way out of the room and began heading to the control center.

Pressing his back up on the wall again, he checked his PDAP. "Two life signs, huh?" He put that away and leaned his head back, thinking of his next course of action. He tilted his body so that he could see himself what was done the hallway. Sure enough, two guards. Taking a breath he pulled out his PDAP and watched as one turned his vision away, the other towards his position. He waited a few minutes until one was close to him, the other a few feet away, then knocked on the wall.

"Huh?"

Watching the PDAP he saw the blue cone come nearer to him, the white dot at its vertex getting closer to the center dot that was Monk. He never really understood how this radar system worked, but it did, and it made sneaking so much easier. Putting away the the tool, he relied now on his eyes, and the second the barral came into view, he tossed a hand to it, grabbed it and pulled the unsuspecting soldier on the wall, wrapping his mouth with a hand. "Scream... and die..." The soldier nodded quickly. "All right, now tell me, Does Mastermind have an emergancy switch?"

Lifting his hand he let the guard talk. "I know nothing..."

Closing off the mouth again, Monk placed a palm down on the soldier's neck, not enough to break, but just that right amount that it was just about to snap. The guard muffled screams that were accompanied with words. "Willing to talk now?" The guard nodded as much as he could.

Removing his hand, "Please... don't kill me. Mastermind does have a plan B, I head it from a friend of a friend... you know how the deal goes... MM says it..."

Pushing down on the back of his neck, "Stop stalling and tell me..."

He gasped, then finished, "What you want to do... it head down this hallway and get to the second hallway on your right. Reaching that will bring you to a series of forks. The order goes left, right, right, left... I think..." Feeling an angry palm on his neck, "I swear! I know nothing more! Please don't kill me!" He said as loud as possible without actually giving away his position, a sure path to death. Closing his eyes and mouthing words, he soon shot them open and dropped to the ground.

"You'll be fine... I just pinched a nerve that will put you to sleep for a bit. You'll wake up in a few hours..." Picking him up by the shoulders he dragged him against the wall just to Monk's right and sat him upright. "If anyone sees him while I'm gone, it'll look like he's sleeping." Poking his head out into the hallway again, he saw the other guard walking towards him.

"What the?"

Monk shot his head back and up against the wall. "No... I've been spotted." Pulling out the PDAP, he saw a yellow cone come nearer towards him. Darting his eyes around, he looked for a place to hide, then grinned as he saw his answer.

-----

"What the heck was that?" Taking a few steps, his eyes darted about under the black mask he was wearing. "I know I haven't gotten a lot of sleep, but now I think I'm seeing things." Turning the hallway, he saw his squadmate on the ground. "Gary? C'mon..." He let his guard down. "I know you're tired too, but that doesn't give you the right just to sleep on the job. Get up..." He kicked him lightly. "Gary...?" He knelt down to investigate further. He was breathing, but he wasn't sleeping. Tilting his head to one side, he felt something on his shoulder, then saw blackness.

-----

Closing the locker, he stuffed the two guards inside one each. "Lucky these were here." He turned, and followed the path that his victim had told him. Getting to the second hallway, he took his right and took note of what was there.

A hallway.

A really... long... hallway.

Monk clentched his fist. "I've been had!" Taking a few steps deeper, he found a small room, looked like quarters. Stepping into it, he took note of the dresser and the cot. "Wow... five star."

"Man... I can't take this anymore..."

Monk looked behind him, but saw nothing. Pulling out his PDAP, he was a blue cone walking to his position. He sidestepped into the room and closed the door, hugging the wall. Just to make sure, he locked the door. He pasted his eyes on the PDAP and saw the blue cone looking at the door he had just locked. "Hm? I don't remember locking up." Monk's eyes franctically shot about the room looking for some cover, then decided that under the cot was the best idea. The guard must have found his card and unlocked the door because he walked in and tossed his rifle aside. "You know... this whole extended shift thing is shit. The other heads get breaks, why can't I? Damn it..." He dropped himself onto the bed. "It's not like anyone is going to come down this hallway anyway. What moron would be dumb enough to come down to the soldier's quarters anyway? I mean, I know everyone is on high alert what with the evasion and all. Man... what I wouldn't give to be there right now, but no... it's all First Order, and Death Guards, and... all that other shit." His head tilted to one side, and the blue cone vanished from Monk's PDAP.

Feeling a bit of relief, he carefully dragged himself out from under the cot and stodd up over the now sleeping guard. It was obvious he was higher up in the food chain. His sleeve bared three stripes instead of one, and he wore a cap instead of a hood. Pulling out his magnum he aimed it at the sleeping guardsman. "You know... you shouldn't talk about me like that."

The commander's eyes shot open, and his head snapped towards Monk. "Who are you?"

"None of your business. I have a few questions for you."

"You think I'm going to answer?"

"You will..."

"You may be sadly mistaken." Getting up calmly from the bed. "You know full well that I have the answers you seek, you wouldn't kill me. Besides... I've looked down the barrel of a gun before, this is nothing new to me."

There was a pause, then Monk showed the side of his gun, pointing the nozzle up in the air. "All right, you win." He dropped the magnum badk on his hip. "What will it take to get the information? Tourture?"

"I've taught myself to withstand every sort of pain and not crack."

"Threats to loved ones?"

"I'm a lone wolf. Parents already dead. No siblings."

"Insults?"

"Pbbt. At this place? I'm at the top of the bottom of the food chain, I get enough shit."

"Bribery?"

"Dude... I work for Mastermind. I could pretty much get what I want."

"Then what the hell DO you want!?"

"I..." his head lowered. "I don't know... life is so boring sometimes. All I do is order my guardsmen around and make sure no one gets into the mainframe of the secondary launching area."

Well... that was easy... "All right..." Monk relaxed himself. "It's true. You have the information I need, so there is no point in killing you, but... what if I told you that I could get you some real action?" The guardsman's eyes lit up. "Yeah... defect to the real world, and I'll show you what a real battle is."

"Defect!? And go against Mastermind? Are you nuts? He's the strongest force this world has to offer, why would I want to go against it?"

"Because..." Monk grinned. "He's treated you badly, hasn't he?" The guard lowered his head. "He's left you on the sidelines while he's sent his favorite forces up to the front lines. The ones he knows will win."

"Me and my man could stop the Cyber Force!"

The infultator shrugged, "That may be true, but what after them? Will there be another force to be reckoned with?" The proud guard dropped his gaze again. "Excatly. Tell me where to go, and then I'll show you what hell is really like."

The guard grinned from ear to ear, "All right, you have yourself a deal. I'll tell you everything I know." And he did.

Devin stepped through the door...

...and into a sunny day?

He looked around. The air was clean and warm, lit with the noonday sun, crisp, flavored with the salty scent of the sea. He was on a grassy field, and before him stood a squat two-storey building.

He knew this place.

"The Kill House..."

Red Cell had run many exercises here, both before and after they had been upgraded with nanotechnology. He remembered that the walls were reinforced concrete on the outside and standard brick on the inside, that there were holes in the walls where they had practiced breaching walls as part of assaults, and that they had broken the windows so many times that they had stopped bothering to replace them.

The door of the Kill House opened with a creak, ending his reverie. Out strode a small Asian man, clad in the interlocking ceramic plates of military-grade hardened assault armor. Beside him was a taller, red-haired man, dressed similarly. The former was the first to speak.

"Devin! Remember us, Michael and Jonathan? Welcome to our humble abode. Mastermind has been waiting for you." He affected a grin. On his sallow Oriental face, it came off as a mouse's sneering. "Really, you should join us. Look at what we can do..."

Michael casually backhanded the reinforced concrete threshold of the doorway. There was a huge puff of smoke, but Devin didn't need to wait for it to clear in order to tell that the Asian man had smashed a hole clean through it. His hand flickered, and Devin barely managed to bring the Maugetar's blade up in front of him to deflect the chunk of debris thrown at him. He glanced down. There were five holes in it where Michael's fingers had dug in. The gentle wind grew stronger, and the soft light seemed to dim as clouds flowed over the sky.

"You're strong, I'll give you that." Devin's finger flicked and the Maugetar's low whine became an audible thrum. If Michael had anything to say, he kept it to himself. "But I don't think you're fast enough to outrun this."

"No, I'm not. But if you fire on us, you'll die too. Flashback, remember?" Michael tapped the concrete wall he had just smashed with a gloved knuckle. "We will all die, except that we have already been backed up as part of Mastermind's core AI. Truly, we are immortal and invincible!"

Now, the red-haired man spoke.

"We are strong, Devin. Even you can see that. Join us, and Mastermind can give you that strength."

"No."

"No? You've got to be kidding me. We've seen how you fought - first against her, and then against those goons. They were nothing. Their lives were nothing. But they let us know exactly how strong and how fast you are, and frankly... you're not. Compared to us, at least. Accept our offer... Cyber Force is simply delaying the inevitable. This world needs the order that-"

"Bullshit. This world needs nothing, except freedom from Mastermind's influence."

"So be it." Jonathan's dark eyes flashed. "If we cannot persuade you to join us, we will harvest your neural patterns and make you one of us as well. Besides, Mastermind said that even if we didn't convert you, he would gift us with even more upgrades if we brought back your head."

Jonathan walked back into the Kill House, while Michael paused for a second to look back at Devin.

"Prepare to die, Devin. It is what you will do here."

Then he faded from view, leaving the door ajar. Devin sighed, and tossed down the Maugetar, dialing up his favorite weapon, the Pancor Jackhammer. He rested it over his shoulder, then looked up at the heavens. The sky was overcast now, the air redolent with the scent of impending rain.

"We are all meant to die, Michael."

He opened the door, and distant thunder followed with him.

"The question is, how?"

He crossed the threshold into the dark, silent building. Outside, the first drops began to fall.

OOC: Wow...just...wow

IC: Angel snapped the C-96 up at the First Order assasin. It snarled at him then vanished. Handilly, Angel's eye beeped it's collision warning and Angel dive rolled aside. Obviously not having expected Angel to have dodged, Angel glared at the first order.

"The fake eye? The big near death experience? MM never caught on? Between the eye and the high levels of nanites that were put in, they also put in a small number of combat nanites. Now, I'm obviously not as strong as you. But, my reaction time is instantaneous, I can beat olympic sprinters for flat out running, and I'm stronger than I should be. The eye even helps increase how fast I process information.a Long story short...your ass is mine."

Angel then snapped upright, dodging a punch that would've popped his head like a grape. Then he ducked and moved under the following chop. With a kiai, he slammed his knee into the First Order's stomach tried to get his gun up.

Unfortunately, the First Order grabbed Angel by the throat and lifted him. Angel grunted, and shook, and felt pressure coming down on his neck. Desperately, Angel pushed off the ground and kick the assasin as hard as he could in the face.

With a grunt, then a sigh of healing, the assasin backed away and glared at Angel who was panting. Then, Angel who neatly sidestepped another rush before diving under a second.

In that small of a room, the assasin didn't have the space neccesary to correct his enormous velocity.

Angel smiled. "It's game time."

He told him excatly where to go, every turn, every guard that would be posted, every trap that may lie in wait for him, everything. The guardsman nodded after finishing his story, "All right... let's go!"

"Hold on..." Monk took a step foward. "What do you mean, 'let's'?"

"I mean... 'let's' as in... the two of us. Let us BOTH... go."

He was about to persisted more when he took a step back and waved his hand towards the door. "All right... let us go. Lead the way."

It was obvious there was a grin tucked underneath his mask as he aboutfaced and headed for the door, only to fall limp. Monk cracked his index and thumb fingers after putting him to sleep. "I'm sorry... I just needed information, not a friend... nor another casualty." Stepping out of the portal he went on his way.


Touching his back to the wall again he took note of what he had to do again. "All right... sneak into the hanger and get to the elevator. Head down three floors into the ground..." Shaking his head. "Let's just stick with that."

Leaning to see what was down the hallway, nodding when his eyes saw nothing, he rushed down the empty corridor and towards the hanger.

The droves of guards kept on coming. For every one Jade killed, another two took it's place. They were quite literally coming out of the woodworks, as some had crashed through the walls trying to catch Jade, J2 and Raven off guard. With Jade's limiters off, she moved through the mountains of guards like a hot wind. Her movements were a blur as bodies fell left and right. However, as much as she and J2 fought, they were not making any headway or progress towards the control room. Jade looked over at Raven. So far none of the guards were paying him any mind, but he looked lost, like he didn't quite know what to do. "Raven," Jade said while slitting a throat, "we need to get to the control room fast. So, if you could help us in disposing of this minor roadblock I'd truly appreciate it."

Dodge left, pull arm in, snap right. Angel's thoughts echoed his movements as he dodged the assasin, then thought, "Now or never," and snapped his leg up and stomped on the assasin's knee.

He dropped, and Angel brought the C-96 around to the assasin's head. He fired. Nanites still working, the assasin dodged but the bullet entered his leg.

And suddenly, his leg stopped keeping up with the rest of him. Slamming into the wall, the assasin yelled, "WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

Angel twirled the C-96. "Basically, these are First Order killer rounds in my gun. Here, take a closer look."

Angel shot the assasin in the face, then looked around the room, not noting the now dead body. "How to get to Shift...."

Raven tossed the black ball of energy toward the enemies, he missed and the ball exploded behind them sending the group behind the front row crashing into them from behind as the walls and ceiling bowled outward. A dismembered arm hung limply from the now blacked out hall light.

"Shit! I didn't realize it was that strong. I'm sorry are you ok?"

Wolf and Kaitiln were homing in on Jade's position when two squads of Death Guard, one from the front and one from the rear, came at them, guns up. Kaitiln ducked into a small alcove just before the soldiers could open fire.

"We're going to have to fight through...can you run?"

Wolf shook his head, "Shattered legbones aren't that easy for even nanites to fix. It'll still be a while." He thought for a second. "I have a plan...trust me on this one."

"Always do."

***

As the two squads of soldiers closed in, Kaitiln, carrying Wolf on her back in the "fireman's carry" technique, burst from the alcove with her TMP-75 blazing. Soldiers fell while the rest ran for cover.

As Kaitiln ran down the hall at full speed, Wolf covered their rear by firing his Omni-Falcons from his position over her shoulders. The .45 caliber cookie-cutter rounds he loaded in the guns blasted through the soldier's armor, sending them crashing to the ground in the throes of death.

Kaitiln brought them through the blockade, while Wolf cleaned up the few soldiers she hadn't killed.

"Yes! That worked perfectly!" Wolf said.

Kaitiln grinned a bit. "Yeah, but now we need to keep moving."

The two headed towards Jade's signal.