Cyber Wars 2.0 Chapter 1: Just when you thought it was safe to log back on...

[Wolf99x]

Cyber Seattle
February 14, 2028

Mere seconds ago, everybody's belief in the sanctity of Valentine's Day was shattered along with the perfect cyber replica of the Space Needle. Burning debris rained down on numerous shoppers and youg lovers, who were crushed by the debris, just for being lucky enough to not be obliterated by the blast.

A few seconds later, the almost 100 Starbucks stores around the city were also consumed by firey blasts. Corpses and dismembered limbs flew everywhere. People panicked and ran.

Then to add to the chaos, about 40 armored soldiers appeared in Cyber-Safeco field and began hosing the stands with chaingun and RPG fire. The 50000 or so fans who showed up to watch the archived 2012 World Series victory of the Mariners were cut down in large numbers. Only about 3/4 managed to escape the carnage. It would have been more, but for some reason the emergency logout triggers were not working.

The soldiers then appeared in the debris field left by the Space Needle, and went to work in that area as well.

By the time the Seattle PD's special Cyber Crime unit had logged in, the soldiers were long gone, but the carnage remained.

***

Detective Arnett walked around the bodies and smoldering debris that had once been the defining landmark of both the Real and Cyber Seattle. Seattle's trademark rain was also falling in this devastated Cyberscape, perhaps fittingly so. Yet, this rain seemed different. It felt heavier, and had a coppery smell to it.

Arnett made his way to his partner, Detective Remington. "Did the final count come in?" he asked.

Remington nodded slightly. "1000 dead, 5000 injured and another 2500 in cyber-induced comas."

"Eyewitnesses?"

"Those who can remember anything just remember either explosions, or heavily armed men in dark red armor."

"Not much to go on," Arnett said as he removed his glasses and tried to wipe the rain off of them. But as he did, he noticed that the rain was leaving red spots on the lenses.

"What the hell's with this rain, Remy?" he asked.

"It's not rain..." Remington said somberly. "It's blood. Somebody hacked the weather network and made it rain blood."

"Holy shit..."

"And that's not the worst part. Follow me."

What could be worse than raining blood? Arnett thought as he followed Remington to the shattered base of the Space Needle. Remington pointed to something, and Arnett immediately understood what his partner meant.

There, on the charred foundation, was a message scrawled in blood.

"It would be a grave error in judgement to mistake me for a corpse. -Mastermind"

Arnett looked at the message and gluped slowly. "...get Washington on the line."

***

The White House, 8 hours later

President Samuel Hammond was in a state of distress. "We know for a fact he was deleted 3 years ago! How in the world could he be back now?"

None of the Joint Cheifs had an answer, except for General Warner of the Air Force. "It may just be a prank by radical malitiamen...trying to instill fear."

Director of Intelligence Alex Stoyanovich spoke from the corner of the War Room. "This is no prank. Almost 10000 people have been hurt or killed in 4 attacks, 3 of them not even on US soil. Plus, analysis of the attacks has revealed lines of code consistent with those used by Mastermind for his cyber intrusions."

"Well, what should we do?" Admiral Westinghouse asked.

"Simple," Stoyanovich replied. "We send in Cyber Force to conduct these investigations. We can coordinate with the other CF units around the globe to gather evidence, present it to me, and then I'll be able to both determine if it really is Mastermind, and what we should do on a military level. In the meantime, keep as much of this quiet as possible. Nobody should know Mastermind may be back."

"Agreed," President Hammond said. "We'll get a press blackout running on those details."

OOC: All right, basically all of the people who have characters currently in the Cyber Force, no matter what location, are going to be working on trying to determine what the hell is going on. bg or I can provide further detail on that.

[Zephie]

~Cyber Base Russia~

"What?"

"Here's the details," an officer said, placing a padd in front of his commander.

Wraith picked the padd up almost as soon as it hit the desk, and read over the contents like a speed reader. Then as the weight of it sank in, he fell back into his seat, stunned. All he could think was, Not again...

"Sir?"

Wraith didn't move, and it was only when the officer repeated his question that he looked up. "What?"

"What do we do now?"

Wraith looked away from the American man, another transfer from the States like him, and tried to think of something. "We'll... uh... y'know what, just nevermind it for now. I need to come up an investigation plan on my own."

The officer nodded, acknowledged, and left. He knew better than talk to Wraith when he wanted to be alone.

And he was. He sat behind his desk for some time, with the padd in his hand, thinking about the recent attacks and the memories of the old war that flooded in.

Twenty thousand dead...

He slammed the padd down on his desk in anger, his palm covering up the face of it... and the fact that it had cracked.

[Squishy Cheeks]

Crow kissed his pistol as he had his back to the wood like wall. The hail of bullets splintered the code showering bits of living wall onto the floor wear they self deleted.

"Your father's not here to protect you now piggy." The virus yelled.

"Big words, why don't we discuss that downtown. We've saved a room for you in very special place." Crow signalled to the backup that had just arrived outside. to get behind the virus. "We might give you a reduced sentance if you release the hostage and surrender."

"Shut up piggy."

"ok now he said into his communicator. The other cops busted the window. The virus turned to open fire on them. Crow dove out sliding on the floor. He fired a single round from his overly large pistol. The blue energy ball struck the virus in the middle of the back locking it in position.

"Crime scene secure, sir." The AI cop said.

"Took you long enough sergeant. another minute and he might have deleted another banker." Crow glared at the man. the two Ai's blanched.

The banker program caught in the freeze looked very scared.

"Cut the virus' arm off and unfreeze the banker." Crow pointed to the virus. "Then throw him into the hole."

"Aren't you going to process him?" The AI cop asked.

"I have a meeting with an ambassador." Crow said. He checked his revolver and put in another freeze bullet. He clicked the safety and closed the revolver. He holstered it and picked his coat off the floor and dusted the self deleting glass off of it as it disintegrated. He picked up his fedora style hat. He walked the rest of the way.

[lazy man]

It had really been one hell of a day. Out of nowhere, four simultaneous attack plagued the Cyber World. Not long after, Cyber Force was called into action to investigate.

Ryan himself had no clue what was going on, and waiting for his CO to tell him what to do. It was kind of borng sitting through all these assignments, but the room was slient because of the seriousness of the situation.

"Yo. Deadeye. You got any idea what's going on here?" Ryan heard whispered right behind him.

Turning his head slightly, he saw his fellow Sergeant Jones looking intently at him trying to find out if Ryan knew any more.

"All I know is that there was a huge terrorist attack. They're saying about 10,000 people were attacked."

"10,000?!" Jones hissed. "How in the hell did they do that in such a short amount of time?!"

"I know just as much as you, so maybe we'd find out more if you shut up."

"Yeah... Knowing nothing sure does help... And they're not telling us something. I just know they are."

[Inbred Chocobo]

Razma was with everyone else with the Cyber Force from Sydney. The crime sence was gruesome at best, but yet for some reason, Razma couldn't help but feel a little excitment. Maybe it was because he knew this could probably give him a chance at glory, something he always craved. He did a good job in hiding it, and so he went back to work, seeing if he could find a few clues around the area.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

"Oh uhhhgh.... Who could've done this?!"
Razma turned briefly to eye the new Private Peng, whose sleek black feathers had ruffled at the sight of the carnage. Her beak was curled in distaste, and her eyes glinted violently.

The Ravenwing avatar then dropped to all fours and proceeded to move through the debris and bodies, her sharp eyes searching the ground. Occasionally, she overturned some pieces of debris and examined the floor below it, all the while growling unhappily.

[Dante]

He didn't want to open his eyes. He didn't want to get out of bed. He really didn't want to move from where Shahdee was curled up in his arms. But the stupid phone was ringing. Muttering imprecations to the air, he reached over and lifted it off the hook. If this was the lawnmower repair man again...

"Ahhhhh, what you want?"

"This is General Charles Tomlinson."

Devin suddenly realised that he was terribly awake.

"Get your ass out of bed, Devin. We've got an emergency. Something's happened in Cyber Seattle and we think it's Mastermind."

Devin was sitting bolt upright and behind him, Shahdee rose from the covers, nothing covering her except for the sheets across her lower body and her long black hair falling across her chest.

"Right. I'm bringing Shahdee."

There was a brief pause on the line.

"Go ahead. But don't stop to pack."

"Got it."

The line went dead. A small hand ran across Devin's bare chest, and a small, tired voice whispered into his other ear.

"Who was that, hon?"

"One of the DoD one-stars affiliated with Cyber Force. Apparently, Mastermind's back. We need to go. Now."

As he was saying this, he was already picking out something decent to wear.

"But Devin.... we haven't even had the morning ... you know..."

Devin froze. She was right.

"No, we haven't but I daresay we can do something about it en route. Ever heard of the Mile High Club?"

[Zephie]

(( Oh, she grew her hair back out, eh...? ;) ))

"Oh... why yes, I have..." she whispered, slipping around and making him face her for a kiss.

It was fleeting, though. They really needed to get to Seattle.

~Los Angeles~

Scrya was waiting for her sister when she came home.

...Curled up on the floor, painting with watercolors on the coffee table. Glancing up just for a moment when the door opened, she kept painting and muttered, "Hey, Tia."

The door closed quietly, but she didn't hear her moving into the kitchen like she usually did. She blinked and looked up, to find Tia standing with her hand to her mouth, looking shocked. Getting up with concern, Scrya started over to ask, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Mastermind..." she muttered, lowering her hand slowly. "He's back."

Scrya's heart skipped a beat.

[Squishy Cheeks]

"May I help you sir?" The secretary at the Canadian embassy said. The building was new built in the last week. The ambassador had only arrived yesterday.

"I am Detective Captain Crow, Captain of the Capital Police precinct Alpha."

"Is there a problem officer?" The secretary asked looking scared.

"No I have an appointment with Ambassador LaFleur."

"The secretary pulled up the schedule.

"I have no record of... oh here it is. It was arranged by... Archon Raven. That's impressive. Do you know the Archon?"

"Unfortunately." Was crow's only reply. "I take this hall?" He said pointing at the hall. He had gotten impatient with the secretary and used his advanced senses to locate Jade in the building, she was talking to someone.

It must be easy to commute to work for her, she can live in the real world with her husband and work here in Eden. I wish i could leave, see the real world for once. Maybe I'll use my vacation to time share a body and go on a world tour. Yeah right on my salary.

[batgirl]

OOC: STOP! Do not pass go! Do not collect 200$! Everyone stop for a minute and not post until I speak with Dante, a major boo boo has been made. Dante, Jade is retired as a Colonel, as is Wolf and Kaitlyn. So there's no way they're giving any orders. Please edit your post accordingly.

[Zephie]

(( It might be best to change it to the current Cyber Force leader, or maybe Wraith. ))

(( I thought it sounded odd, but I didn't want to say anything. ))

[MC43]

Monk took a look at the children in front of him. All of them so full of hope, full of promise, full of dreams and wants. Crossing his arms over his chest, he watched as they finished up their lessons for the day, each getting better with each passing hour.

"Very good children. Everyone sit on the ground for a second." They all took seats on the floor, several kids folding their legs across themselves, other trying to do the same, but obviously uncomfortable. "I know I may have said this many times before, but I must say it over and over. You have no idea what kind of lure power has on people. What I teach you is to keep in shape and to give you the knowledge to defend yourself shall an attack be inevitable. Do not... for any reason use this knowledge for senseless violence. The greatest victory is the battle that is not fought." He paused to let everything soak in, and to search his brain for any other important advice.

One student however raised his hand. "Sensai, you have told us this many times. However, if I may..." Monk nodded, "I sense... something in your voice..."

Monk tilted his head to the side a bit. "Such as?"

"A sense... of fear. As if... something is not in the right in the world. Are you ok sensai?"

Monk closed his eyes, lowering his head. This young student was right. He had sense something odd, and he wished that he could pinpoint whatever it was. "I am fine. There is something on my mind so your preceptions are not wrong, but... pay no attention to it. Return home, you have all done well today. I shall see you next class."

Everyone stood up and started up conversations about the class they just had, that one difficult move that he couldn't do, the hot chick in the third row, what she was going to do after she got home, and other random conversations that got mixed in with the rest of the noise.

Monk himself went into his office, which was just a mat on the ground that had two candles on either side of it to meditate.

---

"Beep- whirrr!" He said as he retracted his working arm back into his torso. That was one more project over and done with. He turned and wheeled himself over to the boiler next, extending his arm once more and securing a weak point he had detected. With that over and done with, there was nothing else for him to do. Heading upstairs and into the living room, he decided to watch some T.V. If he was lucky, "All My Circuts" or "Trading Specs" was on. There really wasn't much to do around here, but he was greatful that Monk had taken him in. He remembered when Monk had found him trying to hide in his room. He decided to replay that memory since there really wasn't anything else on.

(Ooo! A flashback!!)

Slamming the door behind him and looking around with his thermal scanners, he detected no one in this room. There were a few reasons why he had choosen this room. One, it took him a long tiome to slice into the door lock and open this door, meaning that someone important may have used this room before. He wasn't too afraid of someone coming in on him because looking through the records, he saw that no one used this room for several weeks. Two, it was right next to the room he was almost caught in a few minutes ago.

Switching to normal view, he was puzzled by the meager arragements that was in this room. There was the standard bed, desk and dresser, but there was no other additions, just a few candles and a mat on the floor that looked nothing like a carpet. Driving over to feel it under his wheels, the texture his sensors picked up matched it up to something something relating a simple welcome mat.

Getting bored with that, he moved to the safest room here. The closet. He grew weary of these things, but they offered the best chance of avoidance if they came into the room looking for him. It worked twice already, but it failed once, and he was force to use the stun ray on one of the guards trying to drag him away. He was sorry that he had to, but he didn't want to die. He knew that what was going to happen. Too many of his freinds went into maitenance, and never returned. And if he scanned for their sensors and unique parts, he would find them in several rooms at once. It didn't take a science droid to put two and two together... they were sent to be deleted thanks to the Mastermind disaster.

The door slid open, he drove in, and it slid closed behind him. He turned off everything except scanning and weapon systems. Scanning to see if anyone will come in the room, and weapons in case he had to fight his way out.

There he sat... waiting for as long as it took before his sub-routines could figure out a way to permanant freedom.

...

It must have been several hours becuase his body went into sleep mode before his sensors picked up a themal signiture. Waking himself up, he tried to match the heat and vital organs to a previous owner. No match. This was a new person. Normally this meant that they had sent a new strike time to try and catch him, but this person was different. To be safe though, the little droid didn't move to try and avoid motion detectors, and enough of his systems were off to avoid electric sensors.

Now... it was down to the waiting game...

(The flashback shall continue...)

[MC43]

Monk looked around the room, trying to find out just what he was doing there. He didn't know what called him to the room, but his legs just seemed to travel into this direction. He saw the sitting mat on the floor with 2 candles on either side. That's what he came for. He was packing up to leave the base, and this was the last of his things. Actually... the only things. Rolling up the mat and sticking the candles in the wrapped up mat, he started for the door, stopping suddenly, looking to the closet.

---

To M4, he picked up that he had stopped, looked around, picked up the odd mat on the ground, and headed for the door. However, the reading stopped. The little droid’s skipped a routine when he saw this. Then he saw the figure move closer to the door he was hiding behind. Then he saw the hand reach for knob, then the door was opened slowly.

There was a series of furious beeps and whistles, then the shocker was released.

Monk raised his hands. "Wait... hold on..."

M4 met his words with another series of angry and short beeps.

"I... do not understand you... Please. I am not here to hurt you."

The small droid tilted its head to the side and rolled back a little. After another second, he retracted his shock arm and slowly clicked and whistled something.

"Ok... now that we are on calm terms... lets get you out of here."

He dropped back against the wall, screaming.

"Whoa, whoa! All right, we don't have to do that."

M4 nodded and clicked once.

"What are you trying to say?"

That's when there was a knock on the door. "Monk, sir? May we come in?"

"On what grounds? Who are you?"

"I am Techie Jones. I'm looking for a droid, and I believe he has entered this room, may I come in to inspect."

The small droid cried out with several quick and loud beeps and whistles, furiously shaking his head.

Monk looked to him, "Are you afraid of them?" M4 nodded with a single beep. Monk then turned his eyes to the door. "I'm sorry. I have inspected this room and have found nothing unusal."

"Sir... What I said was merely a formality. We have video records showing the droid hacking into the locks and sneaking into this room."

"If this were true, why didn't you arrive sooner?"

"I cannot say sir."

"You cannot say because you have no answer..."

"I cannot say for the droid is probably listening right now."

"If you are so confident that you have the droid where you want it, just say your plan."

There was a pause, then the other side of the door replied, "We wanted to wait to see if we could catch it off guard. The little thing can only have so much battery power. We were hoping to try and catch it during a self recharge, when all of its sensors would have been deactivated."

"What are you going to do with the droid shall you get him in your possession?"

"We shall delete his AI programming and sell him for parts."

At this, the droid screamed out in horror, bleeping and whistling and making random noises. It was obvious he could hear the technician, even if he talked in a hushed tone.

"What has this droid done to suffer this fate?"

"... It's not that droid, sir. It's all droid. It is standard procedure ever since the Mastermind crisis, you know that."

Monk looked at the robot, and he returned the look with his optic lens. It may have been created by human hands, but Monk could see the cry for help, the plead for life. "I'm... sorry." Monk said, still looking at M4-C3 "I cannot let you do this." The droid tilted his head to the side."

"I'm sorry sir?" Came the voice from the other side of the door.

"I cannot let you harm this droid."

"But... Sir... procedure!"

"Forget procedure!" Monk was now shouting at the door. "This unit has done nothing wrong. He deserves no such fate!"

"Sir... let's be reasonable about this. You know AI's are being wiped out in fear of another Mastermind type attack."

"Then I shall take this droid under my care."

There came an inquisitive sound from M4. "Sir? You cannot..."

"I am going to walk out this door..." Monk interrupted the tech, "and this droid is going to follow me. You, and anyone else on that side of the door will not lay a hand on him. Do you understand what I have just said?" Silence came as his answer. "Good." He turned around and slowly walked to the quivering droids, kneeling in front of it. "Come with me..." He held out his hand. "I won't let them hurt you."

It took a moment, but M4 slowly warmed up to the idea. He moved towards him, until he stood in front of his new master. He let out a joyous beep, and waited to move.


(End flashback)


And so it happened. The two walked out without a problem and here he was now, sitting in front of the T.V. waiting for "Tech T.V." to return from whatever commercials the channel was running.

[batgirl]

~New Amsterdam Star~

"Sir! Sir! I've got the story of the century for you!" A young reporter, eager to make his way up the ladder of success, ran into the Editor's office, clutching onto a packet of papers as if they were his own right to live. The editor looked up from his stale muffin and day-old coffee, the wear and tear of trying to get the early bird paper out showing in the creases of his face and the stubble on his chin. "This had better be good, I've no time for another Sasquatch story like last time."

"No sir, this is genuine I promise." The editor quickly skimmed over the packet, his eyes widening as he read on. "This is incredible! I can't believe none of the other papers published this yet. 10000 dead? It's atrocious! It's horrific! It's perfect!" The editor's eyes twinkled at the thought of being the first paper to publish the return of Mastermind from the ashes. ""You my boy will get a promotion! I'll run this right down to the publishing room!" The editor sprung up from his desk, just as a well dressed military representative entered his office. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Sir, I have an urgent message from the President."

"For me?" Thoughts raced through the editor's head. Could the President have found out already and was congradulating him on being the first in the world to print this? He slowly opened the manilla enveloppe and read the contents. His eyes became downcast and hardened as he slammed the enveloppe down. The representative had already taken his leave. "Sir," the lackey said, "the story?"

"Forget it, destroy it and don't speak of it ever again."

"But sir!"

"No buts or you're fired! Now get out of my sight and do what I say!" The lackey nodded and walked out. The editor sighed and picked up the story. "Guess Mastermind is still under wraps for a while." He took his lighter and watched the story of his life burn up in his hands.

~Cyber Eden's Canadian Embassy~

Jade sat behind her desk with a pile of neatly stacked papers in front of her. On the screen in front of her was a video link of Monk at his office. "Listen, I'm sure it's nothing, you get funny feelings if the fridge isn't working properly."

"It's important!"

"Monk, everything will be fine. You're probably just tired from work today. I don't know how you can teach those hellions all day long. Anyways, my appointment is here so I'll see you at home soon. I love you." The vid-link closed and Jade sighed. She wanted to tell Monk about the attack, but he would have just gotten too worked up in his current state. With the media being hush-hush about it, she had enough time to finish her day and tell him at home, where she could hold him down and threaten him with death if he tried to go off somewhere. This has got to be a joke, I saw him die with my own eyes...

Jade had little more time to think of it though, as a sharp knock came at the door. Jade stood, "come in Crow." As he entered and approached the desk, Jade came around, shook his hand and offered him a seat. Sitting back in her chair, she addressed him. "What can I do for you?"

[Darth SS]

Humans will experience sorrow. Humans will experience pain. Everyone has a breaking point. However, it doesn't stop at the breaking point. What happens to a man when that happens?

Az didn't know. He lived it every second, but he didn't know.

He was in a convenience store. He hadn't shaved in a week. Right now, he was considering accepting a job offer in helping to train Ottawa SWAT. That's when the robbers came in. They brandished guns, they yelled the usual demands. On the floor, get the money.

One of them tried to hit Azrael. Azrael found his pain. His suffering. His yearning to make this punk feel it. He didn't even realize what he'd done before he'd done it. The punk's gun had been spun around and twisted so sharply that the wrist broke. Then he smashed his fist into the punk's hand, snapping the nose back.

Without pausing, Azrael spun and hammered his fist into the throat, crushing the windpipe like an old vegetable. The gun was in his hand. The other two robbers were turning their guns.

At like that, it was over. Three dead men. Less than four seconds. Two rounds expended. Azrael looked at the bodies, blind rage still clouding his vision. And he left.

What happens when a man is forced over his limits? When he's made to go further then is physically possible? He becomes something else entirely. He becomes a monster.

[Zephie]

Half a world away, in another time zone (and day) entirely, Wraith emerged from his office with a padd in his hand and a scowl on his face. Having shed his shock for determination, he approached one of the officers and began barkings orders.

"Yevgeniy, I want you to form a task force and start searching the 'Net for any anomalous code," saying his name in a perfect Russian accent to the tech. sergeant. "Nothing is too small to be dismissed."

"But sir, we already search--"

"Then double your efforts, Sergeant, this is serious."

"Da," replied Yevgeniy, who then headed off to get working.

Wraith was just getting started though, and headed over to another hapless victim. "Vera, I want you to go back over all the criminal activity and intelligence reports from the last six months. There had to be indications leading up to this attack."

She nodded and left before he could say more, which he did to the next person he met. "Korolov, coordinate with the intelligence bureau and start a crackdown on all the Mastermind cults still left -- follow back anything you can find, try to find a link between them and these attacks."

"For that I will need permissions," the old Captain started to say, in a very thick accent.

"Then get them." Wraith had cut him off sharply, then walked past him and headed deeper into the base, so he could get started on his own share of the work. Before he left out the double doors of the office though, he held up his wrist, exposing a communicator strapped there. "I'm gonna see what everyone else knows. If anyone needs me, you can reach me on my codec."

***

Moments later he was contacting the American Cyber Base, trying to get someone high up in command who could tell him what he needed to know. Namely, details, and any hard information he could look over like footage or photographs... anything he could get to compare and add to the Moscow attack would be helpful.

[Squishy Cheeks]

"That's funny, Ambassador LeFleur, I was going to ask you the same thing." He set his hat and coat on the hat rack near the door. The hat rack hadn't been there a second before. Crow ran a hand over his scalp and sat down.

"Honestly I'm not exactly certain as to why my father asked me to come see you. He said you would have need of my services. And... well one does not refuse a request of the Archon."

Crow pulled out a cigarette box, the brand was written in binary as was alot of the info in Eden. He was about to light the cigarette when he stopped and took a side glance at Jade

"Mind if I smoke, it's self deleting smoke."

[Wolf99x]

OOC: *kicks the RP* wake up you, we've got postage incoming.

BIC: Somewhere in Northeast Massachusetts

Technician Albert Dessloch, member of FLAG's First Assault Team, knew his time was up.

He was the last of his unit, the last survivor of an ambush that seemed to literally come from nowhere. The team had been on maneuvers in the northern forests of the state, when machine gun fire cut through the trees, gunning down half of the soldiers within seconds. Then two more were felled by what looked like blasts of wind, even though it was a windless day.

The tech had then grabbed his laptop and hit a switch just below the PC card slot. The computer morphed and unfolded into a submachine gun, Knight Industries' most discreet weapon.

He had pointed in in the direction of where he thought the attacks were coming from, and opened fire. But the last three soldiers collapsed from bullet hits, and Dessloch knew he had missed.

So he ran. He ran for minutes on end. He kept running until he reached a clearing in the forest. Purely by thought, he activated his CW-comm channel, capable of transmitting communications almost as if by thought.

"This is Alpha 4 to Sky-1. My team is down, requesting immediate pickup. Unknonwn number of hostiles closing in on my position. Request pickup immediately."

"This is Phoenix. I'm inbound. ETA is 2 minutes. Hold on until then," the reply came back in his mind.

He took cover behind a rock, waiting for the transport to extract him, and hoping he wouldn't be taken down.

About 30 seconds later he heard heavy automatic weapons fire followed by a couple muffled explosions. Up ahead he saw a Knight Industries Phantom transport drop its cloak and materialize, smoke trailing from two of the maneuvering thrusters.

"This is Sky-1, we've taken enemy weapons fire and our engines are damaged. We don't know if we can take back off after landing. Sorry to say but it looks like you'll be walking back, Alpha 4."

The transport shakily turned back towards base. As it did, Dessloch felt a cold pit open in his stomach. That pit grew deeper as he heard a twig snap somewhere nearby. As he brought his laptop gun up to fire, a shot rang out and a bullet struck the gun, throwing it from the techs hands. He tried to pick the gun back up but he froze as a voice resonated through his CW-com.

***

The voice had a slight rasp. That rasp was the product of a long-gone cigarette addiction that not even the wonders of modern medicine could completely cure.

The voice also had a commanding presence, a product of 5 years on the battlefield and command of two major units.

"You're Dead," said the voice.

Dessloch turned, and saw...nothing. Then there was a sound that was similar to that of a computer monitor degaussing, and the forest in front of the technician distorted until a man clad in tight fitting combat armor appeared seemingly from nowhere, leveling an Omni-Falcon pistol at the tech's chest.

That man, who the voice belonged to, was Jason MacKenzie. Former commander of Cyber Force Alpha, and top "consultant" for Knight Industries.

Dessloch looked down at the ground, and shrugged slightly. "I guess I am."

Jason returned the pistol to the holster at his hip. "Took me long enough though. I never expected you to be able to keep running and hiding like that after the first 10 minutes."

The tech shrugged again. "I did some cross-country in high school." there was a pause. "I see the new optic camoflauge worked perfectly."

"True. I was surprised that visual distortion had been cut down on a lot during weapon fire. Still, it's not perfect, which is probably a good thing."

Light rain began to fall. "For example, this rain would play hell with the cloak."

"Right, the system takes time to adjust to terrain shifts and weather effects."

"Yeah, but I don't think I needed to come out here and kick your team around in a training exercise just to learn that. Let's get back to base. I'm expecting Knight's going to want a tech report out of me."

OOC: This will contiune, when I get the next part a little more coherent.

[Wolf99x]

30 minutes later
Knight Industries Test Facility B, somewhere in the Greater Boston Area

Jason had dropped the stealth armor off with the lab technicians and changed back into the business suit he normally wore to work...when he wasn't testing out the latest armor, gear, or vehicle Knight had developed.

As he headed down towards the hangars, CEO Michael Knight caught up with him.

"So, how did the stealth armor perform?" he asked

"Exactly to specifications, just like your techs said it would." there was a pause. "Did I end up putting any of the team members in the hospital this time?"

"Fortunately no. Your control and finesse was excellent; nobody suffered ill effects of the shock bullets either."

"That's good. What about the Phantom I disabled?"

"Well, the techs aren't too happy, but it did land safely. You certainly knew what you were doing, taking out the engines diagonally across from one another; not surprising seeing as how you practically wrote the flight manual for it."

Jason didn't say anything to that, but he did crack a small grin. He then changed the subject. "I heard you got some new pilots in."

"Yeah. A good majority of them are ex USAF pilots drummed out for one reason or another, usually skirt-chasing. Two of the pilots are from the Russian Air Force, tired of being stuck flying 1970s era MiG-21s. And the last 4 pilots are from the Canadian Air Force, mostly because they wanted some action."

"Canadians, huh?"

"Yeah. It's not like you're the only one capable of finding trigger-happy Canadians." Knight said jokingly.

Jason grinned a bit again at that comment. I didn't find Neil and Jade, more like we all found each other. Been a while since I talked to either of them, though. Although I do know Jade is an Ambassador to Cyber Eden, I haven't heard about Neil in a while... he thought.

"Speaking of pilots, how are they managing the ATACs?"

"Really well. Most of them quickly adapted between flying and mech piloting fairly quickly. In fact, based on these results I've already got limited release contracts lined up with a few special forces groups. Though right now I'm still a little worried about leasing these to the Japanese. I mean, they already have those Dragon scout walkers they deployed to post guard over the ruins of Torishima. Frankly, I'm worried they might reverse engineer some of the ATAC technology. I already have to limit the armament strength of the ATACs as it is while handing them out to the SpecForces. Right now they're armed with heavy vulcan cannons, mini-SAMs, AIM-12s, and Hellfire-II missiles. No lasers, no railguns, none of that overpowered stuff, and certainly none of the experimental plasma tech. I'm not about to let Knight Insustries and FLAG be the fall guys for a wackjob getting a hold of these."

There was a long pause. "Stressed much?" Jason asked.

"Just a bit. Business negotiations are tough no matter how good one gets at it."

"Eh, you'll come out ahead, just like you always do."

That much was true. Following the Cyber War, elements of the US Congress conducted an SEC investigation on Knight Industries and FLAG, because apparently helping save the world wasn't a good enough reason to believe the company was honest. They tried to make Knight fully disarm FLAG, and turn over all assets to Military Intelligence. Knight managed to outwit them though, and in turn for disarming 25% of his forces and providing sample ATACs to the Special Forces, FLAG remained active. The only downside was that the skybases weren't as active due to being a little too overpowered in this time of peace; instead Knight was relying mostly on the blue-water navy he had consisting of surplus Russian crusiers and two mothballed American carriers he bought for an exorbiant sum, which helped military spending out something fierce.

Knight nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. I don't need you to test anything else today, so you're good to go."

"All right, see ya tomorrow." with that, Jason went on ahead out to the hangars.

[Darth SS]

Azrael walked back and forth in front of the line.

RCMP ERT unit. A fresh one. They'd be responding to anti-terrorism calls around the country. Best to make himself known now...

"My name is Neil, but you will call my Azrael. I've served with multinational initiatives, CIA, SAS, Joint Task Force 2, FBI, RCMP, and Cyber Force. That is all you need to know."

Angel looked over all of them. They seemed to be a good bunch.

"You're here because you have something to save. Something to protect. ERT are life-savers, not life enders. However, you will be called to end lives. This is why am here. I will teach you how to kill. If any of you are uncomfortable with this, leave now."

No one did. Good.

"First rule: You're all issued standard equipment. Get rid of it. Your long gun can stay, but only your body armor should remain from the uniform. Get something comfy. You need to be comfortable, and camouflage isn't an issue when you have a bright white 'RCMP' on your back. For sidearm should be something you are comfy with. I don't care about power, I don't care about statistical accuracy. That firearm must be something you can fire as easily as breathing, and you need to find a gun it comes naturally on. Me? I use an FN Forty-Nine. Second: Lose your ego. The first man into the room should be the best shot. If someone can do something better than you, then you let them do it. It's not a request. People can die if you do not. That's all for now, get your asses out onto the firing range and find a sidearm."

The ERT recruits hurried off. Azrael smiled. They'd do nicely. Probably ready to counter anything that came up.

[Wolf99x]

OOC: This I believe will be the third and final post of mine for a while in the main story.

BIC: As Jason walked across the tarmac, a woman was walking out to meet him.

She moved almost angelically across the blacktop surface, her lithe frame betraying none of the nano-augmented strength it held. Her flight uniform had been unzipped slightly, the zipper stopping just before her breasts, most likely in order to tease and tantalize.

As it always did whenever he saw his wife, Jason's heart skipped a few beats.

"You put on quite a performance today," Kaitiln MacKenzie said to her husband.

"Well, that's what everyone tells me," Jason responded. "How did it look at 20000 feet?"

"Pure Poetry in Infra-Red motion," she said. "I especially liked the part where the only person who returned fire ended up shooting in a direction completely opposite from where you were. Not that it would've helped him, you were moving so fast it was if you were a white blur."

"Nice to know not even Knight's cameras can keep up with me."

Kaitlin grinned a bit. "So, are you done for the day?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, let's just say that watching you at work has made me want to see you showcase some more moves of yours...specifically the ones you reserve for the bedroom." her grin became a lot more seductive.

Jason smirked. "You got right to the point on that one, didn't you?"

"I guess I did."

"Well, I'll remember to break the speed limit even more so than usual then driving home."

***

Less than 30 seconds later a black 3rd Generation Firebird shot out of the base's garage and headed off into the distance, headed north.

Knight watched the vehicle leave. One of his aides walked up to him.

"Why didn't you tell them?" the aide asked

"About the attacks?" Knight responded. "Because one, I didn't have any proof of what's really going on. And secondly...they're happy together. I don't want to see either of them be hurt by what might happen should they go back into fighting."

"Good point sir...but if what the rumor mill is saying is true..."

"I know...then they may not have a choice in what they need to do."

Especially if Jason should believe he left his ultimate mission unfinished... Knight silently added.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Private Peng was feeling uncomfortable.

The CF from Sydney had been dropped off at the attack in the busy international trade centre Hong Kong, and the Ravenwing avatar had immediately set to work looking around her.

Currently, the avatar was clinging vertically to a building, giving Peng an overview of the devastation. The raptorish features of the avatar were creased into a perpetual frown.
What the...?

Out on a whim, Ravenwing had chosen to climb, just to get a more aerial view of the damage and perhaps find something different from that vantage point. She discovered, upon looking down, that what felt like to her climbing three or four floors appeared to send her up to the seventh floor window. The ground was far away below her, and when she looked to the opposite building, it was warped and astonishingly far away.

Hong Kong seemed... roomier up here. Ravenwing spotted the authority in command down there.
"Lanninghi Sir!" Ravenwing called. The small figure on the ground looked up, squinting towards the distant figure that was Peng.
"What is it, private?" he called, rather bemused.
"Permission to jump, sir!"
"What! Oh! Of course, Private! Make sure you use your wings this time. You have permission to shout something obscure if you fail, private."
"Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!"

The small figure spread its wings and leapt from the building.

Ravenwing glided cautiously down the first few floors, then with a squawk of alarm and a shout of "WHAT THE F-", crashed abruptly into a pile of debris at the ground level. Lanninghi arrived running at the crash zone, where the avatar had shook free of the debris with a dazed look on her face.
"What happened, private? You just flicked out of existence at the third floor and reappeared at the first!"
"I don't know, sir. One moment I'm all high up, the next thing that's happened, the ground's coming up mighty fast... It's a bit crazy up there, sir," Ravenwing puffed, ruffling her avatar's plumage. She was still a bit stunned, and Lanninghi left her to recover to report to base.

OOC: I hope that's alright.

[Zephie]

Moscow

Wraith walked around as the connection was finally made, swiveling the flat panel monitor with one arm and drinking coffee with the other.

"Major, what can I do for you?"

"I need some information," Wraith answered, lowering the mug. "Specifically, anything on the other Cyber World attacks you can give me."

"What for?" the man asked, though the question was more of a formality. He was already accessing the information through a database.

"I need to compare it with our own data, try to find some correlations."

"I see..." the man said, busy at work. He was silent for a moment as he worked, and a datastream starting sending into Wraith's computer. "There. That's all the stuff we have right now. It's not much, but... I hope it helps."

"Me, too." Wraith reached over and hovered his finger over the shutoff button, looking the man in the face. "Thanks, Colonel."

The man nodded, and Wraith closed the video feed. The datastream ended soon after, and the Major copied the files into main memory. With that done, he headed out of the room and towards the conference hall, to begin studying all the data... in a few hours, he would probably summon his team there to start a full search of the attack area as well, based on what he found.

[batgirl]

"Mind if I smoke?"

"Go right ahead." As Coyote lit up, Jade brought up images of the attack sites from around the world. "I'm sure that you've seen these countless times before, but the Archon was right, I could use your input. Look at this image of Seattle, it's raining blood. The hacking that woul need to be done is highly advance. Mastermind did something like this before in L.A. by making it snow. I've analyzed it and the coding is flawless. There are very few people in both the Real and Cyber Worlds who can do this. I've had a full analysis of all of the sites done and there is very complex hacking done all over the place, well hidden too. On buildingd, the weather, and even some of the people. I know that as of yet Cyber Eden hasn't been hit, but I would advise you to keep on your toes.

Now as for your help, I'd like to know if you have any input or theories on this situation, because I'm almost at a loss. I know it could be him, but I just can't bring myself to accept that he's not dead, not after all the Cyber Force went through and not after I saw him die."

[MC43]

Monk closed his eyes to contemplate on this feeling he had all day. Sinking deeper into himself, he could hear cries from the dead, thousands of them, all at once. His eyes winced in pain as he could hear their screams. Men, women, children, pets. Everything that had a voice, was using it now.

These voices… this is recent. It is as if there was a disaster that plagued the earth today… or was it…?

He focused in on one or two voices at a time, when he was able to pull them apart. They all cried out for help, but he was getting no answer as to what may have caused this.

He began to sink deeper into his meditation, deeper into his mind when suddenly, everything stopped, everything was black. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around.

He found himself sitting now in white. Everything around was the same color, the floor couldn’t be told from the walls, couldn’t be told from the ceiling. “My… the room of fears…” he whispered, listening to his echo. He stood up slowly and shifted his eyes left and right, seeing if there was anyone around. To his surprise, no one was. He felt as if he was pulled in, lured in with answers to the questions he was asking. That’s when he heard a soft tap behind him. Then another one. To people without training, the sound would have moved unnoticed, but with Monk’s trained ear, he could hear the soft steps of a pair of boots heading for him, and even this sound would have been missed if a pin was to hit the floor. Turning around, he found himself face to face with…

“Myth!?”

“Thought I was gone, huh?” his counterpart mocked in his raspy voice.

“Impossible, I thought you were destroyed…”

“You can’t kill a myth. They are not true. You cannot kill me, for I am not true.”

“Are you saying… this is a vision?”

“A vision? Why would you say it was a vision? Can you not see me now?” Monk nodded. “Can you not hear me? Can you not feel me?” Monk reached out and felt the fabric of Myth’s shirt.

“No… this can’t be.”

“But it is Monk. However, I am not here to kill you, or to take you over. That hatchet was buried long ago.”

“You mean… when I defeated you all those years ago?”

Myth dropped his head, sighing. “Must we tear open old wounds?”

“Sorry…”

“Anyway, I have returned, and I have some information for you.”

“Wait… how could you have? Last I checked…”

“Yeah, yeah, we fought to the death and you won the fight therefore banishing me and ‘deleting’ me…” he added the quotes with his fingers. “Just as you deleted… Mastermind?”

“Mastermind!? No… I watched him die.”

“As you watched me die?” Monk fell silent, suddenly finding something interesting by his feet. “I’m here to give you that warning. People are going to deny the story…”

“Jade wouldn’t…”

“She would. It is none of your business. It is a national security risk. If people were to find out about him…”

“They have to be told! If they are not, they will die!”

“But if they are, even more will die! Don’t you get it!?” There was a breath, “You are so naïve Monk. If people were to find out Mastermind was still alive, there would be a worldwide panic. If there is a world wide panic, Mastermind will know it was because of him, if he knows that people know he’s alive, he is going to strike before a defense can be made. Think Monk! Do you just charge into battle without thinking of the consequences!?”

“I… try to.”

“Well, you do a bad job at it.” Myth calmed himself down and stood in front of him. “Listen, you fight for a good cause, I’ll give you that. I have to admit that being in your mind has… affected me for the better. But now this war must be handled with the most of extreme cautions. After this conversation, you will tell no one that I said anything until I say so. You must give me your word. No one must know!”

“But… Am I just supposed to lie to the government, to Jade?”

“If it is so, it will be so.”

“I cannot hold that information from Jade. She must know!”

“And will she do, Monk?”

“Why… she’ll…”

“Deny it? Come on Monk, you know that’s what is going to happen. Even if you were to tell her, all you would do is put her in an uneasy state of mind, and who knows what THAT could lead up to.”

“But… innocent people will…”

“Be saved… if you keep your trap shut!” Myth closed his eyes and slanted his head to the side, taking a breath. “I know… we have had uneasy relations before, but… you have to trust me on this. I promise you can tell everyone that Mastermind is alive, you can even tell them I am alive, but not… now. Time is still on our side. I know that sounds odd, but it is, and we need to grasp as much of that as we can. If we start a worldwide panic…”

“…then…” Monk attempted to finish, “…we throw away any time we had left.”

“Exactly!” Myth stood upright and took a breath. “Not… a word. Not a hint, not a gesture, not… anything!” Monk nodded. “Good. Our time is up now. You must go back and play your part, and I must do mine.”

“Your part?”

“Mastermind probably assumes that I am alive as well. Hw knows of the protocols that he put in, that’s why I must lay low here.”

“Won’t he find you?”

Myth grinned, “That’s where your meditation skills come in. As long as I keep everything silent, I should be able to fly under his radar.” He sat on the ground and crossed his legs over themselves. Then adjusted them, then tried one more position. “However… it will be slow going. I’ll get the hang of it. Now go!”

“Wait!” Monk called out, but he could feel himself violently being tossed up, almost as if there was a rope around his waist, he was pulled to the ceiling. Slamming his eyes shut, he relaxed himself, until he could feel himself sitting once more, on his mat, in his dojo. Looking around, he found this to be true. Shaking his head, he stood up and exited his office, heading for home, wondering if everything he heard was true.


He swung the door open and walked in, taking note of the droid in front of the T.V. watching some program that Monk never understood. They always talked about computer upgrades and chassis and protocol mechanisms and sub-routines upgrades. That was the latest thing Monk was trying to get a grasp on, how to fix M4. As soon as the droid’s sensors picked up Monk’s signature, it turned off the T.V. and rolled over to him, several joyous beeps emitting. “Yes M4, I’m home. Thank you for your kind welcome.”

There was a series of several quick beeps, a string of long chirps, a whistle, then silence.

“Excuse me? I’m sorry, I do not understand what that is.”

M4’s head rolled around, then played a recording of something he had found on the home shopping network for a utility compartment that apparently would upgrade a droid nearly 10 to 20 fold.

After watching the recording Monk rubbed his chin, “I don’t know M4. I never really trusted the things I see on T.V.”

M4 tilted its head down, letting out a long and low “Ooo”.

“I’m sorry.” Monk sighed. “We’ll talk to Jade about, ok?”

The utility droid’s head shot up, several loud quick sounds coming from it.

“Yes… yes, M4. You’re welcome. How is the house?”

The droid stood a bit taller, proud beeps and clicks coming from it.

“Everything is in top shape? Great. Thanks M4. Maybe later we could try to upgrade your memory. I’ve been reading up on it, and I think I may know what to do.”

It was obvious there was a previous experience between the two, as the droid slowly rolled back a little, quiet and recessive beeps emitting.

“Yes… I know last time I mixed up the vocabulator and you started speaking backwards, and I’m sorry about that. But I was able to fix it, right?”

He nodded and beeped once.

“So, maybe… do you think I could try again?”

The droid was silent, but rolled up closer and chimed in positively.

“Great! Maybe later tonight, after dinner…”

M4 nodded, and the two went their separate ways, M4 shutting down to recharge, Monk into the kitchen to cook up some dinner.

[Darth SS]

"End ex! End ex!"

Azrael kicked the door open and walked in. All the targets were shot, save one. All of them. Hostages included.

"Dammit! When you enter a room, you pay attention to who you're shooting!"

Azrael stormed about in a huff. Then someone came into the room holding a cell-phone. "Urgent call for you sir."

Azrael grabbed the phone and listened. "No..." Angrilly, he turned to his team and yelled, "Run the exercise until you can swap out and hit every target dead center!"

He then sprinted into their Cyber World room. Two minutes later, he was loaded.

He loaded directly into the Canadian network, then chose to load into the Cyber Eden embassy. Normally, people would get travel visas there, but Azrael wasn't looking for a visa.

With a burst of code, he showed up in the lobby and headed towards the doors. Someone get in his way and said, "Sir, you can-" Azrael belted him hard enough to make him grab the floor for support. He went through a metal detector. It beeped. Azrael didn't care at all.

Then he reached Jade's office. He kicked the door in. She hadn't seen him for years. He also looked like hell. Not the touching reunion some would've hoped for.

"HE'S BACK!? HE'S COME BACK!? You have connections, and I need them to go find him and pull his intestines out his throat!"

[Squishy Cheeks]

Crow's gun was in his hand before the foot hit the door. The hammer fell as Azrael uttered his last syllable. Azrael turned grey as his processor seized effectively freezing him in his tracks.

Crow blew the smoke from the barrel as he holstered the gun.

"friend of yours? Anyway as i was going to say before we we're so rudely interrupted are you familiar with Phoenix AI? The name is relatively self explinitory."

[secretskull]

Cyber Force CA

Cyber force CA was in chaos. People who didn't work there wouldn't have seen anything, but to someone that did it was unmistakable: someone walking too fast, a twitch of the eye, all these things hinted at hidden turmoil in the place. Lyon had already got his things ready hours ago, and was waiting impatiently for his next order. "I'm getting bored of waiting." He mumbled. He got up and walked toward the phone. "Perhaps I can make an investigation of my own." He said reaching for the phone. It wasn't technically in his jurisdiction to do this, it could get him kicked off CF. He made the call.

[Darth SS]

OOC: God Dammit! LIVE! *kicks thread*

IC: Azrael was most displeased with this turn of events. He also was tempted to assign a new person as the next intestine extraction patient.

[MC43]

Monk was just chopping up the chicken when he could hear M4-C3 wheel himself through the door. He looked up from the board and put the chopping knife down. "M4? I thought you were recharging."

The droid answered with a series of beeps and clicks.

"You finished, already?"

M4 elaberate.

"Oh... there isn't that much to do, so you didn't have to spend a lot of energy today? I guess that makes sense. Ever since you showed up, there has been nothering wrong with this house. I have to thank you. It makes things much easier..."

"Beep boop beep beep beep"

"Huh?" Monk looked at the chopping plate. "Oh, yeah. This is supper. Fettuccine alfredo. Mmm, mm!"

"Ooooo..." then a series of whirs and blips.

"I know it doesn't sound good. Nothing organic sounds good to you. You are a droid."

M4 responded with a mix of furious and short beeps.

"I meant no offense. I was just stating a fact..."

There was a moment of silence before M4 spoke, "Beep beep?"

"Mush mush? What do you mean? No... this is mean is not going to be mushy. It's going to be very g..."

He inturrupted with a long beep, then a series of clicks, whirs and blips.

"Wait. You mean mush mush as in romance? Am I going to do something romantic for Jade?"

M4 responded affirmatively.

Monk looked away slightly, a slight redness forming on his cheeks. "Wh... Why do you ask."

The droid gave his reasoning.

"A spike in my internal temperatures of the face? Are you saying I have a fever?"

M4 did not find it amusing, low flat noises come from his speakers.

"I know you meant blushing." He was silent for a moment, then continued, "I don't know. It depends how I feel when she gets home."

Music started to come from M4 as turned and rolled away. It sounded like something you would hear from an adult movie.

"M4! You stop that talk right now!" Monk couldn't help but smile at the humanity M4 seemed to show.

The droid however didn't stop, but in fact played louder.

"All right..." Monk picked up his knife to finish his chopping. "But I may just try to upgrade you computer programming without Jade here. We all know what happened last time that happened."

Not only did M4 stop, he shrieked and slowly backed away.

"That's better." Monk smiled and shook his head. "Now go get ready for Jade. She should be home sooner than later..."

M4 lowered his head, gave a "sigh" and rolled out the door.

[batgirl]

OOC: Oh god, sorry people, it's been a rough week.

BIC: Jade had to admit that she almost expected something like this to happen. Someone from CF was bound to come busting in to ask her questions, she had just hoped it wasn't Neil or Monk. She was half relieved. But she was more concerned with what Neil was going to do when he got free. "Well Crow, I'll admit you're good with a gun, that's for sure. As for your question, I am familiar with Phoenix AI, but do you really think MM had evolved that much from such a simple program to be able to become one?" She looked warily at Neil. "Eh...could you do something with him maybe? I'd hate to be the one he sees first when he gets out of there."

[Squishy Cheeks]

"certainly." Crow picked up the frozen man and put him in the bath toom. "It's one of the things we considered." He turned the light on and faced him toward the mirror. "After all The C0Y series had the potential. It was thought by many Coyote had achieved it, but obviously that is incorrect, or he has returned and hasn't decided to make his presence known." He shut the door behind him.

"There, is that better?"

[batgirl]

"Yes thanks, well if that's the case, what do you suggest we do? We can't go public with this, and if I put in the requests for the old team to come together, people will get suspicious..."

[Squishy Cheeks]

"That sneaky bastard." Crow said. He folded his arms and took a deep drag of his cigarette.

"I guess, I've been autherized to allow your team to meet here away from scrutiny of human eyes." He inhaled deeply, the cigarette flared. He exhaled. "I wish he would just shut the border till we can ascertain the nature of the crisis. Not that I have anything against your people." he looked to the bathroom. "They seem nice."

[batgirl]

"Well, my problem with that is that I don't know if it's cause to freak people out and gather the team for something we're not even sure about is MM. I think we should wait a little and do some research first, see if this isn't one big prank. Think you could keep your eyes open and let me know if anything comes up?"

[Darth SS]

The nice thing about a gigantic program as advanced as Cyber World was that it only lagged someone for so long. That, and a federal level input device made sure that Azrael became suitably unfreezed, though slightly lathargic.

The door creaked open. Azrael glared at Crow. Mentally, he added another person onto his list of people to either get back, or not to mess with.

"Sorry for the large entrance. I'm SLIGHTLY pissed off right now, and I've had a very shitty last year. Now, can we find MM? And if so, where do I go to rend him limb from limb?"

The speaking sounded like old TV shows slowdown. It was stretched out and lower than normal.

[Squishy Cheeks]

"will do. Is there anything you need me for? I have a heavy case load."

[lazy man]

OOC: Why I haven't posted in weeks, I don't know, but I'll try to keep up better from now on.

IC: Deadeye walked intently along the ruined roads of Cyber Seattle. While he still didn't know what in the hell he was looking for, he knew he was looking for a needle in a hay stack. Combine that with the fact that, other than the knowledge of the attack and that it could possibly be Mastermind, he still had no clue what was going on. It confused him, as well some others he knew that were looking into it, to no end.

"C'mon, something, give me SOMETHING!" he thought, annoyed by the fact that he felt like he was searching pointlessly.

Throughout all this, the bloody rain came down disturbingly, but Deadeye didn't seem to notice in his state of determination. It wasn't long before he stopped to think and go over what he had seen. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, just wonton destrcution. This was troubling to him, because he really believed he would have seen something by now.

[batgirl]

OOC: Typo, it's Cyber World not Cyber Wars.

BIC: "Neil, go back to where you were stationed. We have no proof right now of anything, so go and do your job before you get thrown in jail for threatening an ambassador. If anything comes up I'll contact you ok?"

"No Crow, you can go. Sorry about all this, I'll keep you posted alright?"

[Squishy Cheeks]

"Pleasure meeting you Ambasador. "Crow put out his cigarette in his hand which deleted itself. He put on his hand and coat again. "Nice to meet you too, Neil. keep out of trouble while you're in my town."

Crow walked down the hall.

[Darth SS]

Azrael glared at Jade.

"Okay, two things we need to clear up now: First, don't call me Neil. He's long since dead. Second, I'm still employed to kill whoever the Security Council deems neccesary to maintain global peace. Don't put me in that position."

Azrael walked out of the room and headed over to log out. He was fuming mad. There was something about learning that something that you sacrificed your life to destroy was still alive. Then having those you thought you could trust turn you away. Plus, if the frantic phone call had been anything to go by, the security council was going to shut him out.

Fine. He'd just go and practice. He'd train again. Then when he got the call, he'd fix what his team-mates must've failed to do.

[batgirl]

As Azrael left, Jade felt her heart sink. "I've made a big mistake. *sigh* Why can't there be peace for more than 3 years?"

Jade was relieved to finally log out and go home. She had had a rough day and going home was the only thing that she was set on. She puled up to her and Monk's house and walked in the front door. "I'm home!"

[MC43]

As soon as she entered the door, M4 turned off the TV and rushed to see her, furiously beeping and clicking in celebration.

[batgirl]

Jade looked down at the little droid. Ever since Monk talked her into keeping it, M4 had grown on her as a member of her own family...who didn't want her in jail. "Hi M4, what's all the commotion?" It answered with a bunch of clicks, beeps and whistles. Jade was a little slower at picking up on M4's talk than Monk, she preferred talking to AI that could speak her language. "What? M4 you need to slow down, I don't understand you."

[MC43]

Monk heard all the commotion from the living room and poked his head out from the kitchen. "Huh? M4, is someone...? Oh... Hi Jade." He proceded to remove the rest of his body from the kitchen. "How was... work?"

[batgirl]

"The usual. I had a meeting with Crow and a death threat from Neil. What's up with M4?"

[MC43]

"M4?" Monk looked down at the little droid.

It repeated what it said to Jade.

"M4!"

"Wha? What was it?" Jade asked.

Monk quickly shifted his eyes to Jade. "It... It was nothing! He was just... uh... saying... he was happy to see you home."

The droid disagreed.

"Oh... well uh, I guess I missed the part where he... uh... I have something to finish in the kitchen!" And he quickly ran back into his sanctuary that was, the kitchen.

Jade stood there for a minute wondering what had gotten into Monk, when she felt a push against the back of her leg. "Hey!" She said moving from her spot and looking to see M4-C3 slightly nudging her to the kitchen. "What? What are you?"

He inturrupted motioning to where Monk was hiding, beeping something.

"The... kitchen?" M4 nodded.

She slowly made her way into the kitchen, M4 behind her. She slowly opened the door to find a candle lit dinner on the table. Two plates of fettuccine alfredo sitting on a red and white checkered table cloth, two candles lit as well. From behind, M4 was playing soft italian music.

Monk stood behind the table and shrugged. "Welcome home?"

[batgirl]

Jade was surprised to say the least. She had had a pretty shitty day at work by all accounts and she got to come home to this. "Uh...wow...what's all this for?"

[MC43]

"Now... come on, Jade." Monk said, gliding behind her and removing her coat. "Does a man need to have a reason to cook an elegant meal for his wife?" He hung it up and swiftly moved to the chair, pulling it out so that she could sit. She did, and it was gently put back into place. Quickly heading to his chair he pulled it back and sat down himself. He looked at everything and grinned, but it was soon removed.

"What? What is it?"

"I forgot drinks. The most important part."

A mess of beeps came from beside Jade. She looked over and found M4 sitting right next to her. It beeped three times.

Jade gave it a puzzled look, them shifted gazes to Monk. "Red or White?"

"Red or white?"

"Wine. Red or white wine?"

"Oh." She looked at the droid and smiled. "Red please. always red."

From his dome, the left side of the top opened, a glass of red wine lifted up. She gently took it in her hands. "Thank you."

M4 beeped gladly and wheeled over to Monk, a water coming from the other side of his head. "Thank you M4." He drove away to the corner, watching the two eat, playing the soft music so that the two could talk and enjoy their meal.

But there were no words passed across the table. It was either they were avoiding words, or they were enjoying their meal, but whatever the case, M4's music was the only sound that echoed through the kitchen, besides the silverware, and the occasional 'slurp' of a noodle.


After about a half an hour, the two plates now empty, Monk broke the silence, "So... how was that?"

"Great, of course."

Monk relaxed his shoulders and held his head in his hands. "M4... could you play track 01 please."

He made a conformation beep, and the sound of waves gently crashing fulled the room.

"Huh? An ocean?"

"Doesn't this... remind you of something?"

Jade took a moment to think, looking up to the sky to see if the message would just come into view. It wasn't until she heard the jets flew overhead when a smile slowly crawled across her face. "I... I remember now."

Monk took a breath, "Yeah. What we heard when I proposed to you..."

"...when you finally stopped sweating and shaking, took a knee and surprised me a ring..."

"...when you said yes..."

"...when I said yes..."

"...And two souls would diverge to become one. When I was to take you for my wife...

"...and you, my husband..."

"...when you agreed to foster and care for a broken soul..."

"...and you took asked someone who couldn't be controled..."

Monk grinned. "Who said I couldn't control you?"

Jade returned with her own playful grin. "I did."

Slowly he rose from his seat. "Now... I may have to just prove you wrong."

"You can try Monky-man."

"Monky man!? Oh... you're in for it now!" and he quickly chased Jade out of the kitchen.

---

M4 stood still for a moment, looking at the mess that remained on the table. He moved towards it, preparing to clean when he decided to play some background music of his own. Some... techno music one could expect to hear from an adult film. Even though he didn't have a face, one could tell he was chuckling from the inside...

[batgirl]

Jade laughed and ran around the living room trying to weigh her options. Upstairs would only get her trapped and seeing a woman use a nano-augmented jump to get out of a window would scare the neighbours. The basement was out of the question, so that just left her running around the living room. After a few good dodges, Monk succeeded in tackling her to the couch. She struggled under his strength, but couldn't break free. Sighing, she slumped under his weight, "fine you caught me, now what?"

[MC43]

Monk grinned, pinning her to the couch. She may have nano-augs, but Monk could still overpower her. "Hm... the question is... what do I want to do? Shall I... keep you pinned down to prove that I can control you...? Should I... stare into your eyes so that I could keep control? Should I... let you go...? Or... should I..." leaning in, gently kissing her neck. "Show you just what kind of control I do have?"

[batgirl]

That control that Jade thought Monk couldn't handle was slowly melting with his kissing. Jade pulled Monk to her more and gave him a kiss and a small bite on his neck. She put up a false wall, "think you can control me?"

[MC43]

"Look where you are Jade..." Monk softly said. "I have you in my grasp, your struggling is fading... and you are pulling me deeper into you. If I had to guess." Monk wrapped an arm around her neck. "I'd think you were giving up." He leaned in and met lips with her, gently, but full of passion.

[batgirl]

Jade returned the kiss deeply, the stresses of the day leaving her. "I'm not giving up, I'm reworking my strategy. As you can see I have you right where I want you..." Jade's snide comment trailed off as she was engaged in another kiss.

[MC43]

He quickly pulled off. "Really? I think not." He stood up, hand still firmly down on her shoulders. But when his feet touched the floor, he picked her up in his arms and moved to the stairs.

"Where? Where are we going?"

"Does it matter? I'm in control..."

"We'll see Monk... We'll see..." and the door to the bedroom door closed behind them.

[Zephie]

(( She's got him wrapped around her finger like a band-aid. ))

~Moscow~

Wraith was alone in the conference room, studying all the data before him on the monitor.

A cup of coffee gave him some company, but it had long since grown cold on the desk. The more he looked at it all, the more he could see some correlations and coincidences, but it was all circumstantial at best. He needed to get onto the scene before he could be certain what he was seeing was true.

A twinge of pain hit his left temple and he winced, then rubbed it as he sat down at the head of the oval table. First things first... I take some Aspirin and then get my teams together...

His teams. Suddenly he had thoughts that his current teams -- though good -- had no real experience against Mastermind... and if he'd truly returned, he would need somebody who could watch his back, who knew Mastermind and his minions. He trusted his people, sure, but only to an extent as far as Mastermind was concerned.

He went back through his list of friends from the war... Wolf... Jade... Kaitlin... Monk... but they were all retired. Devin, too. And Scrya had just disappeared along with Tia somewhere in L.A. They couldn't give him any help even if he asked... though there was one other person who was still employed in a military post...

Wraith stopped massaging his head and tapped a button. "Natalya? I need to place a call with the U.N. Security Council."

"For what reason, Major?" replied the heavily Russian voice.

"I need to talk to an old friend..."

***

A few hours later, Angel -- now Azrael -- received a call from the U.N. Security Council. In the subject header was one word -- "URGENT".

(( And I'll leave it to SS to start the call. ))

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Apparently the rookies need some more prodding.

BIC: The searches weren't going well. Despite combing the attack sites, there wasn't much data to go on. It also didn't help that much of the secuirty networks were down onsite.

But apparently, the London search teams were experiencing minor success utilizing spyware sweeps to unearth the trapdoor and subversion coding.

This tip was relayed to the other search teams at the other affected cities, and the spyware search programs were activated.

Green ray fields swept across the devastated cities. Seemingly innocuous objects suddenly began to glow green as the code was identified as not belonging to the construct's standard programming.

As unit commanders began to issue orders to their troops to download the codes and take them back for analysis, the affected objects spawned squads of AI controlled soldiers in battle armor, who began spraying gunfire at the Cyber Force troops.

Apparently, this data was not going to be gathered quietly.

OOC: I'm guessing you all know what to do when you're under attack. I figure we could do with a bit of action now.

[Darth SS]

Azrael glared at his PDA, then glanced back up at the ERT team. They were in an assault course now. He could spare some time.

"Azrael here."

[Zephie]

Azrael...

"Hey, what's up?" Wraith said, sitting forward once the call finally got through.

First thing he noticed was Neil's change of appearance. For one, he looked mean... meaner than last he knew him for sure. Second thing he noticed was that he realized he'd been informed of Neil's change in codename, to Azrael. He'd almost forgot about that.

[Darth SS]

"Okay, what in the god-damn hell do you want? I'm busy, so this had better be one of the most important phone-calls you've ever made."

Azrael glared at Wraith. Part of him wanted Wraith to make a joke and make everything better. Another part wanted Wraith to see how much Azrael had changed, and be afraid enough to hang up.

[Zephie]

Instead Wraith went with option three.

Understanding, with a little bit of self-control.

"As a matter of fact, it just might be..." Wraith started in a softer, yet serious voice and sitting forward. "I guess you've heard the big news, huh? U.N.'s little secret behind the four terrorism attacks?"

[Darth SS]

"No. I'm not released to disclose any information at this time. What I can tell you is that I don't know anything. Don't call this number again. You want to find something out, you get your little Cyber Force onto it's ass and get work done this time, preferably without killing off better men then yourselves."

Azreal ended the call.

He was mad once again. To cope with this, he grabbed an MP5-10 and ran into the assault course. Maybe he could catch up to his team.

[Zephie]

Wraith's finger hovered over the redial button, but then froze and waited a second.

Slowly he retracted the finger and sat back into his seat, silently contemplating Azrael's answer. He even stroked his beard, scruffy and haggard from three years of Russia's winters, and was quiet for a long time in his chair.

Eventually he rose and left without a word, the monitor still displaying the information from the attacks.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Rhiya Peng was not happy, to say the least.

Why? Well, she was currently crouched low behind rubble, CW bullets dancing around her. Her feathered avatar was caked in undeleted plaster, and she only had a few long blades at hand, and no place to log out. Ravenwing's eagle crest lay flat against her head, and she growled as a bullet chipped off a piece of rubble less than an inch before her beaked face.

She swore the AI troops appeared out of nowhere just as she left the residential first-aid area. The hosing down of bullets wasn't making her happy either, and her avatar had lost a few feathers in the first moments of the attack. She had to think fast. The bullets were intensifying, and that could only mean one thing: the AI troops are getting closer to her hiding spot.

Her clawed fingers gripped the hilts of two long blades. Her feathers ruffled, then smoothed back suddenly. Those twin, golden eagle eyes of the Ravenwing avatar dilated. Rhiya was working herself up for the approaching confrontation.

[Dante]

OOC: Time for my long overdue post...

BIC:

Moscow, Russia

Devin and Shahdee stepped easily off the plane's steps, unlike the jet-lagged people who followed them. Being augmented had its perks. Though the side of SHahdee's head was bandaged, she didn't seem unduly affected.

"Well, that was one heck of a plane ride."

"I'll say."

"Well, it's over now..."

"Yeah..."

As their feet touched the tarmac, Devin couldn't help but relive the memory of the flight.

********

4 hours ago...

It had been a fairly uneventful trip. They ahd originally intended to head out to see that brigadier general, but he had called them again and told them to find Wraith instead. Cursing all the while, Devin had booked them a ticket to Moscow, and here they were, on the plane.

Then a scream had woken them up.

Devin turned, and saw armed men advancing up the aisles. They were uniformly middle-eastern in looks and brutish in stature. Part of him wondered how the hell they had gotten their weapons onto the plane.

The other part of him was making plans to rip their throats out through the navels.

One of them advanced to the head of the aircraft, and kicked the door to the cockpit open. Behind him, his colleague covered business class with his AK-47. The intercom crackled, then suddenly, a voice spoke in heavily accented English.

"Infidel scum! We are the Liberation Front For the Free Ejaculation of Palestine! We will loot your women and rape your camels! Now you will take us to Moscow!"

"...but we ARE going to Moscow..."

"SILENCE!" There was a loud thump and the sound of someone hitting the ground. "You do as we say! Take us to Moscow!"

Devin turned to Shahdee.

"These guys are idiots. "

"They're ARMED idiots, and there are innocents around."

"Split up and get them?"

"You know any other way?"

They nodded to each other. There was a soft sound of seat buckle slidings from their housings.

"On three."

"Two."

"One."

And then Devin was off, followed by Shahdee. It was possible that the gunman covering business class might have seen Shahdee sprint from her seat, though not very likely - she was almost as fast as Devin, and Devin could cover 100 meters in 4 seconds.

What the gunman DID see was Devin sliding up from under him, and then he saw no more, because Devin's uppercut caught him under the jaw and shattered it, knocking him unconscious with the sudden pain. A series of muffled thumps from behind reassured Devin that his wife still retained her ass-kicking skills from when they had first met. Devin bent down to immobilzie the terrorist with the flexicuffs he always carried with him, just as the woman in front of him began to scream. Devin's glare shut her up, but the damage had been done.

"What is happening?" the head hijacker roared over intercom. "What is going on?"

Devin placed an eye to the curtain dividing business and first class, and he saw a scruffy middle-eastern man, just like the others, brandishing a vintage Glock 17 with one hand, while grabbing a stewardess with the other. He noted the name "Simone" as he studied his hand posture and stance for weaknesses. Well, he was a rank amateur, but like SHahdee has said, he had a gun and a hostage.

This would be slightly more difficult.

"Yazid! Abdul! What is your condition?! Report!"

Out of the corner of his eye, the head hijacker caught movement-

-Crap-

-and Devin increased his speed to maximum, trying to get the damn gun out of the man's hand before he could take a shot -

-the hijacker fired, but not in Devin's direction-

-Devin glanced, saw Shahdee on the other side, throwing herself in front of the wild shot which was headed for a young, pregnant woman-

-the bullet hit, spraying blood from ehr head, and she slumped against the seat-

-and Devin was on him like stink on shit, spinning Simone aside, seizing the man's gun hand in his own while simultaneously ejecting his cartridge-

-and then they were locked in a deadly embrace. The hijacker tried to punch Devin, who avoided the clumsy attack, then smashed the crown of his skull into the terrorist's face. As the man reeled back from the assault, Devin head-butted him a few more times, until he was forced against the wall, bleeding from the nose and only partially conscious.

Then, and only then, did Devin take his eyes off the hijacker to look at Shahdee.

She was slumped against the seat of the woman she had just saved, blood pouring from her head.

From where he was, she looked very, very still.

Devin turned back to the hijacker, eyes filled with malice.

"You motherfucker, she was my WIFE and you fucking shot her, you worthless piece of shit!"

Devin stamped on the hijacker's foot and his mouth shot open in a comically gaping "o". Devin's grip on the Glock hardened into steel, and a vicious arm twist later, and he rammed it into the man's mouth, stuffing as much of the stubby barrel into the stinking hole as he could. The terrorist's hand struggled under Devin's machine-tool grip, but the augmentations were too much, and it was all he could do to engage Devin's index finger with his own to prevent him from pulling the trigger of the weapon which they were holding.

"The Bible says, ask and ye shall receive. Well, you were asking for this. Eat hollowpoint, fuckface."

With relentless strength, Devin crushed the man's finger into the trigger.

The lever depressed.

The pin shot home.

And there was a thunderous sound of... nothing.

The terrorist's eyes rolled up in his head, leaving only the whites, and there was a sudden foul smell as he voided himself inside his pants. Devin glared down at the man, then mechanically slipped the flexicuffs from his pocket and tied his arms and legs together, but not before looping a length around the bottom of each of the man's pant legs just in case.

His training stopped. His panic began.

Kicking aside the Glock's ejected magazine, Devin bolted over to Shahdee. There was a rapidly-spreading stain on the seat... and it was coming from her head.

"No..."

He gently lifted her bangs, trying to inspect the wound, but it was dark and it was bleeding profusely. His heart pounding, Devin shook Shahdee gently.

"Dee, wake up..."

No response. Devin shook her again. Behind them, the people in business class began crowding around behind them, until Simone shooed them away. But their presence, an amorphous, black thing which rested on him, remained.

"Come on, Dee, don't do this to me... wake up, please, wake up..."

He knew she was augmented, but a head shot was still a head shot. If it had just grazed her, there wouldn't be a problem, but he couldn't tell, not now, not in this light, not with his hands trembling because they were being soaked with her lifeblood that was running out of her HEAD-

"Damn you God, don't take the one good thing in the world which happened to me away so soon!"

She coughed. Devin's gaze went to her eyes.

"Dee?"

She blinked, then looked up at him. As she moved her head, Devin noticed the spray of blood-soaked urethane which the bullet had thrown up as it burrowed into the seat.

"Yes, dear?"

Then she smiled, and the crushing despair lifted from Devin, to be replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief, and he embraced his wife, who embraced him in turn. Simone smiled and turned to the passengers.

"She's okay! She's okay!"

A wild whoop came from the first class section, to be followed by a rousing cheer and applause from the rest of the aircraft. Even the pilot and co-pilot were clapping, audible over the intercom.

Devin hastily applied a bandage to Shahdee's head as she rested it on a full-size, fluffy pillow they kept for the most valued guests. Around them, the cabin was abuzz with activity as the survivors talked and laughed and interacted. They would probably get over this by the time the plane landed, and forget about it a couple of weeks later... but the fact was, they had been in a nightmare... and here and now, they were alive.

As Devin finished the last knot, Shahdee's head lolled onto his chest. He smiled, and held her close, sleep coming to his eyes as well.

********

"So, where shall we go now?" Shahdee asked.

"To find Wraith, of course." Devin replied.

"But where is he?"

"Beats the hell out of me." Devin shrugged as he walked towards the relative warmth of the airport. "Wait..."

A black Zil limousine pulled up near the aircraft, stopping beside them. THe window wound down.

"You are Devin and Shahdee, no?"

"Sure we are."

"Come in please, Wraith is expecting you."

Devin turned to his wife.

"Guess we won't have to worry about that..."

THey got in, and the car sped off, lights fading into the snowy night.

[Squishy Cheeks]

Crow sat at his desk filing his paper work for the day. The other police Ai moving around in usual ruitines.

The Central processing center of the Eden police force was a massive dome near the Palace the dome extended up for a mile above crows desk. As the first detective Crow got first choice of desks and chose the desk dead center in the dome, While he declined promotion after promotion. his main reason being he didn't want to change desks. Finally the commisioner of police relented and just let the AI keep his desk. It was in his nature to enjoy the random chaos of the office around him, but unlike most of the earlier versions of his program Crow attempted to bring order. Beneath his feet was the greatest achievement of the Eden police force. A conversion to a bit of programming created by his grandfather. The Coyote high security prison. Built on the escher room construct the room was the resting place for any program deemed to dangerous to rehabilitate.

[Inbred Chocobo]

Razma was getting bored now. He and a few others were out here, downloading codes for analysis when he noticed something on his radar. "Hey Grath I think we are about to have company." Razma said to Grath, who was the one working on downloading the codes.

Grath looked up at him, and just as his mouth opened to reply "Well figure out who they are." Gunshots were heard, and Grath was suddenly down.

At the sound of gunshots, Razma took cover near immediately, then set his gun to automatic. He slipped the gun over his head, and fired a few random shots above him. He immediately whipped around onto a knee and took out one of the attackers that was trying to take cover, then he hit the deck when the firing started to pick back up.

This time he anwsered them by switching to his grenade launcher. He stuffed a smoke grenade in and launched it behind him. As smoke started to come over his position, he rolled a bit downways, popped up and aimed. He saw a figure on his radar, and took it down quickly, then went back down for cover.

What really sucked about this situation was that he had no idea what happened to the rest of the guys with him in this area.

[Zephie]

"Talk about a deus ex machina..." Shahdee observed as they got comfortable inside.

Devin just hummed, seeming too busy studying the airport parking lot outside the window. Shahdee studied him for a moment, then looked forward out the front window as they started to pull out, and spoke what was on her mind. "What do you think he wants?"

"We'll find out..." Devin muttered back.

Though he had a pretty good idea.

*****

The limo pulled into KGB headquarters some time later, but of the main things they noticed on the way over was the lack of traffic on the roads, save emergency vehicles and the occassional civilian car. Slowly it came to a stop, and the driver opened the doors for the couple.

Shahdee stepped out first, straightening her skirt a bit, and looked up to see Wraith walking over with a Lieutenant at his side; both dressed in a parka and a fur cap.

He wasn't in earshot until Devin stepped out too, though, and it was Devin who stepped forward. "Devin..." Wraith started, extending his hand.

Devin took it and shook hands with him, while Wraith glanced aside at Shahdee. "Been a long time. Shahdee..."

He glanced at her bandage. "Hit your head?"

[Darth SS]

Azrael thundered into the Cyber World room. He hooked himself up. The UN had given him the call. As such, he was off to one of the locations.

He loaded right next to Razma. Azrael was clad in a leather jacket with plates over it, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and an equipment harness. This harness held his compound bow, his Forty-Nine, and a Ruger Blackhawk.

"Hello," was all Azrael said to Razma before standing, pulling the string back, and placing an arrow into the head of the first target that presented itself. His bionic eye's thermal vision cut through the smoke, making it as clear as day for him. He notched another arrow, and put this one between the eyes of the next target. Kevlar did nothing to stop arrows.

Azrael dropped down next to Razma again.

"From the top, what happened?"

Azrael stood only long enough to punch an arrow through the throat of an enemy once again. Then he dropped back down to await Razma's reply.

[Inbred Chocobo]

"Basically, me and my group were collecting data to analysis. We became under fire, and in my haste to take cover, I got seperated from the rest of the group. I've been keeping them busy ever since." Razma said to his newcomer. He heard shuffling, and looked up from his position to see someone trying to get over it. He pulled out his magnum and blew it back over his cover.

He then opened up his grenade launcher, but this time stuffed a frag grenade in it. "Get down." He said to his new ally as he did a cover fire attack, stood up, and launched the grenade behind the cover of a few of the attackers.

[Darth SS]

Azrael stayed down, and waited for the bang. It went, and a few body parts went with it. Azrael risked a peak over their cover. Then he pulled a very specific arrow from his quiver. A bomb arrow.

Green Arrow, where would I be without you?

Az stood, sighted, and put it in the throat of the first soldier he could.

"Get down."

Azrael's own explosion created the same effect.

"Cut them at the source. GO!"

He stood and started sprinting towards the source.

[MC43]

Monk looked over at his wife, sleeping, still, beautiful. Monk kissed her gently on the forehead, then got himself out of bed. After putting on some pants, he walked downstairs to see M4 busy doing nothing, except swoon whatever newest product was on the T.V. He moved to the kitchen where he started breakfast for the two of them.

Jade rolled over and felt...nothing. Usually Monk was there for her to snuggle with, but apparently he had woken up. After groaning in protest at the prospect of waking up, she finally rolled out of bed. After getting dressed and slightly more presentable she lazily walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Good morning."

"Oh!" Monk looked at her, despite the sizzling bacon in front of him. "I didn't expect you up. Normally you do your best to stay in bed for as long as possible until I have to come up and drag you out of bed. Sometimes... literally..." A sly smlie came across his face.

"The thought crossed my mind," she said as she stifled a yawn. "But I have some business to take care of."

"Oh?" Monk turned his attention to the hot grease that was bubbling by his bare stomach. "What would that be?"

"Uh...just some loose ends to tie up from Friday." Jade lied through her teeth. She hated to do it, but the alternative was to tell Monk about the attacks, which she wanted to avoid.

"Loose ends? What do you mean? Ah!" Monk got a bit of grease on his stomach. After brushing it off, and running over it with cold water, he returned to flip it all over.

"I...had a meeting with Crow and just need a follow up," she said while pouring some juice for the both of them. This was true, but she failed to mention that the follow up was to see if Crow had found anything out about the attacks.

"Crow?" Monk drained the bacon fat. "What could be so important?"

"Just some new laws that Raven wants put into effect as soon as he can. Trust me, I don't want to go into the office on a weekend, but he insisted." Another lie. Jade was hating herself at the moment...

"Hm... Odd." Monk shrugged. "Pancakes or waffles today?"

"Neither, I'll make you an omlette."

"Ah..." Monk said, hesitantly. "It wouldn't be too much for me to make you something, honest."

"No, I insist. You cook enough for me as it is." Jade got the eggs out of the fridge and hesitated for a second. She wanted to tell him, but his reaction would be to go bounding off to all corners of the globe to find MM, and she didn't want that. Not now, not when they were so happy.

Monk slowly sat down, keeping a close eye on Jade. "A... a... All right. If you insist. I suppose there is no harm in you making breakfast for a change..."

"What? Don't believe I know how to cook?"

"Wha!? No... it's not that. I just don't want you to... get dirty before your meeting." Jade's back turned just as M4 came with his water gun at the ready. Monk caught him and motioned for him to put it away. "No... not now!" He whispered under his breath.

"No, it's perdectly fine..." Jade trailed off. She couldn't take it anymore, the lying made her feel terrible.

"A... All right." Monk stood up and went to the door, "What was the M4? A product you have to show me?" The dorid gave him an odd look. "All right... but just for a sec... I'm about to eat." He quickly left, M4 following him.

Jade ran her hand through her hair and took a deep breath. She never lied to Monk, not once in their 3 years of marriage did she ever lie. She muttered under her breath, "but how do I tell him?"

The was a series of beeps from behind the door, then silence for a minute. After that time, Monk came back in. "Silly droid. He must have everything he sees on that home shopping network thing..." He chuckled.

Jade smiled slightly and put a plate of eggs in front of Monk. She then went to the fridge and got out the ketchup for her. After sitting down and staring for a minute, she finally looked up. "Monk, this will sound silly, but you want to stay with me always right?"

Monk looked at the eggs in front of him, prodding them with a fork. "Of course, why do you ask?" His eyes still glued to the food in front of him. He didn't know it was possible to ruin eggs...

Jade took a sip of juice. "And, if you wanted to go somewhere, maybe for a long time, and I didn't, would you go?"

"S... Sure..." Monk stabbed his plate. "Where is this going?"

"Well..." Jade took another breath. "The meeting I had with Crow and I need to have again was about some information we had gotten about some attacks..."

"I... see." Monk started to think to himself. Attacks? Could that have been what I was feeling yesterday? Could it have been true... could... no...

"Yea, these attacks happened all over the world. Some pretty weird stuff went on, like raining blood in Seattle..."

Monk stayed silent, staring off into space.

"And...well...in each of the attack areas a message was written...about Mastermind being back." Jade cringed for a minute, waiting for the imminent exposion.

"NO!" Monk's attention snapped back into focus.

Jade opened one eye. "Yea...but it's not confirmed that he's back. It could be someone posing as him."

"N... No. That... isn't possible." Monk sat up straighter, beading sweat.

This isn't going well...[\i] "Monk, calm down. We both saw him die, exploding into a mass of code. He can't be back."

The sweat started to form now, "I... I know. That's crazy talk. Stop with the fibbing, huh?" He needed to switch the subject to something else, forcing a piece of egg in his mouth, nearly gagging on his own tounge.

"It could be anyone posing as him, there's no way he could be back. I...just don't want you running out there looking for the culprit."

"I.... there..." He didn't know what was worse now, the fact that he already knew MM was alive, or the awful substance that was posing for food that was in his mouth. "I'm not going anywhere..." He sputtered, chunks of egg going everywhere. "There is nothing to fight..."

Monk was having a breakdown, partly from the news, and partly from the fact that Jade's eggs were crap. She knew it too, but this wasn't the time to discuss her lack of culinary skills. She rose from her seat, knelt down by Monk and embraced him. It was the only thing she thought of doing that could calm him down. "Calm down, it'll be ok. Just breathe."

Monk took this chance to silently spit out the eggs into the sink silently, breathing in and out rapidly. "I know... It's just... nothing... no worring about it. It's not like this is news to me..."

Monks eyes shot open. It was a good thing that Jade missed that minor slip of the tounge. "Y... Y... Yeah..." Monk somehow muttered through gasps and sweat.

Jade rubbed Monk's back as her brow furrowed. "Wait a second, this wasn't news to you?"

[i]NO! "Wha...? Wha? What do you mean news to me? Of course this is news. This is... Uh..." Sweat started dropping on Jade's arms.

What the hell is going on? "Monk, where did you hear this from?"

"Hear what from?"

He's dancing around it. You are not good at fibbing... "The attacks, where did you hear it from before I told you?"

"Attacks?" Monk stood up, removing Jade's arms from around him. "I heard nothing!" Monk turned his head to the side. "Wai... I think I hear something about M4 saying something about me going to the bathroom... I mean... I think I heard the bathroom needs M4 to be used... I mean... I gotta go!!" And he ran to the kitchen door.

"What the..." Jade got up and sprinted after him, "come back here!" It was a short trip and she caught the door just as Monk opened it. "What aren't you telling me?"

"I'm not telling you anything! I mean... I not not telling you anything!"

"You're a terrible liar. I know you're not telling me something."

"I know I'm a terrible liar. But... uh... If I told you... you wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

"...I'm..." Monk dropped his head, "I'm not allowed to tell you."

"What? Under whose jurisdiction?"

"A... A trusted ally..."

Jade was getting impatient, very impatient. "And who might this ally be?"

"I... can't say..."

Jade's eye twitched. "This is ridiculous! I told you about the attacks so that I wouldn't have to lie to you. I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd want to go yourself and find out if Mastermind is alive, and I don't want to lose you. After all of this you still lie to me? Just forget it already." Jade threw her hands up in defeat and stormed out of the kitchen, flopping onto the couch.

Monk nearly lost his hand as Jade stormed out the door, the droid nearly losing his life as he drove in, water gun at the ready. The two made eye contact, the droid asking him something. "Yes... She's mad, and no... it's not your fault." Monk sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Please clean up the kitchen and... don't come out until I call you. It isn't because I don't want you there... I'm just... afraid for your safety." M4 bleeped in affermation and went to his duties.

[MC43]

OOC: And to finish...

Jade sat fuming on the couch, staring at nothing in particular, but ready to attack anything that bothered her.

Monk slowly opened the door to the kitchen, very much fearing for his life. Honesty was a big thing for the two of them, and he didn't expect this to happen. He slowly made his way, carefully, making sure to not make a noise, incase that's what was going to set off this trap. "J... Jade?"

Jade didn't even bother to look at him."What...?"

Monk took a breath. "Jade... I know..." He didn't know what to say. He knew he should tell her the truth, but he also remembered the promise that he made to Myth. He wasn't to be spoken of until he gave the order. There had to be a reason. "I'm... sorry that I can't tell you... it's just... I made a promise..."

Jade opened her mouth and was ready to say something, but thought differently. She just gritted her teeth and said, "It's...fine..."

Monk lowered his head. There was going to be a tension if something wasn't said. "I'm... sorry. You will be told, just... when I'm allowed to say."

Jade took a deep breath again. She was angry, but her better judgement was telling her that he probably had a reason for not being able to tell her. Stupid better judgement. "Ok."

"Jade... It's not like I don't want to tell you... I just... can't. I fear there may be dire consequences if I was to say what was on my mind..."

Jade took another hit of oxygen, slightly calming down. "I understand."

Monk inhaled himself, mainly in relief. "All right... However... I am surprised... about one thing..."

"What's that?" Jade said, turning to Monk for the first time in the conversation.

"He told me you weren't going to disclose this information..." It sounded as if he was talking to himself, yet still audible enough that she was included.

Jade looked confused. "Uh...well I didn't want to. I don't want to lose you now that we've finally had some time together."

His soft brown eyes met hers, "Jade... honey..." He took her hands in his. "You were not going to lose me. Me getting upset is one thing, but you were not going to lose me. What would make you think that?"

"I thought that you'd go off to find him or whoever is impersonating him. I've come so close to losing you before, I just don't want it to happen."

"Jade..." He smiled weakly, "That's foolish. I would never do such a thing. Do you think I would throw my life away after I met you? Do you think that I don't know the pain I put you through when I didn't think of the outcomes to my actions, and who recieved the worst of it. Jade, I would never do that to you, not again..."

Jade looked him in the eyes, her green orbs boring into his. "Promise?"

Monk's eyes only fought back, "Of course..."

Jade flopped back onto the couch and took one more deep cleansing breath. "At least I know you're not lying about that."

"Well... you know how great of a liar I am..." He smiled.

She smiled back, the anger gone from her face. "I'm sorry I blew uplike that."

"Do not worry. It is ok." Monk brought a hand up against her cheek, caressing it slightly, gazing into her green orbs, relishing in their beauty. "It is ok... for I love you..."

"I love you too, with all my being." Jade's face inched closer to Monk's as her eyes closed, blocking out the intrusive light.

Monk moved slowly as well, his eyes slowly closing themselves, until their lips matched, pressing together lightly, yet passionatly, telling each other just how much their love was, without words.

[Inbred Chocobo]

Razma quickly followed his ally, throwing his rifle onto his back and grabbing his shotgun as he got up. He slung himself over the cover and kept pretty close. If someone got in their way, well they got their face blown off. Which happened more than once actually.

Razma didn't come out right and say it, but running head-on into danger seemed a bit stupid and a good way to die.

[Darth SS]

Azrael broke right, assuming Razma had the good sense to go left. Azrael also found cover. The source of the recent soldier intrusions? A green handbag. It had LV as a logo, looked to be made of brown crocodile skin, and had nothing overtly wrong. Except it was pulsing green, and soldiers were spawning from it.

Azrael snapped his bow into it's folded up position and said, "Shotgun!" opening his hands to receive. Razma tossed it to Az, who leaned around the corner, then snapped back. His head had almost been flown off for his trouble. Azrael threw the shotgun back to Razma.

"Fuck! GRENADE!" Azrael tore a smoke grenade off his harness and tossed it behind the wall, obscuring the loading soldiers with thick black smoke. In reponse, Azrael turned on his thermal vision, courtesy of his bionic eye.

"Cover me!"

Razma nodded, and blind-fired around the corner with his shotgun. There was an audible "oomph" of the shots connecting, and Azrael dived through the smoke. Bullets skittered after him, and one soldier was far enough ahead to stand between Az and cover. However, Azrael's snap punched him in the nose, driving the cartlidge into his brain. Then he was through, and in cover.

The Blackhawk was in his hand before he though about it, and he dropped all six bullets into the six soldiers that were freshly loaded. More were loading.

"CLEAR!"

He tossed a frag grenade around the corner, and dropped into cover.

BANG!

The world shook for a moment. Then Azrael came up, bow drawn. There was a bloody sticky mess, and the handbag was ripped to shreds. No more soldiers were loading.

"It looks like the handbag was an anchor, or possibly a target. It let them know where to load. Might have been used to anchor the blood storm."

Azrael put the arrow back in his quiver.

"Nice job soldier. Get a new team over here to analyze this."

[Inbred Chocobo]

Razma was amazed by the man. He handled things with such skill, it was just amazing. But the attack was over, and the anchor destroyed. He radioed in another team for analysis, saying they would be a minute, then cut off the comm before they started asking questions. "Sir." Razma started to say "I never got your name."

[Darth SS]

"Just call me Azrael. I work for the UN."

Azrael started walking away, and called out, "Also, remember to always cut your enemies off at the source. If not, then they just keep coming."

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Ravenwing was crouched behind some new debris, AI soldiers littered around her. Gunfire was heavy in the air as she curled up tightly. An AI man holding an uzi stepped past her hiding spot, still spraying bullets.

The avatar was onto him like a shot, claws tearing viciously, ripping the gun from his hands and nearly taking the top of his head off with a slash from her right paw, claws unsheathed. The AI crumpled in a bloody heap. The gunfire intensified as Peng crept back into her hiding spot, a throwing knife appearing in her hands.

With careful precision, she lifted the tip of the blade over her protecting debris. Her sharp, eagle-eyes focused on the reflection on the stainless steel. She squared her aim, shifted her grip on her dagger, and flung it backwards with deadly accuracy.

"This is private Peng from the Sydney CW division. I'm coming under heavy fire in Hong Kong. There's enemy AI everywhere. Requesting backup immediately!" she shouted into her intercomm.

[secretskull]

Lyon had been all over the world for his studies, and had left behind a group of aquaintences that were scattered across the world. He called one of them, a Londoner by the name of David. "Hello David, this is Lyon." Lyon said, trying to sound business like. "Yes?" Replied David awkwardly, Lyon had never called him for anything serious, only conversation. "What can you tell me about the... incident?" He asked carefully. "Oh that." David said growing quiet. “Why do you need to know?” He asked. “I can’t tell you right now. He said. “Fine.” David sighed. “Somehow all the sewers exploded at once... He turned to a loud crashing behind him, and saw the manhole explode into several pieces, impaling all nearby people. This was followed by a huge gush of sewer water which flowed quickly down the street, crushing anybody who came into it's path. David ran as quickly as he could, sewer after sewer exploding behind him. Finally everything grew quiet, the water crashed on a wall at the end of the street. The wall tipped back slightly but didn't fall. All the bodies that the water had collected on its journey were pressed against the wall, and they formed the letters MM . "Thanks David, I need to go now." Said Lyon weakly, hanging up the phone. "Mastermind..."

[Squishy Cheeks]

Morning broke in Crow's apartment he pressed a button on the computer near his bed. The stereo clicked as the sound of drums could be heard. Then the rest of the music came on

Crow dropped to the floor and started doing pushups.

"Tonto! Jump on it! Jump on it!" The stereo blared.

Crow tucked his legs in and rolled to the next room then did a single hand stand and did push ups on the one arm.

"Kemosabi! Jump on it! Jump on it!"

he switched arms and did the vertical pushups on it.

"Custer! jump on it! jump on it!?"

He pushed up and landed on his feet and began to stretch his legs.

"Apache! Jump on it! Jump on it!" After stretching out he began to breakdance around his apartment. His moves were so graceful, like a bird in flight. He wormed his way to the front door then vaulted into a split on the wall and coat rack, dangling upside down he opened his door and picked up his newspaper. He shut the door. He spun and flipped to the kitchen setting the paper on the table. The song wrapped up and he calmly walked to his fridge. He put his head on the door for a second. He opened the door. inside was a toasted bagel with cream cheese, still steaming. and a cold glass of orange juice next to a cup of hot coffee. he went to his small table with his food and closed the "fridge". He ate his breakfast and read the paper.

He read an article about artificial body rentals in the flipside. the thought intrigued him. He always wanted to see the real world.

[Wolf99x]

OOC: Suddnely continuity dances the time warp and we move ahead a few hours. sorry bout that.

BIC:

The White House, 8 hours later

Director Stoyanovich entered the Oval Office carrying a data disk with him.

"Mr. President, Mr. Vice President," he nodded to President Hammond and Vice President Derek Forge (who was also in attendance), "I have fully compiled all relevant data sent into us from the Cyber Force teams. It was not garnered easily, apparently the viral data was guarded by AI autospawn programs."

Alex placed the disk into a holoprojector, and lines of text began to appear in the center of the President's desk. Occasionally significant text got highlightend and replaced with photos either of dead bodies or Mastermind-relevant evidence.

Alex spoke, "The evidence is damning at best. Every attack scene had some reference to Mastermind. Plus the code used to hack the weather system in Seattle was definetely the same as the one he used to make it snow in Cyber Los Angeles."

VP Forge interjected. "But, it can't possibly be Mastermind back from the grave, after all. Reports and telemetry from the battle at Torishima both prove that Mastermind was deleted there."

Alex stopped him. "Only problem is that the Japanese got the run of the island first before we could investigate anything that was left."

"Are you suggesting, Director, that the Japanese got ahold of some part of Mastermind and are using him?" President Hammond asked.

"It's entirely possible."

"I doubt it," Forge said. "The Japanese lost a lot due to Mastermind, no way they'd want to leave any of his data intact."

"In any case that would mean Mastermind somehow survived. Inform General Tomlinson he needs to get here for briefing," Hammond said. "Also, Director, I need you to start prodding the Japanese for all the tech they recovered from Torishima, if any."

Alex nodded and left.

***

About 30 minutes later General Tomlinson was seated in the War room and being breifed by Alex Stoyanovich on the situation at hand.

"Basically we are not sure yet, though unless the Japanese are really behind it, which both the President and Vice President doubt, it seems Mastermind is back. While I would like to tell you to mobilize your forces, I have a bigger problem. Frankly, it's a problem of trust. So instead I need you to have all Cyber Force Squads begin investigating the Japanese to see if they have any of Mastermind's data on hand. Also, I need you to investigate Cyber Eden."

"Cyber Eden?" Tomlinson was taken aback. "But...they are peaceful."

"Ha! They harbor so many fugitive AIs I wouldn't be surprised if Mastermind is living large there."

Tomlinson still wasn't swayed. "No. I will not go hunting for stuff that might be there when there are people in plain view killing already. Either you give me more to go on or this meeting is over!"

He rose to leave. Alex tried to stop him. "I would advise against you shouting at me, after all, I sign your paychecks."

Tomlinson broke Alex's grip and left.

OOC: to be concluded

[Squishy Cheeks]

The drive to work was un eventful Crow played his classical music loud. He was in a mood for wagner and played. He was stopped at a red light when the drums of siegfried's death and funeral march started palying the menacing as an older AI pulled up next to him she looked over at the young probram and grimaced and mouthed "Damn kids and their music." As his Stereo's bass rocked her car. He decided to turn up the volume and rolled down the window to give her a full blast of the classical music as the tune got to it's climax, shaking his car. the light turned green and he drove on unimpeded to work as the song wrapped up.

He walked into work and clocked in. He started his morning paperwork. Filing several reports and moving several files to the storage facility. He noticed an email from the eyes. He read it and if he had a heart it would be pounding. It was an intelligence report.

U.N. Suspicious of Cyber Eden involvement

Be advised. An increased number of spooks have been detected. Be wary of humans disquising themselves as AI. Hunters are to tone down activities, we do not want to risk causing an international incident by processing a human by mistake. We will not allow the helix codes to dictate our society to us.

ARPA-01

"Well crap." He checked his ammo. and reloaded his gun and holstered it. He loaded his days shift information into his pda. He pocketed the computer. The memo worried him. It was no secret the world destrusted the Edenites. The police force, while the military of Eden, was not like any military or police force. It was sectioned into five branches; The Eyes, The Hunters, The Runners, The Gaurdians, and Shadows. Crow was a hunter, he solved crimes and hunted criminals. The Eyes were an inteligence service, spies, leeks, and informants. Without the Eyes, the Hunters wouldn't be able to deal with crime efficiently. The runners were courirers of information of all kinds and to smuggle in AI slated for deletion, as an underground railroad. Without the Runners the Eyes wouldn't be able to see eficiently. The Gaurdians are the last line of defense and clean up anything the hunters can't handle. Without the Gaurdians, The nation would fall into chaos. The Shadows are believed to be a myth, an elite force of assassins. Yet when a Police program is said to be corrupted bad things happen to them. It is fear of the shadows that keeps the Police honest and above corruption. Without the Shadows, the police would fall into corruption and ineffiency.

Crow walked along the streets, he looked at the memo again in his memory it worried him. He almost walked into a wall before he caught himself and corrected his path.

[Wolf99x]

February 15, 2028, 1300 hours

General Tomlinson had been summoned again to the White House, by orders of President Hammond.

He probably wants to make me change my mind about infiltrating Cyber Eden. Lord knows Director Stoyanovich has been pushing for that since the country was accepted by the UN. Well, maybe I can convince them to see otherwise

***

A man was crouched on the rooftop of a small office building. He was observing Tomlinson's limo and police escort heading towards the White House.

His PDAP rang. "Subject is approaching Pennsylvania Avenue. My men are in position."

A mechanical voice answered. "I w-w-want it d-d-one in front of the White H-H-House. Send the right m-m-message."

"As you wish."

***

Tomlinson's entourage turned onto Penn. Avenue. The air was hanging still and quiet.

As they approached the White House, Tomlinson suddenly noticed there were less Secret Service guards around the area, in fact...they weren't there at all.

He didn't feel safe.

"Driver! Get us the hell out of here! DRIVE!"

It didn't matter what he said, it was too late.

***

An RPG arced off a nearby rooftop and slammed into the midsection of the limo. The blast threw the motorcycles in front forward, spilling their riders onto the ground. The limo itself was ripped in half, the rear detonating along with the gas tank in a secondary explosion.

The rear escorts stopped and tried to figure out where the shot had come from.

Suddenly three motorcycles and a black Mercedes shot down the street, automatic weapon fire spraying from the occupants onto the attack scene. The cops crumpled from the barrage of bullets, and the remains of the limo were shot to pieces.

Later, the bodies of the Secret Service agents on guard would be found under desks in the guard stations.

Nobody managed to catch the mystery attackers, but they left a calling card; their discarded AK-47s and MAC-10s were arrayed in a crude "MM" next to the burning vehicles.

***

President Hammond was as pale as a ghost as he looked at the still smoldering wreckage from the front steps of the White House.

Returning to his office, he found Director Stoyanovich, Vice President Forge, and the joint chiefs waiting for him.

"This is a mess," The president said flatly.

"That is an understatement," Stoyanovich said, "A Brigadier General is dead, and Mastermind is responsible. The press blackout was almost impossible to put up on such short notice, but we managed something."

"Even worse," General Wesson of the Army said, "Is that nobody wants to take up the helm of Cyber Force command. They're all afraid that they'll be wiped out in an ambush like this one."

"So, this means that Cyber Force North America is effectively crippled?" Hammond asked.

"No, we have considered a final option. We need someone in command who has had expereince fighting Mastermind, gets results, and isn't afraid to face down an entire army of fanatics."

Stoyanovich rolled his eyes. "you can't really be considering, 'him'? He's a renegade and a loose cannon."

"It was that attitude that kept him and his team alive and helped them end the greatest threat to the world," General Warner chimed in. "Frankly Stoyanovich, you don't even get a say in this. Like him or not, he's our best hope."

General Wesson turned to President Hammond. "Mr. President, we are going to contact Jason MacKenzie."

OOC: DA DA DA DANNNNHHHH

[Darth SS]

Azrael walked in front of his ERT in their crisis room.

"Okay, listen up! The White House was recently attacked. Current casualties are unknown, but rest assured the shit just hit the fan. You go home tonight, you sleep well, and you enjoy your time with your family. But come the morning, you get your ass out here. Canada is turning all of CSIS to find out what's causing these, and Joint Task Force 2 was just put on standby status. Tommorrow, every single one of us is going to be on Parliament Hill, in defensive positions. JTF-2 will be there as well. Not even a fly gets near there without our knowing it, okay?"

Azrael stopped and inhaled.

"Someone's trying to open war on big brother. Well, we're here to make sure the rest of the family doesn't get effected. As of now, we are officially on standby status, as are almost all of the Canadian Armed Forces. Get your rest, tommorrow is a big day."

The men filtered out, and Azrael watched them go. They were good people. Much better than himself, personality wise. He sincerely hoped that they no one woud come, because Azrael would be sad to see them die.

[Zephie]

In Russia the news arrived late.

Late at night, in any case. Gathered in the conference room was Devin and Shahdee, with Wraith walking in behind two deputies. Wordless was he as he walked around the table, never casting a glance around as the two others sat across from the married couple, while his fingers went quickly to work tapping buttons.

A holographic display appeared, showing what had happened in Washington not long ago, and only then did he finally take a seat. "Something's happening here. Something very high level."

He glanced up and around at the table, one eye patched up with a bandage. Shahdee had a passing memory when she looked up to see that, remembering the fight in Moscow just a few hours ago when stray shrapnel had cut his cheek open, but she had to shake it quick in order to hear him speak.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say it was paranoia, but someone very high up in the world's governments doesn't want us to get close to this." He looked down at a folder in front of him, and lifted it to show the people present. "Now I just got orders here; we're to begin investigating the Japanese for possible espionage regarding Mastermind. Some people think they may have recovered some of his original code, and if so, it could go a long way to explaining what's going on here."

"The Japanese?" Shahdee had to ask.

Wraith nodded. "But I'm waiting final confirmation from the new Cyber Force commander before I start coordinating anything."

"Who?"

Wraith looked more squarely at Devin, who had spoken. "Wolf."

[Squishy Cheeks]

Earlier today...

The room was dark. only a single light fell in the room on a kneeling humanoid AI. his face covered in a mask. He stood before a council in shadows each like wise masked. in the center the mask figure wore a blank face plate with a single etched tear under the left eye.

"Report!" the center figure commanded.

"We have located a terrorist sympasizer in the eyes." Several windows opened showing a shifty looking gaunt humanoid AI, he had the look of analyst. "The subject has refused to submit recovered info about the recent attacks."

The council looked at each other in conference. Then looked at the shadow.

"Eliminate the subject." The center one said.

"As you wish Primus."

The shadow left. Soon so did the five members of the shadow council.

__________________

Crow got the call soon after leaving to make his rounds. He was at the crime scene in moments. only some residue code was left after the pipe had impaled him. The deleted program was gaunt. It's cold eyes stared lifelessly.

Crow looked at the scene and had to assess it an accidental deletion, it all looked so staged, but there was no evident proof. The witnesses saw the vehicles driver swerve to miss a child and hit the tree. They saw the pipes fly through the air and impale the AI. And despite the AI being a police man there is no evidence to support foul play.

"Your assessment Detective Crow?" the beat cop asked.

"This appears to be a tragic accident. We will not arrest the driver at the moment he will be free to go until such time as we change our ruling on this case. I wan't everyones statements taken immediately."

[Wolf99x]

Northeast Massachusetts

Jason and Kaitlin's house was situated on about 6 acres of land. The house itself was situated on a hill about 300 feet from the street. the rest of the land was mostly forested, and near impossible to land a chopper or phantom transport on.

So that's why they decided to block off the road with one of the Phantoms, landing it right in front of the driveway. Two US Army soldiers, one a Leuitenant and the other a Sergeant, both in dress uniform, began heading up the driveway.

As the two military men headed up the driveway, they became aware of eyes watching them. Not the eyes of humans, but of canines.

Sergeant Bouchard looked around nervously. "Sir, what the hell's with all the wolves?"

Leuitenant Leiter looked around. Sure enough, about 20 wolves of varying ages were staring at them as they walked up the driveway.

"This is probably part of their terrirory. Knowing MacKenzie he probably leaves them alone and they don't bother him either." the officer answered.

The wolves didn't do anything, all they did was just watch the soldiers climb the driveway. Then they went off back into the woods, just as silently as they had come.

Undaunted by that, the two soldiers approached the front door of the 3 story forest green manor house and knocked.

A voice crackled from the speaker. "You may enter"

There was then a noise of the locks disengaging, and Leiter opened the door.

The main hall was ornately constructed, with two staircases connecting at the top to give access to the second floor. At the center of the hall, there was a statue. It was of an anthropomorphic wolf in military fatigues standing on top of what appeared to be a pile of rubble.

Bouchard walked up to the statue and studied it. "What is this, a monument to his hubris?"

Suddenly the eyes of the statue glowed green and the head moved to look right at him. "No, just a clever disguise" the statue said. Then it stepped down until it was level with the stunned Sergeant.

"I am Beowulf. I am guessing you wish to speak to Jason."

Leiter was confused. "You're Beowulf?"

"Yes and no. While I still exist as a free floating being in the Cyber World, Jason had this robot shell constructed for me to inhabit so I could interact IRL."

"But you don't have a fully human appearance."

"No, I have a human shell as well, but I tend to use this one more when i'm just 'around the house'" He waved his hand and began to walk upstairs. "Follow me please."

The two bewildered soldiers simply followed the robot's lead.

***

Jason was at his desk in his study. He had been waiting there ever since he saw the Phantom decloak outside his window.

He thought about the night before. Things had gone well.

Kaitlin had cooked a great Valentine's Day dinner, and then they had exchanged gifts.

About a week before, Kaitlin's car, a Green 1972 Mustang convertible had been damaged when a drunk driver sideswiped it. Jason said he'd get the repair work done, plus "a little extra".

Turns out he had gone to Knight about it, and basically got it reaarmored with dent resistant and bulletproof paneling, all without sacrificing any of the natural beauty of the classic car. That wasn't the actual gift though. The gift had been in the trunk, a katana and a wazakashi that were exact replicas of the ancestral blades of Kaitlin's family. Jason had only seen the swords once when he had visited the Vong family crypt, but he had remembered the exact details and had them constructed by a master weapons smith.

However, he had programmed the Cyber World versions himself, and rigorously tested the program until he was sure it was perfect.

Kaitlin was estatic over the gifts. Smiling broadly, she presented her gift to Jason. She had taken the dog tags they had from their ill-fated mission into China almost 8 years ago, and had them gilded and then pressed together. On one side of the tag was Jason, and Kaitlin was on the other side.

Jason smiled as he remembered his reaction upon recieiving the tags.

"Words cannot express my happiness, so I think this will have to do." He pulled her close to him and gave her a deep passionate kiss.

Kaitlin smiled as they broke the kiss. "I think that expressed it just right..." she said. "Or did it?" she took his hand. "Follow me, darling. It's time for me to express my thanks to you."

The lovemaking had been, as always, spectacular. Normally Jason would have slept right on till morning afterwards, but he was suddenly awakened at about 4 in the morning by the sense that something was amiss. he looked to where Kaitlin normally slept next to him, and realized she wasn't there.

He found her out on the deck, starting off into space.

"Is everything all right?" he asked her.

Kaitlin snapped out of whatever trance she was in. "Oh I'm fine...I just had this odd feeling that's all."

"Kaitlin, you never have 'odd feelings', what is it?"

"I'm not sure...I just had this feeling that something is going to happen. I dont know, maybe it's just me."

Jason put his arms around her. "It's all right Kaitlin, I'm not going anywhere if that's what the feeling is about. You know I'm done fighting, and I'm happy as I could ever be just being here with you."

Then they had both gone back to sleep and nothing more was said about the incident, such as it was.

Now Jason was beginning to think Kaitlin was right. Something was happening, otherwise the US army wouldn't be sending officers to speak with him.

Kaitlin had just entered the study. "Why is the army here?" she asked.

"Because," Jason said somberly, "I believe you were right. Something is going to happen...and they need me."

OOC: me tired, continue later.

[batgirl]

OOC: NOTE TO ALL PLAYERS: Please refrain from posting until Wolf finishes up.

[Wolf99x]

Beowulf ushered the two soldiers into the study and shut the door behind them.

"Ah, greetings gentlemen," Jason said not getting up from his seat. "What brings you here?"

"Well," Leiter said "I believe it's obvious we're not here for a social call." The officer took out a letter and slid it across the desk. "Orders from the Oval Office"

Jason took the letter and read it. It was mostly straightforward. Apparently they wanted him to lead Cyber Force again.

"You're joking, right?" Jason asked. "I thought things were going all right with the world for once."

"That's what we thought, until yesterday." Leiter handed Jason a sheaf of papers. He looked them over. "5 major cities were attacked in the Cyber World. Thousands dead and injured. And there's something worse than that. I'm sure you can see it in the pictures."

Jason looked. Sure enough, he found it quickly. Mastermind's standard, be it in blood, bodies, or bullet casings was in every photo. Sometimes haunting messages were scrawled as well. He saw the message found in Seattle and his eyes went wide.

"This...this can't be possible. He's dead." Jason said. "I saw him slashed, shot, and then get blown to nanobytes by us."

"That doesn't change what happened here, nor does it change what happened to General Tomlinson, former commander of Cyber Force, this morning."

He passed one more photo to Jason, it showed the burned out remains of Tomlinson's limo with the guns arrayed in Mastermind's logo next to it.

"Assassination carried out right in front of the White House. Whomever is running this 'Mastermind' op is certainly audacious." He pushed the photos back. "But why do you need me?"

"Well, all the other high ranking officers are worried they'll end up like Tomlinson. Also, you're something of a legend. You and the rest of CF-Alpha achieved the most amazing of victories against the longest of odds."

"Flattery aside," Jason said, "Do you really believe I'm your best hope for getting to the bottom of this?"

"Well, both the Joint Chiefs and the President do, and we're willing to match whatever terms you want, should the terms we provide be insufficient."

Jason steepled his fingers. "I'll...need some time to think about this."

Leiter and Bouchard stood up. "Understood," the Leuitenant said "We'll wait outside."

As the two soldiers left, Jason looked up at Kaitiln. "Well...what do you make of all this?"

"Too be honest, I'm worried. I mean, I know Mastermind is supposed to be gone...but so much destruction in the span of one day..."

"Yeah...I know. It's unsettling. And despite the fact that I left this behind me 3 years ago...I really need to know who's doing this. I need to know if this is Mastermind or just someone pretending to be him. Either way...I need to see that justice is done and this matter is laid to rest permanently."

Kaitlin smiled a bit."I know. I had a feeling you were going to do that. Don't worry, I'm not going to try and dissuade you. But I do want to come with you."

Jason looked like he was going to say something, but Kaitiln stopped him before he could. "I know you're going to say something along the lines of 'it could be too dangerous'.I know that. But I also know that I don't want to spend all my time waiting by the phone waiting for you to call to tell me you're all right. If things are this bad already, I'd hate to see what it'll look like if it escalates. Besides, Mastermind killed my brother and turned him into a monster. If he's back, then I need to make sure my brother's spirit can remain at rest."

Jason looked deep into her eyes and could see she meant it. And he also knew he wasn't going to be able to dissuade her.

"All right," he said smiling. "We'll do this together, just as we always have."

The two of them walked out of the study.

"All right. I'm in, but Kaitlin wants back in as well, and don't try to say you can't do that."

Leiter just cracked a small grin. "Don't worry, we figured something like that might've happened. Anyways, you have a meeting with General Wesson, Director Stoyanovich, the President and Vice President. We'd best get moving."

***

The Phantom was cruising over the skies of the Eastern Seaboard at Mach 3, inbound on the White House.

"So, what's with the wolves on your property?" Sergeant Bouchard asked Jason.

"They aren't exactly wolves," Jason replied. "They're wolf-dogs. Half wolf, Half siberian husky. I've been raising them for a couple years now. They've formed into sort of a pack, much like their ancestors. And yeah, they sorta guard the estate when I'm not there. I don't really view them as pets, sure, I feed them, but aside from that they know how to live on their own."

Bouchard nodded with a slight hint of realization in the gesture. "So, any troubles with the neighbors?"

"Not as much as I would've thought. I think using a broadsword to chop firewood might have scared a few," Jason said with a grin.

"That, or the fact that the firewood came from trees you brought down with your bare hands." Kaitlin added, grinning as well.

Bouchard and Leiter looked somewhere in between shocked and confused.

OOC: Almost done

[Wolf99x]

The plane landed on the helipad on the White house lawn about 30 minutes later. Jason and Kaitlin were lead into the Oval Office. They were both greeted by a 4-star general.

"Mr. and Mrs. MacKenzie, I'm General Kevin Wesson, United States Army. You already know President Hammond and Vice President Forge. This is our resident head spook, intelligence director Alex Stoyanovich."

Alex didn't shake hands with Jason, rather he gave him a stiff salute and somewhat of an evil look. Jason shrugged it off though. If Stoyanovich was going to make his job difficult, he'd find a way to work around it.

"Anyway," Wesson continued. "We're on a short amount of time here so I'm going to lay this out quickly. "Jason, you will be taking full command of both Cyber Force teams here in America. Such command carries a slightly higher rank than it used to, as such you are being given a commission and rank of a Major General. Kaitlin, you are being promoted the same number of ranks as your husband to Major."

Jason's eyes went wide at the announcement. Major General at 26? This...my god this is something right out of an anime. Eh, better not look at it that way though, serious business ahead.

"Also," Wesson said. "You are to be tasked with forming up a new strike group collected from soldiers from all of the Cyber Force units across the globe. This group will be your primary teams for intelligence gathering and official action against targets of opportunity. We will supply you with all dossiers and service jackets of current soldiers in the entire Cyber Force."

Jason nodded. "All right. That sounds good to me. Frankly I'm a little surprised at the freedom you're giving me."

"Well, we're in the interest of getting results. As long as you don't cause too much of a P.R. disaster, I think we can let you be and let you do what needs to be done."

Wesson handed Jason and Kaitlin each an envelope containing their new rank pins. "We're getting offices squared away for you at Cyber Force Washington HQ in Fort Dalek. We're also arranging transport for you there. You'll find the dossiers once you arrive, General, as well as all intelligence we've gathered on the attacks thus far."

Jason saluted. "I will submit my team reccomendations as soon as I can, General"

***

Fort Dalek, 2 hours later

Jason was going over all the gathered intel, so as to better decide who would be the best to fit into the strike team. A lot of it was proving Mastermind was most likely behind these attacks, but Jason still wasn't convinced the AI had managed to survive the destruction of his base.

The fool believed in his own immortality, and that led to his destruction. he thought.

Another thing he noticed was that a few of the reports were attempting to place blame on Cyber Eden, something else Jason wasn't willing to accept either.

There was a knock at the door. "Enter," he said.

In stepped a Leuitenant Colonel. "Leuitenant Colonel Vickers, aide to general Wesson, sir." the soldier saluted.

"At ease," Jason said returning the salute. "What brings you here?"

"Well, General Wesson has had some trouble getting in contact with another former Cyber Force member due to her current government work commitment, and was wondering if you would talk to her about coming back. We are sending recruiters anyway, but it would be good if you could help sway her opinion."

Jason felt uneasy. "Who?"

"Jade LaFleur."

Jason's eye twitched, mostly out of anger. Jade had been conscripted into the army rather than face jail time, and now the Army was looking to throw her back in. It wasn't something he was going to go along with.

He stood up. "I will consider it, but now I have to make a small side trip to a friend of mine for intel purposes. You are dismissed, Lt. Colonel."

The lower ranked officer saluted and left. Jason meanwhile got on the phone and called Knight. Knight had let Jason take leave from his job in order to do this stint in command, but he was also going to help Jason get whatever support, supply, and transport necessary. In this case, he had a Phantom on loan to Jason so he could get from work to home relatively fast.

However, in this case he was headed somewhere else.

He boarded the Phantom and took off, headed off towards Montreal. He was going there for two reasons. One, he wanted to talk to Jade about the blame being unfairly shifted to Cyber Eden, and what he could do to help make sure that blame could be proven baseless. Two, he wanted to go there to tell her about the Army's plans to try and drag her back in.

OOC: Thus ends the meta-post for the most part. Now bg and I need to do a collab.

[MC43]

Monk sat on the ground in his personal room, consisting of a sitting mat and two candles, one at either side of him. There was nothing else in the room. No windows, and the only escape was the door that was behind him, shut to block all the light from the hallway. This was his escape from the world, his sanctury from everything.

Monk felt himself sink deep into his meditation, letting go of all of his stress and problems from the previous days, but even in this calm state, he could not reach total inner peace. While seperated from the world, he could still feel the pull of the world around.

He began to sink deeper still, deeper into calm. He felt his body grow heavy with each passing second, his head weighing down on his shoulders, his arms slumping down on his folded legs, each of them pushing down on his thighs.

Sinking still further, it wasn't long until he felt nothing. There was no weight in his body, there was no candle light, there was no room, there was no world around him. He sat in darkness. And he was happy.

This was where he would stay for the remainder of the time, but he felt himself falling deeper now. He remained still on the outside, but deep down, deep in his mind, he was screaming from the fall. One of his fears was falling and not being able to see the ground, and here he was, falling in the pitches of black, and no end in sight. He continued falling...

and falling...

and falling...

and then... everything stopped.

---

Opening his eyes slowly, he found himself lying on the ground of a white room. "I'm... here again?"

"I'm surprised she said something..."

Monk sat up and looked towards the raspy voice behind him. "Myth!?"

"She wasn't supposed to say anything. That wasn't the best thing to do."

"We don't keep secrets from each other..."

"I know that, and I'm proud of you for not telling mine."

"She is upset with me because of it."

"Do you know what would have happened if she knew. Her assumptions would be correct, and then she would set her sights on you."

"On me!? Why me?"

"Maybe you wasn't the right word... maybe I should have said... us."

"Us?" Monk took a moment to contemplate what he said. "Because..."

"...of our... 'history'." Myth crossed his arms. "Her and I are not excatly on good terms, as you well know."

"Why have you called me here?"

"In due time Monk. In due time..."

[batgirl]

Jade, in her RW office and doing some light computer work, raised an eyebrow at the knock on her door. I'm not expecting anyone... "Come in," she said, not breaking from her work. Two smartly dressed men entered. "Jade Lafleur, we're from the Cyber Force Central Office. We've come to ask you to rejoin Cyber Force Alpha and lead them again. We are prepared to give you a rank increase to Major General."

"You've got to be kidding right?" Jade rose from her seat. "My contract with the army was terminated. I'm no longer bound to work for you."

"Mrs. Lafleur, CF needs your leadership. You will have shared command with Major General MacKenzie."

"Wait, you convinced Jason to go back? You don't need me, he is a far better commander than I am."

"On the contrary, your hacking abilities will be invaluable to us."

"Same old story, different people singing it boys. I got the same yarn from Kriesh 7 years ago. My answer is no. Thanks for the offer, but I'm done fighting. Now, I'll show you out." As Jade walked out behind her desk and up to the two soldiers, one of them slapped a pair of handcuffs on her and grabbed her arm. "We were instructed to being you in by any means necessary."

Jade looked at the handcuffs and then at the soldiers. "You sure you want to do it this way? Ok then, sorry for what I'm about to do." In a flash, Jade's head connected with the first soldier's nose, breaking it and spurting blood all over her carpet. The man stumbled back and was brought down by a roundhous kick. Jade turned to the second soldier and snapped the handcuffs with ease. He looked at her, then the fallen soldier and...ran. Out the door that Jason had just opened. Jade helped the now semi-conscious first soldier up and shoved him out the door. Jade looked at Jason, "apparently they didn't do their homework." She then looked at her office, "someone owes me a carpet." Finally, her gaze rested on Jason once again. "I hope you're not here to recruit me too. I'd rather not fight you and cause some major structural damage to the embassy."

[Squishy Cheeks]

ooc: obviously they never heard of diplomatic immunity.

[Wolf99x]

Jason didn't say anything at first, he just merely chopped at the half-concious soldier's neck, knocking him out."Well, that's what they want me to do, but I think we both know I'm not going to do that." he said.

"So what brings you to the geat white north then?" Jade asked

"Well, I was coming here to warn you that the Army was going to want you back and they were trying to use me to do it, but it appears that they jumped the gun," he said with a grin. "However, I do need your help in a non-military way."

Jade cocked her head to the side almost as if in thought, but immediately said, "Name it."

"Okay. I need a bit of help in convincing the intelligence director that Cyber Eden is not harboring any terrorists on purpose, nor using it as a staging base. I'm not asking you to spy, I'm just asking you to use whatever channels you have to get the place's name cleared."

"I'll do what I can, but I can't promise much. The American goverment doesn't take us too seriously up here."

"True," he shrugged. "But they'll take me seriously; and if they don't, I'll have to be more convincing." he pointed to the downed soldiers. "Case in point."

"Speaking of them," Jade motioned for Jason to sit down, "what did they offer you to go back and lead CF?"

"They didn't offer me much," he said taking a seat. "Just a promotion to Major General and full command of both US teams, plus a chance to form an elite team for the duration of this incident. But, that's not why I decided to accept. They didn't even tell me this until after I said yes."

"Then why did you say yes?I was under the impression you were done with fighting."

"So was I. But if Mastermind is back...I have to make sure he stays dead. I lost too much to him the first time. I can't afford to sit back and wonder if it's him or not."

"But are you willing to risk all that again?"

he thought for a second. "If I don't do anything, then I'm risking it anyway."

"I guess you're right. I don't know if I want to go back though."

"I didn't come here to tell you to make a choice. You didn't like being in the army anyway, so I don't hold it against you. Besides, you're doing what you can anyway."

"Yea, but I have a feeling Monk will want to go."

Jason rolled his eyes slightly. "Yeah, there is a chance of that. Eh, just assert your matrimonial authority over him if he tries. I doubt he'd go into battle without you near him."

"You'd be surprised." Jade lowered her head. "He's hiding something from me. He knew about the attacks before I told him."

"Hmm...the last time he had odd omnipetence like that...was when Myth was sharing his mind. But...nah. Can't be, I thought he delted himself."

"That's what I thought. I dunno, I have a bad feeling about this. I don't want to go fight, but it's almost like I'm obligated to."

Jason shook his head "None of us are obligated to do anything. I'm doing this because I have friends who died who I need to make sure get avenged."

Jade sighed. "Just be careful, for me and for Kaitlin."

Jason nodded. "I will, believe me."

"Why couldn't he just stay dead?" Jade asked almost rhetorically.

"Well, other than the fact that he's an asshole? No real clue. But this time i'm going to make sure his coding gets stripped apart 1 by 0 and scattered across the cyber world."

"Maybe we'll finally be rid of him. If you need anything, like say a rescue if you're pinned down inside a cave on the top of some snowed in mountain."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I'll know who to call." He stood up to leave. "I'll go drop off those two guards with the guys at the gate, get them charged with violating diplomatic immunity."

"Sounds good to me. Keep in touch."

"I will," with that, Jason left the office and headed out, dragging the two downed guards. For extra effect, he decided to take the stairs down.

[Squishy Cheeks]

Crow's phone rang. It was a peculiar ring like the cawing of a bird. Crow shuddered and answered it.

"Crow here."

The message was short.

"I'll be there immediately."

it was then that a challenge broke out infront of him. A young program challenged an elderly paypal program to a duel after the program charged the young hoodlum with trying to hack his cash box.

Crow looked at the elderly paypal program, it was outdated in need of an upgrade. The young hoodlum would win for sure. The young program had the smugness of youth that just screamed guilty to crow.

"I will champion the shopkeep." Crow said handing off his hat and coat to the shopkeep"

"And who are you grandpa?" the program said in a derogatory tone. "I'm a top of the line Edenite AI, you look like three year old outdated garbage. You're probably immagining retiring to meatspace."

"Are you going to talk or are we going to do this." Crow cracked his knucles. "Hit it." A drumming beat started playing and Crow slid along the floor with sytle and grace. His moves were seemless and showed organic design and the benefit of practice. He sneered as he pointed to his opponent.

Not to be shown up by an "Old man" the young AI popped and locked in cliches that were popular among the inexperienced youth.

"Is that all you've got." Crow said. "get ready to be schooled." Crow pulled out the stops and moved in a flurry of moves that could be called pop locking in only the most basic terms. Crow was beyond such simple maneuvers. His last move kicked his coat and hat out of the shop keeps hands seemlessly he caught the hat and coat and put them on without breaking his rhythem he popped his coat and turned his back on his opponent.

The young AI seethed in anger but knew it couldn't match the AI. He pulled a knife and rushed the cop. Crow didn't even turn he just pushed his revolver out from underneath his arm and fired. Freezing the AI.

"Attacking a police officer is crime punishible by deletion. You're lucky I'm feeling generous." Crow put the "statue in his car and dropped him off to be processed with a copy of his report. He then drove to the palace for the emergency meeting

"I hope i'm not late."

[Wolf99x]

OOC: And now to bring things together...I think.

BIC: After getting back to Fort Dalek, Jason got to work on looking at the 100 or so dossiers of all Cyber Force personnell worldwide.

He quickly decided to bring Wraith back under his command. That was an obvious decision. He emailed his former XO, complete with instructions to bring "anyone you think we may need."

Flipping through the other dossiers, he selected the most promising soldiers who had the best breakup of skills.

At the end, he had selected three more. Private Rhiya Peng from CF Asia, Private Razma from CF Australia, Master Sergeant Ryan O'Neil of CF North America, and Sergeant First Class Lyon Burke, also from CF North America. All were practically rookies compared to Wraith, Jason, and Kaitlin, but they had all shown promise or exceptional ability, such as Peng's Ravenwing form, for example.

He sent posting emails to the soldiers, telling them of their transfer and arranging transport to Fort Dalek at the best possible convienience.

OOC: Okay if there's anyone else here who signed up and didn't pitch in yet who still wants to do this, you can come in now, I'll just edit accordingly.

<checks RP's IV> I'll be damned if this thing is going to die out on my watch.

[Zephie]

(( Ah, just what I needed. ))

Wraith finished giving a summary report on the assasination, and his team had gone over the evidence from the attacks in detail, over a span of two hours.

So what to do after that?

Why, take a break.

Wraith was in his office at that time of night, at around the time Wolf was sorting out his list, late in the afternoon. A cup of coffee in one hand and a padd in the other, he had a leisurely -- uh, list, of correlations from the attacks, linking certain inconsistencies with each other. They hadn't been able to completely figure them out, but he somehow felt that if he stared at the list long enough, something would suddenly make sense.

He paid little attention to the beeper when it went off, signalling an incoming message. Setting the coffee down after a sip, he reached over and tapped the accept button, still reading the padd, and finally set it down as the message appeared. He skimmed the contents therein quickly, and sat back to consider, but one last glance at the padd revealed all that he'd been hoping for.

Sitting up and snatching it again, he pressed a couple buttons and scrolled the list, and in an instant it made sense. He'd found what they'd been looking for.

Setting that aside though, he began to write a response to his former commander.

General,

Good to hear from you. I've always been bad at writing letters, so I'll have to be blunt: I would be honored to accept this job, but I feel I can be of better use to you here -- at least, for the time being. Shahdee and Devin are here with me, and I believe I've found the key to this whole Mastermind incident.

I'm sending our findings to you now.

Attached was a quick, quick summary of his discovery, and how the incidences added up. If he was right, he may have found a back door to this operation, and a starting point.

[Inbred Chocobo]

Razma quickly reread the email he had just opened up. After the day's attack, the guys back at the office told him he done enough for today and got him to relax for a bit. After picking up a few things he decided to check his email.

He gathered his things, and called up the main office of his particular group. He told them about the email, and then forwarded it to them. Then the next thing Razma knew, was that he had a ticket for a plane that would leave in an hour to a town close by Fort Dalek. There he should find a ride waiting for him to take him to the fort.

Razma was exceptionally excited. Anyone should be excited when they are about to join up with a team that originally stopped MM. He started to pack what few things he thought he would need.

[lazy man]

Ryan was rather bored after he'd gotten back from the Cyber World. He hadn't really done much because he was pinned down, and couldn't do much to help the people around him. He was cooling down over a cup of coffee and some food so he wouldn't get mad over something so trivial.

All over the mess hall there was talk of one of the new generals in the Cyber Force. Some were saying he was part of the original Cyber Force. How people got a hold of new stuff like this was beyond Ryan, but it happened, and that would always happen.

"I hate gossip..." he thought randomly as he walked back to his room.

Upon entering, he quickly checked his email, and was surprised to see one by someone he didn't know. The name was from someone named... Major General Jason McKenzie? That was the guy the people in the mess hall were talking about...

Ryan blinked for a second after he was finished reading. How in the hell had he done that? He knew he was a good shot, but to be part of an elite team of soldiers? He was on a shock team before he was here, but this was a whole lot bigger than that.

Shaking off the shock, Ryan quickly sent a reply saying he accepted. Like he would decline? Geez, he didn't even know how to react other than being slack jawed right now.

[MC43]

Myth paced around the room, after a long akward silence. Monk broke the silence, "We have been here for what seems like hours, and you have not said a word!"

"I'm thinking!" Myth replied to him quite sternly. "Jade puts a lot of trust in you."

"Yeah. That's why she said yes," came the blunt reply from Monk. The two had a staredown, the fourth since Monk was called, then it was broken by Myth's pacing, finding something worth of interest on the floor in front of him. "M... Maybe if you told me what you were thinking... I could..."

"I'm thinking of the next move."

"The next move? Do you mean of Mastermind?"

"No... of your friends. I wish I knew what they were going to do. If I wasn't stuck here in your brain, I could find out, but right now, all I have are assumptions."

"Well... what is the first?"

"They are gonna play it low. They are going to play it out as if Mastermind isn't alive."

"That would be a bad thing! We have to get something together to fight against him once again!"

"No! We need to wait for the right moment to strike, and that's what I'm worried about. Plan B. They are going to form a strike team to fight against him."

"Perfect!" Monk clentched a fist. "That's what we need!"

"No! That's not what we need! That's the LAST thing we need!"

"How do I know you aren't working for Mastermind, and simply trying to play me for a fool."

"If I was working for Mastermind, I would have taken over your body while you slept and killed off everyone who could be a threat." Monk thought for a moment, then nodded. "No. We still need to play the shadows. I'm going to assume they are going with plan B. If this is true, you must not join. In fact, you must do everything to stop it from forming."

"But... if Mastermind is alive, he needs to be delt with! You know that as well as I do!"

"He needs to be delt with, at the proper time, with the proper equipment! YOU know that as well as I do." Monk tilted his head once more. "Good. We are on the same page, right? You are not to join the team. I don't care if they offer you money..."

"I have no such connections with material things..."

"Women..."

"I have Jade."

"Rank..."

"I don't have one now."

"Anything!"

"I'm not going to join!"

Myth took a breath. "Good. Not now anyway. We need information, and we need to do it while Mastermind isn't worrying about us. If he knows we exist, he's going to put tight security on everything. As long as we remain in the shadows, we'll be able to put out this fire before it gets too hot."

"Myth..." He looked over to Monk, "Are you... working for Mastermind?" The question was asked softly, hesitantly.

"No. I am not. Trust me. We will fight him, but we just can't run in with guns ablazin'! If he knows there is a new force to fight against him, he is going to move before we can get a chance to counter. We can keep everything under lock and key all we want, but for every lock, there is a locksmith that can break it. If not, then the lock can be leaked... there are too many ways that things could go wrong. Just... you have to believe me." Myth's eyes quivered, as eye contact was made for the fifth time.

"I... believe you. I will do my best to stop a team from forming, if there is such a thing to happen. But..."

"There will be a time. I will tell you when."

Monk wanted to say more, but he could feel himself start to float. "No!" He cried out, reaching for the ground. "There is still so much I need to know!"

"Later! Our time is up! Remember: stop any team from forming by any means needed, and do not tell ANYONE I'm alive. NO ONE!"

Monk fought to get his feet back on the ground, but he was being pulled up faster than he could comprehend. It wasn't long until his eyes shot open, and he was sitting in his meditation room once more, looking at the bare walls around him, left only with the thoughts of the previous conversation.

[Wolf99x]

Jason read Wraith's reply and was a little surprised, but not too much. Wraith had 3 more years of experience now with operations, and if he had acquired intel on Mastermind's lower level operations then it would be good for him to go after them. Also, the fact that he had reacquired Devin and Shahdee was an unexpected bonus.

he tapped out a reply. "Okay, by all means go check it out. After you're done with that you can link up with us."