Foreign Justice (AAT, Drifter and Invites)

AAT-08317 checked his wristwatch as he slowly ascended the stairs, the timer of it set for the specific brackets of his operation. The first, and starting bracket is meant to end in 43 seconds, where he was supposed to have reached the floor where his target was. The digital watch barely clicked past 19:29:22 when he checked it, notifying AAT-08317 that he was on time.

Good.

He turned his head to look at the setting sun outside the window that divided the staircase from the outside world, as the dark outlines of the growing night sky were beginning to blur with the bright lights in the streets below and the orange skyline. AAT-08317 reached his floor, as he stepped off the stair case and looked at the door he was meant to open. He reached down for his Cz-45 sidearm, pulling it out of its holster with his left hand as his right reached for the door handle. It slowly and silently turned, as AAT-08317 opened the door and stepped through quietly.

His target was on this floor, one vigilante by the alias of 'Drifter'. AAT-08317 was on orders to eliminate 'Drifter' after the latter had managed to kill a top-level Russian diplomat. Action and justice were necessary, it seemed. And so, he prepared himself for what was to happen next.

There are a few things that you simply do not do when dealing with the likes of Lukas Labour. One of them is setting off his temper, and another is thinking he won't be one step ahead of you when it comes to technology. As soon as his would-be assassin set foot in Drifter's workplace, Lukas, who was currently on his computer, was alerted.

A half smile crept up on the young man's face. Looks like he pissed somebody else off.

The fire alarm was set off with a few keystrokes, and then Drifter was on the move. He headed to his office, while telling his coworkers to evacuate. After all, he was one of the head security guys at this company. Not listening to him when it came to such things was like handing in your resignation.

Once in his office, he stood on his desk, and then pushed a ceiling panel open. He had put his gear here just in case such a situation ever came about. Even if the guy wasn't here for him, Drifter was the only one able to deal with a shoot out before police arrived.

He put his armor, his cloak, and his gauntlets on, then holstered his weapons and other gadgets. It took him less then a minute to do all this. By the time he was locked in the building's surveillance room, the Russian assassin was in the stairwell of his floor.

A technologically filtered voice boomed out into the building through the intercom system, speaking in a mocking tone.

"Predictable coming from you professional types, always thinking you can just walk in and take out your target. Well, this place is my house. Can you find me before the cops get here?" Drifter said confidently. He then set about setting his little room up with everything he needed for this encounter, if the assassin did indeed get to him before the police could do anything.

AAT-08317 walked on calmly, almost unphased by what 'Drifter' had said. He has dealt with the confident types before. Confidence is a useful tool, but misjudging it could be fatal when dealing with a life and death situation. The second bracket on his watch started, as the assassin removed his gasmask and pulled it over his head. He tapped on the voice changing module that he had mounted to his filter, as he looked at the series of rooms that line both sides of the hallway. He spotted a single security camera in the corner, as he lifted his sidearm and shot it, cutting off 'Drifter's feed. The floor was big, but AAT-08317 was quick. Removing a single flashbang from his utility belt, he rigged it with zipties and mounted it to one side of the hallway. He took a quick dragline and drew it across the length of the hallway. Should anyone try to come through, they would surely be blinded.

The assassins memory traced the floor that 'Drifter' would be located on, as there was weeks of preperation that came to the assault. AAT-08317 read the reports he needed that were compiled by the Ministry of Defence. He stepped closer now, toward the office where his target was meant to be located. He knew the vigilante was likely armed for such sifuations, but he knocked on the door regardless.

There was a knock at the door. An actual knock. Either this guy was just stupid, or playing some sort of trick. Drifter was however leaning toward the former. He raised his right gauntlet to the door, which had been loaded with his explosive ammo, then fired a fully automatic stream of deadly shots.

They would hit the door with the force of a stick of dynamite, each. The flimsy piece of wood would no doubt be blown to bits, along with anything behind it.

The blast caused a grey smoke to bloom over the area, and though the explosion caused a moment of shell shock, Drifter already had his left gauntlet pointed at the doorway. He was prepared to shoot anything that moved.

"You stupid motherfucker........" Drifter said with a laugh. He was certain the blast didn't kill the intruder, that would be too easy. This, however, was a advantageous start to this bout.

AAT-08317 had expected there to be a fight, firearms even. The assassin's sensative hearing allowed him to pick up on the activation of the fuses on the gauntlets, and thus he was able to roll out lf the way barely. Splinters hit his person, but they weren't much of a concern. The gauntlets came as a surprise, meaning that he would have to work smart. Stay out of the line of sight, and move quick. Luckily, he was adept at both of these. 'Drifter' was set to stay in his room, likely unwilling to step out. Despite taking the initial hit, AAT-08317 got a clue as to where Drifter was from his willingness to fire at the door. The assassin pressed the Cz-45 against the wall, corrected it's angle toward the direction Drifter was at, and fired three successive shots.

There was a moment of silence as the dust settled. His attacker had clearly not been injured in a significant way, as there was not even so much as a grunt from the hallway. This meant he was dealing with someone who could not only react quickly, but also make quick decisions based on faint sounds. Drifter guessed the compressed air loading mechanism in his gauntlets tipped the assassin off.

"So who sent you? Some big shot brother of one of the billionaires i took out? ....you know, there are far more worthwhile causes to use your skills for." Drifter said as he put together a thermite grenade, while also remaining poised to fire at the doorway. As soon as he was finished, he threw it to the other side of the room, about ten feet from him.

That's when the shots went off. It was some sort of pistol, that much Drifter could tell instantly. What he couldn't tell was where the shots were coming from. In all honesty, he was taken off guard by the attack.

A bullet hit him in the shoulder, causing him to reel backwards, and then fall to the ground. The wall and his armor prevented the bullet from entering his body just barely, but the force of the shot still hurt like hell. It would leave a mark, for sure.

The other two shots hit missed, but if he hadn't fell back they would have nabbed him. Thank God for the physics of force and gravity. Drifter was in a moment of vulnerability though, and he knew it.

He shot his left gauntlet at the wall where the bullets had come from, for cover purposes mostly. These were normal, none explosive rounds. He didn't need the whole room lightning up while he made his escape.

His thermite bomb had done it's work, combusting into a small circle of ridiculously hot napalm-like flames. This mixture, thermite, was hot enough to burn through an engine block. It had no trouble making a man sized hole in the floor in under ten seconds.

Drifter bolted after laying down his cover shots, hoping only to get to the hole before the assassin could make another attack. But if one of his bullets hit the guy, that was all the better.

If he got to the floor below, then he would continue running. He was obviously dealing with somebody who was highly trained. Only somebody with powers or high level combat prowess would be able to shoot into a wall and hit a target based only on judgement of bullet trajectory. Drifter was going to play every trick he had.

Drifter started talking to AAT-08317, seemingly searching for answers as to why the assassin was targeting him. He opted for silence, as he heard a loud thump after his three shots that could have only meant that Drifter was hit, or he dodged out of the way. AAT-08317 holstered his Cz, before he removed his AN-104 from his back and flicked off the safety.

He planned to walk in and finish Drifter, but he heard the compression mechanism start again. The wall was nearly torn to pieces by standard ammunition, as AAT-08317 rolled out of the way, but was nonetheless hit twice in the chest by the bullets. The assassin bit his lip, suppressing his sound of pain. The nanoweave fibre had protected him, but bullets still felt like hammers. AAT-08317 pulled the bullets from his chest, seeing that they had made two apparent marks on his chest.

The distinct sound of flames erupted, as AAT-08317 heard Drifter jump to the floor below. The assassin walked, and followed the vigilante. As he hit the floor below, he adjusted his aim to the pattering of footsteps, spotting Drifter running away. AAT-08317's finger slipped to the trigger of his rifle, as he fired a constant stream of bullets at Drifter.

This guy was quick thinking. Drifter didn't expect the assassin would be able to decide the coast was clear, and then within seconds be on his tail. Enhanced Senses were becoming more and more apparent. It was really the only way this person would have been able to make these types of moves.

Speculation on abilities aside, Drifter had a problem. He was running down a cleared out hallway with no cover, while a sharp shooter fired a fully automatic assault rifle at him. The vigilante had thought he would have at least a few seconds for the assassin to understand that Drifter had jumped through the floor before the chase was back on, but that assumption was wrong it seemed.

As soon as he heard the shots, he directed his running momentum into a kick at one of the office doors in the hall. One of the bullets tore through his forearm padding, and apparently entered........ It hurt like hell, but he got through the door with only a minor wound. The armor had at least made it less severe.

After that, he shot the office window, then....... Jumped. Yeah, he jumped. But he knew this building like the back of his hand, and knew there was a fire escape a floor below this window.

He landed hard on the metal platform, but he was alright. His arm was bleeding a bit, nothing too horrible though. He trained his gauntlets on the window he had just exited, hoping the assassin would try to follow him. If he did, Drifter would open fire and likely riddle the assassin with bullets before the guy even landed on the fire escape.

AAT-08317 continued to walk forward, as he kept his rifle trained on the window. Drifter ran through a door and jumped through the window, and out into the world below. The assassin instantly knew that there must have been something below, otherwise that would have been a risky jump, especially since he fell like a rock. His enhanced hearing picked up on the sound of Drifter landing on a metal platform. The assassin drew his last flashbang as the first went off above, the startled yell of police officers heard as AAT-08317 flicked the pin of the one he held and rolled it off the side. It would surely catch the attention of Drifter, as the loud bang sounded. Even if Drifter wasn't blinded, the concussive blast still could catch him off guard if he didn't knock it away. Within an instant, AAT-08317 held his rifle over the side and fired toward the metal platform.

Vigilante. The word had been stuck in Veil's mind like a nagging thorn. Until recently he'd never even thought of himself as one. Honestly he'd hadn't even put the thought forward to naming what he was. Just a man sick of the corruption and the lies and the evil that permeated the world. No powers, no gimmicks, just a horrible burden that kept him awake at night. You can do something, you can stop this. Why aren't you doing more? And of course there were the darker motivations, that he enjoyed this, that there was a streak of sadism that ran through him, that causing harm to those who deserved it was a rush. These he rarely admitted to himself, preferring to think of what he did as a one man crusade effective even in a world of super humans. But recently that "one man" part had been called in to question bringing with it some of his identity.

Over the past few months Ben had been preoccupied with a certain faceless assassin, devoting a large portion of his time and energy to finding her. After all, the woman had nearly killed him, stuck him in a hospital states away from home and almost got him outed as The Veil. Not exactly the kind of person that he desired to have running around. And yet her trail had been deceptively hard to find let alone track. However her faint trail had led him to discover the trail of another, someone like himself. It was the search for assassinations that led him in the direction of this other. A smattering of seemingly random killings, MO's under the guise of other known killers, dots that simply didn't connect. It drove him to near obsession but eventually after months of digging he found a name, Drifter.

With that name his search took on a new angle and instead of his original goal of finding the assassin he was determined to track down this person. And the more he searched the more he began to face his own identity. This was a fellow vigilante as the forces of the law had called him. Regardless of his inability to kill, the two of them were lumped together as the same. Men functioning outside of the law, vigilante. Always that word came up, and all the more he was forced to confront his own identity until finally there was only one solution. He had to find this man and discover what made him tick. What drove him to the same life as himself? Why was he so determined to kill as opposed to Ben's own philosophy?

And that was why he was in LA. Scheduling a trip to a conference in the city was easy enough and a perfect cover for his trip. His searches had told him that his fellow vigilante most likely was located within the city, all he had to do now was find out where. Luckily that information would crash right into his lap.

Driving in Elysium past the building of a security firm The Veil's eyes were drawn to a crash about 20 stories up. He'd spent enough time analyzing the few blurry pictures of Drifter that he could come across to recognize the man's outfit when he saw it. And there he was, plummeting out the window of the tall building onto a fire escape. Didn't expect it to be that easy he mused to himself, spinning Elysium around and pulling into the alley beneath below the fire escape. He was too high up to see but Ben could only guess that the fellow vigilante was in some sort of peril. The sounds of rapidly approaching sirens only confirmed this. Then came the sound of gunfire from within the building.

What the hell are you doing up there? Veil asked in a normal voice to the man 20 stories up who clearly couldn't hear him. Unfortunately he didn't have much time to think on it as the sounds of sirens in the distance rapidly began to close in. The thought of being arrested across state lines was not on Ben's to do list for the day so the police would need to be dealt with. Reaching into his coat, The Veil produced a smoke grenade in each hand. Priming both simultaneously he'd lob them on either side of the alley. Thick black smoke quickly engulfed the area at the back entrance to the building, hiding The Veil's presence there and blocking all sight to the alley. That would at least buy him some time to figure out a course of action.

Well, this was a situation.

Of course Drifter knew he was going to be fired upon, but he had figured the assassin would try to jump onto the fire escape. If the assassin had, Drifter would have dropped a bomb on the thing and then use the door to go back into the building, effectively causing the assassin to fall fifteen or twenty stories.

Unfortunately, that's not what happened. The assassin instead opted to shoot relatively blindly from the window. Drifter's defense to this was quite simple, he activated the Counter Defense System.

This device was a military grade personal version of the Trophy System used by tanks to stop incoming missiles. It was essentially a radar that targeted projectiles, then sent out various things to intercept them. In the case of Drifter's device, it used extremely high voltage electrical bolts to knock things off course. The only downside was that it was pretty much a one shot thing. The device could only hold so much power, obviously.

The shots the assassin sent Drifter's way were deflected, and the vigilante used the momentary shielding to it's fullest extent.

He swung his body over the fire escape railing, then let go before grabbing onto the railing of the lower level. He did this several times, with the plan being to do it until he got to the ground. The only downside was that he would probably have broken hands by the end of it.

At this point, Drifter had noticed a vehicle below him, and a man in some sort of costume. It was either some manner of hero, or another Russian assassin. If it was the latter, he was pretty much screwed, but if it was the former, it looks like he just got away.

Smoke was sent up once Drifter had dropped down a few floors, hiding his view of Veil. To perhaps get a idea of who this person was, Drifter decided to call out.

"If you're a friend, start the fucking car! If you're not, well, I'm coming down to kill you!" Drifter grunted with each floor he dropped down to, the pain in his hands mounting every time. You could do as much parkour training as you wanted, that didn't make your hands made of steel.

All of AAT-08317's bullets didn't affect Drifter at all, as the vigilante managed to pacify the rounds and proceed with his escape with the assistance of some third person. The assassin had heard the smoke bombs from earlier, wondering what they were. But then he spotted the vehicle that Drifter was plotting to escape to from the looks of it.

He dropped the magazine that was empty and changed it, before he selected the semi-automatic firing option and started taking concentrated shots at the two persons below, as he jumped down to the metal grating below.

A hail of bullets above snapped The Veil's attention away from concealing and back to the scene above him. Serious firepower he confirmed with himself as he heard the shots rattle off from the assault weapon. You really pissed someone off. Keeping his eyes aimed upwards The Veil was shocked to see thsee man leap from the side of the fire escape. Rail after rail the object of his search plunged and stopped. He could only imagine the kind of punishment that was putting on his hands. But even more so he was astounded to see not a wound marking the man's getup. Maybe I could get some pointer in his armor he thought to himself before second guessing it. He'd recieved similar punishment before and while outwardly he probably had also appeared fine a bullet still hit like a truck regardless of whether or not it penetrated the flesh.

Regardless, the man quickly approaching the ground seemed to have noticed him. He even shouted down for him to start the car, making sure to threaten him if he did otherwise. Yea you're welcome, no problem he mentally chided.

This is definitely not going how I thought. The Veil was agitated. Normally he'd put weeks of time into a meeting like this. In fact he had planned on it. After all he hadn't known Drifters exact location so he had planned on having the time to research, get a good even ground with him before their first encounter. And yet here he was, saving a man who threatened to kill him for next to no reason from an unknown assassin pursuing him for unknown reasons. Smooth move asshole he scolded himself. You may very well be rescuing a psychopath who'll kill you the second you g t him out of danger. Fuck this was stupid, but with the encroaching threats from above and below he had little other choice.

Spinning on his heels The Veil made a mad dash for the driver's side of his hearse Elysium. As he moved he heard the familiar but ever frightening sound of semi-automatic gunfire. Bullets pierced the concrete around him before one stuck him square in the back. Immediately the wind was knocked from his chest as he lurched forward. Catching himself on all fours he quickly scrambled back to his feet. Thank you armor plating he thought. With the growing bruise on his back he wheezed his way into the driver's seat and threw open the passenger door.

Hurry up and get in! he screamed through his gas mask as Drifter entered his field of view on the other side of the car. Simultaneously he threw Elysium out of park and in to reverse. As he turned to look back down the alley, pain shock like a bolt of lightning up and down his spine. That better not be something broken he winced, once more having the wind ripped from his lungs. Every breath brought waves of agony crashing through his back and chest. But he'd have to deal with that once they were away from this assassin. Seeing Drifter finally enter ththe car, he slammed on the gas. Elysium's tires squealed for a moment before penetrating the veil of smoke at the end of the alley and just past two police cars arriving on the scene. Out of the frying pan and in to the fire...

As Veil and Drifter got into the vehicle, AAT-08317 tilted his rifle and aimed for the tires of the Elysium. He fired three shots at the back tires, intending to pop one as it screeched off by the police. If the assassin could get the police to chase the two vigilantes, he had another chance.

"Freeze!" A police officer said, his voice above the assassin. AAT-08317 glanced up, as the lone officer stepped down with a pistol aimed at him. The assassin complied, placing down his rifle as he put his hands up. This was an opportunity to him, as the officer approached: "That's it! Nice and slow!"

As the officer stepped behind AAT-08317, the assassin's heightened reflexes and movement struck back and threw the police officer off guard. Grabbing the officer by the head, AAT-08317 started to squeeze out his life before he jerked the head to one side and snapped the neck of the man. Quickly, he got to work as he took off the officers equipment and put his clothes over his bodysuit, disguising himself. Taking off his gas mask, he pulled on the officers cap and the picked up his rifle, before he continued down the fire escape.

Every time he dropped down a floor, pain shot through Drifter's hands, and not to mention the bullet wound in his arm. Halfway down he was starting to think he might have to stop, but he knew his best chance of getting away was getting to that.....hearse?

Yeah, that's what it was.

Lukas knew he wasn't going to get to it without getting shot at, but he didn't think this assassin guy would go all sniper mode within seconds. Unfortunately though, that's what happened.

Drifter had made it all the way down to the third story of the building, bullets wizzing past his head. It seemed the guy below him was also getting shot at, and had been hit. For a second it looked like the guy actually died, but apparently he had some form of armor on.

By the time Drifter got to the second story, Veil had started the car. It looked like Lukas was home free........ Until he got shot in the hand.

Luke fell the two stories all the way to the ground, barely managing a sloppy parkour roll to cushion the damage. He was yelling in pain, holding his blood covered right gauntlet. It wouldn't do him any good any more.

Just.....get to the car. Get to the car or you're dead. Suck it up. Drifter thought to himself as he painfully staggered toward the hearse. He was breathing heavy, with two bullet wounds, one far worse then the other, and hands that felt like they could never pull a trigger again.

He got into the car, and once the driver sped off, Drifter instinctively pulled his very special handgun. He pointed it right at Veil's head.

"Who are you!? Why are you here!? Keep driving while you talk!" Drifter yelled through his robotic voice changer. Anyone in their right mind could tell he was seeing red, probably due to the pain. That said, Veil probably wouldn't like the gun to his head.