Welcome to Somalia. Hand over your valuables! (Quinn)

Outside Mogadishu...

It was  a hot day out on the dirt road from port to the capital, Mogadishu. Not helping was the fact the jeeps had no air conditioning, so Diana was sweating from the blistering 10am sun shining in from the east. Dust was whipping up in large clouds on the trail, so opening the windows fully was no fun either. Diana cursed in her native tongue, clutching her backpack and sword in front of her.

"Hey. We are entering Mogadishu soon. You say you are mercenary? It will be very dangerous for a woman. you didn't even bring a gun." The driver, a skinny native wearing a headdress, long sleeves and jeans, took a glance at his fairly young passenger.

"I can take care of myself." Diana said, trying to block out this environment with music on her smart phone. It didn't work.

"You know what they call Somalia now? Hell on Earth." The man continues the conversation.

"Why are you here then?" Diana removes her earplugs, seeing she'd have to enjoy the scenery.

"I am the boatman, you see. I collect money to bring fools to that Hell."


Over the sand dune a war party suddenly emerges. Several modified Technicals, and some bikes... and an attack helicopter. Diana was unnerved, and instinctively reached to draw her sword.

"Uh...  local militias, nothing to worry about. Just get the payment ready and they'll leave us alone." He said, though Diana did not relax at all. This raiding party was very aggressive, and as they got closer made no attempt to communicate that the convoy had to stop to pay a 'toll'.

No, the only communication going on was the roar of the machine guns mounted on the technicals, firing upon the convoy. bullet holes materialized on the hood of the jeep they were on, causing steam to escape from the engine. The backseat windows were shattered, and then the side view mirror on Diana's door was blown off. She ducked and took cover, but knew she was going to be a sitting duck in this jeep.

Diana looked at his driver, who was perspiring and extremely tense, even moreso than normal.

"You son of a bitch." Diana mouthed, now definitely drawing her sword.

"I swear I don't know why they are attacking! It must be another group-"  A bullet whizzed past Diana, grazing her cheek, causing her to recoil. Unfortunately the bullet's final stop was in the driver's chest, causing him to die at the wheel. Diana started mouthing off profanities, trying to grab the steering wheel...

...So this was the Welcome one gets in Somalia.

Quinn was in the back of the last car in the little convoy that they had going on, sitting in the very back with her eyes closed, attempting to start a sleep cycle while she still had time. Of course, the other mercenaries were whispering about her, seeing as how she was under dressed when compared to the rest of the crew.

A heavy bump later and she was shaken awake, her attempt at sleeping ruined. She yawns and stretches, looking around the car. She just starts to peek out the window when the fire bullet rings out, following by the noise of rapid fire machine guns. Quinn reacts before anything can hit her, weapons appearing in her hands right when an rpg streaks out from the bushes around them and slams into the car, sending it off onto its side. Quinn sighs as she loses grip on her weapon and rolls around with the dead bodies that now fill the car, seeing as how they just got exploded.

She shoves one of the bodies off of her when the car finally settles, giving it a moment before starting to crawl out, letting the attackers think she was dead like the rest of the car. She stands up outside of the car, the smoke covering her and stopping the mess of attackers from seeing that she was still alive.

Quinn stretches again, limbering up before another weapon appears in her hand, her giving it a once over before she sets her sights on the guy who was holding down the trigger for the machine gun like an asshole. A second later she put a bullet through one of his eyes, ending his shooting spree before he even knew what had hit him.

From then on it was like shooting fish in a barrel, seeing as how none of them were metas. She aims, does a quick squeeze, a noticeable crack, different from the other firearms is heard, then someone drops dead, sporting a new hole in their head.

It didn't take Quinn long at all to get rid of the high caliber weapons could rip through the mercenaries body armor before she stops, reaching up to cover another yawn, the attack just not doing it for her in terms of excitement. They need to be a challenge if they wanted her to actually try.

The car went off the road and off a ravine. It was at that point Diana made herself scarce and extracted herself from the vehicle, getting the door open and leaping out. She grabs a tree branch, and hung by her arms as she saw the jeep crash into the bottom of the ravine and explode.

So she went down a bit farther than she thought. Diana hauls herself up onto the branch, gets her pickaxe, and starts climbing with it in one hand, a knife in the other, and her boots digging into the cliff face. "I'm going to maim everyone of them for this." She promised, carrying her whole backpack for the climb.

Far and away from the fighting, two figures eyed the attack through binoculars. One was a giant of an african man, wearing the mane of a lion as a headdress, as well as a barbarian like loincloth. He didn't bother with much else. The other was a much smaller woman in safari clothes and long, vivid red hair.

"One metahuman confirmed, Red. Uncanny accuracy with a firearm. The advanced party is getting slaughtered." He said, rather uncaring for the fate of the militia they sent to test the convoy's members.

"Strange. Blood Sword doesn't use guns. You don't see someone with a sword?" Red asked, borrowing the binoculars, eyeing Quinn. No other metahuman seemed to be present.

"No. Just the crack shot." Man Lion said.

"Let's go say hello then." Red puts a hand on The Man Lion, and they vanish in a flash of red energy.


As the militia were getting cut down by the surviving metahuman, any remaining survivors quickly made themselves scarce, gunning their vehicles in the other direction. The advanced party's technicals and bikes crash into sand dunes, each other, or was simply thrown over the cliff.

In a flash of red energy, the lion-mane wearing giant and the red headed woman materialized behind Quinn. The African giant spoke to Quinn and made her an offer. "Good morning, miss Metahuman. Mister Andre Baptiste sends his regards. Switch to his side against Nwandwe..." Man Lion is quick to reveal his employment with the rival warlord opposing the one who hired them in the first place.

"...Or you won't make it to Mogadishu. Oh yeah, and Baptiste will match Nwandwe's pay too." Red finished, holding up her massive revolver which held massive bullets.

Quinn turns to look behind her, tilting her head to one side in confusion when one of them called her metahuman. She just drops the now empty gun on the ground, yawning again. She doesn't need the rifle now that the normal jerks that were shooting at them left.

Quinn brushes her hair out of her eyes before responding. "My name is not metahuman. I am Quinn Ashford. Why are you calling me metahuman?" Some people are just rude these days, making up names for people instead of just asking for them, but whatcha going to do? Quinn then pretty much completely ignores the two while she fishes her hat out of the wreck, dusting it off before placing it on her head, not even phased by the fact that it, like Quinn, just survived an RPG without taking any damage.

Quinn turns back to the two that should be confused, if not scared, at this point. She then claps her hands together as an alert pops up in her mind, reminding her why she was in Africa. "Oh! Have you seen a girl named Mindy Ashford recently? She is usually traveling with a butler called Sebastion, but Mindy might have called him Sebu-chan. I really need to find her. No? Okay, well that is too bad." Quinn looks down seeing as how nobody seems to know where Mindy has disappeared to, and she has been looking for a while. It doesn't matter though, because sooner or later Quinn will find her.

"Oh, yeah, you wanted me to break my contract right? I cannot do that, a contract is legally binding. However, if you want, you can play with me. Hopefully you will not break like all the others. So, shall we play a game." Her smile turns more sinister at this point, and to make a clear point of what kind of game they would be playing, a long sword just appears in one of her hands. "I should tell you though, I play for keeps."

Red and The Lion look at each other, then the Red lady answers a sarcastic "Pfft...No?"

"That is a bad answer. You joined the wrong side, Quinn Ashford!" Lion charged after Red starts shooting her with ultra-dense rounds from her massive revolver, aimed at Quinn's weapon first then one to her chest. The Tungsten Iridium alloy bullets were designed for dealing with the most durable defenses.

The Lion's massive size belied his power- his speed was supernatural, and his fingers transformed into claws. As one would expect of the use of claws, Lion attempted to fillet Quinn, while letting out a massive roar, as he channeled the fury of a big cat.


Meanwhile, Diana finally climbs over the cliff edge, huffing from the effort of climbing with her full gear. She spies the battle and distance and begins sprinting over as fast as she could... one of these people were probably responsible.

Quinn just ignores her now broken sword, tossing it away absentmindedly as she first sidesteps the bullet aimed at her chest, then easily ducking under the claws. Another quick side step and she was off, dancing through the many powerful melee swings and avoiding the bullets almost like she knew where they would be the moment she pulled the trigger.

It was about then that she started to hum, getting into her zone completely before finally returning fire, her sword reappearing as she started to parry the melee attacks thrown at her, her super creepy smile still locked onto her face.

A second later a revolver appears in her off hand. She parries another two attacks, dodging a bullet during them before finally using it, matching the Red Lady bullet for bullet, making her dodge after every shot or take a bullet in return.

After about thirty seconds of this Quinn's smile vanished, already starting to get bored by how predictable these two were being, and it was for that reason that she decided to end it now, switching it up and just catching one of the Lion's attacks, his claws getting stopped by her rather tough skin. She looks at him for a second before sighing. "You are boring me."

A second later a bang is heard as Quinn puts a bullet into Lion's leg, then she just cracks him across the face with a metal baton that had suddenly replaced the gun. Of course, that didn't mean she was ignoring the Red Lady, the next moment her hand was a blur, then she looked over and smiled, holding her hand out and showing the bullet that she had just caught out of the air.

"I am bored of this game, do you have any others that I can play?"

"AAAAHAAAAH! MY LEG!" The pain, combined with the massive metahuman's structural failure, meant he went down, attacks coming to an end.

Red's teleportation allowed her to avoid gun shots, blinking around the battlefield with impunity as she tried to blast Quinn away with her special bullets. When she caught one, she realized they weren't special enough.

"...Tough little bugger." Red looked at Quinn with a look of surprise. This newcomer proved to be even more capable than the one they guessed was here.

"RED HELP ME!" Lion said as he hit the ground hard, clutching his leg, looking to his ally. The man had been a bully most of his life, and had never fought someone on even footing before.

Red lady looked at the situation... not good. Her meatshield proved to be tender, and was taken out of the fight. Another was sprinting towards them. "Baptiste needs to know what he's up against." She said with a twisted smile.

"What? You... you bitch!!!!" Lion shouted at Red, realizing he was now going to be left alone.

Taking one of the flashbangs from her vest Red tosses it towards Quinn. At the instance of the Flash, Red makes herself scarce, teleporting over the Sand Dune far away where they observed their ambush, and getting into a getaway vehicle.

Diana finally catches up to the scene of the fight, covered in dirt and twigs. She looked down at the giant African metahuman whose kneecap had seen better days. "So. What did I miss?"

At the sound of a new voice Quinn was already shifting to aim at them, relaxing when she notices that it was someone from the group...which now that she thinks about it, they were completely wiped out already? "I got to play a game with a bunch of people, but they all broke already."

Turning to look at the one person that was still left alive, giving him a big smile as she crouches by him. "So, where did your friend go? I have not finished my game with him yet. That makes me feel...unsatisfied." Quinn turns to look at Diana. "Hey, is unsatisfied the right word? English is so weird." Without actually waiting for an answer she turns right back to the wounded meta. "Yeah, I think it is unsatisfied. So would you kindly tell me where I can find him?"

"Could have left some for me... Good to see you made it out of the wreck." Diana mused at Quinn, patting her on the shoulder in some friendly camaraderie.

"The red went back to Baptiste. I hope he has her tied down." Lion answered Quinn, spitting on the ground as he answered.

"And where is Andre Baptiste currently residing?" Diana asked, crouching down. The man was ridiculously large, his head seemingly as big as Diana.

"Like I would tell you- AAAAAH!" Diana studied the big Lion's highly vascular anatomy, most of his nerves and pain receptors very clear to Diana's anatomical knowledge. A strong pinch on a vital nerve on his neck caused him as much pain as his kneecap, causing his dark face to swell red.

"KUUUUHK-" He taps on the ground, begging for mercy when he couldn't even speak. Diana relents, and he takes deep breathes.

"Baptiste is... with his R.U.F. Battalion in some ruins west of here in the mountains! They are looking for the tomb of the Numidian Kings!" He spilled it all.

"Thanks." Diana squeezed so hard it made the big man pass out after screaming his lungs out.

"So... should we go to Mogadishu and report to Nwandwe? Or shall we bring him Baptiste instead? I'm Diana, by the way." Diana offered a hand to shake with Quinn.

Quinn only slightly shifts when Diana pat her on the shoulder, still a little wary after the ambush, but relaxes again once she sees that the other girl was just trying to be friendly. Seeing as how the big Lion was nice enough to tell them everything that they want to know, Quinn just pats him on his wounded knee a couple of times, ignoring his grunts of pain. "Thank you. You were very nice to tell me what I wanted to know."

She stands up and stretches, working out the kinks in her muscles after the craziness that just went down. Looking over at Diana when she was spoken to. She looks down at the hand for a second, before remembering that she should shake it now. Humans have so many customs that it's hard to keep track sometimes.

Finally reaching out and shaking Diana's hand, she gives her a smile. "I am Quinn Ashford, it is nice to meet you. Oh, have you meet a girl named Mindy Ashford?" Not being disappointed at all by the fact that the answer was no, like every other time she asked so far, Quinn just nods, still smiling.

"Well, I am going to go report, since that is what the contract calls for. You can go after this Baptiste guy if you want, but he seems like a jerk." With that, she just turns and starts to walk towards the meeting location, not worried at all that it would take her a long ass time to actually get there on foot.

"No, I don't know any Mindy. I suppose that's a good idea, at least we won't get caught in-between the civil war, guns shooting at us from both sides." Diana picked up her backpack and put on a baseball cap and some shades. The sun was blazing overhead now.

"Hope you got comfy walking shoes." She said, looking at the long highway under the African sun to the capital.

MOGADISHU

The duo were eventually picked up by an army patrol in a Humvee. The drivers were, of course, natives Somalians wearing the uniform of the army. The drivers though were very young looking; not even 20 yet, Diana guessed. She nervously reached for her sword, until the soldiers correctly identified them as the expected Mercenaries.

"I am The Blood Sword." Diana stated, a half-truth as her face was covered by a skull-motif bandana. Even in dark Africa her bloody deeds were known. "We are looking to meet with General Nwandwe."

The driver exited and shook their hands. "Sergeant Belial, 3rd Army Battalion. We'll take you to him now. Hop in."

"Thanks." Diana relented. Who cares about looking tough when there was air-conditioning! She absently opened the door for Quinn to let her get in first. Aside from the sergeant was another young man, who served as gunner for the Humvee's gun.

A thin veneer of civility and order hid simmering unrest in the populace of Mogadishu. Civil war gripped the country once more, and the Capitol was only barely held together. Still, the streets were clean and people were going about their lives, but there was a heightened military presence.

On street corners military police stood guard, keeping a wary eye out for trouble. "Kid must be younger than I am..." Diana lamented, seeing the soldier shorter than she was, in ill-fitting uniform, toting an assault rifle.

"Please do not worry. The youth army are strictly a reserve and support force. As much as possible they are not sent into front line operations. He is not like Baptiste."

"That's reassuring." Diana nervously kept her hand on her blade, seeing more of the boy battalions marching in parade through the streets.