Fusion Frenzy

The initial shockwave and air distortions didn't do much to phase the combat android. The machine merely slammed into the wall with no lasting damage; the small bits of rubble did get into a few of the actuators, however. This slowed down the arms from moving. The armor itself stood up to the barrage. Global Armaments models were notorious for being able to take a lot of abuse and go for long periods of time without the internals requiring maintenance.

However, they suffered one major flaw: their armor wasn't treated properly for energy weapons fire. The heavy armor would melt like a hot knife though butter.

The biggest consequence, however, was that the combat android no longer regarded the guest badge as a hindrance to its combat protocols. The minigun spooled up, peppering the android's entire frontal arc in 7.62 X 51 mm NATO rounds at 80 rounds per second. The machine didn't use the shoulder-mounted micro missile launcher, if for no other reason than the range was too close for them to be effective.


Nawi always stayed one step ahead of the mercenary as he searched, going from a protruding vent shaft to hiding behind tightly clustered gas piping. The rest of the area was wide open, but so long as there was even a single point of cover, Nawi had the advantage. She was predator - the mercenary was her prey to stalk...to hunt and kill. To color her claws red with blood - the origination of her title as "Scarlet Reaper".

Just as the mercenary went to check another cover point, Nawi made a silent dash for the dead bodies. Arisawa corporate security - a recently-used tablet was on one of the bodies. Snatching it up during a roll, she got back to cover, looking it over - there was a birds-eye view of the building. A drone. There was also live feeds of the interior. It went a long way in explaining how the mercenaries managed to match the movements of those inside.

The rooftop mercenary's search had taken him near an electrical conduit - likely for rooftop lighting. Nawi closed in for the kill, her enhanced speed putting her on par with an actual tiger in terms of speed - upwards of 40 MPH on level terrain. As she closed in, she made four moves: one strike with the tablet to the head, a claw to the rifle's trigger group (most likely disconnecting the trigger from the rest of fire-control group), a backhand to get the mercenary facing her, and finally, her claws across the neck. The longest two sliced through both carotid artery and jugular vein.

Blood splattered on her face, further emphasizing her killer instinct - and from this angle, the merc could see Nawi's slit pupils glaring at him. And then, she jammed the tablet as far as she could into the power conduit before flipping backwards though the air on top of the rooftop access structure.

Nawi had cut down her share of men - and certainly enough necks to know that if one's jugular was severed, they had maybe thirty seconds before they died. To have both of those blood vessels severed, though. The merc didn't have good odds - not unless he could plug four cuts at once.

Rooftop

The merc dropped the broken rifle, clutching at his neck as blood poured from the open wounds, his other hand managing to get his pistol out and up, but he couldn’t focus enough to aim, as his vision was quickly fading, and his arm swayed from lack of blood pressure. He took one shot, that went wide from his intended target, before dropping to the ground, dead.  

The door to the roof opened, just in time to see his teammate drop. “Shit, boss, we got trouble up here, overwatch is down...” Before he stepped onto the roof, his eyes caught the shadow being cascaded in front of him, revealing that there was someone right above him.  

He stepped back, aiming his rifle upward, as he fired a few rounds of energy into the top of the roof access, blindly trying to hit the figure waiting in ambush.  

Office  

“Looks like Arisawa is hiding something he really doesn’t want people to get their hands on...” Revenant stated as he watched Ryan deal with the drone, before looking to the hatch. “I wonder.” He pulled out one of his own grenades, approaching the hole.

Security Booth  

As they arrived at the security booth, the poor guard stationed there didn’t get a chance to do anything, as he was gunned down by the two mercs.  

“Wow, you guys aren’t really social people, are you?” Jacob kept his cool on the outside, but his heart was racing as he moved over to the tray they put his stuff in. “Oh, there you are, my precious.” He pulled out the cellphone, pulling up an app, as he started to type a code.  

“Hey, you said it was a watch we were after.”  

“Did I...?” Jacob looked up to the mercs, before shrugging, returning back to the code. “Huh, that's weird.”  

One of the mercs pulled an object from his pouch, revealing it to be another remote, making clear he had caught on. “You’re gonna pay for lying to us.” He pressed the button.  

The phone dinged as he did, and the device on Jacobs neck didn’t activate, as the code activated instead, mimicking the remotes signal, and blocking the device from being turned on.  

“Oooooh...” Jacob let out a sigh of relief, holding up his cellphone. “God, I love technology.”  

The mercs raised their guns, “We don’t need the device, these will do just fine.”  

“True...” Jacob smirked, nodding behind them. “But what are you gonna do about them?”  

The mercs didn’t get a chance to react, as they turned around, only for two well placed bullets to hit them between the eyes, dropping them instantly.  

Without their overwatch, and Jacob no longer compromised, Arisawas guards were able to finally able to get the drop on the mercenaries, as two approached Jacob.  

“Where is Arisawa-san?”  

“He’s in his panic room in the office, but the man leading the charge is very dangerous.” Jacob replied. ”Signals clear, mercs are down, I am safe...” Jacob stated through his mind, smirking. ”Give him hell.”

Each strike did nothing to the machine. He didn’t put a lot of force behind them, but it was hopefully enough to slow it down. Make things look convincing enough that no further shocks found their way to Jacob. Small shards of shrapnel whirred around the battlefield, slamming into the androids as well. The thing was made from some sturdy stuff, he had to give it credit. Was it some kind of advanced version of the armor they were here to see?

The low whir of a minigun began, followed by the repetition of bullets.  A distortion in front of him caught a good portion of the ammo round, creating a small wall of bullets which crushed against the solid telekinetic wall. There was some major piercing power behind these gun, a few of them having punched through his initially weak wall before he was able to up the power enough. Pain radiated outwards from the impact points, but it was nothing. Dark red blue glimmering with strands of light blue leaking out from where the casings stuck out from his gut.

The pain was nothing, he could get through it.

Crushing the spent ammunition into a tight ball of metal, he formed a dense sphere and sent it back. Just as fast as the bullets that punched through him and with as much, if not more force they were shot with. A part of his mind considered simply grabbing the android, subjecting it to enough pressure to crush it into oblivion. He didn’t know how much he could put out, if it would destroy it or the entire building. Still he had to control himself, keeping from causing harm to innocents.

The taste of iron rose in his mouth, but he ignored it.

The all clear signal was all he needed. A relief so profound that he couldn’t really describe it surging through him. Without even putting much thought, he allocated tons of pressure towards and around the android before crushing inwards. If it didn’t break, it would likely be confounded to a smaller space. It was no longer his concern, not when someone lost their trump card. His attention turned to Revenant who had already turned his attention from him. Approaching the hatch already, wasn’t he? He was holding a grenade, at east that was what it looked like. A wicked idea hit him.

”You said you knew who I was. That I was Cobalt, right?”

Plink.

A single bullets came out from his stomach, blood dribbling from the injury quickly before it rapidly closed.

”So you should know what i’m capable of.”

Several more bits of metal hit the floor.

”You should know why you made a major miscalculation.”  There was no warning from there, a surge of force from Ryan that moved to wrap  around the arm. An invisible hand that would clamp the grenade tight to his hand before pinning it. The room for the most part would be fine, but he didn’t want the man's hand to survive. He stepped towards the man, frost spreading outwards with each step. Facilitated by a blue energy that radiated from him, his eyes now glowing that same cold color.

The android was of no consequence to him, not really. One touch from the energy would be like being exposed to liquid nitrogen. Rapidly the material would freeze, falling apart as if too brittle to maintain its existence. This very energy radiated from him and slowly began to break small things around him in a white dust that filtered through the air.

The energy bolts that came up through the concrete mostly only grazed what little remained of her linen dress, but Nawi herself was left mostly unharmed. That is, apart from several strands of hair being singed off of her and her braids coming undone. Nawi wasn't a particularly vain individual, but the situation triggered her.

It was commonly said that badgers fought hardest when they were cornered, but it wasn't just them. Any animal can risk life and limb if they were trapped - and Nawi was a different breed of animal, altogether. She hissed and cartwheeled off the end, narrowly grazed by energy weapons fire, before grabbing the edge and swinging inwards, the momentum planting her feet right into the mercenary's chest and sending them both tumbling down the steps.

The last of her threads holding her dress in place came loose, leaving her only in undergarments. In an embarrassing scenario, the mercenary would find himself face up looking at a dark-skinned madwoman clad only in lingerie bringing her heel down on his throat before slashing at his throat with both sets of claws. The blood would decorate her entire front side.

Nawi panted hard as the adrenaline coursed through her veins, and an instinctive thrill gripped her: the thrill of a successful hunt. She snapped out of it quickly and hopped the railing to the door to the top floor - she still had a job to do.


The combat android was able to tank the huge mass of bullets sent its way. The energy that crushed it inwards was a different matter altogether. GA androids, while robust enough to remain functional after such pressure, where hardly of any use when their actuators could no longer properly move. The optical sensor on its head still glowed, but its weapons were destroyed and it could hardly move anymore - confined to being just a twitching heap of metal on the floor.

Research Labs

To Gai's fortune, only a few of the Type-24 had the upgraded software installed that day. Removing the software or relocating the units would be a simple enough issue. He got to work on uninstalling the software immediately.

Rooftop

Even while the merc was still conscious after the tumble down the stairs, he had landed on his neck, his C1 through C4 breaking upon impact, leaving him unable to move.  

All he could do is watch, as Nawi stood over him.  

While the sight of her in her lingerie would normally excite the brutish man, today, he was too overwhelmed with fear, as she reached down, slicing at his throat.  

Hallway  

Jacob strolled down the hallway, whistling as he twirled a pistol in his hand, just in case any other mercenaries showed up while he was unarmored. While the guards had “strongly advised” the young hero evacuate the building, Jacob insisted he needed to get his friend.  

He stopped as he passed by the stairs, hearing some commotion coming from the roof, as it sounded like bodies being thrown down the stairs.  

He gripped the pistol, quietly opening the door that accessed the stairs, slipping inside as he trained the firearm on the floor above him.  

He immediately lowered the pistol as he realized it was Nawi, who was dressed in nothing but a bra and panties.  

Once he realized he was staring, he quickly looked away, undoing his jacket. “Uhhh, here.” He handed it to her.  

He did glance over, though only to look at the claws she had, before looking over to the dead merc, whose throat could only be described as looking like it was ripped apart by a wild animal. “So I see the roof is cleared.” He smiled, looking over to the door to the hallway. “Counting the four dead in the office, and the two back at the security kiosk, I think our little ring leader is all alone now.”  

Office

Revenant looked over as Ryan turned to him, the look in the young heroes eyes was all he needed to know what was about to happen. “Why you little...”  

He was cut off, as his arm suddenly locked up, as if something was gripping it tight. It was evident by the sudden turn, that Jacob had figured out a way to override the device.  

But how could Ryan know that, they didn’t have any communication devices on them, Arisawa security was very thorough about that.  

After a second, it finally clicked for the Mercenary. “I see you have been hiding another little gift...” He glanced down as the pin on the grenade was pulled. “Telepathy is cheating, my friend.”  

Luckily for him, Ryan was clearly going off emotion, he had pissed him off enough that the kid was running on pure anger. This gave Revenant one very important advantage.  

The kid was distracted.  

As the young hero focused on the grenade, while giving a monologue that would make any other poor soul pray, Revenant kept his cool. He realized the kid had made one critical error, locking up his hand and arm.  

While he gripped the grenade, the spoon remained in place, essentially preventing the grenade from priming.  

“Wait, we can talk about this...” Revenant begged, taking a step back, acting like he was afraid. “Please, I am just a hired gun.”  

While Ryans focus was on the grenade arm, the other hand pulled out a taser, firing it from the hip, as to keep it out of his sight.  

He felt his other arm being released from the psychic hold. “No hard feelings kid...” He released the spoon on the grenade, tossing it at Ryan. “But I’m always one step ahead.”  

As the grenade detonated into a loud burst, followed by a blinding light, the mercenary was nowhere to be found, as if he had simply vanished.

His mind's eyes danced with the visions of a destroyed arm. Obliterated hand, spattered bits of gore with the visage of bone blown to pieces. It was so close as the last few bullets were being telekinetically extracted from his own body, the fain tingling pain from each one that had penetrated his flesh. Once he pulled them out, he could heal. The rage bellowed in his ears, shutting everything off around him and yet his expression remained strangely cold.

”Cheating? I didn’t think you cared about fair play.” He spat, eyes narrowing as he was all too ready to act upon the dark thoughts that were going through his mind. What stopped him was something impacting into one of the yet to be healed holes, followed by his muscles seizing up. Electricity coursing through his body, forcing his jaw rigid and causing his tenuous grasp on the man to falter.

Just enough to be unable to stop the grenade. An explosion ringing out through the room, followed by an attempt to block the explosive waves and what he assumed was a flashbang. Sound like knives driven into his ears and ripping his control apart. Thought began to crumble, falling apart as he could only focus on one thing. The Shape of Revenant running away, pleased with the inconvenience of his little explosive.

He forced himself to stand, his body now glowing more and more brilliant blue. Anger began to diminished, and replaced with a kind of cold fury that was more comparable to a blizzard within his chest. The blue energy that whirled around him began to take on streaks of black, but remained mostly blue.  Lashing across anything solid close to him, flash freezing and obliterating anything unfortunate enough to be touched by it.

He could run.

”Fine. I’ll just destroy everything here. That should get you too, shouldn’t it?” So he decided to freeze the entire building, consumed only by that cold and dark feeling that demanded the mercenary die. His allies would die too. Spreading his energy outwards from where he stood, turning this floor along with any conjoined support structures into fragile pillars of ice. With that he stepped out into the conjoined hallway, looking around for any signs of the man while continuing the waves of cold blue energy that was beginning to spread out. Most of his face was glowing blue now save for a small amount of space around one eye. The rest of his body was following suit, though he didn’t seem to notice that much.

Jacob seemed to smell of embarrassment when he laid eyes on Nawi - of course, given Western customs, seeing a woman as scantily clad as she was at this moment would be considered perverse or unbecoming of a man. Coming from a tribe where everyone needed to be minimalist to make supplies last, Nawi still wasn't used to this particular Western convention. Even so, she accepted Jacob's jacket - if for no other reason than to clean off the blood that soaked her front side.

She wiped the blood off her face and chest before attempting to fasten the jacket to herself - of course, being tailored to the male sex, it was somewhat constricting on her chest.

"Don't be embarrassed," Nawi said. "This happens a lot to me."

That's when her sensitive hearing made out the grenade going off - likely a flashbang, given that she heard no signs of fragmenting metal. And then she started to feel the temperature dive.

"This sensation can't be from one of the mercenaries," she said. "It..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the underground labs, Gai had fully uninstalled the upgraded software and kept the hard backup on his person, within his gear, until he saw the massive energy spike reading in the system. Something was going on at the top floor, and he made the order for security to fall back to the next floor. He hoped the connection was still active.

"Can anyone hear me? I'm reading a massive energy spike on the top floor," he said through the link.

Jacob nodded as Nawi reassured him, his mind pondering what kind of fights she usually got herself in, that her clothing would be constantly torn off. Once she had put on the jacket, which did nothing to hide her figure, but rather exemplified certain aspects, Jacob noticed the claws and tail.  

“If you don’t mind me ask-...” Before he could finish his inquiry, he noticed he could see his breath, and his heart sank. “Oh no, Ryan!”  

Without explanation, Jacob turned on his heel, jumping down the flight of stairs, sprinting down the hallway as he desperately raced for the office.  

”Ryan, listen, you gotta pull back, the ice will spread further down the colder you make it, and if enough of the upper levels collapse, it could collapse the whole building, and us with it.”  

Suddenly, a shaped moved to Jacobs right, rushing at him, catching his hand as he tried to aim his pistol, pushing it up so the shot hit the ceiling, a second hand grabbing for Jacobs throat, pushing him into one of the office rooms.  

Revenant ripped the pistol from Jacobs hand, pinning him against a wall with one hand to his throat. “Tell him to pull back, now.”  

“I...already...did...” Jacob choked out, grabbing at the arm holding his throat. “I...think...I got...his...voicemail...”  

Suddenly, he was off his feet, as he was slid up the wall, the mercenary easily holding him there by one hand.  

His other hand pulled out a knife, pointing it at Jacob. “Tell him again, or you’ll have a new hole to breath from.”  

”Ryan, we’re in some kind of office room, I don’t know which one exactly, it all happened too quick, he’s got a knife, and he’s demanding you pull back...” Jacob tried everything he could to get free, but the man had an iron grip, and his kicks didn’t seem to work. ”Don’t worry, I got him right where I want him, and he’s gonna drop any second.””  

Suddenly, Jacob realized something, as he continued to kick and swing, he eventually started to slow, until he eventually went limp.  

“Hey, wake up!” Revenant lowered Jacob, letting go of his throat, patting him on the cheek.  

Jacob began to mutter something, as he came too.  

“What?” Revenant leaned in, trying to hear what Jacob was muttering.  

“I got your gun.”  

The sound of a gunshot burst through the room, as Revenant looked down, seeing the pistol pressed to his abdomen, smoke coming from the bullet wound, as well as blood. He quickly turned, avoiding the second shot, as he grabbed for Jacobs hair, pulling him from the wall, and sending him into one of the cubicles.  

Jacob crashed through the cubicle, catching himself on the desk, before spinning back around, firing three more rounds at the mercenary.  

Revenant charged forward, weaving around the bullets, tackling the young hero, lifting him off his feet, and then slamming him back down onto the desk.  

Jacob smashed through the desk and onto the ground below, crying out in pain, before taking another shot, hitting Revenant in the shoulder.  

“That’s enough of this...” Revenant grabbed at the gun, ripping it out of Jacobs hand, throwing it aside. “Now come here.” He reached down, grabbing for Jacobs shirt.  

Jacob rolled out of the way and onto his feet, rushing for the gun.  

He heard the sound of metal striking metal, as he stopped, looking at the back of his leg.  

Protruding from his shin, was the knife Revenant had been wielding, he had apparently thrown the melee weapon, in the hopes to disable Jacobs leg.  

Jacon, instead, just looked at the knife, then to Revenant, raising a brow. “Really?” He stated, before grabbing the knife handle, and pulling the blade from his prosthetic.

The building around him felt fragile. As if all he needed to do was push a little harder with the freezing just to destroy it all. That was when an idea punctured through the maelstrom of his mind, one that seemed almost brilliant in hindsight.  People connected to his Hive Mind allowed him to get a sample of their surroundings.

Office room?

Tugging on the threads that bound, his head would snap to where exactly he felt that faint sensation. Jacob was talking, his words a sound mingling with the roaring in his head. Something he managed to keep from reverberating across the connection between them.  Were they down or just forward? Considering how much of this floor was being frozen, he was certain it was down now.

“Tell him again, or you’ll have a new hole to breath from.”

So that was what this guy thought he could do. How he thought the whole thing would be going, but that just wasn’t how he was going to let it go. His people, all of those that weren’t executed, were going to die along with him.  Maybe he wouldn’t have the decency to go out slowly, either. All it too was a thought to bridge that gap. Floor or wall pulling themselves apart as he floated through the newly created hole, quickly moving through a landing on solid ground.

His body was mostly covered, if not just radiant, with the energy he controlled. Even the suit he brought with him was glowing bright blue, as if he were becoming something else entirely.  Hair splayed about, floating with the telekinetic force holding him aloft and the abyssal force now driving him. A cold, righteous fury that drove him forward.

”I found you.”

Jacobs prosthesis was damaged, a knife sticking out of it. ”I think i’ll start by punching a new hole for you to breathe.” A casual motion, meant to telekinetically sweep the man's feet from under him, followed by bursts of blue energy streaked with black, meant to freeze and shatter his limbs. He would see if he was a true revenant or just a simple human playing pretend.

When she came into sight, Nawi was a bit surprised to see the mercenary's knife hadn't drawn blood from Jacob's leg. Although, when talking to him before it all hit the fan, she did notice the scent of machinery around him. At first, she had shrugged it off as the machinery from Arisawa's hidden room - but now things made sense. Jacob's legs were cybernetic prosthetics.

Nawi decided to pull her weight and, with the grace of an arrow, dashed towards Revenant, pouncing with all the ferocity of a lion, bowling him over her claws ready to strike.


A delivery truck had come in with basic manufacturing materials for the labs. Unknown to the driver, something else had hitched a ride - something not on the manifest. As the truck idled, a small mass of liquid metal had detached itself from the underside, working its way through every subtle crack in the pavement into the facility. So subtle, in fact, that the being was not picked up on camera.

The orders were clear - steal the software data from one of the Type-24s due to ship out, sabotage the line, and then extract. Gai Arisawa was not to be killed due to his immense popularity and political standing - it would complicate the Creator's plans.

The mass of liquid metal scaled the wall and surrounded one of the security cameras in the area, destroying it and masquerading as the camera in its place. The explosions from up top did not distract the being from its task - all that would was the presence of some interlopers.

“Ryan...” Jacob dropped the knife, seeing his best friend. “Oh dear god.”  

Revenant reacted rather quickly after his feet were swept out from underneath him, using the momentum to carry him as he rolled away from Ryan, jumping over a cubicle wall to put something between him and the cold blast. “Mission compromised...” He spoke into his comm, pulling out another grenade, pulling the pin as the wall shattered. “Moving to Plan B.”  

He managed to throw the grenade towards the center of the room in time, as Nawi pounced towards him. He fell back as she collided with him, the weakened structural integrity of the floor giving out as the two of them fell through. “Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise.” Revenant brought a foot up, pushing into her abdomen, as he forced her off of him.  

He climbed to his feet, glancing up as the room they were just in filled with a thick smoke. “That should buy a few seconds.”  

He looked back to Nawi, holstering the pistol. “So, this is where Rajabus favorite slave ended up...” He paused, letting the realization sink in. “Oh, I know all about your past, Scarlett Reaper...” He rolled his shoulders, preparing for an attack. “Your former master is a valued client of mine, and he is willing to pay top dollar for your return, and I feel I should salvage something from this botched mission.”  

Back in the office room, Jacobs vision was suddenly obscured, as he reached out, stepping slowly towards the direction he last saw Ryan. “Ryan, hey, I am here, listen to my voice.” His hand made contact, and was suddenly retracted, as his fingertips felt like they were on fire, and yet cold at the same time.  

Pushing past the pain, Jacob reached out again, wrapping his arms around Ryan. “Come on, buddy, this isn’t the way...” Luckily, he had factored in Ryans cold powers, and his suit kept his body safe, but he could feel the cold sinking into his hands, and up his arms. “I can’t let you do this!” He cried out, mentally fighting through the pain.  

”Sir, Satellites are reading several large objects incoming.”

His petty little attempts to defend himself meant nothing. Any barrier meant to defend would freeze and shatter apart, inevitably shorn away by his own desire to see the man ripped down. Men like him would never learn, could never be redeemed, so they needed to be eradicated. His father was no different, so convinced of his own righteousness that he didn’t care if people had to die to achieve what he wanted. The whole thing was enough to make him sick. Why did they deserve to live when so many people would die at their hand, simply for their desires?

A section of his mind considered the grenade flying towards him. A small bolt of blue energy arced from the tips of a hand still at his side, colliding with the grenade and freezing it through. All it did was collide with the floor and shatter into a hundred pieces, releasing nothing at all. He knew how that worked now.  Jacob was speaking now, yet he couldn’t listen. Like hearing a voice through cotton in his ears, partitioned away to a part of his mind that knew it couldn’t afford to register this.

He had to do this.

He took a step forward and a weight settled on him, causing his path to curve ever so slightly off. Ryan blinked and looked at the person clinging to him, his friend almost begging him to stop. ”What are you doing?” He said, voice sounding a little cold, lacking in inflection. Bare points of contact were starting to turn red, a sign of frostbite. It would take no time at all for the damage to worsen, maybe even become irreversible. An invisible barrier formed between him and his friend, stopping any further damage that could happen. ”Why are you stopping me?” He rasped, anger bleeding into his words now.

”Monsters like him have to be stopped. If I don’t deal with him now, how many people will he hurt? How many have to die because he can continue doing what he wants?” He didn’t realize his teeth were grinding together now. ”Why are you trying to stop me?!?”

Red tinted Nawi's vision, and many images flashed through her mind at the sound of his gods-forsaken name. Every thing he had ever done to her came boiling to the surface.

"My Scarlet Reaper, with the eyes of a true beast...you will bear many mighty fighters for me..." his voice echoed in her head.

"You lie!" Nawi accused. "I mauled his throat myself! There's no way..."

The realization hit her: the situation was hectic back then, with her having to escape as fast as possible. She might have been the only thing close to a Meta within her former owner's circle...but only that she knew of. If he was loaded enough to buy Nawi as a slave, he may have bought other Metahumans as slaves. Perhaps even a healer.

She ran her claws along Jacob's jacket, tearing it to shreds. This was not to be a form of temptation to the mercenary she stared down (she figured a professional might not be distracted so easily), but a practical decision to offer him one less method of grabbing her in melee. His cybernetics were extensive and subtle, but Nawi could hear the machinery inside with her keen hearing.

"Here's what I'll do to you, scum," she threatened with a snarl in her voice. "I'm going to cut your chassis open like a soda can, ruin your actuators one at a time...and you are going to tell me exactly where that vile man with delusions of grandeur is. If you don't talk, then it's what's left of your bones...then your mask - that's your life support, if I hear your breathing correctly. If I feel merciful, I might kill you before you suffocate."

Her tail swayed behind her, prominently, moving some of the rubble around and hoping to draw his attention long enough to get ahead on her dash around the area. She was fast, but she was certain Revenant was aware of her speed if he'd been talking to Rajabu. Nawi's combat style was far more refined than it was when she was participating in prize fights, with one claw coming at Revenant, only to deliberately fall short - a feint to cover her actual attack: the built momentum and her flexibility bringing her heel striking down overhead.


The liquid metal descended from the corroded camera, approaching the freight container. The container - while fortified - was still metal, and it phased through the material effortlessly. The being formed inside in the shape of a woman, her "hair", as it were, being a slightly longer-than-normal bob cut. Her "eyes" glowed a bright blue as her optical sensors went to low-light vision. This adaptive mass of nanotechnology was named "Mercury".

Before her stood a fully-packed Type-24 with no occupant.

Effortlessly, Mercury changed shape and engulfed the power armor, the nanites consuming the armor as other parts of the nanite colony slid into the interface and began to interact with the software. To anyone who pried the container open, they simply see an inert Type-24 - with Mercury's form perfectly mimicking and replacing the armor parts on the frame.

(Jacob)  

“You’re right, people like him, they don’t deserve mercy...” Jacob pulled back from the embrace, his hands shaking and stiff, the cold sinking into them, he would definitely need to get them looked back. “But I know that look...” He pointed to himself. “I’ve been right where you are, pissed off, tearing through whatever got in my way while I went after the man that hurt me...” He looked around at the destruction, the room covered in frost, the ice and debris that laid scattered around them. “I was so hell bent on destroying the man who ruined my life...” He pulled out his phone, holding it out flat. “And that cost a young kid his life.”  

From the phone, a hologram of a familiar young boy appeared, as if standing on the phones screen.  

Hello, Master Mercer, and Master Masters.”

“I never told anybody the truth of how Yuri died, I just said he was killed in the fight...” He paused, looking up at Ryan. “Truth is, it was me who killed him.”  

(Revenant)  

She was angry, she wanted to rip him to pieces, torture him even.

Good.  

Revenant shifted into a fighting stance, as his opponent ripped the jacket from her body. Perhaps some attempt to throw the mercenary off guard, distract him with her physique.  

No, she would be able to sense that he couldn’t be distracted by such trivial attempts. No, she was removing things he could grab and use against her. Even in her anger, she was focused enough to think of any disadvantages.  

Next, her first actual diversion attempt, in this case, her tail, which swayed to and fro in a cat like motion.  

Given the average tensile strength of a large cats tail, Revenant wasn’t all too concerned, she wouldn’t be able to use it in anyways that could affect his fighting, besides maybe flick it around his face and block his view.  

But she didn’t do that, instead, she lunged forward, in a typical fashion for a warrior with her particular style. A claw came swiping for him, only to fall short, a feint.  

She had definitely trained since she escaped, Revenant was told she fought like a wild animal, clawing and tearing at her opponents. As the leg came down, he barely had time to shift his head out of the way, letting his shoulder take the impact. While the force of the kick certainly hurt him, her leg coming down on the solid metal artifical bone of his shoulder and collar would hurt like hell.  

He didn’t give her time to think about it, as he pushed forward into the kick, letting his power overtake. His arm wrapping around her upper thigh as he reached his other hand up, grabbing onto the middle of her bra, using gravity and momentum to try and force her to the ground with a rather powerful slam. Which he would follow up by moving into a position over her, pressing her leg into her chest to pin her down, letting go of her bra to try and drive a hard punch into her rib cage.