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James ducked himself into a doorway gasping with his heart pounding from the terror that lied beyond the infiltration complex. Walls splattered with fluids as he braced his rifle against his body and tried to stifle the sounds of his bursting lungfuls of air as he slowly checked round the corner. Hefty flak armour and a helmet covered his body with no sign of enemies down the corridor and seeing at least two bodies he saw of his fallen comrades. He looked to the other direction into the room he was now in. Empty. Safe. No one else but him left as he tried to think back to everything that had happened in one day. How could it have gotten this bad? How did everything turn to shit so quickly? How did Sarah not see any of this coming but he knew all three answers would be the same. It was him. He was teaching them a lesson more severely than they had ever wanted. A true military mind he had constantly underestimated from the very start as the moment he turned his head away from the door something cold pressed against his head. James closed his eyes and bit his lip with a shivering panic as he shook his head. "I thought...y-y-you were my friend." "Oi am," said Ashwin, "just things...turn out different." "Please...d-don't. D-don't I have a family." "Shhhh...s'alroigh'. Oi'll make this quick. Oi'm sorry...but oi 'ave my orders." Bang. Red began to drip from the side of his head as he fell softly to the floor, slumping cold with mouth partially agape. He closed his eyes with one last breath and the moment he did Ashwin called out: "AAAAAAAAAND TOIME!" The raptor woke back up. "ROIGH', everybody up, the game's over!" Throughout the small complex people started waking up from their fallen place, mutterings of congrats and commisserations echoing along the corridors as James slowly moved up onto his feet. The pachyderm was also wearing armour proudly smiling upon him without a scratch or mark on his person as James said: "Jeez you weren't kidding about your training huh?" "Haha," chuckled Ashwin, "well oi never got to be this badass suckin' on me trunk did oi?" "You still do that?" "Wot, no! That were a figure of speech you twat." "Suuuure it was." The raptor rolled his eyes feeling the red paint drip down heftily from the side of his cheek, the two slowly walking off with their paintball guns down through the hallways of the abandoned apartment building. People wearing armour similar to him headed back to the stairways and down out of the building towards the local gym. Sarah encountered them around the third floor from the bottom, with both her and Jenny also splattered in red like FG. "Forty-seven minutes we held out," said the dolphin, "that's a lot better than last week." "Sure is," added Ashwin, "you lot are gettin' better, maybe one day we can actually last up to maybe an hour." "Normally we say THAT to men," cackled Jenny. "Heheheh, don' think oi wouldn't, oi got pure British trainin' in my legs." "Do you guys even HAVE porn where you come from?" "Yes," said FG, "it's pretty much the same as you guys except we try not to smile unless people get turned on by bad teeth." "PFFFThaha, seriously?!" "Oh yeah," replied Ashwin, "fuck, you show me some molars needin' a good cavity fill that bones me up loik nuthin' else." "Wait until the capping," murmured FG, "ohhhhhh fffffffffffffuck that's the nasty shit right there." Both of the girls looked at each other awkwardly thinking this joke went too far before Sarah mentioned audibly to her second-in-command: "This is what happens when you put people on an island too small fer their egos." "I know right," mumbled Jenny, "they get all weird and pythonesque and shit." "Oi'll 'ave you know," butted in Ashwin, "that we 'ave a long an' prosperous 'istory of making things not funny." "Yeah," replied FG, "like uhhh political humour, you never laugh at it because it's funny, it's only because you're in the one percent that actually know what they're fucking talking about." "That's wot the Germans loik too." "My dad is WAY funnier," said Jenny. "Well 'e's not German is he?" "No. But...fuck." "HAH, point to Britain!" High-fives between the elephant and the raptor before they made a salute in strangely childish enthusiasm before Sarah rolled her eyes as they finally entered the gym. It was a large recreational centre that Sarah had managed to reopen after various funding measures to reinstate it after a tragic closure from quarantine. But once it had been fumigated entirely, then destroyed and rebuilt with fully new materials, the place was a perfect sports centre for swimming, fitness. and overall training for her own little infantry group. Almost everyone that used it was part of her organisation, but there was no fee or membership demand since it was managed by her people getting funding from other places illicitly. James saw the various people he had been paintballing with from street punks to police officers all splattered in constant dapples of red and blue across their armoured fronts. Eventually after passing the rather spaciously square reception area, they reached the central gym which was an enormous basketball court of solid wood panelling big enough to play two separate games on, with a roof the height of 60 feet as Ashwin shouted: " TEEEEEEENSHUN!" Everyone lined up at his command, separating into two groups. One side was completely splattered in red whilst the other side was mostly coated in blue but neither of them were fully officers or fully street people. James saw amongst the opposite team a few well-hardened individuals with perfect military stance, such as the other five members of Ashwin's S.A.S regiment as well as the tall stridant police commissioner, a polar bear standing to attention as the pachyderm marched his way through between the ranks alongside Sarah who joined him. "Today's toime wuz forty-seven minutes...that is, before all our pro military peeps managed to gun you down loik worms in a basket. THAT...is much better than last week, but we CAN do better!" The elephant took his full authority upon everyone, his grander height making him the tallest person in the entire group of at least 400 people. "Now oi know you think that you ain't got a chance against those loik us. All these people." He gestured to the ones spattered blue. "Veterans, military professionals, from all walks of loife from the public services to bein' down an' out. No matter where they are, veterans are a voital treasure to be cherished by their country. An' fuckheads loik the A.R.M.E not only insult them, but insult all of us, serving, non-serving, and formerly served. Our li'l game in the apartments 'as been goin' pretty well. You all 'ave clearly managed to build a sense of organisational structure, thanks of course to your leader roigh' 'ere." His hand spread out towards Sarah looking dwarfed by his height and only coming up to his shoulder. "But that ain't enough. You got four more months to practice this, an' oi wanna see you manage to take us down, all us veterans an' practicing bastards of war. We trained to be ruthless, to be swift an' just...you're gonna 'ave to do a lot better if you wanna get a leg up on those A.R.M.E fucks. Next week, you'll all reconvene by our usual places when miss King shall organise a next meet. Oi won't say who wuz better than others. Oi'm not makin' this a competition between you lot. Oi just want you all...to be the best that ever wuz. Oi wanna see Chicago the way it REALLY fucking is, an' you're gonna prove to me that...next week, yer all dismissed! HOOAH!" "HOOOAAAH!"

With authority succeeded, he disbanded the large group of dissidents as they went off to the showers to wash the dirt and paint off from each other. James went off with Ashwin to the male section of the communal showers whilst Sarah went along with the rest of the females and Jenny to their section as people made talk amongst themselves babbling on both sides of the hall trembling to a crescendo full of inane fears and hopeful boasts. "I can't believe our great military strategist is this guy," said King. "Most military strategists are insane," said Jenny, "I watched your movies, I know how it goes." "Speaking of which I managed to finally find Inglourious Basterds, the last movie I needed to fit my Tarantino collection." "OOOH awesome! I love me some Tarantino, guy is my faaaaavourite. LOVED Reservoir Dogs." "Despite no dogs in it?" "Well I saw the remake with, you know, actual canines they made but-" "Yeaaaaah I'm not a big fan, kinda lose some of the um...subtleties between the human cast." The two managed to find some free showers amongst the rows of females slipping their armours off from every single species. Dozens of smooth-furred and lean-skinned bodies with breasts trickling over with thick drops of water from dimpling A-cups to the more pendulous F range. Sarah and Jenny undressed and began talking amongst themselves whilst showering off the dust and splattered paint as the dolphin was careful about her leg whilst soaping off her smooth yet wrinkled skin. Jenny was working on her legs with a fur-sensitive gel as she oiled up her short hairs slickening straight to the body as her boss asked: "You know what this Basterds movie is about right?" "Uhhh, I think you told me?" said Jenny uncertain. "But tell me again." "So there's a group of Jewish soldiers that are gonna murder the shit out of these Nazis. Typical stuff." "Nazis, again?!" "Yeah." "Ugh, jeeeez they make a fuckton of movies about these guys, were they really that big fifteen-hundred years ago?" "Apparently." "Fuck. Yanno, just...I like watchin' movies with you boss but all these fuckin' Nazis are startin' to piss me off when there's seventeen-hundred fucking movies about them, yanno I asked my dad about them cuz they always speak German in these movies, an' he got no idea what they're about." "Really? I thought he'd know." "He never was a history buff, ironically...despite being totally up on my own family history, anything outside of that or past the birth of doctor Karenn, nada, pffft, completely blank on the ol' pre-world stuff." "Well just read a history book or sumthin', actually don't. No, It's much better when you watch it with me an' then we learn by ourselves." "Iiiii dunno," said the doberman, "I get kinda bored with these movies, they're always so fuckin' slow when Nazis get involved. I dunno why, everythin' just draaaaags to a crawl an' it's always so BLUE. Like, the fuck is up with those movies either blue, or brown an' shit?" "Probably just the artistic choice. But THIS one is special, this one is fuckin' awesome, so these soldiers get all riled up an' become these special commandos, murderin' Nazis and the like. You'll like it I promise, there's a lotta knife stuff in that movie, but I won't spoil ya." "Ooooh...well when you say it like THAT, you sure know how to win me over." "Heheheh, yeah...what you think about this Ashwin guy anyway?" "He seems good. Wasn't sure about uh military people but Thomas said he was legit so I gotta trust him." "Yeah..." Sarah's voice started to falter. "He...he has opinions that you can trust, he's got a lot of good...sense on his shoulders." "You okay?" "Yeah just...nnnngh, I hate this fuckin' age I just start gettin' tired." "You really gotta push yerself a little less." "I'll stop pushin' once we're done with this A.R.M.E shit." "Sarah." She turned towards Jenny who looked at her a little fearfully. "Could you...let me take care of things and keep some of this off your back? I know you don't want me to get overburdened but you're not gonna be any help if you're too drained to fight on the big day." "I know...I just don't...wanna look like-" "You won't be. I understand. You hired me up to be your assistant for a reason, like I can handle this." "I know you can Jenny. I know...I just..." The dolphin sighed and turned towards the wall as the water hotly spritzed down her back towards the fluke dripping off her tail. "I don't want to be some old decrepit icon sitting in a fuckin' wheelchair with mothballs in my mouth. I don't wanna be respected by proxy, I wanna still be respected without the patronisation." "What do you mean?" "You ever hear those stories of those big heroes an' war veterans that end up getting killed by cancer? Fuck that shit, cuz people get all patronising despite the fact that all they've done throughout their lives was be the bravest people, these fucking legends an' the moment they get knocked down by some dumb shit they can't fight, everybody just takes their balls off an' simpering over them like...fucking pitying them! Don't PITY, don't whine about it, fucking HONOUR them, respect them, salute them, don't fawn over them like they were little kids, they were goddamn HEROES!" She slammed her fist into the linoleum tiling of the wall as Jenny said not a single thing. She understood perfectly as Sarah sighed with great exasperation. "Burns me up when that shit happens. That no matter what you did, people start fucking pitying you because you got some kinda disease that you can't punch or kill. It's like everyone you saved or every villain you killed doesn't mean a...a f-f-fucking thing." "You won't be that." Jenny walked over towards Sarah and placed a hand upon her naked shoulder. "I promise." "...how are you gonna make sure?" "Because I'll beat the shit out of anyone that sheds a tear for you IF anything happened to knock you down that way. Not that anyone will, I mean yer pretty good now, but if you ever start gettin' too old to get out of bed in the mornin'...I'll find some way of makin' people still kneel before you." "Nobody kneels before me." "They will once I'll be done with them." "Hehehahahaha...ohhhhh...thank you." She hugged her assistant tightly close, pressing her smooth silver skin against chocolate-brown fur. "Thanks fer...keepin' this old bitch alive." "Just long enough so I can inherit your money," said Jenny smirking. "That better be a joke." "Maybe it is...maybe not, hmhmhmhm!" Meanwhile the men's showers were privy to another conversation as Ashwin waded himself inbetween the rows upon rows of naked rumps and swinging penises amidst running hot water gushing down upon bodies with various levels of hair. From the smooth-skinned cetaceans and lean human boys to the hairiest of bears and also bears themselves, the raptor suddenly felt a sense of self-awareness violently hit him at the sight of dozens of different male sheaths, foreskins, and the odd uncut member swishing back and forth. "OI JIM!" cried Ashwin still dressed. "FREE SPOT OVER 'ERE CUMMON, 'OP IN!" "OKAYYY! ...fuck, why am I nervous about this, fuckit." He took his step in stride and walked through the masses of naked flesh, the sounds of raucous laughter and nudging winks concerning each other's sizes in both humorous mockery and impressive state turning into a blur behind FG. The two found their spot and undressed their armour from their bodies giving James the first look of his friend naked as he bit his lip uncomfortably. "Wot?" "Huh?" "Wotsat look for? You seen me knob." "Yeah like thirty years ago." "Well, it's just bigger now, so wot? Oi thought you loik cock anyway wot's the problem?" "I dunno! I...I-i-i don't know, I always feel a little weird showering with guys." "Heh, mate you'd 'ave a field day at the psychiatrist." "Yeah, I already did so that's not something I wanna do again." "Oh...heh well, you ever told 'em wot we did together?" "Uhhhh...no, why would I?" "Jus' curious." Ashwin dropped his clothes off completely to reveal his naked body. The raptor gulped silently before gasping with awe at the powerful musculature. Thick robust arms that could crush a fridge, a hefty belly full of muscle as shown by the exceptional six-pack of abs formed from over years of raw military training with legs the size of tree trunks down to the stubbed giant round feet with white thick toes of ivory. But what attracted James' attention most were two things. One of which was his friend's incredibly hung length, which to an elephant was practically standard with 7.5 inches of flaccid uncut cock. Even James at his most erect was smaller than him. The other thing he noticed on Ashwin's body was the deep unquestionable scars burned into his chest, rather thickly as if fire had scorched and flensed across them to blackening marks in very precise measurements. His arms were burned to black across his swollen elbows almost to the point of being charred and deadened completely of their nerves. James said nothing and slowly pulled off his clothes in turn to reveal his own body before him as Ashwin looked out of curiosity. Lean brown scales now turning pale with age underneath the warm waters sparkling across his limbs which Ashwin noted the left being oddly discoloured slightly compared to the rest of James' body. Bite marks upon his arms and legs, burns to his chest, a thick scar that healed over from his tailbase up along his back as the elephant chuckled with sympathy. "Heheheh...looks loik we both been through sum shit uh?" "Y-...y-yeah." "did...did sumthin' 'appen to yer arm?" "Yeah. Lost it. Shotgun." "Fuck. That's...that's-are you...ohhhh jeez fuckin' Brahman mate." "What happened to you? Those scars don't look like they were an accident." "These?" He puffed out his chest glistening sleek within the hot water as he turned towards him. "Mexico...drug lords don' really care for big boys loik me, so they uh...well, thought it best to teach me a lesson." "Shiiiiit...that's...wow, dude that's rough." "No' as bad as you losin' an arm, oi mean fuck, shit, mate that's harsh oi just...oi'm...oi'm sorry." "Heh...we're both sorry huh? You don't have to tell me about the others if you don't want to." "Only if you tell me about yers." "Really?" "Yeah." Ashwin lowered his head smiling with a tired look in his sunken eyes. "You seem to understand this sort o' thing, despite other experiences. Let's 'ave a li'l chat abou' things, wotsat scar over yer tail?" "Guy with a sword slashed me up, whilst I was learning how to use one." "Heh...roigh'." "The bite marks...well...some creatures attacked me, humans that went all crazy like uh...zombies, haha." "An' the burn marks?" "Oh god I can't even remember how many times I've been shot at or burned by some ass with fire, I did fight terrorists once. They were the ones that put me in a warehouse to bleed to death so." "God...burn marks 'ere?" He showed his elbows blacker than night. "Oil rig explosion, North Sea." "Jesus." "Don' worry, oi can't even feel any pain in those anymore so makes it good fer elbowin' some cunt in the face haha......that's not even the worst of it." "Huh?" The elephant turned his back on him exposing the truest scars of his past. A riveting tapestry of deep horrid scars that cut deep enough into the flesh that James almost thought that he could see the actual muscle, were it not for the fact they had closed themselves long long ago to thick purpling mountains across the contours of his flesh. "H-hhhhholy shit," gasped FG, "what...who the fuck did-" "Terrorist camp in Alaska. Not a pretty soigh'." "Wow...really?" "Mmhmm. Kidnapped me after layin' a trap, wuz a bit young an' foolish...oi got a new scar on me put every day straight on me back into tallies for 'ow long oi'd been in there. Twenty-seven days if you were curious, forgot wot food tasted loik until me friends got me out." "Jeez...that's awful." "It wuz." "...It's worse when you're cold isn't it?" The raptor started showing a solemn look in his eyes clearest green as Ashwin nodded. "I mean...you forget that you can eat after the second week, but then you just feel like your stomach trying to devour itself and you start trying to convince yourself it already has just to spare you the hassle." "Y-...y-yeah...actually yeah tha-um...shit." Suddenly they turned uncomfortable, the pachyderm rubbing his arm gingerly at James' unflinching memory. "H-how did you-" "I nearly died in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, that had no food, barely any warmth, I was only lucky it was in the mountains full of snow so I could just melt and drink it. That's where I lost my arm." "Fuck's sake...oi just...god...James oi'm...so sorry." "Why?" "Y-y-you don't deserve this." "And you do?" "Oi take risks cuz it's my job. Not yours, you...you shouldn't be loik this." "I didn't wanna be like this. Now, I am, after all this I'm definitely hanging up my blades. I just get so...really tired of fighting against stuff every day of my life." "Heh...glad you at least got the chance to retire." "What and you don't?" "Nah. Not yet." Ashwin turned towards the wall of the shower letting everything pour across his large ears flapping softly to cool himself a little. "Still got me mission 'ere...then oi might consider things if my bosses let me." "I hope they do...that's if you want it. You got anyone back home, girlfriend, boyfriend?" "Oi'm not authorised to answer that." "Wait what?" "Sorry mate." The elephant flashed a grin nodding with nothing further on the subject. "Can only tell you me name, birthdate, blood group an' religion. Thassit, that's all the S.A.S let me tell ya." "But what about the whole mission, or the fact you left an orphanage?" "The mission is cuz we're together as oi'm assisting a guerrilla force namely Sarah's li'l group. The orphanage stuff is wot you already know so it's not exactly new stuff now innit." "Huh. Okay well, tell me what you're authorised to tell me then." "Ashwin Venkatanarasimha. December 24th, 3485. D-Positive. Hindu." They met again in the secret briefing room down below Sarah's tavern only two days later after the training exercise, as James stood next to her awaiting for his chance. The raptor saw five others also present including Jenny, Ashwin, a polar bear in a thick brown cloak, a male black human and the primate chimp that he recognised from the spare parts store with the old clunky TVs. The elephant just introduced himself with a stern authoritative salute to the rest of his fellow conspirators as Sarah nodded before turning towards James. "Introduce yourself, in any way you wish." The raptor stepped forwards. "James Campbell. Former experiment, former assistant. Took me a long time to get back here but...I've never been more ready to fight than ever before." "Your codename is FG. Next, you, introduce." The polar bear came next. "Thomas Birgisson. Chief commissioner of the Chicago Police. Served in the US Army for ten years and ready to come back from retirement...to take back this city." "Your codename is McClane. Now you." The human strided towards the table with a firm salute. "Marion Osho. Lieutenant of the Chicago Police, Canaryville Division. Best shooter in the force, ranked in the ninety-eighth percentile of most accurate and steady of aim in six different weapons." "Your codename is Callahan. Next up." The ape waddled forth with a swagger. "Benjamin Skliva. The best hacker in the fuckin' city, you need sum shit destroyed from the inside, then I'm yer man. Spent all me life tinkering with things I shouldn't have and now it's time to do it even more." "Your codename is Hunt. Now that our newest member of the team knows all of you, we can begin our full preparations concerning Operation Nakatomi. Ash and McClane have been training our forces to be of adequate skill and means against 'the Armee' forces once we engage with them. Hunt, how is Neo coming along?" "Fine an' dandy, it just needs a few more tweaks to give it an extra push, maybe I can have it extend over three instead of two city blocks but we'll see. Definitely two at the minimum." "Good. McClane, how are your squad?" "Impeccable," said the bear, "we have everything slowly memorising in the weeks following up to this, but rest assured when the time comes we shall commence with utmost professionalism. My troops will not tolerate failure in the slightest, I have made certain of that." "Excellent." "I can't believe this is all really happening," added FG. "I mean it's...so...unreal that both of you are joining up for all this." "This is but a mutual agreement," replied Birgisson, "much like the unofficial agreement that I be Santa for the district children of Canaryville's populace. It's not something I publicly claim, nor shall it ever will be but I understand that what is always lawful, may not always be the right thing for the city." "Law and chaos don't mean nothing," said Sarah, "it's never been those two against each other, not in this city I promise you. It's always been good versus evil, and for as long as I've known people, it's that law and chaos are just a different shade towards painting on good or evil. You can wear a uniform, you can wave a gun, it doesn't matter what you put on or what you shoot with. It's the person beneath the clothes that matter, the one pulling the trigger cuz if they're evil or not good somehow, then they'll exist anywhere in society. That's not a reflection of the uniform, that's the fault of that person and whatever society allowed that person to exist freely." "Agreed, if we are to make this plan work, then we are to work together in fullest synchronicity and practice utmost secrecy. This very operation is strictly off the record, and whatever fallout may happen with media we shall solve it our own way. Do not worry." "Right," replied FG. "And uh...thank you for helping us." The bear nodded with firm resolution as Sarah added: "We got one chance at this, and in four months time it MUST go perfectly. Once the security rotas slip straight back to zero root, THAT'S when we strike. We stand here, as both men and women of lawful police and criminal elements, out of sheer desperation to hold this city together, trying everything we could and though we are apart in our different ideals and standings of what is truly justice...we both agree that this scourge infesting our home has gone too deep to allow any further. You." She pointed over towards Skliva. "Are the beatin' heart of Chicago. You." Her finger pointed straight towards Birgisson. "Are the sound mind of a city. Both of you...must strengthen your own resolves to do EVERYTHING fer your city. Fight fer it. Bleed fer it. Die fer it. Not because you wanna get paid, not because you wanna be proven right. But because you want people to be free. Both of you may be on different sides, but you fight for the same thing. Justice. Freedom. Hope for a future. And I want us to keep that in mind when we go out, and prove to each other that we deserve to stand together not as enemy forces standing on opposite sides of the law, but as two sides of the same coin joining together in what is truly justice. For our city. For our hope. For our future. Dismissed." The specialist force began to separate to their usual places as they began waiting for the day of judgement. Four months later of intense training routines in apartment buildings and recreating maneuvers, it would come not with a great explosion, nor with a whimpering in the night or even a static call screaming across the city. It would start in a small bar just three miles north of Sarah King's place. A bar that to all who gazed outside of it was a completely unassuming fancy place, a neon black bulb-lit room with monochrome features and the perfect place to let alcohol slowly drown your sense of existence in an infinite blackness. At least until the sound of someone roaring at the entrance that separated their world from the outside reality.

"GET DOWN!" Shots fired down in West Chicago Avenue, the door was kicked in as bullets tore across the walls of the establishment whilst people ducked underneath their tables. It was a moderately classy place, not too fine to throw people off by the threat of high prices but not low enough to dull people's heads with garbage pop music. A few badly-dressed gang members walked forwards to plant a gun in the face of the bartender, all of them canines of various breeds. "ALL THE MONEY IN THIS PLACE! NOW!" Panic rose from the bartender as he stumbled backwards, a lean-looking human with dark-amber skin nodding panicked as he went to cash register. People kept crouched in fearful hiding as the dogs carefully began to switch their handguns' clips with paint markings on them. Eventually the register was opened after several minutes of frenzied struggle before the sounds of police cars came racing down. "SHIT! MARK, GO START THE ENGINE!" A pale labrador ran out the door whilst they took the money from the register, keeping the gun trained on the bartender as the rest of the staff hid in the back. The dogs ran out into the street and quickly began to hop into their van bold in blue with blazing paint of fire across its front. Two police cars came racing down from the corner ten seconds later as the chase began tearing down southwards as the police radio came through. "All units, this is Patrol Five-Seven-Two, in pursuit of a blue Renault Trafic heading down North Bishop Street off of Chicago Avenue, registration Alfa Victor Two, Zulu Foxtrot Nine, repeat." The sound of a helicopter filled the sky above the northeast sector of Chicago. The sirens came screaming down the lane tearing its wheels as the hunt began for its prey. The van was souped-up to give an extra boost of a chase, tearing itself down southwardsin the form of a souped-up van with blazing painted fire across its blue-bodied front as people kept fiercely out of the way. The chopper was following above with a spotlight on the scene despite working for a news channel with a clear white 4 on the side of its red-painted body. The route they took was complicated enough to keep the police sharp, forcefully screeching down into smaller roads and trying to lose the trail despite the boxier larger vehicle. Turning fast on West Ohio Street westwards, the gang members saw that the two cop vehicles were relentless, never giving up with no more than two hundred yards ever apart between them. Shrieking blue and white, the Chicago PD were forced to turn once again south onto North Ashland Avenue, then heading back east via West Hubbard Street. From the sky above it looked surprisingly coherent a car chase, never taking the longest roads and always turning its way into the smaller streets, yet never out of view long enough for the cameraman, reporter and pilot. A well-flossed sheep in a red blazer was reporting. "This is Anna Davis reporting live with a robbery in progress. A small gang fired into the Beauty Bar along West Chicago Avenue, before the police arrived on the scene to chase them off. It is unclear as to whether they have stolen anything or if anyone was hurt, but what we do know is that the vehicle is making its way trying to lose the two police now in pursuit along West Hubbard Street. As you can see this van, surprisingly mobile through modifications, is trying desperately to outdo the Chicago PD by creating a convoluted escape route." The helicopter kept its distance from above as the camera zoomed in on the van, tearing along the street as the shots were soon exchanged between the two sides. One of the dogs fired out of the window unleashing half his clip, a human officer trying to fire back with his own beretta. The dog got lucky, the camera catching the shot of the human spasming with a spotch of blood on his shirt before being dragged back into his seat by his partner driving. But he kept onwards until the van turned its way into North May Street directly south once again before an even sharper turn heading east intowards West Fulton Market. "The driver is turning reckless, if anyone out there is listening in, DO NOT go near the vicinity of West Fulton Market, the police are trying to keep up, one of the officers was wounded in a small exchange of bullets an-there they go again! The other police car has managed to overtake his partner an-OHH!" Another gunfight as one of the dogs pulled out much farther than he should out of the window with what appeared to be a rifle glued in his hands. The officer in the other vehicle fired back with his own rifle and with a bang the dog suddenly flumped violently forwards out of the window, falling into the road and crumpling gruesomely with a reddish smear. "Oh god...it's...i-i-it's unclear how many gang members they were, but our team saw three of them exiting the bar, we did not see any larger weapons on them, they must have been inside the van. The police are keeping up, they just turned south into North Sangamon Street and now, the...the buildings are getting a little high so we need to pull back and try to get a better-" "ATTENTION." A voice came shrieking in through a transmitted intercom with lights shining down violently sharp upon the side of the chopper. "YOU ARE ENTERING RESTRICTED AIRSPACE, IDENTIFY YOURSELF." The sheep sneered at the cameraman, a cervine who nodded steadily keeping his camera trained on any sight of the police as Anna moved over to the chopper's intercom. "This is a Channel 4 chopper, registration two-four-eight, five-seven-one, we are in the middle of a car chase reporting and they're heading south to-" "YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY IN THIS AIRSPACE, THE A.R.M.E WILL TAKE CARE OF THINGS FROM HERE." "This is my JOB, repeat, I have to cover this footage, the police are currently chasing somebody down the streets so-" "YOU WILL LEAVE THIS AIRSPACE IMMEDIATELY. CONTINUE WEST UNTIL YOU ARE PAST THE HIGHWAY, YOU ARE NOT IN ANY POSITION TO ARGUE." "There is a CRIME in progress god DAMMIT, I have the RIGHT, the authority to report any criminal activity, if YOU wanna deal with it, then be my guest but I am the one that's supposed to make YOU people look good!" "DO NOT RESIST. YOU WILL BE PUNISHED SEVERELY IF YOU DO NOT OBEY OUR ORDERS, THIS IS RESTRICTED AIRSPACE. PLEASE LEAVE THE VICINITY OF THE A.R.M.E OR ELSE YOU WILL BE FORCED." "FINE, PUSH US AWAY, GAG US IF YOU WANT, YOU'RE NOT GETTING IN THE WAY OF MY BIG BREAK! Jerry, fucking film this shit, I'm not leaving until I get this scoop." She moved away from the intercom as the human pilot nodded severely beneath his helmet, knowing exactly what to do as she came back into shot of the camera with mic at the ready. The 'Armee' chopper could be seen heading closer as they glanced from the corner of their eyes a destructive force of military weaponry, solid black with the slenderness of a viper and armed to the teeth with bullpup chaingun underneath the cockpit, and missile launchers beneath the wings. "THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING." "This is Anna Davis, we have just entered restricted airspace but we are NOT leaving until this story is over. We refuse to be gagged or mistreated and when Chicago cries out, we listen. We cry out with them and wherever there is injustice, wherever there is crime and cruelty practiced in the NAME of authority and lawkeeping, we'll be there...to fight BACK. We now return to the scene of the van being chased by police, having robbed the Beauty Bar on West Chicago Avenue and making its way down along West Madison Street after a long and twisting car cha-" "YOU WILL LEAVE THIS AIRSPACE. NOW." "And I think, at the end of the day-" "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR TRESPASSING." "This city...is about to explode."

Anna resisted every instinct possible to smirk cruelly as the camera turned away towards the car chase heading down West Madison Street. She nodded to the pilot whilst out of shot and they turned back the intercom before she placed something against the transceiver. An odd little gadget the size of a cigar case with the wires of an old dial-up modem as a tiny shrill beep came whistling through down into the intercom which was only slightly annoying to them. But to the A.R.M.E choppers, it was a sound that opened their ears with violent screeching transmissions of junk data that deafened them temporarily. It was a sound that was so piercing to their senses that they couldn't even hear the explosions coming down from the southeast, right at the very foot of the A.R.M.E headquarters when a van bold and blue came screeching down the lane with its doors wide open. Two police cars came soon after, all three of which were packed with enough explosives to level a subway station. It was in that moment an entire swarm came rushing down straight onto the very front of the A.R.M.E's front plaza, a wide brass-coloured front with eight thick glass doors automatic towards the interior. A grand building that reached up to 70 floors slanting into a sharp angle from the 45th floor upwards, it sent the very image of a sword broken and piercing up to the heavens as each floor upwards became thinner and less filled with rooms. Glass windows burned brilliant with amber from the fires scorching down beneath as the enforcement squadrons came surging out to defend their property. At the same time, unexpectedly, there came a massive swarm of vehicles from the shadows of every building within a 500-yard radius. Rusted old wheels and half-manageable police cruisers came roaring in as the entire place exploded into a firefight. Psuedo-military forces poured from the building shrieking to put the fires out which swarmed the front entrance, clouding it in piles of smoke as people struggled to evacuate the building. Screams of panic came from the sound of gunfire pouring down upon the scene of the crashed cars as bullets flooded into the sturdily-armed junta who came out blazing with superior weaponry. Anyone who was not armed desperately fleed away from the carnage, but never were they aimed at intentionally by anyone on both sides. All along the other side of the plaza, a barricade of vehicles old and new faced the A.R.M.E's security with dozens of gang members and police officers unifying as one ruthless offensive. Boys in blue alongside ragged girls in jeans, policewomen standing by boisterous punk men with handguns and assault rifles, half of which had been already pilfered from the many corpses of A.R.M.E goons in previous years. They had nowhere near half as much armour as the security, and the cars would only last long enough before bullets came puncturing through the thick weakening steel, but they had their numbers to last. Burning wreckage made not good cover for the guards who swiftly had people managing to put it out, at least halfway enough to a burning smoulder to take cover in the entrance hall of the main building lobby. The police advanced along with Sarah's gang covering each other and keeping eyes out for any interlopers from other places. Blood spilt easily across blue and black, male and female bodies dropping from sudden wounds of zipping bullets fierce or straight shots to the head killing them on the spot. The plaza was in chaos, brass coating with red glinting in the evening rays of 6:30pm. It wasn't just the ground force to concern themselves with when snipers were setting up at the windows of the A.R.M.E headquarters, popping shots to kill those safely behind any cars trying to protect their stand. Police officers slumped against their vehicles with half their heads exploding sharply, the criminals and begrudging lost of the city ending the same way with mouths agape and eyes bleeding into their cracked-open skulls. The snipers however felt the same fate upon them very swiftly when unseen riflemen from a distant building across the road. Black steel glistened faintly in the darkened windows opposite of the A.R.M.E's central base as three men and two women of unknown species and dark true military clothing set up on different floors ducking in and out of cover. The special ops team was in place, moving between windows like targets at a carnival game in pitch black, the snipers soon decimated quietly with suppressing fire that cracked into their windows. Blood festooned across the glass, dripping off the goggles of armed goons with heads thickly caved into their helmets by piercing skull-aimed shots from high-velocity shots. With covering fire engaged, another vehicle came bursting from the streets before slamming straight through the entrance itself, shattering glass with ruthless velocity into the main reception area. Five A.R.M.E members were collided into and either became crushed underneath the wheels or headed straight into the wall to snap their spines completely back with a crackling thud. A people carrier with a capacity of eight, with sleek spoilers and a wide front came screeching to a halt within the brass-coated entrance hall amidst luscious plants between sofas to wait at. The civilians were either hiding or already had fled from the scene as several males and females piled out of the vehicle, four of them police, four who were not one of them being Jenny Liebowitz. With guns armed and ready involving three assault rifles, two shotguns and three handgun-wielders, along with three of them carrying heavy rucksacks, the doberman cried out with firm command. "ALRIGHT, LET'S DO THIS WE GOT A FIVE MINUTE WINDOW LET'S MOVE IT! PABLO TEAM, KEEP THE STAIRS COVERED, ESCOBAR TEAM FOLLOW ME!"

The small gang of eight stomped their way through towards the backrooms of reception, the four police members keeping eyes locked on to the stairways, one for use by visitors and one by private members of staff. A few unarmed workers were cowering and screaming, but they were ignored since they made no efforts to attack as Jenny and her small group soon found the maintenance elevator. One of her crew, an aardvark with long claws, came forwards with a small belt of tools to break open the elevator's locked card swiping panel and cautiously rewired it in order to force a reset of its security settings. More of 'the Armee' came pouring down from the stairs as they were fired upon by heavy artillery, shotguns blasting at close range to decimate any that were seen. Soon the stairwells were turning into a bloodbath, piling with bodies blown back against the wall as they were forced to take cover. One Chicago PD officer, a lion, was unlucky enough to get a shotgun blast to the shoulder and half his neck, gasping with sucking breaths from his gaping wound before falling to the floor shuddering in present mortem. Jenny had one of her own gang members cover for him to keep the pressure on, a buffalo stocky enough to wield a shotgun with little fear of recoil as he pumped back into the stairs with gusto keeping suppressing fire up. The panel soon gave in after enough rewiring and after a blank swiping card was used, the small elevator opened up as Jenny, the aardvark and a police officer wolf jumped in. "YOU'RE CLEAR!" she shouted. "GET BACK TO THE VAN!" The doors closed as the four remaining fighters started to retreat back to the people carrier to use it for cover amidst their way back. One unlucky gang member, a pale human female, took half a clip of an assault rifle into her spine ripping her back apart, her ragged clothes splattering red in moments as she fell stumbling in her escape. There were three left, with only halfway the journey left to get back to their friends as the two remaining officers, Asian male human and female cow with thick rucksacks, began unloading a small volley of grenades into each stairwell to further decimate the oncoming horde. Jenny felt the explosions rumbling from above her head as the lift descended downwards into the dark basement regions of the A.R.M.E headquarters. The wolf was on point the moment the doors opened with an assault rifle as he peered down its scope, the long stone hallway trembling with vibrations of a distant power generator. The aardvark and doberman both only had heavy handguns as the wolf gave the signal to move forwards without saying anything, motioning with his hand. Following deeper into the reaches of maintenance, there came a crossroads as he made the gesture to halt, checking every corner he could before his ears picked up where the hum was loudest. Turning left, Jenny kept the rear guard up with handgun ready and pointing as they moved slowly. It was not long before they found the central power hall where two enormous generators thrummed and pulsated with constant energy. It was loud enough that the workers and few guards within had not heard the intruders approach as the wolf capped all three of the armed men in the back of their heads before anyone even realised. "WHA-WHO ARE YOU?!" "OH JESUS!" "SHUT UP!" roared Jenny. "You call for help, you fucking die, now GET ON THE GROUND, HANDS BEHIND YER HEAD!" The maintenance crew obeyed and slowly went on their knees before she ripped every one of their radios' cords apart with her glistening knife, holstering her gun and slicing the transceiver wiring to render them useless. One of them, a male human with bleached features decided to be much more brave thinking this was his time to shine as the moment she came close, he pulled out his own knife in the form of a switchblade. But he never got the chance to brandish it fully when Jenny grabbed his arm and plunged her own blade right into his throat, digging violently into the sternum. "GARYYYYY!" "HHRR- RHRHHRRHKHH! _" The worker slumped forwards only when the doberman allowed him to, pulling her blade out of his throat with a bloody spray across her face as she wiped her knife clean on the human's back. "That...was a warning, if any of you dumkops try to be brave like your friend Gary here with his little bitch of a shiv. Now _GET ON YOUR FUCKING KNEES! _" She kicked one of them in the back of the head for emphasis as they did so dutifully, far too frightened by the blood-streaked puddle underneath Gary's body with his blade still gripped in his hand. The wolf kept his rifle aimed on them whilst Jenny and the aardvark went over to the main operations board as one of the workers asked: "A-a-aren't you...police?!" "Don't speak," said the officer, "you'll be safe, I promise. So long as none of you try to disobey us." "Wh-what the fuck is going on?! Wh-what, what the FUCK man?!?" "Something that's been a long time coming. You're not armed, that keeps you safe because I don't hurt civilians that don't fight. So DON'T...make me start reconsidering." The doberman set to work, the aardvark assisting as they opened up the main power's panel next to one of the generators. Walking round the room once had them realise that there was a panel on each generator as she walked back towards the crew held hostage, focusing on a meek-looking cheetah. "You. Tell me how to shut down the power." "Wh-wh-what?!" "Tell me." Jenny grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt. "Or I'm gonna make you commit suicide by cop when I jam this blade inside your hand and make you run at my friend here...and let's remember, if you don't have a weapon on you...that makes you safe. So tell me..." She grabbed at one of his hands and scraped the knife's tip against the palm just enough to make it bleed. "A-AAAAAGH! ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT FUCKIN' JESUS, YOU HAVE TO SYNCHRONISE IT! B-both, generators shut down at the same time to cause the p-power to go off!" "What's the sequence?! You better not be lying to me or I will make your death into a FUCKING HASHTAG!" "TWO-SEVEN-ONE! _TWO SEVEN ONE PLEASE G-GOD DOOON'T!" "Good." The doberman pushed him down to let him tend to his bleeding hand as she walked over to the left generator's panel as the aardvark stayed on the right. He heard everything as they nodded to each other inputting 2 then 7 before making a counting gesture with their fingers. Three. Two. 1. Blackout. The sound of a beast sleeping with a howling moan as power shut almost completely from the building. In the midst of darkness, there came the sound of something north of the plaza half a mile away, hidden within Prairie Alley. A trembling purr from a small but wily beast, growling as a light shone bleakly across its walls. Waiting for the hunt. A voice came through from out of a police radio. "Ash here, the lights are out." "Good," said Sarah's voice from in the dark, "it's time to lock and load. All heroes report in, this is Ripley, no real monsters, over." "It's Ash, groovy, over." "Callahan, feelin' lucky, over." "McClane, yippee-ki-ay, over." "Hunt here, red light, over." "You ready to lead us in Ash?" "Got everythin' set up, s'a nice view out 'ere, come on up. Yer room's ready." "Good, once we're settled in, we'll get you guys through. You ready FG?" "Always," said FG in front of her. "You don't need to know the route. You give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours. No matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that,and you're on your own." Sarah slowly cracked a wide long grin of a gleeful rapture, nodding as she giggled like a schoolgirl. "Khhhheeehehehehehehehehahaha ha ha ha ha...ohhhh...you know just the right thing to say to me kid, now let's MOVE OUT!" "HIT IT!" Something roared with the strength of a lion underneath them as they tore from the darkness, a sunset glistening putrid across the bay to the east as James revealed himself. Both him and Sarah sitting behind him were strapped to the nines with not only their standard weapons, but also packing an assault rifle each by a strap against their bodies with flak armour, helmets reshaped to fit and police radios attached. All whilst on a silver dream machine of a Triumph 900 Speed Triple freshly airbrushed with a striking cursive name on the side of it. She had been christened as "Leiah", shimmering crimson with amber tones in the sunset of Chicago. Tearing his way down along North Clinton Street, the raptor revved up his engine towards the A.R.M.E headquarters. He could see the building up ahead like a spear tip now completely black without power as he swerved between cars that were racing back and forth in their own panic to escape the scene. James focused all his instincts on evading every car, floating or non-floating that came screeching towards him, ducking to and fro with heavy turns of his beloved bike but never for more than a second. Sarah's extra weight at the back made things more challenging as he tried not to completely topple over onto his side. But he persevered onwards, keeping himself down the centre of the road until reaching the intersection with West Washington Boulevard. A large harbour crane had been set up with a sturdy truck behind it that led in turn to a window cleaner's platform. Nobody seemed to notice it made the perfect ramp with all the roadwork signs put around its position as the driver of both vehicles gave a thumbs up to Sarah out from their seats. "IT'S ALL YOURS BOSS!" "GOOD JOB, PUNCH IT KID!" James burned his wheels straight up along the steel crane's back at the best incline possible for his motorbike and the moment he was on the window cleaning platform, he turned straight into the open window right next to it on the 20th story of a building to let. Empty as it was, it gave him plenty of room to screech between pillar supports as he found the stairway to take him upwards. Long wooden slats had already been placed down to allow as ramps for the bike to ascend without problem, the stairs wide enough to allow him to turn round on each new floor. Once he had reached the 32nd floor, he raced across the still-empty space of the building as he saw the steel ramp that had been placed just outside an open window welded to the strange triangular jutting of the building's architecture. He wasted not a single space of momentum as he screeched his tires underneath furiously pushing everything that "Leiah" had in its engine. The A.R.M.E headquarters laid straight ahead of them. Sarah braced herself with a grim determination knowing that months of planning and simulated stunts just like this would make certain this plan would succeed. The littlest voice of doubt was given a curbstomp at the back of her head upon FG shouting: "HOLD ON!" He managed to hit the ramp. The air welcomed him with its open infinite arms as they flew straight across the street, a shadowing black blip across the darkening long Illinois sky. James let go of his handlebars the moment he felt the ground leave them as Sarah grabbed his arms to pull them tightly underneath her own straight behind FG. He had never relied on his nanos more importantly than in that moment before a sudden shriek burst through the air. "_ WUUUULD! _" Pure blasting typhoons came spiralling from his hands propelling the vehicle straight towards the A.R.M.E head building. Once she was certain on their path through the air Sarah pulled out her assault rifle as soon as she saw the window that was fast approaching and fired half a clip spreading across the glass as James ducked hard against the steel of his bike. Sounds shattered through as glass cracked and weakened, the world came crashing back down upon their feet as they managed to penetrate the building trapped in darkness except for low natural lighting from outside.

The damaged window crumpled like soggy paper as the motorcycle slalomed straight into the 28th floor of the enemy's base, thudding into a large office break room as he parked next to the small kitchen and coffee machines. Workers that had not managed to escape soon began fleeing from their offices with screaming panic, shrieks resounding throughout the air as the dolphin reloaded her assault rifle and kept watch at the door seeing a few guards remaining behind just for this eventuality. She wasted no time gunning them down before they even realised from which direction they had broken into. The raptor ran over to the window and waved towards the building they had just leaped from before moving out of harm's way to hear something firing distant from what sounded like a rocket launcher before clunking violently hard onto the floor. A giant climbing hook the size of his head attached to a long steel wire which he swiftly picked up and latched onto the fridge of the break room welded in place. Soon shadows came across the open window as four people landed hard within a minute's space between them. A black male human, a polar bear, a chimpanzee and an elephant who was last, all of whom were wearing helmets. "Alright," said Sarah, "phase one went perfectly, now...we gotta get upstairs an' find the security office, McClane, Ash, you two are on point." "Roger," said the bear and the elephant. "Hunt, stay close to me. FG, Callahan, you protect the rear." "Yes ma'am," said the raptor and human. "Let's go!" Thomas and Ashwin stormed out first taking point, heavy assault rifles of military brand glistening in the low-level light as the sound of boots came stomping up from the right. The office lit up in violent seizure-inducing lights flashing white with every bullet that tore across the space, computers crackling and exploding as frail casualties of assault as the 'Armee' goons fell one after another. The precision of both military professionals working in unison cut down the small wave incoming as they dodged behind larger desks, alternating their firing shots to disorient incoming enemies. With bad lighting and irregular but well-timed suppressing fire, twelve A.R.M.E members were brutally cut down into a pile of bloodied armoured flesh at the entrance to the office. Ashwin hurled out a grenade landing at the door to make certain it was well-cleared as the violent blast sent out screams of another three more people that had been hiding behind the doorway. Birgisson motioned the others to follow once the coast was clear as they made straight for the public stairway once they reloaded. Out on the actual main floor, the wide open space was both a boon and a curse for the invading force knowing that enemies could come out of any doorway with Sarah and Skliva in the middle of the group protected on both sides. James and Osho soon spotted some extra guards coming up from other offices as they began firing down, ripping the small unit of six into shreds before they had a chance to point and shoot. James did not even get the opportunity before Osho's eagle-eyed firing came straight for their throats and tearing across their sternums, gunning each of the rear guard down with pinpoint accuracy. He was almost unaware of the other two guards that came from their left if it wasn't for Sarah shouting: "GET DOWN!" Peppering one of them dead in the stomach with a bloody burst firing, Ashwin soon joined in with his own destructive covering fire as they swiftly moved towards the stairwell together. Scaling the steps one at a time, Thomas and Venkatanarasimha were on pure focus from start to finish almost regressing back into a zen-like state of pure authority. Three guards were waiting right beside the doorway of the 30th floor, but the moment one of them pulled out a shotgun, Ashwin bitchslapped the barrel from his face before it fired and suddenly thrust his head forwards, goring the enemy with his tusk that shredded violent up into the guard's throat. Birgisson handled the other two by grabbing their heads as his rifle hung slung against his chest strap, cracking their helmets together before shoving one of them hard to the side of the door whilst the other he punched thrice in the neck, snapping the spine sharply with his brute ursine strength. Sarah took care of the one that fell by courtesy of "Louise", her lone double-barrelled shotgun sawn-off and shredding the face to resemble an Italian dinner gone horribly wrong. Ascending further on, they knew that the security office around this region of the building was going to be well-guarded. They were not disappointed upon reaching floor 39, by the sight of thirty-seven armoured goons keeping watch on all points of entry, including windows scattered across the entire floor. A large room with several pillars, desks, partitions and doorways into other offices, the six intruders mutually all pulled grenades from their vests of flak armour and hurled them into different directions where groups were waiting for attack. They would be seen the moment they did coming out of the doorway but they would clear out fast as possible from seeing grenades clack into the floor. "GET BACK GET BACK!" Six furious explosions rumbled throughout the entire floor blasting out the windows by a pure expulsion of air in a shrieking cataclysm, enough to disorient a few brief seconds the guards' timing before the invaders came through hiding into the partitions and pillar struts before they opened fire onto them. Ashwin and Thomas were first to fire back with precision, taking three enemies down each in a precise spread whilst James and Sarah took down two each. Skliva was the least capable of firing but he made certain to contribute with another two grenades flung into the mass frenzy of armoured foes. Detonating a dual blast slightly left and right of the centre hall, three men were killed and two were badly wounded before Sarah took them out in a brutal ending before needing to reload. It was then they saw two heftier enemies with much thicker and longer rifles stepping forth ahead of the remaining groups that Ashwin knew instantly what it was. "PULL BACK, NOW!"

On his command all six of them pushed themselves against the walls next to their hiding spots as something blooped harmlessly through the air, until it hit the doorway of the stairs to rock the very foundation with a trembling burst of flames. Mortar and steel blasted across the floor as they sent out another violent shock from their grenade launchers blasting open one of the partitions that Sarah, FG and Osho were hiding behind. Ashwin took the chance to hurl a grenade and fire back to move their fire away from the vulnerable others, allowing FG time to retort with his own blasting weapon. "FUCK THIS! _" Managing to pull his nanos binding back into his right arm he stood fiercely defiant with cannon outstretched of shining green before firing a golden light. Strange shimmering ball of incandescent plasma, destroying the sternum and throat of the grenade launcher-wielding foe as his partner staggered with shock at the melted blood-crackling body now crumpling forwards. It was just enough a distraction for Ashwin and Thomas to come out at once and destroy through the second launcher's armour with a combined assault, switching out their rifles with shotguns. Seven shots from both of the hard-hitting infiltrators tore down the hard-armoured front to crush and sever apart by sheer force of velocity buckshot, hammering a dozen times into the chest until blood vomited from his throat. With heart crushed by his own body he fell as both ursine and pachyderm grabbed for the grenade launchers smiling cruelly. "FUCK RETREAAAAT!" No one survived the next coming onslaught as fire burst in several controlled explosions across the 36th floor, sweeping out the enemies of which only thirteen managed to escape heading up towards a second stairway across the hall to regroup and clean their wounds. Sarah strided forth with Skliva close to her as they stood in front of the security office with its biometric scanner for eyes. "Got a way to break that?" asked Sarah. "Thanks to Ash I sure do." The ape pulled from his jacket a small touchscreen phone with a transmitter added to it as it suddenly filled its screen with garbage data, streaming in thousands of coding from its seemingly viral programming. The rest of the intruders stood ready to fire on anyone that was coming, a few guards from the lower floors managing to hoist themselves up from the stairs only to be blasted down by the grenade launcher that Birgisson wielded. Bodies charred blacker than the armour they wore soon crackling of fire and broken bones as they rolled back down the stairwell before Skliva added: "You wanna keep that down a bit?" "I'm not here to play gentle," said Thomas. "Neither am I, but we can always be delicate...there, found the weakness." His phone suddenly made the data sweep away, showing the broken-down anatomical reference of a creature's eyes as monitored by the scanner that it stored in its databanks. With a copy extracted from a weakness in its coding, he simply placed his phone against it as the scanner read its own data off from another source fooled into opening the door. The moment it slid open Sarah walked in seeing the two security guards in less-bulky grey armour padding without helmets who turned fast in shock reaching for their guns. "WHO THE-" "_SH-SHIT, CALL THE-" Two shots from the revolver went off before they could even grip their pistols. "Disconnected." Sarah quipped this as she walked forwards with "Thelma" smoking gently from her hand as she pushed away the bodies that slumped from their chairs falling with heads bleeding from their new skull-fractured wounds. The men had been sitting at a large console showing twelve screens in rows of three and four amidst several large humming mainframes on both sides of them covering constant security detail. Sarah and Skliva sat down to engage with security as the primate brought out his touchscreen phone and placed it on the console. "Alright, I got this place covered, you boys just stay in contact with us an' we'll beep ya if anything pops up ahead of ya." "Noice," said Ashwin, "you able to grab all their data from 'ere?" "Thanks to the codes you gave me yeah, I just set up the wireless algorithm to what you gave me an' we'll soon grab all their classified reports, including all the CCTV locations, recordings." "Is it all on here?" asked Sarah. "All security runs on the same network in this place thanks to the way their wifi was set up, so once I got this terminal cracked open I can start downloading any data that's relevant. But the real goods are up in the labs with all those experiments an' I can't access that from here. But I should be able to undo their security locks in upper floors so nothing's stoppin' ya." "Right," said Thomas Birgisson, "don't worry, we'll get this data just keep us posted. Callahan, stay here and keep watch in case these two need extra firepower. FG, you come with us." "Got it," said James. "Be careful boss." "You too," replied Sarah, "you got one shot at payback so make it count." "I will." He flashed a grin cockily as him and the two musclebound males headed on upwards, with Sarah and Skliva now in their ears keeping constant watch upon the upper floors where the hardiest security would be. With grenade launchers only half-empty, they stormed ever upwards ascending the stairs finding nothing up until floor 50. The rooms became less numerous, and by this point FG was unfamiliar with any of the newly-constructed floors that came after his absence.

Brand sparkling new laboratory areas with white walls, black formica floors that reflected the harsh lighting across their spackled surface, as well as perfectly shielded reinforced windows into the laboratories themselves, usually four of them on each floor surrounding a square hub with plantholders and logos. Scientists and researchers were cowering inside the controlled room environments ranging from laser-generating equipment that resembled lathes to the most complicated framework of military schematics for new autotargeting weapons. The diagrams they saw were either jotted down on whiteboard or even completely holographic in 3D constructs, pulsing and regenerating its image of new guns, sturdier woven armour or even potential chemical formulas for destructive ammunition components. Guards came fiercely standing before them in the centre of all these labs with surprisingly less powerful weapons than they should, making up for it in sheer number at a good twenty-two of them. They had to be careful for any property damage to these floors, but James' invading team did not as Ashwin fired the first grenade-blasting shot. Windows cracked violently against the force of brutal destruction as blood flensed across spider's webs patterning across the glass, screams from within the labs of scientists desperate not to be exposed or found as the goons rushed forwards or what remained of them. James tore them down with his assault rifle whilst Birgisson and Ashwin pumped grenades into the largest hordes that came piling in towards their hall of entrance. They never stood a chance, despite some of the armoured goons being either lucky enough to be cushioned by their friends from the blasts or managing to fire off a good solid half-clip into the invaders with Thomas taking a bad spread of bullets to his leg. He crumpled slightly as blood seeped, but he bared his teeth with brutish breath and stood up heavily leaning upon his good leg to fire another shot. With one floor cleared they ascended ever on, seeing occasional pockets of resistance from the higher guards who struggled to be more careful with their shots. They were precise and at a few points were in danger of sniping death inbetween the intruder's eyes if it were not for James being quick enough to react with a gauntlet shield pushing his friends out of the way of fire. Once their grenade launchers had run out of ammo by the 54th level, they went straight back onto their assault rifles with James still having two clips left. Sarah and Skliva kept them warned ahead of any approaching foes, giving plenty of time for the three main attackers to take cover and kill any armed opponent necessary and it was this advantageous hand alone that kept them spared of any grievous defeat. Any enemy that did manage to tear through the volley of gunfire without being killed would face a gruesome fate by all three of the invading force. Birgisson's fists whalloped with the strength of an avalanche across helmeted men and women to daze them powerfully with concussions before he executed them with a straight shot of his old Desert Eagle from military days. Ashwin was merciless either goring opponents right through with his long spurious tusks or even grabbing an opponent with his muscular trunk and violently snapping necks with a brutal twist of his nasal length. James almost never needed to bring out his scissors but when his rifle finally ran out of ammunition he brought out his blades to attack at enemies incoming one-to-one. Trembling flames seethed across the steel as they pierced white-hot through flak-studded armour by sheer intensity of their brilliant heat, penetrating deep before he pulled back to block himself of a rain of bullets by the large metallic weapon. Two enemies that were left and low on ammunition started to charge as James burst forth by a blinding rush of speed with scissors open and blazing hot. Slamming both foes down by his sudden movement, he viciously impaled one straight through the throat upon falling to the floor whilst the other struggled to get back up stumbling to his feet to attack James. The raptor turned and swung with scissors clashing against the near-empty rifle the guard protected himself with before shoving FG against the wall with desperate strength. He pulled back and fired the last of his clip but James blasted him with raw wind at the force of a firehose just enough to throw his entire aiming off, riveting holes through the ceiling before his throat was stabbed right by the scissor's tips. Higher onwards they went, and the further upwards they went the less rooms there were upon each separate floor due to the slanting building architecture asserting importance for each floor. It was not until floor 60 that they found the true heart of its operations with the technology turning more advanced by each new door that was locked with remote authorisation sensors, until Skliva came through by deactivating the door locks. "This is it," said Sarah on comms, "the final push before this all gets dealt with once and fer all so don't screw this." "Understood," said Ashwin, "any xenos left?" "No...that's weird. There's nobody after the floor yer on, an' I got no idea what the fuck is up with floors sixty-eight to seventy, they're all industrial like...like some kind of warehouse an' one of the floors is in total dark even though it shouldn't be." "You don' know wot's in these floors up ahead?" "I can tell you who's on it, but the cameras don't span enough to tell you everythin' that's on them...sixty-eight though is completely blank." "Where's the sealed room?" asked FG. "I need to get in there before shit gets down." "Sixty-six according to security detail, good luck kid...once the room is sealed we won't be in contact, not even the radio's gonna get in so anythin' that happens is all on you until it's over. Ripley out." The three nodded as they made their way up towards the 66th floor which was a far more elaborate construct than anything else they had seen. Three entire rooms that connected to each other showing a slow but evolving process of information on the project. The first room upon their left was a giant server farm with rows upon rows of huge rectangular monoliths in black with red lines thinly across the top, all of whom were somehow connected by silver cables overhead to one central white server humming at the very back. The second room was straight ahead down a hallway showing an expansive laboratory with four corners, windows across each wall and six separate tables with a whole separate stairway beyond reaching to the last floors. Upon each were large strips of circuitry and motherboards holding them in place, along with what appeared to be strange moulds of something rubbery and synthetic with those same circuits implanted directly within. The place more resembled a computer hardware store than any actual laboratory they knew of but the third room was one James truly understood. A lone steel table with lights blearing upon it like a surgeon's operating theater, along with a giant screen on the wall beside it glowing green with several cables bundled into a panel underneath with needlepoint ends. It was at least six foot high with the bottom of it starting at James' chest showing the entirety of the A.R.M.E's most sacred of military knowledge in a screensaver effect, randomly shifting through its various data as Ashwin approached the console in front of it, a half-circular keyboard elevated onto a stand. "Alroigh', lessee wot this thing is all abou'." "You're planning to take this data correct?" asked Thomas. "Course oi am, jus' wanna look at it first, don't you wanna see?" "I do," replied FG, "this stuff is what made me the way I am." "Lessee now...hmm...overview synopsis aaaaaaand there." The screen began filling through with lines of text completely, detailing the project's truest purpose before their very eyes.

_ Project Spectrum Synopsis: To create a soldier ideally outfitted with near-unlimited ammunition and any form of weaponry imaginable without ever carrying anything into battle.

Mission Plan: Using nanomolecular manipulation by a semi-conscious command rooted deep within the soldier's cortex, a soldier part of this project will be able to replicate any weapon or ammunition it is knowledgeable of whilst out on field duty. Without need to carry ammunition or have any weapon made for them, the only thing that this soldier requires is but a data schematic of a weapon and its ammunition downloaded into its nanoprocessing unit. Should this experiment prove successful, it will reduce costs exponentially in terms of actual weapon and ammunition production without any need for actual manufacturing therefore sparing finances within military budgets for more prudent purposes.

Development: The project was developed by Dr. Darren Anseed, formerly of Binding Life Industries of whom his research and services was bought legally. The project was formed with military cost reduction in mind as our first true candidate proved successful. A viable candidate is chosen, before being surgically altered to have an entire secondary circulatory system of nanobots along with a core processing unit, known hereafter as C.A.P or "the Cap."_

Result: Candidates occasionally run into the problem of needing to constantly 'recharge' their mental energy, the result of nano-usage after extended periods of time due to the C.A.P requiring more neutransmitters to process its commands. Effectively, overusage of nanomolecular manipulation causes a similar effect in one's brain to that of being mentally exhausted, and should any candidate breach beyond a certain point, the brain effectively shuts down with overwhelming urge to sleep and recharge its transmitters. Another problem is the fact that due to the project's initial origins, only certain candidates are accepted for their mental capacity allowing only a very small pool of those selectable at this moment.

Measures: We have experimented in trying to prevent this "forced sleep" by curbing adenosine, melatonin and also encouraging cortisol production. Unfortunately this causes heavy neural imbalance, and candidates have ended up irreparably insomniac or comatose from neural degradation. The narrow specifics of which candidate can be chosen also poses yet another problem, as the project initially was developed for those of reptilian species. Candidates have become difficult to recruit, but we have managed to surmise a small but capable militia that remains obedient to our organisation as full-fledged military operatives. Hopefully we shall have enough data to construct new builds in order to expand the potential choice of candidates.

Addendum: We have also discovered a new ability unseen from the original project plan, that of actual teleportation. Candidates have been able to briefly travel back and forth between various places, and we have struggled to ascertain on how exactly this works. Dr. Anseed has theorised that the C.A.P attempts to pull the location itself towards its host, rather than actually try replicate such a place. The fact of distinction between object and place is vital to understanding the semi-conscious state of the processing unit, which is intelligent enough to know not to exceed the brain's parameters hence its "sleep mode" function. All our initial experiments are tested on that of our first project, who has become our safeguard for future predictions on experiments concerning nanoproduction, the C.A.P's sleep mode and also responses to various data builds that it can contain. Teleportation however was not discovered by "Project Zero" as we call our first candidate, and came out of a field test involving topographical data with unexpected results. The C.A.P seems to force its power output to completely envelop a body into some sort of spatial rift, sending it across to another perceived point in existence that it is aware of by the data of mapping inside its processing. This requires an inconceiveable amount of nanopower to use and almost always forces the C.A.P to fall to sleep mode to recover from its state.

End Result: Over the years we have assembled our small militia and its potential and we have sent field tests to England, Norway, Niger, India, China, Japan and the Pacific Islands. The results of their training have been considerably impressive in replication and teleporting. The actual combat ability however falls to the subject's training and regardless of what we perform on the candidate, they must have a mind and body capable of experience in order to prove towards anything useful. Once we have enough data to prove its success enough to be feasible, it would be best to utilise this on already-existing military recruits rather than civilians. We cannot train a soldier in but a week, but we can give them every single weapon in existence to become a living walking armoury able to strengthen, destroy and build armies by what they can give so long as they have the strength and experience to survive combat. This shall be the new age of a soldier without any boundaries of what their country can afford. The most deadly and well-trained of operatives shall become unstoppable forces when they have no mere limit to what great technologies they can build by their own hands. Their country shall give them training, but we...shall hand them the entire world at their own fingertips. Providing of course who is the highest bidder deserving of such power to wield.

"This is...horrible," said Thomas gasping. "I never..." stammered FG, "I mean I knew it was just some weird soldier stuff but this...never had it sink in before on how much power people like me could give to a military...if there was even more of us. But...why does it say Campbell-Anseed?" "Oi dunno," replied Ashwin, "musta named it after you, it said you wuz the first project roigh'?" "I guess? I mean, I HAVE to be, right?" "And it said the highest bidder," further stated Thomas, "now I know military contracts of technology have always worked like this but...do we really desire to make weapons out of people?" "Why not?" Ashwin turned to them with the screen green and glimmering behind him, his face the look of apathy. "People loik you an' me already are, McClane." "Because of our training. Not because we hold the biggest gun." "They still plan to train 'em, jus' wanna give everyone a fair chance of shootin' the same guns." "It's not gonna be fair!" cried FG. "Not every military's gonna have them, how the fuck is this gonna work?! One army gets all of THIS!" He gestured to himself. "And everyone else can't do shit against-" "An' that's different to wot?" retorted Ashwin. "Armies aroun' the world 'ave always been outbalanced, sum people got more weapons, sum people got more fodder an' infantry, it's not fair but 'ow is this any different?" "Because you're causing that to be MORE unfair, you're widening the gap by giving one country an entire toybox of fucking shit." "I agree," said Thomas nodding, "if every military had this capability, then I would call it fair. But that's not going to happen, not with these people. This is a weapons development company that's glorifying itself to be a true army of soldiers composed of thugs, corrupt police members and dishonourable discharges. They would never balance the world when it has no profit towards them." "So we agree," said Ashwin, "that this stuff isn't really so bad...long as everyone gets to use it." "I never said that. The same could be said for nuclear weapons and that only brought death to our entire existence. Once upon a millennium." "Heheh...true, very true." With Ashwin nodding in agreement at this point, he continued to root around the military computer before finding what he wanted as it flashed up on the screen in glaring red opposite of the green text as he clicked on his radio. "Alroigh', oi found the security lockdown procedure." "Good," replied Sarah, "we'll be cut off until the lockdown procedure finishes but that should give you plenty of time until Neo is gone." "Affirmative. Startin' procedure." He activated the security measure as red alerts began screaming from all around them. Windows began to slowly close with hardened steel shutters along with the doorway behind them, reinforced and impenetrable to all disturbances whether physical or radiological. It took a full minute for everything to lock down completely as Sarah gave the command. "All units, get ready for Neo! Agents Smith and Wesson report!" "Deploying Neo now!" Far below back within the entrance lobby, the human and bovine police officers prepped something in the van as they slid open the door and planted their huge rucksacks into it like the most suspicious packages in the entirety of policework. Wires and various pieces of electronic circuits were sticking out of the folds as they pressed something into what looked like an old telephone keypad complete with dial tone. The moment they put in the last key they ran for cover straight back to the main force of their allies in the plaza. "NEO DEPLOYED, MATRIX CRASH IN EIGHT SECONDS!" The timer ticked down, resonating with a deafening sound across the front foyer as the remaining guards waited upon the stairwell expecting it to be a dreaded bomb as they slowly began to back up. They were not entirely wrong the moment they began to ascend the staircase for safety as the vehicle exploded suddenly, but it was not the blast that was the worst part. It was the screaming void of static pulse that burst across an entire two city blocks in every direction, blackening out a portion of Chicago's infrastructure to a deadly silence. The people looked up to see two small black shapes begin to plummet from the sky as everyone instantly began running for the nearest structure to hide in at ground level. The sound of helicopters pirouetting uselessly from the clouds to explode delicately into the street, crashing down on solid tarmac with pilots evacuating by parachute. James did not see or hear any of this but he did hear Sarah crackling: "WAIT, THE- KRHSSSHZhhh! _" "Boss?!" He tapped his radio frantically. "B-boss?! You there?! Fuck!" "Don't worry," said Thomas calmly, "she must be warning us about a garrison upstairs, so just be prepared." "Yeah...you're right, in that case we better get to cover and just wait out this lockdown." "H-hello?" A voice called out from the laboratory in front of them as they raised their weapons swiftly at the sound of a male English accent. "It's alright! I-i-i'm not armed, I swear!" "Come out into the hallway!" cried Birgisson firmly. "If you are unarmed we will not shoot." "Is...u-u-um...is...the...f-forests have changed back in London." On hearing this Ashwin calmly put down his weapon and motioned them to do the same and hold fire replying: "Bu' the owls are still around, aren't they?" "Yes...hhhhhhoh thank god." Stepping out from behind the doorframe was a lean human with pale skin wrinkled across his haunted complexion, as the long brown hair brushed softly against his cheeks whilst wearing a white lab coat. The raptor thought he looked familiar as Ashwin approached. "Doctor Anseed. Noice to meet you foinally." "Yes...a-a-and you." "You know him?" asked FG suspiciously. "Remember oi told you that there wuz sum noise in the pipeline abou' Chicago's state? This one 'ere is the man that wuz makin' that noise." "W-w-wait...what?!" "It's true," replied Anseed, "we are safe here, the garrison is not aware of you reaching this floor, they assume that it was me putting security on lockdown. My name is Derek Anseed. I was the one who experimented on you, James." The elephant gave a hard look towards FG making him think twice about any sudden movements as the raptor holstered his weapon carefully, uncertain about this entire scene as Thomas kept his own weapon on guard but lowered still. James walked carefully forwards with conflicted feelings but decided to start with the first and immediate problem in this state. "You...called out Ashwin...to do what?" "Rescue me. As a British citizen, I felt I was being imprisoned against my will and I wanted no further part of this whole operation. I tried for the past eight years after the experiment became worse in its moral structure." "Moral structure? So kidnapping me and turning me into your fucking pet wasn't the point of you thinking it was a BAD idea?!" "L-let me explain, please." "Should I?! Should I REALLY let you explain after all you've done, all THIS that you've done?!" "I want to, please-" "_SHUT UP!" His finger went up to raise in threat but a sudden blur of grey grabbed at his wrist with the firmest restraint as the raptor felt a cold steel pressure to his head. " Don't." Ashwin murmured darkly with his pistol lodged against James' skull. "Don't even." "Wh-wh-...what?! The FUCK?!" "You lay one 'and on this man 'ere...you're gonna be a casualty of this place." "Wh-wh-what are you f-fucking...you...are you fucking IN on this?!" "No. Of course not, oi actually work fer the REAL military, not this fuckin' Lord o' the Flies bullshit these cunts 'ave got up on this giant dick you call an 'eadquarters. Oi'm 'ere to rescue doctor Anseed as wuz ordered to, not to join yer li'l rebellion, not to foind you but to be fair that WUZ my reason chose this mission, but to foind an' rescue doctor Anseed. The government 'eard 'is distress signal eventually after so many years of 'im sendin' it out, proivate-loik from his boss." "What's so important about this fucking guy, you want his research!? You wanna make REAL soldiers out of this fucking technology that took every reptile in this damn city to be their-" "Oi only came fer Derek, that's it." James knew he was in no position to argue having one hand trapped and a gun to his head but he still turned coldly towards his childhood friend with the bitterest look. The pachyderm in turn gave a look that would make steel wither like moss in the coldest winter but James never submitted beneath this look. At least, not until he was certain of Ashwin's truthfulness. "You better not be fucking lying, Ashwin." "Oi never lied to you James. You just misinterpreted my information an' so did Sarah. But oi did came 'ere on a mission an' that mission is now, so fer all intents an' purposes, doctor Anseed is MY responsibility, now...you're gonna step back six paces, after oi put me gun down an' let go of yer 'and. If oi see you walk any closer to doctor Anseed, or raise a weapon against 'im..." His voice came close to FG's ear as he darkly whispered through his teeth scraping tight: " I will fucking kill you...and erase everything that you left in this world until no one will even know what you once was. That understood?" "......yes." "Good. Oi trust you James...so don't...make me regret this. Don't...make me turn you into another bad dream when oi go to sleep...alroigh'?" "...okay."

He calmly pulled away his gun, then his hand from James' wrist as the raptor dutifully stepped back six paces exactly giving Ashwin time to breathe and relax himself as he holstered his pistol. The atmosphere was tense to become almost palpable as Derek Anseed gulped nervously saying: "I know what I did was wrong. And I know I have wronged you. Rest assured, that after we have escaped, I will be committing myself to a better cause upon my repatriation to Britain." "Do you think...I even care about what YOU feel? You kidnap me, your 'Armee' friends almost kill the one who raised me, they took over this city and now every single reptile in this fucking place is GONE and you dragged some kid whose parents died and accused ME of doing it!" "Wait...you...you mean Roy MacGregor?" "YES I FUCKING MEAN HIM!" "James." The elephant tapped his gun still in holster. "You're angry, that's foine, but you can ask 'im stuff withou-" "DON'T fucking tell me, you do NOT know what I have been through OR what Roy's gone through." "Izzat worse than wot oi've gone through?" "Roy went through EVERYTHING you fucking went through Ashwin. Everything, except his parents were fucking murdered instead of killed by some accident, and he got sent the last twelve years hunting me down because SOMEONE accused me of being the fucking killer, now who was it that told him hmm?! WHO?!" "It was Guston!" cried Anseed. "I-i-i know...I know tha-...my god I can't believe that you two even met." "You don't even know where we've gone to have you?" "I...h-he said the Gaza Rift, quite a few places across the world." "Plenty enough, let's just say that. Now you're going to tell me two things. One, why were you taking only reptiles for this fucking project and two...why did you make Roy your personal pet to hunt me down?" "Because...oh god...this...this is all going to be a lot to explain." "I have time. You're not leaving this place until this lockdown is over so you might as well!" "Just do it," said Ashwin, "yer safe with me, 'e won't lay a finger on you." "Alright," explained Anseed. "I...I-i understand. Firstly, I shall answer your second question concerning young Roy MacGregor. We...we wanted an experiment that had no trappings to society, no bonds as it were, like you. As an orphan working in a bar in the slums you were a...first target choice despite some rather bizarre...unsettlingly perfect coincidence." "Ah huh," said FG derisive. "When you left, we...after we found no trace of you we decided to search out and find another subject that was suitable. Two years after you had left, we were scanning reports from the police illegally across the country and caught wind of a murder of two saurians in New York. They had a son...I'm, sure you can guess-" "You didn't kill his parents?" "No. G-god no, we...we never did-" "But kidnapping people and entire families is perfectly alright?" "Not at the beginning, no we...never did, that was only after Guston got desperate." "Who's Guston?" "My boss...you might remember him, he had a blonde buzz-cut, very staunch military type, head like a square lantern." "Alright." James simply crossed his arms in defiance. "Do you know who killed Roy's family?" "I...I do not. No, we fabricated you to be the murderer, I was not involved in the actual conspiracy, I had no part in the twisted fabrication of lies and I have not seen a single shred of that police report that would surely detail the original suspect." "I never asked about a police report." "I'm not an idiot. I knew you were going to ask about it when you were starting to ask about mister MacGregor. I only ever met him about three times, first being the actual experiment to replicate what we caused with you." "I do not remember the name," said Thomas Birgisson, "but I remember there was a great purge involving police reports once security moved itself to the A.R.M.E. building." "Roy said that too," added James. "He said that...someone tried to wipe the New York police records but there was one thing they left, something that was in another folder. An original report, dated after the one YOUR people wrote up." "Really?" asked Derek Anseed. "You...th-there was a report still intact?" "It doesn't say who killed them, it wasn't solved yet." "Apparently it was." "Wait...what?!" "I do not know, the general, Guston, I overheard him saying to purge the records in New York through a virus to cover themselves in case young mister MacGregor went searching for any answers. Especially when it had been solved and the killer was found...and executed." "Do...do you know who...please, tell me you fucking know." "I do not. I'm sorry." Somehow this alone was the one fact that forced FG to swallow his anger much more fiercely than ever before in this encounter, literally shaking with his voice as his fists clenched. "You...y-y-y-you...you took...s-so many things away from him...and the one...th-th-th-thing that he needed most, some fucking closure was something you DIDN'T get?!" "I'm sorry. Guston knows maybe, you will have to face him eventually, he is up there." "Is he? Well...good cuz I'm about to fucking murder the shit out of him." "Be my guest," said Ashwin smiling, "don' 'ave any orders to 'elp him, so that bastard is all yours." "Right. But...firstly, you said before you wanted to...replicate what you did with me, but onto Roy?" "Yes...I...have a machine." The doctor rubbed his hands nervously frought with futile embarrassment. "I accidentally plugged it...into you and it then began copying all the data from instead of the great military computer you see over there, but I was tired and...exhausted after a long night studying and I simply mixed up the cables, that...was it." Simply raising his hands in a terse lack of frustration, he sighed at resignment. "I know you have a great anger to me." "A lot more than that," said FG, "but then...heh...I guess I have you to thank for also giving me some uh...better places in life." "What does that mean?" "Roy would know. But he's not here now and I don't know if he ever will again since I lost...any sign of him." Derek looked crestfallen as his hands shook at his sides. "Is he...did he not survive?" "I don't know. I haven't seen him for at least half a year, and no one I know can confirm it too. So that leaves one more question." "I think." Another voice came from the laboratory's own intercom. "That you've asked too much, James Campbell." Their weapons armed and ready, the three swiftly braced themselves for action with Ashwin instantly guarding Anseed. The voice was definitely American and rather grizzled with age. "The fuck, who izzat?!" "G-general?!" "I don't know what sordid little plan you were hoping to achieve Anseed but I don't abide traitors in my people. If you're so willing to leave my services then I'll gladly show you the door...or window, in pieces." "HEY!" shouted FG. "I DUNNO WHO YOU ARE, BUT YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!" "But I know all about you. It's going to be a great irony when you die here, but Anseed won't be telling you why after I make certain you all die here." "YEAH!? WELL WHY DON'T YOU COME DOWN HERE AND FACE ME LIKE A FUCKIN' SOLDIER, COWARD?!" "I have a rather pressing engagement to attend to, along with this data I've kept from the servers you so deeply needed. Don't worry, I made a copy, I'm not so stupid as to destroy all this work you're now standing part of, but...if I were to release a certain project out of its cage-" "NO!" cried Anseed. "NO, GUSTON STOP!" "Well, she won't harm any of my data that's for sure, but she'll most certainly get rid of you. Initiating Project Zero. I hope you learn your loyalties better in the next life, doctor." Something depressurised from the far back of the server farm, the lone white tower gently thudding free with a long whirring sound that slowly became a deep creaking groan as if opening a coffin made of ancient wood. Derek tried to grab at Ashwin and cried frantically at them to: "GET OUT! G-GET OUT, GO UP, QUICKLY!" "THE FUCK IS THIS?!" "J-JUST GO, PLEASE! I'M SORRY, J-JAMES, C-CAMPBELL I'M SORRY I-I-I DIDN'T...I didn't mean th-this to happen!" "Mean WHAT to happen?!" "......I'm sorry. I'm...I-i-i'm sorry." The server in truth revealed itself to be a containment unit, its front pulling open to show what appeared to be a glistening pure steel velociraptor. Shining almost chrome-like, its form was genderless with eyes whirring and focusing like camera shutters as it cautiously stumbled from out of its confinement. Cold sweeping gasps swept past its feet like clouds of ice but the most prominent feature of it was the very top of its cranium. A smooth-sculpted impression of a raptor's brain, different from human in its rubbery design but perfectly replicating synapses with circuitry as it approached with robotic voice. A voice that sounded as if someone were cutting and editing words to construct its sentence. "S-l-e-e-p. I...c-a-n't s-l-e-e-p." "What...IS that?" asked Thomas. "D-e-r-e-k...please. I w-a-n-t...to s-l-e-e-p." "I-i-it's not," stammered Anseed, "it wasn't...it wasn't me, general woke you." "W-o-k-e. Me?" The creature's head lowered as if struggling to resign itself, head clasped within its hands of the same three claws as FG showing the sculpted synthetic brain. It began to twitch with trembling sudden fury with strangely harsh breathing. _"W-o-k-e...f-f-u...f-f-u-c-k...f-u-c-k...this, f-u-c-k...y-o-u, f-u-c-k-i-n-g f-u-c-k FUCK FUCK! FUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" _ Screeching violently, it raised its head with piercing green eyes blinding bright as it rushed towards them. Thomas fired dead-on with a focused burst of his assault rifle, but the creature simply powered through and crushed the polar bear against the wall with one arm against his chest and the other on his left arm. _"I W-I-L-L fucking kill YOUUUUUUUUU!" _

Thomas screamed as he felt the sudden twist, the robotic raptor violently snapping his bear arm out of joint with a solid KRAKK like a cheap wooden toy before hurling him against the sealed door. Ashwin hurried Derek to the laboratory whilst James decided to forego guns in favour of his scissors as he burned up his blades. His eyes focused as the creature rushed towards him shrieking metallic sounds of rage with claws sweeping across his vision. Guarding was not an option when it had such inhuman strength as he remembered his lesson against robotic entities, learning to feint and dodge instead. "GET! O-U-T of my SIGHT or-you-will RIP YOUR SPINE OUT f-r-o-m y-o-u." Despite the incessant rage and psychotic babble, the robotic enemy was swift and precise, slashing across FG's burning scissors whilst barely even feeling the hot scorching steel. Everytime it struck, he lessened his grip to let the momentum of the swing knock the scissors but not himself off-kilter as he backed off slightly, testing the speed of his enemy's movements after five successive swipes of razor steel claws. The fifth time it swung too far and overbalanced itself before James swung a violent tearing uppercut with his burning blades scarring horribly up its chest. _ "A-A-A-A-A- shivering...c-cold -AAAAAAAGH! Y-o-u...s-so...warm my...wh-why...why is it BURNING MEEEEEEEEE!?" _ As if responding to the pain, the project burst with flames of its own pulsing from its fists, glistening silver steel now taking on a flickering amber hue beneath firey claws as James ducked inside the experiment room with the computer. The creature followed with tearing speed launching across the table with foaming streaks of coarse flames burning across his vision. The raptor made of flesh braced himself for another attack as he stood with scissors ready. With claws turning white, the automaton slashed with such strength that it pulsated thick waves of heat across his face, ducking and strafing fast as he could whilst the machine hunted after him with blind insane fury. At one point it managed to reach too close and lunge viciously to scar James hotly across his chest and expose partly the skin underneath amongst the torn flak armour. He stumbled off-balance surprised by such ferocity as the robotic creature leapt upon him and slammed him down to the floor, but not before Ashwin came from the side and powerslammed the cyborg off of FG by a shouldercharging strike. Crunching the steel beast against the wall, he matched his own incredible strength against the raw cybernetic power as it striked out to grab him before he latched onto its arm and elbow striked viciously into the head. His raw burnt elbow skin crushed hard into the mecha-skull knocking it back before he came swinging with brutal fists, pounding steel skin as his knuckles stunned slightly. But the robot had an advantage of reflexes and after three whamming fists to the cranium, suddenly grabbed one of Ashwin's tusks and violently slammed its other fist into his gut. Driving with the force of a jackhammer, the frenzied machine screamed with every pounding of its fist until the elephant almost vomited before its insufferable power snapped his right tusk in half, cracking it like bone to render a sharp shorted uneven end. Ashwin almost blinked in shock-driven pain but focused himself to grab at his dismembered tusk from the creature's hands and pounded his boot straight into its gut. " FUCK OFF!" Roaring in its face, he slammed the robot to fall back harshly onto the floor crumpling and skidding across it. Ashwin gripped at his tusk like a bone ivory club waiting for the next attack, but the raptor James was on the offensive once again tearing with scissors across the room to slice viciously with fires flensing off his steel. The metallic monster saw him as it dodged, rolling back swiftly before pouncing with a strike, slicing its claws across his helmet with enough force to knock FG down. But he got up swiftly enough to avoid being pounced again as Ashwin took over. The automaton however was ready for him and the moment he swung with his tusk it grabbed for his neck underneath the trunk and violently choked him. His large throat and strong neck muscle suddenly found it a horrifying struggle to breathe as the pulsing synthetic strength started to crush his larynx, choking deep braying gasps from Ashwin signalling a call for help. "WULD!" James slammed with the force of a car against the machine pounding it back against the wall, giving Ashwin time to breathe and gasp shuddering back his lungs full of air as he nodded his thanks. But the beast was not outdone just yet as it stuttered out its broken cut-paste voice: _"I, what, a, windy, day in D-u-n-d-e-e I'm so...g-l-a-d I...late. Late. NO! NO, TIME, RUN! RUUUUUUUUUN!" _ With piercing shriek it signalled its next offensive as its claws resonated with a familiar gust of wind that James saw aiming towards his friend. "ASHWIN GET BACK!" He took James' advice as the cyborg suddenly honed in on the pachyderm with blinding speed, swooping across the floor with a vicious screech of wind from its claws before planting into the wall. Ashwin dodged just barely to avoid being crushed but was close enough to hammer his fist straight into the beastly cranium, which despite its rubbery texture seemed well-fortified by reinforced glass. The robot blasted a violent gale out from itself forcing even Ashwin back as he staggered falling from the brief hurricane that swept across the room, but not before James had rushed in with his own nanopower. With scissors out he swung in his wind assault and crashed harshly into the machine to crack his blades across its body, then its skull as it staggered violently. Almost falling over, it swung back with a tremendous uppercut so powerful, it completely knocked James' helmet straight up into the ceiling and embedded it solidly with a cracking thud.

Terrified by its strength and with head now exposed, the raptor spun in a whirling circle aided by his gusts of wind to constantly keep momentum. Spinning death for anyone that came near, he closed his eyes halfway and waited for the beast to approach in its rage before hearing the clunking steps rush at him. He jumped at the last second before it slashed at his body as the raptor spun almost vertically in mid-air, scissors sweeping like a pendulum at the speed of a helicopter blade cracking twice in succession across the skull made of steel. The machine staggered even more harshly, cracks now appearing on its face as something bled thickly out of its skull causing it to stop and look upon itself. As if somewhat aware of its own mortality, at least if it had any, the look of something familiar came across its eyes whirring as it noticed that it was bleeding pure water. _ "W-water...w-a-t-e-r broke...my water b-r-o-k-e it's broken, broken, broken break me, COMING! H-HE'S, COMING!" _ Signalling its next attack change, pulsing blue streaks of light shimmered from its claws as water dripped thickly from the moisture of the air now transfused in its fingers. Swooping strikes of ice-cold sharpness striked across the walls tearing towards FG as he ducked beneath one maelstrom before advancing towards the machine. Ashwin came rushing in from the side as both of them made their assault, the raptor at its front and the pachyderm from its left as he tore his scissors across its chest. Forcing it to duck backwards, it lined up straight with Ashwin's pummelling fist to crash it down deep against the corner of the room. Trapped by the two males, the monster of steel screeched and blasted two thick hosefuls of water with the strength of cannons punching FG back almost hitting the table, whilst Ashwin surprisingly stumbled back and almost slipped in the thickening puddle. It was enough delay for the robot to stagger up with its cracked steel body and lunge upon the elephant almost tearing at his eye as Ashwin grabbed at its waist trying to force it off. Grasping with its clawed feet as it climbed upon Ashwin's head, it struck and tore across his helmet with violent frenzy until managing to chip and break through the hard steel and plunge its claws in dangerously close to the pachyderm's skull. Soon it ripped the entire helm apart in half with unholy-born strength, roaring as its synthetic veins twisted trembling and singing like violin strings within its arms as it sent both halves flying across the walls, leaving Ashwin's head exposed. But the raptor James had recovered with enough time to strike viciously against its back, plowing straight through the air above Ashwin and forcing the creature off. Reaching on the offensive, the raptor landed as the robotic one fell to a crumpling heap before FG rushed forwards to come down and cleave upon its body, the monster shrieking out with audible pain at being sliced through its abdomen. The body still held despite its many cracks and bumps, crunching blows forced inwards as the raptor came down once again but it grabbed at his scissors deftly. It gripped the pointed ends and suddenly threw FG above its head, throwing him like a caber whilst still hanging onto the scissors. The raptor was thrown forwards suddenly against the wall slamming his head into it as he groaned with a dazed feeling stumbling back onto his feet. He turned towards the robot who now stood holding his scissors rather shakily, stuttering with voice breaking of all its emotion. "Subject DECEASED, dementia for a c-u-r-e keep watch be cause t-o-m-o-r-r-o-w iiiis anotherrrrrrrrr daaaaaaaa-a-a-a-a-a-a...a-a-a-a..." It stopped speaking briefly as one of its eyes flickered. James felt something. "H-h-h-hoooow I hope you'll alwaaaaaaays DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!" _ The look of sorrow somehow was transfixed upon its face, water bleeding from its face almost like tears before it rushed for FG swinging with scissors brazenly. He dodged fast and put his gauntlet up, shimmering blocks across his left hand as he tried to conserve his strength. It appeared to be losing its energy in turn as it became sluggish in its lunging attacks, carving with sweeping strikes of the scissorblades uncoordinated with stuttering panic and fury. Despite its robotic origin it had no idea how to wield such a weapon as the scissors threw themselves open and became more unwieldy. Swinging too far caused them to rebound off the steel wall sending deep shuddering vibrations through the machine that caused it to stop briefly, enough time for FG to grab at its handle whilst punching straight into the face of steel, gauntlet-covered fist trembling dull from the impact. With sudden force cracking into its skull, the creature released its grip on the scissors and began falling with a crumpling gait as its legs soon gave out, its head appearing to be too damaged to fight any further. Yet despite this, the brain seemed to still respond unharmed by the battle struggling to speak. _"S-sleep...s-l-e-e-p...let me...D-d-derek...Derek h-he-elp...me." "Who...wh-who was that...is...wh-whatever the fuck tha-" "She." Derek stepped forwards from the doorway with tears down his face. "Whoever SHE...w-was...once." "What?" "...James. I...I have so much to tell you and I so dearly wish th-that none of this had ever happened. But...meet the creator of Project Spectrum, or at least a rather lone...shade of her after she made a copy of her...cerebral activity years ago to replicate within this synthetic brain. It has been with me ever since...the original project was discontinued after her death." "Wait...wait what did you say? Creator? Wha-is this a copy of someone?" "No, it's...i-i-it's not a true clone or copy, it is not complete. Rather it only took a year of her memories and mental activity due to how...immense a data storage would be for an entire brain's memory and so we couldn't fit more than one year inside this synthetic sculpt and that lone year we took the data from was the year of...your...birth." "Wh-wh-what are you saying, who is she?! Who was she, just SAY IT for fuck's sake!" "This...is Mary Campbell, your...your mother, James. She was the one who...designed all of this." ".........what."