[center][h3][B][U]A Barmy Team[/U]
Kenan - Darius' Mansion(front)[/B]
[I]Early Morning - Prior to Kitsune[/I][/h3]

[I]“Well look at that, the little lions are here.”

The man, simply called “The Boss” was a well dressed man with dusty colored military garb along with a brown cowboy hat and shades to shield him from the merciless African sun. He had fair and sensitive skin which became evident when one saw the constant peeling red flakes behind his neck. His entire body had been like that when he was just a common soldier fighting in the scorching heat for years on end. But now he had made some friends down in the capital and had gotten himself a nice little promotion. So he could now ease up just a little bit. His body had always been fragile and was never fit to be a soldier. He had never grown a single strand of hair on his boyish face and his once silk blonde hair was now white like salt due to its constant exposure to the sun. Still when he was called to service by his country he answered without question. He believed in the dream of the White Africaan wholeheartedly and put himself through ordeals that he should never had been physically capable of surviving. His body was weak and he knew that; even after years of hard physical labor, fighting and trekking for hundreds of miles into hostile territory his body never gained a single pound of muscle and remained that of a shallow skeleton. What he had gained was an endurance to survive, the ability to shrug off sleep and soreness for weeks and the necessity of killing without thinking or feeling. The latter of which was important due to the ethical implications that many of those whom he killed didn't have guns in their hands and almost certainly weren't soldiers.

Four huge trucks rolled into the Boss's little camp where the guards stationed at the watch tower were looking down curiously. They had known the shipment was going to coming for some time. But they were still puzzled as to how well this whole operation could potentially go. Was the training even possible? Many thought this was simply another waste of time and they couldn't be blamed for thinking that. There had already been activities such as this going around across Rhodesia for the last six years and they always carried the exact same result: a bunch of useless corpses in a shallow grave.

As the trucks parked the men in the passenger seat hopped out and began to to unlock the large metal doors that contained its cargo, and with the butt of their rifles they herded the large mass of children that poured out of the trucks and into a large swathe of dirt as designated by the Boss. Who stood looking at the children patiently, with his shades covering any overt feelings he showed at their manner. Many were still sobbing as quietly as they could due to fears of the rifleman, others simply looked confused as to where they were and darting their heads and taking in their new environment which seemed to rapidly different from before. They were a sorry lot of kids to be sure. Though did the Boss understand their fear and confusion or did he simply view it with disgust and vowed to wipe it out? With those shades on no one could tell what the man was thinking. And his body language betrayed no feeling. Which resulted in one giving out the only interpretation they could: the children were the Boss's new clay. And no matter how pathetic or childish they might seem now, he would mold them into soldiers of the Rhodesian military.

He sat down on a log in front of the children, looking at all their beautiful white faces, he was told he was getting around 200, but the group looked more like 150.  

“Well, now that we're all here. Let me introduce myself. I am simply The Boss. I am the Boss of this here camp, the Boss of the miles of wilderness out beyond this camp, and most importantly of all. I am now the Boss of you young ladies and gents. I've been highly interested in you lot for quite some time and now I've brought you all here to under go a special kind of training. You'll learn to use weapons like those men over there are using. And how to survive in the deepest corners of the bush forest. Soon, we'll be making you out to be little fighters. Someday when you are older you will become the backbone of the shield that protects this country from the hordes that surround us.”

The Boss's eyes darted to a small child whose hand was raised almost like the boy was in school asking to use the restroom. Though the man noticed that the boy's was looking towards the ground, obscuring his face from the Boss.

“What is it Boy?

“Will we ever see our Parents again?” The boy still had his head down when he spoke, but he spoke clearly and with a sort of perverted strength. There was no restrained whimpering or controlled crying in the child's question. The Boss rose and walked over to the boy and looked at his downed head. He had a small tuff of black hair and through his height looked around seven. The boy simply looked at the ground as the Boss spoke.

“No. No you will never see them again, you will most likely live here for the rest of your life. The jungle is your home now. You will learn to adapt to its form of embrace. It is a hard sacrifice, to forgo your mother and father. But it is in the name of our Country and a dream we all had. A sanctuary for the Africaan from the violence of Black hordes. And in order to achieve that dream, we all must lose things dear to us. You will lose your parents and your children will probably never set eyes on you either.”

The Boss paused to let that reality sink into the group. There was a sadness from them that a normal human being could have easily felt. But while the Boss felt it, he didn't know what it was. Or how to interpret it. Years of jungle fighting had erased emotional connection to other people. The dusty  brown fields and the deep jungles with that terrifying dark green with mysterious eyes poking out at you was all he knew now. And he would make sure it was all they knew, for nothing else mattered.

“But maybe your grandchildren will be able to set eyes on their parents and call them Mother and Father. Maybe if we all fight hard enough, we can achieve that much that quickly. We shall endure hardships so that the next batch of brats won't have to. This must be hard for you all to follow. But I will drill this principle into your head. And I don't care if it takes me years for you to understand, but someday you will comprehend the responsibility that has been thrust upon you today. And you will carry out that responsibility with the efficiency of a Rhodesian soldier.”

The Boss took his hand and placed it on the Boy's chin and gently raised it so that he could get a good look at his face. His face was puffy and red from hours of crying, but he cried no more. It seemed a dreary calm had placed a veil around the boy and he simply accepted his lot in life. But what puzzled the Boss more than anything else was the look in the Boy's eyes.

For the boy looked at him with dull red eyes.[/I][/center]
[h2][/h2]

Rhett took a hard look at the main gate in the distance. Not a lot for cover, guess he would have to play the “dodging bullets” game. Not a particularly favorite game of his, but he was a decent player at it. Though Rhett wondered if his demon counter-part would even bother dodging bullets. Seemed like he could just take a few to the chest and be perfectly fine. He still had his gas mask on. He didn't know when it could be ideal to set one of those gas canisters off and he wanted to be prepared. Besides, didn't Crow originally want a mask on him?

His backpack was strapped tightly around his shoulders. He would have to be extra good at dodging bullets. Since he still had the C4 in there. He planned on using it before the shooting started but he could manage with the situation now. Though it was far from ideal. One stray bullet into the backpack and pieces of Rhett could be all over that gate. He wondered if perhaps he could blow the hell out of the gate, maybe mutilate a few guards as well. He looked over at Damon.

[b]“alright, so how do you want to do this? I was thinking throwing in a smoke grenade and you using that as cover while we begin the main assault. I could also plant the C4 around the gate while you distract the majority of them. I figure that this is more about noise and causing as much visual calamity as possible. If they see you killing people as well as smoke and explosions all over the place, they'll send in the brunt of the forces at us.”[/b]

Damon was still in the form of a maid when they arrived near the location of the future fire-fight. As much as he'd like to just go in guns waving, they needed to get the house hold's attention. There would certainly be explosions and bullets flying before the end of the day, but for the next few minutes Damon needed to make sure he does more than just a "disturbance". He needed to do something crazy. Something stupidly crazy. **"I wonder..."** Damon thought about this until Rhett came by wanting to know the gameplan. **"Yeah that sounds about right. But more than that, we need to get everyone in this mansion to us. Full on assault, you know? Get them away from the rabbit."** That's when Damon took on the form of Crow, or at least what Damon knew as Crow. Once things get hot surely they'd have a visual on him. And if Damon could get the attention of the head of the house with the likes of Crow, than perhaps the head of the house would be more focused on dealing with "Crow" than securing Emmet. Damon was taking a serious gamble with the hopes that using this form would attract more attention, but if it didn't work it wouldn't really matter. It's not like Damon was going to show his true form any time soon.

**"Alright, so here's what I was thinking. This face I'm wearing right now, he's suppose to be a bigwig or something like that. I'm going to show my face to the guards and see how they react. With any luck it'll get the attention of the boss of this place as well as let me get close. I'm totally prepared for them to shoot me, so don't worry about that. Once you hear gunshots fill the area with smoke. I'll make a mess up front while you sneak in and give them hell behind their lines. Give them the impression that they're fighitng more attackers than just us two. If you can blow a couple of walls in the middle of all the chaos than that would help make them think this is a full on siege. With any luck they'll think this is a hostile takeover and pull out all the stops to takes us down. That ought to give our rabbit some time to get out of his hole."**

Damon explained his part of the plan before the two would be within eyesight of the guards. Before he went through with it however Damon stopped one last time to make sure Rhett knew what was about to go down. **"Alright, do or die time. Any questions or anything else you want to try? Gotta hurry, lives are at stake."**

Rhett cocked his eyebrow when Damon changed his face to that of Crow. Rhett wasn't sure if Crow would appreciate his face being pasted all over this operation, but there wasn't much Rhett cared to do about that.

[b]"No questions, lets just get this over with"[/b] Rhett said dryly as he and Damon walked to the guards. With Rhett slowing his pace down and falling behind Damon, he would let the Demon deal with things for a while and then begin the infiltration. He was ready to get started.

[b]"Right than."[/b] Damon took a breath as he walked up to the gates. The guards there looked at him and Rhett suspiciously. They seemed to be on edge, but their hands weren't near their weapons, so perhaps they recognized Crow. Or just weren't trigger happy. They asked what he wanted here. [b]"I'm here to see Darius. I have a message to deliver."[/b] The guards weren't budging however, and asked what the nature of the message was. Wearing Crow's face, Damon smiled. [b]"More of a demonstration really."[/b]

Damon opened his hands up, palms out, towards the two guards currently present. Then Damon thought of a memory, a design in his mind, and the skin on his hand shifted. In less than a second two barrels poked out of each hand, and before the guards could even ask what Damon was doing those barrels turned out to be part of a shotgun. Damon fired at close range two buckshots into the chest of both guards, making a very loud boom. It killed those two, but it wasn't going to be long before someone else came to investigate. [b]"I hope that does the trick. With any luck someone's saw my face and we'll have the whole mansion greeting us. You go do what you gotta do, I'll try to make a good show out here."[/b] Damon materialized an assault rifle for himself after consuming the two guards as raw material. [b]"If anything goes funky, use your walkie-talkie. I'll be able to hear you over the sound of-"[/b] A bullet whizzed past Damon, signalling that their time for talking was over. He returned fire causing the defenders to take cover.

[b]"Go, go!"[/b] Damon shouted as he moved in, bullets barely flying in his direction but getting uncomfortably closer by the second.

Rhett had already tossed two smoke grenades before Damon had opened his mouth and soon Rhett could hear the ever familiar sound of bullets. Though not near Rhett at that moment as Damon was the prime target of the oncoming soldiers. Rhett would make sure to use that to his advantage as he charged through the smoke mostly undetected. His goal was to get to the mansion wall, only then could he truly put his talents to use with that C4 tossing around his backpack. But he couldn't jump to that task too quickly; he needed to take care of some of these guards first, make Damon's life a little bit easier.

He jumps out of the smoke, much to the surprise of three guards and honestly to Rhett's surprise as well. He didn't think that his smoke grenades would have extended that far out. He swings the butt of his gun into one's face, hearing a resounding crack as the man's face split open. He pivots his torso and before the other two can raise their guns they are mowed down. The hex tech rifle burning a fiery hole through the bodies as Rhett shoots them. He now heard a steady increase of bullets coming his way though Rhett correctly predicted that the guards would be rather shit with actually hitting him. These guards seemed to be more akin armed thugs who were good at looking scary, but not necessarily acting scary. Rhett fires in their general direction to force them to duck for cover before he throws another smoke grenade in the distance and runs towards it. He needed to get to the mansion wall. For now he would let Damon deal with clean up.

With most of the guards now rushing to the front gates Damon dropped his disguise. It was more of a liability now. Now he just needed to be careful and not scare them off. Damon changed back to his blobbish form as he took cover behind a stone flower box, spreading his body around the area but through thin, thread like tendrils. He moved quickly to different vantage points and through him Damon recreated the "Crow" copies, firing from their new positions. Now it should look like there were more than just one attacker on the premises and increase the threat. And as Damon set up the hot zone he actually started taking aim at some of the soldiers, popping two or three in his hail of gunfire. Occasionally he'd toss a grenade. 

Slowly Damon started to encroach on the mansion, wrecking havoc along the way. He had managed to avoid most of the bullets by setting up dummies and taking out anyone who could inadvertantly pose a threat to him, like guards armed with explosives. With the situation mostly under control Damon radioed to Rhett [b]"So, how're things on your end?"[/b]

Even as some of the guards got a bit smarter they found themselves taken out by the three individuals Crow had sent as back up. At least one of them was not particularly pleased with this Damon fellow. The demon was using their boss's image as a disguise, and that could not be good for the man's reputation. He reckoned that Crow was not going to be happy when they reported back.

[b]"Messy, but tolerable"[/b] he said quietly as he gunned down three guards positioned at the wall. He quickly sidestepped when a man shot a rifle at him from a window above, just narrowly missing Rhett's abdomen. Rhett made sure not to miss the opportunity and fired at the window, hearing the gurgling death noises of the man as he collapsed. He looked at the wall, he needed to get this blown to bits before more came at the windows and starting shooting at him from a higher altitude. He quickly went to work, unloading the contents in his backpack and wiring everything to blow when he pushed the detonator. He had brought five small clay packages with him, he had hooked up four. He decided to keep the fifth just in case something else came up. He could hear that Damon was doing most of the grunt work. Fine by him, Rhett had spent his life being the clean-up guy, and he was frankly glad to push that work load onto someone else.

 He takes a large gulp from his flask before throwing it back in his bag. That stuff was strong, maybe a little too strong for a job like this. Ah fuck it, who cares-

Rhett quickly dashes a few steps back as bullets hit around his feet. More guards had lined up on the windows, two of them this time. Rhett took a few shots, but they were so hectic that they just bounced off the wall around the windows. This didn't stop the guards from making accurate shots, one manage to just skim past Rhett's shoulder, tearing the skin and the cloth.  

[b]“Oh fuck it!”[/b] Rhett cursed as he pushed the detonator, Rhett was a little too close for comfort near those explosives for him to consider this a good idea, but it was either this or risk getting shot. Those rifles they were using weren't some junk thrown together, they seemed to be high quality. Too high quality to waste on rent-a-trash like this. Something odd was going on around this building.

The blast was nasty, it took down the wall to be sure and the explosion swallowed up those two taking pot shots at Rhett. But Rhett was easily blown back a good 30 feet, landing on his side with a thundering [i]crack[/i].

Rhett winced and thought that he had broken a rib. But then the pain set in, a very familiar pain. Thankfully he hadn't broken it, just cracked it. It wasn't ideal but it was something that would barely slow him down. He was too drunk to really feel it anyhow. Still it made getting a real bitch as he radioed to Damon in a pained, highly annoyed voice.

[b]“Wall is down.”[/b]

[b]"Excellent. Help me put pressure on these guys than, would you? We need to make them think a whole army is at their door so they bring all their guns here. Don't want them to catch the bunny."[/b] Damon radioed oed in as he laid supressing fire on the guardsmen, who were now taking cover behind the stone walls. Not that they would last long as between shots Damon tossed in a few grenades just to flush out the defenders. He had to cause a big mess and kill as many people to get the security to focus on them and them alone. If need be, Damon would try to fight it out with Darius to secure Juan's escape. He hopes it wouldn't come to that, but Damon would go that far if he must. He certainly didn't show any hesitation gunning down the rest of these poor sods.

[b]"Contact the others and see what their status is. We may be finished here soon enough."[/b]

[b]“Yeah, I'm on it. I'll be there in a moment,"[/b] he said, holding his side as he slowly got up. Thankfully he hadn't received any other serious injuries from the explosion's kickback just some cuts and bruises on his face. He spits out some blood as he radios in to the rest of the team.  

[b]“Wall is down and main entrance is getting fucked hard, now will be your best chance to enter. Hostiles will probably still be in your vicinity so expect trouble.”[/b]

He reached into his bag again and pulled out his gas mask. Slipping it on snugly over his head before radioing in.

[b]“Also, avoid the main entrance at all costs. Repeat. Avoid at all costs.”[/b]

He knew they didn't like the idea of those mustard gas canisters getting thrown about willy-nilly, but Rhett needed to scare the fuck out of those push-overs so they would call for back up. And if a Demon wasn't doing the job. Then shit. Rhett honestly didn't have anything to really equal that.  

But gassing them was a good place to start.

Rhett begins to jog towards Damon's location, reloading a fresh clip into his MP5. The gunfire became more specific, he could tell where it was being fired from, how close, at what angles, what type of guns they were. He sees Damon about a quarter of a mile ahead before Rhett makes a turn and heads to flank the enemy behind cover giving Damon a hard time, he was planning to take care of them for the Demon, but a well tossed grenade from Damon put an end to them. Blood and shrapnel splashed out and formed a pool of human mesh and metal. He saw more mooks coming from the entrance. More rent-a-trash, this was insulting, they needed to start taking this seriously.

He radioed in to Damon [b]“I recommend you take a few steps back, I hear this stuff ain't pleasant.”[/b]

He takes a canister from his belt, unscrews the top and hurls it at the incoming swarm of men. He fires pot shots in their general direction to get them to stop and take cover. Soon a yellowish, noxious gas starts to emit, and it's thick too. Rhett designed it to be thicker than the standard stuff. Perfect for hit and run tactics. Rhett lets go of his MP5, letting it hang on the strap around his shoulder as he unsheathes his machete, now sharper than ever but with its rubber grip still worn away. He wouldn't replace that rubber, it was a memento of Rhett's, the only one he was ever allowed to have.

He silently charged into the fog, though it wouldn't really have mattered if he was silent or not; as expected, those caught in the Gas were on the ground, blind and choking. That was why he put his gun away, you don't use a gun to slaughter lambs.

And as he repeated each machine like motion of slitting throats and slicing skulls only one thought played through his mind on repeat.

[center][i]“We are the little Lions
 Hear us roar”[/i][/center]