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From his perch upon an adjacent rooftop, Lyger had watched the warehouse that the thug he had placed the tracking beacon on had gone after he had left the arcade. It was not long before he realized that he was certainly in the right place. He had observed a virtual fleet of trucks loading and offloading various crates, as well as a number of members of the 83rd Street Demons, and some men that he had never seen before. However, it wasn’t until he caught a glimpse of the international arms dealer known as The Franchise that he knew for a fact that this was in fact where the supply of weapons was flooding into the city. 

Silently, he had made his way to the rooftop of the warehouse where he looked for an easy point of entry. He located a roof access door, however upon testing it he found that the door was locked. He applied a slight amount of pressure to a sensor within his right glove, extending his retractable claws. Then, he dug the diamond composite steel claws into the door just above the door handle, moving in a circular motion around it. When he completed the circle, a slight push against the door handle jarred it loose, allowing Lyger to gently push the door open and slip inside.

Once inside, Lyger silently made his way to the main storage area of the warehouse. Finding cover behind a stack of large crates, he carefully peaked around the warehouse in an attempt to get a better view of his opposition. When he was sure that he was clear, he fired a grapnel line from his wrist gauntlet, then quickly propelled himself up into the rafters where he was able to get a bird’s eye view of exactly what he was up against. He counted a dozen armed thugs, several men in suits who he did not recognize, and then there was the man himself…the source of much of his frustration over the past several months, The Franchise.

He waited silently from the rafters, watching as the armed thugs patrolled the perimeter of the warehouse. Picking his spots carefully, he quickly reduced the number of armed guards by half before returning to the rafters. Quickly but silently; he made his way through the rafters, ducking and dodging through the steel beams as he maneuvered over the warehouse floor, always keeping an eye on the armed thugs and those they were guarding below. 

He waited as another pair of thugs made their way just below him. He dropped down behind them, landing silently and firing a pair of sedative darts from his wrist gauntlet, the darts sticking into back of each man’s neck, knocking them out before they could make a sound. However, he had not anticipated the third guard who was rounding the corner just as he was about to use his grapnel line to return to the rafters.

“Hey! We got trouble!” The thug shouted as he leveled his weapon in Lyger’s direction, firing a pair of shots which he was able to avoid.

“No! You idiot, hold your fire! You’ll hit the ordinance!” The Franchise ordered, indicating the crates of explosive ammunition scattered throughout the warehouse.

Lyger took advantage of the momentary distraction, bounding toward the thug he hit him with a hard right cross, rendering him unconscious. 

Panicked by the sudden intrusion by the masked man, the men in suits, who were simply there to purchase the weapons and wanted to avoid any potential entanglements with the law, quickly made their way from the warehouse, jumping in their vehicles and driving away as fast as they could. 

Inside the warehouse, Lyger ducked behind several crates, waiting for his next opportunity to strike. That opportunity came sooner than he had expected when one of the two remaining guards rounded the corner nearest him, allowing Lyger to sneak up behind him and put him in a choke hold, almost instantly knocking the thug out as he dragged him back toward the cover of shadows that the crates had provided before ascending back to the rafters. 

He watched from above as The Franchise and the last remaining guard stood on high alert, not willing to abandon their deposit of advanced weaponry, looking for an opening to strike.

“Come on out, it’s just us!” The Franchise called, angrily holding a rifle over his head by the middle of the barrel, pointing it toward the sky.

Lyger moved through the rafter toward them. He continued until he was direct over them, then dropped to the floor. He landed between them, hitting the thug with a hard right hand and landing a spinning roundhouse kick to the chin of The Franchise with such speed that it almost appeared to be a simultaneous assault. He grabbed The Franchise by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up.

“Who do you work for?” Lyger demanded. 

“Myself.” The Franchise said as he began to laugh.

“You’re working with someone, I want to know who it is.” Lyger growled, only to be hit by a hard right hand which knocked him back several steps.

The Franchise followed up the surprise assault with a front kick of his own which sent Lyger crumpling backwards. Lyger quickly recovered from the attack and regained his footing. As he prepared to pounce, the thug had also gotten to his feet and stood before him, leveling his weapon at the masked man.

“You’re done.” The thug said as he pulled the trigger.

“No!” The Franchise cried as he rushed toward the thug, grabbing the gun.

Lyger bounded away from the spot that he had previously occupied, avoiding the weapon’s deadly ordinance. Instead, the shot struck a crate filled with highly explosive ammunition, causing the crate to erupt in a fireball which soon engulfed the entire floor of the warehouse. 

Lyger fired his grapnel line toward the rafters, quickly making his way to the roof access door from which he had entered the warehouse, even as a series of other explosions began to tear through the building. He bounded up the short staircase which led to the roof, and once he was outside, he sprinted toward the edge of the building. Once he reached the edge, he leapt with all his might, yet still falling short by a dozen yards or more, however, a well placed grapnel line made up the difference, and just a few seconds later he stood on the rooftop of the adjacent building, watching as the warehouse which contained the vast armament exploded. 

As he walked away from the edge of the roof, he felt a pang of guilt wash over him as he realized that he didn’t see The Franchise or his men escape the inferno.

[center]***[/center]

Within the confines of his office, RenCo CEO Maxwell Renfield looked through several documents that were scattered about his desk detailing various projects that his company was currently engaged in, when his phone rang.

“Renfield.” He said shortly into the phone, aggravated by the interruption. However, his rigid demeanor suddenly changed as he slumped forward in his chair.

“How much was lost?” He shouted rather than asked.

He listened as the man on the other end of the line explained further. He told Renfield about the warehouse explosion that had claimed nearly the entire stock of Tek-53 assault rifles. As the news sunk in, Renfield thought of the sales that he had procured, the military contracts, as well as the black market contacts who had been interested in the advanced weapon.

“A half a billion dollars…” Renfield said, almost wistfully, before continuing. “I want to know exactly what happened, I want to know why, and I want to know what is going to be done about it.” He finished, slamming down the phone.

He sat behind his desk, his head in his hand for a moment, before angrily swiping his arm across the surface of the desk, scattering the contents all about the floor.

[center]***[/center]

“Kyle, get up.” Ronnie said as he shook Kyle’s shoulders.

“Wha…what?” Kyle asked, still half asleep.

“Dude, it’s 7:30. We’ve got Dr. Robinson’s class in a half hour.” Ronnie said.

Kyle looked at the clock, and reluctantly began to stir. He didn’t feel like going to class, in fact, still wracked with guilt over the events the prior night, he didn’t feel like doing anything. More than a dozen men were dead, and although he wasn’t responsible for the explosion, he was at least partially responsible.

He decided that after class he'd call Addy and see if maybe they couldn't get together. Even if he couldn't tell her what had happened, being with her may take his mind off of the entire ordeal.

“Alright, fine.” He said as he began to gather his small container of bathroom supplies and headed toward the shower.