[center][b][u]Sector A Outskirts[/b][/u][/center]

Julian crouched behind a large ventilation system located on the roof of a library. He peered over the edge and spotted the checkpoint that his squad was supposed to attack. He looked behind him, at Chief, the large tank of a man. He stood with his arms crossed, ready to lay waste to whatever came across his path. Julian shuddered at the thought of being on the enemy's side when Chief was unleashed. He then gulped and took a deep breath, reaching to activate his comms.

"The second patrol is well on its way. This is it - we won't get any thinner numbers," he said into his comm device. Yugeto and Arianna waited below for orders from Julian, who was their designated captain. 

Arianna peeked around the upturned carriage in the street at the checkpoint just a few miles away. The campsite seemed deserted as the military men were all in the tent used for dining, leaving only a few patrols of guards sitting around. She turned back, gently resting her back against the carriage. "It seems like a good time to strike," she said to Yugeto, glancing over at her teammate. Yugeto looked to Arianna, waiting for Julian's order to strike. "Whaddya say, boss? This probably won't take too long. You want me to take 'em out quick, turn 'em against each other, or shall we just make a show out of it?" Yugeto asked eagerly. 

Julian continued to scrutinize the base. He gradually began to realize that he had a small window of time to do what he had to do. But this was it - the spark of revolution, the first punch, the opening act. The pressure of the first shot weighed down on Julian as he slumped down in his cover, eyes closed and mind focusing.

"This is real... we're about to... about to..." With trembling fingers, Julian reached into a pouch on the belt of his armor. He retrieved a joint and a lighter and placed the joint on his lip. As he lit it, he looked up to the sky and took a nice, long hit.

"We're about to go down in history, my friends. We might have to - no, we [i]will[/i] have to kill. But we aren't killers. We're sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters, and today, we're going to show the world just that. Whether we make it out or not, I want you to know... In Amdra Yasa."

Yugeto nodded solemnly, impressed by the raw conviction and passion his captain displayed to inspire them all. He then turned to Arianna. "You can read minds, yeah? If I use my power to buff you up for a bit, you think you'll be able to hold control over one of these guys for just 30 seconds when I tell you?" He asked. Arianna turned to look at him, blinking as she thought for a few moments. "I could surely try. I've never thought about controlling anyone's mind before." Yugeto grinned, and closed his eyes, channelling spirit. He pointed towards the patrolman who began to glow an off white aura. The other military men began to take notice slowly. "Wait a minute...Lou...the fuck is that?" "HOLY SHIT HE'S GLOWING!" "HOST!" Yugeto gave Arianna a thumbs up. "Get in this dude's head and have him shoot all that spirit out towards his boys. Give em hell." 

Arianna nodded curtly and turned to look at the man, watching as the military men began to respond to his glowing frame. She slowly let out a breath as she focused her energy on the man, immediately hearing his frantic thoughts. The sudden influx of spirit began to kick in, allowing her to access his subconscious and also some of his memories. Unfortunately, she had no time to dabble in that no matter how much she wanted to. Slowly, she began to infiltrate his thoughts, adding her own in the same connection that his current thoughts were being processed. [i]You don't want them to think you're a host. Rid yourself of the spirit. All it takes is just a little..[/i] She suddenly connected with his motor functions and immediately took over. [i]Push![/i] In an instant, the white glow was forced from his body, the military man's own human spirit driving it out.

The men dove for cover, while some began to fire a few suppressive rounds, not so eager to kill their companion. "HE'S WITH THE MERCENARIES! THIS IS IT MEN! TAKE HIM OUT ASK QUESTIONS LATER!" The men darted around trying to seek shelter from the barrage of spirit missiles. Arianna instantly let out a small cry of pain and clutched at her stomach, the link between her and the man instantly being broken. She gasped for air, the pain of the bullet that had hit the patrolman fading. "Damn," she whispered.

As this happened, Julian took one last hit of his joint, letting the smoke completely fill up his lungs. He then looked at Chief and spoke through his steadily molding spirit: "Take 'em out."

Chief let out a war cry and charged forward with unbelievable speed. He jumped off the first building and landed on another, his momentum continuing to increase. After tearing through a couple vent lines and generators, he leapt once more into the air, directly above the checkpoint. He let out a long war cry as he descended, his body slowly twisting and enlargening until it was one, large, metallic behemoth. Chief slammed down on to the ground directly ontop of the soldier that had been sabotaged, instantly turning him into a pile of blood, guts, and shattered bone. The soldiers around gasped and started redirecting their gunfire at Chief, but the bullets only managed to sting him and drain a bit of spirit at the least. He screamed and burst into a sprint towards the most concentrated group of soldiers and slammed into them head on,causing a few to fly backwards and the others to get crushed under him.

The men screamed orders at one another, realizing that their bullets weren't doing much. They regrouped and started firing off in specific orders, causing Chief to turn in circles trying to pinpoint exactly where the gunfire was coming from. Now in the middle of the fray, Chief was subject to hit-and-run tactics, being bombarded by gunfire from one direction and immediately from another direction the next second. Frustrated, he roared and ran towards the next group of soldiers, launching his massive arm downward on a soldier who barely rolled out of the way. A nearby soldier ran towards his arm and grabbed it, trying to hold it down, but Chief simply picked up his arm and slammed it on the other side, crushing the man. Three other soldiers dashed towards him, with swords drawn. They held typical military grade broadswords, augmented with either fire or lightning cores. The first two soldiers swung their swords, which emit small fields of electricity. Chief cried out in pain as his body quickly conducted the electricity, but he pushed through it to kick one of the soldiers square in the chest. The man flew about fifteen feet until he crashed into and dented a wall. The second soldier with the electric broadsword ducked under Chief's punches and kicks, luring him away while the third swordsman, wielding a fire-augmented sword lunged at Chief's back. The sword lodged itself a good way into Chief, causing him to scream and whip around faster than the soldier could expect. Still holding onto the sword, the man was swung around violently causing his shoulders to dislocate. As he fell to the ground, Chief roared and stomped on his head, crushing it instantly. "PUNY HUMANS!" he yelled as he continued his rampage, crushing the last swordsman with the clap of his hands. 

"GET THE JAVIES!" yelled one of the soldiers as he delivered another magazine into Chief's back. Chief, in the meantime, completely ignored the multitude of bullets showering on his titanic body, while slamming his fists into anything that moved. It wasn't long before a metal spear attached to a core-augmented rod tore through his left arm and impaled him into the ground. He cried out in pain as the spear activated, causing a huge electric explosion meant to stun any organic material. Instead, Chief remained impaled to the ground while the electricity tore through his metallic body. As his spirit waned, the metal began to rust and dent, threatening to disappear. Another soldier ran towards Chief, with a second spear held high. Aiming for Chief's head, he focused and tossed the spear with all his might. It flew right on target and was only milliseconds away from piercing Chief's skull.

Instead, the spear was snatched from the air by a trail of black smoke that crashed into it and redirected it to it's owner. The spear lodged itself right inside the soldier's chest and let out another electric explosion. Chief coughed and strained to lift his arm up, but with a bit of a struggle, he managed to rip the spear out of his bicep and toss it to the ground. Julian danced around the battlefield in his smoke from, drawing out fire and spears.

Still behind the action with Arianna, Yugeto began to channel a hefty amount of spirit into Chief, as the metal hardened and shined to a near crystalline degree. "If we fought this fight six months ago I'd already be halfway out of spirit. We'll do this right." Yugeto smirked at Arianna as he motioned towards the battlefield, watching Julian. "Once our good captain and Mr. Smash pummel a couple baddies, I'll sweep in and absorb their Spirit. That's when we go all out, alright? Your spirit should remain at a heightened level for the next day or so, I didn't channel enough to make the powers permanent like I did with Julian, so don't get too comfortable with 'em. In the meantime, just see what you can do now; I doubt you'll over exert yourself for the upcoming fights. Arianna nodded, watching the battle. She didn't think she wanted to be able to control people the way she had earlier, anyways. The thought of it was eerie.

"SHIT THERES MORE!" yelled one of the soldiers. "CALL FOR BACK UP!" 

Julian felt a bullet graze his smoke form, causing him to fall off balance and crash back to his regular state. He swiftly rolled into the cover of a table, which he kicked to its side. Listening closely, he heard multiple footsteps rushing from the left side. He then balled up his left fist and spun out of the cover of the table to the left side.

"Let's go Senyuko!" he yelled as he thrust his fist forward as if he was jabbing at thin air. His fist turned into a much larger, denser fist made of black and red smoke that slammed into the three soldiers running at him. They flew backwards and landed on the ground, giving Julian enough time to spin around, raise his large smoke fist to the air, and slam it down on top of them. Two other soldiers fired off at Julian, who jumped and reverted to his smoke form.

Julian drew out more fire while Chief, in his new, crystaline form, roared in anger. He felt no pain, and he could barely even think. Now, he was just a man on a rampage. He ran towards a raised platform that connected to another building, like a bridge. Leaping into the air, he broke through the wall of the bridge and began punching and kicking the men with immense force. Bones became tooth picks in the wake of his brawn, and with each every kill, he felt stronger, more invincible. Julian flew right past Chief, causing the men who were firing at Julian to focus on the brute. It was futile, as the bullets merely bounced off his new frame. Julian instead flew downward and doubled back towards the unaware gunmen. 

He flew low to the ground to avoid detection at first, and then quickly ascended while simultaneously releasing his smoke form. With a quick spin in the air, he balled up a dense, swirling ball of black smoke in his palm, and launched it at the unsuspecting men like it was nothing. The men didn't even care to dodge the baseball-sized projectile, which hit the ground near their feet and exploded into a large cloud of black smoke. The men closest to the blast radius were launched into the air, scorched, while others around the perimeter were brought to their knees, suffocated. Julian fell the gorund and rolled off the pain in his legs. He coughed a bit 
and dashed to cover, having to sit behind an armor rack to recover his senses.

Yugeto gave Arianna a quick wink and dissolved into a white energy, speeding towards the wounded soldiers Julian and Chief had not killed, and reverting into his corporeal form. "Hello gentlemen, consider this next experience the River Styx, and consider me
Charon. I'll make sure to keep your bribes in mind as you move on." Yugeto explained to the damaged and trembling soldiers musingly, as he spread his arms out and a white circle illuminated the ground and began to spread, causing the soldiers in its radius to fall dead to the ground, devoid of spirit. Yugeto retracted the circle and belched loudly, chuckling with glee at his replenished and augmented Spirit. 

Arianna smirked lightly as Yugeto winked at her before standing and dashing towards the battle. She immediately found an advantage point behind the rubble of a collapsed building, crouching down and peeking over the edge. The buffed spirit flowed through her veins, the tips of her fingers tingling with the mix of it and her adrenaline. She focused on the metal wires within the rubble and pushed them up into the air, her fingers making a link with multiple wires. She moved her hands like moving the strings on a puppet, sending the wires towards distracted soldiers. The wires then wrapped around the wrists of the soldiers and fastened them tightly together. Once this was through, she focused on the guns of the soldiers getting trigger happy towards Julian and ripped them from their hands, lifting them high into the air before curling her hands into a fists, the metal of the guns instantly crunching into balls of metal. Arianna was definitely enjoying this power boost.

Yugeto followed up after Arianna, absorbing the spirit of the incapacitated soldiers. "Now, we're gonna finish this. As much as I'd like to blow this place apart, it's a checkpoint we gotta capture. So, here I go." Yugeto proceeded to cover his body in spirit; the cloak formed into a spear of spirit, and slowly became more ornate, long, and sharp. "Do me a favor and get that last patrol squad out here, will you?" Yugeto motioned towards the end of the checkpoint where he felt the spirit of the hiding soldiers. "Just make sure you don't get any civilians caught in the line of fire...this thing's gonna go for all the signatures I detect, so keep the civs at bay."

Arianna nodded and focused on the minds inside of the building. She picked out each of the military men's thoughts and soon had them walking out of the building, their hands raised in surrender with a confused, almost terrified expression. She nodded to Yugeto. "Give me a countdown, so I can stop the link between my mind and theirs before they die." She didn't want to experience the pain that these men were about to have. "Now." Yugeto said ominously before lifting his hand and throwing the spear. "STYX AND STONES BABY! Z-Spear!" He yelled out as he threw the spear in joy. The spear weaved through the soldiers and pierced each of them, honing in on each soldier Arianna had brought out. Yugeto motioned for Arianna to follow him into the checkpoint as they checked the area briefly. "Can you call Search and Rescue for this? We should move onto the next checkpoint; it should be no issue to us if it's anything like this." Yugeto whistled as he walked off. "I named it Z-Spear. Heh." 

Arianna nodded and pressed the comm on her ear. "Checkpoint one covered," she said into the comm. She turned to Yugeto. "Should we wait for Julian and the rest before going?"

Yugeto shrugged. "Might as well. They're probably a bit tired out, so we should cover the next checkpoint with more finesse. Lets wait for them here." Arianna nodded and looked back at Julian and the Chief. "Alright."

Julian took deep breaths. He could hear the fleeting footsteps of soldiers and the rumbling in the distance. Reinforcements were on their way. Julian strained to sit up and reach for his comm. He pressed a button and coughed before speaking, "Where's our DZ?! We need extraction, ASAP!" Chief chuckled, rolling his left shoulder. "Only cowards run from a fight. Are you a coward, smokey?"

Julian chuckled weakly, "No, brothah...." he said in between panths, "I'm a survivor..."

---

[center][b][u]Shuttle Bay - Sector A Outskirts[/u][/b][/center]

"It's about time..." came the frustrated voice of Pyrus. "When do I get to burn?" he said, eager yet collected. Fang chuckled, amused by his anxiousness, "Soon enough, Pyrus, soon enough. Hand me the map?" 

Pyrus reached behind his seat and retrieved a digital map of the area. Fang took it and looked it over. "I got four charges set around the perimeter. We'll need to get within half a mile for detonation," she said.

Zerox, who was busy preparing his [url=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_L78zEKWCMII/TUhtlNU6PrI/AAAAAAAABY4/z-1PxtBE5f8/s1600/Masteryi_Splash_0.jpg]armor[/url], looked up at Fang. "What's this?" he asked, holding up a small amulet with a strange core in the middle. Fang smiled, "Oooh! That's important! One of the Level 2's can read minds. Put that on your helmet, Zerox. It'll send out signals to give her a real headache."

Zerox nodded and did as she asked. Fang then chuckled, "Oh my! Speak of the devil... Guess who just showed up on the maaaaap!" she sang. Surely enough, an orange dot blipped on the map as the shuttle neared its location.

"These are the guys that gave us the call? It's Hector's men..." said Lizard. Fang shook her head, "It's a SHE!" From the back of the shuttle, Flash interrupted, "Either way, we're taking them out. Nekros' orders. Zerox, on me. We'll clear whoever they got here. Fang, you and the rest head to their base, detonate the bombs, and clear out survivors."

Fang nodded as the shuttle doors slowly began to open. "Good luck to you two!" she said sweetly as they jumped out of the shuttle.

---

Arianna paused in her steps, furrowing her eyebrows as intriguing thoughts interrupted her own. "Bombs.." She murmured, trying to hear more. She looked up at Yugeto, her expression showing her worry. "Yugeto, we need to go back to the base. Everyone in there is going to die if we don't warn them in time." She clenched one hand into a fist. "Those bastards are going to kill all those civilians in Sector Zero just to beat the Mercs."

Yugeto raised his brow, "What? What are you talking about?" Just as he finished saying this, Julian's voice called out: "TAKE COVER! INCOMING!" 

Within seconds, two entities seemed to fall from the sky, landing with a large thud. The shockwave of their impact caused a large dust cloud to rise up. As the dust began to settle, twelve people emerged, eleven of which were the same exact person. 

"Ahhh, so this is the one," said Flash, pointing to the girl. "Who's the other? He's a host..." Zerox wiped his goggles and nodded, "With more spirit than I've ever seen, too... this should be interesting." The eleven other clones of Zerox all started walking towards the group slowly and steadily.

Julian looked at the two approaching individuals, obviously hosts. He then turned to his comms, "HECTOR! WE NEED A SHUTTLE!"

Arianna eyed the host that pointed to her, her brows furrowing lightly. "They're Hunters," she hissed to Yugeto, glaring at him. She then turned to look at the other and his copies, eyeing each for any differences. She winced lightly as a pang of energy seemed to hit her mind, causing a wave of slight pain. She moved to a defensive position, wondering what was causing it. "Yugeto, you need to tell the others about the bombs. There are four of them, from what I heard." With a deep breath she looked over at him. "With your boost I should be able to handle these two. The others need your help."

Yugeto funneled another strong reserve of spirit into Arianna after grasping her hand. "Good luck. We have a Spirit Link, and you have telepathy, so on top of the usual sense of spirit I can get from you, this should allow you and I to relay messages to one abother unless or until I break the link." With that, Yugeto entered his ethereal form and headed back to the other two. "What's going on, brothah?!" Julian asked. Yugeto rematerialized and spoke quickly, "They've got Sector Zero rigged with bombs and they're on their way to blow it to shit." He pointed to the shuttle that was headed towards the base. "We NEED to stop them."

Julian looked back, "What? We can't leave Arianna! Tell her to-" Chief chuckled, "I'll stay here." Yugeto shook his head, "LISTEN! They have more of where that came from!" he said pointing to Flash and Zerox. "They NEED us back at base, we're talking hundreds of innocents! Arianna can handle this!"

Julian shook his head and peeked over his cover. "Damnit..." he said, reaching to comm once more. But to his surprise, from a far off corner perpindicular to the path that the enemy's shuttle took, a bomber shuttle sped through between buildings towards him and his squad.