[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/YGFfNXs.png[/img][/center] [hr][hr] Night had already fallen over the city of St. Raleigh and a church were abandoned the night of the sermon. Except for one person who had taken a seat on one of the rows of wooden chairs in this rustic looking church that was constructed out of grey blocks. She was an abnormally tall African-American woman who had donned a leather jacket and blue jeans, finishing it off with her heavy steel-toe boots. She had a head full of dreadlocks and a face full of worry... what was her name? Nakala Phillips. She was growing a glowing yellow crystal in the air before she caught it, and repeated the process over and over again until she heard heavy footsteps approaching. That was the cue, and she knew that she had exactly what she came for. She caught the crystal just as her target walked into sight, [url=http://img00.deviantart.net/2c40/i/2014/290/1/b/troopers_by_deadslug-d835lmf.jpg]a man covered in a black, thick, armor from head to toe and wielding a light machine gun, his eyes shining a bright red color as he marched in.[/url] He stood at the podium as Nakala hopped to her feet, holding the crystal behind her back. She knew exactly what she was dealing with, and despite that, she was still nervous as hell. Nakala was taking a huge risk here because she knew about all the stories about this man. About all the lives he has ruined, and all the terror he has brought to the world. He was Abel... the most dangerous man in the world, and she was face to face with him. "Nakala Phillips..." Abel spoke in a deep robotic monotone, as he faced her down, showing not even the slightest hint of emotion or humanity. "Why have you sought me out?" Though, monotone, he didn't immediately gun her down like his reputation as a boogeyman would have suggested. Still holding the crystal behind her back, Nakala walked down the aisle towards Abel. "I wanted to ask you if you know of a girl named Olivia Clarke, she went missing a few months ago..." She trailed off, hoping that Abel didn't think she was going to suicide bomb him or something. "... And I got a gut feeling that REAPER is behind it." "Hmph, she was on the list but..." Abel scoffed off the girl as he took a moment to go through his HUD's interface. "My REAPERS have no records of taking her." "Why don't I believe you?" Nakala narrowed her eyes as her voice took a more hostile sound. "Believe it or not, it is the truth." "Well, that's a shame..." Nakala trailed off, as she began flipping the crystal in the air again. "... Because I wanted to bargain with ya' - her safe return and you get this crystal." "I came for the crystal, child," Abel said, this time breaking his monotone for taking a more agitated tone. "Give me the crystal for wasting my time..." "How's about this; give me back my friend you bastard and I won't kill you!" Nakala was getting angry as she clutched the crystal and felt it's power surging through her. Suddenly her fear of Abel was being overwritten as she thought about being able to take him. "Either way," Abel said as he leveled his machine gun with her body, "I will leave with what I came for." [hr][center][hider=Massive Attack - Superpredators][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLhodpCK6Dc[/youtube][/hider][/center][hr] He immediately unloaded a barrage of bullets on Nakala one-handed, seemingly possessing the strength to take the recoil. He was expecting it to kill her immediately, but when the gun was overheating and he let go of the trigger... he realized she was still alive. The bullets had stopped upon contact with her skin and he noticed that her Delta energy was glowing in her body. It had enhanced her durability to the point where bullets didn't bother her. Which was troublesome, as the girl grinned. She flew at Abel at lightning speeds with her hands outstretched and rammed the brute directly into a wall, and she landed on her feet as she put the crystal in her pocket. Nakala cocked her fist back and delivered a punch towards Abel's midsection that sent him flying backward through the wall. She thought that she had him before he quickly came charging out and punched Nakala square in the face. Even though she was enhanced by the Delta energy Abel still hit like a brick wall, and stunned her for a second. Another blow came her way and she put her hand up to stop it, she grabbed onto Abel with both hands and sent him spinning around in a circle before she let him go. The massive man went flying into the benches and destroyed at least five rows of them before he started to slow down, but he quickly got to his feet. Hands ready to anticipate the next ramming attack by Nakala, and just as anticipated she flew into him with her hands outstretched. Abel timed it and caught her by her hands, and the mere force of her body flying into his sent him skidding backward. After he came to a stop, however, he slammed his knee upwards and hit Nakala directly in the face as he threw her aside. The terrorist came over and kicked Nakala across the room, destroying the benches that were left and making her hit the wall. He came running over towards her and she had already caught her bearings as she threw a wide arced punch towards the mad tyrant - he quickly deflected it with a quick hand and had punched her directly in the face that sent her flying backward. Abel quickly followed by grabbing her arm and wrapping it around her back and keeping it locked tight. "This was a good spar, but I need that crystal..." Abel said as he reached for Nakala's pocket, however, she had other ideas. After recovering from that blow - [i]damn he hits hard[/i] - she flew straight upwards through the ceiling fast enough that her plan to throw off the terrorist worked. In mid-air Nakala broke free and turned around, grabbing Abel by his midsection as she rammed him right back inside of the building. She crashed him through the room then directly into the ground so hard that she left a crater and an explosive boom. Nakala took a moment as she began breathing in heavily... she was bleeding a lot, but long as she draws breath she wasn't going to- In a sudden movement, Abel had grabbed Nakala by the collar of her shirt and yanked her in for a brutal punch to the face. Then another, then another, then another, then [i]another[/i]... All she could see was stars, all she could hear was ringing, and all she could taste was blood. He stood up, holding her up with him before he slammed her into the ground headfirst so hard that broke the floor and lifted her back up. He delivered another brutal blow directly to her face that sent her flying across the room. She hit the ground, dazed and confused, as she was bleeding heavily. Abel had knocked out a few of her teeth, and broken a [i]lot[/i] of bones... if it wasn't for that regenerative factor of hers, she'd be down for the count. "Nakala... what did you [i]really[/i] expect?" Abel said as he walked back over to his gun and picked it up. He marched towards her as he continued to monologue, "To win? To kill me? I would have spared you if it wasn't for your arrogance..." He slammed a foot onto her stomach as he aimed his machine gun directly at her face. "... But, for what it's worth, I admire your drive, admire your strength..." Right when he was about to pull the trigger and kill Nakala, the unexpected happened. A raptor ran into the fray and bit down on his machine gun, managing to knock his aim off. Abel ended up firing into the walls of the cathedral and he turned his head towards the raptor and if he wasn't wearing a helmet one could see the look of confusion on his face. "... What." He said before he smacked the dinosaur with the butt of his machine gun. Breaking bones on contact and sending the dinosaur flying. "Filthy animal." Throwing Abel off, just for that moment, was exactly what Nakala needed, she grabbed Abel by his leg with both hands. With what remaining strength the girl had left, she threw Abel's foot off of her chest and flew upwards, punching Abel right in the jaw. The brute was stumbling backward and Nakala cocked her fist back and delivered the hardest punch she could to Abel that sent him through a wall all with bloodied knuckles. The girl was panting as she held that pose for a moment, she... she had to go. This had gone horribly wrong, and she needed to get out of here. She stumbled towards Impala, and picked her up, "C'mere girl..." She whispered to the dinosaur as she stumbled out the front door of the church, nearly falling down the stairs... [i]and she could hear Abel's footsteps approaching.[/i] She kept stumbling with the wounded dinosaur in arms... ... and felt engulfed by blue light as she disappeared from her home universe. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/T1prUKa.png[/img][/center] [sup][code][/code][/sup] [hr][hr] It was yet another rainy day in the streets of this Murakumo Robotics controlled city, illuminated by the neon lights Oh-Two marched through these streets as she wore a heavy coat with a huge hood on that concealed herself. In a normal district of this city it would be quite conspicuous, but in this illicit area of the city where everyone was trying to hide their faces, she blended in just fine. She casually scrolled through the streets until she ended up at a vendor: An older Chinese man that just looked up at her. He had various electronics and other such tools, but Oh-Two had her eyes on a set of wires. She dropped some credits on his counter and pointed at the wires and he gave it to her without a word. She turned away before she disappeared into the crowds. Finding a secluded place to do some repairs wasn't much of a challenge... she found herself in some dirty alleyway, sitting down as she examined her wrist. She had some exposed wiring that had become damaged - how wasn't the question, but she quickly underwent repairs using her other hand. First, a small laser beam cut the broken wires off, before she installed the new wiring, and used the blow tourch to meld it back on. Honestly, Oh-Two needed to find new parts in general, quality parts. When she's on the run from the authorities, such things are hard to come by... Immediately her head darted down the alleyway as she noticed someone approaching,[url=https://pre10.deviantart.net/5e2b/th/pre/f/2014/097/2/a/girl___commission_piece_by_blee_d-d7dfobk.jpg]A Japanese woman that was obviously cybernetic, with mechanical arms and swords.[/url] Oh-Two's eyes began glowing a bright color as she scanned the woman's body.... [quote][code] MAKOTO KODA BOUNTY HUNTER FORMER SHELL PILOT, PREVIOUS ASSOCIATED WITH MURAKUMO. ARMED WITH HIGH-FREQUENCY WEAPONRY. [/code][/quote] The woman had on a hoodie as she walked up to the self-repairing android who couldn't help but hop up to her feet. "Sooooo, you're the scary robot everyone is up in arms about?" Makoto asked with a raised eyebrow, her thumb was on the hilt of her sword, idly flicking it forward a bit and exposing the blade. Oh-Two nodded her head, "No, I am not." "You sure fit the description." Makoto said with a grin. "Please, we don't need to do this, I just want to live peacefully." Oh-Two pleaded, attempting to some part of the woman's humanity, but... "Sorry to say this, but we do," Makoto said, "... Because I've come to kill you." [hr][center][hider=Carpenter Brut - You're Mine][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN9XjiOiuoA[/youtube][/hider][/center][hr] With a lightning-fast motion, the samurai had already unsheathed her blade and slashed it upwards towards the android - who was barely able to react by the virtue of her reflexes. Immediately a compartment opened in Oh-Two's shoulder that revealed a missile, that went flying straight for the samurai as she lunged backward. Makoto merely sliced the missile in half as she rushed forwards towards her target. She raised both blades in the air and slashed downwards, but Oh-Two had projected her own energy swords and parried the attack. The two had clashed blades as the far stronger cyborg almost brought Oh-Two to her knees - which was why she thrust away. Flying straight out of the alleyway and back into the busy streets. "Oh no, you don't!" Makoto shouted as she leaped forward, and landed on top of a vendor's stand. She quickly leaped again towards Oh-Two and mid-air she had sliced off one of her butterfly wings and sent the machine careening towards the ground. She landed on top of another vendor's stand and sent the owner of it screaming. Makoto quickly ran towards her but she was immediately met with Oh-Two's concussive blasts, which she blocked with her swords. However, Oh-Two fired a beam right at Makoto's kneecap that brought the cyborg to her knees. Seeing an opportunity, Oh-Two barraged her with an assault of beams that were blocked by the samurai's blades, but she made an approach. When she was close enough, she projected another blade and attempted and slash at the woman, but was again blocked. However, Oh-Two had planned for this and with her free hand, she launched away from the blade with such comical ease that it was sent flying across their little streetside battlefield. Taking away a major advantage from her opponent Oh-Two projected another blade and attempted to ram her, but the samurai was still capable of parrying two blades with one. The two quickly exchanged blows, starting a constant back and forth where one would attack and block the blows of the opposition. However, Oh-Two's shoulder opened up again and she fired a quick rocket at the woman that hit her in the chest, the explosion sent her stumbling backward. Oh-Two rushed the woman and rammed her blades through her midsection, hoping to kill the woman. She screamed in pain... before she swiped her blade directly at Oh-Two's arm and cut it clean off. Oh-Two was surprised at the sight, but it didn't end up there, she was sent on the defensive by the woman and her barrage of slashes. Slashes that Oh-Two was only somewhat able to repel, and in many places, she was cut open or slashed by the experienced bounty hunter. She was sent stumbling back as error sign after error sign appeared and the woman had taken this opportunity to run and grab her other blade... At this point, a hover ship had appeared and a team of armed SWAT team members repelled down, along with the few that arrived by car. They all surrounded Oh-Two in a moment's notice and had dozens of guns trained on her... while Makoto had sheathed both her swords and looked on very smugly with her arms crossed. "Plans worked like a charm." She smugly said. "We have you surrounded! Surrender!" Oh-Two desperately looked around as she tried to think of a way out, but realized that she had no way out. The android wondered how she could have done well so far only to fail spectacularly... but she noticed that she was being engulfed by a blue light, and had disappeared right as the Murakumo police had opened fire. [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/CpyrX61.png[/img][/center] [center][hider=Armored Core - Shape Memory Alloys][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPx0dqBuQR4[/youtube][/hider][/center] [hr][hr] From across the universe, champions that were deemed worthy were being taken from their homeworld. Either in moments where they were about to be killed, captured, or simply whenever. Engulfed in a blue light, they were all disoriented by the experience... before the light faded and they ended up in a plain white room. Massive... and they looked around and saw other people being warped into the room with the light. The room was plain, except for the wires that were in the room that leads up to a podium of sorts. Stepping down from the podium [url=https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/intermediary/f/6c838d5c-e031-4a27-8d48-278e072c6fdc/d9zwqiq-6a3c9a5c-e752-45e2-9e5d-4e335d5f2078.jpg/v1/fill/w_900,h_802,q_70,strp/_program_girl__nod32_by_reef1600_d9zwqiq-fullview.jpg]was an android that was a glowing machine with pieces of white armor on top on it.[/url] "Do not be alarmed, I mean you all no harm," The machine said with a near heavenly voice. "My name is [b][i]Praxis[/i][/b], and I welcome you to the Initiative." Still disoriented from being teleported across universes, Nakala grasped her head as she looked at the... robot? Its nothing like she ever seen before, and she has certainly seen some things. "... And what in the world is that?" "Allow me to explain that there are more worlds out there than the universe you know, some of you are aware of that... some of you aren't," Praxis explained as tendrils came out of her back and carried her down to the floor. "Ages ago there was an event that threw the balance of the multiverse off and created portals and other such disruptions. The Initiative's goal is to find worthy champions and send them across the multiverse to correct these disruptions. You all have been chosen as the newest team... [b]Team G7[/b]." Praxis put her hands behind her back as she said, "Now, allow me to get across that you all will not be forced to participate in the Initiative, simply chose to and we will return you to your home dimension. But, if you want to participate, ask any and all questions now before we proceed."