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Children of Gaia: May 2015 #9

The Art of War.

The Den: CoG Main HQ, College Park, GA 0900 hrs.

Deep underground the mansion in one of the more forested areas of College Park, GA, lays the Den, the center of operations for the Children of Gaia. The War Room of the third sub-basement level of the facility was obnoxiously bright thanks to the florescent light bulbs above each team member's head. At the table sat Warmonger, The husky and former Army Ranger garbed in his unaffiliated full black urban tactical gear, minus the helmet, Geist the brilliant snow shoe rabbit garbed in his black leather outfit and a white rabbit head insignia upon his left breast, Shade, the black panther from Costa Rica also in his outfit with a purple cat head logo, Echo, the bat from Monte Carlo who just joined the team not but a few days ago garbed similarly with a brown bat head, and Tempest, the rock and roll bad girl blue jay from New Jersey with the blue bird symbol on her breast, only her outfit was sleeveless. The room was relatively somber only in the mood that was on the face of every hybrid's face, all except Tempest whose expression showed nothing but violent intent. Soon, Deadeye, the former child soldier turned acrobat, marched with resolve into the room. He had on similar attire as Echo, Tempest, Shade and Geist had on, with the exception of the golden fox head upon his uniform.

His attention slowly shifted to Tempest who wasn't called the meeting at all. He kept a cool exterior as he approached the table the other hybrids were sitting at. "Tempest, what are you doing here? I didn't request your..."

"You know exactly why I'm here DAD!" she interrupted sharply, "GeneCorp has my girlfriend, I'm part of this operation whether you like it or not!"

"Tempest..."

"DON'T YOU DARE LECTURE ME!" she yelled as she stood up and slams her taloned fists upon the table, "You know exactly what this is about, you know why I'm here, and you know..."

"IF YOU COME YOU WILL POTENTIALLY RISK THE MISSION AS YOU HAVE A PERSONAL INTEREST IN IT!" The fox suddenly yelled. Deadeye's aggravation was obvious, this wasn't merely a once in a while thing. These two would butt heads constantly like father and daughter would on a constant basis.

"Damn right," she retorts. "They have my girlfriend and I ain't leavin this room because I am going to be a part of this op, whether you like it or not!"

Deadeye gave out a sigh of distress, and a little bit of resignation. "Alright, but if this Op goes sour, I want you sent home..."

"I can take care of myself..."

"Fine..." He huffed a bit as he approached the table. "Hard Drive, bring up Blueprint 056682 please?"

Upon command, a holographic, green light projection of a young male mouse, garbed in a similar outfit to the others. "Affirmative." he replied monotonously as he replicated some button pressing, as if he alone could see the buttons, and suddenly brings up a wire frame 3D animation of the GeneCorp building. "Blueprint 056682, GeneCorp main building, New York City, New York County, New York State..."

Deadeye slowly made his way to the head of the long, rectangular table and turned towards the map that was currently sitting right in the middle of it. "Alright team, listen up, This is a Covert Op, as many of you know, Tracer," With mention of her name, a holographic profile of a female Australian Shepherd hybrid with wide smile on her muzzle in her picture, "has been captured by GeneCorp. We all know that she has been on GeneCorp's docket with her ability to track down other hybrids. Our mission is to infiltrate the main facility and extract her as quickly as possible. What makes this mission more difficult is the fact that GeneCorp has developed microwave emitters to hinder us."

"What are those?" asked Shade.

"Glad you asked... Professor Prozac?" Deadeye turned as if to look for someone only to find no one there. "Dammit where the hell is..."

As Deadeye turned back to the table, he would come face to face with the heavyset raccoon in question with a wide and silly grin on his face. The raccoon was standing upon the ceiling, very similarly to the way the two originally met. The raccoon was standing upon the ceiling of the room, as if gravity had an opposite effect on him. The black leather team outfit he wore really was labeled with a red raccoon head.

"You rang Mr. Addams?" The raccoon droned off to sound much bigger than he was, almost monstrous as a parody to Lurch from Addams Family.

"Prozac, knock that off..." Deadeye said with an annoyed sigh. The raccoon was rather nimble for his size as he flips around to land on his feet upright with a silly smirk on his face. "Could you just explain to them what the microwave emitters do?"

"COITENLY!" he replied enthusiastically in the mannerism of the late Curly Howard. He slowly shuffled to the white board and began drawing. "Microwave Emitters are designed specifically for us hybrids..." He began drawing what looked like a pair of poles with boxes on them. "They emit a specific frequency of microwaves..." as he drew the squiggly lines away from the boxes, he began making beam noises to simulate the emission of the waves. " These waves penetrate our brains..." in which he began drawing a diagram of a human brain with similar waves surrounding it. "These microwaves center on the particular parts of our brains to keep us from using our powers! It nullifies the neurological triggering mechanism that allows us to use our abilities. This pretty much makes our powers useless!" He then turned around to the young panther, Shade, "That's why part of the plan is you to cut off the main generator within this building located... here on the 24th floor!" As he pointed, a red dot illuminated upon the holographic schematic near the middle of the building. "This will be a night mission, and very dangerous. Luckily you can blend into the many dark corners and crevices within the building."

Shade merely nodded in agreement, "Si!" he replied in his usual Hispanic accent, "You can count on me!"

"YOU! Ghost boy!" he said suddenly pointing to Geist, "You're the most important of all! We need you to infiltrate sub-basement level 3." As he mentions the area, the red dot disappeared from first place, and reappeared on a B-3 level on the schematic. "That's where they keep all of their prisoners to be taken in, you know power check, mental malleability, etc."

"Whoa, wait!" Geist said sitting up suddenly. "Mental malleability?"

Prozac simply rolled his eyes "Yyyyeeeeesssss! Mental malleability. Before they try and drain you of your life juices, they try and mind control you."

"Are you sure this isn't one of your..."

Prozac yawned suddenly and pretended to stretch out as he did, "That's nice, time is of the essence!" The rabbit simply blinked a bit and sat back into his chair, huffing slightly. "Ghost Boy, you do what needs to be done to get Tracer out, summon that ectoplasm, make some guards shit their pants from ghost scares or whatever, just make sure you grab one of their ID cards to open up the cage. This is because the systems in the main cell block are actually hardwired and your phasing through won't overload the system."

"PFFFFT!" Tempest huffed and leaned into her chair. "And of course I get left out."

"DO I INTERRUPT YOU WHEN YOU SPEAK?!" the raccoon yelled suddenly, slamming his paws upon the table and causing it to shake. The sudden outburst shook the blue jay to her very core as she blushed a bit and let him finish. "Now on to Echo, Warmonger, and Tempest, you three are the escape plan! over here on the north end of the building..." as he mentions the area, the schematic quickly zoomed in to the mentioned area, showing a helipad. "This where they keep the MI-17 helicopters, originally decommissioned by the U.S. military, fully armed and ready to go with Gatling guns in each of em!"

"HELL YEAH!" Tempest yelled as she threw her taloned hands in the air and the wings on her back fluttered, "I get to Ride a choppa!"

"CAN I FINISH?! PLEASE CAN I FINISH?!" The raccoon yelled once again, but of course in his usual facetious manner. "Now, Echo, since you are the only licensed helicopter pilot on the team, you get to fly outta here."

"Oui!" the young bat gave a solemn nod, "I shall also use my powers to aid Warmonger in potential threats in ze area to give him a sitrep."

"YOU GET THE DOOR PRIZE!" He yelled excitedly, pointing to the bat. "Now, Tempest, your job is fairly simple, you're gonna need to use your powers to engulf the gunship in clouds to prevent detection so you guys can get Tracer, Ghost Boy, Spetsnaz and Shade the hell outta dodge, you got that?"

"Yeah, sure, Helicopter, cover, got it, whatever!" she grumbled uninterestedly.

"CAN I FINISH?! PLEASE CAN I FINISH?!" After a moment of silence, the raccoon mocked a look of seriousness and sighed softly, "O.K. I'm finished..."

"This plan is good and all, and I'm glad you came up with it," Geist said, looking over the schematic. "Just one problem, how do we get in? There's no clear exterior entrance that isn't guarded!"

Prozac smiled confidently as he raised his finger. He opened his mouth wide as though he were about to explain the plan, but his confidence turned to dismay and turmoil. That confident look suddenly shifted to a look of disillusion as his jaw dropped, and his finger fell limp at the sudden realization, similarly looking like a real life cartoon. "FFFFUUUUCK!!! How did I forget that detail?!"

Deadeye narrowed his eyes directly at the front door of the schematic gave it a deeply resolute look. As Professor Prozac had his meltdown of his major blunder, those gears in his head began turning. He knew exactly how to get in and get the others in. "I've got it... We give Gene exactly what he wants..."

The entire teams suddenly slowly turn their heads directly to their team leader with shocked expressions that the guy who was the most silent spoke.

"Um... Deadeye..." began Geist. "I'm gonna hate asking this, I know I am... But, what the do you mean by that?"

GeneCorp Main HQ, New York, NY 2100 hours

The Darkness of the mid-January night gripped the city in a deep freeze as snow flew in sideways at the GeneCorp building. The building itself was technically on the outskirts of the city, just barely within jurisdiction, but is far enough away to keep from having any civilians close by. At the main gate of the tall cement wall, a single guard, garbed in warm arctic camouflage uniform that doubled as modernized ballistic armor, complete with a helmet with a specialized face mask with integrated circuits that allow for multiple electronic features. He was armed with an AR-15 Assault Rifle which was loosely strapped to his shoulder. The soldier eventually watched two other soldiers approach from around the perimeter of the fence, the usual patrol to make sure no outsiders were around.

"Everything all clear?" the guard at the gate asked through the voice digitizer in his mask.

"Affirmative" the closest patrolling officer said with a salute. "All is quiet tonight, almost makes you wish something would happen."

"Roger that!" the guard replied, "For once I would like it to..."

As the guard trailed off, he and the patrolling guards turned their heads towards the approaching sound of crunching snow. The three guards were suddenly confronted by Deadeye, the fox, slowly approaching them. The guards immediately recognized him almost immediately and pulled up their assault rifles to aim their weapons at the fox.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" screamed the guard at the gate, keeping his finger off the trigger.

The fox narrowed his eyes a bit. His First instinct was to grab for his Sig Sauer 9mm on his right hip and waste these bastards before they could even blink. Maybe that was just the fact that he and Tracer had been watching too many western movies before this all happened. Damn that Clint Eastwood was all the fox could think as he clinched his gloved hand into a tight fist.

"This is private property! What're you doing here?" He asked, keeping his distance.

The fox suddenly gave a loud sigh as he slowly fell down to his knees and slowly placed both of his hands behind his head. "I'm here to turn myself in. I wasn't fit for the Children of Gaia. I left them."

The three guards looked at each other quizzically before the gate guard slowly lowered his weapon to obtain the combination electronic collar and manacles that were strapped to his belt. As the other two guards kept their weapons up, aimed at the fox, the gate guard slowly approached the kneeling fox, unsure of what to expect from him. Each armed guard moved behind the fox to be sure he didn't try any escape trick. Finally, the guard slipped the collar around the fox's neck before slapping the manacles over each each of his wrists.

The guard let out a nervous laugh as he backed away slowly as the fox stood up slowly, keeping his hands in front of him. The electronic reinforced wires connected to the manacles kept his arms from fully extending, so his elbows were kept at a 90 degree angle. The fox hung his head and droop his ears in defeat.

"Mr. Norwood will be glad to see you Fox..." the guard said happily as he turned to the patrolling guards. "You two, keep behind him and make sure he doesn't try anything."

The other two guards nodded as they lowered their weapons and kept a good 5 feet out of reach of the fox as the gate guard slides his access card to open the front gate. The three guards led the fox through the facility's rather large yard on the direct approach to the front door of the facility. The massive 40 story structure of glass, metal and concrete towered above the four as they approached ever so slowly. Deadeye suddenly began to itch a bit around his neck a obviously due to the collar.

"KNOCK IT OFF!" yelled one of the guards behind him as he gave a rough push.

"Sorry." he replied, "It's a bit itchy, I'm not used to Collars."

"Mr. Norwood, Sir?" the guard in front said into his communicator as he pressed a finger gently to his earpiece on his helm. "The Fox is in our custody, I repeat, Fox is in our custody!"

As the four finally got to the front door, Deadeye slowly lifted his head as the guard slid his I.D. card one last time to open the door. "How long you been doing this?" he asked suddenly.

"Long enough to know you're still a threat even with the microwave emitters in the facility." he replied.

"Curious." the fox said, "Have you ever read Sun Tzu's the Art of War?"

"No!" he replied scoffing, "Why would I?"

"Because you could have avoided this..." Without warning, the electronic collar gave a loud beep as the lock released suddenly and the fox quickly whipped the cord around the soldier's throat, causing him to start choking audibly. As the guard began losing consciousness, the last words he hears before finally succumbing is Deadeye whispering softly into his ear, "All warfare is based upon deception..."

As the guard passes out, Deadeye slowly turned to the other two guards. They simply stood there a moment before looking at each other and nodded. With that, they both took their helmets off to reveal their true faces, Geist on the right, and Shade on the left. Geist huffed slightly as he tosses the helmet to the side.

"Thank God!" he sighed aloud. "I could barely breathe in that thing! I'm all about constricting clothes, but that is ridiculous."

Deadeye gently pats the rabbit's shoulder gently after he finally took off the guard's outfit. "You did well, Geist. I know it was hard. Remind me to thank Prozac for that security spike program he uploaded onto my palm computer when we get back."

"Thanks. So we have our assignments. Shade you get these emitters off and I'll head down to the Basement and wait for Shade. Deadeye, What are you going to do?"

Deadeye slowly pulled out the 9mm from his holster and slipped a loaded clip into the handle. Without hesitation, he cocked the slide back to load the barrel and replaced the weapon back in his holster. He looked up to his fellow teammates and calmly replied, "You heard the man... Mr. Norwood is waiting."

"Deadeye, that's Suicide!" Shade said as he approached. "You can't..."

"If I don't get up there, he's gonna get suspicious and come looking for us." Deadeye replied plainly as he hits the button to call on the elevator. "I'm going to go up there and distract him while you two do what you have to in order to save Tracer."

"Are you sure?" Geist replied hesitantly.

"It has to be me." he said. "Good luck you two."

As the door opened, Deadeye slowly stepped in and hit the 40th floor; the floor that Gene would obviously be at. Before the door closed, Shade slipped in and stood beside, in which prompted a strange look from the fox.

"24th floor... remember?" the panther said as he pressed the button labeled '24.'

The fox relaxed at the comment as he folded his arms and watched the doors close.

North Airfield

Within moments of the team entering the main facility, Warmonger, who was being carried by Echo and Tempest, began their flight over the main wall just outside of the north airfield. As they cleared the wall, the ladies dropped the flightless husky into the snow just behind a stacked set of care packages set outside of sight of any other guards. The two flyers quickly folded their wings and quietly took another up refuge beside the husky.

"Alright, Echo," Warmonger said as he pulled up his M4 Carbine that was strapped directly to his chest, "Give us the sitrep."

Echo nodded softly and closed her eyes. She didn't need to, but it helped shut out the unnecessary sense. She opens her maw and released a high pitched frequency that no human or hybrid could possibly be able to pick up without electronic assistance. Her ears twitch as the sounds reverberate on the various obstacles and guards that were in the area, giving her a clearer picture of her surroundings.

She opened her eyes after a moment and looked to Warmonger. "Zere are seven soldiers, and five gunships, Zere is also plenty of cover for us to be able to make our way to ze closest helicopter.

"Right, you heard the lady..."

"You Kiddin?" Tempest said. "I can take on those seven my damn self!"

"NO! WAIT TEMPEST!" yelled Warmonger, but it was too late, the young blue jay had already flew off.

She wasted no time and began flying around the guards, catching their attention as she flew by. "C'mon children!" she began yelling as she swooped and flew around like a fighter pilot, "Let's dance sickos!"

Eventually, when she had all seven guard's attention, she lured them all away from one of the helicopters. Warmonger finally figured out what she was doing now, diversion! For having a bad attitude, she sure as hell was intelligent.

"Alright Echo..." He said after gauging the situation. "Now's our chance."

"Zis was definitely not part of ze plan!" Echo complained as the two run towards the nearest Helicopter.

"I think this was a part of HER plan, but it worked into ours!"

As Echo hopped into the cockpit of the chopper, Tempest finally stopped to make her an easier target, with a wide smirk on her beak.

"Tell ya what Jerkwads... I'll give you the first shot free! In the infamous words of Pat Benatar: HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT!!!"

"FIRE!!!!" screamed one of the guards as each one pulled up their rifle and unloaded their clips.

Tempest could only laugh as she formed an Aerokinetic barrier, in which each and every single bullet got picked up by extremely strong winds, protecting her from every shot. The bird smiled wickedly at the absolute terror in the guard's eyes when they notice each bullet was swirling around her in an unseen wind current.

"Too bad... Now it's my turn!" she said as she narrowed her eyes.

With a vicious flap of her wings, the bullets flew in every direction, causing the guards to dive and move out of the way, luckily unharmed. Before they could recuperate from the attack, Tempest flailed her wings back quickly and trusted them forward, sending a tempestuous wind to throw the guards against several other helicopters, care packages, even flying far enough to hit against the very outer wall of the complex.

She smirked a bit as she fluttered back down and walked over towards the helicopter Echo and Warmonger were in. Warmonger still had a slightly angry look on his face when she hopped onto the chopper and folded her wings behind her back.

"Tempest, that was reckless and stupid!" he barked loudly at the young lady.

"Yeah..." she said with a smile on her face. "But it was fun..."

Warmonger shook his head a bit as the rotors finally began whirring full speed. He unfortunately couldn't argue with her as the tactic worked without a hitch. "Right... You know what to do Tempest..."

24th floor

The elevator door opened to allow Shade to slink out of the elevator. Luckily for him, the hallways were dim so that he could blend in easier with the shadows. He sneaks towards the main corridor and crouches down at the end, placing a finger over his ear gently.

"I'm in Hard Drive" he said silently as to not arouse the attention of anyone nearby.

"Confirmed." the droning synthesized voice replied. "Uploading Schematic. Uploaded: you should have the directions to the main console in order to shut off those emitters. Note: I see there are 3 guards in front of the console, proceed with caution Shade."

The panther slowly opened the plastic flip screen of his computer integrated onto his right glove and watched as the floor schematic zeroed in on his current position with a red line guiding him throughout the schematic to the correct room. Shade followed the directions from the computer on his glove. He kept to the shadows as he made his way towards the darkened hallways. He noticed that that the computer started to take him through a large strange room filled with giant experiment tubes. Each tube was illuminated showing off what appeared to be different stages of embryonic growth throughout the room. What was more disconcerting was some of the "creatures" went beyond embryonic stages and looked like blank slates of human bodies: featureless, genderless, and without pigment.

"Hard Drive, what in the world are these things?" asked Shade as he suddenly stopped to look at them.

"One moment," hard drive replied as the computer flashed and data quickly scrolled on the screen. "There's a console a few meters to your right. I need access to it for a data mine."

The panther nodded softly and moved closer to the said console. "Accessing..." Hard Drive droned as data flashed over both the computer and the console before the panther. "These are not regular humans."

"What do you mean Hard Drive?"

"Everyone single one of these so called humans all have the exact same DNA structures, with the exception of a few minor tweaks." The computer flashed and returned back to the schematic suddenly, "Data mine complete... This is most disconcerting."

"What is it?" Shade asked as he made his way to his target.

"This is the testing facility; they are trying to combine the proper mixture of genomes to create the perfect soldier for themselves using a combination of the best of human traits and hybrid traits, non-powered of course. They've already begun making clone soldiers; they're just trying to perfect them!"

"That explains why they seem to have an endless amount of soldiers." Shade said as he continued on to finally rid himself of the room.

He finally crept up to the 7X5 control room of the floor in which he saw the three guards mentioned before sitting at their stations. Shade quickly pressed his back to the wall and watched from the darkness as masked soldiers garbed in black tactical gear manned their posts. The panther scoped out the room to find a better vantage point, but from the looks of things he had to do things the hard way per usual. He clenched his fists and opened them quickly to show sharp claws suddenly unsheathed from his fingertips. He dug the claws into the wall and began climbing up slowly until he was on the ceiling. he then slowly crept through the doorway into the room, not making a sound as to not give away his position overhead.

It was here, above the man in the middle in which he waited. He was waiting for the right moment to strike out from the darkness, his eyes squinting in the dark as he watched the men. He was a good 4 feet up above their heads. His powers were useless at this point, so he had to make the attack count. The Panther crouched as low as he could to the ceiling and narrowed his eyes, zeroing in on the man in sitting in front of the console.

Then, in a fiery burst of action, the panther pounced from the ceiling and launched himself towards the poor, unsuspecting man. Shade grabbed the man's head and as he fell upon his prey, and slammed it furiously to the ground and knocking him out. As the soldier now in front of Shade began to stand, the panther used hands against the unconscious soldier's head and springboards himself feet first into man in front of him. The handspring kick connects with enough force to cause the guard to stumble back hard into the wall, smacking the back of his head against it. The third guard by this time had begun raising his M4 Carbine up to his face, preparing to fire. After the momentum of the attack placed Shade into a crouching position after the attack, he springs one more time and crosses his arms over his head and slams into the man hard into the opposite wall.

As Shade landed on his feet, he made sure all three men were unconscious before turning his attention to the console. He began hitting several buttons, which caused the screen to suddenly flash the words "Microwave emitters deactivated." Shade slowly backed away from the console and placed his finger once again to his ear.

"Geist, the emitters are down, I'll meet you up at the fortieth floor..." he affirmed. Now able to use his abilities, his entire body quickly dematerialized down to his most basic make up of molecules and atoms and vanished from the very room.

Level B3

Geist, in the meantime, had been waiting for the signal from Shade to use his powers on the ground floor elevator, as access to the basement levels were restricted by keycard. Once he obtained the go ahead from Shade, The rabbit looked at his hand and gave a gentle sigh.

"Only one way to find out for sure..." He said. He slowly moved his hand over to the card reader and concentrated on his powers. Sure enough, his hand slowly phased through the wall where the card reader was, causing it to suddenly short and light the green light as though a proper card was accepted. "Confirmed," he said over the comm as he pulled his hand out of the wall and hits the B3 button. As the elevator began to move, Geist couldn't help but think this was a major oversight for security, considering the access card reader for the elevator was not hardwired to protect it from EMF tampering while the card readers in the prison on level B3 were.

It didn't take long before the elevator reaches its designated floor. The guard in front of the door seemed startled as he wasn't expecting an elevator to come down, He quickly turned towards the door to see that no one was on the elevator. He slowly lifted his weapon and slowly hesitantly moved in to investigate.

Out of nowhere, there was a sudden shock of force from some unseen entity that ripped his gun from his hands, and then jammed back into his ribs, causing the guard to lose his balance and become winded. As the guard looked up, he saw Geist suddenly materialize once again right before his eyes, holding the weapon now like a baseball bat.

"May god have mercy on your soul..." he said before knocking the guard out with his own weapon. He then tossed the weapon to the side and quickly snagged the guard's card and slipped it into a pouch on his utility belt.

He made his way through the hallways leisurely towards the main ward where they keep the locked up hybrids to be processed only to be stopped multiple times down different hallways. He seemed unnerved by something, as though...

"Geist?" asked Hard Drive over the comm link. "I've noticed you making multiple stops... is something the matter?"

"Lots..." Geist said with a tone of sadness in his voice. "There are a lot of lost souls down here, many of them still in their death state. Many of them don't even know they're dead. I feel nothing but sorrow for all of them."

"Geist..."

"No, I know." he said firmly. "Yes it's a good thing, but it's also a bad thing. I feel bad for having to use them."

"You will be using them to save a life from a similar fate, it may give their death meaning and perhaps even closure," Hard Drive replied.

"Yes..." The rabbit said as he clenched his fist. "They will not die in vain..."

The pupils and iris of his eyes suddenly fade into the whites as he used his powers to create a strong electromagnetic field that he knew ghosts were drawn too. After only a short while, many of the lost souls began taking form around him, several of them hybrids with horrific wounds that showed how they had died. Bullet wounds, knife stabbings, some even had bashed in heads; each phantasm had obtained enough EMF to seem material. The rabbit then began moving forward with the souls of the dead following behind him, as though he were the pied piper himself.

He turned the corner to and heads down a long hallway that lead to a four way crossing of hallways with two guards stationed just outside of a singular cell in a room all to itself down the corridor Geist was walking through. Geist and his fellow spirits let out ghostly moans and raspy breaths garner the attention of the two men. Their looks turned to horror as they watched the apparitions approached.

"THE FUCK IS THAT!" one of them replied as he pulled up his weapon.

"SINNERS!" the rabbit yelled as he pointed to the two men. "Your hands are bathed in the blood of the innocent and have damned you to the depths of Hell's bowels, joining the army of Satan!"

The guards wasted no time in pulling the triggers on their AR-15's and emptied the clips into the ghostly crew. This, of course, was in vain as the bullets phased through each of the hybrids, including Geist.

Geist continued to approach, quoting from the bible, "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire!"

The guards suddenly threw their guns to the ground and quickly ran away in another direction to escape the situation. As the guards escaped, the rabbit's eyes returned back to normal as he gave a long sigh. As the other spirits finally dissipated, he smiled softly and looked around. "Thank you... May you eventually find peace."

"Revelations... Chapter 20, Verses 12-15" droned Hard Drive over the comm. "fitting."

"GEIST?!" yelled a familiar female voice coming from the cell before him. Behind the door, with only a small barred window to look into the cell, he could see Tracer, the young Australian Shepherd he was here to rescue. She was garbed in a simple red hooded sweatshirt and a normal pair of blue jeans. "Geist, am I so glad to see you! Please tell me you're not alone..."

"No, Shade and Deadeye are here too, along with Tempest, Warmonger, and Echo we're getting you outta here now!"

Her ears perked up at the mention of her name and a smile crossed her muzzle, "Tempy's here?!"

"Focus, Lassie!" he said sternly.

Geist dispenses the card he had obtained from the guard earlier and slides it into the reader, causing the door to quickly open. Tracer then bursts out of the door and clung onto the rabbit's neck, practically causing him to spin around in an attempt to regain his balance. When the two were finally steady again, Tracer hugged her teammate and didn't move for a good long moment.

"Tracer..."

"Just... Give me a moment," she replied.

Geist simply nodded, after all, this was the second time she was captured and held by GeneCorp. He sighed a bit as he looked up, his thoughts now wondering to his comrade, Deadeye, and how his diversion plan was going.

Before long, the two hybrids began to quickly run towards the elevator, fully expecting full retaliation if the two guards ever return. As they approached the elevator, they notice it slowly begin to open.

"Get Behind me Tracer!" Geist says as he stands ready to fight.

It would prove to be unnecessary as the door revealed their partner, Shade, standing inside as he quickly rematerialized into the elevator. He was leaning against the back wall of the elevator with a wide smirk on his face. "Goin' up?"

Top Floor

Deadeye stood in the elevator as it continued up to the top floor, checking and rechecking his gun over and over again. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through him, anxiety riddled his muscles with extra movement in an attempt to calm himself, preparing himself for this show down. All he could think about was that fateful day. He rarely thought about Emma very much. Emma was only a teen, the niece to their proprietor, Dr. Gerald Moreau. He thought about the day they met in the park almost a year ago, the young raver snow leopard was still scared of her powers, of what she was and had ran away from home. That was when he found out she had control over the any type of energy wave in existence. He treated her more like his own daughter then anything those days, the sorrow, the laughter, the pain they shared. He even remembered the time that Gene Norwood himself asked for his team's help after she allowed her powers to consume her, the time she almost destroyed the world by expanding the sun to devour the earth itself. He remembered that moment he finally got through to her, to make her to stop, until... Gene went back on his word and killed her anyway. That moment where Gene pierced her chest with his bare fist. The blood was everywhere.

He closed his eyes as that moment played over and over in his head. It still felt like that he had the girl's blood in his fur. To witness such a horror would normally ruin a man, yet with Deadeye, it drove him. He replaced the gun back in his hip holster, which was designed to not slide in until the gun's safety was on. This was it. Tonight, he will prove to be Gene's worst nightmare.

As the elevator finally made it to the top floor, the door opened to an elaborate office that took up the entire floor. The room was merely illuminated by a fireplace to Deadeye's left, and a red carpet leading away from the elevator. The rest of the floor was a polished sandstone tiles with marble columns running parallel to the red carpet. At the end of the red carpet was the man the fox came to finally confront. Gene Norwood, the brown furred, black manned lion garbed in a black suit including the button up shirt underneath the jacket. The lion lifted his hand to adjust the black tie around his neck as the fox approached. He at first had his back turned, staring out into the clouds just outside of his windows, almost bemused.

"Strange weather we're having isn't it Deadeye?" he said as he turned to the fox with a smirk on his maw. "Tell me, did you kill my guard?"

"No," Deadeye retorted as he clinched his fists tightly as he drew closer.

"Pity," he said as he cackled softly, "You spent seven years being raised by Spetsnaz as a child soldier, and yet you put none of that to use at all?"

"Part of being a soldier is having the discretion when and when not to kill."

"And yet that got you into trouble with poor Emma."

The fox stopped suddenly, narrowing his eyes angrily at the man before him. If his fists weren't gloved, blood would have been drawn from how tightly his fist was clenched. "I know what you're trying to do" he said remorselessly. "You're trying to upset me so I'll make mistakes."

The lion flashed a wicked, toothy smile, "Is it working?"

"No..."

"Pity... since you're a pupil of the great Sun Tzu, he did say that 'The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.'"

"We both know that's not possible."

"Indeed," he replied as he paced in front of his desk, almost stalking the fox. "Tell me, do you fear me Deadeye?" He gave a light chortle at his own question. "Of course you do, that was a rhetorical question... I can see the proper responses: pupils dilating, sweat on your brow, I can even hear your heartbeat quicken at this very moment. It's nothing to be ashamed of; these are normal human responses, part of the 'fight or flight' aspect buried deep within the Id of your psyche. See, that's where you and I differ, fear is a common human emotion, one that I seem to lack. So, by that logic if all humans know fear, and I do not... What does that make me hero?"

"It makes you a monster!" the fox growled.

"IT MAKES ME A GOD!!!" he exclaimed as he swats his hand at his desk, smacking it into the window with a loud crash.

"You're no God..." The fox said as he suddenly charges Gene.

The fox began throwing quick and furious hard punches which were met by sweeping blocks by the lion. Gene was only using a single arm to block the oncoming onslaught from the fox. Before Gene could block without any issues, but this time was different. The fox was faster, more precise with his strikes, as if the fox was actually using a certain style instead of merely brawling. This realization came when the fox finally lands a punch into the lion's sternum, causing him to fumble backward a bit before he could regain his composure. Gene only smiled wickedly.

"Something's different..." he said as he chuckled.

"Last time we fought, I was undisciplined." he replied as he returned to his fighting stance. "I've learned the art of Wing Chun from a Chinese martial arts master; she taught me all I know."

"ALRIGHT THEN!!!" screamed Gene as he charged the fox.

As the lion attempted to grab the fox's neck, but Deadeye swiftly deflected the lion's hand with his left arm and gave him an open palm strike to the sternum with the other. Gene once again stumbles back to regain his balance. He roars loudly as he unleashed his claws and swiftly began slashing at Deadeye furiously. Deadeye tried desperately to keep up with the attacks but unfortunately, the barrage was too much for the fox to keep up with. With a gigantic swipe of Gene's clawed hand, he grazed the fox's shoulder, ripping the chainmail that was integrated into his suit with ease. The mere force of the blow forced Deadeye to the ground with a hard bang on the polished sandstone floor. Before he could recoup from the attack, Gene dashed over to him and grasped his neck tightly and lifted him up off the ground, choking him as the fox's legs dangled in the air.

"As Sun Tzu said... All war is based upon deception!" Gene said maniacally. "As long as I never show my full hand, you will never beat me!"

Without warning, from within the dark clouds, the sound of a helicopter quickly approached. As the clouds parted, the side of an MI-17 helicopter, with Tempest standing in front of the open bay door, and Warmonger manning the Gatling gun. The husky furiously pulled back on the lever that loads the feeder and aimed directly at Gene.

"BURN IN HELL, FREAK!!!!" he screamed as he pulled the trigger.

The Gatling gun whirred up at the pull of the trigger and then began firing a relentless barrage of 20 mm bullets. Gene had no choice but to toss the fox back towards the elevator and use both hands to summon a strong enough psychic shield to hold back the onslaught of an attack. Each bullet that was fired was suddenly stopped in midair as though they implanted themselves into some invisible objects before the lion. It was at this point that Geist, Shade and Tracer finally made it to the top floor, finding Deadeye slowly standing up. Geist aided the fox back to his feet just as the Gatling gun suddenly jammed. Gene smiled as he lowered his hands, causing the bullets to fall to the ground.

The sudden clicking sound from behind him caused Gene to turn and find himself face to face with Deadeye, the fox had already drawn his Sig Sauer 9mm pistol, aiming directly at Gene's head. "I told you before Deadeye... It's Pointless!" he said as he eyed the fox.

"All war is based upon deception. Hence when able to attack, you must seem unable!" he retorted angrily.

Deadeye fires his pistol, making Gene lift his hand up in an attempt to stop the bullet again. Yet, something felt different this time, something felt... wrong about the bullet that was just fired. From Gene's perception, there was a strange, silvery aura that surrounded the bullet as it spiraled it's way towards it's destination. The scene felt like it ran in slow motion to Gene. The lion's eyes suddenly grew wide when he realizes the bullet had bypassed the normal field range, causing him to flinch and move his head to the side to avoid it. It was far too late though as the bullet grazes his cheek. Gene simply stared at Deadeye in perplexed amazement of what just happened, as he felt blood trickle down from his cheek.

"You..." he stuttered suddenly, "You hit me..."

"Next time, I won't give you the chance to dodge." Deadeye said coldly.

"How... How the hell did you..."

The fox gave a wicked smile of his own, "Just lucky I guess."

With that, Gene made a dash for a nearby column and presses the button, activating a secret floor panel exit to reveal a set of stairs. The lion booked it down the stairs as Deadeye replaced his weapon, allowing him to escape.

"Deadeye, you had a clear shot! Why didn't you take it?!" yelled Shade.

"I dunno..." the fox said plainly, "Hope, I guess."

"Hope that he may change?" asked Geist.

"Maybe. Let's get the hell outta here!"

The four hybrids dashed quickly over towards the helicopter hovering just outside the broken window. Deadeye was the first one to the ledge, jumping across the short gap and landing onto the helicopter with ease. Shade followed suit as he too bounded onto the helicopter without trouble. Geist was slightly doubtful, but Shade and Deadeye both were able to help him onto the chopper. Tracer, though, was extremely reluctant to jump.

"C'MON BABE!!!!" screamed Tempest as she held her taloned claw out. "YOU CAN MAKE IT!!!"

"I CAN'T!" the shepherd yelled back.

"YES YOU CAN! FOR GOD'S SAKES, YOU'RE A FARM GIRL!!!" the blue jay yelled back.

Tracer gave a slight whimper as she leaned over and looked down. A sudden gust of wind threw her off balance. She swayed back and forth and lost her balance, falling forward and off the ledge.

"KENZIE!!!!!!" Tempest screamed a she ran quickly to the opposite opening of the helicopter and jumped out.

The wings on her back opened up and quickly flapped back to allow her to speed downwards toward the ground, speeding past the flailing Tracer. She sped down to about the tenth floor before making a U-turn in midair, and flapped her wings furiously. She flung her hands above her head and forced a gust of wind upwards to orient the falling Australian Shepherd onto her back and to slow her down. Tempest continued flapping upwards until Tracer fell gracefully into her arms.

"Oh God... Tempy... I..." Tracer panted out as she wrapped her arms tightly around the bird's neck.

"I know Kenzie... I know..." she said with a soft coo, giving her a loving and reassuring nuzzle, cheek to cheek.

Tempest used an extra gust of wind to get herself and her lover back onto the helicopter. She did not let the shepherd go as she sat down at an empty seat and lovingly rocked her with tears streaming from her eyes. She had been so scared these last few days without that ditzy, lovable pup in her life. The rest of the team finally sat down in the other seats, while Deadeye moved up into the copilot's seat and sat down next to Echo, leaning back and finally relaxing.

"I see ze mission was successful," She said with an earnest look on her face.

"Almost wasn't," the fox sighed aloud as he finally built up the desire to place the headphones on his head.

"Vy DID you let Gene live? I may not know you too well, but I know you're not a forgiving kind Deadeye."

Deadeye turned his head and looked directly at the bat, with no emotion in his eyes. "I wanted to send a message."

"Vat kind of message?" she asked quizzically.

"A message that his time is up..."

-End