TheSoviet

Very, very, very nice.

How's that for rating? :P

Reikoff coughed and waved smoke away.

"Rikti! Follow us! We're tracking him!"

The Malta began to run towards Agent Immolate.

The Maltans roared with renewed drive now that they were shielded from fire. The ran around the corner again, ducking behind the massive Zeus, firing more accurately through the now-clearing smoke.

Thinking of the possibility of escape, Reikoff fired a small dart towards the hero. In this was a harmless biological agent which would not be detected to be treated, but was able to be read on the Maltan's sensors.

"He's not getting far now." Reikoff said to himself as he loaded his next clip and opened up.

The Maltans grunted and yelled as the bullets smacked their armor. They ducked back behind the corner.

One of the Titans wasn't so lucky. It grunted mechanically, stoically taking the blasts while unloading every weapon in its arsenal.

The other titan whirred.

"DAMAGED::HERCULES:ETECTED!::COMBINE!"

The two Titans jumped together, whirring and clicking, buzzing and thumping. Emerging from the tangle of metal came a Zeus Titan, laughing with fury.

The merged Titan brains locked quickly onto Caper, and armed and braced for an Alpha Strike.

The full compliment of plasma, missiles, and bullets came roaring towards the gunslinging hero.

Reikoff shook his head.

"We don't have that sort of thing, but we CAN tele-"

The grenade exploded with a fwoosh, and the Mentalist ran back around the corner.

"Here he is!! FIRE!" Screamed Reikoff.

The entire force of Malta drew their heaviest individual weapon, sped around the corner, and fired.

------

Everyone else in the arena heard and saw the massive smoke cloud from the missiles fired by the titans.

Reikoff grunted in frustration at the gas and tossed a small handheld mask to the Warmaster.

"We're heading after him too." He grunted as the force ran by.

They wheeled around the corner and followed the Mentalist, all weapons drawn and ready.

Reikoff's instincts kicked in. He dropped to the floor, performing a swirling kick which knocked the grenade back to the assassin. It exploded nearby the droid, annihilating all of its systems.

----

As the last Malta ceremoniously walked on top of the assassin droid, the Engineer began to pick some sort of plasma on acoustics. Realizing that this meant the Rikti, Reikoff had his men gather around the Gunslinger chief.

They teleported ten feet, then again, and then finally, they appeared at the end of the small hallway and saw the Rikti. Immediately recognizing Caper and what was happening, Reikoff yelled to his sapper, whom quickly fired the sap rifle into the group. The Rikti, being naturally enhanced, would not be affected, but it should hold caper long enough for the Titan to perform its capturing move.

The hulking machine opened its rocket pods, but instead of missiles it launched a small cloud of gas grenades into the area ahead.

Reikoff shrugged. They needed supers, not bots.

He and his men entered the lift, appearing in a narrow hallway. They could hear the others talking, so they must have started close. He decided he'd wait to hear Chertak giving orders, and meet up with them.

One of his TacOps silently de-fused a small bomb on the wall.

"They weren't kidding about the traps."

((Danke, I am returned.))

Reikoff looked to the ceiling, and then turned to Chertak as his men entered a lift.

He asked, in a quiet, flat monotone:

"Are we in agreement or not?"

((Hey all, I'm gonna be gone for the weekend, so you can have my malta do whatever if the fight starts.

See ya!))

((Fight over, Johnny lost, Malta are here. Podo's out, Caper's in, Chertak's back, yaddayaddayadda. That's all I remember without looking back.))


((*cough*lookingback*cough*))

Reikoff's scanner whirred and clicked, and he looked up to the redhead sitting nearby. An obvious mutant, a highly powerful one, at that. He considered trying to take the man down, but decided he'd get backup for that later.

He performed the same hand signal that Caper had seen the Gunslinger do, and his men formed up and moved out.

((By the way, Chertak is just, a really cool character to me, even though he whipped my [censored]. I hope you keep him up.))

Reikoff looked to the ceiling again, a tic he had that always made him stand out in the emotionless Malta.

"It is so. But I leave you by saying, an agreement with my organization would be most profitable to you and your men." He said, standing up.

"Let us return to the main lobby and conduct final preparations."

"You may take your seats again. Excuse us." He nodded to the Conscripts.

"Hmh." Grunted the TacCom in approval.

"We came to speak to you of the others in the next fight. Now, if you know of us, you know of our goal, and I believe you can see where I am going already. I know your species is an honorable one, but come; These supers are the main reason so many of your people have died, whilst my organization can account for deaths only caused in self-defense. All I ask is that you assist us in picking the same targets if we are on a team, and holding off of my men if we are not. You may also like to know that supers defeated by my men will be subdued in one of our installations, leaving you with less to fight as your people continue to live here."

"Are you interested?"

The TacCom looked up to the ceiling.

"We have ten minutes. Let us go to the bar and see what we will be in the arena with." Suggested the Engineer.

"Very well. Come."

-----

As the Malta entered the bar, the Supers all stared menacingly.

"Get back to your drinks." Ordered the TacCom in an imposing voice.

"You would be fools to attack us now."

They wandered the bar like spectres, both looking for new opponents and playing mind games; Supers were unnerved by Malta, and Malta knew it. They wandered into the Alien section, eyeing the Nictus, and catching a glimpse of Chertak.

"Rikti warrior. We are aware of your performance against Johnny "The Knife" in your previous engagement, and see you as a worthy comrade or foe in the upcoming fight. Sadly, we must come to you to speak of dealings, as our people see us as they see you. Do you know of us?" Inquired the TacCom.

((His name is Samuel Reikoff, if you want them to introduce themselves. He's just going to be subtle about it, being a Malta and all.))

((Nah, that was good.))

The TacCom stared intently at the new figure in the lobby, Caper.

Data began to read across his screen:

Enemy: Caper
Enemy Class: Gunslinger equal
Enemy Skill: Three Zeus Titans : THREAT LEVEL ALPHA
Enemy Weapons: Pistols, unknown mutations
Typical Appearance: Duster, cloak -- EDITBY: Agent E353-3174: He's a [censored] cowboy.
*WARNING*: Personal hatred for anti-superpowered organizations -- EDITBY: Agent T766-9132: Such as ours.

The TacCom raised a brow and sent a copy of the threat to his men and titans. Some of them subtly nodded. The titans held still, but confirmed their understanding through encrypted Titan frequencies.

Several of the Malta were indeed hit, but advanced bulletproof armor left many of them only bruised due to the range of the shots.

They scurried wildly around each other, picking up the dead Gunslinger, shouting orders, in total chaos. The superpowered men of the crowd began to notice the Malta, and the section erupted into fire, energy, and gunfire.

The Malta returned fire, gathering around the Gunslinger, who was readying a group teleport. As a last act of hatred for superpowered kind, the Malta dropped a satchel of explosives on the bleachers, then disappeared in a flash.

The gunslinger didn't even get to scream as the shot travelled directly through his head. The other Malta swore various curses but never lost their plan; Someone of this power must be taken alive. The Malta began to yell as if in fear, stirring the nearby members of the crowd into panic. In the blurs of people, Caper could not make out the subtle Malta, until he felt something hit him lightly, feeling like a bee sting. He looked and saw several tranq darts in his arm.

((I'm sure you can survive this, just trying to act Malta-ish.))

One of the Gunslingers finished teleporting away a Magically enhanced Hellion and looked down to his meter again. Caper could see his look of suprise, even through his face covering, as he jumped back a little bit and spun his finger around above his head, gathering his fellows.

They cautiously approached Caper, hands on their various rifles and pistols.

The other Gunslinger had been using a small sleepdart pistol to take down the more alert of their captives. He held it under his hand, taking a careful aim at Caper and squeezing the trigger.

-----

The TacCom snorted in disapproval of the fight not happening and sat down in front of the arena gate, holding his rifle tightly.

The Malta finished their signing. The intercom looked at it; it was all in strange encryption for the higherups to read. They entered the room and quickly annihilated all of the targets with incredible accuracy and speed. They stepped back into the main lobby.

"[METAHUMAN:::SIGHTED]" Whirred the first Herc titan.

The Malta drew their weapons and nodded to the guards, signalling their cooperation in the upcoming fight.

If this hero went down, it was Malta's property.


-------

The other six Malta slowly made their way around the crowd, silently disabling and teleporting the superpowered spectators they found.

"Ah, yes, forgot how small this place was."

"HCT-274 and 5, Sapper, Gunslinger boss, engineer. You all come with me. The rest of you....Actually, you others head into the crowd. Find any low-level metahumans we can take, and take them. Six will be ample."

"Let's go." He snorted back to the intercom.

((Nah, I followed that pretty well. We wipe a super, he's ours. I get it.))

The TacCom snorted in annoyed approval, and motioned for his men to take him to the training room.

He knew the drill; His personal crew had taken out Screaming Comet, Taurus, and the Angelic Axeman here. They entered the training room, and the Herc Titan raised its left arm, signalling for the test to begin.

The TacCom grabbed the guard by the collar and held him to his night vision goggles.

"Respond to me."

((Awesome end, btw, Khel.))

The Gunner screamed as Eve made a successful grab. She drew him off of her back.

He knew he was going to be gone in a moment, so he hit his mediport. As his last act of violence, he forcefully stabbed the razorblade into his captor.


He exploded in a flash of light.

-----

((Next up, say hello to.....))

An ominous, black helicoptor circles the Coliseum.

"What will we do?"

"We will grind them into dust!"

"Why will we do this?"

"To subvert the meta! The meta will serve us!"

"WHO-ARE-WE?"

"We are Malta! We are the world's finest! All will serve the Malta!"

The helicoptor landed directly in front of the guard.

Out came two gunslinger lieutenants, a sapper, a TacOp commander, a Gunslinger commander, two Herc titans, an operations engineer, and four Tactical operatives.

"We are here for the meta. Registration will not be needed." Stated the TacOp commander bluntly to the guard.

((Since I'm a pretty big team, you can pit me against the others or whatever.))