darkvaper

Ghost paid attention to the various ramblings of the wizard.

"I see. I've had many dealings with the Malta, and I can't say I blame you for hating them."

Jack thought back to his years as a sniper amongst the Maltans. It had been a brief career, and he'd spent most of the time just sitting out there with his spotter in the field, killing time.

His first encounter against a Meta hadn't been pretty. The hero had been a tanker of no small skill who had located the cell's base off the coast. Jack had been given a simple order by his boss, kill the hero.

If only it had been that easy.

Jack had taken up a position on the far side of the compound, opposite of the hero. When the tanker smashed through several guards Jack found he had the perfect opportunity for the shot. He fidgeted about adjusting his rifle until he had the hero's ehad in his sights.

The hero must have spotted the glint of the rifle against the sun, because at the last possible second he moved, leaping into the air, the bullet whizzing by harmlessly. He hurtled through the air like he'd been shot out of a cannon, and landed on the guard tower where Jack had taken refuge.

Jack heard the crunch of the metal above his head breaking and instinctively dropped his gun, wheeling around to face the tanker. The hero, clad in some form of spandex swung at Jack with the full force of an oncoming truck. Jack remembered falling out of the tower and landing on the ground below.

Thankfully he'd been given a special serum that boosted his abilities. Unfortunately he was still in a lot of pain from the fall. The hero leapt back down, ready to finish Jack off.

That's about when Jack's backup showed up. A man carrying a sapper rifle was able to weaken the hero long enough for Jack to pull his pistol and finish the tanker off.

"Tell me, just how does Malta fit into this problem?"

The team turned around at the approach of Cory and Matt.

HK 48 did a quick scan of the two meta humans. Still connected to the Freedom Corps. database he was able to look up the heroes record.

He made a note of the hero's vehicle, scanning it as well.

48 also made a note of the mysterious Cory. The machine detested all forms of magic, and as such, cocked it's head to oneside, the only sign of emotion in the soul less abomination.

Ghost, who had been watching his team mate scan the two new arrivals was the first to reply to Cory's question. "Indeed. My name is Jack, and these are my associates, Scarab, HK 48, and Hammerhead. Unfortunately we were only told of the situation with the Vanguard Task Force. Are you here to assist them as well?"

The team was still shaking off the after effects of the portal. Only when they got closer to the guard station could they hear the alarm.

They promptly complied with the guard's orders, stepping into clear view of the camera.

Anyone looking at the camera would find one hell of a strange assortment of people.

The viewer's eyes were immediately drawn to the strange man in the gold armor. The metallic sheen on the armor produced a nasty glare to the camera, even in the growing darkness. The long blades running from his wrists up to almost shoulder length looked rather unfriendly. His face was blocked by the visor of his matching gold helmet that ran down to his chin.

The seven foot tall grey robot was equally imposing. His green eyes stared directly into the camera lens, as if trying to read the mind of the viewer.

And who could forget the team's real leader, the guy in the black overcoat. Even with a hat and full body wrappings you could still see his unnaturally red eyes scanning the area around him.

The sniper was the closest to being normal. His black t-shirt was covered by a thick bullet-proof vest and slung over his shoulder was a modified SC 20K rifle. His thick black hair was rather windswept.

The guard would find that the Freedom Corps database wasn't very informative. According to it these four were registered as level 50 heroes. It classified the sniper as a blaster known as "The Ghost Killer." The man with the blades was a scrapper named "Scarab". The robot was "HK 48", a defender class. Lastly the man in the body wraps was a tanker by the name of "Hammerhead."

Unbeknownst to the Portal Corps guard not one of these guys was a hero. In fact, the records had been hacked no more than five minutes ago by none other than "HK 48".

((Ahhh. Come to think of it, I probably wouldn't have caught Diov on that. I suppose it would depend on your idea of wall of bullets.))

Klaus' eyes threatened to bulge out of his eye sockets.

Many...many explatives exploded out of him, but none could really capture just how bad off he was.

Instincts kicked in. He returned his ice ray gauntlets to to wall.

That wouldn't do much good, because the explosive force of a Zenith hoverbot's rocket would rip the ice apart too quickly for him to regenerate it.

The first volley of missiles was headed for the Sword Colonel. As such she was the one with the most need for protection. Klaus pointed his right gauntlet at the ground beneath the incoming swarm of missiles intended for her.

A solid wall of ice arose. The wall hit the first several missiles, causing a massive chain reaction.

That wasn't all. Klaus also froze the backsides of the missiles that got through his new ice wall, damaging their engines.

Klaus did much the same with the missiles destined for his own personal ice wall. Hopefully he could buy the task force team some time. Really he didn't even understand why he was helping these meddlesome heroes, but at this point it didn't matter.

((Oh what the hell? It takes me forever to actually write the post and Diov shatters it in two.

And Devious, which part in partucalar were you complaining about? ))

Darkvapor raised an eyebrow beneath his own hood as Buckman arrived.

"My name is Lord Darkvapor." he said curtly, adding a little bow to the end. Really he prefered this method of introducing himself over the time consuming process of listing off his various accolades.

His dark eyes darted left and right, taking a careful look at each of Schwarez's men. He decided that at this point combat would be decidedly unwise and so he redoubled his efforts at diplomacy.

"If you don't mind my asking, just what is it you are doing here?" Darkvapor looked around, trying to look somehow interested in the facility. In reality he was scanning for more defenses while trying to by himself some credibility with the gun toting soldiers.
--------------------
Klaus's eyebrow raised an inch. The Sword Colonel was actually crazed enough to charge right into a storm of bullets.

When she gave him the order to freeze the ceiling he opened his mouth as if trying to protest, then promptly shut it. He had no idea what she was planning quite frankly, but at this point that didn't matter. He raised both hands up towards the sky.

In the process he ceased reinforcing his ice wall, which was still being pelted by bullets. As he heard the familiar cracking of ice he began the process of freezing the ceiling.

In the process the room temperature dropped. At first it was subtle temperature change, but by now the Council troops could feel the effects.

The Sword Colonel was still drawing much of their fire, but some of the troopers were still firing at the wall.

Suddenly there was a loud crack as an explosive round shattered a corner of the wall.

"Zis is vy I hate leaving mein laboratory!" he bellowed as ice chunks went flying.

The ceiling was now frozen. Anything hanging down from it had just become a stalagtite. Klaus smiled at the quality of his craftsmanship.

*Pulls out Halo 3 spoiler book*

*Chief drops*

*Dies from Chuck Noris, who is invincible*

*Rez*

*Shadow_Jinx finds himself face to face with Darkvapor*

*Jams energy sword in and then finishes Jinx off by running him over with the new Brute Chopper*

Just outside the gates of the Portal Corp complex the eerie silence ofthe night was shattered by the sound of air collapsing.

A large blue portal appeared, it's eerie luminescence visible from within the facility.

Two men exited it. The sniper and the blade wielder immediately set off for the gates of the facility.

A second and then a third portal opened as their team members rejoined them.

They all made their way for the security checkpoint at the gate. They all flashed their fake I.D.s Should the guard check on them he would find that all four I.D. cards checked out.

While the man wearing the overcoat and body wrappings may have been team leader, the sniper was the one who did all the talking at the gate.

"I'm looking for Unai Kemen. We're here to assist with the Vanguard task force."

Klaus was about to spin about and strike the tanker for hitting him, but that's of course when the door exploded. He felt his feet leaving the comfort of the floor and was now dangling by his collar.

He wiggled free of the larger man's grip. Normally this would have been impossible, but thanks to the bullet that had just hit the tanker's leg Klaus was able to break free.

Gunfire filled the corridor. With very little cover to work with Klaus decided to make his own. Liquid nitrogen sprayed out of his gloves and immediately began to freeze solid. He carefully built up his own little wall of thick ice, making sure it covered him and only him. The problem of course was that the variety of bullets hitting his wall were quickly chipping away at it. He had to constantly keep strengthening it with more ice.

((Pardon me, but I thought we were still outside))

Paragon City

Normally it would have taken several hours for everyone to get to the meeting place. Each would have to take a plane and hope that they could get through customs in time. For these particular soldiers of fortune however, it was a matter of minutes.

A short distance from where they'd been contacted a portal opened. It was rather inconspicuous, often disguised as something else, but when they finally did reach it they were instantly teleported to a spot inside the city.

The first to arrive was of course the team leader. Clad in a dark overcoat and a duster atop several face wrappings he stood out like a sore thumb. His eyes glowed a brilliant orange beneath the wraps like two fireflies.

Moments later the team sniper arrived. He'd had enough time to change out of his desert camo and into more fitting combat clothes. A black t-shirt with a bullet proof vest over it and black cargo pants. Slung over his shoulder was a FN 20K rifle and strapped to the front of his vest were two handguns. He held a duffel bag full of gear in his hand opposite the rifle.

A man clad in golden armor appeared. His appearance was perhaps the strangest yet. Running from his wrists to almost shoulder length on either arm was a rather large curved blade. The blade was affixed to his armor, and in the glowing moonlight gave off a bright glare.

The final team member appeared a few minutes later. Stepping out of the blue portal, he immediately cast a shadow upon the other members. Standing seven feet tall and covered with some form of thick black body armor the robot joined the huddled team of mercenaries silently. His green eyes pierced through each of the team members, assessing each man's physical condition with a hasty scan.

The team leader quickly briefed the team on their mission. Afterwords he handed each of them an I.D. card.

"Okay, let's get moving. We don't want to be late now do we?"

With that the team members went their seperate ways. The sniper and the blade wielding man were the first to leave, taking a single portal that had opened next to them to their destination. The robot went after them in a diffrent one that had opened up behind him. When the others were gone the team leader pulled out his cell phone to update his employer.

Klaus froze Ghoul's finger while it was still flicking him off.

"Who taught you your manners liiitle one?"

"Now then," he said, brushing off some dirt, "If you excuse me I have some businesss with ze Council."

He started for the open door, seeing as how these idiots were too busy arguing to do anything to stop him.

The guards had seen him come and go here befroe and would probably just let him pass. He did business with the Council base here on a regular basis, trading information for supplies.

Little did he realize, but the heroes were already tearing the place up.

Turkey

Beep.

Why the hell did they have to beep?

beep.

Really, they didn't have to remind you that someone had just callled you. When next you looked at your cell phone you would see some sort of message telling you you had a new message anyway.

Beep.

So damn irritating.

The career assassin slowly pulled himself out of bed, already regretting the massive amounts of alchahol he'd indulged himself in last night.

When he finally reached the phone he regretted even getting out of bed. His pain felt like it would rip his skull apart. Perhaps it would. That would be a new experience.

He had to read the message twice. "Paragon City." he muttered to himself in his thick Russian accent. He put the black Motorolla cell phone downon his dresser and walked into the bathroom, where he chugged down two asprin.

After taking a shower and finally getting into his clothes, he decided to check his phone again. Sure enough there was another message, this one in slightly more detail. It also gave a number he could call to get more info. Now that his head was clear he decided to actually get to packing his things.

A normally organized man the Russian had kept everything in his suitcase. He avoided touching anything he didn't have to touch, the fingerprints were a pain enough just to wipe away, and he didn't need more cleaning to do. After double checking that his goldish colored body armor was stowed he threw on his blue blazer and gathered his luggage before heading downstairs to check out of the hotel.
-------------------------
Afghanistan

Weapons deals seldom take place in the middle of the desert. Instead they take place on neutral ground in a city or villaige or someplace.

That said, it wasn't very suprising to find that neither side was playing fair.

Jack "The Ghost" Wilson reached down for his canteen, resting on his belt. Not getting up from his position atop the high rise overlooking the deal he took several gulps of water before putting it back.

Lying on the ground next to him was his personal weapon of choice, a PSG1 sniper rifle. Glancing at his weapon's telescopic sight he saw that the crosshairs were still centered on the gun smuggler.

He tightened his grip on the trigger, his finger pulling the trigger back just a tad bit.

He adjusted the rifle until the crosshairs rested on the arm smuggler's head.

The client had already arrived. The two of them were standing around, hammering out the final details for the deal, and probably making some small talk.

His earpiece suddenly gave a chirp. "Okay, it's show time."

A smile crossed the sniper's face.

He took in a deep breath and steadied his aim.

The dealer turned as if to point to something.

He looked right at the sniper. For a moment he looked like he might have seen the shooter, but he failed to do anything. Instead he waved his hand and spoke a few words to the client.

The sniper made sure to pull back the trigger of the precision sniper rifle as he exhaled. The bullet crossed the distance between him and his target in about two seconds.

Blood shot out of the arms dealer's skull as the bullet blew his brains apart.

Jack tapped his earpiece. "Got him."

Suddenly his cell phone gave a beep.

"What the?

He pulled it out of his pocket and looked the small electronic device over for a few seconds.

Paragon City...

Klaus raised an eyebrow.

"Vait, vat ze hell are all of zou doing here? I thought I left zou at ze frigging sewers! Zis is rediculous. First some [censored] reprograms Clockvork machines to attack my base, zen you guys show up. Can't a mad doctor get any rest around here?"

He took a moment to catch his breath. Somewhat defeated he decided to take a seat on a small stack of boxes next to him. As he sagged his shoulders and gave a huff he tried to relax and concentrate on making sense out of the rediculousness of the events happening around him.

*rez*

*Summons Chuck Noris and Master Chief*

*Watches as they PWN everyone in the thread*

It was about then that Klaus had finally managed to freeze the tentacles to a crystalized state.

The knock on the head sent him flying for the rough asphalt. As he slowly got up the spiritual energy grazed his shoulder.

Klaus was already on the attack, firing liquid nitrogen at Dennis's chest.

He had no idea what kind of a hero he was facing, but Klaus was sure that he could take him. Denis didn't look that tough.

Then again, appearances were decieving.

Wow...never thought of that.

*goes on a spree robbing the good people of Paragon City while masquerading as a hero*

*Drops loot on the floor*

Yup, it's good being a hero.

*Is pwned*

*Rez*

*Grabs Dimensonal Cannon*

*opens a hole in time and space inside of entropy, ripping his body apart*

*Fixes hole with duct tape*

*Then calmly takes out cellphone and calls Chaotic*

Goodbye.

*The bomb hidden in Chameleon's phone detonates, spreading his brains all over the room.

Sweeden

"You understand then the importance of this mission?"

"Yes."

"Good, I expect to be constantly updated."

"We'll try."

"Well," the businessman said, rising from his seat behind the extravagant wood desk, "good luck."

The masked man sitting across from him didn't accept his hand. He didn't even say a word as he exited the corporate offices. He didn't make any kind of communication until he'd walked well over a block away.

Reaching into his long overcoat he extracted a black cell phone. "Meet me in Paragon city."

Coughing as he rose up Klaus took somewhat careful aim where he fied next.

The ground in front of Ghoul frooze. He would find that it would be almost impossible to avoid slipping on the slick surface.

True the tentacles might have held the good doctor down, but with Ghoul unable to stand up how was he supposed to attack the doctor?

Struggling agains the incredibly powerful tentacles he attempted to loosen their grip on him. Wrapping a gloved hand around one of them he attempted to freeze the damnable thing.

*is pwned by reaper*

*rez*

*Walks over to reaper*

Okay, see that guy over there? *points to Entropy* He's on your list too *points to list*

*Grim Reaper kills Entropy, rezes him, and then kills him again. All the while, Darkvapor makes a rather hasty getaway*

*rez*

snaps Darkmystic's neck

Klaus raised an eyebrow.

Cursing very loudly in German he tried to roll out of the way. In the process he clumsily knocked over several boxes and was very slow getting back up.

"Eat liquid nitrogen!" He screeched as his gloves glowed bright blue. Liquid nitrogen sprayed outward. If Ghoul didn't move he'd become a Ghoulsicle rather quickly.

((don't forget DV with Power Breaker))

[ QUOTE ]
*rezzes*

*makes sure im alive*

sweet, i got my body back

*goes to darkvapor's corner and snaps his spine*

[/ QUOTE ]

*rezes*

*taps Chaotic on the shoulder*

*Waits for him to turn around before bashing his skull in with baseball bat*

*Throws bat away*

That was satisfying.