I stared down at the men below as they loaded various size cases into the back of an old transport truck. Each of them wore a leather jacket marked with a giant skull on the back. Slung on their backs were soviet style AKs.

“Lexi, are you sure this is a good idea?” I asked, speaking into the built-in comm system of my helmet, “Like, I know I’ve dealt with worse, but taking out an entire gang in one night will definitely draw attention.”

Her voice filled my right ear, “That’s the point. We want the city to know that a new face is on the scene.”

“If anyone really pays attention, they’ll recognize the armor,” I responded.

“I doubt it. With the modifications I made to your mask so it covers your whole face and distorts your voice when you talk, and the fact that you changed the color of the suit entirely, no one should notice. Plus, people in this city wouldn’t notice the broad side of a barn if it knocked em unconscious.”

That last statement earned a small spat of laughter.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, irritation lurking in her voice.

I rolled my neck as I stood preparing for the fight that was about to commence, “Oh ya’ know just bad guys, guns, and the broadside of a barn.”

“Darrian you ass! Get to work,” she spat, before the comm went silent.

I shrugged and muttered to myself, “Say no more your majesty.”

I placed one foot forward and tipped off the edge of the four story building on which I had been perched. Below me sat a lonesome guard keeping guard down the alleyway. Flipping in the air, I put my feet below me just before crashing down on top of him full force. I felt several sickening cracks as the guard became sandwiched between me and the cold pavement. The noise must’ve caught the attention of some of the others, because two more thugs came walking around the corner.

“Hey, you okay?” one called out, as he squinted trying to see through the darkness.

I smirked and responded, my voice sounding distorted, “I’m fine.”

“What the…”

Before he could finish his statement, a knife flew through the air catching his friend in the neck. Without hesitation and aiming straight for the remaining gang banger’s chest, I launched my grappler. He didn’t have time to react before the tip penetrated his ribs and burst open lodging itself within. He fell back, dead. With a powerful yank, I ripped the hook from its new home before retracting the line.

Activating my x-ray vision, I scanned the surrounding area. Maybe fifteen guys remained. I took a deep breath, and let out a slow exhale.

Shit’s about to get real.

I took off at a running start as I slid two knives from one of my pouches. With a leap, I entered the light with a small flip. Mid air, I launched both knives, and each lodged themselves into various vital organs of two thugs. They collapsed, and this gathered the attention of the remaining thirteen. They didn’t hesitate as they all raised their guns and opened fire.

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I rolled to the left, taking cover behind a stack of wooden crates. They continued to pelt the area with bullets until I launched a couple of smoke pellets over the top. The area began to fill with thick gray smoke, and I activated my thermal vision. Coming out of hiding, I could make out white, humanoid forms lurking within the cloud. They began shouting trying to coordinate with each other, but I wasn’t going to allow that to happen. I dashed forward and pulled out the combat knife strapped to my thigh. Catching one thug in the chest, I turned and kicked him into the closest target. His limp body collided, and both thugs went down. I walked over and slammed my boot repeatedly onto the face of my next victim. When nothing, but mush remained I moved on. One of them must've noticed my presence cause he charged at me so I ducked and activated my wings slicing him clean in half.

I continued taking them down one at a time until only one remained. By this time the smoke had pretty much dissipated. We stared at each other like we were in an old western showdown, but when he saw the carnage that surrounded us, he dropped his weapon and held up his hands.

“Look man, I don't know who you are or what you want, but I'll tell you everything I know. Locations, names, stashes. Whatever you want. On top of that you can have all the shit in the truck,” he said calmly, which told me he was no stranger to death, but he knew when to surrender. Perhaps he was ex-military.

I looked at the crates stacked up inside the idling vehicle. On several of them was a logo. The logo appeared in a strange spiral shape similar to that of the caduceus, but instead of snakes there were two dragons. Both breathing fire. Curious by this I went over to examine the contents. I swapped to my x-ray and began to look over the boxes. Items ranged from mechanical components to advanced weaponry that the government didn’t even have access to. Cytech also funded the league with most of its equipment.

I returned my attention to the man, “How did a bunch of thugs get a hold of Cytech property.”

He dropped his hands and wrapped them around his stomach as he broke into a fit laughter.

“What’s so funny,” I growled, taking a step toward him.

He held up his hand indicating for me to wait, “Nothing man. I figured since you’re a vigilante and all you’d know that companies like Cytech have their dark secrets.”

Secrets sure. Everyone had secrets, but illegal dealings? It made no sense in my mind. They supported the league from the beginning, so why would they feed our enemy the same tech.

I walked over and grabbed a fist full of his shirt, before pulling him close, “If you want to keep your head then I suggest you fill me in on everything you know.”

He whimpered in response, before giving me a slight nod.

After gaining what intel i could, I knocked the guy out and stole the shipment. When I arrived back at my hideout, I found Lexi tinkering around with some of the old equipment sprawled about my workshop.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“I’m working on some enhancements to your security measures. Everything here is way out of date.” she responded dryly.

I rolled my eyes, “way to bust my balls there.”

She huffed and set down the wrench in her hand, “unless you have something valuable from tonight’s excursion I ask that you leave me in peace, so I can work on keep us protected.”

I didn’t say a word, as I opened the back of the truck. When her eyes landed on the vast amount of boxes marked by Cytech her eyes grew wide.

“Since when does Cytech just hand out their equipment?” she asked as she came forward to inspect the contents.

I shrugged, “I had the same question. Turns out ever since the league lost a lot of its rights, Cytech turned to other means for making money.”

“Those bastards,” Lexi sneered, “I knew they were just as rotten as the rest.”

“You wanna hear the best part?” I asked with grin.

She just looked at me out of the corner of her eye as she continued to rummage through the box.

“Sao and his band of merry men have become Cytech’s largest donors. Coincidence? I think not.” I said as I began to shed my suit.

Lexi halted her search and made way over to the computer. She sat down and within seconds brought up a photo of a man. I walked over to peer at what she was doing. Schematics of a three story building joined the photo, and I recognized the structure as a popular club for the rich.

Before I could ask, Lexi spoke, “This is your next target. Gilbert McCallum. He worked very closely with Sao, and helped fund the hit on Dimitri. Lucky for you, he’ll be making a public appearance at the charity event in two weeks. This will be the perfect time for you to strike, and gives us plenty of time to plan.”

“You’re gonna work me like a dog, huh?” I asked playfully.

“Whatever I have to do to complete the mission.” she responded flashing me a wicked grin.