And The War Goes On

[Cazador]

It was a dark and cold night. There would be no light from the moon tonight. The clouds kept the city nice and black. If it weren't for the street lights everyone would be at the mercy of the darkness. Rain was falling hard that night. The sound of the water hitting the ground was the only thing that echoed through the neighborhood. It was very calming for anyone lucky enough to be in doors. Soon enough anther sound could be heard.

The sound of footsteps began to echo through the quiet streets. There was a woman running. She was probably somewhere in her early thirties. She was panting heavily. The combination of the rain and tears had caused her eyes to run black from make up. The poor woman was soaked. She began to run faster until she tripped from a small pothole. It wasn't even noticeable due to the rain. She quickly tried to pull herself back to her feet, but then they came.

One of the men in uniform grabbed her by the arm violently. Her mouth was shivering at what was going to happen.

"Please! I'm begging you! I needed to work late! I needed the money. My Son! I have to take care of him! Please I'm all he has!"

"You know the penalty for breaking curfew. Trash like you isn't allowed on the streets."

Her heartbeat was continually increasing. The fear of never seeing her child again began to rush into her head. The men looked at each other and nodded with a dark smile on each of their faces.

"We could over look this... for a price."

She could see the sick sadistic looks in their faces. She knew what they were planning. Even if she agreed to be taken to jail instead they would still go through with their actions. She slowly began to try and pull away. The soldiers began to circle around. Her eyes became wider at what was about to transpire. Each of them grabbed one of her limbs and began to drag her into the nearly dark alley. She started screaming out, but who would even attempt to help her in this city of oppression.

"Somebody! Please! No!!"

They threw her to the ground. All, but one of the men stepped back. He grabbed her throat and began to pull out a knife. The woman saw her only chance for escape in that moment. She managed to pull away after getting the chance to bite his arm. The soldiers let out a painful grunt and pulled away. This was her chance to run. She was back on her feet and running again. She ran towards every door and began banging on it for help. No one would answer for fear of the consequences. The soldiers were in slow pursuit of her. She was on a dead end street with nowhere to run.

She finally reached the end of the block. She pushed herself against the wall and slowly let herself fall to the soaking wet ground. There was no escape at all. It wasn't long before she was once again surrounded. Her fate was sealed. There would be no getting out of this one alive. They smiled over her. The man in the middle took one step before completely stopping in his tracks. He coughed out some blood before looking down to see a hook sticking out his stomach. The others stepped back in surprise, but before they could lend a hand to their comrade, he was pulled into the sky at high speeds.



Soon his body vanished into the darkness. The sound of the rain was drowned out with cries of agony and pain. The men pointed their rifles to the sky wondering where it was coming from. The man's screams then suddenly stopped. They were starting to spread out when his body came crashing back down to the ground. It looked as though he was skinned alive.

"Oh God! What's out there! We need to call for back up. We'll take this woman to jail and we'll get the hell out of here!"

The men turned around to grab their would be victim, but she was gone. There would of been no way for her to have disappeared without them noticing. They began to act even more panicky. One of them pulled out his radio to call in for help just as all the lights in the street went black.

"We need backup! We are being attack from an unknown enemy.... Hello!.... Can anyone read me...?"

The radio was dead. From the looks of it, it had to of been hit with some kind of EMP. They were on their own to face whatever was out there in the total dark. Their only company tonight would be the sound of the rain and an uninvited guest. They grouped together and stayed close. Afraid of what was out there in the dark. Then the lightning came. A quick flash from the light revealed his presence to them.

THERE!! OPEN FIRE!

The men emptied their clips into the darkness in hopes of hitting anything. They stopped shooting. Nothing. No sound. Then a voice began to bounce around everywhere. It sounded muffled. They pointed their rifles in every direction.

Over here...
Over here...
Over here...

One of the men finally broke. He ran into the darkness screaming. He shot in random directions. Just like before... silence. Death was coming for them. Just as all hope seemed lost, a flicker of light could be seen in the distance. It had to of been back up. It was coming straight towards them. Together they could take this enemy down. In a flash their dreams were shattered. It was the fool who had run into the night. He had been burnt alive. His corpse was still burning. The two remaining soldiers stepped back. At last he finally appeared.

Over the flames of the burning body stood an armored warrior. He said nothing to them and only stood there as the men screamed in horror at their attacker. Both pointed their rifles at him and fired. His body vanished. Through the crossfire, they both hit each other. It was a hologram. One was dead and the other was bleeding greatly from his wounds. He was looking around and then he could see the true attacker descending down from the sky with the woman in his arms. Cazador set her down and came over to the last soldier who was barely alive.

Who... who are you?

Cazador grabbed the man by his neck and lifted him into the air. Using his free arm, he pointed it at the man's gut. A small missile began to come out of his forearm.

I'm the Grim Reaper.

Cazador shot his missile into the man. He let go of his neck and let the force of his rocket carry the man above the city. An explosion followed afterwards covering the whole city in light. The light slowly vanished, only leaving Cazador and the woman the light from the burning corpse.

Thank you... If you hadn't showed up I...
Go home... More will come.

As burning fire began to be extinguished from the rain, his EMP wore off and the lights on the street returned. She took Cazador's advice and ran home to her son. As for Cazador, he took the remaining bodies and strung them up by their entrails to a light pole. It would serve as a message to this militant group that seemed to be in charge of this city. Cazador took to the sky, using his jetpack and flew to the nearest building top.

His suit and gadgets worked even better than he had hoped. Cazador had been a force to reckon with before, but now he felt unstoppable. There wasn't anytime to get cocky though. This world was far different than Earth. There were probably some strong forced on Genesis. Originally Cazador was just going to find his father. He had heard rumors that he had passed through the city, but this place was a mess. He needed to help these people now.

If his father really was the founder of his mercenary group then he could take care of himself in the mean time. Based on what Cazador could gather up, the city was a highly militant ruled state, but that was about it. Everyone else seemed hesitant to share with a stranger. The rain began to stop and Cazador looked to the city lights. It was going to be a long night.

[Cap'n Failz]

"How delightfully flashy...."

The tone of the voice was mocking and cold as ice, and held a clear undertone of amusement. From the shadows cast in the darkened night, a series of three red lights, glowing like the laser sight of a rifle, peered out at the armored man. The top one was briefly dimmed as it shuttered, focusing more intently on the man, as if sizing him up. The hardware he was sporting definitely looked impressive, and with the display just thrown about, it was clearly functional, at the very least.

"I'd say you did an excellent job..." There came the sound of slow, metallic clinking, as of someone clapping with metallic gloves. "....if your intention was to do nothing at all of importance." A fork of lightning speared across the sky, revealing the source of the mocking. Garbed only in a white labcoat over his stick-thin metallic frame, the robot that was Gotham's ultimate criminal mastermind reclined lazily against a wall, hands still continuing to clang together with their mocking 'applause'.

"You do realize, of course, that what you've just done amounts to throwing a pebble at a tank, yes?" His arms dropped to his sides and he pushed away from the wall. His footsteps as he strode forward, into clear view, were curiously heavy despite his thin, light frame. "It will be forgotten by the time the sun rises. Only you and that woman..." He gestured idly with one hand, as if swatting a fly. "...will remember it through the week."

He shook his head, all three of the lights that made up his 'face' shuttering and narrowing. "So congratulation to you, on the start of a campaign I am sure iwll be just as useful and meaningful as this little bout of nothing has been."

[Cazador]

Just as Cazador was about to disappear back into the night, a small blip on his motion detector showed something. He took a look around with his thermal vision, but there was nothing. He simply just passed it off as a glitch in the system. After all, it was technology that he had never seen before. Then a voice shot out from the darkness. Instinctively, Cazador pulled his Revolver out from its holster and pointed into the direction of the voice. Something was there, but his thermal vision didn't pick up anything.

Cazador switched his visor to standard view. He could barely make out what was there. Along with the voice was the sound of clanking metal. The lightning finally gave him a quick view of what was in the dark. It was a robot. Now things became a bit more clear as to why nothing showed up on his thermal vision. Cazador switched into night vision to get a better look at machine that stood before him. Based of its remarks and its personality, it wasn't just some VI Robot, but an AI. The question was if it was friend or foe?

"A pebble huh? Guess I'll just have to find something bigger to throw at them."

Cazador knew what he was getting himself into. He had faced off against insane odds before, but it had never stopped him in the past. This coming war wouldn't be any different. While still keep his revolver pointed at the new robotic stranger, he began to question its motives as to why he showed himself. Was it in league with the military here? Or maybe it was looking to form an alliance. Further speculation was pointless. The only way of knowing was to ask it.

"So... what the hell are you and what do you want?"

[Cap'n Failz]

"Unless you plan on remaining as a minor footnote in all the other troubles here....you'd do well to find something much bigger." He gestured wildly at the city in general. "As it stands you'd be hard-pressed to even be worth a mention to anyone that matters even if you kept up this....pace for months."

The question he received honestly made him laugh. And it was again that cold, mocking laugh. As if such a question was so beneath him he only deigned to even acknowledge it out of pity. "Who am I? To you, I am no one. In your miserable little perception, I am less meaningful than anything you could ever hope to accomplish." His tone lost its mocking nature as he continued, dropping in pitch to an almost threatening tone. "As for what I want....well that's much more simply." He lifted one hand, and blue bolts of electricity crackled between his long fingers. "I was curious to see what -- or who -- all the ruckus was about."

He clenched his fist and swung it back to his side. "And to see if they might be worth the time to point them in the direction of something that matters." He turned on his heel. "As it turns out, it was an utter waste of time." He shrugged, shaking his head in a very passable imitation of a human in disgust. "Good help is so hard to come by."

[Cazador]

Cazador didn't want to admit it, but the robotic stranger was right. Killing a few no name soldiers and saving a damsel in distress wasn't going to get him anywhere. He would have to think of something much bigger. It didn't mean he would stop doing the little things, but he would have to do something more. Whatever he did, it would have to inspire a city to rise against their oppresors and take control of their lives. While still keeping his revolver pointed at him, Cazador questioned him.

"So I'll take it that means you know how to piss these guys off."

At this point it was getting obvious, he was trying to provoke Cazador. He was keeping good control over his emotions. In Blackstorm they had trained him to maintain a cool head when being taunted. The second you got angry, then you would start making sloppy mistakes. He had to look past the taunts and see the meaning behind what the robot was saying. From the gist of it, it sounded like it was recruiting people. Now the question became what kind of help did it need?

It could of just been screwing with him the whole time. Cazador continued to speculate on it. He was curious now of the robots overall goals. Maybe he wasn't even looking for help for a noble cause, but was just out for its own interests. Or like he thought before, it could just be looking to start a fight. Its attitude did seem to be pointing in that direction.

"Something that matters huh? Why don't you educate me then on what matters to you in this city?"

[Cap'n Failz]

"Oh, but of course I know how to do that." He swivelled his head around 180 degrees to look at the armored man again, though the rest of his body remained facing away. "I know several ways to do just that." In the back of his 'mind', DAVE had to commend the human for keeping his cool. Even the so-called 'Dark Knight' had lost his temper after a prolonged verbal sparring session. This was beginning to seem as if it might prove fortuitous after all.

"I can think of several things that would matter in this city." He finally turned back to fully face the man. "Though none of them much matter to me, per se....but you adorable little flesh-things might be bothered by some of them." He held up a hand, palm-up, displaying what looked to be a semi-spherical chunk of glass rimmed in steel in his grasp. From it, a three-dimensional hologram of Isafaro lit up the air over his hand. On it were indicated several 'points of interest', with one in paritcular marked with a very clear, unnerving red dot, which pulsed ominously.

"Everyone of these markers indicates something that just might be of some interest to you and your...." He paused for a moment, the top lense of his three shuttering for a moment; it was clear, if he were a human, it would have been a disdainful smirk which crossed his features. "...efforts. Production facilities for their war machines. Training barracks. Their secretive 'labs'. The most prominent marker, however, I would advise you stay away from....unless you've a death wish. That's the headquarters for their lovable leader."

[Cazador]

"Well well... this is just the boulder I needed."

Cazador used his visor to record the information. This data would be invaluable if it proved to be correct. The fact that he now knew the location of their leader was probably his best source of info. Cut off the head and the rest will fall. Most of the time that would work, but this man had a large scale military in his pocket. Busting down his door and going 'Rambo' would be suicide. He might of had a death wish, but he was also a warrior. If Cazador was going to die then he at least wanted it to be an honorable one and not a stupid childish one. A different approach would be required to take this giant down.

"Shoot out his kneecaps and even the toughest of men will fall... If I can take out these small points of interest then he'll be more vulnerable in the final assault on his headquarters."

Cazador would have to move quickly after each assault. He couldn't let the enemy have a chance to rebuild somewhere else. He needed to be quick and decisive. The planning could come later, but now he needed to find out if this information was true or false. He would need to scout out each spot to see. Afterall, he couldn't just trust this robot, but at the same time, Cazador had no bigger leads to go on.

"Why would you give me this information? There must be something in it for you. Nothing in life ever comes free or without some kind of catch."

[Cap'n Failz]

"I thought this information might interest you." He waited a moment before he closed his fingers around the image projector and stowed it away in a pocket of his labcoat. "It's not every location there is in the city, of course. There's far too many to bother with." It was going exactly as he had predicted it would. Next would come the oh-so-typical statements about cutting off resources and supports every good 'hero' made. And then there came the question that was always asked: what was the catch.

"As for the catch....nothing." He let out an amused laugh. "I just have no love for the Vulture." He lifted his hands to shoulder height in a gesutre of mock defeat. "As to what's in it for me....well, I suppose I could a lways laugh maniacally while his supplies and technology go up in flames."

[Cazador]

"If you want to laugh while their resources burn then you might just die from laughter... or shut down."

Cazador holstered his revolver. The night was still young so he would have time to scout out some of these places to make sure they were legit. There was already one lab nearby. Maybe if Cazador was lucky, he could turn some of Vulture's goodies against them. Sabotage was never to difficult. You just needed the right tools and in a lab there would be more than enough to play with. The facility didn't seem that big, but there was a chance that it could lead underground. He wouldn't know unless he left. He began to walk over to the edge of the building they were on. He took one last look at his robotic informat.

"This information better be legit. Don't make me come looking for you."

Just as Cazador was about to take off, a light flashed on him from far away followed by the sound of an aircraft. Looks like he stood in one place too long. A patrol must of seen his earlier explosion and came in to investigate. A loud voice began to come out of the gunship.

"You are under arrest! Lay down on the ground and don't move!"

Cazador enhanced the vision on his visor and turned on the thermal vision. He could see several other choppers in from afar dropping off ground troops. It looked as though scouting would be out of the question for the night. At least now he could really put his power armor through its runs in a head to head battle with Vulture. So far it didn't look like they had spotted the robot. He turned off thermal vision and looked over to it.

"Shall I save you some of the action?"

[Cap'n Failz]

"Hmhmhm....I doubt that." He turned to make his own way to his next item of business, only pausing to pay a parting glance to the comment directed his way. "Even if the information were't truthful, you'd never find me." It was a statement born of arrogance, to be sure. But he was so sure of himself, it was clear enough it wouldn't be an easy task to find him if he didn't want to be found.

Turning to leave, he paused once more as he heard the order to surrender. He merely laughed, shaking his head. Once more he vanished into the shadows, evading immediate sight. He waited for a handful of moments to be certain his 'associate' had their full attention, and at the question of whether or not to save him some of the action, DAVE bolted from the cover of shadow. Like a bullet from a gun he was across the rooftop and launching himself into the air.

He curled into a ball and impacted the side of a helicoptor like a cannonball, tearing through it and into the space formerly occupied by the crew. One unfortunate soul was all but pulped by his violent boarding. The other was swiftly disposed of with a neck-snapping stranglehold. Ripping both corpses from their seats, DAVE hurled them as makeshift missiles at the rotor of another of the choppers. The 'blockage' sent it spinning out of control, plummeting to the ground below.

And DAVE took the liberty to plant his fingers into the console of the chopper he occupied, his hand literally plunging into the circuits and wiring. And within a matter of seconds, it stopped spiralling out of controll, responding almost as if it were alive. Letting out a satisfied chuckle, Dave dropped from the chopper, landing in a crouch on a rooftop. "Oh don't worry about saving me any. I can get all I need." A series of three red lights, in the same triangular pattern as on DAVE's faceplate, lit up on what was left of the windshield of the chopper he had hijacked. "And I intend to take all I can."

[Cazador]

At first it looked like Cazador would be on his own to face off against Vulture troops. It looked like the robot was getting ready to leave Cazador to face them alone. He could of done it no problem, but a helping hand always made the killing go by much quicker than it would. Once the offer was on the table, it leaped into action. Cazador watched with some mild form of entertainment at how quickly it was taking apart the reinforcement team. It was a good show of force which demanded some form of respect. Whoever built the thing knew what they were doing.

It announced its intentions to Cazador letting him no it was taking all the action. There was no way he was going to let that stand. His pride as a warrior could not allow that. Looked like this would end up turning into a competition of who could get the highest body count. From the looks of it, the robot already had a head start. He looked at the helicopter and knew right away that it was being controlled. A very clever tactic turning Vulture's toys against them. Tonight would be an all out war.The robot was a capable fighter and since it was an AI, it made it an actual living being. Out of respect Cazador asked for its name.

"What's your name?"

Just as he asked it, several more Vulture troops broke down the door to the roof in an attempt to kill their opposition. Cazador already knew of their arrival. His motion tracker picked them up long before they ever reached the top. With his revolver already in hand, he quickly unloaded into the troops one by one. Each of them were caught with one bullet in between the eyes. All except for one. Cazador had purposely shot out both the man's kneecaps. He needed him alive for what was next. He walked over to the injured man and picked him by his neck.

"Call for backup and tell them to bring everything they got."

"No! You probably have some plan to get my comrades killed."

Cazador threw the soldier to the ground and stomped on wounded knee cap. He let out a loud scream. With enough pain, almost anyone would cave in to any demand to make the pain stop. This man was no different.

"Alright! I'll do it! Just don't kill me and I'll do it"

"You're in no position to bargain. Do it!"

The man got on his radio and called into HQ. He asked for as much backup as he could get to contain an uprising in the area. It wouldn't be long before a blood bath would ensue. Cazador thanked the man before throwing him off the building to meet his fate at the bottom of the street. If he could take on a good portion of the Vulture force then it would be a hit to enemy moral. They would know that two stood against many.

"From here on out we'll keep score and no cheating."

[Cap'n Failz]

DAVE stared up at the helicoptor now under his control, and the three lights on his faceplate glowed slightly brighter. They flickered out, lighting up one at a time in a series of blinking f lashes too quick to register to human eyes. The lights on the chopper flashed thrice in unison in response. That should take care of that. It would be wreaking havoc in the air with every means available to it. And all the while, it would begin repairing itself othe damage inflicted to it by DAVE's hijacking.

Turning his attention to the man, he could only let out an approximation of a grin, the top light on his faceplate shuttering slightly in amusement. "Many choose to call me DAVE." It was a cleverly disguised acronym, not immediately recognizable as more than a simple name. It would be amusing to see if it was figured out.

He watched with clear amusement as several Vulture troops decided to be smart and bring the fight to them. They were swiftly taken care of, leaving one for what he assumed interrogation. He was mistaken, but the results were even more amusing than he had thought they might be. "So, you intend to take out as many useless little toys as you can all at once, do you?" He let out a swift, short round of applause. "An impressive tactic." He left out the usual addendum of 'if it works', knowing all too well how this was likely to play out.

"Keeping score, are we? How amusing."

[Cazador]

By the sound of his name it defiantly had to of been an acronym. Most people who built any kind of machinery either gave it either some human name that actually stood for something or they gave it some fancy techno name like 'GR-55.' Cazador didn't really have any idea what it could of stood for, but it could get the job done and that was all that mattered to him. It gave Cazador its name so it was only fair that he gave the machine his name in return.

"My name is Cazador."

Of course Cazador wasn't his real name, but he had grown use to it since the media dubbed him by that name back on Earth. It was spanish for hunter. Very appropriate since he spent his days hunting the man who took everything from him. Along the way he had also killed any other low lives he came across. To the politicians and police, he was an outlaw vigilante that was no better than the men he killed, while the citizens of the city saw him as a hero.

It wasn't long before Cazador began picking up heavy movement on his motion tracker. From the looks of it there were several more gunships in coming along with heavy ground troops and tanks. Looked like they had all their sides covered. This would be a battle worth remembering. Using his jetpack, Cazador launched himself to the back propeller of one of the enemy gunships. Using the enhanced strength of his power suit, he ripped off the back end of it. The gunship began to lose control and was spinning wildly. On the crash landing down, the failing gunship hit another one of its airborn brothers. The gunship Cazador was holding onto crashed across the street from a fuel depot while the other lost control and crashed into one of the tanks below.

OOC: A little battle music


Several of the Vulture troops began to run from the tank and gunship knowing full well what was coming next. Fuel was leaking from the burning gunship. The tank was attempting to push the chopper out of the way but, it was too late. The fuel met the fire and caused a large explosion, crippling the heavy tank and setting some soldiers ablaze. Some troops were pretty close to Cazador's wreckage. Each of them had their rifles set on the debris. Cazdor threw the debris that were covering him off. Some of them went launching into the soldiers. This was enough incentive for them to open fire.

"They don't even wait for an order... Troops these days... no respect."

They sprayed Cazador down with bullets, but none were strong enough to pierce through his adamantium armor. Noticing that the gunships cannons were still in order, he ripped it from its mounts and began to open fire all of them. The barrel began to spin quickly unleashing a barrage of what he could only assume were .50 cal bullets. They began running towards the fuel depot attempting to make it inside the building for cover. Many along the way were ripped to shreds and turned into instant sauce. They must of been pretty desperate for cover to run towards a fuel depot.

Cazador unloaded into the pumping station and for added measure, threw one his grenades towards it. A bright white light engulfed the area. It was total carnage. The explosion was strong enough to be felt several blocks away. Cazador scanned the fuel depot... No survivors, but this was just one block and there had to of been a ton more troops in there area. DAVE must of been causing tons of damage with that gunship he took control of.

[Cap'n Failz]

DAVE stalked to the edge of the rooftop and stared out at the display put on. Cazador was indeed remarkable at what he did, disposing of a pair of gunships and setting up an explosion to come from a nearby fuel depot. He could see it even before it happened. And he lifted one arm just as the fuel was to touch the flames and set off the mighty blast. A quick clench of his hand as the explosion rocked the area, and the gunship under his control opened fire on the hapless soldiers scattering for cover or blown aside by the blast.

It was like mowing down fish in a barrel...

He was brought out of his command daze by gunfire clipping the edge of the rooftop. Looking down, he could see that some of the Vulture troops had opted to waste their bullets shooting at him. He would have been disappointed in them if it were any matter. But as it was they were little more than a nuiscance.

He stepped forward, falling over the edge and clinging to the wall below him. He kicked off of it, sailing out and over the soldiers below. His momentum carried him well clear of the building and out into the open air, only for him to come crashing down like a bullet amid a group of soldiers. And instantly he was a whirl of death. His hands struck out with such speed they may as well have been blades, ripping through armor, flesh, and bone alike, tearing the soldiers apart.

All the while the gunship he had 'requisitioned' emptied its devastating payload into anything and everything that moved and wasn't DAVE himself or Cazador.

"This is almost fun."

All too quickly the immediate scuffle was over, the scene cleared. But there were more -- already closing in, if his sensors were right. "And it looks like the fun will continue mounting."

[Cazador]

As the battle waged on, Cazador's motion tracker was picking up even more reinforcements coming in. It looked like everything was going according to plan. Killing every last soldier in the area probably wouldn't do to much damage to the overall military, but if word got out that only two did this much damage, then enemy morale would be down. If their morale was down then there was a good chance that many people would rise up against their oppressors. Cazador couldn't stand dictatorships. He spent most of his youth fighting against it. His hate for it over the years never changed.

The ground below his feet began to rumble from the coming vehicle and troops. This was just what he needed. His motion sensor was showing many enemies trying to make a perimeter around the two warriors. What they didn't know was that the closer they got, then the easier it would be for the two to kill them all in one single attack. All they needed to do was lure them in close enough for Cazador to fire off his last FEITD missile. If they were all bunched together close enough, it would effectively end the battle. Cazador began to track DAVE's whereabouts on his motion sensor. Its robotic body was emitting a signal that his power armor could track, This allowed him to reach it through radio contact.

"DAVE. It's Cazador. Do you copy? I gotta plan. Lure as many of these bastards in to a single location. Were gonna nuke them all in one single attack. If that metal on you is as strong as I think it is, then you and I should have no problem surviving the blast."