Preying Mantis (IC)

[Blarghy]

GM

 

"Apparently he's Mantis!" Adept snarled back; the anger in his voice wasn't directed at his partner, but Upgrade might or might not realize that.  Either way, Warne flew from the ground like a falcon.  From the air he mentally swung at the cyborg again--and for a second time, Mantis took the blow without flinching. 

 

"You don't remember, Warne?"  Mantis tilted his head to one side; his right arm again began to restructure itself almost hypnotically.  "But it -click- such a special night.  That's when they recruited you.  How can you not -click-?"  The grenade launcher retreated, and in its place, a longer barrel extended. 

 

"Let me jog your memory, Warne."

 

Mantis shifted his weight to brace himself against the deafening gunshots, so rapid that the yellow light at the end of his wrist seemed continuous and illuminated his face for even Adept to see.  At least, for a few moments.  The bullets walked across machinery, the wall, and then across psychic defenses.  None of them held up. 

 

With just one shout, unheard over the sounds of the gunfire, Warne was thrown back in a slow, downward arch; his force field evaporated, and when he hit the ground, his body made a sickening thunk.  More of the ceiling followed him; a long sheet of metal landed atop the agent and obscured him from view.

 

Mantis sandpaper-laughed again, followed by a loud, artificial "Whoop!"  He then turned his dark lenses toward Upgrade.  "One down!"

[Sophistemon]

"No, no, no! C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" Ethan slammed a closed fist against the control panel, and it seemed to have done the trick because the AMP finally sputtered back to life, systems flaring up and diagnostic readouts declaring that the damage had been... minimal, at worst. Ethan put it out of his head -- it was a distraction that he couldn't afford. "Warne!" he shouted, too worried about his partner to care if he deafened him through the earpiece. "Warne, respond!" Nothing. His partner was badly injured, maybe even... No, he couldn't consider it. Eyes on the prize, Stone; focus on the mission. The mission was to access the munitions factory -- done -- and determine/defeat the threat inside. Incomplete, and looking less likely by the moment with Warne out of commission. Ethan flipped switches, pulled a lever, and turned the AMP towards this Mantis maniac. "Get bent," he barked, and raised one of the AMP's enormous arms. A tube opened up beneath the wrist and launched a concussive mini-missile towards the cyborg. If it hit him, great. If not, Ethan had a plan. For now, it would do as a distraction. He kicked the thrusters and flew, at a low altitude, away from Adept. If Mantis retaliated with something explosive, Ethan didn't want his partner to be caught in the blast.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

GM

 

The missile went wide; Mantis turned to watch as it blasted one of the vats to pieces, chunks of burning metal flying through the air, some of which clanked against him.  This seemed to set off a chain reaction, where the fiery debris brought down yet another machine, sparked new flames, and even took out a support beam in the ceiling above.  Mantis himself caught fire; his increasingly-tattered robe cooked happily, yet he only laughed.  His body underneath, now somewhat exposed, was nothing but steel plates and wires.

 

He brought his gun-arm to bear on Upgrade; the barrel followed as the agent flew.  "Right back at you, buddy," Mantis croaked.  The casual language clashed harshly with his terrible voice, and anything else he might've said was drowned out in a torrent of bullets. 

Edited October 23, 2016 by Blarghy

[Sophistemon]

Upgrade raised a beefy metal arm just before the bullets started flying, and Ethan gasped when he saw how little humanity remained of his opponent. "No," he murmured. "To Hell with that." The raised limb helped deflect the bullets, which bounced and ricocheted from the battlesuit's metal skin. When the gunfire stopped, he angled the controls and kicked the thrusters. The AMP rocketed forward, bypassing the cyborg on its way to the prone body of Agent Warne. Both arms went out, pneumatic fingers gripping the wreckage and tossing it aside to reveal the man beneath. He manipulated the controls gingerly, gently maneuvering his metal hands to cradle his unconscious body. He kicked the thrusters again and, shielding Warne beneath his bulk, Upgrade flew straight up, through the holes made in the ceiling by the previous explosions. Once airborne, he angled them back towards Wallders and the agents waiting there. His comm-unit buzzed as he barked commands. "All units, I need an immediate med-evac for Agent Warne. There was something in the factory." He switched comms and began shouting at Deputy-Director Becker's frequency. It didn't matter if she was awake and receiving; he'd leave a message. "Director Becker, I'm putting a pause on the mission to drop Warne off with the others -- he's hurt. There's a monster in that factory. He's a cyborg, but I think that we're looking at an almost total conversion. Big, metal arm with a bunch of unfolding weapons." He landed, and handed Warne over the the crowding agents. He knelt the AMP down and initiated the armor's self-repair functions. "I'm heading back after a quick breather," he said. "The AMP took some hits. He hurt it. That shouldn't be possible. Do me a favor and organize my mechanics. When I get back to base, heads are gonna roll."

Edited October 24, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

GM

 

An awful sound issued from Mantis, something between loud electrical interference, a scratching record, and nails on a chalkboard.  This scream of rage followed Upgrade out of the factory...and wouldn't be his only pursuit, as he would soon come to realize.

 

In the mean time, he could see from his new vantage point that the town definitely took notice of the battle, yet perhaps not in a good way.  Townspeople were jumping and cheering; some crowded dangerously around the four AEGIS agents, who, with better training and the benefit of Stone's update, hastened to arm themselves from the SUV.  One operative unfolded the trunk doors to reveal a field medical unit.  When Upgrade landed and began his own repairs, they laid Warne on the padded surface, tore open his bullet-mangled white (now mostly red) buttoned shirt, and went to work.  "He's unresponsive," the lead medic reported tensely.  "But I still have a pulse."  The nearest civilians started to realize that something was amiss at this point, but past them, the rest of the town continued to celebrate wildly.

 

Becker responded to the call almost immediately.  Her icy tones countered Upgrade's volume, but the underlying emotions were much the same.  "We're watching you via satellite now," she confirmed.  "Air support is on its way from Bluefield.  Protect the town, Stone.  If you have to, lead this madman away, but save those people.  We can't afford a massacre on our watch."  The direction of her voice shifted slightly over the comm channel, directed now at someone else in the room.  "Ellbert, Jacobs!  Why didn't either of you realize that this was a trap?  ...  I don't care!  You have sixty seconds to figure out who we're dealing with, or you'll both be spying on penguins in the Arctic!" 

 

"WAAAAAAARNE!"

 

"WAAAAAARNE!"

 

"WAAAAAAAAARNE!"

 

The shouts, their blind fury evident even via such an artificial voice, came closer and closer.  The townsfolk of Wallders looked away from Upgrade, up to the sky...and began to scream.

 

Mantis hovered over the outskirts of the meager dying settlement.  Twin blue jets of fire emitting from his lower back held him aloft; furthermore, his legs were much longer than before, dangling below him like the limbs of a grasshopper.  His robe had entirely burnt away--similar to the factory behind him, now engulfed in flames--to unveil a body of very little flesh.  What biological material that remained between a landscape of steel was ruined with ugly burn scars; at a glance, they appeared old instead of from today's battle.  The man's expression was difficult to read, but an aura of rage radiated from him. 

 

"Give him back, Upgrade.  Give me Warne.  I will still kill you too, but maybe I'll spare the town.  Maybe."

 

His right arm shuffled once more.  The new barrel claimed two connected tubes and a small gas tank underneath; when he aimed casually at the house below, a spray of fire spat forth.  It coated the rusted metal roof, splashed over wooden walls, and began to hungrily devour all that it could. 

 

The townsfolk scattered haphazardly like panicked animals.  Most fled away from Mantis, but their route had little other logic to it.  Worse yet, a few ran for Upgrade and the agents; one man even tried to frantically force his way into the SUV, his eyes wide with terror, and had to be held back by one of Stone's subordinates.

 

Over Stone's comm channel, Deputy Director Becker swore softly. 

[Sophistemon]

Ethan spoke quickly, rattling orders off through the headset to his four subordinates. "You three: I want a full, town-wide evacuation. Get them out of here. I want everyone in their cars and heading to the next town over. You, I want to stay here. Keep Warne stable. Can you do that? I'm going to keep Mantis busy. Don't let me down." He activated his jets and ascended without another word to the four, expecting his words to be followed. They were AEGIS; they were trustworthy. "Becker, I'm going to keep him preoccupied until the back-up arrives. I have Warne remaining here, as an anchor. I don't think that he'll go after the civilians if it means leaving Warne to get away. Pray God I'm right." There was a pause. "If the worst happens, Becker, I need you to make sure my family's taken care of. Can you do that for me?" Without waiting for an answer, he activated the external communicator. "You want Adept, Mantis? You'll have to go through me!" He increased his speed and raced towards the cyborg abomination. Just as he was seconds away from making bodily impact, he kicked the breaks and raised up one of the AMP's enormous hands. From the wrist was launched a net of thick steel cables weighted down at the tips with blobs of lead.

Edited October 24, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

GM

 

"Godspeed, Stone," Becker said simply; the other agents jumped to work with similarly minimal responses, merely shouting "Yes, sir!" as they raced away, save for the medic who remained with Warne. 

 

A second later, Mantis took a fighting stance in midair.  He proved alarmingly nimble; when the net tried to engulf him, the cyborg cut his jetpack, dropped ten feet, narrowly but expertly escaped the attack, and then flew upward, this time above Upgrade.  He brought his flamethrower to bear on this new target; it might've been a trick of the light, but the sun seemed to glint off his lenses in a way that was darkly, cruelly, mirthful. 

 

"Very well, my metal -click-.  I have waited years already.  What difference will one more minute make?"

 

Fire raged forth, but whether it was his enthusiasm, Stone's skills as a pilot, or simple luck, the AMP avoided even the outer heatwave.

[Sophistemon]

Upgrade evaded the flames, dodging around them as they seared the water from the air with a painful hiss. "I'm no click of yours, buddy. I'm taking you down, then I'm taking you in." Despite Upgrade's bravado, Ethan was worried. Mantis had already defeated Warne -- whom Stone knew to be even more dangerous in combat than himself -- and the AMP had been notoriously unreliable during its last few actual combat engagements. The battle against the Horned Dragon had been a farce, and this fight wasn't going much better. He thought about stalling for time, waiting for back-up to arrive, but then felt guilty for it. He'd put other pilots at risk? No, never. "What's your deal, Mantis? Why the hate for Warne?" Upgrade cocked a shoulder and panel slid open to allow a rather ominous-looking laser cannon to unfold from its housing. "He's a little grumpy, but you can get along with him once he's had his coffee and a dozen cigarettes." The cannon fired, and a searing burst of red light split the air between two metal men.

[Blarghy]

GM

 

The battle thus far had given Mantis a dangerous level of overconfidence, and so, when Upgrade revealed his newest weapon, his opponent seemed to shake with light, crackling chuckles.  He even paused to answer the question put to him.

 

"Haaahh...well, if -click- must know, he--"

 

Whatever he intended to say was cut off abruptly when the laser burned deeply into the left side of his chest.  Such a powerful blow would've easily laid low any normal man, and indeed, this blast left Mantis reeling.  A burned tube began to spurt oil in short, heartbeat-like jets; sparks fanned through the air from damaged circuitry.  For the next several seconds, he whirled in place like an airborne spinning top, which offered Stone a clear opportunity to exploit...although this augmented killer was far from finished.

 

This didn't stop the people of Wallders, even some of Upgrade's subordinate agents, from cheering hopefully even as they ran for safety.

[Sophistemon]

Ethan felt a thrilling pulse roar through his body when the AMP finally performed as advertised. Seeing that the laser had functioned as intended, he pressed the advantage and continued his assault. He turned the volume down on his external communications to prevent the people below from hearing Upgrade speak as he aimed the cannon and prepared to fire. "I'm sorry," he said, and pulled the trigger. The cannon fired, and the beam of heat lanced the air like a boil. "Did I interrupt?" The sensory cluster swiveled from side to side. "Don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to tell me about it once I've taken you in."

[Blarghy]

GM

 

This time, the blast slashed a long line from shoulder to the opposite side of his waist.  Mantis cried out, a broken mechanical wail like screeching break pads.  His jetpack cut out, and he fell down to the roof of the burning building; it crumpled under his weight, one foot breaking through, but he managed to adjust himself and hang on with his other leg and free hand.  His flamethrower scraped uselessly against the weakening metal. 

 

"-click- -click- you for -click-, Upgrade!" he shouted.

 

Over the comm channel inside the AMP, stoic Becker refrained from anything so blunt as a cheer, but she did inhale with a hopeful hiss.  Wallders was less aloof.  Their shouts rose to a solid background roar; the AEGIS agents even had to stop some people from terminating their evacuation.  They knew all too well that these duels could turn at short notice, especially when anyone tempted fate.

[Sophistemon]

Ethan maneuvered the AMP to keep within range of the increasingly-damaged Mantis. "Better than you have tried, better than you have failed," Upgrade stated. His mechanical voice should have sounded completely devoid of emotion, but the former arms-dealer could swear that he hurt a hard edge of anger leaking through the speakers. "A word of advice, bug-boy: stay down." The cannon fired for a third time, humming vibrato as it spewed red agony at the psychotic cyborg below. Ethan was a soldier, a pilot, an agent of AEGIS. He had a mission, and he's see it through to the end.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

GM

 

For a third time the laser struck its mark, and for a third time Mantis roared in pain...yet when he caught the burning crimson beam on his raised weapon-arm, he held his ground, and even rose back to his feet.  When Upgrade's onslaught relented, his enemy glowered at him, not yet beaten but very, very displeased.  The jetpack lit again.  Mantis crouched down, buckling the rooftop even further, and shook his right arm down.  The flamethrower retracted...and out snapped a long, curved blade, which flipped up, perpendicular to his wrist.  His name, perhaps, became clear. 

 

"...I'm going to murder you now," Mantis hissed.  His unsteady, grating voice had devolved into an icy, shaking fury. 

 

And with a kick of both legs and a flare of his jetpack, he launched into the air with blinding speed and slashed hard with that vicious scythe. 

[Sophistemon]

The claw struck the AMP, making contact with an impossible impact that shook Ethan in his seat. The cruel edge of Mantis' namesake weapon slide across the AMP's chest with an ear-rending screech of metal-on-metal, sounding for all the world like a dying truckasaurus. When all was said and done, however, the damage was mostly cosmetic -- a thin, rough scratch nearly half an inch deep marred the surface of Upgrade's metal skin, but in the grand scheme of things? It was a paper-cut. "Like I said," he boomed. "It'll take a better man than you." He reversed, putting some distance between them, and unfolded a wicked-looking machine gun from the AMP's left arm. Ethan pulled the trigger and held it down, filling the air with a bee-sized swarm of lead.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

GM

 

"There is no such -click-," Mantis claimed bitterly--and yet he was plainly disappointed by this limited effect.  He flew sideways to avoid the hail of bullets, then drew back his scythe for another charge...

 

"Fighter jets are less than a minute out," Becker said, her voice urgent yet professionally steady, through Stone's comm.  "Stall him!"

 

But then, from below in the town, came a shout: "Hey, ugly!"  One of the AEGIS agents--the other now in the back of the SUV with Warne, the last pair leading a mass exodus into the hills south of Wallders--fired a splattering of rifle shots in Mantis' general direction, purely to grab his attention.  The man was already half-sitting in the driver's seat of the modified vehicle.  As Mantis turned, he slammed the door and stomped the gas.  The SUV rocketed away just as the medic in the back closed the rear hatch, giving one last glimpse of Adept--bandages across his torso, an IV in his arm, and an oxygen mask over his face--before all three of them tried to make their escape. 

 

"No!" Mantis roared.  "Waaaarne!"

 

He swiveled his twin propulsion jets and raced after them, his weapon arm reconfiguring itself once more. 

[Sophistemon]

"No," Ethan groaned. "No, no! Man, I had him!" He gunned the engines and flew forward, towards his adversary. "Where do you think you're going?"  Upgrade shouted, booming mechanical voice echoing off of the buildings that lined the empty streets of Wallders. The incredible flight-speed of the AMP allowed him to intercept with Mantis easily, and he unleashed another devastating hail of gunfire from his arm-mounted machine gun. Without pausing to slow down or even look back, he pressed forward and positioned the AMP between the van and its cyborg pursuer.

[Blarghy]

GM

 

Mantis barely even glanced backward as the battlesuit outpaced him.  He snarled a dismissive "Get -click- of my w--" before the storm of bullets rained over him.  The cyborg was moving too quickly to effectively dodge, and they cut off not only his sentence, but also, from the looks of it, his life support. 

 

The high caliber shells tore through his armor plating in a way that even Upgrade's powerful laser had failed to do.  His painful scream seemed to overload his voice box; it began as a high, shrill howl, but then devolved to clicks and static.  Several bullets hit his jetpack, which burst the fuel tanks, and when oil and sparks also filled the air around him, it set off a fireball that momentarily lit up Stone's sensory array.  When his screen cleared, Mantis had plummeted...somewhere.  At their high speeds, deep in the wooded foothills where the nearest town was the one they had just left, the search would probably be a bit intensive. 

 

Nonetheless, AEGIS was certainly victorious.  The SUV came to a stop on the otherwise-deserted dirt road; over Becker's radio channel, Stone could hear distant cheering, not from the Deputy-Director but surely from a room full of his fellow agents who witnessed his skill and success in the face of dangerous odds.  Also distant, but becoming quickly less so, were the familiar sounds of state-of-the-art Air Force jets, coming to a rescue that was no longer necessary. 

 

Well, not for him, at least.  As he looked back the way he had come, Upgrade could see a huge inferno consuming the home that Mantis torched to make a point...and it was uncomfortably close to neighboring houses. 

[Sophistemon]

Ethan watched as Mantis spiraled helplessly, as a blazing fireball, into the woodlands beyond the borders of the town. He took a breath and, putting on his most accurate Bill Murray impression, addressed his fellow AEGIS agents. "We came," he said. "We saw, we kicked its ass!" When he turned back to Wallders, however, he saw the plume of deep black smoke pouring into the sky from the burning building. Sighing, he steered the AMP towards the burning house. As he flew, he continued speaking. "The bogey, Mantis, crashed in the woods. Flyboys, why not search him out? He was on fire when he landed; you might be able to track the heat signature." When he reached the flaming home, he stopped and hovered above it. Upgrade pointed both hands, palms out, at the roof. Twin nozzles emerged and began to spew streams of flame-retardant foam down onto the fire, dousing it slowly over time. When the roof was clear, he swung around the home and got the walls, being careful to kill ever little flicker of flame that he could see. He felt bad for the owners; they'd never asked for this, and they hadn't deserved for it to happen. But they, like Ethan himself, and like Adept, would have to be content with merely surviving the day.

Edited October 26, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

GM

 

"Roger that," the lead pilot reported.  They began to slow and descend, relative terms to the people observing from the ground.  "Medevac helicopter is right behind us," he added over the radio channel.  "Suggest that the vehicle find a more open area; the trees down there look a little tight."  The SUV complied, turning around slowly now that they weren't in immediate danger (Warne himself might feel otherwise). 

 

Back in Wallders, where the townspeople were hesitantly returning, Upgrade's patience and eye for detail paid off.  He wasn't able to save the initial home: his foam could barely find enough surface to cling to, this black shell of weakened metal sitting atop an ash-pile, and it would very likely collapse with no help from construction crews.  Adjacent houses escaped with cosmetic harm and a new coat of sudsy paint.  In light of the situation, this was probably one of the better possible outcomes. 

 

The home's owner might've disagreed; not everyone in the crowd looked pleased when they entered the town again.  Still, amidst the looks of concern, many were relieved, even awed.  Someone ventured to clap...and it spread, loose and patchy at first, but then swelled with accompanying whistles and cheers.  These people, accustomed to a certain level of hardship, knew when their latest catastrophe could be much worse. 

 

A man hobbled out from the small horde.  His police uniform, already faded, was slick with sweat.  The old sheriff shielded his eyes from the sun, looked up at their savior, and addressed Stone gruffly. 

 

"I hope you were serious about that drink!"

[Sophistemon]

There was a moment, a pause, where the giant metal man was silent. The sensory cluster that served Upgrade for a head swiveled around and took in the descending helicopter before pivoting back to address the sheriff. "Friend," he said. "I've never been more serious about anything in my life." He took a few thunderous steps towards the crowd and then knelt down on one knee so that he didn't tower over them quite so much anymore. "Folks," he began. "I know this isn't what you were hoping for when I touched down earlier today. I want you to know, I didn't just come to Wallders to defeat a super-villain; I came here to help, and the helping doesn't stop when the fighting does. You have my word, I'm going to work with AEGIS to make things right. I'm going to keep fighting for Wallders, and I'm going to win." He raised an enormous hand and pointed across town, at the bar.

 

"Now, who's thirsty?"

 

~~~Later, at Agent James Warne's hospital room in Bluefield.~~~

 

Ethan knocked gently on the doorframe before he entered the room. In one hand he held a folded piece of white construction paper, and in the other he gripped a pale blue teddy-bear with an angry cloudburst stenciled into the white fuzz on its stomach. The pilot approached Warne's bed with a grin writ large across his features, and he passed the toy over first. "It's Grumpy Bear," he explained, and Warne could see that the toy did in fact have arched, annoyed-looking eyebrows. Then, Ethan handed him the paper. "And this is from my daughter." When James opened the homemade card, he could see the words GET WELL SOON printed in large, multicolored letters. Underneath the plea for health Lilly had drawn a simplistic rendering of Ethan's description of Adept in action -- a man in a black trenchcoat, floating a good three feet from the ground, with a big, toothy smile on his face. Ethan pointed to the smile. "Kids and their imaginations, huh? Chalk it up to artistic license. How're you feeling, partner?"

Edited October 26, 2016 by Sophistemon

[Blarghy]

Normally this kind of thing would, at best, make Warne quirk his eyebrows in skepticism.  What kind of grown man, a government agent and soldier, brought in a teddy bear?  And reminders of the unwise tethers and vulnerabilities that come with family?  Preposterous.  Warne, recently out of his second surgery and so sore despite the meds in his IV that he couldn't even cough with confidence, hoarsely scoffed.  "This stuff hurts more than the bullets did," he joked.

 

And yet, he couldn't entirely suppress the faintest of smiles.  He didn't put the bear on his bedside table, but rather sat it between his hip and the bed rail.  The picture lingered in his rough fingers for longer than it strictly had to.

 

"...I admit, that looks like a nice coat."

[Sophistemon]

The pilot nodded. "She's going to be famous one day," he claimed. "We don't know how, yet, though. Some days it's art, others dancing, acting, singing... but it'll be something. She makes Meryl and I really proud. Speaking of which, when you're out of here, you're coming over for dinner. The wife insists. She won't let you die without trying her meatloaf, and I'm not brave enough to tell her that you won't show." Ethan feigned a moue. "So I guess you'll have to make an appearance sooner than later."

[Blarghy]

Warne's lips twitched with a mix of tiny, subtle emotions.  "...Well.  You kept me alive this long; assuming I make it back to Freedom City, I can probably manage one dinner.  Just in case we aren't so lucky next time."

 

He started to lean over to put the child's artwork on his nearby table, winced in pain as soon as his torso shifted, and used his brain to finish the job.  The sheet floated gently into place.  Warne inhaled a shallow breath through his nose, seeming to consider something.

 

"The mission didn't go how I wanted it to," he said in the understatement of the year.  "But you really came through...Upgrade." 

 

This was perhaps the first time he had addressed Stone as such.  Perhaps the first time his fellow agent had heard him refer to any hero by their title, if he had a more mundane alternative.  The significance was hard to guess without being inside Warne's head--a grim and insular place if there ever was one--but something had changed between them. 

[Sophistemon]

Ethan exhaled a single-note laugh, then nodded. "Well, what's the expression? 'No plan survives contact with the enemy,' right?" He reached out, hesitated, and then gave Warne a soft pat on the shoulder. "Nobody was expecting what happened. And you survived. Everybody survived; that's the important thing." He grinned. "I mean, we both know that Death'd spit you right back out, but at least living saved you airfare." He removed his hand and considered something. "Mantis really had it out for you, man. When the van took off with you in it, he turned his back on me to chase you. That's 'Tactical Blunders 101,' buddy. What was his deal?"

[Blarghy]

GM

 

"I can answer that," a voice came from the wall opposite to Warne.  The TV flickered on, revealing Deputy-Director Becker's face.  Warne suddenly remembered the two cameras tucked into the upper corners of the room.

 

"Jesus!" he startled.  "How long have you been watching us?"

 

"I'm always watching," she said briskly, matter-of-fact.  "Now.  This Mantis is actually Christian Mannis, according to our research.  We did not recover him in the forest around Wallders, by the way, so this particular pest will likely come crawling back again sooner or later.  I assume that Warne remembers the name; that was the assignment that sealed your enlistment in AEGIS.  Had you blundered it, we would've reconsidered, but you successfully arrested the arms dealer, his crew, and even a few of his clients."

 

"...Also, he blew himself to pieces rather than go to prison," Adept added slowly as the memory came back to him.

 

"That too, yes.  Hence our surprise when he reappeared.  It does explain his augmentations, however.  Those cybernetic adjustments probably weren't voluntary.  We have not, at the present, managed to learn who brought about his present state, but if I had to guess, I would say the same person who removed him from federal custody in the hospital where he was previously comatose."

 

Warne snarled angrily.  "Did that happen the day before he attacked us?" he asked with heavy sarcasm.  "Why wasn't I informed that one of my old arrests escaped?"

 

"You know how this works, Warne," Becker shrugged.  "Clandestine agencies aren't known for their cooperation.  You're no longer with the FBI.  Besides, as I said, the man was little more than a vegetable.  I'm sure it raised some eyebrows when he disappeared, but the world is a dangerous place, and those of us who keep it from collapsing have a lot of irons in the fire.  You've never exactly gone out of your way to make friends.  Is it really such a surprise that your old agency didn't prioritize contacting their rivals, or chasing a near-corpse?"