Vega City

Rain was was coming down in sheets over Vega, blurring the street lights and the headlamps of the vehicles on the expressway into a palette of pastel shades off in the distance, and night had fallen across the city, filling the forgotten back streets with shadows. How could such a hub of life and activity seem so...desolate?

Perhaps it was the height at which Jael stood, or maybe is was more a matter of thought. The city had always seemed to be such an unbearably savage place. Suffocating and grey.

From the rooftop of the factory, it was possible to see the central business district out on the other bank, across the wide, sluggish river. The high buildings were lit up with billboards and screens, some reaching far up into the sky, all still wholly dwarfed, made to seem utterly insignificant to the backdrop of the Archangel building, that hideous steel and concrete colossus the dominated the centre of Vega.

It loomed across the skyline, vast and disproportionate, the metal 'wings' that had been applied to the side glinting with red aircraft beacons that cast a bloody glow along the girders. In the centre of its western face a great sculpture took prominent place, a human-like figure from whom the wings seemed to reach. An angel of protection, so the publications said. To Jael is had always more resembled something that had been dead for a long time.

Architecture was not what she was there for however, and Lion would be most disapproving of her being lost in thought at such a crucial period. Lion was not much for heavy thinking.

The trick there was going to be timing. Too late and she'd land on the electrified rail and become human earth rod with lethal consequences, too early and she'd get hit by a train, yielding similar results.

Straining to hear any sounds of approaching carriages the figure hopped from the factory roof, landing a few feet below on a metal support than ran over the top of the tracks, holding cables and electrics aloft. It shuddered a little under her weight, supporting it well enough, but she doubted one of the male operatives, or even some of the taller females might have kept the precarious foothold, particularly not in the foul weather.

Then, the noise, the rattling of moving parts. She craned her neck round, spotting the lights of the heavy, low slung transport train, thundering toward the hiding place. Jael pulled a deep breath in, positioning herself, looking down. As the view filled with steel and paint she flung herself downwards, landing with a thump, sliding a few feet back before instinct kicked in and she seized a groove in the metalwork, hauling herself into a crouched pose and edging along until she reached the back of he carriage, slipping down and whipping out the key card to open the door. They had an almost inexhaustible supply of the up to date cards. A good friend of theirs worked for the firm that programmed them for Archangel. Within days of a new update they had a full set.

Soon, she was inside. Three, in the centre. It seemed the most likely for containing this 'cargo' that Grey Wolf had spoken of. Wolfy had not been so kind as to define this cargo, other than that it would be within Three. Who could say what it was? That was for people like Wolf and Lion to think on at any rate. She was there to carry it out.

"Happy Birthday SERAPH." A tall woman whispered into the air holes of a small metal cargo shipping crate that she and two other men were guarding. The sound of chains rustling could be heard from inside and she instantly backed up and jammed a high-voltage cattle prod into the box shocking the cargo with 100,000 volts of electricity. Yep, happy twenty-first birthday Andrew. Look at what they have reduced you to, chained up in the fetal position, and shocking you every time you make the slightest sound. Just one of these days I want them to put me out of my misery. They wont even let me charge the horns on my back so I can break out of these chains. Which actually wouldn't benefit them much as it would me. Andrew thought silently to avoid another jolt from the cattle prod and could feel the heavy sedatives start to kick in and his body start to go into a deep sleep.

---Dream---

In his dream Andrew was sixteen again on the day of his mothers and father's death. "Mom where is it that you want to go? I've lived here my entire life and I don't understand why you want us to leave." Andrew questioned his mother as she suggested the idea of fleeing the Archangels's testing facility. "Andy, please there's a better world out there then this place. There's so much more that you can do with your life then just being a lab rat here!" Andrew's mother attempted at convincing him when an alarm blared and shots fired at the two of them.

"Run mom, I'll shield us!" Andrew grabbed the metal wall and bent it so that it was shielding them from the bullets. His adrenaline was pumping and bolts of electricity were shooting from the two bumps sticking out of his shoulders. After the boy had smashed his way outside of the base he and his mother had to get away from the heavily guarded perimeter. "Look Andrew a way out!" His mother yelled and made a dash for a hole in the electric fence.

"No way they're that sloppy, Mom no!" Andrew yelled, but a single shot rang out and pierced the back of his mother's head. Andrew traced the shot to a gun that was held by his very own father, when he saw this he ran to his mother's dead body and started to sob sending thousands of volts of electricity to his shoulders. Suddenly a massive flash of light and a nuclear explosion went off destroying everything around them reducing almost everything but Andrew to ash and molten metal. Some time later an Archangels clean up team arrived and retrieved the distraught test subject forcing him into an underground containment facility for further notice.

What was with all of the grunts sniffing around?

The transports always looking imposing, but most were very sparsely manned, usually a driver, some maintenance workers, and two or three guards to repel any potential robberies when they passed through the west side. Here, they seemed to be swarmed with kitted up Archangel men, and not just your average rent a cop resentful at the night shift. These people looked pretty damn serious, and edgy along with it.

To a degree, Yellow Fox was suspicious about what she was walking in to, but more acutely, she was concerned about how she was going to do 'crowd control'. It was a lot of bodies to drop in a very short period of time.

It was no good, she was going to have to break out the nasty stuff.

Yellow Fox disliked using the gas to clear a place, much because the acrid chemical symphony taking place inside those canisters Red Spider had handed her clung to her clothing and made her skin creep for days afterward. Who knew what evil things they put in it, but it was sufficiently nasty that people could not endure it for long, and would do their best to escape it, perfect when you were on a train.

Loosening her bag she pulled out a mask with respirator snapping the straps around the back of her head and checking the seal, before hopping onto the top again and carefully removing one of the slowly corroding cannisters from her bag, breaking it and throwing it inside.

Moments later came sounds of coughing and distress, and she saw a disorderly, panicked exodus from number three, a large number of staff coming barrelling out into number two, coughing and wretching. Once she was certain they had done so, Yellow hopped neatly down behind them, looping under the walkway and pulling the connection free. There was a jolt as the train took off into the distance...only without the other carriages, and the troops still on board.

Too easy, she thought. Now the only hard bit was getting finished before the next train decided to arrive. She swung inside the door, mask already sealed, and ventured into the smoky depths, snapping the LEDs set into the top of the mask on to illuminate the progress. It was difficult to see very far in the gloom, but her wanderings eventually drew her to the most prominent feature in the otherwise sparse interior, a large crate. The Archangel logo, along with another she had not recognition of, were stamped onto the side, and the whole thing was chained down to the floor. That had to be it.

Yellow Fox looked around for an opening, eventually discovered an electronic card slot in a voltage proof casing on the underside, a red clearance symbol beside it. How odd. There were four clearance level keys that she was aware of in Archangel. Red being one of the highest. Only department managers and high ranking researchers were allowed to open things of that level... that and of course people such as her who had fake keys. She took her own and slipped it into the lock, a light blinking before the side fell away, revealing this apparent Archangel device she needed to get rid of... except it was not what she had thought she would see. Not at all.

A person, or at least, what very much appeared to be a person, lying within the crate, heavy chains, seeming better suited for anchoring heavy machinery set around them in all directions. She hopped down level to get a better look through the fog. The individual's side had several burns noticeable on the surface of the skin, as if from electrical shock...the savages. What seemed most bizarre to her were the odd protrusions on his back. They seemed to be part of the figure, but as to what they were it was harder to call. A little more inspection led her to conclude that he was quite heavily sedated. Why? A person could barely move locked up in such a way. What on earth had this prisoner done to warrant this treatment?

Her gloved had closed around the figure's jaw, wrenching his head up to get a better look at his features. It was not one of their number... not as far as she knew, anyway. Few Pack members that were caught stayed kicking for long. The brass liked to get rid of them as soon as was possible.

The gas was still quite thick, and she had to make the call, if nothing else because this individual had no mask. The gas was intended to irritate and cause some panic, but to keep breathing it in was not going to do anyone much good.

Grey Wolf had to have made a mistake. Surely this wasn't the cargo that had been intended for destruction. She had dealt with living targets before but... If nothing else, it seemed rather unsporting. This figure had been chained up, shocked, drugged... perhaps it might be considered a kindness to put the poor bastard out of it and spare him whatever Archangel had in store for him...

"Containment breach! Containment breach! All authorized personnel ordered to evacuate and prepare for decontaminiation." A computerized voice spoke as alarms blared and the cargo crate opened letting fumes of gas and filtered amounts of sunlight into the metal cargo crate. "Mom, I don't want to go to testing today." Andrew muttered as the fumes went into his lungs and were changed from a harmful chemical to a combination of oxygen and nitrogen atoms.

The sedatives stopped pumping into him and the chains loosened on his body. After coming out of his nap Andrew felt the sun on his face and opened his eyes to see a person wearing a gas mask trying to get a better look at him. This is my chance to escape, I could take one of these chains and choke this person to death if I wanted to... No, I wouldn't get any information if I did that... I got it! Andrew thought and soaked in as much energy as he could and focused it into a black energy ball in his right hand.

"Incinerating decontamination in 10... 9.... 8... 7..." The computer spoke again as the massive vents in the cargo train sealed up and pure gaseous hydrogen poured into the train. Andrew touched the black energy ball to the persons head which caused the energy from his hand to paralyze their brain knocking them out. "I hate doing black slumber to random strangers." Andrew muttered as he caught the person and smashed the side of the train open thrusting himself out of the moving cargo vehicle. After a few seconds of moving away from the train, the air pressure changed and behind him a massive shock wave was produced followed by a huge explosion sending him and the person in his arms flying. A few moments later the dust started to settle and Andrew lied on the ground still clutching on for dear life to the person he had just saved.

Yellow Fox withdrew a knife that sat in her belt, considering striking. It seemed like the best thin that she could do in this situation, and it would save difficulty with Wolf and Lion later...something began to distract her however.


"Oh, do shut up." Yellow Fox muttered as the intercom began shouting, turning for a moment to regard it, in time for the doors to lock down. Shit. What was all this stuff for? She had used her little nasty stuff trick a dozen times and this had never happened before.

It took her a few moments to watch the working of the electrics and attempt to figure it out, however in that time she caught movement from the corner of her eye and suddenly, everything went black.

When the young woman's senses returned she took a few moments to realize where she was. She could see the sky and the rain overhead, feel the sparse brush of the trackside underneath her, hear the rasping of flames and burning. It was the figure though, their arms wrapped round her, that immediately spurred her into action. Yellow Fox began to struggle, trying to pull away, but the grip of this figure was as the hug of a bear. It was not giving in to her attempts.
"Let go of me!" she shouted at the top of her voice, the sound muffled by the confines of the mask.

After a few dazed moments from the massive explosion, Andrew's eyes opened and he realized he was holding on to the person that opened the crate back on the train. "I trust your not one of my doctors, due to the lack of protocol back on the train. Wow! Look at the mess you made." Andrew noticed the massive smoke clouds and the flaming debris that were falling from the sky. "They should have tried harder to keep me in that crate. Well anyway, I guess I have you to thank for my rescue from Archangels. My name is SERAPH #1, but I like to be called Andrew. Judging by your confusion of the situation, I would say you don't know what I am. I am Archangels dirty little secret, a child born from genetic engineering and infused with bio-weaponry. " Andrew held out a hand to help his liberator up.

When he held his hand out, Andrew could hear a low flying gunship flying directly toward them. "Break time's over girl. Get to some cover before that gunship sees you!" Andrew pointed the spikes on his back toward the sky and two red balls of energy were sucking in energy from the surrounding sunlight. Suddenly an almost foghorn like trumpeting came from Andrew's mouth and a concentrated energy blast fired from him slicing the gunship in half. "Hey we might want to leave before they send more of those things. Are you alright." Andrew said in between breaths and stumbled as the plane crashed into the ground.

Yellow Fox had no need for prompting in regards to movement, and as soon as she was on her feet she tore out the filter of her mask with a hiss of air to free her mouth and nose, before turning and making a dash for the fence, clearing it in a fluid movement and taking off down a street, not taking stock of whether this figure she had run into was following or not. If not it would probably save her considerable grief and a great deal of explanation later. She did not know what it was exactly, but it could cause enormous amounts of damage and should Archangel ever use it on them they would be utterly annihilated.

She reached and old, metal cover in a side street, lifting it and hauling it aside to allow her to drop down, landing on chipped concrete a few feet below.

The young woman was stood in one of Vega's disowned metro ways, subterranean tracks that snaked for uncounted lengths beneath the city. They'd once been the spine of the transport network, but times had moved on, high speed above-ground tracks had been set in place on elevated skyways. The metro had been decommissioned and the tunnels left to degrade. It was to the gain of them however, for it allowed her and those with similar intentions to move almost undetected and without security checkpoints. The old metro was certainly not without hazards, but it was one of their greatest tools for mobility.

After a few moments of awkward silence from the person Andrew looked behind him to see that the person in the mask had left him alone in the smoldering wreckage of the downed gunship. Well that was very rude. now I have a moral conundrum, save the people that I just shot down or go after this person that saved my life. With no blood sample to track with and no obvious trail to follow, that person left me with no way of thanking them for their rescue. Andrew thought and walked toward the wreckage of the plane and tore open the side hatch to reveal a destroyed armory and a few dead bodies.

The primary pilot sat contorted in the cockpit of the gunship and the co-pilot was kneeling weakly in his chair clutching onto the yoke with a hacking dry cough. "Come on big guy, lets get you out of here." Andrew whispered softly to him and picked him up out of his destroyed chair. "I'm actually surprised anyone survived a crash like tha-." Andrew paused when a perfectly preserved prototype rifle caught his eye. I know that weapon, I saw it years ago back at the research facility. He strained his brain trying to remember the weapon. Andrew left the plane and set the pilot down on the ground as he started to wake up.

"Captain did we survive?" The pilot asked with a weakened voice. "Technically no." Andrew responded while retrieving the weapon that he was marveling at earlier. "What's this weapon's purpose?" Andrew asked calmly already knowing the pilot's answer. "It's a prototype railgun designed to destroy the SERAPH before it destroyed the payload that we were carrying." The pilot confessed as Andrew took his radio away. "There's a town in that direction. Your lucky I still show mercy to you grunts." Andrew said calmly and crushed the radio in his hands and walked toward the city known as Vega.

Yellow Fox walked for a little way, before drawing the hood back and unlocking the gas mask, draping it round her neck.
"Ugh...why me... Wolf is not going to be pleased." she muttered irritably, beginning to walk along the track, in no hurry to give notice to the others in regard to how the mission had progressed. Yellow Fox had never failed in any task before. The whole thing felt something of an affront to her pride more than anything, but she could not help but wonder what exactly she had let loose... She could not help but guess she may not have heard the last of this..

Andrew was now in the city, this was his first time out of a research facility and on his own. His stomach growled loudly and Andrew didn't know where he could get food. He looked like an everyday homeless person in his tattered clothes and scuffed up body which gave him the idea of, Maybe there's a soup kitchen around here that I can eat at. He quickly went off and asked a random person if there was somewhere he could eat, but he just waved him to go away. "Well that was rude." Andrew muttered and sat down in an alleyway waiting for another person to walk by when a young lady held her hand out and motioned him to follow her. After a few moments of walking the girl led him into a restaurant where the waiter greeted her and gave Andrew a menu. The two sat in silence as food was brought to them and she just sat there with a smile on her face which actually crept Andrew out some until Andrew left after they ate not even getting the girls name as she walked away.