The Mafia Queen (IC)

[Infected Mushroom]

Paul Lacrosse

This is not good...

As he heard Lorelei returning fire close to him, Paul was laying face down on the grass; the ground felt extremely icky and he accidentally tasted a bit of mud. The sound of gunfire was so loud he feared he may go deaf. As a police detective in the narcs division he had seen combat, but not quite in a war zone such as this.

This is life and death...

His MP5 was still in front of him. Paul reached a hand behind him and unclipped a back up magazine. Still on the ground, he moved around to try to reload his weapon.

More gunshots all around...

---

Shiroi Kasamoto

Shiroi Kasamoto made her move at last. During the fierce firefight, the ninja woman had quietly disappeared off to the side, vanishing like shadow to re-calculate the best angle of approach.

Since a few of the goons had been hit, though not incapacitated, they were distracted and now was the time to strike,

She appeared from the tall grass but within a split second she had launched and executed an incredibly fast acrobatic leap across a complete meter, as if a leopard springing into action. There was a SWISH of the deadly metal and as the katana passed, one of the three goons was immediately decapitated... the gruesome thing landed like a soccer ball a good distance away by one of the oaks.

Shiroi paused not a second before turning and making another vicious slash... a second goon went down, screaming with pain as his stomach was devastated... thankfully the scream was cut short for the cut was surgical (as if the slasher knew exactly where to carve for a quick kill).

Despite the visceral, brutal nature of the close quarter kills, Shiroi felt not a single ounce of hesitation or compunction.

These monsters... they deserve far worse...

That left the third goon, emerging from a tree half a meter away (it was the same one that had avoided Lorelei's earlier attack). He had a rifle out.

Shiroi turned and leapt across the forest... following skilfully with a roll which saw her disappear behind a few large rocks.

The gangster fired off his rifle but Shiroi was so fast that two rounds trailed her movements, causing patches of dirt and rock to fly up from the impacts.

BANG! BANG!

[Madrinpoor]

Antihero

The machine-gun fire continued to rain down against them. However, for now the trees and the rocks provided protection for him and his ally Avati, though there was no guarantee for how much longer. Well... at least Avati had radioed in the reinforcements. Even amidst the suppression, Antihero tried to listen out for any footsteps though it was difficult. The vigilante kept his M4 raised, ready to fire should any mobster make a clear showing.

After a few minutes, a series of deafening cracks echoed across the forest. The machine gun fire seemed to slow down... some of the guns were being silenced.

Tom you devil...

---

Avati breathed a sigh of relief. They could move now. His radio call had been useful. The backup had come.

From another hill overlooking the hill, Tom Gabriels opened fire with his sniper on the mob machine-gun nest with the accuracy and wrath of an avenging angel. One by one they fell as Tom began to silence the guns with long range shots.

---

As the machine-gun fire began to subside, the Mafia flank finally attacked. A force of seven goons rushed in from the side of the forest towards Antihero and Avati. Antihero wasted no time in turning and shooting, all whilst maintaining prone position to maximise cover as possible.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Despite carrying an automatic weapon, Antihero shot in single rounds, favouring accuracy and trying to make every single round count.

The mobsters fired back, many of the armed with AKs but they began to fall one by one; they were demoralised that somehow the machine-gun fire had stopped and Antihero's accuracy was unrelenting.

---

The mobsters attacked, and Avati's eyes widened. He turned off the safety of his gun, and got ready to ambush as they were focused on Antihero. He jumped up — BANG! BANG! BANG! Avati fired three shots, and one of them hit. Then he dropped back down and aimed at another one...BANG! BANG! Two shots. They noticed him and he rolled back behind his rocks. That might distract them for Antihero...

[Kaledoria]

By stepping out of his cover to get a better shot at Shiroi, the Gangster had made a mistake. (Or had he? Given the kill record of the last few seconds, it seemed reasonable to focus exclusively on the Ninja-Lady)

Now Lorelei had a clear line of sight and used it. Aim and fire. 3 shots. 2 hits, shoulder and chest.
The gangster started to scream but it was more of a moaning, before he dropped to his knees and ultimately fell over.

Lorelei had immediately moved behind cover again, then peeked out on the other side of the tree, expecting more enemies. As there were none she creeped up to Paul, to help him up but at the time he had managed that himself. "Seems like there are no more goons in the im... Oh, right reloading." Lorelei took out the spare magazine. Was it the 15 or the 10 round magazine? She checked. 15. How many had she fired? Two plus three plus three. Eight down, Seven left in the gun, including one in the barrel. She held the full mag between thumb and index finger, held it downwards below the grip and dropped the one with six shots left, holding it between the lower fingers and the palm then turning both magazines 180° and inserting the full one. A neat sleight of hand, that took her mind of the situation around her for a very brief moment.

She saw Shiroi through the trees about 10 meters ahead. "Let's go," she said and moved forward. As she passed the thug she had just shot, saw him lying on the ground, incapacitated, bleeding to death, she stopped. Her eyes widened. "What was his name?" she asked. She thought about checking him for an ID but why should he wear one? Or why should she care? Lorelei tried to call to her mind the words from Kevin and Shiroi. She tried to feel empathy for the burning, passionate hate, that the two had for every single member of the mafia. She could not feel it herself. She wanted to stop the Mafia. Maybe she hated the members that had in the past abducted, abused or killed some of her friends. But she did not hate the man, who was right now suffocating on his own blood because Lorelei had put a bullet through his lungs.
Still, she had gotten herself into a situation where they shot at her and thus she shot at them and if some of them died in the process, this had to be okay for her. At least for now.

She was still staring at the corpse but slowly regained awareness of her surroundings. "Sorry. ... I'm okay."

[Infected Mushroom]

Paul Lacrosse

"Great work Lorelei," he said, still a bit white in the face and placing a hand on Lorelei's shoulder. "I'm a bit rusty. Major thanks for the back up."

God damn Paul what have you got yourself into? And this is only Day 1.

Paul only realised NOW that his heart was racing, he was flooded with adrenaline... in the aftermath, his knees felt a bit weak.

Paul couldn't believe it. Now in 40 (approaching mid life), he was re-experiencing the adventurous life again, reclaiming his honour. However, he steeled himself for he knew there was much to do. If he fired his MP5 again, he'd go for controlled bursts or singles; he had vastly underestimated the recoil and the spread.

Shiroi strolled over. Paul looked up, intrigued.

Dressed in that black cloth combat outfit, she was an enigma to him. Fearlessly lethal, steeped in mystery...

He watched as the Asian woman radioed in the kills, the woman grimaced slightly as she wiped her blood-stained katana against a part of a tree.

Why fight with a sword when you had guns? Still, he couldn't complain, she had just taken some down.

"Alright, we better advance carefully," Shiroi said, sheathing her sword again to cover to avoid needless reflection of the steel blade possibly giving away position. "Since Steve is still-"

YIANNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!!

High above them, perhaps 8,000 feet in the air, a high speed object flew by and disappeared towards the Southwest. Paul saw it as well...

WAIT-

If his eyes didn't deceive him, he thought he saw a silhouette of a person, flying on some kind of a board or glider... but there was no smoke trail or any kind to suggest propulsion. The unidentified flying object was gone and out of sight, suddenly arcing downwards over some trees and vanishing under cover far away.

"Wait what the hell was that?" Paul cried out.

"I don't like it," Shiroi said. "It's heading in that direction and if I'm not mistaken... that's where our vans are."

"It's not an airplane or a heli," Paul insisted. "I thought I saw a person."

"Airplanes don't sound like that," Shiroi confirmed.

Shiroi tried to make sense of it, adapting quickly.

"Alright, I'm radio-ing it to Tom and I'm going to double back, figure out what the problem is and check our transports. Paul, go ahead and meet up with Steve, make sure he's okay."

"You sure you'll be-"

"Yes. Let's not waste any time."

"What about Lorelei?" Paul asked.

"She can choose; though I wouldn't mind a bit of drone coverage ahead," Shiroi said. Without waiting for much reply, the ninja woman turned and prowled off in the general direction towards the vans; it would take a while to get there.

Paul turned hesitantly forward. He felt he should go back as well but Shiroi had decided.

---

Vel Kazo

Vel Kazo was now in the battlefield. As he was flying into the area at maximum speed on his magically-powered glider, he looked down and across with his enhanced vision. From the great height, he could see flashes of gunfire here and there (though the vegetation and trees provided too much cover to clearly make out any actual enemies). However, the Mage of Steel tapped into his powers and used his "Steel Sense" power (a mystical ability that allowed him to sense and detect large concentrations of steel and how far they are).

These enemies must have travelled here, by plane or by car. If I'm not mistaken, the vehicles are all hidden in some tree brunch somewhere.

As he flew around, he lowered his speed somewhat and made a calculated dive under a large forested area (he didn't want too many enemies to see him and be alerted of his entry). Whilst in flight, he calibrated his Steel Sense. He was aware of where The Vault and it's steel defences were located so he focused elsewhere... but he sensed another concentration, to the overall southeast of the map.

Yes, the transports. Without the transports, their legs will be cut off. They'll be trapped for Colombo to destroy.

He looked around and sure enough, he found them. They were well-hidden, carefully parked in a group under a large amount of densely forested cover and foliage (the trees were naturally tall)... it was hard to see with eyes but he didn't need to see. He knew; metal was his domain.

He lowered the glider to the ground. Leaving the mysterious glider in a stationary hovering mode, the Metal Mage stepped off and his boots made contact with the soil. He began to walk towards the vans and the cars.

Perfect material for a steel blizzard...

He stepped forward just a bit... then the man with the steel block face and glowing unnatural eyes raised both of his metallic gloved hands, focusing his power. As he did so, his gloves lit up with a purple glow and the purple cape attached to him began to blow about... a large number of parked vans and vehicles began to levitate high high HIGH into the air... there was a strange sound like a super magnet going off.

Soon, all of the Antihero Force's cars and vehicles were levitating high in the air, about five meters up. Despite the incredible height of the levitation, the tallness of the surrounding trees were such as to block out most of this from the vision of those in the far corners of the battlefield.

This is my favourite part.

He moved his hands around.

CRUNCH! CRACK! CREWWWWWWWWW!!!!

About a third of the flying cars and vans began to violently disassociate themselves. They were restructured by the powerful metal manipulation, being crunched together, broken, and recrafted into dozens and dozens and dozens of large steel balls, lines of steel javelins with pointed tips... As Vel Kazo worked, what was once inside the vans was either completely crushed in the restructuring or broken so that the pieces fell out of the suspended mess.

As Vel Kazo worked, he spoke quietly into his micro radio piece, having a direct line to the Vault's commander.

"Vel Kazo to Lion's Den. Steel Blizzard underway. Prepare to deploy the drones."

He was making the cannon balls. Now he needed the eyes to find the ants.

[Infected Mushroom]

Antihero

The machine-gun fire continued to rain down against them. However, for now the trees and the rocks provided protection for him and his ally Avati, though there was no guarantee for how much longer. Well... at least Avati had radioed in the reinforcements. Even amidst the suppression, Antihero tried to listen out for any footsteps though it was difficult. The vigilante kept his M4 raised, ready to fire should any mobster make a clear showing.

After a few minutes, a series of deafening cracks echoed across the forest. The machine gun fire seemed to slow down... some of the guns were being silenced.

Tom you devil...

---

Avati breathed a sigh of relief. They could move now. His radio call had been useful. The backup had come.

From another hill overlooking the hill, Tom Gabriels opened fire with his sniper on the mob machine-gun nest with the accuracy and wrath of an avenging angel. One by one they fell as Tom began to silence the guns with long range shots.

---

As the machine-gun fire began to subside, the Mafia flank finally attacked. A force of seven goons rushed in from the side of the forest towards Antihero and Avati. Antihero wasted no time in turning and shooting, all whilst maintaining prone position to maximise cover as possible.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Despite carrying an automatic weapon, Antihero shot in single rounds, favouring accuracy and trying to make every single round count.

The mobsters fired back, many of the armed with AKs but they began to fall one by one; they were demoralised that somehow the machine-gun fire had stopped and Antihero's accuracy was unrelenting.

---

The mobsters attacked, and Avati's eyes widened. He turned off the safety of his gun, and got ready to ambush as they were focused on Antihero. He jumped up — BANG! BANG! BANG! Avati fired three shots, and one of them hit. Then he dropped back down and aimed at another one...BANG! BANG! Two shots. They noticed him and he rolled back behind his rocks. That might distract them for Antihero...

Antihero

As Avati fired his pistol, Antihero continued to fire off his M4 repeatedly with measured, calculated, and consistent single shots. When all was said and done, the ground was littered with corpses. All hostiles had been eliminated.

Cautiously, Antihero got up from his prone cover and advanced, crouching... his eyes sweeping and his rifle aimed out.

Cautiously, he pulled out his radio. "This is Antihero. I think we got them all. No further contact with hostiles. How's the bird view?"

---

Tom Gabriels

Tom checked the landscape through the magnified scope of his Druganov sniper.

What a lethal day...

"Machine guns nests are cleared," Tom confirmed. "I think we got em all. ALL CLEAR. Proceed at your discretion. Over."

He checked his equipment, somehow, there was another line coming in from Shiroi. Was there another situation?

---

Antihero turned to Avati.

"Good job, that was a close one. We pulled through. Nice shooting."

Antihero walked up to the fallen mobsters and checked for spare ammo. Unfortunately, since they went with Eastern bloc weaponry, the mags were incompatible with his M4A1. He could trade to AK but he preferred the weight, accuracy, and feel of his current weapon.

"Ammunition is going to be tight. How much do you have?"

[Madrinpoor]

Avati breathed a sigh of relief. They could move now. His radio call had been useful. The backup had come.



The mobsters attacked, and Avati's eyes widened. He turned off the safety of his gun, and got ready to ambush as they were focused on Antihero. He jumped up — BANG! BANG! BANG! Avati fired three shots, and one of them hit. Then he dropped back down and aimed at another one...BANG! BANG! Two shots. They noticed him and he rolled back behind his rocks. That might distract them for Antihero...

Antihero

As Avati fired his pistol, Antihero continued to fire off his M4 repeatedly with measured, calculated, and consistent single shots. When all was said and done, the ground was littered with corpses. All hostiles had been eliminated.

Cautiously, Antihero got up from his prone cover and advanced, crouching... his eyes sweeping and his rifle aimed out.

Cautiously, he pulled out his radio. "This is Antihero. I think we got them all. No further contact with hostiles. How's the bird view?"

---

Tom Gabriels

Tom checked the landscape through the magnified scope of his Druganov sniper.

What a lethal day...

"Machine guns nests are cleared," Tom confirmed. "I think we got em all. ALL CLEAR. Proceed at your discretion. Over."

He checked his equipment, somehow, there was another line coming in from Shiroi. Was there another situation?

---

Antihero turned to Avati.

"Good job, that was a close one. We pulled through. Nice shooting."

Antihero walked up to the fallen mobsters and checked for spare ammo. Unfortunately, since they went with Eastern bloc weaponry, the mags were incompatible with his M4A1. He could trade to AK but he preferred the weight, accuracy, and feel of his current weapon.

"Ammunition is going to be tight. How much do you have?"

Antihero did some nice shooting too, Avati had to admit. But of course he wouldn't. He just nodded and scanned the woods again.

"I definitely don't have enough ammo for another shootout like this where I waste bullets. I use a gun up close, that's where I do all my work. We need to get out of these woods."

[Infected Mushroom]

Inside Lion's Den/The Vault
Under the Earth

Pietro Gamgee

In the command room, Pietro turned to his subordinates.

“You’ve lost all contact?” he asked, white-faced.

“Yes sir, no ones getting back. Do you think that they-that they?”

Almost 40 soldiers gone? WHAT IS THIS?!!!

“Should we send more-“

“Not for now,” Gamgee said. “We keep the reserves up close. Prepare to deploy the turrets and the drones. On my command. When Vel Kazo says he’s ready.”

So you can defeat some infantry? Let’s see how well you fare against grand cannons, drones, and steel magic.

“Also, give me another ETA on Colombo’s forces. Tell him to hurry the hell up.”

“Sir.”

[Kaledoria]

Lorelei let her Drone rise again. "Yeah, there seems to be another Mafia Guy," Lorelei reported to the team, as the frequency scanner picked up the new communication between Vel Kazo and the Lion's Den. "But different channel then the other teams, I can't decipher their signal." She saved the communication signals nevertheless, just in case she found a cypher later, like for the previous channel.

As the drone was high up in the sky, she could indeed make out some movement to the south, where their cars were hidden. But another thing caught her attention on the clearing in the west. The "concealed manhole" was open and there was in fact a hole in the ground and it appeared to have a ladder. But there were also smaller holes open, at the places Lorelei had wrongfully assumed to be landmines. They were to small for people and upon zooming in Lorelei saw that they were not going down all the way, but just small pits with ... something metallic ... inside them. Some device that was readied to pop up and ruin our day, Lorelei thought, possibly combat drones, turrets or some powerful ECM/ECCM devices.
"There is some movement to the west but so far no no enemies. Possibly a trap," she told the others. "As for that guy who just flew through the sky ..." she focused on the trees in the south. She could not see anything clearly through the foliage, but she could see, that the trees were shaking violently and every now and then a reflection of glass or metallic parts blinked through ... through the treetops. Much to high "Some kind of localized whirlwind maybe. Maybe a telekinetic who just tossed around our cars to cut of our retreat options! Telekinesis could explain how he flew through the sky and judging from the speed he is extremely powerful. So I guess our options are to abort the mission and try to escape north by foot, or to push through but we should move really fast."

Lorelei started running (at sustainable pace) northwest. If her sense of direction did not betray her, somewhere over there were Avati and Antihero and behind them the shack with the secret entrance.

[Infected Mushroom]

A few minutes earlier...

Vel Kazo

As Vel Kazo continued to stand there and use his magic to shred up the levitated Antihero Force transports, he spoke directly to the Lion's Den.

"Vel Kazo to Lion's Den, I'd like those eyes out now."

"Copy that."

---

Inside Lion's Den/The Vault
Under the Earth

Pietro Gamgee

Pietro got the confirmation. He turned to his officers. "Alright gents, this is it. Boot up the Grand Cannons, launch the scout drones."

"All of them sir?"

"Yes."

As his subordinates entered a large number of commands, Pietro spoke quietly on a direct line to the Steel Mage to further coordinate.

---

Across the northwestern side of the battlefield large swathes of the ground began to open up. THESE WERE NO MINE FIELDS.

Fourteen massive overbearing structures rose out, symmetrically spaced from each other... these were gargantuan, fully encased battle turrets with massive twin gun barrels with rotation option. Every Grand Cannon was gilded and encased in futuristic metal and each was roughly the scale and mass of several giant medieval towers stacked together. The main weapon of each Grand Cannon was a large outward facing gigantic twin barrel (that dwarfed the scale of any conventional military artillery). All the main guns (all across the separate 14 grand structures) were centrally controlled from the Lion's Den (which was located somewhere else under the ground).

Almost at once, all 14 giant cannons began to rotate mechanically, as if calculating for threats far away from their position.

Since the guns were remote-controlled from Command's computers... what were the six dozen blue-uniformed soldiers popping up from the ladders doing?

Well, they rushed into various positions to man a smaller network of 36 rotating machine-gun turrets strategically placed all around the Grand Cannons and attached at varying heights. Clearly, these additional machine-gun turrets (which had also popped out of the ground along with the Grand Cannons) were meant to provide close-quarters-point blank defence for the superweapons.

---

Antihero

Antihero and Avati continued to trek across the forest, their eyes highly alert to threats. "The shack should be nearby," Antihero said. "Let me double-check with Tom."

Tom Gabriels was nearby (sort of), but completely invisible. He crawled and prowled through the high forested positions above and behind them, effectively covering them with sniper fire at all times from hundreds of meters away.

"It's almost too quiet," Antihero said.

He didn't like this. It was for sure, too quiet.

---

Further holes opened up and now roughly two dozen Mafia scout drones were fully in flight. Coming out at a high velocity, they began to scan the forest and terrains, spreading out in a pre-planned formation... looking for opponents for the cannons to rain hellfire down upon. The flight path of the drones was quite quick and they covered quite a lot of ground rather quickly.

---

Inside Lion's Den/The Vault
Under the Earth

Pietro Gamgee

The command room was busy. Everyone was glued to a separate screen, either watching through drones or the visual feeds of the cannons. Pietro himself was no slacker, he was studying over a dozen large screen panels at once.

We will hunt them down and cut them down like rats...

Still, there was problem. Formidable and far-reaching as the Grand Cannons were, their full range potential had never been realised (most of the Southeast was in fact, out of the reliable range). In fact, Pietro had some prior reservations about deploying these steel monsters before now because they needed to be finalized. However, with the assault forces down, this seemed to be the best play now.

Something caught his eye.

"Hey Simon give me a zoom in on Feed 19," he said imperiously.

The techies complied and Pietro was given a close up. Pietro squinted as he looked in through the feed of one of the eastern-most cannons; the targeting was unclear but the Italian scientist suspected he saw the flicker of some movement there by an elevated hill and behind thick trees.

"Switch the sensors to A12," he said. "Also, Simon, give me a direct command override over Turret 11. Do it now."

It was done.

Pietro sat down at a new chair, complete with a joystick controller and a bigger screen... and he liked what he saw. There was no doubt about it, two figures were heading a LITTLE BIT MORE WEST than they should... the masked soldier in blue, there was no doubt this was Antihero.

He didn't recognise the ally that went with Antihero but he suspected he was some kind of elite fighter from some kind of paramilitary vigilante gang that opposed the mob (or was he a merc from Europe?).

These would be HUGE KILLS.

Pietro's fingers hovered over the fire command as he moved to adjust the cannon... as his fingers moved... Turret 11 in the Northwest made giant robotic noises as the gargantuan gun moved in accordance with Pietro's touch.

The trouble was, these two were at the very very limit of the canon's tested range; the targeting was a little bit unreliable... but there was a risk the two could decide to turn east instead and go completely out of range.

Pietro got confirmation that only Turret 11 was in range, and barely so.

"Sir," a commander advised. "Perhaps it's best not to fire yet. They don't know these long range weapons exist. Even if you pulverise these two, we give the game away. The rest will run."

Pietro considered it.

The commander went further, "Let Vel Kazo work his magic and force them to run west. Make sure they are deep... DEEP into our reliable range, then fire and kill them all at once."

It was sound advice. Pietro was about to go that way, but then another COM came in.

"Sir, this is Turret 8, I've spotted something, it... it looks like a HOSTILE DRONE. I'm not sure, requesting further visuals-"

WHAT?! They have a drone too?!

Well, at least that explains how they've been able to outplay us. If that's the case, then they know about the turrets now.

"Well that leaves one play," he said simply.

He returned to the commands and made the final adjustments. This was his chance to score major kills.

---

Thankfully for Lorelei's drone, it was able to get out without getting destroyed or fired upon, where soon after it began to report on Vel Kazo's activities.

---

Antihero

Lorelei had warned Tom... Tom wasted no time in radioing Antihero. Through the COM, Tom got straight to the point, maybe too straight:

"Antihero. There's a trap. Head East Now."

Antihero trusted Tom with his life and he could sense the urgency in the voice. Without a second's further hesitation, he turned and put a hand rather firmly on Avati's shoulder.

"We have to head east NOW!" (it was rather rude and callous and he didn't explain; though his voice communicated the urgency)

Without waiting further, Antihero started rushing rapidly to the right back in the direction of the east, he could only hope Avati had started to follow because he just at that moment heard the sound of a giant artillery round going off; the calibre was unlike anything he'd ever heard.

[Kaledoria]

As she saw the giant turrets pop up, Lorelei let her drone drop immediately, catching it just shortly over the ground. On the negative side, this meant, that she herself had to slow down, take cover. She though of herself as a very multitasking-able person but running through the woods, dodging trees while at the same time piloting a drone via semi-transparent heads-up-display, dodging other trees - that was outside her league. Finally she found herself with her drone and took it under the left arm (under the right was her encased laptop), just in time when Tom issued the warning to Antihero. Lorelei realized that she couldn't be to far away, either and started to run east, too. A massive gunshot. A moment of uncertainty then she heard the explosion behind her, maybe a hundred meters. She ran at full speed. Towards Tom, he would know what to do.

Even though Lorelei was hard pressed to fight against the panic, she realized one other thing. "George!" she shouted into the com, "You lied to us, this is no fucking prison."

[Infected Mushroom]

Turret 11’s gargantuan artillery shell struck some hundred meters away from where Antihero and Avati stood but it still created an earth-shattering spectacular explosion… thus demonstrating the overwhelming firepower of the United Mafia superweapon even when it was an indirect hit at max radius reach. There was a blinding flash of light but even before it had fully materialized dozens and dozens of trees, rocks, and piles of earth were blown apart and torn asunder.

In the midst of this cataclysmic explosion, one might have been able to make out the silhouetted form of Antihero rocketing high into the air at an angle above 45 degrees. As the masked Antihero flew up and outward in a massive debris of smoke, wood shrapnels, rocks and overwhelming dust and heat towards the eastern direction…. he spread his gloved hands forward in a desperate effort to control the inevitable, incoming fall from high high high up….

After rocketing at this angle to the east… Antihero fell down towards a large clump of trees. This was a fortunate event because he was able to flail and and kick at the branches on the way down… in this way somewhat reducing the momentum of the final fall… (barely a avoiding a direct collision with a great trunk which would surely have smashed him) Still, when he flew past the tilted tree he was able to land in the middle of a large green lake… there was an overwhelming splash as his form plummeted deep into the dark murky waters…

---

Tom Gabriels

Tom’s entire face grew pale as he watch an overwhelming explosion engulf Antihero and Avati’s positions. He prayed to God it wasn’t a direct hit. The blast radius was so powerful that even though Tom was in a relatively far back position, he could still sense the great winds and the noise was such as to cause temporary deafness; the entire ground seemed to shake and even where Tom was covered he felt his entire body jolt up and back just a bit.

His adrenaline and training kicking in, he forced himself to get up as he scrambled away from his hill and headed further to the east, going at it in the form of a stilted sprint. He shouted desparately into the radios, desperately altering channels:

“Antihero come in. Antihero come in. Avati? ANYONE?!”

Did they survive?

The only person he could reach was Lorelei though.

“Lorelei, are you alright?”

He turned and looked west again. It wasn’t a pretty sight, a huge chunk of the forest had literally been razed, now bathed in grey powder, falling ashe, and the pieces of the trees and the rocks falling down…

Oh we’ve got company too!

He threw himself down. A trinity of metallic military drones zoomed past his position. Did they see him? He couldn’t be sure.

---

Shiroi Kasamoto

My eyes must be deceiving me…

She had been warned by Lorelei’s advance intel but she had to see it with her own eyes, and see it she did. The ninja woman was now hiding behind a clump of trees, watching in stealth at the unbelievable scenary.

A strange alien(?) with a cape and raised, glowing metallic gloves was standing with his back to her some 200 meters away… all of their transports were levitating hundreds of meters into the air now amongst the trees… over half of them were being magically transformed and re-arranged into metallic spears, balls, and other projectiles.

This is straight out of sci-fi.

She turned to her radio but found only static.

What the hell? Maybe his magic is interfering with my signal somehow. It makes no sense, this mojo…

Shiroi considered her options. She expected that whatever this metal freak was up to, it wasn’t going to be good. She had the element of surprise so it was best to utilize it now.

Silently and in a practiced motion, she removed her large steel katana from its sheath and raised it… in the process not making a single sound. Then she began to sneak up for an assassination attempt. She moved fast and nimbly, in a strange tip-toed approach… during which somehow her practiced booted feet made not a single sound as they traversed across the dirt.

Come on you fucker…

She was almost there. Yet as she was about 100 meters away, suddenly the enemy turned.

WHAT?! IMPOSSIBLE?!

Somehow she had been sensed.

Shiroi found herself face to face with the alien(?) now. His face was a literal steel cube, and there was a searing supernatural face burned unto the surface… like a jack-o-lantern with jagged teeth… were those burning pupil-less eyes real?

---

Vel Kazo

Well isn’t this interesting… A sword… in this day?

The Steel Mage raised a single glowing hand and pointed it in the direction of the Asian while he kept his other hand high in the air.

However, something very strange happened… though his Steel Sense had alerted him of her presence and the presence of the steel sword… somehow his power didn’t seem to affect the sword. He had expected to take command of it telekinetically but it didn’t happen… This only happened a few times in his life; he couldn’t explain.

Ah well… No matter…

He would use his other projectiles, the ones he had an army of, floating around him. He re-directed his energy and waved his glowing hand.

Almost at once, a large number of steel projectiles which had been previously floating began to rocket towards the woman.

---

Shiroi reacted just in time. Letting out a feral scream, she suddenly leapt to the right. Over three dozen steel spears rammed into the earth all around her, some of them pierced through the thickest of oaks in the forest. Shiroi kept running and jumping sideways, utilizing the brushes and the trees to her advantage.

She heard the sound of flying metal, collisions, and powerful penetration behind her… her enemy was literally firing off a barrage of steel after her.

He’s got too much ammo… I must change my approach… Once he adjusts for my speed I'm done.

Having put considerable distance, Shiroi dropped down a smoke bomb. There was a brief explosion as her entire form disappeared into a thick, gulf of smoke. Using this distraction, she further leapt back towards the general east in an unexpected angle. Then she just kept sprinting and sprinting.

---

Vel Kazo

No one gets away.

He decided to abandon the artillery bombardment plan for now. It was reckless but a general battle lust overcame his judgement. Ignoring the traffic and noise from the drones reporting the antihero positions and Pietro's demands that he start the long range shelling, Vel Kazo instead summoned his magical glider. It came to him at once and he leapt on top of the thing.

Letting out a gleeful cackling, he turned to the east and zoomed forward at a very high speed, taking off in the direction Shiroi had disappeared towards.

In the trees just behind him, thousands and thousands of pieces of small metal objects and the few remaining un-shredded vans fell down to the floor once his magic was out of range… there was a ringing crashing sound as all these pieces of massive steel struck the forested floor.

[Infected Mushroom]

Paul Lacrosse

In another section of the battle, Paul Lacrosse had finally found Steve Johnson. The tough American Senator was standing amidst a group of fallen Mafiosis; holding a handgun and bloodied knife.

Paul let out a sigh of relief as he lowered his MP5.

"You alright Senator?" Paul asked. "Looks like you're quite the fight-"

He was interrupted because to their west and across some great distance, a massive explosion had just gone off... a cataclysmic one it seemed with a blinding passing of bright light, a overwhelmingly deafening noise... even from where Paul stood he could feel the Earth shake just briefly. He turned and saw that many many birds had taken off and flown, having been harassed from their trees by this weapon going off.

"The HELL do you figure that is?!"

I don't like it... I don't fucking like this.... Our guys better not be hit.

He tried to radio Shiroi but there was nothing. Nothing at all.

"Maybe I try to radio Tom now," Paul said. He turned to Steve as well, "The hell should we do?"

[CoraSpia]

George Hamilton

The sound of the automated monitoring system on George's extremely expensive car was the first thing that alerted him something was wrong, and his alarm only grew when he saw the feed from the secure camera on the car and what it was recording. It was seemingly high up in the air, gliding; he let out a sad sigh as it finally cut out.
George and Kevin began to crawl at speed, Kevin helping his adopted father along in account of his advanced age, the distant sound of explosions nearby letting them know that something was even more wrong than they had realised. They had no time to worry about that now however, as this thing with the van surely signified that a mage was in the area and a powerful one at that.

At a point east of where the transports had been left Kevin saw a glimpse of something moving at great speed, a man on some sort of glider; after signalling it to George they slowly stood.

The great blast of cold mountain air that smashed into the glider would surely have been enough to slow it to a near stop if not to bring it out of the sky completely. George's hand stayed raised as Kevin's gun began to pump bullets into the location the thing had occupied until just moments earlier.
"Good day," George called out jovially "Are you hear to dance?"

[Kaledoria]

Lorelei

Lorelei reached Tom, her ears still ringing from the explosion. She stayed a few meters back, in better cover. As she calmed down she noticed she was slightly shaking. To distract herself, she needed to come up with a new idea. "Hey Tom, can you shoot down one of the drones, with a shot to the rotor, not the core? Ideally somewhere above us." She asked and flipped open her Laptop and started to write some improvised code. "With our drone and the Laptop, I have enough signal strength," she said, even though her com was off, she was talking to no one in particular, "for a short range jamming signal on one of the drones' channel. With some luck it should look to the drone operators like the remote control system malfunctions when the drone falls through the treetops." She continued, quietly about the advantages of alternating frequency modulations, that the enemy drones appeared to use and it did calm her down, while she was preparing the short range jamming signal and waited for a drone to fall into it.

[Infected Mushroom]

Vel Kazo

The Steel Mage was so single-mindedly focused on pursuing Shiroi that he was not expecting an attack from another direction.

Without much warning, a firm, almost solid force of cold mountain air smashed into the glider as it was picking up speed... suddenly and immediately causing the magical transport to slow down abruptly and malfunction... the magical essence of the attack interfered with the mechanism of the glider. Soon, the glider stopped moving, at which point the massive and sudden reduction of speed from tens of kilometres per hour straight and nearly straight down to zero caused a massive fall forward effect for the rider.

"HEHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! EHHH?!"

Vel Kazo screamed out in panic as he suddenly jolted forward and fell headfirst off the glider forward in a high, exaggerated arc. He landed on all fours, slightly dazed... at which point he sensed a large volley of high kinetic bullets coming at him.

Acting on impulse, the Steel Mage turned and raised his glowing hands. He was just in time, for several P-90 bullets were stopped mid flight in front of him... creating what almost resembled a floating steel marble display of sorts, suspended at mere inches away from striking his suited torso. Vel Kazo realised there were two opponents arriving, he recognised them for they were on the Targets List:

George Hamilton
Weapon K-0032

The big guns already?

As he stood up and turned, the P-90 bullets fell down to the forest floor... they had barely done so when suddenly the Steel Mage raised both of his hands and sent forth a large, formidable super blast of blue and violet cackling lightning in the general direction of his two opponents...

---

Tom Gabriels

Acting upon Lorelei's suggestion, the former CIA operator crawled across the grass. He looked up at an angle and began to aim again with his SVD sniper rifle. Those pesky drones were flying around and would soon do a double-take; the flight trajectory was a bit wonky but it was possible to establish a pattern. Closing one eye and adjusting for bullet drop and estimated wind, Tom aimed and fired off a quick shot. However, instead of striking the rotor blade, somehow the bullet landed centre-mass... rather unexpectedly the bullet went straight through despite the limited protection...

BANG!

KA BAM!

One of the drones exploded outright as the high-powered bullet made direct contact with the centre mass. However, the two remaining drones picked up on this, turned and began to fly towards them... as if guided by some advanced AI, they began to zig zag.

This time, when Tom aimed and fired again... he missed.

BANG!

Oh dear...

The drones were now approaching him and Lorelei. There was a metallic sound as the drones picked up their flight speeds, and now if one looked closely... one could make out 2 very small-calibre gun turrets (carrying at best 0.38 revolver rounds of relatively short range but still dangerous) suddenly appearing on the underside of the two remaining drones.

These scout drones have ARMAMENT?!

Tom knew he had at most seconds so he tried to aim again. But he wasn't sure if he could pull off another decent shot before those things got into firing range...

[Madrinpoor]

Antihero

Antihero and Avati continued to trek across the forest, their eyes highly alert to threats. "The shack should be nearby," Antihero said. "Let me double-check with Tom."

Tom Gabriels was nearby (sort of), but completely invisible. He crawled and prowled through the high forested positions above and behind them, effectively covering them with sniper fire at all times from hundreds of meters away.

"It's almost too quiet," Antihero said.

He didn't like this. It was for sure, too quiet.

---

Further holes opened up and now roughly two dozen Mafia scout drones were fully in flight. Coming out at a high velocity, they began to scan the forest and terrains, spreading out in a pre-planned formation... looking for opponents for the cannons to rain hellfire down upon. The flight path of the drones was quite quick and they covered quite a lot of ground rather quickly.

---

Antihero

Lorelei had warned Tom... Tom wasted no time in radioing Antihero. Through the COM, Tom got straight to the point, maybe too straight:

"Antihero. There's a trap. Head East Now."

Antihero trusted Tom with his life and he could sense the urgency in the voice. Without a second's further hesitation, he turned and put a hand rather firmly on Avati's shoulder.

"We have to head east NOW!" (it was rather rude and callous and he didn't explain; though his voice communicated the urgency)

Without waiting further, Antihero started rushing rapidly to the right back in the direction of the east, he could only hope Avati had started to follow because he just at that moment heard the sound of a giant artillery round going off; the calibre was unlike anything he'd ever heard.

Avati's eyes widened on Antihero, and he did as he said, sprinting away from the position. Then all of a sudden, baBOOOM! an artillery gun went off. Loud and explosive and terrifying...

Avati dropped down instinctively and rolled behind a large tree, shielding his face and neck. It was something he learned on the street, if a pipe bomb goes off, if a shotgun is fired at you, you drop like heck and cover. Idiot! His mind yelled at him, This isn't a bomb made by some twenty year old! This is artillery! Stay here you die! But he froze...Avati never froze...

[Infected Mushroom]

Avati was standing at a considerably different angle and distance from Antihero which was why he was not blown sky high. As he took cover using the earth and utilized some trees... a cataclysmic explosion was set off.

The vigilante was fortunate in that the unrelenting blizzard of wood, rock, and hard earth shrapnel went flying forth at a slightly elevated angle so as to not penetrate the face down fighter.

When all the smoke had cleared though...

Joe Avati was buried under several feet of hot earth, wood and rock debris and it was quite the ordeal. However, with strength, good reflex, and determination, it was possible to claw out back to the surface for that vital oxygen...

What he would see is utter devastation of the natural habitat, and lots of rising smoke in the aftermath of the great bombardment... with limited parts of the forest being set ablaze.

Antihero was nowhere to be found. Was he killed?

[Madrinpoor]

Avati was standing at a considerably different angle and distance from Antihero which was why he was not blown sky high. As he took cover using the earth and utilized some trees... a cataclysmic explosion was set off.

The vigilante was fortunate in that the unrelenting blizzard of wood, rock, and hard earth shrapnel went flying forth at a slightly elevated angle so as to not penetrate the face down fighter.

When all the smoke had cleared though...

Joe Avati was buried under several feet of hot earth, wood and rock debris and it was quite the ordeal. However, with strength, good reflex, and determination, it was possible to claw out back to the surface for that vital oxygen...

What he would see is utter devastation of the natural habitat, and lots of rising smoke in the aftermath of the great bombardment... with limited parts of the forest being set ablaze.

Antihero was nowhere to be found. Was he killed?

Avati was stuck, just crouching there like a coward. He was gonna be a dead coward soon.

The heat was the first thing he could feel. It was hot but not a sharp heat—an enveloping one, the kind you feel emanating from a fire rather than touching a frying pan. His muscles twitched but he stayed still—moving would mean he gets exposed to the heat, and he would die.

The next thing, more powerful by far, was the force. So much more terrifying, so much more real feeling. He was knocked forward, but he stayed on his hands and knees to catch himself, so he wouldn't tumble and be exposed to the heat, now searing to the point where he felt like he had been doused in liquid nitrogen. The heat felt like it eroded his skin, and burned off his hair.

As Avati was knocked forward, the tree was knocked apart—splintering into a thousand pieces, wood and leaves and ash flying everywhere, two hundred years of growth destroyed in a fraction of a millisecond. The dirt and the bark where everywhere, a hail of bullets cutting into his skin—he was pinned, pinned by the fire and the force and the shrapnel, but staying put in an area that wouldn't exist much longer.

Then, the tree collapsed.

THe rest of the tree, what hadn't been blown to pieces, was knocked down on top of Avati—a giant, smoldering mess of wood that covered him, that pushed him into the dirt as the fire burned and the dust filled his eyes. He felt himself trapped, with no way out, as dirt piled on top of him and made the mound he was trapped under even larger.

The tree pressed into his skin, the heat wasn't just like liquid nitrogen, abstract and yet engulfing—it was burning, actively, a frying pan touching every part of his body. The dust filled his eyes; he closed them, but the dust was still there, and his tears from all this pain couldn't get out because they were trapped. Avati screamed. All his energy, his last breaths of hope, his entire life pressed down into that scream; shrill and loud. Avati screamed, and tried to breathe but only dust came into his lungs. He was drowning on dry land.

Somehow, during all the chaos, his mind was still calm. It was trying to control him, but failing, like the driver of a bus that's spinning down a mountainside. But he could still focus, and he could still think.

Damn you, his brain said, you're trapped. Get out. Just go. Just push! Just lift your head and claw with your hands, if your fingernails burn off and your hair gets singed into your scalp, if the dust fills your lungs, push with every ounce of strength you've got. Push!

Avati pushed, and it felt like he was swimming in molasses. His hands couldn't get traction, and he couldn't breathe, he couldn't lift his body because hundreds of pounds were pressed against him. But he pushed, and clawed, and eventually he managed to break his hands out of the mound—he could be free!

He clawed with his hands and kicked with his legs and he stuck his head out of the pile, entering into the enveloping heat again. How soft it felt, compared to the flaming wood stuck to him. As he pushed himself out, the mound started to slip back over him, but it was trivial in comparison, and he easily broke out of it. Finally, he could stand up, finally he could breathe smoke, not dust. When you almost die, it's weird what feels like heaven.

Now he could look around, his eyes blurry but functional. There were fires, burning on whatever bushes or grasses managed to be left. The smoke started to fill his lungs, so Avati pulled his shirt over his ash-blackened face. He was still frozen, somehow he was alive. He looked around—where's Antihero? He wasn't there. But nothing was. No grass. No dirt. Just char and death.

He's dead, Avati thought, Antihero is dead! Avati thought, feeling much more sad than he thought he would. Without Antihero, he'd be dead too. The hell is wrong with you? asked his brain. Death never stopped you before. First you freeze, now this. You're getting soft. This is war. There's no softness here. All of that died with the first shot. Now run! They could still be here! Get out!

Avati looked around, then ran. He stayed low, and he darted through the trees where the blast zone ended and vegetation began again. His hands were covered in second degree burns around the backs. If he hadn't been wearing clothing, and if he hadn't ducked and covered, he would have been burned to death. Now he just had to stay low.

[Infected Mushroom]

Antihero

This music plays.

The semi-unconscious form of the masked vigilante plunged deep into the dark murky waters like a heavy anchor... and as he did so the mind of the fighter alternated between this watery abyss and another personal hell…

---

It was a snowy winter in a posh Sussex mansion in the middle of the forest.

The pale faced 12-year-old Vladislav was in his room; he wore a red sweater and he was shaking… but not from the cold. The door was shut but the bellowing could be heard notwithstanding from many rooms away...

“As a mother you have completely RUINED MY SON! This is because of YOU. He’s 12 and he does not understand SACRIFICE ... What’s that?! What the fuck is that look you just gave me?! DO IT AGAIN I dare you!”

By a cackling fireplace, the father was screaming at the mother.

“He’s a worthless slacker and I can see where he takes it from! I can pick out ANYONE... literally ANY kid from the streets and they’d have MORE METTLE than this spineless coward.”

The briefest of pauses.

“I should have left him in Moscow it’s what I should have done. Then he would have toughene-“

There was a pause after which there was a dreadful scream from the mother followed by the breaking of glass and the banging of a fallen chair.

“YOU ARE JUST AS WORTHLESS! The two of you just PARASITES! PARASITES ON MY BLOOD. I’d do well to off the two of you!”

There was a pause after which Vladislav buried his face in his arms on his desk... anything to drown out the noise.

“What kind of a fucking son do I have?!!! Who will I count on when I’m old and weak?!”

When Vladislav looked up from his desk, his eyes were partly red and the only thoughts that ran in his head, though not loudly enough to drown out the increasing volume of the shouting from his parents:

I wish you were dead, Dad. I wish you were dead. I hope you go tomorrow and never come back; the world would brighten.

“I’LL SEND HIM BACK TO MOSCOW I SHALL! I need his brothers NOT HIM. He’s not WORTHY OF THE NAME OF KALVIN!” [i]

---

Within the waters, Antihero attempted to repress the memories but they came flooding, even as he became aware of his surroundings. It was pitch dark but at least he was slowing down; he waved his arms and legs in an attempt to move upwards. His iron will and training allowed him to hold his breath for considerably longer though the sudden dive had nearly pulverised his ears and mind.

There was a light source all of a sudden… and it began to reveal his watery surroundings. Antihero knew it wouldn't be good.

Something large and luminous was gliding towards him… It was a triangular squid, about three (perhaps four) meters long, it glowed alternately between neon green, blue, and pink… there didn’t seem to be any eyes and it came swimming towards Vladislav with the speed of a demonic torpedo…

At the worst possible moment, Antihero’s mind flickered on and off, going back into the past…

Antihero began to swim upwards but the slimy, glowing monster came to him. Over a dozen glowing mutant tentacles swung at him. A few of them found the mark and wrapped themselves firmly around the vigilante’s limbs; it was a sort of death squeeze and he feared that his limbs would break from the force… all around his wrapped form, more and more tentacles were visible and seemed to extend outwards... as if creating a lotus of death...

---

A gathering in a mansion dinner hall. The plate and utensils were fine silver. Paintings of conquerors... Napoleon, Peter the Great, Caesar... they hung on the walls.

Vladislav was a young man now. His older brothers Sergei and Nikolai were there as well. The father, Alexander sat imperiously in the masters chair, the moustache and hair now had visible flecks of grey here and there. The mother Sofia, pale, frail, and quiet, sat to the right, looking down at the food. They were sitting around having a fine dinner: potatoes, meat roasts, scallops, escargot, plenty of red wines; there would be more to come. The servants came and took away the shark fin soup.

“You know my sons,” Alexander said at length. “Meals like this. Occasions like this... they really teach you to appreciate everything in life. How it is possible to create Industry and Opportunity from nothing.”

Vladislav looked down; shaking slightly he took a large sip of the red wine.

“Sergei, you are now twenty-three, when I was twenty three… did I have… THIS?” he turned and asked, waiving his hands to make a point.

“No father,” Sergei said, meeting his father’s gaze.

“You’re damn straight I didn’t,” Alexander continued. “I was on the streets. My country was rotten; there was no one to count on. No family, no country, no allies. No, it was Me Against The World. But did I surrender? No. For I resolved to make something of myself, to create the means to build and expand the Kukovsky name... now the Kalvin name.”

There was a silence. Only Sergei met his father’s gaze.

“And what do I have now?” Alexander went on. “Are my sons grateful? Do they understand sacrifice?”

“We do, we do,” Nikolai said, looking at the napkin.

“I’m not sure you all do… “ Alexander said, turning his imperious gaze towards Vladislav who had seated himself as far away as possible. “Some of us grow weak. Some of us waste the gift of Youth. Time does not let you play twice. You have the money, the time, the resources, the support… yet some of us would favour literal idle painting over industry, to spend our days in hedonism, waste, and decadence. Some of us… do not APPRECIATE. Painting for God's sake... PAINTING.”

Vladislav had heard enough. There was a loud grating sound as the young pale man stood up. “Father, I’m going to take my leave now.”

Without saying a word further, he turned and strode rapidly out of the dining room, his hands balled into fists.

“VLADISLAV!” the mother cried out but this was silenced by the father’s loud, cold booming voice that seemed to follow the young man.

“Let him leave. Let us see how long he lasts in the REAL WORLD OUTSIDE WITHOUT A DIME. I see now Tatiana was RIGHT ABOUT THAT ABORTION!”

---

The glowing squid monster pulled Vladislav deeper into the lake… however, the Antihero had awoken, and in his feral anger he was determined to Live. His reflexes kicking in and now with his full mind locked in the present, Antihero managed to dislodge a large knife attached to his boot.

SLASH! SHING!

Without hesitation, he began to slash, hack and stab at the squid’s tentacles wrapped around him. There was a terrifying alien-like squeal that echoed across the dark waters as violet, pink, and black liquid began to pour out en masse… Antihero slowed down not in the slightest, his survival being at stake… he continued to slash, hack and stab until the tentacles began to give way and unwrap…

Now getting the slimmest of windows, the vigilate began to swim back towards the surface… towards life… when the squid swam upwards towards him once more… Antihero saw a glowing tentacle move past the length of his face.

Alright then…

He would be pushing the very limits of how long he could hold his breath under the water… but there seemed to be no other way.

Without further hesitation, he oriented himself to face downwards with a few calculated kicks and turns… for maximum economy of movement, he pulled out a second knife as large as the first as he did so. Now wielding two knives, he faced the monster heads on for a final fight of steel against flesh… life against death…

The squeals of the monster squid echoed across the depths as the struggle between man and monster continued throughout the abyss.

[Kaledoria]

The Drones were closing in on Lorelei and Tom, their weapons did not exactly have a long range. Lorelei waited in hiding, behind her Laptop, finger on the button. She knew she had to wait until both Drones were close enough for the signal jamming, if she got only one, the other would take her out from a distance.

A shot! One of the Drones had spotted her, both attacked. Lorelei pressed the button - and both drones continued their downward path without further shooting or maneuvering, landing at rather unsave speed right next to her.

It was only now that Lorelei completely processed the situation. She had invested into the bulletproof casing because her tech was her most precious possessions but now that it had finally come to a live combat test, she had been exactly behind the screen, it saved not only her tech but her life. She sighed in relieve and rushed to the drones, disabling weapons, rotors and cameras just to be save.

Next, she checked the exact model number on the drones. She was a Hacker, not a Drone Expert - but she did have a large library of useful files. She typed the model into her Laptop and a pdf that looked like a users manual jumped up - just that it had information that common users did not need. She pried open the casing and connected a cable from her laptop to the Drone's central control unit. After copy and pasting a key from her manual into a shell a popup informed her, that the drone was now in fact in configuration mode.

She looked at the time it took her. Under a minute - good but not much under a minute. "Tom, can you check if more hostiles are coming our way, I think I have an idea how to get that Mafia Super to back off."

Lorelei accessed the drones memory. In the last log she found the connection details for the remote control - And, through the drones radio, disguising herself as the it's system user she followed it to the communication server. She checked active users for Mafia hackers but at least on this machine there currently were none. Luckily the Drone did have super-user privileges here. "A common mistake by shitty IT security to not restrict your system users just because manual login is supposed to be impossible," Lorelei said to herself, "unless someone hacks directly into your circuits."

With access to this server she had all the encryption keys she needed and she decyrpted the message between the Steel Mage and the Lion's Den, she had recorded earlier. "Attacker's name is Vel Kazo," Lorelei told her team by radio. The message sadly had non further useful information. But that was not what she was going for anyway. She now had the voice of Vel and the Mafia Officer (having never heard him and since he only identified himself as "Lion's Den", she didn't know it was the same Pietro Gamgee, whose secret USB Sticks she had decrypted a few days earlier). Since the "Lion's Den" had only given a short confirmation that they were launching the drones, it was a bit risky but Vel Kazo was not in a state of mind where he would question orders on his supposedly secure channel even if the voice was not exactly perfect. Lorelei fed the discussion into a voice-mask program on her laptop and waited for it to calculate...

[Infected Mushroom]

Inside Lion's Den/The Vault
Under the Earth

Pietro Gamgee

The Mafia scientist commander squinted at the screens; he still had direct override of Turret 11. He could see nothing but devastated landscapes, visually there was no confirmation of anything... and sensors weren't picking up. Did he score a hit? It was impossible to tell.

"Did you hit them?" a lieutenant asked.

"I can't be sure," Pietro admitted. He sure hoped so; Antihero had been a problem, the kill would be priceless. "Let's put a few additional drones over the area. Pull them out from the southern front. Fly low, find the corpses. I want confirmations on the kills."

He turned to other subordinates, "I'm giving you back control of Turret 11, keep scanning the area."

He addressed the whole room. "Everyone... prepare to fire. If you see any hostiles, cut them down... but don't fire without visuals and only fire if it's a near certain hit. I don't want to give away our max range radius in advance."

"Sir," someone else interrupted. "Some of our drones... they seem to be malfunctioning, a few may even have gone down, I'm not sure what-"

"Let me take a look!" Pietro barked imperiously as he strolled over.

---

In the field
Tom Gabriels

Tom rushed to try and land a desperate shot but the drones were coming TOO FAST... until-

Lorelei pressed the button - and both drones continued their downward path without further shooting or maneuvering, landing at rather unsave speed right next to her.

Too close.

Tom turned, he could see that Lorelei was fiddling with advanced hacking equipment and was swift to work.

I hope you know what you're doing.

She looked at the time it took her. Under a minute - good but not much under a minute. "Tom, can you check if more hostiles are coming our way, I think I have an idea how to get that Mafia Super to back off."

"Right," Tom said, snapping back into action. He stood up and looked around; he couldn't see anything. To be sure, he did a quick sweep with his military binoculars.

"We're in the clear for now," he said. "I think we're outside of the super cannon's max range. Otherwise we'd be rained on by now. No modern artillery would take this long to reload and fire."

Thank goodness they can't... if a blast of that previous magnitude struck us....

His thoughts were on Avati and Antihero, did they-?

"Attacker's name is Vel Kazo," Lorelei told her team by radio.

He noticed that Lorelei was working away fast, and it looked like she was about to launch yet another master stroke... Tom certainly didn't want to interrupt.

"I stand guard," he said decisively, raising his Druganov once more. He crouched down and scanned the area and the skies, looking for more drones or additional mob armies. So far, they were in the clear. The rest of the drones must have flown to other parts of the battlefield-

Then he saw them

Three drones were flying in at a considerable distance, but they came from the south and seemed to have a trajectory just below the high hill him and Lorelei were on. It seemed that they were focused on searching for Antihero and Avati.

"I've got visuals on three drones, but they are flying low... focused the forest below only. I won't alert them. I'll keep an eye out. How much longer do you need?"

Tom attempted in vain to radio COM Avati and Antihero, but both of them seemed to have lost their radios in the blast or worse they were-

No. I must not go there.

If either party was down there, the drones could be a problem.

[CoraSpia]

Kevin

Kevin hated magic. This was no overstatement: if magic suddenly ceased to exist he would be happy. Magic let people have advantages over him and he was often left totally helpless to do anything about it. As his current opponent attacked, Kevin was left to dive out of the way and hope that George could respond rather than getting himself sizzled.
The response of the mage was to jump back and chuck a wall of mountain soil and rock at Kazo, deflecting the blast and reducing visibility to almost nothing around them.
"So how much are they paying you then?" George asked conversationally, "You don't strike me as the mafia type, no offence. Must be a pretty lucrative contract."

[Infected Mushroom]

Vel Kazo

Vel Kazo saw that the lightning had been blocked. A few rocks flew by as well but he was fortunate not to be hit by the larger ones. Now there was a giant pile of dust obscuring vision. He walked around to the side as he raised his hands, ready to cast again.

“Let’s just say,” he replied, his voice was loud and metallic, “That the mob pays top dollar. And I like fighting for the winning side. It is clear the Mafia runs everything. So why fight it?”

He looked around for sources of metal strong enough for him to levitate but they were in a forested area and he had left the flying steel projectiles behind. That left one option.

He detached an object from his utility belt, it was a small bottled vial of some kind. He uncorked it as his gloves began to glow.

A gray, glowing, mystical, semi-transparent substance cam flying out from the bottle. Somehow despite the small size of the bottle the flying and floating liquid occupied a much larger large volume in the air. It rather resembled a floating gray, glittering ghost.

Vel Kazo focused his energy, causing his gloves to glow. Within 2 seconds he had caused the liquid to reshape and solidify... now it was a floating solid silver javelin with a lethally pointed tip... about three meters long.
Now he had another weapon for his metal-kinetic powers.

“Let’s play!” he called out.

[CoraSpia]

George Hamilton
The duke grinned as he listened to Kazo. "That's a bit annoying," he commented, "I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart, and because the mafia have done rather a lot to annoy the king of late. Such a shame though...it's sad that you die just for money without noble goals."

As he distracted the metal mage with talking, he had completely lost sight of where Kevin was following his dive into the bushes to avoid the lightning strike. A blur behind the mage however signified that he hadn't gone far, and as he watched Kevin drove the blade of a wickedly sharp hunting knife into Kazo's knee

[Infected Mushroom]

Vel Kazo

The hunting knife went straight into Vel Kazo's unarmored knee and caused him to feel a great, sharp, pain.

"YIAOWWWW!!!!"

Letting out a vicious howl of agony, Vel Kazo's focus momentarily faltered and this caused the suspended steel javelin (which had been floating before) to fall down unto the grass.

He looked down and saw Kevin's hideous visage and form, the powerful fighter had jabbed the knife down quite hard, since he possessed enhanced super strength. Vel Kazo raised a gauntlet-covered hand and it began to glow... a split second later, a very powerful metal-kinetic force was focused upon the metallic knife and it was forcefully ejected and rocketed out from his knee along with Kevin... sending the knife and the person holding it over 5 meters into the air and away from him.

As this happened, Vel Kazo stepped back and ran for the trees for cover. Not having a good read on where George was, he fired off several random blasts of lightning... when those collided against the trees and rocks, explosions of sparks flew up and parts of the forest were set ablaze by rising fire and smoke.

It was not quite clear how the lightning worked, but they appeared to be magical lightning of some sort somehow able to explode and cause fires now...