(OCC sorry for the length, but this is to set the scene. Also hope you don't mind the tiny bit of Gmodding, I was hoping to save time my modding Aura into position. Let me know if you want me to change anything.)


Hades was enjoying being physical again as opposed to being phased for the past 5 years. It was by no means the longest recovery time he had experienced, but it was nevertheless an experience he greatly desired to experience as infrequently as possible. he was currently holed up in one of his safe-houses underneath a warehouse on the warehouse district. Being such a successful assassin and being immortal meant that over the years Hades had amassed a substantial amount of wealth. This he had used to purchase a number of of companies, which in turn owned corporations and businesses, that stretched
into a sizable web of organizations. Tomorrow he would place a call and send a few emails and a number of dwellings scattered over New York would be purchased. They would be furnished by numerous contractors, each contractor performing specific work. It would be good to have a properly prepared house to live in again.

For now Hades was cleaning and maintaining the weapons he had stored at this particular safe-house. When he entered the basement he had noted evidence of occupation in the warehouse and had made a
mental note to arrange for a security company to be contracted to clear out the trespassers. However he was distracted from his task by increased noise levels coming from the floor above him. He turned on the hidden cameras and microphones which he had installed when he first bought this particular warehouse and beheld a sight.


There on the floor of his warehouse stood no less than a hundred... well thugs, for lack of a better word. Most of the were well armed with either blades or various guns etc. There were three in particular that seemed to be the leaders of the this continually growing mob. They seemed to be talking about getting even with a "Mutie" who had killed their brethren and displaced them from their "rightful territory". They spoke like orks, behaved like orks and seemed to have the instinctive grasp of battle and strategy that becomes an orc mob. The person in the middle wore a mechanized suit. (Think Ork Mecha from Warhammer) and was known only as "Da Bossman".

To his left was a twitchy brute called "Flika" and true to his name had occasional arcs of lightening flicker across his skin at irregular intervals. He was obviously a mutant with control of lightening. He had a group of thugs that all wore rubber suits but carried weapons of metal such that Flika could stand behind them and chain lightening through his grunts, both granting them the power of lightening and kept Flika safe from any attackers.

To the Bossman's right stood a hulking brute called "Flama", from which Hades surmised that he was a fire mutant, and indeed all of his followers seemed to be wearing flame retardant suits. After the two generals and their motley bunch there was another group of hooligans under a flag that proclaimed them the "M" squad (as in take M and temporarily become a mutant). Finally there were your average thugs with Uzis, machetes etc.

All of this Hades took in rapidly and then focused on what the leader was saying. To cut a long story short, they were gathered to wage war on a particular dangerous and viscous Mutant called "Aura". She had recently displaced them from their turf and killed a number of the gang and they wanted payback.

This changed things, Drastically! If Hades hired an external security company to clear them out, it would become a blood bath, the police would get involved, there would be far too much attention and detailed sweeps of the area for his liking, so that was option 1 out the window. Option 2 was to go out there and kill all of them. Hades was perfectly capable of doing so, not all at once of course, Hades was a hunter he would pick away at them, but this was not a very efficient solution, it would likely incite more retaliation. The best option was to utilize the wonderful human emotion of fear. He decided he would try to link up with "Aura" and wound some and then kill a number of the gang in such a brutal, violent and painful way such as to scare the living daylights out of the whole gang. Well that was the plan at least.

Hades dressed for battle and slipped out of his hideout beneath the warehouse. He quickly located the warehouse in question and observed the target "Aura" standing on the roof of what he assumed to be her warehouse. He caught her attention with a laser pointer from an adjacent rooftop and signed to her in universal combat language. If Aura had any kind of combat training she would understand the signals. His message was as follows.

"Armed Men, Mutants, 150 + target you, heading your way. Passing through my territory. Your fight? May I join? If so I will take the South side." He awaited her response.

According to the route the gang was planning to take they would have to split up at a T junction one branch heading South to encircle Aura's warehouse from one side, the other half would head North to encircle from the other side. Although Hades had been brought up with no morality (he viewed assassination the same way a gardener thought of gardening or plucking weeds) he did have a sense of professionalism. This was Aura's fight. If she wished to go it alone Hades would respect that, but if she allowed, he would be more than happy to join in the fight.

Aura walked through the warehouse she had stayed the night in. She had spent time clearing the trash from the streets. It had been fun though the local news was beginning to realize Aura was back in town. Her power gave her away with every use weather through sight or by the wounds inflicted. Roach had taught her much which Aura was unsure if her actions were not being disloyal to what Roach had tried to teach her.

It had all been so simple in the forest. Order and loyalty, sure she had seen many people die, some of them very close friends, but their was a direction. Since her return Aura had felt very idle and as such Aura has sought to cure this through training and hunting. This area had been free of pests when she had lost been through here a year ago.

Aura blinked as she saw a laser pointer hit her, though her Aura had already came up around her as she looked and quickly found the source. She relaxed slightly when she saw it was not a gun. Then he started signaling to her, it had been a long time she used such signals but the forest had taught her them well and they were embedded in her memory like the faces of her friends from back then.

"I am the cause of this, but you are free to join in" she signaled back quickly. Questions could be held until after this. If what the guy said was true she was in danger. Depending on their arm's and powers that many fighters could prove a real issue. She walked to the middle of the roof, extracting a Katana that had been made for her by a friend, named Meld. Her aura took on the angeled appearance she used against bullets to try and deflect them and take less of the impact.

SHe moved to the north side, blade in hand and smile on her face. Aura loved combat it was like an art to her. It made the world seem so much simpler, so easy when the mind focused purely on attacking and dodging, counter attack and feints. A fluid dance for which her powers made her exceptionally adept. Crouching down, she kept her head down, she would not need to see them aproach, she could already hear them.

"I am the cause of this, but you are free to join in"

At this Hades nodded, tapped a fist to his heart and gave her a chest high two figured salute and stepped back into the shadows. He had expected this. He nodded to himself as he ob served Aura take her weapon of choice and noted the pink mist like substance that seemed to form around her. From the way she moved he could tell she had training and from her reaction he could tell that she had survived many fights. He detected no fear in her, this was good.

Hades moved to the shadows in a corner where the south facing alley turned West and waited. As he waited he reviewed his plan.

When someone attacks an organization and does so openly, said group is more likely to band together, such as the case with Aura. If you best and defeat their first group, they are more likely to send another, bigger group. They will band together, make the attacker their common cause and in essence start a war. To defeat such a group, it is better to attack from the shadows, leave them chasing shadows, that way paranoia sets in and the group starts to fragment. Take this scenario. The way to send a message at this stage is to first prime the messengers, these will be the grunts, the less well trained, the cannon fodder. they are easier to incapacitate, easier to break and will make unreliable witnesses. Hades would first break some bones, dislocate some joints, induce concussions, leave them broken in spirit and in body but alive to spread fear. Next the middle tier of the group the veterans Hades would mortallywound, break their bodies, let them bleed to deat in absolute agony. This would induce fear in the witnesses. Finally the leadership, if possible one should attack from the shadows and draw out the fight. The witnesses are already cowering with fear at this point, they will start imagining and magnifying things. You could use a letter opener as a weapon and in their minds it would become a machete, you could be one armed and be on crutches and in their memory you will be a multi-limbed beast. They will survive and fear will spread like cancer through the whole organization.

The group arrived at the alleyway. down each side first came the grunts, the cannon fodder, those wielding knives and swords and chain-mail fists and Uzis, they were the largest in number. Then came the "M" squad looking a little like Bane from Batman as they carried liquid tanks of "M" with injectors on their back, the pumps gurgling to life turning humans into temporary mutants. The Heading up the North alley went Flika's henchmen then Flika himself. and Along the South alley way the same with Flama's thugs. Finally the Bossman appeared with his mechanized suit. It was at this point that Hades realized that it was very likely that Flika and Flama were If not Alpha level mutants then probably at least Beta level. This would be a challenging fight indeed. (OCC: right Aura the North side is all yours, take it away)

Hades waited bare handed until some of the cannon fodder had passed him then he moved. He moved out of the shadows and seemingly casually draped his arm over the shoulder of one of the thugs, then in a lightening move he whipped his arm so that his elbow forced the thugs chim up and in one power move bent his head back so far that he broke the spine. Step one, provocation was complete, now to create some witnesses.

Someone lunged at him with a knife, Hades shied to the side and grabbed the knife hand by the writs while unleashing a lightening jab to the attackers throat. on the way back that same hand moved under the armpit and dislocated the attackers shoulder. the thug caught between gasping for breath and screaming with pain then received an elbow to the stomach which propelled him into those around him. With that Hades was off. He had been trained since young in all the techniques to inflict pain, incapacitate and cause death and he knew them well, having used them for over 80 years. He knew no fear and was trained from birth to have no morality and had no problem inflicting pain on others. Hades was fighting by instinct, this type of fighting required very little thought. He shattered an attackers kneecap then palm striked his head into the nearby wall, giving a concussion but leaving him alive. Another made the mistake of punching with a straight arm, Hades punished such bad form by shattering the elbow of said attacker. He moved through them, over them around them like water, never giving them a clear view of his face. His technique perfect, causing maximum pain in one or two moves. He downed one then rolled over his back to attack the next, chaining his attacks so he was never standing still. sweeping the legs from under one them bringing his heel firmly down on the stomach and solar plexus.

Hades perked up, someone had launched a spinning martial arts kick at him, finally someone with a little training. Hades promptly rewarded such effort by dislocating said persons hip with a painful sucking popping sound. Running the numbers through his mind, Hades estimated that he had made enough witnesses. Behind him was a trail of wounded men, their spirits broken. Moaning, writhing with pain. One was worming along the ground to get away with one dislocated right shoulder and a broken left arm.

It was time for stage two, the blood letting. Hades spun away into the shadows and drew he two blood letters. at the same time he spared a glance over to see how Aura was doing.

(OCC, your turn Aura! Sorry for the long post. The next ones should be shorter)

Aura heard the footsteps below and began to count to herself. So far the man who had warned her was right, their had been a force coming for her. SHe was assuming he was a mutant both recuse a human going up against such odds would be suicide and because she had no desire to owe a human anything. SHe had no other explanation for why this many of them would attack with this much organization and it made sense they would want her dead. Part of it may her proud, she had really pissed these human scum off and even the half breed M users. Aura sheathed the sword, her own powers would be better in the early part of this. Mobility and their fear would be key, most were likely already afraid their confidence supported by loyalty and their numbers.

It did not matter now anyway she thought even as she continued to count. When she hit twenty five, Aura turned and flung herself off the roof and into the fight. From her hand's her aura began responding to her mental commands, her left hand formed an axe and her right formed a buzz saw weapon that began spinning immediately. AUra scanned the area as she landed and smiled, as she fell into the increasingly tightly packed group.

Her saw tore flesh even before she swung and her Axe tasted flesh only a second later, the man that dropped would never be a threat again if he lived. The Man screamed and Aura smiled as head looked around and shouts went through the air. Her next swing turned a metal baseball bat as her fist with the saw punched the man's gut with the Saw. Aura looked around as she felt something hit her from behind. Her saw hand turned into a drill as she drove it deep into the stomach of a man with a length of chain for a weapon, her other hand swung around her and while she did not see what she hit she could feel and hear the results as her axe's momentum stopped.

FOrming her drill hand into an axe she ripped it free even as she turned and pulled on the other axe tugging it free with a crack, as the body it was attached to pulled her down to the ground and she started to hear calls for order and to coordinate the attack. However in the panic she heard and felt the uzi go off and strike her aura. It stung in a way and she felt the reduction in her aura's strength but most of the bullets slid off her armor and even with their speed reduced the bullets still sank into the flesh of the crowd. Moments later her aura Axe's bit flesh and severed knee's, her return swing dug both axe's into the left arm of a man armed with a knife.

Normally she would have checked bodies and made sure the people were dead but their was no time and Aura could not have been happier. SHe retracted the blade on her fist forming an axe like head on her foot which she soon drove into the groin area of a female gang member who has the misfortune of being in her way. Her second blow drove a newly formed hammer to the jaw of the person next to her, even a sher foot axe formed intoa drill which she drove into the same man's foot, which exploded.

They were starting to organize the leaders starting to succeed in bringing calm to the confusion and terror. She would do what she could not to let them, even as she felt a rain of blows strike her aura' aura pulled a pipe bomb from pack and rolled it thrue the crowd. A scream of warning went up seconds before it blew sending shards of metal spinning in all directions. SHe felt a few of the shards bounce off her Aura but most of the blast was shouldered by the packed alleyways invaders.

With a smile she looked around wondering how her new friend was doing, she had no real way of checking as she could not see over the head's of most of the people in the alley even though they were trying to give her more room so they could move better, but now m,moaning bodies littered the alleyway and took pleasure in more then one spooked gang member almost tripping on a body part or slipping in the crimson pool painting the alleyway.

They were but human trash but with so many of them Aura could not help but take pleasure from the fight. Blow and counter blow, slash and block, the world was so simple in combat so beautiful. Their was no thought of consequence a sshe fought only of the fight itself.

From the sounds that Hades could faintly hear, the explosions and sprays of blood that seemed to be flying at the other end of the alleyway it would appear that Aura was doing fine. Eventhough he could not see her, he suspected that she might be enjoying herself. He turned back to matters at hand.

Blood letters are a class of weapons that are designed to inflict maximum pain and create and maintain maximum blood loss. They are used in "moral manipulation" especially when the wielder is vastly outnumbered. As such the blades that Hades held in his hand were short swords with a diamond shaped cross section. They were not designed to sever but to cut and pry open the wound. If used for stabbing they would create a unique patterned start shaped would that was almost impossible to close up without competent medical help.

By stabbing the blade straight into a body then slashing it out in a diagonal fashion the blade would bring with it a spray of blood that was direct-able. Nothing stops charging attackers like blinding them with the blood of their friends. As usual after emerging from the shadows, Hades first action was to provoke. He slashed the Achilles tendon of a thug with the blade held under hand. He then flipped the blade to over hand and let the unfortunate villein's chin meet the blade "head on" so to speak. He held it there for an instant before letting the blade slide to under hand and the now lifeless body slide off it. Then he was among them. When faced with a superior force one has a number of options. If one has the ability to stand like a rock resisting the waves one can do so. Sadly Hades did not possess such an ability and so he preferred to weave among them. Slash a thug's stomach open and shove him into a friend. The friend is likely to try to save his wounded brother and that means one less person to attack Hades. Hades weaved around and through them, using the fact that he was outnumbered to his advantage. If one was an expert in being lost in a crowd one can make ones self very hard to find indeed. This was however the "M" squad and so were a little more challenging than your regular street thugs. The problem was that they were not full mutants, rather "weekend mutants" ones that tried and failed, pathetically, to be something that they were not. They did not have the experience with their powers to make them dangerous. They never developed a fine control or training with their powers. They were playing with something that they knew little of, more for show and intimidation than a threat, especially to a trained killer.

There was one "speed deamon" that was particularly annoying to Hades, and only Hades's reflexes saved him repeatedly. Then the speed demon made a mistake that many make, he was predictable. Hades estimated where he would strike next then spread his arms and phased, letting the thug charge right through his phased center mass. From the outside it looked like the thug just charged through a transparent greenish, glowing mist. You see moving through Hades when he is phased will not kill you, oh no. It will produce a wave of weakness and a wave of pain. The severity of both depends on various factors. Charging through the center mass though produces rather sever results. Again if the speed deamon had training he might be able to shrug it off. But as it was he faltered and that was the end of him. His head pulled back by the hair bearing his neck to his friends Hades slid the blade horizontally across and pushed him towards his friends.

It was at this point, that Flama caught a vague glimpse of the person who was killing the gang members and proceeded to launch a rapid fire barrage of glowing fireballs towards Hades. It was only by throwing a few unfortunate bodies in the way and some quick reflexes that Hades saved himself from a crispy end. It was then that Hades discovered another thing. Flama did not just throw fireballs, he was throwing globs of plasma. This changed things. This fight now had to be ended as quickly as possible. The longer the fight dragged on the higher the chance of Hades demise. It was time to change tactics. Hades quickly sheathed his blood letters and turned to face the united front of Flama's Goons. He wondered how Aura was getting on.

A man tried to punch Aura and the action made her smile, she immediately formed a spike make the man impale his own arm up to his elbow which split open like a banana. Disabled or close enough Aura moved on slipping past the screaming man and taking advantage of the pause to see their brothers wound, bringing the weapon back already forming it again onto her fist, she brought down a pair of axe fist on the next closest man flank and he suddenly became much more concerned with staying alive or trying to, Aura was pretty sure she hit the kidney.

AUra Drew the Katana and began a series of wide slashes that would have gotten her yelled at by any of those she had train. with. But the well kept weapon was good crowd control and gave her more reach then her Aura. Reinforcing the grip with her aura the slashes cut exposed flesh with ease and broad swings meant she hit as many as possible. Then she was threw or rather the Cannon fodder had realized they had been lied to and those still standing or alive enough to try and get away were, many just moaned.

Aura had a lot of dealing with the drug M, she had even helped it be tested once, what a class trip that had been. SHe watched as the field cleared to reveal the three M squad members. Aura kicked a body with a dagger like blade from her foot in response. They were not true mutants no, but they had come as close as they could and so Aura let them take their drug. One seemed to turn into a large Brown Bear, another playfully stretched his limbs in a way that revealed his power openly. The third however she saw no change in.

The bear charged her and brought back it's paw to swat her. Her aura could take a lot but a charging bear would severely weaken it and likely leave her dead. She dodged the creature but before she could counter she felt her self thrown across the alley and against the wall she had leapt down from. The unchanged M user was gesturing her way and she only narrowly ducked under a flying dumpster.

Her attention diverted she barely had time to turn and meet the Bear M user's blow with an aura sword. The blow threw Aura back and and took the wind from her, but the Bear Mutant could only look weak eyed at the remains of his arm, severed at the wrist. Stretch then struck her from behind with a bat he had picked up. Aura saw at once the man had stretched his way all the way over. Her laughter turned up side down when Aura charged the man, his arms retracted as fast as he could but his eyes were filled with terrow. The only thing that saved him was a trash can which struck her flank a sit was Aura cut into the rubbery material which seemed tougher then it should have been. Getting to her feet Aura saw the stretchy mutant was already pulling back and seemed unsure about the deep cut in his bloodless body.

Aura was forced to dodge the dumpster again, but this time the Telekinetic struck the bear M user who had just recovered from the shock of his hand. Aura gave him no more chances and the last thing the bear saw was an Aura drill punched deep between his eyes. She looked around. The M users had to be fought with a plan as she could already see someone else approaching with strangely dressed friend's.. AUra dodged the dumpster again but this time grabbed a gun as she rolled across the ground and squeezed off the four shots in it's clip. Two struck the Telekinetic one just below his lowest rib near his side and the other in his forearm. The wound's were not as bad as she would have liked but at least the Bear was dead and these two would soon follow, but she pretty sure whoever the new player was had some sort of electrical powers.

Things were getting a little more challenging than Hades had expected for a gang. For the first time since starting this fight, he was faced with a united front. Flama's troops seemed to be the equivelant of a general's elite and behaved as such. They spred out in solid waves filling the alley from wall to wall movving forward in unison each carrying different weapons. Hades could not pull the same trick of weaving through them sowing confusion as he went. No this was a real fight, a descent challenge. Grabbing a pistol from a nearby corpse Hades rapidly and accurately started shooting out the lamps that illumintated his section of the alleyway. There was no way Hades could win in a fair fight and he had no intention of playing fair. He would use every advantage that he had. He quickly stripped off the overcoat that he had been wearing to reveal a black one piece affair. He fulled the two halves of a balaclava up to cover his features, he also loosened the covers of a number of pouches of his suit. He would ahve to become almost one with the shadows to survive this fight.

He took from his pouch what appeared to be a coiled section of thin chain. The chain was a titan ium alloy, light, but very strong. On one end was a teardrop shaped weight, and on the other a curved double edged dagger. This weapon had been used by assassins through the ages both to kill from a distance and to fight when outnumbered. swinging the dagger on a chain gave reach. In a narrow alley like this one could not just swing the dagger in a large circle or one risked getting the dagger caught. Instead Hades employed one of the set of moves of the "Assassin's Dance". If anyone would have been able to observe said dance, it looked graceful, fluid, almost beatuiful. The chain, weight and dagger seemed to crawl over his boddy like a living thing. The particular set of moves have a three word name that losely translated into "Shadows that strike and cut". They involved whirling either or both ends of the weapons rapidly then wrapping them around the body, using limbs and different parts of the body to direct the ends and change momentum. Suddenly Hades lanced his arm forward, and the dagger fley from his hand as if shot from a gun, straight into the throat of a member of the first wave of troops. Hades immediately yanked back on the chain so that the now dead attacker flew forward and slid into the darkness. At the same time he launched the weighted end of the chain dead center into the forhead of another attacker, striking him dead in his tracks.

With the line broken Hades moved in for the kill, appearing from the shadows like his namesake, dagger held in one hand the chain wrapped around the other. Stangling one while killing another with a slash of a dagger. Hades would grab any knives or throw-able weapons that the thugs had then vanish into the shadows. He attacked with no discernible rhythm. As long as he was far enough away from Flama to render his artillery like fireballs inaccurate he was in no hurry. All the while he kept up a steady stream of projectiles aimed at Flama. If a corpse had a gun, Hades would empty the clip at Flama and take out a few of the oncoming thugs. With this strategy he thinned down their numbers. appearing from the shadows, striking from the shadows, sometimes from in front of them, sometimes from behind them, having phased through the walls although he took pains never to be seen doing so.

You see all the while he was eliminating Flama's thugs Hades was analyzing Flama. Searching for weaknesses, learning his rhythms, forming an attack plan. Hades was always thinking ahead.

The Telikentic responded much to slowly to Aura attack and looked down to see her blade impaled through him, her return stroke ensured he would die quickly as the man fell from shock and massive blood loss and a few organs Aura may have bisected. Aura looked at the stretchy mutant who tried to back away and run which only got him knocked in the back of the head with a metal baseball bat of Flika's goons.

They apparently did not like cowards and that was fine nether did Aura. Still she had an intresting situation in front of her and she had a feeling this would be quick and decisive one way or another.

Aura considered the situation as the watched Flika coil lighting around the metal weapons. Aura had not encountered lighting much and she was unsure how her Aura would react to it. AUra rushed the closest of FLika's minions. Her blade was met with a metal baseball bat that took her blow well and then Flika struck her with a blast of lightning. Shielded from most of the Assault Aura was still knocked off her feet from the blow. One Minion looked down at her and for his trouble lost his feet just above the ankle. Aura returned to her feet just in time to dodge a second blast though she took a baseball bat to the stomach for the effort. She would have to time this right she thought to herself as she felt a metal Katana a bite into her, her back kick and replying scream told her all she needed to know about the success of the assault. Then her world turned white as she felt her body twist in pain at a massive electrical shock, which drove Aura from her feet and caused her aura to ripple as she struggled to concentrate, she still had a shot but it would be a tough one.

Aura was not sure how long she had spent on the ground and immediately knew her aura was off. She felt a hand grab her wrist. SHe felt the grip loosen when the punk felt her heartbeat, she turned and an axe like aura blade took his head from his shoulders. SOon it would be ehr and flika as only punk remained to stop her from getting to him.

Flama was growing a little bit frantic. His thugs were getting slaughtered in droves and the attacker seemed to stay frustratingly out of range. At the same time he was having to dodge a constant barrage of missiles. Bullets, which he rendered harmless by creating a plasma shield. Knives and other heavy objects, which he turned to slag with flame/plasma blasts. The worst were that there was no rhythm or order to them. Sometimes it would be just bullets, or just knives, other times it was bullets first then knives or the other way around or one after the other. The end result was that Flama was getting a bit un-nerved. He was cut in a few places and bleeding from a few shallow wounds. He was getting a little
frustrated and enraged. He was a general and yet he was getting held up and wounded by this... this thing.


On the other side of the equation. Hades had just dispatched the last thug with a efficient slice to the throat. While he had been "neutralizing" Flama's thugs he had been analyzing Flama's tactics. From his observations, Flama could only fire blasts from the palms of his hands, that meant that like any other weapon, he had a range of efficacy. Also Hades was pretty sure that Flama did not have very much CQC (close quarter combat) training. He moved like he was trained by a boxer (which he had).

After dispatching the last thug Hades faded back into the shadows. He looked around and after running through his plan one final time in his head he want to work. At this point Flama was tensing, scanning the darkness randomly hurling fireballs to try to reveal where the killer was hiding. The first inkling he had of something happening was the setting off of a number of smoke bombs. Obscuring smoke formed a wall in front of him. He wreathed his hands in flames ready to strike at whatever may come.

Behind the scenes Hades burst into activity, throwing ropes over overhead pipes, stringing up bodies, setting explosives.

The smoke was just starting to thin when Flama spotted what looked like a grenade bouncing out of the thinning mist. He immediately threw up a plasma shield. (He was tiring and it was taking longer to throw them up and harder to maintain them) just after the explosion a body like mass seemed to swing at him from his 3 o'clock which was met by a withering plasma blast just as another figure swung at him from his 10 o'clock. before he finished reacting to the second swinging object two frag grenades went off. As Flam reeled from all of this Hades was already behind him and held a throwing spike in his hand. Just as Flama realized that the two objects he had flamed were corpses of his troops, Hades stabbed Flama in the right shoulder blade, immobilizing his right shoulder.

Flama roared in pain and started to turn and at the same time reach behind him to try to remove the spike. But Hades, gripping the spike had kicked off and vaulted over Flama to land in front of him.

Now the Wing Chun chain punch is not deadly or effective for its strength. No, it works on the principle of reinforcing shock waves and speed. Punch 1, your rib cage flexes slightly, but that shock wave is reinforced by punch 2 etc. By the 7th punch micro fractures start appearing in the rib cage. By the 9th if the punches are hard enough they can crack or break a rib bone. Follow that up with a palm strike to the same area and you can punch cleanly broken, razor sharp bone into soft squishy internal organs. Another thing is that unless one has been trained CQC once the chain punch has started most people find it hard to react.

Hades landed in front of Flama, stepped on one of his feet and unleashed a viscous string of chain punches followed by a accurate and deadly palm strike. A shattered fragment of rib promptly deflated one of his lung. Hades followed it up with a Mui Tai lunge kick, the effect of which is to make the kickee fall forwards while being pushed backwards. So Flama, disabled in one shoulder, broken rib, deflated lung fell as if someone had grabbed both his ankles from behind and yanked hard.

To those surviving "witnesses" at the head of the alley all they saw was their general roar with pain then fall, bloodied, broken at the feat of this.. demon, gasping for breath, spitting blood and helpless. Hades kicked a nearby sword into his hands, flourished it once, looked into Flama's eyes and drove the sword point down into Flama's neck. He then stepped back into the shadows. Just as the bossman caught sight of one of his champions, dead and unleashed a withering stream of mini-gun fire where Hades one was. The bullets struck a dark shape and set off a grenade. To all intents and purposes, The bossman thought he had killed Hades. but Hades had already phased through the wall and was now calming his breathing on a nearby rooftop with a silenced sniper rifle, ready to support Aura.

He would not dream of killing the Bossman or Flika, unless they killed Aura first. No those two were Aura's by right, but Hades would happily prevent anyone from interrupting the fight.

[OCC, feel free to Gmod some head shots if you want. I will work them into my next post. Aura now has sniper support. Very accurate sniper support ]

Aura watched as the last two punks before Flika fell, though she had not seen the bullet, she had seen enough bullet wound's to know both were fatal head shot's. Even better Flika looked around trying to spot the shooter. Ignoring the numb feeling in her muscles Aura rushed forward not bothering to question the support. Though flika managed to move back in time, Aura's blade still cleaved a cut in his suit.

Her second strike brought her aura axe against flika's bat. He held well barely moving from the impact, but she made her axe dissolve and flow around the bat. Flika tried to pull the bat free and aura let him do so, watching him fall back onto the ground as he had not expected the sudden release. Kneeling just a second to retrieve her Katana, she began to move.

Aura pounced and as Flika gathered himself for another electric blast, her Katana went through him, Aura letting go a second before the electric blast struck the metal blade. Whatever power Flika had that let him control electricity it did not seem to do so internally.

Aura knew their were more coming despite the number of bodys already all around her. She did take a moment to look for the person who had provided sniper support though it occurred to her it was likely the guy who had warned her. Pulling her Katana free she also picked up a gun checking it was loaded before the Bossman showed up knowing he had to be close.

The bossman was enraged and to be honest a little scared. Two people, just two people had taken out so many. The skill that they must posess was something to be reckoned with. Then there was rage. Two of his closest friends now lay dead and someone was going to pay for

it. He stalked forward his armored form shaking the ground. On his shoulder and automated machine gun roved back and forth like the weapon system on the predators in the movie predators vs Aliens. His left hand had a whirring chain blade over what would ahve been the knuckles forming a huge chain fist with a high pressure flame thrower strapped to the arm. His right hand was a huge power claw, with electricity arcing from one claw to the other. Ther ewer no visable weaknesses. On his heads up display the bossman cycles through night vision, thermal vision and regular enhanced vision.

Hades attempted to hit the fuel,line to the Bossman's flame jet but it was armoured as well. In response he had to duck quickly as he was bracketed by the bossman's machine gun. Clearly his silenced sniper was just not going to cut it. It looked like the minions advancing after the Boss man were also more elite, they were clad in black and had night vision goggles on with laser targeting beams sweeping the ground before them. No matter though Hades, his armory was just a hop skip and a jump away. He fired his last two grenades from his launcher at the minions and ducked away before the returning fire could target him then vanished to get something a little heavier hitting.

Down in the alley way the minions were performing a coordinated leapfrog manovure with at least two firing on Aura at all times. At the same time they were hanging well back of the bossman who was striding towards Aura.

Hmm a McMillan Tac-50 firing .50BMG ammo should do the trick. Hades grabbed a sack of 5 round clips and got into position on top of a building higher than the surrounding warehouses a number of buildings away. He only hoped that this Aura could hold out until he was in position. Try tracking me one square block away he through as he quickly setup and got into the sniping position. This was going to make noise but then again he was firing from within a room in an abandoned building and with the amount of noise they had already made the police were no doubt on their way. He chambered a bullet and took aim at a minion. Technically the Geneva convention prohibited the usage of  this caliber of rifel on infantry but they were all heavily armored and needs must. The reticle floated over the head of one of the minions firing at Aura, Hades picked the one at the front. BOOM! The rifle bucked against Hades shoulder and 1 block away Minion #1's head simply ceased to be. A red mist hung in the space once occupied by skin, bone, flesh and blood. Hmm where did he put those  Raufoss Mk 211 rounds...

Aura had never seen this clown before. Still she understood much of the load out the guy was carrying. It was impressive AUra decided as she noted each of his weapons in which she could see. She was unsure if he was a mutant or just some human with way to much time on his hands. She was not entirely sure if she had the energy left for this. SHe could tell right away the clown was more then the sum of the bodies that littered the ground. The guy looked equipped to try and take out a very dangerous mutant and in the first time since she had looked at the armored fool, she realized this had likely been prepared with her in mind.

SHe watched as the bullet failed to deal it's damage and her new friend took fire. Aura did not watch this however. Since the man had survived a group whom she assumed was as big as hers she did not need to protect him which was good because Aura had the feeling this would be tough enough without trying to guard someone. AUra began to move forward hoping to use the direction to her advantage but the men who kept firing at her were two far behind bossman to use to her advantage.

Before she could charge however she heard rather then saw something messy happen. She felt an immediate let up on the pressure from the men. She knew the next part would be bad but she had done simmelr thing's before and even if she died today, she helped mutant kind ina large way. None of these fools would hurt anyone again.

AUra began to move in a sudden burst, she felt the impacts of bullets but did what she could to ignore it, even as she began to feel the drain of the past....How long had it been? SHe formed a pair of foot long swords as she moved, Her aura forming the weapons quickly looking like pink water. The first blade was aimed at Bossman's face, but it was a ruse, her real strike came from her left arm, which targeted the machine gun directly.

SHe keew she had to take care of his raged ability to win this and in the armor, he had to be slower then she was, or at least she hoped so. "All this is really flattering you know, but what are you going to do for my next birthday?" she asked with a cheerful laugh and smile. Aura was enjoying herself and she hoped it would have the ffect of making Bossman angry. Mad people made mistakes and she only needed a few of those.

Aura had guts, Hades could certainly give her that. She fought with a certain kind of tenacity, as though there was a fury inside her that fueled her, to push herself. Personally he would have approached that particular fight more tactically all things considered. However will his skill set he was not a "tanker" and she knew her mutation far better than he did.

Aura charged the Bossman. He grinned and thrust his lightening claw infront of his face in a forward jab that both served as a block and an attack. The Bossman might not be a mutant but he was a dam good boxer and brawler. His other fist, the chain fist whining he kept center of his chest. This lady had guts. He had put his anger aside and fallen back into his fighting instincts that had served him so well on the streets and in the ring for so very many years. He easily blocked and stopped the thrust to his face, the lightening claw clanging with the "weapon" of pink mist. He sensed that the first move was a feign so he decided to se how much guts the lady really had. Instead of defending his machine gun he thrust his chain fist towards her in a 1 - 2 attack with his already launched lightening claw. a second later as his chain fist was mid-way towards her he triggered his flamer.

Hades had his hands slightly full. someone had started to aim a rocket launcher his way. His arm and the rocked launcher promptly disintegrated. Someone tried to sneak attack Aura from behind. Hades would never know if the Mk211 round hit something armored or it ignited a grenade or explosive device that was on the attackers belt. What he could confirm was that the would be attacker was effectively...bisected. The top half flew past Aura's left and... well the bottom half flew past Aura's right. When he saw Aura charge he snapped off a shot at the base of the Bossman's ranged weapon. it was challenging, trying to hit a moving target while not endanger in any way his temporary ally.

Committed to her attack as she was, she followed through, feeling the first block, even as her second struck the gun base, as it did the second weapon switched from a sword to chainsaw which bit into the metal base for the gun. She accepted the counter attack before she saw the flame. Aura had a brief moment to put her aura between her skin and the remaining pipe bomb she had on her and dropped it from around the bomb. The blast, the punch and the fire sent her flying back striking a dumpster loudly, and without looking knowing she had made a serious dent.

Despite her protection she could feel a stinging in her leg which told her a few of the caltrop like objects had made it into her skin. She would have to get them out when this was done. As it was they would likely slow her down a bit. "Damn it" she said even as her hand searched the ground, quickly finding what she needed on half a body.

Between the flame thrower and the explosion before it a light haze of smoke filled the air, though Aura could make out everything it was hard to tell how much damage she had done to the boss man.

A water mutant would have been very helpful here but she had no idea where she could get some in large quantiles or if the suit had any protection against it. Aura decided to drop back toward the warehouse keeping cover as much as she could. If she had failed she could not rush him like that again. Her Aura was unlikely to hold threw that again which just meant she had to fight a bit smarter. as she moved she fired a few shots out of recently acquired pistol at he Bossman's men hoping to take one out but knowing her aim in the shots was poor at best.

The world suddenly turned a blinding flash of white for the Bossman as on his HUD numerous red flashing icons appeared until he dismissed them with a growl. He took stock, some of his servos were on the verge of overheating, his long range gun was out of action, or tuch and go at best. His frontal armour had lost some integrity. It would hold as long as this Aura did not have more explosives at her disposal. The bossman was also annoyed at his diminishing manpower. As someone tried to sneak attach Aura the lurched and literally split in two. The top and bottom half flying in differen t directions. What ever weapon was being used it was big. He radioed for someone to take him out with an RPG but the encouragement died on his lips when the RPG was disabled with another shot which also removed the man's left leg below the knee. If he was going to survive the Bossman whould have to end this soon. He radioed for his snipers to hunt down Aura's help, extolled the rest of his men to increase their firepower at Aura and started advancing while flinging whatever heavy objects came to hand at her. Dumpsters, drainage piping, a segment of fire escape. All the while vengfully belching gouts of flame from his fist. He was certain he could overload her shields, or whatever they were.



Up in his next Hades day was getting rather busy. he had long ago gotten into a groove, he had built his bone bridge, such that the rifel was supported by bones and not by muscle to form a stable shooting platform. It was like bench rest shooting. If one wanted to get good at sniping one had to spend time at the bench. The crosshairs on the sniper were like a cruicable. He was methodical and calm. Aim, fire, repeat. He started taking fire from enemy snipers and had to switch to them knowing that this would increase the pressure on Aura. He suspected taht she might not be able to do another full frontal confrentation but his hands were slightly busy. The only blessing was that at least the enemy snipers did not have time to camoflague themselves and thus turned themselves into a target range. It was while he was hunting out the last few snipers that he saw a shot almost line itself up. He aimed and fired almost on reflex before his mind had processed. It was a joint in the fuel supply hose to the flamer as it rang through the elbow of the suit. As soon has he pressed the trigger Hades knew it was a hit. It seemed as if the Bossman's elbow suddenly started spewing flame. He stumbled. That was about the best opening that Hades could give Aura. At that moment the remaining snipers got a lock on him and he had to displace fast.