Zero was following him, but keeping a safe distance, he wasn't afraid of what would happen if he was caught so much as he was afraid of the man fleeing even faster and him losing the man forever, the man was covering distance via rooftops so Zero had to cover ground quickly on foot, dashing through the streets he moved elegantly through the crowds of people, his shoulders not even as much as scraping by anyone

God this guy moves fast, I wish he would just go into a building already and give my legs a break, but once I catch up to him this will all pay off

He thought this to himself as he continued trailing the puppet riding man, before finally, the giant spider hit the ground and retracted itself into a small shield before the man entered the subway tunnel, Zero saw this and quickly followed the man down, blending in with the small crowd of people that were also going down

So close to getting him, only a few more moments and we can begin this test of power, lets hope he passes

Speeding down the stairs, his puppet retracted, Sweeney prepared for this. He knew someone was following him, and if they were going to confront, he didn't want to be caught off guard. He passed by several people, grazing their shoulders as he passed, several saying rude remarks. He didn't care for them though, not right now...

"Out of my way." He said as he passed. At the bottom of the steps, a large crowd of people were getting onto a train and several were just standing around. It was obviously a busy day, there was so opportunity to just escape now. Sweeney ran behind a column and peered from behind, checking at the steps from which he came.

"Now... who are you..." He whispered as he nudged slightly. He readied his hand and continued to wait.

Zero strode down the steps of the stairway, the battle that was about to unfold playing in his mind as he readied his weapons in his pockets, the thoughts of the blood and carnage seeping through him, he managed to contain these thoughts however as he didn't want the other side of him to take over, then there would be no recruiting only death, lots of death

Lets hope this guy knows what he's doing if he wants to survive this test and make it into the ranks, then again if he doesn't I get to kill a psychopath, and not just that but a well made psychopath, this could really end up being quite fun

He reached the bottom of the stairs and immediatly saw the young man peering around the corner of the column, Zero drew a Handgun with blinding speed from his jacket pocket, he then fired with deadly aim at the man hiding behind the pillar

Let the test begin

Seeing the man run down the stairs, Sweeney's puppet was readied. The man seemed to relinquish a fire arm of a sort, he couldn't classify it, but he wouldn't risk any sort of trouble it could cause. He saw the man prepare to fire the gun and retaliated by forcing his puppet in front of him as a shield. Taking the blow from the impact, Sweeney flew backwards as he tried to regain his foothold.

"What...in the world was... that!" He yelled as civilians either boarded the subway or ran in random directions in fear. The echoes from the shot ricocheted around the station, and as Sweeney finally regained balance, he hopped onto his puppet, crouched down and started firing, slowly backing away behind another pillar at a different angle.

"Who is this guy..." Taking a quick peek, he aimed only to look at the man in order to gain the opportunity at acknowledging who his foe was. "That wasn't any normal gun... my puppet... is slightly damaged, it's a good thing I prepped this thing for defense..."

Sweeney pondered for a strategy, looking at the hole that was placed onto his contraption. Another shot like that to his body would obviously be fatal so he had to think this through. He had never done anything like this before in the past, this was so... different.

Is he... like me...?

The thought bounced around in his head, but the thought of this battle regained his hold.

"Time to fight like a video game NINJA!" He yelled this as he once again prepped his turret to open fire in an area where it could easily take cover. The sound of streaming bullets once again rang throughout the subway station.

Just as he expected the man pulled his shield in front of him to take the shot, this however was Zero's strategy to use his most high powered handgun to damage this puppet out, the puppet then formed from a shield back into its natural form at which point it opened fire, a stream of bullets rattled out of the gun speeding towards Zero, he immediatly did a combat roll to one side dodging the stream of bullets, he then took aim but before he could fire the man screamed out loudly

TIME TO FIGHT LIKE A VIDEO GAME NINJA

This had slightly surprised Zero but only in a "wow this guy is crazy" kind of way, and then in another moment a stream of bullets whipped out, this mans aim wasn't exactly spectacular and Zero was used to being shot at by professional soldiers and master assassins, so these pitiful attempts of blind firing from behind a column were all but effective as Zero jumped and spun in mid air dodging the lower crossing bullets as he spun in the air he drew another piston from his jacket pocket and fired two rounds of while spinning aiming one for the puppet and one for the man, once he landed he fired over 2 more shots with each at the, with 1 shot of each weapon going towards the person and 1 going to the puppet

Damn this guy might not have the best aim in the world, but he's crazy as hell, just our type

When the men began consecutive bullet rounds, Sweeney nudged his fingers slightly, his puppet hopping back and to the side, dodging the first two bullets, then as the man landed firing another duo or bullets, Sweeney rotated around a pillar, one bullet flying right by his face and grazing his hair. The sounds of the rounds were horrifying and the effects were so catastrophic. Sweeney was amazed by this guy's skill, he obviously had something Sweeney didn't, skill. Sweeney waited behind in slight amazement as he peered at several civilians crouched in corners or behind vending machines in fear.

"Look at those bullet holes... god this guy must have some aim..." Sweeney flipped his hair back. "If I get hit... it's over, what does he want with me?"

Sweeney looked above at the ceiling lights and commanded his puppet to open fire. The lights were destroyed and his half of the playing field became slightly shadowed. He then demounted his puppet and it crawled up the pillar onto the ceiling, guarded by the shadows.

"Let's see how this guy plays now..."

Zero watched as the man manipulated his puppet around causing it to jump in many directions dodging the bullets as it moved, eventually the dodging stopped and he hid behind a large column, yet again, he paused there for a moment as he was obviously thinking of a strategy, sadly for him, Zero being a seasoned veteran had planned his the moment he saw him in combat at the bank

Come on are you going to hide behind there all day COME OUT AND PLAY

Zero yelled this out he knew that this meant his alter ego was taking over and that not only his skills but his blood lust and rage were about to go through the roof, this is what happened when he was put in battle situations that brought him to flashbacks of Cuba and his years as a child soldier, to make matters worse for the other man, he turned out the lights on his side, little did he know that Emilio was very well faired at fighting in the dark not to mention a master of fighting with his eyes closed and utilizing his other senses, to even out the playing field he pointed his gun in the air and blue out the lights around him

WELCOME TO TRUE BATTLE

He yelled this out as he through one gun away and drew This from another holster in his jacket, he then closed his eyes and heard the man breathing in the darkness and he unloaded burst fire (15 bullets in 3 seconds) at him, he then heard the spider climb up the pillar that was about 8 feet away from him, he pulled out a C4 explosive from his belt holster pouch and tossed it at the column he then detonated it causing a large explosion and the column to blow to pieces, he then listened to see what happened with the man and his puppet

YOU STILL BREATHING

An explosion erupted in the room causing the pillar to break apart and the brute blow caused the rubble to fly around. Bullets then followed in a barrage, Several bullets hitting the remains of the pillar and around it. Sweeney hid behind what was left of the pillar and crouched down. He peered from his place as the man yelled out the question of whether he was still breathing, but it sounded sarcastic, as if it wasn't really a question.

"ummm... No... There's no need for you to be here anymore, you can go home now Mr. Psycho!"

The spider had fallen from the pillar onto its back so Sweeney retracted it and re-relinquished it onto its feet. What precision, he thought. He picked up some rubble and hid behind it. He looked around, he knew this would be survival of the fittest, so he had to think of something.

"Hey dude, who are you?" Sweeney decided to buy some time with some friendly conversation, maybe through this he could find an opening or some weakness through it.

At this time he contracted more strings which jumped out towards some of the nearby humans and pulled them towards himself. The innocent human man flew at Sweeney and slowed down in front of him. If any bullets were to be fired, he would use this guy as a human shield, the puppet next.

Sweeney waited for the man's next move. Looking to his side, he saw his duffel bag and threw it far to the side next to the subway tracks. He then relinquished control of his puppet for a few moments and took control of another human, launching him at the stranger then taking control of his puppet once again.

Zero heard his bullets clink off pieces of rubble from the explosion, his mind racing more and more with thoughts of scoring a clean hit on the puppet manipulator, he was now incredibly determined to score his mark, but some part of his mind to care not to go for a lethal shot in hopes of not killing the potential recruit, although he would be lying in saying that it didn't cross his mind a few times to do it anyways

You'll find out who I am soon enough

He said this softly to himself but before he knew it a human, a full human, came flying towards him, he did a swift backflip kick sending the person flying, but as he came down another body collided into him, causing him to fall down but it wasn't that painful, another came at him and he lifted his body into an aerial spin to dodge it upon landing on the ground

Are you serious, I've seen alot of things, but never had a living, breathing person thrown at me

He steadied his mind once more and took aim firing with his automated pistol (5 bullets in one second) in one hand and his heavy pistol in the other, he then began to silently sprint towards the target as he had made up his mind and decided that, although very untrained, this target was very suited for Rapture Inc.

As the bodies of the human beings were disposed of very quickly as if they were paper, Sweeney heard his foe criticize him. The nerve of this guy! Acting like he was the best at what he was doing, then again, he'd probably done this before, experience was obviously something he had.

"Well, maybe it's because you've never faced me!"

He saw the man ready his pistol and fire bullets in a consecutive stream. It wasn't very long, but enough for one of the shots to puncture his leg. The pain was agonizing, he didn't want to be here anymore, this was grueling. He limped onto his spider and it leaped onto the ground near the duffel bag, which he then picked up. He turned around and fired a few rounds at the man, hoping that this would maybe hold him off.

"AGh!!!" Sweeney screamed as his flesh wound hurt him. Small amounts of blood leaked from his leg, so he quickly removed his hoody from around his waist and wrapped it around his leg. His spider fell for a slight second, but rose back up. He needed to escape now!

Zero was covering ground quickly as he dashed through the dark, jumping over small objects and dead people that obstructed his running speed, he could here the spider puppet limping meaning that its controller must be in pain, so he deduced that one of his bullets had met its mark, this help quelch his current blood lust

I can hear you moving, your not going to get far in your condition, you should just give up and end it all now, I might make it less painless that way

He dashed closer and closer, a spray of bullets screamed towards him as he rolled to the side and continued his run, eventually he came with touching distance and close enough to engage him in hand to hand, but he wasn't there to kill him only test him, a test which he obviously passed, now it was just about tracking him to his home, so he pulled a small tracking device out of another pouch on his belt and once he came within touching distance of the slowly moving man he did a front flip over the spider and dropped the device while in the air, he then landed silently and continued running

You've fought a good match, but we'll meet again

Sweeney watched as the man front flipped over him and continued running. He didn't know what he was up to, but his main intent would be on escaping. Sweeney's spider jumped onto the track and sprayed bullets from his turret onto a couple of nearby pillars, causing them to fall over. If the man wanted to give chase, he would have to get through this obstacle.

Click click.... the sound of an empty barrel. His spider had used up all of its rounds in today's conflict, and today was surely an adventure.

"Okay, I think I'm...ugh... good for now..." His spider hopped along the tracks of the subway route, there would be no trains, they would all be blocked off. "I think I'll go home for now.

Sweeney could hear the man say something as his voice echoed into the tunnel. but he couldn't quite decipher the words. When Sweeney was a good distance away he rested for a bit, checking the damage caused to his puppet. It was bad, not beyond repair, but bad. At least it gave him something to work on, a better defense. At the next subway station he dismounted his contraption and limped on home. He would endure the pain for a little.

Zero continued running after he got out of the subway tunnel, he would go back to his apartment and recoup from this before tracking the man back to his home and confronting him about joining Rapture, if he happened to refuse well then theres gonna be consequences, and although this man was unmeasurabley crazy, he was sure that it was an offer he could hardly refuse and Zero wanted to be the man that presented it

That man will fit in perfectly especially with Kiss and Rapture, those crazy bastards match this guy up to a tee

He said this to himself as he got into a car he kept parked a few blocks away from the subway incase he needed an escape, a trick he had learned while being an assassin and the need to always get away from one thing or another, the then drove away back to his apartment, intent on getting this man

Sweeney was almost home. Just a few blocks away and everything would be safe. He stood at a stop sign as a couple of gazers stopped and looked at him. Sweeney looked at the bag, his booty for today's confrontation. He was proud of what he'd done today, it was a new experience for him. As he made his way t the last block he began to feel the suppressed joy that he had felt in battle. It was so... invigorating!

His apartment was only comparable as a rat house, inside and out, it was so small. He stood outside and his stomach growled.

"Hungry... sleepy..."

He walked up to his door and put his hand on it. He twisted the knob and it flew open, Sweeney assumed that he'd forgotten to lock the door before he left this morning. It was now dusk.

"OH man... today was such a... UGH!"