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To say Hades was surprised when Noel kissed one of the Davronski's was an understatement. The slight shock turned to one of galvinized action as soon as Hades heard the word cyanide. He dived for the cabinet and came out with what looked like two epi-pens. He stabbed one into the side of Noels thigh and the other into the thigh of the Davronski, well they were both bruised anyway and it was better than them dying. At this point it would be dicey if he survived or not but hey if that gave them more intel then it was worth the price of the cyanide "antidote".

Then hearing what Noel said, Hades inwardly sighed. He was tired and his ribs were hurting. True he had been hurt worse than before but still he looked forward to when the last of the cell had been killed then at least they could rest for the evening, perhaps go attack the cell base in the morning? At least that was if there were not more of them. Hade did not think there were but it would be better to be sure. This felt like an all or nothing mission. He took the earpiece from Noel and put it in his ear. The snipers knew they were made, and they knew that they were being hunted, it would now be a case of 2 snipers against 1. Hades grabbed a piece of paper and hastily scribbled a message fo Noel so when she recovered she would know aobut the phone and that two buzzes meant the cost was clear and 3 meant to expect company. He then went to a different part of the wall and opened another hidden safe. From there he pulled out a silence sniper and ditched the "sword". After checking that Noel looked like she was recovering Hades took a deep breath then ran at the table kicked off it, grabbing a ceiling beam he swung himself up and phased through the ceiling.

This, thankfully was a bbattle of a different kind. This kind involved patience, cunning and alot of waiting. while in the attic, Hades pulled out his spotter scope and carefully peered through the wall. While it was true that mechanical devices such as guns would not wrk when phased their properties remained so a telescope would still magnify far away objects. Hades's first job was to find the two snipers. as this was a residential neighbourhood Hades had ensured that when he purchased this house as a safehouse that it was the tallest structure in the immediate neighbourhood. That gave him an advantage. It meant that one sniper per side and it meant that if they wanted to use silenced rifels and still be close enough to offer further tactical support as needed they would need to be on a roof or in a nearby attic. There a slight shift of movement, and a slightly cracked attic skylight was all Hades needed to pinpoint one snipers nest. On the other side the cover was even more sparse so the sniper had set himself up peering over a roof, the cammo was good but this was one of Hades safehouses, he knew the most likely spots that snipers would choose and knew where to look. The enemy snipers were starting from a disadvantage.

The trick to sniping was to let your body guide you. You got your position right, then aimed at your target, closed your eyes and took a breath. If when you opened your eyes and the scope had drifted off target then you adjusted and repeated. It took patience. Once Hades had his target, he took a breath, let out a little bit and lightly caressed the trigger. The was a soft Pfffft sound and the contents of sniper one's head exited through a hole in the rear of the skull. Hades immediately displaced, grateful that the snipers kept good radio discipline. Sniper 2 did not even know that sniper one was no more, they did not ahve line of sight. Hades promptly dealt with sniper number two. He buzzed Noel's phone twice and phased back through the ceiling to a roof beam and peered down at the room below ready for anything. He hoped the antidote had worked.

While it was true that Hades was not brought up with much sense of morality he did live by a code. Hew had worked with the information broker before and had always admired his professionalism. When he had returned he had indeed reached out to Mr Krause, informing him that he was once again available. Following the events of Slurrr Hades learned that apparently he had been, what was it.... Sold out... by none other than the previousely trustworthy Gunter Von Krause. In his profession to betray trust was a death sentance. By selling Hades out, Von Krause had as good as issued an execution order on Hades. This however worked both ways, if Hades survived, Von Krouse as good as signed a death warrant on his own head unless he managed to scare Hades off. He had failed on both attempts. So Hades was going to take him down, big time.

Hades snapped off a encrypted text to Noel, it was brief and to the point. "Found traitor who leaked info to Davronski. Attack in motion, if interested have left care package at [location and digital key enclosed]. Suggest use all of it. Attack time set for 23:30." The digital key that was attached would unoock the boot of a sturdy Toyota Hilux parked near the target's location. Inside the care package was a form fitting knife guard to be worn under clothes. This would prevent most knife attacks. Then there was actual body armour, padded knee and elbow pads, grenades, pistols ammo rifels and blades, a selection in fact. Hades figuured that if Noel was going to have a crack at it, the least he could do was make sure she was well prepared. In actual fact he was going to start the attack one hour earlier. Prior to sending the text......

****A number of days ago******
Once Hades had confirmed that Von Krause was the source and the leak that needed to be ....plugged.... He set about planning his attack as he would any other mission. He pulled blueprints, employment records, he used his contacts to pull financial recors and purchases, contacted architects and contractors under one excuse (think Audit) or another to learn what had been installed. Next the gathered the materials he would need for the mission. This mansion, this fortress would be a tough nut to crack, with the quantity of manpower that Von Krause had at his disposal Hades was almmost tempted to call in some old friends. That was until he did a scouting mission and discovered the prisoner they had in the basement. It was almost laughable, despite being an information broker, Von Krause still though of security in conventional terms. He did have two adapted on his payroll (Mercs who were adapted charged exorbitant fees these days), but other than that nothing in his complex was fortified against mutants or mutant powers. Hades had observed the mutants entrance, the carnage he wreaked and estimated the injuries he had sustained. He figured that given a chance and a little help Mr Red would happily slaughter his way through guards. It would serve as an additional tactictal distraction. he could ofcourse just sneak up to Krause's room and deal with the inner security but that was taking far too many risks. Also in his line of work a statement needed to be made. Lines had been drawn that were never ment to be crossed. Also if Noel was coming, he would never deny Noel a chance at some well deserved revenge, he would need to open a path for his....ally. So they way to go about this was confusion, diversion and wholesale killing with pyrotecnnics and explosives. Make them think they were being attacked by a far larger force. One of the useful portions of Hades ability was to leave or embed objects in other objects. That was how he mined the lawn around the mansion with claymores, bouncing bettys and thermobaric explosives. That was how he planted explosives inside the outside main gates and main doors to the complex. When he pressed the button, the doors would blow and the lawn would become a live and armed minefield.

Thinking about his potential ally, Hades made preperations in case Mr Red did not want revenge or attempted to attack him. But if he was going to be an ally he would need perhaps an aid package.

****Present day*****
Hades was dressed for war. Black body armour and tactical vest, knee and elbow pads, he was packing pistols, an assult rifle with underslung grenade launcher, various blades and a sword or two. Enough to garentee carnage but not too much as to hinder movement. Pulling down his balaclava so as to show his face and hanging his facemask (in case of gas attacks) on his belt he quietly phased into the room where the red mutant appeared to be venting his frustrations on a rather sturdy door. Quietly he spoke. "I could open that for you if you want, or you can go back to your attempts to kick it down." Before the mutant had turned Hades had covered him with a chrome plated desert eagle. he spoke bluntly. "In five minutes all hell will break loose, I can give you a chance at revenge. There are a few terms. Firstly the head of security and Von Krause is mine, secondly any attempt to kill me or my colleague and I will kill you, no questions asked, do we have an agreement?" he asked holding up a package of thermite with one hand while still covering him with the eagle in the other.

Once he had the mutants verbal agreement, Hades slid a bundle across to the mutant. "Gear up and get ready, we don't have much time." Hades moved over to the door and began to to apply the thermite. He worked with professional efficiency. "The package contains two chrome plated Desert eagles with extended mags and a total of ten spare, the rounds alternate between armor piercing and high explosive. The grenades also alternate between frag and HE on the belt. You will have to find your own body armor if you want it. Finally that tube is a one shot rocket launcher. After I blow the door you may do the honors of drawing first blood. Keep your mouth open when you fire or you will burst your ear drums. After firing throw the launcher as well, it is a combined EMP and smoke bomb."

Hades finished as he attached a remote detonator to the thermite and moved away from the door. Almost as an after thought he turned to the mutant and said. "Did I mention that the missile is a hellfire, so you may want to duck after launch." With that he moved back from the door and waited for the mutant to finish his ration and water pack that was also included. "When you are ready." He said holding up a remote detonator. 

When getting the enemy of your enemy to work with you Hades had always found it payed to bring gifts.
[OCC: hope this is not too much, let me know if you want me to change anything]

Hades took this information in and remained relatively quiet during the rest of the journey. They reached the cabin. Once they had unpacked Hades called Alex to the center of the sparse living room. He handed Alex what looked like a bundle of cloth. It contained a concealed holster that would allow two daggers to be carried in the small of the back. The cloth holster came with two hilt less double edged daggers had holes drilled in them for further weight reduction and were honed to a razor sharp edge. "Those are now yours" Said Hades. "You should keep them on you wherever you go. The holster is designed so as not to hinder movement." Hades paused and collected his thoughts before continuing. "Alex I don't intend this to be something like a monastery you see in movies, you are free to come and go as you wish, indeed after learning a skill it may prove more useful to go out and text it but first I would advice we develop a few contingency plans. Some of these I can help you with, others you must work on yourself. Firstly knife drills. the first time I saw you you were flailing that thing around, time you learned how to use it. I can teach you the moves it will be up to you to practice. Second is what I would call "emergancy constructs". Something like an army of fire ants a million strong that see you as their hive or a swarm of wasps that see you as their nest. Something that you can throw out, fire and forget ."

Hades paused for a sip of water. "The other good thing about "constructs" like that, as you call them, is that they are multi functional. You could wear your ants like armor to bite those who hit you or to make people get out of the way and swarm lone enemies. Similar to the swarm of bees you could shroud yourself behind a cloud of wasps, send the wasps off one by one or have them swarm enemies. The final thing is again something that you will have to experiment with."

"Armed with the internet I want you to starve yourself and then work out a) what is the minimum amount you need to eat to be able to create your emergency constructs and b) the quickest way to get it and the most compact way to store it. So see if it is a version of fortified Gatorade or a custom made energy bar or a solution you can inject, something that you always carry with you so you are never caught short again. What do you think?"

Hades would see how he took this and gauge how much and how fast he could teach this young teen.

Hades started calmly speaking as the "homeless " people started working their way
down the cars knocking on the windows on the surface to ask for coins but actually to check
faces to compare against their target list.

"You are Goodwin the 3rd. Your father is a billionaire 5 times over. You have been brought up with money. You are part of a proud and haughty family, unwilling to associate with the common.....peasants. You have recently had a falling out with your father, as a result both your jet and your helicopter are grounded and you are punished to being chauffeured in the least of his cars. This Aston martin DB9. If a peasant were to knock on the window you would most likely wave them off without bothering to put down your paper and tell your chauffer to deal with it."

Just then there was a knock on the window, Hades wound down the window next to Alex just slightly as the "homeless" person made some excuse or other about wanting money.

>"I uhm...I think I was at the bar because I got fired. Or restructured. Mundane, really. Heh."

Upon hearing this Hades did not react for a moment then, he started chuckling, which morphed into a full deep hearty laugh, it was the kind of laughter that bubbles up from the deep. "So, all of this," He gestured indicating the impending fight. "Our chance meeting, the bar fight, all of this was because you were laid off." The laughed transformed his face, it brought a warmth that the world did not often see.

It was at that moment that the Davronski's launched their attack. 5 bursting through the door straight for Noel and five through the window behind Hades. It was as if a mask dropped over Hades face. All trace of warmth, joy, humanity faded away, in place was a hard face, cool, calculating, merciless. With a snarl he grabbed two daggers from under the table and launched himself at the oncomming attackers, hoping to bottleneck them. To his surprise the two attackers who had just entered managed to parry his flurry of strikes. Hades just had time to register a black cylinder poking through the window before he was blown back with a loud boom. Hade flew across the room the land with a painful sounding thump against a wall. By then more figures had poured into the room. It had been a 12 man team. two snipers on the roof and ten combat specalists, 5 for each of the targets.

Hades shook his head as the world once again swam into view. Breathing hurn, but not as much as it should. His yellow t-shirt was shredded but he saw no blood. What on earth... Ahh rubber bullets. Inwardly he groaned, they fully intended to take him and probably Noel alive for torture and experiment. Not if he hand anything to say about it. He had to slow the attackers down to regain his breath. He slapped his belt and flicked his hand out. Out shot what appeared to be a sliver ribbon. It twirled in an arc around Hades, clanging against the weapons that the attackers raised in defense. It was a sword whip. It seemed to sway in mid air like a snake before striking out at a far figure who just entered the room with the speed of a viper. The sword head pierced the throat of the attacker holding the shotgun. On the way back it slashed again at the circling attackers. From his current corner Hades spied an attacker creeping up behind Noel with a paralytic tipped dagger ready to stab her from behind. With a flick of the wrist he launched the whip towards him, turning his wrist at the last moment so that the flat of the blades hissed harmlessly passed Noel's cheek to impale the throat of the would be attacker. Having regained a measure of breath and composure, Hades returned the whip to his belt and
reached under the nearby stones to pick up a wooden rod.

The sword whip was one of two sets of weapons that Hades like to keep on him at all times, well at least one set. They were his "emergency weapons", the sword whip was called the scorpion's tail or the sword snake the other weapons was nicknamed whirlwind. Think of a standard police baton and replace the wooden cylinder with a double headed doubled edged sword similar to what is shown here. Both weapons relied on absolute precision and control, something Hades was very good at.

To say Hades picked up a wooden rood would not be entirely accurate. It was more the case that he reached through the wall into a cavity and pulled out the weapon. Unlike Noel who seemed to be on the side of the room with the most weapons, the corner where Hades had landed was rather bereft of conventional weapons and so Hades had to pick one of the more esoteric weapons that he kept lying around. At first glance it appeared to be a dark wooden rod which appeared to have a dagger embedded at each end. Behind his back and out of sight of everyone Hades pressed a button on the rod. Immediately the dagger at one end vanished and the blade at the other end slid out to become a full sword. In essence it was a double headed doubled edged sword with a transferable hilt. The hilt slid on a hidden rail so it could slide to either end or be locked in the middle to bake a short bladed staff. Bare chested and wielding this old but unusual weapon like a normal sword Hades engaged the four attackers. He spared a glance to see how Noel was doing.

Hades had parked just up the street and smoothly pulled up beside Alex when he spotted him. Hades was in disguise. He was dressed like a chauffeur and wore a wig. No it was not one of those cheesy ones that screams FAKE a mile away, it was a well made genuine looking one. On top of that Hades's face had been altered. His face seemed rounder, less weathered.

He spoke to Alex. "That all of it? very well get in." after Alex was seated and buckled in, Hades pulled out into the traffic and they headed for the city outskirts. They were coming up to some lights in the distance when Hades saw them. Members of the Mutant hate chapter posing as homeless and knocking on windows. He recognized the faces. So they were now stooping to playing homeless in the vain hope of finding mutants to pick on were they? Alas an intersection is not a place where one wants to create a scene.

Without turning back he spoke to Alex. "Alex, I need you to follow my instructions to the letter, do you understand?" Hades had a very good idea of how to get out of this one without any fuss, but it depended on Alex not panicking.

Out loud he continued."In the seat pocket in front of you you will find a newspaper. Pull it out and pretend to start reading so it covers your face. I am going to start describing a character, I need you to pretend to be that character, I need you to act a part, can you do that for me?" 

If Alex could play the part all would be well. If not..... well he would just ahve to improvise.

As Noel entered the room, she seemed more on edge, more nervous.

>"If I didn't see the video, I wouldn't believe it myself. I have no memory of this event. Uh, but that's quite normal after a fight."

Hmm, that was...unexpected but Hades was prepared to wait before rendering judgement.

>"You are asking if I targeted you. I did not. I work in protection for chrissakes. I blamed you, another anomaly for my behavior which is equally inexcusable. If you'd been a normal man, God!"

If Hades had been normal, if he had been normal, well he would have died long ago. He was never sure what mortals meant when they said the word normal. Alot of the time what they defined as normal, was unfocused chaotic, without rhyme or reason.

>"Psycometry and erasure. And lies. I... taste lies."

Ahhh HA! Very interesting. While Hades knew that he was at least more than 100 years old. He had always suspected memory tampering. That along with god knew what else had been done to design him and his brood of efficient killers. The injections, the fuzzy spaces in memory, the dreams. The dreams had started again. Dream that Hades had verified himself. How could he possibly dream about a historic event that he knew nothing about and have it be 100% accurate, with additional details as to what really happened. He had even dreamed vividly about fighting along side a Chinese emperor and could recall the names of the soldiers and captains. A large sum of money and a few years later, the researchers he had hired verified his stories. How could he remember the names of more than 20 foot soldiers in a vast Chinese army, people who were so insignificant that they did not even get a foot note in most historical records, his dream was verified from old old family records. Either the memories were from someone else or... Hades mentally stopped the train of thoughts. Regardless, if they both came out of the current situation alive and IF Noel was still alive and IF she was still interested in helping him, he might make some headway as to who he actually was. But that was beside the point now. As she had said the words Hades observed her face, looking for micro expressions that would indicate lies. He found none. Satisfied he broke eye contact and collected his thoughts.

Out loud he said. "Thank you for being honest with me. One more question if I may, when you say Psycometry, would I be able to say think specific thoughts while touching an object, hand the object to you and essentially leave you a message?"

If that were true that would be very very useful indeed. Switching off the video he continued. "My turn. From what you have told me and your change in body language I suspect you may know a little of who and what I am. Allow me to clarify." He took a breath before continuing.

"In short, Noel, I am an assassin and hit-man." He paused for a second then decided to throw in. "As well as a mutant."

He picked a point slightly above her head so as not to be distracted by her face and continued. "I specialize in every thing from information extraction (torture), object and personal extraction to assassination and more. I have been doing this for a very very long time." Well either way that was the understatement of the year. If his dream were.. well just dreams, then he was probably more than 100 perhaps 200 years old. If they were not....he could be in excess of 2000 years old, well that was the Qin dynasty he remembered fighting alongside. As for his history it would have to wait. Hades had realized that in the haste to excape he had not scanned his bike for tracking devices. It was too late to change now and it would be more productive to bring Noel up to speed for a variety of reasons.

"Along they way I have made a number of enemies." That again was an understatement."Among with is a family or company called the Davronski's, they are Russian based organization, doing contract hits and the like. They typically operate in teams of 5 or more and are well trained and equipped. I had hoped after the events 5 years ago that they would think me dead but I suspected that I was spotted during the fight." He paused to take a drink of water.

"The Davronski's do not often allow mutants in their ranks but they have been known to collect them to try and create serums that would allow all of their troops to temporarily have the same power, like the drug M but mroe focused."

"They might have been here on a job or specifically searching for me but now I suspect that we are both on their radar, me for obvious reasons and my powers and you for both your possible connection to me and your powers."

Hades awaited her response. He suspected with what he had seen so far that she would not freak out but one never knew. Aside from her sword training, the only thing that he know about her experience was that she worked in security, which while might well be challenging was a far cry from the world of assassins and hit-men.