Chapter 9 - War. War Never Changes.

You know that feeling when things are going a little too well and you start to think that something just has to go wrong? Well that feeling has been plaguing Devin for a couple of days now without relent. He had woken up the day after the fight with the three stooges and continued with the job.

The entire time he was on site he kept feeling like he was being watched, but couldn't discern where it was coming from. As soon as he left the feeling would disappear. It couldn't have been Strom as Devin made sure that he covered his tracks so as to not be found out. He doubted that it was one of the thugs he had thrashed as their type was usually too cowardly after being defeated. So who could be watching?

Another thing that was troubling him was that even after discovering the truth about the equipment there was still no update to his mission for investigating Sokovia. What was it gonna take to get the job done? The experience and the shop credits would be nice but the real prize was the weapon and manual. Devin realized in the fight at the hotel that he had some fighting prowess as you couldn't be an independent defense contractor and not have some skills in both hand-to-hand and weapons like guns and knives, but this didn't mean he was some hidden master. When he got the reward he would probably select one of the gun options and a manual.

As the day progressed Devin could feel the pit in his stomach grow worse and worse. He knew that at some point some shit was gonna hit the fan. Once again Murphy decided to drop in to grace Devin with his presence.

A cry had rang out from a group of workers that were working on one of the storage buildings. Devin looked up to see three men running from around the building holding rifles and wearing what looked like hunting camo. Devin quickly ducked behind a piece of heavy equipment before quickly pulling out his sword from his inventory. Two of the assailants started to corral the various workers in the area while the third started heading towards the table next to the equipment where Devin was hiding. Devin crouched in anticipation of taking out the guy as soon as he was in reach.

As the man stepped up to the table Devin dashed in behind him and bashed him in the skull with his pommel. Dropping unconscious into Devin's arms then stashed under the equipment, now all that was left was to take out the last two before Devin could see just how big this whole thing is. It didn't take long before the two noticed their friend hadn't come back.

"Go check out what's takin' him so long." the one said while the other nodded and then headed the same place as his teammate. Devin decided that he was gonna try the same take down.

Closer...

Closer...

NOW!!!

Devin jumped forward but the sound of his boots alerted the man just before Devin could reach him, causing him to turn towards Devin. Devin knew that he couldn't hesitate even though he had never done it before. Devin drove the point of his sword forward and through the man's heart. As it exited the man's back he dropped his gun and clutched what was left of the blade that hadn't entered his chest. The man had just enough time to look up into Devin's face and cough out a mouth full of blood onto Devin before the light in his eyes faded and he slipped off of the blade. Devin retracted his blade into his inventory after slinging the blood off it with a quick swing. Next he picked up the rifle the man had dropped and shouldered it.

Devin didn't think about what he had just done. He knew if he did then he would freeze up and that could prove fatal. Devin rested the gun so that he was more stable before looking through the scope at the last of the group. He would have to make the shot count. Slowing his breathing and clearing his mind, Devin took aim at the man's head. Holding his breath and slowly releasing it just as he squeezed the trigger. The man had just turned his head right when the bullet entered his forehead just above his left eye. Devin quickly ran over to make sure that he was down seeing the hole devin turned to the workers.

"Everyone head for the tree line! I'll cover you while you escape!" Devin said as he turned to the direction that the three had come from initially. Soon furious foot steps could be heard as the workers booked it to the trees. A couple more baddies rounded the bend and Devin let off a couple of rounds, nailing one in the chest and the other in the throat. Soon all of the workers were out of sight and Devin started to move towards the compound proper. Moving from building to building soon had Devin looking at the front of the main building. There was only one guard at the entrance. Devin had seen that all of the security had been killed at some point as he saw all the bodies littering the posted guard positions. Who ever had set this up was smart and obviously had been doing their surveillance.

Devin once again withdrew his sword and slowly crept up the side till he was next to the guard at the door. He covered his mouth with one hand while sliding his blade into and through his back to kill him silently. He stowed the man's rifle along with his own and also grabbed a handgun that was attached to his hip. Opening the door and moving down the halls, Devin was startled by a sudden noise going off near him. Turning this way and that to find any possible enemies, soon Devin realized that the sound was his notification sound for the system. Seeing as he was alone he decided to see what had come in.

'Open menu.'

Soon Devin noticed that a new mission had opened for him so he clicked on it.

[New Mission: Clear the Base]

[Eliminate all the hostile combatants within the base.]

[Rewards: 'Iron Knuckle' weapon, 'Rouge School Martial Arts' manual, 750 Shop Credits, & 350 Exp]

Talk about lucky! Not only would this improve his hand-to-hand, but it would give him more close quarters options. It would also mean one less weapon manual he would need to obtain. Exiting the [Mission] tab and clicking on the Spirit tab, Devin saw that he had gotten Spirit Points from his earlier fights. He didn't have enough for a full gauge, but a couple more opponents and he would. He would have to save his transformation for either for emergencies or special circ.u.mstances.

Checking his clip Devin closed his system window and proceeded down the hall, clearing corners and rooms one by one. He found one guy leaning over a monitor typing away. He slowly crept up and put him in a choke hold till he finally stopped moving. Searching his body produced another gun, more ammunition and a knife. Devin stowed the extra gun and ammo, before sliding the knife into his boot. A dozen rooms later and Devin had finally arrived at a large room that he had found out days prior was where they were housing the equipment that had been trucked in. Devin could hear muffled voices and one sounded familiar.

Cracking the door open very slowly till enough of a gap was clear so that he could slip in, Devin entered as quietly as possible. Sliding up behind a large computer terminal, Devin gently peaked around to see who he was dealing with. There were about half a dozen of the regular guys with one big guy and a scrawny guy with glasses. On the ground tied up were Strom and three workers that were supposed to be doing wiring in an adjacent room down the hall. Devin decided that he wanted to wait and listen while waiting for an opportunity to strike to present itself.

"I don't know who you all are, but this is a big mistake." Strom said with slight heat in his tone.

"Oh don't worry we are just here to take something small and then we'll be on our way." said the scrawny man in what sounded like a slight British accent. As one of the henchmen stepped up to a console and began typing.

"Our government will hunt you and whoever is in charge of your little group down and wipe you off the face of the planet." Strom said with confidence which turned to nervousness as he saw that the scrawny man had once again turned to him and smiled with a creepy grin stretching his face.

"You have no clue as to who we are or who we work for. But not to worry you wont be surviving this encounter to find out what happens next. Though I will tell you that your government's research on the mutant gene as well as the proto-strengthening formula will definitely be of use to us." the man said as he stared at the screen filled with information.

'So that's what they needed the genetic equipment for.' Devin thought as he listened in on what the group was after. Another notification sound was tripped, but Devin ignored it for now so as to concentrate. Devin switched out his handgun for one of the rifles and made his way up into the shadows on the catwalk that ran around the top of the room. He took steady aim at the henchman at the console.

A hand signal from Mr. Beanpole, as Devin decided to call him, caught the attention of the big guy,causing him to nod and walk towards the hostages. Just as he was about to grab one Devin took his shot. He unloaded a round into the goon at the console's head before moving on to the next. He had dropped four of the six henchies before everyone took cover. Soon shots were being returned at him, forcing him to run and gun. It took him a full clip to finish off the pawns. What Devin wasn't anticipating was for the "Big Guy" to suddenly grab a support for the catwalk and rip it out of the ground like a weed. Soon the catwalk started to collapse like a row of dominoes. Devin managed to dive off before he could fall on to the now scrap pieces of metal.

Coming up from a roll, Devin looked up straight into the blank face of that mountain of a man. Grabbing Devin before he could move the guy held Devin in one hand while he brought back his other for a super powered punch. Thinking quickly Devin pulled his sword and stabbed deep into the shoulder of the arm that was holding him. This caused the hand to let go and Devin to drop. Coughing from the tight hold that had been applied to his throat, Devin quickly moved out of reach while keeping an eye on his opponent.

'The dude has super strength, he's kinda quick and who knows what else he has up his sleeve.' Devin thought as he slowly circled the muscle headed man.

'Wait, he hasn't talked, grimaced, or anything. What is this guy?' Devin thought as he noticed the same blank face even though he had stabbed the guy deeply with his sword. He didn't have long to ponder as the man charged again this time lowering his shoulder for a ramming maneuver. Devin dove at the last second to avoid the attack causing the guy to ram not only through the wall but through all the consecutive walls as well. Soon there was a tunnel to outside formed thanks to the robot-like man. Leaning over and looking through the hole showed a small circle of the outside area from his spot. Looking back at the room Devin found that everyone had left, Strom and the hostages having somehow escaped in the chaos and Mr. Beanpole nowhere to be seen.

"Sigh, guess I'm gonna have to take care of that Juggernaut Wanna-be, not like anyone else could." Devin said as he prepared for another round. He decided to use his sword and the handgun he had pilfered earlier. Walking through the holes Devin found that the man had stopped once he had hit a dozer that had been parked before lunch and was slowly extracting himself from its now twisted body. Devin decided not to give him a chance to retaliate and dashed forward squeezing the trigger of the handgun as he approached. The bullets riddled his back then his chest as he turned, but didn't seem to faze him. Devin knew that his speed was slightly greater than his opponent's so he decided to put it to use. Devin slashed and stabbed as he barely managed to dodge the heavy swings from the man's arms. Eventually Devin had to jump back and catch his breath. His opponent was covered in cuts and stab wounds with blood slowly trickling from them.

"He looks bad, but how much more is he gonna take before he goes down?!" Devin said to himself as he panted with his sword stabbed point first in the ground. It was then that Devin saw the first change to appear on the blank face. Soon a grimace formed before the frown deepened, but it was when the eyes started glowing that Devin started to really worry as flash backs to anime from his old world came to him. That wasn't the only change to come over him. His skin turned a dark charcoal grey and his hair not only grew out long, but turned an angry orange as fangs grew in his mouth. Soon the transformation was finished and the guy now looked like some kind of weird ogre.

"RRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!"

the sound wave from the roar hit Devin and caused him to slide back a couple feet. Looking up Devin could only form one thought.

"Whelp, this just went FUBAR!"