Maintenance (open)

The Talon ship cloaked itself, giving itself the appearance of a civilian craft as it landed. Tamara stepped off, flanked by two Talon soldiers as she walked into the city. Holding up her wrist she pushed a button on her watch, sending a signal to her associates in Oasis that she had arrived.

Yuratta was seated in meditation, watching the newcomer to the city. While the city made itself out to be a haven for the intellectual, it was still rare for him to see a new face there. The former monk stood up and approached, looking him over, seeing him limp. "Excuse me." The Omnic said. "You appear to be wounded, perhaps I could be of some assistance." He said, giving off an air of hospitality. He wanted to be sure that this stranger would not interfere with the day's gathering.

He’d been seated on a bench, his head rested back, but as a soft ping poked through to his ear piece, neatly built into his right earlobe, a familiar tension crept up his spine. He sat up straighter, hiding in the little shadow his civilian hoodie provided. Running an exasperated hand across his forehead he cursed under his breath. Out of all the cities, Talon had decided to walk into this one right as he’d nursed a hope of 48 hours without their interference.

Reluctantly, he sent back an acknowledging signal. While the temptation to remain silent was certainly great, given the mood his recent visit to Nepal had left him in, he knew better than to play hide and seek with an adversary that out powered him in so many ways.

Mantis stood up. A lone bead of sweat ran down his nose and he wiped at it before placing his metal plated hands into his pockets. Limping along the premises, he sent a message into the Talon voice comm.

“If you are here for me, HQ is very much aware that I’m out of commission for the next 48 hours,” he muttered into him communication device. “You would think and organization of your reputation would coordinate their communications and resources better.” the hushed tone of his voice was clipped and hard, sending the Talon operative a clear message that he didn’t appreciate the ping.

He was too aggravated to consider the organization’s presence might have had very little to do with him, and all to do with what he was surrounded by. Mantis didn’t, however, even get close to such thought before his impromptu stroll was interrupted by a voice that didn’t get any matches from his personal database.

Staggered, he moved his gaze to the voice’s direction, landing on an omnic. Or, so he presumed. The synthetic’s eagerness to address his physical state came off almost drone-ish to Mantis, so it could have been either or.

Mantis felt his injured leg stir beneath him before he mustered a reply:
“I’ve already made my appointments, thank you.”

Tamara stopped and turned, not expecting anyone else to be in signal range from here. The fact that a free agent responded made her concerned. "You two, sweep the city. Secure communications between the two of you." The soldiers nodded and split off. Tapping a second button on her watch, several more soldiers were dropped in to search for the leak. Tamara meanwhile, continued to briskly walk to her destination, taking extra turns to avoid being followed.

Yuratta nodded, "Very well, I was going to offer my services to you. However, if you insist." The Omnic moved with startling speed and placed a hand on Mantis' head. "Let's see what you know. The Iris will reveal all." He said, peering into the depths of the modified human's mind. It was an open exchange though, and flashes of information poured into Mantis' mind as well, as well as the image of a red eye. The Monk let go of Mantis' head, severing the connection and following quickly with a swift chop to the neck with the hope of incapacitating his victim.

“What the h-” A choked cry of astonishment squeaked out of his throat when the omnic suddenly grabbed a hold of him. He jerked back on instinct, feeling the delicate circuits of his injured leg strain under the weight. Had the pain of it all not been as sharp as it was, he would have probably been stunned into stillness by the stream of images that flooded into his mind. He grunted and swiftly acquired a defenisive stance, without even realizing it. Then, metal clamored against metal as his prosthetic arm collided with the omnic’s in defense, just before the latter had landed a chop to Mantis’ neck.

Sparks flew before the spymaster attempted to slither further away. His movements were a lot less graceful than they usually were for a number of reasons – the complete surprise of the Omnic’s hostility being one of them. It was obvious, before his leg gave out under him and sent him falling to his injured side, that Mantis was determined in getting away from the situation as fast as possible.

Out of his suit, there was only a number of things he could do. And the thought, even if only a brief flash in his mind, terrified him.

Yuratta stepped back as Mantis collapsed. "If only you hadn't resisted, it would have been such a simple transfer of knowledge." He looked towards the road as he heard the sound of boots moving fast. "Looks like I'm not the only one interested in why you're in the city." The Omnic left Mantis and fled into the city. Several Talon soldiers surrounded him with guns pointed.

"Target found, he has been incapacitated." One of them called in. One of them stood over him, staring down at the man. "You've caused quite the hassle for us in quite a short time. Now it's time to tie up loose ends." The soldier moved to kick Mantis right in the jaw.

Tendrils of electricity danced around his knee, alerting him to the fact that the next miss-step might end up breaking it beyond an affordable maintenance. He gritted his teeth in the shadow of his hood, casting a long, hard glare at the omnic looming over him. The hooded figure remained there long enough for the dilated pupils of Mantis’ enhanced eyes to capture him in fine detail. But before he knew it, the synthetic was gone as swiftly as he had appeared – and other problems arose in his wake.

At first, Mantis thought the sight of the Talon infiltrators to be a soothing one. But when an unexpected kick sent him back into the ground, any sense calm left him - along with his breath. He saw white and black dots for a moment, and clawed at the asphalt, becoming more aware of the panicked gasps and running footsteps that encircled the scene. Something more was afoot here. If Talon had wanted a free agent eliminated, they would not make a fanfare out of it like they were doing right now.

“What-,”
Staggered, he tried to lift the weight of his torso on his arms but only managed a bloody cough.

"Step aside boys." A gruff voice said. The circle of soldiers parted and a massive man, two tomahawks hooked to his belt and a shotgun slug across his back all adorned in a sleeveless suit of Talon armor. "Well, sorry about this." The lieutenant said, crouching down to be on level with Mantis. "Unfortunately, you being here currently is a bit of a security risk. Now, because you've worked with us in the past, we're willing to make a bit of a deal. You can either have us escort you from the city and one of our other associates will ensure you don't remember any of this and can just go on with your life. Or, we can drag you're limp corpse out and throw you to the animals." The Talon agent growled through his helmet. "Choose wisely and quickly."

Lying on the ground, swallowing his own blood, Mantis couldn’t help but to reflect on the huge miscalculation that was this entire freelance gig so far. First Nepal and now Oasis – the latter feeling a great deal worse than the first, at least for the time being. While he’d earned the reputation of a spymaster through a lot of success in the network, Talon definitely made him feel anything but. Letting his guard down with such an unpredictable client was a rookie mistake. How he had let his pride eclipse such common guideline was both puzzling and worrisome, he thought to himself as he peeled his upper torso off the ground, leaning its weight on his arms. This brought his face mere inches away from the operative's who was in charge of at least this part of the operation. One that, in Mantis’ opinion, was being carried out in a fashion too loud and messy - for an organization like Talon anyway. He’d thought, especially after the assassination of Mondatta, that they were capable of employing more tact.

Like an injured animal, he bared his teeth in a bloody grimace and met the operative's gaze head on. For a moment, it looked as though Mantis was about to answer them. But instead of words, he spat blood right into the operative's face.

“You should tell your master,” he said and gathered his good leg underneath him. “That I don’t make deals with his dogs.”

And with this, his arms swung from his pocket to his neck. The cold plastic of the opioid gun gleamed in the Oasis sun before a silenced shot penetrated the spy’s neck artery.

His eyes sparked with tendrils of electricity as the formula shot through his system, rendering any discomfort he might have been feeling into nothingness. And then, Mantis was in the air. The jump probably hurt what little chance his leg had just had, but at that moment, when he sent a clip of stunning rounds into the nearby Talon operatives, his opioid filled mind housed surprisingly little concern over it.

Something circled over head, but it wasn't a vulture waiting for the sure end of the poor Mantis. Gabriel had furiously gone to work repairing his damaged equipment, he had to find Tom, and Kathryn, they'd been stolen. Luckily for him, part of the upgrades to his specific run of nanites was an ability to integrate tech into his body with ease. Meant he could simply integrate the helmet's hud into his visual centers. And the wings...well the rest of the suit had been a lost cause, so those were just part of his spine for now. Incredibly dangerous, but desperate times and desperate measures. Watching the scene from above wasn't difficult with telescopic vision, but if Talon wanted this man then he'd have an easy way back in.

He seemed to vaguely recall the man, some kind of freelancer; a spy something? Covert operative none the less. Gabriel began to descend, like an angel of vengeance, the man was already damaged subduing him shouldn't be too much of a problem. He kicked the Talon goon out of the way, before a further assault could incure on the peons. "Maybe you ought to pick on somone a little more in your league?" he asked, a strange mirthless smile on his face. His somber, melancholy face, like a pained renaissance painting. For a battle ready machine intelligence he certainly looked sorry to do it; mechanisms in his arms clicked and out flipped a pair of razor sharp, black steel blades.

"It's nothing personal."

If one were sizing him up, Gabriel was around 5'10", wearing an armless shirt and cargo shorts; all four limbs were prosthetics, advanced cybernetics. He hovered just above the ground, on wings that seemed to be modified from the valkyrie suit design. His posture was practiced, anticipating his opponents moves with a steady gaze.

The lieutenant ran back, avoiding the darts and the angel. "We got a problem." He radioed in. "The leak is airborn." He took a tomahawk from his belt and readied it as some of the soldiers that weren't hit by darts. When the angel arrived the soldier was shocked. The angel hadn't reported in since after the assault on Gibraltor, so seeing it here now was incredibly surprising.

"Report in. What's the situation." Tamara called back, standing outside the meeting room. This gathering could not start until this situation was settled.

"It's the angel...It came back..." The Lieutenant reported. "It's fighting the target..." Tamara nodded, while the Angel was a rogue angle at this point, it was proving useful right now.

"Have your men retreat. Let those two fight it out." Tamara responded to her men. The lieutenant nodded and signaled and the soldiers all pulled back to other parts of the city, letting the angel and Mantis fight.

Well, the day certainly kept getting peachier by the passing minute, didn't it?

As if the Talon operatives hadn’t been enough, a new player had suddenly fluttered to the scene - quite literally. And from above, of all places. Through his ear piece, Mantis automatically pinged a match for the stranger’s voice from his personal data archive. And should he have had more time to react, he would have likely been surprised by what his eye enhancements projected to the edges of his vision.

Former Talon operative. AI. Previously recorded sighting in Gibraltar. Unstable. Do not engage.

With the pain of Mantis’ botched leg conveniently masked, the only outside indicator that something was wrong were the subtle sparks of electricity that kept spewing from his knee joint as he moved.

And boy, did he ever.

Mantis’ heart hammered at his chest as he landed on his feet, behind the broken circle of Talon operatives. A small number of men fell to the ground with meaty little thuds as the stunning rounds landed, while some jumped right into action. However, should they have approached, they might have been fast surprised by the agility they would have met. Much like the Angel’s blades did when he evaded them.

Catching the spymaster was much like trying to catch smoke when he was under the influence – especially of this particular test run of a formula. One that seemed to be working rather sharply, at that. He wasn’t, however, quite sure how much of each agent he could inject into his system before he overdozed and killed himself in the process. So, a certain tactfulness was required, if he ended up having to take another hit. Mantis didn’t want to give this rogue agent the pleasure of doing his job for him, after all.

But extra shot or not, without his suit, his TIC drone or his tactical helmet – and being partially crippled, should the stimulants wear off sooner than intended – he stood next to no chance in a fist fight with this … agent, anomaly, what ever the hell he was. Mantis had to buy time and plan an exit. With this thought poking through the opioid haze in his head, he remained in a defensive stance, gun raised and set to incapacitate.

"Yeah," he said, managing to sound a lot more menacing than the situation indicated he could afford to. The power coursing through his system vibrated on his breath as he continued. "Strictly business."

Gabriel shut the HUD down, it wasn't going to be much good in this situation, it was too slow. It was great at calculating routine motion, it was obvious Mantis would not be routine. The human eye was better keeping track of motion anyway, and with the enhancements afforded to him, he was more capable of the close estimates required of combat. The wings on his back deactivated, and the flesh on his back released the integration; they were too heavy he needed to be lighter to better deal with this freelancer. They fell to the ground and he rolled his shoulders.

...

Combat mode initialized.

Blades clicking in and braced for deep penetration, since the opiods would keep the man from feeling pain, he was likely going to have to break him in a few places. Cursory scans suggested electric augmentation, well a fair fight then. Gabriel was significantly bulkier however, less built for speed, more for raw power. Pulse increased, breathing increased, oxygen exchange ramped up; the nanites that made up his intelligence also allowed for far more streamlined and controlled bodily functions. Each neuron firing at peak efficiency to manage the incredibly balanced system.

He wouldn't be put down by something like a stun, or dart. Electricity crackled up his spine augments, he may have been in the same program as the Hephaestus AI, but he was leagues ahead of anything that'd come before him. Whirring servos and the Angel kicked off the ground, lunging at Mantis ignoring the Talon men. Unimportant, collateral damage. His attack was with one of the blades, his whole body poised, anticipating some kind of dodge. The attack was witheld, so his momentum couldn't be redirected against him.

The data ping from Mantis’ personal database had been the kind that left a lot of this … ‘angel thing’ into the shadows. It didn’t, however, take a lot of guesses what it meant when the thing took a moment to shed its wings. Should Mantis not have been under the influence, the calculated preciseness of his adversary’s lunge would have likely sliced right through him. However, the stimulants in his system exhausted his heart and mind to the point of bursting, making everything seem slower – and thus, easier to evade.

And that’s what he did.

The evade was swift, so sharp it threw him off balance but only for a moment. He skidded to the left and the momentum sent his feet sliding across the sandstone with a billow of dust before he came to a halt. And in the fracture of a second the angel’s lunge left between Mantis and a view of the enemy’s back, Mantis raised his opioid gun and aimed an incapacitating shot at the back of the creature’s neck.

The sound suppressor made a whisper of the gunshot as it left the barrel, but Mantis felt the none-existent kickback vibrating through his body nonetheless. It should have been satisfying, but at that moment, everything felt a bit too clear, a bit too bright, a bit too sharp.