10 Minutes Earlier,

While Dayle was considering the pros and cons of jumping down the 'rabbit hole,' Raines and Eli were sliding down one of their own.

They both managed to land relatively well on their feet. Raines noted the way Eli tensed immediately his feet touched the ground. The way he glanced both ways, right hand on a pistol strapped to his lap. Seemingly satisfied, he drew his pistol and held it expertly, nozzle pointed at the ground. He motioned for her to follow, which she did.

Pistol also drawn, Raines pressed on behind him. This kid was trained. Very well too. Could he be from another agency? His accent had sounded Virginian. No, she shook her head. She could not make that kind of assumption yet. He could easily be an enemy agent who had learned multiple languages and accents. She should know. She had that very kind of monster on her own team.

"Raines?"

Raines flinched, startled by his voice in her ear. She had forgotten he was now part of their group channel. Though right now he was using a private one between the two of them. "Sorry," she apologized. "My mind wandered off for a bit."

Eli nodded. "No problem. This stuff does take some getting used to." He paused when something flashed on his gauntlet. "Our objective is still further north, but I want to take a short detour. You mind?"

Raines frowned. She did not very much like the idea of going off course. But all things considered, she did not really have much of a choice. She was blind in enemy territory with Eli as her only eyes and ears. She could not send him off alone. "Only if you don't tell me what we're really doing down here."

Eli stood still. The tiny neon-blue slits that served as eyes for his 'Predator 54' helmet pulsed as if in thought. Raines hated not being able to see his facial expressions. It made it nearly impossible to read him. "Fine," Eli relented. "I guess it's only right I tell you." He resumed his advance. "But I'll talk while we walk if that's all right with you."

"Much preferred," agreed Raines.

"I've been investigating some claims recently posted on the online forums," Eli said.

"Claims?"

"Yeah." Eli hurried to a corner, feet barely making a sound. He took out a small, handheld mirror and spied the corner with his left hand. Satisfied, he replaced the mirror, then turned to Raines. "How good a shot are you with a pistol?"

"Second in my team," Raines revealed. "Why?"

Eli took out a pistol from his inventory. A rather normal looking 9mm Glock with a silencer attached. "Level 1," he said as he handed it over. "Keep it in case the fancy stuff runs out of bullets."

Raines holstered her pistol then accepted his. A quick mag check revealed it was fully loaded. "You didn't answer my question."

"Yeah, once second," Eli promised. "It'll be easier to show." He took out an object from his inventory. A long metallic cylinder with several holes along it. "Flashbang," he explained. "There are four guys around the corner. Two on the left, and two on the right. I've got the left, you take care the right."

Before Raines could question what the hell people were doing in a place like this, Robocop had tossed the grenade into the hallway.

The 'bogeys' didn't even get a chance to acknowledge the grenade, as it exploded on impact with the ground. The targets pressed against the wall in an attempt to get as far away from the blast as possible, but the corridors were far too narrow. A second later all four fell to the earth, dark red oozing out of puncture holes in their heads and chest.

"Nice aim," Eli complimented.

Raines, who wasn't even sure who the hell she had just gunned down did not share his approval. "What the hell was that!?"

"That," Eli said as he walked up to one of the corpses. "Was my investigation." Eli kicked the mass over. Dark red eyes twisted in a mask of surprised fury stared blankly up at them. He squatted next to the corpse. Digital lights from his gauntlet scanned the body. "There've been reports of increased RAD aggression in several areas. We believe these people have something to do with it."

Raines frowned. "Are they Radi?" Their skin were a dark shade of red. With an average height of close to seven feet, these guys could easily pass a Hellboy audition. "And who's we?"

"No, they aren't Radi," said Eli as he examined the scan's readings. "Not exactly anyway."

"What does that mean?"

"That is what I'm here to find out," assured Eli. He took out a disk from his gauntlet and placed it on the corpse. A thin field spread form the device and encapsulated the corpse. A second later, it and the body were in his inventory. "Corpse-retriever," Eli explained. "Only way to store organic material of these size."

Raines felt a little shiver run down her spine at the sight. She understood it was only a videogame, but her profession forced her to imagine the all too practical uses for something like that in the real world. "I got that." She was done with the nice routine. This guy was immensely dangerous and terrifyingly efficient. "Who do you work for?"

"WildHeart," Eli replied as he rose to his feet.

"The tree-huggers?"

A low sound resembling a chuckle escaped Robocop's lips. "Yes, the tree-huggers," he admitted. "I'm a part of the very limited muscle they have."

"Okay, fair enough," Raines said as she walked up to the end of the corridor. A steel door which could not have looked more out of place was embedded in the wall. "They were guarding this. What do you think is behind door number one?"

Eli drew his pistol and a grenade. "Why don't we find out?" He waited for Raines to take up position on the wall by the door. A short nod to acknowledge each other, then she pushed it open.

Eli swiftly tossed a grenade into the room, then turned his back on the blinding flash. The duo stormed in, weapons raised. Loud groans were swiftly cut off by well aimed bullets. Three seconds later, the room was secured.

"Nice work." Eli scanned the tiny room as he holstered his weapon. They seemed to have entered some sort of control station. An array of monitors were lined into the opposite wall with a control board right below.

Raines glanced at the three new dead... what were they called again? "Hey these guys, what do you call them?"

"We don't call them anything," Eli replied as he worked the controls. "Before today there wasn't even evidence of their existence."

"Well we've got to call them something." Raines crouched over one of the bodies and rifled through its pockets. Only things of value were a really sharp steel-looking knife and a curious rectangular translucent glass. Immediately she touched the glass, characters appeared on its screen next to a headshot of the deceased.

Pr. Foran Yolt

Level 3

V.O.K

Military I.D. Future's dogtags huh. Raines pocketed the shield. She made a mental note to have Dacey look at it. Never knew what she could find. Well, only thing she knew about these guys were the letters V.O.K. It was even emblazoned at their back like those annoying Quantico trainee T-shirts. "Vokians," she muttered.

"What was that?" Eli called.

"I decided. Let's call these guys Vokians."

Eli mulled over it for a second. "Makes sense." He shrugged. "Easy to remember too."

Raines nodded as she stood to examine the rest of the tiny room. At second thought, rather than a control room, this was more like a security observation post, judging by its extremely small size. The only furniture were three chairs in front of the screens, and a desk adjacent to the entrance. Her search of the papers atop the desk surprisingly brought up nothing. These people should not have expected company, but there was absolutely nothing carelessly left behind that could lead to more clues about them. "Why can't my life be a movie episode. Just once," lamented Raines.

"Hey Raines, you're gonna want to see this," Eli called.

"What's u—" The question died in her throat once she looked up from the desk. A single giant image was displayed, spread across the numerous screens. "What the fuck is that!?"

"That is where we're headed," Eli said with a wry laugh. "I'm definitely billing this as overtime."

Soft groans snapped their attention to the dead Vokians. Only one wasn't quite dead. The guy Raines had searched glared at them with palpable hostility. In his right hand was a small cylindrical device. "Fu~ Fuck you!" He pushed a button on the device

Eli swiftly pulled Raines into a bear hug then shielded her from...

Eli frowned and looked over his shoulder at the soldier. The device lay a few feet from an open palm. The soldier's eyes were cloudy and listless. He'd truly passed this time. Just when his shoulders were about to drop and relax..

Raines' thighs buzzed. She pushed out of Eli's grasp, noting at the back of her mind that was twice now he had attempted to save her life. She pulled out the device from her pocket. Raines' groan was seconded by Eli when he showed him the words on the screen.

INTRUDER ALERT!

Two simple words that just meant this mission had gone from difficult to impossible.

"Silent alarm," Raines noted. "Whoever's in charge is smart. If I didn't bag this we would never have known."

"And would've easily gotten caught." Eli shook his head. "Great, at least now we know they aren't just a ragtag bunch. These guys are well organized. We've got to be careful from here on out."

Raines glanced at the giant image on the screens. "You know the way to that?"

Eli nodded. "That chamber was our original destination anyway. Only detoured 'cause I got some interference on the sonar from this area."

Raines pocketed the ID and drew her pistol. "Lead the way then. This area'll be surrounded before long." The young agent glanced at the bodies they left in their wake as they made their way out of the room. These guys had been unarmed. There was no real proof to even verify they were hostile. Yet she had put bullets in them regardless. She shook her head to get rid of her doubts. The mission came first. Always.

A giant wasp of nearly twenty feet floating in an even larger tube stared silently through the screen at the retreating figures.

***

Elsewhere, two Vokians checked their communicators, brows creased at the warning that flashed on the screen. In their long history, they had never been discovered. Those who had come close to finding out about them met a very swift end. Yet the warning clearly flashed. There was only one destination in that case.

The male, tall even for a Vokian, glanced at the Wasps they were supposed to escort. Surely they could wait. The armory was just behind them after all. A quick stop and they could resume their patrol. A glance at his partner revealed she had similar thoughts. She was biting her lips in that frustrated way whenever something irritated her.

The Vokian made his decision. "Stay," he ordered.

The bugs stopped moving as if frozen in time. Satisfied, he turned to his partner. "Let's gear up. Don't wanna run into enemies empty handed."

She snorted, then turned around. She really was irritated. Somehow he didn't think this was solely because of the intruders.

The vokian shrugged. He fell into step beside her as they made their way back to the armoury. As they walked, he wandered who had found them and how. They took great pride in their secrecy, and yet for the first time in decades someone had breached their defenses. He wouldn't be surprised if it was a wild RAD that somehow tripped an alarm or something. Yeah that was most likely i—!

The vokians froze in place, startled by the men they were suddenly face-to-face with. A quick glance at their gear revealed the truth. Both were too short to be vokians. The bulk of their suits were leather with a few protective padding made from reinforced metal. These men were the intruders.

There were two armed guards just beyond the bend. If they could somehow alert them...

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his partner open her mouth to scream. Crude, but effective. However, his eyes widened in shock when she suddenly doubled over. The taller of the two had launched a swift jab to her throat.

The vokian made to go to his partner's aid, but the unmistakable cock of a gun's firing chamber drew his attention to a revolver trained at his rather broad chest. At this range, he was far too large a target. But at the worst he would get shot. The sound would attract the guards regardless.

Dayle studied his quarry over the barrel of his gun. He could see the gear turning in the big man's head. He was weighing his options, and from the way his muscles were tightening, it seemed he had made his decision.

Beside them, Arthur was laying some merciless beatdown on the female Vokian. After his jab to her throat disoriented her, he followed up by hard simultaneous slaps to the ears. He knew how much the woman's head would be ringing, but he did not let up. He continued with quick blows to her face as she staggered backwards away from him. Her nose cracked under one such blow.

Interesting, Arthur noted, their blood was much darker than a regular human's.

Arthur entered her space as she reared back in pain. He place his right leg behind her unstable legs, then pushed hard on her chest. She fell over.

The male vokian seemingly having had enough charged at him. He had come to the conclusion that the other intruder would not shoot unless he absolutely had to. Whatever they were doing here, they were prioritizing stealth. Well, that worked in his favor. His race were vastly superior in strength to the humans. If he could give his partner a little breathing room, she would regain the upper hand.

Dayle cursed as the red hulk pushed Arthur off the woman. The asshole had called his bluff. Well, as long as he had his weapons, he still had the advantage. Dayle kept his revolver trained at the hulking man even as he grabbed Arthur by the throat and slammed him against the wall.

Dayle watched with calculating eyes as the woman coughed and spluttered, struggling to get to her feet. Damn, Arthur had really done a number on her canals. It would be a few seconds before she could find her bearings. More than enough for the young agent.

Being the son of one of the richest families in England might seem like a godsend... As long as you didn't go to boarding school. As a child, Arthur was quite short for his age, and very timid. He soon learned that a combination of those traits and old money meant you were easy pickings for older, stronger, bigger bullies.

When his parents found out, rather than change schools, start an inquisition, or an uproar.. you know, like normal overly rich parents, they enrolled him in everything from Taekwondo to guerrilla and Muay Thai. Then told him to go defeat all his bullies and send pictures as proof. The result of this spartan training was the greatest hand-to-hand combatant the agency had ever seen. It didn't matter if the opponent had twenty pounds on him, the British agent knew several ways to subdue foes larger than him.

All of that was in full display as Arthur kicked the man in the crotch. The man's grip loosened as his eyes flashed in confused in confused pain. Arthur grabbed the vokian's forearm just below the elbow, his thumb digging into the space between the bones. The young agent silenced a burgeoning scream with knuckles to an exposed throat.

The hand fell off his throat, but Arthur did not release it. He yanked the arm towards himself. He placed a palm on the advancing man's midriff, then used his own momentum to flip him against the wall.

The vokian slumped as he slid down below Arthur's feet. Before he could recover, Arthur kicked his jaw like it was a football. He did not move again.

Arthur immediately glanced at the woman. She was still recovering from the ringing in her ears. Her eyes were unfocused, and she was swaying on her feet. Arthur dashed toward her. He jumped, then kneed her in her belly. She coughed and doubled over from the extreme blow. A roundhouse kick to her jaw finally put her out of her misery.

Panting hard, he turned to Dayle who had drawn his second revolver. "Thanks a lot for your help," he shot drily.

"Oh, you're welcome," said Dayle cheerfully. "These guns can be so heavy."

Arthur groaned inwardly. Starting a fight with Dayle was the equivalent of running in quicksand. He squatted next to the female. "What do you think these guys are?" He asked as he rifled through the woman combat pants. He recovered her ID shield, with the words 'Intruder Alert' still flashing on the screen.

"Dead," Dayle answered as he pressed against the wall and shuffled to the edge. He swallowed a deep breath then stole around the corner in a hard sprint. The guards at the end of the hallway noticed his approach and made to raise their rifles.

Dayle was faster.

Two shots took out the camera overhead. The device exploded. The vokians momentarily ducked to shield their faces from the falling sparks. Several shots rang out in the resulting chaos as the vokian squeezed their triggers, rifles roughly pointed at Dayle.

The agent did not falter, even as a laser slammed against his right shoulder. He stifled a cry. Damn it! Reduced pain or not, that hurt like hell! Those kinetic barriers on the human suits sure seemed like a good idea right about now. Luckily his armour had enough to prevent the heat from searing through to his skin... For now.

Dayle bent low as he ran, arms crossed in front of his face to prevent any shots from hitting his helmet. Worst case scenario, he could get a concussion... or worse.

The vokians, recovered from the miniexplosion, gritted their teeth as they systematically crouched low, one knee on the ground. They raised their rifles at the... Where the hell was he!? Their blood collectively froze when they felt cold steel press against the back of their necks.

"Who gets to live?" Dayle calmly asked. Before either could respond, the one to his right dropped to the ground, blood oozing from a sizeable hole in his forehead. "You," Dayle said as he rounded the guard. "Drop it."

The vokian clutched the gun even tighter. If it could just get a chance it wou—BANG!

Dayle grunted. He hated people like these. Their missions always preceded their lives. Ridiculous notion. Nothing could be accomplished by a dead man. He snorted as he sifted through their pants. Both had a similar shield to the one Arthur had found.

Dayle stood and examined the door they'd been guarding. He placed a palm on a panel next to it. It asked for a fingerprint scan. Dayle grumbled to himself as he lifted the closest vokian and placed his palm on the scanner. The door slid open with a short hiss.

"Woah," Dayle whistled as he examined the large hall. Unlike the tunnels, there was a distinct lack of mucus walls, instead replaced by reinforced concrete with chromic finishing. Several weapons of different kinds and classes were displayed on tables and racks on the walls, including a few vests and helmets.

Arthur picked up a sizeable grenade launcher from a far wall. "These don't have level-locks," he noticed. Level-lock was a system designed to prevent newbies from getting the toughest weapons from the get-go. Most guns manufactured by the cities synchronized with the gauntlet and read their levels. If the gun was too high, the owner would have to wait until he/she reached the required level.

Dayle smiled as he lifted a pair of revolvers from one of the display cases. The guns had a rugged look to them, worn out by age. The barrels were quite fat, though not as long as his current weapons. Tapes wrapped the handles to enhance grip. However, despite its decrepit look, the weapon's stats considerable dwarfed his. No choice then. He returned the old revolvers to the inventory, then holstered the new ones. "Grab what you can. We'll have Dee take a look at them."

After stockpiling on all the explosives they could find, the dup quickly looted as much of the armoury as their inventory allowed. The entire process took them about a minute. Cameras meant surveillance. Surveillance meant someone had seen them come in. Which meant very soon...

Dayle pushed Arthur to the ground with a shout as a nearby table exploded in a brilliant flash of red and yellow. Both men rolled to their feet then spun around, weapons raised. Their eyes went wide at the monstrosity at the door.

A vokian of about eight feet or more blocked the entrance. The man who was more akin to a beast hoisted a Gatling gun as large as a normal human with a grenade launcher attached below. Fury burned in the man's eyes as the barrel began a slow rotation of death.

"I hate you," Arthur swore bitterly.

Dayle laughed and drew his guns.