Han offered a brief sigh, "I'll have your back, of course." he said, making sure it was clear that he would stick with Niko regardless of what his next move was. He gave his word that he would help Niko with this mission he was on. And Han had every intention of honoring his word. So if Niko wished to depart for Mars immediately, then Han would offer no objections and join him on the ship.

"She wasn't bluffing about the gravity." he commented, lifting his now heavier arm and tightening his hand into a fist. Weight training was something he had only been exposed to briefly before he'd severed his ties with his father. Of course, that was accomplished via weighted clothing, but even that wasn't quite the same level as this. So even though Han understood the concept, this was still going to take some getting used to. But he recalled something his great-grandfather had always said: Training was never truly finished. Han could see just how true those words were, now. But he also wondered if even his great-grandfather could have foreseen this kind of training?

"Well, your intention is fairly obvious." Han said to Niko, correctly picking up on his desire to use this gravity for training, "And that being the case, we would be wise not to waste our travel time. I'm ready if you are."

It occurred to Han to this would be his first time going to Mars. In fact it would be his first time going into space altogether. He never had any reason to visit Mars or leave the planet, at least not until now. It was a shame that his first time into space had to be under such circumstances, but there was nothing to be done about that now.

@Darkmoon Angel@BladeSS4

Krillin sighed in exasperation, "The point of my story isn't to entertain you. It is to tell you what we're up against. Specifically, a despicable villain known as Frieza, whom I first met on Planet Namek, IF you would just let me get to that part..." His words trailed off as he sighed.

The other fighters were watching Krillin and Bakuto closely, carefully sizing the situation. The only person that was acting differently was the blonde girl that stood closest to Bakuto. Her eyes were fixated on Krillin, and with every passing second, her eyes got a little wider, as if she was trying to send him some kind of message.

"You know what?" Krillin said suddenly. He could tell that Bakuto was only half listening, that the youngster was itching for a fight. "You remind me of Goku a little bit. You know, the guy that's been at the center of most of my stories, if you've been listening at all. Anyways, he also likes to rush into things. Only, he's always had the strength to back it up. I wonder if you do."

"Pawpaw!" The blonde girl beside Bakuto finally spoke up. "I hope you're not about to do what I think you're going to do."



"What?" Krillin smiled. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

The girl simply glared at him scolding.

Krillin rolled his eyes. "What else would you have me do, honey? He needs a lesson in humility."

She paused, then said, "Let me fight him."

Krillin thought on this for a second, then shrugged, turning back to Bakuto. "It's up to you young sir. You can fight me if you want. Or you can fight my great grand daughter here. Either way, you don't stand a chance."

"I owe you, big time, but you'll have to tell me why it was arranged like this when I get back, alright?"

Marai's face turned a shade redder as Niko said his peace. "Yeah, well... when you get back, okay? So don't go dying up there."

As the door shut, she raised a hand to say goodbye. Then she walked over to a computer desk that sat in a far off corner of the large warehouse. After pressing a few keys, the roof to the warehouse began to open. While it opened, she presses a few more buttons to bring her communication systems online.

Her voice came through the speakers of the ship. "So how long do you want to spend getting to Mars? I'll calibrate your flight plan accordingly. This ship can get you there in as quickly as two days, and there are enough supplies on board to keep a person fed and comfortable for up to three months. But seeing as there are two of you, and you'll probably be training or whatever, I'd estimate you have enough supplies for three or four weeks."

While Marai was speaking, she was also running diagnostics and running other supplemental programs. She was good at it too, because by the time she made her announcement, her keyboard went quite. All she had to do now was enter a single number: the number of days Niko and Han wanted to spend in space.

He nodded with a smirk as Wu-Han basically called out his intentions. Yeah, it was obvious that he didn't want to be jet-lagged, space-lagged, or ANY-lagged once they got their asses to Mars. This wasn't gonna be a walk in the park, going to or returning from Mars. He wanted to benefit from the opportunity given here, no question. They might need it, especially since the opposition would be armed and Niko hadn't had possession of even a pistol, lately. So, with them getting somewhat acclimatized to the somewhat-stronger-than-Earth gravity, they would essentially be ready for lift-off as the hatch was closed and Mirai got on the built-in communications channel. She asked them how long they wanted to be in space. They had resources for 3-4 weeks, depending on how it got stretched out.

"I think three weeks, so we have an emergency supply to ration in case of trouble sounds about right."

The number was entered and the craft took off, with the two occupants nar'ly feeling a thing. The sensation of motion, surely, but no more than you would if inside of a car. It would vanish, pretty much, as soon as they left the atmosphere. Space travel was weird like that. He'd studied some of the effects in his spare time after his parents died, learning the practical aspects of the whole thing. That book wouldn't have much application for what came next. This flying sphere was to be their world for the next 21 days, a counter which displayed on the status screen of the main console now. Niko would spend the next hour or two looking over the console and its functions while he'd asked Han to look over the ship itself to see that everything was alright. With the auto-pilot engaged, the ship would guide them to Mars in the allotted time, making minor course corrections on its own according to sensory input to avoid any objects in space. All of this was perfectly fine and normal. In a pinch, Niko knew basically how to operate the maneuvering controls, but his brother was the real pilot.



Training began later on. After making sure the console was locked against accidental input - You'd have to just hit a couple of keys in sequence to undo it - so nothing could change the settings of the machine while they worked, they got going. The two fighters would grant each other a further look into one another's schools of fighting. Soldiers and assassins had one thing very much in common, especially for Niko because of his sniper background: They were taught to eliminate a target as quickly as possible, and knew the weakpoints of a human being to achieve such ends. To that end, the thing that Niko and Wu-Han had in common was that they were both effectively holding back on one another, preventing themselves from going immediately for a killing blow.

Also, specialty techniques were definitely forbidden inside the ship, especially Niko's.

In the beginning, Niko was more obliged to talk about his background in fighting and how he came to be under Athena's tutalege, and he would ask Han about his own situation so he could better understand the other man's approach to fighting. This worked out with the fact that the two of them first had to exercise themselves so that their bodies could better function in the increased gravity. Niko was in charge of organizing the actual training regimen because his military background was well-suited to divide up the time. Any input the assassin had to modify it was heard out, of course, but it was clear that he had a fair idea of the scheduling and took this all rather seriously. No half-hearted attempts here. He'd been waiting for this opportunity and he was taking it.

Actual spars would only occur when the two men could jump at all without hurting their ankles upon landing. Once that was out of the way, it was Niko's school of speed and attack versus Han's school of defense and wearing your opponent down. There were discussions about trying out each other's methods of combat, but it became clear early on that neither of them was suited for it by instinct. Niko had it engrained into his being that staying still could mean death, because standing still allowed an enemy to draw a bead on you, and then you get shot. Wu-Han, on the other hand, was of the habit of never wasting too much energy, and that most opponents did just this when fighting him. Neither of these styles were inherently wrong, just that it meant that overcoming it to train an entirely-different means of combat would be essentially like starting fresh from nothing, or almost nothing. It wasn't worth their time. To understand the other's style and be prepared for it was enough, as the two of them would continue to do. Was the gravity raised even more as they approached Mars? Not above Mirai's recommendations...mostly.

There was one day, once their bodies had caught up well enough to the Earth's-gravity-times-two, that Niko suggested at least trying out a little higher than 2x. Not by much, maybe like 2.25, just to see if they could get use to that before landing, to push a limit towards the end. He'd only go with it if Han agreed, and they wouldn't go further than that, and they'd quit that if the pressure seemed to be getting too much for them at once. He was keen to try, but he wasn't going to play the fool on this. In any case, that was how they would spend their time in space.

Well, it was a good thing Niko was able to pilot the ship, because Han didn't know the first thing about Space or flying. In retrospect, it would have been pretty awkward to have to find a pilot on such short notice. Thankfully there was no need. But now, three weeks of training and preparation were ahead of them. And frankly, also three weeks of them being together and with little choice but to better get to know each other. That was fine, he supposed. When it was all said and done, the two could probably stand to gain a bit more trust in one another and this seemed the best way to do that.



Speaking of his background to someone was a bit awkward at first. Where would he even begin, except with his childhood as that was really where it all began for him? Much of the story wasn't a pleasant one, and it largely included Han's rather Spartan-upbringing by his father, who was always more concerned with his own legacy than Han's well-being. Still, Han's techniques had to come from somewhere, and that was it. These parts of the story were told during the first few days, when the two were still getting used to the increased gravity. And for Han, he wound up splitting that time between physical exorcises and meditation. Meditating in this gravity almost reminded him of sitting underneath a waterfall, albeit a rather strong waterfall.

Han trusted Niko's word on the scheduling. Such things were never something he put much priority in so it seemed wise to let the person with experience in such work be the one to plan it out. If asked, Han delved a little deeper into his story by recounting how his training actually began. At age 11, before any actual martial arts training was had, Han was first made to go camping in the wilderness alone for an entire week, armed with nothing but a knife. His father apparently believed this was a way for him to see how much of a natural survival instinct Han had, and the act of hunting for food would go a long way to prepare a young Han for the concept of killing another. It was only after this that the training had begun in earnest.

Once the sparring began, Han found himself reminded of his later training, and even talked a bit about it if asked. Starting at 13, Han's father had secretly instructed one of his previous disciples to attack Han at least once a week when the boy least expected it. He apparently wanted Han's reflexes to stay sharpened, and for him to develop the ability to anticipate traps and ambushes. The one doing the ambushing was in fact Li, one of the two men Han mentioned as a Lieutenant of his father. Li never actually hit Han or tried to kill him of course, instead merely going for a harmless tag or tackle. But from that point on, Li had become the go-to sparring partner for Han's training. And in time, Han began to see a brotherly figure in Li. In fact it always seemed as if Han had more fond things to say of Li than he had of his father. But even his former relationship with Li paled in comparison to one other person.

If there was one thing about his upbringing Han was always willing to talk about, it was his great-grandfather. He was the only one who ever interacted positively with Han. His father had always been distant, and even Li often only acted within the instructions he was given. In fact Han seemed to find every opportunity to bring up his great-grandfather when telling his story. For instance, it was Han's great-grandfather who taught him how to compose haikus. And it always seemed like he had some nugget of wisdom to offer for virtually any difficulty Han was faced with. To hear Han tell it, it was pretty clear that while his father was only interested in turning him into an assassin, it was his great-grandfather that made him into a more honorable martial artist.

Han had no qualms about attempting to the increase the gravity. Part of training was to always push yourself and discover just how far you could go. This seemed no different, to him. But as Mars loomed ever closer, and their arrival more imminent. Han found himself becoming increasingly on edge. It was something that had been nagging at him all along, but now it was becoming impossible to ignore.

"I won't lie to you." Han had said to Niko one day. seemingly out of the blue, "I want to put a stop to my father's machinations no matter what, but..." he gave a long pause, appearing to a tremble a bit, and not due to the gravity, "...the prospect of fighting him. Of fighting Li. Killing them, if it comes to it?" he didn't say anything further, because he didn't need to. It was obvious he was still coming to terms with the idea of possibly having to kill them, and wasn't sure how to process that or whether that would impair his judgement in a future battle. The last thing he wanted was to be a liability, but was he supposed to do?

@Balthazar007@FalloutJack

The flight to the island was uneventful to say the least, aside from the pilot giving Angela at least someone to chat with. After saying goodbye to the pilot after the landing, Angela hopped onto the small island. She was surprised to say the least, there were a lot of people gathered here on this tiny little piece of land. Mostly very burly men and women, save for one girl that Angela spotted. The girl seemed to perk up at the sight of Angela, understandable given the appearance of everyone else in the crowd. After a minute or two, a small old man exited the lone house that was on the island and, after a quick showcase involving a member of the crowd demonstrating that he wasn't someone to underestimate, started to tell a story.

Of course, he didn't get a chance to finish before a rock was thrown at him from the crowd. He caught it just in time before it hit him but he seemed a little annoyed by it. Angela looked to where the old man's attention was and noticed Bakuto in the crowd. He didn't... Did he? Why would he... Angela gave a sigh. What a way to make an impression, throwing a rock at the teacher. Bakuto sure got himself into a situation, now he was caught between fighting the old man or the girl that Angela spotted. She had stepped up to talk to the man and actually turned out to be his great granddaughter.

Angela shrugged to herself and found a spot to sit at. This wasn't her problem to get involved with and she was very interested to see how things played out.

"So let me get this straight?" Laoguai was clearly not happy, sitting menacingly at his desk. Even still, his voice remained as calm as usual, cold and intimidating, but calm nonetheless. "You left six assassins to do the job that I assigned to you?"

Goda spoke with his head bowed and tried to calmly plead his case. "I was just delegating sir. You gave me two missions. I thought they could take care of the boy, while I-"

"Enough!" Laoguai said, raising his voice momentarily. He then continued in his normal monotone voice. "I'm not interested in excuses. I'm going to give you one chance to redeem yourself, only because your primary mission was a success."

"Thank you sir." Goda replied in relief.

"My spies in Capsule Corp. say that Han and this Niko Renzo are on their way to Mars now. The Martian Mining Company is one of our biggest clients, and we can't let this Niko Renzo kid... or even my own son... to jeopardize this relationship. My sources tell me they are on course to arrive in about three weeks. I want you to take four of my most elite assassins and terminate this Niko Renzo at all costs. As for Han, I'd prefer you incapacitate him and bring him back to me, but failing that... he too must be terminated."

"Understood sir." Goda said raising head, but not quite enough to make direct eye contact. "Do you want me to choose the assassins that will be joining me? Or...?"

"You can choose any of these." Laoguai slid an unlabeled folder on his desk closer to Goda.

There was a moment of silence as the man looked through the papers inside. "I notice Li isn't in here."

"No. He isn't." He didn't explain himself, and Goda knew better than to press his luck with more questions, especially while he wasn't in the boss's good graces. "Now go, and choose your team." He said, leaning back in his chair. "Your flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. You'll be arriving on Mars a week before Han and Mr. Renzo get there. That should be plenty of time to plan your mission."

"Yes sir!" Goda answered confidently, bowing low to show his respect. Then, he rose, turned, and headed straight for the door.

As he put his hand on the door handle, Laoguai spoke once more, freezing him in his tracks. "This goes without saying, but to be clear... failure is not an option here... You understand don't you?"

A cold sweat ran down Goda's back as he answered, still frozen in place. "Yes sir."

"Good." Laoguai said simply.

Goda exited the room without another word, knowing full well what his boss had demanded of him. If he were to fail this mission, he would have to either fall on his own blade, or he would become a priority target for the very organization he worked for. The first option would probably be best, as Laoguai was known for disposing of traitors himself.

The girl stepped between Bakuto and Krillin, facing Bakuto. "You'll fight me then, and trust me. I'm doing you a favor."

"Don't go easy on him, baby doll." Krillin said as he backed away. The rest of the crowd also backed off, giving the two fighters as much room as they would need.

The girl's pale skinned face went red quickly, betraying her calm voice, "Don't call me that pawpaw. Just use my name." She didn't take her eyes off Bakuto as she spoke. Her next words aimed at Bakuto as much as they were to Krillin. "My name is Lazuli, and I promise, I won't be 'going easy on you'. I'll only hold back enough not to kill you, got it, but keep your guard up, or I can't guarantee that second part."

"That's my baby girl. Go get him Lazuli!" Krillin hollered as he picked his legs up off the ground and crossed them. He didn't bother picking up his staff this time, leaving himself comfortably floating in mid air.

Lazuli sighed in embarrassment at being called "baby girl". As she sighed, she dropped her head, momentarily closing her eyes. Would Bakuto take this opportunity to make the first move?

Lazuli's Power Level: 2000
Lazuli's Health: 2000

@BladeSS4

Mars was largely terraformed, and properly too. The bulk of the landscape was still like Arizona, but cold, so maybe more like the Gobi Desert. You could breathe alright, and conditions weren't bad for the most part, but the air was a little thin away from the cities, like being on a mountain. Food and air was being generated in stable hydroponic areas all across the planet to make it more liveable, and numerous machines were working 'round the clock to break down, analyze, and re-orient the structure of the Martian soil to become more fertile, more Earth-like. It was a terraforming project in progress, and it was doing well. The new territories, the unregulated economy, the huge deposits of mineral wealth to be found here... It was windfall, windfall, windfall, especially if your name was Brett Tavors, CEO of the Martian Mining Corporation. Speaking of which, here we are.

The main office of the MMC was a tall skyscrape-fortress, designed to withstand heavy dust and sand storms, which could still occur on Mars. It was built to this level of defense officially so that their employees wouldn't have to 'feel the bumps' while at work. It was really to protect their assets from attack. Much like any company's built-in lawyer defense team, this one was built for combat, with a private security force and a HELLUVA lot of weapons. But hey, given what they were raking in now, all the risks taken as of late were worth the rewards...except for possibly one. They had a fortress within a heavily-guarded perimeter within a heavily-patrolled town with an outer perimeter wall (officially constructed as a windbreaker to prevent the storms from blasting through the streets at full speed), but even still...right now...the owners and operators of this company were not feeling secure. Brett now sat in comference with his board of directors, a group of men and women who were all-in on this, and were now all uneasy because of that little shit who refused to die.

"So, let me see if I grasp the fullness of our situation, right here. We are a pretty damn powerful corporation, are we not? We were daring enough to stake all our livelyhoods on this project, we were committed to making sure that our competition would eat space dust while we hit the finish line, and we all made out like bandit kings. Our influence is great on Earth, and our power is like GODS on this world. And yet..."

He raised a finger, giving them all a pointed stare.

"And yet...we are unable to silence those who keep wanting to raise a stink about our operation. Oh, we were content to ignore it because it was just a pair of punk kids turned soldier. Who cares? Why draw attention to ourselves? Well, let me think... Oh right. Because it turns out that if you train in the army, you start to become a threat! And he DID become a threat, didn't he now?! So much so, that he won enough money to FORCE that investigation we don't need, and he survived the fucking assassins we hired TOO LATE TO DO ANY DAMN GOOD!!"

He slammed the table as rose to his feet, glowering at the people now rooted to their seats with fear. They were his accomplices and they had helped build this corporation, but he could have them all shot. Hell, he had a gun on him. He could kill them all, right now. Maybe just one, just to set an example. This man was a character, and if you're thinking Martin Sheen versus Gary Oldman, you're getting close. He slumped back down in his chair, leaning back a little now.

"Repeat to me again what the Wuye-ying say."

One of the board members read the message from them, once more.

"They said 'Target escaped execution on Earth, now heading to Mars, albeit slowly. Will send top assassin to intercept to guarantee-'"

"Bullshit."

The CEO straightened up again, then pointed to one of the lady directors in the room, who handled some of their espionage offworld.

"Our people on Earth report that Jonathan Renzo was badly injured, but the assassin died before he could complete his task-"

"Failed."

"-while there is every indication that Captain Athena was completely unharmed and no trace has been found of the one sent to her-"

"Faaailed."

"-leaving the fate of Niko Renzo the worst of all, as it would appear his assassin has joined forces with him-

"Worthless pieces of shit, the lot of them. I paid good money for martial artists because that's what I was up against, and what happened? I should've hired a kid with a load of chemicals and too much free time. THAT would've done it! BOOM! Dead. Three weeks ago, this kid and his new pal blasted off from Earth and have been taking their sweet time getting here. Now, maybe it's to throw us off, like we wouldn't see them coming, but they're wrong. Even without any obvious emissions, it can't be hard to pinpoint a ship idling along in space for three weeks, right? Well?"

"We DO have their coordinates and have calculated several landing vectors."

And now, in a manner that made everybody in the room feel just a bit more afraid, Brett lightened up suddenly...and smiled.

"Alright! We have them in our sights. Now...do we take them down in transit, or do we wait until they land? Thoughts? Anyone? No? Tell you what... Let's flip a coin."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Capsule Corp vessel was automatically adjusting its course and speed now to come in for a proper landing on Mars. From orbit, Mars still looked kind of dead, but there were developments. There were improvements. Also, no Martian war machines or evil alien diseases waiting for them. The imaginations of H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Doctor Who, and so on were thankfully not to be realized. That said, some of the more realistic movies about the conditions of Mars were not far off, especially that Matt Damon film, in the beginning. Point is, the planet was entirely tame, but you'd take it sled dog racing. These past three weeks, though... Helluva workout, and the things he was learning were both impressive and potentially troubling. Wu had stated right out that even though he was helping out, he wasn't comfortable fighting family, or this guy Li. The only real assurance that Niko could give in case they DID come after them was that he promised not to kill them if the opportunity presented it. His training was thus to take such opportunities, sometimes, but it wasn't right for him to decide their ultimate fate with Wu right there on his side like that. It would be just about as the killing of his own parents. Anyway, that was a problem maybe in the future, not right now. After all, if those assassins wanted them NOW, they would have to search an entire planet, and maybe its moons. Niko sat down at the console now.

"Okay, we are coming upon Mars orbit, shifting gravity back down to normal while we come in for a smooth land-"

He'd touched just a few buttons, perfectly normal routine stuff, when the interior lights went red and a siren started up!

"AGH! Whoa, whoa, what the hell? I didn't do that! What's going on?!"

The ship scanners immediately called up a display on multiple contact points on the screen that were getting bigger, identifying them as-

"Missles?! Mars doesn't have a missle defense grid! Not by the military! Oh shit... Wu, strap in! We have to land right now!"



There wasn't simply a few missles, but ALOT of them, and they were coming in from different vectors, meaning somebody had either a bunch of permanent surface-to-orbit missles stations around, or they had that kind of ordinance able to be mobilized and pulled to a location. Either way, this wasn't good! Niko wasn't an expert pilot, but one thing he knew about this ship was that it was fast, and it was small, and it had great control over itself. He pushed the controls from making a nice safe landing to 'express elevator to hell' mode, dropping the sphere-ship down down down through the atmophere to avoid the missles. The ground was many feet below them, but the speed this thing was going, they would reach it in no time flat, and if he didn't stop it, they would both BE flat. Kamikaze-diving a planet in even one of the BEST ships he'd ever seen would still kill you, no question. Let's just say, the speed they were going would put pressure even on the currently-maintained 1-G inside of the ship. Because of this, they avoided the missles...but two of them were close enough to start tracking and they followed them down!

"Ah, shit... Come one, come on, come on!"

He maneuvered the ship left and right quickly, not so much trying to shake them, but rather hoping that they weren't- AWW, YES!! They weren't smart missles! They collided with each other, trying to track him when he jiggled about and- OH, GROUND GROUND GROUND GROUND GROUND!!! Niko put on all the stops to the ship's heavy descent, reversing external gravi-thrust, probably giving them a jolt similar to what the ancient astronauts got from escape velocity...hanging there for a second, before...hitting the landing gear button and letting the ship come to the ground...which they'd depressed slightly from the forces of the Capsule Ship's engines.

"Okay... We're down...and down safe. Let's...not worry about where, just yet. Let's find a town, use some Capsule transport to get there, and not risk getting blown up for a while, okay?"

Lazuli heard the sand shift underneath Bakuto's feet and thought to herself. 'He fell for it.' He didn't look like he was going to make the first move, so she found an excuse to close her eyes, to bait him.

Concentrating on a whole different level than Bakuto had seen before, she didn't even bother to open her eyes. She didn't even know he was using an after image technique. Instead, she listened to the ever so faint sounds of his footsteps, breathing, and even his heartbeat. Even without these sounds, she could still track him, following his Ki.

When Bakuto finally got close enough to land his decisive blow, Lazuli made her move. She shifted her body in such a way to avoid his attack and counter with a quick decisive blow of her own. Crouching down, she went for a quick double punch to his mid section. She wanted to avoid hitting him too hard in one spot; she didn't want to punch a hole through him or anything.

Of course, all this happened in a matter of seconds. The only person to follow the action completely would be Krillin, as he watched from his floating position, with a proud grin on his face.

Seriously Fast Counter Attack
Lazuli's Power Level: 2000
Lazuli's Health: 2000
Attack: 100
Speed: 300x2 = 600
Defense: 80



Lazuli's eyes were barely open as her fists made contact with Bakuto's torso. She felt and heard bones inside his body crack. Then, he went flying into the ocean, 100 yards into open waters. While he was mid air, Lazuli could already tell he was falling unconscious. She had messed up royally. Here she was, worrying about her Paw Paw going overboard, while she herself was no better.

The sound of Bakuto hitting the water snapped her out of her self loathing state. She dashed after him, to save him from drowning.

@BladeSS4

Angela watched as Bakuto made the first move and rushed Lazuli, using the after image technique he pulled off during the tournament. Normally, the after images did a great job at masking Bakuto's next move, Angela knew first hand that it was a strong technique. She waited to see what Lazuli would do to counter, or even if she would counter. Unfortunately for Bakuto, she did.

Angela had only blinked and Bakuto was sent flying away, landing far into the ocean waters. It took Angela a minute to process what happened as she stood up and ran to the water's edge. Lazuli had already gone off into the water to help Bakuto. "What... Just happened?" Was all Angela could say as she stood in shock at what she witnessed. Not only was Bakuto countered so easily, he was completely wiped out by the counter. Lazuli was barely paying attention to him and yet she perfectly countered and overpowered his after images with no effort.

To say she was surprised would be an understatement, Angela was confused, shocked, and scared. Lazuli was obviously stronger than she let on, and if this was the kind of fighter that was on the planet, what could she expect from someone not of this planet? She fell to the ground and just sat there. What did she get herself into?

Niko and Han hadn't even landed yet, and they already had a close run in with death. This wasn't going to be an easy mission, that was for sure. While they didn't have any proof, they would be right to guess that the MMC was behind the attack and that they would be hot on their trail.

One with military training, the other from a core of assassins, they both knew how much trouble they were in as they stepped out of their space ship. Sure, they were strong, but one long range sniper with good aim and from an unsuspecting angle could take them out right now. They had to get moving quickly.

They had landed quite a ways from the closest city, ten to twenty miles away, but with the mostly barren landscape before them, they could still see the tops of skyscrapers. The tallest one was the MMC headquarters, ominous and imposing. The setting sun behind the city's skyline only highlighted the massive structure even more. A setting sun was a good thing though. Once in the city, they would be able to move around in the shadows.

So the two took off, toward the city, staying close to any rocks that might provide them cover from bullets... just in case. They reached the city's edge in only a few minutes, surprised by their own speed. They weren't sprinting, running sure, but not at top speed. All their training on the ship had obviously paid off. Combine that with the weakened gravity of Mars and they were practically demi-gods now.

There was a large fence surrounding the city, thirty feet tall with spikes at top and emitting a buzzing sound from tons of electricity. This was only a deterrent however. The bigger threat was the wall, just behind the fence. A tall metal structure, perhaps one hundred feet tall, with turrets at the top. The fence and wall both circled around the entire city, with eight gates that only opened to let large work vehicles in and out, and most of these trucks had the MMC logo on their side.

What would the two men do to get passed this barricade? With their new level of strength, they could perhaps jump over, but then they risk being shot down by the turrets. Or maybe sneak through the gates somehow and risk being discovered. Or was there another way they hadn't thought of yet?

The last thing Bakuto saw was the twinkling light of the midday sun, distorted by the water, as he slowly sank. Then it all went black.

Lazuli emerged from the water with a splash, like a dolphin doing tricks. In her arms, she held Bakuto's unconscious body. They were a good distance further out to sea than where he first entered the water. His momentum had carried him far, despite the water's resistance.

Once entirely out of the water, a few feet in the air, she stopped. She was floating, just like her great grandfather Krillin, who was still in the same spot, with his legs off the ground and crossed as if he were sitting. He held back a smirk as she flew toward the beach in a hurry, yet not too fast. She was being as gentle as she could, considering she was holding an injured person.

She set him down in the sand next to Krillin. "I'm so sorry." She said quietly, with wide eyes. She wasn't sure if Bakuto could hear her. He had spit up some water just after they emerged , and he was already breathing semi-normally, but his eyes were still closed. She took a step back and fell on her butt, in the sand, with her knees slightly bent in front of her and leaning back a little on her hands.

Krillin lowered his legs to the ground, while pulling something out of his pocket. He then knelt down beside Bakuto carefully, staring at him, expecting him to wake up any second. When he didn't wake up right away, he poked the young man in the ribs, the ones he could tell were broken. It was a rude way to wake someone up, but he hoped the senzu bean in his hand would be enough to make up for it.

There really wasn't much Han could do during their descent onto Mars. He watched the monitors and alarm lights, but unfortunately didn't any of what it all meant, other than that they could be in trouble. So for the entire descent and landing, he could only sit in his seat and trust in Niko to get them to ground safely. Which he did, thankfully. It was only after they exited the craft did Han finally feel like he could provide any useful input. Of course, he was bit distracted at first by how much faster the two could now run. Evidently that training was indeed a good idea as it was now paying off in spades.

In only minutes, they reached the edge of the city. And before them a big metal wall surrounded by electric fence. So this was to be their first obstacle, then. How exactly to get through, though? With how fast they ran here, they likely could jump it. But those turret towers would surely shoot them down, and sneaking through the entrance seemed an even riskier idea. He wondered if they were strong enough to break through the wall. Jump just high enough to clear the fence, but still low enough to stay out of shooting range of the turrets. The only real question was whether they could successfully breaking an opening in the wall to get through.

"Any ideas?" Han finally said, but even as he did that he was repeated clenching his hand into a fist and staring at it, as if sizing up whether or not his idea would be feasible or not.

@FalloutJack@Balthazar007

---

He really hadn't expected it to be like this. Any of it.

As they left the ship and he locked up, Niko was still shocked by the attack that had just occurred mere minutes ago. Wu-Han was alot more chill, but Niko had been the one working at the controls, so all the other man could do anyway was ride it out. They were here now on Mars, and the actions taken against them already told Niko that this wasn't going to be as easy as he initially thought. He'd allowed himself to grow cocky, because he was one of the strongest people in the world, as of now, and that he'd just spent a good while covering his bets by training further. But then, he hadn't reckoned on missles. Had to be reminded here: Guns and artillery were still plenty powerful, and he didn't even have a pistol to his name.

Really oughta' rectify that, if I can.

In time, perhaps. Speaking of which, it was time they got out of here. The MMC may or may not have the ability to track them down. No more missles, for now, but if some patrols were sent out to find them, that wouldn't surprise him. Realizing that bringing out a Capsule bike or something right now would actually give their position away by prevaling dust cloud - Mars could still kick up dirt like going off-road on the deserts of Earth - it seemed wiser to take things by foot. It wasn't hot and it wasn't gonna BE hot. This was Mars, which meant that - even after all the progress in terraforming - it would still be kinda' cold. Can't beat Earth's proximity to the sun, sometimes. Anyway, they started moving and... Okay, so you know how you might be driving in Kansas and, despite the speed you're going, you feel like you aren't moving? Well, this was that in reverse!

"Holy- What the...?"

Imagine surging forwards, but you get where you're going quicker than you expected, and you're not even trying! Niko started moving, and then flinched while looking back, feeling that he was already exceeding his fastest movement on Earth. Was this just the weak gravity? No no no... This is what all that training gets you! Oh...he made the right decision. The MMC may've taken potshots at them, and they may have all the guns, but right now, Niko was pretty sure he could whip all of his peers from basic training. It put a smile on his face. He wasn't going to underestimate the fact that their enemy had a strong hold of this planet, but perhaps the odds were a bit more even? Speaking of which, their enemy had an actual stronghold on this planet, as in a monolith of heavy materials surrounded by an electric fence, a security wall, and likely numerous guards inside. They were quickly approaching this now - as they didn't apparently even NEED a car, right now, when it'd been in view soon after leaving their landing site - while having used all the cover to get here about as undetected as was conceivable. They hadn't sent a squad of James Bond villain henchmen after them, so the tactic seemed to work. Now, they had their first real obstacle, Han looking to him for suggestions. Niko had been thinking on the way here, looking at the structure and reasoning out the likely security procedures for this fortress city.

"Well, it's an octogonal perimeter wall and fence with eight entrances and probably a decent security check at the gates. The turret guns will fire at anything that moves within their general field of view, and while it doesn't look like they're too close to an entrance, naturally all the guards are armed so as not to generally matter. This would be difficult on a standard infiltration team, which I've been a part of, but right now I don't have any kit."

Apart from no guns on his person, he had no camouflage gear, no body armor, no sensor baffles, no hacking gear, no nothing. He was dressed in his civvies and had that kind of loadout: Wallet, keys, cellphone, and a few Capsules. With this in mind, however, Niko smirked.

"That said...we've worked up a physical advantage that gives us options. For instance, we could wait for a truck of some kind bound for the city, maybe get on its back without the driver noticing, and then get underneath it as it has to slow down for the gates. We remain out of anyone's field of view while on back and getting underneath, we're good at least until the guys with the mirror-sticks start checking the underside of the vehicle. From there, depending on how fast we are, we could bolt through the gate or fight long enough to put the guards on their asses and THEN book it. If I can get a handle on a gun, I could even disarm them with relative ease and we don't even have to dodge bullets, going in. At least, until someone else starts shooting."

He had always felt before that he didn't care too much what happened to MMC personnel throughout all this, that they deserved to be shot especially if he was being shot at FIRST, but ironically the assassin's judgement of his character - the very thing that stayed Han's hand in attempting to kill him - made Niko re-think this in the time they were traveling in space.

"The other idea I have in mind is immediately risky, but we don't have to fight any people unless they're right on the other side of the wall. Turrets will open fire on us as soon as we're in some unspecified range, most likely if we try jumping the fence or even a little before. This company can afford to repair a fence. So, they open fire, but maybe we're a bit quicker, and we get to the base of the wall and jump UP, tackling one of these turrets in the process. It can't fire because it's no longer able to hit us, the other nearest turrets likely won't fire because of their programming. They can afford to replace 'em too, but would you want your turrets destroying each other by accident? In any case, the second plan is simply believing that we can out-think a predictable killing machine, and ultimately at the end of this, we get into the city and they raise some kind of alarm on us."

He gave the assassin a serious look now.

"There's no way into that place that doesn't make security aware of us somehow, not unless we actually sneak out from under a truck too quickly for people to notice and slip away, which isn't likely. We have to think that they're going to discover us, and only be surprised at our luck if we are that lucky. Well...that is, unless you have another idea that could."

After all, an assassin like him could easily be a part of an infiltration team, as well. He might have a brilliant idea that Niko hadn't even thought of. Though...the way he'd been clenching his fists kind of indicated that he wanted to punch something really hard.

Han closed his eyes in thought. Unfortunately he wouldn't have much in the way of suggestions. He and - by extention - the Wuye-ying relied on more... traditional methods of infiltration. Disguises were the most commonly used tactic, but for an opponent with technology on this level, that alone was probably not sufficient. There was one other thought he did have, and it was one that was worth sharing.

"I can't offer much in the way of suggestions. Out here on a whole other planet, I'm afraid I'm a bit out of my element." it was only now that he opened his eyes again, "But whichever plan we do go with, it would behoove us to find some way to direct security away from us." he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "We ran here rather quickly, didn't we?" asked, a small suggestion making its way into his mind.

"Then we should use that. Find some way to create a diversion at one entrance, but make sure that we circle around to an opposite wall for our actual entry. Surely between the two of us we can create enough noise that security becomes more focused on one end of town while we slip in from the opposite end?"

To be honest, the suggestion was rather primitive in nature. At least compared to plans involving computer hacking and other such technological wizardry. But seeing as they were both rather limited in their own way, they would simply have to make do and find a way to make a plan like this work. Perhaps that physical advantage they worked up would allow for it? Once again his mind went back to the idea of breaking through the wall.

"I wonder... could we break it?" he asked, eyeing the wall before them, "If we're strong enough to put a hole in this wall... that would almost certainly draw the security over here. Perhaps it could be as simple as punching the wall and then making a silent dash for the opposite wall to make our actual entry over?"