[IC] ImportantNobody vs. DJAtomika - A Song of Fire and More Fire

[ImportantNobody]

"Sand. Why'd it have to be sand?" Rez remarked dully to himself, brushing the sand off of his robotic legs and boots before slipping them back on. It wasn't just an annoyance if too much sand was able to enter the various nooks and crannies, although he probably didn't have to worry too much. Even if it lowered his efficiency by 50%, which it certainly wouldn't even in the worst case scenario, he'd still be able to slaughter the native inhabitants of earth easily enough, judging from the glimpse he had gotten fighting some turban wearing individuals earlier. Perhaps they were just untrained novices because he'd feel far more threatened fighting a group of children from his own planet. Hardly a good warm-up and a waste of two clips of pistol ammo. There were likely more of them around who could get in his way again pretty soon, but not before he could approach the abandoned town that his actual targets were hiding. Hopefully they were at least worth the time and ammo that he'd spend here.

Technically it would be worth it anyways, given the large pay check he had gotten from some mysterious guy to carry out this mission. Still, it would be slightly annoying that he could be wasting his talents on this backwater planet if even this supposed elite team turned out to be pushovers. If that were the case than whoever hired him didn't take him too seriously. Maybe he'd have to correct that.

Just as he was making his first steps into the town, out of the corner of his eye he saw the same group of turban wearers approaching from a distance at his right, and they didn't approve of his previous antics judging by the bloodlust they showed, waving their guns around and screaming. He suppose he had to admire their tenacity, if nothing else.

He turned his attention back to the village, carefully moving down the allyway towards an area he expected his targets to be, his heavy machinegun held at the ready.

[DJAtomika]

"Two, on point. Four, take rear. Three, with me."

The four beige-clad men moved from the sands of the desert into shadier ground. Buildings, low and made of stone and clay, dotted the town they were entering.

"Hey One, this place looks suspicious or what?"

"On point, Three. Keep your eyes peeled. Double up, we need to get clear of the road."

The soldier called Two advanced up the dirt road towards a nearby two storey building, taking up a position next to the door as the rest of his squad silently followed. At the nod of One, Two kicked open the door and headed inside, the other three soldiers right behind him. Once inside, Two closed the door and his posture relaxed as he took off his balaclava and helmet.

"Think we got away from them?"

"Nah. They'll be on us in a few minutes, just you watch."

"Damn. Thought we could get away with that, Jimmy."

"Well you thought wrong, Con, you thought wrong."

The rest of the men followed suit, each of them removing their helmets and masks to rest.

Luis was one of them. Assigned the number Three, he was one part of the four man machine that was Tiger squad, a team of Delta Force operators currently on Egyptian soil (read: sand) clearing an infestation of terrorists camped out in the desert. Totally unreported by the news, of course. Black ops were their speciality. Tiger were one of the best. The team consisted of their leader, Jimmy Tong, a Chinese man from Delaware, Connor King the big African American medic with a heart as big as his biceps, himself and Lee, a mysterious man from Maui who was also their team marksman.

The operation had gone without a hitch; the insurgents were hiding underneath the sands, in caves dug by machine and camoflaged by beige tarps and netting. The work had gone on in the night, with the men masquerading as residents of Cairo in the day. Tiger had been inserted during the night and, using a combination of satellite imagery and GPS tracking, had located the base and promptly laid waste to it and the terrorists inside. What they hadn't counted on was another base just a couple hundred feet away, full of backup that were armed to the teeth. They'd hijacked a technical and drove away, under fire and outnumbered. The town was a sheer stroke of luck, and they'd picked it as the best place to hold out or avoid their pursuers.

Hopefully the insurgents would leave. Luis could hear them outside, ranting and yelling in Egyptian and Arabic.

He just wanted to rest and go home.

[ImportantNobody]

Rez spotted some motion out of the corner of his eye, and creeping carefully along for one as big as himself, he was able to spot them entering one of the buildings without them noticing him tailing them. He couldn't count on the other rabble to do his job for him, at least not completely. He'd certainly "help" them out a bit because he had little choice in the matter. They'd be joining the fight momentarily if he wanted them too or not, so might as well make the most of them.

He situated himself behind a corner overlooking the street with a great view of the building they were situated inside. The other group would be attacking from the other direction so Rez was effectively in their backfield. Should they make a mistake during the gunfight he would get in on the action to pick them off one by one.

[DJAtomika]

"Contact! Contact!"

Jimmy yelled as fire began to pepper the front wall of their shelter. The front door, a flimsy thing made of wood, splintered and tore under the sustained fire of the insurgents that took cover in the village square. Machine gun and assault rifle fire screamed and tore through the windows and door, thudding into the stone and dirt walls, making the four men within duck and dive for cover.

"Shit! Any plans, Jimmy?!"

"Take cover, wait for a lull! When we got a chance, flash and return fire!"

With a quick nod, Connor pulled a small metal canister from his vest and pulled the pin, keeping his grip on it tight. When the fire outside slowed as some of the enemy moved forward to check out the situation, he lobbed it out the window and covered his ears, his team following suit.

The flashbang grenade tumbled into the center of a circle of men and went off. An extremely loud bang followed by a burst of white light disoriented the turban-clad insurgents, making them fire their guns blindly into the air or floor.

With that distraction, Jimmy peeked out a window and leveled his gun.

"Return fire!"

The four men drew beads on exposed insurgents and fired. Rifles coughed and spat hot lead into warm bodies, toppling men where they stood. The firefight resumed in earnest, the two sides trading fire even as men fell to the professional work of Tiger team.

None, however, had noticed the cyborg soldier hiding nearby. The insurgent force was practically in front of him with their backs turned and big ol' targets painted on them.

[ImportantNobody]

Just as planned..well, except for the fact that the insurgents arrived sooner then expected and began to target him as well, although luckily it could easily be assumed to be misses on the Tiger team from their point of view due to how far away the group was and how inaccurate they could be. Time to get going! By they time they drew close enough to get a good shot off, bullets whizzing around him all the while, he darted around the corner to safety and stealthily made his way around back and over to the back entrance, opening it as silently as possible, peeking inside to make sure that they hadn't heard him. They hadn't, but that wasn't all luck because they would have had to have been looking his way in order to catch him, not focusing on the battle at hand. Rez let out a smirk as he leveled his gun at one of their backs; the one standing furthest to the left of the group.

He would attempt to take them all out before they noticed him, nonchalantly letting loose his entire clip in six seconds as he strafed from left to right, riddling the area with thirty fresh new bullet holes, hopefully each body filled with around half a dozen of his bullets so that they could all share in on his "present" to them. He didn't take time to aim too much in order to get them all covered as quickly as possible before they had time to react, so it was possible he'd miss some of them, but if they didn't notice him in time then the odds would be greatly lowered.

If they turned around and attacked him then he'd duck back out of the door and behind the wall to it's left side, reloading his clip as quickly as possible in preparation for the next engagement. They probably wouldn't be able to rush after him due to the gunfire from the opposing side, so he should be able to pull this attack off with little difficulty.

[DJAtomika]

Even the best laid plans go to waste sometimes.

As Luis ducked down to reload, back to the wall, he spotted the back door of their building swing open silently and a long, black barrel stick into the room.

In all their haste to take cover they'd forgotten to clear the building.

Amateur mistake.

One that would start costing lives.

The rifle fired, blitzing through the open space.

Rounds thudded into their marksman, dropping him flat to the floor even as the fire continued to rake across the wall.

Luis' eyes widened as he opened his mouth to yell. His arm shot forward to Connor, who was busy firing out the doorway, and grabbed onto his back rigging.

Jimmy's body spasmed as hot lead tore into him, throwing him to the floor in a bloody heap.

"Contact rear!"

He pulled and yanked Connor down onto the floor amidst his sudden protests, even as the rest of the fire raked the wall above their heads.

"Shit!"

"We got trouble, Connor!"

"Yeah no shit! We gotta get to -"

"No time, they're gone! We gotta move, this area's getting too hot!"

"Yeah, but where?!"

Luis' eyes swept the house. In the far corner, there was a staircase heading to the second floor. The thing with these dwellings, always built small and with multiple floors to make space. He betted that there was a ladder to the roof as well. That was their ticket out.

"Up! We flash front and back, then we get upstairs! C'mon let's go!"

He pulled another flashbang from his vest as his buddy did the same. With pins pulled, both men counted down from three and lobbed their grenades out the front and back doors and waited.

The grenade out the front thumped against the chest of an insurgent and he yelled a warning as they scattered.

The other grenade would tumble out the back door and come to rest a foot away from Rez.

Bang.

Flash.

"Go go go!"

Connor stood and ran for the staircase as Luis laid down suppressing fire out the front door with his machine gun, then turned his attention to the back door, raking it and the walls with gunfire for two seconds, before stopping to join his teammate upstairs.

On the second floor, Luis' hunch was proven: a thick wooden ladder stood inside a small skylight in the ceiling. Roof access. Connor was huddled in the far corner, rifle pointed at the staircase. Upon realising that his teammate was joining him, he lowered his gun and sighed as he caught his breath.

"Shit man! Since when did this turn into a shitstorm again?!"

"Since we didn't clear the building, Connor."

The black man's eyes grew wide as he realised their amateurish mistake. He slammed a fist against the wall and yelled in anger.

"Shit! So stupid! Fuckin' A man!"

Luis went over to the big man and shook him bodily by the shoulders.

"Connor, focus! We gotta get outta here man, or we'll end up like our buddies downstairs. Now, only way out is through the roof. We're gonna get up there, alright? You go first, I'll cover you."

He merely nodded as he shouldered his rifle and advanced to the ladder, beginning his climb up. Luis remained in the room, reloading his machine gun as quickly as he could while his other hand trained his handgun on the stairwell in case their aggressors showed up. Slow going, considering he was using one free hand and a little of the other to do so.

[ImportantNobody]

As Rez was reloading by the back door, his face practically dropped from within his helmet as he spotted a grenade plopping down nearby. His armor was good, but explosives were not conductive to maintaining it in the pristine condition that he preferred...well, that was an understatement, honestly. True fear filled his emotions as he began to turn tail and run from the blast radius, squeezing his eyes shut in horror, when the grenade went off and revealed itself, much to his relief, as a simple flash bang that would have been negated by his helmet's visor anyways. He was unable to wipe the beads of sweat from his forehead after that one. Careless. That was unacceptable of him and he got off lucky. Despite them being from a more primitive world, he needed to take this more seriously or else he could suffer some serious injuries the next time something like that happened.

This little diversion cost him a lot of precious time. He grimaced as he finished his reloading and then stormed the building. The survivors were missing, but couldn't have gone out the front with all of the enemies. That just left...

His eyes darted to the staircase. That must be it. However, his attention was forced back to the other enemies, who began firing at him now that he had come into their sight. They had recovered from their own flash bang and were now quite pissed, if their angry shouting and aggressively trying to kill him were any indication.

"Hey, I'm not the one who did that! Shoot the other guys!" He shouted, lifting his weapon and firing back with a wild spray of gunfire out the now nonexistent front doorway. Some of their bullets glanced against his armor in return, chipping away part of his shoulder plate and another shot delivering a painful punch to his right kidney, although the bullet didn't penetrate all the way through.

"That smarts..." he groaned to himself, unleashing the rest of his clip their way in retaliation and to force them to get off of his back for a couple seconds as they scattered for cover or took one of his bullets and hit the sand, far more worse for wear. He reloaded as he quickly traversed the rest of the room, reloading his weapon a second time. Only one more clip after this one and he'd be out his main weapon, plus he was down some clips of his pistols in his previous skirmish with them. Perhaps he'd have to turn to his magical abilities to finish things off before he'd be caught in that predicament.

For now, however, he'd need to use his gun until the opportunity to do otherwise would arise. He took to the stairs, robotic legs easily springing up each one. Once he reached the top and entered a room he was greeted by one of them aiming a pistol his way. Aiming his gun and letting loose a stream of bullets his way, he began backing away to get into a better position of cover.

[DJAtomika]

"Shit!"

From the stairwell, a mysterious and weird-looking soldier man peeked out. Luis caught his glance.

The moment stretched for what seemed like ever.

Then his foe opened fire with his rifle.

Luis dropped to the floor, bullets whizzing and skimming over his head.

"Hijo de puta!"

He swore and continued reloading his machine gun with his free hand, pistol in the other roaring and barking at the figure that disappeared back down the stairwell. Just as his magazine finished, he slapped the housing of the machine gun's top back down and racked the slide. He holstered his empty pistol and hauled his SAW up with both hands, aimiing straight for the stairwell as he pulled the trigger. The machine gun screamed and spat hot death at the wall, spraying bits of stone and debris down the stairs as he moved towards the ladder.

"Eat this pinche puta! Vete a la verga ruco, cabron!"

As he moved closer to the ladder, and by extension the stairs, his aim slowly lowered down the stairs as he moved forward, letting his gun rip and tear into whatever laid below. When he was satisfied, he moved backwards quickly, stumbling a little when his back his the wooden ladder. Letting his machine gun dangle from the strap around his shoulder, he pulled a fragmentation grenade from his vest and yanked the pin, before lobbing it down the stairs.

"I got a present for you, puta madre, hijo de puta!"

With that he turned tail and scrambled up the ladder, with only seconds between him and a big ol' explosion. He was greeted by Connor hunkered down on the roof, almost invisible behind the low parapet on the roof. The night was peaceful save for the sporadic gunfire as the insurgents outside realised that the four angry men within were not firing back. Downstairs, insurgent fighters were warily creeping towards the house, rifles raised, even as Rez defended himself against them down below.

But then, Luis and Connor didn't know that.

[ImportantNobody]

Pieces of rubble large and small clanged against his metal shins as she stood out of the danger zone of the rampage going on in the other room. He braced himself as one particularly large stone glanced off the side of his leg and broke into a dozen pieces as it reached the first floor behind him. He had no choice but to be patient and bide his time, waiting for his foe to reload, and reloading that weapon would take enough time where he wouldn't likely get another chance at it.

Behind him he could hear the others getting closer, entering into the building cautiously yet with growing confidence that they were in the clear to do so.

"Just wait a couple more seconds, you morons!" He shouted at them from out of view within the stairwell. He heard them shuffle back for a second before advancing forward again. It was then that he heard a bouncing object coming towards him from the top of the stairs. That...could actually come in handy. As the grenade rolled close to his feet he stepped on it with his right boot, jerking his boot backwards to fling the grenade past it's intended target, bouncing off the wall and into the room below him where the others let out a shriek of surprise.

Unlike him, they didn't have the time to change the trajectory and it went off in what would have been a defining explosion had he not been wearing a helmet. A small tuft of smoke and fire bellowed into the stairway but was far enough away from the source of the explosion to not take any significant damage. Rez smiled as he was now free to storm up the stairway again, not having to worry about what was going on behind him for the time being. That could have either killed off the rest of them or at least disorganized them enough to make the survivors think twice about attacking again.

He got into the room just in time to see his target's feet make it up onto the roof. Lucky bum, but we'll see for how long. It would be hard to carry his much larger gun while climbing the ladder so he placed it back in it's holster and got out one of his pistols instead. He wanted to have his other trick up his sleeve in case this wouldn't be good enough against two foes. As he put his hands on the ladder, his left hand grasp and his right hand placing the fist holding the handle down on top of the bars to help stabilize his ascent, he focused his command on the nanomachines inside his body, stimulating his cells with the magical power contained within them. He could feel his body suddenly becoming uncomfortably hot and enter a burning sensation, although it wouldn't cause himself any long term damage as long as he kept it in check. In three seconds the fire would become visible and spread across his entire upper body, signifying he was ready to use magic.

During the three seconds it was charging up he became climbing up to meet them so that it would be ready by the time he needed it and he'd have five seconds to decide how best to use it once he got up there. If the enemies tried to attack him on the ladder in the meantime then he'd fire back at them with his pistol and hope they'd be too surprised by him starting to burn to pull off a good offensive.

[DJAtomika]

"Shit."

He heard the footsteps clambering up the ladder even as the gunfire started up again in earnest. The grenade had gone off just as he'd wanted it to, but their mysterious foe was apparently invincible cause here he came up the ladder.

Luis kicked the ladder several times, trying to dislodge their implacable opponent while being shot at by small arms fire, even as Connor scrambled over the roof to look for an escape, which he found.

"Luis! Low roof this way! We can make that jump but you gotta cover me man!"

"Yeah okay, I'll flash, you jump!"

He had only two more flashbangs left, and he pulled one from his vest as Connor readied himself. Ignoring the threat on the ladder for now (even as his boot held the ladder near vertically against the lip of the skylight, not allowing their pursuant an easy way up), he pulled the pin on the grenade and chucked it off the roof in the general direction of the insurgents.

"Flash out!"

A few seconds later, the grenade went off with a loud bang and a bright flash, which Connor took as his cue to take a running leap over the gap between the two buildings, landing safely on the other side.

Luis removed his boot from the ladder and pulled his last frag grenade from his vest. Saying a silent prayer to god, he pulled the pin and dropped it unceremoniously down the skylight, before grabbing his guns and making that same leap of faith. He landed on the other side and dropped to his chest, unwilling to get shot just when they were good on an escape.

[ImportantNobody]

By the sound of things it appeared like some insurgents were still alive and kicking outside of the building, fighting the two men on top of the roof. They were certainly persistent, he had to give them credit for that.

...and so was the man at the top of the ladder trying to make things difficult for him. He'd have fun killing him for all of the stuff he was pulling. Rez was very strong so managed to stay on and make decent progress despite any setbacks, slowly but steadily making his way to his target. As the grenade went down and he heard his opponents scamper off across the roof, carrying out the plan they were loudly discussing a moment ago. At this point his slow and steady progress turned into a mad climb up the remaining rungs of the ladder, almost lunging upwards to take it two rungs at a time with his robotic legs, pulling himself up and over the ledge just as the explosion went off below him, making it look like another movie scene with his second close call of the night. Only problem was...he dropped his freaking' pistol during all of that chaos! His poor companion was likely blown to smithereens so was not even worth checking on after this was all said and done.

This also left him unarmed at the moment besides the fire that had now enveloped his upper body, signifying it was ready for use. He held out his hands and sent it blasting off like a flamethrower, across the gap in the building to target the two men. This would either take them out or force them to scramble away, allowing him time to get a better defense going or maybe even press the attack.

[DJAtomika]

Connor's eyes widened, and he frantically pointed a finger back behind them as Luis got up. Confused, he stared at his teammate for a second.

"What?"

"D-d-dude on fire!"

What?

"What?"

Connor grabbed him by the shoulders and spun him around, pointing again to the man, now ablaze, that clambered out from the room they were just in.

"Dude on fire!"

"Holy shit!"

Luis had enough time to swear just as the man reared back and shot his arms forward, directing the fire that he was covered with off his body and towards them.

He felt Connor's strong hands grab onto his shoulders and had enough time to process its implications before he was flung bodily off the roof. As he fell, he watched Tiger Three go up in flames, his screams spiralling into the dark night sky as he burned to a cinder. An arm extended out to the burning man, as if to save him, while he began to scream Connor's name.

Then he hit the ground and blacked out. Positioned and hidden well enough from view, it'd be a few minutes before Rez found him.

[ImportantNobody]

The insurgents began firing at him after getting over the shock of seeing his fire ability in action. He quickly slide off of the roof and landed heavily onto the ground below, his robotic legs absorbing most of the impact so that this high of a fall barely even fazed him. As he rushed over to the alleyway that his fallen foe should be in he unleashed some pistol rounds at his attackers, taking out two more of them and forcing the others to dive for cover. By the time he forced the survivors back even further he was all out of ammo, so he had to be swift in completing his assignment and getting out of this joint.

He unleashed his magical power again, blasting it all over the alleyway and buildings so that the entire area would catch fire and kill anything caught in the blaze, surely the man lying unconscious in the middle of it. Satisfied with his handiwork, he darted off in another direction, avoiding the last of the gunfire before heading out of sight.

[DJAtomika]

As Luis awoke from his daze, at least a minute or two after he'd been thrown from the roof, he saw Rez standing atop the nearby roof. The man leapt off and ran in his direction, fire enveloping his body again.

He struggled to his feet even as he saw the cyborg appear in the alleyway, a sly grin on his face. Luis saw the fire build moments before the inevitable.

"Aw crap."

The inferno blew straight through him, cooking his muscles and searing his flesh, destroying his insides even as he struggled to run, nary a scream escaping his lips before his vocal cords were scorched beyond recognition. His blood boiled in his veins, and his brain shriveled and burned in his skull.

And thus, another victim to the ravages of war fell dead on the dusty ground, burned beyond recognition. His equipment melted and burnt beyond repair, there was nothing left of Luis Sanchez but a burned shell.

---

Meanwhile, inside the house, where the bodies of his team laid, a corpse stirred. It sat up, rubbing the back of its head in mild confusion as it stretched and rolled its shoulders. Shrugging a little to lose some stress, it stood, picked up its sniper rifle and slung it on its back.

The corpse ambled over to a nearby cupboard and threw it open. The Vector submachine gun within hopped to life as she saw her owner appear in the doorway.

"Boss! You're okay!"

Cho smiled and took the little submachine gun out from the cupboard, discarding the shadow disguise of Lee he had over himself. He gave the gun a little pat on its sight before slinging her on his chest, where she belonged.

"Of course, Kris. A few bullets aren't enough to stop me."

"Still boss, did you really have to disguise yourself as the team marksman?"

Tac, also shedding the disguise he had as a regular sniper rifle, spoke up from where he laid on Cho's back.

"Of course I did, Tac. The poor guy bit it during our man's last mission in Afghanistan. It was the best disguise."

"Psh, talk about invasion of privacy much. How long did you spend with the team, anyway?"

Cho smiled as he strode out of the house, keeping mind to step over the corpses of insurgents, both dead and dying.

"A few months, maybe more. It was a pleasant distraction, didn't you think so?"

"I dunno boss, sure the action was fun 'n all but did you really have to, like, play the masquerade 'n such?"

All he had in response was another smile.

"You worry too much, Tac. Besides, it was Hek's idea that we steal the man's identity to get closer to our real objective."

"And it worked to perfection, sire. Our mark did not suspect a thing, thanks in part to your acting skills."

"Psh. I'm no actor. I just played along. It felt right."

---

Within minutes, the Reaper had found what he was looking for: the mangled, shriveled corpse of one Luis Sanchez. Satisfied with what he'd found, he pressed a finger to the headset he wore.

"I've found him."

_{...excellent...
...you may stand back and observe, Reaper...
...your new companion will be with you shortly...}

Cho removed his finger and stood back a ways, even as he saw the tendrils of the Darkness slithering towards the corpse, the shadows that concealed so much now releasing their residents. The deep black of the Darkness twisted its tentacles into the burnt, shriveled corpse, letting the shadows sink deep into the flesh, muscle, blood and bone, soon enveloping the body in a wreath of shadow.

Cho watched with a slight quease in his stomach. Was this how he had been turned as well, all those weeks ago? The memories still burned brightly in his mind, and though he had since lost contact with the valiant Viking, Kolskegg, he was in eternal gratitude to the warrior for returning him to life, even if it was in the form of a Reaper.

He watched as the Darkness slowly transformed the once-corpse, imbuing him with life and drawing his soul back from Hell, even as he saw a spark erupt within the body that soon blossomed into a bright fire.

---

_{this one is} worthy
_{a fallen} warrior
_{fighting a} losing _battle
admirable
applaudable

_{we will} renew <sub>him

in</sub> fire _{did he} perish
_{so as} fire _{he will} live
_his heart _{a raging} inferno
_his blood _an unquenchable fire
ashes _{once flesh now} joined

_a man _{no longer}

_{now a} Reaper

_arise

War

_{greet your new} companion

_{for with} Death _{you will} travel
_{til the} end _{of time doth beckon
and the} worlds _{draw to a} close
_the Four

_will

ride once more

---

Luis' eyes shot open. A starry night sky bordered by walls greeted him.

Was he dead? About to be buried?

No, the walls weren't made of dirt. Stone.

He was alive?

Impossible.

He'd felt it. Every single moment of being burned to a cinder. How his flesh had boiled, how his heart had burst, how his blood had turned to steam...

It was a horrible way to die.

And yet...here he was, alive. Awake. None the worse for wear. Or so he thought.

Lights glimmered and shone off the walls as he sat up, rubbing his face with both hands as he tried to wipe away the cobwebs in his brain, and as he did so, he saw exactly why he felt so strange.

His hands, where they weren't covered by his gloves, were cracked, ashen and grey. And a light shone from within the cracks, occasionally bursting through in a small spark.

Flames.

Fire.

"W-what the fu-"

Luis scrambled to his feet in a panic, looking himself over. He saw the same where he had uncovered skin: ashen flesh, cracked, with a fire burning within where he should have had muscle, blood and bone.

"Eh?! ¿Qué carajo?! Qué soy yo?!"

"Relax, pal. Don't panic."

Luis spun around and saw a man there, darkness seeping from his eyes, holding unearthly weapons that he knew didn't belong on this Earth, or any Earth for that matter.

"W-what d'you mean, 'don't panic'?! Look at me, man! A-and look at you!"

The man sighed and shook his head.

"Luis, you're panicking. Don't. Panic. Take a few deep breaths, relax. Calm down."

He did so, relaxing a little as he held a hand to his chest. His heart still beat, strong and firm, but Luis knew that it was no longer fueled by blood.

It was powered by fire.

Recalling the voices that he'd heard in his head when it'd all gone black, he gave the other man a good, long look.

"A-are you Death? The voice I heard in my head just now said you might be."

Cho nodded.

"Yup, guilty as charged."

Luis sighed and shrugged.

"Crap. That does mean I'm dead."

Cho extended a hand and shook his head rapidly.

"Oh no no no no, I'm not here for you. What else did the voice tell you?"

He thought back. Something about Reapers.

And War.

"I'm...a Reaper?"

"Yup. So am I. We're in the same boat together now, pal."

He extended a hand.

"Cho Sun-Jin. Nice to meet you."

Luis accepted the handshake and pumped the latter's hand vigorously.

"Luis Sanchez, but I guess you know that already."

"About as much."

"So...about all that business...does that mean I'm...War?"

Cho nodded and leaned a shoulder against the wall.

"Yup, the same way I'm Death. We're Reapers now, pal, two of the Four Horsemen. Everything's exactly as the voice told you."

Luis sighed again. All this was way too much for him to absorb in such a short time. Reapers? Death? War? He'd only just been resurrected from the dead. He glanced at Cho and shrugged.

"So...what now?"

The man smiled and pointed behind him.

"Now? Now you've got some socialising to do."

Puzzled, Luis turned around and saw, on the ground behind him, his kit. Machine gun, shotgun, pistol and machete. Yet, something was different, a point made evident when the LMG hopped to one side on its bipod, looked up at him with its six eyes and spoke.

"¿Qué pasa, amigo?"