Breaking to Broken...

The air was thick with a grey haze, between the two of them the smoke nearly claimed the small tavern from the humidity of the forest that encroached on each side. Nearly but not quite.

"Who's turn is it anyways?...I don't remember." Antonio said as he took a deep gulp of his drink.
"You remember amigo, you just don't want to start, Ive figured out your plan, it won't work this time!"

Damian dusted the end of the pool cue and handed it over with a wide grin. Antonio finished what was left of his so called beer, the brew tasted half like Goat piss and half like root extract but it was the only thing he would drink.

SNAP...click, klack..click...thump. "I guess I'm solid."

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An alarm blaring in the base, both were already suiting up before the lights had even been turned on, one of the benefits of being a Metahuman was the enhanced vision. The large bunk room was filled with dozens of empty racks. Thin poor excuses for mattress's folded over on themselves littered each spring frame, each one a testament to candidates that had long ago washed out in training. Only the two of them remained, there training complete they had even worked on a few low level missions together. Tonight felt different...

Damian was out the door first he glanced down thumbing a small golden idol and almost certainly whispered a prayer under his breathe. He stepped away immediately to get into the briefing room. Antonio paused in the cool morning mist that lingered, absorbing a deep breathe of fog he felt his heart beat quicken as he paced to catch up.

When Antonio entered the hallway leading to the briefing room several soldiers were scrambling about racking their weapons and steeling themselves against whatever task they were just assigned. As Antonio was about to open the door to the briefing room that Damian sat in, a familiar voice beckoned to Antonio from across the hall. "Sergeant Vasquez, your in this briefing room."

Antonio turned quickly and with out a question walked past Captain Mendez, he strode past several empty rows of and took a seat in the front. As he sat the lights flashed off and a screen flickered several familiar images that accompanied the start of any mission.

Eyes Only/.../ No digital recording is allowed. Punishable under article 971 sub section 2.23.14 //

Laid out before him was a schematic of the base and the outlying jungle that surrounded it. Cpt. Mendez took a position behind his podium and began to deliver the details;

"At zero four hundred hours our security system was breached by an unknown assailant, a break occurred in the northern security grid. Evidently the intruder did this on their way out, several guards were killed using a high caliber silenced rifle and the entire northern perimeter was briefly shut down including access to all drone support." The map flashed red in several points to show where casualties were found.

"Your mission is to eliminate the intruder, we just picked up a trip line sensor about 3K due north following a dry riverbed. Intel projects target moving North/Northeast towards the shoreline. Intercept and Terminate. Questions?"

With a snap Antonio stood, glancing at the screen with the dotted line that followed his targets path and grinned.

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The day was beginning to heat up quickly, the mist was starting to evaporate but before it could break through the forest canopy it was peeled back in to create the humidity that was so persistant. Antonio had been dropped in from low altitude to make up the distance his target had gained. He knew this forest well and to get past him his target only had a few options. He glanced behind him at the rocky outcropping towards the base of the mountain to the east. "That will do nicely."

He settled into his trap and readied his rifle, taking measured precise actions he had rehearsed hundreds of times before to make sure everything was perfect. This was no rehearsal, not this time. Antonio firmly grasped the rifle grip and his eyes reeled to compensate for the augmented reality he looked through. Looking down the sight mostly out of instinct even though his eyes were now showing him an advanced zoom from the rifles point of view. He checked the ammo counter and range finder in the corner of his vision although he already knew the answers, it was just habit by now. And so he lay in wait for his prey, concealed between boulders and shrouded in shadow and liche moss.

First a half hour had passed, then a full hour, Antonio wondered if he had missed his target...perhaps he had already passed by or gone to ground? The question nagged at him, slowly he searched the riverbed, no tracks, nothing!
He slowly began to scan the canopy and his surroundings suddenly to his left he saw it, the smallest of glints from the sun just at the base of a fallen tree covered with overgrowth.
Antonio rolled his rifle to the left with lightning speed and just as his vision focused in he saw the black of the barrel point shift to his eye. He had been spotted just then too. His finger twitched instinctively and a serenade of slow motion began. He felt the faithful jolt in his shoulder as the weapons spat forth a lethal round...

BANG.

He watched the projectile soar through the air like a bird of prey diving onto a field mouse, suddenly he saw a horrifying sight. A burst of light that happened only a millisecond before a spray of blood. Their was nothing he could do, as fast as he was Antonio couldn't dodge the bullet that hurtling back towards him.

CRACK! Snap...

Antonio rolled back into the foliage grasping the side of his head. He lay on his back staring up into the sky that was quickly becoming a fuzzy grey tone and thumbed his commlink, shouting past the high pitched ringing he heard. "Target down, requesting immediate medic...."

Everything turned black except for a single pinpoint of white, in his mind he reached out and stretched it only to see the image of the intruder he shot. Pushing himself not to lose consciousness he stared for a long moment and all the sudden something caught his eye. The glint in the shadows, he looked closer, is that gold?...