Ascend.

Conzar walked down the hall, stepping over the bodies that littered it. Whatever the massive gun he had heard earlier was, had shredded the guards to pieces, as the whole hall behind him was a pool of blood and gore. A few bodies were down the way he was going, some of them dressed exactly like the guards of the facility. As he looked around, he saw multiple opened doors leading to rooms similar to the one he came out of. Obviously he wasn't the only person that had been kept down here. He figured instead of going straight for the exit, he should try and find some allies, as he knew he stood a better chance for survival and escape in a group. He looked around the ground for any weapons, and one particular weapon caught his eye.

"Hello there, beautiful…" He muttered, looking down at the M4A1 on the ground. He set the QBZ-95 down and picked the American-made AR up. He looked it over, knowing that these were highly modular and if he got any attachments while he looked around, he could put them on with ease. He hefted the rifle, sliding it into the bandolier as a makeshift way of slinging it. He then began looting the bodies for magazines.

Can never have too much ammo… He thought. He found 3 mags for the weapon among the closer bodies, not wanting to stay too long to loot, in case more of them showed up. He slid out the QBZ mags, and put the STANAG mags into the pouches. He then figured if he came across someone, he should bring an extra gun. So, he picked the QBZ back up. He took a jacket off of one of the troops, who had been shot clean through his odd-looking mask, and put the jacket on over the rest of the gear. He slid the extra QBZ mags into the pockets, and continued on.

As he walked on, he heard footsteps behind him. He quickly dove into a room to his left as gunfire erupted where he was a moment before. He slammed his boot into the button to shut the blast door, knowing he only bought himself a few seconds. He gripped the M4, backing up against the wall. He heard a gasp to his left, and saw a woman sitting there in a gown similar to what Conzar was wearing before.

"Get behind me. They're coming," He told her, hoping she would do so. To his relief, she darted behind him, and he raised the M4 to the door. The door opened, and there was two men, wearing identical gear. They wore jackets and yellow-visored masks.

And both of them were toting some pretty big guns. Luckily, Conzar was waiting for them, and opened fire with the M4. He quickly dropped the first man who had been in front, the second had moved to the right of the door as soon as he saw his partner get shot up.

Conzar moved off to the right side of the small room. "Stay behind me," He muttered to the woman, and heard her slowly following him. He kept the M4 aimed at the door, and heard footsteps as the man ran, most likely to go and get backup. Conzar, hearing this, walked out of the room. As he saw him run, he aimed the M4, and fired a round into his back in hopes of stopping the man. The man dropped, yellow blood painting the floor. He walked over to the man, who grunted as he tried pulling himself away. Conzar aimed the M4 to the man's head, and fired, his skull bursting open from the sudden dose of lead.

"N-nice shot," He heard behind him. He turned to the woman. She had black hair with a blue highlight through it. Otherwise, she looked normal, save for the fact she was wearing a medical gown.

"You alright?" He asked her, sliding out his mag to count how many rounds he had left in the mag.

The woman took a deep breath. "Y-yeah, just trying to wrap my mind around what the hell's going on…" She looked at the carnage in the hall. "Did you do this?"

Conzar looked up with the eyepiece, and as he looked at her, her image and information popped up in his field of view. As he looked, he realized she was like him. "No," He told her. "They were like that when I got out here." As he was trying to digest the information, he crouched down, picking up the man's weapon, which happened to be very dangerous for this close quarters environment: An USAS-12. He slid the mag out, counting off the number of shells inside it. As he saw the mag was topped off, he slid it back in.

"Do you know what's going on…?" The woman asked him.

"The people who own this place have enemies trying to take us and use for experiments." He tapped the eyepiece. "This thing's giving me data."

She looked at it. "Can I come with you? It's probably a good idea to travel together."

Conzar nodded. "My thoughts exactly. You know how to use one of these?" He tapped the USAS.

She nodded. "I need some clothes." She looked at her gown sheepishly.

"There should be some in the cabinet in your room. Basic shit." He took the QBZ off his back, turning the grip toward her. "Here."

She took the weapon, and pulled the priming handle back, looking to see if a round was chambered. "Give me five minutes."

"Be quick," He told her, looking around at the corpses. He was getting a better understanding as to who the men raiding the facility were. As he explored the files in the eyepiece, he learned they were called "AAHW" The Nexus Core people who own the facility ran genetic mutations to try and achieve better soldiers. They at one point funded AAHW, but they broke away after an incident within one of their facilities. Conzar soon found files on the experiments conducted in these facilities, and knew why these men were sending such a large amount of firepower to try and get people out.

This facility focused on developing augmented soldiers on par with Hank's abilities. Currently, anyone down on this floor that had been given the injections he had, were only on par with the AAHW elite troops known as "Soldats" to which Conzar had killed one of earlier on and took the eyepiece of. He tapped a button on it, and the colors switched from yellow to red. He figured it looked better that way.

The woman emerged from the room, dressed in a shirt and boots similar to himself, minus the jacket, and had a pair of cargo shorts and a battle belt among the corpses. "What's your name, by the way?" She asked him.

"Conzar," he told her. "We gotta get to an elevator down this hall to get outta here."

She nodded. "I'm Kelly. Fancy headwear, by the way."

He tapped it. "It's giving me schematics of the building."

"Lead on, then," She told him, hefting the bullpup rifle she was looked down at the man he had killed. "Check anybody we take down for ammo." He turned back around, going to where the eyepiece was guiding him. He heard her following. As he walked, he noted the number of rooms in the hall. He figured there was around Fourteen other people in the facility that may be just like him and Kelly. The problem was, if AAHW got to them, there was no telling what would happen.

"Elevator's up here." He turned the corner, aiming up his M4. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be anyone guarding it. However, Conzar could see the elevator was coming up to this floor with the eyepiece.

Kelly looked around the corner. "What is it?"

"Someone's coming up," He told her. "Get ready."

Kelly backed up a bit, rising the QBZ to her shoulder at the ready. Conzar hefted the USAS he had kept and aimed it up at the corner.

After a couple minutes of waiting, several agents wearing the red sunglasses were being accompanied by four more of the engineers. Conzar squeezed the trigger of the USAS, unloading 12 gauge death upon the people closest to him, which brought down a total of six of the overall men. Kelly's QBZ fired off, dropping another two, leaving only eight men in total, four of the men in shades, 1337 agents, as Conzar was beginning to find out they were called, and the four engineers.

Fortunately, they didn't seem to be geared for any ambush, as most of them only were hefting semi-auto pistols and a couple pump-action shotguns. They opened fire, albeit most of their shots went wide. Kelly dropped two of the Engineers taking aim with pump actions, then she ducked into a room to her right, avoiding gunfire form the other agents. Conzar did the same, but he went to a room on the left. He unslung his M4, and popped around the doorway, bursting an agent in the chest. The man went down, twitching. The remaining four men backed up to the elevator. Kelly got out of her position, sprinting up with her QBZ and unloading it into the remaining four men.

Conzar heard her cry out in pain, and he rushed over. As he came up, he saw her shoulder had been hit, and the men were on the floor, dead.

"Fuck this hurts…" She groaned.

"Here, I gotcha." He grabbed her hand, pulling her to her feet. "How bad is it?"

She grit her teeth. "Stings bad, but I don't think it's gonna kill me."

"I'll tie it off." He grabbed a shirt from one of the dead men, and ripped off a long length of fabric. He tied it over the wound. "This'll hurt a bit." He tightened it over, and he heard her gasp.

"Fuck!" She panted, grabbing her QBZ. She pulled the current mag out, sliding a new one in from her battle belt. She winced as she manipulated her wounded arm. "Think I'll need a pistol until I get this patched up better…" She muttered.

Conzar nodded, and looked through the remains of the agents and engineers. "Let's see… Got a Five-seveN here."

She outstretched her hand. "That'll do the job."

Conzar handed her the high capacity pistol. "That'll pop through whatever armor they got, too."

"Yeah…" She looked at the elevator. "Well, we're here."

Conzar looked at the info the eyepiece was giving him. "There's a medical station on the floor above. Let's head there first, stock up on medical supplies."

"Yeah," She replied. "My dumb ass had to rush in…"

Conzar grabbed her good shoulder. "It was a dumb move, but you didn't leave anyone standing. Just be more careful."

She nodded. "Let's go, then…" She walked into the elevator, Conzar following. Conzar hit the button marked 2, and the doors shut, the two of them ascending to the next floor. As the elevator went up, Conzar looked at Kelly. "You remember anything from before this?"

She shook her head. "Only small fragments. You?"

"Bits and pieces as well." And this was true. Conzar could scarcely remember anything prior to waking up in the facility. He was mostly getting information from the eyepiece. And there was a lot of info on it. He had the locations and the assault plans that the AAHW agents had come up with. As the elevator doors opened, he wondered just how many people were in this facility, and how many rounds he'd have to use up just getting out of here.