Hey there everyone! Sorry this chapter took so long, I wanted to make sure Dean's segment in this chapter was on point because it is quite important. But I rewrote a lot of interaction sequences between characters multiple times trying to create something immensely special. I really wanted to lay down the ground work hard to make sure the mood was set right for everything about to happen. So apologies this took so damn long. I really want you to guys enjoy this though. Also there's a couple of cameos in this chapter can you find them?

Enjoy! :D

Into the Storm

Meeting up with one of the Undisputed Era members, the one with the nice looking facial hair (I had no time to remember his name), he escorted me to the center of the permeter. Spotting a nearby warehouse it was time to put my plan into action. I found some shady looking men, unsure if they were test subjects or not I decided to start a rumor. I'd let them spread the word that there would be a gathering inside the warehouse.

Watching them walk away I let out a huff seeing my breath in a white puff as it hit the late winter air. Being in the center of this madness just left reminders of the streets of Atlas. I knew what these people had gone through. The hardships of doing things you never really wanted to do, but you had to do it just to survive. It was one painful memory after the next, however they weren't as suffocating. The weight was gone and my arm was a reminder of that. I'd continue to spread subtle rumors around the area to see how many I could gather.

I stuffed my hands in my hoodie and continued down the street. I quickly broke out in a run when the sound of screaming had caught my ears. Whipping around the corners I saw a couple of men in tattered clothes holding molotovs and a woman behind them on her knees cluching an infant. The sight infuriated me, and as much as I wanted to keep my guise I had a duty to the innocent. My body quickly reacted on it's own and one of the men threw their cocktails at the building. I think my training with Seth had been proving to see progress as I was able to quickly catch the firey explosive with my steel arm and toss it away from all of us, and thanks to the upgrade to Ceadeus I was able to release it quickly from a hidden compartment from under my hoodie and knocked away the second.

The two men looked at me with their mouth agape like they hadn't expected anyone to rescue the poor woman. But something has struck deep down as she was more worried about caring for her child rather than the home the men were burning down. The two men seemed to be livid staring me down with hateful eyes. Seems like I had spoiled their fun, but I couldn't stand people who stomped on those weaker than them. There already was enough of that in Atlas. Just as the two men ran at me, a flash of black crossed my eyes.

Seth was always the quickest on the draw, as one of the men was brought down by his stun baton. As the other still ran my little brother spun around lifting his leg high above his head to strike the man in the jaw before thrusting his palm into his stomach. The blow were so precise, quick, and flawless that it looked like all one move. Since our trip to the Radiance Providence he's been a lot more keen on his strikes, and pinpointing vital areas for a deadlier fighting style. That slightly cold demeanor of Seth showed more often but he now had an understanding that it was okay to be dangerous and a firecesome force. Once the two men were out he checked on the woman calming her down and vowing to give her a safe escort to the edge of the perimeter. Behind him though he was waving his hand signaling me to leave. I knew why, I couldn't blow my cover.

I ran off thinking about how tightly that woman was clutching her crying child. Although she was in tears herself, she had to remain strong to protect her baby. My mother was the same, she wanted to protect me from all harm. Thinking back, I learned to survive because of her. It made me wonder though...if she was watching me protect Paragon.

I couldn't think about that right now. Once j was out of sight I reached up to my comms. "In about thirty minutes, I need all guns within the perimeter pointed at an old warehouse on twenty first and Rhys. It's a part of the old industrial from the second war. I'm gathering the test subject and whomever else wants to be there." The warehouse itself wasn't far from the old television tower we were using as our battleground.

I had to continue my part of the mission though. I walked down the broken concrete letting the violence happen around me, and could only pretend to be apart of it. It was sickening how quick these dregs resorted to violence and picking on the innocent. If I was out of sight, occasionally I'd escort someone to the perimeter to make sure they were under police protection.

I pulled the burner phone, that Roman gave to me before the operation started, out from my hoodie staring down the time. By now Orton and the Undisputed Era should have gun on every rooftop around the were house. If I knew military protocol, none of those subjects were going to be getting out of that warehouse with every limb attached if they so much make a hostile motion. I stuffed my hands back in my hoodie making my way back towards the warehouse.

Peaking around the corner a block away I saw the crazed and tattered men and women filing into the place. I swallowed a lump in my throat. It seemed like my plan may have worked a little too well as there were a lot more than I was expecting. I didn't really have the time to inspect the integrity of the place myself. I ducked behind the building I was standing against and took the long way around the block to enter in from another side that Seth was so kind to pick the lock on. My brothers had to be in position by now, so now the operation fell on me to make sure Brock is lead to the tower.

I quietly made my way through the back entrance to see the large empty warehouse half packed, and even then the amount of people was somewhat intimidating. What wasn't empty floor space was abandoned machines for moving boxes covered in layers of dust and cobwebs. I looked around further and saw a stack of wooden crates looking untouched, almost like a stand or a podium for me to make my appearance on.

I observed the crowd while remaining hidden. No one had noticed me yet, so that was a relief. My consistent training with Seth was finally paying off. I noticed not everyone was a test subject, although the ones that were had no problems is showing off their powers to one another. The second things I noticed that so far everyone we had faced with abilities from the project had all been male thus far, it made me wonder if all the test subjects were however, I'm seeing that I was wrong. There were quite a few females in the audience and some with even more terrifying powers than the next. One of them I noticed had seen right through my guise. She knew I was here and had the same seeing as my own. It wouldn't be long until she was going to spread the word. But if she had my abilities, what if there were others with the same ones as Seth and Roman. I shuddered to think if there was one with the same abilities as Brock as well.

I'd commit her look to memory. A somewhat muscular woman, with long brown dreads. Her outfit seemed to look to have some animal fur as decoration, probably a huntress for sport. She shot me a sneer like she had cruel intentions. She was beginning to grab the attentions of the two other women she was talking to meaning it was time to come out of hiding. The first was a taller woman with tattoos adoring her porcelain skin, and short dark red hair to match the red leather she was wearing. The second was a bit smaller than the other two favoring skin tight sporty looking outfit and long bright blonde hair to complete her look. I thought for sure they would attack but they mostly just pointed and laughed. It was a strange moment to say the least.

I checked to make sure I was Ceadeus completely secure on my person before beginning to climb the boxes. I couldn't take any chances. Once at the top I swallowed the lump in my throat. Everything was riding on me, it was time to choose my words carefully.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" I shouted letting the ascustics of the room carry my voice quieting down the small crowd gathered in the warehouse. I watched as everyone's attentions snapped towards my direction and only small murmurs could be heard among the silence. "This is our time!" I took note of the confused glances, I needed them hook, line, and sinker...here went nothing. I took a deep breath.

"There's an old saying, one that continuously drives Paragon apart, and close together. When men crave power, they'll do anything to obtain it. Once man has that power, they'll do anything to keep it. This Alliance that we've taken part of is nothing but an illusion created from that saying. In the first war, men needed that power to fight off our would have been conquerors who wanted to take Paragon for themselves. They realized it was a mistake to challenge the power of Paragon. Why? Because they wanted power. They sought...the Eye of Taladen. So why did The Second War happen? A fight for more power. Paragon had run out of challengers, so why not fight each other. Leviathan dared everyone else to see who could match up to them, and turned our home into a bloodbath. With only each other to turn to, The Solaris, Asgard, and Celestial provinces turned to one another to form an even greater power to fight back against Leviathan, ending the second war. But you didn't come for a history lesson, you're all wondering why I gathered you here today…"

I paused to gauge the hateful looks I was receiving. I had their attentions, now it was time to let them hear what they came to hear.

"Even now, there are men behind the shadows wanting more power to claim for themselves. Men who want us to turn to each other to dirty our hands so that they do not have to. Men who crave what we have so they exploit it and use the corpses we leave behind as stepping stones to claim they think is their birthright. Only for someone with even more passion and malicious intent to climb on top of them. This vicious cycle will keep going until one man stands at the top holding the most sought after prize in all of Elysium...The Eye of Taladen. That is why we exist, to be pawns and weapons for the corrupt. They set us against each other so that everyone else sees only our destruction and not their own. As far as they're concerned they don't even see us as martyrs, only the scum beneath their boots."

I looked around to see the crowd turning to one another, as the murmurs increased in number and in volume. My words were sinking into their heads, however I noticed right away that my plan may have worked too well. I looked around to see a slender dark haired woman in the back. She was wearing a short white dress that was tattered and stained in a few places. Her face twisted into a sadistic sneer, and I could see her move her mouth like she was speaking to me. It felt like the woman knew exactly what my ability was.

"There's blood in the water, now we await the sharks."

I watched her blow me a kiss before heading straight for the exit. I was surprised to see what looked to be three larger gentlemen waiting on the other side for her (I didn't have time to study their looks but they were mountains of men, maybe even bigger than Roman). What did I just witness? Who was that woman? I looked back at the crowd as the whispers became louder and louder until the people started to talk over one another or were trying to rally each other up. This was not good, I needed to get out of here. Suddenly I felt like I was beginning to suffocate with how loud everyone was getting.

What have I done?

Without warning the men and women began piling out of the building in a hurry even using their powers to make holes in the building for themselves, and the ones that weren't test subjects were picking up stray objects on the ground ranging anywhere from two by fours to chains. No, no...this wasn't what I wanted. I merely wanted to open their eyes to see that all this was a drawn out battle for the Eye of Taladen. The only thing I could do now was hope that they wouldn't put innocent lives at stake.

My thoughts were quickly interrupted by the police radios playing through our comms. It was only a few minutes ago the rogues had piled out and already they were causing havoc. Climbing down my pedestal, I rushed for the closest door to get out of the warehouse ending up in a damp alleyway. I leaned against the wall as anxiety crawled up and down my skin threatening to tear my psyche apart. In a single moment I was confident to now I was beginning to doubt my every move.

As my breathing slowed down I tried to collect my thoughts. I had shut out everything around me only to be startled by Orton's voice over the comm. "They're getting more hostile. Open fire!" he gave the order and suddenly shots echoed through the sky from his rifle and other firearms close by in the area. The plan worked, but at what cost.

"Seth! You're the closest, you need to extract Dean." Even though Roman, Seth, and Randy were in my ear...it all sounded like garbled messages to me. I pushed myself against the wall to see if my body could sink into the brick side. I could hear my heartbeat speeding up and bile building up in the back of my throat. All I could think about all the innocent people that were about to get hurt. In the back of my mind all I wanted to do was beg my late mentor for forgiveness.

I sat down on the cold ground bringing my knees up to my chest trying to make myself as small as possible. "Get up Dean!" I heard a familiar voice call to me, but instead of reacting I just tried to bury my head into my knees further. I wanted to be smaller and shut out the world around me. "Stand up Dean Ambrose!" shouted the voice again.

I peaked up slightly to see that my mentor stood before me. I could feel the good doctor's cobalt eyes bearing down on me. Was he looking with disappointment or pity? I had to raise my head further to see he was still smiling. Doctor Ambrose truly was inhuman even beyond the grave. "You can't just lie down every time something slightly doesn't go your way. You're a scientist Dean, when you can't figure it out...it means you need to go back and try something else. That's the beauty of science, eventually something will work. Just try Dean, everyone is counting on you." I opened my mouth to respond but I suddenly felt hard punch to the face causing me to bite the inside of my cheek cutting the inside my mouth.

I rubbed my cheek where I was struck. That was from an metal plated glove. I raised my head to see watery chocolate brown eyes staring down at me. "You asshole. I need my brother!" he shouted. Seth reached down and grabbed my metal arm, getting really close to my face to where I could feel his breath on my forehead. "I need Dean Ambrose. But if you're just gonna sit here and mope, then you don't deserve this. This arm is a symbol of why you stand and here you are hiding like a coward. All because something slightly didn't go your way."

It was just like the good doctor had said. I needed to stop thinking like a typical Atlean and more like a scientist and a soldier of the military. I observed Seth's wear, even he was giving it his all with just a new wear. His black thermal was similar to mine with no sleeves and was wearing a bullet proof vest that covered mostly his torso area and was held on my thick straps of kevlar that went over his shoulders. It allowed for more maneuverability while still keeping his vitals protected. We had no time to waste before coming here so he even forgoed getting a special type to go intangible with him. Seth knew it'd put him at a disadvantage, but he was already unseen before the project.

I let him help me up off the ground. He gave me a thumbs up and I gave the same.

I wrenched my arm out of Seth's grip finally looking up at him fully to see that his gaze was also focused on the cloudy skies. "I hope you understand now understand Dean...This isn't about us, we're here because there's a man out there whose out to take the lives of the innocent. As an assassin, it's my duty to execute the guilty. As a soldier it's Roman's duty to protect the innocent." My younger brother looked at me with that smirk on his face. He was trying to pump life back into my confidence, that my constant overthinking tries to snuff out. "You as a doctor…"

I sighed knowing what he wanted to tell me. "As a doctor, it's my duty to save the innocent. I know. I know." Our attentions were suddenly caught by a violet lightning bolt striking the ground creating a massive smoldering pothole into the street. We were out of time, Brock was here and was no doubt trying to sate his violent appetite on the test subjects. I rubbed my cheek were Seth hit me. "Thanks little bro, I needed that." I held my fist out to him, as he bumped it against my own.

The two of us left the damp alley to head towards the television tower. We ignored the shots from Orton's rifle that rang through the sky. Slowly they were being drowned out by the sounds of the clashing thunder. Another lightning bolt had struck behind us, followed swiftly by another to the side of us. This was a good sign, it meant we had Brock's attention. I'd imagine it was probably a blow to his pride to see us still alive.

"Orton, Roman, I got Dean in tow. We're headed to the rendezvous point. Looks like we got the big guy's attention by the pattern of the lightning." said Seth finally breaking the radio silence.

"I'm getting reports from the police from all ends of the perimeter. They've already confirmed at least seven dead from the lightning alone. But their bodies were thrashed the law enforcement can't tell if they were a test subject, a civilian, or just a local thug. Something tells me, Lesnar really doesn't care about the bodies he leaves." Spoke up Adam Cole, the leader of The Undisputed Era, I had recognized his voice from the plane ride over here. If I had to guess he sounded pretty shaken, but probably wasn't expecting lightning to strike twice let alone seven times. "Shield, I was born and raised in Ursa Minor. If this asshole was the one that destroyed my home town, I definitely believe it now. Do whatever it takes to bring him down, you have full support from my boys and I."

I sighed to myself, just what we needed more people counting on us. That was the kind of fear Brock brought though. When on the plane Cole was hyping his boys up to be fearless and to make sure they would pull through with no regrets. A man who worked with even less than we did, whose own supply for himself and his men came from his own pocket, and to me that takes even bigger guts than what we do. The Alliance military is the strongest in all of Paragon, to do it's dangerous work outside of it's veil of protecting takes a lot of courage that men could only dream of having. It was a strange feeling but I had to silently commemorate Cole's courage.

But that was the kind of monster Brock Lesnar was, to shake even the bravest of men to the very core. To say I wasn't afraid would be an outright lie. I was terrified, and so was Seth and Roman. There was that fear of death, and the fear of the chance of never knowing if our sacrifices would make a difference. I looked at Seth who was staring down the skies with ferocity in his eyes. That was why we were here. To stow away that fear and bring hope to those without. Finn's words were all coming back to me. That seemed to be the word that was our center point.

My ears twitched to the sound someone but before I could react they had quickly grabbed me holding something cold against my head. No doubt a gun. It was strange I didn't even hear the footsteps. I reached up to grab a hand full of the tattered jacket of my would be attacker. Seth ran over to kick out his shin out from underneath him and I used that trip to lean forward and flip him over my shoulder onto his back. My younger brother fired a shot in attempt to subdue him only for the bullet to meet with the concrete beneath him.

I shouldn't have been surprised watching his body sink into the ground. It explained how he was able to get the jump on me. Had Seth not been with me my brains would have been splattered all over the ground. This hostile was a test subject with an ability to phase through solid objects. My hearing wouldn't be able to help us much again this guy. However, not knowing what my ability was a weakness of his own. I closed my eyes trying to look for a different sound. I steadied my breathing…

The sound of a gun being cocked.

"There!" I shouted pointing in the direction of the man who was half hanging through a wall. Seth was just as quick to react and got a bullet in his shoulder causing him to drop the gun, breaking his concentration to fall out of the wall. He attempted to stand but once again my younger brother's fast assassin reaction time was nothing to take lightly. He flipped the switch on his taser baton and hurled it to catch the hostile in the spine. Just as quickly he was a dribbling mess into the ground.

"Criminals in the Alliance are terrifyingly slow." Spoke Seth taking a deep breath.

I observed the man's wear. He was one of the prisoners that had broken out of the Luna facility. Tattered looking gray scrubs with a skull on both shoulders. Finn was wearing the same when he showed back up too, only he only had the Alliance symbol on his uniform. "Just the ones that were caught. See the skulls?" I paused to point them out to him, "He was a death row inmate." It turned around and look towards our destination. "Do everyone The Alliance a favor, little brother."

Seth sighed he knew what I was referring to. It seemed only right that he did the honors. After all he was the that claimed to execute the guilty. It wasn't in my nature to take lives, and even though I'd beaten down plenty of men, my death count still remains at zero. We didn't know the criminal was guilty of...however his actions spoke clear enough. I stuffed my hands back in my hoodie, to had towards our destination. I didn't bother to look or even flinch when I heard Seth's pistol go off.

This was the bloody hectic life we lived. We weren't supposed to look back. Even I didn't know why I let these hostiles get into my head.

"Roman, we're almost at the tower." I looked over to see another smoldering pothole. "Lesnar is still on our trail. Get your ass ready Big Dog."

I listened to the sounds around us searching for more hostiles. Unless they experts at muffling their movements and breathing there wasn't a soul in the area but us.

Looking up at the building that would serve as our battleground I realized the building was a lot taller than I had anticipated. We could only hope the antenna was a suitable lightning rod. My brothers and I stood no chance against those bolts. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves.

"You know as a scientist, I praise the absolute breakthrough that Project: Taladen has made on the human body and functions. But because of Brock and the other test subjects that only wish to use their abilities for selfish gain I cannot condone it for it's purposes. Once we rescue Finn, I'm going to dedicate myself to finding a solution and reversing the mutation process. I can only hope I can do so in time before this curse takes us all to a dark oblivion." I sighed again, I felt like everything involving the project was a test of my will and intellect. It made my blood boil thinking about how this stemmed from the work of the good doctor.

With no more hesitation Seth and I entered the building with only the thoughts of our battle with Brock on our minds. Knowing the elevators were out of power we raced up the stairs finding Roman waiting by the door to the rooftop. Our minds were made up, our consiouses were clear, this was for the vengeance of the people of Ursa Minor, and lastly for those that still remained that could be saved.

We can't save every life, so we need to focus on the ones in front of us that we can.

Kelic Ambrose's words echoed in my head again. I lifted my metal arm balling my fingers into a fist, raising it up eyeing my brothers. They followed in suit touching fists with mine. The symbol of our brotherhood, and showing the world that The Shield was far from cracked.

With that settled we shoved open the rooftop door. There they were. Heyman's smug grin and just a few feet in front of him, the pale skinned beast responsible for the massacre of hundreds.

I ripped my hoodie off to reveal my black sleeveless thermal underneath. I released Ceadeus from it's compartment while Seth removed his batons from his belt. Three three of us charged Brock with a loud battle cry that'd echo around us. He got ready for whatever we threw at him. This was it…

For Paragon.

The fight with Brock begins...

~CrisisExceed