Chapter 4: The Devil
I studied the ventilation system on my heads up display in my faceplate.
Minerva's drones had mapped out most of the building's interior, but there was one part of the factory that the drones went offline in. The basement level.
I had a bad feeling that I would find sombra in the one part of the building where i had no vision.
At least I knew where I had to go.
A solitary guard was slowly patrolling a corridor.
As he passed under a ventilation shaft, it burst open and I dropped down on him.
I delivered a sharp blow to the back of the head before he could even lay his eyes on me, then I tied him up and left him up in the vent.
I continued down the corridor, Minerva's mapping giving me pseudo x-ray vision. There were a lot of agents in this factory.
Minerva had tagged more than 50 of them prowling around, most of them being talon grunts.
I looked through a wall and noticed one grunt was talking to a group of syndicate thugs. It looked like some form of mission briefing.
"Minerva, can you get me audio?"
"Uh, Is the pope catholic?" she said sarcastically.
"I will delete you."
The Audio transmission came through.
"Why haven't we been given our cut yet? We've done everything you Talon freaks have asked." said one thug.
"You will be payed when you bring in enough money, you still need to collect a couple thousand more to meet the quota." replied the Talon agent.
"Are you crazy? We've been sucking Rome dry for nearly a month, we need to lay low. Plus haven't you heard? There's some sort of costumed freak attacking syndicate safe houses all over Ita-"
He couldn't finish his sentence because a costumed freak threw a stun baton at his head.
The rest of the grunts had noticed that their colleague had been knocked unconscious and were rather upset about it. Luckily they weren't upset for long, because soon enough, they too were unconscious.
"I was right Minerva, Talon is just using the syndicate to get their money for them. Looks like while the mob had been leeching off the city on Talon's behalf."
"While the mob takes advantage of Italy, Talon takes advantage of the mob. Looks like what goes around comes around, sir."
I continued downwards through the vents, I was heading toward the dark spot on my sensors, a single room just beneath the factory floor.
"Sir, just letting you know, I can't help you if you go in there. Something is blocking the signal."
"I'm sure I can manage without you for a short while."
"Just be careful sir, if you mess up, I won't be able to save your ass this time."
"What did you just say?"
"Nothing, sir."
I came across two guards who stood guarding a the door to the upper catwalk of the factory.
They were bored out of their mind after having stood there the entire night with no disturbances.
So you could imagine their surprise when I jumped down from the vent, landed in front of them, and bashed their skulls against each other.
I kicked down the door and stepped through.
I walked onto the catwalk which was high above the warehouse floor. I looked down and saw what had to be Talon's base of operations for the whole of Italy.
Beneath me, the factory was teeming with Talon soldiers, many of them sparring with each other and practicing their tactics.
There were crates and boxes full of supplies, ammo and armour all over the place.
Weapon racks lined the walls, and not just any weapons.
There were high caliber fully automatic rifles, newly issued pulse weapons, and even some things I had never seen before.
Talon was planning something big. They were planning to go to war.
I had to destroy this place. No questions about it.
"Minerva, send out the SUDs . Get as many as you can just below the factory floor."
"Deploying Special Utility Drones. Sir, if I may, you really should change that name, SUDS? Really?"
"Later, Just get them down there as fast as you can."
The SUDs were a relatively new project of mine. Small drones capable of drilling into the earth. Once in position they can perform a multitude of tasks. But they did one thing better than anything else.
"Drones are in position, sir."
"Excellent. Get ready to activate protocol BW5."
"That's a pretty risky one ,sir. Are you sure you can pull it off with this many hostiles?"
"It's our best shot."
"Okay sir, activating protocol."
Below, the Talon agents were going about their usual business.
Until they heard a strange sound coming from behind one of the factory's doors.
They all grabbed their weapons and aimed at the doors, ready for whatever was coming through.
"You don't suppose it's him do you?" said one of them, sweat dripping down his face.
"Who?" another asked.
"Il Gatto, the monster of Naples"
"Oh would you shut the fuck up, he's just a fairytale. Besides… if it is him, he's way outnumbered."
The seconds went by. Another sound came from behind the door, but closer this time.
Deadly silence. That's what followed in the next few moments. Fear creeping into the souls of every man in the room.
But they stayed strong, they kept their full unwavering focus on the door.
Too bad there was nothing behind it
"Minerva, now!"
What was the utility of the SUDs? They can generate sounds, and They can explode.
The floor erupted at the feet of the soldiers. knocking most of them on the ground.
In the confusion I threw jammers at several of the biggest weapons, rendering them useless.
Once the Jammers deactivated the guns, they exploded, stunning the wielders.
Two soldiers still had their rifles, and were shooting into the holes created by the SUDs in confusion.
I fired my grappling hook at the feet of one of the soldiers, and hoisted him, upside down, up to the catwalk.
I jumped down and landed next to the other armed thug. I grabbed him by his gun arm and twisted it.
He screamed out in pain and fired wildly, I spun him around by his twisted arm, sending bullets everywhere and forcing all the other grunts to get down.
I forced the gun out of his hands and tossed him across the floor.
As everyone was getting back up, another Talon thug picked up a nearby rifle and fired at me wildly, missing his shots out of fear.
In response, I shot my grappling hook into his shoulder, embedding it deep into his flesh.
As he yelled in pain, I wrapped the cord of the grappling hook around my leg and used the extra strength to yank the thug towards me from across the room.
As he zoomed towards me through the air, my fist went up to strike him down, sending him rolling into explosion debris.
One soldier was reaching for his pulse rifle, but before he could, I threw a throwing knife at him. It went straight through his palm. He wouldn't be reaching for anything again anytime soon.
I heard movement behind me. I turned around and saw a very angry goon holding a grenade in his hand. He ran towards me with it.
I pressed a button on my grappling hook, causing the soldier I had strung up to the catwalk earlier to fall. And just before landing in between me and the grenade wielding maniac, I kicked him as hard as I could, propelling him towards the suicide bomber.
The impact sent both of them sprawling to the ground a good distance away.
Just as the grenade detonated, I turned to face three armed soldiers.
Two were carrying guns, all it took to take them out were some well placed blows to the neck and head. The third soldier lashed out at me with a knife.
I ducked beneath the attack and grabbed him by his arm. Then I proceeded to flip him over my shoulder and slam him into the ground.
A few more thugs stood by the opposite wall of the factory and fired their pistols at me.
Between me and them there was a single crate, in front of which was a soldier who had just run out of bullets. Not that it would make any difference to me.
I ran towards him, grabbed his head, and slammed it into the crate as I jumped over it.
The soldiers standing by the wall seemed to collectively shit themselves when they saw me land.
I shot my grappling hook into the crate and swung it towards the wall.
It knocked one of the goons headfirst into the wall, leaving blood where it made impact.
One of the other soldiers got lucky and shot the grappling hook out of my hand.
Then him and three of his friends wildly fired their pistols at me.
I kept my back to the remaining soldiers and let them empty their clips into my armour.
When the shooting stopped I turned and lunged at them.
I grabbed the first thug by his fist and swung my other arm around with my claws outstretched.
In one motion I managed to scratch two of them in the face and punch the thug I was holding in his face, leaving him down for the count.
Now i had to deal with the two thugs I had scratched. I blocked a punch from one of them, but the other managed to hit me in my face plate. Unfortunately for him, when I'm in combat my faceplate is buzzing with enough static to knock out most adult men.
So instead of actually hurting me, he was sent flying by the electrical discharge.
Three more Syndicate thugs appeared on the scene and surrounded me.
"THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO STAND DOWN!" one of them yelled.
I looked around at them, now that I no longer had the element of surprise, they would be a little harder to handle.
All I had left to rely on was physical skill.
"Unfortunately for you, I'm not going to."
"Oh those poor bastards" said Minerva.
The four of them stood in a square around me.
The first attack was from opposite sides simultaneously, two of them swung at me with their knives at the same time.
I threw up my titanium gauntlets to deflect both attacks at once.
I grabbed one of them by the arms and threw him at his friend, sending them sprawling.
Behind me the other two attacked, trying to stab me with their knives.
I grabbed one of them by the shoulder and crushed his elbow, breaking his arm.
As for the other attacker, I used the thug I was holding as a human shield for the knife attack.
The knife went straight into his already broken arm.
I flung him aside and performed a push kick on his friend, knocking him away.
A couple of the thugs I had thrown earlier had gotten up and were coming back for more.
I administered a swift right hook to one of them, and a sharp palm punch to the face to the other.
I turned around and saw that the soldier with the broken arm (my bad) was trying to pull the knife out of his bicep.
I went up to him and decided to help him out. I pulled it out of his arm and shoved it into his thigh instead.
As he bent over screaming I delivered one final surprisingly powerful punch to the back of his head, causing his entire body to leave the ground as his head went straight into it.
One of the goons I had scratched before was running up to me with the intention of tackling me, but instead I grabbed him and forced him to the ground.
I punched him once, he screamed, I punched him again, he screamed some more.
After the third punch he stopped screaming.
The thug who I push kicked had come back with a pistol and fired it point blank into the back of my head.
Idiot.
I turned, snatched his gun arm, kicked him in the knee and performed an over the head judo takedown, breaking his knee in the process.
But I was getting tired, and didn't notice that there were still two soldiers remaining.
One of which came up to me and kicked me in the chest, sending me stumbling back.
The other soldier was behind me and grabbed me by the cape and used it to drag me to the floor.
I regained my bearings just in time to block a knife slash from the cape-puller using my gauntlet.
The two of them lashed out at me with several knife swings, I deflected each one, waiting for my opportunity to counter.
I found that opportunity when one of them got a little too close, after deflecting his knife I sent a cross elbow strike into his face.
While he was recovering I tried to sit up, but got push kicked back to the ground by the other thug. As soon as I hit the ground, cape-puller had recovered and took the opportunity to stab me in my shoulder.
"CAZZO!" I yelled out.
Using my leg I knocked kick pusher off his feet. Using the same leg I kneed cape-puller in the face. Kick pusher had quickly recovered and attempted another stab, but I got to my feet in time to deflect and punched his leg off the ground, leaving him to fall face first to the floor.
I turned to face cape-puller, still quite pissed about him stabbing me. I pulled the knife out of my shoulder and grabbed him by his collar.
I pinned him to the wall using his knife, stabbing him straight through the shoulder.
'Taste your own medicine bitch"
I felt a punch land on the back of my head. I turned to find kick-pusher was still conscious.
Having quite had enough of his shit, I delivered a quick jab to his face, a swift knee to his gut, and threw him into the wall.
The wall broke.
I turned to cape-puller. The one person who had managed to hurt me in the entire fight.
"Please don't kill me" he whimpered.
I stepped up to him, menacingly. I let him get a good long look at me. He was so frightened he might as well have been on the verge of a heart attack.
I turned the eyes on the faceplate red.
"Quando si confronta con il diavolo, solo uno sciocco cerca di colpirlo."
I hit him one final time in the head, knocking him unconscious.
"Whoa. Um.. are you alright, sir?"
I looked around the factory. It was now littered with debris, bullets and unconscious Talon soldiers.
"I'm fine, Minerva. Let's finish this."
Luckily I had brought some painkillers with me and managed to stifle the pain in my shoulder.
I walked around the factory, tying up the talon soldiers.
Never have I regretted having a cape so much.
"That's all of them, sir. Except of course for the two you blew up with that grenade."
"They blew themselves up."
"Whatever let's you sleep at night, sir."
"I don't sleep at night, I fight crime."
I walked up to the door which led into the dark room. A set of stairs led down. I could hear the sound of servers and computers coming from below.
I cautiously stepped down into a small room lined with computers, monitors and control panels.
On the opposite side of the room was a chair facing a large screen. Sitting in the chair was most likely who I thought it was.
"Heh, Hola amigo." Said a distorted voice.
"Sombra I take it? I'm here to ask a few questions."
"Oh? Really? Well I'm afraid I have something different planned for us." said Sombra.
"Why don't you turn around and look at who you're dealing with."
She didn't turn around.
"Listen gato, I don't think you know who you're dealing with."
She reached out and pulled a lever on the control panel. And something terrifying happened.
My suit turned off.
I couldn't see anything through my visor, my voice scrambler stopped working, and I had lost my link with the Cloud.
I started panicking. "MINERVA!" I screamed.
Sombra laughed.
"pendejo, nobody can hear you"
I heard footsteps approaching me, I lashed out with my claws desperately. But I couldn't see a damn thing.
I felt a sharp kick in the stomach. I reeled back in pain. Then I tripped over a computer and fell on the ground.
"Look at you, completely worthless without your gadgets. How does it feel to be helpless?"
She stepped on my shoulder.
I screamed in pain and tried to knock her down, but she dodged me and kicked me in the head.
"I could do this all day, cat. But I have some more important things to attend to"
"like what?" I asked.
"I want to ask you a favor, amigo."
"Why the fuck would I do anything you ask."
"Because I know about Carraro"
I froze. Did she actually know?
"A few days ago I noticed that my system had been hacked. After a little investigating i noticed that it was an A.I by the name of 'Minerva'. I checked to see where this A.I had come from. And would you believe what i found? Turns out Minerva was developed by overwatch, and later was purchased by Carraro enterprises." said Sombra.
I was speechless.
Sombra chuckled and continued
"And don't pretend like nobody knows about Carraro's shady weapon development scandals. I connected the dots, they're manufacturing weapons to facilitate your vigilante nonsense. All I have to do is back into their servers to verify all this. I know the truth cat man. You're working for Carraro."
I felt a little relieved, she didn't have the complete truth, but what she did know was pretty bad.
"So what if I'm working for them? You haven't got anything on me. That's Carraro's problem."
"Oh please. You beat up criminals to 'protect the innocent'. Your biggest weaknesses is that you're a good guy. You care about others more than yourself. If the world finds out about Carraro's ties to an outlaw vigilante, stocks would plummet. And I'm pretty sure that you are aware of how many charity organizations Carraro funds. Countless homeless shelters, orphanages and schools would be affected if Carraro went down." She said.
She was right. She had me.
"What do you want?"
"Powerful friends. And in this case that's you and Carraro Enterprises."
"What does that mean?" I asked
"You'll know soon enough. Oh, and just to let you know. If you ever hinder my operations again, Carraro goes down."
"So You're saying I can't fight Talon anymore?"
"I never said that. If I'm being honest, I don't really care about what Talon wants, I just need their resources to get what I need."
"You're a monster"
"I know right? Oh, and i'm sorry about scrambling my voice and hiding my face. But you know what they say, 'when in rome…'. Anyway It's been fun 'El Gato'. Maybe we'll catch up again soon."
"It's pronounced 'Il Gatto'"
"Whatever pussy, Ciao!"
My suit reactivated. I got up. Sombra was gone. Fuck.
"Sir, are you ok?"
"I am so screwed Minerva, bring down the cloud"
"Um, sir we are not alone"
"What?"
When I got out of the factory the whole place was swarming with police and press.
The sun was properly in the sky now, and i could see the extent of the dandy's that had been done.
Cops were shoving thugs into vans, ambulances were picking up a few of the more injured ones.
They all spotted me as soon as I stepped out.
"Oh my god it's the Gat!" someone yelled.
Everyone crowded around me and took millions of pictures. I literally heard them ask me a million questions before the cops pushed them back.
The chief police officer came up to me and said
"We are required by law to arrest you, son. But from where I'm standing I don't see a criminal, I see a hero."
He put a hand on my shoulder.
"I don't care who you are, but if you keep doing what you're doing, you are going to make the world a much better place."
I looked him in the eye
"I'm not the hero you want, trust me. But since nobody else is going to do it. I will do what it takes to maintain justice."
I grappled straight up into the Cloud. Leaving below me a city that was a lot safer.
But I was certain this wasn't the end. Something was coming, I was sure.
Something Big.
