****((This chapter was suprisingly written in a day... I had such a good feeling inside me from people liking my first chapter on my myspace blog I wrote this one quick. :3 I've had people read and help me correct errors in this one please feel free to notify me of any errors! Also reviews are very welcome, the more people I know are reading my story the more I want to write it! My inspiration comes from me knowing other people are reading it and stuff ya know?! ENJOY this much longer chapter then chapter one!))****

Chapter 2:

Breaking Point

It was about 6 years after being recruited by Delta. I had become part of the family it felt like. Earning a respectable rank in my mind, I was a sergeant. There weren't many ranks in this organization so promotions were hard to come by, a total of 11 of them if I recall correctly. General Retalo had called for a Class A briefing, we had a big mission coming up it looked like. Missions of this class were hard to come by ever since the wars settled down about a year earlier. Until then we had money flowing through our pockets like crazy.

We all met in the briefing room, I sat next to Captain Mikael Seka. He was like a brother to me now; he's the one that carried me to the camp back when Sigma 6 was hit. He was an Okami, almost as far from a blood brother you could get but we didn't care. A new private that was part of the force sat on my other side, he didn't seem very found of Hybrids but he put up with us better then some others.

"Yesterday we got our hands on a big mission boys." The General said starting off the briefing. "A rather notorious group of pirates have recently hit a very wealthy city and their Mayor isn't going to have it. He has chosen us to do their dirty work, as most rich folk do. Fucking pansies." We all chuckled at this softly in a slight pause of his speech. "The reason this is a Class A mission is because we are to find and kill these pirates in the oceans." A concerned look went across the room from soldier to soldier.

We all knew the oceans were probably one of the worst places you could be on this planet. Very few could navigate them and many that went out rarely came back. They were unstable and very frequently fogged by this. Some say the fog gets so thick that you can only see a few body lengths from your self at times. We spent the next two days preparing 3 different boats. Each boat was fitting for approximately 7 men. One at each corner in the back of the boat, two to sit at the front, two steering the boat, and one mounting the gun, the gun was a .50cal mounted heavy machine gun with 360-degree free rotation, there was also two ammo crates, two fuel tanks, two food crates, and two large crates of water on each ship.

This 21-man mission was dangerous but no one in Black Star seemed to care. Delta wasn't known for backing out of a mission because of it being dangerous and it wasn't going to be known for that anytime soon. We were leaving at 5:30am four days after being contacted for the mission, the sky seemed clear and water calm. I was on The Bullet, It was the boarding ship, it was geared with an extra engine for speed when we were going to board the pirates ship when we found it, the others would support and distract from a range at first.

4A.M., an hour and half before departing, I pulled a skintight black shirt over my head. My body under it had been built over the years while I was with Black Star; a nice layer of muscle was sculpted under my skin. I wasn't too muscular but I was a nice size from my thoughts, I wasn't heavily built like some of the other soldiers, then again they were human so I was probably still stronger then them. I had just gotten out of the bathhouse and was clean; I hated being dirty it felt like I was a lower being of my race if I was dirty. Aside from my tail and ears my skin was of a humans smooth and bare, for fighting reasons I kept myself this way, Hybrids seemed to have a control over growing fur from their skin if they wanted, aside from tail and ears that is. My tail white with black stripes as a white Siberian tiger would have, I adored my fur and kept it very clean and combed. My ears mostly black with white fur in bits around it. My hair black in large parted sections, it was longer in the back, about down to the end of my neck, it came up on my head about where human ears would be if I were one and then to my eyebrows, some parts longer but none of the portions cover my eyes.

I finished combing my tail, ears, and hair and headed to my armor chest. I put my light jacket on; it was black with my rank on one arm and our medic symbol on the other. Over it I put a light dragon scale armor vest on, our group used them, they were expensive but very efficient. Layers of material in a scale layout absorbed the impact of bullets much better then other vests. My pants were standard, black with large pockets on the outside of my thighs and upper shins. The pants were tucked into a normal black combat boots. And the final piece to my combat outfit was my belt; A medical pouch attached to the back, just to the right of my tail, an ammo pouch to the left, a desert eagle in my right hip holster and a large combat knife in sheath on my left side. Everything was dark in color even my desert eagle was black, even with technology of the age I played things simple for stealth reasons and not wanting to many physical restraints. Other groups and members of the group seemed too reliant on new technology for me.

We loaded up the last of supplies on the boats and began to untie them from our docks. Our base was off in the middle of a jungle next to a river that we had to travel down to get to the oceans. General Retalo gave us a few words of luck and sent us off. We weren't alert at all for the moment, the river wasn't dangerous, at least not for us, we had no reason to be cautious until we got near the oceans so we sat back relaxed, some rested their eyes, others had started to discuss things. I sat there at the front of our boat with Mikael, he didn't say much but that was all right I was transfixed looking out into the jungle.

Mikael was a rather muscular Okami, he was by far the strongest member of Black Star Delta. His hair was white, a bit shaggy but with a large standing Mohawk on his head, to me it looked like pictures I've seen of ancient war Indians. He had what seemed to be a tribal piercing on his right ear, a feather hang from some beads on this piercing. A tribal tattoo started right under his right ear also, and it came down his face and neck, ending at his shoulder. I never asked but figured that it was from tribal family thing, if not either way I thought he looked pretty sick. He carried on his back a large metal pole arm and around his shoulder was strapped a light machine gun, he had a quick release clip for it, he only used the gun when had to, he was a melee fighter at heart.

The pirates used steam-powered technology. E.M.P. wasn't an option for us now that we knew this, Mikael made me explain to the private that was co-piloting our boat why an electrical magnetic pulse wasn't going to effect steam technology. I swear this private was mental or something, he couldn't grasp the fact that there was no electricity running through their technology. Coming closer to the canal we geared up, it would be a thirty-minute wait for the water level to drop down to ocean level and once we got there it would be time to get serious. The other two men toward the back of our boat were sea specialists geared in sea gear ready to dive into the ocean and swim at remarkable speeds with the packs they had on. It was like a jet stream under water, few people were able to control this type of movement but these two could. They were to sabotage the ship when we found it to stop it from going anywhere. They were called Ocean Bullets.

Everything seemed sound, the plan was perfect, the men we had were exceptional aside from a few, and we were prepared to be in the ocean for a few days. Our boats came up on the canal, a large wall stood before us and a sign to its right that told us to wait, you could hear the water rising behind the wall. 15 minutes passed as we all stood ready, my MP5's stock was folded for now, it was my weapon of choice for this mission. The wall began to lower Mikael seemed to sense something on the other side, I did also, after the wall was fully lowered Mikael let out a sigh, he seemed to be expecting worse. I was calmed after this also. Our boats slowly moved forward only to stop at the second wall. The wall behind us raised slowly the creeks and rumbling sent small vibrations out as waves about us. After the wall was up, the water began to drain slowly into the ocean on the other side.

Another 15 minutes had passed as we were still being lowered. Mikael was twitchy for some reason, none of us could get him to relax, he said he felt something, but no one else did. We all waited for the other wall to begin lowering. The sound of the wall lowering soon joined all the other sounds of the water draining but then another sound did. It sounded like a couple of large drills screeching from under the water. The right side of our boat let out a terrifying screech; the grinding of metal on metal lifted our boat to near tipping point. One of the Ocean Bullets and Mikael fell out of the boat, the two pilots of our boat were crushed against each other on a the wall surrounding their station for a moment.

A large metal cased man with a drill as a weapon landed in the water right after our boat fell back down. It was a large suit, it seemed it would be slothful and not very flexible. The splash it gave out covered our boat. Gears could be seen at all joints from what I saw for the quick little bit A large helmet that seemed to be like a mini sub that covered half his body. Another large clash this time a more direct hit on the boat behind a drill straight through the floor of the rear of the ship. The drill opened and 4 large pieces grappled onto the ship. The ship quickly shot its nose up, these guys were heavy, even under water. I guess the first one missed because he didn't calculate the water refraction.

The men were quickly scattered across their ship and in the water. A little while went by before the first one that jumped came from the water again and straight to the air. Mikael was grabbled onto the large sub like body shouting out a war cry, his arm cocked back and his pole arm in hand. During this cry with his strength and speed he thrust his weapon through the large metal man. A scream was heard as the weapon cut through it all with ease, Mikael's weapons were never dull. Blood shot out the back end of the suite in mid air with the first half of his weapon following shortly after. He road this body in the air as it fell back to the water, everything seemed to be in slow motion. He jumped off the metal man as he hit the water pulling his pole arm out as he jumped. A small stream of blood followed his upward motion like fluid being poured upward into the air.

The other Metal man had half sunken the boat already and detached knowing it wasn't going back up. Two soldiers from the sunken boat floated at the surface of large holes in their bodies. The water started to turn red with the blood that had been spilling. I had readied my self with my weapon if the other metal man was to surface again. Mikael again was nowhere to be seen. The Ocean Bullet that had fallen out shot out of the water in a flawless motion his guns blazing, shooting down toward the water right under him. I couldn't see a damned thing. A second metal suit surfaced to the water for a moment, the glass was shattered in bullet holes. It seemed that the ocean bullet had got him. The suit sank quickly after surfacing as it filled up with water, more blood filling the water.

The second wall still wasn't lowered two extra men boarded our ship and three the other. We were short on supplies and down a boat now. Mikael was back upon our boat as was the other Ocean Bullet. Mikael's Mohawk was wetted hanging down the tattooed side of his face. His teeth clinched together, breathing large breaths, his adrenaline had gotten him worked up. His eyes were flickering in rage. We calmed him as we waited for the last bit of the water was drained to the ocean. The wall had just lowered to the point we could see, the notorious Gear Stallion steam punk war ship sat in plain site out in the middle of the ocean as if it was waiting for us. The Ocean Bullets quickly jumped into the water before the wall was fully lowered. They shot themselves over the wall to get a head start on us. They would get to the ship in around a minute or two.

The Steams must have had a lead on us; they knew we were coming for them. The odd thing is, they didn't try to run and hide from us. They were cocky and this was their mistake, with Mikael joining us on this mission they stood no chance on a head on attack. Mikael had geared him self on the machine gun, his was left in the water, it had already messed it up. The wall clacked into place and our boat shot out with the other. Currently both boats were going the same speed. A short second or so after we left the canal Mikael yelled out. "On our 6!" he started to fire at two boats coming up behind us, they must have been waiting against the wall for us to leave. The other boats gunner began firing too, although it was in more controlled bursts.

Mikael laughed diabolically like an insane madman while firing off at these boats, he lived to fight. Well ever since his family died that's all he has had to fight for. His son went missing a long while back when his village was raided; he thinks that the raiders took his son. Figured by fate one day he would be at the faces of these raiders one day, and only lived for that day to come. One of the boats erupted in flames. A bullet must have ignited some fluid in the engine. The boat quickly fell behind the other ship coming to a slow in the middle of the water.

Their second ship had caught up with out other ship. They jumped with loud steam pressurized boots that sent them into the air with a stream of steam visible in the air trailing their boots. They landed on the already crowded boat, some landed on some others. Shooting wasn't an option it was too close ranged. They were slaughtered in a matter of seconds, something set it off, and my guess was one of the men pulled the pin on a grenade. The ship went up in an explosion, the fuel tanks and ammo crate made it rather large. Bullets whizzed passed our boat and all around us hitting the water. Our second engine was kicked on as we sped toward The Gear Stallion.

An explosion had come from The Gear Stallion. The Ocean Bullets seemed to have done their part, you could say chaos on the deck from where we were now. Mikael dismounted himself from the machine gun and took his pole arm in hand and stood at the nose of our boat crouched down. We weren't even near enough to board the ship when Mikael leaped up in the air with a large crying grunt "RRWWAAHHH!" he let out pushing the front of the boat almost completely under water.

He flew in the air with grace; his arms behind him from the push off narrowing his body to allow himself fly through the air a little easier. He landed on their deck with a large thud, we could hear over the commotion of everything around us. Cries yelled out almost instantly after he landed on the ship, the sound of bodies being cut and thudding against the deck. We got close enough to board and quickly made our way up the side. As my head reached over in a speedy fashion, this climb was nothing to me, I saw a bloodied deck littered with bodies and Mikael standing there in a battle stance as if more were going to come. I could hear cowers from inside the ship. His breaths ended in a long growl each time.

A gunshot was let off, everything slowed in my vision it was like every detail around me brought it self to me in this moment. I watched this bullet fly through the air slowly. I couldn't move at all, nothing I told my body to do happened. The bullet came from my right from inside the ships entryway to the lower cabins. It traveled from one side of the ship to the next. The bullets pierced its way right in the middle of Mikael's head. My heart was stopped the image I saw happening before me couldn't be real.

The bullet exited the back of his head, along with bits and pieces that the bullet hat passed through. The man with the gun in the cabin entryway laughed. "Kill the rest boys!" the voice was proud and booming, the shady figure I saw from the corner of my eye had to be their Captain. I looked there lifeless on their deck with a circle of dead bodies around him. The one that saved my life and gave me meaning was gone. My vision began to become hazy, I started to snarl my fangs seemed to have extruded out further then they naturally were. My hands straightened them self and then the muscles tensed in them, they curled like each one was holding a large object but nothing was there. My claws grew to a razor sharp point and thickened themselves. I could feel my body grow my shirt felt as if was tearing slowly. My vision changed, everything was coated in a red haze and narrowed I could see everything happening slowly. I tried to move but couldn't my body was moving it self, it was like it was on autopilot and I could only watch.

I threw my arms out letting out a terrifying roar in pain and grief, anger filled me like a burning fire that had become wild in the middle of a jungle. I had gone feral. Ripping through men that tried coming out onto the deck and crushing their bodies against the walls of the inside of the boat. Their skin was tearing so cleanly and easily over my claws and the chunks of skin and meat I took from their necks were tender and satisfying to my feral thirst. Rampaging down a hallway of men chasing after their soon to be dismembered and slaughtered captain. My vision went black in and out, more and more bodies appeared each time I could see what was happening. Then the most memorable vision I have of this god-forsaken day. My claws were raised falling through the air at their Captain's head. My vision went black after that; I wish I could remember slicing his head to pieces.

After that I couldn't remember a thing, I woke up unknowing how many days after the incident it was. The ground was rocky and the rubble of boats washed ashore in pieces was scattered across the shore. I slowly made my way to my feet, only to fall back down almost landing on my tail. I looked up at a few tall buildings that stood in the distance. They were worn from age and other causes clearly. I started to notice most things were like this around here. All I had lost was my jacket, vest, and MP5 somehow. I still had a torn t-shirt that had holes scattered across it now and I was drenched. My Desert eagle still in its holster, I didn't know if it would work or not after being in the water for however long. I made my way to the nearest hill and what stood before me was a city of complete anarchy. Screams were heard in alley was in the distance and people just walked by as if it was nothing. Everything was dark and destroyed somewhat here. Metal walkways trailed across the skies attached to the buildings about mid way up them and the streets littered with sickly looking and thugs. I walked toward the city with no other direction to choose from. Midian City was about to welcome me into its dark, unforgiving arms.