DanielaVillage, SouthSinai, Egypt, 17.50, 1980.

Wolf skidded along the ground as bullets whiz past his ear. He ducked under the wall of a torn down shack as the sounds of war began to take place. The Middle East was diverging into war again, as it had for decades. But to him it was another job, another contract to get by, to get him closer to his goal. The hot sun beat down as the Islamic forces, or what was left, began to trot down the mountainous battlefield, rifles in hand.

Wolf kneeled down to reload his gun, a PPSh-41. He slotted the magazine in the bottom and jumped out of his place, throwing bullets across as he dashed to cover, before being blocked by an Iraqi soldier. The soldier bashed the gun out of his hands, Wolf landing a shove against him. Wolf pulled out a KA-BAR out of his rig and grabbed the soldiers arm and slashing his bicep, rendering it useless. The soldier slammed heads with him, Wolf hitting the ground. His arm limp, the soldier pulled out a pistol, gritting his teeth in anger and pain. As he was about to pull the trigger, a thunderous roar came from afar and a bullet struck the side of the soldier's temple, crashing onto the rocky soil.

Wolf dived across to cover behind a wall, as the deafening sounds turned to more roars and screams across the battlefield, then came silence. The battle was over and a new one was beginning. The dust settled as Wolf sat up against the wall of the ruins. He pulled a long silver throwing knife and slowly raised it above the wall, glistening against the light. Another roar came across the landscape and the knife pinged onto the ground, stinging his hand. A sniper was in his midst. The hot sun was beating down against him. "He can't keep it up forever," He thought. "I might as well wait…" Hours seemed passed by, the heat piercing his skin, every once in a while checking to see if he could still hear the thunderous roars of the sniper. It almost seemed like an eternity. Wolf's eyes slowly drifted away, the temporal blackness of sleep overcoming him. He awoke again to see a shadow looming over him. He looked up to see himself, smirking, with a bloody tear streaming down and a pistol in his hand. The gunshot boomed through his head and woke him up abruptly. The shadow of him was gone and the moon was in full effect, its light spreading across the darkness.

He once again picked up his half broken knife and raised it again, against the gleaming moonlight. After a minute, he slotted it back in his slew of other knives. He sat himself up and slowly peeked out of the cover to see bodies, strewn across the battle field. Wolf looked around and glanced to see a flicker in the distance. He dived for cover, digging for his gun. He placed his hand on the wall as he slowly brought himself up, the wind blowing the dust from the rocky ground. No one had shot yet. He pulled out his binoculars and peeked in. It was almost hard to tell in the dark, but the moonlight had helped.

Wolf saw a dark figure on the ground, with a cloak, flapping against the gusts of wind, as if a winged beast opened up his wings to take flight. Wolf struggled to think why this figure didn't act, why he wasn't dead. "Must be blind or something…" he thought. He put his binoculars and checked his watch. It wouldn't be long before the sun would rise. A plan slipped into his mind, but he didn't have much time to act. He walked back to the ruins to dig around, finding only charred wood from fires the Iraqis had left and some frayed lengths of rope. He picked up some of the charred wood and took it to the wall he was hiding from earlier. With a blunt hand, he scrawled some eligible letters across the rough surface of the wall. Content, he ran back and grabbed the lengths of rope. The real job was at hand.

The sniper began to feel the heat against his back. His neck cracked as he lifted himself off the ground. He felt as if he shouldn't have slept like that. He wrung his hand around his neck as he picked up his rifle and looked down the magnified scope. Immediately he saw men standing around the ruins. Instinctively, he placed three bullets in them, loading his bolt-action rifle. He looked up to see that the men weren't down dead. He quizzically looked down the scope to see the men were dead. Hanging by the neck from a rope, covered in blood and bullet holes.

He glanced across to a wall where something was scrawled on a wall, in black, jutting letters:

WATCH YOUR WINGS RAVEN

The sniper cursed, as he got up and stared at the bloodstained battlefield. Suddenly, a figure dashed in the corner of his eye and bashed into him. The sniper quickly raised his rifle up, before a flash of steel sliced through his hand, in an instant. In pain he drops his gun, landing a punch in the figures chest, the figure staggering back, dropping his knife. With his limb hand, the sniper pulled out a colt 1911 from its holster and tossed it into his other hand, raising it to put a bullet in its head. He looked up to see the figure right up to him, another knife flashing in his hand. He dashed back to try and avoid the knife. He saw the figures face, as if time slowed down. A man, in about his 20s, scars swiped across the right side of his face, his long blond hair flowing upwards. A sense of determination and anger on his face. It wasn't long before the knife made its swipe. The sniper screamed in pain as his left eye went black, clutching it as he felt the blood spurt and stream down his face. The man tackled and landed on top of him, a knife to his throat. "Alright…" he huffed. "Start talking you son of a bitch. Who are you with? You're definitely not with the Iraqis." He glanced over to the sniper's arm to see a patch, a black and yellow one with a fragmented skull, with yellow lettering across the top.

"militaires sans frontieres… when were you with MSF?" the knife was held tighter to his throat. The snipers mouth was dry, his vision shaking. "Stop… this is too far… even for training…"

"Training? What the hell are you talking abo-"
the man paused, his expression widening. His head darted across the landscape. "Shit!" he exclaimed pulling his knife away. "We have to get out of here, they might be watching us…"
"What?" the sniper croaked, raising his head up. "Sorry…" the man said, before grabbing him by the throat. The sniper gasped for air as struggled against him. Finally, he began to slow down as his vision went black.

The sniper's eye opened up slowly, to see a cold, steel room, the bare bulb dimly lighting up the room. He sat up on the bed, clutching the cloth around his head, trying to make sense out of things. He stared at the room. The room was plain, with a dresser, a mirror and a sink on one side and two bulkhead door at the opposite side of the room. On the other, a wall of paper and lines. The sniper walked to the wall, bewildered. The wall was encased with pictures, maps and notes of various information, each in some scrawled writing. The sniper jumped as one of the bulkhead doors screeched open.

The sniper stepped back into the centre of the room. In stepped in the man, a stern look on his face. "You're up… Good," He prominently said, screeching the door behind him. "I was wondering when you'd come to."

"W-Where am I?"

"A questioning. Why don't you sit down?"

The sniper sat back down as the man walked over to the wall of investigation. The man was an average size and build, in drab army fatigues, though the sniper couldn't take his eyes of his leg. A cyborg leg, like in films, black and metallic, a square housing with a copper bar running down the frame of what would be his calf, attached to a flat steel plate on a hinge of folded metal and motorised gears.
"Tell me what you were doing in South Sinai."

"I… I was told it was a field exercise."

"From who? You're Superior?"

"Yes. Well, not directly."

"A cut-out? Just what I expected. Was this your first?"

"…"

"Jesus… and you didn't expect real people to be killed?"

"I was told they were proxies, 'assets' to the training."

"And yet you still never asked any questions."

"I didn't know! What does this have to do with anything!?"

The man's arm slammed against the wall, some papers falling off the wall. He pointed to a small candid black and white picture of a man walking. "Do you see this man? You know him?"

"…No…"

"I've been chasing this bastard for four years. We have reason to believe he's planning something. War Child, he called it. A person, a weapon, we don't know. Intel comes and goes, he likes to throw matches at his paper trail. This wall is the only mark of his existence. He's known by his comrades as 'The Commander', but for now he's War Child, until we know what it is. His latest action was…" he stared back at the sniper "Taking soldiers who have little to no experience, throwing them on the battlefield… training them that way."

The sniper stared up back, with an expression of disbelief on his face, leaning back against the wall of the bed. "I'm sorry you had to hear that… but you of all people needed to know."

"Why didn't you kill me? Why did you bring me here?"

"I…"the man gazed back the sniper, before darting back at the wall. "You're the latest in the trail. I need to know what you know. This guy left me for dead. I seek retribution and I imagine you do too."

The man walked over to the bulkhead door and opened it, light from outside filled the room. "Come with me, I want to show you something."

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Who are you? What's your name?"

The man smirked as he leaned against the door. "Don't have one. We run by codenames here, you can call me Wolf. Steel Wolf. Now come."

The two walk out onto the platform to meet the crisp air, surrounded by the ocean, with glaciers passing by in the distance. "Where are we?" the sniper questions. "You, are standing on the edge of the arctic ocean." Wolf exclaims "Bought this oil rig for cheap, the people who owned it wanted to switch to geothermal energy. We're planning to expand but for the moment it's just this. You should see this place in the winter. Whole sea freezes over." Wolf walked down the walkway, the sniper trailing behind.

As they walked down to another doorway, a soldier, bearing arms, stopped his watch to salute. "Wolf! It's good to see you back."
"At ease soldier. It's nice to be back, can't stand the heat there. Back to your watch." Wolf forced another bulkhead door open, which had a small sign marked onto the door labelled "R&D". The place was brightly lit, with men in lab coats either quietly working or discussing ideas. Finally they made it to a room at the back of the area, containing a work desk, filled with excess parts and scrap.

"Viper!" Wolf called out, walking towards the desk, examining parts "Slither on out here, I want you to meet someone."

The two turned to see a bespectacled man, clanking towards them. He was a middle aged man, with creases running down his face, as well as stubble running across his jaw. He was in a fitting lab coat, with harness running up his right arm and around his hips. The light glinted of his metallic hand and leg. "Slither?" Viper chuckled "isn't that what you do?"

"If it means food for you and the base, I do what I must. This is ... a friend, known him a very long time, before LD."

"Oh. Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Cold Viper, but viper is ok." His robotic hand outreached to the snipers. They both shook hands, the sniper feeling the coldness of his. "So what's your name?"

"Um…" the sniper thought for second, not knowing what to say.
"Dark Raven." Wolf said, putting his hand on the sniper's shoulder "Now, I need you to have look at him, he has a little injury .He might need some fixing"

"I see. Why don't you take a seat?" Viper pulled a chair towards Raven. Raven sat down, as Viper removing the cloth, exposing the cut, deflated eye, with a long stitched cut going from his eyebrow to the bottom of his eyelid. Viper pulled back from seeing his eye. "Quite a nasty cut. How'd it happen?"

Wolf leaned up against the work top "Well… it was just a little accident between us"

"You know, maybe its best if you leave the knives in the drawer."

"Viper, you may look my mother, but you're not. Think you got anything for it?"

"Well…" Viper stood up, pushing his glasses up "I've never really worked with anything other than limbs. But, I might have a plan for this kind of idea. Hold on." Viper stepped back, and walked down to get plans, leaving the two alone. Raven had a small grin on his face, before it shrank back into his blank expression. "How the hell did you meet that guy?" Raven asked.

Wolf chuckled to himself. "I met him on a job. A rival PF was paid to raid a facility on the border of Mexico. I was called to stop them and claim any of the research. Apparently they were working on the effects of radiation. Whole place was a bloodbath, both soldiers and scientists dead. Then, I turn a hallway and that bastard nearly blew my head off. You see that harness around his arm? That has hook he connect to his Uzi." Wolf mimicked drawing a weapon out "anyway, it took some coaxing, but I got him out, as well as some of his stuff. He mainly works on bionics, but he dabbles in other fields too. I'm glad that I put him as the head of this division, these eggheads would be like headless chickens without his directions"

"What about his… uh" Raven gestured to his leg.

"Hm? Oh, that took some coaxing itself. His mother was a researcher for the trimity nuclear tests. She conducted radiation poisoning when she had him. I'd recommend you don't mention it to him."

"Ok…You lied to him about me. Why?"

"Trust me, its best they don't know. They'll take it the wrong way. They won't trust you otherwise."

"What about Raven?"

"You usually do night ops?"

"…yeah. What made you think that?"

"I noticed it from that cloak. It wasn't camouflaged, it was dark blue. Back in South Sinai, in the night, I saw the cloak fly in the wind. It almost felt as this bird of prey was looming over, waiting for my death. I've also read that ravens are considered ill omens in some cultures."

The two turned as Viper came clanking back, carrying plans as well as devices. "I have them!" he exclaimed, dropping everything on his desk. "Now, this may take a while. I'll need to tweak it to the size of your eye socket."

"Wait Viper, tweak what?" Wolf questioned.

"An ocular sensory device. A bionic eye, if you will. Now given, it's still a prototype. But we can now test this device! Let's get started."

A few hours later…

Viper slowly pulled Raven's eye out of his socket. Raven winced in pain, as Viper flicked his prosthetic index finger and a small knife gleamed in the light. "Now, this might sting." Viper said and with one quick swipe, his eye was cut off. Raven recoiled back into his chair, grunting in pain. Viper rushed to grab his newly built device. It was a thick piece of equipment, a small cylinder in the back and a small yellow window in the front. Viper fed Raven's optic nerve into the device, wrapping the strap around his head. Viper pressed a button on the top and a motor whirred inside of it. Viper stood back, wiping his dirty hands. "OK. Here's how it works. This sensor reads light and processes images, which turn it into electrical impulses that is sent down the optic nerve. It's a good thing he had most of his eye, most tests I did were with artificial wires, which never really work. How's the picture?

Raven lifted up his head and looked at his surroundings, before looking back at the two men again. "A little fuzzy, to be honest it's a bit disorienting at first."

"That's to be expected, mind you, this is still a prototype. If you'd like, I could take it back and tweak it."

"No, this is fine." Raven stood up, almost tripping over himself trying to get used to the device. "Come outside, you look like you need some air." Wolf turned to shake Viper's hand. "Thanks for this. See if you can improve on that design."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Viper inquired. Wolf sighed heavily, before digging into his pockets and pulling out a carton of cigarettes, tossing them over to Viper. "Thanks Wolf, come visit again sometime." Viper called out to the two, walking back outside.

"Don't go using them all!" Wolf cried back "You might not get some again."

"Don't bet on that! See you around."

"Why'd you give him cigarettes?" Raven questioned, opening the bulkhead door.

"Unfortunately, we've only enough budget to keep this place running. So the soldiers started trading cigarettes and booze for jobs to be done. I don't mind it, but it can be tedious as hell."

The two walked back onto the platform, leaning against the rail, watching the sea shift and change. "Thank you for this… thing" Viper said, tapping his finger against the metal housing of his robotic eye. "No worries, I just hope there's nothing bad between us." Wolf replied.

"Why say that?"

"Well… I want to strike a deal with you."

"Go on then."

"You were played by that commander, thrown out to be killed. You probably have a lot of questions, as have I. That's why I want you to stay here, become a recruit. You get things you need and I get information about other things."

"What about the others? Won't they ask questions?"

"You think I lied for the sake of it? For all they know you're the founder of this private army. But before that, you have two choices. You could leave this place, drop you back in South Sinai, you never see me again. But, if you want, you could stay here, you get everything you need and you help me what I need to do."

"Why would you give me all this stuff if I would say no?"

"I'm giving you something I had to get myself. A choice, to take back what you lost."

"…Alright. I'll join you."

Wolf dig in to his pockets once more and handed him a patch. Raven looked at it. It was a grey oval patch with and dark grey outer rim, on each side, an l and a d, in red with a dark red border, and finally a lightning bolt in between the two letters.

"Welcome to Lightning Daggers, Dark Raven" Wolf said confidently, "I expect to see you around." Wolf turned on his heels and started walking down the walkway of the oil rig. Raven looked back at his patch and put it back in his pocket. He stared at the sea expressionless before turning back to Wolf's room, his head hanging low.