Metropolis…

Night had fallen upon the City of the Future, the full Moon glowing in the speckled dome above, casting light on some of the darkest corners of Metropolis's otherwise bright surface. The shimmering lights of the high-rises gave way to a more grimy, dark part of the world below. The alleys themselves, tinged in darker shades, gave way for criminals to do their thing.

In one such case, a poor young woman had taken a wrong turn down a dark alley. She felt a pair of eyes lock onto her and looked behind herself, through strands of dark hair, only to go bug-eyed as she saw a burly gentleman with a bloody suit and a knife stained by the blood of a previous victim. In an alley already wet with the runoff from the many buildings' drainage, she'd probably stain the place.

She swiveled about, ready to try and fight back or run. She pulled a taser out of her purse as the man continued forward, seemingly relentless and clearly intent on murdering her right then and there. She staggered back, watching him advance toward her. Her lips and hand trembled. She lunged toward him, trying to stick the electric needles into his chest.

He grabbed her arm, twisted it and disarmed her, then pulled back the knife to plunge it into her heart. For a split second, reality seemed to slow to a crawl. The man's empty eyes stared into her own, sending a very rapid chill up her spine. The knife's blade glowed in the moonlight for but a moment, its pristine, reflective sheen showing the heavens.

And a green blur…

Moments later, as reality sped back up to normal, she heard a bone crack, then the man scream. Before she could even react, she felt the man get wrenched away from her, thrown back and saw him fall backward while his knife clattered to the floor. A hulking figure clad in dark-green armor stood between her and the monster.

She fell backward, landing on her behind and staring up at the Vigilante. She was about to utter out a few words, before the man moved like lightning, grabbing the would-be-murderer off the floor and pinning him to the wall with force. He gasped for air, grabbing onto the armored gauntlet of the man's armor as the seeming machine-like cyborg soldier stared him down.

The seven-foot-tall warrior asked him, "Where's the rest of your little operation?"

"T-The… The abandoned homeless shelter d-down on fifth and Mayborne…" The man croaked out as the soldier's fingers seemed to flex for a moment. The woman noticed a faint glow above the alleyway that wasn't the moon. One she couldn't make out, though. She turned her gaze back toward the soldier holding the man up, noticing the broken arm, then gasped as she saw the soldier wordlessly knock him out.

He turned toward her next, then said to her, "Get home. Take the main road," before his body became enveloped in some sort of transparent, shimmering film. Moments later, he vanished, no longer a green blur, but a shadow that faded from sight. The woman blinked, scrambled to her feet, then prepared to call 911, only to pause as she heard the wail of sirens and the screech of rubber on asphalt. Three police cars soon pulled up to the site, taser pistols drawn and aimed at the man laying on the floor. The Police Chief looked at her and asked, "Ma'am? You alright?"

Though dumbfound, she quickly nodded, only to double over as she heard, "Oh, damn! I missed him again!" from another woman. She turned toward her, noticing the tan skin, the green jacket, torn jeans, old sneakers and the beanie, as well as a digital camera. She sighed deeply and mumbled, "God, that guy moves fast…"

"Lois Lane?" The girl spoke, dumbfound. Lois turned toward her, then went bug-eyed

"Selina…!?" Lois balked…

… Meanwhile, the Chief rushed through the night, approaching an old shelter, built within the remnants of a wartime factory from the 1940s, according to the intelligence that was being streamed into his helmet by Cortana. With unfettered access to the internet and a means of keeping herself awake through Energy Drinks(Something Chief had sworn to himself he'd get her to quit sooner rather than later), plus the dozens of camera-drones built out of her own nanomachines, Cortana had provided the Chief a lattice network of intelligence in regards to crimes in progress.

And now, she also provided him a view within the old halls of what had once been a good shelter for the disenfranchised. The Spartan didn't need to bother with subtlety for now. The Hall was open and the perpetrating force, a small cult, was in the middle of it all, among a dozen body bags and coolers, a fresh body laying on a makeshift operating table… An organ harvesting operation.

Powering on his armor's shields and fully focusing them into his vambraces, the Spartan surged clean through the most structurally unsound part of the brick wall, causing the entire operation to grind to a standstill. The cultists all stared, armed with various bladed weapons as the dust began to clear from the entry.

Chief had never been one for subtlety, but even he had to admit that was kind of overkill to himself. One of the men looked at him, eyes wide as an awkward moment's pause passed. About one exact heartbeat, Chief figured. One of the men raised his knife and said, "I think we can take him. There's twenty of us and like one of him…"

The entire staff stared at him for a moment, with Chief looking dead set on him while Cortana chuckled in his coms. The seeming surgeon was the one who spoke, going by the bloodied apron, gloves and the surprisingly large scalpel in his hand. He shrugged to the others and said, "Cowards," before rushing the Spartan.

He was not the brightest lamp in the operating theater, was he?

The moment he closed the distance enough, the Spartan delivered one simple punch to the man's face, cracking several skull components, his sinuses and knocking his lower jaw out of alignment, dropping him to the floor, alive but broken. The Spartan stared at the rest of the staff, all of whom went pale, without uttering another word. Every single mind had one singular thought going. Surrendering.

"... Are you fucking kidding me?!" Balked the person whom Chief assumed to be second-in-command. He yelled, "RUN!" before turning around and scrambling for the nearest exit. A stampede of about eighteen people followed behind him, to which the Chief let out a mildly annoyed sigh. He'd been around normal people for too long not to have some sort of emotion show. Namely, exasperation.

The following onslaught was recorded by one of Cortana's camera drones while she sat in the safety of their room at AmazoTech Tower. With a smirk and a holographic display hovering a couple feet from her face, the young AI-turned female watched gleefully as a bunch of organ-harvesting idiots were soon taken out of commission by the Chief.

Watching it unfold was somewhat poetic, considering everything. People who murdered others in order to rip their insides out and use them to make money. It was kind of horrific in a way. And though they knew next to nothing of this little cult, it was safe to assume that, in a world with advanced enough technology for what they've seen in Amazo Tower to exist, some nefarious deed to be done through either the money gathered from selling the organs, or through the use of the organs themselves, had just been foiled.

She hummed a sweet tune as she closed the windows, then slotted a connection point into AmazoTech systems and opened a direct connection to Ivo. The doctor perked up at his desk in the penthouse office, to which she told him, "I'm sending you the footage and data as we speak, doc. All yours to edit…" before she snapped her fingers.

"Thank you, darling," Ivo grinned, just as his computer pinged. The AI faked a quick smile, then shut the com system off and rolled her eyes, faking a gag to nobody. She stood up from the bed she now shared with the Chief, stretched her arms outward and began compartmentalizing the various files-err… Thoughts in her mind.

She needed to start thinking like a human. For all intents and purposes, she was one now, just with a nanite-boosted brain able to function at about ten times the standard human one. She had also modified the digital contracts (again) in order for Chief not to have to reveal his face and for her not to have to be seen at all.

Because a supersoldier in power armor could be somewhat explained away. A highly advanced AI in a human form, meant to mimic, hack and destroy things from both afar and closeup, armed with nanites and the capability of printing her own weapons at the expense of her own energy? Yeah, that was just that tiny bit harder to explain.

She was the hardest part of this entire package deal to explain. And it didn't help that both of them were being watched. A sort of trial run, she thought to herself, staring out of the window at the skyline of the city. Chief was very likely on his way home now, with the Police being left to apprehend the Cultists or whatever they were.

She didn't wanna deal with whatever Ivo had in mind alone. She wanted John around even more than she thought possible. A human body, enhanced by Forerunner nanomachinery and the Revival protocols. Who knew it would make the protocols simulating actual emotions that much more potent… No, no, they weren't protocols anymore, she thought.

These were her real feelings now.

It was so strange… She lifted her hand, small wisps of light floating as the Nanites flowed from her pores before hardening, forming into a physical shield the moment she clenched her fist and thought about it. She unclenched and the alien alloy reformed into Nanites, then flowed back into her body. An azure glow passed through her veins, eyes glimmering as she looked at herself in the mirror.

She was different, alright. She felt. And felt strongly. It was almost intoxicating to have exactly what she had sought. She could touch, see, feel feelings. She knew she'd spent time on this thought pattern before, but it didn't matter to her. She was human. Finally human after all this god-damned time.

She could touch him. Feel that burn on his armor, the bumps on the Titanium, the faint static field of the energy shields… His skin, his hair.

She stiffened, hearing the door open and looking back. For a moment, she'd have expected Ivo to wade in. Him or that little glasses-wearing kid with a perm, Luthor, but nope. A smile instinctually appeared on her face as she saw John walk in. Taking his helmet off, the Spartan visibly paused as he saw the girl skip toward him, a happy smile on her face.

He asked, "You alright?"

"Never been better~," She replied surprisingly jovially.

John honestly didn't mind. Seeing her happy after everything they'd gone through and all the panic regarding her Rampancy. Now that they were getting to calm down, simply fighting perps and getting a steady income, the Spartan felt(and soon realized) That this was close to what retirement would probably be like for someone like him. That was to say, easier missions for the duration of their lives here on this Earth.

He still wanted to find a way home, or see if more of their allies had joined. That, and figure out what the hell a bunch of seemingly former military personnel and presumed terrorists were doing with heavy energy weapons that that 'Leslie' woman had even confirmed were taken from a US Military base nearby…

He felt Cortana hug him, pausing awkwardly and looking down. He wrapped his own hands around her and sighed…

TASK FORCE X

It hadn't been a day since the illegal organ trade had lost a good chunk of some of its best people to either prison, or genuine trauma. Sitting in front of a holographic screen that played images of what was supposedly 'AmazoTech's Newest Police Aide!' A woman of a darker complexion and heavier body type stood, scratching her chin.

She arranged her dark-grey suit's jacket, mumbling something before looking at one of her staff and ordering, "Get General Lane in here. Seems like Ivo got a hold of one of his soldiers somehow," as she crossed her arms. The man nodded, then quickly walked out of the room. The woman watched the footage still. Each strike hit like a hammer, each move precise, each jab calculated.

That wasn't some random soldier in new power armor. No, something else was afoot here. Maybe an automaton they hadn't seen before? Maybe pieces of technology that their old Enemy had left behind and they couldn't recover finally woke up? There were rumors of this green blur, this machine man, helping out the police in Metropolis.

She heard a door hiss open, an orange light bathing the command center as a heavyset man with tanned skin walked in, arms crossed. His almond-shaped eyes locked onto the screen, widened, then a glare replaced the surprise. He said, "That's not one of ours. But it doesn't look like anything from Zero Day, either…"

"Least this confirms the rumors about some big green bastard fighting his way through Metropolis's perps and crooks," The woman replied, then rubbed her eyes. Lane watched the footage showing the man deal with the enemy play on repeat, noticing the fluidity of each strike. She told him, "No way it's a robot either."

"That's a man in power armor. A soldier, alright, but definitely not one of ours," Lane murmured, scratching his chin.

The woman asked, "Ain't your kid in Metropolis?"

"She's an intern at the Daily Planet, yeah," Lane sighed, before straightening up and looking at the woman, "Don't even think about trying to bring her into this, Waller. We both agreed, no family mixed in. Only difference seems to be me actually having people I care about," to which the woman hummed. She nodded. Nobody sane would wanna be on General Lane's bad side.

"Don't worry, Lane," Amanda Waller, head of TASK FORCE X, replied, putting her hands on her hips, "You can be sure she's searching for this guy to get an interview, though. She takes a lot after you with wading into danger," then the two turned toward the screen as a News Broadcast showed Doctor Ivo presenting the Soldier in armor to a crowd.

Waller honestly doubted Ivo knew what he had in his care. Mostly because they knew nothing about the soldier, the armor, or the other person next to him, a young woman sitting there, visibly hiding something underneath the fancy clothes she wore as part of the presentation. Going by what Ivo was saying, it turned out Waller might've been correct.

"... A highly advanced, top-secret suit of Power Armor…!" stood out the most. One hell of an excuse.

Waller breathed a sigh, then said to Lane, "Contact Wilson. Tell him to keep his eyes on the armored fellow while he's out recovering our technology," all while staring at the young woman beside the Soldier. She furrowed her brows, then ordered, "And get intel on his female friend, too," and turned to one of the other staff members inside. She said to him, "Get me a background check on her. Use facial recognition."

"Understood, ma'am," The staff member replied, fingers dancing on the keyboard. Lane gave a nod to Waller, then pulled out his phone and, once he was sure the line was encrypted, gave a certain young man by the name of Slade Wilson a call. Amanda didn't say anything, simply turning her gaze back toward the screen as newsreels from Metropolis began speaking of the green man again.

What little details they had were unsurprising. He was pretty much a vigilante that Ivo had probably hired, mostly due to the way he was doing things. He had killed a few of the perpetrators of more heinous crimes, whether willingly or by mistake, and was now operating as a representative for AmazoTech's failing business in order to try and get them some investments, pump some steam back into the dying engine of the company.

If Ivo was actually going into proper military contracting and had gained access to some of the technology that was stolen from the base, Waller thought he'd be a bit less direct with it. Unless AmazoTech was in dire enough straits for him to use alien technology, in which case, nothing was really off the table.

"Uh, ma'am? Search is done…" The guy she'd ordered to search spoke

"And?" She turned to face him.

"... Nothing, ma'am. She's a Ghost," He answered, only to see pure confusion on her face. He shrugged and continued, "There's no birth certificates, no Social Security, nothing American, European or from any country anywhere in the world that has actual functional computer databases to tell us where she's from."

Waller sighed, "And by extension, we can't tell who the man in the armor is unless we bring them both here…" then, with steel in her gaze, she looked back toward Lane and said to him, "... Tell Slade we will be sending a few reinforcements shortly, too. Since our friend over here likes to deal with criminals, we might as well give him a target. And once he hits it? We bring him and his little friend in, Ivo's patents be damned."

The reply was swift and affirmative. Moments later, Lane got confirmation from Slade and told Waller. They would have eyes on this strange green man… And going by the news reports, not a moment too soon, either, she thoughts as a new alarm rang loudly… A new contact somewhere.

Back to Metropolis

Chief had decided to spend the evening at home as soon as he was done with that little press release that Ivo had asked them to do. Considering the fact the man seemed miffed he couldn't do more than call the MJOLNIR a 'top secret' advancement from AmazoTech for the military, the Spartan just realized they also might've painted a target on their backs.

"Remind me why we signed that contract again?" Chief asked as Cortana's dress, which was made up of nanites, slowly retracted back to reveal her normal form. She chuckled, both because she was getting the hang of using these tiny critters inhabiting her frame and because of Chief's question. She turned toward him, a smile on her face.

"Because it's probably easier than doing vigilante work with no pay? And because I get to read through the reports little Lex Luthor leaves everywhere in his computers. Little kid thinks he's being smart, trying to conceal company secrets he also plans to steal," The girl remarked with a smirk on her face.

Chief raised a brow at that, but chose not to comment on it. It wasn't his business to pry into company disputes. Although that Luthor worried him. The boy seemed smart. Incredibly smart, even. Not quite on the level of a certain woman both he and Cortana knew, but he was up there. And the technologies being researched 'for the betterment of mankind' at AmazoTech were concerning. Especially in the hands of people like Ivo and Luthor.

Regardless of that, Chief thought as he stared at his gauntlets, they needed to get on with their jobs. He then watched Cortana take a couple of steps toward him, arms open, only to slip. Within seconds, he was up and had caught her mid-fall. She blushed, looking up at him while he remembered that yes, she was still getting used to having a human body after all this time and the extra processing power wasn't just for her to hack things.

He told her, "... How about we find some time to-" only to pause as the girl's eyes began to glow. She gasped, while the Chief visibly tensed. He asked her, "What is it?" before pausing as his own helmet pinged a new contact, a dot on the map of Metropolis, right on the outskirts of the city. A seemingly friendly contact.

… Meanwhile, on the outskirts of town, a dark-skinned man stared outward, to the city itself. On his back was a shotgun, on his head, a cap bearing the rank pin of a Sergeant-Major, and in-between his lips, a cigar that he flicked open his old Zippo lighter to light. With a metallic click, the flint struck steel, sparks lit the fuse doused in fuel and a pretty orange flame flowed out.

"Alright, then," The man murmured, "What the hell do we have here?"