Author's Note: Not much to say, other than sorry for the delay. I guess I let this one go one for too long without it being published. Anyways, enjoy.

"Are you sure about this Lazarus?"

"I most certainly am Dinah. And it's not like we can back out of this now – we're nearly there."

The two humans were inside Predator, with Lazarus manning the steering wheel and Dinah riding shotgun. Their prisoner was in the back fully tied up, knocked out with a nasty bruise on his head, courtesy of Dinah, to keep him from making any trouble.

The Moon was high in the sky now, and the darkness of the night was punctuated with a countless number of stars. Predator came to a slow and steady stop. Lazarus opened the door and stepped out of the vehicle, looking up. A massive cloud formation was heading their way from the West, obscuring the sky above it as it moved.

'Hm. Cloud cover – that'll help with our approach into the city.'

"Is there something wrong?"

Ruin came trotting up to Lazarus, with War looking down on his newfound ally. At first, the man didn't answer the Horseman's question – he merely kept on looking up into the night sky. He let out a sigh and watched his warm breath rise up into the cold air. Then the human turned his head to look at the phantom steed, examining the horse's hooves specifically. He noticed that flames danced around the stallion's hooves, giving off a source of light in the coming darkness.

'That could be a problem.'

Finally, "War, dismount."

The Horseman raised an eyebrow in confusion; he complied nonetheless, with horse and rider exchanging looks.

"What's wrong?" he asked again. Then, he noticed the human's demeanor. The man's face was as stoic as his, displaying no emotion save for cautious seriousness. He wasn't very talkative either – this, War realized, was a different side of the man.

"We're about a half-mile out from city limits," Lazarus explained.

"That is good, right?"

"Yes. And no," the man replied cryptically. "There's no shortage of hostiles in the city. So we've gotta make our approach as stealthily as possibly. However, the flames around Ruin's hooves will give us away to any potential attackers."

Ruin seemed to understand what Lazarus was implying. Before any request could be given, the horse phased into the ground, the embers from his form dying away almost instantly.

"Huh. Well that saved me a bit of time." He leaned down and poked his head back into the supercar. "Dinah, get on the gun," he ordered. The car moved slightly as the woman limbered back towards the gunner's seat – then, a compartment on the vehicle's top opened up, raising the turret up into position.

"War," Lazarus said. "You're riding shotgun." War nodded, and as he passed Lazarus, he was stopped when the man placed a hand on his armored shoulder. "Hold on a second."

Reaching down to his belt, the human produced Mercy and offered the grip to War. "I believe this is yours," he said.

"Indeed. Is there a reason why you're returning this to me now?"

"No, not really; just returning what's yours before I forget. But, since you're riding shotgun, you might as well be our second gunner."

As human and Horseman took their seats and closed Predator's door's, Dinah, unable to speak to them directly due to being closed off, keyed the vehicle's radio from her seat. "Hey Lazarus, why don't you explain our RoE to War."

"Right, rules of engagement. Horseman, I want you to blast anything that gets too close to the car, or if and when there is more than one target, threats that Dinah isn't actively engaging. But remember, we're trying to be sneaky here – above all else, do not fire until we ourselves are attacked first."

With that, they headed off. Lazarus didn't send the supercar up to high speeds – that would've created a large dust cloud that anybody could see for miles on these plains, even at night. Instead, he kept the vehicle at a steady twenty miles per hour. Because of this, it took several extra minutes than normal to reach the city outskirts.

Finally, as soil and grass began to merge with broken and cracked concrete, Lazarus once more brought Predator to a halt. "Alright you two, I'm going dark," announced Lazarus. Just as War was about to question what the man meant by that, Lazarus answered his question by action. Darkness suddenly closed in all around them as the car's headlights were switched off. Then, War noticed something even more important than the lights. It was now completely silent – the noise the engine was making had stopped, as well as the slight vibrations it gave out.

"Activating visuals; stand by."

While waiting for Dinah to get herself squared away, Lazarus flipped a switch on his car door, lowering armor plates down in front of the windows, effectively preventing any light from entering or escaping the vehicle's interior while also serving the secondary purpose of additional armor. Then, another switch later, a large holographic display sprung to life in front of driver and passenger, allowing the two to see outside. On Lazarus's side of the windshield, four additional small camera feeds hovered off to the side, overlapping over the main display – three of them showed the views from the cameras on the sides and rear of the vehicle, while a fourth simply remained blank.

"Visuals coming online. Ok Lazarus, I've got a clear picture. Check me." The fourth display suddenly came to life – off to the side of the display, the long barrel of the supercar's machine gun could barely be made out against the surrounding darkness.

"Yeah, I've got a clear feed too."

"Alright, I'm now cycling through vision modes." The darkness surrounding the gun barrel suddenly disappeared and the world changed color as the gun camera switched first to the green of night vision, then to the black and white of the FLIR, and then finally to the multiple colored-hues of the thermographic mode.

"Alright, everything looks good. Stick to FLIR and thermals. War and I will be seeing green for a while."

"Roger that," was Dinah's reply as she switched back to FLIR mode.

Reaching up to the holographic display and "touching" one of the camera feeds, Lazarus slid the "window" across the screen to War's side. "Think fast Horseman," the man said, before slinging another window War's way. He didn't, but it didn't matter – the windows came to smooth stop in front of War. Hesitating, War eyed the holograms with slight wonder.

"What is this?" he asked curiously. Before he could utter another word, Lazarus interrupted. "Whatever you say, don't call it 'magic,'" he said with a small smile. "Here, I'll give ya a crash course.

"These are holograms," Lazarus said, gesturing towards the displays. "The largest of these in front of you is, obviously, the 'windshield.'" The man reached out to another camera feed, and, with two fingers, shrunk the display, and then enlarged it. "Now you try."

Like Lazarus, War reached his right hand out towards one of the camera feeds and copied the human's actions.

"Pretty easy, huh?"

"Indeed," was War's reply. "However, I now have a question."

"Shoot."

"How am I supposed to engage any potential hostiles with these armor panels down?"

"Don't you worry about that, my apocalyptic friend; if we end up in combat, I'll just simply raise the panels up and lower the window. And besides, Dinah's the one that has all of the heavy firepower – she'll be doing most of the attacking. In all honesty War, you'll be of much more use to me as another pair of eyes. Those displays I sent your way look out on the car's right side and rear; all I want you to do is to keep your eyes on those two screens, and if you see anything suspicious, let me or Dinah know about it."

Still finding the holograms interesting, War reached out an inquisitive hand, only to unwittingly change the viewing mode on accident. Noticing this, Lazarus gave ever more advice.

"Tapping the feed of one camera will change the mode it's on. Keep it on night vision – it should tell you what mode it's on."

With all of that said and done, Lazarus applied slight pressure to the accelerator, bringing Predator from sitting idle to a slow and steady pace. No noise or vibrations were given out by the engine – again, War noticed this.

"Is the engine operating?"

"Technically, no."

"Then how is the vehicle still moving forwards?"

"There are two hydrogen fuel cells that complement the engine. The car can work just fine on these two fuel cells alone – just as long as I don't go too fast. If I go any faster than sixty miles per hour, then the main engine automatically starts itself up."

"He's an inquisitive one, isn't he Lazarus?" Dinah chided in, irritation clearly evident in her voice.

"Hey, it's good to ask questions you know," he replied, noticing her testiness.

"Yeah well, if he keeps on asking away, then he's liable to let the entire city know that we're here."

"Oh relax; give him some slack. First of all –"

"Lazarus."

"What?" Lazarus sighed.

"Shut up and stop the car," she said quietly.

Lazarus eased off the throttle slowly in compliance – Predator came to a slow, gliding stop in response.

"What's wrong?" he asked lowly. For a moment she didn't answer. "Did you see something?"

"Yeah."

Lazarus darted his eyes to glance at the feed of the gun camera, which was currently operating in the black and whites of infrared. The camera showed a street in a commercial district of sorts. Lazarus didn't see anything of interest – just the old dilapidated buildings and the cracked street.

"What am I looking at here Dinah?" She didn't respond.

"Dinah?" he asked a bit more loudly.

"Shhhhh . . . quiet."

Silence became dominant as Lazarus and War kept their eyes glued to the various camera feeds, with Lazarus keeping an eye particularly on the gun camera. The turret continued to stare down the street, unmoving. Why wasn't Dinah moving the turret around? Did whatever she saw, see the car as well? Or perhaps, whatever she was looking at was hiding in the turret's general direction of fire – maybe it was hiding in one of the buildings off to the street's sides. For nearly half a minute, nothing happened – then, movement. Out of the shadows of one of the buildings, something emerged.

It was a demon – a Phantom Guard. He cautiously stepped out of his cover, looking around in all directions, but repeatedly looking back in their direction. He looked around a bit further before making a beckoning gesture towards the building he was in. In several moments, another Phantom Guard emerged. And then another, and another. It was a squad of demons, which easily numbered about a dozen or so members. Out of the pack, several of the demons in particular caught War's attention.

They were bigger than the Guards, but had the same sort of body. Clad heavily in armor, these demons, three of them, wielded a frightening demonic weapon. They held these weapons with two hands, one in front of the other. Although they were far away, War could clearly see what it was, especially since the normal red glow it emitted made it brighter on the night vision. On the weapon's front, staring its victims in the face, was the visage of a demon, its maw gaping wide, as if it made to swallow its wielder's enemies whole. Large, serrated spikes that tapered to a point hung on rails on the weapon's side, waiting to be launched upon command. The spikes glowed with an unearthly red flame.

War had encountered these weapons before. Called "Fracture Cannons" by the demons, they were infamously known for being highly lethal – provided that the projectiles hit their targets. That was the problem with them: they seemingly had no aiming apparatus whatsoever. Therefore, the killing potential of Fracture Cannons was solely dependent upon the wielder. But then again, the users of these powerful tools of war always seemed to show skill and competence.

This wasn't good. He had to tell his comrades.

"Lazarus," War said, gesturing towards the demons.

"Yeah, I see 'em," the man replied softly. "This might get ugly."

"Then you know what those are?"

"Yeah, seen 'em in action before too. Those guys can take down a tank with a little effort. With that in mind, I doubt they'll have much difficulty killing us."

"Provided they can hit us," Dinah quietly replied. Lazarus nodded in response, tightening his grip on the steering wheel and gear shifter, readying himself for some potentially crazy maneuvers.

"Dinah, you got a clear shot lined up?"

"If I move the turret any, they might see the movement and know we're here. Can't risk it."

"Well you might have to in a second. That one Guard is leading the entire pack this way, and he looks a bit too curious for his own good."

Indeed, the demonic patrol was slowly moving towards their position. War couldn't help but notice the extreme caution they practiced. They were looking in all directions. But the demons with the cannons were almost constantly looking skywards.

The Phantom Guard leading the squad raised a fist up in the air. The point-man, signaling a stop. Immediately, the squad obeyed. For a moment, nothing happened. But then, the Guard motioned for one of the big demons forward – one armed with a Fracture Cannon. The Guard spoke closely to his fellow demon and waived a finger in their direction. The large demon stepped further forward, raised his weapon, and took aim. Then, a burning spike was launched out into the night.

The demon's aim lived up to War's expectations. The projectile landed no less than a foot away from the car. And while it didn't hit them at all, the flames from the spike illuminated its surroundings, which included Predator. The demons could see them!

"Shit! Dinah, open fire!"

In the silence and the darkness of the night, Predator's machine gun roared to life, the flickering flashes of the gunfire illuminating the street further, and the guttural roaring of the weapon utterly destroying the once peaceful silence.

Almost instantly, the demon with the cannon downrange dropped to the ground, its armor pockmarked with bullet holes and blood running freely from freshly made wounds. The entire squad dived for cover, any cover, out in the open street. The other two demons with the ranged weapons shoved a derelict car up and on its side, creating cover more suitable for their larger sizes. In a moment, they retaliated, unleashing flaming spears back into the night, taking turns popping out of cover and attacking. One fired every spike on the weapon quickly before having to reload, while the other took careful aim.

In response, Lazarus shifted the gears into reverse and floored the accelerator. The engine – the gasoline part of it – rumbled to life as the tires screeched on the pavement. He yanked the steering wheel left and right, sending Predator in a zigzag manner, narrowly evading the spikes as they crashed into the pavement, cratering it.

"Keep her steady!" Dinah yelled in irritation.

"Screw you! I ain't getting us skewered!"

Then, as the last spike in the volley landed, the projectiles violently exploded, causing to Predator to skid out of its pattern.

"Not Good!"

Suddenly, the supercar rocked with the force of impact, the uncomfortable sound of screeching metal resounding inside the vehicle as a new spike ripped the turret from the chassis. The spike kept on going, bringing the now useless turret along with it. Then, a second later, this spike also exploded outwards, destroying both. The part of the ammo belt that was still attached to the turret went off afterwards in numerous secondary explosions. The side of Predator's chassis was showered in a short-lived storm of shrapnel.

"Shit!"

"Alright, I think it's time we bug out!" Lazarus anxiously said.

In a burst of speed, Predator peeled away from the losing battle. The demons, sensing their opponents' weakness, surged forth from their cover, keeping up the pressure. But the loss of the machine gun wasn't totally in their favor; being demons' only source of light in this sky-obscured night, it had become much harder to actually see their target now. But that didn't deter them – they kept on firing.

But the demons' fury blinded them from another threat, one that circled the skies above the battle, drawn to the commotion that had disrupted the peace; the very threat that the demons had been watching for before the battle had even begun. And it didn't see the retreating form of Predator; instead, it saw the demons, especially the ones armed with the Fracture Cannons.

And then it struck, dive bombing from above. An unearthly wail filled the night air, startling the demons. The sound was so strong that it even pierced through the dual layers of armor and glass of Predator, easily being heard by the vehicle's occupants, even Dinah, encased away in her own little cockpit. Said occupants, aside from Lazarus who was occupied with getting away as fast as possible, saw the events unfold.

Whatever the creature was, it slammed down into one of the armored demons with incredible force, the impact throwing up dust into the air. That was all they were able to see before Predator rounded a corner, their escape seemingly successful.

Lazarus exhaled a sigh of relief. "Now that was close."

"So, it's good to ask questions, huh?"

Lazarus sighed again. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Right. Sorry."

"Damn right you're sorry. We almost got screwed back there."

"Oh that wasn't so bad. We got out of that in one piece."

Dinah's reply was silence. War gave him a look.

"Ok, mostly in one piece. Nothing a few repairs can't fix."

"Whatever. Let's just pay more attention from now on."

They had been travelling for a while now – probably for at least twenty minutes, estimated War. According to Lazarus, their base of operations was on the far side of the abandoned city, deep in the industrial districts. Dinah's advice proved to be effective; after their initial skirmish, they had encountered two other demonic patrols, as well as some demonic fauna. It wasn't too difficult to sneak by them, but Lazarus said that sometimes he had to "be stealthy – Solid Snake style. Except with a car." Whatever that meant.

Lazarus then explained to War that there was a sizeable demon garrison stationed in the city, although for what reason Lazarus couldn't discern. Although there were several patrols out and about, there weren't many of them. According to Lazarus, the demons preferred to work during the day, coming out of their base en masse. It was also during the daytime that Lazarus and Dinah conducted their operations.

"Would it not be easier for you to work at a time when the demons are not as numerous?" War had asked.

"You've got a good point, but you're also wrong," was Lazarus' response. "There are some pretty nasty things in this place that like to come out during the night. You know that first patrol we ran into? The one that got clobbered by that one monster? There's monsters that are much nastier, and bigger, than that."

"But we never even saw what it looked like. How can we know how deadly it truly is?"

"The ambusher can be just as lethal, if not more so, than the pursuer," Lazarus replied sagely.

"True."

Dinah joined in on the conversation. "And besides, we've seen those things in action before. They're reptilian in nature and can fly. A preferred hunting method is to fly at a high altitude and dive bomb their prey. We don't see them up close very often, because that's when they're going to kill you. Why do you think we travel in this tank of a car?"

War nodded, understanding.

Finally, they came to an area of the city that had many factories and warehouses – undoubtedly the industrial district that Lazarus mentioned. Predator pulled up to a large factory building, complete with an adjoining warehouse.

"Here we are. Home sweet home." announced Lazarus.

War eyed the establishment before the vehicle – like much of the city, the building was old and rundown, with many holes in the walls of the structure. Really? This facility was their base? How could it when its structural integrity was highly questionable? But perhaps he wasn't seeing something important; maybe Lazarus was just about to show him how they survived here. And indeed he did – the man brought the vehicle up onto an entrance ramp and into the building.

The interior was spaciously vast and dark. Numerous support beams towered up higher into the structure interior. Catwalks suspended well above the ground floor crisscrossed every which way, with cold metal ladders leading up onto higher platforms. Predator came to a stop at a corner of the building, where it was surrounded on all sides by a rectangular warning sign on the ground. Due to the darkness of their surroundings, it was difficult to identify the markings on the cement floor. The segment of the ground that the supercar was now on was different than the rest of the floor – cold metal.

Lazarus smiled. "From the vehicle, dismount!" he barked, raising the armor plating, allowing for him and War to exit. "I always like saying that." War raised an eyebrow, though not directly at his ally.

"Hey Laz, you and War go on ahead. I'll finish up turning off Predator's systems and meet you downstairs."

"Got it," he acknowledged. "War." He gestured towards the Horseman to follow.

The man walked up to a metal pedestal that had various buttons on it, made visible by small lights inside the buttons; he pressed two in quick succession, before quickly stepping away from the console. War did likewise. Then, the faint sound of whirring machinery came to their ears as the metallic floor that Predator was on, as well as the console, slowly sunk into the cement – it was an elevator, specifically for the vehicle. Eventually, the very top of the vehicle descended below floor level – where the floor of the elevator once was, a metal panel slowly, but eventually, took its place, covering up the hole in the cement floor.

Not too far away, there was a three-walled enclosure – another elevator, obviously for personnel use. Lazarus walked towards this elevator, with War in tow. When the two stepped inside, the Horseman noted how spacious the interior was; there was plenty of room for several people to fit in comfortably.

Lazarus pressed only a single knob on the command console, and the doors closed of their own accord, small lights in the ceiling winking on, dimly illuminating the elevator interior. Then, War felt a sudden surge of momentum as the elevator began its descent. The two were in this semi-darkness for a brief amount of time when the elevator came to a steady halt. The doors abruptly slide open, revealing a long and wide, brightly lit hallway, with a closed doorway at the far end. War had to shield his eyes for a second; he had become accustomed to the darkness of his surroundings.

When his eyes had readjusted to the light, he noticed the features of the hallway – the whole thing was white; the floor, the ceiling, the walls, the lights – everything. It was somewhat disorienting. He noticed the condition the hallway was in; everything looked new and well maintained and the lights shone with strength. Everything looked completely the opposite of the run-down factory building above.

The human stepped out of the elevator first, making for the hallway exit at the other end. The Horseman followed. When they were half-way through the hallway, something happened – the doors to the elevator suddenly closed and the sound of whirring machinery attested to the fact that the elevator was ascending back to where it once was. But how could that be? There was nobody else inside the thing but Lazarus and War. Was it pre-programmed to go back up to the surface after it emptied its passengers? Or maybe . . . .

War's brow furrowed as he pierced the back of the man's head with a suspicious glare. He reached for Mercy's holster, but he didn't draw the weapon.

"This had better not be a trap, Lazarus."

The man came to a sudden halt. He turned halfway, giving War a confused look.

"Come again?" he asked.

"This feels like a trap to me." He had been lured into a setup once before. War would not let something like that happen a second time. Lazarus turned his body to fully face the Horseman.

"I won't hurt you, just as long as you don't try and hurt me."

He noticed War's hand hovering over Mercy, ready to level the firearm in a second. "Relax, Horseman. You're one of the few allies that I have left in this world."

Something was different about the man's disposition. Unlike out on the battlefield, where he was loud, energetic, and almost carefree, he was calm and quiet. He still had his trademark confidence. And his eyes held the look of an honest man. Lazarus was right. His fears were groundless. He relaxed. And then, in an instant, he changed back to what he once was.

"And besides, you're not the only one who hates this part."

War merely raised an eyebrow in confusion. What did he mean by that?

Turning back around in the direction of the supposed entrance to their base, Lazarus yelled out "You know, for once, I'd like to walk into my own goddamn home without being scrutinized!"

For several seconds, nothing happened. Then, an icy, feminine voice answered. "Voice print recognized. Password accepted. Now, will you kindly step up to the retinal scanner for proper identification?"

"Cut the crap Alex, you know it's me." Despite saying this, he walked up to the device mentioned, which was situated right next to the door, standing stock-still, allowing for the scanner to do its job. In moments, the device emitted a beep, signaling that the task had been completed – Lazarus stepped back. Several seconds afterwards, Alex announced, "Identity verified."

"Great. Now let me in dammit."

"Just one second. Who . . ." Suddenly, a plate in the ceiling popped out of place, sliding aside, revealing an automated turret as it lowered into position, its long barrel pointed squarely at War's head. ". . . is this?"

This time, and with lightning speed, War didn't hesitate to level Mercy at the turret. But before he could squeeze off a salvo, Lazarus intervened by stepping in between the two.

"Both of you stand down!"

"Lazarus, what are you doing?" Alex asked with a wintry calmness.

"Simple: I'm stopping you from killing a new ally."

She didn't respond right away, as if mulling over what the man said.

"An ally, you say?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah, an ally – as in he's friendly. He just needs a safe place to crash for a little while. Now please, for the love of god, put the gun away."

Again, she didn't respond immediately. A tense silence entered into existence as Alex seemed to consider the validity of Lazarus' words. Then: "Very well. As you wish. But if you're wrong about him, then you may as well be dead already." The turret disappeared back up into the hallway ceiling – Lazarus breathed a sigh of relief. Casting a glance over his shoulder, he saw War holster Mercy, apparently relaxing as well.

"Come, on," Lazarus said, beckoning War to follow. "Let's get inside before bullets actually does start flying."