Operation Alpha A few weeks after Nocturne's encounter with the Areneaes, she got a tip from her latest ally, Hawke, that Victor Lawrence was up to something. After their perilous encounter with the gene enhanced super soldiers, Hawke decided to further investigate Helix Institute. What he uncovered was far more sinister than they could had imagined. Lawrence has began an expansion into his human projects by taking people from the poorest sectors of the city. In order to achieve this, he once again posed as a philanthropist, creating a "scholarship" to take young people from the sectors and send to study through universities across the country. In truth these people would never see the universities, as they were instead taken to the labs. During this period, Nocturne considered going on a public campaign against Lawrence, but realizing that she needed concrete proof, that option was not possible. So instead she bid her time, hoping to uncover one of the facilities in plain action of torturing innocent. Sadly for her, since her last stunt, the security had tightened quite a bit, so directly infiltrating Helix Institute was not an option. Luckily for her, Hawke uncovered just what she needed. According to him, Lawrence had set up small facilities throughout the poor sectors, and these were one way or the other connected to the operations at Helix. Nocturne decided that the best course of action would be to infiltrate one of these facilities and gather intel and evidence that link it to Lawrence's devious schemes. This however wouldn't be a simple task, as in the interest of "reducing crime", Lawrence placed his company's security throughout the sector. These security guards were handpicked, uniquely trained and could go one on one against highly skilled soldiers. Sadly for them, Nocturne was not any soldier. After uncovering the possible location of one of these facilities, Nocturne made her way to Hope's Beginning, a very dangerous sector of the city. She traveled through the rooftops scanning her perimeter, waiting for her moment to strike. After a thorough scan, she noticed a guard stationed in an alleyway leading to Lawrence's Institute for the Less Fortunate. She studied his behavior trying to form a pattern. "Seems like everything is under control here, as usual" The guard was communicating with the security office. Nocturne carefully descended from the rooftops without making a noise. She took cover and waited for the man to lower his guard. Little did he know that he was about to face the Mistress of the Night. Nocturne sneaked up on the guard and launched at him. The guard tried to put up a fight, but sadly for him, he was more appearance than substance, even though he had an impressive uniform, he was no match for Nocturne. She elbowed him in the jaw, lifted him and then proceeded to slam him against the concrete floor, prompting an instant knockout. Before she moved on, she searched the fallen guard for anything useful. "Hmm this will prove to be useful." She said, picking up what seemed to be a keycard. Once done Nocturne continued making her path towards her objective, ready for any challenge. As Nocturne made her way through the back alleys she heard the screams of a woman. Naturally she sprinted into action. "LEAVE ME ALONE! HELP!" The woman screamed. "Calm down, woman, I am just going to take you back into custody." The voice seemed to belong to another guard. Nocturne turned around the corner and saw the source of the struggle, one of the guards had tied down a woman, for reasons unknown. Nocturne wasn't going to allow this. "Help me! Please!" The woman pleaded. "Stand aside and I won't have to hurt you." Nocturne directed her words at the guard. "No, you stay out of this. You already have given us enough trouble with the boss." The guard replied. "Oh well, you asked for it, I hope you at least manage to be a good training exercise" Nocturne said as she launched at the guard. The guard drew his sidearm and tried to shoot at the heroine, but the mistress proved to be too fast for him, disarming him before the gun was even loaded. She then proceeded to pull his head down and kneed him in the face, putting an end to his shift. With the hostilities settled, Nocturne turned her attention towards the woman. She inspected her and proceeded to undo her bindings. "Are you ok? What happened?" Nocturne asked as she undid the bindings. "Well the thing is, I am a reporter. You wouldn't guess with my current clothing, but I am. So I got a tip that some shady things were going on around these parts and I decided to investigate it for my next scoop." The woman replied. "So let me get this straight, you heard that there were some awful things going on here and you thought that the best course of action would be to investigate without any backup?" Nocturne looked at her as if judging her. "Hey! Whenever there is a scoop, only the brave bird gets it. So anyway, I decided to investigate and my source was right. There is some really ugly stuff going on here, but sadly I got caught in the process, hence my current situation." The woman replied, saddened. "So they took everything you had? Well I am on my way to that place. Any recommendations would be most welcome." Nocturne seemed more serious. "The facility is divided into blocks. Each block has a number of cells. I managed to escape but I was chased by what seemed like a robot!" The woman's reaction seemed to turn a bit more frightened. "A robot? Can you go into detail?" Nocturne asked. "The thing seemed to be in some sort of armor or exoskeleton. It carried a yellow sword kind of sci-fi. He seemed cool, except for the part where it tried to kill me!" "I see. Well in any case, you need to get back to safety. I'm heading in, if I find your stuff I'll get it back for you. Something tells me you are gonna be essential for my plan, so I need your name." Nocturne said. "Oh my name is Patricia Taylor, at your service, Nocturne!" Patricia replied a bit more cheerful, "Oh don't look at me like that, you are obviously the fearless Nocturne. I recognize the costume anywhere!" "Thanks...I guess. Anyway, be careful, all right?" Nocturne replied. "You got it!" With that she left. With Patricia gone, Nocturne had no other option but to proceed further into the madness. Five minutes and 7 guards later, Nocturne made it to the entrance of facility. As she suspected, the place had a tight security system. Luckily, she had picked up the keycard from the first guard, so at the very least she had one option. She pressed her luck and slided the keycard, hoping that it would work, and to her fortune it did. Before her the door opened, leading into the mysterious facility. This was the moment she had been looking forward to, but now that she was here she questioned if she was ready. Nevertheless, this was no time to second guess herself, this was the time for action. Once inside, Nocturne was greeted with a plethora of hostile messages. Clearly this place was not a home for the less fortunate and more of a prison. There were signs dictating strict curfews and rules, that should the person not follow them, would result in imprisonment. To top it all off, there was a message on the floor written in blood, a clear sign that a struggle had just occurred. Oddly enough there were no signs of guards anywhere, it was rather lonely. Strange, nevertheless despite that the place seemed empty, Nocturne did not lower her guard. She slowly made her way through the corridors, searching for the incriminating evidence. Like Patricia had said, the place was full of cells holding prisoners. Nocturne tried to use her keycard to unlock the doors, but sadly it didn't work. This shifted her plan to focus on finding a way to liberate the prisoners, in turn they could be used as evidence. But the plan would soon be interrupted..... It all made sense now. Nocturne figured that something was wrong when she saw no guards around, she expected a trap of sorts and she was right. Nocturne was making her way through the facility when out of nowhere a robotic figure appeared in front of her. The figure fit Patricia's description, but it didn't look like a robot, it looked more humanoid. The figure unsheathed his yellow colored sword and stood firm in front of Nocturne, the latter crossing her arms as if nothing was wrong. "Stop right there, cease and desist. I have orders to arrest any trespassers." The figure spoke. "Or what?" Nocturne stood defiant. "I will be forced to use lethal force." The figure spoke. "How obedient. I should get a robot like you to clean my place and kick out any unwanted visitors" Nocturne replied in her defiant tone. "I AM NOT A ROBOT!!"The figure spoke once more. "Oh really? Clad in metal, without will, following a masters orders without second thoughts. You seem very robotic to me." Nocturne kept on. "I....I...choose to serve! I...am......my own...master!" The figure began to struggle, it seemed like something had hit it hard. It was shaking its head in confusion. "I know what you are," Bethany said "Hawke told me all about you and your little encounter with him. You are Subject Alpha, are you not?" "That....is....correct.....or..is..it? GAH!!" Alpha continued growling in pain "Am.....I...really......a....robot...without will?" "You are the product of a madman's scheme. I am trying to help people like you, to give back the humanity you lost. But I need your cooperation, will you stand down?" Nocturne asked. 'I......I.....you....." Alpha seemed like it was beginning to break away from the grasp "GYAAAAHHH!" a shockwave ran through his entire armor, "I MUST TERMINATE ALL INTRUDERS!" "A shame, really" Nocturne sighed as she prepared for a fight. Subject Alpha ran towards Nocturne with his blade in hand, ready to slice the heroine in half. Nocturne however did not have plans for dying on that night and retaliated with finesse and agility, dodging all the incoming attacks. She turned his aggression against him, consistently avoiding his attacks, making him hit the wall so hard that the sword got encrusted. As he tried to remove the sword from the wall, Nocturne took the opportunity to hit him, though it didn't prove to be too effective after all he had a powerful armor. Nocturne returned to her strategy of avoiding attacks. Sadly this tactic would be very effective on any opponent, except Alpha, due to his more robotic nature he wouldn't get fatigued like any other human. Nocturne knew that this strategy would work against her in the long run, because the only one getting exhausted would be her. She needed to come up with another strategy, but for that she needed time. Thus she decided to apply the strategy of avoiding his attacks while moving around the building in hopes of coming up with something. The area was devoid of furniture or anything she could use for a quick wit plan, thus complicating her scenario. To top it off, in her attempt of dodging him, she cornered herself. With nowhere to go and a cyborg coming at her with a blade, Nocturne made a jump kick of epic proportions. This kick could be the deciding factor of the bloody match. The fight raged on as Nocturne's kick landed straight into Alpha's helmet, causing the latter to stagger a bit. Nocturne now had the upper hand, the opportunity to use her wit. She looked around and saw a pair of barrels. With not much time on her hands, she took one of the barrels and threw it at Subject Alpha, but the latter was quick enough to counter with his blade. Alpha's was so powerful that with a single slash he sliced the barrel in half, the barrel dropping a strange substance on the floor. Alpha proceeded to once more launch his attack against Nocturne. The Cyborg attempted to slice the heroine in half, but she would not falter, she would not back down. Nocturne caught his arm andstruggled with Alpha, as she tried to disarm him, prompting a clash of muscle versus metal. The struggle would go on for minutes as neither side would give in. However their struggle quickly took a turn for the worse, as Nocturne pushed Subject Alpha into the remaining barrels. Unbeknownst to them, the material in these were explosive, so as Alpha clashed against them, all hell broke loose. Alpha's contact was all that was needed for a massive detonation that resulted in the area being engulfed in fire. Both Subject Alpha and Nocturne quickly got surrounded by the flames of hell, and if they didn't do anything they would soon be consumed by them. Subject Alpha obviously took the biggest blow, which gave Nocturne an opportunity to escape. Nevertheless this wouldn't be an easy task for the heroine, as she herself had been taken aback by the blast, her cape now covered in flames. Nocturne rolled in the floor, trying to extinguish the flames in her cape. She began to move towards the easy, avoiding all sorts of danger in the process. One false move and this could be the end of the Mistress of the Night. However, she wasn't planning on making that place her tomb, so with what strength she had, she pulled herself across the room. Hoping to find the exit before the fire consumed her. Nocturne was so close to escape and yet it seemed so far away. Due to incoming explosions and a decreasing strength, Nocturne had to crawl all the way back to the exit. With each move she felt like she was going to faint, her world fading with each breath. It was getting harder to breathe, if the fire didn't consume her, her lack of oxygen would make sure she didn't escape. But Nocturne wasn't willing to give up yet, she was going to fight with every fiber of her being, and so she did. Step by step, she forced herself to continuously move, ignoring the pain or the desire to just curl up and die. After a long and arduous battle with the flames of hell, Nocturne managed to reach the exit and she was greeted with a blessing of the divines. To her luck, it had begun to rain. Managing to reach the exit, Nocturne quickly made her way to a corner where she rested her back against the wall. Her cape had ceased to burn, but her legs felt like they were on fire, which led Nocturne to quickly rip off her stockings and take off her boots, in order to allow her legs to soak in the rain. She placed a hand on her stomach, trying to regain her breath. A few minutes later, she regained her strength and just in the nick of time, as the door opened to reveal Subject Alpha with blade in hand. Nocturne sighed as she began to stand up, "Ohh you again, jeez take a break..." "I......MUST....TERMIN...AT..E....IN...TRU...DE.R.." Alpha seemed to not have fully recovered, in fact it seemed like the ordeal had taken a big toll on him. "Fine, have it your way. Come and get it, boy." Nocturne stood up, ready to strike Subject Alpha didn't think twice before he once again launched an attack against Nocturne. While both parties were exhausted, neither would give in. One was fighting for his master's orders, the other was fighting for her very life. Nocturne ditched her avoidance strategy and went in full offensive, striking Alpha, whenever he left an opening. Her intention was to disarm him, hoping to neutralize him. Alpha himself was also far more aggressive, and rather than being the calculative striker, he was throwing blows non-stop. It seemed that the ordeal had not only affected his body but his psyche. Luckily for Nocturne, this time she had the environment to her advantage. Nocturne being quick on her wit, quickly spotted objects that she could use against him. And so she did, she grabbed a chair and threw it at Alpha, who this time was not fast enough to dodge it. The impact of the chair sent him back and Nocturne took the opportunity to try and take his sword. The struggle began once more as both sides fought for possession of the blade. Alpha used his robotic strength to drive Nocturne backwards, slowly forcing the edge of the sword towards her neck. It seemed like Nocturne was about to lose the fight, but she turned it around by sweep kicking him, making Alpha fall. Nocturne then took possession of the blade and right as alpha was getting up, she launched a plethora of strikes with the blade. Slash after slash, Nocturne unleashed her rage against the cyborg. After ten consecutive slashes, Nocturne managed to make an opening in Alpha's armor, to finish him off, she gave him a strong strike with the sword's hilt on his head. And thus Subject Alpha was put on shut down for the night. Nocturne panted as she tried to regain her breath once more. She didn't know how she had managed to do it, but somehow she had managed to overcome the deadly cyborg for the time being. She looked at the blade in her hand and back at the unconscious Subject. She could very well end his life right there and although tempted by the idea, she decided to threw the blade away and spare him. Nocturne then proceeded to leave the scene, before the cyborg recovered, which would probably not take long. Although her plan of uncovering intel had not succeeded, at the very least she survived a deadly encounter. With the battle over, Nocturne took to the rooftops in order to avoid detection. However instead of leaving she decided to make a patrol in case there were more trouble. She continued her patrol despite her body's weariness and the heavy rain caressing her skin. While she patrolled, she began to device her course of action after the encounter with Subject Alpha. If Alpha proved anything, it was that Lawrence schemes needed to be stopped, as they were far more heinous and sinister than Nocturne had originally imagined. If Lawrence managed to create an army of men like Subject Alpha, it would radically change the wargames, giving the world the possibility of another world war. Nocturne would not allow this to happen on her watch, but after the encounters she faced, it became clear to her that she would need help if she hoped to put a stop to it. Nocturne needed to build a team capable of undergoing dangerous missions, in order to put a end to this scheme. So far going solo has proven to be ineffective, as Lawrence is always one step ahead. Luckily for her, she knew a man capable of helping her with such task. A few minutes later and Nocturne decided to end her patrol and head home. She was preparing a plan to put an end to Lawrence, but for tonight, she needed a well deserved rest and a new cape.