Prologue: In The Night
(3rd Person)
"Shit. Shit. Shit!"
Late on a new moon night, a middle aged Nigerian man is running for his life. Trailing behind him are armed men shooting at him. He's already been grazed by a shot before. As he's running away, he's trying to check his backpack, remembering that there are some weapons he took from his chasers. In the bag alongside some guns and knives, he sees some grenade-like objects in the bag. Keeping in mind of his surroundings, he sees some explosive tanks in the area. He runs closer to the tanks, drawing his attackers to them. He goes to reach for the grenades, activates a couple, and leaves them near the tanks.
"THERE HE IS! GRAB HIM!"
The intruder sees one of his attackers heading towards him. This one however starts to glow. This glow apparently seems to help make them run faster, quickly closing the gap between him and the intruder. Panicked, the intruder starts to roll out of the way. As the super-fast paced attacker gets close, the grenades explode. Combined with the explosive tanks, the explosion sends everyone nearby flying. The glowing attacker is thrown into his group with great force & speed, knocking them down. The intruder gets back on his feet to hide in a nearby shack. As he tries to get himself together, he's racking his brain, trying to figure out he can get out of the compound he's in.
Come on Ike. Come on Ike. What do I do now?
Diving back into his memory, Ike remembers the section of the compound that's nearby, full of vehicles that he can use to get out of here. After taking a breath and doing a quick check of his bag full of weapons, he comes to terms of what he might have to do to escape since he's never taken a life before. Never really knowing violence like he has today. As Ike makes his resolve to do what he can for his survival, he sets out on his mission to escape. He takes a quick look to survey his surroundings, seeing more armed soldiers on the side he came into the shack but less on the other side. Equipping the pistol-like weapon from his bag, he heads out. Moving as quietly & stealthily as possible, he makes his way to the garage area. Each step, he's running behind crates and containers, staying out of the view of his attackers. The garage is now in sight. Almost letting out a sigh of relief, he regains his composure to focus on the task at hand. As Ike etches closer to the garage door, he has to hide from the door as a new enemy walks out the door. While he stays out of their sight, he sees an automatic lock on the door. Knowing that his window of opportunity is closing fast, he dashes to the door with his weapon readied for the enemy near the door. Right before he can get to the door, the enemy reacts to him. Before the enemy can raise their own weapon, Ike reacts faster, striking them with his gun to the temple, knocking the enemy out. Afterwards, Ike slips in behind the door before it can close.
"Finally."
Ike sighs in relief and continues on to find a vehicle to escape. In the armed garage, Ike has to move even more quieter and stealthier due to the alert guards and cameras that are set up at every corner.
"Shit! This is gonna be a pain."
Looking around, he sees a nearby closet that doesn't have a scanner attached to it.
"Hmm...I need to get one of these men in there and put their gear on."
Ike starts to head towards the closet without being seen. Etching closer to the closet, Ike decides to lure a nearby guard to the closet through whistling. Ike opens the closet door and closes it loud enough for the guard to hear it. Using the darkness of the room to his advantage, as soon as the guard enters the room, Ike strikes them in the head with the gun. Knowing that the guard is still conscious, Ike immediately applies a sleeper hold on them, tightly squeezing the neck. As the guard tries to fight back, Ike restricts the rest of their body with his legs and tightens the grip on his neck.
"Come on! Pass out! Don't. Make. Me. End. You."
Ever so defiant, the guard starts to go for their knife in the left leg holster.
"Fuck. Fuck. Stop!"
Unfortunately, Ike's pleads are falling on deaf ears. Closing his eyes, Ike musters the strength to snap the guards neck.
"F..Fuck.."
Ike holds back tears and emotions from ending the guard's life. He starts to feel the heavy breathing coming on. He scurries to a corner, trying to keep his composure as silently as possible.
"Stop! Stop! Not right now! Control yourself. Keep it together!"
As he tries to slow his breathing, he thinks back to why he's here.
If you want to get out here and find Seniyah, calm the fuck down.
He takes another deep breath, centers himself. He turns to the guard's body and starts to undress him, applying on all the gear he needs to blend in. After fumbling with the radio attached to the armored vest and silencing it, he's now fully dressed in the dead guard's gear. Prepared, Ike heads out. Observing the energy of the room, he does his best to run at the same pace as the other guards. As he gets to a vehicle, he notices a locker for keys across the room. Once he gets to the locker, he uses the deceased guard's badge to unlock it. On the key he grabs, he notices a number tag on the key with buttons on the key ring. Pressing the unlock button, Ike turns his head to see which car responds. As he sees the lights of the corresponding car, he runs to the car. As he gets to the armored Jeep-like car, he notices another guard running to the car. Before he could pull out his gun, the guard entered the car.
"Come on, Jay. We gotta move!"
Ike shakes his head to agree and gets in the car while thinking to himself.
Shit! Ok, how long can I play along with this? Damn…
Ike starts the car and starts to drive it out the garage.
"Dude, why do you have your radio off? I've been calling you for minutes?"
"Huh? Oh, my bad. It fell off on my way here."
As he fumbles with the radio, turning it back on, the passenger guard directs him to the path that he's supposed to take. After turning the radio on, they receive new orders through it by a man with a thick irish accent.
"Alright, get ready to move the girl"
That catches Ike's attention. As Ike drives the vehicle to a 6 car squadron racing towards the meeting point from the girl. As the squadron reaches the spot, a girl in chains comes into view. Ike's eyes widened as realizes who he sees, but keeps it in his mind.
SENIYAH! SHIT! How am I supposed to get her out here?
"Hey Jay! That's your cue. Get in the car. I'll follow you."
Ike turns to the passenger car and awkwardly follows along. As he steps out, the passenger guard's suspicion grows even more. Another guard approaches the car Ike left and notices the passenger guard's demeanor.
"Aye, Tony? What's up with you?"
"Bro…keep an eye on Jay and his car."
Ike approaches the armored car that will transport Seniyah and hops on to the back of the car with Seniyah. As the car and the squadron surrounding it heads out, Ike continues to plot out what he needs to do to save Seniyah and himself.
"There's 3 other men armed to the teeth in this room with us and with 2 other ones behind the wheel, that section locked behind a partitioned door with a scanner on the side. Damn…I only got one chance and I need to move fast."
Before he acts, Seniyah starts to tear up and cry.
"LET ME OUT, PLEASE! I WANT TO GO HOME! I WANT MY DADDY!"
Annoying one of the guards, one of them approaches Seniyah, raising his hand.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!"
As the guard goes to backhand slap her, Ike reacts by shooting that guard dead. As the other guards look shocked, Ike guns them down quickly.
"What the fuck?!"
"Pull over!"
The driver and passenger guards react to the shooting and start to slow down and inspect the back of the armored car. Seniyah looks at Ike, not recognizing him and yelling at him.
"What are you doing?!"
Ike removes the face mask, exposing his face to her.
"Ba…baba?"
"I'm here sweetheart and I will get you out of here, I swear!"
The car they're in starts to swerve and slow down.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BACK THERE?!"
The passenger seat guard turns to open the steel partition door to see what happened. Thinking quickly, Ike motions Seniyah to stay quiet as he drops to the floor, pretending to be dead.
"THE FUCK?! BRO, PULL OVER!"
As the car pulls over to a stop, most of the guards of the squadron stop their cars and begin to approach Ike's car.
Damn! What do I do now?
As Ike is looking around and planning his way out of the situation, he sees that the scanner for the partition door is damaged from the shootings. He jumps to his feet to run to the door to open it and luckily it does. A quick look at the driver seat and once again, luck is on Ike's side as the keys to the car are still in the ignition.
"HURRY UP AND OPEN THE BACK!"
Knowing that he has little time left, Ike immediately gets into the driver seat, throws his weapon bag into the passenger seat, starts the ignition, and drives off. As the car speeds off, some guards start shooting at the vehicle. As Ike pilots the armed car away from the assailants, others are shouting orders to stop the shooting.
"AY, STOP THE DAMN SHOOTING! THE GIRL IS IN THERE!"
As the hail of gunfire slows to a stop, the guards run back to their cars to give chase as Ike struggles to keep his car in control while constantly checking on Seniyah.
"YOU OK, MASOYI?!"
"Yea. Don't worry about me. Just drive, baba."
Ike looks back at her for confirmation. With a loving head nod to each other, Ike returns his attention to the road and drives as fast as he can. Every car in the chase are now ripping across the dark empty grass field, far away from the compound. In this chase, the armored car in the back of the chase is the one that leads the chase to catch Ike. The enemy's radio rings out with orders by the same Irish accented man from before.
"TAKE OUT THE TIRES! SHOOT THE TIRES OR SIDE SWIPE 'EM!"
Once they hear the orders, the 2 cars closest to Ike (one on Ike's left and the other on the right) line up to his back tires. Guards in the passenger seats lean out of the cars to unload their automatic guns to Ike's tires.
"SHIT! I thought they were done with the shooting. Seniyah, are you ok?"
Ike turns around to check on Seniyah, seeing her panicking.
"Calm down, masoyi. I got us."
Seniyah shakes her head to confirm and comfort her dad. As he turns his head to focus on the escape, unbeknownst to him, Seniyah's face goes back into panic mode as she looks at her hands and she notices a dark colored energy and force radiating from her hands.
No! No! No! I can't lose control! Not now!
As the bullets hit and miss Ike's car, he tries to drift and swerve to doge every shot, but he feels like he's going nowhere. As he racks his brain for ideas, a bold idea comes to mind.
"Seniyah, brace yourself."
Ike immediately slams on the breaks. As Ike's sudden slow down causes the 2 shooting cars to speed past Ike. In the confusion, the shooters end up shooting each other, sending their bodies into the drivers, causing both cars to spin out, with the left car flipping into the ground and the car on the right falling onto its side, sliding on the ground. The other cars slow down to avoid the chaos. Ike pilots his car away from the others, returning to the original speed he maintained before. As the chasing cars realigned themselves in the chase, the lead car sent out new orders.
"Aight, fuck it! Lay into it with heavier shots! Try to knock it over!"
Shocked reactions ring out through their cars, all of them asking their leader the same question,
"Diarmuid, What about the girl?"
"She'll be fine! I'd rather take her back to Arno as damaged goods than not have her at all!"
Befuddled as they were, they begin to execute their orders. In the 2 cars behind Ike, the shooters equipped themselves with grenade launchers. They both lean out of the car and start firing shots as close as possible to Ike's car. Every in-range explosion rocking Ike's car, shaking and damaging the chains that keep Seniyah restricted, making her panic even more. Ike tries to keep his car balanced while trying to keep Seniyah calm.
"I got us, masoyi. Rel-."
BOOM! Another explosion goes off that interrupts him. Before he regains his composure, he notices something that made that most recent explosion even scarier. He sees a pronounced dent near Seniyah. Seniyah looks up and sees his scared face.
"Baba? What are you looking at?"
Seniyah turns and sees the dent. As her face becomes even more terrified, Ike finally snaps out of it. As he tries to comfort her again, BOOM! Another explosion goes off and it hits the dent, ripping it open. Ike and Seniyah are screaming in fear. The hull of the car ripping open shocks Diarmuid and his crew. In the chaos, the shooters forgot that there's one more grenade that was shot towards Ike's car. As soon as they remember, BOOM! The car explodes, turning into a giant metal fireball that splits in 2's, separating Ike from Seniyah, who was engulfed in the flames while Ike had to watch in horror.
As the 2 burning halves rolled across the ground, coming to a stop, Diarmuid and his squad pulled over to assess the situation. Diarmuid's group split into 2, the smaller half goes to Ike's half as the bigger group with Diarmuid goes to Seniayh, hoping that she survived.
"MOVE! MOVE! LET ME SEE!"
As Diarmuid looks into the burning hull where Seniyah should be, all he sees is flames.
"FUCK!"
Diarmuid grabs his head in anger, kicking up dirt as he rants about the situation.
"SHIT! Arno is going fucking kill me….wait!" Diarmuid activates his com-radio for the small group. "Hey! Is the driver dead?"
"I see him. I see a lot of blood and he ain't moving."
"PULL HIM OUT! We need to know who sent him and why."
"Yea, boss."
As they carefully pull Ike out of the driver section of the split car, they keep their weapons on him as they try to wake him up. Through their efforts, Ike's eyes start to flutter, slowly regaining consciousness. They activate their com-radios to contact Diarmuid.
"Boss, he's coming to."
"Good. Hold him til I get over there"
As Diarmuid and his group start to journey towards the smaller group, BOOM! Seniyah's half of the car explodes with dark, colorful and forceful energy erupting from the flames, almost engulfing it. The explosion catches everyone off guard. One of the soldiers near Ike makes a remark, wondering if Seniyah caused that explosion, instantly waking Ike up.
"SENIYAH!"
Ike's scream surprised the soldiers around him. As soon as one of them points a gun in his face, he reacts without thought. Ike throws the soldier holding him in front of the gun while also ripping the gun that soldier held off of their person. They reactivated their com-radio to contact Diarmuid.
"SHIT! He's up and moving!"
"WHAT?! KEEP HIM RESTRAINED AND DON'T KI-"
Shots ring out before Diarmuid could finish his sentence.
"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"
Diarmuid and his group now sprinting toward the smaller group. With the smaller group, Ike lets off shots 1st, hitting the soldier that was talking Diarmuid first. Before the others could react, Ike runs behind the soldier duo that he distracted when he threw one in front of the other. As he gets behind them, he unloads shots into both of them.
"Wha…FUCK IT!"
The remaining 2 soldiers decide to disregard their orders as they empty their clips trying to shoot down Ike, but no shot lands as Ike hides behind the dying bodies of the other soldiers. As they have to reload, Ike unloads his weapon successfully as he strikes them both down. As Ike reloads his gun and picks up some grenades, he sees Diarmuid and his group getting closer. Ike quickly begins activating and launching most of his grenades at the group.
"GRENADE!"
As Diarmuid's group split up and tries to take cover from the oncoming grenades, Ike ran behind his burnt car half to reload his weapons. Before Ike goes to survey the battlefield, all of the grenades Ike threw began to go off. As each of the explosions rock the battlefield, several of Diarmuid's soldiers get taken out by them. Though Diarmuid escapes the explosions unscathed, on his person, a piece of his equipment seems to malfunction because of it.
"DAMN! Come on! Work!"
Seeing how disrupted they are, with an automatic weapon and 1 last grenade in tow, Ike sprints towards them, spraying the battlefield bullets. In his shooting spree, everyone except Diarmuid was left standing, was hit and brought down. Diarmuid was able to hide behind debris to avoid the bullets. Once he heard the shooting stop, he went to look for Ike from his cover. As his head leaves his cover, another grenade is speeding towards his face. Reacting quickly, Diarmuid rolls out of his cover, away from the grenade. However, when the explosion goes off, Diarmuid is just in range to feel the shockwave and some shrapnel striking him. From Ike's point of view, Diarmuid is down for the count, lying motionless. Feeling safe, Ike sprints towards where Seniyah should be.
"SENIYAH! MASOYI, ANSWER ME!"
As he inspects every inch of the burning vehicle, the hope of Seniyah being alive begins to turn into despair. Still trying to call out for her, but his voice becomes even more saddened & hysterical with each call-out.
"S..Seniyah? Masoyi…No.."
The tears begin dripping from his face. The reality of no longer having his daughter permanently in his life has him on the edge of a psychotic break.
"I…failed…again. I failed my wife and now I failed her too. I'm alone…My GOD.. DON'T DO THIS TO ME!"
Ike's cries become the most dominant sound of the night. Having completely lost control of his emotions, Ike pounds the ground out of anger and sadness, uncaring of the pain and blood that soaks his hands.
"I'M A FAILURE! I'M A FAILURE! I'M A FAIL-"
"BABA, STOP!"
A strong, warm physical embrace comes to Ike. Ike turns around and sees that not only did Seniyah survive, she was completely fine and was hugging him.
"SENIYAH! MASOYI!"
Ike hugs her back, filling him with endless relief and happiness.
"Thank you, God! Thank you! We're going home, Masoyi."
Ike and Seniyah look towards one of Diarmuid's cars. As they make their way towards the nearest car, a metallic sound rings out from a distance.
"Huh?"
"BABA, LOOK OUT!"
Ike immediately rolls out of the way of whatever was coming for them. As Ike looks up, he sees a metal-like humanoid figure flying past them.
"What the-"
The panic and anxiety going through Ike increases as he sees a shoulder mounted automatic gun pointing towards him and preparing to fire. Ike grabs Seniyah and sprints away from the oncoming gunfire, looking for all available cover to protect them. Before he can even get to anything remotely safe, the metal figure flies right into his line of sight, weapons ready to fire. Without hesitation, Ike throws Seniyah away from him, telling her to run to safety.
"BABA, NO!"
Before she could hit the ground, time slows to a crawl as she has to watch her father get gunned down by automatic fire, ripping through his chest and stomach. Ignoring the impact of the fall, Seniyah rushes to her father's side, desperately hoping he could shrug off the bullets and get back on his feet.
"BABA?! Baba…don't do this to me."
Struggling to speak, Ike reaches for Seniyah's hand and grips it as lovingly tight as he can with his strength and life quickly fading away.
"Ma…Masoyi…I'm sorry. R…run away."
Feeling his grip getting weaker by the second, tears and emotions takeover her. Loud cries of pain & hopelessness fill the night. Hidden in the cries, Seniyah doesn't hear or see the metal figure approaching her, ready to take her. Interrupting her breakdown, the metal figure pulls Seniyah off of Ike.
"GET MOVING! AIN'T NO ONE ELSE COMING FOR YOU!"
Taking one last look at her father, Seniyah turns around to look at the metal figure in anger, the dark energy and force radiating off of her again.
"NO!"
In the metal suit, Diarmuid tilts his head in disgust with her defiance and begins to raise his hand to strike her.
"YOU ANNOYING LITTLE BIT-"
In a flash, with a loud, angry scream, an explosion of dark energy shoots out of Seniyah, sending Diarmuid flying and engulfing Ike's body. As the energy disperse, Seniyah comes back into consciousness, unaware how much power she unleashed. She gets back into her feet and runs towards her father's body. Smoke rising from Ike's body causes concern to Seniyah, worrying that her powers may have harmed Ike even more than he was.
"Ba.. baba?"
His body has a faint, dark glow. The gunshot wounds seemingly were cauterized by the blast. As Seniyah assesses what has happened to Ike, she breaks into a gleeful smile as she sees Ike's breathing.
"Thank you, God."
Seniyah tries to get a hold of herself and looks around to see what she can do to help get her and Ike to safety.
"Just hang in there. I'll sav-"
POW!
Seniyah is struck in the head by Diarmuid in his armored suit, knocking Seniyah out.
"Stupid, little bitch!" Suddenly, A light flashes behind Diarmuid. He turns over to see Ike's body. "Huh?"
Observing Ike's body, a smile shoots across his face.
"Well, well, well. This is a pleasant turn of events. Arno and the professor will want to see this."
Diarmuid finds his car and loads Seniyah & Ike into his vehicle. After Diarmuid's finds new restraints to lock Seniyah & Ike, Diarmuid takes their bodies and throws them into his car. As he approaches the driver seat, his metallic armor begins to unsheathe from him, folding back into his chest plate like a morphing Transformer. He pulls out his phone to report his situation.
"Hey, Araya. Shit went sideways. It's just me for transport, but I still got the girl. I'm bringing in her troublesome father too. Tell Arno I think we got the results he was looking for. I'll send you my location cuz we'll need the cleaners to take care of the mess I'm leaving. I'll see ya soon."
As he hangs up, he enters his vehicle, starts it up, and drives off into the night.