Meanwhile, Tenshi, Marie, and Riley were still delving deeper into the fortress’ labyrinth of passageways.
“Seriously, how much further can this place go?” Marie complained. “And where’s the so-called Chief, anyway?”
“This entire location is likely to have been a dungeon, originally,” Tenshi remarked. “I hypothesize they cleared the monsters out from top to bottom, then prevented more from spawning by laying down preventative runes.”
“Oh, okay, I read ya.” Riley nodded. “But hang on a tick, if that buttmunch I stabbed was the fellah keeping the monsters from spawning an’ all, what’s that mean if I offed ‘im?”
The three exchanged glances.
“Uh… I guess it means we should really find that Chief-guy ASAP.” Marie laughed nervously.
Coming to the doorway at the end of the hall, the three girls froze at the sound of a scream splitting the air.
Raising an eyebrow, Marie gently edged open the door, revealing two players lounging on a couch with their backs to them, watching a horror movie using their menu projector.
“What do we do?” Marie whispered, dropping back from the door so the others could take a peek.
“We sneak on up behind ‘em, and slit their weasand!” Riley beamed, drawing her sword.
“Franky, I find the idea of disrupting their entertainment or striking them while they are unarmed churlish, to say the least,” Tenshi disagreed. “Could we not simply pass them by?”
Marie took another look. “Well, you’re not wrong. If we go quietly, we should be able to slip into one of the hall doors behind them. I’m all for not fighting if we can avoid it.”
Riley clicked her tongue but didn’t comment.
“I will send a clone in first,” Tenshi offered. Edging the door open a fraction at a time, Tenshi’s duplicate slipped through and into the hallway, silent as a shadow. It had its hands on the door and was just beginning to turn the handle, when a loud whirring sound cut through the movie’s audio.
“What the…?” Marie started.
*Ratatatatatatatat!* Tenshi’s clone dissolved into pixels under a hail of bullets. Looking up, Marie finally noticed the machinegun turret affixed to the ceiling, directly above the door they were peeking through! Across the hall, Marie saw the bandits had shut off the film, and were making their way over. Worse, the turret was sweeping around, its laser sight drawing a line on a direct course for them!
“Damnit, no choice. Cover me!” Marie yelled, yanking open the door. “FLUX!”
Time slowed to a crawl, as Marie felt the muscles tense in her legs, building up strength. Slowly, slowly, the turret rotated towards them, the bandits fumbling for their weapons behind it.
Then, leaping, Marie oozed through the air, her fingers unfurling one by one as she reached for the turret’s barrel. Just as the sentry gun was about to lock onto her, the machine’s red light going black in recognition of its target, Marie’s hand curled around the barrel. Throwing all her weight against it, she tore it off its mount, feeling each individual piece snap as she did. Then, past the peak of her jump and falling downwards, but still hurtling towards the bandits, she slammed her feet into the ground once again, launching forward and swinging her half of the turret at the man on her left.
*Snap!*
Time kicked back to normal like a whipcrack, as the metal body of the turret thudded into the head of the bandit, snapping his neck at an impossible angle.
“Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!” Riley breathed.
“Heh, nothing to it!” Marie winked, flashing a thumbs-up, before collapsing to the ground and vomiting painfully.
I think I’m starting to figure this out, Marie thought, as the room spun around her, black and white patterns dancing in the edges of her vision. This is a live game, so realistically, it’s impossible to slow time. Instead, this must be speeding up my perception of it, like when your life flashes before your eyes or your parents find your report card. As she spilled her guts, she had the vague impression that somebody was approaching her, but she couldn’t focus enough to register that fact. My body must be pumping me full of adrenaline every time I activate FLUX, so that explains the side-effects, she realized. What a crappy ability.
“Wow, I think you just ended Daft_Puns!” The second bandit whistled, approaching Marie. She was garbed in a black top and navy jeans, with a beige jacket tied about her waist. “I dunno how you pulled off that stunt, but that was lit AF. Sorry I still gotta kill you, though.” Reaching out, she pried the bloodied turret from Marie’s grasp. Flicking the power switch on and off again, she aimed the weapon at Marie, hefting it by its carry-handle. “Oh yeah, the name’s Vibe_Czech. Peace.”
“This is bad.” The image of the bandit, machinegun poised over Marie, galvanized Tenshi into action. Whipping her rifle out of her hair, she dashed into the hall and fired a quick burst at Vibe_Czech, forcing her to drop back away from Marie. However, before she could do any more, the bandit turned and opened fire, tearing through Tenshi and the wall behind her with a hail of bullets.
“Tenshy, no!” Riley gasped, ducking back behind the wall as the bandit turned the focus of her fire towards her.
“Worry not,” Tenshi whispered from beside Riley, causing her to jump in surprise.
“Oh, right, there are loads of ya,” she realized, as the small squad of Tenshi clones slipped out from down hallways and around corners.
“And that is not my only trick.” Tenshi gave a soft smile.
“Well, she’s dead.” Vibe_Czech laughed. “Did anyone see that though? A couple bullets and she just went poof! Like, man!” She turned back to the shivering Marie. “Geez-Louise, you’re not looking so hot. Kinda making this hard on me, pal.” She shrugged, raising her machinegun. “Oh well.”
“Fortunately, I have no such qualms about you.”
Tenshi’s metal pod slammed into the bandit’s hand, cracking something as the weapon fell from her grip, striking her foot as it landed.
“Mother-trucker!” she swore, limping away from the pod in apprehension. “Ohhhh this day gets better and better. Can’t a girl watch a movie in peace?”
“Debbie and Mickey are the killers, and Randy dies,” Tenshi’s voice crackled from the pod’s internal speaker.
“Did you… seriously just spoil that for me?” Vibe_Czech grabbed a dented metal baseball bat from the wall, holding it in her unharmed off hand. “You’re not getting an easy death, jerkwad.”
Across the room, the player Marie had downed suddenly staggered to his feet. Garbed in a tan trench coat and black-banded fedora and with a gas mask strapped over his face, by far the oddest part of him was the young gnarled maple tree seemingly growing from his back through a large gash in his coat. One of the roots had encircled his neck and appeared to be supporting his head in place of his damaged spine.
“Mmmmph mmmph mmmph MMMPH mmph MMMMMmmmph mmmph mmMMMph!” the player mumbled through his gas mask.
“Yeah, I didn’t understand a word of that, but good for you, dawg!” Vibe_Czech leveled her bat at Tenshi’s pod. “How about a hand?”
“MMMPH!” he mumbled an affirmative, as the tree’s branches began to extend and contort into claws.
“STANCE OF SUN AND STEEL! WAKI-GAMAE!” Riley shot down the hallway, her feet a blur as she leapt over the prone form of Marie, drawing her katana in an upward strike that sheared a branch clean off Daft_Puns’ tree. As the wooden claw toppled to the ground, Riley had already adopted another position, her sword dropping defensively as she stood between Marie and the bandit. “STANCE OF EARTH’S PILLAR! GEDAN-NO-KAMAE!” she intoned, her eyes never leaving Daft_Puns.
“Great, guess you’re busy.” Vibe_Czech sighed, turning back to Tenshi’s pod. “Well, no biggie. Come at me, brah!”
In response, the pod split open vertically, emitting twin lasers which converged on the tip, forming a frontal energy blade. It’s preparations complete, the pod launched itself at the bandit, breaking into a spin.
“Welp.” Vibe_Czech leapt back towards the couch, dropping her bat and grabbing a cushion as the pod slammed into the floor, sparks of light flying where the laser met solid stone. It’s blade flickering, the pod tried to reorient itself, only to be met with a couch cushion slamming into the bladeless back end of it.
The weight of the cushion sent it into a free spin, as the heat from the lasers ignited the fabric, producing a thick cloud of smoke. As the pod reoriented itself a second time, Vibe_Czech was on it with her bat, smashing it to the ground. Safely behind the smokescreen and out of Tenshi’s line of sight, the bandit went at the device with a will, hammering away until it stopped moving and the lasers faded.
“Heh, that wasn’t so bad!” She wiped the sweat from her brow.
“You have my congratulations.” Tenshi slammed the butt of her rifle into the back of the bandit’s head, knocking her to the ground like a sack of bricks.
*******
Prior to this, Daft_Puns and Riley were still facing off against each other, their battle reaching a stalemate. Riley hadn’t moved an inch from Marie’s side, remaining no closer to defeating her opponent than before, but on the other hand, every attempt the bandit made to attack either her or Marie was quickly thwarted by her ironclad defense.
“Mmph mmMMPh mmmph mmmph?” the player gave a muffled murmur, retracting his tree’s branches and sending them skyward. Reaching the top, the branches quickly spread lengthwise, creeping along the ceiling, well out of Riley’s range. Then, at an impossible pace, the branches began to put forth bunches of maple seeds, condensing overtop the two girls.
“Mmmmph mmmph mMMph.” Daft_Puns gestured royally, as the branches began to drop their payload. Gracefully twirling on their propeller-wings, the little seeds fluttered to the ground despite Riley’s best efforts to strike them down, immediately taking root.
And growing into saplings.
Still focused on the airborne bombardment, Riley never even noticed the seedlings snake out towards her legs, until they had yanked the feet from under her, and brought her to the ground.
She immediately knew she was in trouble. Without her feet on the ground, her stance was broken, and she couldn’t reactivate it. Plus, more and more saplings were popping up, their little vine-like trunks snaking out towards her and latching onto any surface they could reach. Kicking and squirming to stop them from binding her up, Riley drew her second blade. Cleverly concealed within her katana, the entire back of her sword and half of the hilt slid out, granting her a small wakizashi sidearm.
A blade in both hands, Riley struggled to her feet, slashing blindly at anything green that approached her. A quick glance out of the corner of her eye told her that the Marie was in trouble too, the seedlings having wrapped themselves around her throat. Thinking quick, Riley gestured to Tenshi, who was currently sneaking up on the preoccupied Vibe_Czech. Signaling her back, Tenshi continued on her way, as one of her clones dashed down the hallway, grabbing Riley’s wakizashi and freeing Marie.
No longer having to worry about protecting Marie, Riley wrapped her hands around her blade’s hilt, and took a deep breath. Tendrils from the maple saplings snaked towards her, but she ignored them. Focus… focus…
The second the seedlings touched her, that was her signal. “STANCE OF HEAVEN’S FLAME: JŌDAN-NO-KAMAE!” she yelled, leaping at Daft_Puns, her blade raised high. Panicking, the bandit withdrew his tree’s branches, bringing them in front of him like a shield.
But it wasn’t enough.
Riley’s blade split them into kindling like a lumberjack felling trees, as her blade carried on deep into the bandit’s skull, snapping off at the hilt as she slammed into the ground knees-first.
Groaning, Riley sat up, screaming as the corpse of Daft_Puns toppled onto her, blood and sap dying her chest wrap red.
“Agh, get it off! Get it off!” she shrieked, kicking the body away and scrambling back until she reached the wall.
“Ughhh, I feel godawful,” Marie groaned, staggering to her feet. “But thanks for guarding me, you’re a real trooper.” She held out a fist to the little girl, which Riley returned with a weary smile.
“Woah, what’d we miss?”
Isaac and the rest piled into the room, lowering their drawn weapons as they surveyed the carnage.
"Cat!" Tenshi exclaimed, scooping up the feline as it dashed into her arms.
"And I guess the rest of us are chopped liver?" Isaac quipped.
“Riley!” Walter dashed towards his sister, tears streaming from his eyes as he hit her with a flying hug tackle. “You’re… you’re alright!”
“I won’t be if ya don’t get offa me.” She laughed, detaching him as she wiped the tears from her own eyes. “Thanks fer comin’ to pick me up, lil' bro.”
“Uh, is it just me, or is that maple tree… growing out of that dude?” Jason nervously glanced between Daft_Puns and the now-still saplings that scattered the ground.
“Here, a seed from the tree.” Tenshi chucked one at the assassin, causing him to recoil with a scream.
“Hell no! Get that away from me, man! That’s the last way I wanna go!”
“Sorry we’re late.” Charles grinned at Marie, sheathing his sword. “Dayum, you look like absolute trash, Marie.”
“Thanks for that, jerkbag.” She laughed, punching him in the chest. “I sure feel like it, though.”
Finally breathing easy for the first time that night, the teens looked around at the faces of their friends.
“Hey, screw the mission, let’s just go home, ‘kay?” Isaac finally uttered what they were all thinking.
“So, you’re the ones behind the raid, hmmm?”
All conversation froze, as did the blood in their veins. As one, they turned to look at the man who had somehow appeared without their noticing, lounging easily against the back of the ruined couch. Dirty blond hair poking out from a camo bandana, the man’s piercing blue eyes scanned the party right back. Looking to be in his late 30s and garbed in a black Kevlar vest over a tank top, with simple camo khakis beneath his knee-high metal greaves, he was completely unarmed, a fact which didn’t seem to trouble him in the slightest.
“Well then,” the man grinned, a smile devoid of both humour and warmth. “I’m the man they call the Chief. Welcome to my turf.”
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