Isaac, Tenshi, and the injured Marie and Jason had barely made it to the outer hallway when the explosion triggered, blasting a searing wave over them, and causing the building to shudder and groan in protest. The air was thick with the scent of dust and sulfur, as trails of crumbling rock fell in tiny streams through hairline cracks in the ceiling.
The teens looked from one to the other.
“Charles…” Marie gasped, staggering to her feet and looking at the rubble-strewn doorway.
“You rang?” Charles tumbled through the entryway with a clatter of armour, gingerly pulling himself to his feet as he began to plant plastic explosives around the doorframe.
“What the hell, we thought you were dead, Charles!” Marie exclaimed.
“Life’s full of little disappointments,” he muttered, planting a final C4 in place. “Okay, everything’s armed, lets book it, folks!”
“Way ahead of you!”
Isaac transferred Jason to Tenshi’s clones, as the teens began fleeing back up the passageways they had come. No sooner had they turned the corner when Charles flicked the switch on his detonator, another rumbling explosion and rush of dusty wind heralding the success of his mission.
“I think we all know that won’t hold him, so we gotta make tracks.” Charles pulled up his menu. “Good, looks like it auto-mapped the path we took, it should be easy enough to go back the way we came. Tenshi, what happened to the teleportation rune we were given for the quest?”
“It is already installed and activated,” Tenshi answered. “Runes have a lengthy loading time, and I hypothesized we might need to leave in a hurry, so I planted it in the storage room where Riley killed our jailer.”
“Can’t say I know the place since I wasn’t there, so lead on, Tenshi.” Charles nodded.
Turning the next corner, the party nearly tripped over Walter and Riley, who were hugging their knees with their backs to the wall, disarmed and dispirited.
“What the heck guys, I thought you’d be halfway home by now!” Charles objected, skidding to a halt.
“We would but… well… we don’t have our weapons with us, and the hallways ahead are filled with monsters!” Walter explained, eyes wide.
“I knew I shouldn’t’a skewered that rat-bastard,” Riley grumbled. “Even in death, he’s getting even with us.”
Charles look to Marie in confusion.
“It’s kinda a long story, the short of it is, there are monsters spawning in now.” Marie sighed.
“Well, that’s gonna put a damper on things.”
“Wait, I have an idea!” Isaac exclaimed. “Jace’s CLOAK OF THE NIGHT! It makes everyone he touches invisible, so if we all hold hands, we can slip by the monsters, and leave them all for the Chief to clean up! How about it, Jace…?” He turned to his incapacitated friend, who was being ferried along by a pair of Tenshi clones. “Oh right, you’re downed. Shoot.”
“Sorry,” Jason muttered dejectedly.
“I have a plan.” Tenshi stepped out in front of the rest. “You may recall my mentioning it, but as an AI, I have the ability to change how BRYZ regards me. Monsters will not attack other monsters unless struck first, so if I set my game status to "monster" and block off any would-be aggressors with my body, they will be unable to attack you.”
“Hold up!” Isaac objected. “No matter how you slice it, a couple of clones won’t be enough to hold back a swarm of monsters, Tenshi! There’s gotta be another way, we just need to put our heads together and…”
“Correct, it would be impossible… with this number of clones.” Tenshi downed a healing potion. “My Hit Points are now at full capacity, and my status is set to out of combat. Commencing cloning.”
Isaac could’ve sworn he saw her lips move, as if she was invoking some kind of spell. Then, emotionless as always, she took a step forward.
Leaving an identical clone behind in her wake.
One by one, a stream of Tenshi’s began to pour from the master-copy, each in lock-step with the other. There was a vaguely-military precision to it, as the duplicates marched off to form up into ranks, four-wide. Then, her HP reduced to 1, the cloning stopped, and Tenshi followed after her duplicates. As she passed by, Isaac caught her whisper something under her breath.
“ETHEREALITY.”
Suddenly, Isaac’s HUD was flooded with monster indicators for the threescore Tenshis standing shoulder to shoulder.
But… that was an Ability, wasn’t it…? Isaac thought to himself. Why would she need to…
The clones spun on their heels to face the rest of the party. “Is everyone ready?” they asked in unnerving unison.
Nodding in response, Charles boldly fell into step behind the battalion of Tenshis, and the rest of the party followed his lead, the two clones carrying Jason bringing up the rear.
“Then let us proceed.”
*******
The first monsters appeared before Isaac had even turned the corner. He heard an angry rattle of bones, following the sharp sound of skeletal footsteps, and rushed around the corner, weapon drawn in anticipation.
What he found however was a half-dozen armed skeletons, each pinned to the walls by trios of Tenshi clones in bully-circles around them. Unable to even raise their swords due to how close the clones pressed in on them, they were left with no choice but to gaze in simulated hate as the adventurers passed by, still following in the Tenshis footsteps.
“I can’t believe this is actually working!” Isaac whispered to Marie.
“Tell me about it!” she whispered back. “For real though, this is creeping me out. I keep thinking one of them’s gonna get loose and stab me in the back.”
“We should speed up,” one of the Tenshis carrying Jason cut in. “We already know that the Chief will be after us soon, and the monsters will be even less effective at stopping him than we would be.”
“Good point.” Isaac nodded, as the party broke into a light jog.
The next monster they encountered was some form of skeletal mage, accompanied by an entourage of bony minions. However, like before, the Tenshi clones already had the minions hemmed in. To prevent the mage from casting spells, one Tenshi clone had gone as far as to lock her legs around its neck, pinning its face against her chest so it could not see the adventurers as they passed. As Isaac looked on worriedly, the clone in charge of the mage’s head turned and gave an emotionless thumbs-up and a brisk nod, before returning to her duties.
“Hot damn, we’re actually gonna make it!” Charles breathed.
He spoke to soon.
As one, all the Tenshi clones suddenly came alert, the rearguard turning in synch to meet an as-yet unseen foe, Tenshi’s remaining two pods hovering at the ready.
“The Chief is coming,” a Tenshi informed the party. “And at this rate, he will catch us.”
Immediately, Charles made a decision.
“Okay everybody, get through that next door. Tenshi, recall as many of your clones as you can spare!”
Wordlessly, Tenshi nodded, as her clones and the rest of the party piled through the awaiting door. Safely on the other side, Charles shut it behind them, summoning the last of his C4 and planting it around the ceiling-side of the doorframe.
“That will barely delay him,” Tenshi observed.
“I know, one of us is going to have to stay behind and keep him busy.” Charles turned and gave a helpless smirk. “I guess that’s me.”
“Hey, you know I could always…” Marie started.
“Naw, this is my responsibility.”
Marie bristled. “If you’re saying that just because I’m a woman…”
Charles sighed, and turned to look her in the eye. “September 6th, right?”
“Huh? Why do you know that?”
“It’s in your BRYZ profile, dummy,” he laughed. “I’m July 17th, so I’m older.”
“By what, two months?!”
“Them’s the breaks.” He flashed a grin. “I can’t believe you’re a Virgo, man. You know, I’m a Cancer, so we have perfect compatibility.”
“Oh, screw off.” She pushed him back, her face struggling between a scowl and a grin. “C’mon guys, let’s leave this loser.”
“Oh, before you go, better arm up,” Charles tapped his menu, summoning an armful of shotguns, which he distributed with belts of shells to the party.
“Why do you always have these in your inventory?” Isaac asked, gratefully arming himself.
“’Cause I believe in Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, baby.” Charles laughed. “These little beauties are instruments of all three. Now get going!”
As the platoon of Tenshis began to jog away, the rest of the party turned and followed in their wake, Marie bringing up the rear.
“Hey, look after the kiddos for me, okay Marie?” Charles called after her receding back, earning him a grudging thumbs-up.
And then, the echoing sound of footsteps finally fading away, Charles stepped back a safe distance from the door and took a seat on the ascending staircase, cradling his last shotgun.
“Well,” he muttered to himself. “Guess it’s down to me.”
Fiddling with his weapon, Charles tried to whistle to himself to pass the time, but somehow he couldn’t seem to make a sound.
And then, the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps cut through his musings, sending a chill through him from head to toe, as his body broke out in goosebumps. Pulling out his last detonator, he flicked back the cover, and held his thumb over the ignition switch.
The footsteps came closer.
And closer.
Charles swallowed, a futile motion, as his mouth was completely dry.
With a grating crash, the door flew open, taking a bit of the wall with it, as the Chief’s fist tore it open, hinges and all. More out of a knee-jerk reaction than any kind of independent thought, Charles hit the switch, causing the ceiling above the bandit to explode, as large and small pieces of stone rained down on the head and shoulders of the man, driving him to the ground.
“Hah, gotcha!” Charles called out exuberantly. Damn, that blew clear through to the next floor. I hope the others weren’t near that.
“Stayed behind for a good old-fashion suicide run, hmmm?” The Chief struggled to his knees, pieces of the ceiling sliding off as he rose. “I thought you were smarter than that.”
“Suicide run? Nah, I just didn’t want to share you with the rest,” Charles taunted. “You know, we played rock-paper-scissors to see who’d get to off you, and I won the honours.” He’s right, I’m a complete idiot. Tenshi could’ve done it, she’s an AI. Hell, Marie even offered. The hell do I gain, grandstanding like this?
The chief chuckled dryly to himself, raising his remaining shield-gauntlet in defense as Charles started unloading his shotgun. “You’ve got spunk, I’ll give you that. Sadly, kiddo, the world doesn’t run on guts and bravado.” He suddenly drew his revolver in his free hand, snapping off a shot at Charles’s head.
*Piiiiiiing!* The bullet glanced off his helmet, leaving a sharp dent and a ringing in Charles’ ears as blood trickled down the left side of his face. However, even before the Chief could pull the trigger a second time, Charles’ shield was up and ready.
“BASTION!”
*Bang!*
The bullet flattened itself over Charles’s shield, as the Knight planted his feet and stood blocking the narrow stairwell to the next floor. “Well, it’s only fair I let you get one shot in,” Charles laughed loudly, blinked the blood from his eye. “Fair warning though, from here on, we’re playing for keeps!” Ow, damnit! He shot me in the frickin’ head! My helmet stopped it, right? I’m not gonna die, right? Oh God, I wanna check, but I don’t wanna drop BASTION!
The Chief walked up to him, his revolver lowered. The way Charles was standing, it was impossible to either push by or climb over him to reach the next level. Spiked gauntlet at the ready, the Chief stood towering over Charles.
Oh God, I’m dead. This is finally it. “Uh, nice weather we’re having, isn’t it?” Charles grinned defiantly up at the man.
Sighing, the Chief took a couple deep sniffs of the air, before throwing himself against the wall next to Charles.
“My ability’s called BLOODHOUND,” he explained tiredly, passing a hand over his face. “I can track wounded players by scent, and the more wounded they are, the easier I can track them. That assassin of yours is like a beacon, really. I can tell exactly where your friends are, and how fast they’re going.” He pulled out his menu and began texting. “Unfortunately for them, they’re not escaping this fortress, whether I lift a finger or not. A colleague of mine is heading them off as we speak, I expect to hear from him momentarily.”
He closed his menu and turned to the wounded knight. “That just leaves you and me, Charles.” He smirked. “You know, as I was running here, I took a moment to clear my head and think things over. Frankly, I like you Charles. You’re just the kind of new blood Basilisk is looking for. What say we put our differences aside and join forces, hmmm?”
He leaned in closer, his voice honeyed and urbane. “It’s okay, Charles. You don’t have to put up an act anymore. Your friends are as good as dead, there’s no point in you going down with them. You’re smarter than that, aren’t you, Charles?”
He’s right, I am smarter than this, Charles thought, trying in vain to blink the blood from his eye. His body was one big bruise, and every breath he took reminded him that at least two of his ribs were broken. I’m tired. I don’t owe anyone any more than this. I did everything I could. He looked up at the Chief. “Huh? I don’t know what you’re talking about man, I’m barely breaking a sweat, here!” He grinned widely. “And about my team, don’t disrespect them, dude. “Colleague?” You only brought one guy? Man, I hope Basilisk gives bereavement leave, ‘cause you’ve got a funeral in your near future!”
“You don’t mean a word of any of that, do you?” The Chief stood up straight again. “I can see it in your eyes, you’re a born survivor. Why put up an act?”
I’ll tell you why. Charles locked eyes with the Chief.
“Because I’m a goddamn hero.”
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