“SKYE! WE NEED SOME HELP HERE!” Cynthia had screamed through the D.F.E.
BANG!
Well! Out of all the things they could’ve planned, I did NOT expect planes. Seeing Cynthia, Hope, Josh, Isabella and Zhen without any ranged weapons was extremely problematic, so I immediately grabbed the hyperlasers I created and deployed drones to carry them to the Team.
I’m just hoping Zephyr doesn’t do something ridiculous and goes to the Arena while the planes are there.
And I’m just hoping Josh is going to be ok. Especially after what happened all those months ago when they fought Dominic.
The D.F.E’s were still online, and I did hear Hope suggest that they should go back to the Base, but we can’t risk the planes striking down the whole city. We can at least be a target for them.
Axel was awake and Theo was still fast asleep. We hired the two because we thought they would be good assets. We’ve been training Axel to fight, and Theo has been working with me when it comes to the technical side of the Team.
Axel isn’t experienced enough to fight in the Arena just yet, but we definitely could’ve used another member when the planes began to surround them. But like I said, he’s not experienced enough, and Cynthia would kill me if I let him go to the Arena.
I guess we could’ve had Kai, but he went missing the day we met him. We thought Shadow Rider could’ve gotten to him, but Zhen mentioned something about a Clock to me before…
I didn’t understand it. At all.
I just hope he’s not dead.
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Okay. It took a few minutes but the drones eventually reached the Arena. Along with the drones with the weapons, I also deployed fighter drones to shoot the planes down. I grabbed my D.F.E and shouted to Cynthia:
“You gotta grab those lasers! Now!”
I detected 12 planes altogether, and they all had some kind of communication device built in. Must be connected to Shadow Rider, or whoever was controlling these planes. I had a good idea to use the D.F.E and infiltrate one of the planes. I know my way around one, I used to be a pilot for quite a few years.
I put the fighter drones on an automatic fighting mode, where they shoot anyone not part of Nightfall. After that, I left with a headset connected to my D.F.E so I can communicate with the Team while I try to gun down the other planes.
BANG! BANG!
I could see numerous small explosions down below, no idea how the Team is even surviving this.
Someone was in the pilot seat of the plane I managed to board. A woman, I believe. I grabbed a hyperlaser from my pack before rushing the pilot and slamming them with the gun, knocking them down.
“What do you think you’re doin-”
I immediately shot them. Right in the head.
Never killed anyone before until just then, but I didn’t even process it properly as I had to quickly get the plane back on track.
“~~~HEY! Skye! We really need some help!” Hope exclaimed.
I looked down below quickly. They sent machines like Speedsters and Attackers and they sent Swordsmen to fight them, and there was another plane near me that was attempting to gun them down.
“Hold on! I’ve infiltrated one of the planes!”
There were quite a lot of buttons and a small manual screen telling me what some of these buttons did. I look at the buttons on the top of the control wheel.
“Here goes nothing.” I told myself.
I immediately flew the plane in another direction, and behind me was another plane, very far from me. I noticed that a comm device next to me started flashing rapidly, with another headset connected to it.
“I gotta go.”
I quickly swapped my headset with the pilot’s.
“~~~~~~~~~~~~~LR! LR, DO YOU COPY!”
LR must’ve been the pilot I killed.
“STAY IN SYNC WITH US, LR! SHOOT HT-3! LR, DO YOU FUCKING COPY?”
Who was HT-3? No idea what they were talking about. Another voice came through.
“OH GOD! SHOOT THAT ARM! RUBEN, LR! NOW!”
I looked down below and saw Isabella’s mutated arm. She seemed to be stretching out to one of the planes while Hope was guarding her with her shield and dagger. Zhen was temporarily wielding the Firebrand, and because of its large size she was able to wipe out the large crowds. In her left hand, she was attempting to shoot some of the planes with the hyperlaser I gave her, but she kept missing. Cynthia was duel-wielding the Illumina and Ghostwalker, I think she may have been using this as an opportunity to harvest kills for the Ghostwalker. Josh seemed to be handling Conjurers that began to charge at our crew, using the hyperlaser for the Terrors on surface-level.
“LR, WE WILL BE FORCED TO SHOOT IF WE BECOME SUSPICIOUS THAT YOU’RE TRYING TO BETRAY US. DO YOU COPY?”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“WHO~~~~~~~”
Throwing the headset and putting back on the one connected to the D.F.E, I began shooting directly into the windows of one of the planes, it only took seconds for their plane to drop straight into the Arena. I turned to the left and saw a hyperlaser bullet hit a plane engine, smoke immediately coming out of it. They knew they were screwed and decided to launch straight down into the Arena. I couldn’t hear them, but I could see the Team running to a lower platform in the Arena. Cynthia put the Ghostwalker into her back scabbard and stabbed the Illumina into the floor, launching herself upwards with force good enough to reach the planes. She seemed to be swaying the Illumina below her to keep her afloat and I decided to fly to her. I opened an emergency exit and she quickly flew in. The exit was able to open and shut extremely fast, so I was quite shocked at how well their technology improved. I moved the right side of the headset away from my ear so I could talk to Cynthia as she rushed to a co-pilot seat.
“I knew it was you that shot down that plane! Nice!”
“Hah! Thanks!” I gladly accepted that compliment.
“Hey, wait. How long were you a pilot?”
“Like, 5 years. Why?”
“Wow. You’re really good at this, you know that, right?”
It felt like she was just over-complimenting me. I just said “Thanks.” and tried to track down another plane to shoot down.
“The rest of the team are going to the lower levels of the Arena to hide behind the pillars. That way, we can take down the planes up here while they only need to focus on the Terrors down there.”
I saw Isabella grab onto a plane with her arm and swing it into another.
“There’s 7 planes left.”
“More like 6.” Cynthia pointed to a plane that was flying straight into a pillar. “They must know what we’re doing.”
“Huh? Are they doing this on purpose?” I ask.
BANG!
“It feels more like they’re just trying to destroy the Arena. They aren’t even targeting me.”
Another plane crashed into the Arena. Straight into the centre this time.
“The rebuild’s just going to go to waste. Maybe they’re trying to get back to their lab, or something.” she suggested.
“Or they don’t know how to fly.” I jokingly said. Probably not a good time for that, though.
I managed to shoot another one down, and two others crashed into more of the pillars in the Arena.
“Alright, get up close to the one at our right. It feels like they’re going straight to the city, and I’m not risking this conflict to go outside of this place.”
I steered and flew fast, attempting to shoot them, but the other plane behind us began to try and shoot us down, too.
“Skye! We’re gonna have to jump out!”
“What?”
“It’s going to hit the engine, and then we’re both gonna be screwed!”
I managed to get the plane in front down, and I swiftly unbuckled my seatbelt.
“There’s no parachutes!”
“I’ve got the Illumina, just hold on!”
Swiftly, she opened the emergency exit and grabbed on to me, we dove out of the plane. She raised the Illumina and our descent slowed greatly. The plane we were both in crashed near the stairs leading up to the Arena. The last plane soared, almost completely exiting the Arena, but a hyperlaser bullet knocked it down, crashing just outside the Arena.
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We made our way down to the bottom level of the Arena.
“Oh thank god.” Josh had immediately ran towards me and hugged me. Obviously, I hugged him back.
“You did great.” I told him.
“Everybody alright?” Hope asked.
“Yeah, thanks.” Cynthia looked at Hope, but she just turned away. Hope was still mad at Cynthia for killing Buck, even though it was months ago and he betrayed us. She hasn’t really been on the best terms with Cynthia for a while.
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The bridge above us creaked, as a man looked over us. He looked like a scientist.
“I told them to raid the skies, and this is the best they could do?”
Isabella looked really distressed.
“Taishi?” Zhen raised the Firebrand. “I thought you were dead.”
He seemed to be very good at conjuring energy, just like the Conjurers. He manipulated energy to launch himself towards Zhen when she least expected it.
She ran forward and held the Firebrand in front of her, successfully parrying a blast of energy. “You’re not the real one, are you?”
Cynthia immediately clashed with him before the scientist blasted her away with energy. Zhen tightened her grip on the Firebrand.
I think he was Hin Taishi, the scientist that exploited Isabella for all that time. I can’t imagine how she felt when he appeared. But my best estimate was angry. She could only say one word.
“You.”
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She immediately just began charging into the scientist as he grabbed out a small, portable railgun. He was charging up a shot but Isabella whacked him with her staff before shooting with the hyperlaser, piercing his leg. Then she got her corrupted arm and began slamming his face into the ground, breaking his glasses immediately before knocking the shit out of him. It was brutal, but she was probably just taking out her anger on him. Then, she held on tight to his face before skinning it. We all just had to look away… disturbed at what was going on. Not even Cynthia could look.
She eventually stood up and just stared at the scientist’s mutilated corpse.
Zhen slightly pointed at him. “That wasn’t the real guy, y’know-”
“I know. But you…” She turned around. “None of you understand what that psychopath did to me. Look at me. Look at this! My stupid arm! My capabilities! My violent mind! MYSELF! LOOK AT ME! I’m in constant pain! I’M BARELY HUMAN, because that man couldn’t control himself. As much as I BEGGED him to stop. As much as I PLEADED him to do something harmless to me. He just wanted me to suffer.”
We awkwardly stood there, until Hope stepped forward and comforted her, grabbing and hugging her before telling her:
“You’re human in our eyes. And you’re still one of us, mutated or not.”
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We heard a cane clack against the floor, and all of us turned around. It was the Leader. And his father.
Cynthia immediately re-equipped the Illumina and Ghostwalker, Zhen pointed the Firebrand with both her hands at Shadow Rider. Me and Josh stepped back a little, as I grabbed onto my hyperlaser while Josh re-adjusted the fists. Hope and Isabella retreated a dozen metres away from us. They’re the main targets right now, and we weren’t going to let them be part of this awful scheme.
The old man stepped forward to us, as my finger tightened on the trigger.
“Dad. No.”
“Let me handle this…”
“You’re too old to fight against them! Just go back to the-”
Shadow Rider got pushed away.
“I’m not allowing this to go on any longer.”
He seemed upset, but he eventually turned around and began to teleport away.
“Just make sure you get that dagger and kill Bella. I’ll get the clock ready.”
Zhen had told us what the clock was. When she went undercover in their Labs, she was told it was some kind of… superweapon. And it needed three things. A human. Ice energy that was separated from a mysterious weapon, and the weapon itself. And that weapon might be Hope’s original dagger.
He grabbed the cane and transformed it into the Venomshank.
“Come on.”
ns216.73.217.69da2
and then Add to home screen.