Okay, so sorry about the wait you guys, because boy this chapter ended up being waaaaay longer than I expected. Which made writing and editing it more time-consuming than I expected. But still, thank you guys for sticking with me, I hope you enjoy, and please let me know what you think. Y'all rock!
Chapter 4
Fucking shit shit fuck shit.
Sinon and I traded glances. These guys were after me, and not the very dangerous and much more famous sniper by my side? Safe to say that my expectations got turned on its head. A lot of weird things had happened to me since I joined GGO. I've been target practice, got bonked over the head by a frying pan once, even seen people as thin as sticks overpower beefy soldiers because of their strength stats.
Being kidnapped was new though.
"Uh, can I say no? I'd very much like not to be taken prisoner," I interjected.
"I expected you to say no. That's what these are for," Krieger said, spinning one of the metal cuffs around his finger.
"Well yeah, but this is all so sudden. We haven't even settled on a safe word yet," I replied. I turned to Sinon and whispered harshly under my breath, "Do you know who this guy is? Cause I don't remember pissing him off or anything."
Sinon shook her head. Well that was problematic. Usually how these things went were someone would come up to her and declare that they would be the ones to kill her to gain fame, revenge, or some other reward. Then we gunned them down and go on about our day until the next guy came along.
But Krieger wanted me. Alive on top of that. I had never seen the man before in my life and I was small time compared to Sinon. Why was he going after me and not her?
"You're not taking him. If you push this, this won't end well for you. I can guarantee that," Sinon said as she pulled the bolt back on her sniper rifle. I took the chance to wrap my hand around the handle of my revolver. Krieger's men took aim at us in response, but he motioned for them to lower their guns and they followed his silent order without complaint.
Organized, disciplined, even professional if I was being honest. Krieger's men weren't some gung-ho run of the mill players. They knew what they were doing, so if things took a turn for the violent, we weren't going to have an easy time of killing them or running away. The thought of logging out had crossed my mind but that wasn't going to fly. If we weren't in a safe zone, our avatars would be lying helplessly on the ground for anyone to stumble across.
I briefly entertained the idea of logging out myself, but that would mean leaving Sinon to deal with an entire squad by herself while protecting my avatar's body. I didn't even think twice about rejecting that idea.
Which left us only two options: standing our ground or getting the hell out of dodge; either way we'd have to go through Krieger's gang.
"Sinon, how many of them do you think you can kill before they get here?" I whispered to her. Her eyes flicked from one group of soldiers to another.
"They're too close for comfort and have the advantage in numbers. I wouldn't be surprised if they start laying down suppressing fire to keep me from taking too many shots. So four, maybe five kills if we're lucky, but if they cover each other competently, it might be even less than that," Sinon closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, she turned to face me, "How high is your dexterity skill? Can you make basic traps?"
"Yeah, you want me to start laying them down?" I asked. Sinon reached into one of the pouches on her belt and pulled out a gray ball the size of her palm, laying it down between us. I recognized the unique design. It was a plasma grenade. Unlike their fragmentation cousins, plasma explosives relied on extreme temperatures capable of vaporizing an entire squad in the blink of an eye, making them one of the more popular explosives carried around by GGO's player base.
"Let's not delay this any further," Krieger said as Sinon handed me two more, "You have two minutes. If the thought of living wise doesn't cross your mind by then, I'm more than fine with doing things the hard way."
"There are four stories in this building," she said as she focused her attention back to the street below. I nodded as I secured each grenade on my belt, taking extra care not to touch the detonation button on top, "Place traps down on every stairwell leading to another floor. At the very least it'll buy us enough time to think of a way out of this."
"Got it. Hold the fort down in the meantime," I said. Sinon opened her menu and sent me a party invite. After I accepted, her health bar appeared right under mine and an earpiece materialized in my hand, "And Sinon? Thanks for sticking your neck out for me."
"Don't mention it. And watch your back down there," she said. I smiled and gave her a thumbs up.
"With pleasure. When this is all over, I owe you a drink," I crawled backwards until I was out of Krieger's sight, put the earpiece on, and jogged away from her.
The rooftop was practically a maze of AC units, power generators, and storage crates. It'd take anyone a good while to navigate through it and I chose to hunker down here partly for that reason. The roof's access panel was on the far side of our position. If I hurried I could at least make it to the second floor before Krieger's people started shooting.
I entered the confusing layout and turned one corner after another, passing dead ends and winding paths all while counting down the seconds in my head. I hit forty by the time I spotted the open hatch that led down into the building. I squeezed through a narrow opening between two industrial-sized air conditioners and pulled myself further along, my chestplate scraping against corroded metal. Once I made it to the other side, I ran for the hatch.
Until a man wearing a kevlar vest over stark white military fatigues emerged from behind a stack of metal crates with a shotgun aimed squarely. He certainly wasn't lacking in firepower. A submachine gun was strapped across his chest and a .44 magnum hung from his belt. He eyed me cautiously as he took a step closer, "Where do you think you're going?" he said through the fabric of his balaclava.
"Uh, to surrender?" I said. The man grunted, grabbed the collar of my jacket, and all but threw me towards the hatch. The barrel of his shotgun jabbed at my lower back hard enough to almost make me stumble.
"Start walking. If you so much as breathe too loud, I'll blow a hole through you," he said. I did as he said, keeping my hands up in the air while I desperately tried to think up a plan. As I came within a few meters of the hatch, an idea came to mind. It was dumb and likely to kill me more than the guy holding me at gunpoint, but going against my better judgement, I walked slower and slower until I came to a complete stop.
"What are you waiting for? Go down," the man said. I didn't budge an inch or say a word back to him. Tension tight in his voice, he jabbed his shotgun against my back again, "Are you deaf or someth-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence because the moment the barrel pressed on my spine I threw my elbow back and knocked his shotgun to right while twisting my body left. He tried to shout another warning, but his voice was drowned out by a deafening bang that left my ear drums not so much ringing as full blown pounding. Pain blossomed on my right side. It felt like someone had rammed me with a semi-truck as the sheer force sent me into a spin and I hit the ground face-first.
"Shit," I wheezed as I rolled over onto my back. The man was regaining his balance after I my blow had connected, but it wouldn't last forever. Reaching inside my jacket, I pulled Charon free and emptied four rounds into him, striking him three times in the chest and once in the arm. His shotgun clattered to the ground as he reached for his sidearm, but he wasn't quick enough. I fired my last two rounds into his chest and he went limp, dropping dead before bursting into red shards.
Just then, my earpiece crackled to life and Sinon's voice came through. It wasn't hard to pick out the gunfire erupting a moment after, "What happened? I heard shooting and saw your health go down."
She wasn't wrong. I was in the yellow and a chunk of my hip was gone, replaced by a mess of red pixels. In the real world, I'd be a goner. The trauma and blood loss would have sent me into shock, but all I felt in GGO was a dull throbbing that came in waves over my abdomen. Things could have gone better, but they could have gone a lot worse too. I preferred to be optimistic for the moment.
"Had an uninvited guest. He must have gotten inside before we even noticed the main group," I got up and grabbed the dead man's shotgun. A small display window popped up next to it where the name 'Benelli M4' was written on top. There were only six shells left and the former owner had disappeared in a shower of pixels before I could take more ammo off him. I slung the weapon over my shoulder and hurried down the hatch's ladder to the fourth floor, "How are you holding up? They giving you a hard time over there?"
Even from a floor below, Hecate still cracked like thunder, "I'm fine. Two are down so far, but they're not making things easy. One group is throwing down suppressing fire while the other two advance."
"What about Krieger?" I asked.
"He's still alive. They all start shooting at me the second I aim for him. I've had to leave him alone for now."
"They know what they're doing. If things get too hot up there, come on down and meet up with me, alright?" I practically flew down a small flight of stairs, sweeping the Benelli from side to side as I passed empty rooms and turned corners. My missing hip made it difficult to walk, but I managed to keep moving at a steady pace.
Sinon hummed in acknowledgement, "Take care of yourself."
"Will do." I pushed open a door and poked my head inside. Unlike most of the other rooms, this one was a wide open cubicle farm with windows taking up an entire wall. Loose pieces of paper were scattered all over the floor. Rolling chairs were tipped over and computers were stripped down to almost nothing, but what struck me the most was how dead it all felt, like someone had frozen time. Nothing moved or made a noise. My own breathing was the loudest thing in the room.
I walked down one of the aisles, taking a medical syringe from my pouch and injecting it into my thigh to bask in the cool sensation. My health climbed back up but it would take a few minutes for my avatar to regenerate its missing pieces. I had to be careful. Dodging gunfire was hard enough without having to deal with a missing hip.
Before long, I reached the stairwell that led to the lower floor and knelt down as I pulled out one of the plasma grenades. In GGO, creating traps required a high enough dexterity. Most players could create simple ones ranging from tripwires to your basic landmines, but the higher the stat, the more complicated traps someone could make. Luckily, Charon's critical hit perks practically demanded that I keep my dexterity high in order to make use of them, but making advanced traps was a pretty welcomed bonus.
I crouched down while keeping the grenade an inch off the ground. The game's interface picked up on my motion and opened a small menu for me to tap a few buttons. After a brief flash of light, the grenade found itself strapped underneath the stairs' handrail. Instead of an easy-to-spot tripwire, I opted for a small motion detector attached to the grenade's fuse. Anyone who wasn't part of my party would get a nasty surprise the moment they reached the top of the staircase and passed it.
"Sinon, first trap's rigged. Heading down to plant the second," I half-ran down to the next floor, nearly tripping over my own feet in the process thanks to the missing weight of my destroyed hip, "Haven't run across anyone else yet, but I'm keeping a lookout."
"Roger. I've killed another one, but some are starting to enter the building. Stay on your guard," she said. I heard the rapid popping of gunfire in the background, but her voice remained as calm as ever.
The third floor was a near carbon copy of the fourth, but half of the cubicles were charred black and falling apart. The windows were blown out along with a large stretch of a wall being nothing more than a crater, like a bomb had exploded. The smell of burnt plastic and smoking wood lingering in the air only reinforced that assumption.
Like last time, I headed down the aisle while keeping my shotgun leveled. I gave a quick sweep of every cubicle I passed, ready to blow the head off of anyone that could've been hiding inside. As I came to the next flight of stairs, however, a series of voices forced me to a stop. They were muffled and I couldn't make out what they were saying, but I knew they weren't friendly.
"Damn, they're early," I muttered to myself. I wouldn't have enough time to plant another trap. They'd shoot me the second I came in their sights and it would be suicide to go into a fight I had no chance of winning.
I hunkered down in one of the empty workstations and placed a plasma grenade underneath the desk, then I started back the way I came, "Sinon, these guys are marching up here. I'm heading back up to the roof."
"Copy that. How many traps have you set?" she asked.
"Two. I'll hold on to the last one just in case. We'll have a couple minutes tops before they-"
A streak of searing heat whizzed past my ear. My muscles tensed in an instant and I spun around on the spot, my shotgun kicking back against my shoulder as I fired a slug at the gunman standing across the room. At this distance, it did little more than mess up the furniture, but at the very least it kept the man's aim from zeroing in on me, "Scratch that, they're here now!"
I slung the shotgun across my back and took cover behind a pillar. A hailstorm of bullets pounded against the walls and floors, ventilating desks and tossing paper into the air as the room filled with the sour smell of gunsmoke. I dropped down into a runner's stance, hands planted on the ground and the heel of my boot against the pillar. I wasn't going to make it two steps without getting filled with holes so I waited patiently for my chance, and came with a long, high-pitched beep.
The plasma grenade I set detonated. I felt the air get sucked past me like a black hole had appeared in the middle of the room and not a second later, everything exploded outwards. A rush of hot air blew in all directions, nearly scalding my exposed skin. The shockwave of the blast upturned sofas and desks, nearly rocking the entire building down to its foundations. The constant gunfire came to an abrupt stop as the startled cries of some unfortunate players that were either killed or mutilated in the blast took their place.
I took off sprinting. A few shots chased after me, but went wide as I raced back up to the top floor. I tapped my earpiece as I headed towards the roof access hatch, "Second trap went off. Think I killed a few, but now they're probably more angry."
"Hopefully one of them was Krieger," Sinon said.
"Aww, don't start getting my hopes up like that."
I reached the ladder leading to the roof and made my way up. Once I made it to the top, I slammed the hatch shut and looked around for anything to put on top of it. My eyes fell on the stack of metal crates the previous owner of my shotgun was hiding behind. I went behind it and pushed with all my might, grunting with exertion until they toppled over and buried the only way up to the roof.
"You okay?"
Sinon was standing to my right with Hecate in her hands. Her eyes were clearly staring the gaping wound I suffered, but I gave her a dismissive wave to let her know not to worry and braced my hands against my knees.
"I'd make a weight-loss joke, but we're short on time. There were a lot of guys on my tail," I said. Right on cue, we both heard banging against the hatch. It gave just a little, but the added weight of the metal crates kept it from opening more than half an inch, "Are. There are a lot of guys on my tail."
"Come with me, I think I have an idea," Sinon said as she climbed up atop one of the smaller AC units and jumped off it. I followed after her, climbing and hopping until we reached the edge of the rooftop.
"They must have disarmed the last trap I set. Guess I could only fool them once," I said as Sinon peered down at the street below. Her brow furrowed and she remained silent for a moment until she nodded her head.
"The windows below us are within reach. We might be able to kill a few more of them if we catch them by surprise," she said. I looked down as well, but all I saw was the destroyed street and burnt cars that were always sitting there.
"Uh, great? But how are we gonna get down there?" I asked. Instead of replying, Sinon slung her rifle around and began undoing the muffler around her neck, then handed one end to me.
"Take this. Don't let go no matter what," She knelt down and tied the other end around her ankle, "I'm going to need both hands to handle Hecate."
"Wait, what?" I stared dumbfounded at the piece of fabric in my hands, trying to piece together what her plan was. It wasn't until she stood up and walked over to the very edge of the rooftop did I realize too late.
Without so much as a look back, Sinon jumped straight off the rooftop.
"Oh god damn it," were the last words I could get out before Sinon's weight nearly yanked me off the roof with her. I dug my feet into the ground, but I was losing ground quick. I let out a string of uncivil curses, wrapped the muffler around my hand and pulled until it became taut and stretched to the point of almost tearing.
My toes were sticking off the roof edge when I came to a halt. I looked down, absolutely dumbfounded, at the sight of Sinon hanging upside down and aiming her sniper rifle right through the windows of the fourth floor. She took a mere second to adjust to the abnormal position and fired a single round through the glass, sending pieces flying as the recoil swung her backwards.
"What the hell?!"
"Hostile outside the window!"
"You gotta be kidding me."
Evidently, nobody saw this coming. Not them or me.
"One down," Sinon said. I adjusted my grip and pulled, bringing her back in closer as she aimed and fired again, "Two. Swing me!"
"Swing — what?" I resisted the urge to question her and just did as she said, pulling her in one direction then another. A hail of gunfire blasted through the shatter window and Sinon spun and dodged every shot that came close. She pirouetted mid-air then brought her rifle to bear to fire another shot.
"Three down. Pull me up," she said. I reeled her up as fast as I could as another intense barrage of gunfire followed her, tearing bricks and mortar apart. Once she was in arm's reach, she curled herself up and took my offered hand.
"Of all the crazy things I've seen you do, that's pretty up there," I said to her as I pulled her back up and handed her the end of her muffler back. She took it with a nod of thanks and wrapped it around her neck.
Good grief, Sinon pulled off something that didn't seem physically possible in GGO or in the real world. If her skills in sniping weren't already enough to convince me how out of my league she was, that certainly would have done it.
"We need to get a move on. By my guess, they're down to about half their size," she said. A loud crash suddenly came from across the rooftop and I sighed under my breath. Persistent bastards, they were.
"And they're all probably pouring in as we speak," I said, bringing my shotgun to bear. I crouched down under a bulky metal machine that might have been a backup generator in the past and Sinon crouched down next to me, switching out her sniper for a matte black Glock 18C. Not as powerful as her primary weapon, but it could fire a hell of a lot faster than Hecate, "By the way, Sinon?"
"Yeah?" she replied as she peeked over our cover.
"Did you ever kill that rocket launcher guy? I didn't see him on the way over here," I asked, daring to let some hope shine in me.
"No, he's still alive," And just like that, the hope was gone. Sinon whipped out of cover as she spotted the first of Krieger's men, forcing him to back up the way he came with a couple of short, controlled bursts. She ducked back down as more enemies popped out of their hiding places, pelting our position with an incessant amount of suppressing fire.
"Wonderful," I reloaded Charon and put it back in its holster, then checked my shotgun's ammo count. Five shells were left. Not a lot, but it had to be enough, "We can't stay here. The longer we take, the more time they'll have to pin us down."
"Stay on the move. Kite them around the area until we find a way out," she said. Sinon bolted before I had a chance to object. I heaved a terse sigh, worked up the nerve to go back out into the fray, and sprinted until I kept myself a few paces behind her, running along the edge of the rooftop.
A man covered from head to toe in kevlar popped out from behind a rusted AC unit. Sinon, without breaking stride, put six bullets into his leg and thigh in the time it took me to blink and ran past him as he fell to a knee. I followed after her, but not before putting a shotgun shell straight through the man's head. The armor did little to save him.
Another player came around behind us and unloaded his assault rifle. Pain bloomed in my shoulder and back, so unexpected that I bit my tongue on accident. With a defiant shout, I turned and fired two shells back. His arm exploded into red pixels, hand dangling by a piece of virtual flesh and dripping with stark red pixels. It almost would have been stomach churning if I hadn't already turned away from the sight to catch up with Sinon.
Just as I allowed myself a chance to breathe easy, yet another player appeared between us. He sprang out from behind a ruined couch someone left behind years ago and moved with the fluid grace of someone who invested heavily into the Agility stat. I grimaced, trying to bring the Benelli up for quick shot, but he was too fast. He closed the distance, made it past the business end of my shotgun, and bashed the stock of his MP5 in my face.
I saw stars. My brain bounced around inside my skull like a rattle as I fell to a knee, clutching my head. I swear I saw three of the same guy as he leveled his submachine gun at me, "Stay on the ground, now!"
He spun around and aimed his gun at Sinon just as she tried to raise her pistol, "Don't do anything stupid. We need him alive, but the boss didn't say anything about you."
I shook my head clear. He had his back turned to me. I raised my shotgun to pull the trigger, but the man threw his leg back and kicked my face like a damn mule, knocking me flat without ever taking his eyes off Sinon.
"Put the gun down!" he yelled at her.
I looked at Sinon while rubbing my battered cheek. Her expression turned hard, fingers wrapped tightly around the grip of her pistol until they were practically shaking. Little by little, her breathing slowed, lips set in a thin emotionless line. I'd seen the expression before, when she was furiously trying to think on her feet, to make a snap judgement. I saw the subtle shift of her body weight, the tension in her joints winding up. Our eyes met for a brief moment and I nodded to her.
"I'm not done with you yet," I growled as I picked myself up. The man hurled his boot at me again, but I was ready for it. I swung my own leg out and nailed him in the shin hard enough to throw him off balance.
Sinon charged him and fired her pistol. Most of the shots struck his kevlar and he didn't even flinch. The player regained his footing and returned fire, but Sinon was just as quick as he was, dodging left and right, running low to avoid another burst, then finally slamming her shoulder into his stomach, pushing him back towards me.
I scrambled for my fallen shotgun, scooping it up off the ground and pointing it straight at his spine. I fired twice and the barrel belched fire on both pulls of the trigger.
The shots hit home. Dozens of pellets tore into his back at point blank range and turned it into a bright red pulp. I grinned, expecting him to go down, but instead he roared and pushed Sinon off of him and emptied his clip at her.
Well that wasn't part of the plan. I had to act fast. I reached down and unsheathed the knife strapped to my boot then threw myself at him, shoving the blade into his exposed armpit, twisting it in place with a snarl. The sharp, unexpected pain jerked his entire body, throwing off his aim long enough for Sinon to take cover. The man growled and responded by pedaling backwards and slamming me against an AC unit hard enough to have all the air evacuate my lungs. I fell into a coughing fit, utterly distracted while he turned around and slammed his submachine gun across my neck, pinning me against the heavy piece of machinery like he intended to strangle me with it.
Bullets pounded into his body. Sinon shot every last round she had into him, trigger finger twitching dozens of times, over and over until wisps of smoke curled around the barrel. Glowing red marks peppered the man's body as he winced in pain. His grip loosened enough for me to hop up and drive both legs into his chest to knock him off, nearly kicking him off the roof entirely.
I fell on my ass and pulled Charon out from its holster. The gun shook in my hands, and at the same time, the man tried to aim his MP5 right for me, but he couldn't raise it all the way. I quickly realized why. My knife was still jutting out from his armpit, costing him precious seconds. I didn't have time to aim. Didn't have time to hesitate. I just reacted. Charon barked four times and a new wave of needle-like sensations sprouted over my body as he attempted to fire back.
The exchange lasted barely a second. The man stumbled backwards, pressing his hands against the wounds. His scowl went limp and without so much as a breath of air, he fell backwards off the roof.
Sinon came to my side as she ejected the spent magazine from her Glock and slapped in a new one. I looked over to her and held my hand up high, "Yeah, teamwork!"
Sinon rolled her eyes, but high-fived me anyways. Even a girl like her knew it would be criminal to leave someone hanging.
I sighed and tried to pick myself up, "Jeez, what does that guy eat for breakfast? Diesel trucks?"
"He must have put a lot of his points into Vitality. Most players would have died after everything we did to him," Sinon got me up to my feet, placing my arm over her shoulders. My legs were jelly. The moment I put weight on them, I almost collapsed again.
"Freaking min-maxers," I mumbled. Angry red spots covered my entire lower body where I'd been hit. My health was still yellow, but it wouldn't take much to drop me into the red. Sinon reached into the pouch on my hip and injected me with a fresh medical syringe. The cooling sensation flooded my veins and strength slowly returned to my limbs, but by no means was I completely healed. Every step sent a fresh stab of fire up my body, but my steps were a little more sure and a little less shaky.
"Let's get going. We're not out of the woods yet," I said. We hurried a few feet further until Sinon held up a hand to tell me to stop.
"There!" she pointed at an adjacent building, an apartment complex. Its size easily dwarfed our own, reaching up thirty stories high with numerous balconies were on the wall facing us. All that separated us from salvation was an alleyway gap in a few meters wide, "If we jump onto one of the those balconies, we can get inside, cut off their line of sight, then head to street level. We can lose them further into the city."
I bit my lip in apprehension. Under better circumstances, I could make the jump no problem, but my avatar was still damaged and my injuries hadn't healed fully. She may as well have asked me to jump the whole building. My odds would have been the same either way.
Unfortunately, I didn't have another option and trying to make the jump was better than being left at the mercy of Krieger and whatever he had in store for me.
"Alright, you go first. I'll keep an eye out," I said, I turned towards the way we came and leaned against a nearby antenna dish, tossing the useless shotgun aside and drawing Charon out.
Sinon took a few steps back from the edge. Her fingers clenched and unclenched as she bounced on the balls of her feet. She spared me one last nod and gunned it. She took three long strides and threw herself across the gap, slamming into the metal guard rail of the closest balcony and wrapping her arms over the top of the bannister to keep herself from falling. Once she made sure her grip was firm, she beckoned me to follow.
I swallowed what anxiety I had left. Stepping a few paces back, I took a deep breath, prayed to whatever god had the misfortune of dealing with me, and ran. I focused on Sinon, tuned out every base instinct telling me to stop.
Then the entire right side of my body crumpled. The hole left by my destroyed hip caved in, slanting my entire body to the side as I hit the last step, throwing off my balance. My heart sank, fear gripping my chest in a vice. There was too much momentum for me to stop.
I jumped off the roof with all the grace of a drunk baboon. Sinon's eyes went wide, reaching her arm out to catch me. I reached out as far as I could, stomach lurching as the pull of gravity ran its course, until an iron grip seized my hand with bone-crushing force and I swung down like a pendulum, nearly smacking into the building's wall.
"Hold on, don't let go." she said through gritted teeth as I dangled beneath her. Right then, we both heard the voices coming from the rooftops and moment later, five of Krieger's men appeared with their guns drawn.
"Right there, right there! Don't let them escape!"
I drew Charon and fired twice. Both shots missed their mark and I pulled the trigger again only to have it click empty in response.
"Ah crap!" I spat in frustration. Charon was powerful, and it got me out of more sticky situations than I could count, but the one thing it lacked was ammo capacity. I fired all six shots and now I was helpless.
Krieger's men seemed to notice because they fired back in kind, unleashing an utter barrage of lead. But none of them hit me. Rather, they were all aiming above me. At Sinon. Red spots covered her body. I watched helplessly as her health dropped from yellow, down to red as she struggled to pull me up against the unending gunfire.
And then, just when I thought it couldn't get worse, I saw him. The player with the rocket launcher.
He knelt down and took aim. Fire and smoke exploded from its barrel and a flash of light came streaking towards us.
I holstered Charon and acted without thinking. I grabbed the wrist of the hand holding me with my free arm and yanked Sinon down so hard she let go of the balcony and we plummeted into the streets below.
Heat engulfed my entire body. Stars flooded my vision. The sheer shockwave rattled my bones like a tuning fork and would have reduced my guts to liquid in the real world. High-pitched ringing flooded my ears as the explosion devastated everything above us, and yet somehow through it all, I kept hold on Sinon's wrist as I pulled her into a tight hug to protect her as we fell. It felt like an eternity, yet almost immediately, my back hit the ground hard and I cried out as I beared the full brunt of the impact with Sinon lying on top of me.
I opened my eyes just in time to see hundreds of rocks and debris from the blast falling towards us. Because Lady Luck really wanted to rub salt in the wounds.
"For the love of-!" I wrapped me arms around Sinon again and rolled the both of us over so that her smaller frame was underneath my own as I braced for the worst. I bit my tongue to keep from making a sound as tiny pebbles and chunks of rock the size of a basketball pounded against my beaten body. One struck the back of my head and the blow almost made me knock my forehead against Sinon's by accident.
Suddenly the rain of rubble ended as quickly as it started. Agonizing seconds ticked on by, but once I was sure the dust had settled, I struggled to move my arms out from under her and drew back just enough to see Sinon's face. She stared back at me in shock, her mouth slightly open. I didn't notice until now to notice how close we were, how our faces were nearly touching and warmth began trickling up my neck.
She was really, really soft.
Sinon fixed me with a flustered glare and struggled to get some kind of half-finished words out before she ultimately settled with shoving me off of her. A cloud of dust mushroomed up as I hit the ground. I flinched as some of my injuries protested with a dull throbbing. Damn. For a petite girl, she had an almost superhuman amount of strength.
She picked herself up, re-adjusting her muffler until the tight frown on her face disappeared behind it. Her health in the corner of my vision was still dangerously low, but she was still alive at least. "Are you alright?" she asked. I propped myself up on my elbows and wiped the dirt and sweat off my face. I made a mental note to take a shower when this was all over. Virtual or not, I really needed it.
"Never better," I replied. Sinon knelt down over me, carefully running a hand over my shoulders and chest. I winced when she grazed another gunshot wound and she quietly apologized.
"Don't take it personally. I'm...just not used to having people that close to me," she said. I nodded. I knew well enough that Sinon preferred to keep people at arm's length. It took me a long time to even be able to coax more than a few clipped responses from her when we started talking. Social butterfly, she was not.
"Eh, don't worry about it. Better than having you punch my teeth down to my intestines," I said while looking away from her to avoid the chance of blushing. At this point, I'd take anything to distract from that.
"Going somewhere?" a voice asked.
And there it is.
"Shit," I cursed under my breath. Krieger rounded the corner and stood at the mouth of the alleyway, both Desert Eagles pointed at us. Up above, the rest of his men stood watch with guns drawn. I chanced a look around us. The alley was more or less empty. Graffiti covered the walls and various bits of trash littered the floor along with an upturned dumpster. Curiously enough, no one blocked the other end of the alley that led straight into the city. We could have risked making a run for it, but with no cover and several people aiming at us, we'd be mowed down before we took two steps.
"We were just gonna to step out a bit," I said. Sinon picked herself up and knelt over me, staring daggers at him.
"I'm afraid you won't be doing that at all. There's still a chance for you to do the right thing here. I don't want to hurt you. Far from it, actually. Killing you wouldn't guarantee me anything, but if you just come with us and answer a few questions, things won't have to get any uglier," he said. He sounded sincere. I almost believed him for a moment.
"You don't want to hurt me? Well, you're doing a lousy job of it," I held a hand out at all the numerous injuries covering my body.
"I apologize but you've been putting up a fight the whole way through. We were told to expect as much," he said, "Add the fact that you had Sinon herself watching your back and I didn't want to leave anything to chance. But I digress. I'm giving you one last chance to come with us. Hand over the revolver as well. You won't be needing it anymore."
Now that was an immediate refusal. I would have considered going with them if it meant getting Sinon and I out alive, but they wanted Charon too. The one thing that kept me alive against higher-level players, powerful monsters, and other ne'er do wells intending to do me harm. I grabbed my revolver and with a swipe of my hand and a mental input into the AmuSphere, it vanished in a cloud of pixels.
"You're gonna have to pry it from my cold, dead, virtual hands, Krieger," I said, holding them up wide open and adding spirit fingers just to be flippant with him, "You can always shoot me but like you said there's no guarantee my inventory will spill out of me when I'm dead."
"I suppose not," he said. He stared at me for a moment longer then heaved a heavy sigh, "Pity. I was hoping to catch you before someone else did. Oh well, there's always next time. You'll just respawn and I'll come after you again."
"He's going to shoot," Sinon whispered to me. I stared down Krieger, doing my best to push the anxiety away while half-expecting him to blow my brains out. But then something else caught my eye, out in the grassy fields behind him. A light bulb went off over my head.
"Sinon," I replied, "Can you distract those guys up on the rooftop when I give a signal?"
She thought for a moment, then gave a subtle nod, "Where is the last plasma grenade I gave you?" she asked.
"Under my jacket, strapped to my belt right below the small of my back."
She gently lifted my jacket and took the grenade off my belt, keeping it between our bodies so that it stayed out of sight. At the same time, I swiped open my menu and tapped a single button. Krieger tensed. I could tell he was about a single thought away from killing me. I had to make myself look harmless. That's why I brought out my Azimuth Optical Sniper Rifle again and aimed it in his direction.
He narrowed his eyes and jabbed his handgun at it, "What's that for?"
"Shooting things, I think. I could be wrong though," I said.
"Do you honestly intend to kill me with that?" Krieger lifted the brim of his jacket. A silver box no larger than a cellphone was buckled to his hip, "I have a defensive shield, as do the rest of my men. That thing is useless against us."
"Yeah, I'll give you that," I peered through the scope, pressing my finger against the trigger in a deliberate motion. Krieger took a step back. The rifle's bullet line was as clear as day to the both of us, going right for his chest and shaking wildly like I never held a firearm in my life, "I'm not a great shot. Hell, I can't hit three feet in front of me with this thing. But I'll be damned if I don't do something besides admit defeat right here," I said with as much foolish bravado as I could muster.
Krieger looked at me like I was some kind of idiot. For the first time, he looked unsure of himself as he lowered his guns slightly, "You can't be serious."
I relaxed the tension in my shoulders as much as I could, took aim, and remembered everything Sinon told me. My heart pounded against my sternum and I licked my lips in nervous anticipation, "Guess we'll find out."
In the split second between pulling the trigger and firing the shot, I corrected my aim. The bullet line moved to the left and Azimuth crackled to life, spitting a small bolt of energy. The whole world seemed to slow down as it rocketed down the alley for Krieger, harsh electricity wailing as it sailed right past him and into the grassy fields beyond.
I held my breath. Some bleak part of me waited for him and his men to start shooting, but it never came. Krieger pursed his lips and rubbed the back of his head. Uncertainty still marred his face, "I admire your tenacity, but I'm afraid it won't do you any good. So are you done now?"
I grunted and threw the rifle as hard as I could. It skittered across the ground and came to a stop at his feet, "Yeah, I'm done," I muttered. That was it. That was my grand plan. I had nothing else up my sleeve and I had to accept whatever happened next whether it'd be death or the universe somehow cutting me some slack.
Either way, it was the end of the line.
"Very well then. At the very least, you know when to call it quits. There's some honor in th-"
Everyone winced when something inhuman roared like a demon from hell. It chilled me right to the bone, raised the hairs on the back of my neck as my stomach filled with a jittery nervous energy.
The chatter coming from the guys on the roof intensified as they all looked towards the source of the guttural sounds. Krieger himself looked over his shoulder and the color drained from his face as a rabid beast came charging across the open fields.
The Ignominious Wolf snarled like a frenzied monster and moved faster than a bullet in spite of its enormous size. It's grey fur was still matted down with blood and dirt and its legs pumped with sinewy muscle protected by pure white bone plates. Viscous green slobber dribbled down its sharp, gnashing teeth. One of its eyes blazed with animal fury, but the other was replaced by a pixelated gunshot wound.
I pointed a finger at Krieger and shouted at the top of my lungs, "He did it!"
Fun fact: sometimes intelligence makes someone easier to trick. Intelligent people can fill in the blanks, solve problems, make theories on the evidence available. And I watched with some small amount of satisfaction as the wolf's AI connected the dots. The Optical rifle at Krieger's feet, the wound that had come from a similar weapon, it put two and two together and decided he was the culprit.
If its sterling deduction skills wasn't enough evidence for it, Krieger decided to start shooting at its face with both pistols firing so fast they sounded like a band saw modded with nitrous. The wolf jerked its head back and let out a defiant howl as it lunged to tear the man apart, it's paw smacking him aside hard enough to bounce him off the alleyway's wall with devastating force.
I looked up at Sinon and flashed her a quick thumbs-up. Try as I might, I just couldn't draw up the willingness to wipe the smug smirk off of my face, "There's your signal. Have at it."
Sinon nodded. She drew the grenade out from between us and squeezed the detonation button hard, venting the coolant in a haze of thin smoke as she got up to her feet. Everyone on the roof was too busy saving Krieger from being Fido's next chew toy to notice her rear her arm back and throw it straight at them like a major-league baseball pitcher.
The flash of heat and light caught the attention of one of them, but all he could get out was some sputtered, half-nonsense warning before a superheated wave of plasma erupted in his face.
Sinon helped me up and together we ran away from the chaos unfolding behind us. Or at least as fast one could with dozens of injuries slowing them down. We cut through deserted streets and courtyards suffering from decades of neglect until the sounds of combat had all but disappeared. The scenery blended together faster than I could keep up with until we found ourselves at the entrance to one of Old South's destroyed subway tunnels.
Sinon unholstered her glock and led the way. Thankfully, the subway terminal was only inhabited by small harmless lizards. Every so often we passed some waist-high robots with box-shaped bodies and rubber treads for feet that asked us kindly for our tickets. We passed on by them without a word, some slowly rolling after us and begging for our cooperation under threat of a fine before giving up and returning to their posts.
Once she secured the immediate area, Sinon allowed herself to relax and dusted off a collapsed pillar to sit on, holstering her gun. She made no protest as I sat down next to her.
"Okay, so I guess we should get down right to the most pressing question on our minds, that being what the hell is going on here?" I asked, turning to her, "At this point I expect to have some people show up ready to shoot at you, but this is the first time I've been the target."
Sinon crossed her arms, brow knitted together like she was in deep in thought, "I've never seen him before and I doubt he was trying to use you to get to me."
"Another up-and-comer looking to make a name for himself maybe? He might have figured that I made for an easier mark than you did," I suggested to her while opening Charon's cylinder and dumping all the spent casings on the floor, making a pleasant clinking noise as they broke apart into a dozen tiny pixelated shards. I thought the idea over, then shook my head, "No, no, he wanted to ask me questions and take my gun. Doesn't really sound like something he'd do if he was looking for fame."
"On top of that, he said that he wanted to get to you before someone else did," Sinon said. She looked over to me and clasped her hands together, "He might not be the only one coming after you. There might be more."
"Oh. Terrific," I said.
Sinon hummed in response, "Remember what he said back when he first showed up? He had intel that talked about us, how when one of us is around, the other isn't far behind."
Now that she mentioned it, Krieger did let that tidbit of information slip. On its own, it wasn't terribly helpful in figuring out why he attacked us, but it was less about what the information was and more about where it came from.
"Somebody told him about us. They pointed him in our direction and gave information to help him along in capturing me for who knows what reason," I busied my hands by inserting fresh rounds in my revolver's chambers one at a time. The thought that someone went through that much trouble just to hunt me down and take me prisoner was unnerving. If this was what Sinon went through every day, I'm surprised she didn't leave GGO for good, "Do you think an information broker is involved? I know there's a few of them around Glocken; they'll charge you an arm and a leg, but maybe Krieger can afford that sort of thing."
"An info broker, hm?" Sinon pondered for a moment while I finished reloading Charon. Minutes passed by without neither of us saying a word. Then Sinon nodded to herself and gave me a pat on the back, "Where do you live?"
"Spades Luxury Apartments, near the center of Glocken," I answered her, "Why?"
"Get out of here, go straight to your apartment, and stay there until I show up. I'll be there soon with a friend."
I hesitated slightly, but I didn't have much reason to refuse. If Sinon had an idea that would help us better understand the situation, I was all for it. Better than fumbling aimlessly for an answer until I got attacked again; I wasn't about to go gentle into that good night, "Alright, cool."
We said our goodbyes and I hoofed it back to SBC Glocken, looking over my shoulder the entire way there half-expecting to see Krieger and his gang coming at me again. Funny enough, as I walked out of Old South, I spotted the Ignominious Wolf again, body covered in gunshot wounds and a piece of its jaw gone, but the beast itself was still very much alive. I gave the wolf a thankful salute and headed on my way.
By the time I reached my apartment it was almost evening with orange rays of sunlight bleeding through my window and bathing everything in a warm glow. I set about unloading what equipment I had left, taking a moment to lament the fact that I was now missing a knife and an Optical Sniper Rifle. It was such a nice one too.
Sinon arrived nearly an hour and a half after I did. I sat at my work table testing a combination of mods to a half-finished shotgun when a chime echoed in my room alerting me to a request to enter my apartment. When I hurried to the door, Sinon's name was on the display window next to the knob and I approved it with a quick tap. Not a second later she appeared before me in her casual green jacket and grey slacks.
"Hey," she greeted me with a curt nod which I returned with a friendly smile. I stepped aside and let her in, though I almost immediately regretting doing so because I hadn't considered cleaning up the place before she came. The sheets were still as messy as I left them, my table was covered in grease, dirty rags, and piles of miscellaneous parts, and several books were lying on the ground in front of the bookshelf after I had been researching the Ignominious Wolf and hadn't bothered to put it all back.
Oh god, if she made a comment about the state of my room I'd be so mortified I'd throw myself out the window.
"H-Hey, so uh, where's — where's your friend?" I said in a vain attempt to draw her attention.
"She needed to do some research and said she'd catch up with us when she was done," she came to a stop in the middle of my room and looked around with a curious expression on her face, "I've never been in your apartment before. It's…"
"Homey?" I suggested.
"Small."
Better than a pigsty I guess.
"Yeah, well I kinda operate on a budget. Spades had a good deal going on while I was still scraping credits together to get properly outfitted. They gave me a bed, a table, and well, that was pretty much it actually. Everything else was considered a luxury," Case in point, I looked over to the corner next to the front door. It used to be empty, but thanks to Sinon's generous contribution of four-hundred thousand credits, I managed to buy myself a modest kitchenette complete with a mini-fridge, a granite countertop and kitchen island, and a working stove. There was no real need to eat in GGO, but much like everything else virtual reality had to offer, it gave people a chance to try all kinds of food from every corner of the world all without having to leave their house.
"Do you want a drink? I did say I owed you one earlier today," I asked her as I cracked open the mini fridge to look through its contents. Sinon looked up from my work table and gave me a small smile.
"Sure," she said. I grabbed two cans of soda and held one out to her as she leaned on the other side of the kitchen island.
"But seriously, thanks for sticking your neck out for me on that one," I said after popping the top and taking a quick drink. I savored the sweet and tangy flavor on my tongue for a moment before swallowing, "I don't know what would have happened if I didn't have you there watching my back."
"It was nothing," Sinon took a few sips herself, cradling the can in both hands as she look down at it.
"Nothing? Nothing is helping me finish a fetch quest or loaning me some credits to cover for ammo. I think saving me from getting taken prisoner by Krieger and his merry band ranks a little higher than nothing. Seriously, having you around seems to add a bit more time to my lifespan," I said. Sinon lightly shook her head.
"Don't sell yourself short. You handled yourself well despite being in pretty bad shape by the time it was all over. To be honest, there were a few times where I thought you were going to die," Sinon replied. She has a point. Her help aside, I only survived by the skin of my teeth because of some quick thinking and the desperate energy of good old fashioned survival instinct.
"Aww, were you worried about me?" I asked her with a knowing grin. Sinon rolled her eyes.
"Don't get ahead of yourself," she said.
"I don't know, I kinda like the idea already," I said with a chuckle. Sinon slowly closed her eyes. I could tell she getting ready to make a scathing remark or a thinly-veiled threat, but to my surprise, she said nothing.
Instead, she looked off to the side, jaw working like she was contemplating something, then met my eyes, "But as long as we're giving thanks, I should thank you for what you did. You know, when you pulled me down to save me from the rocket and when you shielded me from all those falling rocks. It could've been much worse than what it ended up being. So...thanks."
Hearing that from her sprouted a tingly, warm sensation in my chest and I did my best not to let it show on my face. Praise was nice to get, but getting it from her of all people made me giddy with excitement.
I scratched the side of my neck in a fit of nervousness. When we were nearly annihilated by the rocket, but I had just done what came naturally to me, what was the right thing to do. She was my friend and someone I cared about. I knew she could handle herself, but if it ever came down to it, I'd protect her as best as I could. And I hoped she'd do the same for me.
"Hey, that's what partners are for, right? Watching each other's backs, saving them from kidnapping plots, swinging them around from the roof so they can shoot upside down," I said. Sinon actually giggled at that. I couldn't resist doing the same. The sound of her voice when she laughed was so...pleasant to hear, "We make a pretty good team, Sinon."
"I suppose so," she said, then added with a teasing tone, "You're not terrible at least."
Hissing in mock-hurt, I placed a hand over my chest, "Ouch, that one stung a little."
"You'll be fine," Sinon said after taking another long drink. I stared down at my own can, biting my lip slightly as a tight feeling knotted in my chest. I felt the urge to say something else and before I knew it, it came out.
"Sinon?"
She hummed in response. I lifted my can up and held it out in front of me.
"To our continued partnership?"
She blinked. Her eyes jumped from me, to the countertop, then back again and we stared at each other for a long time. For a moment I worried that maybe she didn't feel the same way, but then with the barest hint of a smile, she slowly raised her can and bumped it against my own, "To our continued partnership."
I smiled back at her. And the warm feeling in my chest raged on.