Chapter 10: The Gunman
I became aware of my surroundings fairly quickly. Judging by the fact that mammals were running around me in a crazed frenzy, I had only been unconscious for a few seconds. Not all of the mammals were running. Many were scattered across the floor, their injuries varied from scrapes to the mortal. My name echoed, until I heard it being yelled with clarity.
"Oscar! Wake Up!" It was Judy. She was standing over me, a look of shock was I grunted, whilst rolling to my feet.
"That's quite a hit you took there. Are you alright?" she asked, visibly worried.
"Quite a hit? You flew across the room. At the speed you flew, I'm surprised you didn't break the damn sound barrier," Said the familiar voice of Nick, in between a few coughs. He was standing a few yards back helping an elderly sheep to cover.
"I'm fine," I said somewhat annoyed. Not at Judy or Nick. At Emmet. He did this. That bastard was going to pay. "What's going on?"
"A bomb went off. We have to get to safety."
"Where's Emmet?" I said, more angry than inquisitive.
"He's just standing there." Judy's eyes darted to the front entryway. She was right. In the middle of a cloud of dust, he stood. He was fiddling with his prosthetic. Then I remembered the helicopter. It hovered over the skylights. Then I saw the fast ropes. The glass shattered, making the screams of fear louder. I counted at least forty SHADOW agents. Then even more poured in. Cars crashed through walls. Chunks of the floor exploded. By the time it was all said and done, the forty had grown to at least a hundred. Some were standard troops. Assault gear. A mix of shotguns and AK-12s. Close range gear. Then there was the others. Shock trooper armor. Electricity based weapons, and americium laced ballistic weapons. They were here for me. Then I heard some static, followed by a booming and gravelly voice. Emmet's prosthetic could be used for a lot, including tapping into certain frequencies, including PA systems.
"Good morning everybody. How's it going," The word going kind of became muted, as Emmet walked over to an injured ram trying to crawl away, and brought the steel toed portion of his combat boot down hard. Everybody else cringed, except me and the shadow agents. Heck the shadow agents even chuckled. I just remained silent. I saw it coming. Let's just say, Emmet was kind of prone to violent outbursts. It was his nature.
"What do you want," Nick deadpanned, whilst glaring into Emmet's eyes. Emmet's eyes lit up with joy, a smirk growing on his face. He squatted down, the oversized leather jacket almost touching the floor, and looked nick dead in the eyes.
"That's a good question senor." He gestured to me "You see that worthless sack of shit standing next to you. He's the one that gave me this scar on my face. Ruined my life. Betrayed me. Long story short. I'm going to kill him. Right here. Right now. Oh I almost forgot. George! Bring me Mr. Sprinkles." An agent in standard gear pushed his way through the group of agents, clutching a cherry wood case. He reached Emmet, clicked his heals and stood at attention, case resting on is outstretched arms. It clicked open, and Emmet pulled out his red-painted hand cannon, and fired randomly into the crowd, striking a tiger officer. Judy looked back in shock, and tried to move, but nick stopped her.
"Don't do it. Let him speak," I grumbled under my breath.
"Cops are really gonna inconvenience my operation. That's why I'm gonna get rid of them. At least most of them. So…you can run. But that's gonna delay the inevitable bullet crashing through your skull."
"You know, that's an interesting theory on how to run a sweep op. Trust me. We've run them together a few times. Don't think I easily forget Nicaragua. But one thing is different from all of those other times. I'm on the other end. You have seen me in action before, and you are well aware, that most, if not all of the people in this room are not going to leave alive. So, with that in mind, I give you a choice. Walk out that door, or face the consequences." Emmet laughed, and glared at me. I took that as a no. Guess things were gonna have to happen the hard way. But first, I needed to get to cover. The silence of the room was broken. I threw the time bomb I had been holding behind my back, creating a small pocket of blue, with the energy of a miniature quasar in the middle of the group, its gravity drawing in all of the agents, making them unable to do something. But it would collapse soon. The civilians and cops had started to scatter, some running for the armory, others for the exit. Quickly, I grabbed the stunned Nick and Judy, and dove over cover, the cover being the help desk. Without a word, I began opening my go bag. Sitting right on top was a small black tactical case, about the size of an iPad mini. I set that to the side, and instead pulled out my black polymer leg holster, with my Sig Sauer p227 with muzzle compensator attached. I clipped that to its strap, and wrapped it around my thigh. The next item was my tactical magazine holders. I counted two. That gave me 45 rounds. I'd have to improvise the rest. I glanced over, my staring reflex kicking in. To my left sat judy and nick, staring at me in confusion.
"What?" I shrugged nonchalantly
"What the hell was that," Judy yelled clearly confused.
"What the quasar grenade. It freezes time in a localized area. Should buy me 180 seconds or so to get ready."
"For what," nick asked. I cocked my head sideways in annoyance.
"Look. I get your pretty new to my world. But you're going to have to realize something." I cocked my gun.
"These guys don't screw around. The only way to get rid of them is to put them down. That means lethal force. Me doing what I am about to do is going to save a lot of lives. But you can't be here. I can't put you through what you would see if you guy's stayed. You need to save as many as you can. I'll distract as many as I can."
"Bu-but you'll die. You versus over a hundred. Those aren't exactly good odds," Nick scoffed after stuttering.
"I've had worse odds, believe me," I said as strapping the sheath of my kabar to the other side of my belt, and pocketing a smoke grenade. There was only one more thing to precede the case. My gauntlet. It stretched to about halfway up my wrist. I threw a few switches on the side, activating the bright blue screen, displaying the PPSS logo that sat on top. With a quick scan, I had ammo readouts, core body temp, heartrate, and a layout of the area. Then came the last piece. The case. With a few clicks of some buttons it hissed open, releasing the cool liquid nitrogen. In the case sat two needles, one a three inch long hypodermic, with a targeting laser, the other resembling a morphine auto injector. The primer. I removed the blue safety pin, and picked up the other needle, while holding rolling up my shirt, revealing the dozens of track marks by my heart.
"Listen. In this needle in my right hand is what augmented agents call a primer. It's basically cocaine on steroids. When my eyes dilate, tell me. That will be a sign to actually inject the other serum." I held the other needle steady over my heart, the targeting laser recognizing my left atrium.
"Why-, you know, I don't want to know." The needle met my thigh. I almost felt the effects immediately. The BPM meter on my gauntlet nearly doubled. Through my high, I heard now. With that, I plunged the second needle through one of the track marks, careful to avoid my scar. With a reflex, I flicked on my sunglasses, and placed in my earpiece.
"The minute I start talking, start moving as many wounded out the back entrance as you can. Keep low and keep quiet. Also, whatever you hear, don't turn back." She nodded, and nick looked at me with a look of worry. I was getting a lot of those these days.
I hopped the desk, just as the quasar grenade dissipated. Immediately, the Shadow agents raised their rifles.
"WAIT!" I screamed with my hands up. They paused.
"I'll give you guys a chance. Leave. Don't look back."
"Or what?" yelled one of the agents, holding a pulse rifle. I recognized his voice instantly. It was Danny from beta squad. He was always a total douche.
"Or-OR I'LL KILL EVERY ONE OF YOU, AND FORCE FEAD YOUR CORPSES TO THE BIRDS!" my voice cracked on the last word. They all laughed, and raised their guns. The sounds of automatic rifles filled the room. I shook uncontrollably from the force of the bullets, my body collapsing to the ground. I think I heard Judy yell something. But I was fading. My eyes closed, and I smiled.
I jolted awake. My surroundings were different. I was sitting under a sycamore tree that sat atop a small hill. Beyond the hill, a pond could be seen, and beyond the pond, fields of prairie grass stretched for miles on end. La Vie En Rose hummed over a crackly radio somewhere in the distance. He didn't know where. Then he saw the woman. Tall. Brown bordering on red hair. Beautiful complexion. She wore a white sundress and a sunhat. No shoes. I looked down at my own apparel. White dress shirt and khakis. I also wore no shoes.
"Hello Oscar," an all too familiar voice nearly whispered.
"Cassandra. How are you?"
"As good as I can be. You going to stay this time?"
"I wish I could. But there are things I must do first. I-" she pulled me into a kiss. The embrace we shared seemed like a distant memory. Something that had happened many times before, but hadn't.
"I know. Do what you have to, Oscar." My surroundings began to fade to white then black. My eyes opened again, the beautiful oasis, replaced with cold brown tile and towering concrete walls. I looked at my gauntlet. Only 6.7301 seconds had passed. Damn. I was getting slower. But I was back. I felt the serum taking effect. My whole body was washed over with a wave of warmth. Then the rage. I was redlining, as I could see my core temp and heart rate skyrocket. I flipped off of my back, and my sneakers hit the ground, squeaking on impact. The soldiers surrounding me stumbled back in shock, they receded to move forward slowly, in an attempt to entrap me.
"O-oh you really shouldn't have done that. A smirk grew on my face I drew my Kabar knife to my hand. In a long swiping motion, the knife penetrated the space between one of the armored plates on an assailant (specifically in the jugular region). In one motion, I had retrieved the agent's service pistol from his holster, who was now tumbling to the ground. I whipped around, facing a standard agent and unloaded several shots point blank to his chest. In the vein of Chuck Norris, I threw a round house at another, and with a quick snap shot he was down. Two more circled me. I pulled one's ak-12 towards me, stretching his arms out for me to attack. With one chop, I heard a sickening crunch, and saw his left arm move unnaturally downwards. With his weapon now in my possession, I opened fire. I guess the other agents had the same idea. But I wasn't worried. Their bullets couldn't harm me. The shells collided with several others, whilst there's collided, but had no effect.
At the same time, I kept moving, ducking and pushing through agents, whilst avoiding being out in shooting range for any time over a second. I was more concerned about the advanced agents. I saw another one, lining up a shot, standing in the corner of the crowd. I sprinted directly at him. He flinched. Too bad for him. My forward momentum allowed me to slash my knife across a standard agent's chest and knees, sending him down. Now I had a stepstool. Still running, I leaped off his back, and brought the knife down, causing it to crack through his helmet, and become lodged there. Now I had more space to work with. About 30% of them rushed me, while the others retreated to a better position. I drew my pistol, keeping it close to my body, while still maintaining a weaver stance. One shot after the next. Each was a perfect headshot. However, they didn't all charge at me directly. Some flanked around. I counted five on each side. None were advanced. I let them get close, before disarming one. I jabbed him in the throat, and used his shock to place my barrel under his chin and squeeze the trigger. He fell back lifeless. Another fired a shotgun, its pellets peppering my chest. I kicked him in the chest, and fired three shots to the same region. More surrounded and more were put down, with precision accuracy. Blood stained the walls and floors. My clip was empty now. I reloaded, and continued to fight. More continued to fall in gloriously violent fashion.
The fight was far from done. Another wave swarmed me. It toke me emptying a clip into a few more to notice something. One of the agents was dumb enough to leave his grenades hanging off his vest. With one pull of the pins, and a roll behind cover, most were down. I was only left with ten. And one was Emmet. I sprinted, letting out a primal yell. I fired at the closest one, striking his neck and chest, and rolled around his falling corpse. I executed a tactical roll, grabbing a shotgun disgarded on the ground like a fallen tree limb. It was a semi auto bennelli. I took down six before the gun clicked empty. Now only stood three.
"If you going to do something right, do it yourself." Emmet mumbled. He charged me. This was it. My chance to put the bastard down. But I didn't take into account the pulse weaponry in his metal arm. One punch put me down. He was about to fire. But then I heard shots. I couldn't tell from where. But that didn't matter. They were on the run. A van crashed through a side door, and Emmet hopped in. He said tootles snarkilly and gave a mock salute goodbye. I had to go after them. I looked at my watch. I was running out of time. I was going to crash. My memory became faded. Next thing I knew, I was on a mini bike. I… Stole it? Yes. That's right. I stole it. Kicked a cheetah off and teared after. I was right behind the van. We were an industrial district, with traffic blocked off for the most part. Towering smokestacks dotted the horizon. I drew my pistol, and fired. It slowed the truck down. It was at the point where the bike and van sat parallel on the cracked asphalt, moving at a good clip. Then I jumped on the side. Rolling around, I opened the back door. Nothing. Only the driver. I jumped out the back, and shot the tires out the second I hit the ground. It flipped, hitting the ground with a screeching halt. The driver crawled out and ran. I pursued. My memory cut again. I was following him up a latter. We were on the side of an old office building, a for lease sign weathered by years of neglect hanging on the north side. We reached the top. I looked off into the distance, seeing roughly a dozen squad cars nearby. Some mammals were running towards the building. I turned back to the driver. Field Agent Rank One. Daniel Wong. Chinese immigrant. Excelled in competitive driving and hand to hand combat. We walked towards each other, circling. He pulled out a karambit from his wrist, I a push knife. He swiped in a parallel motion, catching my in the chest. But he made the mistake of getting close. I kneed him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. In a blur of motion, I pulled out his knife holding arm, and spun around, snapping it on my shoulder. The weapon fell limply out of his hands. He threw a right hook, and a spinning heel kick. With his left hand disabled, he picked up the knife with his left hand I felt my glasses leave my face. I turned back to Daniel.
"Your eyes! You really are what they say you are diablo. A demon!" I saw my reflection in my knife. My eyes had shifted from their natural yellow to red, with the sclera bloodshot. He never should have removed those glasses. I yelled, and lunged at him. This clearly caught him off guard. His karambit blade became hidden in my gut. His triumph turned to horror, when he saw it clearly hadn't phased me. I head-butted him, and stuck my hand out. I now had him by the neck, my knife darting in and out of the stomach region. The pure steel of before was now dripping in red. To add insult to injury, I lifted him up by the neck, his feet hovering above the ground. I walked to the edge. His legs started to kick at nothing, except the forty foot drop that awaited him. Then I heard a voice. It was Judy's. I heard something I never heard from her. Fear.
"Oscar. P-put him down. You don't need to," she choked on the next word "Kill anybody else." I turned to her. She was standing with Nick, both now wearing vests. They saw my eyes.
"Oscar. You don't look very good. Maybe you should come with us. See a doctor. After all, you are severely injured. We'll deal with this guy," Nick gestured to a swat van sitting below.
"Don't listen to them," Daniel whispered harshly through his accent, a mix of Bronx and Chinese. "Let your anger take over. FINNISH ME. After all, my death would mean nothing to the other operations…"
"What operations?"
"Take a look." His watched beeped almost simultaneously with a boom off in the distance, Then another. I saw pillars of smoke rise from different biomes in the city." Then my gauntlet beeped.
"Times up," Daniel said. He hooked his legs onto my torso. I felt the barrel of a Beretta pressed against my chest. Then the crack of gunshots. One. Two. Three. My chest arched back awkwardly. Everything became blurry, unlike regular bullets. Americium. Shit. Two tranq darts collided with Daniel, but did nothing. The barrel of the gun, was now against my temple. Everything slowed. I saw everything. Daniel blinking. Judy running to me firing her tranq gun again. Nick attempting to tackle Daniel, but getting backhanded back several feet. Then I heard a crack. A cloud of red mist erupted from my attacker's chest. He got back up and staggered back to the edge. He was shot again, this time, his head recoiling back, and his lifeless corpse flipping off the roof. I turned to the sound of the gunshots, to be met with a figure. He (or she) stood with a polished Unica Six in hand. The person wore a mark 1 scout helmet and a black trench coat. The individual also wore a plate carrier, holding a single mag pouch and pistol holster.
"You're getting sloppy, Donnelly," He or she said through a filtered voice. I got up.
"Really. How would you know?"
"I'd say, but not here." The person, who I know guessed was a he, gestured to Judy and Nick. Judy frowned. Nick looked around in a joking manner.
"Fine. At least tell me my status."
"Indigo"
"Indigo? You fucking kidding me? You'd think after me being her for over a few months I'd be at least at Violet."
"Hey, don't take it up with me. You know how management is. If they want to contact you, they will. But in case you haven't noticed, you kind of went on a hundred person rampage, then carjacked a cheetah and proceeded to chase a van for twenty blocks. On top of all that, you decided to fight Agent Wong, In the MIDDLE OF DOWNTOWN!"
"Excuse me, but what is going on here," Judy spoke up. Quietly.
"Nothing, Kid, save the fact that your pal broke about a dozen of our agency's rules."
"Agency? You're one of Oscar's people," Nick said, eyebrows raised.
"Yeah, you could say that."
"Look, can you get me an exfil or not." He sighed.
"Fine. Make the call. Use my code. Victor Sigma X-ray Foxtrot 13-34."
"Got it."
"Oh and Donnelly…"
"Yeah?"
"Patch yourself up. You're bleeding all over the place. Toodles." He stepped off the edge into a blue portal, it shutting quickly behind him. Gunshots? I pulled up my shirt. Three gunshot wounds had shifted to a dark black, the veins around turning varicose. Nick and Judy looked at them and up at me shocked. I looked at the knife on the concrete. My eyes had turned blue.
"Call a bu-"was all I heard from Judy, before my world turned sideways, and briefly shaking when I hit the ground. Nick Was holding pressure on the wounds, while Judy barked into her walkie. There was no light this time when I closed my eyes. Just darkness.
A/N: Three months. Long time. I have to say something first. I've been dealing with some family issues for a long time. My father hasn't exactly been around. Heck I only see him twice a year as is. But that's his doing. He would rather spend time in Bora Bora snorkeling, than see his son's final basketball game. It's been quite turbulent. Arguing on both sides, and it has gotten to me. So much so, to the point where I can't even turn on the computer without shutting it off. This compiled with an overwhelming amount of writing homework for school has been especially difficult. But that doesn't matter. I have not been writing. This is why I already have two other chapter lined up to be released in 8 days each. Hopefully this will make up for it. As usual, Review if you wish. It always helps me improve my writing. PM me you want to bounce story ideas off each other, or if you have any animal pun names or brands (which I desperately need). Peace.
-Mlg Fedora