Shattered Tears
Chapter 10: Level Four
"Perfect!" Sam opened the door all the way and stepped inside, closing the door behind her very quietly. "This should be good enough." Before her was what appeared to be the storage room for weapons. Sam began to grab anything and everything that she saw. In both of her hands she held guns, while she also strapped numerous firearms to her waist. She had weapons strapped to her legs and attached to the bullet-proof vest she swung across her chest.
Sam wouldn't be able to move as fast considering the fact that she had at least thirty extra pounds on her body due to the vest, weapons and ammo. With that, Sam exited the room and continued her search around the building.
Sam wasn't a huge fan of guns in general, she didn't mind ecto-guns because when she hit ghosts they couldn't be killed with those weapons…but real guns used on people could kill them if struck in the right spot. In her mind, Sam promised herself to aim low and hopefully avoid the head and torso completely. Even though these men were her enemies at the moment, she didn't want to kill any of them.
"All agents report to your posts. Do not let anyone leave any of the exits. There is an intruder inside of the building. I repeat. All agents report to your posts."
Sam looked up at the speakers throughout the hallways; the voice of that person startled her at first. "Well, this just makes things more difficult." Her heart pounded inside of her chest and the pain from the bullet wound increased every time she moved. She knew that before too long, she could pass out from the pain or the blood loss. Even though she had wrapped the wound up as best she could, blood was still running from her side, trailing down her hip and leg.
Sam turned around the corner, nearly jumping back with surprise when she encountered a group of Guys in White. The men were quick to raise their weapons toward her. There's ten of them. I should be fine. She winced from the pain in her side, on second though, this'll be a bit difficult. "Out of my way!" She barked, raising up the guns she held in her hands, "or you won't be so lucky!"
"Drop your weapons! Or we'll shoot!"
Sam narrowed her eyes. She took a step backward and jumped to safety around the corner where the men wouldn't be able to shoot her. Before the men could get any closer, Sam stepped out the slightest bit and aimed her weapons toward them. The moment she came into view, the men began to fire. Aim low. Aim low. Sam returned fire.
The constant firing of bullets from both sides made her ears hurt. Blood splattered on the floor, Sam bit her lip and tears built up in her eyes. She hated this. She hated shooting at these guys. Even though she was aiming for areas that wouldn't kill, she hated the blood that was spilled because of her.
Most of the rounds that were fired at Sam hit the wall that she was hiding behind, but she wasn't fully protected, her arm stuck out to shoot her gun, and her leg was out a tad bit in order to stand firmly. One bullet fired from the Guys in White burrowed into her lower right leg. Sam cursed and stumbled back. With a loud battle cry and a burst of numbing energy, Sam fired the last of her bullets from her gun, taking down the last of the men.
The men all remained on the ground but were still breathing. Sam looked at the blood surrounding them and couldn't help but keel over and vomit. Saliva dripped from her lips while she faced the ground. The stench of throw up made her want to vomit again. "Damn it!" Sam stood up straight, wiping the spit from her face with the back of her hand.
She limped over to the ten men that she had just shot and began to rip off strips of their coats for bandages. She quickly grabbed the scissors from before and cleaned it off before using it to pull out the bullets from their bodies. "Sorry." She repeated over and over again as she dug out the bullets. Once she pulled those out she quickly wrapped up their wounds with the strips of cloth that she tore from their coats.
"Don't worry, you won't die." She wasn't sure how many were conscious and could hear her, "I really am sorry! But I need to help a friend right now!"
Sam sat on the ground next to the men and observed her leg where she had been shot. It had hit her on the side of her calf. Right now she didn't feel the pain of it, but blood was leaking from the wound and she had to treat it. Once again, she cleaned off the scissors with alcohol and yanked the bullet out. Now she started to feel the pain. It was excruciatingly painful, causing Sam to breathe heavily and moan in agony.
Once she had wrapped up her wound, she decided to sit for a few minutes. Even though she wanted so badly to keep moving, she needed a moment to rest.
"Why did you help us?"
Sam gasped, not realizing anyone was awake. The man near her looked at her with pained eyes and she felt horrible inside. "Because, if I hadn't you guys might have died from blood loss."
"We're your enemies though, you shouldn't help your enemies, otherwise they'll just fight you again."
Sam chuckled, "you don't seem like you're in any condition to fight."
The man nodded, "that's true." He sighed.
"Looks like you're the only one conscious, you should probably call for some medical assistance just to make sure you're all okay."
The man seemed to ignore what she said, "the friend you mentioned, do you mean Phantom?"
Sam nodded, "yeah." She couldn't believe that she was having a conversation with her enemy, maybe all the blood loss was messing with her head. "I'm here to find out more about his powers and memories being taken."
"Everything you need to know about that is on the fourth floor, there's a main lab. That's where you need to go."
Sam narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "why would you tell me that? Isn't that what you are all trying to keep from me?"
"Only a few people here actually know anything about the Phantom Project. I only know the name and where it is. I owe you for saving our lives, I don't want to be in debt to you. So now, we're even. You better leave before more guys show up."
"Phantom Project? That's the name of it?"
The man nodded.
Sam stood up shakily, "thanks. My name's Sam, by the way."
"Jeremy."
"Thanks Jeremy." Sam walked away from the Guys in White.
Jeremy picked up his walkie-talkie once Sam was out of sight, "this is Agent 442 requesting a medical team at the third hallway of the seventh floor. We were taken down by the intruder."
A reply came through the walkie-talkie, "copy that Agent. Did you see where the intruder went?"
Jeremy answered, "No sir. When I came to, she was already gone."
"Very well. A medical team is on the way."
Sam was very careful not to run into anymore people. Whenever she heard footsteps, she quickly hid from whoever it was and waited for them to leave. She thought that she could take down anyone she encountered, but she was already weakened and in pain.
Sam knew that the elevator was a dumb idea, so she had to find the stairs and go down to the fourth floor using those. She expected there to be multiple people guarding the stairs, but there were none. Maybe they're all at the exits to the building so they aren't bothering to watch the stairs. Each step was slow and painful, for the most part she held the railing and hopped down on her good leg. "Alright. You can do this Sam." She grabbed two new guns from her belt, each fully loaded. She opened the door that lead from the stairs to the fourth floor.
Not to her surprise, there were two men standing guard at the door, both of them however had their backs to Sam. They heard the door open and started to turn around but Sam was too quick. She hit them both in the neck, causing them to fall to the ground unconscious. Sneak attacks such as these were easy; certain parts of the body could be hit accurately and knock the person out.
Okay so, Jeremy said that there was a main lab on this floor. Sam limped around the hallways of the fourth floor.
"Men, I want you all to be on high alert! The moment you see the intruder, shoot her! You understand?"
The men that were gathered around Agent B nodded. Agent B was second in command, Agent A being the boss of course. There were at least sixty men there at the entrance of level one.
"Alright then. All of you are dismissed."
A window smashed into a thousand pieces above their heads. All sixty of the men looked up to see what had caused the shattered window.
"Sir…"
Agent A picked up his walkie-talkie from his belt and held it up to his face, "Agent B? What is it?"
"Sir…we have a second intruder…" Agent B coughed.
"What! Who!"
"I don't know…it all happened so fast! The intruder took out all sixty of the men here on level one in just a few minutes!"
Agent A's eyes widened.
"Sir, do you think…"
"Yes, it's probably Phantom! Damn it. Gather as many men as you can and head to level four! That's where both Sam Manson and him will eventually go."
"Understood sir."
Sam pushed open the doors to the main lab, at least, she assumed it was the main lab because of how large it was. Her eyes widened at all the equipment in this lab, half of the things in there she had never seen before!
In the middle of the giant room, Sam found what she was looking for. There was a large machine that hummed loudly and the words "Phantom Project" were written on the side in green letters. "Found you!" Sam went up to the machine. Near the machine Sam found a file cabinet, she shuffled through the folders until she found the one she was looking for and began to scan through it.
A group of Guys in White were gathered together in the middle of the hallway, "Men, listen up! You five are going to head to level 4," the man standing at the front of the group barked, "and you five" he pointed to the ones he was referring to "are going to go to the entrance of level 5 and stay there. Now the rest of you are-" He didn't have time to finish his sentence, the man was thrown backward very suddenly, crashing to the floor and remaining motionless.
The entire group of men stiffened with shock and pulled out their guns. "Where did that come from!" One of them shouted.
The man nearest to the leader looked down at their fallen comrade, "he was shot in the head…with a practice round. He's not dead, he's just unconscious!"
"A practice round? Really?"
Another spoke up, "who the hell would use a practice round to take out our leader!"
And another, "it doesn't matter! Stay on alert! Where did that shot come from!"
All of them looked around. They were in a hallway, there was no place for someone to shoot from, at least to their knowledge.
After about ten seconds of complete silence, another of the group collapsed with a non-lethal bullet to the head.
"Everyone form a circle!" The group of Guys in White stood shoulder to shoulder in a circle, facing outward and waiting to see where the attacker was.
"This is ridiculous! Where the hell are you! Show yourself!"
All of the men were on edge, afraid of being the next target.
A laugh echoed through the entire hallway, although the laugh didn't sound menacing at all it still terrified the group of men; "you shouldn't underestimate a former assassin!" With that said, five more men fell to the floor without a sound.
There were only a few men left standing. One of them held up a small walkie-talkie, "this is Agent R, requesting backup on the 6th entrance of level one! I repeat –" The walkie-talkie burst into a thousand pieces in his hand. Agent R didn't think that it looked like it was shot; it almost looked like it self-destructed! But that was impossible!
"Are you guys really professionals? You aren't very good."
All of the men jumped with fear and spun around. Standing inside of the small circle they had formed was a teenage boy, in his hand he held a large gun at least a foot and a half in length, but he wasn't holding the gun up toward anybody. "Y-you're surrounded! Put your hands in the air!" Agent R demanded.
Danny smirked, "I'm the one that chose to get in the circle. I've already taken out seven of your guys. Don't worry though, they're fine, but I'm sure they'll wake up with a horrible headache."
"Drop your weapon!" Agent R snapped viciously.
"No thanks, you'll just shoot me anyway, I'm the one you're after, right?"
Agent R narrowed his eyes. "Are you…you're Z-3!" He took a step back, "you're just a kid!"
"Huh, for people that are trying to capture me, you really don't know much about me. I'm 19, for your information. And I'm not here to get captured anyway." Danny's eyes narrowed dangerously and in the blink of an eye he had the tip of his gun two inches away from Agent R, "I'm here for my friend, and I expect you to tell me where she is!"
Sweat dripped from Agent R's face. "Heh, that's just a practice round, you can't threaten me with that!" A loud shot rang in his ears. Aiming just to the left of Agent R's face, Danny had shot a round and the bullet created a steaming hole inside of the wall behind him. The gun was once again pointed directly at Agent R's face.
"It was a practice round before. This time, you won't be so lucky." Danny looked to his left and right where the remaining Guys in White had gathered around them with their weapons up. Danny knew that the men couldn't fire their weapons at him right now, if they shot him there was a chance that his finger would pull the trigger even if he was killed instantly and that would be the death of Agent R.
"How did you get here? How did you shoot Agent N and the others without being noticed?"
"Was Agent N your leader there?" Danny nodded toward the man on the floor. "You are all ghost hunters but you aren't able to tell when a ghost is right next to you? Ghosts have the ability to be invisible, you should know that."
Agent R growled, "but you had your powers taken away from you! There's no way you could've become invisible!"
"I didn't say that I as the one doing the invisibility."
Every man standing around Danny and Agent R let out a grunt of pain and fell to the ground. Danielle became visible, all twenty of her duplicates grinned happily at Agent R and waved before morphing back to the original. "I don't like guns," Danielle held up her fist, "but I'm not opposed to using fists!"
Danny was losing his patience with Agent R. He shoved his gun into Agent R's gaping mouth, "Are you going to tell me where Sam is or not? I could easily blow your head off right here! I've wasted too much time with you as it is!"
Agent R pulled his face away from the gun, "You disgusting ghost! You think that I'll help you! Go ahead and shoot me! You're an assassin, you'll kill me anyway, right!"
Danny grit his teeth and pulled his gun back, aimed it at Agent R's chest and fired the gun. "Former assassin." Danny turned to Danielle, nodding to her and the two of them took off down the hallway.
Agent R fell to the ground and clutched his chest where the practice round had hit him. It hurt like hell, but he knew for a fact that he wouldn't die from it. That one was a practice round? He chuckled, that sneaky bastard. Did he only have that one real bullet hit the wall to scare me? Agent R reached over to a nearby comrade and grabbed their walkie-talkie, "this is Agent R requesting a medical team at the 6th entrance of level one. There are no deaths to report but there are quite a few injured. Our leader Agent N is unconscious, so are the others."
A voice replied over the walkie-talkie, "Is the enemy there?"
"No, he's gone."
Danny and Danielle were out of sight of the man, continuing their search for Sam. "Damn it! Where is she!" Danny's face was cringing with worry, "Can you take us up to the top floor?"
"Sure thing!" Danielle grabbed a hold of Danny and jumped into the air, intangibly going through the numerous floors without any trouble at first. "How many floors are there?" Danielle asked.
"When we got here I counted ten stories. I assume that the boss is on the top level." Danny stopped speaking as they arrived at the seventh floor, with great force he quickly yanked Danielle down with his arm, making both of them fall downwards. Danielle became tangible and they crashed onto the floor. Above them on the ceiling was a gaping hole where a shot had just been fired.
Danielle was a bit dazed from the sudden action of Danny throwing her down and crashing into the floor, but Danny jumped up instantly.
"It's been quite a while, Phantom. Five years to be exact."
"Sorry, I don't really remember you." Danny narrowed his eyes at the man, "so you're the one in charge." He was able to tell instantly; the man had a high power about him, also he wore a black suit unlike the other men. Danny noticed that the man was favoring his left leg and smirked, "seems like Sam already got to you before I could. So, you'll be able to tell me where Sam is, won't you?"
Danielle stood up next to Danny, "this is the guy?"
Danny nodded, "seems like it. Sorry for throwing you by the way."
"It's okay, thanks for the save."
"So," Danny held up his gun, "you're going to tell me where Sam is."
"I do know where she is, my men are watching her as we speak. She is down on level four in the lab were we have your powers stored."
Danny's eyes widened. "Is Sam alright!"
"She's alive. She's been shot a few times, but that's about it. And she'll be dead before you can reach her. My men are there, ready to shoot if I say so."
Danny's eyes narrowed with fury, his eyes glowing brightly green "and I'm telling you right now…if you even try to kill her, I'll kill you before you can even beg for mercy!"
"Is that Danny talking or is that Z-3?" The man replied, not seeming to care about the threat on his life.
"Z-3 is gone. Right now, you're dealing with Danny!"
"Interesting." The man held up the gun that had blown a hole in the ceiling, it was quite small considering how much damage it caused.
Danielle quickly grabbed Danny and turned intangible, dropping through the floor before the man could fire the weapon. "Danny, we have to go to Sam! We'll deal with that guy later!"
Danny nodded. His heart pounded rapidly in his chest and only sped up the closer he got to the main lab on level four.
A/N: Sorry this came out a little later than I thought, I finally got around to posting the last chapter of my other story. So now I'm back to this one! I'll try my best to have the next chapter out later this week!