Chapter 21: The Dream Team Part 2

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For the next 40 minutes, the team fought their way through more projections than they could ever hope to count, who employed every method possible in attempts to kill them. At first they only faced a few small patrol-like groups, which were typically taken down before they even knew what had hit them. As time went on, however, the projections seemed to adopt more guerilla-like tactics, using their knowledge of the team's destination against them.

The men gradually found themselves fighting more and more often in hand-to-hand combat, the enemy finding that close-range weapons did little good against the highly mobile group. In light of this, rooftop snipers also became a more frequent issue, and Arthur found that the team had to rely more and more on hiding in the shadows as time went on. Despite this, they hardly ever broke pace, pushing onwards with great determination and prowess.

As they fought, they found that each individual team member brought something unique to their overall group, which collectively rendered the men unstoppable. Though he still was in no shape to fire a weapon, Nash was surprisingly skilled in close-combat scenarios, using his long legs and limber body to his advantage. Additionally, because he was already visibly injured, he almost seemed to lure these fighters towards him. Eames was predictably the best shot of the group, his deadly accuracy with a pistol allowing him to plow through ground patrols easily. Arthur's greatest contribution came from the very definition of being the team's point man, specifically his calm, calculating nature. When facing snipers or other long-range threats, he was usually the one to navigate them to safety, careful timing allowing him to guide the team through the shadows at just the right moments. And Cobb of course assumed his natural position of the team's leader, barking quick commands when necessary and generally keeping them together.

It was a simple system, but it worked wonders.

Then, after what felt like hours of senseless warfare, the team finally reached their destination. Though the tower had appeared large enough when observed from the opposite end of the city, viewed from directly beneath it the structure felt impossibly large. If Arthur had to guess, he'd say it was at least 50 stories tall, the building stretching impossibly far into the simulated blue sky. Almost the entire surface of the structure was covered in large, black-tinted windows, giving the fortress a malevolent feel. At the very top, the four corners of the roof joined together to form a pointed tip.

"There's no mistaking it, this is the place," Cobb stated simply, crossing his arms. "Eames, Nash, check the perimeter, I don't want to run into any surprises."

Nodding slightly, the two men split up, each man beginning a cautious investigation of the building's exterior.

"What do you expect to find?" Arthur questioned, watching Eames disappear into an adjacent alley.

"Nothing if I'm correct. Since this game had a set ending point from the very beginning, it's only logical to assume we're walking into a trap, one that's going to be triggered the moment we walk through the front door. I'm hoping for, but not expecting, to find a second way in."

"What if they don't find anything?"

Cobb paused, though he had obviously anticipated the point man's question. "Then it looks like we don't have much of a choice. I'm guessing that, in the spirit of fairness, there is some way we could manage to live, but I don't think the odds are in our favor."

Arthur grunted in response, just in time to see both Eames and Nash return from their scouting.

"There's nothing. No entrances, no men, no traps. The windows are bullet-proof too," Nash reported.

Cobb sighed. "Alright, if that's how we're going to have to play this." He took out his pistol, promptly loading it. "Everyone stay close. I'm not sure what we'll find in there, but all I know for sure is that they'll be waiting."

Arthur nodded. "We need to go in hard and fast, no hesitation. It's the only way we'll even have a shot of surviving this."

"Do we have a shot at surviving this?" Nash eyed the forger warily.

"It'll take some focus, and probably a fair bit of luck, but if we show no mercy than we may have a shot." Eames supplied, his jaw set with determination.

Nash smirked. "Then let's go."

With a burst of speed, the team charged through the front door, guns blazing. Almost immediately the enemy began returning fire, and the men scattered in an effort to avoid it. Thankfully, the lobby to which the front door opened was more than suitable for this type of combat, various couches and plant arrangements providing for ample cover. And it was much appreciated.

As Cobb had suspected, the enemy had been more than prepared for their arrival, a good twenty or so armed projections having been stationed around the entrance. However, the team's rather direct approach had taken them at least slightly off guard, shifting the odds of the fight ever so slightly in their favor. Though, they still had a whole tower to climb.

Behind a large leather couch to the immediate left of the door, Arthur and Nash were under heavy fire, barely being able to let off more than a shot before having to duck into cover again. Being so close to the entrance, they had proved a much easier target than Cobb and Eames, who had managed to cover a bit more ground. To the right of the front door, the forger was hidden in a short hallway that lead to the bathrooms, and was providing the majority of the return fire at the enemies. Cobb was hidden behind a small water feature in the exact middle of the room, having barely enough space to stand without leaving any body part exposed.

"I could use a little help here!" Eames shouted at the others, aware that he was doing most of the work.

"We're pinned down over here!" Arthur shouted in response, blind firing once around the corner of the sofa before pulling his hand to safety.

"Well I'm not much better off," Cobb responded bitterly, peering out from behind the feature to fire off a few rounds. However, after a bullet ricocheted off the ground not more than a few inches from his right foot, he cursed and withdrew.

"Would this help?" Nash pulled a grenade out of his suit pocket, hiding it again before the projections could get a good look at it.

"How long have you had that?" Arthur demanded.

"I was saving it for when we really needed it. Besides, I don't have a clear throw."

Glancing to his left, Arthur sighed slightly, realizing what he had to do. "Then I suggest you get ready."

"Ready? What the hell do you mean ready?"

Arthur met the architect's eyes. "I'm giving you an opening."

Without warning, the point man suddenly pushed off from behind the couch, darting across the room as fast as his legs would carry him. The projections, drawn to the sudden and unexpected movement, instantly turned their fire towards him. In that same moment, however, Nash yanked the pin from the grenade, lobbing it over the couch and in the middle of the group in a single motion. Then, after a bone-rattling explosion, it was over.

For a moment, no one said anything, Cobb and Eames still struggling to register what had just happened. Arthur in the meantime had collapsed against a planter on the other end of the room, looking slightly out of breath, but relieved. Nash too looked relieved, standing up slowly from his position behind the couch.

This break didn't last long though, as Cobb promptly took over the situation. "Nice work," he looked approvingly at the architect, who accepted the praise with a mere nod.

"Now we just have fifty or so more floors to go," Eames commented, delicate sarcasm on his tone.

Arthur shot him a look.

"Wait," Nash interjected, halting the conversation. Instead of elaborating, however, he merely walked over to the front desk, which was surrounded by broken, bloodied bodies. Though, the destruction was not what he was referring to, more than a small white box sitting on the main counter. They hadn't noticed it before due to the commotion, but it appeared to be like a small clock, with blue, digital numbers counting progressively downwards.

"Is that…?"

"Our remaining time," Eames answered Arthur's half-finished question, approaching the machine slowly. "Looks like the architect really wanted to rub it in our faces if we came this far and didn't make it."

"But we still have 10 minutes," Cobb stepped forward, his tone encouraging, "and that's more than enough time to fight our way to the top."

"Lead the way then," the forger turned his back to the counter, waiting on Cobb's order. After a quick discussion, the team decided to climb to the top using the stairs, Nash and Cobb's experience in the first game making them hesitant to use the lift. Thus, the men found themselves trekking up countless flights of stairs, the high stakes and dwindling time motivating them to move faster.

They hadn't even gone up five floors when they began to meet resistance, Arthur recognizing the sound of footsteps from the flights above them.

"Here they come!" he announced, as his teammates prepared themselves for the firefight. By now very used to taking on patrol groups like this, the men wiped them out quickly, barely breaking pace in their ascent. However, this was not even the beginning of the battle to come, which stretched over the next devastatingly long minutes. Sometimes the projections would come down one at a time, their numbers apparently severed by various environmental factors. Other times they swarmed the team, and it took every ounce of skill they had to eliminate the enemies.

Being human, these exchanges did not occur without their fair share of injuries, even more so than their street battles. Weakened from the events of the previous 50 minutes, not one of the men walked away without a bad hit. Despite being the leader, Cobb sustained the least damaged, only grazed by a bullet on top of whatever injuries he had received during the forger's stunt with the car. Eames had also been grazed, though was now nursing a rather nasty bruise after being slammed with the butt of one of them projections' rifles. Nash hadn't actually received any blows, but after the toils of the game the wound on his arm was beginning to open up again.

Arthur was the only man to actually take a bullet, which had hit his thigh after he had wrestled with one of the enemies for a moment. Thankfully he was still able to climb, though only with the assistance of Eames.

"Quite to role reversal," Eames had commented between waves, his voice humorless despite the parallel.

"Yeah, only this time I have no intentions of blacking out on you." Arthur had winced, meeting the forger in the eye and managing an amused smile out of him.

Of course, both men inwardly knew that this was no time for petty jokes, especially with such little time left before the game ended. But somehow, this game did not weigh as heavily on them as the last two. The very first game had been a nightmare, the newly reformed team falling apart under the pressure applied by the man behind all this. The second game hadn't gone much better, the fragile alliance between the men shattering with a fraud placed among them. But after so much anger, disagreement, and fear, the team had united again.

Nothing in their circumstances had changed in the least bit, and normal people would have cracked under the pressure of facing the second-to-last game. But the team was unstoppable. After everything they had gone through, how many times they were at each other's throats and on the brink of losing it all, they were ready for anything. Regardless of the outcome of the game, they would face it without fear or hesitation. Little did they know it, they had become exactly what the man behind this feared.

And, when they cleared the top floor of the tower, with no more than 25 seconds left on the clock, they actually smiled.

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A/N: Oh my gosh I had SOOO much fun writing this chapter, idk why. Probably because I finally got to write the team in a scenario where most of their tension is gone, and it's just about getting the job done. No more overly dramatic fights or anything, just a smooth ride to the end… kind of. The fourth game will shake things up a lot for our main character Arthur, almost more so than he can handle. And when the man behind Ariadne's kidnapping reveals himself, will all questions be answered? Or will they multiply?

As always feel free to review! And thanks to all my wonderful readers!