Corey didn't feel satisfied.

Even after apprehending what seemed to be the culprit of this crime, Corey couldn't explain the odd feeling that lingered in the back of his head. Something was off - Darius hadn't even tried to cover his tracks. Everything was just there. A five-year-old could have opened and closed this case in the blink of an eye.

That's where the problem began.

With so many fingers pointing at the engineer, one could easily question the liability of the evidence itself. There was no way in hell the A.A.H.W. would have such a sloppy spy as their rat, that was clear to anyone. But the clues said otherwise.

Unless…

Corey stared at Felix's phone. He hadn't really investigated it thoroughly, but everything seemed to be in order. There wasn't any questionable files stored, let alone deleted. Maybe he needed more time, backtrack while he's at it. Then, head to Darius to hear what he has to say.

He slipped a USB cable into the corresponding port on Felix's phone, then fit the other end into the computer. A few seconds later, the contents appeared on his screen; he began to scroll through them automatically.


-System Management

-Music

-Plans + Tasks To-Do

-NOT PORN

-Other


Corey had already checked all of the main files (though, admittedly, he was a bit skeptical on looking at the fourth one…). There was nothing out of the ordinary, in the sense that they were looking for evidence to book him with.

Nonetheless, his cursor came to a stop over the "Plans + Tasks To Do" folder. Maybe he would find something there with closer inspection.

The phone took a while to load the contents inside of the folder. For Corey, this was the most tedious one to go through; it was almost as if Felix hadn't cleaned or organized anything inside of it since Day One.

Once again, he found himself scrolling aimlessly through the folder, bored as file-name after file-name slid into and out of view on his screen. Nothing seemed to catch his attention until-

Wait.

What was that?

Just at the right moment, something had caught the corner of Corey's eye. He slid his thumb slightly back upwards.

Looks like his eyes weren't fooling him after all:


-Floor Plans


That didn't sound right. Corey had seen the daily plans and tasks Felix recorded. Not once was anything dealing with the floors or anything of that sort anywhere.

Opening the file, he waited for it to swiftly load up. After a few seconds of analyzing, Corey immediately realized what it was. His eyes widened.

Oh, fuck.


Shane walked down a fluorescent-lit hallway, his step brisk. After hearing what was going on, he had to see Darius for himself, but only briefly. The Madness Combat Squadron was still inside the Training Room, fighting the B.O.T.s. It would only take a few minutes; Shane was certain nothing could go wrong in such a short amount of time.

By the time he had reached the floor, Shane's smartphone began to vibrate. He slipped it out of his pocket and thumbed the password in to see exactly what he expected to see - a text from Corey.


-Shane, I need to talk to you RIGHT NOW.


Shane frowned. Now wasn't exactly the best time to be chatting, but nonetheless he lifted his second thumb to the screen to type out a response.


-Can't it wait? I'm sorta in a rush.


Corey's reply came seven seconds later.


-NO, IT CAN'T.


Shane sighed. Even though Corey was so strangely determined to talk to him, he was still on a strict time-limit.


-Just give me a few minutes, ok? Then you can say whatever the hell you want.


He slipped the phone back into his pocket, ignoring another vibration as Corey sent him another message. It could wait.

Shane was already in front of the Containment Room. The phone buzzed once more as he turned the knob.

Blood.

There was blood everywhere.

Shane felt his heart nearly stop as he realized Darius was on the floor in his personal pool of blood - eyes and mouth open to leave a shocked expression on his face, small-caliber entry wound smack in the middle of his forehead.

Quite suddenly, he was regretting putting away his phone so fast. As he drew it out again and thumbed the password in again, fingers shaking, and read Corey's latest text, his suspicions were confirmed.


-It's Felix, Shane! He's been hiding schematics for our transport lines the whole time!


But before Shane could even think of a reply, everything went dark.

The lights had gone out.


Chapter 28: Drastic Measures


"Too easy." Aaron boasted, knocking away his B.O.T. to the side.

The rest of the team followed suite, piling their defeated drones on top of or beside Aaron's. Undeniably, Aaron was right: the B.O.T.s had become far easier than they last remembered them being, despite being set to significantly higher difficulties.

"Well… I mean it, was almost about an entire year since we last took them on, so…" DJ reminded him.

"So? That just means 574's training paid off! What's wrong with that?"

Again, Aaron was correct: 574's brutal regimen did pay off in the long run. Each member of the group had become stronger, better, and faster at combat to the point that even the B.O.T.s couldn't keep up. In fact, this was their third consecutive round with the machines. Shane had apparently put the system on automatic before he took off. To where, none of them really knew.

"Anyways, wonder where Shane ran off to? It's been a little while since he left." DJ asked, changing the subject.

"Maybe he had something he needed to do." Hina suggested.

"That's not like him to keep things until the last second..." Eli murmured.

Aaron shrugged. "Well, there's a first time to everything after al-"

Click.

Aaron froze along with the rest of the team as soon as the sound reached their ears, followed by a low hum that sounded a lot like a generator shutting down.

And then the lights went out.

"... Did you hear that?" Hank asked cautiously.

"More importantly, what the hell happened to the lights?!" Ryder's voice rose to a shout, a mix of surprise and anger.

In the darkness, Aaron turned to 'look' at his teammates. "It's fucking darker than the inside of a virgin's asshole. Does anyone have anything they could use as a light?"

The rest of the group shook their heads, with murmured variations of 'no'. They had left everything to the side to ensure nothing would be damaged during the fights.

Before anyone could say anything else, a red glint from somewhere in the room came to life, as the only form of illumination in the room. Aaron squinted his eyes. The light was weak, but still, it was at least something.

"That's a bit better, I guess. Thanks."

Silence hung in the air. Hank assumed the same thought that ran through his head ran through theirs' as well.

"...None of us did anything, Aaron…" Eli informed him.

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "What? Wait, then who…?"

The light had grown stronger since Aaron had mentioned it. Now, instead of total darkness, an ominous red glow shone on them from the other side of the room, illuminating the room dimly. At this point, it was unignorable.

One by one, the group turned around to stare at the robotic training dummies they had discarded not two minutes earlier.

Somehow, the mechanical trainers had managed to reactivate themselves without Shane's commands. Although they had gone through their normal protocol of booting up, something was clearly off.

Unfortunately, Aaron was the only one to not realize this.

"What, again? Even with some sort of blackout, these guys are still running? You've got to be kidding m-"

He never finished the sentence, because at that point one of the B.O.T.s' metallic fists collided with his face. Nobody even noticed the movement until Aaron had flown almost three feet backwards.

"Aaron!" Hina shouted.

While Aaron had begun rolling left and right on the floor, covering his face as he groaned loudly in pain, the others had turned to the B.O.T.s. One of them still had its arm outstretched since making the punch.

DJ had ran back through the semidarkness to help Aaron up. "You alright?"

With DJ's aid, Aaron managed to sit up. Before he could reply, he felt something running from his nose. Instinctively, he put two fingers to it to see what it was, they came away bloody.

"THAT SON OF A METAL DILDO BROKE MY NOSE!"

The rest of the team still stood like statues. The initial shock as to what just happened was still there.

"That's… that's not possible… they didn't even do the scanning yet!" Hina's voice was filled with disbelief.

As if this had initiated some sort of action in the robots' systems, the B.O.T. that had sucker-punched Aaron slowly pulled its fist back as it began its routine scan with Aaron.

But something had gone wrong: when the B.O.T. spoke, its voice was nowhere near its normalcy.

[taRgeT IdeNtified: clasS: nOT sPecifiEd; THReaT Level: 72…-]

The other B.O.T's had followed suite, behind the first one. The room was now only filled with the morbid robotic voices, seemingly trying to overlap each other.

"What the…?" were the only two words that could leave Hank's mouth.

Without warning, the B.O.T.s suddenly froze in unison, as their visors turned black, leaving the room in total darkness once again. But before anyone thought it was all over, their visors had regained their lights.

And they glowed dark blue.

[Threat Level: 0%]

[SUDDEN-DEATH MODE HAS BEEN ACTIVATED]

"Sudden-Death Mode!?" Aaron's voice cracked, "The fuck is Sudden-Death Mode!?"

"Well, by the sounds of it…" Ryder muttered as the team readied themselves for battle. "...things are gonna get pretty ugly."


574's shit was really fucked up.

His head had been ringing violently a few minutes after he woke up, like some sort of horrible hangover he wasn't supposed to have, and for some strange reason, he yelled at Aaron to leave him be nearly half an hour ago. It wasn't until now, however, that 574 realized he was supposed to take his squad to train with the B.O.T.s today.

That may also explain why Aaron decided to annoy him before 574 had yelled him off.

"Fuck…" He muttered in Russian as he turned around on his bed.

He laid there for a few more minutes, trying to reorganize his thoughts after his head-splitting migraine from hell knows where. To 574, this experience wasn't an oddity: recently he had not felt like himself anymore. It was almost as if another person had manifested his mind and taken over his body without him realizing it.

Just as he sat up on the edge of his bed, however, the lights went out.

574 looked up at the ceiling calmly, where the only source of illumination had just suddenly vanished. In spite of his hopes, the room had still remained dark.

Wordlessly, he reached into his back pocket to grip the familiar cylindrical shape of a flashlight and took it out, turning it on and setting it on the nightstand so the light shone on the ceiling, illuminating the inactive light tiles. He looked down at the floor. Already, there was a commotion going on outside, as hordes of agents had been scattered in confusion. Only flashlights from the other agents had broken through the darkness.

Then, a low hum rang through the hallways. The walls had turned red, reflecting the color of the lights that had lit up the corridors once more.

The backup generator was online.

A sigh of relief could be heard from some of the other members of the facility. Although the color of the lights gave an ominous glow, it was definitely a lot better than total darkness.

574 on the other hand, kept his guard up. It seemed as though most of the other agents had accepted the fact that the generator had shut down on its own. But there was one thing 574 knew that none of them realized.

Someone had been tampering with the first generator.

Which meant there was work to do.

He stepped to his feet smoothly, picking up his flashlight and shining it around the room to look for what he needed. The trench coat he usually wore was, strangely, torn to shreds and pinned to the floor by his knife, so after withdrawing the blade and slipping it into the sheath at his belt he settled for a dark hoodie from his closet.

574 moved quickly and quietly through the crowd, uttering 'Coming through.' at intervals so as to clear a path. Buried in his own thoughts, he did not realize someone had been calling his name until they stopped, either from having given up or because he was out of earshot. All the while, his eyes scoured the people around him for signs of suspicion. Part of him wondered whether or not Shane had already run into someone worth examining.

These thoughts only made 574 move faster, but just as things couldn't seem to get any worse, they did.

Explosions rattled the corridor behind him, the blast wave throwing him forward as screams filled the air.


After several flights of stairs, Shane was panting. The elevators were out of service due to the blackout, making it even harder for him to reach his destination.

574's room.

He knew that warning 574 about his squad being in danger would be the best course of action. Yet even this simple plan would prove to be difficult, for nearly all of the agents that were inside of the facility had exited their rooms and were all roaming the hallways at the once. Running in the dark and bumping into someone almost every other second didn't exactly make things any easier, either. By the time he reached 574's level, even though the backup generator had already activated itself, he was still going against a current of other agents swarming down the corridor.

574 being one of them.

Neither 574 nor Shane seemed to realize that they had just passed one another at first; Shane's memory kicked in several moments later, when he realized the trench-coated man he was looking for was clad in a dark hoodie.

Turning around, he managed to recognize the back of 574's head amongst the huge crowd.

"Mikhail! Hey, Mikhail! Wait!"

To Shane's dismay, these words didn't seem to reach the other agent; however, he could only take a single step forward because that's when they happened.

The explosions.

There was no possible way to foresee what had happened next. The floors shook violently like miniature earthquakes; growing stronger and stronger. But it happened too quickly; nobody was able to even process what was going on before a blast right in the middle of the hallway severed the crowd.

Debris flew everywhere, and the dust and smoke from the explosion resulted in a slew of violent coughing by the agents around him. After trying to clear out the smoke by waving his hand in front of him, Shane was only more tempted to get to his partner.

"MIKHAIL! MIKHAIL!"

Unfortunately, this was drowned out by the surrounding agents moaning, crying in pain, while others tried to aid their comrades in agony. It was an absolute nightmare, and now midst all the screaming shouting it had become clear to everyone that this was not some sort of coincidence, certainly not an accident.

They were under attack.

By the time all the dust had cleared up, Shane squinted, hoping that 574 was there. He wasn't.

"Shit..."

Shane tried to avoid seeing the damage that was done, and that proved to be easy. The backup generator had apparently shut off as well, thanks to the barrage of blasts that rattled the building. Certainly there have been injuries sustained from the unexpected discharges… possibly even casualties. But he didn't have time for any of that, not even to treat the wounded.

He still had to get to Mikhail's squad.


Though Corey's destination was akin to 574's, his trajectory was unlike his or Shane;s. Like Shane, Corey wasn't equipped with a flashlight of his own, but that wasn't much of a problem. Corey's eyes had accustomed to the darkness; hiding in the shadows until the time was right to strike was a part of his job.

He had been walking for not three minutes when a low hum filled the air once more. Momentarily, the hallway had lit up red; Corey figured some sort of backup generator had automatically activated itself.

As Corey continued on his path, faint yelling reached his ears. Stopping and revolving on the spot to face the origin of the sound, he realized he had ended up back at where 574's squadron was training with those droids Shane had designed for them.

Corey peered through the glass that had separated him and the Madness Combat squad, who was struggling with its set of mechanical trailers. It was easy to see they were exhausted and overwhelmed.

It was at this point that Hank had parried to the side from one of the metal fists and turned his head towards Corey, and the man saw his eyes widen and his body relax with relief.

Running up to the bullet-proof glass, he began to yell words that Corey couldn't hear, being on the other side of the bullet- (and soundproof) glass.

So Corey read his lips.

"COREY! GET US OUT OF HERE!"

Before he could shout anything else, one of the bots roundhouse-kicked the teenager in the side. The trainee felt his ribs nearly give in just by the force of the blow as he went flying sideways.

Corey looked down at the panel board in front of him. He could hack into the systems with ease, and he'd done so beforehand with Shane's other pieces of work, so this should be just the same.

Sticking out his left index finger, he placed the digit into a port through the system. There were certain things Corey had done to himself that only he knew about, and this was one of them: Corey had modified his own finger to become a sort of USB Drive. This was how he had bypassed the security systems Shane had set up against any infiltrators - by making himself part machine.

But that was a secret he knew better to keep to himself.

There was nothing he could do but stand there and wait until the system granted him access. There was a certain way Shane had programmed his machines, which Corey had caught on to relatively quick. Any obstacles Shane had set in front of hackers like him Corey managed to decrypt, which was why it was always such an easy task getting in.

Inside of the Arena, meanwhile, things weren't looking so good. The situation had barely improved even with the lights back on, the B.O.T.s practically mauling the team apart.

Eli made a high-block over his head as one of the B.O.T.s tried jabbing his fists down onto the crown of his skull like a hammer, while Hina was shifting side-to-side from the seemingly endless flurry of attacks her B.O.T. was throwing at her. They had both taken a brutal beating due to their defensive styles. The B.O.T.s had implemented an inconceivable amount of force with every blow, and the two trainees' arms had become a patchwork of bruises with every bone-shaking block they made.

Aaron and Ryder, on the other hand, were doing far worse with their more aggressive tactics. The B.O.T.s found loopholes in every mistake they made with their reckless movements, which had the side effect fueling their rage and frustration even further and decreasing their combat effectiveness.

Aaron sent a roundhouse kick straight towards his B.O.T.'s right side, only to have that countered with another hard fist right into the gut. Ryder had swung his fist violently across in an arc, aiming for the seemingly fragile jaw. But this attack was sluggish as Ryder nearly flung himself onto the floor with the amount of raw power he placed into the one blow. He was on the verge of losing his balance, so Ryder's B.O.T. ducked retaliated with a sidekick, literally sending the trainee flying into the wall.

Not even DJ's power reserves could stop the machines. As he tried grabbing onto his B.O.T's arm to yank it off the way he did the first time he had faced the trainers, his open palm had been met back with the B.O.T's. Their arms outstretched, the two had grasped and squeezed each others hands in front of them tightly, with the intent to cause some serious damage to the other. To DJ's horror, he was losing the battle as he began yelling in pain because of his knuckles beginning to crack under the enormous amount of strength.

As for Hank, he found himself being tossed around like some sort of ragdoll. Activating his Bullet-Time proved to be impossible: whenever he tried to concentrate hard enough to do so, he was either met with a fist to the face or was too distracted from seeing his allies taking a harsh beat-down. Worst of all was the fact that whatever miraculous, small hits he managed to make seemed like a backrub to the B.O.T.s. Nothing seemed to be working; it was almost as if the members of the squad were fighting a squad of T-800s from Terminator.

Hank found himself flat on his back, his hearing beginning to fade away and his vision blurring up. It was a nightmare: he found himself in the exact same scenario as the time he'd fought - or tried to fight - Marvin and his gang of misfits. Or when he took on Aidan and his lackeys too, just to prove some stupid point their two squads had to get their panties wet over for nearly a month. But 574 was there to bust him out of both those stupid quarrels once he hit unconsciousness.

But this time, when his squad needed him most, he wasn't.

Hank turned himself around so he was on his stomach. He tried pushing himself back up with his arms, but failed - like his friends, he was exhausted. The Madness Combat Squadron had already gone two rounds with the B.O.T.s, and its members had reached the point where their bodies just couldn't take anymore punishment.

Not even giving him the chance to get back up, the B.O.T. grabbed Hank by the neck with both of its robotic arms. Hank grasped on to the metal hands that were clenched around his throat, trying to pry his way out of the death-grip. He was literally having the life strangled right out of him as his friends were torn apart around him.

Fortunately for him, Eli managed to break out of his own fight to assist Hank, as he flew in with a kick hard enough to knock the B.O.T. to a safe distance. Hank managed to slip free as he fell to his knees, violently coughing for the air around him while Eli and the others tried to give him some time to catch his breath.

But only one name escaped his lips as soon as he regained control of himself.

"COREY!"

Corey heard Hank's shout from the other end. He didn't need any more clarification to know that he was wasting too much time.

The problem was though… something had gone wrong.

Corey narrowed his eyes.

The system had been deliberately changed.

Hacking through would prove to be a bit more annoying than usual. Not that Corey had any problems with that, oh no. The main issue was… how much more torture could 574's squad handle before he'd be able to get that door open?

It seemed that regardless as to whether or not he could get the panel working in his favor wouldn't have mattered either way. Because at that moment, the explosions had reached Corey's level as well. Almost immediately, the lights had gone out once again: this time, there was no other generator to illuminate the darkness.

Corey stumbled slightly backwards, but quickly regained his balance. As he fell back, his USB-finger had pulled itself out of the port, stopping the hacking-process midway. Unfortunately though, that too didn't seem to really matter in the end; by the time Corey had situated himself back in front of the panel-board, he realized everything had gone to shit.

It had been deactivated.

In frustration, Corey kicked the now-useless piece of tech, as if it would change anything. With or without the panel, it seemed as though 574's squad was still fighting the B.O.T.s. The fact was, Corey had to make a move and make it now. But as of now, the only viable option left to him, was his last resort.

Blowing the door open.

As much as Corey enjoyed using explosives to solve his problems, the risk of harming, or possibly even killing someone inside of the chamber didn't make things any easier. But then again, they'd probably be dead either way if he decided not to go with the drastic plan.

So, why the fuck not?

Sticking a hand into one of the pockets in his trenchcoat, Corey pulled out a small yet deadly brick of C4, a yellow smiley face painted on the side.

Smiley Bombs, he called them. Though whoever was unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast radius of one never exactly "smiled."

Tossing the charge once in the air and then back into his hand, Corey turned to the door. Right, this should be easy enough; throw the damn thing, eviscerate the door, and don't kill the kids.

That last step was very importan-.

"WAIT, COREY, NO!"

Corey turned around to look at Shane, then put the explosive brick down and started signing.

"You're a bit tardy to the party, aren't ya?"

Shane, who had stopped running all the way from multiple flights of stairs, bent over;

hands on his knees. Shaking his head, he pointed at the bomb Corey had discarded.

"...Corey… were you seriously going to BLOW UP the goddamn door?!" He yelled in awe.

Corey shrugged. He wasn't sure why Shane was making such a big deal about it.

"Oh, relax. I'm sure you can replace it. And if it's the kids you're worrying about, they should be fine." He reasoned.

"Damn it Corey, I don't think you realize how much damage you're about to cause!" Shane continued shouting.

Corey raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What exactly do you mean?"

Sighing, Shane finally stood upright, his index finger and thumb pressed on the bridge of his nose.

"Corey...I'm pretty sure you know that humans need air to survive, right?"

"Naturally."

"And where do you think the AIR comes and goes from?"

Once again, Corey shrugged. Like hell he'd know, or at least cared.

"THE AIRWAYS, COREY!" Shane hollered, finger leveled at the walls beside them. "THERE ARE AIRWAYS CONNECTED ALL AROUND US INSIDE OF THE WALLS, INCLUDING FROM THE INSIDE OF THE CHAMBER! HIGHLY FLAMMABLE AIRWAYS! YOU'D BE LUCKY ENOUGH TO NOT INCINERATE MIKHAIL'S KIDS, LET ALONE DECIMATE THE ENTIRE FLOOR WITH THEM!"

Although Shane's deafening-yelling would have made anyone cringe in shock, Corey just turned to the wall beside them and then back to Shane's face.

"Oh. Whoops?"

Shane sighed even louder. He then turned to the inside of the Training Arena, his eyes widening in shock.

"Wha-...what the hell is going on in there!?"

From the inside, Hina had realized that they had caught the attention of their secondary mentor.

"Shane! Help us, we're being ripped apart in here!" she yelled to him in dismay.

As Hina was knocked away from Shane's line of sight, the engineer turned to Corey with a look of bewilderment and confusion covering his face that demanded answers.

"Your systems fucked up." Corey simply replied, "... But I don't think it was a design flaw. By the looks of it, someone was doing something they weren't supposed to be doing."

Shane already knew where Corey was going with this. To him, there was no longer any doubt as to whether or not a spy had infiltrated them. And now, it was clear that he had to accept the truth, regardless as to how much he tried to deny it.

Shane's very own assistant, Felix, was the culprit.

And assuming from the amount of damage he's caused so far, he wasn't holding back anything.

Shane ran up to the panel-board, a false sense of hope washing over him as he thought that he could easily undo the damage Felix had done. Almost immediately however, he realized that the piece of machinery was no longer functional, slamming his hands down on it in anger.

"I already tried hitting it, by the way." Corey advised.

"Yes, thank you Corey, I really appreciate that piece of advice."

Then, to Corey's surprise, Shane had pressed his hands to his face, his elbows leaning on the panel. As he did so, there was a loud thump from the bullet-proof glass in front of them.

Corey looked up and saw Aaron was pressed against the glass. He had apparently been tossed all the way from across the room.

"Help… me..." he whispered painfully, sliding downwards.

Corey looked back at Shane. He realized he hadn't moved a muscle; it was almost as if his mind had totally shut down.

But right now, they don't exactly have the time to stress out.

Corey tapped Shane's shoulders, which instinctively caused Shane to rise. Silently, Corey pointed to the inside of the chamber, where the Madness Combat Squadron seemed almost ready to drop dead at any moment. Shane didn't need to see Corey's sign language to figure out what he was trying to imply.

They needed him. Mikhail's kids were counting on him.

Clenching his fists with some satisfying cracks emanating from the knuckles, Shane turned to Corey.

"Your call, what do I do now?" Corey asked.

Turning back to the inside of the chamber, Shane stared at the fight from within as he organized his thoughts. Soon after, he constructed a plan.

"Head to the Engine Room, that's where Felix'll be if it's true. I'll take care of Mikhail's group from here. I built those things they're fighting right now, so I'm going to help take them apart screw by screw."

Without saying a word, Corey began dashing to his next destination.

"...Oh, and Corey?"

Corey stopped in mid-stride, turning around to meet Shane's face one last time.

"...Bring the son of a bitch back alive. Killing him off would be too generous."

Corey made a small nod of understanding, and proceeded to the Engine Room. Shane then turned to his own matters.

"HANK, HINA, DJ, ELI, RYDER, AARON, LISTEN UP AND LISTEN CAREFULLY! WHAT I'M ABOUT TO TELL YOU IS ONLY GOING TO SAVE YOUR LIVES IF YOU DO ITRIGHT! IS THAT CLEAR?"

"Yes sir!" The response came loud from the other end, but with weakness underlying.

Shifting forwards, a new form of confidence shone in Shane's eyes.

"IT'S DO OR DIE, PEOPLE! LET'S GET TO WORK!"


Felix stood in the barely-lit room. Before he had tampered with the systems, the Engine Room had been alive with the hums of constantly-working machinery; however, the explosions he had planned to go off had knocked out most of them.

Now, all was silent.

Felix grinned. Everything was set; there was nothing standing in his way now. With most of the initial security lines disabled, all that was left was the final room.

The main generator.

All that stood before him and his final goal was the wall that separated the two areas. There, he could easily plant the explosives he was supplied with, and get the hell out of here. Once set, the two-minute timer would begin counting down; he'd be done in time for pizza.

And when it would hit zero, nothing but ashes would remain.

"Not. One. Step. Forward."

The four words stood firm, ringing in the air before Felix could even lift a foot. He turned around, an incredibly honest and innocent-looking smile formed on his face.

Mikhail.

"You've arrived at quite an interesting time; weren't you supposed to be with your squad in the Training Arena-?"

"You will not leave this room alive."

Felix examined 574 in the dim lighting of the engine room; it took him a few seconds to realize what the man held in his hands.

"... Really, Mikhail? A knife? I'm a bit disappointed. Have you underestimated me to such a degree that you wouldn't even bring a gun along?"

"That would be too simple, too easy, too… merciful." 574 replied.

"Really? Because I thought it might have something to do… with the problem dealing with that little noggin of yours."

Saying that he wasn't the least bit surprised would be a flat-out lie. It had become clear that there was more to Felix than just being some sort of spy.

But something felt off.

"I'm curious." 574's voice was even. "How much do you know?"

As if this turned on a switch in the traitor's head, his smile had turned more menacing with darker intent. Felix cocked his head downwards with his eyes still locked on 574's.

"Enough to make your heart stop."

Out of nowhere, something flew through the air at 574. He moved sideways, but it wasn't enough - pain flashed on the side of his face as the throwing knife broke skin and flew off into the darkness behind him.

Felix hadn't moved.

Then, 574 heard voices. Voices other than Felix's.

Someone else had been in the room with them the entire time.

"Well, brother, your aim seems to be slightly off." The first began, "I expected more from you than that..."

Felix still stood, his arms still crossed with that foreign grin plastered on his face. Footsteps had begun emanating from behind him as the dark figures that were hiding in the shadows all along had entered 574's field of view.

"...You underessstimate me then, brother...You of all people ssshould know that before I eat my prey…"

Coming close enough to what little light illuminated the room, 574 could now see their faces. As soon as he realized who were the two men standing in front of him, his eyes widened.

… Enzo and Axel?

"...I like to watch them sssquirm firssst…"

574 narrowed his eyes. No, any fool would realize these two weren't the same two agents that had gone missing months ago; everything about their behaviors were different from Enzo and Axel. But their faces were exactly how he remembered them before they went M.I.A. …well, minus the bloodlust look on the one with the lisp.

...Then who-?

Even before this question was done processing in his head, the door behind 574 had opened seemingly by itself, followed by a small cylindrical object rolling in.

"Oi vey..."

Almost as soon as grenade entered the room it detonated, smoke filling the room to the point where visibility hit nil. Felix used this as his cue.

"Well, you two have fun playing with this Russian maggot. I've got things to do too you know." He told his two accomplices.

"...May we devour him after we're done…?"

"By all means." Felix said, a dark grin forming on his face. "...Consider it as your reward for your services…"

Once Felix had entered the next room behind him, the smoke had already begun clearing up. The three men already inside however, were not fazed by the entry of the fourth.

By the time the fumes had totally vanished, it had become clear who had joined the fight.

"Thanks for the hand, Corey, but did you really have to smoke us?" 574 asked casually.

"Hey, just be glad I didn't throw an ACTUAL grenade in here." Corey replied by sign.

"Yes, I'm grateful by the fact that you've decided not to obliterate me into a million fucking pieces; thank you so much for that."

"Anytime."

"It seems as though there is another." One of the mercenaries from the other end of the room told his counterpart.

"That is good newsss… more flesh to consssume then…" The other replied with a creepy gaze.

574 laughed, half-mirthlessly. "He's two parts metal. Have fun."

Corey on the other hand, wasn't as humored by the situation. "So I'm assuming you're going to face off these two degenerates, is that right?"

The way 574 scratched his head and looked sideways at his comrade, one could have thought they were ordering something in McDonald's. "What, you're not?"

"That's not exactly what I meant." Corey responded. Then, he raised his eyebrows after closer inspection of the two men. "Wait… aren't those two…?"

"Enzo and Axel? Faces match. But something tells me otherwise."

"And that 'something' is?"

"Well, for starters…" 574 began to explain, "For the past five minutes, the one on the right's been talking about how he wants to eat the skin off my flesh."

Before coming up with some sort of clever reply, Corey narrowed his eyes; his brain had begun coming up with facts that had been stuck from the back of his head. His eyes broadened after he reached his conclusion.

Oh God.

Corey patted 574's shoulder to get his attention.

"...I know who these two sick fucks are."

"There's a new one."

Ignoring 574's remark, Corey continued, "...These two...they're not local to Nevada, let alone the United States. They're from Europe. Top-class mercenaries, and I'm not talking about just some random assassins. We're talking about international-class criminals; most wanted OF the most wanted list. Mainly due to their cannibalistic traditions."

"Cannibalistic?" 574 asked, eyebrow raised.

Corey nodded. "The one with the lisp is 'Cronus', the other, 'Tantalus'. Altogether, they're known as the Lagos Brothers. These two sons of bitches… after killing their targets, they eat them. That's why most of the time when their victims are found, they're nearly picked clean. Last time I heard of them, they had apparently gone off to 'assassinate' the Prime Minister of Greece and his bodyguards. By the time the bodies were found, there was almost nothing left on the corpses. Like eaten chicken legs."

"That's nasty."

"My, my. Your friend there certainly does hisss homework…" The fake-Axel said after Corey's summary, "...But there were some details you missssed…"

Corey narrowed his eyes at them. "You understand sign language."

"Of course. What; did you honestly think we'd be willing to stand here all day watching you flail your hands around like there's no tomorrow?" Fake-Enzo said, scornfully, "But as my brother was saying, what you said was only the gist of it."

"What you said about killing our victims before eating them… that'sss false. We tend to prefer hearing our food make noissse as we're feasssting…" Fake-Axel said with twisted pride.

"Sometimes we even like to use their faces as masks. That's how we got close enough to that Prime Minister by using his own guards as a disguise...hehe...He didn't even see it coming. We ripped him apart faster than rabid dogs…" Fake-Enzo replied.

"It wasss quite delectable… wouldn't you say ssso, brother?"

"Indeed. The rich tend to be more… tender and stomach-filling. Probably from how they keep stuffing themselves like pigs."

Corey and 574 stood silently, watching the two cannibals reminisce - no, gloat - over people they had eaten. 574 didn't know about Corey, but he was regretting not bringing a gun along.

"Nonetheless," Fake-Enzo said, returning back to the main topic at hand, "I've grown tired of this chit-chat…. and hungrier."

"Don't worry brother, remember? We packed snacksss with usss!" Fake-Axel said with glee as he placed his hand atop his forehead.

Without any warning or hesitation, Fake-Axel had yanked down one of their infamous "masks", as the well-hidden stitching ripped apart, peeling off like a banana skin to reveal a more hideously burned and disfigured face… Cronus's face.

574 and Corey watched in horror as Cronus slurped down Axel's face in one gulp like a bowl of noodles. He grinned.

"... You know… you can almost tassste his fear all over again…"

While Corey and 574 stood, speechless, Fake-Enzo/Tantalus removed his mask. His face, on the other hand, seemed surprisingly normal, minus the fact that it had an odd paleness to it.

"...Brother, are you going to eat yoursss...?" Cronus asked as he wiped off any blood that remained on his face.

Tantalus shook his head. "No, thank you; I'm trying to save my appetite, as you can see."

Cronus shrugged as he swiped Enzo's face from Tantalus's hands. "Suite yourssself…"

Once again, Cronus repeated his devouring method in front of 574 and Corey, purposefully to make them sick to their stomachs. It was at this point, 574 couldn't keep quiet anymore.

Under his hood, 574's lip curled in distaste. "That's really nasty."

"You have some nerve desecrating the dead like that, let alone the innocent people you've killed off." Corey signed, "It's time we put you two on a diet. Permanently."

Beside him, 574 nodded. "That sounds like an acceptable agenda."

"Would you look at that? These two have quite the stomachs. Unfortunately for you, we're gonna have to rip them out. Maybe make some stew while we're at it..." Tantalus said. He then unsheathed the sword behind his back; reddened by dried up blood and green at the point with… some sort of liquid?

"...Shall we begin, brother?"

Cronus unsheathed his own sword similar to his sibling's, only purple instead of green at the tip. He licked his lips as his eyes widened with a devilish grin.

"Let'sss…"

574 twirled the knife in his hands, bringing it up to his face in a combat stance in a reverse grip as Corey drew a Glock and flipped the safety off.

"I hope you two aren't allergic to iron or lead, 'cause you're about to get servings of both!"


A/N: Alright, so I'm cutting the chapter off here, mainly because I want to put a cap on the word count. Most likely, many of you are losing interest in chapters because they're so long. So instead, I'm just gonna keep it at 7k words per chapter so you guys can digest the information more easily.


Sacrom, meanwhile, is being a lazy shit and not editing the chapter. Also, he's writing this sentence and he happens to have to be studying for some obscure electronics class. He'll be back on track 'round Thursday, so don't you worry.


(^Those were Sacrom's words, not mine's, I swear. =_=)

(Guilty as charged. ~Sacrom)

Anyways, it's quite a busy period for the both of us for obvious reasons. Final exams are coming at us at full blast, and they're not pretty (are exams ever?). Also, school is still holding a vice grip around our necks, so we really can't wait to get out of that sometime soon…


06/05/2014 15:11 EST - Sacrom is finally done.


Onward to Reviewers' Credits:


Reviewers' Credits:

DodgeStreaker: I definitely agree! It pains me to take so long to update, so I'm glad to be picking up the pace now! I'm glad you like that chapter, and yes; much love for Corey indeed! :D

Also, thanks for letting me know it was Shane's birthday; I dropped on by to his page to give him a nice "happy birthday"!

AIN'T NOBODY GON' DISRESPECT MAI BURGERS! D:

Lol, seriously though, thanks for the review; I really appreciate it. :)


Classykazmiller25: Hey, no prob man! Glad you enjoyed the chapter and I hope you enjoyed this one! Really appreciate the support dude! ^^

Good luck on your own story as well, and thanks for reviewing! :)


Alias-Maxima: Thanks dude! It's readers like you that really keep us going; your compliments are very uplifting! Of course, you're right; we still have our flaws to work on, but we'll do our best to deliver the action for everyone's entertainment! :)

Thank you, and you keep up the great work on your story as well! You've got great stuff going on man and I'd definitely love to see some more coming from ya!


The Dark Madness Dragon: Thanks for the positive feedback man; glad you appreciated this chapter a bit more than the last! As for your rating, actually though, the backstory thing plays quite some relevance inside of the plot. Mostly for character development and stuff, but it's just something I've been planning for a while now.

Thanks for reviewing man, and I hope you get well soon bro. :/


O.C. Credits:

Agent 574/Mikhail Nikitin by Sacrom (yes, just Sacrom now.)

Shane and Corey by DodgeStreaker

Eli and Hina by Kagami

DJ Anderson by The Dark Madness Dragon


Right, so that settles it for this chapter. Really not much to say other than the fact that I really appreciate it that you guys are still reading and being patient. The support you've given me over time is overwhelming, and it's really the only thing that keeps me going.

Big news coming in the future. Of what; that remains a secret from now, though it can go either way, so keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, I hope you guys stick around for the rest of the ride, because there's still much more to come!

A birthday shout-out to Krinkels (who's birthday had just taken place yesterday)! So happy birthday to you Matt Jolly; hope you keep up the great work with your series! ^^

Next chapter will most likely come out during summer vacation, but, be aware that I won't be able to type up anything for July since I'm disconnecting from the Internet to head off to Japan to study for my SATs and stuff. So that's going to be a little off-period for me.

Good luck with the little remainder of the school year you guys may have left, have a great summer, and I'll see you next time. We hope you enjoyed this chapter of Hank's Legacy. :)

~Spirit9871