Chapter 42 – Judge Jury Executioner

After she said her goodbyes to Octavio, Ajay made her way to her apartment. It was kind of strange being back after so many days away. It felt like it had been a lot longer and it definitely didn't feel like home anymore because Octavio wasn't there. She stood there and stared at the keypad as if she almost forgot the passcode to get into her apartment. She typed in the code and opened the door. She followed all of the instructions that Natalie gave to her. She came to her apartment alone. She came two hours before the match. She left her D.O.C. drone at home. But the last instruction was a bit odd and it was in something in her apartment that she needed to give to Natalie's friend but Natalie didn't say what that something was.

Ajay got in and flipped on the lights and went to take off her backpack but she didn't have it. She didn't bring anything but herself. She pulled her hoodie back from her head, it was a bit soaked from the rain. She looked around her apartment and jumped nearly 20 feet in the air when she saw a strange man sitting at the table near her kitchen. She couldn't move. She stood there paralyzed for a moment before approaching him. "Are you Natalie's frie..." He cut her off.

"Crypto." He sounded as though he had a Korean accent. Ajay offered him her hand, "Ajay." He interrupted. "I know who you are. I already took what you had of mine. Let's go." He stood up and walked to the door of her apartment and exited. Ajay really had no other choice but to follow him. She still didn't know what she had of his; she had never even met the man. She didn't make any small talk as they walked the streets of city. They were still two hours away from the match and she still had no idea what was going on.

It felt as though they had been walking for an hour or longer. Ajay tried to get a better look at Crypto but the only features that she could make out about him was the black suit and black jacket that he was wearing. He wore some black slip on shoes; they looked like they were meant for an office. He had black hair like Octavio but it was straight and parted at the left side of his head and combed over neatly with just a few strands that hung over the right side of his face. The rest of his hair was shaved closed to his scalp. She noticed metal that adorned his ears and his neck. Ajay also noticed that he had a small strap on his back with some sort of white of device inside of it. She really didn't know what the device was, it kind of reminded her of D.O.C. but it was not the same shape.

They finally stopped at an unmarked building. Ajay watched as Crypto pulled out sort of device from his jacket pocket. To her it kind of looked a puzzle but he manipulated it quickly and pulled it apart length wise. A dimly lit screen appeared. Crypto began typing on the screen. Ajay watched as the side of the building began emitting a blue and white color, flashing intermittently. Crypto closed his device and motioned for her to walk in. She walked in and he followed her.

The room that they entered appeared to be some sort of lab. It was small but there was a chair with a console and a screen. There was also a window with a door. Ajay looked at where they entered and saw that it was just a wall; a glitch in the system? "This guy is a hacker." Crypto sat down in the chair and accessed the console. "You'll enter the arena through that door." He motioned to the only door in the room. She nodded, "Where are we?" It was the only question she had asked him since they had left her apartment.

"Singh Labs." Ajay wasn't quite sure what that meant. "Where?" Crypto clicked away at the console, "Apex built a replica of Singh Labs and the Gauntlet, more recently, for viewers." Ajay knew about the Gauntlet "That's where Octavio has been. But what the hell is Singh Labs." Ajay's thoughts came to a halt as the screen in front of them lit up and she watched as a slender body person appear on the screen. The person was wearing white and purple. They had some sort of purple helmet on. The person was accessing the same sort of console and they were watching. A series of torturous pictures of a young girl poured onto the screen.

Ajay cringed a bit but continued to watch. Information about the IMC flickered and then the name Amer Singh popped up on the screen followed by the word 'deceased.' Then in a flash the slender person was gone and IMC soldiers were in the room pouring accelerate onto the console. Shortly after she watched as a fight between the soldiers and the slender person broke out. It hit her as soon as the person phase shifted, it was Renee. "What the hell am I watching?" There was soon a fire and then Renee was creating a portal and she was going through it. "She's a Voidwalker." Ajay nodded. She knew he was talking about Renee. It was something right out of an action movie. She felt bad as she watched and listened to Renee hear all the voices that always seemed to torture her. She then watched a younger woman with no hair, "Renee?" bound and pushed around by a lab technician.

Voidwalker exited the portal just in time to help out the younger Renee. The two Renees then argued a bit on how to get out and about the voices they heard. They both eventually ended up in a in a lab with whole bunch of soldiers and lab technicians. Voidwalker ended up giving the younger Renee a blade of some sort. A battle erupted in the lab and Voidwalker apparently found the man she was looking for in the first place, Amer Singh. He was definitely not dead. In the end the younger Renee made it out and Voidwalker was captured.

"What the fuck was that all about? What the fuck did I just watch?" Ajay looked at Crypto as he began to pull up some other data on the screen, "This is what they want her to see today. This is what they want her to remember. They want to mess with everyone's head." His voice was cold but to the point. Ajay clenched her fist, "So dis really happened?" Crypto nodded. Ajay shook her head in disbelief. "What's the game plan Crypto? We go in and do what?" Crypto typed away at the console, "You go in and do what I tell you to do and you do not hesitate. I will stay back while you recon for me." Ajay nodded. She hadn't realized all the shit Renee had been through to get here and what she was still going through and now Apex wanted to broadcast all of her damage to the whole world. "It's time." Crypto's voice cut through her thoughts. "Here." Crypto pulled the strap off of his back and attached to Ajay. "This is Hack. It is a drone kind of like the one you use. I will need you to use it for recon. All you have to do is pull it out when I tell you and toss it into the air. I can do the rest from here." He motioned to the door next to them, it was glitched out like the wall that they used to enter into the lab area.

Ajay stepped through the door but she was still in some part of the lab. She turned around to look behind her; there was now just a window instead of a door. She could faintly see Crypto through the window. She noticed she was in a different outfit. She looked at her reflection. She was in all black with some gold accents. Her hair was light brown, and in dreads. It was flipped to right side of her face, only hanging to her shoulder; it had some gold pieces in it. The rest of her head was bare and smooth. Her right shoulder had a gold plate and more gold accents down her arm. Her left arm was cover in black except for a few gold bracelets. Her black gloves had some red interweaved into them. She had black baggy pants on with some sort of dark red accent skirt and a brown belt that held everything up. Gold accent pieces hung for her belt. Her neck was covered with a huge gold necklace then fell down into rings along her chest and then into some triangular design. Her face was hidden behind a white mask that was form fitted to her face.

She could hear Crypto talking to hear in her ear piece. "Judge Jury and Executioner. That is who you are. I thought that this was fitting for our mission today. I outfitted you with gold armor, a gold backpack, a gold helmet, and gold knockdown shield. You also have an alternator with gold attachments including a disruptor hop-up and a P2020 with gold attachments and a hammer point hop-up. You are loaded with light ammo and some healing. You shouldn't need the healing. You should be glitchy enough to not take damage. All of your abilities, including finishers, are disabled so that they cannot track who you are. I am here to break the game and you are going to help me. Kill anyone who sees you. Do not hesitate to do so."

Ajay nodded, "Gotcha. Where ta first?" She pulled out the P2020 and made sure it was loaded and then she did the same with the alternator. "Repulsor. Head through Singh Labs, Swamps, and then the backside of Repulsor. Make it fast." Ajay did just that. She ran as fast as she could, making it to Repulsor in no time. She already had everything she needed and didn't need to stop and loot. Ajay noticed, as she ran through each area, items and areas on the map seemed to disappear and reappear quite often. She didn't know if it was her or Crypto. She could hear Crypto's voice as she stood between the two large buildings in Repulsor, "Release Hack." She reached behind her and pulled out hack. She threw the drone out into the air.

The drone was white with green accents as it spread out into a small t shape and glided through the air, "There are no teams in the area." Crypto's voice rang through her head. "What?" Just like that it's like Crypto knew what Ajay was thinking, "It's called Neurolink. With Hack out I can transmit information from the drone to you without speaking into your earpiece." She pressed herself against a corner of one of the buildings trying to stay out of sight, just in case. "That's pretty useful, Neurolink." She watched the drone fly through the sky and over towards the large tower just towards the front of Repulsor. "Stay back." Ajay stood where she was and watched as the drone emitted some sort of energy. Suddenly there was a loud crack, then fire and smoke and the tower fell over into Repulsor." Ajay knew that they would receive some sort attention from someone.

She watched as the area flashed in and out every now and then. Hack remained in the air, hidden in the smoke of the collision. Ajay slinked towards the ruptured tower, one building at a time. It wasn't too long before a noise pinged in her head and a triangle formation appeared just across from her in one of the long, open buildings in Repulsor. "One enemy in the area." She could see the outline of a person as they moved, it looked like Bangalore. "Go. Kill them now." Ajay proceeded quietly and quickly to the building, watching the figure creep around. Ajay shot into Bangalore with her Alternator, busting her armor in only a few shots. She then switched over to the P2020 and took Bangalore's health within a matter of seconds. She continued to shoot until Bangalore turned into a box.

The announcer's voice overhead glitched "First. First. First Blood!" Ajay heard two more pings in her head. "Two more enemies approaching." She quickly reloaded both her guns as she ran to opposite corner of the long building and crouched behind a crate. She watched as Caustic entered the building. She quickly railed him with her alternator and downed him the way she downed Bangalore, reloading her gun. She waited as his teammate quickly ran in. It was Octane. She didn't hesitate as she heard the jump pad and he was flipping over her head. She quickly shot into him as he flew through the air and downed him; she eliminated the team in a manner of a minutes.

The glitchy voice of the announcer could be heard overhead again "Nnnnnew kill leader!" Ajay reloaded her gun. "Get out of that building." Crypto's voice cut through the announcement. Ajay ran out of the building back to where she came from. She stopped in one of the smaller building. She listened as Hack flew around and then she heard the familiar ping of more enemies. "Six enemies in the area." She looked around her as she could see everything. The two longer buildings had teams set up in each of them. She could see fences set up one of them and some other electrical device that was spinning around; it was a little difficult to know what it was, everything was an orange outline and seen through glitchy walls.

"Get ready. I will EMP (electromagnetic pulse) them to take down some of their defenses and shields then you can go in. If you get too close to the EMP it will slow you down." Ajay didn't say anything. She just waited and took Crypto's orders like he had told her to. She listened as the drone flew around in between the long buildings. She then heard the snap and crack of drone's EMP go off. Ajay's vision went a little fuzzy and shook with the EMP wave. She could see all of the electrical engineer's defenses break under the EMP strike.

As she began to run out of the building she was in Gibraltar's Bombardment. It pierced through the sky and started falling on top of her. She ran and glitched through all of the missiles; they all missed her. She entered the building. A weird serene feeling washed over her. Everyone was moving very slowly and she was moving very fast as the barrel of her alternator lit up the dark room. In only a matter of seconds before Gibraltar, Wattson, and Pathfinder, were boxes. "The other team is moving in, get ready." Ajay reloaded her gun as four people pinged in her vision. She shook her head, "Not this time Mirage." She elbowed behind her and raised her fist up punching Mirage in the face, connecting with his nose. As Mirage was distracted Ajay ducked and let him take the majority of the bullets that were meant or her. She shot her alternator at Wraith, cracking her armor right as she phase shifted. "I have ta get her first." Ajay could clearly see Wraith in her phase shift as the environment around them was glitching in and out. Ajay quickly swapped to her P2020 and shot Wraith a few times, downing her. Bloodhound shot at Ajay; her body flashed in and out and she received no damage. She pulled her alternator out and lit up Bloodhound until they were down.

Ajay felt Mirage's arms around her chest, trying to put her down. She dropped her alternator. She quickly jabbed her elbow into his gut and flipped him forward in front of her. She pulled out her P2020 and railed bullets into him until he was a death box. "Return to the labs now." Ajay collected Hack as the drone flew back to her. Ajay began to run as fast as she could. The arena was glitching so bad around her that she was able to run through walls that she otherwise could not normally run through. The arena was bright and then dark and then bright again. Pieces of the sky started to fall as she rushed into Singh Labs and back through area that she came though. Crypto met her on the other side and they exited the way they came in through arena.

"Hurry." They were outside and he was pulling his strap and Hack from Ajay's back, reattaching it to himself. He shoved his hands in his pocket as they ran through the wet streets. Ajay pulled her hoodie over her head as her heart raced and pumped her body full of adrenaline. Their run turned into a jog, Crypto cut the silence. "Go home. We never met." Ajay nodded, "What about ya?" Crypto continued to show no expression whatsoever as they parted ways. Ajay's jog eventually turned into a walk as she finally made it back to her apartment. She would have to wait there until Octavo met her, she had no way to get a hold of him because she left everything back at his, their house.