"Wha...?" was the only thing that he could say, his jaw locked wide open as he stared at the man crouched before him. The screaming and the ensuing gunfight in the background couldn't hold his attention any more than the word that hung over them like a guillotine.

"A fuckin' nuke is what I said."

"Then why aren't we getting out of here!?"

"Ya' think we really can? It's a nuke, god's sake!"

"Tsk... then... just tell me this, why the fuck are we, goddamned criminals, stopping a goddamed nuke and not just having someone more capable taking care of it?! What would a criminal even know of a nuke anyway!?"

"Take a look 'ver there, and tell me what you see."

At the place where he pointed was a large cylindrical complicated machine. Steel orange pipes, panels and gauges on it's steel wall full of constantly shifting diagrams and information, and finally, a large window over looking a chamber with a silver pear shaped chamber at it's center as it's centerpiece. It gave off a sickly green glow. There was a tube that ran through the chamber itself, disappearing to the floor below. Three lightbulbs were above the window to the machine, each tinted green, yellow and red, and only green was lit up. Posted beside window was a whiteboard. On it was a crudely green marker drawn nuclear sign along with cartoonish crossbones, as if such a tiny thing is what legitimized the machine.

"... tha... that's just some kind of rich kid joke or something! There's no fucking way some kid could just make a damn nuclear reactor on their father's basement!"

Sarim moved his finger, and his eyes went with it. To the opposite side of the reactor was an elevated level filled with what he can only guess as terminals. He couldn't think. Didn't want to think. Think of this situation he was in. He wished he just ran off with Joshua and Jayien.

"Ugh..this... this is just a set or something!!" He felt his vision flip to the right, his cheek numb and throbbing.

"So you're saying that you'd rather risk that thing over there being real?! This place has a godforsaken vault built on top of it, fucksake! Even then, one of these dumbasses skewered Charles! Get your head straight!" That got his attention. The older man sighs, "A'right, a'right, if you're gonna make a fuss about it, just walk out and leave. We'll take care of this, jus' give us the guns."

He faced the man hesitantly while rubbing his sore cheek. "Ugh... darn it." What are you guys even fighting?"

"2 dudes, one gal, right over there." He points to a distant concrete table Raul seemed to have been shooting to hell and back. "Raul clipped the dumbass at the shoulder, the one that killed Charles. 'ther two were already here when we got in, probably the people who keep this place running. We'll have 'em shut this place down and we're out."

"And how do you plan on doing that?"

"Shoot 'em till they stop shootin us back?"

"Ugh, goddamnit. if you really want to be a fucking hero,have a better plan at least!"

"What do ya want us to do then?"

"Take a pick." He took the guns he got off his coat and placed them hurriedly right infront of him. "These things hurt when they jab at your intestines."

The older man snorts, amused. "I'll take the AR, toss the shotty to Raul. Bobbi pro'lly can't shoot, so take that mini for ya'self."

"Alright, let's go get this done then," He loaded the shotgun and pumped it. "Hey Raul!"

"Waa?" Raul hollered back as he crouched back down in cover, reloading his pistol.

"Catch, she's loaded!" He tossed the loaded shotgun.

"Oh! Nays! Tanks!" Raul's hand easily abandoned the smaller firearm and caught the other in the air. And while the gunfire of the defender didn't stop, Raul didn't seem to be concerned at all as he hugged the loaded gun like a dear lover. "Shawtty!!! Ai myst uuuu!!"

He sighed, waited for a moment, then threw a box of shells at his stupid face to get his attention. The big man gave an uncharacteristical yelp and dropped his gun. He snickered. Raul glared at him and he stopped. The big man then reached for his shotgun, put it on his lap, then reached out for the ammo box and began to check it. He spoke his command. "Move up, but don't get too close. Sari's covering you, so feel free to knock Bob out! Also, make noise! Lot's of it!"

"Ayt!" Raul's eyes seemed to glint from the green lights from the 'reactor', he took out the shells from the box and shoved them down his wooly dark grey jacket. He then took a look at his comrade who lay writhing on the ground, eyes clutched tight within his hands.

"My eyeeeessss!" Raul gave the poor guy a swift kick to the back of his neck, causing him to faint. "aauggh-hk."

"Christ, gentler Raul!"

"Eh, e deserbd it," Raul shrugged. "Ayt, Am moobin." The big lug grinned widely as he stood and pointed his shotgun at the table at the other side of the room. "Tayms ap madafakas, sho me ya hanns or ye gettin splattered!" He fired for effect, chipping concrete, shredding paper and denting if not tearing through metal. One of the people hiding behind the table gave a yelp of surprise.

"What the hell? A shotgun?! They didn't have one of those a while ago?!"

"An we aint de onle wans hoos gointa hab tings dey didnt hab a wile ago ere if ya dont sirrender!!!"

"What the hell do you mean?!" Raul promptly fired again.

"Wah!"

As if in response, a wild volley of pistol shots were fired, missing the stupidly grinning idot who seemed to take too much time enjoying his handiwork by inches, while also ricocheting around the laboratory.

"Tsk, wat da hell, haw manny bulles do dey hab?!" Raul yodels as he fires another shot, then moving quickly behind the nearest workstation. Sarim retaliated with his gun, forcing the defenders to stop firing for the moment.

"Mhm, Sari, stay here and cover Raul. I'll go around."

"Mhm, careful. Gunner's good, proll'y still has his damn sword too."

"Gotcha." With that, he started to slowly crouch-walk his way to the nearest cover he could get to. It was metallic the base of the cylindrical glass tank that Bob shot, it's glass and liquid were scattered all the round the floor. There was still a bit of glass left at the bottom of the tank, which is where he saw scraps of soggy brown paper. There were 4 more of these tanks around, each one atleast 3 meters apart. Each one had a something floating in them. From broken bits of what he could only assume to be a motherboard, to a strange plant that seemed to have grown inside the tank. "What the hell are these things?" He shook his head and waited for Raul to do distract their pain-in-the-butts so that he could get closer and end it.

The chance showed itself after a few exchanges, when one of Sarim's shots knocked the pistol out of their enemy's hands. He rushed towards the metal desk, closer and closer while he saw a hand reaching out for the knocked away pistol. Making a swift turn, he pointed his gun at where he was sure the unarmed people are hiding in, the smg pointed at the moron. "Don't move! I'll shoot if you do!" He stared at the guy at the eye. He was a guy with a decent face, upswept brown hair, blue eyes and had a little patch of a goatee growing. He had a stupid smug look to him. He was dressed in a mock soldier-slash-professor way.

"Hah! Gotcha, you piece of shit."

"Wha-" He felt the intense pinch of something at his side then he felt himself fall limp to the ground, his muscles twitched and ached as he felt the current played with his insides.

"Binny! Ya fuckers dead!" He heard a screaming Raul, a screaming shotgun, a screaming stranger-

... "what are you?" a cold voice asked ...

He felt cold, very cold.

He also felt his as if his body was weightless, he felt like he was flying, no... he felt like he was being dragged through the air. He opened his eyes and saw a long haired woman wearing an orca mask.

He looked straight down and saw that not only that she was lifted off the ground, he was most likely hundreds of meters off it.

He reflexively held the woman's arm that had him in a chokehold and attempted to scream in protest, but other than feel his throat vibrate and open his mouth wide, he was unable to hear anything. The moment he realized this, it was too late as a hand came and slapped him across the face, before he was dragged inside the helicopter and carelessly thrown off to it's side.

"Augh!"

"You're too loud, shut up. I wasn't going to drop you."

He took a few moments to compose himself, before "Why didn't you just wake me up?!"

"I tried, you were out cold. Apologies for that, been some time since I tossed someone, I'm out of practice. You can take some of my cut out off that. Your mask fell off too."

"Tsk... alright. I'm sorry for screwing up with your name too, what's the deal with the unconsented hanging me off the edge of the helicopter thing then?"

"Your ears, they were bleeding so they probably popped, so I hung you out so they'd get used to the pressure, or lack thereof. You don't want to be deaf for the rest of your life now do you?"

"And how do you know that'd work?"

"This kind of thing's quite common in Aegir."

"Oh, yeah... Undersea pressure... So... uhh... How's the score?"

"All there behind you."

He looked around and saw that the seats beside him were occupied by their loot bags and the safe. Below the seats however, were two unconsious people that seemed to have been shoved in there, their backs facing him.

"Uh... Skadi?"

"Oh, those two, knocked them out so they wouldn't do anything stupid."

"Anything interesting about them?"

"The guy's pretty tough for a camera man."

"Hm... What about the pilot?"

"Up front, flying this thing back to base. Made sure to make him understand that doing so would be in the best of his interest."

"Alright." He sighed, before standing up, and moving over to the duffel bags. He lifted one up. "Oohhh heavy, just the way I like it." With an eagerness of a child he put the bag at the floor, sat down at the seat, then picked the bag back up just to set it on his own lap. With a wide grin, he held the zipper, then slowly, gently pulled it down. It's sound somehow louder than the winds outside. A gold sheen of whatever was inside was reflected on the man's face.

"Hah, Now that's an ugly look."

He stopped, and stared at the woman that stood nearby watching him, slightly grinning. "Screw you, I haven't done this in ages! Don't ruin the moment!"

She sighed and looked outside. He went back to his thing, the bag. Slowly he pulled. Just a bit more, then he cou-

"You might want to hold on."

"Huh?"

In an instant, the helicopter leaned right. Hard. The bag ignored, he held on for his life.

"Shiiiiiiittttt!!!!" He cursed as he desperately held on the bottom of his seat. The weight on his lap was gone when the helicopter stabilized. He looked around and saw that all the gold bars were now all scattered on the floor if they haven't fallen out into the sky with the bag. He hastily grabbed what he could reach and secured them by using the bodies underneath his seat to hold them down. After doing so, he carefully walked up to his partner by the open exit of the helicopter.

"What hell was that?"

"A drone, got too close and attempted to line up with us to get a hit. This thing swayed to the right before I could take it down though."

"A drone?" He looked out, and saw that beside the imposing fleet of drones a hundred or so meters behind them, was the core city of Ursus that was already miles away. "Wait, isn't this too far for casters?"

"Look below." He looked down, and saw down with the snow were a few reinforced buggies leaving behind a trail of snow.

"Oh... We'll have to shake those guys off then..."