Death: By Video-Game Character

Chapter Three: Trespassing

Last time, you may remember that Jace was shot through with lasers, killed in a case of mistaken identity by a drunken anthropomorphic personification.

If you can say those last two words clearly, you're NOT drunk.

If you can UNDERSTAND them, you're smarter than you look.

If you can place where this particular intro stole it's style from, you must REALLY like cartoons.

Once more, the camera fizzles to life, this time, it finds Jace seated it yet another office, but this one much more… well-furnished than the first. Whereas the other was more-or-less bare, this office was rather sleek, with plush carpet and a glass-and-brushed-steel motif to the design. Behind a large, glass-topped desk, Jace is seated in a high-backed leather chair, and gives the camera a little wave.

"Hey, everyone! I bet you're surprised to see me, eh? I don't blame you; I mean, I'm barely able to believe it. I thought I was dead fer sure after that run-in with O'Donnell, but…"

He trails off, and shrugs.

"Y'know, it's actually an interesting story. See, after I was shot, I was dragged outside and dumped in an alley. Right when I was about to REALLY kick the bucket, as it were, a strange personage in black full-on body-armor stumbled in from the street. He – or she, maybe, it was kinda hard to tell – fell over and died not three feet from me, and a strange chill passed through my barely-living body. Next thing I know, I feel re-energized!

"I managed to stand, my wounds miraculously healing, and – after noting the dead body was apparently a bounty-hunter – I rejoiced in the fact that I was alive! Alive!"

Jace pauses a moment, frowning slightly, and adds, "Granted, with a strange voice in my head calling itself 'O'Malley,' but…"

He shrugs nonchalantly, smiling brightly. "Oh well. Anyway, my wounds were patching themselves up, and after staggering away, I managed to use to newfound and inexplicable combat-skills to hijack a starship with a para-dimensional warp-drive and scarpered. I wound up landing on the helipad atop this building, and as I haven't yet met any random guards, I decided this was as good a place as any to broadcast the happy news of my survival.

"Somewhere along the way, I also lost that voice in my head, so that's a plus, too!"

Grinning brightly, Jace's grin begins to fade as the low thrum of distant helicopter-rotors becomes more and more prominent.

"Wha—?"

A black speck in the distance is visible in the large glass window behind him, and as it slowly comes closer, it can be identified as a helicopter, the source of the sound. It seems to be trailing a retractable rope-ladder beneath it, and someone seems to be standing on the lower rungs; as Jace half-turns towards the window, three bullets come crashing through the glass, shattering the window-pane and slamming through Jace's chest. He slumps forward, unmoving, as the helicopter hovers outside the window; the gunman is a blond man in his late teens or early twenties, wearing a white trenchcoat and carrying a smoking shotgun in the hand not clinging to the rope-ladder.

He leaps lightly from the ladder to the interior of his office, glowering disdainfully down at dead body.

"The security at this building is deplorable. They actually let someone block my helipad."

Reaching across the desk to depress the intercom-button, he says, "Scarlet, send someone in to clean this mess, and make a note: I'll be addressing the security forces later on about being vigilant. Also, I'm docking their pay, and I want a martini."

"Right away, President Rufus," says the sultry female voice on the other end of the line.

TBC