"No time to brief you! Get to the armory, meet up with General H. He knows what to do."
"General H?" Jeremie questioned.
"Run! The armory's over-" As the soldier extended his arm, he felt a warm burst of energy in his back, His entire spine disintegrated, as the heavyset aliens opened fire on the squadron.
They rushed down corridor after corridor, of silence. Finally, they reached the armory.
"I've been waiting for you. My name is General Hans Elmin. As you know, the ship is going down - but not without a fight. I've already taken the liberty of splitting you into groups. Team Recon A: your leader is Robert. The members are Jeremie and Aelita. Team Recon B: your leader is Razputin. Your members are Yumi and Ulrich. Team Assault: your leader is D'Artagnan, and the most physically able of you, Odd, will be the secondary combatant." The man lead them to the weapons, which they graciously took.
"We'll be alone together?" Yumi asked Ulrich.
"Not quite," Razputin laughed.
Robert began muttering to himself, turning away from the group.
"What's the deal, don't you feel, caught up in the silence? Push it up, take it down, better wait for you to die-"
"What are you doing?"
"Got a story if you'll tell, so, you'd better listen well!"
"Robert!" Razputin yelled. "Snap out of it."
"Oh, sorry... was I singing?"
"Yes, you were."
"Alright, let's move."
The teams split up, sifting through the corridors. Team A headed down the darkest corridor, as the lights began to fail. Emergency lights clicked on, but shorted out. "It's completely black!" Aelita gasped.
"Relax," Robert said, clicking a button on his arm, activating the headlamp. "This has limited batteries - but you have some nightvision goggles."
"Don't fret precious I'm here," he began to whisper again, "step away from the window, and go...back to sleep."
"Why do you sing?" Aelita questioned.
"I sing because... where I came from it's an arcane practice. It's supposed to summon good luck and fortune. Everyday things to you are ritualistic to us,"
As they further creeped through the corridors, a whispering voice followed behind them, a dark and evil one. "Safe from pain," it growled, "and truth, and choice - and other poison devils!"
Robert whirled around, to see a pair of red eyes watching him from the shadows.
"See, they don't give a #$ about you...like I do..."
He fired off a warning shot from his pistol. Immediately, a hellish being: a flaming-eyed, child-sized red-skinned demon; was standing right before him.
"What are you? I don't remember you from the game at all!"
"I'm one of the millions of new codes spliced in by XANA. I'm a demonic entity. I live in Virtual Hell. Would you like to come see? It's a lovely place."
"No, no, stay back." Robert fired off several bullets, but it caught them all. "New toys!" The demon laughed. It whirled the bullets around in midair, orbiting them around himself.
"What do you want with us, monster?"
"I wanna play with you. This world is so much bigger than the pretty little one I live in. Will you let me follow you?"
So far, the demon had done nothing.
"Prove yourself."
"There's a locked door and two aliens just up ahead and around the corner, and I can break the lock's security if you clear out the aliens."
Jeremie gazed into the entity's flaming eyes.
"If you're one of XANA's creations, why are you helping us?"
"Yeah," Robert said, whirling around to look at the demon.
"Because XANA wants me to keep a close eye on the one that sings, and say; you look awfully familiar, too."
"Fine," Robert said, as he continued walking. As he rounded the bend, there were the two aliens; and the locked door.
Odd and D'Artagnan, loaded to the teeth with weapons, charged down a corridor. "I'm getting a transmission," D'Artagnan said. "There's a breach on Strut B."
"Why would we wanna go there?"
"We're the ASSAULT Squadron," D'Artagnan said, unholstering duel SMGs. "Let's rock."
Odd and Dart charged down the hall, reaching the door to Strut B.
"It's code-locked!" D'Artagnan yelled, frustrated, as he tried to open it.
"Nonsense," Odd said. "Every door can be opened some way or another." Odd brought his foot in a quick slicing kick to the door, and as the blow connected, the door flew off, allowing them to the midst of the battle.
In what looked like a restaurant's interior, a soldier jumped over a table, hiding behind a tree planted in artifical soil, blindfiring behind him and killing an alien quickly. He turned around to look at his prize, but not before being gutted by one of the small aliens. Quickly, a larger alien tore a neon-lit sign from the ceiling, dropping it to the ground, lighting a fire as it cracked open.
Odd jumped in, firing his M4 wildly. He dived behind another tree, killing the fire-starting alien, and two small ones, as he jumped for a hanging lamp, swinging across it to the ceiling rafters. He looked around, beginning to pick enemies off from above. He changed locations quickly along the rafters, so as not to be noticed. On the ground, Dart was handling things just fine - until she stopped to reload. A gigantic form of the small aliens readied its claws to decapitate her, as Odd rode down a lamp's rope, and using his kinetic force downward, broke it off, crushing the alien under it.
"Dart! Don't worry!"
"Oh, you saved me!" D'Artagnan said. He turned around, and kissed Odd on the cheek.
Odd coughed, sputtered, hacked, wheezed, and made barfing noises. "That's gross! Can you not tell I'm a guy?"
"Come on Odd." D'Artagnan laughed. "Can you not tell I'm a girl?"
She took off her stocking cap, revealing flowing pink hair, and previously hidden from the hat's scruff; deep green eyes.
"No, I couldn't," claimed Odd, turning red.
"Well, it was for the sake of the mission; but now that you know, I guess you should also I know I like you."
"Listen; we can't let this get in the way of the...the mission. I mean say we're fighting in a dark closet and you get carried away, again?"
"Come on, Odd. Have faith in me."
Just then, two mechanical monsters burst through the door, crushing the tile floor beneath them.
"Mechs!"
Odd and Dart dived behind seperate trees, loading their weapons.
Yumi, Ulrich, and Razputin walked towards the bridge slowly, with Raz in front and Yumi in back. "Our goal," Razputin said, "is to find and annihilate any possible threat within the bridge or control room."
"Yeah," Ulrich said. That was all he really said, he had to impress Yumi. As they headed down the corridor, a closet door seemed to sway open back and forth. Don't be scared, thought Ulrich. Don't be scared. Nothing can scare you. Even if you are scared, not in front of Yumi.
Ulrich held his breath crossing the border to the closet, as he heard a heavy breathing. He slowed down, activating his flashlight. He walked in, and looked around. Razputin stopped, and so did Yumi. Ulrich checked the supply closet thoroughly, for nothing, but still heard heavy breathing. Just then, from the other closet directly across from it, a demon dived out. Inside his mind, Ulrich had jumped to the ceiling and cried in terror. In reality, he simply shook.
He took the broom, as the demon took one for its own. Each move he made, it made. He swung, crashing the broom into the demon every time, but being hurt himself. Ulrich quickly formulated a plan. The demon was no taller than 3 feet high. Ulrich jumped into the air as high as he could; not even up to Ulrich's kneecaps as the demon, and brought down his broom. The demon was crushed, leaving in its death moments just an ache in Ulrich's shoe.
"Wow," Yumi said.
"Ehhh, yeah," he said, smiling.
"Don't try to impress her now. We're on a mission, and if we're gonna get scared, get down and dirty, and knock some heads, we don't need to do it with smile." Razputin said. His tone was serious, as he lowered his crimson red goggles over his eyes.
"Just keep moving."