"Hello? Jake?" Tavros spoke through the microphone to his left.
He checked the maps on his computer screens, searching for Jake's location. It was the same where it had been, but anxiety was gnawing at him for some reason. "Uh.. Jake, answer?" he asks, trying to zoom in.
"Tav, where's Jake's location from mine?" Dirk asks from the headset.
"Due 39 degrees west, 741 meters." Tavros replies after a few seconds.
"Got it, heading there now." Dirk says.
Tavros gives a sigh of relief, as his worry diminished slowly. But anxiety still knocked on his heart. He heard the sky start pouring rain down. He couldn't look out the window, seeing as this location was sealed. But when he entered, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. He checked weather patterns, to see that rain wasn't expected for a while. He usually wouldn't bat an eyelash at this, but his anxiety grew even more, making him sweat slightly.
The communicator on Tavros's leg started to beep. "Uhh, yes?" he asked into it.
"I just got this heavy feeling... Is everybody ok?" Jane asked.
This made Tavros sweat even more. "I'm, uhh, waiting for Dirk to check up with something, but, uhh, other than that everyone seems to be just fine."
He heard Jane sigh in relief. "Thank you, please let me know if something happens."
"Uhh, yeah, sure." he said, staring at his computer screen.
With each person in the plan, he had placed microscopic robotic bugs to each person's chest, right over their hearts, to keep the the pulse rate of everyone in check, which he had on a screen on the right. He saw that Dirk had reached a pretty bad state. Karkat had reached critical condition. "Gamzee, Gamzee?" he almost yelled into his microphone.
"What's going on?" Vriska asked after a minute with no answer.
"Karkat has reached a critical state, he's losing a lot of blood. Where are they?"
Dave came on, his sentences choppy. "They were... too many... must have gone... Jack..." After that, static.
"Dave, come in, Dave?" Tavros said.
Vriska came on a little later. "There's nothing to worry about, for some reason the top floor has some trouble communicating."
Tavros sighed, everything is putting him on edge. The chances of this plan succeeding was barely over 50-50, but with everyone surviving was significantly less. The computer who had everyone's vitals suddenly made a loud sound. Tavros knew the sound well, and quickly got out of his chair to take cover. It exploded, a large sharp piece barely missing his head, leaving a small cut on his neck.
This was not supposed to happen. The only logical thing he could think of is when the microbug's s senses get overloaded, and is unable to register the state of a person. That should have never happened, though. Setting this aside only for the moment, he went on the pager.
"Dirk, you should have reached him. What's up?" he asked.
A couple minutes passed. "Dirk, answer me." he continued in a demanding tone.
"That's new." Vriska said, at his tone.
"Tav.." Dirk said finally.
"Yes, what's the situation?"
Another couple minutes pass, and Tavros's anxiety grew more and more.
...Earlier~
Dirk ran through the crowd, chasing after the person he could get information out of, for stopping this whole mess. There were so many factors they didn't knew were there, and dearly should have been put into account. He may have found one of the only people able to give him information, but he was one helluva runner. He heard Tavros calling to Jake, but kept up the chase. They had to be on the first floor, since the man was running to the window. He jumped out, shattering the glass. Dirk ran faster, and almost jumped out if he hadn't seen there were on a very different floor, several stories up. He saw no sign of the man.
Tavros called out again. "Tav, where's Jake's location from mine?" he asks from the headset.
"Due 39 degrees west, 741 meters." Tavros replies a few moments later.
"Got it, heading there now." Dirk says, rushing to the bottom floor.
After several minutes, he made it, only to see the floor was empty. There was not a soul he could sense. Then it hit him, he couldn't sense the guy running, he was merely following by eyesight. His eyes surveyed the room. He could see no one so he quickly, but cautiously walked towards the exit.
Shortly after he began, a large man with two maces swung at him. Barely able to notice a mere second before impact, Dirk ducked, only to be sent across the room with the other mace. The cut it left on his shoulder wasn't deep, but it bled pretty badly. He clutched his arm, staring at the brute that stood across the room. His skin was complete black, and his face only held eyes. No mouth or nose.
The man ran at him, so he had to quickly get on his feet. He side stepped as the man swung, and jumped to kick the face. His leg was grabbed by another significantly smaller figure, and he was thrown across the room again, smashing into the wall. A cough of blood came from Dirk, who fell to the ground. The duo stood side by side, both only having eyes, and complete black skin. Dirk's vision was blurry, so he knew he was in no condition to fight. He was in no condition to run either. He saw no way out of this. He didn't want to give up either.
He stood again, facing them, and pulling out his sword and held it at them. "You'll need a lot more to defeat me." he said, trying to convince himself.
The large one, who was much faster than what his size would dictate, sped at Dirk, who was prepared for the worst.
Equius finally stepped in, taking ahold of the guys head, trying not to crush it at the very moment, and propelled him at the smaller one. He put one arm up, and deflected the body into the wall beside him. Equius was sweating considerably. "My, my.. This one has much more power than that brute." he said.
Dirk collapsed to the ground, letting Equius take care of the man. Unlike the rest, Equius only wore a normal white muscle shirt, and brown shirts with black long socks. At this moment, he wore no shoes. Equius ran to the man, only to have him jump over. Equius slid smoothly to turn around and block the attack. He wasn't wearing shoes due to be more flexible in changing directions. The only drawbacks were he couldn't control the slide completely, and was able to be pushed back if standing while blocking with a strong enough hit.
Dirk waited till he could run again, just watching Equius trade blows with the small man. He could sense Equius's presence perfectly, but he could not sense the others. He needed to find out what this meant.
To be able to stand off against Equius was no small feat, but he didn't seem phased by his hits. Equius seemed exhilarated to be in such a challenge. He gave a good punch to the mans shoulder, and his arm went flying, but he didn't seemed phased, and just countered with a punch to Equius's gut.
Equius coughed blood. Dirk's eyes widened. The punch went clear through his body. Equius's glasses fell and shattered. The man tried pulling his arm out, but Equius kept hold up it by tensing up. "Well.. That was.. Unexpected.." he saw, raising his arm up to smash the guy's head in. Another small man came out from nowhere to puncture Equius through the back, out his chest. Equius coughed again, but this was the cough of death, and his body fell limp.
Dirk couldn't believe this situation. He got up to defend himself as they looked over at him. They pulled their arms out, simultaneously. The newcomer seemed to pick something off of his arm, and crush it. Dirk felt despair kick in, and his will to defend himself lessened. He heard a screech, and saw a blurry figure dash across the room. It passed the one with a missing arm, and the second after the head came clean off. Another figure approached, and as the other man looked to locate the blur, a giant hammer came crashing down, crushing his head.
Dirk looked over to see John, and then the other way to see Nepeta. His heart dropped, and his eyes teared up as he saw her disbelieving, nearly soulless eyes staring at Equius. She slowly walked over to his body on the ground. "Equius.. Get up please?.." she said, making her way there.
When she reached him, she collapsed to her knees, and Dirk had to look away. John walked over. "Hurry up and get Jake. I have a bad feeling.." he said, looking over to Nepeta, who was now sobbing uncontrollably. Dirk nodded, picked his sword up, and ran out.
He reached the spot where he heard gunshots earlier, and looked around. Only a couple more meters. He saw a figure on the ground. "Hey, man, what the hell are you doi-" he stopped, as he was able to make out the figure.
"Dirk, you should have reached him. What's up?" Tavros asked through the headset."
Dirk couldn't move or say anything for several moments.
"Dirk, answer me." Tavros continued.
At the demanding tone he hadn't heard from him in forever, Dirk answered after a couple minutes. "Tavros.." he was barely able to let out before sobbing. What he saw was Jake on the ground next to his sniper rifle, in a pool of blood. His cracked glasses covered his eyes, and it seemed he was impaled from the back. "Tavros.. Get a live feed... From my glasses.." Dirk finally said.
He heard a gasp from Tavros, then his whole mind started to get fuzzy. He heard him relating the scene to everyone. But his mind didn't register a lot of things at this moment. Then he noticed a trickle of blood coming down his face. He reached up, touched his forehead, and felt steel.
He was barely able to register the sound of the sword sliding out as he hit the ground.