A round of loud shots were fired, echoing down the tunnel. Each burning bullet did not find itself within Felix, but into the back of the body that had taken him into a protective hold, shielding him from the otherwise fatal attack. A final shot rang clear in the area, yet this one belonged to Kohut, who had arrived a second too late to prevent the previous shooting; he had taken the infected soldier out with a bullet to the head, which would take longer to regenerate from than, say, a shot to the shoulder or chest. A head shot took at least three minutes to revive from, and in those three minutes Kohut would be able to disarm and contain the madman.
Strong arms released Felix, or rather fell limply away from him, followed by the rest of Tamora's figure; she lay on the ground, unmoving, eyes hollow and open. Protection came with a price sometimes, and the fee for this incident had cost Tamora her life.
Felix's own eyes widened in absolute terror, and he scrambled away from his fallen wife with his mouth hanging agape. She was just…still. Her normally expressive face was relaxed and void of emotion, and her arms, while not just moments ago they had been clinging to him with the strength that he was sure had bested Zangief on that happy night a long time ago, now were sprawled out uselessly in front of her.
It was terrifying.
"T-Tammy?" He choked out, holding a trembling hand out towards her in a futile attempt to get a reaction. After a moment of nothing, he tried again: "Tamora?" His voice wavered, and he crawled the short distance back towards her, placing his shaking hands on the shoulders of her armor."Tamora?!" He asked a little more forcefully this time, and shook her. But when she made no motion to get up, or any motion at all, his throat constricted with emotion and his eyes overflowed with tears. "Tammy, please – come on." He urged her, tugging on her useless arm.
But it was all too obvious what had happened, and he looked down at her with an overwhelming sense of panic and grief. Not really thinking what he was doing, he reached for his hammer.
With a trembling hand, Felix raised the tool and brought it down onto her. The metallic 'clink' of it hitting but doing nothing sounded out, and he tried again. And again. But it was no use. The momentary 'game over' plus the virus coursing through her had rendered the tool useless, and quickly sensing that, he abandoned the tactic and did all he could think to do at that moment: He latched his arms tightly around her as best he could, and buried his face into her neck with no intention of letting go.
Temporary or not, he was in no way accustomed to seeing people die. Let alone if that person was someone he cared deeply about. He would never get used to it, and he would never get it out of his head. He could not imagine what it must have been like for her, nor did he want to.
He just wanted her back.
After both disarming and injecting the soldier with a serum that would ensure that he remained unconscious for a good while, Kohut stood up and readjusted the collected weapon over his shoulder. He turned to see if Sergeant Calhoun had regenerated yet, but what he saw was something that you just didn't see in Hero's Duty: Emotion.
He'd seen his commanding officer die before, so this hardly registered as anything new. But for someone like Felix - someone who came from a game where death wasn't an explicit venture - this must have been ridiculously difficult.
The large man approached the scene and tried to improve the situation, and while he was better at comforting than Calhoun was, this was still out-of-place for him. "Give her another minute," he said softly, nodding down at the motionless body. "She'll come back."
And sure enough, after an extended block of seconds there was a ripple of life within the body that Felix clung to. The gunshots disappeared, along with their permanent damage. Tamora's heart began beating again - strong, steady, alive. Her empty eyes illuminated as her existence was restored; she even blinked, signaling that she'd truly returned to them. She would have moved to sit up, to tell whoever was sniveling that she was fine, but that was when she remembered the last thing she'd seen before the lights went out.
She'd protected Felix. She'd died.
The jagged puzzle pieces matched up and should have made her feel guilty, but she didn't. If she hadn't did what she did then the fixer would have ceased to exist right then and there, with his final place of resting in a game that wasn't even his own. It was why she didn't bother with feelings of remorse.
Slowly, she moved her limbs and pushed herself up, so that she was supporting her torso on her elbows. "At ease," she said gently, speaking to the sobbing hero that was holding onto her tighter than she'd ever felt him grip. In fact, she was genuinely impressed by the strength he was showcasing. "There's no tears at this funeral, Fix-It." She didn't want him crying over something so ridiculous as her own death, but that was just the thing: It wasn't ridiculous. Not to him. In his mind she'd just died for good without any chances of coming back.
Coaxing herself into a proper sitting position, she took him into her arms and hugged onto him. Over Felix's shoulder, she snapped her fingers into a point, indicating where Kohut was to take his position. The man nodded and headed off, giving the pair some privacy.
Alone now with his wife, Felix spoke out again."Oh, that was terrible. I'm so sorry. Are you alright?"
Tamora wasn't used to being fussed over. She couldn't say that she particularly liked it, but she knew that it was in Felix's nature to be doting and concerned, so she didn't shove him away or suggest that he stop talking. She simply continued to hold him, rubbing his back, while the aftershock of what had happened worked through the little guy.
It was a lot to take in for him, and she knew that it would be something he'd be dealing with for quite a while.
"There's nothing to apologize for. It would've been game over for you if he'd made that shot, and since you're my topmost priority, I had to lose a life to save yours," she stated, squeezing him a bit tighter. "But I'm fine now, Fix-It. It's nothing I'm not used to. "
It didn't make sense to Felix how a world could exist where practically everything was shrouded in violence. Where you had to be on guard all the time. Then again, it was undeniable that Hero's Duty was one of the most popular games in the arcade; so there must have been something to it that he was missing. But how could something so horrible like shooting guns – even if it was at a ravenous cy-bug – be so appealing? Maybe he just didn't see it. It had been made clear long ago that Tamora was built for her world, and he was built for his.
That was when he remembered: His world.
The whole reason he had come here in the first place was for Tamora's help. But now, he was too shaky from what had happened to continue on their path to the train. "M-maybe you shouldn't go and see Ralph," he began, still not releasing her. "I'm sure the others and I can get him under control."
"Like fun you can," Tamora said, knowing that Felix and the Nicelanders wouldn't be able to take Ralph down if they tried. Even if they ganged up together, those fists were just too powerful for them. "Listen to me. I'm going with you and we're gonna stop that wrecking ball together before he takes down more than just buildings."
Dying had, oddly enough, cleared her head a little. Tamora knew it was only a matter of time before everything started acting up again, but her regeneration definitely brought some clarity, patching up the crumbling wall of her sanity.
She moved to stand, and Felix quickly did the same. "Let's head out."
"I'm right behind ya."
Thankfully, the rest of the trek out of Hero's Duty wasn't nearly as eventful. They both exited the game with no problem and made their way across the still eerily-vacant area that was Game Central Station. Strangely enough, they were not stopped by the Surge Protector like Ralph and him had been upon first discovering the state of the arcade, and he couldn't help but wonder why.
Quickly coming up to the entrance to Fix-It Felix Jr., the handyman cast one last nervous glance up at his wife. "Are you sure about this, Tammy?" He questioned, wringing his hands together nervously in front of himself. "I really wouldn't mind if you wanted to stay in your own game."
There was no telling what Ralph was doing in there; he just hoped the Nicelanders were doing alright. Not to mention Ralph himself. The wrecker had absolutely lost it the last time he'd seen him, and after what had just happened with Tamora he was understandably hesitant.
"There's no going back now, Fix-It. We're already at the frontline," she replied, reaching behind her and grabbing her gun. She brought the large weapon up to her eyes and changed the settings, so that she wouldn't be shooting bullets, but a powerful stunning beam that would render Ralph unconscious instead of…well, dead.
With a wordless nod, she pressed on towards the tunnel. Taking the cart seemed like too much of a noisy risk, and since it would be better to keep up an air of stealth, it was decided that walking was the better option. She took the front out of instinct, walking a few paces in front of Felix in case the wrecker was near the tram dock up ahead. There was no telling what to expect, and she didn't want to take any chances.
That and she was a natural-born leader in these types of situations.
As they approached the opening and were finally exposed to the beginning of Niceland, she couldn't help but choke a little. The air, normally clear and pleasant, was smoky with debris from the broken buildings; thick, itchy clouds of brick dust hung everywhere, irritating the lungs and nasal passages, as well as making it a bit difficult to see around watering eyes.
She suddenly regretted not bringing her helmet, since it had its own supply of oxygen in it along with a protective glass visor to ensure that she could make out what was in front of her. Nevertheless, she would have to rely on what she could see, as well as the distant sound of breaking - which, she assumed, was where Ralph was.
"You should do a head-count on the civilians. Make sure they're all present and accounted for," she suggested, keeping her voice down. "I'll head for Wreck-It."
Felix's eyes fretfully scanned the damage for any sign of the Nicelanders, and no immediate indication as to where they might have been caused his heart to start racing again. He hoped that no one had gotten hurt, or that they hadn't panicked and abandoned the game.
All at once, he let out a sigh of relief as he spotted them at the far-side of the complex, all huddled together in what was one of the last remaining in-tact patches of their previously expansive blocky forest. They looked absolutely mortified at what was happening, but otherwise unharmed – at least, as far as he could tell from his current vantage point.
He was about to take a step forward but stopped himself to look up towards the determined face of his wife once again. This entire situation was frightening, but what concerned him above all else at that moment was the safety of Tamora. The absolute last thing he would want to witness was a repeat of the recent events in Hero's Duty. Especially so when she wasn't even in her own game; and he seriously doubted that Ralph would show any restraint at the moment.
So before he took off, he hopped high off the ground and planted a kiss onto her cheek as he had all that time ago in Sugar Rush. "Be careful, Tammy. I don't think Ralph's feeling all too chummy at the moment," he told her, glancing off towards the distant sounds of destruction. He then looked back up to her and attempted to give her a reassuring smile before he headed off for the Nicelanders, shouting behind him: "If anyone can fix this, it's you!"
While Tamora wasn't fond of the yippee-skippee sunshine-and-daises riffraff, she knew that Felix had meant well with his encouragement. Thus, she pushed through the chalky atmosphere and began in the general direction of the pummeling.
"Watch out, Wreck-It. I'm coming for you."