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Raid and Counter-Raid A bullet was fired, and window shattered. A moment later, someone threw a grenade through the broken glass. In another moment, an explosion rocked the scene. "We're under attack!" someone shouted from within the building. The battle had begun. Vince and the rest of the red team had marched right up Lynthan Boulevard into Rho's front yard. Immediately, windows opened all over the main building, and the Rho mercenaries opened fire. However, the bullets simply stopped a few feet from their targets. The Omicron mercenaries had deployed their Transparent Forcefields, handheld devices that, upon activation, would anchor into the ground and form a protective barrier, while being transparent so that he could still keep track of his targets even while hiding. Omicron had also obtained charged particle blasters from the trade they had made at the construction yard, so they were definitely showcasing superior weaponry. A Rho mercenary tried to open the door of the main building to get out and fight, but he was immediately shot down by none other than Vince. "That's three," he thought. "I'm getting better at this." Vince fired his particle blaster repeatedly, jumping out from behind the shield to attack and jumping back in to hide from incoming bullets. Soldier after Rho soldier died at Vince's hands. In little time, he lost track of his kill count. "Hey, I think I got the hang of this," Vince thought. "Looks like all that psychological training paid off after all." Vince fired at a Rho mercenary in a window. However, along with his shot, another shot hit mercenary as well. Vince looked over at Kruger, who gave him a thumbs-up of approval. Vince's shooting skills had improved greatly during his short time with Omicron. He was almost as good as Kruger now. On the other hand, Leon could never hit anything, as usual. Eventually, he gave up and tossed his gun over to Vince, who, with two guns, could now fire twice as often. Then, Vince noticed that through one of the upper windows, a Rho soldier aimed a rocket launcher. Vince swore. "Look out!" he yelled. "Rocket launcher on the upper floor." It was too late. The soldier fired his rocket. It smashed into one of the transparent shields, but the force of the explosion threw several people away from the protective barrier, including Alice and Sarah. Alice was fortunate enough to land behind a large crate, but Sarah landed in the middle of nowhere. In panic, Sarah jumped up and ran frantically for cover, but in her careless haste, she ran right into a transparent shield. Disoriented, she staggered for a while before a bullet flew right into her heart. "Sarah!" Alice screamed, seeing her newfound friend fall to the floor. Without thinking, Alice ran out from behind the crate to her fallen friend. Midway, a bullet tore into her right arm. As she shouted in pain and grabbed her right arm with her left, the soldier fired another rocket at her. Alice was a sitting duck. "Alice, look out!" Vince shouted to his sister. The pain from the bullet in her upper arm distracted her, though, and the sight of her own blood put her in shock. Suddenly, Robert dashed out, grabbed Alice, and dove to safety behind the crate just as the rocket exploded behind him. "Don't ever do that again!" Robert shouted at her. "You realize how close you came to getting killed?" "It hurts!" Alice shouted, still clutching her arm. "It hurts! It hurts!" Robert sighed. "Hey, Vince," he shouted. "I'm going to take Alice back to a medic. I think she screwed up her arm pretty badly." As Robert carried Alice away, Vince and Kruger providing them cover fire, Alice continued to scream at the top of her lungs, "It hurts! It hurts!" By now, Vince had stopped thinking about what he was doing. He was now thoroughly desensitized by the war, by the savagery. He now thought nothing of the killing. He only killed, simply because he had to. "I can't hit the rocket launcher from here!" Kruger shouted. "The angle isn't right." "Don't worry, I got him," Vince shouted back. However, before he had a chance to take that shot, the soldier fired a rocket at him. It hit the floor in front of him and knocked him away from the transparent shield. Quickly, Vince got up and ran for cover behind a broken statue. He peeked out to take aim at the Rho soldier, only to see that he was already dead. Vince looked around the battlefield and saw Stephanie. She held her gun out, but she didn't move, except for a slow shivering pulse. Then, Vince realized that Stephanie had killed the soldier and that she was now in shock. Vince dashed out from behind the statue and sprinted toward Steph, dodging the incoming bullets with rolls and hops. As soon as Vince reached Stephanie, she whirled around and held on to him, a rain of tears coming from her eyes. Vince held her as well and spoke comforting words, all the while firing away at the Rho soldiers, completing his mission. "I killed," Stephanie cried upon Vince's shoulder. They had returned from a successful raid on the Rho Mercenary Camp. The Blue Team's mission had been cut short when a Rho soldier caught them sneaking out of the supply building, so they weren't able to steal as much as they had hoped for, but they still stole a decent amount of supplies, including a supply of rockets and launchers. "I killed," Steph cried in Vince's arms. "It'll be all right," Vince said. For a moment, there was silence. Then, Vince spoke up, "Stephanie, you're a delicate little flower. Maybe it would be better if you quit the Mercenary Camp. Then, you wouldn't have to fight anymore. I'll just work harder to--" "Vince, no," Stephanie replied. "No, I can't let you take this burden by yourself. You've gotten used to the war. I can get used to it, too. I have to get used to it." "No, Steph, it's different for me," Vince said. "I'm a Dark Fiend. I'm a killing machine, but you..." "I can't let you take the burden of earning money all by yourself," Steph said. "I'll get used to it, somehow. I'll figure something out. Please, Vince, don't try to stop me." Vince looked at her and there was a silence. Then, he spoke, "If that's the way you want it, I won't stop you. Just promise me you'll always be my Stephanie Chen." "I will, Vince," Stephanie replied. "Don't worry about it." As Stephanie continued to cry in Vince's arms, Robert approached them. "How's Alice?" Vince asked him immediately. "Her arm's going to be all right," Robert reported. "They patched it up pretty well. Emotionally, she's a mess, though. She's been crying about Sarah for the last hour and a half. She only went to sleep just now." "I see," Vince said. "She's never liked it here at Omicron, isn't that right?" "Yeah," Robert replied. "She's been telling me how she wants to quit the Mercenary Camps. I tried offering her some stuff for her to keep going, but she wouldn't listen. She just kept crying about Sarah." "Ah, well, there's not much we can do, then," Vince commented. Then, he spoke to Steph, "Come on, it's been a long day. Let me take you to our tent." "Oh, Alice, you're awake!" Robert said the moment Alice had woken up. It was the next morning, after both Alice and Stephanie had cried, both for different reasons. The four of them were in their tent. While Alice had slept, Robert, Vince, and Stephanie played a card game, a three-player variant of a game commonly known as "Thirteen". "So, Alice, how are you feeling today?" Robert asked. "Better," Alice said, rubbing her arm. "My arm still hurts, though." "Jack, Queen, King," Vince said, playing his cards. "Robert, your turn." Robert hesitated a moment, then asked, "Are you still thinking about quitting the Mercenary Camp?" Vince was becoming frustrated with Robert not playing, so he shouted, "Robert, you playing or not?" Alice, to answer Robert, said, "Well--" An explosion from outside interrupted her. Following, a large portion of the tent's canvas was burned off. "We're under attack!" someone shouted. "It's Rho!" someone else yelled. "They're making a counter-raid. Run for cover!" Vince swore and ran to a box of weapons. He quickly pulled out three transparent shields and tossed two of them to Steph and Robert. Then, the three of them set up the shields in a triangle around the beds in the tent, forming a barrier to protect themselves. Several trucks came driving off the street to the field of tents. Rho mercenaries peeked out of the truck windows and fired. Some of the trucks didn't stop when they reached the field. Instead, they continued moving, hitting tents and running over their tenants. An Omicron man tried to block a truck with a transparent shield, but the truck knocked it over, crushing the man underneath. Vince swore again, and said to his friends, "We have to get to the central building. The tents and the transparent shields are too weak to protect us from those trucks." He passed out particle blasters to Steph, Alice, and Robert, keeping one for himself. "Hurry up! Let's get the hell out of here!" Vince, Steph, and Robert quickly ran from their burnt tent, but Alice hesitated and stared at her gun instead. Robert swore, then ran back for Alice. A truck came dangerously close to her and was about to hit her when, suddenly, a rocket flew by and hit the truck, causing it to burst into flames, stopping it just in front of Alice. "Yes!" Leon cheered, carrying the rocket launcher. "I finally hit something!" Robert gave Leon a thumbs-up, then scooped Alice up and ran for the central building, all the while scolding her for putting her life in danger. Robert quickly caught up with Vince and Stephanie, but soon, the fleet of trucks caught up with them. The three of them hastily pulled out their guns--Robert dropped Alice--and fired at the cluster of Rho soldiers in the front of one truck. Then, Vince and Robert opened the doors and scooped out the dead and dying bodies. "Come on, get in the truck!" Vince commanded. "It's safer in here!" That's when he turned around and saw Steph, whose face was streaked with tears. Her hands were shaking, and she nearly dropped her gun. "Come on, Steph," Vince whispered softly to her. "Just get in the truck and try not to think about it too much." He quickly whisked Steph into the truck, and Robert carried Alice inside. Robert then took the steering wheel while Vince tried to comfort Steph. In front of them, the other Rho trucks rammed the Omicron central building. Then, the backs of the trucks opened, letting out even more Rho soldiers, who rushed the field of crushed tents, searching for survivors to kill and supplies to pillage. "Wait a minute," Vince said. "If the backs of these trucks have more Rho mercenaries in them... Oh, shit! It's not safe in the truck, either." Alice, who stared blankly at her gun, was sitting closest to the window between the front of the truck and the back when the window opened. Alice screamed and fired her blaster in reflex. A Rho soldier fell to the floor, a burn hole through his forehead. "What the hell?" came a voice from the back. Several more soldiers peered at the window. Despite the fact that she was still trembling and crying from what she had done a moment ago, Alice pulled the trigger again and again, killing them all, simply because they had frightened her and she didn't what else to do. As more and more bodies fell in the back of the truck, Alice began to shiver more violently and the tears began to flow faster. In the meantime, as Robert drove to avoid fire from the Rho, he ran over a large group of Rho mercenaries, causing the truck to jump violently. Alice, unable to take it anymore, dropped the gun. At that moment, two Rho soldiers popped through the window with pistols in hand. Then, Robert spun the steering wheel to get the truck pointed where he needed it to go. "Jump!" Robert shouted. Robert grabbed Alice, Vince grabbed Stephanie, and they both popped open the doors and jumped out of the truck. Momentum kept the truck moving until it smashed into another Rho truck. Quickly, Robert pulled out his blaster and fired into the back of the truck, killing more Rho soldiers. It took several seconds for him to realize what he had done. Then, paralyzed with shock, he dropped the gun. "Don't just stand there," Vince yelled. "Over there!" He pointed to an unmanned Omicron turret near to them. Seeing this, Robert ran to the turret, hopped inside, and began firing at the trucks and Rho mercenaries. Vince, Steph, and Alice kept themselves low to the ground as they sped behind the turret, using it to protect themselves from enemy fire. By now, Alice was crying uncontrollably. Stephanie, also crying, went to comfort her. Then, both girls held each other and cried together. Vince looked to them--Robert, Stephanie, and Alice--all three of them traumatized by war and death, all three of them trying to deal with it. "I guess I'm just a Dark Fiend," Vince said to himself. "I'm a killing machine." Above him, Robert mowed people down with the machine-gun turret he controlled. Time passed. People died. Robert's panting grew heavier and his face grew wetter with sweat. When Vince peeked out again, he peaked out just in time to see a jagged bolt of lightning rip across the battlefield, tearing through several Rho and Omicron mercenaries. The lightning bolt finally hit a Rho trucks, blowing it up. A humanoid creature with yellow-streaked black hide marched into the courtyard. His hair was yellow and tied back with a long, yellow bandana. "Vince!" he shouted. "I know you're here somewhere! Come out and fight me!" Vince almost recognized the figure. "That's Steve," he thought. "But, he's different. He's not the Dark Fiend of Lightning anymore." About a dozen mercenaries from either side surrounded Steve and fired on him. However, Steve merely held out his hands. A giant bolt of static electricity formed between them, and arcs of lightning burst out and hit each and every soldier around him. Screams were heard and blood was spilled as both Rho and Omicron mercenaries alike succumbed to the electric shock. Then, Vince knew. "He's the Dark Fiend of the Blitz," Vince thought. "He's become one with the Dark Fiend inside!" "Vince, you fucking coward!" Steve yelled. "You can either come out and fight me now, or I can electrocute each and everyone of the people here until I find you." "But I can't go and fight him," Vince thought. "If people know that I'm a Dark Fiend, I won't be safe anymore. Stephanie, Alice, and Robert won't be safe anymore. They'll come after us once they know I'm the Inferno Fiend." From an oblique direction, Kruger fired the rocket launcher at the Blitz Fiend. However, the Blitz Fiend merely threw a lightning bolt, which destroyed the rocket in mid-air, then jumped to fry Kruger. As Kruger's body sizzled he screamed in pain, and his body gave off smoke and steam. Then, he fell to the dirt, dead. "But if I don't fight him," Vince continued to think. "He'll kill everyone here, even my friends." He hesitated. "I don't think I have a choice. I have to go and confront him." He looked to Robert in the turret, nervous, then to Stephanie and Alice, both crying in each other's arms. Then, he dropped his gun and walked onto the battlefield. "Vince!" the Blitz Fiend bellowed. "Here!" Vince shouted back equally loud. "Ah, so you finally showed up," Steve said. "Now, I can kill you." Steve threw forward his hands and fired out a bolt of jagged lightning toward Vince. However, the magma emerged and covered Vince's body. Somehow, when the lightning bolt hit him, it couldn't penetrate the magma. Then, when the magma cleared, the Dark Fiend of the Inferno stood there. He had used a shield of flame to block the lightning. Gasps of shock and surprise came from all around him. "No," the Inferno Fiend answered, casting off both the fire shield and the lightning bolt. "I'll be the one who's going to kill." |