Ellowyn covered her ears for the alarms were too loud. Grabbing the remote, she turned the alarm volume down and tuned to the security cameras outside of her home.

Before she could view the siege outside however, a loud rumbling noise echoed from a nearby vent, making her jump in fright. I thought they sealed it up already!

“Hurry up!”

She could hear various voices from the vent along with alarm lights flaring from within it.

Boom! An explosion rocked her room. She decided it was time to leave the place. Her phone rang while she was heading towards the door.

“Ellowyn, get out of there right now!” It was Tom.

“I’m running!” She was almost out, the door was right in front of her.

“Where do you think you’re going little miss?” Ellowyn recognized the voice, it was the female terrorist holding a rifle and pointing it at her.

She froze. “I never thought we’d meet again.”

“Me neither.” Ellowyn could feel Cassie smiling. “Move that door by one inch and I’ll blast your leg. Sorry for the rough treatment but it was you who made the choice to stay.”

My god, give me a break! She was tired, hungry and her stomach felt like someone wrapped it with thorns and a terrorist was holding her at gunpoint. What a wonderful day I’m having.

“Retrieve her” Cassie signaled her coworker.

Ellowyn surveyed the room, there were six intruders in total, all of them held weapons. Analyze.

Elite Federal Assault Rifle Type: Coil.

Capable of firing Class A force field penetrating rounds, even if the rounds are designed to be non-lethal

...

So force fields are useless, its not like there’s enough energy left to put one up anyway. She canceled the system’s charging force field and began looking over the modules for anything she could use for self defense.

“You know, I feel sorry for you, after all the brave things you did and yet they still abandoned you.” There was a shred of sympathy in her voice.

“You see, we knew there was little chance the negotiation would go well. Thats why the back up plan was to once again have you become our hostage. But this time its not Tom that we’re extorting, its Alice.”

“And why are you telling me all this?” Alice frowned, the conversation was going somewhere she’d rather not. There’s gotta be something useful in here. She scrolled through the list of functions from each module with her admin power.

“Oh come on, can’t you appreciate a little talk while we wait for Tom’s people to arrive?” The woman chuckled. “Call me Cassie.”

“What do you mean by extorting Alice?”

“I don’t know if you knew it already, but Tom is a man of reason. If he had to pick an option between saving 1 and saving 5 people, he’d choose the latter in a heartbeat. That is why we decided to take action against both you and Alice, because we know Tom will try to save Alice first. Unlike her dad however, for the little angel that she is, Alice would never make such calculating actions. When she know of your hostage, there would be no choice but for daddy to give in to his daughter’s demands, your release.”

“Right, and she would know I’m being taken hostage how?” Ellowyn knew Alice’s room was much further away and on a different floor. For each floor only had one master bedroom.

“Because all of the units infiltrating her room are duds.”

When Bob arrived at the hallway to Alice’s room, he saw her and two maids walking side by side at a fast pace towards him. All three of them carried rifles.

“Miss Alice, its good to know that you’re alright.”

“I’m glad that you’re without a scratch, Bob. How is Ellowyn faring?”

“Mr. Tom had sent guards to protect her.”

“What do you mean he only sent guards now? Thats too late! I’m coming to check for her safety.”

“With all my respect, I believe it is you who is in more danger. Tom said the number of signatures heading towards your room was doubled that of Ellowyn’s.” Shit. Bob realized he had let it slip that Ellowyn was also going to be attacked.

“Then it mean she’s their target, not me! The ... things that came through my vent were all harmless decoys.” Her voice was frantic.

“Take shelter in the nearest panic room. I will go check on Ellowyn.”

“You better bring her back alive, or else.”

“Don’t be so tense, have a seat.” Cassie gestured Ellowyn to sit next to her.

A sense of unease rose within Ellowyn. Had Tom really abandoned me? She closed her eyes and dispersed the thought. If anything, all of the interactions she had with Tom showed otherwise. She knew well that he loved her well as a father. However, she also agreed with Cassie in that he put reason above his feeling.

It can’t be helped that he’d focus on Alice first after all. She couldn’t blame him and yet she couldn’t stop herself from being disappointed either.

Self Defense Module (For testing purpose only!)

Finally, something that seems useful.

Note, if you’re looking for the combat module, this is not the one!

OK/cancel

Sigh, had I the combat module, I wouldn’t be looking for you.

Warning! Low Blood Pressure

Low Blood Sugar

Minor Shock symptoms

It is strongly not recommended for you to enter any form of combat.

Do you think I have a choice? She dismissed the warning and set it to calculate her escape path.

Insufficient sensor data, please direct visual over your surroundings

Gasping in surprise, she stared in awe as the system take note of everything within her line of sight. The virtual text showed all kinds of data, from the distance to the door, to the weight of the intruders and even the speed of their reactions.

“Is there something wrong?”

“Its nothing.” Ops. She stopped gasping.

“Say, you’re pretty calm, kid.” Cassie patted her head. “Being in the presence of so many armed people and you’re not freaking out at all.”

“How can I be calm? I’m just too tired to respond to you.” She glared at Cassie.

“Aww, you’re just too cute!” Cassie hugged her tightly. “Don’t worry, I’m not as unreasonable as Kelvin. I’ll make sure you are comfortable during your time with us.”

“Kelvin?”

“The guy who talked with your dad this morning, didn’t you know?”

I’ll shove a few capsules down his throat the next time I see him.

Running Calculations. Please do not remove your visual contact from the environment. Compiling environment data .... done

Gathering detailed body state data ...

A warm current ran across her body.

... done

Calculating actions:

Pass 1, success chance: 0.1%

Pass 2, success chance: 0.3%

Pass 3, success chance: 1.2%

...

Hurry up!

Cassie immediately pulled out her pistol and placed it next to Ellowyn’s head when a group of soldiers entered the door.

“If you take one step closer, I’ll blow her brains out.”

The soldiers stopped but their weapons still aimed at them.

“Get out of the room and close the door. I’ll only talk with one unarmed negotiator, whoever you choose them to be.”

The lead soldier nodded and treated.

“Now that they’re out, we can have our privacy again.” Cassie stroked Ellowyn’s hair. “I really won’t shoot you unless they do something outrageous. Please don’t worry OK?”

“How can I not worry? I’m being put on a bargain table for biomaterials that will be used on human subjects!” She stared anxiously at the progress window.

“Sometimes life just doesn’t go the way you want. Don’t blame yourself too much for what happened. Take this as a lesson, the moment you make the decision to stay, you should have been ready for the consequences.”

“You’re rather supportive for a terrorist.”

“When you grow up, you’ll see that there are more than one way to look at something, or someone.”

“But I’m eight-” Her eyes widened.

... Pass 344, success chance: 88%

Pass 345, success chance: 93%

Pass 346, success chance: 99%

3952485 potential actions computed.

Proceed? Yes/No

Yes!

Accelerating adrenaline surge.

“Ellowyn, are you alright?”

The scenery around her slowed down to a crawl. She could see Cassie’s lips moving, syllable by syllable. A surge of energy filled her body, erasing all of her pain and fatigue.

Virtual information in the form of handles with captions filled up her vision, she was briefly overwhelmed with the sudden influx of words, they were too messy for her to really make sense of.

When she looked at the nearest handle of information which pointed towards Cassie’s pistol holster, all other handles disappeared and the system showed her a brief animation of what she needed to do.

Seeing Ellowyn reaching towards the holster, Cassie immediately reacted and tried to grab her arm.

Anticipating such reaction, Ellowyn changed her momentum and moved her arm away, pushing towards Cassie’s right shoulder instead.

Cassie wasn’t prepared for the push and was slightly shoved aside. That was all Ellowyn needed to started bolting to Cassie’s side and towards the door.

One of the men stood in her way, prepared to catch her.

Applying force to support balance

As the man pulled his arm forward to grab her, she leaned to her right at an extreme degree with the system’s support.

Missing Ellowyn, the man could only stumble forward helplessly.

She didn’t miss the opportunity to grab the gun from his holster and open fired on his leg.

Not stopping to see the man rolling in agony, she immediately trained the gun towards Cassie who was running towards her at a frightening pace.

To her horror, Ellowyn found herself unable to pull the trigger. Knowing this, Cassie quickened her pace even more and was planning to tackle Ellowyn down.

The system was quick to respond and gave her a new set of instructions.

The gun left her hand and went flying towards Cassie.

Cassie reached out and caught the gun. Ellowyn used the distraction to run towards Cassie and reached out her foot to trip her.

Cassie lost her balance and fell forward. That was all the time Ellowyn needed to restart her run towards the door.

Halfway there. She thought before being tackled by a guard running from her blind spot.

She took the tackle deliberately, following the system’s visual guide to reach behind the man’s back and remove his gun from the holster while they were falling towards the ground.

She aimed the gun at the running Cassie. The system was giving her a second chance.

Oh come on! She knew killing Cassie will make her lose what precious little sanity she had left, but aiming at someone’s moving legs was much harder.

Aim assist activated

She could feel a small nudge to her hand that adjusted slowly to Cassie’s figure. Here it goes. She closed her eyes and fired.

...But not before the aim assist lost its visual input. The shot missed.

Crap!

The soldier recovered from his fall and was still holding Ellowyn hard. He reached into his holster for a stun baton, only to find nothing there.

Knowing that she might miss because the target was Cassie, Ellowyn had her other hand ready on the stun baton.

As Cassie grabbed the hand holding the gun, Ellowyn swung her other hand and stabbed Cassie with the baton, the flow of electricity went through Cassie’s body and into Ellowyn’s other hand. The system then guided the flow safely through her lower body and into the soldier holding her.

Applying force

With them both stunned, the system pushed her back and she regained her momentum to run towards the door, ignoring a burning sensation in the left side of her body where the current had been.

Almost there. The door opened as she was still a dozen feet away. It was Bob. Beside a bullet proof vest, he was unarmed.

“Fire!” Shouted one of the terrorists.

She quickened her pace, hoping they’d stop if she were to be in their line of fire.

“Noooo!” She could hear the slow echo of Cassie’s shout.

Give me a boost! With her head still turned to the side, she started her jump forward.

Applying force

The system pushed her jump and she made the dozen feet within the blink of an eye. Just as she was about to reach Bob, she turned her head around to see flashes. The soldiers didn’t stop firing.

Emergency perception activated Warning! Energy usage too high.

Warning! Energy low

Time slowed down even more. As her hand came into contact with Bob’s shoulder and started pushing him back, she could see clearly the bullets leaving the soldiers guns. Each of the rifles fired at least six bullets in that one-second burst, with each bullet traveling at a slightly different angle.

Before she knew it, a hail of bullets was storming toward her. Even Bob with his bulletproof vest wouldn’t survive through that one. Only Bob was then out of the way and she was the one receiving the metal hurricane.

The scene terrified her, but a part of her was glad for the system had visual input.

Calculating Emergency Path Pass 1: 20%

Pass 2: 46%

Pass 3: 73%

Pass 4: 86%

Insufficient time. Estimated points of impacts: 4 note: DO NOT MOVE!

Do you think I can move? She felt small nudges throughout her body. One nudge lifted her arm slightly up, another pushed one of her legs down, ...

Her falling trajectory was slowly being adjusted. And then came the bullets.

With her slowed sense of time, she could feel numerous air shockwaves brushing throughout her body as bullets passed her by. That was one of the few times she was glad to have a small figure.

“Arg!” One of the bullets grazed the skin on her back but strangely, she felt no pain.

Another one scraped by her leg while the third one grazed her lower abdomen and the last one slightly above her stomach.

Emergency perception disabled.

caution: you will experience some fatigue as a backlash.

Pain receptors suppressed.

Time resumed its normal pace while she completed her fall on top of Bob.

“Ellowyn! Shit there’s blood. Get me the medikit! Wing one and two, provide us with cover fire.” Bob held her delicate figure in a princess carry and moved away from the door.

She gazed back and saw two soldiers on each side of the door firing in succession.

Fatigue hit her hard, her eyelids slowly slid to a close.

Restoring consciousness

She was jolted awake by an electric current. What is it now Oh right, I need to turn the module off.

She looked around and saw that she had been laid on the ground with her back to the wall, Bob was by her side.

“Everything is alright now, you’re safe.” He gave a soft smile.

She looked back on her body. Two other soldiers sat next to her was were giving medical treatment. One of them pulled up her bloody shirt to reveal two gashes, one on her midriff and the other below the navel.

She could see traces of blood on her left calf and there was a stinging sensation on her back. The system projected a 3D model of her body and she could see all four injuries well, they weren’t life threatening, but two of them were quite deep.

Hey, its not even a week yet and I already got battle scars. She gave a fake chuckle.

Please confirm termination of emergency state

Yes.

Low power, all minor functions will be disabled until power level is above 2%

So you need a break too huh. She could hear the distant sound of explosions. The siege hadn’t finished yet.

“Thank you for saving my life.” Bob’s whisper brushed her ear before she dozed away.

A while later, inside Tom’s office.

“Most of the damage control has been reported. We are still trying to find the source of the break in.” Bob said, his tone somber.

“For now, focus on strengthening the internal defenses. I’ll allocate more funding so you can rebuild some of the more outdated facilities.”

“If you don’t mind, I understood that you prioritized Alice more, but why couldn’t you have at least send some of the men to Ellowyn earlier?”

“We were all caught by surprise, Bob. It was also my mistake to think that Alice was the target. However, I do believe the girl herself can stand more of a chance on her own.”

“What do you mean, how can Ellowyn even struggle against well-trained terrorists! Have you lost your mind?” Bob was incredulous.

“Because she has the system.”

That quieted him.

“I’ve done some research, there was a sphere shaped mark on the ground in the warehouse where she was found, it was caused by the force field that protected her. Also when she was attacked in the shopping mall, for a brief moment, I saw her slashing Brian with a force knife. I’ve had the men searched through the site and found no trace of such a bladed tool.”

“How can that be? For someone so young to possess the system. But she doesn’t look or act like a Hero. All of the ones I’ve met were on the level of monsters, even on casual occasions.”

“I can’t say for sure, she could have been the product of a failed experiment or a procedure gone wrong.”

“And you still kept her, knowing that?” Bob raised an eyebrow.

“She is already my second daughter, how can I ever abandon her?” His tone came a little stronger than he thought.

“Sorry.”

“Its fine.” Tom sighed. “It was partially my fault for leaving her in danger.”

“I know, you had to make the more statistically correct choice and make sure they both have the most optimum chance of survival.”

“You don’t have to remind me.” Tom grunted. “Please, I ask of you. Keep the place secure so I never have to make such a decision again.” He closed his eyes. Those bastards are going to pay.

“I’ll see to it that not a speck of dust can sneak in.” Bob nodded.

Woo! One more chapter and we're done with this arc Now if anyone saw me saying something about a surprise in my last author notes, well its not ready yet