Sector 1 – Year 2236 – Month 2 – Day Twenty-Two

“Your combat glasses will display my view on the left lens so you can get a feel for what I’m seeing and going to do. It shouldn’t obscure your view. If you try to look through it, the glasses with register the change in your pupil and adjust the opacity so you can see through it clearly. Make sense?” Ani nodded.

Okay, ready?” Mary asked as they stacked up against the door.

“Reggie can you hear us?” Ani asked. Reggie was loaded on to a portable drive that was tapped into Mary and Ani’s comms. He could communicate with them, without having anyone else hear him.

“Rodger that Ani.”

Mary cocked her combat shotgun and raised it to shoulder level, barrel pointing at the door. She turned her head slightly to see Ani behind her “This is going to get messy. Just keep your head down, keep it together and listen to my instructions and I’ll get you out of here, deal?” Ani nodded and Mary returned her focus to the door.

Minutes passed and then out of nowhere, Ani’s door bell sounded. The person on the other side tapped into his emergency speaker system. “Attention. This Lieutenant Smith with the United Worldwide Governing Body peace keeping department. We’re testing a new evacuation system in order to ensure the highest level of protection for yourself and the other tenants in this building. Please, open the door so we can provide you with further instructions.”

Mary shook her head. She redirected the hallway video feeds to Ani’s combat glasses that she gave him. The Lieutenant has his stunner pointed a the door. Switching camera views, Mary showed Ani the two other ‘peace officers’ with their stunners drawn fifteen feet down the left hall and two more around the corner to the right.

“Attention. This is Lieutenant Smith with the United Worldwide Governing Body peace keeping department. We know you are home, please open the door for further instructions or we will be forced to override the system.”

Mary removed her hand from the bottom of the shotgun and typed some commands into her interface while holding the shotgun still with her other hand. It wasn’t a light piece of equipment and Ani noticed that the weapon didn’t waver once. Her strength and physical discipline amazed him. After she was done typing the commands in, she raised her free hand up above her shoulder with her fingers spread and countered own from five. Before dropping the last finger, Mary snapped the hand back down to the shotgun and opened the door.

An explosion rang out to the left of the door and drew Lieutenant Smith’s attention as the door was opening. Mary didn’t hesitate, she pulled the trigger of the shotgun, splattering the wall behind him with red. Smith flew back into the wall and slumped to the floor. Mary switched to the camera pointing down the left hall to confirm the explosive took out both officers. Ani could see them on the ground, surrounding walls also now red. She switched the camera again to the right hall around the corner and they saw two officers advancing toward them. Mary slid out of the apartment and crouched low to the ground, firing two more slugs. Ani watched the officers go down in the video feed, and Mary motioned for him to follow.

Crouching as low as possible in the paraharness, Ani followed Mary down the hall to the right with his mechanical legs emitting a low hum and whine with each step he took. The hall came to a nininety-degreeurn to the left. Beyond that was a long hall with tall windows on the right that lined the length of the hall. Mary reached over her shoulder with the shotgun and it snapped to her back. She pulled out both the pistols attached to her leg, and held one in each hand.

“My sensors are picking up two crowd control hoverships outside. Those windows are a nightmare, but we don’t have much of a choice because the stairwell behind us is worse.” Mary shared the stairwell camera with Ani and it showed at least a half a dozen officers bounding up the steps. “I’m gonna deploy a few smoke rounds that contain metallic particles and nanonites that will disrupt the hoverships sensors, then we’re going to book it down the hall.”

Mary didn’t wait for Ani to respond, she typed a command into her skinterface to change the round in her pistol, then fired three rounds down the hall. Ani felt Mary’s hand clamp down on his and pull him forward. The second the rounded the corner, three small explosions rang out, shooting white dust into the hall. The combat glasses cycled to another vision that allowed them to see through the smoke and confusion. The windows shook as a hovership pulled in front of them and searched the hall. Ani saw red and blue lasers shooting through the windows, looking for a signal to lock on too.

Ani’s heart was racing as they sprinted down the hall, his paraharness struggling to keep up. The hovership and its persistent tracking system was more concerning than the officers. It was one thing to send a squad of men to pick someone up, something else entirely to sick a hovership on his ass, let alone two. He had full confidence in Mary’s abilities, but couldn’t stop wondering how they were going to make it out of this alive.

The end of the hall formed a T, with another hall of windows to the right and internal hall to the left that led to the elevators. Mary scanned the windows on the right and the combat glasses pulled up the outline of two combatants in red, that were cautiously making their way toward the T. She tossed out a small round sensor that bounced into the wall in front of them, then shot off to the left. Four more officer outlines appear in red through the wall. They were moving through the hall slowly, the front to crouched and the back two standing with their stunners pointed toward the T over their partner’s heads. Mary signaled for Ani to stop five feet before the intersection.

Mary pulled up a video feed from the sensor she tossed down the hall. It was several feet in front of the four officers, looking up at them from the floor. Mary took a breath, then held it. The sensor exploded and the video feed disappeared. Mary darted into the intersection, arms straight out to either side with a pistol in each hand and fired several shots from each gun. She glanced back at Ani and signaled for him to follow with her right pistol, than holstered it as she turned toward the left hall. With her free hand stabilizing the remaining pistol, Mary disappeared past the corner.

Ani bolted forward to catch up. Mary was crouching next to one of the dead officers, typing away at her skinterface. She had fired off six rounds and all six met their marks in the center of each officer’s forehead.

“What are doing?” Ani asked in a hushed voice.

His answer came in the form of a smirk, and the peace officers comms pouring in through their own receivers. “One way audio,” she said standing quickly. “Now we know what they’re up to.”

“Beta team at the target’s five officers down, back stairwell clear. Target appears to have moved further into the building, following.”

“Better get moving,” Mary said as she rounded another corner.

“Negative Beta team, sweep the apartment for info. All teams be advised, elevators are locked down, post sentries at stairwells and sweep through the floor. Technical one and two, monitor windows and scan the floor, be advised target is suspected to have help, anti-scan devices detected.”

Ani rushed around the next corner to see Mary moving toward the elevator. There were three elevators on either side of the hall, Mary moved to each elevator and stuck and another one of her small round explosive on five of the doors. The last one, the center elevator on the right, she left clear.

Ani jumped as floor rumbled and the sound of a massive explosion rolled through the hall. “What the hell was that?”

“Sounds like Beta team found you’re apartment,” Mary chuckled to herself while prying open the non-rigged elevator doors. “My guess is they won’t find much, and the next team will have to search through the remains on the sidewalk.” Her arms strained against the metal, but with a little more force she was able to slide them open. There was a harness attached to the cables.

“Beta team report. Beta team report! Anyone have eyes on Beta team?”

“Rodger this is technical one, apartment was rigged. Beta team is dust.”

Mary placed her hand on Ani’s shoulder, “Okay, in you go.” Ani cocked his head in confusion. “It’ll support your weight, even with the paraharness.” Mary assured. “I deactivated this elevator prior to heading up to your apartment. There’s a hatch at the bottom, it’s open and your glasses are programed display directional arrows to get you safely across down the street and out of harms way. There’s an old abandoned bank there with an empty vault, close the door behind you, it’ll lock automatically. I gave Reggie the code in case…well in case you have to let yourself out once they’ve cleared out. If I can’t reach you, the glasses will provide with contact information for Ghost. He’s logged out of Asphodel until I touch base, clear?”

“You’re not coming with me?” Ani asked. Mary could see the fear in his eyes. She had been his guardian angel in Asphodel and now in the real world too. Transforming into a Wrathic and laying waste to people attacking a fake prison was one thing, but going on the run from real threats, real people was something completely different. Ani wanted to be strong, he wanted to be Adam in the real world, but he was struggling with the weight of everything.

“Team lead this is this is Richard Gouda, listen up. I want this kid caught, NOW! Do what you have to do, take down the damn building if you need to. I don’t care, just get it done!”

Ani’s eye’s widened, his expression shifted from concealed concern to downright fear. He was zoning, staring off into the distance and getting overwhelmed by the stress of the situation.

“Hey,” Mary said with a soft smile. Ani didn’t respond. “Hey,” Mary said again. This time she reached up and softly pushed his chin toward her face. Their eyes connected and recognition pulled him back to the present moment. “What did I tell you before we left your apartment?”

Ani sighed, “Keep your head down, keep it together, listen to my instructions and I’ll get you out of this.”

“That’s right,” Mary said with a nod. “Do you believe it?”

Ani paused, but he did. “Yes.”

“Alright,” Mary said with a smirk, “Then get your ass in the elevator and hook up.”

Mary pulled the cable over and connected the apparatus to his paraharness. “Okay, you’re good to go,” she pulled up a small rectangular device with two triangle shaped buttons. One had a plus sign over it and the other a minus sign. “Real easy, plus is up, minus is down, got it?”

Ani shook his head.

“You get to the bottom, just disconnect like so,”

“Charlie team lead, closing on the elevators.”

“That’s my cue,” Mary pushed him into the shaft where he hung for a second, waving back and forth. They could hear footsteps just around the corner.

“What are you going to do?” Ani asked.

Mary’s face went cold. “Make the wish they never touched my sister.”

With the, Mary forced the doors shut and all Ani saw before descending down the long elevator shaft was flashes of yellow between the doors as Mary fired her pistols at the advancing team.