章 3: Kakorrhaphiophobia
I open my eyes to see our car on the road just about to reach the ramen place. I exhale forcefully. Well that's not a whole lot of time. There's a lot of instances when I get unlucky like this and don't get a huge layover between my checkpoint and when I died. Gotta work with what I've got I guess.
We enter the restaurant again and Alex pipes up. "Team 13, how's it going? Heard Vivian just got a job done, am I right? Congrats!" That's gonna get old fast. "Right. Yeah. Thanks." My eyes shift around as I mumble.
A few minutes after ordering, I lean over to the side and tap Chrissy's shoulder. "Hey, you got the car keys? Just realized I left my phone."
"Here they are, hun. Give them back after you grab it okay?" She says with a smile and cheerful tone as one of her hands reach into her pocket and present it to me. I nod and take them, spinning them around my finger as I walk out the door.
Of course I didn't actually leave my phone(in fact, I can't really go anywhere without it). I did this to go outside and check the area if the person that killed us was here.
O-Noodles was in this small lot filled with a few other shops and restaurants. In the parking lot were a few other cars coupled with the 2 black SUVs that Specialist teams use to get around in. Nothing too out of the ordinary right now, so where could have that guy popped out of? It's around 10 more minutes until the person strikes, which is a bit after we get our food, so maybe they drive in late and I didn't notice another car?
As I'm lost in thought, I hear a loud banging against the window of the ramen shop. Looking over, I see Alex with his balled fist against the glass and a horrified expression on his face. He points up. Up? What the fuck is he on about- Oh. Found him.
The sun shining against my eyes and outlining the man's silhouette, he raises his arm and points it at me. As a hailstorm of bullets rain down and turn me into Swiss cheese, I get a good glimpse of his face, and oh boy! We're fucked! Flipped over, spanked, and done raw! Why do I say that, you ask? Well, partially because that guy is a member of another Specialist team, but mainly because this is a practically a cyborg we're dealing with.
A black bald man, with one of his eyes completely whited out due to a scar, jumps down in front of me, resulting in a loud clank. He looked at me with a pensive gaze, the wrinkles on his face tensing up. "And you were supposed to be the difficult one..." He whispers in a low voice and turns toward the window, his long, leather trench coat swaying along with him. I managed to see his prosthetics as he aims the other Specialists down. Each limb was surrounded by a dark metal with red lighting illuminating the underneath of each plate. I laid on the floor bleeding out as I witness his hand invert and fold into the barrel of a fully-automatic machine gun. He opens fire, and you can assume what happens from there. Death 3. Not the greatest start, but at least I'm making a bit of progress. Fuck me, though.
Desmond Da Silva is a war veteran in his late fifties, and surprise, surprise, much like a lot of other specialists who don't have some kind of physical advantage, he's a genius. Not saying he doesn't have a crazy physical advantage right now, but you get the point. The guy apparently lost all of his limbs and then some in a bombing but thanks to his knowledge of robotics and prosthetics, he was able to make the plans for his brand new exoskeleton and have people build it for him. Along with all of that, he decided to experiment and add, you guessed it, heavy weaponry! America is such an amazing and free country!
Anyways, he's the second-in-command of Team 1, a squad of Specialists that focus on defensive battles, which makes this weird in two ways. The first way is that he's supposed to be hired for something like protecting cargo or defending a location. The second way is that Specialists can't be hired to hunt down other Specialists. So what does that mean? Well, simply put, we have a rogue cyborg on our hands. Not the best thing ever!
"Hey, Pavul?" I suddenly say while looking out the window with my hand cupping my cheek.
"Yes, Wulf?" He responds.
"Would there be a reason a Specialist would go after another Specialist?"
Pavul remains silent for a bit before answering. "Guess that happens if they were too... what's the word?" He snaps his fingers repeatedly. "To get in..."
"Infiltrate?"
"Yes, that! Either that or they gone rogue on own accord." He opens the door of the car after we stop in front of the restaurant. "Why you ask?"
I shrug and look up at the roof, the sun hitting my eyes again just like all the times before. "Jus' wondering."
Really doubt Desmond would become a Specialist to betray his own country. From what I've heard from rumors, he's pretty loyal to say the least, especially considering the fact the was in the army for nearly half his life. Even so, that probably means he may be doing this for the fuck of it, which is a little better? Hey, I'm just saying, finding out he's been serving some terrorist organization is worse than finding out he's on his own, right?
As always, we- "Team 13, how's it going? Heard Vivian just got a job done, am I right? Congrats!" I blink and glare at Alex. He smiles and raises an eyebrow. So annoying. Actually, now that I think about it, how come he didn't notice Desmond the before the first time he killed us all? Don't tell me the guy's hallucinations get disabled while he's eating. I guess that makes sense why the guy's been a bit chubby as of late. If so, what a stupid downside. Adding to that, maybe Desmond must've known that as well. After all, Specialists have access to information about other Specialists. Except Drake though. Not sure why.
I guess I'll have to be the one to warn- "Have you guys heard about what happened to Team 3?" Oh my god. Stop talking! I'm trying to think!
Anyways- "The entire team got wiped!" Dude. Shut up.
So- Chrissy pipes up. "They died?! That one guy on their team was cute though..." Do these people not shut up? I don't want to hear your conversations! ADHD actually sucks oh my lord. Who's dying again?
"Sorry, Team 9 was killed? By whom?" Pavul asks. Hold on, what? You're telling me this whole thing was getting talked about last time and I didn't hear? Curse you, gacha games.
"It's unclear. The only thing our supervisors have gotten was that they were randomly hunted down instead of dying on a mission. Pretty crazy right? Makes me wonder if we're next or something." Alex chuckles a bit at his own joke. What an insane piece of foreshadowing, huh? Too bad I noticed that after we got shot up. My bad, guys. Hey, at least we know now!
Also, in case you're wondering why I haven't warned them about Desmond yet is because traveling back in time isn't my cool little specialty! Or, that's what everyone believed so at least. Last time I warned them a whole TEN MINUTES before the thing actually happened, and mind you, this thing wasn't anything that could kill any of us, suspicions were instantly aroused. And let me tell you, Specialists do not fuck around.
The first instance of me doing that, Pavul snapped my neck by grabbing my face with one hand and rotating his wrist. Second time, Chrissy put me in a head lock while her other two arms made use of her knifes on my body. And that shit fucking hurt! If there's anything I hate most, it's slow deaths. Slow deaths and people who talk slow. Those things are the bane of me.
Anyways, there's a zero tolerance policy for any kind of suspicious behavior, especially for the new guys like me. The leader and co-leader are legally allowed to kill the new recruits if they're found to be acting strange.
That said, I have to wait until right before until the attack happens so I can warn them. Oh, that's right now by the way. Doesn't time fly?
I tap twice on the table before speaking up in between the conversations everyone was having. "Pause." They all stop talking but keep the same facial expressions they had, most of them smiling or looking intrigued.
"Time?" Pavul questions. Code for direction of the danger.
"12 o'clock." I answer back as I take a sip of my water.
"Sorry, everyone! Gotta go to the ladies room." Chrissy says while getting up from her seat. Code for evacuating civilians.
"Pockets?" Alex asks while yawning. Code for weapon check.
"Just the usual." I say referring to my two pistols. The lack of silence from everyone else tells me they're all unarmed. Not the best, but we can hold our own without weapons.
I lift my pointer finger and tap the table. Three. I tap again. Two. Everyone shifts slightly in preparation. I tap again. One.
Desmond lands on the ground outside of the window and instantly starts firing. Team 6 all dive to the sides and take cover behind the counters by the window. Pavul kicks up the table and he, Drake, and I all dive behind it. The firing goes on for another few seconds, bullets zooming past our table and hitting the floor next to us while sparks form due to some strays hitting the walls.
As this happens, I pull out both of my pistols and slide one over to Pavul. After the firing stops, we peek out from behind the table and aim our guns at Desmond. Pavul and I unload our clips but the bullets rebound off the side of his arm. We both take cover again.
"So how are we supposed to deal with this guy?" I say reloading and passing a full clip to Pavul. He takes it and pops the old clip out before replacing it with the new one. "Have to get up close and personal. Overwhelm him."
"Grenade!" Alex says reacting to his hallucinations before one drops behind our table. Ugh. Well shit. I sigh and wait for it to explode. The fuck am I supposed to do against a grenade?
Suddenly, Drake dives down and covers his body with it. I blink and reach out to him. "Wait! Don't!-" I'm gonna reset anyways! If he dies and we actually manage to defeat Desmond, I'm still gonna reset to make sure Drake lives. Who does he think he is?
Pavul holds me back while the grenade goes off. A cloud of smoke appears where it exploded. My eyes begin to water. From the smoke of course. Honestly I could care less if he died. Yeah, I get that I just said I'll reset to make sure he lives, but I need the rest of my team to make things easier. By the way, I thought things would be a bit more... bloody? Not that I'm disappointed or anything, in fact, this is my last extra shirt I have in the car, it's just that he jumped on top of a grenade! You'd expect a bunch of guts and shit to be all over the place, right?
As the smoke clears, Drake's figure rises. My eyes squint as I make out what actually happened. His clothes were completely seared around his chest area and in that clearing the explosion happened, a layer of hard material remained. Parts of his chest that were burnt slowly got covered up by this whitish-gray stuff. Are those... his bones? And I thought Chrissy's thing was freaky. What's going on with this guy?
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