08-17-2012, 02:03 AM
Armored Core: Silent Calamity
Chapter 7
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First Day on the Job
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A large almost comedic hole was blown at the side of the concrete column. Pieces of cement littered the floor of the columned hallway. Apathy was no longer tired from a restless night, and was fully committed to the fight now. He had to be. Hyruler was giving him little space for error. Vivify, Victor’s AC, had only been tagged once by Hyruler’s hellish weapon and was already suffering from an infernal fever. Vivify’s radiator was hard at work combating the heat created from the weapon seconds after the attack. AP 4985. Right now Apathy was fighting his own anxiety and struggling to keep his thoughts cold and calculating-as Sylvia had recommended that morning. Vivify had found refuge for the time being behind the very same column that now wore a cartoon-like bite. He had boosted behind the column instinctively moments after getting hit by Hyruler’s attack. The attack buckled Vivify’s legs and left them inoperable for a couple of seconds, but his booster thrusters remained operational. Following the first successful attack a second shot narrowly missed Vivify as it hid behind the column.
“I’m glad you made it, raven, I was afraid Crest’s mission’d be a dud. I’d still get paid, but where’s the fun in that?” Hyruler’s pilot said coldly and, more frighteningly, he said sincerely.
“I’m guessing this will be the last conversation one of us is ever going to have.” Apathy hoped, in vain, that the other pilot’s mission wasn’t what he feared. The pilot laughed.
“Yeah, those’ll be your last words.” Apathy heard the familiar sound of booster thrusters. The pilot was done talking and had begun his hunt. Apathy had only a few moments to think now. The day had escalated in intensity since its sluggish start.
Sylvia came into Victor’s room that day at 6 in the morning. This would be the first of many visits from her as Victor won her affections. Victor was slow to get up to open the door for her. He had spent the entire night obsessing about his actions from the day before. Victor had killed five men in the raven’s initiation test. As a slum thug and in 8 years he had killed a vexing two people. These two deaths weighed on him and always would, he suspected. But in a matter of minutes inside his AC he had more than tripled his death toll. His AC facilitated the process. It made the process of stealing a man’s life a simple affair mediated by the pulling of a small trigger.
No. The worst part of the ordeal was not simply the speed and efficacy of his transgression. The first two men he slayed haunted him. They tugged at the most sensitive parts of his humanity because Victor had met them. They had faces and names, stories, histories, and hopes and dreams. The AC battlefield was different. Cold metal walls separated the victims from their aggressors. Victor knew nothing of the men felled by his weapon. They were masked and almost none existent. His sin hardly seemed a crime.
The world had forgotten those men that died almost immediately after their demise. Sylvia didn’t speak about them nor the clerks and operators in Global Cortex. Even Victor had not brought them up. How could he? They had no stories; they were but nameless pilots aboard lifeless machines. Victor had a hard enough time remembering the instant each one of his victims died. It was this terrible silence and indifference that hurt him. The apathy was a guilty pleasure. The pleasure of the world’s forgiveness was all too terrifying. Victor was afraid of this curse’s implication. The cost of apathy could be nothing less of losing his humanity! Victor, terrified, deliberately obsessed and went out of his way to make himself pay his penance due. He was a villain, a monster, and a murderer. His penance was inflicted by defaming himself. Even this was an act of selfish need, he continued, not spurred by the loss of lives but rather the fear of how it affected him. Victor was selfish and self centered. He was disgusting.
Victor was inflicting all sorts of mental attacks on himself. It was hard for him to stop once he started; Chris wasn’t there to soothe his aching heart and mind. Her warm words and body normally would lul his worries away. Being one of the closest people to him, she knew him inside and out. She knew how to disarm his self destructive tendencies, and she also knew that Victor was far from being the man he portrayed himself as during these painful pangs of remorse. His duty toward the gang had led him to become too critical of himself. Sadly, Chris wasn’t there. She couldn’t save him from his self inflicting wrath. All Victor had was the lonely darkness of a room without windows or furniture. His only piece of furniture was a small unused cot that lay in the opposite side of the room. Victor sat in a corner of his room holding his knees like a mad man through out the night. The night was long and tiring. Sylvia’s unexpected visit was a blessing.
As Sylvia entered the room she felt the corrosive atmosphere. The dull dumb look in his dark eyes and the bags under them explained just enough for Sylvia to know that she had just walked into a sad lunatic’s dungeon. Her camaraderie burned brightly in her. Although she knew very little about this man, she had become attached to him inexplicably. He seemed honest and good willed. Sylvia didn’t know much about those two qualities, given that they were very rare in her line of work, but she found herself attracted to them.
“Turn on the lights, it’s a cave in here!” Sylvia began treating her friend’s invisible wounds, beginning with the depressing darkness of the room. “You look like hell, Victor, go wash your face. I’m going to take you to buy your pilot gear. I noticed that for the initiation test you were wearing those nasty rags- you seem so fond of.” she said the last part mockingly with a laugh, noticing that he was wearing the same thing she last saw him in.
“I don’t have money.” Victor responded grimly.
“Don’t worry about it. Consider it a gift for a job well done during our mission.”
“Ugh, th-thank you.” Victor didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t suppose you’ve even checked out the update on your Personal Organizing Computer? It’s pretty neat. You can read mail, check personal mission requests, and even modify your AC, Vivify, right?” Victor nodded, “yeah, you modify the blue print in it and the hangar mechanics will work it out. Pretty nifty, right?” Sylvia had worked a smile on the sad man’s face. Proud at her accomplishment, Sylvia’s thin pink lips arched into an attractive smile.
“Really, nifty?” Victor toyed, “lemme take look at that gizmo. Sounds real neat-o.” He mocked her.
“I’m sorry, but you have to be at least this cute,” she pointed to herself,”to talk like me. When you do it, it’s just sad.” Sylvia retorted and they both laughed.
Victor walked over to his bed where the small piece of equipment lay. He picked it up and examined it. The black screen of the device turned on and displayed a new layout. He had learned how to use a few of the functions prior to the initiation test: Sinister had taught him how to create a pass code to open his AC’s hatch mostly The main menu displayed an orange circular dial with different tabs labeled: Garage, Mail, Mission, System, and Organizer. The word “New” was written on the upper right hand corner of the Mail, and Mission tabs. Sylvia walked over to Victor and found an intimately close spot behind him to peek over his shoulder.
“Look, you have mail. How exiting, I love mail.” She hinted. Victor complied.
There were three pieces of mail:
From: Ana Burkov
‘Hello raven, I am Ana Burkov, and I will be your Global Cortex representative. I will be your link to contracts and missions as well as offer you limited computer support on the field. I look forward to working with you, and please contact me if you need assistance. On a personal note, I’m new to this position, but I pride myself on my dependability. We will make a great team.’
“She seems nice. My operator is a dude, and kinda sounds like a tool.” Sylvia added.
From: Global Cortex
‘Congratulations, you are now a registered raven. You are now entitled to all the privileges associated with this title. Our facility offers many services to accommodate you. AC tune-ups, modifications, maintenance, and storage are available for you. Ammunition stocks and an extensive AC part shop is conveniently available through your POC (Personal Organizing Computer). Finally, lodging is also available on location. We recommend the AC Arena as a means to further advertise your skill. Remember that a reasonable fee is associated with most of our services. We look forward to working with you toward a mutual benefit.’
“I got that same one last night too.” She commented.
From: Mirage Corporation
‘Raven, we heard about your exploits during your initiation test and were intrigued. Your skill seems to be higher than the average inductee. We would then like to recommend you for a mission we will launch tomorrow night. We hope to hear back from you.’
“Hey! I didn’t get a request like that. I did just as well as you, and if I remember correctly, it was my missile that saved you during your ‘exploits’.” Sylvia poked Victor in the ribs jealously.
“I guess I’m lucky.” Victor responded as he turned to his friend with a humble smile. Sylvia was indignant, but after she caught a glimpse of Victor’s uncomfortable response she sighed away her jealousy.
“Psh, we’ll that was sent yesterday. We better go get your uniform and get you ready for your special secret mission. Hmf, it won’t take long before Mirage realizes they backed the wrong horse.” The last part was said teasingly but with a small tinge of sincerity. Victor then went on to check the mission briefing on his POC. Sylvia hit him in the back of his head.
“Those are confidential you idiot! You should have told me to step out or something.” She explained, but her curiosity kept her looking over Victor’s shoulder.
Operation Code: Tooth Fairy
Client: Mirage Corp.
Reward: 25,000c
Briefing:
‘Our chief rival, Crest Corporation, has been expanding forcefully into specific locations even if it means tearing down residential sectors. This expansion is very uncharacteristic of Crest and has birthed 4 new facilities. Our sources tell us that these locations will be used strategically and coordinately to launch a devastating strike against competitors in the future. We are not entirely sure what that means, but Mirage will not stand for it. You and three other ravens will each visit one of these baby facilities and obtain information located in a computer room within each of the buildings. Secondly, you will also destroy the same computer room so we can slow Crest’s progress and buy us time to analyze the data you will obtain for us. Because the facilities are brand new and small, we don’t expect that you will meet heavy opposition. Finally, we will offer bonuses for any additional damage you do on the building.’
A small dialogue box appeared in the middle of Victor’s POC: ‘Accept mission?’
Vivify had just walked into a hallway in the Crest facility. Metallic alloy walls were a portent of the welcome he’d find in there. Vivify was still a dull metallic grey color. Most of its parts were cheap, and easily recognized it as a beginner’s AC. A gun barrel protruded from its chest giving it an awkward pointed appearance. A rocket launcher on its left shoulder, an assault rifle in its right hand and a laser blade mounted in its left forearm decorated it.
“Okay, Apathy, hurry now, taking too long can incite reinforcements to arrive. In fact, just make it a rule to work through your missions as fast as possible from now on.” Ana recommended over the intercom. Using Vivify’s proximity to the front gate of the building, she was able to hack through an entrance of the building, allowing Vivify in.
“Roger.”
Vivify set off in run down the long cramped hallway. The hall was hardly twice the size of Vivify, inhibiting almost any non-linear movement. Apathy was focused. Sylvia, his new friend wanted him safe: ‘Don’t blow it, Victor. Remember that you stole my position in this mission, so make it count.’ Although Sylvia had spent most of the day speaking condescendingly and enviously to Victor, she said this with a playfully reassuring but worried voice.
Two purple bleeps appeared at the top end of the radar. Apathy noticed immediately but saw nothing on his main screen. Ping Ping Ping, the faint sound was heard inside the cockpit. Apathy began looking around the empty hall way to no avail. Taking a second look at the radar, Apathy ran down the hall to get closer to the invisible sources of the attack. Finally, looking up, Apathy caught glimpse of two miniscule spherical turrets on the ceiling of the hallway. He shot them down immediately and laughed as he took a look at the miniscule damage displayed on his AP counter. AP: 8100. He moved forward, and found more turrets before reaching a closed gate that occupied the entire width of the hallway. He destroyed the turrets. Apathy then opened the door with the press of a button on his control panel after he approached a small gridded device that flashed green and red lights. The device was resting in the middle of the left wall of the hall way. Vivify had just sent a wireless signal to the small device that controlled the door.
The gate opened upwards and revealed a small room. Vivify boosted forward, reacting to the movement of a sliding four legged MT, across the upper left corner of his screen. The MT was hardly half the size of Vivify and had a single arm, shaped like a cannon at its left side. As expected, Vivify narrowly avoided a strange attack by the sneaky unit. The attack seemed like that of a gun, but from what Apathy could discern, the shots were slightly slower. This allowed the young raven to make some conjectures about what he thought he had just seen. The bullets, if they could be called so, were large and orb like. They had a pink glow to them and almost seemed like flying over-sized egg yolks attacking in a rapid burst of three or four at a time. A curious sound seeped into the cockpit: Teeh, teeh, teeh, teeh.
“What the hell was that?” Apathy spoke into the mouth piece on his helmet.
“What? The MT?” Ana asked confused.
“No, what it shot.”
“That, raven, is an energy attack produced by a pulse rifle. It’s a fairly common sight, I’m surprised you don’t know.” Ana responded unprofessionally.
Vivify struggled to turn left and take aim on the sliding MT given the confining space of the room. Teeh, teeh, teeh, teeh. The red light turned on in the cockpit. The damage was small. AP: 7812. A second unit, unnoticed by Apathy until this moment had successfully hit Vivify’s back. This MT had waited in the right corner of the room near the entrance Apathy came in through. He was surrounded. Apathy strafed left evasively as both MTs began shooting at him while skittering around. Luckily most of the attacks missed. Apathy decided on a course of action coolly. He charged at the first MT, causing it to retreat to a corner were it was unable to move further. Apathy began pulling his left trigger, but something odd happened. The trigger pushed back and Vivify halted his movement as if frozen in time. The damage on Vivify increased steadily as both MTs continued their attacks. Vivify retreated in a boost and collected more damage. AP: 7081.
“Raven, what’s wrong. What are you doing?” Ana interrogated angrily. Only silence was heard from Apathy.
Victor was shaking. He couldn’t bring himself to do it again. These MTs were different from the gun turrets. Victor knew these machines were piloted.
“Have you gone completely daft? Shoot them! They will kill you.” Ana ordered.
Apathy reacted. He had no choice, this was the wrong place for Victor’s conscience. Making it through the ordeal at hand was Apathy’s first priority. He took aim and shot multiple times at the MT until a loud crack and hiss released a thick dark smoke from it’s innards. The MT collapsed between its four legs lifelessly. The red light indicating damage had been on so long in the cockpit that Apathy had completely forgotten he was still under fire. Realizing this fact he boosted right and jumped in the air twisting Vivify around to catch a glimpse of the MT. Teeh, Teeh, Teeh, Teeh. The attack missed over Vivify’s head as he landed but a second followed. Apathy was one step ahead though, and skidded towards the MT using his back mounted thrusters breaking slightly to his right to avoid the pulse rifle’s burst attack. The MT now in range, was hit by a rifle shot in combination with a devastating blade attack that opened a large slit in the MT’s body armor as well as scathed its front left leg. The MT hiccupped and began spewing hazy smoke. A second blade attack caused the MT to explode almost immediately after initial contact.
“What the hell is wrong with-?” Ana began.
“Shut up, your job is to provide back up not commentary.” Apathy snapped at her in a fit of rage. She couldn’t possibly understand, Apathy thought to himself indignant.
Ana, insulted, huffed but did not retort. Vivify began walking toward a second door and opened it. As it slid open-
“Wait, raven” Ana interjected, “I’ve got an update. Mirage is informing me that all of the other raven’s employed for Operation Tooth fairy have been eliminated. Apathy, this is bad. It seems unexpected security was hired. Mirage is recommending you abort the mission, it’s too dangerous. Get out of there!”
Vivify had just entered a large hallway with two rows of large round concrete columns. The gate closed behind him. A loud mechanism clicked inside the gate.
“The gate seems to have lock-“ Ana was interrupted.
Vivify’s core received an unexpected attack that buckled it’s legs. A powerful loud explosion shook Vivify violently and Apathy felt the temperature inside his cock pit sky rocket in an instant. A message reading “Danger Heat” appeared under Apathy’s AP counter, now reading 5078, and dropping steadily. Instinctively Apathy tried to run but Vivify’s legs were unresponsive. Alarmed, Apathy, stomped on the boost petal and slid to the left behind the closest pillar. As he disappeared behind the pillar, a second shot blasted a piece of the column into smithereens.
“AC Hyruler identified. The pilot is a seasoned fighter, raven, proceed with caution.” Ana did her best to update Apathy. A second transmission came through.
“I’m glad you made it, raven, I was afraid Crest’s mission’d be a dud. I’d still get paid, but where’s the fun in that?”
“I’m guessing this will be the last conversation one of us is ever going to have.”
“Yeah, those’ll be your last words.”
Apathy stopped to think for what he felt was an eternity. Over the rapid beating of his heart, the enemy’s thrusters, and the siren going off inside Vivify to signal the heat hazard, Apathy shouted to make sure he was heard.
“Ana, what did he hit me with?”
“A grenade rifle. It is a very powerful weapon, I’d be surprised if you are able to withstand three more shots.” Ana informed in a detached voice. She had already given up hope, her raven was as good as dead. Hyruler’s pilot, King, was ranked 42 in the arena and was a lot more experienced in battle than was her clumsy raven appointee.
Apathy was in the frying pan now, ironically, as he thought this his AC recuperated from its excess heat. The warning light and siren turned off. One pilot would be slain within minutes, Apathy realized the odds were stacked against him, but at an early age he learned that giving up was the only sure way to lose. He would fight to live.
Quickly, he turned to the radar and found Hyruler’s bleep. Given its constant path, Hyruler would meet up with Vivify in less than three seconds, at close a range. Apathy immediately came up with a plan using every possible bit of experience he had earned until now. He turned away in the opposite direction of the site where Hyruler’ was expected to show and switched his weapon to the rockets. He then calculated coolly and expertly, and jumped back.
He was surprised to find that everything went as he planned! Vivify jumped back but as he landed he was looking directly at the back of a bright silver AC trimmed in gold. This AC was heavily armored and had thick arms and legs, as well as a big core, bigger and thicker than that of Vivify. Intimidated but resolved, Victor opened fire with his rockets. The rockets were unleashed in quick succession. Given the close proximity of the attack Apathy did not miss, and Hyruler took four attacks in succession to the core. Apathy noticed that the rockets were not as damaging as he’d hoped, Hyruler’s armor was strong. However, the explosions’ smoke lazily slithered up the AC and wrapped around its head. Apathy laughed hysterically. Back in the slums, when Victor faced an opponent bigger than him, he would have to resort to all sorts of tactics to avoid a match of power. Apathy began moving the cursor of his weapon up. He was going for the head! Hyruler’s head was in the shape of a dome. A rocket hit the head and exploded, and a second one followed but was avoided after Hyruler split to his right.
Apathy became frightened once again. He had engaged, and destruction of one AC was eminent. However, given his focus, he overcame his fear and took notice of a strange wing-like protusion extending from Hyruler’s back on the left shoulder, as well as a large box mounted on its right shoulder.
“What’s that wing device on his back?” Apathy inquired while on pursuit and steadying the aim of the rockets.
“Wing? Oh, Hyruler is equipped with a radar unit on its left shoulder and a missile box on its right shoulder.” Ana answered, now fully engaged in the events. Apathy’s impressive pre-emptive strike amazed her. Apathy proved to be a more capable pilot than his skirmish with the MTs had shown her.
“Radar? But Vivify has a radar and it doesn’t equip anything like that.”
“Your radar is a function of Vivify’s head. It is not as extensive as his radar part. Hyruler’s head is heavily armored, but is not equipped with a radar function like yours. He equips the back mounted radar to compensate for that.” Ana explained, at the edge of her seat back in her operator room miles away. Ana’s computer was being fed the information on Apathy’s screen through a satellite up link.
Apathy took a couple of shots with his rockets but these were shaken off by a Hyruler and missed. Hyruler was beginning to turn around slowly, given his large size, to its right. This frightened Apathy for he new hell awaited at the completion of Hyruler’s turn. Hastened by this fear and close on Hyruler’s tail, Vivify, attacked with its blade. The loud screeching sound of the burning blade damaging Hyruler’s core was heard. Now at a close range again, given the forward dash executed for the blade slash, Apathy unleashed more rockets. Three met its mark. Ana muttered “Yes!” under her breath and hit the palm of her hand with her fist.
Hyruler, however, retreated backwards and turned as each successive rocket hit him. Apathy realized he was in trouble, for now he could see the front of Hyruler. Hyrulers right arm came up. Vivify boosted left immediately but it was too late. Vivify’s right arm was reduced to black twisted charred remains that bled out sparks. Vivify was impacted against a pillar nearby. Apathy again was in the red lit oven of his cockpit, with a siren resonating within. AP: 2989 and dropping; the schematic of Apathy’s AC in one of his screens had its right arm shaded in red now. His right arm was destroyed.
The second shot wasn’t too far behind, he assumed and in a drastic measure, Apathy pumped the booster petal twice and began flying. A second shot grazed Vivifies toes as he was boosted into the air. The explosion of the grenade shook Vivify and destabilized its flight. Apathy fully aware of the risk involved stabilized the flight the best he could and faced Hyruler. Here Apathy was struck with a difficult decision. His first instinct was to retreat and hide behind the column for safety, but as he noticed that Hyruler began lifting his hand to take aim at Vivify, Apathy thought of another riskier maneuver. Hyruler was aiming because he wasn’t locked on yet. Apathy gambled. He hovered in his enemy’s direction keeping his altitude steady so as to pass over the enemy. He was going to race King in a match to see who could aim faster!
Victor pushed his right arm joy stick forward aggressively to drop the cursor of his weapon and as the steady decent of the marker approached Hyruler he readied his trigger finger. He might only get one chance. In the opposite cockpit, King was sweating profusely cold drops of terror and shock at the unexpectedly difficult battle he had engaged; he was tugging at his right hand joystick to elevate his lockbox into position. However, given Vivify’s approach, he had to look further and further up to lock on.
By some cosmic coincidence, both pilots finally pulled their trigger fingers at the same time. Both explosives traveled past each other in the air. King’s grenade missed the moving Vivify but given the close proximity of the explosion on the ceiling behind the AC, Vivify was propelled forward faster. Apathy’s rocket hit Hyruler in the head, and the young raven in his euphoria and focus, readied his aim again- the propulsion had unaligned his mark. Apathy shot once and missed narrowly, but with a small adjustment he fired 2 more consecutive shots that hit Hyruler on its core. Hyruler was sparking and releasing thin smoke now. Vivify had flown past Hyruler so Apathy let go of the booster petal and landed behind Hyruler. Both ACs were back to back now.
King was in total shock, but quickly composed himself. The fight wasn’t over until one raven was wasted! King, taking a play from Apathy’s book, kicked his petal to make Hyruler jump back to face Vivify. Hyruler landed. Apathy saw the smoke and multiple scars on Hyruler. He was on the final lap! Reacting quickly as Hyruler brought up his arm to shoot his hellish grenade rifle, Apathy pulled his left trigger for a blade attack. He slashed Hyruler, but it wasn’t enough, Hyruler was still standing. King’s trigger was pulled.
Apathy brazed himself for the blast. Nothing came. Hyruler’s arm kept jerking up and down repeatedly. Before Apathy or King could understand what had just happened, Apathy shot a rocket. The rocket hit Hyruler’s core, and he dropped to his knee. Lots of tiny explosions began erupting around the fallen foe’s core.
“Raven, it was an honor-“ King uttered over the communication channel respectfully but solemnly before a large explosion erupted inside the core. Bolts and bits and pieces of the thick core got expelled from the explosion, but the AC remained intact for the most part in the dramatic position.
“Enemy destruction verified. Great job, raven!” Ana jumped of joy out of her seat. “Will you finish the mission?”
“Unless I’m killed from here to the computer room.” Apathy affirmed. The question remained. “Why didn’t Hyruler’s pilot take the last shot?”
“Well, you attacked the AC head a couple of times with strong attacks. AC heads, much like human heads, contain powerful computers that coordinate many of the AC’s movements and calculations. That last shot to the head must have caused a system error and consequently the right arm to malfunction. King didn’t willingly not shoot, he couldn’t shoot.” She theorized. Head on over to the next Gate, I’ll unlock it for you.”
The heavily injured Vivify turned to his left and saw the door near by. Ana hacked through it and Apathy carried on to the next room, which was significantly smaller than the hall that had just served as his battle field. Two MTs similar to those before were waiting for him. Apathy was ready for them too. Vivify charged at the first and slashed it with its laser blade. The second MT, sliding behind the first, exploded after a rocket attack, that was shot over the slashed MT, hit it. The slashed MT retaliated with the energy pulses from a point blank range into Vivify’s core. Vivify boosted back just enough to once again slash the MT into an exploding ball of fire, smoke, and metallic debris.
“That is the computer room to the left.” Ana directed.
“What about the right door; where does that lead?” Apathy inquired.
“I’m not sure.”
Curios, Apathy took the right door. He found himself in a big room filled with all sorts of crates and transport vehicles, as well as lifts and other storage machines. Apathy was looking at his bonuses. He began destroying everything with his laser blade. He was having a blast destroying the motionless and defenseless targets.
Three security MTs, similar to all the others, appeared from behind a group of crates. Using fancy boosting maneuvers and close range rocket attacks, Apathy disposed of all three MTs with ease. There was not much more the Crest facility could throw in Apathy’s direction that could stop him. The fledgling had bested a powerful raven in his first mission, and he had survived where others had perished. Apathy was unstoppable.
With the entire storage room destroyed, Apathy returned to the previous room and went on into the computer room. The room was even smaller than the one before and stored three large computers in the back. Ana hacked into each of the computers from her operation room and retrieved many encrypted files.
“I got the files, go ahead and make your way out. Remember to-“
Ana stopped when she began hearing and seeing the destruction that Apathy had begun on the large computers. Apathy had grown into his position as a raven. With no more enemies in the facility, Vivify made it out to the escape point uninhibited. Apathy felt a strange exhilaration. He had single-handedly thwarted an army that was bent on taking him out. He was stronger than any and all of them. Outside the building a transport helicopter awaited him. Apathy’s fun was over, which was just as well, since he was fatigued. Victor was ready to go home.
Chapter 7
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First Day on the Job
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A large almost comedic hole was blown at the side of the concrete column. Pieces of cement littered the floor of the columned hallway. Apathy was no longer tired from a restless night, and was fully committed to the fight now. He had to be. Hyruler was giving him little space for error. Vivify, Victor’s AC, had only been tagged once by Hyruler’s hellish weapon and was already suffering from an infernal fever. Vivify’s radiator was hard at work combating the heat created from the weapon seconds after the attack. AP 4985. Right now Apathy was fighting his own anxiety and struggling to keep his thoughts cold and calculating-as Sylvia had recommended that morning. Vivify had found refuge for the time being behind the very same column that now wore a cartoon-like bite. He had boosted behind the column instinctively moments after getting hit by Hyruler’s attack. The attack buckled Vivify’s legs and left them inoperable for a couple of seconds, but his booster thrusters remained operational. Following the first successful attack a second shot narrowly missed Vivify as it hid behind the column.
“I’m glad you made it, raven, I was afraid Crest’s mission’d be a dud. I’d still get paid, but where’s the fun in that?” Hyruler’s pilot said coldly and, more frighteningly, he said sincerely.
“I’m guessing this will be the last conversation one of us is ever going to have.” Apathy hoped, in vain, that the other pilot’s mission wasn’t what he feared. The pilot laughed.
“Yeah, those’ll be your last words.” Apathy heard the familiar sound of booster thrusters. The pilot was done talking and had begun his hunt. Apathy had only a few moments to think now. The day had escalated in intensity since its sluggish start.
Sylvia came into Victor’s room that day at 6 in the morning. This would be the first of many visits from her as Victor won her affections. Victor was slow to get up to open the door for her. He had spent the entire night obsessing about his actions from the day before. Victor had killed five men in the raven’s initiation test. As a slum thug and in 8 years he had killed a vexing two people. These two deaths weighed on him and always would, he suspected. But in a matter of minutes inside his AC he had more than tripled his death toll. His AC facilitated the process. It made the process of stealing a man’s life a simple affair mediated by the pulling of a small trigger.
No. The worst part of the ordeal was not simply the speed and efficacy of his transgression. The first two men he slayed haunted him. They tugged at the most sensitive parts of his humanity because Victor had met them. They had faces and names, stories, histories, and hopes and dreams. The AC battlefield was different. Cold metal walls separated the victims from their aggressors. Victor knew nothing of the men felled by his weapon. They were masked and almost none existent. His sin hardly seemed a crime.
The world had forgotten those men that died almost immediately after their demise. Sylvia didn’t speak about them nor the clerks and operators in Global Cortex. Even Victor had not brought them up. How could he? They had no stories; they were but nameless pilots aboard lifeless machines. Victor had a hard enough time remembering the instant each one of his victims died. It was this terrible silence and indifference that hurt him. The apathy was a guilty pleasure. The pleasure of the world’s forgiveness was all too terrifying. Victor was afraid of this curse’s implication. The cost of apathy could be nothing less of losing his humanity! Victor, terrified, deliberately obsessed and went out of his way to make himself pay his penance due. He was a villain, a monster, and a murderer. His penance was inflicted by defaming himself. Even this was an act of selfish need, he continued, not spurred by the loss of lives but rather the fear of how it affected him. Victor was selfish and self centered. He was disgusting.
Victor was inflicting all sorts of mental attacks on himself. It was hard for him to stop once he started; Chris wasn’t there to soothe his aching heart and mind. Her warm words and body normally would lul his worries away. Being one of the closest people to him, she knew him inside and out. She knew how to disarm his self destructive tendencies, and she also knew that Victor was far from being the man he portrayed himself as during these painful pangs of remorse. His duty toward the gang had led him to become too critical of himself. Sadly, Chris wasn’t there. She couldn’t save him from his self inflicting wrath. All Victor had was the lonely darkness of a room without windows or furniture. His only piece of furniture was a small unused cot that lay in the opposite side of the room. Victor sat in a corner of his room holding his knees like a mad man through out the night. The night was long and tiring. Sylvia’s unexpected visit was a blessing.
As Sylvia entered the room she felt the corrosive atmosphere. The dull dumb look in his dark eyes and the bags under them explained just enough for Sylvia to know that she had just walked into a sad lunatic’s dungeon. Her camaraderie burned brightly in her. Although she knew very little about this man, she had become attached to him inexplicably. He seemed honest and good willed. Sylvia didn’t know much about those two qualities, given that they were very rare in her line of work, but she found herself attracted to them.
“Turn on the lights, it’s a cave in here!” Sylvia began treating her friend’s invisible wounds, beginning with the depressing darkness of the room. “You look like hell, Victor, go wash your face. I’m going to take you to buy your pilot gear. I noticed that for the initiation test you were wearing those nasty rags- you seem so fond of.” she said the last part mockingly with a laugh, noticing that he was wearing the same thing she last saw him in.
“I don’t have money.” Victor responded grimly.
“Don’t worry about it. Consider it a gift for a job well done during our mission.”
“Ugh, th-thank you.” Victor didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t suppose you’ve even checked out the update on your Personal Organizing Computer? It’s pretty neat. You can read mail, check personal mission requests, and even modify your AC, Vivify, right?” Victor nodded, “yeah, you modify the blue print in it and the hangar mechanics will work it out. Pretty nifty, right?” Sylvia had worked a smile on the sad man’s face. Proud at her accomplishment, Sylvia’s thin pink lips arched into an attractive smile.
“Really, nifty?” Victor toyed, “lemme take look at that gizmo. Sounds real neat-o.” He mocked her.
“I’m sorry, but you have to be at least this cute,” she pointed to herself,”to talk like me. When you do it, it’s just sad.” Sylvia retorted and they both laughed.
Victor walked over to his bed where the small piece of equipment lay. He picked it up and examined it. The black screen of the device turned on and displayed a new layout. He had learned how to use a few of the functions prior to the initiation test: Sinister had taught him how to create a pass code to open his AC’s hatch mostly The main menu displayed an orange circular dial with different tabs labeled: Garage, Mail, Mission, System, and Organizer. The word “New” was written on the upper right hand corner of the Mail, and Mission tabs. Sylvia walked over to Victor and found an intimately close spot behind him to peek over his shoulder.
“Look, you have mail. How exiting, I love mail.” She hinted. Victor complied.
There were three pieces of mail:
From: Ana Burkov
‘Hello raven, I am Ana Burkov, and I will be your Global Cortex representative. I will be your link to contracts and missions as well as offer you limited computer support on the field. I look forward to working with you, and please contact me if you need assistance. On a personal note, I’m new to this position, but I pride myself on my dependability. We will make a great team.’
“She seems nice. My operator is a dude, and kinda sounds like a tool.” Sylvia added.
From: Global Cortex
‘Congratulations, you are now a registered raven. You are now entitled to all the privileges associated with this title. Our facility offers many services to accommodate you. AC tune-ups, modifications, maintenance, and storage are available for you. Ammunition stocks and an extensive AC part shop is conveniently available through your POC (Personal Organizing Computer). Finally, lodging is also available on location. We recommend the AC Arena as a means to further advertise your skill. Remember that a reasonable fee is associated with most of our services. We look forward to working with you toward a mutual benefit.’
“I got that same one last night too.” She commented.
From: Mirage Corporation
‘Raven, we heard about your exploits during your initiation test and were intrigued. Your skill seems to be higher than the average inductee. We would then like to recommend you for a mission we will launch tomorrow night. We hope to hear back from you.’
“Hey! I didn’t get a request like that. I did just as well as you, and if I remember correctly, it was my missile that saved you during your ‘exploits’.” Sylvia poked Victor in the ribs jealously.
“I guess I’m lucky.” Victor responded as he turned to his friend with a humble smile. Sylvia was indignant, but after she caught a glimpse of Victor’s uncomfortable response she sighed away her jealousy.
“Psh, we’ll that was sent yesterday. We better go get your uniform and get you ready for your special secret mission. Hmf, it won’t take long before Mirage realizes they backed the wrong horse.” The last part was said teasingly but with a small tinge of sincerity. Victor then went on to check the mission briefing on his POC. Sylvia hit him in the back of his head.
“Those are confidential you idiot! You should have told me to step out or something.” She explained, but her curiosity kept her looking over Victor’s shoulder.
Operation Code: Tooth Fairy
Client: Mirage Corp.
Reward: 25,000c
Briefing:
‘Our chief rival, Crest Corporation, has been expanding forcefully into specific locations even if it means tearing down residential sectors. This expansion is very uncharacteristic of Crest and has birthed 4 new facilities. Our sources tell us that these locations will be used strategically and coordinately to launch a devastating strike against competitors in the future. We are not entirely sure what that means, but Mirage will not stand for it. You and three other ravens will each visit one of these baby facilities and obtain information located in a computer room within each of the buildings. Secondly, you will also destroy the same computer room so we can slow Crest’s progress and buy us time to analyze the data you will obtain for us. Because the facilities are brand new and small, we don’t expect that you will meet heavy opposition. Finally, we will offer bonuses for any additional damage you do on the building.’
A small dialogue box appeared in the middle of Victor’s POC: ‘Accept mission?’
Vivify had just walked into a hallway in the Crest facility. Metallic alloy walls were a portent of the welcome he’d find in there. Vivify was still a dull metallic grey color. Most of its parts were cheap, and easily recognized it as a beginner’s AC. A gun barrel protruded from its chest giving it an awkward pointed appearance. A rocket launcher on its left shoulder, an assault rifle in its right hand and a laser blade mounted in its left forearm decorated it.
“Okay, Apathy, hurry now, taking too long can incite reinforcements to arrive. In fact, just make it a rule to work through your missions as fast as possible from now on.” Ana recommended over the intercom. Using Vivify’s proximity to the front gate of the building, she was able to hack through an entrance of the building, allowing Vivify in.
“Roger.”
Vivify set off in run down the long cramped hallway. The hall was hardly twice the size of Vivify, inhibiting almost any non-linear movement. Apathy was focused. Sylvia, his new friend wanted him safe: ‘Don’t blow it, Victor. Remember that you stole my position in this mission, so make it count.’ Although Sylvia had spent most of the day speaking condescendingly and enviously to Victor, she said this with a playfully reassuring but worried voice.
Two purple bleeps appeared at the top end of the radar. Apathy noticed immediately but saw nothing on his main screen. Ping Ping Ping, the faint sound was heard inside the cockpit. Apathy began looking around the empty hall way to no avail. Taking a second look at the radar, Apathy ran down the hall to get closer to the invisible sources of the attack. Finally, looking up, Apathy caught glimpse of two miniscule spherical turrets on the ceiling of the hallway. He shot them down immediately and laughed as he took a look at the miniscule damage displayed on his AP counter. AP: 8100. He moved forward, and found more turrets before reaching a closed gate that occupied the entire width of the hallway. He destroyed the turrets. Apathy then opened the door with the press of a button on his control panel after he approached a small gridded device that flashed green and red lights. The device was resting in the middle of the left wall of the hall way. Vivify had just sent a wireless signal to the small device that controlled the door.
The gate opened upwards and revealed a small room. Vivify boosted forward, reacting to the movement of a sliding four legged MT, across the upper left corner of his screen. The MT was hardly half the size of Vivify and had a single arm, shaped like a cannon at its left side. As expected, Vivify narrowly avoided a strange attack by the sneaky unit. The attack seemed like that of a gun, but from what Apathy could discern, the shots were slightly slower. This allowed the young raven to make some conjectures about what he thought he had just seen. The bullets, if they could be called so, were large and orb like. They had a pink glow to them and almost seemed like flying over-sized egg yolks attacking in a rapid burst of three or four at a time. A curious sound seeped into the cockpit: Teeh, teeh, teeh, teeh.
“What the hell was that?” Apathy spoke into the mouth piece on his helmet.
“What? The MT?” Ana asked confused.
“No, what it shot.”
“That, raven, is an energy attack produced by a pulse rifle. It’s a fairly common sight, I’m surprised you don’t know.” Ana responded unprofessionally.
Vivify struggled to turn left and take aim on the sliding MT given the confining space of the room. Teeh, teeh, teeh, teeh. The red light turned on in the cockpit. The damage was small. AP: 7812. A second unit, unnoticed by Apathy until this moment had successfully hit Vivify’s back. This MT had waited in the right corner of the room near the entrance Apathy came in through. He was surrounded. Apathy strafed left evasively as both MTs began shooting at him while skittering around. Luckily most of the attacks missed. Apathy decided on a course of action coolly. He charged at the first MT, causing it to retreat to a corner were it was unable to move further. Apathy began pulling his left trigger, but something odd happened. The trigger pushed back and Vivify halted his movement as if frozen in time. The damage on Vivify increased steadily as both MTs continued their attacks. Vivify retreated in a boost and collected more damage. AP: 7081.
“Raven, what’s wrong. What are you doing?” Ana interrogated angrily. Only silence was heard from Apathy.
Victor was shaking. He couldn’t bring himself to do it again. These MTs were different from the gun turrets. Victor knew these machines were piloted.
“Have you gone completely daft? Shoot them! They will kill you.” Ana ordered.
Apathy reacted. He had no choice, this was the wrong place for Victor’s conscience. Making it through the ordeal at hand was Apathy’s first priority. He took aim and shot multiple times at the MT until a loud crack and hiss released a thick dark smoke from it’s innards. The MT collapsed between its four legs lifelessly. The red light indicating damage had been on so long in the cockpit that Apathy had completely forgotten he was still under fire. Realizing this fact he boosted right and jumped in the air twisting Vivify around to catch a glimpse of the MT. Teeh, Teeh, Teeh, Teeh. The attack missed over Vivify’s head as he landed but a second followed. Apathy was one step ahead though, and skidded towards the MT using his back mounted thrusters breaking slightly to his right to avoid the pulse rifle’s burst attack. The MT now in range, was hit by a rifle shot in combination with a devastating blade attack that opened a large slit in the MT’s body armor as well as scathed its front left leg. The MT hiccupped and began spewing hazy smoke. A second blade attack caused the MT to explode almost immediately after initial contact.
“What the hell is wrong with-?” Ana began.
“Shut up, your job is to provide back up not commentary.” Apathy snapped at her in a fit of rage. She couldn’t possibly understand, Apathy thought to himself indignant.
Ana, insulted, huffed but did not retort. Vivify began walking toward a second door and opened it. As it slid open-
“Wait, raven” Ana interjected, “I’ve got an update. Mirage is informing me that all of the other raven’s employed for Operation Tooth fairy have been eliminated. Apathy, this is bad. It seems unexpected security was hired. Mirage is recommending you abort the mission, it’s too dangerous. Get out of there!”
Vivify had just entered a large hallway with two rows of large round concrete columns. The gate closed behind him. A loud mechanism clicked inside the gate.
“The gate seems to have lock-“ Ana was interrupted.
Vivify’s core received an unexpected attack that buckled it’s legs. A powerful loud explosion shook Vivify violently and Apathy felt the temperature inside his cock pit sky rocket in an instant. A message reading “Danger Heat” appeared under Apathy’s AP counter, now reading 5078, and dropping steadily. Instinctively Apathy tried to run but Vivify’s legs were unresponsive. Alarmed, Apathy, stomped on the boost petal and slid to the left behind the closest pillar. As he disappeared behind the pillar, a second shot blasted a piece of the column into smithereens.
“AC Hyruler identified. The pilot is a seasoned fighter, raven, proceed with caution.” Ana did her best to update Apathy. A second transmission came through.
“I’m glad you made it, raven, I was afraid Crest’s mission’d be a dud. I’d still get paid, but where’s the fun in that?”
“I’m guessing this will be the last conversation one of us is ever going to have.”
“Yeah, those’ll be your last words.”
Apathy stopped to think for what he felt was an eternity. Over the rapid beating of his heart, the enemy’s thrusters, and the siren going off inside Vivify to signal the heat hazard, Apathy shouted to make sure he was heard.
“Ana, what did he hit me with?”
“A grenade rifle. It is a very powerful weapon, I’d be surprised if you are able to withstand three more shots.” Ana informed in a detached voice. She had already given up hope, her raven was as good as dead. Hyruler’s pilot, King, was ranked 42 in the arena and was a lot more experienced in battle than was her clumsy raven appointee.
Apathy was in the frying pan now, ironically, as he thought this his AC recuperated from its excess heat. The warning light and siren turned off. One pilot would be slain within minutes, Apathy realized the odds were stacked against him, but at an early age he learned that giving up was the only sure way to lose. He would fight to live.
Quickly, he turned to the radar and found Hyruler’s bleep. Given its constant path, Hyruler would meet up with Vivify in less than three seconds, at close a range. Apathy immediately came up with a plan using every possible bit of experience he had earned until now. He turned away in the opposite direction of the site where Hyruler’ was expected to show and switched his weapon to the rockets. He then calculated coolly and expertly, and jumped back.
He was surprised to find that everything went as he planned! Vivify jumped back but as he landed he was looking directly at the back of a bright silver AC trimmed in gold. This AC was heavily armored and had thick arms and legs, as well as a big core, bigger and thicker than that of Vivify. Intimidated but resolved, Victor opened fire with his rockets. The rockets were unleashed in quick succession. Given the close proximity of the attack Apathy did not miss, and Hyruler took four attacks in succession to the core. Apathy noticed that the rockets were not as damaging as he’d hoped, Hyruler’s armor was strong. However, the explosions’ smoke lazily slithered up the AC and wrapped around its head. Apathy laughed hysterically. Back in the slums, when Victor faced an opponent bigger than him, he would have to resort to all sorts of tactics to avoid a match of power. Apathy began moving the cursor of his weapon up. He was going for the head! Hyruler’s head was in the shape of a dome. A rocket hit the head and exploded, and a second one followed but was avoided after Hyruler split to his right.
Apathy became frightened once again. He had engaged, and destruction of one AC was eminent. However, given his focus, he overcame his fear and took notice of a strange wing-like protusion extending from Hyruler’s back on the left shoulder, as well as a large box mounted on its right shoulder.
“What’s that wing device on his back?” Apathy inquired while on pursuit and steadying the aim of the rockets.
“Wing? Oh, Hyruler is equipped with a radar unit on its left shoulder and a missile box on its right shoulder.” Ana answered, now fully engaged in the events. Apathy’s impressive pre-emptive strike amazed her. Apathy proved to be a more capable pilot than his skirmish with the MTs had shown her.
“Radar? But Vivify has a radar and it doesn’t equip anything like that.”
“Your radar is a function of Vivify’s head. It is not as extensive as his radar part. Hyruler’s head is heavily armored, but is not equipped with a radar function like yours. He equips the back mounted radar to compensate for that.” Ana explained, at the edge of her seat back in her operator room miles away. Ana’s computer was being fed the information on Apathy’s screen through a satellite up link.
Apathy took a couple of shots with his rockets but these were shaken off by a Hyruler and missed. Hyruler was beginning to turn around slowly, given his large size, to its right. This frightened Apathy for he new hell awaited at the completion of Hyruler’s turn. Hastened by this fear and close on Hyruler’s tail, Vivify, attacked with its blade. The loud screeching sound of the burning blade damaging Hyruler’s core was heard. Now at a close range again, given the forward dash executed for the blade slash, Apathy unleashed more rockets. Three met its mark. Ana muttered “Yes!” under her breath and hit the palm of her hand with her fist.
Hyruler, however, retreated backwards and turned as each successive rocket hit him. Apathy realized he was in trouble, for now he could see the front of Hyruler. Hyrulers right arm came up. Vivify boosted left immediately but it was too late. Vivify’s right arm was reduced to black twisted charred remains that bled out sparks. Vivify was impacted against a pillar nearby. Apathy again was in the red lit oven of his cockpit, with a siren resonating within. AP: 2989 and dropping; the schematic of Apathy’s AC in one of his screens had its right arm shaded in red now. His right arm was destroyed.
The second shot wasn’t too far behind, he assumed and in a drastic measure, Apathy pumped the booster petal twice and began flying. A second shot grazed Vivifies toes as he was boosted into the air. The explosion of the grenade shook Vivify and destabilized its flight. Apathy fully aware of the risk involved stabilized the flight the best he could and faced Hyruler. Here Apathy was struck with a difficult decision. His first instinct was to retreat and hide behind the column for safety, but as he noticed that Hyruler began lifting his hand to take aim at Vivify, Apathy thought of another riskier maneuver. Hyruler was aiming because he wasn’t locked on yet. Apathy gambled. He hovered in his enemy’s direction keeping his altitude steady so as to pass over the enemy. He was going to race King in a match to see who could aim faster!
Victor pushed his right arm joy stick forward aggressively to drop the cursor of his weapon and as the steady decent of the marker approached Hyruler he readied his trigger finger. He might only get one chance. In the opposite cockpit, King was sweating profusely cold drops of terror and shock at the unexpectedly difficult battle he had engaged; he was tugging at his right hand joystick to elevate his lockbox into position. However, given Vivify’s approach, he had to look further and further up to lock on.
By some cosmic coincidence, both pilots finally pulled their trigger fingers at the same time. Both explosives traveled past each other in the air. King’s grenade missed the moving Vivify but given the close proximity of the explosion on the ceiling behind the AC, Vivify was propelled forward faster. Apathy’s rocket hit Hyruler in the head, and the young raven in his euphoria and focus, readied his aim again- the propulsion had unaligned his mark. Apathy shot once and missed narrowly, but with a small adjustment he fired 2 more consecutive shots that hit Hyruler on its core. Hyruler was sparking and releasing thin smoke now. Vivify had flown past Hyruler so Apathy let go of the booster petal and landed behind Hyruler. Both ACs were back to back now.
King was in total shock, but quickly composed himself. The fight wasn’t over until one raven was wasted! King, taking a play from Apathy’s book, kicked his petal to make Hyruler jump back to face Vivify. Hyruler landed. Apathy saw the smoke and multiple scars on Hyruler. He was on the final lap! Reacting quickly as Hyruler brought up his arm to shoot his hellish grenade rifle, Apathy pulled his left trigger for a blade attack. He slashed Hyruler, but it wasn’t enough, Hyruler was still standing. King’s trigger was pulled.
Apathy brazed himself for the blast. Nothing came. Hyruler’s arm kept jerking up and down repeatedly. Before Apathy or King could understand what had just happened, Apathy shot a rocket. The rocket hit Hyruler’s core, and he dropped to his knee. Lots of tiny explosions began erupting around the fallen foe’s core.
“Raven, it was an honor-“ King uttered over the communication channel respectfully but solemnly before a large explosion erupted inside the core. Bolts and bits and pieces of the thick core got expelled from the explosion, but the AC remained intact for the most part in the dramatic position.
“Enemy destruction verified. Great job, raven!” Ana jumped of joy out of her seat. “Will you finish the mission?”
“Unless I’m killed from here to the computer room.” Apathy affirmed. The question remained. “Why didn’t Hyruler’s pilot take the last shot?”
“Well, you attacked the AC head a couple of times with strong attacks. AC heads, much like human heads, contain powerful computers that coordinate many of the AC’s movements and calculations. That last shot to the head must have caused a system error and consequently the right arm to malfunction. King didn’t willingly not shoot, he couldn’t shoot.” She theorized. Head on over to the next Gate, I’ll unlock it for you.”
The heavily injured Vivify turned to his left and saw the door near by. Ana hacked through it and Apathy carried on to the next room, which was significantly smaller than the hall that had just served as his battle field. Two MTs similar to those before were waiting for him. Apathy was ready for them too. Vivify charged at the first and slashed it with its laser blade. The second MT, sliding behind the first, exploded after a rocket attack, that was shot over the slashed MT, hit it. The slashed MT retaliated with the energy pulses from a point blank range into Vivify’s core. Vivify boosted back just enough to once again slash the MT into an exploding ball of fire, smoke, and metallic debris.
“That is the computer room to the left.” Ana directed.
“What about the right door; where does that lead?” Apathy inquired.
“I’m not sure.”
Curios, Apathy took the right door. He found himself in a big room filled with all sorts of crates and transport vehicles, as well as lifts and other storage machines. Apathy was looking at his bonuses. He began destroying everything with his laser blade. He was having a blast destroying the motionless and defenseless targets.
Three security MTs, similar to all the others, appeared from behind a group of crates. Using fancy boosting maneuvers and close range rocket attacks, Apathy disposed of all three MTs with ease. There was not much more the Crest facility could throw in Apathy’s direction that could stop him. The fledgling had bested a powerful raven in his first mission, and he had survived where others had perished. Apathy was unstoppable.
With the entire storage room destroyed, Apathy returned to the previous room and went on into the computer room. The room was even smaller than the one before and stored three large computers in the back. Ana hacked into each of the computers from her operation room and retrieved many encrypted files.
“I got the files, go ahead and make your way out. Remember to-“
Ana stopped when she began hearing and seeing the destruction that Apathy had begun on the large computers. Apathy had grown into his position as a raven. With no more enemies in the facility, Vivify made it out to the escape point uninhibited. Apathy felt a strange exhilaration. He had single-handedly thwarted an army that was bent on taking him out. He was stronger than any and all of them. Outside the building a transport helicopter awaited him. Apathy’s fun was over, which was just as well, since he was fatigued. Victor was ready to go home.
Buffy Anne Summers
1981- 2001
Beloved Sister
Devoted Friend
She saved the world
A LOT
1981- 2001
Beloved Sister
Devoted Friend
She saved the world
A LOT
