Chapter 8:
The Riot.
Ah and Gluepot came up the west of the main building. Both had friends amongst the group in the centre, and had decided to 'Check in' with them. They hadn't decided yet whether they were going to ask them to join with Simon's group, or whether to join with the central group themselves, or simply just to see how they were getting on. They would decide when they arrived.
Jamhot, having put Simon's team on standby, was carefully watching them from a safe distance, rocket-launcher on shoulder. While he hoped that whatever they had planned would work out, he would be there to back them up if anything went wrong.
Jakst3r was still catching his breath from the ferocious attack by Omega. He sat by Omega's body and took a moment to check his MFPD and saw with great delight he was now in the number one spot. He had met with a fierce opponent, and had come through victorious, and now every player in the game would know to stay out of his way. This was what he was looking for. All that was left to do from here, was to win.
He would stick with his team though of course, there were still 24 other people out there, and certainly there was no reason for any alliance break-up to happen at this stage. No, Jakst3r was powerful, but he knew there were others out there more powerful than himself who simply hadn't made themselves known at this time.
Ozi's team had almost fully healed after the failed attack on Da's position. The plan remained as before - to get a hold of a stronger defensive position to fall back on next time they needed to heal, but Da's position was too strong. Ozi checked his MFPD - there was now an enormous amount of people starting to congregate around the central area, far too many to attack, but there was one group of dots closer to them than the main building. Ozi looked up as he aligned his radar to identify exactly where they were. He saw it in front of him, a building with solid walls, and it appeared there was only one way in or out. Indeed, those people had found a good place to take cover in, and this place would need to become theirs.
The TDO members had been sitting in their protective shell, listening to the radio broadcasts and watching the others on the radar since the start; they hadn't moved at all. They had felt a sort of contentedness at being shut off from the rest of the zone in the way that they had. Ten people had died on the outside, but they were trying their best to ignore it. The building they were in shielded them from the horrors of the outside.
Spike had to admit that he had been surprised at how quickly the groups in the area had formed. He had come close to the doorway earlier on to look around. A big group over by the stairwell, and he spotted Ozi from a mile off to the west - Ozi was a hulking giant of a man, easy to spot. While he had been out there he had obviously been spotted by the third group, south of them, as Skam had sent him a somewhat playful personal broadcast inviting him to come out of the little fortress they had established. There was no chance of that happening.
Spike came back to sit at the far end of the building next to his wife RockChick, who was sitting with her arms locked around her knees, rocking herself back and forth. She had bitten her own lip so badly she was bleeding from it.
"You okay?"
"This isn't happening, this isn't real. This is a scene in a play, in a movie, this is fiction."
Spike watched as RockChick's self inflicted bite upon her own lip healed up before his eyes. It was the first time he had seen fibroblasts at work.
Ghano tried to ignore the scene behind him and moved over to the door. RockChick was the most skilled of all of them, he laid faith in the hope that she would snap out of her trance if they needed to defend their stronghold. A lot of people were moving around over at the base of the stairwell in the building to the east. He held his position and guarded the door.
They must stand strong, and destroy those who are weaker, such is the way of the world. He whispered his thoughts under his breath, “Quod erat demonstrandum...”
FireMaiden felt more concerned than ever. It was her fault, she had dragged these friends of hers into this. And now she was paying the consequences - a wife on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown, a husband trying his best to comfort her under impossible circumstances, and a friend letting his military precision overrule his emotions and ignoring it. All her fault. These people came here to protect her, and now she was no longer sure whom was protecting whom. There was no way out now, they were here, and they would need to deal with it.
Slasha and Sass had made their way out to meet Sorg on his way back. Sarah and Jinx stayed at the doorway of their little safe haven awaiting the men's return from their successful hunt. It was going well so far. The team, albeit almost entirely Jakst3r, had taken down four people now, and all six of the team had come out of it with nothing more than a few scratches, which the fibroblasts were taking care of. Spirits were high.
Jinx, despite her weapon, was actually feeling some comfort. She had her friend Sarah next to her, and Jakst3r in the team, who was clearly the vanguard. The other three were all helping to hold things together. She had never expected things to go this well when she was told she had nothing but a pair of TT knuckles. They were closing in on the half-way point of the game, and at this point Jinx managed to feel an air of security, despite the ten deaths around her, she knew she had good company. Her MFPD displayed Jakst3r as being on top of the most dangerous list, she took a moment to inform Sarah.
"Did you see? Check your MFPD. Jakst3r's got pole position, do I know how to pick them or what?" she laughed.
Sarah checked her own MFPD, but the display was on radar and she chose not to change it when she noticed the dots coming up the western edge of the building they were stationed at, and another further out. The door was right next to the western wall, so she took a moment to check and see who it was that was coming up in their direction.....It was Ah!
Sarah glanced behind her, Jakst3r was still fairly far back, and Sorg, Sass and Slasha were in between them. Ah had company, but this was her chance. If she could get Ah now before Jackst3r arrived then maybe she could accomplish the sole goal that she had set for herself. There was no time for considerations, now was the time to act.
Without knowing what was going on in Sarah's head, Jinx saw her pull out her sword and charge around the corner. Jinx had no time to ask, nor to understand, there was only time to defend, and to backup her friend.
As Sarah, slashed out at the unsuspecting Ah, Gluepot ran in to defend. Jinx followed Sarah as the other members of her group heard the fight kick off, and ran towards their position. Jamhot trained his launcher - a fight had erupted and he was there to protect whoever he could from his position. Simon's team saw this kick off, and took their chance.
"The ones north of us are distracted, run round the Eastern edge, go, go, go."
Sims and Pike followed suit. Sims in particular was worried about Jamhot, but hoped he could hold his position and look after himself. As Simon's team started to run around the fight, LS and Lobbe decided keeping their distance was not required at this point, and ran with them.
Jak Bam, who had managed to stay completely out of the action despite hiding in the immediate vicinity, saw what was happening. Simon's apparent 'escape route' was leading them all right towards where he was hiding out. He was caught between a rock and a hard place. What had kicked off here was surely going to spill into his hiding area. Despite that, he knew that with only a pair of knuckles and a potent firestorm chip, his best bet was to keep his head down for as long as he could. This wasn't going to be pretty.
Ah was taken completely by surprise, had no idea what was going on as she felt the cut of Sarah's sword across her. Gluepot, being heavily armoured, tried to jump in between them hoping her armour would absorb some of the blows that would have otherwise landed on Ah. The quarters were too close for her to be able to use her rocket-launcher, and without it, all she had was her fists.
Sorg, Slasha and Sass reached the position. Sorg immediately spotted Jamhot standing nearby with the rocket launcher, and made the decision to avoid the fight that had erupted, and instead head towards Jamhot. After all, as Slasha and Sass were with him to add to Sarah and Jinx's attack, surely the four of them together didn't need his assistance, and even if they did, Jakst3r was right behind them. No, Sorg needed to head to this sniper's position; this was tactical.
Jamhot had some difficulty with the launcher, he didn't want to hurt Ah or Gluepot, so made his aims towards the wall behind them, hoping the shrapnel from the blasts would hurt the attackers. One, two, three rockets launched, it barely seemed to make a difference to the fighting going on down there. His fourth and final rocket missed the wall altogether and shot off out of sight. Dammit! He let go of the launcher and went for his pistol, it was only then that his vision to his left was no longer obscured by the launcher and he saw, too late, Sorg closing in for the kill. He was unable to draw the pistol before Sorg shot him down.
Jakst3r arrived on the scene, the first thing he saw was Ah and Sarah in combat. Jinx was next to her, hammering on Gluepot's shogun armour with her fists to no effect. Jakst3rs loyalty split in two, on the one hand, Sarah was part of the team that had been doing so well, on the other, Ah was a member of his parent society....in a snap decision, he decided that Sarah was only an ally today, and that Ah had been an ally since they met. He felt his stomach cramp as he rammed his sword through Sarah's back, breaking right through her armour.
In Sarah's last few moments, seeing the sword protruding through her own chest, she knew it was Jackt3rs. She had expected this from the moment that Jinx had announced they were allies, so she knew this was coming, she had only hoped that she would have managed to complete her goal of taking down Ah before it did happen....but it was not to be. Sarah's time was up.
Sarah dropped to the ground as Ah and Gluepot retreated, Sass and Slasha in pursuit, with Sorg running in from the west. Jinx and Jakst3r however were both stationary.
Of the only two people Jinx truly trusted, one had just killed the other. Jinx's words were stifled, what she had just witnessed was something that she had never imagined would take place. Her one surviving friend, Jakst3r, saw her look but couldn't bring himself to say anything. In the heat of the moment, there were simply no words to explain such actions. Their silence was broken by the radio broadcast:
"Boys #18: Jamhot Jamhot DaddyO and Girls #3: Sarah Nuadu Hawkwood are dead. 28 remain."
"Jesus, are you seeing this?" asked Firemaiden, watching the nearby skirmish over the radar on her MFPD. "It's a full-scale riot over there. Earlier everyone was keeping more or less stationary, now they seem to be in some sort of full blood-lust fury."
Ghano checked his own radar and saw the green dots twisting to the east, but it was the smaller group of green dots coming in from the west that gripped his attention more.
"Guys, we've got incoming!"
"Are you sure?"
Ghano watched their movements for a few more seconds.
"Yes, utterly sure, they are heading right for us. Get ready to defend."
Spike picked up RockChick's sniper rifle and handed it to her.
"I need you now princess, come on, you told me we came here to protect? Well it's time to do it."
RockChick tried to snap herself out of her trance. She knew she needed a clear head, even if she could hold it only for a few moments, then these were the few moments she must hold it for.
Spike, seeing his wife preparing her weapon turned back to Ghano.
"Who is it? Please don't let it be Da or Ah."
"Nope, " said Ghano as he peeked round the edge of the doorway. "It's not them."
"Oh thank God."
"Don't go thanking God just yet. It's Ozi, the goddam human tank. And he's got a team with him."
The Disturbed Ones readied themselves. There was only one way in or out of here, and they were all covering it. Now came the real test, would their stronghold resist an attack? Spike had nothing more than the TT Carbine, while Ghano and FireMaiden had a few shots each of the FreanD Delta pistol before being reduced to knuckles and a TT sword. RockChick held herself together at the back of the building. She had to make this first hit count. Reloading a sniper weapon took too long in such close quarters. She would need to depend on her team-mates to keep her covered.
As if Firemaiden read her mind, she dropped down from her position to stand next to her, pistol at the ready. Firemaiden glanced at her MFPD. They were seconds away.
"And here we go...."
Rockchick took aim at the doorway....don't miss, don't miss, don't miss....
Ozi burst in first, RockChick took her shot.....and missed.
ReadBird was next in, though all others had opened fire upon Ozi. The man, without armour, almost seemed to be absorbing bullets, he didn't flinch at all as he returned fire. ReadBird had fire in his eyes as he ran towards RockChick, unloading his MK2 while Rockchick desperately tried to reload. A shot hit her ankle and she fell from the pile of rubble she was sat atop, ReadBird chased her down while FireMaiden redirected her fire towards ReadBird, seeing RockChick in trouble.
Ghano and Spike were concenting on the immovable Ozi, while Cail, Gamble and Chaos stormed in as well. Cail managed to move behind Spike and Ghano while their attention was focused on what they considered the biggest threat, Ozi, and Cail took no time at all in cutting both of them down from behind. When it came to close quarters, Cail was unrivalled.
RockChick, struggling to reload found herself on the ground with the barrel of ReadBirds gun to her head.
"Gotcha!" he exclaimed moments before pulling the trigger, then, like an echo, he heard the same word almost instantly.
"Gotcha!" Barrel to his head, FireMaiden pulled the trigger. ReadBird was no more.
FireMaiden pointed her pistol back up at the others in her stronghold, she was alone now, and she was out of bullets, but she really felt it would make no difference if she still had any anyway...she knew what was coming, and seconds later, it did. Gamble's Castorian Enblade4 ME laid an end to the assault. Ozi's team had a new, and much more defensive base of operations, at the cost of the lives of all the TDO members, and their own team mate ReadBird.
Gamble checked down at the bottom of the stones. RockChick and ReadBird lay in a twisted heap.
"ReadBird is dead for sure. We lost one."
"All things considered it could have ended up a lot worse," said Ozi. "I'm hit pretty badly though, we need to rest here for a while so I can let the fibroblasts do their thing. At least now we have a good defensive position to rest in. We took four lives, we lost one. I still think we have the advantage overall."
"Girls #8: Jacqui Rockchick Jovi, Boys #10: Dano Ghana Rondo, Boys #1: Rico ReadBird Killjoy, Boys #25: Angel Spike Sunny, Girls #7: Fire FireMaiden Starter - all five dead. Twenty three remain."
"That was pretty intense," said Oleg after Cat had finished her broadcast. "Didn't expect to see so many die in such a short space of time....that can't have lasted more than a single minute."
"Yes, and I don't think it's over yet either, "Cat pointed towards the short range radar. "I'm sure all those people running south aren't together. I can still hear the gunshots from here."
Ah and Gluepot were running for their lives, Slasha and Sass were in hot pursuit. They barely even realised Sorg was with them before he came charging back from the west and cut off their escape. He took his first swing at Gluepot, but in her Shogun armour, it didn't make a scratch. He ignored her and instead made for Ah. She was considered heavily dangerous, but at this point, she was also heavily injured, and Sorg took this as his chance. He couldn't make a dent on Gluepot, but for Ah, already badly hurt and without armour, it only took him a single swing to bring her down.
Immediately after he had done so, Sorg suddenly realised the implications. Ah was part of the Coat Killer family, of which Jakst3r was a part of. He had seen in the distance that Jakst3r had killed their own team-mate while she was in combat with Ah. Would Jakst3r do the same to him if he had seen what he had just done?
Sorg's steps faltered as he considered this prospect. Slash and Sass ran past, continuing their pursuit of Gluepot. Sorg looked back north to Jakst3r and Jinx, who had remained stationary for a while. As he watched, Jakst3r sprung back into motion, and headed not for Sorg's position, but to the east. Sorg hoped that Jakst3r had not seen his actions, though knew he would have to deal with it one way or another later on.
"Girls #10: Myne Ah Byrd is dead. 22 left."
Gluepot, dressed in her Shogun armour could feel very few of the attacks upon her, the only thing that truly hurt was the fact that she was unable to prevent Ah's death. However she was still being hunted down and needed a distraction of some sort. She spotted Simon the Guide leading his team up the eastern side of the zone, and decided this was the perfect distraction.
Gluepot ran towards them, with her pursuers in tow. She saw Jakst3r cutting over in front of them, with Jinx behind him, and no longer even knew who it was that was chasing her. All she was trying to do was to get the attention off herself so she could escape. Simon's team led to the perfect distraction. As she had hoped, she ran through their lines and came out the other side, while her pursuers opened fire upon them.
Simon's team was under attack. There were many of them. Jamhot was dead, so he really only had Sims and Pike with him - although just recently LS and Lobbe seemed to be keeping closer and had perhaps decided they could trust them. Gluepot ran through their ranks, her pursuers had no intention of doing the same, and opened fire. Simon's group returned the favour. Jakst3r and Jinx came in from above, Sass and Slasha from the side, and Sorg from below, they were quickly surrounded. Gluepot had found the only escape route. The rest of the fight became a one-sided massacre.
Pike, shielding the rear of the group, clashed his axe with Sorg's sword, but despite his efforts, he was the first to fall.
Sims' armour didn't provide the protection he needed it to provide, and Slasha took him out with his A&P Brave M.E.
One after another, they all fell.
Lobbe was the next. A swift strike from Jakst3r, who by now had clearly recollected his focus, and Lobbe was down.
And then, the leader of the group, Simon the Guide. He had attempted to drop a grenade on the ground in front of him as he ran over it to evade Slasha in the hope that it would explode and kill his pursuer, but his pursuer shot him first, and Simon fell.
LS, now alone amongst the incoming army, fought as best he could, but he knew it was all over, and even suffered the humiliation of being killed by powerfists. Jinx had landed a final, fatal blow, releasing the rage inside her from losing Sarah upon him that broke his neck.
Jakst3r's team had annihilated Simon's team, with no casualties.
Jinx made her way back over to Jakst3r while he checked his radar. Gluepot had escaped during the commotion. But there was still one additional green dot on their radar outside of his team. Jinx called to Jakst3r but he ignored it. With this final dot gone they would be clear of all danger, and then maybe he would have the chance to explain his actions.
Jakst3r ran towards the radar's position, his bloodlust still holding strong, and saw, too late, who it was that was hiding in the ruins that he was charging. Jak Bam.
Jak let off a hell-fire burst from his chip, sending Jakst3r reeling. He had been seriously hurt, he rolled on the ground to put the fire out before getting back to his feet and charging again. He would let adrenaline do the work until the fibroblasts took over. He knew that as Jak had a chip, then he wouldn't have time to re-charge it before Jakst3r reached him with the sword.
However, as Jakst3r had received such heavy injury, Sorg took his chance.
Jakst3r felt the bullet wound penetrate his back before he fell. He rolled over as Sorg walked towards him.
Jakst3r managed to gasp out a last sentence in his pain..
"Agh, you got me in the back Sorg?"
"Yep, I got you in the back Jaxy."
Sorg opened fire a second time to finish the job.
Jak Bam tried to focus on another Firestorm, but the others were too close, under attack from Jinx, Slasha and Sass it was the latter who managed to get in the shot that put an end to it. Immediately afterwards she turned her pistol towards Sorg.
"OK Sorg, what the hell just happened there?"
While Sorg had chosen to kill Jakst3r when he had the chance due to the expected retaliation of his own kill upon Ah, he decided this would not be the story that his team-mates would want to hear, especially not while one of them had a gun pointing at his head. Thankfully, there were other reasons....
"Look, you surely saw what happened back there at the base of the stairwell, he killed Sarah, our team-mate, on purpose. There's no denying that, it was NOT a mistake. He thrust his sword right through her from behind. Jinx! You saw that didn't you? That was your friend, and he killed her right in front of you."
"Yes he did, " said Jinx heavily, "but he was my friend as well."
"Really? Was he such a friend if he would kill another friend of yours right in front of you like that?"
"Okay, I wasn't expecting that, but I don't think he even knew that we were friends. Regardless of that, I think he was intending to explain himself, he just couldn't find the words at the time."
"Couldn't find the words? Jinx! He killed your friend, how can any words make that okay?"
Slasha turned to Sass. He had caught a glimpse of what had happened before, and as he had a strong sense of justice, he felt that Sarah, being the underdog had braved her life against not only Ah, but Jakst3r as well....she must have known that Jakst3r would have retaliated, regardless of them sharing a team, and therefore obviously had a strong reason to put herself in such jeopardy. He just wish he knew what that reason was. He did also have a huge respect for Sorg as a man who was very successful in an unusual profession, and although above all he wanted to keep Sass safe, he still had to agree with the facts as he had seen them.
"You know, he was getting kind of bloodthirsty. Remember those first two that he killed? Seemed to me he was doing it purely out of pleasure."
"Exactly my point!" exclaimed Sorg. "If he had gotten any more bloodthirsty, he would have turned on us."
"It's not so bad to have someone bloodthirsty with you, as long as they are on your side. I mean, let's face it, Jakst3r is the number one killer here right now, all our MFPDs say so."
"You might want to check that again, Slasha."
Slasha did so. And to his surprise, he saw Sorg had knocked Jakst3r down to number two.
"You killed five people out there?"
"Yes, I just don't make a big scene of it, but I know what I'm doing."
Slasha realised that losing the number one killer only to have him replaced by another, seemingly less impetuous one still on their team, could end up being the best of both worlds. His mind was made up, he would stick with Sorg. He just hoped Sass and Jinx had decided the same.
Jinx was alone again, despite the three around her. Both her friends were dead, one killed by the other, and then that one killed by a team-mate. Her soul emptied. There was nothing left. She would stick with them solely as it was her only chance of survival. If she couldn't save her friends, then her last hope was to try and save herself.
Their thoughts were interrupted as the MFPD's radio crackled back into life....
"Boys #2: Lucius Pike Esox, Boys #21: Simon Sim Templar, Boys #6: Lobbe Lobbe Dojje, Transfer Student #1: Simon the Guide, Boys #11: Anders LS Nilsson, Reserve: Jack Jakst3r Fast, Boys #17: je jak bam - all seven dead. Fifteen left."
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