Zero Sum

Crushing Defeat

It was dark under the pile of city rubble they were now buried in. The few remaining survivors struggled to find their footing in the filthy mess they now found themselves in. 

Rock looked up and saw a slight glimmer surrounding them. It was the only thing separating them from the weight of the mountain of debris above them. He realized then that it was Chiyoko who was using her telekinetic abilities to form a shield around the group of survivors, although doing so put her body under extreme stress, it was obvious just from looking at her.

"See this is what happens when you pick a fight with the guardians of earth!" Ahaadan cried out to no one in particular. "You can't go head-to-head with them" he wailed on, "they only recruit the best fighters around. It was suicide for us to try and stand up against them."

"Speak for yourself plebian" the bladed warrior interrupted Ahaadans wailing, "I was not picking a fight with any of the guardians. My only interest is in carrying out my assignment." He raised the edge of his weapon to the throat of Chiyoko, indicating that his "assignment" was her assassination. "And I always complete my assignments" he snarled at her. Both of them leveled eyes at each other sharing an unblinking gaze.

"Have you no honor warrior?" shouted the synthoid, "that 'assignment' as you call her is the only one keeping us from being crushed under the weight of tons of rubble. We need to find a way out of here and quickly. There is no time to be fighting amongst ourselves."

Rock kept looking around the dimly lit cave in they were now under. He felt around the edges of the barrier as if trying to find something among the rubble surrounding them. And paid no mind to the infighting that was happening among their mismatched group. Nor did he seem to be paying any mind to the tremendous danger they were now in, he seemed as calm as could be and single-mindedly kept at his task, feeling around apparently for an exit from under this extremely cramped pile of rubble.

"What difference does it make?" responded Bethany. "Whether in here or out there we are dead. The guardians do not take prisoners, and they definitely do not tolerate any rivalry to their authority. Even if by some miracle we were to get out of here we are finished if we go back out there. Besides that, look at the girl" she motioned to Chiyoko, "she is on her last legs barely able to keep this thing up" pointing up at the barrier "thanks by the way for that, I appreciate the sentiment, even if it is hopeless."

"Inaccuracy in analysis detected" rumbled the machine called Gnu in his mechanical baritone voice. "The guardians only sent two triple A rated heroes to combat us; the flaming chain man and the Terrran telapath. The rest of their assault team consist of below A grade heroes. If we coordinate our attacks we can eliminate those lower level threats. Provided we avoid engaging again with the two AAA rated heroes, our team should be able to escape."

"Are you insane? We are not a team. All of us just happened to run into each other while we were handling our own agendas. If this one" Bethany pointed at Rock "had not antagonized the chained freak then we would never of had to fight with the guardians. They just happened to lump all of us into the same crowd and label us all rouges of the nation because we just happened to be carrying on our own business."

"And what business is that exactly you parasitic bloodsucker?" interjected the synthoid. 

"I am simply a businesswoman." Bethany innocently replied. "When one such as I is presented with an opportunity, one does well to consider all of her options."

"Then you were ready to sell us all out so you could make a shady profit?"

"Even if we are about to die, this one will fall under my blade first" snarled the assassin as he pressed his blade closer to Chiyoko's throat.