Specter

Chapter 43 (Night 4): No More Warnings

We last read Chapter 42, in which King Ryker, Sylvester, T.J., Logan, and Marcel discuss the man-targeting sound waves that hit the Rusted Citadel—and the rest of the globe—a few months back while Ollie prepares one of his portal terminals to transport nearly the entirety of the king's court—besides him, of course—to the Imperator's Armory in order to put a stop to the Shattered Circle's schemes and destroy the supercomputer containing the Mainframe's A.I.-like consciousness before it has a chance to fully activate. In the process, one of the court's members, Doc, reveals that although he'll be physically staying behind at the Obsidian Sanctum, he'll instead be piloting a glossy black exo-suit with sleek red linings on it via remote control; a suit that he claims is "packing heat beyond heat".

The guys' discussion is eventually broken up by the arrival of the girls: Moody a.k.a. Specter, her younger sister Bonnie, the athletic girl Dashie, and Marcel's sister Marcelle. Dashie reunited with T.J. and promises to fight alongside him until the end, Marcelle regroups with her brother Marcel and resolves to finish the matter so they can both return to their tailor's shop, and Bonnie and Specter draw comparisons between the latter's current experiences and the childhood story that Bonnie told Specter when they were kids. Soon, they decide that everyone is ready for battle, and prepare to jump through the wormhole.

Meanwhile, at the Imperator's Armory, Imperator Barrows, Rogue, and several of their loyalists are actually not preparing to defend the Armory as the Mainframe had ordered them to; instead, they're too busy trying to hold off an angry mob that had formed as a result of King Ryker following Specter's advice on being transparent and honest with the Citadel's citizens; they already know that Barrows and his team are behind the dissenter attacks, and now seek to get revenge. One man in particular—whose son was killed in a shootout involving weapons from the Armory—throws an empty trash can through one of the Armory's front windows, breaching the building and officially providing the mobsters with a way inside. Panicked, Barrows, Rogue, and the guards retreat deeper inside the building, unaware that Specter and the rest of King Ryker's court are entering the back entrance, too.

This time, Imperator Barrows, Rogue, and their guards find themselves between a rock and a hard place.....

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The relentless mob surged after Imperator Barrows, Rogue, and the soldiers alongside them, with the Imperator himself completely losing it since the situation was now no longer under his control. He had been expecting Specter and King Ryker's court to eventually drop by and attack, but nothing could have prepared him for an assault by the Rusted Citadel's own populace.

It was clear that they cared about their freedom, and that they would do anything to punish those who tried to take it away once more. It was as if there was hope for the Citadel to stand outside the Iron Kingpin's tyrannical reign after all.

Angry shouts and chants filled the air. Molotov cocktails screamed through the main room and exploded into hazardous bursts of flame and broken glass upon impact. One mobster even yanked a freshly-smelted sword off of a rack on the wall and threw it like a javelin directly at Rogue's head; fortunately, she managed to sidestep out of the way just in time, leaving its pointed end to slam harmlessly into the floor next to her.

"Good gravy!" Rogue exclaimed in disbelief. "They've gone bloody mad, I say! Sire, what should we do?!"

Imperator Barrows frantically looked around, scanning his surroundings for any kind of solution. As he and his crew kept bolting forward, his eyes eventually landed on a pad on the far right wall with a large red button on it; one push, and a huge, rectangular, horizontal door would drop down from the ceiling and separate the main area—the area accessible to the general public—from the more dangerous and heated working and production area, which was often an employees-only zone anyway.