Stuck at the Galleria

Act 3: Tagged! (part 5)

The shot explodes onto the ground behind us and Tre and I get pushed out into the air by it. Tre lands on his feet but I stumble as I check on my tagger's status. Two of its lights were still red.

Tre turns around and groans. "Where did these freaks come from?"

"I'd give you an answer but I don't know either," I say. "They're not supposed to be here."

He holds down on his tagger's shot for a sec, but just as he lets the big beam go, one of the bots gets a shot in at Tre's chest. Tre loses his aim as he tumbles downward, and the beam ends up going too high to hit the group. It crashes into one of the rooftops without a single spark.

"Crap!" We both end up saying it at the same time. Once I look down, I notice that three of the bots were charging up their own shots. Tre sees it too, and without a second glance he darts backward and speeds off around a corner.

I don't hesitate to follow. The popping of the blasts as they hit the ground behind me keep me on my toes as I try to evade the fire. Tre looks back and smiles a little to see me.

"How's that tagger doing?" he asks.

"It's got one more light before it can fire again," I say, trying to catch my breath.

"How long do you think it'll take?"

"I wasn't ever fully sure of the time it took. Why?"

"I'm thinking of something," Tre says, getting a smidge of an evil smirk on his face again. "Something stupid." 

"How stupid?" I ask.

"It might possibly be the end of me. But let's hope not."

In a beat, he starts running, no, sprinting, right into the cluster's line of fire, They send off a few shots but he shifts left, then right, sidestepping them all. He stops himself a few feet in front of them and sticks his tongue out.

"You want me? You want me? Come get it."

Most of the bots try to get themselves ready at first, but without a word, the one in the very front blocks them from firing with his arms, almost as if it were going to take on Tre by himself. I can't help but wonder what's going on in that guy's brain-- what was the point of this, to go out with a laugh or something?

The front bot moves his arms inward and starts charging up a shot, but there's something different about it this time. It's doing it with both arms, and there's an electric spark going through the twin beams as he waits. Tre pulls his tagger up to face right in front of the bot's shot, but when I take a squint at it I realize that there's only one green light on it.

"Tre, it's not going to--"

"Hey, Nor, calm down. I've got this."

"I-- uh, okay." I'm confused by it, but hey, if this was what he wanted to do, I wouldn't interfere.

The robot fires the shot, and a huge ray of white light shoots out in front of Tre. For a sec, I see his silhouette with his arms out, but it doesn't seem like he's being blown back by anything.

It looked more like he was throwing something.

After that, there's a loud wham, and the white becomes a torrent of orange for a moment before everything goes back to normal, color-wise. I blink twice before I go out into the wild. Tre himself was sitting on the ground, possibly due to being forced down there, and there was a big fat grin on his face. Meanwhile, the group of robots are sprawled out on the ground in front of him, and there's a fountain of electrical sparks shooting out of each of them.

"Whoa," I say, and I definitely mean it. "I'd have never thought to throw my tagger."

"In retrospect, maybe that might've been a stupid decision," he says, looking up at the ceiling. There were still 5 minutes left on the clock.