Gear Crash

Chapter 16

"They're empty." Simon said grimly. He closed the fridge door and sighed. He had finally, somehow, drank through the lab's entire 700 can supply of orange soda. "Guys, we need to go to like, Costco or something again. Do they have orange soda at Costco?"

"Dude, you're drinking those things at an alarming rate. Don't you think you need to slow down a bit?" Kyle called from across the room. He was on the lab's computers, searching for any online footprint the Scourge could have left. "This guys is ridiculously good at covering his tracks. How does someone stay off of the inter-webs at this day and age?"

"He's good at hiding things." Sophia said, walking in.

"You sure do love those dramatic entrances, don't you." Simon muttered, plopping himself down on a beanbag chair. 

"You bet I do!" She said, walking over to where Kyle sat. Kyle glanced up at her. He couldn't stop noticing little things about her, like the little freckles on the bridge of her nose, and the way her eyes had little flecks of gold in them. He shook his head. He really needed to stop thinking about her. Kyle looked back at the screen. Sophia had punched in a few lines of code into a computer program, and was currently searching for the Scourge as well. "Found him." She said, clicking on a link.

"Wow, must be pretty hard to find him, right Kyle?" Simon teased.

"Shut up." Kyle muttered. He moved over and gave room for Sophia to sit down. A few mouse clicks later, Sophia had located the most likely spot for the Scourge to be in, and an extensive background on all his followers. 

"How on earth did you do that so fast?" Simon asked, astonished.

"Years of practice." Sophia answered. "Anyway, he's probably at Sixteenth Theatre Street right now. If we head out immediately, we should be able to make it there just in..." Sophia was cut off by the ringing of the alarm bell.

"Alright guys! Let's go!" Simon shouted. He ran over to the glass case containing Kyle's suit, when he was stopped by Sophia.

"Wait. We have to find the Scourge's location first. This may be our only chance to catch him." Sophia explained. 

"We can't just leave whoever's in trouble alone!" Simon protested. "We can't just drop all of our morals just to catch one bad guy!"

"The Scourge is the root of mostly every problem! If we take him out, this one will probably be resolved as well!" Sophia argued, stamping her foot.

"But what if it isn't?" Simon yelled back. "I'm not going to let some poor civilian get hurt because we have a personal vendetta!" The two looked at Kyle for guidance. He contemplated for a second, then spoke out.

"Okay guys, here's the deal. Me and Simon'll go answer the alarm. Soph, you go find the Scourge. You're better equipped to deal with him anyway." Sophia and Simon nodded in agreement. Simon grabbed his tranq gun, while Sophia started stocking up her massive bag of assorted hand weapons, guns, and various fedoras.

Sophia was about to walk out the door when Kyle walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. 

"One last thing," He said. He turned her around, put his arms around her waist, then kissed her. For a second, it was like time had stopped, like the planets had collided, like all the stars and galaxies in the universe had just stopped moving, just for this one moment to happen.

Kyle finally pulled back, and looked at Sophia. She was absolutely beaming, her cheeks bright red. She clearly had felt the same way Kyle did. "Just take care of yourself, alright?" Kyle told her.

"Of course I will." Sophia said. She hugged him, then walked out the door, putting her standard black fedora on. Simon looked at Kyle, grinning.

"I think now would be a good time to burst into song, would it not?" He smirked.

"I swear to god I will gut you like a fish..." Kyle warned.

"You two are sooo cute together!" Simon crooned. "Anyway, we should probably get going, no?"

"Yep." Kyle knelt to the ground as Simon jumped on his back.

"TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!" Simon yelled, as they blasted out of the door into the open sky.

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"Please, d-don't hurt me, I'll call the cops!" Tara sneered. These pathetic shop-owners always had the best cries for help.

"Hard to call someone when you're six feet under" She retorted, as she blasted two round holes into the woman's body. The woman collapsed to the ground, not dead, but unconscious. "Damn, I usually hit them straight on." Tara moved over her, preparing to finish the job. Suddenly, a red laser beam whizzed over her head. She spun around to find Kyle and Simon, the former with his laser wrist out and the latter with his tranq gun armed and ready. "Oh, it's you losers again? This should be easy." 

"We'll see about that," Kyle muttered. He selected the highest power laser, enough to knock out a fully grown woolly mammoth, and fired it at her. Tara jumped aside and easily dodged the laser.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that, nerd." She pulled out a stick of gum from her bag and began rapidly chewing. Kyle fired two more blasts, and Simon shot a dart at her. Tara deftly avoided all three, and leaped to the side. She pulled out a hand pistol and began shooting at the duo.

"Simon, take the back. We'll sandwich her and take her down." Kyle whispered to him in his headset.

"Roger that." Simon said. He sprinted behind Tara. Tara spun around and whipped her handgun around. Before she could shoot, however, Kyle shot a rapid succession of lasers at the back of her head.

Suddenly, Tara spit out her gum onto the floor. It ticked red for a second, then exploded in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. Kyle coughed. He turned his visor on, blocking out the smoke from entering his helmet and getting into his lungs. He began flying around in a circle, trying to clear the smoke from the air. When the air was clear again, he looked around. 

"Simon, are you alright?" Kyle didn't hear a response. He looked around and was shocked to find that, somehow, both Tara and Simon had disappeared.

________________________________________________________________________________"So, the little birdie came back to play." The Scourge laughed. Instead of his usual trench coat, he was dressed in a brown leather jacket, a white undershirt, and a pair of shades.

"What angle are you going for now? 80's douchebag?" Sophia pulled out a knife and held it to the light. It began glowing. She took off her fedora and threw it to the side.

"Are you sure you're ready to die, little miss assassin? You can still run, you know." The Scourge's taunting voice echoed down the amazonite walls, ringing in Sophia's ears.

"I will floss my teeth with your fucking jugular." She hissed at him.

"Woah there, mind your language young lady." The Scourge rolled up his sleeves, revealing a set of brass knuckles. "I found these pretty babies off of this website called Craigslist. Technology really is a miracle." The two circled each other for a while, staring directly into their opponent's eyes. Suddenly, at the same time, both of them lunged.

And all hell ensued. 

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Hey everyone! Anju/PhantomWatcher here. Sorry to end on a cliffhanger, but I think the next chapter will definitely be worth your while! If you liked this chapter, please give it a vote and a follow. If you have any feedback, feel free to leave it down below.

Boops and Lilacs - OopsISpilledTheInk