The Chronicles of Hyde

Embers

And so we continue...

The rifle's sharp BANG alerted his senses and seemed to slow time down. His instincts told him to dive for cover and forget the fight with Dave. As he dove he tried to find out where exactly the shot came from. Was the enemy inside, or... There! The glass from the far wall was cracked and starting to shatter, but a bullet hole in the center of the window that gave his opponent away. The sniper seemed to be on the southwest style mansion. 

Sniper.

Only a few seconds had passed and Blackout felt an odd feeling of triumph. The fiddling with The Assassin's rifle had worked. She had fired at him and missed. Because of the faulty rifle, she would have to come into the mansion to finish him off. Which wasn't good, but better than being shot through the cranium. 

But the moment of triumph was short-lived. Time sped up to its normal pace, and the noises he was hearing finally were focused on. He heard three things: sirens that seemed to be almost right outside, heavy footsteps behind one of the doors, and Dave, wincing in pain. 

Oh, no. 

Blackout's head spun toward Dave and took in the grisly scene. 

The bullet must have missed Josh but went straight through Dave's shoulder. Blood dripped off Dave's torso onto the carpet, and Dave's fearful eyes squinted in pain. Blackout took a few steps toward him but Dave cried out defiantly, "Go ahead, Josh. Finish me off." 

Josh stopped, surprised that Dave still had enough strength to keep up the act. 

"Elevator..." Dave added in Vortredyn, quiet and weak. 

There wasn't much time. They had to get out of there quickly, or Dave was going to die. His mind foggy, Josh took two quick steps toward Dave before a punch from behind knocked him to his knees. Quickly Josh spun around and leaped to his feet to discover his new foe. 

Between Blackout and Dave stood a metal monster. Its face was made up of a gas-mask style mask, with glowing triangle eyes and a steel filtering device over its mouth. Its torso was armored, and wrapped around the arms and chest were tubes of an unknown liquid. The figure was crouched and wrapped in a black cloak, with a hood half-covering the face, and in its hand it clutched a silver, foot-long cylinder with two buttons on it. Its other hand was still stuck out in front of him from when he had struck Blackout. 

The monster glanced at Dave before fixing it again upon Blackout. It set the odd cylinder against the wall and pushed a few buttons on it. The small screen on its exterior was suddenly lit up and displayed a timer at 5 minutes. It began ticking down. 

Crap. A bomb was the last thing he needed.

"Evening, Agent Velmire," it said to Dave, "It seems you have caught the not-so-famous Blackout. Congratulations." The monster's voice was cold and harsh. It did not show any pity for Dave's condition. 

"And you," It spoke to Blackout, "have evaded capture longer than I expected. Well done. It also seems that you have killed one of our top agents. Well done again. I didn't think you had the guts to kill your uncle."

Blackout almost cried out in anger, but he stopped himself. If they ever were to get out of this alive, he had to act as if he and Dave were on opposite sides. 

"I did what was needed." was Josh's answer. 

"If we were still hell-bent on recruiting you, I would be impressed. Sadly, you have killed a level 10 agent. No matter who you are, that is punishable by death."

"I'm not dead yet, Ember. Get us out of here." Dave said weakly. 

Ember, what the villain seemed to be called, spun around and lifted Dave by the collar of his tux, pressing him against the wall.