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Chapter 2: Thrust into Darkness
Calmar took his
time, there wasn't much to see in this place. Other than the lobby and Clint's
office there were only five rooms, seven if you count the tiny area they called
a bathroom and a rather empty storage room. The training room only held a few
weights and two punching bags. The kitchen was poorly stocked, and only had a
table big enough for six people. A small locker room was where the hunters kept
their things, but only three seemed to be used. The lounge had a couch and some
old books, but it wasn't like hunters spent a lot of time relaxing anyway.
Finally there was the meeting room, where Calmar currently sat. It was about as
big as the other rooms, a large table was set in the middle of the room with
four chairs set around it and a lamp in the middle. Calmar sat at one end of the
table and looked across the table at his new allies, if you could call them
that. Clint sat opposite of him, Amy sitting on the chair to his left, Maria on
his right.
"Well, what's the plan for today?" Amy asked, her
bright pink outfit seemed to light up the room. "I hope you got us a few
decent jobs today boss, we aren't exactly rich you know."
"Oh, don't be rude Amy!" Maria scolded her,
straightening the sleeves of her white jacket, it seemed to be part of an old
soldiers uniform. "Don't mind her sir, please go on." she said to
Clint.
"Don't worry." Clint grinned, his black suit seemed
to blend into the background, pushing his long white hair out of his eyes and
reaching into his coat, he removed three papers. "There's a job for
everyone here."
"Ah, so I can go on a mission today?" Maria asked,
quite excited.
"Yes, I'm sorry you don't get much of a chance for this
Maria, but we aren't very well known yet." Clint said, handing Maria one of
the papers. "It's rather simple I'm afraid, an easy find for someone like
you."
"Thank you sir..." Maria mumbled, reading over her
mission. "Are you sure? It's seems a bit much for me."
"You'll do fine, I have faith in your skill Maria."
he smiled at her for a moment, and turned to Amy and Calmar. "Now then.
This will be dangerous, the mission requires you to go into a ruin that is
teeming with old security bots, that is why I'm sending both of you."
"WHAT?!" they shouted in unison, causing Maria to
nearly fall out of her chair.
"You're sending me out with this idiot?! We don't even
know how good he is!" Amy shouted.
"I work better on my own, why should I have to baby-sit
this little punk?!" Calmar growled.
Amy glared at him, "Oh yeah, this little punk could kick
your worthless-"
"Enough!" Clint yelled "Obviously you two need
to learn how to get along, this mission will be good practice. Now, lets be
going."
"Um... sir?" Maria stuttered "What about that
one?" she pointed to the piece of paper Clint was still holding.
"Oh, this is mine, I have to make sure you all don't get
stronger than me." Clint laughed. "That's enough chatter, lets be
going, we won't make any money just sitting here!"
After a subway ride and a long walk, Amy and Calmar arrived at
the ruins of a large factory, most of the records were lost so they were going
in blind, all they knew is that they were after a data disc on B3 and that not
many hunters had ventured in. A special watch was given to each of them, the
numbers on them currently read 184, and were informed that if it read 0 before
they found the disc and got out, they were as good as dead. No other explanation
was given.
Calmar stared at the watch as they approached the factory, the
closer they got, the lower the numbers went. Taking a few steps back increased
the number, something must have been in there with a tracker on it, something
dangerous.
Pushing open one of the side doors, they slowly went in,
keeping their eyes peeled for bots. A dark hallway greeted them, no lights, no
sound, no traces of other hunters. Pressing onward they found nothing, but never
dropped their guard. Soon they found the stairs, stepping downward they stopped
at the entrance to B2.
"That's not right, isn't there supposed to be a B3?"
Amy whispered, checking the tracker watch which currently read 76.
"Sometimes these old ruins have hidden passages to the
sub-levels, keep a lookout for anything suspicious."
The door to B2 creaked open, and Amy grabbed Calmar's sleeve
"What?" he whispered, a bit irritated. Amy pointed to the floor,
footprints were in the dust, they looked fresh. "Great."
This floor was like a maze, they kept going around in circles,
trying to figure out where the passage down could be. Something echoed through
the halls, Amy and Calmar stopped, listening. Faint footsteps could be heard
growing louder, and then a voice.
"That was too easy." a man laughed, "What
do you think Carol?"
"I thought they said this place was dangerous, those bots
were pathetic Ray!" a woman's voice replied.
Calmar ducked into an open door, pulling Amy with him.
"Fools." Calmar thought, looking down at the tracker, it read 58
"If they keep on like that, whatever's down here will find them and
us!"
The two people walked past the doorway without giving it a
look, the man was tall with short blue hair and wore a black outfit, same as the
woman, who was a bit shorter and had long pink hair. Calmar signaled to Amy for
her to follow, they crept behind the other two, careful not to be seen or heard.
They followed them all the way back to the first floor, the couple hadn't said
anything for a while but the tracker was at 31 and still counting down, whatever
was there was heading in their direction.
The two people turned a corner, but shortly before Calmar and
Amy did the same a gunshot rang out, echoing through the building, followed by a
woman screaming.
Calmar peered around the corner, a man in a black jumpsuit
with long black hair was standing in the hallway holding a shotgun, Calmar
thought he seemed familiar, the woman was bent over the blue haired man, who was
on the ground and bleeding "Raymond! Hold on!" she shouted
The black haired man laughed, "See what happens when you
let your guard down? Now hand over the disc, or you'll get a taste of lead as
well, don't you know women aren't cut out to be hunters?"
Raymond looked up, "Scum. Carol's ten times better than
me, and a million times better than some piece of slime like you!" he
shouted.
Another shot was fired, this time by the woman called Carol.
She missed, too shaken to aim accurately. The man took aim at her but before he
could fire a pink blur ran from the shadows behind him and sent him skidding
across the ground.
It was Amy, she had taken a back route when Calmar was focused
on the group. "So women don't make good hunters huh? We'll see about that!
Get up so I can knock you down again, next time in a bloody heap!" she
shouted at him.
"Amy, are you out of your mind?!" Calmar yelled,
running from around the corner. "You could have been killed!"
"I won't be killed by a jerk like this, and neither will
anyone else here as long as I'm around!"
Raymond and Carol were shocked, wondering where these two had
come from. The man in black however, was already taking aim at Amy.
"More hunters... get out of my way!" he shouted,
about to pull the trigger, but Calmar had already rushed up and thrust his
katana into the man's arm, pinning it to the ground. He screamed and dropped his
shotgun. Amy hurried over and took it, tossing it down the hallway.
"Come on, we have to leave." Calmar said, removing
his sword from the mans arm, who was staring up at him with a look of pain and
shock upon his face.
"What's the hurry?" Amy asked when suddenly she
heard a beeping, the tracker was at 10 and counting down fast. "Oh,
crap!"
"I'll help him, you get her moving!" Calmar shouted,
dashing over to Raymond and straining to pick him up.
Amy hurried over to Carol and grabbed her arm, "Come on,
it's almost here!"
"What...?" Carol mumbled
"I don't know what but it isn't friendly I can tell you
that much!" Amy said, pulling Carol along the hallway toward the exit.
Calmar right behind her, carrying Raymond.
The man in black stumbled to his feet and over to his shotgun,
"That isn't possible, after this long? I'll get a promotion for sure!"
he laughed, not hearing the faint clacking behind him until it was too late,
something leapt from the shadows at him, tearing his left arm off.
A high pitched scream came from the darkness behind them, but
the four didn't stop running, not until they had arrived a safe distance away
from that factory. Calmar fell to his knees, out of breath and energy from
hauling Raymond that far. "You... all right?" Calmar asked.
"We owe you both so much, if you hadn't helped us Ray
could be..." Carol cried.
"He still could be if we don't get him to a hospital,
that wound is bad." Amy said, looking around.
"What about the other guy?" Raymond inquired,
"What the hell got him?"
"Some kind of genetically engineered beast I
expect." Calmar panted "Places like that usually have monsters of that
sort wandering around."
"So he's..." Carol started
"Dead. It's not easy to kill those things, and he was
already in bad shape."
"Lets keep moving, we have to get back to town." Amy
said, calmly looking at the tracker to see if whatever that was had left the
factory, but the tracker wasn't active, meaning it was too far away to worry
about.
After arriving at the nearest hospital they soon parted ways
with Ray and Carol, as a reward for saving their lives they gave them the disc
they found in the depths of the factory, assuring them that the other stuff they
picked up was worth more than enough to cover the hospital bill. Arriving back
at the HQ, Clint congratulated them on their victory, it was a very successful
day, all of them had completed their missions.
However, the peace wouldn't last long, around noon the next
day they received a call that Clint ordered them all into his office for. Calmar
looked at the screen, a familiar face was staring back at him and laughing.
"What's with that look? Did you think I was dead?"
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