***
Nami, Hitomi, and Vantz had just watched the broadcast at Home-base.
“Oh My God! That was definitely Caiden!” Nami said excitedly.
“The source seems to have come from Zonos Tower,” Hitomi said.
“What in the hell is that crazy bastard thinking?” Vantz asked.
“We gotta help him!” Nami said.
“Help him?” Vantz asked.
“Yeah! He needs our help,” Nami said.
“How do you know that? Why would he be there, of all places? How? Tell me how you would know?” Vantz interrogated them.
“I dunno. I just do,” Nami said.
“Look, I think you two are pretty awesome and all, but heading to Zonos Towers is like the worst thing we could do right now,” Vantz said. “Look! Look at the news feed! The authorities have been sent there to investigate! What in the world would could we do to help?”
“I think we should listen to Nams,” Hitomi said meekly.
“Oh man, you too? Damnit,” Vantz said, throwing his hands up in the air.
“We have to, Vantz. We owe him so much. He saved our lives. It’s only right that we return the favor,” Hitomi said.
“Yeah, and he still didn’t fulfill his promise yet,” Nami added.
“Okay, when do we leave?” Vantz asked, giving in.
“Now,” the twins said in unison.
“You guys are lucky you’re cute,” Vantz said.
“Whatever,” the twins said together as they prepared to leave. The twins packed their new weapons. They loaded the guns and got their things. They all got into Vantz’s car. Vantz slammed his foot on the pedal and they tore off toward Nova Central.
***
With the second COGLIM frequency generator destroyed, all that was left for Rez to do was escape, go back to his hypercycle, and get back to Home-base. With the executive elevators out of service, Rez took to the stairs. clearing each flight with heightened urgency. He didn’t go undeterred for long. There were soldiers running up the stairs. Rez was forced to go to the ninetieth floor and look for an alternate escape route. As soon as he opened the door, another large group of soldiers passed in the adjacent hallway.
“Hey, you! Halt!” the last soldier of the group yelled to Rez. The commotion caught the attention of the other soldiers and they started to run after Rez. He took off. A shot was fired, and the bullet grazed his arm. Rez kept running. He turned left, down a hallway. He could hear the footsteps behind him. Shit! Gotta be close to thirty of those assholes after me, he thought to himself. The pain from the gunshot wounds didn’t faze him. He was running on pure adrenaline. He turned down another hallway; another platoon of soldiers blocked his path.
There was a door to his left. He kicked it in, hoping to find another way out. It was a dead end. He run into large executive conference room with reinforced windows overlooking the city. Shit! he thought to himself. The conference room was lit by holo-billboards outside. The building was still recovering from the power grid malfunction caused by Marx’s Gunners. The troops flooded into the room.
The fifty Psi-Corp soldiers stormed the room and took aim at Rez. Instead of panicking, Rez took a deep breath and prepared for battle. Rez began to take small steps forward. The soldiers began to feel uneasy, and were still awaiting orders. Right before the squad leader could tell them to fire, Rez threw the reverse shock wave grenade into the formation.
The environment around them started to warp out of shape. The soldiers began to lose balance and were forcibly pulled toward the vacuum vortex that was created by the grenade. An explosion of translucent energy sent the soldiers flying outward in all directions. Some of the soldiers were unconscious, some had their bones broken, and others were incapacitated. The result of the blast also left massive crevices around the walls of the room, and the floor was disjointed and full of cracks.
The ceiling began to gradually crumble; it was only a matter of time before it would cave in. There were almost twenty remaining uninjured soldiers. Despite their shock, they moved back into formation and began to fire at Rez. Under the intense downpour of gunfire, the smoke from the pulse-laser and explosive artillery engulfed the room once again along with the unsettling scent of seared human flesh . After approximately one minutes of constant gunfire, they stopped. As the soldiers waited for the smoke to clear, a deathly calm followed. “Confirm status the of target!” yelled the squad leader. No one could’ve survived that onslaught, the squad leader thought to himself. Two soldiers walked cautiously toward the smoky area where Rez’s body should have been.
Loose floor tiles and rubble littered the ground. Exposed electrical wiring protruded through the cracked walls as they sparkled and fizzled due to the extensive damage. The rest of the platoon watched the two soldiers disappear into the thick of the smoke and vanish from sight. A few more seconds of silence passed when suddenly a shrill screaming cut through the air. Rez emerged, untouched by the onslaught of bullets, and used his gunblade to impale one of the two soldiers. As some of the smoke began to clear, the soldiers saw Rez holding his left hand up with his palm open and facing them. They were in complete disbelief. They bore witness to the power of the EKSS shield.
The remaining soldier cried out, “Target at twelve o'clock! Fire! Fire! Fire!”
As more gunfire rained down on Rez, he braced for impact within the confines of the EKSS.
“Current shield capacity eighty-four percent and dropping rapidly,” Xandra reported.
I know, I know! I can’t just sit here! he thought to himself.
Rez changed the gunblade back to gun form, took out a special ammo clip, and placed it in the gun. It was one of his untested powerpulse rounds. There was a meter gauge on the back end of the barrel that began to turn blue and charge. As the gun charged, light particles from
