The beats of marching Drums

A bullet barely misses Syna’s head, striking the ground in front of her. At some point, Sovereign’s scanners noticed it, but his attempt to stop it was too slow the first time, so he immediately puts himself in front of her to stop any other attacks. Angie quickly rushes behind a couple of trees and activates Ingress’s exoskeleton mode, but any of her attempts to run from cover to cover are thwarted by other bullets.

At first, they think they figured from which direction they came, but suddenly a shot flies in from the right, then behind them. 

-” Angie, distract it for a minute!”, commanded Syna, who was now connected to Sovereign, typing rapidly for a solution. The miner promptly understood her plan, but still threw a few quips because she had to play the patsy. While she didn’t have any long-range weapon, a well-thrown stone could act as one. She throws it all her might towards the direction of the previous shoot, then runs at full speed. Her combo moves by jumping from place to place threw the attacker out of the loop for a moment, which gave Syna and Sovereign the chance to finish their part faster.

-----

The three sit down, sipping from an aluminium package, filled with some type of juice or jelly, depending on which Brand you got it from. It was breakfast time, with Savan eating and enjoying their meal, Marc taking small portions while keeping his attention focused on the third participant, who was just staring at the ground. She expected to be under constant supervision, but it still made her feel uncomfortable.

-” Say, no offence, but couldn’t you ask the clone to keep an eye on me? I’m surprised to say this, but it would actually make me feel a bit less uneasy”, asked the girl, breaking the silence that fell upon them. Savan wanted to say something in return, but Anna hushed them quickly- “ I wasn’t talking to you, ok?”

Marc ignored her, and only spoke to the C.T.Ds, asking them if they noticed something yet, but neither was able to find the girl’s partner anywhere nearby. 

-“ Ok, so I don’t believe that you left your C.T.D far away enough for them to be unable to rescue you. So are we going to continue playing dumb or…”

-” Yes, we are and nope, Half is close by, I can tell you that.” After she finished her meal, Anna stretches her hand toward Savan and demands them to give their portion. 

-“ Why would I do that”, asked the clopy in return, to which the girl only scoffed and said.

-“ Because I’m hungry and you don’t need it”. The remark wasn’t well received by their partner, who slammed his shield right in front of Anna. 

-” A possible threat to your life might convince your C.T.D to come out”. While monotone, the threat was credible enough to make the hair on the girl’s hand stand up.

The breakfast continued in silence afterwards, with Marc devising a rotation plan for the C.T.D to turn between range scans and protect them during their sleep tonight. 

-” We should move, staying here won't be of use. Drums, you take the lead and stay where we can see you", he commanded the newcomer.

-----

The zig-zagging helped Angie to avoid two more bullets, but the third hit her in her left arm, which to her surprise didn’t pass through her flesh, but embedded itself inside her limb. She then felt her left side, from arm to stomach go numb, and unresponsive, and the effect quickly spread, almost reaching the legs.

Syna finally managed to get a lock on the C.T.D, named Finer, who looked like a metallic kite, with the side that oversaw the land looking like a flat bar, while the other part was also flat, except for some distortions. Some bumps took the form of a humanoid face, and four limbs stretching vertically, but they could still move around. 

The ones that appeared like arms were stretched around a human, keeping him still while the young man took his shots with a sniper. But while it could hover at a high altitude, each movement was actually just a glide, and it descended, slowly, closer and closer to the ground. Until Syna shut down that ability entirely and the two were now falling.

To make matters worse for them, Angie came jumping from out of nowhere and used an axe kick with her right foot to increase the falling velocity. The boy was knocked out from the impact, but Angie grabbed him before he could plunge to his death, while his C.T.D suffered some damage from the fight.

The two girls now had a new issue, as they didn’t know what to do with him. It was clear that he targeted them specifically, and Syna thought she guessed why. 

-” He is Robert’s representative, so I think he might be pissed off from when I modified the first leaderboard”.

-” You di…that actually makes sense now. Yap, you did that '' said Angie after connecting her Com to herself. “ Sorry, my mouth is paralyzed. Also, I think his bullet is stuck in my ha…” but before she could finish, the miner got stiff like a statue and dropped on her back

-” Well, that’s not good. So he either must be pissed about that or Robert told him to eliminate me first?” The girl then squatted to help her think better while keeping her gaze on him, but not paying actual attention. When he woke up, her unflinching face was the first thing he saw and it took him by surprise, enough to make him let out a short scream. He tried to crawl backwards but bumped his back into one of the massive arms of a C.T.D behind him. Sovereign’s shadow passed right over him, and the young man got even more scared when he saw his partner pinned under the C.T.D other limb.

-” Listen here”, he then screamed at Syna. “ I don’t care what you do to me, but leave my sister out of whatever game you want to play with your asshole parents, ok?” 

After he recovered from the shock, he bit his tongue, asked for apologies, then bowed down in front of her and begged without a threatening voice or malice in his tone. His mind even considered starting to cry, maybe that would convince her. Syna, though, didn’t respond to any of his pleas, as she was diving deep into her thoughts. So, when she finally resurfaced, she also screamed out of shock at the sight of him awake and grovelling before her.

-----

The clear sight in front of them let them know that they no longer had to deal with the forest, which was replaced by a grassy expanse, with small hills here and there, but not enough for someone to be able to hide in. The group, which now included Anna in their mix as well, covered a bit of the region on foot, leaving the C.T.D focused on scanning for any dangers that might occur.

During their lunch, Vivar and Azin decided that it was time to tell the rest of their findings. 

-“ Yap, it’s participant number 7 and Medusa. They managed to hide like in the cave, but our range expanded after we got into the fields, so we maybe that's how we managed to track them behind us. No other C.T.D, though”, said the knight while gazing at Anna. The girl got spooked by him again, so Savan tried to make their partner behave a bit. 

-” C’mon Vivar, stop scaring her, she must be really worried for brother”.

Anna scowled and for the first time actually looked at Savan:

-” Tsz, clone, stop talking like that already. I know that you were programmed to be nice and stuff, but you really piss me off, you know”, to which now Marc had enough of her comments.

- “ Hey, hey, watch your language. I know that there are people that don’t like clopies, but you make it sound personal”.

The annoyed girl was now fuming, and how couldn’t she be, especially since -” Creatures like that thing made me and my brother lose everything, so excuse me for being fucking angry, ok? They just brought in 4 of those clones and all of a sudden 10 people get fired, and then you live on the streets and…ugh. Dam it, just, listen, I promise I’ll shut up, ok? Just let me come with you until I find my brother.”

Savan and Marc just looked at each other, the clopy with concern while the boy with mild acceptance. They both probably guessed what happened, especially since they found out about their other pursuer, but just to be safe, Marc asks her one last question.

-“ Is your C.T.D still functional?”

The girl hides her head into her knees, and her face behind her palms, staying silent for a few moments. She stays like that, thinking if telling them would help her situation or not, but then just blurts out -“I don’t know, ok? Half made me run, so I did, ok?”-