Chapter 19

 Shots rang out, and another mutant fell. “Get those barriers in place!” Sofia shouted to the guards behind her in the building.

Seeing an opportunity, another mutant rushed forward!

Sofia bisected the creature with her sword and backed up while firing at the encroaching ones coming out of the fog.

“It’s up, hurry and get in!”

Not waiting, Sofia spun around and sprinted into the building, just as the door was sealed by a heavy cupboard. More shots rang out from the spaces between the boards in the window. This building was absolutely not suited for a prolonged siege. She needed reinforcements, she needed ammo, and where the hell was Ironsides? Under any other circumstances, she’d rather shoot that man in the face, but in this one instance she needed all hands on deck.

The agent fired from the rifle, hitting a charging mutant square in the face. He seemed satisfied with himself. No time to deal with that, Sofia marched over to him. “Agent, where’s Command- I’m not saying that whole damn title; where the hell is Cassius?”

“...I honestly thought he was with his men on the first floor, is he not down there?”

“Okay, so now we have a missing commander.”

Finn walked by with a rifle. “Uh…” he seemed to know where Cassius was. “I know where he is, but you’re not gonna like it.”

“There is no depths that man can sink that would disappoint me more than he already has.” Said Sylvester the Agent.

“He… locked himself in a closet. I had the key so I opened it, but he was… uh… I don’t know how to put this, but he was extremely high and engaged in a VR session where-”

“I don’t want to know anymore.” Sylvester said, physically cringing as he did. “Just… keep him locked in there, at the very least he won’t get in our way.”

Sofia sighed. “Okay, so, what happens next?”

“Signals can’t get in or out, but I have some good news. Before the comms went down, I got a report that Apex was on his way.”

“What? Why would he be coming here?”

“I don’t dare speak of the motivations of a Paragon. Apex, can do as he pleases, and you know it. Best not question it, Gatekeeper. Right now, we have a job to do, and that’s to survive. After that, I will probably draw and quarter that imbecile and get him demoted down to the most humiliating job I can think of.”

“Well, that’s something we agree on, at least.”

One of the guards came running up the stairs, out of breath, with something in his arms. “Ma’am, sir, this uh… this floating orb wants to talk to you.”

“...I’m sorry, a what.”

“Yeah, this floating orb just broke in through the gaps in the barricades. We shot it at first, but then it turned out to be-”

“It’s me, Sofia! It’s Irene!”

“Irene? I’m glad your alive.” She sounded genuinely glad, not sarcastic.

“Barely, this fog is messing with my drone controls, so it took me a measure to create some countermeasures. It’s not perfect, but at least it’ll allow us to communicate. Unfortunately, I can’t move from this spot. But Kumoko and Mariposa are here at least!”

“What about Claire?”

“I sent her off on an errand, she’s standing by.”

“So I take it you have a plan?”

“I always do, ma’am.”

“Good job, we don’t have too much time, so give me the brief version. And I mean the actual brief version.”

“Right!” The drone floated out of the soldier’s hands and displayed a holographic 3D projection of the area. “So, this was the city normally, right? Well, this fog isn’t just a fog, nor does it just mess with communications. The fog-maker apparently sectioned off parts of the area into dozens of pocket dimensions. We’re still in the town, but we’ve been cut off from the region. In addition to that, wherever you think you’re going, is not where you’re actually going.”

“What?” Said Finn, trying to follow the conversation as best he could.

“Basically, this…” the map sectioned itself into dozens of squares, and then changed places seemingly at random. So places that were next to each other in the original map, after hitting a certain point, you’d wind up halfway across town in a completely different section. “I imagine the reason for that is to keep us from the fog maker.”

“Then, how are we going to get to them if we don’t know where we’re going?” Sylvester asked.

Sofia smirked, “You already came up with a countermeasure?”

“As always, I am the most reliable member of the team.”

“If you were my daughter, I’d be so proud of you. So what do you got?”

“It really took a lot out of my processors, but I think I managed to figure out the layout. I just had my drones manually explore the town and make a new map. Based on several factors, I think the most likely locations of the enemy stronghold is one of these. I can’t say for sure though.” Several points on the maps glowed, houses in the outskirts that were pretty far from each other.

“Alright, HK and Naomi are out there, can you send them to check it out?”

“On it, ma’am. What about you? The delegation is likely the main target, so-” A scream erupted from downstairs. Sofia rushed down to see that the enemies had broken through and were overwhelming the guards. Including one massive enemy.

The two of them locked eyes. Sofia drew her sword once more. She looked back at the people behind her, most of them were young, they’d never seen battle, and they’d likely die here.

An image flashed in her mind, a vision of a mighty blaze, of men in armor firing upon her, she tried to get them to stop, but it was useless, she was too weak, she couldn’t save anyone.

“Damn memory echoes.” She sighed. “No time for holding back.”

“Safety settings suspended”

“Overdrive Mode Active”