Night of the Stealth Hounds

"How does it look?" Cecilius watched the computer with Dorian.

"Halfway there. I sent the message to the androids," Dorian tipped her glasses. "The anti-program is already loading into the Syanic Earth, but it needs time."

"How much time?"

"Two hours."

Saitori grimaced. "I don't know if our forces can hold off the Federation that long."

"General?" Someone called in Saitori's transceiver. "Howdy! General Saitori? Do you copy, partner?"

"Captain Arius! I hear you loud and clear! What's the status?"

"Not good at all! The droid army has taken down our shoreline defenses from the east and west coasts! The border shields are down!"

"What? How did the droids destroy them? Their artillery shouldn't have the power to pierce our shield generator."

"It wasn't their artillery. They have these invisible wolf things, whatever they are. They snuck through and destroyed the shield generators."

"Viperfish stealth hounds," Saitori stammered. "I should never have designed them. Captain, where are you right now?"

"We're overrun! We're retreating to the center. Be careful, the wolves have infested the streets and are coming your way! Crap!"

"Captain?" The transceiver became quiet. "Are you there?"

"We need to protect Dorian to make sure the players can go home!" Cecilius worried.

Screams and gunshots echoed from the hallway.

"The hounds have arrived!" Saitori drew her laser-edged sword.

Cecilius also unsheathed his blade. "Let's escort Dorian to a geococcoid runner to escape!"

Saitori heard the door creak open, spotting a blurred figure that almost perfectly blended with its surroundings. When it lunged for Dorian, the General drew her teal blade to cut the stealth hound in half. The halves of the mechanical seven-eyed wolf became visible while electrical sparks flailed across the air with green liquid oozing out.

Dorian shuddered. "What was that?"

"That was a stealth hound. If they're here, our hangar downstairs must be infested with them," Saitori watched the door for other stealth hounds. "All of our runners are in the hangar. So much for that plan."

"Well, we got a helipad a couple of floors up from here, right?" Cecilius suggested.

"Let's move before more of those stealth hounds show up."

The UICA President turned to Dorian. "We cannot lose you. You're the only one who can deliver the antivirus. Stay close to us."

Saitori peeked her head out of the door. "All clear. We'll need to walk quietly."

The General led Dorian out to the right of the empty hall while Cecilius watched their backs. As they crept through the hall of dead bodies, the lights ominously flickered in rhythm with their footsteps. Dorian shivered, smelling the air of dried blood. Saitori lifted her hand as the trio saw a blurred figure ambush a UICA worker, killing him with electrified fangs.

"Damn," Saitori grumbled. "Those hounds turned our center into a bloodbath."

"W-why is this happening?" Dorian clutched onto her laptop.

"I-I don't know," Cecilius scanned the eerie halls.

When the trio encountered an intersection, Saitori checked if they were clear as the lights kept flickering on and off.

"The helipad is this way," The General pointed.

"President!" Someone tugged Cecilius by the leg.

It was an injured green-haired man wearing broken glasses. He had a large cut on his body.

"God! Dr. Kullian," Cecilius picked the man up. "You alright?"

"I-it's a scratch," The man grumbled. "Why are you still here?"

"We're escaping to the helipad."

"Then go, quickly!"

"We're not just going to leave you!" Cecilius took off his yellow coat to cover Kullian's wound.

"Please! There's no time. He'll find us!"

"Don't worry. We can take out the stealth hounds."

"No! I'm not talking about the dogs!"

"What?"

"Coast is still clear so far," Saitori told them. "Let's keep it that way. Dorian, the laptop is safe?"

"Y-yes, General," Dorian shivered, staring at the surrounding corpses.

"Good, then we should move."

"No! Leave me!" Dr. Kullian struggled to break free from Cecilius' tough arms. "He's coming! Wherever he goes, the darkness follows!"

Saitori's eyes dilated. "What did you say?"

"He brings the dark with him! That freaky computer is the devil!"

"No," Saitori and Cecilius gulped. "It can't be."

Growling blurred figures rampaged towards them.

"Shoot! The stealth hounds heard us!" Saitori yelled. "We've got to move!"

As Dr. Kullian screamed, the group ran for their lives. The stealth hounds scampered through the hallway as the group squinted their eyes to see the blurry entities that had nearly flawless camouflage with the hallways.

A gray-haired man in a suit rushed beside the group. He threw his laser-cutting fedora at the hounds, letting it ricochet off the others. Another man with orange hair and specter goggles finished the hounds off with his pistol.

"Howdy, y'all!" The suited man tipped his fedora, then brushed the blinding bang over his left eye.

"Captain Arius!" Saitori sighed. "Magnus!"

"Glad we weren't too late," The other man adjusted his goggles. "Too bad we couldn't help the others. President Cecilius!"

"Magnus," Cecilius smiled. "Glad you and the Captain are alright."

"Oh! Hey, Dorian!" Magnus, Ritom's older brother, recognized her. "Didn't know you were here."

"Hey, Magnus," Dorian forced a smile to distract herself from everything.

"Thought you were in the game with Ritom and the others. I hope they're okay. I couldn't contact them at all."

"Dorian's installing an antivirus into the Syanic Earth," Cecilius updated Arius and Magnus. "We need to protect her and make sure it's delivered. She's our only hope in giving the players a chance to escape the game world."

The two nodded.

"Dorian?" Cecilius walked to Dorian as Magnus and Arius helped Kullian walk. "Are you alright? You don't seem well."

"Um, it's just," Dorian mumbled, clutching her laptop case. " People are dying, and my friends are stuck in the game."

"Trust me, we're all just as confused as you are. I'm so sorry you had to witness all of this." Cecilius did his best to comfort Dorian as Saitori led the group up the stairs.

"I assure you, we will get out of here. We will stop the Eclipser and get to the bottom of this Federation plot."

Dorian nodded.

"Okay," Saitori scanned the hallway. "The helipad is across this floor."

"Strange," Arius grabbed his two pistols. "There aren't any bodies here."

"Guessing the stealth hounds haven't reached here yet."

"Guys?" Dorian looked outside the window. "What's that?"

Saitori and the others stopped to look. Across the city of Baltimore, purple portals erupted from the sky. Out of the portals came enormous warships, shaped like sharks.

"What's happening?" Kullian gasped.

The large warships faced a tall building with a bird statue.

"That's our other WARBLER Center on the other side of the city!" Cecilius realized.

"Chimaeras," Saitori frowned. "We should go before those droid warships find this WARBLER Center too!"

"But the other WARBLER Center there should occupy them for a while, right?" Magnus mentioned.

The group then witnessed the WARBLER Center's little turrets firing at the warships while small helicopters fled from the building. However, the warships opened their side compartments beside their red eyes, firing rocket salvos at the building. As the WARBLER Center collapsed with a catastrophic purple explosion, the remaining rockets blasted all the other choppers down. The group was speechless until the chimaeras slowly turned in their direction.

"Oh, shoot!" Arius exclaimed. "I think we've been spotted!"