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Game Events
"Alrighty... looks like they're all down. D, you ain't picking up anything? No? Guess we're in the clear for now. Get yerselves patched up if you're hurt. John's got the medkit, I'll help out if he needs it. We'll regroup after we catch our breath and press on. I gotta feelin' we're not too far from the end, boys, so chin up."

MAP


Note: The dark grey obstacles are too tall to jump or climb, but you can still lob grenades over them.

Letters: Characters
A = Aicaya
D = D-EYE5
JS = John
JT = Jet
M = Mike
J = Jackson

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Game Events
"C'mon, les get a move on." With Jackson and Aicaya on point, Jet and D behind them, and the wounded John and Mike in the rear, the group moves through the maze-like jumble of the room toward the next- possibly final- blast door. As the group nears the door, they can both see and hear something in the next room and keep their hands tight on their weapons as they prepare to step through the ruptured door. Inside, bodies are scattered to either side: robots and cyborg hybrids alike, shredded to pieces and almost nonchalantly discarded. Motor oil, green hydraulic fluids, and "blood" litter the room. Directly in front of the group, maybe ten meters ahead, is... a man? Something shaped like a man, certainly, but it's hard to focus on the shape, as though there's some kind of radiant silver aura surrounding it, blurring its silhouette. They recognize it as the intruder from before that ripped straight through the blast doors.

"...and I came to give you a fair chance to cut out this ridiculous ♥♥♥♥, only to find you holed up in this lunatic factory screwing around with a couple of cut-rate mercs. You're out of it." The entity sounds human enough- a deep male voice- yet there's something unsettling about the way it speaks. Its voice leaves a kind of light, almost imperceptible ringing in the ears of those listening. A shape standing on the opposite side of the room chuckles. "No, I'm most certainly not 'out of it,' as you so crudely phrase it, Agent," the man replies with a crisp English accent. "On the contrary, you can't even begin to comprehend the significance of what I've discovered in this- what did you call it? Lunatic factory? Hah. A fitting name, I suppose." The speaker looks like a normal human, although the group is too far away to make out any specific features. "Speaking of those cut-rate mercenaries..." He gestures toward the group. "I noticed. I could care less. I'm giving you one last chance, Absalom. Cut the crap and surrender peacefully while you can." Absalom merely grins, his pearly white teeth glinting. "How cute! You seem to be under the false impression that you can pose anything more than the remotest of challenges to me. It would appear that you're the one who's out of it, Agent." Even as he speaks, the air around Absalom starts to condense and glow darkly, swirling around and enveloping him. "The hell?!" the "Agent" growls in disbelief. Black and purple swirls of energy rotate around Absalom, turning into a vortex of color as it starts to cling to Absalom's skin, coating him in dark flashes of power.

"Oh, this is WONDERFUL! Such power! Intoxicating!" Absalom's glow seems to be even more radiant than the Agent's. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have more pressing matters to attend to. Why don't I leave you and those urchins back there with a nice farewell gift?" The Agent flashes forward even as Absalom slams his hands into the ground, generating a massive shockwave that sends the Agent flying back into the wall above the group. The members scatter in confusion as he falls down, stunned from the sudden attack, his face- once blurred- now a clearly defined mask of fury. "ABSALOM!" Absalom raises his arms to either side, and two large dark purple circles appear on the ground to either side of him. The circles begin to glow and give off some sort of smoke or vapor, like a fire, and complex shapes start taking form in the rings. "Have fun with the gift, Agent. It's a pity I can't stay to personally rip you apart." Turning around to face the south edge of the room, Absalom's hands glow with ethereal power as he reaches forward and somehow takes hold of the air- then rips it apart. The rip in the air shoots out a flow of some kind of dark energy that dissipates quickly in the air, and Absalom promptly steps through the rip, closing it as he does. All of this happens within the space of perhaps ten seconds, leaving the group- and the Agent- unable to respond. The circles start to hum and glow violently before flashing simultaneously with an explosive burst. The group watches on in paralyzed horror as the circles turn completely black, and something big- something huge- crawls out of each circle. The beasts are almost insect-like in appearance: They're roughly oval-shaped, have a dark blue shell or hide with orange spots, a light-gray striped or sectioned underbelly, a thin, short tail, and six legs- three to a side. Stepping completely up onto floor level, the circles vanish, and the beasts somehow float up into the air, suspended by some unknown means. "Son of a ♥♥♥♥♥," the Agent breathes quietly.


MAP



Letters: Characters
A = Aicaya
D = D-EYE5
JS = John
JT = Jet
M = Mike
J = Jackson
A = "Agent"