His sunglasses hide the fact his eyes are wide, ogling the
magazine centerfold. Phibrizio knows if he were caught with the
special "Zelas Edition" he made and imported into the Matrix, he would
be in trouble. Of course, that didn't stop him.
What does stop him is his cell phone ringing from where
it's resting on the table beside his chair. He scrambles to close the
full-length image of his girl in white and answers. On the other end
he hears Hawk's voice informing him, "They're on their way."
The black car rolls to a stop, Garv straightening from a
crouch and clenching his automatic weapon as their crewmates return.
Eris keeps watching down the alleyway as Xelloss and Seraya exit and
start up the stairs to the door. Zelgadis climbs out with a smile
unconsciously on his face and turns it on Lina as she gets out. She
eyes the grinning man a moment then follows after Xel and Ser. Zel's
smile fades a little.
On board the Dragon Slayer, the shadow of Zel's smile finds
its way to his real mouth.
Hawk frowns as he watches his screens, tapping absently.
Their location was selected because it was an abandoned part of the
city, but today there's much more activity than there should be. "What
is that," he asks himself quietly.
Xelloss leads the crew up the stairs as they head for the
thirteenth floor, Lina bringing up the rear behind Eris, Garv,
Zelgadis and Seraya. As they reach the landing on the seventh floor,
Lina sees a black cat in the doorway. It looks up at her with glowing
yellow eyes, meows, then wanders out of sight. Paying it no mind, she
continues towards the next flight of stairs until she glances back and
she sees a black cat in the doorway. It looks up at her with glowing
yellow eyes, meows, then wanders out of sight.
"Whoa, déjà vu," she comments half to herself. The others
tense and turn towards her.
On the Matrix screens, the code flashes and spasms, Hawk
watching bewildered.
"What did you just say," Seraya asks, trying to keep her
voice calm.
"Nothing, just had a little déjà vu."
"What did you see," she presses the redhead.
"What happened," Zel asks as well, stepping down closer to
Lina, the others listening carefully.
Visibly confused by their reactions, Lina replies as she
points back at the doorway, "A black cat went past us, and then
another that looked just like it."
"How much like it, was it the same cat?" Lina frowns in
thought at the small blond girl.
"It might have been; I'm not sure." With that, the others
look up towards Xelloss. He gives orders just with two words.
"Eris, Garv." The black-haired woman draws her gun,
climbing quickly up to the next landing to watch the eighth floor
corridor. Garv moves down to where Lina is, keeping an eye on the
doorway where the black cat was.
Seeing what their reactions are this time, Lina asks Ser,
"What is it?"
"A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens
when they change something," she answers, looking up in the space
between the stairs.
Phibrizio looks up to the ceiling as he wanders back into
the room where Lina swallowed the red pill. He's carrying one of the
crates that came with the crew. Overhead, a helicopter flies by.
Hawk's eyes widen as he reads the code after it's settled.
"Oh my God..."
Deep in the basement, a pair of heavy bolt cutters slices
apart the main telephone connection for the entire building.
Hearing the same helicopter his young friend did, Xelloss
calls to the others, "Let's go," before starting to run up with the
rest following his lead.
Phibrizio's phone rings and he quickly answers it.
"They cut the hard line, it's a trap! Get out," Hawk says
urgently.
The crate drops from Phibrizio's hand and he dashes with a
stumble over to the window, pulling the curtains open. All he sees is
solid brick. He pushes against it, and he feels solid brick as well.
"Oh no..."
"Oh no," agrees their operator.
Phibrizio hurriedly pulls open the crate, and from among
all the handguns, heavy weapons and ammo, pulls out a small cloth bag
of marbles. Unlike the rest of the crew that uses direct magic spells
to fight, the youngest crewmember uses small enchanted marbles that
when broken, disrupts an RSI's carrier signal. For every single marble
he breaks, a person he's looking at dies.
A team of heavily armored and armed military personnel
creeps down the hall towards the room Phibby is in. At a silent
command, one kicks the door down and they begin to spray weapons fire
inside. They're greeted with Phibrizio, who has a handful of golden
marbles. He grins and crushes them.
Xelloss pauses in the stairwell at the sounds of gunfire,
looking up.
The initial team of cops goes down but they brought backup
and before the young man can pull out more marbles, bullets slam into
him. He shouts as he manages to break one more marble then collapses
against the bricked-up window, pulling the curtains down on top of
him.
On the Dragon Slayer, Phibrizio's body shakes and spasms
with each bullet hit. He then goes still, blood dribbling from his
mouth. The life monitor sounds a warning buzzer before flat lining.
The youngest crewmember is dead. Hawk shuts his eyes tightly.
The ground floor doors burst open, another squad of police
officers swarming in. Most start up the stairs while the rest start
searching for their targets. Xelloss looks down several floors at
those armed men filling the building. He looks back to his crewmembers
then they start running again, Garv taking up the rear. Eris watches
the stairwell for anyone following then goes jogging after Garv.
Xelloss stops at the first window and pulls the curtains
open, discovering the brick wall instead. Zelgadis sees and panics,
saying, "Ohh, that's what they changed. We're trapped, there's no way
out!" Xel looks thoughtfully down the hallway they just came from,
Garv and Eris on lookout as they keep an eye for any cops or Agents.
"Be calm," he says soothingly to Zel, "Give me your
phone." The lavender-haired man reaches into his pocket and comes up
empty. At the same time, Seraya opens her own phone and hands it to
Xelloss.
"They'll be able to track it," she warns as she crosses
her hands behind her back, looking down one of the hallways.
"We have no choice," Xel replies as he dials.
Hawk holds a hand over his headset, opening his eyes and
tearing his gaze away from Phibrizio's body. "Operator," he answers
Xel's call.
"Hawk, find a structural drawing of this building. Find it
fast," Xelloss adds, unnecessarily as Hawk's already finding and
loading it up.
More police officers fill the building, climbing up the
stairs quickly.
The blueprints of the building appear on one of Hawk's
screens. "Got it!"
"I need the main wet wall." The green-eyed man nods as he
taps to the page of the blueprints his leader needs, flipping to page
eight.
Agent Valgarv looks at Phibrizio's body, faint smirk on his
face. Suddenly something catches his attention and he holds a hand
over his earphone. "Eighth floor."
Agent Filia looks up from the bottom of the stairs; she
holds her hand over her own earphone as she hears Valgarv say,
"They're on the eighth floor."
Xelloss listens to Hawk's directions and points, "Eris,
straight ahead." The crew follows the white-clad woman.
The search continues, cops swarming higher and all over the
building.
Xelloss keeps the phone to his ear as they open the double
doors to another room, Eris sweeping around with her handgun. "Now
left, that's it," Hawk finishes his instructions. Xelloss looks and
opens the door, revealing a bathroom.
"Good." He hangs up, returning the phone to Seraya.
Agent Valgarv and Agent Filia's search teams converge in
the hallway where Xelloss started his call. She glances around then
asks, "Where are they?"
One of the cops enters the eighth floor bathroom,
flashlight sweeping around. He doesn't give much thought to the hole
in the wall. Deep inside the bowels of the building, Xelloss shushes
his team, and then indicates for them to keep crawling down after the
officer leaves.
On the sixth floor another cop searches a bathroom,
flashlight reflecting off the dusty tiles.
One of Xelloss' steps on a pipe sends a shower of dust
raining down on the others, catching Zelgadis right in the face. He
coughs weakly.
At the sound, the cop's flashlight focuses on the back
wall, slowly stepping towards it.
Zel holds a hand over his mouth, coughing again. The others
listen tensely, trying not to breathe and cause more noise.
The cop lowers his weapon a bit, leaning towards the wall
and listening.
Zelgadis sneezes.
"They're in the walls," the officer says to himself,
backing away.
Lina listens intently, hearing "they're in the walls" being
called before gunfire starts to pierce through the wall, lances of
light filling the tiny space.
"Lina," Seraya cries and pushes her out of the way from
below.
"Go!" Xelloss shouts and the crew goes deeper, climbing
faster. Broken plaster and dust starts to fill the small area.
The cop keeps spraying bullets all over the wall then
suddenly stops, eyes wide. He looks down at five claws that pierced
his chest, then he collapses when they retract. Valgarv glares at the
bloodied body as his hand returns to normal. "Are orders that hard to
follow? I said Xelloss must be taken alive." He purposely steps on the
corpse as he goes to the bullet hole-covered wall, looking in and
realizing where Xelloss is taking them. "How like a rodent."
On the fourth floor, another cop busts down part of the
wall with his rifle, "I got him! I got him!" Instead, Seraya fires
from above and he retreats back to the hallway. She continues to climb
down quickly, blond hair briefly visible before the cop's fist punches
through the hole and grabs a handful of her golden locks. Gritting her
teeth, Lina kicks through the hole hard and catches the cop in the
chin, causing him to stagger back. Blue eyes lock on red for a moment
then they continue climbing.
At the bottom, Garv and Eris kick out the protective screen
and drop into the basement.
Immediately they come under fire, a squad of police wearing
gas masks waiting in ambush for them. Garv opens fire, machine gun
rapidly taking down the three cops on the right side. Eris stands
beside him, shooting exactly two bullets each into the heads of the
three cops on the left side. Zelgadis, Seraya, Lina and Xelloss drop
into view soon after.
Gas canisters bounce around and start to spray out their
contents. Tear gas. Xelloss doesn't stop moving, looking around the
floor then kneeling to pry open a grate. He looks up as the others
drop in and waves to indicate to Zel to jump in as well, "Zelgadis!
Come on!" He hesitates before leaving the safety of the wall then
trips, collapsing and disappearing into the clouds of gas. Xelloss
frowns but jumps in after the others.
---
Deep below the building, the crew makes their way through
the sewers, Xelloss whispering to his right hand woman. "You have to
get Lina out. That's all that matters now." He stops and looks up
towards a manhole cover.
"Xelloss, don't." Seraya starts to protest and he looks
back at her.
"She must get out, you understand me?" Reluctantly, the
blond girl nods.
In front of the building, Zelgadis is led to the police
van, hands cuffed behind him.
Shouts of "they went this way" echo in the sewers. Xelloss
waits until a flashlight catches him standing at the foot of the
ladder towards the road above. "There he is!" He smirks then jumps,
trench coat spreading open behind him as he flies up, taking the
manhole cover with him. The cops give chase.
Unseen, Seraya leads the Dragon Slayer crewmembers further
away, dragging Lina after her by the hand.
Valgarv turns from the van pulling away and smirks again
when Xelloss lands, holding the manhole cover. "The great Xelloss...
we meet at last."
"And you are," the Resistance leader asks, narrowing his
purple eyes.
"Valgarv. Agent Valgarv."
"Humph. You all look the same to me."
"I've been waiting for this moment," Valgarv says smugly
before his head whips to the side, Xelloss having given him a hard
right hook.
"Oh, so have I." The Dragon grins coldly.
Seraya pushes a manhole cover aside several streets away
and glances around before climbing up, reaching down to help Lina up.
Watching the others start to come up, she pulls out her cell phone and
looks at it dripping water. "We need a new phone."
"That's impossible," a cop notes as he looks up. He's been
seeing a lot of impossible things lately.
Xelloss uses the manhole cover like a shield as he runs up
the side of the building. Valgarv chases him, launching balls of fire
that keep being absorbed by the glowing metal. When he reaches the top
Xelloss jumps up into the air and spins, throwing the cover down at
the Dragon like a 300-pound Frisbee.
Valgarv leaps out of the way, up towards Xelloss and his
fingers extend out as claws. Xel kicks at them and falls down towards
the roof, launching icicles back at Val. The rebel skids to a stop at
the edge of the roof and looks around. His enemy is missing. Staying
alert, he prepares another round of magic attacks when a fist punches
through the roof and grabs his ankle.
Xel staggers but kicks at the Agent's hand a few times,
running again when he gets loose. Val jumps through from below and
chases once more. Xelloss leaps off the roof and turns in midair,
starting to fall and throwing more balls of fire up at Valgarv. The
Dragon dives towards his opponent, deflecting the attacks with magic
shots of his own. When they get near the road's surface, Valgarv grabs
Xel by the collar and slows their descent so they don't become chunky
salsa on the ground.
"You can't win," Val mutters through gritted teeth, which
only makes Xelloss smile.
"I already have." With a quiet growl, he's pushed away by
the Agent but doesn't continue the fight.
"Take him." Following the Agent's order, the cops swarm
over Xelloss.
"No," Hawk says sorrowfully as he reaches towards the
screen, as if to pull Xelloss away from the Dragons and the police.
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