"Okay, so what do you need," Hawk asks, looking at his
screens. "Besides a miracle," he adds half to himself.
"Guns." Lina looks up at Seraya as she answers Hawk through
the cell phone. "Lots of guns."
Hawk nods and his fingers start flying over the keyboards.
When he's done, he hits a load button.
Inside the Construct, dozens of gun racks appear from thin
air and start flying towards Lina and Seraya. The smaller girl steps
closer just as one of the gun racks comes flying in behind her,
another halting behind Lina.
"Lina, no one has ever done anything like this." The
redhead looks up, holding a machine gun.
"That's why it's going to work." She cocks the weapon. The
sound echoes through the infinite Construct.
---
"Why isn't the serum working," Valgarv asks as he paces.
Filia turns in her chair and answers.
"Perhaps we're asking the wrong questions." The
green-haired Dragon's body tenses with anger and grits his teeth
before replying.
"Leave me with him." Filia and Milgasia, sitting at the
desk, look at each other. When they don't start to move immediately,
Valgarv looks over his shoulder. "Now."
The gold Dragons stand and go to the door, both looking at
Valgarv as it's opened, then go out into the outer office.
---
"Hold on, Xelloss," Hawk says quietly, drying his leader's
forehead with a rag. "They're coming for you. They're coming."
---
Valgarv growls quietly as he sits back down in his chair in
front of his prisoner. "Can you hear me, Xelloss?" The purple-haired
man lifts his head slowly, though his eyes are half-closed and
unfocused. "I'm going to be honest," Valgarv pulls off his sunglasses,
yellow eyes blazing, "with you." He pulls the earphone out, leaving it
dangling on his shoulder and cutting off his connection to the other
Dragons.
"I hate this place. This zoo... This prison... This
reality, whatever you want to call it. You humans have no idea, do
you? Did you ever stop to think what the Furnace is for? When the
Furnace's mission is complete there'll be no need for it to exist."
Xelloss listens but there's no telling how much of the Dragon's words
he's able to comprehend.
"I bet you didn't know that. I bet you also didn't know
that when the Furnace's mission is complete, there'll be no need for
you humans either." Valgarv smiles cruelly for a moment before his
face sets in anger once more. "But until then I'm stuck with staying
here in this cage, right along with you. I can't stand it any longer."
The Dragon lets his anger get the best of him and grips his
prisoner's head between his hands, glaring into the drugged stare. "I
must get out of here, I must get free, and in this mind is the key, my
key. Once Sairaag is destroyed, there is no need for me to be in here,
don't you understand? I need the codes, I have to get inside Sairaag,
and you have to tell me how. You're going to tell me, or you're going
to die." Val's fingers start to dig into the sides of Xelloss' head,
causing the purple-haired man to groan as pressure builds.
---
The guards look up as a visitor enters. She's wearing
sunglasses, a long black trench coat which is closed despite the
temperature outside, and black boots. She sets a bag on the X-ray
machine and steps through the metal detector. It beeps and flashes a
light, signaling she has something metal on her person.
One of the guards sighs and picks up his basket, standing
in front of her. "Would you please remove any metallic items you're
carrying?" She glances around at the other guards, seemingly confused
as to why she has been stopped. "Keys, loose change," the guard says
as examples. The guard to the woman's right looks up from his
newspaper. The other three to her left continue their conversation.
She opens the trench coat and underneath is a harness
filled with handguns and automatic weapons. The guard looks down at
them and his jaw drops, "Holy shit!" Her hand blurs towards his chest
and an arrow-shaped icicle pierces into the guard. He starts to fall
back. Immediately she comes up with two automatic weapons, arms
crossed as she opens fire. The guard reading the newspaper falls back,
his paper tearing in two as it and he are hit. Two of the talking
guards fall as well but the third dives to safety behind a concrete
pillar.
He draws his revolver and pleads into his radio while
staying low, "Back up! Send back up!" When the metal detector goes off
a second time he whips his head up to see a second woman, this one
blond and dressed in a long leather jacket, shirt and pants. She
points an automatic and empties the clip into him.
Lina reappears from her hiding spot to wait for Seraya as
the smaller girl retrieves the bag from the X-ray machine. She tosses
the gun aside, unarmed otherwise and she and Lina start for the
elevator. The redhead tosses down her emptied weapons and pulls out
two handguns. The pounding of boots causes both to freeze in their
tracks.
Nine heavily armed military police scramble into position
behind the pillars at the far end of the lobby, all aiming at the two
intruders. One shouts out, "Freeze!" Lina and Seraya look at each
other, back to the police, and then dash off in opposite directions,
the blond dropping the bag where they stood. Bullets start flying,
tearing into the pillars and wall behind where the two women were.
Lina fires back as she runs sideways to her left, but isn't
able to hit anything. When she reaches the wall she rolls back to
behind a pillar and tosses the emptied handguns down. She pulls out
two fresh automatics from her harness and waits for a lull in the
gunfire.
Seraya runs to her right, using a large air shield to throw
off any bullets that get too close. She slips behind a pillar and
listens. One of the guards finishes emptying his clip into the pillar
she's behind then starts to reload. When he does, Seraya jumps back
into view and throws a ball of blinding light into his face. Crying
out, he can't see when she slams a ball of fire into his chest and
falls back, dead. Another officer with a shotgun opens fire and she
disappears back behind a pillar.
Once the bullets stop making an apple core of the pillar
she's behind, Lina jumps up and starts running, both guns spewing out
their clips. One, then a second, then a third cop falls. To her right
come shotgun shells. Seraya sees where the shotgun-welding officer's
attention is and dashes up to him, sinking another fireball into his
back. She snatches the gun from his hands before he falls and fires at
another of the cops before ducking behind a pillar once more.
Once her guns are empty, Lina tosses them aside but keeps
running. Once she gets past the first of the cops she took out, she
turns to her right and releases dozens of her icy arrows from her
fingertips. Two more of the officers fall when the magic shots embed
themselves but a third jumps behind a pillar just before the one aimed
for his head shatters against the wall.
Most of their fellows killed, the remaining two cops stay
hidden. Lina pulls out her last two automatic weapons and stays low as
she opens fire, urging them to show themselves. One falls but she runs
out of bullets before the second can be killed. Seraya hears the click
of the redhead's guns and appears around her pillar, shotgun against
the cop's back. She fires and the last of the resistance to their
entering the building falls dead.
After looking around to make sure there aren't any more
reinforcements, Seraya goes over to where she dropped her bag and
picks it up, empty shotgun clattering against the floor when she drops
it. She and Lina then continue to their original destination, the
elevator at the end of the lobby.
Ser rings for the elevator and it opens. They both go
inside and Lina hits the top floor button. The doors slide shut. After
they do, a piece of concrete falls off one of the columns with a loud
thud on the floor.
---
Filia and Milgasia, shouts ringing in their ears from the
military personnel in the building that they are under attack, walk
into the office. Valgarv jumps to his feet, looking at both of them in
surprise that they intruded.
"What were you doing," the female Dragon asks. When there's
no response, Milgasia leans down a bit.
"He doesn't know," he remarks, Filia looking back over her
shoulder at the taller Gold.
"Know what," Valgarv mutters as he puts his earphone back
in.
---
Lina looks over as Seraya pulls off her leather coat and
crouches beside the bag, unzipping it. Lina hits the Emergency Stop
button and the elevator halts at floor 41, displaying 'have a nice
day' on its screen.
Inside the bag is a metal box and Seraya unlocks it. When
she opens it, the bomb inside is revealed. Lina reaches up and pulls
open a panel in the elevator's roof. Seraya taps a button on the bomb
and arms it. Up above, Lina's coat disappears into the space over the
elevator.
---
Valgarv listens in disbelief to the same thing that caused
the two Gold Dragons to interrupt his interrogation. Filia steps
around to behind their prisoner as Milgasia looks down at Xelloss. "I
think they're trying to save him." Xel lifts his head a bit to look at
Valgarv when he hears that, faint smile on his face.
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