Trent now stood on the cracked street pavement, sweat pouring from his forehead, breath coming in ragged gasps. Around him, his five remaining members of the team tightened their defensive circle around him, each of them shifting uneasily as they pressed in closer, forming human shields with their trembling bodies with him in the center. Trent glared at them frantically, his eyes wide and bloodshot as he yelled. "Fuck! That's right, you idiots protect me! I'm the one with the food and the connections! Without me, you're all going to starve to death on these streets!" he screamed, his voice cracking with desperation.
As he spat the words, a sudden, sharp pain tore through his left kneecap. He looked down in horror to see a clean hole shot straight through his kneecap. Blood began to spray our in rhythm with his beating heart. His legs buckled, and he collapsed onto one knee with a strangled cry. One of his men jumped at his side, Trent lashed out at him, slapping him hard across the helmet. "Pay attention, you idiot! I just got fucking shot!" Trent's eyes moved wildly around in paranoia, searching for a shooter he couldn't see and an enemy he could not hear, his mind began spiral into panic.
Meanwhile, the other five mercenaries from their squad lay on the ground charred and mangled, silent testimonies to the earlier explosions. Ted, Trent's second-in-command, leaned in close, his eyes moving anxiously toward the street and the front entrance of Fabulous Fabrics. "Sir! We should withdraw! We're under fire and have no idea from where. Those two girls still haven't even come out yet!" Ted pleaded, his voice low but shaking with fear.
Trent swung around to him, spit flying from his mouth. "Shut the fuck up! We can't fail this mission! If we don't deliver the package to Epsilon base, we're as good as dead anyway! Thanks to these dead idiots, at least there's more food left for us to survive longer." he snarled, his face twisting into a crazed look. One of the other men flinched, his face pale with sweat. "You bastard!" the man said, his voice filled with disbelief and anger.
Then, the quiet of the moment fractured. Raven's spider stealth drone, unseen and patient, deployed several of its poison mini-spiders, each one filled with Raven's custom-made potent neurotoxin. The tiny metallic spiders moved silently across the ground, climbing up the boots of two of the remaining mercenaries. Without warning, two of the men staggered forward, their mouths opening in choked screams as they dropped their weapons and clutched at their legs. "What the fuck—!" one of them managed to cry before collapsing onto the pavement, twitching. Their faces turned a horrifying shade of purple and red, veins bulging grotesquely under the skin moving around like caterpillars. Blood began to leak from their ears and noses, with a sickly neon orange hue that glistened in the midday light.
Trent, still kneeling on one good knee, stared in wide-eyed horror. "What the hell happened to you two?!" he questioned, his voice trembling and ragged. One of the men, his face contorted in agony, managed a choke out an answer between screams. "Help us! It burns! Our bodies are burning from the inside out!" Their hands clawed desperately at the concrete as they flailed around, trying to crawl away from pain that had no direction to escape from.
Without a shred of hesitation, Trent raised his chrome-plated Desert Eagle, his hands shaking violently. He aimed, then pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession. The gunshots echoed sharply through the street, as both poisoned men dropped dead, blood falling from their exploded foreheads. Trent panted, his head moving back and forth as if expecting more attacks at any moment. He turned to Ted and his last remaining soldier, his face wild saying. "You two! Get inside Fabulous Fabrics! And bring me those girls! They looked unarmed, so we can still finish this mission! I need medical help. If I don't get it, I'll never walk again with this fucking gunshot wound."
Ted nodded once, then swallowed hard, moving to obey. But before either of them could take another step, a shadow dropped from behind them. Metal Mouse appeared as if conjured up from thin air, its optical camouflage dropping away like peeling skin. For a split second, both men froze, their eyes wide in horrified recognition of the giant bear sized mouse.
Metal Mouse moved with deadly grace. One clawed paw impaled the unnamed soldier clean through his chest, lifting him into the air like a rag doll before tossing him aside. At the same time, his tail flew out at Ted, piercing straight through the heart, the tip sticking out of his back with a slick, wet heart on it. Metal Mouse retracted his tail with a savage twist, Ted's heart still pulsing faintly as it was flung to the ground. Both bodies crumpled lifelessly in a heap, steam rising from their blood-soaked uniforms.
Trent's scream ripped through the square, high and hysterical. Shaking uncontrollably, he tried to raise his Desert Eagle again to shoot Metal Mouse. But before he could pull the trigger, one of Raven's aerial drones fired a shot that punched through his right hand. The heavy handgun fell onto the street, sliding away. Trent cried, holding the gushing hand wound. Another shot came from the drone hitting Trent's other hand, rendering both completely crippled. He fell forward onto his elbows, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Before he could collapse fully, one drone fired a final round into his remaining good leg, shattering the bone and leaving him laying on the ground, as he screamed and sobed uncontrollably.
Foam mixed with saliva fell from his mouth as he writhed on the ground, his eyes wide and unfocused, blinking up at the sky in terror and pain. Tears rolled freely down his soot-streaked cheeks as he gagged and gasped, his mind frantically hoping for an escape from the agony.
Above, Raven lifted her head slightly, her eyes calm. She turned to Alara with a faint, amused snort saying. "Let's go down and take a look at this loser. Besides… that's a nice Desert Eagle he has," she said, her voice low and almost playful.
Alara, her own eyes sparkling with cold anticipation, nodded firmly. "Finally. I've been waiting to see his pathetic face up close," she said, a soft laugh slipping through her words as she squeezed the handle of her bat maby she can crush a few more of his bones for coming after Raven. Just for good measure, of course cant let the man escape.
Before leaving, Raven and Alara took their time meticulously storing every last bolt of fabric, every jar of dye, and all the remaining supplies from Fabulous Fabrics into their system space. No point in leaving treasures behind for others. With the building now stripped clean, they finally made their way down the stairs, stepping carefully into the pale afternoon light that showed the destroyed street in front of them.
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