A few minutes later A24 walked into a door, closing it behind him and resting against it. "Finally some time to rest." He muttered. A deep breath.
He stood back up, picking up the few bits of metal he dropped while entering. A24 walked down a staircase into a basement. At the bottom he clicked the switch to turn on the light and threw the stolen objects into a box next to a table with a very big gun he was currently working on.
On each corner of the table were chains connected to the ceiling and if one would look just a little closer, all the furniture had those kinds of chains connecting them to the ceiling of the basement.
He sat down on the small wooden chair next to the desk and took out his tools and started working on the gun. Every few moments he grabbed into the box and took out some materials he just stole, ripping them apart before using them to work.
"Almost done." He muttered and then heard something rustling in the darkness of his basement. He continued working, but faster. He dropped his tools to the ground, stood up and started closing his new gun.
Then the sound grew louder. A24 jumped up and turned around, pointing his new gun at the source of the noise. The gun lit up and a small orb of light formed at the tip. "I knew you people wouldn't just let me leave this easily." He said as H49 came out of the darkness, his gun pointed at A24, "Where is my team?"
"Bring them out." He said and instantly, A24 was surrounded by a dozen armed men, some of them pushing people wrapped in ropes and chains. All of the chained people were wearing heavy armor.
A24 put down his gun and turned away from H49.
"What are you doing?" H49 asked.
A24 ignored him and started putting on similar heavy metal armor the chained people were wearing. "Be quiet." He said.
"What happened to you, A24? You were one of the best of us. The strongest and most skilled soldier from our citadel and now you're just… you turned into whatever this is." H49 pointed at A24 putting on his armor, "Your friends are caught and we have you completely surrounded, that little armor against—" He was quiet for a moment, "Is that a flesh burning suit? You aren't seriously considering fighting us like this. Ha! That is suicide!"
"No, not you. You will die, but not by my hands. I just want to survive your killer."
"My killer?" H49 quickly turned to all the wrapped up people, all of them were wearing flesh burning suits then he looked at his feet, the ground started moving. He looked up at A24 who looked him into the eyes while putting on his helmet.
A24 grabbed his weapon and the floor opened up, dropping them down into the lower floors of the citadels. "5 citadels, 5 monsters." He chuckled, "You are not ready for this." And with that sentence all of them dropped into the lower floors, falling for what felt like ages.
A24 and his wrapped up friends landed on their feet, the chains already off them. H49 dropped hard onto the ground, hurting his leg. Some of the police he had with him died on impact, others broke body parts and started screaming.
"Guns up." One of A24's friends whispered. Everybody, including the police and H49, listened to him.
The lower floors smelled like rotting flesh and metals. It was dark and silence hung in the air.
A scream behind them. Everybody turned around and saw the lifeless body of a policeman hanging in the air. The light had left his eyes but his arms still held on to his gun and he started shooting as fast as the weapon allowed him into the crowd.
"Run!" Someone screamed and everybody took off in different directions. Some policemen started sprinting into the darkness, others tried to hide in small rooms or run up the stairs which were walled off at the top. There was no escape for those unprepared to fight and survive.
H49 was the only person calm enough not to run off.
"Activate the shields!" One of A24's men commanded, "These things won't be able to penetrate your skin."
"Get H49, he may be valuable, so keep him alive as long as possible."
"What?" H49 asked in confusion as two of the armored men pushed him to the ground and wrapped chains around his body. "Don't you fucking d—" He tried to say as one of them hit him against the head hard enough to knock his forehead against the stone floor and knocking him unconscious.
One of them picked him up and held him like a full body shield before wrapping a digital shield around H49: "He will wake up in a moment, I will try not to hurt this asshole, but if necessary, I won't hold back."
The group continued walking down the dark alleys, shooting and destroying the occasional tentacle in the air. From time to time they even had to kill one of the policemen who was being controlled by the tentacle. Well, not kill, they were dead the moment the tentacle reached their skin.
They made their way deeper into the lower floors. They were not trying to flee, they had a different idea. Their goal was to find the connection halls of the lower floors, because they were extended but never retracted or built around.
"How far are we?" A24 asked.
"We should be at the point where the connection hall starts in 5 minutes. It should still be extended but the door to access it will likely be locked, either to lock in our Lina or, if we are correct, the Linas of the different citadels."
"I hope their Linas are trapped somewhere. If they aren't, then the stairs should also be locked off." A24 muttered.
H49, who was awake again for the last half hour, opened his mouth: "Please don't take me into their citadels! Their monsters may be stronger and more dangerous. Please"
A24 and a few others chuckled: "Would be a problem if we didn't already plan for it, but happy we did!" A24's eyes narrowed: "I think I can see the last door. Lina is either in there, guarding the door and waiting for us, or it is hiding somewhere, let us just hope it hasn't broken through the door and into the connection hallway."
"That is one scary thought."
⟪⚪⟫
"Hey, Lukas!" Max shouted. He was sitting on a rotating office chair in a laboratory, "You gotta see this!" He threw himself back in his chair.
Lukas came running inside. He was putting on his coat, already wearing protective glasses and was holding a glowing soldering iron: "What's up? What happened?" He had an excited grin on his face. "Tell me! Someone died?"
Max turned back towards the screen in front of him displaying Lukas: "The Teddy Emperor just got depressed. Funny shit!"
"Haha!" Lukas started laughing, his eyes fixated on the screen which was displaying the simulation, "For real? That freaking amazing! I just got some character development."
Max's eyes turned towards the hands of Lukas: "What are you working on?"
"Space-laser." He answered simply, his eyes staying on the screen.