18 Chapter Eighteen: Greed (1/2)

As our crew escapes the long corridor, they come out to a large, open area. Unfortunately, there were only more soldiers waiting for them there. As the rest of The Six Guns crew looks around at all the opposition, Alex starts to collapse and sits against the wall.

”What are you doing?” Finn asks in a panic, ”this is no time to rest”.

”Sorry” Alex says in a hoarse voice, ”just give me a minute to get back on my feet”.

As Siran directs his attention towards Alex, he recalls when they were all practicing magic over the past year. Namely, when he discovered Alex could use distortion magic.

Several months ago, Alex was asking Siran about learning unconventional magic arts 'just in case'. Eventually, Alex started learning distortion magic, which only came as a surprise to him.

”It's unusual for someone to be able to pick up on one of the forbidden styles quickly” Siran says to Alex.

”I think I can see why it's forbidden” Alex says while holding his left arm. ”I can't feel my arm anymore. Is that permanent?”

”No, but it'll take some time before you can adjust to the type of magic” Siran says. ”It takes a physical toll on your body, since it distorts mass. To be able to cast it, the user has to be able to perceive the world as distorted. Which only makes me worry about your past”.

”Well, my arm definitely feels distorted” Alex says, and then groans in pain. ”Now my heart hurts. Do you think this can cause cardiac arrest?”

Siran just shrugs and then says ”Probably”.

”How about a little forewarning!?” Alex yells.

Now, while Alex sits against the wall, holding onto his shoulder, Siran and the rest are torn between fighting the enemy or helping Alex out first.

”It'll be a little while” Siran says, ”before he can fight off the pain”.

”Should we just cover him until then?” Zia asks.

”Yeah, don't let anyone target Alex” Siran says.

”Got it, Syr” Zia says as she pops her knuckles to prepare for another fight.

”I told you, it'd take more time to get used to it” Siran says to Alex.

”Yeah yeah” Alex says.

Zia makes quick work of all the closest soldiers. Moving quick and striking hard like lightning, knocking several soldiers down in a matter of seconds. Holly stands in front of Alex to keep him shielded, as Finn and Rose prepare to fight off anyone who might get closer. After a while of pushing against the enemy, Alex slowly gets back up. Looking really irritated, he raises one hand, however nothing shows above his hand.

”Getting real tired of this same old circus act” Alex says as he lowers his hand back down.

There was a short pause, a silent moment, before everyone started feeling a shake. Then, all of the sudden, the roof seems to explode and start to crumble down as a large fireball tears through the roof.

”Ah, shit” Holly says as she creates several more shields above them like an umbrella, stopping debris from falling on top of them. The roof caves in as fire continues to splash and explode through the ceiling. As many soldiers as possible run for cover and after the smoke clears, there were no soldiers in sight. The moonlight shone through the rubble as the crew got back on their feet.

”What the hell, man?” Finn asks as he looks right at Alex.

”At least we know we're no longer underground” Holly says.

”I didn't feel like worrying about this damn maze” Alex says, ”there might not even be good information to find here, let's just destroy the place like all the other ones”.

”But if there is information-” Rose begins to say before she's interrupted by Alex.

”Look” Alex says, ”if there's any information to find, it'll probably be in Omnia. Not in Egypt”.

”Yeah, but if there is anything to find here, then we better get to it while we can” Siran says.

”Siran's right” Zia says.

”Oh please, we all know you only always take his side because you l-”

Zia interrupts Alex this time by punching him in the face. ”Jesus!” Alex says, ”can't you take a joke?”

”Wait a minute” Siran says, ”where exactly are we?”

As Siran looks around, he finds the same gate they were looking at from the outside, surrounding them. A scorched sign falls off of one of the walls that are still standing. The sign read ”Site ALPHA” and the rest was intelligible due to all the burns marks.

”If this is Alpha, then where the hell do we go from here?” Siran asks. ”Didn't we just come from Foxtrot?”.

”Man, what is up with this place?” Finn asks.

”Over there looks like an important place” Holly says while pointing to a section of the base on the south side of this now ruined site. As the rest looked, the building seemed to be the largest over there.

”Should we just walk through there then?” Rose asks while pointing down the hallway.

”Actually” Siran says, ”we now have a place to freely go in and outside of the base. Why don't we climb some of this rubble to the roof, and just make our way around until we find a command room or somewhere a high ranking officer might be?”

”Not a bad idea” Alex says. ”Getting tired of this place already”.

The team climbed, and ran over rooftops. They checked through windows into rooms, and tried to find anyone who might be in charge, to find out what The Ly'Lum is planning to do with their next move. Eventually, they come across a large boardroom, or at least they came across the entrance to one. The room itself didn't have any windows to view inside. They agreed to enter the room and waited for a chance to sneak in unnoticed. At the right time, all six of them burst in at the same time, but to their surprise, while The Six Guns had their guns aimed at all the high ranking officers in the room gathered around a table, there were more of those soldiers from the MTRU who also had their guns pointed back at The Six Guns.

”Shit!” Finn and Rose say, almost synchronized.

”I don't have the patience for this crap!” Alex says as he raises his arm, ready to punch one of them.

”Too slow” one of the soldiers say as he moves so fast that it almost seemed like he teleported towards Alex. To his surprise though, Zia had stopped the soldier's fist with her own before he could land a hit.

”That's my line” Zia says, then swiftly lands a really quick high kick on him, sending him flying backwards. To her dismay, he got back up with ease.

”You Six Guns are going to need new tricks” the same soldier says as he picks up his gun again. Before he knew it, Finn had that soldier's gun in his hands, leaving him without a weapon.

”If it's tricks you want” Finn says, ”then maybe I can help ya with that!”

The soldier laughs a little bit, but then punches him in the gut with a stunning speed. Finn flew backwards this time, and hit the wall.