Risk and Rebel

55: PANDEMONIUM

[ THIRD PERSON POV ]

When Risk's shield fell, everyone flew into action.

Gunner was still in his glimmering steel form, and thus fearless when it came to facing the rain of bullets. Snag could move faster than the bullets themselves, and was full to brimming with a similar sense of fearlessness. She was darting about immediately before Rage, preventing him from getting shot, while Rebel barked off orders.

"Rage and Gunner! You take the left side," Rebel commanded, his larger body shielding Risk as she racked one, then another, of her guns behind his back. "Snag, you've got the right— We all know where Risk and I are going."

Risk removed one of his guns and cocked it before placing it in his open hand. "Whoever finishes first gets to find Imitate and Desmond," she added loudly.

The smoke from the gunfire was beginning to fill the room, clogging everyone's noses. Snag may have been the sole exception to this, given she moved so quickly that anything catching up with her would've been miraculous. She tore through the first three Kinetic on the right side of the room like the Tasmanian Devil, leaving them unconscious on the floor in her wake. Had anyone actually been capable of seeing her clearly, they may have found a certain sense of beauty in the way she flitted through the bullets. It was nearly like a dance to her — a dance turned deadly when she got close enough to any opposition. She roundhouse kicked the next man in the face, snatching his gun from him as he went down, a toothy grin on her face all the while.

She paused just long enough to unleash her own rain of bullets. Just below the sound of gunfire, if one listened very carefully, they could hear her laughter.

On the other side of the room, Gunner and Rage worked together with surprising efficiency, given neither of them worked with a partner during their time in LASAR. As they hit the first wave of the Kinetic agents, Gunner remained directly in front of Rage. Once the agents were disarmed, if Gunner hadn't knocked them upside the head in the process, Rage was left to deal with them. It was actually terrifying, how efficient Rage was. In one hand he held a pistol — in the other, a hunting knife.

Rage was not the type to toy with his food. Not like Risk and Rebel.

But then, the efficiency with which he moved was a little bit ... messier than theirs, too. The hand which wielded the knife was quickly spattered with blood, as well was most of the front of him. Gunner only chanced one look back at his impromptu partner before he fell into step beside him.

The faces of the Kinetic agents whom were left on either side of the room had turned ashen.

--

[ OTHER THIRD PERSON POV ]

When all of the UN leaders had run for cover, their assistants had been quick to follow. Imitate had latched onto Desmond's hand during that moment, determined she wasn't going to lose him now.

"We're not taking cover?" Desmond asked, his voice cracking. Though it was phrased as a question, he already knew the answer.

Imitate still gave it to him, anyway. "No." She used her free hand to retrieve her own gun, the safety already off, a bullet already in the chamber. Her silver eyes tracked each of the former LASAR agents once the telekinetic wall had dropped. She couldn't quite make out what Rebel had barked over the sounds of the gunfire, but she figured it out soon enough when Gunner and Rage took one side of the room, while the blur that was Snag zipped off into the other.

Her attention was about to return to Risk and Rebel, when she spotted one of the Kinetic agents who had been disguised as a security guard moving directly toward she and Desmond. She leveled her gaze with his own, just to realize it wasn't her he was looking at.