Kate

Somehow, the kick Jane Sunheiser delivered to her ribs didn’t instantly impale her. Kate replayed the exact events that led her to slumping against a tree and clutching her side, coughing up blood.

Jane had used her speed and circled around them. Then she was in their midst. Adam was almost decapitated by the terrifying agent and a kick that was aimed at Judith instead impacted Kate and sent her flying into a tree and out of the fight.

In a fantastic display between two high-level agents, the two charged at each other and Kate struggled to follow the action, only witnessing pink and purple blades of light clashing and flying in front of her before Judith gained the upper hand and slashed Jane across the torso.

Warning! You have sustained significant injury.

Two broken ribs.

Punctured lung.

Irregular heartrate.

Seek immediate medical attention!

This was the exact scenario Kate didn’t want to happen. As clever as these disguises were, she knew the longer they stayed in the Combat Games, the higher the risk of being detected. She knew an agent of Jane’s caliber would have caught on to their suspicious performance throughout the tournament.

Their team had eliminated two other teams with ease before their face off with Jane. And luckily, Kate had looted a few healing stims from one of the teams. Kodak never distributed healing items to their agents, foolishly clinging onto the philosophy that a Kodak agent should power through any injury no matter the severity.

Kate injected herself through her disguise and through the armor where her broken ribs were. She knew that one stim wouldn’t be enough to fully heal her, but it would stop internal bleeding and reduce the pain to tolerable levels.

She watched as her boss Judith pulled Adam out of a tree and left him on the ground on all fours before turning around and walking towards her. Kate gritted her teeth.

“We should have ended this operation and taken Dan in the previous round,” Kate spat. “Jane fucking Sunheiser of all people is catching onto us.”

“I didn’t know that kick had damaged your eyesight as well,” Judith said. “As you just saw, Jane has been dealt with.”

“But when she wakes up, she’ll remember you pulled out a viper fang and immediately narrow down who we are. There’s only three of thos fucking things in the entire world. Jane owns one and Lola Odyseey of the Kodak-Cresh shard has the second. If she wakes up, she’ll send the entire Alpha Corp down on us.”

“Now you’re just panicking like a child,” Judith said. Kate could picture her boss rolling her eyes beneath the disguise. “You and Adam together would not have done any damage to her, as we just saw just now. And even with my level of power, Jane’s viper fang is her ultimate trump card. There aren’t many counters to such a beautifully destructive weapon than another viper fang. And in cramped surroundings such as this, I needed to secure my victory over her by countering with a weapon of equal power.”

“And how did you even get that sword in the first place?” Kate asked. “I thought it belonged to Lola.”

“I stole it from her before we left for this mission,” Judith admitted casually.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Kate wanted to press further on what possessed Judith to think it was a good idea to steal a powerful weapon and rare relic from another high-ranking Kodak agent. But she knew that without Judith, her and Adam would have been eviscerated by Jane. Plus, since Judith reported directly to Colleen, it was best that Kate kept her mouth shut. In such a scenario, it would be her word against Judith’s and she knew which side Colleen and Lola would take.

“Stay here with Adam,” she ordered. “I’m going to find a few more teams to kill and get us enough points to keep our lead.”

“What the hell? Why do you think it’s a good idea to separate?” Kate demanded.

“You two aren’t in any condition to keep up with me. You’ll only slow me down,” Judith said. She looked down at Adam who was still reeling from Jane’s onslaught. “If you have any more looted healing stims, give some to him and get back on your feet as quickly as possible. I don’t have time to babysit either of you.”

Kate just stared at her leader, then Judith continued. “Don’t give me that look. We need to progress to the last round of their little Combat Games. That’s when we finally snatch Dan.”

“Why not find Dan’s team right now and get this over with now?” Kate said.

“Because their border around this battle royale arena is guarded by agents and sentry turrets to prevent contestants from going out of bounds, genius. We would be fighting against heavy opposition to get ourselves and out objective past their defenses.”

Kate could do nothing but clench her fist at the current circumstances. How did she get herself into this mess.

“You can get as angry as you like, that doesn’t change my orders,” Judith said sternly. “I can see why Colleen is so disappointed with you. You’ve done nothing but hesitate since the mission began. When you were tasked with killing the three Prime Swords so that we could scan their armor to use for our disguises, getting you to do so in a timely matter was like pulling teeth. And you took too much time in hiding their bodies as if you were readying their corpses for the funeral.”

Kate wasn’t surprised to hear her superior berate her. This wasn't knew with Kodak.

“It’s funny how you criticize me not kidnapping Dan sooner, but you easily had the opportunity to do so in the last round,” Judith said.

“What do you mean?”

Judith walked up to Kate and stood close enough that only a few centimeters separated the two. “Don’t act stupid. When I was engaging with Dan at the mall over the credit box, you could have easily snuck up on him and broke a leg while I kept his attention on me. And yet, you and Adam were pinned down by agents of a lower rank and power level. So if we go by that logic, the reason why we don’t have Dan in our grasp is because of your failure.”

“His two teammates were the same agents who participated in the heist,” Kate argued. “They were better than average.”

The Kodak agent jammed her thumb into Kate’s armor. “But you outrank them. Aren’t you a tier two? How does someone like you struggle in a gunfight against agents of a lower rank? You had superior speed and reaction times and could easily popped their heads and left Dan all by his lonesome.”

“The one Dan calls Li has solid marksmanship skills and he had a sniper that could penetrate our armor,” Kate said. “And his female teammate had curving bullets that could still hit me around cover. What was I supposed to do?”

“Curving bullets? Did I hear you correctly?” Judith asked, stepping away from Kate.

“I’m not making it up,” Kate said raising her voice. Her annoyance at having to justify her actions to her superior and Dan’s teammates also having access to strange powers was reaching a boiling point. “That bitch can somehow curve her bullets to track her targets even behind cover.”

Judith gave her a low chuckle. “There’s always an excuse is there? I’ll be straight with you, I genuinely have no idea why you thought it was smart to defect and join our side if you’re this incompetent. The Alpha Corp and the Church may have their own advantages over us, but the Kodak-Cresh shard has survived for over a hundred years and we continued to stand against our enemies. There was no room for incompetence or softness in our ranks. I know you would have failed our combat trials as a recruit.”

The Kodak agent turned her back on Kate and prepared to carry out her intentions of hunting down more teams to add to their kill count.

Before leaving, she glanced over her shoulder and said, “You’re the last person to try to argue with me, traitor.”

Judith disappeared into the skeletal and barren foliage and left Kate alone with Adam. All Kate could do was look down at her boyfriend and jab him with a healing stim. She did so in silence.