Dan had never once seen Rachel’s face before. Nor her comrades. All three kept their helmets on at all times. But staring at Rachel’s true face, Dan felt conflicting and clashing emotions. The distortion of her armor finally ceased and revealed her to be much taller than before. Rachel stood a full head taller than Dan, easily equal if not a bit taller than Jane Sunheiser.

He was drawn the most to her face. Rachel’s eyes had blood red sclera just like all the Kodak agents Dan had fought previously. The difference were her irises and pupils. Dan got a good look and saw silver irises surrounding her dark pupils. Dan hed never seen such a bizarre combination of eye colors before.

Her skin was the same pale shade as a Kodak agent, though for Rachel, her skin had an unnatural wax-like smoothness to it.

If Dan had to guess, Rachel appeared older than him and the rest of his team. Her more defined features and the subtle lines of her cheekbones indicated she was probably in her thirties like Jane.

Actually, Rachel bore a strange resemblance to Jane. She had the same shade of dark brown to her low flowing hair that grew below her shoulders. Dan had to admit, the Prime Sword was a beauty up close.

The eyes and skin tone he could do without.

“By the way, my name isn’t Rachel,” she said with a predatory grin as she looked down at him. “Judith Blight, at your service.”

Crack.

Dan was confused as his ears picked up gunfire around him. Screams all around him filled the room and the arena devolved into mayhem. The doors slid open behind him and he heard rapid footsteps enter the room and more shooting around him.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw numerous tournament staff enter the area armed with rifles and exchanging gunfire with unknown combatants in the barren crowds spectating the fight. Angie and Zara took cover near the base of the raised arena.

He looked back at Judith and who continued staring at him. Her bizarre eyes narrowing at him and staring him down.

“Now Dan, it’s time for you to come along with us,” she said, seemingly ignoring all the carnage around them.

Dan mustered up more energy to fuel another glare attack. He could feel his eyeballs literally crying blood as he strained himself. But Judith seemingly anticipated this. His opponent yanked her arm free and shoved her palm over his eyes.

Glare activated.

Ineffective.

“What?!”

“You won’t be doing that again to me,” Judith said.

The moment Judith pulled her hand back, the last thing Dan saw was a fast strike to the face and his entire world fell dark.

***

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Angie

In the criss cross of gunfire, Angie poked her head above the floor of the raised arena and saw Dan’d body fall limp to the ground. His body no longer shooting out red energies. His opponent has suddenly changed her appearance. No longer was the armored Prime Sword who proved to be an enigma Dan obsessed over throughout the Combat Games. Standing over Dan’s body was a female Kodak agent. Her pale skin tone and her her bloodshot eyes alkong with the spikes jutting from various parts of her armor gave it away.

How Kodak had infiltrated this tournament raced in Angie’s mind but she shoved the thoughts aside. She ducked back down and saw a fallen staff member and a generic rifle still in his hands. Angie crawled over and snatched the rifle off the corpse. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Zara had the same idea. Zara watched more staff members falling over from gunfire coming from the other end of the arena. She poked her head above the floor of the arena, only to duck back down from a burst that almost took her head off.

“It’s not just the bitch on the arena,” she shouted. “She’s got accomplices.”

Angie cursed under her breath. Aside from the growing pile of tournament staff, her and Zara were the only remaining combatants who could fight back against these Kodak intruders. It didn’t help that the staff had confiscated all of her gear for this final round of the Combat Games. She had no grenades to throw to give Zara and cover.

Barns Skyline, the Genesis Talon who would have fought Zara in the twelfth match, flew onto the arena raised a pistol at the female Kodak agent who had Dan in her arms. The Talon fired several rounds at the intruder, but nothing got through. A bright green shimmer of energy surrounded ther Kodak agent as bullets harmlessly pinged off. The agent was protected by an energy shield available only to higher ranked agents.

The female agent dropped Dan and was so blazing fast she seemingly teleported behind the Talon and backhanded the agent hard enough to send him flying. Angie never knew such ridiculous speed existed, let alone saw it with her own eyes.

“Well, there goes my fucking match,” Zara shouted over the tracers over her head.

The female Kodak agent scooped up Dan’s body off the floor and dashed towards Angie’s direction. Before she could even raise her rifle, the agent blitzed past her and by then, she was already at the open set of doors, firing away at more incoming people responding to the intrusion.

Angie heard a scream from Zara and she glanced over to see the dark haired agent face down on the ground. She looked back at the door and saw two of the intruders at the door firing down in opposite sides of the hallway. The female Kodak agent still carried an unconscious Dan in her arm while popping off shots from her handgun.

Then the two left the doorway and sprinted down the right side.

“Oh no you don’t,” Angie said.

She curled her fist and and began screaming in pain from the effort it took to whip out the only ability she could think to use.

Berserk mode activated.

Warning: effectiveness may be diminished due to fatigue.

“No…shit,” Angie said with a strained voice. The sudden surge of power throughout her body and the red sparks and bioelectricity shooting out of her was followed by immense pain and aches throughout her body.

Angie dashed out through the opened doorway and regained her footing to face the fleeing Kodak agents. She raced down the hall putting every fiber of her being into catching up with the intruders who had taken Dan with them for purposes she didn’t even want to contemplate.

The two intruders stopped at the end of the hall and saw her racing down towards them. Both ran down the hall to the left. Angie was fully focused on chasing after these two, but she could feel her physique breaking down even during her run.

Her breathing was heavy combined with the excessive pounding in her chest and head that became so pronounced that she felt like her internal organs might explode. Angie’s had no control left of her momentum as she couldn’t slow down to make the sudden turn needed to catch up with the intruders.

Angie slammed into the wall in front of her and her body gave out. She bounced off the wall and fell face first into the cold floor. The last thing she saw was the frantic deployment of Alpha agents running down another hallway.