Dan didn’t know how long he and Allen stood there dumbfounded at being surrounded by rebels and Kodak forces. No one moved or said a word. Dan tried to slowly turn his head back to see who was behind him. He barely moved before he was poked by the barrel of the rifle behind his head.

“You do anything and I’ll blow your brains out, got it? You Alpha trespassers,” the rebel behind him said.

Dan didn’t know how he was the trespasser when this region was supposed to be Alpha-controlled territory.

A notification popped up with an incoming call from Allen.

“Nothing to worry about, kid. I’ve been in far more grim situations than this. I got a plan in mind, but I need you to listen to me. There’s no margin for error. If you deviate even slightly from what I tell you, you might not live to see the sunlight.”

“Oh that’s so encouraging. Remind me to hire you as my personal cheerleader,” Dan replied.

“At least your sense of humor is still intact,” Allen said. “I got some concussion grenades to give to these assholes. They won’t die from them, but it’ll be enough to give them a knockout punch. Even the Kodak agents here will be dazed for a few seconds. I’ll throw these bad boys in all directions and when they go off, we run our asses to cover and start taking them out. The two of us will make short work of this little party.”

“Alright, ready when you are,” Dan said.

The entire plan was put on hold when the door to one of the buildings across the street blew off its hinges. The door skidded across the street and almost swiped the legs out from under a rebel.

“Watch it, asshole!” a female rebel shouted.

The Kodak agent waving his rifle in Allen’s face shouted back, “Hey, calm your tits. That’s my boss you’re talking to, bitch.”

A lone Kodak agent walked out from the busted entrance towards the group. Dan scrutinized the Kodak agent and immediately noticed the difference between this one and the rest.

This agent was fully armored and wearing a helmet. Curiously, the front of the helmet had a skull painted on it. He strode onto the road as if he had built the entire neighborhood himself.

When he finally reached them, Dan saw the height difference. This Kodak agent stood right in front of Allen and looked about a dozen centimeters taller than him even though Allen was over two meters in height. This Kodak agent towered over the other agents and made the rebels look even more puny in comparison.

“I don’t like the feel of this,” Allen said through the channel.

Something about the mere presence of this agent froze Dan in place. It was like his body was suffering some strange paralysis.

“Well, kid. We hit a snag with my plan. The giant in front of me is no joke. Just did a scan of his stats and he’s my equal in almost every category except intelligence. Stand by.”

If Allen was apprehensive about their odds, that only made Dan more nervous. Were it not for his enhancements, the old Dan would have soiled his pants at being surrounded and held at gunpoint by such powerful enemies.

From the corner of his eye, Dan saw another person walk out from the same building that this skull helmet Kodak agent had. When the silhouette produced an outline in his HUD, Dan didn’t know what to make of it. The outline of this new individual wasn’t red like the others. It was green, then flickered between green and red before it turned entirely red.

When the individual got closer, Dan’s eyes widened. The familiar blond hair and long coat shocked him. It was Kate Razor.

“Were you about to start without me, Adam?” she asked.

Allen looked back at Dan with a confused expression. That didn’t fill Dan with confidence. Even Allen didn’t know what the hell was happening.

Dan saw Allen’s body language subtly shift. His shoulders tensed and now he fully faced his body towards the Kodak agent with the skull helmet and Kate. Allen quickly transitioned from confusion to a focused anger towards the two.

“Jane,” Allen said through the channel. His tone was low. “We’ve got a turncoat in our team. Kate is with the Kodak forces. We’re being held up at the surface.”

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Jane replied back grimly. “Understood.”

Dan’s confusion quickly passed and now he was pissed off. Why was Kate working with these assholes? The same assholes that tried to kill them earlier.

He thought Kate was a good friend and teammate, even a potential date later down the road. Now she was standing beside their enemies. She said something to the Kodak agent with the skull helmet, who she called Adam.

What Dan was about to do wasn’t smart. But maybe it could help Allen whip out his concussion grenades by him drawing the attention to himself.

He pointed his finger at Kate. “I can’t fucking believe this, you bitch,” Dan said.

Kate briefly glanced over at him then resumed whatever nonsense she was giving to Adam. Gone was the bright smile and warmth she’d treated him with. Now she completely ignored him and spoke in a serious tone similar to Jane’s.

“What should we do with them, honey?” Adam said.

Dan raised his eyebrows at Kate being addressed like that.

“You already explained your orders to me,” she said. “Jane comes back with us alive and we take back maybe one or two of the others to extort more intel out of that bitch. We’ll keep Allen alive.” Kate finally looked back at Dan. “As for the rookie, flip a coin.”

Dan gritted his teeth. “How about I flip you and shoot you in the head?”

Once again Kate didn’t react to his comment. Dan wasn’t surprised. The reality was that he never knew Kate at all. He could be as angry as he wanted, but it still didn’t change the fact they were surrounded and Kate significantly outclassed him in stats. She would crush him in a straight up fight.

Even with such odds, Dan’s rage still burned. If he was going to die, he would die with his enemy paying attention to him.

Dan slowly reached into his pocket, fully knowing what he was about to do was neither logical nor good for his life expectancy. It was mere pettiness.

He clenched a magazine for his pistol and tossed it right at Kate. The mag hit her on the cheek, and she promptly stopped her conversation with Adam.

Something hit Dan in the back of the head, but he remained standing. It wasn’t until a second hit, far harder than the first, that he was knocked down to his knees. Now, many gun barrels were aimed at his face. Dan was surprised he was even still alive after pulling such a stunt.

Slow laughter came from Adam as he brushed passed Allen and bent down in front of Dan.

“Hey Kate. This kid really hates your guts. What did you tell him? Did you promise him a date?”

“No,” Kate said. “He’s just another defiant recruit.”

“I thought it was supposed to be Jane Sunheiser and three others. How did this kid get a spot into the squad?”

Kate gave Adam a sideways glance. “He wasn’t supposed to. I tried to get rid of him by sabotaging his mission to disrupt a riot and even shut down the Alpha Corp’s security system in the area. Somehow the bastard got lucky and still got the job done.” Kate gave a brief glance to Dan then looked back at Adam. “He even managed to see my outline while cloaked.”

For a moment, Dan ignored the skull helmet staring at him and recalled the strange shimmering figure he’d spotted after he’d activated the sentry turrets in his first solo mission. He also remembered when his team had greeted him after the successful mission, Kate was missing from the group.

His teammate had been trying to screw him over from the start.

Dan looked up and stared right into the reflective visor of Adam’s helmet. “First, I’m gonna make sure Kate pays for this betrayal. Then, I’m coming after you next.”

A few seconds of silence passed, then a few of the Kodak agents began laughing and giggling amongst themselves.

The most obnoxious laughter came from a female Kodak agent behind him. Dan slowly turned around and saw the barrel of a CMA rifle pointed at his eye.

“I call dibs on killing him,” the female agent said. She had to be the one who’d smacked him earlier.

“You don’t get to call dibs, Samantha,” Kate said.

“This kid is quite the comedian,” Adam said. “Where did you learn such a sense of humor?”

These assholes only made Dan’s blood boil hotter. But he couldn’t hope to get any one of them in a fair fight.

“Woah, what the—”

Dan’s act finally paid off as Allen tossed his concussion grenades in all directions. Abrupt explosions erupted all around them as Kodak agents and rebels alike staggered and were even forced onto the ground.

“Run!” Allen said.

Dan picked up his CMA rifle and ran in the same direction as Allen. After getting some distance, Dan turned around and began shooting at the disorientated mob. He managed to kill a few rebels and even a Kodak agent as he tried standing back up.

Congratulations!

You are now Tier…

He didn’t pay attention to his rank as he spotted Kate and Adam, both having quickly recovered and immediately moving.

Before Dan could load another magazine into his rifle, Allen grabbed him by the shoulder and said, “No time to stay and fight, kid. Get away from here while I keep them busy. You’re no match for Kate and that other asshole. Go!”

Allen raised his minigun and began firing blasts of plasma along the buildings, killing the rebel that were dug in at the windows. Dan turned and ran until he was halfway through the block and he heard the minigun fire abruptly stop.

Dan looked back and saw that Allen had been disarmed. His minigun was on the ground while he traded punches with Adam, the tall Kodak agent. How Adam managed to sneak up on Allen was a mystery. But Dan didn’t have time to help. Soon, the entire street behind him erupted into chaos as he saw two members of his team emerged out of the subway tunnel entrance and shoot at the rebels and Kodak forces.

Dan simply pushed himself and ran for his life.