For most people, waking up to the feeling of pain was never a good sign. But for Dan, he thought the opposite. It reminded him that he was still alive. His back was still killing him, but not nearly as much as it was during his fight at the plaza.

Dan slowly opened his eyes and saw a ceiling that was barely intact. Many panels were missing and some hung as if only halfway attached to the ceiling.

“You’re awake sooner than expected, kid,” Allen’s voice said. Dan’s ears were still adjusting. “You really are built tougher than most.”

Dan finally sat up. His HUD immediately flooded his vision with blue text. Once Dan finally rubbed his eyes and got his bearings, he saw the grim words in front of him.

Warning. You have sustained serious injuries.

Brain hemorrhage.

Three broken ribs.

Twisted left ankle.

Seek immediate medical assistance.

“Well, that’s just great,” Dan muttered.

A strong hand gripped his shoulder and Dan glanced behind him. A familiar face greeted him. “Don’t worry about it. Our HUDs can be overdramatic at times. Your injuries aren’t as bad now, but we’ll need to get you fixed up once we finish this shitshow.”

“Thanks for the compliments, Allen, but I don’t think I can continue the mission with bleeding in my goddamn brain.”

Dan could already imagine the smile beneath Allen’s mask.

“I gave you all the healing stims I had left to fix you up. Not a perfect job, but you’ll function for a bit longer at least. Benjamin always made sure to overstock on healing stims for everyone. Even for Jane, as much as she insists that she already has a healing factor.”

“That’s good to hear,” Dan said weakly. “He’s helping us even after he’s gone.”

Congratulations!

You are now Tier 1 | Level 13

You have earned 5 stat points. You now have 15 stat points.

Allen moved on quickly. “Your brain hemorrhage should heal enough soon. Oh yeah, about that Kodak bigshot with the skull helmet. I had to prioritize getting you out, so I couldn’t double tap the guy.”

“Double tap?”

“You finished him off, and just to be safe, I should have put another couple of bullets into him. But between dealing with reinforcements and getting you out, I couldn’t hack it,” Allen said. “But seriously, that was a big win for you, Dan. You just punched way above your weight. One on one, that Adam Torrent would have given me a good workout.”

Dan didn’t know what to say in that moment. Maybe his brain injury made it difficult to come up with a proper response. Instead, Dan simply laughed, and it grew in intensity.

Allen looked at him apprehensively. “Seriously, kid, how the hell are you even still alive? Not that I didn’t hope for the best, but given how sideways this whole mission went, I’m shocked anyone outside of Jane and I are still alive.”

Dan continued laughing, so much so that he had to wipe away some tears.

“Agents are more resilient than regular people to varying degrees. It’s the combination of our body armor and enhanced skeleton, even for lower-ranking tier zeroes and ones. I’m surprised you’re still alive to laugh about it.”

Eventually, Dan calmed down and could answer Allen’s question. “If you grew up where I did, you learned to laugh to keep your sanity. When everyone else is shitty and you’re just trying to survive, it wears you out and it’s hard not to be cynical about the world around you. I just survived a series of near-death encounters with assholes way stronger than I am. So yeah, after all that, I think a good laugh is highly appropriate.”

Allen looked at him strangely. “I guess that’s fair enough. But how did you take out that big guy? That same asshole with the skull helmet was probably your first major encounter with a second tier aside from Kate.”

Dan almost didn’t want to recount how terrible his fight with Adam Torrent was. But since he was reunited with a teammate, he thought it was best to savor this interaction. At this point, what else could this botched mission throw at them?

“Well, the fight was as one-sided as you would think. Adam, being the cocky bastard he was, gave me the first attack,” Dan said.

“Let me guess, it did nothing,” Allen interjected.

“I tried swinging my sword at the dude’s neck and his energy shield completely blocked the blade. I didn’t even touch him. Then I backed off and unloaded all of my grenades into him. Still nothing.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Allen shut his eyes and shook his head.

“Then I threw one of my explosive blocks at him and blew him up. Or I thought I had until he walked out of the smoke. I brought down his shields, but I had nothing left to throw at him.”

“Uh huh,” Allen said. “Higher-ranked agents get access to energy shield upgrades for their armor. They can tank all sorts of explosions that would blast apart an entire group of agents. What happened next?”

Dan giggled to himself at the miracle that happened afterwards. “Well, our lovely former teammate Kate gave me this booster before the mission. She told me it would give me a temporary buff to my stats across the board and that I might need it for this mission. Turns out, that booster was motherfucking poison. I was about to pop one to gain any advantage I could, but Adam swiped it from my hands.”

With that revelation, Allen began laughing his ass off. “Geez, kid. Kate’s probably fuming right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if she puts a hit on your skull after this mission. If we survive, that is.”

This brief moment out of combat with his teammate was well needed. Dan hadn’t had time to stop and realize how alone he was during this mission and that surviving this long was a miracle. He shared some more laughs with Allen.

“That’s a classic right there, kid. I’ve never seen someone make this many errors after they turn traitor before. Kate is fucking up royally. How many times has that bitch failed to kill you now?”

Dan was laughing so much he was wheezing. His tender, healing ribs reminded him of his current condition. “The fact that there even is a count is embarrassing.”

The two continued to laugh together, probably the only positive moment to be had for the entire mission. Dan didn’t keep track of time. It wasn’t until Allen stopped the party that things went back to being serious.

“By the way, thanks for rescuing me from Kate,” Allen said. “Who knows what kind of prison food I would be eating if you hadn’t shown up. How did you get me away from her?”

Dan smiled beneath his mask. “I almost ran her over with a jeep.”

“Nice.” Allen grabbed a ZK-77 rifle off his back. “Well, I can only imagine how much you went through on your own. I bet you’ve leveled up and earned some stat points. Maybe you should pull up your stat menu and start putting in points. You’ll be needing them, that I know.”

Dan nodded in agreement and pulled up his menu.

You have 15 stat points to spend. Current stats:

Strength: 15

Agility: 16

Endurance: 15

Intelligence: 18

Supernatural: n/a | Supernatural stat is not yet available. Agent level too low.

Dan sat on the floor looking at the numbers in front of him. He then looked up at Allen. “I got fifteen points to spend. Any tips on how to play this?”

“Depends on what you value most,” Allen responded. “What’s gotten you this far?”

Since Dan didn’t measure up to any of the Kodak agents in a straight up battle, he had to rely on tactics and outsmarting his enemies to get the edge.

“I guess that would be intelligence. Everyone I’ve encountered so far should have crushed me many times over, especially people like Kate and Adam. Me thinking on my feet and adapting has saved my ass plenty of times. Putting points into intelligence was what helped me out during my first solo mission too, now that I think about it.”

Allen patted him on the back. “Just remember that you need a strong body to execute those plans of yours. Don’t put all your points into one stat.”

Dan nodded and looked back at the numbers in front of him.

Strength: 15 (+5)

Agility: 16 (+4)

Intelligence: 18 (+6)

Your updated stats below:

Strength: 20

Agility: 20

Intelligence: 24

You have 5 stat points left.

Dan decided that was enough for now. He stood and saw Allen holding up a rifle in front of him.

“Here, you’ll be needing this,” Allen said.

“What happened to your big minigun?”

“Destroyed. So is my rocket launcher, for fuck’s sake. I have to make do with what I pick up from these Kodak scrubs.”

“So what’s our game plan? And what’s going on with Jane?” Dan asked.

“No need to worry about her. Actually, she’s fully recovered from her injuries and back to kicking ass. Lucky for us, she’s actually been taking the heat off of both of us. Really, it’s her they want. Turns out, Kodak wants to take Jane in alive for their own reasons. Then, maybe they might leave one of us alive to get Jane to talk and spill whatever information they need out of her.”

“Do you think this mission is still salvageable?” Dan asked. “Wasn’t our original intent to come here and either kill or capture the rebel leaders that have been stealing our shit?”

“It was, but we didn’t count on Kodak forces being here. And that’s before we mention the traitor in our team. Jane’s busy at the moment and it ain’t like I can ask her. Until we meet up with her, we’re just a two-man team right now.”

“If that’s the case, the least we can pull out of this mess is to deal with the bitch that stabbed us in the back. I imagine the Alpha Corp won’t be too happy about an agent defecting to another shard.”

“Hell no they won’t.” Allen walked over to the window of the room and took a glance out. “The moment you pull that type of shit, the shard puts a nice bounty on your head, promising a big reward for whoever kills any rogue agents. It also doesn’t bode well for your career prospects either. If someone could betray their shard, the other shards would have little reason to bet their chips on a rogue agent. I don’t know whether Kate considered those consequences, but I’d say no. Not after how she failed to kill you numerous times.”

“Kate and Adam were pretty close, so maybe Kodak would take her in. Either way, I want that bitch dead. Ben and Hailey deserved better than getting killed by the likes of her,” Dan said in a low voice. Just thinking about Kate was pissing him off.

“So, kid, what are you going to do about it?”

“Well, Kate has probably disconnected herself so that neither Jane nor any of us could track her in any way. So maybe we could try to lure her out and kill her ourselves. If there’s anyone who Kate is most pissed at, it’s me. If I show my face, she’ll probably come looking for me.”

Allen leaned against the wall and looked at Dan. “Let’s say you do find a way to draw her out and we crush her. Then what?”

“I guess we wait for Jane and meet up together. She’ll call the shots on our next move. We’ll either go ahead with our original mission at half strength, or Jane aborts the whole thing and we go home early.”

Allen stared at him for a few seconds before chuckling. “Oh yeah, now you sound like one of us. Ben and Hailey would be proud of you, kid. So, how do you plan on luring Kate to us?”

Dan grinned beneath his mask. “Simple. I’ll go for a walk.”