Chapter 7: Forming a new plan.

Stark and Victoria reappeared outside of the sixty story building.

They immediately see the other four standing by the entrance with Beverly, Delilah and Lupus in the midst of a heated conversation.

During the simulations a person was graded based on how far they make it on their first attempt of the day. Once the first attempt had been made the subsequent attempts were purely for the sake of practice. Stark still planned on continuing to try his best against the enemies on the fourth floor but decided to change his tactics.

Stark looked at Victoria before saying. “I think the entire point of this all is that we take on each enemy as a team. That’s probably why the difficulty is so much higher than the previous simulations.”

“I still don’t want to work with Lupus though…” Victoria frowned slightly before stretching and yawning.

“It’s fine Victoria.” Stark said as he began to walk forward. “We just have to get the job done. It’s not like you have to be his best friend.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Victoria sighed as she began to walk alongside him.

As the two neared the rest of the group they began to overhear the conversation.

“Stop being so damn prideful.” Beverly snapped at Lupus. “We have to fight those monsters together. You’re only going to keep on dying if you fight it on your own.”

“I have to be honest Lupus she’s right.” Delilah said. “There’s nothing we can do to that thing on our own.”

Lupus reared back his head in laughter as his short blonde hair waved wildly in the wind. “I almost tore its arm off the last time. I might not be able to fight it on my own now but I’ve made progress since yesterday. Give me a few more attempts and I’ll beat it on my own.”

Off to the side Hockney whistled a song to himself completely disinterested in the others.

“Why don’t we all just work together now and you can do your own thing on the next attempt.” Stark said as he and Victoria joined the rest of the group.

Lupus immediately turned to look at him with a condescending smirk. “I’m stunned you have the guts to suggest anything after losing to me.”

Stark and Victoria immediately scowled at the boy’s attitude. Stark himself had been fine with losing the sparring match as he was not too concerned with his own pride. At the end of the day it had always been Lupus’s dream to join ACDD and not his. Lupus was the only person who actually wanted to do the job they were all bred and genetically engineered to do. It made him an outlier among Stark’s year group. But Stark would never have imagined that he’d become so insufferable.

Victoria immediately sneered. “Watch how you speak to him… he only lost to you because he threw up.”

She then looked over at Stark before continuing to say. “I really don’t think us working as a team is going to happen if he doesn’t apologise.”

“What!” Lupus squinted at the blonde girl.

“You heard me.” Victoria glared back at him. “Apologise for your attitude…”

“That was out of pocket.” Beverly added. “You should say sorry.”

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“Never.” Lupus folded his arms and stood tall before them all. “Why the hell should I apologise to a deserter? And why should I care about the opinions of two other deserters? You all have abandoned your singular purpose as immortal soldiers and you expect me to show you respect? Which one of you actually cares about the dozens of stars that disappear everyday? Which one of you cares about the billions of organisms that get corrupted by the Cosmic Death every minute?”

“Don’t start lecturing us.” Stark said immediately. “Either apologise or stay out of our way.”

Lupus gestured towards the apartment complex’s entrance and said. “Go right ahead! I’m not stopping you. Just don’t mess with the giant one as it’s mine and mine alone.”

“Yeah because I’m totally going to listen to you.” Stark chuckled before walking past him to join the other three with Victoria.

“You will…” Lupus grinned. “Unless you want to suffer another defeat at my hands.”

“Calm down.” Delilah immediately stood in between Lupus and Stark. “Don’t provoke him unnecessarily. You already beat him that’s enough ok-“

Stark suddenly leapfrogged over Delilah’s back before flipping himself onto Lupus’s shoulder.

Before lupus could respond Stark squatted down and grabbed him by the head before twisting. A loud snap could be heard before Lupus fell to the ground with a thud.

Stark immediately flew into laughter as they all stared at him completely stunned.

“Why did you do that Stark!” Beverly immediately yelled out breaking the silence. “Now you’re going to be suspended until tomorrow.”

“I didn’t kill him.” Stark said before stepping forward. “I only paralysed him. It should stop him from being so damn annoying.”

“Screw you!” Lupus cursed at him, his words muffled by soil as he lay face down.

Delilah sat down on his back and said. “You had it coming.”

“Are you going to stick with him?” Stark asked.

Delilah nodded before motioning for the rest of them to continue on into the building.

As the four left Lupus continued to yell. “Don’t count this as a get back just because you caught me off guard. It doesn’t change the fact that you still lost to me earlier today.”

Stark looked back at him dawning a shit eating grin. “Being cunning is a virtue right?”

“Get fucked!” Victoria cheered while flipping off Lupus with both hands.

Hockney and Beverly both rolled their eyes before continuing inside.

Before long the group entered the elevator retrieving their desired weapons.

Hockney took a rifle and Beverly took a shot gun as well as a riot shield. Victoria took a shot gun of her own as well as another katana.

Stark kneeled down before sighing. “No more pulse grenades… what the hell are we supposed to do now?”

“It’s not over yet!” Victoria spoke up. “Our dead bodies upstairs should still have the pulse grenades in their back pockets. If I’m not mistaken it bit us both in half moments before we died so it might not have eaten our lower bodies.”

“Even if the parasite didn’t, the giant Demi Necromorph that was constantly in a state of hunger was right next to us.” Stark explained. “It surely would have had its fill with the leftovers.”

“You’re not thinking it through fully.” Victoria said slightly irking Stark. “If they really did eat us entirely then the pulls grenades will detonate inside of them once their bodies start to digest the coating around the grenades. That will immediately strip them of the ability to use their black mucus and render them defenceless against our flame throwers.”

Stark then quickly retrieved another Katana before saying. “Let’s formulate a plan before we head up there.”

“There’s no need for a plan.” Beverly said. “It’s sounds pretty simple to me, we just go up there and wait for the grenades to detonate before Finishing it off. As long as we stay several metres out of its striking range then we should be fine.”

“It’s not just the giant that we have to be concerned about.” Stark responded. “We also have a parasitic type to deal with.”

“Then let’s just focus on one of them and not both at the same time.” Beverly said.

Stark and Victoria looked at each other before nodding at Beverly.

“That sounds like a good idea, but there’s a chance that there both lurking in the same place.” Stark said. “It’s also possible that they didn’t move from where we last saw them. If the situation arises where we encounter both simultaneously then we’ll just have to do our best to survive until the pulse grenades explode inside of one or both of the-“

“Once upon a time there was light in my life… but now there’s only love in the dark… there’s nothing I can do… a total eclipse of the heart!”

They all suddenly turned to face Hockney who was singing his heart out.

“What are you doing?” Victoria chuckled. “This isn’t a musical.”

“Sorry.” Hockney sighed. “You guys were babbling on and on so I had to sing to keep myself from going insane. Are you all finally ready to go?”