Alarm…(3)

Jin crawled through the vents trying to find the one where the veterans were fighting with the lizard. The problem being he had no map so he was essentially blind and crawling through with no idea where he was he trying to keep his voice quiet but it wasn’t exactly easy assignments his crawling echoed against the small metal corridor. Unfortunately, he doubted the lizard could get in here so he felt he was mostly safe.

He landed in empty room he felt might’ve been a likely guest considering the smell. He draped an elbow over his nose trying to block a the intense smoke and metallic likes smell. He found one of the veterans or part of him lying on the floor. He felt like he should’ve said something but he couldn’t think of anything and try to look force the AK-47. He found it under one of the tables it was pretty banged up but it looked to be in working condition.

He decided to take their gun with him. Checking the magazine, he found it was still nearly topped up.

With a practiced motion, he loaded it and pushed the safety off with the absence of most of the civilians and considering what he was up against he felt no one would mind but the dude in green.

He followed the trail of destruction into one of the office rooms which looked severely less… like a hurricane had waltzed through. He looked around and strained his hearing trying to pick up something.

Once he heard nothing he stepped forward then stopped. The silence felt oppressive and ominous. 

He honestly didn’t feel like walking through the maze of cubicles. It felt reminiscent of almost every monster movie and he felt like the guy that was marked by the death flag if he kept going. 

To feel like he wasn’t walking into a cliché. He decided to trust his paranoia and he backtracked. He found the vents and went through them wrsetinling his guns inside. He manahed to crawl up somehow.

Gasping he got an overhead view. There. By the artificial plant, his tail sticking out under one of the tables just infront of where he would've been hadn't he changed his mind. If he had kept going…

If you ever got out of this he was going to donate to the Monster Movie Foundation. It saved lives. Well, more like life.

He looked around, wondering where the veteran was considering the other one was, uhm, in pieces and since Mr. Green hadn't nommed on him, he assumed he was alive and he was they were still at it. Judging by how the Lizard was now trying to “camp” like a rookie Call of Duty Player. 

It seemed dead but by the glowing yellow cat eyes, he knew better.

Jin couldn’t really see any way of attacking him without being detected immediately sat there trying to plan out his next course of action.

What did he know about his enemy?

He was susceptible to cold and he was a predator. Could he lure him away somehow?

Hmm, it wasn’t like-

Jin remembered the dead bodies. Perhaps he could use the smell and lure the lizard into one of the rooms...

Was this really okay though?

He would be disecreting the dead. He felt like he should do everything in his power to stay alive, yet it still felt wrong.

Conflicted he tried to reason with his conscience when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and found the veteran silently walking along the side of the cubicle wall. Clearly he hadn’t watched any monster movies, at the rate he was going he was going ciao chow.

Jin hesitated.

He felt like there was a number of things that could mess up. Just by helping him he could accidently hit the Veteran instead and then he would certainly be food, but if he didn’t. He wasn’t sure whether the veteran knew the lizard was there or he was truly unaware either. All he had was his gun, if he shouted a warning the Lizard could catch him by surprise while he was distracted by his warning.

Other than the basics, there was an underlying feeling that he couldn't trust him. He had abandoned them after all, and magically showed up when the Lizard had been murdering everyone. 

Stolen novel; please report.

'Had he been using them as bait?' Was what he came up with. But that was an assumption based on barely discernable evidence.

Jin felt his mistakes already cost the lives of others, it was irrational but his heart gnawed at him. And that guilt made him hesitate, even if he had used them as bait he was still the only other person he could rely on right now. With his mind made up Jin got in position to help him out. The most opportune moment was just a second before lizard saw the old guy.

Jin was annoyed that he had to keep calling him veteran, he really should've asked for his name. At least his eulogy would be simple if he survived.

Jin fingers crushed the leather grip, he tried to get his breathing under control. He envisioned a target much like the one’s he was used to seeing on the shooting range.

‘Think of it like training, think of it like training, just have to get bullseye and I’m home free.’

Veteran crouched at the edge of the intersection of cubicles once he turned around the corner the lizard would attack defined by how it’s muscles rippled power. 

Jin had noted how undamaged it's scales seemed. He focused and found his scales had scortch marks on it. There were no signs of any bullet wounds.  

There was no way his AK-47 would be useful here. He highly doubted the Veteran couldn't shoot, he wielded the gun like a pro,  either that or the Lizard evaded all of them, or his scales tanked most of the bullets. Whatever the case they could figure it out when it was immoblized. The best case it would cause a distraction for the grenades.

This was the moment.

Jin's sharply exhaled, and moved to open the vent, the screw squeked a bit too loudly and rang against the metal. That drew the lizard's attention. It looked around and then focused its eyes on Jin.

'ah, shi-'

In a blur of green in burst through the cubicles and attacked the veteran and threw something at Jin.

Jin could barely react as what he assumed was a table fly at them at 70 KM an hour.

Jin managed to slide forward as the table smashed the vents in half, and if he had been a second late, his legs would’ve joined it.

He seemed to be zigzagging through the cubicles and the Veteran lobbed a grenade in its direction.

Or at least I thought it was until a loud flash followed by bang burst through my head. Incredibly disoriented Jin had a breif moment to admire the Old guy's tactic, it was clear the Lizard had been incredibly enhanced, so it made sense his senses would be inluded in that package. The Lizard seemed to be dazed, with its incredible senses Jin felt certain it would hold for a few minutes. Then the behomoth staggered and crashed through a wall.

The Old Guy was quick to follow. He pumped his legs and was gone before Jin could blink.

Right, enhancements.

Jin tried not to complain at the unfairness of it all. When would he get superpowers? He could really use those Spark Gloves right about now. Maybe a Sensu bean or two.

He looked behind him and trued kicking at the table, trying his best to dislodge it to no avail, simply going with the easier route and kept crawling through the vents.

He heard more gunfire and sped up, if the Veteran wasn’t here to draw its attention he would be dead. He doubted he could ever truly face it in battle.

There was a loud explosion, the heat rushing up the vents. Moving quickly Jin turned to the nearest opening, kicked it open. His guns got stuck, he didn't hesitate and left them behind. Not a moment to soon, judging by the flames. There was rush of weightlessness as he realized how high up he was before the ground rushed up in greeting, he responded with his feet. He landed and sprained his ankle.

Great, lost mobility, environmental advantage and weaponry all in one move.

He looked up to where the vents where located and knew he wouldn’t be able to reach it without a sticking to the walls. He decided it was better to go back and get the other guns.

He walked down the corridor and heard a clacking. He looked behind him and saw glowing yellow cat eyes peer at him from the darkness.

He didn't think, he ran.

There was simply no way he was going to survive.

He didn't even question where the old guy went.

He simply ran, the pain in his ankle non-existant.

He somehow made it the weapon testing facility door, before he felt a searing pain across his back.

Acting on instinct he pulled his pen from his pocket whirled around and stabbed it.

In the eye.

He had one thought before he ran inside. The Pen was indeed mightier than the sword.  

Jin locked the door. It was a pretty sturdy but he didn’t really want to test it against the lizard. He quickly barricaded the door with all the desks and shoved CPUs and moniters there.

He then limped to one of the chairs and sat down. The lizard had saw how injured he was and had been toying with him. Now that he was seated and able to breathe, he thought on why the Lizard hadn't killed him immediately. could it have been injured? There was a strange smell and he was pretty sure the sound of its gait had been off, and much slower. 

He limped inside and looked though the weaponry. None of it was going to help. All of it used the normal standard gunpowder and bullets. Practically useless against its hide.

Jin looked around he found a beaker with green liquid in it, near some research papers, some torn others scattered on the floor. He wasn’t a geneticist but from what he could gather this was one of the prototypes for the lizard DNA modifications.

A translucent window popped up again.

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You Found Lizard Mutation Vial!

Effects:

* increased senses

* night vision

* thermal imaging

* slight increase in super strength and agility

* increase in healing minor wounds

* retractable scales and claws

* hungrier for small mammals

Chance of success: 60%

Information: Mutations obtained during Missions or Storyline Missions have chance of failure and there sometimes have unknown side effects if one already has a mutation. However they skip a large part of the Proficiency Stat completely if successful.

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By the time Jin finished reading the vial was already empty.