Rono

This is the worst. How the hell did I even get roped into this?!

“Keep up, gramps!” Derris yelled at me.

“I’M NOT EVEN THAT OLD!” I yelled right back at him, but he turned around and got in my face. “You got a problem?”

“N-no…”

I want to stand up to this guy, but he could be so scary at times! What gives?! I thought he went through an entire character arc and got pacified by Arno! I wish I was in my room…I wish I was hanging out with pops! How long is it even gonna take for us to get to the hideout—

“We’re here…” Anna stopped in her tracks as she looked onwards.

What laid before us was a beautiful, yet frightening sight. It was a ravine that went down seemingly almost a hundred feet. Multiple rivers could be found meeting at the bottom of this grand, naturally made, structure. On each side of the ravine, various buildings could be seen with bridges connecting all of the structures. Even something like this showed colors that I’ve never seen before…It makes me feel content with my decision to leave that room mine…

“It doesn’t really look like a hideout. Isn’t the point of a hideout to…hide?” Derris pointed out and Anna explained that the government backs them so there’s no need to hide.

“Well, let’s not wait any longer. Let’s get this started. Remember guys no casualties—” Derris was directing everyone, but was quickly cut off by an explosion that went off across from the cliff we were standing on.

We looked into the ravine to get a better view and saw a building that was on fire. At that moment, multiple people came rushing from the entrance of the ravine and they didn’t look like your average thugs. They wore urban camouflage and all had rifles pointed as they went from building to building, gunning down Gutter’s gang.

“Looks like someone beat us to it…” I muttered as we looked on.

“But I don’t get it. Who would go against the gang that’s getting backed by the government themselves?” Anna questioned this mystery group’s motives.

One figure throughout this well-oiled fighting group began to make themselves apparent as they sauntered toward a bridge that had a group of Gutter’s thugs running across it.

“Now, now! Running and gunning isn’t the best option for you guys!” The person had a metal, rectangular sheath. They took out the hilt and swiped it across the end of the bridge. That’s when I realized that the hilt had no blade attached. Almost an instant later, a silver metallic fluid shot out of the sheath sliced the end of the bridge at the exact trajectory the person swiped. The bridge fell as a result and plummeted multiple people to their deaths. This person…had a stemata.

“First Gutter, now this random?! It’s like a stemata bargain sale—” I immediately forced Derris to the ground. He has a mask on so I just gotta hope I suppressed his voice enough. He’s gonna alert whoever that is and get us all killed, otherwise! On seeing me do this, Anna followed suit and observed the battle below.

Another group of people got onto mounted turrets and shot a volley of bullets at this person and their army. In response, they swung the hilt and aimed it where the bullets were coming from. The silver fluid followed soon after and created a shield that blocked all of the incoming bullets. In the next couple of seconds…In that small window of time it took for everyone to reload those turrets…this person’s stemata solidified into a giant sword that cleaved every turret and person behind it in two. As the bodies fell and the blood dripped onto the platform, a man in a suit, oiled back hair, black glasses, and a white goatee walked out of the house and presented himself. The person with the stemata lit up in excitement.

“Ohhhhh! You must be Alejandro! How are you, buddy?!”

“You do realize that by killing my men and destroying government property, you’re a borderline terrorist…Malta.”

His men? He must be one of Gutter’s underlings…

“Ahhhhh you know who I am?! I’m honored to be known by such a scumbag like you!” The person known as Malta gave their backhanded gratitude to Alejandro with a smile.

“Of course I know you. Why wouldn’t I know the right hand lady of my governor’s competitor?” Alejandro pushed his glasses closer to his face and sighed before continuing. “Let me guess…Gutter made his move.”

“Bingo! You’ve been sold out. Crooks turn on each other! What a surprise.”

I’m starting to get the feeling that Gutter lied to us…

“In terms of the West Triad, I’m the Brain, Don Matteo is the brawn, and Gutter is the lapdog. Do you seriously think that I wouldn’t have a contingency if someone broke into the hideout?” Alejandro then revealed a handheld remote with a large button on it. Malta tried to use her stemata to stop him from pressing it but she was too late. Once he pressed it, every beam that kept these buildings elevated from the ground began to explode and with them, the buildings plummeted and rammed into the rushing waters below. It didn’t take long for the beams of the building they were standing on to explode and send them falling. Malta’s men saw their impending doom coming and began nudging her and asking for orders on how to deal with this issue.

“Gentlemen, It’s time to give your lives for a brighter zone two!” Malta then used her stemata to solidify the silver fluid and transform it to the shape of a small saucer. Once she stepped on that saucer, her men noticed that there was no way that every single person was going to fit on it. Now that I’m taking a closer look I noticed: that saucer is built for one.

She used the saucer to soar above the descending building and head straight for the only one intact. When Alejandro saw her coming, he fired off several shots at Malta, but she used her stemata to rip off pieces of her saucer to use as a shield to block the incoming bullets. Once he noticed this, he ran into his building. Maybe he has some sort of escape route in there, he said he’s planned all of this, right? So he probably planned for someone to have a stemata that counters this.

For some reason, I’m cheering for his escape. Maybe it’s because this is my first time seeing lives lost on such a massive scale. Everyone in this battle is either dead or going to die except for those two and everyone in our group.

Once Malta stepped onto the final remaining building, she turned the saucer back into a blade that formed at the hilt she carried. She then walked into the building and silence followed. Or rather, we couldn’t hear what was going on in there.

“Get off of me!” Derris pushed me off of him and rose to his feet. When he got a full view of the aftermath of the hideout, he paused for a brief moment, and then shook his head. “Regardless of what’s happened, the win condition has been met. The men here won’t be able to participate in the riot tonight.”

“How could you say something like that?!” Anna began to raise her voice.

“Anna, your voice…” I muttered, but was immediately cut off by Derris, who raised his voice too and made me flinch by doing it.

“Why the hell do you care about the enemy all of a sudden? You should be jumping for joy! A group of your oppressors just fell like dominos.”

“Yeah, but…I’m just tired of seeing people getting killed over what they believe in.”

“You need to hurry and grow up, then. Because that’s the life of a CT. Lives are lost every day. Instructor Matthews drills that into our heads all the time.”

As Derris lectured Anna, she looked to the ground. Her face turned from one of sadness to resolution. She then raised her head and stared Derris down.

“I know. But I want to be strong. So strong that I don’t have to see a single person lose their life over things like this! I want to be strong like him…” Everyone instantly knew who she was referencing when she said “him.” At that moment, I thought she was so cool. She said exactly what’s been on my mind. Arno’s a nice guy. And he’s no pushover. If the entire world were to go against him, if it meant to protect the things he cared about, he’d definitely grit his teeth and run head on.

“Tch. Whatever.” Derris faced away at hearing his colleague’s retort. His eyes began to widen when he saw the state of the battle. When I looked over at the sight, I noticed Malta walking out of the building with blood all over her. The problem was that I could immediately tell through the lack of her wounds that none of it was hers. She raised her blade and did a swiping motion to get all the blood off of it. All of us except for Derris got back onto the ground. At that moment, her eyes immediately darted over to where we were hiding. And when she did…she contorted her face to make a sickening smile that was bound to give me nightmares.

I’m certain of it. We’re going to die here.