The Deadeye

Friday, 1st of January, 198 A.C, 17:56

“The business of life extension is a never ending race against the clock - the rate of developments in medical technology is pitted against the wear and tear on our ever-failing bodies. Keeping pace wins us nothing but the right to keep racing. Losing costs us everything. I hope my bluntness on the matter properly conveys its importance.” - Dr. Lutra speaking on behalf of Ouro Health

The Magpie appeared back on her side of the catwalk. She haphazardly shouldered my rifle and tried to take a shot, but it seized up. My baby’s biometric lock was doing its job just fine.

She pouted a bit and tossed it off to the side. “OY!” I shouted, “Careful with that! D’you know how–” I heard a thwip and activated my Veil. A baseball sailed past me and ricocheted off the wall, landing in the waiting hand of the Shortstop. I shut my trap and ducked back down.

Ok. So. I had to get my rifle back, but how was I gonna do that with someone who could teleport? I was pretty sure I could make it over there with the help of my Veil, but then the Magpie could just move. Plus my head was getting… a bit cloudy already.

I called down to the others. “How’re you wonderful people holding up?”

The sounds of a proper scuffle had started up below me. The Heister’s voice shot back, “Doing just–” the sound of metal scraping against metal rang out. “Shit! Just peachy!”

“If you say so!”

I snuck my way along the catwalk. Come to think of it, there was always a delay between when the Magpie entered and left those portals, so maybe teleportation wasn’t a proper description. Wormholes maybe? Or… pocket dimension? Kinda like the Duelist?

I came to an uncovered section of the catwalk and turned on my Veil. Below me, the Derogant was engaged with the Berzerker, and the Runner was getting thoroughly run around by the Fool, who had taken out a metal quarterstaff. Couldn’t see the Heister though. Trying a flank, maybe?

Another baseball shot by. How many of those did he have? Or, wait, that would only be his second, right? Cuz… he caught it the first time he threw it at me. Yeah.

I reached the corner of the room and took a right – it was a straight shot to the other end. The guardrail cover came back, so I turned off my Veil.

The Magpie appeared ahead of me holding some sort of gadget. Probably from the… Crafter? No, Tinkerer. Another wire bomb? I lurched towards her, running my hand along the railing for support. She heaved back and chucked the bomb in a low arc. I fell into a slide and winced as my shoulder hit the catwalk. The bomb flew past, detonating with a slithery hiss behind me.

I stumbled to my feet and kept running. I caught air leaping for the Magpie as she fell back into another portal. My momentum sent me crashing into the back wall.

I looked to the right, expecting to see my gun on the ground. Nothing.

Hearing a footstep, I turned back to where I had just come from. The Magpie had left another portal, just in front of the wire now blocking that section off.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Not teleportation for sure then. She’d have gone through to escape if she could. So… not intangibility either. Which meant…

I bellowed and lumbered forward. It had the intended effect – I saw panic in her eyes as she vanished into a portal. I swept out my arms and dropped down low. Didn’t feel any impact, but a split second later she tumbled out behind me.

I lept onto her and pinned her arms with my knees. “Rifle. Now.”

She strained against my grip, but I held tight. I punched her, the hardened knuckles of my gloves crunching against the side of her face.

“Rifle. Now.” More struggling, more punches.

After four or five hits she cried out, “Okay! Okay! Geez, take your stupid rifle!” She waved a hand and a portal appeared above us. I snatched my rifle as it fell out.

I inspected the rifle. No obvious damage. “You know how expensive this thing is? Lefty like me’s gotta get ‘em custom made. Fuckin’ hands *off.*”

I realized a second too late that I had moved my knees off the Magpie’s arms. She shoved me hard, toppling me over. By the time I had stumbled to my feet, she was gone. I muttered another curse.

At least I had my rifle back. And a nice flanking spot. I peaked out over the guardrail to get another look at the fighting. Thankfully, no baseballs flew my way this time.

The Berzerker was still engaged with the Derogant. It was a weird sort of fight, the Berzerker thrashing wildly against the more refined style of the Derogant. The Berzerker was making liberal use of her energy shield in order to patch up her defense, but had thankfully not resorted to (or been overcome by?) her Veil.

The Fool was on the side of the platform closest to me, protecting the Tinkerer from an attack by the Heister. It was a universally scrappy affair, two blunt weapon users duking it out while the Tinkerer fired at the Heister with a taped-together gun that was shooting… some sort of silvery sand? It wasn’t causing any damage on its own, but the Heister kept disengaging so she could wipe her eyes.

There was something else about the fight. The Heister was usually very precise with her movements, despite her outward brutality. But both her and the Fool were making almost comical mistakes. As I watched, the Heister lost grip of her bat. It didn’t go very far, but she left herself open trying to get it back. The Fool landed a hit, but managed to strike *himself* with the other end of the quarterstaff in the process. The dull red shine in his eyes was clue enough for me.

The Runner was in close with the Shortstop. The latter was a good bit less effective in close-quarters, but he still had some tricks. Whenever the Runner overextended, the Shortop would lay a gloved, aura-wreathed hand on the runner’s arm or leg and send him stumbling forward or spinning away before nailing him with a baseball. But then the Runner would just heal the damage up.

I saw the Magpie appear by the rubble pile. She brought her hands to her mouth and let out a piercing whistle, then started shoving cases from the pile through her portal. I remembered then that I was supposed to be providing support, so I checked my rifle – still loaded with Knockout.

I had lined up a shot and was beginning to squeeze the trigger when something caught my eye. I retrained my aim on the Derogant, whose aura had flared to life – a white corona radiating off of his head.

I realized I had no idea what his Veil actually did. Protection, maybe? I fired off a test shot. The bullet hit its mark and he stumbled from the impact, but seemed otherwise completely unaffected.

“Careful guys!” I shouted. “He’s not goin’ down easy!”

He effortlessly evaded my allies’ attacks, grinning as he ducked, dodged, and parried to his heart’s content. I fired again, but this time the bullet was stopped by a flick from his rapier.

The Runner whiffed a slice, and for his trouble received a light tap from the Derogant’s rapier. A pull of the trigger on the hilt sent an electric charge crackling down the length of the blade, leaving the Runner convulsing on the floor.

As her friend fell, the Heister redoubled her attack. Her flurry of swings forced The Derogant back until he was against the wire from the Tinkerer’s first bomb. He ducked under the next swing and dodged off to the left. Reaching the end of the wire, he vaulted up onto the platform, the Heister right on his tail. As he was turning around to face her, she caught him in the side of the head. His aura flickered off and he flew back into the rubble pile. The rubble pile where… the other members of Springtrap were waiting.

Why were we all so… oh. Right. I growled. My Veil was not gonna play well with his.