Modern Age Online

Kaleb ducked behind a counter as laser fire missed him by inches. He blind-fired with his Sun Gun a few times before peeking around his cover. Thankfully, the stadium had pre-built small alcoves for third-party food sellers. Kaleb was currently in an old hot dog and pretzel stand, returning fire on the armored-up mercenaries. Who were a bit more put-together than he had originally thought. They pressed him and Two Gun from both sides in coordinated strikes that had both players ducking for cover.

Thankfully, Two Guns Enhanced Reflexes and speed were making the bastards cautious. The old man was standing in the center of the path leading around the stadium. His arms and body were a blur of movement as his guns fired in fans of blue lasers. But their enemy’s armor seemed annoyingly resistant to energy blasts. Again, Two Gun’s reflexes were making the difference. But only by so much.

Kaleb tossed a taser-egg at a jackass pushing closer to him. He saw the plastic egg pop and heard the familiar snap-hiss, but he couldn’t celebrate. They were still being pushed from both sides, and Two Gun could only dance around gunfire for so long.

“Trying something!” Kaleb screamed as he drew his Magic Gun.

He pointed it at a space twenty feet behind Two Gun, back the way they had come. Even now, he could see soldiers pushing toward them. Envisioning what he wanted in his mind, Kaleb sent his own mana into his gun and pulled the trigger. He felt the weapon suck the mana required out of him and put his thoughts into action. Slowly at first and then growing in speed, a blue-white ice wall sprung from the tiled floor. Kaleb urged it to go faster as a part of the counter near him exploded in bits of debris.

He cut off the flow of mana before he felt the twinges of a headache. At that point, a large ice wall extended from one wall to another in their wide hallway. It was only about ten feet, about half the height of their hallway. But it stopped them from being attacked from behind.

Once Two Gun realized what was happening, his blurry movements became faster. Soon blue lasers were chasing the fleeing soldiers further down the hall. Shouts came from behind Kaleb’s ice wall, followed by footsteps again. Whoever was in charge had called a general retreat, and even as Kaleb took a few potshots, he was happy about it. They were getting slammed.

Two Gun came to a twitchy stop in the middle of the hallway. His hands still aiming his two pistols at unseen targets. It took the old man a few seconds to get control of himself. Once he did, he grinned at Kaleb.

“Well, that was a stupid decision.”

Kaleb leapt over the hotdog counter. “Ha! I noticed. We should have found a way to lock down our backs before picking a direction.”

Two Gun shrugged, even as his body was racked with small spasms. “Well… You game and learn.”

“Actually, the mercenaries have full control of the stadium’s security system.” Farrah said in Kaleb’s ear.

He almost jumped. With all the noise from the gunfight, he hadn’t heard how the others were doing. Before he could ask, Farrah gave him the update.

“Claire, Jar-lock, and Vivienne have stalled their retreat. But it isn’t going well. They have several enhanced that are making things tricky for Claire. Also, Jar-Lock is engaged with a villain with Pyrokinesis. Vivienne is dismantling the soldier’s vehicles.”

“Did they try to make a break for it?” Two Gun asked.

“Not originally, no. They fought back vehemently and viciously. But I think this fight is taking longer than they expected.”

“Shit!” Kaleb swore as he started jogging down the hall. “They just sounded the retreat. Which means these bastards are heading right for the others!”

“You don’t think they can handle it?”

“I don’t want to guess wrong. Besides, I ain’t done with these ambushing bastards.”

“Speaking of ambushes. I’ve taken out the last of the snipers. Where am I going?”

Farrah took charge immediately as Two Gun and Kaleb started to run. Echoes of laser fire could be heard in the distance, and Kaleb bit his lip in annoyance.

“Eastside of the stadium. There’s an employee parking lot that goes slightly underneath the building. Abby, make your way there. Everyone is converging on that spot.”

“Whooo! Time to wrap this bitch up!” Two Gun hollered.

Kaleb shook his head at the old man’s excitement and kept up as best he could. Two Gun seemed as spry as always. Even after all the enhanced Gun-Fu nonsense he had been performing. Meanwhile, Kaleb’s Sun Gun was next to useless against the mercenary’s armor. He clenched the Sun Gun’s grip in his hand as he ran. Thinking of ways to up the power of the thing. But nothing hit him. Eventually, he switched the older weapon for his Quad-gun. The new gun punched a little harder and had way more versatility.

He spun it to ice as he and Two Gun slid to a stop near an employee exit. The door was wide open and the sounds of fighting and blaster fire loudly resounded within. Two Gun ducked his head in quickly before popping back out and grinning at Kaleb.

“Long hallway, then an exit leading up these guy’s asses. Now we get to hit them from behind.”

“Uh-huh,” Kaleb said as he studied the wide-open door.

It was locked in place by a pneumatic armature. He quickly reached up and unlocked it. Waving Two Gun into the hallway, Kaleb closed the door and then laid down a thick sheet of ice on it. He held down the trigger of his Quad-gun until the door was almost frozen solid. Once he was done, he gave Two Gun a thumbs up and the pair raced off toward the exit.

Screams and explosions could be heard from beyond the open door. Kaleb saw flashes of red and waves of heat hit him as they exited the stadium into a dark parking lot. The space was filled with small fires and light streaming in from the outside. Burning cars and bits of debris were everywhere. Bodies in black armor were strewn across the parking lot. Near the lot’s one exit, Kaleb could see Claire and Jar-lock fighting. It didn’t appear to be going well for them.

Not only did they have to dodge or soak up laser fire. Claire had two Supes on her. A speedster who dashed around, pelting her slim legs with punches and a furry beast-man with a bulbous back. She would fight off the beast-man only to get smacked by the speedster over and over. Kaleb could see how annoyed the tall, strong-woman was. But she was not in as much trouble as Jar-lock.

The mage was fighting an eight-foot tall avatar made of fire. The thing roared and sent flaming fists at Jar-lock’s defensive shields. Jar-lock dodged and sent ice spells at the creature. But all of them missed by a wide margin. Kaleb was confused until he realized Jar-lock wasn’t aiming at the avatar. He was aiming at the short red-head with the manic grin. The pyrokinetic was gleefully hopping around as he waved his hands through the air. Controlling his fiery minion with sick glee.

“Helping the wife.” Two Gun said tersely as he took off at a dead run.

Kaleb sighed through his nose as the old man broke from cover and took off like a shot. He understood, but now he had a veritable army of assholes between him and helping Jar-lock. Thankfully, none of them had seen him yet. The regular soldiers were taking cover behind cars and cement pillars, shooting at Kaleb’s friends. Switching his Quad-gun to electricity, Kaleb took aim at some of the large cars.

He snapped off a few shots as he ducked behind his own cover. The parking lot had a few Jersey Barriers that Kaleb crawled behind. Every few feet, he’d pop up and fire off an arc of electricity. Laser fire crisscrossed above him, and his cover kept exploding. But so long as Kaleb kept moving, he would be fine. That’s when his Jersey barriers ran out. And judging by the stream of laser fire that cut him off, Kaleb assumed the soldiers had been waiting for him.

His cover was shredded to cinders in a matter of moments, and Kaleb had to roll between a few cars to get away. But when he popped back up, it was right into the barrel of a soldier’s gun. A sharp pew echoed in Kaleb’s ears, and he felt the bolt hit his armor. All air left his body as a swearing white-hot pain ate into his gut. On instinct, Kaleb kicked out with his leg and hit the offending soldier in the shin. A satisfying crack was followed by an ear-splitting cry of pain. Kaleb’s shooter fell forward onto him as Kaleb’s metal fist snapped out to meet him.

The man’s cries of pain were snuffed out as his head snapped back at a harsh angle. He slumped to the side as Kaleb grabbed the man’s gun and staggered to his knees. He scanned the area quickly and found the speedster dead. His body was prone on the ground next to Claire and Abby. They were fighting off the beast-man as Jar-lock and Vivienne dealt with the fire-bastard. The pyrokinetics avatar was shrinking fast and judging by how the red-head was hopping in anger, his power was almost completely spent. Kaleb briefly wondered where Two Gun had gone but laser fire, sparking off the car hood, made him duck back down.

He waited for a lull before peering over the hood and returning fire. This time, he tried to keep everything in his view. Six soldiers were firing at his position, trying to suppress him. Meanwhile, off to his right, two soldiers were crouch-walking toward him. Kaleb ignored the suppressive fire and moved to meet the flanking bastards. Using their own laser weapon, Kaleb opened fire on the barrier the two were using as cover. He clipped one in the shoulder as the other quickly back-pedaled away, leaving his compatriot writhing on the ground.

Kaleb left the injured man where he was and started returning fire. As he did, he noticed bright blue blaster bolts joining his own. He didn’t have to turn to know that Two Gun had joined his assault. Between the two of them, they managed to bait and snipe a few of the soldiers. When only three were left, Two Gun shouted at them to surrender. But their only answer was more laser fire. So Kaleb and Two Gun shot to wound as much as possible. It didn’t end that way, however.

Once the fighting was done, Kaleb moved to handcuff the still living criminals. But they weren’t so living anymore.

“Aw, hell!” Kaleb shouted, waving over Two Gun.

“Professor?” Farrah asked.

“Suicide pills,” Kaleb answered as he knelt down.

The soldier he was examining had a shoulder wound from Two Guns blaster. But was otherwise fine. Except for the slightly blue tinge to his lips and a dead, far-away look in his eyes. He checked another to find the same thing. A blast of heat hit his back and Kaleb turned in time to see the pyrokinetic’s avatar going super-nova. The eight-foot tall creature of fire was glowing red and seemed to pulse.

Without thinking, Kaleb raised his stolen rifle and fired. The red laser caught the mage in the back, near his left shoulder. The guy screamed in pain and went down, his avatar quickly winking out of existence. Jar-lock and Vivienne looked grateful, but Kaleb didn’t waste time with that. Instead, he took off at a run, ignoring the splitting pain in his side. He slid on his knees to the side of the prone pyrokinetic, flipping him onto his back. He had enough time to see the red-head grin before the man’s face seized up in pain. A final breath left the poor pyrokinetic’s body and a dull look came to his eyes.

“Fuck!” Kaleb shouted as he flung the borrowed gun against a destroyed car.

“Prof?” Jar-lock asked.

“The soldiers nixed themselves,” Two Gun said, sounding sad. “Rather than be taken alive.”

“What?!” Claire and Abby said together.

“Why on earth would they do that?” Vivienne wondered aloud.

Kaleb shrugged. “Who knows? But now it looks like we all went on a damn rampage through an abandoned stadium.”

“Calm down, Professor.” Farrah said. “We’ve got drone footage of the fights and we even have a few of the soldiers seizing up and dying.”

“How the hell do you have that?” Abby asked, bewildered.

“The snipers you incapacitated. Our drones caught them offing themselves. All of them are dead.”

“Fantastic. Did we even get the hard drive back for the cereal company?” Kaleb asked.

Vivienne held up a pale hand as she reached into her bag. She pulled a black hard drive out and waved it around before putting back in her bag. So at least things weren’t completely screwed.

“They had it in one of the armored vehicles. Along with some equipment. I don’t know what they were doing with it. But maybe you could take a look, professor?”

Kaleb nodded as Farrah hissed in everyone’s ear. They all winced as the noise sounded harsh through their comms.

“Everyone stand down. The assholes are here.”

“Great. Now we have to explain thirty dead bodies to the cops.” Two Gun whined.

“No, I said the assholes. The HLO just rolled up with their own security teams and a handful of Supers. Everyone stay quiet and let me work my magic. That goes double for you, professor!”

Everyone smirked at Kaleb as he feigned hurt. “What the hell did I do?!”

Farrah ignored him as she quickly rifled off orders. “Explain what you were doing here and the contract we have with the cereal company. Nothing more. I’ll have you all out by morning.”

“Out?” Abby asked.

But before she could get an answer, the parking area was flooded with noise. Small black eggs rolled in through the open door before popping and emitting white smoke. White-armored soldiers charged in, followed by some sparkling asshole in tights. They were joined by a speedster, a woman who looked to be half-tiger/half-cyborg, and a slim lady with a clear container where her head should be. Within the container, floating in blue goop, was a brain. Wires wrapped the floating brain before leading down a hole in the container toward the woman’s spine. Kaleb had just enough time to be disgusted before Captain Sparkles announced in a haughty voice.

“You are all under arrest.”