Lock Down (10)

When the steel doors closed and locked Liam, Charlie and the Intruder in the room, the events that followed were not exactly what Liam had advised Alia. The three were locked in the room both Charlie and Liam holding their firearms. The Intruder was trapped in the corner. Charlie began firing at the black figure as it dodged the shots.
Liam’s began to receive Alia’s messages through his earpiece. “Liam what’s going on?”
“We have the intruder cornered,” he replies. Charlie kept firing. Then electric currents surged through her body as she fell to the ground unconscious. The Intruder was a good three meters away from her. Liam had tazered Charlie from behind. The Intruder freezes. Liam continues to communicate to Alia. “It has taken down Major Jordan…” He points his gun and shoots it directly into the roof making holes in the ceiling. “Ahh!” Liam screams as he turns off his communicator. Liam glares at the Intruder.
“You stupid bitch,” he said. “You supposed to enter undetected!” He looks up at the hole he had shot. He pulls out of his pocket a small explosive shaped as a round ball. “This will distract them.” He throws the ball into the hole and it rolls through the air vent making a loud noise. He walks over to the corner of the room and the Intruder follows.
“The only way out during lock down is through the sewers,” he states. He pulls up a part of the wall where there is a large sewer pipe. He blasts a hole in the pipe about large enough to fit a human’s head. “GO!”
The Intruder squeezes its legs into the pipe, then torso and head until it is out of sight leaving with the core. Liam puts the wall piece back covering the Intruders exit. He pulls out a control from his pocket activating the bomb he had thrown into the vent causing it to explode. He quickly heads to the centre of the room next to Charlie and points his tazer gun at his chest. He pulls the trigger just in time for Alia to find him passed out. As he laid there unconscious, a single strand of long blonde hair floated on the floor of the room.

Lock Down (9)

“The Intruder entered room the 14th room on the 9th basement and activated the lock system to shut the door,” Liam explains to his audience Alia and Bison. Standing in the board room next to him is Charlie with her arms crossed. “Major Jordan and I managed to enter the room before the doors were sealed. Major Jordan began shooting at it, unsuccessfully hitting it. It swooped down and tazered her, knocking her unconscious. I began blasting at it, but it managed to avoid my shots and then tazered me… That’s all I remember.”
Alia looks at Charlie. “Do you have anything to ad?”
Charlie shakes her head.
“You both were unconscious for two hours, in that time we searched the entire vicinity. The Intruder managed to escape out of the building with the Core.” Alia states. She then glares directly at Liam. “You’re getting rusty Liam. Someone infiltrated the operation and you let them get away.”
Liam snarls at Alia and changes the subject. “Let the Mayor out of the Panic room. He has engagements to attend.” He does not make eye contact to Alia as he exits the room. Alia leaves after him.
Left in the room, Charlie approaches her Lieutenant.
“Bison, I want to apologise,” she says sincerely.
“For what?” Bison asks.
“The Intruder escaped from me twice, I won’t let it happen again.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Bison reacts apathetically. Charlie looks confused at her unconcerned Leader. Bison walks out of the room as Charlie watches him leave.

Lock Down (8)

Liam, Alia and Bison are in the elevator heading down to the second lowest floor in the Tempest. As the elevator door opens Charlie is there with fifty soldiers.
“So it’s trapped on this floor?” Liam asks hurrying out of the elevator.
“It took down five of my soldiers without blinking,” Charlie replied.
“How can you see it blink? Apparently it’s wearing a mask.” Liam states bluntly. All fifty soldiers crowd around him. “I want everyone in groups of five. The Intruder is dangerous. We also want it alive, so we are using tazer bullets. One shot and it will be knocked out for an hour.”
Bison separates his troops into groups of five as ordered. Each group begins to scan the floor searching for the Intruder. Listening to the conversations the Intruder hides silently in the above air vent.

***

Alia along with four soldiers all creep slowly through the hallways. All of them on high alert hunting the Intruder. With her heighten senses Alia is the one that locates it. She stands still and peers around the hall, the Intruder not in sight. She closes her eyes and listens. “Nobody move.”
All her troops halt. Alia hears the air running in and out of her soldier’s nostrils. A fly buzzes around down the hallway, about 10 meters away from them. Then Alia hears creek in the ceiling directly above one of her troops. She quickly spins around and shoots the ceiling making a whole in the roof revealing the Intruder. It swoops out of the vent down to the floor taking out two soldiers as it lands then leaps through the hallway away from those that found it.
Alia’s eyes turn yellow and beings chasing the black figure. She contacts all the other soldiers with her ear piece. “The Intruder is heading down the west corridor.”
Liam’s and Charlies troops are the closest to the Intruder’s destination in the West Corridor. The see it jumping down towards them and both begin blasting at it with their guns. It dodges every shot as it manoeuvres into a room on the side of the hallway. Liam and Charlie rush into the room following it. A large steel door shuts the entrance that the three entered into. Alia reaches the doorway as it shuts. She is furious punching the door making dents in the steel.
Alia turns to her soldiers that have crowded around her. “Get this door open!” she demands. She contacts Liam directly through her earpiece. “Liam what’s going on?” Static is heard then Liam replies.
“We have the intruder cornered.” Static interrupts. “It has taken down Major Jordan…” shots are heard. “Ahh!” Liam screams before the transmission ends.
Above the troops that congregate in front of the sealed door they hear something shuffling through the air vent. Several troops chase the noise above them, shooting at the ceiling. Then the shuffling stops and then there is an explosion in the vent. The ceiling crashes down as pieces of the roof lands on the floor. It is only pieces of roof that fall, the Intruder is no where to be seen.
Alia deactivate the lock on the steel door as it opens. In the enclosed room Liam and Charlie lay unconscious on the floor.

Lock Down (7)

Virgil Dylan sits in his large chair in the middle of his office with his eyes shut. He slowly opens them as the door to his office opens. Reiken Waters enters while Virge stays seated.
“Afternoon Virge,” Reiken says. He walks up to the desk Virge remains silent. “I’m just going to cut to it… I need your help. I need to get Trey out of the Asylum.”
Virge peers at him. “What did you exactly have in mind?”
“Can you use your government connections and get him out?”
“That could take several weeks…” Virge pauses. “But I know someone that can help you and do it a lot faster. He’ll be just around the corner from the Arraign Asylum on the Century Bridge at 10 o’clock. Don’t be late.”
Reiken nods not questioning a word Virge says. He turns and exits the room. Virge shuts his eyes and concentrates.

Lock Down (6)

Nine levels underground Charlie Jordan gets a call from her Lieutenant. Her brown hair is tied up in a ponytail to stay out of her face and ears. Her earpiece lights up blue.
“Yes Bison, our unit will be on the look out,” she says to her caller. “The Intruder won’t get out of the building.” She hangs up the call. With her are five troops from her unit. She stands before them her with a riffle in her had. Dressed in grey and standing at five foot five, she is shorter than all the soldiers in front of her, yet they patiently wait for her to speak.
“We have gone into lock down… no one can get in or out of the building, we-” Charlie suddenly stops mid sentence and quickly raises her riffle and fires it. The shot narrowly misses one of her soldiers head. The soldiers duck and turn to see where Charlie had shot.
In the corner of the roof a figure dressed in black body suit from her to toe crouches holding a glowing blue tube. It leaps off the ceiling and dodges the bullet. The five soldiers grab their fire arms and begin to aim at the Intruder. The Intruder lands on the ground and slides sweeping two soldiers onto the ground. The guns begin to fire all missing the Intruder. The black figure rolls onto its side and with its arms pushes it body upright and stands facing another soldier. Before another shot is taken the Intruder head butts knocking the soldier unconscious. Still holding the Blue tube with one hand, the figure uses its free hand and grabs its opponent by the shirt before it can collapse to the floor. The Intruder swings the soldier around. Its legs are in the air and hit the other two soldiers in the face. The figure the releases the soldier and throws it to the ground. The only two left standing are Charlie and the Intruder.
Charlie charges towards the Intruder shooting with her riffle. The Intruder leaps up over her. The Intruder kicks Charlie in the face as it pounces past her. Charlie’s face is wounded but turns as the Intruder passes her. She keeps shooting but the figure is agile and misses the bullets and escapes out of the room.
Charlie looks around at her fallen troops, within ten seconds the Intruder had taken down five of her soldiers. She calls Bison with her earpiece.
“The Intruder is on the 9th basement level,” she states. “It’s fast, strong… and it has stolen another core.”