#xdarkcore

“I want all of your weapons on the table. Now.”

Everyone did as Azias said. One by one, swords and guns were set down on the table of Room 12, back at the Command Building. “What do you want to do about Wither?” Vulpine asked, setting his long, katana-like sword on top of the others’ weapons.

Azias glanced over at the PI8 soldier, who stood silently in the corner, stared back at him. “For now, I’m going to have to trust her.”

Nova turned her gaze from Wither to Azias. “Wait, so you don’t trust us?” She looked a bit confused.

“He’s being perfectly reasonable, actually.” Axon spoke up. “We four are probably the best candidates for whoever killed Monsoon.”

“I’m assuming Monsoon was the infantrywoman?” Azias asked, looked at the four soldiers.

“That’s right.” Axon responded.

“Ok, first off, I need to know exactly where all of you were in the library at the time that the lights went off.”

Axon spoke first. “Me and Vulpine were in roughly the same area of the library, 6th floor, west side. We were both looking at the selection that the library had to offer.”

Nova spoke next. “I was next to Monsoon… I… don’t know… I might have been able to stop whoever got her, but-“

“Relax.” Azias interrupted. “It’s not your fault. It was dark, and it sounds like it happened pretty fast.”

Nova swallowed hard. “Yeah…”

Wither simply stated “I was near the check-out area.”

“Alright.” Azias had already decided that if any of the 4 soldiers in the room was a traitor, it would most likely be either Nova or Wither. He didn’t say this out loud however, for if he did, he would risk giving someone the upper hand. “Next question, did anyone hear or see anything odd while the lights were off?” Everyone made mumbles, all admitting that they didn’t.

“Hrm…” This was going to be harder than he thought. “Axon, can you pull up security footage from the library on that computer?”

“I can.” He replied. The others gathered around him, looking at the computer screen. 64 different viewpoints were arranged in an 8 by 8 pattern on the monitor.

Without warning, all 64 turned to a blank, black screen. Even the timestamps had disappeared. “That’s the power going out.” Axon explained. In a matter of seconds, all the screens were back to normal.

“There.” Axon pointed to one of the camera feeds. Two dark figures could be seen swinging over the railing of the 5th floor, where Nova and Monsoon were, onto the 4th floor. “Those must be our culprits.”

Something caught Azias’s eye. One by one, the camera feeds were switching to a simple, white screen. “Axon,” He asked. “What’s going on?” Axon didn’t answer, but began typing quickly, frantically. “Axon.” Azias repeated, a bit more forcefully this time. “What’s happening?”

“I…” He sounded worried. “I don’t know… The files are disappearing. I think we may be getting hacked.”

“Can you track whoever’s doing this?” Vulpine asked.

By this time, the screen was pure white. All the camera feeds were gone. “They’ve already disconnected…” Axon said, in a defeated tone. “No, I can’t. It’s too late.”

Wither piped up, which caught everyone off guard. “They looked like they were heading to the fire exit.”

“Yeah…” Axon mumbled, not taking his eyes off the screen, as if waiting for the camera feeds to return. “Yeah, she’s right.”

“Are there any cameras in the alley the fire escape leads to?” Azias asked.

“No…” Axon responded.

“Is there anything else we can do?” Azias pressed on.

“I mean… Yeah, there is, but it’s almost midnight, and they’re probably on high alert now that they know we’re looking for them.” He turned away from his computer to face Azias. “It’s probably in our best interest just to wait until tomorrow to see if we can find them then.”

Azias stared at him for a long while, until he finally complied. “Alright, I’ll head home then, what time do you want me to meet you guys back here tomorrow?”

“7 in the morning please. That goes for all of you.”

Nova and Vulpine both groaned, the latter stating “I was gonna sleep in…”

Azias began towards the door before turning around and looking at Axon. “Could I bring my gun tomorrow by any chance? If I’m going to be putting myself in the face of danger like this, I’m guessing that I may need it.”

“I’ll have to pull a few strings, but I think I could get you permission, yeah.”

“Thanks.” And with that, Azias headed out the door.

  The elevator shuddered to a halt, and Null stepped out. He glanced over at the sign to his left, confirming that he was indeed in the right place. He was in the Armory, 25 stories below the surface, right where he wanted to be. He approached the door, but before he could pass through, a man stopped him.

“I’m going to have to ask why you’re here…” He said.

Null replied, “I was coming down here to get a PSR Type 22. There’s a Ranger up there that I feel would take to it a bit better that the Type 24, so.” This was not what he was doing down in the armory, but he’d need a good excuse to get in there.

The man stared at him for a bit, but finally obliged. “Alright, go ahead. But don’t touch anything that you don’t need.” And with that, Null walked past him.

The armory was truly awe-inspiring to those who gazed upon it for the first time. Null, however, had been here many times before, and was used to looking over the large racks of guns and swords. But this specific trip down to the armory would not end with him simply plucking a gun off of a rack and being on his merry way; Null’s real target lay far deeper in the armory that he currently was. He walked past the racks of weapons, and into the back rooms.

The back rooms were far less elegant than the main hall, as one would expect. They mainly consisted of crates stacked on top of each other, in dusty hallways. As Null walked farther into the back rooms, the halls became wider, and the crates had better level security. He found one crate opened, and leaned over it, to see what sort of weapon was inside. He wasn’t familiar with the gun he saw, but since it was a rather heavy duty one, some sort of railgun from the looks of it, and he was a Ranger, Null assumed that was with good reason. He gently lowered the lid of the crate, and it shut with a satisfying “click”.

He could see himself in the reflection of the polished metal crate. Null let out a soft sigh. He looked like an idiot. His uniform was made of some sort of tight grey cloth which made him look more like a circus acrobat than a soldier. And to top it all off, his mask had a ridiculous, dark red stripe going diagonally down his face, with three similar ones on his torso to match. He guessed that the intention was to make him stand out in a crowd, but in all honesty, he’d rather just be mistaken for a lower rank than wear this piece of garbage.

“Need something?”

The annoyed voice made him look up. He spotted a girl, about 5 feet away. She looked human, and couldn’t be more than 12 or 13 years old.

“You must be Cheryl.” Null responded. He had to make an educated guess as to her being Cheryl, as a human would most likely not be allowed down in the armory, let alone one this young.

“That’s right.” She nodded, the repeated herself. “Do you need something?”

“Yeah.” Null got up from his position of leaning over the crate. “I need a bow.”

Cheryl looked more annoyed than before. “You passed at least a hundred bows on your way back here, dumbass.”

Null felt himself tense up in anger at being called a dumbass, but restrained himself, letting out a deep breath. If what he’d heard about Cheryl was true, she could probably kill him without lifting a finger. “I meant that I needed one custom made.”

Cheryl’s eyes widened at hearing this. “Oh, really? Are you sure that you want that?”

“I’m sure.”

She smirked, looking smug. “It’s gonna cost you.”

“I realize that.”

“Well then,” Cheryl said in a mock English accent. “Please, right this way, monsieur.” She started walking off, and then turned back to face the soldier. “Vámonos!” She snapped at him.

Null rolled his eyes as he followed her. Interesting how you went from English, to French, to Spanish, in the course of two sentences. He thought. This girl was starting to get on his nerves, but he did his best to suppress his irritation.

Cheryl led Null into the backmost part of the armory. Here, it was more furnished that any other place in the back rooms. Not so furnished that you could live there comfortably, but enough so that you could forget that you were about a mile underground once you got caught up in your work.

“So what exactly are you looking for?” The girl said, already searching through a large crate.

Null crossed his arms for a moment, and thought, closing his eyes. A few seconds later, he opened them back up. “Something versatile, mainly. I’d like to mainly use if for medium range shots, say, about twenty-five to thirty meters. But I’d also like to be able to use if for longer ranges than that if I need to. Then again, maybe I’d like something with a blade on it, something that I can use for close range combat, if I ever get in sticky situa-“

“Cool it, hotshot.” Cheryl stole a half second glance over at him. “This isn’t Build-A-Bow workshop.” She quipped.

Null actually agreed with her for once, he did feel he’d gotten a bit carried away. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry about that.”

“’Bout time…” She grumbled, and Null ignored her. “Oh, fuck it.” She proclaimed, and gave up trying to push past weapons in the crate, simply tossing out the ones she wasn’t looking for.

Null came over, and knelt down next to the pile of the weapons she discarded out of the pile. “You made all of these then?”

“I made almost all Agna weapons.”

“Well, yeah, but I meant… These aren’t…”

“Available in the armory?” She offered. “Yeah, I just make these in my spare time. That doesn’t mean I don’t put effort into them, though. If anything, I put more effort into these ones.”

“I’d imagine so…” Null responded, and reached down towards one of the weapons, a sniper rifle, with a shiny metal casing over it.

“Don’t touch that!” Cheryl snapped, and Null quickly pulled his hand back, as her gaze burned into him. She went back to looking at the crate, and then continued. “Now it’s my turn to ask the questions. People of your rank aren’t allowed to have specialty weapons, so why are you here to get one? You planning on going rogue?” She smirked, not turning to face him this time. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

“No it’s not that.” Null sighed, standing back up. “I’m retiring sometime soon, and I feel like whatever profession I decide to pursue after that happens is going to require me to have a weapon.” He put his arm behind his head, stretching. “After all, that’s what I’m best at.”

“Here.” Cheryl finally pulled out what she was looking for. It was a rather long, black metal bow. The grip was colored a light grey. At the end of the upper limb of the bow was a foot long curved blade, which made the bow look almost like some sort of scythe. Attached to the bottom of the grip was another blade, which was the same length, but thinner, possibly used to act as some sort of small dagger, attached to the bow. Cheryl held it out for Null to take. Null took it hesitantly, as though he were grabbing a snake.

“Where would I attach the bowstring?” He asked, staring at the weapon.

“There are two triggers on the grip, pull the top one.” She had a small grin on her face, it wasn’t like she was extremely happy, but she did seem somewhat proud of her work.

Null did, and was startled when a bright blue beam appeared, in the place of where a bowstring should have gone. He hesitantly poked it with his finger, not sure if he’d need a glove to operate it. It appeared that he wouldn’t.

“I made the bowstring easily removable in that way so that melee combat would be easier. The bottom trigger will materialize an arrow.” Cheryl continued. Null pressed the button, and the shape of an arrow appeared in the arrow rest. The arrow glowed blue, like the bowstring.

“Will I run out of arrows?” Null questioned.

“Let’s just say that you won’t need to worry about it. The button on the back of the grip will activate the sight.”

Null pressed the final button and the back of the bow lit up with green outlines of his surroundings, and a single red dot, which he assumed was where the arrow was estimated to land.

Null looked up from the bow. “This is very generous of you…”

Cheryl closed her eyes, grinning. “If I give it to you, the price is that you’ll never be able to be happy again.”

She may as well have just slapped him in the face. Shoulda seen that one coming, he thought to himself. He stood there for a moment, silent. Anyone would say no, what was the point of living if you could never be happy.

“What do you say?” Asked Cheryl, holding out her hand.

But Null wasn’t just anyone. He would be better off without that emotion. He was sure of it. That emotion ruined his life once. He wasn’t going to make that same mistake twice.

“Deal.” He said, shaking her hand.