Sinner's Run Ch. 12

Colleen's gearbox had a sniper rifle in it, along with five rounds. Noah took them all, pivoting again until Quirrel was in his field of view. The big mutant bastard had his back to him, so he didn't react as Noah spent a precious few seconds lining up the shot right on his oversized melon of a head.

The rifle made no sound as he fired, the sound effects already lost in the data dump. But Quirrel did as the bullet struck him right in the back of the skull. His body went slack, and Nala kicked herself free of his grip. Quirrel turned towards him, eyes blazing with hatred. "You!"

Noah made a small "eep!" noise and fired the rest of the sniper rounds. All of them went wide. Quirrel twisted and pumped his arms, looking like he was climbing the air itself to get to him. "Gonna pop your head off like a cork, fresh meat!"

Larka hit him in the middle of his back with a mid-air dropkick, launching Quirrel in a different trajectory away from them. Quirrel made a noise of incoherent rage as he was knocked away. "I've got you, finyan," she said, giving him a hug.

"Thanks, Larka," Noah said. "But I've got no idea how to get us out of this one!"

"Look!" Fidget called. "What is they say about the light? Are we supposed to go to it or not?"

Noah looked down. A pinprick of light had appeared below them, growing larger and larger as they fell towards it. "It's better than the void!" 32 said. "Let's go!"

Quirrel made another animal noise, righting himself and moving towards them. Larka moved Noah behind her. "I will keep him busy, finyan. Go. Find your way home."

Noah clung to her thick fur. "Larka, come on. We can figure out a way to make this work."

She shook her head, then gave him a sad smile over her shoulder. "Our paths part here. I still must find my atonement."

"But that's not real!" Noah protested.

Larka's smile didn't waver. "It is to me, finyan. Now...go!"

Her shout was punctuated by her flaring her wings. The heavy appendages snapped out with such force that they knocked Noah right off Larka's broad back. Noah flipped end over end away from her, gaining distance from her rapidly until two pairs of strong hands grabbed him. "Got you," 32 said.

Noah lifted his head up just in time to see Larka flap her wings and shoot into Quirrel like a giant cannonball. The two of them locked up like gladiators, wrestling for dominance and dealing heavy blows to each other with their legs as they fell away from Noah, 32, Nala and Fidget in a tumble of limbs and fury. After a few more moments, they were gone, swallowed by the black void around them.

"It was one thing to have it happen once," Noah said as they fell ever closer to the light. "But twice?"

"That's just who she is, Killer." Nala put an arm around his shoulder. "We'll see her again, on the outside."

"I hope so," Noah said. He looked down. "I really hope that's where that light leads. And I really hope we don't fall smack into something. I've had enough of-"

The light flared bright like the sun, and a moment later, everything went white.

Brian saw the electrical discharge building in in the server machine physically, arcs of lightning zapping to and fro and building with intensity with each passing second. Vivian was still frantically hammering at her keyboard, desperate to figure out what was going on. She was oblivious.

He tackled her out of the way just as the lightning reached critical mass. The discharge sparked once before going off, arcs of jagged electric current sparking along servers and the wiring in the walls. The halogen bulb above them exploded, bits of glass peppering Brian's back as he shielded Vivian underneath him. All he could hear was a roar, and the hum of electricity, louder than if he were standing right next to a dynamo at the power planet. Several somethings crashed into the room, and Brian winced at the crunch of plastic and silicone computer parts being smashed under the weight of several bodies.

Then it went silent, like passing through the eye of a hurricane. Brian lifted his head up.

A young man in his early twenties dressed in black armor rolled over, clutching his sternum where he'd fallen directly on the edge of a metal shelving unit for the servers. "...that for one day. God dammit." He rolled over, groaning in pain. "Had enough of this for a lifetime..."

A groan came from behind them. Brian turned to see a waifish woman picking herself up. Her left arm was bleeding from where it had scratched the edge of a table. "Where are we?"

A slender hand emerged from around the corner, dragging behind it a buxom woman with bright pink hair. "Not in the dark place anymore, that's for sure."

"Brian, let me up." Vivian sounded breathless. She nudged Brian off her. "Thanks, by the way."

"You're welcome."

Vivian looked at the new occupants in the room, staring with wide eyes. Then she began to laugh. "I don't believe it. I was right all along."

The young man sat up and looked around the small room. His eyes were unfocused for a moment, until recognition flared in them. He patted himself down, looking around wildly. "Wait. Are we seriously...?"

32 clamped a hand over her arm. "Judging by how much this hurts, I think we are."

"Noah Welkin," Vivian said. His head turned towards her. "Welcome back."

He raised a finger and pointed at her slowly. "Vivian."

"Yes." She looked around at the other newcomers. "I see you brought some company."

Brian's head was spinning at the sight of characters from his team's game moving around in the flesh in front of him. "Vivian. What the hell is going on?"

A clatter came from the corner of the room, where a whole stack of server machines had fallen. The pile shifted back and forth for a moment. Then a furred arm emerged, followed by a tiger-esque head and slender armored form. Nala flopped out of the stack of servers, breathing heavily as she picked herself up. She looked around the room. Her pupils dilated as she realized what was going on.

"Oh my..." Vivian muttered.

Nala sighed and slumped onto the ground. "Oh, great..."