Flash put his hand on the door to the police station's armory, feeling for the doorknob and giving a twist. It was locked.
"Rainbow, keys." Keeping his eyes on the barely lit hallway in front of him, he held his hand out behind him, and felt two keys being put into it. One of them was to the armory, and after a few moments of fiddling with them, he fit the right one into the keyhole just above the door handle. He put the keys into the pouch around his back, feeling like he'd need to hold on to them, and cracked the door open.
They couldn't find a way to the administrative offices, so Flash decided they should head to the armory. Several more demons had stood in their way though, but with each encounter they had been lucky enough to have the upper hand. The first, a lone Reaper was taken by surprise, Flash managed to put it in a lock from behind and stabbed its heart through, dispatching it in the same manner as the scythe demon.
After that, a pair of Phantoms made themselves audible from around a corner, their bones rattling as they walked, allowing Rainbow and Flash time to coordinate an attack. Each of them picked one and took them out from across the hallway. Rainbow was a bit shaky, not having much experience with firearms, but both of the Phantoms went down before they were able to react.
From there, it wasn't far to the armory.
Flash kept his gun raised as he slowly opened the armory door. It had two emergency lights in it, and several rows of storage cabinets forming short walkways to the other end of the room. They were all locked electronically though, and with the power out, they wouldn't be able to get into them. He had hoped to restock here; his ammunition was running low, with one spare magazine in his handgun, only four shots in his current magazine, and nothing for the shotgun.
Rainbow pointed her flashlight over his shoulder as the door swung open fully, but turned it off as she saw the room was adequately illuminated. Ever cautious, but convinced the room was safe, Flash stepped in, and Rainbow followed, shutting the door behind them.
"So why are there even demons still hanging around here?" Rainbow asked. "If they're looking for people to kill, you think they'd have ditched this place already..."
"Not sure. There's a spire here somewhere, an anchor to their world that lets them come through. They might just be keeping an eye on it." Flash walked through the armory, letting his hand brush against the closed cabinets until it bumped an open one. Turning his attention to it, he found it contained four loose shotgun shells. Not as many as he'd wanted, but still useful nonetheless. He loaded them up right away, then continued on, coming to a stop in front of a heavy steel door, with two digital scanners on either side, giving off a soft red light. It had no handle, nowhere to pull, sticking out from the wall just a little bit.
The panic room.
Flash knocked on the door, and heard a voice in his earpiece.
"Sentry... is... is that you?" Sergeant Colt's voice came through his radio. Where he was tough and inspiring before, now he was tired and weak.
"Yeah. I'm right outside the panic room," Flash responded. "Isn't there anything you can do to unlock it from the inside?"
"No, the scanner on my side is permission locked too, I didn't realize when we shut the door."
"You didn't know it would lock you in there?"
"We've never had to use it before..." Colt coughed, sounding to be in pain. "I didn't know it automatically locked when the door closed. Do you have the chief's badge?"
"Not yet, I was just coming here to make sure the way was clear. I-"
Flash felt Rainbow's hand shake his shoulder. "Something's coming..."
Flash looked back towards the room's entrance, hearing heavy footsteps from beyond it.
"Hold on, Sergeant, I have to deal with something..."
He turned his radio off, and pointed his shotgun at the door, taking quiet steps towards it. Rainbow was right, something was coming. The footsteps grew louder, closer, until they were just behind the closed door. Was it a demon? Flash waited, crouching close between the storage cabinets, hiding in the middle row where the shadows were darkest.
A demon would've knocked the door down in one manner or another, but instead, something curious happened.
The doorknob turned, and the door opened.
Through it, came a huge figure in a dark purple suit of power armor, with a glowing teal lights accenting different spots, and a helmet with a crack along the visor. They were the hellish, menacing looking character Spitfire warned him about. And through their visor, they looked directly at Flash. They did not attack at first, they only stared at him. It was almost like they were surprised, like they weren't expecting to find a human in this demon infested place.
They then took a step forward, and then another, prompting Flash to quickly back away.
"S-stay back..." He warned, keeping them lined up in his shotgun's sight as they slowly approached, their speed ramping up with his. They didn't comply, and he fired off a shot at them. There was the sparking and scraping of the shotgun pellets off of their armor, but little damage was done. He fired again, but upon seeing that his weapon was ineffective, he made his way towards the back of the room with much haste.
His back was turned, and he heard the Hellsoldier's footsteps pick up, and instinctively rolled to the side as soon as he cleared the row of cabinets. Just in time too, as the Hellsoldier charged past him, knocking several of the cabinets over with a wide swing of their arm. He needed to get out of there.
"Rainbow! Run!" He shouted, making his way as fast as he could down the left row of cabinets, hearing Rainbow's gun going off behind him. What was she doing? As soon as he reached the front of the room, he turned back. Rainbow was in the middle row, firing at the Hellsoldier, and then she ran between a gap in the cabinets to the right row, moving as fast as she could to Flash's side.
"What is that?!"
"I don't know, we need to get out of here!"
They both run back out into the hallway, going full speed in the direction that looked like it gave the most room to run, which also was opposite the direction they had come.
Behind them, with long, slow, ominous strides, the Hellsolider followed.
-----
Spitfire's rematch with the shotgun-slinging pig demon did not go smoothly. She fired a burst from her machine gun, but her burnt fingers gripped the weapon far too tightly, and her accuracy suffered as a result. Only a single bullet hit the approaching demon, but it wasn't enough to stop it from swinging its shotgun arm around to his side. Without much time to think, she dove into the closest open room just as the demon pulled the trigger, and was surprised to find that it missed her by a huge margin- its aim was sloppy and rushed. She wasn't going to take that for granted though, if she wasn't fast, it could close the distance on her and accuracy wouldn't matter.
Rolling forward and hopping back to her feet, she slammed the door behind her and dropped to the floor again, just as another spray of shotgun pellets perforated the thin office walls just above her head. That was two shots, and the demon's shotgun was double barrelled. Maybe she could catch it while it was reloading.
Reassuming her less-than-solid grip on her machine gun, she kicked the door back open and let off an inaccurate barrage of bullets in the demon's direction, the gun shaking against her numb hands and kicking back into her shoulder. The demon took steps back as bullets tore through its body, but as Spitfire's machine gun ran empty it let out an enraged squeal and threw its weapon on the ground, opting to lunge straight at her. Spitfire didn't back down, instead, she braced herself, and held out both hands to catch the demon's, putting her heel against the wall behind her to get more leverage against it.
The demon was wide, round, and heavy, grunting and snorting furiously as it did it's best to push her back. Strong as she was, she knew she couldn't hold this thing back forever, so instead she pulled one of her hands away and punched it in the stomach. She expected it's fat body to give some, but its mass was completely solid; Spitfire felt as if she had just punched a boulder. The pain was minimal in her hand, but the shock was felt all the way up her arm. The demon seemed to respond with pain though, and so with better footing, she punched it again, but harder, and again, one more time.
The third punch did it, the pig demon recoiled back, it's balance shifting. Spitfire reached to her vest, and produced the hand grenade she found shortly before. The demon growled, roared a full, powerful roar at her, it's mouth wide open with teeth on full display, but an unintimidated Spitfire saw only an opportunity; the opportunity to lodge her hand grenade between its jaws. The beast let out a snort of confusion, and Spitfire pulled the pin.
She then pushed away and ran back into the room as far as she could, wanting to get away from the now live explosive. There was no exit door, and the demon was recoiling in the doorway, so she dove into the corner and covered herself with a chair as best as she could as the grenade detonated in the demon's mouth. Nothing hit her, but the wall and corner closest to the door frame were blown apart, as was the demon. The hole made in the wall was fortunately placed, as it allowed her to get past the barricades blocking the hallway before.
Spitfire still had her life, but she used up another magazine in that fight. She reluctantly swapped them out, hoping she wouldn't have to check through another dead body for more bullets.
Going through the hall, it was a straight shot to the police chief's office. More fallen officers were strung about the place, but Spitfire noticed no unusual cuts, tears, or burns on them. In fact, all of them seemed to have died from ordinary bullet wounds. Well placed bullet wounds, in the head or neck. It was too clean to be from the demon with the shotgun, no, it seemed like someone else had killed these people.
Spitfire kept her eyes focused ahead, navigating the tight hallway until she reached a locked door, one that the key Flash had given her fit perfectly. The key turned, but she heard something behind the door that made her refrain from opening it. Voices.
"Please, I did what you asked, now let's leave." A man's worried voice said.
"I need your badge." A woman's voice replied. She had a cold and annoyed tone.
"W-what?"
"You locked the Elements in the panic room, but I'll need to take your badge from you now so my team can... retrieve them later."
"What? On whose authority?"
"Mine." Spitfire heard the sound of a gun's slide clicking as the woman gave her response. "Now drop your gun."
Something fell to the ground.
"You lied to me, didn't you. Who are you?"
The woman gave an annoyed scoff. "Wouldn't you like to know? Look here. Into my eyes."
The man sounded as if he was going to resist, but the woman did something even more curious. She began to sing. Not loudly, and not with any words, she just vocalized a melody of low notes, arranged in an unnaturally smooth and intriguing manner. It was mesmerizing, even to Spitfire listening in behind the door. After her short, ten seconds of singing, there was a moment of silence.
"Thank you, Chief Coppers." Dry sarcasm eventually came.
"What... how did you... why did I do that? Who are you?"
Spitfire heard a very quiet gunshot, then a slightly louder death gurgle from the police chief. The woman's gun must've had a suppressor on it.
So the police chief knowingly locked innocent civilians inside the panic room, so some other group could take them away? Spitfire shook her head. She was going to have to deal with his killer as well, as she now had the chief's badge.
Slowly, carefully, she unlocked the door, but waited again when she heard the woman talking.
"It's Aria. Wha- 'Silent Lynx'. Whatever. I know the code names are important but I'm completely alone, Sonata."
A pause.
"Sorry, 'Staccato Sparrowhawk.' Look, I'm just letting you know that I have the police chief's badge, okay? Are you in the Seraph offices yet?"
Another pause.
"Ugh. I'll meet up with you, then. I- ... In the Seraph offices! Where else?"
Spitfire felt the overwhelming urge to shrink away, to hide and let this mysterious third party just do what they came to do, but she pushed those thoughts away, remembering her duty to the citizens of Canterlot. However few were left. She waited, heard the footsteps getting closer, then shoved the door open at the last possible second.
Beyond the door was an open, square area, with overturned desks making makeshift barriers, and doors leading off to separate offices to the sides, but her main focus was this 'Silent Lynx', who had been knocked onto her back by Spitfire's entrance.
By her outfit, she seemed to be some kind of infiltrator, wearing a black bodysuit with armor padding around the chest and shoulders and stacked with grey tactical straps and pouches. Her eyes were only somewhat visible through a pair of tinted combat goggles, and showed clear surprise Spitfire barging into the room. Spitfire only gave herself a second to look over her features before lining up a shot on her. She saw long, pulled back purple-ish hair, unnaturally pale skin with a light purple hue to it, and as she scanned her over the last detail she caught was the insignia on her shoulder, just beneath the padding.
SRAPH? Seeing it made her hesitate a moment, but it was one moment too late. Her target completely vanished.
Lynx wasn't gone. Spitfire still scanned her surroundings closely. She was still here, she knew it. Close. Her gut instinct told her to check her sides...
She moved quickly to check the corners of the room and ended up colliding with Lynx, who became entirely visible for the single second they were in contact with each other. Aiming for where she last saw her, Spitfire swung the butt of her weapon around forcefully, and Lynx's suppressed pistol became visible as it was knocked from her grip. The weapon fell to the ground, but it's owner was still out of sight. Spitfire took another guess at her position, quickly snapping into an aiming position.
The moment she went to fire, Lynx suddenly appeared again, but beside her, with both hands on Spitfire's machine gun as she attempted to wrestle it from her. The two struggled with each other, making eye contact for only a brief moment before Spitfire remembered the fate of the police chief that held her eyes for too long. Spitfire focused on the gun, but her arms were slowly wrenched too closely together, and her grip broke.
Silent Lynx backed away, disappearing with the gun the moment Spitfire let go of it. Spitfire moved to chase after her, but her fist hit nothing but air as she swung. She couldn't possibly know where Lynx went, but a few stiff clicks gave her position away clearly. Spitfire gave a sly smile. During their struggle, she had set the weapon's safety on- the trigger wouldn't pull all the way back, but there was no time to correct that.
Spitfire's fist shot out again, catching Lynx straight in the chest and stumbling her. The logic of her invisibility suddenly made sense, as she blinked in and out of it again. So long as Spitfire was touching her, or something she was holding, she could see her. With this in mind, she took the front of her machine gun and yanked on it, bringing them into grappling distance again, however Lynx only shoved her back, releasing the weapon and disappearing once more. She could tell that Spitfire had figured her out.
As quickly as she could, Spitfire flipped the gun back around and flicked off the safety, but by the time she was looking down its sight again the door slammed shut. As far as she could tell, Silent Lynx was gone. She hadn't even grabbed her pistol on the way out, and not too far on the floor from that was the police chief's badge.
The badge went into a pocket on her uniform jacket, but she also took the fallen weapon, and remembering how she had lost her own pistol only ten minutes after she had arrived in the city, decided that it would be a suitable replacement as a backup weapon. With some adjustment, it fit in her empty leg holster.
She was alone again, and she needed to warn Flash about the infiltrator, but before she went to leave, a faint buzzing sound caught her attention. Looking back into the room towards the other offices, she saw the police chief's body slumped back on an overturned desk. A navy blue hat covered his face, but by the bullet hole punched through both his uniform and chest she could tell he was dead. Unfortunate, but from his conversation with Lynx he seemed to be her accomplice, at least until she turned on him.
The buzzing sound came from his radio- it was a standard short range device, just like the one she was issued, but something was transmitting to it. A voice was coming through the earpiece connected to it.
"Chief Coppers, are you there? What happened? Coppers?"
Spitfire took the radio off of his body, unclipping it from his uniform and attaching it to her own. Somehow, there was no blood on any part of it, but she felt some sort of irrational uneasiness, the same kind she felt taking ammo off of a fallen officer before. Though, all things considered, everything about the current situation was perfectly justified in making Spitfire uneasy.
The voice in the radio repeated its question, but this time, Spitfire put the earpiece into her ear and gave a response.
"This is SWAT Captain Spitfire, Thunderbolt Unit. I regret to inform you that Chief Coppers is no longer with us."
"They got him too, huh? Damn..." The voice was rough, whoever was speaking, he sounded to be in pain. "This is Sergeant Colt speaking. I'm locked in the panic room at the center of the station."
Sergeant Colt. Flash mentioned him. "I know. I'm working with Agent Sentry on your rescue. I've got his badge, we can unlock the door for you. Can you get me his radio frequency?"
"You... oh... Right."
Colt relayed the digits of Flash's radio frequency, and Spitfire took mental note of them.
"Thanks. Also, I ran into a non-demon hostile, some kind of commando wearing a fake Seraph uniform. I overheard her talking to someone else via radio, whoever she's working for is after the two civilians in there with you. If they find a way in before us... just be ready."
There was some hesitation in Colt's voice. "I... I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for letting me know."
"Hang in there. Spitfire, out."
She had what she came for, and then some. It was time to leave. Spitfire set her radio to Flash's frequency, and hurried out of the administrative offices. Hopefully she wouldn't have another run in with Silent Lynx.
-----
Flash's earpiece began to sound off. Someone was trying to get a hold of him. He was still running for his life, but he figured there was enough distance between him and the slow moving Hellsoldier for him to stop for a moment.
"This is Sentry! I'm kinda busy, but go ahead!"
"It's Spitfire, I got the chief's badge. We're not alone here, I ran into an infiltrator who's also looking for your friends. We fought, she got away."
"Looking for my friends? What? To just like, take them?"
"I don't know, she called them the 'Elements', that's the magic thing they do, right?"
"Right, but-"
There was a loud thump on Spitfire's end. She was struggling with something. "Oof! Hold up, I'll get back to you in a bit..."
"Spitfire? Spitfire!" Flash didn't like the radio silence in such a tense moment.
Flash checked behind him. Rainbow Dash was keeping up with him, but the Hellsoldier was out of sight. The soldier was slow, he and Rainbow could easily outrun them.
"Is she okay?" Rainbow looked concerned.
"It sounded like she was being attacked. We're not alone in here... We need to get to her."
"Oh, what are we supposed to do?" Rainbow's composure wasn't recovering as quickly as Flash's was. She was just as stressed, but didn't have the discipline to back up her resolve. As a result, her eyes shrunk, darted to the side nervously, and she began to shake. "We're not gonna make it out of here, are we?"
Flash put a hand on her shoulder. He needed to say something to keep her worry at bay. "Don't worry, I've got an idea. We just have to keep moving."
The reassurance seemed to bring her back. She nodded her head. "Right, right. Where to?"
Flash took a moment to think. He didn't have a complete plan, but he knew that they needed to meet back up with Spitfire. His hasty attempts to visualize the station's layout gave him a roundabout answer. Spitfire entered the west wing through the reception, but they couldn't get through the doors connecting the reception area to the main body of the station. The SRAPH offices, however, connected the east wing to reception, and Flash's badge would allow him access to them. It would take a bit of backtracking, but if they could get to the SRAPH offices, they could follow Spitfire's steps from there.
"It's... it's this way, actually," Flash said, guiding Rainbow back the way they came. They'd have to go the long way around the station, since the main pathways were blocked by blast doors.
Rainbow Dash reluctantly followed, but the two encountered no resistance on their way back. It was unsettling how, once again, everything was quiet and still, but they were as tense as ever. Rainbow kept the flashlight vigilantly swiveling around every corner, through every door, and under every desk and table, as if the light would somehow drive any lurking demons away. Flash kept his attention forward, listening carefully for the sound of any demon movement over the hum of the emergency lighting.
They passed by the armory again, but the Hellsoldier was nowhere to be seen. That only put them further on edge.
As they moved, Flash thought more about the SRAPH offices. It was where he was supposed to report to after the mission, and periodically check in via radio, but clearly there was nobody here to report to, nor was he sure the radio equipment even still had power. He had no way to contact SRAPH HQ. There were a few other, smaller police stations in the different areas of Canterlot, but they didn't have SRAPH offices, they were coordinated through this one. This station was the station. Where would he even take the girls once he got to them? How would they get out of here?
Was he even capable of saving anyone at this point? He didn't know for certain, but he had made it this far into this nightmare, so he figured he'd at least try.
Eventually they came to the door to the SRAPH offices. It's electronic lock still worked, and the door unlocked as Flash swiped his badge across the scanner. As the device made a soft beep of recognition, Flash could've sworn he heard a soft shuffling from inside the room. His eyes met Rainbow's, both displaying a startled shock. They weren't alone. He drew his shotgun, took aim at the door, and made a motion with his head to Rainbow.
"Get the door. Open it fast," Flash said, very quietly. "Stay out here, make sure nobody comes in behind me."
Rainbow nodded, and pulled the door open.
Flash saw nothing hostile inside at first. There was a long table in the center of the room, a few desks along the closest and furthest walls, and wide windows on the far wall showed the police station reception areas, which had been more or less trashed by its new infernal occupants. A dim, blue light shined from inside the room somewhere, something that took Flash off guard. It was somewhere to his left, casting faint shadows to the right, and definitely wasn't from an emergency light.
Someone was in there.
Flash took a step inside, letting his shotgun lead the way. His eyes darted around, scanning the room as he nervously held his weapon's stock against his shoulder, a spring-loaded finger curled and ready to pull its trigger tight at a moment's notice. The room was wider than it was long from this angle; it was only a short walk past a few file cabinets to the door to reception from his point of entry. The closest wall was to his right, and he only gave it a quick glance before pivoting all the way left, more attentively looking into the rest of the room.
At the far end, on a desk up against the back wall was the screen of a laptop computer, one he didn't recognize, with a cable connecting it to a small device off to the side. As Flash got closer, he could see another, full sized computer tower beneath the desk, one of the standard ones the station used. It had its front and side panels removed, and some components from the inside were missing. Most notably, the hard drive.
He could also now make out what the screen was displaying: a progress bar, indicating that a file transfer was underway. Flash's brain made the connection.
Someone was in here stealing data.
Flash felt a hand violently grip his upper right arm, and another set of fingers forcibly lace between his own, preventing his fingertip from squeezing the trigger of his weapon as it was pulled away. In the same instant the weapon was ripped from his hands and tossed aside, and he was thrown face first into the closest wall, with his attacker twisting his arm painfully behind his back. Not only were the hands on his arms powerful, but the sensation of touch stung from the scraping he had received earlier.
There was a beat as his face was pressed against the wall, but he focused, and twisted his whole body forward, not resisting the force on his shoulder or arm, but accepting it. After a moment, there was enough room for his arm to twist free from their grip, but they forcefully shoved his other shoulder forward in response, knocking him against the wall a second time, but releasing his upper arm to do so.
Managing to muscle his arm free, Flash struck out with his elbow behind him, meeting resistance, but only seeing an arm held out in a defensive position as he turned his head back. He lowered his head, unfolding his elbow in an attempt to gain more leverage on the assailant, and saw a black bodysuit with a few faded, soft armor pieces, one carrying the insignia of... SRAPH? Who was he fighting?
Flash pulled his arm back, completing his turnaround and coming face to face with whoever was trying to subdue him. In the light of the laptop he could make out a few key features, she was a woman in a dated SRAPH uniform, wearing what appeared to be complicated night vision goggles over her face. She had a long, high ponytail as well, which was dark blue color, and her pale skin curiously had the slightest tint of blue, as if to match her hair.
The infiltrator also had a long barreled weapon slung across her back, but instead of drawing it she cocked her fist again and dove in towards Flash, a strange look of glee on her face. Flash brought his forearms together and pushed directly back against the punch with his entire body, shoving her back into the long table at the room's center. She fell back over it, but caught herself and rolled to the other side, going down beneath it to take cover as Flash drew his pistol.
Before he could fire, he saw the area he was looking at suddenly have a bright white light cast on it, and heard gunfire to his side. Rainbow Dash stood a few feet from the doorway, pointing both flashlight and pistol at where she'd seen the infiltrator disappear, blasting away with little regard for overall accuracy. Several of her bullets shot through the table, sending bits of it flying about and creating a small dust cloud. Several more hit the window, putting cracks in it, but not completely breaking the bulletproof glass.
"Where'd she go?" Rainbow asked, circling the table to find that the target had moved. The flashlight swung around in accordance with her vision. She couldn't have gone far, the room was open enough, but there was too much furniture in the room for her to have many directions to go.
A pair of feet shot out from beneath the table between, striking Flash in the shins and causing him to fall forward, straight into the tabletop. Hands gripped the opposite edge from beneath it, and the infiltrator sprung back up, landing atop the table and kicking at Flash once with each leg; the first knocked the weapon from his hands and the second took him straight in the chest, pushing him again back towards the ground. In the same motion, she fired a wire-guided taser from a gadget on her wrist at Rainbow, sticking her in the arm. Electricity flowed through the wire and into her body, causing her to seize up and drop both her weapon and the main source of light in the room. Even as the infiltrator pulled the wire from her and retracted it, she collapsed on the floor, unable to get back up.
"Rainbow!" Flash picked himself up and, using a chair to kick off, threw his entire body into the infiltrator, taking them both past the desks, straight through the damaged window, and onto the hard-tiled floor in a shower of shattering glass. As they slid to a stop, Flash brought his knee down on the infiltrator's ribs, the same way he pinned the Scythe demon from before. Following the form, he drew his knife and stabbed down at her, but she lifted her arm, the wrist mounted gadget containing her taser weapon proving sturdy enough to keep her from being cut.
There was more light out here in the main reception area, streaming in through the windows from something burning in the streets, and softly few emergency lights in the open area. Flash attempted to muster the kind of strength he had before, while wrestling with the demon, but could only manage to keep his opponent's arms crossed in a lock. That super-strength wasn't coming to him this time. Looking into the red lenses of her goggles, he addressed her for the first time.
"Who are you, and why are you wearing a SRAPH uniform?" He asked, between heavy, pained breaths.
She replied, in a happy, almost taunting tone in between struggling breaths of her own. "Awh, you don't remember me, Flash?"
The voice was familiar. It wasn't quite right though, something had changed since he last heard it, and it was making it hard for him to identify her. As he racked his brain, he felt her pushing back a little bit harder.
"Have we met?" Flash said through clenched teeth, pushing down further with his knife.
"Look into my eyes, Flash..." The assassin broke her off hand away, and pushed up her goggles, revealing the details beneath it. Two reddish-pink eyes stared up at him, narrowing as a smile formed on her face. Flash suddenly remembered those eyes, that face, the shape of her chin and nose, the way she almost looked innocent, despite once being amongst the most ruthless of SRAPH agents. "And tell me you don't remember."
She began to sing. Not loudly, not with any words, she just opened her mouth and produced a short, high melody of long, connected notes. Flash's mind spun, not fully comprehending what was happening, overwhelmed by a sudden feeling of intense remorse over the incident with his first major mission two years ago.
"You..." Flash whispered, feeling his will to fight leave him. As she sung, he moved against his will, releasing his pin on her, standing up, sheathing his knife and backing away. He didn't know if it was something about her singing, or this unexpected emotional response, but he couldn't attack her. He knew her. She was once one of his squadmates, designated Staccato Sparrowhawk. "Sparrowhawk? You died at Sire's Hollow..."
She rose to her feet, and her little song stopped, giving a pleased nod in response. "Mhmm. But... I got better." Her perpetual carefree tone and smile confused him. She didn't draw her weapon, she left herself exposed. Flash wondered why he still couldn't move his body. His memories were connecting, as he kept his gaze fixed on her eyes... he knew who he was looking at, so why couldn't he move? Why couldn't he fight? Was she doing something to him?
"What? That's not..." He wanted to finish his sentence, but here was undeniable proof that he was wrong. She was alive, right in front of him. The last Flash knew, Sparrowhawk had been killed defending a village from a demon attack. They just about bombed the place flat to destroy the anchors there, and Flash, being the one who activated the detonator, was the only one that made it home that night.
Now she was here, and the commando Spitfire ran into was undoubtedly another of his teammates. If they were here for his friends, there wasn't going to be any niceties between them. "Why are you here, what do you want?"
"I want your Seraph badge. Mine's out of the system and there were no spares in the offices." She held out her hand and neared him as she spoke. "So fork it over."
Flash's body did as she asked, despite his best efforts to resist. He reached into his pocket and removed the metal insignia of his privilege, handing it to his former ally. The longer he stared at her, into her eyes, the more he felt his will fade. He fought with all of his mental strength, but he eventually felt himself wanting to obey her. But right as the badge passed hands, the door to the west wing behind Sparrowhawk flew open, and a purple haired woman in a SRAPH uniform tumbled through it.
Looking behind her reflexively, Sparrowhawk broke eye contact with Flash, and he felt his willpower return to him. He was in control again. There wasn't a better time to have that control back, either. He tightened his grip on her hand, twisted her arm up at an awkward angle, and threw a quick jab into her side with his free hand, and as she moved to counter the two fell into combat again.
In the brief moments that their struggle began anew, Spitfire charged through the now open west wing door, her newly acquired suppressed pistol at the ready, but the elusive Silent Lynx disappeared again from her sights as she fired at the faint shadow she cast in the light shining through the windows. None of her shots connected though, and right as the weapon clicked empty, Lynx appeared beside her, landing a solid punch into the side of her head. She clutched the area of impact in pain, but fell in line with the punch, managing to stumble about fast enough to prevent herself from hitting the floor entirely. In doing so she collided with Flash, interrupting his melee with Sparrowhawk, who now took better notice of the fact that Lynx had also arrived.
Spitfire's vision blurred, blood rushing through her face as pain from the blow stung her senses. She scanned the area, trying to find a clue to where Lynx was, but ultimately realised she that there was only a few seconds until she would be right in front of her again, so she prepared for the worst.
She appeared again before Spitfire was expecting, revealing herself a foot away before grabbing onto Spitfire's wrist, and attempting to get her pistol back from her. Try as Spitfire might, Lynx was ultimately better at disarming people than she realised, so she just released her grip on the gun, giving it back and including a punch to the ribs as a bonus. Lynx doubled over, and Spitfire followed up by punching her into the ground and stepping directly onto her gun hand.
Flash Sentry then suddenly crashed into her, and she took several steps back in her effort to stabilize the two of them. Neither of them fell, but by the time they recovered, Sparrowhawk had moved all the way back to the SRAPH office door. She drew the long-barreled rifle off her back and took aim down its sight, putting her goggles back over her eyes as she did so. Lynx had also gotten back up and joined her, taking aim with the pistol now back in her possession. Spitfire reached for her machine gun, but there just wasn't enough time.
The closed, still locked door to the SRAPH offices exploded open, and the Hellsoldier, now standing in what was left of the doorway, promptly stole everyone's attention.
Lynx and Sparrowhawk immediately looked at each other, then both vaulted through the broken window, running past the Hellsoldier as they took steps towards them. The two rogue agents stopped for a moment in the offices, but then disappeared through the door leading deeper into the station.
"I've got the chief's badge, we need to go!" Spitfire bumped Flash in the opposite direction, encouraging him to follow her.
"But Rainbow Dash..." Flash said, but when he looked through the doorway, he couldn't see her. She got hit standing between the two doorways, she should've been right there, but she wasn't. "Where is she?"
Flash almost froze up right there at the thought of failing to protect her. He didn't notice the Hellsoldier turning their head to him, then to Spitfire, as if contemplating whether to chase them, or the other two that had already fled.
"We don't have the time, doubt the big guy's gonna let us through..."
Chills went up Flash's back when he finally did make eye contact with the Hellsoldier again. Even through their visor, he could feel their eyes on him. Were they... judging him, assessing how much of a threat he'd be? Or did they want something he had? His hand tightened, and Flash found he still had his SRAPH badge in it. He hadn't given it to Sparrowhawk like she'd wanted, meaning they could go now, save their other friends... but they'd be leaving Rainbow Dash behind to do so.
Spitfire was right though, they didn't have time, at least for now. They'd have the search the station later. Flash would do it personally, if he had to.
The Hellsoldier's body turned towards them, and they began to take slow steps forward. Flash and Spitfire ran further into the main lobby, as far as they knew there was no way to reach the panic room from the west wing. The pathway leading into the station's central corridors was blocked off by a heavy blast door, but the door wasn't closed all the way, a halfway crushed, overturned vending machine kept the door from bolting all the way into the floor.
"Lift with me, Sentry!" Spitfire voiced Flash's thoughts as they approached the blast door. She slipped her fingers under the gap between it and the floor, gripped as tightly as she could, and pulled up with all of her might, a painful sensation shooting through her wrists, following the lack of feeling in her hands that she hadn't quite gotten used to. Flash did the same, only his pain localized in his upper arms, his muscles bulging and straining beneath torn skin and bandages, lighting his mind on fire in the process.
The door eventually lifted, and Spitfire crossed under it first as soon as there was room to do so. Flash was ready to follow suit, but his hands began shaking, his grip began slipping away as he heard the Hellsoldier's presence grow ever closer. Spitfire grunted, lifting the door a bit higher, and for the first time, Flash noticed her fingers, scalded white and completely blistered over. His concern for her spiked, disrupting his focus further, but Spitfire lifted the door up a few inches more, as if to remind him to not get distracted.
"Come on, Sentry..." Her voice was incredibly stressed, and Flash noticed she was doing most of the lifting between the two of them.
He crossed beneath the door, turning around in time to watch Spitfire slam it down from chin-level, the heavy, dense metal crushing the vending machine that once obstructed it all the way, moments before the Hellsoldier caught up to them.
Two sharp clicks were heard from beneath the door, the mechanical locks bolting it in place, and then there were a series of loud metallic bangs from the other side. Flash held his breath, taking nervous steps back as he imagined the Hellsoldier punching a hole through solid metal, but several moments passed, and the bangs stopped. Spitfire let out a breath too.
"Didn't think that was gonna work," She said, brushing her palms off.
"Spitfire, your hands-"
"I know, Flash." Spitfire looked him dead in the eye and shook her head. "Nothing we can do for them right now."
"There's an infirmary here, there might be something to treat them with, you really should..." He said.
"No." With a single word, her expression sharpened, and she shook her head. She didn't yell, but she didn't need to. Her stern, powerful tone was enough. "I appreciate your concern, but we need to save your friends first. That's what I'm in this for, saving people. If all I have to trade for them is my hands, you don't have to ask me twice."
Flash gave a nod of understanding.
"Right, sorry. They just look... really bad."
Spitfire sighed, nodding. She curled her fingers up, then let them relax. "Yeah. I can't feel them at all. I don't think I'll recover fully, but... I can still fight. So I will."
"Damn..." Flash looked away, not wanting to stare at her ruined skin for too long.
"Once we get to your friends and can leave, we'll see if there's anything here for me. Speaking of, do you have an exit plan?"
Flash recalled Sunburst's radio frequency, he and Trixie might be able to come pick them up if they were still in the area.
"Yeah."