Act III
The flak weighed heavily on my shoulders as I leapt from rooftop to rooftop. I entertained the idea of ditching it several times then, but I had the nagging feeling that I was gonna need it soon enough. The weight of my gear and rifle along with the thick and humid air made the going difficult and I found myself slipping from time to time on the gleaming wet sheets of rusted metal that dotted the rooftops haphazardly. It was drizzling as well, which did a damn good job at making me feel more miserable that I would have cared to be during a trip that was supposed to be a vacation.
The going was rough, finding myself leaping from rooftop to slippery rooftop as I navigated my way towards the Hard Rock. Thankfully the buildings where close enough to where a quick bound was all I needed to cross the gaps, though there were plenty of other times where I had to run across pipes or shimmy across telephone wires or clothes lines where the distance was too great to leap. I slipped a few times then; barely avoiding a 4 story fall to the ground by grabbing onto a conveniently hung towel or rot iron balcony.
One thing that surprised me that night was how quiet it was. Even this far out, there was usually a lot of people out in the street. Thailand never sleeps, yet for some reason now there wasn't a single sign of life anywhere. It sent a chill down my spine as I started thinking about what happened to everyone. Back in the day, changes in the baseline like this usually pointed to ambushes as the attackers would warn the local people to stay out of harm's way. Would make sense...if Talon mercs actually gave two shits about collateral damage or civilian casualties. They wouldn't have cared; if anything they'd have used the civilians to bottle me in if they caught me in the streets. I started to get the same nagging feeling in the back of my head like I did back in my apartment room.
I froze up, hearing a loud noise from my immediate front. Crouching down behind some burlap sacks, I peered around the side and scanned around the rooftops ahead of me. Whatever was ahead of me was concealed nicely by the lowlight of night. Thankfully for me though, I didn't need light to see what was over there. Closing my eyes, I allowed my mind to open up and suddenly the world around me was perceived for me in varying shades of blue. Who needs NVGs when you have aura, I thought humorously to myself as I spotted 3 blood red figures ahead of me.
The figures were vaguely humanoid with odd protrusions sticking out from the top of their heads and thin, wiry tails wrapped around their legs. As far as other details went I couldn't tell, as everything about them was a messy blur. As useful and reliable as aurapathic vision was, it makes you feel like you're wearing beer goggles. There are others who are better trained to perceive the world with aura, but I'm not one of them. Hehe, heaven forbid that I would ever try shooting a weapon or chucking an aura sphere with such warped and impaired vision.
Thankfully for me, there was at least enough ambient moonlight to help me see the buildings around me. The building the figures stood on was 3 stories tall with an emergency ladder leading towards the ground which entered into an alleyway which would make for a perfect spot to ambush them. Slinking out of my spot all sneaky-like, I made my way towards the building to my direct left. Crossing a wood plank which made for a makeshift bridge, I hid again behind a planter that gave me an excellent view of the creatures in front of me.
They were hybrids, Dog Soldiers to be precise. Typically Dog Soldiers was a generic name given to any canine type creature made human, though I found the name synonymous with Team Rocket's Houndoom hybrids that I fought back in Bolivia. Sure enough, these creatures were Houndoom hybrids as well, wearing nothing but black skintight shorts and a tight fitting load bearing vest. Gripped in their clawed hands were new looking LARC-14 carbines with odd looking attachments. I still have nightmares from the first time I encountered these monsters, and I could feel my skin crawl once more as I studied their cruel features. Looking down to my left, I picked up one of the empty bottles that were scattered around my feet. With a strong throw, I tossed it down into the alley just below where the Dog Soldiers stood. Seeing their ears perk up as the bottle crack echoed around the buildings, one of them went towards the edge and peered down. With a wave of its hand, the three hybrids began climbing down the ladder towards the ground, breaking off and began to spread out around the ground floor.
I chuckled to myself as I stood up and slunk my way towards the edge of the building, sliding down one of the clothes lines silently to an iron walkway on the second level. Lucky for me, that walkway just so happen to lead right above the first of the hybrids. With a light leap, I jumped over guardrail and landed squarely on the hybrid's back. Sinking the claws of my feet into the meat of his back, I brought one paw over its mouth and wrapped my other arm in a stranglehold on his neck. With a strong blood choke to the bastard's carotid artery, the hybrid slumped forward onto its face. Releasing my grip on its neck, I stabbed the spike of my left paw into his neck quickly and jerked out before the blood could start flowing. I was certain that I got him the first time, but you can never be too certain now can you?
Leaving the hybrid's corpse there in the shadows, I dropped on all fours into one of the side gutters and started crawling towards the next Houndoom. Even though I was completely miserable from the filth and rain, it became easier to block it all out as my situation became more and more like a game. It was me against God knows how many Talon mercenaries and freelance guns. It was hard for them to see me, but I could see them like it was day with my aurapathic sight. The tables turned on them; the mercs were no longer the predators in this game of cat and mouse.
Getting back up on my feet, I snuck up behind the next hybrid as he was searching around the back of a dumpster. With a strong kick to the back of its right knee, the creature buckled under its weight and yelped as bones snapped. With him at my level now, I gave a round kick to his neck just above the bone crest ringing its shoulders. That snapped the spine cleanly and sent the hybrid's lifeless corpse face first into a puddle of water behind the dumpster. No need to dead check this one, I thought to myself as I turned around to see if its buddy heard the yelp.
Sure enough he did; turning around and cocked its head up, sniffing the air as it scanned the area for where the sound came from. The hybrid knew there was something amiss, though thankfully through either carelessness or stupidity it didn't notice that its companions were nowhere to be seen. That is, however, until it saw the mangled, clawed foot of the hybrid I just dispatched sticking out from behind the dumpster.
It's now or never, I thought to myself as I leapt out from behind the dumpster and rushed head on at the hybrid. The creature was surprised, but retaliated quickly with a jet of flame from its mouth. I narrowly missed it by diving off to the side, rolling once before jumping back to my feet behind him. Nimbly flipping around, the creature raked the wall near me with caseless rounds from its LARC. The fat slugs impacted all around me and sent up clouds of powder as they blew large chunks out of the wall. Sprinting towards him, I propelled myself with a leap and swung my leg around. My foot connected with his head and catapulted the creature into the center of the alley.
I took a pause to catch my breath, smiling at how satisfying it was to feel the crunch of bone. I could see from the corner of my eye that the Houndoom was still alive, though barely. Besides wanting to put a spike in its throat like I did the other, it looked like he was conscious enough to answer a few questions.
"More of us are coming..." the hybrid gurgled from its broken jaw as I walked up to it, crouching besides its wheezing body and placed a paw around its neck. The creature was barely breathing, and with the head trauma it took it was a miracle the wretch was still alive. He won't be alive for much longer though.
"How many more of you are out there?" I asked, squeezing his neck just enough to allow him to talk. It was obvious that the hybrid was in extreme pain, but yet it looked into my eyes with that blasted grin. I wasn't uncommon for mercs like these to take stims and pain killers to improve performance, but there was something deeply troubling with this one, especially that he showed no signs of being drugged up.
"The whole pack's come out to play" it chirped, coughing out blood onto my arm. "We've had our eye on you for some time Gabriel. Your friends and your military kept you safe, but you can't hide forever now can you?" I wanted more than anything else than to crush its head into the ground and end its wretched existence. But still, why did it say "we've had our eye on you" and who was this "we?" Was he referring to Talon Company? Was there more to this story that I first thought possible?
"Listen to me fucker!" I snarled at him, lifting his head up a few inches from the ground and slamming it into the wet pavement. "I don't know what the fuck you're trying to pull over me, and I don't really give a fuck either way. If ya want to live, then you best start coughing up the fuckin' info I need. You understand me you gen-modded freak?!"I was practically screaming my lungs raw on the last line, staring at the creature with hate in my eyes. This trip was more trouble that it was worth; and the deeper this rabbit hole went, the more I wished that I never made that damn deal.
The creature just chuckled, its laugh making a gurgling sound from the blood in its mouth. "Do it Lucario, fulfill the purpose we gave you. Be a good little murderer...just like your daddy was." His laugh was cut short as I smashed his head open with my fist, splashing the ground with blood and bits of bone and grey matter. I released my grip as I slumped over, tears running down my already drenched face. It was first in a long time that anyone mentioned my father to me, but it was enough to bring all my old memories flooding back to me. I remembered how my father sacrificed himself to protect my family and I. He gave up everything for us...how dare this monster call him a murderer.
Blinking away my tears, I got back up to my feet and jogged towards one of the fire escape ladders. The beast's words still nipped at the back of my mind, but I knew that I didn't have the time to decipher any meaning from them. If there were any patrols left in the area, they would have been alerted by the gunshots and would be pounding down this block in a heartbeat. At this point, my best bet would be double-timing it the rest of the way to the Hard Rock. Can't afford to waste any more time trying to be cautious, not with around a company plus of blood thirsty Mercs still out there who no doubt knew where I was now.
I broke into a sprint when I reached the roof again, frantically leaping and bounding from rooftop to rooftop. I knew it was a stupid idea to be sprinting across the rooftops while it was raining, though the risk of falling seemed a better alternative to being boxed in by the Talon Mercs. "It's only another mile...it's only another mile..." I kept mumbling under my breath, my fur drenched with rain and my limbs weighed down by fatigue. I'm not sure whether it was how miserable I was or the adrenaline pumping through my blood from the last poor saps I killed which motivated me to keep pressing forward, but I was hell bent to make the Asian prick in the black jacket pay for setting me up.
Looking off to the side, I noticed a ladder that led down towards a shopping center at the entrance of Walking Street. As much as I hated the idea of being exposed on the streets, I knew that it would be faster and safer than jumping rooftops. That, and my legs and feet were killing me from all the leaps and bounds I did. Turning around for a few seconds to scan the area behind me in case I was being followed, I jumped to the ladder and made my way to street level. Taking a moment to catch my breath, I rested a paw against the cold wet stone of the building as I scanned the length of the alley I was in. To my direct front I could see the opening leading to Walking Street, with the other side leading off into the dark as the alleyway continued on. Oddly enough, it felt as though instinct was drawing me deeper into the passageway. Ignoring the voice in the back of my head shouting at me to turn back, I ventured further into the alley.
That was the second mistake I made that day...
The going was rough, finding myself leaping from rooftop to slippery rooftop as I navigated my way towards the Hard Rock. Thankfully the buildings where close enough to where a quick bound was all I needed to cross the gaps, though there were plenty of other times where I had to run across pipes or shimmy across telephone wires or clothes lines where the distance was too great to leap. I slipped a few times then; barely avoiding a 4 story fall to the ground by grabbing onto a conveniently hung towel or rot iron balcony.
One thing that surprised me that night was how quiet it was. Even this far out, there was usually a lot of people out in the street. Thailand never sleeps, yet for some reason now there wasn't a single sign of life anywhere. It sent a chill down my spine as I started thinking about what happened to everyone. Back in the day, changes in the baseline like this usually pointed to ambushes as the attackers would warn the local people to stay out of harm's way. Would make sense...if Talon mercs actually gave two shits about collateral damage or civilian casualties. They wouldn't have cared; if anything they'd have used the civilians to bottle me in if they caught me in the streets. I started to get the same nagging feeling in the back of my head like I did back in my apartment room.
I froze up, hearing a loud noise from my immediate front. Crouching down behind some burlap sacks, I peered around the side and scanned around the rooftops ahead of me. Whatever was ahead of me was concealed nicely by the lowlight of night. Thankfully for me though, I didn't need light to see what was over there. Closing my eyes, I allowed my mind to open up and suddenly the world around me was perceived for me in varying shades of blue. Who needs NVGs when you have aura, I thought humorously to myself as I spotted 3 blood red figures ahead of me.
The figures were vaguely humanoid with odd protrusions sticking out from the top of their heads and thin, wiry tails wrapped around their legs. As far as other details went I couldn't tell, as everything about them was a messy blur. As useful and reliable as aurapathic vision was, it makes you feel like you're wearing beer goggles. There are others who are better trained to perceive the world with aura, but I'm not one of them. Hehe, heaven forbid that I would ever try shooting a weapon or chucking an aura sphere with such warped and impaired vision.
Thankfully for me, there was at least enough ambient moonlight to help me see the buildings around me. The building the figures stood on was 3 stories tall with an emergency ladder leading towards the ground which entered into an alleyway which would make for a perfect spot to ambush them. Slinking out of my spot all sneaky-like, I made my way towards the building to my direct left. Crossing a wood plank which made for a makeshift bridge, I hid again behind a planter that gave me an excellent view of the creatures in front of me.
They were hybrids, Dog Soldiers to be precise. Typically Dog Soldiers was a generic name given to any canine type creature made human, though I found the name synonymous with Team Rocket's Houndoom hybrids that I fought back in Bolivia. Sure enough, these creatures were Houndoom hybrids as well, wearing nothing but black skintight shorts and a tight fitting load bearing vest. Gripped in their clawed hands were new looking LARC-14 carbines with odd looking attachments. I still have nightmares from the first time I encountered these monsters, and I could feel my skin crawl once more as I studied their cruel features. Looking down to my left, I picked up one of the empty bottles that were scattered around my feet. With a strong throw, I tossed it down into the alley just below where the Dog Soldiers stood. Seeing their ears perk up as the bottle crack echoed around the buildings, one of them went towards the edge and peered down. With a wave of its hand, the three hybrids began climbing down the ladder towards the ground, breaking off and began to spread out around the ground floor.
I chuckled to myself as I stood up and slunk my way towards the edge of the building, sliding down one of the clothes lines silently to an iron walkway on the second level. Lucky for me, that walkway just so happen to lead right above the first of the hybrids. With a light leap, I jumped over guardrail and landed squarely on the hybrid's back. Sinking the claws of my feet into the meat of his back, I brought one paw over its mouth and wrapped my other arm in a stranglehold on his neck. With a strong blood choke to the bastard's carotid artery, the hybrid slumped forward onto its face. Releasing my grip on its neck, I stabbed the spike of my left paw into his neck quickly and jerked out before the blood could start flowing. I was certain that I got him the first time, but you can never be too certain now can you?
Leaving the hybrid's corpse there in the shadows, I dropped on all fours into one of the side gutters and started crawling towards the next Houndoom. Even though I was completely miserable from the filth and rain, it became easier to block it all out as my situation became more and more like a game. It was me against God knows how many Talon mercenaries and freelance guns. It was hard for them to see me, but I could see them like it was day with my aurapathic sight. The tables turned on them; the mercs were no longer the predators in this game of cat and mouse.
Getting back up on my feet, I snuck up behind the next hybrid as he was searching around the back of a dumpster. With a strong kick to the back of its right knee, the creature buckled under its weight and yelped as bones snapped. With him at my level now, I gave a round kick to his neck just above the bone crest ringing its shoulders. That snapped the spine cleanly and sent the hybrid's lifeless corpse face first into a puddle of water behind the dumpster. No need to dead check this one, I thought to myself as I turned around to see if its buddy heard the yelp.
Sure enough he did; turning around and cocked its head up, sniffing the air as it scanned the area for where the sound came from. The hybrid knew there was something amiss, though thankfully through either carelessness or stupidity it didn't notice that its companions were nowhere to be seen. That is, however, until it saw the mangled, clawed foot of the hybrid I just dispatched sticking out from behind the dumpster.
It's now or never, I thought to myself as I leapt out from behind the dumpster and rushed head on at the hybrid. The creature was surprised, but retaliated quickly with a jet of flame from its mouth. I narrowly missed it by diving off to the side, rolling once before jumping back to my feet behind him. Nimbly flipping around, the creature raked the wall near me with caseless rounds from its LARC. The fat slugs impacted all around me and sent up clouds of powder as they blew large chunks out of the wall. Sprinting towards him, I propelled myself with a leap and swung my leg around. My foot connected with his head and catapulted the creature into the center of the alley.
I took a pause to catch my breath, smiling at how satisfying it was to feel the crunch of bone. I could see from the corner of my eye that the Houndoom was still alive, though barely. Besides wanting to put a spike in its throat like I did the other, it looked like he was conscious enough to answer a few questions.
"More of us are coming..." the hybrid gurgled from its broken jaw as I walked up to it, crouching besides its wheezing body and placed a paw around its neck. The creature was barely breathing, and with the head trauma it took it was a miracle the wretch was still alive. He won't be alive for much longer though.
"How many more of you are out there?" I asked, squeezing his neck just enough to allow him to talk. It was obvious that the hybrid was in extreme pain, but yet it looked into my eyes with that blasted grin. I wasn't uncommon for mercs like these to take stims and pain killers to improve performance, but there was something deeply troubling with this one, especially that he showed no signs of being drugged up.
"The whole pack's come out to play" it chirped, coughing out blood onto my arm. "We've had our eye on you for some time Gabriel. Your friends and your military kept you safe, but you can't hide forever now can you?" I wanted more than anything else than to crush its head into the ground and end its wretched existence. But still, why did it say "we've had our eye on you" and who was this "we?" Was he referring to Talon Company? Was there more to this story that I first thought possible?
"Listen to me fucker!" I snarled at him, lifting his head up a few inches from the ground and slamming it into the wet pavement. "I don't know what the fuck you're trying to pull over me, and I don't really give a fuck either way. If ya want to live, then you best start coughing up the fuckin' info I need. You understand me you gen-modded freak?!"I was practically screaming my lungs raw on the last line, staring at the creature with hate in my eyes. This trip was more trouble that it was worth; and the deeper this rabbit hole went, the more I wished that I never made that damn deal.
The creature just chuckled, its laugh making a gurgling sound from the blood in its mouth. "Do it Lucario, fulfill the purpose we gave you. Be a good little murderer...just like your daddy was." His laugh was cut short as I smashed his head open with my fist, splashing the ground with blood and bits of bone and grey matter. I released my grip as I slumped over, tears running down my already drenched face. It was first in a long time that anyone mentioned my father to me, but it was enough to bring all my old memories flooding back to me. I remembered how my father sacrificed himself to protect my family and I. He gave up everything for us...how dare this monster call him a murderer.
Blinking away my tears, I got back up to my feet and jogged towards one of the fire escape ladders. The beast's words still nipped at the back of my mind, but I knew that I didn't have the time to decipher any meaning from them. If there were any patrols left in the area, they would have been alerted by the gunshots and would be pounding down this block in a heartbeat. At this point, my best bet would be double-timing it the rest of the way to the Hard Rock. Can't afford to waste any more time trying to be cautious, not with around a company plus of blood thirsty Mercs still out there who no doubt knew where I was now.
I broke into a sprint when I reached the roof again, frantically leaping and bounding from rooftop to rooftop. I knew it was a stupid idea to be sprinting across the rooftops while it was raining, though the risk of falling seemed a better alternative to being boxed in by the Talon Mercs. "It's only another mile...it's only another mile..." I kept mumbling under my breath, my fur drenched with rain and my limbs weighed down by fatigue. I'm not sure whether it was how miserable I was or the adrenaline pumping through my blood from the last poor saps I killed which motivated me to keep pressing forward, but I was hell bent to make the Asian prick in the black jacket pay for setting me up.
Looking off to the side, I noticed a ladder that led down towards a shopping center at the entrance of Walking Street. As much as I hated the idea of being exposed on the streets, I knew that it would be faster and safer than jumping rooftops. That, and my legs and feet were killing me from all the leaps and bounds I did. Turning around for a few seconds to scan the area behind me in case I was being followed, I jumped to the ladder and made my way to street level. Taking a moment to catch my breath, I rested a paw against the cold wet stone of the building as I scanned the length of the alley I was in. To my direct front I could see the opening leading to Walking Street, with the other side leading off into the dark as the alleyway continued on. Oddly enough, it felt as though instinct was drawing me deeper into the passageway. Ignoring the voice in the back of my head shouting at me to turn back, I ventured further into the alley.
That was the second mistake I made that day...