Chapter 10 - Flagged For Execution

The door opened with force. Gaelan had arrived with a group of officers behind him. They were all armed with rifles and shotguns.

"Sebastian Utaliski. We're sorry to say but you have been flagged for immediate execution."

"Say what now?" Stultic asked, unable to comprehend the words that just came out of his mouth.

"By order of the System, you are to be immediately executed for your crime," Gaelan responded.

He then looked to Madica who looked ready to refute his statement.

"That's complete and utter garbage, sir. He should not be executed for the crimes he has committed! Even if first-degree murder was added to the list, he did it when he was a kid! He was eleven! Sure, throw the guy in jail, but don't execute him. He's terminally ill to boot!"

"The System tells us what to do and we follow its will even if it may seem odd. There is no denying the System. If you think of it that way, perhaps it is time you step down as a WARDEN, Ms. Myers," he said with a passive-aggressive tone while tugging his gloves back.

Madica ground her teeth. She had a lit fuse that was about to reach its goal — the gunpowder-filled bomb.

"I disagree, Gaelan," she said with ferocity.

Gaelan raised an eyebrow. "Now did it ever matter whether you disagreed or not, Ms. Myers?"

Tension was growing at a rapid pace. The air they both inhaled in began to thicken from their aggravated breathing.

"The biggest question of all Ms. Myers is why you would want to help this criminal."

Gaelan's words struck true. Madica's train of thought was halted by Gaelan's iron wall. Why did she want to help someone like him so badly? For once, Madica let her heart take control.

"I believe everyone deserves a fair chance at life, even if they're an asshole like this guy over here."

Gaelan seemed visibly shocked to hear such words come from Madica's mouth. He did not smile nor frown. He looked at her with a stale, mute face.

Stultic was simply an observer of this verbal war but he felt trapped. He traced out plans and strategies to escape Gaelan and his officers but all seemed to lead to a bullet raining death. There were no vents to climb into and even if there were, they'd be shot before they could even get inside. If they tried to take on Gaelan and his officers head-on and plowing through them like a ram, they'd be shot once the officers got back onto their feet. If they jumped through the window, there's no telling whether the window is breakable or reinforced which would hurt a lot more and be a lot less epic. Every single option was laid on a table but none of them would work. This was planned in advance. This was a game of chess that they could not win.

This was checkmate.

Stultic didn't feel so good. His stomach churned at the thought of being executed. It would mean his life would come to a swift end but being shot in the head wasn't the imagining of death that he planned out.

After nonchalantly looking around the room one last time, he saw Madica had a hand behind her back. Her fingers were tapping her palm oddly. She could've been nervous but Madica was rarely nervous. She was strong-willed and determined. She never broke. If she was twitching, it was purposeful. With careful thought, he understood what she was doing. It was written in morse code.

Her fingers crafted dots and dashes with a few stops in between each letter and a longer pause when she repeated the word.

Jump.

What a random word... he thought, trying to decipher its meaning.

She could've been asking him to jump to cause a distraction but what type of distraction was jumping? It would make them tense and ready to fire which would be the exact opposite of what they wanted when trying to escape. He didn't have his boots either which allowed him to move from one area to the next with a quick pulse. She would know that too. What else was there? Stultic searched the depths of his mind, trying to pull out any significant event that had to do with jumping. It struck him faster than a lightning bolt.

He asked her to jump during the Maglev Incident but what segment was she referring to? Nothing special happen when they jumped other than them both falling to the ground... It was the only thing Stultic could think about during that event. If he was wrong though, it would throw off Madica and they would both be shot to death. He just had to pray that what she was referring to was what he was thinking of.

"First Carmen and now you're trying to fight against us? Who do you think you are?"

"There's another threat to Edtweiser that is more major than any criminal on this damn planet who is currently roaming free and you aren't going to do anything!"

"WE HANDLE A SITUATION THEN WE DEAL WITH THE NEXT! IT'S HOW IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND HOW IT ALWAYS WILL BE! THE SYSTEM IS PRIORITY!"

Madica clenched her fist, forcing the plan into action. Stultic launched from behind her and rushed towards the officers. He slid onto the floor and bashed into all their legs. He then rushed away from the officers as Madica took out her guns and stunned them with a strong pulse.

Gaelan was halfway up until he fell back onto the floor motionless. They couldn't talk or move their limbs. They were in a ragdoll-like state, unable to fire their guns.

"Are they gonna be okay?" Stultic said, staring at Gaelan and the other officers pensively.

Madica nodded. She holstered her hand cannons which she kept within her hospital gown and began scanning the hallway and dragging their limp bodies into the room. Stultic got a mild gasp of Madica's plan. With the officers stunned, they could make a bolt for the exit of the hospital, but what they didn't account for was the sheer number of guards on the top floor. Stultic peeked out the doorframe to be greeted by many gun barrels aimed directly at him. He locked the door, pulling himself back into the safe confines of their room.

Madica panted. "If this window wasn't reinforced, we could break it down and escape."

"I don't have my weaponry anyways, so we got no way of fighting through so many of 'em..." Stultic added.

They both took one good look at each other while the officers bashed the door on the other end.

A voice then made its way into Stultic's hearing aid.

"GET AWAY FROM THE CENTRE OF THE RIGHT WALL! A laser's coming so I'd haul ass."

Stultic took a moment to take in what he just heard. After a long second of thinking, he shoved Madica to the side.

A bright rainbow coloured beam flew through the wall and into the rooftop. It moved around to cut a large circle in the wall, letting both cut-out pieces fall. A holler came from below. After taking a look through the large hole in what used to be a perfectly good wall, Stultic saw a man waving from the open sunroof of a fancy Vertigal-Issued car.

"Pardon the intrusion but we have more pressing matters at hand. This is completely my fault for even sending you on that mission and here I am repaying the debt! As a result, your fancy chariot has arrived."

The voice sounded familiar; very familiar.

"Cyperus?" Stultic wondered.

Cyperus nervously laughed. "Well, that's my online alias but yes! Get in the car already! I busted my ass to get those lights off and uncover this rainbow laser creation I kept in my storage closet..."

"What about Julière?!"

"She's already left the building thanks to me! If she followed my instructions, she'll be waiting at the rendezvous point for us! If we don't leave now, we will all be arrested!" Cyperus said.

Stultic and Madica had no time to think about whether the action they were about to commit was worth it or not, but they'd at least know they tried. With loud shouts coming around the bend, they jumped down to the ground and went to the side of the car with their weapons drawn. Cyperus held his hands up in surprise.

"I'm trying to save you guys. I know you don't trust strangers but pulling two guns and a sword out on someone is a bit much..."

Stultic scoffed and look to the side pensively to avoid contact with Cyperus. "It's a DAGGER."

"Get in or we're all falling with you two!" the driver yelled from the front.

Stultic peeked his head into the front as he saw Ashten's disapproving face staring back at him. Without any further questions, Stultic called shotgun and Madica sat in the back with her hand cannons still out.

"Everyone buckled in?!" Ashten asked.

With a unanimous nod, Ashten plowed his foot into the gas. The car revved its engine and jostled the car onto the streets from the hidden alleyway after bashing through the garbage cans and fences. They would obviously be arrested for evading the law, but they'd probably get an extra bonus jail time because of the amount of property damage that they'd have to compensate for...

They entered the streets, passing the traffic and the police were already in hot pursuit. Their cop cars weren't fast enough to make up for the ground between them. This was why a WARDEN stepped in to take the lead.

"STOP THE CAR! THAT'S AN ORDER!" a WARDEN screamed from behind.

It flew down the street with a large rifle in its hands. It resembled an average assault rifle with a special scope attached to the top rail.

Madica fired on the WARDEN from the open window of the car but her shots weren't landing due to the WARDEN's aerial mobility. It was similar to Carmen's. At least Madica had experience with shooting Carmen down to the ground. Madica moved from the side window and opened the sky roof, pushing Cyperus out of the way to make more room in the middle; it was just wide enough to stand a fighting chance.

She fired her hand cannons. One bullet came out and then the next, constantly flying past the incoming WARDEN as it went around them. The WARDEN might have been able to see the bullets before they even hit it which would be why Madica's nearly perfect shots were missing. Either that or she was much worse at fighting aerial targets than she thought. That was a possibility in Stultic's mind anyways...

Madica sat back down in her seat and put away her guns.

"I can't fire like this. We'd have to stop moving for me to get a few clean shots on this WARDEN.

Cyperus grimly judged Madica through his stares and was finally able to talk.

"While you were trying to act like a badass, I was able to map out a plan to evade the pests," Cyperus said, looking forward.

Stultic looked to the front where a curved road to the lower streets awaited them. Madica felt confused and Stultic joined her. A curved road wouldn't do much to stop a flying WARDEN with a rifle that was firing nonstop as if it needed no ammo supply.

"Once we turn the bend, please turn the knob to disappear and click the green flashing button. This is gonna be super fun to use!" Cyperus smiled.

As the car curved around the bend, Ashten twisted the knob to disappear and with a hard slam, the green button made a satisfying click before cloaking the windows and leaving a crystal-like pattern on them. The entire car was slowly coated by this same pattern, subtly blending into the environment.

Cyperus brought out a pair of shades and placed them over his eyes. "Great, right? I think it's pretty cool to have a cloaking car. I always thought I'd need it whenever I was hunted by the Morainian Empire but here we are and I'm using it for a different reason!"

"All WARDENs have heat-vision. You know that, right Mister— Wendat, was it?"

Cyperus smiled even stronger. "Just so you know, my car is equipped with a stronger cloaking that can nullify heat-seeking technology. It's actually my own design from when I worked at Vertigal! Not that I do that anymore for obvious reasons..."

The WARDEN turned the corner with its rifle ready to fire another volley of shots. They prepared for the worst, but the WARDEN hovered over the streets, unable to fire. It checked the area around it frantically. It flailed its arms with rage and flew away.

"Voilà! This cloaking will only work for about four minutes since it uses up a ton of my car's battery... This means we'll have to find a safe way to get to the rendezvous point on foot after the battery dies. It'd be a dumb idea for us to turn off the cloaking now too. Who knows how many more WARDENs could arrive to the brawl," Cyperus explained.

"How far is the rendezvous point?!" Madica asked.

Cyperus nervously chuckled. "About twenty minutes away..."

Madica and Stultitc froze and made malicious hand gestures towards Cyperus.

"C'MON! It's far and we have at least a bit of ground between us and here! Do you want us to lay low in the literal capital of WARDEN activity?!"

Cyperus had made their lives harder but it was undoubtedly that placing some distance between the authorities and them would be good.

"We're in the Central District of Edtweiser right now. That's pretty good since this place is bustling with people! The bad news is that those people are on the lookout for criminals who are lockdown-worthy levels of danger... Yay for media..." Stultic complained. "Even if we got passed the WARDENs, we'd have to evade the civilians on the streets since the Central District doesn't have many secret alleyways we could lurk into..."

Ashten calmly pressed his foot deeper into the gas peddle. The car sped up to match the acceleration, winding past to get onto the exit curb.

"Where's the address?" Ashten asked.

Cyperus took out his phone to confirm their current location. "It's your place."

In a matter of two minutes, Cyperus had made enemies out of everyone in the car.

Ashten spat the gum he was chewing out the window. While driving, Stultic stared through the window to see all the helicopters and cop cars that passed by them frantically in a common search to find the miscreants who escaped death row. The streets were red and blue. Even drones were flying in the sky to deal with the "threat" that faced Edtweiser.

The car spattered, signalling the end of its lifespan. All they could see around them were fancy lit signs and shops. It wasn't exactly incognito.

"Damn it! I think I took a wrong turn..." Ashten scowled.

"YOU THINK?!" Madica refuted.

"Okay, we gotta make a quick call on where to park, people!" Stultic said, searching for any hiding spot possible.

Madica looked around, viewing a small alleyway where a few restaurant employee most likely threw out their trash.

"Over there!" she yelled.

Ashten turned the wheel and the car drifted off the streets and into place. The car then stopped entirely with its battery drained.

Everyone got out to view the bullet-ridden frame outside. Taking in their area, the alleyway was just enough to hide for a while but Ashten's home was quite far. There were still eighteen minutes left of walking to do and now that they were in hiding in a popular shopping district.

"Well, this is a bit of a predicament, but nothing we can't handle," Cyperus chuckled.

He opened the trunk of the car to reveal guns and other supplies that were stored in the bottom compartment. He also took out a bag of cheeseburgers which seemed to be from the famous burger joint Maceur's. After unravelling the wrapper of the burger, he took a bite and chewed with a bright smile on his face.

"Nothing like a cheeseburger to help calm your nerves," Cyperus said, covering his mouth while he chewed.

Stultic took one out of the bag and joined him on the heavenly cheeseburger highway. He then changed out of his dirty hospital robe while chowing down on it as the burger dangled from his mouth. Stultic looked too comfortable changing out of his clothes while also eating a burger with no hands... It was admirable to some extent but also seemed slightly gross and particularly wrong.

"Idiot. I've saved an idiot..." Madica said, piling with regret.

Ashten took an assault rifle from the trunk and carefully checked the model. It was light but looked deadly. The scope was a 2x that could be changed into a 3x with a click of a button. It also had a grenade launcher attachment on the bottom rail.

"I'll take this one," Ashten said. "Still, after we escape, you and I are having a serious talk, Stultic and I'm having one with Mr. Asshat over here."

Cyperus scoffed. "I'm the one who came up with the plan and allowed my car to be totalled, but fine! We'll talk more after we get to the location," Cyperus said, handing over oddly shaped phones to everyone. "I've pinged it on these makeshift phones I have. Completely untraceable and they look cool as hell. Use them to communicate and stuff."

Stultic opened his and a bright red beacon showed up on the map. It gave him numerous options for getting to the rendezvous point depending on his current location. He thought it was quite impressive and slightly better than Ashten's craft.

"The design could use some work but this 'work' will do for now," Ashten said, subtly insulting Cyperus' creations.

"Then let's split up! It'll be the best option for all of us since we don't all get shot if something bad happens..." Stultic said while taking the simple pistol and blue baton from the bag.

"Stultic, you're going with me. Madica goes with Cyperus. We all meet at my place in one piece," Ashten commanded.

It was for the best that they took different routes but splitting up was still an easy way of getting killed too. With all the buzz and the crowded sidewalks, it'd be tough to stay hidden for very long.

"Hey, Stultic!"

Stultic turned as Madica gently handing him a crystal. After looking in the palm of his hand, he knew exactly what it was.

"You're giving me a Magium? I've only seen these things on the black market! They're crazy expensive! I tried stealing one from a woman but she kicked my ass and I had to run..."

Madica scoffed. "I'm giving it to you since this is a grave situation, so use it wisely, numbskull."

She then smiled before ripping off her hospital gown. Stultic looked away in fear of being annihilated. Thankfully, she was wearing clothes underneath. Touching her shoulder, an emblem appeared as her suit manifested from it. Her helmet covered her face with her signature crosshair on the front. He wished to tell her how cool that was; though she left before he could say a word.

"Let's move, Stultic! We don't have much time to lose! We also gotta get there before 'Cyperwhatshisname' gets there. I'm not gonna lose a race to that brat!" Ashten yelled, running through the crowds.

How could Ashten already forget that we're running from the authorities...? he thought with a confused expression.

He looked at the crystal that Madica gave him. A Magium. A Cryotonik Magium to be precise. It looked even more frosty and shiny than he ever thought possible. Photos on the internet did them no justice. He gently placed it in his pocket and took out the temporary pistol and baton.

"Coming!" Stultic yelled as he chased after Ashten.

—^𝐯——^𝐯——^𝐯——^𝐯——^𝐯——^𝐯——^𝐯—

"Sir, the stun has worn off! Should we pursue the criminals or not?! They've already gotten a headstart but we can catch up to them if—" the officer was interrupted by the raise of Gaelan's hand.

Gaelan got up from the dusty, debris-riddled floor, coughing. He rolled his shoulders to make sure they weren't dislocated. He still had trouble feeling his mouth but it would eventually wear off.

"No, Pryer," Gaelan ordered. "No matter the situation or what I said, she is one of us. If anyone will deal with those two, it'll be the Arch-WARDENs. We'll just have to leave it to them."

The officers saluted and left to aid any victims of the battle. Gaelan stood silently, looking out the circular hole and up to the grim sky. He smiled.

Go get 'em, pipsqueak.

—^𝐯——^𝐯— 𝐓𝐨 𝐁𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐞𝐝 —^𝐯——^𝐯—