Sole Survivor

As Adrian watched his friend get torn apart from the corner of his eye, he didn't stop his firing into the mass of enemies before him. He slightly grimaced at his screams but other than that, his face only hardened with grim determination.

Unbeknownst to him, at the moment of Phineas' death a wave swept across the city map, changing all the billboards into displaying the image of a stopwatch. It was dark and ominous. Sitting atop a neon-orange background, it rapidly ticked up as it counted the time until the sole surviving player met his end.

*BRRT! BRRT! BRRT!*

He was like a machine in his efficiency, mowing down Infected as if they were an overgrown lawn.

*Click-*

Even as his MA5 ran out of ammo he didn't pause. With one smooth motion, he tossed the rifle over his shoulder and off the roof, before slinging his M45 Shotgun to the front.

*Chik-BOOM! Chik-BOOM! Chik-BOOM!*

As he circled along the outer-side of the railing, he took down swathes of Chitauri with every shot. As cold as it was to say, now that he no longer had any distractions in the form of companions, Adrian felt as if a massive weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

He was entirely in what some would call, 'the zone'. His left hand was like a blur as it pumped his M45, before moving to reload a shell between every shot.

It was clear to all those watching that this man had been massively held back by his teammates all day. He'd clearly honed his prowess in Halo to such a degree, that he probably could've carried just about anyone to victory alongside him.

[…]

[…]

[…Holy Shit]

[…]

[THAT'S MY DAD!!! WOOOO!!]

Even the official livestream's chat, which had well over 300 million unique viewers, had nearly been rendered speechless at the display of pure skill.

*BOOM! Chik-BOOM! Chik-BOOM!*

However, the Infected just didn't stop. The waves were endless and the concrete floor had long since been died a dark purple by an ocean of their blood.

Alas, this wasn't some fictional story and there wasn't going to be a happy ending waiting for the hero at the end. After less than two minutes since Adrian stood alone atop that roof, the curtains began to close.

*Click!*

Once again the sound echoed through the air. A final bell, tolling the end of a man's valiant last stand.

However, unlike his companion who'd meekly gone out with a whimper, Adrian was determined to go down with a roar.

His gaze hardened to cold steel as he reached behind him, grasping at his belt where one last metal sphere hung. Clenching it within his grasp, he ripped the grenade from its link, never taking his eyes off the swarm that now charged towards him with a renewed vigor.

*Shick-*

Adrian pulled the pin, the rectangular metallic ring getting stuck on his right forefinger but ignoring it for now.

'Closer…' he thought as he watched the Chitauri near.

'Just a little closer…' they were nearly within arm's reach.

'NOW!'

Just as a mangled, grey hand scraped across his chest, Adrian smirked. Dropping the grenade at his feet, he pushed off the roof and jumped back with all the force he could muster.

""SCREEEEEE!""

Unwittingly, as he heard their screams of rage above, a hearty laugh erupted from his chest. Even as they shambled over the railing and leaped off the edge after him, he didn't stop.

*BOOM!*

With the explosion of his last grenade, mangled bodies flew into the air, creating a spectacle right out of a florist's worst nightmares. A purple rain caught up to him and fell upon his face yet, as the wind whipped fiercely against his descent, he barely even noticed.

Several Chitauri clawed at the air as they chased him down. They flailed wildly through the air, desperate to be the one who struck him down, but it was already too late.

There was just too much distance between them by this point, they'd taken too long to get over the railing.

It was while watching all this with a smile, that Adrian finally met his end. As he faced the sky, he spread his arms out wide and barked one final laugh. Less than a breath later, his body exploded into a flurry of overly-cheerful rainbow confetti, not even a nanosecond after hitting the concrete and his death was confirmed.

•••••••••••

Inside a small bedroom just outside the suburbs of New York City, a young girl cheered loudly and danced circles around her mother who watched on with a happy smile, tears of joy starting to form at the corners of her eyes. All across the wall, a child's rough artwork was posted up everywhere, while across from them, an old laptop sat atop a dresser, showcasing the victory of a man who laid down atop a bed in the other room.

•••

Under the covers in another small, New York apartment, two young boys sneakily watched in awe as Adrian made what would later be known worldwide as, 'The Leap of Glory'. As his body exploded into confetti and fireworks erupted across the sky, they too cheered loudly in excitement, startling the attractive, middle-aged woman who was also watching in the other room.

As she barged into her nephew's bedroom, her eyes ablaze with fury, only shrieks of fear and cries for mercy could be heard from then on.

•••

On the top floor of a battered tower, a red-headed woman downed another martini. To her right, an empty bowl of olives was knocked over as she slumped atop the bar counter. While on her left, a glass of tequila buzzed incessantly, the phone within seemingly refusing to succumb to its watery fate.

With tired eyes, she gazed at a giant screen, replaying an event that had come to haunt her every waking moment for the last hour. Before she passed out, with her last sliver of willpower, she commanded the building's AI to start looking for a way to contact the winner of this damn tournament.

Maybe she could still pull a win out of this god-awful day.

•••

In an office overlooking the Potomac River, a bald, one-eyed, black man held similar thoughts.

The moment this 'Phineas' had met his end, he'd started utilizing nearly every resource at his disposal to locate the victor. He couldn't allow the prize to be handed over to someone that could potentially become a threat. There were already too many of those randomly popping up out of the woodworks these days, who knew what one of them could do with blueprints that contained the possibility to change the very face of the world.

No, it was best if he could come to an agreement with this person. He couldn't risk killing them, who knows what ASTIR would do if, or most likely when, they found out his organization had done such a thing. Their VR had already become too important to lose access to and he'd find himself 'missing' not even hours after they did if it was discovered to have occurred as a result of his orders.

He sighed, rubbing his lone good eye as he looked over status updates sent by the agents he'd assigned to this task. It would've been so much easier to just put out a notice of their desire to purchase the prints, but they were supposed to be a secret organization and his best public avenue of doing so had just made a fool of himself to the entire world.

Glancing at the clock that sat atop his desk, he grimaced at the time. It was already well past midnight and it wasn't looking like he'd be leaving anytime soon.