[V2] Chapter 12: CARGO Chase

Wednesday, April 19th

Location: Hostage in random room

Mission: Pray

“Come on, get to it!” Tilli shouted.

I glanced at Nikki, though I couldn’t tell if she did the same. “Helmet’s off. In fact, take all your armor off,” Tilli ordered. “Now!”

“Okay, okay, okay, chill,” Nikki pleaded, to which we carefully took off our helmets and armor. That was probably the best thing to happen at this moment.

“These must be the YMPA agents they warned us about,” Tilli said to Marcus.

“I don’t know. You tell me,” he said. Tilli focused her gun at me, and I was nearing urinating in my pants at this moment. I was the least of her concern at the moment.

But then, Tilli glanced at my waist. “Mhm, they are,” she confirmed. “Take all those weapons off.”

“Well, that’s a lot to take off... Are you sure you don’t want to kill us with them on?” Nikki said.

I turned to face her; my eyes widened, with clear frustration in them. Tilli chuckled. “They sent amateur junior agents. I’m insulted.”

“Excuse me…” Nikki hissed. “We found you in seconds.”

“You know what? Sit down,” Tilli ordered.

“Where?” I asked. I glanced around, where I saw the equivalent of a floor. And based on my experience, they are not comfortable. Tilli gestured the gun down, signaling us to perhaps just sit down on the floor.

Thanks.

“Gotta love it,” Nikki muttered. Tilli suddenly screamed, “Hush, would you?!”

Nikki did exactly what she ordered him to do, and I would not even be close to blaming her. If someone is screaming like that with a gun, honestly, I wouldn’t have said anything in the first place.

“Why did they send you?” Tilli asked.

“Because that’s our job,” Nikki responded.

“Why did the YMPA send you?” Tilli asked once more. Nikki glanced at me, to which I shrugged, and she turned her attention back to Tilli. “I’m sure I already told—”

“Why did the YMPA send you? What business do you guys have in S.N.A.K.E?” she asked. Nikki scoffed. “Let me return with you a question: why in the world did the TSA spawn you guys here?”

"Like, I would tell you,” she hissed. “Do you see the leverage we have here?”

“Well, in all honesty, we did find your mole in a matter of seconds. Sheesh, you led us right into him,” Nikki chuckled. “I assume you have no information to even give. That’s just how bad you are.”

“Why did the YMPA send you?” Tilli asked. “Or I’ll shoot you right in the head.”

She looked at me. “I’m sure you don’t want her to die, do you?”

I widened my eyes. How did this come to me? I thought Nikki was handling this. What did she expect me to do about it? Nikki shrugged. “Figure something out.”

“What?” I hissed. “You figured something out!” Tilli cocked the gun. I squealed. Tilli had this craze in her eyes. She looked directly at me. I squealed more.

Then, suddenly, the door barged open, and all of a sudden, Mari and Tisiah, with their wands equipped, rushed in. They immediately tackled Tilli, and Nikki immediately got up.

But with that, Tilli pulled the trigger, and with that, Nikki shrieked and dropped to the ground.

My heart instantly froze once the bullet had connected with her shoulder as the blood spurted out, with the shriek finishing the final touch of a traumatic moment.

That means it had to be 1000x worse for Tisiah.

“Nikki!” he shouted as he dove right into Nikki’s side. Mari was busy apprehending Tilli, to which she shouted with the little lungs she had available, “Run, Marcus!”

And Marcus ran. He immediately whipped out his wand, swinging it, and a rush of air slammed against the window and broke it.

And I had to go after him.

After he stepped out the window, he managed to balance himself on the ledge, which I didn’t even know existed, which explained my sudden shriek once I exited.

He slowly scooted to the right as I slowly followed after him, and we had to be at least a good thirty feet from the ground. “Stop!” I shouted. “There’s nowhere to go!”

He looked at me, his face filled with such fear, as he continued on. It was basically a snail’s race, with both of us moving at a good fifty inches per hour. “Come on!” I shouted. “We won’t kill you.”

“Killing me is not the problem!” he shouted back. Then, with a thrust of his wand, he suddenly caused a ball of air to hit me. Now I know that wind is strong, but his wind was juiced up with steroids.

No doubt.

I suddenly fell off the ledge, and with a quick activation, I managed to avoid the crushing bone damage of hitting a car from thirty feet.

Immediately, the sounds of concerned guards rushed towards my location. I have to go now.

As I scrambled onto my feet, I saw him jump off, spinning wind under him, which glided him on top of a semi-truck, before he took the steps down to the ground, and then, with his control of the tailwind, he sped away.

Ok, this was worse than I thought.

With my Perk, I had increased my natural speed from usual, to which I managed to catch up with him. He definitely knew some intel on the CARGO facility because he ran towards the backside of the area, where it was mostly deliveries and less guards.

There was a stack of boxes on a forklift, to which he swiftly climbed. I couldn’t really copy his movements; otherwise, I would just be running a marathon rather than chasing him, so I jumped with an increased height.

I’m sure his face was filled with shock once he turned around to see me, looking like a ninja in those movies that basically float when they jump. But being how high I was, his face was the equivalent of a peach marker tip.

Once I landed, a shockwave suddenly summoned itself, and even his wind couldn’t block such an immense phenomenon.

I was feeling myself after that. It was just me doing my thing, catching a TSA agent. The MP after this must be plentiful.

“Okay, listen. If you just stop right now, alright, there is a set of things we can do to help you. Trust me…”

I sluggishly walked towards him, being that adrenaline had decided to abandon me right at this moment, to which he suddenly called upon a whirlwind of air to grab, which swung me like a baseball bat into one of those radio poles.

My ears rang like a gong, to which my body flailed before crashing to the ground.

My eyesight had the focus of a newborn baby, to which I couldn’t even comprehend where my hands were even laid. However, I could hear the sound of a car pulling up, and there was a collision.

By the time my eyesight even cleared to 480p, I saw Mari standing over me, her disappointment still present even through the blur. “Nice job,” she hissed.

“What do you mean?” I asked, to which she suddenly grabbed my collar and pulled me up onto my feet.

I felt like I hadn’t stood up in twenty years, as I saw Marcus’s body—not dead, but surely not consciousness. “Did you hit him with a car?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yeah. It worked, didn’t it?” she asked. I looked at her with disbelief as I laid myself against the hood of the car. "Lord, have mercy.” I sighed.

Mari scoffed. “You couldn’t even deal with a kid that literally had wind as a main power.”

“Hey, first of all, wind is very useful!”

Mari turned around, not even in anger, but in this sort of look that exposed the joke material of my defense. “Yeah. That’s why basically no one has it.”

“Anyways, what about Tisiah and Nikki? She’s hurt. We need to get her to the medical center immediately,” I said, my legs on his knees.

“Well, what you do is call the YMPA ambulance,” Mari explained as she grabbed Marcus’s body, holding it. “Don’t they teach you this in Predicament classes?”

“Predicament classes?”

“Haven’t got there yet?” she asked before scoffing. “That’s why they put you guys with me. You guys are really amateur agents.”

I rolled my eyes. Amateur agents? I literally fought against a man who can literally copy other people’s Perks for five minutes, and you’re talking about me—an amateur?!

Did I say that? No, because I was too tired to think of that at the moment. But then Mari said, “Or at least you are.”

“What makes you say that?” I hissed. She was right; it was just, by pure definition, me who was the newest junior agent. Mari walked past me before stopping. “You know how me and Tisiah knew to come there?”

“You just found us.”

“I wish. But no. Nikki left her radio on, and it was rather convenient that she did. She did it on purpose.”

And just like that, my self-esteem had just disintegrated.