Bring The Heat

64. Second Layer Protocol (CB ARC 13)

-(JANUARY 28TH, LATE MORNING)-

Cece woke up slowly, and was instantly surprised that she had managed to sleep at all. She had no idea what time it was, but in the terror of the hunt, minutes felt like hours. She sat perfectly still for a short while, but the silence of the basement lasted a little bit too long. Either way, she had to make her move as soon as possible.

Crawling out from under the desk, Cece was confronted with the consequences of her position - terrible aches and pains! But she brushed them off, and tiptoed down the halls silently. Eventually, she passed by the middle area, and saw Corey sleeping on a desk next to Vertigo, who was trying not to doze off.

The knowledge that both attackers were resting made Cece a lot more confident as she moved further into the maze that was the basement.

And then she reached it. Just down the musty old hallway from her was the door to the security room!

She couldn't waste any more time... somebody could be dying right now! So Cece rushed down the hallway towards the door, and had almost reached it when... her foot fell heavily onto a loose panel of the metal flooring.

As it jolted it clanked loudly, and Cece froze up. She listened, listened... approaching was the sound of something ripping through the air. Vertigo!

Cece broke into a sprint towards the security room, and dove inside as soon as she reached it. As she slammed the door shut, she heard the jolt of the metal flooring plate again as Vertigo shot right over it, hot on her tail!

She fell backwards as he began to pound on the door violently, banging on it so hard and so fast that Cece thought it might actually break down. She crawled backwards in fear, towards the control panel...

"C- Cece!?"

Looking to her right, Cece saw a cabinet tucked into the corner of the security room, it's door slightly ajar and it's contents entirely Mariah.

"Mariah! What the hell are you doing here!?"

"Hiding! Well, I was. Did you just bring him right to me?"

Cece clambered to her feet swiftly, regaining her senses and determination.

"No... well, yes," she explained, flicking on large screens and plugging in jumbled wires on an old control panel, "but this isn't just a random room. From here, I can activate secondary security measures. BM should've come for us by now, so he must be all caught up in something else... maybe if we take a load off his shoulders, he can come and help us sooner!"

Whilst examining monitors and typing things in on old clacky keyboards, Cece suddenly yelped as the door to the security room thumped extra loud. She turned to look, and saw large dents forming in it as Vertigo slammed into it at high speeds over and over again. His unrelenting commitment was terrifying...

Seeing Cece frozen in fear, Mariah finally climbed from her hiding spot to try and pull her weight.

"Cece. I have a power now! It comes from my hand and makes people freeze up! I'm thinking... you know how when someone dies from a fall, it's the sudden stop from the fast that kills them?" Mariah turned to look at the door. "That jackass seems to be going pretty fast..."

Cece began to refuse Mariah's offer to help - after all, she didn't really believe Mariah had just gained an ability of nowhere, and even if she did, she wasn't nearly experienced enough to take risks like this - but Mariah insisted.

Standing in front of the door, she held out her palm. Her arm shook nervously, so she held it still with her other. Her whole life, she'd been making everyone else do everything for her, because she knew she could never do it herself. But now? She had no choice.

Reluctantly, Cece grabbed the door and waited for the next slam, then slid it open as fast as she could, grinding the dents against the doorframe. Vertigo was mid-charge, rushing straight towards Mariah! She saw the surprise in his eyes, and screwed her own shut in fear, pulling her head back as far as it could go, and she felt a sensation of release from her palm...

She opened her eyes cautiously upon hearing Cece gasp. Right in front of her was Vertigo, stiff as a statue! Shocked, she looked down at her palm. The symbol was now glowing brightly, but fading gently back towards black, like an old camera bulb.

"Holy shit!" Cece exclaimed, "You really do have an ability!"

That was the first time it really hit Mariah too.

"Holy shit, I do!"

They both giggled and jumped with excitement before Cece composed herself and returned to the control panel.

"Don't worry, I got this!" Mariah called out, grabbing hold of the frozen Vertigo. He was surprisingly light - maybe because he had been captured whilst still wind tunneling, when his weight was decreased by the shifting air?

Still, Mariah was no weightlifter, so she grunted with effort as she carried him down the hallway away from the security room.

But as she did, Vertigo's body began to make clicking and crackling noises, and she felt him begin to move again! How the hell was he recovering so fast?

Spooked, Mariah tossed him onto the floor at the end of the hallway and ran back to the security room door, scraping it shut and turning back to face Vertigo with her palm out. She was gonna defend this room with her new power!

Vertigo slowly rose to his feet, snapping his body back into moving shape crudely. He glared down the hallway at Mariah, but she returned an unfazed gaze, ready to stop his next attack. But then, he rushed down a hallway to his right, and Mariah became anxious the second she lost sight of him.

She swiveled frantically with her palm stretched out in front of her; the door to the security room was at a T intersection of a short hallway leading right up to it and the long hallway that spanned either side. In this maze of halls, Vertigo could come from any one of them...

Facing the opposite hallway that she had left Vertigo in, she heard a tearing of air behind her. He had left momentarily to distract her, before attacking from the exact same direction!

Mariah couldn't turn fast enough to freeze him, and was whisked up in his tunnel as Vertigo barreled into her at high speeds. Winded, she slapped her palm onto his face and felt that same release again. This time, she saw that her hand was making a flash, seemingly so bright that it stunned her victim's brain for a varying period of time.

As Vertigo locked up again, Mariah was thrown down the hallway, sliding across the ground brutally. Sore but determined, she hopped to her feet and ran back to the security room door, turning back to Vertigo with her palm outstretched.

Soon enough, he clicked back into form, and turned to her.

"How long can you keep this up, brat?" he screeched, seething.

Mariah blew a strand of hair from her face coolly.

"I'm a Choi. I can do this all day!"