Crow (NoochZahHutt)

Part Thirty-Two

Quickly, we gathered everyone - and by everyone, I mean all of Vaq's projects - and explained the situation.

"You want us to infect people with the fever?" Lachlan looked at me like I was insane.

"I already told you, it's a vaccine," I said.

"Hehe, a Vaqcine, get it?" Vikk said with a laugh. No one was amused, except Lachlan, who giggled at the pun.

Choco groaned. "Okay, but there's a problem with this," he began. "The vaccine takes about a week before it starts working, right? Which means Petey will start feeling sick any moment. He's one of our best PvPers. How are we going to save Vaq if he's out of commission?"

Everyone turned to look at me, as though I had the answer. "What?" I said. "I don't know."

Mat squeezed my hand. "Just so you know, it fucking sucks."

"Thanks for the reassurance," I said, rolling my eyes.

"We'll have Mitch and Jerome, won't we?" Rob observed. "They're world champions. With them on our side, we won't need Pete."

"That's true," Choco said, "but we'll have about thirty seconds to fill them in, presuming we can even find them when we get to the arena tomorrow. It's likely they'll screw something up and we don't have a lot of room for error."

"Well, there's not a whole lot we can do," Kenny said, "other than carry on without Pete and hope for the best."

"GUYS!" Suddenly, someone ran into the room, interrupting our conversation. All eyes were on the newcomer. He had brown hair, eyes like the sky, and a lip ring. "They're searching houses!"

"Who are?" Preston asked, a worried spark in his eyes.

"Police, I think," the kid said. "But they have...like...guns and shit! Like, not police guns, but like, sniper rifles or something! They're...they're..."

"Hey, slow down," Choco said in a calming voice. "How close are they?"

"A few houses down," the kid continued. "They're...kicking down doors. I don't know how long it'll be until they get here...they might split up or something."

I exchanged glances with Choco.

"We have to get out of here," I said. Choco nodded.

"Not through the front door," the kid warned.

"You go make sure everyone else knows," I turned to the kid. "Make sure no one hides, that's suspicious. They can't know you're a part of Crow, either. Just pretend you live here. And don't mention us."

The kid nodded quickly and ran out.

The eight of us, with nowhere left to go, decided to climb out the kitchen window. We did so one by one, carefully, uncomfortably. We landed on the hard ground, half of us barefoot or in socks, and pressed our bodies against the wall as to not be seen.

"What now?" I whispered to Mat, who had thankfully landed next to me. He grabbed my hand with his metal one.

"Can you give me some power?" He asked quietly. I looked up at him. He looked as though he had a plan and I was slightly worried.

"Can I trust that you won't kill yourself?" I asked.

"I can't promise anything, but I can try," Mat said with an oddly casual tone.

I sighed. "Fine. How much you want?"

Mat licked his lips and got in a ready stance. "As much as you can give me."

I shut my eyes and concentrated hard, beginning to build up a shock of redstone. It formed in a ball, somewhere in my chest, and grew bigger and bigger until it felt like it was going to burst. Then I sent it through my arm and out of my hand, into Mat's.

Instantly, he let go of my hand and gasped loudly. Everyone turned to look at us, shocked, worried our position had been given away.

Mat's human eye was wide, the pupil dilated. His robot eye was glowing bright red.

"Thanks," he told me. He sounded strained, as though he was holding his breath. But I didn't have time to respond, because he ran, away from me and between the buildings, towards the people searching houses.

"HEY!" He yelled. Suddenly I heard the sounds of many guns readying themselves. I dropped to my knees and crawled to the corner of the building, observing the action. Many government officials stood, pointing their guns at Mat. My heart rate rose significantly.

"GET ON THE GROUND!" One of the officials yelled. Mat did not comply.

"Come at me, scrublord, I'm ripped," Mat said, in an enthusiastic tone.

This was a bad idea, I thought worriedly.

BANG

A gunshot sounded. I ducked and covered my ears, out of instinct. When I looked up, I was surprised to see that Mat had dodged and completely avoided the bullet. He laughed.

"I wasn't joking," he said. "Come at me with everything you've got."

The official who'd shot, a bulky man with many tattoos, growled angrily and dropped his gun. Then he lunged at Mat in a failed attempt at attacking. Mat side-stepped, avoiding him, and then knelt down and clasped his metal hand around the man's neck.

A collective inhale could be heard from the group of officials.

SNAP.

Mat's fist closed. He snapped the man's neck, and nearly decapitated him in the process. Someone screamed.

"W-what are you?!" One of the officials asked, sounding terrified.

"What does it look like?" Mat said, standing up and holding out his arms. "I'm a motherfucking cyborg and I'm here to wreck your shit."

~~~

YO! Anyone catch the Team Crafted member cameo this chapter? Hint: he's rather out of this world.

Ciao!