Chapter 21: Dark Mirror

  “What do you think?” Russo looked around the corridors branching off the main entrance. “I do not like this. It feels much larger and more sophisticated than I expected. It is hard to believe some random mid sized crime group would have a base like that.” Cullen answered his old friend. Russo nodded and wrinkles formed on his forehead. “We have to split up. If we bunch up, we will only be in each others way in these confined circumstances.”

  Three main paths and three teams. Marcus felt that horror movies had taught him a different lesson but splitting up seemed correct with how many people they had. The leaders put teams together and to Marcus’ dismay Janette was not with him. Instead Cullen, Pavel and Elena became his temporary teammates. When Cullen called Elena to join, she looked angry for a moment but joined without any further argument.

  Slowly, with Marcus in front, they moved down corridors, opened doors and checked rooms for hostiles. It was eerily quiet and Marcus had the constant feeling an unknown terror waited just behind the next door. With every room that was empty the dread in his stomach grew larger. They finally came to the last room in their branch, a large storage room. Walls of crates and discarded machinery filled the large room, several rows of shelves made it hard to see. Nothing.

  Had the base been understaffed? Were the early defenders the only people here?

  They turned around and started their way back to the entrance, filled with a mix of disappointment and relieve. “Kind of a disappointment” Elena said, walking just behind Marcus. He turned to give a snarky reply and all he saw was the barrel of a gun aiming at Elena’s back. He stretched his arm around Elena’s head, and tried to move between her and sudden death. The roaring of an automatic rifle filled the corridor and something painfully hit his arm. Wall plaster exploded from impacts and he finally stood between the bullets and the Elemental Mage.

  Every hit felt like somebody was driving a nail into his body and he clenched his teeth to suppress a scream. Another rifle came to life next to Marcus, Pavel unloaded into the attacker. Then silence fell. Marcus could hear his own painful breathing and looked down to the woman in his arms. Elena’s eyes were wide with shock but she seemed fine.

  “MARCUS!” Cullen was right next to him while Pavel guarded the back. Cullen slowly removed Elena from his embrace, who was still shaking. “Marcus! Can you talk?” Cullen looked at him with great worry. “Yes, just feel like somebody worked me over with a metal bat.” He swayed and tried to catch his breath. His back, his left arm and one of his legs hurt like hell. “Stay still, I will take a look at things. Elena make sure he does not fall over.” Cullen said and Elena put her hands against his large shoulders.

  How much this actually helped was unclear but Marcus gave her a short smile anyway. “Thank the gods you are so tanky and have good armor.” Cullen said from behind his back. “This might hurt a little.” It hurt a lot more than a little. Piercing pain shot through his body as Cullen removed the bullets that still stuck inside him and put some ointment on the wounds.

  “Look at that.” After Cullen had finished, he showed Marcus one of the bullets. “I’m not an expert but I think that is armor piercing ammunition.” Pavel took a look at it and agreed with a worried look. “And yet they barely made it a centimeter into your body. The armor helped a lot too.” Cullen said with a smile but Marcus could not share his enthusiasm. Elena inspected the hit on his arm with care. “This would have been my head.” she said without looking up. “It is all good. That is what I’m here for.” Marcus replied and carefully tested how his body moved. It was not too bad, the stuff Cullen had put on the wounds helped.

  “Where did that bastard come from. We just cleared that storage room.” Pavel said pointing in the direction of the deceased enemy. “Maybe he hid in a crate or…” Marcus left the idea standing in the room. “They can’t have another secret door in their secret underground base.” Pavel looked as if he had lost all faith in humanity. They returned to the room and carefully inspected it once more. Eventually Elena spotted signs of wear on the ground that lead to a very large crate. It was another fake and a reinforced door lead to a hidden chamber. They quickly informed the rest of the teams about potential hidden rooms and ambushes, and moved through the door, which was not locked.

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  After walking through another wide corridor that slowly descended, they entered a very large room with several levels. The room was full of active equipment, tanks, pods, computers and other stuff they had no idea what it was. They carefully moved forward inspecting tanks filled with liquids and...”Shit, is that an ork corpse?” Pavel cursed. It certainly was. Half cut apart and pieces missing.

  More tanks, more corpses, sometimes orks, sometimes unknown beasts. Pavel made a hand sign. They were not alone and the team took cover. Marcus could tell somebody, maybe several people were moving on the higher levels, trying to stay out of sight. Pavel used Wind Walk and quickly moved up one level, he searched for the enemy but instead something hit against his armor and burst into black smoke. “DON’T BREATH” Cullen shouted but it was too late, Pavel coughed heavily and gasped for air and took more of the black smoke into his lungs.

  “Elena, Marcus cover me I need to help him.” Cullen was already on the move and Marcus turned to run to the stairs leading up. Something hit him into the shoulder like a wrecking ball. Pain spiraled through his body and when he looked at his shoulder a knife stuck deep in it.

  A dozen meter away a woman with raven black hair moved out of cover holding several more throwing knifes. Under her dark, skin tight suit (that can’t be armor) was an athletic body with well developed muscles. She licked her lips with pleasure and readied another knife. Marcus already knew her class, there was only one way such small knife could cause such a heavy impact. Strength was not enough, it needed a massive amount of momentum. She was a Lancer and Marcus had a lot of experience with those.

  Marcus planed his attack and the woman raised the next knife as something rushed by Marcus and hit her square in the face. Her head seemed to explode in flames and a second later another hit exploded on her chest followed by a third. The woman went to the ground her by body charred, her face burned off. Marcus turned to Elena who shrugged her shoulders. “That is what I’m here for.”

  Sounds from the upper floor made them hurry and Marcus discarded the knife while they went up. Cullen had dragged Pavel behind a large tank that said “Danger: Explosive” but thankfully it was empty. Part of his cover and the ground looked molten, as if some acid had eaten away at it in seconds. “Take cover. The enemy is an Alchemist too.” Cullen said while tending to Pavel who had blood coming out of his open mouth. Marcus stared at him for a second but Cullen said “He will be fine, IF I can tend to him. Take that maniac out.”

  Marcus and Elena moved up to the position they expected the enemy. A pink ball came from behind some machinery and missed Marcus by centimeters. It splashed against a metal shelve covering it in a pink gel. The metal melted like ice cream in the summer sun. Elena shot off some more of her plasma balls and one piercing crystal. Then she took cover behind a rack of containers filled with things Marcus didn’t want to look at in detail. She breathed heavily, Elemental Mage abilities were powerful but also drained their user extremely quickly.

  Something quickly rolled over the floor. A yellow ball hit the rack next to Elena and broke apart. Yellow smoke covered her and she started screaming and flailing her arms. Her body shook in quick succession and her eyes stood wide open without blinking. Marcus pushed down the instinct to go and help her, instead he sprinted towards the Alchemist, rushing by a black ball that cracked behind him and reaching over the cover of the enemy. A man, who looked far too normal for what he had already done stared at him holding a small red ball in his hand. Marcus instinctively ducked but the man giggled like a school girl and put the ball in his mouth and bit hard.

  Marcus did not wait to see the result and instead delivered a heavy blow against the body of the man. It was more than enough power to kill somebody who is not a front liner or very high level. Impulse Hammer tore the body apart, smashing organs and bones alike. Marcus made sure this one would not come back somehow and stepped on the head. He turned without giving it another look and ran back to Elena but Cullen was already next to her cradling her in his arms. She was crying and sobbing. Marcus was distressed but Cullen told him it would be fine soon.

  “What just happened.” Marcus asked while he finally sat down for a moment. Even his massive endurance was running low after all this. “This is what a deranged mind can do with the Alchemist class.” Cullen said searching through his various pockets. Marcus did not know what that meant but took a small orange sweet from Cullen anyway. It tasted fruity and seconds later he felt, warm and relaxed. He looked at Elena who had calmed down, “Fear and terror, a dose of pure despair. It makes you live through your worst memories and nightmare. Only somebody twisted could make something like that.” Cullen explained.

  “I did not know Alchemists could create something like that.” Pavel slowly crawled to them, looking a lot better. Cullen shook his head. “Most people don’t, even Alchemists don’t know. To be honest I don’t think we are Alchemists at all.”

  Marcus turned and looked at the man, feeling he saw him only now for the first time. “What do you mean?” Marcus asked. Cullen laughed, “Marcus do you think you are the only one who questions their own class on the fundamental level. Although it took me a lot longer than you.” Marcus felt like Cullen had looked right through him and he wondered for how long Cullen and Russo and maybe even Brahms had known what he was doing. “But this not the time for this. Maybe in a nicer environment with some tea?” Cullen said and Marcus understood what he meant.