Victoria looked at the silent room after delivering the news. She wondered what had happened here. Did someone die? She then noticed that the Chairman was missing.
"Where is the Chairman?" she asked.
Draven wore an angry expression. "Chairman, he... he was taken," Vex said, tears threatening to fall. He was the closest to the Chairman among everyone here.
Orion walked over, wearing a sad expression as well. "Get a hold of yourselves. We need to get back to HQ and prevent a takeover."
He sighed. "I told you guys this would happen."
"Are you saying it’s the Chairman’s fault?" Vex asked, turning toward him.
"What? When did I say that?" Orion replied.
"And the way we were ambushed - were you the one who ratted us out? You always went against the Chairman..."
"You can call me anything, but don’t you dare call me a rat," Orion retorted, drawing his sword.
"You wanna go, old man?" Vex challenged.
"Yeah, you wanna go, brat?"
Draven stepped between them. "Drop it, old man," he said, separating the two. "Vex, you too. Orion might have been stubborn, but he isn’t a traitor. I can vouch for him. Just calm down."
"Hmph," Orion scoffed, looking away.
"Victoria," Cipher called out.
She turned to look at him. Cipher wore a serious expression. "I’d like to assume the position of temporary chairman," he said.
Everyone turned to look at him with surprised expressions.
"The Chairman has just been taken away, and the other executives don’t seem to be in the best state. What do you think?" he asked.
She looked at the three. "I don’t mind," Draven said. "I’m more of a fighter than a talker. Besides, anyone is better than these two right now."
"I have no objections," Vex said.
"Whatever," Orion said.
She then turned to look at Elaine. "I believe Cipher won’t let us down," she said, still holding Elara in her arms.
"Well then, you’ll assume the position of temporary chairman until the situation is resolved," Victoria said.
"Good," Cipher said. "Vex, I need you and your Shadow Squad to track the Immortal King." He paused. "He has a skill that allows him to use any and all abilities of the people he turns into undead. Do you know what that means?"
Vex’s eyes widened. "He wants to use the Chairman’s magic?" His expression turned furious.
"Calm down. I’m honestly against making you do this in your current mental state, but I have no choice. We can’t let him get a hold of space magic. Track his location and don’t engage. Report back. It will take some time to turn someone as strong as the Chairman into undead, so we still have a chance."
"On it," Vex said, disappearing into the shadows.
Cipher sighed. He really hoped they didn’t lose Vex too. He turned to the others. "Elaine, you and Victoria’s support squad focus on healing the captives and getting them out of this cave."
He then turned to the remaining executives and his party. "I have a teleportation skill, but I’m not sure if it will allow me to teleport others with me." He gestured for them to form a circle. "Hold hands with me."
Everyone moved into position, linking hands.
"If I activate the skill and only I am teleported, don’t worry about me. I’ll be in the Association HQ. I’ll work with those there to hold off the attackers," he said. "You guys will have to find a way to return quickly and back us up. Do you understand?"
Everyone nodded.
"Good," Cipher said, and activated the Fast Travel cheat.
...
Back at HQ, Iris held a gun, her back pressed against the door.
"They really did attack when everyone was gone," she thought. At the moment, the people in HQ were mainly non-fighters and weak recruits. Although some executives like Luna, Zara, Ember, and Knox were here, they weren’t as strong as people like Orion and the Chairman as they weren’t fighters.
Besides, it was just them that were somewhat strong. With the amount of enemies out there, they wouldn’t be nearly enough.
At that moment, she heard a noise from outside and tightened her grip on her gun.
"Iris. Iris, you there?" a voice called out softly, gently knocking on the door.
"Luna? Is that you?" Iris asked.
"Yes, it’s me," she replied.
Iris holstered her weapon and opened the door, only to be met with a chop to the neck. She passed out instantly. Luna caught her before she could fall to the ground.
"Hehe, magic engineer, huh? Do you know how much you’re worth?" she asked with a smirk.
Suddenly, the entire room began flashing red and the door slammed shut.
"What?" Luna asked in surprise, turning to the door and banging on it, but it wouldn’t open.
<Threat detected. Going into lockdown until threat is neutralized.>
A mechanical voice echoed from the ceiling, and the entire room went into lockdown. Metal bars dropped down along the walls with heavy clangs, followed by thick layers of reinforced plating that sealed over them, transforming the space into a fortress.
"What is this?" Luna wondered, looking up at the speakers above. She guessed this was a security system made by the magic engineer. Suddenly, tiny hatches began opening throughout the room, and small cleaner-like robots poured in, their wheels whirring across the floor.
<Threat found. Locking in...>
Weapons emerged from the robots - gun barrels extending and energy cores glowing - all pointing directly at her.
<Requesting permission to engage.>
The voice continued after a brief pause.
<Permission not granted.>
Luna sighed in relief. She’d been scared for a second there. "Thankfully I knocked out Iris , " she thought.
<User unresponsive. Checking user vitals... User is unconscious. Retrieving protocol for unresponsive user scenarios.>
A pause.
<Protocol found. In the event of user incapacitation during threat detection, system is authorized to engage threat autonomously.>
The robots’ weapons locked onto Luna.
"Wait, I’m a friend! Don’t you have a friends database you can look up?" she asked quickly.
<Scanning... User not found in authorized personnel database. Engaging.>
The robots opened fire. Bullets and laser beams flew towards her.
"Dammit!" Luna cursed, dodging to the side. She lashed out with her foot, smashing one of the robots into pieces. "Should’ve just done this from the start," she said.
Suddenly, the robot crushed under her foot exploded with tremendous force, throwing her backward. Other robots immediately rushed her and detonated all at once in a coordinated blast.
Luna struggled to get up, her body battered and bleeding, her clothes shredded to near-nonexistence. As she tried to take a step, a circular opening appeared in the ceiling.
A massive machine gun descended.
"No," she managed to whisper.
The machine gun unleashed a torrent of bullets, raining down on her without mercy. Her body jerked and twisted under the barrage until she finally collapsed, motionless.
After confirming elimination, the machine gun retracted back into the ceiling with a smooth mechanical sound.
<Threat neutralized. Executing cleanup protocol.>