"Are we done?" Blond asked, enduring his urge to pant.
It had only been five minutes but Blond was way past his limits. Although he was standing sharply in front of the server humanoid, it was evident that he was just putting up a front. Meanwhile, the humanoid retracted its arm blades as it approached Blond; it's smoky cyan eyes seemed to trail off as it approached, resembling a will-o'-the-wisp in the night.
Even though server humanoids looked like prehistoric birds more than humans, it acted human-like. Blond was completely sure that he perceived a human behind it.
A few more minutes and I'm done for. Is this humanoid really just a humanoid? Did I get mistaken on my deductive reasoning? That's not possible! Blond argued in his mind. He looked around the streets and empty buildings, hoping that Red would come to his rescue anytime soon.
To his disbelief, he couldn't see anyone else except the server humanoid who was menacingly gazing at him. "A... are you t-tired?" The humanoid seemed to ask sarcastically.
Blond swore that he saw the humanoid smile for a split second.
"I told you. I could do this all day." Blond returned, notwithstanding the exhaustion he was feeling all over his body.
Blond was already mustering all his strength to keep himself from dropping to the ground like wounded prey.
"T-then... Let's continue."
The humanoid hurtled himself to Blond, reaching Blond in a tenth of a second and grabbing him by the neck. Blond didn't have enough time to dodge the attack so he decided to go forward, attacking the humanoid headfirst as well.
The humanoid didn't flinch, however. It's left hand flew at Blond's neck, clutching it completely in a vice-grip.
"Grghghhgh!!!" Blond tensed his neck so it won't snap in two. He grabbed the taser from his pockets and electrocuted the joint on the humanoid's shoulder. To Blond's relief, the taser did its job— making the humanoid release him.
"Just tell me, woman, what are you up to? And why are you using Nexus Corporation's server humanoid? Stop the farce, I've already seen through you. Do you want me to tell out your name to Nexus?" Blond bluffed in hopes that the one controlling the humanoid would respond.
The humanoid stopped its onslaught of attacks as if a switch was pressed inside it. Blond perplexedly scrutinized the humanoid while making sure he was keeping a safe distance from it.
It really stopped moving. Blond said to himself, inching closer to the humanoid.
"Mmh-hahaha!"
Blond was taken aback after hearing a woman's chuckle coming out of the humanoid. He was right! There really was a person behind the suspicious humanoid.
After an ominous chuckle, the humanoid went closer to Blond and whispered in a seemingly worried tone. "I don't have enough time. I'll be caught sooner or later. I'm on your side."
"Are you a mole inside the corporation?" Blond considered asking a few more questions but he deemed this the most important one to ask. "If so, how do we get out of here?"
"You can't, it's impossible." The woman's voice dishearteningly answered.
All of a sudden, an effulgent searchlight flooded the entire premises, making Blond and the humanoid look upwards. Underneath the artificially starry sky, a handful of fifth-generation Ka-52 'Alligator' helicopters encircled the perimeter as they aimed their searchlights and air-to-surface missiles at the server humanoid. Blond knew that the pilots won't be so careless as to fire a missile underground but it was intimidating nonetheless.
"Trust Red, he knows more than you think you do. Even if you're a hundred steps ahead of him, he's ahead of you ten times more than that." The woman forewarned. "We'll meet again soon."
"What do you... "
*crackle* *crackle*
The abrupt short-circuiting of the humanoid was enough for Blond to flee the scene. The Kamov helicopters didn't bother chasing Blond down since they already found their target eliminated.
.....
"Hey Julia, check it out." Jarxen tapped Julia's shoulder as he motioned for her to look at the live footage of the Inside. "I didn't know they could send helicopters down there. Now that's a surprise. "
"Sorry, I was on a phone call. What was it? Oh." Julia watched as she recognized the boy in the middle of the searchlights. "That's your worker, right? Why is he being targeted? Do you know anything about this?"
"I've always known that kid was too smart for his own good. I think he's just reaping what he sowed." Jarxen clicked his tongue. "I won't be surprised if Head Cipher targets my block tomorrow."
"They'll be fine. They already took out a total of three outclass humanoids, remember?" Julia reassured him. "In the history of Nexus Corporation, I could only remember two people who could go head to head with an outclass humanoid single-handedly."
"Yeah, and one of them was me." Jarxen smiled as he remembered the tumultuous times he spent when he was still a worker. "Those were good old times. Wait... !"
"... you also took one out during your time as a worker, right? I don't know if that was true but there were rumors." Jarxen grabbed his chin as he tried to recollect the past.
"How could you forget about that? I was assigned in Block-16 before, that's only natural."
"Right, right... " Jarxen mumbled. "Back to business, what do you think smart-ass did this time that Head Cipher had to send his prized whirlybirds at him?"
"That's a server humanoid, right?" Julia pointed at the screen. "Probably because of that. That's the second server humanoid he defeated in the past week."
"Sigh~ you're right." Jarxen thought of strangling Blond for all the trouble he was causing. If Blond was in the same room as him, he would've done so unhesitantly. "I'm looking forward to my next meeting with the Head."
"Relax, you got it. Besides, it was that blond kid who's causing trouble. Head Cipher won't blame you for that, I think."
"I hope so too."
As the analog clock went past midnight, Julia and Jarxen persisted in watching the live stream of the Inside. They got their meals from the cafeteria a few minutes earlier and decided to watch the Elite Conquest while they ate. Both of them didn't look sleepy at all. At the back of their minds, they decided to watch everything all the way, even though their blocks have a minuscule chance of winning.
"Hey, Julia," Jarxen called out.
"Yeah?"
"Now that I think about it, smart-ass looks so much like you. I know you aren't the least bit related but the resemblance is there." Jarxen pointed out.
"To be honest, I was interested in that kid. I noticed it the first time you brought me in your block." Julia recalled. "I wouldn't have noticed it but he kept on eyeing me suspiciously. He even went as far as to compliment my eyes."
"Man, that kid sure is smooth," Jarxen muttered to himself after realizing that he missed the chance to compliment Julia's eyes first.
"What was that?"
"Nothing!"
.....
As the whirring of helicopters died down, Blond made it back to the dilapidated supermarket building. He was expecting the group to wait for him by the entrance and he was spot-on. Amidst the musty air and the strong smell of concrete, the group conversed without a thought to their surroundings. "What was that all about?" Red asked. Once again, he was pretending not to know anything even though he probably overheard what the woman said to Blond.
"Those are Kamov's, short for Ka-52 Alligator helicopters from Russian descent. There were a few alterations on its exterior but its appearance couldn't be mistaken for an Apache. Equipped with a Shipunov-2A42 or a 30-millimeter autocannon, it can fire a minimum of two hundred to eight hundred rounds. Its coaxial, contra-rotating main rotors are powered by two Klimov VK-2500 turboshaft engines... " Gadge went on and on with his explanation.
"We know, genius. Stop talking about the helicopter. We didn't ask." Curl said, controlling her tone so Gadge won't get offended.
"Sorry, the memory of the helicopter just came all at once in my head that I started blabbering about it. " Gadge apologetically replied. "Back to Blond, were you just talking to that humanoid? What did it say?"
Ever since Blond came back, he never spoke a word about what happened. He just stood there as the group bombarded him with questions.
What did she mean by that? Trust Red? He knows more than I do? For all I know, she's probably lying in order to make me force Red to confess. Still, I can't brush off the fact that there were some truths in what she said. Red really does know a lot more than I do... and the fact that he's still not telling us everything is suspicious itself." Blond thought. It's as if he was having a huge altercation in his mind and it lasted for a minute before he finally snapped back into reality.
"Blond, you alright? It seems like you're cross-examining what the humanoid told you." Red worriedly asked him. "You don't have to tell us anything right now. That could wait. For now, we should focus on this Elite Conquest or whatever this is."
"You're right. I shouldn't think about it too much." Blond chuckled. But just then, his expression suddenly changed as his gaze landed on Red.
"Red, we need to talk. Just the two of us."