Winston's eyes remained downcast, and he didn't budge at all, no matter how hard Zac willed for him to look up.
"Yes, what she has said is true. There were two others, helping us. As for the woman, I also saw her, and I think she did mention was Mary said." Winston spoke quietly, barely above a whisper, as if he were too ashamed to have Fredrick hear his words.
"Alright, you two, which direction did they go?" The woman asked Mary and Winston, making a point of ignoring Zac.
"One ran that way I think, and we didn't see where the other one flew away. We were hiding, so I'm not sure" Mary mumbled, while Winston nodded.
'Nooooo! What the f*** Winston? You too? How gullible can you be? There's no way they're going to declare Fredrick as innocent, look at how he's being treated over there man!' Zac wanted to pound his head in frustration, he couldn't believe how easily the other two were ratting out the people who had helped them.
But then again, most people would do the same when confronted by the authorities, in their minds, they were only doing the right thing.
"Come on! Can't you see these two are clearly scumbags!' Zac wanted to yell, but he could tell from the actions of the two that they would just as readily arrest him as they had arrested Fredrick.
"You going to tell us where they went?" The woman turned to Zac, but he just stared at her, a defiant expression on his face.
"I didn't see either, I was hiding." Zac lied to her face, of the three, he was clearly the only one watching what was happening, he had been standing near the battle when they had arrived.
"Sure, you didn't." The woman snapped, and turned to the man, nodding at him.
"Alright, you. Come on, what's your rank and type?" The man said, as he tapped Fredrick on the head with the flat of his blade.
"Tier 1, as you can see, I'm an M-Type." Frederick said gruffly.
"Thwack!" The man swung the blade, slapping Fredrick across the face with it. "You can feel that huh! I asked you your rank and type, not for any cheek!"
A trickle of blood ran from Fredrick's mouth, as he stared forward, his hands still locked behind his head.
"That shut you up, didn't it." The man gloated, sneering at Fredrick.
"This is Jen! We have a single Tier 1 Augmented here, breaching 214 C. He has three confirmed accomplices, two men, one woman. One has flight capabilities, so you may see him up there with you. There's also an unconfirmed, possible fourth accomplice. Also, we have three survivors here. Over." Jen spoke, into a microphone hidden in her helmet, and then tilted her head, as she listened to the response playing in her helmet.
Zac frowned at her as she spoke, her priorities were clear in the words she had used, him and the other survivors were clearly an afterthought to her, catching Fredrick and the others was her main priority.
"You got it, we're still where you dropped, waiting for pick up. Over." Jen peered up at the sky as she spoke, ignoring Zac and the others.
Zac looked at the other two survivors, but both Mary and Winston avoided his gaze, staring at the ground, Mary quietly sobbing, while Winston stood in silence.
'You two m******f*******!' Zac thought, as they stood, while Jen strolled over to the man, who started chatting with her, keeping his sword pointed at Fredrick's neck.
"What d'you think? We got a good chance of catching the others?" The man grinned at Jen, who crossed her arms as she looked over Fredrick.
"I don't think so, Martin, they'll have made themselves scarce, this one seems experienced, he'd have to be, being a Tier 1 holding his own against a Tier 3 beast. That's like a baby managing to stay alive with an adult with a knife chased it around." Jen nodded at Martin, as she leaned over, inspecting Fredrick's arms.
"Always with your weird comparisons, huh? Well, he seems positively ancient, the rating system wasn't very accurate back then. And besides, with the years of experience he probably has, it's no wonder he managed." Martin said. The two of them were talking about Fredrick as if he wasn't there, Jen was poking and prodigy at his machine limbs, while MArtin laughed as he spoke.
'Martin and Jen, huh. I won't forget your names, you b******!" Zac swore to himself, after seeing the man who had rescued him, and treated him so kindly, he couldn't' help himself.
"I wonder how much of a bonus this one will bag us?" Martin said, his sword making a clanking sound as he banged it against one of Fredrick's arms.
"You can have it, I'll take money for the Lava Lion, since I took it down." Jen's voice was cool, but immediately Martin's helmet whipped around.
"Hey, no way! We're a team, T E A M, all bonuses are divided between us. It's only thanks to that I put up with the amount of monster carcasses you destroy. If it weren't for how many you take out, I'd insist on doing it myself." Martin said as he gestured to the fallen head.
"You're all talk, old man. You're not far off of being a relic like this one." Jen gestured to the kneeling Fredrick.
"Hey, watch your tongue!" Martin laughed, as the two of them bantered back and forth.
Zac couldn't believe how the two of them were treating the whole thing, like two friends on a day out, the two of them were quite possible destroying the rest of Fredrick's life, but they were laughing as they did it.
As he stood there, an idea flashed in his head. The body of the Lava Lion was right there, if he walked over and touched it, he could transform. Surely whatever form it gave him would be enough to take on the two Augmented and save Fredrick.