Owen slowly opened his eyes to the sight of a ceiling that had a painting of a famous Grey Lander musician on it. He groaned as all the memories of the fight he had with the creature came back to him. He reached for his face but touched his helmet instead, it was then his vision fully cleared, and he finally caught sight of the red sky of the Forbidden Zone through a broken window.
"You've finally woken up," a familiar voice said. The blonde-haired man turned to see an easily recognizable Thomas approaching him with his blaster held firmly in his hand.
"Thomas… where the hell are we?"
Thomas shrugged. "Where do you think? After you greedily charged in to kill the Creature on your own, we got hit by, let me see…" he dropped his blaster by his side and began counting with his fingers. "A bolt of lightning, quicksand, flood, and a large pack of creatures. It's swarming with hungry creatures out there, I barely brought us here."
Owen hissed and stood up on his feet. "Tell me I got the kill on that creature."
The dark-skinned man scoffed and placed his hands on his waist as he stared at Owen. "We are lost inside the Forbidden Zone, and all you are worried about is if you got the kill or not?… Unbelievable."
"We are not lost, just use your map system to locate our way back…" he let his words trailed off as he noticed most of the devices in his suit had stopped responding properly.
"We are both lucky our breathable air supply container still works, even though we have about half an hour left before we are out of air supply," Tom revealed giving Owen something more to worry about.
"Then what are we waiting for, let's begin our search for the Protection wall."
Thomas sighed and shook his head. "Alright, but you should have it set that this day might just be our last."
"Never." He picked up his blaster and started towards the door but just as he was a few steps away, the sound of a large body hitting the wall around the building made him stop. Thomas looked through a window to see a strange-looking figure staring back at him with what looked like a grenade in it's hand.
"Take cover!" He yelled and quickly jumped behind a pillar, but it turned out to be a flashbang.
Owen groaned as the flash bang exploded. He staggered backward, unable to hear or see as the figures outside the building they were in broke in through the window.
Though his hearing had been hindered by the flashbang, hiding behind the pillar saved him from periodically losing his vision, allowing him to get a clear sight of the three figures that entered the building.
Their suit was similar to the Bio-suit Tom and Owen had on but it had a few tweaks in some places. The individuals' suits were much tighter with only two tubes that connected their ant head like mask to a cylinder behind their back. They each held a silver sickle-like weapon in both hands that was connected with a thin tope to their belt.
One of the men zipped forward and yanked his blade to remove Owen's head but was stopped by an energy shield. He pulled back and tried again, this time, instead of a normal blue flickering light, the energy shield gave off a red light, signifying that the shield was almost down.
Thomas swiftly pulled back just in time to dodge a blade that nearly slit his throat. Two of the men approached him, leaving Owen with the last of them. They spun their weapon as they slowly watched the dark-haired man.
"Who are you?"
The men ignored him and charged forward.
● Elsewhere
- Still inside the Forbidden Zone.
"Are you okay?" Liam asked while keeping his eyes on the three individuals sizing them up.
Their suit was similar to the Bio-suit Willow and Liam had on but it had a few tweaks in some places. The individuals' suits were much tighter with only two tubes that connected their ant head like mask to a cylinder behind their back. They each held a silver sickle-like weapon in both hands that was connected with a thin tope to their belt.
They stepped forward and threw a small ball to the duo. Willow instinctively slapped the ball out of the way while the teal green-eyed man caught his. He looked at it to see a red beeping light. Before he could react, it exploded, and paint splashed all over his mask, blocking his view.
The three alien individuals now zipped forward, moving in a zigzag motion to avoid the shots from Willow's blaster.
Liam tried to wipe the paint off but it didn't come off. He then whipped the helmet over his head to see the brunette firing shots at them. The assailants noticed this and quickly jumped back, clearly as shocked as Willow was when she first saw him without his helmet.
"What do we do?" Liam questioned.
"I want to kill them all, especially the one on the left."
"So fight, got it."
Willow glanced at the light brown-haired man who stood inside the Forbidden Zone without a protection mask on. His short hair rose and fell as the poisonous wind blew at it.
The assailant spoke between themselves before turning to the two while grazing their weapons together.
They swiftly charged forward at the duo. Once they were only a few meters away from the two, one of the men dropped to the ground, allowing another to use him as a means to propel himself into the air. He landed behind Willow and unhesitatingly swung his weapon at her but she blocked the assault and they began throwing swings at each other.
Meanwhile, the other two assailants forced Liam away from his partner with heavy attacks. They moved together, throwing synced attacks at the teal green-eyed man but he continued to parry them relentlessly.
The light brown haired man slipped behind one of them. He wrapped his hand around the assailant's waist and hurled him over his shoulder. He quickly stood up and threw a left hook that caught the second assailant cleanly on his face, finally landing the first successful hit since the fight started. The man staggered backward and crashed to the ground.
The light brown-haired man turned to the other but before he could swing his attack, a wolf-like creature jumped into the scene and shouldered the man away. It then roared at Liam's direction before launching itself after the assailant.
The individual Liam punched across the face picked himself up and disappeared into the mist. Liam exhaled deeply before turning to Willow to see her firing her blaster at the assailant who also retreated into the mist. She dropped her weapon and turned to the teal green-eyed man.
"I hate Rogue Sweepers," she sighed.
"They looked too organized to be Rogues," Liam said while ripping out the body cam from Willow's suit. "I can't have them know about me just yet."
Willow nodded understandably. "You can trust me not to say a word… as long as you tell me everything about it."
He smiled and picked up his helmet. The paint from earlier had cleared out on its own. "I promise I'll explain everything." He said while slipping the helmet over his head.
....