Meanwhile, having split from Tellius and Ethan during the gunfight, Sarah found herself inside the maze of tunnels and facilities beneath the park.
Walking among cables, pipes, and rails, the female mercenary soon spotted an old camera pointing down to the tunnel in front of Sarah. With some screws broken, it dangled more than it was supposed to, but it still dutifully hung off the ceiling.
Not equipped with her XS22 exoskeleton and as such unable to turn invisible, Sarah instead used the camera's blind spot. But with it being just below the ceiling, she had to be quick and precise to avoid the camera.
After a deep breath, Sarah bent her knees, jumped up like a frog, reached the ceiling, then used a sign as leverage to push herself forward in mid-air parallel to the ceiling. This way, she flew through the blind spot before she landed past the camera's angle headfirst in a forward roll.
Having overcome this formidable challenge, Sarah instantly recovered, her last roll not entirely perfect as the sword on her back prevented her from fully rolling over both of her shoulders.
Having recovered, she suddenly heard the all-too-faint sounds of footsteps. Crouching down, Sarah instantly drew the throwing knives from her costume's belt.
Soon, a female reaper gang member armed with an assault rifle came down the tunnel Sarah was in. Yet before the woman could look up from the datapad on her forearm, two throwing knives had already struck her chest before a knee shot into her face.
With the enemy momentarily stunned, Sarah instantly drew another knife and slashed it across the woman's throat, cutting her carotid artery and windpipe in one swift motion.
Gurgling for air, the woman drowned in her own blood just as Sarah removed her knife from her chest. Them she used it to stab into the woman's neck where her stack would be, for good measure just to be sure.
With one enemy down, Sarah decided to change into the now-dead woman's clothes, just as her hair blended into the woman's raven-black locks.
And so, with a red scarf covering her face, Sarah appeared to the cameras as the exact likeness of the woman she had just killed. As such, the female mercenary soon found herself among the Reapers.
"Dammed! Did we get any new orders from the boss?" Asked an angry gang member with dreadlocks, a reaper tattooed on his back and a Gatling gun perched on his left knee, just as Sarah wordlessly joined their group.
Checking her datapad on her forearm, a muscular blond replied, equally annoyed. "Nope. It looks like the big boss wants the marshal and his hired gun to run rampant."
"Any idea where our glorious leader even is?..." Asked a third gang member who looked like a sickly weasel but without the whiskers. "... After all, I didn't see her get shot or sliced to pieces."
"I wouldn't speak like that if I were you..." Reminded the burly blond. "... After all, the Devil sees everything."
"I am not afraid of a woman who only..." The humanoid weasel's voice trailed off as sparks started to arc between his implants and smoke began rising from his nostrils.
"See? What did I tell you? The Devil sees everything!" Stated the blond with a huff, just as the electrically roasted weasel toppled over, dead.
...
Meanwhile, just as Sarah infiltrated the Ivory Fortress from below, Tellius and Ethan were spotted approaching the very same structure.
Themed with snow, the northern section of the park was called the Fridge Outskirts, with numerous fake snow-covered townhouses housing all kinds of attractions and stores, such as a free-fall space called the Pit or a shop selling snow-themed toys and sweets.
"So, Tellius, you and Sarah?" Ethan asked to break the ice with the tall, intimidating, and unusually quiet cyborg walking beside him.
Shrugging uncomfortably, Tellius replied as they walked down the fake town's main street towards the marketplace in the center. "Yeah... it's complicated..."
"How so?..." Questioned the marshal, intrigued as he had expected the two cyborgs to be at least in a relationship, committed or not. "... It can't be as complicated as a complex bone fracture."
"Yeah, well, it kind of is..." Stated Tellius, struggling with whether or not he should tell the truth. Eventually settling on the truth, he explained. "... You see, we both fought in the Corporate War like you. Only we both died and became cyborgs. She became one way earlier than me, and I only got converted recently. And now everything feels..."
"Out of sync?" Offered Ethen as they ended up in the town center, where he sat down at the well.
Nodding, Tellius agreed, just as he detected some movement all around them, but no enemy in sight so far. "Yes, exactly! Even though we've recently started f**king."
"What the f*ck?!..." Exclaimed Ethan, shocked by Tellius's honesty. "... So, let me get this straight... You were friends, then died, became cyborgs, and only now are you getting together?"
"Yep!..." Tellius confirmed once more before he added while struggling to find the right words. "... Also, she... we... I... Everything is different all of a sudden, and I need time to adjust to the changes."
"Oh, it can't have been that long..." Commented the marshal just as all hell broke loose.
All of a sudden, the square was being flooded by hacked robots dressed up as villagers with all kinds of tool-based melee weapons like pitchforks, machetes, and torches.
"F**k!..." Cursed Tellius, painfully aware of his weaknesses to slashes, was forced to retreat with Ethen to a nearby rooftop. "... Why does it always have to be slashing weapons?"
That said, with the marshal beside him, the cyborg decided to consult his system's shop.
[Skill Shop:]
[+Skill-Trees:]
[-+Commander]
[--Radio Silence: 50 SP]
[--Morale Boost: 25 SP]
[--Supply Drops: Sold]
[-+Mech-Pilot]
[--Final Stand: 50 SP]
[--Berserker Mode: 25 SP]
[--Auto-Repair: Sold]
[-+Infantry]
[--Orbital Strike: 50 SP]
[--Aimbot: 25 SP]
[--Invincibility: Sold]
[-+ Martial Arts]
[-- Path of the Fist Lv.1: 2 SP]
[-- Path of the Blade Lv.1: 2 SP]
[-- Footwork Lv.1: 3 SP]
[SP: 20]
Surprised that his killing spree of gang members hadn't netted him any rewards, he put the issue aside for the moment. No rewards could only mean that the the killed had somehow survived or were being counted as mobs.
Taking the current situation into consideration, Tellius also decided to prioritize [Path of the Fist] over [Path of the Blade]. As such, he bought [Path of the Fist Lv.1] and [Footwork Lv.1].
Instantly, his mind was flooded with the fleeting impression of knowledge that settled in his subconsciousness instead of his consciousness, just as part of the shop updated.
[...]
[-+ Martial Arts]
[-- Path of the Fist Lv.2: 5 SP]
[-- Path of the Blade Lv.1: 2 SP]
[-- Footwork Lv.2: 7 SP]
[SP: 20 -> 15]
Ignoring the system, Tellius searched his subconscious before he realized that his body had gained the ingrained muscle memory for certain skills and their move sets.
[... New Skill Type detected...]
[... Updating User Profile...]
[User Profile:]
[Name: Tellius 'Killzone' Warfield]
[Body Composition: 98.7% Juggernaut X-86 Bodyframe; 1.3% Human Brain]
[+ Core Stats: (Extend)]
[+ Secondary Stats: (Expand)]
[+ Resistances in ADR: (Expand)]
[+ Weapon Slots: (Expand)]
[+ Skills (active):]
[- Invincibility (∞/∞)]
[- Supply Drops (1/1)]
[- Power Fist (KO or 5 sec. stun)]
[- Charged Dive Kick (30m EMP-AOE)]
[+ Abilities (passive):]
[- Auto-Repair (3/3)]
[- Basic Footwork: +10% Damage Negation]
Satisfied with what he saw in the system interface and how he felt, Tellius exited the system to put his newly acquired skills to the test.
"Hey, Tellius! Tellius? Are you okay?" Ethen asked him just as the cyborg exited his system.
Nodding, Tellius cracked the flexible joints of his metal fingers as he declared, "Yeah!"
With that said, he leaped off the rooftop, aiming his jump at the center of the square. Mid-jump, he triggered his 'Charged Dive Kick' skill.
Mid-fall, electric arcs began zapping all over his legs before he struck the ground in a devastating landing that unleashed a powerful electrical explosion.
*Buzz!* The EMP exploded in a bubble of ever-expanding electrical and magnetic energy until it reached a 30-meter radius and fizzled out.
Instantly, a huge chunk of the gathered robots toppled over like puppets that had their strings cut, their CPUs and RAM fried to an even crisp.
...
Meanwhile, Tina witnessed Tellius's display of raw electrical power through camera feeds that weren't affected by the accompanying EMP.
"That's not what a body frame is supposed to be capable of..." noted Yelena, still lying beside Tina. Seeing how Tellius followed the drop kick up with devastatingly powerful strikes, she added in surprise, "... or do strikes like that!"
"Didn't I tell you? Tellius is awesome..." Replied Tina, just as the data load on her brain nearly doubled. "... Ouch!... What is this?"
"I don't know..." Replied Yelena ominously but with a confused expression. "... I could never remember... the data is so ever-fleeting."
"Oh, I can try..." Offered Tina, but didn't give Yelena time to reply as she immediately jumped into the river of raw data.
At first, the little girl couldn't understand what she was seeing until her natural intuition kicked in and some blocks of data started to resemble people.
Following these people, Tina suddenly stood in front of an Ivory Castle that looked like the one in the Frigid Outskirts from the 10th season of Grim-Souls.
Built above a frozen lake, the high walls of the Ivory Fortress were made out of snow, and yet the pointed roofs that cut the winds were slabs of ice.
Curious, Tina squeezed past the numerous ghostly people waiting in line to arrive at the entrance. Yet as the little hacker tried to enter, two guards in fancy knights' armor appeared to deny her access.
"Why can't I go in here?" Complained Tina, pouting while kicking against the armored boot of one of the guards.
"You shouldn't be here!" Yelena's voice said, and suddenly Tina found herself back in the chair she had been strapped into.
"Why?..." Questioned Tina angrily as she realized that the woman had lied to her. "... What is the Ivory Fortress, and who are these people?"
"You're wrong; that's just raw data!" Stated Yelena stiffly, her voice unnaturally cold.
"NO! You're lying!..." Pointed Tina angrily out before she jumped right back into the raw data with the words. "... And I don't have to listen to you!"
Swimming in raw data, Tina this time looked into the data that hadn't turned into ghostly people and followed it upstream. Ending up right beneath a thundering waterfall, she defiantly tuned out the chatter and mist currently obscuring her view.
With the rumbling sound of the waterfall stilled and the mist cleared, Tina was shocked by what she found hidden within the waterfall.
"How?" Exclaimed the little hacker in shocked disbelief.
...
Meanwhile, Tellius and Ethan finally reached the entrance of the heavily guarded gate of the Ivory Fortress. Here, tattooed gang members guarded flimsy, makeshift barricades with the equipment of a well-armed militia.
"This doesn't look like a gang..." Stated Tellius with a questioning look as they hid behind a large dumpster. "... Did you fight against guys like these the last two times?"
"Hell, no..." Denied the marshal vehemently while checking his hand cannons. "... F**k! "I am running awfully low on ammunition for these guys."
"That's what I thought!..." Commented Tellius as he used his supply skill to spawn a box of ammunition underneath a nearby bench. Pointing to the said bench, he told Ethen. "... Look! Isn't that a supply crate over there?"
"Oh, wow, it could be..." Exclaimed Ethen, surprised. "... How did you notice that? I wonder how it got there..."
"Does it matter?..." Questioned Tellius, annoyed for having to lie about spawning the crate. "... I need two grenades for my Stormsurge Grenade Launcher and you need explosive rounds for your cannons... So, go get it!"
That said, with the marshal retrieving the supplies, Tellius began to analyze the enemy's defenses and his options to break them.
The barricades themselves might as well be cardboard boxes to him, but the automated turrets and the elevated positions of the gunners with possibly armor-piercing rounds could pose a problem.
Even though his combat options had already been improved by his latest skill purchase, Tellius still refused to become reckless, as every skill so far had come with a drawback.
His Invincibility Skill being a prime example of that. Still spammable as hell, its repeated use was impeding his movement for the seconds that the invulnerability lasted. It could prevent a certain defeat, but it wouldn't secure any victories on its own.
...
At the same time, as Tellius was plotting a full frontal attack, Sarah had found her way into the most secured parts of the park's replica of the Ivory Fortress.
Here, in a freezing cold, she was walking amongst tall, two-meter-high frozen cylinders that looked eerily familiar to her, as they resembled the recovery chambers that they had used on Thermopoly-6 to a T.
Taking a closer look at the closest cylinders, the female mercenary whipped away the ice only to discover a body dangling lifelessly inside.
Unsure about what to make of it, as she had seen a lot of weird stuff in her years as a mercenary, she took a second look at it. This time, she was able to identify the person as male, but she also noticed that he had a datalink cable jacked into his neck.
Drawing from her limited experience with electronics, Sarah knew that people only used datalinks for one of three types of reasons: medical, VR and / or hacking.
Yet whatever was going on here seemed to fit none of the three cases. The bodies seemed healthy, but with no brain activity.
*Beep!* *BEEEEP!* An alert from one of the obviously misused recovery chambers nearby went off, its liquid pumped out and the glass cover removed.
As Sarah approached the naked and unconscious body, she realised in horror that the body was identical to the woman she had killed in the supply tunnel and whose outfit she currently wore.
'What the hell? Cloning technology is hell of expensive so why are they using it on gang members?' Questioned the female cyborg herself just as the body gained sentience.
*Thud!* The reborn reaper struck Sarah in the face with a strong right hook.
Jumping out of her recovery chamber, the female gang member licked Sarah's blood off her nuckles leisurely as if to savor it's tast. "I am back b***h! Ready for round two?"
Drawing two throwing knifes from the sleeves of her uniform, Sarah replied slightly angry, her nose bleeding. "I don't know how you survived without an intact stack, but I got no problem to kill you a second time."
That said, the two women began a rather fast fight, with the reaper getting her hands on one of Sarah's throwing knives in her first few moves.
And yet, in the moves that followed, the woman was unable to gain any advantage even with a knife, as Sarah blocked all her moves while gaining momentum.
Eventually Sarah had enough broke the woman's defenses and slammed her knife into the female reapers left eye socket killing her a second time.
With the deed done a second time, Sarah contacted Tellius and told him. "The reapers can't be killed permanently as they are using some blackmarket technology to revive their members in cloned bodies."
"Rodger that!"