"Yo, Ghost. Give that dumbass a tug."
Wendy appears again, this time firing off beams at them while on the chase.
"Shit!" now Harley and Ghost had to also avoid beams coming from behind them.
"It's not on stealth anymore?"
"Yes and it's shooting at us"
Ghost taps Kristoff on the back three times trying to wake him up.
Kristoff regains consciousness, startled. "WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"You passed out is what the fuck happened," Harley answers.
Kristoff is greeted with the sight of Wendy chasing after them while continually shooting beams.
"Well return fire, you dead weight!" Harley berates Kristoff.
Kristoff starts shooting at the chasing monster with his flying drones and his makeshift arm blaster, all of which the monster just brushes off.
"I'm not doing shit!" Kristoff complains.
"We don't need you to do anything significant to it, just keep distracting it," answers Rina.
"Yeah, well, it's not even getting distracted anymore. It's just tanking and healing everything while returning fire at the same time."
"Can't we just take it on now?" asks Harley.
"So it can just go invisible again? No," Rina answers.
"Then why are we running to the lab if we can't take it on?"
"Because at least then, it's not just gonna be the four of us. We've overwhelmed it with numbers before, we'll overwhelm it with numbers again."
"Argh, fine," says the grumbling Harley.
The team is 40 meters away from the lab where the target has originally escaped from.
"Agents, there are two traps placed near and at the lab's exterior, the first one is to only a red herring for the second," the voice from HQ gives a brief advisory. "Lead it to the first and buy time for the second."
This gave Harley some slight comfort. "Finally, some good fucking news."
The first trap was placed 30 meters away from the lab entrance. Placed on the trunks of the surrounding trees are small ancient fragment-powered devices interconnected with each other. When activated, these devices will create a force field-like barrier that will contain the trapped subject. After a few seconds of delay, the fragment-powered cage will then implode, effectively erasing the trapped subject from existence.
"Agents, head northwest and lure the target to the first trap."
The first trap wasn't meant to dispatch Wendy. Like mission control had previously mentioned, it was just to buy time for the second trap. The first cage that would trap Wendy was a small one, only utilizing four of the devices. Taking its destructive capability into account, the monster would probably shatter the cage in three or four beams.
The lesser the number of interconnected devices there are, the faster it activates but the weaker it also is. The first trap only uses four devices. With this amount, it will trap Wendy as soon as it gets activated. The second trap utilizes 32 devices scattered from where the first trap is set all the way to 10 meters away from the lab's entrance. The first trap was to give a head start for the second trap to activate.
The agents comply with mission control's orders. The unknowing Wendy follows suit, still giving chase and shooting at the agents. The agents didn't know exactly where the trap was set, all they did was follow mission control's directions.
They run past the first trap, the lab entrance which was just on the side of a small hill was already in sight. It looked more like a bunker entrance rather than a laboratory and research facility from the outside. Scattered all over the hill were a number of suits – Outer agents each armed with large, handheld, black railguns.
Wendy takes one step inside the trap and it is immediately entrapped inside a large, 8 x 8 meter, blue cube. It tries slashing away at the cube, not leaving even a scratch at it. The monster watches on as the prey it was chasing escapes by the second.
The cage's implosion delay is largely dependent on the size and mass of the subject enclosed in it. For a human with average height and weight, the delay would be at about five seconds. Wendy was an absolute behemoth. It would take 20 seconds in the least for the implosion to occur. Twenty seconds was a lot of time for Wendy to bust out of the cage.
The monster shoots out a quick beam at the blue box. It leaves a small crack. The next one is stronger and took slightly longer to fire, it leaves a crack triple the previous one's size. The third one is a large, channeled beam.
The team arrives at the lab's entrance. But the target looks like it was about to escape the first trap faster than mission control has anticipated.
"It's already getting out?!" says Harley.
"Looks like it," says Kristoff, now fully recovered.
Wendy shoots out the barrier-shattering beam. It was so strong it pierces through and bulldozes several trees in its trajectory. The hunt resumes.
The target takes a few steps before slowing down, eventually stopping. Everyone was baffled.
"Wait, don't tell me—" Harley had the same assumption as the rest.
"It knows," there was a slight unease in Rina's voice.
They were right. Wendy looks at the horde of humans all swarmed in one spot and senses immediate danger. Incredibly smart and instinctive for a monster. These humans had something up their sleeve, Wendy knew it. The cautious monster goes invisible again.
"Ah fuck," Harley was getting tired of this charade. "Not again." But even so, he prepares himself for battle.
"Agents, continue luring the target inside the trap," mission control with another advisory. "Ensure that it doesn't step out."
It was a good strategy, the only viable one at the point. Every suit that heard it completely agrees. But they also realize that it was a grim order. For a total of nine seconds until the scanners in the sky reveal it, they had no choice but be bait for a killing machine that they couldn't see. And even if they did see it, it would still be a tough task.
The monster completely disappears, the nine-second timer for extreme survival starts. Several of the Outer agents run to where the monster was last seen, all shooting in the air, everyone was trying to land a lucky hit.
Blood starts to paint the ground carpeted with fallen and dry leaves. Men in suits are getting maimed by the invisible killer one after the other.
Harley was about to step in and join the skirmish with camouflaged monster but Kristoff stops him. It was a gut-wrenching sight, seeing several of their comrades bodies fall into the ground in several pieces.
"What the fuck are you doing," he tells Kristoff.
"You know what," Kristoff answers. He was right. Every one of the Inner agents including Harley knew that this wasn't the part where they step in yet. They were the elite unit, this was a job for the infantry. But Harley simply couldn't bear what he was witnessing. He felt he would rather die along them than stand on the side watching them be bait.
"Harley," Rina intervenes. "Don't."
Harley shrugs off Kristoff's hand and opts to listen to his leader.
Six seconds left until the scanners work their magic, 11 until the trap activates. In just three seconds, Wendy has already slaughtered 12 agents, and it was just about to increase.
Using their victimized comrades as basis for where Wendy was, Kristoff and Rina were able to somewhat deduce where it was, landing lucky shots based purely off of speculation. Although this wasn't as effective during their first encounter as Wendy was now completely ignoring the shots hitting it as it just heals the injuries right back.
Two seconds left until the camouflaged monster is revealed, Ghost and Harley starts to run in to join the skirmish.
One, zero. Kristoff's scanners hovering the sky finally reveal the invisible Wendy. The reveal wasn't a hundred percent effective as the target isn't "completely" revealed by the sense of the word. The monster wasn't looking like it had its invisibility totally taken off, it was still partly translucent only now, it was much more noticeable. This was enough, they didn't need to completely see the monster and all its details. All they needed was to know where it was and what it was doing.
"There you are," says Harley, now even more motivated in taking the monster down.
With everyone now being able to see it, the fight was now an actual, all-out skirmish. Large energy bullets from the Outer agents' railguns shower on the monster left and right with Harley and Ghost applying continuous up-close pressure on it. The monster didn't even know where to look, it was completely surrounded and just opted to shoot beams at all sides just trying to hit whoever.
"Four seconds until the trap goes live. Agents, evacuate the cage perimeter."
Majority of the suits start falling back gradually. They couldn't all just immediately back away from the monster as it would just chase after them and this would risk having it step outside.
"Three."
"Two."
The agents were now just right outside the perimeter, still shooting at the target.
"One."
A large, rectangular cage entraps the evolved deer. The trap is successful. Everyone breathes a momentary sigh of relief. They have trapped the target, but the job isn't done yet. Trapping Wendy inside was just a part of the plan. Now, they wait. Will the cage hold or will Wendy somehow bust out of it is the question on everyone's minds.
"Estimated dispatch time is 20 seconds."
The cage was large and sturdy being reinforced by 32 devices. But even so, 20 seconds is a long time.
Wendy slashes, punches, and rams the cage with its antlers. Again, none of it was working. It had spent four seconds doing this before giving up and shooting beams at it instead. Quick beams didn't leave a dent. Fourteen seconds left. It starts shooting stronger beams, still no effect. Ten seconds remaining. Wendy stops, faces the sky, and starts channeling again. Three seconds have passed and it was still charging up a beam, now with a massive ball of light over its head.
"Um, what is it doing?" Harley was nervous. As was everyone.
Five seconds left, the monster was still charging. The ball of light increasing in size each second, now looking at about a two-meter radius in size. Four. Three. The holes in its skull start illuminating light as well. The large ball of light that it has been charging up at the end of its antlers instantly doubles in size.
"Oh, fuck," says Kristoff. No one else said anything, but the looks on their faces said the same.
Two seconds left. Wendy unleashes a beam capable of levelling a small-town, absolutely destroying the barrier in front of it and clearing the part of the forest a mile in its direction. Majority of the agents in front of it were able to get away in time, including the four Inner agents. The ones who were unlucky enough to not get out of the beam's way were disintegrated on the spot.
Wendy breaks out. The plan is a massive failure. The monster has freed itself from the shackles of Eden for the third time. It steps out of the shattered cage and stands upright, no longer hunched on all fours like a wild animal.
"Fuck do we do now?!" Harley exclaims. It was a rhetorical question. He just wanted someone to say and agree with what he was thinking at the moment – that they were all dead.
"Mission control, the plan failed," Rina was desperately trying to maintain composure. "What's our next move?"
Rina is answered by a long silence in mission control's end. It was as if even they didn't know. "The second unit's ETA is 20 minutes. Hold for the sec—" Rina throws her earpiece into the ground. The usually calm and composed Rina is now visibly irate.
"Twenty minutes, we're lucky if we even survive this for 10."
Wendy, completely towering and looking down on everybody starts shooting down the surviving agents.
At this point, there were only less than 20 inner agents left. About half of whom couldn't even muster up the strength and courage to hold their weapons or even run.
Even the Inner agents were starting to lose hope. Except Ghost. The silent assassin runs towards the 12-foot laser machine, zero fear or hesitation.
The three agents were left speechless at the sight of this. Harley smiles and lets out a loud laughter.
"There is no quit in that guy," he says as he grabs his glaive on the ground, removes his tie, and follows his teammate's lead.
Rina and Kristoff follow suit, with Kristoff even running in to get some close shots with his arm blaster. Ghost has given the agents a much-needed morale boost.
Ghost jumps in the air, eyeing Wendy's nape. The monster quickly turns to him at immense speed that he wasn't expecting. He was now up in the air, his momentum leading him towards the front of the monster's skull, a bright glow illuminating at the top of it. A large, quick beam pierces and destroys half of Ghost's upper body, a large hole courtesy of Wendy's signature energy beam.
"GHOST!!!" Harley screams out of concern for his now possibly, deceased comrade. Ghost's body crashes on the ground.
"FUCK!!" Harley continues rushing towards the standing monster, fueled by rage. His slashes are blocked by Wendy's claws, only using one hand in deflecting its attacker's strikes.
Shots from Rina and Kristoff's drones rain down on the unaffected monster again. It looks up at the air, locating the drone, and effortlessly swats Harley away who was serving as nothing but a distraction to it. Wendy turns its focus into the drone in the air and easily shoots it down this time.
Wendy senses something directly below it, looks down, and sees Kristoff with four of the combined drones attached to his arm, aiming for the monster's heart at extremely close range.
"That was bait, idiot," says Kristoff as his arm lights up, a second away from blasting away the monster's heart.
Both Kristoff and Wendy make their move at the same time, the only difference is Wendy's movement was infinitely faster than Kristoff's firing speed. His entire left arm is cut off cleanly by Wendy's claws before he could fire off his shot.
Time slowed down for Kristoff as he saw what looked like his nanobot-covered arm fly off into the air, what looked like his own blood spilling on his own suit. He didn't feel any pain, he was in too much shock to feel anything. He looks at his arm to confirm that it really was his arm that went flying off into the distance. The entire thing was missing, what's left is a severed bicep dripping blood.
"MMMOOOOOOVVVEEEE!!!!" he heard someone scream at him in slow motion. He looks to his right where the voice was coming from, it was Harley running at full speed towards him. But he looked so slow. Everything was so slow. He looks to his front and up at the monster he was face-to-face with. Its head was glowing. He just stared at it, it was hypnotizing. It was incredibly calming for reasons he couldn't explain.
"IDIOT, MOVE!!!!" screams Harley, jumping at his teammate who was in a daze, trying to save him from being another victim of the monster's beam.
BOOM. Wendy's laser decimates the ground, etching a large pit on the forest. Harley was successful in getting Kristoff out of the beam's way. The two live but not without crippling injuries. Kristoff is now unconscious, without an arm, and is slowly bleeding out. Harley is fully conscious, but letting out deep, labored breaths. Still laying on the ground he looks over to his lower body, half his right leg from his calf to his feet is melted off, bone exposed. He was a millisecond late causing his right leg to still be caught in the beam for just a short second.
"Fuck!" He's out, and he knew this.
Wendy looks over their direction. By this time, Harley has already accepted his demise. He couldn't stand, let alone run. This was the end and he knew it. And he was fine with it. He went down swinging and saving his comrade – an honorable death.
"DO IT, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!" He screams at the monster staring him dead in the eyes.
Wendy, still looking at them, hears this, faces forward, and walks towards the direction of Rina. It didn't even bother finishing him off. He scoffs, smiles, and punches the ground. The monster basically told him he wasn't even worth killing. A grave insult from a soulless monster.
Wendy starts walking slowly towards the last remaining agent. Rina was not intimidated by the monster seemingly walking arrogantly towards her and kept shooting at it. Wendy was completely unbothered.
"Agents," Harley hears the familiar voice that has been talking and giving them orders throughout the entire mission from his earpiece. But at this point, he couldn't care less about what the voice was going to say. They've already lost.
"The special unit is inbound.."
"Special unit?" Harley whispers to himself.
"I repeat, special unit is inbound."
Rina couldn't hear this as she had already thrown away her earpiece before out of frustration. Wendy was closing in and not slowing down a pace. It wasn't charging up a beam, it wasn't running at her in a bloodthirsty rush, it was just slowly making its way towards her. As if to say that it didn't need to. It could take all the time in the world and it wouldn't make a difference, the last survivor is already dead.
She was already face-to-face with the monster. She didn't even bother running away and just stood her place. The monster stares at her with its pitch black eyeholes. She shoots at it again. Wendy tilts its head and hunches down, bringing itself down to her level. Rina's aim unwavering, her rifle still pointed at the monster right in front of her, hands trembling.
Wendy slices the long rifle in half and just stares at her again. This was no regular monster fueled by rage and uncontrollable urge to kill like the ones before it. No. This was a monster telling a human that it was leagues above it, how utterly helpless it was before it.
Rina puts down the gun, her hands and entire body trembling, cold sweat running down the side of her cheek. Wendy raises its hand, slowly. It directs its long, sharp fingers to Rina, pointing it directly at her face, inches away from her forehead.
"This is it," she thought, closing her eyes.
SHHOOM