With a grunt, Pink hoisted Blue up into a fireman's carry, his weight settling securely across her shoulders. Her Ranger suit adjusted automatically, the nanoweave fabric shifting to lock him in place, stabilizing his convulsing body. In her Ranger form, she was far stronger than any average person, and even burdened with Blue's unconscious form, her agility remained unmatched. Her hands remained free, ready to fire her rifle or unleash blasts from her gauntlets as needed.
As she stepped out of the vault and into the massive room where she had wreaked so much havoc, shouts erupted from the soldiers who were beginning to recover. Several of them had regained their footing, weapons aimed, voices barking commands that grated on her already fraying patience.
"Power down your armor! Drop to the floor on your stomach and surrender!" one of them shouted, his rifle trembling but trained on her. "If you resist, we will use deadly force!"
Pink's eyes narrowed, a surge of anger burning through her veins. The nerve of these bastards, demanding submission when she was fighting to save one of her own. A dark smile twisted her lips as she mockingly raised her hands, pretending to comply. "Oh, you want me to lie down and spread out for you?" she sneered, her voice a taunting purr. "Sorry, boys. I'm a girl who has to be on top."
Before the soldiers could process her mock surrender, her gauntlets flared to life. With a quick flick of her wrists, she unleashed lethal rounds, blasts of concentrated energy that ripped through their lines with brutal efficiency. The soldiers barely had time to react before they fell, and Pink's laughter echoed through the room, dripping with savage defiance.
She shifted Blue's weight slightly, feeling the steady pulse of his convulsing form against her shoulder. "We're not staying for an encore," she growled, and with that, she broke into a run, her movements fluid and deadly as she prepared to shoot her way to the teleport pad.
Pink's fury was a blazing inferno as she sprinted up the stairs, her rifle tight in her grip, the cold metal grounding her in the chaos. Blue's limp form was secured across her shoulders, but with every flight she climbed, her eyes darted to the flickering readouts on her HUD. His heart rate spiked erratically, his body temperature dangerously high, and his blood oxygen plummeting closer and closer to the red line. Her teeth ground together, and she felt her rage boil hotter with each second.
"Stay with me, Blue," she hissed, her voice a furious command. "You don't get to leave me in this boring world."
Rounding another corner, she came face-to-face with a squad of guards. They froze for a split second, caught off guard, and Pink didn't hesitate. Her rifle barked to life, the first volley of shots erupting in a hail of flash rounds that burst into blinding explosions. The guards staggered, disoriented, but she didn't stop. Her finger shifted, and cymatic charges followed, vibrating the air with a pulse so intense that the men clutched their heads, groaning as their bodies turned traitor. Hallucinations warped their senses, and bile rose in their throats as they stumbled, helpless against the waves of sickness.
Pink sneered, the fire in her voice matching the heat of her rounds. "Can't keep up? Pathetic."
Another squad tried to intercept her, but she moved with brutal efficiency. Plasma rounds punched through their armor, leaving behind trails of scorched ruin. She vaulted over the fallen, her movements fluid and relentless, her heart hammering with the need to get Blue out.
Engineers and scientists pressed themselves against the walls, wide-eyed with terror as she stormed past. One tech, desperation in his eyes, stepped in front of her, hands up in a futile attempt to stop her. Pink's patience snapped—she delivered a bone-crushing punch that sent him sprawling, unconscious before he hit the ground. She didn't bother looking back.
A frantic medic tried to grab at her, shouting something she couldn't hear over the roar of her blood and the blaring alarms. Pink slammed her elbow into his ribs, sending him crashing to the floor. "Out of my way!" she snarled, her voice raw with desperation and rage.
Bursting out of the sub-levels, the chaos only intensified. Automated security platforms locked onto her, and cameras whirred as they tracked her. Pink didn't break stride. She aimed and fired, plasma rounds reducing the platforms to smoking wreckage and cameras to sparking shards. The alarms screamed, and security staff scrambled, but she kept moving, relentless and unstoppable.
Another guard lunged at her, and Pink whipped her rifle around, the shot tearing through him and splattering the stairwell with gore. She barely registered the blood and carnage—her focus was laser-sharp, zeroed in on survival and escape. Blue's vitals continued to flicker dangerously, and fear clawed at her chest, but she channeled it into her fury.
"I'm not leaving without him!" she roared, her voice a savage promise. Her rifle spit out more cymatic rounds, the air vibrating with disorienting force as soldiers dropped to the floor, clutching their heads and retching as hallucinations twisted their reality.
Pink barreled forward, eyes blazing, her wrath a force of nature that would let nothing stand in her way. She was done playing nice—every shot, every strike was a declaration that she would tear down anyone who tried to stop her. Blue was getting out, and she would leave a trail of hell behind her if she had to.
As Pink approached the main floor, her heart hammered with a blend of fury and focus. The sound of her boots echoed less now, swallowed up by the tension that had thickened the air. A group of soldiers had clearly overheard the commotion she'd left in her wake and had set up a choke point just ahead, their weapons primed, their eyes locked on the stairwell she was barreling toward.
They were ready, confident in their trap, thinking they had her dead to rights. She could see it in the way they held their rifles, the grim set of their jaws. They were still playing the protagonists, still believing they were the heroes of this story.
But Pink? She was done pretending to be anything other than the villain today.
She slowed her pace, shifting Blue's weight on her shoulders to keep him secure, and raised her rifle. Stepping just out of their firing range, she lifted the scope to her eye, lips curling into a dark, vicious smile. Her voice dropped to a whisper, almost a mockery of the lull before the storm.
"Pop. Pop. Pop."
Her finger squeezed the trigger three times, each shot precise and merciless. The first soldier's head snapped back, the plasma round cutting his life short in an instant. The second was struck in the chest, his armor crumpling around the smoking hole as he collapsed. The third went down clutching his throat, eyes wide with shock as he gurgled his last breath.
Pink's grin only widened. They thought they had a kill box? No. She'd just turned it into her hunting ground. And with every step forward, she reminded them that this wasn't their fight anymore—it was her war.
As she sprinted forward, rifle raised, she caught a flash of movement in her peripheral vision—Black. He stood frozen a few meters away, eyes wide and mouth agape, his usual confident demeanor shattered by the scene unfolding before him. His uniform was slightly rumpled, his hands hanging uselessly at his sides, and his expression was an open book of confusion, disbelief, and shock. He looked like someone trying to process the impossible, and Pink knew she must have been a hell of a sight.
Her lips twitched into a wry, mischievous grin beneath her helmet, and she managed to lift one hand in a quick, almost cheeky wave. "Hey, Black!" she called, her voice pitched with adrenaline and the dark humor that kept her grounded. "No time to explain—catch you later!"
Black's mouth opened, as if to demand an answer, but she was already gone, sprinting full tilt toward the teleport pad. Her rifle stayed leveled, and she didn't miss a beat. Mechanical defense platforms whirred to life, their automated weapons locking onto her, but she was faster. Her finger squeezed the trigger, and a volley of plasma rounds erupted from her gun, each shot precise and merciless. The platforms exploded one by one, metal shards raining down as their targeting lights blinked out.
The hall was bathed in flashing emergency lights, red warnings strobing across the walls, but Pink barely noticed. All her focus was on that teleport pad—the one thing standing between them and escape. The last of the platforms collapsed in a shower of sparks, their defense systems obliterated.
She tore up the final stretch, her legs burning but her spirit unyielding. The pad loomed ahead, and she skidded to a stop just long enough to activate it. "Hold on, Blue," she murmured, her voice a desperate whisper. "We're getting out of this nightmare."
Before she could move further, a sharp click echoed behind her. The security guard from earlier—the one she'd left napping—was now wide awake, his face pale but his hand steady as he aimed a sidearm at her. His finger tensed on the trigger.
Pink moved like lightning, twisting out of the path of his shot and closing the distance between them in an instant. She grabbed his gun arm, twisting it hard and forcing his own weapon against his head, her gloved finger pressing over his on the trigger. The guard's eyes widened, his breath coming in short, panicked bursts.
Pink leaned in close, her voice a dark, threatening purr. "Re-activate the teleport pad," she commanded, her words cold and razor-sharp. "Or I'll paint this floor with your brains so fast, you won't even have time to regret your choices."
The guard's terror was immediate and absolute. His fingers trembled as he reached for the control panel, struggling to obey as quickly as possible. Pink's grip stayed ironclad, her gaze unwavering and merciless.
When the teleport pad flickered to life, she released him with a shove, her expression twisted with contempt. "Good boy," she spat, and without sparing him another glance, she stepped onto the teleport pad, Blue's limp form secure across her shoulders. Her heart pounded as she prepared to leave, every ounce of her focused on getting out—and getting him to safety.
Pink took a steadying breath, her hand trembling only slightly as she reached up and tapped her morpher. The teleport sequence activated, a brilliant pink light beginning to envelop her and Blue. She locked eyes with the guard one last time, and he stood there, frozen in place, his terror etched clearly across his face. He never took his eyes off her, not even as her form started to dissolve into the shimmering glow. The image of her—battle-scarred, defiant, and unstoppable—was seared into his memory as she and Blue vanished in a burst of vivid pink light, leaving nothing but the lingering hum of energy and the chaos she'd left behind.