’I’m lucky.’
At the end of the day, within all of it, he was lucky. That was why he kept himself calm.
After tying him to the tree and intimidating him, Director Khan didn’t touch him. He didn’t even try to take off Gio’s mask and look at his face.
None of it mattered to him.
’My identity does him no good. Even the things I got from inside won’t an anything to him...for now.’
But now that he was stuck, the mont the others ca out and revealed that the final chamber was already looted, it would be obvious who did the looting.
’I’m lucky because I’m alive.’
If his opponent wanted him dead, he’d be dead. If the opponent had a greed for his things, they would have been gone by now.
’But he said it himself. He’s looking for test subjects.’
Everyone was looking for test subjects.
’First it was the Apocalypse Church, then it was VNGRD, and now it’s the asuras. Every group I see as an enemy is plotting sothing right now. But...there’s sothing odd about this.’
As far as Gio knew, the ground was covered in corpses when it was found by the governnt.
’They forged a report about the expedition and how it ended, but they needed proof to back it up in case anyone tried to uncover a conspiracy.’
So, so people were killed off while the rest disappeared.
’If I’m unlucky, I’ll be part of that group. If I keep getting lucky, I beco a test subject and suffer until I eventually die...’
’...let’s stop going over the consequences of not escaping.’
The point was that it wouldn’t end well for him unless sothing changed.
’Hekat.’
He called out to the snake again.
’
Check my holowatch. Is there anything written on the screen?’
The snake’s main form was its energy. It could "see" through that energy as well.
It whirred as it scanned the screen of the holowatch, alerting Gio that there was indeed a notification present there.
’Is it from soone nad Farrah?’
A whir of confirmation.
’Does it say that reinforcents will co? How long?’
The answer to the first question was yes. The second...
’Thirty minutes at the very least.’
It was an amount of ti that suggested Farrah was close enough to act as a conduit for teleportation. However, she still needed ti to gather reinforcents and direct them towards the clearing.
’Huu...’
Gio took a deep breath, his eyes never leaving the entrance shaft.
’They were about to reach the main area when I left. By now...’
The first of them should have already entered the chamber and found it empty.
Gio waited in silence. There were two n standing by him in case he made any moves. The other two were sowhere else, hidden along with the rest of Director Khan’s forces in wait for their prey.
’They’ll co out any minute now.’
He imagined the scene underground.
The first group reached the vaults and rushed to individual doors to find their treasure. They ripped open those doors to find clean and untouched rooms with nothing in them but air that wasn’t even stale anymore.
They realized they’d been scamd and ford an understanding, waiting for the others.
And when they arrived as well, they spoke until they’d confird that they could trust each other. The person who wasted their ti was Director Khan.
He had an iffy reputation that was preceded by talk of his strength, so they remained respectful when they saw him.
Now, their respect was gone.
As a group, every Sequencer still alive returned the way they ca, finding the entrance shaft and using their own ans to reach the top.
Whoosh!
The air whipped as multiple figures landed on the surface of the world with their auras flared.
The fireworks were about to start.
"Welco, all of you!"
Director Khan was in the air, prepared to welco them. He was yet to discover that their hostile state was not artificial.
"I trust that you all had a good ti in the ruin? If you rember the rules, we will split the profit 80/20 with you keeping eighty percent. Nobody has a problem with that, correct?"
There was nothing wrong with his words. It was his tone that was patronizing. He was speaking to them like they were a group of children.
Only Gio knew that he used such a tone because he believed them to be functioning around that level.
Unfortunately for Khan, they were not.
"You want to demand a cut after this?" A man said, glaring at Director Khan.
46 was amongst the crowd as well. He remained silent as the confrontation began, but his eyes were trained on Gio, who felt the gaze and looked back at him with stern eyes.
There was no communication in the air between them, yet, it was clear that words were said.
"Sorry?" Director Khan said in surprise.
"What? Do you think we’re stupid? Just because we’re rogues doesn’t an we don’t have brains, you shithead scamr."
"What are you talking about?"
"Dammit, stop acting innocent! We know you robbed the main vault of that place and left us with the scraps! Don’t try to worm your way out of this now!"
The sentint was accompanied by several voices of agreent. Director Khan still looked baffled for a mont before his expression suddenly fell.
"I robbed the main vault?"
It was, in fact, the contrary. He personally had the main vault filled with treasures that they would kill to take. How could it be–
His eyes went to Gio.
"Aha..."
Those eyes were filled with a terrifying kind of malice.
"So that’s why you were early, little lamb."
Gio’s heart dropped. He couldn’t allow the bla to be pinned on him at a ti like this.
"Ladies and Gentlen," Director Khan said, turning back to face the crowd.
Gio tried to speak, but his mouth was shut by the sa energy keeping him bound by ropes.
"It seems there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding."
He needed to do sothing. If this crowd of Sequencers was let loose on him...
"In fact, if we want to resolve it..."
Gio gritted his teeth as he tried to fight the energy, but it was too powerful for him to break.
And those final words ca before he could say or do anything.
"...we can just look to–"
"We don’t care about your misunderstanding!"
The voice ca from within the crowd but nobody knew who spoke.
"Die!"
"Soone" decided to be overzealous.
"Soone" decided to make the first move.
BOOOOOOOM!
All of a sudden, the air around Director Khan was filled with a huge wave of rushing energy that looked like a cloud of living lighting.
In the next second, explosions hit the ground from all directions, filling the world with a cacophony of light, sound, and debris.
Nobody knew who attacked and nobody knew who to attack. Every single person in the clearing only knew that sobody wanted conflict, and if they didn’t want to die in the crossfire, they had to fight back.
A wild brawl began. Rogue Sequencers fought Rogue Sequencers. Attacks joined the lightning cloud in the sky where Director Khan stood, and as hostility towards him rose, his forces erged from the forest and joined as well.
Everything changed in barely a few seconds.
However, Gio had no ti to pay attention to any of it.
Because at the sa ti, sohow, the rope around his body was cut and fell to the ground.
Thud! Thud!
Those were the sounds of heads falling with it. He peered into the light with just enough clarity to catch the beady black goggles staring back at him from within.
And though that man’s mouth was covered, Gio felt like he could read his lips.
"Go."
Nothing was a coincidence.
An opportunity had been created for him.
He could not freeze up now and waste it.
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