A voice I didn’t recognize suddenly shouted out, “Everybody, out! Keepers!”
I spun in place to see Agent Blitz and a tall blond man I assumed was Agent Philips striding our way from the bar. Both men wore long coats just like Tabby and I did. Before we could even react, a shitload of the patrons all yanked out their access cards and threw them on the ground. Around 80% of the nightclub’s population all vanished in puffs of emerald-tinted smoke as they were all—presumably—teleported back to wherever they came from.
Anyone left was either members of the Club’s staff (like the waitresses and bartenders) or were simply too powerful to be all that perturbed by a Keeper vs Keeper shootout. Like that angel chick, a demon with giant flaming horns I hadn’t noticed earlier, the T-Rex guy, and his rhinoceros rival.
Philips and Blitz pulled out their guns and fired at us, not caring who got hit in the crossfire, only missing because Tabitha thought ahead and kicked a nearby table up into the path of their fire. The table shredded as their rounds tore through it, but it bought us enough time to scatter and take cover.
Human security forces suddenly rappelled down from slits in the ceiling and immediately started firing on Tabitha and I the second their feet touched the ground. They clearly didn’t give a shit who they hit with their fire either, as several of the screaming cocktail waitresses were mowed down as they ran for cover.
Cassidy was gunned down as she ran towards the bar. By the looks of it, it was either Philips or Blitz who shot her, and neither agent seemed to care.
Bastards.
Tabitha yanked out her pistols and started strafing and firing, guns akimbo, mowing down some of the humans firing at her with her unwavering precision and ferocity. Every shot she took connected. Fuck, she was hot.
I drew my new weapons. Upgraded models of the Roulette, both of these guns had red blades instead of the original blue and had a bunch of new firing modes I could not wait to test out. Instead of having just the one cylinder, this version had two which could be modified separately and fired simultaneously. Olson called this model the Roulette Rouge.
I leveled one of my guns straight at Blitz and Philips, spraying out a fine mist of rapid-fire shots that all started tracking towards them as both agents dove for cover. These shots tracked right to both of them, super combining and detonating whenever enough of the charged particles found the same mark. I had gone with incendiary in one cylinder and toxic in the other, so fire and poisonous gas suddenly broke out as both Keepers ducked and weaved.
Since I had them pinned down and focused on evading the gas and flames, I cycled my other Roulette Rouge over to sonic ammo and clicked it into the grenade configuration; aiming up at the glass cage. Both of the kids were gone and the hatches were unsealed, so hopefully that meant they had gotten clear. I launched two heavy rounds up into the cage, shattering it and raining glass down all across the nightclub.
Capitalizing upon this distraction, I took down three of the human security personnel with perfectly aimed headshots and kicked a table that crushed another one flat. These monster upgrades were kicking some serious ass. I already felt like a supersoldier just with the mix of primal, manticore, and werewolf powers coursing through my veins.
A little voice in the back of my head reminded me of how horrified I had been when I killed two vampires, and pointed out that I was now thrilled to be cutting down humans. I told the little voice to shut the fuck up so I could go be a badass.
Blitz and Philips must have found some fresh cover because they started firing back, forcing me to dash inside an empty booth to avoid getting struck by their shots. A fluttering of feathers speeding off through the dense green vapors swirling around the ceiling of the club caught my eye.
Io’s voice suddenly cut in. “Ryan, climb! I’ve scanned the area and it looks like you’re in the underground network that crisscrosses Eastport. If you two can get up to where they keep the monsters caged you should be able to slip into the old subway tunnels. But you need to go now! They’ve got more troops on their way to surround you! I’ve got something that’ll buy you some time!” As she said this, Buster suddenly flew up through the unsealed hatchway and into the upper level.
Tabitha dropped two more security guys and then started climbing up one of their ropes dangling from the ceiling. I dove from cover and started firing at anything that moved, covering her and keeping the pressure up on Blitz and Philips.
I held down the trigger on my left Roulette gunblade, unleashing a concentrated spray of cryo-rounds that pelted Blitz’s position with a barrage of icy particles. With my right still in grenade-launcher mode, I took careful aim for Philips and fired the second he peeked his head out; hitting him with a concussive blast that sent him flying into the booth occupied by the barely-dressed angelic woman.
This guy seriously took the time to wink at her as he picked himself up and got back in the fight, but by then Blitz was out of the picture. Enough of the cryo-rounds had collected on the table he was using for cover that they all super combined and detonated; releasing a frigid blast that encased Blitz in ice.
I holstered my left Roulette Rouge so it could automatically reload and swapped firing modes on the one in my right hand, foregoing the grenade launcher option in favor of the hand-cannon mode so I could fire round after round of high-powered armor-piercing shots toward Agent Philips; forcing him to take cover.
“All clear up top, Ryan. Climb!” Tabitha reported via comm.
I ran for a dangling rappel line and dragged myself straight up into the second story. Philips hit me with three shots to the back, but my armor deflected each round. Without my newly-acquired healing factor, it would have probably left quite a nasty bruise. Instead it just hurt for a few seconds and faded by the time I pulled myself up amidst all the monster cages. Perks of being me, I guess.
The nightclub’s upper story was filled to the brim with monsters trapped in metal cages.
Dozens of assorted men, women, and children were trapped here like animals. These people were being enslaved and forced to fight to the death for others’ entertainment. It sickened me in a way I had never been sickened before.
Down below I heard a screech right out of a dinosaur horror movie and then a thundering charge. Looked like Rexy and his Rhino pal finally decided not to let bygones be bygones. The entire club shook with the impact of their blows, and I caught a glimpse of them boxing one another like a pair of finely-dressed kaiju.
Hopefully their bout of fisticuffs would keep Philips and Blitz distracted long enough for me and Tabitha to get these people free.
The little girl and the little boy were busy trying to remove each other’s collars. Stepping over to them, I introduced myself and used one of my blades to cut them both free. They stared at me afterwards as if they could barely register that I was not trying to hurt them.
I raised my voice to address all of the caged monsters. “Who wants to go free?”
Tabitha gave me back my glasses and donned her shades so we both had access to our HUD again. Together, we freed the first half-dozen and then instructed them to free the others as we were forced to fight off a few waves of some more human security forces. Luckily for us, the freed prisoners started picking weapons off the thugs and helping us, or we would have been overwhelmed pretty quick. She spurred them on with constant orders to hurry up so they could all get free, and Io fed information to our HUDs highlighting a path we could take up to the surface.
There was this absolutely adorable pink slime girl who slid out of her cage at the first sign that we were really there to help. She looked like it was taking everything she had to muster up enough courage to even speak, but she asked me how she could help. I handed her one of my Roulette Rouges—with the safety on—and told her to start opening cages and freeing prisoners using the energy blades. She ran off to do as she was bid while Tabby and I gunned down anyone who tried to interfere.
Philips and Blitz made no attempt to climb up and attack us. They probably high-tailed it the moment that Blitz thawed out from his unexpected ice bath. At least that was my working theory. Right then I had bigger things to focus on then the whereabouts of a pair of rogue Keepers.
The second the last cage was open, I withdrew my blades from the chest of the latest human security officer and raised my voice so everybody could hear me. “Tabitha, lead the way! Everyone else! Follow my partner, stay as silent as possible, and don’t get lost. I’ll bring up the rear.” When Tabby looked like she was going to argue I added under my breath, “No time to argue. I’m the only one besides you who can see the way. Get moving.”
Tabitha still looked like she wanted to fight but she trusted me enough to obey.
I picked off a few more security personnel as the long procession started moving. To my surprise, that pink slime girl suddenly came up to me—the fact that she, like most of the prisoners, was stark naked was only mildly distracting…even though she had the roundest, juiciest ass I’d ever seen—and pointed to the gun I had given her.
“How do I make mine do all the cool stuff yours does? I want to help, too!”
I gave her a run-down on some of the basics as we ran, and told her to head to the middle of the pack and keep them safe. Despite the imminent mortal danger we were all in, my eyes lingered on her hourglass figure as she jogged off to obey my command.
Tabitha and Io may had successfully convinced me about the whole ‘sleeping with other monster girls’ thing after all. I would have to let them know.
Buster, Io’s trusty magical drone, flitted up and landed on a piece of pipe protruding from the brick wall. In my ear I heard her sultry voice cut in. “Alright, team. I’m reading fewer and fewer heat signatures heading your way. I’ve scouted your entire path and left remote sensors deployed all the way up to the subway entrance. Now I’m going to go use Buster to send these goons on a unicorn hunt. Wish him luck!”
I silently saluted the brave little drone, and the mechanical pigeon saluted me back before darting back the way we had come from and swooping off down a different tunnel. He began making all the loud noises one would expect a group of harried survivors to be making.
On my HUD I watched the encroaching heat signatures peel off from our trail and follow the bird. I waited behind cover for a few extra seconds to be absolutely sure none of them had gotten wise to our little tactic. When no one emerged and started moving towards me, I started heading after the retreating figure of that pink slime girl. What a view.
Keeping my Roulette Rouge out and at the ready, I moved to catch up with her.
A few twists and turns through the brick and concrete subterranean system later, there was a rumbling detonation behind me that shook the walls.
“RIP Buster,” Io reported. “I led seven goons into a dead end and activated his self-destruct, taking them all with him. You two are on your own from here on out. My flock is scouring your exit for any trouble and I’m sending your vehicle to you via auto-pilot. Let me know if you run into any trouble.”
“Sorry about your drone, girl. Maybe alert a medical team to be standing by when we arrive topside with all these injured prisoners?” Tabitha suggested.
“Already done. EPPD and Paramedics are standing by.
“Thanks, Io. Couldn’t have done it without you, baby girl,” I admitted.
“See it’s compliments like that that get your dick sucked, Ryan. Keep it up,” Io replied with a promissory note in her voice.
With that to look forward to, who can blame me for continuing on through the maze of tunnels with a bit of a spring in my step? No one, that’s who.