Chapter 9: Alarm

Rayleigh knew exactly what was about to happen to him: the Silvered agent powering up before him was about to use him as a punching bag to relieve stress.

Rayleigh also figured that the agent might have deduced that he wasn’t a runer, just a worthless powerless human, and he was right.

"I wonder... what gave a non-runer such audacious wit to break into a highly secured facility run by the City’s greatest armed forces?" A dark smile played on the agent’s face as he stepped forward.

He moved one foot at a time, slow and dangerous, like a predator stalking its prey, his eyes carrying the weight of something sinister.

On the other end was Rayleigh, who seven years ago would have had his heart beating out of his chest, but was strangely calm now. His breathing remained neutral throughout. He showed no sign of tension or fright.

’He thinks I’m a non-runer. He’s probably right, but what he doesn’t know is that I have an advanced system capable of mass destruction... well, maybe not yet capable. Let him keep underestimating me. I might get out of this alive after all.’

Electricity crackled in the air around the Rune Silvered; the air around him was filled with static, and the smell of ozone washed over Rayleigh’s nose.

The electrical charge was almost at maximum capacity, and Rayleigh knew that he couldn’t wait for it to reach its crescendo. He could only think of doing one thing.

’I need to run like hell!’

Rayleigh shifted his weight. Turning around in one fluid motion, he bolted.

Specks of dust and loose stones shot up from the ground as he sprinted as fast as he could, covering a couple of meters in seconds.

’Call me a coward, but there is no way I’m taking on an ascendant ranked runer, a threat level D for that matter. I need a plan, but for now, why don’t we have a little chase.’

The display of power from the silvered agent died down, a confused look appeared on his face. He probably didn’t expect his prey to run away like a coward, but what could he expect from the powerless trash of Skylark City?

Rayleigh didn’t know it, but he sent himself, through a slingshot, into a fool’s errand to think he could outrun a Silvered agent.

The agent dashed forward with precise speed, his movements were almost blurry as he chased Rayleigh across the vast alley of the facility.

Rayleigh didn’t need to have eyes at the back of his head to figure out the agent gaining traction on him.

The alley stretched on longer than Rayleigh had planned for, with walls closing in on both sides, littered with crates and scattered junk left behind by workers who clearly didn’t care for order. ℯℯ𝑙.

Rayleigh used it to his advantage.

He knocked over a stack of crates as he passed, sending them tumbling into the agent’s path. Wood splintered against the ground behind him, but he didn’t dare look back to see if it worked.

A streak of lightning tore past his shoulder, close enough that he felt the heat of it graze his skin.

’Bloody fuckery, he’s fast!’ Rayleigh cursed, veering sideways just as another bolt cracked against the wall where his head had been a second ago.

The agent wasn’t just fast, his attacks were and they carried accuracy.

Rayleigh kept moving, weaving between more crates, kicking a barrel into his path for good measure. Another streak of lightning split the air behind him, missing by inches.

Up ahead, the alley finally came to an end — a sharp corner turning right, out toward the open.

’This is it.’

Rayleigh’s mind calculated like a supercomputer as he closed the distance, his legs burning and lungs screaming for air he didn’t have time to give them.

One would expect Rayleigh to take that sharp turn, but that wasn’t the whole purpose of running away. It was all intentional.

Instead of taking the turn, he planted his foot hard against the wall and pushed off, launching himself into the air.

’ARS, I need a weapon, now!’

►[ Weapons System is active ]

►[ Select a weapon ]

Time seemed to slow as he twisted mid-air, sailing clean over the agent’s head before landing behind him with a soft thud, dust kicking up around his boots.

"Give me anything!" Rayleigh bellowed

The agent froze, caught off guard, already turning to face him.

Rayleigh didn’t give him the chance.

►[ Plasma Stun Gun Selected ]

A flash of blue light rippled in the air above Rayleigh’s palm, blue luminescent particles gathered and folded into shape out of thin air. In an instant, the light solidified into solid metal.

A plasma gun had appeared out of nowhere. It was sleek, matte black with thin blue pulsing veins running along its barrel.

A small chamber near the muzzle glowed brighter with every passing second, charging on its own.

The agent was just turning around when Rayleigh raised the gun and fired.

Whoosh!

A streak of pure blue energy shot out, closing the distance before the agent could react, and it struck him square in his back.

The impact sent him lurching forward and crashing into the brick wall, his body dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

All it took was a single shot from an energy weapon to bring an Ascendant Ranked Silvered agent down.

’Highly secured? Really?’

Rayleigh studied the weapon with keen curiosity, wondering how such a small weapon could inflict such damage to a person, a runer for that matter.

► [ Plasma Stun Gun. This is an energy weapon designed to tear through hard armor. It shoots a highly concentrated plasma beam that stuns upon contact. Its origin is unknown ]

"Plasma Stun Gun sounds like a multipurpose weapon. I can use it to cause damage and also incapacitate my enemies."

Rayleigh took one last look at the Silvered whose body lay sprawled on the floor. The plasma stun beam left a hole in his armor. His skin underneath was also burnt, but he was still alive.

On a very normal day, a Silvered agent wouldn’t go down easy. Rayleigh had a bit of luck, and the Silvered agent had his guard down the entire time. He hadn’t expected Rayleigh to pull out such a move on him.

One couldn’t expect much from a non-runer.

Shooting another beam would be an instant kill, Rayleigh knew that.

"Deactivate Weapons System." Rayleigh commanded with a stern tone. In as much as he’d like to take out some Silvereds for the years of the horrid treatment against non-runers, he wasn’t a killer. Not yet, at least.

Without wasting much time, Rayleigh rifled through the agent’s unconscious body, searching for his access card.

’While I’m at it, why don’t I just steal his uniform? It’d be easier to navigate this facility dressed up as one of them.’

◇◇◇

Rayleigh pulled open the ventilation shaft and crawled his way through the tube once again, this time with a lanyard for access and a Silvered agent’s uniform for easy maneuvering.

He pressed the lanyard against the scanner. A sharp beep echoed through the tube, followed by an unlocking mechanism.

Exiting the ventilation shaft, Rayleigh now stood inside the Silvered facility made of white polished floors and ceilings made of reinforced steel and concrete.

It made Rayleigh wonder why so much effort was made to secure the ceiling compared to the walls and doors – the potential routes for escaping.

No one would want to escape through the ceiling. Would they?

The hallway stretched in two directions, left and right.

Rayleigh sighed wearily. He had no idea what direction he was supposed to go now.

Something clicked in his memory almost instantly. ’The blueprint. I absorbed it!’

He didn’t know the right command but he mumbled a few words and something happened.

A map appeared right before his eyes. The edges, corners and turns – doors included – all matched the interior of the facility.

A red trail lit up along the floor plan, cutting through the layout and leading further down the hallway, toward the right.

’That has to be him. My mission.’

Rayleigh followed the trail.

The hallway eventually ended at a heavy steel door; however, two Silvered guards stood watch.

They straightened up the moment Rayleigh came into view.

"What do you need?" one of them asked.

Rayleigh said the first thing that came to his head. "I have orders to move the prisoner to another cell."

The two guards exchanged a glance.

"We didn’t receive that update. Who gave the order?"

Rayleigh’s mind blanked for half a second, he wanted to drop another elaborate lie but the words couldn’t form properly and he knew stalling any longer would only dig him deeper.

’If I can hit both of them hard enough, I can knock them out before they can even react.’ Rayleigh analyzed carefully.

He knew them to be weaker than the first agent he defeated few minutes earlier. Taking them out should be a walk in the park.

Without another word, Rayleigh swung his fist as hard as he could.

Fortunately, his knuckles flawlessly connected with the first guard’s head, slamming it into the wall beside him. The man dropped instantly, unconscious before he even hit the ground.

However, the second guard was already fully alerted.

He was about to use a rune ability, but he was too slow. Rayleigh closed the distance and struck him down just as fast, his body crumpling to the floor beside the first.

Rayleigh ranked these two somewhere around Awakened. Their threat level shouldn’t be any more than a D. He didn’t need an ID to tell him.

"That was fun..." Rayleigh exhaled, shaking out his fists, then pressed the stolen lanyard against the door’s scanner.

It beeped, and the door slid open.

Inside, a man sat slumped against the far wall with his wrists bound together. His eyes slowly lifted up at the sound of the door opening.

"Ron Kol?" Rayleigh asked.

The man said nothing.

"Come with me. Now."

BEEP! BEEP!

An alarm went off, blaring loudly. The lights in the hallway changed instantly, replaced by an incessant blinking red light.

Rayleigh wasn’t moved, he was merely disappointed. "Oh, no. I must have tried an alarm."

Breaking in and getting to Ron Kol was a success.

The question now was how he would break out when an army of highly trained Silvered agents was about to come busting through the hallway.