Nervously, he pulled the trigger two more times.
The rogue agent mustered up his willpower, his fingertips began to twitch. In the few seconds it took for Felix to grab a fresh magazine from under his coat, Harbinger broke free from paralysis and immediately shot at him.
Dozens of glass fragments splintered through the air as the bullet narrowly missed the blue-eyed agent.
"What a cute toy!" Harbinger gleefully unloaded the rest of his rounds.
Metal shrieked. Sparks burst out of machines.
Panic ran through the agent and he darted behind another server. With his back pressed against the ebony machine, Felix breathed and looked at the top of his gun, the glassy black grid was now glowing red, a sign that it was almost out of battery.
"Not now…" He only had a second to look disheartened, as the sound gunfire immediately reminded him that he was still in a battle.
"Does he ever run out of bullets?" Felix growled, but paused as a question hit him, "…Wait… does Marie ever run out of knives?"
Felix was lost in thought for half a second, but was brought back by a bullet punching chunks out of the server inches from his head. He turned his head towards the broken machine, and through the hole, he saw Harbinger reloading.
With a blank expression, he kicked it towards his enemy, boots scraping against the floor.
Harbinger was startled as the server hurtled through the air, quickly ducking beneath it.
As it crashed towards the others, they toppled over like large, mechanical dominoes.
"Inhuman…" A bead of sweat rolled down his face, breathing heavily as he got back up.
"The Child of…" Before the last word left his lips, a blade carved the air, leaving a trail of light. It grazed his cheek — just enough to sting.
Harbinger glanced over and saw the cracked blade. He dropped his gun and pulled out another one from his thigh.
A wave of malice surged out of him as he scanned the area, looking for her above. Only to bend backwards and see her behind him, standing atop one of the servers.
He began raining lead at the dark-haired woman.
Maria instinctively reached behind her, only to mutter, "Shit, that was my last knife..."
She moved as quickly as Harbinger aimed, leaping above one server after the next. Each successive round burst through the servers, scattering metal bits.
Covered in wounds and gasping for air, the older man pulled a rectangular object from his top hat, murmuring to himself, "Might as well…"
In the shadows, Felix felt a strain in his arm, the bandage wrapped around it began to feel warm and wet. He staggered forward, but as he returned to the battle, he froze, something fell above him.
"Twenty five." Blinked on a red digital timer.
Instinct kicked in, he clenched his bleeding hand, ready to punch it away.
Twenty seconds.
Before it could land, a cable hissed, unwinding, and snapping the explosive in the claw.
"Run out of grenades?" Maria pulled away the counting bomb.
Wasting no time, she improvised. Perched atop one of the ebony machines, she turned her grappling hook into a makeshift whip, slithering to her will, restricting his movements.
Sixteen seconds.
The cord slid around and over her shoulders like a meteor hammer.
Up and down, left and right, she left no room for Harbinger to go into the offensive. But as he strayed far from her, a gunshot cracked, striking his shoulder. Shallow, but enough to draw blood.
Pinned between Felix's cover fire and Maria's bomb-whip, the ex-agent held back. Left to bide his time, his breathing grew ragged, his wounds accumulating. But he only needed to wait a few more seconds.
The explosive began to beep, and a smile formed on his face.
Five seconds.
Maria noticed the crimson countdown. Using both hands, she slammed down the explosive towards Harbinger, only for the rogue agent to shoot the explosive back towards her.
The rectangular charge spun wildly through the air.
Her eyes widened in response.
Three.
"Get down!"
Two.
The metal cord took an unnaturally sharp downwards turn, slamming straight to the floor.
— Click.
All three operatives were blasted away as fire and shrapnel erupted brightened the room.
A cacophony of crumbling followed. Debris rained down above them as the ceiling snapped. Countless shards clattered to the ground as the ebony pillars were swept clear from the epicenter.
Tremors caught the attention of the guards below, narrowing down their search.
The window walls around them had cracked, and let the frigid air slowly seep out with a silent whistle. The blast left a dark crater on the ground, which quickly collapsed into a large hole.
Dizzy and lightheaded, Felix opened his eyes and felt a stream of red liquid flowing out of his forehead, "…I hope this counts as minimum damage."
But as he dragged himself up, he found himself unable to move — His right arm buried under the rubble of the ceiling. Memories flashed in his mind of a similar event. A clear memory of his own mangled leg, buried underneath a fragment of a concrete wall.
He gritted his teeth, lifting the debris with only hand. But he froze as he heard a groan a few feet away.
Rubble shifted, and Harbinger slowly got up, pain visibly radiating from his movement. His top hat was on the floor, showing his disheveled brown hair.
Felix used every ounce of strength he could muster, he pushed the rubble away and tried to slide out. But his face turned pale as it cleared out. His arm was tangled in a web of wires, a shard of glass from the metal server protruding through his flesh.
Trapped, he chipped at the glass, scraping off skin and flesh.
"...Tofu bricks." Harbinger grumbled, staring at the hole on the ground.
Panic began to set in as he watched Harbinger pull out a magazine and reload his gun.
Felix frantically scanned for something he could use, and saw his silver pistol lying a few feet away from him. Clenching his teeth, he stretched out his arm, barely reaching the tip of his gun, while the disheveled veteran had already aimed his.
He squeezed his eyes shut, sweat sliding down his face.
Harbinger fired — with a loud bang, a splatter could be heard spilling across the ground.
"Felix…" She softly whispered.
He opened his mismatched eyes to see the silhouette standing right in front of him.
"I'm pretty sure… you're the one supposed to be protecting me…" Maria muttered softly, a red streak running down her smirk.
"M-Marie?" Felix voice cracked as her blood dripped over his face.
As she fell on top of him, his ears began to ring.
Harbinger walked towards the two of them, "Don't mind me… I'm just here for the drive."
He reached into Maria's back pocket, taking the drive and placing it in his vest pocket.
Marie?
Marie, come on… get up.
You're okay right? Stop kidding around… Come on…
You're a little too heavy, you know that?
Get up… come on, get up. Marie…
The brown-haired veteran looked at the two with a curious expression, "Felix? Felix Aster? You must be the Black Cat of Ruin." He groaned, "That explains the glowing blue eye… I was fooled into thinking it was cybernetics."
As he walked towards them, Felix started panting as his body began to boil from within, "I'll kill you!"
"You've been doing a terrible job at that." Harbinger scoffed, cocking his gun.
Felix snapped the broken glass protruding from his arm, using it to sever the wires, slicing through his black sleeve, causing his arm to gash open.
With a vicious growl, his skin and flesh pulled apart just to strike the rogue agent's face.
Harbinger's knees buckled as he staggered back. His gun clattered to the floor as a red stream leaked out of his nose. But he looked back at the young agent and grinned, "Was that supposed to be a punch? Please."
He struck back, Felix blocked, but the force caused him to bounce off the ground. His mismatched eyes went blank.
"This will probably shock you, but you can't hit hard when your muscles are all torn up." Harbinger picked up his gun and aimed at the young man facing down on the ground, "Please forgive me, but… no loose ends."