Chapter 7: Gas Attack

Nitro:

“Go to sleep,” I say, firing my gas gun and unleashing a cloud of purple smoke. As the smoke spreads, it knocks out all the employees and they drop to the floor within seconds. Stepping over their unconscious bodies, I wipe the lens of my gas mask as I look around the 16th floor.

“Server room," I say. "Server room. Where is that stinking server room?"

I look around for the server room but stop when I hear someone yelling.

“Stop right there,” a security guard says, running onto the floor. However, as soon as he enters, he breathes in my knockout gas and falls to the floor.

Now stepping over the unconscious security guard, I check all the doors. It takes a while but after the fifth or sixth door, I find one that is locked.

"This must be it," I say, stepping back.

Opening my trench coat, I unscrew the canister of knockout gas and switch it with a canister of acid gas. I load the acid gas into my gun and then fire.

A dark green smoke cloud hits the locked door. I only have to wait a few minutes before the door melts away. As the door melts and flows into the carpet, I step over the puddle and enter the room with all the servers. Tall, blacks, and covered in blinking lights, all the servers look the exact same.

“According to the boss,” I say, reaching for a flash drive in my pocket. “All I have to put this in and wait a few minutes. Once it’s done loading, I have to return with the information.”

Looking around, I see a USB port and plug in the flash drive.

The boss is right. I don't have to wait very long. The loading bar reaches 50 percent in only a minute. As I wait, I hear something coming from the outside.

"What's that?"

I check the bar again, the loading bar showing 60%, before stepping out.

QuickShot:

“They’re okay,” I say, turning back to the others after checking their pulse. “They’re just unconscious.”

“What happened here,” SpeedBlade asks, carefully stepping onto the floor.

“I’m not sure,” JumpStart replies, “I couldn't see much. There was so sort of gas blocking the cameras.”

Getting up from my knee, I wave my hand. There is some sort of purple smoke cloud on this office floor. The whole place is deserted, with everyone laying on the floor.

“Hey,” Justice says, tapping me on the shoulder. “Are you sure you should be here? Your quiver only had a few arrows in it.”

“I have no choice,” I say. I eye JumpStart who's whispering and turning his head away. Despite his best effort, after flooding my room, JumpStart did manage to get my bow and my quiver, but he couldn't get all my arrows. Apparently, my new slime formula harden faster than expected, almost to a point where we couldn't break it easily. Most of my arrows are still buried somehow in that slime pile. 

"I apologized," JumpStarts says. "Okay. I apologized the whole time on the way over here. Will you please stop bringing it up? I'm sorry. Okay! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I am so sorry!"

JumpStart repeats himself but I stop him when I see someone steps out of a room and into the hallway.

"Shh," I say, putting up my hand. "Be quiet, and it's fine. But you are cleaning my room."

"Aaawwww."

As the person turns, I slowly approach him and raise my hand.

"We're here to help," I say, "Are you okay? What happened here?"

“I’m fine,” the person answers. For some strange reason, it sounds like his voice is echoing. “Someone came in here and sprayed the entire floor with knockout gas.”

“Knockout gas,” I repeat. “Where is this person?”

“He’s standing in front of him,” the person answers, stepping out of the hallway and onto the floor.

The person, turning out to be a tall man, is dressed in a long black trench coat and is wearing a gas mask. On his back is a rusted green tube and in his hands is a long, black blaster.

“OutCasts," the man shouts. "I presume. Take a deep breath, and fall!"

The man then raises his blaster and fires it. Instead of a beam, however, the man seems to be unleashing some sort of purple gas.

“What,” I yell, jumping back. The smoke creeping toward me, I pull out an arrow and load it. Pulling back the bowstring, I shoot it at the man.

My arrow bursts out into a net and snares the man. He screams as he struggles to pull it off. Despite already being on the floor, the purple gas blocks us.

“Get back,” Justice yells, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me back. "QuickShot! Get back!"

The four of us back away as the purple smoke keep on creeping toward us.

“Idea,” JumpStart says, “Anyone? Any ideas at all?”

“Uhh, fans,” Justice answers. “Or maybe opening a window?”

“Here an idea,” SpeedBlade yells, “Run!”

With no other options, we turn and run down a nearby hallway.

Nitro:

Finally tearing off the net and throwing it to the side, I get up and look around. The OutCasts are gone. I'm all alone. I look at the hallway they disappear into and the room with the flash drive.

"I have time," I think, switching canisters. "I'm not going to get beaten by a group of freaks."

I rise my blaster and walk down the hallway.

QuickShot:

Peeking around a corner, I let out a sigh when I see an empty hallway.

"It's clear," I say, turning back to the others. Ms. Justice, JumpStart, and SpeedBlade are all panting, trying to catch their breaths.

"Okay," Ms. Justice says, straightening herself. "What now? How do we take out Gassy?"

"I have no idea," I reply. "With that gas gun of his, I don't think it would be too smart to get close to him."

"That could be a little troublesome," JumpStart says. "You're the only one with range. The three of us are more, up close and personal."

"Maybe I could try and sneak behind him," SpeedBlade suggests, taking out his sword. "With my speed, I can run around him."

"That kind works," I say, thinking it over, "But that means having to figure out which of these hallways will lead you behind him."

I look around. With the lights above out and no signs or map, the floor is essentially one big maze. Each pitch-black hallway is to a series of more pitch-black hallways.

"If we choose wrong," I say, "You could be running right into him."

"That is true," SpeedBlade says, "But what other options do we have?"

JumpStart:

Looking up, I see the lights hanging from the ceiling. I can't be sure, but they look okay. They must be something wrong with the power then.

"If I could fix the power," I think, "Maybe that could help us. At the very least, we can see."

"Hey guys," I say, looking back down. "I think I mean have an idea but--."

Before I can finish, I see green smoke pouring out from one of the hallways. Even before I have time to warn the others, a lot of green smoke has already entered the narrow hallway we're in.

QuickShot turning around, she pushes all back.

"Get back," she yells, "Get back now."

All of us stepping back, we watch as the walls and even part of the floor starts to melt.

"What is that," Ms. Justice asks.

"It's acid gas," the man with the mask answers, walking through it. As he walks through it, he reminds completely unharmed. His coat doesn't seem to be melting at all.

"Acid gas," Justice repeats. "How on Earth did you get that Gassy?"

"My name's not Gassy. It's Nitro, and it's my own formula."

Rising his blaster, Nitro starts to fire off more of the acid gas. The gas almost instantly starts to melt the walls. They begin to collapse onto each other, folding before falling.

"Get back," QuickShot yells again when a wall right next to us falls. Reaching for arrows in her quiver, she loads three of them into her bow and fires.

Nitro seeing this quickly jumps behind a corner and watches as the arrows fly past him.

"Run," QuickShot says, turning around.

Nodding our heads, we run down the hallway before reaching a crossroads. With very little time to spare, we pick to go down the left hallway.

"Big mistake," I yell, seeing a dead-end at the end of the hallway. "Really, bad and big mistake."

We turn to run but stop when we see Nitro standing in front surrounded by his acid gas.

"Nowhere left to run," he says.

The four of us backing away, I look at QuickShot.

"Anytime you want to fire another arrow," I say.

"I can't," QuickShot says. "I only have two arrows left and they're the slime arrows."

"Slime arrows?"

"Yes, slime arrows, and not the ones from before. The new one from earlier this morning."

Memories of QuickShot's new slime arrow breaking apart and practically throwing me out of her room charge into my head.

"I can't use those," QuickShot says. "We're trapped."