Ethos Code

Chapter 20

"What do you mean without a real neck..?" Vanta looks down, seeing the area where her hands had pushed back the fabric of 03's turtleneck. She first gets a glimpse of a shiny metal peeking out right below where her helmet starts and pushes down the fabric a little lower with her thumb, revealing the bright blue jelly-like substance characteristic of Proelium parts.  "Crap."

03 grabs Vanta's neck, choking her back. Vanta attempts to pry her fingers off but to no avail. Her fingers grip and scratch, drawing blood, but the woman's grip fails to falter.

"Vanta!" Atlas shouts, drawing his gun and cocking it. 02 approaches him, and Atlas turns his attention to the man, pointing the muzzle at his head, finger on the trigger. "Don't move."

"You think I take orders from you?" He launches himself forward, and Atlas shoots, narrowly missing 02 and hitting a mannequin behind him.  He kicks him away and shoots once more, making impact with a bulletproof shield strapped to his forearm.

"You might want to save your bullets. Once your girlfriend's dead it'll be 2-on-1."

"I'm not his girlfriend," Vanta gripes, her words strained. "And I'm not dying today." She drops her grip on 03's hands, grabbing both of her Kama and implanting them on each of 03's shoulder blades.  03 drops her grip on Vanta, grabbing at her bleeding shoulders and silently writhing in pain.  Vanta quickly stumbles to her feet, coughing and gasping for breath.

"Atlas, run!"  She shouts, taking off.  He follows her, gun aimed back at 02, shooting a bullet that makes an impact with his forearm and grabbing an old display case, throwing it to the floor with a booming clatter as wood and glass spills onto the tile.  They burst through the doors out of the mall, heaving and sweating as Atlas' palms and knuckles turn white from his grip on Vanta.  She grabs her keys from her pants pocket, flinging herself into the driver's seat and taking off the moment Atlas' butt hits the passenger seat. He takes his helmet off, panting and brushing his hair off his forehead.

"I thought you used to be a runner."  Vanta teases.

"Yeah, but now I've got less organs in me..." he gasps for air before his eyes catch movement in the car's side mirror.  "Uh... Vanny?"

"Yeah?"

"02... he's catching up to us."

"How the hell did he get in a car so fast?!"

"He didn't..." Atlas tells her.  "He's on foot."

"What the hell?"  Vanta peeks at her rearview mirror, jaw agape as she spots 02 bounding after their car, every step pushing him closer and closer to their vehicle.

"He's catching up!  Vanta, get on the freeway!"  Atlas shouts.

"I know, I know!  There's no onramps nearby!"  She yells back.

"How the hell is he doing that?!"  She shouts.  "Seatbelt on?"  She asks Atlas.

"Do I?"  He checks.  "Muscle memory.  Yeah, it's on, why?"

"Sorry for the whiplash."

"What?"

Vanta slams on the brakes, hurdling the car to a halt and slamming 02 into the back of the car. Without hesitation, she steps back on the gas, driving off before 02 could pry himself off of the asphalt.

"Frick, Vanny, I think you just killed my last brain cell..." Atlas mutters.

"I doubt you'll miss it."  She teases, and the two head back to the apartment.

02 slowly gets up, and 03 pulls up beside him in a car, getting out of the back seat to stand beside him in the middle of the street.

"Do we continue to pursue them?  What's our order?"  02 asks, pulling up his pant legs and revealing a set of Proelium prosthetics.  "And schedule me with the Prosthetist, they scratched the metal on my kneecaps."