Phantom ~ [Simon Ghost Riley]

XXXII. The necklace

"-You! Help me.." the man mutters, his voice broken and tired.

Ghost then notices the strip of dried blood on the back of his shirt, coming out of a scar on his neck. Are all the people here already chipped?

As the man's pace gets faster and he nears, static sounds over the radio. Price awaits for Laswell's voice to follow, but it doesn't. Instead, the area gets filled by a piercing ringing sound. It's a sound so loud that even Price has to press his headphones over his ears in an attempt to block out all the sounds.

Ghost curses as he too presses the headphones on his ears even harder. He could handle many things, but loud noises weren't something that went well with him. He slowly sinks to the ground, the sound being nearly unbearable.

As he looks around, he notices the men of 141 have all lowered to the ground. Whether it's voluntarily or by force.. That he isn't sure of.

Ghost then notices the man that was just running at him, begging for help. He's not running anymore. He's not begging for his life either. Instead, the man is back on his feet like usual, though he's now near one of the guards, trying to rip the gun out of the guard's hands.

It's like the chip suddenly had full control of him once more, caused by the excruciatingly loud sound.

When that thought crosses Ghost's mind, it's as though he's losing a part of himself. As the ringing continues to travel through the entire building, Ghost's vision gets cloudy. A tingling sensation forms in his hands, and even the ringing sound slowly starts to fade away.

How is this happening? He doesn't have an implant.

Ghost presses his eyes shut as hard as he can. He can't let this happen. He's not this weak...

As he looks up at the shipping container, he notices a small orange light on the top of it. Next to the light is something that looks to be a speaker. The sound is so loud that it's unclear what the exact source is, but at this point, Ghost is willing to take his chances.

As he points the tip of his gun toward the thing he hopes is a speaker, he prays that it will have no effect on Ace and the others. His finger lingers on the trigger for longer than he'd like to admit. Finally, he pulls the trigger and bullets fly toward his target.

The small box explodes into a thousand pieces with the impact of the bullets. Ghost sighs in relief as the ringing noise is replaced by a deafening silence. It takes a moment for all of them to get their hearing back, though Ghost is the first one back on his feet.

As he inspects the area again, he notices the guys of 141 slowly rising to their feet again. Keegan holds a hand against his head. It seems that the sound has gone through him roughly too. Ghost moves to help them up, making sure everyone is back up on their feet as quickly as possible.

Liam seems to be okay, to Ghost's surprise. He had expected the man to crumble to the ground like the other chipped man had done. He thought that somehow the ripped-out chip would still have an effect on him, though it appears it had done the opposite.

Price now stands in front again, his gun aimed at the man running around the main area. The piercing sound stopped, though its effect on the man did not. Had the sound given the chip some sort of reboot?

"Laswell, we need that code now.." Price growls over the comms.

"Copy John, we have it. Get to the controls," Laswell says, her voice calm and controlled.

"Don't shoot the implanted. We don't know who or what they are," Price turns to the other guys of 141. He wants to prevent hurting the innocent at any cost.