In Doubt
They gather on the rooftop of a fifty-story building fighting against the trying-to-fly chickens launching from the streets giving a weird 'squawk' when they rammed the wall when they fail their attempt. The building had a big "A" near the rooftop as if it was a word where most letters had gone off. It was the tallest building around the area no wonder they spotted the participants instantly. It was looking like a five-star hotel in Dubai but with a flat top and it's located in the middle of the market area.
"Looks like Chicken run, huh.." Hachiro said. "Is that them, Shi-chan?" he leaped from pole to pole. He activated his Nike shoes enabling him to move at gale speed. He programmed one of the chips that Louige had given them and made use of it on the battlefield.
"Of course it's them!" Kath exclaimed, dashing on a cable wire. "Can you see any other people around, huh, Haro?" She also had a special skill activated because Hachiro gave her an empty chip which she programmed to have a ninja skill.
"Yeah... it's them!" Shichiro replied, running on a wall, wearing a holographic lens to focus on the building. "...and I guess they need our help soooo bad."
Chickens try to jump towards the group as if they really know how to fly. They flap their wings, jumping as far as they can just to get near to the rooftop and have a good game between the participants. Their googly eyes shine in the midst of the scorching sun and their feathers rain like there is a pillow fight in the middle of the street. Though the participants are not giving up their ground, they still have a hard time fighting those bunch of monster chickens. They kept on throwing different kinds of stuff available at their disposal to their enemies.
"We should hurry then..." Hachiro said. "They are in a pinch.."
They turned into a corner to have a shortcut towards the building but unfortunately, more chickens appeared in front of them.
"This is bad!" Kath exclaimed giving herself a full stop.
A chicken saw them and immediately charged. It swung its door-sized wing towards Kath's direction giving her a split second to dodge. She barely escaped in a thin hair.
"Kath!" Hachiro exclaimed and grabbed her arm to avoid the impact.
Shichiro blocked the wing and deflected it back to the chicken making it lose its balance.
"Are you alright?" Hachiro asked.
"Thanks for saving me.." Kath muttered and tried to stand on her own. "I thought I'm a goner.."
"Let's have the talking later! We need to get out of here!" Shichiro exclaimed, sending a chicken back to its comrades. "They're coming, you know!"
"Ahh.. you're right.. let's get outta here!" Hachiro replied and took out his sword. He swing it to the chicken who charged at him making the chicken disintegrate to nothingness.
They dashed back to their previous route and leaped from pole to pole to get to the building as fast as they can and shake the chickens on their tail.
"I guess I can use a bomb!" Hachiro exclaimed.
"A bomb?" Kath asked. "For what?!"
"To eradicate those chickens on the building front.." he replied. "That'll immediately wipe them out."
"Do you have one?" Kath asked.
"Yeah.. I have one. It will wipe them out in an instant I swear..." Hachiro replied, "...but we need to gather them around to maximize the blast..."
"Okay,," Kath said. "Then, we just need to gather them in a circle, right?"
"How do we do that?" Shichiro exclaimed.
"I have this item, it might help us on your plan!" Kath said.
"Ahh.. please do!"
They parted ways as they approached the building to get to their plan of extinguishing the chickens in one blow. Kath went right, Shichiro went left and Hachiro dashed towards the middle.
They were spotted by the chickens that made them destroy their formation. Each of them tried to settle for an opponent but it made them confused. Some turned away from their rooftop pursuit and settle to Hachiro's group but that took them to a disadvantage. They charged towards them though they were hit by the ammos dropped from the rooftop but they kept their attacks.
Kath and Shichiro successfully laid their golden string around the chickens getting them trapped inside the circle.
"How was that, huh!" Kath shouted, holding the end of the string. "That's Ariadne's string for you bastards!!" She bragged.
"Yeah!" Shichiro exclaimed.
"That's reliable!" Hachiro shouted back. "Then, it's time for me to take the spotlight!"
He jumped very high, with the help of his Nike (Nike the goddess, not the shoe brand) shoe skill, that made him reach his axis.
"Ready?!" he exclaimed. Having heard the signal, the two jumped high and run on the wall to escape the explosion.
"Have a taste of the Phantom Shoot!" he shouted and threw a ball of nuclear bomb activated only by pitching a cutter ball.
It gave off a huge explosion that send them flying.
"That hurts.." Hachiro muttered rubbing his head off the pain.
Eyes stared at them, both in awe and fright, as if they are gods who fell from the sky. Hachiro stood and scanned the area trying to recognize the faces of nine people gathered around them but he felt too dizzy to do it though he saw a manhole cover turning on the corner before it dropped on the floor.
"That was awesome, dude.." one person said, patting his back. People started to gather around him.
He tried to get some distance but he was too dizzy enough not to do so. He's still fixated on the manhole cover.
"That thing saved us back there.." he thought. "I should get that as a souvenir."
"I think that's ridiculous.." a girl added. He saw her crossed her arms.
"Brat," he thought.
"I'm sorry about what happened but..." Hachiro replied, "...that ward off the chickens, right?" he tried to sound convincing. He's gaining his consciousness back to normal.
"Thanks to that...we're having a hard time dealing with those monsters for a while now.." a boy person approached them. He was wearing a blue school uniform with a logo on the left breast that Hachiro didn't recognize. His crew-cut hair and piercing gray eyes gave him the impression that he's a leader type of a guy, one that can deal with worse situations and can be a dire enemy. "I'm Drake... nice to meet you," the man said, "And thanks for taking care of this girl.." he grabbed Kath's collar.
"You know him, Kath?" Hachiro asked.
"Ahh,, he's one of our comrades from QATSU.." Kath answered. "Glad to see you're fine, Drake.."
"QATSU? Oh, you've mentioned about that.." Hachiro answered. He faced Drake and said, "That's nothing... she saved me back there as well.. I'm just returning the favor." He added.
"He's Haro... he's from GSSTI." Kath said.
Drake scanned Hachiro's stats and profile to check on him.
"You read this as "Haro", huh?" Drake stared at the guy's nameplate consisting of 2 characters, one with a pair of legs and the other is like a number 3. He doubtedly faced Kath.
"Yeah,, I know this much, idiot. I've studied a book called Nihongo for dummies." She smiled at Hachiro. "Right, Haro-san?"
Hachiro faked a smile and looked away.
"Nice to meet you then, Haro," Drake said.
"Anyway.. what do we have here, Drake?" Kath asked.
Drake saw that grim feature of Hachiro's face, he got the feels that the friend that Kath brought is suspicious but he chose to trust his friend on this matter for now.
"I dunno.." he bluntly replied, "...for the meantime, we gathered most of the participants from our group here to have a clear view of the city," Drake explained. "As you can see, that barn appeared that might be the place on this area, we have a few remaining ammos and we have 9 people here but..."
"I know.." Hachiro said. "It's only a matter of time before we got ourselves into the depths of the abyss, right?"
"You are well known regarding this matter, huh?" Drake eyed him "Can you tell us what ORION has been up to all this time?"
"I'm sorry to tell you this but.." Hachiro took a deep breath. "We were sent here knowing the danger up ahead. We have a goal to achieve and that's to get the hacker cornered.."
"And you people did not warn us bout this? You scum!" Drake tried to grab his collar but Kath got his hand and stood in the middle.
"This is no time for fighting.." Kath eyed him. "We can use him, his strength, his skills, and his knowledge to get through this, Drake.." she said. "All we have to do is to trust the guy! Besides, he had proven himself, right?"
"Trust?!" a familiar voice said. They looked from where the voice was coming. The wind blew strong that made her golden hair fly like a dazzling princess in a castle. Her piercing brown eyes stared at Hachiro with an intent to kill. "Pretty nice word.." she raised her gun and aimed it on Hachiro's forehead. "I wonder if he knows that kind of stuff..."
"That's kind of--"