Vlad was a damage dealer, so he was a very dangerous opponent to deal with. Moreover, we could not only get our weapons in the Training Room, but we could also use our abilities there. Without Nate helping me, there was no way I could defeat Vlad on my own. I had once tried and failed miserably.
So I punched the button for the Preparation Room instead, and the elevator began its descent.
When the door slid open, I just listened for a moment. No sound reached my ears, which meant that nobody was in this part of the space station. I walked to the weapon disperser and retrieved my submachine gun.
Vlad had somehow found a way to bring a gun to the Control Room. Ever since it happened, I had been trying to accomplish the same. However, I had failed every time. At some point, I had simply given up. Now that Vlad was planning to kill us, I resolved to resume my attempts to solve the mystery.
Holding my submachine gun in my hands, I returned to the elevator and got inside. As expected, it refused to work.
For the next several hours I was trying to get the elevator to work, yet all in vain.
Later on, frustrated, I returned to the Control Room, having found no way of bringing a weapon to this room.
The next few days we spent on the space station. Vlad had not attempted to attack us. Not yet. He and Tamerlan spent most of the time at the firing range. Every now and then, they returned to the Control Room, though. When it happened, all of us were on edge. We knew what Vlad was up to. Moreover, he was well aware of the fact. He was no fool. He knew very well that Tamerlan had told us everything.
He did not talk to Nate and me, and the two of us did not try to speak with him either. He hated us and we hated him, and there was no need to pretend to be friends anymore.
However, while he could bring his pistol to the Control Room, he did not attempt to kill us there. And I knew why. Sure, he could just point his pistol at us and open fire, but there was a little problem with that.
While we could not use our Active and Ultimate Abilities in the Control Room, our Passive Abilities were available there. One of the skills for his Passive Ability infused the bullets he fired with dark energy, turning them into mini-grenades. One such bullet would be more than enough to kill me. My own Passive Ability would not be much of a help in such a situation.
Vlad, however, was an altogether different matter. His Passive Ability was a kinetic shield, which he had already fully upgraded. It was very tough and powerful by that point. Vlad would have to fire a few dark-energy-infused bullets to destroy his kinetic shield. And Nate would not just stand there, of course. As soon as Vlad opened fire on him, Nate would rush toward him. Would Vlad be able to destroy Nate’s kinetic shield before he got within striking range? It was anybody’s guess.
It was why Vlad was reluctant to attack us in the Control Room. When he was in there, I could tell that he was looking in Nate’s and my direction, believing that we were not aware of the fact. When I would turn my head to look back at him, he would instantly look away. He clearly thought hard, trying to find a way of taking us out. I knew that he would not attack us until he came up with a foolproof way of dealing with both of us.
When he walked out of the Control Room—as always dragging Tamerlan with him anywhere we went—I would leave the Control Room as well in order to find a way to bring a gun in there. It was obvious that Vlad would sooner or later attack us, so I had to find a way to get a weapon to the Control Room. Without any guns, our chances of defeating him would be slim should he attack us in the Control Room.
I thought hard, trying to come up with a way of getting around the restriction that did not allow me to bring my weapon to the Control Room.
A few hours later, I stood in the elevator car with my submachine gun in my left hand, none of my ideas having been successful.
Anger rose in me.
“Dammit,” I muttered. “How the fuck did you do it?”
I could no longer keep my anger in check. Balling my hand into a fist, I banged it against the inner wall of the elevator car.
“Dammit,” I yelled as I kept punching the wall until my knuckles began to bleed.
Pain brought me back to my senses. I just stood there as blood trickled down my fingers and dropped down, forming a small red pool on the floor.
There was some noise outside the elevator. I turned my head and saw one of the cleaning drones rolling down the corridor toward the elevator. It got inside and began to clean my mess. After it wiped off the floor, it rotated around and rolled out of the elevator car.
An idea came to my mind.
I ran out and darted after the cleaning drone. I snatched it, preventing it from moving. I had to somehow attach my submachine gun to the small robot. Unfortunately, I did not have any kind of tape on me. By the time I got some, the robot would have disappeared.
After I gave the cleaning drone another once-over, I spotted something like a small protrusion on one of its sides. I did not know what it was for, nor did I care. I wedged my SMG into the space between the protrusion and the side of the robot and then let the robot go. It continued to roll down the corridor. My SMG held fast and did not fall off.
Wheeling around, I ran back to the elevator. Once inside, I punched the wall without giving it much thought. The pain engulfed my hand like an electrical current. I even cried out in pain. Blood ran down my fingers and trickled down to the floor again.
I craned my neck to look out of the elevator car. The cleaning drone was coming back. Gritting my teeth in pain, I leaped to the control panel and punched the button for the Control Room. The door began to slide close. I stuck my left arm out of the elevator car. Sensing the obstruction, the door stopped, then slid back into the wall.
The cleaning drone entered the elevator car and began to clean off the floor. I pried my SMG free and held it in my hands as the robot continued to clean my mess.
A second later, the door slid close, and then the elevator began ascending.
That was it. I had finally found a solution to my problem. I was so happy I wanted to cry out in joy. I even forgot about the pain in my damaged hand.
I was not sure what exactly had happened, though. Either the elevator scanned only organic creatures for weapons when they entered the elevator, or the elevator scanned a person for any guns on them only one time when they first entered it.
Anyway, I did not care about it much. What was more important was that I had finally found a way to get the elevator to work while I was inside and armed.
When the elevator stopped and the door slid aside, I stepped into the Control Room. Nate was still in there, and he was still alone. He turned to see who it was. Funny enough, he first noticed my bloodied hand.
“Hey, what happened to your—” he said and went silent when he saw what I was holding in my left hand.
I grinned, enjoying watching the surprised look on his face.
“Bloody hell,” Nate exclaimed. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s my SMG. I finally did it, Nate. I finally found a way to bring a gun to the Control Room. Vlad now isn’t the only guy who knows how to do it.”
For a second or two, Nate just stared at the submachine gun held in my left hand. Then his expression changed. Something flashed in his eyes.
“Give it to me,” he said harshly.
Nate looked different now. He looked determined and driven. I did not like what I was seeing in his eyes.
“What are you gonna do with it?” I asked.
Nate finally tore his eyes away from my SMG and looked me in the eyes.
“I”m going to do what should’ve been done long ago,” he said. “I will kill Vlad. The moment that bloke enters the Control Room, he’s dead.”
For the first time in many months, Vlad seemed alive and filled with purpose.
I saw no reason for not handing the submachine gun to him. Nate was a nice guy, and he was my friend. We would never turn on me, that was for sure.<
br />
But there was something in his eyes that I did not like. He looked like he was not thinking straight. He could make something stupid.
Seeing my hesitation, he stepped up to me and held his hand out.
“Give it to me, David,” he said.
Nate was a big guy, higher than I was. He was towering above me. If I did not know any better, I would probably have been scared.
I gave the SMG to him.
“Thanks,” Nate said and stepped away from me.
It was not until much later that the elevator door finally slid open. Both Nate and I spun around to face the elevator in time to see Vlad and Tamerlan step out o it.
I was really tense. I was ready to jump out of the way as soon as the gunfight began.
However, in spite of what Nate had told me earlier on, he did not open fire on Vlad right away. He let him go to the center of the room before bringing up the submachine gun, which he had kept out of sight until that point.
Vlad instantly stopped when he saw the SMG aimed at him.
“What the fuck is that?” He muttered, dumbfounded.
“What do you think it is?” Nate said.
“Is that a gun?” Vlad asked, still refusing to accept the fact. “A real gun?”
“You bet it is,” Nate said. “You are now not the only one who can bring weapons to this room.”
“I don’t believe ya,” Vlad said, but his voice lacked confidence.
“It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not,” Nate said, “because you’ll learn the truth soon enough.”
Vlad was scared. He knew that the SMG Nate was holding in his hands was real. Vlad always knew very well that there was a possibility that someone else might sooner or later find a way to bring a weapon to the Control Room. Getting oneself a toy gun, however, was absolutely impossible. There was nowhere to get a toy on this space station.
“Are you gonna shoot me?” Vlad asked as he took a step backward.
Tamerlan who stood next to him stepped aside so as not to stay in the line of fire. Nate kept the submachine gun trained on Vlad. The Russian’s pistol was tucked under his waistband. I could see his right hand inch closer to the weapon. Nate noticed it too.
“Don’t,” he said. “If you so much as move your hand one inch closer to your piece, I’ll open fire.”
Nate was not joking. He looked and sounded dead serious. Vlad’s body began to shake slightly out of fear. He had just realized that his life was hanging on the line now.
“What do you want from me?” He asked, his voice trembling.
“What do you think?” Nate said and continued before Vlad could answer. “You killed Alyson. She was a nice girl. She was our friend and our teammate. And you killed her in cold blood.”
Vlad looked dumbfounded.
“Are you fucking serious?” Vlad said. “It happened so long ago. Have you still not gotten over this? Jesus Christ! You can’t be serious right now.”
Nate’s face hardened, and his eyes become slits.
“I’ve always known you were an arsehole,” Nate said in a dangerous voice. “But I had no idea you were such a complete arsehole. I can’t believe you actually believed I might get over it.”
There was so much pain in his voice that I suddenly realized something. Nate must always have been in love with Alyson. He had never shown any affection for the girl. But he must have been hiding the fact. Seeing as how angry Nate was now and remembering how impassive he had been since Alyson’s murder, I was now more than sure that he had been in love with the girl.
The look on Nate’s face hardened. His index finger tightened around the trigger. Vlad realized what was about to happen. He spun around and darted to the side just as Nate squeezed the trigger, sending a volley of bullets toward him.
One of the bullets hit Vlad in the back as he ran for the elevator. He staggered but did not fall. He whipped up his pistol and fired back on us. Only he was shooting blindly, so all his shots went wide.
Nate tracked Vlad with the submachine gun, spraying bullets in his direction. A few more slugs punched Vlad in the back just as he reached the elevator, hurtling him inside.
Nate rushed across the room, yet the elevator door slid close just before he reached it. That meant that while Vlad was severely wounded, he had enough strength left in him to get up and punch a button.
“He got away,” Tamerlan stated the obvious.
The sound of his voice made Nate wheel around and point the SMG at him.
“No,” Tamerlan cried out, raising his hands. “Don’t shot.”
I leaped in front of him and shouted to Nate, “He’s on our side.”
Nate lowered the weapon. The elevator door slid open, and he stepped inside.
“Wait for us,” I said as I started for the elevator.
“No,” Nate said. “I’m gonna do it alone. You don’t have to risk your lives.”
“Wait,” I yelled as I rushed toward the elevator.
But the door had already slid close.
“Dammit,” I muttered as I banged my fist against the elevator door.
What the heck is he thinking, I thought angrily.
Though Vlad was severely wounded, he was still very dangerous. Moreover, outside the Control Room, we could use our Active and Ultimate Abilities. And Vlad’s abilities were very dangerous as they were focused on dealing as much damage as possible. Nate should really have waited for Tamerlan and me to join him.
When the elevator car returned to the Control Room level, we stepped inside.
“Echo, where are Nate and Vlad now?” I asked.
“They are both in the Preparation Room,” the AI immediately replied.
“What are they doing?” Tamerlan asked.
“Fighting,” came a simple and unemotional reply from Echo.
I punched the button for the Preparation Room.
When the elevator stopped moving and the door slid aside, we stepped out and ran down the corridor. As we got closer to the door leading to the Preparation Room, we slowed down.
“Wait,” I said.
No sounds reached my ears. I did not like it.
I closed my eyes and two of the skills for my Passive Ability, Third eye and Ubiquitous, instantly kicked in. The former allowed me to see enemies through walls and structures. Only Vlad was my teammate and the nanotrites in my body did not consider him an enemy, so I could not see him. However, Ubiquitous allowed me to visualize the area in front of me, so when I turned my head, I was able to see the Preparation Room on the other side of the right-hand wall. I did not like what I saw in there. Nate’s motionless body lay in the pool of blood. As far as I could tell he was not breathing.
I heard the pounding of running feet and opened my eyes in time to see Vlad rush into the corridor out of the Preparation Room. He must have heard us running down the corridor. In his hands was held his assault rifle. He must have retrieved it from the Weapon Dispenser after he escaped from the Control Room.
Moreover, I noticed something else. While his clothes were bloody, his wounds were no longer bleeding. His eyes were sparkling madly. I knew what it meant. He had employed his Ultimate Ability, which turned him into a berserk. When in this state, his wounds were quickly healing by themselves, and he himself got way stronger and faster.
He pointed his assault rifle at me. Without thinking, I instinctively used my Active Ability, blinking forward and materializing behind Vlad just as he opened fire. His bullets zipped through where I had just been.
Tamerlan began to run aside to get out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, bullets were faster, and one of them hit him in the face It exploded inside his skull, blowing his head apart and spraying blood and brain matter every which way. His headless body dropped to the floor where it spasmed several times before getting completely still.
“Dammit,” Vlad yelled as he stopped firing. “I’m sorry, Tamerlan.”
He turned around to face me. “I
just killed my friend. And it’s your fault, Davey. Only yours.”
There was the Weapon Dispenser nearby, but Vlad did not let me get any weapons from it, of course. He opened fire on me as I ran away, ducking my head. The bullets were whizzing dangerously close to me and there was nothing I could use as cover in that corridor. So I decided to use my Ultimate Ability instead of my Active one.
As soon as I employed it, I entered the void space, rendering myself phantasmal. Some of the bullets Vlad fired went right through my body, dealing no damage to me at all. The Russian was well aware that I could not be killed or wounded when in the void space, so he simply stopped shooting.
“And what are you gonna do now, Davey?” He asked in a mocking voice. “You can’t get away from me, and you know it. As soon as you place your portals, I use them to get to you. There’s no place where you can run to.”
I did not waste my time giving him a reply. Instead, I considered my options.
There was the Weapon Dispenser nearby. I had recently learned Phaseattack, a useful skill that allowed me to use my weapons when in the void space. Only I did not have any weapons on me and I could not get one because I had no material body at the moment, so I could not interact with the Weapon Dispenser.
Another skill that I learned after our last mission on the wandering planet, Phasevision, allowed me to walk through walls when my Ultimate Ability was active. Vlad was not aware of that yet.
I looked around, considering where to go. On the other side of the right-hand wall was the Preparation Room. If I went there, Vlad would be easily able to follow me through the door.
The left-hand wall of the corridor, however, had neither doors nor windows set in it. I had no idea what was on the other side, so I closed my eyes to use the Ubiquitous skill again. I saw a spacious room filled with cylindrical mechanisms. I had no idea what this room was for. None of us had ever been in there, because there seemingly was no way for us to get there.
I did not have time to ponder on the purpose of the room, though. The clock was ticking. My Ultimate Ability would deactivate soon, making me vulnerable to Vlad’s attacks again. So I rushed to the left-hand wall and went right through it. I did not see Vlad’s expression, but I was sure he was surprised by what he had just witnessed. Until now he had no idea what skills I had learned after our mission on the wandering planet. The opposite was also true; I had no idea what skills Vlad had learned after our last mission.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 42
