Connie and Peyton were the ones I was really concerned with. I looked them over and asked if they were alright. They ran a self-diagnostic and then nodded. It was the response I expected. I then looked to Tracie and Barbara to see how they were doing. They were also doing okay. Sterling and Ashley looked fine. I told them about what happened to Nathan, Erin and Finian. They looked surprised. I asked where Christopher and Aubrey were. Those were their parents after all. "We lost touch with them. It was after we split up. 06-001 and 12-001 took them to go scouting." Ashley said. I said "We can see if Brett was able to find anything out downstairs." We went down together. There was a whole new battalion of androids to fight. I was kind of pissed so I used the rest of my mana to disintegrate them on the stairwell. That brought my precious MP to 0. It would take a while to get back up. We continued going forward. There was no time for talking about it now. We got to the ground level and saw Brett carrying Erin in his arms. Christopher had Finian slung over his shoulder. Aubrey was there.
If they had everyone important to us, it was time to leave. I said "We're all here Brett. It's time to get the fuck out of here!" He looked up and saw us. He hurried up to us and said "These 2 are in rough shape. They were in the middle of being hacked when we got there." That was definitely not good, but we could deal with it later. "How are we getting out of here? They already surrounded us, and we don't have any back up on the way aside from using Paul." Brett looked like he was not getting it. He just tilted his head. "Yeah? We have Paul." he said. I frowned. "What can Paul do? We don't want Sages on our asses. If he does something, it has to be something that a normal Player could get together." Brett thought a minute before he said "I got it! Do the stairs go to the roof?" Peyton said "Yes. Through the director's office is an exclusive stairwell to the roof as well as an elevator to a garage." "Good enough for us!" he snapped. He also handed me Erin. I took him readily. Brett took out his phone and called Paul. After gave the gist of the story, he said "We need a helicopter evacuation!"
Paul told me that he was going to get one over to us as soon as possible. In the meantime, we were going to have to fight them all off. That was a tall order with the new wave coming in the building. "Bring your ass, Paul! We don't have all day!" Brett yelled before hanging up. "Alright. Let's fall back to the director's office then." I said. To stay where we were was to be a sitting duck. They agreed and we ran up to the top floor. There was also roof access here via key card. We did not have it. Besides, we wanted the office because it would be easier to defend until we had to be on the roof. Only when we got there, did we stop to relax. I asked where 06-001 and 12-001 were. A dark look crossed their features. "We were betrayed and left for the humans to find. If Brett was not there, we would be the next ones to be hacked into." Aubrey said. It would be something that they would do. They considered the ones we had and the ones of Volition Clan to be mutts. After half an hour in-game, we called Paul. It seemed that he did not know how to fly one. "Where the fuck are you!?" Brett screamed.
He crashed the first one. Obviously, he survived it. He was going to have to get a PEP unit to fly it. That meant he was going to go back to the Red Grind to get a clan mate. It was going to take even longer. We could hear more of the special ops coming towards us. That made me pissed off. "I'm walking into the club now! Don't worry!" he said hurriedly. Paul was panting a bit. He was actively running. "Greta! Come here! I need you! Now!" he yelled at her. After a moment, he said "Alright. I got her. We'll be over there soon. Make sure you guys hold out!" he said before hanging up on us. We just looked at each other for a second before they burst into the office guns blazing. I had not been in such a tough fight since the syndicate terminator. It was a super tough fight. They were so fast they actually left blurs. Brett was just as fast, but that was just because he was a Devil. The AEP units were not as fast, but they had infinite stamina. I was the only one left in the lurch. Tracie and Barbara were both my lovers, so they were backing me up. We were halfway through the wave when Paul called.
