Chapter 20: [True Combat]
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Lou didn’t even notice Haley before it was too late, he held out his hand to grab the man’s head before thrusting it into the concrete floor. The thud from the impact was barely muffled by the raised sound of the elevator but luckily it was enough to stop them from coming to investigate.

Unfortunately for Lou the force from Haley pushing his head to the concrete was enough to cause him to start bleeding while unconscious. ‘Choose a better job in your next life.’ He thought silently as he stood back up slowly.

The young child looked at him in surprise but the enthusiasm had long faded from his eyes as if he had lost all hope, Haley couldn’t begin to imagine what he had been put through to have reached such a point but he wasn’t interested either.

“Do you remember the layout of the lower floors?” Haley asked quietly in a muffled voice, the child didn’t respond but instead nodded but that was all the confirmation he needed.

Haley didn’t need anything else and simply motioned for the kid to hide himself before putting his attention back onto the body of the guard who lay dying on the floor.

He simply shook his head with a look of regret; Haley wasn’t a cold-blooded killer, but he didn’t feel remorse at the death of the man, he felt somewhat uncomfortable looking at the body but that was it.

“001” He muttered but there was no response for the enigmatic artificial intelligence that had made its home in his mind however, he was certain that the changes to his personality were because of the Data Sphere – he had noticed in the past year that his emotions had become somewhat more repressed but luckily they still existed despite all things considered.

‘At least your death is a peaceful one.’ He thought, the man had probably only experienced a sharp pain before blacking out. The man would never wake up but at least he wasn’t in pain, that was his justification.

Without any more thought Haley searched the man and picked up an ID Card and the gun from his waist, he had never held a gun before, but it felt heavy in his hands. “Can’t afford to miss.” He muttered before holding it in front of him and trying to aim.

After a few seconds of familiarising himself with the weapon he moved to the corner that was the only thing separating him from the guys loading the cargo into crates.

He peeked around it and saw that the ones who remained hadn’t been disturbed in the slightest by the murder of one of their own simply a few steps way.

With his current body he could close the distance between them in only a couple of seconds, but the problem was he estimated that they would be able to draw their weapons in half that time considering their status as trained soldiers.

There was no ‘right’ way to approach this situation. If he went for the closest, the manager, he would be able to take down at most two of them before the final three could draw their weapons and at that point he would have to rely on his luck.

Despite how he looked at it there wasn’t a right way to approach this, no matter what he did he would have to rely on his luck solely at one point which in his opinion was as good as throwing his life away.

‘I might be able to tank one or two of their shots with my enhanced body but…’ He thought silently as he waited for them to finish up. It was then that he remembered he could gain full control over the tech on this floor if he was careful enough.

Haley backtracked and returned to his previous vantage point overlooking their operation and dropped down into a dark corner, he dodged between crates and jumped between the gaps only showing himself for brief moments in the light before disappearing back into the darkness.

Like this he made his way half-way around the warehouse avoiding the central area where the only occupants were located, quickly he made his way to the security room he had seen through the cameras and breached through the door.

The guard didn’t even notice that he had entered after his neck was snapped and Haley pushed him off the chair.

“Who would’ve thought a warehouse would be so well equipped?” He said with a grin, he hadn’t been able to tell before he had hacked into the closed-network but there were several turrets in the ceiling directly above them if it wasn’t for his want to experience true combat he would’ve simply activated them and annihilated them but sooner or later he wouldn’t get such chances which is why he needed to learn how to use his true power.

He silently linked the systems to his HUD to ensure he could activate them with just a thought if he needed to but now with the added confidence of a backup plan if he needed it he didn’t need to be so cautious although that wouldn’t stop him from taking precautions.

Another ten minutes passed and they were loading off the last crates and had just piled them onto the warehouse shelves before settling down for a break, Haley had navigated himself back round to the corner where the mans corpse was still laying; despite him forgetting to hide the body it was lucky that they hadn’t come looking for the man otherwise he wouldn’t have had time to prepare himself.

As soon as they all sat down, the moment the manager laid down his datapad to chat with the soldiers, Haley rushed carefully aimed at his head and fired.

Bang!

“Alex?!” The remaining four stood up and grabbed for their pistols but before they could fully draw them Haley had already reached them and had threw a punch towards the one nearest to him, before he could react he was thrown to the floor by the force of the punch only to be shot in the chest by Haley.

Unfortunately because of his lack of experience his aim was off and the man hadn’t died but to ensure he wouldn’t be a threat he quickly kicked away his gun to a far corner so he wouldn’t have a chance of getting back in the fight anytime soon.

‘Duck.’ He felt something like a sixth-sense so not wasting a moment he dropped to the floor and rolled hitting the floor hard but he felt a wave of air rip above him and a bullet entered then disappeared from his line of sight just above him.

The same similar feeling appeared but this time he felt a wave of cold ripple across his chest, ‘Fuck I can’t dodge it.’ He thought moments before pain tore through his body, there was now a fresh bullet wound on his left side down near his waist.

“Fucking brat, die!” One of the men shouted before raising his pistol, it was if the world entered a slow-motion state as he saw the man raise his gun and start to pull his trigger.

“Sorry to disappoint.” He muttered, he turned a ‘switch’ on in his mind and in an instant the turrets in the room had activated and were aiming at the two remaining men who just looked up in shock at the appearance of the new guns outnumbering them.

“Checkmate.”

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

Turrets began to fire on them, shredding them to pieces before they could react leaving Haley alone with the final guy trying to survive on the floor by blocking his wound.

“Who are you?” He asked while bearing through the pain, Haley ignored him but that didn’t stop him, “Who the fuck are you kid?!” He shouted as he looked at his comrades who were dead on the floor.

This time Haley responded with a simple sentence that caused the man to become baffled, “Just someone you stole from.”

Bang!

Haley stood in the centre of the room with bodies all around, he was breathing heavily as he tried to keep himself standing but the pain coming from his stomach was becoming somewhat unbearable.

“Dammit, I need to add medical supplies to that list.” He said as he broke a piece of cloth from the shirt of one of the corpses and wrapped it around his wound to try and stop the bleeding.

“Y… you… don’t move!” He heard a small voice break the silence, it was only then that he remembered that there was another person left alive in the room with him, he glanced over to see the kid he’d saved holding a pistol and aiming at him.

But because of his weakened body the gun kept swaying back and forth as if he was going to drop it any second because of the weight, Haley sighed and sent a signal with his mind.

Bang!

A single gun round echoed in the room this time which dropped the kid to the floor, the gun had been ripped from his hands but because of his grip on it he had been pulled along with it causing the two of them to hit the ground.

“You only get once chance.”

The kid just looked up in fear as if he was looking at another devil, “Don’t… don’t sell me please.” He cried before rolling up into a ball on the floor, a small puddle of tears had already begun to form beneath him.

Haley sighed, “Get up, you’re safe now.” He said as comfortingly as he could; the kid had obviously been through a lot which had caused him to feel distrust towards everybody, it was a feeling Haley could relate to but even he could only imagine the psychological damage the kid had suffered.

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