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"Well, wipe your tears, Cloud. The others wouldn't like to see you cry." You look back at the dozens of screens lining your console. Huh, that gash on Chattering's side wasn't there. "It's a shame this is how it has to end. Wish I could've met you on more equal terms."
No response, aside from a slight sniffle.
"I might've once known what it was like, myself. If you can't live how you want to, a man should at least die how they want to." The pendant around your neck pulses.
"So, we'll give you a good death. We have a duel ready for you. We have some empty space on this floor that we haven't built anything in."
Cloud looks up at the camera. You feel kinda bad, but at the same time not really, about lying. "What?"
"Yeah. A duel, mono on mono, with our best employee. You beat him, you win, you can guess what happens from there." A dozen meat men round the corner on the other end of the hallway Cloud is at, just in case he tries running. "We got escorts. Follow them to the room."
You send over a quick little message to your fighters. Mostly about how this "duel" is actually an ambush, and how you're not killing him (yet). Seems like the plan itself has cooled the nerves of the more anxious ones.
"Fine. Fine. I'll win, I'll fucking win, and I'll find you. Okay?"
"Godspeed, Cloud. I hope you do. Or to a better place." You don't, if only for his sake. The meat soldiers slowly escort him while two to three walk over to the "not coating your hallway in gore" corpses of the other Rangers and surround them.
Your fighters sneak behind the other meatmen, one of the cluster flashbangs in hand, with Star being notably lagging behind. As she hovers through the hallway, the steel floor and walls twists and burns, tinting a dark purple.
Once Ranger Cloud enters the empty "room" (moreso just a place you haven't put an actual room in yet), he looks around. "Uh. So, where's the bastard I go-"
"FLASHBANG, NOW!" A female meat soldier yells. A mass of three to four flashbangs stapled together is thrown in, erupting into a bright light. The meat soldiers quickly fire their guns, making even more noise to disorient him, before retreating."
Ranger Zero quickly charges in, firing a shot off with her pistol. It hits Cloud in the arm but...no blood pours. There's only a slight indent on his skin. Cloud, still blind, wildly charges flails his arm before grabbing Zero by the throat. "H-HEY, NO HARD FEELINGS, R-"
<span class="mu-r">She flies the air, slamming against a nearby wall and denting it.</span> Zero coughs up a good amount of blood as she slides down the wall.
Star quickly appears after as the others pour in, smashing her cane into the kid. He barely even registers it as he fires off a shot from his revolver. It hits Star in the torso, causing her to teleport back. She fails to hold back a pained cry. Her cane drops to the ground as she covers the wound with her hands.
She barely manages to make the next shot hit her on the shoulder instead of a headshot.
