Cyrus Noble Chapter 16

The commander looked at all of us. Its side was scorched due to Jazz's explosive javelin, and its helmet had a cracked off piece, exposing his eye and part of his face. I said, "Everyone! Hold your positions! We have him now!" A booming voice interrupted my thoughts. "Hold on folks! We seem to be having some technical difficulties!" It was the Announcer. "We haven't had something like this happen in a long time! Looks like you're the lucky audience that gets to see our main executioners! I introduce you to, the Viper-Wolves!" I looked at Jazz in horror. She had a similar look. We both knew what was coming. I looked over to the P. C. and the blue eye that was showing looked watery. He realized, as much as the rest of us, that we might not make it out of this. I said, "Hey! Psycho Trooper!" He looked at me. I continued, "You can still fight! Don't give up! We can all make it out of this!" Jazz looked at me. "Cyrus! What are you doing? This is no time to make nice!" I looked around at the gates. They were lowered, and I could see the faint outlines of those monsters. I could smell them from here, and if there was ever a smell for death...... The same thing was going on at the other gates. One per gate. A pang of fear rattled through my body. I took a stance for a fight, facing the closest of the four openings. The thing stuck out its wolf-like, rattlesnake head, and sniffed the air. Its eyes caught us, and it darted towards us before I could blink. It was twenty feet away from us and already pounced into the air when it was knocked back to the ground by an energy blast. I turned back to the Psychic Commander. The main cannon was still smoking. He looked at me with the one exposed eye. "Ffffffff." He said. He tried again. "Ffffffffff-rrrriieeeends." I nodded and turned back to the downed creature. It was slowly getting back up. A second one has joined it and was prowling around our circle of experiments. I looked over at a third one, and it was snarling at Megan. Before I could do anything, it took to the air in a pounce. A pair of arms lashed out, acting as a whip, and wrapped up the beast around its upper area. The arms slammed the mutated beast on the ground and tossed it at the wall. Megan, her hands covering her mouth, looked at Longarm as his arms shrunk back. He had a fearful look in his eyes. I looked around. Nine of us, verses four highly resilient hunter-killers. Crap. The Announcer lowered himself as low as his little stand would go. "You brats just don't get it, do you? You enter the arena, you die! Its the simplest thing in the world! You are supposed to bend over and-" He never got to finish. Apparently that low setting is a little too low. The last Viper-wolf jumped up and bit and slashed at the arm holding the stand in the air. The stand fell, the Announcer fell out, and one of the Prowlers bit into him and dragged him away. That's when somebody screamed and the room started to clear out. We need to get out of here, now. This entire time I was relaying a plan in my mind, as long as Sara played her part everyone should be good. "NOW!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. The tank-man fired and instantly killed one of the Prowlers, its body flew across the stadium and hit the wall before falling. Magnet focused on the floor. Plates of metal were ripped out of the ground and started to wrap themselves around one of the Prowlers. It slashed and kicked its way out of the wrappings before they could close around it. It darted towards Magnet and Sara. It was tackled by a slightly deformed, scaly, one winged Thing. "Gabe!" Sara called out desperately. Thing ignored her and continued to wrestle the predator. The skin hissed and burned wherever Thing touched. Finally the Prowler snapped back and bit into Thing's shoulder. Thing made an impossible cry of pain, the Prowler reared back and cried out in pain as well. It finally just passed out and died out of the floor. Unfortunately, Thing-I mean, Gabe-followed suit.