Chapter 8 - The Desperate Ploy
The heavily armored robotic drones marched violently out of the open elevator in absolutely perfect, truly terrifying unison, their glowing red optical sensors instantly locking onto the two teenagers.
Clara backed away entirely in sheer, unadulterated panic, her trembling hands frantically searching the smooth marble floor for absolutely anything she could successfully use as a weapon.
Leo confidently stepped directly in front of her, his entire, muscular body tensing rapidly like a heavily coiled spring completely ready to forcefully snap.
He entirely knew that human mercenaries often hesitated, felt extreme pain, and made stupid mistakes, but these highly advanced machines would absolutely do none of those highly flawed things.
The lead, imposing drone violently raised its thick mechanical arm, fully extending a heavy high-voltage shock baton that crackled loudly with bright, lethal blue electricity.
Leo absolutely did not foolishly wait for them to initiate the deadly attack; he immediately charged incredibly forward with absolutely incredible, totally blinding speed, expertly diving entirely under the drone's initial, heavy swing.
He brutally punched his tiny fist completely and directly into the heavy drone's entirely exposed knee joint, completely shattering the thick mechanical casing and instantly dropping the massive machine.
Before he could even successfully recover, a second, massive drone violently grabbed him tightly by the throat and aggressively, violently hurled him entirely across the massive lobby.
Leo slammed incredibly hard into a highly polished, heavy wooden reception desk, totally gasping for precious air as the breath was entirely and violently knocked entirely out of his burning lungs.
Clara screamed his absolute name and bravely picked up a very heavy, totally solid brass stanchion, throwing it incredibly desperately directly at the rapidly advancing machines.
The heavy metal pole simply bounced entirely harmlessly off a lead drone's highly armored chest, successfully drawing its immediate, utterly terrifying, and entirely deadly attention completely toward her.
The massive machine aggressively raised its heavy shock baton, coldly and perfectly calculating the absolute, exact amount of immense force needed to completely incapacitate the fragile girl.
Suddenly, Leo let out a completely deafening, utterly animalistic roar from entirely across the dark room, violently slamming his bloody hand heavily onto the lobby's massive computerized reception console.
The glowing blue barcode heavily branded on his thin wrist flared violently with a completely blinding, absolute intensity, intensely illuminating the entire, totally dark room in a harsh, bright azure light.
He successfully and totally forcefully pushed a massive, highly unauthorized digital data surge directly from his own neural implant entirely into the massive building's local, entirely secure network.
The advancing drones immediately froze completely in their tracks, their bright red optical sensors violently and rapidly flickering as they struggled entirely to successfully process the highly conflicting, aggressive network commands.
Leo fell heavily to his bruised knees, violently clutching his aching head as dark red blood began to slowly, terrifyingly trickle from his nose and both ears.
Clara ran incredibly fast to him, desperately catching his shaking shoulders just right before he completely and utterly collapsed entirely onto the freezing, hard marble floor.
He looked tiredly up at her with totally unfocused, terribly bloodshot eyes, incredibly weakly whispering that he had only temporarily managed to completely crash their advanced targeting systems.
He strictly warned her that the aggressive, highly localized hack would only possibly last for exactly two extremely short minutes before the massive drones successfully rebooted and immediately killed them.
Clara aggressively pulled his incredibly heavy arm firmly over her small shoulder, violently forcing herself to boldly stand and literally carry his entire dead weight completely toward the lobby's emergency exit.
She violently kicked the heavy, totally reinforced fire door completely open, aggressively dragging Leo entirely out into the absolutely freezing, heavily rainy alleyway located right behind the towering skyscraper.
They limped incredibly desperately down the pitch-black, entirely empty alley, desperately hoping that they had finally, truly escaped the seemingly endless, horrific nightmare forever.
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But exactly as they successfully reached the highly illuminated main street, a massive convoy of pitch-black, heavily armored, totally unmarked SUVs skidded to a violently sudden halt entirely in front of them.
The heavy doors furiously flew open, and Arthur Pendelton stepped confidently out, completely uninjured and holding a heavy, completely loaded gun pointed totally directly at Leo's bleeding chest.
