Confrontations: A Wolf Pretending To Be A Sheep, Part 9 - Gun To Gun, Part 8

"Too Easy.," Aaron chuckled cruelly.

After seeing all of his Men die one after another, The Squad's Leader was on the verge of a Mental Breakdown when he heard Aaron's voice call out to him., "Now Then Captain... It Appears That It's Just You... and Me."

"I Have To Escape... There's No Way I Can Beat This Monster.," The Captain thought analyzing his options. He was almost out of bullets, the only exit was the door to the apartment so that was a no go, the only other means of escape he had was one of the windows. The gaping hole in the wall from the explosion that killed Jave was too far so he turned and looked at the window closet to him, it was only a short distance, they were on the fifth floor but really what choice did he have.

The Captain was about to make his move when he heard Aaron from the hall., "I Wouldn't Do That Captain... It'd Just Be A Waste of Bullets."

"Does He Know What I Have Planned... What If He Already Has Countermeasures In Place?," The Captain thought, suddenly unsure whether or not his escape plan would work or not., "No, This Is My Best Chance To Rejoin My Men and Hopefully Get The Upper Hand On This Son of A Bitch!"

Aaron chuckled evilly as The Captain raised his weapon and pointed it at the nearest window. The Captain took a deep breath and opened fire but all he could do was stare dumbfoundedly because instead of ripping through the glass and window frame with ease the bullets stopped just short short of impact, seemingly embedded in a rippling nearly transparent wall of light energy before tumbling to the floor uselessly.

"SHIT!," Exclaimed The Captain who in a moment of frustration turned, raced across the room and opened fire at Aaron who didn't even flinch.

"Tch.," Aaron clicked his tongue., "It Would Appear That You're Out of Bullets Captain Which Is One of The Reasons Why I Cautioned Against That Particular Course of Action."

The Captain dropped his spent weapon to the floor, a hopeless expression overtaking his chiseled features. He'd already embarrassed himself by leading his Men to their deaths through his own incompetence then he tried to escape like a coward only to fail at that as well so he wasn't about to beg for his life., "Get it over with.," The Captain spoke in a quiet voice.

"Don't Look So Sad Captain... It's Too Late For Regrets... After All You Brought This Upon Yourself By Choosing To Attack Me.," Aaron spoke coldly., "I Don't Suppose Offering To Spare Your Life For Information On Who Sent You Would Interest You Would It?," Aaron asked already sure of the answer.

"NEVER!," The Captain roared angrily, throwing a glass ashtray toward Aaron which bounced off the invisible wall protecting the exposed doorway. The ashtray hit the floor and rolled several feet before colliding with the wall and shattering.

"I Thought As Much But... You Realize Given Our Positions I Had To Give You A Chance If Only As A Matter of Decorum."

Given the sadistic methods Aaron had employed up to this point his words were obviously nothing but lies but even knowing that he still managed to make them sound totally sincere.

"I Suppose When It Comes Down To It You Really Can't Blame Whoever It Was That Hired You... Since You Also Didn't Do Your Research.," Aaron goaded.

"That Bitch!," The Captain angrily mumbled under his breath.

"So The One Who Hired This Group Is A Woman... Hmmm, Not Much To Go On But Definitely More Than I Had Before.," Aaron thought to himself before saying.., "I Realize How It Must Look From Your Side of Things So To Show That I Am Not Without Mercy I Will Give You A Chance To Live."

"HA!," The Captain scoffed., "Cut the Shit! We Both No I'm Not Gettin' Out of This In One Piece!"

Aaron smiled and continued as though he hadn't heard The Captain's words., "All You Have To Do Is Step Over To The Bar and Play The Hand You've Been Dealt... If It's A Good Hand I'll Let You and The Rest of Your People Leave But If It Isn't I'll Kill You and The Rest of Your People Then Go Home and Get Some Sleep."

The words were cold and mocking but The Captain didn't doubt them for a second as he made his way over to the bar. Just Before touching the cards in front of him, The Captain hesitated then looked up., "Before I do this tell me how you stopped all our attempts to kill you."

Aaron raised his right hand and tapped the back of it with his gun., "Light Shield."

A look of realization flooded The Captain's eyes.

"While I Was Waiting For You I Tweaked A Second Light Shield I Had With Me. It's Amazing The Kinds of Things You Can Do With The Proper Knowledge, A Few Spare Parts, and Some Additional Programming. The Field Has Been Adjusted To Allow Things In But Not Out... The Flaw You and Your Men Spotted Earlier Was Entirely Intentional... A Trap If You Will."

The Captain was obviously angry but he also looked as if he were going to say something else but Aaron held up a hand to stop him., "If You're Going To Ask About My Little Card Trick From Earlier Then Its Really Quite Simple...," Aaron's coldly analytical voice gave The Captain chills., "... The Playing Cards Are Rather Ordinary In Fact I Found Them In This Very Apartment. I Simply Realigned The Molecular Structure of Several of The Cards To Make Them As Hard As Diamond With A Mono-Molecular Edge Sharper Than A Razor's."

The Captain looked like his head was spinning.

"As Much As I Would Love To Take The Credit... I Didn't Design The Process. I Merely Improved Upon It. It Was Originally Designed For Use On The Wings of Fighter Jets, Stealth Bombers, and The Fins of Missiles and Rockets."

The Captain was beginning to look pale., "Who Is This Bastard To Have Access To This Level of Technology and Weapons."

"No More Stalling Captain... The Outcome of This Night Will Be Decided By The Cards You Hold.," Aaron grinned toothily.

The Captain slowly turned over each card one by one... First was The Eight of Clubs followed by The Ace of Spades then The Ace of Clubs, The Eight of Clubs... Before The Captain could turn over the final card he heard a wince from the doorway and looked up to see Aaron leaning against the wall with a pitying look on his pale face.

"A Dead Man's Hand... It Would Appear That Lady Luck Simply Isn't On Your Side Captain.," Aaron shrugged apologetically, holstering his Tec-9 and pulling what remained of the deck of cards from his pocket and began shuffling rapidly.

"I STILL HAVE A CARD LEFT!," The Captain yelled but before he could turn it over, Aaron selected the top five cards of the deck and hurled them through the doorway at the now terrified Man.

The Captain was frozen with fear as the first card arrived at his spot, slicing through the bar and nicking The Femoral Artery of his leg followed by The Brachial Artery of his arm then The Carotid Artery and Jugular Vein of his throat. The first four attacks happened almost instantaneously so he had no chance to even attempt to defend or block. He looked down in shock, blood spurting everywhere, the rapid blood loss making his head swim and his vision blur.

Barely managing to look up, The Captain was only able to mumble unintelligently as Aaron's Coups de Grâce landed, The Final Card entering just above The Captain's eyebrows, nearly slicing the top of his head off as it tore through his brain like a straight razor through the throat of one of Sweeny Todd's unfortunate customers before sticking in the wall.

As The Captain's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed to the floor, landing haphazardly next to what was left of Yan, Aaron placed what was remaining of the 68 card deck into his pocket unconcerned that they might cut through his shirt and slice off his nipple thanks to the enhancements he had made to his clothing but given the situation he had landed in, Aaron was well aware that his wardrobe would require extensive modification to avoid being caught so unawares in the future but that was something for the future. He had more pressing concerns at the moment as he walked into the apartment and up to the bar, turning over the final card which was The King of Hearts, otherwise known as The Suicide King because of the sword sticking in its head. Ironic when you think about it, no?

Aaron looked down at the pitiful bodies of Yan and their Captain and said., "A Royal Flush Wins The Pot."

Aaron smiled and turned to leave, the light from the hall illuminating his cards which were stuck in the wall. Despite how they had flown and what kind of obstacles they had encountered they had all stuck in the wall only a couple of inches apart and they were in order from left to right: The Twelve of Diamonds, The Jack of Diamonds, The Queen of Diamonds, The King of Diamonds, and The Ace of Diamonds.

Aaron took only a couple of seconds to remove the second light shield he had embedded in the bar and put it in his pants pocket before scanning the building.

"Between Me and The Roof Are Twelve Men In The Stairwell and Another Twenty On The Roof.," Aaron thought pleased with his progress so far and the fact that he was still in one piece.

Aaron made sure to avoid any booby traps along the way to the stairs. Aaron carefully inspected the door., "No Explosives or Other Discernible Trap... I Guess With Twelve Gunmen In The Stairwell They Aren't Concerned With Trapping The Door and Besides Why Risk Injuring Your Own People With Shrapnel."

Instead of opening the door and going in guns blazing like they expected, Aaron examined the bottom of the door or more specifically the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor then Aaron reached back to his left side and pressed down on the side of a small metal compartment secured to his belt and fifteen metal objects dropped into his hand. Aaron crouched down against the wall and looked at them closely, the objects were round, silver in color and resembled ball bearings with faint circuit-like patterns flashing across their shiny surface. Aaron slid the small metal spheres under the door and waited a second. Aaron used a transmission pulse from his implant, the same one he used to communicate with Gog and his equipment in Knowhere to upload instructions to the spheres.

Three seconds later, The sound of screaming and random gunfire filled the stairwell. Aaron waited patiently, watching the carnage through his satellite scans of the building. When nothing was left alive in the stairwell, Aaron turned to the side and looked at the door just as a set of red beams cut effortlessly through the hinges and locking mechanism of the door, causing it to fall rather unceremoniously to the floor with a loud thud.

The moment Aaron stood up and approached the doorway, the smell of burnt flesh and hair filled his nostrils and nearly made him sick but he held it in after all this was nothing compared to that time in the lab at Omen when he was exposed to what had to be the most foul smelling concoction of all time. He couldn't go home or to school for a week and had to be isolated at work until he managed to finally find a way to accelerate the decay of self-perpetuating stink he had been unintentionally dosed with thanks to one of the Lab Tech's carelessness.

Aaron didn't have to worry about any survivors because the twelve Men in the stairwell where very much dead. Looking around there were shallow cuts along the walls and small pinpricks along the undersides of the stairs where he could see light filtering through. There were casings from spent rounds all over the place and the bodies of the Men in question were cut to pieces, their wounds seared closed so even though each body was reduced to a collection of scattered pieces there was actually very little blood considering.

Aaron had been careful to emphasize the need to keep the stairs intact so there was very little damage to them and Aaron was easily able to avoid stepping in any gore or any of the mercury-like puddles that resulted once the devices Aaron had used ran out of charge. It was a short walk up to the roof and Aaron paused at the door, making sure their were no traps.

"If Everything Goes According To My Plans It Shouldn't Be Necessary But...," Aaron thought to himself as he swapped his Tec-9 to his left hand and grabbed The Japanese G41 Tel-Nin strapped to his right leg and took a deep breath before kicking the door to the roof clear off its hinges and sending it flying across the roof where twenty armed gunmen waited to end his life.

As Aaron dove forward, guns in hand... He was smiling.

Body Count:

For Those of You Who Are Interested In The Number of Bodies Dropped By Aaron But Don't Want To Go Too All The Trouble of Pulling Out A Tally Sheet and Keeping Track Yourself:

• 13 Confirmed Kills (Certainly An Unlucky Number For Those Poor Bastards)
• Unconfirmed Kills: None
  

Apex Trivia:

You've Probably Noticed There Is Something off About The Cards Aaron Has Been Using Aside From The Obvious So Let Me Clear Things Up Since A Standard Poker Deck In Apex Is Different Then What You May Be Use To:

• The Game of Poker may have evolved differently in Apex but it still has certain similarities to the game you are familiar with for instance, There are still a total of 4 sub-divisions or suits, those being Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs. Hearts and Diamonds are still Red while Spades and Clubs are Black though in some instances there is a Fifth and in rarer situations a Sixth Suit which consists either of Red Swords or Black Diamonds.
• Furthermore these sub-divisions of cards are made up of 16 cards each. These are: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, Jack, Queen, King and two Aces. Therefore a Standard Deck consists of 64 Cards with just four suits, 80 with five suits, and 96 with six suits, excluding the four Jokers (instead of two) that is, which aren't usually part of most games.
• There are three One-Eyed Jacks (The Men drawn on these cards are drawn facing sideways, so that only one of their eyes is shown hence, they appear to be "One-Eyed"): These vary between the four main suits and can either be The Jack of Hearts and Jack of Spades or The Jack of Clubs and Jack of Diamonds. The third One-Eyed Jack doesn't vary and is always The Jack belonging to The Black Diamonds Suit.
• There are two Suicide Kings (The King is shown holding his sword in the air and appears to have stuck it through the middle of his head which would mean he's stabbing himself in the head, or committing suicide): These are The King of Hearts and The King of Swords.