Seraphine "Sera" Voss stood at the mouth of the narrow alleyway, her hand cupped around a cigarette to keep the rain off it. Smoke curled around her face as she took a drag and focused on the tax office across the street. At least, that's what it claimed to be.

  A dozen cubicles were visible through the wide front windows, each manned by a tired-looking desk jockey. The windows of the office were covered with posters that promised "Fastest Rebates in the City" and "Maximize Your Returns!"

  The entire office was a drab and dreary thing, and easily overlooked. That made it the perfect spot to hide something.

  She took another drag of her cigarette and tilted her head a little, lost in thought. Had she ever done business with this facility? She found herself staring at the tax office, pondering that question. It was hard to tell. She'd worked with Orbis enough over the years that all the jobs just blended together. Asset retrieval, target acquisition, package delivery. Orbis paid way more than any "ethical" corporation in the city. The bleeding hearts always went on and on about principles and ideals and ethics, as if that was the reason they were lacking in money compared to the larger corporations.

  Her right arm twitched absentmindedly as she stared at the tax office. It was a twitch of anticipation and she'd long since grown used to it. Her entire right arm, from her fingertips all the way up to her shoulder, was covered in a sleek black metal. When she'd first earned the arm, she had hated it. It always felt heavy. Unwieldy. But soon enough she adapted and grew used to it. Now, she yearned for the twitch. It was a sign that she was about to do something that the arm considered "fun."

  She took another plan as she finalized the plan in her mind. Somewhere in that quiet little "tax office" was an elevator that led deep underground. Behind all those layers of concrete and steel and a well-armed security team that was hidden in the bowels of the building, was the man she was planning to kill.

  A sharp noise behind her drew her attention away from the office and back to the alley. She chanced a glance at the noise and took in the small gaggle of Resistance fighters gearing up. They were huddled together, looking like cold, wet puppies. Five of them. All young and twitchy and nervous and whispering to each other way too loudly for people who were supposed to shut the hell up and let her work.

  She rolled her eyes at them before turning back to the office. She couldn't be bothered to shut them all up. They were her "team" for this operation. It was the price she had to pay for the information she got. She was supposed to be training them up and schooling them in the finer points of combat, but she couldn't be bothered.

  None of the Resistance members were hardened soldiers. Hell, they were barely grown. They were useless to her in this fight. She huffed and shook her head as she took them all in. They were idiotic idealists armed with second-hand rifles, tricked or convinced or inspired to join up with the Resistance and fight and die in a conflict that none of them truly understood.

  Fighting for a cause? Such a stupid reason to shoot a gun, she thought to herself. Credits are so much cleaner.

  Of course, Sera wasn't being paid for this gig in credits. But she was still getting paid. In exchange for holding the hands of all those Resistance "fighters" in the attack, she'd earned herself information: the location of her target.

  Alden Finch. Head of Security for this particular Orbis research facility.

  She took one last drag from her cigarette, exhaled a thin streak of smoke, and then tossed the butt off to the side. A quick pat of her holster hanging off her hip gave her comfort that her pistol was still there. And she could feel the heavy weight of the revolver in its shoulder holster. She took a deep breath and counted down, letting the excitement of what was about to happen wash over her.

  The Resistance had a mole in Orbis who had passed along some juicy information. The mole claimed that the "tax office" was hiding a lab somewhere underground. It was where Orbis scientists studied outsiders - those few unique individuals who'd been pulled into the city through unexplained magic. From what Sera could figure out, Orbis was somehow trying to weaponize the outsiders. Or study them. It honestly didn't matter much to her.

  She wasn't here to save anyone.

  Still...she wondered. Had she helped to stock this facility with test subjects? Had some of the "packages" she delivered for Orbis ever ended up inside? And what about the Resistance? Did they know how many contracts she'd fulfilled for the corp that they were fighting a bloody and losing war against? Did they know about all the "innocents" that she'd help to cage?

  Maybe. Maybe not. If they did know, no one had ever said anything to her about it.

  She turned her attention to the Resistance fighters and whispered out her orders. "Get ready. I'm heading in. Ten seconds after I go, you all follow. Quick and quiet. Don't draw any attention to yourselves."

  That should buy her enough time to get started. Her plan was to clear out the top floor of the research facility before heading into the lab itself. It would be easiest if she did all he heavy lifting up top. She didn't want the Resistance rookies following her into the "tax office," strolling in behind her like a bunch of little lost ducklings. That would be way too conspicuous.

  The fighters all nodded to her and Sera gave them one last look. One of the fighters, a kid who looked barely out of his teens, was bouncing with excitement. His leg was jiggling about ninety beats a minute and the rifle he was cradling looked about two sizes too big for him.

  She bit back an annoyed huff and pushed herself off the wall. They don't need to be competent soldiers. They just gotta cause a healthy bit of chaos. They're here to buy some time for you to take out Alden, she thought to herself.

  Sera stepped out onto the street and slowly made her way to the "tax office," making sure to keep her pace even and calm. If anyone were to look her way they'd just see another tired office drone out on an errand. She quickly crossed the road and reached the glass doors to the office. With a shove she pushed open the doors with her metal right hand and slid her left smoothly to the holster on her hip.

  A soft chime sounded as the door opened and the two security guards leaning against the reception desk glanced up. Both of them were cheap mall cops, wearing mismatched plate carriers and bored expressions. Neither was ready for her.

  One of the guards shot her a puzzled look as she entered the office. The other was a little bit quicker and started reaching for the gun in his holster, seeming to understand the threat she posed. Both were too slow.

  Her left hand came up with her pistol and she fired off three rounds. Both guards dropped to the floor. Sera quickly spun and turned her gun on the other people in the room.

  The "accountants" seated behind cheap particle board desks screamed in confusion. A few struggled to grab at the pistols hidden nearby their desks. Two managed to get their weapons up, both both of them fumbled with the safeties and were way too slow to challenge Sera.

  She fired again. Three shots into each "accountant." Center mass, center mass, head. One of the "accountants" fell limp across a filing cabinet. Another slumped against a fake ficus. The third fell back into his seat before spilling out onto the floor.

  None of the guards that Orbis had filled this office with were skilled. If they'd been competent muscle, instead of just bodies that Orbis had stocked the office with to slow down any attack, then they would have drawn way too much attention to themselves.

  Passersby would have wondered why a tax office had so buff accountants. Someone would have eventually put two and two together and realized that the "accountants" were actually security personnel. Instead, Orbis had packed the office with people who would act as the first line of defense against gangbangers and small-time crooks. Anyone like Sera would have found it laughably easy to kill everyone in the place.

  With the firefight over, Sera reloaded her pistol and swept the room. Seconds later, the Resistance team stumbled in behind her. They were all white as sheets as she put two more bullets into each of the security guards at the reception desk, making sure they were dead.

  The fighters spread throughout the tax office, their eyes wide as they took in the carnage. Sera had to bite back her annoyance with them. Each of the rookies was looking stunned at the scene, and she couldn't help but wonder if they were ready for what was going to happen.

  Did they think they weren't going to shoot anyone today? Maybe they aren't as wedded to their cause as they claim to be. Rookies always have lines that they tell themselves they'll never cross.

  One of the young kids stepped over to a body and muttered something that sounded like a prayer. Sera didn't react. She'd been in enough firefights over the years to know what would happen when these kids actually saw combat. A few would freeze. One or two might surprise her. Most wouldn't make it through the day alive.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  She moved deeper into the office, her eyes scanning everything. Eventually, she managed to find the elevator hidden behind a supply closet that was labeled "Janitorial." The doors were reinforced steel and looked completely out of place.

  A few minutes later, the assault team was joined by a wiry young guy with dark bags under his eyes. He was their hacker and had been stationed out in the alley with the rest of the rookies. He was important enough to the Resistance to only be brought into the office when it was deemed safe and everyone had been "neutralized." The Resistance didn't have so many hackers that they could be wasted in a firefight.

  Sera hadn't caught his name, and frankly, she didn't plan on learning it. They hadn't shared more than ten words together the entire time they'd been stuck in that alley. That was fine by her.

  The hacker headed straight to the keypad next to the elevator, plugged a thin black cable into it, and started tapping away on a wrist keyboard. Sera leaned against the wall beside him, her arms crossed.

  Behind her, the rest of the Resistance assault team had gathered. None of them had fired a shot in anger yet, and she knew that the wait of it all was starting to make them crack. She listened as one of the Resistance fighters whispered a quiet prayer to a god she was sure he hadn't believed in minutes ago.

  "How much longer?" she grunted to the hacker.

  He flinched at her tone and shot her a nervous look. "A minute. Maybe less. Uh...their security is tighter than I expected."

  She sighed in annoyance. Two minutes ticked by before the hacker finally managed to open the elevator. A single light in the ceiling of the elevator cast a glow over the chrome walls, and Sera saw a small panel on the side with a single button on it. She stepped into the elevator and motioned for the Resistance fighters to follow her.

  They crammed in behind her. Someone's shoulder bumped her. Another fighter was breathing too loudly and her annoyance levels started to skyrocket. The hacker stepped in last, pressed the elevator button, and down they went.

  A few moments into the ride and Sera felt something she didn't expect. A pressure started building in her chest, just below her sternum. Her vision rippled for a second. The light in the elevator flickered and Sera knew it wasn't caused by an electrical malfunction.

  She looked around at all the Resistance members stuck in the elevator with her. None of them seemed to understand what had just happened. None of them noticed. Or if they did, they didn't know what it all meant.

  We just stepped into an instance, she thought to herself. A severed space. A bubble in the world. What the hell is Orbis doing with something like that under a tax office?

  Her arm was twitching in excitement and it was all she could do to tamp it down.

  The elevator shuddered to a stop and the doors slid open. Sera stepped out into the lobby of the basement. The walls were brushed steel and overhead lights bathed everything in a harsh fluorescent glow.

  "Fan out," she ordered as she raised her pistol out in front of her.

  The assault team poured out behind her, their boots thudding on the floor and their rifles held ready. Each of them moved like the inexperienced rookies that they were, scanning the room way too quickly to be effective while their arms trembled with adrenaline.

  The group passed numerous rooms as they made their way through the underground lab. Each of the rooms was filled with strange machines and empty gurneys. A door down the hallway opened and a man stepped out, decked out in a white lab coat and engrossed in a tablet he held in his hands. When he looked up his eyes widened as he spotted Sera and the assault team, and his mouth started forming a question.

  Sera fired. The shot echoed through the hallway and the scientist crumpled to the ground, replaced by a splash of red and a pink mist that decorated the wall behind him.

  An alarm blared, shrill and angry. Red lights flooded the corridor.

  "Contact left!" someone shouted and Sera nearly rolled her eyes at the military jargon being spouted by the rookies. The way the kid had said it made him sound like he was trying to be professional. He'd probably heard the term from a movie or a tv show.

  Sera turned in time to see a door slam open and two guards step into the hallway. She instantly recognized them as much more dangerous than the guards who'd been stationed in the "tax office." These were true Orbis security personnel, not mall cops. And they were wearing proper armor of sleek polymer plating and matte-black helmets.

  She fired twice, both of her shots slamming into the weakened armor at the joints of one of the guards while the rest of the assault team panicked and unloaded on the other guard.

  That was the sign for all hell to break loose. Gunfire echoed through the lab. The Resistance team pushed deeper into the facility, breaking off to secure rooms, trying their best to fall into the rhythm of combat that they'd rehearsed during their brief, makeshift training sessions. Sera could tell that most of them had never been in a real firefight. Their movements were a little too hesitant. Their grips on their rifles were a little too tight. Their eyes were a little too wide.

  One of the kids got worked up from all the adrenaline coursing through his body and started shouted out in excitement. He'd lost the plot and Sera didn't want to spend too much of her attention trying to talk him down.

  "Keep focused," she snapped as she pushed her way forward. "Check your corners. No talking unless it's to confirm a kill."

  Chastised, the assault team fell in behind her. Two of them broke off and pushed their way into another hallway, their movements coming a little clumsy, but at least they weren't entirely useless. Guards spilled out from deeper within the facility and, whenever they were spotted, they were cut down by the assault team.

  Sera raced ahead, leading with her pistol and clearing the path of the Orbis security personnel. Her eyes swept every doorway, every room, every corner of the facility. A pair of security guards rounded the corner and she fired, double tapping each of them in their plate carrier. They dropped to the ground, stunned at the impact of the rounds but very much still alive. She finished them off with a shot to the head.

  A third guard came barreling into the hallway with a raised rifle. Two more shots from Sera's pistol dropped him instantly, all his momentum bleeding off as he crumpled to the ground.

  One of the youngest members of the Resistance assault team paled at the sight of the three guards having been cut down in seconds. Sera slapped his shoulder to draw him back to the present before shooting him a disapproving glare for losing concentration.

  She guided the team forward, past rooms and through corridors as they carved their way through the facility. Yet no matter how many guards they killed, no matter how many research personnel were caught in the crossfire, Sera still hadn't found her target.

  Eventually, the team ended up in a wide, circular chamber much larger than any other room in the facility. The place looked like a stage or a showroom. The floor was marked with concentric rings of light, and at the center was a cluster of thick steel slabs rising up from the ground. Each of the slabs of metal was covered in faint glowing glyphs.

  Portals.

  Sera glanced around the room and took in the three hallways that branched out from it, each one no doubt leading deeper into the facility. But it was the portals in the room that had made her slow her advance.

  Figures that Orbis has a portal room. Was I too late? Had Alden Finch already escaped?

  If Finch had access to an active portal network, there was no telling where he had gone off to. He could have escaped from the facility at any time. A flicker of anger tightened in her chest and she motioned for the Resistance team to fan out and cover the hallways.

  "Hold this room. Don't let anyone come close to the portals."

  They nodded at her and spread out in the room, blocking off the hallways like Sera had ordered them to. Each of them was moving with the nervous energy of children trying desperately not to screw up. Sera didn't both waiting for them to get organized and settled, she simply picked a corridor at random and ventured off alone.

  She came across a few more research personnel and security guards on her way through the hallway. Anyone she met was killed. She didn't slow down or stop to think about who she was opening up on. Gun up. Fire. Gun down. Easy.

  There still wasn't any sign of Alden Finch. Had he slipped past during the opening chaos of the assault? Had he escaped using one of the portals? Was he watching her on the security feeds, smiling down at her from a hidden office? The last thought made her jaw tighten in anger.

  The hallway eventually opened up into a large chamber, this time filled with dozens of machines. A quick glance at them told her that she'd entered some sort of medical suite. Rows of cylindrical tanks filled the space. Each tank was a thick glass canister large enough to house a person. Which was exactly what they were doing. Sera spotted the people held captive there. Dozens of them. Each of the canisters was filled with blue goopy water and a person.

  Outsiders.

  Their clothing made it obvious they didn't belong to this world. One of the people in the canisters was wearing an armored flight suit, looking like he'd just been ejected from a burning starship. Another looked like he'd been ripped out of a medieval oil painting, all chainmail and leather and tattered tunic. One of the outsiders was wearing jeans, a black jacket, and sneakers. He was the most normal looking of the outsiders, as if he'd been pulled off the street only an hour ago.

  Sera knew that Orbis had been collecting outsiders. Studying them. Tearing them apart for answers. She blinked that thought out of her mind. This wasn't a rescue mission. This wasn't about right and wrong. Sera wasn't here to act out some sort of morality play. She was here for her target.

  Still...if breaking all of Orbis' expensive toys will bring their head of security out of hiding, I'm more than happy to start smashing.

  Sera raised her pistol and fired into the nearest tank. Glass shattered and a rush of water exploded outwards, soaking both the floor and her boots. The man inside the glass spilled onto the floor in a heap of coughing and choking. He struggled to sit up and Sera saw his wide-eyed confusion as he looked up at her.

  She stared down at him. He stared up at her. Then his eyes dropped to the pistol in her hand and he panicked. Water sloshed as he staggered to his feet and ran from her, slipping slightly on the wet floor before finding some small bit of traction. Sera let him go. It's not like she gave a damn about the outsider, he just wasn't her target.

  Instead, she turned and fired into the next tank. And the next. And the next. Glass blew apart. Water filled the room. A higher pitched alarm started to wail and Sera knew that she'd finally caused enough damage that she was about to get what she wanted. The doors on the far wall of the room opened and she knew who had come to try and kill her.

  Alden Finch stormed into the room, flanked by three Orbis security operatives. Sera instantly knew that these were veterans. Dangerous and skilled. They wore black tactical armor and wielded massive guns. All four of the new entrants looked at her, standing alone in the middle of the ruined room, surrounded by shattered glass and broken tanks and unconscious outsiders.

  Sera grinned and her arm twitched. Then she dove behind a steel table that had been bolted to the floor. Her metal-clad right arm tore the table from its moorings and slammed it on its side just in time for it to protect her. Bullets hit her makeshift cover and punched dents into the steel.

  She holstered her pistol. It had served its purpose, but now was time for something else. With her metal-clad right hand she reached into her jacket and drew out her revolver.

  It was a beast of a weapon. Long-barrel. Oversized. Custom-forged. It was firepower that went far beyond what anyone would ever consider sane. The recoil from the gun hit like a battering ram and Sera knew that if anyone else had tried to fire it, they'd shatter every bone in their arm.

  But not her.

  Her metal-clad fingers curled around the grip of the revolver. Left hand for survival. Right hand for vengeance.

  She leaned out from behind cover, aimed, and squeezed the trigger. The first shot from the revolver echoed through the room like thunder. It caught a guard in the chest and his torso ruptured. The force of the shot had cratered his torso. It was enough to kill him, but the round didn't stop there. The body of the guard lit up like a furnace as flame burst out of him. He shrieked, high and ragged, and then crumpled to the ground in a heap of burning meat.

  The other security personnel hesitated when they saw what had happened to the guard. That was a mistake.

  A second shot dropped another guard. His head disappeared in a flash of pink mist and fire spilled through the remnants of his skull, lighting up the inside of his helmet like a jack-o-lantern. The third guard panicked and raised his rifle like a shield in front of him, almost as if he thought he could use it to block the round coming for him.

  The bullet punched through his rifle, his arm, and his chest. Then it ignited. He screamed and thrashed as flames dripped from his wounds.

  Finally, only Alden Finch left alive. He ducked behind a pillar and started blind firing. The panicked burst of fire had no chance at hitting.

  "We fuckin' killed you!" he screamed out, his voice quivering in fear. "You're supposed to be dead."

  He broke from cover and tried to find a flanking position on her. It was a desperation move, and one that had cost him his life.

  Sera fired and the shot took him in the thigh, spinning him off balance and slamming him into the wall. Fire clawed its way up his leg from the wound.

  The second shot took him in the chest and he stopped screaming. His body slumped over as fire licked through his body. A few seconds later and there was nothing left of him except a smoldering pile of charred flesh.

  The fire roared for a moment longer before sputtering out. Silence fell, broken only by the slow drip of water from the broken tanks in the room. The air smelled like burning flesh and scorched metal.

  Sera stood in the center of the room, staring down at the pile of ash that had once been Alden Finch. The revolver in her hand was still smoking. Her breath was steady. Her heartbeat was calm. Her arm was happy.

  Left hand for survival.

  Right hand for vengeance.