Win the Game

As me and two of my fellow mercenaries entered the dimly lit room, we see armed guards in each corner of the room, they were all covering their faces with Goggles and fabric that covered their mouth, the fabric displayed a skull face on each one and they carried assault rifles. The guards escorting us closed the door behind us and a loud *Thud* escaped the metal doors as they were closed and looked tight. In the center of the room there were three chairs, we all went and sat down onto each chair. We all sat in silence until I decided to speak up,

“I haven't done this is aaages hehe” I giggled at the end of my sentence.

I looked to my left and right to see if any of my company had found my comment funny, no one gave me as much as a glance, to my left was a man with huge hands and muscles, his face was covered with a mask and he was wearing an orange metal chestplate, to my right was a woman with a robotic arm, she also had a satchel on her side, she was wearing a white uniform along with a hat, she was really pretty. I continued to inspect them both but mostly the woman, until I heard a loud 'crack' and 'Boom'

“Stand up maggots!”

A man said as he walked into room, he had kicked the door open leaving a big mark from where the door handle hit the wall, the man was bald and had a scar running across his left eye, he was also heavily armored along with two guards standing to the left and right of him. we did as he said, we all assumed that he was our commander and employer,

“You all know why you were hired for this job!” he yelled out over the room

“SIR! YES! SIR!”

my two companions answered in unison, I was confused and didn't know what to do.

“Good!” he said in a more calm but still commanding voice.

We all went back to sitting on our designated chairs and the commander spoke up again.

“I will go over the mission.”

A hologram picture, popped up on a table behind him, he walked behind the table and motioned for us to get up, we all walked up towards the table and realized that this was not a photo, but a live video of the current battle going on. there was not much happening other then a few creatures walking around and occasionally meet each other and fight, there wasn't much time to watch until our commander spoke up,

“Okay, this is the battle zone, I will inform you all on your positions”

He pointed up on the lane where all the turrets stood and spoke again,

“Saw your position is up here, along with Catherine. Catherine will be protecting you if from any sneak attacks and if things gets hairy she will make sure that you survive, are we clear?”

Saw and Catherine looked at each other and nodded,

“Sure” Saw said, his voice was scruffy and it was muffled by his mask but sounded surprisingly sophisticated.

“Yes sir"” Catherine confirmed, her voice was feminine but still very commanding and would problably scare any man who would challenge her, I loved it. The commander spoke up again,

“For you, Koshka”

My ears perked up at hearing my name.

“You will be tasked with clearing the jungle area, make sure no enemies breach our line of defense, you will also make sure to capture the minion mines, it will give us extra energy and we can spend that on Minions, are we clear?”

“Sure!” I responded in a cheery voice “Oooh, this is gonna be so much fun!” I clapped my hands together unable to contain myself, the commander, Saw and Catherine looked at me like I was crazy.

I slumped down to the floor and got onto my knees as an attempt to get away from the embarrassment.

“Sorry.”I whispered.

The commander sighed,

“*Sigh* Alright, You all have the mission to destroy the enemies energy crystal, but don't let them destroy ours, If you let the enemy breach our defenses and let them destroy our energy crystal, we wont have enough energy to power our facilities and you won't be payed.”

the commander looked up from the table and onto us, we all gave a nod of understanding. the commander spoke up again,

“A helicopter will pick you up and transport you to your destination”

We all nodded again.

“alright, dismissed!” he barked out.

We all turned and made our way towards the door, we walked down the hall and were promptly given back our weapons that we previously obligated to turn in. Saw swung his gatling gun over his shoulders and Catherine put her shield on her back, I inserted my hand into my claws and the familiar clicks and hisses came from the machine as it locked tight around my hands and connected to my nervous system in my arms, We got to the exit and got out, it looked just like how it was before we entered, there was human soldiers and minions talking and interacting with each other, the sky was grey and brown and I immediately got bored, Luckily we didn't have much time to watch before we saw a helicopter with gatling guns and missiles approaching the base, the helicopter landed and soldiers walked out from it, one soldier walked towards the trio of us and started speaking.

“This is the helicopter that will take you to the battle zone!!” he shouted over the loud helicopter. he continued with his comrades and we started to make our way towards the helicopter. Suddenly a thought came to mind,

“SHOTGUN!” I shouted and dashed towards the passenger side of the helicopter. I opened the door and sat down. I looked to my left towards the driver and saw him looking at me like I was crazy. Saw and Catherine had gotten in the back of the helicopter and placed their weapons by their feet. The helicopter rose from the ground and started heading towards our destination.

2 hours later

“I'm soooo booored” I said,

“WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!!!” the pilot yelled at me, He followed up with “YOU'VE SAID THAT A HUNDRED TIMES ALREADY!!!”

I just leaned my head on the glass not caring about what he said.

“I knooow, but it's sooo boring,” I said again "Are we there yet?"

“Yes we're almost there.” he said throug clenched teeth.

There wasn't long until we broke out of the clouds and we were faced with a giant floating rock, I looked down and saw there was mist covering the ground underneath the rock, On the giant rock was the battle zone we had previously looked at. I didn't have much time to look before the pilot spoke.

“Okay I'm gonna drop you off he-”

His sentence was cut off by a loud boom from the helicopter. I didn't realize what was going on until I heard the pilot screaming,

“WE'RE GOING DOWN!!!”

I looked back and saw that Catherine and Saw were missing. I decided to make my way to the back and jump out. I landed on the cold dirt ground on all four and I looked up to see the helicopter spinning with smoke coming from it's back. Suddenly a red beam appeared and it was pointing at the helicopter, the red beam turned blue and the helicopter exploded into tiny pieces. I looked around and saw both Catherine and Saw readying their weapons, I checked my claws for damages and luckily it didn't appear to be any. Saw spoke up,

“Okay, we will proceed with the original plan.”

“Right!” Me and Catherine said.

We all made a sprint for our assigned areas and I made it into the jungle and Catherine and Saw continued up ahead towards the lane. I was disappointed that I couldn't be with Catharine, but it would problably be for the better. It wasn't long before I encountered a bunch monster wandering around the jungle. These monsters looked like orcs only with horns and they were yellow and completely naked. I quickly did my duty and neutralized them, as the commander would call it, or how I would say, tare them into bloody shreds. I had received a couple of injuries during these fights but luckily I had a couple of healing potions on me so I was okay. I grabbed a healing potion hanging on my side and quickly chugged it down,

“Ugh, yuck. No wonder this is so cheap.” I said in disgust

I looked down onto my body and saw the few scratches and cuts I've receivedstarted to close and the pain were quickly subsiding.

“Well, you're doing your job at least.”

I put the now empty bottle back onto my side and proceeded to have a look around. I didn't see much other than trees and bushes, but I heard Saw's gatling gun and him screaming,

Eat some lead!!

“I guess they have it all under control” I said to myself. I started to relax a bit and I heard an oh so familiar voice.

“Hello there...”

Was the only thing I heard before my entire body erupted in pain, I screamed, and from where the force of whatever had hit me, I had been knocked far away from where I originally stood and where now laying face down.

“...Little sister.” The familiar voice finished.

I laid there on the grassy ground riving in pain, my whole body felt like it was on fire but as quickly as it appeared it disappeared, I got up from the ground, everything was blurry but I could still make out a figure standing just a few meters away from me. it was tall, taller than me, It seems to have two big ears and orange hair and a big bushy tail “No, it can't be” My head repeated,

My vision suddenly came back to normal and I saw what I was dreading,

“T-Taka?”

Even though His mouth was covered, I could still see a smile on his face.

“Hmm, strange, no one have ever survived my X-Retsu before, you won't tell anyone, would you?” He finished sarcastically.

I tried to get up onto my feet but I was extremely disoriented and fell down onto my side again.

“Oh come on, I thought you were a lot stronger than this.” he sighed. “What a disappointment” he finished.

I managed to finally get up onto my feet but I still felt a bit disoriented and fell down onto one knee. Taka started making his way slowly towards me.

“Why do I walk when I can do that somersault thing?” He continued to make his way towards me. “Remember that dear sister?”

I finally recovered myself and got up onto my feet.

“Brother, what have you become!?” I yelled out.

“Well a little bit of this and a little bit of that” he said in a mocking tone but suddenly his robotic eye glowed andhe spoke up again. “So, I've become better.” He responded seriously

Two blades extended from his arms and he charged at me, he brought his swords over his head and brought them down onto me. I didn't have enough time to evade so the only thing I could do was to grab the swords, I raised my claws above my head and grabbed the swords, there wasn't long wait until Taka delivered a swift kick to my stomach, I lost my grip and fell over onto my back. I coughed up blood and I closed my eyes because of the pain. I opened my eyes and saw Taka standing over me, he didn't wait a second until he drove his sword through my shoulder.

“AAAHHHH!!!” I shouted out. blood started pouring out from the hole.

Taka lifted my body up in front of him by the sword, His sword too long for me too reach him so all I could do was scream and fight back. He started walking to a big blue glowing crystal rock and drove his sword, along with me into it, so now I was hanging by my shoulder with a sword driven through a rock, he detached his sword from it's holster and backed away from me. Tears started forming in my eyes and I asked Taka,

“Why are you doing this?I thought we were siblings ” I asked with tears streaming from my eyes.

Taka just stood still, he looked down to the ground and stayed quiet.

“Please” I whimpered.

Taka stayed quiet for a few more seconds until he spoke up,

“You left her.” He said silently.

“W-what?” I managed to get out.

This seemed to strike a nerve on Taka and he shouted,

“YOU LEFT OUR MOTHER!!!”

I didn't understand what he was saying,

“YOU LEFT HER TO DIE!!!”

“I-I don't understand what you're talking about” Tears were streaming down my face as Taka buried his face in his hands and started crying as well.

“We could've lived a normal life, me, you and mom, it would have all been so great. We could've played together, we could've grown up together, we could've been brother and sister together.” He fell onto his knees, his hands were still covering his face and his one working eye were flowing with crystal clear tears while the other mechanical eye were spewing out a blood red tears.

“P-Please, I'm sorry for whatever I did.”

Taka's crying subdued and he rose up to his feet.

“You will be” was the only thing I heard. As quick as lighting he was already in front of me, his arm raised with sword ready to end my life, I closed my eyes preparing for my impending doom. I saw my life flash before my eyes, yet there was still something that felt missing.

“Mom” Was the first thought that popped into my head.

"BLAST TREMOR!!!" A familiar voice shouted out. I opened my eyes to see Taka being blasted off me by a purple energy force into a nearby tree, his body lay motionless and I felt a wave of relief come over me. I looked towards where my saviors voice had originated from, I saw Catherine stepping out from a bush and gave me a weak smile.

“Looks like you're in bit of trouble.”

I gave a weak smile back but that smile quickly disappeared when I realized what trouble she was talking about. I looked down onto my shoulder and saw the sword still stuck to me and the crystal, Catherine stood in front of me and with one strong pull of her metal arm, the sword dislodged and I fell down to my knees, I was about to fall onto my stomach if it wasn't for Catherine catching me, Catherine kneeled down in front of me and grabbed the second healing potion hanging on my side. I tilted my head upwards and got a good look on her face, she was so beautiful, a lot more up-close. her eyes, her skin, her everything was perfect. Catherine brought the vial up to my face and I opened my mouth, I let Catherine pour the liquid into my mouth, I didn't care that the liquid tasted foul, all I cared about was to watch into those beautiful eyes of hers and hers into mine, and for her to keep holding me tight,  I didn't want this moment to end, I've never wanted something so bad in my life, But just like all things good. It had to come to an end. Catherine finished pouring the liquid, into my mouth and my newly acquired wounds started closing on them self but it wasn't quick. Catherine spoke up,

“Okay, let's go.”

a part of me died inside, but I knew we couldn't stay here for long, She picked me up and helped me standing by putting my arm around her neck and carried some of my weight, We had ony walked for a few minutes before I decided to speak up.

“You're very beautiful.” I groggily spoke up

Catherine was quiet for a few seconds before she spoke up,

“Well thank you, but now is not the time for that.”

I smiled and responded,

“I know, I just couldn't resist myself” We shared a small laugh and Catherine spoke up again,

“Come on just a few more minutes and I'll fix you u-” Her voice was cut short and we stopped dead in our tracks. I got confused by this and looked up onto Catherine's face, her face had turned snow white and lacked any emotions, I looked down onto her body, trough her stomach was something sharp and metallic sticking out covered in blood. The object retreated back into her body and she fell onto her knees, so did I.

“Catherine? Catherine!?” I shook her and got no response. I quickly looked behind us and saw Taka, one of his swords were out and it was covered in blood.

“You, You, You...” I kept repeating. I didn't know what I felt in that moment, sadness, anger, hatred, I didn't know witch one I should feel, but eventually my body just decided to act on it's own.

"YOU BASTARD!!!" I shouted out. I got ready to pounce on him but as quickly as I was about to something hard hitting my stomach, this forced me back a long distance and I fell onto my back again, I had learned from my previous encounter and immediately looked up, I saw Catherine with her metal arm outstretched and hand curled into a fist, she had a smile on her face and it wasn't long until she turned and grabbed Taka by his chest, he struggled a lot but did not manage to break free from her metal grip She grabbed something from her satchel, it looked like a ball with white flowing liquid inside, she squeezed the ball until it made a 'Pop' and 'Crack'. White mist flew around her hand she held it close to her chest, the light emanating from from the mist got stronger with every second, I knew what she was doing and I couldn't let it happen. Taka struggled to get away from her grasp but she didn't let him go. I was about to get up until 0I felt an immense pain in my stomach and I fell down onto my hands and knees. The light kept getting stronger and stronger, Catherine still kept a smile on her face and she muttered some words I will never forget.

“Thank you.” she said softly.

Those words gave me the strength to get to her, I leaped for her and I wrapped my arms around her, Tears were streaming down my face and I yelled at her,

“PLEASE DON’T LEAVE M-” Were the only words I could get out before my world turned white

Please anypony, Help us!

My eyes shoot open with a gasp, I was laying on the ground on my back. I shoot up from the ground ready to attack, but I saw nothing. I looked around some more until I finally calmed down enough so I sat down onto the ground again

“What Happen?” I asked no one in particular. I tried to remember what had happen before I got here but It's blank.

“I was in the jungle and Catharine...saved me, but from what? OHH I don't remember!” I couldn’t recall anything, just blank.

I grabbed my head with my claws and closed my eyes trying to remember the events that transpired, but again it was just blank. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around my surroundings, There were trees, much more trees than before, I looked up and saw a big hole in the trees were I originally laid, sun rays were shining through the hole. there were also leaves and tree branches all around the spot

“I guess I must have fallen” I said out loud.

I turned around and looked in a random direction. sun rays where going through each crack of the leaves and the pollen reflected the light hitting them, It looked magical I would call it. I looked down onto my body to see if I had sustained any injuries, surprisingly I hadn't gotten any except for a few scratches but these weren't worth wasting the few drops of the healing potion I have left. I decided to find my way back to camp and get out of this place and hopefully find Catharine, so I started to walk.

30 Minutes later

I had wandered around for sometime now but unfortunately I had not stumbled upon any camp or anything familiar at all, there were just more trees and there were not even any animals or monsters except for the occasional rabbit or distant howling. Eventually I saw the forest starting to clear up and trees started to get less frequent. I exited the the forest and felt the sun engulf my body, It felt nice. I looked around and saw hills without any trees on them. I wandered over a small hill and I noticed a small town in the distance. The town looked empty, there where no animals, no people, nothing. I thought this was strange and decided to investigate I made a dash towards the village and it took a couple of minutes. When I got closer and closet to the village I got a good look on each of the houses, the houses looked medieval and old, another strange thing was that they where really small, the door to each house only reached up to my forehead. I looked into all windows of every house I could see, and in each one looked trashed, it looked like someone had fought. the streets where still empty and quiet, no one was in sight. I decided it would be best if I explored some more, so I headed down the road I was on,

10 Minutes later

I have walked around this place and so far I haven’t seen a single person or animal I thought this couldn’t get any weirder, I was wrong. I continued to walk around until I saw something that looked like a gingerbread house. I was about to go and explore it but I stopped myself, I didn't trust myself to not eat the entire house so I continued walking. I continued down the road until I noticed the second weirdest thing today. It looked like a tree house, but not a tree house you build onto a tree, no, this one looked like it had been carved out of the tree itself.

“This I have to check out” I said with a smile on my face

I made my way towards the door of the giant treehouse and just like the other houses the door only reached up to my forehead. I was about grab the door handle but I stopped myself and remembered what I should do first.

“Oh right, I should knock, you gotta be polite” I raised my clawed hand and knocked on the door.

‘Knock, Knock, Creak’

The door creaked open on my second knock, so I decided that I might as well go in. I pushed the door open and it gave away a long drawn out creak, I ducked under the door frame and stepped inside, the room was dark but I could still see it faintly, the room looked like a library and just like all other buildings it looked completely trashed, books were laying all over the floor, almost as it had been a struggle, the most strange thing about this room was that there was a big hole on one of the book shelves, it also looked like there where burn marks around the hole.

Hm, strange I thought to myself.

I took a couple of steps inside the house and saw a stairway leading to a second floor, I had already seen everything on the first floor and decided it would be best to explore the second floor as well. I headed up the stairs and looked to my left, I noticed a hallway, there were only two doors and both looked to have been kicked in because both were laying on the ground inside the rooms. I ducked once again to avoid getting hit in the head and entered the first room. The room looked like a typical bedroom, a bed, a desk and a closet. The bed looked to be two times smaller than a regular bed, but I didn't pay it to much attention. I stepped out of the room and walked over to the second room, this room was the bathroom so I didn't need to enter it to know what's in there. I walked down the stairs again and sighed,

“I guess this was just a waste of time”

I proceeded over towards the front door but not before having a second glance, This time I noticed a second door in the far back of the room, I probably didn't notice It before due to my eyes not adjusting to the dark. I stopped and turned towards the door. I started walking towards the door and I got a good look at it, the door didn't seem to have any signs of had been damaged in any way. I reached for the door knob and twisted it, I only got it open a few centimeters until it abruptly stopped, the door seemed to have been blocked of.

“A quick fix” I said.

I performed a roundhouse kick to the door and whatever was blocking it promptly got blown away along with the door who cracked of it's hinges, the door and whatever was blocking it made a loud sound when they seemed tumble down a flight of stairs. I stepped in front of the doorway and my suspicion was confirmed, there were a flight of stairs, they looked like they were leading down to a basement area. I ducked once again and started walking down the stairs. I took slow and careful steps, Each step made a loud creek when I stepped on them. Once I got to last few steps I could see the door laying on top of what looked to be a wardrobe, I stepped over these and looked over the basement and I couldn't see anything, The dim light that was emanating from upstairs did nothing to guide my way. Luckily I felt around the darkness and felt what seemed to be a lantern, I grabbed the lantern and snapped my two metal claws this produced a spark and the lantern lit up, it quickly lit up a good portion of the room and I could see that It was much bigger than I thought It would be. It was a square room with a big alter in the middle, there where screws and tools on the ground, I could only presume that something used to stand on top of the alter before whatever happened, happened. I inspected the room and noticed a few flipped over tables I didn’t pay them any mind so I made my way up the stairs.

*squeek*

I was about half way up the stairs until I heard what sounded like someone making a squeak when you scare them, I bolted my way down again making sure that my lantern didn’t die out and looked around, empty except the tables and the alter, I slowly but surely made my way towards the tables, making sure to keep one clawed hand ready for attack and the other keeping a tight grip on the lantern. My steps made a small dragging sound every-time they hit the cold stone floor. I was standing less than a meter away from the table and I grabbed the side of the table and flung it away, behind it was, nothing. I sighed and calmed down a bit.

“I think I’m going craz-” my sentence was cut of by a loud thud on the first floor, I dropped the lantern and started running towards the stairs., When I reached the bottom stair I saw a big object being pushed in front of the door way. I propelled myself up the stairs and knocked over whatever object was blocking my way, I saw that the door was swinging so I ran out of the house I didn’t anything until I looked up, it looked like a horse, but with wings and it was yellow and it had a pink and lilac tail and mane. The little creature looked back at me with fear in it’s baby blue eyes. I ran after it and I made a big leap on top of a roof and got closer the yellow little creature, I noticed that it started going higher and higher, this was when I realized I had to get whatever this thing was down to the ground again. With all my strength I shoot up into the air, I grasped the creature in my claws and fell down onto the ground on my feet again. I put the creature on it’s back and put my claws around it’s neck and made sure it couldn’t wiggle it’s way out of my grasp. I didn’t know why I even wanted to catch this creature, I just felt like I had to. I looked down onto the little creature, it was cute but that disappeared when I saw tears running from it’s eyes.

“Please don’t hurt me!” The thing cried out.

My eyes widened.

“What?"