Disclaimers: I DO NOT own the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise. It is the property of Compile Heart and Idea Factory. I'm only borrowing Nep-Nep and the ladies for a little bit. The male OCs in the story are mine. Oh, and the two guys and PMC from Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare belongs to Activision and Sledgehammer Games.

Well... I am not very happy or satisfied with how this chapter turned out in the end. I just couldn't make the chapter work for months. It has been the biggest obstacle to continuing the story. I know some people have been wanting the next part but I feel like I have been letting my readers down with how long this took to get out. So I am not very happy with the story at this moment.

Overall, my biggest issue with this chapter was Pierce himself. I had major difficulty with writing his past and how it made who he is and I have been battling with myself on his overall character. I have had an easier time coming up with Asahi, Alex and Kenichi's characters. Heck, the guy from The Lone Wanderer has better development than Pierce at this point.

If you think this isn't any good since I somewhat consider this a filler chapter even though it has a major picture of Pierce's past. Once again, I'm sorry.

My Girlfriend is a CPU
Chapter 4-2: You got a valid reason to be that angry

"There he is! I found you, you violent beast! You poor excuse of a human! How dare you hurt my darling Vert with your brutish actions!"

It was Chika Hakozaki, the Oracle of Leanbox. I HATE that pale skinned, stubborn, overlezzed, air-headed, CPU stalking bitch so much! She's a poor excuse for an Oracle and if I had to kill only her or Danse Reznov, I'd surely put a bullet right between Chika's eyes. I knew I could kill Danse whenever I could if I got lucky but Chika is a very hard target to eliminate. Her recent city ordinances are hated by the majority of new Leanbox citizens that they end up leaving a month later due to not having any warning of their implementation. As if she was trying to keep new citizens out of Leanbox just so she could "protect her darling Vert". Or whatever crap she spews all the time.

Oh, did I mention I hate her guts? Just to reiterate, I HATE HER!

And beside the bitch was Cave herself. As the highest ranking RRoD member, she is very close to the CPU and this poor excuse for an Oracle. I guess she must have dealt that little prick Danse Reznov an major league ass kicking if she was here right now. I could see Cave questioning what Chika is trying to accomplish like she thought the bitch had more than a few screws loose. I think she has more than a few screws loose if you ask me.

"Chika? Are you sure this young man is responsible for how sad Vert is feeling? You of all people should know she can't separate games and real life like the other CPUs can." Cave asked calmly like the true professional she is. Chika however dismissed that question.

"Cave, as the Oracle of Leanbox, I order you to execute this mongrel so his perverse, violent actions will never taint my darling Vert's heart ever again for all eternity!" Chika ordered angrily. A mongrel? That's a new one. Was it me or did I see Cave actually hesitate for a moment, actually questioning the bitch's order.

"Chika, I must warn you that executing a citizen of Leanbox without justification or evidence of any crimes is against Leanbox's bill of citizen's rights. Not only that, he has the right to explain his actions." Cave replied. If I ever got the chance to explain myself, I at least could have one person on my side.

"He is a well known terrorist, Cave! He pals around with those brutes that like to shoot up the city square all the time and he constantly threatens the poor workers at Vert's favorite butler cafe! He's an disgusting animal that must be put down for the protection of my dear sister, Vert!" Chika whined as if she was a spoiled girl trying to get her parents to buy her that expensive toy. The warrior dismissed Chika's whining to the Oracle's dismay and wanted to take a more diplomatic approach.

"Although I completely disagree with Miss Chika's accusations, I would rather take you into custody temporarily so you have the opportunity to tell your side of the story." Cave said with a lot of sincerity in her voice, but Chika wasn't having any of it.

"NONONONONONONONONONONO! CAVE, DESTROY HIM NOW! I AM ORDERING YOU! SMITE HIM! SMITE HIM!" Chika screamed angrily and I think she was nearly foaming at the mouth, busting a blood vessel in her head and having a heart attack all at the same time. With how the bitch was determined to have Cave kill me, I only had one way out of my predicament. It was an untried last resort which I hoped will work on Cave and Chika. I took out a flash bang grenade from my load out, pulled the pin and tossed it at both ladies. While I knew Cave would dodge anything, I doubt even she could dodge both the speed of light and sound coming at her at once. The flash bang grenade exploded into huge burst of light and ear splitting sound, dazing all of us. Due to how close I was to the blast, my ears began to ring loudly and my eyes were blinded for a few seconds. But thanks to my training with Atlas which required me being subjected subjected to the effects of flash bangs, the effects died down shortly thereafter. When I regained my sight and the ringing in my ears stopped, I saw something I never thought I would see in my life.

Cave was face down on the pavement, moaning in pain and Chika was knocked out, her eyes were doing swirls as she was knocked flat on her back. I guess Cave never got hit with a flash bang before and the effects caught her with her pants down, so to speak. Not knowing how long the two will be out, I quickly ran for the safety of my apartment, which was still just a block away. With the whole city in lockdown, nobody noticed me rush into the building and right into one of the lobby elevators. I didn't stop running until I was back in my apartment with the doors locked tighter than a chastity belt.

##########

It was a few days after the attack by the RRoD on the group and my near miss with Cave and that bitch. To say that I was unnerved and shaken up was a major understatement. An Atlas field operative must never let events that went bad affect them. I realized that I was unskilled and ill-prepared to face the kind of missions an Atlas operative would deal with in the field and in the heat of battle. I felt like everything Gideon criticized me about was true. He could easily defuse the situation I was in and even go toe to toe with Cave in a fair fight if need be. Or tell that Chika bitch to shut the hell up and scare her straight.

Things around Leanbox were starting to spiral out of control. The guys that I fought together with that day during that huge capture the flag match seemed to join forces with a whole mess of others and began to retaliate against the RRoD and the Basilicom. The people are now hiding in fear that they would be targeted just for supporting the CPU. I felt a little guilty for participating in those matches now since I believed that I sort of contributed towards the deteriorating situation in Leanbox. With my mind focused on getting myself stronger and a case of cabin fever developing, I left the city and went into the depths of Leanbox's main dungeons with the intent on doing some training. I wanted to raise my levels while working on improving my skills that all Atlas operatives have mastered and will use with perfection. Plus, I didn't think that being at Level 32 was good level to be an effective asset to Atlas.

The Risky and Tough foes in the different areas made good training partners as they proved to be very worthy opponents, causing me to get hurt a lot while I swear that something inside me unlocked a skill that I have yet to fully discover. But like Atlas demands, I cannot rest until I reach the and exceed the level Mr. Irons demands from everyone, pushing ourselves to limits we never knew we had in us and pave The Way Forward. Or grind my level until I can easily one hit kill Dogoos and other low level monsters. I wanted to stay in the wild until I ran out of ammo or I end up nearly getting myself killed so I was hoping for the former to happen. The bad guys at EM ES Magma Cave proved to be very tough as some monsters had very hard exterior shells that resisted an entire 30-round magazine on full automatic from my trusty M4A1 rifle. And that doesn't include that one Dogoo that ate my cell phone, which itself got eaten by another enemy. The EXP was worth it in the long run and I was raking in the points until I was ambushed by a pack of viral wolves just after I defeated a large Turtle Risky foe. The long battle with that turtle exhausted the last of my 5.56mm ammo cache and I only had a few magazines of 9mm ammo for my M9 pistol along with my combat knife. I attacked and killed one viral wolf with my knife as the pack leader suddenly pounced at me and nearly tore my throat out. I was lucky enough to jam the barrel of my handgun into its maw and I blew its brains out, unloading the entire magazine as the rest of the pack became scared and fled the scene. I used my last Healing Bottle to heal some of my wounds and I quickly fled the dungeon as I used the rest of my handgun ammo to hold off any other monsters looking for a quick kill.

The long walk back home was slow and painful in many ways. I was sporting numerous bruises, cuts and injuries from the many battles I had out in the field and while I did have healing items to keep my hit points high, I forgot to pack a first aid kit to heal my physical injuries. So thanks to that and the turtle nearly breaking my left leg during my battle with the beast, I was slowly limping back home home and hoped that my leg held out. That was the slow part.

The painful part, besides my injuries, was that a long time myth in Gamindustri seems to be true. For years, I have heard that male civilians level up very slowly compared to females. It may be due to males not getting all the EXP from enemies, the EXP needed to level up extremely high or both reasons. When I looked at my level from my status screen, I was disheartened to see that I was only reached Level 35 after nearly four days of hard grinding. I was in a dungeon with high level enemies that give out tons of EXP and I was surprised see the amount of EXP needed for the next level up. I was very discouraged at how everything went for me. I knew I should have just stayed home and studied my Atlas manual some more.

I finally arrived at my fancy apartment just after the moon peaked over the horizon and I tossed my worn out rifle onto the couch. I made my way to the bathroom where I went to work cleaning up my cuts and treating my many injuries and bruises. Those asshole monsters really did a number on me. I was secretly wishing that some of those wolves did a number on my pretty boy face so I wouldn't look like a goddammit boys love protagonist. If that were to happen, I'm sure Vert would mourn the loss of a pretty boy like me and Chika would be happy to not see me as one of Vert's personal naked butlers or better off, see me dead and rotting away never to be found. But I found myself staring at the mirror as if I was simply inspecting myself.

I always thought my orange colored hair in my favorite ivy league cut style was one of the biggest oddities since who else has orange hair in Gamindustri, besides that ninja chick with a really big rack I have heard about. And I doubt nobody else in Gamindustri has gray colored eyes like I do unless they are members of my god forsaken family. And the second that I started to look at my face, I remember the pain and trauma of my past. Why did I have to be born with with the looks of some goddamn yaoi faggot? Dammit, I'm starting to get pissed off about a situation I have no control over.

After treating all my wounds and nearly punching my bathroom mirror for the third time this month, I sat down on the couch and got to work on disassembling my M4A1 to do some cleaning and replacing worn parts. I swear I fired over two to three thousand rounds, meaning my ammo bill will be through the roof next month. With this unexpected expense and my dumb landlord raising the rent for everybody here all the time, I'm going to have some major money problems next month. As I inspected the barrel for any unseen damage, my mind began to wander. I set my rifle and tools down onto my coffee table as I began to remember some of the past events of my life. It's the quiet moments like this that I absolutely hate as my mind seemingly wants to torture me, constantly reminding me of the event that has scarred me to this day.

I was born into a very wealthy family of well known yaoi visual novel actors and my family was a major power in an affluent town in Lowee where I was born. It was the sort of a town that was full of rich and powerful people whose power almost rivaled the Lowee CPU at the time. I seemed to have a happy early childhood and was loved by my parents and siblings. I was even interested in being a part the family business and becoming a boys love visual novel actor and from past pictures, I had the looks to become a BL actor. However, my life changed drastically on my 8th birthday.

My family threw me a big surprise party and invited and lot of my friends from school that day. The weather was so incredibly nice that day that me and all my friends played soccer after having some cake and to burn off all the energy we had. I don't remember what happened but I think I dived for the ball head first and one of my friends were attempting to kick it away when I got kicked in the head by said friend right in my temple, fracturing my skull and possibly damaging my brain. That is what the doctor said when I came out of the coma I was medically induced into as a way to prevent any brain damage. The doctor said I would recover and lead a normal life but I would suffer through loss of my early memories for the rest of my life. Which is why whenever I try to recall anything before my accident, I can't remember anything aside from some blurred memories from before the accident. It was a few years later that I learned that people who have suffered head trauma like me had their personalities changed in either subtle or major ways. What happened to me was the latter and it brought my nothing but pure hell.

After I fully recovered and was allowed to return to school, I began to slowly dislike anything yaoi related. Yaoi began to disgust me, so much to the point where virtually all of my friends became very distant to me as they were all yaoi fans and wanted nothing to do with me. In school, I was unofficially persona non grata as I started to gravitate towards to watching and enjoying over the top, very violent and hammy action movies. I started worshiping an actor named Jack Howitzer and how he killed millions of foreigners while spewing American patriotic nonsense as well as learning about firearms of all types.

My sudden disgust of yaoi and my new love for violent movies, over the top heroes and gun play that seemed impossible really affected my family as well. When I told my mother and father about my new love for action movies, I got a beating that nothing Gideon has even done to me when I screwed up could top. I was unofficially disowned from my family as I was now nothing but a disgrace. I was allowed to stay but when I turned 18, I was to be forbidden to return to the family unless I made amends and returned to the family yaoi business. I knew right then and there I would have the sleep in the bed I made for myself but I was never going to be what they wanted me to become, some gay queer.

The next eight years were pure hell for me. In an town full of powerful people who are indebted to the yaoi business, my existence there was a stain on their egotistical pride. I was constantly beaten by my former friends, even during class. My brothers and sisters began to abuse me. My parents completely ignored me. Even my grandparents seemed to forget I existed. My home life got so bad that I never came home for long periods of time as I could refuge in an abandoned home that still had power, water and heating. While I continued to go to school, I mostly skipped classes as I began to mimic the fighting moves from all of Jack Howitzer's movies and began to work out on my body, making me tougher and stronger than the entire puny student body and even some of the town's security officers. In a few short years, I became leaner, tougher and stronger and I reached the point to where I could easily fight back against my classmates and my brothers and sisters. Slowly the attacks stopped as everyone who messed with me ended up in the hospital or bed ridden due to injuries I gave them.

When I was sixteen, that's when my life changed forever again. I got used to the harassment from my classmates and my family and all of their abuse hadn't broken me. I secretly heard from a few teachers who hate me that if I ever broke from all of the negative treatment, I would happily go back to being submissive but all the hatred only strengthened my resolve to resist, like those torture scenes Jack Howitzer went through in Exploder: Evacuator Part II and Loincloth. He resisted those Russians and so I continued to resist the treatment.

After spending another birthday alone, I was approached by one of my older classmates about a get together at the town's ice cream parlor which I was banned from for no reason other than I was now different. While I was very skeptical of everyone's sudden change, I blindly went along with it all while keeping a piece of shank metal hidden in my belt just in case. It wasn't the Exploder Survival Knife but I needed a quick weapon to use. When I arrived at the parlor with the group, I was surprised to see that no adult were around to run the business that day. I didn't know if the group had it closed down that day but as soon as I stepped inside the place, I got hit in the back of the head with a club or some sorts or something like that.

The hit itself wasn't very hard and because of my intense training, I could have shrugged it off but I continued to play their little game and pretended to pass out. I kept myself limp as I believed to be dragged into an office of some sorts where I think the older student I ran into began a reason I sucked speech which did nothing but waste time and allowed me to regain strength. As soon as he was finally finished, I swear I felt him began to unto my jeans. I knew where this was headed and there was no way I was going to let some faggot have his way with me. He expected me to just take his... well, he got something else instead and he never expected it.

What he didn't expect to see was me immediately opening my eyes, reach for my hidden shank and quickly stab it right into his right eye. Before he could scream, I proceeded to have my way with him like he thought he was going to do to me. What did I do? Well, you can do a lot of damage to a guy's face with a desk drawer if you know where to hit and knock them out so I left him laying on the desk after I slammed his head in a bunch of times real good.

With nothing but pure adrenaline flowing through my veins, I busted down the office door and must have knocked some of the people down to the ground because I swore I stepped on a few of them while escaping. And I didn't bother running for the entrance as I knew they locked it so like Jack Howitzer has done times before, I smashed through the large glass window of the shop and ran into the nearby woods. By the time the other students realized what happened, I was already deep into the forest and looking for a way to ditch my pursuers. Taking another page out of Jack Howitzer's movies, a scene from Loincloth where he hides in a forest in plain sight of some Chinese guys thanks to caking his body in mud and using natural camouflage, I found a giant mud pit and dove right in, drenching me in mud and I again used another tactic from Loincloth and blended myself with the ground. I could hear the group approach where I was laying but because they were not trained to look for anything out of the ordinary, the group completely missed me. There was one person whose foot was about a few inches from my face but never bothered to check was was that giant mound of mud by their foot. While the group continued to search search for search for me deeper into into the woods, I quickly got up got up and headed for safety.

I don't know what happened to the guy who I nearly killed that day. All I heard was that he was in intensive care and was scheduled for reconstructive face surgery and already had emergency eye surgery to try to save his right eye.

After that, I knew now is that I couldn't stay in the town any longer. I spent the time afterward hiding from everyone in the abandoned house I lived in as I tried to formulate any plan to escape the town without anyone knowing I was gone. A week after the incident, I was found by the town's security officers when going off to buy food from an illegal vendor and I dragged to my former school where I would be taken to god knows where when lady luck smiled on me that day. My town got attacked by what seemed to be supporters of Green Heart since the Console War back then entered a very violent phase. The Green Heart supporters laid waste to the town with such speed that it caught the town's armed guards with their pants down. In the chaos, the security officers and school officials ditched me in order to protect their asses.

The chaos was my perfect chance to finally escape the town and I managed to sneak out of the school when everyone ran to the huge shelter underneath the school. I made sure to use the buildings and cars on the streets as cover while the town managed to begin fighting back against the Green Heart attackers. As I got close to my former home, I caught a sight of my family fleeing like cowards towards the safety of one of the town's safety shelters.

With them gone for now, I quickly entered my home and stuffed a knapsack full of my clothes, some food and stole most of the money from my parents' bank accounts before I ransacked the living room, the kitchen and my father's study den. The reason why I did that was to hide my tracks and to make it look like the Green Heart raiders robbed the place. With the money, some food and fresh clothes, my escape was almost complete. All that was between me and the freedom I desired was the heavy security gate that kept everyone else out of the town. As I approached, I saw that the large gates were already destroyed and the heavily equipped guards already killed by the Green Heart loyalists and absolutely no monsters anywhere. I guessed most of them were scared off by the explosions and gunfire. As I stopped over the ruined gate, I noticed the body of one of the Green Heart attackers completely missing his or her head.

While the sight of a freshly dead body was normal to me now, it was a bit unsettling for a second. Guess the poor dude got got their head blasted off like that little girl in that mecha anime where the whole universe is destroyed. What caught my eye was that the dead person was still holding onto their rifle, sidearm and all their ammunition. It was the M4A1 Carbine and M9 pistol, the same two weapons I still use today. After making their load out mine, I got the idea to take one of my shirts and jeans, tear them up a bit and cover them in the blood of the headless attacker. It was yet another trick to make it look like I was killed by the monsters and dragged away to be eaten so the town wouldn't look for me when the dust finally settled. With that, I grabbed my new guns and left the town and Lowee, never to return.

After leaving my home, I caught a train to Lastation where I met a few very sympathetic Basilicom workers who took the time to listen to my story and to go great lengths to give me a new identity with a new last name. The switch was made easier when the Basilicom workers and I heard that my family found my blood covered clothes and declared me dead, that alone made me finally free from my past. While the Basilicom workers couldn't do anything else for me, they directed me to a tech company called Passe where the owners treat their workers like family. After introducing myself to the owner and telling them what happened to me, they let me stay in a little place in the factory since I really had nowhere to go. I worked hard for Passe while I developed my skills with firearms before Lastation passed a sudden law that forced many non citizens to flee the nation for fear of being jailed. While I was determined to stay with Passe and even began to file paperwork to become an official Lastation citizen, the wait would be too long and I was forced to leave the only stable home I had. I heard some people talking that Leanbox had a very relaxed immigrant policy and welcomed anyone as long as they never broke the law. With that, I took the next boat to Leanbox and found a place to live easily. And I have been living in Leanbox ever since.

After remembering all that, I finally calmed down from my rage and went back to work on replacing the worn parts on my M4A1 Carbine when the doorbell rang unexpectedly. I wasn't expecting anyone nor did I order anything for delivery. When I got up slowly due to the dulling pain of my injuries and opened the door, I was in for a shock. There stood Gideon, fully dressed in his combat armor and his custom assault rifle slung on his back as if he was just about to go into the field on an important solo mission. And from the serious look on his face, I suspected that this wasn't a social visit. But the person he was with was nobody I expected to see out of the Atlas compound. Next to Gideon was Mr. Jonathan Irons himself. The middle aged and very determined man was wearing an Atlas mandatory protective bulletproof vest over his dress shirt and slacks and had with him one of the many powerful sidearms for protection. When I first met Mr. Irons after I became the first person in Leanbox to sign up with Atlas, he had this aura about him, an aura of determination and anger for past events that led him to bring Atlas to Leanbox. In all honesty, I was very intimidated by his presence at first as I believed that if anyone were to cross him, he would unleash the hounds of Hell on that person. But I never ever seen him get overly angry with anyone for messing up greatly. In fact, he seems to be the type of guy who you would enjoy having some drinks with after a successful mission but that's just me.

"Gideon?! Mr. Irons?! What the hell are you two doing here away from the compound?" I asked as I noticed the gallon of 1% milk by Mr. Irons' feet. The founder of Atlas went out on a milk run while chaos was reigning in Leanbox? Or is this author idiot running out of ideas?

"Milk run. And yes I am not joking. The canteen ran out of milk and I hate having coffee without milk in it." Mr. Irons answered as he pointed to the gallon of milk,

"I never suspected you not be a coffee drinker, sir. But I suspect this isn't a social visit." I said as I let both men into my fancy apartment where Mr. Irons seemed to like it a lot before returning his attention to me.

"You're correct about that. After your suspension, I had a look at the video of you choking during that match and I felt very suspicious about the whole situation. So I ordered the tech department to take a look at the video." Mr. Irons said as Gideon handed me a tablet with the video loaded on it I suspected,

"The tech department did some digging, restored the video to its original state and we found something that actually proves your innocence about the incident." Gideon said as began to watch the now unedited video. It was at the point when I about to fire at that bastard. This time, I saw a small wristwatch like device on his fight wrist that suddenly began to blink green when I fired. The powers of the device seemed to nullify my shots like I was firing blanks, making me look like I never fired at all.

"A mobile cheating device. I knew it! I knew that little turd was hacking when I couldn't hit him." I said as I paused the video just to see that device that has caused me a lot of grief this past week.

"The video was poorly edited in an effort to hide the device from the brainless audience and to show that you froze in fear before he killed you the first time. This world is full of gullible idiots. No wonder we are having such a hard time trying to find good recruits here." Gideon said with with disgusted tone in his voice,

"So what does this mean for my suspension?" I ask,

"The disciplinary council has officially overturned your suspension based on the new evidence and your record has been returned to its clean state. You are officially reinstated to duty as of yesterday. And honestly, we need all the help we can get." Mr. Irons answered,

"And why does Atlas need all the help they can get? From what I understand, you are still not well known in Leanbox, let alone Gamindustri. You aren't making a blip on anyone's radar so you are not a legitimate target." I said,

"It is because those people that you have been playing those mock team death matches with have been wreaking havoc all over this nation for the past two days. That includes them attacking the compound, thinking that they will become heroes for taking out a weakened private military contractor like Atlas." Gideon answered,

"Have they made any attacks on the compound yet?" I asked as I quickly made some final adjustments to the rebuilt Hybrid Sight and looked down the ACOG scope to make sure it was zeroed correctly,

"Not yet. But they have been more emboldened after they attacked the regional defense forces here. If they realize we are in a weakened state and attack us now, we might not last the night." Mr. Irons answered. If the founder of Atlantis worried about getting attacked then that is all the conformation I needed.

"Good enough. I'm ready." I said as I holstered both weapons and locked up my apartment. The three of us headed to the elevator to the ground floor as I noticed Gideon constantly looking everywhere for danger. As if he was expecting an ambush by the people in the apartment.

"Do these people know you are associated with us?" Gideon asked,

"No. All I have told everyone that I work as a freelance soldier for hire that mainly does jobs clearing out monster nests in Leanbox. So they are used to seeing me come and go with my M4A1 slung over my shoulder. Besides, the people here are all nice and don't know you guys exist." I answered,

"I do have a question for you about your past if I may ask, Pierce. While your drive and solid reasons for joining us were more than satisfactory, you curiously left out your past history prior to signing up with Atlas." Oh god... I don't want to answer that now. I just got over thinking about that earlier.

"That is personal and I don't wish to discuss it. It was very traumatic and according to Atlas regulations, any prospect who chooses not to disclose personal history shall not have his or her decision held against them at a later date." I answered sternly, hoping to dodge the question yet again. While Mr. Irons is known to do do lot of digging for answers if something isn't right in his eyes, he mysteriously dismissed it for some reason. This wasn't like him since if Mr. Irons suspects something, he won't stop pursuing until he finally gets the answer. I have heard if he ever gave you you a certain stare like you are hiding something, that alone could scare even that bitch Chika Hakozaki into talking.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about that. Gideon and I read what the author wrote down earlier and you are all clear." Mr. Irons answered nonchalantly and almost out of character. And who is this author guy?!

"Wait, what?" I said flabbergasted just as the elevator dinged and the doors opened to the ground floor. Guess I'll get an answer later but seriously... WHY BRING IT UP IN THE FIRST PLACE?! The armored vehicle that the two men used to drive to my apartment building was in the parking lot in front of the main entrance where we were heading to. I kept an eye on any high points as I was now on Atlas' time and I too was charged of protecting Mr. Irons. As soon as the three of us exited the building and went to the parking lot, a lot of birds suddenly flew into the air as I heard the telltale sound of as mortar shell flying towards the area. I couldn't get a fix on where it was coming drop but it was going to hit us very close. So I took the initiative.

"GET DOWN!" I yelled out as I instinctively shoved both and Gideon back into the building's foyer just as a mortal shell came out from the sky and it blew up some of the parked cars on the street. The force of the explosion and the sudden shockwave threw me very hard into the side of the building where I got knocked out and lost consciousness.

Well... I have nothing else to say. This hasn't been my best work at all and I feel is a major disappointment. It is NOT worth a year's wait on my part.