The concrete pillar rushed at the windshield.
It looked like a giant gray tombstone.
Noah thrashed in the driver’s seat.
His hands clawed at the thick arm pinning his throat.
His face turned dark purple.
The silver-haired boy just smiled through the shattered glass.
He wasn’t even bracing for the impact.
Quinn didn’t have time to think.
She had two hit points left.
She lunged across the center console.
She didn’t grab Noah.
She grabbed the emergency handbrake.
She yanked it upward with all her terrifying Level 11 strength.
The back wheels locked instantly.
The heavy luxury car spun into a violent terrifying drift.
The rear quarter panel smashed into the concrete pillar.
The sound of tearing metal was deafening.
The massive impact whipped the front of the car around.
Centrifugal force ripped the silver-haired boy right off the hood.
He flew through the rainy air and crashed into a brick wall.
The car spun twice more before slamming into a row of parked cars.
The airbags deployed with a face-breaking punch of white powder.
Quinn gagged on the bitter smoke.
Her ribs screamed.
[HP: 1/355]
[Critical Failure Imminent.]
She kicked her passenger door open.
The metal hinges snapped.
She tumbled out onto the wet asphalt.
The crimson beacon of light shooting out of her chest flickered.
It painted the rainy street the color of fresh blood.
Noah crawled out of the driver’s side.
He coughed violently.
He leaned back into the ruined car and grabbed Jax by the collar dragging the unconscious assassin out onto the street.
“Get up Quinn.” Noah gasped.
His expensive suit was shredded.
“He is not dead.”
Quinn looked down the street.
The silver-haired boy walked out of the settling dust.
He didn’t have a single scratch on him.
He brushed some brick dust off his pitch-black trench coat.
The red bio-chip embedded in his forehead pulsed with a dark steady rhythm.
[System Warning: Apex Trailblazer Julian (Rank 4)]
“Nice driving,” Julian called out.
His voice was smooth and incredibly arrogant.
“I was told the Prime Core bonded with a filthy street rat.
I didn’t believe it until I smelled you.”
Julian raised his right hand.
The raindrops falling around him instantly froze into sharp icy needles.
He manipulated the water itself.
“Give me the core.” Julian smiled.
“I promise I will cut it out of your neck quickly.”
Quinn forced herself to stand up.
Her legs shook.
She had no titanium gloves.
She had no health.
She was a dead girl walking.
“Noah,” Quinn whispered without looking back.
“There is a gas station behind you.
The red pumps.”
Noah looked over his shoulder.
Fifty feet away.
An old rundown gas station.
“Shoot the pumps Noah.”
Noah didn’t hesitate.
He pulled a sleek black handgun from his ruined shoulder holster.
He aimed at the rusty metal gas pumps.
Julian laughed.
He flicked his wrist.
Dozens of ice needles shot through the air like bullets.
Quinn activated Shadow Step. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
The world went black.
She teleported ten feet forward directly into Julian’s personal space.
Julian’s eyes widened in pure shock.
He didn’t expect a dying girl to attack.
Quinn didn’t punch him.
She didn’t have the strength.
She used her new Trailblazer status.
She focused all the freezing crimson energy exploding from her chest and pushed it directly into her right hand.
She slammed her palm flat against Julian’s chest.
“Back off.”
A massive wave of raw crimson energy erupted from her hand.
It wasn’t a physical punch.
It was a System shockwave.
Julian flew backward off his feet.
He crashed through the glass window of an empty storefront.
At the exact same second Noah pulled the trigger.
“Bang!.
Bang!.
Bang!.”
Sparks flew.
The old gas pumps exploded in a massive fireball.
The explosion ripped through the street.
The shockwave knocked Quinn flat on her back.
A wall of orange fire separated them from the storefront where Julian landed.
“Move.” Noah grabbed her arm.
He hoisted her up.
He threw Jax’s arm over his shoulder and dragged the unconscious boy down a dark narrow alley.
Quinn stumbled after them.
The heat of the fire warmed her freezing skin.
They ran for three blocks.
The wail of police sirens started to echo through the city.
Quinn leaned against a wet brick wall.
She clutched her chest.
The crimson beacon of light was still shooting up into the sky.
“I can’t hide,” Quinn choked out.
“The light.
It acts like a flare.”
“Close it,” Noah ordered.
He dropped Jax onto the wet ground and grabbed Quinn’s shoulders.
He looked right into her glowing eyes.
“You are not a victim Quinn.
You are the boss.
Tell the stupid machine to shut up.”
Quinn closed her eyes.
She focused on the bio-chip in her neck.
She felt the massive terrifying power of the Trailblazer class trying to escape.
She visualized a heavy steel door.
She forced the energy back down.
She squeezed her fists so hard her fingernails dug into her palms.
“Shut down,” Quinn growled.
The crimson light flickered.
It sputtered.
Then it completely vanished.
The dark alley went pitch black again.
[Global Beacon Suppressed.]
[Warning.
Containing raw Trailblazer energy causes internal damage over time.]
She coughed up another mouthful of black blood.
“It worked.” Noah breathed a sigh of relief.
He picked Jax back up.
“The clinic is just around the corner.
Come on.”
They limped out of the alley.
They found themselves in a rundown industrial park in the East District.
Old warehouses and broken streetlights.
Noah stopped in front of a rusty metal door under a flickering yellow bulb.
The paint was peeling in large dry flakes.
He kicked the door three times.
A heavy rhythmic knock. The source of this chapter is g.com.
A small sliding panel opened on the door.
A pair of sharp green eyes looked out at them.
“We are closed,” a girl’s voice said flatly.
“Go bleed somewhere else.”
“Emma it is Noah.” He leaned close to the metal panel.
“I have cash.
Lots of it.
Open the damn door.”
The panel slid shut.
Heavy deadbolts clicked loudly in the dark.
The iron door swung inward.
A girl stood in the doorway.
She looked exactly Quinn’s age.
She wore dark blue medical scrubs covered in old blood stains.
Her black hair was chopped short and messy.
She held a heavy surgical bone saw in her right hand like it was a weapon.
This was Emma Cruz.
The best underground medic in the city.
Emma looked at Noah’s ruined suit.
She looked at Jax bleeding on the floor.
Then her green eyes locked onto Quinn.
Emma’s eyes widened in total shock.
She dropped the bone saw.
It clattered loudly on the concrete floor.
“You,” Emma whispered.
She pointed a shaking finger at Quinn.
“You are the girl from the broadcast.”
Quinn frowned.
“What broadcast.”
Emma grabbed Quinn’s arm and pulled her into the bright fluorescent lights of the clinic.
The room smelled strongly of bleach and rubbing alcohol.
Surgical tables lined the walls.
Emma pointed to a small flat-screen television mounted in the corner of the room.
The screen wasn’t showing the local news.
It was showing a dark room.
The Gamemaster’s white blank mask filled the screen.
“It is playing on every dark web server on the planet,” Emma said quietly.
Quinn stared at the screen.
The distorted voice of The Gamemaster echoed through the small clinic speakers.
But Quinn knew it was her mother speaking.
“Attention all Trailblazer Academies and Freelance Hunters,” her mother’s voice declared.
“A rogue Prime Core has activated in City Sector 4.
Her name is Quinn Carter.
The bounty for her severed head is one billion dollars and a seat on the World Board.”
A picture of Quinn flashed on the screen.
It was taken today at the basketball game.
“Happy hunting,” the voice purred.
The broadcast repeated on a loop.
Quinn stood frozen in the middle of the sterile clinic.
Her heart pounded a slow terrified rhythm against her bruised ribs.
One billion dollars.
Every single assassin mercenary and Trailblazer on Earth was coming to her city to cut her head off.
Emma slowly backed away from Quinn.
She reached her hand under a surgical tray and pulled out a sleek black pistol.
She aimed it directly at Quinn’s chest.
“A billion dollars is a lot of money Solo Queen,” Emma said.
Her green eyes were completely cold.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t pull this trigger right now.”
[System Warning: Hostile Intent Detected.]
[HP: 1/355.
Survival Chance: 0%]
Noah slowly reached for his own gun.
The clinic door slammed shut behind them.
The locks clicked into place.
They were trapped inside a metal box with a girl who just won the lottery.
A billion dollars on her head.
The entire world is hunting her, and her new medic friend Emma is holding her at gunpoint.