Caught by Surprise

Alex let out a hard sigh as she walked through the door of her apartment, as she stepped inside, the lights slowly started to turn on, going from completely off, to barely on, and then turning on the maximum brightness. The door to her apartment closed behind her with a soft hydraulic hiss, followed by a considerably audible click as the door secured itself and locked up. “Welcome home, Miss Marx.” Her automated home assistant welcomed her through the speaker system. “Thank you, Ino.” Alex let out another sigh, undid her ballistic vest and her tactical gear, and kicked off her boots before walking her way out of the main entrance hallway and down to the living room. 

It had been a long day at work, rogue agents were becoming a bigger and bigger problem each day, they knew too much, they knew where to hit, they knew what the agents would do in response, they knew everything because they used to be one of the same. Bringing a hand to her brow and rubbing it, Alex padded her way to the couch and let herself fall backwards onto the soft cushions that it possessed. The cushions morphed and formed to Alex’s frame. Memory foam couches were the best thing to ever happen to couches, other than the ones that would spit the remote out from between the pillows when you asked it where the remote was. 

Another sigh left her lips, and Alex turned to look at the empty wall opposite the couch. Her hair messy, and her expression that was just “done”. 

“Ino, play Nailed It from where I left off on Netflix.” 

“Sure thing, Miss Marx, Nailed It, now playing in the living room.” Ino’s soft voice echoed through Alex’s apartment. 

The wall opposite of Alex then brightened up a bit, and a holographic display appearing with the red classic Netflix logo. 

Raindrops tapped at the tall glass windows of Alex’s apartment, and the glowing city down below was as bustling as ever. You couldn’t really hear anything in the apartment though, the soundproofing of the place was done immaculately. Someone by the name of ‘recursion’ audio was hired to make the entire building basically free from the outside noise pollution, and they did a damn good job of it. 

Sprawled out lazily on the couch, Alex kicked off her pants, panties, and pulled off her top. She was in the comfort of her own home now, why not make the most of all that comfort and privacy? 

With all her clothes off, Alex laid there no the couch, watching Netflix. 

A couple hours passed by, and Alex was still laying on the couch, however; she was no longer watching Netflix. The holographic television stuck displaying the list of movies and shows that Netflix offered. She was playing with her own hair, twirling it around her fingers and talking to her home assistant Ino. 

“Hey Ino?”

“Yes, Miss Marx?” responded her home, over the speakers. 

“When will you come and visit me again?” Alex’s voice sounded a bit sad.

Ino paused a bit before her voice echoed out the speakers again, “I’m sorry, Miss Marx, I don’t not understand, I am here with you every day.” Ino’s voice, although artificial, it was based off a real voice, it sounded very real, and very concerned. 

Alex let out a sigh, again and closed her eyes for a bit. 

“I mean, the real you, Ino. The one who created you for me.” Alex purred just thinking about the gal. “Can you tell her I miss her? I know you have her number for emergencies.” Alex raised a brow up at the ceiling, as if Ino’s eyes were up there staring back down at her. 

Ino went silent and Alex laughed. “I know she put her number with you,” she grumbled to herself, rolling over onto her side, facing the blank light blue wall again. She stared at the light blue stripe that accented the wall and let her eyes follow the stripe as far as they could. She was tired, bored, and really missed that damned cheetah.

She grumbled more and then decided to let her eyelids fall, closing her eyes. Maybe a nap would help with her exhaustion. 

She fell asleep. 

Alex woke suddenly to the sound of metal and glass. Her eyes shot open and she quickly fumbled her way off of the couch. Naked and afraid, she dashed for the bedroom. She had no idea what was going on, but she knew that someone or multiple “someones” had broken her door and come inside. 

Closing the door to the bedroom by pressing a button, she then dashed over to her wardrobe area and opening up her weapon’s cache that was hidden neatly behind her wardrobe, behind her fancy dresses and girly things. She moved her clothes aside, and lined up her hand on the handprint reader. The handprint reader scanned her hand, and her wardrobe extended open to show the vast number of weapons she had stored in her home. Got to keep the place safe somehow. She grabbed a ballistic vest and slipped it on, and just as she was about to grab something to cover up her bottom area, she heard the door to her bedroom bust open.

With zero time to react, she grabbed the closest and deadliest gun she could spot, she picked up the M870 shotgun, and quickly loaded it with ammo and stuffed her vest with spare ammo. She pumped the shotgun, stood up and walked out of the wardrobe, back against the closest wall corner and her gun up against her chest. 

She heard footsteps coming towards the corner, she squinted her eyes shut and counted quietly.

Her ears flickered to every footstep she heard. She wasn’t able to tell how many people were in there, her nose was working on that, but she knew how far away the one that was walking up front was. 

“Five…” One more footstep echoed throughout the apartment. 

“Four...” Another.

“Three...” Another.

“Two…” Alex took in a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“One..” Alex's eyes shot open.

Alex’s finger went to the trigger and she popped out from behind the wall, she aimed her shotgun out front and pulled the trigger seven times, aiming at five different people. After seven, she popped back behind the wall and pumped the shotgun, releasing the last empty shell from the barrel.

“Ino, call Ino.” She said, huffing and puffing as she loaded more shells into the shotgun.

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Art is by Reaper3d