Cross slipped from his skell with practiced ease. His feet touched the sands of Oblivia, burrowing down and getting sand in his boots.
Irksome.
He began the arduous walk down to the cave. Sand licked his face as the wind gusted by. It lacked the gentle caress that wind usually had, instead preferring to brutalize Cross' face with the smallest of lacerations.
Annoying.
The BLADE passed several bug-like creatures the skittered across the land, causing mini avalanches of sand. Odd, given that they should have been in Primordia. Incidentally, that was part of why he was here.
Bothersome.
Elma had come down alone to figure out why some indigens had migrated. And then she went dark. No contact from the Colonel in two hours.
Lo and behold, here he was.
Sighing, Cross swung his assault rifle off of his back, and unloaded a clip into a rather aggressive bug. It screeched while it withered and died.
"Piece of shit," Cross muttered, kicking the corpse of the bug away. The indigen soon became a feast for other like bugs.
He clicked the flashlight on his rifle, allowing acuity of vision for the BLADE. Some people chose to get their mims outfitted with night vision eyes. Cross found it to be unnatural.
"If I'm a machine, then I can at least pretend I'm a human," Cross muttered grumpily.
To be frank, he was at the edge of his patience. He'd told Elma to let him come along, but nooooooo! She just HAD to be in charge and take things on by herself.
Cross angrily killed all of the indigens as he made his way deeper into the cave. He didn't even need to break out his sword. The rifle was sufficient enough.
Elma couldn't have at least gotten screwed over in a dangerous place, could she?
The BLADE rookie, though quite competent at this point, finally reached the back of the cave.
"It's always the back of the cave. Damn BLADEs have a thing for getting stuck in the back of a cave," muttered Cross.
And as expected, he found Elma laying on the ground, leg twisted in an odd angle with broken communicator in pieces next to her.
Typical.
"Fancy seeing you here," greeted Elma, her breaths labored.
Setting his rifle down, Cross pulled out his comm device and spoke briefly, "Found her. Come to my coordinates."
As he tucked his comm away, he crouched down by Elma and said, "Stubborn woman."
"You know me," she chuckled. As Cross knelt by her, he saw more damage to her chest. No doubt the source of her breathing problem. Even mims could get to that point.
"I know you're a bastard," Cross commented idly. Having learned a few tricks from Lin, he set to work on her chest to stabilize her breathing.
"Thanks." Elma's voice hitched as Cross fixed her breathing.
"What got you?" he asked.
"A damn grex," she chuckled. "No idea how it got in here, or what it was, but it was drawing the bugs at the mouth of the cave."
"You get him back for doing this?" Cross pointed at her damaged mim.
"Yeah," Elma grinned, pointing to the big mass behind Cross.
The BLADE turned to look at the grex, not knowing how he had missed the massive beast's corpse.
"Glad you're alive," he murmured, his voice softer as he could be overheard.
Elma raised an eyebrow, "Far enough away from society to drop your persona?"
"I'm always a badass," he said flatly, though his eyes held mirth.
"If you say so," she said, embracing him. Then, whispering in his ear, Elma spoke, "Thanks for getting me."
"I'm good at finding lost things," Cross replied.
Author Notes: Well, it's not a twoshot, but I say it's your turn now, mate.