Elevator Problems
Summary: While Kat and Six are trying to reach the rest of Noble team in Sword Base, they get stuck in an elevator. The two of them will have to get along long enough to for someone to fix the elevator.
Disclaimer: I do not own Halo Reach or anything related to it.
Justin, also know as Noble Six, had lost track of long him and Kat had been helping defend Sword base. They had already gotten the AA gun and the Comms Array up and running when they were given orders to get back to the base. Getting back was simple enough. Justin used the revenant he was "borrowing" from an Elite to quickly drive Kat and himself back. Together they had quickly taken care of the enemy forces in the courtyard and moved up towards the base. Upon arriving, the two Spartans saw a pair of Hunters fighting a squad of marines. Justin had just used the rest of his sniper ammo to kill the first one. Meanwhile, Kat was sneaking up behind the second to fire at it with her weapon. However she was spotted by an elite and a few grunts. She quickly moved to take care of them.
Justin had ran towards the shotguns he saw on the column and switched his sniper rifle with one. He rushed towards the remaining hunter and fired with his shotgun, hitting the alien square in the chest. The hunter roared and swung his shield at Justin, who had just enough time to go into armor lock and avoided being slammed. Once he broke out of armor lock, Justin ran behind the hunter and fired his shotgun again. The hunter refused to go down and swung it's shield backwards at Justin. He jumped to the side and dodged it. Then he jumped forward and landed on the hunter's back. He put his shotgun onto his back and pulled the magnum from his side up. The hunter started to thrash around trying to get Justin off of it's back. Justin jammed the handgun into the alien's neck and emptied the clip. It roared, but continued to thrash around, nearly throwing Justin off and made him drop his magnum.
"Six! Lets go!" Kat shouted as she dispatched the elite with a head shot. The remaining grunt panicked and started to scream as in ran with no clear destination. Kat quickly ended that with a couple of shots to the grunt's back.
"I'm a little busy here!" Justin shouted back, frowning under his grenadier with ua/fc upgrade helmet. The hunter was still attempting to get him off of it's back. Justin grabbed his shotgun off of his back and nearly flew off when he did so. He then managed to place the end of his gun into where he fired his pistol and let loose a shot into the hunter's neck. The hunter gave a final gargled roar before finally falling to the ground. Justin breathed deeply for a few moments before he went over to his dropped magnum and picked it up. He hurried over to Kat who was standing in the elevator with her arms crossed. "What?" Justin said as he stepped into the elevator.
"Took you long enough." Kat simply said.
"Whatever, I didn't see you helping." Justin frowned again as he pushed the button to start the elevator.
"Did you not notice the dead grunts and the elite you walked over as you dragged your feet simply getting to an elevator?" Kat placed her hands on her hips, frowning at the team's newest recruit.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Those three grunts must have been hard to kill. Next time, I'll take them for you and you can deal with the hunters!" Justin crossed his arms. "This is going to be a long elevator ride..." he thought to himself.
"Are you saying you are better than me?" Kat pointed a finger at the green and gold colored spartan.
"If the boot fits." Justin shrugged.
"Why you..." Kat didn't get a chance to finish talking as the elevator jerked and came to an abrupt stop. Kat ended up falling onto her backside. Justin was in a corner and placed a hand on the two walls next to him to steady himself.
"Please don't tell me this is happening..." Justin said and started to press the elevator buttons in hopes that one of them would make the elevator move, of course none of them did.
"Kat, Six? Are you two alright?" Carter's voice came from the radios in their helmets.
"We're good, Commander." Kat said as she stood back up.
"Covenant knocked out one of the main power generators. Its going to take some time, but we're going to try to get it back up and running. The back ups don't produce enough power for the elevators along with everything else." Carter said.
"Negative, sir." Justin said. "Securing Sword base is our top priority. Come get us after you've dealt with the aliens."
Carter gave a short laugh. "Guess you're right. Alright, you two sit tight until we come get you. The air control is running thanks to the back ups, so you won't suffocate in there. Noble One, out."
"Great, I'm stuck in an elevator with him..." Kat thought herself and leaned against the wall. She continued to frown at the spartan for what he said earlier.
Justin ignored Kat's glare and sat down in the elevator. He then started to take off his helmet.
"What are you doing?" Kat asked. "The elevator could start any moment and we could thrown into combat again."
"I highly doubt that." Justin said, but I was muffled under the helmet. He carefully placed it next to him and showed his face to Kat. He had silver colored hair in the shape of a simple buzz cut with some stubble on his chin. He had green eyes that matched emeralds. Justin reached into his utility case and pulled out a simple white rag. He started to wipe the visor of his helmet. During his fight with the second hunter, orange blood had gotten on it and clouded the left side of his view. After he was done cleaning his visor he put the rag away, but left his helmet off.
"Next time you can at least answer me." Kat said, she sounded very annoyed. Justin simply shrugged at Kat, not really caring what she had to say for the moment.
Kat sighed and sat down on the floor on the opposite side of Justin. For half an hour the two sat in silence. Just kept himself busy trying to clean his armor as bast as he could. There was a spot of black jackal blood on his right knee that he couldn't seem to get off. Frowning he spat on the spot and tried to rub it off with his rag.
"Thats disgusting, Six." Kat turned her head to show her disgust with him.
"Sorry, but jackal blood is stubborn." Justin said, not even bothering to look at her.
Kat frowned under helmet and shook her head. Another fifteen minutes passed without the two of them talking to each other before Commander Carter radioed them again.
"Kat? Six? Are you guys there? Respond." Carter said over the radio in their helmets. Justin heard him, but since he wasn't wearing his helmet, let Kat answer the radio.
"This is Noble Two. Whats the situation, Commander?" Kat asked.
"Everything is taken care of on our end, but the techs say that its going to take a couple of hours before they can get you two out of there then we are to report to Dr. Halsey." Carter said.
"Understood Commander. Noble Two out." Kat said and disconnected the radio call. She sighed before she took her helmet off too. "Commander says it will take a couple of hours before the power is back and we can get out."
"Yeah, I heard." Justin shrugged.
"I can't believe I'm stuck in here with you." Kat frowned at Justin before she looked away.
"Me? What did I do? You know, apart from save you a couple of times today?" Justin frowned at Kat.
"You said you were better than me!" Kat shouted at him.
"Well, aren't I?" Justin grinned.
"No!" Kat continued to shout. "You might, just MIGHT, be a better fighter than I am, but that does not make you better than me. I bet you don't know how splice into a computer's main frame and hook it up so you can hack into the nearest satellite."
Justin could just stare at Kat with a confused look. "So you admit it. I am a better fighter." he said and grinned again.
Kat sighed and gave up. "Look, Six...As much as I don't like it, we're going to be in here for awhile together, so we might as well try to be nice to each other."
"Hmph. You started it." Justin shrugged.
Kat frowned again and crossed her arms again. "I don't care if I started it. I'm finishing it."
"Whatever." Justin simply said.
"Okay, I can't do this." Kat said and turned so she was facing away from Justin as she sat. "I don't care how good of a fighter you are or how good looking you might be, I can't stand your attitude." she instantly realized what she said and was glad she was facing away from him because her face turned slightly red.
Justin grinned slightly. "What was that last part?" he asked.
"I said I can't stand your attitude." Kat quickly said, not turning towards him.
"No before that." Justin said.
"I said..." Kat started to think quickly "I said or how good looking you might think you are."
Justin chuckled, not buying it, but let it go.
Kat turned slightly. She had expected him to tease her or gloat about what she said. When she looked back at him Justin was cleaning his armor again, but he was smiling a little. "Probably laughing at me on the inside." Kat thought to herself. The two of them fell into silence again.
It was only about ten minutes later before Justin broke the silence. "Say, Kat...What happened to the last Noble Six?" he asked.
Kat held her upper arms and looked down slightly. "Thom went MIA when he chose to pursue a group of enemies by himself without waiting for back up..." she answered softly.
"Was he a good soldier?" Justin asked, he had stopped cleaning his armor when he realized that the last Noble Six wasn't reassigned like he was lead to believe.
"One of the best..." Kat said, her voice sounded sad, which was not what Justin was expecting.
Justin soon realized that Kat had thought highly of this Thom guy. He looked down when he realized what a disappointment he was after Noble Team loss Thom and gained him, especially if the rest of the team thought as highly of Thom as Kat did. "Guess I've been a pretty lousy teammate compared to him, huh?"
"Yes." Kat said quickly and the anger in her voice returned.
"Well..." Justin frowned, he was about to say something along the lines of an insult, but held himself back. "I'm sorry..." he sighed.
"What?" Kat turned around to face him. She didn't believe what she had just heard.
"I said I'm sorry." Justin frowned and crossed his arms. He turned his head away as well. "But you know its not entirely my fault. I've always been considered a Lone Wolf."
Kat knew how hard it was for him to say sorry and smiled a little. She got up and sat down in front of him. "Well then, Mr. Lone Wolf. Why don't you tell me more about yourself. Maybe that way we can work as a team better."
"Not much to tell." Justin shrugged. "I usually work alone. I'm decent with a sniper rifle and even better with a shotgun. In my off time I listen to music. I really hate those damn skirmishers. They jump around too much for both the shotgun and the sniper rifle..." Justin growled a little.
Kat couldn't help but laugh a little. "Then how did you get their blood on your knee?" she pointed to the black spot that was still on Justin's knee.
"A swift knee to a skirmisher's head. Thats how." Justin smiled.
Kat laughed a little again and Justin turned towards her and smiled slightly again. "See? I knew we could stand each other. Even with your obnoxious attitude."
"And your over sensitiveness." Justin grinned.
Kat frowned and looked down at her lap. She let out a deep breath and let Justin's comment go without saying anything. When she looked back up, Justin was leaning over and was very close to Kat's face. She could literally feel his breath. She looked down at his mouth without realizing it. Kat quickly brought her eyes up so she wasn't looking at his mouth anymore. She soon noticed Justin's hand moving towards the side of her head. Then Justin grabbed something from her left shoulder piece and leaned back away. Kat was blushing like crazy and she couldn't understand why. She looked back at Justin to see what he grabbed. He was holding a small, bright pink, piece of paper and was looking over at it.
"I guess one of the grunts must have been one of those rumored "Confetti Grunts," huh?" Justin looked over at Kat and realized she was red. "Something wrong?" he tilted his head.
"Huh? Oh, um, yeah. I mean no. Wait, yes, one of the grunts was a confetti grunt." Kat said, her face still a little red. "I guess some of it got on my armor..."
"Yep." Justin nodded. "Are you sure you're okay? You seem a little red."
"Yes, I'm fine." Kat nodded quickly.
"Okay, if you say so." Justin shrugged. "So Kat...Going back to what you said earlier..."
"Which was what again?" Kat asked. She was hoping that he would have forgotten all about that.
"When you said I was a good fighter." Justin smiled. "When exactly did you realize I was?"
"I noticed you were a decent fighter when you stole that revenant." Kat admitted. "After all you ran off the roof and landed right on top of it before you jacked it from that elite."
"Yeah, that was pretty cool." Justin smiled.
Kat looked back at Justin and couldn't help but smile when she saw him smiling brightly. "You know, Six. Maybe I was wrong about you..."
"Oh? Hows that?" Justin smiled at Kat and tilted his head.
"Yeah. You may be obnoxious and a pain in the ass sometimes, but overall, you seem like a nice person...when you aren't being a jerk..." Kat smiled, but Justin could tell she was also still a little annoyed with him.
"And you seem like an okay girl too." Justin smiled.
This caused Kat to turn a little red again and again she didn't know why. "Really?"
"Yeah, but only sometimes." Justin chuckled.
Kat frowned and the red in her face had disappeared. She shook a fist slightly. "He really knows how to push my buttons..." she thought to herself.
Justin sighed and leaned his head against the wall. "Say Kat."
"Hmm?" Kat looked over at him.
"After everything is done and the Covenant have lost, what do you think will happen to us? The Spartans?" Justin asked.
"I don't know. I never thought about it." Kat shook her head. "What do you want to do when its all over?"
"Nothing. I don't like not doing anything. I hope there is always a place for me here in the army." Justin sighed.
"You don't want to stop fighting and settle down with a wife and have some kids or anything like that?" Kat tilted her head.
"No. Why you offering?" Justin smiled and looked at Kat, causing her to both frown and blush. She raised her left hand and swung it to slap Justin for saying such a rude statement. However before her slap landed, Justin caught her hand and pulled on it to bring Kat closer. "Admit it. You've been blushing nearly the entire time we've been in here together. You must have thought about it, right?"
"I-I have no idea what you're talking about..." Kat said, turning her head away so he would see her blush.
"Yes you do." Justin smiled and leaned closer to Kat.
"Noble Six, let me go or I'll have you reported!" Kat threatened.
"No you won't. That would mean Noble team might need another recruit, which might take awhile to find..." Justin whispered.
"You're terrible. You've been planning this ever since we got stuck in this elevator." Kat said, still not looking at Justin.
"Nope just since you started saying all that good stuff about me. Made me realize how nice you could be." Justin smiled.
Kat blushed again and finally turned to face Justin. She gasped when she realized how close their faces were. She put both of her hands on his chest. "Justin..." she said softly.
Justin smiled softly. "Thats the first time you called me by my actual name." he said and pulled Kat close before she could say anything and captured her lips with his own. He moved a hand to her back so he could keep her close.
Suddenly the elevator gave a jerk and caused them to pull apart. Both of them were red. Kat noticed her radio in her helmet was blinking. She quickly grabbed it and put it back on.
"This is Noble Two." Kat answered.
"I'm sure you noticed but we got the power back. Hope you guys didn't get tired of each other in there." Carter said. "Be ready to talk to Dr. Halsey. Noble One out."
Justin put his helmet back on and stood up. He reached his hand out to help Kat up. "You know, I'm glad we got stuck in here."
"I guess I am too." Kat said. She wasn't sure if her feelings for Justin were going to get any stronger, but she figured she wouldn't mind if they did. She smiled at Justin under her helmet.
Author's notes: Hmm...I feel like I kinda rushed that ending. I've never been good at finishing stories I guess... Oh well. Please tell me what you thought about it. And yes I know Kat was probably a little out of character and I'm sure a real back up generator would have been able to power the elevators, but if I did all that there wouldn't be a story.