Haha, just beat GOW2. Came up with this little ditty. Think of it closer to the end, when they get back to Jacinto and meet up with Hoffman, Anya, and the Chairman... that room that they meet up in. And I tried to make this as realistic as it can be... think of it as one of those awesome cutscenes or something. Please R&R!!!!

EDIT: changed around a few items (commas, etc.) and sentences, hope it still works as well. Let me know what you think!

Oh, soundtrack:

Mad world - Gary Jules
How it Ends - DeVotchka

Call me a purist.

"Does something smell to you?"

Dom had leaned over just seconds ago to ask him a simple question. Marcus realized the he smelt it, too; and that the smell was all too familiar. Now, hunched behind an overturned desk, his lancer peppered bullets into the rank corpses of locust grubs. Dom was right beside him, doing the same.

They both went on auto pilot, not necessarily fighting for their lives but staying alive no matter what. This was how they lived; assessing and eliminating threats, reloading like clockwork, and starting all over again. Still, Marcus had never imagined they'd be doing this in the base of operations for the COG.

Perhaps these locust got lucky. Perhaps they stumbled upon it, he thought, as a few bullets whizzed past his ear and struck a computer tower. The metal slugs destroyed priceless information and intelligence, the same stuff that kept him and the rest of Delta out of harm's way for so long.

He thought of Anya, behind them. She would be fine, of course, surrounded by the meatshields they call technical advisors, and also that asshole Hoffman. But there were more locust coming, and he couldn't snatch a glance backwards just to make sure.

There was a slight ting! as a bullet glanced off his left shoulder plate. There were locust flanking them, from the hallway.

"Dom--"

"I got it Marcus." He replied immediately, knowing exactly what was happening.

Marcus reloaded and leaped over, kicking over another desk and the numerous amount of papers that were on top of it. There was a grub right in front of him, so he unleashed a quick salvo of bullets to the head. It exploded, splattering his chest and face with disgusting locust blood. A few wretches, another quick spray, and that was it. He made a face at the rank smell of the carnage.

Standing, Marcus stretched and cracked his neck. He looked at Dom, who was looking at the trio of overturned desks all the non-combat personnel had been hiding behind.

Dom looked at him and shrugged. Marcus kicked one of the desks, noticing the generous amount of bulletholes, and growled.

"Where in the Hell--"

"Marcus!" Anya's voice yelled over the COM line.

"Anya! Where did you guys go?!" He yelled back, and looked at Dom warily. Both of them heard the gunfire and explosions in the background.

"We went up to the roof, Marcus, to get on a Raven and secure a better location--" Explosion. Static for a moment. "But there were Reavers, and plenty of grubs to back them up. All we have is the Colonel's pistol. We need you two up here, now!"

While she had been talking, he had already waved to Dom and they were on their way up. Two flights of stairs later, the situation was no better.

The staff were all lying below a wall of sandbags, the only thing separating them from the locust. Colonel Hoffman was the only one firing upon at least 10 grubs, along with one reaver. Marcus saw the remains of the other one strewn about over the not-quite-damaged King Raven helicopter in the middle of the launch pad.

Dom pulled out a Hammerburst rifle that he'd plucked from locust hands downstairs, and Marcus had his ever-faithful Lancer. They nodded, and began their day-to-day routine.

A burst of bullets, and scratch one grub. A few more, to the head of another, and there it went. Dom was working on the Reaver, a steady stream of bullets ripping through its flesh -- it went down and imploded without issue. And that was when things got bad.

If Marcus hadn't been where he was, he couldn't have seen it. If he hadn't been doing what he was, he wouldn't have noticed it. There was a weak spot in this wall-- down towards the far end, he was in the middle, and Dom was closer to the door they'd come out of. It wasn't easy to spot from this side, but a sizeable crack adorned the ornate, concrete railing that these sandbags rested upon.

If he had noticed it from here, he was sure the Grubs in front of him had a much better view. He saw one of them with a grenade.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. He saw it leave the grub's hand, flip over and over in flight, and Marcus knew where it was headed. Exploding that crack would bring half the wall down. He looked at the personnel that were hiding behind that section of wall-- and immediately stopped firing, rolled out of his position, and sprinted as fast as he could to that location.

The grenade had seconds before landing on the other side of the wall. Anya looked at him wide eyed as his feet dug in harder, urging his mass of flesh and metal faster. He saw her gasp as, right before he scooped her up, she spotted the grenade over his shoulder.

It hit and exploded-- and they tumbled into a corner about twenty feet away. He held her there for a moment, the shrapnel bouncing off his broad back, and stared her straight in the face with his own wide, ice blue eyes. She stared back, in awe-- never had she seen any Gear, especially Marcus, that scared.

There was a thud, six or seven feet to their left, where a large section of the wall had landed. Perfect cover.

Marcus rolled over and set Anya down behind it, then took up his daily routine. The last three Grubs met their smelly end with dead-on headshots. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dom dash inside the door to the stairs; it seemed he and Hoffman had evacuated everyone after the grenade compromised their cover.

He locked the Lancer over his shoulder and sighed, standing up. Anya was already standing beside him, locust blood covering her uniform, most likely from Marcus's armor. He was almost twice her size, and she felt a little bit more than vulnerable standing next to him.

He turned around, and she thought she heard his teeth grind.

"You!" He pointed at her, and spoke angrily.

"Marcus, I--" He didn't let her speak, just used one giant, armored arm to sweep her up and kiss her. He crushed their mouths together, and she tasted the nasty locust blood along with his decidedly more pleasant smoky breath. She felt his deperation as he squeezed her tighter. It was brief, but meaningful.

After setting her down, her mouth open slightly, he spoke gruffly.

"Dont you ever do that again." He said, his eyes never leaving hers before he stalked off to follow Dom and the others.

Anya watched him leave, stunned. She raised her hand to say something, then thought better of it, hurrying after him. Just in case there were more locust.

Meggie here! If you guys would like more Marcus/Anya goodness, check out my sequel to this one: Delta's Day Off. It's rated M (haha guess why) and still in the works, but I would appreciate if you checked it out! Thanks for reading!