"What?" Elias said as he snapped out of yet another daydream.
"I said, we're going to go to that new ramen place after we're through with today's training," Elias looked at the man speaking to him, Jordan "Thermite" Trace, one of the Americans on the FBI team of Rainbow. He had his signature welding goggles on and his helmet in his hands and Elias noticed that he was trying to wipe a smudge of paint off the side. "Might be fun, it's been a while since we've all went out into the town and got blasted."
"Hm, maybe, ja. Who's going to be joining?" To be honest, Elias hadn't made much of an effort to socialize with the other operators ever since he got back from his mission during Operation Para Bellum. All his time being shot at inside a fancy house in the middle of a field drained him of all his social energy for another eternity and he would very much rather be in his room sleeping than anything else. Still, these people were his family and it would be rather rude of him to dismiss their attempts to socialize with him, he supposed.
"Uh… Yumiko and Miles are definitely coming. I think Masaru might, but I think he'd rather keep on tinkering with his drone then come out for a night, though," That man and his drone. If Elias didn't know better he would've thought Masaru was going to marry that thing. He swore he heard him talking to it like a pet dog one time as he was passing by his room.
"You know, I say we let him keep working on his roomba. I think those two are due for a session of couples therapy," The both of them laughed as they entered the prep room, where eight other operators were currently gearing up for a training match. Jordan set his backpack down on a table where Miles was cleaning his M1014. The man looked up at the both of them and shined his signature smile.
"Hey, guys! You ready for another match?" Miles asked the two men.
Jordan groaned and set his rifle down on the table, "As ready as I'll ever be. I still haven't gotten all the paint from last time off of my helmet."
Miles chuckled as he began to reassemble his shotgun, "Sorry. You kinda startled me when you blew through that wall."
"What the hell were you doing standing there anyways? Was the hissing not enough of a warning for you?"
"To be fair, I didn't expect you to come charging through. Eliza got me good, though," Miles began loading his M1014 with paint rounds, as that was standard procedure for training matches. He began doing the same thing for his M45. "Yo, Elias, you coming with us tonight? Should be fun."
Elias snapped out of another daydream. He's been losing himself more and more in them recently, "Uh, ja. Maybe. We'll see how I'll feel after you shoot me in the face with those paint rounds." The three men laughed again, Elias was nothing if not a comedian.
"Ah, come on, man. You should come out! We'll have some good eats and good laughs!" Miles added. Jordan nodded at his comment while cleaning his goggles. "And you deserve it, I would say. I heard what happened during Para Bellum. I mean, four people in Rainbow with shields and only two of them go on a mission with eight other people and the other one opted to take his LMG instead. That's gotta be stressful."
Elias shrugged, "What can I say? I'm a hot commodity. That and I can't shoot for shit with a rifle anymore," they all laughed once more, but Miles' words stuck to Elias. Being the only one with a shield on a mission is stressful, especially when you also have to look out for four other people that are behind you. Even with all his years of being behind that block of steel, he still wasn't used to the bangs and kicks of all the bullets hitting it, and having to pray to God that his arms wouldn't slip or the shield giving out. It was a life he chose, but that didn't ease the burden at all.
"Well, let me know what your answer is. We still got a few hours, anyways," Jordan put his hand on Elias' shoulder and he told him that he would. He said his goodbyes to the two men as he walked over to a table on the far side of the room where he was greeted by the slightly taller Gilles "Montagne" Touré. He greeted the man back with a handshake and tended to his G52 Tactical Shield. "Good to see you, Gilles."
"Likewise, Elias. How was the trip?" the older man asked while loading his magnum with paint rounds.
"Like any other trip, a living hell, but I'll manage," Elias also began loading his P12 with paint rounds and his spare magazines saw the same treatment. He sighed under his breath as images of his mission in Italy played back and forth through his head, the bullets flying over him and his teammates heads, explosions going off seemingly every five seconds. He snapped himself out of another daydream and shook his head. He needed to go to sleep.
"Are you alright?" Elias looked at the other man who he, admittedly, forgot was there and immediately felt bad about that. He nodded at Gilles and attempted to give him a reassuring smile that fooled no one, especially the Mountain himself. "Elias. Tell me what's wrong, son."
Elias put down his pistol and sighed while he turned to face the older man. The two had grown closer during their time together in Rainbow, Elias seeing Gilles as a mentor and a father figure and Gilles coming to see Elias as another son and the fact that they were both part of Rainbow's only shield operators helped them bond. That was, in fact, why Gilles decided to take Elias under his wing, as they both shared the responsibility for being a literal shield amongst their teammates. Plus, the young lad reminded him of himself when he was younger.
"Something… happened in that house, Gilles. I haven't been able to shake it and it's been about a month. It's driving me insane." Elias said as he stared at the scratches on his helmet.
Gilles put down his magnum and crossed his arms, listening intently, "What happened?"
"There were too many of them… too many of them outside of a room that the new girl and I were trapped in. She was hit in the arm and pinned in a corner of the room as Dominic and I tried pushing them back. Then a grenade got thrown into the room, more specifically, the corner she was in. Her face… I mean, just her expression… the look of pure terror and thinking that you're going to blow up right there… it still haunts me. When I saw what happened, I immediately grabbed her out from there and put the shield in front of myself and the grenade," Elias took a deep breath. His breath was shaky and his throat felt like it was closing up.
"When I came to Dominic was carrying me out while she was providing cover fire," Gilles was still listening to him speak, not wanting to interrupt. Elias put his hands on his head and took another deep breath to calm himself down, "I shouldn't be alive, Gilles. I shouldn't be, but I am. I've had a lot of close calls, but this one just… hits harder, for some reason. She could've died, I could've died, and Dominic could've died," he was starting to tear up. A month of keeping this to himself took a toll on him, and he couldn't contain it anymore.
Before he knew it, he was pulled into a hug by the older man, who let him cry as he pat his back. The other operators seem to notice, but didn't say a word, letting Elias feel it out. They've all been where he was and recalled that interjecting would not have helped them get through it. Gilles was humming something in French for a little while to get the German to calm down, and that he did as he wiped away the tears from his face. "Listen, son. Everyone in this room has been through the same experience as you and they are all better for it. You jumped in front of that grenade for Aria because she is your friend, regardless of how well you know her for now. You jumped in front of that grenade because you know that it was the right thing to do. But, the most important thing is that you jumped in front of that grenade because you care. You care about the people you serve with and you will continue to care about those you serve with because we are all connected. You did it for the family."
Gilles let the German go and Elias was looking at him, "This doesn't make what you do easier, but that is why you are here. To protect the ones you hold dear, Elias. Because you are one of the few in the world that can and will. You understand, mon amie?"
Elias wiped away the tears from his eyes and laughed, "Geez, did anyone tell you how sappy you are?"
Gilles pat the top of his head, "It's one of my greatest qualities."
Elias hugged the older man once more and thanked him. "Shit… I just realized I have to go to the bathroom."
Gilles chuckled, "Hurry, go! You don't want to almost soil yourself again like last week."
"Scheisse, will you just forget that happened already!" Elias ran to the bathroom outside of the prep room and emerged from it a minute or two later and almost walked right into a woman outside of the door.
"Verdammt!" he jumped up; startled, "Sorry, you scared me."
"Oh, no, I'm sorry! I just realized how weird it looks like at the moment… it looks like I followed you to the bathroom," Aria "Alibi" de Luca was the woman standing in from of Elias. She was in her GIS uniform, minus her beret. She had her hair down and Elias couldn't help but notice how cute she was. He mentally slapped himself for thinking like that and realized that he had been silent for a bit too long.
"Oh, don't worry about it, people follow me all the time. I'm quite used to it. The only thing I'm missing is my shield," Aria laughed at his rather topical joke and he joined in, but his was more of a nervous laugh than anything. He didn't know why he was so nervous, though.
"I just wanted to say thank you, Blitz. I had realized that I didn't yet get to thank you for saving my life on the field, especially since we know nothing about each other. I didn't expect anyone to throw themselves on top of a live grenade for me when I joined and I am incredibly thankful for what you did," she pulled out a box that looked rather hi-tech and held it out. The box unfolded to reveal one of her signature gadgets, a volumetric display, although this one was significantly smaller and projected text that read "smile" in German rather than one of her freaky self-displays.
"Mein Gott, this is amazing! Did you make this?" Elias took the display into his hands and stared at it in awe.
"Yes! I had to get some help to make it smaller and Emmanuelle was kind enough to offer a hand. I wanted to repay you in some way as thanks for saving me from blowing up," she rubbed the back of her head. "Do you like it?"
"Hölle ja, I do! This truly is amazing, I'm so glad I saved you," they both chuckled, "No, but truly, thank you. But you didn't have to do this, you are part of the team, it's my duty to protect everyone."
"And it is mine to make sure my team knows I am grateful," Aria said with a smile. They both stood in the hall like this for quite some time, just looking into each other's eyes and smiling at each other. Gilles stepped out into the hallway to find the two with each other and smiled to himself at the sight.
"Oi, you two! The match is about to start!" he told them.
"Right, it's that time again," Elias closed the box and faced Aria once more, "Again, thank you very much...uh... I'm sorry, I'm bad with names..."
"It's no worry, you can call me Aria. And I'm the one who should be thanking you," the two shook hands and Aria started to walk back into the prep room.
"Aria!" Elias called out as the woman turned back to face him, "You can call me Elias. Blitz is what my father calls me."
Aria laughed again and it was music to Elias' ears, "Of course. I'll see you out on the field, Elias," she winked at him as she stepped back into the room to gear up. Elias smiled to himself as he felt his face get warmer.
Now it was time to go to work.