Being a Stranded isn't ever fun. Never. The only reason most ended up as a Stranded was because they were incapable of fighting, or refused to. Except for the rare case in which they're just trying to live out the last years of their lives without any particular purpose or hopes in accomplishing anything.
Violet Lyle was one of these cases.
~.~.~.~
The broken town was dark. Pitch dark.
Blood dries dark, doesn't it?
My old COG armor boots thunked softly against the ground with each step I took. This had been a popular town, and it was (obviously) now destroyed, so, of course, there were rotting bodies and fresh dead littering the ground everywhere.
I knew a soldier.
That soldier died.
I took her armor and gun.
Does that make me a bad person? Oh well.
I don't want to belong to a squad like most of the others. I don't want to be a Stranded with nothing better to do with my life than sit around on my ass and wallow in self pity about my life with these monsters around. Therefore, I'm technically a Wanderer.
At least, that's how I look at things.
It was dangerous, being out here alone, but I'd done it so often that I'd grown accustomed to it. There wasn't much of a break, ever; in order to survive you had to sleep with one eye open.
The ground rumbled loudly about 30 feet away and I instantly lunged into the dark safety of an alleyway, hiding against the wall of one of the buildings, readying my Lancer- the gun I'd taken from the dead soldier I knew.
Shots rang out into the air and the clang of bullets hitting brick, concrete, metal, and glass, made me cringe.
Then, I heard the voices. The actually human voices. They were all male, the most distinct-sounding one being a deep voice that shouted out, "That's what I'm talkin' about baby!"
Because it sparked my interest as to who these people were, I ducked my head out from behind the wall in an attempt to take a better glance at them all, but I was quickly met with the face of a Locust, which invoked a small and sharp scream from me, before I lunged out of the alleyway towards the right and did a small roll to avoid a few bullets that narrowly skimmed past my ear.
Shooting and fighting were two things that I prided myself upon. They were the main reasons I'd been able to survive this long.
"Shit!" I exclaimed, sliding against a broken wall that was still about a foot and a half tall, blind firing over it around the area that I knew the Locusts were positioned at.
From the corner of my eye I could see a group of about four men, watching me and the Locusts for a moment, before two of them began to fire as well, one threw a frag into the Emergence hole that the Locusts dispersed from, and the last was shouting orders into his earpiece for anyone else to hear.
I stood for a moment, aiming now and firing at the head of the creature until my bullets met their mark and it flung backwards, struggling on he ground, half dead. Quickly, before it was able to regain itself, I jumped over to the wall and jammed my foot into its skull, curb-stomping it. The strangers had managed to take out quite a few, and apparently when I was blind firing, I'd killed a few as well. They were all dead now.
"Well that was showoff-ish at all, now was it?" One of the guys called in a sarcastic tone. I don't think I could've moved faster, spinning around and training my Lancer on them. The one that had spoken had spiky blonde hair and was pale white. The male beside him was probably the most muscular man I'd ever seen, and was darker skinned, his gun slung over his shoulder again, although the blonde and one of the other ones, who wore some type of covering on his head, already had their guns aimed at me. The last was tanned, and was holding his gun, although it wasn't aimed at anything.
"Who're you?" The one with the hat like thing asked me. "You don't look like any Gear I recognize."
"Oh, hm, maybe that's because I'm not one?" I rolled my eyes, raising an eyebrow although I never moved my gun.
"Ooh, this one's sassy. Fenix I like her can we keep her?" The darker-skinned man laughed, his laughter booming through the part of the city we were in.
"Wait, if you're not a COG soldier, than where the hell did you get the armor?" The blonde asked, tilting his gun down. The other did the same as well, and if they were expecting me to put down my gun then boy, were they dead wrong.
"Out of an Emergence hole, next time you see one why don't you go check for more?" I snapped. I shouldn't have to answer them.
"Well damn Baird, she's got you there," the tanned man chuckled. My lips tilted up in a ghost of a smile, and the blonde, 'Baird', shook his head and scowled at me.
"But seriously," dark-skinned asked, "What's your name? I'm Cole. You know, like 'Cole Train'? The thrashball pla-"
"Oh great," Baird muttered, "here we go again." I watched as Cole jabbed his elbow into Baird's side. My Lancer lowered to my hip as I looked at the other two.
"Marcus Fenix. And that's Dom Santiago. And don't let the others fool you, Baird's name is Damon and Cole's is Augustus." The one with the hat said in his gruff voice again.
"Lyle." I answered.
"First name, blondie," Cole said, smirking.
"..Violet."
Baird threw his Lancer back on his shoulder and clapped his hands together. "Kay well it was somewhat mildly okay seeing you but we're gonna get going, come on guys, before she morphs into a Reaver or Locust or something." He mumbled, turning to start walking away, but Cole clapped a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. Fenix turned to them, along with Dom, and the four of them talked for a moment. During that moment, I turned, my Lancer on my shoulder with use of the strap I'd attached to it, and began to walk off, stepping over the bodies of the creatures sent to kill.
It was about five minutes, and I'd begun to collect ammunition from the Locusts guns, when Cole called me back over, "Hey, Violet, baby where you think you're going?"
"Places," I called back, straightening up. Baird scoffed, rolling his eyes as he looked at me.
"You ain't goin' nowhere," Cole called, "you gotta come with us."
"Nah." I smirked, turning towards a building that was still mostly standing, and walking inside in search of anything useful.
"Hey Violet!" Dom called over now. "It's mandatory! Orders from Command. It's not your COG armor or gun." I stiffened and backed up, craning my neck around the pillar of the building.
"It was my sister's. Does that count?" I snapped, narrowing my eyes at them all.
"Nope!" Baird said, popping the 'p'.
"Wow, okay, I feel as though my relationship with the four of you is going to be greeeaaat." I mumbled sarcastically, sulking over to them, my arms crossed over my chest.
"What now?" I said, narrowing my eyes at them through the mask that was connected to a type of helmet on my shield-suit.
"Now," Marcus said, "we hop on a King Raven and get the hell out of here."
~.~.~.~
My hands instantly went up to cover my ears against the loud whirring of the Raven as we soared through the air, my elbows on my knees while I leaned forward. Dom sat on my left side, Cole on my other, Baird across from me, and Fenix on the left side of him. I'd been silent the entire time, and that's how I wanted to be. There were reasons I didn't like or want to be a Gear soldier. It was getting hot in my mask so I flipped it upwards and just pulled my helmet off, holding it in my lap now.
My blonde and blue hair fell over my shoulders, covering part of my right eye as I took it out of my hairtie.
"Your hair's blue," Baird called over the sound of the loud rotors.
"Yeah. And blonde." I answered, rolling my eyes.
"Who the hell dyes their hair blue?"
"When the hell did you give birth to me?"
"Shit you're just a complete bit-" Baird started, but Cole cut him off with, "Ladies, ladies, please, save the fighting for the enemy, please?"
I huffed, going back to trying to relax on such a tense ride. The plan I had was going pretty well, and then Fenix shouted.
"Reavers!"
"Great." I mumbled.
"Dom, Cole, man the turrets, Baird and Violet, you two fire with your own guns."
I gave a slight nod and moved to kneel on the floor in the opening of the Raven, aiming at every darkened creature in the sky. Baird took the other side, doing the same as I did, and the four of us fired, the sound of the shots ringing in my ears. Fenix stood in the center of us all, watching over us and helping us reload when we ran out. A single Reaver rammed into the side of King Raven that I was on, and it tipped sideways, throwing me back into Baird, who spun around at the last second and barred me off from falling with his arm. I winced as his arm hit my ribs and he simply waited for the King Raven to straighten itself before moving his arm and standing up.
"How many more are there?" He asked Fenix, while I managed to stand up without falling.
"Two just passed us but they'll turn back around for us again." He answered, readying his gun. I stopped for a moment to reload my Lancer, pressing a clip into it before staying towards the center of the aircraft in an attempt to avoid falling on someone if necessary. The Reavers ended up coming around again and Baird was the one to shoot them down, and then we all found our seats once again. He shot me a glare and muttered, "Watch where you fall next time."
"Oh, I'm so sorry you and your little COG friends can't control a damn Reaver," I hissed back, and I'm pretty sure he was the only one able to hear me, because he's the only one that reacted.
"How about after this you just go back to living on the streets with the rest of the Stranded, since you're so grateful of everything we're all doing." He answered and narrowed his eyes.
"What exactly are you guys doing to fix this problem?" I smirked, realizing he had nothing to say to that.
~.~.~.~
The building towered above me and the others, and as Fenix and Dom led me inside, I felt a bit of intimidation as to what was going to come next.
As soon as I entered the building, a few men covered head to toe in complete suits, with masks like mine, immediately took my gun, and my mask. I frowned, glaring at them, before Dom urged me forward towards the center of the room, in front of a tall balcony, where what looked like a jury was standing, one man in the center. "You," he said, "you're Violet Lyle?
"That's my name." I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms.
"Your sister was Juliette Lyle, correct?"
"She's still my sister."
"She's deceased."
"Just because she's dead doesn't make her any less of my family, thank you very much," I gritted my teeth together.
"I apologize if I have caused you any offense," he said, raising his eyebrows at me.
"Well you did, apology not accepted."
He paused for a moment, and I knew my comments were getting to him, which was exactly what I wanted. Eventually, he muttered, "you've got quite the mouth on you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes, "save it. Now if we're done here, I'd like to get back to the sliver of life I still have?"
There was the sound of a few people trying to hold in laughter behind me and I turned my head to see Baird bent over, covering his mouth, and Dom leaning on him slightly, also covering his mouth. Fenix stayed emotionless, as usual, and Cole hadn't returned yet. When I turned back to look at the man again, he definitely didn't look happy, and I smirked.
Then he decided to continue. "So, that was Juliette's Lancer we confiscated, and I presume that's her armor as well. Do you have her COG tags on you, ma'am?"
"Well.. yeah.." I answered, fumbling to pull the tags out from under my shirt. Someone in one of the suits came by and snatched them from my hands, walking up the stairs towards the balcony.
"Um, excuse me, but those are mine," I ground out through gritted teeth, my fists curled at my sides.
"These no longer belong to you, they're prop-"
"They're fucking mine if I say they're mine so you'd best give the goddamn tags back to me if you want to keep your fucking head on your fucking neck." I said, my voice now raising to a shout as I glared up at him.
"Ma'am, would you please calm do-"
"No. No, I won't. Was your sister torn to pieces a week ago in front of your own eyes? No, I don't fucking think so. Those tags are the only actual piece of material I still own that has any record of her." I kept shouting.
"And that's such a shame. Juliette was a wonderful gear."
"Give me the tags back now, Prescott."
"Oh, so you know my name?" His eyebrows went up.
"I know everyone's name! I know everything about this place! I know the past missions, I know the future missions. I know so much I could ruin you."
"Hey, hey, hey," Cole's voice boomed as he walked in behind Fenix and Baird. "What's going on here?"
"Prescott took Blondie's sister's COG tags." Baird answered. He was trying to whisper, but I could still hear him.
"It's required that you give us back the body armor you're wearing as well," Prescott said. I shook my head.
"If you can make me step out of this armor, you can have it."
Baird let out a snort.
"Ma'am, just step out of the armor."
"Make me, bitch."
"Ma'am."
"Bitch?"
"Miss Lyle."
When I turned around to attempt to get one of the guys to back me up, Baird and Dom were on the ground laughing, and even Marcus was smiling slightly.
There was a long pause before Cole chimed in, "Prescott, what if she joined Delta?"