I haven't actually picked a song for her out yet. If you think of any, let me know either in review or in a PM! Kudos to anyone who can figure out which city she's from (although really it's not that hard to figure out...)
Maryland
She was not exactly tall. About average was a better way to describe her. Without her boots she was approximately 5'5", but that meant very little in the grand scheme of things. It was the proportions that mattered. She had long legs, not too much longer than her torso, but it was easy to describe her as "leggy". They weren't just average legs either. They were thick, skin stretched over huge muscles. "Muscle-y" was another word often used to describe her.
In fact, she was quite intimidating. It was clear she was quite the athletic type, or at least she hit the gym often. Rippling abs, noticeable triceps, strong back…this girl could probably lift a truck.
Not to mention her face. She had a distinct jawline, round cheekbones, a nose slightly off center…her eyes were so dark brown they were almost black. Her wiry hair was black, coming down to curl at her shoulders. Tonight, she had it pulled back in a ponytail.
It wasn't an unusual night per say. The streetlamps revealed a couple of groups of people marching along down the walkways. Most of the buildings were dark, the businesses done for the day, however a few desperate patrons, up all night to gather more money, still had their shop lights on.
The town was a mess. This entire city was a mess. There was more hate in these 93 square miles than in the rest of the country put together. However to this girl, it was home, and that was important.
She had not set boots down here for a very long time. Growing up, she had managed to convince herself that she didn't want to be here, that she needed to escape. At 17 she'd thought if she just went to college in another state…by 18 she was enlisted in the UNSC.
Usually it was the other way around: the CO would knock on the parent's doors and inform them of the news that would make their heads bow, their hands fly to their mouths and their eyes fill with water. The CO would take off their hat in respect and offer the grieving families assistance in their time of need.
It had been backwards with this girl. She'd just returned from her mission, still high with the success of it when her CO had called her to attention. In front of the entire squadron he'd given her the news. Something inside her had shaken so hard she'd went dizzy. This wasn't how it was meant to be. She could recall her mother's dark eyes, boring into her after basic, making her promise to survive this war…well she'd kept her promise alright. How could her mother have not?
She'd been given exactly 3 weeks of leave. Go home, bury mother, return to work. With the fighting at its thickest, they couldn't afford to lose even one soldier who was still capable of fighting.
The funeral had been unpleasant for many reasons. First there was the discomfort that she was the only survivor of her immediate family. No father or siblings left, or at least none that showed up. Then there were the distant cousins and family friends, some churchgoers who loved her mother. Adored her mother. She had kept her distance from everyone, and they her. It was easier that way.
Returning to this city after so many years was both scary and reassuring. It was not easy, coming back to a place where she had lived in extreme discomfort for so long. Her first step along the cracked asphalt had been enough to turn her around and get her marching back, trying desperately to return from where she'd come. Respect for her late mother had kept her rooted.
It was comforting to know she'd made the right choice by leaving. Being back only reminded her why she'd traveled so far in the first place. She'd needed the escape, and once she was gone she'd spent every day remembering why she'd left. This return was not at all welcome. She felt no urges to return to her old haunts or reach out to one-time friends. Every fiber of her being wanted only to get back to her unit and continue the fight.
From her right, a group of young men were leaning against a brick wall, eyeing her with interest. She raised her head, nose in the air, strutted forward with all the confidence she could muster- which was a lot of confidence, really. She was a UNSC Navy Seal. Nothing these rogues could do would ever scare her.
"Hey!" one of the men barked at her. Another whistled. She ignored them. "No wait!" he called again, his voice sounding less intimidating and more friendly. It was almost familiar. "Lake, is that you?"
Lakeisha froze, debating what to do next. Should she answer? After all, who in this city knew her name? Especially after so long.
"It is you!" the guy cried, squinting into her face. "Man it's been too long! What are you doing back in the city?"
Lake looked him up and down. His voice was entirely unfamiliar to her but there was vague recognition in his face. No name came to her mind, no sense of familiarity. Nothing. Who was he?
"Oh, yeah," he muttered. "Lake come on, it's me, Jayden."
She frowned. "Jayden?" she asked, her voice a resounding alto. Jayden…she hadn't seen him since high school. Indeed they'd been really close back in the day. After the time she'd pulled the prank on her commander in basic and had had to run laps around the track naked, nothing embarrassed her anymore. This was a fact she was glad for, because otherwise she might've been quite flustered. Jayden was the one she'd lost her virginity to.
"Hey, yeah, it's me baby," he said quietly, smiling his brilliant smile. Lake deadpanned. "What're you doing back in town?"
"Funeral," she said shortly. Jayden did not stop smiling.
"Yeah, I saw in the news about that. Sorry to hear about your mother."
Jayden perhaps didn't realize he was inching closer to her, but Lake certainly did. It was probably an unconscious thing, in some way trying to comfort her but not knowing how. However years of fighting plenty of enemies had not warmed Lake up to the idea of being touched. She edged backwards minutely, hoping to drive the point home.
The thought had barely crossed her mind when, out of the nearest shop, two men burst out. She could see the flush against their dark cheeks, their laughter faltering as they found themselves face-to-face with her gun. It was a knee-jerk reaction. Someone comes bursting out of the nearest exit and she shoots them. That's how life goes in the UNSC Naval fleet. In fact, they were lucky she hadn't pulled the trigger. Yet.
For a moment that feels like a lifetime, everyone froze, staring at her, first in panic and then in awe. Everyone began to relax except for Lake. She never relaxed. Never. Especially not while holding her shotgun to the head of two complete strangers.
"Wow, that's some piece you got," one of the men said, she thought to Jayden.
"What?" she hissed, tilting her head fractionally. She didn't take her eyes off of the two newcomers though. With a hint of satisfaction she noticed they haven't moved.
"The gun," the man clarified, walking towards her. He stopped only when she whipped around to point it at him. "Where'd you get it?" He asked casually, although Lake wasn't fooled. She could hear a tiny note of anxiety in his voice.
"Where do you think?" said another of the men. "She's a soldier, just look at her."
Lake narrowed her eyes slightly, pinpointing the ta-thump of his jugular. What a spectacular shot that would be. No one back at base would believe her.
Jayden is the only one who looked dead serious, eyeballing her gun with genuine terror in his eyes. "Lake," he reassured her breathlessly. "You can put it away. We're not going to hurt you."
Lake hesitated only a moment longer before lowering her weapon. She did not immediately holster it. Truth be told, she did not feel entirely safe among this group of men. Jayden was…all right. Maybe. But she didn't know the rest, and it scared her a little to think how outnumbered she'd be in a fight against them.
For the second time that night (for the second time since running into Jayden) her thoughts are about a second ahead of what's happening around her. They all seemed to be closing in on her, surrounding her almost. She lifted her head, her chin up. One of them was admiring her posture, another bravely examining her chest. Jayden was the only one who looked a little uncomfortable at this change, noticeably standing back from the group and breaking the circle.
"Hey baby," one of the men whose skull she'd nearly put a bullet through slurred. "Where are you off to, anyway?"
"Church," she answered stiffly. This was a complete lie. She was in fact headed back to her hotel for the night, had only stopped on this stupid street to see if Benny's Bistro was still open and if she could get a world-class sandwich at this late hour. She couldn't. It was too late.
Her mother was buried at a church not too far from there though. A Baptist seminary, actually, where she'd attended many a sermon and even attended classes. Lake had been forced to go there for the funeral. She'd had to give a speech about her mother. To describe it as awkward was the understatement of the year. Lake absolutely hated churches (the calm, expectedly peaceful attitude was not her forte), and quite honestly she hadn't known what to say about her mother. Her mind could not connect the woman she'd last seen as her mother- leaving house when she was just sixteen years old to score some hits off the street (probably this very street)- and the woman who everyone else was grieving- the humble clergywoman who coached youth volleyball. They were not the same person, really, and Lake had stumbled through her speech wheezing that she only ever wanted to make her mother proud and hoped that in whatever afterlife everyone expected her to be in (that Lake didn't believe in herself) her mother was still watching her.
"Fuck that," the guy admiring her (outrageously small) tits said. She noticed with a flash of disgust there was drool in his stubble. "Why don't you stay here for a while, baby? Hang with some real men?"
If her mother was watching her now, she'd probably have died again from a heart attack. Lake was a good fighter, there was no doubt about that. But her strongest suit by far was her sharpshooting. Her skills with a rifle were impeccable. It was how she had gotten this far in the Seals. However she was in close-quarters with at least five dudes- six if you counted Jayden –and she was not entirely certain this was a battle she could win.
However there was one thing about her everyone who ever met her agreed on: she was stubborn as fuck, and there was no way she was going to back down from a fight with a bunch of drunk idiots. She smirked, shifting infinitesimally, sliding her dominant foot back about an inch and curling her dominant arm back with it. Should the need arise to throw a punch, she would probably have cold-clocked the nearest guy in about .3 seconds tops.
She never got the chance.
The first bullet simultaneously nicked the wall and convinced Lake that whoever was shooting totally sucked at shooting. By the time the second bullet came whizzing past where the booby admirer was standing, the men had fanned out, forming a defensive line, which Lake though was pure stupidity because they were liable to be picked off one by one this way.
It didn't occur to her that it had anything to do with her until Jayden was tugging her along by her wrist. "Come on, Lake!" he hissed, dragging her behind him down the alleyway. She jerked her arms out of his grip and glared at him, teeth bared.
"What is going on?"
He shook his head. "I can't explain now- "
"Are they letting themselves get killed for me?"
Jayden chuckled. He actually fucking chuckled. "Oh don't worry about them."
Lake froze, listening. She could definitely hear gunshots from behind. It sounded like a real firefight back there, and for a wild second she thought she was back in the front lines, watching as her fellow humans shot helplessly at the advancing Covenant. The war had turned real for her when she'd seen one of the members in her squad, the one she'd gone through Basic with, get his head blown off by a Needler.
But that was then and this was now. Not without effort, she wrenched herself back to the present. People were stupid, she reflected solemnly. Here they were in the middle of a war to the death with an alien race, and still people would be shooting each other in this city.
"What, are they a rival gang?" she asks monotonously, not really about the answer. But when Jayden fell silent, the danger they were in really hit home for her. Gangs in this city were not a rare thing in this city. Although she'd wanted to believe the colossal draft the UNSC had held not all that long ago would have taken all of these skilled gunmen off the streets and into the battlefield (where they were desperately needed by this point), she was not that stupid. Gang violence would always be happening in this city.
"We've gotta go," Jayden was saying suddenly, pulling Lake out of her thoughts and grabbing at her wrists again. "You can't- I mean- just we gotta go."
She ripped her arms away from his grasp, shaking her head and staring at him like he was the biggest idiot she'd ever met because at that moment she wasn't entirely convinced that he wasn't. "Fuck that, dude," she said with a slight smirk.
"What?" he demanded, squaring her up. "Lake, we have to."
She shrugged breezily. "We could. Or we could climb up to the roof of that building and take them all out." It sounded like the most obvious thing, and aroused a sneer from her when Jayden gaped at her, clearly not having thought of it.
"You think you can hit them with that shotgun?"
Rolling her eyes, she slung it back over her shoulder and produced a rifle. At that Jayden did a double take. "Where the living fuck did that come from?"
She cocked an eyebrow at him, reveling in his little to absolute no knowledge of how the military operated. "I've been carrying it with me the whole time, Jayden."
His jaw dropped. "What the- where?"
"My holster," she said, widening her eyes in false innocence. He stared at her for perhaps a minute longer before seemingly deciding to drop it.
"Alright. The roof. How are we getting there?"
"Hmm," she responded a little too wide-eyed. "I have no idea." He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously before turning around to stare at the ladder stretching all the way to the roof.
"Fuck," he muttered.
…
The climb to the roof was not a short one. Jayden, as it turned out, was scared of heights. It took a lot of coaxing at first, and when that didn't work directly making fun of him to get him to keep climbing. Whenever he began to freeze up, Lake reminded him it was all to help his friends survive the firefight, which seemed light a fire under his ass and get him moving. He didn't complain after that.
Once they were up and well on the roof (Jayden glancing back down with a slue of curse words uttered under his breath), Lake smirked. This was her thing. Sharpshooting was her thing. When she'd first enlisted, vanishing off to Basic before her long career in the military, she'd been terrified. What was going to happen? The first time she'd held a gun during training, she'd clutched it like it was her lifeline. Truly it was. The cold metal clasped in her fist was the only thing keeping her from certain death. Being a sharpshooter, her armor wasn't as thick as those in, say, Infantry. Distance (and good aim) was the key.
Laying on her stomach upon this rooftop, above the harsh streetlights and holding the scope of her gun to her eye, she felt more at home than she ever had since her return. This was what she had extensively trained for.
At once when she looked through the scope, though, she realized that this might be more difficult than she'd originally thought. Everyone below her looked relatively the same. She would have hoped after being surrounded by Jayden's friends, she would recognize at least one of them. Instead, she couldn't tell one person from the next.
"Hey yo," Jayden said, sounding irritated. "Badass sniper chick? Aren't you supposed to be taking them out?"
"I can't tell them apart!" she admitted. "Which ones do I shoot?"
"Take out the ones killing my friends!"
She narrowed her eyes and tapped into her limited cesspool of patience. "Everyone's killing one another, so you're going to have to be a little more specific," she hissed.
"We all have a lightning bolt somewhere on our bodies!"
"Just peachy," she whistled, exasperated. However it didn't take long to locate one with a lightning bolt tattooed across his wrist. He was slashing upwards but his momentum sent him back, exposing his chest. She saw the man he was fighting against smirk and raise his weapon.
That was as far as he got before her bullet went through his eye.
It didn't take long for the opposing fighters to realize that there was a sniper involved. Soon they were scrambling to get back to their car. With a carefree smirk Lake put another bullet into the heel of one of the retreating men, if only to get the message to sink in (but she wasn't above shooting her enemy in the back while they retreated). However tempted she was to shoot out their tires, she let them drive away. Cutting off their retreat would only prolong the fight, and amp up the surefire retaliation Jayden's friends would feel once she was gone. No, for now, let them go.
"Ho-ly shit!" Jayden exclaimed, his face one of pure delight. "Holy shit! Did you see them run? Damn Lakeisha that was some fine shooting! Holy shit!"
"Jayden," she murmured hesitantly, peering over the edge. It looked like one of his men had collapsed into the ground, but oddly no one was helping him. In fact, everyone was scattering in many different directions and that car pulling up looked oddly suspicious until the lights started flashing and reality sunk in.
Blind panic took over. If she got caught now, they could court martial her straight out of the military. "Jayden, we have to go!"
But she was too late. "Freeze!" a voice called from behind them, and with a muttered "Son of a bitch." Lakeisha dropped her weapon and put her hands up.
…
onetwothreefour….onetwothreefour….onetwothreefour…
Lakeisha drummed her fingers against the desk in front of her. Patience was not one of her strongest qualities, and she'd used a lot of it up already tonight. Already this week. Already this fucking war.
It had been exactly 7200 seconds since she'd been dropped into this chair. 120 minutes. 2 hours. 4356 drums of her fingers across the desktop. Although intimidating, sitting in this tiny interrogation room was preferable to sitting in a cell, which was most definitely where Jayden probably was. However patience wasn't her strong suit, and Lake was about ready for something to happen.
The door opened and a man walked in, glaring at her with wrinkled gray eyes and years of experience dealing with "young rapscallions". This was not the officer who'd arrested her, but he was holding something in his hand that made her double take: her guns.
"If it were up to me, you wouldn't be getting these," he said stiffly. The only reason her jaw didn't drop and her eyes didn't pop is because she was staring to intently at her weapons. Although her brow did traverse up to her hairline.
"You're giving me my guns?"
That seemed to stupid. Why would they return her weapons to her after they'd witnessed her shooting civilians? Wasn't she under arrest?
"Not just yet," he sneered, clearly disgusted with what he saw sitting before him. Lakeisha didn't care what he thought of her. She'd saved his hide many times over in the War, and wasn't intimidated by anything anymore. However his tone did prick her curiosity. "I'm putting them here. There's someone who would like to talk to you."
He leaned her guns against the wall, making room for the newcomer. He was a short, clean-shaved man with dark…everything. His eyes were chocolate, his skin leathery leaves in the late fall, his lips pursed and god damn even his clothes were standard issue black. It was the uniform that caught her attention. And the look of dreamy carelessness in his eyes. All of it put her on edge immediately.
"Lakeisha Miller," he said, and it caught her off guard. The way he said it…it was almost reverently, as though she were a celebrity and he was finally getting to talk to her in person.
"Lake," she corrected automatically. His eyes roamed over her form, from her muscles to her stance. She didn't at all like the feeling she got from his stare. Like she was being x-rayed.
"Nice to meet you. I am Aiden Price, The Counselor of Project Freelancer." He held out his hand, she watched his liquid movements and didn't return the gesture. This man- The Counselor –didn't seem at all perturbed by her rudeness. "I have heard of your skill as a handy sniper. It is my pleasure to see that your recommendations were correct!"
If meeting the man caught her off guard, this last statement of his totally blew her away. "What?" she demanded, sitting forward and glaring at him.
He blinked at her serenely. "I saw what you did out there. I was quite impressed."
"WHAT?" At this she went to stand, but then thought better of it. Probably Gruffy McGruffHate from the hallways would shoot her with her own weapons if she came of at all threatening. "I shot people and you're congratulating me?"
The Counselor tilted his head curiously. "You think you should be in trouble?"
"Isn't that why I'm here?" she asked incredulously.
"Of course not," he answered, waving his hand as though a pesky fly were bothering him. "You're here because I needed to find you. It was…unfortunate that we found you in such a state."
"Jesus jumped-up Christ," she muttered, leaning back again. "Unfortunate is a word for it. You know I almost got killed twice tonight?"
He continued to stare at her with those unnerving eyes until she'd caught on. "Why were you looking for me?"
As if out of nowhere he pulled out a thick sheaf of papers in a manila envelope. Lake stared open-mouthed, feeling probably as Jayden had when she'd pulled out her sniper. "Your CO recommended you to our program." His voice sounded smooth, but the look on his face suggested he was rather enjoying her reaction to all of this. "Said you could put a bullet through anybody's eye from nine miles out."
She snarled. It wasn't like she hadn't heard about Project Freelancer. The Seals had gotten wind of it from near the beginning, and maybe she'd put her name down a long time ago, but after not hearing about it for years, she'd almost entirely forgotten about it. Now it was coming back to haunt her?
"So what if I can?" she asked haughtily, sticking her nose up in the air to better glare at him.
He smiled in a way that she did not at all like. "So you're hired."
