"You're leading him too much."
"I got it," said Jin. She flexed her hand on the rifle, turning it gently as she peered through the laser sight.
"You're gonna lose him." She could almost hear Spencer shaking his head behind her. A streak of anger shot through her and she lost the tingling sensation that had been building in her muscles. Great. Now she had to start all over again. She quickly took a deep breath and let it out slowly. There might still be time…
The figure flashed in between the spaces of stacked crates, steel shelves and concrete walls as he ran full speed. He was running exactly perpendicular to her, but he was closing in on his target fast. Jin kept both eyes open as she analyzed his trajectory through the lasersight, and his velocity through the optical on her left eye. The tingling began and she saw it: a swift dart to the side… slight stumble over the broken boxes… but would he jump the railing or go under it? It was too hazy. Too far ahead.
He darted sideways, and tripped forward over the boxes. There was no time. She held her breath and took the shot.
The figure leaped over the railing and landed on the bright red circle, which flashed vividly and dissolved the humanoid shape.
Subject lost. Simulation terminated.
"Fuck!" Jin lowered the rifle so the barrel pointed towards the ceiling as the industrial atmosphere dissolved in a shower of shifting cubes spinning away into the domed walls. The lights turned on, revealing a network of grids in the now empty space.
Jin leaned forward with her forehead in her hand as Spencer gave her a pat on the back. "Bad call?" he asked.
"There's no call," said Jin. She stared angrily at the grid. "Just bad timing." Spencer leaned against the half-wall that separated the projection-deck from the main floor.
"You ever thought about Reflex Boosting?" he said. "It's almost standard in F.E.A.R. Just about everyone knows how to do it."
Jin felt the streak of anger again and turned to him. "Well thanks a lot, Spencer. Got anything else you can add to my list of 'shit I should have learned in boot camp'─" She stopped with a slight lump in her throat as she noticed the shape of a man standing in the open doorway leaned against the frame with his arms crossed over his chest. She gave herself a mental kick, and felt slightly ashamed that he'd witnessed her failed simulation.
Joe narrowed his bright grey eyes at her. "How do you know if something's going to happen?"
Jin blinked. "What?"
Joe shifted against the doorframe. "How can you tell when something will happen?"
For a moment, Jin was taken aback by the question. She opened her mouth as if to retaliate, but there was no lying to him. He might as well have asked about the scar on her left breast. Trust in Joe to make a tense situation even more awkward.
Spencer looked back and forth between them. "What's that supposed to mean?" said Spencer. Joe didn't say anything, and Jin found herself in a spotlight that she hadn't expected to be in. She struggled to think of the right words to say.
"I suppose…" she said "I see it." The two men stared at her, and she swallowed lightly. "Before it happens, I mean. Kind of like a memory but it hasn't happened yet. I guess it's why Betters wanted me on the field."
For a while, there was silence.
"Wait a minute," said Spencer, closing his eyes and straining his eyebrows. "What are you saying? You can see the future?"
Jin looked sideways at him, frustration tugging at her nerves. "It's not some sort of future-seeing mysticism. It's only about a second. Hardly worth mentioning."
"That's why Betters made you team-leader!" Spencer pounded his fist on the wall. "That bastard said my Paragon levels were shit. I didn't sleep for five days…"
"Look, it's not my decision who gets made leader or not," said Jin. She motioned to the projection deck. "Christ, I can barely hit a moving target from two-hundred yards."
"... jeopardizing the team," said Spencer, staring at his hands as he ticked off his fingers. "Low comprehension, zero sensory projection, no telekinesis…"
Joe leaned off the door frame and strode toward them. He looked even more shaded in the dark room, his long black hair casting shadows across his bearded face. "I think you're thinking about it all wrong," he said, leaning on his arms against the top of the half-wall.
Jin gazed at him with narrow eyes. "How so?"
"You're trying to hit a moving target with a sniper rifle from two-hundred yards away," said Joe. "And you're giving yourself a second's notice. Not a whole lot of time, is it?"
"That's as far as I've been able to push it," said Jin loudly as Spencer growled to behind her. "Any longer and it starts to get fuzzy and broken up."
Joe put a hand on his belt. "So that's it? One second is good enough?"
"Until now, yes," said Jin. The gleam was fading from Joe's eyes in a way that put her on edge. "It's not exactly something I can take a class for. Not many people can do what I can do."
"... no telepathy. Telepathy!" Spencer paced behind them. "What the hell's wrong with just using the commlink?"
Joe shook his head. "Sounds to me like you're just giving up. You haven't even tried to improve your skills."
Jin felt her face heat up. "I'm not giving up!" She stood up straight in attempt to make herself taller, although she still barely reached Joe's chin even as he hunched over on his elbows. "I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. It was good enough to make me team-leader." She threw a cautious glance at Spencer.
Wrinkles formed at one side of Joe's mouth as he smirked. "Well I'm glad being team-leader made all of your dreams come true. Maybe you'll let me know when you get a good enough aim to be just as good as the rest of us." He drummed on the wall.
"What the hell do you want me to say, Joe?" Jin felt the anger rising fast. "What do you want me to do about this?"
"... piece of cock-sucking ass!" Spencer was ticking fingers on his other hand. "I didn't even test for pyromancy!"
Joe glanced at Spencer. His hand flicked to his belt again, and in that moment, Jin felt a frantic wave wash over her.
It stunned her that she hadn't even been prepared, but the images flashed too quickly for her to grasp the situation. A flash of steel… Spencer's voice suddenly silenced… and red liquid… lots of red liquid…
She inhaled a quick gasp of air. Her hand shot up, and she slapped Joe across the face. The slap echoed for a moment in the wide room.
As everyone stood frozen, the shock only grew for Jin. It happened so fast. She worked hard to replay the events in her mind. What just happened? A red sore in the shape of a hand rose on Joe's cheek. She'd just prevented something horrific. Joe was going to─ no. Not Joe. He couldn't possibly… but that look on his face was real. And she had seen it. All that blood...
Joe turned his head towards her, a small smile stretching his black beard. "That's a good start." He moved his hand away from his belt and rested against the wall.
A cautious realization swept through her, and she almost laughed out loud. What a prick. What a senseless, unprecedented prick.
Spencer's face was nearly a blur from looking between the two of them so fast. He cleared his throat. "Listen, I'm always here for you guys if you ever want to talk about your… uh… relationship. Issues."
Jin cocked her head to one side as she looked at Spencer. "Spence, I'm not even going to tell you to shut your fucking mouth on that subject." She hoisted the sniper rifle in the crook of her arm and opened the chamber.
"Whoa, seriously, Joe," said Spencer. "You're going to let your girl say that?"
Joe sighed. "Even if she was my girl, she can say what she wants."
"Really?" said Spencer. "So you don't care what she does or what she says?"
Jin couldn't help but focus most of her attention on the conversation as she removed the empty energy compartment from the chamber. "Not really, and no," said Joe.
"So you're saying you're not attracted to her in the slightest way?" said Spencer. "You get no stimulation from the─" there was a movement behind her as Spencer traced the outline of Jin's figure "─ voracious curves of her hourglass body?" Jin snorted.
"Is there a 'no to all questions' option here?" said Joe.
"Honestly, you really don't care who she dates?" said Spencer. "Even a guy as sexy as this?" Jin could only imagine he was pointing to himself.
Joe let out a long breath. "How can I spell it out for you? I… don't… care."
"So you're saying," said Spencer "that you wouldn't care if I did this?" Jin felt a thumb and finger on either side of her jaw, and her vision was taken over by Spencer's face as he turned her head. Her mouth felt scratchy and she realized with a jolt that he was kissing her. Before she could react, he pulled away and turned to Joe with a wide sneer.
She looked at Joe, and felt a slight disappointment at the lack of reaction. Joe's face was completely expressionless, his arms folded across his chest. She felt her heart sink. His self-control was flawless… even if it meant changing his mind about putting a knife in Spencer's neck in less than a second. But in a way, it was also somewhat depressing.
Jin shook her head. "Spencer, you're a perverted piece of─"
The two men stared at her as she stood paralyzed on the spot. Her vision blurred slightly, and her mouth hung open as she struggled to speak. Every muscle in her body trembled. As the moments ticked by, the feeling grew stronger in her. Dread. Horrible, powerful dread. Something was happening.
She barely noticed the men as the feeling threatened to overpower her. All thoughts about Joe and her training disappeared. She'd never had a reading outside of combat. How could she be getting this reading now when there was no danger? But it most certainly was there, filling her like a black cloud. She hovered on that color. Intense, impenetrable blackness… greater than she'd ever felt before. So many people…
She looked up at Joe who had stepped forward towards her. She stammered slightly as he put a hand on her shoulder.
"What is it?" he said.
Jin felt her muscles spring into action. She grabbed his hand and rushed past him, dragging him behind her through the door.
"We need to see Betters," she said. The black cloud continued to grow, and she felt panic set in. "Now."