35 – THE TWO SNIPERS

Once the scientists of the lab factory had determined for a certainty that the Quantum Manipulator was entirely secure upon its pedestal, Lemon Squadron and Lime Squadron were free to explore Centerpoint City. They all fanned out, everyone splitting into groups, and each group decided to go off in a different direction. Hearts, Patton, Inez, Hester and Wren (Lime Squadron) went towards the center of the city, 'to see the city's most important bits', according to Hearts. Nome, Skope, and Kevin went to the suite that would serve as their quarters, because they had already seen much of the city on a previous visit, several days ago. They just wanted to set up their stuff so that they wouldn't have to do it later. The third and final group was made up of Amber, Clair, Ryan, Jess, Mr. Boom, and Brian. They decided to go to the nearest food court to find something to eat.

The Grand General had informed Lemon Squadron that the city's capitol district was currently under repair and renovation because of an attempted siege that the Orange Army had made there not too long ago. However, the fact that the Grand General continued to insist that there was nothing for Lemon to see in that area only further encouraged Lemon to investigate it for themselves. As Lemon began driving, they came to realize that Centerpoint City was very much like any normal crowded big city. Streets were usually at least five lanes wide, traffic jams were everywhere, and all the other drivers seemed to have as much patience as a grizzly bear that had been poked a dozen too many times; road rage was the norm. It took far longer than it should have, perhaps almost twenty minutes instead of five, but Lemon eventually made it to the very center of Centerpoint City, the Capitol District. "Hm, that's odd," said Tom as they pulled up.

The capitol district had become a construction site, at least in large part. A multi-story tower, only at the first steps of its implementation, existed in a steel skeleton. Surrounding the tower was a dirt field, on the other end of which stretched a crane arm which held a massive piece of stone, which was long and angled so that it looked like a ramp. The dirt field was surrounded by street and city buildings (which were completed). Some of the city buildings looked damaged, and one looked as though a VTOL had crashed into it, because there was a huge dent which showed through several of its floors. Amidst the entire site was an army of construction workers who were all lounging around the place on plastic benches and tables at lunch break, which did not bode the area well for being a place of utmost importance and secrecy for the entire Green Army.

"Well this sucks," commented Patton.

"If this is where classified information is kept, then it's really well concealed," said Wren.

"Should we bother asking around, do you think?" Hearts asked.

Hester shook her head. "There's nothing to be found here. The Grand General meant everything he said. The Capitol District was attacked recently and is under construction."

Tom shrugged. "I guess sometimes people don't try to dissuade you because there's something to hide, they dissuade you because the truth really is this boring."

"I never imagined that the Greens would be so adept at keeping their word," Patton admitted.

"Where to now then, guys?" Wren asked.

"I dunno," said Hearts. "Let's just drive around more, see the sights."

With no one in disagreement, Lemon turned their vehicles and gunned their engines to do just that.

Lemon reconvened with the group that had gone to the food court. They were all back together again except for Nome, Skope, and Kevin, who were still setting up their quarters in the party's suite. It turned out that while Lemon had been away, the group at the food court hadn't done much except to just eat. So then it was Lemon's turn to have a bit of food. During Lemon's meal, the party discussed exactly where they should try to visit in the city. The subject was brought up that, though the city did have landmarks, they were not particularly impressive: being the central base for an entire Army, the city was mostly administrative in purpose, and as a consequence of this nearly all of the buildings were office buildings (aside from resource and maintenance structures). This was the subject of much discussion, because the group ended up having a very difficult time deciding where to go. Much fist-pounding on the table ensued, as well as some minute cursing, because this was really kind of a letdown for some of the group. Then Clair brought up that Nome, Skope, and Kevin were setting up their quarters at the party's suite, and the group decided to leave so that they could do the same, as they still hadn't come up with any better ideas.

They arrived at the suite about fifteen minutes later. Nome, Skope, and Kevin had of course already set up their quarters. Everyone had already been designated a room when the suite was first booked, so there was no fighting over the remaining rooms. Instead, it was simply a task of everyone setting up their stuff, of which there wasn't much, because it was standard procedure for both Green and Yellow soldiers to travel light when on missions.

The people who had the most to put away were Ryan, Kenny, and Mr. Boom. Being weapons specialists, they of course had the most equipment to lug around. The rooms of the suite were not exactly designed to hold heavy weaponry, as was demonstrated by the acoustics. Kenny was confronted in his own room by Jess, when she heard from his room, through the wall, what she had thought to be an explosion. After some arguing and searching around, they eventually discovered that the way sound traveled through the walls of the suite rooms was such that any loud THUNK was magnified as it spread out to the other rooms, sounding much more powerful than it actually was.

This revelation gave Kenny the idea of lifting up and then dropping down his rocket launcher repeatedly, over and over again. His theory about annoyance was proven when Skope barged into his room, wondering what the fuck was going on, and if he had just overheard some kind of gunfight in Kenny's room. An awkward conversation followed, during which Kenny was forced to admit to Skope his ingenious plan, and Skope stated that if Kenny ever tried that again, he would use Centerpoint City's launch facility to send the rocket launcher into high orbit. As Skope stormed out of the room, Kenny decided that perhaps it was best not to try the rocket launcher/acoustics plan again.

After everyone had set up their stuff, Lemon Squadron decided to head back to the lab facility containing the Quantum Manipulator, while Kenny, Jess, Ryan, Clair, Kevin, Brian, and Mr. Boom headed out to a buffet they had looked up on a website, that was supposed to be somewhere in the city. After they left, the only two people still in the suite were Skope and Amber. By this point, it was about 1600 hours, and the sun was slowly sinking towards the western horizon. The sight outside the city was filled with colors of orange and purple, reflected from the sky off of the many glass surfaces of the city's structures.

Amber wandered out to the common room to find Skope sitting on one of the couches, still in his armor, reading a Star Wars novel. The Green looked up as Amber stepped closer. "Oh, hi."

Amber nodded in response, then took a spot beside him on the couch. They looked at each other for a moment, then Skope went back to reading. "I'm sorry," Skope heard from his side.

He looked at Amber. "What?"

"I said I'm sorry."

"About what?" Skope asked.

"Sniping you in the ass."

"Oh that." Skope shrugged. "It's in the past. Don't worry about it."

Amber continued: "It's just that…I haven't gotten a chance to apologize to you until now. And since our Armies are in a truce now, and we're even in the same squadron…well, I just felt it necessary, is all."

Skope shook his helemt. "You really didn't need to. You made up for it when you and Clair came to rescue me from Vincent when we were at the Red Fortress. You saved my life." He chuckled subtlety. "I should be thanking you."

Now it was Amber's turn to shake her helmet. "Nonsense. I made up for sniping you in the ass when I saved you. I think that makes us even."

Skope thought it over for a moment. "Yeah, maybe so."

There was silence for a couple of minutes, with Skope reading, and Amber just sitting and thinking. The silence was broken again when Amber said: "The moment after I had rescued you, and we were running through the city of the Red Fortress, with Vincent and probably at least fifty Red Soldiers chasing us…I actually kind of enjoyed that, y'know?"

"Well that was a pretty exciting moment," Skope responded.

"That's not what I mean."

"Oh. Well then, what do you mean?"

"I mean that…I enjoyed running like hell with you."

Skope shrugged. "Aside from the being in mortal danger part, yeah, that was actually kinda fun. I remember when we rounded that corner and saw the rest of Lime Squadron, and then you shouted 'Run for your fucking lives' louder than I'd ever heard you say anything before."

Amber chuckled. "Oh yeah, I remember. I must've been on a crazy amount of adrenaline. It's not like me to just shout out like that."

They sat in a few more moments of silence before Amber said: "After the battle at Red Base six days ago, when you and your team were first teleported to the alternate universe, and everyone here thought that you had died…we actually held a funeral for all of you, did you know that?"

Skope gave Amber a curious look. "Seriously?"

Amber nodded. "Yeah. Patton's idea, too. Hard to believe, I know. But after my team first met yours…I think it kind of rubbed off on Patton. He warmed up to you a little bit, privately, not openly. I mean, he actually thought you guys deserved a funeral, even though you're from a different Army, which I think really says something."

"I didn't know it was possible for Patton to warm up," said Skope. "And I had no idea that you guys threw a funeral for us. I would thank you…but thanking someone for hosting my own funeral…I dunno. It just doesn't seem quite right somehow."

Amber shrugged. "Well…the idea for your funeral…it wasn't entirely Patton's. I kind of…planted the seed, a bit."

"You did what?" Skope asked.

"I didn't mean to give Patton the idea for the funeral," said Amber. "I kind of just mentioned the possibility to him in passing, and it seemed to catch on."

Skope looked directly at her. "But that would mean that my team rubbed off on you as well."

"One of you did, at least."

"What are you saying, Amber?"

Amber looked away from him, directing her gaze off to the side. "I uh…I dunno."

Another long silence followed. Outside, the sky grew ever darker, the light of the sun being replaced by a nebula of city lights.

It was some time before Skope decided to say: "I didn't think I'd ever bring this up, but since we seem to be on a very similar subject…ah, fuck it."

Amber turned and looked at Skope directly in the visor. "What?

"Well, when my team was first sent into the alternate universe, I think by that point you'd kind of rubbed off on my as well. Not a lot. But every several moments or so, I'd catch myself thinking 'God, if only I had another sniper to watch my back'. I mean, there was an awful lot of crazy shit that happened to my team in the alternate universe. We got caught in the middle of a clan fight, then participated in this weird-ass game of hockey, and then got captured by Reds. There was just so much chaos…I would've been really happy to see you then."

"And I would've been happy to see you," said Amber slowly. "Deep down…I always look forward to seeing you…just a bit."

Skope leaned closer to Amber. "And ever since I've seen you…I've always been looking forward to seeing you. And not just because you're another sniper. Immediately after you sniped me, I was angry, of course. But not now. I've put that part of my past behind me. We're so much more than that now."

"I've always wondered what you look like under your helmet, Skope," said Amber with both cautiousness and curiosity.

"And I've kinda wondered what you look like under yours."

Ever so gently, Amber reached up and applied pressure with her hands to the release buttons. There was a subtle hiss, and then she lifted her helmet off. Long blond hair fell down over her shoulders. She had a long and straight mouth, blue eyes, and a short nose, over butter-yellow skin on a tall and thin face. It was every bit like Skope had imagined her to look.

Now it was Skope's turn to take off his helmet. A few clicks and a light hiss later, his face was plain to see. Long brown bangs, ending in sharp peaks, fell down past subtly slanted eyes. He had a very small mouth, which was placed directly under a short stubby nose. In contrast to the creaminess of Amber's skin, Skope's skin was of a paler color, not pure white, but more like a very light tan.

"You look nice," said Amber.

"So do you," said Skope.

"Sniperbutt," said Amber.

And then, like a triggered reaction, they both shot out with their arms and embraced, each bringing the other's face to their own, mouths open. Skope had never kissed someone before, but he got his experience in the next moment. He felt his heart racing as the two of them snogged. But it wasn't unpleasant. It was blissful. He had never felt so alive before. He just wanted that moment to last forever, with his heart racing, and his lips pressed against hers. Both he and Amber were panting heavily. It was shortly after that second when Amber suddenly released and shoved herself away from him. "Ohmygod, what the fuck are we doing?"

"Kissing?" Skope asked as he wiped his mouth.

"I can't believe we just…" Amber started. "That was totally unprofessional!"

Skope nodded. "On that I think we can agree."

"I had no idea I really felt that way towards you," Amber stammered. She then began to recompose herself, sitting upright and straight. "We should, um, forget this ever happened. Never speak of it."

"Good idea," said Skope. "For the best." Then both of them looked towards the doorway to the common room, and saw Ryan standing in the entrance, his visor gawking at them. The suitcase he was holding in his right gauntlet fell to the floor as he looked at the two snipers in stunned amazement.

An awkward stillness filled the room.

Almost as a reflex, Skope shoved his helmet back onto his head. Unsurprisingly, this did not deter Ryan from his stare. After perhaps a minute, the Yellow weapons specialist cleared his throat and stammered: "I-um…I forgot something. Had to come back. I just need to go to my quarters. So how about I...uh, just squeeze past you." He began inching along the wall, even though Skope and Amber were at least ten meters away from him. The gaze paths of the three of them were unwavering as Ryan slowly moved.

Ryan had nearly inched to the entrance to his hallway when Amber exclaimed: "He's going to tell everyone," at which point Skope shot up from the couch and lunged after Ryan. Loud hurried footsteps thundered away into the distance as the sniper chased the weapons specialist down the hallway. Meanwhile, Amber continued to sit in silence on the couch, still not entirely willing to believe that what had happened had really just happened.

It was roughly a minute later when Skope walked slowly back into the common room, in kind of a slouch. "I couldn't stop him in time," the Green explained to Amber. "He used his tacpad to send the message out. Everyone knows now." He then walked up to the couch and sat down next to Amber, in the same space he had been sitting during their kiss. Another five minutes went by as the two of them sat in silence, thinking their own thoughts.

"Fucking dammit," said Amber.