Chapter 18 – Science Is Not Good Medicine
The sun was bright as Ajay walked back to her apartment. She was never out at this time. She was either training, fighting, or sleeping. There wasn't much time for anything else anymore. She made it back to her place in no time. She let D.O.C. out into her apartment and sat down at the table near the kitchen to reread the message from HQ that was sent out yesterday. She wanted to see if she could figure out who everyone was paired with this time around. She wasn't too fond of being paired with Alexander. She never really tried talking to him but he did not seem like the small talk type.
Ajay:
Congratulations on your victory. Tomorrow you will be paired up with Caustic as Duos night continues. Please be ready at the regular scheduled time. Team names are listed below. MRVN will be out for repairs.
Bomb Squad
Hunt in the Void
Science is good Medicine
Speed is Fun
"Speed is fun? Another Legend? They sure are pushing them out quickly" With the hype of the blood sport maybe it was for the best. As long as she had a job she wasn't too worried. She set her phone down and wandered into room to change out of her clothes from yesterday. She didn't want to deal with the fallout from yesterday's clothing. She striped down to nothing standing in front of the mirror in the corner of the room. She looked at the dressing that Elliot put, it was holding well. "He must have some experience." She put on a hot pink bra with matching pink panties, both with lace. She pulled out a loose fitting shirt from her closet, black of course and put it on. Her left shoulder hung out. She then got out a pair of black short and slid them on followed by black netted, thigh high leggings.
She sat down in front of the mirror and slipped on her Dr. Martens, lacing them up. She then worked on putting her hair up into two buns. It took a little work to make sure they were secure and battle ready but she always seemed to pull it off. She smirked at herself in the mirror as she finished and stood up. She still had sometime before she had to be to arena. She wanted to train but she was still nursing a wound. She shook her head. "I'll be fine." She gathered D.O.C. and placed the drone in her backpack. She tossed the backpack over shoulders and hurried to the firing range.
Ajay was the only one in the firing range. She liked it better that way. She didn't bother removing her backpack she just thought it would give her the upper hand in the arena if she trained with it. She grabbed the R301 and the R99. "The R400." She laughed out loud. She shot the target dummies until her care package was ready. She dropped her care package. "Yep 15 seconds from summon to pop." She grabbed the Tripletake and practiced with the sniper rifle from the highest point in firing range. Her alarm started to beep on her phone. She had 15 minutes to get to the transport ship. She set the weapons down and headed to the loading area.
She set her backpack down and began to browse through outfits. She was partial to London Calling so that is what she decided to wear. She smiled to herself on the screen before walking away. She placed D.O.C. in her left pocket and dug for her pills. She took two pills and put the bottle away before stashing her backpack. She headed for the transport ship where everyone seemed to be waiting. Since she was the last to arrive the ship took off once she was inside. She sat down in the same seat she always sat in. She looked around for a moment. She didn't see Elliot or the new Legend. Everyone was quiet, "Probably thinking of the best place to drop." She knew that she and her teammate would be dropping Bunker. She also knew that everyone else knew where her team would be dropping.
Ajay closed her eyes and relaxed until the countdown clock started. Once she heard the clock she opened her eyes and stood up. She walked over to Alexander, "Ya ready Alexander." He sneered at her, "That's Dr. Nox to you, combat medic." He turned around as the clock hit zero and dropped solo. "What the fuck man?" She sighed and jumped after him. It wasn't smart to drop solo in duos match. She managed to catch up with him. They both landed in the front of Bunker. She didn't have time to look for other dive trails because she was too busy dealing with him.
'Lifeline looted the bins outside of the Bunker. She found an RE45, a P2020, limited ammo, no healing, no shield cells, level 1 body armor, a level 1 helmet, and no attachments. She walked into Bunker and found nothing else. Caustic had looted everything else. She asked for light ammo, pinging it. Caustic said nothing as he set up his traps. She shook her head and walked into one of the side rooms at the top of the stairs. She leaned against the wall with her RE45 out and waited.
"Ya want to leave this place and loot elsewhere Caustic?" He remained quiet. Lifeline was getting antsy. She didn't really have the ammo if they got into a long, drawn out battle. Everyone knew where they were anyhow, so it was only a matter of time before they came rushing in. She watched the feed and listened to the announcer. Two of the squads had been eliminated, which left their squad and one other. She stood up and readied her gun. "We will be lucky to win this." She walked out of the side room and into the hallway.
Caustic started laughing as the countdown clock started, the sirens sounded, and the back of Bunker door opened. One by one his traps got shot down and disappeared. Lifeline watched as thermite fall at their feet. Both Lifeline and Caustic started to sizzle in the flames. The fire managed to hit one of his other traps and set it off. There was gas and fire everywhere. Lifeline got to a place where there was no fire just as her body armor cracked. She had nothing to heal with in her backpack. Caustic's health wasn't looking so hot and he had no body armor left. He was almost down.
There was still gas everywhere. Lifeline pulled out D.O.C. to heal them, "Healing up." D.O.C. Just sat there and nothing happened. Caustic coughed, "Inferior drone." Another thermite came flying in and hit Caustic square in the head knocking him and then lighting him on fire. The fire set off another one of his traps, there was gas and fire everywhere again. Caustic turned into a box almost instantly. It all happened so fast and without the use of D.O.C. Lifeline was at loss.
Lifeline grabbed Caustic's banner in a hurry, burning some of her health in the process. She could hear footsteps coming from the backside of Bunker. She shot her R45 blindly through the gas and fire. She heard the sound of someone's body armor cracking. Lifeline ran and slid down the stairs towards the front of Bunker. The Bunker doors opened and out ran Lifeline into a nearby building towards the left of her. The building was empty and shambles. She ran out of the left side of the building into the water. She crouched behind a nearby rock.
Lifeline didn't have time to pull up her map to find a respawn beacon. She wasted all of her ammo firing blind into the back of Bunker. Stupid move. She had no armor and her health was almost gone drained. D.O.C. was still on cool down. She heard footsteps in the water running towards her. Only one set of footsteps. They were fast, mechanical, closer, and they were on her; he was in front of her. All of the color drained from her face. She was absolutely speechless when she saw the Legend that stood before her. She looked at those familiar legs with inscription she made on them. She made those legs. Octane knelt down in front of her.
Lifeline watched as Octane set his R99 down into the water next to him and pulled his comms device out of his ear. Goggles covered his eyes and most of his face. The rest of his face was covered with a black mask or shield, along his lower face, with sharp, white teeth printed on it. His head was covered with some sort of black cap. He was dressed in a green vest that only covered his upper chest, with a white shirt underneath; the sleeves were torn off. The lower part of his torso remained exposed. His torso was skinny but he had abs for days. His body was lined with circular metal areas. He wore off-white pants, or maybe they were white and dirty. The pants were cut off above his prosthetic legs. His legs were prosthetics that she had made for him from a junked Northstar Titan (one of the only Titans that was made to hover); the Stryder material was the lightest material for quick movement.
Lifeline blinked as Octane pulled the comm device out of her ear. He tossed both of their comms devices into the water behind him. The comms devices sparked and sizzled in the water until they died; they were not waterproof. No one could hear them now. He finally spoke, "Che." She couldn't breathe. He was the only one that called her that. She only allowed him to call her that. Her mouth was dry as she whispered, "Silva." That was her name for him. She gazed at him as he pulled his broken armor off and tossed it to the side. She watched him as he pulled something out of his backpack. "Fuck, it couldn't be. The only thing she didn't want it to be."
Lifeline watched as Octane pulled the pin out of a grenade held it in his hand. It flashed red as he moved closer to her. The grenade wouldn't go off until he released it. It would only take a few seconds to detonate but Octavio Silva was fast with his prosthetic legs and stim injections; he could get away in no time. She watched as Octane's face was right up against hers. She was paralyzed by shock. The only thing she could do was drop her gun. There was barely a sound as she was so focused on him. She felt him grab her hand and open it. Octane placed the grenade into her trembling left and let go for one second as he closed her hand around the grenade. "This is it. This how is how my win streak is going end. By a fucking grenade."
Lifeline was surprised as Octane closed his hands around hers. She started shaking her head. She whispered to him, "No. No. No. No." She wanted to cry but she couldn't. She still couldn't believe that he was here. She heard his voice, "Shhh. It's okay. It's just me and you Che..." He sounded so calm. He never sounded calm. She closed her eyes as their foreheads pressed against one another and grenade exploded.
