Chapter Twenty Six: The Burning Dunes
"Are you two about done?"
I untangled my hand from Shadow Stalker's hair, using it to push her face away from mine, earning me a low growl.
"Five more minutes!" I shouted to the voice outside the tent-flap, more than a little breathless.
With my lips removed as a target, Shadow Stalker lowered her head, nibbling – no, biting – at my earlobe.
I gasped, the action and the feel of her breath against me making me shudder and sending an almost ringing tingle through my head.
"Never been on the receiving end of that before," I said, my voice shaking.
I winced, even before she bit down hard enough to draw blood. Without my power I probably would have lost a sliver of flesh.
"Don't talk about her," Shadow Stalker snarled, my ear still crushed between her teeth.
"Fine! Ow!" I said, tensing up, fighting the urge to push her away. I'd heal, of course, but still. It hurt.
She let go, but didn't raise her head, at least not right away. She kept it there, her cheek against mine, as she licked away the blood. I twitched with every stroke of her tongue, with the way her soft, smooth skin pressed against my face. When she finally stopped, pushing herself up on an elbow to look me in the eyes, I had to bite my lip to stop myself from begging her to keep going.
"Holy shit," I breathed, reaching up to brush away some of her hair that had fallen across my face.
She smiled, lips pressed together. We were close, our noses almost touching, and I could see a hint of red at the corner of her mouth, deeper than her lipstick. Her eyes were half-lidded, almost vague as they roamed over my face. Barely focused. Even so, I couldn't see any of the pain that had haunted them over the last week.
I reversed my hand, trailing my fingertips down her cheek, where it had been pressed to mine, slowly, savoring the feel of her skin. She closed her eyes and let out a barely audible hum. A contented sound. When my fingers got to her lips, I brushed them sideways, across her mouth, cleaning away the blood.
"You are something else," I said.
"Good," she said, stretching the word out into a rumbling purr that did some very interesting things to me. I sucked in a deep breath, and she chuckled, shifting around on top of me, resettling herself.
I cursed inwardly, equally grateful and furious at my blood loss, and what it currently meant. The awareness that we lay chest to chest, even with layers of bandages between us, the way her legs slid over mine, the feel of my knee between her thighs...
Even without skin-to-skin contact, it was a feeling that went deeper than just touch. Something more than her body against mine. It was warmth. Connection. It reached up through me, electric, spreading all the way to the top of my head and almost driving everything else out.
Almost.
I intercepted her as she moved in for another kiss, two fingers pressed to her barely parted lips. She pursed them, kissing my fingers, then leaned in, kissing them again, nearer the tips. I drew them back before she could start to suck on them. Or, more likely knowing her, bite them.
"Stop," I said.
"You don't really want that," she whispered. She went in for another kiss, and I didn't resist. The next few minutes passed in whirl of beating hearts and shared breath.
"Stop." I said again, eventually.
"No," she growled, nipping at my lip.
She really likes that...
"Shtop," I slurred, my bottom lip still caught between her teeth.
That time, she did. She pushed herself up off me, enough to frown down at me.
"Why?" she asked. In other circumstances I probably wouldn't have noticed, but as close as we were I could hear a hint of worry in her voice, see it in the way her brow furrowed.
"Relax," I said. "Nothing's wrong. But we should probably actually talk at some point. Plus, you know, the longer we go on, the more uncomfortable the others are gonna get."
Her frown morphed into a lopsided smile. "Right, sure," she said. "You'd be a lot more convincing if you let go of my butt, you know."
"Ah," I said, rapidly reshuffling my impression from 'worry' to 'confusion'. "Yeah, sorry. Mixed signals, I'm sure."
She leaned down again, lacing her fingers into my hair, touching her forehead to mine.
"You're still doing it," she purred.
I groaned. It took real, physical effort to stop kneading her firm, toned-
"Okay!" I said, taking a quick breath, snatching my hand away and forcing myself to think about other things. It took, if anything, even more effort. "Right, so. Talking. Talking about stuff."
"Do you really want to talk?" she asked. She kissed me, light and teasing. "Because I don't."
"God no," I growled. She growled in response, grinding into me, pulling my hair, wrenching my head up. She kissed me again, hard, her tongue forcing my mouth open, dueling with mine.
It was another few minutes before I could think again.
"I never thought," I gasped, "Never in a million years thought I'd be the one saying we should cool it."
"It's your own fault," she said, a little breathless herself. Despite that, her voice was lazy and more that a bit smug. She paused, smiling as she ran a finger across my face. She bopped my nose, then ran it over my lips, almost doodling. "I went without you for days, you know. I had no idea how hard it'd be." She pressed down suddenly, painfully mashing my lips against my teeth. "Don't say it. Don't bring up your... experience. Alright?"
"Never even crossed my mind," I said, once she took her finger away. "I do learn, believe it or not. It just takes a while."
"Good," she said, absently, almost to herself. "Good. So... talking. I guess we should. I guess I've got some stuff to say, too."
My breath caught for a second. The aggression of the last half hour, the near-ferocity, it reminded me of Wingtip all of a sudden. Of our last, climactic night together.
"We're good, right?" I asked.
"Maybe," she said, frowning again. "We're... together. I don't know if I can call it good."
"That's fair," I said, sagging in relief. "Together's fine. Together's great. I'll take together."
"Yeah, me too," she said. "I've never been with anyone, before. You know that. I told you. I just... never really considered what it'd mean."
"I know exactly what you mean," I said.
Her expression didn't change as she ground her thumb into my throat. I gagged, swung at her, but she just went shadow for a moment. Up close, unmasked, I saw details I hadn't before. Her bones were visible, barely, transparent shadows under shadowy skin, twisted and distorted, wavering and hazy. Her eyes were bright without the mask, reflecting more light than existed in the tent. Then she was normal again, eyes still bright in her dusky face. Still fierce, but human.
"I didn't say anything about her," I half-choked.
"You made me think about her," Shadow Stalker said. She frowned again, almost pensive. "Which, I mean, case in fucking point right there. I never thought I'd be the jealous type. Not like this, at least. But here we are."
"We really need a better method of conflict resolution," I told her.
"I could stand to keep the current one," she said, rubbing her finger in a circle on my throat, around and around the spot she'd choked me. "But I guess you're right. I guess that's something else I never thought about. Getting in fights. Having arguments. I mean, if anyone else pissed me off, I'd just beat the shit out of them." Her head dropped down, hair falling across her eyes. "Didn't help much with you, though."
"Didn't hurt, either," I said. "I mean, right time, right place, a good fist fight might be just the thing. Don't dismiss it out of hand."
Her lips quirked into a momentary smile. "You are just the right kind of fucked up, you know that?"
"Right back at ya," I said, smiling up at her.
She smiled back for a moment, before turning pensive again. "You know the worst part?" she asked. "I was thinking about it, and I just can't see finding another guy like you."
"You were trying to replace me?" I asked. "Shit, Stalker. That sucks."
"Don't be a baby," she said. "I said I couldn't see it happening, didn't I?"
"Doesn't make it better," I muttered.
"Don't sulk," she said, pinching my cheek. I batted her hand away. "I really, really never met anyone else like you. Most guys are pathetic. Normal or cape, doesn't matter. When it comes down to it, they're weak."
"Everyone's weak, sometimes," I said. "Not like either of us really covered ourselves with glory the last week or so."
"Yeah, but we picked ourselves up," she said. "Even if we hadn't got back together, we'd have survived. Figured something out. That's the real difference between weak and strong. Whether you pick yourself up and get better, or just wallow in your own shit."
"Can't really argue there," I said. "I mean, fuck, that's basically what my power does. I always heal, always come back with something new."
"Exactly," she said. "But it's more than just that. More than just a power thing. It's attitude. I've got it, and you've got it."
"You've got an attitude, alright," I said.
She smiled and moved her hand to my throat again, but this time she just brushed it across, gently. "That's what I'm saying," she said. "Most guys, after what I did to you? After I beat you up back at base? They'd have been gone. Hell, they'd have been out the door before the fight even finished. When shit goes to hell, they're the kind that gets weaker. But you came back to me. You came back for me. Honestly, I wouldn't have cared if you'd come back for revenge, even. I'd have welcomed it, I think."
"And you say I'm fucked up," I muttered with a smile.
She leaned down for a moment, brushed a kiss across my lips, just barely touching.
"You came back," she repeated. "What that tells me? We'll have our ups and downs, yeah. We'll fight. I'll hurt you, and you'll hurt me-"
"I don't want to hurt you," I broke in.
"Too late," she said. "Now shut up. Let me finish."
I made a zipping motion across my mouth.
"We'll hurt each other," she said. "But in the end? It'll just make us stronger. Each of us, and both of us together. What we've got? It's gonna survive. It's long-term, and it's real."
I felt a giddy smile spread across my face. "You know, most people would call you crazy for saying that, given that we've only been together for, what? A month? A bit less?"
She shrugged, still pressed against me, and once again I cursed and thanked my blood loss. This wasn't the time to get hard. "Most people are stupid," she said.
"Strong point," I said, then sighed regretfully. "Now comes the hard part, though. We really should talk to the others."
She scowled, though I had to admit it was a charming scowl. "Fuck. Probably," she said.
I sat up, and she slid backward, rolling off me and kneeling in the middle of the tent. She stretched, arching her back and bringing her elbows up, hands behind her head. The best she could do in the limited space we had.
She looked around for a second, eyes roving across the rumpled sleeping bags and scattered medical supplies. Her gaze fell on my helmet, pushed off to the side along with the rest of our gear some time during the festivities.
She reached down and picked it up, turning it over in her hands, eying me. "This... is it gonna be a problem?"
I shrugged. "If you'd asked me twenty minutes ago, I'd have said yes. Now... whatever. Can't bring myself to care. But it's just you, alright? You're the exception. For everyone else, the mask stays on."
"Not gonna lie," she said, smiling as she handed me my helmet. "I was starting to think you were hiding some real scars, or seriously bad zits, or something."
"And now?" I asked, putting the helmet on and twisting it around so it sat properly. I blinked a few times, looking around without turning my head, checking that the eye holes were in the right place. Well, eye hole now, singular, given that the yian garuga had burned out my other one. I scowled, poking at the bandage that covered the empty socket. It was bulky, and my helmet didn't sit right over it. I peeled it off and tossed it aside, then settled my helmet on my head again.
Shadow Stalker didn't comment, even after seeing the damage. She just shrugged, much as I had. "Now? A bit worse than five seconds ago. But really..." she said. Her smile grew indulgent for a second, eyes going a bit distant. "I'd say you're hot, but you're my boyfriend, so I think I'd say that anyway. Even if you weren't." She paused. "Unless you were really ugly, maybe. That could have been a problem. Overall, honestly a little underwhelming after all the buildup. Also? Not loving the buzz-cut."
"I'll let it grow out a bit," I said.
"Cool," she said, searching around for her own mask. "So, you ever gonna tell me what's with you and the mask thing?"
"Eventually," I said. "Probably."
"Fair enough, I guess."
She found her mask and slid it on, buckling the strap behind her head, then gathering up the hair that had come loose, fixing her ponytail. It was a pretty simple scene, watching her fix her hair, but I caught myself lingering on it, staring. The way she knelt there, legs folded underneath her, head bent forward, arms raised. It highlighted the curves of her body, especially her neck. I noted how smooth her skin was, how elegantly she moved, sure and graceful, even with her chest and arm bandaged.
I almost sighed in disappointment when she finished, giving her hair a little toss so it fell just right, before hunting down the rest of her costume.
The tent had clearly been set up as a makeshift sick tent before becoming something a bit more... intimate, and I could see the marks of hasty but organized first aid. Various rolls of bandages, with those little metal clips that held them together, half-empty tubes of cream, dirty – and bloody – towels spilling out of a bucket we'd tipped over at some point, and more. I especially noted the empty syringes and suture kit. I couldn't really tell underneath the layers of bandages that covered my worst injuries – mostly on my chest where the yian garuga had sunk its talons into me – but I didn't feel the loose, empty sensation I associated with having parts of me gaping open, so I assumed someone had sewn me up. Rifle, probably, given the rather impressive cleanliness within the tent. At least before Shadow Stalker and I had got to it.
Eventually I had gathered up my gear – minus my sword – and found myself staring at it. I couldn't remember much between the yian garuga's death and waking up with Shadow Stalker on top of me, but clearly at some point in that time I hadn't just repaired it, I'd either upgraded it or replaced it, because what I was looking at clearly wasn't what I'd been wearing the day before.
It resembled, for the most part, the defunct, destroyed kut-ku armor, but purple and green rather than red and yellow. And more spiky. It had a more enclosed helm, too, with plates of armor rather than the flexible drape of scaly hide my old helmet had. Plus wing-like spikes on the sides. No idea what I'd been thinking there. No tassel, though. The pants, too, were heavier this time. Armored the same as the chest, shoulders, and arms.
I flexed my broken leg, felt the bones in my knee grate against each other. No question why I'd strengthened the leg armor. I brushed a hand across my burned face, shivered as I felt the charred, empty socket. No question why the helmet was heavier, either.
Shadow Stalker watched me gear up, then laid a hand on my shoulder. "Guess we should bite the bullet," she said.
I nodded.
We left the tent, unzipping it and crawling out, then standing up. Shadow Stalker stayed close, her hand reaching for mine. I took it, and our fingers twined together. Her thumb rubbed against my palm for a moment, and I gave her a quick squeeze.
The camp was the same as it had been when we left, for the most part. Two tents, a campfire with some chairs around it, and a bunch of crates of supplies. Some of the crates were open, with their contents spread around. Mostly the ones that had, if I was remembering right, food and medical supplies in them. That made sense. There was, however, one new addition to the camp that caused me to do a double-take when I saw it. The corpse of the yian garuga, gutted and partly carved up, sitting right at the edge of the light from the fire.
Forget not remembering making the new armor, I'd done that before. But I had no idea how I'd got a three or four ton carcass back to camp in the shape I was in. Dragged it, probably, going by the track that led to the edge of the bluff. That I could believe. But getting it up the bluff...
Well, maybe Rune had done it for me.
It didn't matter, I decided. I'd had my fight, and I had my new armor. Anything beyond that was unimportant. I turned my attention away, dismissing it.
Rifle and Rune were sitting near the fire that Shadow Stalker had started days ago now. It looked as if it hadn't gone out since it was made, though I knew it had, and the pile of wood chips beside it had shrunk noticeably. We started over, and both of them turned to us.
"So, how'd he do?" Rune asked Shadow Stalker as we walked over. She elbowed Rifle. "I got a bet going that his dick's under four inches. Rifle says over."
"Fuck you, bitch," Shadow Stalker said. "We weren't fucking. We were just... apologizing to each other."
"Coulda fooled me, the sounds you two were making," she sneered. "Seriously, are you two people, or monkeys? Fucking uncivilized."
"I sense a certain level of hostility," I said.
"You think?" Rune asked, voice dripping sarcasm.
"Putting aside the topic of how civilized it was to-" Rifle started, his voice heated, then stopped and shook his head. "No, let me start over. I want this to be professional, even if you two aren't." He stopped again. "Alright, full disclosure. I'm a bit pissed off. Give me a minute."
I nodded, flushing slightly behind my mask. Rune's crude taunting? Not a problem. It didn't even bother me. Rifle, though, actually made me feel a bit bad.
Not much. But some. I hadn't treated him well recently.
"If I had the chance, I'd have done it twice as hard," I said, and Shadow Stalker snickered, squeezing my hand even tighter.
"Twice as hard at least," she added.
"Disgusting," Rune muttered.
"I ain't gonna apologize to you, bitch," Shadow Stalker said, flipping her off with her burned arm. "If you've got a problem, fucking come at me, I'll kick your ass."
Rune glowered at her, hunching down in her chair, but didn't respond.
"Thought so," Shadow Stalker said with satisfaction.
I opened my mouth, ready to say something to back up Shadow Stalker and put down Rune, but I stopped. It might have been my injuries, or the fact that I'd made a kill recently, or just having spent some quality time with my girlfriend for the first time in a week, but I just... didn't feel like it. Joking was one thing, getting people wound up. I'd always be up for that. But for the first time in what seemed like ages, I didn't want to start a fight. It was hard to put my finger on, but looking back it was clear that ever since my fight with Shadow Stalker – our close brush with breaking up – I'd been more antsy, or edgy, or just plain mean.
Saying that I'd been in a bad mood made it seem a bit pathetic, all things considered, but it wasn't all that inaccurate.
Shit.
"Aw, fuck it," I said, stepping toward the fire and flopping into a lawn chair. It creaked under my weight, and I felt the fabric getting poked and torn by my armor's spikes, but I didn't care. "Can we just not fight, for now?"
"Not that I'm against that," Rifle said, eying me up and down, "but I have to ask why."
"No reason," I said. "I'm just not feeling it right now."
"Yeah, I get you," Shadow Stalker said. "I'll call a truce if the- if she will."
I looked to Rune, raised an eyebrow. Or tried to, given that said eyebrow – and the eye below it – weren't there anymore.
Apparently, Rune didn't appreciate the effect. "Holy shit," she said, raising a hand to her face. "Hunter. Your eye."
I snickered. "You should see your face," I said. It seemed funnier than it should have. Funnier than most things had been in a while. Also, it pretty firmly answered the question of who'd done the first aid.
"Forget my face!" she burst out, standing up and trotting over to me. "You lost your eye!"
"Back off," I said, batting at her as she reached for me. "I'm fine. It'll grow back."
She subsided, though her expression remained worried. "Really?"
"I assume so," I said, shrugging lightly.
"You don't know!?"
I flapped my hand in her face, and she sputtered, flailing at it and – finally – backing away.
"Calm down," I said. "Everything else grew back, eventually. Besides, I've got a burst eardrum, broken leg, broken arm, and only about a fifth of my blood, right now. Eye's the least of it. If my power can solve the rest, I doubt an eye's gonna give it much trouble."
"Yeah, but still," she protested, eyes still fixed on my empty socket.
"I'm fine," I repeated. "So, can I take it this means you're alright with a truce?"
Rune hesitated for a moment, then sat back down, eying Shadow Stalker. "I guess," she said. "Is she hurt too?"
"First and second degree burns, and some cracked ribs," Rifle said. "Not the best, but nothing compared to Hunter. I'm just glad we had the antibiotics. Burns are easy to get infected. Almost a guarantee, out here." He paused for a second. "The chemical washes helped too. No telling what the long-term effects might have been, otherwise."
"Oh, right," I said, snapping my fingers. "Flaming chemicals. Shoulda thought of that."
"Well, it's a good thing someone did," Rifle said. "Point is, it should be alright, assuming we get back to civilization soon." He paused squinting at me. "I'd have thought you'd be more worried, given your relationship."
"I'm too tired to be worried," I said. "Plus, I dunno, maybe my power's given me a screwed-up sense for this kinda thing. Hard to judge injuries if I can mostly just ignore them until they go away."
"Huh," Rune said. "That's deeper than I'd expect, from you."
"Yeah, well, it's been on my mind recently," I said. "Powers, and how they influence the way we see things."
"That's as good a lead-in as I could have hoped for," Rifle said. He crossed his arms. "We need to talk. About the team, and about how you've been acting." He turned to Shadow Stalker. "Both of you."
"No doubt," I said, inclining my head to him. Not a nod, not quite a salute. Acknowledging a rival, maybe.
"I guess," Shadow Stalker said. "Honestly I'm finding it hard to care about much, right now."
"Hunter?"
I looked to Rune. She had her head lowered, her hair spilling out of her hood, hiding her eyes.
"Yeah?"
"Are you really going to be alright?"
"I'll be fine," I said. "Been hurt worse."
"Seriously?" she asked.
"Maybe not," I admitted. "But I'll be alright, or close enough to it."
She just nodded.
Still, she had a point. It was possible I'd been hurt worse, once or twice in the past, but if I was honest with myself I kind of doubted it. Now that I wasn't moving, and didn't have Shadow Stalker distracting me, my injuries were starting to make themselves known. My arm and leg were swollen badly under their bandages, the broken bones leading to inflammation, and the open wounds were probably already infected due to most of a day slogging through the forest after rolling around in the ash and soot of the burned observation post. My gut wound throbbed, still not closed, and I could feel a constant stabbing ache in my empty socket that felt like it went all the way through my skull and out the back of my head. The burst eardrum didn't help.
The less said about my burns, the better.
"I kinda didn't want to say, but she has a point," Shadow Stalker said. "You look like shit, babe."
"You should see the other guy," I said, brushing off her concern. For some reason it bugged me more to hear it from her than from Rune. "Besides, you weren't complaining five minutes ago."
Rifle shuffled his chair forward a bit, closer to the fire. "Worrying about each other can wait," he said. "I really do think we should talk. There's a lot that needs to be aired out, and I don't think it can wait any longer."
"Agreed," I said. "I'll start. I know I've been acting like a douche for a while now, and I'm sorry. Sort of."
"Care to explain that?" Rifle asked.
"Not much to it," I said. "I'm not actually that sorry, and I'm not gonna lie about it. I don't mind upsetting people. But... I guess I regret taking it a bit far. So I'm sorry for that, even if I'm not really bothered about the rest. I'll try to do better."
Rifle reached up to run a hand through his hair, and blew out a quick breath through his nose. "I don't think that's enough," he said, "and honestly I was expecting more. You nearly died, Hunter. You and Shadow Stalker both. Is this all you have to say?"
"Don't bring me into this shit," Shadow Stalker said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs. "Hunter and me already worked out our problems. We're golden. If you two want to have a pissing contest, go ahead, but I'm gonna go and take a nap while you do it."
"I don't-" Rune said, then stopped. Her mouth screwed up for a moment. "I don't want to agree with her, but I also don't think we should fight. I really like the idea of a truce. If there's a problem, we should try to work together and solve it. If Hunter's willing to try to do better, that's good. We should help him."
Rifle glanced around between us. Nobody was glaring, but nobody was smiling either. "Damn it," he said, leaning back and sinking into his chair. "It's not enough. You can't just... cause all these problems, then say 'oh, sorry, I'll do better'," he waved his arms dismissively. "I thought we'd get better after the thing with the dragon. We talked. It wasn't much, but I thought we all got a better sense of each other. What our hopes and fears were for the team. But then you pulled that shit with the Blangonga-"
"Hey, I thought we were good with that," I said, my eyebrows – eyebrow, rather – lowering. "If you had a problem you should have said something."
"How could I!?" he burst out. "You sprung it on us out of nowhere! And yes, it was too good an opportunity to pass up, but then your ex-teammates showed up! And yes, they helped, but then one of them shot at Shadow Stalker, and then you two broke up, and then I find out-" he paused, momentarily lost for words, "all this fucking shit we're in with the Protectorate, and then we're out here and you nearly die! For fuck's sake Hunter! Jesus Christ!"
He stopped his tirade and flopped back into his seat again. I just sat there, not knowing what to say. Nobody else seemed to either, so we all just sat in silence except for the crackle of the fire.
Eventually Rifle waved a hand at me, lazily, as if he were out of energy. "Sorry," he said. "I know that it wasn't all your fault. You have no control over what the Protectorate does, and you couldn't have guessed we'd be up against a... super monster, or whatever that yian garuga was. You don't control your old teammates either. So, I'm sorry. But whether you're at fault or not, you're always in the middle of things, and you never really make them better."
"Uh, apology accepted," I said. "And I guess I'm sorry too, at least a bit more than I was a minute ago. I didn't realize you were stressing over this stuff so much."
"How could I not be?" he asked, rolling his eyes at me.
"Dunno, I guess," I said. "But I wasn't. At least not the same way. Suppose we're just different people, that way."
"I suppose we are," he said. "So what do we do about this? We can't go on as we have been."
"I don't think that's gonna be an issue," I said. I had no intention of telling him that some of the problem had probably been me missing Shadow Stalker, that I'd been taking it out on him and Rune, and that it likely wasn't going to happen again. At least not as badly. "But if you want to hash things out, then I guess I've got something to say too. Something you might not like to hear."
"Hit me," Rifle said, sounding more resigned than worried.
I felt a moment of doubt, but shook it off. "Alright, whatever. Here goes," I said, leveling my finger at him. "You're not a fighter." I pointed at Rune next. "You either." I waggled my thumb between myself and Shadow Stalker. "We are. Arguments? Disagreements?"
"Yes," Rifle said, leaning forward. "For starters-"
"Denied," I said, raising my voice and chopping my hand down. "Would you like me to bring up our respective track records? Tally up how much damage we've both done? Remind me, apart from the crab's claw, have you even got a serious wound on any of our targets?"
He sat back, scowling.
"Thought not," I said. "You want to bring up the problems I've caused? That's fine. It's fair, even, and I'm sorry I can't apologies more for them. But you don't get to ignore the good I've done. I've saved the lives of everyone here, just for starters."
"If you're saying you should be allowed to do what you want just because you're a better fighter, or just because you've saved our lives, I'm going to shut you down," Rifle said. "Hard."
"Nah," I said, brushing away his concern. "Nothing like that. But like I said, I've been thinking about things. About different perspectives. How we don't see eye to eye. Why we don't see eye to eye. And, you know, something occurred to me."
"Don't be dramatic," Shadow Stalker said, rapping a knuckle against my helmet. "Spit it out."
"Jeez, fine," I said. "Does nobody but me have a sense of drama, or presentation?"
"Honestly? No," Rifle said.
"Agreed," Rune said. "No."
"Nope," Shadow Stalker added. "If you've got something to say, just say it."
I sighed. "Okay. I guess it's pretty simple. Me and Shadow Stalker are fighters. You two aren't. Rifle, you're a thief. You like things to run smoothly, to get jobs done clean. You follow rules, your own or others, I don't think it matters. You like to prepare, and to have all the necessary info. Cross 't's, dot 'i's. All that shit. Right?"
"We're doing the psychoanalysis thing again?" he asked.
"Just answer," I said. "Yes or no."
He shrugged. "Yes. Hardly a major insight."
"Good enough," I said, and turned to Rune. "You're a villain," I said. "You like having a gang. People to watch out for, and who watch out for you. You like working together, and I don't think it's a stretch to say that you prefer to follow than to lead. More, Rifle's style appeals to you. Right?"
"I guess," she said. "But so what? What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing," I said. "Not a thing. Except, that's not how we work." I reached up to pat Shadow Stalker's arm. Her unburned arm. "We like to fight. We like to go in and brawl. We like to pit strength against strength, and come out on top. We get something out of that. Something real. And I'm not just talking about like, the gear and shit I make." I turned and met Shadow Stalker's eyes, hand still on her arm. "You felt it too, right?"
"Yeah," she said. Her voice was low, something I'd describe as almost smoky, though that might have just been my own wishful thinking. "It was something, alright."
I gave her arm a quick squeeze, then let go, turning back to Rifle and Rune, across the fire from us.
"You guys like to execute plans. Or I guess to achieve goals, maybe. Either way, the fighting's secondary."
"Hold on," Rune broke in. "I used to get in fights all the time, even before I got my power. I ended up in fucking prison, for fuck's sake. Don't tell me I don't like to fight!"
"Okay, maybe you do," I said. "But would you fight for no reason, just to get in a fight? Because I would. Stalker?"
"Hell yes," she said. "Back in Brockton Bay, I couldn't sit still unless I went out and caused some shit once in a while."
"You mean unless you went out and picked off some easy targets," Rune said, her voice heating up. "You didn't fight. Not against anyone who could fight back, and sure as fuck not against anyone that could beat you!"
I expected Shadow Stalker to get angry at that. She didn't. She didn't argue the point, even. "That was then," she said. "This is now."
"We fought the yian garuga," I pointed. "Believe me, it could have beaten us. Killed us. It nearly did."
That, Rune had no answer for.
"So what's the point of all this?" Rifle asked. "That, what, you two are stronger than us? I can't argue that. It's clear that you are. But that doesn't mean you should be able to call the shots, or get off scott free when you fuck things up."
"You're really harping on that," I said. "I told you that's not my point. Shit, I'm the first person to say that I shouldn't be in charge of anything. Worst idea I've heard all week, right there." I turned to Shadow Stalker again. "And, sorry babe, but you're no better. No offense meant."
"Whatever," Shadow Stalker said. "You're not wrong. And don't call me 'babe'. Doesn't feel right."
"Honey?" I tried. "Sweetie-pie? Sugar Biscuit?"
She clocked me, fist across my mouth.
"Stalker?" I asked, without missing a beat. "My huntress? My scary fucking goddess of death?"
She growled, leaned in toward me, and ran a hand across my throat. I leaned in as well, smiling. She wore her costume, mask and body suit, but no cloak, and without it the flesh of her neck was visible, smooth, dark, and corded with muscle.
Rifle cleared his throat.
"Okay, right. Case in point, that," I said, quickly leaning away from Shadow Stalker. She mimed a bite at me, clacking her teeth behind her mask, and I had to clear my own throat before I could go on. "Yeah, we'd be terrible leaders. The worst."
"So what, then?" Rifle asked, throwing his hands up. "Get to the point!"
"Okay," I said. "The core of this? Why we've been having problems? We're all different people, with different perspectives. Doesn't matter why. Different powers, different lives, different personalities, whatever. We've talked, before, about what we all want." I left unsaid that I was pretty sure that none of us had been entirely honest, then. "But we never got to know each other. What I want pisses you off. What you want pisses me off."
"If it pissed you off, you should have said something," Rifle said. "We could have sat down, come to an agreement."
"We are," I said. "Right now. But that's part of my point. This sit-down? It's not me. Before, just going my own way and saying 'fuck it' to anything else? That was me saying 'this bugs me, fix it'. But it didn't work. Because we're different people, and we say things in different ways, and you didn't hear me. So now I'm reaching out. Doing it your way. Because this is what works for you."
He didn't say anything immediately, just stared at me.
"Or I could be wrong," I said. "Maybe I'm just making myself look more retarded than I actually am. That's a possibility."
"Whether you're right or wrong doesn't matter, I think," Rifle said. "I'll take the offer in the spirit it's given. I've already said that I want this team to work. I also said I'd like to be friends, if possible, though not in so many words. Friends might be too high a bar to aim for-"
"Yeah, it totally is," Shadow Stalker said.
"Goes double for me, bitch," Rune answered her.
Rifle let out an annoyed breath and raised a hand to his hair, then dropped it into his lap. Frustrated. "No surprise there. You're right, Hunter, in sentiment if not in fact. Teammates need to know each other if they're going to work together. I'm not going to apologize for how I've acted, and I don't expect you will either." I closed my mouth, on the verge of saying exactly that. "Instead, let me ask this. On the presumption that I'm still team leader, what's your suggestion? How should we resolve our clash of personalities? How do you see us working together, going forward?"
"It's not too complicated," I said. "Me and Shadow Stalker get along-"
"One way to put it," Shadow Stalker whispered to me.
"You and Rune get along," I said, ignoring her as best I could. "I think I'd get along with Rune, well enough at least, but that's not gonna happen now. I made my choice." Rune sagged, slightly. "I think you and Shadow Stalker could get along too, to some extent. But you and me? No. Rune and Shadow Stalker? It's a joke to even suggest it. And, you know, I don't think we can work together very well, either."
Rifle scowled, glancing toward the fire. "So, what? We go to the Protectorate? Ask for new teams? We all agreed we're only likely to get one shot at legitimacy. If we split up, it's a long waiting list at best, but more likely they'll press for a prison sentence. Maybe we'll get out when we turn eighteen, but I doubt any of us want that."
"And you said you didn't have a sense for drama," I said, grinning at him. "Don't be such a little bitch, dude. We've got two pairs of people who get along here, so we stick with each other. Me and Stalker, and you and Rune. Easy peasy. We go out and hunt together, but otherwise we stay separate. If we need to communicate, we can do it over e-mail or whatever. Keep it, I dunno, impersonal."
"That's such a... blunt, brute force solution," Rifle said. "Besides, I can already see a million ways it could go wrong. How are we going to practice or work on strategies if we never see each other outside Pangaea?"
"Fuck, I dunno," I said. "You're the boss, you figure something out. Look, you're missing the point. You want to do all the prep work, come up with a plan, research the target, brown-nose the bosses? Great. Do it. Figuring out that kinda thing, how we can practice or whatever, that's part of it, and I'm sure Rune would be happy to help. Me and Stalker? We can track, navigate terrain, move fast, and we can fucking fight. Anything else? It's on you. Figure it out. That's the only way this team is gonna work."
"Wait," Rune said. "Wait a minute. I'm not cool with this." She glanced from me to Rifle, pointedly ignoring Shadow Stalker. "We can't just give up, split up the team. Hunter, we worked together to get the garuga's tail off. Rifle, you and me helped a lot against the blangonga. Your missile, my rock, without them it would have got Hunter twice over. We saved him. You can't say that didn't mean anything, that it's just- just fucking business. There's gotta be a bond in there somewhere, even if it's just starting to grow."
"There probably is," I said. "But right now I'm not sure it matters. Maybe one of you's smart enough to figure out a better way. I'm not." I cocked my head, thinking. "Bit of a refrain recently, that."
"It's a way for you to call us idiots without actually saying it," Rifle said. "Don't pretend it's not. And Rune... You're right, but so is he."
"If it helps, we can set up team meetings," I said. "briefings or whatever." I glanced at Shadow Stalker again. "Probably gonna be a few weeks before we can get our next mission. There's some time to think, come up with a better idea."
"Fuck that," Shadow Stalker said. "Actually, fuck both those things you said. No fucking way am I joining a drum circle or whatever. Not as long as she's in it." She pointed her chin at Rune. "And for the other thing? Bitch, I killed the monster with one arm. I'm good to go right fucking now."
I didn't argue. It would have been more convincing if she wasn't dozing, head bobbing, nearly asleep and half curled-up around her bandaged arm.
Still, I wouldn't have bet against her in a fight, half-dead and half-asleep or not. So what did I know?
"I think that's everything said that needs to be," I mused, glancing around. Nobody looked happy. Rifle was frowning, lips pressed together and brows lowered over worried eyes. Probably picking apart the conversation, looking for a strategy to... get whatever he wanted to get. Rune was hunched over, hands pressed together in her lap, face hidden by hood and hair. I'd pretty much smashed any hope she had of turning the team into a surrogate gang. That had to sting.
Shadow Stalker... Well, she was hurt, exhausted, and it occurred to me that out of all of us I might have the least idea of what she wanted. In the short term? Me, hopefully. Her ultimate goal was still to kill the dragon that had destroyed her city, I was pretty sure. But between the short and long terms? I didn't really have a clue.
"I don't like it," Rifle said. "No real apologies. No compromise. None of us get what we want out of this. Even you two have to admit it's a kind of shitty deal."
"I've had worse," Shadow Stalker said. "Better than pretending we're all one big, happy family. No way that could have lasted."
"It never even started," I said. "Not really. And frankly? Fuck apologies, and fuck compromise. Go with what works."
Rifle sighed again. "Go with what works," he echoed. "Let's just hope it does work, because I think we all know that things are just going to get harder from here."
I nodded, and so did Shadow Stalker. Even Rune did, reluctantly.
What he was talking about was obvious. We'd just done our first four-star mission. At least our first official one. We'd taken down the target, but two of us had been badly wounded.
Our track record, frankly, wasn't looking good. We'd nearly failed our very first mission, and only the intervention of a pair of villains saw us get away mostly intact. We'd taken out our next target – the kut-ku – but the mission after that we'd been beaten down by the daimyo hermitaur. We'd almost failed the next mission, too, though that had been more my fault, and deliberate, but all the more damning for it. The blangonga had been unauthorized, and as much a strike against us as a point in our favor. Now this.
We'd had one outright failure, three – or four – marginal successes, and only a single clean win. Even then we'd suffered injuries. The fact that we'd done it on a heavily accelerated schedule was still a plus – a big one – but even so, it wasn't looking good.
Hunting four star or even five star monsters for the next year or two... Well, I could think of worse things. But I could also see it going badly. As a team, we weren't cohesive. We probably never would be. We needed momentum, to keep moving forward, keep pressing toward our goals. At least long enough to find some kind of equilibrium. Whether we did it the way I'd suggested – me and Shadow Stalker doing our thing, Rifle and Rune doing theirs – or in some other way, it didn't really matter. But thinking ahead, considering fighting more yian garugas, or daimyo hermitarus, or other monsters – khezus, plesioths, basarios', even big guns like monoblos' – it would pale quickly. At least it would as long as we were under watch, not choosing our own missions, doing what we were told, and always worrying about whether someone would pull the plug on us if we screwed up.
We needed another leg-up. Some way to reach higher. To graduate to the big-leagues. We were already doing missions that were leaps and bounds above what heroes our age should be. We just needed one more big leap to push us over the top, I was sure of it.
It was something to think on. For the moment, though, I had other priorities.
"Worry about it tomorrow," I said, beginning the laborious process of standing up. "Or the next day, or whenever. For now, I'd say we should start getting packed. Get ready to head out."
Rifle looked upward, tracking the sun as it got lower in the sky. It was already chilly at our high elevation, even with the fire, and by the time we were ready to head out it would be getting close to full dark. Not the best time to be starting a trek. But at the same time, if we didn't leave now we wouldn't be back at the rendezvous point when the next cart came by. With our injuries it was better to get back sooner rather than later, and with the yian garuga dead it wasn't likely we'd encounter another large monster on the way.
Rifle apparently agreed, because he nodded to himself, then looked back at me. "Alright. Rune and I will get ready. You two get some rest." I raised my eyebrow at him, or tried, but it seemed he got my point. "Two pairs, right? I think Rune and I should probably talk a bit, and that's not going to happen with you two around."
"Fair," I said, then leaned sideways and nudged Shadow Stalker. "Come on, let's get to bed."
She jerked, raising a head that had been just on the verge of falling asleep. "What? You and me? Together?"
"Sure, why not?" I asked, then turned to Rifle and Rune. "Any complaints?"
"Plenty," Rifle said.
"Perfect," I said, holding my hand out to Shadow Stalker. She took it, and I stood, hauling her to her feet in the same motion. "Shall we?"
"Sure," she said, glancing toward Rifle for a moment. "Why not?"