Stalingrad
1943
Earth: Home
"This way!" Anthony shouted as Polina helped her brother to his feet. "I'll clear us a path." He pulled out his redeemer.
She pulled out her pistol, aiming it at him. Her eyes wide at the sight of his very much lively body. "We need to get him patched up, Polina!" Anthony tried to convince her.
"Sistroja, we don't... have time." Misha said with steady breaths. "Just follow the boy."
"Stranger, clear us a path that way." She pointed. "Towards the post office."
"Got it." He replied, unloading his round of bullets into the Nazis' skulls. Not a bullet was wasted with his precision.
"Come on, it's not that much further... I don't think." Anthony tried to encourage them as he saw Misha becoming weaker with every bloody cough. Seeing them fall behind, he rushed over and wrapped the mans other arm over his shoulders. He and Polina supported the man as they fired their rounds. Soon they reached an area of the trench covered with wooden planks.
They focused their fire upwards at the enemies feet. Bodies and bullets fell through the wooden floor from above.
"Grenade!" She called out, as a soldier rounded the corner, throwing the explosive at them.
Anthony shot the stick mid air before it could reach them as Polina placed a bullet in the German's brain.
As they reached the other side of the wooden cover they began to be swarmed with even more enemies.
"Rockets!" Misha shouted. "We're not going to make it."
"Shut up, we have you!" Polina shot back. After so many dodged rockets one finally landed near them to cause a massive hole in the ground. The trio fell into the deep rubble.
Polina awoke before he did. She immediately turned her attention to Misha who had been smothered with rubble. Anthony laid just a few inches away, facing skywards as he watched everything upside down. His body felt immobile, the pain letting itself known.
"Come on! We have to keep moving!" She panicked, not wanting to leave him behind.
"Polina, go!" He urged her as she tried to lift the heavy rocks by herself.
"No!"
"The boy, he can cover the opening while I flank them! It's a plan!" She desperately tried to convince him.
"Polina! Polina!" He shouted for her to listen. "There is no time."
An enemy came from above and nearly killed them both had Polina not shot him first.
"It's ok. Go, now." He calmed her, pulling out two grenades. They said their final goodbyes, words that Anthony heard as only mumbles.
Anthony saw the explosives and rushed to his feet. Polina kicked a rock away, opening a hole for them to escape to.
"Make sure she gets out of here safely." Misha said to him.
"Dyadya." He spoke softly to the man, with a smile and nod. His eyes went wide when he saw the grenades fumble out if Misha's hands and onto the ground, their pins pulled. He quickly tackled Polina, as they fell even deeper into the ruble, the explosion going off seconds after their leap. Anthony held her tight, making himself a shield before even more ruble collapsed atop of them. Luckily most of the rock bounced off his back, as he did his best to land them safely.
"Get off of me!" She shoved him. He could hear her panicked breathing, how she was on the verge of tears. Through a small glimmer of light from above he thought he saw a tear trickle down her face. She crawled through the tight space into a cave of even more debris. She waited for him to crawl through before she stomped on the back of his skull and grabbed him by his shoulders, dragging him out into the open cave. She put her knee on his throat and let her anger fuel her punches to his face and the sides of his head.
He of course allowed her. What else was he supposed to do? Fight her? Kill her? How then, was he ever supposed to bring her with him.
"You could have helped me save him!" She screamed, tears flooding. "You.." her fist landing to his temple. "..Nazi.." This time to his mouth. "Scum" And his nose. He gently pushed her knee, freeing his throat. She wept silently to herself as he regained his strength.
"I'm not... your enemy." He coughed, blood slowly leaking from the cut on his mouth, and what felt like a broken nose.
"Your.. American..?" She mumbled, hearing his accent.
"..I- Yes." It was a complicated answer but in short, sure. At this point in his life he could say he was a little bit of everything. "Polina, you need to come with me."
"Come with you? Come with you?" She repeated. "I don't even know you."
"Yes. I know. But I know you, tyotya." He backed away, propping himself up against the wall of debris.
"Misha had no children."
"No, but my mother does."
"Liliya."
"Yes." He smiled.
"I don't understand. Your too old to be her son."
"I... this is going to sound crazy but I'm a time traveling soldier who fell from the sky." He confessed as if he were psychotic.
"Do you take me for a fool, Petrov?!"
"No! I-" a German poked his weapon through an opening of a small wooden plank and nearly gave up their position. Anthony used his cyber core to send out the small robotic insects that broke the corpse down into small pieces. "Time travel tech.." he said, trying to convince her.
"Freak." She called him.
"Polina. Please. I've come all this way just for you. Our world is overrun with the undead. Zombies. What is this fighting good for if all its going to lead to is mass destruction and undead soldiers? We've lost too much for our wars to mean nothing. If you come with me, I will return you back to this very moment. It will be as if nothing had ever changed. And you can see to it that all this pain and suffering will not be for nothing." He begged.
"Thats just it. I don't want things to be the same as they are right now. I just want my family back. I want Misha back."
"Then it will be yours. Misha, and your father. All of it." He lied to her. He didn't even know if this was something Mason would allow.
"I don't trust you."
"Misha asked that I see you out of this safely. So I'm going to get you out of this safely. And your people... they need you, now more than ever and they don't even realize it. That's why I need you to come with me."
"I really have nothing else to lose." She said.
"No, not really." He stood up, offering her his hand. She took it.
"We need to get out of here."
"But Steiner-"
"He won't even be an issue when you return." He assured her, knowing there was a chance that he was lying.
"Follow me, I'll get us out." She ushered for him to follow.
"Our goal is to get out of here with as little noise as possible. For once we're not trying to fight them right now. We just need to-"
"Da, I heard you Anthony." She sighed. He shot her a look of confusion, to which she explained. "Your mother told me when we were kids.." she moved a wooden piece of a crate past a hole above them to escape the cave. "that if she ever bore a son thats what she would call him. So yes, Anthony Petrov, I know your name." She said, helping him out of the hole.
They began to sneak around buildings and piles of corpses and rubble. She began to throw him a signal of which one to attack when they came upon three soldiers from behind. Anthony held up his hand, signaling for her to pause. He outstretched his hand, using his cyber core to drop them instantly with merely a thought.
"Freak." She mocked him.
"Commander?" Reaper said from behind, placing his robotic hand on the man's shoulder.
He jumped, before letting out a frustrated sigh. "Yes.. bot?" He said, slightly annoyed.
"We have found you."
"Yes, Reaper... I can see that." He saw the towering robot and Outrider standing beside him.
"Let's move, we've been standing here too long and especially with your golden ass, Reaper, we-"
"Lady Nightingale! There she is!" One soldier shouted to the others, Reapers reflective metal and glowing red dots giving them away.
"Reaper!" Anthony shouted as they ran.
"My apologies Commander, but there is not much clothing an EWR unit can wear to fit in."
They ran until they were cut off from all angles by masses of soldiers. "Screw these disguises. Black Ops, open fire!" Anthony shouted as the three specialists readied their weapons and dawned their normal armor. He drew his Redeemer pistol, opening fire with one hand while he used his cyber core with his other hand to send out energy waves towards a group of Germans, their muscles, violently convulsing before it instantly killed them.
Reaper activated his scythe, causing mass amounts of bloodshed as he shot down nearly half their numbers.
"Watch your weapon, scrap metal! You almost shot me!" Outrider grew frustrated with the robot. She continued to lay waste with her bow.
"Then move out of the way." Reaper shot back before activating his psychosis and going out into another crowd of enemies.
Polina took cover as did Outrider, being that the two weren't as immortal as their other companions. She picked off multiple Nazis with her sniper rifle.
Anthony picked up a few grenades from the dead and looked behind him at the wall of debris. "Polina, how about a part two?" He waved the explosives in the air. He tossed them towards one final group of Nazis before she shot the grenades with her sniper. The explosion eliminated most of the final Germans. Outrider picked off the final few with her bow.
"Come on Reaper." Anthony called to the robot as they jogged back towards the other two. As he did more enemies charged and with them were two massive tanks. Before he could warn anyone, shells were shot their direction, blowing him and Reaper away from Polina and Outrider. The second tank shot towards the other duo, sending them back in the distance.
He opened his eyes a few moments after. His eyes felt heavy but his body as if he were suspended in mid air. He draped his head down to see a metal rod straight through his upper abdomen and out of his back. "Shit.." he mumbled weakly. With the little strength he had, he tried to pull himself off of the rod with little success.
"Reaper..." his energy felt drained with his frail call for help. "Reaper!" He managed to say loud enough this time.
"Commander, are you alright?" The robot rushed from around the corner, looking like he had gotten caught within the rubble as well.
"Do I look-" he began to ask rhetorically before Reaper grabbed him from underneath his arms and ripped him off of the metal rod. Anthony cried out in pain. "Just sit me down... I-" his breathing was staggered. "I only need about two minutes for this to heal... In the meantime, lets... scan the area." Luckily his helmet protected his skull from suffering any real damage. He pressed a small button on the side of it and it scanned the area for any other DNI users.
"There." Reaper pointed.
"I see." Anthony looked, honing in on their location and tuning his ears to their surroundings.
"Steiner!" He watched Polina shout as the man stepped out of one of the tanks. She and Outrider had their hands raised, surrounded by dozens of soldiers.
"Where are they?" He heard another conversation nearby. A soldier asked another.
"We don't know sir... we-"
"You mean to tell me your the ones who fired the shell, and you don't even know which direction they flung to?!" His commanding officer was livid.
"They don't know where we are Reaper." Anthony told his teammate.
He turned his eyes back to Polina and Outrider. A vehicle pulled up, one used to transport soldiers. "Stuff them in the back. We'll execute them in front of their own audience." The man spat.
"Petrov!" Mason came in over comms. "I'm looking at your vitals, what happened?"
"We got blown into a bad situation by a Nazi tank. Nothing we can't handle. I'm good now though." He felt the final bits of flesh close and repair itself from underneath his palm as he stood back up.
"And the others?"
"Uh.. ya. They're fine, me and Reaper will take care of it."
"It? Petrov what's the it?"
He didn't respond. But only gave Reaper a mischievous look.
"Anthony?!"
"We've got a plan. When I tell you to get us out of here I need you to press that button to send us on our way. Got it?"
"Copy, but what happened?"
"They got caught by some Nazis but it's all under control." He assured her.
She let out a sigh of frustration. "Just make sure they remain alive."
"Copy." He signed off. "Reaper, come on. I've got a plan."