Hi! It's been a while! Hey You, Electric Blue still somehow gets traffic, so I thought I'd expand more on the dynamic between Michele and Washington. If you haven't read Electric Blue, it's well over 100,000 words and I started it about 4 years ago. So I dunno about you, but it's hard for me to go through it. I was 15 when it all started, and I had zero faith in my writing ability but everyone here was so supportive! I genuinely got better, and I think without this site I would never have built the confidence to start my own comic. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank you all for being such an awesome community! I love you guys!
David did not know what to expect when he landed on Taurus-12. The plan was to land, go straight to enlistment, and beat the system. He had confidence that he would be the best Freelancer, he just needed to take the time to prove himself. What he didn't account for was the red-headed woman, seated barefoot on the ground as she nursed a wound.
He could tell right away that she hadn't been from around here. Who in their right mind would come here of all places and decide to walk without shoes? And she hadn't been here to enlist? She was just a mystery. But he helped her, carrying her piggy-back style to the nearest pharmacy to grab some supplies.
"I can get that." She spoke softly as he was about to bandage her up, taking the supplies out of his hands.
He sat next to her, examining the rest of her. Red hair, barely freckled, tan skin, a brown and a blue eye… and her skin was patchy, as if it had started to decay. But she couldn't be some "walking dead" phenomena. Her skin hadn't bloated, and no large bruises appeared… well a few bruises were there but she was quite scrawny.
"It was Michele, right?" He broke the silence as she nodded, "You have somewhere to go? Family to be with?" He figured he'd have to at least take her to a dock. No one really lived on Taurus-12, aside from the industry workers.
She shook her head slowly as she watched her hands, trying to figure out what to say, "I… No, I don't have any family… or… a place to go." She spoke with a heavy, unrecognizable accent. Perhaps English had not been her first language?
"I…" What was he supposed to say? Sorry? What if that was the absolute worse thing ever to say, "They have housing opportunities at Project Freelancer." He knew she wasn't here to enlist, but he didn't know what else to say? He wasn't going to drop off a defenseless, young woman to a homeless shelter. He was a gentleman, "It probably wouldn't be permanent, since selecting is very competitive, but it'd be somewhere for what… 6 months? That enough time to figure out a plan."
"Freelancer." She spoke with familiarity, and slight distaste on the matter, as if she knew something, "I guess… I don't have another choice?" She looked down at her feet sadly, "I don't really have shoes though… or even money?"
"I'll cover that." He stood up, a happy smile across his face, "What's your shoe size?"
"Y-you don't have to." She spoke sheepishly, shoulders becoming ridged.
"Consider it a gift for our new friendship." He laughed, carrying on with a confident demeanor, "Really, what's your size?"
She watched him for a moment, skeptical before finally relaxing, "Women's 8 ½"
"I'll be right back." He said before leaving the building.
They had both enlisted with the Freelancer program, immediately being sent out for training. The project had this process of weeding out the bad soldiers. They train twenty-five to fifty soldiers-to-be in three to five-person pods for months, only one being able to call themselves a Freelance by the end of it all. Sometimes though, no one would move on to the next level. The excess is returned to the UNSC to be distributed to other branches.
Of course, David had proven to be the strongest from the get-go, well before they were distributed to the pods. Once assigned, he headed straight to his designated training room.
"Welcome in recruit!" A man sat in the middle of the room, white armor accented with orange in a neat pile beside him. He didn't look much older than forty, yet his hair had started to grey and his eyes looked so… heavy, "Looks like you're the first to arrive, go ahead and have a seat." He motioned to the floor, a smile plastered to his face.
David did as he was asked, quietly examining the room. It was smaller than a standard training floor but considering the lack of bodies that were going to be in here, there had been plenty of space.
"So, howzit going?" The older man spoke nonchalantly, quietly bouncing his legs.
"I…" David was caught a bit off guard. This was a soldier? The soldier in charge of him, nonetheless? Where's the structure? The perpetually angry demeanor? "It's going well, I guess? Been a bit of a weird day."
The man nodded slowly, "Yeah, everyone says their first day's a little weird." He extended his hand out to the boy, smile growing wider, "Name's Nevada. How 'bout yourself?"
He took the man's hand, maintaining a solid grip, "David. Nice to meet you."
The door opened, and another man stepped in. He was probably in his twenties with stiff, brunet hair and blue eyes that said, "Yes, you are in the presence of a god." In other words, David knew he wouldn't really like this guy.
"You must be…" He looked over to a monitor next to him, letting out a dry laugh, "Fennik, right? God, she has a sense of humor."
The three of them talked for quite a while, what seemed like nearly hours, as they waited for this mysterious third party member.
The doors slammed open, a cloud of curly, red hair storming in, "I-I am so sorry I was held up at the…" She looked up revealing her heterochromatic irises and a embarrassed blush that made her freckles more prominent, "The… uh…" She made hand gestures, trying to figure out the word. It was obvious that English hadn't been her first language.
"Lazerus held you up in the Med Bay?" Agent Nevada helped her out, a soft smile lasting on his face, "Yeah, he has a tendency to do that. Just means he's interested in you." He gave us a cocky wink, nearly grinning from ear-to-ear, "He's mine though, so don't do anything stupid."
She sat herself next to David, the only one she had recognized. He wasn't really surprised that they had been grouped together, but he was thankful, nonetheless. She seemed a bit more relaxed than she had been earlier.
"Nice to meet you, Michele." Nevada butted in, extending his hand to the girl.
The other man beside him began to laugh, leaning up against him, "So David right? How easy do ya think it be to take her down?"
David pushed the man away from him, not responding to anything.
"Alright then," Nevada stood up, brushing his hands against his clothes, "now that everyone's here, we can go ahead and start training."
Finally! David thought, wanting to sound neither rude nor inconsiderate.
"I do have one condition though." The soldier stood confident, smiling down at his fresh batch of trainees. "If any of you can take me down just one time, we'll end training early for the day. I'll take you off base, buy you guys a lunch, and we can just relax." He rested his hands against his hips, "I'll only allow this once though, since you will still need to continue training."
Immediately, Fennik stood up, bringing his pompous attitude with him, "And what if I take you down now?"
Nevada sat on the thought for a while. He was confident that he wouldn't lose and had the expression of "I need to knock this kid down a couple pegs." He just shrugged as a response.
The trainee charged after the man as David and Michele stood on the sidelines, observing.
"What took so long, anyway?" David spoke up, keeping quiet as to not distract the two men fighting for power.
Michele's shoulders raised as she clasped her hands together, "I… They had trouble finding my file." Her eyes darted back and forth as their fellow trainee kept being thrown to the floor and immediately standing up. For what she lacked in physical strength, David could tell she made it up in analytical prowess.
"Well that's not good." He laughed it off, trying to recognize any potential openings Nevada could have a tendency of leaving. As far as he could tell, they were very narrow. Too narrow for his own ablilities.
"Yeah." She muttered quietly, scratching her arm, "They had to update it with blood tests and gave me a couple shots. Wasn't all to bad but… I'm sorry for taking up your time."
He motioned to the fight happening right before them, "I mean, this is already taking our time."
Nevada threw the trainee over his shoulders with a loud smack, firmly pressing a foot against his back, "Listen Kid, I've been a soldier for almost thirty years. I'm only here to help you, and your classmates are waiting so patiently for you to get this out of your system so if you could please help me out here and start cooperating."
Fennik stood up, wiping the blood off his mouth as he finally backed away.
"Good." The soldier turned his back away from them, moving his hand above him in a circle, "Run some laps. I'll let you know when you're done." He sat back down in the center of the room as everyone began to run, "There's always one." He muttered quietly, gently pressing his fingers against his eye.
Michele definitely lacked the physical capabilities. After a whole month of running, and push-ups, and drills she did improve, but not to the rate she needed to. David helped her when he could, whether it was "one more lap" or "just a few minutes longer." He was a good friend. It was a shame when she got sick.
"I'm sorry." She spoke quietly as she sat hunched over a toilet. Her body contorting in pain with every movement.
Her friend sat next to her though, holding her hair back. Lazerus had already looked at her and said it wasn't contagious. Said it was some sort of flu? He couldn't remember the details.
Nevada had given them the one day off, so David's first instinct was to look after his friend during her miserable time.
"How 'bout we get you to bed." He suggested, "I can get you something from the cafeteria. I know it's not preferable, but its food."
She shook her head in absolute refusal, nearly retching once more, "I… I'm not hungry." She spoke weakly, arms shaking.
He wanted to help, but all he could do was continue to hold her long, curly red hair as brown roots began to reveal themselves. Well, brown except for a little patch that remained red.
"I brought some water and crackers." Lazerus came back, setting the items down next to the sick girl and pulling out an amber bottle, "She's going to need to take these with every meal, and if she doesn't eat, you're going to have to make her." He sighed quietly, "If… she doesn't get better in a week, we'll have to put her in intensive care. I'll check on her whenever you're training with Nevada, but I don't have time to keep a constant eye on her."
David sat on a thought for a moment, "Would Nevada get mad if I miss a couple training days?"
The doctor gave him a stern look, "Technically Nevada's not supposed to give you a day off. He's being scolded by the Director as we speak. He's vouching for you, don't break his trust by ditching."
"Sorry…" He looked down, grabbing a water bottle and handing it to his friend.
"She will fall behind." Lazerus spoke quietly, resting a hand on the girl's back, "As far as I can tell, she's already at the bottom of the ranking list. Director's going to give her an assessment when she gets back. He's going to be watching your whole team in the meantime, checking how you cope. If you want a chance to pass, you can't let this affect you during training, alright?"
The trainees both nodded slowly as the girl pressed her back against the wall, "What's the best way to prove myself whenever I get back?"
Lazerus sat on the thought for a moment, "Well, knowing Nevada, he's probably not going to do anything labor-intensive. He might show you how to use a gun. If you can get that down, Director might give you a fighting chance."
She began to smile, a short laugh quickly turning to a violent cough.
The doctor stood up, giving her a gentle pat on the head before setting a book down, "It's best to get some rest. Your body needs the time to recover."
She picked up the book as he left, both of them reading over the bold white font over a battered, starry background. Inter-Universal Transportation.
It took well over two weeks for her to get better. She was skinnier, and lost some muscle mass, but she looked healthier than ever.
Nevada escorted them out of the room, guiding them to a shooting alley where the Director waited behind bulletproof glass, observing.
"Alright guys, today we're working with actual weapons." The soldier spoke up, blocking Fennik especially from running after a gun, "Now you guys need to be careful, or else you're gonna shoot someone's eye out. You always treat a gun as if it's loaded." He walked over to a table, grabbing a pistol and checking the chamber before grabbing a magazine. Without saying anything else, he approached a counter and began firing at a paper man. First one in each lung, then the heart, then the head. He then emptied the chamber, pulling out the magazine before setting everything down, motioning to the weapon, "We're just working with standard Glocks today. They have a low recoil, they're semi-automatic, and they're the standard weapon you will all be carrying." He continued a lengthy explanation, glancing over to the Director whenever he could, "Alright then, with all that safety training done and out of the way, who wants to go first?"
Fennik stepped forward as expected, following Nevada's example and taking forever to aim before firing… and missing.
"Good luck, then." David laughed quietly, turning to Michele.
She held a confident look, glancing over to the window. The Director had been watching her in particular, "I… think I got this, actually." She pat his friend on the back.
Fennik stepped away before Nevada stopped him, "You're forgetting something, Kid." He shrugged and walked away.
Michele stepped up before the Freelancer could do anything, emptying the chamber and removing the magazine before looking back to her mentor. He looked shocked, but stepped away giving her the okay.
Before even reassembling the weapon she took aim, getting a feel for the weapon. She laughed quietly under her breath, glancing over to Nevada before adjusting something. She then quickly loaded the gun, firing fire consecutive shots before quickly disassembling it once more and returning to her original spot. Everyone was appalled. The girl who had proven to lack physical capability managed to hit the target three times in the heart and twice in the head. The Director walked away after that.
The end of their training was nearing, not of them really able to take on Nevada alone. Michele had dedicated some free time to training herself more. While she hadn't quite raised far up the ranks, she did prove herself a worthy opponent. David had just been ranked first, and while he didn't let it go to his head, many other training groups praised him for it. He was the one most likely to graduate to the Freelancer Project. He was proud of himself.
"Alrighty then." Nevada stood up, stretching his arms above him, "I'm at a roadblock on what to teach you guys next, but I can't exactly let you leave for another couple of hours. What do you guys want to do?" The graduation announcement hadn't been for another two weeks. At this point, the winner was already set in stone.
Michele's head shot as if she had just realized something. She stood up one hand planted on her hip and another pointing to their teacher, "I would like to challenge you!"
The Freelancer stood there for a moment, mouth open in shock, "You think you're ready?" He tried not to laugh, "All you've done is watch, girl. We haven't fought yet. You think you've found something out?" He stood there like a proud father. Michele had done nothing but impress him lately, and he was looking forward to better figuring out her fighting spirit.
She gently pat David's shoulder before taking a step forward. They had discussed different tactics on how they'd finally take Agent Nevada down… What could she have realized?
The fight had started, and all she did was dodge. She knew that if she had gotten hit, she would be down for too long. But was that her plan? Dodging until he leaves an opening? Agent Nevada knew how to conserve his energy in a fight. She dodged until his back had been facing the others, opting into blocking his attacks. Was she really waiting for an opening? Whenever Nevada moved, she steered him back to the same spot. It took him forever to realize. She hadn't been waiting for an opening. She was signaling an opening! David quickly stood up, making a mad dash for the soldier.
Nevada didn't realize until it was too late. Once he had stopped David from landing a blow, Michele managed to pull him down, firmly pressing the heel of her foot into his sternum.
"I dunno about you," She spoke with more confidence than ever before, "but I could really go for a burger right now."
Alright so this is over 3,000 words so I'm going to cut it off here. I'll finish everything in another part. Thank you guys once more for all the love and support I have received on this site!