Chapter 3

Jaegis

"Nope, guess not."

I plopped down across from her, and looked out from our little hidey hole. My eyes scanned for movement and I drifted into my thoughts. Is this really all that smart? I stole a glance at her when she wasn't looking. I mean, I just met her. What if she healed me just so I'd let my guard down? It'd probably be safer just to put a round between her eyes and move on. The longer we sit here, the more likely we are to be found. What if she is grouped with someone and they are on their way? That would fucking suck if I stepped outside.

I glanced at her again, barely able to be discreet with her staring me down. Something in me broke, I don't know what it was, or why, but something broke. I let go of a heavy breath and prepared the most deadpan look I could muster. I pulled off my red bandana and the walls between me and her dropped.

"Okay, so here's the plan."

I could tell she was listening intently, so I continued.

"There are four people in the game right now who we really want to avoid. Kiriko, Sinon, Yamikaze, and Sturben. They are way too serious for either of us to handle. So what we are going to do is shadow them, as to make sure they don't start shadowing us. You following me?"

She looked at me not comprehending, "Well I'm going to have to follow you if I'm a part of the plan right?"

For a split second, I couldn't tell if she was serious or not, but I gave up and just rolled my eyes. "Anyways, I don't plan on engaging them until I am absolutely sure that we can take them."

"I definitely like that idea. But what about Sinon and Kiriko? Sinon's a sniper and Kiriko can block our bullets."

I thought for a second and then gave Taoreta a wolfish smirk. "She can't block an explosion, and there is such a thing as Counter-Snipers."

She gave a little laugh, and I thought I heard nervousness in there too. "That's not to say we're going to use explosives right?"

I raised my eyebrow curiously. The fuck does she mean? "Well, that's kind of how you make something explode…"

"Well we aren't making anything explode of course. Right Jaegis?" Same tone, and there was that laugh again.

I mentally inspected her, eyes roamed over her heavily armored figure. I squinted at her. "You're not… scared of explosions are you?"

"Of course not!" She responded, a bit too quickly, "Uuhhh… Wouldn't it just be easier to catch her off guard with a bullet from that?" She pointed to my Kar98.

I looked down, butterflies dancing around in my stomach. "Wish I could, but that chick cut a Hecate round in half at 10 metres during the preliminaries. But I'm pretty sure if I tossed a few HE grenades at her she'd go down easily enough…"

Tao appeared to tense up, and made some sort of high pitched, dying-on-the-inside noise. Her grip on her M1 had tightened, and she bit her lip. "Can you at least not use something with high explosive literally in the name…"

I stared at her, dumbfounded, unable to truly understand her. I stopped looking at her for a moment. Fuck. I really should put a bullet in her. She's ruining my only chance to bring that Kiriko chick down.

But could I really help it?

The question shocked me at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I agreed. The likelihood of something so simple working against a player like Kiriko was nearly ludicrous. Fuck it. Might as well work with it. I sigh again. I turned my head back to Taoreta and gave her the kindest smile I could create.

"Okay, scaredy cat…" I reached out and messed up her hair, "I won't use explosives. For your sake."

A mental block stopped me in my tracks as I realized what I had said. "Um- I mean, I can't have my teammate freezing up on me, can I?"

I quickly stood up and moved to get the shattered table out of our way, anything to get me away from her at the moment. I shouldered my rifle and turned back to her. She still hadn't gotten her stuff together. "Hey?" I said, wondering if she was alright.

"Oh, huh?"

"Are we going or not, we've rested long enough."

She began a scramble to gather up her things and stumbled out from under the ruined building before falling in behind me. I heard her let out a ragged breath behind me, and felt her eyes burning a hole in my back. I couldn't believe I'd just said that, even though it was almost as if she hadn't heard it.

We moved along down the empty, rubble filled street, watching for any movement whatsoever. A rock rolled down the caved in side of a building and I dropped into a kneeling position and raised my rifle, and waited. Tao's humming stopped and I heard her safety flick off. We waited there for a moment, and nothing happened. I stood slowly and waved her along. We set off again, but she didn't keep humming. I glance back over my shoulder.

"Why'd you stop?"

Tao looked at me like I was insane. "Stop what?"

"Your humming. It was… nice."

She took a moment to realize what I was saying and made a "Oh" with her mouth. She seemed to think for a second before starting up again, this one with a different melody. The swaying sounds and subtle changes in pace and notes could almost put me asleep while I was walking. I shook my head, clearing it of its tiredness. Well, it had been two days in real life since I had slept… Had to expect some backlash.

"You alright?" Came the tiny voice of Tao from behind me.

I chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, just a bit tired."

"But we just rested ten minutes ago."

I smirked, "Not in game, IRL. Haven't slept in two days…"

She gasped, "You've got to sleep ya know! We are still human."

I shrugged and yawned involuntarily, "Exactly why I didn't sleep. Had to prep for this." I wave my hand to the surrounding area.

"How does that help you exactly?"

"Closure." I responded, leaving the conversation at that. I didn't want to talk about my insomnia, or my apprehension upon entering this thing. I spotted the stadium over the buildings and pointed to it. I looked behind me to make sure Tao was following my finger.

"That's where we're headed. From there we can get a great view of everything."

"Ok, but what are we looking for?"

I gave her a half laugh before turning to her with a smirk plastered across my face, "Sinon, Kiriko, Yamikaze, and Mr. Cloak, of course."

"Oh...Right."

As we weaved through the city blocks, all was quiet, a bit too quiet if you ask me. Oh man, I'd always wanted a reason to say that. I took a deep breath and pulled back the bolt to make sure I'd bolted a round into the chamber. Satisfied, I clicked it back into place.

"So, what's your story anyw-"

A red streak across my view cut me short as I dove to the ground, pulling Tao with me. Bullets whizzed overhead as we were lucky enough to be able to roll behind the safety of some rubble. There was a building to our the left of where the bullets were coming from, we could use that as a vantage point if I could just-

PING

My head snapped to my left, where Tao had rolled moments earlier, reaching onto her back and a thick wall of metal folding out, covering her figure. She'd positioned herself in front of me as bullets began to rain down from the building I'd spotted moments ago.

My mind went to my stealth and I pressed down on the button on my thigh, vanishing completely. I moved silently out from the cover, making my way towards the building that Tao's shield was facing. I was moving across the road when I heard Tao's voice.

"Jaegis!?" She cried out.

I felt a pang of grief strike my chest, realizing she'd probably thought I'd abandoned her. I would apologize later but for now I slipped in under the ambusher's perch and climbed the stairs. I drew a knife. This time, I wouldn't speak. I stalked up behind our attacker and wrapped my arm around his neck, locking him in a jujutsu style choke hold. I slammed my knife into the side of his head, and was rewarded with his health bar immediately hitting zero. I pushed his body to the side and pulled my Kar98 off my shoulder. I looked down the scope and found the other dead man who had fired at us. I placed my sight on the muzzle flash of his weapon before easing the sight a little higher.

My silencer reverberated with the forcibly silenced gasses coming from my gun, the bullet leaving the barrel smooth as ever, the recoil against my shoulder a near welcome crystals erupted from the area that I had fired at, and the firing stopped. I waited a moment to make sure that he was dead, and not just bluffing. A little red sign appeared above him a moment later. Heh. Got him.

I stood up and moved towards the stairs, taking off down the flight before realizing the last time Tao looked at this building it was enemy occupied, "Hey Tao! Don't shoot, it's me!"

"I've got a mind to anyways!" She shouted back, hurt evident in her voice

I faltered, unsure if she actually meant it or not. "Please don't." I said as I stepped out of the doorway.

I wasn't met with a bullet, but I'm debating on whether or not I would have preferred it as soon as the metal plating on her fist connected with my gut.

"Don't you ever pull that stunt without warning me again!"

"Shit, I'm sorry. God, why are you so pissed?" I coughed a bit, standing, about to chuckle before I saw the tears threatening to crest her cheeks. "Oh, crap, um sorry… Didn't realize it'd scare you that bad..."

"Don't worry about it, I just don't have a good history with shit like that m'kay?" She said, obviously marking the end of that conversation. She wiped her tears and her shield collapsed into a small square again, fitting neatly onto her back.

I felt a wave of guilt tumble over me. My gut tightened and I scratched the back of my head. I stepped up and looked down at her. "Look, Tao… We're partners, and I don't leave partners high and dry, alright? I'm not going to leave until we have kicked everyone else's ass. Got it?"

Tao gripped her now equipped rifle once more, pulling the weapon in towards her chest. She looked down and nodded a yes, her hair flopping up and down where it peeked out from the front of her helmet.

I offered her my hand for a shake. "We cool?"

She timidly took my hand and shook, nodding once more before placing her hand back on the wood of her carbine. "Yeah… yeah we're cool." She attempted to regain her almost constant smile.

"So. Onwards?"

She gave another timid nod and we walked on.