Chapter 5 – Point Arizona
Secretly I was hoping for my first match to be a five versus one Texas-style affair, where I would wipe the floor with everyone else. However I was unsurprised, albeit disappointment, when F.I.L.S.S split us up into a group of three and a group of two. Florida was apparently sitting this one out after breaking his right leg two days ago during a match with Maine. Georgia, Wyoming and myself versus Maine and New Mexico. These were obviously what the Director perceived to be the strong group and weak group, and I was a bit miffed to be in the latter.
"Round one, Pugil sticks," F.I.L.S.S instructed in her chipper voice. The Pugil stick was light in my hands as I gave it an experimental twirl; several of the martial arts I'd grown up with used staffs of some kind, so I was confident with it. The two teams stood on opposing ends of the round training room and waited for F.I.L.S.S's instruction. "Begin round one."
New Mexico was fast, like his lean and willowy body would suggest, even though I hadn't yet seen him out of armour. He rushed towards Wyoming, whom he thought the strongest of our group, to take out the supposed leader. I let him and instead rushed towards Maine, their strongest member, and must have surprised both him and Mexico with that move. As Maine went to block me with his Pugil, I dropped down to slide past his left and swept him off his feet with my own. Still sliding along the training room floor I then planted a foot to spin around and launch back towards the rising form of Maine, striking him in the head and knocking him back down.
While I was doing so New Mexico had already knocked out Wyoming with a strong sweep to his head and had started to duel with Georgia. Maine however was still not down, I knew that it would take a lot to knock him out of the match, and so I started a barrage of his to his chest and head. After a few seconds Maine landed on his back with a large thud, his armour locked up signifying his 'death'. I turned around to New Mexico just had he finished off Georgia with a stab to the gut, and he seem surprised to see me still standing, looking past me to the motionless Maine.
"Hmm, got some ticks up your sleeve I see Arizona," he said with evident enjoyment in his tone. Instead of replying I just rushed him, feigning a move to his right, but actually spinning on my left foot in a similar manner to last night at dinner. This time however I also jumped in the air to get a height advantage on the taller New Mexico and brought my Pugil behind his head. Impacting with the full force of my armour-clad body it sent him flying forward and he desperately attempted to roll out of his imminent face-plant with the ground. Unsuccessful in that attempt he moaned in pain as his armour locked-up as he lay on the ground.
"End round one, point to Team Two."
I watched as my two team members rose from the ground as their armour unlocked, and realised that I'd made a mistake by leaving New Mexico to take them out while I dealt with Maine. I really needed to work on my team work since I would normally work by myself as either a Medic left behind or sniper from afar on the battlefield. So I apologised to Georgia and Wyoming while helping them up with, "Sorry guys, I'll cover you next time."
"Well I think next time we should just hang back and watch while you handle the two of them yourself, since apparently you're a total bad ass," Georgia said cheerfully in his youthful voice.
"Actually lads, how about we turn this into a four on one, should make for a marvellous time," Wyoming said enthusiastically while looking up towards the viewing room where we suspected the Director was watching.
Hahaha, yes! I thought to myself happily. I was even better at hand-to-hand combat than the Pugil sticks, should make it at least a challenge. The Director apparently agreed with Wyoming as F.I.L.S.S announced, "Change of teams. Agent Arizona versus Agents Maine, New Mexico, Wyoming and Georgia. Round two, hand-to-hand combat."
My two previous teammates moved to stand beside Maine and Mexico, with all of them readying themselves while we waited for the round to begin. I rolled my shoulders and bounced a few times on my feet in preparation, outlining a strategy in my head to beat them. "Begin round two." Wyoming and Maine rushed to attack before consulting the other two, just as they would in the future during Tex's match. I knew that I could over-power Wyoming using my strength, but not Maine, so I utilised a strategy that I'd accidently used at dinner the night before. Use one to knock the other one out.
I dodged Wyoming's first punch and followed up with a full-strength one of my own to his chest plate; sending him flying into Maine. With those two out of my way for now I turned my attention back to Georgia and New Mexico whom had moved to circle me on both sides. Georgia went in for a punch and I ducked; his fist impacting New Mexico on the opposite side straight in the face. Just like in Tex's fight, I mused internally. Georgia was apparently stronger than he looked because he instantly knocked Mexico out.
Before Georgia could react I sent him flying upwards with a hard kick between his legs. He landed on his side, then moved into the fetal position, reeling in pain. Turning back to the other two I noticed that Wyoming hadn't moved from where he'd fallen and Maine had only just righted himself on his feet. A quick kick to the chest sent Maine back down and ended the round in only five moves. I'm so awesome, I congratulated myself mentally. "End round two, point Arizona," F.I.L.S.S said in a tone that would indicate she was rather pleased by the proceedings.
I heard New Mexico swear at Georgia as the latter pulled him up. "Sorry dude," I heard Georgia mumble apologetically, "She's just too fast."
"Resetting floor for Lock-down-paint scenario," F.I.L.S.S announced after we all moved off to the sides of the room. Rows of concrete pillars rose from the ground, as well as a pedestal on each end containing the paint guns. "Ready round three." I quickly grabbed two handguns, holstering them to my side after loading their clips, as well as grabbing two extra guns which I also loaded; the Spartan armour didn't have any pockets for extra ammunition. "Beginning round three in three, two, one. Round begin."
I immediately took off to the left, weaving through the pillars diagonally to flank my four opponents. I saw an arm of the green armoured Georgia and snuck up behind his pillar before shooting one paint round into the back of his head at point-blank range. When the round hit his helmet it turned to a pink foam encompassing his entire head, locking down the entirety of his armour, and I watched as he fell forward face first. I had caught him by surprise, and hadn't made a noise when he was hit, so the other three Freelancers were still not aware of my presence. My specialty was stealth for a reason.
I moved further into the back rows of pillars before I used my parkour training to run up the side of one and climb up top. The pillars were spaced perfectly to allow meet to jump across them at speed, and so I did exactly that. Spotting Wyoming first I sniped him with both of my guns from twenty metres away; once in the head and once in the chest. Maine saw Wyoming go down and spun to face the direction the shots had come from, however he didn't look high enough and didn't spot me until too late, which was as I shot him in the same configuration I had done with Wyoming. Although I usually preferred to stick with a single head shot to conserve ammo, I wasn't yet sure exactly how much lock-down paint it took to knock out an opponent, so I went with the safer double shot.
New Mexico proved to be my closest match when he rolled out from behind a pillar and shot in my general direction. He hadn't seen my position, but rather looked at the angle at which my rounds had hit Maine and traced it back. Good to see someone here isn't an idiot, I thought as I leapt to the next pillar, dodging the three shots Mexico had fired. I quickly dropped down off the exposed pillar and into the forest of pillars instead, weaving through them towards New Mexico's position. I saw a flash of a red boot which I shot, sticking it to the floor and tripping its owner. One more round to his head and the round was over in seven shots. Lucky seven. "Round three over, point Arizona. Final score three points to Arizona."
I thought about how in the web series there were more than three rounds in Texas's match, and figured that it was still the early days of the Project and so the Director was being easy on us. It would also explain why the other four agents were so bad compared to what I'd seen in the series. Even though I won four versus one, I wouldn't put any money on myself beating either Texas or Carolina in the future. My thoughts were interrupted as the Director came down from the viewing room and entered the training one. As a unit all five of us Agents formed up into a line and stood to attention, saluting him.
"At ease soldiers," he commanded and we did so. He walked down the line and stopped in front of me at the end. "I'm quite impressed Agent Arizona, but not pleasantly surprised to see you win this match. Would you care to inform me why your performance was so spectacular compared to the mediocracy your military file would imply?"
What a dick, I thought to myself before replying, "They're not skills that I've ever used in my two years in the field Sir." The words seemed to satisfy him, probably because he considered them to be true. It was a logical enough assumption considering my main role on the battlefield was as medical, not combat support. That's what my false files from this universe would say anyway; the truth was that in my old one I'd come face-to-face with enemies and had to utilise that skill set on numerous occasions.
"F.I.L.S.S please update the board," he asked the A.I. I'd ignored the large screen with the leader board on it when I first came into the room, and now I noticed it had five names with New Mexico in number one followed by Maine, Wyoming and Georgia. After a moment it flashed and my name now appeared in the number one spot, knocking everyone else down a peg. The other Agents accepted it without a fuss considering the ass-whooping they'd just received. "You're all dismissed," he said once again addressing us, "return to your assigned schedules," he then took his leave.
Florida strode in after the Director left with a slight limp, but cheerfully none the less. "That was amazing Arizona, really kicked some back-side!" he said while clapping me on the back, which was quickly becoming evident as his favourite thing to do.
"And I was just warming up," I replied cheekily with a tilt to my head that I hoped was perceived as the wink I did underneath my helmet. It seemed that it was as he started laughing happily.
"You gotta teach me how to do that spin-move with the Pugil stick that knocked New Mexico out!" Florida said and I heard the mentioned man groan with the phantom pain associated with the memory.
"Sure thing Flo, right after lunch," I answered amusedly.