A/N: Just a short chapter to show that i am continuing with this story, if only slowly. I do enjoy writing this, and so far one person has followed, so to them, Thank you.
Chapter 2: First Watch
The large tower ruin was behind them, they were standing in front of one of the smaller towers, which had a large opening in its base, inside was a large pad with a strange symbol on it. Natasha regarded the pad with a slight frown. Vriska leaned against a nearby wall trying to act calm but the nervous twitch of her hand gave away her anxiety, Kanaya was seated against the base of the tower ringing her hands, Natasha stood and stared at the teleportation pad.
"Alright step onto the pad." Hackett said after listening to his radio for a moment.
The three of them cautiously stepped onto the pad.
"Good luck you three." Hackett said with a nod.
Natasha nodded back. The symbol on the pad began glowing a bright green, and with a wisp of energy they were gone.
The sudden cold hit like a wave, they were now standing on a pad about twenty yards from the base of a mountain with a frozen pine forest all around them.
"Assigning Strife Specibi." A mechanical voice echoed from somewhere above.
A green card materialized in front of Natasha, at the bottom it read 'Halberdkind' the card disappeared and a halberd materialized where it had been landing neatly in Natasha's outstretched hand. It was a simple halberd a long spear with a point on the top, and axe head on one side and a sharp pike on the opposite. Natasha hefted the weapon testing it weight and balance.
"That'll work."
Another card materialized in front of Kanaya, this one reading 'Chainsawkind'. Similarly the card disappeared and a moment later a chainsaw materialized falling into Kanaya's hands.
"Cool."
Another card appeared in front of Vriska, '1&1/2 bladekind' a longsword and a dagger materialized one falling into each hand.
"I can work with this."
"Specibi assigned Choosing begin." The voice echoed overhead.
Natasha took a deep breath and let it out slowly before pulling gloves out of her pocket and pulling up her facemask to cover her nose.
"Alright let's move, we need to find supplies and shelter before dark." The other two nodded pulling on their winter gear as well.
"Any idea which way we should go?" Vriska asked.
Looking left and right revealed the mountain went off in either direction forming the wall of the valley they were in.
"Straight ahead."
So they walked off into the quiet trees standing like frozen sentinels to an icy world. Boots crunching softly in the snow, they trudged off into the forest.
"I don't like this place, something feels… wrong about it." Kanaya said after a while.
"There are no animals, this place is dead quiet." Vriska replied.
"I see something." Natasha said suddenly stopping.
Off to the right through the trees a small wooden shack stood covered in snow.
"Think there might be anything useful in there?" Vriska asked.
"I dunno, but it's shelter we'll stay there for the night." Nat replied.
It really was just a shack, it had no windows, and just one ill-fitting door that creaked open on rusty hinges. Inside the shed held an assortment of hand tools hanging on the walls and laying on a workbench.
"Vriska collect some firewood, Kanaya search through all this for anything useful, I'll cut a smoke hole in the roof, ok?"
"Got it."
"Alright."
Natasha climbed up onto the roof of the shack, scurrying up to the peak of the roof she pulled out her halberd and started to chop at the roof. After about twenty minutes she had a foot wide hole cut through the roof.
"Find anything useful Kanaya?"
Kanaya turned around to find, no one?
"Natasha?"
"Up here."
Looking up Kanaya found Natasha sticking her head in through the hole in the roof.
"Uh… yes, I found a sealed can of peanuts, a box of matches, and some old blankets."
"Better than nothing."
Natasha removed her head from the roof and jumped down off the shack in time to meet Vriska coming back with an armful of firewood.
They cleared a space in the middle of the room and piled some rocks to make a fire pit, they lit it using the matches. By now dusk had become night so they closed the door barring it shut, and laid out the blankets and sat around their small campfire.
"Did anyone find any food?" Vriska asked.
Kanaya tossed her the can of peanuts. "Hope you aren't allergic."
Vriska poured out a third of the nuts and passed the can to Natasha. "Not my ideal meal of choice, but I guess it's better than nothing."
Natasha took her share and passed the can back to Kanaya. Natasha stared into the flames while absentmindedly munching on the nuts.
"Do you really think we can do this?" Kanaya asked quietly. "I don't know if I could kill somebody."
Vriska said nothing and just examined her sword.
"We have too; it's us… or them." Nat replied after a while.
"That doesn't ease my conscience any."
"It wasn't supposed too, we fight or we die, simple as that."
"Do you think you could kill somebody?"
"If I have to, I will, and right now we need to kill someone, once we qualify we can just wait it out."
"I suppose you're right." She seemed to find some hidden conviction in the fire. "I will not die here."
Natasha held out her hand, Kanaya stared at her and her sideways smirk of a smile, before grasping her hand. She reached out to Vriska who also took her hand.
"We'll make it out of here alive." Natasha said firmly. "Now you two get some rest, I'll take first watch."
They nodded and curled up on the rough blankets, while Natasha sat with her halberd across her lap.