Hi, I'd like to actually answer a quick question that i had gotten a little while back.
"Why does Decoy's secondary include a pistol and the Flashbangs?"
This is sort of a nod to a holster that I had found out about while scoping for Flash Bangs themselves.
Flash Bangs themselves are little canisters that act as grenades. But instead of fire and destruction, they make a little 'bang' of light to disorient people.
A "Flash Bang" is also the name for a type of holster that is attached to the front of a woman's bra, between the two cups, to the point where you wouldn't notice that a gun is actually hidden beneath her shirt.
She is given the ability to carry both at the same time, but with a small cost or a switch-off. This will later be brought up in an upcoming chapter, so I won't go into too much detail right now.
Decoy smiled softly as she stepped out into the dry dessert air, stretching. Good, warm, air..Take a deep breath in, release...
With a cough though, adjusting the bandanna, she carefully started out of the metal door that lead outside. Glancing around she looked at her team mates, each one of them doing their own little thing it seems..Alright, this shouldn't be too hard..Just, go near one and watch, yeah? Yea-
"MAGGOT!" She jumped at the sudden yell, whipping around to Soldier. "WHERE ARE YOUR WEAPONS?.!"
...Weapons?
She looked down, frowning when she realized she had left her gun and ax in the locker.. "..Heh...Uhm...Forg'ee't?"
"GET THEM THEN!" This time she didn't argue with the shouting man, almost sprinting to get her weapons. And right as she came out- "MAGGOT!"
"H-HUH?.!"
"YOU DO NOT EVER HOLD YOUR GUN LIKE THAT, DO YOU HEAR ME?.!"
..There was a way to hold a gun? She blinked a few times in confusion, before looking at her 'primary' weapon..Whatever that meant..One hand around the fatter end of the gun, she thinks her brother told her once that it was called the 'butt' of a gun, and the other held an odd circular device that was on the underside of it..The thing itself was pointing down, she now noticed, at her feet.
Oh...
Oh.
She moved to hold it long ways instead, it resting in her arms like a log as she gave Soldier a poor excuse of a grin. The male seemed to give her a look beneath his helmet, before getting behind her and pushing her towards cut out images of..Their team? Huh?
"THAT. Is the enemy. YOU are their enemy. Shoot them."
She felt her heart drop at this. Shoot them? As in...With her gun? She glanced at the cut outs, at her gun, then back at Soldier..
"..What are you waiting for?" He growled out, tapping his foot it seems in impatience. "The enemy will have sprouted LEAVES before you shoot them at this rate!"
"Uhm...Heh..I uh...Ha'b'e ne'b'er...Uh...Shoot t'is kind of gun be'p'ore?" Well, that was true. Then again, she's never shot a single gun before in her life.
Her killings are carefully made with her tools. Poison, needles, drugs, alcohol, melee weapons...All such wonderful things..
Guns?
Never felt ANY sort of need for them. She didn't even want to use them. Before them things were so much easier in the Philippines, and then they started sprouting up everywhere it felt like, suffocating the more rural villages and-
She was brought out of her thoughts as Soldier took the gun, grumbling to himself as he flicked a switch to the side, pulled a lever, brought it up to his shoulder and-
Decoy flinched and put her hands over her ears as he started to shoot, almost loosing her footing. Bullet after bullet destroyed the figure that once resembled Medic..Before finally, the sound stopped, and the gun was handed back to her.
"THAT is how you shoot."
She nodded her head, and this seemed to be enough for the male right now, and with that he left to go yell somewhere else it seemed..
Once he was gone, she gave a sigh of relief, taking a few steps back to lean against a nearby wall..She slid down the surface, putting down the gun, and held her head in her hands.
She felt herself shake a bit now that she was out of everyone's sight, feeling trembles that were caused by the murder machine on the ground beside her. Her hands and feet were on fire it seems, and soon her torso started to feel the same..
Decoy practically ripped open the vest to throw out the Pistol, glaring at it.
Pull it TOGETHER Ligaya! This was your new JOB for Christ's sake!
She took a shaky breath in, letting it stay in her lungs to the point where it almost hurt..Before letting it out, and nodded her head.
Good, she was calm. Now, back to her main problem of-
"MM-MM!"
"GAH!" She flailed to the side, Pyro poking out from the corner right beside her. "PYRO!"
"MM-HM!" He seemed to say her name back, and held out his arms, hugging her tightly..Well, this was new... "Mm mm mm-hm?"
"Huh?"
"MM MM, mm-hm?"
..She blinked, and hummed back what he just said, trying to piece it together.. "..Do I ha'b'e light?"
He shook his head.
"...Am I...Alright?"
He nodded his head, giving a little conformation sound.
"Ah..Uhm...I suppose, I am.."
..The silence he gave her said it all, he didn't believe a word of that.
"Look, I-I just..I don't feel comfortable, wit' t'ese weapons." That was atleast true. Her inexperience with firearms only left her with the Flashbangs and the Ax. She sighed, chuckling a bit as she rubbed the back of her neck. "But, I'll manage. Don't worry."
Pyro seemed to give a thoughtful 'mm'..Before shrugging, and patting her back in an attempt of good nature, before going off to do...Whatever a Pyro does, she really didn't know.
..
Perhaps, though, she should start to find out.
That was her big mission in going outside today, after all. To learn more about the team, as Miss Pauling had advised her.
With a nod she carefully walked after the male, peaking around the corner. After ensuring that he was a good distance away, she started tip-toeing after him, trying to make her footsteps as quiet as possible.
After a while he finally stopped in front of several wooden cut outs of their team, pausing as he took one of the canisters off of his sash and put it in a gun-like object..Before aiming, and shoot-
Decoy winced back a bit at the sudden burst of flames that ignited from the cut outs. Ah, so that's why he was called Pyro..Made sense.
She sat on the ground, watching as the masked person happily did a dance around the fire. His actions were almost childlike really..
How would she distract someone like that, who was already distracted enough by fire?
...
With a nod she stood up, and went over to him, tapping his shoulder. "Ah...Pyro?"
"Hm?" He whipped around, quirking his head to the side.
"Could...I see one of your uh...P'lares?" He seemed to tense up, putting a protective hand over his weapons as if they were his children. "J-Just for a moment! Please! You can e'b'een hold it while I just look!"
Pyro reluctantly took one of the flares on his torso off, and held it out far enough to were Decoy could see. She stared at it for a bit, measuring it just a bit away with her finger it seems..
"Alright, t'ank you!" She grins, nodding her head as she ran off. Alright, Pyro down. Now, what about-
"ATTENTION, BLUE SPY IS IN THE BASE." Decoy tripped at the sudden blaring voice, and did her best to scramble up as the men seemed to race back inside, weapons drawn.
She was left out there for a moment in confusion, a blue spy?
..
Decoy sighed, and took the ax off of her back with a grumble, and began walking inside.
Alright, she could at least guess one thing.
Blue Spy was bad, simple enough, wasn't on their team. Understood.
So, that just meant that she had to look around for a male in blue clothing, right?
Alright.
That was simple enough.
Yeah!
She could do this.
She couldn't do this.
Decoy had been wandering around the halls for what felt like forever, with Soldier yelling at her to 'GUARD THE INTELLIGENCE'.
WHAT INTELLIGENCE?.!
WHERE WAS SHE GOING TO FIND THE STUPI-
..
She stared at an odd red sign with white letters and an arrow, trying to read it.
Alright..
So she knew that one of them had an "R" to begin with..And the other had an "I"..
Welp, that was all the information she needed.
With a hum she started down the path the "I" arrow had showed her, turning the few corners that now met her pathway.
Hell, one could even go to far as to say that she was feeling reassured now, knowing her way, twirling the ax loosely in her hand.
She took a final left into an open area, seeing the shutters of one of their..Oh, what were they called...
Resupply places?
Right?
Yeah, let's go with that.
Decoy smiled softly at the familiar sight of it, and took a few steps forward until she was standing beside one of the doors that most likely lead into the Intelligence Room. She leaned against the wall, watching the door and the surrounding hallways, listening..And tensing up when she heard thundering footsteps coming, gripping the ax in her hands and-
"DECOY!"
"AGH!" She flinched as Soldier rounded the corner, a shotgun in his hand. That was one of the sparingly few guns that she knew the name of..
"WHY ARE YOU HERE?.!"
...Huh? "You..Told me to guard.."
"NO I DID NOT! I WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED GIVING YOU THOSE EXACT ORDE-"
There was an odd "GAH" sound that came from him, his entire body freezing up and scrunching as his face contorted... "...Uhm..Sold'ee'r?"
...
"Sold'ee-"
She took a step back when the male fell forward, a knife of some kind sticking out from a spot on his back. She paled a bit at the sight, feeling a lump in her throat form, yet Decoy quickly swallowed it down.
This wasn't fear, it was more of an unfamiliarity.
The woman had never seen another person's 'job' before..
With a quick breath in she looked back in the hallway that Soldier had just been in, and upon seeing nothing her heart dropped. Where..Where was this guy?
She backed up into a corner as best as she could, before giving a grunt when she felt..Well, something that clearly WASN'T a corner.
Decoy whizzed around, staring blankly at the plain walls behind her.
Before cautiously reaching out a hand, skimming her finger tips along the wall and-
A gasp escaped her lips, a hand grabbed her wrist and spun her around. A swift and odd cascading sound met her ears, along with an almost familiar French tone. No, scratch that, a VERY familiar French voice. The sound of it made her pause all movement.
"So sorry madam, but we will have to meet at ano'z'ah time."
She heard a clink of metal, and before she could even think about turning around to do anything destructive, she felt a burning in her back..
And then, all she saw was black as her body fell.
Death was an odd thing to experience. It felt...strange, definitely.
First it was like an endless fall through nothing, then an unsettling floating paused it for a moment, then finally a new rushing feeling.
Funny movements and a gushing feeling in her chest, and Decoy found herself able to breathe once more. She gasped out, air filling her lungs in deep, eager breaths. Her eyes squeezed together for a moment, before slowly opening. Everything was fuzzy, it felt like, or maybe blurry was a better way to phrase it..
Like looking underwater without any goggles.
Whirling shapes and lights, danced in front of her eyes, but she couldn't make out any identifiable figures.
Finally she paused, and rubbed her eyes a bit, blinking.
Before finally looking up, and gasping when she felt two arms around her. Oh, Pyro..The male gave her a tight squeeze, giving odd 'mm' and 'hm's in a flurry that she couldn't keep up with.
"Pyro, shoo, avay for a moment, please." The Medic huffed, ushering the fire-starter away for a moment as he got out a flash light, and nearly blinded Decoy when he shined it into her eyes. "Can you brea'z'e?"
"Oo..."
"See?"
"Oo.."
"Smell?"
"Oo.."
"Feel z'is?" He flicks her cheek, and she nods. "Good, z'en you should be alright. Talk to me if you start vomiting blood, ja?"
"Oo..."
By now her brain seemed to finally catch up with her, it seems. She had just DIED. "W-wait!"
"Hm?" The doctor turned around, having been prepared to leave. "Vhat?"
"I...I was k'ee'lled.."
"Jah." He sounded so nonchalant about it, as if she had said that she had gotten the eggs from the hen house..
"I...Was k'ee'lled."
"...Congratulations?" He quirked an eyebrow, trying to think of why she was so riled up about- "Oh! Oh, right, sorry Fraulein, just a little slip of zee mind for a moment, vorried about you bloving up and all."
That didn't make her feel any better..But he was quick to change the subject.
"Anyvay, ja, you died. You got zat right! Haha, but don't vorry, you seem to be all in one piece, vhich is good! Very good. But don't vorry, it's all part of the job." He paused, giving her shoulder a comforting pat. "You'll get used to it."
He walked off after that, adjusting his red gloves with a hum, leaving her with Pyro.
Pyro took her hand and gave her a more comforting pat in a sense, before tugging her along through the hallways and out of the odd room that she was in. Where..Where was this?
She didn't feel like asking in all honesty, and just followed the pulling man as he brought her into the dinning room.
Engineer gave a smile, bustling out grilled cheese sandwiches and french fries it seems as he noticed the last two members of the team entering. "Well looky here, where've you two been? Almost missed out on dinner."
The sudden Spy attack had pushed back their Lunch by a lot, so the team had decided to have Dinner an hour or so earlier than usual.
Pyro waved at the male, able to hear him over the cacophony in the room. "Mm-hmn."
"Respawn huh? Ah, understandable." He nodded his head, putting down the plates for the two of them before going back to get his own. The masked male helped Decoy to her seat, and plopped down beside her as the Texan returned. He gave the woman a comforting smile as he sat down. "So, how was it?"
"H..Huh?"
"Ya know, yer first respawn."
"Oh..It was uh-"
"Yeah, I rememb'ah my first respawn." Scout interjected, picking up his stuff and plopping down right beside Engineer, grinning at the trio. "'Course, it was a looooong ass time ago, hell, I don't even remember all 'uh it sometimes."
Their silence seemed to egg him on.
"I ended up goin' out in a blaze 'uh glory, heroic 'n-"
"He was air blasted off a cliff."
"SHUT UP SPY."
Spy...
Spy!
She remembered now, the voice that had come from behind her before the literal blade cut into her life line. The Filipino stiffened a bit in remembrance, feeling a nonexistent wound in the middle of her back.
The blade cutting in, ripping her muscles and nerves, engulfing her world into darkne-
"Oi, Lass." She blinked out of her own thoughts, glancing around, until finally realizing that it was Demo who had called her out. The male was situated on the other side of Scout, a bit diagonally away from her. "You alright?"
"M-mhm...Just..New, to the..Re-spawn.."
"Ah, don't worry, you'll get used ta it."
"A-alright." She stared at her food for a moment, her stomach too unsettled to eat..She shook her head, pushing hte plate of food away as she got up. "I-I'm sorry..I just..Am not hungry."
With that she practically ran out of the room and tried to get to her own room. However half way there, her stomach gave up trying to be an ally to her, and she felt everything from breakfast make it's way up top.
She raced to the bathroom, kicked up the seat, ripped off her bandanna, and hunched over the bowl for a good ten minutes..
Most of the time she was just checking through teary eyes to see if there was any blood..
Once she was sure that there wasn't though, she sniffled and nodded her head. Alright, Decoy..You..You could do this..
Her eyes landed on the mirror, looking over herself, and sighing as she went over.
Her hand reached up, running along the edges of her peaking cleft lip. It wasn't much, and it didn't disrupt her nose. The cleft stops just mid-way between her nose and where the rest of her lip was. The little impairment was fickle at times, and gave her an airy voice, plus at times it was terrible to eat or drink with..But after the years, she slowly got used to it..
Shakingly she gargled some of the faucet water, and nodded to her reflection. She was still pale it seemed, her eyes just a tiny bit red from the pained tears that had been in them. Spitting out the water she wiped her face dry, before redoing her bandanna, and walking out.
Glancing down one end of the hallway...
Glancing down the other end of the hallway..
Coast was clear.
With that, she went to the payphones and made a short call to home. The family wasn't awake, so the maid took the message for her.
The usual things really. She was alright, she was still living, still healthy, and had a place to sleep. She had water, and food, and she would send them some money soon.
Decoy stood at the little phone booth for a while, frowning to herself.
She had just died, and she didn't have the bravery to notify her own family of this. She could literally die any day, any way, and they wouldn't know anything about it. Yet..Maybe it was better this way, that they didn't know so much...
The woman meandered back to her own room, closing it with a blank look and laying down in bed, staring at the ceiling..
After hours of just staring, her eyes finally slid closed, and she was lulled into a dreamless sleep, praying that she wouldn't have to go through 'respawn' often...