"Crow, you're with Thane and Grunt." Shepard directed. "Thane, you're up again."
Nobody had led twice so far, but Crow was glad she didn't put him in charge. He liked to think he was good at planning ahead, but he didn't think he could give orders. Needless to say, he was glad to wind up with Thane; at least he had idea of what it was like to work with him. The same couldn't be said for Grunt.
"Whoever gets this round gets the goodie bag. Alright, split off!" Shepard ordered, before marching off with Tali and Jacob. Grunt pounded one fist into his other hand; it seemed to be some sort of habit of his. Crow eyed him warily as they followed Thane to their corner. He was a bit of an unstable element, and his overexcitement was partly the reason Zaeed got sent to the med bay.
"Crow... how far would you and Glint mind being separated from one another?" Thane inquired. Crow startled at the question.
"Why?" He asked warily. He hadn't let Glint leave his line of sight since Spider put the bomb in. His Ghost materialized at his shoulder.
"We don't leave our Lightbeares unless the situation is dire and requires subtlety." Glint told the drell. "But I know a few Ghosts who are crazy enough to assist in open combat..."
"Which I wouldn't be okay with." Crow asserted nervously. He didn't want Glint anywhere near gunfire, not even in a fake battle. Ghost shells were tough, and he doubted the butterfly rounds could do anything physically, but there were explosives in him. A bad enough impact in the wrong place, and Glint would die, not to mention Spider had never specified the yield; for all they knew, there was enough to blow a hole in the Normandy's hull.
"Relax." Thane placated. "It occurred to me that the Commander unintentionally gave us a fourth squad mate, and I was wondering exactly how stealthy he is."
If he wanted to be a part of this- really be a part of this, he would at least have to hear the drell out. He wasn't sure if he could agree to any plan where he was separated from Glint too long, but members of a fireteam at least heard each other out, right? He looks to Glint, and nods. The Ghost tips towards the assassin slightly; if the plan involved him, the ball is in his court.
"What... exactly do you have in mind, Mr. Krios?"
" Grunt, get in position near the objective." Thane directs from his perch. " Give Crow cover fire. Going comm silent."
Crow ducked in and out of cover, carnifex gripped tightly in his hands. He hadn't taken any shots yet, but he wasn't close to the fighting yet, either. He knew the butterfly rounds wouldn't kill, or even hurt since everyone was wearing armor, so as long as he didn't aim for the head things would be fine. Even then, everyone was wearing tight, protective goggles. He'd never worn anything like them, they pinched and applied unpleasant pressure at certain points around his eyes.
But part of him was reluctant to point a gun at someone he had no intention of killing. He might not know these people well, but he didn't want to hurt them. He was uncomfortable even 'pretending' to hurt them. This was hardly the time or situation to be thinking about Uldren, but he came to mind anyway.
"Crow." Glint pulled him out of his thoughts as he came up on a corner leading to where Thane had told him to set up at.."You're doing fine, the plan will go fine."
You're still okay with this? He thought nervously.
"Yes. You've been going outside your comfort zone recently, I should at least try to do the same." his Ghost explained. Just let me know if you change your mind, it's okay if you can't do this.
"I'll be fine, Crow." he reassured. Crow took a deep breath, and reached for the void. A coolness trickled through his veins, and he pulled his Light around him like a cloak of safety. He ducked out of cover once he was invisible, and ran to his objective only to find Jacob and Shepard occupying the space.
"Jacob, soft pull on my mark!" The Commander ordered. Crow ducked low to avoid fire from Garrus' team, which had dug in across the way. Grunt was making a nuisance of himself dangerously close to the objective crate, which Tali was pouting by with neon green smeared on her chest. Jack was also nearby and out of commission, but she was entertaining herself by insulting everyone with no breaths between her words.
Crow, swallowing hard, drew two stamp pens that were meant to be used to mark close-combat kills. He stalked towards Jacob and Shepard, gritting his teeth as he held on to the void longer than he was meant to.
"Now!" Crow lunged as both of them rose out of cover, Jacob motioning towards Grunt, and Shepard pulling the pin on smoke grenade. He stamped Jacob hard in the small of his back, unbalancing him and sending his biotic attack off-kilter. He didn't see if it effected Grunt any, but hitting Shepard made her drop the grenade. Crow jumped over them and scrambled with a Hunter's speed past the objective.
"Glint!" He shouted.
"On it!" His Ghost shot away in the chaos, and he ducked into cover next to Grunt as Shepard's grenade went off. He heard her swear.
"Sorry!" He called across the battlefield to the bright yellow puff cloud. He took a moment to check his armor for mark's from Garrus' team.
"The hell you apologizing for?" Grunt growled, reloading. "Enjoy the fight!"
"Is Glint out?" Thane asked over comms.
"On his way." Crow confirmed, trying to squash his anxiety.
"Good. I've handled Samara, let Ms. Lawson take Garrus' attention." the drell told them.
"I got Commander Shepard and Jacob." He informed.
"Good, now bide your time."
"Won't be necessary!" Glint chirped, zipping in to join them. "I'm-"
He disappeared with a yelp of fright when Miranda practically dropped on top of them. Grunt shot her, but she still dropped her grenade, and Crow made a dash for it. Grunt was too slow and got caught in the blast, and something stung Crow's back as he was running. "I think Garrus got you."
"Go get yourself back to the launch point." He told his Ghost, sitting down and contemplating removing his eye protection. Glint materialized, nodded, and dashed off, low to the ground. Crow turned,trying to see through the purple haze of Miranda's grenade; Garrus' team would be moving in now, thinking that everyone but Thane was down.
It wasn't long before a perplexed turian made the rounds to see if any of them had the package. Grunt huffed impatiently when Garrus prompted him to stand(the young krogan had tried hiding the bag by sitting on it in a previous round), and Crow shrugged apologetically at him.
"Kasumi, you got Thane yet?" He asked into comms, mandibles dipped into a frown.
"We won!" Glint cried cheerfully, broadcasting on all comms and making Garrus jump slightly. Crow grinned and got to his feet, and Grunt let out a disturbing chuckle, learing at the sniper as he did so.
"Uh... who had eyes on Thane?" The turian asked as Crow made his way back, electing to use his Light to jump over the energy walls rather than go around them now that the 'bullets' weren't flying. He found Glint sitting happily on the bag at their team's launch point, and his Ghost zipped over to him, bouncing in the air excitedly.
"We did it, we did it!" He beeped, ducking under Crow's cloak and out again. He couldn't help the grin that split across his face; it was good to see his Ghost happy, he hadn't seen him this excited in a while.
"Hold up..." came Shepard's confused voice from behind him. He turned, and Glint swooped low next to the bag.
"Hi, Commander!" He greeted cheerily. "That stuff will wash out, right?"
She was yellow, head to toe, save for a goggles-shaped bare spot. "Yeah... weren't you down? Where's Thane?"
"Here." The drell was directly behind her, and she jumped. He didn't quite look smug. "It would appear that their strengths are in stealth, Commander."
"You..." she looked to Thane, to Crow, to Glint bouncing happily in the air next to the bag. "Son of a-"
"Language!"
"Well, as far as a taste of what you can do goes, I'd say that went well." Commander Shepard commented as they made their way up to the armory in groups of six in the elevator. "Who came up with the trick using Glint?"
"Thane, but Glint contributed." His Ghost, who had tucked himself in his hood, made a happy buzzing noise, shell shifting slightly. At the noise, Kasumi leaned forward in an attempt to get a better look at him.
"Awwww!" She exclaimed softly. "Have I mentioned you're adorable, Glint?"
"I'm not certain, Ms. Goto, but you just did. Does that count?" Glint beeped.
"And you're a gentleman, melt my heart, why don't you?" The thief grinned. The doors opened.
"Alright, pack it up, people." Shepard ordered. They each marched through and put their weapons on the post-exercise rack for Jacob to manage later, and Crow was glad the man had walked him through the armory protocols the other day so he didn't look like an idiot.
"Crow; catch!" He turned just as Shepard tossed something from the inside of the bag. He managed to catch it; it was a slip of metal roughly the size of a dog tag. "Crisp five hundred, courtesy of Cerberus."
"You're using the Ilusive Man's funding as prize money this time?" Miranda looked more than a little incensed.
"Well, the rubber chicken was unpopular, so someone gave it to Joker." She cast a sideways glance at Samara.
"It seemed like he would get better use out of it than I or the others." The asari justified. "I overestimated his maturity."
"What exactly do I do with it?" He knew it was a rhetorical question, but his experiences with money were few and far between at best. If he needed something to complete one of Spider's tasks, it was usually supplied in short order. The glimmer that came his way was minimal if existent at all, and the only value he'd really seen in it was as a 'just in case' he ever wound up in the City for some reason or the other.
"Buy whatever with it when you go out for shore leave." Shepard shrugged. "Just, nothing that won't fit in a footlocker. And nothing alive, Grunt."
"You always gotta ruin things..." the Krogan muttered.
"Clear up, let the others through, and get cleaned up." The Commander ordered. Crow shifted his shoulder to let Glint know the armor wasn't needed anymore, and his Ghost replaced it in an instant.
"Now that's just cheating!" Kasumi exclaimed as he strode out after Grunt. He smiled.
Today had gone much better than he'd expected.
Sorry this one is late, I took a brief break in writing this. From now on, updates will be every other wednesday so I don't burn through my chapter stockpile so fast. Meanwhile, my laptop has become worse than a school computer, which isn't helping. Ever tried writing on a tablet?
edboy4926: Thanks as always.
Ebuc: Trust me, when it comes to Hunter abilities, I'm all over it. I've gone down the road of 'how would a Lightbearer develop without any clear pre-existing guidelines' before, actually, so I'm using a lot of the same concepts I developed back then. That being said, I have some ideas for the path Crow might walk down as far as his Light goes. Also, yes, I'm not dead.
Ronin Kenshin: Can't go straight into the action, that's how B-Movies are made. Gotta build things up a bit first, and I'm taking a bit of a more realistic approach to things. At this point, the Techeuns haven't brought Mara back to the Reef yet, and she's still technically 'Gone Fish'n', so to speak.
Crazy Cakes 23: As much as I hate to say it, I don't think I'll be using the Vex. As a Lore loyalist, it wouldn't sit well with me; they're acasual, and that's what makes time/virtual space so iffy with them, but when it comes to breaching any sort of non-code dimensional barrier, there's only one record of them doing so, and it was CROTA who made the gateway for them. Quaria might be able to bull$6!+ it's way through, but it's busy with Savasiris' evil plan at this point. Hive, however, can do whatever the hell they want, so long as there's an Ascendant lemon bar to lead the way.
Guest: Nope.
Meanwhile, in an alternate reality, I wasn't able to pull myself away from Skyward Sword long enough to post this. Hero mode is a lot less intimidating without shoddy motion controls and adult fingers that can actually reach all the buttons with ease. 10/10 for the Switch HD version. Now I just want Twilight Princess, and I'll actually be happy with Nintendo again. Good as BotW was, it was Skyrim, not a Zelda game. I hope the sequal at least returns to some of the old formula, it already looks like we're getting a parasitic version of the Toilet Hand as a possible companion...
Fare Thee Well!