[writing] Project Chaos - Chapter Five

[djtenku]

Title: Cats and Mice
Word Count: 2504
Summary: Concern. Battle. Dogs.

The coffee had long became lukewarm and three teaspoons of sugar had already settled to the bottom of the styrofoam cup that was situated at her elbow. Meeko sighed in frustration as she stared at the flat green line, the line that happened to be the receiver of the radio frequencies. It had been that way for almost an hour.

She turned to Zigor, thin brows knitted together. “Doesn’t it bother you that we hadn’t we hadn’t heard from them?”

“Ah, I’ve been on missions that I didn’t hear people for a full day,” the pilot replied, not bothering to look at her. “Just be patient.”

Meeko blinked, interested. She leaned over towards him. “What happened on those missions anyway?”

Zigor gave a thoughtful look. “Hunh...two were rescue, fourteen was back-up support, one just happened to not have any communication at all, and the rest was pickups. Twenty-six, I believe?” He paused, and added solemnly, “Half were successful.”

The doctor’s baby face flushed and turned to Michael sharply. “Is this true? Only half?”

“Have faith, Dr. Meeko,” Michael said after downing the rest of his drink. “You’ll know their status soon enough. I give thirty minutes. Have you tried radio bursts?”

“Twice, sir,” she said as she turned back to the green line. She buried her head into her hands for a short moment before turning the rustic dial. Easy for you to be so calm...

-

“What are you doing here?” Roya demanded, jabbing the arrow at the snowy-haired man. Better yet, who are you? she added silently. The reply was only an intense gaze, much to her dismay.

“What did you say to me Friday?” His voice was low and distant, not like the reaction he gave earlier.

She did see him, but thought nothing of it. Why does he look different from then? “I said nothing,” she snapped. “Even if I had, it’s not important.”

“It was important,” the man pressed. “That look you had told me everything.”

“You were surprised,” Roya countered, “as if you saw a ghost. Or maybe an hallucination. Which was it?”

“Both and neither,” he said, rising to his full height, only a few inches taller than her.

She noticed that his green eyes had a bright glow. Perhaps from the moon’s light, she guessed. Still though, Roya pointed her arrow at him, now joining it with her bow.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with that distant tone. “You should’ve killed me by now.”


She shook her head. “Too easy,” she admitted, “and I prefer asking questions before I kill.” Why do you bear resemblance to the hostage? “It gives me somewhat of a comfort. How many have you killed?” Roya was surprised that he didn’t try for the rifle. She wondered if he had anything hidden.

“I can’t count how many, or even remember any for that matter,” he replied coolly.

“Quite unusual,” she commented. She tilted her head slightly, in a gesture that of a cat. “You look so old, but young.”

“That’s what everyone says; I’m not naїve.” He paused, and made a quick nod. “You still look like you’re not developed enough.”

Roya narrowed her eyes as she drew back the metallic string back. “Watch your mouth,” she hissed. “You’ll be dead before you know it. Your friends will be captured shortly and dealt with by the vanguard; if they aren’t killed on the spot. If they surrender the consquences will be less dire, but I hardly can’t guarentee that. My boss does not take kindly to...”

She trailed off, blinking at her sudden dizziness. A sharp pain jabbed her right shoulder; she clutched it, feeling the dense spot. Her wound was frozen solid. She moved at a shuffling noise and soon found herself looking at the man, rifle in his gloved hands.

“Aren’t you going to shoot me?” She blinked again as he settled the gun on his shoulder with a mixture of concern and confusion. “What are you doing?”

“You’re no condition to do anything. You’re bleeding out of your subclavian artery. You’d best to go back inside.”

Why is he telling me this? she asked herself as she glowered.

“I won’t fight you,” he continued as he started towards her. “I don’t like a handicapped fight in my favor.”

That’s the point of it all, she didn’t say. “You’re a strange man,” Roya said as he passed by. Another chill passed down her back. She thought about what she would tell Taka, and unfortunately Lang, and thought of the consequences. A simple scold? Thrashing? Or many exile; nothing at all? It was basically putting the hand into the bowl; contents unknown to her, but known to everyone else. “But I ask of you,” she said suddenly, “what is your name?”

The ghastly man stopped but did not bother to look back, possibly to decide to whether or not to tell her. She saw his slack posture though; he wanted to tell everything maybe. Why is his hair white snow instead of sable? Why does he not have a blue eye? There were questions – most of curiosity – she wanted to ask, but perhaps they would never be answered. After all, they were enemies.

“Rowan,” he replied.

“I am Roya,” she said gently, letting her Persian accent drip out. “After this, we shall meet again in battle.”

-

The low frequency emittion made Shin light-headed and her balance shaky. Just where is this coming from? She hoped that it was not a repercussion from the HALO jump; she stopped and gazed up at the sky. Countless stars, the waving aurora , and the towering snow capped trees started to blend within each other.

One hour to rescue the hostage. One hour to neutralize the Black Wolves. One hour to destroy what’s hidden in the base.

To her dismay, it wasn’t happenening at all. Perhaps she was too optimistic. Shin sighed as she gazed back down to terra firma, nothing more than permafrost and snow. The silence bothered her; it was too quiet. The low frequency spiked suddenly and was much closer, like it was –

- moving.

Shin swirled around, guns pointing opposite directions towards two black-clad figures a meter away, supporting their right forearms that had a irregular shape mounted on top. She saw a small red light blinking from each, and glanced down to see twin beams of lasers point at her sides. A third figure approached from the front, and the third laser searched her completely. She scowled. How the hell did they get here? Did we trip up the damned alarm?

Shin turned the safeties off of her guns and her index fingers wandered towards the triggers. She couldn’t decide which to aim at. Don’t engage... Her vision swam and her legs threatened to give out from under her.

She fired a single shot at the figure in front of her with the Glock 17, snapping her back out from her trance. The bullet richoceted off of the helmet; it only stunned the approaching figure and left only a small crack in the visor. The other two turned to the figure. It was at that time that Shin noticed insignia embroidered on their deltoids; two white skulls with a twisted scream and a crimson skull that was twisted in laughter and pain. It seemed tro mirror the figure that she shot.

Red Skull touched the crack, tilting its head, and then made a quick gesture of slitting the throat. The hairs on the back of Shin’s nape rose sharply at the sudden rise of the frequency pitch. She leaned backwards and dug into the cold ground as best as she could and for a few seconds, she saw the world upside down and two barely visible parallel streaks zipped across her line of vision before turning upright again.

The two that was at her side was thrown away from her as the streak struck them. What the hell was that? she asked herself. She certainly didn’t want to know; the buildup of frequency had waned to her relief and in return regained her composure.

Shin glanced back at Red Skull before she ran at full speed. She hoped that she was going to in the right direction and not into another trap.

-


“Drop your weapon. Now!” the muffled voice commanded. “Raise your hands slowly and where I can see them.”

“Isn’t this grand,” Kento muttered to himself. He didn’t move his head but he saw from the corner of his left eye two distorted shapes approaching. A second later they changed to black clad figures carrying M-16s and he realized that they had cloak devices along being heavily armed and faces being obscured by helmets. Their weapons was pointed directly at him; a red light flash briefly before disappearing and moving elsewhere.

Kento watched as the third and last figure moved into his line of sight, gesturing a command to stand down and then turned to him, glancing up and down, most likely to size him up. He narrowed his eye as one of them shouldered the M16 and approached him. He saw the mouth move although the visor was heavily tinted.

“So we’ve caught one of them…doesn’t look like much. What do you say?” The others shook their heads and the figure smirked. “Ah, that’s what I thought. Heh, doesn’t even have proper weapons let alone the gear. Just what are we going to do with you…?”


+ K…! I’m being ch…ased! W… hell are you?+ Shin’s voice squeaked in his ear. +Three….behind me! I think…uad leader is….them!+


The transmission cut out a moment later, ending the static speech. Three more? he thought as he continued to gaze at the figure. Was this was Rowan was talking about? Could there be any more? No; guys like these only worked in small groups; a vanguard.

“Hunh…another one is out there; a woman to be exact. This could be a interesting night after all…” All nodded in agreement. The third tilted his head mockingly. “Don’t worry, we wouldn’t harm her…much.”

They can hear our transmissions… Kento caught himself slowly balling his hands into fists; all he could do was glare murderously. He couldn’t attack now nor think of a plan that didn’t end up with him being shot. I hope Shin can take care a little longer…

One of the figures gestured to his eyepatch. “Take it off,” a deep voice said, surprising him.

“For what?” Kento demanded, breaking his silence. His answer was the sound of safties being clicked off.

“Just do it.” Sighing, he pulled off his eyepatch revealing the full scar that disfigured him and robbed him from his sight; the curved and medium line started just at the top of his brow, ran down through his eye and stopping at his jaw. Under the pale moonlight, it still looked fresh though he received it three years back. His eye was a crystal grey instead of the pure white and from time to time it would be azure for only a few seconds at a time.

Kento tossed the eyepatch to the figure. The vanguard member turned his back for a moment as he held it up to the moonlight. He then saw a object glimmer from the back of the uniform; a small, silver pipe labeled “F.B.” and he swiped it effortlessly and slid it into his sleeve as the figure turned back around.

“How’d you get that?” he asked, pointing to the scar.

“A fight,” Kento answered nonchalantly, shrugging.

“Think he’ll fair with the boss?” The vanguard glanced over his shoulder; the two shrugged their answer. One of them suddenly piqued up and signalled frantically, pointing to their captor.

Kento had the pipe in his hand and casted it against a nearby tree before the vanguards had time to react. The tube cracked open and a brilliant light shone followed by the trademark deafening explosion thundered through the area. His ears rang as he picked up the Glock and M9 and ran past the nearly incapacitated enemies. “I’m on my way, Shin,” he radioed. “Hold ‘em off as long as you can!”

Not long after, a high pitched roar tore apart a tree three meters ahead of him, toppling it in his direction; he banked a sharp right into a empty field, stopping temporarily at the sound of gunfire. Shin came up over the horizon.

“Keep going!” she yelled. “Go straight ahead!”

Kento raced towards the growiing light on the horizon and the tops of the buildings were beginning to show, eventually showing the whole base. Shin came up from the left just over the small hill and joined him. More gunfire echoed in the distance at the approach of a four meter tall rusty fence boardered with barbwire and towering posts.

“Damn, I can’t find a hole,” Shin said.

“I’ll give you a boost.” Kento kneeled and folded his hands flat and lifted her up as she stepped on his hands; she jumped and cleared the fence barely and landed in seemingly grace. He backed up slightly and charged the fence, grabbing the small links and clamboring up. As he jumped over, however, the barbed wire snagged his jacket; he unzipped his jacket and landed awkwardly.

More bullets flitted about as they ran through the forest, until the ground became flatter and the trees less numerous. “Think we lost them?” Shin asked, glancing back over her shoulder. She gasped when she felt nothing under her feet until Kento’s hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She nearly stepped over the high cliff.

“Be careful,” he warned. “I’m not sure, but I think we’ve got a bigger problem to worry about.” He pointed towards the valley where the visible buildings were; more guards started to pour out and the sirens started to wail. Another high pitched roar shot past them; they turned to see the six vanguard not far away.

Kento looked over the cliff; it was covered with snow, but some sharp rocks were protruding out from it but the height of the whole thing was a lot shorter than he thought. “Let’s go,” he said after his judgement.

As the second roar passed them, they leapted; for a short moment the duo was upright until the slope came at a sharp angle. They slid all the way down and landed on flat ground head first backwards. “You alright?” Kento asked he sat up, brushing off the snow. He rose and helped Shin off the ground.

“I’ll be fine once we…” Shin faded off and all color on her face drained at the sound of growling and snarling.

They turned at the sound. A group of wolf-dogs were approaching them, baring their canine teeth and bodies low to the ground, fanning out to corner them.

“Oh shit!” Kento exclaimed, searching for his guns. To his horror, he didn’t find them at all.

One of the dogs charged and leaped high in the air, mouth wide open to tear flesh apart.