For DodgeStreaker's Contest

The world was a different place, well, so speaking it was. Everything was getting all foggy, all hazy, she knew there was an error in her programming. Most of her files were corrupted to the point but she ignored it. Though it was getting difficult to focus and she was having problems concentrating on the task at hand. But she has to finish this, she just had to! Even if the error was now beginning to corrupt the last file keeping her from shutting down.

“Go!” She yelled to her group. “I’ll hold them off while you get out of here!”

“But Soldier we--”

“Shut the hell up and leave already!” She snapped back, throwing one of her Battle Electric Sticks through a guard charging at her, killing him with the voltage. Besides. I’m practically dead anyways… She heard the door lock in place behind her and she sighed with relief knowing they’d be safe out there. “Alright, come at me, I’m your opponent now!” She exhaled heavily fully aware she was on the brink of shutting down at any given moment, but she’ll force herself to stay online until she finished off these guards, to buy them some time to get out of the area. “And may you all rot in Hell.” The guards charged at her, and with her only Battle Electric Stick left she returned them a hit with a high voltage before shutting down completely… You guys better have gotten far enough… She thought as her mind when black.

*

“We’ve got to go back!” Taylor said. “No man left behind, isn’t that how the saying goes, right?” Xenos nodded. He had once lived up to that term, now he was going to do it again. Rain checked over his gun’s setting and switched off the safety move again, giving a nod and a thumbs up in agreement. He had mainly done solo missions when he was still apart of Project Deception, but he was all too familiar with the term as well as Xenos was. Plus leaving Soldier just didn’t seem like the right thing to do, even if she had told them to leave.

“Well, we’re going to need a plan first though,” Rain pointed out. “We’re not really just going to charge back in there right after we just got out. Give it a few hours to make them think we actually left. Plus on top of that, Taylor we don’t even know if you can fight or not.” Taylor seemed to be embarrassed by his flaw of not telling them if he could fight or not. There was a pause of silence. “Well anyways I think we should at least find some way to get in there without getting caught. Xenos, any ideas?”

“I want to say we should do something in order to sneak inside there but they’re most likely going to be on the alert more often now. Who knows they might even be planning something if they think we will come back.” He answered dully. Rain nodded and examined their surroundings. Besides the fact that there was snow on the ground there didn’t seem to be anything else to give away their position. “Also speaking of which the snow might be a great advantage.” The two younger boys lifted an eyebrow slightly confused. Yes, Rain had also worked in snowy regions before but he had never thought of using it to his advantage besides setting up traps. Was Xenos thinking about setting up a trap? Most likely, yes. “Well Rain, I believe you know any good traps we could build? Something to throw them off guard only in one direction we don’t want them to lock down the base though, then how would we get in there?”

“You’re teasing Xenos. You know perfectly well you could do this mission all by yourself without a problem, so why are you holding back now?” Rain replied. The twenty-one year old shrugged.

“Maybe because that wouldn’t be fun now would it? Plus I want to see if Taylor is capable of fighting anyways.” He looked over to the blonde. “So like I was asking before, got any good traps in mind Rain?”

“Well not much of a trap, but how about a distraction?” Rain looked at Taylor who seemed to get the feeling that things were going to get a little rough for him.

*

“Do you think this is going to work? He doesn’t seem very good at this anyways. He was really nervous, I don’t think he’s ever been in a fight before.” Xenos said.

“He’ll be fine.” Rain replied as they continued to watch Taylor make his way down to the base. The guards spotted him and that’s when he acted, and damn, was he fast to act. Taylor moved swiftly dodging flying bullets and attacking the group of guards before they could sound the alarm and call for backup. So…maybe it wasn’t much of a distraction anymore. Who knew he could fight…But he was only fighting with his legs and feet. Why? He seemed pretty good at CQC why not use his hands as well. The two looked at each other and then ran down to the base to meet up with the soccer player. “Well, that proves Taylor knows how to fight. Quick find the clearance card to get inside the base! We need to move these bodies before the next portal comes our way.”

“So now we’re playing the sneaking game? Can you two make up your minds! I thought we were going to use brute force!” Taylor exclaimed.

“Oh shut up, things tend to change in battle Taylor!” Rain replied pulling a clearance card from on the guards jacket and Xenos tossing them somewhere out of sight. “And at least you’re not going to be the one waking up freezing your ass off with stiff muscles!” He did have a good point there. Swiping the clearance card they entered the building. No guards in sight. “Xenos. Where is Soldier?”

“Seriously? You’re asking me?” He replied. They both looked at him with that look. “Like I said before it wouldn’t be much fun now would it. Yes I’ll help but I won’t do everything. So…START LOOKING!” They both blinked with that ‘I’m going to kill you later…’ look. “Okay, I’m lets see if I can pick up her signal.” They waited a moment before Xenos sighed. “No good…I can’t lock onto where she is.” Taylor started to panic, Xenos was able to always pick up someone’s signal this was getting frustrating.

“Well…we better start looking than.” Rain sighed.

*

Rain peered around the corner, his finger edging the trigger to his gun. So far they had killed about seven guards who got in their way. Seeing no one he signaled the other two over. Xenos walked casually while Taylor seemed nervous about this. They knew Xenos had done these types of missions many times before and can be like this is nothing special but seriously? He was too calm for this, what if they had killed Soldier or something. That wouldn’t be right to be too calm about. Rain shifted the thoughts to the side knowing that they would only distract him and that’s the last thing he wanted. He was about to move when Xenos grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the corner. Taylor shifted and seemed to get uneasy. What had Xenos just picked up on his HUD? He wondered but they didn’t ask questions, not at a time like this.

His left Arm Flask Canon formed and he charged it up. They heard the loud noises of something moving. It sounded like metal. Xenos walked out from behind their cover and fired. Large pieces of metal debris flew everywhere some embedding into the wall, other Xenos quickly cut down to size with one of his Energy Blades. Well whatever that thing was it wasn’t going to be a problem anymore.

“Come on I think I have an idea where Soldier is.” He said. His voice seemed more dull than normal but they followed him anyways without questioning it. They traveled to the end of the hall, Xenos ended up killing everyone in the way without a second thought. It was like he wasn’t even him. They made it to the last door and he opened it. The room was brightly lit up and they looked around. Soldier sat in a corner head down. She didn’t appear to have any injuries which was a good thing.

“Is she sleeping? Or did they knock her out of something?” Taylor asked.

“She’s dead.” Xenos answered.

“WHAT?! But she looks alive…” Taylor said.

“I think you misunderstood what he meant Taylor. You do know what she is right?” Rain replied.

“Human…?” Taylor answered unsure.

“No, she’s a program but whatever. Xenos is there anyway to revive her?” Rain asked. Xenos took a look at Soldier, scanning her with his HUD and scrolling through whatever he could access. He nodded ‘yes’.

“It can be done. Just give me a minute.” Xenos replied.

*

[Rebooting]

[Systems Restoring, Please Wait…]

[Systems Restored]

[Files Restoring, Please Wait…]

[Files Restored]

[Activating Now]

Soldier opened her eyes and stood up automatically. She did so as if she hadn’t just done a complete System Restore. She checked over her programming and checked everything. No error. She looked to Taylor, Xenos and then Rain. She recalled her last recorded log of telling them to get out of here. So why were they still here?

“Didn’t I tell you to leave?” She asked her voice a little static from the recent System Restore.

“Hey, no man left behind as the saying goes.” Taylor smiled. She noted the saying.

“Alright. So what now?” Rain asked.

“Well…Hmmm…I don’t really know? Do we have any explosives? Make a nice bonfire.” Xenos replied with a soft smile. Wow, he really could smile.

“But I didn’t bring any marshmallows!” Taylor complained. Soldier didn’t really understand the humor so she shrugged it off. Oh well, life was life after all.