//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Witch // Story: XCOM: Ranger // by Wanderer D //------------------------------// Ranger Chapter 8: Witch By Wanderer D o.0.o Two Years Earlier o.0.o Sunset shifted nervously, watching the many Reapers performing their daily routines in their camp. She was hanging around a bunch of empty cages they had left outside the main tent, and Bradford had told her in no uncertain terms that she was to remain put. And usually, she would have ignored his order, except... it was different here. There was a sense that any of these people would shoot her without hesitation if she so much as blinked the wrong way. They had an intensity to themselves that was almost wild—and menacing. She knew it would take a long time to feel comfortable here, and she desperately wanted that to not happen. 'Bradford should just finish his stupid meeting and we can get going.' Sunset hadn't missed the looks they have given them both when they walked into camp, escorted by two heavily wrapped humans. She wasn't sure if it was the glares, the many guns that, while not pointing directly at them, had followed their general trajectory, or the fact that a big, burly man was whistling a tune as he cleaved through the tough hide of a muton. Meat by itself wasn't something that disgusted her… muton meat? No thanks. She had thought that Skirmishers were tribal, but these people… they took it to a different level. Even though she had gotten somewhat used to death, both from her time with the Skirmishers and by John Effing Central Bradford's general proximity, which was an invitation for just about anything with a pet peeve at… anything, to attack them on account of him being alive, and her being alive next to him. The big X on their armor probably didn't help either. Apparently XCOM was not welcome in most places for a number of reasons, and after more than a few shootouts together after she had agreed to travel with him and meet this mysterious Dr. Shen, she had finally asked him one night why everyone wanted to shoot them. His response? "That's XCOM, Sunset." He had actually laughed himself to sleep on that one. "Hey, you new here?" The voice made Sunset almost jump. She turned to look at a petite brunette, who was smirking at her with something akin to amusement. "Just visiting," Sunset replied warily. "You guys… have quite the thing going on here." The woman snorted. "It really is a thing, isn't it?" She looked around, smiling. "Where do you come from? You look pretty clean, are you fresh from one of the cities?" Sunset raised an eyebrow. By her own reckoning, she was actually sweaty, covered in dirt and could really use a shower. Then again, people here had different standards than ponies. "No, never been. I'm from New Haven, to the west." The woman whistled. "All the way from there? And what brings you here? You came in with that old man? Who's that, your dad?" Sunset rolled her eyes. "He's not my dad." "Your sugar daddy then?" "No. What does that even mean?" "Oh, bless your heart," the woman laughed, extending a hand. "Natter's the name." Sunset shook her head, but took the woman's hand in hers. "Sunset." "I guess you're lucky you're not from the ADVENT cities," Natter said, motioning with her head for Sunset to follow. "I've always wondered what their meat tastes like, with all that alien food they eat. Might as well be aliens themselves, am I right?" Sunset clenched her teeth. "I wouldn't know about that." They walked to the other side of the camp, where two more Reapers, a man and a woman, were getting ready to leave. "Hey guys," Natter spoke up. "This here's Sunny, and she's never gone hunting before." "Well, then we should fix that," the man said, grabbing a nearby rifle and giving it to Sunset. "You know how to sneak, right?" Sunset looked from the rifle to Natter, who grinned, then back to the rifle, then over her shoulder at the tent in the middle of the camp. "If you're wondering when your dad is coming out," the other woman spoke up, throwing a dusty coat to Sunset, presumably for her to wear. "It'll take a while. Volk likes to drink too." Sunset sighed, donning the hooded jacked. "He's not my dad. What are we hunting?" "Elk," Natter said. "Don't worry, it'll be easy." o.0.o Present o.0.o "This is so stupid!" Sunset snarled, blowing a Lost's head off with her shotgun. "It was your guy that blew our cover," Elena pointed out, leaning to the side of a cardboard box and shooting another Lost in the head. "Good thing it wasn't an elk." "I said I was sorry!" Shintaro hissed, trying not to move his arm too much and using his gun instead of his automatic rifle. "There are dead bodies that look like Lost, and Lost that look like dead bodies! I wasn't trying to wake it up! I thought it was dead! And what's this about elks?" The three slowly backed away, taking sure shots at the approaching zombies and moving towards their destination. "You shut up about the damned elk!" Sunset snapped. "Natter promised she wouldn't tell!" "Well, she lied," Elena retorted. "Next time we do the smart thing and tell Firebrand to just pick up the contact and fly us the hell over to the next site. Whose great idea was it to do this anyway?" Sunset asked, hooking up her shotgun to its harness and sliding out her machete. She raised her arm and shot her grappling hook straight through the torso of a Lost that was about to tackle Shintaro. With an efficiency that surprised the other two, she used the hook to yank the creature back towards her, and as soon as it was in range, used the momentum to step in and with a swift cut, lopped its head off. The body collapsed onto its knees before crumbling onto the floor, unmoving. That seemed to be the last one, and the three held their breaths, releasing them slowly in relief when there were no more groans or shouts from the undead creatures. "Come on, we are about to reach our meeting point," Elena whispered after a moment, she took action to words and moved quickly from cover to cover. "How's your arm?" Sunset asked Shintaro as they ran. "Feels broken," Shintaro muttered. "I'm sorry, I should have been more careful." "It happens," Sunset said, keeping her senses alert. Blood vision didn't work that well with the Lost. More than a solid source of light, they were shadows moving in the mist. She wasn't sure how any of her spells would affect them, but when it came to the zombies, she was as blind as the others. "Where… where did you learn to do that?" Shintaro asked as they neared the last block to the meeting coordinates. "I've never seen anyone do something like that." "I have," Elena said, a slight edge to her voice. She didn't look back at them, but Sunset could feel a bit of anger directed her way. "I've seen some Skirmishers do something similar." Sunset didn't say anything. "I knew something rubbed me the wrong way about you since I saw you that time in camp," Elena continued. "It wasn't just your armor either… you seemed… different. It just never clicked now that you were a skirmisher." She snorted. "You don't look like one." "I'm not," Sunset said as they stopped to survey the area. "I stayed with them for a while when Mox saved me when I was younger. They dropped me off at a human colony when they had the chance." Elena turned to look at her. "But not before training you." "Hey now," Sunset smirked. "Would you really pass on getting one of these?" Elena snorted, glancing at the grappling hook. "I suppose not." "I'm glad we're all friends again," Shintaro muttered. "That's too strong a word." "Don't push it, mister." "Right, right, sorry," he said raising his hands to appease the two women. "Look, the others are here." Sunset looked up. It was true; Jane and Paula were both warily flanking a thoroughly amused Pratal Mox. His armor was a lot different, and he seemed even bigger now, if possible. The trio climbed up to the rail tracks where the meeting would take place. "It seems like the life of a Skirmisher suits you well," Sunset said as they walked into sight. The other two stayed behind as she walked almost all the way to where Mox waited. He looked over, seemingly surprised at seeing her. Apparently Bradford hadn't shared any of their identities when confirming the mission. Soon enough though, he marched over to Sunset and bumped grappling hooks with her. "By the Elder's fetid breath, if it isn't Sunset Shimmer. I knew you'd fend well on your own, but I had not expected to see you with XCOM." "So, ADVENT's most vicious captain now wants to redeem himself," Elena sneered, walking down the tracks to stand in the middle of it, facing them. Mox patted Sunset's shoulder and walked past her, facing the Reaper. "I am no longer that being. I have been freed." "Taking your helmet off doesn't change who you are!" Elena retorted, pointing her rifle straight at him. Mox braced himself, ripjack at the ready, "The way I see it," Bradford called out over the comms, "is that we all want the same thing: to take ADVENT down. We can either kill each other and do their work for them, or we can work together. The choice is yours." Mox grunted and stood down. Sunset almost didn't see it, so unexpected it was. One moment Elena was lowering her gun, and then, just as she glimpsed the tell-tale bloodwork light of a tall being landing behind Mox, the Reaper was taking a shot at the barely visible figure. Sunset had thought she had good reactions, but Elena had been as fast as a striking cobra. The shot, however, failed to hit as the monstrous humanoid that appeared behind Mox dodged the bullet and back flipped, batting away Mox's follow up grappling hook with a wicked-looking sword. The alien was female, and taller than Mox himself, although a lot thinner. She was dressed in blood-red armor, only decorated by a ruby or gemstone in the center of her chest armor, which looked almost lightweight as to not impede her movements. She sported two pigtails with purple and blue highlights, their volume at odds with her abnormally thin body. Her blue face split with a smile full of serrated teeth, like a shark as she leered at the gathered group. "That has never happened before," she hissed. "And never will again!" The creature faded away, just as Mox, Jane, and the others formed a circle, trying to see where she had gone. "What the hell was that?" Bradford asked. Mox hissed. "Elder assassin, she hunts my kind. Immortal punishment from the Elders." "We have another like her, hunting us," Elena added as the pair walked carefully to where the assassin had disappeared. Sunset concentrated, spending a bit more power on her spell. The assassin's invisibility was very thorough… but it was not magical. Whipping to her left, Sunset opened fire, startling the others as the assassin splashed out of her invisibility field, arms crossed in front and orange blood dripping. "How!?" She growled, but Sunset didn't give her enough time to gather herself. The assassin batted Sunset's own grappling hook with her sword and twisted to dodge out of Mox's ripjack, kicking him in the stomach and giving herself enough space to duck under another shot from Elena. The assassin hissed, running in between shots from Jane and Shintaro before jumping off the side to the street below. "Menace, you need to get out of there," Bradford ordered, just as a dull sound echoed through the area, like an old church bell being rung in the middle of the city. "We are detecting a large biomass approaching your coordinates," Tygan added, and several shrill shouts of the Lost echoed in response as if responding to his assessment. "This is firebrand, your immediate area is too hot, sending you pick-up coordinates." "You heard her," Bradford said. "Get going." The group started running, trying to outpace the Lost when suddenly, Sunset saw the assassin closing the distance. "Paula! Duck!" Her teammate followed the order without hesitation, just as Sunset's gunshot went off. The assassin emerged from her invisibility, tracing a finger on a wound on her exposed arm before charging straight at Sunset. She was interrupted by a punch from Mox, which made her head whip around, but she recuperated, moving with the impact and slamming her elbow to the back of his head, knocking him down. The assassin tried to move, but Sunset had had enough, she focused her energy on the wound and projected it through her stretched hand at the assassin. "What?!" the assassin hissed as her body seemed to stop. She looked around wildly as the others got closer to her, readying to shoot their weapons. She took a hasty shot from Shintaro on the shoulder just as her eyes settled on Sunset and narrowed. "Gah!" A blast of psionic energy threw the others back, knocking them to the ground, and Sunset managed to catch a glimpse of blood-red energy the moment her magic failed. A second later the assassin was right in front of her. "Well, well, well…" The assassin hissed, twisting her sword. Sunset spat blood, eyes unable to move away from the assassin's own. She could feel the blade twisting her flesh, warm blood spilling down her legs to splash on the floor below. She needed to.. she needed... "A blood mage," the assassin continued, holding Sunset up from her shoulder, to prevent her from collapsing, and making her shoulder pads crack with the pressure. "On Earth of all places… you've managed to give yourself some time, little one… or perhaps not." The assassin's mouth widened in a sneer. Sunset could hear distant shouts and the assassin shook as it was hit with several weapons. Just as it started to disintegrate, she leaned in to whisper in Sunset's ear. "We'll meet again… if you live." The assassin burst into fragments of light… and Sunset was falling. o.0.o End Chapter 8 o.0.o