One of the good days

Eightball is a weird one in the way he thinks, though its probably just because he’s something else. Case in point; he believes the best way for two magical girls to reconcile their differences and events in the past are to team them up in a mission that requires teamwork and trust. And perhaps this would work if the situation didn’t involve the chance of death.

…Least this wasn’t my extra. I would have killed him for that.

“It’s fucking cold, why does it need to be-“Megan kept mumbling to herself while rubbing her arms in frustration. It’s been two weeks since the tourney, so either she didn’t get the memo that this mission would be way north or she thought she could tough out the cold. For me, a scarf, two jackets and thick pants seem to be doing fine. And honestly, the name itself should have ringed a bell. Mount Shasta, right? Or at least we’ll be near that area. It’ll be the farthest north I’ve ever been.

The mission itself was quite simple; a smash and grab for some doc’s on some drug cartel up here followed by “GTFO ASAP”, as well put by Eightball. Megan, being the Eversor, will be the distraction by killing everyone she sees while I sneak in through the back and grab what I can. Once we’re done there we jack a car and make a getaway. At least, that’s the rough gist of it.

“I’m sure the blood of the fallen will warm your cold heart, Megan.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up Gina.” The biggest problem we have – and why I think Eighty is out of his mind – is the required amount of teamwork. Sure, being on a mission together puts up a different kind of quota needed, but she’s still bitter about the tournament. More surprising is her reason; it’s not because I won instead of her, but about how nonchalant I was about it.

So Eightball sent us here together to make us learn more about each other. Wonderful.

“You girls know what you’re gonna do?” The pilot asked over the radio. We were being flown in by helicopter that doubles as our escape route.

“We got a rough idea; we’ll see how things turn out.” I respond in the absence of Megan who still rubs her shoulders furiously to gain friction heat. “And cut that out. You’re gonna harm yourself before the mission begins.”

“You know what happened to me?” She spits out the side, watching it fall down to the snow below. “Got woken up at six in the god damn morning saying I was in for a treat. I come expecting chocolate and gifts and I’m told I got ten min’s prep for a mission up north. Not how far, not for what. Just gets me going and-“

“Gifts and chocolate?” The pilot chimes in. “This isn’t daycare you know.”

“It was a fucking analogy! Now hurry up, I feel like killing shit.”

Yea… not going to go so well.

We’re on the ground ten minutes later, a good mile away from the complex. Megan tried to keep a low profile for a while but gave up from coldness and transformed half-way there.

“Keep it calm on your end and I’ll see none of the fuckers need to deal with you.” She notes as we approach the building. “Once you’re done I’ll get into the garage area and see what I can jack. Then we’re out. Plain and simple, just don’t fuck up.”

“Yea, I’ll make a note not to do that.”

The building looks strangely out of place on the white-covered mountain with its grey walls and blackened windows. It looks like a cross between a warehouse and an office, like the constructor just said ‘fuck it, we’ll do both’. It has an obvious entrance, which seems to be the go-to for Megan. The four floors might be difficult to get up but it depends more on the interior design than actual height at this rate.

“Alright, seems clear enough. Go ahead and do your thing, Megan. Meet in garage in aprox twenty-“

…Shes gone. Great, time to move.

Despite previous combat ventures, I’m still a Callidus at heart, even if my skills need to be bent a strange way in order to become one. Case in point, darkening the color of my barrier to blend in with the darkness of the room I’m currently in, which seems to be some sort of a warehouse. It’s not the best it could be right now, but it’s at least better than going-

POP-FIZHHHK

 “Have fun, fucker.” The radio cackled in my ear as the power went off in the building, followed nicely by the swearing of various men, including …Missing out on tonight’s raid? A power outage shouldn’t- oh.

Heh, we’re dealing with nerds.

“Appreciated.” She’s actually pretty clever; nothing can interfere or drop in on our conversation now that the power is off. For now, higher ground and better stealth is all I’m looking for. They will already have a hard time trying to see a black blur during a power outage, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hear me. Of course, I can also take that advantage differently.

The boys in the room over finally begin to move out while I’ve already ascended to the walkways above. Show time.

“The fuck is going on, seriously?” Thick boots give audible thuds as the men enter the room. Two with flashlights, three without. The cones of light scan the area in front of them, and they don’t bother looking up.

“…Sir” One of the meeker ones tries to speak up. “I don’t think it’s much of a problem. Can’t you just-“

“Silence! Idiot, how much free time do you get, huh!?” The yells echo and bounce through the room, stopping in place as he points his flashlight at him. “We’re gonna fix this problem quickly and- huh?” He begins to configure something in his ear, only to rip it out entirely.

“JESUS FUCK, CALM DOWN! What is it?!” Distractions are good, but I should capitalize on this. Anything around, no, up above… heavy boxes. Heavy boxes on a wooden shelf. This can work, just throw it hard enough.

One step back, lever the arm correctly… throw. The mace begins to fly through the air. “Everyone, man the fuck up. We’ve got a- MOVE!” He yells as the boxes above begin to fall with the splinters from the broken wood. Only two are left unharmed; two are crushed immediately and one has his legs stuck. There’s a lot of blood.

“Lock this place down! NOW!” The doors are closing, back-up power, shit. Mace back in hand, I manage to run to an exit on the walkway and jam the doors open to slide through. Still a black blur, still a-

“INTRUDER ALERT! LOCK DOWN!”

…Now things get interesting.

I manage to get to some office complex before the place begins to really get hard to move through. The windows are locked down too, so I’m almost perfectly camouflaged in the darkness. Main question still stands; how the hell do I get out of here?

Of course, if there are no doors open, make one. I lightly swing at the wall to test it and it makes a good ringing. It looks like drywall, but its probably reinforced from the inside. Yea, no way I’m getting through this.

“What was that?” “I don’t want to know.” Ooh, two voices on the other side. Maybe… I don’t need to break down the wall. I swing at the ground this time, another thud.

“H-hey, don’t you think we should-“ “No. Not happening.” Hmm, a little more motivation, then? I set it up against the wall and scrape it sideways.

“Give me the card, I’ll go through!” “I told you, I’m not-“He stops, probably now recognizing that the scratching was heading in the direction of the door itself. “…Get behind me.”

They race to the door, and I do the same except go past it and hide in the dark corner, making sure my shield is still up. The door slides open and a well-prepared man with a rifle steps through first, followed by someone clutching a pistol with both hands. Now, how to make this work…

Well, I could always do –that– but it’s a really dick move… whatever, what works works.

One large step into a jump, twisting my body to kick the one lagging behind, propelling myself off of him and directly into the hallway he used to be in. “Agh- what?!” Landing on one foot, I twist correctly to throw the mace at the control panel, which breaks and sends the door slamming shut.

Now run, just run.

Double doors. The first pair I’ve seen in this complex, and most likely the location of my objective. It’s only been a few minutes since the lockdown, so I shouldn’t have much trouble. That doesn’t mean it hurts to be prepared. The door is locked at this point, and having no other way of entry, the mace in my hand will be my key in.

Charging forward, I begin to swing the mace upwards as the doors- open?!

“Eh-“

There’s no time for protest as the chubby man from the doors goes flying through the room and lands on the wooden desk in the back. The desk barely holds as I hear the crack of bone breaking and the man falling on the floor, spilling a document full of papers everywhere.

The hell is that wood made out of? I’ve heard of some Cuban tree whose wood was hard enough to break down concrete, but…

What the hell, I have what I need here. But papers are going to be difficult to carry all the way out. They do have the information I have; I just need to find a way to-

“Summary of all events is in the USB drive.”

Oh yea, they’re techies. It takes a while to find the small drive among the piles of paper, but once it’s in my hand I’m gone.

“Hope you’ve found a way out. Target secured, headed to garage.”

Southern end of the complex, a perfect square from overhead; It wasn’t hard to find the end location. It was more of a problem trying to be stealthy as a black blob in the middle of snow.

“Hurry the fuck up,” an annoyed voice comes over the radio. “The corpses are starting to really stink.”

“You’re fault for killing everyone.”

“It’s my –job– dumbass. Yours getting what we need and getting over here.” I sigh in resignation and get to the roof, finding a loose hatch and prying it open. Once I get down, I immediately see an antique car; one with no actual hood unless you raise the black curtain in the back, with a long haired redhead in the front seat. And corpses, lots of dead people.

“Open the door and let’s get out.” Climbing into the shotgun seat, I take one more look at the interior of the car, and god damn it looks expensive. “And seriously, this kind of car?”

“Hey, gotta make a show when you go, right?” Finally, I notice the trigger she has in her hand.

Oh, mother fucker.

I cover my eyes as the explosion of C4 and grenades blows open the garage door, and immediately afterwards the engine revs up and the car bolts out the door.

And Megan was laughing all the way-

“STOP THE CAR!”

My head was down after the blast, trying to rid my ears of the constant ringing. When I popped my head back up, I saw the one thing we didn’t want and yelled out. The car brakes screeched in protest as the car came to stop near a cliff side.

“Fuck! Dead end!”

We’re supposed to meet at the bottom for the pickup, but this is making things hard. With more roars of engines behind us, we’re trapped unless-

Hmm. Fuck it. I kick the door open and resummon the mace. I ignore the cries of “what the fuck are you doing?” as I swing the mace and break the door off. Megan asks again, louder this time as I carry the broken door to the cliff.

“I want to live, is that a problem?!” I yell back, setting the door down and getting myself ready. “If you want to live too I’d suggest getting over here!”

“You’re fucking insane!” Looking back, she hesitates immensely, eyes darting back and forth until she sees the cars coming from behind. She swears to the air and any gods above as she runs to me and gets on my back, pushing the door down and riding the slope.

“Out in style right?”

“Fuck you!”

The chaos already begins. A few shots miss us from the firing squad up at the top, and I barely manage to drive the door-sled out of the way.

“Contact the heli! Tell them to meet at the bottom!” I need to narrow my eyes against the wind, steering ourselves right and hopefully out of sight. It’s difficult with Megan’s arms wrapped around my waist

Man, this is great. I should do this stuff more often.

“I think we’re being followed!” Her yells make me aware of the approaching sound of motors. They’re most likely on some of those skis, and armed.

“I’m leaving it to you!”

“You’re expecting me to do that?!?”

“I’M DRIVING!”

She groans loudly, shifting herself so she can get her whip out of the container on the back. The sparks fly as she rips out the spiked chains, letting them fall onto the snow behind us as we continue sliding down the mountainside. It’s pretty clear for now, but I can see the woodlands up ahead. That’s going to be difficult.

“Go left! I can get one there!” I lean over to that direction but it’s quite enough to get where we need to go.

“You need to lean too!”

“Right.”

“You said left!”

“RAAAAAAGH!”

She manages to pull it off in the end by making it explode, probably by overloading the electricity in the engine to enormous amounts. Well, I’m not a physics expert so only she really knows.

“Another one on the right! With an uzi!”

“Left is the safer way down!”

“We’re gonna get shot!”

“I got that covered.” Soon after the car door and both of us are encased in the usual barrier, not bothering with the color. Bigger ones are easier to break, but since we’re all moving like this it shouldn’t be a problem. “Evasive maneuvers incoming!”

We finally breach the forest, shifting left and right to avoid the trees and bushes scattered. The motors in the distance falter a bit, and it seems only the good drivers are chasing after us from here. Shots are fired at us, but any that don’t miss or hit a tree are absorbed by the shield.

“Heads up!”

“What-“A foot in the air; that’s all we jump after going over a bump but it causes her to scream a bit and hold onto me for dear life. She curses as we land.

“I warned you! What, a little scared of heights?”

“RIIIIIIGHT!”

…Shit. Well, someone had to bring in the bang.

“Heli, get out of here! They have RPGs!” Megan quickly shouts into her com, but I grab it right after and yell into it.

“Delay that order, move up! I have an idea!”

“Have I mentioned you’re FUCKING CRAZY?!”

“Too late to get off the ride now!” I begin to lean right, looking out for the extra riders, if any are still here. “Megan, one at eight-thirty, take him out!” The door slides over as she reaches out with her whip, wrapping it around the handles and pulling the ski and driver over to us. They crash nicely into a tree, though some debris gets a bit too close.

“ETA ten seconds, Gina!” The radio buzzes in from the pilot of the helicopter. Everything seems to be going alright.

“Don’t worry about anything! Think of this as glory points for Eightball!” I encourage the furious girl behind me.

“You’re still going to pay for this!” Megan still gets ready for the inevitable as the heli begins to pop into view and gets into position. The cliff is getting closer too. The shot is fired.

It’s time. “NOW!”

Both our legs push off the door at the same time as it goes over the edge. The barrier bursts and gives us an extra boost as it leaves us behind, hurtling back to the snow becoming a shield for the incoming rocket. The ladder from the helicopter swings as both of us grab onto it, Megan just underneath me. Looking back, the owner of the RPG can’t stop himself from falling over a ways right of us.

“Get us out of here!” I yell upwards as I climb the ladder up. Once inside I slump right against the same seat I was in when we came in. Megan shoots me a death glare as I give her a thumbs-up when she enters.

“I have a severe disliking towards you.” She grumbles as she slowly gets to her seat.

“Love ya too, Megan.” Filled with complete sarcasm. And now it was my turn to laugh, all the way home. Completely spent.

Today was a good day.