Starting Fires

Lloyd jumped, bringing his machete down to my head, but I parried it away and went in for a chop to his flank, which he dodged.

"Are you proud of what you've done?" I growled, locking blades with him for a moment before kicking him away.

"What I do is in my nature," the Mind Worm rumbled, lunging in, only to nick my thigh armor. "You humans, you need to eat food so that you may live. I thrive off of suffering and death. How are you not different from me in that respect, Assassin?"

"I have morals," I grunted, slamming my sword down on the blade raised above his head. "I do only what is necessary and I do it in the most efficient way I see fit."

"You started a war!" Lloyd shot back. "Well, in a few days, there will be a war, all because you fucked up."

With renewed rage, I ducked down, making myself a smaller target, while I swung Solaris over my head to his right flank, meeting his machete, then working it back over to his left flank to be denied a wound yet again.

"I tried my best," I gasped, feeling the exertion of my heavy tactics. "It was more than I could handle. How do you know these things, anyways?"

Lloyd pointed his blade down, catching mine, and swung them around in a circle twice, very nearly disarming me, leaving me to regain my balance and my grip while stepping back just in time to avoid having my eye skewered. The edge of the blade pressed vertically against my left eye. I closed it just in time, as I could feel the burning run from my forehead, over my eyelid, and onto my cheek. He pulled back, leaving a long, narrow cut over my eye, half blinding me and leaving me groaning in pain. Readying his blade at my neck, he raised it, preparing for the execution. Lloyd brought it down again, just to make sure he would get the cut just right, allowing me to grab the blade in my right hand, dropping my own sword, while flicking my left wrist, plunging my wristblade into his throat. Lloyd screamed in pain, plastering a bit of his blood-spittle to my face, throwing me off of him, clutching his profusely bleeding neck.

"Fool," he wheezed, taking his soaked hand away from his wound. "Lloyd may have needed blood to live, but he is no longer alive, is he? I am immortal, eternal, invincible. There is nothing you possess that I can't take away. Your mind, your body, your soul--"

"Sorry, my soul went into retirement," I interrupted his monologue. "You're just going to have to deal with an angry angel." I raised my fists and went in for a blow to the chest.

He raised an arm, pushing away my fist, kicking me in the shin. I winced, but returned with a feint to the abdomen, which he moved to block, but received a backfist strike to his face instead. Recoiling from the blow, he swept with his right leg, attempting to disrupt my balance. I jumped, responding with a snap kick to the chest. He had no time to react, just getting up from the sweep, taking the blow to the sternum, issuing a satisfying crack.

"You're good," Lloyd commented, painfully standing back up. "So much talent, wasted."

"You're full of it," I muttered, returning to a guard position.

The Mind Worm tried a feint technique, uppercutting to my chin while delivering a roundhouse kick to my knee with the opposite leg. I wasn't sure which one to block, so I hopped back, letting my opponent dive in and grab my Ka-Bar from its sheath.

"That's just plain not fair," I moaned, stomping my foot.

I dodged a quick stab, jabbing to the head in return. He recoiled, slashing towards my abdomen, nearly cutting the red fabric protecting my leather cuirass. Changing tactics, he circled around, slashing at my face. I turned too late, catching the blade right under my nose, dragging it out, close to the edge of my right lip, then pulling it back to rest on the right side of my chin, leaving a crescent shape on my lip. One more stab came my way, but I grabbed his wrist before he made contact with me, moving to grab his elbow with my other hand, then turning around to bring his arm over my shoulder, I snapped his arm downwards, bending his elbow the wrong way, issuing a loud, disgusting cracking noise. Lloyd screamed, pulling away, dropping the knife in the process. I scooped it up out of the mud, stabbing him in the abdomen.

Breathless, we both stood still, letting the rain pour down on us, washing away the blood for the time being. I stepped forward, sheathing my knife and pulling out my Desert Eagle, holstered on my chest. Lloyd's hand moved, snaking through the mud, while I pressed the barrel of the pistol against his head. I noticed, just in time, the gleaming machete blade coming in from my right. Lloyd held the blade in his left hand, slashing towards my shoulder. I rolled out of the way, getting stuck in the mud after two rotations. The Mind Worm approached me, kicking the gun out of my hand as he raised the machete to plunge down into my chest. I uselessly tried to edge away, but he just adjusted with every move I made. Quite suddenly, he was blown back ten feet, a large bullet hole in his chest.

Behind me stood Lexi and Meera with their sniper rifles aimed down at my opponent. I dragged myself out of the mire and smiled, walking back to pick up my sword. When I came close to the pair of snipers, I saw Malena step out into the rain, pulling the charging handle on her M16, joined by Brody a second later, who lay with Blackjack in the mud, their machine guns at the ready. From the fog came Titan and even Dr. Romanov. Around his waist, Titan had set up his own portable M134 Minigun. Romanov stood sheepishly in back, clutching a pile of books to his chest.

"Finish him," Lexi said with a nod.

I turned around flicking my wristblade out and locking it there. Lloyd had begun to crawl back to his feet, leaning on his machete for support.

"Give him hell," I heard Ben's voice in my left ear.

The Mind Worm raised his blade as I approached, blood flowing freely from his wounds, watered down from the pounding rain. A peel of thunder sounded in the distance.

"End it," the Sentinel growled in my head.

I stood face to face with my enemy, ready to deliver the killing blow. He brought his blade up to strike me, plunging it into my chest, but I was to focused to notice it, a flash of lightning illuminating the horizon as the blade came out, only to be smashed into a dozen useless pieces with my own sword. I raised the tip of my blade to his throat, all emotion gone from my face.

"Divine Intervention," something whispered in my ear. I didn't recognize the voice; it wasn't Ben, it wasn't the Sentinel, so who was it?

"I had an army," the Mind Worm growled. "You couldn't even stand up to them. What makes you think your little band of survivors is supposed to scare me?"

"We're a team," I said. "We're friends. We stuck through this whole ordeal together. We don't judge each other because of our mistakes, we learn from them, try our best to help each other. And when someone like you comes along and messes with our team, we will personally run you to Hell. I thought possessing Lloyd would give you insight into that. He of all people should have known what it was like to have brothers-in-arms, protecting them from whatever dangers they encountered, owing them for all the times they saved his ass, and sacrificing himself so that they could get away. That man was a hero. You don't deserve to wear his image."

"I will see to it that you, of any of your friends will face eternal damnation in this life and the next," he spat, gripping the blade with his good hand.

"Good," I said, surprising him for a moment, letting that one word sink in before continuing. "You suffer with me."

With that, I drew my sword back and plunged it into his chest. As he fell back, I knelt down with him, shoving my wristblade into his neck once again. Solaris glowed purple for a second, waves of violet energy lancing up the blade and to the pommel. I wrenched my blades out and turned back to my team, bloody, bruised, and beaten. Halfway there, I fell to my knees, prompting Lexi to run out and grab me as I began to fall prostrate into the mud.

"It's okay, I've got you," she whispered to me as she helped me walk back to the base. Her hair was soaked and her skin shone from the water droplets that had fallen; I couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks for the help," I mumbled, blinking my left eye gingerly.

"Meera fired the shot," she stated, getting me inside as the rest of the team followed.

Titan stepped to face me, getting the honor to personally slap me in the face.

"By God, man, do you have any idea how stupid that was?" he yelled. "Any other day of the week, you would've lost that fight, but you went up there and challenged the sodding wanker like it was your job. I did not bring you all the way here just so that you could get beat up by a zombie. And I'll be damned, man, but you won."

"I love you too, Titan," I chuckled, laying back on a cot.

Meera wormed her way through the crowd to stand beside Lexi, up front. I noticed her and my smile broadened.

"Thanks for the help, Meera," I thanked her.

"Your welcome," she replied shyly. "I just wanted to correct you on something you said."

"Oh?" I grunted, my attention caught.

"We're not a team of friends," she stated. "We're a family."

It was a nice moment, I had to admit, but it was completely ruined by the fact that I had no emotional response to it. All I could muster up was a forced smile before relaxing and passing out.

***

Blurry white light filled my vision as I regained consciousness. Was I dead? My sight took a moment to focus, taking in the fact that I was sitting in a white bed in a white room. It was pretty convincing, but since Eddie was sitting in a chair on the left side of my bed, I had to assume I was alive.

"He's awake!" Eddie yelled. "Guys, he's awake!"

The team came rushing into the room, crowding me. I noticed that they were all wearing new outfits.

"How long was I out?" I asked, noticing that my chest was amazingly sore.

"About a week," Titan replied.

"How bad was I?" I pressed on, noticing my ravenous hunger as well.

"Some bruising, that wasn't so bad," Lexi said, paraphrasing what was on the clipboard at the foot of my bed. "The cuts on your face, those'll scar, but they look pretty awesome. You were stabbed in the chest which... it pretty much cut your heart in half."

"So, they put in a new one?" I asked, glancing at my chest.

"No, not quite," Titan cut in, placing the clipboard back where Lexi found it. "You should have died on the spot, but you didn't. Something kept you alive long enough for us to get you into surgery. We didn't have any hearts on hand, so we did you one better. What you have in your chest is a mechanical pump, sort of a four-stroke engine for your blood."

"That's... weird," I said, looking at the scar under my gown. "So, heart disease, heart attacks, those are pretty much out of the question for me."

"Pretty much," Titan said. "Are you unhappy with it, would you prefer a real heart?"

"No, this'll do," I said, grinning. "I guess I can't deny being part robot, now."

"Well, if you get shot in the head, we'll replace your brain with a computer," Lexi chuckled.

"And end up like Eddie?" I scoffed. "Please, just put me out of my misery!"

"Oh, come off it, mate," Titan said. "You two are just about as intelligent as each other."

There was a few more minutes of good-natured ribbing before the nurse came in and ordered everybody out. I was given a menu for lunch, my first real meal in a week, and was not disappointed with my order. Instead of your stereotypical, disappointing hospital food, I was given a gourmet meal that I polished off in no time.

***

There came a knock at my door some time later. I set down the copy of Ulysses that I had been trying to read, calling out for my visitor to come in. Malena Sextus led her father into the room.

"Emperor Sextus!" I exclaimed, sitting up.

"Master Foley," he said, sitting in the chair beside my bed. "So good to see the hero of the Castle. Speaking of which, you've been promoted for your actions."

"Promoted?" I asked, impressed at my accomplishment.

"Yes, the whole team was promoted two ranks, from Privates, to Privates First Class, to Lance Corporals. For your distinctive actions, you have been promoted from Lance Corporal to Corporal. You are the highest ranking enlisted man on the Task Force. Here are all of the insignias. I thought you might want to collect them, seeing as there are probably many more ahead in your career."

"Thank you, sir," I said, looking at the double chevron of the Corporal insignia.

"Now, to the real business," the Emperor said. "I'm afraid I've kept you in the dark for far too long. It's time I revealed what Task Force 343 was formed for."