Starting Fires

We shipped out tomorrow which gave us time to prepare for the next trip away from the city. Titan got on his radio and called up Ben, requesting a leave to see his girlfriend. The rest of the team decided to tag along to go on a quick dip into the strange waters of society. It was odd how just a few days ago I was a perfectly normal civilian going about my business but now that life was completely foreign to me. The shops, the traffic, the people on the sidewalks, the constant obliviousness of the war that this country was fighting was almost terrifying to me. The taxi pulled up in front of a huge tower, much akin to the obsidian one that I had jumped off for initiation into the Assassin order, only this one was made of an opaque yellow glass that shone like the sun in the right light.

"Get out," Titan grunted, prying the door open as we all wormed our way to the exit.

Once out of the car and into the building, we followed Titan across the lobby (I suppose entrance hall would be slightly more appropriate to describe its appearance, but it had the air of a lobby) and into the elevator, up to some residential floor halfway up the structure. Standing in the middle of the hallway was a pretty redheaded girl, waiting patiently against one of the doors. She turned to face us, revealing a face that looked much too familiar. It was almost identical to Malena's, the same snub nose, high cheekbones, and hazel eyes, but this girl had a cute cluster of freckles on her nose and running underneath her eyes, not to mention she must have been about 10 years older. Her face lit up when she saw us, or perhaps just one of us, and ran towards the group, leaping onto Titan and swinging around as he embraced her, revolving once, and set her down.

"My God, T., it's been forever since I last saw you," she exclaimed, proceeding to plant a kiss on his lips.

"Celia, calm down," Titan chuckled. "I'm the Commander of the Marines, and the leader of an elite task force which just so happens to be standing behind me. If you keep this up in front of them, they won't let me live it down."

"Sorry, T.," Celia giggled, kissing him once again on the cheek just for good measure.

In that instant, even when he was scolding her, Titan had a look of pure contentedness on his face, one that couldn't even begin to reveal how elated he was to be reunited with the girl he loved and how he wanted to spend the entire day with her doing whatever she wanted just for the sake of being with her. I tried to understand this for a moment, but was unable to grasp it. The empty space in my heart (figuratively) did not allow me to comprehend a love so pure and powerful which frustrated me. As much as I wanted to hit something at that moment, the fact that I was seeing my hard-ass commanding officer's gooey soft side calmed me down for the moment.

"Guys, go do something else," the Commander ordered.

"Like what, sir?" Donald asked, snapping to attention. He had come along purely to supervise us or so he said.

"Anything beyond three floors near us," Titan sighed, waving us off as Celia wrapped her arms around his waist and began to lean back, oscillating. "Just go away, I need to debrief her."

That caused a less-than-subtle giggle to pass through the group.

"You slick gits!" he growled, herding the team roughly into the elevator before turning back to his girlfriend, but our view was cut off by closing elevator doors and a quick trip back to the ground floor.

"So that was one of your sisters?" I asked Malena as we walked back out to the taxi.

"Yeah, Celia," the princess answered. "She's the eldest, about 8 years older than I am. Lessee, that puts her at, like, 26. Nice girl, but not Daddy's favorite. That's why he tolerates her going out with Titan."

That left us in silence as we piled into the back once again, looking at each other as if to suggest a place to go. After this brief game of chicken, Donald suggested we go get outfitted for tomorrow. On any other day, we would have protested, but considering that none of us knew what we would have wanted to do as civilians, we had nothing else to do but to agree.

***

I strapped on my leather armor and slipped into my red robes, pulling the hood over my head and enjoying the shade as opposed to the harsh fluorescent lights gazing down at me. As I had grown attached to the wristblade function and bracer in which I could hold my Tactical Gauntlet, I slipped that onto my right wrist and began going through everything I would need. My PPSh was slung at my hip where I would be able to grab and fire it quickly while my M16A4 was strapped to my back along with my Barret M82A1, just in case I needed to do some longer-range work. Solaris hung from the baldric I had slipped over my opposite shoulder with the Ka-Bar sheathed right above it, giving an opportunity to try a new tactic I had worked out recently; I would hold the sword in my right hand, normally, while in my left hand I held the combat knife in an icepick grip so that I could stab with the sword while slashing with the knife. I had several throwing knives stored in both of my boots and a Bowie Knife sheathed on my back, right over my left kidney. In the utility belt at my waist, I had several grenades stored in their pouches and plenty of ammunition, along with some survival gear.

The blue home-screen of the Tac-G flashed as I turned it on, heading to the spell library to make sure all of the more complicated magicks I had were all set for use. Quite suddenly, I was prompted to download a patch to update my system to be compatible with my sword. It was a legendary weapon, I suppose I would want unlock its full potential. Once the process was complete, my ears began to ring unbearably, causing me to double over, clutching my head hopelessly.

"Ah, that's better," a vaguely familiar voice sighed in my head. It was the fellow that whispered, "Divine Intervention" just before I slew the Mind Worm.

"Begging your pardon, but who are you and why does every single supernatural force seem to want to rent space in my head?" I growled, standing up.

"Why, son, I am Solaris, Elemental Lord of Light, your Elemental Guild's patron and father of the Assassin Brotherhood," the voice remarked. "I am one of the order of knights of God Himself. No need to introduce yourself, Liam, I've heard quite enough about you from being carried at your hip."

"So, the sword--" I began, deciding not to finish such a statement so devoid of intelligence.

"Yes, a part of my power is manifested in that sword," Solaris stated. "It is extremely powerful in the right hands, particularly in the hands of an equally powerful Solarmancer, much like you. It was a personal gift to the Archangel Michael whose son lost it in some duel or some such."

That coaxed out a huff from the Sentinel.

"Oh, don't you scoff at me, boy," Solaris yelled at the dark figure in my mind.

"I don't appreciate what you have to say about me," the Sentinel pointed out. "I believe we tread on even ground, now."

A third voice joined in, jabbering something in a foreign tongue which took me a moment to figure out.

"Who's speaking Russian?" I asked, rubbing my forehead.

"Oh, don't mind them," the Sentinel said, "they're just here to remind you that you're crazy."

"Don't antagonize the boy like that," Solaris scolded. "It's your fault, anyways."

"I-- what?" I asked, accidentally flicking my wristblade out, nearly giving myself an unwelcome haircut.

"Well, the functions that I removed from your mind were just these huge gaps that just did nothing for the decor in here," the Sentinel said. "So, in my careless search for something to replace them with, I left your mind open to a bunch of babbling Soviets that needed a home."

"Damn you!" I cursed, getting only a few angry yells in Russian as a response.

***

After I was fully prepared, I removed my equipment and uniform and hung the outfit up on a makeshift mannequin beside my bed before I decided to hit the showers. I slipped out of my clothes and slipped into a stall, delighted to find that it was, in fact, a 4 meter by 2 meter bathtub with a shower head. It had been a rather stressful couple of weeks, so I decided for a nice soak in favor of a shower. I added bubbles, bath salts, and soaps to get the most soothing and delightfully fragrant bath that I had ever taken.

When I was all settled in and relaxed out of my mind, the stall door opened and Meera poked her head in.

"Are you running a bath?" she asked.

"Yep," I answered, sounding rather stoned.

"You mind if I join you?" she requested.

"Don' see why not," I sighed, much too relaxed to be offended.

She stripped down quickly and jumped into the tub, opposite me, instantly releasing any physical stress she had outside of the water, but I could see in her eyes that something was troubling her.

"Something wrong?" I asked sitting up as a large mound of bubbles floated in front of me.

"I-- well," she stuttered, her stress returning. "I'm not the most social of people."

"Ah," I remarked. "And?"

"Well, I really don't have any friends on this team," Meera admitted. "Or at all, really. Never did. It just gets so lonely sometimes, I just can't stand it."

"Don't you have Lexi?" I asked.

"I tag along with her," she said with a shrug. "She doesn't really acknowledge my existence as highly important."

"I know how you feel," I stated, sitting back.

"You do?" Meera gasped, quite surprised.

"I have friends back home," I told her. "Well, not quite friends. I know them and they let me hang out with them, but they've never really made any moves to get to know me better and I just don't have the will to take charge of my own damn life and get something important done."

"Exactly," Meera agreed. "I just don't feel appreciated, but I can't seem to bring myself to be noticed."

We sat, not speaking, but staring into each other's eyes. It wasn't a stare of affection, nor desire, but a deep understanding of each other, a gaze of pure connection on an emotional connection. I was able to feel this kindred spirit between Meera and me, but it brought me no contentedness, only an empty satisfaction and a quiet Russian muttering.

"I just feel so weird around other people," I went on. "It's like my mind doesn't work the same way theirs do."

"It's probably just some mental/social disorder," Meera pointed out. "You know how modern neurology wants to make autism out of everything. Well, I guess we just do think differently from others because we are different. We are weird. And it's depressing."

I nodded and looked down at the bubbles, losing my train of thought as I let myself relax completely yet again.

"But we understand each other, don't we?" Meera pointed out, shifting over to the other side of the tub to sit next to me, catching my attention once again.

"We do, don't we?" I chuckled in agreement.

"So where do you think our relationship would go?" she asked, resting her head on my shoulder rather awkwardly.

This caught me off guard, so I took a moment to collect my thoughts by pretending to stare pensively into the middle distance before responding with, "Personally, I think you're a cool kid, but we wouldn't work as a couple. Besides, I have my sights set on another girl."

"At least you're honest," Meera said, no trace of hurt in her voice or affect. "And thank God, you didn't choose me. I'm a mess and I have about five other guys in line before I'd go out with a trainwreck like you."

"I was about to tell you not to beat yourself up, but now I'm just plain offended," I said, pouting and looking away from her.

"You're right when you say we wouldn't work," she reassured me with a laugh at my pseudo-childish reaction. "Do you prefer to listen to people than talk?" I nodded yes. "Same. So what would we talk about if the both of us just wanted to sit and listen?" Good point. "It just wouldn't go anywhere. Anyways, who's the girl you like?"

Once again, I had let my defenses down and froze in my tracks, but I should have seen this coming.

There was a knock at the stall door and Meera darted back to the other side of the tub. For a second, I thought that this would interrupt what would turn out to be an awkward stuttering session followed by a reluctant answer, but was greeted with Lexi's face.

"Ah, speak of the devil," I chuckled uncomfortably.

"I was taking a bath with the princess, which wasn't a bright idea to begin with," the newcomer stated, dropping the towel around her body and climbing in next to me. "Don't think I don't know what that hand's doing under the water. Ugh."

"Alexandria, what's your problem?" the cry followed its subject into our stall as Malena burst in, not raising herself to the decency to cover herself with a towel.

"You're a pervert," Lexi sighed, shivering in pleasure as she sank into the perfect water I had created.

Malena obviously had no argument against it, shrugged, and made a big show of bending over to pick up the towel Lexi had dropped when entering and hanging it on the hook, walking out to continue her, ahem, bath.

***

The bath concluded rather uneventfully, Meera and Lexi finishing before I did, as I very rarely had little motivation to give up on a relaxing stint in hot water. When it was far past time for me to leave, I finally dragged myself out and drained the water, taking note of what I had used and how much so that I could replicate and experiment with that genius concoction.

The day was nearly over by now, so I decided to sit down and watch the news for the first time in a while. A few local fluff pieces passed by before a breaking news report came to the desk.

"This just in," the anchorman said. "We are getting reports that the German terrorist group, Die Kraft, Die Treibt has seized full political power in their native country and, along with continuing hostility with France, have fully seceded Germany from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO has had no choice but to declare war on Germany which prompted the terrorists, who now control the military, to invade France. The United Kingdom instantly sent aid to the French, which left Northern Ireland open to a full-scale rebellion for independence. In Latin America, the population has been inspired by the German terrorists to rise against the drug cartels ruling many of the countries. Civil wars are taking place in most every Latin country south of the Untied States. Many nationalist civil wars are also being fought in Africa for freedom from dictators and the Middle East has all but exploded with military activity. North Korea has revoked the almost 60 year ceasefire with South Korea, causing the US to take action all around the globe which seems to have caused China to take offence from so much American military action around its borders, it has declared war on the US. Russia responded to both the Chinese and European wars in favor of the US. Japan has also pledged aid to the US in the war in Eastern Asia.

"This is a lot to take in, ladies and gentlemen. Earth seems to have been plunged into World War Three. Meanwhile, here at home, the Marine Task Force #343 has declared its own private war on a species of Great Ones known as the Saviness after a top secret operation against them about a week ago. The government is keeping quiet about this military action, but says that 'it will not come to involve a threat civilians, so we should keep our noses out of it.' Well, it's not the most professional statement the Emperor has handed out, but I suppose it gets the point across."

The news went on to detail the various network of civil wars and international conflicts that marred our home dimension, but I just sat in stunned silence.

"Oh, God," Brody muttered, nudging Malena out of his lap to get a good look at the TV. "There is no possible way this ends well for anyone."

"Of course not," Donald pointed out, "it's a war."

"Hopefully it'll be a shooting war," I stated. "If it goes nuclear..."

"The end," Titan muttered, bowing his head.