Encounter
Elizabeth was walking a few paces behind Atlas. They had just left the camp moments before, tensions were still high. The location of the team they spotted earlier could be anywhere by now. Distinctly keeping their wits about them as they looked out for them and possibly any other teams who were willing to engage them. It was highly likely at this point that all teams were operating in the area, since none of the other drop ships had flown in.
Atlas turned his head slightly, out of the corner of his eye observed his comrade. She was alert and constantly watching their surroundings. The leader could tell his fatigue was settling in, he wondered how she felt too. Hopefully they could get this over with if they moved quickly, just to catch a bit of shut-eye. They still had been only operating on minimal sleep, and were thrust into a harsh and rugged environment that truly tested their wits.
Their boots sloshed in the muddy terrain carefully stepping over large roots, pushing through thickets of brush, and gliding passed mossy jungle trunks. They eventually came upon an archway formed by a tree that had collapsed and broken in two over a large boulder. They passed under the fallen trunk and pressed onward.
"Atlas, you mind if I ask you what your world was like?" Elizabeth broke the silence as they trekked through the wilderness.
"I would have figured you read all there is to know about Alpha Earth by now." He replied.
"Yeah well, hearing about your life is more interesting then the words in some text book. Sorry, I just never got the chance to prod at Lena about it either. She also didn't really seem keen on sharing anyway..."
She pouted a bit, hoping that Atlas would give her the information she desperately desired. Her face was pretty telling that Lena had kept pretty tight lipped about her situation.
"Well, it isn't much different than this place."
Elizabeth placed her hand on a tree trunk, which had a sticky brown moisture dripping from it.
"Sounds... rugged." She sounded disappointed as she flicked her hand and wiped off the residue that stuck to her hand.
"No, not like here... Rosette was actually pretty similar I mean. Actually in my world, it's a much smaller place but there is a city in a similar location. These worlds are somewhat mirrored after all, at least in terms of geographical positions. We called it San Francisco."
Her eyes lit up and she suddenly stepped forward in front of Atlas, her cold eyes seemed to radiate with heat at the mention of the city.
"I've read the name of that city before! Did you ever see horse drawn carriages? Oh, what about cable cars! I heard those were a commodity. Not like our airships, or cars, they glided on rails right? Like mini-trains!"
Atlas shrugged.
"Well during my time we mostly used underground subways and cars to traverse the city, not many horses roamed the streets. Cars and electric buses ruled supreme, the trollies are still there though. For tourists!"
She ended up falling back behind him as he answered, and then she paused for a moment.
"Tour-ist? So they use them as a prison transport for dangerous criminals?!"
Atlas laughed as he turned to face her, she was writing in a small notepad she carried with her. Her silver eyes dotting back and forth as she frantically wrote what Atlas had just explained, he quickly corrected her wrong.
"No-no I mean tourist not terrorist!" He realized that in a world like this, where traveling from one city to the next required a great deal of resources and time. Large scale travel was impossible due to the nature of roaming void beasts and constant strife between unstable communities for resources. This world had a global presence still, the internet existed and transportation. But it was largely localized and most of it restricted to combat use.
"They are people who travel long ways to see new places." Atlas finished as he saw her cross out the newly formed section of her notes.
Her eyes glimmered with the newfound information. "Tourists! So like us now?"
"Kind of... Though a tourist likely chooses their destination, unlike our situation." He turned back and continued walking, "Which we should probably be getting back to actually!"
She realized she got sidetracked from their mission and chuckled playfully. "Oh right, I got carried away. Sorry captain." She saluted him mockingly as she slid her notepad back into her combat-style pants.
Just as Atlas brushed aside another large brush, he felt a chill run down his spine as he noticed a figure just beyond their position. It was humanoid, and not more than forty feet from them.
He slowly reached back and put his left hand on the hilt of his blade while reaching down to his holstered firearm with his right.
Elizabeth realized his movements and immediately flipped the switch, she tapped her communication device on in her ear but was unable to speak a word before a whizzing sound cracked past her. She ducked for cover, realizing they were under fire as the echo proceeded the shot.
"GET DOWN!" Atlas yelled at his companion as he darted behind the nearest tree, breaking off from their unsafe position.
"Unknown enemy engaging us from a distance. Taking fire from a rifle, about forty yards from our position! Requesting support!!" Elizabeth was able to shout off a call for help and then peaked out to see if she could spot the assailant.
The hot air was still for a moment, and then another shot rang out. Clipping the tree that she was using to conceal herself, just above her head. She covered her eyes as some splinters rained down on her.
"Liz, don't move from there! They have us pinned, likely a sniper of some kind."
Shit... We both can't fight back against this kind of opponent easily.
Atlas drew his handgun and placed both of his hands on it, if they were fighting someone at range this would be the only weapon he could even hope to utilize in a fight like this.
"Hey!" He shouted over to Elizabeth who was now shaping her staff into a bow, using a special thread she had custom made from a powerful and expensive material known for its flexible yet durable nature. Perfect for a situation like this!
She looked over to him as if to respond to his command when Atlas noticed the hole above her head, the mark that the sniper had left on the tree.
Did one of the other teams have a rifle like Lena on their team? Despite having magic to use?
Something felt horribly wrong about this situation, even more so than the obvious ambush. The heat was unbearable, in fact it was almost as if the air around them was boiling. Atlas could see heatwaves in front of his face, not all that uncommon in environments like this, but it was still early morning. The smell of smoke poured into his nostrils not a moment later, he ducked down a little the moment he inhaled.
"Shit! FIRE! Stay low–"
Atlas realized his mistake by issuing that warning immediately, looking over to Elizabeth who had leaned out of her position to take a shot at the enemy with her weapon. The air around her was forming into crystalline wind, ice was beginning to form in her right palm that she had pulled in the string of her bow to the rear.
She misinterpreted!
It was too late, before the ice could fully form, another attack was already incoming. This time it was much slower, and hot.
A person engulfed in flames came barreling towards them, they were covered in what looked like a cloak of fire. Atlas could see them forming a fist, launching it outwards and unleashing a furry of hellfire towards their position.
Atlas jumped over to her to push Elizabeth out of the way of the flames, taking her to the ground before she was hit.
The two of them were coughing from the thick smoke that was now filling the jungle floor, this assailant had set part of the forest ablaze with their magic.
The figure did not hesitate to close the distance once the two of them were out of position, Atlas raised his gun. Firing off two warning shots at the person charging them, they stopped dead in their tracks as the flames flickered around their body.
"Liz get up!" Atlas got up and pulled her off her knees. They both had the smog to worry about on top of their assailant.
"I have an idea!" She had crouched down, slamming her hands into the ground as Atlas fired off a few more shots, missing on purpose to not harm the other combatant. A half dome of muddied ice emerged in front of them just as another shot from an unknown position rang out and struck her newly formed barrier.
"Nice thinking!" Atlas was impressed.
Two of them? So it is another team.
Before they could even consider their next move, an orange blur was just beyond the wall of ice moving closer towards them. Atlas holstered his handgun and drew his sword, preparing to face the one cloaked in flames.
A fist crashed through the ice, the surrounding wall melted almost instantly. The flaming figure standing just in front of them. Elizabeth shifted her weight back and pointed her staff towards the enemy. Ice was forming at the tip as she prepared a counter attack in desperation. Atlas was waiting for this moment however, he swung the back-end of his sword at the enemy.
His swing connected, striking the opponent in their gut. A high-pitched grunt spat out of their mouth. A woman?
The combatant rolled a bit but then quickly recovered. The flames around them were weakened from the ice water that doused a good portion of them when the ice came down. Atlas stared in confusion at their assailant, he felt a familiar sense about her.
It was the figure of a woman, she was wearing a battle suit that was unfamiliar to him. Her face and head were concealed by a strange mask, even her eyes had a specialized visor that kept her concealed.
Whoever this person was, they weren't from the 91st. No distinguishing insignias or emblems at all on their strange suit.
Her right arm had a steel gauntlet that still had flames erupting from it. Atlas was familiar with this type of weapon. And his heart sank at the possibility that he knew this person from somewhere.
Impossible. What is going on? Why is she here? Why is...
"Anders?!"
Was this part of the exam? I thought this was just between students.
Before Atlas could even question the woman she crossed her arm over her concealed face and then lashed out, flinging a gel-like substance towards him and Elizabeth from her gauntlet. Whatever it was it ignited almost instantly as it left the assailants arm. He turned his back to his enemy and shielded his friend whom he just tackled to the ground.
Elizabeth grunted as she was forced into the mud. "What was th–" Her eyes shot open, her cracked voice broke when she saw that Atlas fighting back the pain.
She pulled him towards her and she raised her staff, jabbing it out towards the woman who had approached them. The woman in black shifted her weight to one side and spun around to dodge, swinging her leg out she dug the heel in to Elizabeth's face.
Blood splattered across the muddied floor from her mouth and nose. She was knocked out from the moment she was hit. Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed in the mud along with Atlas.
The woman leaned over and could see her weapon doing its job. The gel-like substance glistening on his his back still lit and concentrating on burning into his flesh. She kicked him down, but he could hardly fight back. The pain was unbearable. The assailant pulled out a small syringe and injected something into his right arm, it almost instantly made his vision fade.
Once he was unconscious, she doused the flaming gel with another substance in a vial. Then she lifted him over her shoulder and sprinted off in the direction she had come from.
Not even a few seconds later, the rest of squad three emerged from the fallen tree archway. Weapons drawn, Orion was in the lead who takes after the fleeing assailant after he notices she is carrying Atlas. A gunshot that lands in front of him halting him in his tracks.
Lena cried out to her friend on the round. "Liz!" She crashes to her knees next to her friend and slowly lifts her head from the mud. Caressing the bruise that formed on her cheek from the kick.
Elizabeth coughed up some mud and some sort of mixed fluids, slowly opening her eyes to see her friend holding her.
"I'm– sorry." It was all she could muster with her strength.
"Don't speak Liz." Lena was already checking for other injuries as she cleaned off Elizabeth's face.
Leo lagged behind a bit sliding through a bush not far from Lena's position. His face whitened at the sight he was witnessing.
"What happened?!"
Lena was entirely focused entirely on her fallen team member's injuries.
"Where is Atlas?" She cried out to Orion who was still standing in the same spot, looking to identify the person who fired at him before.
Not a word left him, his focus was dead-set on the invisible threat. Orion took a gamble and dared to take a step forward, no attack came. He darted ahead without hesitation once he realized, towards where he saw the assailant take his friend.
Lena's thoughts were racing so much that it was hard to keep focus. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes but she fought them back, she realized what had happened when Orion rushed ahead without them.
Atlas had been kidnapped.
Lena was forcing herself to stay strong. She looked down at her friend, wiping the blood from her nose with her hand. A tear fell from her cheek and landed on Elizabeth's bruised face.
A moment later, Orion had re-emerged from the brush. "I lost them..."
"FUCK!" Leo slammed his hand into the tree beside them, each of their frustrations were clear. This had been an utter disaster.
* * *
The room was cold, damp, and pitch black.
There was nothing except for the rattling of chains and some water dripping onto a stone surface somewhere in the room.
Atlas could feel something over his eyes. A blindfold?
He struggled to move his arms, but all he could feel was a chilled metallic wristband. And the sound of metal clanging on the wall. His arms were raised, he could tell that much even with his weakened circulation. I'm cuffed to something.
His injury felt a little better, but whatever had burned him was still aching on his back.
The sound of a rusted metal door opening alarmed him.
"Who's there?!"
A set of footsteps approached him, there was more than one person in the room.
In a moment he felt a slap across his face from a massive hand. And then a second later his blindfold was removed.
Standing before him was a towering figure. One he knew all too well.
"Commander... Graham? What the fuck is going on?!" Atlas struggled fiercely the moment he recognized his face. "Explain yourself!"
Another force slammed into his face again, this time it was a punch. It knocked him unconscious on impact.
"That ought to shut him up." Graham furled his lip and then spat on Atlas' head as it lay slumped down. "How dare you look at me with such disdain!"
"This is our first target confirmed. Well done Rose." The well dressed man turned to face the woman in the suit who had accompanied him into the room.
She stayed silent even as he complimented her, not out of respect but almost as if she were unworthy of his praise. Her head hung low as he began to walk out of the dark chamber.
"Inform them that we have the boy. The other mages proctoring this exam are awaiting my return... If anyone aside from the girl approach the tower– shoot to kill."
The woman nodded at her superior. She walked over to Atlas who was still unconscious, covering his eyes again with the blindfold before leaving the room.
