Mission Failed Successfully (A Yoru x Phoenix)

One

"You found anything?"

"Relax, Brim, I got this. You know I got this, right?"

Brimstone huffed through the intercom, "I don't want your theatrics Phoenix, you're a handful enough as it is. Got it?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got you, old man."

Static buzzed in his ear as the communication was shut off, and Phoenix leant against the wall of a cafe with a sigh.

Once upon a time, these streets were bustling. This town was well loved, tightly packed and tidy, yet now it stood derelict and silent. Eerily silent, like fog across an empty field. Phoenix sighed again.

Control had given him the order to stay put, after almost jeopardising a handful of missions beforehand. Nevermind the fact he still completed them. He got spike, didn't he? And no one was left alive, although that was mostly due to Breach, and okay the fire had nearly gotten out of control, and he was brash and impulsive. Sage had nearly left him in the medic centre to die after he'd limped in for the tenth time last month, and he'd gotten an earful about being a liability.

Phoenix rested his head against the brick, tapping his foot to the rush of adrenal in his body. At least he could develop an appreciation for Italian architecture, they really had a knack for the small details, like that wonderfully crap graffiti of a cat above the bench, or that random boat propped up in the corner.

He remembered with a frown how when he'd first been introduced to the area, he thought it was a massive ironing board. He'd been concussed after a short run-in with the white haired girl again, and had stumbled away to find cover. The whole team still bullies him for it, the ruthless dogs that they are.

Then there's the-

Fuck it.

If he didn't just do something instead of standing around like a useless cabbage, he'd go insane.

There was static from his earpiece, and no sound of bullets echoing around the area. He may be the only soul here for all he knew. Might as well go for a stroll.

He crept along the narrow alleyways, checking in buildings, behind corners, around boxes and in bins. No spike, no person, no random weapon. Ten minutes later he found some sick shoes in the dumpster though, although filthy and smelling of bin juice, but he could work with that.

"Control, is anyone there?" A dull static thrummed in his right ear.

He peeked around the corner to find an open market square, a fountain in the middle. A massive meeting point for the people of the town, he could almost hear the bustle of a city on the weekend if he tried hard enough.

The cobbled ground beneath his feet turned into intricate brick paving as he slowly looked around him.

"Yo, what's with the radio silence?"

He went towards the edge of the centre, twiddling his earpiece, the crackling starting to get uncomfortable. Rusted restaurant seats lined the fence, overlooking the town across the river.

A town that had crumbled, and Valorant had speculated high radianite concentration. It unexpectedly hit from out of no where about three months ago, and there wasn't much they could do but evacuate survivors.

Since then Valorant agents have been put around the area, watching as Kingdom extracted the Radianite and constructed their buildings around the damage it caused.

"Hello? Control? You sure do like bugging me when I'm actually doing stuff, but now you ghost me?"

Phoenix stared off in frustration at the blocky terraforming this strange material had caused, arching towards the sky and crushing houses into rubble at it's feet.

He hoped some day he'd finally know what the hell was going on here.

"Honestly, what with you guys? This silence is driving me m-"

Phoenix shut his mouth.

He heard something.

"Hey, Control?" He whispered, positioning his gun, "I think I got something."

There it was again. A scraping across the ground, like something being dragged.

Up towards the north of the market, where one of many small streets were split.

Phoenix was told to stay put.

Phoenix remembered the bollocking he got from Sage last time he went against protocol.

So Phoenix did what he does best.

Dive head first into trouble.