Assault (Red vs Blue)

25: Familiar Enemies

25: Familiar Enemies

Present Day: Mountainside; Near the Temple of the Key (The planet Chorus)

Carolina and Tex had taken off running after the mystery soldier. Caboose had called him "Sharkface"; it seemed like a rather fitting name. But there was something about him — the colors of his armor, the way he spoke to the freelancers like he knew them — that had sparked a memory in the cyan clad freelancer's mind. Carolina had been immediately reminded of years ago, when Project Freelancer had been battling the Insurrection. She knew he was a former Insurrectionist — she just couldn't place where she'd specifically run into him. After so many years of being in the fight, it started getting difficult to differentiate between enemies. They started to look the same after so long.

Sharkface was managing to keep a good amount of distance between himself and the two women, but they were starting to close the gap. He had to have noticed; Carolina watched him touch the side of his helmet for a brief moment before lowering his hand and pushing himself to run faster. Carolina and Tex made themselves pick up the pace as well. With Doyle being unaccounted for, they couldn't afford to lose him.

"We're gonna be in for some company!" Tex hollered as the two of them ran. "He just called for backup!"

"Then be ready for anything!" Carolina yelled back to her teammate. "We can't let him get away!"

Looking ahead, Carolina watched as the mercenary suddenly dropped over the hill. Her lungs were aching and screaming for air, but she couldn't slow down now. When she reached the edge of the hill, she watched as Sharkface slid effortlessly to the bottom. He was on what appeared to be a plateau that looked out over a frozen lake. He came to a stop, but never bothered to look behind him to make sure he'd lost his pursuers. That was a mistake, and Tex had noticed it, too.

The two freelancers slid down the hill after the former Insurrectionist. When they hit the bottom, they catapulted themselves through the air in unison. Sharkface turned around just in time to be met with their fists connecting with his face. He stumbled back, unable to recover himself before the freelancers battered him with a combination of strategically placed kicks and punches. Sharkface staggered back with a groan, his arms barely raised in an attempt to seem like he was going to fight back. After exchanging a look with Tex, Carolina allowed the black clad soldier to land a solid kick to the enemy soldier's head before she took the chance to kick him back into a pile of snow. Sharkface fell back, landing on the ground with a loud thud; he didn't move.

"Well, well. Guess we still got it," Carolina commented, relaxing her fighting stance.

"Damn right we do," Tex agreed, relaxing her stance as well. "But we should probably get back to focusing on the task at hand. And whatever backup he called for hasn't shown up yet. We could still be in for more trouble."

Carolina turned her back to the mercenary who was laying still on the ground and began walking away with her teammate. "Making sure he wasn't going to be a threat was a necessary thing, don't you think? And if we were able to handle him that easily, whatever backup he called will be a breeze."

Tex looked at her. "Okay, I'm all for stroking our egos over this, but I don't think we should be celebrating just yet."

"Why not? I feel like we can give ourselves a little bit of credit," Carolina told her, but then almost immediately wished she hadn't spoken.

Suddenly, the two women felt their rifles get snagged from their backs. The cyan clad soldier cried out in both pain and shock as she felt a hard kick land in the center of her back. She went sprawling across the ground, groaning as she came to a stop. She tried to go for the magnum she'd had holstered on her leg, but it was no longer there. Looking up, she watched as Tex whirled on their assailant; Sharkface had gotten up while they'd been walking away. He apparently hadn't been as unconscious as either of them had thought. The mercenary caught Tex's fist as she went to strike out at him — he snagged her pistol before flipping her by the arm and slamming her to the ground. The other freelancer yelped in pain as she came down hard on her right shoulder. She gripped her shoulder and rolled to her knees as Carolina pulled herself into a more upright sitting position.