Rapido!

Chapter 12

"Amigo. Congrats!" Elliot and Octavio clinked their beer bottles together and each sipped.

"I mean, come on man it was bound to happen." Elliot said nonchalantly as he rested his hands behind his head, "I'm just that good."

"Sí amigo, si."

"How about you huh? Gettin' a little cozy with the ladies?" Elliot teased.

"Ay hush up man you'll give me bad luck! I'm trying to take it slow, don't wanna ruin it."

"Sure, sur- Octavio!? Taking it slow??!" Elliot jumped up and laughed, "Why- I've AHAHAHAHA!"

Octavio took a sip of his beer, "I think you've had too much to drink amigo, I'm heading to bed."

"Nah nah chill Octavio. You're just a man of speed, so I don't expect you to move slow." Elliot took another sip.

"Well, this is one of those things I should take slow, I don't wanna mess it up and lose her. Nite amigo."

"Take it easy O!" Elliot went to take another sip of beer and spilled it on himself, "Aw shit!"

...

Octavio went into his room and looked around. This was the first time he had a clean kept room since... ever. Natalie was bringing out sides he'd never seen in himself, and he was making good habits. He felt... fresh, clean, happy. He'd been chasing all of that for years!

He sat on his bed and pulled out his phone, he wanted to check the game standings. He eventually went to Natalie's social media page; she had posted a picture while he was with Elliot. It was of him, while they were on their date. His mouth was full of food, and he was making a big smile, he looked like a chipmunk. He looked at what she wrote:

<3

He smiled. A big smile that made the one in the photo look pathetic. He checked the comments, over the past few month's sightings of him and Natalie in public, or in the games or pre-games had grown a small fan base of shippers who thought he and Natalie should get together. The comments were exploding with excited shippers saying, "Wattane forever! Octson is so cute! It's perfect!"

Octavio got a call,

"Hola Che, what can I do for you?"

"Silva, meet ma downstairs, da room by da lab with ta door that's always locked. Knock once."

"Umm. Ok, see you there."

She hung up. Octavio put on his clothes and mask and goggles and headed down to the lab.

When he got to the door he knocked once. The door opened 3 seconds later, and he walked in. He looked around the room, Ajay, Renee, Walter, Gibraltar, Caustic, Kairi, Ramya, Elliot, and Natalie were there. All looking grim and serious.  Even Elliot.

"Hola all, what's going on?" Octavio took a seat across from Natalie.

Kairi stood, "Octavio we have reason to believe that in the next few weeks there will be an attack on the games. These false alarms are being triggered by Tae, who has been intercepting some messages about attacks. We were going to leave you out of this, but Elliot and Ajay told me you ran into some suspicious men who were Pilots?"

Octavio blinked, "Um... si. I was on a run and overheard them talking about needing something to grow so that they'd have more power."

"Well they sure as hell ain't talking about their dicks," Walter said and Elliot doubled over laughing, "So we better assume it's the games. However," he looked at Octavio, "Have you seen Tae anywhere? He's been missing all day and we can't contact him. Without him we won't know when the next attack could be."

"No, I haven't seen him. I haven't talked with him for a while either."

"Kairi, do you have any connections with the Militia anymore? Say this becomes a huge war issue, we need all the backup we can get." Renee asked.

"Well, it's a damned if we do damned if we don't situation. We like the games, right? We all like competing and we've made great friendships here. But we hate the government ruling the Frontier. The IMC supports the government and the unfair trades, so we can't go to them. The Militia hates the IMC and government, but they can't seem to win without losing everything. They pushed the IMC off Demeter but at the cost of more than half of their forces because they blew up the whole frickin planet. And then they stopped the use of the arc thanks to Jack Cooper and BT-7274. But they lost a lot when the James McAllen went down. Also, they think we are criminals for playing in the games."

There was silence for about a minute.

"So..." Elliot started, "Who can we go to?"

"We may be on our own." Kairi looked at her, "But we are a group of bad ass whooping legends. People will follow us."

"We just have to show we are worth their time and sacrifice." Renee said without looking up, "And Anita is the only one with any commanding experience. And she used to fight for the IMC."

"I think we can trust her!" Gibraltar quickly said, "She hates them after her brother almost got killed. Also, her brother has a small force of deserters and civilians he's training that can help."

"I'm not sure, she may just nope out of the whole thing." Walter said, "It might be too much."

"For Anita?" Renee looked up, "She can take a lot."

Octavio spoke, "Ok so we have us, and a small force that Antia's brother has trained; assuming she is on board with this. How the hell is that gonna fight off two mass militaries?"

No one spoke.

"I think if we all believe in the cause. And we fight hard. We can accomplish anything. Even if it's taking on huge armies." Natalie spoke confidently.

"She's right." The door opened and Anita walked in, "That's what we went into battles knowing. I may have been fighting for the wrong cause. But we were a family. And we fought bravely. And we didn't give up, and we didn't let anyone tell us we were wrong."

Everyone nodded slowly.

"Ok, first things first. Where is Tae? We need to find him." Walter took out beers from his pack and threw one to Kairi, one to Anita, and one for himself, "And where are the bastards gonna attack next?"