Flew Too Close To The Sun

Prologue

 Word Count: 870

The two guards dropped like sacks of potatoes, one close behind the other; the heavy but still silent thump of their corpses hitting the ground satisfied a nearby person.

"Two tangoes down." Through a thick British accent, the skull-faced man confirmed his kills, all while retrieving his knives from their corpses.

The other end of the headset was quiet, but Ghost knew that it always took the other man a while to respond. It wasn't his first time working with him. The headset crackled and a deep, yet smooth, American voice sounded through. "One approaching your six." Ghost slipped behind some nearby crates, ready to take the enemy down. The thumping of the body hitting the ground, however, told him not to worry about it. The headset crackled once more, "Down. You're free to move."

"Copy." Ghost slipped past the body, approaching the cargo ship in front of him. He moved himself behind cover, peeking around the edge carefully, "I see one, engaging."

"Do not. There's two nearby with him in his sight. Engage when I give the call." Ghost spoke a short 'copy', waiting silently for the signal.

But none came.

"Icarus? How copy?" Ghost talked into his headset quietly, trying to not alert the enemy in front of him. More silence.

"Engage!" His teammate's call seemed hectic, but Ghost did not hesitate, throwing himself out from behind the crate and stabbing the guy in front of him before he had a chance to react. His headset crackled again, and Icarus' frantic half-shout sounded through it, "I've been spotted, trying to lose them. You're on your own Ghost. Bravo 9 out."

Ghost stared up to the mountain that his teammate had been stationed at, seeing the dark shadow of the man slip away. Guess he would have to live without eyes in the sky for now.

━─┉┈┈◈❖◈┈┈┉─━

Icarus panted lightly as he ran through the trees, tightly gripping his sniper. Running with it was never easy, but he had to. Behind him, at least six Shadows raced after him; too many for him to take on by himself.

The man hopped over a fallen tree, losing his grip on his sniper, dropping it. As much as he wanted to fall back to grab it, that was a risk he couldn't take. Doing that meant either getting caught and captured or killed, and neither of those were on his to-do list today.

Icarus began to shed some of the gear he no longer needed now that he lost his sniper. The ammo was the first to go, followed with the different scopes he had packed. If he could just thin the Shadows, he could take on the ones left over. But how?

A sly smile found its way to Icarus' face as he thought. What was he best known for in the academy? His speed and skill at climbing.

Icarus looked ahead of him for the perfect tree. It must have a branch that he could reach at his height, but one that was still a hassle to get up.... And he spotted the one. He changed his direction and sprinted towards the tree, propelling off of its base and grabbing the first branch. Icarus pulled himself up and began swiftly making his way up the tree. He knew the Shadows saw him, but that was exactly what he wanted. Icarus stopped in a comfortable spot in the tree, pulling his pack of cigarettes out of one of his vest pockets. He stuffed it back in once he got his cigarette lit, looking down the trees to see the Shadows surrounding him, "Hey boys. What can I do for ya today?"

It was silent for a moment before Icarus could hear the chattering of the Shadows. Finally, one spoke up, "Graves ordered you and the Ghost captured alive. He never said we couldn't injure you, so if you don't want to get hurt, we suggest coming down." Icarus could hear him mumble to himself afterwards, "I mean, who gets themself cornered like this?"

"Oh, I see. Maybe I'll come down if you get Graves here?" Icarus suggested, silently making his way back down the tree, flicking his cigarette, "I mean, why would I want to speak with his goons? Y'all are just his pawns, used as sacrifices so he doesn't have to get his hands dirty." Icarus knew he was right, and so did they. But nonetheless, they still listened to him, "Like open your eyes! Don't you have families-"

CRACK.

The branch Icarus had found himself on cracked loudly and he knew that was a bad sign. Throwing himself off of the soon to fall branch, he held his arms out for the next branch. But it never came.

Icarus fell through the tree, hitting what he thought was every branch on the way down. Landing with a thumb on the ground, surrounded by Shadows, he tried to catch his breath. And oh boy was that hard.

It reminded him of that time when he tried to spar with Ghost and ended up losing miserably. Wheezing, Icarus rolled himself over onto his back, "Hey boys..." He coughed out, wincing at the pain in his chest, "I suppose you caught me."