Rangers and Rogues

Chapter 4: Cat and Mouse

The hallway was barren, doors being the only thing to break up the monotonous lack of color. Standard hospitals didn't need to be pretty, but the blank walls always put Sol in unease. White light from the fluorescent strips dimly lit the top of his head, though they'd sometimes blink without warning. Additionally, the lack of people at this time did nothing to relieve his discomfort. The scene felt like something of a horror film to him. The only thing missing was a monster. Sol looked around, and met with Crossfire's glaring eyes. There's the monster.

Sol tried to ignore it and focus on his guard duty. Though there wasn't much to focus on in this empty scenery besides the overbearing presence of eyes staring at him from the other side of the hall. He was tired, but everything from his surroundings kept him on edge. Eventually, he couldn't bear the awkward pressure.

"If you have something to say just say it already." Sol says, glaring back at her.

"...You shouldn't be here." She says.

"Look, you've made that perfectly clear, hell I was tempted to leave because you've done nothing but stare at me the entire time." Sol averts his gaze, not wanting to directly look into Crossfire's reticle-like eyes. "I didn't ask to be here."

"That's not what I mean." Crossfire corrects. "You shouldn't still be in my life after all this time."

Yeah, that's something we can agree on.

"I know that you've always had an issue with me, for whatever stupid reason, but now is not the time."

"Not the time? You think I want to speak to you at all? If I never met you–If Ira never..." She trails off.

"If you never met me, then the Mystic we're defending would've died." Sol bluntly says. "If you don't want to be here, go complain to the Director about how 'poorly' I've been doing these missions. Otherwise, suck it up and stand guard."

"You do well on one mission and think you're superior to me?" Crossfire snaps.

"A little bit, yeah." Sol responded jokingly, giving payback by getting under her skin.

"You'd be dead without me." Crossfire mumbles while walking off, pushing off of the wall and moving towards one of the vending machines.

Sol leans his head back against the wall, letting out a sigh as he looks up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes, the smell of the hospital reminded him of the first time he woke up in a hospital bed. After the accident, he didn't know what was going to happen, and he spent everyday dreading the next. There was only so much he could do then. He shook his head, messing up his hair and scrambling his memories. He looked over to Crossfire getting something out of the vending machine down the hall. I remember when we got along...

Crossfire walked back over with a drink in her hand and returned to her place, leaning against the opposite wall. With her returning, came the awkward silence. At least she isn't staring at me this time...

"...How's Ira doing?" She suddenly asks.

It was one of the three topics she would ever speak to Sol about. Their job as Rangers, random hatred, or Ira. "She's doing alright, her team got pulled away from her because of some new A-Class."

"Soundwave."

Well that confirms that.

"You think she'll take part in the games?" Sol asks, crossing his arms.

"What she does is none of my concern. ...Though I heard she's aiming for the Council."

"The Council? That's a suicide mission." Sol says.