Take a Shot

Worry

"Em, this is my replacement for this coming job."

She crosses her arms, ponytail following the angry shake of her head. The man holding your shoulder gives a chuckle and puts his other hand up in a calming motion.

"I know, I know. But look, they're really good, trained under Leikha the same as me. It's just for a little while. Ro-I mean, ah, Her Highness has a little photoshoot and the Majesties want me here for it."

The woman whose mere presence is curdling your blood looks over at you. Her sharp, red eyes start at your face, head tipping as she gives you a semi-quick look over. You straighten your posture and smile.

She uncrosses her arms and heaves a big, annoyed sigh. When she speaks, her voice is calm, low, and quiet. "Fine."

"Super. Alllright." Matt takes his hand off your shoulder and hands you two papers he's been carrying. You take one, the mission details and put it in your pocket. The other looks...unfamiliar.

"It's my secret for new operators," Matt says. You look down at the title page of what could be either a weirdly-shaped children's book or a pamphlet of some sort. "I call it...

Matt Watson's Guide to Working With the Star Assassin

Pretty cool, right? Just stick with it, and you'll be fine."

You're in the transport chopper when you next think about the odd pamphlet he handed you. He is a senior operator, after all, so it's probably worth looking over anything he gave you.

You dig it out to see his title scrawled across the front. A goofy picture of him, leaned on the green-haired woman sitting across from you, occupies the middle of the page. While she's steadily looking away from the camera, top lip raised in a sneer and shoulders hunched, Matt is grinning, one hand up in a peace sign by his face and looking more than comfortable with his arm on her shoulder. 'Matt Watson' is underlined in blue, with a blue arrow that points to him. 'Star Assassin' is underlined in red, with a red arrow that oozes around the other words like blood to point at her.

You open the cover page and look to page 1.

Welcome! If you're reading this, it's because you're going on a mission with the Star Assassin, Emerald. Congratulations!

That might sound a little snarky. You've probably heard the horror stories of working with her. The good news is, most of those stories are exaggerated!

You try to look casually above the top of the pamphlet. Her eyes shift to you mere moments after you look up. She raises an eyebrow. You duck back down into the pamphlet, trying to ignore having just broken out in a cold sweat. The scritch-scratch of her nails on the file continues.

The better news is, I'm here to guide you through it.

Page 2 begins with a picture of him pointing at himself, the same silly grin on his face as the one on the cover, a startlingly different look than the calm, charismatic smile you'd been offered when first meeting the man. His other smile was more professional, polished, more reserved and thus more handsome. This picture is distinctively boyish, the toothy grin crinkling the corners of his eyes.

My name is Matt, and I'll be your narrator today. I know Emerald better than anyone, and I've worked with her more successfully than anyone. Over the years, I've worked out a few keys tips and tricks to working with the Star Assassin.

This is Emerald Star, better known as the Star Assassin or Harmony's she-devil.

Her name is underlined, and there's an arrow that points down to another picture at the bottom of the page. This picture is a doubler: one side has her in the casual apparel you'd met her in just a day ago, hair in loose pigtails over her shoulders and a bored look on her face; the other side has her in the uniform she's in now, black shirt tucked into black cargo pants tucked into black boots, hair back in a braid, and black bandana covering most of her face, bangs and bandana framing those chilling eyes.