Revelation

Chapter 3 - Hol' Up

"Holy shit," Maxi muttered, looking upwards in an attempt to spot whoever had shot Turtle. "Where did that come from?"

"The sky?" Crab suggested, somehow putting on a serious expression.

"Oh my god!" Abattu cried, rushing over to Turtle, panicking and frantically searching his backpack for any form of bandages.

Mei frowned, glancing around, probably trying to calculate the location of the shooter as Shadow positioned himself between his friend and the general direction the bullet came from.

Milo knelt down, glancing at the hole in Turtle's thigh. "We should, you know, take that out."

Turtle winced at the thought of it, then let out a small whimper as Milo tried reaching for the bullet.

"You'll have to suffer through this if you don't want a chunk of metal embedded in your flesh forever," Maxi muttered as they glanced at the wound.

Milo flashed them a reproaching look before going back to her work. Attempting again to get a grip on the bullet, she carefully took hold of it.

"This is gonna hurt," Milo murmured, probably attempting to be gentle.

She then braced herself for the inevitable screech that would come, and sure enough, just as she yanked the bullet out, Turtle let out an agonized cry, making everyone flinch and almost sending Abattu into a panic attack.

The latter quickly shook herself out of it and tried to bandage the injury, with a little help from Mei, coming in with the disinfectant.

Turtle had passed out by then, and Milo and Maxi were in the process of trying to move her while glaring at each other when gunshots could be heard from the second floor of the nearest apartment.

"Jesus Christ!" Shadow spoke up. "We should either check it out or run away immediately."

"Yeah, let's check it out," Milo muttered. "I'm sure it's plot-relevant."

Maxi shot her a puzzled look, then shrugged and glanced at the building, where there were still flashes from gunfire.

"Looks plot-relevant enough. Let's go."

Mei frowned at the two as if they were stupid (they're not stupid). "That does not look safe at all."

But by then they had already entered the building, their guns in hand, probably ready to shoot the first thing that moves.

Just as Maxi and Milo disappeared from sight, a baseball bat came crashing out from the second story window, startling Abattu who almost got hit.

"What the fuck?!" he heard Maxi yell from inside the building, sound barely reaching her ears.

---

Echo puffed as she crouched behind an outjutting chunk of what must've been a wall, hastily reloading her TEC-9, and briefly interrupting herself as the footsteps got closer. Letting out a sigh of relief as Ink stepped away, she completed her reload and grabbed her machete, rushing towards her target once again.

Ink reacted quickly, turning and swinging his baseball bat at Echo's position. She dodged, then raised her pistol, aiming for her opponent's leg. Three bullets missed, one grazed his hip and one hit him above the knee. Ink didn't flinch, barely seemed to react at all, and swung downwards.

Raising her machete, she barely managed to block, hand shaking under the pressure. They locked gazes, Echo's brown eyes meeting the sunglasses Ink was wearing. In that moment, she thought she caught a glimpse of dark, thoughtful eyes shining with arrogance. No, she thought. That was confidence, not arrogance.