Xcom 2 Story Part 5: A Surprise Day Off


Chapter 1: A Different Sans
   The sky was a bright blood red as the sun opened up on the very edge of the horizon, casting a eerie color across the forest. I scanned the distant trees for any sign of Advent or Xcom moving, as per my usual morning routine. After I made sure everything was all clear, I got up and went to start a fire, almost knocking over Shield’s mag pistol on the way outta my tent. You see, Shields, a Advent Shieldbearer who is actually a human, left it here the last time he visited my camp. Are we really friends? Kinda, I guess. He’s no longer my immediate enemy anymore, let’s just say. Regardless, I crawled outta my tent and took in a deep breath of fresh air. I have enjoyed my time alone out here, no commanders or officers telling me what to do, no set wake up times and no useless training exercises. Just me, myself, and my sword, all I need. As I lit the fire to cook my morning meal, I thought I heard rustling in the bushes behind me and quickly wiped my head around. I saw something like a red circle in the shade of a tree, but I cast it away, to hungry to care. As The fire was growing, I reached into a deer skin bag and grabbed a hunk of viper meat. Yes, VIPER, as in the alien meat. Sure it’s weird to some people, but it’s just like eating normal snake, and because all other wildlife is damn near wiped off the face of the Earth, I gotta eat what I can find to survive. I stabbed the hunk of meat with a sharpened stick and rested in over the fire to cook. 
   Suddenly, the rustling got louder, I heard a woosh and turn around to be face to face with a skeleton. It looked like Sans the Skeleton, but he looked more...red. Like besides his eye, he was wearing a red jacket and sneakers unlike Sans’s blue jacket and fuzzy pink slippers. I jumped, but the red Sans remained calm. 
   *“Hey kid.” The red Sans said. I blinked a few times before responding.
   “Ugh… hi!” I said, confused
   *“I’m Sans, Sans the Anti Skeleton, but my friends call me Fell.” Fell Sans said, winking. 
   “Hi, I’m Kayla… the human…” I replied. Fell extended his hand, but I just crossed my arms.
   *“Nice to meet ya, so you know about this whole Earthly Advent vs Xcom war, who do you fight with?” Sans asked, taking back his hand.
   “I used to fight with Xcom, then they mistreated me, so I left them. I’m on my own now, but I have been in contact with Advent since I left.” I replied. 
   *“Huh, interesting. So, were they the good guys in all this?” Fell asked.
   “Well, their motives and objectives are good, they just need better people skills, especially the stupid commander of the Xcom HQ in this area.” I replied, balling my fists. 
   *“Really? Cause my overworld counterpart says that Xcom has no place in this world.” Fell winked.
   “Well, at least Xcom did not attack the aliens first, they invaded us and did not hesitate to attack and abduct us.” I replied. Suddenly another, taller skeleton appeared behind Sans, I’m guessing this was evil Papyrus or something. 
   “SANS! WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO THE HUMAN AND NOT KILLING THEM!!??” Fell Pap shouted. 
   *“This human aint all that bad, from the five minutes I’ve talked to her.”
   “How!? I’ve told you, all humans are EVIL!” Pap yelled in Sans’s face, but he just stood there, not impressed. 
   *“Well for starters, this human has not killed me yet, and unlike Chara, she’s not evil looking or creepy.” Sans replied, rolling his eyes at Pap. 
   “You two have a interesting relationship.” I chimed in and Pap looked straight at me with a death glare. 
   “Shut up, human!” Pap yelled at me.
   “What’s your problem with humans, fell pap? Like not even classic pap is this hostile towards me.” I asked. 
   “It’s a long story…” Fell Pap sighed, Fell Sans shook his head.
   *“No! Don’t get him started!” Sans sighed.
   “Long ago, when the world was shared with humans and monsters…” Pap started. Sans just rolled his eyes and shortcutted away, but I for one was rather interested. It took Pap about an hour or so to tell the story of how humans betrayed the monsters of  underfell, locking them in and leaving them to die. I could see why Pap was mad, but not why he was mad at ME. Like, I did not even know about the whole underground thing until classic Sans and Papyrus showed up! And now their evil twins from some other world hates all humans? Just as I thought he world could not get anymore crazy. Just as Pap was in the middle of rambling on, Sans returned and interpreted Pap’s rant. 
   *“Listen human, as much fun as this is, me and Pap has some things to do at the Blacksite… so catch ya around!” Sans grabbed Pap by his scarf, and there was a loud POP as they both shortcutted away. I sighed, and went back on my daily routine, getting ready to spend the day exploring the rest of the forest. 


Chapter 2: A Hidden Outpost 
   As soon as I was finished with breakfast, I grabbed my sword and hid Shields’s pistol under a blanket, just in case. I stomped out the fire and started making my way through the trees to the east, the only area I have not discovered yet. But as I was running, I could see dark plumes of smoke rising between the treetops. Weird, maybe there's some stotra outpost over there. But as I approached the general area where the smoke was coming from, I could hear voices in the distance. I quickly went into stealth mode and dashed behind a large tree. I peeked around and saw a large chain linked fence topped with razor sharp barbed wire, and a couple of guards in Xcom armor at the gate. Behind the fence and guards, a massive building bearing Xcom markings towered over the trees. I found the source of the smoke, at least. Then it clicked on me, a isolated Xcom outpost far from both Xcom HQ and the Advent Blacksite… I’m sure no one would miss it if anything horrible happened to it. A smile grew across my face as I waited for one of the guards to leave. As soon as one bugged off, I approached the gates.
  “Hey… who the he-” The guard started talking, but was caught short by my sword going threw his neck. I grabbed his body right before it hit the ground and hid it behind a rock outside the gate. Then I made my way in towards the first watchtower. I started to climb up but I waited right at the top for the guy to walk by. Right as he got close, I grabbed his foot and yanked him off. He barely had time to scream before his neck snapped by landing head first. Before I could side back down, a couple of guards came to investigate the sound. I waited until they were right under me and jumped off, quickly drawing my sword and a small dagger I found back at Drax’s smugglers den. I landed with my sword in the chest of one guard and knife in the neck of the other, and both died on contact. I got up, cleaned my blades and counted on, all three bodies in a puddle of blood. I moved behind the first building and saw a group of women patrolling around. I charges and dragged my sword across their backs. Unfortunately, one of them screamed and I heard loud footsteps running my way. 
   “Wait… she does not have Xcom armor… get her!” One of two heavy troops yelled as they opened fired. Luckily they sucked at aiming and I dove into the nearest building, the barracks. I heard a slight clanking sound as a grenade rolled in. I kicked it out and heard a loud BANG and moans of pain. I dashed out and finished both of them off. I proceeded to stab and kill 5 more troopers, using one as a meat shield right before a guy with a pistol shot at me. I tossed the body aside and cut off the guy's head clean off his body. I finally make it to the main building and kicked open the door to find myself staring down the outpost commander and a ranger. 
   “Don’t just stand there, get her!” the commander spat at the ranger. The ranger drew his sword and charged me, taking a swing. I easily ducked his attack and make a counter attack, he parried it and got a punch in on me, right in the stomach, but I new leather armor from Drax saved me. The ranger did a doward attack and I sidestep to the right. I take a smaller knife off my belt and throw it at him, he dodges and it almost hits the outpost commander. The ranger makes another attack, I try to parry it but he gets me threw the hand. I screamed in pain and droped my life, but I was not out of this fight yet. I jumped at the ranger for a disarm, he made another attack but I catch his hand with my good hand, pulls his sword from the hilt and stabs him with it, right threw the chest. I uppercut him in the face and he flopd over, dead. I approached the commander and he took out a revolver pistol, but before he can shoot I stabbed his hand with my dagger, pinning his hand to the table. I stared at him right in the eye and give him a devilish smile, ready to finish the job. 


Chapter 3: Unexpected Help 
   After walking out of the outpost, I took out a small camera and took a picture of what I did, sending a message to both Xcom and Advent that I was not to be messed with. I maybe my myself, but I can still make either side’s life hell. I sent the picture to Jet, Shields, the Skelebros and the Fell Skelebros. Suddenly, I heard Shields but I originally thought it was on my radio. 
   “Holy sweet mother of all things holy… what the hell?” Shields asked, stunned. 
   “Just doing my job, you Advent people can cut another Xcom outpost off your list of things to do.” I replied, feeling quite proud. Then I felt a deep sting in my left hand, remembering the ranger got a hit on me. By the looks of it it did not go straight through, but it still hurt. I guess the adrenaline of the fight wore off and the pain is catching up. 
   “Oh wait you're hurt…” Shields said as I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to be face to face with him. 
   “AGH! What the hell.. How’d you get here so fast? I thought you were just on radio, not actually behind me.” I shouted, almost punching him. 
   “Eh, Fell Sans teleported me down to check out what you did in person. Let me be the first to say that it’s rather impressive how you did this by yourself.” Shields winked at me as he pulled out a medkit from his belt. I sat on a tree trunk and he went to work. He unwrapped the wrist guard on my hand and tried to stop the bleeding. After a few minutes, the blood finally clots and he starts cleaning the wound out.  
   “Agh hell, that hurts…” I grunted under the pain.
   “I bet it hurts, dame cut almost went straight through here” Shields replied, still cleaning the wound out. 
   “Eh, the guy’s long dead now anyway.” I mumbled. 
   “I hope so, anyway I’m gonna spray some medical mist into the wound, it will sting a little but you know this stuff helps.” 
  “Ow, agh! God damnit that does sting. Anyway, how did you get Fell Sans to teleport you out here?” I asked.
   “Well, I told him that you were kinda like a friend, but also not exactly  a friend, more so a neutral ally.  but I guess you already meet him cause he did not hesitate to send me down here.” Shields replied. Interesting, I guess Fell Sans just thought I was not that bad. Soon after Shields had my wound covered by a tight army dressing. 
   “Thanks, I guess. Why are you helping me again?” I asked.
   “You know why, I’ve said it before. The enemy of my enemy, is my friend.” Shields helped me up. “So, you gonna be ok?” He added.
   “Yeah, it's just a hand wound. I’ll be fine.” I replied. 
   “Well then, I’ll just head back to the Blacksite then, try to keep it easy with that hand for a few days, alright?” He started walking off, but as we was walking away I noticed something running through the woods out of the corner of my eye. 


Chapter 4: Ambush!
   Shields stopped in his tracks as a magnetic bullet whizzed behind him. Luckily for him Xcom snipers suck. Shields dove behind a log and I jumped behind a tree, but I can’t do anything with my main hand wounded like this. I tried throwing a knife with my left hand, but it missed completely. I could see Shields going for his mag pistol but then a look of confusion washed over his face.  
   “Where the hell did my pistol go?” Shields shouted over the sound of sniper fire, the bullets chiping away at both our cover. 
   “You left it at my camp last time!” I shouted back. 
   “Oh great… now what do we do?” Shields asked. 
   “LIKE I KNOW!!??” I snapped, but then relaxed a bit. Shields started going through his equipment. A smile grew on his face as he pulled a grenade from his belt. Shields peaked from his cover, and the sniper shot again, leaving a trail of smoke. Shields pulled the pin, waited about three seconds and let the thing go. It landed at the base of the snipers tree and exploded, causing the tree to fall over. Soon after, the sniper crawled outta the mess, limbing. 
   “Nice throw.” I commented.
   “Thanks, not when you're ready move up and I’ll shield us.” Shields said, priming his suit ability. 
   “NOW!” I yelled as the red shield encased me. I dashed out and the sniper fired a couple rounds from his pistol, but the shield soaked the damage. I drew my sword in my off hand and stabbed him through the chest. Next Shields moved up, but another sniper took a shot at him, nailing him in the side but the shield combined with his armor kept him up. I pushed up against a tree and waited. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a ranger dash up behind Shields. Somehow, Shields managed to hold him off, breaking his arm and side stepping behind him and breaking his neck from behind.
   “I’m alright, you good?” Shields asked from behind a tree. 
   “I’m fine, but we need to get outta here!” I replied. Suddenly a bunch of Xcom reinforcements bursted outta the treeline and charged us. I could see Shields beating up a heavy and stealing his Mag Cannon. 
   “Ok, I got a weapon, when you're ready I’ll provide covering fire.” Shields shouted.
   “Yeah, let’s get outta here!” I replied, digging my sword outta a heavy's neck. I picked up his incendiary grenade and threw it at the oncoming Xcom forces, setting fire to the forest. I ran past Shields as he opened up with the Mag Cannon, gunning the remaining forces down. When it was all clear, he tossed the Mag Cannon and caught up with me. 
   “Yell, that was something…” Shields laughed.
   “It currently was, but looks like I’m gonna need a new hideout.” I replied, catching my breath. 
   “That would be wise, but first I wanna get my weapon back.” Shields said. 
   “Alright, it’s back at my camp. It should be nearby.” I replied as we started running in the direction of my camp. It has definitely been a productive day, and who knows what else is gonna happen. 
Chapter 5: Unexpected Plans
   When we got back to my camp, Shields found his mag pistol and holstered it, then he turned to look at me.
   “So, you agree you need a new camp, but where ya gonna go anyway?” He asked, sitting on a long next to my tent. 
   “I don’t know, I might go up north, like past the Canadian region and up in the Arctic. Not a lot of activity in the colder regions.” I replied, cleaning and sharpening my sword. 
   “Whatever suits your fancy, the main idea is to not get killed, eh?” Shields chuckled a bit. 
   “Yeah I guess, I wanna go where no Xcom are camped out.” I said putting my sword down. I looked in Shields’s eyes and his facial expression almost looked like he had something to say.
   “Well, good luck wherever you go.” Shields said.
   “Thanks, hey you got something on your mind? You look like you're completing something.” I asked. 
   “Well...ugh..” Shields started to stutter, and I got a bit confused.
   “What? What’s so hard to say, eh?” I asked.
   “Well. we have been through alot… right? You showed me what viper takes like, and I still can’t believe I liked it… and and did save my ass a couple of times…” Shields started. 
   “All of that is true, and you're stalling now. Just say it, like really.” I said, still confused. Suddenly I heard a familiar WHOOSH and Fell Sans was standing between us. 
   *“What Shields wants to say is that he is really into you and wants to go out with ya.” Fell Sans said. I was stunned, like how can that work? An Ex-Xcom op hanging out with a Advent soldier? Like at least Shields is actually a human and not a gene modded alien but still... feels kinda weird.
   “Well… I honestly don’t know what to say here..” I said, staching the back of my neck awkwardly. 
   “Well just think, since you left Xom, we did so much. We work well as a team and it would be nice to hang out without getting shot at, ya know.” Shields offered. 
   “I don’t know… maybe we could go out sometime and maybe talk things out…” I still had a weird feeling… like does he actually like me? 
   “Yeah… that would be nice.” Shields cracked a smile. I could hear Fell Sans trying to hold back a laugh.
   *“So, this is actually happening!” Fell Sans bursted out. 
   “Nothing is happening, we are just gonna go out and SEE if anything will happen.” I protested, but Fell was not buying it. 
   *“It’s still something! Oh boy, Keeper is gonna love this!” Fell laughed to himself again. 
   “We are just going out, nothing special is gonna happen, could you just leave us alone?” I snapped. Fell raided his hands up, and gave us a wink before disappearing.  
   “So, I got somethings to do at the Blacksite for the next couple of days, but how about a week today?” Shields asked.
   “Yeah, I guess. There's a Advent mall in the city center not far from here, we can spend the day there.” I replied. 
   “Ok, so it’s settled then. See ya there, I guess.” Shields started walking back to the Blacksite.
   “See ya.” I said. Shields gave me a wave before disappearing among the trees. I can’t believe that just happened, but I guess it could be a nice change to getting shot at all day. 


Chapter 6: The Day Off
   I spent most of my week catching up on sleep and gathering more food and water, as well as packing my current belongings so I’m ready when I move to the Arctic. But before I worry about all of that, I still had to meet with Shields in the Advent city not far from here. It still felt awkward to be hanging out with a Advent soldier, but again, I can’t stress it enough that Shields is actually one of the only, if not THE only human in Advent’s army. So at least he’s not brainwashed into being totally loyal to Advent. Regardless, I sheathed my sword and made my way to the Mexican Advent city center. 
   As I approached the city, I did not take any chances. I leaned up against the wall of the first building I could reach allowing my Mimetic Skin gene mod to activate. I used this to run from building to building without anyone batting an eye. Just as long as I moving to something tall enough I would not be reviled. As I approached what I thought was the mall, I could see a human ns Advent casual clothes leaning against the wall near the entrance. As I approached the human, I could hear him mumbling. 
   “She better not ditch me, damnit.” The human mumbled and I suspected he was Shields. I stepped away from the wall and became visible. An Advent Trooper eyed me from a nearby street corner, but for the most part didn't care. 
   “You forgot I’m gene modded.” I laughed, tapping Shields on the back. He almost jumped outta his skin as he turned around. 
   “AGH! Stop doing that!” He snapped, but then relaxed a bit. 
   “Sorry, old habits die hard.” I cracked a smile. 
   “Indeed they do. Anyway, ready to spend what will most likely be the most peaceful day of our lives?” Shields asked. 
   “Hell yeah! Let’s go!” I replied, following Shields as he lead me into the mall. And it was quite impressive. Shields walked through a security checkpoint, but held up something that looked like an ID card. The camera scanned it and let him pass. Then I walked up, the camera scanned me. I kept my hand on my sword hilt but before it could finish, Shields noticed and walked in front of it. Shields said something in Advent’s language and it let us both pass. 
   “What was that?” I asked, confused.
   “Oh, I just told security that you're with me, to avoid complications ya know.” Shields replied.
   “Good, it would be a shame if I had to stab it.” I sighed.
   “Ok maybe keep your weapons to yourself, Advent may not care about armed civilians but if you damage or threaten any Advent equipment or personal… we are all gonna have a bad time. That and there are civilians here.” Shields warned. I just shrugged. 
   “I’m trying my best, but anyway can we head to a clothing shop? This leather armor is killing me.” I asked.
   “Yeah sure, there's one just up here.” Shields replied as he took me across the main area to a clothes store. “Take as much time as you need.” He said as we got here, leaning against one of those map signes. I walked inside the clothing store went sifting through everything. I ended up finding a nice red dress, a good change from battle armor, and it’s a casual day too so I don’t need battle armor. I also ended up buying a sporting outfit because if I’m gonna spend my time being stealthy and using my sword, I don’t need heavy battle armor, it would just weigh me down. After about half an hour I was done and ready to pay. I walked up to Shields and when he saw me he looked almost looked stunned. 
   “Hey, can you hold my sword as I pay?” I asked, handing Shields my weapon. 
   “Ugh… u- yeah sure.” He stuttered. I gave him a look as he took my weapon. I went back to pay and came back out, holding a bag with my sports clothes in it. 
   “Alright I’m done here, let’s go get some food now. I’m staring.” I said as Shields gave me my sword. I put in the sheath and wrapped it around my back. 
   “Yeah me too, the food court is on the second floor. The elevator is over here.” Shields replied as we made our way to the elevator. 
   “What can we even eat here anyway?” I asked as we approached the elevator. 
   “I don’t know, I can’t really spend a lot of time here, but I know there's more than just Avent Burger here, I promise.” Shields chuckled as he pressed the button to call the elevator. It arrived and we both stepped in and Shields hit the floor two button. We ascended and we walked out right in front of the food court. 
   “Alright, any suggestions? I did make you eat viper last time we hung out, so I’ll let you chose. Just no Advent Burger, ok?” I found a table and Shields took a look around. 
   “How about Advent sub? It’s kinda like how Subway was like before Advent took over, but better than burgers again, right?” Shields offered. 
   “Alright, I used to like it back in the day. Why not?” I replied, following Shields to the counter. I tried asking for a crocodile sub, but the guy looked at me funny. I shrugged it off and got a chicken sub and salad. Shields got a veggie sub and we found a table and sat down.
   “So, anything on your mind?” I asked.
   “Will for starters, you have a perfect take in clothes. You look beautiful… I mean really nice… yeah…” Shields stuttered. 
   “Oh… thank you…” I replied, feeling my cheeks blush. 
   “Yeah, I forgot that we are all humans… ok most of us are under all this armor. I forgot what true beauty looked like until I meet you…” Shields gave me a smile and I felt my face going red. 
   “Oh… that’s really sweet of you…” I replied, hiding my face in my sandwitch. Shields scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. 
   “So… how you been the been the past few days? Surviving alright?” Shields changed the subject, which I was kinda grateful for. 
   “Oh, you know, doing my best. I’ve been planning on moving way up north away from the Xcom HQ. They have been attacking me too often.” We went on for about half an hour, proceeding make a bunch of snow jokes and laughing along. Shields did try to flirt with me again, but for the most part lunch was fine. After we were done we got up and went back to walking and talking. 
   “How’s your arm healing up?” Shields asked. I partially unwrapped the dressing and showed him the wound.
   “It’s almost done healing up, but it’s gonna leave one nasty scar.” I replied, covering it back up. 
   “At least you still have an arm though, right?” Shields did make a good point. 
   “Yeah, considering that I used it to literary block a sword blow.” I said.
   “Don’t wanna get dis-ARMED!” Shields laughed. I laughed with him. As we continued walking, we both look around. “Now what?” Shields asked.
   “I don’t know, you pick.” I replied.
   “Come on, I picked lunch.” Shields countred. He had me there.
   “Ok, how about we get something cold… like ice cream because it is pretty hot outside today.” I offered. Shields agreed and we started the hunt for a ice cream shop. We reached the ice cream stand and I leaned against the wall. We were about to order when suddenly an Advent Officer ran up and started yelling at Shields in Advent’s language. 
   “Ugh… Kayla?” Shields asked, the Officer face to face with him.
   “What?” I asked confused.
   “You're.. Ah… gene mods are kicking in.” Shields gestured to the wall. I looked down at my chest and noticed I was invisible 
   “Oh… oops.” I stepped away from the wall and the Officer jumped, but Shields quickly explained something to the Officer and he just shrugged and walked off. Shields let out a sigh of relief and we proceeded to order our ice cream. 


Chapter 7: Hardcore Lazer Tag
   As we finished our dessert, We started looking around again, not knowing what to do. Finally something clicked with Shields has his face got full of excitement. 
   “Hey, there's a massive Laser Tag arena behind the mall building, it’s like actual fighting but with a spawning system. If you take too many shots you get teleported back to your side, it's painless I promise.” Shields face lit up like a child. It does sound pretty cool though. 
   “Alright, I guess we could give it a try.” I replied. Shields quickly ran over to the back of the building. I tried to keep up as best I could, jumping between people and racks of household items. I caught up to him standing in front of a big wall lit up with fancy neon lights. We walked up to the door and Shields gave the guy at the desk his pistol. The desk guy hug it up behind him next to a bunch of arc blades and rifles. As I walked through, the desk guy asked for my sword. I gave him a death glare but he just looked me. Shields was about to walk in but noticed me.
   “Oh come on, just give the guy you're sword. No real weapons are allowed inside. You wanna trigger a Advent response?” Shields raised an eyebrow. I grunted and gave the desk guy my sword, but not without a warning. 
   “When I walk out, if their is so much as a tiny scratch on this thing, you will know PAIN, ya got that?” I spat in the guy’s face. The gulped and nodded slowly, taking my sword and placing it on the rack. Then I walked in with Shields to get all set up for the game. He put on a crazy looking vest and grabbed a rifle and a auto pistol. I picked up a shotgun and a set of armor. 
   “Alright, what colour team do you wanna be?” Shields asked.
   “Let’s just go purple.” I replied. We both taped a button on our arms and our armor and weapons lit up purple. 
   “Ok, as I said before. This is a never ending battle simulation so whenever you're ready to call it quits just find me and we’ll go. But for now,you're gonna lose me.” Shields ran into the field like a happy child, joining some other purple guys stuck in a shootout with blue team. I ran along the wall, allowing my gene mod to take affect. I ran back a pack of green guys and reached for my unity belt. I found a grenade and threw it at the green guys “killing” two of them and wounding the rest. I finished the rest with my shotgun and continued towards the green crooner of the field. I was about to jump at a green guy but a blue guy intercepted me. We both landed on the ground with a thump and I got up just in time for the blue guy to whack me in the face with a shovel. I almost growled and jump kicked the guy in the chest, he fell and I clobbered him until he respawned. Then I looked at green’s respawn area, and got an Idea. I looked out of the corner of my eye and Shields must of known my plan as he started fighting his way to green side as well. We meet behind a low wall in the middle of everything. Green to out left, blue to our right, and yellow in the lower left side behind us. 
   “This is definitely something.” I shouted over the sounds of lazer fire. 
   “But it’s cool, right?” Shields laughed.
   “Yes, I can admit that.” I replied, and pecked out of cover to see a squad of blue guys charging us. Shields blind fired over the top of the wall and he actually got one of them. I blasted one with my shotgun and got him right in the face and the other two started falling back. 
   “Alright, I’m gonna try locking green in their spawn.” I started moving up, but Shields did not look so happy about it. I shot a couple guys who were running outta their spawn but suddenly I was teleported back to purple spawn. At first I was confused, I did not get shot. Then I ran back to Shields who was still behind the wall, pinned down by a yellow sniper guy. As I ran up, I threw a grenade into the sniper's tower and made him disappear. Then I took cover beside Shields, still wondering what happened. 
   “What the hell just happened? No one shot me!” I snapped. Shields just sighed. 
   “I forgot to tell you about the anti-spawn camping system. It makes it so you can’t kill people who recently spawned in.” Shields replied.
   “Why? So I can’t get points?” I raised an eyebrow. 
   “No, so other people have a chance to get back into the game. This is not a real war anyway, it’s unfair to not allow people a change.” Shields explained, but I was not buying it. 
   “It’s not fair to them??!! What about me?? I’m getting points for our team! The game is rigged, it’s stealing points from me!” I snapped again, this time a little louder. 
   “Well the admins of the game think otherwise.” Shields replied. I just threw my shotgun at a guy, stormed out of the field, dumped my stuff in a pile, got my sword back and stormed up to the admin room. A couple of security guards were getting suspicious but Shields stopped me before anything bad happened. 
   “Oh come on, don’t be like that, eh? Le the day remain peaceful.” Shields got in my way. I rolled my eyes and walked away from the Admin office. 
   “I’m done with this place.” I noted.
   “Well, there's a cliff overlooking the forest. We could camp up there for a bit.” Shields offered.
   “Alright, but how do we get their?” I asked, and a smile grew on Shields face.
   “I got a car parked outside, we can drive their.” Shields smirked as he lead me on. I never thought that Advent Troopers know how to drive, but then again Shields is human. We reached his car and we both got it. It looked like a Advent patrol car, just without the lights and fancy markings. We pulled out and Shields hit the gas. 
   “JESUS! You're driving like a crazy man!” I shouted.
   “Oh, we're fine! Like really!” Shields smirked. He did a drift onto a dirt road that lead up to the cliff.
   “OH MY GOSH! YOU'RE OFF THE ROAD!” I yelled.
   “IT’S JUST A DIRT ROAD!” Shields yelled back, coming to a stop at the end of the path. We both got out and approached the edge of the cliff. 


Chapter 8: A Peaceful Night
   “Wow… this view is amazing!” I was stunned. The High noon casting a midnight blue haze across the treetops, the wind brushing gently against them making their shadows dance. 
   “Yeah… I used to bring my old girl up here before I joined Advent all the time… then Xcom killed her…” Shields balled his fistes so hard they almost went white. I never knew Shields had a girlfriend.
   “Really, what happened?” I asked, Shields just sighed and relaxed a bit. 
   “According to stolen camera footage from a resistance camp we destroyed in the early days of the war, Xcom executed at least a dozen advent civilians… she was one of them...” Shields replied. 
   “Dame that sucked, I have a boyfriend once… he cheated on me.” I offered. Shields raised a eyebrow. 
   “Yeah? What ya do about it?” He asked. 
   “Simple, I killed the bitch and made him watch.” I answered. 
   “Jesus, that’s brutal. I guess I was not any better. After we cleared the resistance camp and went over the footage of the civilians getting executed, I leveled the place and killed every last survivor, one by one.” Shields face went dark. 
   “Well, I guess we both did some dark things in our past, but that does not matter. We can not change our past, ya know.” I commented. 
   “Yeah will, I should probably get back to the Blacksite.” Shields started to get up, but I stopped him. 
   “Why not just stay the night? We are close enough you can just drive back in the morning. Come on, just rest.” I offered. Shields hesitated. 
   “That’s nice of ya, but I really don’t want Sans shortcutting me back randomly or Keeper coming out to find me.” Shields tired, but \i was not buying it.
   “Oh, just sleep will ya? One day won't kill anyone.” Shields rolled his eyes and laid back a few feet besides me. He instantly fell asleep but I took a little longer to slowly drift away. 
   The next morning, I woke up around midday. I looked around, wondering where I was but then I remembered. Of to my left, Shields somehow managed to roll halfway back to his car in his sleep. I walked over and kicked him softly in the side, waking him up. 
   “Huh? I’m up! What I miss?” Shields mumbled as he slowly got up. I laughed a bit, wiping some dirt off his shoulder. 
   “We slept most of the day, but for the most part it was fun yesterday.” I smiled. 
   “Yeah, it was… maybe we can hang out another day, but for now I should definitely get back to the Blacksite now. Catch ya later, I guess.” Shields started walking back to his car. 
   “See ya.” We shared a wave before Shields drove off, disappearing behind the trees. I was kinda offended that he did not offer me a ride or anything, but I decided to cut him some slack. It was his first time hanging out with a girl for seemingly a few years, and he was pretty nice yesterday about things. And it was a nice change from getting shot at. Regardless, I grabbed my belongings and started making my way back to my old campsite, ready to move to the Arctic.