Chapter Text
The drums of a large assault roll across the natural dunes and echo down the curved passageway into The Pit. Vira sits squatted with her eyes closed, counting the different echoing guns. There’s five, she thinks. Doc bumps into her humming before whirring around to his owner at the sound of her voice.
“V!” Ajay loudly calls out her name, or at least the first letter of it. It must be too long for her to waste time saying. Like the guns, it echoes but out this time across the dunes. She doesn’t know what they want, and doesn’t care to ask. Their sour mood is something she doesn’t want anything to do with.
She listens past Ajay’s annoyed voice, and focuses on everything else. The gunfire has lulled. She hears the sand being crushed underfoot beside her, the low noises coming from the hovering drone, the crack of a longshot much further away, and then the territorial shriek of a flyer.
Vira unshoulders the sentinel and twists on her heel, rising to her feet aiming down the passageway. The powerful long ranged sight is removed fluidly and dropped into the pouch hanging from her belt, her eyes fixated straight ahead on iron. The coming footsteps are rapid and two voices carry ahead. In her peripheral vision, she can see Ajay getting into position behind the lootbin she had just been shuffling through.
A few moments later, a brawny couple rounds the corner. They have their guns drawn and sport mismatched combat gear. She can hear Ajay hissing at her to get in cover, but she doesn’t need it.
Her rifle comes level with the woman in front before their head explodes. She falls backwards, plastering the other in chunks of red. The man follows suit before there is time to react. Vira stands up unsatisfied. She can’t help but wish there were more, or that a better fight was put up. Too many contenders take this competition casually.
The hothead asks why she couldn’t do that earlier for Loba as she moves to check their newly acquired weapons and supply. Vira turns the question around, why she herself couldn’t have done it, and is met with a venomous glare. Ajay drops it and goes back to examining the peacekeeper she’s pulled off a wet sling. The corners of Ajay’s mouth slightly curl in something of remorse and disgust. Completely unbothered, Vira removes the woman’s G7 from their hands and pockets the few clips. The scout rifle feels light and agile in her arms.
Renewed gunfire bounces off the rock walls that rise hundreds of meters above them, as well as the familiar bellowing of a particular beltfed minigun. Vira sets off towards it, not caring to check if her squadmate is following. Doc spurs ahead and spins his shell, and when she catches up to him he spurs further ahead and waits.
“Where are you going?” Comes Ajay’s angry voice. When she asks again, staring up at her now keeping pace, Vira lies and says she thought she was asking the drone. “You should have him stay here with us, and not ahead. It’s going to get shot.” She really is getting annoyed at this incessant whining.
Ajay huffs and jabs a finger at her. “That’d be yuh own fault for rushing ahead! And Loba’s dead because yuh can’t slow down and wait for yuh team!”
This is it, Vira’s going to lose her temper soon. She keeps walking and they begin to round the passageway. Ahead lies the small patch of dunes and the sizzling heat blurring the bunker. “You’re forgetting she got shot because you were out of position. I can’t shoot three people at once.”
“Yuh could have been faster turnin’ around. I didn’t tell yuh to go off ahead and do whatever yuh were doin’. I–”
Vira stops in her tracks and turns around. The short medic is following so closely she nearly bumps into her. “I don’t know why a squadmate dying has you so riled up. They’re not actually dead, so stop acting like it. Quit ragging on me about it. If I hadn’t gone ahead with this,” Vira lifts the sentinel slightly from its sling, “and spotted that other team attempting to close us off, we would not have left that place. That engagement Loba started was fine. It went wrong because she had to stop and try to cover you.”
She looks down her nose at her, sick of being blamed for someone else’s problems. Ajay tries talking over her as she continues, but to no avail. “If you knew how to shoot a gun correctly, Loba would still be here. I did what I could and cleaned up the fight. And deterred the other team from closing in. And took out this other team without your help.” She can see Ajay beginning to shrink. “What have you done today?”
If she didn’t know any better, Ajay would shove past her. Instead she scoffs and walks around. She can feel her face burning with anger and guilt stemming from her own shortcomings. “Getchaself killed, will yuh?” Whatever.
After scanning the land ahead for movement, Vira heads towards the bunker hoping to join the fray from afar. She’s found herself liking the kickback of the sniper rifle and wants more.
The scent of copper and oil becomes stronger the further into the sand she goes, and soon begins to pass over clumps of sand stained black. A short length of bundled, dark rubber tubing and twisted metal scraps lay nearby. A marvin or sim was here and was irreparably damaged. She continues across the remaining sandy expanse to the next arching wall of rocks towering high above them. Vira presses into the shadows of the sandstone. They feel cool still, protected from the beating sun before it rises higher in the sky.
There’s another lull in the fight, and the youthful taunting belonging to Ramya meant no side has won decisively yet. A voice she doesn’t recognize hollers back.
The treads on her boots bite into the crumbly sandstone and boosts her up onto a thin ledge. Carefully keeping her balance centered, and after a series of lifts and pulls, she reaches the small alcove that was noted during her initial runthrough of the arena. It is still dipped in the shadows and offers enough room to make herself comfortable. She rests on one knee, sentinel raised, and looks down over the bunker’s outer walls. The shredded jersey barriers and walls must have been caused by the minigun heard earlier.
Multiple amped walls have created layers of opposing cover radiating out facing east in an assault of the heavy sliding doors that cut through the sheared rocks to the other side. It’s the most direct route to the other side of the arena. She has a clear view of their creator, Ramya, and a worse for wear simulacrum.
Her finger itches to pull the trigger on the sim. The long sights hover over his cracked white faceplate, but she knows it may not kill him. Her first bullet belongs instead to the girl mounted on the pedals of that beastly concrete crunching gun. All she needs is a half-inch opening between those hardlight barriers.
Ignoring the goading medic pouting in the sand, she watches the ponytailed gunsmith sway on the minigun with patience. The tall and slender simulacrum kneels at the edge of the roof, looking down towards the huge armored door. Muffled sounds of fighting can be heard on the other side of said door. She watches him flex his hand and shoulder as if in pain.
“I said, whattya see Vira?”
Ajay wants to throttle this new person. Why did she get her on her team? How many have screwed up her matches? She’d like to actually know, she thinks to herself. Get the Commissioner down here and give her a number. She needs this prize money for the Corp, damn it!
“I can’t stand you h–”
The medic ducks her head down, nearly jumping out of her skin at the crack of a rifle above her. She feels something hot bounce off her, and sees a brass casing. She says something unpleasant, upset that this jerk just dropped garbage on her. Hearing a second crack makes her move, with Doc hesitantly chases after her. She needs to make things happen in this fight. As she pushes forward to the first barrier, she sees Vira motion for her to fall back. Nuh-uh, she ain’t getting all the glory.
Vira swears when the simulacrum gets away, but at least knows where it's going now. She saw those glowing eyes zoom in on Ajay when she rushed forward in the open. She could have tried killing him first, but taking the minigunner out was a priority. She didn’t anticipate her squadmate’s bold movement.
She ejects the second bullet casing and fires again as the bunker door slides open, parting in the middle. It would be easier to let Ajay get herself killed. A bit of karma for telling herself to get killed.
Another ejection. That would be petty though, and she doesn’t think herself to be that type of person. She jumps from the alcove, propelling herself forward along the sandstone with the jumpkit attached to her lower back and hips. Ejecting a fourth time, the next bullet hits an ambitious target squarely in their turned back.
Vira plants herself behind the cover Ramya had been using, and pushes the body over the edge to be out of her way. She hears a peacekeeper go off behind her while she focuses on convincing the other team to turn tail or get wiped out. A spray of bullets hits the barrier and reflects off the oneway hardlight. She looks at the shooter unphased, firing back with the G7. They’re hit in the shoulder, and fall back.
A swath of holo decoys fills the space between the door and her cover now. She shoots the downed man again, finishing them off and subsequently, the decoys disperse. Mirage flickers from his invisibility as he dives back inside the bunker. The doors slide shut with a rumble.
Her head whips around when she hears her squadmate shout for help. She looks over the edge behind her and sees Ajay being rushed into melee range. She’s seen what Revenant is about to do before. He baits out a peacekeeper charge feinting a split second opening before disappearing in dark smoke. Vira follows the trail with her G7, and embeds him with two rounds when he emerges. The third shatters against a bad angle on his backplates. He ignores her and continues rushing Ajay, tearing the peacekeeper out of her hands. With the other hand pulled back ready to impale her on his sharpened fingers, Doc rushes between them. Vira shoots again and runs to close the distance.
Revenant’s hand finds Doc instead of Ajay’s unprotected chest, piercing easily through his tough shell. He grunts in annoyance, and tries to shake it off. The drone begins to smoke, then sparks wildly as the battery shocks the simulacrum. His joints lock as the current is immobilizing for a few seconds. Hardware barely phased, he recovers quickly and flings Doc away who gives a final dying beep when he comes to rest.
Ajay screams as the nearly seven foot tall simulacrum towers over her, razor hand pulled back once more. Black oil leaks out of his swissed chassis, dribbling around him and hissing into the sand. She jams her eyes shut and covers head and twin pink buns with her hands. When she hears a heavy thud and the knifehand doesn’t come, she opens her eyes and sees her squadmate clinging to the back of the death machine.
One arm is holding him in a chokehold, the other has a knife anchored into where his armpit would be. Revenant falls backwards from the unbalanced additional weight, and together they fall heavily into the loose sand. He claws blindly behind his head with arms that bend unnaturally. Vira refuses to loosen her hold around his neck, but is forced to abandon her knife as he cuts deep into her face.
She doesn’t feel a thing except the sand sticking to her skin. Revenant demands she let go, unable to get himself righted. “Gah, and how much do you weigh?!” He tries reaching further around to rip at her more, but she’s got a leg over his best arm hooked at the elbow. The other is failing and shaking uncontrollably as he pushes the cracked servo to its limits.
When he feels a second knife beginning to dig around in his armpit again he screams in anger as his vision goes out. Only when he stops moving and a voice booms across the arena exclaiming that the champion has been defeated does she let go.
Ajay’s voice shakes when she stands up. “I can’t believe you killed him like… like that.”
Heaving the heavy chassis off with no help, Vira catches her breath. No time to be angry and no time to screw around, she thinks to herself. She feels around her face and finds that he did actually gouge an eye out. The so-called medic is standing there staring at her instead of doing something.
“Do I need to treat this myself?”
Ajay hurriedly begins unclipping the supplies from her thigh once they’ve moved out of the hotzone. Not much distance is put between the scene and the thin treeline, but it’s better than nothing. Pushing the fighting out of her mind the best that she can, she focuses on what she does best: treating injuries.
Humiliation is pointing and laughing at her from the back row of the voices in her head though, and she can’t help but have a few tears well in her eyes. After sneakily wiping her face with the cleanest part of her sleeve after slipping blue gloves on, she turns back to see Vira applying pressure to her own eye socket. “What are yuh, HOW are yuh doing that?” That should be way too painful to do. Her left eye just got ripped out and half her face is flayed off. “Don’t answer that. I don’t care how. Jus’ keep doin’ it.”
Her brows furrow as she wipes what she can out of the deep cuts into the face. Some of them are so deep, she can see scratched bone. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug. She keeps reminding herself that this injury isn’t real. The match will be over soon, hotshot isn’t actually maimed, and Loba is probably relaxing and drinking a martini right now. Watching her make more blunders. Everyone actually, watching her mess up again.
There’s an uncomfortable silence between them as a Games drone hovers above, broadcasting live to the systems of her quick sewing work. She knows her parents are watching and enjoying themselves with this display of utter inadequacy. Or maybe they’re embarrassed too, ashamed that the Che name is being dragged through the mud. “Move yuh hand.”
Since Vira still doesn’t seem painful, she shoves gauze wetted with numbing agents into the eye socket, wraps other gauze around the head to keep it in, and calls it finished. This is good enough for however much longer this match will run. All that matters is that the bleeding stops. Mostly, at least. Vira’s heart is pounding and her blood pressure is high.
She looks back out to where Doc lies in the sand. How stupid she was to choke like that. And to be choking like this all day. She breathes deep as she packs her medical kit away and reattaches it. Heavy weights start crushing down on her shoulders, but the faces of people depending on her for this payout pushes her to not give up today yet. A hand is offered to help her up, and it’s almost swatted away before second thoughts.
“I know you types of people like yuh guts and glory, and wha’ever stats you track. Yuh ain’t gettin’ anything good this match. Next time though, we’re gonna do better.” Ajay offers a strained smile, trying to believe her own words. The new competitor blinks with one eye, more surprised with the assumption and kill distribution than the change of heart. That last fight gave huge ratings for everyone involved except Ajay. Ah well.
“I don’t pay attention to that stuff.” Vira replies back simply.
“Then why are you competing?!” The short medic fires back, forgetting that she originally was starting an apology. “Don’ you have better things to do?” She pinches the bridge of her nose in an attempt to control her flaring temper under this immense stress. “I can’t stand all you people. Why are you here? Are you bored? Got nothin’ better to do? I have been strugglin’ to keep the Frontier Corps afloat for,” she throws her fists in the air, trying to recount how long it’s been, “for months! Maybe a year already! And I have almost nothing to show for it!”
Vira sighs. There it is, here’s why everything is her fault today. She has nothing to say back, and begins to walk off towards the southern roundabout way to the other half of the arena. There should be some of those employee shacks and the flat river that way. Ajay’s tan face is flushed from the heat and anger, curly hair falling out of her dirtied white headband. She clenches her fists and then lets go. Cool it Ajay, don’t forget the other reason why you’re here. This could be a future Corp volunteer.
The sparkling water trickling from the falls from the north boundary doesn’t do much to keep them cool, but marks their entrance to the eastern area. They tuck into the nearest building and plan their next step in Kings Canyon.
“You’ve been competing a lot longer than I have. We’ve been keeping well ahead of the zone. Where would you expect it to start closing to?” Vira asks, focused on the holomap projected between them. Brown eyes look back and forth, trying to decide. Her dense freckles cover her slightly burnt cheeks. Ajay points to the hydro dam directly northeast.
“If we follow the river just a bit, we can cross through the maintenance tunnels.”
Vira agrees to the plan and they set back out. If all Ajay can manage today is closing wounds and looking at maps, that’s fine. She would have thought money would be the least of her worries. But if it’s money she needs this desperately, that can happen. She was beginning to think the Ajay on camera and the Ajay in person were completely different people, but this makes much more sense.
The canyon is eerily quiet despite there being seven squads left. They all must be laying low looking for something easy to shoot at, like them crossing this river up an open slope. It doesn’t take long for the maintenance tunnel entrance to appear. It’s carved into a darker, much harder stone than the sandstone they’ve traveled through. They hurriedly move in, dipping into the cold straight passageway.
Locked doors and chain link fences line both sides as the tunnel transforms from stretches of concrete to suspended catwalks over violent waters. The heavy industrial lights overhead give the illusion that the exit was at the other end, but Vira soon realizes it splits at a T junction. They take a right and pass by dim control stations, abandoned employee rooms, and even more tunnels that twist further down into the depths. The hum of motors and rushing water below them drowns out all other noises.
They take a left and then another right, Ajay leading her deeper as if she’d been here hundreds of times. In truth she has, but worries it makes her predictable. It was safe, yet incredibly dangerous at the same time. Knowing this, she believed only a few kinds of people would risk entering and facing narrow, very close combat. They’re all dangerous types unfortunately.
She picks through her bag as they walk in an attempt to keep her mind busy. She needs something to quite literally chew on instead. “Want half?” She offers, removing a packaged granola bar. “Nature Rift isn’t half bad. Jus’ real messy.” Turning and walking backwards with it outstretched, her appetite disappears when she sees Vira’s wounds again. Whatever it is about injuries in the Games, it makes her stomach twist on itself. The offer is declined and it’s put back in the bag. It’s not like she’s been here long enough to be hungry.
Vira notes to herself that they pass a sign telling them the exit is in the opposite direction, just in case Ajay missed it. Before she can begin to worry though, cool air begins to move at their feet signaling that they must be nearing an open exit. The ceiling begins to lower, and no longer are they able to see water thrashing below. They are now surrounded solely by reinforced concrete following a runway of yellow service lights urging them onward.
As they near the final ninety degree turn, Ajay slows when she spots a shadow against the wall ahead. Vira sees it too and passes her silently, the lights reflecting off another drawn blade. She looks away even though it’s just around the corner. She really can’t stomach Games violence.
There is hardly a struggle as the blade cuts their neck nearly through. She forces her eyes to keep looking forward as she steps over the young man, refusing to look at the red blood spilling out of him in waves.
They follow the tunnel outside, finding a great view of the zone below. The zone’s kill ring hisses in the distance, frying the vegetation on the verdant side of the arena and anyone unfortunate enough to be left behind in it. Vira presses against the concrete wall, the sun still beating down on them this side of the arena. She knows there are more abandoned buildings once used for employee lodging below this overlook. Above them though, there should be nothing but impassable stone with sheared, smooth edges.
Brief gunfire is heard in those buildings, followed by an announcement that three squads remain. A lot happened while they were traversing the near-defeating hydro dam. Her head shoots up at the whirring sound of a line being reeled in. A blue marvin unit suddenly slingshots overhead and down into the waterlogged infrastructure below. Ajay breathes a sigh of relief when the unit doesn’t come back up to engage. “Phew. Pathfinder’s squad up with Bloodhound though,” she informs.
“Good. I hope that means they’re down there.”
“What? No, no we don’t!”
A black bird with feathers as dark as night flits down from a hot airdraft above. It places itself on the guardrail silently. Ajay’s heart sinks, and that little spark of hope of a win is even more fleeting.
“Yes, yes we do. Because if they’re down there, that’s another body you can potentially kill.” Vira looks at her intensely, coppery eyes flickering between sympathy and annoyance. “If you need the win and money so badly, get down there and start shooting. Or maybe use those shocksticks you’ve got. They’d’ve been good against that sim earlier.”
Even said with restraint, she can tell there was offense taken at the suggestion. “They’re fighting now. So,” she stands up hiking up her hood and peering over the edge fearlessly, “we should go now too.”
When the medic doesn’t move, Vira leaps down. The noise of the jumpkit goes unheard as gunfire and explosives break out. The raven climbs back up into the air, watching over the battle unfurling below. Ajay swears and dives down after her. She needs to get her head in the game and stop worrying about dollar signs.
Vines have writhed themselves up the buildings, growing from the swamp-like water flooding the old employee space. It’s stagnant and browned, unlike the purer water cycling through the dam. By the time she touches down onto the wobbly planked walkways, her squadmate is already boosting from rooftop to rooftop up to the catwalks suspended in the mossy old trees. Her boots clunk heavily on the tin metal roof when she pulls herself up, attempting to follow the path taken. This would be a lot easier if she had Doc to help float her across these gaps.
Below the canopy, Vira spots the blue marvin unit mock boxing someone. He bats his victim around, screen on his chest flashing ‘KO’d!’ cartoonishly. As Pathfinder’s head whips directly to her, another three bullets are let loose and embed themselves in the target. His screen splinters and shatters, and it catches the sun as it rains down around the unit. He drops into the shin deep water as he shorts out, flattening the barely conscious contender beneath him with nearly one ton of real steel.
Ajay pulls herself up onto the final catwalk, dragging the useless peacekeeper with her. She should’ve taken something off the guy she left to bleedout. Her teeth grit together, knowing that she hasn’t done anything good today. Maybe she needs some time off, away from everything. Even the Corps. Like a mandatory vacation or something.
Below, Vira sees her first target in the shootout that’s unfolded across three different shambled buildings. One of the Games’ most well known fighters and dogooder, Gibraltar, holds cover alone. The blue glow of the hardlight shield outfitted to his dominant arm sparkles in the light as it catches laser fire.
The stalwart figure is heavily armored everywhere, unless you know your way around ballistics gear. She watches from where she’s hidden against the damp tree’s lowest branches, taking her time as the mantle over her head and draped around her shoulders is finally put to use. It blends her in perfectly, shifting with the swaying branches as if it were one of them.
Twin blades are silently unsheathed together, hungry to sink into something. When the man finishes reloading and readies to move back to return fire again, she drops down onto his shoulders. Both blades slip in through the joints of his neckguard. The target tenses in pain and surprise, unable to act at the fatal strike. His body falls to the side out of sight with gentle guidance. After so many years of this work, a small push and pull here and there will let you guide a person four times your size to the ground as you see fit.
Dissatisfaction blooms again at how easy this was. No surprises, no retaliation. Just laid down and died. She pulls the blades out from the corpse and keeps them in her hands. The melee scuffle with Revenant was energizing, but this just makes her sad.
By the time Ajay thinks she’s caught up again, it’s too late. She wants to scream in frustration, stomp her feet, throttle her, but she can’t. Hotshot is right that she needs to kill someone in the match, but she can’t do that if they’re all dead already. Even if she’s done jacksquat today, they’re getting this win no matter what at this rate. Not that she deserves it, but she’ll take it.
With renewed determination, she picks up the burst rifle at Gibraltar’s feet. This is it. She needs to lock in and get her name on the board. No more deadweight and no more feeling sorry for herself. She doesn’t know how many rounds are loaded, but sure as hell knows how to fire this thing. She peeks over the half wall trying to discern where the three remaining fighters are at.
A man donning orange ski goggles pops out of the woodwork across the dank water twenty meters out and sprints to the adjacent building. The hemlock burst hits the mark! She’s about to start cheering for herself, grinning wide, when the man keeps running. The man flickers, sticks his tongue out at her, and disappears like a–
“MIRAGE!!”
She’s going to kill him. Like actually kill him, kill him. Next time she sees this pretty boy’s face, he’ll be eating his own teeth. She doesn’t do dental work either. Ajay jumps from the second story back to the wooden walkway connecting the sprawling buildings. The boards rattle as she boulders straight to where she knows he’s hiding.
Shocksticks crackling in anticipation, the door is kicked open and she finds him with his pants down. A cry of rage, desperation, everything that she needs to release right now, thunders out of her as she charges. Mirage raises his hands up in terror as she comes straight for him.
It’s another hologram. She passes right through it and hits the wall instead. A panel busts out of the wall and splashes below. It’s as if the entire battlefield goes silent when this happens, and the splash echoes in her head. She punches the stupid building, busting another panel out, and then starts ripping them out one by one in a craze.
The real Mirage drops dead over the railing above her. The thunk makes her jump and interrupts the vandalism. Vira looks down at her and the ripped out wall with mild concern. There’s a camera drone eating this all up and she doesn’t seem to realize.
She turns away when tears wet the medic’s face. The feminine voice of the excited announcer bellows out that there are two squads left. She’s half tempted to call the other person out, knowing who it is, but holds her tongue. She would be lying if she said the missing eye wasn’t affecting her coordination. No part of her ached or fussed about the wounds though. That’ll come later today unless she can help it.
The raven comes back down from the airy columns it had been floating on this entire time. The heart in her chest beats strong and timely, her muscles taut and her feet ready to spring to action. This is what she was made for, she knows that. Bloodhound will have to absolutely crush her if they want to win.
As if they know she’s thinking about them, a fragmentation grenade is thrown through the blown out window. Her head snaps to it, hearing the piss missile before seeing it and snatches it out of the air. She throws it back out to the sender. It explodes in the air between their positions, sending a shockwave through the waters and Ajay. The houses rattle and the walkway outside shudders before it collapses, leaves and dead foliage falling out of the trees around them.
Bits of fire lick at the wood still above the shallow water, and smoke begins to billow up into the drafts strengthened by the growing heat. She doesn’t want this to be the last fight, but all good things must come to an end. There’ll be another Game in a few days and she can get another fill then.
Instead of rushing out like she truly wants to, she finds herself across from Ajay signing to straighten up and be ready. She blinks at her with bloodshot eyes. More than wounded pride weighs on her small shoulders. The lines under her eyes and quiver in her lips is evident of so much more hinging on this win.
Vira is met with a nasally snark and sniffle, but obliges. She’s miserable and humiliated knowing her parents and tens of millions of people are watching. As soon as she clicks the safety off her G7, splinters fly around them as their opponent tries to wound and flush them out. Without looking, she knows where that R-301 came from.
Ajay returns counterfire, sweeping their cover well enough. Splashing water alerts Vira the hunter is on the move, and imagines them swinging around left to attack through the side door. She yanks Ajay back as a hatchet flies past and cuts deep into the wall behind them. It hums in the wall as the force it was thrown with dissipates.
She leaves the shocked medic where she sits, and rushes to meet Hound head on. She knows they’re rushing to meet her, wanting to fight against one another as badly as she does, but things need to be different right now. She isn’t one to be caring this much, but the crying girl isn’t sitting well. The match needs to end.
She activates the mantle again and pulls it off her shoulders as she races to the shut door. She kicks it open just as Hound reaches the first step, and forcefully throws it at them. A split second hesitation from the unexpected tactic is all the time Vira needs to make sure this is it. The shifting colors from the high tech cloaking device turns it into a disorientating kaleidoscope as it tries to blend into the shifting water, smoke, and moving hunter as it wraps around their mask.
Wet gloves are unable to grasp the hydrophobic material in time. Vira shoots them dead at the foot of the stairs. It’s an unsavory victory, and something her friend isn’t going to forget. The cameras wrap up quickly when they aren’t able to get decent footage of Ajay anymore. Rightfully, she’s hiding her face and wanting to get away. The reaction may be making it worse, but the damage has been done. It’s terrible what money can do to people.
Vira keeps it stern and doesn’t smile. Deep down, she wants to get away from this and more too. But she can’t, and this violence is the only way she knows how to keep herself going. Today was a good debut, and it should guarantee her spot here for a long time.