Under the sweltering sun, there was a silent breeze that passed through dusty roads that weren't quite so busy - The streets were mostly inactive in this part of the city and there was little to be heard this time of day, save for the sound of wheels against the road, light clouds of dust trailing behind a total of three trucks. While innocuous at first glance, these particular trucks were in fact armored, on their way to transport arms, munitions, and most importantly, mages. On standby, waiting to intercept this convoy were but only two mercenaries, each highly recognized for their skills - while fearsome in their own right, when they worked together they were a near unstoppable force that some called 'the Army of Two.' One of those mercenaries was in position high up inside of an abandoned building, peering down the horizon through her scope as she watched the trucks get closer and closer. She spoke through her headset to tell her partner that the convoy was incoming. "Heads up, I've got 'em in my sights," Valerie said. "They'll be here in a few minutes." She angled her rifle toward the oncoming trucks, watching them closely as they began driving up...
The second half of 'the Army of Two' was already in position to receive the convoy, having took cover in a nearby building that had, at once, a door. This was no longer the case, and it's from the large hole that he was waiting for the plan to begin. "Acknowledged. Standing by." he said into his mic, before rechecking his weapon for the last time. More than a handful of people have persished simply due to having some malfunction with their weapon, but that's not really how Chance wanted to go out. The sound of dust being kicked up, as well as the heavy tires from the convoy had grown just a little bit louder by the time he was absolutely sure the weapon would shoot. Now, he just needed to point at and pull the trigger. "Waiting for the first shot."
Valerie smiled to herself, putting her finger lightly on the trigger as she followed the windshield of the first truck through her scope. As it neared Chance's location, she opened fire - the resulting crack from her sniper was amplified severely by her tempering, even causing the windows in adjacent rooms to shatter from the shockwave generated by the shot. The bullet traveled at supersonic speeds, hitting both the driver of the first truck and the man that was in the passenger seat beside him. The truck spun for a few moments before stopping at a diagonal angle that blocked the narrow road, forcing the two trucks behind it to slow down. "Direct hit," Valerie said, readjusting her sights. "Driver down." The trucks were silent for a second, maybe two seconds before some people began leaving one of the trucks on the opposite side, out of Valerie's sight range. "I'll cover you. Is anybody leaving the trucks?"
Despite having heard it on more than one occasion, the thunderous crack from his partner's rifle never seemed to be anything but obnoxious. Chance resisted the very heavy urge to rub his ear and instead poked out of his cover to spray a few of the men attempting to vacate the truck right about the time Valerie had verbally confirmed to him that she'd sent the driver to hell. The bullets fired from his assault rifle fatally hit two of the men, and from what he saw, injured another man's arm. "About eight men exited from the back, two confirmed casualties, and one is going to have a hard time with a hole in his arm." he replied, immediately ducking behind some of the building to avoid the retalition by the men, who seemed competent enough to maintain their calm and assess dangers right away.
Valerie had already seen the building behind the truck so she was already aware of where all the cover spots would be. It'd be difficult for them to move anywhere else, really, at least not with her on their tail. She peered down the scope and angled her weapon, despite nobody being in her sights. "Sorry," she muttered, "but cover's not going to work against me." She fired again and the second thunderous blast came through, the massive round punching right through both sides of the first truck and ramming into an unlucky mage that had been taking temporary cover behind it, splattering him against the floor. She briefly glanced over the other trucks and settled on the second one, punching another hole through it. It probably didn't hit anybody, but the force generated by her tempering would often leave behind massive holes in whatever they struck, usually allowing enough room for something like, say, a grenade. "Second truck," she said. "If you're in a good position, crack it when you can."
With only three of the ten men from the first truck left, the suppressing fire on Chance was bearable. Perhaps the men had resigned themselves to the fact that it wasn't possible for their mid-range assault rifles to even come close to out-trading the sniper, as they'd focused their aggression on him. This was, of course, both to be expected and planned. Even if they kept Chance behind cover all day, Valerie would eventually kill them, one by one until they'd all bitten the dust. But... well, that wasn't all that fun for Chance, now was it? The American bad-ass (self-proclaimed) decided to return some fire of his own. Sticking his gun over the cover he had taken, he fired blindly at the men, not knowing if he managed to hit one or not, but nonetheless, the sound of gunfire lessened on their half, meaning that it worked. Retrieving his trusty sidearm and a frag grenade, he finally made use of his abilities as a Temperer. With speed noticeably fast than a normal man, he dashed over the wall and immediately opened fire towards the three men that had previously had him supressed, taking note that one of them dropped a mag - an indication he was reloading. So there was but two threats. Unfortunately for one, he was an NPC so he made the mistake of peeking over his cover at the wrong time and a bullet promptly flew through his skull. He was killed, obviously. Chance had been moving forwards allthewhile, and by the time the second man popped out to fire, more or less the same thing happened with little distance between the two. Another dead. Chance moved his pistol onto the third and final man and attempted to execute him just the same, but instead of a bang, he got a click. He might've been having too much fun. "Shit." Chance muttered, dropping his weapon. Ammo didn't really matter by now. Close range was his domain, and the soldier before him was but a human with no magical abilities.The soldier receieved a heavy kick, pushing him back towards a small bit of rubble. In that time, Chance threw his grenade in the handy-dandy hole Valerie had made him aftering pulling the pin. An explosion followed by an unecessarily heavy punch that broke the man's neck were the last things the man saw or head.
The third truck was more decisive than the last, having witnessed that both hiding behind cover and hiding inside the truck were awful ideas - the back of the truck opened up and mages leaped out all at once, brandishing their powers. One had the idea to go around and get a shot in at Chance from behind, but Valerie brained him before he even had a chance to reach for his gun. Suddenly, a bright beam of energy glowed in one of the other mage's hands and Valerie realized she was being targeted. She rolled out of the way as a higher powered beam blasted the area she'd been at moments before. She smashed the ground with her tempered fist and it blasted open, immediately bringing her down to the level below it. She hoped that Chance could at least buy a little time while she relocated, using her brute, tempered strength to blow through some of the decaying walls. "I'm taking heat, buy me some time!"
Having a moment of bad-assery to himself was nice, but so was having a loaded weapon. Immediately after he had 'cracked' the truck and killed the man, he was forced to take more cover as the last truck had gotten fairly bold. He was unable to stop the Bolter from targeting Valerie, and judging on how Valerie mentioned taking heat, the man was pretty accurate with his magic. "Alrighty, I'll handle it." With the click of his mag locking into place and the use of his powers, he darted swiftly to another bit of rubble as, instead of retreating, he neared the bigger group of men. It only took a moment for them to start firing both magic and bullets at him. [i]Hopefully this'll buy her enough time[i] he thought. Because honestly, if he was taking fire for no reason, it would be pretty silly. Oh hey, wait. He still had one grenade, did he not? Why yes, yes he did. Retrieving his final explosive, he fired blindly from his cover once or twice, then risked losing his hand as he pulled the pin once more before tossing it over towards them. As it bounced once, then rolled towards their feet, some made a scramble for their lives and a few simply stared in shock, particularly the mage, who was closest to it. A bang and a small cloud of dust rose into the air as it detonated. It left about five of the ten men. Chance, despite his long years in the thick of combat, had to use all of his strength to resist the urge to say, "Boom goes the dynamite".
The convoy mages and troops seemed to busy as Valerie seemed to be able to move freely for the time being without drawing any more fire. She was much closer to ground level than she was before, aligning herself closer along where the road was. She opened up a window and put her rifle through, watching the chaos that ensued through her scope. Everyone was moving pretty quickly and she didn't want to risk hitting Chance for the moment so tried to focus on ones that were more out in the open. She didn't want to reveal her new position just yet so she decided she might as well go all in with her first shot. "Feeling lucky, Chance?" she said through her mic. "If you can setup a domino, do it now!"
"Okay, okay. Someone's feeling a bit show-offy today." Partially glad to see she'd already found a better position, and also fairly upset he was probably going to get shot in the process, Chance sighed into his mic. "You know how to take the opening. Stacking the dominos" so saying, Chance prepared himself by focusing entirely on the magic he'd spent his life working with. He could say for certain it'd do a lot more than just hurt like a bitch had he not been a higher level mage in the Tempering field. At this moment, not only was he faster and stronger than a normal human, he was also able to perceive things quicker and was much more durable as well. He grabbed a piece of rubble off the ground before tossing it over the cover he was currently in. The men panicked and looked down at what they thought was a grenade. This gave him just enough time to dart from his cover one final time and close the distance between he and the first man. A rather powerful hook stumbled the man, but Chance did not follow up on him. Instead, he rushed the other men, making sure to be between at least two of them at any time so that they wouldn't just open fire. If the men further off did, they'd more than likely hit their allies. So, naturally, they drew closer to overwhelm him, all while fallng into another trap. With a bang, the nearest man pulled the trigger and shot Chance in the gut, which really friggin hurt. Next time Chance and Valerie met, she was buying him a drink. He clenched his teeth as he engaged in close-ranged combat, parrying a few rifles that were used as melee weapons and then, finally, when they'd lined up in more or less a perfect line (Given the situation, it was pretty perfect), he rolled out of the way, the men in a perfect position to be dropped, assuming Valerie took the shot.
Valerie took a slow, deep breath and exhaled, her finger steady on the trigger as she took in everything through her scope. She is never more concentrated than when she is preparing for a domino shot, watching the position of each individual extremely closely. With any luck, the longest that they would be setup would be no longer than half a second, maybe even less. It was that half second frame that she needed to fire through, an incredibly specialized move she'd practiced with Chance time and time again to perfection. Even still, it was an extremely nerve wracking procedure that would likely entail dire consequences on failure. Of course, Valerie was a master sniper and failure simply was not an option, so when those five mages lined up for that brief, split-second, she squeezed the trigger. With the amount of focus going into that shot, it was like the ground around her shook, the air vibrating from the giant shockwave that was produced. The heavy round blasted forward and struck all five of the mages in a single line, blowing out parts of their skeletons and internal organs with the pure force of the shot. The recoil knocked her back, but she was mostly okay other than suffering a few minor bruises. The barrel of her sniper was shattered so she would have to get that repaired or replaced before the next mission. "That's a hit, we're done," she said to Chance though her mic. "Good work."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
".....That was the most elaborate way I've ever won myself a drink, if I do say so myself." Chance took a sip from the beer he had just purchased, or rather, Valerie had. He had to wait much too long for it, but once it hit his lips, all of that did not matter. He could say for certain that this was one of the things he enjoyed most. Kicking back, enjoying a few beers, and of course, talking with the only other person who he had worked with more than once. Things were pretty chill in his book at the moment.
"Ah, I remember," Valerie giggled, her face a little red as she took another sip. "It took forever for us to get that down because you never trusted me with it. I keep telling you, I'm...I'm a great a shot! That's nothing, I do that kind of thing erryday." She leaned over a little, feeling more lax than she's been in a while. Although she did enjoy drinking very much, she was kind of a lightweight, though this kind of thing was normal for her. She took another swig. "It's been a while since we've done that, though, I don't quite imagine that it'll be happening again anytime soon. Not that you'd want to, anyway."
"Yeah... well, it's not something I like doing because I can't really block something akin to a tank round with my abilities. Forgive me for being a bit nervous when we were trying to get that down." Chance took another sip, seemingly unaffected as of now. "It really does not feel that great to be shot, contrary to popular belief. In fact, just thinking about that particular shot makes my gut hurt. That was point-blank, you know? Left the biggest fucking bruise. But..." once more, he took a drink, this one was much bigger, however. "...was definitely worth it. Free beers are the best beers."
"You're just..." Valerie hiccuped once and coughed a few times, putting her bottom up again to take another drink. "Ah...You're just, you're a big baby, you know that? Nothing to worry about, just do everything I tell you and it'll be a-ok. And besides, picking them off one at a time would probably have been a bad idea when you were surrounded by those - hic! - those mages. They were pretty high level, ya know? We got each others' backs, everything's jake, right?"
"Yeah, yeah...." again, another sip was taken as he idly glanced around the bar. It seemed to be fairly popular, the sound of other people conversating was quite loud. "Anyway, you ever going to stop being a lightweight? Is that like your first beer? Been this way forever. Oh well."
"First? Pffft, no way, this is like my...my twenty...third?" Valerie mumbled. It was her first drink. "Anyway!" She brought a large, rectangular case next to her and hugged it tightly. "You, my friend, and I are gonna be doing some pew pews! Tomorrow? I think? It'll be great, we'll invite all our friends! I kind of need some money so...yeah..." Her arms lost strength and she face-planted into the table, fast-asleep. "It'll...be...great..."