Pathline (25 page)

She headed back to her compartment and changed into her gear, her usual all black for group ops.  She holstered her gun, with silencer, and turned on her earpiece so she could hear the communications between the teams.  Then she wandered to the playing field.  Tactical-II was to meet at the designated evacuation
point;
she was the first one there.  She took the chance to scout out the field.  There were hills all around the open
countryside
in front of her, which provided good cover from anyone who may glance in this direction, but it also provided a lot of hiding places for potential attackers.  She didn't like it, it was too open for her preference but it was the others who would be battling it out down in the open
terrain
.  If they secured the evacuation area and kept their backs to it that meant they were setting themselves up to fight an opponent that could very well take an elevated position from any of the hills that enclosed the area. 
She hoped Nave was up for the challenge, because Sky Walker eyes would prove invaluable here. 

She glanced at her wat
ch, Mana would be arriving soon.
S
he hoped her team would beat him here to avoid giving him a chance to feel out the territory.  The sun was starting to set, and the glare of the dusk could potentially pose a problem.  She was wandering through the hills when she heard movement ahead of her.  She crouched out of sight and listened, someone was coming up
along
the other side of the hill. 

"Trust me, this will be over before they even know what's happening
.
"  It was Mana's voice.  "So what if it's ahead of schedule?  I would think that would be a good thing.  The information's good,
believe
me, those fools will be coming through here any minute." 

Rune couldn't hear a second voice so she figured Mana must be on a phone.  She risked getting closer and peeked through the underbrush.  There he stood, getting a sightline on the field below, and sure enough he had his sat-phone clipped to his side and an earpiece attached to his left ear. 

"I can handle them alone, you said yourself they lean heavily on Defenders
;
they wouldn't even be able to get near me."
A pause, then an annoyed grunt.
"
F
ine, I'll wait, but the credit today goes to me."

Rune cursed under her breath, he was in contact with someone and would have back-up.  The order to wait must have come from the boss, because she couldn't imagine who else he would give in to.  She quickly and quietly moved away from the area then wandered to the meet point. 
She could hear movement nearby and went out to
intercept
them.  As soon as she had eye contact with them she signaled for them to stop.  They were still out of eyesight. 

Rook recognized her look.
"
H
e's here?"

She nodded and turned to Serk
.
"
H
e's on the hill on the other end of the field, making his way forward."

Serk immediately
signaled behind him.
"Nave, get high and clear, I need eyes on the
turf
." 

Nave nodded and he
aded into the hills
on the back end of the field. 

Serk pulled out his radio.
"Tac-II to command, we have a confirmed sighting of the hostile, appears to be on an approach, are we clear to engage?  Repeat, are we clear to engage?" 

The radio chirped
then the response came through.
"
A
ffirmative Tac-II you are clear to engage, Tac-I will be at the read
y
if you require assistance
.
" 

Rook turned to Rune.
"
W
hich hill?  I need to know where to aim."

She walked him forward a bit so they had a clear view of the field and she pointed.  "Up there, and Rook..." she lowered her voice, "sounds like he's waiting on someone."

He met her gaze and nodded, a frown forming between his brows.  "I need to get closer" he said to Serk. 

Serk nodded and Rook took off into the hills to the left.  "Helo, Rune
,
see if you can get close to him
, Ash and I will cover the field."

They nodded and headed out.  As soon as Serk and Ash entered the field the hostile made an appearance.  He stood
at a
clearing and looked down at them with a smirk.  They moved just in time to avoid double charges sent right at them.  That was what Rook needed to pinpoint his location.  Rook, keeping out of sight, sent out a charge at the hostile Charger.  Mana was so caught by surprise that he didn't manage to stop the charge and had to evade it last minute.  Nave was speaking into their ears, warning them of oncoming charges and helping to maneuver them on the field so that soon they had gained good ground and were starting to approach the
hostile’s
location.  Mana had been unsettled by the appearance of a Charger on the agencies side, but recovered quickly and began to focus his attacks at Rooks location.  They were doing fairly well, holding their own.  Rune started to believe they would win this, although she still worried about the inexperience of the others.  Nave in particular seemed to be ignoring all of their recent training and was placing himself much to close to the action. 

Mana was attacking all over, shifting his focus from one of them to the other; tending to center on Rook more often than not
, the true challenge he perceived in the fight. 
Then it all stopped.  Mana took cover and halted his attack.  Rune frowned, looking out towards where he'd been, trying to get closer.  He wouldn't give
up;
she knew that with an absolute certainty.  So what was this?  She looked across the field and saw that Rook had taken advantage of the break and had shot a wide charge to where Mana had been, probably trying to flush him out.  She gasped as she saw what happened.  The charge was about to hit the area when the air in that vicinity suddenly seemed to shimmer and wave, and the charge crashed and broke apart as if hitting a barrier. 

The Shielder
. 
She felt her heart drop to the pit of her stomach. 
She looked down at the field to see if any of the others had noticed what had happened, but the hostiles where located on the western ridge of the hills and the light of the setting
sun
would make it hard for anyone facing them to see clearly. 
I
n that single moment the whole game changed. 
Mana began attacking again, but it wasn't the haphazard style of before, he was targeting.  Every time one of them attempted an approach Mana would strike out and stop them, pushing them back.  All of their own attacks were being blocked by the Shielder.  In what seemed like no time at all they lost
all the ground they'd gained and were forced into
a
defensive position. 

Rune tried to figure out where the Shielder must be
hiding
, but
he or she
was
doing a great job of masking their location.  All she could make out from the appearances of the shields was that the unknown hostile must be within direct eye sight of Mana. 
It soon became obvious that someone else must be calling the shots, the hostiles were working flawlessly together, and Mana was attacking points in the field that he wouldn't have been able to see clearly from his location. 
Then the attacks took a more direct focus.  Nave had been keeping them safe and informed, then Mana turned his whole attention onto him.  Nave had kept himself too close to the crossfire so when Mana took his aim he never had a chance of evading the hit. 
Nave went down hard, and they lost all communication with him. 

Serk sent Ash to go help Nave and check on his condition.  Ash was under cover, out of the visual range of the hill that Mana was launching his assault from, but he was only halfway to Nave's fall
site
when the hostile Charger turned his attention towards him. 
Mana's aim was dead on.
Rune saw as Ash was hit, barely managing to try an attempt to evade the charge that at least minimized the severity of the
strike
.  Ash went down. 
They were losing.  With the hostile Charger and Shielder working together so efficiently Rune couldn't imagine how they could
win. 
She was thinking that
maybe
if Tac-I could come up on the rear of the hostiles that would force them to spit their focus and might give the teams a better chance. 

She was just about to pick up her sat-phone to call the idea in to Serk when she turned to look back at Mana. 
The expression on the hostile Chargers face was obvious.  She looked down at his hands and saw that he was building a massive charge.  She
whirled
on the spot and turned to look at the field trying to guess his intended target.  There could be no mistaking
his eye line... he was aiming for Serk, and the clear intent was to kill. 
A charge that strong, a hit that direct, Serk would never survive that. 
Even if he tried to evade the attack or tried to seek cover, Mana already had a lead on him and would be able to follow and adjust his aim accordingly.  There was no way Serk was going to avoid getting hit.  Serk was going to die, there, in front of her.  One of the nations best Defenders, one of the
public’s
favorite heroes
,
was going to be killed in action during an op the agency would never even acknowledge. 

She looked across the field at the hills opposite her and spotted Rook there.  He was looking down towards Serk, he had figured out what she had. 
She saw him, within striking distance of Mana, but impotent to stop what was happening. 
Rook was an exemplary Charger, but Mana had a Shielder on his side, and it made him untouchable.  As long as the Shielder was in play they couldn't get to Mana. 
Rook alone couldn't save them from that. 
She'd been trying to get close enough to
attempt
to locate the Shielder and maybe disable
him
in some way, at the very least provide a distraction to give Rook a chance to get an attack
through
. 
Rook looked up at that moment, their eyes meeting across the expanse of the field that separated them. 
And right then she knew. 
She understood completely. 

Without pause, without hesitation, she turned and wandered into the field. 
She came up a few feet in front of Serk
'
s location, standing between the oncoming charge and him. 
Mana had already taken
aim;
the charge was on its way barreling down towards her.  She could see it coming, clear as day.  The bright static light of the charge standing out against the backdrop of the fading light of dusk.  She was still, the world around her gone completely silent as she watched certain death approach from the sky.  She took a deep breath, her eyes never breaking sight with the imminent charge, and she smiled.  She had a split second before the hit, in that time she raised her hands and arms straight in front of her towards the oncoming ball of energy.

She felt as it ripped through her body, as the force escaped out through her fingertips reverberating in every cell. 
And she held it.  There, in the sky before her,
appeared
a massive shield; bigger by far than anything the hostile Shielder had sent out during the fray. 
Her hands vibrated with the energy it took to hold it.  The charge that had been coming towards her had crashed against the barrier and dispersed completely useless. 
It was a surreal sight.  The very sky was twinkling in front of her, the shield glimmering translucent, playing with the light from the fleeting
sun
.  It was beautiful. 

She remembered standing at the shore of an empty beach as the sun set.  The warmth it had brought her, the peace she had felt at the sight.  How she'd been overcome with respect for the balance the earth managed to find in everything it did, in the simple turn from day to night.  A rare carefree moment.

Her arms were shaking, far away in some distance in
side herself she felt her body
struggling, but still she held on.

She remembered hidi
ng out in her
father’s
tool shed
all those
years
ago.  Not daring to turn on the light in case someone realized she was there.  Shaking in the night
,
afraid of what was happening to her body, not understanding what it meant or how it would change her life.  Afraid of her father hand, of her mothers glare. 

Her knees were weak, she could barely keep herself standing, her arms like lead now begging for her to let go.  But still she held on.

She saw in her mind the runaway children from the day she met Rook, all dirty and hungry, but also all happy to have found each other. 
A haven for the lost, a sense of belonging amongst the
strays
.