X-Com's Finest (An X-Com 2 play through)

X-COM 2: Reaper Rendevouz

After a second of staring at each other, she shot back, "I suggest you get ready as well."

Then from out of the darkness, the first wave attacked. For the next few minutes, small hordes of humanoid creatures came pouring out of the darkness to be quickly mowed down by the trio. As the cables were dropped out of the darkness, Gunner's minigun finally came to a stop. A couple dozen forms lay scattered throughout the small courtyard. The Skirmisher spread her arms out in front of her as the twins buckled themselves in. "And THAT my friends, are the Lost." Gunner and the Ranger simply watched as they were pulled into the Skyranger.

***

The mutant laughed, "You are no better than the dirt on my shoes!"

Solis fumed back, "DIRT? There's plenty of THAT to go around! You couldn't stay clean if you actually TRIED!"

Wartenbach laughed again, "Where's the fun in that! Between your hiding in the shadows and your insane weakness of getting dirty, I'm surprised you actually manage to KILL anything." The mutant paused, then looked at her seriously, "You HAVE killed something, haven't you?"

Solis quickly pulled out her pistol and aimed it, the talking officially over. Wartenbach had his assault rifle primed and ready, trained on the spritely Skirmisher. The two just stared at each other.

Pritchett and the rest of the squad stood quietly by on the highway overpass, waiting for the two to come to some kind of agreement, or for one (or both) of them to end up dead. Pritchett sighed and leaned over to Svagerko, "What are we going to do?"

A sudden chill ran down Pritchett's neck, and she just started to turn her head when a piercing pain exploded through her kidneys blossoming into a pain that overtook her entire torso. She was held up by a strong hand, an alien hand, and the raspy whisper in the voice that held her barely made it through the pain, "Why...why you are going to die..."

Pritchett crumpled to the ground as a tall alien warrior laughed in triumph. The squad stood stunned at the new development. Solis was the first to break the spell, aiming her pistol and firing quickly before the assassin was able to move. The shot grazed the assassin across the shoulder. Snarling, the ADVENT assassin jumped high into the air, performing a double-flip with intention of landing on the street below.

The Skirmisher laughed in triumph as he trained his rifle on the moving target, "Oh no you don't..." The shots went true, earning a scowl followed by a grunt as the assassin hit the ground below.

The Ranger immediately slipped in quickly to examine Prichett who was gurgling on the ground. As the Ranger approached, she smiled weakly as she breathed in short breaths, "This hurts SO much more than the simulation..." Blood pooled around Prichett's torso, and the Ranger knew he had to act quickly. Looking through Gunner's pack, he quickly found her Blood-be-gone, and the stick of death as many called it. He gave the stick to Pritchett and explained, "Biting this will make you feel better..." Pritchett, in her weakened state didn't question and placed it between her teeth. Just as she did, the Ranger let loose with the blood-be-gone. Pritchett gritted down as hard as she could, screaming a muffled scream as the wound that had penetrated her was temporarily sealed.

As the pain died down, Pritchett finally relaxed, beads of sweat dripping down her forehead. She looked over at the Ranger, who was replacing the medical cannister and the death stick, "I hate you."

The Ranger nodded and helped Pritchett to her feet. "We're not out of the woods yet,..."

The rest of the squad had split into two, looking over the sides of the overpass for the Assassin. Svagerko was the one who spotted her, "Over there! Behind the column!"