Worse than magic?

For the Rainbow! (part IV - ...is the defense.)

Walking inside the house, I stretched my arms a bit, my helmet currently taken off and placed on my belt. Looking around, I still saw holes in the walls caused by my previous assault. Walking upstairs, I temporarily unloaded my MTAR and holstered it on my back. Chuckling at the holes in the walls I made from the tackles, I entered the living room where Doc was patching everyone up. Smoke and Jager were sitting on the bed, waiting for something. As soon as they noticed me, the duo got up and skipped outside, probably staying back in the van.

- How is everyone feeling? - I asked, looking at Doc, Rook, Mira, and Kapkan. All of them were currently glancing daggers at my directions. Well, all except for Rook. He was rather okay with me being around.

- Okay. - Doc muttered, patching his teammates up.

- Well, we are ready for part two of the defense. Just waiting for everyone to regain full strength and we will start the defense training. - Rook added.

- Copy, clear. - I replied, putting my hand up to Kapkan, which currently was lying on the floor, breathing calmly. He looked up at me, at my hand and back at me.

- What, you expect me to take it? - he growled.

- Your loss. We are a team now, whether you like it or not. We should help each other out. - I answered.

- Says the one which some time ago mentioned he is not a part of us. - Doc added ironically.

- That... is true. - I admitted, sighing and putting my helmet up, resealing the connection.

- But you also have a point about being stuck with us for the time being. - he added, grunting. - Just make it quick like last time.

- I bet your ex would say the same. - I murmured, loading my weapons. A fresh supply landed outside, and we all gathered to pick up wall reinforcements, barricades, barbed wire, impact grenades, and other various devices/gadgets that the operators were using. I observed each one of them, as they re-checked their weapons, loading fresh magazines into them. As they readied up, they got back inside, ignoring me standing on their way, shoulder-bashing me and closing the door using one of those wooden barricades that they picked up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We ran back upstairs, Doc taking control.

- Alright, close off the site! This time we are doing it properly. Reinforce the damaged walls and potential breach points! - he yelled and we got moving. We replaced the holes with solid steel reinforcements, making sure they were sitting on extra-tightly and sturdily. Mira has placed a mirror to overwatch the kids' room, while I moved back to the objective room. Seeing that two of the walls were not strengthened, I used my set of reinforcements on them, shutting the site completely from a normal push. Seeing that I really had nothing more to do, I walked outside of the objective, seeing two small drones on wheels. Chuckling, I bowed down to them and quickly shot them down, destroying them. They knew where the site was, should have guessed by our activity. Running down, I opened up the barricade to the back entrance, leaving a hole for me or someone else to peek outside... or for attackers to peek inside. Remembering the layout, I decided to pull a dumb stunt. In reality, if I were not that overpowered, it would guarantee certain death. But seeing that I had that armor that heavy... Heh. I opened the barricade placed on the window facing a potential entry point for attackers. Checking the MTAR that was in my right hand, I stared outside for a moment.

- Ten seconds before attackers engage. - Harry said.

- Clear... - I muttered to myself, readying myself mentally and physically, tightening the grip on my weapon, counting down from ten to zero. As soon as I heard Harry call out the attacking phase beginning, I calmed my breath down in order to minimize the potential weapon sway, which was already minuscule due to the exoskeleton stabilizing my limbs. Remaining absolutely silent, I saw movement ahead of me. Two figures, one wearing a gas mask, second having a patrol cap. Thatcher and Ash. Aiming down sights, I hid behind the wall for a few extra seconds, making sure that they would close in. Counting down again, this time from five to zero, I punched the barricade out and jumped outside again, falling one floor down and seeing a rather surprised duo, which froze for a moment.