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One teammate down and out, no chance of recovery and Crypto's banner clutched in his sweating hand, Mirage ran. He dodged bullets as best he could, taking a sharp right he pants heavily, chest heaving. Then, the noise stopped. Still, he took no chances, continuing to run until his lungs burned, heading out over the grass and grasping at the rocky outcrop to pull himself up. He curses under his breath, falling to slide down a small hill and come to rest with a thud at the respawn beacon, green beam still shooting up into the sky.
Mirage took a careful look around, eyes scanning the landscape as he took ragged breaths, trying to relax as much as being stuck in an open space with a possibility of being shot at with no notice could allow. Deeming the area as safe as it could be, he deposits the banner into the beacon, tapping his foot and shuffling with an impatience to rival his fallen teammate as the machine registered the data. With an affirming click, Mirage laughed out a sigh of relief, stepping away to secure the perimeter as his squad mate dropped for the second time that day on the hostile climate of New Dawn.
The all too familiar flash of white and green appeared at the corner of his eye.
"Gamsa." Crypto nods, the all too familiar look of casual disinterest on his features.
"Hey, no problem, Mirage to the rescue!" He grins, voice cracking from his residual tiredness from the sprint. "I've got nothing to give you though." He shrugs sheepishly, taking a second to stare at his pathetic p2020, inspecting how many rounds he had left. Not enough, that much was certain. He had only level one body armor, and hadn't even found a helmet. Today, luck just wasn't on his side.
Crypto shrugs, walking over to the cliff ledge and staring off into the distance. "Ring's not far. We should go this way."
Having no protests, Mirage nods.
"Copy that." He reloads his gun almost as an afterthought, mumbling to himself about his need of ammo. Loot was becoming scarcer by the second, now that there was only half the squads left. He notices movement and realised that Crypto had already turned, dashing off down the hill towards the next set of buildings, and with a curse, Mirage follows. Jogging to catch up with the man, he lets out a nervous laugh. "Hey, sunshine, nobody told you it's not safe to run with your hands in your pockets?" He jokes, cringing at the nickname he had assigned his teammate. Was it physically impossible for him to stop flirting? Probably not.
Crypto pauses, coming to a stop as Mirage's words register. The trickster skids to a halt, wincing at the suddenly very real possibility he was about to be murdered by the guy on his own squad - when Crypto tries his hardest to stifle a laugh, lips quirking up into a smile. He covers it with a cough, face falling back to its neutral position with practiced precision.
"We are in the middle of a bloodsport. We have bigger and more dangerous problems on our hands." He chides, trying to act as if the joke hadn't been funny as his eyes nervously scan the area around him, refusing to focus on the trickster at all. But it was too late, Mirage feels the emotion bubble up in his chest, grinning as he held onto the fact that he had just made Crypto laugh. He saw him smile, and oh - it was really something.
The rest of the match flies by, and his thoughts between gunfire are drawn back to the recall of that smile, the genuine happiness in the hacker's eyes. They don't win, don't even come close, but Mirage finds himself for the first time not really caring all that much.